#modern comedy beyond his comprehension.

[mugentakeda]

iroh would fall for updog jokes by the way. And deez nutz jokes. zuko inherits this unfortunate gene. easy prey for humorous and whimsical individuals such as sokka

[boombox-fuckboy]

Hey!!! You commented on my post about limetown haha which is why I’m here. You offered to give podcast recs! What are your favorites?? I’m looking for some new ones

I completely forgot I had this ask, excuse the delay. Here's a selection of 30 podcasts I enjoyed from a broad range of genres: hopefully at least one appeals.

Let me know if you're after something more specific.

Arden: (Investigative, Comedy) On the 25th of December, 2007, heiress and young actress Julie Capsom crashed her car into a tree and fled into a nearby forest clearing, leaving a trail that seemingly vanished into thin air, and a dismembered torso in the trunk. A decade later, Bea, the first reporter on the scene, and Brenda, a detective on the case, are hosting a true crime podcast about it, and neither is remotely impressed with what the other has to say. Arden is also a retelling of various Shakespeare plays.

Desperado: (Supernatural, Adventure, Horror Elements) In a modern world of gods and magic, three young people, all under the patronage of death dieties, embark on the same adventure for different reasons: for safety, for revenge, and to kill The Old Man in the Sky. Fantastic banter and killer action sequences.

The Far Meridian: (Magical Realism) An agoraphobic young woman wakes one day to discover her lighthouse home has travelled to somewhere entirely unfamilar. As this continues to happen day after day, she uses the opportunity to search for her missing brother. A really unique and charming piece of fiction.

Gastronaut: (Sci-Fi) Interstellar travel audio blog of a former food critic as he travels to an active warzone to get firsthand experience with unfamilar cuisine. ft. Disgruntled martian nobility, sinister businessmen, explosive mushrooms, forbidden snacks, rogue revolutionary artists, and the consequences of your actions.

Girl in Space: (Sci-Fi) The Girl In Space lives alone on a space station, doing science, making cheese, rewatching Jurassic Park, and tending to the plants, animals, and artificial sun entrusted to her. It's a little lonely, but not a bad life. Would be a shame if someone came along to ruin it.

The Goblet Wire: (Microfiction, Weird Fiction) A surreal microfiction with horror elements, taking the form of phone calls to an audio-based game in which the voice of the mysterious Dictator leads each player through fantastic and horrific world and story.

Hello From The Hallowoods: (Horror, Supernatural) A dramatic entity beyond your comprehension visits your nightmares to tell stories of the people (in varying degrees of human and alive) that inhabit the strange, deadly, and beautiful Hallowoods, as they find meaning and sometimes eachother.

Hi Nay: (Supernatural Horror) A year after moving to Toronto, sound designer Mari finds herself drawn into helping people around the city with various horrific supernatural encounters due to her babaylan (shaman) family background. It quickly becomes apparent that there's something much more sinister and complicated happening in the background.

Inco: (Microfiction, Sci-Fi) A perpetually exausted interstellar information trader and her peppy AI find a mysterious (read: bratty) boy floating in space and are inadventently pulled into a world political intrigue.

Inn Between: (Fantasy) Ever curious about what the D&D characters get up to at the tavern between sessions? A generally lighter-hearted (with some exceptions) with richly-written and always-growing characters. A really interesting format, too: a lot of the adventure appears in the "next time" and "last time" segments which makes it all flow really nicely. Not a tabletop podcast.

Janus Descending: (Sci-Fi, Horror, Tragedy) A xenoarcheologist and a xenopaleontologist are sent to a study a dead city on a distant world. Nobody likes what they find there. A unique format, with one set of logs presented first to last, and the other last to first. I'd recommend listening to the supercut for this one.

The Kingmaker Histories: (Steampunk, Weird Fiction, Adventure, Fantasy Elements) In the Valorian Socialist Republic 1911, on her 25th birthday, tailor's apprentice Colette experienced the worst headache of her life. As a result, she fleed from town with a human artificer and a fae chef - both now smugglers - pursued by an utterly furious flesh-crafter. I'm not sure I'm selling how good this podcast is but it's very good.

Life With Althaar: (Sci-Fi, Comedy) A human repairman moves to a space station on the edge of human territory that is perpetually on the edge of self-destruction, and ends up with a less-than-ideal last-minute roomate. Althaar is polite, friendly, deeply interested in human culture, and eager to be friends. Unfortunately he belongs to a species that sends humans into a visceral panic at a glance.

Lost Terminal: (Sci-Fi, Hopepunk) Seth is a very lonely AI living on a satellite. His crew were left stranded aboard with no hope of return, and it's been longer than he can count since then. The Earth below him has changed dramatically, and with only a few other AI down there to talk to, he's very lonely. But! He has a plan to make some new friends.

Love and Luck: (Romance, Slice-of-Life and Urban Fantasy Elements) Voice messages cataloguing two young men falling in love and opening a queer dry bar together.

Midnight Radio: (Light Supernatural, Romance) Sybil McIntyre, host of the ever-popular 1950's nightly radio hour, begins exchanging letters with an old fan who has reluctantly returned to visit Sybil's beloved town.

Midst: (Weird Fiction, Western, Sci-Fi and Fantasy Elements) The old-western planetoid islet of Midst floats, rotating steadily, in a sea of reality-warping darkness. Down in the town of Stationary Hill, things are in movement, and vistors from the light above are about to bring unanticipated change. ft a monocycle-riding monster-hunter, radio-famous airship paladins, deadly mica, the universe's peppiest cultist, good dogs, and a really strange businessman.

The Mistholme Museum of Mystery, Morbidity, and Mortality: (Weird Fiction, Supernatural, Urban Fantasy and Horror Elements) A friendly AI tour guide leads you on a tour of the Mistholme Museum, explaining the strange and often alternatural story behind each item.

Monstrous Agonies: (Supernatural, Relationship Advice) An interpersonal advice show for supernatural entities and other people living liminally in the modern world.

Night Shift: (Urban Fantasy, Investigative) Set in a modern world with the addition of magic, which manifests in small inherited skills/traits, can warp people in horrific ways, or can be manipulated with the right science (and intense work) to induce superpowers. Sebastian Fenn is a barista at Night Shift Coffee, but since things are slow he's decided to start a podcast to talk about various mysteries, crimes and conspiracies around the city, and of course finds himself deeper in them than he'd intended.

The Pasithea Powder: (Sci-Fi, Thriller Elements? I think?) The last major interplanetary war was full of atrocities, but none more infamous then the creation of Pasithea Powder, a memory altering drug which was used to horrible effect and landed it's entire team of creators in prison. So when decorated war hero Captain Sophie Green sees one of them wandering free, worlds away from his prison, she gets in touch with a very old, estranged friend: one Dr. Jane Gonzalez, who's behind bars for the very same reason.

SCP: Find Us Alive: (Weird Fiction, Supernatural, Horror and Slice-of-Life elements) You don't need to know anything about SCP to enjoy this. A research team gets trapped in an underground research facility when the complex collapses and the building is dragged into a pocket dimension. The tear it was designed to study begins creating tiny copies of itself, generating strange entities the team needs to deal with. And as if that wasn't enough, the entire situation physically resets itself every 30 days. And yet, this is genuinely also an office comedy.

Second Star to the Left: (Sci-Fi) Audio logs of a scout sent to explore and establish early infastructure new world, and the communications with the minder in charge of keeping her alive.

Seen and Not Heard: (Slice-of-Life, Drama) Seen and Not Heard follows Bet, who's still adjusting to life a year after a bout of severe illness, and the resulting hearing loss it caused. It's about the ways we make connection, and food, and art, and different kinds of grief.

The Silt Verses: (Horror) In a modern world where gods are abundant, frequently both commercialised and restricted, two devotees of an outlawed river god go on a pilgrimage.

SINKHOLE: (Sci-Fi, Weird Fiction) Forum posts from a data restoration community in a near future where the human brain is its own computer and one city hosts a massive void.

Starfall: (Fantasy) Seeking to escape her mysterious past and find some purpose, a young swordswoman joins a travelling actor's troupe. This new life is unfamilar and sometimes stressful, but she's taken under the wing of stagehand Fel, who's determined to help her feel welcome as she experiences the figurative and literal magic of the theatre for the first time.

The Tower: (Weird Fiction) A low-key, meditative podcasy about a young woman who decides to climb a seemingly endless tower. Gorgeous sound design.

The Vesta Clinic: (Sci-Fi) New GP Dr. Fae Underwood, with the expert transcription skills of resident AI Sec, writes up patient reports on human and alien patients of The Vesta Clinic, a medical clinic on the edge of human space. Really comfy and creative.

Victoriocity: (Steampunk, Mystery) Set in the steam-powered Victorian city of Even Greater London, an aspiring journalist and a tired detective find themselves working together to solve a strange murder. I say Victorian but as queen Victoria is now an extensive grandiocity of cyborg components following seven only-kind-of-successful assassinations, you may need to adjust expectations a little.

[mingus-archives]

korean drama recs pleaseeeeeeeeeeee

Omg hello anonnnnnnnnn

I would love to give you my Kdrama recs! This is not going to be a comprehensive list but off the top of my head and in no particular order....

The Glory (Netflix in US)

I'm not always a revenge show type of lad but this one does it so well. The show centers on Moon Dong-Eun, who was horrifically bullied/harassed by a group of wealthy kids in high school and seeks revenge 15 years later. The antagonists are incredibly entertaining and chew up every minute of their screentime so you are hoping every second that Moon Dong-Eun takes them down. Moon Dong-Eun is given a lot of depth and her relationship with Park Yeo-Jeong is incredible). However, be aware it has very graphic depictions of torture, bullying, sexual harassment, and violence.

Uncanny Counter (Netflix in the US)

If you want a show that balances lighthearted action with some great character work and genuine emotional gut punches, this is the show for you! The show centers on So Mun, who is recruited to be a counter, which is a supernatural individual who tracks down evil souls that possess people in the world. This was the first Kdrama I ever watched so I have a lot of fondness for it and its amazing found family trope! Be aware it does focus on death and trauma, and unfortunately has a "disabled character becomes abled with superpowers" trope.

A Business Proposal (Netflix in the US)

I am NOT a romcom or romance series person, but this one is so damn funny and so full of likeable characters. The show is about Shin Ha-Ri, who pretends to be her friend in order to go on dates her friend's father is forcing her to go on. However, she ends up in trouble when one of her friend's dates is with her boss, who ends up needing a fake girlfriend to appease his grandfather. Drama and comedy ensues. Extra bonus points for one of the hottest straight kissing scenes I've ever seen.

Beyond Evil (Netflix in the US)

If you want a homoerotic cat and mouse murder mystery this is the show for you!! This show is about Han Joo Won, a detective sent to a small town and partnered with Lee Dong Sik, another detective. The two are asked to solve the disappearance of Lee Dong Sik goddaughter and they end up uncovering a lot more secrets of the town. Bonus points for clearly showing how corrupt the police are and phenomenal performances from the two main actors.

A Korean Odyssey (Netflix in the US)

Came for the fantasy premise, stayed for the adorable found family and side characters! This show centers on Jin Sun-Mi, who is cursed after freeing a deity. The deity runs into her decades later and drags her into the complicated lives of powerful immortal beings!

Mr Queen (Netflix in the US)

I fucking love any show whose premise, whether intentionally or not, is genderfuckery and queer. This show is a comedy drama about a modern day chef who ends up transported into the body of a queen from the Joseon period. This show is so fucking funny, from the chef learning about the difficulties of womanhood to him slowly falling in love with the king. Delightful all around.

Kingdom (Netflix in the US)

Oh my god I completely forgot about this show but do not sleep on Kingdom!!! Incredible show and one of my favorite zombie shows! This is a show is a period drama of the Joseon period but with the caveat of zombies! It has incredible action along with a really great criticism of class structures in crisis and plague. Plus I love the worldbuilding of zombie-isms. It's such a unique take on zombies it's incredible!

The King's Affection

Okay so I know I said I'm not a romance person and I've listed two romcoms already but this show slaps!! The premise is that the crown prince of Korea dies and his twin sister has to pretend to be him. The romantic leads have amazing chemistry and I love the plot and political intrigue.

Some more honorable favs:

-It's Okay to Not be Okay

-Little Women

-Squid Games

-Extraordinary Attorney Woo

-All of Us are Dead

-My Name

-Tomorrow (warning: this show focuses on some very very heavy subjects including sexual assault, suicide, grief, terminal illness, etc. be kind to youself)

-The Silent Sea (a little disappointing but stunning visually)

-The King Eternal Monarch (parallel universes yooo)

Watching/To Watch:

-Uncanny Counter Season 2

-Flower of Evil

[imaginefinneganswake]

Brékkek! Kékkek! Kékkek! Kékkek! Kóax Kóax Kóax! Ualu Ualu! Quáouauauh!

Finnegan’s Wake - James Joyce

ChatGPT4o critical interpretations (Created ChatGPT):

This line—"Brékkek! Kékkek! Kékkek! Kékkek! Kóax Kóax Kóax! Ualu Ualu! Quáouauauh!"—from Finnegans Wake is an incredibly evocative passage that is heavily allusive, blending linguistic play with references to classical literature and ritualistic chant. This particular outburst comes from the second chapter of the book, and while it appears nonsensical at first glance, it is deeply layered with meaning. Below are several critical interpretations of the line, focusing on Joyce's use of sound, classical allusion, and ritualistic language.

1. Classical Allusion: Aristophanes' The Frogs

The most immediate and widely recognized reference in this passage is to Aristophanes' comedy The Frogs (405 BCE). In The Frogs, the frogs chant a repetitive chorus—"Brekekekéx koáx koáx"—as they guide the god Dionysus across a swampy lake. The echoing of "Brékkek! Kékkek!" and "Kóax Kóax!" is an obvious homage to this classical Greek play, and it reflects Joyce’s frequent blending of the ancient with the modern.

In The Frogs, this chant is a parody of both ritualistic and musical refrains, mimicking the croaking sounds of frogs. Dionysus, on his journey to the underworld, encounters these frogs, and their croaking chorus symbolizes a passage into another world—perhaps a liminal space between life and death, much like the cyclical nature of existence in Finnegans Wake.

Joyce's use of this allusion brings forward themes of transition, transformation, and cyclical rebirth. Just as Dionysus in The Frogs is navigating a journey to the underworld, Finnegans Wake itself is a journey through the subconscious, history, and the underworld of the mind. The line mimics the sounds of nature (frogs), but in Joyce’s universe, the frogs’ chant also serves as a broader comment on the endless repetitions of human and mythic history.

2. Sound, Rhythm, and Repetition: Ritual Chant

The structure of this line is also significant for its emphasis on rhythm, repetition, and sound over clear semantic meaning. The onomatopoeic quality of the passage—“Brékkek! Kékkek! Kékkek!”—invites the reader to experience the text on a phonetic level, bypassing logical comprehension and engaging with the text musically. Joyce was highly attuned to the musicality of language, and passages like this reflect his belief in language’s ability to evoke emotion and mood purely through sound.

This rhythmic, chant-like phrasing has led some critics to interpret the passage as a kind of ritual incantation or primal utterance. It echoes the sounds of primitive or religious rituals, in which language is stripped down to its most elemental, almost pre-linguistic form. Joyce's use of repetition here mirrors the repetitive nature of ritualistic practices, whether ancient or modern.

There is a parallel here to Joyce's idea of the cyclical nature of history and myth, which recurs throughout Finnegans Wake. Just as rituals are performed repeatedly to ensure continuity, so too do the cycles of history and existence repeat in the novel. The frogs' croak, once a classical joke in Aristophanes, is transformed here into a symbol of continuity, a sound that transcends time and remains present in both ancient and modern contexts.

3. Primal or Pre-verbal Communication

The nonsensical or chaotic nature of the passage—especially the combination of "Ualu Ualu!" and "Quáouauauh!"—has also led critics to view it as a moment of pre-verbal or primal language, as though Joyce is tapping into the subconscious or the primitive aspects of human communication. This connects to the broader theme in Finnegans Wake of returning to the origins of language, or even beyond language, to the instinctual sounds humans might make before language took form.

Joyce was fascinated by the way language shapes and limits thought, and by creating moments in Finnegans Wake where the text seems to explode into pure sound, he may be attempting to break through the limitations of language itself. In this case, the frogs' croaks and guttural noises could symbolize a return to a primal state of being, a space where meaning is not yet confined by the structures of grammar or syntax. The passage can also be read as an evocation of subconscious utterances, resembling the spontaneous, chaotic flow of dream language—another central theme in Finnegans Wake.

