#project pan 2020

[barcarsenal12]

Election season (alexia putellas x american reader)

A/N: American reader is dealing with the stress of the election from overseas, while Alexia and their teammates try to understand what a terrifying situation reader is in.

(This is very very short, I can expand if you guys enjoy it. Also this is 100% me projecting.

You had a match the next day, but you knew you weren’t going to sleep. You had hardly been able to sleep all week. Back home, in America, your friends and family were staying up too. Here in Barcelona, no one cared who won the presidential election. 

“Come to bed, love,” Alexia called from the stairs. 

“I can’t, Ale.” You said, closing your eyes. CNN was starting to sear into your eyelids. You felt two hands on your shoulders, and leaned into her touch. 

“The sooner you fall asleep, the sooner you will know who won. Like Christmas morning.” 

You laughed, resting your head against her arm. “I knew that Christmas was always going to be good, though. I won’t be able to sleep. I might as well be here.”

Alexia sighed, and let her head droop. 

“Ok, then I’ll stay here with you.” 

“No, go to sleep. Us both being tired tomorrow won’t help anyone.” 

“But I want to be here. Explain the, como se dice, electoral college again?”

“Go, Ale,” you chuckled, shoving her shoulder. 

She sighed again, but rose from her seat and pressed a kiss to your forehead before making her way back upstairs. 

---

“What’s wrong with her?” Mapi whispered quietly to Alexia during warm ups the next morning. 

“She stayed up all night watching the election. I found her asleep infront of the TV this morning.” Alexia whispered back. 

Mapi let out a low whistle. “She’s not playing today, right?”

“She swears she’s fine.” 

“She doesn’t look fine.”

“I know.” 

You were glued to your phone the next four days, as the results were counted and recounted and confusion over swing states ensued. On the second day, it seemed like it was going the way that you were so desperately praying it would. On the third, though, the opposition won Florida. The election consumed you, and you were so far away from anyone else affected by it that you felt increasingly isolated. Alexia tried to be there, listening and keeping up with the results and trying to ignore how tired you looked. She told you that she loved you and cooked you meals and forced you to sleep. 

When the results came, you were at training. You were in the gym, with MSNBC playing through your airpods as you did reps of squats. You remembered 2020, when your side won and everyone ran onto the streets with pots and pans. This time, you had no neighbors to react with. You calmly placed your weights down and walked through the gym door, shutting off your phone for the first time in days. You needed somewhere-- a closet, ideally, but an empty meeting room would also suffice-- to fully absorb the news. You made it as far as the bathroom before the results sunk in. 

“Why did she leave?” Ingrid leaned towards Frido, as the door swung closed behind you. 

“I don’t know.” Frido responded. “I’ll text her.” 

“Ok, good idea.” Ingrid said, returning to her lifts. After a moment, she glanced back at Frido, and immediately noticed the frown on her face. “What is it?”

“He won.” Frido whispered. 

“What?” Ingrid said. Even from across the world, she knew what that would mean. 

“He won.” 

“Mierda.” Ingrid cursed under her breath, pushing out of the gym. 

----

(Sorry to cut this off, lmk if you want me to finish this story)

[thyme-in-a-bubble]

a list of some autumnal movies/series 🍂

i am nothing if not an organised little goblin who can not stop themself from making a good list. this is just in case you want something with that fall vibe but can't think of any. just close your eyes and point somewhere on this little list, or even put the numbers in a generator and go with whatever the result is ♡

winter | spring | summer

🥧 ‧₊˚ ⋅ movies ⋅˚₊‧

nosferatu (1922) 

sabrina (1954)

the creature from the black lagoon (1954)

psycho (1960)

rosemary’s baby (1968)

the rocky horror picture show (1975)

halloween franchise (1978-)

friday the 13th franchise (1980-)

an american werewolf in london (1981)

dark crystal (1982)

a nightmare on elm street (1984)

ghostbusters (1984-)

ronja rövardotter (1984)

clue (1985)

princess bride (1987)

the witches of eastwick (1987)

elvira mistress of the dark (1988)

dead poets society (1989)

when harry met sally (1989)

ghost (1990)

the witches (1990)

death becomes her (1992)

hocus pocus (1993)

addams family values (1993)

interview with a vampie (1994)

the craft (1996)

the first wifes club (1996)

the scream franchise (1996-)

halloweentown (1998)

practical magic (1998)

you’ve got mail (1998)

the blair witch project (1999)

sleepy hollow (1999)

chocolat (2000)

amelie (2001)

the lord of the rings franchise (2001-2003)

scooby doo (2002)

school of rock (2003)

mona lisa smile (2003)

peter pan (2003)

pirates of the caribbean franchise (2003-2017)

north & south (2004)

pride and prejudice (2005)

the descent (2005)

just like heaven (2005)

the devil wears prada (2006)

the lake house (2006)

penelope (2006)

el orfanato (2007)

juno (2007)

ratatouille (2007)

bridge to terabithia (2007)

the edge of love (2008)

twilight (2008)

the curious case of benjamin button (2008)

julie & julia (2009)

jennifer’s body (2009)

dorian gray (2009)

coraline (2009)

true grit (2010)

the cabin in the woods (2011)

jane eyre (2011)

wuthering heights (2011)

perks of being a wallflower (2012)

the odd life of timothy green (2012)

hotel transylvania (2012-)

the conjuring franchise (2013-)

what we do in the shadows (2014)

the riot club (2014)

as above so below (2014)

john wick (2014-)

the age of adaline (2015)

the witch (2015)

far from the madding crowd (2015)

the edge of seventeen (2016)

paterson (2016)

20th century woman (2016)

the love witch (2016)

mary shelly (2017)

murder on the orient express (2017)

get out (2017)

a quiet place (2018 + 2020)

the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society (2018)

on the basis of sex (2018)

knives out (2019)

ready or not (2019)

the lighthouse (2019)

little women (2019)

the gentlemen (2019)

emma (2020)

ammonite (2020)

the dig (2021)

fear street trilogy (2021)

good luck to you, leo grande (2022)

the batman (2022)

fresh (2022)

bodies bodies bodies (2022)

mr malcom's list (2022)

totally killer (2023)

slay (2024)

🧦 ‧₊˚ ⋅ series ⋅˚₊‧

moomin (1990-1992)

twin peaks (1990-1991)

x files (1993-2018)

buffy the vampire slayer (1997-2003)

gilmore girls (2000-2007)

supernatural (2005-2020)

vampire diaries (2009-2017) / the originals (2013-2018) / legacies (2018-2022)

downton abbey (2010-2015)

the walking dead (2010-2022)

once upon a time (2011-2018)

american horror story (2011-)

teen wolf (2011-2017)

peaky blinders (2013-2022)

outlander (2014-)

how to get away with murder (2014-2020)

the magicians (2015-2020)

izombie (2015-2019)

poldark (2015-2019)

critical role (2015-)

stranger things (2016-)

ghost files / buzzfeed unsolved (2016-)

lucifer (2016-2021)

shadowhunters (2016-2019)

anne with an e (2017-2019)

the good fight (2017-2022)

riverdale (2017-2023)

manifest (2018-2023)

killing eve (2018-2022)

succession (2018-2023)

you (2018-)

a discovery of witches (2018-2022)

the chilling adventures of sabrina (2018-2020)

dickinson (2019-2021)

virgin river (2019-)

carnival row (2019-2023)

the witcher (2019-)

the umbrella academy (2019-2024)

sanditon (2019-2023)

good omens (2019-2025)

the haunting of bly manor (2020)

i’ll be gone in the dark (2020)

queens gambit (2020)

the great (2020-2023)

shadow and bone (2021-2023)

the nevers (2021-2023)

wednesday (2022-)

interview with the vampire (2022-)

vikings valhalla (2022-2024)

lessons in chemistry (2023)

my lady jane (2024-)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Why is this Canadian university scared of you seeing its Privacy Impact Assessment?

