#msn news entertainment

[desidov]

The Structure of a Successful Game Changer pt. 1 - Make Some Noise

An analysis of the stages comprising an entertaining and innovative Game Changer episode, explained by breaking down the episode Make Some Noise.

Stage 1: Our contestants have no idea

With prompt "cow," Josh responds "cow." Sam replies, "I'm sorry, that is not the answer I was looking for."

Often only a turn or two, this first stage is comprised of the players identifying the core mechanic of the episode—getting a basic understanding of what each question will ask of them and how they might earn points or advance further. Other examples: the first forays into navigating the Jeopardy board, or Sam’s opening instructions for “Sam Says” demonstrating an instruction not preceded by “Sam says” should not be followed.

Stage 2: You all understand

With prompt "duck," Zac responds "quack quack" and receives a point. Josh comments "Okay I see, I see what this is about, okay."

Here the players realize the structure of each question, and witness some behaviors receiving points while others do not (excluding non-point-earning episodes.) Sometimes, this is all the players need to understand the fundamental premise (mimic the sound produced by the prompt) while sometimes unraveling the mystery of the premise is the overall conceit of the episode (tell us about yourself, yes or no.)

Stage 3: Escalation of Rules

After Zac's response to "frog," Sam says "I'm gonna toss it up to the other two contestants [to steal the point.] Brennan, give me your best frog."

An expansion to the initial rules is revealed, allowing players to further advance/gain points beyond the initial bounds of the premise. Here, the escalation is that players may steal prompts from each other—others include incorporated phrase bonus points from The Official Cast Recording and the hidden immunity loop-de-loops from Survivor.

Stage π: Departure

Sam says "We are now headed into our first mini game." Each player attempts to recreate a melody on an otamatone.

This optional stage, typically presented as a “mini game,” is thematically connected to the premise but operates on its own rules. Make Some Noise iterations typically include a mini game where contestants are provided a prop and must mimic a given sound with that prop—no spoken entries qualify. Similarly, A Sponsored Episode and its continuations feature a mini game of providing commercial voice-overs for stock footage (where non-commercial interpretations are not rewarded,) and a mini game of identifying brand taglines/logos.

Stage 4: Escalation of Concept

Sam introduces the next prompt, "Your word is jack hammer." Josh makes a jack hammer sound, bouncing with a hand above his head and explaining "that's him keeping the hat on."

While Stage 3 adds on to the rules of the episode, Stage 4 applies the same rules to something new—here transitioning from animal calls to all manner of sound effects. Escalation of concept can be clearly demarcated, as this example is, or more gradual, like the escalations from common animal calls to obscure animal calls or from physical prompts to intangible prompts like “anguish.” What matters is that escalations continue to push the format to new heights and prevent the conceit from stagnating.

Stage 5: Expansion of Concept

The prompt is a stock photo of a smiling young adult white man. Brennan roleplays the man arrogantly describing his improv group, ending with "This date's going well."

Though similar to Stage 4, I characterize this stage as a dramatic alteration to the format of prompts—here from text prompts to image prompts. This can be for several turns, as it is for MSN, or just one, such as “go” from Sam Says or the cockroach union from “Do I hear $1?” This builds a finale that presses the bounds of the format to their limits, capping off the episode.

[rainofaugustsith]

If you're curious as to why your Jewish friends feel very unsafe with this new Boy Wizard game: 1. The original lead developer who set the premise is a known alt-right presence online. According to DailyDot JKR's agency did have some involvement with the developers. 2. From MSN: Recently, an eagle-eyed early access Hogwarts Legacy player noticed a troubling Jewish reference: the goblins in the game have a horn that looks suspiciously like a ceremonial Jewish one called a shofar. It’s used to “annoy witches and wizards” in the game.

3. From DailyDot: But the 1612 Goblin Rebellion casually referenced in the same screenshot also has a real-world correlation that some have drawn a connection to a Jewish pogrom in Germany around the same time. (The Fettmilch Uprising started in 1612, while the pogrom took place in 1614.) 4. As many have noted the goblins' abducting people to use their blood for rituals to defeat the enemies echoes the accusation of abduction and blood libel /blood magic that was leveled against real-world Jews in medieval Europe.

https://www.themarysue.com/is-hogwarts-legacy-anti-semitic-hogwarts-legacy-anti-semitic-allegations-explained/ https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/hogwarts-legacy-antisemitism-goblins-horn/ https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/hogwarts-legacy-faces-even-more-undeniable-evidence-of-being-antisemitic-as-details-about-goblin-rebellion-match-horrifying-real-life-events/ar-AA17iP46

[blurredlineswr122]

✩Scarlett Johanson and Open AI ✩

A recent piece of AI news can be seen in Scarlett Johanson’s accusations against Open AI. She claims that Open AI had requested to use her voice for the AI program, specifically the voice for Sky in the launch of Chat GBT 4. She, in the movie Her, had voiced an AI character, seemingly the inspiration for this chanced role. She is said to have denied the request, and when asked to reconsider she never got the chance before ChaptGPT 4.0 dropped, and the voice, in her words, “...is so eerily similar to hers that her closest friends could not tell the difference.” (Guynn). 

The response, was of course, that the voice was not meant to replicate hers. They claim that the voice actor was decided before they even reached out to the actress. However, Mr. Altman, the man who had reached out to Johannson and the owner of ChatGPT, had already tweeted out ‘Her,’ in reference to the AI voice and Johanson’s role. 

After receiving letters and being asked to detail how the voice was made, the voice, ‘Sky,’ has been removed. SAG-AFTRA, an important part of the entertainment industry's protection against AI, has gotten involved, siding staunchly with Johanson and expressing concern about the blurred lines and the rights that she has to her voice.

Works Cited

Guynn, Jessica, and Bailey Schulz. “Scarlett Johansson Says OpenAI

Copied Her Voice for ChatGPT’s Sky. Sam Altman Denies It.” MSN, 21 May 2024, www.msn.com/en- us/news/technology/scarlett-johansson-says-openai-stole-her- voice-chatgpts-sky-voice-is-eerily-similar/ar-BB1mKmzC? ocid=BingNewsSerp. 

[cyarsk52-20]

the news is really like, “a Black man was yelling and a fellow citizen killed him. did he deserve to die? perhaps. what do you think?”

and this is why we yell Black lives matter cuz what the fuck are y’all even talking about right now!

This is why the msn is cotdarn trash 🗑️!

like are we fucking serious with this shit right now???????

This is murder pure and simple and that marine should be under the jail . I never felt the need to kill any homeless person out of fear... I can admit to being annoyed & entertained because some of them will work hard for some support with their many talents but to kill, no. There’s a difference between killing somebody in self defense and murder. there was a cold blooded murder that took place in broad daylight and we’re doing think pieces on if that’s okay when ITS NOT OKAY?!?

when will this dystopian nightmare end??? Jordan Neely didn't deserve to be choked to death for yelling. The man was unarmed but upset because he was hungry and frustrated with his situation. The only thing threatening about him was his skin color. #JusticeForJordanNeely #BlackLivesMatter #StopKillingUs

and I can’t even deal with the part where the police misidentified the man who shot those people in Texas and had an innocent person out here being harassed! And calling the five victims illegal immigrants!!!

They(gov and media) want us to look at each other suspiciously. It’s a distraction to keep us from looking at the main culprits, them. It’s sick. We see you and you’re going to not see heaven

[sunwarmed-ash]

Hello I return with more Gavin hc for you

I firmly believe he volunteers at the local animal shelter to help take care of the cats. The shelter staff do have to keep him away from prospective adopters cause he's still Gavin

I'm crying, I love Gavin and his cats 😻

"Ugh! Mr. Sweaty napkins no!!!" Gavin shouted, louder than he probably should have at the senior tabby cat, who on the best of days tolerates humans. But he had knocked over a glass of water for the 7th time now and this time it landed all over his phone. 

In the cat's defense, he really wasn't supposed to be on his phone. Hes supposed to be working. But the customers who come into the Cat Cafe (which is attached to the Detroit Cat Rescue) on thursdays are always dicks. Its always the same 4 assholes who come in, loiter in their restaurant, spend no more than the cost of drip coffee, and worst of all, mistreat the cats.

Howell won't even kick them out. Their cafe\adoption shelter was barely scraping by as is. Any money coming in, even from bad customers, was worth it. 

However, Gavin wasn't standing for it today. He shook water off his phone and finally looked through the kitchen window to see what Mr. Sweaty Napkins must have been trying to get his attention about. 

