#shouty!caps recap

[themusicsweetly]

Hi, Sarah! While I totally support moving on from the cesspool that is Twitter n/k/a X, I am not on BlueSky and have no intention of joining at present. I always enjoyed your SHOUTY CAPS recaps of Outlander. Would you consider posting them here as well?

Hiya Anon! Thanks so much for the ask, your support, and your Shouty!Caps enthusiasm 🤗

I don't think I'll copy and paste the entire thread here, but you also don't have to make a BlueSky account to view my Shouty!Caps. My friend told me yesterday that I accidentally had my account set to not allow logged off views, but I've fixed that and now anyone should be able to look at my posts on there.

You can find 7x09's thread HERE. I think I'll also start using a #ShoutyCaps tag if that makes it easier for you to find the threads.

If you still can't view it, please let me know. I'd let to get that fixed so you have access. Thanks again, Anon!!

[seriousdriv3r]

First experimental recap. Not that the amplifier needed one but i’m experimenting to see if i can still squeeze more out of it.

So far the amplifier still responds great to mods and that’s why this time the target were the two amplifier boards.

Signal cap was upgraded to Nichicon Muse ES bipolar cap and the others were upgraded to Nichicon Fine Gold.  If anyone is wondering why not Muse instead of Fine Gold the answer is: dimensions... most Muse caps are way too big for this layout. Even the Fine Gold ones don’t fit entirelly.

Seems like Harman went the Samxon route because all the caps are quite small ( at the expense of quality ) and in turn also smaller PCBs.

Sound opened up a bit more. As usual for the caps i go to... Better bass, less shouty midrange and very nice highs.  ( i also needed to change the dsp crossover from 100Hz to 50Hz to get the optimal experience )

I still have the caps for main signal board that i need to figure out how to execute the whole things ( most of the caps are 2x+ the size of the Samxon caps )

[themusicsweetly]

Sarah, not sure I missed it, but did you do a review of 502? Likes, dislikes?

Hey there, Anon! Thanks for the ask!

Yes, I did do a review of 5x02, but not on here. I only did one for 5x01 here because I got to see it early at the NYC premiere. Generally for regular weekly eps, I do a recap on Twitter and call it my Shouty!Caps Recaps series which I post after my Outlander at Midnight viewing. 

You can find my 5x01 Shouty!Caps recap HERE and my 5x02 Shouty!Caps recap HERE.

TL;DR for 5x02 - Overall I’d say I’m definitely more positive about this ep than I am negative. It was very much like 4x05, “Savages” to me and I expected it to be with them being separated. It also was understandably very much a set-up ep for arcs to come.

I LOOOVED every moment of Claire in her surgery. She owns her domain and her commitment to it and to her patients and the people of The Ridge is such a wonderful aspect of her character to see played out so well. Even seeing her shut down Brianna for telling her she shouldn’t be doing the things she is was well done. The scene with Claire asking Marsali to be her apprentice was GOLD. Hands down best scene of the ep. 

I was surprisingly okay with the Jamie x Knox scenes. Their dynamic is actually a pretty good one with how similar and dissimilar they are. I could use less of them just because it means more time without Jamie x Claire together, but what we did get at least held my interest.

I thought Murtagh was OOC. Bonnet’s 5 minute end scene was about 4 minutes, 30 seconds too long. And for the love of all that is good ENOUGH WITH R*GER MANPAIN MACKENZIE SINGING.

Their individual parts were strong, so it helped soften their separation, but I still  thought it could have used a moment like “Savages” had where Jamie x Claire reunite. It would have helped tie the disparate parts of the ep together. Any ep without these two together is inherently a lesser ep.  

[themusicsweetly]

Hi I really liked reading your impressions of FvF when you sent to see it. Can you post something similar when you go see Belfast?

[Anonymous #2 asked] : Hi Sarah, I'm glad I saw you went to go see Belfast yesterday. I know you of all people have been looking forward to it. You said you liked it and that Cait and Ciaran were best. Can you do one of your shouty caps for it? Thanks!

Hello there, Anons! Thanks so much for your asks.

I did finally go see Belfast yesterday! I won't do a Shouty!Caps recap for it (I'll start those again when the new OL season starts, though!) since it would be way too spoilery and many people aren't able to watch it until next year. I don't want to risk ruining it for anyone.

So here's something like what Anon #1 suggested, my non-spoilery (hopefully lol) impressions of Belfast. I'll preface this like I did with my FvF review and say brevity is not a word in my vocabulary LOL 😅

The last time I stepped inside a movie theater was 2 years ago, almost to the day, to see Ford v. Ferrari. This time, the only movie that could possibly make me go back to one during a pandemic — double-masked and everything — was, of course, Belfast. A heartfelt, touching, pure, and beautiful film that I absolutely loved. Poignant yet so simple. Jamie Dornan called it a “heartbreaking” and “heartwarming” movie and those really are the two best descriptors of how it makes you feel.

It hit all the notes that I’d think you want a family story like this to have: palpable love, humor, tears, and most of all a family you can cheer for. Buddy’s family definitely was that.