4. Joyce’s Play with Animal Imagery

In addition to Aristophanes, the frog motif and other animal noises in this passage connect to Joyce’s frequent use of animal imagery. Throughout Finnegans Wake, animals often stand in for human characters, particularly in relation to primal instincts, natural cycles, and transformations. Frogs, in particular, are creatures of both water and land, symbolizing transition and transformation. In mythology, frogs are often associated with fertility, rebirth, and even metamorphosis, reflecting the novel’s overarching theme of cyclical renewal.

By invoking frogs and their croaking, Joyce may be evoking the liminal space between two worlds, much as frogs themselves live both in water and on land. The line could be Joyce's way of signaling a transitional phase in the narrative, or perhaps a shift in perspective, where animalistic and instinctual forces take over the rational, human mind. This relates to the novel’s exploration of the boundary between waking life and the dream world, where creatures like frogs, living in both water and land, embody the crossing of thresholds.

5. Linguistic Chaos and Universal Babel

Joyce’s creation of “nonsensical” or unintelligible language in this passage ties into the broader polyglot nature of Finnegans Wake. The text itself often reads like a Tower of Babel, where languages collide and words lose their conventional meaning, blending into one another to form a tapestry of human sound and expression. The frogs’ chant, then, could be interpreted as a symbol of linguistic confusion or the breakdown of communication—another frequent theme in Joyce’s work.

In Finnegans Wake, Joyce was deeply interested in how languages evolve, transform, and overlap, and this passage reflects the fluidity of linguistic meaning. The use of multiple sound patterns that echo different languages or states of speech—whether Greek, English, or something pre-verbal—reinforces the idea of language as a shifting, unstable medium. In a sense, Joyce is creating his own ritual of sound, reflecting the cacophony of human history and the persistence of communication even in its most chaotic forms.

Conclusion

This passage from Finnegans Wake, though initially confounding, is rich with layers of meaning, from its classical allusion to Aristophanes' The Frogs to its exploration of ritual, sound, and language. It can be seen as Joyce’s attempt to break through the constraints of conventional language, returning to a more primal, instinctual mode of expression that mirrors the cyclical nature of history and the subconscious. The rhythmic, croaking chant is both a homage to the past and an invocation of the universal, primal forces that transcend time and culture.

[letterboxd]

Blurring the Line.

As a new Space Jam film beams down to Earth, Kambole Campbell argues that a commitment to silliness and a sincere love for the medium is what it takes to make a great live-action/animation hybrid.

The live-action and animation hybrid movie is something of a dicey prospect. It’s tricky to create believable interaction between what’s real and what’s drawn, puppeteered or rendered—and blending the live and the animated has so far resulted in wild swings in quality. It is a highly specific and technically demanding niche, one with only a select few major hits, though plenty of cult oddities. So what makes a good live-action/animation hybrid?

To borrow words from Hayao Miyazaki, “live action is becoming part of that whole soup called animation”. Characters distinct from the humans they interact with, but rendered as though they were real creatures (or ghosts), are everywhere lately; in Paddington, in Scooby Doo, in David Lowery’s (wonderful) update of Pete’s Dragon.

The original ‘Pete’s Dragon’ (1977) alongside the 2016 remake.

Lowery’s dragon is realized with highly realistic lighting and visual-effects work. By comparison, the cartoon-like characters in the 1977 Pete’s Dragon—along with other films listed in Louise’s handy compendium of Disney’s live-action animation—are far more exaggerated. That said, there’s still the occasional holdout for the classical version of these crossovers: this year’s Tom and Jerry replicating the look of 2D through 3D/CGI animation, specifically harkens back to the shorts of the 1940s and ’50s.

One type of live-action/animation hybrid focuses on seamless immersion, the other is interested in exploring the seams themselves. Elf (2003) uses the aberration of stop-motion animals to represent the eponymous character as a fish out of water. Ninjababy, a Letterboxd favorite from this year’s SXSW Festival, employs an animated doodle as a representation of the protagonist’s state of mind while she processes her unplanned pregnancy.

Meanwhile, every Muppets film ever literally tears at the seams until we’re in stitches, but, for the sake of simplicity, puppets are not invited to this particular party. What we are concerned with here is the overlap between hand-drawn animation and live-action scenes (with honorable mentions of equally valid stop-motion work), and the ways in which these hybrids have moved from whimsical confections to nod-and-wink blockbusters across a century of cinema.

Betty Boop and Koko the clown in a 1938 instalment of the Fleischer brothers’ ‘Out of the Inkwell’ series.

Early crossovers often involve animators playing with their characters, in scenarios such as the inventive Out of the Inkwell series of shorts from Rotoscope inventor Max Fleischer and his director brother Dave. Things get even more interactive mid-century, when Gene Kelly holds hands with Jerry Mouse in Anchors Aweigh.

The 1960s and ’70s deliver ever more delightful family fare involving human actors entering cartoon worlds, notably in the Robert Stevenson-directed Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and Chuck Jones’ puntastic The Phantom Tollbooth.

Jerry and Gene dance off their worries in ‘Anchors Aweigh’ (1945).

Mary Poppins is one of the highest-rated live-action/animation hybrids on Letterboxd for good reason. Its sense of control in how it engages with its animated creations makes it—still!—an incredibly engaging watch. It is simply far less evil than the singin’, dancin’ glorification of slavery in Disney’s Song of the South (1946), and far more engaging than Victory Through Air Power (1943), a war-propaganda film about the benefits of long-range bombing in the fight against Hitler. The studio’s The Reluctant Dragon (1941) also serves a propagandistic function, as a behind-the-scenes studio tour made when the studio’s animators were striking.

By comparison, Mary Poppins’ excursions into the painted world—replicated in Rob Marshall’s belated, underrated 2018 sequel, Mary Poppins Returns—are full of magical whimsicality. “Films have added the gimmick of making animation and live characters interact countless times, but paradoxically none as pristine-looking as this creation,” writes Edgar in this review. “This is a visual landmark, a watershed… the effect of making everything float magically, to the detail of when a drawing should appear in front or the back of [Dick] Van Dyke is a creation beyond my comprehension.” (For Van Dyke, who played dual roles as Bert and Mr Dawes Senior, the experience sparked a lifelong love of animation and visual effects.)

Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke and penguins, in ‘Mary Poppins’ (1964).

Generally speaking, and the Mary Poppins sequel aside, more contemporary efforts seek to subvert this feeling of harmony and control, instead embracing the chaos of two worlds colliding, the cartoons there to shock rather than sing. Henry Selick’s frequently nightmarish James and the Giant Peach (1996) leans into this crossover as something uncanny and macabre by combining live action with stop motion, as its young protagonist eats his way into another world, meeting mechanical sharks and man-eating rhinos. Sally Jane Black describes it as “riding the Burton-esque wave of mid-’90s mall goth trends and blending with the differently demonic Dahl story”.

Science-classroom staple Osmosis Jones (2001) finds that within the human body, the internal organs serve as cities full of drawn white-blood-cell cops. The late Stephen Hillenburg’s The Spongebob Squarepants Movie (2004) turns its real-life humans into living cartoons themselves, particularly in a bonkers sequence featuring David Hasselhoff basically turning into a speedboat.

David Hasselhoff picks up speed in ‘The Spongebob Squarepants Movie’ (2004).

The absurdity behind the collision of the drawn and the real is never better embodied than in another of our highest-rated live/animated hybrids. Released in 1988, Robert Zemeckis’ Who Framed Roger Rabbit shows off a deep understanding—narratively and aesthetically—of the material that it’s parodying, seeking out the impeccable craftsmanship of legends such as director of animation Richard Williams (1993’s The Thief and the Cobbler), and his close collaborator Roy Naisbitt. The forced perspectives of Naisbitt’s mind-bending layouts provide much of the rocket fuel driving the film’s madcap cartoon opening.

Distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, Roger Rabbit utilizes the Disney stable of characters as well as the Looney Tunes cast to harken back to America’s golden age of animation. It continues a familiar scenario where the ’toons themselves are autonomous actors (as also seen in Friz Freleng’s 1940 short You Ought to Be in Pictures, in which Daffy Duck convinces Porky Pig to try his acting luck in the big studios).

Daffy Duck plots his rise up the acting ranks in ‘You Ought to Be in Pictures’ (1940).

Through this conceit, Zemeckis is able to celebrate the craft of animation, while pastiching both Chinatown, the noir genre, and the mercenary nature of the film industry (“the best part is… they work for peanuts!” a studio exec says of the cast of Fantasia). As Eddie Valiant, Bob Hoskins’ skepticism and disdain towards “toons” is a giant parody of Disney’s more traditional approach to matching humans and drawings.

Adult audiences are catered for with plenty of euphemistic humor and in-jokes about the history of the medium. It’s both hilarious (“they… dropped a piano on him,” one character solemnly notes of his son) and just the beginning of Hollywood toying with feature-length stories in which people co-exist with cartoons, rather than dipping in and out of fantasy sequences. It’s not just about how the cartoons appear on the screen, but how the human world reacts to them, and Zemeckis gets a lot of mileage out of applying ’toon lunacy to our world.

Bob Hoskins in ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’ (1988).

The groundbreaking optical effects and compositing are excellent (and Hoskins’ amazing performance should also be credited for holding all of it together), but what makes Roger Rabbit such a hit is that sense of controlled chaos and a clever tonal weaving of violence and noirish seediness (“I’m not bad… I’m just drawn that way”) through the cartoony feel. And it is simply very, very funny.

It could be said that, with Roger Rabbit, Zemeckis unlocked the formula for how to modernize the live-action and animation hybrid, by leaning into a winking parody of what came before. It worked so perfectly well that it helped kickstart the ‘Disney renaissance' era of animation. Roger Rabbit has influenced every well-known live-action/animation hybrid produced since, proving that there is success and fun to be had by completely upending Mary Poppins-esque quirks. Even Disney’s delightful 2007 rom-com Enchanted makes comedy out of the idea of cartoons crossing that boundary.

When a cartoon character meets real-world obstacles.

Even when done well, though, hybrids are not an automatic hit. Sitting at a 2.8-star average, Joe Dante’s stealthily great Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) is considered by the righteous to be the superior live-action/animated Looney Tunes hybrid, harkening back to the world of Chuck Jones and Frank Tashlin. SilentDawn states that the film deserves the nostalgic reverence reserved for Space Jam: “From gag to gag, set piece to set piece, Back in Action is utterly bonkers in its logic-free plotting and the constant manipulation of busy frames.”

With its Tinseltown parody, Back in Action pulls from the same bag of tricks as Roger Rabbit; here, the Looney Tunes characters are famous, self-entitled actors. Dante cranks the meta comedy up to eleven, opening the film with Matthew Lillard being accosted by Shaggy for his performance in the aforementioned Scooby Doo movie (and early on throwing in backhanded jokes about the practice of films like itself as one character yells, “I was brought in to leverage your synergy!”).

Daffy Duck with more non-stop banter in ‘Looney Tunes: Back in Action’ (2003).

Back in Action is even more technically complex than Roger Rabbit, seamlessly bringing Looney Tunes physics and visual language into the real world. Don’t forget that Dante had been here before, when he had Anthony banish Ethel into a cartoon-populated television show in his segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie. Another key to this seamlessness is star Brendan Fraser, at the height of his powers here as “Brendan Fraser’s stunt double”.

Like Hoskins before him, Fraser brings a wholehearted commitment to playing the fed-up straight man amidst cartoon zaniness. Fraser also brought that dedication to Henry Selick's Monkeybone (2001), a Roger Rabbit-inspired sex comedy that deploys a combo of stop-motion animation and live acting in a premise amusingly close to that of 1992’s Cool World (but more on that cult anomaly shortly). A commercial flop, Back in Action was the last cinematic outing for the Looney Tunes for some time.

Nowadays, when we think of live-action animation, it’s hard not to jump straight to an image of Michael Jordan’s arm stretching to do a half-court dunk to save the Looney Tunes from slavery. There’s not a lot that can be fully rationalized about the 1996 box-office smash, Space Jam. It is a bewildering cartoon advert for Michael Jordan’s baseball career, dreamed up off the back of his basketball retirement, while also mashing together different American icons. Never forget that the soundtrack—one that, according to Benjamin, “makes you have to throw ass”—includes a song with B-Real, Coolio, Method Man and LL Cool J.

Michael Jordan and teammates in ‘Space Jam’ (1996).

Space Jam is a film inherently born to sell something, predicated on the existing success of a Nike commercial rather than any obvious passion for experimentation. But its pure strangeness, a growing nostalgia for the nineties, and meticulous compositing work from visual-effects supervisor Ed Jones and the film’s animation team (a number of whom also worked on both Roger Rabbit and Back in Action), have all kept it in the cultural memory.

The films is backwards, writes Jesse, in that it wants to distance itself from the very cartoons it leverages: “This really almost feels like a follow-up to Looney Tunes: Back in Action, rather than a predecessor, because it feels like someone watched the later movie, decided these Looney Tunes characters were a problem, and asked someone to make sure they were as secondary as possible.” That attempt to place all the agency in Jordan’s hands was a point of contention for Chuck Jones, the legendary Warner Bros cartoonist. He hated the film, stating that Bugs would never ask for help and would have dealt with the aliens in seven minutes.

Space Jam has its moments, however. Guy proclaims “there is nothing that Deadpool as a character will ever have to offer that isn’t done infinitely better by a good Bugs Bunny bit”. For some, its problems are a bit more straightforward, for others it’s a matter of safety in sport. But the overriding sentiments surrounding the film point to a sort of morbid fascination with the brazenness of its concept.

Holli Would (voiced by Kim Basinger) and Frank Harris (Brad Pitt) blur the lines in ‘Cool World’ (1992).

Existing in the same demented… space… as Space Jam, Paramount Pictures bought the idea for Cool World from Ralph Bakshi as it sought to have its own Roger Rabbit. While Brad Pitt described it as “Roger Rabbit on acid” ahead of release, Cool World itself looks like a nightmare version of Toontown. The film was universally panned at the time, caught awkwardly between being far too adult for children but too lacking in any real substance for adults (there’s something of a connective thread between Jessica Rabbit, Lola Bunny and Holli Would).

Ralph Bakshi’s risqué and calamitously horny formal experiment builds on the animator’s fascination with the relationship between the medium and the human body. Of course, he would go from the immensely detailed rotoscoping of Fire and Ice (1983) to clashing hand-drawn characters with real ones, something he had already touched upon in the seventies with Heavy Traffic and Coonskin, whose animated characters were drawn into real locations. But no one besides Bakshi quite knew what to do with the perverse concept of Brad Pitt as a noir detective trying to stop Gabriel Byrne’s cartoonist from having sex with a character that he drew—an animated Kim Basinger.

Jack Deebs (Gabriel Byrne) attempts to cross over to Hollie Would in ‘Cool World’ (1992).

Cool World’s awkwardness can be attributed to stilted interactions between Byrne, Pitt and the animated world, as well as studio meddling. Producer Frank Mancuso Jr (who was on the film due to his father running Paramount) demanded that the film be reworked into something PG-rated, against Bakshi’s wishes (he envisioned an R-rated horror), and the script was rewritten in secret. It went badly, so much so that Bakshi eventually punched Mancuso Jr in the face.

While Cool World averages two stars on Letterboxd, there are some enthusiastic holdouts. There are the people impressed by the insanity of it all, those who just love them a horny toon, and then there is Andrew, a five-star Cool World fan: “On the surface, it’s a Lovecraftian horror with Betty Boop as the villain, featuring a more impressive cityscape than Blade Runner and Dick Tracy combined, and multidimensional effects that make In the Mouth of Madness look like trash. The true star, however, proves to be the condensed surplus of unrelated gags clogging the arteries of the screen—in every corner is some of the silliest cel animation that will likely ever be created.”

There are even those who enjoy its “clear response to Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, with David writing that “the film presents a similar concept through the lens of the darkly comic, perverted world of the underground cartoonists”, though also noting that without Bakshi’s original script, the film is “a series of half steps and never really commits like it could”. Cool World feels both completely deranged and strangely low-energy, caught between different ideas as to how best to mix the two mediums. But it did give us a David Bowie jam.

‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’ is in cinemas and on HBO Max now.

Craft is of course important, but generally speaking, maybe nowadays a commitment to silliness and a sincere love for the medium’s history is the thing that makes successful live-action/animation hybrids click. It’s an idea that doesn’t lend itself to being too cool, or even entirely palatable. The trick is to be as fully dotty as Mary Poppins, or steer into the gaucheness of the concept, à la Roger Rabbit and Looney Tunes: Back in Action.

