#pop culture commentary

[jazzywazzy89]

Help Me Name My Podcast

[artist-issues]

People don't seem to realize that every single decision a filmmaker makes is an intentional decision. There was nothing. Then the filmmakers created something.

That box in the background of a shot? They had to decide to put that there. The color of the wall behind the character? They had to decide if that was the right color. Whether or not a character starts a sentence with the word "Maybe?" They made that choice. Because without the filmmaker consciously making a decision to do one thing instead of another, there's no character saying anything.

Now factor in time. And money. You realize that in the opening shot of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, animators had to be paid to hand-draw every single dove around her? So a filmmaker had to decide that doves were worth adding to the scene. Had to decide that they should be doves, not pigeons or squirrels. Had to decide how many there would be. For how long. For how many shots.

If something is in a movie, the audience needs to assume it was in there on purpose, because without someone making a decision, it wouldn't be there. Then, because you know that money and time are a thing, the audience member should say "not only did they decide this detail was in there; they decided it was worth being in there." Then you can start asking "Why was it worth it to the filmmaker? What does it add? What were they trying to say?"

And then you can stop all that crap about "well you can't really say for sure what a story is for, or what it's about. Everyone has their own interpretation."

Everyone might, but you know what? Your "interpretation" had zero influence when someone slapped a blank sheet of paper down in front of a Depression-Era animator and said "I'll pay you extra if you add doves in here; I need doves for this scene." Your "interpretation" did not cause those doves to get drawn.

Scratch that--the only influence your "interpretation" had was when the filmmaker tried to guess whether or not doves would make you think of the same thing it made the filmmaker think of--so that the filmmaker's point could be made.

It was what the filmmaker wanted to say that caused every single thing you see and hear to appear onscreen. And you want to sit there and put words in their mouth? After all that work they did and money they spent and ideas they rejected and edits they made? After all the decisions they had to pull the trigger on, you want to say their decisions never really mattered?

Watch it in good faith, first. Then say "I think I see what they were saying, and I just choose to ignore that." At least.

[missabowbissa]

first post? shameless self promotion: subscribe to my substack plz

I promise it's good

[angelsdean]

my dad just called pastor joe / dr. sexy a “temu keanu reeves” lmaooo

[snackugaki-jestsjapesjokes]

TMNT x music

The Iteration: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Who made the reference: Meta reference; played during fight sequence

The Band: Blackstreet

The Song: No Diggity

...Listen, I was surprised as fuck it played during that fight scene. And then absolutely tickled. A jam then, a jam now.

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s2 episode 4 thoughts

i thought this episode sounded interesting! the plot was kinda: wasn't it fucked up when the vietnam war happened? and i was sitting here like, yeah, quite famously it was pretty fucked up. still, an interesting exploration into trauma and the american role of imperialism

the first thing i wrote was "a lot of people in this show fall asleep watching the tv but personally i have never done that". am i immune to the Curse or something?

so this guy who is a sleep doctor sees a fire and he calls the fire department right away, and everyone is evacuating, and we see a dude in the hallway with a suspicious smile and an even more suspicious scar across his neck. i am used to the episode structure by now, so i knew this was our mystery man of the week.

but the firemen get to the burning fellow's house and there is no fire! despite it looking so real to him that he actually burned to death... it's not there! well huh! must be our mystery man can psychically project fire

cutscene to mulder's place and it again looks like an entirely new set for his apartment. again, i ask, i'm not crazy, right?? can someone else confirm that this is an entirely different space than what we saw before?

(i hope we don't see scully in a new space as well- i thought her apartment was so cute in s1)

he gets a newspaper and a tape of the call dropped off at his door so he runs to skinner and begs with his big sad wet eyes to please let him take the case. and skinner is like maybe. but go transcribe a bunch of wiretaps first. so THAT is why he's always listening to weird stuff!

