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yesyourstalker · 11 months ago

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Part 3 I'm almost done I hope. I'm being honest I spent 3 hours cooking in 4 hours sleeping after

Warabi: so this is the store pretty big

Neta: Oh yeah, It's a pretty big place I'm going to need a lot of vendors and more artists to sell here. My main worry is that I lose my brand and my image , If we started out with underground bands, alternative music like metal and rock. If I start selling mainstream stuff I don't want to come off as a sellout

Warabi: I don't think that's going to happen. It's not like you're going to stop selling underground stuff it's not like you're going to stop supporting them either. You're just expanding your business to a broader audience the fact, you're worrying about your image and your brand just shows that you still care about your original customers.

Oshi: That's some great advice ink drop!

Warabi: mom!!! Uhhh what are you doing here?.... I thought you were on whale back island.... To get away from the snow

Oshi: we were planning on doing that until you're wonderful boss invited us to the party. I just couldn't miss that right shim?

Shimi: [eating] how much was the caterer here? These stuffed tentacles are good! Melts in the mouth.... This is the store? really big. You sure you have enough stuff to sell in here or are you going to stock 10 Rows of belts and jewelry to fill space?

Warabi: dad! That's rude!

Shimi: It's a genuine question. Do you have a layout plan or anything? What's the look you're trying to do

Neta:my original store kind of has a basement/ attic-like design, old vintage t-shirts, guitars, vinyl. someone's garage type feel.

Oshi: Oh so nostalgia... I like that

Shimi: I know a lot of people who are very good in interior design... [ eating] we just got our vacation home remodeled...... I can see if I can give you his number. Tell him the octavios sent you. They'll give you a discount.

Neta: thank you Mr. Octavio. I deeply appreciate this

Shimi: well that should count as a frosty fest gift cuz we didn't get you anything we didn't think we had to

Neta: oh That's good because you didn't have to do that. .

Warabi: Dad,.... That are really nice moment and then you had to ruin it with the last- what the fuck?

Oshi: ink drop language!

Warabi: I'm sorry just give me one second....

_______________________________________________

Candi: Candi!?!

Candi: *gasp* oh my Cod! Shut the hell up. Are you kidding me? What are you doing here?!! Ahhhhhh

Candi: ahhhhhh Oh my god it's been so long!! girl What are you up to?

Candi: Oh you know. Just trying to survive.

Candi: I hear that, I hear that I looove makeup!

Candi: stop lying. I just smeared this shit on at the last minute hehehe you know I have no sense of time.

Mizole: I didn't know you knew each other. How do you know candi?

Candi: That's really none of your business

Candi: I don't have to tell you everything about my personal life. Go find Ichiya or something. Bye. Go.. cod that guy

Candi: Right.... He drives me out the wall everyday.

Candi: you know they dated?

Candi: hahaha Oh my Cod you have to tell me.... Oh crap...no no no ... I have to go. I'll be right back I promise. Just give me one sec girlie

_______________________________________________

Ikkan: so I yeah Mike Murrays actually played the sax around-

Baja: around 1989! But when Blue Ocean breeze came out-

Tao: He switched to a clarinet! It was like his staple instrument throughout the '90s.

Baja: He actually went through like five clarinets throughout those years. I think he's probably one of the most popular non-pop or rock idles out there.. but he's been gone for like 8 years and it somehow we still all know him

Ikkan: he Pioneered jazz..

Tao: oh yeah I'm a big fan of their later works it really influenced the ska genre

Ikkan: you see I used to dislike his later work when I saw The influencer had on other genre I took another like listen to it. It's really good! It's like an organized mess

Baja: right?! It's chaotic but smooth. He actually went to jelly Port for a tour and met up with Sting time stingers back in 01 which I guess gave him more of an influence to the newer albums

Tao: It's a Shame he died before they could release the album with the stingers I know there's a demo out there they release but it's hard to find

Ikkan: I've been trying to find it there is a specific website and the URL is in octarian so I'm trying to get Neta to- hm .... I'm sorry will excuse me for a quick sec.

_______________________________________________

Mahi: why the fuck are you here?!

Taka: I was invited of course. I can't miss an opportunity to be around my fellow artist. Why are you here you have no talent.

Mahi: I'm here because Neta wants me here! unlike you! You think we forgot how you treated him!

Taka: *pffth*.... how I treated him. As if taking him out to dinner, giving him a gift and being at his beckon call when he felt "lonely". He was honestly really sad.... But he is a sad person....boy he was hot tho...heh ..was

Mahi: you want to take this outside

Warabi: Mahi hay! the table is all out of drinks let's go get some more.

Candi: yeah let's just go to corner store. Their self checkout is still open let's just get some more wine and spritzer I am sober so I can drive so let's go. Let's go now. Mahi.

Mahi: [staring down taka]

Ikkan: mahi please don't ruin this event by a fight. Neta will never forgive you if you do.... Listen, go with Candi and Warabi and I'll handle this...

Mahi:...... Fine. .... I'll wait until the party ends

Ikkan: I'll get the bouncer.. kick them out before Neta - hi babe.

Neta: what happened? Why did everyone rush over here

Ikkan: Hi uhhh You're three employees are just going out to get some more refreshments they just didn't know how to

Neta: We have more in the back of my car they don't have to go out and......... Oh I see.....hey Taka......... I forgot I invited high tide

Taka: I was good to see you too. You look............ Uh

Neta:.............

Taka: I guess you stuck to the normal look huh... I like the glasses.....heheh..you look great heheheh . Man you let yourself go holy shit

Ikkan:ok that's it SECURITY!

Neta:.............. .. I'm going to get some air

Ikkan: I'll come with you.

_______________________________________________

Mahi and @fish-at-fish-fish-resort and gonna beat the shit out of taka after the party

#of course I was going to make shit sad you know me #Candi and Candi know each other from highschool #Ichiya and mizole enemies to friends to friends with benefits to lovers back to enemies in one year #Warabi's parents are insufferable but I love them #taka being a terrible person as always he's lucky every one can to get mhai because he would be drowning in the punch bowl #ikkan moment when you're a metal head #but your special interest is jazz #neta

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browngonzo888 · 1 year ago

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Small rant about fandom

So seeing a lot of “I miss my quiet fandom” from the Spiderman 2099 fans. Like yeah I geddit, got a lot of Gen A kids with their TikTok’s and their annoying Ciara track edits an such with a version of Miguel they don’t recognize. And also arguments about race and skintone.

think that’s bad?

Mortal Kombat fandom…. FULL of racism. Sexism. Homophobia. Transphobia. Deathwishes. Netherrealm Studios retconning the characters to hell because they handed the script to a guy who’s NEVER had any experience with video games (when it comes to ick, P Daniels got nothing on Dominic Cianciolo) Redesigns not able to decide who they wanna pander to. A lot of this crap because they were trying to stay relevant to an old crowd from the 90s as well as cater to a newer crowd, but there was a severe clash because the old crowd knew a simpler arcade game while the newer fans wanted FGC level BS. MK11 was the biggest fandom nightmare. Seriously atsv is MILD, and seems to try to go in the right direction by being rich with additional culturally specific art and design. MK did something like that but then also did some weird crap with it and not everyone was happy and I still haven’t exactly pinpointed just what that was! They literally changed up a skin because it was Confederate-inspired.

A mess! I got into the shittiest arguments. Never wanna go back to that ever again as long as a live, no matter how good or ambivalent my intentions are.

So I kinda left it alone

Anyway. Before atsv I went back to Psychonauts. Played it as a teen, then part 2 came out in my 30s. Of course they did small things that catered to new players. Some of the stuff the newer fans do are not always easy to relate to or understand (like the Miguel tiktok edits), but I really don’t mind it at all. I reached out to them in my own way by liking and reblogging their work and they checked me back in kind and some I chat with on a regular basis. What I’m tryna say here is that there’s always gonna be old fans and new fans. Depending on the way creators handle their audience can heavily effect the way their fandom gets along. NRS dropped the molten hot ball by being a hostile network that occasionally even fought with their own fans. Doublefine Studios is hella-casual and their fandom turned out that way too.

In real time I’m sorta watching where Sony is going with this fandom. They seem to be diverse-conscious yet also trying to ignore Miguel’s origin comic shamefully? Idk i think it fits him anyway, no matter what he looks like. Oof and I’ve seen the whole “why he white” rhetoric in Miguel fanart over at Pinterest and gosh I don’t know if I can spare to care anymore because you couldn’t swing a controller without running into that with MK art, when clearly a LOAD of their characters were default Caucasian-looking in the 90s. It’s a reoccurring design that has plenty of room to make changes with imo, but it’s tiresome to gatekeep.

