#online live chat audio video

[voiceclub]

live chat audio call app

Online Best Chatting App, Live Video Chat,Live Video Chatting,free social media app,live video chatting,live video chatting app,free live app,free live video chatting,social media apps,live chat audio call,online live chat audio call,live video chat,dating app,social media,sexy video chat,free live video chat,free dating app,live stream,live video chat sexy,live sexy video chat,free live video chatting app live chat audio call app

[honeytonedhottie]

beauty and brains⋆.ೃ࿔*:･🎀☕️

in this post we'll talk about how to implement continual learning into ur life and how to nurture ur intellect and ur beauty, like elle woods for example…💬🎀

MINDSET ;

first off lets take a look at ur mindset. you need to be willing to learn and if ur stubborn then ur not gonna allow urself to learn and become smarter so for that reason mindset is the perfect place to start when ur starting ur beauty and brains journey.

perspective is EVERYTHING when it comes to learning. if u have the belief that "i hate math so much, im so not good at it etc etc" you're already setting urself up for failure. remember that we are in charge of our own learning.

figure out the sources of ur limiting beliefs about urself and challenge them. ask urself "why do i think im bad at math (or any other subject)" and the answers that u give urself, CHALLENGE them.

UNDERSTAND THAT ;

before we go any further understand that no subject is too complicated to learn and if ur experiencing that then ur learning it the wrong way…💬🎀

if ur having a hard time understanding a subject in school because of the way ur teacher explains it, ask another teacher at ur school and if that doesn't work turn to online resources OR just ask chat gpt. i ask chat gpt to help me break down math problems and explain how to do them and it works rly good for me.

READING ;

from my own experience i feel like reading is so so important. bcuz reading helps u to expand ur vocabulary and improves comprehension and so much more. personally i love to read so this isnt hard for me to do but if u originally dont like to read here are some ways to romanticize reading.

♡ start with topics/genres that u love

♡ set small goals (like reading for 5-10 minutes a day) and then building upon those goals

♡ experiment with physical books, e-books etc to figure out what u like best

WHAT U WATCH ;

i watch a lot of discussion based youtube videos, and video essays, documentaries etc and i have learned so much from them and they're actually one of my favorite ways to learn things. so i highly recommend watching some. watching things like this is so important because they provide a deeper understanding of real-world issues, cultures, and events that we might not encounter in our daily lives.

HOW TO UNDERSTAND ;

understanding what u read and what u learn is so so important. the way i make sure that i understand what im learning is through writing papers. writing papers about things that interest me or things that i learn has helped me to retain what i learn instead of forgetting it all.

another key thing to remember is PRACTICE. if u dont practice what u learn you'll literally forget it. use everything that u learn and if u can't physically use it, imagine urself using it.

MAKE IT A GAME ;

this is where the beauty aspect of the phrase "beauty and brains" comes into play. make learning like a GAME. i think thats how u get smart the best. just implement it into ur daily life.

for example if u have a habit of watching an episode of ur favorite show a day (or multiple) between episodes read for x amount of time. if u go for a run everyday listen to an audio book whilst running. think of that scene in the movie legally blonde where elle was reading her textbook while working out.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing an oc that's a streamer?

Writing Notes: Streamer Characters

Live Streamer

Also livestreamer or online streamer

Someone who makes videos that show them playing computer games, talking about products, or doing other activities, and streams them (i.e., puts them on the internet) at the same time as they are being made.

An individual who broadcasts real-time video content over the internet, engaging with an audience through online platforms.

Transmits live or on-demand audio or video content while users listen or watch.

Livestreams are deployed over various platforms, including social media platforms like YouTube Live, Facebook Live, Twitter, Instagram Live, and TikTok, as well as through professional business services, such as Kaltura and Dacast.

Unlike pre-recorded videos, live streams occur in the moment, allowing viewers to interact with the streamer through chat functions and other interactive features.

This immediacy creates a dynamic and engaging experience for both the streamer and the audience.

Live streamers cover a wide range of content:

playing video games,

hosting talk shows,

conducting interviews,

cooking,

crafting, and

live vlogging daily activities.

The versatility of live streaming content means that streamers can find their niche and build a community around shared interests.

Successful live streamers often cultivate a loyal following by maintaining a consistent streaming schedule, engaging directly with their viewers, and creating a sense of community.

What your Character does as a Live Streamer

Content Creation: Live streamers plan, prepare, and execute engaging live broadcasts. They choose topics or activities that resonate with their audience, maintain a consistent streaming schedule, and ensure that their content is entertaining and relevant to their viewers.

Audience Interaction: Interacting with viewers in real-time is a key responsibility. Streamers engage through live chat, responding to comments, questions, and feedback during the stream. They foster a sense of community by acknowledging and involving their audience, using interactive features like polls, Q&A sessions, and shout-outs to enhance viewer engagement.

Technical Management: Managing technical aspects is crucial to a successful stream. This includes setting up and maintaining streaming equipment such as cameras, microphones, lighting, and streaming software. Streamers must ensure a stable internet connection, troubleshoot technical issues promptly, and optimize stream quality to deliver a seamless viewing experience.

Monetization: Monetizing their channels is an important aspect for many streamers. This can involve receiving viewer donations, earning subscriptions (e.g., Twitch subscriptions), securing sponsorships and partnerships with brands, and generating revenue through advertising. Streamers may also leverage merchandise sales, affiliate marketing, or exclusive content to diversify their income streams.

Community Building: Building and nurturing a community around their content is essential. Streamers cultivate a loyal following by creating a welcoming environment, engaging with viewers regularly, and participating in community events or collaborations. They may also moderate chat and ensure a positive and inclusive atmosphere during streams.

Continuous Improvement: Successful streamers constantly strive to improve their content and grow their audience. They analyze viewer analytics to understand audience preferences and trends, experiment with new content formats or streaming techniques, and stay updated with industry trends and platform changes to maintain relevance and competitiveness in the streaming space.

What Type of Live Streamer is your Character?

Live streamers can be categorized into various types based on the content they stream and the communities they engage with. Here are some common types:

Gaming Streamers: Gaming streamers focus on playing and broadcasting video games live to their audience. They may specialize in specific genres such as first-person shooters, role-playing games, or multiplayer online battle arenas (MOBAs). Gaming streamers entertain viewers with their gameplay skills, commentary, and interactions with their audience through live chat.

IRL (In Real Life) Streamers: IRL streamers share their real-life experiences and activities in real-time. They broadcast everyday activities such as traveling, exploring new places, attending events, or participating in challenges. IRL streamers often engage their audience by interacting with them while showcasing their daily routines or special events happening in their lives.

Talk Show and Podcast Streamers: Talk show and podcast streamers host live discussions, interviews, or debates on various topics of interest. They invite guests or panelists to join their streams, engaging with them and their audience through insightful conversations and debates. Talk show streamers may cover topics ranging from politics and current events to pop culture and entertainment.

Creative Streamers: Creative streamers focus on showcasing their artistic talents and skills live. They create art, music, crafts, or digital designs while interacting with their audience. Creative streamers often provide tutorials, share their creative process, and take viewer suggestions or requests for their next project.

Music Streamers: Music streamers perform live music sessions, DJ sets, or music production sessions for their audience. They may cover popular songs, perform original compositions, or engage in interactive music creation with their viewers. Music streamers often use platforms that allow them to receive song requests and interact with their audience in real-time.

Fitness and Sports Streamers: Fitness and sports streamers broadcast live workouts, training sessions, or sports events. They provide exercise routines, fitness tips, and motivation to their audience while demonstrating exercises or participating in sports activities. Fitness streamers may also engage in challenges or competitions with their viewers.

Educational Streamers: Educational streamers conduct live tutorials, lectures, or workshops on topics such as science, technology, languages, or academic subjects. They share knowledge, answer viewer questions in real-time, and provide interactive learning experiences through demonstrations or experiments.

Cooking Streamers: Cooking streamers broadcast live cooking sessions where they prepare recipes, share cooking tips, and engage with their audience while demonstrating culinary techniques. They may also take viewer suggestions for recipes or cooking challenges, creating a community around food and culinary arts.

What Would your Character's Workplace Look Like?

The workplace of a live streamer is typically centered around creating a conducive environment for broadcasting engaging and interactive content.

Unlike traditional office settings, live streamers often work from home or a dedicated studio space that they have set up for streaming purposes.

This space is vital for maintaining control over the streaming setup and creating a comfortable atmosphere conducive to content creation.

At home, live streamers often have a designated area or room where they set up their streaming equipment.

This might include a high-quality camera, microphone, lighting rigs, and a powerful computer or gaming console capable of handling streaming software and gameplay simultaneously.

The setup is tailored to their specific streaming needs, ensuring optimal audiovisual quality and reliability during broadcasts.

Beyond the physical setup, the digital workspace of a live streamer involves managing streaming software, interacting with viewers through chat functions, and monitoring analytics in real-time.

This requires multitasking skills to engage with the audience while focusing on gameplay, discussion topics, or other content being streamed.

Streamers also use this digital space to collaborate with moderators, manage community interactions, and coordinate special events or collaborations with other content creators.

Some Streaming Strategies your Character Could Use

Makes their livestream unique

Focuses on their livestream audience’s needs

Surprises their livestream audience

Promotes their livestream

Interacts with their viewers

Tells viewers what to do at the end of a livestream (e.g., see more content, attend an event)

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 ⚜ More: Writing Notes & References

Hope this helps with your writing!

[zot3-flopped]

Two months prior to its release, would-be doyens of Swift’s Tortured Poets Department have taken its barbed track listing very literally, leading to intense, often nefarious speculation regarding Swift’s six-year relationship with the British actor Joe Alwyn, which seemingly ended in early 2023.

The album’s title, revealed onstage at the Grammy awards, was quickly linked to a December, 2022 interview with Alwyn and Paul Mescal in which they revealed that Andrew Scott started their group chat, the Tortured Man Club. (“It hasn’t had much use recently,” Alwyn said: you wonder if it’s undergone a recent revival.) Swift revealed the leading track list a day later: My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys, So Long, London, I Can Do It With a Broken Heart, The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived, to name a few, sending fans wild with speculation.

Swift, obviously, has every right to sing about her relationships however she wants to (no apologies to Eamonn Holmes). But in the absence of any music, some fans have spread baseless, dangerous and even libellous allegations about Alwyn’s conduct (which, for obvious reasons, I can’t repeat).

Last month, a brief fan-shot video of them dining in a New Orleans restaurant in December, 2022 was recirculated online with AI-doctored audio that made it sound as though Alwyn is saying “you don’t get to tell me about sad,” a line printed on the back of one of the new album’s four physical editions.

When Swift recently told a crowd that she was “lonely” when writing her 2020 album Folklore – some of which was co-written with Alwyn during the pandemic, a lonely time for most – fans took that as further confirmation of their theories. A live medley of three songs that all appear to reference cheating threw petrol on the fire.

Swift could make this stop. She is no stranger to airing her displeasure with the likes of Ticketmaster, Scooter Braun, Spotify and Apple Music, and, occasionally, politicians. Before she released Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) last year, she gave a veiled speech at one Eras tour date effectively asking fans not to go after John Mayer, whom she dated when she was 19 and he was 32 and is understood to be the subject of that album’s Dear John.

“I am not putting this album out so you should feel the need to defend me on the internet against someone you think I wrote a song about 14m years ago when I was 19,” she said in Minneapolis.

But for whatever reason – and obviously, no member of the public has any idea what transpired between her and Alwyn so far – this time she has opted to stay quiet.

Establishing a baseline for conduct is neither commercially risky nor unprecedented: just last week, Ariana Grande said, after the release of her post-divorce album Eternal Sunshine: “Anyone that is sending hateful messages to the people in my life based on your interpretation of this album is not supporting me and is absolutely doing the polar opposite of what I would ever encourage”.

It feels like the endgame of a cat-and-mouse act that’s gone too far. Swift’s gestures towards meaning have led every single thing she does to be considered a kind of marketing, a clue to be solved. It leaves a superstar who’s usually hot on her messaging open to misinterpretation: hints about her personal life are turned by some fans into witch-hunts for anyone perceived to have wronged her; her current silence on politics allows politicians to invoke her name, from the New South Wales police commissioner quoting Swift’s anti-haters lines while defending police to Joe Biden joking that the matter of her apparently much sought-after endorsement is “classified” on Late Night With Seth Meyers.

When Swift made a blandly neutral handwritten post encouraging US citizens to register to vote on Super Tuesday, some fans speculated that her unusual left-leaning handwriting was the real indication of her loyalties – suggesting they’re so starved of substance that they’re reading into empty messages because of this dynamic she has established. (The more likely explanation is the insane way she holds a pen.)

For Swift to only direct fans as to her wishes when it suits her, it weakens her status as a truth-teller. If the comparisons with Dickinson mean anything, she might remember that nothing in the world has as much power as a word feels like the endgame of a cat-and-mouse act that’s gone too far.

[seekforwarmth]

lou!! how was it? how are you feeling!!

HIIIIII! omg idk where to begin.

i’ve been spending the last four days with Anitra @allwaswell16 and it’s been absolutely amazing! we got to see lots of cool stuff for the first time together, or for the second time in some cases. sometimes it shows when you’ve known a person online for seven years or so bc it’s so easy when it comes to hang out “in real life” 🥹

so anyway, we had been so lucky with mexico city’s traffic for the first two days (even on friday which was also pay day), but yesterday we got to experience the real chaos (and the scam that has become uber), so we couldn’t get there by the time doors opened and we missed Giant Rocks and the special merch for mexico city (Anitra got us merch anyway and we’re twining), but i was mostly sad abt missing my chance to finally meet An @lemelous (we’re going to meet soon so it’s fine but also it would’ve made my night way better that it already was!)

before the show, we got to trade some friendship bracelets and we got the material for the fan projects!

i got to meet in person my friend Fer @fforever-dreaming alongside with Mery @fuchsiasea (who i’m going to see very soon too!) and her sister. we only had a little time to talk but it was definitely one of the parts i was looking forward the most and a highlight of the night.

SO THE SHOW. it’s going to sound cliché but it’s an experience that you have to live it to understand it. that moment when the playlist pre-show suddenly stops and you see the stage is all ready, and then a couple of minutes after the lights go off and you know it’s starting??? priceless! i screamed a lot when Louis came out on stage and i just couldn’t really process it that i was finally seeing him after two long years!!! (which i know it’s a privilege itself bc there’s ppl who haven’t seen him).

when it finally clicked to me that he was there, i noticed the shirt which i LOVED! he looks so beautiful in polo shirts and especially that colour! (i especially loved that it was red bc it’s one of our national colours too).

it felt like it was a song after the other with no breaks. idk how the ppl watching the live-streaming felt but it went too fast! and there were so many emotions in the air! i screamed, i sang, i jumped, i participated in the projects, i teared up a bit during certain parts, I LAUGHED he’s so funny and so grateful for everything, that i just wanted to put him in a pocket and take him with me lol.

i couldn’t tell you which songs i enjoyed the most bc honestly i loved them all. i’m not a person who watches livestreams from fans, and even sometimes the videos i watch them with no audio just to see if i can make gifs from them lol so everything was a surprise for me and i loved it! i didn’t notice we were missing a song until almost at the very end but personally i didn’t need it bc he gave us so much of him already. i definitely wanted to listen to bigger than me bc it was my most listened to song in 2022 and i didn’t want to miss it. but like i said, i loved all the songs, the chats, the projects!!!

a quick parenthesis abt the projects. so originally there were three: sibwawc, walls, and saturdays. what you saw on the videos going around and the kmm project wasn’t talked abt (as far as i know, maybe i’m wrong), but we did it last year (thanks to the chilean fans of course) so i guess everyone knew that part was coming and just did it. like it looked so coordinated but it wasn’t planned (again, as far as i know) before hand. i obviously couldn’t see the rainbow lights from my section bc we were holding the same colour but when i saw the video and i saw that it worked, i loved it. and i guess you’ve seen the video where the crowd screamed “for every question why, you were my because” and it shows the crowd? we formed the mexican flag there. for saturdays i also think the project worked? i haven’t seen videos but if i’m honest i wanted to film that song for my friend who couldn’t be there so i did the project for half the song lol

the fireworks and confetti after silver tongues were so cool! i wasn’t expecting them so i was filming the whole stage and not really zooming on him? so when the fireworks showed up i felt like a child! it was just pure and genuine happiness in that moment.

lately i’ve been enjoying concerts more than when i was younger, idk why, but i scream more and jump more, and just live in the moment. and this concert even if i felt it was too short, it was still one of the best experiences ever!! i love Louis so much and i love my friends! 🫶🏻

[ribz4livers]

A pizza doxing or a trip to the dumpster would have been so much better than this...

