#probably due to covid stuff but its disappointing

[kittykatinabag]

I'll spare my usual "I liked them before they became famous" hipster music rant about the alt-indie bands I come across but my god boygenius' newest album fucks so hard I wish I still had my car just to be able to drive around screaming the lyrics to Not Strong Enough.

[jugheadvarchoni]

Ranking every Riverdale Season (from worst to best)

Reminder: this is just MY opinion. Feel free to share your own!

7. Season 5

With the exception of the first 3 episodes (which I just consider to be part of 4), this season was just a huge nothingburger disappointment. The idea of a time jump was cool, and it even started out okay. Then it quickly went off the rails and not only fell back into repeat territory but the jump itself was just executed so poorly… I was beyond done with Hiram villain stuff atp. The Mothmen were fine, just nowhere near as good as the Gargoyle King or Black Hood for me. Too many characters are written TOO awfully (especially the queer characters) and sometimes it feels like they tried to cram way too much into it. It just leaves the season feeling bloated and incoherent. Best parts by far were Toni getting a big role and the introduction of Tabitha.

Still, those weren’t enough to save the season imo. Overall S5 felt the least like Riverdale to me & it was lowkey boring a lot, so it gets last place. Boo. 🍅

6. Season 4

I’m actually so serious when I say I really love this season. S5 is probably the only one I dislike, the rest of these can change at the drop of a hat lol.

The main reason I’m putting S4 here is that it was very hit or miss with my enjoyment of the storylines. Jughead’s stuff at Stonewall was okay. Cheryl got another unhinged story when she should’ve been getting therapy, Archie’s story was mind-numbing, The Auteur was creepy and great until it was revealed to be Jellybean (wah-wah-wah). Maybe it has to do with COVID throwing things off, but the whole season was just a little lackluster and disjointed. Also, TICKLE-PORN?????

The tribute to Luke Perry was beautiful tho. Miss him. 💔

5. Season 1

ALRIGHT. Before you pull out those pitchforks, just hear me out. It’s an incredible season, it’s the most well-written, the tone was amazing, and it set everything up perfectly.

But I do think that because it’s only the first season, and because it’s so short, a lot of the dynamics I personally love just don’t exist. Toni isn’t on the show yet. And I feel like part of what made Riverdale stand out, WAS the craziness and the willingness to do literally anything remotely cuckoo, which S1 just didn’t have. I’m just personally very attracted to wackiness of the other seasons. It’s a little overrated.

But again, this still season is INCREDIBLE and I’m still obsessed with its’ vibes.

4. Season 7

Don’t hurt me. 😭

But buckle up, because I have a lot to say here.

I REALLY had such a good time with this season… I mean, the Choni of it all is really want gets me obsessively thinking about this season on a daily basis. The way they were treated in the first half is everything I wished for them back in the earlier seasons. If this were a ranking based on Choni throughout the seasons, S7 would be #1. Kevin also got a ton of great stuff. S7 was so kind to the queer characters… Other than them, I just love how they got to have FUN. They took us back in time and basically just put the characters into an old-timey Archie Comic. Ridiculous but entertaining side plots that actually kept me interested and put the characters in a totally new environment. And despite the fact that people seem to want to ignore this, they ARE still the characters we’ve known and loved since S1, they just didn’t remember. But the memories are still there, and still inform all of their decisions and relationships.

Unfortunately, my biggest gripe with S7 is the way it feels disconnected to the rest of the show overall. They really let the comet story flop hard. Even if we decided to stay in the 50s in the end, we should’ve had way more time with our characters with their memories. They should’ve had conversations that were long overdue, that circle back and bring things to a close, the way final seasons should. I would’ve preferred they go back to the present, but in an altered timeline due to all the changes made to their lives. Tabitha was WASTED and thrown away and it makes me so mad tbh. They chickened out with the Varchie vs Barchie thing and instead we got that dumbass polycule and everyone dating everyone only for literally no one to end up with anyone (except Choni & Clevin uwu). The later half is especially a letdown, because that’s when we should’ve been ramping up to the end with their memories and certain people coming back together. Instead, we just got a lot of randomness. Which, while fun, doesn’t make for a good final season imo.

I think this season would’ve been ranked in my top 3 had it NOT been the final one…

It’s such a polarizing season for me and that’s why it’s smack dab in the middle!

3. Season 2

What a lot of people consider the glory days lol.

Everything that was well-established in S1 was built on and just made even better. The dynamics between the core four and each one of their storylines was spot on and interesting. Black Hood is probably the most interesting mystery villain we ever had on the show and delving deeper into the Cooper family was great. The slasher horror movie vibes with Black Hood’s story & his victims were just elite.

The season was darker and full of lots of twists and turns, which I always appreciate to keep my on my toes. We got introduced to Toni and Choni was born!

It did have some meh stuff tho, the Archie vs Hiram wasn’t all that interesting to me in this season, even though I DO like Hiram a lot. He’s always been an intriguing character to me, I just think he was severely overused. I also don’t like Bughead lol. The Chic stuff is hit or miss. It was bordering on crazy, but not quite at that sweet spot yet.

Overall this season was more exciting and deeper than even the likes of S1. And this is, of course, where we started getting into the Southside Serpents and the gang wars, which I think is such an iconic aspect of the show. Just a fun, deeper, more interesting season for me!

2. Season 6

I’m a sucker for witches and magic and time travel shenanigans, so this season was RIGHT up my alley. Rivervale, Sabrina, the spookiness, Cheryl’s witch arc, Percival was great, Tabitha getting to shine, I loved SO much of this season. Having one villain, that they all focus on I think did wonders for the cohesiveness of the season. Almost everyone got involved in it, there weren’t as many tangential storylines, and the buildup to the comet was so much fun. It was the perfect blend of camp and wackadoodleness and serious life/death stuff.

The worst part for me, is the ships. Tangs being a plague on society and them making Toni’s whole storyline about being a mother (a bad, awful one ugh). Fangs was never a standout to me, but they just made him insufferable this season. The custody battle was insanely stupid and a waste of time. “Baby Anthony” sucked (Dale FTW). Barchie has always bored me. Cheryl/Heather just felt like besties lol. The ships suffered hard in this season lol.

Still, we got Choni confirmed soulmates and Thabigail + Jughead/Tabitha were cute. So that aspect wasn’t ALL bad.

Tonally, it’s soooo different from the other seasons but I think they strike a better balance between mystery villainous plot and campiness than the other seasons. I ate up the supernatural and horror stuff, the plot is one of the most consistent in the whole show, there’s good character development and I just loved the craziness. They easily redeemed themselves after that abysmal S5. 🙏

1. Season 3

Ahhh PEAK insanity. Wild, compelling, dark but also silly af sometimes. The show went off the rails in the best way and I have a blast every time I watch it. A true fever dream. They embraced the crazy and I think that’s what sets it apart from all the other seasons. Imo, there isn’t a single “bad” episode here. They were still in high school, giving us that teenage drama/those dynamics that made Riverdale what it is. My fav ships were together (not without their drama), there was an intriguing mystery with the Gargoyle King. The flashback episode with the parents was amazinggggg and I loved everything about the Gryphon’s and Gargoyle’s storyline and how it trickled down to affect so many people. The atmosphere of the season, the main cast that got focus and actually got to have screentime together, Heathers heing probably their strongest musical. I love it SO MUCH.

There are some weaker points tho. There is a lot that happens this season, like A LOT. But I enjoyed it so much that I lowkey give it a pass for being so convoluted. Dilton was wasted and killed off after not getting much in general. Bughead & Veggie suck. I wish the G&G and Cult stuff had been intertwined better.

An organ harvesting cult led by Chad Michael Murray? Archie fighting a bear? Mass seizures? Babies thrown into a fire and then levitating? Veronica opening a speakeasy as a teenager? Choni cat burglars? Archie in juvie? Bunker sex? Speakeasy sex? Fizzle rocks? Killer DnD? THE EPIC HIGHS AND LOWS OF HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL?

I-C-O-N-I-C. Riverdale is at its best for me when it doesn’t care about being a normal gritty teen show. Maybe this season was a little messier, but I think the sheer fun and craziness more than makes up for that. Everytime I rewatch this season, I enjoy the crap out of it and am reminded why I love these characters and this silly little show so much. ♥️

So to recap:

S3 > S6 > S2 > S7 > S1 > S4 > S5

P.S: if there’s a major typo or I put something in the wrong season, lemme know. I just regurgitated this all from memory when I woke up so my thoughts were hella jumbled…

[oops-prow-did-it-again]

I’m back!

So, I kinda quit using this blog a while back. There are some notes about it in my old pinned post and probably on my fanfics, lol, but basically, I felt overwhelmed by fandom and everything going on irl and I crashed. I just withdrew from like, everything. I still logged in on Tumblr but I just liked things to later view them with the boyfriend or laugh at them again myself.

Honestly, it’s not that fun, just doing that, and not really that fair to people who put effort into their posts like art, music, writing, etc., or even just people who are very passionate about a subject and may want it to reach others that are the same. Because I know I’m like that!

But anyway, this is going to be my new pinned post. So! (More under the cut, please keep reading!)

About Me

You can call me Prowess, I’m a FtM transmasc (he/him please)! I use this space to elevate my personal works, such as art or writing, while also occasionally posting about topics I am passionate about. I realized I was trans in 2020 at the age of 19 years old, in the midst of a pandemic and college fallout, so as you can imagine, I’m still riding the rollercoaster of emotions that come with that. I’m also ADHD... so expect some posts about those sort of things.

But that is hardly the focus! I am big on art and writing. While I am mostly obsessed with Pokemon, I am a lover of stories, and so generally, I love most fiction, even the really bad stuff. Along with my Pokemon stuff, you can expect posts involving ARK: Survival Evolved, The Tales of Miraculous Ladybug & Cat Noir, animated movies (Luca, Toy Story, Spirit - you name it, I probably love it), and plenty of other stuff.

While I have too many older posts to go through and try to sort out the unclean tags, going forward, I am going to use these sort of tags: subject (whatever the post is about, for example, Pokemon), characters depicted, media (whether it’s art, writing, animation, or a mix), and any warnings that may need to go with it (for example, cussing when stronger language is involved, or racism if racism is getting discussed, etc). Memes or one-off posts will likely be tagged with simply “memes.” While this is pretty true for most any blog, this is so you know if you need to block certain tags! For example, if you hate Miraculous Ladybug, you’d just blacklist ‘Miraculous.’

I will also reblog a lot of posts asking for help or boosting awareness. I will try not to inundate the blog with these, but as I will likely have to make a post asking for help at some point myself due to unfortunate irl circumstances, I want to pay it forward in advance. These will be tagged with simply “help needed!”

Below are some projects I’m working on + what you can expect from this blog.

Pokemon Retold

By far, my biggest project to date, is Pokemon Retold.

This is an expansive written anthology of all the pokemon mainline games as far as generation 8. Red, Heart of Gold, Omega Ruby, Platinum, Black, Black 2, Y, Ultra Sun, and Sword are all intended to get rewritten and posted on both my FanFiction.Net and Archive of Our Own accounts. I may also post some chapters here, but I admit Tumblr makes that difficult sometimes.

These stories are very personal to me, as I started writing them when I was struggling in college with undiagnosed ADHD, and felt like my life was falling apart and I was alone. I started writing a retelling of Sword, but the more I wrote, the more disappointed in it I felt, so I started writing Black instead and scrapped Sword altogether.

I’ve had some rough road since, but Black is complete, Black 2 is also complete, and Ultra Sun is (mostly) complete (but with plans to be heavily altered), while Red is underway!

WARNING: These stories can get DARK, and I would rather my readers be over 18. They are not dark with the intent to squick out or upset people, however; they are dark with the intention of exploring thoughts and ideas I find too difficult to think about directly. There are more personalized warnings at the beginnings of each story. With that out of the way, please just try and move on if you find yourself disliking a specific story or part of a story of mine... If you want to give constructive criticism, you are more than welcome, but tearing into me and my writing just because you didn’t like something helps nobody. Keep in mind I write these for fun and as a form of self-therapy throughout some of the worst years of my life.

Furthermore, I edit them a lot. And I do mean a lot. My FFN profile acts as a “changelog” for what has changed in the stories over the course of the time they’ve been posted.

Pokemon Retold posts are tagged “Retold.”

My FFN Profile

My AO3 Profile

Pokemon Retold: Black has been added to TVTropes! I honestly don’t even care that this person digs into it a couple of times, I was so incredibly flattered they took the time to do that at all. (But be warned the page does have some spoilers!) I have no idea if you enjoyed the story or not upon reading over that page, kind stranger lol, but I really appreciate that you took the time to do that nonetheless! <3

Creatively Destructive

This incredibly well-titled story is an idea I have for a retelling of Miraculous Ladybug. I know, I know - absolutely never been done before /s

While I know there has got to be a thousand retellings of this show by now, based on just how.... terrible, the writing is, I want to try anyway. Because I genuinely love the premise of the show! I’m just constantly disappointed by how it seems to never go anywhere with its plot or characters.

So, Creatively Destructive will be a fanfic, and when I have more information on it, I’ll post it under the tag “creatively destructive.”

Roleplays

Me and my boyfriend love to RP a lot. From Monster Hunter to Pokemon, we do a lot of different stories. Sometimes, I really get inspired by what we come up together and I want to share it with others! Be it quick art based on a scene from the RP or a quick rundown of what occurred in an RP, you can catch these in the ‘Prow RP’ tags.

Currently, we are having a lot of fun with an RP based on the Hoenn pokemon games that I am sure I’ll be posting about!

I may also be open to RPs with others in the future :> Don’t be offended that I’m not open to them already... I’m just a very easily overstimulated person.

The Ballad of the ARK

ARK: Survival Evolved is a lot of things. It’s an amazing concept, an open-world game where you befriend dinos and fight alongside tribemates against other tribes, or work together to survive the hostile environment. But the true tragedy of this game goes so much deeper than that, and I want to explore that in writing, starting with my story, my experience, and then graduating to where I think the issue primarily stems from. 

This strange memoir will be posted under the tags of “Ballad of ARK.”

Commissions

I hope to take commissions for art and writing in the future!

However, I need to figure out the parameters of what I’m willing to draw (and what I can feasibly draw), as well as what I can promise when it comes to writing, not to mention pricing.

That’s not to say I’m not open to ideas though! Feel free to message me/send me asks anyway and we’ll see if we can work something out. :)

Although I am not in a financial disaster just yet, I feel like I am not far from one. This is why I hope to try to build on commissions in the future. I know they will never support me, but I would still like to try to be useful and helpful to some. I currently live with my grandmother, having left my abusive home with my father, and although she generously allows me to live with her for the low cost of merely helping with some electricity and my own food, I struggle to remain abovewater financially due to difficulty finding work (thanks to issues with ADHD and physical problems following a bout with COVID in early January 2021).

If you would like to help anyway, feel free to subscribe to my Patreon, or make a one-time payment via PayPal. I promise no matter what or how much it is, your generosity is greatly appreciated!! <3

My Patreon

My PayPal

My Ko-fi

(Note that my Patreon is... very outdated and needs to be updated. I will do that soon!)

[tepidtrashpile]

covering taeyong’s parts

I am HEATED.

tldr: i don’t usually do stuff like this but i’m highly caffeinated and have nothing better to do so prepare for a (very convoluted and long) rant cause omg im so fucking mad. 

so for those of you who don’t know, nct 2020 had a resonance vlive/concert last night (dec 26/27) and taeyong and jisung were unable to perform due to a back injury (herniated disk) and knee injury respectively.

I’ll mainly be talking about taeyong in this just due to his extrEmely large presence within NCT and also jisung was there to vocally cover his parts.

(also not to take anything away from jisung, however in the sheer amount of screentime and tracks ty is in, him missing is much harder to disguise within a performance with or without vocals) 

in order these are the members that covered ty’s parts in each song (tbh i may be forgetting some, but the point is look at how hard they had to work to even fill ty’s dance position within the concert, the boy is in like 50% of their performed tracks)

nct u - boss - sungchan

nct u - the 7th sense - shotaro 

nct u - light bulb - yangyang

nct 127 - touch - haechan (first part), johnny (iconic ty and mork), yuta (pulls up in the chorus to fill in ty part to the stage right of jh) 

nct u - make a wish - jeno (first part), jaemin (basically rest of the song)

nct 127 - kick it - mark (usually the center parts), jaehyun (first rap), yuta (end dance break), johnny (mark stepped on him rip lol)

nct u - misfit - johnny (start), sungchan (end)

nct 2020 - resonance - jeno / jaemin (?) - dude idk im having trouble keeping up at this point

// I want to make it very clear that NCT would not be where it is without taeyong. I’m not suggesting that he is replaceable in any way, shape or form. however as a person with two parents in the performance industry - and im sure that many of u understand just from general life experience -- the show mUst go on. when you have a presence as large as ty missing, it is undoubtedly going to take a toll on the overall energy and performance but i personally think that the boys fucking killed it -- especially with such a short turnaround from learning that ty would not be performing. (jaemin said that jeno legit had one HOUR to practice the beginning of maw (and by proxy the beginning of resonance) and that amount of talent and skill is unfuckingbelievable) but I digress. 

// there is nothing wrong with being disappointed that taeyong cannot perform. (get well soon ty!) he is an incredible performer and human being. there is nothing wrong with seeing (and understanding) that another member filling ty’s part is going to FEEL different, even if they do a phenomenal job. there is nothing wrong with feeling the difference in energy and performance -- there is obviously ANOTHER PERSON doing the part that we are accustomed to. there is nothing wrong with having a conversation and discourse about the performance. however... there IS something wrong with putting down members and harshly criticizing their performance in a malicious way. constructive criticism is one thing, but a lot (not all but an overwhelming amount) of what I have seen in the comments and the little bit of twitter i have been on has just been bashing members (one in particular) about their performance. 

//

// let me get the easy part out of the way here. jaemin and jeno killed it during maw. yuta’s dance break, mark’s center time, jaehyun covering ty’s rap, and johnny stepping up to get stepped on (hehe i’ll stop now don’t mind me) were all surprisingly refreshing. yangyang covering lightbulb was (imo) one of highlights of the concert. for a rapper who often doesn’t get the recognition that he deserves he did a PHENOMENAL job covering the entirety of ty’s parts in his own way and conveying his emotions. yes, the members weren’t the same as taeyong, however, they added their own twist and their own personalities to it. it is in fact BETTER to do this and be remembered for their own style than attempt to emulate someone else’s performance. it is the sign of a great artist to take something and make it your own. 

