#the events of the story only take place between the years like...2008 and 2013/14 at most haha

[painted-bees]

This old age or lack there-of discussion is suddenly making me very uncomfortable for the lack of Current Year in Hi-Note information we have

aw, guys haha Mawgie is 23 in 2010 and Raf is 30

They get to enjoy life together until 2053 it's a fair while away, fret not.

[doomonfilm]

Ranking : Spike Lee (1957 - present)

There have been countless directors whose careers have spanned my lifetime, but out of these countless masses, the one whom I can find the most in common ground with (as well as endless inspiration from) is Spike Lee.  A New Yorker through and through, Lee went from a series of films that seamlessly blended hip-hop and old school Hollywood aesthetics, to personal films, to his take on the blockbuster, and currently, to the point where his canon has earned him artistic freedom and expression that many of his peers have not been able to achieve.  He is the perfect bridge between the director-driven mindset of the 1970s and the cultural boundary-pushing films of the 1990s-forward.  Not everything that he directed was a hit or a masterpiece, but this man has more iconic films under his belt that some directors have films to their name.  That being said, it’s time to stir the pot and make an attempt at the monumental task that is ranking the films of Spike Lee.

I will only be including theatrically released feature films of Spike Lee that I have seen.  His documentary work will be excluded, as well as his films I have missed or have yet to see.  Here is a list of these films : Da 5 Bloods, Chi-Raq, Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads, 4 Little Girls, The Original Kings of Comedy, When the Levees Broke, A Huey P. Newton Story. 

20. Oldboy (2013) Every film that you make can’t be a winner.  In the case of Lee’s attempt at remaking Oldboy, there were already two major strikes against it : a superior version of the film already existed, and that version was the middle film of a trilogy.  I doubt that even a team of the most talented directors could have made a superior version of Oldboy that surpassed the original, but after 30 years of making films, it’s admirable that Lee would even attempt something so bold and seemingly insurmountable.  

19. Red Hook Summer (2012) When your film catalog covers three decades, there’s bound to be some overlap, be it stylistically or narratively.  I’ve only seen Red Hook Summer once, but it was impossible for me to look at it subjectively, as it seemed to be a modern day mirror to another one of Lee’s explorations of New York adolescence.  While this story is not a direct copy of a Spike Lee film that I will go into more detail on later, it does feel like the update equivalent that focuses on himself rather than the childhood of his sister.  While an entertaining film from what I can remember, it sits behind a list of previous impressive achievements.

18. She Hate Me (2004) Humor has been an element present in a number of Spike Lee films, but for my money’s worth, this film is the closest thing to an outright comedy that he ever made.  Like a number of films on the back half of his career, he is touching upon important topics (sexuality and toxic masculinity, in this case), but these are topics that he has hit with more nuance and creativity in earlier films.  This film did help transition Anthony Mackie into a leading man role, and he certainly took that opportunity and ran with it, so She Hate Me could be heralded for that alone.  That being said, it was a great idea that slightly missed the mark, therefore placing it on the backend of the memorable films list for Lee.

17. Miracle at St. Anna (2008) This film had the potential to be a breakout resurgence for Spike Lee.  He was coming hot off the heels of Inside Man, a perfect blend of Lee’s style and modern Hollywood fare, so having a period-piece war film seemed like a slam dunk.  His cast was strong, while also being filled of relatively unknown young actors on the verge of becoming stars in their own right, but for whatever reason, this film failed to make a connection with the masses.  While I do remember mostly enjoying my watch, I also remember feeling a bit underwhelmed by the ending, which in turn left me lacking a reason to revisit it.  Maybe it’s a hidden gem that I haven’t seen enough times yet, but at this moment in time, its home is near the bottom of Lee’s impressive list of films.