I'm coming to DEFCON! On Aug 9, I'm emceeing the EFF POKER TOURNAMENT (noon at the Horseshoe Poker Room), and appearing on the BRICKED AND ABANDONED panel (5PM, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01). On Aug 10, I'm giving a keynote called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE! How hackers can seize the means of computation and build a new, good internet that is hardened against our asshole bosses' insatiable horniness for enshittification" (noon, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01).

Barbra Streisand is famous for many things: her exciting performances on the big screen, the small screen, and the stage; her Grammy-winning career as a musician (she's a certified EGOT!); and for all the times she's had to correct people who've added an extra vowel to the spelling of her first name (I can relate!).

But a thousand years from now, her legacy is likely to be linguistic, rather than artistic. The "Streisand Effect" – coined by Mike Masnick – describes what happens when someone tries to suppress a piece of information, only to have that act of attempted suppression backfire by inciting vastly more interest in the subject:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

The term dates to 2003, when Streisand sued the website Pictopia and its proprietors for $50m for reproducing an image from the publicly available California Coastal Records Project (which produces a timeseries of photos of the California coastline in order to track coastal erosion). The image ("Image 3850") incidentally captured the roofs of Streisand's rather amazing coastal compound, which upset Streisand.

But here's the thing: before Streisand's lawsuit, Image 3850 had only been viewed six times. After she filed the case, another 420,000 people downloaded that image. Not only did Streisand lose her suit (disastrously so – she was ordered to pay the defendants' lawyers $177,000 in fees), but she catastrophically failed in her goal of keeping this boring, obscure photo from being seen:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

Streisand has since called the suit "a mistake." On the one hand, that is very obviously true, but on the other hand, it's still admirable, given how many other failed litigants went to their graves insisting that their foolish and expensive legal gambit was, in fact, very smart and we are all very stupid for failing to understand that.

Which brings me to Ian Linkletter and the Canadian Privacy Library. Linkletter is the librarian and founder of the nonprofit Canadian Privacy Library, a newish online library that collects and organizes privacy-related documents from Canadian public institutions. Linkletter kicked off the project with the goal of collecting the Privacy Impact Assessments from every public university in Canada, starting in his home province of BC.

These PIAs are a legal requirement whenever a public university procures a piece of software, and they're no joke. Ed-tech vendors are pretty goddamned cavalier when it comes to student privacy, as Linkletter knows well. Back in 2020, Linkletter was an ed-tech specialist for the University of British Columbia, where he was called upon to assess Proctorio, a "remote invigilation" tool that monitored remote students while they sat exams.

This is a nightmare category of software, a mix of high-tech phrenology (vendors claim that they can tell when students are cheating by using "AI" to analyze their faces); arrogant techno-sadism (vendors requires students – including those sharing one-room apartments with "essential worker" parents on night shifts who sleep during the day – to pan their cameras around to prove that they are alone); digital racism (products are so bad at recognizing Black faces that some students have had to sit exams with multiple task-lights shining directly onto their faces); and bullshit (vendors routinely lie about their tools' capabilities and efficacy).

Worst: remote invigilation is grounded in the pedagogically bankrupt idea that learning is best (or even plausibly) assessed through high-stakes testing. The kind of person who wants to use these tools generally has no idea how learning works and thinks of students as presumptively guilty cheats. They monitor test-taking students in realtime, and have been known to jiggle test-takers' cursors impatiently when students think too long about their answers. Remote invigilation also captures the eye-movements of test-takers, flagging people who look away from the screen while thinking for potential cheating. No wonder that many students who sit exams under these conditions find themselves so anxious that they vomit or experience diarrhea, carefully staring directly into the camera as they shit themselves or vomit down their shirts, lest they be penalized for looking away or visiting the toilet.

Linkletter quickly realized that Proctorio is a worst-in-class example of a dreadful category. The public-facing materials the company provided about its products were flatly contradicted by the materials they provided to educators, where all the really nasty stuff was buried. The company – whose business exploded during the covid lockdowns – is helmed by CEO Mike Olsen, a nasty piece of work who once doxed a child who criticized him in an online forum:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/01/bossware/#moral-exemplar

Proctorio's products are shrouded in secrecy. In 2020, for reasons never explained, all the (terrible, outraged) reviews of its browser plugin disappeared from the Chrome store:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/09/04/hypervigilance/#radical-transparency

Linkletter tweeted his alarming findings, publishing links to the unlisted, but publicly available Youtube videos where Proctorio explained how its products really worked. Proctorio then sued Linkletter, for copyright infringement.

Proctorio's argument is that by linking to materials that they published on Youtube with permissions that let anyone with the link see them, Linkletter infringed upon their copyright. When Linkletter discovered that these videos already had publicly available links, indexed by Google, in the documentation produced by other Proctorio customers for students and teachers, Proctorio doubled down and argued that by collecting these publicly available links to publicly available videos, Linkletter had still somehow infringed on their copyright.

Luckily for Linkletter, BC has an anti-SLAPP law that is supposed to protect whistleblowers facing legal retaliation for publishing protected speech related to matters of public interest (like whether BC's flagship university has bought a defective and harmful product that its students will be forced to use). Unluckily for Linkletter, the law is brand new, lacks jurisprudence, and the courts have decided that he can't use a SLAPP defense and his case must go to trial:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/20/links-arent-performances/#free-ian-linkletter

Linkletter could have let that experience frighten him away from the kind of principled advocacy that riles up deep-pocketed, thin-skinned bullies. Instead, he doubled down, founding the Canadian Privacy Library, with the goal of using Freedom of Information requests to catalog all of Canada's post-secondary institutions' privacy assessments. Given how many bodies he found buried in Proctorio's back yard, this feels like the kind of thing that should be made more visible to Canadians.

There are 25 public universities in BC, and Linkletter FOI'ed them all. Eleven provided their PIAs. Eight sent him an estimate of what it would cost them (and thus what they would charge) to assemble these docs for him. Six requested extensions.

One of them threatened to sue.

Langara College is a 19,000-student spinout of Vancouver Community College whose motto is Eruditio Libertas Est ("Knowledge is Freedom"). Linkletter got their 2019 PIA for Microsoft's Office 365 when he FOI'ed the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology (universities often recycle one another's privacy impact assessments, which is fine).

That's where the trouble started. In June, Langara sent Linkletter a letter demanding that he remove their Office 365 PIA; the letter CC'ed two partners in a law firm, and accused Linkletter of copyright infringement. But that's not how copyright – or public records – work. As Linkletter writes, the PIA is "a public record lawfully obtained through an FOI request" – it is neither exempted from disclosure, nor is it confidential:

https://www.privacylibrary.ca/legal-threat/

Langara claims that in making their mandatory Privacy Impact Assessment for Office 365 available, Linkletter has exposed them to "heightened risks of data breaches and privacy incidents," they provided no evidence to support this assertion.