// now, onto the two newest members. i will be candid about this. the biggest difference I felt within the performance was when sungchan and shotaro were covering ty’s parts. tbh this is to be expected (?). i’m not trying to put down the boys but the reality is that they debuted 2-3 MONTHS ago? all of the other members covering ty’s parts have had significantly more experience in every aspect of performing. jaemin and jeno may be about the same age as chan and shotaro but they have upwards of 4 years more experience (debuted anyway, and anyone can tell u that practicing vs the real thing can be a very daunting change) than the other two. the other members have performed in front of a live crowd, they have had time to deal with criticism and learn from it. they are just in every way more experienced, and although we expect great things out of all the members, it is simply unrealistic to expect the same level of performance out of members with 2 years less experience than anyone else on the stage. 

aneway...

shotaro covered one of the hardest parts in nct history - taeyong’s 7th sense. in every way - the rap, the technicality of the dance, the sheer charisma ty brings - this was a daunting task. him being a rookie DID show in the performance. this isn’t a bad thing. the tone of his rap did sometimes lack nuance and the level of sophistication that we know taeyong to have. however, i do think shotaro was the right choice for this song. you have to give rookies experience for them to grow, and a concert like this (even without a live crowd) is a great time to do it. (i’ll get into logistics later but bear with me)

the sad reality is that we’re probably not going to have large in person concerts for at least the next year and it will be a long time til travel, concerts, and simply life return to what they were before covid. it will be a very long til the boys get to perform on a stage with the energy of a crowd in the same way they have up til now. 

now sungchan. my poor bb sungchan :(

sungchan covered ty’s part is boss (and a little bit in misfit but johnny covered the first part and its more of a hype rap song than one with designated dance moves and centre parts). the dance (in boss) may not be the most technical but this is an unfORGETTABLE song when it comes to taeyong’s part. the beginning “nct leggo?” *chefs kiss*. from what i’ve seen sungchan is the one receiving  the most criticism (read hate) about his performance. look, i’m not going to argue that out of all the members who filled ty’s part he was the weakest. (im not trying to hate, but imo his performance was the weakest, u can disagree with me). he definitely less comfortable with covering taeyong’s part than anyone else was - including shotaro. i think most of the criticism is coming from the fact that he just looked anxious and unable to throw himself into the choreo and when comparing him to taeyong (who again just -- idk he’s unexplainable) his performance does fall a little flat. imo the rap was okay, his tone is actually somewhat similar to ty. i really think that most of the hate is stemming from the execution of the choreo rather than the rap. HOWEVER... calling him “stiff as a board” and commenting “cap” emojis does absolutely nothing except spread unnecessary hate. sungchans position is NOT as a dancer. he is only listed as a rapper. shotaro, however, is listed as both a dancer and a rapper. not to say that these listings are the end all be all of a member’s position, but because they are so new they are a decent representation of what SM thought their strengths were. we would love our idols to be aces at everything, but they are human and humans have their strengths and weaknesses. compared to taeyong, and also shotaro, sungchan does not have the technical ability nor the confidence while dancing. I’d like to believe that anyone who analyzes their performances and takes an objective view can understand where i am coming from. 

tldr: you are placing unrealistic expectations on a rookie who’s main position is NOT main dancer. you are asking him to fill the shoes of arguably one of the most charismatic and talented rappers, leaders, and centers of 4th gen kpop... as a ROOKIE. his performance is most likely going to show cracks of being relatively new to the stage. its okay to acknowledge that, but don’t be fucking rude when discussing his performance. 

// the amount of posts i’ve seen calling sungchan “untalented” “stiff as a board” just im so fucking over it. yes, his performance had its weaknesses but name-calling and just straight up hate does nothing to help a performer and just ruins everyone’s mental. you can bet your ass that every single one of these boys has worked their ass off, given up unimaginable things, and faced challenges to get where they are today. not to mention that (in particular the case of sungchan and shotaro) these boys are young. the other youngest/newest members have had about 2 years (yangyang, xiaojun, hendery) to become accustomed to the criticism and also hatred that comes with being in the spotlight. sungchan is less than a MONTH older than me. shotaro is just a year older than me. my best friend is legit older than both of these boys. idk your age but think about yourself at their age, or where u think you’ll be at their age. they have accomplished SO much and are so young. they’re 19 and 20 and in an internationally recognized band. we know that a lot of these boys (and idols) do read our comments. i don’t care how much media training you’ve received, how strong your mental is, getting called untalented and being hated on is going to take a toll on your mental. along with that, what is the NEED? to spread hate? to show that “huhu, im such a big deal that all these people are responding to me”. like, legit wtf do u gain from this? 

// when you are a performer you do open yourself up to criticism, it is part of the job. but criticism and hate are two very different things. to get where nct is today, every single member has to be humble enough to accept guidance AND constructive criticism. we all know how much the boys value nctizens opinions and take them into account when performing. when you are a performer like that you also have to criticize your own work. no matter what profession you are in, no matter what you do, you analyze ur own work and attempt to make it better. i can all but assure u that shotaro and sungchan (and all the boys) know their strengths and weaknesses, know when a specific move, performance, or other area of their ability is not up to par (or they just want to improve which is imperative to success in the music industry)

just be a decent human being. put urself in all of the boy’s shoes and think “hmm how would i feel if some stranger on the internet said this about me” before you make hateful statements. 

again, there is nothing wrong with having a discussion and understanding that humans have strengths and weaknesses, but don’t just put someone down because u feel like it.

//

in case you aren’t convinced to be a decent person, have a more logical (?) approach -- not that u should have to shown a dissertation to be a decent human but i digress.

(think about how many other songs the rest of rap line has to perform, logistically, who else are you going have cover the entierty of boss and 7th sense.)

rap line is: taeyong, mark, lucas, hendery, jeno, jaemin, yangyang, shotaro, sungchan, and jisung (?).  

everyone except lucas and hendery (and jisung but bb was injured :( ) covered ty’s part in some aspect. in fact, people not in the friggin rap line helped cover some of ty’s rap (johnny, jaehyun, haechan im looking at you) and other members covered dancing and center parts when they were asked to.

mark is in just as many tracks as ty and was RUNNING around to get to the next song this entire concert. you can legit see his outfit change with jackets and hats. he filled in for ty in kick it (group effort but u get the point) but in 7th sense just to the way that the song works and the dance etc etc, you can’t have mark doing his part as well as ty’s without it falling flat and taking a huge toll on mark. same with boss, marks filling just as big a role as ty and like, legit how do u give this boy mOre lines than he already has. (u can see that sm did a similar thing with jeno and jaemin in the beginning of maw, jeno covers the first part and then jaemin the rest of the song because jaemin can’t leave an open space at the vEry beginning of the song) (10/21 total performances)

lucas isn’t in as many as say mark but he is in boss and make a wish (boss being very hard for him to cover ty’s part, and jeno and jaemin covered maw. if i’m being completely honest i don’t think lucas has the same tone or technical ability to fit into ty’s parts in the songs as much as say - sungchan on a pure technical and tone pov (6/21 total performances)

hendery, similar to lucas isn’t in an absurd amount of tracks but still enough to tire a guy out lol. because of him performing full choreos in other songs it doesn’t make sense for him to learn a completely new choreo while simultaneously having to memorize and practice the others songs. also, in a similar vein of lucas, i just don’t think hendery is the first choice when choosing someone to cover ty’s parts (dont kill me hendery and lucas stans lol) (6/21 total performances)

jeno while jeno isn’t in the sheer number of performances as other members, he does end up covering ty’s starting part in maw (see reasoning for jaemin above). this by proxy means he covers the maw part in resonance. while he does a fantastic job covering the starting part, asking him to learn the entirety of boss or 7th sense would be a fuckton of work. u can legit see him yEEt himself out of camera view after his part - not to mention again that he had an hour to practice lol (6/21 total performances) 7/21 covering

jaemin - first off u can literally see jaemin’s energy fall throughout the final song the boy is so tired by aneyway... it makes total sense for him to cover maw as he already knows the choreo and it take less effort than learning an entirely new song. also, when ur comparing popularity/center time between jeno and jaemin vs. hendery (even lucas sometimes) they simply have more, and when u aRe in the center u have to expend more energy becAuse u are holding the performance together (6/21 performances)

yangyang let me get my yangyang simping out of the way, but this boy is so fucking talented and his rap deserves more praise. lightbulb compared to other songs ty is in, is a more melodic and emotional based song. there is no choreo, therefore the person covering the rap just has to focus on the rap itself rather than the rap AND the choreo. imo this was the best possible choice for someone to cover ty’s part in lightbulb (6/21 total) 7/21 covering ty’s part

shotaro shotaro is only in 4/21 performances. it simply makes sense for the rap line member with the fewest songs to perform to learn a a full choreo. as stated above, 7th sense is the more technically difficult of the songs that required learning and covering a full part. assigning shotaro (the dance line member) to the more challenging choreo is just the easy choice -- especially if ya’ll gonna come for sungchan’s dancing skills, give the damn song to shotaro smh (4/21 performances) 5 when covering 7th sense

sungchan tied with shotaro for the fewest performances (just by nature of being the newest members) in the same way that it makes sense for shotaro to learn a full choreo, it makes sense for sungchan. reasoning for the assigned songs above. (4/21 total performacnes) 5 with boss

// the songs where they didn’t have a designated member cover most/all of taeyong’s parts were in the 127 songs as well as in baby don’t stop (ten and taeyong duet). 127 is the most veteran of the nct subgroups, and is in general just more accustomed to filling in parts (ie winwin - screw u sm lol). they have johnny who trained as a rapper who can fill in, jaehyun, haechan, and yuta have all proven that they can cover rap with more a sing-rap style and mark can take/cover parts when it is logistically possible. 

// in 127′s songs although ty does often take center and many lines, in general 127 is just a more well rounded group. (don’t come for my ass). in the same way that dream has an undeniable chemistry, 127 is the same way. when you work with the same group of people for an extended period of time without many (if any) changes you just build better chemistry. in nct u taeyong takes more of the spotlight just due to his charisma and raw power. think about it. which performance suffered more due to taeyong’s absence: touch / kick it or make a wish / boss / 7th sense. 

also: because 127 is a fixed unit all the boys know the choreo and have consistently performed it at concerts allowing for member to step in where they know they are comfortable without the amount of discussion it might otherwise take in a rotational group

// take a second to think about a certain performance without taeyong in it. it may just be me, but i think 127 fare much better without their leader than any rotational group without taeyong very (firmly ?) bolstering the performance in the center. (taeyong doesn’t hold all these titles for nothing, he is truly another breed)

// in baby don’t stop they didn’t even attempt to cover taeyong’s absence. idk if that was ten putting his foot down and saying that he didn’t want someone covering the part or if it was more of a choice based on marketing and fanservice. baby don’t stop is truly ten and taeyong’s song and idk if even pairing 10 with a dancer with ty’s vocal in the backtrack would have received positive feedback. 

//

if you have somehow made it this far props to you lol. a rant that started because i wanted to defend sungchan has turned into a long analysis of members... whoops.

tldr: just be a decent human being. everyone in nct is human. a talented, multifaceted, human with strengths and weaknesses. being a nctizen doesn’t mean not being proud, disappointed, happy, or any other emotion about the boys. but it does mean treating the boys and other fans with respect. 

[howaminotinthestrokesyet]

Road Dogs: Metallica on Tour

Metallica‘s first ever gig took place at Radio City in Anaheim, California in March 1982. Their set list included primarily covers with only two original songs, “Hit the Lights” and “Fight Fire with Fire.” They did Savage’s ‘Let It Loose,’ Blitzkrieg’s ‘Blitzkrieg,’ Sweet Savage’s ‘Killing Time’ and four Diamond Head tracks. For diehard fans, this original lineup did not include Cliff Burton as of yet, but instead Ron McGovney. They eventually asked him to leave the group because the guitarist did not contribute anything of value. Another good reason came in the fact that Dave Mustaine fought with him repeatedly. James Hetfield would later say this about that show. “There were a lot of people there, maybe 200, because we had all my school friends and all Lars’ and Ron’s and Dave’s buddies. I was really nervous and a little uncomfortable without a guitar, and then during the first song Dave broke a string. It seemed to take him an eternity to change it and I was standing there really embarrassed. We were really disappointed afterwards. But there were never as many people at the following shows as there were at that first one.”

Metallica’s second and third show took place at the Whiskey a Gogo in Los Angeles. This venue would be where Hetfield and Lars Ulrich first heard future bassist Cliff Burton and his band Trauma. More recently, Ulrich revealed diary entries related to Metallica’s appearances there. "No sound check. Sound was awful. Played great myself, but the band as a whole sucked. Went down OK." The group opened for Saxon, who the drummer had met six months prior after sneaking backstage during one of their shows. After the concert, the monitor engineer asked Ulrich if he had ever heard of Diamondhead. “Of course, we have, we just played a bunch of their songs!" As it turned out, the crew member was only joking about Diamond Head. He would later go on to work for Metallica in the same position for 22 years.

On April 16, 1983 Metallica played its first show with new guitarist Kirk Hammett at the Showplace in Dover, New Jersey. They had begun recording their debut album Kill ‘Em All in Rochester, New York at that time. The set list included all original material that would land on that first album making up nine songs. Hammett had replaced Dave Mustaine, who held quite a bit of ill will towards him for years claiming in 1985 that Kirk ripped off all his guitar riffs, which got him noticed in the metal community. In defense of Hammett, he was simply trying not to make waves in his new group as Ulrich and Hetfield had definitely decided not to cut any contributions from Mustaine.

On March 5, 1983 Metallica played its first show with Cliff Burton at The Stone in San Francisco, who had replaced Ron McGovney. In 2018, a recording of the show came to light online, which you can listen to on YouTube. The lineup still included Dave Mustain as well taking place a month before the other band members would fire him. They performed 12 songs that night essentially previewing everything to be included on their debut album. At that time, James Hetfield was still struggling over whether he should sing lead. On the recording, you can tell why this became the case as his voice sounds incredibly scratchy with absolutely no technique whatsoever. The show also became memorable as a Cliff Burton debuted the future track, “Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth).”

Cliff Burton played his last show was Metallica in Stockholm, Sweden in September 1986 before his tragic passing. A few years ago, Metallica released a boxed set of rarities for their album, Master of Puppets, which included a recording of that final show. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett talked about their memories of that last concert with Cliff. Ulrich noted, “We played the show in Stockholm, and it went incredibly well. I think it may have been a rare case where we actually played an additional song that wasn’t on the set list, because the show was so good. That’s not something we did a lot then or now. So there was a good vibe.” Hammett would say this in the same interview, “It was significant because it was the first show where James played guitar again (Wrist Injury). He strapped on a guitar and was able to play the encore; I think it was “Blitzkrieg” or something. But I remember the five of us, including John Marshall, being really stoked James was back and playing and looking like was gonna make a pretty healthy recovery. I distinctly remember that show being good, and the feeling when we got offstage was really great and positive and forward-looking. Like, “Great, James is back in and it won’t be long ’til we’re back to our old selves again.”

In November 1986, Jason Newsted would play his first show with Metallica at the Country Club in Reseda, California. He did so in front of a sparse crowd because it had been a secret show for the group Metal Church. Newsted had played with the band for only a short time during rehearsals for the next album. James Hetfield introduced Newsted for the very first time in this way. “Welcome to the very, very secret Metallica gig that every fucker knows about! Here’s the new fucker right over here man, this is the guy… Jason Newsted, we fucking love him, man, so make him feel at home, alright? I want to have some fun tonight.” Their set list would consist of 14 songs from their first three album releases.

In the summer of 1992, Metallica decided to perform a few dates with Guns ‘N Roses. The hype for these shows represented the tour of the year, but the show in Montreal turned into a tragic affair. A pyrotechnic accident occurred as they performed “Fade To Black” causing second and third degree burns on half of singer James Hetfield's body. He recalled the incident, “I'm burnt – all my arm, my hand completely, down to the bone. The side of my face, hair's gone. Part of my back. ... I watched the skin just rising, things going wrong." Jason Newsted would remember that Hetfield looked like the Toxic Avenger from his vantage point. The group immediately cut the show short, so the singer could receive medical attention. He would later say that during the trip to the hospital a road crew member bumped his burnt hand leading him to punch the guy in his “nuts.” For fans still at the show, things only got worse as Guns ‘N Roses delayed getting on stage for two hours. Axl Rose probably only sang for 20 minutes before cutting his night short. GNR Had known what had happened to Hetfield, but they still phoned it in anyway. After that, 2000 people rioted in protest followed by several arrests. This night would lead to great animosity between the two groups for years continuing to this day, but it should be noted that Metallica acted professionally completing the tour with an injured Hetfield. Slash of Guns N’ Roses would later talk about the tour being a financial disaster for them. “Metallica was earning the exact same paycheck as we were every night but while they pocketed the whole thing, we were blowing 80 percent both on union dues for all of the overtime we cost ourselves going on late and on these stupid theme parties. It was just bad." Axl had spent extravagantly on backstage parties in an effort to impress members of Metallica.

In April 1999, Metallica recorded two performances on successive nights with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra led by Michael Kamen. The idea for such a concert had first come up when they worked with the composer on the Black Album song, “Nothing Else Matters.” He had approached them about such a collaboration, but never heard anything until years later receiving a phone call from Lars Ulrich. They filmed the live show at Berkeley Community Theater in San Francisco as Kamen had written additional material to supplement Metallica’s arrangements. The band also released two new songs specifically for the show, “No Leaf Clover” and “Human.” According to James Hetfield, This idea of combining heavy metal and classical music was originally an idea brought up by Cliff Burton, who had a strong background in both. One can see this throughout Metallica’s songwriting in their early years as the bassist relied on melody and instrumental qualities found in classical compositions like his favorite one, Johan Sebastian Bach. S&M would be released as a concert film and an album, with the latter reaching number one on the Billboard 200 chart.