I think if people are just a bit patient with the newer fans and not start a war, things will be fine and the Spiderman 2099 fandom will go back to being peaceful. I’m a newer fan. I don’t like the weird edits. I purchased the first two issues of the 90s comic to fully understand Miguel’s origin, the very comic with the cover that atsv used in his intro. It’s nice to collect something else other than DC Lobo. I think if you feel creeped out, pressured, or even downright angry at new fans, just ignore them. Ignore me. It’s possible to curate your own experience online. Except Twitter. Fuck that place in the A, I hate it. I’d join a hateocracy against the destruction of Twitter if I could. And if you a new fan, idk just have fun and don’t be mean to the old fans because they the reason 2099 came back around despite his story getting shelved several times.

Anyway, ramble over. I wanted to get a lot of that off my mind.

#psychonauts #spiderman 2099 #NRS #mortal kombat #fandom #in fighting #racism #transphobia #homophobia #sexism

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eduardomeneses · 2 years ago

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Radiohead

I don’t know why it took me so long to get here. But Radiohead.

I’m a believer. The Radiohead industrial complex has won again.

I think I finally get why people talk about the band the way they do. Their sound is so diverse… you know drawing from so many different genres and mashing into joints that feel almost spiritual.

The lore surrounding Radiohead makes them sound otherworldly, and after spending some time with the music, looking at videos, and other peoples thoughts about the group, I really do believe all the Radiohead mythos. I’ve only spent time with 3 of the 9 albums, but I really love these 3 so far. Each for different reasons, but they all speak to the many shapes Radiohead comes in and to the many audiences they can cater to.

The three albums that I’m cycling through are The Bends, Kid A, and In Rainbows. In Rainbows is what got me in… I feel it’s the record that most sounds like it’s meant to be played in a Stadium (not that they aren’t always playing to insanely large crowds)… it\s a record that feels very easy to like and get into. Big music with clear sounds that are catchy and yet super diverse…Maybe it’s also just me thinking about the time it was was released. I think of other records of that era like Graduation, Tha Carter 3, Viva La Vida, Favourite Worst Nightmare… I dunno maybe it’s a stretch.

The Bends was where I went next after catching wind of the album art on the record… I thought the photo of the crash test dummy through a tv was captivating and made me want to check out the music that lived behind that image. I wasn’t disappointed. The music on The Bends was nostalgic. Again, it’s a record that feels like a product of its time, and fit a lot of the things my murky memory associates with the late 90’s, despite only being a kid when it was released. It’s punchy, angsty, super dissatisfied with everything and I can dig it.

I thought In Rainbows and The Bends were kinda similar, with the former being a much more mature approach to music making, so hearing Kid A flipped all of that on its head. The Optimistic sample on Frank Ocean’s nostalgia, ULTRA has sort of always lived in my heard, so finally hearing the full song made it all stick and realigned some of the ideas I had about music. The record is a little abstract, like a cyber spiritual in the sounds and the way verses are just one or two lines repeated over and over. I’d easily take track 3 to replace the Star Spangled Banner.

To close, it was really such a good feeling to hear all of this for the first time in an earnest way, especially now that I’m a fully fledged adult with thoughts and opinions. It’s also incredible to here these records now and kinda see how they laid some of the groundwork for some of the other music I listen to currently. They’ve been doing this for a long time, I’m just happy to be able to get even just a crumb of the sounds they’ve been able to assemble.

#music #radiohead #the bends #in rainbows #kid a

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clover-the-awesomest · 9 months ago

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I think that there’s a very soft line drawn in a sandpit when it comes to TV show ratings. Yes, when it comes to shows marketed towards kids under the age of say 8 or 10, those shows need to watch what they allow. Just like what the previous person said.

For example, let me mention a couple shows that rub people the wrong way when it comes to what they show.

The Owl House. Pretty simple to explain why I’m mentioning this. Disney refused to let this masterpiece go through a full three seasons because it didn’t fit the “Disney brand.” What that means is the show was depicting much more graphic material compared to their previous shows, and the target audience wasn’t meant for the kind of audience Disney Channel usually has. They were afraid their usual audience of pre-teens and 9-year-olds would end up watching a very dark and not fun episode of TOH and would not have a good time afterwards. It’s a pretty reasonable concern all things considered, but they have to be reminded then that they allowed this show to air. They gave Dana a chance, people really liked it, the pilot got good ratings, the show racked in a ton of good money, and the rating was very fair and accommodating.

Now, this is a pretty rare concern but it still exists, so I’m gonna mention it. Hazbin Hotel. Yeah. There are genuinely people out there who think this show is catered towards kids. I am dead serious. Hazbin Hotel, as we all know, is an animated show with a target audience of mid-teens and young adults. No measly 13+ rating here! And this is all made very obvious by the fact that the show isn’t on some big mainstream cable channel or on Disney+ or anything like that. Hazbin is on Amazon+, a streaming service filled with 18+ rated shows! I can understand the classic Christian mother complaints and all that, but there are other usually normal people out there who actually believe this show was made for kids! This is all due to the bright colors and warm atmosphere of the hotel and the characters, and the designs all feel like something straight out of a young and dumb animation studio or something. Kids are naturally drawn to bright colors and cool animation, but that’s literally the only two things that could hint at this thing being made for kids. Everything else is clearly showing that Hazbin Hotel is an adult show, and even the dumbest of Karens should and hopefully does know this.

And finally, after that huge block of text, we reach The Amazing Digital Circus! And just like Hazbin, TADC features fun, stretchy, expressive animation with bright and attractive colors. Not only that, but the world takes place in an old 3D circus video game from the late 90’s or early 2000’s, and the whole theme of the circus seems as though it is intentionally trying to draw in little kids. BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!! The show is gonna be available for free on YouTube. If that’s not a recipe for concerned parents complaining then I don’t know what is. But just like TOH, the rating clearly states that the target audience is 13+, and its reputation of being Murder Drones 2.0 immediately clues people in that this show is not made for young itty bitty babies. Hell, the fact that it’s written and conceptualized by Gooseworx should say all that and more!

So basically what I’m getting at is that shows made for little kids can show slightly dark things such as grief and change and themes that kids can experience on a daily basis, once something hits that 13+ mark they can basically go apeshit if the director allows it. And if you have a little kid under 13 years old who seems a bit too eager to explore the internet, take responsibility for that kid and check the rating of the shows they wanna watch. It’s the responsibility of not just the kid, but also the kid’s guardian or trusted older person to figure out what to watch. Just because something looks fun and happy and bright and colorful… Yeah. It’s probably not.

IN SHORT, BE CAREFUL ON THE INTERNET. THERE’S SOME REAL CRAZY SHIT DOWN HERE.

People know that the whole "don't portray [harmful action] because viewers might recreate it" thing is a rule for children's shows right? It's supposed to be shit like "don't show peppa pig playing with fire so we don't get sued if a kid watches it and burns their house down." Not like, fanfiction for adults.

#wordz #That was probably way too much lmao sorry about that

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abroadlifeactually · 1 month ago

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A Quest for Survival: Hunting for Friends

Friends are the single most important thing you need to survive living abroad, and you need to make them fast. Living abroad can be very isolating (doubly so if you’re a new mom), I imagine it contributes to why many people end up moving back to wherever they are from. Especially where I am, because there is NO small talk. It might be a cultural thing, or it might be that I’m a foreigner who probably doesn’t speak the language, I’d say it’s 90% the former. The introvert in me lives for the fact that I can just be in my head, chuckle at my podcast, and daydream uninterrupted. But on the other hand, it severely hinders your ability to meet people.

My friends and family are half a day away, so when we first moved, my husband was the only person here I could talk to. We were living in a hotel at the time, so whatever alone or privacy we got during covid was eradicated. I was still breastfeeding, so I wasn’t all that motivated to leave the house, which meant the only people besides my husband I talked to, was our realtor, and an interpreter who took me to the Driver’s License Center to sign up for a driving test. Instantly, I became an oversharer. They both knew how I met my husband, anecdotes about my single life, and my breastfeeding schedule all within minutes of meeting me. I only met the interpreter once, I try not to think about what her impression of me must be because it makes me cringe. I ended up turning to Facebook…yes, Facebook.