BUT WAIT! who enters our fair scene...? but a NEW CHARACTER? he is a guy who looks like he crawled out of a frat house where he majored in lacrosse and business... he introduces himself as alex and says that this is HIS case... mulder is PISSED he's all "i work alone >:(" but he can't shake the dude off... hmm.

(i recall seeing a post about people slash shipping mulder with a character in s2- i saw this post way before i started watching the show, so i only noted it in my passing interest of fandom history- and i'm wondering if this is the fellow they were referring to. in the same post i saw mulder in a speedo which i guess we'll get to in time)

scully's back at the academy!!! teaching another autopsy class! boy they must have a steady stream of bodies coming in for this. but an urgent call is coming from a "george hale" and she leaves class to go answer...

and it's mulder!!!!! he has a code name!!! he asks her to fly up to new york and do an autopsy and she's like "i'm in class til 4:30" and he's like "that's fine, we'll wrap it up for you and you can come up at 5!" and she sighs and. agrees.

now. again. this was shocking to me. mulder cannot have anyone else draw his blood or do an autopsy it HAS to be his friend scully. and she WILL get on a flight and do it. this is SICK and TWISTED how she will do anything for him.

mulder was being a real jerk to alex and alex said "i don't appreciate being ditched like a bad date" and to my shock and dismay i found myself agreeing with this new character... mulder WAS being unreasonable... i mean we knew he's been moody lately but this was downright hostile

(mulder walks in while scully puts an organ into a scale) "spleen or pancreas?" "stomach" <- LMAO his ass did NOT pass anatomy!

and they're all so smiley and happy to see each other when. scully sees this man behind him. and her smile fades SO fast.

(he tries to shake her hand but given that her hands are covered in stomach she wisely brushes him by. it may have seemed like a diss but i assume he doesn't want gore on his hands)

alex is GAGGING over the body (me too) so mulder gets realllllll close to scully to block out his amateur hour buffoonery...

(y'all need to not be that close and looking at each other in such a manner in front of a dead guy... or do it more for my sake)

she's whispering that it seems his body believed he burned to death despite there being no burns on him!

we see another guy with a same scar on his neck as the first!!! he knows the first guy and it seems initially that their reunion is wholesome... until preacher (scar man one) admits to killing the sleep doctor... and then things get... wild

"holy fuck", i mumbled to myself while also writing down the same phrase in my notes, as a blood soaked family appeared in the room, shooting the character we just met for his crimes. that escalated with an extreme quickness. it was clear that whatever traumas he had inflicted upon others in vietnam were being returned in equal measure via the psychic force of this preacher character

then we go back to mulder and alex, who i thought was handling mulder's hater energy quite well, all things considered. but little did i know what was to come...

so sleep doctor, the guy who just died, and preacher all knew each other... interesting... they were stationed at basic training together...

we get a visual on mulder's new source after deep throat's passing! he says he has no desire to be there, and that their mutual friend deep throat died for what he believed in, which he does not want to do. which is of course totally fair. at the end of the day the FBI is just a paycheck for some of these folks.

the sleep doctor was revealed to be doing experiments to make super advanced soldiers who don't need sleep so maybe that gives you the power to kill people magically. we can't really rule it out.

preacher then makes two cops kill EACH OTHER with his sorcery

back to scully cam <3 she's got her glasses on at the computer <3 she's got little yellow earrings in that look like flowers <3 and she thinks its so cool that they cut part of this guy's brain out and now he hasn't slept in 24 years... nerd

they're on the phone with each other and it is SO SAD because why. why can't they just be together! it's not fair. she says it sounds like his new partner is working out and he's like yeah he's okay...