I think they're full of shit, but you don't have to take my word for it. After initially removing the PIA, Linkletter restored it, and you can read it for yourself:

https://www.privacylibrary.ca/langara-college-privacy-impact-assessments/

I read it. It is pretty goddamned anodyne – about as exciting as looking at the roof of Barbra Streisand's mansion.

Sometimes, where there's smoke, there's only Streisand – a person who has foolishly decided to use the law to bully a weaker stranger out of disclosing some innocuous and publicly available fact about themselves. But sometimes, where there's smoke, there's fire. A lot of people who read my work are much more familiar with ed-tech, privacy, and pedagogy than I am. If that's you, maybe you want to peruse the Langara PIA to see if they are hiding something because they're exposing their students to privacy risks and don't want that fact to get out.

There are plenty of potential privacy risks in Office 365! The cloud version of Microsoft Office contains a "bossware" mode that allows bosses to monitor their workers' keystrokes for spelling, content, and accuracy, and produce neat charts of which employees are least "productive." The joke's on the boss, though: Office 365 also has a tool that lets you compare your department's usage of Office 365 to your competitors, which is another way of saying that Microsoft is gathering your trade secrets and handing it out to your direct competitors:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/24/gwb-rumsfeld-monsters/#bossware

So, yeah, there are lots of "features" in Office 365 that could give rise to privacy threats when it is used at a university. One hopes that Langara correctly assessed these risks and accounted for them in its PIA, which would mean that they are bullying Linkletter out of reflex, rather than to cover up wrongdoing. But there's only one way to find out: go through the doc that Linkletter has restored to public view.

Linkletter has excellent pro bono representation from Norton Rose Fulbright, a large and powerful law-firm that is handling his Proctorio case. Linkletter writes, "they have put this public college on notice that any proceeding is liable to be dismissed pursuant to the Protection of Public Participation Act, BC’s anti-SLAPP legislation."

Langara has now found themselves at the bottom of a hole, and if they're smart, they'll stop digging.

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/01/eruditio-libertas-est/#streisand-v-linkletter

Image: Copyright (C) 2002 Kenneth & Gabrielle Adelman, California Coastal Records Project, www.californiacoastline.org (modified) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Streisand_Estate.jpgbr>

CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

--

Langara College (modified) https://langara.ca/

Fair use (parody) https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1104

Fair dealing (parody) https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1468015

[sad-boys-book-club]

"&" Ampersand - A Literary Companion

Selected stories with the themes of Bastille's upcoming project "&" Ampersand. And, of course, a love letter to my favourite band.

PART 1

Intros & Narrators: Wallace, David Foster. Oblivion: Stories. Little, Brown and Company, 2004./ Nancherla, Aparna. Unreliable Narrator: Me, Myself, and Impostor Syndrome. Penguin Publishing Group, 2023.// Eve & Paradise Lost: Bohannon, Cat. Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2023. / Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Alma Classics, 2019.// Emily & Her Penthouse In The Sky: Dickinson, Emily. Emily Dickinson’s Poems: As She Preserved Them. Harvard University Press, 2016. /Dickinson, Emily. Emily Dickinson: Letters. Edited by Emily Fragos, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2011.// Blue Sky & The Painter: Prideaux, Sue. Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream. Yale University Press, 2019. / Knausgaard, Karl Ove. So Much Longing in So Little Space: The Art of Edvard Munch. Random House, 2019.//

PART 2

Leonard & Marianne: Hesthamar, Kari. So Long, Marianne: A Love Story - Includes Rare Material by Leonard Cohen. Ecw Press, 2014./ Cohen, Leonard. Book of Longing. Penguin Books Limited, 2007.// Marie & Polonium: Curie, Eve. Madame Curie. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2013./Sobel, Dava. The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2024.// Red Wine & Wilde: Wilde, Oscar, et al. De Profundis. Harry N. Abrams, 1998./ Sturgis, Matthew. Oscar: A Life. Head of Zeus, 2018.// Seasons & Narcissus: Ovid. Metamorphoses: A New Verse Translation. Penguin, 2004./ Morales, Helen. Antigone Rising: The Subversive Power of the Ancient Myths. PublicAffairs, 2020.//

PART 3

Drawbridge & The Baroness: Rothschild, Hannah. The Baroness: The Search for Nica, the Rebellious Rothschild. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2013./ Katz, Judy H. White Awareness: Handbook for Anti-racism Training. University of Oklahoma Press, 1978.// The Soprano & Her Midnight Wonderings: Ardoin, John, and Gerald Fitzgerald. Callas: The Art and the Life. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974./ Abramovic, Marina. 7 Deaths of Maria Callas. Damiani, 2020.// Essie & Paul: Ransby, Barbara. Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson. Haymarket Books, 2022./ Robeson, Paul. Here I Stand. Beacon Press, 1998.//

PART 4

Mademoiselle & The Nunnery Blaze: Gautier, Theophile. Mademoiselle de Maupin. Penguin Classics, n.d./ Gardiner, Kelly. Goddess. HarperCollins, 2014.// Zheng Yi Sao & Questions For Her: Chang-Eppig, Rita. Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023./ Borges, Jorge Luis. A Universal History of Infamy. Penguin Books, 1975. // Telegraph Road 1977 & 2024: Kaufman, Bob. Golden Sardine. City Lights Books, 1976./ Wolfe, Tom. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Pan Macmillan Australia Pty, Limited, 2008.

Original artwork created by Theo Hersey & Dan Smith. Printed letterpress at The Typography Workshop, South London.

[felassan]

Article from Bloomberg by Jason Schreier, under a cut due to length.

"New ‘Dragon Age’ Game Faced Turbulent Development The studio head of EA’s BioWare says ‘Dragon Age: The Veilguard’ received nothing but support from EA throughout its lengthy production cycle EA’s BioWare label hopes to find redemption with the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard Today we’re getting in-depth on the new Dragon Age game A new age for dragons In late 2020, when Gary McKay took over as studio head of BioWare, the Electronic Arts Inc. subsidiary best known for making big roleplaying games, the climate was dire. BioWare, which is headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta, had released two critically panned games and was facing turbulent development on a new one — while trying to cope with a worldwide pandemic. “We needed to shift how we were thinking about building our games,” McKay told me in a recent interview. BioWare, founded in 1995 and purchased by EA in 2007, had won over millions of fans with hit single-player RPG franchises such as Dragon Age and Mass Effect. But a 2017 entry called Mass Effect: Andromeda was widely panned, and the studio’s next game, the 2019 multiplayer shooter Anthem, flopped both critically and commercially. Both games had also gone through brutal development cycles that drove many BioWare veterans to exit the studio. At the end of 2020, studio boss Casey Hudson was planning to step down and called McKay to ask if he would take over. “We had a few conversations over the course of the next month around the people and the culture,” McKay said. BioWare’s next big project would be a new game in the popular fantasy Dragon Age franchise. But the game, which had been in development for years, was facing turmoil and had been rebooted from a single-player game into a live-service game with a heavy multiplayer component, which EA had been pushing across many of its subsidiaries in the late 2010s. Hudson, too, was interested in multiplayer games and had been the lead visionary on Anthem. Some employees jeeringly referred to the next Dragon Age as “Anthem with dragons,” which worried fans after I reported on the game at Kotaku. Enthusiasts of the series wanted another single-player game, not a repeat of BioWare’s biggest mistake. When he took over, McKay began to feel similarly. “We were thinking, ‘Does this make sense, does this play into our strengths, or is this going to be another challenge we have to face?’” McKay said. “No, we need to get back to what we’re really great at.” In the months that followed, McKay met with leadership across BioWare and EA and ultimately decided to reboot the next Dragon Age a second time, pivoting back to single-player."