I am finally trying to be more comfortable sharing my writing with the general public! This is supposed to function as a small introduction to Madeline and the events leading up to her kidnapping just before where TPOF takes place. It isn't very long but depending on the reception, I do want to try my hand and writing more about her and potentially Derek (once I get over my cringe hurdles).

I hope you guys enjoy. 💖

This post contains writing! If you would like to read, please click on the "Keep Reading" below!

Madeline/content belongs to myself (ribz4livers)

TPOF belongs to @/gatobob

Word count: below 1000

🔞 MINORS DNI! 🔞 This includes AGELESS BLOGS! Failure to comply will result in a BLOCK.

“Alright guys! You know the drill, let me know what you think in the comments below or–” the girl on the screen flashes a small but toothy smile, “if you’re watching this live, blow that chat box up! I’ll see you later for my next scheduled live and trust me, you won’t want to miss it!" She held up a hand and gifted a small wave, “Bye-bye and keep yourselves safe!” Cut. That’s a wrap. Madeline leaned over her keyboard, hitting the button on her microphone to end the live audio before quickly doing the same with her webcam, cutting the hundreds of eyeballs ogling her from the shadows of the internet. She sighed, clicking her mouse and scrolling through the chat feed, reading people’s reactions to her most recent stream. “This was disgusting”, “is she actually serious?”, “troll”, etc… There were a few people singing their praises, applauding Madeline for her attention to detail when talking about the Top 5 Most Gruesome Serial Killers of Our Time!!! but she knew they were just knights in shining armor trying to get the attention of their queen. There was no research in these videos; a quick visit to any online encyclopedia and there was all the information she needed. Copy, past, action.

Even with so many people watching her when she hit that “go live” button on her screen, once she ended that stream that was it; no eyes, no reeling chat, just nothing; just her staring back at the wolfish girl in the viewfinder on her screen, all alone. Leaning back in her chair, Madeline again sighed. The reactions she got were good but were they good enough to get the attention of the reaction channels? After her last controversy, rating victims’ outfits, she really needed to step it up a notch if she wanted to keep the notoriety.  “Maybe…Dateable Delinquents? No…too easy…” Madeline muttered to herself, grabbing her phone. She checked her texts. It had been over 6 hours since she had last looked at her phone anyway, right? Something had to be there by now.

“Tch…” Madeline clicked her tongue as there were no texts from anyone. Oh well, in the meantime she could go for a dose of fresh air. Maybe visit that cute café down the road and get ahead on her next script or finally start on that essay she had due today before midnight.

Making her way to the vanity, Madeline kicked a medium sized box out of the way, the useless artifacts from a time past rattling around and hopefully breaking in the process. She glanced at the box as she passed, taking note of the neatly written address on one of its half opened flaps. Clearly a woman's writing. She would have to make a trip to the apartment dumpster soon, what a fucking pain.

Once sat in front of the vanity mirror, Madeline began touching up her appearance. She already had her makeup done, never appearing on streams or videos without it, but it couldn't hurt to fix her hair and adjust her outfit in accordance with today's weather: drab and weary. 

Just her and the girl in the mirror now. Her eyes were too yellow, her ears too tall, nails too thick and teeth far too sharp. Madeline flashed a smile at the glass but shame pricked her lips before they stretched too far. Well behaved girls don't bare fangs.

She began to brush her hair carefully, taking extra care to give it that desired, signature flip she was known for–at least if she had people who knew her–and for a moment thought about a time when her hair was much longer, harder to style; no, it wasn't that it was harder to style but that she wasn't allowed to style. Once again Madeline thought about that box sitting only a few feet behind her. Impulsively grabbing her phone again Madeline opened the screen. Still nothing. The phone made a loud clack as she set it back down on the table with a little more force than before and continued her grooming.

Madeline was lost in teeth, boxes, scripts but was suddenly interrupted by what sounded like a door, her door, getting softly knocked. It wasn't expected but it wasn't unwelcome either. Maybe it was one of those pizza doxings she had heard so much about from her time lurking on the internet farms. The thought of someone going through all that effort just to send her a free lunch made the girl smile, fangs poking over her elongated lips. How sad were these keyboard warriors? 

Another knock.

Madeline got up, doing a once over in the mirror and began making her way to the door, all smiles, "hold on, I'm coming."

Silence.

Without checking the peep hole, Madeline opened the door wide but her giddy expression clouded once she saw there was in fact no pizza, only two large bodies dressed in dark colors and obscured faces.

"Hi…Madeline?" One of them asked in a voice that sounded fake, filtered and suspicious.

There was no time for her body much less her mind to react. There was no sixth sense, no hair standing on edge and no words; and apparently these people needed no answer. Before Madeline could utter a word, she felt something pressed to her mouth, a cloth, and next there was only black–

A pizza doxing or a trip to the dumpster would have been so much better than this.

[archivecon]

ArchiveCon Info and FAQ - 2025

Registration

Registration for ArchiveCon is completely free, and done through Eventbrite. However, we will not be accepting registrations during the event itself, so make sure you sign up early! Registration will permanently close on June 27th, 2025, at 12:00 PM, EST. Remember, that’s four hours before we start!

Unsure if you can make the convention itself, or know that you can’t get time off? No worries! Feel free to register anyways - this will grant you access to the Discord and any recorded panels that you can watch in your own time.

Once you’ve registered, keep up-to-date on any new info by following our twitter (@archive_con), tumblr (@archivecon), and bluesky (@archivecon) When we get closer to the final date, we will send out an email containing the convention schedule, as well as Discord invites, so the community can get hyped up beforehand!

Register here!

In terms of attending the con itself, we will be using three different platforms: Discord, Zoom, and Twitch.

Discord: This will be the main community hub: chat with fellow fans, receive announcements, have access to staff members, talk to individual Artist Alley contributors, play games, etc. Consider this the hallway and info booth of an in-person con! The Discord group will be open about a week prior to the official con date, in order to let loose all those pre-con jitters and to deal with any questions attendees might have about panels, tech support, etc. The Discord will also stay open for a few weeks after the convention ends.

Zoom: We will be hosting the majority of our panels and activities here! Zoom is free to use for attendees. Each video has a chat section alongside, so attendees can talk about the panel or activity, and, if the panelist allows it, ask questions at the end. All attendees will be automatically muted when they join. If you’d like to watch our panels live, we highly recommend you download Zoom before the convention starts. We will also be hosting a few practice sessions so attendees and panelists can get comfortable with the program.

Twitch: Similar to Zoom, this is another option for panelists to choose from, if they have their own channel. Attendees will be able to type chat alongside the video screen.

FAQ

What is ArchiveCon?

This is an adults-only, online-only convention that was spurred on by our love of podcasts (mainly TMA, but all sorts of others as well!) and all the marginalia fandom has to offer - from fanfiction to fanart, podfic to bookbinding, to the minutiae of sound editing and stitching - anything you enjoy goes! We aim to foster the spirit of creativity, learning, and freedom of expression.

​Like any convention, there’ll be panels, discussion groups, an artist alley, streaming, and games - there’s a little something for everyone!​

ArchiveCon will have a strong The Magnus Archives/Protocol bent, but we encourage fans of other Rusty Quill productions, outside audio dramas, and fandom-goers in general to join in as well!

​Is the convention adults-only?

Yes. You must be 18 or older to attend the convention. However, this does not mean that panels and other activities will all be NSFW - this adults-only rule is merely to give our panelists and attendees more freedom in whatever they wish to discuss.

​Is it free?

It sure is! All you’ll need is time and access to Discord, Zoom, and/or Twitch.

​What timezone will you be in? And what are the hours?

ArchiveCon is based in Eastern Standard Time, and will take place from June 27th to the 29th - from Friday starting at 4:00 PM, until we finish on Sunday at 6:00 PM. To accommodate our international attendees, we allow panels to be held at any time during convention hours, and most panels will be recorded for later viewing.​

Is this associated with Rusty Quill?

Nope! ArchiveCon is simply a by fans, for fans endeavor - completely non-profit, entirely for fun!

​Rusty Quill online content is distributed and licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike International Licence. Details can be found here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Where can I watch recorded panels?

Recorded panels will be uploaded to a private YouTube channel a few weeks after the convention finishes. All attendees will be emailed links to the channel.

Where can I find more information on panels, the artist alleys, etc?

Check out our website! It’s got all this info and more.

[mariacallous]

Some Fortune 500 companies have begun testing software that can spot a deepfake of a real person in a live video call, following a spate of scams involving fraudulent job seekers who take a signing bonus and run.

The detection technology comes courtesy of GetReal Labs, a new company founded by Hany Farid, a UC-Berkeley professor and renowned authority on deepfakes and image and video manipulation.

GetReal Labs has developed a suite of tools for spotting images, audio, and video that are generated or manipulated either with artificial intelligence or manual methods. The company’s software can analyze the face in a video call and spot clues that may indicate it has been artificially generated and swapped onto the body of a real person.

“These aren’t hypothetical attacks, we’ve been hearing about it more and more,” Farid says. “In some cases, it seems they're trying to get intellectual property, infiltrating the company. In other cases, it seems purely financial, they just take the signing bonus.”

The FBI issued a warning in 2022 about deepfake job hunters who assume a real person’s identity during video calls. UK-based design and engineering firm Arup lost $25 million to a deepfake scammer posing as the company’s CFO. Romance scammers have also adopted the technology, swindling unsuspecting victims out of their savings.

Impersonating a real person on a live video feed is just one example of the kind of reality-melting trickery now possible thanks to AI. Large language models can convincingly mimic a real person in online chat, while short videos can be generated by tools like OpenAI’s Sora. Impressive AI advances in recent years have made deepfakery more convincing and more accessible. Free software makes it easy to hone deepfakery skills, and easily accessible AI tools can turn text prompts into realistic-looking photographs and videos.

But impersonating a person in a live video is a relatively new frontier. Creating this type of a deepfake typically involves using a mix of machine learning and face-tracking algorithms to seamlessly stitch a fake face onto a real one, allowing an interloper to control what an illicit likeness appears to say and do on screen.

Farid gave WIRED a demo of GetReal Labs’ technology. When shown a photograph of a corporate boardroom, the software analyzes the metadata associated with the image for signs that it has been modified. Several major AI companies including OpenAI, Google, and Meta now add digital signatures to AI-generated images, providing a solid way to confirm their inauthenticity. However, not all tools provide such stamps, and open source image generators can be configured not to. Metadata can also be easily manipulated.

GetReal Labs also uses several AI models, trained to distinguish between real and fake images and video, to flag likely forgeries. Other tools, a mix of AI and traditional forensics, help a user scrutinize an image for visual and physical discrepancies, for example highlighting shadows that point in different directions despite having the same light source, or that do not appear to match the object that cast them.

Lines drawn on different objects shown in perspective will also reveal if they converge on a common vanishing point, as would be the case in a real image.

Other startups that promise to flag deepfakes rely heavily on AI, but Farid says manual forensic analysis will also be crucial to flagging media manipulation. “Anybody who tells you that the solution to this problem is to just train an AI model is either a fool or a liar,” he says.

The need for a reality check extends beyond Fortune 500 firms. Deepfakes and manipulated media are already a major problem in the world of politics, an area Farid hopes his company’s technology could do real good. The WIRED Elections Project is tracking deepfakes used to boost or trash political candidates in elections in India, Indonesia, South Africa, and elsewhere. In the United States, a fake Joe Biden robocall was deployed last January in an effort to dissuade people from turning out to vote in the New Hampshire Presidential primary. Election-related “cheapfake” videos, edited in misleading ways, have gone viral of late, while a Russian disinformation unit has promoted an AI-manipulated clip disparaging Joe Biden.

Vincent Conitzer, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and coauthor of the book Moral AI, expects AI fakery to become more pervasive and more pernicious. That means, he says, there will be growing demand for tools designed to counter them.

“It is an arms race,” Conitzer says. “Even if you have something that right now is very effective at catching deepfakes, there's no guarantee that it will be effective at catching the next generation. A successful detector might even be used to train the next generation of deepfakes to evade that detector.”

GetReal Labs agrees it will be a constant battle to keep up with deepfakery. Ted Schlein, a cofounder of GetReal Labs and a veteran of the computer security industry, says it may not be long before everyone is confronted with some form of deepfake deception, as cybercrooks become more conversant with the technology and dream up ingenious new scams. He adds that manipulated media is a top topic of concern for many chief security officers. “Disinformation is the new malware,” Schlein says.

With significant potential to poison political discourse, Farid notes that media manipulation can be considered a more challenging problem. “I can reset my computer or buy a new one,” he says. “But the poisoning of the human mind is an existential threat to our democracy.”

[noonaishere]

Online/Offline [C.S] - ten | F, senpai

You sat, like every other time you streamed, in front of your computer with the room lights off, but a strip of soothing red LEDs on so you could still see your desk. You were a faceless streamer and could comfortably sit in the darkness since no one needed to see you. Your blue light blocking glasses rested on your nose as you set up the chat and everything else you needed for a hard night’s work of being silly on the internet.

“Oooookay. Can you hear me guys? One, two. One, two. Mic check, mic check. Sob in the mob with the Rob Bob Bob?”

A few people in the chat helpfully answered that your audio sounded too quiet. You adjusted it.

“How about that? Price check on prune juice, Bob. Price check on prune juice.”

Everyone started sending thumbs ups and happy faces, with a few saying “You’re good!”

“Thank you, kittens. I guess I have to do the intro, huh.” You took a breath and - as fast as you could - said: “Hey everyone it’s Jageun Geomeun Goyangi, JGG, the Little Black Cat, coming to you live out there in radioland. We got a great stream tonight; a few indie games, I might play an old favorite, who knows where the night will take us? I hope you enjoy the stream and I hope you enjoy the jokes and remember, no backseat gaming., or I’ll turn this car around! If you like the video, like it, if you dislike it, dislike it, but let’s waste no further time and get to gaming.”

You paused. and inhaled deeply.

“How long was that?”

This was an odd little game that developed between you and your chat. When you first started, you tried to make your intro as personable as possible and it just got longer and and more ridiculous. Now you said it as fast as possible to see if you could beat your best time.

The times rolled in.

LeaBea: 0:8.02 TheNicestGuy: 0:0:7.57 QuackIsWhack✅: 0:0:8.22 🗻of Namhae: 0:0:7.58 YangYangGangGang: 0:0:8.15 SleepySheepy😴: 69:69:69.69

“SleepySheepy you’re so full of shit,” you laughed. “But also: nice, nice, nice, nice.”

SleepySheepy😴: LOLOL

“And what’s with the disparities guys? I felt like that was under eight seconds and you’re all giving me weird numbers.”

🗻of Namhae: You didn’t tell us when to start, lol

“That’s true Namhae, I should start giving signals. That’s my fault. Anyway, we got a good stream for you tonight, a few indie games, I might play an old favorite--” You laughed.

🗻of Namhae: 😞 LeaBea: LOL SleepySheepy😴: F WackIsQuack: Haha! QuackIsWhack✅: Change your fucking name back, I swear to god

“No name trolling, you know the rules, ladies, men, and nonbinary friends: Be nice in the chat, the world is already too harsh.”

JohnnyYuta: Sorry, Quack QuackIsWhack✅: Thank you

“Okay, let’s see… if Keeho is alive… and awake. And then we can see who else wants to stream.”

JohnnyYuta: He’s already streaming A🌲SurroundedBy🌷s: He’s been streaming all day QuackIsWhack✅: You know what that means…

“I don’t have enough money to buy chicken nuggets?”

The chat flooded with emojis of potatoes that were meant to be chicken nuggets. Truly a crime against humanity that there wasn’t a nugget emoji.

A🌲SurroundedBy🌷s: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 🗻of Namhae: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 SleepySheepy😴: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 QuackIsWhack✅: You gotta kill him

“I will, Quack… or should I say: Shane Madej. And then you can trap him in your ribcage like the demon you are.”

QuackIsWhack✅: LOL

“But if JohnnyYuta and Tree saw that he’s streaming already, let’s go raid him. Send him: the nuggets.”

You navigated over to Keeho’s Twitch page to find him, as your spies informed correctly, already streaming. As you and your chat made your way over to his, and his chat was suddenly filled with the same message of five nuggets in a row, over and over again.