Facebook is a really good resource for people in this situation. There are tons of Facebook groups that cater to different audiences, and I joined them all. Surprisingly enough, the Facebook groups were able to sustain me for a little while. I never posted anything, but my history as a long time lurker of various messageboards finally became useful, and kept me somewhat entertained. One thing I found interesting was that sometimes people would make posts looking for friends. I agonized over whether I should do something like that, but I just couldn’t do it. I wasn’t good at making dating profiles, I realize this wasnt that, but it felt similar. I’m not good at describing myself, and certainly not in writing. I don’t think I have a photogenic personality, if that makes sense, I think I just come accross better in person. So a post looking for friends was out, but I figured I would try to go to at least one social event advertised…I didn’t. To be fair, the social events I saw that seemed like they might be fun, also made me feel like I’d be the old b*th at the club. I had to find another way.

Making friends as an adult is hard. Most adults find friends at work, or through their kids, which applies in this situation as well. Since I don’t have a school age kid, and the only job I can easily get abroad is teaching (which was a non-starter), I had to increase my social media activity. I started following a bunch of instagram pages of groups, businesses and people in my area just in case there were opportunities to connect. A lot of the stuff I saw definitely catered to a younger crowd, which makes sense, since that would most likely be the crowd that would be able just up and move to this side of the world. Now don’t get me wrong, the fashion loving/ party girl in me would love an evening out, but 1, we didn’t have childcare which meant going alone which is something I hadn’t done in YEARS, and 2, the idea of anything remotely clubish exhausts me. My watch starts flashing that the noise decibels are too loud… and it is too loud. Those days for me are long gone.

Eventually, at the suggestion of my husband’s colleagues we joined a private social club. I realize that this sounds extremely privileged, but it’s a great landing place for families like mine, new to the area, that might not speak the language yet, or know how or where to find things they need. It softens what can feel like a crash landing, especially for kids and trailing spouses, as we’re called. They host lots of events and opportunities to meet other expats and locals, so we joined in the hopes we might meet some other couples. They also had in-house sitting services so on Fridays, my husband and I would go to the bar for happy hour. Except, the sitting service closed at 5pm, so we went at 3pm and left just before 5pm, missing any actual HH crowd or specials. We were often there basically alone. It was still nice just to get out of the house and have adult time.

One Friday, after 5 months of extreme family bonding, we met who I can only describe as an angel. A brotha walked into the bar. In general I was happy to see him because we weren’t sure we’d meet any black people at the club when we joined. He immediately came right over and said hello, which was also shocking because up until that point any black folk we saw in passing would avert their eyes. My husband and I came up with a theory that, if we saw a black person and they smiled or acknowledged us, they must be tourists (that hypothesis hasn’t changed much). The heaven sent brotha chatted us up for a bit, and then he invited us to an event for Black families the following day. There we met what is now our family. It was such a sigh of relief. We met a few other black expat families that would be here for the same time frame. Our lives changed from that day on (we had also just found our apartment which felt like a miracle after a long hunt). Our friend group is amazing, we now spend holidays and vacations together, we celebrate each other’s wins and birthdays, and offer support however we can. They make living far away from home enjoyable.

My advice to anyone moving abroad is to join as many facebook groups as you can. It truly is the best start to meeting people and getting answers. I’ve met other amazing people outside of my core group of friends since being here through facebook forums. Of course be active on all the other social media platforms, but don’t neglect Facebook.

#stay at home mothers #life abroad #blackgirlbloggers #expat #expatlife #moving abroad #making friends #introvert #introverted

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taenys · 5 years ago

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are you still enjoying being a librarian!

Being a librarian? Yes. Being a CHILDREN’S librarian? No. My job is that of a children’s librarian, and after doing it for 3 years I can without a doubt say that I don’t enjoy working with children. I’m tired of them. I have good days at work, where I’m able to help some nice studious polite kids, and then I have bad days where the kids are loud and obnoxious or rude and they make me want to bash my skull in. I mostly have bad days. I just don’t have the patience for kids. I don’t have the patience to deal with kids fighting on the computers because one killed the other in Roblox. Or having to help kids every 5 minutes make a Roblox account because they have no idea what a “username” is. Or having to come to the realization that this generation of parents just doesn’t know what the fuck they’re doing because I have 10 year olds who have no fucking idea what their birth date is, what their parent’s name is, or how to spell their own last name. I have parents who think the Library is a babysitting service for them, and dump their kids here all day to run amok for ME to deal with.

The other librarians are so good, they’re so genuinely passionate about kids, they’re all mom’s themselves so they’re patient and nice no matter what. I’m not like that. I’m not MEAN, i’m incapable of being mean, I’m just...lazy. I drag my feet when I have to go over and shush the fighting 12 year old boys on the computers, because I know they’re just going to scoff and continue being obnoxious anyway. They don’t respect me as an adult. So, I don’t do it. When a toddler is throwing a tantrum I don’t bother to try and diffuse the situation and help the parents like the other librarians would. I don’t want to run over with a sticker or a candy to help them stop throwing a fit because that’s rewarding bad behavior in my book. Let them scream, and let the young white mom suffer the public embarrassment of having her 3 year old Kaeyleigh throw a screaming fit because she doesn’t want to get off the library iPads. Not my problem. God, I’ve really become a crotchety anti-kids old lady working there, I swear I’ve aged 50 years.

The part of the job I really enjoy is helping kids and parents find their dream book. Seeing a kid get really excited about a new book is always really nice. That’s only about 10% of my job, though. 75% of it is helping kids get on iPads and Computers, continuing to help them figure out how headphones work, what passwords are, etc., having to kick them off the technology when their 1 hour time session is up and dealing with the temper tantrums afterwards, and helping exasperated parents find a book that might get their technology addicted kids to read, namely by pulling out Diary of a Wimpy Kid or a Fortnite video game handbook.

The other 15% of my time is spent preparing, planning, and executing my weekly Spanish Baby storytime. It used to be Spanish storytime, but my audience is 90% babies and toddlers so I’ve had to change the structure and types of books and songs I choose. I can’t make babies dance “head, shoulders, knees, and toes” with me. This is very difficult for me. Babies and toddlers require a type of energy that I do not have at all. They also require totally different types of energy. Babies require softer gentler energy, and toddlers require bouncy chaotic energy. How do I balance the two?! I do not know. I end up catering more to the babies since I REALLY don’t have the energy to dance around and try and made toddlers laugh. I’m more of a sit and read out loud and make faces at the babies kind of person. Too bad that bores the toddlers and they end up running around the room waiting for me to be done and just bring out some toys.

Now, my discomfort from doing my own storytime is only WORSENED by the fact that it’s COMPLETELY in Spanish, a language I am absolutely NOT fluent in and VERY uncomfortable speaking in. I blame my parents for that one, they made sure English was my first language and I grew up in a mostly English household. I hate speaking Spanish, I really do. It’s very stressful and it makes my storytimes all the more stressful and awful for me. And do you know how hard it is to find good, fun, baby and toddler friendly books that work for a read aloud group setting in SPANISH? In the United States? It’s damn near impossible. I had to fly all the way to Spain on my own money to attend a book fair to buy some for the library. Also, because of my very Americanized upbringing, I didn’t grow up with Spanish nursery rhymes or kid’s songs, which means finding songs for the babies and toddlers to sing/dance to every week is...........hell on earth. I’ve got like 10 that I cycle through but I feel like it’s getting boring. It probably doesn’t help that I absolutely LOATHE performing and hate having to get kids and their parents to stand up and participate in group singing and dancing.............it’s so.....Not me. I’m not meant to be a preschool teacher or a mom........It’s so out of my element, out of my comfort zone, I hate it every time. I wake up every Friday (that’s my storytime day) stressed, annoyed, and dreading every moment until storytime is over. As the only “bilingual” person on the children’s team though, I have to do it. I have to provide a Spanish storytime. Doing a storytime is the one thing a children’s librarian HAS to do. If I’d known that from the beginning, I would never have applied for this job.

#Anonymous #reply

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stillinaincrad · 5 years ago

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Through the Looking Glass

I have been feeling like am in a rut lately when it comes to anime, because it feels like it’s been so long since anything has really captured me. I mean, sure there’s one or two every season that I enjoy, and every once in a while something impresses me more than I expected it to. But it just feels like it’s been too long since something reached into that place that not everything permeates and am left with a lifetime of symbiosis with it. And lately, I’ve been wondering why....

The first, and most obvious would be, hell - am old! I’ve been hording everything I could get my hands on since I was a little kid in the 90s, and maybe I’ve just hit saturation point after 20+yrs of it. It’s possible, sure. Maybe I’ve just seen too much, and there aren’t that many original ideas left. But I don’t really believe that, or - more accurately - I don’t want to believe that. I hate boxes and divisions and hierarchies when it comes to creativity, because that means that some ideas aren’t great just because they aren’t new. How many times has the same story been regaled, but in a new way with new angles and perspectives that make it astounding because you weren’t ready for that approach? I still start every new show hoping it is something fantastic. So, saturation isn’t it.