In 1991, Metallica would play a concert in Russia that has become the stuff of legends because 1.6 million people watched it in person. The highlight of the show came when they played “Enter Sandman” as one could see Russian military personnel rocking out just as hard as anybody else. One must note that they were not the only band there that day as other artists included the Black Crowes, Queensryche, Motley Crue, and AC/DC. The Monsters of Rock Festival would only occur this one year in what would become the former Soviet Union. Motley Crue had played one of the early versions of the festival in 1984, but ironically Metallica had surpassed them as a more popular headliner by this time.

In August 2020, Metallica became the first rock act to perform a pre-recorded concert for Encore Live’s drive-in series. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, live concerts were canceled all over the world, so artists like Blake Shelton and Garth Brooks participated in this drive-in movie concert experience. Tickets to view this at your local drive-in cost $115 for up to six people per car. The show took place at an undisclosed location near their home in San Rafael, California.

[fumbling-fanfics]

I be checking in to see if you’ve updated that Nestor fic yet 😩😩😩Lolol

Gurl!!!!! Do you know how disappointed I am in myself for not writing. On Friday I said at the weekend. On Saturday I said on Sunday. And now it’s Sunday and 2.30 in the afternoon and I'm like maybe tomorrow after work because I will get an easy work allocation so should finish earlier than I have been.

I’m literally having a bad time writing. I hate everything I write. I can’t write. I have actually been binging Mayan’s MC over and over so I can write for Nestor. Or EZ...but nothing!!!! I’ve been a such a crappy/worst mood for the longest time, and its not getting better and to add to it I just found out that someone close to me who I stupidly lost contact with because of COVID has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and...yeah...all you asked is for an update and I'm ranting in bed before I probably pass out again due to whatever this funk is, amongst other bs.

I'm going to try and pick up my attitude and try write something (cannot promise it will be Nestor, but I will try and focus on him).

Thank you for your support! And everyone else to reads, reblogs, and likes my stuff.

Thanks!!!!!!

[ophexis]

I made kind of a big deal last year about doing better this year but tbh the only thing i did more is disappointing myself sdfsg

I don’t rly expect anything better from myself for next year, but I hope everybody else gets to have a much better year.

I did move out to my first appartment last march, and at least that went well. The moving itself was smooth. We had a bed bug scare, which was awful, but thankfully ended up being nothing even if it was a lot of money thrown to the wind. But now we’re comfy and despite everything we haven’t had any issues, and I still have a job and I’m safely working from home.

I managed to avoid covid, despite living in quebec’s no1 hot spot. I’ve barely gotten out of my appartment except to get mail at the drugstore. My mom’s been working retail since the begining and its a miracle she hasn’t caught it but I’m so glad because she does not deserve this. Both my parents are ok but I wish I could’ve seen them for christmas. All my friends seem ok too. I really want to go to the restaurants with them again.

My job performance went to shit but I still have it, at least. I got on the project I wanted to be on instead of MK but it hasn’t been enjoyable at all due to a lot of things out of my control. Couldn’t get my level up despite the 4 years of experience and leads having nothing negative to say about me, so at this point I think I’m just gonna be stuck at being considered only one step above a new employee forever. it’s been rly hard working everyday.

I started suspecting I may have ADHD, but theres nothing I can do about it, which is frustrating. I’m on a waiting list for a doctor, and therapists need doctor recommendations, especially adhd specialists. Probably won’t have a doctor ‘till next year, so I get to wonder how the hell I’m gonna weasel my way thru the next year. Idk if it’s the working from home, or the isolation of being here everyday since march but I feel like the biggest fuckin idiot and I just notice way more of my fuckups than i used to and its frustrating as hell. Even if I do get to talk to someone, the idea od talking to a therapist about my dumb feelings fill me with more anxiety than anything so I don’t know how im gonna do this. I’ve never talked out loud to someone face to face about my feelings. and if they end up being shitty im gonna have to go thru the whole process again. i tried looking up tips and whatnot but tbh I haven’t been able to focus on rearranging my life around potential adhd so idk. I cant get started on anything.

I’m having variably bad back pain and what i assume is the occasional sciatica flareup, but not much I can do about again as I don’t have a doctor and I’m not familiar with local chiropractors here and well covid is a thing. i could barely walk yesterday which ws the worst i ever had and im not sure how that one happened, but it seems better today

I tried drawing more, I think in a way I did, but I’m still increadibly unhappy with my art and it’s hard. I hate all of it. 

I got ring fit adventure and managed to play daily for a month, and now its hard, which is again frustrating, like, why am i like this.

i dont have any hopes or goals for my future and i dont rly know who i am anymore. and i dont rly know what i want to do so im just existing around, playing ffxiv and animal crossing and trying to get thru my work days. I’m looking forward to Monster Hunter Rise which looks like its gonna have the life that mhw was lacking, so thats gonna be nice at least.

im excited for the new star wars stuff announced. anything thats made by favreau and filoni should be excellent. rly excited for the Taika Waititi movie, it should be a nice good breath of fresh air in the franchise like the mandalorian was. I’ve been playing swtor too and made unsurprisingly no progress on my irl mando armor.

so yea that was lil ole me. I didnt post a lot this year cuz tbh i havent done anything. But I hope y’all managed to have some good things happen to you in 2020, and I truly hope the next year will be better, even if thats not quite how things go, but I hope you can all find some good things.

[kahayaya]

The Day Before 2021

It’s New Years eve today and its been a while since I wrote updates on life on here so lets start. 

Currently in the process of moving to Vegas, and I received the news back in October. This news was a complete shocker to me and did not expect my family to move any where at this time. A part of me had doubts about the move because my family tends to always say things that this will happen but never really happens. Thinking about it now, a lot of times I felt like my parents would promise me things that would seem awesome and I would look forward to. Only to be disappointed or still waiting on it. For example, my parents keep talking about receiving large sums of money for compensation on my mom’s injury at work. I was told about this 5 years ago and they still keep on talking on how much money we will get. Cuz of these promises I think for I tend sustain my own-self than have others to rely on. Which in return makes me more independent and I tend to ask for help on things because of the things my parents did. 

Anyways the moving is still happening and I was shocked as mentioned before. We are currently signing papers that we will buy the house they offered and the house here is already signed off to the buyer. The condition is that we need to secure a house in Vegas within the month of January in order for the house in Hawaii to be sold. As of what I see, I think we signed that we’d accept the counter-offer of the sellers in Vegas. So I think we are good for now on that part.

The more I think about moving the more I just want to get it over with. I want to be inside the new house and get ready to move on to the next. I want to explore Vegas, get my own car to drive around, I want to just settle in. I feel stuck in the current home, knowing my next step from here. The anticipation is killing me. I am very excited to move to Vegas cuz of the new things that await there. I will defs miss Hawaii with its food and my friends. However I think being in Vegas will make me feel more at home. What I mean is that I felt like my house in Hawaii after going to college never felt like home to me. I never really had a room for myself back in Hawaii, so I never really felt rooted to where I live. That’s why I think renting out in SF made me more connected with SF. I felt like I had something that was actually mine and I could call my home. Moving out of SF was definitely sad for me, as I lost a home that I was just getting ready to set forward. But with moving to Vegas, I will be able to have my own room and actual place to settle. its also close to a lot more places so getting anywhere in the U.S is easy now. 

Also wanted to talk about my nic addiction. As predicted, I am hooked on nicotine. I want to quit but the feeling good is just too hard. I tried to quit when I left SF but that same craving I had back when I started nicotine has. crept on me. What did not help too was that my friends back in Hawaii also smoke nicotine and that gave me in. In the end I bought a device to satisfy my nicotine. Actions I am taking however is that I am lowering the dosages of my nicotine, and I can quit slowly in this fashion than quitting from a high dosage to nothing. So that is my story as of right now on nicotine addiction.

Another thing that’s been on my mind is dating other people in general. I’ve had the thought of downloading tinder and maybe actually search for someone, but again a part of me feels like I don’t really need to find anyone. What I mean is that I don’t see a reason why I would want to find somebody else. Which stems back to what I mentioned earlier is that I just feel like I can just be sufficient for myself. Another part of me tells me that I don’t really have any passion for anything. In my opinion I don’t think there are things that define me. For example, the type of music I listen to can range from indie pop to rap to edm. Like there is nothing defining in that I feel like I would be someone that just follows what others does. I don’t really do anything else, other than play video games but even that is something I don’t like to do all the time. These are things I question about my self because I feel like don’t really have anything to offer anyone. And to add on to that, I just like where I am at life right now. IDK. I think the reason I am so conflicted is because I want to have something for myself firs than to rely on others for something. I don’t really have financial stability and I have schooling to finish off. Maybe I’m just too focused on this to worry about dating in general. 

Speaking of schooling, I am entering my final semester of college. Despite the end, I really do not know what I want to do after. I know what it takes to get a Software engineer job, but I really don’t know what I want. I never really felt passionate about coding or anything comp sci related. I felt like a foreigner to the comp sci department at our school, while I see my peers interact with them. So after college is a clueless for me. Im thinking of just applying to a bunch of jobs or internships and just see how it works for me. Get experience from there and then I will have a better understanding of where to go from there. 

Also with schooling ending, I also feel like this will be the first time I will have have no responsibility put forth on me. There will be no teachers/professors to do stuff. And this will also be a challenge for me. I feel like my life has been centered around getting task done with whatever is presented at me. This is the first time I will have no guidance to go in life and I can do whatever I want. Similar to what we learned in existentialism, where there are too much freedom. I know I will be reaching that point in life where I will have way more freedom and no assignments to turn in. Now the real games starts when I graduate.

Also I keep forgetting that today is new years eve. To sum up 2020, its been chaotic, but great change. COVID happen and I had to move out. I think November has been a really stressful month for me but I managed to survive. The Spring semester was a challenge due to the transition of going out to minimizing outdoor activity. I tried new things when that happened like make pour-over coffee and try photography again. I also grew closer with Alex and this year cemented our friendship for life. I got to try acid and that experience was great. My brother got married this year and I met his wife. Quick note, they visited Hawaii when I was here and when they left his wife called me Kaleo-Kun. NGL that was pretty cool to hear. Anyways, I survived Zoom University. I got to diet and exercise Fall Semester. I got to make new friends like Kass them. I got my ears pierced. I dyed my hair. A lot of things happened this year and it really went by quick. Even though those moments when it happened felt like years, looking back at those times seemed like it happened within months. 

I am sitting on my bed just waiting to move. Life will be so different when I move and that will set-up my 2021. Once I am in Vegas, life will be different and I am eager to see what that holds. I’m not too sure what 2021 will hold for me, but I am excited for anything to happen in the year 2021. 2020 for many was probably the toughest and shitiest year for them. But for those that are here, we came out on top and we survived. Cheers to 2020 and time to embark into 2021. 

[expatimes]

LEGO won't make modern war machines, but others are picking up the pieces This is a story about a multibillion-dollar international conglomerate, arms manufacturers, a German peace group and renegades who make miniaturized weapons systems out of small shops.Not that those tiny weapons could actually hurt anyone. Well, not unless you stepped on one.The conglomerate is LEGO, with worldwide revenues of $6.2 billion in 2019 from its toys, retail stores, theme parks and even movie rights. Its toy sets -- which are intended to "inspire the builders of tomorrow," according to the company's mission statement -- run the gamut, from skyscrapers to boats, police stations to castles. There's even a kit to make Rome's famous Colosseum. Nothing from the real world, it seems, is off limits. That is, except for anything modeled on today's military. "We have a long-standing policy of not creating sets which feature real military vehicles that are currently in use," Ryan Greenwood, a spokesman for the company, said in an email to CNN.But during the summer, the Danish company released a set for the V-22 Osprey, a tiltrotor aircraft manufactured by Boeing and Bell Helicopter Textron that is only used by the American and Japanese militaries.LEGO pulled its V-22 Osprey amid protests from a German anti-war group. Credit: LEGOThe kit, set to launch under LEGO's vehicle-focused Technic brand, depicted a search and rescue version of the Osprey. But it drew a quick, harsh protest from the German Peace Society -- United War Resisters (DFG-VK in German), an almost 130-year-old anti-war group.The V-22 Osprey, the group said, has been involved in conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Mali, Yemen and Syria. In a press release criticizing LEGO over the model, the DFG-VK then threw the toymaker's own words from a decade earlier right back at it:"The basic aim is to avoid realistic weapons and military equipment that children may recognize from hot spots around the world and to refrain from showing violent or frightening situations when communicating about LEGO products. At the same time, the purpose is for the LEGO brand not to be associated with issues that glorify conflicts and unethical or harmful behavior," the peace group quoted from a 2010 LEGO report.LEGO quickly pulled the motorized aircraft model from its inventory in late July. The few sets that had already hit store shelves made their way into the hands LEGO enthusiasts and onto internet trading sites at prices as high as $1,000 for a set that would've retailed at around $120.US Air Force V-22 Ospreys take off from a base in New Mexico. Credit: U.S. Air Force/Staff Sgt. Markus MaierThe V-22 Osprey LEGO set. Credit: LEGOGreenwood, the company spokesperson, refused to comment further on why LEGO changed its mind on the Osprey model or why it was produced in the first place.But LEGO canceling its Osprey set hasn't stopped fans from creating their own versions. In a video interview from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Dan Siskind pulled up a large model of the aircraft to the camera. Although built from LEGO pieces, this one is bigger and, arguably, even more elaborate and life-like. He spun its tiltrotor propellers in a hand-held simulated flight.Siskind is a former "master builder," the top LEGO designers who assemble the models you find displayed in stores. He is now part of a subculture that unites adult fans of LEGO (or AFOLs as they are known) and military buffs. Through his company, Brickmania Toyworks, the 51-year-old takes the iconic bricks and turns them into custom military building kits spanning eras and multiple wars. An arms bazaar for AFOLs, his inventory includes a US F-16 fighter ($425), a Russian T-80BVM main battle tank ($340) and even a Phalanx close-in weapon system, the rapid-fire Gatling gun the US Navy puts on its warships to knock out incoming threats like missiles or speedboats ($175).There are also historical options, such as a Vietnam War-era Soviet MiG-21 fighter, a World War II Japanese A6M2 Zero or British Spitfire Mk I fighter plane, a US M4A3 Sherman or German Panzer IV Ausf G tank, or a World War I British biplane, all priced around $200.For those with lower budgets, micro military vehicle sets are sold for around $20.The parts are almost all genuine, made with new-condition LEGO bricks. But while the Danish company does not endorse its products being used for these purposes, it tolerates the practice, Siskind said."They've given us some guidelines -- here's how to stay out of trouble."He's nonetheless blunt in describing his job. "It's just stuff we've taken that weren't supposed to be made into military things, (that) we've made into military things," Siskind explained. "Ordinary LEGO bricks just used in a way they were never intended to be used." Because he isn't allowed to purchase bricks directly from LEGO for his military sets, sourcing is "one big, continuous scavenger hunt" that requires his staff to comb through Walmarts, Targets and toy stores for discounts on original sets. The company also uses the website Bricklink, a kind of eBay for LEGO parts, where specific bricks can be bought and sold. The AC-130 Spooky II gunship model, made using LEGO bricks and other aftermarket parts, from Brickmania Toyworks in Minneapolis. Credit: Courtesy Brickmania ToyworksAll the parts are brought to Brickmania's Minneapolis headquarters, where they are broken down and reallocated to the new kits, including its most expensive design: a Lockheed Martin AC-130 "Spooky II" gunship that contains more than 5,200 pieces and sells for $3,755.In real life, an AC-130 gunship is one of the most terrifying aircraft imaginable. Armed with 40mm and 105mm cannons and a 25mm Gatling gun, it can devastate an area in seconds, earning it the nickname the "Angel of Death" in military circles. When the company made the first 25 models available, they sold out in five hours. A second batch then went in the same amount of time, Siskind said. "We have more demand than we can keep up with."While Siskind will sell you a military kit, his company also encourages AFOLs to produce their own creations, sponsoring regular contests at Brickmania's flagship store in Minneapolis. Among the rules: They must be military or war-themed, bear no Nazi symbols, display no excessive gore and are not of the sci-fi or fantasy genres. Global communityPeople entering the competitions should probably be thankful that Ralph Savelsberg lives thousands of miles away in the Netherlands -- because the 45-year-old Dutch builder's portfolio of LEGO-based military creations would likely be easy winners.There's a Vietnam-era US Navy patrol boat, a Cold War-era intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), an Iranian F-14 fighter, an M-21 reconnaissance jet and a massive and stunning recreation of a B-52 bomber, the mainstay of the US Air Force's bomber fleet for more than six decades.Dutch LEGO builder Ralph Savelsberg shows off a model he made of a US Air Force B-52 bomber with a 5-foot wingspan. Credit: Courtesy Ralph SavelsbergSavelsberg, a physicist and assistant professor, said he builds LEGO for love, not money."This is just a hobby. I do get a lot of requests, but I always disappoint them; I have no interest whatsoever in having to deal with customers."Furthermore, making plans or instructions is no fun, so I don't actually have any plans for most of my models," he said in an email.What he does enjoy is getting together with LEGO military builders from around the world at various conventions, where they share creations and even make custom ones to commemorate anniversaries.For this year's Brickfair Virginia, Savelsberg and a few dozen military builders planned a display themed on the Cold War, including his ICBM. The event was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but Savelsberg plans to return next year.LEGO-style military models on display at Brickfest Japan 2019 in Kobe. Credit: Courtesy The Brothers Brick / Edwinder SinghIn 2019, he attended Japan Brickfest, Asia's largest AFOL gathering, which featured a section for military items by some of the 270 builders displaying their work.Those builders, who came from places like Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan as well as Japan, likely represent just a fraction of those pursuing the hobby, Savelsberg said."I suspect that the people who come to events represent the tip of the iceberg. For every builder who is willing and able to travel to events, there might be two dozen teenagers who rarely get out of their bedrooms and share their builds with a group of friends via social media," he said. Justin Chua, who runs LEGO aftermarket store Lioncity Mocs in Singapore, says this 1:100-scale model of a Singaporean littoral mission ship took him more than two months to plan, source parts and assemble. It has more than 2,000 pieces. Credit: Courtesy Justin ChuaA company for kidsIn a way, Savelsberg, Siskind and the other builders of LEGO-based military models are doing what LEGO has always encouraged -- "only the imagination sets the limit to what you can build," the company's profile says."There's nothing that stops me from using dark green elements I get from, say, a LEGO Mini Cooper for a US Navy patrol boat," like this one from the Vietnam era, Dutch builder Ralph Savelsberg said. Credit: Courtesy Ralph SavelsbergLEGO traces its roots back to Denmark in the 1930s, when carpenter Ole Kirk Kristiansen abbreviated the Danish words "Leg Godt," meaning "play well" in English, to brand the wooden toys he was producing. It turned to plastic bricks in 1949.In 1955, Kristiansen's son Godtfred launched LEGO bricks as a system, embracing the idea that the more you have, the more things you can make. "Our idea has been to create a toy that prepares the child for life -- appealing to its imagination and developing the creative urge and joy of creation that are the driving forces in every human being," he said.Over the years, wheels and human figures were introduced in 1962 and 1978 respectively. And in 1989, miniature human figures sporting more facial expressions than the usual slight smile also emerged.LEGO has also been determined to put smiles on the faces of children."As a family-owned company with a long-term mission, the LEGO Group is uniquely placed to deliver a positive impact on children, society and the planet," the company profile says. The 25-page company document mentions the words "child" or "children" nearly 100 times. Still, as LEGO grew over the years, so did the presence of weapons.A 2016 report analyzing the company's products, published on the peer-reviewed scientific investigation journal PLOS One, argues that LEGO sets "are not as innocent as they used to be" and have become increasingly violent over time. Since 1978, when the first weapon bricks -- a sword, a halberd and a lance -- were added to castle-themed LEGO sets, there the amount of weaponry has increased each year, according to the study. It found that by 2014, nearly 30% of sets contained at least one weapon brick.A LEGO James Bond Aston Martin set on the shelf of a Hong Kong store. Credit: Brad Lendon/CNNSome of this increase can be attributed to movie-themed sets. For example, the company's summer 2020 catalog features a model of the Aston Martin, the famous car driven by British spy James Bond. It comes complete with "a wealth of sophisticated details and 007 gadgetry, including rotating license plates, ejector seat, tire scythes and front-wing machine guns."There's also "Star Wars" X-wing fighters and Imperial star destroyers, and sets depicting "Minecraft" battles, with axes, bludgeons and cases of TNT.When it comes to the LEGO's ethical red lines, Siskind sees a disconnect in the company's logic. Is there really a difference between the Death Star or the violence of a galaxy far, far away and the machines that kill people here on Earth?"There's very direct historical connections between the 'Star Wars' world and World War II," he added. Following LEGO's rulesFrom his office in Atlanta, Andrew Roberts, co-owner of Battle Brick Customs, another aftermarket retailer, expresses what he sees as the LEGO dilemma."LEGO has always kind of struggled with filling boys' desires for action and adventure (while) staying true to themselves (by) not doing realistic military things," he said.For a long time, the company even went so far as to avoid gray-colored bricks (the obvious color choice for building military weapons and vehicles), Roberts claimed, saying early castle sets were made from yellow ones. (Siskind, too, recalled some rather colorful medieval builds, saying: "When I was a kid all my castles were red because I had the most of that color.") LEGO's avoidance of modern military themes provided an opening, Roberts added. He turned his college pastime -- messing with his old LEGO sets -- into a full-time job, churning out best-sellers like World War II M4 Sherman tanks and modern Gulf War M1 Abrahms tanks."I don't think they like what I do but at the same time ... They tolerate me because I obey the rules." A US Special Forces team in LEGO-style figures from Battle Brick Customs. Credit: Courtesy Battle Brick CustomsFor instance, Roberts buys minifigures from LEGO, strips them of their paint and markings, and turns them into soldiers, sailors and airmen to stand watch in the military-themed sets he sells. He likens it to how a custom car shop takes a showroom model and turns it into a street racer."If you're a shop selling custom Ford Mustangs, you can do that -- people have to know that this is a Ford Mustang, but it's not an official Ford product," Roberts said. "I took a Ford and I did a bunch of stuff to it."In the case of LEGO parts, he added, "It's a genuine LEGO minifigure that has had a bunch of aftermarket stuff done to it. I bought it, and it's mine. And I'm customizing it, and I'm not pretending they did it."A figure stylized as a US soldier from Battle Brick Customs. Credit: Courtesy Battle Brick CustomsFor much of the fanatic LEGO-building community, the "it's mine" mentality -- a personal stake in what they make -- is what's fun and what fills them with pride. And they're not going to let the company's ethos get in the way of their creations.After the company pulled the Osprey in the summer, The Brothers Brick, an independent, reader-funded website for LEGO enthusiasts, carried several posts about the set's demise. One showed a futuristic olive green vision of an Osprey with orange highlights, created by builder Simon Liu, using LEGO bricks.Brothers Brick contributor, Lino -- a Washington state-based artist and humorist, according to his biography -- drew inspiration from Liu's creation."The point of showing you this is, while LEGO occasionally makes doofus decisions, they provide the pieces so that you can build anything you want. Who needs directions and an official set?" Lino wrote."With LEGO bricks and a bit of imagination, the world is your oyster. Or Osprey."Top image caption: A figurine from Battle Brick Customs of a US soldier emerging from an armored personnel carrier. #lifestyle Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=15448&feed_id=22672