🖤🖤JGG🖤🖤: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 QuackIsWhack: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 🗻of Namhae: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 TheNicestGuy: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 I💚Keeho: Heyyyy, it’s Cat! A🌲SurroundedBy🌷s: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 JohnnyYuta: The jig is up! JohnnyYuta: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 StrickenChicken: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 UltimateHyung✅: Oh noooo~~ a raid~~ lol UltimateHyung✅: Whatever shall we do with all these nuggets! I💚Keeho: Hi Cat! 👋 There’sARockInMySock: Cat!! 🗻of Namhae: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 QuackIsWhack: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 SleepySheepy😴: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 MinHoe: Sheepy, I thought you weren’t awake now?? SleepySheepy😴: I fucking LIED lol MinHoe: lol

“There’s what in the chat?” Keeho looked up from his game. “Ohh, Cat's on! Hi Cat!”

🖤🖤JGG🖤🖤: ACCEPT OUR NUGGETS!! 🖤🖤JGG🖤🖤: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 🖤🖤JGG🖤🖤: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 🖤🖤JGG🖤🖤: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔

“Accept nothing. Accept my Discord invite, you pest.”

Di-Dng!

“Hiiiiiiiii~~,” you sang.

“What’s going on, Cat?”

“Nothing much. I thought you said you weren’t starting before now?”

“Ummm, did you hear there’s a new map in Tale of Tails?”

“That weirdo gumiho gacha MMO you play?”

“Yes.”

You laughed. “No, because it’s a weirdo game for weirdos. Like yourself: a weirdo.”

“Okay, there’s no need to go so hard, what are my fans going to think?”

“That you’re a weirdo.”

“You can just admit you’re jealous, Cat.”

“I have no desire, nor need, to admit such a thing.”

He laughed. “I’ll get you hooked on it one day.”

“Some of us aren’t rich and can’t buy the best cards, my guy.”

“You don’t need to buy cards, my dude.”

“Is that what you tell yourself every time you hit ‘Purchase,’ champion?”

“It’s what I know, chief.”

QuackIsWhack: The girls are fightingggggggg MinHoe: Sheepy, answer my fucking message SleepySheepy😴: nah fam MinHoe: Don’t you nah fam me SleepySheepy😴: lolol 🗻of Namhae: Oooo MinHoe, so forceful 🗻of Namhae: Kabedon him against the wall next SleepySheepy😴: lolol, senpaiiiii~~~ MinHoe: I hate you, Sheepy MinHoe: 😞😞😞 SleepySheepy😴: 😎😎😎 LuciPURR: Cat, call him “buddy,” “guy” next

“They want me to fight with you more.”

“You just came here to fight with me?”

“No, I came here to fight you… in the realm of games!”

“I’m going to send you to the Shadow Realm!”

Both of you started singing the Mortal Kombat theme.

🗻of Namhae: MORTAL KOMBATTTT QuackIsWhack: daNA daNA daNA TheNicestGuy: daNA daNA daNA A🌲SurroundedBy🌷s: DA DA DA DA DA DA DA JohnnyYuta: DA DA DA DA DA DA DA UltimateHyung✅: There’s the traitors UltimateHyung✅: I saw you sell Keeho out in Cat’s chat QuackIsWhack: Yo, but why are you stream sniping, boss? UltimateHyung✅: Are you defending them, Quack? QuackIsWhack: You’re all guilty of the same crime JohnnyYuta: You gotta do what you gotta do to get your fav streamers to stream together lol SleepySheepy😴: You gotta do what you gotta do what you gotta do, you know? LuciPurr: Do the Dew A🌲SurroundedBy🌷s: I ship them 🥵 JohnnyYuta: My OTP 🗻of Namhae: guys… TheNicestGuy: GUYS QuackIsWhack: No shipping. I’m the mod, I say so UltimateHyung✅: Not in this house you aren’t QuackIsWhack: In Cat’s chat I am lol UltimateHyung✅: Lol QuackIsWhack: We should migrate back to our own chat anyway

“Thank you, Quack,” you said. “There will be no shipping in this house. Especially not drop shipping.”

“We’re in different houses.”

“There will be no shipping in either of these houses. Only a pox upon them.”

“You can’t tell me what to do.”

“I’m about to ship you with the wall.”

“Ohhh…”

“By slamming your head into it.”

Keeho laughed. “You’d have to be here first. And on camera.”

“Fuck, my one weakness.”

“You’re like a vampire.”

You hissed like Nosferatu.

“Understandable. I’ll set up the game.”

“Kay kay.”

“Kee Kee.”

“Ho Ho.”

“Santa??”

The two of you laughed.

As Keeho invited you to the game he read the chat. “‘Is Cat a vampire?’ Are you a vampire, Cat? Am I friends with a Dracula?”

You hissed into your microphone.

“Is that a cat hiss or a vampire hiss?”

You laughed. “Now I’m not sure.”

Keeho chuckled.

“But I’m a faceless streamer, person-in-Keeho’s-chat.”

“So you’re like a vampire or something and can’t appear on camera.”

“Vampires can’t go out in the sun, dude.”

“Twilight ones can.”

“You’re trying to make a point to me about vampires with the straightest, most boring vampires possible?”

He laughed.

“Where’s your sense of terrifying homoeroticism?”

QuackIsWhack✅: They do be like that tho There’sARockInMySock: The inherent homoeroticism of the vampyr 🗻of Namhae: Vampires are gay?

You laughed. “Yeah, they’re pretty gay, Namhae. At least the good ones are. Bram Stoker was closeted and stuff… he was best friends with Oscar Wilde… you know how it goes. Carmilla was like the OG vampire book and that was about two girls. Anne Rice’s vampires were pretty gay as well.”

“Why do you know so much about vampires?”

“Maybe I’m the Big Titty Goth Girlfriend we’ve all heard so much about. Ever think of that?”

“Then you are shooting yourself in the foot by not having a camera.”

You cackled.

“Plus, I know what you look like, and you’re not.”

“Oh shit, yeah. Damnit, if only we were never friends in real life.”

Keeho laughed loudly. “Let’s go back in time and not be friends, and then I’ll believe it when you say it.”

“Yes, that’s my fucking plan.” You laughed.

QuackIsWhack✅: Anyone who asks about her tits, gets the hammer JohnnyYuta: Dang, Quack JohnnyYuta: Punish me mommy QuackIsWhack✅: You trying to get banned? JohnnyYuta: Absolutely not, ma’am 🧍‍♂️ A🌲SurroundedBy🌷s: Crack the whip on him! QuackIsWhack✅: Tree? A🌲SurroundedBy🌷s: No ma’am 🧍‍♂️

“What in the kinkery fuckery is going on in your chat?” Keeho laughed.

“Stop looking at my stream, dude. And I don’t claim them.”

“You have to claim them, they’re your chat.”

“Not my circus, not my monkeys.”

QuackIsWhack✅: Excuse you?

“Quack is my only monkey. I made a circus just for her.”

He laughed.

“She’s been around the longest.”

🗻of Namhae: I’ve been here since the beginning too QuackIsWhack✅: Yeah, haven’t you been here longer than I have?

“Wait, what? Namhae, you’ve been here the longest?”

🗻of Namhae: I think so. I remember back when you only had five subscribers, right when you started 🗻of Namhae: (One was me, btw. lol) QuackIsWhack✅: Yeah, I came in at like, 15 or something lol 🗻of Namhae: Lol 🗻of Namhae: This is the same account from back then too, go check how long I’ve been subbed JohnnyYuta: No lies Namhae? 🗻of Namhae: Lol, why would I lie? Quack can just check QuackIsWhack: Ohhh yeah, lemme check A🌲SurroundedBy🌷s: Did she have any other fans then? 🗻of Namhae: There was a handful of people 🗻of Namhae: I haven’t seen any of their names in a really long time though QuackIsWhack: Holy shit, you’ve really been here the whole time 🗻of Namhae: See? 😊 A🌲SurroundedBy🌷s: Yooooooo TheNicestGuy: Wow JohnnyYuta: Oppa! YangYangGangGang: Oppaaaa!

“Ohhhhh shit. You hear that, Keeho? I’ve got someone who’s been here almost as long as me.” You laughed.

“Shit, I’m so jealous. That’s so cool though.”

🗻of Namhae: 😊😊😊

“Aww, cute blushie smiles right back at you, Namhae. You know what? I should make you a mod, since you’re always around.”

🗻of Namhae: Really? 🗻of Namhae: I’d be honored JohnnyYuta: Oh shit TheNicestGuy: Wow… A🌲SurroundedBy🌷s: Senpai’s noticed him, AND he’s gonna be a mod? A🌲SurroundedBy🌷s: I’m so fucking jealous

“Well, you know, stay around for five or so years and maybe you’ll become a mod too, Tree.”

A🌲SurroundedBy🌷s: Goals 🥲🥲🥲 JohnnyYuta: Living the dream, Namhae

“You’re so silly, Tree. Annnnnd, you’re a mod now, Namhae. Quack can message you and tell you the ropes.”

QuackIsWhack✅: We got so many ropes, you’d think it was the Scouts up in here 🗻of Namhae✅: testing…? 🗻of Namhae✅: Oh my god 🗻of Namhae✅: I have a check QuackIsWhack✅: Woowwww JohnnyYuta: Look at himmmm QuackIsWhack✅: How do you feel, Namhae? 🗻of Namhae✅: So special 🥺🥺🥺 A🌲SurroundedBy🌷s: Ahhh my TT QuackIsWhack✅: lolol 🗻of Namhae✅: 😤😤😤 🗻of Namhae✅: Who needs to get banned? Lemme at em! YangYangGangGang: There’s a new Oppa in town

You chuckled. “You’re funny, Namhae.”

“I’ve seen him in my chat occasionally when you’re not streaming, he cracks me up.”

🗻of Namhae✅: 😳😳😳 JohnnyYuta: BOTH senpais have seen him! 🗻of Namhae✅: I don’t know what to do with all this A🌲SurroundedBy🌷s: Go crazy! Go stupid! SleepySheepy😴: Go apeshit MinHoe: Sleepy, answer me dammit SleepySheepy😴: 😴😴😴

You laughed at the chat. 

Di-Dng!

Di-Dng!

“Heyyy, BrickTheBracken and MickTheMacken are here!”

“Hey guys,” Keeho said.

“Hey hey,” Bracken and Mick responded.

“Are you guys in the same room again? You’re a little echoey.”

“Sorry,” Bracken responded. “We just moved into the new place and we’re not totally set up yet.”

“I’ll take my laptop to the other room,” Mick offered. A few seconds went by and he could be heard shuffling his headset. “This better?”

“Much better.” Keeho answered.

“Do we know if Yeji or Ryujin are going to show up?” You asked.

“They should,” Bracken offered. “Maybe they had to stay late at their day jobs?”

Di-Dng!

“Don’t even fucking talk about day jobs,” Ryujin exploded into the chat. “I was watching you guys on the way home and I’m so mad I had to stay late. I wanted to be around for the nugget raid.”

You laughed.

“Love a good nug raid.”

🗻of Namhae✅: Everyone loves nugs 🗻of Namhae✅: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 QuackIsWhack✅: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 StrickenChicken: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 UltimateHyung: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 LeaBea: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 JohnnyYuta: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 TheNicestGuy: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 YangYangGangGang: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 SleepySheepy😴: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 LeaBea: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 JohnnyYuta: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 There’sARockInMySock: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 MinHoe: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 LuciPURR: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 A🌲SurroundedBy🌷s: 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔 JohnnyYuta: All hail the nugs!

“Ryujin, are you watching my chat?”

“I ammmm, thanks guys. Now I really feel like I was at the earlier raid.”

“My chat’s pretty sweet.”

A🌲SurroundedBy🌷s: You’re sweet

“Oh, Tree, I’m blushing. My heart just went ‘doki doki,’ dude.”

A🌲SurroundedBy🌷s: 😳😳😳

“Can you quit flirting with your chat and accept my invite?” Keeho asked.

“I’m not flirting with anyone. They’re all just lovely people.”

“Uh huh.”

“I don’t see an invite from you.”

“Huh? Oh, I didn’t add you.”

“HA!” You laughed loudly.

QuackIsWhack✅: F A🌲SurroundedBy🌷s: F StrickenChicken: F UltimateHyung: F SleepySheepy😴: F I💚Keeho: F LeaBea: F JohnnyYuta: F TheNicestGuy: F There’sARockInMySock: F MinHoe: F 🗻of Namhae✅: F, senpai

“At least Namhae respects me.”

🗻of Namhae✅: I respect you, sunbaenim

“All I need is your respect, Namhae.” Keeho said as he held his fist to his chest and pretended to struggle with his emotions.

You laughed. “Close my stream, dammit!”

“I’m going to close it when we start playing.”

Di-Dng!

“Guys! I made it!” Yeji yelled, winded.

“Okay, okay, calm down.” Keeho responded. “Do you want us to play a round while you get situated or would you rather play now?”

“I need to play something and not think about the printer that I spent like three hours trying to fix because our office didn’t pay a bill and now the printer company won’t come fix it and no one else can or wants to fix it.”

“Holy shit,” you said. “You’re way too pretty for that, Yeji.”

“I knowwww, I should never have become an office worker. I thought it would be easy.”

“Aww, my baby.”

SleepySheepy😴: WE love you, Yeji I💚Keeho: Yejiiiiiii LeaBea: Aww 😥😥😥 There’sARockInMySock: Yeji! 💜💜💜 QuackIsWhack✅: We love you, bubbah A🌲SurroundedBy🌷s: Yeji is the prettiest JohnnyYuta: Love our girl StrickenChicken: I’m not wlw, but if I was I would pick you, Yeji UltimateHyung: Were I single, I would ask you out in a manly fashion 🗻of Namhae✅: You deserve better, Yeji

“Are you looking at my chat, Yeji?” You asked.

“Ryujin is showing me. Aww, you guys are sweet.”

“You do deserve better.”

“I know… UGH I have to interview somewhere else or make more money streaming so I can leave.”

“I think you can do it. I mean… I never went to college and here I am.”

“Living the dream, Cat.” Ryujin said.

You laughed. “Nah, I’m living the ‘a lot of hard work and a little luck’.”

“Dang right, hard work,” Keeho said emphatically.

“Mhm.”

“Now: Are we finally going to play?”

“Yes!”

   previous | main cast | masterlist | next

Send an ask or leave a comment if you want to be added to the tag list! 🧋

[dignityofadog]

eughhhhh why does my entire life revolve around ollie!!! not that im complaining, of course. if ollie isnt online then im thinking about ollie. if im not online then im thinking about ollie. oh, i did something that reminds me of ollie. would ollie like this? should i show this to ollie? i wonder if ollie does the same things i do. in fact, i wonder what ollie's routine is. that skk pic reminds me of us! ill tag them. i found a silly audio i could send to them. i also saw a picture of a cat. ollie seems to like cats. i should compare him to them. they mentioned they like getting compared to cats. and biting stuff (or themselves, really). ollie really does sound like one. their bedtime is around 11:00 pm. but they live in ireland, which is around 8 hours ahead from where i live, so its usually 3 in the afternoon when they go offline. they get up at midnight in my time, so 8 o'clock there. i try to pass the time but it takes forever. sometimes ill nap or read. maybe masturbate. it gets boring without them. ollie's never skateboarded before; they think its scary. he said they think their height is 5'1, just an inch under me. i like to tease ollie about that. ollie takes really short showers, too (just like him). i also tease them about that. it doesnt seem to like flirting, but when its playful and non-genuine they find it funny, although i try to avoid it altogether. in a discord chat, before they met me, ollie said partner was a term they favored over girlfriend/boyfriend. i think its cute; im starting to prefer 'partner' too. it said they thought about cuddling a lot. ill try to bring it up once in awhile to know theyre not alone in that thought. they bought a plant after we first met. we call each other names a lot, like 'homosexual' or 'gay' or smth about the country we live in. its fun to do that. theyll make posts on the transmasc dazai headcanon. it projects a lot onto dazai, especially 15zai. they like bsd gacha reactions but not the ooc ones yet he stills watches them anyways. the only types he doesnt watch are the videos including youtube shorts. its relatable though. they recently made a strawpage if any of y'all have scrolled so far. ollie is autistic and says they take showers a lot because he doesnt like being sweaty. it said theyre asexual so even if theyre fine with sex jokes, i also try not to bring them up often. he has three dogs in total, four at their dad's home (the ones most popular in being sent to me are ruby and archie; his dad's girlfriend has two other dogs called suzie and max) and one at their mom's (poppy). they call their mom 'mam' which i, again, think is cute. their birthday is december 20th. thats only six days before mine. ollie sends me voice messages a lot and i really like their voice. some words are kinda hard to hear with the dialect differences but its mainly understandable. ollie introduced me to the game pony town a few weeks ago and i really go on there to boop and kiss them. other than that, im not online often. purple, yellow, certain shades of green and brown, and blue are some colors ollie said they liked. i once asked if theyd rate himself out of ten. ollie's answer was '10/10 ofc'. ill think about if i could vent about unimportant things that seem important at the moment. ollie could do the same to me. i wouldnt mind. i find that everything about it is important. it might like this song or this band or this genre. whats his favorite author? should i vc or is it at their moms home? why wont they respond? ollie must be busy. but what if ollie isnt? what if theyre ignoring me? i really do know i need to stop getting caught up in my head. i know they care for me. but even the tiniest bit of thinking they dont like me makes me upset. but then they text me and i get happy again!! i love talking to them <3 it brings me comfort. speaking of comfort, they'll try to make me feel better when i mention im sad, it doesnt help much, but i appreciate the thought. i really do. ollie's kind.