16. Get on the Bus (1996) Many people’s eyes were opened to racial injustices during the COVID-19 pandemic, as several African-American men and women found themselves on the wrong end of violent acts from the police and other citizens in the midst of a ‘shelter-in-place’ era.  Not only have these injustices been going on for my entire lifetime, but they’ve been a generational trauma for many African-Americans in the United States.  When the Million Man March was announced in 1996, it was not surprising that Spike Lee took it as an opportunity to both document the march and build a narrative around it in which he could showcase a collection of actors he’d either featured in past films or would work with in future films.  To my knowledge, this is one of maybe two or three films about the event, and it was certainly the film released in the closest proximity to it.  For an independent, quick shoot, it definitely stands up, but in comparison to Lee’s other works that benefited from full crews and production schedules, it finds itself paling in comparison.

15.  BlacKkKlansman (2018) Despite the fact that this is the film that finally got Lee some sort of recognition at the Oscars, BlacKkKlansman was not quite the true return to form that many fans of Spike Lee expected.  The film had moments of humor, compelling moments that directly focused on racial injustice and systematic oppression, and it pulled no punches while doing so.  Like a handful of Lee’s other films, however, this one falls when compared to his other films that deal with similar subject matter.  Adam Driver continued to show fans his expansive range, and  Jasper Paakonen deserved INFINITELY more recognition than he got, but ultimately, this film checks all the ‘good’ boxes where it was expected to check the ‘great’ ones.

14. 25th Hour (2002) As the year 2000 approached, Lee seemed to attempt and make a shift from films that specifically spoke on aspects of the African-American experience in favor of occasional films that reached a wider audience.  While Summer of Sam would be considered the first foray into that realm, the true mark of this elevated sense of creative duty came in the form of 25th Hour.  With the actors in tow, in tandem with the cinematography and skilled directing ability displayed in the film, one would expect a powerhouse movie, but ultimately, the expectations exceeded the narrative of this film.  This one is entertaining, don’t get me wrong, but I personally did not find a connection with the story, meaning that the film was, at best, fun to watch.

13. Summer of Sam (1999)  I’ve been a true-crime junkie since my early teenage years, and even the most casual of true-crime fans is more than likely familiar with David Berkowitz, also known to many as the Son of Sam.  While Red Hook Summer did come out after Summer of Sam, it’d be hard to deny the fact that Summer of Sam is the last of Lee’s love letters to New York City.  This was the film where Spike Lee stepped out of his comfort zone of the African-American experience, choosing instead to focus on more colloquial aspects of the American experience, and for my money’s worth, it was the start of an important shift for him.  Despite being light on the Son of Sam action, the actors this film does focus on (and the story it chooses to tell) is a fresh look at a familiar era, and a crowning achievement that signaled new things for Spike Lee.

12.  He Got Game (1998) If you made a Venn diagram of people familiar with Spike Lee, the two biggest circles would be film fans and people who have seen at least one New York Knicks game since the 1990s.  Therefore, the only thing that was really and truly surprising about He Got Game was the fact that it took Spike Lee 15 years and 11 films to make a film about basketball.  On the outset, that’s exactly what it is : a film about basketball.  Viewed with a wider lens, however, this story is a love letter to one of the most popular American inventions, and a story about how it can serve as a common-ground bridge for those from wholly different walks of life.  The juxtaposition of Aaron Copland and Public Enemy made the soundtrack provocative, and Ray Allen stood out in his lead role, holding his own against the living legend that is Denzel Washington, who is always good for a stellar performance in a Spike Lee joint.  Don’t mistake this film’s place on the list for my feelings about it... this is a stellar film, in my opinion, and one of my favorites to revisit.

11. Crooklyn (1994) After making what many would argue to be the most important film of his career (which we will eventually get to), it’s no surprise that Spike Lee circled his creative wagons and made the focus of his next film inward.  Crooklyn covers what seem like many personal bases for Spike Lee : he portrays the New York of the past vividly and beautifully, while spinning a true-to-life tale based on his personal experience, but opting to focus on his sister Joie Lee and his father Bill Lee.  Of Lee’s many, many films, this was the one that I felt the most compelled to see at the time of release, it is one of the two I have the most vivid memories and recollections of, and it has a number of stylistic choices that keep me wonderfully perplexed to this day.  Despite not cracking the top ten Spike Lee films, this one ranks high on the list of Spike Lee films that hit the bullseye of my heart.