Charles, MSN longtime boyfriend and best friend, is up on one of the red and teal booths, his hackles raised all the way up. He's hissing and swatting at Resident Jackass Number 4 who is currently shoving a fork in the animals face for fun. 

"Hear ya loud and clear buddy," Gavin says to the orange tabby before demanding it to stay put, knowing he would do whatever he damn well pleased before heading into the small dining room to address the situation. 

"Hey, asshole! What the hell do you think you're doing?" 

Gavin's sudden and angry presence startles the man and subdues the cat, who jumps immediately onto Gavin's shoulder when he gets close enough. 

"What, we're just playing," the man scoffs, confidence back now that they had an 'audience' to entertain. 

"Bullshit. I mean, are you stupid? He was phcking hissing. He's telling you he's not cool with that shit. So knock it off."

The man's smirk only grew when their spectacles humored the other dickwads that seemed to show up too often for comfort. 

"Oh I'm sorry, I don't speak pussy."

The lewd comment doesn't bother Gavin, but it does bother the other smattering of customers. Specifically the handful with kids and Gavin growled and doubled down. 

He yanked the scrawny man up by his jean jacket, reveling in the man's sudden choked surprise. 

"Time to go asshole," he mutters quietly, pushing the squirming man up, out the front door, and out of their lives. 

*

Howell, his junior, blue haired twink of a boss was furious, of course, because the man, a 'Jeremy Turnpike' left a one star review of their cafe a half an hour later and Gavin got his ass chewed for it. 

Gavin didn't care. Even if Howell didn't have his back, he knew he made the right choice. He did the job he was hired for. He protected Charles, and all the other cats from cruel assholes.

"Well?!?" Howell demands suddenly and Gavin grimaces because he definitely checked out the second his boss started bitching him out. 

"Well what?" He asks anyway, getting another pretentious scoff from the younger man.  

"I can't believe you Gavin. I just can't believe you." 

Me? I can't believe you don't have my back! Gavin shook his head and made up his mind. 

"You don't gotta believe me anymore. I quit and I'm adopting Charles and Mr. Sweaty Napkins when I leave." 

*

So, how is Sumo with multiple cats… 1:23 PM

His phone was still struggling to load certain apps and would need a rice bath when he got home but he was at least able to text Hank and Connor, forewarning them of the two new roommates coming home with him. 

Hank texted back a

How many we talking? Knowing Gavin all too well and Connor called requesting video proof. 

The camera only loaded partially, gaining confused remarks from the other side. 

"Sorry if you can't see much. This guy, decided to knock a glass of water onto my phone. But it was to save his partner. So I guess I can't be too mad." 

The cats were currently sitting in the zipped up fur of his winter jacket, looking at the inside of his car while the old engine roared to life. 

"They sure are cute Gav," Hank says, a softness in his voice he only gets when he's talking about animals or babies. 

"How soon until you're home Gavin?" Connor asks, a child-like eagerness in his voice that accompanies the addition of animals. The first time Gavin brought a kitten home Connor and the thing were practically inseparable. 

"You'd know that better than me wouldn't you, computer boy?" Gavin teased gently. No longer holding any malice for the android. 

Whatever Connor was gonna say next was halted by an inhuman static squeaking noise that confused both the humans and the cats. When they realized it was Connor's verbal reaction to the cats falling asleep in Gavin's jacket, they all laughed collectively. 

"I'll be home soon as I can. I think you're gonna get along with these guys Con. They are a couple of old grumpy gays like Hank and I."

"Hey!" Hank rebuffed, causing another wave of laughter to fill his car, adding a bit of silver lining to his storm cloud of a day.  

The cat cafe, Howell, Mr. Sweaty Napkins and Charles are all characters from Bee and Puppy cat lazy in space. I just rewatched Gentle touch as I was thinking up this ficlet

[wherewhereare]

U.S., states sue to ‘break up’ Ticketmaster parent Live Nation© Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The landmark case — joined by 30 state and district attorneys general — could dramatically reshape an ecosystem that has long sparked outrage from artists and fans alike, whose frustrations erupted in 2022 when high fees and site outages disrupted early sales for Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour.

Live Nation is an entertainment titan: It is a concert promoter, artist manager, venue owner and ticket seller and reseller, constituting a sprawling empire that its executives publicly herald as the “largest live entertainment company in the world.” Last year alone, Live Nation produced more than 50,000 concerts and other musical events, and it sold more than 620 million tickets globally, the company boasted to investors in April.

But the U.S. government contends that the company’s vast power and reach have also afforded it unfair advantages over competitors, allowing Live Nation to evolve into an illegal and harmful “monopolist” — with the power to box out rivals, reduce consumer choices and raise ticket prices.

“We allege that Live Nation relies on unlawful, anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live events industry in the United States at the cost of fans, artists, smaller promoters, and venue operators,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement, later adding: “It is time to break up Live Nation.”

State and federal officials allege that Live Nation threatens to retaliate against performance venues unless they agree to use the company’s Ticketmaster service. Otherwise, these venue operators risk losing access to popular performances and tours — an unfavorable ultimatum, according to the government, that has allowed Ticketmaster to lock up more than 70 percent of sales at major concert venues.

State and federal antitrust watchdogs contend these arrangements ultimately have restricted artists, arrested the growth of competing ticketing services and cost audience members, who are forced to pay high, mandatory ticketing fees. In response, they asked a federal judge in New York to order structural changes to Live Nation, which could effectively force the company to break up.

A long, arduous court battle is now likely to follow, one that will see the Justice Department argue for unwinding a merger that the agency itself approved more than a decade ago.

“It’s also clear that we are another casualty of this administration’s decision to turn over antitrust enforcement to a populist urge that simply rejects how antitrust law works,” he added.

The lawsuit marks only the latest federal antitrust case initiated under President Biden, who came to office promising to crack down on corporate power and profiteering. Over the past three years, federal watchdogs have sued major technology companies including Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google for allegedly anticompetitive practices, and they have blocked major mergers involving airlines, biotech firms and grocery chains.

“Maybe it took people by surprise, but the president said [the government] wanted to do something on this, and they have,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), the top lawmaker on the chamber’s antitrust panel. She added that Washington never should have allowed Live Nation to acquire Ticketmaster in the first place.

“However you look at it,” she said, “that’s a monopoly.”

Nearly 15 years ago, it was Washington’s blessing that paved the way for Live Nation to expand its corporate footprint: The Justice Department in 2010 gave the green light for the company to purchase Ticketmaster, combining what was already the largest concert promoter with the most prominent ticketing platform.

The deal created a powerhouse that could manage every part of a performance: It could plan and execute the logistics around an artist’s tour, handle all of their initial sales through Ticketmaster and stage some of the shows at Live Nation’s venues, including the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles and the Brooklyn Bowl in New York.

In a bid to preserve competition, the Obama administration approved the merger only on a conditional basis. It required Live Nation to divest some of its business, and it prohibited the combined company from retaliating against venues that opted to use other ticketing platforms. At the time, federal officials said their consent decree would pave the way “for strong competitors to Ticketmaster, allowing concert venues to have more and better choices for their ticketing needs.”

But the legally binding agreement didn’t quell broad opposition from concert venue owners and artists, who grumbled in the years to follow about the ease with which Live Nation allegedly flouted federal restrictions. The accusations are laid bare in the government’s roughly 120-page complaint, filed Thursday in a federal court in New York.

“With this vast scope of power comes influence. Live Nation and its wholly owned subsidiary, Ticketmaster, have used that power and influence to insert themselves at the center and the edges of virtually every aspect of the live music ecosystem," the complaint alleges. "This has given Live Nation and Ticketmaster the opportunity to freeze innovation and bend the industry to their own benefit.”

The state and federal lawsuit also charges that Live Nation gobbled up some of its rivals — and struck anti-competitive arrangements with others — in a bid to further establish Ticketmaster as a dominant sales platform. It offers the example of Oak View Group, described by the government as a “competitor-turned-partner” with which Live Nation brokered a deal to avoid competing with each other over artists and tours.

“The live music industry in America is broken because Live Nation-Ticketmaster has an illegal monopoly,” Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, who leads the antitrust office, said in a statement. “Our antitrust lawsuit seeks to break up the Live-Nation-Ticketmaster monopoly, which will restore competition to the benefit of fans and artists alike.”

In response, Live Nation said in a blog post that its integration had actually helped concertgoers and artists alike, since it resulted in “better prices and better services than they would receive if these complementary businesses were separated.”

