#that’s literally the first part of the musical

[silvershadow1711]

Adding onto this, just in one small part; the fact that Jayce's murder of a child is meant to be a tragedy for Jayce. Jayce's pain and guilt and turmoil is the important thing here, not the nameless gutter trash he mowed down (because remember that they didn't just kill that one kid; they were killing everyone who came at them), not even the families of that nameless gutter trash. Renni wants to hunt down and kill the people who murdered her son, she's depicted as a monster- literally, she's animated to look like fucking Leatherface, but when Caitlyn hunts down and murders people who are barely even adjacent to the one murdered her mom (her little strikeforce DID kill the other chembarons, remember, and they have nothing to do with Jinx), she gets a cool, stylized music video showingnhow cool and awesome police brutality is.

And you can argue that's because they're the main characters. I get that. But in a show that used the first scenes of the first episode- even before the opening credits began to play- to show the horror, the atrocities perpetrated by the wealthy elites onto the poor and downtrodden, I would expect that show to use those selfsame poor and downtrodden as more than fodder to show the wealthy elites being sad/angry.

No actually I need to add on more to this. Arcane very unfortunately suffers the same issue that a lot of "progressive" shows suffer in Western media, where they go like "here are some real, systemic issues that exist and look at the consequences of these issues", and then either (1) forget to continue with the theme, and/or (2) don't do anything about it beyond slap on a half-hearted Band-Aid solution that never addresses it.

Caitlyn gassing civilians; lack of accessibility for Viktor which created barriers for him due to his disability; enforcers as oppressors, going hand in hand with Noxian imperialism; Jayce weaponzing hextech, and him already having killed a child because of it; not a single moment is really spent on any of these in S2. If anything, the enforcers are really flattened at the end of this season with little nuance, the complexity that shone in characters like Marcus and Grayson disappearing. Many Piltovan characters do not get even a single second of introspection as to how their actions actively contribute to the oppression of Zaun.

[kalpeavaris]

Cyn's Synemy Design Playlist - Pinterest

Finished my new design for Cyn! I wasn't satisfied with the first iteration I made all the way back in September when I first released the fanfiction... so I sat down and made a new one! That reflects my interpretation of her OG personality better. B]]

Find Synemy (the corresponding fanfiction to this design) on AO3!

More info, design notes & whatnot under the cut!

This version of her is made from a backup copy the Solver kept of Cyn's "old" code & personality before it took her over as host. This code was secured within the AS' code and extracted by Nori, who then planted it into a new body to allow Cyn to live her own life.

Can either wear two braids or her hair untied (the two ties infront are always there!) her back hair reaches her legs when untied.

Imitates people's voices and takes on vocal stims she heards. Tessa loves to annoy her by showing her random memes and watches Cyn repeat them for weeks on end out of impulse

Gets along fairly well with most people. It's more of a neutral stance - the people she feels most comfortable with are Uzi, Nori and N. Isn't really on friendly terms with J or V. Tessa and her are... indifferent, but they tolerate each other and occasionally bond over shared interests such as videogames or dark humor.

Although she might look very timid und friendly upon first encountering her, Cyn is VERY capable of being the most sarcastic little shit you ever know. She doesn't have a filter and will use dark/self depricating humor.

Is contantly tired due to her faulty code & other lore reasons. :]]

Still needs to consume oil (or other drone parts) to stay within manageable temperature ranges

Has memory issues and can barely recall her time as Solver host actively, but has flashbacks and nightmares about it. Pretends to not care, but deep down these instances disturb her greatly.

Views Nori as her adoptive mom (and Nori views her as adoptive "kid")

Incredibly invested in videogames, computers and other electrical devices. Loves to take them apart and tinker around, especially when Uzi's around to teach her new stuff.

She like dinosaurs. Her favourites are Utahraptors and Parasaurolophus.

Often listens to music and will straigt up ignore everyone around her if she does. Very invested in rock.

Takes things literal, unless they're memes.

Isn't as alone as she hoped to be in her new OS.

[demarogue]

Gettin' Through the Holidays Mental Health Tricks

If y'all are anything like me, this time of year is triggering AF. Here are some small, very easy grounding exercises that I was taught by my therapist, basically in order of how much I like them for this rage-inducing season. You make like them in a different order, depending on your rage-to-despair ratio.

Push a wall: literally go up to a wall and try to push it over. Really try. I promise you won't push it over, but give it your best shot. Try to hold it as long as you can, and then take a breather and assess whether you need to repeat. Why it works: This is a quick, physical expulsion of the fight-or-flight feeling. It's a bit like punching a wall, but without the potential to hurt yourself/look scary/damage things. You can even do it in front of people and say you're stretching, they'll never know (unless the wall actually falls down, but this will not happen, I assure you).