10. Jungle Fever (1991) Interracial romance is one of those things that seemingly will always be a sensitive subject.  I’ve heard many people say that Jungle Fever has a dated look on the subject, but I’d argue that the film was very forward thinking, especially in showing that an interracial romance is not the answer to the cultural and societal problems that life presents us.  The movie also touches deeply on drug addiction without crossing over into the realm of being preachy or talking down to the viewer.  It didn’t hurt that Stevie Wonder also managed to create a soundtrack’s worth of new material that instantly brought the seemingly controversial film directly into the public eye.  Maybe it is dated... maybe it is uncomfortable... but what it is, undoubtedly, is an early masterpiece that fell near the end of one of the most stellar introductory runs that any filmmaker has presented us.

9. Clockers (1995) Ever wonder what would happen if a Martin Scorsese film found its way into the hands of Spike Lee?  Well, wonder no longer, because Clockers is out there waiting for you to discover it.  The amount that this movie gets slept on is an outright tragedy and travesty.  The soundtrack is KILLER, the color-timing puts the viewer in an immediate ‘cold-world’ environment, the order of operations presented in this film is brutal and unforgiving, and yet, it manages to be one of the most heartfelt films in the Spike Lee canon.  EVERYONE presented in this movie brought their A-game to the table, from the Spike Lee regulars like Isaiah Washington, John Turturro and Harvey Keitel, to the glorified cameos and supporting roles, like Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Sticky Fingaz and Fredro of Onyx, and relative newcomer but promising leading man Makhi Phifer.  This film is intense, but it is more than worth your time and attention.

8. Bamboozled (2000) Bamboozled was shocking when it was released, to say the least.  The true revelation, however, has been the way that relevance has seemingly caught up to the film... fake wokeness, modern day minstrel shows, low budget/high yield television and behind the scenes scandals have all come to light many years after this film had its initial run.  While this film did not transition Savion Glover into the world of superstardom and crossover success, it certainly crystalized his immense talent and charisma in a way that his recordings of stage shows had previously been unable to capture.  The imagery of America’s strange fascination with the dehumanization of African-Americans for generation after generation is rich, and every performance is compelling.  This was definitely Spike Lee’s first masterpiece of the new millennium, and at the risk of being bittersweet, probably one of his last truly stunning achievements.

7. Girl 6 (1996) Every ranking list has to have the controversial placement, so here’s mine... Girl 6 started as a lingering interest for me.  The internet was just about to change the world, but we were still locked into landlines at the time, with cellular being a luxury, so the world of phone sex still had relevance.  Upon seeing the film, however, I quickly realized that the phone sex exploration was playing counter to a Hollywood hopeful narrative that was brave enough to explore new ground (per the changing times) while being mindful enough to pay homage to the countless stories of Hollywood hopefuls that came before it.  Many of the shifting cinematography looks that made Clockers so gritty were used to make Girl 6 feel dangerously euphoric.  The list of cameos and brief supporting roles were not only a who’s who of cultural movers and shakers at the time, but it ran about as long as my arm.  I recently revisited the film and expected it to be a bit more on the side of kitsch, but surprisingly, the times had not been as hard on the film as I anticipated.  The film shifts quite well between light and dark, and even the ending that initially slightly annoyed me has found a strange sort of charm in my older, more life-experienced years.  Add to this the hilarious running joke of Isaiah Washington being a kleptomaniac in nearly every scene he appears in, and there’s a realization that there are sublayers going on right in front of our eyes.  This collaboration with Suzan-Lori Parks gives me hope that maybe one day, we’ll get a Spike Lee film adaptation of Topdog/Underdog, but we will see.