OK, then, so maybe it’s content? I mean - when I started to love anime, it was still weird and niche and abstract. I think anime was deliberately weird as shit to separate itself from what I just mentioned. It wasn’t normal, and it wasn’t supposed to be. And, a lot of people used to treat it that way. Sure, it was cool to like DBZ (even though I never have) or Naruto, but Akira? You must have a serious dark side because it’s messed up and doesn’t make any sense. Robotech? You must be a space nerd (was totally ok with that, btw). Oh, and heaven forbid there was any nudity, even brief - Elfen Lied was “porn” and you only watched it for the tits, right? But now it’s more popular, and more widely accepted, and more and more fluff shows are being made every single season that cater to younger, lighter audiences, and more of them. Less psychology, more recreation. I think there’s definitely something behind that, and moreso the underlying cause.

I think that I came into this world at the perfect time - anime was just catching on here, and people began to understand that you could tell an amazing story through animation, and that by stretching that story over more than one episode, even an entire season, viewers would be more apt to be engaged and personify the characters more than if it was just ‘the monster of the week’ or single-story episodes like all our shows always were. I really feel like the era of about the mid-90s to the mid-00s is the time when many of the most profound anime ever made came out, because people were still pushing boundaries and seeing what would be tolerated or given value to, so you ended up with these crazy, insane, amazing stories that not everyone would have come up with, and there was nothing else like it out there. There were more one-offs. There were more chances taken. There were more new tales to tell.

But that era was also anime’s boon. Why? Because just like western entertainment, when one idea takes off, then others make an idea just enough like it that others will watch it. How many times have you heard ‘oh, if you liked X, then you’d love Y’, and it’s always because they are so similar. Anymore, there are sooooo many carbon-copies every season, because it worked once, and worked well, so it should by reason work again. And it does, but never to the same magnitude. So while I don’t think I’ve just seen too much anime as a whole, I definitely think there is something to be said for saturation as it applies to one singular idea or one singular yarn spun too many times over without any personalization or opus applied to it.

And that’s where I feel like I’m at. There are titles every season that I follow and enjoy, but I don’t go back to them all the time and watch them over and over like I do the older ones. There’s new titles every season that make me feel something, but it’s been so long since anything has felt like a part of me like so many of the older ones. There’s more quantity every year, but I feel like that’s really the point of it anymore - no one is nearly as concerned with making something great, just make... something.

And I’m not saying there isn’t worth in that, creating visual art is a venture I’ll always be behind. Part of my love for anime is seeing how a studio draws it’s characters, the OSTs they use to kindle emotional responses, and the attention to detail that goes into those aspects that often have nothing to do with the writing at all. I have always struggled with character art, which is one of the reasons I love it so much - when you can appreciate all the work that goes into creating ANY anime series, good or bad, there is a gratitude that can be cultivated from just that alone.

But it’s been such a long time since anything has been anything more than that to me, and it’s bittersweet. I want to see the genre continue to flourish and more and more people enjoy it, but for me the greatest joy is the enrapture of a truly great anime show - the writing, the art, the music, the emotion, ALL of it being done so well that at the end you can’t imagine it being any better... and it’s just been a long time since I’ve felt that. I miss it, and I want it again.

So, I don’t know if there’s something wrong with me or something wrong with anime, but it’s just not what I’ve wanted it to be for at least 6-7 years straight now. But, I’ll always be waiting. I’ll always be ready. And I’ll always be on the edge of my seat for the opportunity that the next one I start will be just that.

And I’ll always hope it is.

#2019 #anime

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demonicintegrity · 1 year ago

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I will agree this is def catered The Girls. The women who struggle with mixing their girlhood nostalgia have Gloria, the teen girls who are Better Than This have Sophia, the moms have Barbie and Ruth, and so on and so forth. While all very touching and moving, obvs isn’t gonna to speak to my personal experience so I wasn’t really “seen” esp with being nonbinary. But I do appreciate it.

And while I wouldn’t call it extremely surface level, I do get that it’s not digging deep here. But honestly? I’m surprised we got as much as we did in 90 minutes so I’m wondering thats more of a constraint of the time sorta thing. I wonder if digging deeper in such a short amount of time risks not doing in justice while keeping up with the rest of the plot. Because what they do end up doing is p solid, so that might’ve just been the priority.

And I’m okay with spoon feeding, especially since this is a family movie with an audience of kids. The kids get spoonfed Patriarchy Bad and Life Difficult But Worthwhile while the adults experience The Horrors of your guy friend starting to Be Like That. As well as the implications of Weird Barbies and all that.

I will say I’m. Put off by whatever the fuck was trying to be accomplished with in universe Mattel. They definitely were cheapened just to plot devices that also really didn’t need to be there for as much as they did. That was a flop. Whatever point was trying to made there really doesn’t stick??? The whole “haha barbies cured sexism!” Bit was probably suppose to be picked up from them but it really didn’t so that line that was drawn to as important went no where. I do wish they’d done something with that esp since the set up was there. The more I think about in universe Mattel the more confused I am. That was a weird tonal shift in the movie that feels like it doesn’t belong.

i’m so upset because so many people say they felt seen after watching barbie but genuinely i felt like if you aren’t a straight girly girl these barbies did nothing for you

i think it’s great they’re not all white and have different careers! but otherwise they were the exact same type of person in my eyes

i loved loved the idea of the “ordinary barbie” but i hoped they would’ve gone a little deeper into that. this was something i felt all throughout the movie honestly, so many good ideas thrown in and none of them explored enough so everything just felt extremely surface level and already obvious

after watching little women 2019 i can’t not be a greta gerwig fan but i feel like this movie was too commercial and therefore didn’t feel like her usual style. all of her other movies explore deeper feeling more subtly, and don’t just spoon-feed you every idea, while this one told you everything word for word so that it could reach a wider audience. i understand the importance of teaching feminist ideas to more people, but this seemed like a very weak way to do it

this is not to say that there weren’t some scenes i really liked, and visually the movie was beautiful and fun, but throwing so many things in and barely analysing them made the movie feel very much not cohesive and somewhat incomplete

overall i was not impressed, and i had such high expectations so i’m really quite disappointed

#barbie 2023 #this isn’t me trying to refute you or anything btw this is just me continuing that line of thought

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lovedinapastlife · 6 years ago

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Riverdale 3x16 - BIG FUN

BUGHEAD IS BEAUTIFUL~

Oh damn this episode is surreal in a way I’m not entirely comfortable with. But it’s exciting! Everyone’s looking forward to moving on from the craziness of dead bodies, breakups, and…drug trades. Amidst college and running businesses and stuff. Obviously. Normal high school stuff. Kinda reminds me of the nostalgia for season one.

Was the opening Mr. Musical Theater’s big number? Shucks, I wanted more of a sampling. This was mostly talk-singing, which…I’ll take. Kinda like the awkward rocking in the hallway haha.

Lili wearing green makes her eyes pop and my heart go poof. Similarly to Jughead’s adoring fuzzy feelings, I’m sure. DANG. They’re in HIS room now. Are they staying together?! Yay!

Aw I kinda like the idea that Betty and V would help Cheryl look and feel her best after being tossed over (ish)

I love the intros. “Bro it up. Two single straight dudes” like wow.

Chainsaw line is iconic, especially when moving to cut to the title. You think Kevin was subtly trying to dig at Cheryl for forcing him to cater to her?

LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR - another theme of this season

Betty rolling her eyes is amazing.

I love that the girls choreo’d their own fanciness. I liked Cheryl’s batch better but tbh I didn’t enjoy the dance-off and it’s hair-whip noises. Maybe it was so hyped in the behind-the-scenes videos that I found myself cringing at the octopus moves? And Toni’s batch wasn’t in sync so it was that much more awkward to watch. But I did love the “SHUT UP, TONI!” and look B+V exchanged afterwards. Yeah just gonna say up front this episode react is probably not gonna sit well with Toni stans.

Hiram dropping dramatic family stuff and racking up a bill at the Five Seasons. Who would’ve thought he’d be the one to instigate that divorce, right? Veronica cries almost disturbingly well. I’m not sure why she’d want them to be together after the assassination attempts and affairs and general shenanigans, but hey—it’s Riverdale.

Oh god is Betty the only one who notices the death-blue drinks and scary Gargoyle Pig person? These kids are stupid. I did catch Sweet Pea/JD with his slurpee which made me happy. FREEZE YOUR BRAAAAAIN~ Judge away the whole party, Betty. They tend not to be great luck in this town.