"must be nice to not have someone poking holes in all your theories" "yeah, no idea how i put up with you for so long" and they're smiling into the phone while saying this

now, i won't lie. this scene, of all the scenes, was the first to bring tears to my eyes in the course of my streaming this show. because now we have seen what they'll do for each other and they're TAUNTING me by dangling it in front of my face. and i cannot stand it. i feel sick at the thought.

anyway back to mulder and his new partner. who i feel is too good to be true because he's willing to believe spooky mulder's theories. but they found another guy who also had the sleep surgery and he tells them that they went on a rampage committing atrocities in vietnam which was. very heavy for the alien show. but it is something that americans often pretend just didn't happen so i thought it was interesting that the idea of accountability was being explored in fiction.

so there's one more guy involved with the sleep surgery, and he's coming into town, so alex and mulder have to sprint down to the station and try and find him. they're really giving it a sprint, too. mulder is a track star. don't think i've forgotten

and mulder does see the guy they're looking for but preacher is behind him and shoots mulder! he falls to the ground! no, i yelled to my screen! not another bullet in mulder!

... but he gets up. the whole thing was a trick of preacher! it never actually happened!

alex is like dude wtf. and this is where he says "i want to believe" and this where i made the very astute note "i don't trust this guy, sorry"

so finally they find preacher still alive, and mulder tells alex to help out his victim, while mulder runs off to find him. mulder sees how much pain he is in, and tells him that maybe his pain can lessen if he testifies about what was done to him, and it seems they've come to an understanding...

until alex enters, pulls his gun up, so preacher also pulls his gun up, and alex and shoots him! preacher is dead

mulder looks deeply upset by this. he tells alex that he did the right thing, but you can tell he doesn't believe it in the slightest. i would venture to guess that this is when all the trust he had begun to place in alex vanishes. he seems entirely deflated at the unnecessary loss of life.

he goes back to the car and notices someone stole the secret files that his informant gave him, and he punches the car. this is simply too many L's for one day, and i sympathize.

but scully's freaking out too, because her office was broken into and all her stuff looked through! so what in the name of hell is going on here?!?!? ah, i realize, it is this alex fool... "i know ur related somehow" i wrote ominously in my quotes

and boy, i was right! the narrative the writers were going for was not lost on me! because remember skinner's old sidekick the cigarette guy? and how they had a sort of breakup moment? well, alex is reporting to him, and they have the file he stole from mulder!!!!!

alex says that scully is a "big problem" to which i say: keep talking like that, you overgrown varsity jock, and you're gonna have a big problem with my fucking hands catching your throat

anyway, interesting episode. i didn't want to like alex and then i did because i felt bad for him for being subjected to mulder's attitude and then i hated his guts by the end and reluctantly admitted to myself that mulder's crankiness was justified. i hope he won't stick around for long but i have a feeling he will.

also, they need to stop taunting me by dangling a real mulder and scully reunion in front of my head and then ripping it away. i had TEARS! in my eyeballs! i was sighing wistfully! it was sick!!!!!! this is my free time i'm spending here pining after these fools! it's me, the fan, asking for fan service!!!

[frostycatblr-fandom-files]

POV: You post art and/or writing on Tumblr and you're looking at your Notes

[weallpartyatybcpatricksfuneral]

ngl smile for the paparazzi is a genius song and I'm tired of pretending that cobra starship wasn't a genius band at times

[earlgreytiefling]

Partway through one of Jenson’s books atm and reading about how he raced in the Super GT series in Japan then going back and rewatching some of his commentary stuff and it’s just so wholesome that he makes a point of using the Japanese honourifics for Yuki san

[briefcasejuice]

unfortunately i have the kind of autism that makes people have to explain things to me/i have to bounce my ideas around with people who know things before thoughts become anything for me

[idontmindifuforgetme]

im brazilian and i've always pronounced Iraq as ih rack and i always get corrected😭 i just can't pronounced it like EYE RACK

Noooo that makes me so annoyed bc you’re literally doing it right!! Eye-rack is so aggressive and for what 😭😭

I’ve been thinking about why people don’t know even the faintest details about Iraqi culture (like these simple pronunciations), and I think a big reason is bc we don’t really have any Iraqi representation yet in mainstream media. It’s not like there’s an Iraqi main pop girl or an Iraqi model or an Iraqi actress who’s getting any Emmys rn, and as unfortunate as that is, western culture does tend to be synonymous with the global zeitgeist in a way other cultures aren’t. People just haven’t been incentivized to dig into Arab culture in general bc of this “deficiency,” for the lack of a better term.