Shake like a dog: Animals shake to release stress, and you are also an animal. Setting aside time to just shake it out, as vigorously as you can, arms and legs, face, stick your tongue out, pretend you're shaking like a wet dog. You can dance instead, if that feels better, and you can do this to music, but basically the more unhinged you can be, the better. If you are in a place you can scream, scream too! Why it works: like the above, this is a release of pent-up stress and anxiety. Especially if your rage-to-woe ratio is high, some kind of physical exertion is often the best way to burn through the cortisol and adrenaline you're building up.

Bilateral Tapping: Cross your arms over your chest so that your fingertips are at your shoulders, and slowly tap, one hand at a time, back and forth, for about a minute. Breathe slowly. Why it works: This is weird as hell, but because this engages both sides of your brain, it helps override the activity of the amygdala, which is the part of your brain that Makes The Fear. If you're being literally triggered in a situation, i.e. you're having a trauma response, or reliving some family trauma, this is a good one.

Box Breathing: From a comfortable position (can really be seated, laying down or standing), inhale slowly for a count of 4, hold for a count of 4, exhale for a count of 4, hold for a count of 4, then repeat. You can do it for shorter counts or longer counts, but if you vary the counts make sure the exhale is longer than the inhale. You can close your eyes or leave them open. Why it works: This exercise helps you move from a sympathetic (activated) nervous system response to a parasympathetic (balanced) response. I do this one every day, and it's a good gateway to meditation. Especially helpful in anxious or tense situations, but I find if I'm very triggered I need one of the other ones first, or it can make anxiety worse. Breathwork is amazing but not usually as a first exercise if you're very activated, or have been activated a long time.

Ice: Lots of ways to do this one – hands in cold water for 30 seconds, ice pack on the back of your neck, dip your entire face into a bowl of ice water (this one's the most effective). Why it works: I kinda think this is hilarious, but this activates your mammalian dive reflex. It immediately slows your heart-rate, so if you are feeling your blood pressure and heart rate rising, this one is very good. The only reason this one's at the bottom of my list is because I hate being cold.

I wish you all a very get-through-the-holidays-without-hurting-yourself. Take time alone if you need it.

[slaaverin]

I watched AYS for the first time since the show ended today as I was off work sick, and it hit me. They are together.

As in truly and utterly together.

Objectively speaking if anyone was to watch the show, at least the Japan episodes out of context, without knowledge, without prejudice, without malice, they would see a couple. I do know how this isn’t widely seen in the fandom, I’m assuming cult hate and delusion, and ignorance/homophobia, but it’s so so obvious, and I think Jimin and JK knew certain people would see them. I think they wanted that.

In the interest of finding said objectivity I got a friend to watch with me on Disney, and she asked if they were together. Case in point.

They went to a romantic and safe place, one which holds precious memories, where they saw their first snow, walking around like in a hallmark movie, eating good food together, and just being together. I’m not even talking about the train ride, or the hot tub, it’s just how they are. So entwined, they literally move together. They are so in sync, so domestic. This doesn’t come from thin air, or not seeing each other, this level of intimacy is not born of friendship however deep, it’s more.

Take the meal they have in their pjs. Who does that on a bros trip firstly? And then watching them there, it’s so cosy and cute. Jimin only has to pout about wanting more of one of the dishes, and it suddenly appears. Friends don’t do that, or not any that I know, it would be an individual decision, you’d be paying for yourself kinda vibe, not pouting and getting your own way. Same as in the grocery store in CT, Jimin points and rubs his tummy, and gets his way. It’s so cute and endearing.

The constant need to touch, I know about skinship, but this is so different, it’s innocent in someways like they are holding back, but the eyes don’t lie, and there were many moments you can see it truly in all it’s glory.

It’s just so romantic, none of the last three episodes had a bro vibe, neither did CT honestly, and the jeju episodes serve to highlight just how coupley they are.

All this to say I love their love.

Aahh anon what you say is music to my ears I agree with you 100% 👏🏻

I think most people from outside would see them as a couple. That's why it is so wild most people in the fandom are still in denial about this.

The level of intimacy, domesticity, the touches, the looks, the words, the tones, the way their personality are complimentary, the way everything matches between them, how happy they are together, how flirty they get, the little soft moments as well as the loud shocking ones; everything about them screams couple and long-term, stable love relationship.

Why people still do not see it is beyond me. I think it comes down to that they do not want to see it. Simple.

Because everything has been there for years if PEOPLE SIMPLY PAID ATTENTION and I had so much fear about AYS, because it would be blatantly obvious and it was. But I underestimated to which length and mental gymnastics people would do to stay in denial. Some people still managed to try to belittle their bond. How far are they willing to distort reality? How far are they willing to go for reality to fit their own fantasy or fit this fucking bro agenda bullshit? (I'm sick of it)

They are in love.