It’s quite a tightrope to walk between good meta-comedy and a parade of references to intellectual property. The winningest strategy is to weave the characters into the tapestry of the plot and let the gags grow from there, rather than hoping their very inclusion is its own reward. Wait, you said what is coming out this week?

Related content

Rootfish Jones’s list of cartoons people are horny for

The 100 Sequences that Shaped Animation: the companion list to the Vulture story

Jose Moreno’s list of every animated film made from 1888 to the present

Follow Kambole on Letterboxd

[yeojaa]

TO THE MOON AND BACK - ft. ???

You feel winded and you're not sure why.  Like you'd been walking on cloud nine and were now falling through the atmosphere, plummeting toward the ground at incredible speeds.  When you speak, it doesn't really sound like you.  "Yes."  Because he was exactly right - you were a hopeless romantic.  Always had been.  It was hard not to be when your parents were childhood sweethearts and love was the thing you'd been chasing your whole life.

alt summary.  You use your one brain cell for love.  It doesn’t always end well.

pairing.  who knows, honestly.  the obvious ones are kim taehyung and jeon jungkook, though.  

tags.  blind date, strangers, strangers to friends, strangers to lovers, getting to know each other, alternate universe, alternate universe - modern setting, romantic comedy.

rating.  general (for now?)

word count.  ~3500

chapter 3.  

하루의 시작이 너로 가득 차서 혼자 남겨졌을 땐 괜히 불안해져 yeah 흐릿한 내 맘에 들려와 너의 따뜻한 목소리가 Baby I'm falling for you

The melody fills your senses, a sweet lullaby that sits just beyond your comprehension.  You're too focused on the sandwich board in front of the till, the daily offerings catching your interest even while you hum to yourself.  There's the croissant sandwich you love - always with turkey - but then there's also a new brûlée French toast and it's so tempting with the little chalk drawing beside it.

"Good morning,"  you greet the girl at the cash register with a kind smile.  She returns it, following your gaze, and you almost blush at how easily she reads your mind.  

"You should try something new."  You were definitely here too often.

"I know buuuut..."  The petal of your bottom lip is caught between two teeth and you look like you've been tasked with an impossible choice.  "I'll get the French toast to stay and the croissant to go.  Oh, and a cappuccino, please."  There, compromise.  You could stay at the café for a while.  You weren't due into the studio until later and you wanted to get some writing done, anyway.  You'd felt inspired since yesterday's events.  

The girl is ringing you up as efficiently as she always does, nodding politely at you as you take the ceramic cup set and step aside. 

You make a beeline for your usual spot by the window.  You're glad it's not too busy - the last time you'd been there, some students had taken it first and you'd had to make due with the booth farther in.  It hadn't really been that big of a deal but you were a creature of habit.  You liked your sunshine and the way the potted plants hung over your head, vines occasionally tickling your ear if you leaned too far to one side.

Kim Namjoon says "turn around" with a smiley face.

The voice makes you almost jump out of your own skin.  Goddamn Siri.

You're grateful you'd set your drink down, though the spoon still clatters noisily when you whip around.  Where was he?  

Narrowed eyes survey the interior, drifting from head to head.  There's once or twice that you think you see him before realizing that shade of grey isn't quite right, the pretty purple tone missing.  You huff and focus harder, gaze flickering from the farthest corner of the bistro to the table that's only a few feet away.  

That's when you see him.  Or them, rather.  All six of them.

Yoongi is a familiar face, platinum blond sweeping over his feline stare as he offers a brief smirk.  He makes no other indication toward you, instead flicking his attention to the other men grouped at his table.  You follow his line of sight down the back row of chairs.  

Namjoon is beside him, his mouth pulled into that signature tight-lipped smile.  There are crinkles at the edges of his eyes and mirth playing in the depths.  You don't think you've ever seen him so coy.  It's different though, more child-like amusement than the unbridled passion he exudes in the studio.  It squares his jaw, working the muscle there as if he's holding back a laugh.  You're suddenly suspicious.

Someone you don't recognize is next to him.  Even though he's a stranger, you can't help but gawk.  It's like looking at the sun he's so bright.  His auburn hair falls in soft waves, parted over his forehead.  He's got a daintily-upturned nose and sharp cheekbones.  You can only describe him as pretty.

Opposite him sits another stranger, though he's craning his neck around to look at you.  You're immediately struck with how soft he looks, from the pillows of his lips to the way his cheeks bounce when he smiles.  You resist the strangest urge to smooth his dove grey hair back, if only to offer you a better view of his eyes and the way they crescent.  "I'm Park Jimin."  His voice is nothing like you would've expected.  It's honey that seeps past his lips, mellowed and enticing.  You think you could get lost in it - in him.

But then you're noticing the person in the center because he's staring at you and you'd find his eyes in any crowd.  

"Kim Taehyung?"  His name rolls off your tongue in surprise and you're a little embarrassed by how breathless it sounds, like you've just run a marathon or pressed a million kisses into the frame of his mouth.  

You're not sure whether it's your imagination but he seems hesitant, more reserved.  It's a good look on him.  Still, his smile is captivating.  He rakes a hand through his dark hair, pushing it away from his forehead as he tries to find his words.  He certainly hadn't expected to run into you so soon. 

Whatever moment he has is stolen by the figure closest to you, whose voice sparks recognition and the most all-encompassing smile possible.  "Hi, Jiyeon."  Your former classmate is greeting you with the loveliest hue dusting the tops of his ears, his little bunny grin growing wider with each passing second.  You remember, immediately, why you'd fallen so easily for him.  

"Small world, huh?"  It's an understatement but you laugh anyway, meeting Namjoon's twinkling eyes.

You ignore the fact that you're still standing, hovering between your two tables.  You know your coffee is getting cold.  "Do all the good-looking guys in Seoul know each other?"  

You're rewarded by magenta sprouting like weeds across the faces of Jungkook and Jimin - you think that was his name - the colour draping over their cheeks adorably.  On the other hand, the stranger that hasn't yet introduced himself simply beams, flicking his bangs from his face in a devil may care motion.  Taehyung smiles, more to himself than you, shaking his head in the same instance.  Your two mentors don't react - they're used to your antics.

"Something like that,"  Namjoon answers, cool as a cucumber.  "You know everyone but Jimin and Hoseok then?"  He gestures to the two and you repeat both names in your head. 

"I introduced myself,"  the angelic one, Jimin, supplies with pride.  He sneaks a glance at you when he thinks you're not looking but your sights are on him.  He's so endearing you want to wrap him up and take him home.

"I'm Jung Hoseok."  The speaker salutes you from his spot because you're too far away for him to offer his hand and he was raised with manners.

"Nice to meet you both,"  you crow, waving sweetly. 

"What're you doing here?"  Ever the chameleon, Namjoon carries the conversation.

You're grateful, if not a little surprised.  While he was friendly enough - and an incredible teacher - your interactions with him had almost exclusively been limited to the studio.  You'd gone for dinner with he and Yoongi a handful of times, the three of you patting yourselves on the back with tasty braised ribs and lamb skewers when the notes came together just right.  He'd always been gracious, walking you to the bus or waiting for a cab with you, but you were hardly thick as thieves. 

"I thought I would get some work done before heading in."  You're about to continue, gesticulating toward your canvas bag, when you notice the waitress approaching.  You stifle your disappointment and take a step back, bowing ever so slightly.  "I should leave you alone, though.  Please eat well."

No one stops you when you scurry away and you can't blame them - they look ravenous.

"That's her, huh?"  Hoseok is the only one not stuffing his face because he, unlike the others, had indulged a full breakfast before his first class at six in the morning.  Still, he nibbles at his potatoes, pleased with the crisp edges before he shovels another one into his awaiting mouth.

Sounds of affirmation come from the two youngest, both of whom have been surprisingly quiet the entire time.  It's not enough that they'd been starving - there's something different about their silence.

"When are you seeing her next?"  It's Yoongi speaking, casually curious.  He prides himself on generally staying out of his friend's business unless they bring it to him but this situation is just so funny.  What a small world indeed.

"Don't know,"  Taehyung answers honestly, wiping at the side of his lips with his napkin.  He considers the question thoughtfully, shoveling another forkful of egg into his mouth.  It melts on his tongue.  So good.  "I hadn't really thought about it yet.  I still barely know her, so I don't know how to approach it."  

He hadn't expected this to elicit sudden advice from the men around the table, his head snapping up in disbelief.

"She couldn't stop staring at you.  I don't think you've got anything to worry about."  Easy for Hoseok to say, with his new adoring girlfriend.  It was always easier to dole out relationship advice when you felt you were still on cloud nine.

"You said she's a hopeless romantic, right?  Use that to your advantage."  Wise words from Jimin, because unlike the others, he and Taehyung had similar personalities.  They thrived on romance, found meaning in longing glances and butterfly kisses.  They wanted to present their adoration with a big white bow or on their sleeve for all to see. 

"Take it easy on her, though."  Yoongi, once again, but with an unexpected edge to his voice.  This catches everyone's attention.

It's obvious they're waiting for him to continue but he doesn't, instead turning his focus once more to his breakfast and cutting a small morsel to pop into his mouth.  They know he isn't going to say anything further when he does it again, staring straight ahead like he's in his own little world.  Typical.  Instead, they implore the only other person who seems nonplussed:  Namjoon.

The rapper's response isn't immediate.  In fact, it seems almost like he's not going to offer anything up either, just like a certain blond.  When he does, the table releases a collective breath.  "She went through a break up a few months ago."  Despite the din of the restaurant and the fact that you're very clearly caught up in your own world, large studio headphones pulled tight over your ears, Namjoon speaks carefully.  "She didn't talk about it but she asked us to help her with some songs."  He shrugs then, deeming that enough.

Yoongi doesn't mean his next words in any special way.  There's no pining in his voice or underlying emotion.  He's not the type.  "So don't hurt her."  Nonetheless, Taehyung gets the message loud and clear, nodding solemnly until the other's eyes have drifted off. 

The rest of breakfast carries on with little excitement, just the casual chatter of six men that have been best friends longer than they can remember.  Yoongi and Namjoon drift into their own little world, a laugh punctuating their interaction as the latter brightly claps the other's shoulder.  It draws a relaxed smile from the smaller man.  Hoseok is, surprisingly, buried in his phone.  A glance at the screen indicates a very active KaTalk window.  From the big goofy look on his face, it's easy to guess who he's messaging. 

It's only when he pushes away from his seat in a grand gesture that things refocus, everyone's attention trained on the dancer.  "I'm heading out.  It was nice seeing you."  With a cheerful wave, he's dragging his bucket hat over his tawny strands and making a beeline for the door.

This seems to spur everyone else into action.  

"I'm going to nap."  The statement is punctuated by a yawn, Jimin's gaze swiveling to his roommate.  "Are you coming home?"

Taehyung can feel all four pairs of eyes on him and he nods.  "Yeah, I'll come back with you."  It sounds halfhearted and a little wistful, especially when he hazards a glance in your direction.  You're still absorbed in whatever it is you're doing, pencil flying across paper in short bursts before being struck out with sharp lines. 

"We're heading to the studio,"  Namjoon speaks for two.

That leaves Jungkook, who has something of a grin on his face.  It's satisfied and a little bit indulgent, like the cat that ate the canary.  "I'll say bye to Jiyeon."  There are things he isn't saying, flickers of truth just beneath the surface as he offers a cheery wave to his friends.  "Later, hyungs." 

It's a dismissal as much as it is a goodbye.  

Both Jimin and Taehyung share a look - one that reads what the hell? - before they're being ushered out of their seats by their elders who, as always, are perfectly unbothered.  

You dimly acknowledge that their table has emptied but don't have enough time to consider it when you notice the looming figure to your left.  It blocks the light above you, throwing everything into faint shadow.  You almost say something but think better of it, figuring whoever it is will make themselves known or realize you're busy.

When the silence stretches on, you huff quietly and turn your attention skywards with as much sweetness as you can. 

You realize you're an idiot in the same instant.

Because it’s Jungkook standing there and his mouth is moving and he’s got that familiar smile on his face, nose wrinkled adorably.

“Sorry - I can’t hear you,”  you apologize as you’re tugging your headphones down around your neck.

He looks like he’d expected that, laughing as he indicates the chair opposite you.  “Do you mind some company?”  The question comes gently, like he’s genuinely unsure whether his presence is unwanted.  It makes you want to laugh, stirring a distant memory that slots, picture perfect, around his still standing frame.

“Only if you tell me something no one else knows about you.”  It’s the same thing you’d asked four years ago when he’d approached you and you watch, tickled pink, when recognition floods his expression.

He takes his seat immediately.  “I really like romantic comedies,” he parrots back at you once he’s settled, hands folding in his lap.  You notice the way the vines above him just barely tickle the top of his head, lost among the midnight strands that twist this way and that.  If he minds, he says nothing.  It's one of the things you'd always liked about him - he was so easygoing.

“Seen any good ones lately?”  You’re honestly curious, taking the time to mark your notebook and slide it closed before you turn your full attention to him. 

You’re heartened by what you see, because he looks happy.  Truly, genuinely happy.  His hair’s a little longer than when you’d last seen him, the ends curling around his ears and skimming across his cheeks.  His shoulders are a little broader, too, but still draped in varying shades of slightly darker black - something you’d come to expect from him.  The hollows beneath his eyes aren’t even that bad.  You’d even go so far as to say he looks well-rested.

It’s a far cry from the manic panic media student you’d spent long nights with, trading secrets through the glow of your screens.

You can practically hear his shriek from the time he’d accidentally jostled his power bar, his monitor descending into nothingness.  He’d really thought it was the end of the world and it was only when your voice had filtered through his headset that he’d realized he’d only dislodged the screen’s power cord, his semester-end project still safe. 

That had been an awful night but you’d gotten through it together.

“Love Simon is really good.”

A brow quirks, incredulous.  “That movie is two years old.  I said lately!”  Your tone is all crystallized sugar and citrus peels, saccharine sweet despite the teasing you lay on thick.

It’s nice how easily you fall into old routines.

“I’ve been busy!”  Comes Jungkook’s indignant response, though it only acts to spur your sarcasm on.

“With what?  I see you on Discord, Jeon Jungkook!  All you do is play Overwatch.”

“You check up on me?”  It’s not the point you’d meant to make and you feel embarrassment flooding your cheeks.  You’re sure they’re a vibrant pink, the same colour as the dumb little enamel pin stuck to the front of your tote bag - a one-of-a-kind find from a day of thrifting with a certain bunny-smiling boy.

You duck behind your cup instead of answering, grimacing when the now-cold combination of milk and coffee meets your tongue.  “I didn’t say that,”  you hum.

“You’re not denying it.”  Ever the pain in the ass, he tosses a grin your way and it's all teeth and crinkled eyes, equal parts endearing and endlessly frustrating.  For not the first time, you’re reminded of his absolutely insane duality.  You’d uncovered it in bits and pieces over your years of friendship but it still left you with whiplash. 

One moment, he'd be the pouty child you’d want to indulge and in the next, he’d be sharp-tongued and dangerous, the kind of person your mother warned you about.

That's why you'd learnt to pick your battles with him. 

"Whatever you say, Jungkook."  Whether your easy surrender is what he wanted, you're not sure.  He's staring at you with an unreadable expression, like you're the one who hung the stars in the sky and he can't really figure out why.  It's the same look he's levelled you with a million times before and it still makes you squirm.  "What?"  It comes out more guarded than you mean it to, all bark and no bite.

He doesn't even flinch, a picture of composure.  You'd give anything to get a peek into that pretty little head of his.  "You're just interesting."

"I bet you say that to everyone."  

"You know I don't."  

You:  Zero.  Jungkook:  One.

You scoff noiselessly and you practically feel the frustration bleeding out of his pores.  You're being difficult, you know, and now you've ruined a perfectly nice morning.  You can't help it.  You and Jungkook have a strange relationship, one that teeters strangely between more than friends and miles apart.  

He'd blame it on your poor communication skills;  you'd insist it was his refusal to open up.  Neither of you would be right.

"Can we start over?"  It's more fair than you deserve, paired with those big doe eyes.  Puppy dog eyes, you think, because you can't bring yourself to say anything but yes when they're on you like this.  He's so earnest, so eager.  You feel bad being the thing that keeps him down.

"Okay,"  you relent, huffing, like it's the hardest concession you've ever had to make.  You both know it isn't but it feels good nonetheless.  Feels more like your cheesy back and forth banter, the playful mockery that hooks syllables together and presents itself in every interaction.  A defense mechanism, without a doubt, but one the two of you heavily rely on to push past history you've never properly addressed.  A Band-aid for a wound that threatens to split open.