“Brainiac?!” Did she just call Reggie that?! HA. Oh geez I hate Evelyn (but I love her flouncy scrunchie and graphic shirts) and I hate Kevin and their stupid cult and drugs. Why can’t brownies ever be normal on a teen show?! Also, HI MIDGE!

I do love the idea of throwing a party to take ownership of Sisters of Quiet Mercy. If only it wasn’t so cult-y. Why are there people in swimsuits in the drowning tub while Archie jumps over them? Also, drugged-up dancing got some good Kevin hip waggles and some yikes s1 arrogant Reggie vibes. But Veggie is on again for 30 seconds? Okay then.

Jughead eating in the background as Betty side-eyes the circle share is such a glorious mood. Aw and then hugs for V. I am LOVING this side-eye mood. How did people not know Archosie was happening when they were always in the practice room, at each other’s houses, and walking in the halls together? So much awkward is happening that the cringe levels are through the roof. Kevin’s hand on his heart was so over-the-top. I kinda loved it? And I’m surprised V didn’t have more of a reaction to the Archie stuff, tbh, even if she’s got bigger things on her mind.

Oh no Toni’s got a solo and it’s here for the color of blood. Literally. Is she pointing at their crotches? Ugh her stripping musical threesome was so insulting it made my stomach churn. They just tried to make it seem like Sweet Pea wants something deep and yet he’s ready for a random hookup again? Peaches hasn’t even had any lines or anything to do but stand around looking smug. They’re trying so hard to make Toni sexy and it’s just feeding the lesbian/bisexual slutty stereotype. Can this show do hookups? Ever? There’s been no sexual/attraction buildup to this “threesome” (honestly Toni hasn’t even been a good friend to SP lately) and there was no fallout afterwards either! She was just like, “COME STRIP ONSTAGE WITH ME and this other person you’ve never talked to but beat the shit out of you one time. Oh wait no I’m good with my clingy yet complimentary ghost gf, you two have fun byeeeee”

Jughead and Betty flirting makes me feel slightly better

OH GOD NO KANGS. At this point the bile I’d been suppressing was legit in my throat. Like, why does attraction/love have to be tied to something awful 90% of the time in this show? Kevin and Fangs could’ve been a cute couple if they built up their connection beyond two lines over the course of two seasons. But no. Cult psychedelic weirdness over Midge, just like Moose and Kevin. Maybe even over Joaquin. DO WE NOT LEARN? I’m not even gonna start with the Farmies.

Archosie scene. Fun spin dance, but I still think they’re cute paper cutouts of nothingness at this stage.

Oh, of COURSE Weatherbee joined a cult. Loser.

I love Cheryl’s Heather Chandler vibe and scrunchie. Good call about making Toni test the tea for poison. Aw, I kinda wanted to see Ghost!JJ.

I have basically a folder full of stills of this scene and narrowed it down to these. Aw baby Jug, Betty understands better than anyone what he’s going through. When Betty was trying to get Jughead to look at her I legit felt emotional. And then they were beautiful. Forever. WE FINALLY GOT THEM DANCING! Oh and on his knees! Proposal vibes! I might’ve watched this scene EIGHT BILLION times for the eyes and hands and general endless soulmate love vibes. Like, this scene made the episode for me. They were so emotional and invested and harmonized like angels and I needed that in my life so thank you, universe. I hope Cole and Lili get to do amazing scenes like this together in the future because it was beautiful.

Ch*ni kinda interrupted my mains with their totally different vibe and zero choreography, even though they did sound lovely. Neither of them have changed their behavior to make their relationship work internally, whereas Bughead are sick of the external forces of the town trying to destroy their childhood icons/innocence and bonding over their love for each other despite their familial madness. I need a Bughead exclusive soulmates cut. Thank you.

Haha um...I think closing the drug lab in general would be good? Maybe not during the musical when Betty might be vulnerable again (and the rest of Riverdale) but hey...it’s entirely possible it’s emotional and not logical of me to say that ;) Sheriff FP seems extremely unbothered by mobile drug labs in town so why should we be, right?

HIRAM! SAY IT LIKE IT IS! I love that he called out Veronica’s shock over Hermione trying to have him killed. Twice. How rude.

I actually really liked Cami’s interpretation of “Lifeboat.” It’s pretty, but I’m not sure it added much to her story? Same with her attempt to have her parents go to opening night together. Maybe that song is more of an overarching theme for her story this season. Ish? But she also distances herself from people? Mehhhh overanalyzing Riverdale hurts my brain. And then her ploy to have one last happy memory is just them not looking or talking at each other and she feels worse. Ouch.

Why is there so much old stereo equipment in their house? I know they worked at a garage/scrapyard, but I didn’t see any speakers? I care too much about set dressings but whatever. Poor FP is dealing with hazards of being on the job. Gladys had hilarious delivery like, “Oh nooooo. Drugs. That’s terrible.” Also, she’s totally drinking beer in front of him, a recovering alcoholic. Classy. And also telling. Jughead and Betty are just side-eyeing in the background.

Did Cheryl send herself all those roses?! XD I did think the “blot” moment was cute but I still don’t understand what’s changed. I don’t even know if Veggie is a thing. Probably not. Okay then. Did love Reggie looking in the handheld mirror totally in-character though.

I KNEW THEY’D BURN THE PLACE DOWN ONE DAY! Omg the puns. The fire extinguisher. The kiss—oh oh my. Arson and tender body touching. All right. I’m down. Do they have a car now? Is Bughead gonna live in it? I cannot handle their passion in the best way possible.

The finale choreography was terrible. Oh my god was that cringe. I mean, couldn’t we at least get them looking at each other for a sec like the adorable Bughead moment of holding hands? Or someone helping V when looking at her parents? I get that they’re entreating the audience to be better (like Betty’s speech a billion years ago), but it didn’t hit the mark with me for some reason. My expression was mostly a mix of the Jones’. Was it just me, or did everyone onstage look like they were in some range of pretending really hard not to feel uncomfortable?

HI CHAD! The cult is terrifying. Also, if all the psychos are there, why aren’t Alice and Polly in attendance? The woooooorst. Was no one else inclined to clap like a normal person? Evelyn in general was interesting, trying to earn her father’s approval and everyone’s trust, but it’s usually so messed up on drugs and stuff that I don’t quite enjoy her scenes. Everything with the Farm is usually deferred, which annoys me, but we’ll get our answers soon, I’m sure. I want more Chad. I’m curious if the buildup is gonna pay off ^-^

And people are going through windows next time?

I really wanted the “hell” line from Heathers when Bughead came back from burning stuff down but I will live. Okay. Put our bids in for next season’s musical now and how long it’s gonna take us to get a promise/engagement ring on Bughead. Thank you.

#riverdale react #riverdale reaction #3.16 #3x16 #riverdale #BIG FUN

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queendom25 · 4 years ago

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Culture Vultures

Southern Oregon you know I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to talk about Black sitcoms, Black women, and my least favorite-Blackfishing! Black representation in Hollywood is an essential part of making our mark in a country that still views my race as caricatures. Before there was a Black Vice President, Congress member, or lawyer, there were Black sitcoms that inspired their audience like Living Single and Girlfriends! People of Color working in positions with prestige instead of the gangbanger or drug addict stereotype. Each character in both of these sitcoms had actual depth to them where they could introduce the issues facing Black America in their storylines from hair discrimination to cultural appropriation. Yet the sitcom that’s deemed as the most iconic from the 90s is Friends and T.C. Carson had some insight as to why. Carson told Comedy Hype that he was fired from Living Single because he spoke out against the favoritism that Warner Bros displayed towards Friends. The Black woman behind the magic was Yvette Lee Bowser and she says that, “For me, it began with the realization that if this industry was really only going to cater to and embrace white people, and white men in particular, and have them in positions of power behind the scenes...I wasn’t going to be here for long.” The show may have gone off air in 1998 but her Black Girl Magic echoes in another iconic show called Girlfriends written by Mara Brock Akil.