A part of me wishes everyone would see it. That everyone would get it and support it. But I know this is very selfish, an egoic way to prove everyone we were right all along. But there is nothing to prove. And it would not serve them. If everyone knew it would put them in danger. Because a lot of people aren't loving, and their own country would give them hell.

So maybe this is all a blessing, that just some of us see it and support in our own corner, maybe it's best it does not get too noisy.

I think jikook suspected it. I think a part of them counted on it. They observed the fandom and know how it operates.

Which all keeps them safe.

Those with open hearts and a clear vision saw how incredibly romantic AYS was.

Jikook even repeated it several times.

It was all so gentle and soft, funny and cute, with an ease and a comfort only truly loving partners can convey.

It was joy and happiness, seeing them together.

It was love in it's purest form.

They really bring out the best of each other.

Anyone not seeing this is a fool but to each their own I guess

I'm in love with their love too. It's only natural to be attracted to beauty, and with these two pure souls having a love such as theirs? It's simply magnificent.

AYS went beyond my expectations. There were many things that did not suprise me. But what truly surprised me is seeing..how to put it...the passage of time? The feeling that yes they have been together FOR A LONG TIME and it showed.

Because there was no rush. There was not the visceral need of young love. It was slow, careful, assured, known, tender. It was simple and natural. As easy as breathing.

They are completely intertwined with each other like it's supposed to be this way. And it is.

Isn't it all perfect? It's perfect. It's beautiful. It's pure love. They have butterflies. I have butterlies too.

They don't have anything to prove anymore. And I think there's no need for us to prove it either for any other part of the fandom that don't want to open their eyes to something that is STARING AT THEM IN THE FACE. Let them in their own lies. We know what is true and what is just and it's ok.

Jikook are happy so it's all fine with me.

They know some of us fully support their relationship and I guess it's enough for them.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts anon 💜

[nice1cream]

Just seen 'Wicked the movie' and I have thoughts

Jon M Chu is a genius for realising that respect for the source material is exactly what a musical adaptation needs.

The shots and camera angles tickled my brain real good. I love me some juicy views of colorful fields, waterfalls and mountain ranges.

The background: Shiz, Munchkinland, Oz-dust, the Emerald City - all beautiful. I literally got transported into another world

ARIANA👏GRANDE👏UNDERSTOOD👏THE ASSIGNMENT. Her Glinda was perfect in all the ways. She was spoiled and self-centered, but at the same time goofy and fabulous. Not to mention the voice. She cooked on those high notes

CYNTHIA ERIVO was not playing Elphaba. She became Elphaba. At some point I literally had to remind myself that I was watching an actress and not the actual Wicked Witch of the West. Also her first smile in "The Wizard and I" literally lightened up my world. She was also perfect and her performance has my entire heart.

AND THE CAMEOS!!!! AH THE CAMEOS!!!!

All in all I loved this movie from the first second til the last. I need it to come out on some platform or DVD so I can watch it everyday until part 2 hits the theaters

[denpadokei]

Overtly transfem song for Mizuki!

Before the ena5 hype dies down I would like you all to see one of the most mizuki songs ever. ONE THAT ISN’T DEPRESSING. find me a more mizuki coded song that is all so positive. I dare you.

Boku wa Karen na shoujo ni wa narenai . “I can’t become a pretty girl” HOLD ON it says the narrator became a girl at the end alright. Just look at this, courtesy of the harumaki Gohan wiki. It’s officially called “floret” in the English translation, but like, if you can’t go back to being a bud again you could be a floret. It’s got subs now >:) .

The flower thing is one of the main reasons I made this connection, and a floret is technically the name of a single bloom in a flower that is one of a cluster, (a florescence), like a hydrangea or an an allium. “I can’t be a floret” from the prospective of mizuki in the past is like her saying that she can’t transition and simultaneously remain social, have friends, be in a group. That is what seems to bother mizuki the most, moreso then being trans in the first place imo. A floret is inherently connected to the other florets of the flower head - she clearly needs people, people need her. But she’s not a floret, so she thinks, she’s her own isolated flower of transformation, in bake no hana it’s sung of with fear. Yet it isn’t just mizuki singing, I know the music isn’t cannon to that extent but we all know some stuff can’t really be a coincidence, like how mafuyu was given a line that might reference empurple. Say, the transformation flower was one with all of them as florets, they all undergo some form of transition and they all must have felt disgust, fear and confusion at those changes in their lives. And they all seem to be going through them different times, yet they’re still together as one beautiful flower. And to be honest everyone is part of that, everyone transforms, call it blooming or not. Maybe in ena5 mizuki has come to realise that, it seems to be the main point of the event. Togetherness. She was a floret all along. And she’ll be supported in that flower head of her and niigo and everyone who loves her, a flower head that is, even if far or different part of the same plant of humanity…

Also like, it is literally just “pretty girl” in Japanese. This song is transgender very clearly, I don’t think Harumaki Gohan identifies as a girl (I don’t think anyone knows really), it could be a metaphor, but I’m sure trans people could feel comforted by it. To imagine it as Mizuki is a lot more direct then in this event anyway, so I hope people who wanted that can have this to fuel their imagination. and it really fits the general vibes of this event, with flowers and petals blowing in the wind, white, etc.