"I'm Jeon Jungkook."  He's trying hard and you can't help but smile, palm moving to cradle your chin as you wait for him to continue.  He really is better than you ever game him credit for.  "I like romantic comedies.  And you're Cho Jiyeon, which I know for a perfectly normal reason even though we've never met before." 

There's laughter threatening to burst out of your lunges but you stifle it as best you can.  It still escapes in squeaks.  "Nice to meet you, Jeon Jungkook.  Not weird at all that you know my name.  Very normal."

You're staring so hard at each other you're not sure whether you've initiated an unspoken contest.

He breaks first, entire facade crumbling beneath the weight of his glee.  You're rewarded by the blinding white of his teeth and dimples that cradle his grin - one of your favourite sights in the world, though you'd never admit it.  Not now.  "It's really nice to see you."  The words carry more weight than you expect, meaning laced into every lilt and turn.  It's very important to him that you know this. 

You're softening, like ice cream left out on a summer day.  It's impossible to keep your walls up around him.  You remind yourself that's why the two of you are the way you are now, foreigners in a half-built city of your own making.  

"It's nice to see you, too."  You've breached the distance before you can stop yourself, tips of fingers a hairsbreadth from his.  "I do miss you."  The admission is barely a whisper, made even more quiet by the cacophony of sound that exists within the busy bistro.  You're not quite sure if he's heard - it's hard to look him in the eyes - so you instead focus on the distance that barely exists between you and yet stretches like the Pacific. 

When his fingers curl around yours, knuckles knocking clumsily, you know he has.  You can't decide if that's good or bad.

notes.  the next chapter will deal with a bit of jiyeon and jungkook's history, so please bear with me!

[roaringgirl]

Books read in January

I am keeping this as a little record for myself, as I already keep a list (my best new year’s resolution - begun Jan 2018) but don’t record my thoughts

General thoughts on this - I read a lot this month but it played into my worst tendencies to read very very fast and not reflect, something I’m particularly prone too with modern fiction. I just, so to speak, swallow it without thinking. First 5 or so entries apart, I did quite well in my usually miserably failed attempt to have my reading be at least half books by women.

1. John le Carré - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974): I liked this a lot! I sort of lost track of the Cold War and shall we say ethics-concerned parts of it and ended up reading a fair bit of it as an English comedy of manners - but I absolutely love all the bizarre rules about what is in bad taste (are these real? Did le Carré make them up?).

2. John le Carré - The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1963): I liked this a lot less. It seemed at the same time wilfully opaque and entirely predictable. Have been thinking a lot about genre fiction - I love westerns and noir, so wonder if for me British genre fiction doesn’t quite scratch the same itch.

3. David Lodge - Ginger You’re Barmy (1962): This was fine. I don’t have much to say about it - I was interested in reading about National Service and a bit bogged down in a history of it so read a novel. As with most comic novels, it was perfectly readable but not very funny.

4. Dan Simmons - Song of Kali (1985): His first novel. This is quite enjoyable just for the amount of Grand Guignol gore, and also because I like to imagine it caused the Calcutta tourist board some consternation. Wildly structurally flawed, however. Best/worst quote: ‘Hearing Amrita speak was like being stroked by a firm but well-oiled palm.’ Continues in that vein.

5. Richard Vinen - National Service: A Generation in Uniform (2014): If you are interested in National Service, this is a good overview! If not, not.

6. Sarah Moss - Ghost Wall (2018): I absolutely loved this. About a camping trip trying to recreate Iron Age Britain. Just, very upsetting but so so good - a horror story where the horror is male violence and abuse within the (un)natural family unit.

7. Kate Grenville - A Room Made of Leaves (2020): Excellent idea, but not amazing execution - the style is kind of bland in that ‘ironed out in MFA workshops’ way (I have no idea if she did an MFA but that’s what it felt like). Rewriting the story of early Australian colonisation through the POV of John Macarthur’s wife Elizabeth.

8. Ruth Goodman - How to Be a Victorian (2013): I mostly read this for Terror fic reasons, if I’m honest. I skimmed a lot of it but she has a charming authorial voice and I really like that she covers the beginning of the period, not just post-1870.

9. Gary Shteyngart - Super Sad True Love Story (2010): I read this on a recommendation from Ms Poose after I asked for good fiction mostly concerned with the internet, and I thought it was excellent - it’s very exaggerated/non-realistic and that heightening of incident and affect works so well.

10. Brenda Wineapple - The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation (2019): What a great book. I had to keep putting it down because reading about Reconstruction always makes me so sad and frustrated with what might have been - the lost dream of a better world.

11. Halle Butler - The New Me (2019): Reading this while single, starting antidepressants and stuck in an office job that bores me to death but is too stable/undemanding to complain about maybe wasn’t a great decision, for me, emotionally.

12. Halle Butler - Jillian (2015): Ditto.

13. Ottessa Moshfegh - Death in Her Hands (2020): Very disappointed by this. I don’t really like meta-fiction unless it’s really something special and this wasn’t. Also, I’m stupid and really bad at reading, like, postmodern allegorical fiction I just never get it.

14. Andrea Lawlor  - Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl (2017): This was really really hot! I will admit I don’t think the reflections on gender, homophobia, AIDS etc are very deep or as revealing as some reviews made out, but I also don’t think they’re supposed to be? It’s a lot of fun and all of the characters in it are so precisely, fondly but meanly sketched.

15. Catherine Lacey - The Answers (2017): This was fine! Readable, enjoyable, but honestly it has not stuck with me. There are only so many sad girl dystopias you can read and I think I overdid it with them this month.

16. Hilary Mantel - Wolf Hall (2010, reread): Was supposed to read the first 55 pages of this for my two-person book club, but I completely lack self-restraint so reread the whole thing in four days. Like, I love it I don’t really know what else to say. I was posing for years that ‘Oh, Mantel’s earlier novels are better, they’re such an interesting development of Muriel Spark and the problem of evil and farce’ blah blah blah but nope, this is great.

17. Oisin Fagan - Hostages (2016): Book of short stories that I disliked intensely, which disappointed me because I tore through Nobber in horrified fascination (his novel set in Ireland during the Black Death - which I really cannot recommend enough. It’s so intensely horrible but, like Mantel although in a completely different style/method, he has the trick of not taking the past on modern terms). A lot of this is sci-fi dystopia short stories which just aren’t... very good or well-sustained. BUT I did appreciate it because it is absolutely the opposite of pleasant, competently-written but forgettable MFA fiction.

18. Muriel Spark - Loitering with Intent (1981): Probably my least favourite Spark so far, but still good. I think the Ealing Comedy-esque elements of her style are most evident and most dated here. It just doesn’t have the same sentence-by-sentence sting as most of her work, and again I don’t like meta-fiction.

19. Hilary Mantel - Bring up the Bodies (2012, reread): Having (re)read all of these in about 3 months, I think this is probably my favourite of the three. I just love the way a whole world, whole centuries and centuries of history and society spiral out from every paragraph. And just stylistically, how perfect - every sentence is a cracker. I’m just perpetually in awe of Mantel as a prose stylist (although I dislike that everyone seems to write in the present tense now and blame her for it).

20. Muriel Spark - The Girls of Slender Means (1963, reread): (TW weight talk etc ) As always, Hilary Mantel sets me off on a Muriel Spark spree. I’ve read this too many times to say much about it other than that the denouement always makes me go... my hips definitely wouldn’t fit through that window. Maybe I should lose weight in case I have to crawl out of a bathroom window due to a fire caused by an unexploded bomb from WW2???? Which is a wild throwback to my mentality as a 16 year old.

21. China Mieville - Perdido Street Station (2000, reread): What a lot of fun. I know we don’t do steampunk anymore BUT I do like that he got in the whole economic and justice system of the early British Industrial Revolution and not just like steam engines. God, maybe I should read more sci-fi. Maybe I should reread the rest of this trilogy but that’s like 2000 pages. Maybe I should reread the City and the City because at least that’s short and ties exactly into my Disco Elysium obsession (the mod I downloaded to unlock all dialogue keeps breaking the game though. Is there a script online???)

22. Stephen King - Carrie (1974): I have a confession to make: I was supposed to teach this to one of my tutees and then just never read it, but to be honest we’re still doing basic reading comprehension anyway. That sounds mean but she’s very sweet and I love teaching her because she gets perceptibly less intimidated/critical of herself every lesson. ANYWAY I read half of this in the bath having just finished my period, which I think was perfect. It’s fun! Stephen King is fun! I don’t have anything deeper to say.

23. Hilary Mantel - Every Day is Mother’s Day (1985): You can def tell this is a first novel because it doesn’t quite crackle with the same demonic energy as like, An Experiment in Love or Beyond Black, but all the recurring themes are there. If it were by anyone else I’d be like good novel! But it’s not as good as her other novels.

24. Dominique Fortier - On the Proper Usage of Stars (2010): This was... perfectly competent. Kind of dull? It made me think of what I appreciate about Dan Simmons which is how viscerally unpleasant he makes being in the Navy seem generally, and man-hauling with scurvy specifically. This had the same problem with some other FE fiction which is that they’re mostly not willing to go wild and invent enough so the whole thing is kind of diffuse and under-characterised. Although I hated the invented plucky Victorian orphan who’s great at magnetism and taxonomy and read all ONE THOUSAND BOOKS or whatever on the ships before they got thawed out at Beechey (and then the plotline just went nowhere because they immediately all died???) I had to skim all his bits in irritation. I liked the books more than this makes it sound I was just like Mr Tuesday I hope you fall down a crevasse sooner rather than later.

25. Muriel Spark - The Abbess of Crewe (1974): Transposing Watergate to an English convent is quite funny, although it took me an embarrassingly long time to realise that’s what she was doing even though I lit read a book covering Watergate in detail in December. Muriel Spark is just so, so stylish I’m always consumed with envy. I think a lot of her books don’t quite hang together as books but sentence by sentence... they’re exquisite and incomparable.

Overall thoughts: This month was very indulgent since I basically just inhaled a lot of not challenging fiction. I need to enjoy myself less, so next month we’re finishing a biography of Napoleon, reading the Woman in White and finishing the Lesser Bohemians which currently I’m struggling with since it’s like nearly as impenetrable Joyce c. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man but, so far... well I hesitate to say bad since I think once I get into I’ll be into it but. Bad.

[popwasabi]

“Little Monsters” Review: Wait, this movie isn’t about Lupita killing zombies??

Directed by Abe Foresythe

Starring: Alexander England, Lupita Nyong’o, Josh Gad

No one would blame you if you thought Hulu’s “Little Monsters” was going to be about Lupita Nyong’o

After all, the viral campaign featured her heavily on both the movie’s poster and trailer leading us all to believe we were going to get a heaping helping of the Oscar-winning actress getting her turn to kick zombie ass in Australia.

(Seriously!)

But what ends up happening in the end is a fairly run of the mill zombie comedy that, though entertaining, isn’t even about Nyong’o’s character, instead kicking the tires on some tired tropes within its comedic sub-genre with a far less captivating character.

Nyong’o does her very best though to lift “Little Monsters” average script and makes it worth the stream alone but feels ultimately like a missed opportunity to tell a more interesting story and an ultimately more fun zombie comedy.

(^A more fun zombie comedy)

“Little Monsters” follows Dave, a washed-up, loser musician who’s been kicked out of his house by his girlfriend for not understanding her feelings regarding child-rearing. He moves into his sister’s house and finds himself in the care of his nephew who’s picked on at school. When Dave discovers his nephew’s school teacher Ms. Caroline he immediately becomes infatuated with her and works up a plan to win her affection by volunteering to go on a class field trip to a petting zoo with the class. When they get there however it appears things have gone horribly wrong as a nearby American military base accidentally unleashes a zombie horde on the class and now Dave and Ms. Caroline must work to stay alive and keep the kids spirits high.

The modern zombie genre is now over 40 years old with dozens of movies and TV shows sprinkled between George A. Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” and AMC’s seemingly undying “The Walking Dead.” With a few notable exceptions here and there since 1968 such as “Shaun of the Dead” and “Train to Busan,” the genre has grown as stale as the shambling corpses its protagonist shoot, stab, smash and murder has grown more and more repetitive over the years. There’s been some attempts at really outlandish ideas such as making the zombies romantic interests in “Warm Bodies,” and making a Christmas musical out of them in “Anna and the Apocalypse” but even those films couldn’t escape many of the tropes we see over and over again in these movies.

(”Anna and the Apocalypse” does have some decent show-stopping tunes though.)

“Little Monsters,” in the trailers at least, appeared to be attempting something new. What if a school teacher had to play dumb in front of her kindergarten students while the apocalypse raged around her? How can the eternal optimism, patience and responsibility needed to control 20 plus ignorant, unattentive, needy, clingy children hold up against the ravenous undead? 

There was potential for a very interesting take on a tired genre of film here but director Abe Forsythe bafflingly decides the lead of this film should instead be another mediocre white man who needs the help and charisma of a far more charming female character to learn the power of responsibility and fweelings.

Alexander England isn’t bad per se in his portrayal of Dave but his character is just the same irritating schmuck we all see in these types of movies and frankly not a good person. He’s Safeway brand Shaun of the Dead but without Simon Pegg’s impeccable charm or more importantly Edgar Wright’s directorial finesse and brilliance. He’s a loser but far from the lovable kind as the film seems to think comedy through this character should revolve all around dropping multiple F-bombs and lazy casual sexism at every moment.

Meanwhile, Lupita plays a far more entertaining protagonist who’s relegated to side character in the middle of this catastrophe. She sings, laughs, dances and is just perfect playing this character as she charms her students into believing their playing a “game” of tag with the voracious undead clawing at their windows. How any director could think this character played by an Oscar-winning actress should play out as simply a love interest for such a mediocre hero is just beyond comprehension.

What makes it so infuriating is there are glimpses of how much better this movie could’ve been written throughout the story had they focused on Lupita’s Ms. Caroline instead. Ms. Caroline is eternally optimistic for her students but she alludes to a more pained past at multiple points during the film. She talks about how she caught her ex fiance cheating on her and how she wears her engagement ring still as a defense mechanism to men who keep hitting on her. This all happening while England’s Dave continues to be an insufferable jackass.

The script could’ve worked with that immensely; make it about how Lupita is hiding her pain by pretending, much like how she’s doing with the children in front of the zombies. Talk about how she see’s the need for positivity no matter what, beyond just being there for her kids even in these horrible circumstances because its the only way she can function without falling apart. The movie could’ve really worked with this through the lens of the zombie genre to great comedic affect but again, bafflingly decides the movie is best viewed through the eyes of a frankly shitty white dude.

This all said the movie is fun enough and plenty cute given the children’s often innocent reactions to the carnage around them and Josh Gadd’s puts in a fun short performance as a children’s TV show host who just can’t take it anymore. If you have Hulu there are worst things you can do for an hour a half of your time. As mentioned, Lupita is infuriatingly relegated to a side character in this film but she nonetheless delivers and makes the whole film worth it in the end.

“Little Monsters” is still a missed opportunity in the decaying landscape of the zombie genre and its unfortunate that not even a talented actress such as Lupita could win out the starting protagonist job on such a small movie.

(Seriously, again, how dare you?)

But that’s how it is unfortunately. Despite some major strides in story-telling in Hollywood the last few years, plenty of director’s still think the audience will only enjoy it if its told through the lens of an uninteresting white man in place instead of the far more interesting supporting character, who do tend to be women and people of color.

Hopefully this trope dies along with the tired clichés of the zombie genre in the coming years, lest we have to suffer its shambling corpse again.

Not Holding my breath though…

VERDICT:

3 out of 5

You said it, Rick...

[theangrypokemaniac]

There's a sneering attitude that the dub is inherently inferior solely for being a dub, and when I say 'dub' I mean the American one. No one attacks the South American interpretation, funnily enough, or the variety that exist globally.

Why not if foreign languages are so abhorrent?  Do you think it's kewl to hate America?

That's so original you know.

If the moan centres on the dub changing certain things, well that's a pointless stance, because it's impossible to do otherwise.

What's accepted in one country is not always permitted elsewhere, so either you make those alterations or it's never shown. I'd prefer seeing a slightly toned down version rather than have it never reach the West at all.

This is without considering the technical obstacles that a direct translation brings. The words do have to fit the mouth movements, and if they don't, truncation must follow.

America and Japan are different; the population of the former are not going to comprehend the references to the latter's history and culture, which necessitates some divergence from the original to give it mass appeal.

Anime is a branch of entertainment. It has to attract the public's good will to stay in business. If impenetrable, it'll fail, with all the resulting unemployment and finacial losses that brings.