The show centering around 4 successful Black queens and how they balance career and love interests, has some behind-the-scenes differences compared to Friends with their male actors. When Friends ended, David Schwimmer was on the t.v. show Will & Grace , voiced Melman the giraffe in Madagascar movies, and currently stars on the sitcom Intelligence. Matthew Perry starred as Ted Kennedy on The Kennedys After Camelot and The Odd Couple but whatever happened to Reggie Hayes from Girlfriends? Hayes says that he, “wasn’t Matt LeBlanc or one of the other kids from ‘Friends’ who had doors opening for them after their show ended. Pretty much, I was just another guy.” Black people are tired of the lack of representation and what little representation we do have feeds the appropriation aquarium for Blackfish in Hollywood! I don’t know what’s more insulting, Alyssa Milano wearing cornrows, white girls believing Miley Cyrus invented twerking, or Ariana Grande going from mayo to melanated with her complexion. I never thought I’d say this but Hollywood managed to glamorize black-face minstrel shows, with lip injections and box braids while simultaneously making caricatures of Black women having emotions! If any of you Southern Oregon residents have an interest in TikTok, then you’re probably well informed of the suppression of Black voices and the endorsement of racism on the social media platform. White TikTokers will steal content from Black creators and take the credit! Black is a rainbow color complete with different walks of life so why wouldn’t we want to see a show or listen to a song that we can relate to? I strongly believe that Black people should build solidarity in gatekeeping, because of the lack of appreciation and abundance of cultural appropriation that insults the essence of who we are. On a final note, melanin is magical, natural hair is professional, and Black Lives Matter!

#cultural appreciation #no justice no peace #black lives matter #human rights #medfordoregon #black sitcoms #living single #girlfriends #blackhistory #hollywood #warner bros #southernoregon

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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Warrior, Snake Eyes, and What’s Next for Andrew Koji

https://ift.tt/2FJNvrf

His first major role in a feature film Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins was on the horizon, as well as the 2nd season of the Bruce Lee inspired Warrior where plays the lead. But then, Cinemax announced that they were no longer commissioning original shows to make way for the new streaming platform, HBO Max. The fate of Warrior remains unknown. And soon after that the pandemic hit, postponing Snake Eyes until 2021.

But then in September, Andrew got some great news. He was cast alongside Brad Pitt in a new David Leitch film called Bullet Train. Cinemax released Warrior Season 2 on schedule and new episodes will arrive through November when Bruce Lee would have been celebrating his 80th birthday. Koji spoke with Den of Geek about Warrior, Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins, and much more.

Den of Geek: What was your favorite Bruce Lee movie?

Andrew Koji: Enter The Dragon is an obvious one. To be honest, I’m going to go with Game of Death. I know he didn’t finish it, but there was something about it. They did a 40-something-minute cut of the original of what they did and think there’s something really interesting there. I think that could make a great film nowadays. If you haven’t got Bruce Lee, it’s just not going to work. I’m going to go for that one just to be a bit different.

Oh, very good. No one’s ever answered that one. Interesting.

Nice!

Can you tell us a little bit about your martial arts background?

Yeah. I started martial arts growing up from around 10 to 20. I did Taekwondo…and my dad used to study Kyokoshin Karate. In the garden, he used to hold these sofa pillow kind of things for pads, and I used to kick them and he used to teach me those things. Then I got injured with Taekwondo, tore my ass in half – my gluteus maximus, minimus and all that – and then had to stop and change.

Culture

Bruce Lee Forever! Shannon Lee Reflects on Her Father’s Legacy

By Gene Ching

I went to Kung Fu because it had less kicks, because I found it hard to walk. And did some acrobatics on the side – not exactly what they call ‘tricking’ but kind of around that. Then I stopped around 20 and just dabbled with Jujistu and stuff, which I still want to go back to and study properly. But today’s circumstances don’t really cater towards rolling around with people.

For Warrior, I picked up Wing Chun, which I did a bit of that actually when I was younger, and then I studied lots of Taekwondo for Season 2.

When you were first approached to do Warrior were you tentative about being stereotyped as a Bruce Lee clone?

Oh, yeah. Totally. I moved away from martial arts almost because of that. I remember at the time, when I was about 18 or so, the only Asians that I saw on TV or film were all doing martial arts, you know?

So, I wanted to rebel against that and not do anything to do with it. I was like, ‘Screw that. Screw everything else I’ve been learning.’ I just want to become an actor. I just want to Daniel Day-Lewis the hell out of stuff, or maybe Joaquin Phoenix a bit more. I was definitely scared because of that aspect of that. I know I’ll probably get boxed in doing action things for a little bit, but I think I’ll be able to break out of it.

But also I think with Warrior, because that’s just an element of it, there’s so much story and the characters are so well done, I’m not too scared of it because of that, because they’ve done such a good job. If it was just a trashy, glossy, superficial martial arts show, then I’d be worried. But because it’s got a good story, interesting characters, it needs us to give good performances for it. I wasn’t too worried after that.

One of the things I really love about this show is the chemistry between Ah Sahm and Young Jun. Can you talk a little bit about how you and Jason Tobin bonded for that?

Yeah. Me and Jason, I think from the beginning, Season 1, we got on straight away because both of us have got strange stories, up until that point. I was ready to give up acting. Even though he’s playing Young Jun, he’s a bit older than me. He’s got a family with three kids so he was in a similar place, and he was just as grateful for the job, as I was, if not more so because he’s been in this game far longer than I have.

Better Luck Tomorrow, his first big film, was years ago. Jason, he’s a real artist. He’s got this independent film called Jasmine, which you’ve got to see, man. He made that himself. It’s phenomenal. Because he’s an interesting dude and he’s got an artist’s heart, we just got on really well. Hopefully, we’ll do a film together someday.

Now, you’re adding Chen Tong for Hong into the cast. I really love the trio of you guys.

He brought a lot lightness. After Bolo [Rich Ting] unfortunately died, and Young Jun’s going through stuff in Season 2, Jonathan [Tropper] was like, “We need a bit of lightness to this,” and Chen Tang, he bought that. He was great casting for that.

How’s your body holding up with all the stunts and fighting?

Now, it’s doing all right because I’m in lockdown. The six pack’s gone or the definition of Season 2 of it has gone. It definitely takes a toll as you’re getting older. I’m 32 now and I’m going to be 33 in November, and, to be honest, it’s probably in better condition than it was before I started in Warrior, because I was living a reckless life back then. I was drinking a lot. I was eating whatever I wanted and now it feels all right actually, in comparison.

What’s been your favorite fight scene so far?

We’ll, I’ve got to give a shout out to Mike Bisping because he took that kick like the absolute man, multiple times, to his face and there was no ego about it. He knew that he was part of helping Bruce Lee’s story come to life. I’ve got the utmost respect for someone like him who can put himself in the room and literally put his life on line. The character of Ah Sahm, he would tear into shreds. I’d let him do so because I’ve got respect for the guy. Doing that just on a man-to-man level, to be able to have the experience of kicking a British UFC champion in the face multiple times… I don’t think many people would be able to say they kicked a UFC champion in the face and lived. So, that was the highlight. He’s a great dude and a really interesting guy.

Filming-wise, things started to really ramp up towards the end of season. The highlights we used for the Episode 10 fight, which was a very, very tough scene to shoot, but was absolutely magic. I almost collapsed at one point filming that, but then the next day came back, dig deep, and we managed to make the day and managed to get everything we need to do on schedule. I think we managed to capture some the magic that we felt and the energy. That was literally a life-experience highlight shoot, that fight scene. It was such a team effort.

How does it feel being the lead actor in a series that’s predominately an Asian tale?

It’s an honor, in a way, to help bring this story to life. I think the best actors don’t think of themselves just as lead actors. Their vessel might be who they are, the lead, but the lead doesn’t work if the other performances aren’t there and if everyone else is falling apart.

Warrior Season 2: What to Expect From the Return of the Martial Arts Drama

By Gene Ching

I’m just saying this, but I’m an actor and I’m very picky with my acting. I can’t help but watch a film or a performance and not pick it apart. Probably 90% of the time I’m like, “That was a bad moment. That was a weird one. That was whatever.” There’s obviously very few shows, personally, that I look at and go, “Wow, everyone’s really on point and this is really good.”

When I see Warrior Season 2 and I see these great actors; Kieran [Bew], Tom [Weston-Jones], Hoon [Lee], Joe [Taslim], et cetera, et cetera, I’m more honored that I’m amongst this cast. When I see their performances I’m like, “Whoa, these guys are good, because they’re nothing like this in real life.” It’s more that it’s an honor to be able to work alongside these people who are just so good at what they’re doing.

Warrior is so much of an immigrant tale, and here in America, of course, immigration’s become a big issue, and in the UK as well, how do you feel about the current politics of that and how that plays into Warrior being shown now?

There’s a lot of coincidental parallels to certain things; the climate of the world and certain people’s attitudes towards certain people. That wasn’t the intention of Jonathan or the writers at the time. I know that definitely immigration issues happen all the time, but I think it makes the show more eerily relevant, and it wasn’t even its intention. They were literally just trying to tell the story of what happened roughly at the time, make the best show that they could and use bits of history.