6. Inside Man (2006) If you had to pick the most ‘Hollywood’ of the Spike Lee films, my money would be on this film ending up as the chosen one.  By this rationale, it makes the film that much more impressive, as it also stands out as one of the most compelling, well-directed and well-acted Spike Lee films.  At the time of its release, it was not only a return to form, but it seemed to signal an evolution.  Spike Lee was able to use his signature, iconic shots that he was known for, like his camera-turned-to-dolly float, or the push-pull zooms, but he was also able to incorporate familiar Hollywood tropes, including the twist ending, and give them a breath of fresh air via an newly infused sense of style.  Lee also stayed true to himself by educating as well as entertaining, bringing to light how atrocities from the past have more than historical connections to modern day benefactors.  While I do think there are a handful of better ‘pure’ Spike Lee films, if I had to pick one movie for a curious party that my be skeptical, this would easily be my pick.

5. She's Gotta Have It (1986) Oh, the joy of having your first film be a breakout success, but not to the point of pigeon-holing your career.  She’s Gotta Have It was an important introductory step to the masses for Spike Lee : it showed his dedication to putting African-American performers into familiar narratives, it showed an appreciation for the voice of women on film that many first-time directors would likely not want to be the initial association to their style, it introduced the world to Mars Blackmon (who became a cultural icon), and it presented sense of style that switched on the viewer the moment before they could label it pretentious.  Having characters address the camera made it feel like a play or a novel, but when the film shifted into movie mode, the camera moved with the energy and grace of a performance artist or dancer, which in turn fed into the character development and narrative it presented.  As a bonus, the property found new life nearly 40 years later as a Netflix original series, introducing new generations to a modern day classic statement of feminism, and how it does not excuse bad behavior.

4. Mo' Better Blues (1990) Those familiar with Spike Lee’s family know that he was raised by jazz bassist Bill Lee, who scored some of Spike’s early films.  By this rationale, it comes as no surprise that Lee could make such a rich, nuanced and heartfelt film about jazz music that serves as an allegory for the hurdles that beset those driven purely by passion.  The conversations about race, musical integrity and commercialism also work on both direct and symbolic levels, giving Mo’ Better Blues some of the highest repeat viewing value of any film in the Spike Lee canon.  The film also marked the first collaboration of Spike Lee and Denzel Washington, a combination that yielded artistic, career, creative, commercial and critical success, led to a multitude of classic performances, and ultimately led to a generational collaborative changing of the guard in the form of John David Washington.  The only negative I can give this film is that it did not lead to future films that explored genres of music like hip-hop and soul.  While She’s Gotta Have It did focus heavily on relationships and intimacy, it could be argued that Mo’ Better Blues was Spike Lee’s first adult contemporary film, and his first look at modern romance in the more ‘traditional’ sense.

3. School Daze (1988) The African-American college experience, specifically that of HBCUs (Historically Black College and Universitys), is one that has often been neglected in the annals of film history.  As a graduate of Clark Atlanta University, it makes total sense that Spike Lee’s second commercial film would focus on that specifically overlooked culture, as it became a fitting vehicle for establishing Lee’s sense of duty and responsibility for education, sharing the African-American experience to the masses, and exposing systematic injustices and hypocrisies that kep the disadvantaged in a disadvantaged position.  The real genius of this film, however, comes in the juxtaposition of presentations it jumps between... for the majority of the film, it is an unflinching look at the coming of age process that teenagers must traverse on their way to adulthood, including the hurdles of romance, forming your identity and expanding your view of the world around you.  At key moments, however, the film switches into musical numbers, song performances and school dances that not only expand on the inner feelings, emotions and desires of characters, but heighten the reality of the story to a dizzying pace.  In all the ways that She’s Gotta Have It put the world on notice that a unique voice was present in the industry, School Daze signaled the continuation of a run that would last another handful of films, and it firmly established Spike Lee as a generational talent. 