The choice was obvious in many ways. Anthem had flopped while EA’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, a single-player action-adventure game, had sold more than 10 million copies, helping prove to the publisher that not all of its games needed to be online. BioWare games were popular because of their focus on character dialogue and player-driven narrative decisions, which did not mesh with multiplayer gaming. “Once we made that decision, a lot of things started to fall into place,” McKay said. In the years that followed, he would go on to consolidate more of the studio’s projects, shutting down an attempt to reboot Anthem and selling off the rights to the online game Star Wars: The Old Republic to a separate studio. The goal, McKay said, was “focus.” BioWare then spent the next three-and-a-half years developing what would become Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the fourth game in the franchise. Out this week, the game has received mostly positive reviews and so far topped charts, although EA has not yet revealed sales numbers. Some things went right during development. McKay said they “had the game end-to-end playable” earlier than any previous BioWare product, allowing them to spend extra time iterating. A reorganization at EA, which split the company into divisions called EA Games and EA Sports, allowed Dragon Age: The Veilguard to receive more support from internal teams that might otherwise be stretched thin, such as research and data insights groups. “That gave us an extra boost in terms of the support and focus from the company,” McKay said. But the development of Dragon Age: The Veilguard still faced plenty of obstacles. The pandemic led BioWare to shift to hiring remotely, which McKay said made for cultural challenges. The game slipped past its original target date, although McKay wouldn’t say how much extra time it needed. “I’m never going to call it a slip,” he said. And it went through significant scope changes over the course of development. Then, last summer, BioWare laid off 50 people, including veterans with decades of experience. McKay told me the reduction, which arrived during a period of widespread layoffs across the video-game industry, “was all about focus at that time.” “When you have a really large team, you’re always compelled to keep everybody busy all the time,” he said. “When you have a smaller team, you have the right people in the right roles at the right time, some incredible momentum is gained at that point.” The stakes are high for the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Fans and pundits have worried that a third failure in a row might have devastating results for BioWare. McKay wouldn’t comment on the specifics of what would make the game a hit in their eyes. But said he has felt supported by EA Entertainment & Technology President Laura Miele. The game is so important to BioWare’s future that the company brought in its second team, which has been incubating a new Mass Effect, to help out during the final stretch of development. The Mass Effect team played a major role in finishing and polishing Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Other companies across EA, such as its Motive studio in Montreal, also supported the game. Now, the company will look to see how players react to the next Dragon Age — and, McKay hopes, “bring BioWare back into the conversation as a top game studio.”

[source]

[dackychansworldofhoshino]

Hello!!

hi welcome to my blog, I draw and make art and post random stuff on here,

My name is allan and I use he/him pronouns. (Hope u can read it)

my ocs Viktor and neos ask blog (they are milkshake mansion ocs and mm belongs to @boiling-potato check em out)

@neosaskblog

my socials:

about me:

I am autistic

I love Ducks

I am a MINOR!! I am pan and trans :)

trabble in nonbinary lol

been drawing since 2020

hugeeeee nerd

fav color purple

my fandoms:

Pokemon!!!!

sk8

project sekai

stranger things

vocaloid

TMNT

umibe ni etranger

just anime in general

ranma 1/2

Zelda

marvel

transformers

And more

my Dni

Proshippers!

pedos!!!!

racist!!!!

homo/transphobes!!!

zoophiles!!!

Israel supporters and trump supporters etc...

and anyone who hates people for who they are!!

Blog rules/ whats ok

Don't use she/her for me

you can call me stuff like girlie and dude idc

no inappropriate comments

u can drop some compliments tho :)

no nsfw stuff, and don't say stuff or draw my ocs as such

shipping my ocs is ok, as long as they aren't like in a incest ship or a minor/ adult ship

you can draw fanart :3

you can make head canons

you can give me ideas

you can give nice feedback

no hate pls my second blog for rebloging or joining chains or sm

MY SONAAAAA

this is yuriko or yuri, they are my sona and use he/they pronouns. This is only my sona and not me tho.

SOME OF MY ART!!!

My sk8 ocs!

And the fanfic:

MY WORLD AND OCS: Hoshi

tw:old art :(

In the world of Hoshi, there exists a power called Hoshi, very few have that power and they can use it by accessing they're amulet and using this power, a long time ago the goddess of light passed away and got reincarnated as ponia, ponia who lived in a lab until she was five is the main character and together with yumeno and her best friend haruno, they attend a school wich is made to teach them about they're power. Idk gonna post the Hoshi legend and story someday.

ponia tochi/16 /she,her/ aroace (main charakter)

Haruno Maddaka/16/she,her/leabian (ponias best friend, main trio)

Yumeno/15/he,they/aroace(best friend with ponia, main trio)

Kirishi nakama/22/he,him/gay (has a subplot of his own and is ponias mentor)ignore his age on the pic its old

Yona/28/she,her/straight(ponias adoptive mom)

Nagisa and harumi/both she,her/both aroace/16 and 31(the one with glasses is ponias bio mim harumi and the other two is child and teen nagisa, ponias twin)

Iraka Tochi/he,him/10 and later 15/gay(ponias brother and this is him older)

Satou kimi/15 (irakas age)/he,him/gay (irakas bf)

Kohei Takahashi/he,him/22/gay(Kirishis bf)

Side Charakters and Charakters I don't really draw lol

Idk If u wanna know more ask me, this is my new intro and I maybe forgot sm, thats gonna be added later.

bye

[kbs-and-fds]

Yo, Welcome to my photography blog!

This is a photography project with a focus on older digital cameras sold before the mid 2000s. I've been working with these sorts of cameras since 2022, which grew from my interest in retro computers that I have had since 2020 or so. Here, I'll introduce you to my cameras, my computer rig, and try to convince you that this is a cool hobby.

General Q & A:

Whats in the name? - Kb refers to Kilobyte, all of the photos I take with these cameras only take up a little over 100 Kilobytes of digital storage per photo. FD refers to the physical media the photos are stored in, currently one camera uses floppy disks (FD), the other two use compact flash (CF) and smart media (SM) cards. unfortunately, their shortened forms do not rhyme and so they do not matter.

What can I expect from this blog? - amateur photography using old cameras, I guess. I'll say some nonsense below each photo but you're free to ignore it. I don't plan on reblogging anything here, so don't expect that. I am the star of this blog. me me me. I tend towards finding weird buildings/architecture, "liminal spaces", sunsets, and generally trying to see how well I can make a photo look like a blender render in a Kane pixels video. don't expect any consistency, though. the medium will remain the same but the vibes will absolutely fluctuate with my mood. I'll try and tag things correctly if it's off putting.

Are you a cool person? - I tend to be! I don't want this place to be alienating for anybody but assholes who don't deserve to see the stuff I do. being a tumblr blog, I follow a lot of the standard stuff. jerks are not welcome and I'm not gonna give you the pleasure of an argument if you do turn your head round these parts.

who are you? - trans pan girl. takes pictures. listens to Femtanyl. much unlike Peter Parker.

My Cameras

Mavica FD-7

released in 1997, this was the second of Sony's "Digital Mavica" line of cameras. it records photos of around 50Kbs in size to a standard 3 1/2" floppy disk. it has some standard features like a manual focus wheel, 10x optical zoom, and exposure control. I haven't found a strict source but I believe this camera is less than one megapixel. I actually have a few different Mavica cameras (a fd-71/75/83/85/87 and a cd-1000) but they aren't different from the fd-7 enough to justify being used often. I'll make note on individual posts if I use 'em at all.