[voiceclub]

live chat audio video

Online Best Chatting App, Live Video Chat,Live Video Chatting,free social media app,live video chatting,live video chatting app,free live app,free live video chatting,social media apps,live chat audio call,online live chat audio call,live video chat,dating app,social media,sexy video chat,free live video chat,free dating app,live stream,live video chat sexy,live sexy video chat,free live video chatting app,live chat audio video

[cookiesnerd]

What Exactly Social Media Is?

Social media refers to online platforms and tools that allow people to create, share, and engage with content, fostering global communication and interaction. From connecting with friends to building brands, social media plays a vital role in personal, professional, and cultural spheres.

Key Features of Popular Social Media Platforms

1. Facebook

Primary Use: Social networking and community building.

Key Features:

Groups and Events for organizing and collaborating.

Marketplace for buying and selling.

Live streaming and Stories for real-time updates.

2. Instagram

Primary Use: Visual content sharing.

Key Features:

Photo and video sharing with filters and effects.

Reels for short, engaging videos.

Stories and Highlights for ephemeral content.

3. Twitter

Primary Use: Real-time updates and microblogging.

Key Features:

Short tweets (posts) with multimedia.

Trending topics and hashtags for discovery.

Spaces for live audio conversations.

4. LinkedIn

Primary Use: Professional networking.

Key Features:

Resumes and job postings.

Articles and posts for thought leadership.

Networking tools for connecting with peers and industry leaders.

5. TikTok

Primary Use: Short-form video content.

Key Features:

Video creation with music, filters, and effects.

Duets and challenges for engagement.

Algorithm-driven feed for content discovery.

6. Snapchat

Primary Use: Private messaging and ephemeral content.

Key Features:

Snaps (photos/videos) that disappear after viewing.

AR lenses and filters for creative expression.

Stories and Discover for broader content sharing.

7. YouTube

Primary Use: Video content sharing and streaming.

Key Features:

Channels for creators to publish content.

Live streaming and Shorts for real-time and short videos.

Subscriptions and playlists for curated viewing.

8. Reddit

Primary Use: Community discussion and content sharing.

Key Features:

Subreddits for niche communities.

Upvotes/downvotes to prioritize content.

AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions for engagement.

9. Pinterest

Primary Use: Visual discovery and inspiration.

Key Features:

Boards for organizing ideas and interests.

Pins for saving content.

Visual search for exploring similar ideas.

10. WhatsApp

Primary Use: Instant messaging.

Key Features:

End-to-end encrypted chats.

Voice and video calling.

Group chats and status updates.

Why Social Media Matters

Social media bridges gaps between people, facilitates knowledge sharing, and empowers businesses to grow. Its diverse platforms cater to every need, whether personal connections, professional growth, or creative expression.

Embrace social media responsibly, and let it amplify your voice, connect your world, and inspire new possibilities!

Perfect for Tumblr! Let me know if you want any adjustments. 😊

[qetalos]

enchanted | 제이크

ー🎮 🕹️

"all I can say is it was enchanting to meet you, sim jaeyun"

p: non idol!Jake and non idol!female oc

warnings! cursing, angst, "we couldn't be anything and you still broke me", reader is called Choi Areum. This one shot is based on the backstory of Enchanted by Taylor Swift, extracts of it's lyrics are included. Kind of open but closed ending? It didn't end well for them so idk you see what your mind wants to choose ;)

note: this is dedicated to the loml Maty, Ilysm 🤍

At the beginning I thought of this as a long series but it turned out being an angsty one shot, enjoy 🫶🏻

"this was the very first page"

It all started when I was bored while scrolling on Tik Tok oh how i wish i never was bored back then and saw a video in which they left a link for people to join a discord server to talk and make video calls just to lose the time and make new friends. I thought about it and decided to join, at first I didn't feel comfortable there. It was all new for me as I didn't know anyone there, until a certain someone noticed my user name on the chat, saying that I had joined the server and now was part of it. I still remember the user "jkesimm_", he noticed me there.

Jkesimm_: Hey! arqmizz you're new in the server?

Arqmizz: haha, yes I am

Jkesimm_: Oh nice, let's talk on priv!

He sounds nice, I thought to myself. I received a text and saw it was him, I quickly replied.

Jkesimm_: Hey! It's me from the discord server!

Arqmizz: Hi! Thank you for noticing me... It was wild in there...

Jkesimm_: I know! I'm glad I could at least find someone

Arqmizz: Have you been there for a long time?

Jkesimm_: Ah yes, but sadly I didn't get to talk to much people, honestly.. 🥲

They're all busy talking between them that they don't notice new people there!

Arqmizz: oh really? Well I'm glad that we could get together between that mess 😭

Jkesimm_: ikr!! You sound really nice although it's the first time we talk haha

Arqmizz: lmao 😭 it's okay you sound nice too!

Jkesimm_: sorry if it makes you uncomfortable but may I know your name? If you don't wanna tell me it's okay !!

Arqmizz: Oh, it's okay

You can call me Areum! What's your name?

Jkesimm_: it's pretty obvious from my user but you can call me Jake. Pretty name, Areum 🫢

Arqmizz: haha thank you Jake!

"The playful conversations start"

And that was our first conversation, we could go hours just of talking and joking. He was really nice indeed. We started doing audio calls too, while we played games. That was our first move to a more close friendship, we didn't show our faces yet but we did audio calls and spent evenings together. He also told me a bit about himself, that he was Australian but was actually living in south Korea, he has a dog named Layla and a lot more things about himself.

In one of those audio calls I accidentally turned on my camera in an attempt of turning on my mic instead and in that moment Jake was talking. He went silent a second after I had turned my camera on and off back again quickly, we had never shown our faces to one another before and I accidentally showed myself for the first time.

"Uhh I'm sorry I didn't mean to turn my camera on" I said awkwardly. "No no, it's okay. If it makes you feel better I can turn mine on too okay?" He said "Uh? No n-" and before I could continue talking he had turned his camera on, damn he was handsome and left me out of words. "Haha I know I'm not in my best look but I turned it on so that you would feel that bad for turning yours accidentally" he said and I smiled softly to myself. Unsure, I went and turned my camera on again, showing my face awkwardly before laughing and hiding myself in my arms. "Hey! What's so funny?" He asked and I looked up looking at the camera "This is new for me, I had never shown my face to anyone I had met online" I said and I saw him smiling "Well, it's my first time too so don't feel awkward!" He said "Also, you don't need to have your camera on always if you don't feel okay doing so, I don't mind" "Thank you for the reassurance Jake, but I think I'll keep it on as we already know each other since some time ago" I said and he nodded "Good for me, I'll keep it on from now on too"

"Shifting eyes and vacancy vanished when I saw your face"

Three months passed already and my friendship with Jake had gotten more and more close. We would call or text each other at least once a day, I had started to work at a café and had a packed schedule until 4 p.m so I couldn't text or call him a lot. Still, he always found the ways of texting me after I had gotten home back from work.

"For real! Today one customer came to me and asked for a super weird beverage we don't have and they knew it but asked anyways! And after I told them we didn't have it they became all mad at me, why? I don't know!" I said and laughed at the stupidity of one of my customers as I told Jake about my little story from today's schedule. "Woah! That's a Karen for real!" He said and I bursted out laughing at his comment. After I had calmed down a bit I looked up at the screen and saw him staring at my camera silently, unsurely I asked "Is something on?" "I really wanna meet you Areum" he said out of nowhere and I opened my eyes widely, surprised. "What?" "I said that I really wanna meet you in real life, you're so fun and nice" he said and I felt my cheeks burning at what? I don't know! Jake didn't say anything to make me go that shy but he still made me feel shy nonetheless. "I think that too, maybe when my schedule loosens a bit we can meet, jaeyunie". And that was the last time we talked about meeting each other.

"2 a.m who do you love?"

Shortly after, I realized that I liked Jake. At night after our video calls I laid down and thought about us, about him. I thought about all the time that has passed and how much closer we had grown to each other, how kind and nice he seemed to me now. But then, the thought of him having someone else came in. Was he in a relationship already? Did he have a girlfriend? Shit, maybe he did have one. He was one in a million and I didn't question the fact that he might have somebody waiting on him. And I should accept that, after all he's my friend. Nothing else, right?

He's the nicest man I've ever known, he always care about me and calls me after he knows I'm at home after my schedule at work. He's always considerate and asks me if I had eaten something, how could I not fall in love? But that was a problem for me too.

Slowly, I started to distance myself from him. The thought of him in a relationship filled my mind and made me think that he just saw me as a friend, and I didn't want that. I didn't think that he noticed that, after today.

"Are you okay? You seem off... since a few days.." "Oh- I'm sorry, it's just that I'm having a lot of work lately.." I lied, in fact it was him who made me want to distance myself and end our friendship. "Are you sure? You know I'm here for you" he said and my heart burned at his sweet words "Yes jaeyunie, I'm okay. Thank you for asking" I said and he smiled softly at me through the screen. "Areum?" "Yes?" "I wanna meet you, in real life" he said and once again, he left me out of words. I wanted to meet him but I felt a strange feeling deep inside me, full of what if's. "Are you sure about it?" "Yes, I really wanna meet you, do you?" He asked and I nodded almost instantly, ignoring those strange feelings "Yes of course I wanna meet you, jaeyunie" and after that we had set a date and place for our meeting. I was so excited about it, finally meeting that one person who had become really special for me in the last time.

"Please don't be in love with someone else, please don't have somebody waiting on you"

Today was the day that we were going to meet, we decided to meet at the Han river. Surprisingly we didn't live afar from each other but still, we didn't live that close either.

I wore my best outfit, trying to ignore those intrusive thoughts about him probably having a girlfriend as I put on a nice black top and a pair of jeans, a thin jacket on so that I wasn't way too exposed, keeping it simple. I waited for him as I sat down and scrolled through social media until I felt a tap on my shoulder from behind, turning my head I saw a blonde guy with a mask looking at me. Before going out we both described our outfits so that we could find each other easier. He was wearing a hoodie with a pair of jeans, so simple but it still made me feel butterflies. Was it wrong?

"hey, you're Areum right?" He asked and I got up from the bench and smiled shyly "Yes, you're Jake?" I asked and he nodded "It's nice to meet you finally, Areum" he said and I smiled softly. I don't know where did this sudden confidence come from but I went and hugged him softly, not saying anything. He stayed still for a second before wrapping his arms softly around my waist, we hugged for a while and when I tried to separate he tightened his embrace, muttering a soft "not yet". Chuckling I hugged him again and after some minutes we separated, he smiled at me and I did the same to him. "Should we walk around a bit?" He asked and I smiled, nodding "Yeah sure" I simply replied, we walked into the Han River, looking around and talking from time to time. "Do you wanna grab something to eat? I know a place near that sells really good food and boba" I said and looked to my right, waiting for Jake's reply. "Yeah sure" he said and took my hand in his, I looked at him surprisingly "You take the lead" he said and I chuckled, nodding "Okay" and started to walk to the café. Soon after we arrived and chose a table. We looked through the menu to see what we were going to order "What are you going to order, Jaeyunie?" I asked while looking through the menu, trying to chose something as I couldn't chose between the options, everything looked good to me. "I don't know, probably some boba and a piece of cake? I'm not sure yet, what about you?" He asked and I tried to guess my own choice "Mmm, probably boba, too. And I'm trying to see what I should order to eat" I said and Jake nodded. Finally we could decide and the waiter came to us and took our orders, when they went away we started to talk again.

"Choi Areum huh" he said teasingly as he looked at me through the table, I chuckled "Sim Jaeyun huh" I said, copying his tone and actions. I heard him chuckle before taking out his phone "Let's take a picture, to capture the moment" he said and I nodded, scooting closer so we could fit in the frame. Slightly smiling he took the pictures, after it he looked at his phone and smiled "Send them to me too!" I said and he nodded, chuckling.

After our outer, we walked together to the train station. Jake had to take a train to go back to his house so I walked with him there, as I didn't need to take the train but just a bus. We talked a bit more before reaching the station, he stood up in front of me and smiled softly. I walked to him and hugged him, I felt him hugging me back tighter "Have a safe way back home, Jaeyunie" "You too, I'll miss you" he said and I chuckled, ignoring the heat running through my cheeks. "I'll text you tomorrow before my schedule, okay?" I said and I felt him nodding through our hug. The truth is that I couldn't bring myself together to ask him if he was dating someone already, so I had lots of thoughts running wild in my mind, but decided to ignore them. We wished each other a good way back home and after waiting for his train to go I went back home.

"And now I'm pacing back and forth, wishing you were at my door"

Later that night, I received a text from an university which I had signed up for it some months ago and thought I wouldn't get called, until then. They had sent me a message saying that I got accepted there but not in the Korean place but the American one, I had to leave. I had signed up to be studying in the Korean university but actually got called to the American one, and my first thought was Jake. Should I tell him? I knew very well that this was going to hurt the both of us but I knew I still had to let him know, I wouldn't let that possibly pass by it was now or never. I was worried too, about my friendship with Jake. I didn't want to give us up after our first meeting face to face but, it was the university of my dreams. I was sure he would understand if I told him I had to leave to study abroad, and that I wasn't probably going to come back.

The next day I woke up and all these thoughts came back, Jake and the university. But I had to focus, I had work. I quickly prepared and started my schedule, from time to time I remembered Jake and the news but tried to ignore them and the knot made in my stomach. How should I tell him about it?

After my schedule I went home and texted Jake, he told me he was a bit busy and I decided to give him some time so that he could text me after, and then again those thoughts came back. I should tell him face to face...

"There I was again tonight forcing laughter, faking smiles"

I decided to make the first move and tell him to meet, to let him know what was happening. We arranged our meeting in the same place as before, the Han River. I tried to look good and dressed up nicely, like the first time we met. It was unbelievable, for me, how could we go from our first meeting to this one, the second one, the last one too. It hurt so much, because I won't be able to see him anymore. I tried to spend a lot of time with him, calling and chatting a lot. Now, it was a week before I would leave to America, to the university I wanted so bad. But leaving the best person behind and a part of me in Korea too.

I waited on that bench again, scrolling on my phone. I felt my hands shaking slightly as I felt a tap on my shoulder, like the first time. I turned around and tried to make a smile, trying to hide the pain too. "Hi jaeyunie" I called and my heart broke even more, the crack in it, growing every second. "Hi Areum" he said and embraced me in a hug, why are you making everything harder for me, Sim Jaeyun? I hugged him back and after a while we separated, I saw something different in his face. Love.