2. Do the Right Thing (1989) I would guess that over the course of a career, a director secretly hopes that at least one of their works comes close to making an impact culturally.  In the case of Spike Lee, however, we have a man who released two cultural-shifting films, and did so in a span of less than 5 years.  They say the third time is a charm, and that’s exactly what Do the Right Thing was for Spike Lee.  The vivid colors, stylistic earmarks, historical and cultural sense of urgency and focus on telling minority stories all expanded greatly with this film, which acted as both a parable of how past injustices can come back to haunt you, and a harbinger of how the reactions to these continued injustices would only amplify if not addressed.  The fact that Spike Lee not only directed this film, but played the lead actor as well, is a monumental achievement, especially considering how few flaws the film has, if any.  Several established actors played some of their most iconic roles in this film, and a breadth of newer, younger faces exploded onto the scene, almost all of whom either continued to work with Lee or found themselves evolving their careers in the wake of Do the Right Thing.  The film is also directly responsible for perhaps the most iconic hip-hop song of all time, Public Enemy’s classic protest anthem Fight The Power.  Any fan of film would be foolish to skip the Spike Lee catalog, but regardless of whether you’re interested in his work or not, this film is one of two he made that should flatly be considered required viewing across the board.  The other one, being...

1. Malcolm X (1992) For everything that Do the Right Thing did for Spike Lee and those involved in the production, the monumentally powerful biopic Malcolm X did all of that while also managing to humanize, canonize and create and icon out of a man that America tried its best to demonize.  The masterful hand that Lee used to direct this film shows, as this film is the most ‘every frame a painting’ in his canon.  Everything from the period costuming to the locations to the dance numbers to the cinematography absolutely leaps off of the screen.  The editing is kinetic, the performances are full of life and depth, and the narrative does just enough going forwards and backwards to make proper connections without beating it over the head of the viewer.  The respect shown to Malcolm X is massive, so much so that almost seemingly overnight, Malcolm X went from being a feared and often heavily criticized sign of aggressive blackness to a commercial commodity and household name, with the famous X suddenly adorning t-shirts, baseball caps and necklaces of all American youth, not just minorities.  The impact of this film was so immediate that many schools held field trips for viewings, which further cemented the immediate and historical value of the film.  Often, the connotation of saying someone ‘peaked’ for a film so early in their career would be negative, but the heights to which Malcolm X achieved on all fronts meant that even if the rest of Lee’s career was a steady decline (which it certainly wasn’t), he more than likely still would have ended up in a pantheon far above that of the average director.

With projects reportedly in the early stages of development, it doesn’t look like Spike Lee has any plans on stopping anytime soon.  I certainly owe it to myself to see the handful of his films and documentaries that I’ve not seen yet... who knows, perhaps I may even go back one day and add the documentaries into the list, or find a surprise gem in one of his more recent movies I’ve yet to see.  

[chrisemrysfics]

That moment I can’t recall for sure when I first touched fanfics. And then you get this long post because I rambled about trying to recall and finding the clues.

Read more, but yeah if you’re curious, it’s pretty much my history with reading then writing fics, the fandoms and years, with one two little notes on what I was doing original writing wise.

Long story short: I first started reading fics in (most likely second half of) 2008 and first started writing by the end of 2009, 2009-2011 was a very productive time and it was in YGO GX fandom, then I had a burn out for multiple reason, and it’s by first half of 2013 that I finally had another good productive time with BBC Merlin (while I had mostly left YGO GX, with one fic I still open to finish in some ways), end of 2013 I started writing for Pokemon, and then for a few years I’ve picked up fandoms but never really went far, like I had short term burst of inspiration energy, and long term was just very slow updating because I didn’t wish to quit any of my fics, and then in 2017 I discovered DGM and by July 2017 I was writing for it and have been quite productive since then, especially the first year or so, a big part because it was like, the first big love I have had since BBC Merlin, and it grew as my all time favorite.

A big part of Assassin’s Light being easy to write for a period of time is because it’s half DGM, of course as you noticed things did need to slow down for me, but my love and inspiration for DGM has not lessened. MDZS did come and quickly made me fall so very deeply in love with it, I don’t hide that I love it a little bit more than DGM, but at present time, both DGM and MDZS are my focus, with a slightly easier time writing for MDZS.

(Everything else is still on-going, but very, very, very slow).