The Justice Department launched its latest Live Nation investigation in 2022, two years after the agency under President Donald Trump found that the company had “repeatedly” broken its promises to antitrust enforcers. As a federal lawsuit became imminent this spring, competition experts urged the Biden administration to remedy its predecessors’ mistakes by unwinding a company that they said had leveraged its dominance to the detriment of rivals.

“It’s clear what the DOJ has tried previously … has not worked,” said Sumit Sharma, a senior researcher at Consumer Reports. “Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s market share has remained the same.”

The first word of the federal probe arrived on the heels of another fiasco — a surge of demand for Taylor Swift presale tickets in 2022 that crashed Ticketmaster and left countless fans unable to buy seats for her 2023 tour. The widely documented incident put a fresh spotlight on the company, its dominance in ticketing and the fees that it charges consumers.

Policymakers around the country soon unleashed a battery of legislative proposals meant to crack down on abuse in ticketing and better highlight the fees that customers face before they reach the checkout page. On Capitol Hill, Klobuchar summoned Joe Berchtold, the president of Live Nation, for a lengthy grilling over his company’s business practices.

“We hear people say that ticketing markets are less competitive today than they were at the time of the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger,” Berchtold said in his testimony. “That is simply not true.”

But the company’s critics and competitors swiped at Live Nation for issuing ultimatums to concert halls and sports venues that could not afford to lose the company’s business. Jack Groetzinger, the chief executive of SeatGeek, a competing platform, said the fears of retaliation had allowed Live Nation to grow unchecked: He estimated that Ticketmaster came to amass a market share exceeding 70 percent in primary ticket sales, especially for professional basketball, hockey and football games.

“Major venues in the United States know that if they move their primary ticketing business from Ticketmaster to a competitor, they risk losing the substantial revenue they earn from Live Nation concerts,” Groetzinger said.

The heightened scrutiny promoted Live Nation to scale up its political operation dramatically in recent years: The company spent $2.3 million to influence Washington policymakers in 2023, more than double the year prior, according to OpenSecrets, a money-in-politics watchdog.

Live Nation has continued its spending spree into 2024, helping to host a party around the annual White House correspondents’ dinner — a swanky performance that touted the company’s bona fides on cocktail napkins.

“We’ve seen an uptick in their lobbying spending,” acknowledged Morgan Harper, the director of policy and advocacy at the American Economic Liberties Project, a left-leaning group that has advocated for Live Nation to be broken up. “It’s not surprising an entity like Live Nation, whose business model has allowed them to engage in anti-competitive conduct, would be bringing to bear all the resources it has.”

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Stand-up comedy I've watched/re-watched recently (Inside was a re-watch):

Bo Burnham – Words Words Words (2010), What (2013), Make Happy (2016), Inside (2021)

I’d been meaning to get around to these for ages, and I’m glad I finally did. I did see Inside before, closer to when it first came out. But I re-watched it after watching those other specials, because everything is better in context.

The earlier specials weren’t entirely new to me either, of course. I’m the same age as Bo Burnham (almost exactly, he’s like six weeks older than me), and started getting big on YouTube when he was in high school, and therefore I was also in high school. I was in high school, in 2006, a year when the internet was a weird little thing inhabited only by nerds, and my friends and I were among those nerds, and Bo Burnham was this little teenager who sang songs in his bedroom that got passed around by all the nerds on the internet. My friends and I used to send them to each other over MSN Messenger and then sing them at school. A voice of a generation. Or at least, the voice of one very specific group of underground nerds of that generation.

I followed Bo Burnham fairly loosely in the years that followed, and then eventually that dropped off and I sort of forgot he existed until Inside, which of course made me and the rest of the world say “Jesus Christ, look what happened to that little kid.”

I thought I’d never seen a full Bo Burnham special before Inside, had just watched lots of his individual songs on YouTube. But when I watched Words Words Words, his first special (from 2010, shortly after I finished high school, when he was only nineteen years old), it was all so familiar to me that I think I must have watched that one before. Or at least, I remembered having watched every song in it. Maybe I watched it in separate parts on YouTube when it first came out.

I’d seen a few of the songs from the other specials before too. In particular this one, because I quite enjoyed when he put out a song on a niche issue that happens to be one I’ve been fighting about for years:

I happen to be a big fan of country music and a big anti-fan of pop music that incorrectly markets itself as country, and since I was in high school, my friends have known that if they want to entertain themselves by annoying me, they can play something off country radio and tell me they love this country music. Or even just tell me they feel neutrally about this country music. My issue isn’t that people love it, my issue is calling it country music. I don’t mind if people enjoy this shitty pop music made by Luke Bryan (I mean, I am judging them a bit, but to each their own, sort of, I guess). Just don’t tarnish it by labelling it with the same word that describes a totally different genre of music that I do like.

Anyway, that opinion has been a running theme of my life for many years, and when Bo Burnham’s song Pandering came out, about ten of my friends sent it to me within the first 24 hours. And they were right to do so. Thanks, Robert. Thanks for continuing to be the voice of the very specific niche that I occupy in our generation.

So I’d heard some of Bo Burnham’s songs before. But I hadn’t seen the full specials (expect maybe Words Words Words, as it looked so familiar, but if so then I saw it a very long time ago, I might have watched it when it first came out in 2010). I was a little hesitant about going back and watching Bo Burnham’s old stuff. Inside does have an entire song about how #problematic he used to be.

And I do remember that, I remember 2006 internet culture. (Warning: I'm going to veer wildly off topic there because I think the nerdy internet culture of 2006 is the essence of Bo Burnham's earlier work, and I explain why that culture seemed so imprtant via personal experiences because I was there, I will get back to Bo Burnham eventually.) I’d say that was second-generation internet. The first generation was before my time and I believe mainly involved AOL chatrooms. The second generation was mine, and it was this specific culture the internet created, in the early South Park age, of dank memes, and “edgelord” being a word that people would unironically claim as their identity. This was the “there are no girls on the internet” era. Of nerds meeting each other on the internet and figuring out that they weren’t alone, that others like them faced this same bullying, and therefore they were extremely oppressed people and did not at any point have to examine whether they could ever be perpetrators rather than victims. That’s when little teenage Bo Burham turned up on YouTube, with his song about how his whole family thinks he’s gay.

As a queer white female nerd who came of age in the time, I definitely saw how much misogyny and homophobia existed within that community that was dominated by the straight white male ones. But honestly… sometimes I think we’ve overcorrected a bit, these days. Hear me out – I do not mean we have overcorrected because the pendulum has swung too far in favour of female supremacy and feminism has gone too far. I have not suddenly gotten super into Joe Rogan.

What I mean is, in 2006, there was an agreement within nerd culture that most people in it were straight white boys and there was no need to accommodate anyone else, and asking them to accommodate anyone else was wrong because they were all oppressed for being nerds, and the oppressed nerds can’t be doing anything wrong. At some point, some people rightly pointed out that “straight white male nerd” is not, in fact, a systemically oppressed group, and in fact they'd created a culture where members of actual systemically oppressed groups were not treated well. I am glad there is much more recognition of that now. But sometimes I think it can go a bit far if we forget that… look, in 2006, people definitely were bullied just for being nerds. I was there, I saw it happen. My straight white male friends were bullied for that in the same way as me and my female friends and my brown friends and my queer friends. We were a fairly diverse group of nerds (also I was an athlete, but in a tiny sport that no one at school gave a shit about, popularity-wise it was pretty much like being on the chess team, and every moment that I wasn’t training I was hanging out with my anime-watching D&D-playing friends). Kids really were mean to us for being weird, nerdy, not cool, all things that aren't systemically oppressed but did still ducking suck in school in the 00s (don't know what it's like now, I'm not there). The internet was a refuge from that, and Bo Burnham felt like one of us, the people too steeped I'm edgy internet humour.

I know I can’t speak for everyone, but I feel like my high school friends could be sort of a microcosm of how the sense of “nerd is my identity and it makes me oppressed so therefore I will huddle with people like me and never examine any potential problems in my in-group” culture happened. We needed each other. A lot of us had never had friends before we found each other in high school. I certainly hadn’t.