I looked at him and saw that he looked at me differently than the first time, more lively. I shrugged it off and said "Let's walk?" And he nodded, taking my hand in his, again. "Let's go" he said and we walked around, our hands entwined, making my heart sting even more. Why was it so hard? "You know Areum... I have something to tell you" he said smiling softly to himself, giving my hand a gentle squeeze. "Oh really? Well... I have something to tell you too" I said bittersweetly, looking down. I saw Jake looking up expectantly. "Oh is that so? Tell me what it is, then. I'll tell you what I have to say after you" he said and I felt my heart breaking even more, I was going to hurt him. I stopped walking as we stood under a tree, I looked down at our hands and slowly separated them. Taking a deep breath I tried to make my own words "I don't know if you're going to like this... Jake" I said and without looking up I continued "I have to leave... To America..." I said and squeezed my eyes shut tightly "What do you mean?" He asked and I tried not to cry, continuing "I got a message from my dream university saying that I got in, I never told you about it as I thought I was never going to get called after months... And because I would get called to the one that's here... In Korea.. but I guess not" I said "I hope everything goes well to you, Jaeyunie" crack "I hate to admit this but I like you, but I know that you might have someone waiting on you... I'm sorry" crack, my heart continued breaking. After I had said that I let a tear escape my eye, slowly falling over my cheek, being followed by another and another one. "What the fuck you mean I have someone waiting on me Choi Areum?!" He said, slightly shouting... Voice cracking "I've been waiting for you since day one! I don't even care if you have to go but... I fucking love you Choi Areum! Why did you keep it in?! I literally love you and now you're telling me this?! Really?! When are you leaving..?" He finally asked, a bit more relaxed. "Next week" I said quietly and heard him let out a soft sob, as he sighed "Fucking Choi Areum! Why are you doing this?! Really! I...." "I really wanted us to be something, Areum! I wanted to be your fucking boyfriend!" He said and I cried harder, knowing damn well I should've told him this before... "I-I'm sorry.. Jaeyunie" I sobbed "No! Don't call me that! Just... This is hard to swallow and you're making it harder!" He said, I looked up taking a slight glance at his face and saw him crying... A completely new sight for me. "I grew so damn close to you for you to do me this?! To do us this?! Please..." "Why couldn't you tell me this before?! Just... Areum! Why did you just tell me about this just now...." He said and I sobbed harder, I tried to calm down but I couldn't. I saw him sighing before looking up "I... I don't think we should continue talking, Areum" there it laid my broken heart, on the ground. "If we continue talking this will only hurt each other more... Let's leave it here. Have a nice trip to America" I couldn't believe his words, his dry tone... Why was he like this? "Okay" I said between sobs "Good bye, thank you for everything, Jake" I said and he nodded, looking away.

"It was enchanting to meet you, Sim Jaeyun"

thank you for reading ♡

do not copy, repost on other socials or translate. all rights reserved to @/stqrlite.

[first-digi-add]

Beyond the Big Three: Exploring Emerging Social Media Platforms

Introduction

While giants like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter dominate the social media landscape, several emerging platforms are gaining traction and offering unique opportunities for brands to connect with diverse audiences. Exploring and leveraging these new Social Media Services can help marketers stay ahead of the curve and reach untapped markets. This article delves into the rising stars of the social media world and provides strategies for effectively using these platforms to enhance your digital marketing efforts.

Why Look Beyond the Big Three?

Targeted Audiences: Niche platforms attract users with shared passions, creating a community highly receptive to your content, be it creative pursuits, professional networking, or local happenings.

Innovative Features: New platforms are constantly pushing boundaries. From ephemeral content on Snapchat to live audio discussions on Clubhouse, these features can add a whole new dimension to your social media experience.

Escape the Clutter: Big platforms can feel overwhelming. Here, you can curate a more intimate space, connect with like-minded individuals, and potentially avoid the noise and algorithms of established giants.

Here's a glimpse into some exciting options:

For the Storyteller:

Twitter: Sharpen your wit and engage in real-time conversations with bite-sized updates (280 characters) and trending hashtags.

Medium: Craft thoughtful, in-depth articles and connect with a community of readers and writers.

For the Creator:

YouTube: The undisputed king of video content. Build a channel, cultivate a following, and showcase your creativity.

Twitch: Live stream your gameplay, connect with fellow gamers, and foster a vibrant online community.

For the Community Builder:

Nextdoor: Connect with your local community, share recommendations, and stay informed about neighborhood happenings.

Discord: Create a server for your special interest group, chat with voice or text channels, and foster a strong sense of belonging.

Be Real: Emphasizing Authenticity

BeReal is a photo-sharing app that encourages users to post unfiltered and spontaneous photos. It sends a daily notification at a random time, prompting users to take a photo of whatever they are doing within a two-minute window. This emphasis on authenticity resonates with users tired of the curated and polished content on other platforms.

Strategies:

Authentic Content: Share behind-the-scenes glimpses of your brand’s daily operations to build trust and authenticity.

User Engagement: Encourage users to share their experiences with your products or services in real time.

Community Building: Foster a community by engaging with users' genuine content and highlighting customer stories.

Discord: Creating Engaged Communities

Description: Originally designed for gamers, Discord has evolved into a versatile platform for community building and real-time communication. It allows users to create servers with text, voice, and video channels.

Strategies:

Niche Communities: Build dedicated servers for your brand where fans and customers can interact, share feedback, and discuss related topics.

Exclusive Content: Offer exclusive content, early access to products, or special events for community members.

Customer Support: Use Discord as a channel for providing real-time customer support and gathering feedback.

Clubhouse: The Audio-First Experience

Description: Clubhouse is an audio-only platform where users can join “rooms” to listen to or participate in live conversations. It offers a unique space for thought leadership and networking through audio content.

Strategies:

Thought Leadership: Host discussions, panels, and Q&A sessions with industry experts to establish your brand as a thought leader.

Customer Interaction: Create rooms where you can interact directly with customers, answer questions, and gather feedback.

Collaborations: Partner with influencers and other brands to co-host engaging and informative sessions.

Pinterest: Visual Discovery and Shopping

Pinterest is a visual discovery platform that doubles as a powerful search engine for finding inspiration and products. It’s particularly effective for brands in the fashion, home decor, and lifestyle sectors.

Strategies:

Visual Content: Share high-quality, inspirational images and infographics that align with your brand’s aesthetic.

Shoppable Pins: Utilize Pinterest’s shopping features to create shoppable pins, allowing users to purchase directly from the platform.

Boards and Collections: Organize content into themed boards to make it easy for users to discover and save your products.

Conclusion

Venturing beyond the big three social media platforms can unlock new opportunities for brand engagement and growth. By exploring and strategically using emerging platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, marketers can connect with diverse audiences in innovative ways. Each platform offers unique features and user experiences, so it’s essential to tailor your content and engagement strategies to fit the specific characteristics and audience expectations of each one. Staying adaptable and proactive in leveraging these platforms will keep your brand relevant and competitive in the ever-evolving social media landscape.

[the-rewatch-rewind]

First guest appearance! Transcript below the break

Hello and welcome back to The Rewatch Rewind, the podcast where I count down my top 40 most rewatched movies. My name is Jane, and in this episode I will be discussing number 34 on my list: 20th Century Fox and Argyle Enterprises’ 1965 musical The Sound of Music, directed by Robert Wise, written by Ernest Lehman with the partial use of ideas by Georg Hurdalek, adapted from the stage musical book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse which was based on the autobiography of Maria von Trapp, and starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer.

This is the story of Maria (Julie Andrews), a postulant who is struggling to maintain the discipline required to become a nun, so she is sent to the home of widower Captain Georg von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) to be a governess to his seven children for the summer, and accidentally catches feelings. Also it’s Austria in the late 1930s and bad times are coming.

In previous episodes of this podcast, I’ve talked to you by myself, but in this discussion I will be joined by my dear friend Christina Ailor, whom I met online a few years ago due to our shared appreciation and support for independent filmmakers like Shipwrecked Comedy, the Tin Can Brothers, and Ashley Clements – all of whom have YouTube channels featuring brilliant projects that you should absolutely check out if you’re unfamiliar with their work. Christina and I also share a love for The Sound of Music, as you will be able to tell from this very long, detailed chat that we had about it. Hope you enjoy, here it is!

Jane

Hello!

Christina

 Hi!

Jane

Thank you for joining me on my podcast.

Christina

Hi, thank you for having me.

Jane

I'm so excited to have you as my first guest.

Christina

I feel so honored.

Jane

Because the first time we met in person, we watched a movie together. And it was not this movie. But it did have Christopher Plummer in it. So…

Christina

That's true. Oh, my goodness. I didn't even think about that connection. Yeah.

Jane

But sadly I don't get to talk about Knives Out on this podcast because I've only seen it eight times. But Sound of Music. I have watched 15 times and we have watched it together.

Christina

It's true. Virtually.

Jane

Yes, so the first time I watched Knives Out was with you and the most recent time I watched Sound of Music was with you, so it's all. It's all connected.

Christina

Yay! Well, I just watched some of it this morning to refresh myself and I don't know how many times I've watched the Sound of Music, but it's definitely one of the most watched of my life, and the episode that you just released a couple days ago was Princess Bride, which is also like one of my top most watched movies. So I was like, wow, like this week. It's just in the Jane rewind rewatch. It's it's all about. What Christina watches all the time.

Jane

Yes, we have similar taste in movies. So do you remember the first time you ever saw Sound of Music?

Christina

I am not sure exactly when the first time I saw it, but I do have a memory of receiving the video cassettes for my birthday and I'm not sure it was either my 4th or 5th birthday. I know that for certain because we were living in a house that we only lived in for a couple of years. And I remember being so excited. I think that I had the audio cassette of the songs and I also had a picture book or something where it came with an audio cassette and it would like have a sound to turn the page and it kind of told an abbreviated story of the Sound of Music. So I was already familiar with, like the general plot and the songs. And then I got this two-VHS set and was just thrilled and looking back it's like hilarious to me that I was already, like, so fully formed at like 4 years old. And it was just like, yes. And you know, a few years ago, like, as I got into my late 20s, I was like, wow, like, do I really love Sound of Music because it's great or because of the nostalgia factor? And then when I started rewatching it again, I like, tried to have a more critical eye. And I just thought, you know what? I think this is a really great. I think I just had really great taste, starting from the age of four.

Jane

Yeah. That's fair. Yeah I feel like I got into it later than that in life like, I was aware of it. And I think it was another one of those movies where it was just like always on TV or it was on TV at certain times of year. So I know I watched like bits and pieces of it. And I remember we watched at least part of it in school in like third grade, and I have no idea why, but I have this memory of watching it in my third grade classroom.

Christina

Yeah, I think you know, like if you're trying to teach, like, Nazis are bad, it's a it's a great, like primer and it's rated G. Like there's not that many movies that talk about Nazis being bad, that's also rated G.

Jane

Yeah, yeah. No, that's true. Well, and. And I had a very deprived childhood because we didn't have a VCR until I was, like, 10.

Christina

What?! Whoa!

Jane

So I couldn't watch movies at home that much unless they were on TV, like we had cable and we had some, like, movie channels, so like.

Christina

Wow this puts this, the whole concept of this podcast and like, how much you rewatch movies into this whole new context for me, I'm just…

Jane

Yes.

Christina

Wow, this is a whole new perspective has opened up for me. I feel like you need to do an episode that's like just about your journey of like becoming a film buff.

Jane

Yeah, yeah, that's true. I probably should do a bonus episode explaining that, but bits and pieces will come out in the episodes. Uh, but yeah, so, I didn't ever have it on VHS. I'm pretty sure that I must have gotten it on DVD around 2004 because that was like when we got a DVD player for the living room. So then we started getting DVDs. So I think it was around 2004 and that year I watched it four times. And so that was when I was like really into it and it was also around the same time I got into Mary Poppins. So I was like, really having a Julie Andrews phase right then.

Christina

I mean. That's the best kind of phase to have

Jane

Yeah, for sure.

Christina

And Princess Diaries came out like, right around then too, didn't it?

Jane

Yeah. Yeah. I think Princess Diaries was 2001 and that was like… I like, was aware of who Julie Andrews was before then, but that was really what got me into Julie Andrews was Princess Diaries, which seems a little backwards.

Christina

Whatever gets you there, to the Julie Andrews obsession.

Jane

Yes, absolutely. So, yeah, so that was at that point because like, my freshman year of high school was 2004 to 2005, and that year I told people that Sound of Music was my all-time favorite movie and I watched it a lot in that era. But then again, it was kind of like I didn't watch it for a while and thought like, OK, maybe it's just nostalgia. But then rewatching it later, I was like, oh, this movie is great. And then I went to several sing alongs of it. I think I looked back, I'm pretty sure I've been to four Sound of Music sing alongs.

Christina

Wow, I have been to one sing along and it was, I went with my family. I don't know if you, like what your sing along experiences were, but I went with my family and there was varying levels of enthusiasm within my family about attending, but I was so excited and so my mom's dad was a marine and served in West Germany when she was a kid, so they actually lived in Berlin for part of her childhood. So we have like, in my family we have a lot of, like dirndls and lederhosen. I don't know. We just, like, have those in our family closet. And so I was, you know, dressed up in a dirndls. And then my brother was wearing this like Austrian looking hat. And during the there was like a costume contest at the beginning and he actually won because everyone else got up and they were like, I'm dressed as this child and he got up and was this little 10-year-old boy and he said he was dressed as Uncle Max.

Jane

Ugh, amazing.

Christina

And that got a huge laugh. And then people were like, oh, like you get the prize.

Jane

Yeah, I've never participated in the costume contest part of the Sing Alongs, but they they always have them at the beginning and it's fun to see like, what creative things people come up with cause a lot of times it's like people dressed as the characters. But then, like, they'll be like dressed as some of the favorite things from the song. Or like this one time there was a group of people that were dressed as hills that were alive and they were like labeled as hills from the neighborhood and stuff. So that was fun. The first time I went to one, it was because one of the pastors at my church at the time had mentioned it in a sermon that, like that was a thing that happened at this theater nearby. And I was like, what? I need to go to this. I did not know this existed. And so then I like messaged her and she, like, kind of it wasn't an official church event, but she sort of put together like various people from the church that she thought would be interested. And so we all went and saw it together. So nobody else from my family went. It was just me and a bunch of other people I knew from church. And that was really fun. And I like, distinctly remember at intermission being like, oh, my gosh, I love this movie so much. And one of the kids that was there was like, well, yeah, it's a great movie. And I was like like, Yep, Yep. It is. So then the next year was the 50th anniversary of Sound of Music.

Christina

OK.

Jane

And so I went again with, like, my family and friends, and that year was the year that Duane Chase, who played Kurt in the movie, actually came to the Sing along.

Christina

Oh wow.

Jane

Because he lives kind of nearby in this area now.

Christina

Oh, OK, cool.

Jane

So he came to that and that was really fun because, like, at the sing alongs, they give you, like stuff to do and say at certain points.

Christina

Yeah.

Jane

It's like you're supposed to cheer whenever Julie Andrews comes on screen and Boo the Nazis and stuff like that. So then every time Kurt did anything, everybody was cheering for him. And it was really fun. And then afterwards I got a picture with him.

Christina

Nice.

Jane

But he seemed, it seemed like he was getting kind of tired of being there because he, he stopped acting after his childhood, so he's not really into like being in the spotlight, but it was fun that he came for that.

Christina

Yeah.

Jane

I think the year after that they didn't have one because where they do the screening around here is like a stage theater and they were doing Sound of Music the stage show that year, so they didn't have a movie sing along. But then the following year I went again. And then I kind of stopped doing it cause I was like it gets to be a little repetitive if you go a lot, but it is really fun and it's it's just great to be in a whole big theater full of people who love the movie. But then I went again at a different place when I was visiting my siblings the year before last. So that was really fun too. Just being in a completely different part of the country and doing the same sort of thing. So I love those singalongs.

Christina

Awesome. Well, should we talk about why we love this movie so much?

Jane

Yes, we should. So do you have a favorite part? Do you have a favorite song?

Christina

Well, I oh, I don't know if I could choose a favorite. You know, I'm I'm more of the my favorite things theory of life. You just list out all the things you love, but then we would be here all day.

Jane

That's true.

Christina

But I did, I have my many notes here, and one thing that I just always get so excited about when the movie starts is it's probably one of my favorite openings of a movie of all time.

Jane

Me too.

Christina

I love you know the aerial shots. It's so beautiful. And then I love the sound of it and how it just starts with the wind blowing. And then they bring in the birds, and then they gradually layer in the orchestration of the hills are alive song and then, just like zooming in on Maria spinning around on the hill. Just every time I watch it, I A) am just like this is so beautiful and B) think gotta get myself on a Viking River cruise to actually like, go to there and like, I just want to go to Salzburg every time I watch. I'm like, should I? Should I become a hiker? Should I learn how to climb mountains so I can be there?

Jane

Oh, my gosh. That opening is so good. And I think it's really interesting because in the stage show, Maria sings a like little verse before the hills are alive, like there's a little “my day in the hills has come to an end I know,” and in the movie they don't sing that, but they just play that like, that's the instrumental like introduction. And I think that's really interesting. I don't know why they chose to do it that way, but I really like it because it's like kind of like more gradually building into the song and then just like having it the first lyrics be, “The hills are alive.”

Christina

So can we agree that Julie Andrews is like one of the greatest singers of all time?

Jane

Oh 100%.