I feel like a lot of other ethnicities have had their turn in terms of being at the top of pop culture, but I haven’t seen that happen yet w any Arabs. If a prominent Arab celebrity (let alone an Iraqi one!! I’d legit just be happy w an Arab one) existed, maybe Arab culture would be of more interest to the GP (or just less of a lightning rod for unfounded criticism and ridicule) 🤷‍♀️

[repurposedmeatlocker]

I gotta make a post about this. It will drive me insane otherwise. But I really REALLY like the way in which Beavis and Butt-Head incorporates the music video commentary segments within the context of the actual show.

On one hand, it is indeed a way for musicians and creators to be promoted, albeit in a satirical and tongue-in-cheek way, through the banter of two ignorant fifteen year old boys. But this does not mean these segments are floating around unrelated. Actually, the commentary segments are completely intwined within the world of the show. They are not just used as opportunities to make pop-culture references and trash the musicians, but as a jumping-off point for Beavis and Butt-Head to get into off-topic tangents. Ranging from simple questions to sparse recollections of their home-life. I can't say this definitely since I haven't exactly been keeping track, but it appears to me that most of the sparse information out there about their moms and family come from statements made during these segments. Then there are also all those moments during music videos where they aren't even paying attention to what is on-screen and instead are doing stuff like looking at magazines, trying to cook, fighting, falling asleep, etc.

This all is such an odd yet interesting window into their lives, and how much it revolves around their television. I don't think this is unintentional at all. The characters are first introduced in the pilot, as being parked in front of their TV getting off on a woman advertising exercise equipment. Mike Judge is indeed making some kind of commentary here regarding the modern dependence on TV and cable television (especially in the context of the 90s when the show came out). At the same time though, I don't feel like this is a completely mind-numbing experience in the case of Beavis and Butt-Head. In fact, I find their interaction with the programs on television extremely "active" whether it be actually constructing opinions about what they are watching (even if it rarely is more complex than 'this rules' or 'this sucks'), or deciding to do something based off of seeing it advertised or talked about on TV. When you think about it, most of the plots of the show use the television as a catalyst for the episode's plot, which just ties the TV to the show as a whole even more.

[cabeswaterdrowned]

am thinking of making a biblically accurate trc playlist with only 2010s tracks to compliment the exclusively y2k aftg playlist

[ariel-seagull-wings]

@thealmightyemprex @themousefromfantasyland @the-blue-fairie @piterelizabethdevries @stormandforge

There is not always a guarantee that a more realistic depiction of minority characters, our struggles and opression will be better when written in a realistic scenario.

Sometimes, the realistic scenario does a poor aproach in representation, while a fantasy or sci fi allegory or even a case where a minority viewer or reader identifies with a fantastical character that wasn't necessarily meant to be a metaphor for them, becomes the better received, most effective and respectful form of representation.

I am thinking primarily on the X-Men franchise as a comentary on passing, assimilation, minority opression and resistance, but other examples can be The Matrix, Nimona, the Star Trek franchise, fairy tales and their film adaptations, Dinosaurs, The Muppets...

Feel free to ad more examples.

[mariocki]

The Return of the Living Dead (1985)

"I thought you said if we destroyed the brain, it'd die?"

"It worked in the movie!"

"Well, it ain't working now, Frank."

"You mean the movie lied?"

[snackugaki-jestsjapesjokes]

TMNT x music

The Iteration: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Who made the reference: Raphael

The Band: Prince & The Revolution

The Song: Purple Rain

The first line of "Bullhop" says the title as a code name for Donatello by Raphael while they spy on Bullhop trying survive on the streets of New York.

Purple Rain was also the title for a movie made by the same artist.

bonus tmnt lore is Corey Feldman voiced Donatello in the live action movies, TMNT and TMNT III. In The Goonies he wears a Purple Rain shirt.

Prince is also dope, give his music a listen