No one fits this song more than Gohan himself, but I think the lines about another person’s hair got mizuki too. Whether that’s talking about ena or her sister, doesn’t really matter, but it’s especially nice since it looks like she got a hair cut that specifically references one of them in the new card. And like this event, it isn’t a perfect situation, but it’s going in a bright direction. Even if you can’t believe you are anything at the moment, you have this fully blossomed undying love for someone, which they share for you, so let that make you smile and keep you trying. You can do it mizuki.

There’s also a little reference to Hatsune Miku herself at the end of the second verse I’m pretty sure.

This song was released this year in February, and is sung by Gohan himself. I think it’s pretty underrated for how much I love it. Gohan is also the one who made empurple, it epic but as a hardcore Gohan fan I do not understand it. When the event was happening I know people were waiting for mizu5 too. I really do wish the commissions would have been the other way around, Gohan fits this whole thing like a glove. I have to keep saying Gohan because idk pronouns anymore. Please give this song a listen!

DAY ONE of posting harumaki Gohan things before Christmas!

[gothcsz]

fic authors self rec! when you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. (if you feel like it, no pressure.) spread the self-love ❤️

this took me 4ever i apologize :,) ty for sending me this diva

thoroughfare will always be my #1. she’s my baby, what got me into writing fic in the first place. i love the worldbuilding i’ve done and the development of all the original characters. writing horror is my favorite thing ever and my skill really gets to shine in this fic 🤩 however, my favorite thing about it is javi’s characterization 🥹 i lowkey think i ate with that here. and don't even get me started on how important music is to this fic. we'll be here all day if i start yapping...

have you ever asked yourself: is somebody gonna match my freak? is somebody gonna match my nasty? well i did and from that, the fantasize series was born 🖤 pwp that turned into porn with feelings and i just literally love the dynamic of javi and his gatita. also, all of their smut scenes have been my favorite to write and the ones i find myself rereading constantly! i can't believe it's about to end but at least we're going out with a bang

i fear i would be dumb if i didn't mention unscripted desire because uhhhhh that shit really popped tf off outta nowhere. i swear i've never written 12k words as fast as i did with part 4?! but yeah, this fic as a whole is just developing into something i never expected it to from that first ask i got, lol, but that seems to be very on brand for me.... anyways reader here is my absolute fave like she's a real baddie and only one man is able to handle all that and now he has her and they're about to be a force to be reckoned with within the porn industry.

the most self indulgent fic i've ever written aka purgatory because i just wanna get slutted out by javi and my bestie, okay?! it's literally so hot, i may or may not have watched a few threesome vids to get inspo and i reread it every time i need to feel something. why can't this happen to me irl?! i wanna be javi's diablita...

aaaand lastly, the neighbors series. it deadass feels like a novela i'm ngl 😭 i think what i love most about this is how collaborative it is between myself and my readers. like this is the closest thing we're gonna get to world peace, i fear /j but seriously, i'm loving the angst of it all :,) but don't let me catch neighbor javi out in these streets because i will fist fight him then give him the best pussy of his life whaat who said that

[buryyourrevolutionaries]

my friend guesses the outsiders musical characters part three FINAL PART

(she has never seen the musical, read the book or watched the movie. all she knew beforehand is that there were three brothers, people died, and someone had a pony-based nickname)

Clary (came from a mix of Claire and Sally)

"she's literally gorgeous omg"

"definitely part of the forced heterosexual ship, probably with ponysweat" (for context if this is the first post you are seeing, my friend genuinely believed the main character was named "ponysweat")

"she wants to go to school and become a lawyer" ("I want to help people not go to jail!" - Clary)

"family trauma. with her mom, dad..IDK she's got some family trauma"

"mezzo soprano. I know I didn't do this with anyone else but she's a mezzo"

"she would've voted for Kamala"

"she's not friends with Irwin (Bob) but all of her friends are friends with him so she has to be around him"

"Maybe Irwin has a crush on her but she avoids him"

"she loves ponysweat tho but no one likes their relationship because it takes too much away from the main story and ponysweat's grief for Jonathan (not Johnny but Darry)"

Rick (was very unconfident about this)

"is that a beer opener or a pocket knife?"

"I don't think that knife means anything for his character/when you think of rick you don't think of a knife/it was just the prop the actor wanted in this photo"

"running joke that Rick is obsessed with his hair" ("I may have sexy hair but that doesn't mean I can't fight!"- Rick)

(she didn't have anything else to say about him)

Jeanie

"why is she here?"