I recall my elementary school and middle school years as sheer torture. I never spoke at school. No one would speak to me. No one would sit with me. I’ve got some pretty “movie cliché-style bullying” memories of getting cornered on the playground by kids who would ask me questions I didn’t know the answer to and laugh when I was too anxious to answer so I’d stutter or whisper or cry. The only times I ever skipped school were when we had to pick partners for group projects, I have strong memories of hiding under the stairwell to avoid it, terrified that someone would find me and I’d be in more trouble, even more terrified of having to sit there in class while everyone else picked someone and I watched all the partners disappear and then it was just me and everyone would stare at me and I’d hear people mutter the word “loner” and if I was lucky the teacher would let me work alone and if I was unlucky they’d make me join some other group that would look disgusted to have me. I remember trying to find a place where I could sit by myself at recess where no one would see me and make fun of me. Lining up rocks on the playground and not being able to explain when people came by and asked me what I was doing, except that everything in my brain was yelling that I didn’t belong there and shouldn’t be there, and if I could get all the rocks into the right formation then at least the environment would feel right and I could sit by myself next to them and be comfortable (the OCD diagnosis came around this time, as did the generalized anxiety and social phobia ones – Asperger’s was later).

I recall sitting in my bedroom when I wasn’t at school, playing my music and trying to plan out the next day so I could maybe talk to the other kids if I just prepared well enough, going over and over in my head everything I’d seen at school to try to learn from it and follow all the social expectations properly next time, and then I’d go back to school and still get it wrong. And then I’d log onto my Harry Potter message boards on the early internet and talk to some people who didn’t know how worthless I was, and that was the most connected I ever felt to the world.

And some kids were nice to me. Some kids were the “nice kid in the class” who talks to the weird kid in the class, invites them sit with their friends at lunch (for one day, as a favour, it never developed into actual friendship). I have memories of how incredibly grateful I was to every kid who did that for me. And looking back, most kids probably never thought about me one way or the other. But enough kids were mean directly to me, and enough other kids might not talk directly to me but did talk loudly about how gross they found loners and weird kids and girls who didn’t be a girl properly (oh right, this all happened as we were hitting puberty and no one gave me the memo about how we were supposed to start wearing makeup and paying attention to our clothes), so I felt like every moment I was at school, every person hated me all the time, and I didn't belong there.

When I graduated, the school gave me an award for overcoming obstacles, and I remember thinking, You mean you knew? You knew all along that school was torture for me and you didn’t change it? Though of course, looking back, people tried. My parents took me to all kinds of psychologists and other doctors, but nothing helped. My mother’s told me since then that she used to cry when she’d get calls from my teachers saying how anxious I was and how I still wouldn’t talk to anyone and how I got bullied, and she thought about switching schools but knew how strongly I became attached to familiar places and didn’t want to force a change like that on me too.

But the point is that those things didn’t happen to me because I was a girl, or because I was queer, and certainly not because I was oppressed in some other way because I’m not (very white). Some of the bullying definitely came from me being a girl who didn’t conform to gendered female expectations, but that’s the same type of bullying that gets aimed at boys who don’t conform to gendered expectations, which does often happen to nerdy straight boys (hence Bo Burnham’s problematic reclamation of the word “faggot” that used to get thrown at him). That was bullying that happens to any kid who’s not the cool kid in class, no matter where they are on a demographic identity spectrum. So yeah, I can see how male nerds end up saying "I am oppressed for my identity, you can't call me privileged or a bully. And then they'll quote a rape joke that they heard on the internet, because the internet is their sanctuary and nothing there can be wrong, and therein lies the problem.

And then I got to high school, and I met other kids like me. In person, not just the other people on my Harry Potter message boards. Kids who also got bullied in middle school and hadn’t had friends before. I became friends with them, and I joined the sports team where I was good at something for the first time and felt like part of a community for the first time, and those things earned my eternal loyalty, because they saved me. In high school, my new friends and I bonded over all being on the internet in those days when the internet was a weird nerds-only thing. We bonded by sending each other dank memes, which, looking back, were pretty rife with problematic humour. We bonded over videos of Bo Burnham singing offensive songs. And we didn’t stop to question whether the stuff we liked was in some way perpetrating harm, because we were the victims and everyone else was the bullies, and this nerd culture was what made our victimhood better, so how could it be bad?

Like I said, I think we were a microcosm. A microcosm of why toxicity runs so rampant in nerd culture. It’s wonderful that people have started criticizing all the toxicity – I say this as someone who used to be a teenage girl hanging out in 2006 nerd culture and putting up with a lot of misogyny there that doesn’t get tolerated the same way today. Part of the way they’ve addressed that problem is by pointing out that “nerd” is not a systemically oppressed class, it’s just a label that people often use as an excuse to be a bigot. And that’s true, and that’s bad. But it's still a difficult thing to be.

That’s my context for Bo Burham. And I realize I left the point of this post behind fucking ages ago. I'm afraid I am unable to remain on topic when reviewing a comedy show, I am unlikely to be hired by Chortle. But I do feel like it’s relevant context. Because that is the specific niche of my generation that Bo Burnham was the voice of. He was the young, confused, problematic voice of my generation’s nerds who were steeped in internet culture. And we had a deep loyalty to that culture, shaped by how we came to it.

That was Bo Burnham’s thing, at the time. He turned up on YouTube saying “I’m the boy who’s so bad at being a boy that my family thinks I’m gay. I’m the nerd who doesn’t fit in at school but I’m smarter than my bullies. I’m the kid who likes to read and likes to write and is into poetry and is considered uncool for it. I’m the edgelord who will reflect that fucked up internet humour that’s the calling card of the only community that lets weird kids in.” And we loved it. We heard him make his fat jokes and say his slurs, and we loved it.

So like I said… I was a little nervous, going back and watching his old stuff in 2023. I didn’t remember exactly how bad it was, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to find out. And having said all of that, I am very pleased to report… not quite as bad as I thought. There were problems, obviously. But I think the peak of his edgelord days was his high school stuff that only got released as individual songs on YouTube, didn’t get into his proper specials. Once he got into his twenties, he’d moved past the worst of it. He was still a little to quick to throw around some words that seemed less bad then, but were in fact slurs at the time, as well as being slurs now (I hate it when people say “well it was okay back then, it wasn’t a slur back then” – at best it may have seemed by some people to be more okay back then, that doesn’t mean it was actually okay). But no worse than, you know, most comedians in the 00s. I have old Kitson recordings that are probably worse than some old Burnham stuff, in terms of slur count.

Words Words Words was the bridge between his teenage edgelord years and his better later years, the the special he made in 2010 when he was only 19. That was by far the edgelord-iest of all his specials, but still, not quite as bad as I was expecting. I was surprised it only had one actual rape joke in it. Which is, to be unequivocally clear, still far too many rape jokes. But relatively tame compared to a lot of the rape joke-laden humour of 2010. I think I was misremembering Bo Burnham as being at the cuttingly offensive edge of the horrible 00s comedians, when in fact, he was less bad compared to most of them.

Words Words Words had some pretty painful and horrible jokes about fat people and disability. But they took up a smaller percentage of the hour than I was expecting. Way more minutes of that special were dedicated to poetry than to slur usage.

Including one poem about William Shakespeare, that I did hear when it came out and I remember thinking, at the time, that this was a sign that Bo Burnham was some advanced intellectual, that he knew so much about Shakespeare that he could write poetry about the intricacies of it. Now, I’m pretty sure that was just a case of a high school kid learning about Shakespeare in class, then going home and writing poetry that incorporates what he learned in English class. The infuriating thing is it’s fucking good. Everyone wrote poetry in high school. I wrote poetry in high school, including poetry about stuff I’d learned about in school. It was terrible. The only thing that makes me feel okay about that is knowing everyone wrote terrible poetry in high school. I rather resent Bo Burnham for writing good poetry in high school. But it wasn’t intellectual giantism. It wasn't even incredible poetry. It was just, you know, the unusual feat of writing high school poetry that didn’t suck.

There was a surprising amount of poetry in that special. Also, watching Words Words Words this year reminded me that his song Art Is Dead was on there. On Words Words Words, which came out in 2010, when he was only 19 (and much of it was written when he was younger than that, obviously). I'd been thinking of that song as something he made in his twenties, once he'd been around the showbiz industry for a while, and had developed disillusionment with it. But it turns out he'd developed that as a teenager. Apparently, going viral on YouTube in 2006 will fuck you up.

I don't love the idea that we should feel sorry for someone who was incredibly successful and made huge amounts of money, but also, fucking hell. That is a lot of disillusionment for a fucking teenager. I mean, I guess disillusionment is generally associated with teenagers, maybe this is just more high school poetry written by someone with more talent for throwing words around than he knew how to use appropriately. But I've always really liked this song.