Those in charge of dubbing understandably think they're on safer ground promoting familiarity rather than the strange, but that's not to say Pokémon was stripped of its identity. On the contrary, it was like nothing I'd ever encountered before.

I may have watched Western cartoons then, but the idea of doing so now is silly. I won't give time to any modern animation unless it's Japanese. Growing up on the dub has not produced an ephemeral fan less serious or 'true'.

The 4Kids dub had wit, humour, deep emotion, suggestive comments and flights of fancy. The voices fitted the characters well.

Unlike the current one, where everyone sounds on the verge of vomiting, but then they're clearly working with substandard material on a miserly budget. You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear after all.

Dubs can be bad, but the very state of being a dub doesn't confer worthlessness automatically. Considering the work gone into them, attempting to gain your favour, it seems rude not to appreciate the time and energy spent in production.

Knowing a little about history, sub-only fanatics remind me of the kind of folk who opposed an English Bible, because it was too good for the oiks to read the word of God.

Of course it was alright for them, rich enough to be taught Latin, but not so much the ordinary man.

It amuses me how dozens dismiss the dub, but see no hypocrisy in using its evidence to further their ship or anti-ship arguments, so it can't be that revolting.

It's also bizarre that so many hold sacred the sub of a series currently in a frenzy to shed every aspect of its anime and Japanese origins, leaving a vague, rootless ghost, supposedly making it easier to slip down the gullet of the masses.

Pokémon I've seen referred to as a 'gateway drug', as in the anime that introduced a generation to the entire concept. This means the dub. You would not have got enough kids in the late Nineties to read a screen rather than watch it, and even today most would lose interest rapidly.

Where would you be without that dub? Unless you're Japanese, your first experience of Pokémon will have been a dub, and if not the American, the one where you live, which was only made because there was the funds available.

You may have then progressed to watching the sub, but only because that dub stirred love in your soul.

Where would the franchise be without that dub? You think Pokémon would've grown to be a world-wide obsession raking in billions by itself? No, it'd still be a solely Japanese phenomena, and most likely never lasted this long.

Its decades of supremacy rests on the quality of that dub. It sold games and merchandise to kids by the ton, giving an incentive to keep the series going. If you're not a fan from the first wave, then your favourite era would have never existed had it not been financially attractive carrying on.

The team who wrote the first film actually preferred the dub, moved to tears by its emotive use of music, therefore they aren't so precious as the fans.

Where would anime be without that dub? Pokémon brought it to the West. A handful slipped through previously, but made minor impression.

To those who would dismiss Pokémon entirely in favour of more 'worthy' output such as Studio Ghibli, I would say that Pokémon, first the games, then the programme they inspired, must have an integral quality to have caught on in Japan, which isn't exactly short on similar concepts.

To have gained popularity in a crowded market, and so fervently a dub became an option, can only have come about because it held a certain magic.

It was the dub that smashed a hole in the cultural barrier, setting free the tidal wave to engulf the world. In Pokémon's trail followed Digimon, Cardcaptors, Monster Rancher, Yu-Gi-Oh! et cetera.

Without Pokémon, I doubt they'd have been translated, and definitely never broadcast on mainstream television. That came about as channels desperately hunted down anything Japanese to serve as the next craze.

I really appreciated the effort made by 4Kids in converting every aspect of the series to suit American tastes, including changing text on signs, letters and books into English. I assumed this was standard practice until I watched others.

I could never be as involved in them as I was Pokémon because of that block. It was like being denied access to the deeper waters, fenced into the shallows, and implied a rushed dub, with little care shown but to chase the same crowd and money.

If personified, the dub 'n' sub wouldn't be one human being, but rather identical twins: the same to a casual observer, but easy to tell apart by the more attentive.

It's like the games: Red and Blue are versions of a single adventure, but not totally one. Take the dub and the sub the same way. They are parallel dimensions running on separate rails, and beyond reconciliation, and that's before we consider that, sub and dub alike, each generation has only a faint relation to its predecessor, working on its own whims.

Everyone has a favourite, or can like both, and there's nothing wrong in that, but so many are proud of the fact they hate the dub, as if it conveys a revered status of supremacy.

When Disney films are shown abroad, they too are translated, and I'm sure references and jokes are redesigned to make sense to the locals. It's no use selling yourself as a comedy then being surprised when the audience refuses to laugh, having no idea what you mean.

If people prefer that one, for being what introduced them to Disney as a whole, or as a fond memory of childhood, then so what?

I don't mind if their view of a character is minutely at odds with mine, having seen the original, because what they think is canon to their version, so can't be wrong.

I don't go round declaring every Disney dub to be pathetic by its nature, that viewers of them are of a lesser breed of fan for preferring their own tongue, even though more of the world's population understand English than they do Japanese.

If you enjoy one tailored to your country there's no crime in it, just as I like one at least comprehensible to mine. It's not even my culture, but I pick it up mostly.

The choice must be made on which to follow, and this blog runs on dub canon, as that has a claim on my heart. Just because I don't acknowledge what takes place in the sub doesn't mean I'm unaware of it, but it has no bearing on what I write.

The idea that the dub alters things willy-nilly without rhyme nor reason is also mistaken. Often it does it because the original does not make sense.

In the sub, I know Nanny and Pop-Pop are just a couple of old duffers taken at random and dropped in to a castle, supposedly as James's far away nannies.

Oh yeah, that's a cushy position. You doing a lot of child care from miles off?

Mind you, it used to describe 'em as 'caretakers' on Bulbapædia, as if Nan serves as housekeeper whilst Pop tends to the garden.

That's right. Ma and Pa finally got some work out of this pair of freeloaders.

They're not related, remember? No, no, absolutely not, no way. Of course their style reflects that. They just gave Pop a 'tache, thick eyebrows and a bigger nose, and Nan got a bun and lines in her hair, but there's certainly no connection. Oh no. Such a thing is ridiculous.

They're NOT family. No. Yet Hoenn James still panics they might learn he's joined Team Rocket, spending the whole episode trying to hide the truth.

Why? Who are servants to criticise the son of their employers? Why should their opinion be of any consequence to Hoenn James, especially when his parents, fiancée and butler are cognizant of reality?

Children of aristocrats are usually brought up by governesses, thus develop a stronger attachment to these figures rather than their parents, but that isn't the case here.

James lived with Ma and Pa, not the codgers minding the castle. He would have very little contact with distant employees compared to those who waited on him daily, so why seek out their approval?

Hoenn James apparently was permitted visits to Nan 'n' Pop, which is strange considering they're not relatives. Why them and not any other house-stters?

That's right, Ma and Pa sent their son to one of their properties without them, entrusting him to the care of two shrivelled pensioners of his size that he barely knew, and who could keel over at any minute. There are no other servants present. Apparently Nan and Pop clean an entire castle by themselves.

Oh, and they run a makeshift Pokémon sanctuary, but since it's not their home it has to be done with Ma and Pa's blessing, who also have to pay for it, but they're eevul aren't they?

The idea that somehow Nanny and Pop-Pop have not cottoned on to James's occupation by now is risible.

Servants gossip about their masters. I bet the entire household of his home know, and so in turn does the county. That Nan and Pop remain oblivious proves how isolated they are, for no one's thought to inform them.

When it came to dubbing it, they were made his grandparents, removing all the above nonsense. Of course he visits his nan and granddad, it's their gaff and their money funding the place, and it is likely his mother or father would keep James's job a secret, for fear the shock would finish 'em off.

It should do really. If they're not bothered by it that's a sign of where his rapscallion ways were inherited.

They aren't facially akin to Ma and Pa, but display the same additions, so if staff it's bloody lazy, as if nannies have to resemble your parents, but inventing a blood link excuses the slothful characterisation.

Every reference I've seen on Tumblr relating to the coffin-dodgers calls them Nanny and Pop-Pop. Apparently the dub decision is met with universal approval. It does have redeeming aspects then.

Now the sub writers, rather than ignore this development, took to it too. They aren't exactly bursting with ideas these days and are probably grateful for the lifelines offered.

Remembering James had parents, they forced a likeness between them and Nanny and Pop-Pop. How else do you explain the inexplicable ageing, even when Sinnoh Ma and Sinnoh Pa are younger than Ma and Pa?

I've also known for years that the sub has this woman as Jessie's foster mother, not Ma Jess, but that's stupid.

I can grasp the idea that Jessie and Ma might have endured extreme deprivation, considering that's what Team Rocket has brought to Jessie anyway, and that they may have lived at the bottom of Mew's mountain prior to Ma's death.

What I find difficult to take in is that social services (or as they're known where I live, the S.S.), however notoriously awful they are, would give a child to a mad bitch in a shack with no running water.

Come on, they have to at least pretend to be concerned for Jessie's welfare.

As Jessie is very young, bereavement can't have befallen her in the distant past, so how can she be happy this soon after becoming an orphan? How could the grieving period be a cherished memory?

If that woman's creaming off the money, why hasn't she fixed the place up by now? Where do the payments go, sniffing glue?

Then there's the depiction. If this is just some daft bint never to be mentioned again, why do they conceal her face? Who cares what she looks like when she's unimportant?

Here's another figure from Jessie's past. She isn't disguised, and why not when she too briefly appears and is then forgotten?

Who was she?

The only sort of characters they tended to hide were other members of Team Rocket:

During the early scenes featuring Giovanni, he was enveloped in shadow, adding both intrigue and a sense of menace.

Madame Boss also got this treatment, even though there was probably no intention to ever feature her in the anime. What's the use in keeping an appearance a mystery if it'll remain masked?

With that pattern, it implies this woman is in the same category, like Ma Jess.

When it came to animation, it definitely was intended to be a foster mother. Not her real one. No.

What did they do?

They gave her Jessie's skin tone and purple hair hanging down her back!

You know, like Ma Jess?

Any colour would've done. Any at all, and being anime I do mean any colour, but no. The choice was made to give her the looks of the exact person she's not meant to be!

Is it that surprising the dub simplified things?

I don't mind if you like the dub, sub, both, or any from around the world, but I'm tired of the smug condescension, as if we all agree the sub is the only one that counts, and that dub fans are grunting troglodytes, or not 'proper' aficionados.

None of us would be here were it not for the dub. Pokémon would not be here. I think it deserves some respect for how much of a difference it made, to my life and to yours.

[martin-jordan]

H2/2021

We have entered 2022. So, this is a perfect moment to reflect on the second half of 2021. Half-year notes must do the job as I am unable to write week notes.

Work

Work has been a bit of a rollercoaster. The team I’m leading has been doing some great work on the Service Manual. We had one content designer leave us and another one joining us. We updated quite a bit of guidance, researched lots and published all new guidance on Making services in an emergency.

In November, we finally managed to look beyond guidance and address issues with the software product. I facilitated a compressed 3-day design sprint for the team, with 2 days in the office and prototyping and testing on the third day remotely.

I made a comprehensive GIF to summarise what we managed to do and ship in 2021 with the team.

The new unit I’m working in, the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), is still a reasonably immature organisation that tries to find its path, identity and role. It doesn’t help that people at the director level have not worked at GDS before but at other government departments or consultancies. The practitioners in the organisation bring GDS culture, values and ways of working, which aren’t understood or appreciated. It leads to misunderstandings and conflict, which we can only slowly address.

Health

I failed at my running goal of clocking 1000 kilometres. After running the postponed Hackney Half at the end of September, which resulted in some injury, I pretty much dropped the ball. I only completed a few runs in October and stopped entirely in November and December.

At least, I did the half marathon again. And I have the next one planned for 2022 already. The 1000k goal stands again for 2022 – with my mantra of ‘Fit Fourty’. 😱

I did a good amount of swimming in late summer, though. With a lake close, I managed to swim every second day in August – 16 times or so. And continued well into September until it got too cold without wetsuits, gloves and shoes.

I also took a canoe introduction in August. After that, I went back a couple of times, trying different boat types and stand-up paddling (which requires more balance than expected). The new season starts in April, and I cannot wait to sign up for annual membership. There seem to be very friendly folks, too.

Culture

Still much less than before the pandemic.

I went to the cinema a few times with friends and colleagues, primarily blockbuster films that weren’t available to stream. ‘Dune’ was probably the biggest and most beautiful surprise.

Among the things streamed in the last months: The indie sci-fi series ‘The OA’ on Netflix, ‘The Green Knight’ – a medieval story based on a 12th-century poem, ‘Crashed’ – a comedy series made by Phoebe Waller-Bridge in 2016, right before ‘Fleabag’.

I went to Tate Modern a little while ago to see the rather impressive ‘Making of Rodin’ exhibition, about Auguste Rodin’s life, process and way of working. He reused a lot of hands in sculptures and developed advanced approaches to scaling models up and down. A much more systematic approach than I would have thought. The second exhibition was about the work of Sophie Taeuber-Arp – which was beautiful, especially her theatre puppets. However, I was disappointed about the number of pieces exhibited and the incomplete storytelling about her life and circumstances. I don’t want to read Wikipedia pages while walking through an exhibition because I feel there are essential things the curator decided to leave out.  

Almost 2 years after buying concert tickets, I went to see Lubomyr Melnik with friends during his 2-day residency at Café OTO. He was marvellous as always and brought a young-ish man from Cornwall who he had taught over Zoom during the pandemic.

Also, in November, I attended an outstanding performance of the James McVinne Ensemble in Barbican Hall. They performed Philip Glass’ Music in Fifths and Glassworks. Afterwards, I created a long-planned spreadsheet for all contemporary classic concerts attended in the past 15 years. Unfortunately, it’s incomplete and misses quite a few entries, but I’ll use it going forward.

Social

Christmas travels got cancelled again at the last minute, just like last year. I attended my parents birthday party in Germany in September, though. And we also had a 1-week postponed Easter holiday in the Netherlands in October. While in the Amsterdam region, I managed to meet 2 different groups of friends who recently moved there from London and the Bay Area, respectively.

In July, I attended my colleague Kate’s annual birthday-garden party on the edge of Wales. And continued travelling for following weeks upwards through Wales, stopping by at 2 colleagues’ homes in south and mid-Wales. With 5 proper hikes in 2 Welsh national parks, the trip was my annual holiday and travel highlight.

In autumn, I went to New Forest on the English south coast twice. The first time it was too dry to pick any mushrooms. The second visit was a success, though.

Despite more COVID cases, December has been a rather social month with home dinners and play-night with friends.

Side projects

Before 2021 ended, I published the first version of an all-new personal website. Since then, I tweaked it, made it more accessible and extended it. I hand-coded it from scratch, using bits of Bootstrap, which I had never touched before. I learned tons throughout just 1.5 days, and it was great fun to create well-structured HTML and CSS.

So far, the single-page website collects recent texts written in English and German, 7 examples of work from the last 5 years, a selection of talks in English and German, 3 side projects and 4 teaching projects.

The website addresses the following user jobs I noted down years ago:

See work

Read articles, blog posts

Watch talks

Reach out

Book mentoring session

Connect on other platforms

In the coming weeks and months, I like to write up detailed case studies for each of the 7 examples of work. In our portfolio blog post from 1.5 years ago, my colleague Charlotte and I wrote about documenting work when it’s done. And not putting cases together only years later when applying for the next job. So, I want to follow our advice.

We did not create another Service Gazette edition in the second half of the year. But I just repurposed the Service Experience Camp’s existing Instagram account for the Service Gazette to give it a social home.

In November, Katrin, Simone and I did run another Public Service Lab event. We returned to a single-day format with a mix of workshops, short talks, case study presentations and discussions. It was again well received.

After my experience with my personal website, I’m itching now to redo the website for Public Service Lab and build one for The Service Gazette, too.

Finance

I managed to reach all set targets for 2021 – all but one. I wanted to increase my £ emergency fund, which instead melted down. I would like to double it now, but it’s not an absolute priority.

After my grandmother passed away in March 2021, I received an inheritance which I invested to 100%. I used it to rebalance my Euro investment portfolio. I exclusively bought ETFs so that both portfolios, in Pound and Euro, now have a 1/3 individual shares and 2/3 ETFs ratio.

I could max out my ISA this year again with a bit of discipline, putting aside £1,667 each month. As part of that wrapper, the money invested will never be taxed.

It took a while, but my UK/£ portfolio has been underperforming against the market last year. That was meant to happen. So why did I think I could beat it? My all-time performance (since moving accounts in March 2020) is still better, but that might not be for long. Stubbornly, I’ve been investing in Beyond Meat and Oatly that both reached all-time lows recently. Some other tech stocks like Shopify and Spotify have fluctuated quite a bit. I might rethink my stocks and shares investment approach in the coming months.