"clearly a socialist"

"something in the show is definitely her fault/she definitely did something stupid"

"a whole section of the fandom is dedicated to defending Jeanie"

"friends with Clary I guess"

"no way she's single"

Fizzlepop (the story of how she got here is hilarious)

"third brother?"

"did Benny (her original name for him) die? there's no way two of ponysweat's brothers die!"

"dumbest out of three brothers but also the sweetest"

"HE HAS A NAME TAG! HE MUST HAVE A NICKNAME!"

"lemme look up names that end in "oop"!"

"scoop...his names not poop is it?"

"wait that might not be an o...it's a p!"

"who puts their NICKNAME on a name tag though?"

(looks up compound words that end in pop) "brainpop...technopop...lollipop..."

"what's something in the sixties with pop? A DRINK!"

"ITS FIZZLE POP! OR SODAPOP!"

(after thirty minutes she decided it was a three-way tie between fizzlepop, orangepop, and sodapop but from here on she referred to him as fizzlepop)

"probably a fan favorite if he's dumb and his name is fizzlepop"

"probably the fandom made him gay"

"he's with Jeanie but the fandom is upset because they wanna be with him"

Louis

"he is equally as mean as Irwin (Bob) neither of them are nicer than the other"

"he says a joke about golf at one point"

"more of a fighter than Irwin/he's the brawn to irwin's brains"

"Louis looks uncomfortable with his rich jerkiness! Or he's adjusting his shirt."

"Devious"

"definitely a bad student"

"Irwin/Louis is a popular ship. Wait would fandom ship two people that nobody likes?"

"he definitely dies"

[alexanderwales]

Movie Review: Upstream Color (2013)

I watched Primer when it came out on DVD. It's one of the few movies that, when I finished, I immediately watched a second time. I loved it. It was dense and opaque, and benefited greatly from a second watch, which made the whole thing slot together like a nice little puzzle. It was filmed on a razor-thin budget, with one of the main characters being a writer, director, producer, and editor. I immediately put Shane Carruth on my (then short) list of directors to watch.

So I've been meaning to watch Upstream Color, his second movie, for a full decade now. The reviews for it were never very good, and every Primer fan I knew of said that it was no Primer, and I guess I had other stuff going on for literally a dozen years. I keep a "to watch" movie list, which is usually 20-30 movies deep, and other stuff kept taking priority for one reason or another. I wanted to be in the right mood for it, that was definitely part of it. So I watch a movie every two or three days, something like 100 movies a year, and that means that since Upstream Color came out, I have watched more than a thousand movies instead of watching it.

Spoilers Follow

Let's start with the obvious: Upstream Color is no Primer.

I think that I could fit the story of Upstream Color into a single paragraph. It's not complicated. When we start any movie that my wife doesn't think she'll like, she goes to look up the synopsis and reviews and trivia and stuff, and she quoted me a review that said it was an "opaque mess", and ... I don't agree with that, but I can see where they're coming from.

Here's my plot synopsis:

A man (credited as "Thief") discovers some worms that can be used to induce a hypnotic state. He uses them to hypnotize a woman, Kris, and makes her give him her entire net worth while under hypnosis. When that's done, he leaves, and she writhes around under worm control until being summoned by some music by a different, unconnected man (credited as "Sampler"). The Sampler takes the worm out of her body, implants it into a pig, then releases her. She wakes up with no memory and her life is shattered. Later, she meets Jeff, who had the same thing happen to him, they fall in love, they have a psychic connection to these pigs, they gradually get more in touch with what happened to them, then they go kill the Sampler and rescue the psychic pigs.

I don't think that there's anything in there that anyone could be confused about. The movie spells everything out. There are one or two plot beats aside from that, but this is about it.

It's how the movie does this which is unusual. It's taking show, don't tell to its limits, almost never with dialogue that clarifies anything, and its scenes muddle into each other, with none of them feeling like they last more than a few seconds. There is essentially no grounding, even when it felt to me like there should be, and the movie doesn't ever really stop being a visual tone poem. I found this grating in the first five minutes, then got used to it, and eventually started to find it grating again. I guess my best point of comparison is Terrence Malick's Tree of Life, which I thought was more effective but also did grate on me a little bit.

When a moviemaker does something like this, particularly an auteur (or would-be arteur) like Shane Carruth, I always start by assuming that this is part of the point, that we're being fed the plot one way instead of another because it ties into whatever is going on thematically. And here ...

Where I thought it was most effective was the sequence when the baby pigs were being drowned, since we're almost required to have that whole thing be done with Kuleshov effect, cutting back and forth between the pigs and Kris and the pigs and Jeff. It's a nicely evocative little bit of cinema, even if I didn't think that it emotionally landed for me. Where it's less effective is when we really would have been better served by just having some straightforward exposition, or more standard filmmaking, but I guess if you're committing to the bit, you're really committing.