Kodak DC220

released in 1999, with a quality of exactly one megapixel the DC 220 is a weird little thing. it has custom software, connects to a computer via com ports with a transfer speed of ~11,000 bit/s. (roughly 30-60 seconds per photo in my experience) you can add custom text to your photos in the cameras built in software, and attach custom audio to each photo. it is a pain in the butt to get working, but it's quirks make it worth the frustration.

Olympus E-10

made in 2000 with a quality of a whopping four megapixels, the Olympus E-10 is the newest addition to my collection, and possibly the nicest camera I'll ever own. it's a fixed lens DSLR camera capable of 4x zoom, you can easily adjust the aperture and exposure on the fly, it's photos tend to be a whole 100kb in size (1/10th of a megabyte!) and to be entirely honest I have no idea how to use it. but I will eventually!

My Computer

I try to use all era-appropriate tech to transfer photos and do any edits, this is the computer I do all that processing on! its a Dell Optiplex gx1- the daddy of pretty much any computer used in public schools (Chromebooks don't count) It's got a Pentium 3 CPU clocking at 500MHz, 512mb ram, running windows ME. it has all the original Kodak DC220 software installed, and I can't really access the Kodak's photos any other way. I've also got a few other weird bits attached to it -an HP sketch pro cad tablet and an external data cartridge SCSI device. both work, but I don't really bother to use them, they just look neat.

that's about it. have a good one! thanks for reading this all, if you did.

[will80sbyers]

Do you still have the list of movies that inspired ST4? I had a picture of it but I lost it and I haven't been able to find it since. Please and thank you in advance.

Yep!

Long post warning lol

300

2001: A Space Odyssey

47 Meters Down: Uncaged

12 Monkeys

28 Days Later

13th Warrior

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

Altered States

Amelie

American Sniper

Analyze This

Annihilation

Aristocats

Armageddon

Assassins Creed

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Arrival

Almost Famous

Batman Begins

Batman V. Superman

Basket Case

Battle at Big Rock

Beauty and the Beast

Beetlejuice

Behind Enemy Lines

Beverly Hills Cop

Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey

Billy Madison

Black Cauldron

Black Swan

Boondock Saints

Borat

Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Burn After Reading

Broken Arrow

Blade Runner

C.H.U.D

Con Air

Cast Away

Congo

Constantine

Children of Men

Cabin in the Woods

Crank

Casablanca

Carrie

Crimson Tide

Clueless

Dukes of Hazzard

Don’t Breathe

Death to Smoochy

Doom

Dark Knight

Dogma

Deep Blue Sea

Dreamcatcher

Drop Dead Fred

Die Hard

Die Hard 2

Die Hard 3

Don’s Plum

Dances with Wolves

Dumb and Dumber

Edward Scissorhands

Enter the Void

Ex Machina

Event Horizon

Emma (2020)

Forrest Gump

Fargo

Fisher King

Full Metal Jacket

Ferris Bueller

Fallen

Fugitive

Ghost

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Ghostbusters

Good Fellas

Girl Interrupted

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Get Out

Good Will Hunting

Hackers

High Fidelity

Hellraiser 1

Hellraiser 2

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Hidden

High School Musical

Hurt Locker

Heat

Hunger Games

Highlander

Hell or High Water

Home Alone

I am Legend

It’s a Wonderful Life

In Cold Blood

Inception

I am a Fugitive from Chain Gang

Inside Out

Island of Doctor Moreau

It Follows

Interview with a Vampire

Inner Space

Into the Spiderverse

Independence Day

Jupiter Ascending

John Carter of Mars

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

James Bond (All Movies)

Julie

Karate Kid

Knives Out

Kingsmen

Little Miss Sunshine

Labyrinth

Long Kiss Goodnight

Lost Boys

Leon: The Professional

Let the Right One In

Little Women (1994)

Mad Max: Fury Road

Magnolia

Men in Black

Mimic

Matrix

Misery

My Cousin Vinny

Mystic River

Minority Report

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Neverending Story

Never Been Kissed

No Country for Old Men

Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

North by Northwest

Open Water

Orange County

Oceans 8

Oceans 11

Oceans 12

One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Ordinary People

Paddington 2

Platoon

Pulp Fiction

Papillon

Pan’s Labyrinth

Pineapple Express

Peter Pan

Princess Bride

Paradise Lost

Primal Fear

Prisoners

Peter Jackson’s King Kong

Reservoir Dogs

Ravenous

Rushmore

Road Warrior

Rogue One

Reality Bites

Raider of the Lost Ark

Red Dragon

Robocop

Shooter

Sky High

Swingers

Sword in the Stone

Step Up 2

Spy Kids

Saving Private Ryan

Shape of Water

Swept Away

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

Superbad

Society

Swordfish

Stoker

Splice

Silence of the Lambs

Source Code

Sicario

Se7en

Starship Troopers

Scrooged

Splash

Silver Bullet

Speed

The Visit

The Italian Job

The Mask of Zorro

True Lies

The Blair Witch Project

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Tangled

The Craft

The Guest

The Devil’s Advocate

The Graduate

The Prestige

The Rock

Titanic

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The Fly

Tombstone

The Mummy

The Guardian

The Goofy Movie

The Peanut Butter Solution

Toy Story 4

The Ring

The Crazies

The Mist

The Revenant

The Perfect Storm

The Shining

Terminator 2

The Truman Show

Temple of Doom

The Cell

To Kill a Mockingbird

Timeline

The Good Son

The Orphan

The Birdcage

The Green Mile

The Raid

The Cider House Rules

The Lighthouse

The Book of Henry

The A-Team

The Crow

The Terminal

Thor Ragnarok

Twister

The Descent

The Birds

Total Recall

The Natural

The Fifth Element

True Romance

Terminator: Dark Fate

The Hobbit Trilogy

Unforgiven

Unbreakable

Unleashed

Very Bad Things

Wayne’s World

What Women Want

War Dogs

Wedding Crashers

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape

Welcome to the Dollhouse

Welcome to Marwen

Wet Hot American Summer

What Lies Beneath

What Dreams May Come

War Games

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Weird Science

Willow

Wizard of Oz

Wanted

Young Sherlock Holmes

You’ve Got Mail

Zodiac

Zoolander

[superpineappleenthusiast]

an incomplete timeline of the marauders fandom

1999 - Prisoner of Azkaban is released - Wolfstar is born

2003 - Order of the Phoenix is released - WOLFSTAR

The case for R/S - an essay analysing all of Remus and Sirius' canon interactions and making the argument that they're canonically together

2004 - The Shoebox Project - wolfstar centric marauders era fanfic - Jily is popularised

(note: until this point wolfstar fics had mostly been set during the Harry Potter books timeline, with Sirius and Remus as adults)

2005 - Half Blood Prince is released - canon Remadora and the birth of bi Remus

2009 - The Life and Times - popular marauders era Jily fic

2010 - 2012 - the OG fancasts are popularised (Ben Barnes, Andrew Garfield, Aaron Taylor Johnson, etc)

2015 - An article about the Potter family reveals Euphemia and Fleamont Potter as James' parents (not Charlus and Dorea as was previously assumed)