It’s eerie because in certain aspects it’s clear that we have not grown as humans and we have not learned certain things. Those are real things that happened back in the day in 1817 or around that time of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Real things. It’s eerie to the point of being a bit like, “Wow. We need to learn. We need to grow. We need to get better.” History’s going to repeat itself until we just get over certain things, I think.

Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins got delayed to 2021. How do you feel about that? You’re all in the can for that one, right?

Yeah. I think there’s more reasons too. I’m fine with that. I think we did the best that we could on that one. I’m hoping that I brought the most layered Storm Shadow and realistic kind of Storm Shadow to screen, even though there’s only one guy before me. I think it’s the current climate. I think the film industry’s suffering quite a bit, I’m hearing. If it’s best for the film, for the audience, for people… I don’t think many people want to go to the cinema right now. So don’t release the film. It wouldn’t be a good idea.

I got to ask you about Bullet Train. Brad Pitt and David Leitch, that’s awesome. Congratulations on that.

Oh. Thanks, man. That’s surreal, that one. I never thought I’d be working with Brad Pitt, ever in a million years. He was a distant legend, an icon. He’s someone who’s inspired me on my journey with films. There’s been countless films that have inspired me, and he’s produced them as well. This guy – he’s going to go down in history as this huge Hollywood figure.

Also, bear in mind, the fame and all that that he’s got, as a man, how he’s composed himself – I mean I don’t know him personally. I haven’t met him yet either. But he hasn’t let it get to his head, it doesn’t seem. It seems he’s a cool, chill dude and he’s not about himself. As a man, I think that’s quite admirable. It’s really admirable to be in that position of power and not become an absolute douche and abuse power, which most people do. I respect that dude, absolutely.

Warrior: The Historical Inspiration for Nellie Davenport

By Gene Ching

To get to work with him and then David Leitch who I know he’s made those million films before. Atomic Blonde, I liked, and Deadpool 2, I thought, was shot really amazingly. I’ve got a feeling he’s going to become something. Whether it’s this film or not, he’s going to do a masterpiece. He’s on his way to doing that, I think. Besides the box office billion-dollar film thing, besides from the business aspect that he’s done well with, I know he’s going to do something, or he will, or he’s doing something really good. He seems really cool so far. Warrior has helped me to be in this position to do this job, so I’m just bringing every skill that it taught me, and I’m bringing it to these ones in the future.

Man, Brad Pitt. I’m freaking out a bit. But, yeah. Brad Pitt, come on. I saw the article the other day. I was like, “What’s my face doing next to Brad Pitt’s? Nah. Nah. What’s going on?”

So, are you going to be ready for Season 3 of Warrior, if it comes around?

Yeah. Well, obviously, with the current climate it’s a lot less certain. All we know is if the fans make enough noise and help us by making that noise, it is in so many of our intentions to wrap this show up as I think it should. Not only for the show, the story, for the fans, but for that legend Bruce Lee. I think it deserves a conclusive ending.

It might be a story of Deadwood. It might be a story where it gets picked up, because it’s not like there’s someone up there going, “No, no. I don’t want you to make that.” It’s so many circumstances that come together that have led to the potential of not being Season 3. I think we all want to do it. We all feel like it needs to be done and it’s going to be in a bunch of our objectives to do that and to conclude it properly and fully when the time’s right.

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Warrior Season 2 can be seen exclusively on CINEMAX.

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easyfoodnetwork · 4 years ago

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Eric Rivera Is Playing the Game

Selling pantry items, like spices, has helped keep Addo afloat.

Despite everything, the Seattle chef has found a way to successfully run his restaurant Addo — and he has some advice for the rest of the industry

Eric Rivera does not run a traditional kitchen. At his Seattle restaurant, Addo, the menu, cuisine, and concept change constantly. So when Seattle restaurants began to close in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19, Rivera was already ahead of the game.

Rivera was 4,000 miles away giving a culinary tour in Puerto Rico when Washington Gov. Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency due to rising COVID-19 cases. In between staging meals and teaching his guests about the island’s culinary history, he set up his phone as a hotspot and began emailing clients and staff to rearrange the coming weeks of planned dining events and promotions, determining which could be salvaged as takeout and which needed to be completely restructured or worse, canceled.

On March 11, Rivera returned to Seattle and a calendar with reservations booked well into the next year. Addo used the Tock app for dinner reservations, but soon began using it to schedule carryout instead. Addo’s lunch catering, which amounted to about 30 percent of his business, was no longer feasible since all the high-end tech offices in the area closed, so Rivera began to make easy-to-reheat take-home meals to accommodate those newly working from home. He made and sold pantry items, like CSA boxes, yeast kits, and fresh-made pasta. He even hired his own delivery drivers to avoid working with gig-economy food delivery apps, which he believes take too much from both restaurants and drivers.

Adjusting to changes at the drop of a hat is common in most kitchens, but it’s something Rivera was used to well before he started working in restaurants. In the late aughts, Rivera ran his own mortgage insurance and financial services business when the Great Recession hit. He was an early success by most American standards, running his own offices in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. “There’s this game-of-life kind of thing — you’re raised to believe that you need the nice house with the picket fence, the car. Checkmark, checkmark, checkmark. I had that when I was 24.”

Rivera recalls being at Costco picking up office supplies in 2008 when he got a call from an employee; they wanted him back in the office immediately. Rivera was surprised by the urgency. “No man, leave that shit there. We’re done,” his employee said.

“What? What do you mean?”

“We’re done. Everything’s closed, all the lines of credit. Everything’s done.”

Rivera felt he had to “learn to play the game.”

Rivera’s customers vanished almost immediately, and his business dwindled. He was forced to shift primarily to insurance. He was depressed. To save some money, he started cooking all of his meals at home and blogging about his successes and failures in the kitchen, mostly posting pictures of his process. He quickly amassed a bit of an audience and built a dialogue with some of the followers who were curious about the recipes he shared. “So then it became like more of a serious infatuation that I started to have,” he says. “It’s sort of what started to get me out of that spot.” Motivated by how quickly his skills had developed, he began to consider a career in food, and in 2010 he attended culinary school at the Art Institute in Seattle.

Acclimating to unfamiliar surroundings was nothing new to Rivera. His father was in the military for 30 years, and, as is common with that profession, the family moved around a lot. In order to build a bit of stability, when Rivera was 7 his parents chose to settle in Olympia, Washington — just over 60 miles south of Seattle — for a few years, and his grandparents left Puerto Rico for the Pacific Northwest to help with the kids. Growing up in Olympia, which was 82.5 percent white in the most recent census and more than 90 percent white in 1990, was challenging for Rivera’s Puerto Rican family. Fellow transplants to the Cascade region will tell you about the Seattle Freeze — if they haven’t already adopted it themselves. “In Seattle, in Washington, being passive aggressive, it’s an art form here,” Rivera says. “However, in my culture, if you have a fucking problem with somebody, you tell them in two seconds. You tell them to go fuck themselves. It’s over, it’s done with.” Rivera remembers the move to Washington as an uncomfortable transition. He recalls going to school and quickly realizing he and his family stood out from his predominately white classmates.

Rivera felt he had to “learn to play the game,” as he puts it. Beyond the regular curriculum of a student, he remembers playing the part of a young anthropologist, trying to learn about his peers’ preferred music, movies, food, and anything else that would allow him to fit in. “My grandpa would sit me in front of the TV and be like, ‘Sound like them, not like us!’ Meaning get rid of the accent, learn their shit.” However, while adapting to his surroundings, Rivera learned to embrace his own culture more fully. His grandfather taught him to cook at an early age. It wasn’t always easy to get the right ingredients, but he still managed to make Puerto Rican food, even in Olympia. When his grandparents eventually moved back to Puerto Rico, Rivera spent summers on the island and learned to move between the two worlds.

Rivera is selling rice, beans, and other Puero Rican pantry staples online.

The Addo space has transformed from restaurant to storage facility.

After culinary school, Rivera started working in restaurants, spending three years in Chicago as the director of culinary research operations with the Alinea Group. Early on, he began to see cracks in the way the industry was run. After an injury, Rivera was forced out of the kitchen and went without pay for months; again and again, he had to fight for meager raises. “The games you have to play are bullshit,” he says. “You have to go to the kitchens and stage for free. Dude, people that are younger and that come from different cultures and backgrounds can’t afford that — are you kidding me?”