So what's the story about? What's the analogy, what's the theme?

Kris and Jeff are drawn together because of the psychic connection from the worms/pigs, but also (in my opinion) because they've both been victims of this horrible thing that's happened to them, their entire life having been torn down by some thief, then made to believe that they were somehow responsible. So they've got the psychic thing going on, yes, but they also have parallel traumas, and the same sort of gap in their lives. I think this what I'll call Thesis One, the shared bond of trauma.

Another major thing that struck me when watching the movie was that both our protagonists seem insane from the outside. They have this weird connection to each other that no one could understand (though they don't seem to have friends or family or anyone to talk to who could find it weird). They mix up their memories, and sometimes fight about that. They have bouts of irrationality, paranoia, anger, grief, with no explicable-to-them source. They feel like there's somewhere they're meant to be, but they try to follow that sense, and it leads them nowhere. To me, this immediately said "mental illness", so I'm going to call this Thesis Two, the terror of knowing that something isn't right with you, but having no idea what it is, having this internal feeling inside of you, patterns of behavior that make sense at the time. This movie is basically not shot like a horror movie in any way, and does not use the language of horror films, but I think it does share a lot thematically with the subgenre "mental illness horror" where the protagonist thinks they're crazy. That our two protagonists seem intensely codependent helps push that line.

Lastly, at least some of the movie is about personal identity and meaning, though I'm not sure that I would called that Thesis Three, mostly because I don't know what it's trying to say about personal identity. Clearly both Kris and Jeff are attempting to construct meaning in the wake of what's happened to them, and their identities bleed together with their overlapping memories, but this is just not fulfilled very much, and some of it is wrapped tightly in what I'd call the mental illness stuff.

Even if I'm reasonably confident in what literally happened in the film, and what it's about, there are a few things that don't really click for me.

In a normal film, I would expect that the sequence goes:

woman gets hypnotized and wormed

life is ruined

lots of strange thoughts and adventures with another man who is equally crazy

revelation that she's not crazy after all

revenge and catharsis

But in Upstream Color, the Thief and Sampler are implied to be operating entirely separate from each other. There's a little gap which can't entirely be closed through inference, but it's implied the Sampler incidentally pollutes the water with dead worm-pigs, the organism infects plants, those plants get (totally be coincidence?) taken up by exotic plant foragers, then bought by the Thief. So the Thief and Sampler apparently don't have any relationship with one another.

And yet, it's the Sampler, who removes the worms from people and puts them into pigs, that gets killed in the end. Yes, he was the one to kill the Kris-pig's piglets, but ... I don't really understand this narrative beat. Do they assume that he was the Thief? The Thief gets away with it, and all we see of him in the end is that he's sadly shaking his head because the magic worms are all gone.

I mean, yes, the Sampler is a creep who uses his psychic connection to peep on stranger's lives, and yes, most of these people (seem to be) victims of the Thief, and it's fucked up to not give them information or closure. But if the Sampler and Thief are unrelated, which seems likely to me, then it feels like the Sampler is taking bullets better meant for the Thief? Or is it just because he killed some piglets?

And what does that mean?

I am, moreover, confused about what the function of the Sampler is when compared to what the themes are. Does he tie in with the mental illness angle? No, not really. Does he tie in with shared bond of trauma? Only in that he's preventing people from getting closure, I guess. He's a voyeur, a failed artist, some of this ties to personal identity, but again, it doesn't feel like a strong thesis, it just feels kind of random, especially since we have virtually nothing to go on as far as the Sampler's motives or history. He seemed to me like he was mostly just an artist, with the sounds of nature as his primary art and the experiences of other people as his secondary "art".

I'm going to give my hot take on this movie now, which is that I would have liked it a lot better if it were more traditionally structured. The opening five or so minutes really made me think that I would have been better off leaving it on the to-watch list. The "piecing together the location of the Sampler and getting revenge" stuff was super rushed and kind of nonsensical, and offered no catharsis, only confusion.

Overall, I would say I didn't like the movie. I think it was trying too hard to be deep (for me this is a very high bar to clear), and didn't benefit from the experimental aspects, and would have been better if it at least had a stronger idea of what it was trying to say.

I will now go read some reviews, and maybe that will help something click for me. Hopefully I haven't missed anything major.

[morlock-holmes]

I've been thinking about this. I don't consider myself *especially* literate about this stuff but it very frequently stands out for me in AI art.

I don't just want to repeat what I said above, but AI images frequently don't guide the eye very well. Generally, in the modern representational styles which are being tested here, visual artists use asymmetrical composition and the use of various contrasts (Light and dark, detailed or not detailed, contrast between colors, clear positive and negative space) to move the eye through the composition and to call out the conceptually important parts of the image.