Christina

So yeah, it's just like we're going to give you exactly what you want, like, right away, and just let her, like, belt out this line. Like she doesn't have to work up to it. And it's just, it's like starting on a climax. And it's so beautifully cinematic. And I think that there's, you know, there's so few movies that shoot on location to that extent, and especially so many Hollywood musicals were shot on soundstages. Completely and now, they're very rarely shot on location like that. And so it's really, just one of the most immersive movie musicals that I can think of. And I just love how it goes right into the opening credits is like all these shots of Salzburg as well. And it just really like puts you in this place, and… “time” – I’m doing air quotes for time.

Jane

I mean, it's a very ‘60s version of World War II.

Christina

And it's also so just before we talk more about the movie, just some more background about me and Sound of Music in general is I have never seen the stage version actually, and I knew that there were some changes and I have like looked up the differences. I think that I’m so obsessed with the movie, I don't know if I would really fully like seeing the stage version at this point? Because all of the changes that I've seen them make, I'm like, yeah, I agree with that. But I also have read the actual Maria von Trapp autobiography, and I think I read that when I was like in middle school or high school. And so her actual story with the von Trapp really took place in the 20s. And then they were married for, like, a decade. And then the Nazis showed up and tried to get him to work for them. So they, you know, they definitely took some artistic license. And I agree, like some of the hemlines in this movie I’m like that is not a 1930s hemline, that is a 1960s hemline. But you know, it's still beautiful. So yeah, we're going to let it go.

Jane

Yeah. So I've seen three different productions of the stage version, I think. But one of them, I don't know if it really counts, cause it was like a youth theater, like it wasn't a professional thing. But I saw that one first because my brother was the student stage manager. But then the person who was supposed to play the main Nazi dropped out. So my brother ended up playing the main Nazi character too. So I saw that one and then I saw it at the 5th Ave. which is the theater where I see the sing alongs. They did their own stage production of it and that was pretty good. There were a few things about it that I was like, oh, but the movie is so much better, but it was interesting to see. And then I saw there was like, a  national tour of it a couple of years later. And that was amazing. The singing in that was so good. It was no Julie Andrews, but it was still really good. So I enjoyed the stage version and a lot of it is very similar to the movie, but certain things changed and it was interesting to see those changes. Obviously I prefer the movie, but I'm biased because I've seen it so many more times. But yeah, I enjoyed the stage show. But I think what you said about the location thing is so true cause so many movie musicals feel very, like contained in a soundstage. And this feels very open and like it is its own little world, but it's also like part of the real world. And I think that's really part of what makes it so powerful is like, yeah, it is its own, like, musical world. But it's also like real and yeah, it's not really the real story, but like, it feels like it's part of the world.

Christina

Yeah, and I also think like the historical beats that they're hitting are real, like the way that the play and the movie ends is not actually how they escaped Austria, in part because there's not a border right there. But I do think, like what it's trying to tell us about, like that political moment there is some, some truth there and it's valuable I think. Comparing it to other movie musicals, when I was watching it this morning, one that came to mind was the new West Side Story.

Jane

Oh yeah.

Christina

I haven't seen the old West Side Story in a little while. I know that that one also starts with an aerial shot and they were actually worried about the Sound of Music being seen as copycatting that.

Jane

Oh really?

Christina

Yeah, so it shared some production team and then the, I think it was the screenwriter, like, insisted on the aerial shot of the Alps. And they're like, uh, like people just saw that with West Side Story, so they're probably not gonna like that. But then according to Wikipedia, they couldn't think of anything better.

Jane

Oh, that's so funny because, yeah, I guess they, they are similar, but I never thought of them as being similar before because it's such a different setting that they're showing you.

Christina

It's such a different setting and also like you know, it's written by such a different team. You know it's they're both from that era I guess, but the new- what I was going to say is like the new West Side Story is really a beautiful movie and they put so much work into the details of taking us back to that New York, but at the same time it doesn't have that expansiveness that they were able to have by just like shooting on location in Salzburg because the New York of West Side Story, you know, no longer exists. It kind of like never existed. They just made it up for that musical but like, you know, the New York of the 1950s, like, truly no longer exist. So they really had to create sound stages and sets for that. And despite like the enormous amount of detail and scale that Steven Spielberg was trying to put into it, you just can't match it with like an actual mountain.

Jane

Yeah, that's so true. Also I have to, I have to mention because Julie Andrews mentions it a lot, that that spin that she does that's captured by the helicopter shot. Every single take of it the like downdraft from the helicopter, it would completely knock her over right after they shot, so she would spin around and then she would fall over and they kept doing it. And she so at one point she was like, trying to gesture to the people, like, do a wider turn so you don't knock me over. And they just like waved, they're like,” oh, hi, yeah, we're doing this!” So she fell over on that hill a lot.

Christina

Oh no! Yeah, you can definitely, if you're like, watching very closely to it, you can see her do the spin and then then they immediately cut to

Jane

Yeah, to a close up of her, yeah.

Christina

Yeah, that's so funny. Also, apparently the stream that she crosses is like plastic.

Jane

Oh yeah, and at one point, like a farmer in the area destroyed it because they were mad about, like, people filming there.

Christina

That's fair. I can't, I can't blame him. It's like stop putting plastic streams on this natural beauty. That's it's so funny to me that I understand why they when she like, walks through the Birch trees. I mean that is like so perfect. I was like, I bet they brought those Birch trees in and they did. But with the stream, when I found out that was fake, I was like, you couldn't find a real stream? It seems like they would be all over the place.

Jane

Yeah, I don't know. But moving on from the opening scene, so the next song is how do you solve a problem like Maria? And I just like, I've always loved that song. I think it's very fun, but I remember as a kid I definitely misunderstood what it was about. And I thought that they were asking, How do you solve a problem the way Maria solves problems?

Christina

Oh my gosh, that is so funny.

Jane

Like I didn't realize they were calling her a problem. I thought like, oh, she's such a good problem solver. How do you how do you emulate that, and then later realized what it was actually about? And I was like, oh, OK, that's very different song.

Christina

OK, I actually have half a page of notes just about this song.

Jane

Oh wow. OK.

Christina

And I like knew what it was about the whole time, I'm pretty sure. And I really identify with this song and love it. And like in the same way that you know, on this podcast, you're often talking about, here's my aroace perspective on things and and like looking back on watching these movies, you're realizing maybe why you connected with certain elements. So I definitely do that now that I realize that I'm neurodivergent and had undiagnosed ADHD as a child. And I'm like, oh, like so many things make sense. And this song I am like, oh, like, this is why I loved this song so much because I as a kid was so often criticized for not doing things the way that other people did them, and I was always late and I was always daydreaming and I was just asked by a lot of authority figures in my life. They, you know, they were always like, you're so sweet, and you're so smart. Why can't you just, you know, do things the way that other kids do them? And I think that I found this song very validating, first of all, to see I wasn't the only person in the world to be criticized for that and then to have that person end up being the hero of this story and the central focus of this story, I think, meant a lot to me. And it's, it's part of why I think I always identified with Maria. But I also love that this song is in part people complaining about her, but in part people defending her.

Jane

Yeah.

Christina

Bringing up over and over again all these reasons that they love her and that they find these things that are, you know, weird about her, also to be endearing. And it really holds a special place in my heart because of that.

Jane

Oh, wow. That's great. That makes a lot of sense. The reason I love this song is not anything near as personal as that. I just, I've always loved songs that have a lot of fun lyrics and I just love that there's all these really silly words in it and stuff, and so I've always loved singing along to it because of that. And also it's very fun that Marni Nixon is one of the nuns in that song because she was frequently the singing voice of actors who couldn't sing in movies, and I talked about in the Mary Poppins episode that Julie Andrews was not cast in My Fair Lady because she hadn't done a movie before, and Audrey Hepburn was, even though Audrey Hepburn did not have the singing voice for that character, and so her singing was dubbed by Marni Nixon, who makes an appearance in the Sound of Music, which is kind of funny, that connection there because she didn't often her face was not often in movies, and she was usually uncredited as the singing voice cause the studios wanted to maintain the facade of like, look our stars are such good singers!

Christina

Oh studios. Well, I'm glad that she got to have her due in this one.

Jane

So she's sister Sophia. She’s just in that one scene, I think.

Christina

Yeah, but they all have, like such individual personalities and make such a strong impression, all those nuns.

Jane

Yeah, definitely. And that's also true of the children, which I think is great like that they have seven children and you would think they would kind of blend together, but they really are all distinct. Even the ones that don't get to do very much, like I think Louisa is probably the least developed of the children.

Christina

Yeah, and it's funny, apparently, that Louisa, like the second oldest daughter, is like the one that the historical Maria von Trapp was brought to be her tutor. And was not going to be like a governess for all seven of them. So, you know, they supposedly like probably had the strongest relationship at the beginning of the story historically.

Jane

But they all had different names in real life too, right?

Christina

Yeah, actually that the real life second sister was named Maria, which was part of why they changed all of the names of the kids.

Jane

That would have been confusing.

Christina

Yeah, they're just like, no, this is not necessary. Yeah so I love how do you solve a problem like Maria? And I also love that they bring it back as their wedding song?

Jane

It's just like, yes, of course I will walk down the aisle to song about how I'm a problem.

Christina

I mean, it's crazy cause like if they just played the theme then it would be just like a fun, you know, musical reprise. But they actually have the nuns sing the words!

Jane

Well, and and they don't go in the church, which I'm like, are nuns, not allowed to go to weddings. Is this a rule?

Christina

It seems like it is a rule it because, you know, they're brides of Christ? I don't, I mean, I'm not Catholic, so I, I can't weigh in on this, but I think that it has something to do with like the barrier, and also they were always upset with Maria for just randomly leaving the Abbey and they had all of these rules about that, so maybe they're just like we need special permission to go through these gates.

Jane

Yeah, I don't know. That's always been weird to me, that they're just like standing outside singing the Maria Song while she's getting married. It's like.

Christina

We’re just like, never forget that we thought you were weird.

Jane

And she’s like, This is why I left you guys.

Christina

Yeah, she's just like you know what? It makes me even more glad that I'm committing to this family. OK, so jumping ahead slightly. Maria is with the von Trapp family. OK, so she starts off at the convent. Then let me just go through the whole plot. She starts out at the convent. They're like, you're weird. Please go be a governess for “a while.” Again air quotes because I think that Mother Superior was like, I don't think it's going to work out here, and was like, looking for a long term way to get her out.

Jane

Bye.

Christina

And then she leaves, and then she is like having all these conflicted feelings about Captain von Trapp so then she goes back to the convent. She has always planned to take her vows as a nun and that has always been her dream. And it's always been her dream to serve God and so she's just feeling very conflicted about it. And then when she goes to Mother Superior, which I believe is the scene where Mother Superior sings climb every mountain to her.

Jane

Yes.

Christina

But part of their conversation is Mother Superior basically saying, we serve God here by taking our vows, but that's not the only way to serve God and to have faith, and if you love this man and want to be a mother to these children, that is another way to serve God and you can take your faith out into the community. And I was someone who was raised as Jane, as you know, I was raised in the Christian faith and I think that's another reason I always really connected with Maria was like that longing to connect with God and serve God. But I think another reason I really love this movie is because that is one of the messages is that you can bring whatever your light is, whatever your you know, spark is, there's a lot of ways that you can bring that to the world and be a good in the world and you don't necessarily have to be following like a really strict lifestyle like being a nun.

Jane

Yeah, well, and I think it's sort of backwards to me because they're saying like it's OK to get married and have a romantic relationship. But I think like, part of the way I interpreted it is that there's no correct path.

Christina

Yes, exactly.

Jane

There's no one path for every person like you have to do what feels right for you. And so for Maria, it was very clearly marrying Captain von Trapp. But like, if people are saying the correct path is to get married and have a family like that doesn't mean that everybody has to do that.

Christina

Yeah, that's not going to be for everyone.

Jane

Yeah, so I think that it's even encouraging in that it is a romantic story, it's encouraging for people who don't want that kind of relationship too, to be like, well, but that was right for her. They're not saying everybody has to do that.

Christina

And I don't actually know how you say out loud the the word for ama-normativity?

Jane

Amatonormativity? That's how I say it. I don't actually know if that's how you pronounce it.

Christina

As you have brought up before this idea that is pushed on us by culture, that like there is one way like the normative part of it and then the amatonormative part of it is relationships and romantic relationships, like you have to be in one to be living the right life and, yeah, I definitely think that this movie and this musical is trying to say there is no right way and you can't say being a nun, you know isn't the right way, but then being in a relationship is. No, like, that was what was right for her and what was right for Uncle Max was being a musical group producer and leaching off of his rich friends, and I do think that it ties in to the anti-Nazi themes of the movie because I at least associate a lot of that movement, and like fascism in general with the idea of like there is only one right way.

Jane

Oh yeah, that's a good point.

Christina

And we're going to force people to be this one right way. And the heroes of this movie are all saying that's not how people are. People are going to be different and they need connection and they need to have faith in each other. So yeah, I think those are all…hopefully I've teased out these, these themes that I'm trying to.

Jane

Yeah, no, I think that makes a lot of sense. That, like the movie, presents the only wrong way to live is if you're denying the way you actually feel.

Christina

Right. I also think I was mostly thinking of this topic in comparison to other Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals. I wasn't really thinking about like other musicals or movies in general. But I really think that, despite how much I love other songs from Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, I don't love any of them to the extent that I love this one, and I think that part of it is that this movie is about two people who, their arc is to recognize what their values are and then very purposefully try to shape their lives around their values. And that's really like the arc of Maria and the captain. And I don't think that that's necessarily the arc of most of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, and some of them actually, although they're like, seen as the pinnacle of book musicals, are a little bit messy thematically. Whereas this one Maria is figuring out, OK, I thought that serving God was my only value, but actually family and being in touch with my creative spirit are also very important values for me. And once she's able to choose those things, that's how she ends up being part of the von Trapp family, and then, you know, moving with them to Americ. And the same with Captain von Trapp. Like he's kind of in this place in his life at the beginning of the movie where he's just bogged down in grief. But then during the course of the movie, in addition to him realizing, oh I want my life centered around my children, I again want to connect with like that creativity and the music, and then also for him a big part of it is... I guess, like I'm trying to think of the right word, but like being an Austrian and like having like principles of not giving in to what the Nazis want him to do. He really decides for himself that he has these strong values and then they decide, oh, we can shape our lives around these together. And that's really the arc, like there are two emotional arcs like converging.

Jane

Yeah.

Christina

I'm doing a hand motion that the podcast listeners will obviously really appreciate where I’m moving my hands together.

Jane

Just just imagine the hand motion. Yeah, no, I think that that makes a lot of sense and it's less, I mean, obviously there's romance involved with that, and it's not just like they're getting together because it feels inevitable, but like, I think that that's definitely a big part of it is realizing like that they have similar values and want to live their lives together, and I think that there's, there's a perception of the way the plot is that like the bareness is the villain that's trying to keep them apart and stuff. But like, if you actually watch it, I have very strong feelings. The Baroness did nothing wrong, OK? She was just trying to keep her man. But she realized that they weren't actually meant for each other, and they had different values, and…

Christina

Yeah, she's pretty chill. Although she does bring up sending the kids to boarding school.

Jane

Right. But also like, the kids were probably going to boarding school anyway to be honest. Like we just see them during summer break like we don't know what their normal school is like.

Christina

That's true.

Jane

And also, apparently the children were- this is a thing that bothers me about the movie. They talk about how awful the children are and how they always like terrorized their their previous governesses and stuff but when we see them, they are like the sweetest, most well behaved children.

Christina

We put a frog in Mario's pocket and a pine cone on her chair. Are you just going to ignore these indiscretions, Jane?

Jane

It just doesn't seem like they actually did that though. Like, I mean, I know they supposedly did, but I just can't imagine those children actually doing that. They just they seem too nice.

Christina

Well, I don't know Brigitta is…

Jane

Oh yeah, she's a little mischievous.

Christina

…pretty judgy. I think that if you like a movie too much, you can start thinking a little bit too hard about it. And there's definitely some, like, timeline things because I was like, OK, so Gretl’s five, so their mother can't have passed away more than five years ago, and they've had 12 governesses in five years. So like, they're really going through these governesses fast. And also so Liesel was like 11 when all this started. So I feel like maybe at first, she was like she and Friedrich, like, started out by, like, playing tricks but like, surely they would have aged out of that a little bit by now. And now it's more like Kurt and Bergita who are getting up to these antics. But Gretel and Marta, they've, they've never done anything wrong. Those two sweet angels.

Jane

Oh, yeah, that's fair. And it's also very clear that the children just want attention, and Maria provides them more productive attention. So then they

Christina

Yeah.

Jane

They stop being such troublemakers because they're excited about the singing part.