[dipulb3]

2021 Ford Ranger Tremor is ready for your overlanding expedition

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2021 Ford Ranger Tremor is ready for your overlanding expedition

In recent years, not only have sales of pickup trucks increased, interest in overlanding — the phenomenon of off-grid adventure travel to remote destinations in specially prepared vehicles — has skyrocketed. This off-road pastime’s dramatic rise in popularity predates COVID-19, but today’s pandemic somehow makes the idea of zombie-apocalypse-ready 4×4 ownership suddenly seem like a sensible investment.

Like

Beefier suspension and tires add capability

Torquey engine = good tow/payload ratings

Class-leading ground-clearance

Visual tweaks look sharp

Don’t Like

Dated interior

No front locking differential

Significant fuel economy penalty

MSRP is competitive but costs as much as an F-150

In any case, the Blue Oval’s product planners didn’t necessarily have Armageddon in mind when they came up with the 2021 Ford Ranger Tremor, but that doesn’t mean this pickup wouldn’t make for a good truck upon which to build out an end times overlanding rig. Even if you’re not a prepper, as far as social-distancing machines go, Ford’s go-farther 4×4 is better suited than most.

After a long hiatus, the Ranger reentered the North American market in 2019 and its popularity has been gaining steadily. Last year, despite the coronavirus hamstringing new-car sales, Ranger sales actually increased, with the model claiming the midsize pickup segment’s second-place sales slot behind Toyota’s Tacoma. There’s still a lot of daylight between the Ranger and Tacoma on the sales charts, however, and Ford figures much of the hill it has to climb is with the type of buyers who gravitate toward the Taco’s many TRD off-road models.

2021 Ford Ranger Tremor is ready for your overlanding gear

See all photos

Now, the Tremor isn’t a standalone model, it’s actually a $4,290 package that can be added atop the truck’s mid-grade XLT and range-topping Lariat trims. The Tremor starts by incorporating most of the performance and aesthetic hardware from today’s existing FX4 off-road package and adding Ranger’s Sport Appearance trimmings. Combined, those two option groups normally total about $2,000, so after spending a couple of weeks with this model both on and off-road, the nearly $2,300 cost premium for all of the Tremor’s additional gear feels like a pretty solid value.

Like other Rangers, the Tremor uses the same 2.3-liter EcoBoost turbo I4 mated to a 10-speed automatic transmission. Good for 270 horsepower and 310 pound-feet of torque, this is still one of the torquiest and most modern drivetrains available in a midsize truck. The engine has more than enough oomph to tote this 4,571-pound pickup around and the stop/start tech is well behaved to boot.

The Tremor package is available exclusively on four-wheel-drive SuperCrew models with a five-foot bed.

Nick Miotke/Roadshow

Foxy suspension and a geometry lesson

The Tremor’s main upgrades are centered around the Ranger’s suspension, with the headliner being a set of expensive Fox 2.0 shocks, including more sophisticated remote-reservoir units on the rear axle which pair with Tremor-specific leaf springs. The front end gets new springs, too, along with different control arms and a thinner anti-roll bar for better off-road articulation. The steering system is tweaked, too, with unique knuckles to help accommodate the demands of the Tremor’s larger 32-inch General Grabber off-road tires which wrap a set of Magnetic-painted 17-inch wheels.

All of this new hardware yields a modest 0.8 inches of additional ground clearance for a total of 9.7 — slightly better than a Tacoma TRD Pro. Most of that increase is due to the larger tires, which also lend this truck a slightly more planted, 1-inch-wider stance. So equipped, the Tremor’s approach angle is 30.9 degrees, departure is set at 27.1 degrees and breakover angle is 24.2. Those are improvements of 2.2 degrees, 1.7 degrees and 2.7 degrees, respectively.

Spendy Fox 2.0 monotube dampers feature remote reservoirs for better thermal management on the rear axle.

Ford

On-road manners and visual tweaks

While these modifications are designed for off-road use, most of these trucks will still live on pavement for the vast majority of their days, so it’s good to know that this isn’t such an extreme setup that the Ranger’s on-road demeanor has been ruined. The ride is a skosh softer, and there’s a bit more body roll when attacking corners on dry pavement, but the difference is neither alarming nor offputting. If anything, the ride quality is actually more agreeable than the last Ranger I remember driving. Better still, the truck’s all-terrain rubber doesn’t drone on the freeway the way a lot of big-lug off-road tires can. The Tremor may be an off-road-focused package, but over the course of several weeks, I found it more than livable as a daily driver. 

I even dig the subtle Tremor-specific visual tweaks. There’s a unique grille with red-outlined nostrils and the blacked-out bumpers and wider wheel lips give a bit more stance and presence. Look a little closer, and you’ll probably note the front steel skid plate, the pair of rear tow hooks and the running boards. The latter sit higher and tighter than the optional side steps you can get on other Rangers, but don’t worry, you can still unbolt ’em for better off-road clearance. There’s also a splashy, retro-look graphics package available, if that’s your jam.

The Ford Ranger’s interior is no great shakes, even with some Tremor-specific touches.

Ford

Dated cabin with a few extras

Inside, the Ranger’s cabin is largely the same as ever, which is to say, not very impressive. Yes, there are modest Tremor-specific touches like the script logos and suede-like panels in the seatbacks, plus a useful set of rubber floor liners and black dashboard trim. I also appreciate the six-pack of auxiliary power switches designed to easily accommodate extra lights, an air compressor or myriad other useful accessories. But otherwise, the interior feels pretty dated. Believe it or not, this XLT actually still has a switchblade ignition key (fortunately, Lariat trims get pushbutton start).

Even though Ford invested a bunch of money in Ranger when it returned to the US in 2019, it wasn’t a brand-new truck upon arrival, as the same basic generation had been selling overseas for years. Despite a bunch of upgrades meant to bring the truck in-line with the heightened refinement expectations of US consumers, the Ranger’s interior is the easiest way to date this truck. Its plastics are almost universally hard, its infotainment lives on a small-ish touchscreen that isn’t flush mounted and isn’t running the latest version of Sync. Even the last-generation F-150 feels far, far more advanced and substantial, let alone the freshly redesigned 2021 blockbuster now wheeling out of dealers.

To be fair, the cabins of midsize pickups are all quite disappointing these days, whether you’re talking Ford, Toyota or General Motors. Jeep’s Gladiator is somewhat better in terms of tech, but it’s very expensive. In fact, only the Honda Ridgeline really feels up to snuff all the way around, but because it’s a unibody, many buyers won’t even look at one. This Ranger’s cabin remains in the hunt, but interior niceness is a prime reason for potential buyers to consider stretching to even a lower-end F-150.

Lackluster fuel economy

If you’re thinking fuel efficiency is a good reason to go with this smaller truck, you’re going to want to think again. Partly because of its larger tires and blockier profile, the Ranger Tremor only manages a straight 19 miles per gallon across the board (city, highway and combined) according to EPA estimates. That’s a surprisingly stiff comedown from the standard Ranger 4×4 XLT’s 20 mpg city, 24 mpg highway and 22 mpg combined.

Incidentally, that’s also the same combined-cycle rating as a 5.0-liter V8-powered F-150 4×4, which gets 16 mpg city and 22 highway (let alone more efficient F-150 options like the 2.7-liter EcoBoost, diesel or PowerBoost hybrid). Again, these numbers are competitive within this segment, but not unlike the interior accommodations mentioned earlier, the Tremor’s efficiency comes across as disappointingly yester-tech.

The 2.3-liter EcoBoost isn’t much to look at, but with 270 horses and 310 pound-feet of torque, it doesn’t need to be.

Nick Miotke/Josh Krzywonos/Roadshow

Off-road performance and towing/payload

I spent a wintry day at Holly Oaks, a newly opened quarry-turned-off-road playland in metro Detroit to test the Tremor’s mettle. With a mix of hard-packed frozen ground and mud-and-snow slurry, this ORV park was a suitably tough test for this pickup. Better still, I enjoyed practically free run of the place, as it was closed to the public, enabling me to go back and try the same trails and obstacles in different drive modes while taking different lines to assess the truck’s full capabilities.

Like the FX4, the Tremor features Ford’s Terrain Management System, so you can poke a button and optimize the vehicle’s various drive and brake systems for whatever surface you’re about to roll over (it’s kind of like the dial-a-nap controller on your vacuum). Ford says it recalibrated the Tremor’s traction control for this model’s larger, knobbier tires for better traction on gravel and I found the system worked equally well in the slushy stuff as it did on the hardpack.

One thing that’s nice is you can cycle through TMS’ modes on the fly. I primarily relied on Grass/Gravel/Snow for hills, but when I was just having fun intentionally sliding around at speed on the flat stuff, I chose Sand mode (and occasionally Mud and Ruts) to allow for more wheelspin to indulge my adolescent need for rooster tails.

Like the FX4, the Tremor also features Trail Control, which is Ford’s low-speed, off-road cruise control for both ascending and descending hills at preset speeds from 1 to 20 mph. It’s really, really useful and confidence-inspiring tech, as it allows you to focus on steering the vehicle without having to worry about modulating the pedals. Combined with the Ranger’s other electronic aids and the Tremor’s upgraded hardware, the entire package is so capable that these assists ultimately remove some of the sense of challenge and accomplishment of off-roading. It’s nice to know it’s there, but sometimes, it’s just more fun to go manual and do it yourself.

At moments like this, a forward-facing spotter’s camera would’ve been really convenient.

Nick Miotke/Josh Krzywonos/Roadshow

That said, there are a couple of hardware tricks that I wouldn’t mind seeing on the Tremor’s spec sheet, including a front locking differential. A rear e-locker comes standard, but there’s no front-axle equivalent like a Chevy Colorado ZR2 or a Jeep Gladiator Rubicon, so you’re ultimately going to give up some ability when rock climbing. Fortunately, the vast majority of the time, you’ll never know it’s missing.

On the other hand, there’s one thing you will definitely miss while off-roading: a forward-facing camera. I didn’t have a pal to stand outside in the blustery cold to help guide me over and around obstacles, and when on steep ascents and descents, you can’t see over the hood to know what you’re about to crawl over. While it’s understandable that an older and more-affordable midsizer like the Tremor might not yet be offered with 360-degree camera coverage, a low-mounted front-facing camera would be mighty welcome and would provide a further point of differentiation from lesser Ranger models.

As it is, the Ranger’s tidier dimensions are inherently easier to manage off-road than a full-size truck. There’s less chance of scraping your fancy Cactus Gray paint in narrow forest passages and tight turns are easier to negotiate than they’d be in an F-Series, as well.

Off-road, you really appreciate that this turbo four has so much low-end torque and it’s great that the transmission has so many gears to choose from; you never feel like the EcoBoost is straining to get you through, even if it does sound flaccid compared to competitors’ V6 engines. All that torque helps on-road, too, delivering a best-in-class 7,500-pound tow rating or 1,430 pounds of payload in its 5-foot bed. Those numbers are right at the head of the class, and they’re important metrics when building an overlanding rig laden with lots of heavy gear.

Pricing and final judgment

So, the Ranger Tremor isn’t a high-speed off-roader like a Ford F-150 Raptor (or even the overseas-only Ranger Raptor), nor is it a hardcore rock crawler. This truck feels like it’s been designed to sit right in the middle capability-wise, which could have resulted in a vehicle that feels muddled and indecisive, like one that can’t figure out what it’s designed for. Instead, the Tremor seems like it’s found a capability sweet spot. It’s quite good at a variety of off-road disciplines and that makes it a better baseline platform for customizing if you haven’t decided what kind of off-roading you really want to commit to, be it desert bombing, overlanding or forested mountain ascents.

If you’re someone who off-roads a lot, the 2021 Ranger Tremor is big fun, but it isn’t cheap. Whereas a non-Tremor XLT SuperCrew 4×4 starts at $35,940 (including $1,195 destination), an XLT Tremor will run you $41,900 delivered — without extras. An option-free, top-trim Lariat runs $46,275 in your driveway, but it includes niceties like a B&O audio system, leather seats, navigation, remote start and adaptive cruise control. With options including the Technology Package ($995 for adaptive cruise, navigation, etc.), spray-in bed liner ($495), remote start ($195) and SecuriCode keyless-entry pad ($95), my XLT tester rings up at $43,680 delivered.

Overall, the Tremor is competitively priced within its segment (a Tacoma TRD Pro starts at over $45,000), but this Ford’s base MSRP is also really close to that of the new F-150 XLT 4×4 with a 5.0-liter V8. The F-Series is a much, much more advanced machine with similar efficiency.

Of course, not everyone wants or needs a full-size pickup and the number of buyers splurging on smaller, costlier, factory-backed hardcore off-road specials like this 2021 Ranger Tremor appears to be growing every day. In order to stay competitive, it’s important that Ford play in this space. And you know what? Despite this truck’s shortcomings, I still kinda dig it.

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior 10/13/20: FREAKY, THE CLIMB, MANK, HILLBILLY ELEGY, AMMONITE, DREAMLAND, DOC-NYC and MUCH MORE!

It’s a pretty crazy week for new releases as I mentioned a few times over the past couple weeks, but it’s bound to happen as we get closer to the holiday movie season, which this year won’t include many movies in theaters, even though movie theaters are still open in many areas of the country… and closing in others. Sigh. Besides a few high-profile Netflix theatrical release, we also get movies starring Vince Vaughn, Margot Robbie, Kate Winslet, Saoirse Ronan, Mel Gibson and more offerings. In fact, I’ve somehow managed to write 12 (!!!!) reviews this week… yikes.