Words Words Words ended with that and started with this, which is probably a good example of all the things about early Bo Burnham:

Complicated clever playing with words that maybe didn't always work quite as well as he thought it did. Offensive words dropped with too little examination of whether they're okay to say at all, but they're dropped with irony and mainly to make fun of the people who drop them unironically. Criticism of art and performance, with acknowledgement that he's engaging in the same thing he's making fun of. A jaunty melody that doesn't match the increasingly unhinged and dark lyrics. Relentless introspection, which comes out as more interrogating the nature of performance and art, because that was what he was doing with his life. That's the first song on his first special and it pretty well summarizes early Bo Burnham.

That last theme was one he kept up through his later stuff, up to and very much including Inside. I'd heard a lot of his sort of meta performance songs individually before, but I didn't put together how common they were for him until I watched all his specials at once. Pandering, his anti-fake country music song, wasn't a one-off. He's got a similar one about pop songs (Repeat Stuff). And a lot of songs and some poems about the vapidity of most mainstream media. There was his rant about reality TV coming from people thinking every little thing they do deserves an audience, because no one respects the craft enough to put things together with time or care, and he puts three years of effort into making something complicated with densely packed carefully chosen words (which is true - his specials are 2010, 2013, 2016, 2021). Inside took that same idea to social media, the songs about Instagram and Welcome to the Internet and the reaction video parody and that part where he lies on the floor and talks about the commercialization of teenage emotions.

The pre-Inside years of this cumulate in the end of Make Happy, which is his final pre-Inside special, from 2016 (there were videos on YouTube of the final song, but they didn't include the talking before it, so I cut that out myself and uploaded it here, since it's too long to upload directly to Tumblr):

I'd put together that running theme, realized the majority of his material is meta stuff on the subject of art and music and performance, probably about twenty minutes before I got to this point in his third special, when he stopped the show to overtly lay that out and explain it in plain terms to the audience. And then he builds into one of his most famous songs, his Kanye-style rant. The one that ends with him walking into that little shed or whatever, and then he doesn't make any more comedy specials until Inside, which is entirely filmed in that shed, so it gives the impression that he just walked out there and didn't walk about for five years. Which, according to a few segments from Inside, he seems to suggest is sort of what happened.

I do think that lends legitimacy to his Kanye song. It's always a risk, getting serious and sad and emotionally vulnerable in a comedy show. Because it's been so much that it's a cliche that people make fun of, and it can be hard to watch if it's not done well. It's also hard to make it sound sincere, especially if you're a very successful comedian because everyone knows you make too much money to generate much sympathy. Also, it's hard to make it feel honest. You perform the same show, every night, carefully written and rehearsed beforehand - the audience knows they're not watching someone genuinely lay out their emotions. Maybe you really are feeling these vulnerable emotions, maybe you had award nominations in your eyes. (To be clear, I say this as a fan who has been emotionally moved by plenty of emotionally moving comedy shows - I've just also cringed at some, and I recognize that the harder you double down on it, the harder it is to get right.)

Well, I'd say Bo Burnham has backed this one up pretty well with the fact that he did actually stop performing stand-up for several years after this. He wasn't pretending to have anxiety about his career and his position in life (just) so he could turn his emotions into commercial gain. He gave up quite a lot of potential commercial gain by not performing for a while, and coming back only when the pandemic let him do it with no audience, telling us he'd stopped because he was having panic attacks on stage.

He also makes the deep emotionally vulnerable part of the show work by burying it in irony and humour, starting with the Pringles and burrito stuff as a parody of this type of thing, before doing it for real. Then even fakes us out, making it look like the Real Problem he's been building up to is wanting to have a kid, immediately undercuts that by going back to Pringles, and only then gets into the emotional stuff for real. And auto-tunes the shit out of it to make fun of Kanye West and other grandiose singers, so he is still doing a parody. It adds enough layers of jokes to earn the rest of it. And in my mind, it really works.

The other reason he had to add all that other stuff to justify his right to complain about this problem is that the audience could resent him for complaining about how difficult it is to be rich and famous and successful. So he combats that, like a lot of decent famous comedians do, by being constantly self-aware about that, not just in that song but all the time. That goes back to Art Is Dead, the very beginning of the show he made at only nineteen, expressing guilt about making so much money for pointless songs over other people who deserve it more. There is also a running theme across all his stuff about feeling guilty for not doing something genuinely important.

Weirdly, that's another area where I find Bo Burnham relatable, even though I am not a multi-millionaire entertainer. It's not a problem I had until the last few years. Before then, I always felt this obligation to help others the way I'd been helped when I needed it, to go back and find the kids/teenagers who were struggling and didn't know how to communicate, and I'd communicate to them and give them a community and be the adult they needed, just like my friends and my (good) coaches and teammates had done for me in high school. I did that for years, as a coach of low-income kids, of disabled kids, of weird and nerdy and difficult kids, of kids who had no friends outside the sport, who didn't fit in. I felt like I was helping them and like my life made a difference.

That's been gone, since 2020. And nothing has really replaced it. I had this vague guilt for the last few years, about making money of unimportant editing jobs and not making the world better. Then this year I started working as an autism therapist, and I thought that would make me hate myself less, because surely that's useful. That's the kind of job people like Bo Burnham are talking about, right? When they say they feel guilty for writing silly comedy instead of helping the world, they mean they should be out working with disabled children. But I don't feel any less guilty. I'm not really doing anything useful, I'm just following a plan and getting paid for it. If I weren't doing it, someone else would do the same thing for the same amount of money and the kids would be in the same position. Thousands and thousands and thousands of people around the world have said that Bo Burhnam's songs have helped them to feel better when they needed it - he's done a lot more for the world than I have. And therefore, I do find something relatable in the "I don't contribute anything genuinely important" guilt of a multi-millionaire entertainer. I guess I can say that at least I'm not getting millions of dollars that could otherwise go to the genuinely important people. I'm getting quite a small amount of money for my job.

All right, that's brought me to the subject of people who find Bo Burnham's songs helpful, and that leads to me say this is the point in this post when I want to mention the only two Bo Burnham songs that have actually made me cry. One, obviously, is that song from Inside about how the pandemic caused him to lose all the progress he'd made as an adult on functioning in the world and go back to being a kid stuck in his room (because, you know, same, except that when I went back to hiding in my bedroom on the internet, I found my Harry Potter message boards were gone so I made a Tumblr blog instead). And the other is a borderline indefensible song that I am hoping I have done enough, throughout this entire rambling post, to defend:

It's not in any of his filmed specials. I've heard he used to perform it live at the end of What, but cut it from the filmed version. I definitely remember the first time I heard this song, when I was not long out of high school. It immediately made cry, and also made me cry the second and third times I listened to it, and can still do that today if it catches me in the right (or wrong) mood.

I think until I heard this song I didn't even realize how much resentment I still felt toward everything that let me spend those years as a non-functional drowning primary and middle school kid. I did realize how much imposter syndrome I had, how for years after I started having friends and being on that sports team and in that community, I thought I was just temporarily fooling people. I remember being fifteen and writing in my journal that I'd gone to a tournament and I'd hung out with teammates and competed and even won some matches, I got treated like a person who belonged there and who was made of the same stuff as everyone else and was worth as much as they were, but at any moment I expected someone to come in like Graham Chapman breaking up a Monty Python sketch, say "No, no, there's some mistake, this is the loner from middle school, she's not supposed to be here." I remember sitting with friends in the hallway at lunch time, playing Magic the Gathering and thinking "I'm not supposed to be here" over and over, and being scared I'd get caught.

That's the headspace I was still in the first time I heard this song, and that's enough for me to justify a hell of a lot of what's in it. Like the first couple of words being homophobic and ablist slurs, and the chorus containing another slur, there is some straight-up misogyny right near the beginning where he calls a female bully a whore. It's not great. None of it's great.

Okay. It is my view that if a word counts as a slur against a systemically oppressed group, you should not say that word if you are not a member of that group, regardless of the context. I would not say it, and I don’t think other people should say it. However, that doesn’t mean that if other people do choose to use those words, I’m just going to ignore the context. Some contexts for using those words are much, much better than others. And just reporting speech that other people have said, in order to say you think that speech was wrong – especially if the speech that you’re reporting was directed in an insulting way at you – is pretty much the best context there could be.