Christina

And I think in part we could say, oh, you know, it's a, it's a movie and they didn't have the screen time to show us. I mean, they could have, at this…once you hit 3 hours, why not just add in a couple more scenes? But you know, because they're kind of compressing the timeline they wanted to show them just liking Maria immediately. But, you know, maybe also if you're looking at it from, if you're trying to justify it from the perspective of a fan, maybe the idea is that other governesses have come in and like gone along with their dad with the whistling stuff. And they've just been like, yes, we are going to be very regimented. And so from the very first impression, they kind of lumped all of these governesses in together as you're just part of this system that our dad has created to put a cage around his grief and not deal with his feelings and also not deal with us as human beings. And then Maria comes in and just says, No, I'm not going to do that. So maybe even just that first impression they were like, ugh, like we'll just do a frog and then and then by that way, they're singing my favorite things with her, so

Jane

Yeah, well, that's good. And also she comforts them during the thunderstorm. So I think that really, that really broke the ice. And I also I have to share my favorite story about that scene, because apparently that was pretty early on in the shoot. And Julie Andrews taught the kids supercalifragilisticexpialidocious because Mary Poppins hadn't come out yet when they were filming it, to sort of like, break the ice with them. And so they felt really at ease with her in real life, as well as the characters starting to feel at ease with her. So I think that's very cute.

Christina

That's lovely. Yeah, that's so cute. I love, there's a couple little scenes that it's just Liesl and Maria talking, and they really did find a good dynamic there of like, this older girl being like, I need more of a friend than, or like a mentor and less of a governess or a mother really. And I I love their relationship.

Jane

Yeah I always felt sad because when she, when Liesl sneaks in her window after singing in the gazebo in the rain and Maria says “OK, put your dress in the bathtub and then we'll have a talk.” But then they never get to have the talk because the kids come in and it's the thunderstorm. And I'm like, I want to see that scene!

Christina

I think that later they did have a talk. I hope Liesl.. alright, well, like, since we've brought up the topic of Liesl, I have several things to say. First of all, 16 going on 17 such a catchy song

Jane

It really is.

Christina

and it's, it's in my head all the time and it's a great song But it's also…full of red flags.

Jane

Oh yeah, for sure. I don't remember if it was you. Somebody when we were watching it virtually commented that like Rolf, is taking this song very seriously. And Liesl kind of sees it as like flirtatious, like, role play kind of thing. And I think that's exactly what it is. She doesn't realize how serious he is about it because she's into the like little fun, flirty aspect of it. But if you listen to what he's actually saying it's like, Oh dear.

Christina

Like, “I am a men's rights activist and a Nazi.” And then she's just like, “oh, you!” Um, yeah, but having been a 16 year old girl who liked guys, I really enjoy that song still because now I can see, like, how much Rolf sucks. But I also can see how many of the guys that I liked when I was around that age sucked. And like how bad I was at seeing red flags, and you know, nothing really ever escalated to the extent that it does for Liesl’s family. But I do have like a lot of sympathy for her there. And ugh, man, men's rights activist. It just makes you think like they will find any reason to be upset. They can have someone as gorgeous and as fun as Liesl trying to flirt with them, and they're just like, “But what if we were Nazis?”

Jane

And like your dad should be a Nazi. Like, that's what we should be talking about right now.

Christina

Yeah, he basically says that in that scene. He's just like, have you ever, like, told your dad to be a Nazi? And, you know, she doesn't really know what's going on. It is interesting. When I was rewatching this again, I was like, it's interesting how they're able to convey that Nazis are so bad, but they don't actually ever get into, like, why they are bad. They're really relying on the audience to have some of like that historical and cultural context. Like they don't even make it clear that there is going to be a war, really? I mean, they kind of they they do cause they're like we're we need Captain von Trapp to come serve in our military. But they just really like gloss over, like the horrors that are to come and that they're escaping from. They're just like we need to escape.

Jane

Yeah, it. And it is interesting because they do say the thing about like “The Anschluss happened peacefully” or whatever. But like, they don't explain what that means.

Christina

Yeah.

Jane

They're just like, OK, cool. And I mean, there is that tension. I think it's good that they have Max there as a character cause I feel like he sort of voices what most people were probably feeling at the time of like, this is just going to happen, we have to accept it. And Georg being a little bit more unusual with his like, “No, this is horrible. We don't want this!”

Christina

Right.

Jane

But again, they don't really explain exactly what's going on, and I think that probably at the time, well and even like because the stage musical was from 1959 and this is 1965. So people like knew. Like the war had only been like 20 years earlier, like people knew what happened. But I think it's interesting that like this is such a timeless classic and like it's still very much in the pop culture conversation. Like people know Sound of Music. But like, we're much farther removed from the events now, and I do think it's interesting that like a lot of people consider the Baroness the villain of the film and like, are more focused on the love triangle thing. It's like, the Nazis are right there!

Christina

Yeah, Nazis are definitely the villains of the film. I agree with you that the Baroness does nothing wrong.

Jane

She steps away gracefully.

Christina

Yes, but I will say that we see in that scene when Max is like, “what's gonna happen is gonna happen, and it's not my fault that I'm not a political person and I can't help it that other people are,” and then Georg says, “Yes, you can!” And that's really the first time that we're seeing Captain von Trapp recognizing, I have these, like, strong values that I want to shape my life around. And the Baroness is just kind of like, “Everyone, like, chill out.”

Jane

Yeah.

Christina

She is not really siding with Captain von Trapp. And saying, “Yes Georg, like I agree with you. Nazis are so bad!”

Jane

Which Maria does. Yeah, because there's definitely that scene when Max says, “You need to talk some sense into him. He has to cooperate with these people,” and she says, “I can't ask him to be less than he is.” And it's just like, she gets it. The Baroness does not. So, yeah, I agree that the Baroness and the captain do not belong together.

Christina

Yeah.

Jane

But I also don't think that she's like, the most evil character in the story, but yeah, she is again kind of like the typical Austrian or German of like, I'm not a Nazi, but I don't want to stand up to them.

Christina

I would say that the most evil actually is the Butler. He turns them in and it's like…

Jane

It's very subtle, though they like, don't explicitly say that, but then you just see him looking ominously out the window when the Nazis show up.

Christina

Yeah, but it is, gosh, it's so interesting. I know that most or probably most of your audience is not going to be familiar with the more recent musical, Spies Are Forever. I know you are, Jane.

Jane

Well, actually most of my audience is probably my friends who are familiar with it, but yeah.

Christina

That's true, but just in case, there's anyone who's not familiar. It's a musical that you can see on YouTube in full, and it takes place in, like, the 60s. And it's like, sort of a James Bond theme spies thing. And Nazis kind of try to make like a comeback in that, which I guess they do in James Bond as well all the time. They recently did a concert version of that, that musical and the creators were talking about when they wrote it in 2015, they just didn't realize that Nazis actually would make a comeback in 2016, and they would be part of our national conversation so much. Yeah, like during the years of 2016 to 2017, I think a lot of people realized that just random people in their lives actually agreed with very conservative and fascist viewpoints. That because we just didn't talk about our personal politics as much, we didn't realize that about each other. And so that moment of like realizing that your Butler has been a Nazi sympathizer this whole time actually, like, isn't that unrealistic of a moment.

Jane

Yeah ,going back to Max too, like, Georg even says to him like, “Sometimes I don't believe I know you” or something like that, when he he expresses like we should just get along with people is like, yeah, I think that that happened to a lot of people in the sort of 2016 era of like, assuming that everyone agrees with you that certain things are bad and then realizing like, oh, you don't think this is that big of a deal.

Christina

Right. Yeah.

Jane

OK, didn't didn't see that coming. Like Georg always, like he knows what kind of person Max is, that he's like, just trying to make, make a buck as quickly as he can, and like exploiting singers to get money from them and stuff like that. But I think he didn't realize what that would translate to. And I think that Max has a nice arc in that at the end, he helps them escape, even though he knows that's losing him money.

Christina

Yeah, the greatest sacrifice anyone could make: Max giving up the chance to win money.

Jane

Yeah, exactly. And that that escape is so good. I love the way they do it. It's amazing.

Christina

Yeah.

Jane

The way that they sing So Long, Farewell, like a reprise of So Long Farewell and just kind of sneak away. And nobody thinks anything of it. And then there's the lady who bows like 15 times.

Christina

Yes, the bowing lady!

Jane

I love her.

Christina

Yeah, they just keep bowing at each other!

Jane

I know this doesn't actually make sense, but I like to think that she was somehow in on it, and she was trying to do her part to help them escape by delaying their announcement.

Christina

Oh man, she's so great. I also love, at the end when they're like, hiding in the cemetery, and then they leave in the caretakers car and the Nazis’ cars won't start. And then the nuns are like, “Mother Superior….”

Jane

“I have sinned!”

Christina

“I have sinned!” and then they show that they've stolen the parts. What a great moment! Like that is just…

Jane

Yeah, and that's like that's like basically how the movie ends, cause it cuts from that to them walking across the mountains and…

Christina

And just like hearing the song Climb Every Mountain playing over that. Yeah, but like, what a great, like the nuns get the last laugh in the end and I love that for them.

Jane

Yeah, I think, I mean, what you were saying earlier about, like other Rodgers and Hammerstein shows, I'm not actually like that familiar with most of their other shows. Like I've seen most of them, like at least once. And then I guess the one I'm most familiar with is their version of Cinderella, and those songs were actually written for Julie Andrews, to make everything come full circle. But like I just a lot of their other shows, I have like major issues with a lot of the the aspects of them like they're kind of racist, they're kind of misogynistic. They like, have a lot of problematic elements and there's like a little bit of that in Sound of Music. I do think like, I mean, I love that Maria and Liesl have a conversation, but I think that that 16 going on 17 Reprise has a lot of, like problematic moments in there like that. Like “lo and behold, you're someone's wife and you belong to him” is a little bit like, ergh…

Christina

That's very strong written by a man vibes.

Jane

Yeah, exactly. It's like, we got to remind you that it's written by a man, but I feel like it has less of that than their other shows.

Christina

Oh yeah, I feel like most of their other shows, it's like maybe the ending is supposed to be, like kind of happy, but also there was definitely at least one tragic death that we're supposed to just ignore.

Jane

And also just like that, the the romantic leads actually don't have a healthy relationship and you're just kind of like I, I don't actually want them to be together? And so I think that the fact that this one is like they do have a healthy relationship, they clearly do belong together and also like it's more about getting away from the Nazis and standing up for what you believe in than promoting toxic, dysfunctional relationships that I think is part of why this one has become like the one that everyone talks about, and it was their last collaboration because I think Hammerstein died shortly after.

Christina

OK. I didn't realize it was their last one.

Jane

The musical premiered in 59 and Hammerstein died in 60. And so there's a couple of songs that were added for the movie that were just written by Rodgers without Hammerstein because he had died already.

Christina

Oh wow.

Jane

So like I Have Confidence and Something Good, I think.

Christina

And I love those songs. Well especially I Have Confidence, like that is such a great song.

Jane

Yeah, yeah, but some of the lyrics are a little weird, and it's like, maybe they could have used Hammerstein to help with that?

Christina

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I yeah, that's true.

Jane

But it does. It is very a very powerful song and I love that scene a lot.

Christina

Yeah, I guess Something Good is…I'm glad that they put it in there, but, it is like, what? Like it is like, you really have to listen to the lyrics to understand what they're talking about sometimes. Like it's very convoluted logic where they're just like, “I was a bad kid. But I must have done something good to be with you,” and it's like what like?

Jane

Yeah, I don't, and I don't really understand like it does, it seems kind of out of place. I feel like they could have made it better by like, making it be like, “I've never felt at home before. Like, I've always felt like I didn't fit in and, and you make me feel like that.” Like that would be a better message to have in that song instead of just being like, “I'm evil. But I must have done something good to deserve you.”

Christina

So I gotta ask as a as an aroace person, do you just like really avoid glass gazebos in general? Because it's seems like…

Jane

[laughter]

Christina

Based on the Sound of Music, like they're only allowed to be used for romantic moments.

Jane

Romantic songs. Yeah, every time I see one I'm like, “Ahhh! Run awaaay!” Umm, no, I hadn't ever really thought about that before. I do remember thinking that the Something Good scene was very boring and and then I also think just like, finding out that a lot of people love this movie because like they find Christopher Plummer really attractive, was very strange to me. Or like they watch it because of the love story. Because I was always like, yeah, it's there, it's it's fine, whatever but like, I was watching it for like the kids becoming appreciated and people figuring out who they are and stuff and to tell people like, “Oh yeah, Sound of Music is like my favorite movie,” and people would be like, “Oh, yeah, Christopher Plummer!” And I'm like, “He's the dad… Like, what are you talking about?”

Christina

OK, so I'm going to bring my allo perspective here. As someone who finds people attractive, yeah, like Christopher Plummer is so great in this. Also, apparently, like he helped build out the character somewhat from the stage musical version. And a lot of what makes the character in the movie so great came from Christopher Plummer's input so I think like, I just want to give him, like more credit than just like, wow, what a great performance because he he brought so much to it. But I was thinking about it today and I think that one reason people are so drawn to this love story is the way that it's portrayed in the movie, and not not necessarily in the musical or other places, is he basically made Captain von Trapp like a dad version of Mr. Darcy.

Jane

Yeah, I can see that.

Christina

Maria shows up. Really Rich guy is all, like aloof and he's like, “you're all weird and stuff,” and they get into all of these big arguments at the beginning. And you know. She's playing kind of an Elizabeth Bennet, like “I am witty and I'm going to stand up for myself. As opposed to like everyone else in your life who's going to be a yes person, I'm going to speak my mind to you.” And then they, you know, realize “oh, like, I actually really like you.” I think that it is that, like it's not that opposites attract, but it is that being willing to admit that your first impression of this person was not correct and that you actually do have a lot in common, but also that like that is so attractive: the man who starts out aloof, and then his barriers melt and he has a face like Christopher Plummer.

Jane

And he manages to propose to you without insulting your family, so even better than Mr. Darcy.

Christina

Yeah, well, he's improved on the formula. He also like, doesn't, you know, do your sister great harm by separating her from her true love.

Jane

Yeah, that's true too. So even better is if if you want someone better than Mr. Darcy: Captain Georg von Trapp.

Christina

Yeah, but I like, apparently the the real Captain von Trapp, he was not, like, emotionally withholding from his kids at all. And I think that they, like played up that piece for the musical, but then also like the humor that he has and like a lot of his really funny lines are when he's talking to Max actually, like their whole friendship. It’s just like so cunning, but apparently a lot of that originated with Christopher Plummer.

Jane

That makes sense because he, like he does that so well, and I love his little, like he's got a little twinkle in his eye. And when he does his little like teasing thing. Especially the scene when the kids go to say goodbye to Maria and then they come back and they're telling him that they were bery picking and all of that and he's just like letting them dig themselves into a hole is so great. And he does that so well. And then he, like, goes back into the house. You see him do his little chuckle like, “Oh, my kids are so silly.” But oh, that he lets them say that it's blueberries and then he's like, “Oh, it's the wrong season for blueberries,” and so then Friedrich goes, “Well, they were strawberries. It's been so cold lately, they turned blue!” is like one of my favorite moments. And then he just looks, Frederick looks so disappointed in himself. It’s so great! Oh man, there's so many just fun moments like that that I think are part of why I keep rewatching it because it is, it is almost 3 hours long, so I think I would watch it more if it was shorter, but I also like, I don't feel like it drags. I feel like it's engaging the whole time.

Christina

Yeah. I agree with you that probably the slowest part is Something Good.

Jane

Yeah.

Christina

Like I kind of feel like they they have to have it in there. Like, you know, it's like to move from not married to married, they have to have something there. But it is such a slow song and when I was a kid I definitely fast forwarded through it because I was just like, adults having feelings for each other? Whatever. Like this isn’t interesting. And, you know, compared to that amazing dance scene in that same setting with 16 going on 17 and then you just like see them standing in shadow being like, “I think I love you!” You're just like, oh, man, this is ugh…all right, I'm going to get up and like, get a glass of water or something.

Jane

Well, and it just it almost like undermines the message of like, yes, they have the same values and they're belonging together. It's like, “oh, wow, I don't deserve you because I was horrible.” And it's weird to like, have that be the song that they sing there, and I don't know, in the stage version, I don't know if they had a different song there or if they just…

Christina

They do. I looked it up and it's called An Ordinary Couple. I haven't actually listened to it.

Jane

I'm kind of thinking that they might have cut that out of more like modern productions.

Christina

Yeah, I think maybe they just like replaced it with Something Good in more recent stagings.