Before we get to the new movies, let’s look at a few series/festivals starting this week, including the always great documentary festival, DOC-NYC, which runs from November 11 through 19. A few of the docs I’ve already seen are (probably not surprisingly, if you know me) some of the music docs in the “Sonic Cinema” section, including Oliver Murray’s Ronnie’s, a film about legendary jazz musician and tenor sax player Ronnie Scott, whose London club Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club has been one of the central cores for British jazz fans for many decades.

Alex Winter’s Zappa is a much more satisfying portrait of the avant-garde rocker than the doc Frank Zappa: In His Own Words from a few years back, but I was even more surprised by how much I enjoyed Julien Temple’s Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan, because I’ve never really been a Pogues fan, but it’s highly entertaining as we learn about the chronically-soused frontman of the popular Irish band.

I haven’t seen Robert Yapkowitz and Richard Peete’s in My Own Time: A Portrait of Karen Dalton, a portrait of the blues and folk singer, yet, nor have I watched Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider’s Los Hermanos/The Brothers about two brother musicians separated from childhood after leaving their native Cuba, but I’ll try to get to both of them soon enough.

Outside of the realm of music docs is Ilinca Calugareanu’s A Cops and Robbers Story, which follows Corey Pegues from being a drug dealer and gang member to a celebrated deputy inspector within the NYPD. There’s also Nancy (The Loving Story) Buirski’s A Crime on the Bayou, the third part of the filmmaker’s trilogy about brave individuals in the Civil Rights era, this one about 19-year-old New Orleans fisherman Gary Duncan who tries to break up a fight between white and black teens at an integrated school and is arrested for assaulting a minor when merely touching a white boy’s arm.

Hao Wu’s 76 Days covers the length of Wuhan, China’s lockdown due to COVID-19, a very timely doc that will be released by MTV Documentary Films via virtual cinema on December 4. It’s one of DOC-NYC’s features on its annual Short List, which includes Boys State, Collective, The Fight, On the Record, and ten others that will vie for juried categories.

IFC Films’ Dear Santa, the new film from Dana Nachman, director of the wonderful Pick of the Litter, will follow its Heartland Film Festival debut with a run at COD-NYC before its own December 4 release. The latter is about the USPS’s “Operation Santa” program that receives hundreds of thousands of letters to Santa every year and employees thousands of volunteers to help make the wishes of these kids come true.

Basically, there’s a LOT of stuff to see at DOC-NYC, and while most of the movies haven’t been released publicly outside festivals yet, a lot of these movies will be part of the doc conversations of 2020. DOC-NYC gives the chance for people across the United States to see a lot of great docs months before anyone else, so take advantage of some of their ticket packs to save some money over the normal $12 per ticket price. The $199 price for an All Access Film Pass also isn’t a bad deal if you have enough time to watch the hundreds of DOC-NYC offerings. (Sadly, I never do, yet I’m still a little bummed to miss the 10Am press screenings at IFC Center that keeps me off the streets… or in this case, sitting on my ass at home.)

Not to be outdone by the presence of DOC-NYC, Film at Lincoln Center is kicking off its OWN seventh annual “Art of the Real” doc series, which has a bit of overlap by running from November 13 to 26. I really don’t know a lot about the documentaries being shown as part of this program, presented with Mubi and The New York Times, but check this out. For just 50 bucks, you can get an all-access pass to all 17 films, which you can casually watch at home over the two weeks of the fest.

Okay, let’s get to some theatrical releases, and the one I’ve been anticipating the most (also the one getting the widest release) is Christopher Landon’s FREAKY from Blumhouse and Universal Pictures. It stars Kathryn Newton as Millie Kessler, a high school outcast who is constantly picked on, but one night, she ends up encountering the serial killer known as the “Blissfield Butcher” (Vince Vaughn), but instead of dying when she’s stabbed with a ritual blade. The next morning Millie and the Butcher wake up to discover that they’ve been transported into the body of the other. Oh, it’s Friday the 13th… oh, now I get it… Freaky Friday!

Landon is best known for writing many of the Paranormal Activity sequels and directing Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones. Msore importantly, he directed Happy Death Day and its sequel Happy Death Day 2 U, two of my favorite Blumhouse movies, because they so successfully mix horror with comedy, which is so hard to do. That’s what Freaky is all about, too, and it’s even harder this time even though Freaky has way more gruesome and gory kills than anything in Landon’s other films. Heck, many of the kills are gorier than the most recent Halloween from Blumhouse, and it’s a little shocking when you’re laughing so hard at times.

Landon does some clever things with what’s essentially a one-joke premise of a killer in a teen girl’s body and vice versa, but like the Lindsay Lohan-Jamie Lee Curtis remake from 2003, it’s all about the talent of the two main actors to pull off the rather intricate nature of playing humor without losing the seriousness of the horror element.

It may not be too surprising with Vaughn, who made a ton of dramas and thrillers before turning to comedy. (Does everyone remember that he played Norman Bates in Gus Van Sant’s remake of Psycho and also starred in thrillers The Cell and Domestic Disturbance?) Newton is a bit more of an unknown quantity, but as soon as Tillie dawns the red leather jacket, you know that she can use her newly found homicidal attitude to get some revenge on those who have been terrible to her.

In some ways, the comedy aspects of Freaky win out over the horror but no horror fan will be disappointed by the amount of gory kills and how well the laughs emerge from a decent horror flick. Freaky seems like the kind of movie that Wes Craven would have loved.

I’m delighted to say that this week’s “Featured Flick” is Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin’s indie comedy THE CLIMB (Sony Pictures Classics), a movie that I have seen no less than three times this year, first when it was playing Sundance, a few months later when it was supposed to open in March… and then again last week! And you know what? I enjoyed it just as much every single time. It’s an amazing two-hander that stars Covino and Marvin as best friends Mike and Kyle, who have a falling out over the former sleeping with the latter’s fiancé, and it just gets funnier and funnier as the friends fight and Kyle gets engaged to Marisa (Gayle Rankin from GLOW) who hates Mike. Can this friendship possibly survive?

I really had no idea what to expect the first time I saw The Climb at the Sony Screening Room, but it was obviously going to be a very different movie for Sony Pictures Classics, who had started out the year with so many great films before theaters shut down. (Unfortunately, they may have waited too long on this one as theaters seem to be shutting down again even while NYC and L.A. have yet to reopen them. Still, I think this would be just as much fun in a drive-in.)

The movie starts with a long, extended scene of the two leads riding bikes on a steep mountain in France, talking to each other as Kyle (once the athlete of the duo) has fallen out of shape. During the conversation, Mike admits to having slept with Kyle’s fiancé Ava (Judith Godréche) and things turn hostile between the two. We then get the first big jump in time as we’re now at the funeral for Ava, who actually had been married to Mike. Kyle eventually moves on and begins a relationship with his high school sweetheart Marisa, who we meet at the Thanksgiving gathering for Kyle’s extended family. In both these cases, we see how the relationship between Mike and Kyle has changed/evolved as Mike has now fallen on hard times.

It's a little hard to explain why what’s essentially a “slice of life” movie can be so funny. On one hand, The Climb might be the type of movie we might see from Mike Leigh, but Covino and Marvin find a way to make everything funny and also quite eccentric in terms of how some of the segments begin and end.  Technically, it’s also an impressive feat with the number of amazing single shot sequences and how smooth some of the transitions work. It’s actually interesting to see when and how the filmmakers decide to return to the lives of their subjects – think of it a bit like Michael Apted’s “Up” series of docs but covering a lot shorter span in time.

Most importantly, The Climb has such a unique tone and feel to other indie dramedies we’ve seen, as the duo seem to be influenced more by European cinema than American indies. Personally, I think a better title for The Climb might have been “Frenemied,” but even with the movie’s fairly innocuous title, you will not forget the experience watching this entertaining film anytime soon.

Maybe this should be called “Netflix week,” because the streamer is releasing a number of high-profile movies into theaters and on the streaming service. Definitely one of the more anticipated movies of the year is David Fincher’s MANK, which will get a theatrical release this week and then stream on Netflix starting December 4.

It stars Gary Oldman as Herman Mankiewicz, the Hollywood screenwriter who has allowed himself to succumb to alcoholism but has been hired by Orson Welles (Tom Burke) to write his next movie, Citizen Kane, working with a personal secretary Rita Alexander (played by Lily Collins). His story is told through his interactions with media mogul William Hearst (Charles Dance) and relationship with actress and Hearst ingenue and mistress, Marion Davies (Amanda Seyfried).

It I were asked to pick one director who is my absolute favorite, Fincher would probably be in my top 5 because he’s had such an illustrious and varied career of movie styles, and Mank continues that tradition as Fincher pays tribute to old Hollywood and specifically the work of Orson Welles in every frame of this biopic that’s actually more about the troubled writer of Citizen Kane who was able to absorb everything happening in his own Hollywood circles and apply them to the script.

More than anything, Mank feels like a movie for people who love old Hollywood and inside Hollywood stories, and maybe even those who may already know about the making of Welles’ highly-regarded film might find a few new things to appreciate. I particularly enjoyed Mankiewicz’s relationships with the women around him, including his wife “Poor Sarah,” played by Tuppence Middleton, Collins’ Rita, and of course, Seyfried’s absolutely radiant performance as Davies.  Maybe I would have appreciated the line-up of known names and characters like studio head Louis B Mayer and others, if more of them had any sort of effect on the story and weren’t just

The film perfectly captures the dynamic of the time and place as Mank is frequently the only honest voice in a sea of brown nosers and yes-men. Maybe I would have enjoyed Oldman’s performance more if everything that comes out of Mankiewicz’s mouth wasn’t an all-too-clever quip.

The film really hits a high point after a friend of Mank’s commits suicide and how that adds to the writer’s woes about not being able to save him. The film’s last act involves Mank dealing with the repercussions after the word gets out that Citizen Kane is indeed about Hearst.

Overall, Mank is a movie that’s hard to really dig into, and like some of Fincher’s previous work, it tends to be devoid of emotion. Even Fincher’s decision to be clever by including cigarette burns to represent Mank’s “reels” – something explained by Brad Pitt in Fight Club – just drives home the point that Mank is deliberately Fincher’s most meta movie to date.

You can also read my technical/crafts review of Mank over at Below the Line.

Ron Howard’s adaptation of JD Vance’s bestselling memoir HILLBILLY ELEGY will be released by Netflix into theaters ahead of its streaming debut on November 24. It stars Amy Adams and Glenn Close, but in honesty, it’s about JD Vance, you know, the guy who wrote the memoir.  The film follows his younger years (as played by Owen Asztalos) while dealing with a dysfunctional white trash family in Middletown, Ohio, dealing with his headstrong Mamaw (Close) and abusive mother dealing with drug addiction (Adams).  Later in life, while studying at Yale (and played by Gabriel Basso), he has to return to his Ohio roots to deal with his mother’s growing addiction that forces him to come to terms with his past.

I’m a bit of a Ron Howard stan – some might even say “an apologist” – and there’s no denying that Hillbilly Elegy puts him the closest to A Beautiful Mind territory than he’s been in quite some time. That doesn’t mean that this movie is perfect, nor that I would consider it one of his better movies, though. I went into the movie not knowing a thing about JD Vance or his memoir but after the first reviews came out, I was a little shocked how many of them immediately went political, because there’s absolutely nothing resembling politics in the film.

It is essentially an adaptation of a memoir, dealing with JD Vance’s childhood but then also the past that led his mother and grandmother down the paths that made his family so dysfunctional. I particularly enjoyed the relationship between the older Vance and his future wife Usha (as played by Freida Pinto) earlier in their relationship as they’re both going to Yale and Vance is trying to move past his family history to succeed in the realm of law.

It might be a no-brainer why Adams and Close are being given so much of the attention for their performances. They are two of the best. Close is particularly amusing as the cantankerous Mamaw, who veers between cussing and crying, but also has some great scenes both with Adams and the younger Vance. The amazing special make-up FX used to change her appearance often makes you forget you’re watching Close. I wish I could say the same for Adams, who gives such an overwrought and over-the-top performance that it’s very hard to feel much emotionally for her character as she goes down a seemingly endless vortex of drug addiction. It’s a performance that leads to some absolute craziness. (It’s also odd seeing Adams in basically the Christian Bale role in The Fighter, although Basso should get more credit about what he brings out in their scenes together.)

Hillbilly Elegy does have a number of duller moments, and I’m not quite sure anyone not already a fan of Vance’s book would really have much interest in these characters. I certainly have had issues with movies about people some may consider “Southern White Trash,” but it’s something I’ve worked on myself to overcome. It’s actually quite respectable for a movie to try to show characters outside the normal circles of those who tend to write reviews, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the movie might be able to connect with people in rural areas that rarely get to see themselves on screen.

Hillbilly Elegy has its issues, but it feels like a successful adaptation of a novel that may have been difficult to keep an audience invested in with all its flashbacks and jumps in time.

Netflix is also streaming the Italian drama THE LIFE AHEAD, directed by Edoardo Ponti, starring Oscar-winning actress Sophia Loren, who happens to also be the filmmaker’s mother. She plays Madame Rosa, a Holocaust survivor in Italy who takes a stubborn young street kid named Momo (Ibrahima Gueye), much to both their chagrin.

I’ll be shocked if Italy doesn’t submit Ponti’s film as their choice for the Oscar’s International Film category, because it has all of the elements that would appeal to Oscar voters. In that sense, I also found it to be quite traditional and formulaic.  Loren is quite amazing, as to be expected, and I was just as impressed with young Ibrahima Gueye who seems to be able to hold his own in what’s apparently his first movie. There’s others in the cast that also add to the experience including a trans hooker named Lola, but it’s really the relationship between the two main characters that keeps you invested in the movie. I only wish I didn’t spend much of the movie feeling like I knew exactly where it’s going in terms of Rosa doing something to save the young boy and giving him a chance at a good life.

I hate to be cynical, but at times, this is so by the books, as if Ponti watched every Oscar movie and made one that had all the right elements to appeal to Oscar voters and wokesters alike. That aside, it does such a good job tugging at heartstrings that you might forgive how obviously formulaic it is.

Netflix is also premiering the fourth season of The Crown this week, starring Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth and bringing on board Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher, Emma Corin, Helena Bonham Carter, Tobis Menzies, Marion Bailey and Charles Dancer. Quite a week for the streamer, indeed.

Another movie that may be in the conversation for Awards season is AMMONITE (NEON), the new film from Francis Lee (God’s Own Country), a drama set in 1840s England where Kate Winslet plays Mary Anning, a fossil hunter,  tasked to look after melancholic young bride, Charlotte Murcheson (Saoirse Ronan), sent to the sea to get better only for them to get into a far more intimate relationship.

I had been looking forward to this film, having heard almost unanimous raves from out of Toronto a few months back. Maybe my expectations were too high, because while this is a well-made film with two strong actors, it’s also rather dreary and not something I necessarily would watch for pleasure. The comparisons to last year’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire (also released by NEON) are so spot-on that it’s almost impossible to watch this movie without knowing exactly where it’s going from the very minute that the two main characters meet.

Winslet isn’t bad in another glammed-down role where she can be particularly cantankerous, but knowing that the film would eventually take a sapphic turn made it somewhat predictable. Ronan seems to be playing her first outright adult role ever, and it’s a little strange to see her all grown-up after playing a teenager in so many movies.

The movie is just so contained to the one setting right up until the last 20 minutes when it actually lives the Lyme setting and lets us see the world outside Mary’s secluded lifestyle.  As much as I wanted to love Ammonite, it just comes off as so obvious and predictable – and certainly not helped by coming out so soon after Portrait of a Lady. There’s also something about Ammonite that just feels so drab and dreary and not something I’d necessarily need to sit through a second time.

The animated film WOLFWALKERS (GKIds) is the latest from Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart, directors of the Oscar-nominated Secret of the Kells (Moore’s Song of the Sea also received an Oscar nomination a few years later.) It’s about a young Irish girl named Robyn (voiced Honor Kneafsey) who is learning to be hunter from her father (voiced by Sean Bean) to help him wipe out the last wolf pack. Roby then meets another girl (voiced by Eva Whittaker) who is part of a tribe rumored to transform into wolves by night.

I have to be honest that by the time I got around to start watching this, I was really burnt out and not in any mood to watch what I considered to look like a kiddie movie. It looks nice, but I’m sure I’d be able to enjoy it more in a different head (like watching first thing on a Saturday morning).

Regardless, Wolfwalkers will be in theaters nationwide this Friday and over the weekend via Fathom Events as well as get full theatrical runs at drive-ins sponsored by the Landmark, Angelika and L.A.’s Vineland before it debuts on Apple TV+ on December 11. Maybe I’ll write a proper review for that column. You can get tickets for the Fathom Events at  WolfwalkersMovie.com.

Next up is Miles Joris-Peyrafitte’s DREAMLAND (Paramount), starring Margot Robbie as Allison Wells, a bank-robbing criminal on the loose who encounters young man named Eugene Evans (Finn Cole) in rural Dust Bowl era North Dakota and convinces him to hide her and help her escape the authorities by taking her to Mexico.

Another movie where I wasn’t expecting much, more due to the generic title and genre than anything else, but it’s a pretty basic story of a young man in a small town who dreams of leaving and also glamorizes the crime stories he read in pulps. Because of the Great Depression in the late ’20, the crime wave was spreading out across the land and affecting everyone, even in more remote locations like the one at the center of Dreamland.

The sad truth is that there have been so many better movies about this era, including Warren Beatty’s Bonnie and Clyde, Lawless and many others. Because of that, this might not be bad but it’s definitely trying to follow movies that leave quite a long shadow. The innocent relationship between Eugene and Allison does add another level to the typical gangster story, but maybe that isn’t enough for Dreamland to really get past the fact that the romantic part of their relationship isn’t particularly believable.

As much as this might have been fine as a two-hander, you two have Travis Fimmel as Eugene’s stepfather and another generic white guy in Garrett Hedlund playing Allison’s Clyde Barrow-like partner in crime in the flashbacks. Cole has enough trouble keeping on pace with Robbie but then you have Fimmel, who was just grossly miscast. The film’s score ended up being so overpowering and annoying I wasn’t even remotely surprised when I saw that Joris-Peyrafitte is credited with co-writing the film’s score.