The problem is, my files for my fics, I moved them at some point, or copy paste, the oldest dates from 2014 which is two years after I stopped college, which is likely also due to how I changed laptop and such along the years. And the other problem is, I once left ffnet then came back, so I can’t see anymore the actual, initial publish dates.

The best I can use is the date of when I joined ffnet, which is in 2009, but this also places me at 17. I could have been writing my first fic before that, but I wouldn’t have been able to post it until then, and I don’t feel like I had multiple chapters to post, so it is likely that I started writing fics at 16/17. It was my second (of three) years of high school at that age range.

As I feel like I can recall I was reading fics in middle school, the best I can guess is that I started reading fics in my last year of middle school (14 to 15), probably toward the end of it, which kind of feels about right? But that means I spend around a year just reading, like if it’s at the end of middle school, it’s close to when I got to 15, so 2007 (as I would have had my 15th birthday in 2007).

Which sounds about right, I do feel “2007″ is the year I remember. In 2008 I would have had my 16th birthday, and it would have been a year or so since I’ve started reading fics, but the ffnet profile says I joined 11 December 2009, so that’s past my 17th birthday, and makes it easily two years since I started reading fics.

Which blows my mind a bit because I was convinced I started writing not long after, but apparently, not? Like I don’t recall having posted elsewhere before ffnet, so in all logic, it is in December 2009 that I made my account, and likely posted my first fic not long after. So however long I was reading, I was already 17 when I first wrote fics (or late 16 if I started writing a bit but didn’t post).

It is possible I have been mixing up my fic dates with original write, as in that case, I am certain I started writing my first novel in the end of middle school, so the “2007″ in my brain is quite likely when I started writing my first novel (it was end of middle school, so the last few months of being 14 and around being 15, which does all place the year as 2007). Which does make more sense, now that I’m trying to remember, I think I didn’t know yet fanfics when I started writing my original novel?

In short: 2007 aka 14-15, I was writing the start of my original novel (I didn’t finish back then), and somewhere 15-16 so in 2008 I started reading fics (and it was my first year of high school, which, actually does fit better the settings of the school library I vaguely recall). And roughly one year after, in 2009 when I was 17, I made my ffnet account and posted my first fic (which was written either on the spot, or started a few weeks before I made my account, but in any case I was 17 when I wrote my first fic).

For the record: that first fic was Angel and Sephirot in YGO GX, although Eventful Journey followed soon after, so both were completed somewhere in 2010 as I remember I was writing quickly back then, like it was already December 2009 so early 2010 I was very, very likely writing and posting for both fics, and by the end of 2010 I had completed Angel and Sephirot. I know my next multi chap was Hellish Chronicles, and I can find review reply from 2011 in my ffnet inbox. I do think I had some time between Angel and Sephirot and Hellish Chronicle, so that’s why I do feel I finished that first fic at most mid 2010 (and continued more slowly working on Eventful Journey).

I was writing other fics that I had adopted during/after my writing on Hellish Chronicle (which I haven’t put back as I lost contact with the original author, so out of respect I haven’t put them back up), and by September 2011 I can find messages where I mention I was working hard for the start of the second year of college, which does fit since I dropped college after I finished my second year in June 2012, and this also really slowed me down when it came to fics.

In December 2013, I can see the “oldest” fic is Always by your side in BBC Merlin, which is the first I had reposted, and my AO3 was made on February 2013, and I recall that I removed my fic from ffnet when there was some crackdown on fics, but only because I could post them on AO3, so this means I removed my fics from ffnet somewhere between february and december of 2013 (at most, from february to december, less if I didn’t remove them right away). And I started writing for BBC Merlin in 2013 (which seem to be end of 2013), which was after maybe one year or one and a half since I properly wrote anything multi chaptered (while some of the last YGO GX writing I did, one shots, were dated October 2013 so there were still months).