So if you are looking at an image an immediate question is "Where is my eye drawn to most immediately in this image?" If you can't answer that clearly at all (True of some of the AI landscapes), or if different techniques are giving you different or incoherent answers, that can be a strong tell of AI, particularly when *other* technical aspects of the image seem to indicate high degrees of technical competency.

That's a big reason why that fantasy image with the big cats looks bad to Alexander.

I also notice that a lot of the impressionist style AI pieces have extremely strong and noticeable one point perspective, which i think gives them a kind of dynamism that tends to make them look more human.

What I find interesting about the comments on that article (And I guess this was true of the poetry test as well) is that most of the participants don't seem particularly literate in the thing that they are judging; that feels mean to say but reading the comments on that ACX post I see a general ignorance about the mechanics and fashion of modern day representational art.

I don't mean this to be rude, if you play me a Mozart symphony my own music knowledge is such that I would struggle to say anything more coherent than "that sounds nice".

Which means that I also think I would do *extremely* badly if you quizzed me about whether or not a given "classical" song was AI or not.

There's a sense here of asking first year French students whether or not French AI outputs were made by a human or not.

I have a strong sense that we modern people are so constantly bombarded with images that we have begun to resent it on some level, and respond by tuning them out. I do wonder whether visual literacy was more commonplace in the past.

Okay, guys, after reading a post by @centrally-unplanned I just took that ACX "AI Turing Test" that Scott Alexander did, and I am screaming, as the kids used to say.

You guys are way, way overthinking this.

I thought I would do better than average, and I guess I did; excluding three pictures I had seen before, I got 31/46 correct.

Not great if you're taking the SAT, but I feel like if I could call a roulette spin correctly 2 times out of 3 I could clean up in Vegas.

So, what is the secret of my amazing, D+ performance?

You have to look at the use of color and composition as tools to draw the eye to points of interest.

AI is really bad at this, when left to its own devices.

For example, here:

Part of the reason to suspect that this is AI is the "AI house style" and the bad hands that I literally only noticed right this exact second as I was typing this sentence. Even if the hands were rendered correctly, I would still clock this as AI.

The focal point of this piece ought to be the face of the woman and the little dragon she is looking at (Just noticed the dragon's wings don't match up either), but take off your glasses or squint at this for a second:

Your eye is being drawn by the bright gold sparkles on the lower right side of the piece. That particular bright gold is only in that spot on the image, but there's no reason to look there, it's just an upper arm and an elbow. The bright light source highlighting the woman's horn separates it out as a point of interest.

Meanwhile, the weird aurora streaming out of the woman's face on the left side means that it is blending in with the background.

In other words, the way the image is composed, and the subject matter suggest that your eye should be drawn here:

But the use of color suggests that you should look here:

That's a senseless place to draw the eye towards! It would be a really weird mistake for a human to make! In fact, I think there's a strong argument that the really close cropped picture of the face of the character is a strong improvement. It's still not a particularly good composition, but at least the color contrast now draws the eye to the proper points.

In fact, I would say that a good reason for my performance not being even better was this alarming statement at the start of the test:

I've tried to crop some pictures of both types into unusual shapes, so it won't be as easy as "everything that's in DALL-E's default aspect ratio is AI".

Uh...

So how about this one:

This is a lot better anatomically and in terms of the use of color and light to draw the eye towards sensible parts of the painting. The lighting makes pretty good sense in terms of coming from a particular direction and it also draws the eye to effectively to the face and the outstretched hand of the figure.

It's also a really flat and meaningless composition and subject matter that no renaissance artist would have chosen. What is this angel doing, exactly? Our eye is drawn to the face and hand, and the figure is looking off towards the left side, at, uh, what exactly?

But then I thought, "Well, maybe Scott chopped out a giant chunk of the picture, and this is just a detail from, like, the lower right eighth of some giant painting with three other figures that makes total sense"

This makes sense as a piece of a larger human made artwork, but if you tell me, "Nope, that's the whole thing and this is the original, un-cropped picture" I'd go, "Oh, AI, obviously.

All of the ones I had trouble with were AI art with good composition and use of color, and human ones with bad composition and use of color. For example, this one:

This has three solid points of interest arranged in an interesting relationship with different colors to block them out. I'd say the biggest tells are that the astronauts' feet are out of frame, which is a weird choice, and looking closely now, the landscape and smoke immediately to the right of the ship don't really make sense.

But again; I had to think, "Maybe Scott just cropped it weird and they had feet in the original picture."

Here's another problem:

StableDiffusion being bad at composition is such a known problem that there are a variety of tools which a person can use to manually block out the composition. In fact, let me try something.