2017 - All the Young Dudes - long marauders era fic in Remus' pov - Lesbian Marlene is popularised (which also marks the downfall of Blackinnon and the rise of Dorlene) and sarcastic Remus (influenced by his atyd characterization as an orphan. he's not always as hard/mean as he is in atyd, but it is a huge difference from the nerdy/shy Remus that was widely accepted before)

2019 - Welsh Remus becomes a thing (honestly I have no idea where that came from)

2020 - 2021 - All the Young Dudes is blows up on tiktok - Desi James is popularised - Peter also starts playing a bigger role in stories with an actual personality

2022 - Zeppazariel's fics and Choices - Jegulus focused fics, which led to Marylily, the Slitherskittles (and Rosekiller), and bi/pan James

other later marauder's fanon that popped up in the last five years

70s pop culture (music, smoking, fashion, etc.)

generally more diverse and socially aware characters (poc Mary and Dorcas, plus sized Lily, feminism, everyones queer and accepting) that tend to move away from their canon characterisations (James and Sirius were not bullies, but slightly immature pranksters. James is the Mom Friend and Sirius just has trauma. The technically death eater Slytherins aren't actually evil and blood supremacist , only affectionately mean and morally gray.)

note: personally I like what the fandom and characters have evolved into, however it has been criticised (especially by older fans) for being completely canon divergent, the characters being essentially OCs, and the 'glorification' and 'babygirlification' of bad people (I should also add that often times people who take this stance are often avid Snape fans/defenders)

feel free to add on to anything that I missed

[disneytva]

"An Almost Christmas Story" New Disney Television Animation Animated Holiday Stop-Motion Short Directed By David Lowery And Produced By Academy Award-Winner Alfonso Cuarón, Coming To Disney+ This November.

Disney Branded Television announced a new Disney Television Animation animated stop-motion short film “An Almost Christmas Story” slated for a November release date on Disney+.

The musical short produced by Disney Branded Television, Disney Television Animation and Cuarón’s Esperanto Filmoj, in association with Titmouse and Maere Studios, and with animation services by 88 Pictures. "An Almost Christmas Story" is the first original short from Disney Television Animation since "Hamburger High" (2016). It joins Disney TVA's roster of stop-motion projects ("Mickey Mouse and the Magical Snowy Holiday", "Mickey Saves Christmas", "Mickey And Friends: Trick or Treats", Mickey's Christmas Tales" and "Rhona Who Lives By The River")

The celebrated creative team includes David Lowery (director, screenplay and producer), Cuarón (producer and story), Gabriela Rodríguez (producer), Jack Thorne (story and screenplay), Nicholas Ashe Bateman (creative designer) and Daniel Hart (composer).

 "An Almost Christmas Story" follows Moon, a curious young owl who unexpectedly finds himself stuck in a Christmas tree destined for Rockefeller Plaza. In his attempts to escape the bustling city, Moon befriends a lost young girl named Luna. Together, they embark on a heartwarming adventure, discovering the magic of the holiday season and forming an unlikely bond as they journey back home to their parents. “An Almost Christmas Story” is inspired by the true events of a tiny owl, Rocky - short for Rockefeller, found and rescued from the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in 2020.

An Almost Christmas Story features the voice talents of Cary Christopher (FX "American Horror Story") as Moon, newcomer Estella Madrigal as “Luna,” Jim Gaffigan (Pixar Animation Studios "Luca") as “Papa Owl, Mamoudou Athie (Pixar Animation Studios "Elemental") as Pelly, Alex Ross Perry (Walt Disney Studios "Christopher Robin") as Dave The Dog, Gianna Joseph ("Star Trek Into Darkness") as Peaky, Phil Rosenthal ("Everybody Loves Raymond") as Punt, Natasha Lyonne (Cartoon Network Studios "Steven Universe" franchise) as Pat and John C. Reilly (Walt Disney Animation Studios "Wreck It Ralph" franchise) as The Folk Singer.

An Almost Christmas Story features a live orchestra score by Daniel Hart (Walt Disney Studios "Peter Pan & Wendy"), the short features 2 brand new original songs by John C. Reilly.

An original album featuring the songs and score of the short by Walt Disney Records will release on November 2024.

[pers-books]

Lesbians in Space: The Anthology (Where No Man Has Gone Before)

Booktopia 2024 📚#Fantasy#Indie#Sci-Fi

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You've asked for it, so Space Wizard provides. Here is the long-anticipated Lesbians In Space Anthology!

Space Wizard Science Fantasy!

Space Wizard Science Fantasy is a queer science fiction and fantasy indie publishing company which opened its doors in 2021 to publishing outside authors. - In 2022, the Space Wizard Science Fantasy Year 1 campaign raised nearly $18,000 to pay authors top rates, create amazing book covers, fund an audiobook recording, and publish 12 books between June 2022 and June 2023. - In 2023, Year 2 raised over $18,000 for 12 more books released from June 2023 to June 2024 with more excellent covers, custom illustrations, and pro rates for our anthology writers! This year we added exclusive collector's hardbacks! - In 2024, Year 3 just concluded in July with another $17,250 raised for for 13 books, one omnibus, and 2 TTRPGs!

We're back again this September for one more anthology, this time with a bunch of incredible authors participating in Booktopia. Lesbians in Space has a stellar (ha!) lineup of writers already on board, including (in order of confirmation):

- Seanan McGuire, multiple Hugo Award-winning author of the Wayward Children series, the October Daye series, and the Incryptid series!

- Travis Baldree, author of Legends and Lattes, shortlisted for the Hugo Award for best novel in 2023, as well as exceptional audiobook narrator!

- Emma Newman, Hugo Award-winning podcaster and author of the Planetfall series, which was shortlisted for the Best Series Hugo Award in 2020!

- Mary Robinette Kowal. Hugo Award-winner Mary Robinette Kowal has written: The Spare Man, The Glamourist Histories series, Ghost Talkers, the Lady Astronaut Universe, and many short stories.

Also see our "writers" section below for our current roster, and for how you can submit your story!

Lesbians in Space: Where No Man Has Gone Before

Peanut butter and chocolate. Cheese and wine. Sex and rock n’ roll. History is full of great pairings.

Get ready for the next great one: Lesbians and Space! Join a host of intrepid explorers heading to the outer reaches of the galaxy, exploring planets, space stations, strange new worlds and interesting aliens. Focusing on lesbian / sapphic protagonists, this anthology will contain works from numerous established, award-winning, and lesfic authors, and a few new faces as well.

We have an amazing cover already created by Serene Chia, and we have a bunch of great addons and gifts for you as well! This anthology is going to be packed with fully-inclusive, sapphic stories about space, space opera, science fiction, exploration, adventure, and of course, romance. The stories will have representation of all sorts, including cis, trans, bi, sapphic, non-binary, ace, aro, and many other types. There's lots of room for Lesbians in Space!

We have our invited group of writers already working on stories for the anthology, but we're opening up to any and all submissions as well! So if you're a writer, polish off your best story about Lesbians in Space, and send it in!

Are you a writer? Do you like Lesbians in Space? We will be holding juried selections for more stories for the Lesbians in Space anthology. To enter, simply polish off your writing skills and craft a story of around 2000-4500 words, but definitely not over 6000.

This anthology will focus on lesbian relationships of all types, including cis, bi/pan, ace, non-binary, intersex, trans, and others that fall under the ‘sapphic’ banner as long as the primary pairing is lesbian. Give us your best story featuring sapphic protagonists at least partially located in space. This could be on a spaceship, with magic, on a planet or asteroid, in another dimension or realm, or any other connected idea. Surprise us!