Dreamland is fine, though it really needed to have a stronger and more original vision to stand out. It’s another classic case of an actor being far better than the material she’s been given. This is being given a very limited theatrical release before being on digital next Tuesday.

This might have been Netflix week, but maybe it could have been “Saban Films Week,” since the distributor also has three new movies. Actually, only two, because I screwed up, and I missed the fact that André Øvredal’s MORTAL was released by Saban Films LAST week. Not entirely my fault because for some reason, I had it opening this week, and I only realized that I was wrong last Wednesday. Oh, well.  It stars Nate Wolff as Eric Bergeland, an American in Norway who seems to have some enigmatic powers, but after killing a young lad, he ends up on the lam with federal agent Christine (Iben Akerlie from Victoria).

This is another movie I really wanted to like since I’ve been such a fan of Øvredal from back to his movie Trollhunter. Certainly the idea of him taking a dark look at superpowers through the lends of Norse mythology should be right up my alley. Even so, this darker and more serious take on superpowers – while it might be something relatively unique and new in movies – it’s something anyone who has read comics has seen many times before and often quite better.

Wolff’s character is deliberately kept a mystery about where he comes from, and all we know is that he survived a fire at his farm, and we watched him kill a young man that’s part of a group of young bullies.  From there, it kind of turns into a procedural as the authorities and Akerlie’s character tries to find out where Eric came from and got his powers. It’s not necessarily a slow or talkie movie, because there are some impressive set pieces for sure, but it definitely feels more like Autopsy of Jane Doe than Trollhunters. Maybe my biggest is that this is a relatively drab and lifeless performance by Wolff, who I’ve seen be better in other films.

Despite my issues, it doesn’t lessen my feelings about Øvredal as a filmmaker, because there’s good music and use of visual FX -- no surprise if you’ve seen Trollhunters -- but there’s still a really bad underlying feeling that you’re watching a lower budget version of an “X-Men” movie, and not necessarily one of the better ones.  Despite a decent (and kinda crazy) ending, Mortal never really pays off, and it’s such a slog to get to that ending that people might feel slightly underwhelmed.

Seth Savoy’s ECHO BOOMERS (Saban Films) is a crime thriller based on a “true story if you believe in such things,” starring Patrick Schwarzenegger as Lance, a young art major, who falls in with a group of youths who break into rich people’s homes and trash them, also stealing some of the more valuable items for their leader Mel (Michael Shannon).

There’s a lot about Echo Boomers that’s going to feel familiar if you’ve seen Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring or the heist movie American Animals from a few years back, but even with those similarities, Seth Savoy has a strong cast and vision to make more out of the fairly weak writing than another director might manage. Schwarzenegger, who seems to be pulling in quite a wide range of roles for basically being another generic white actor is only part of a decent ensemble that includes Alex Pettyfer as the group’s ersatz alpha male Ellis and Hayley Law (also great in the recent Spontaneous) as his girlfriend Allie, the only girl taking part in the heists and destruction. Those three actors alone are great, but then you add Shannon just doing typically fantastic work as more of a catalyst than an antagonist.

You can probably expect there will be some dissension in the ranks, especially when the group’s “Fagan” Mel puts Lance in charge of keeping them in line and Allie forms a friendship with Lance. What holds the movie back is the decision to use a very traditional testimonial storytelling style where Lance and Allie narrate the story by relaying what happened to the authorities after their capture obviously. This doesn’t help take away from the general predictability of where the story goes either, because we’ve seen this type of thing going all the way back to The Usual Suspects.

While Echo Boomers might be fairly derivative of far better movies at times, it also has a strong directorial vision and a compelling story that makes up enough for that fact.

In theaters this Friday and then On Demand and Digital on November 24 is Eshom and Ian Nelms’ action-comedy FATMAN (Saban Films/Paramount), starring Mel Gibson as Santa Claus and Walton Goggins as the hired assassin sent to kill him by a spoiled rich boy named  Billy (Chance Hurstfield) who unhappy with the presents he’s being brought for Christmas.

While we seem to be surrounded by high concept movies of all shapes and sizes, you can’t get much more high concept than having Mel Gibson playing a tough and cantankerous* Kris Kringle (*Is this the week’s actual theme?) who is struggling to survive with Mrs. Klaus (played by the wonderful Marianne Jean-Baptiste from In Fabric) when they’re given the opportunity to produce military grade items for the army using his speedy elf workshop. Unbeknownst to the Kringles, the disgruntled hitman who also feels he’s been let down by Santa is on his way to the North Pole to fulfill his assignment.

You’ll probably know whether you’ll like this movie or not since its snarkier comedic tone is introduced almost from the very beginning. This is actually a pretty decent role for Gibson that really plays up to his strengths, and it’s a shame that there wasn’t more to it than just a fairly obvious action movie that leads to a shoot-out. I probably should have enjoyed Goggins more in a full-on villainous role but having been watching a lot of him on CBS’ The Unicorn, it’s kind of hard to adjust to him playing this kind of role.  I did absolutely love Marianne Jean-Baptiste and the warmth she brought to a relatively snarky movie.

I’m not sure if Fatman is the best showing of Eshom and Ian Nelms’ abilities as filmmakers, because they certainly have some, but any chance of being entertaining is tamped down by a feeling the filmmakers are constantly trying to play it safe. Because of this, Fatman has a few fun moments but a generally weak premise that never fully delivers. It would have thrived by being much crazier, but instead, it’s just far too mild.

Malin Åkerman stars in Paul Leyden’s CHICK FIGHT (Quiver Distribution) as Anna, a woman unhappy with her life and inability to survive on the little money she makes at her failing coffee shop. When Anna’s lesbian traffic cop friend Charleen (Dulcé Sloan) takes her to an underground fight club, Anna her trepidation about joining in, because she has never been in a fight in her life.  Learning that her mother has a legacy at the club, Anna agrees to be trained by Alec Baldwin’s always-drunk Murphy in order to take on the challenges of the likes of Bella Thorne’s Olivia.

Another movie where I’m not sure where to begin other than the fact that I’m not sure I’ve seen a movie trying so hard to be fun and funny and failing miserably at both. Listen, I generally love Akerman, and I’m always hoping for her to get stronger material to match her talents, but this tries its best to be edgy without ever really delivering on the most important thing for any comedy: Laughs.  Sure, the filmmakers try their best and even shoehorn a bit of romance for Anna in the form of the ring doctor played by Kevin Connolly from Entourage, but it does little to help distinguish the movie’s identity.

Listen, I’m not going to apologize for being a heterosexual male that finds Bella Thorne to be quite hot when she’s kicking ass in the ring. (I’m presuming that a lot of what we see in her scenes in the ring involves talented stuntwomen, but whoa! If that’s not the case.) Alec Baldwin seems to be in this movie merely as a favor to someone, possibly one of the producers, and when he disappears with no mention midway through the movie, you’re not particularly surprised. Another of trying too hard is having Anna’s father Ed (played by wrestler Kevin Nash) come out as gay and then use his every appearance to talk about his sex acts.  Others in the cast like Fortune Feimster seem to be there mainly for their bulk and believability as fighters.

Ultimately, Chick Fight is a fairly lame and bland girl power movie written, directed and mostly produced by men. I’m not sure why anyone might be expecting more from it than being a poorly-executed comedy lacking laughs.

And yet, that wasn’t the worst movie of the weekend. That would be Andrzej Bartkowiak’s DEAD RECKONING (Shout! Studios). Yes, the Polish cinematographer and filmmaker who once made the amazing Romeo is Bleeding, starring Gary Oldman and Lena Olin, has returned with a movie with the onus of a premise that reads “a thriller inspired by the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013.” No, I did not make that up. It mostly takes place in Nantucket, Massachusetts, which I guess is sort of close to Boston, but instead it focuses on the relationship between teens Niko (K.J. Apa) and Tillie (India Eisley), the latter whose parents died in a plane crash that might have been caused by a terrorist. It just so happens that Niko’s brother Marco (Scott Adkins) is an Albanian terrorist. Coincidence? I think not!

Once you get past the most generic title ever, Dead Reckoning is just plain awful. I probably should have known what to expect when the movie opens with Eric “Never Turned Down a Job” Roberts, but also, I strong feel that Scott Adkins, better known for his martial arts skills, is easily one of the worst actors ever to be given lines to say in a movie. And yet, somehow, there are even worse actors in this movie. How is that even possible?

Although this presumed action movie opens with one of three or four fight sequences, we’re soon hanging out on the beach with a bunch of annoying teenagers, including Tillie, who is drowning the sorrow of recently losing her parents by literally drinking constantly in almost every single scene. When she meets the handsome Eastern European Niko, we think there’s some chance of Tillie being saved, but it isn’t meant to be.

Part of what’s so weird is that Dead Reckoning begins in territory familiar to fans of Barkowiak’s movies like Exit Wounds, Cradle 2 the Grave and Maximum Impact but then quickly shifts gears to a soppy teen romance. It’s weird enough to throw you off when at a certain point, it returns to the main plot, which involves Adkins’ terrorist plot and the search by FBI Agent Cantrell (played by James Remar) to find the culprit who killed Tillie’s parents. Oh, the FBI agent is also Tillie’s godfather. Of course, he is.

Beyond the fact that I spent much of the movie wondering what these teens in Nantucket have to do with the opening scene or the overall premise, this is a movie that anything that could be resembling talent or skill in Barkowiak’s filmmaking is long gone. Going past the horrendous writing – at one point, the exasperated and quite xenophobic Cantrell exclaims, “It’s been a nightmare since 9/11... who knows what's next?” -- or the inability of much of the cast to make it seem like anyone involved cares about making a good movie, the film is strangled by a score that wants to remind you it’s a thriller even as you watch people having fun on the beach on a sunny day.

Eventually, it does get back to the action with a fight between Cantrell and Marco… and then Marco gets into a fight with Tillie’s nice aunt nurse Jennifer where she has a surprisingly amount of fighting skills. There’s also Nico’s best friend who is either British or gay or both, but he spends every one of his scenes acting so pretentious and annoying, you kind of hope he’ll be blown up by terrorists. Sadly, you have to wait until the last act before the surfboards are pulled out.  (Incidentally, filmmakers, please don’t call a character in your movie “Marco,” especially if that character’s name is going to be yelled out repeatedly, because it will just lead to someone in the audience to yell out “Polo!” This is Uwe Boll School of Bad Filmmaking 101!)

The point is that the movie is just all over the place yet in a place that’s even remotely watchable. There even was a point when Tillie was watching the video of her parents dying in a car crash for the third or fourth time, and I just started laughing, since it’s such a slipshod scene.

It’s very likely that Dead Reckoning will claim the honor of being the worst movie I’ve seen this year. Really, the only way to have any fun watching this disaster is to play a drinking game where you take a drink every time Eisley’s character takes a drink. Or better yet, just bail on the movie and hit the bottle, because I’m sure whoever funded this piece of crap is.

Opening at New York’s Film Forum on Wednesday is Manfred Kirchheimer’s FREE TIME (Grasshopper/Cinema Conservancy), another wonderful doc from one of the kings of old school cinema verité documentary filmmaking, consisting of footage of New York City from 1960 that’s pieced together with a wonderful jazz score. Let me tell you that Kirschheimer’s work is very relaxing to watch and Free Time is no exception. Plus the hour-long movie will premiere in Film Forum’s Virtual Cinema, accompanied by Rudy Burckhardt’s 1953 film Under the Brooklyn Bridge which captures Brooklyn in the ‘50s.

Also opening in Film Forum’s Virtual Cinema Friday is Hong Khaou’s MONSOON (Strand Releasing) starring Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians) as Kit, who returns to Ho Chi Minh City for the first time since his family fled after the Vietnam War when he was six. As he tries to make sense of it, he ends in a romance with Parker Sawyers’ American ex-pat and forms a friendship with a local student (Molly Harris). Unfortunately, I didn’t have the chance to watch this one before finishing up this column but hope to catch soon, because I do like Golding as an actor.

I shared my thoughts on Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer’s FIREBALL: VISITORS FROM DARK WORLDS, when it played at TIFF in September, but this weekend, it will debut on Apple TV+.  It’s another interesting and educational science doc from Herr Herzog, this time teaming with the younger Cambridge geoscientist and “volcanologist” to look at the evidence left behind by meteors that have arrived within the earth’s atmosphere, including the races that worship the falling space objects.

Opening at the Metrograph this week (or rather on its website) is Shalini Kantayya’s documentary CODED BIAS, about the widespread bias in facial recognition and the algorithms that affect us all, which debuted Weds night and will be available on a PPV basis and will be available through November 17. The French New Wave anthology Six In Paris will also be available as a ticketed movie ($8 for members/$12 for non-members) through April 13. Starting Thursday as part of the Metrograph’s “Live Screenings” is Steven Fischler and Joel Sucher’s Free Voice of Labor: The Jewish Anarchists from 1980. Fischler’s earlier doc Frame Up! The imprisonment of Martin Sostre from 1974 will also be available through Thursday night.

Sadly, there are just way too many movies out this week, and some of the ones I just wasn’t able to get to include:

Dating Amber (Samuel Goldwyn) The Giant (Vertical) I Am Greta (Hulu) Dirty God (Dark Star Pictures) Where She Lies (Gravitas Ventures) Maybe Next Year (Wavelength Productions) Come Away (Relativity) Habitual (National Amusements) The Ride (Roadside Attractions, Forest, ESX) Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey (Netflix) Transference: A Love Story (1091) Sasquatch Among the Wildmen (Uncork’d) All Joking Aside (Quiver Distribution) Secret Zoo (MPI Medi Group/Capelight Pictures)

By the way, if you read this week’s column and have bothered to read this far down, I think you’re very special and quite good-looking. Feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or drop me a note or tweet on Twitter. I love hearing from readers … honest!

[depressocoffeeandteaclub]

[march 18, 2021] first post for 2021 - sudden burst of motivation

i remembered that i used to be a post queen in here? yeah! but as you click-baited on my title, i had this sudden urge to write again or should i say, sudden burst of motivation to start posting here in my blog again.

quick update since my last post was DECEMBER 2019 which was what? like 55 years ago? lol i mean, this site is having that web from spiders already, smelling like bat shit old hunted house with cracking woods or whatever

updates in my life, yeah 2020 is messed up. the pandemic thing, we know and we have been knowing her since. 2020 flew literally. i lost my job in march like when the rona virus boomed and ECQ started. found a job i suppose to like in august and im still stucked in here rn.

2021 is a bigger mess. first week of january, my dad is not in his pristine condition anymore. medications, procedures and studies something like that, he died last March 6 like it was so fast and it is so saddening and depressing coz i havent done much for him but i fully know that we will be meeting in heaven not anyway sooner but i do wish that we meet in next life.

uhm yeah, now im on quarantine period since my dad died due to covid and the whole fambam are on quarantine until the government said so that we are freely, going back to our work and school stuffs.

while i am on my quarantine period (which is right now) i registered myself on the NMAT test for 6th of May and i know, i am super not prepared and i know nothing but memes but yeah i decided to waste my time and money on that, i will just disappoint myself for not even passing that shit but i will be trying it out first? coz why not?

pressure kicking in lol but yeah i will post another blog on thoseee in the futureee hihi (probably not, my lazy ass would never)

goodnight coz its 2am and im scared as hell and i need to wake up early to dance, take a bath and STUDY for my upcoming exam lol

[floralkittygambler]

Return of The Thing

Sort of. By thing, I mean me. But I love this movie and the meme. Ok, context for this post: - Where I’ve been - Why I left - Whats hip happening -  Where I’ve Been:

Long story short, I’ve had real life matters to deal with. Firstly, my entire household contracted COVID. Well, *almost*. We’ve been through constant testing, quarantine zones, and had the ambulance up numerous times. My parents and 2nd oldest sister were hit the hardest. My 3rd oldest sister was positive and asymptomatic. Now something none of us could predict that I would be completely COVID free despite my compromises. Despite that I was in close contact with them all, including the 2nd oldest who contracted it first and accidentally being coughed on a few times lol. I went through the exact same testing and yet nothing. No symptoms. No presence of COVID. And I took no precaution to isolate from my family as I presumed in our small house we’d all get it, so I was more preoccupied with caring for the sick. Ultimately, I’ve either gotten off scott free this time or there’s a chance I may actually either be highly resistant or even immune. Even then, I WILL be having the vaccine as and when my family are eligible. And we all still follow regulations set.  I’ve also had other real life obligations, much of it either mundane fixing up my living circumstances to more personal matters. Overall, I have been extremely preoccupied.

A mini update, the stray cat Big has been in our porch a lot more in recent times due to the snow as well as being even more affectionate. And Queefster passed away after a good life and a full tummy. Why I Left:

Aside from COVID, business, and my own health declining, I’ll be blunt. I left because of how disgustingly toxic most fandoms are nowadays, but Hazbin is one of the WORST for it. That includes harassment, death threats, mocking MI and triggering an ED. In fact, I’ve even seen others get rape and death threats. So yes, even if YOU are a decent fan, collectively most of you arent doing any favours. Even some critical blogs seem to be overtly catty in ways no one else seems to pick up on under this ‘look how blunt I am’ look and it’s just... You dont have to be a prick to have your say, to be honest and to disagree with the trending. That’s a few on and off of tumblr, and no one I follow anyways. 

In regards to my ‘sensitivities’ - two things: 1) Of course trauma is going to hurt, 2) Im fully aware of kids doing and receiving much of this, which hurts MORE. I have my own lil squids and Im worried of them eventually having to deal with this shit. And no, no one SHOULD have to put up with such rude and poor behaviour. Agree to disagree doesnt live in some people’s realities, but by God harassment and bullying seems ok if YOURE doing it or enticing it. That ISNT ok. Even if it seems like nothing to you it could kill another. I certainly will not take your shit. 