To me, this falls under the same clause as Tim Minchin saying “faggot” in one of his more recent songs. It’s an autobiographical song, and the context is that he’s listing things that people have called him because of his music and comedy: “I’ve been a bigot and a faggot, I’ve been smug and ugly.” Yeah, straight people shouldn’t use that word. But also, if you get called a word, you should be allowed to tell people that that’s happened to you. That seems like a fair rule to me. If people call you something, you should at least get one little pass to use that word while telling others that they’ve called you it.

And I have no doubt that Tim Minchin has been called a faggot. I’m thinking of the Paul Foot joke, where he says school is a weird place because it’s where children will be incredibly homophobic to kids who aren’t even gay – they don’t even check. No one checks. Any kid who doesn’t perfectly perform their gendered expectations (or any expectations of popularity, really) gets called homophobic stuff – especially in 2006. I also have no doubt that Bo Burnham got called that word a lot. He did write an entire song as a high school kid about how his whole family thought he was gay.

And this is where I think it sometimes goes too far when people say being a nerd does not make you systemtically oppressed, so you shouldn't be allowed to use the language of systemic oppression to talk about it. That is true, and an important point to make when addressing misogyny in nerd culture. But also, Bo Burnham definitely got called a faggot, and those other slurs in that song that I'm not going to write down because I don't think I have the same pass to use them (even though I have been called those words as well, certainly the R and S ones). Surely he's allowed to talk about that, and write songs in solidarity with other kids who get called those words whether they technically apply to them or not.

...None of that justifies calling the girl a whore, though. I've got no defense for that and neither does he. That's the only time (in this song) he uses a slur against another person, instead of reporting what's been used against him. But I do forgive it, because it made me cry and realize how worried I still was on behalf of the kid I used to be, when I heard the voice of my niche of my generation tell me he had that kid's back.

Look, I tried to find something interesting to say about this next song so I could have an excuse to add it to this post, but I don't have much, so I'm going to add it anyway because I love it:

From a few years after the original Words Words Words show, where he kept doing poetry that played with words, that was densely written and clever and worked way too well for some shit that was done by a teenager, but still, didn't work quite as well as he seemed to think it did. It feels like a few years later he had it figured out.

So, as it clear here, watching those Bo Burnham specials brought up a lot of stuff for me. To the point where I've now written pages and pages about him and haven't actually gotten to whether I thought his stuff was funny, as I've been too busy on 1) the personal emotional stuff from him and what personal stuff it reminds me of from my life, and 2) whether you can justify the #problematic thing. Because Bo Burnham is so overwhelmingly tied to that stuff in my mind, it's hard to separate the art from the rest of it.

If I put both of those things aside for a moment, of course it was fucking funny. The stuff when he was young was shockingly well written for someone so young (the signs of his youth were there, it wasn't perfect, he probably shouldn't have been given such a big platform at that age, but still), and I don't think he had that thing that a lot of young talented people get where they stagnate after their teen years and other people catch up. He kept getting better, you can see it with each show. It helps that there were 3 (or more) years between each show, so much of his stuff is so densely written that you can see it takes him that long to put it together.

The production values were amazing. The little touches like writing the entire text of the show on the wall of Words Words Words (not a little touch, that's a big touch, but there's so much else going on that it feels little). He can play the piano quite well. The thing where he knocks the water over at the beginning of What is really funny. Not every single song or comedy segment of every single special is a smash hit, but almost none of them seem bad (with... a few exceptions in his earlier work). I love how you can watch him get better, as the years go on, at expanding on his ideas and finding creative ways to express them.

This post took me too long to write and I can't be bothered to edit it now. Sorry for the massive number of errors that are definitely in it. The song Welcome to the Internet is a work of genius, not sure if I've mentioned that yet but it seemed worth saying. Since I seem to have decided to cram every thought I've ever had about Bo Burnham into one post (and quite a few thoughts that aren't about Bo Burnham, but have been on my mind lately anyway and were brought up by watching Bo Burnham, and this is one of those posts where it makes me feel better to think all my thoughts about this are written down and put in one place so I can move on from them, it's not really any good to anyone else).

[purplesurveys]

1755

Millennial survey In which a Gen Z-er takes over a survey meant for millennials 😜

What year were you born in? 1998.

Do you remember a time before smartphones and social media? Yeah, of course. I'd talk to friends mostly through landline or text; memorizing the program schedules per channel was the norm because streaming and on-demand stuff were pretty much nonexistent then; and playing outside was the best way to have fun with friends. There was also still the element of surprise when watching...well, pretty much anything, because there was no concept of spoilers unless you had access to the (early days of the) internet, which had been damn near impossible to use anyway because of how expensive it used to be.

I remember when Friendster, Multiply, YouTube, and Facebook all started getting popular and it being very exciting because the concept of social media didn't exist til then and it was like discovering a new world that I thought I'd never get tired of, lol.

Were you part of the generation that experienced the transition from dial-up internet to broadband? Yes. We had dial-up up til the early 2000s and didn't get a taste of broadband until around 2008 - 15 years ago. That noisy dial-up sound is permanently etched in my brain.

Did you grow up watching Saturday morning cartoons? I absolutely did. For some reason they kept the actual entertaining shows in the early morning, so that's how I learned to want to wake up early even on the weekends to catch them. I hated the Nick Jr block they had on in the morning and always skipped over it unless Hi-5, my only favorite, was airing.

Do you have any memories of using floppy disks or cassette tapes? Not floppy disks, but I am very familiar with cassettes since our first family car had a cassette player. My first Beyoncé album is a cassette and I wasn't able to get the CD version til, like, well into the 2010s because it was the first time I saw the CD in the wild haha.

How did you communicate with your friends before the advent of text messaging? Landline.

Were you a fan of any particular boy band or girl group during your teenage years? Ok this is 100% where my Gen Z card would show because my answer to this would be One Direction hahaha.

Did you ever own a portable CD player or a Walkman? I had a CD player and my own radio.

What was your favorite video game console when you were growing up? PlayStation 1 and 2. I had always wanted to try playing on the GameCube but we never had one.

Did you ever use AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) or MSN Messenger to chat with friends? Not those, but I did have Yahoo! Messenger for a time.

Were you aware of the Y2K bug and the associated concerns leading up to the year 2000? No, I had been too young for that whole thing.

Did you ever rent movies from a physical video rental store like Blockbuster or Hollywood Video? I didn't.

Were you into MySpace or LiveJournal during the early days of social networking? I made a Myspace because I had heard of its popularity, but quickly realized that it was only popular in the west because what was big here instead were Friendster and Multiply. LiveJournal yes, I did do a few attempts to start blogs and stuff but I always ended up abandoning them after 1 or 2 posts.

What was your first experience with online shopping? I only started online shopping in like 2017 - the Philippines caught on pretty late. Before that I would either have to go to an actual store to get something, or ask my dad to buy something for me whenever he was in the US.

Did you ever participate in a flash mob or witness one in person? I've done neither.

How did you discover new music before the rise of streaming platforms like Spotify? It was mostly through either recommendations of my favorite celebrities or word of mouth in school.

Were you a fan of the "Harry Potter" book series or the "Twilight" saga? I was never into Harry Potter but I was obsessed with Twilight (still am, lol). I caught on to the hype in 2008 when the first movie came out – quickly breezed through all the books and got to watch New Moon up to Breaking Dawn Part 2 in the cinema.

Did you ever have a MySpace profile and customize it with HTML and CSS? I didn't do HTML on Myspace but I definitely did on Tumblr. This is where I learned all my website customization knowledge tbh.

What was your favorite TV show or cartoon during your childhood? In early childhood, my favorite was without a doubt Hi-5. I was hooked and I remember feeling so distraught when I graduated preschool and realized I was never gonna get to watch Hi-5 again once I'd start grade school and have full-day classes.

Growing up more I started to gravitate towards shows like Drake and Josh, The Suite Life, and That's So Raven. Apart from those, Spongebob also remains a favorite no matter what age I get.

How did you feel about the transition from traditional television to streaming services? It was hard to grasp at first. I remember in 2020 when my dad was asking us if we can get rid of cable and I felt genuinely scandalized lol like why would we ever get rid of cable when it's been part of our everyday lives since even before I was born??? Anyway, my siblings and I eventually gave in when we too realized that we never even went through the cable channels anymore.

Streaming services are definitely the 'new' way of consumption now and my family has fully eased into it - we're subscribed to Netflix, Disney+, and Prime Video. I don't have too many strong feelings about this topic, but if anything it does feel extremely bittersweet whenever we'd hear a channel permanently sign off for good – recently it had been NatGeo.