Stories will be juried and final selections will be made (hopefully) by end of January 2025. Projected publish date is June 2025. Selected authors will be compensated at semi-pro rates or higher. Send your completed story in by midnight EST, December 31st, 2024 using the instructions at https://www.spacewizardsciencefantasy.com/submissions We are hoping to publish Lesbians in Space around June 2025.

-- I've just backed this as it looks absolutely fabulous!

[covid-safer-hotties]

Follow the link to listen to the full public radio segment!

By Micah Yason

In the 1980s HIV/AIDs epidemic, many American physicians and nurses refused to treat patients. Filipino and Filipino American nurses filled the gaps.

They’ve stepped up since then, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. While Filipinos only made up 4% of all registered nurses in the U.S. in 2020, they made up more than 30% of all nurse deaths from COVID.

A new documentary called Nurse Unseen shines a light on their contributions and sacrifices during a time of uncertainty, isolation and rising anti-Asian racism and violence.

Reset sits down with the filmmakers to learn more about the project.

GUESTS: Michele Josue, Emmy-award winning filmmaker and director of Nurse Unseen

Carlo Velayo, Film Independent Spirit Award-nominated producer and producer of Nurse Unseen

[milfjagger]

halloween recs 2024 🎃

more halloween/horror recs for you all!!! these are all movies that meet at least two (if not all) of my "halloween movie" criteria, which are as follows:

set in autumn or october specifically

features halloween decorations, or typical halloween activities such as pumpkin carving, trick or treating etc

features elements of the supernatural, especially typical "halloween" characters like ghosts, witches and vampires

gothic, scary, spooky or creepy

comedic or campy

not all of these are horror; not all of the "horror" movies are scary in any quantifiable way. movies that (i think) are suitable for people who have a fairly low horror tolerance will be marked with an asterisk (*). movies that are (generally regarded as) not scary at all will be marked with a double asterisk (**). ENJOY!!!

🎃 ghosts & haunted(?) houses 🎃 oddity (2024) cobweb (2023) the black phone (2021) terrified (2017) crimson peak (2015) lake mungo (2008) the orphanage (2007) the devil's backbone (2001)* the others (2001) ghostwatch (1992) candyman (1992) lost hearts (1973) the haunting (1963) the innocents (1961)

🎃 curses, witches & demons 🎃 longlegs (2024) the first omen (2024) late night with the devil (2023) talk to me (2022) smile (2021) & smile 2 (2024) the dark and the wicked (2020) halloween party (2019)* pyewacket (2017) the devil's candy (2015) the witch (2015) the blackcoat's daughter (2015) the babadook (2014) sinister (2012) the house of the devil (2009) wake wood (2009) the ring (2002) the blair witch project (1999) ringu (1998) the craft (1996)* the serpent and the rainbow (1988) hellraiser (1987) suspiria (1977) the omen (1976) the exorcist (1973) & the exorcist iii (1990) the blood on satan's claw (1971) the devil rides out (1968)* black sunday (1960) night of the demon (1957)*

🎃 vampires, werewolves, zombies & monsters 🎃 lisa frankenstein (2024)* evil dead rise (2023) the ritual (2017) evil dead (2013) dog soldiers (2001) ginger snaps (2000) & ginger snaps 2: unleashed (2004) bram stoker's dracula (1992) it (1990) pet sematary (1989) pumpkinhead (1988) the lost boys (1987)* fright night (1985) re-animator (1985) & bride of re-animator (1990) gremlins (1984)* the howling (1981) an american werewolf in london (1981) evil dead movies (1981-1992) dracula (1958)* nosferatu (1922)*

🎃 dark fantasy 🎃 gretel & hansel (2020) the hallow (2015) red riding hood (2011)* coraline (2009)* pan's labyrinth (2006)* the spiderwick chronicles (2008)** sleepy hollow (1999)* edward scissorhands (1990)** the juniper tree (1990)* the witches (1990)* labyrinth (1986)** the company of wolves (1984) something wicked this way comes (1983)*

🎃 spooky anthologies 🎃 v/h/s 99 (2022) v/h/s 94 (2021) the mortuary collection (2019) tales of halloween (2015) trick 'r' treat (2007) creepshow (1982) & creepshow 2 (1987) the monster club (1981)* black sabbath (1963)

🎃 non-horror & barely-horror 🎃 the munsters (2022)** frankenweenie (2012)** corpse bride (2005)** scooby-doo (2002)** & scooby-doo 2: monsters unleashed (2004)** practical magic (1998)** halloweentown (1998)** casper (1995)** hocus pocus (1993)** the nightmare before christmas (1993)** the halloween tree (1993)** death becomes her (1992)** ernest scared stupid (1991)* the addams family (1991)** & addams family values (1993)** beetlejuice (1988)* the witches of eastwick (1987)* the halloween that almost wasn't (1979)** kenny & company (1976)** the paul lynde halloween special (1976)** the rocky horror picture show (1975)** the adventures of ichabod and mr toad (1949)** bud abbott and lou costello meet frankenstein (1948)** betty boop's hallowe'en party (1933)**

🎃 wacky, weird & so-bad-it's-good 🎃 NB: i cannot vouch for the quality of these movies. actually some of them are borderline unwatchable but i did personally enjoy them. real halloweeners will understand malignant (2021) the barn (2016)* 31 (2016) deathgasm (2015) the dog who saved halloween (2011)** dead silence (2007) the covenant (2006)* house of 1000 corpses (2003) casper meets wendy (1998)** the people under the stairs (1991) troll 2 (1990)** warlock (1989)* hack-o-lantern (1988)* killer klowns from outer space (1988)* ghost fever (1987)** trick or treat (1986)* the worst witch (1986)** ghoulies (1984)* halloween iii: season of the witch (1982) witch's night out (1978)**

[dessertgeek]

The Mari Lwyd Twitter saga (2020 - part three)

This is part of my efforts to transcribe @seananmcguire's holiday Mari Lwyd Twitter threads. The hashtag for now is #Mari Lwyd Project, the first post is here, the thread's source is here.

(Many thanks to @dor-min on finding and linking this one!)

There are a couple from this year that are short, and even single replies that Seanan likely didn't have time to reply to. So this is their collection! Authors will be linked in their comments as best I can.

CW for food, just in case.

Lorcan Murphy (Twitter): Alas were I only a mutual, Mari Lwyd I'd offer rhymes crucial. We'd barter o'er offering asked unpredictable Afore presenting a demanded varietal victual The dead from the living must bide dividual But this rhyme for the horse is purely volitional.

Seanan: Your rhyming's exquisite, So clean and refined. I'll grant you a visit, To seek cheese with rind, Or cheese that's been softened, Or processed or plain... When Mari Lwyd's summoned, She sings her refrain.

Cheese or beer! Cheese or beer! I know that you have it here!

Lorcan: Alas all my beer has been spilt in a pan And as unlikely it seems, my cheese melted and ran My flour and yeast in the oven to bake So I'm terrible short of scran you can take Bide if you can, I'll no make it a habit and I'll offer a pretzel and Welsh-German rabbit

---

Cassandra Khaw (Carrd / Twitter): A single wedge of manchego I do possess, Not a wedge nor a morsel more than that, If I was someone who had cheese in excess, I'd offer them to you, and have all your desires.

But lo, you bony equine, Such is all I can give: This lonely cheese of mine, I offer in tithe.