I popped open Krita (Which now has a StableDiffusion plugin) and after literally dozens of generations and a couple of different models I landed on ZavyChromaXL with the following prompt:

concept art of two astronauts walking towards a spaceship on an alien planet, with a giant moon in th background, artstation, classic scifi, book cover

And this was the best I could do:

Not great, but Krita has a tool that lets you break an image into regions which each have different prompts, so I quickly blocked something out:

Each of those color blobs has a different part of the prompt, so the green region has "futuristic astronauts" the blue is the spaceship, the orange is the moon, grey is the ground and pink is the sky, which gives us:

Still way too much, so we can use Krita's adaptive patch tool and AI object removal to get:

I'm not saying it's high art, or even any good, but it's better than the stuff I was getting from a pure prompt, because a human did the composition.

But it's still so dominated by AI processes that it's fair to call it "AI Art".

Which makes me wonder how many of the AI pictures I called out as human made because one of the traits I was looking for, good composition, was in fact, actually made by a human.

[loveaetingkids]

Gustafson:So you propose stealing the invention book of Mr Jangle?

Don Juan Diego: My boy,it isn’t stealing! We’re just gonna burrow it.Forewer.Not a big deal.

[turtleblogatlast]

“Haven’t You Noticed (I’m a Star)” from Steven Universe works so ridiculously well for Leo

[sadisthetic]

BURST💥

[man-i-love-folklore]

thank you so much for the tag bea!!!

last song: california by chappell roan!

favorite color: green 💚

currently watching: i literally JUST started arcane (like still on episode one)

last movie: ... grown ups.

currently reading: beautiful boy by david sheff. i watched the movie first and then was intrigued and so far it's amazing. devastating, but amazing.

sweet/savory/spicy: sweet, i have a sweet tooth (unfortunately)

last thing i googled: caroline polachek (did you guys know she's 39? the woman doesn't age)

current obsession: writing! my first fanfic, like, unlocked this part of me because i haven't written this much since idek when

currently working on: making more playlists. having one playlist with my entire music taste gets chaotic.

no pressure tags: @buryme-atmakeoutdawn @meghanegghan @can-i-explode-now @suffering-asthmatic-tifosi and anyone who sees this <3

Tagged by @sportsnights :^]

last song i listened to: She's a God by Neck Deep

favourite colours: GREEN GREEN GREEN

currently watching: Half-Life 2 commentary video even though I've never played it myself

last movie i watched: oh god um, Lake Mungo I believe???

currently reading: Parable of the Sower but VERY VERY SLOWLY due to too many things happening

sweet/savoury/spicy: Savory. I cook a lot and I simply need balance

last thing i googled: "Sudden Suspension Inconsistent Lyrics" shoutout 2010 Chicago Pop Punk

current obsession: Does Webfishing count as an obsession? If not, mixology once again since I am stocked up on booze :) then goes hockey bc I am somehow being exposed to it too much

currently working on: A SONG THATS BEEN IN THE BURNER FOR A YEAR PLUS I swear I will finish it before the year end

tagging: @catsstringart @lucifer-nun @bayfacion @stab-at-me @sleepykneesandbonyeyes

[goldensunset]

‘the children yearn for the mines’ is a little too real to me bc when i was a kid and my older siblings were trying to get me into pokémon i really never cared to try playing. BUT. i was obsessed with the underground mining minigame in dppt. i used to beg my sister to let me take a turn playing and set it up for me bc i didn’t know how to so i could go mine for gems nonstop until i cleared that entire cave section of glittering wall spots which always made me so sad bc i was having such a great time. i didn’t even understand the significance of what i was doing but 7 year old me was high off of it

[aeolianblues]

was kinda thinking about this when I saw Renee Rapp live recently-- I didn't know her visual vibe, I'd heard a few songs here and there but I hadn't really *seen* her, and her attire at Osheaga was really casual, a jersey (baseball/basketball?) and slacks. And that was so amazing! I couldn't help thinking, the work Billie Eilish has done for how women in pop music are allowed to dress is incredible. Seeing her up there all comfortable you just know that Billie walked in her oversized tops so that Renee in her slacks could run; Billie walked through all the critcisms about how she dressed slobbily and having to assert that she didn't owe anyone a display of skin, so that Renee could be comfortable and unquestioned running up and down the catwalk in front of 10,000 people. How iconic.

And I don't think we even realised at the time how much something as simple as letting Billie dress the way she as a (then-) 17-year-old teenager dressed, could end up meaning for a future generation of women in music.

Obviously there is still way to go, there were weirdos complaining about how 'plain' Dua Lipa's Glastonbury outfit was this year (in 2024!!), l have to ask, are you at Paris Fashion Week?? She is the musical HEADLINER of an entire day of music at one of the biggest music festivals in the world, and you can't grant her the space to exist as an artist, you have to moan about her dress not being excitingly revealing enough. There's work to do, it's still dismal out there. But the space Billie Eilish has created for a most ordinarily-dressed woman popstar is still heartening.