Bitcoin stayed volatile as well but only reflected 2% of my assets. After dipping 2 years ago, my little investment in Monzo has more than tripled in value after a recent investment round.

My financial and investment targets for 2022 are set again. Admittedly, some might be a bit of a stretch, especially given actual inflation (my energy bill just increased by factor 4!), but I’ll try.

PS:

In December, I made my annual card again. I tried a few combinations of 1 and 2 and on paper it was easier than on the computer eventually. I printed with the lovely people at Duplikat again.

[britneyshakespeare]

What are your top 5 favorite books (about the sleepover ask)?

hmmm… i’m not quite good at reading many traditional books if i’m being honest. my adhd causes me to read a lot less than i wish i did. but when i do read it’s rarely ever like, a traditional novel. i read a lotta graphic novels bc i’m a big nerd and a handful of biographies and classics and books of poetry. so this is gonna be… pretty eclectic to say the least.

all time??? i do not know for Certain what that might be but uhhh Oscar Wilde’s been my #1 boy since I was like 15 and my favorite of his works is Lady Windermere’s Fan. His comedies for me were his greatest pursuit, and though The Importance of Being Earnest and An Ideal Husband get a lot more attention than the Fan, I feel like it’s the best balance of comedy and interesting story-telling that he did. It’s balances the levity and wit of Earnest with the drama and suspense of An Ideal Husband or A Woman of No Importance. 

I really enjoyed Vamp: The Rise and Fall of Theda Bara by Eve Golden when I bought and read it in late 2015-early 2016ish. I was gettin mad into the history of silent film and I just thought it was epically tragic how one of the silver screen’s first superstars had most of her films destroyed/lost in the infamous Fox film vault fire of 1937. And anyone who was old enough to see and understand her movies at the time they came out are definitely, definitely dead, but it was so scrupulously researched and detailed, even her pre-movie star days it felt like I had the concept of Theda Bara in my mind so greatly enriched in each chapter. And as far as I know that’s really the only comprehensive biography on her, and it’s a damn good one. And God, do I want more than anything for a bunch of her films to be miraculously recovered/rediscovered in my lifetime.

Spider-Man: Blue by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by Tim Sale is a really beautiful retelling of the human relationships between uhhh some of my favorite characters of all time, namely Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson but also it does some necessary retconning of Gwen Stacy (ie giving her a personality because the original 1960s-70s Marvel writers failed to do that before they killed her off, because you’ll be shocked and aghast to hear it but artists and writers aimed at mainly little boys didn’t really care to develop their female characters much, and the intriguing personality of MJ is more happenstance than anything at all feminist in intention). It’s a pretty quick read as it was only a 6-issue miniseries in the early 2000s. It was one of the first things I read when I was first getting into the Spidey comics for the first time when I was about 14 or 15, and since what initially drew me to Peter Parker as a character was the humanizing story-telling between him and the supporting characters around the action (particularly his relationship with MJ), it was a really good start. Also the art is just really beautiful.

The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats edited by Richard J. Finneran. I keep this book at my bedside table and I read it, a lot, especially when I can’t sleep. I go to it for inspiration, entertainment, insight, curiosity; there’s a lot I admire about Yeats as a writer, and there are some good explanatory notes by the editor. It’s very well put-together, mostly if not entirely in chronological order of original publication. Yeats is one of those poets I read, and reread several times in a row because his work is so artfully crafted and I’ll take in new ideas each time I reread them. I love Yeats and I love his poetry. I’m just a W. B. Yeats fucker out here tryna make it out in the real world.

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. Hey, finally, a modern fucking novel! I like many people saw the movie version directed by Mary Harron starring Christian Bale before reading the novel, and that’s definitely a great adaptation of the novel. Don’t get me wrong. But it’s a very comprehensive (perhaps even bloated) and concerningly well-detailed book in its original telling. There weren’t a lot of changes from page to screen I had a major problem with, I just think they were better suited for a literary medium than a film one. And what Ellis writes is very much like a modern retelling of Dorian Gray’s story, except with no portrait, and instead of being a critique of posh Victorian elites it’s a scathing critique of the culture around consumerism and wealth, particularly in the rich young white male, from the perspective of Patrick Bateman. Bateman is every bit arrogant, self-important, and hedonistic as Gray was. He gets away with beyond debauchery and serious acts of violence he should be charged for (whether or not the reader interprets the whole thing as Bateman’s delusion, which is purposely kept ambiguous in both the film and the novel). It’s a great, very important book.

thank you so much for sending me this!!! i love you and i love sounding off about shit i like

send me sleepover asks

[myhahnestopinion]

THE AARONS 2017 - Worst Film

A funny phenomenon overcame me this year, as, in my pursuit to watch as many new releases as possible, I found myself much more eager to watch the films I expected to be horrendous than those I felt would be quality. Well, like they say, and by “they” I mean one of the films you will find on this list, be careful what you wish for. And so, I ended up watching a lot of dreadful films this year. Here are The Aarons for Worst Film:

#10. Leatherface

While The Last Jedi and The Fate of the Furious showed this year that eighth installments in franchises can still feel fresh, Leatherface brought the Texas Chainsaw Massacre series sputtering to that ordinal in the laziest of fashion: the unnecessary prequel. Even wonder what Leatherface was like as an orphaned child who embarks on a road trip with a group of other unlikeable, thinly-written inmates? No? Like most people, you understand that the whole point of having a character who wears other people’s faces for a mask is the element of mystery? Oh. Well, don’t worry! This fundamentally flawed entry will probably get completely retconned by the next inevitable installment.

#9. Wish Upon

If I had a magical music box that granted me seven wishes, I wouldn’t waste one trying to figure out why the main character in Wish Upon continues to use all her wishes after learning a person dies every time, why she uses one of those wishes to make her dad hotter, why the film’s attempted Final Destination-style kills rely on a woman nonchalantly sticking her braided hair down a garbage disposal, or why the film casts two Korean-American actors to be its experts on Chinese culture. The answer is because the filmmakers were simply incompetent.

#8. The Book of Henry

The Book of Henry is the charming little story of a precocious child named Henry who navigates school with his younger brother, while being raised by a single mother, and crushing on his next-door neighbor. It’s also about 11-year old Henry romantically kissing his mom’s alcoholic friend on the lips while on his death bed, adults unconcerned by obvious conflicts-of-interest but persuaded by the power of interpretive dance, and, oh yeah, it’s about Henry’s elaborate, yet never detailed, plan to convince his mother to murder their abusive neighbor in cold blood and get away with it. If you’re one of the surely numerous people confused and appalled as to why anyone would think that would make for a good whimsical family film, congratulations! You display better judgement than Colin Trevorrow, who’s decision to film this thoroughly bizarre and hilariously misguided script led to him getting fired from directing Star Wars: Episode IX.

#7. Bright

A thinly veiled attempt to explore systemic racism in the way only a white beneficiary of nepotism like screenwriter Max Landis can, Bright magically manages to mash together generic buddy cop formula with generic fantasy “chosen one” tropes in a way that renders both entirely incoherent. Netflix squanders their biggest budget for an original film yet on the murky aesthetic of Suicide Squad director David Ayer and a script entirely disinterested in any worldbuilding. By the time Bright reaches its bafflingly ill-constructed climax, the viewer still hasn’t learned why it takes three magic wands to resurrect the non-descript “Dark Lord,” nor why the film uses fantasy stand-ins for every real-world ethnic group except for Latinx people.  Rather than light the way to further tolerance, Bright suggests a dark future filled with dull half-baked ideas for Netflix’s attempts to become a major blockbuster competitor.

#6. Split

In many ways, 2017 was a year of going backwards. Though many critics heralded the film as a return to form for director M. Night Shyamalan, Split is another misfire from the once promising director. James McAvoy tries his best to salvage the bland exposition-heavy screenplay, but the film is ultimately undone by its reliance on regressive horror tropes. The marketing for the film was already concerning, preying on archaic fears of those suffering from mental illnesses, but the movie itself manages to take its offense in a whole other direction, fetishizing trauma while giving its survivors no agency. With years of potential growth in-between, it’s disappointing that this is the direction Shyamalan chose to finally return to the world of his best work, Unbreakable.

#5. The Bye Bye Man

What can one say about a film like The Bye Bye Man? What is one supposed to think about a film like The Bye Bye Man? Luckily, the movie gives us an answer. “Don’t think it, don’t say it,” reads the film’s tagline, which is certainly a philosophy the filmmakers took to heart, as they don’t tell viewers a single comprehensible detail about The Bye Bye Man, his powers, his motives, his poorly rendered digital mutt, his obsession with trains and Greek coins, or why he apparently makes other people impotent. This lack of detail is probably because the movie clearly didn’t put any thought into its premise, ripping off numerous better horror films throughout its nonsensical, jump-scare-heavy cornucopia of inept filmmaking techniques, abandoned plot threads, and unrealized ambition. From the silly name to the lazy costuming to the character’s grab-bag of distinguishing features, The Bye Bye Man is actually quite charming in its complete ineptitude, hence its position as a longest running point of ranting and mockery on the Reboot Already Underway podcast I co-host.

#4. CHiPs

When Baywatch can’t be considered the worst raunchy reimagining of a classic TV show of the year, you know something went massively wrong. CHiPs’ repeated insistence that its jokes aren’t actually homophobic is about as convincing as Donald Trump’s tweets about his genius intellect. The film’s treatment of its female characters is about as misogynistic as, well, Donald Trump’s tweets about women. The movie’s formulaic buddy-cop plot is about as lazy as, well, jokes about Donald Trump’s Twitter.  The point is, CHiPs is loud, brash, incompetent, and nauseating, and you just can’t wait for it to finish out its allotted time.

#3. The Mummy

How do you kill what is already dead? Universal Pictures certainly found the answer when they killed their shared cinematic universe before it truly began. The Mummy is a thorough embarrassment, which elicited uncontrollable laughter from my friend and I as soon as the credits rolled due to its ridiculous dialogue, its jarring attempts at comedic relief, its logic-defying plotting, and its rancid stench of desperation to get audiences invested in the Dark Universe of shared monster movies, as seen in a momentum-destroying trip to the lab of shadowy monster-hunting organization, Prodigium. Universal’s decision to hand the reigns of this hopeful universe and the film’s $175million dollar budget to inexperienced director Alex Kurtzman makes about as much sense as Prodigium’s decision to keep their monster prison in the heart of a major metropolitan city like London. How could that possibly go wrong?

#2. Transformers: The Last Knight

If there was one consistency in a year of chaos and confusion, it was that the latest Transformers is once again one of the worst films of the year. No one probably expected The Last Knight to reverse the trend, especially with director Michael Bay still at the helm, but the film miraculously manages to lower the bar for the franchise ever more. What exists of The Last Knight’s so-called plot is a truly confusing attempt to weave together the Transformers mythos with King Arthur, Harriet Tubman, Nazis, Stonehenge, and Mark Wahlberg’s inability to get laid (Seriously, this is a big defining character trait in the film). The massive budget for special effects gets drowned out by the decision to switch aspect ratios ever other shot, even during simple dialogue exchanges, which makes the film nauseating and nigh-unwatchable. Unfortunately, despite the title, The Last Knight will not be the last we see of the Transformers series, as the near 3-hour run time apparently wasn’t enough for the film to finish up its story, ending with the cliffhanger reveal that the Earth is a Transformer. I repeat, the planet Earth is revealed to be a Transformer, and that’s not even in the top five dumbest plot developments of the film.

AND THE WORST FILM OF 2017 IS…

#1. The Emoji Movie

Should I just put a poop emoji and leave it at that? I mean, the world really needs to develop a new form of communication just to describe how awful this film is. Perhaps the only thing lazier than the jokes inspired by having to evaluate such a film as The Emoji Movie are the jokes in The Emoji Movie itself, with its festering byproduct of a screenplay, apparently created by a malfunctioning A.I. force-fed nothing but rough drafts of The Lego Movie, a book of old knock-knock jokes, endless Sony product placement, and the broken spirit of Sir Patrick Stewart. Led by two of the most obnoxious voices in modern comedy, the movie drudges viewers through an infuriating journey that replaces plot points with brand names, and never establishes any coherent dramatic stakes beyond the audience’s struggle to maintain sanity in the face of a Twitter bird deus-ex-machina and its half-hearted attempt at promoting feminism before a quick devolution into fascism. The Emoji Movie may not be the death of cinema, but it certainly feels like it while watching it, making it the worst movie of 2017.

NEXT UP: THE 2017 AARON FOR BEST DIRECTOR!

[eljackinton]

Jack's Writing and Artwork Masterpost

Since the projects I've been working on have expanded and increased, I thought it might as well be the time to put together a new, more comprehensive post where you can find and support my work.

You can also find me frequenting a couple of conventions throughout the year where I'll be selling prints and books.

I write and illustrate short stories over on my main blog. These range from fantasy-noir adventures to murder mystery comedies. I try and at least get out one a year, each experimenting a little with style and genre.

The Modern Realms fantasy-noir stories have also been released in an expanded and remastered format. This is the definitive collection of these short stories, and includes bonus background material that you can't find anywhere else.

You can buy a copy here.

I also have an ongoing series of Ebooks available from Less Than Three Press under the Tales of Carnack banner. They're traditional fantasy adventures with just a touch of parallel-universe jumping. The stories have a diverse cast and explore a variety of themes.

You can find them all here.

I also occasionally produce my own comics. I'm currently working on a comic telling the tale of American naval hero John Paul Jones and his attack on Whitehaven Harbor, and how to Whitehaven folks he's known as little more than a pirate.

There's no official ETA at this time, I'm just doing continuous work on it to be the best it can be. All updates on it can be found over on my blog.

Likewise, I'm currently working on a full length novel, more news on that when it's relevant.

Up until recently I ran a monthly column over on my blog called Obscure Comic of the Month where I took a look at comics that I feel don't get talked about enough. They're all still up there, but I've now ended the column and plan on replacing it with less frequent but longer articles on more broader subjects covering games, film/TV and comics.

If you want a taste of the kind of things I want to talk about, I've appeared on three episodes of the Bat Minute 89 podcast, and hope to return as a guest again some time in the future.

I've done provisional work on a web-comic called Sea of Spheres, though that's on hold for the moment while I work on other projects. I am thinking of commissioning other artists to render their takes on the characters though, like this wonderful piece by Willohdraws.

I occasionally delve into the world of stand-up comedy. I won Worlds Biggest Liar a couple of years ago and have been working on expanding my stuff from there, but like some of my other projects, this is on the back burner at the moment.

Beyond that, you can usually find more of my thoughts and writing over on my twitter, deviantart and my tumblr right here.

Thanks for reading!

[enterinit]

New Xbox One Games for May 12 to 15

New Xbox One Games for May 12 to 15.

Huntdown – May 12

Crime doesn’t pay – Unless you’re a bounty hunter! In the mayhem-filled streets of the future where criminal gangs rule and cops fear to tread, only the bounty hunters can free the city from the corrupt fist of felony. Lay waste to the criminal underworld and make a killing in this hard boiled action comedy arcade shooter. Key Features: Hunt solo or give suppressive fire and advance on the enemy together in co-op as you run, jump, and take cover in the neon soaked, graffiti strewn 80s inspired cityscapes. Hand painted 16-bit pixel art graphics and hand-drawn animations combined with fluid action-packed 60-FPS gameplay and an epic synthesized soundtrack. Huntdown everything from feral punks to organised hockey hooligans, this game is riddled with 16-bit bad guys and crime bosses, each with their own stomping ground to reclaim, and arsenal of weapons to confiscate.

Deep Rock Galactic 1.0 – May 13

Deep Rock Galactic is a co-op-first sci-fi FPS featuring badass space Dwarves, 100% destructible environments, procedurally-generated caves, and endless hordes of alien monsters. Hoxxes IV has the highest concentration of valuable minerals ever discovered; however, everything on the planet from the creatures to the fauna is extremely hostile. Good thing Deep Rock Galactic employs the best space miners in the universe: Dwarves! Combining two things Dwarves love most - mining and killing monsters - Hoxxes is the perfect job for any proud, space-faring Dwarf. *** 4-player Co-Op *** Work together as a team to dig, explore, and fight your way through a massive cave system filled with hordes of deadly enemies and valuable resources. You will need to rely on your teammates if you want to survive the most hostile cave systems in the galaxy! *** 4 Unique Classes *** Pick the right class for the job. Mow through enemies as the Gunner, scout ahead and light up the caves as the Scout, chew through solid rock as the Driller, or support the team with defensive structures and turrets as the Engineer. *** Fully Destructible Environments *** Destroy everything around you to reach your goal. There is no set path so you can complete your mission your way. Drill straight down to your objective or build an intricate network of paths to explore your surroundings -- the choice is yours. But proceed with caution, you don’t want to stumble into an alien swarm unprepared! *** Procedurally Generated Cave Network *** Explore a network of procedurally generated cave systems filled with enemies to fight and riches to collect. There’s always something new to discover and no two playthroughs are alike. *** High-Tech Gadgets and Weapons *** Dwarves know what they need to bring to get the job done. This means the most powerful weapons and the most advanced gadgets around - flamethrowers, gatling guns, portable platform launchers, and much, much more. *** Light Your Path *** The underground caves are dark and full of terrors. You will need to bring your own lights if you want to illuminate these pitch-black caverns.