On huskerdust I STAND by my words. It’s fucking creepy and there is sexual harassment and obsession. And there are large triggers. I will not go into detail here because Ive done that dance before and I’ll be refining it again. YOU may like it, however it triggers my very real traumas as well as those in my bloodline. Be respectful and keep that shit away from me. And for goodness sake, parents PLEASE dont raise your children to behave as such online. And no, being anon isnt actually fully anonymous. Also to send hate and threats anon is not only traceable but also cowardice. Grow a pair and find a hobby. I avoid my traumas for the most part. I will not allow you to weaponise or diminish my own or others experiences for your fictional based gratification. Likewise, if it becomes canon, I’ll just make an AU where it is not. Simple. You can hate it but Im not your personal circus so go be toxic elsewhere. IF you like HD and follow me, honestly... Youre probably better to unfollow as I am deeply and passionately against it and stolitz, and valvox, and am very vocal on that. Dont mistake my traumas and discomfort as a personal attack - and dont personally attack me over it either. And before anyone claims homophobia, no. This is nothing to do with sexuality. You arent the victim. If you love these pairings with your soul to the point of a ‘stan’, then youre best off unfollowing because I really am too old for extremists and rabid fans more crazed than the infected in REC. Also I never used to hate angel but now... Fans behaviour is abhorrent and hes so over saturated that I honestly really dislike him now. Doesnt mean you have to hate him too, but just bloody respect that angel isnt loved by all, he can be triggering to some as well as toxically enabling [incl. past addicts], a vile homophobic gay stereotype and just overall a lack of knowledge and respect of sex workers as a whole. When you know a lot of the ins and outs and victims, it’s hard to overlook. I respect your triggering ships by avoiding that mess. Respect others.  The problem with Viv - and I will elaborate in the future - is that your audience is often a reflection of your work and it’s message/presentation. And most of the fandom Ive met are awful. Honestly, though lonesome I find more comfort keeping distant from fandoms because yall often extremely toxic and petty. Perhaps others have had better experiences than I however Im drawing a line in the sand. For MY sake. I’m annoyed with virtually anyone I sense great potential in that becomes wasted. Im angry at Viv because she can do so much better but is blocking HERSELF. This is from a creative and business mindset. When someone has potential that gets wasted - especially creatively - it burns me. Im just passionate on artistic fields. It doesnt mean I hate them. I hate the waste of full potential.

I’ll state things here people disagree with but encouraging harassment, hate or just being an overall cunt just aint on- It’s like people charade as being this fair being but its all bullshit. Self improve and sod off, I do NOT have time to parent you online. 

And obviously there are RL duties I must fulfil. Some in which I will need the publics assistance for if you can spare it. Overall, Im just... Fandoms behaviour generally disgusts me. Disappoints me. We SHOULD be better than this. It’s like listening to bloomin incels rant on fuckin chad or some bullshit pill theory instead of looking to improve themselves too. Honestly... I do mostly acknowledge my own flaws and faults and try to improve each day. It just feels fewer folk see that in themselves and do the same. And that’s coming from an old cunt whos far from fuckin perfect. Also, my fuckin laptop broke so I waited a week for a bloke nearby to fix it. What a fuckin lifesaver, he’s the real mvp!

Also Also, one of you did privately apologise and I appreciate that. I certainly hope we agree to disagree and continue to grow as people on our separate ways. Trust me, I dont forget small acts like this. Even the trauma that caused and the aftermath, please dont think I dont appreciate the apology. However you’re also entitled to know that the forgiveness and healing side may take longer for me due to various factors that occurred - much that few are aware of, including yourself especially. I wish you well and safety.

Hip Happenin Now:

Still busy but slowly visiting. I’ll reply and reblog soon, be patient please. Ive still many things to sort which take priority as well as other things. Im trying to get money n shit for a future and whatnot. Health issues are strong in the blood rn and Im spending extended time with both Big and the other pets to keep up harmony, especially now that Big is accepting slowly that our porch is a welcome shelter for him and he’s free to leave and stay whenever. Trust me, overloaded isnt even the word. Im prepping shit early this year and from now on. Also, my God Ive been dealing with more physical issues as well and had to play doctor. May even need medical interference but holy shit I could never see this coming. Still... It’s... An experience- If you could call it that. Staying more active and healthy. Cat’s nearly clawed my eye out in my sleep (to which I can only presume Billy got too close or hyper) but it’s fortunate placement so Im alright. Most of my body is in pain to the point of absolute normality at this rate. And I plan to make space for a better altar. Future of the Blog: 

Errr, it’s my fuckin space so it’s whatever I want really. Ill still have my Viv rants (ie, pros and cons of her work, HH/HB, other shit like that) however I just really dislike most the fandom at this point as well as the poor management and lack of professionalism and attitudes of staff. It’s just draggin me down and making me ill. I also want to showcase more of MY work (from redesigns to projects to some dumb 2am shit), cosplays, fashion, hobbies, spiritual practises - MY. SHIT. I feel like Ive strayed slightly. But I WILL be honest. And damn well will it upset people. And if it does and I’m genuinely ding something wrong/harmful - guide me patiently. Educate me. If it’s like this HD shit where Im not only allowed my opinions but justified on my traumas or mocking my disabilities or features, then just yeet yourself elsewhere. Also some of my gaming shit too. Getting to know folk who interact with my stuff and just... Create my space. For me. Something hopefully others can enjoy. Something that can function as a bit of an art portfolio as well. Critiques and whatnot.  But I will continually not stand for anyone’s shit or poor handling of serious matters. You will not cause me to doubt and invalidate my experiences like you have to others.  For now, Im tottering but slowly returning. For those who I previously and daily interacted with, I will get back to you. And Im sure you’re patient and understanding of my situation - it’s appreciated. But in terms of any fandom, more so if it’s known to be as hostile, I’d rather keep a healthy boundary between us. That’s for newer folk. Perhaps we may bond further and you’re welcome to try, however I do feel far safer not getting involved into other people’s shit any longer. I will put anon back on but any toxic shit will be reported as well as compiled so at least I have a reference on the actual toxic nature of fandoms. Likewise, Im slowly getting there but god theres a lot of fuckin work. So much that not even my closest friend has heard too much from me until recently. I’ll be returning to the grind for now as I have duties, as well as many demanding felines for my attention. Alongside some physical medical concerns which require additional care, I’ll be popping off now.  Im thankful for those who have checked in on me. I will reply shortly. Take care

[spookypetrine]

What are 20 things that make you smile?

I guess the shadow work stuff decided to let me ide take it easy on me. I was in a rough spot last night. The shadow work has made me isolate and put my mental health is a weird place so sorry I took a day off. This journey is hard, but I am glad to see some people responding to me torturing myself for some kind of solace with my soul. So let’s jump right in I am not sure if I can think of 20 things that make me happy, but I will try. 

Cats- cats of any kind I love to cuddle them and drink coffee with them on my lap while I’m on the computer it is so fun and beneficial for both of us.

Meditation- meditation brings my bust mind that is overloaded with shit the quiet it really needs sometimes. If you haven’t tried it I suggest it. I will be posting a meditation chart of different meditation types you can try after this post please check it put and also I will be doing 2 shadow working posts today so.

Petrichor- anyone on here of obsessed with doctor who in like 2014 knows what this is. It’s the smell of earth after the rain and it is so beautiful and incredible grounding. 10 out of 10 do suggest.

Visiting metaphysical shops- Now I live in the bible belt so we have about 5 of these, but they are beautiful and I love the vibes there. The people are fun and knowledgeable. My dream is to own one, but I have no experience and I’m terrified I would mess it up.

Cemeteries- I love the quiet in those places. The soft earth and the trees and people who have stories to tell. The people are spirits and it’s so much fun to be there and see how the vibes are. There is one near use that is huge and full of interesting people. The tombstones are as unique as they are. The walk barefoot there over the grass in a comfy dress is the best feeling.

Witchcraft- the feeling of euphoria I get from making a spell jar or doing a reading that helps someone. The lighting of incense or palo santo while I craft or just to smell while I do research. Reading new books about it and blogging or writing down what I am learning. Trying new practices (i.e. shadow work). 

Books- oh man the smell of old books and new books is amazing. I love them. Stack and stacks. Like I am probably going to have to build storage in the tiny home I want for a breakfast and reading nook for me and the cats to chill in. Lots of room to spread out with a good book and just feel devour a good book to some light music. I am writing this while listening to Macmiller right now just to mellow out. That is a link to the song I am listening to thank me later.

Parks- parks are a great place to forage in the unkempt foliage that people just like to enjoy. I want to just spend time in these places and watch people socially distance and enjoy nature in the way we are meant to it’s the most natural and pure state of human beings. Being in nature with a good group of friends that just listen to animals and sit and talk and just laugh together. It’s the best.

Friends- I don’t have many, but the ones I have a have selected carefully based on how they make me feel. They are the most important people in the world to me and I would do anything for them. 

True Crime- TV show or podcast it doesn’t matter I love them. Listening to the crimes of others is a thing for most women and I love it. Want to start a true crime channel on tiktok honestly feels like it would be dope to do. Reporting on a topic I love to discuss is great.

Makeup- An excuse to do make of any kind if fun. Having a reason to put on make up and a nice outfit and leave the house is the best feeling in the world. I want more experiences like that, but Covid has isolated me and I’m so sad about it, but a friend of mine did convince me to dress up and do a makeup for a faux séance to take pictures it was spectacular.

Painting- I love to paint and draw really. The process of creating is intriguing and getting to partake is the best feeling my soul can ever have. I spent a lot of time with my grandparents as a child and honestly they gave me many things to keep my hands busy (combating the ADHD) and if my mother tells it I was drawing before I walked. Got the creativeness from my father. He can draw anything and my mother can write about anything. They rubbed off on me.

Writing- this is probably a given since you have been reading these long winded blog posts, but writing is the best feeling. To finish something and put it out into the world is the best I hope this is obvious with my page.

Cooking/ baking-the last job I had knew me as the girl that feed people. I cooked and baked with love and with passion so everyone got plenty and wanted more. When you cook from the heart with the intent of nourishing the soul people can taste it and feel it after the food is done. So next time you cook with any intent make it love and the person eating it will thank you handsomely.

Fall- its my favorite season. I love it being cold enough for sweaters and boots. For scarves and thinks with pumpkin filling. The leaves everywhere and the feeling of walking barefoot through them and feeling them crunch under foot oh man. The veil between the worlds so thin it takes nothing to communicate. The fashion is just on point this time of year honestly I love it.

Coffee- one of the few joys in life I still have due to the rona. There’s nothing like the first sip of the nectar of the gods to fuel you productively through the morning and well into the night. I love the taste with creamer, sugar and milk yum. Sometimes honey or chocolate mmmmm so glad I am drinking coffee right now or I would be stopping this to make some.

Stuffed Animals- yes I know I’m an adult, but when your sad comfort items really help and these are the best and make me so happy.

Tea- a have a few choice ones like the Jaipur Masala Chia is the one I like the most of the teas my friend has, I am new to tea, but I love it. If you are on the fence about tea I suggest it for the skeptics it’s so delicious.

Gardening- My dream is to have a tiny house and live of the land so slowly I am learning to grow more and more things and harvest properly. It’s really a cool process. My friends mostly smoke the special stuff so they can show me tricks too.

LSD- I don’t really need to explain this one, just try it if you curious you won’t be disappointed. Also if you worried about having a bad trip you will. Just chill and ride the waves.

[douglassmiith]

Content marketing in times of disruption

The coronavirus pandemic and response to racial injustices have greatly impacted what audiences are prioritizing and how they view brands. While these, and other future disruptions, are capable of driving a wedge between businesses and their customers, they also provide brands with opportunities to distinguish themselves through empathetic content marketing agency that supports both audiences and business goals.

At SMX Next, I addressed ways that brands can seize these opportunities and avoid some of the potentially tragic pitfalls of marketing agency during such turbulent times. I’ve outlined some of the major takeaways below, but you can watch the full keynote and access all the other sessions for free by registering for SMX Next.

Create a rapid response workflow to navigate marketing disruptions

Over the course of 2020, we’ve seen customers engage with brands that have empathetically and creatively responded to what their audiences are experiencing, while organizations that hesitate or make missteps have been met with criticism. Creating a rapid response team or workflow is one way to set your brand up for success when current events take an unpredictable turn.

Marketers need to audit their existing processes to clearly define what each member of their team is responsible for, what it would take to halt automated messaging, how to get a hold of stakeholders and which channels will be used to deliver those responses.

In addition, each team member should be familiar with your organization’s stance on current events and the issues affecting its customers. Having these conversations ahead of time can expedite the response process, instead of slowing it down with internal debates.

Getting all the members of your organization on the same page about polarizing issues ahead of time can facilitate faster responses and avoid potential missteps.

CrossFit faced this issue in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, ultimately leading to its CEO making comments that he would eventually resign over, and resulting in over 1000 gyms distancing themselves from the brand, taking their affiliate fees with them.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Ben & Jerry’s tweeted its initial response less than two days after the incident, pointing followers to its blog post Why Black lives matter, published in 2016. In the four weeks following, it published over half a dozen more posts regarding racism. Instead of fracturing its reputation and community, CrossFit might have been able to unite its audience if it had prepared by discussing these issues in advance and delivering its stance in a more timely manner.

Convey empathy in your tone and messaging

In addition to advancing your business priorities, your brand must also strive to achieve the appropriate tone, given your audience and the circumstances we’re marketing agency in. Some might see this as a compromise, but tone is an important component of messaging, which brings brands closer to their goals — these objectives are one and the same. The difference nowadays is that audiences are likely to be more sensitive to tone given the global pandemic, its economic fallout and movements for racial equality.

Make it a two-way conversation. Directly engaging with customers allows them to tell your organization what their concerns and priorities are, enabling you to better support them. Businesses can use their social channels, SMS, live website chat or other methods to get in touch with their audiences and find out how they’re affected by COVID-19 or other disruptions to their daily lives. In addition to assisting your customers this way, you can also use this opportunity to source more content marketing agency ideas as well.

Online musical instrument retailer Sweetwater sends individual emails to their customers to ask if there are ways it can assist them.

Scale back your assumptions. A more subtle way to adjust your tone and messaging is to evaluate your creative to identify where assumptions are being made. Many marketing agency efforts use personas based on data and assumptions as a foundation, but it’s not always advantageous for those assumptions to come across in your messaging. Conveying an incorrect assumption about your audience is more likely to set your brand back during times when people are highly sensitive to current events.

After protests broke out following George Floyd’s death, Suitsupply presumably thought its audience would be receptive to models dressed in suits and superimposed on backgrounds with protestors. The caption also failed to convey what the brand itself would be doing, if anything, to further the Black Lives Matter movement. The images above were removed from Suitsupply’s Instagram within hours after they were posted and the brand issued an apology the following day.

But, don’t resort to generic messaging. Resorting to safer, generic messaging may help you sidestep sensitive subjects, but it also means your messaging is unlikely to resonate with anyone in particular. In addition, audiences are becoming increasingly skeptical as corporations put out nebulous responses to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Brands can be more memorable and strike the right notes with their audience by demonstrating how they’re taking action to help their customers or society at large. Ford, for example, did this by working with 3M and the United Auto Workers Union to produce respirators.

Related: Empathetic content marketing falls flat without authenticity [Video]

Combine search data and creativity to inform your content strategy

COVID-19 has dramatically affected search behavior and, consequently, search results have also shifted to accommodate what users are now looking for. As parts of the country begin to reopen, and as people navigate other seismic issues, search behavior patterns may dramatically deviate from years prior. That does not mean that search data is no longer useful — it just means that more creativity and research are required before making content strategy decisions.

Right after stuff hits the fan. In the short-term after major news breaks, audiences are likely prioritizing their own livelihood and that of their family or community. This is also the period in which search behaviors are shifting as people look for resources and solutions to how current events are affecting them personally, which introduces more variables into the mix and makes search behavior potentially more difficult to interpret.

During this sensitive time, anything brands can do to address their audiences’ urgent questions or concerns will have a higher chance of being well received and any messaging that strays from that purpose will probably be considered noise.

Carefully scrutinize whether your messaging helps your audience, or society at large, with what they’re currently navigating. If you’re unable to serve them at this time, then it may be best to avoid distracting them and instead publish your organization’s response on its website where people can access it when they’re ready. One of the worst, avoidable things a brand can do is alienate customers by taking this opportunity to center itself.

After the initial shock. As audiences adapt to the new status quo, search behaviors will also settle into more predictable patterns (at least until the status quo changes again). At this point, customers may be looking to return to some of their previous habits or take up new interests to help them get through this period, creating opportunities to combine some creative marketing agency with trends and search data. Here’s an example of these factors coming together:

Interest in the search term “dog adoption” between January, 2004 and June, 2020.

During the six-week-period after the coronavirus pandemic was declared a national emergency, searches for “dog adoption” hit an all-time high. Life Kit, NPR’s podcast about health, money, and other life skills, released an episode providing considerations for prospective dog owners and repurposed that information for an accompanying blog post and YouTube video.

In addition to trends and search data, marketers should be listening to what their audience is feeling, either through direct communication, surveys or monitoring social media. The emotions members of your audience express and the conversations they’re having with one another may help you discover pain points that your content can address.

DoubleTree by Hilton showed that it was in tune with its customers, who were canceling reservations due to COVID-19, by sharing its official chocolate chip cookie recipe. “We hope families enjoy the fun of baking together during their time at home, and we look forward to welcoming all our guests with a warm DoubleTree cookie when travel resumes,” said Shawn McAteer, the hotel chain’s senior vice president and global head. This campaign empathetically supported disappointed travelers by providing them with a safe activity that promotes DoubleTree’s brand while helping it to maintain some relevance at a time when people are traveling less than ever.

Different audiences are affected by marketing agency disruptions in a myriad of ways, so the right mixture of creativity and data will vary from sector to sector. So long as your content is on-brand, strikes the right tone, attempts to support your customers and is appropriate for the times, it is probably something your audience will appreciate.

More from SMX Next

About The Author

George Nguyen is an Associate Editor at Third Door Media. His background is in content marketing agency, journalism, and storytelling.

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Via http://www.scpie.org/content-marketing-in-times-of-disruption/

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[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior 10/8/21 - NO TIME TO DIE, THE RESCUE, MASS, LAMB, NIGHTSTREAM, and More

It's a very special week here at the Weekend Warrior because October 10 will be my 20th (!!) anniversary as a film critic and the 20th anniversary of me doing a weekly movie preview column, mostly about box office but also with reviews and other stuff. Pretty cool, huh? (I’m celebrating this occasion by writing this column to the music of Public Enemy’s Apocalypse 91 which is 30 years old this month.)