[ms-cellanies]

A miraculous life-saving event.

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[hc-geralt-23]

Here are Red Dead Redemption's PC requirements https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/news/here-are-red-dead-redemption-s-pc-requirements/ar-AA1rX9sX

[habourseo]

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Another noteworthy aspect of MSN Magazines is their collaboration with various contributors, including industry experts, influencers, and everyday enthusiasts. This approach enriches the content, offering multiple perspectives and expert insights. By featuring diverse voices, MSN Magazines create a more inclusive platform for readers.

SEO and Digital Marketing Strategy

In today's digital landscape, effective SEO and marketing strategies are crucial for success. MSN Magazines employ targeted keywords, engaging headlines, and shareable content to enhance visibility. Social media integration allows for wider reach and engagement, inviting readers to share articles and participate in discussions.

Conclusion

As the digital landscape continues to evolve, MSN Magazines stand as a testament to the power of adaptation in media. By offering rich, diverse content and prioritizing user experience, they cater to the needs of modern readers. Whether you’re looking for the latest health tips, travel inspiration, or tech news, MSN Magazines provide a valuable resource for navigating today’s world.

[tmarshconnors]

When Being Online Was Pure Magic!

There was a time when logging onto the internet was an adventure, a digital frontier brimming with excitement and wonder. I remember those days vividly. The mere act of coming online felt like opening a treasure chest full of endless possibilities. Every click, every page load, and every notification held the promise of something new and exhilarating.

YouTube was once a gateway to a world of fascinating content. I used to spend hours watching videos, diving down rabbit holes of creativity, humour, and knowledge. It was a revolutionary platform where anyone could become a creator, and everyone had a chance to discover something unique and entertaining. The novelty of user-generated content was mesmerising.

But as time passed, that magic seemed to fade. YouTube became just another app on my phone, another website in my bookmarks. The excitement of finding a new, must-watch video was replaced by a sense of routine. The platform that once felt like a playground now feels like a familiar, sometimes monotonous, part of daily life.

Remember MSN Messenger? It was the hub of my teenage social life, where every "ding" of a new message brought a rush of anticipation. The art of crafting the perfect status message or selecting the right display picture was a serious endeavour. And then there was MySpace, the social network that let you  customise your profile with your favourite music, quirky backgrounds, and top friends list. It was a place where individuality thrived. 

Those platforms weren't just tools; they were experiences. They were a digital canvas where we could express ourselves, connect with friends, and explore the burgeoning online world. There's a pang of nostalgia when I think back to those simpler times. The digital landscape has changed so much since then, and sometimes it feels like we've lost something along the way.

Maybe it’s not the internet that’s changed; maybe it’s me. Growing up often means losing some of the wonder and excitement we once had for things. The thrill of discovery is replaced by familiarity, and the extraordinary becomes ordinary. I know I have normalised the incredible technology at my fingertips, taking for granted what would have once blown my mind.

The internet has become an integral part of our lives, but in doing so, it has also become mundane. Social media feeds are filled with the same recycled content, streaming services offer endless choices yet nothing truly captivates, Yes I am looking at you Amazon Prime and Netflix and even the novelty of new gadgets wears off quickly. The sense of wonder that used to accompany being online has faded, replaced by a habitual scrolling and clicking.

Oh I don’t know. I guess that’s why I started blogging in the first place somewhere to put all my collective thoughts, regardless what they may be. 

Never mind, I am off to bed it’s 2.45am here in the United Kingdom. 

Until next time! 

[msclaritea]

Netflix Debuts a Bloated, Baffling Post-Strike SAG Awards Telecast

The 2024 SAG Awards allegedly only ran ten minutes over its two-hour time slot on Saturday, but it felt a whole lot longer.

Unlike most awards shows, the SAG Awards and other guild ceremonies award winners only in their respective discipline, but that didn't make the telecast more efficient or memorable in any way. While the room full of nominees and winners were endlessly thankful to their union and outside solidarity during the strikes, the telecast failed to sufficiently honor the talent on display in a worthy manner - that too on the show's 30th anniversary.

And it was no ordinary SAG Awards year for another obvious reason; the telecast aired live on Netflix for the first time ever (including pre-show hosted by Tan France and Elaine Welteroth). Netflix is one of the only streamers that doesn't dabble in live TV, so teaming up with the SAG Awards was both surprising and smart. The world's most ubiquitous streaming platform could prove that it does traditional TV as well, and that it could be a home for other awards shows looking to reach new audiences worldwide.

It also meant no commercial breaks, as Idris Elba pointed out at the top of show (he commended anyone smart enough to bring a flask, which led to a brilliant cutaway of Rhea Perlman offering hers to Lisa Ann Walter) - at least not in the traditional sense. Instead, France returned in between awards to interview previous winners backstage, starting with Jeremy Allen White after his win for "The Bear." Despite being an inventive alternative to traditional commercial breaks, this creative decision killed the telecast's momentum early in the night and it never recovered.

The decision to include post-win interview might stem from how such clips tend to perform on social media during or after other awards shows, but making viewers sit through the entirety of every interview is not the way. It places extra pressure on both interviewer and winner to perform - to deliver a winning interview that's not being watched by its usual discerning audience, and further still to manufacture viral moments in the haze of earning an award (a height achieved only by Pedro Pascal's drunk interview, where flirted with France, declared his plans to make out with Kieran Culkin, and was finally interrupted by a hug from Steven Yeun, who came to return Pascal's envelope from the stage). If nothing else, it was constant whiplash for viewers to essentially jump back several categories for an interview with a winner who already accepted their award.

It also didn't happen for everyone! Netflix aired France's interviews with White, Ayo Edibiri, Pascal, and Da'Vine Joy Randolph, and then a baffling interview with Walter - a fantastic actor and part of the exceptional "Abbott Elementary" ensemble, but neither actor nor show won during the show. It turned out to be part of an extended bit where Walter revealed that there was a camera following her all night, recording every conversation - a bit that yielded close to zero entertainment, despite Walter's best efforts.

This was unfortunately a pattern throughout the telecast. SAG took a leaf from the 50th Emmys in January, by uniting iconic casts on stage, including the winning TV ensembles of "Modern Family" and "Breaking Bad" and mini-reunions for "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Devil Wears Prada" (an easy high in the night that took place less than ten minutes into the show). Elsewhere, paired presenters plowed through stilted, scripted banter, all of which could have been trimmed down or sped up in the best interest of everyone watching. White noted "Wow, they give you a lot of time at this one," during his acceptance speech before gracefully exiting the stage. Heck, even Barbra Streisand's heartfelt and well-deserved tribute dragged - and clocked in at close to 20 minutes.

But as awards seasons ramps for its final act, the SAGs are the final tee-up for the Oscars, and Saturday's winners certainly pointed the way of major predictions. The supporting actors awards went to Robert Downey Jr. ("Oppenheimer) and Da'Vine Joy Randolph ("The Holdovers") and the lead actor awards to Cillian Murphy ("Oppenheimer") and Lily Gladstone ("Killers of the Flower Moon"). The award for Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture went to "Oppenheimer," proving that all eyes will be on Christopher Nolan's blockbusting drama come March 10.

The 2024 Screen Actors’ Guild Awards were hostless – and pointless, too

Lack of presenters aside, the big novelty was that the SAG Awards were airing live on Netflix. The streamer has been dipping its digital digits into live broadcasts for several years: 12 months ago it broke new ground with a live Chris Rock comedy special (in which he flubbed his big joke about Will Smith slapping him at the Oscars).

With live broadcasts, of course, comes the headache of time-zones. In the UK, the SAG Awards kicked off at midnight – with the first 60 minutes consisting of yawn-inducing red carpet interviews by Tan France before the ceremony finally began.

Pedro Pascal accepts the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series - Matt Winkelmeyer© Provided by The Telegraph

The SAG Awards are organised by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and are thus a fountain of luvvydom. The 2024 event began with a trio of actors – Michael Cera, Colman Domingo and the ubiquitous Hannah Waddingham – walking through the crowd, explaining how and why they joined the profession.

They were followed by Idris Elba, the closest the night came to an actual host (he was back later with further jokes). He delivered a few playful quips and then got on to the meaty business of commending his colleagues for holding firm in their industrial dispute with the big Hollywood studios (and the streamers – including Netflix).