Island Saver: Dinosaur Island – May 13

Prehistoric Dinosaur Adventure! Dust off your trusty Trash Blaster and get ready for a new super-sized adventure! Another Savvy Island needs your help! And this one’s filled with fearsome dinosaur bankimals! Meet Newton, Pigby’s inventor friend, and use your money sense to help him escape his debt. Features: 14 dinosaur bankimals to save!Roar around on a Tyrannosaurus Rex!Soar through the sky on a Pteranodon!Collect lost fossils and help a friend in debt!

Potata: Fairy Flower – May 13

This adventure platformer tells a story of a young witch exploring fairy forests to find herself and save her home. Join her quest now! Immerse yourself into a picture-perfect fantasy - solve numerous puzzles, fight enemies, reveal all the secrets… and don’t forget to save the world! Features: Wonderful worldRelax gameplaySeveral ways of passing a locationsAmazing puzzles with several solutionsBossesExciting story and funny characters

Super Mega Baseball 3 – May 13

Super Mega Baseball 3 refines the series’ formula with the deepest on-field simulation yet, comprehensive online and offline game modes including a brand new Franchise mode, and vastly improved graphics. New content includes revamped UI plus tons of new audio, team/character content, and stadiums with variable lighting conditions. Features: • Challenge your hand-eye coordination or relax and hit dingers with fluid gameplay that scales seamlessly from novice to beyond-expert levels of difficulty. • Apply and refine your baseball instincts with a sophisticated baseball simulation featuring new pickoff and stealing mechanics, wild pitches/passed balls, designated hitters, and situational player traits. • Take in the sights and sounds of 14 richly detailed ballparks, each featuring unique day, night and alternate lighting conditions. • Guide an evolving team to greatness over multiple seasons in the all new Franchise mode featuring player development, aging, retirement and signing/releasing of free agents (1vCPU, 2vCPU, local or online). • Compete online to win pennants and climb to higher divisions in the cross-platform Pennant Race mode (1v1, online only). • Create your ideal league with a comprehensive customization suite that includes season length/structure, team names/uniforms/logos, and player names/appearance/attributes. • Play or simulate any combination of games/teams in customized Seasons and Elimination brackets, solo or with friends (1vCPU, 2vCPU, 1v1, 2v1, 2v2, CPUvCPU, local or online). • Skip customization and compete for top leaderboard scores with standardized teams and settings (locked player attributes) in Standard Season and Standard Elimination modes (1vCPU, 2vCPU, local or online).

Thy Sword – May 13

Thy Sword is a retro inspired hack and slash roguelike with procedural generated levels. Pick from different hero types like the Barbarian and Valkyrie to break the tyranny of the Dark Overlord! Pick from three different difficulty modes to suit your playstyle. New to adventuring? Then select apprentice mode to have infinite credits or if you’re a heroic veteran, choose hero mode where you only have one credit. Unlock additional heroes throughout your journey! Bring along a friend in 2 player cooperative mode to save the land from the Dark Overlord. Can you collect all of the crystals? Features: Fast paced, strategic sword and bow combatPlay solo or cooperatively locallyChoose from multiple heroes and unlock new onesPick from 3 different difficulty options to suit your playstyle

Ion Fury – May 14

Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison takes on a quest to slay evil transhumanist mastermind Dr. Jadus Heskel in the streets of Neo DC. She leaves a trail of carnage throughout huge, multi-path levels filled with gigantic explosions, more secret areas than we can count, and inhuman foes behind every corner. There’s no regenerating health here; stop taking cover and start running and gunning. Shelly’s crusade to take down Heskel’s army will see her leave destruction in her wake with a wide arsenal of weapons, complete with alternate fire modes and different ammo types. Ion Fury laughs at the idea of mandatory checkpoints and straight paths through shooting galleries. But, just because this is a true old-school first-person shooter doesn’t mean we've ignored all the good new stuff the last two decades have brought. Headshots? Hell yeah. More physics and interactivity? You betcha. 3DRealms, Voidpoint and 1C Entertainment have taken the best of both worlds and cooked it all into a bloody stew. Features: • The true successor to classic shooters such as Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, and Blood. • Experience the original BUILD engine on steroids, pumped up and ready to rock again after 20 years! • Duck, jump, climb, swim, and blast your way through 7 exciting zones packed with multiple levels of mayhem! • A beautiful game world assembled from thousands of hand-crafted textures and sprites • An awe-inspiring arsenal of devastating weapons, including multiple ammo types and alternate fire modes. Tri-barreled revolvers, grenade launchers, and heat-seeking smart bombs are your best friends! • The classic '90s FPS action you love, meshed with modern inventions like locational damage and seamless level transitions • ZERO PROCEDURAL GENERATION. All levels are hand made and full of multiple paths, cool effects, and complex set pieces! • Thumping soundtrack comprised of true tracked module music, in authentic FastTracker 2 format

Emma: Lost in Memories – May 15

Poetic, surrealistic and melancholic, EMMA: Lost in Memories offers a unique experience in a strange and dangerous world where walls fade away as you touch them. The main character, Emma, is young, vibrant and intriguing: she leaves her home following an owl, and soon loses herself in a world which she slowly finds more and more dangerous. Features: One fast and simple mechanic: all the platforms and walls start disappearing when you touch them!The character runs automatically at a fixed speed! Control her special abilities (double jump, dash and climb) and do your best to react at the correct time.Minimalistic 2D artistic style completely drawn by hand.Dynamic gameplay in a poetic and eccentric world.Single-screen levels which combine skill and ingenuity with planification and strategy.Two game modes: Main Story and Memory Chest. Complete the Main Story first to enjoy the levels in the Memory Chest!Delicate reflexion on memory loss.

Tacticool Champs – May 15

Tacticool Champs combines the best features of shooter and arcade game, where up to four players fight with each other in a closed arena. Quick matches, wide variety of weapons and unlimited ways to eliminate the opponents are waiting for you! Choose your hero from ten available characters, fight in one of ten unique environments, select from sixty pre-defined scenes or create your own with an in game scene creator! Compete with friends in couch multiplayer, improve your skills playing against computer controlled characters and when you are ready, show the players from around the world who is the real Champ during online battles. Read the full article

[outputcongo2-blog]

Weekend Picks: Witches & Wizards, Festival For The People, New Exhibits And More

Happy weekend, Philly! With new exhibitions and major festivals on the calendar, these next few days are full of fun goings-on.

Formerly the Harry Potter Festival, the new-for-2018 Witches & Wizards takes over the charming town of Chestnut Hill for spellbinding events on both Friday evening (bar crawl!) and Saturday (street fest!) that morph the neighborhood into an enchanting magic-filled haunt.

In other festival happenings, Festival for the People continues its run of public art and performances on the Delaware River waterfront at the brand-new Cherry Street Pier and Race Street Pier on both Saturday and Sunday.

And the Barnes Foundation’s new Berthe Morisot exhibition — which provides a rare look at works by the famous female impressionist — opens Sunday, joining other recently unveiled exhibits at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (fashion), The Franklin Institute (Vikings) and the National Museum of American Jewish History (Rube Goldberg).

Elsewhere, Dilworth Park’s Made in Philadelphia Fall Market, Franklin Square’s Pumpkin Patch and other fall events are surefire ways to tell autumn is in full swing, as is the big Philadelphia Eagles game against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday in South Philly.

Make the most of this weekend with the Visit Philly Overnight Hotel Package, featuring free hotel parking and $193 in free perks.

Follow Uwishunu on Twitter and Instagram for updates throughout the weekend.

Read on for our guide to this weekend in Philadelphia.

Festivals | Chestnut Hill|(Fri, Sat)

Witches & Wizards in Chestnut Hill

This weekend, Chestnut Hill is transformed into a magical world of spells and spooky thrills, complete with a Quidditch tournament, a beer garden and a straw maze...

Film | Center City|(Fri, Sat, Sun)

Philadelphia Film Festival

See critically acclaimed films, movies with major stars, documentaries, local productions and more during this 11-day festival...

Halloween | Fairmount|(Fri, Sat, Sun)

Terror Behind the Walls at Eastern State Penitentiary

The frightening setting and professional scares make Terror Behind the Walls one of the country's top-ranked haunted attractions...

Shopping | Center City|(Fri, Sat, Sun)

Made in Philadelphia Fall Market in Dilworth Park

More than 50 local artisans display jewelry, skincare, accessories, photography, woodcrafts and more at this alfresco market...

Young Involved Philadelphia: State of Young Philly

YIP wraps up its 10-day civic engagement festival with quizzo, volunteer opportunities, panels and a closing happy hour...

Last Chance: Independence After Hours

A three-course dinner at City Tavern leads to an evening with the Founding Fathers in Independence Hall without the crowds...

Moby Dick Reading Marathon at the Independence Seaport Museum

Herman Mellville's literary classic Moby Dick is read aloud in its entirety from Friday evening to Saturday evening during this reading marathon that takes place in different spots around the museum...

Re-enacting a Revolutionary Gun Battle in Context of 21st Century Gun Violence at Historic Germantown

Cliveden and PhilaLandmarks invite all to Historic Germantown for a conversation about gun control and violence as well as a presentation about the Revolutionary War and its consequences...

Illuminated Fountain Performances at Longwood Gardens

More than 1,700 jets and streams soar up to 175 feet in the air and are lit by a rainbow of colors during this popular program that's set to classical music on Friday and popular movie soundtracks on Saturday...

Fall Fest at Shady Brook Farm

Shady Brook's season-long harvest festival includes autumnal favorites like apple- and pumpkin-picking, plus local craft beer and wine, moonlit corn-maze-wandering and more…

Live Music, Comedy, Theater and Dance

Hardwork Movement at Johnny Brenda's

Fresh from last month’s Philly Music Fest, the local hip-hop collective takes the stage in Fishtown with its horns and cello...

George Lopez at SugarHouse Casino

The comedian brings “The Wall World Tour” to Philly before the release of his upcoming thriller River Runs Red...

All My Sons at Curio Theatre Company

This Arthur Miller play about the aftermath of a tragedy in a suburban America family is running on select dates on Baltimore Avenue...

Sweat at Suzanne Roberts Theatre

Philadelphia Theatre Company begins its new season with the 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning story of deindustrialization in a Pennsylvania town...

One-Man Apocalypse Now at Plays & Players Theatre

One actor performs Apocalypse Now in 60 minutes during this special two-show performance...

Ongoing Exhibitions

Exhibitions | Chadds Ford|(Fri, Sat, Sun)

Last Chance: Natural Wonders at the Brandywine River Museum of Art

Works by 13 artists celebrate the wonders of nature while highlighting key issues like species extinction and over-cultivation...

Exhibitions | Old City|(Fri, Sat, Sun)

Rube Goldberg at the National Museum of American Jewish History

Rube Goldberg's Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoons, machine invention drawings and more are part of this first comprehensive display of his work...

Prisons Today at Eastern State Penitentiary

Prisons Today explores issues stemming frm the U.S. having the highest incarceration rate in the world...

Fast Lane: The NASCAR Photography of Darryl Moran at the Woodmere Art Museum

Get a glimpse of all aspects of a NASCAR race — including those chaotic-but-exciting race-day moments — courtesy of NASCAR's first official photographer...

Marian at the Marian Anderson Historical Society and Museum

Browse the African-American opera singer's personal collection, including performance gowns, costumes and photographs...

Cauleen Smith: Give It or Leave It at the Institute of Contemporary Art

This exhibit reimagines a future world that is Black, feminist and spiritual using objects, film and more...

Impressions on Paper: Henry Snell at the Michener Art Museum

Most of these drawings and watercolors, created during the Philadelphia artist's travels to Cornwall, have never been exhibited at the museum before...

Covered: Celebrating Muslim Women at Art Sanctuary

Artist Yusef Abdul Jaleel created this illustration series — which depicts various Muslim women of color — to combat negative stereotypes surrounding modesty...

A Dream Deferred: Redlining Past, Present, Future

This free interactive art-and-media exhibit explores how race and policy influence Philadelphia and its inhabitants...

25+ Must-See Exhibitions in Philadelphia

Philadelphia's museums and galleries showcase can't-miss art from around the globe and around the city...

Formerly the Harry Potter Festival, the new-for-2018 Witches & Wizards takes over Chestnut Hill this weekend for spellbinding events, including the Brews & Broomsticks Pub Crawl on Friday. (Photo by A. Ricketts for Visit Philadelphia)

Arts | Old City|(Sat, Sun)

Festival for the People at Race Street Pier and Cherry Street Pier

The three-weekend-long festival of installations, videos and contemporary art continues on the Delaware River waterfront...

History | Old City|(Sat, Sun)

Occupied Philadelphia Weekend at the Museum of the American Revolution

Visitors meet soldiers and spies, haggle at markets and more during this living-history event set in the fall of 1777 when the British captured and occupied Philadelphia...

Pumpkin Patch at Franklin Square

This free event for kids 10 and under includes a pumpkin for each child to paint, decorate and take home...

19th Annual Peoplehood Parade at Paul Robeson House

This annual march, which welcomes the Philadelphia Trans March this year, celebrates the city's diversity and honors those fighting discrimination...

Mural Dedication: Legacy at Lucien E. Blackwell Library

Philly students worked with a local fashion designer to create this colorful fabric-inspired design...

Live Music, Comedy, Theater and Dance

Hocus Poc-YASSS: A Halloween Drag Extravaganza at Tabu Lounge

The entire Hocus Pocus movie is performed on stage in a fully lip synched drag spectacular to a standing-room-only crowd...

Portland Cello Project at Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts

Portland's alt-classical group presents its tribute to Radiohead's OK Computer album with guest vocals by Patti King of The Shins...

The Philly POPS: Experience Benjamin Wright at the Kimmel Center

Legendary orchestrator Benjamin Wright — who has worked with Michael Jackson, Mary J. Blige and more — joins The Philly POPS for an afternoon journey through Wright’s music...

Ongoing Exhibitions

Exhibitions | Fairmount|(Fri, Sat, Sun)

Fabulous Fashion at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Designs from the likes of Cristóbal Balenciaga, Oscar de la Renta, Christian Dior and more are on display — some for the first time — in this exhibit of rare garments...

Exhibitions | Logan Square|(Fri, Sat, Sun)

Vikings: Beyond the Legend at The Franklin Institute

Explore Viking culture, interact with artifacts and see a 21-foot long replica ship at this exhibition...

Thomas & Friends Explore the Rails at the Please Touch Museum

All aboard! Take a trip with Thomas the Tank Engine to the Island of Sodor, where visitors can build a train track, assemble a train and more...

Cultures in the Crossfire at the Penn Museum

Explore the cultures, populations and history of one of the world's most turbulent regions, told through ancient artifacts and modern works by a Syrian artist...

Corridor of Culture: 100 Years of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at the Free Library of Philadelphia

Part of Parkway 100, this exhibit features photographs and artwork that illustrate the creation and use of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway over the last century...

Yael Bartana: And Europe Will Be Stunned at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Artist Yael Bartana reimagines historical narratives to create conversation about current social issues through film and public performances...

30 Years: Art at the Michener, 1988-2018

The Michener Art Museum celebrates its 30th anniversary with works from local students, objects from the vault that have never been displayed before and more...

Making a Difference: Social and Political Activism in Clay at The Clay Studio

A range of artists address current events through clay, with a goal of counteracting feelings of negativity, fear and isolation...

25+ Must-See Exhibitions in Philadelphia

Philadelphia's museums and galleries showcase can't-miss art from around the globe and around the city...

The Philadelphia Eagles hope to shake off the Super Bowl hangover and get back on the road to victory on Sunday against the Carolina Panthers at Lincoln Financial Field. (Photo courtesy Lincoln Financial Field)

Exhibitions | Logan Square

Opening: Berthe Morisot at the Barnes Foundation

Morisot’s retrospective highlights the defiance, talent and modern presentation of the only woman artist recognized alongside impressionists Degas, Monet and Renoir...