Jane

Yeah, I I'm trying to think. I don't remember how it was when I saw it on stage.

Christina

But yeah, I feel like now that I know that Hammerstein wasn't involved with that song, I'm like, you could even take another pass. Like you could even try for a future staging of the musical, like try something else there. Something that actually like talks about like in this moment, why they are into each other. At least we have some perspective on Maria, like being criticized when she was a child and a young adult. And then, like, feeling like she, you know, kind of was like, struggling to find her place in the world but that is not at all like anything that we've ever heard about Captain von Trapp, and so the fact that that's what they're singing about, it's they were clearly just like, “We need a song about people being in love with each other.” And then Rodgers was like, “What about this?”

Jane

Yeah, let's just, throw this in. Yeah, but it just it seems weirdly out of character for both of them to be singing about like, “I'm so awful and I don't deserve you,” because they they're more like confident and more self-assured than that.

Christina

Yeah.

Jane

That I think that it's, it's weird. I guess they're being vulnerable with each other and that's what we're supposed to take out of that.

Christina

I think that what Captain von Trapp and Maria need is a song where he's saying, like, “I was trying to stop myself from feeling things, but like, I feel comfortable feeling things when I'm around you.” And then Maria being like, “I never felt like I fit in, but I feel like I fit in when I'm around you.”

Jane

Yeah, exactly. And that would that would make more sense, but…OK, we fixed it. We fixed Sound of Music, guys.

Christina

I mean, we we figured out how to fix it. I don’t know that…we didn't actually write the song.

Jane

That's true. Yeah, OK.

Christina

We're getting there. We're getting there.

Jane

Don't want to get too critical of the movie though. But yeah, that's, I think that the the Something Good part and the 16 going on 17 reprise are like the two parts that really bothered me.

Christina

Yeah, it is one of those musicals that I feel like some musicals fall victim to: Act One, it's like there's so many great song. And then in Act Two they get to a point where they're like, “oh, like, we have so much plot to do before we can get to the end, and so there's not going to be as many songs, or if there are songs, they're going to kind of just be, like, shoehorned in because we've really got to do all this plot right now.” And there's like, so much that happens. You know, they get married and then they have to, like, get to the point where they're in the festival and escaping and they're like, “alright, I guess like we better have Maria and Liesl sing a little song here in the middle just so we have a song.” But it's not like an inspired one. I also, honestly, could cut the goatherd song.

Jane

Oh, I love that song. I mean, it has nothing to do with anything and it could easily be cut. But I just love it so much.

Christina

I mean, I think it does serve a narrative purpose in that it's showing like the way that the von Trapp household has now been transformed and like you know, everyone's having a good time together again and it's all thanks to Maria. But the song is longer than it needs to be, because first they tell the story about the goat herder and then they're like we're going to tell the same story, but just about goats?

Jane

Yeah, I think it's really funny that like they have to turn them into goats before they make the thing about “soon the duet will become a trio” like it's OK that there's a baby goat. If we talk about baby humans, that's going too far. Like we can't imply sex in this show.

Christina

OK, maybe I I never understood that, but I still maintain there's too much of that song.

Jane

Oh, for sure. Yeah, I agree. But I also love it and I think it's really fun seeing the like the kids trying to do the puppet show and like all of that, I I think it's very fun. It is completely unnecessary and way too long. I'm trying to think like what my f- I don't know what my favorite song is, I love so many of the songs, but I do absolutely love the Do Re Mi scene. Even though that goes on way too long. Like it's a very, very long sequence.

Christina

No because they’re going all around Salzburg. No, I I wouldn't cut one second of that song.

Jane

It's so fun. It's so good.

Christina

Do Re Mi and they, they do like all the different versions and stuff. And oh man, I love it. I wish it was that easy to learn how to sing in harmony.

Jane

Yes! Yes, I also love that they're like, “We don't know any songs” and then they're just immediately singing every song.

Christina

Yeah and then when their dad shows back up and they're singing, The Hills are Alive, and then he comes in and starts singing it like I'm not bothered by the fact that he just knows the words because it's a musical. But what is amazing to me is that they're like, oh, like, not only did our governess teach us this song, but we just automatically know how to, like, go into choral, like vocal backing parts for our dad.

Jane

Well, it's it's unclear how much time has passed because clearly the do-re-mi sequence takes place over multiple days because they changed their clothes. I don't know where they got those clothes because she had to make them clothes out of curtains because they only had their like, really like fancy clothes.

Christina

So, OK, so here's my theory. So they have their like uniform clothes, and then she makes them the play clothes. And when they're like, sitting around on the grass and doing more physical stuff, they're wearing the play clothes. And like when they're on the lake, they're wearing the play clothes. But then when they're touring Salzburg and they're like walking through the gardens and in a carriage, that's when we see them in these other casual clothes, and I feel like maybe those were clothes that they did have that were like for some other purpose. Like you wouldn't want to get them dirty so they're not considered play clothes, but maybe they did have more than like 2 outfits to wear.

Jane

OK, OK. That's fair.

Christina

That's my headcanon. I have put a lot of thought into the costuming in this movie, so I do have headcanon about every outfit that people wear.

Jane

OK, that's fair. Because I was thinking like, well, maybe she like takes everybody else's curtains in the area and makes just makes a lot of clothes out of all the other curtains.

Christina

I mean, maybe. The other thing that I noticed when I was rewatching that sequence is they each have like three outfits and they wear them in different combinations at different times, so it is kind of like, like they have the play clothes and then it seems like they each kind of have two non play clothes, non uniform outfits. And there's like, different scenes where, like Maria is wearing her striped dress in one scene. And I don't know. I'm just saying that it seems like it's taking place over like maybe a couple weeks actually, and they just have these three outfits that they're differently cycling through. What I'm trying to say is the costuming department did a great job of telling me the story of like, over time them going out on all these different adventures and it not just happening over a couple of days while their dad was out of town.

Jane

Yeah, because because I don't think they ever officially established how long he's gone. I know that like before he leaves when Maria is talking to Frau Schmidt, she says the last time he went to visit the Baroness, he stayed for a month. So it's implied that it's going to be for a little while, but it doesn't, I mean, it doesn't really matter, but it's nice that they're able to show like, yes, he was gone for a long time without like making it take a long time for the audience.

Christina

Yeah.

Jane

By showing all the different combinations of outfits. But I must admit that, like a lot of the time, I wasn't even really paying attention to that because I don't tend to pay that much attention to costumes.

Christina

That's fine. Since we're on the topic of costumes, though, I do want to bring up my probably favorite costume moment in the entire movie, which is: when she first comes to the von Trapp household, she's wearing this grey dress which multiple people insult her about, and she and the captain have a great exchange where she says, “I don't have any other clothes. All of our clothes are given away to the poor,” and then he says, “What about that outfit?” And she says….

Jane

“The poor didn't want this one.” It's like my favorite line.

Christina

So what I love is that in the second act, when she goes in to talk to Mother Superior, right before she goes in, we see someone who is just entering the convent and she's wearing, like a snazzy green dress and then Mother superior is like, “Go off and we’ll get you wimple” or whatever she says. And then Maria comes in and they have their whole talk. And then when Maria shows back up at the von Trapp family house, she's wearing the snazzy green dress.

Jane

Yes!

Christina

And I love that they took the time to be like, we know that we set up that like they have terrible clothes at the convent, but there is a reason that she is, like dressed to the nine right now.

Jane

It is so great and like it took me so long to notice that. I think I always assumed that the reason they showed the new person coming in is like she was replacing Maria and to be like, yes, Maria needs to leave kind of thing of like, there's no reason for her to be here. We have another postulate lined up.

Christina

We have so many nuns. Don't worry about it!

Jane

It was a relatively recent viewing for me where I was like, “Ohhhh, she's wearing THAT DRESS! OK.” And that's great. I agree. That's amazing. And they don't really like, they don't hit you over the head with it. It's just very subtle, but it's there and it's great.

Christina

Yeah, yeah. So there might be other plot holes in this movie, but that is not one of them. They're like, “Don't worry. We tied this one up in a nice little bow like they added in like a whole little scene.

Jane

Just for that dress.

Christina

I mean, it's like one line, but still. OK, so one of the things that I wanted to ask because I feel like in most of your episodes so far, you've like pointed out like the possible ace identifying characters in the movie and obviously we have a bunch of nuns. So like, there's a lot of people who are celibate but like Max is

Jane

Yeah!

Christina

definitely the one who’s just like, “I’m not interested in like…” And he has friends. You know, it's not that he is like, “I don't need people,” but he's just like, “I'm not out here looking for love. I'm looking for a singing group I can take advantage of.”

Jane

Yeah, I feel like Max is definitely like very queer-coded, and he has, like certain… just the way he reads his lines and certain mannerisms, I feel like could be interpreted as stereotypically gay or something.

Christina

Interesting, I hadn't even thought of that. But now that you're saying it? Yes, I get that.

Jane

Yeah, I feel like that's, I don't know if other people see it that way. And I didn't always see it that way, but in more recent viewings. He doesn't have a partner that we know of and that could just be because that wasn't socially acceptable. But also like being aroace is also queer. So it's not necessarily that he has to be gay.

Christina

Yeah.

Jane

But yeah, and we don't see him showing any sort of like… because I think there is sort of a tendency to be like, OK, well if the Baroness doesn't end up with the captain, maybe like with Max?

Christina

No way.

Jane

But I I love their dynamic as like friends and sort of like, co-conspirators a little bit because I think that Max does want the Baroness and the captain to end up together, at least at first. I don't know how he feels about Maria to be honest, we don't really see them interact very much. But yeah, I definitely feel like he is…he's another example of like there's no one right path, right? That like he knows exactly what he wants out of life. He's not looking for a romantic partner. He's looking for a singing group that he can manage and make money off of.

Christina

Yeah. Well, I will say like, I think that he kind of does ship the Baroness with Captain von Trapp, but then I think he's also just like, yeah, like you guys are adults and like if that doesn't work out like I'm going to be just as welcoming to Maria and I'm going to be happy for Georg for like, finding the person that he actually wanted to be with plus she’s encouraging him to sing.

Jane

Well, and he he uses their their honeymoon as like, “Oh, while you guys are away, I'm going to just like, casually enter your children into a singing contest without talking to you about it, because uh, that's that's cool, right?”

Christina

Yeah, I can't believe they left them alone with Max. I mean, I guess the housekeeper was there.

Jane

Was Max supposed to be like their guardian during that time? It's not really super clear.

Christina

I mean, I guess he, you know, I don't know if he was supposed to be their guardian. I think he was just, like, staying at the house and was just like, “Oh, like, you know, I'm here. You're here. What if we enter this singing festival?”

Jane

Yeah, we don't, we don't actually see how that comes about. We cut from the wedding to them rehearsing, basically. But yeah, I I love that. I think that's so funny being like, “Yeah, just take as long of a honeymoon as you want. I'm just gonna make your children sing. It's all good.”

Christina

Yeah. All right. Well, we've gotten through all of my notes.

Jane

OK. Well, any any other last thoughts?

Christina

Oh man, just that I think I just want to say I think that the musical, the stage musical, has a reputation as being like, way too sweet. And like hokey or something. But if you have never seen the movie, or if you haven't seen it in a long time, I highly recommend revisiting it because the cinematography is beautiful, the acting is amazing, and the dialogue is very witty. And there are just some really funny scenes with Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer and, and they like, they really made a movie that I think has great themes that are told really well, so it's good. Watch that.

Jane

Yeah, I hear it being criticized for being too saccharine and I'm just like, but it's not really though, like there's a lot of really serious moments in this and and

Christina

Yeah, yeah.

Jane

And I feel like the the good ones feel earned like they are not just like oh, but everything's fine now. It's like, but we had to work to make things better again. And I do love that. I also want to mention: Best Picture winner. So I did. Watch it. When I was watching through all the Best Picture winners.

Christina

OK. Yeah.

Jane

What I noticed when I was watching through all the Best Picture winners is that most of them are very long war movies. And this is this kind of fits with that because it is very long and there is a war involved, but it's a little bit more fun to watch than some of the just like 3 hour people fighting.

Christina

One of the most fun World War Two movies there is.

Jane

It truly is. Yeah, I would agree with that.

Christina

Because there's hardly any war in it. It's just sort of like right before the war, so…

Jane

Yeah, the war is implied.

Christina

Yeah, I would say the best part of any war is before it happens.

Jane

Yeah, probably.

Christina

Yeah. What a great note to end this podcast on.

[laughter]

Jane

Anyway, thank you so much for being my guest. My first ever guest.

Christina

Thank you for inviting me. And I just want to say that being your friend is one of my favorite things.

Jane

Oh, I feel the same way!

Oh, that was so much fun! Christina is always so insightful. I hope you enjoyed hearing from her as much as I enjoyed talking to her. I have a few more guests planned for future episodes, but next week will be back to just me as I move on to the shorter of two movies that I watched 16 times, which will also be the first black and white movie I'll be talking about on here, though certainly not the last. As always, I will leave you with a quote from that next movie: “When I find myself in a position like this, I ask myself what would General Motors do? And then I do the opposite.”

[vhouatroph]

okay, serious post time.

i'm 22, and started playing toontown in 2006. that's 17 years toontown has been in my life so far. toontown has been fundamental to who i am, and my life experiences- i would be an extremely different person if toontown was not part of my life.

toontown is something i can thank for my enjoyment of writing. in 4th grade, one of my first school papers was about how much i loved the game. a little later, i discovered toontown fanfiction. specifically, i discovered "GEARS," by TheEvina. i was enamored by the story, and wanted to write my own.

of course i wasn't actually that great of a writer starting out, but who really is? i just kept at it, and here i am today! i'd like to think i'm at least a half decent writer now :)

toontown youtube was another great discovery i had made when i was young. the random toon show was my absolute favorite youtuber, and i dearly miss him. the "heriotza" movies, inspired by madtoontownreturns's movies, also have a fond place in my heart despite no longer being on youtube, along with several of his oldest songs.

much like with the fanfictions, seeing the cool toontown videos inspired me to make my own. my favorite is probably this one:

again, my videos weren't very good at all! this one was made in windows movie maker, the peak of editing software at the time. but like with everything else, i continued to pursue getting better at videos. in high school we had to choose a track of classes to "prepare us for the real word" and i chose audio/video. even went to college for a/v before they kicked me out bc i couldn't afford it.

i don't think i can really move on from toontown youtube without mentioning joey's old ttmvs. fixing the silly meter is of course the one everyone knows, but he did have a couple others! some of them seem to not be on youtube anymore which makes me kind of sad, but i understand- i did the same with my toontown fanfictions!

to tell you the truth, i can't remember toontown's closure very well. that period of time in general for me is kind of blocked out. don't know why. what i do remember is when toontown rewritten entered semi-open beta and i played the game for the first time again through the playline on june 18th, 2014!

you "beta" believe i was excited- i stayed up until 3am for this! the experience was laggy as hell, and i think at one point loopy lane didn't even have cogs on it. but i was so excited to play toontown again, i didn't even care!

after playing toontown rewritten, i signed up for toonbook. i had been part of the original 2011 toonbook, but i wouldn't be able to say anything about that, as i do not remember it. toonbook was an experience. i met some of my greatest friends on toonbook, and it helped me learn a lot about myself. at the same time, it is a place i do not look back on fondly. i have very complicated feeling about the site.

on october 9 2015, i made Silent, my now main toon. she was royal blue at the time, and became a black cat later that year.

in toontown online, my first toon (skooby) was soundless before i had gotten terminated for hacking. (i was dumb and curious) silent would be the toon to carry on this tradition in toontown rewritten.

as the years continued, i continued to play toontown. even if i took long breaks, i always came back to it, and my friends were there to do activities with me. even if there was nothing big happening, sometimes it was nice to just sit at my estate and play with my doodles.

the night field offices released will live on in my memory as one of the best nights in my entire life. nothing will ever compare to being in a voice chat with my friends the first time we encountered the boiler. i don't really know how else to describe it besides magical. sure we crashed after one round, but another could be tried later!

that night, i completed my first ever field office on toontown rewritten, and it will still live on as one of my favorite experiences in the game ever. i of course continued doing field offices, and still enjoy them immensely. i haven't done a 4 star yet (need to fight 6 18+ cogs 😔) but i hope to some day!

with the most recent toonfest, i am so happy to be a toontown player. everything announced has me extremely excited, and i loved hearing all the backstory on the creation of toontown. this game has been a part of my life for 17 years, and i hope it continues to be part of my life for years to come.

happy 20th birthday, toontown.