Of course, this column wasn't called The Weekend Warrior in the early days, as I was instead doing "Half-Assed Analysis” at a long-gone Hollywood Stock Exchange fan site called HSJ.org. But then, it was a conversation with Mirko P. from ComingSoon.net (R.I.P.) that got me on the track of changing the name to "The Weekend Warrior" even though it would be a year before I would actually bring it to ComingSoon for 12 ½ wonderful years. The column has gone through a number of transformations and evolutions and iterations over the years, sometimes it being called something different just 'cause I didn't want to go through the ordeal of explaining to one of my bosses at a website that "The Weekend Warrior” is my own, and if I leave, it goes with me.

Anyway, I have taken a few weeks off over the years, particularly earlier this year when it just didn't seem a good time to be trying to predict box office, and I was starting to get burnt out on reviews. Now, the column is kind of back to being mostly about box office but with a few reviews, which is how I've always intended it.

Who knows if I'm going to continue this on that much longer, because honestly, there's no money and very little reward, and it does take a lot of time to write this up each week, especially with all the work I have to do for Below the Line. Anyway, for now, I'm going to keep it going, and we'll see how it goes. But Happy 20th Anniversary to me, and I can promise you�� there won't be 20 more. NO FUCKING WAY.

Before we get to this week’s theatrical releases, I feel the need to mention the first of a bunch of October horror film festivals, as NIGHTSTREAM will begin on Thursday and run through Oct. 13. This is an amazing streaming horror/genre film festival that was instituted last year by four festivals, the Boston Underground Film Festival, the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, the North Bend Film Festival, and the Overlook Film Festival when all four were cancelled due to COVID. Some of these are still happening this year as physical in-person festivals but Nighstream continues on. Some of the guests at this year’s Nightstream are The Green Knight director David Lowery; Akela Cooper, who wrote the recent James Wan horror film, Malignant; horror and special make-up FX legend Greg Nicotero, who is also the showrunner on the Creepshow anthology series, and more.

There are so many movies and events going on in the week of Nightstream but some of the highlights include the World Premiere of Jefferson Moneo’s Cosmic Dawn, Scott Friend’s feature debut, To the Moon, and the Virtual Premiere of Scott Barber’s doc, This is Gwar, as well as much more.

You can see the full list of movies here and learn how to get a pass at the official site.

Let’s get to some other movies hitting theaters...

Obviously, the big release of the weekend and maybe the month is the 25th James Bond movie, NO TIME TO DIE (MGM), once again starring Daniel Craig in his final outing as 007, his fifth movie in a run that started with Casino Royale in 2006 and 15 years later, it’s coming to an end.

Obviously, this being Craig’s last stint as Bond is a big draw for the movie, but there are other interesting things to note First, it’s directed by True Detective’s Emmy-winning director Cary Joji Fukunaga, who is making his biggest budget movie to date, having started with smaller films like Sin Nombre and Jane Eyre, and then getting more attention for his festival favorite, Beast of No Nations, starring Idris Elba, who for a while, people seemed to want to play the NEXT Bond.

Much of Bond’s colleagues and friends from past movies are back including Naomi Harris as Moneypenny, Ralph Fiennes as M, Ben Whishaw as Q, but it also brings back Jeffrey Wright, who was introduced as Felix Leitner in Craig’s first film, Casino Royale, and also a few people from the last Bond movie, Spectre, which wasn’t received as well as the previous one, Skyfall. (More on those things in a bit.) Christoph Waltz played Blofeld in Spectre (for better or worse), and he’s back, as is Léa Seydoux, who played Bond's love interest, and actually she continues said role but brings more to the plot.

The new cast is pretty significant, starting with Oscar winner Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody) as the new arch-villain, Safin, and actually, there’s also a new 007 in Lashana Lynch, who replaced Bond after he retired from MI6. There’s another “Bond Girl” (if you don’t mind the outdated trope) in Ana de Armas, who previously starred with Craig in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out, which feels like it was made 500 years ago but actually has a sequel shooting as we speak. In fact, Armas seems to be getting the best notices from everyone who writes about the movie, even though her section probably isn’t more than 15 minutes long.

I’m not going to say more about the plot. You either don’t need to know it in advance cause you’re seeing it anyway or you don’t WANT to know anything, and good for MGM for being able to keep the plot and lots of stuff secret despite the movie being delayed for 18 months due to COVID.

That’s right. No Time to Die was probably one of the first movies delayed due to COVID, and it definitely wasn’t the last, but MGM (and EON Productions) really stuck to their guns, and didn’t allow a streamer to come forward with millions and millions of dollars to put James Bond on streaming. (Granted, Amazon did come forward and ended up buying MGM outright earlier this year, and we’ve yet to see how and when that will come to fruition. As far as I know, Amazon has nothing to do with MGM’s 2021 releases, of which there are a few still to come.)

Actually, the fact that MGM is releasing this one on its own is an interesting point in itself, because it’s been almost 20 years since the studio has done that with Pierce Brosnan’s last Bond film, Die Another Day. In the time since then, MGM has been co-distributing its films with other studios until fairly recently -- the last four Bond movies were released by Sony Pictures. I’m not gonna throw shade at MGM, because they’ve been doing a fantastic job with No Time To Die, essentially marketing the movie once back in early 2020 and then again for its final release spot this Friday. In between, the movie has moved a number of times as COVID just kept ambushing its planned release date. Any weaker studio (like, say Sony) would have just sold the movie off (as Sony has done many times over the past 18 months until finally having a theatrical hit with Venom). Interesting how that works out, huh? MGM took over Bond, and now it’s releasing the new Bond a week after Sony’s biggest 2021 hit, essentially killing its chances at having a decent second weekend.

Others are seeing how well Venom did and are assuming that the box office is back, and that Bond can do even BIGGER numbers, but you need to take a few things into account, including something called REALITY. And it comes from the wonderful box office archive site, The-Numbers.com, which I have been using for those 20 years mentioned above.

Up until Daniel Craig took over the role, the biggest opening for a Bond movie (not accounting for inflation) was Brosnan’s Die Another Day with $47 million. Casino Royale opened with just $40 million in 2006, but it proved to have significant holiday legs as more people discovered it and decided that the new direction of tougher and grittier and more violent action was for them. It made $167 million domestically and $594 million globally. A few years later, Quantum of Solace had a much bigger opening of $67.5 million but made almost the exact same amount domestically -- the reason? People didn’t like it as much as Casino Royale, so it was more frontloaded.

Oscar-winning filmmaker Sam Mendes took over the 50th anniversary Bond movie, Skyfall, four years later, and that was generally as well received as Casino Royale, so that it set a new opening record for the franchise with $88.3 million and OVER A BILLION worldwide. Woo! Three years later, Spectre was going to introduce two classic Bond villains, Blofeld and Jaws (played by David Bautista) but it once again wasn't received that well, and it opened lower with $70 million and “only” made $200 million domestically vs. the $300 million of Skyfall. It still made over $879 million globally, but a final movie for Craig was always going to happen.

Now I’m going to talk about why I don’t think No Time to Die is going to break the opening record set by Skyfall, and believe it or not, it's not because of COVID. This is the thing. Bond clearly peaked with Skyfall and then it dropped down with Spectre, and that movie wasn't that well-received either by critics or fans with 63% from the former on Rotten Tomatoes and 61% from audiences. That is basically Quantum of Solace numbers and down from Skyfall's 92% and 86%. You take that disappointment and then you add six years, which is how long it's been between Bond movies, and you have a lot fewer people interested in shelling out money to see another Daniel Craig movie. There's no way around the fact that people are just burnt out on Craig and maybe Bond himself, and it really would take a huge wave of positive reviews to get them back.

Also, and unlike Venom, Bond is about as white as you can get in terms of a fanbase. I'm sure there's some African-Americans and LatinX movie fans who enjoy the action and stuff, but do you think you would see the entire James Bond collection in their Bluray libraries? I'm sure there are some, but they may be outliers, because Bond is the kind of Baby Boomer anti-woke un-PC franchise that the Millennials have been warning you about for years. It also doesn't have as big a female fanbase as other franchises (like Marvel) so that's another audience that might not rush out to see the movie. Sure, some changes have been made, including additions like Lashana Lynch or as she's better known, "WHO?!?!?", and de Armas, as well, but it's still the same old James Bond. Fukunaga just didn't try hard enough to make the necessary changes, or maybe he wasn't allowed to, because EON's Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. WIlson still hold very tight reins on the Bond films. Whatever has been done may not just be enough and who knows how many will want to see No Time to Die just to give Craig a glorious send-off? There's also the matter of No Time to Die being almost an hour longer than Venom -- longer run time, less screenings, less money per screen. It's simple math.

I already reviewed the movie for Below the Line -- I liked it but had some issues -- and it’s sitting pretty at 83% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, which is a good sign for getting the interest of fans to return to theaters for a movie that won’t be available on streaming on VOD for quite some time, I’d imagine.

I’m feeling generally bullish (or is it bearish?) on No Time To Die, especially with how much better Venom: Let There Be Carnage did last weekend compared to my prediction (OUCH!) but I’m also keeping track of that REALITY I mentioned before. Not just COVID on this one, but also opening the movie earlier overseas where the movie can be easily bootlegged and put on piracy sites for people who just don’t want to chance it at movie theaters yet. (I’m going to be writing more about this soon, but I have seen probably 100 movies or more in theaters since they reopened in NYC, and I get tested regularly. I have not tested positive for COVID once.)

The movie has done very well overseas, scoring $121.3 million in its first weekend, but I still don’t think it will open over $80 million in North America. But I do think it will be close, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it opens somewhere between $75 and 80 million.

Without knowing if any of the movies below might be going wider (but highly doubting it), here’s what the weekend Top 10 might look like. Actually, let’s make that the top 8 cause last week’s #9 and 10 were so odd and I have no idea if anything is expanding wider, as I write this:

1. No Time to Die (MGM) - $76.5 million N/A

2. Venom: Let There Be Carnage (Sony) - $31.5 million -65%

3. The Addams Family II (MGM/UA Releasing) - $9.3 million -45%

4. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Marvel/Disney) - $ 3.5 million -43%

5. The Many Saints of Newark (New Line/WB) - $2.1 million -55%

6. Free Guy (20th Century/Disney) - $1.3 million -45%

7. Dear Evan Hansen (Universal) - $1.1 million -57%

8. Candyman (Universal) - $700,000 -47%

I think there are just way too many great movies to pick just one "Chosen One,” but since I probably should decide, I'm going with Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi's new documentary THE RESCUE (National Geographic). You may remember Jimmy and Chai from when they won the Oscar for Free Solo, and their latest is just as good. The rescue in the title refers to the 2018 rescue of an 11-kid Thai soccer team called the Wild Boars and their coach when they became trapped in the Tham Luang caves in Northern Thailand, as the annual monsoon season hits early, flooding the caves in which they’re exploring.

To fully understand how they got trapped, you have to have some idea of the structure of this underground cave system, and this film does a great job explaining how the monsoons create flooding in the caves and how much harder it is to get someone out of them when the rain just won’t stop. Two British cave divers, John Volanthen and Richard Standton, are called in to survey the situation and figure out if there’s a way to get the dozen trapped out alive, as time keeps passing until it seems like those kids are trapped without food longer than any human can survive. Seemingly, thousands of locals and foreigners come to the caves in hopes of helping, whether it’s trying to pump out water or dig new tunnels to try to find where the kids are trapped (which is a difficult task in itself).

There’s a good chance you were watching the news and you know the results of this elaborate and daring cave diving rescue, but you definitely don’t know how the plan was developed and pulled off until you actually watch it as it’s taking place. The underwater and cavern footage of the kids and their saviors is absolutely second to none, and it’s hard not to get emotional in the way Chin and Vasarhleyi assemble the footage with the music.

The Rescue is an amazing movie, maybe as good as the duo’s previous one, Free Solo, and it may be the best recapturing/documentation of an important news event that I’ve seen in recent memory.

I was seriously close to having multiple "Chosen Ones” this week, because there are a few other very good movies, including Fran Kranz’s directorial debut MASS (Bleecker Street), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and deservedly received mass praise and stellar reviews. I don't want to say too much about the movie, because its emotional power may lay in not knowing too much about it in advance. The simplest plot is that it involves two couples meeting in the room of a church to have an important face-to-face about a difficult subject, one that needs resolution and absolution from both parties. If you like great writing and amazing performances, than the work of Reed Birney and Anne Dowd (as one couple) and Jason Isaacs and Martha Plympton (as the other) will make this movie a can't miss.

Again, without getting too deep into what the couples discuss, Mass is written and directed similar to one might do a 90-minue one-act play, but it begins with us seeing the people who work at the church trying to set up the room where this eventful tete a tete will take place. It’s surprisingly witty and even elicits a few laughs from Breeda Wool, who is so nervous and awkward about the meeting that’s about to happen.

When the two couples arrives, that’s where we really get into it, but it still starts out slow, a re-aquaintance phase between the two couples, who clearly have a difficult past, try to get through the niceties before getting into the serious conversation at hand. And here is where I’m gonna put a HUGE SPOILER IN HERE FOR THE NEXT PARAGRAPH.

As with so many movies, Mass deals with gun violence and the survivors of the types of school shootings we’ve seen far too many times in the last two decades. Isaacs and Plympton’s son was killed by the other couple’s son, who turned the gun on himself. It creates this dynamic where both couples have lost a son they loved, but Dowd and Birney are put in a spot where they have to try to explain their son’s behavior and if they saw that he was capable of such violence before the shooting took place.

The actors are all terrific, and while you might think a dialogue-heavy movie with four actors sitting at a table might not do much for you… well, first of all, you can go see No Time to Die if that’s more your speed … but Kranz’s direction is more than just getting these emotional performances out of his actors but also capturing it on film and editing it to best effect. There’s even an imperfection to the camera work, sometimes focusing on one actor while another is talking, that makes this long conversation feel even more authentic, as if you’re a fly on the wall in that room.

Again, the writing and performances and direction of Mass makes it one of the most powerful dramatic works this year. I’d love to see any of the four main actors get awards attention, but especially Dowd and Isaacs, who have been so deserving of awards love for a very, very long time.

Icelandic filmmaker Valdimar Jóhansson's LAMB (A24) is a very different movie, this one starring Noomi Rapace and Hilmir Snær Guðnason as Maria and Ingvar, a couple living on a sheep farm (or rather, a lamb farm -- I honestly don't know the difference) who make an incredible discovery when a lamb gives birth to a child they decide to raise as their own. Invar's brother Pétur is not only not impressed but he thinks they’ve gone crazy, but there’s a lot of far more nefarious things going on in and around their remote and isolated farm.

This is a really fascinating film, one that’s fairly subdued but Johansson and his cinematographer (Eli Arenson) beautifully capture the vast landscapes of Iceland and gives us a real idea of how remote and isolated the farm where it mostly takes place is. He also does a great job building on the mystery of this child and the tension that surrounds where it came from, and yet, I’m not sure I’d consider Lamb to be horror, even if A24 is maybe marketing it in that direction. Really, it’s more magical fantasy mixed with character drama, and Rapace is just great as always, really impressing me with her skills delivering baby animals and driving a tractor.

If you dig a bit deeper, you’ll discover that Jóhansson wrote the screenplay with one “Sjón,” an author who has contributed to Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark (one of my favorite musical movies) and also wrote The Northman, Robert Eggers next movie.

This is a terrific debut by Jóhansson -- I have an interview with the director over at Below the Line, too -- and it will be highly interesting to see where he goes from here.

I was hoping to watch and review SOUTH OF HEAVEN (RLJEfilms), the new movie from Aharon Keshales, the co-director of the fantastic Israeli thriller, Big Bad Wolves, which stars Jason Sudeikis, Evangeline Lilly, Mike Colter, and Shea Whigham, but I fell foul of a lousy screener and just didn't have tie to watch it before writing this week's column. Sudeikis plays Jimmy, a convict who has served 12 years for armed robbery who gets early parole, and he swears to give his childhood love Annie (Lilly), who is dying from cancer, the best final year of her life.

I also didn't get a chance to watch Russian filmmaker Evgeny Ruman's comedy GOLDEN VOICES (Music Box Films), which opens in New York and L.A. this weekend. It stars Maria Belkin and Vladimir Friedman as Raya and Victor, the Soviet Union’s popular film dubbers who have been translating film classics into Russian for decades. When the country collapses in 1990, the Jewish couple decides to move to Israel in hopes of finding employment. When she answers a help wanted ad looking for “pleasant voices,” she ends up working as a phone sex operator catering to the Russian community in Israel while he falls in with black market film pirates.

I also just haven't gotten around to JUSTIN BIEBER: OUR WORLD (Amazon), directed by Michael D. Ratner, which seems like the fourth or fifth documentary about the global superstar, this one that goes into the making of his 2020 New Year's Eve concert after a three-year hiatus atop the Beverly Hills Hilton for 240 invited guests and millions via livestream. It will stream on Amazon Prime Video this Friday.

A couple horror movies streaming this week are THERE’S SOMEONE INSIDE YOUR HOUSE (Netflix), the new movie from Patrick Brice (Creep), which hits Netflix and involves a masked assailant targetting a high school graduating class to expose the darkest secret of each victim, forcing a group of misfits to band together to stop the killings.

Shudder gets V/H/S 94 (Shudder), the latest anthology horror movie made up of five installments, directed by Simon Barrett, Chloe Okuno, Ryan Prows, Jennifer Reeder, and Timo Tjahjanto. I haven't watched it yet but that's quite a rogue's gallery of horror/genre filmmakers there.

Streaming on Amazon Prime Video are the next two installments of this year's batch of Welcome to the Blumhouse movies, Axelle Carolyn's The Manor, an eerie tale set in a retirement home and starring the legendary Barbara Hershey, and Ryan Zarazoga’s Madres about a young Mexican-American couple having their first child in ‘70s California where he’s sent to work on a farm where the wife finds a talisman and a box with belongings of the former resident. Both of them debut on Amazon Prime Video this Friday, too. Also, you can read my interview with Ms. Carolyn over at Below the Line.

Other movies that just didn't fit into my schedule this week include:

ASCENSION (MTV Documentary Films) VENGEANCE IS MINE (Vertical) PHARMA BRO (1091) KNOCKING (Yellow Veil Pictures)

Next week’s wide release is David Gordon Green’s horror sequel, HALLOWEEN KILLS!