Seanan: To give when there's plenty Is glorious kind: But it's kinder by far When you've little but rind.

I am grateful to you, On this shortest of days, For your holiday spirit And generous ways.

---

The singles!

(I'm posting peoples' handles as I see them, will do my best here. If someone rhymed or made poetry and I couldn't find a 'do not repost' on their profile, I included it.)

John & Bucky: I’m just here to watch A skeletal horse seeking Cheese and wine through rhyme

Stephanie Annand: Alas! For the lack! Of cheese in my home; Will you accept yogurt As onward you roam?

Eleri: I have some ok parm, and a generic swiss A really good chevre would not go amiss This stupid pandemic has cut into my cheese-buying I'm afraid sharing these cheeses, the dead horse would send me flying.

Paige Wolf: Cheese and spiced wine You’ll definitely find; In my kitchen, I’ll fill up your cup!

Come in please, my friend! Time we will spend, In drinking and singing, Bottoms up!

warcabbit: Wassail, wassail? I give you mulled ale and a nice nutty cheese to boot.

It is the season Be kind without reason And generous with gifts and loot.

Stephanie Caitlyn: I do not have cheese, I only have curry, For when I did leave, It was in quite a hurry.

Into the headlights I peer like a deer, But with you I gladly will share my paneer.

Starry_Marie: I know there are many With rhymes that are better But one thing I do have - A large chunk of cheddar

@Chimaera.bsky.social: Oh Mare, at thy feet I lay Some Caveman Blue and olives today. Cambezola roasted with garlic cloves, Squeezed upon fine grilled bread loaves. A bit of Brie to melt your heart, A nutty Parm to fuel your start, Melted Gruyère to dip things in, & Queso fresco (you're looking thin)

Cake and Arsenic: Oh mari lywd, please don't feel down, With your big boney head, in your white cotton shroud, For you'll find that my larder is stocked full of cheese, And you're welcome to come and eat all that you please.

JLH: (not a mutual, but it seems fun and kinda inspired me) Dread equine I hear your call! And in my larder is a prize, A piece of asiago for your skeletal maw Please accept my gift and silence your cries.

[filmnoirsbian]

Can you share some of your favorite and least favorite horror movies?

Some of my favorites are Scream 1996, Dark Water 2002, The Crow, Jennifer's Body, Rec, Se7en, Saw, Bodies Bodies Bodies, Zombieland, Night of the Living Dead, Get Out, The Stepford Wives 1975, 28 Days Later, The Silence of the Lambs, Carrie 1976, American Psycho, the Fear Street trilogy, Zombieland, Malignant, Us, Rosemary's Baby 1968, Poltergeist, Stoker, Bones and All, Snakes on a Plane, Zombeavers, Tremors, Kairo, The Thing 1982, Vamp, Alien, Return of the Living Dead, Practical Magic, Hocus Pocus, Cabin in the Woods, El Orfanato, Fright Night 2011, The Craft, Ginger Snaps, Pan's Labyrinth, Blade, Alien vs Predator, You're Next, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Signs, Chronicle, Mandy, The Devil's Backbone, Planet Terror, Train to Busan, Nope, The Descent, The Doom Generation, Prey, Midsommar, The Host 2006, The Eye 2002, Suspiria 1977 and 2019, The Invisible Man 1933 and 2020, A Nightmare on Elm Street 1984, Resident Evil 2002, Ready or Not, Trick r Treat, Delicatessen, The Blair Witch Project, Thirst 2009, Thirst 2019, Friday the 13th 1980, The People Under the Stairs, The Moth Diaries, Final Destination, Hereditary, The Village, Bride of Chucky, A Quiet Place, Candyman 1992 and 2021, Censor, Dead Snow, The Velocipastor, 8 Legged Freaks, Barbarian, M3gan, Zombie Tidal Wave, Pumpkinhead, Detention 2011, Insidious, The Fog 1980, Donnie Darko, Annabelle: Creations, The Blob 1988, It 2017, Sinister, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Fresh, and Black Christmas 1974

Some I dislike are The Hills Have Eyes franchise, Cabin Fever 2002, the Hostel franchise, Martyrs, My Bloody Valentine 2009, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2014, Rob Zombie's Halloween movies, Terrifier, Thankskilling, The Boy, Prom Night 2008, Dawn of the Dead 2004, Lycan Colony, Splice, One Missed Call 2008, Detention 2010, The Fog 2005, The Roommate, The Bye Bye Man, Wish Upon, Truth or Dare, Creepshow 2, Prometheus 2012, Annabelle 2014, The Purge, The Conjuring movies

I am extremely lenient with horror movies tbh for me to outright dislike one it essentially has to either bore me or feature unnecessary gratuitous rape/threats of rape--or be a bad remake.

[mischief-and-tea-by-the-sea]

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter to Star in ‘Waiting for Godot’ on Broadway

They played slacker buddies in three “Bill & Ted” films, and next year they plan to reunite for Beckett’s classic tragicomedy.

By Michael Paulson

Aug. 1, 2024

Call it Bill and Ted’s Existentialist Adventure.

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, the actors who incarnated a pair of slacker musicians for three “Bill & Ted” films, are planning to reunite for a Broadway revival of “Waiting for Godot.”

The production, planned for the fall of 2025, will be directed by Jamie Lloyd, one of the hottest directors of the moment, whose work is characterized by a spare aesthetic and an emphasis on psychological intensity.

Lloyd said that the project was Reeves’s idea, but that as soon as the actor approached him, “it was a no-brainer that this needed to be done.”

“Their instant chemistry and their shorthand and their friendship is going to be so valuable,” Lloyd said of Reeves and Winter in an interview. “This is a very deeply complex play, as we all know, but it’s also a very funny play, and they’re very witty people and their shared sense of humor in those movies and in real life is going to be very beneficial to the production.”

In “Godot,” Reeves will play Estragon and Winter will play Vladimir, who banter and bicker while waiting for a mysterious figure who never arrives. “Those characters take solace in their companionship as they stumble toward the void,” Lloyd said, adding, “that’s going to be the central thesis of the production, with Keanu and Alex’s own friendship.”

“Waiting for Godot,” by the Irish playwright Samuel Beckett, was first staged in French in 1953 and then in English in 1955. The play was first performed on Broadway in 1956, and has been revived there three times since, most recently in 2013 with Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart.

Reeves, the prolific film star of the “Matrix” and “John Wick” series, will be making his Broadway debut with “Godot.” He likes a challenge: In 1995, he played Hamlet in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Winter, who writes and directs in addition to acting, appeared on Broadway twice in the 1970s, when he was a teenager, in musical revivals of “The King and I” and “Peter Pan.”

The two first worked together in 1989 in “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.” A second film, “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey,” arrived in 1991, and a third, “Bill & Ted Face the Music,” in 2020.

Lloyd, based in London, has become a regular presence in New York. Last year he directed a revival of “A Doll’s House” starring Jessica Chastain, and this fall he will direct a revival of “Sunset Boulevard” starring Nicole Scherzinger.

The “Waiting for Godot” revival is being produced by Lloyd’s production company, as well as ATG Productions, Bad Robot Live (J.J. Abrams’s company) and Gavin Kalin Productions. ATG is a British theater company that has a long relationship with Lloyd and operates seven Broadway theaters; the production said that “Godot” would be staged in one of those ATG theaters.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/01/theater/keanu-reeves-broadway-godot.html?unlocked_article_code=1._k0.sgY5.jVlfdfEVMdVl&smid=url-share