Sports | South Philadelphia

Philadelphia Eagles vs. Carolina Panthers at Lincoln Financial Field

Fans fill the Linc or head to their favorite sports bar to watch the Eagles take on the Panthers at 1 p.m....

AIDS Walk Philly

More than 30 years strong, the annual 5K walk and fun run raises money to fight HIV/AIDS in Philadelphia...

Events | Avenue of the Arts

Seven Things I've Learned: An Evening with Ira Glass at Merriam Theater

The producer and host of the iconic This American Life public radio program and podcast shares lessons from his life and work using audio clips, music and video...

Hotel Deal | Citywide|(Fri, Sat, Sun)

Visit Philly Overnight Hotel Package Fall Getaway

Book a Philly fall getaway for stays through November 30, 2018 and get FREE hotel parking and up to $193 in perks...

AAMP Commune: Spirit featuring Ruth Naomi Floyd at The African American Museum in Philadelphia

The international jazz vocalist, composer and photographer shares select compositions and joins a community-led conversation about spirit...

Earthfest Presents the Science of Scary at Temple Ambler Arboretum

Learn more about spiders, bats, birds and other "scary" things at this free event in Montgomery County...

Live Music, Comedy, Theater and Dance

Theater | Old City|(Fri, Sat, Sun)

Once at Arden Theatre Co.

This Tony Award-winning play about an Irish musician and a Czech immigrant features Academy Award-winning music...

Theater | Rittenhouse Square|(Fri, Sat, Sun)

Broken Biscuits at Plays & Players Theater

A popular coming-of-age story about three friends in the U.K. makes its U.S. premiere with Philly’s all-comedy company...

Ongoing Exhibitions

Doylestown|(Fri, Sat, Sun)

Last Chance: American Moderns at the Michener Art Museum

Get one last look at works of Philadelphia-area artists who shaped non-objective and precisionist art in this rare display of their collective pieces...

Hamilton: Constitutional Clashes at the National Constitution Center

Learn how Alexander Hamilton got along — or didn't get along — with Jefferson, Adams and Burr in this in-depth exhibition in the Historic District...

Cotton: The Soft, Dangerous Beauty of the Past at The African American Museum in Philadelphia

Philadelphia artist John E. Dowell explores the complicated connection between cotton and slavery in America using photographs, installations and more...

Xtreme Bugs at The Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University

Learn more about bugs' behaviors, motions and sounds in this interactive exhibition featuring 20 giant animatronic insects...

Rodin's The Kiss at The Rodin Museum

The museum commemorates the 100th anniversary of Auguste Rodin's death by focusing on the sculptor's depictions of love...

Cultures in the Crossfire at the Penn Museum

Explore the cultures, populations and history of one of the world's most turbulent regions, told through ancient artifacts and modern works by a Syrian artist...

And So The Story Goes at the Penn Museum

Objects from the Penn Museum's international collections help tell the tale of how cultures innovate storytelling...

Prisons Today at Eastern State Penitentiary

Prisons Today explores issues stemming frm the U.S. having the highest incarceration rate in the world...

A Dream Deferred: Redlining Past, Present, Future

This free interactive art-and-media exhibit explores how race and policy influence Philadelphia and its inhabitants...

25+ Must-See Exhibitions in Philadelphia

Philadelphia's museums and galleries showcase can't-miss art from around the globe and around the city...

Source: https://www.uwishunu.com/2018/10/things-to-do-this-weekend-in-philadelphia-october-19-21-2018/

[anglelyre2-blog]

Weekend Picks: Witches & Wizards, Festival For The People, New Exhibits And More

Happy weekend, Philly! With new exhibitions and major festivals on the calendar, these next few days are full of fun goings-on.

Formerly the Harry Potter Festival, the new-for-2018 Witches & Wizards takes over the charming town of Chestnut Hill for spellbinding events on both Friday evening (bar crawl!) and Saturday (street fest!) that morph the neighborhood into an enchanting magic-filled haunt.

In other festival happenings, Festival for the People continues its run of public art and performances on the Delaware River waterfront at the brand-new Cherry Street Pier and Race Street Pier on both Saturday and Sunday.

And the Barnes Foundation’s new Berthe Morisot exhibition — which provides a rare look at works by the famous female impressionist — opens Sunday, joining other recently unveiled exhibits at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (fashion), The Franklin Institute (Vikings) and the National Museum of American Jewish History (Rube Goldberg).

Elsewhere, Dilworth Park’s Made in Philadelphia Fall Market, Franklin Square’s Pumpkin Patch and other fall events are surefire ways to tell autumn is in full swing, as is the big Philadelphia Eagles game against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday in South Philly.

Make the most of this weekend with the Visit Philly Overnight Hotel Package, featuring free hotel parking and $193 in free perks.

Follow Uwishunu on Twitter and Instagram for updates throughout the weekend.

Read on for our guide to this weekend in Philadelphia.

Festivals | Chestnut Hill|(Fri, Sat)

Witches & Wizards in Chestnut Hill

This weekend, Chestnut Hill is transformed into a magical world of spells and spooky thrills, complete with a Quidditch tournament, a beer garden and a straw maze...

Film | Center City|(Fri, Sat, Sun)

Philadelphia Film Festival

See critically acclaimed films, movies with major stars, documentaries, local productions and more during this 11-day festival...

Halloween | Fairmount|(Fri, Sat, Sun)

Terror Behind the Walls at Eastern State Penitentiary

The frightening setting and professional scares make Terror Behind the Walls one of the country's top-ranked haunted attractions...

Shopping | Center City|(Fri, Sat, Sun)

Made in Philadelphia Fall Market in Dilworth Park

More than 50 local artisans display jewelry, skincare, accessories, photography, woodcrafts and more at this alfresco market...

Young Involved Philadelphia: State of Young Philly

YIP wraps up its 10-day civic engagement festival with quizzo, volunteer opportunities, panels and a closing happy hour...

Last Chance: Independence After Hours

A three-course dinner at City Tavern leads to an evening with the Founding Fathers in Independence Hall without the crowds...

Moby Dick Reading Marathon at the Independence Seaport Museum

Herman Mellville's literary classic Moby Dick is read aloud in its entirety from Friday evening to Saturday evening during this reading marathon that takes place in different spots around the museum...

Re-enacting a Revolutionary Gun Battle in Context of 21st Century Gun Violence at Historic Germantown

Cliveden and PhilaLandmarks invite all to Historic Germantown for a conversation about gun control and violence as well as a presentation about the Revolutionary War and its consequences...

Illuminated Fountain Performances at Longwood Gardens

More than 1,700 jets and streams soar up to 175 feet in the air and are lit by a rainbow of colors during this popular program that's set to classical music on Friday and popular movie soundtracks on Saturday...

Fall Fest at Shady Brook Farm

Shady Brook's season-long harvest festival includes autumnal favorites like apple- and pumpkin-picking, plus local craft beer and wine, moonlit corn-maze-wandering and more…

Live Music, Comedy, Theater and Dance

Hardwork Movement at Johnny Brenda's

Fresh from last month’s Philly Music Fest, the local hip-hop collective takes the stage in Fishtown with its horns and cello...

George Lopez at SugarHouse Casino

The comedian brings “The Wall World Tour” to Philly before the release of his upcoming thriller River Runs Red...

All My Sons at Curio Theatre Company

This Arthur Miller play about the aftermath of a tragedy in a suburban America family is running on select dates on Baltimore Avenue...

Sweat at Suzanne Roberts Theatre

Philadelphia Theatre Company begins its new season with the 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning story of deindustrialization in a Pennsylvania town...

One-Man Apocalypse Now at Plays & Players Theatre

One actor performs Apocalypse Now in 60 minutes during this special two-show performance...

Ongoing Exhibitions

Exhibitions | Chadds Ford|(Fri, Sat, Sun)

Last Chance: Natural Wonders at the Brandywine River Museum of Art

Works by 13 artists celebrate the wonders of nature while highlighting key issues like species extinction and over-cultivation...

Exhibitions | Old City|(Fri, Sat, Sun)

Rube Goldberg at the National Museum of American Jewish History

Rube Goldberg's Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoons, machine invention drawings and more are part of this first comprehensive display of his work...

Prisons Today at Eastern State Penitentiary

Prisons Today explores issues stemming frm the U.S. having the highest incarceration rate in the world...

Fast Lane: The NASCAR Photography of Darryl Moran at the Woodmere Art Museum

Get a glimpse of all aspects of a NASCAR race — including those chaotic-but-exciting race-day moments — courtesy of NASCAR's first official photographer...

Marian at the Marian Anderson Historical Society and Museum

Browse the African-American opera singer's personal collection, including performance gowns, costumes and photographs...

Cauleen Smith: Give It or Leave It at the Institute of Contemporary Art

This exhibit reimagines a future world that is Black, feminist and spiritual using objects, film and more...

Impressions on Paper: Henry Snell at the Michener Art Museum

Most of these drawings and watercolors, created during the Philadelphia artist's travels to Cornwall, have never been exhibited at the museum before...

Covered: Celebrating Muslim Women at Art Sanctuary

Artist Yusef Abdul Jaleel created this illustration series — which depicts various Muslim women of color — to combat negative stereotypes surrounding modesty...

A Dream Deferred: Redlining Past, Present, Future

This free interactive art-and-media exhibit explores how race and policy influence Philadelphia and its inhabitants...

25+ Must-See Exhibitions in Philadelphia

Philadelphia's museums and galleries showcase can't-miss art from around the globe and around the city...

Formerly the Harry Potter Festival, the new-for-2018 Witches & Wizards takes over Chestnut Hill this weekend for spellbinding events, including the Brews & Broomsticks Pub Crawl on Friday. (Photo by A. Ricketts for Visit Philadelphia)

Arts | Old City|(Sat, Sun)

Festival for the People at Race Street Pier and Cherry Street Pier

The three-weekend-long festival of installations, videos and contemporary art continues on the Delaware River waterfront...

History | Old City|(Sat, Sun)

Occupied Philadelphia Weekend at the Museum of the American Revolution

Visitors meet soldiers and spies, haggle at markets and more during this living-history event set in the fall of 1777 when the British captured and occupied Philadelphia...

Pumpkin Patch at Franklin Square

This free event for kids 10 and under includes a pumpkin for each child to paint, decorate and take home...

19th Annual Peoplehood Parade at Paul Robeson House

This annual march, which welcomes the Philadelphia Trans March this year, celebrates the city's diversity and honors those fighting discrimination...

Mural Dedication: Legacy at Lucien E. Blackwell Library

Philly students worked with a local fashion designer to create this colorful fabric-inspired design...

Live Music, Comedy, Theater and Dance

Hocus Poc-YASSS: A Halloween Drag Extravaganza at Tabu Lounge

The entire Hocus Pocus movie is performed on stage in a fully lip synched drag spectacular to a standing-room-only crowd...

Portland Cello Project at Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts

Portland's alt-classical group presents its tribute to Radiohead's OK Computer album with guest vocals by Patti King of The Shins...

The Philly POPS: Experience Benjamin Wright at the Kimmel Center

Legendary orchestrator Benjamin Wright — who has worked with Michael Jackson, Mary J. Blige and more — joins The Philly POPS for an afternoon journey through Wright’s music...

Ongoing Exhibitions

Exhibitions | Fairmount|(Fri, Sat, Sun)

Fabulous Fashion at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Designs from the likes of Cristóbal Balenciaga, Oscar de la Renta, Christian Dior and more are on display — some for the first time — in this exhibit of rare garments...

Exhibitions | Logan Square|(Fri, Sat, Sun)

Vikings: Beyond the Legend at The Franklin Institute

Explore Viking culture, interact with artifacts and see a 21-foot long replica ship at this exhibition...

Thomas & Friends Explore the Rails at the Please Touch Museum

All aboard! Take a trip with Thomas the Tank Engine to the Island of Sodor, where visitors can build a train track, assemble a train and more...

Cultures in the Crossfire at the Penn Museum

Explore the cultures, populations and history of one of the world's most turbulent regions, told through ancient artifacts and modern works by a Syrian artist...

Corridor of Culture: 100 Years of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at the Free Library of Philadelphia

Part of Parkway 100, this exhibit features photographs and artwork that illustrate the creation and use of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway over the last century...

Yael Bartana: And Europe Will Be Stunned at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Artist Yael Bartana reimagines historical narratives to create conversation about current social issues through film and public performances...

30 Years: Art at the Michener, 1988-2018

The Michener Art Museum celebrates its 30th anniversary with works from local students, objects from the vault that have never been displayed before and more...

Making a Difference: Social and Political Activism in Clay at The Clay Studio

A range of artists address current events through clay, with a goal of counteracting feelings of negativity, fear and isolation...

25+ Must-See Exhibitions in Philadelphia

Philadelphia's museums and galleries showcase can't-miss art from around the globe and around the city...

The Philadelphia Eagles hope to shake off the Super Bowl hangover and get back on the road to victory on Sunday against the Carolina Panthers at Lincoln Financial Field. (Photo courtesy Lincoln Financial Field)

Exhibitions | Logan Square

Opening: Berthe Morisot at the Barnes Foundation

Morisot’s retrospective highlights the defiance, talent and modern presentation of the only woman artist recognized alongside impressionists Degas, Monet and Renoir...

Sports | South Philadelphia

Philadelphia Eagles vs. Carolina Panthers at Lincoln Financial Field

Fans fill the Linc or head to their favorite sports bar to watch the Eagles take on the Panthers at 1 p.m....

AIDS Walk Philly

More than 30 years strong, the annual 5K walk and fun run raises money to fight HIV/AIDS in Philadelphia...

Events | Avenue of the Arts

Seven Things I've Learned: An Evening with Ira Glass at Merriam Theater

The producer and host of the iconic This American Life public radio program and podcast shares lessons from his life and work using audio clips, music and video...

Hotel Deal | Citywide|(Fri, Sat, Sun)

Visit Philly Overnight Hotel Package Fall Getaway

Book a Philly fall getaway for stays through November 30, 2018 and get FREE hotel parking and up to $193 in perks...

AAMP Commune: Spirit featuring Ruth Naomi Floyd at The African American Museum in Philadelphia

The international jazz vocalist, composer and photographer shares select compositions and joins a community-led conversation about spirit...

Earthfest Presents the Science of Scary at Temple Ambler Arboretum

Learn more about spiders, bats, birds and other "scary" things at this free event in Montgomery County...

Live Music, Comedy, Theater and Dance

Theater | Old City|(Fri, Sat, Sun)

Once at Arden Theatre Co.

This Tony Award-winning play about an Irish musician and a Czech immigrant features Academy Award-winning music...

Theater | Rittenhouse Square|(Fri, Sat, Sun)

Broken Biscuits at Plays & Players Theater

A popular coming-of-age story about three friends in the U.K. makes its U.S. premiere with Philly’s all-comedy company...

Ongoing Exhibitions

Doylestown|(Fri, Sat, Sun)

Last Chance: American Moderns at the Michener Art Museum

Get one last look at works of Philadelphia-area artists who shaped non-objective and precisionist art in this rare display of their collective pieces...

Hamilton: Constitutional Clashes at the National Constitution Center

Learn how Alexander Hamilton got along — or didn't get along — with Jefferson, Adams and Burr in this in-depth exhibition in the Historic District...

Cotton: The Soft, Dangerous Beauty of the Past at The African American Museum in Philadelphia

Philadelphia artist John E. Dowell explores the complicated connection between cotton and slavery in America using photographs, installations and more...

Xtreme Bugs at The Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University

Learn more about bugs' behaviors, motions and sounds in this interactive exhibition featuring 20 giant animatronic insects...

Rodin's The Kiss at The Rodin Museum

The museum commemorates the 100th anniversary of Auguste Rodin's death by focusing on the sculptor's depictions of love...

Cultures in the Crossfire at the Penn Museum

Explore the cultures, populations and history of one of the world's most turbulent regions, told through ancient artifacts and modern works by a Syrian artist...

And So The Story Goes at the Penn Museum

Objects from the Penn Museum's international collections help tell the tale of how cultures innovate storytelling...

Prisons Today at Eastern State Penitentiary

Prisons Today explores issues stemming frm the U.S. having the highest incarceration rate in the world...

A Dream Deferred: Redlining Past, Present, Future

This free interactive art-and-media exhibit explores how race and policy influence Philadelphia and its inhabitants...

25+ Must-See Exhibitions in Philadelphia

Philadelphia's museums and galleries showcase can't-miss art from around the globe and around the city...

Source: https://www.uwishunu.com/2018/10/things-to-do-this-weekend-in-philadelphia-october-19-21-2018/