Jude Hill as Buddy is unquestionably the lead actor. And what an absolute little wonder he is! I am so incredibly impressed by him and his performance. Being told from his perspective, he’s in every single scene and we’re witnessing things as he is. His face and expressions are just so earnest. Half of what you get from him aren’t from his lines at all and as observer / conduit for the audience, that very much works to his and our benefit. I think it’s been a long while since I’ve watched a movie that is from the perspective of a child that doesn’t make you feel like you’re an adult looking down, if that makes sense. This movie, in the best way possible, brings you down to Buddy’s level and restores that sort of innocent naiveté in the viewer. It almost feels like you're viewing things as Charlie Brown would, sometimes not even seeing the adults' faces. And when that innocence is ripped away, Jude played the struggle between wanting to stay a child and coming to grips with what’s going on around him perfectly. He truly is a talent and I very much hope (and expect!) to see his name in many more leading roles in the future!

I’m sure it surprises no one that for me Caitriona Balfe is my go-to for Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. She is deserving of every single bit of praise she’s been getting for this role. Dame Judi is amazing as she always is but isn’t really in it enough to make me feel like she should get it. Her parts, two in particular, however were the ones that made me cry the most; having grown up in a generational household with my grandmother as well, I connected with her story more than any other character. Caitriona Balfe, though. Just wow. Huge shout-out to Sir Kenneth for writing this incredible, complex, multi-dimensional character and thinking only of Caitriona when casting. It makes total sense now that his inspiration for casting her came from Mollie Miles's driving scene in FvF. I was shocked at first to hear people say this is Caitriona’s best performance yet. Like, on par with Faith?!? Yes. Yes, it is and maybe then some 🤯

The biggest compliment I can give her, I think, is that she completely disappeared into Ma. I feel like I forgot I was watching Caitriona at times. She had so many notes to play (anger, stubbornness, heartbreak, ferocious protectiveness, joy, and humor) and she did them all one after another seamlessly and effortlessly. I was especially surprised by the humor we see in Ma. I feel like we’ve never truly gotten to see Caitriona properly stretch her funny bone (things like Couple’s Therapy not withstanding lol) and so it was such a pleasant surprise to see it come so naturally to her. There's one scene, a sort of flashback to a moment between Buddy, Ma, and the rent collector that had me in STITCHES. You'll know it when you see it lol. Caitriona also claims she's not a good dancer?? Straight up lies, ma'am.

And like in Faith, Ma has an emotion-filled monologue toward the end and just like then it was simply MASTERFUL. The craziest thing is that she gets maybe three huge moments like that where I thought, "okay submit that scene to the Academy!" It will be the biggest injustice if she doesn’t get recognized for her outstanding work in this film.

Of the men, Ciaran Hinds wins it for me, hands down. Pop’s relationship with Buddy is the perfect, pure mix of best friend and guardian. Ciaran approaches it by never talking to Buddy as a child. He straddles the line of sincere and witty with every word he says it’s just such a joy to watch. He made watching Pop feel like a warm cup of tea on a chilly day, there’s really no better way for me to describe it. Out of the adults, Jamie was maybe the weakest player for me. Not to say he wasn’t very good in it because he was. But he played Pa far more one-note comparatively. He also didn’t have any big emotional stand-out moments that made him shine. If anything he was a really great backboard for the other actors, rounding out their shining moments.

Special shout-out goes to Lara McDonnell who plays Moira, Buddy’s mischievous neighborhood friend. I think I could have been irritated with her character for being a little too predictably devious and more childish than Buddy in some ways, but somehow Lara made that fun to watch.

If I were to nitpick, it’d probably be in a few of Sir Kenneth’s choices in transitions and music. The transition into the Everlasting Love scene was a bit too abrupt for me. It made it feel like something was cut out to get from the previous scene to the singing. A little unfortunate since that scene itself was perfect (MORE of Caitriona dancing? Yes, please!!!). There were also times when I felt like they leant too heavily on the Western shoot-out theme in the music, but the other music moments were so good I can overlook that. And all that said, I definitely think Sir KB deserves to be nominated for Best Original Screenplay and possibly even Best Director for his unique way of making us feel as if we're looking through Buddy's eyes.

Oftentimes you hear movies getting all this Oscars buzz, go to see it, and you end up wondering why it even deserves to be talked about. Belfast, in my opinion wholly and truly deserves it. While I wouldn’t call it a feel good movie, it does just that — makes you feel good. And makes you feel sad and nostalgic. And it makes you feel hopeful, in some ways too. The world they suddenly found themselves living in looks much like what you turn on the news everyday to find: violent, divided, scary. Seeing this family in the middle of it all, scared for their children’s lives and yet still able to hold on to their open-mindedness instead of caving to the pressures of prejudice, reminds you that it doesn’t always have to be that way. If Jamie perfectly described how Belfast makes you feel, Caitriona perfectly put into words how it should make you see:

“I think the thing to take away is how important love and family and community is and the danger of when we let politics divide us and separate us. There's beauty in our differences and I think to retain that love of community, I think that's really special. And how absolutely awful that is when that gets torn apart.”