After seven years in the industry, Rivera was ready to do his own thing, on his own terms. In the summer of 2017, he started running a chef’s table out of his Seattle apartment. He was unsure if diners would be interested in such a stripped-down eating experience, in which Rivera covered all aspects of service, but he was confident in himself. At the same time, he was running pop-ups out of any space he could get in town, cooking on panini grills in the back of coffee shops if need be. The hustle and desire to expand eventually led him to seek out his own space in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. He called it Addo.

Addo was an unconventional restaurant from the start. Although the chef’s table still existed in the new space, and you could still reserve space for a birthday party as you would at a more traditional restaurant, Addo relied on themed dinners booked months in advance. The menu changed based on current events, trends, and whatever popped into his head: He served a Pacific Northwest meal based on the grade-school computer game The Oregon Trail and multi-course dinners themed around Harry Potter. In an Instagram Live interview with Tom Colicchio in June, he described his process: “It’s truly head on a swivel. There were nights when we were a dine-in restaurant that we were doing three to five things a night because we had to. Here’s steak night, here’s a 20-course tasting menu, here’s Puerto Rican food, here’s a pasta thing we’re doing and there’s another thing.”

Puerto Rican food became a more significant part of Rivera’s professional life when, months after launching Addo, he expanded with Lechoncito, a side business that specializes in perfectly crispy and moist lechon, chicharron de pollo, and the famous jibarito inspired by his time in Chicago. Like Addo, Lechoncito also started as a pop-up, with a brief stint inside a whiskey distillery, but now Lechoncito food is sold through Addo a few times a month.

Although Rivera has mulled over the idea of making Puerto Rican food his primary focus, he appreciates that by having it as just one of the things he does, he’s not beholden to fickle food trends that could celebrate the cuisine one day and forget it the next. “[Puerto Rican cuisine] doesn’t stand out, because it’s just me talking about it or yelling about it, telling people how cool it is. That can only go so far,” he says. “There’s not enough people representing it or [who] know what they’re talking about ... thats why I have to be this fucking guy, that has to operate at this really high level to get that badge that says, ‘He knows what he’s talking about, he’s worked at a place with three Michelin stars.’”

Still, there’s a loyal clientele for Lechoncito. On a recent Sunday, Rivera greeted regulars and fawned over their dogs as they arrived to pick up orders of a sold-out whole-roasted pig, big-as-your-head chicharrones, and arroz con garbanzos. And since mid-July, Puerto Rican food has become an even bigger business for Rivera.

On July 9, at a roundtable for Hispanic business leaders, Goya CEO Robert Unanue praised President Donald Trump, quickly leading many, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to call for a Goya boycott. Rivera saw an opportunity.

Rivera has a knack for social media, which he uses to create content for events, speak out about problems in the restaurant industry, or just post pictures of delicious food and cute dogs. As the Goya news and the hashtag #GoyaBoycott spread, he tweeted about his ability to ship pantry staples like sofrito, sazon, and adobo across the United States. Within hours, these tweets had been retweeted thousands of times, and Rivera made around 1,000 sales in the days following. These days, Addo resembles a warehouse space, with Rivera and a couple staff packing up spices, dry goods, and even house plants while Bad Bunny plays and the Puerto Rican flag hangs visibly from the front door. Online, Rivera jokingly calls himself “Amazing Primo,” a play on Amazon Prime.

“We’re punching above our weight class now,” Rivera says of Addo’s pandemic operation.

Despite the struggles restaurants across the country are facing as they adjust to pandemic restrictions, Addo is busy. Rivera credits his staff, who went from cooking and serving to packing boxes and printing shipping labels, for Addo’s survival. “Is it what I want to be doing? Absolutely not. But I don’t think you have a choice sometimes, and I’m just really grateful we have an option to keep this going ... if anyone was set up to be able to be pivoted, it was us,” says Ingrid Lyublinsky, Addo’s director of operations. “We’ve been doing it since the get-go.”

Addo chef John McGoldrick likens the constantly changing circumstances to the animated show Rick and Morty: “We’re just like a bunch of Mortys and chef Eric is Rick, sending us down a new portal every day.”

Although operating as a makeshift bodega may not be ideal for every kitchen, Rivera believes this is where restaurants are headed if they want to compete as major changes in the industry loom. He has even offered free Zoom classes to chefs about how to widen the scope of their restaurants, including tips on social media and running their own delivery or shipping. “We have less than seven employees, but we’re punching above our weight class right now with scaling things out and being more accessible to more people,” he says.

Rivera has grown increasingly frustrated by the response to the pandemic from many industry leaders. He believes big names and owners of chain restaurants will bounce back, leaving many smaller restaurants behind, as well as restaurant staff and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color), who will have to find new avenues of work or face deepening pay discrepancies. “There are people who are getting stimulus, getting enhanced unemployment, but you have undocumented workers who aren’t getting anything,” he says. “And they’re being pushed back into the fire immediately without any help.”

On Twitter, Rivera has called out well-known Seattle restaurateurs like Tom Douglas and Ethan Stowell, who shut down restaurants permanently and laid off hundreds of staff. More recently, Rivera criticized pushes to open restaurants as COVID-19 cases are rising once again. Rivera tweeted on June 11: “There are other options for dining but the consumer will drive things back and greedy owners will compromise their staff to serve them. There are no leaders in this industry. There are no voices that can make these points stick.”

“If I was a dude with an accent that made jibaritos and chicharrones on the side of the street, no one would give a fuck.”

While recent months have brought the cracks in the industry to the forefront, the pandemic is not the direct cause of many of them. Rivera takes issue with an industry built on what he believes is an antiquated system of constant investment and expansion. “A lot of chefs, who are frankly losing their asses right now, are going to realize it’s not wise to seek so much investment, those deals with the devil, in order to push themselves into the stratosphere of the industry,” he says. This system, Rivera says, perpetuates the problems within the restaurant industry and benefits only “old, rich white men.”

Rivera’s tweets have earned the attention of the famous chefs he’s called out; some have even reached out to him. Colicchio invited him to an Instagram Live conversation about his experiences in the restaurant industry. And in an episode of the Dave Chang Show podcast, Chang said of Rivera, “Everything he’s saying is not something I always agree with, but I respect his viewpoints on a lot of things. If you look at what he’s doing it’s anything and everything, that’s what you have to see cause we have no idea what’s going to work. You got to try it all and make mistakes and adapt, make mistakes and adapt.”

Rivera recognizes that his own privilege has contributed to some of this success. “I knew what I had to do in order to play the game for people to listen to me,” he says. “If I was a dude with an accent that made jibaritos and chicharrones on the side of the street, no one would give a fuck.” However, he wants that game to change. “First, they need to get the fuck out of the way. They need to just get out of the way,” he says, referring to the old guard of primarily white men. “I don’t want to see another white dude traveling around the world discovering food. I’m tired of the Christopher Columbus shit.”

Rivera isn’t convinced that a return to some level of “normal” after the pandemic will solve many of his issues with the industry, including the financial barriers for BIPOC-run restaurants and the treatment of back-of-house staff in big-name restaurants. However, he’s inspired by younger generations of cooks and writers, like Alicia Kennedy and Illyanna Maisonet, for speaking out about the changes that need to happen, and credits them with “[helping] me establish how to be a voice, if you will, without just saying ‘fuck you’ every two seconds.” And six months into the pandemic, Rivera is still playing it day to day, ready to pivot once again whenever the need should arise. As he packs up spices, thinks up new to-go meals, and updates his website, he hopes that, at the very least, what he has done in his kitchen resonates in a food world that’s in dire need of a drastic pivot of its own.

Alberto Perez is a freelance writer currently based out of Seattle, but he’d rather be back in Texas eating tacos. Suzi Pratt is a photographer based in Seattle.

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/36lJt39 https://ift.tt/30qG27w

Selling pantry items, like spices, has helped keep Addo afloat.

Despite everything, the Seattle chef has found a way to successfully run his restaurant Addo — and he has some advice for the rest of the industry

“What? What do you mean?”

“We’re done. Everything’s closed, all the lines of credit. Everything’s done.”

Rivera felt he had to “learn to play the game.”

Rivera is selling rice, beans, and other Puero Rican pantry staples online.

The Addo space has transformed from restaurant to storage facility.

“We’re punching above our weight class now,” Rivera says of Addo’s pandemic operation.

“If I was a dude with an accent that made jibaritos and chicharrones on the side of the street, no one would give a fuck.”

Alberto Perez is a freelance writer currently based out of Seattle, but he’d rather be back in Texas eating tacos. Suzi Pratt is a photographer based in Seattle.

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