Winning a SAG Award clearly means a lot to the actors. Pedro Pascal revealed he was both drunk and astonished when collecting the accolade for Best Male Actor in a Drama Series for The Last Of Us – and was still agog in an awkward backstage interview/ambush by Tan France. Pascal’s joy was infectious – as was his tipsiness. Alas, it wasn’t enough to paper over the cracks in a ceremony lacking the gonzo absurdity of the Golden Globes or the blockbuster heft of the Oscars.

One SAG Award speciality is hosting on-stage reunions by the cast of beloved shows and movies. True to that tradition, the 2024 edition welcomed the stars of Modern Family and Breaking Bad – during the latter Jonathan Banks dropped one of several F-bombs sprinkled throughout the evening. “It’s an award show, for God’s sake, they can’t fire us. F--- ‘em,” he declared. Elsewhere, Barbra Streisand accepted a lifetime achievement award with charm and dignity – revealing a teenage crush on Marlon Brando was her portal into acting.

In the main, though, the event was an Oppenheimer victory lap. Robert Downey Jr collected his Best Supporting Actor statuette with a quirky speech in which he thanked everyone he has ever worked with (including the cancelled Mel Gibson). The Oppenheimer cast subsequently won an ensemble award. It was an opportunity for Kenneth Branagh – apparently he was in Oppenheimer – to debut his alarming new beard and again reference the actors’ strike. He seemed excited. The rest of us will wonder when the awards season phoney wars will finally end and we can proceed to the serious business of the actual Oscars. At the end of a long night, the real prize at the SAG Awards should surely go to viewers who stayed up for this snoozy extravaganza.

[noitesnojapao]

Noites no Japão - Episódio Piloto

Antes de embarcar no avião, poucos meses antes de ir embora, ficava vendo coisas na internet. Como se fosse pra me despedir delas, mesmo sabendo que poderia vê-las novamente quando estivesse no Japão. É uma espécie de saudades que a gente sente antes mesmo de ir embora.

Existia um programa chamado "Atropelando" na rádio 92.7 de Dracena, o qual eu ficava escutando lá pelas 9 ou 10 horas da noite. Programas de TV como "Show do Tom" faziam minhas noites mais alegres. Quem não se lembra de canções como "Festa no Ap��", do Latino!?

Conversas pelo MSN com meu amigo Randal eram comuns de noite e de madrugada. E se havia um filme o qual marcou muito aquele ano antes de partir foi "O Predador", o primeiro de 1987. Já havia visto no Colegial, embora ainda continuava marcando minha vida. Inclusive no Japão.

Mas se existia algo que realmente marcava minhas noites era o extinto site brasileiro oficial das "Tartarugas Ninjas". Remetia à infância, quando aquela bela pizza em São Paulo com a família do Gran rolava de noite.

A descrição de cada personagem era única. Só depois descobri que na verdade as descrições eram traduzidas do site americano. Por alguém que entendia realmente de traduzir. Sempre me identifiquei muito com a descrição do personagem Raphael. A tartaruga que usa uma faixa vermelha e um par de sais (sabres).

Imagem retirada do site: https://comicbook.com/anime/news/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtle-original-cartoon-watch/

Imagem retirada do site: https://www.fatherly.com/entertainment/how-to-watch-all-versions-of-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-tmnt

Cara, eu amava o desenho de 87! No começo dos anos 90 ainda passava. Meus primos Gustavo Aramaki e Leonardo Aramaki assistiam comigo. Seja na antiga casa deles ou em casa, a gente era fã dessas 4 tartarugas!

A série de 87 tinha mais humor, enquanto a série de 2003 era mais voltada para a ação. Tudo teve origem na antiga série de quadrinhos, ao que me parece.

Outra coisa que me chamava a atenção era o site Outpost #31, um fã site do filme "O Enigma de Outro Mundo" que existe até hoje.

Imagem retirada do site: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH7hyzPIbp0

Inclusive também existe um jogo de mesa chamado "The Thing: The Boardgame". Vou deixar um link para quem quiser conhecer:

Nesse fã site ainda havia uma adaptação do filme para GURPS, um sistema de RPG muito detalhado e de livre escolha. As fichas dos personagens eram fantásticas. Hoje em dia acho que você não encontra mais essa seção no site, mas enfim...me corrijam novamente se eu estiver errado.

E os altos papos com o Randal tarde da noite? Eu falava muito com ele sobre várias coisas aleatórias, tais como aquele filme do Predador entre outros assuntos sobrenaturais.

O que nunca imaginaria é que mais tarde estaria cometendo atos de heroísmo ou pelo menos fazendo história lá no Japão em cenas parecidas como as do filme. Vou explicar melhor: Sabe quando você se pega em situações muito parecidas com as do filme e só percebe isso quando tá fazendo?!

Não precisa estar perante a um Predador ou a uma criatura sobrenatural. Basta apenas a situação lembrar muito algo já visto antes.

Tipo daquela vez em que eu e o Joaquim Hata dissemos sem perceber: Isso acontece!, frase dita pelo personagem interpretado por Arnold Schwarzenegger. Ou aquela vez em que o Joaquim Hata permaneceu sério e pronto para agir por instinto perante ao forno prestes a explodir, parecendo muito aquele personagem do filme que tem feições indígenas.

Acredito que quando exploramos uma obra de ficção mais a fundo, coisas como essas acontecem porque atraímos elas de certa maneira. É como se reflexos da obra de ficção estivessem agora presentes em sua vida ou em certa época da sua vida para ajudar você e fazer você refletir melhor sobre como as coisas funcionam.

Imagem retirada do site: https://www.adorocinema.com/filmes/filme-43225/

Imagem retirada do site: https://estacaonerd.com/fim-de-semana-de-classicos-o-predador-1987/

Imagem retirada do site: http://cinematizando.com/o-predador-1987/

Voltas pela rua sem sentido eram muito aconchegantes em 2005. Eu visitava a antiga casa do Randal em Junqueirópolis. Pelo menos passava na frente dela a noite. Talvez fosse pra manter vivo o amigo de classe que conheci lá em 93, na pré-escola.

Duas coisas eram comuns pra mim: Hambúrguer de Frango na "Lanchonete da Tia" e churros de doce de leite, na feira.

O Randal veio aqui em casa algumas vezes antes da viagem. Inclusive conversamos sobre muitas coisas juntos. Tocamos violão no meu quarto e combinei de visitar ele também. A mãe dele veio também. Descanse em paz, Dona Tuta. Jamais vou esquecer que você foi minha segunda mãe. E vou permanecer ao lado do seu filho seja pro que der e vier.

Jogar "Fatal Fury 2" no meu antigo Super Nintendo parecia confortante, pois precisava lembrar...precisava ter aquilo em mente. Aquilo o que eu sempre fui e a lei da natureza não permite que ninguém roube isso de alguém. Não adianta tentar...ninguém é mais do que a natureza e tudo aquilo o que existe no universo. Lutar contra a própria natureza é em vão, embora façamos isso muitas vezes sem perceber. E é perfeitamente normal que isso aconteça.

Ainda haviam sobrado algumas fitas de SNES aqui em casa, tais como "Return of Double Dragon" e "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie". Na verdade sobraram até muitos cartuchos do meu antigo SNES, depois de ter trocado tantas vezes com os amigos.

Tomar vinho branco suave (vinho doce) era comum também. Umas cachaças com licor de amendoim e rum ouro, enfim...parecia o MacReady de "O Enigma de Outro Mundo" deixando uma gravação em frente ao computador. Rs...

Imagem retirada do site: https://demo.9marketplus.com.br/loja-01/produto/coquetel-wilson-miajuda-amendoim-920ml-54671/

Nós não somos os personagens fictícios. Mas temos algo em comum com todos eles, acredito. E é na calada da noite que isso fica mais mágico. Quando a gente tá com sono e quase dormindo.

Não sou bom de despedidas, mas ela é necessária para que uma nova fase venha a chegar.

E toda noite antes de dormir sonhava com um lugar mágico, maravilhoso...claro, com todos os defeitos que existem em qualquer lugar do mundo. Porém um lugar onde pudesse conhecer minha verdadeira origem. Um lugar oriental, onde a magia daquele povo e daquele país pudesse se fundir plenamente com o que há de mais profundo em minha alma.

[nj-stone]

Tori Amos pays tribute to Sinéad O’Connor at S.F. show

https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/tori-amos-pays-tribute-to-sin%C3%A9ad-o-connor-at-s-f-show/ar-AA1essOS