2007 (14-15) is first dabble in original novel, 2008 (15-16) is when I first started reading fics (and never stopped since then!), December 2009 (17) is when I created my ffnet account and so could post fics, first half of 2010 (still 17) is when I likely wrote and finished Angel and Sephirot, 2010-2011 (17-18) is when I was writing for YGO GX, end of 2001-first half of 2012 is when I had too much going on to write as much and so spent months either not writing, or like, writing one chapter every few weeks/months, but also it’s second half of 2012 that I started working again on my first novel, February 2013 I made my AO3 account, in July 2013 I first started writing for BBC Merlin, October 2013 I had written some one shots for YGO GX, but was mostly writing for BBC Merlin.

Let’s see for when I started dabbling in other fandoms. Pokemon is December 2013, December 2014 and early 2015 is when I touched KKM (didn’t go far back then in the fics though), end of 2015 is when I wrote a bit for FNAF (same, didn’t go far), March 2016 is when I started on White Collar fic (once more, didn’t go far), (and March 2016 was also when I first posted my first novel), August 2016 is when I started on Natsume Yuujinchou fic (went a few chapters with not too much time between updates), May 2017 is when I started working on Outlast fic (didn’t go far), and it’s in July of 2017 that I finally touched DGM, which soon became my focus.

Assassin’s Light was started in January 2019, or well, was posted then, I had started writing for it before, through end of 2018, but yeah early 2019 was Assassin’s Light, and in general since 2017 I have been mostly focused on DGM. And then October 2019 I posted Shadows Symphonie, and since then I mostly focused on MDZS while also working on my DGM fics when I can; and leaving everything else to work on whenever I have a higher dose of inspiration-energy. Which is rarer, but I haven’t quitted my other fics.

All in all, I was relatively able to be quick from 2009 to 2011, but college and personal stuff really burned me out, I lost interest in YGO GX especially as it felt different to how I came to write by 2013 (which is why my first two fics are the only one that I might rewrite one day), BBC Merlin stole my heart and brought me back to writing fics properly, I wrote more for it compared to all other fandoms that followed until DGM. All those other fandoms, I had a burst of inspiration, but the actual drive didn’t last, which I also suspect is because it did take me years to feel more, recovered. That and I was working on my original writing too, so. And then when I came into DGM, it brought me a large dose of inspiration, and I’ve wriiten more for it than any other fandom.

When you look at it, I have indeed the most fics in DGM (especially as I did events), then it’s BBC Merlin (which is still one of my all time favorite, alongside DGM and MDZS), and then it’s YGO GX (which is due to how I was more active very early on then the burn out hit me).

And while in number I don’t have as many MDZS fics, in spirit I certainly place it as same level as DGM.

[8771eh]

A Personal Chef

Or the 5 times Sid's Chef walked in on things she didn't want to see and one time she saw something she wanted to.

1. Oct 2008-Chez Lemieux Pittsburgh, PA

It all started at a huge event. Well for the rich and famous of Pittsburgh it wasn't that big of a deal. However, she thought it was enormous. Especially as the first event that her mentor had asked her to help prep and work. It was her menu that the upper echelon of the steel city were consuming and that knowledge was overwhelming.

She had a few minutes to step outside for a bathroom break and was able to see faces she had only ever seen on the tv and voices she only heard on the radio mingling in the crowd.

The best thing about being a chef was that compliments were paid to you but so often people did not realize who you were when you went thru a crowd without the appropriate hat. She was more then fine with that because she hated attention being directly on her. Let the attention be on her food, on the combination of sweet and savory or spicey and tangy; not on her face. In fact she would much rather work on smaller crowds with an occasional big event. Then she could be the sole person in the kitchen and manage everything on her own. Not have the extra stress of managing others.

She turned the corner and stopped mid step. Before her were two hockey players who the city were talking about reviving a failing franchise.  And they were staring intently at one another, a pink flush on Sidney Crosby's face as Evgeni Malkin cupped his hand over the Sid's cheek, his thumb brushing the apple of his cheek.

She took a couple steps backwards and purposefully stomped her feet as she moved back to the corner. While protecting their privacy was imperative, her bladder was demanding relief before she could get back and make sure the kitchen was running smoothly.

This time as she turned the corner Crosby was standing alone in the hallway trying to will the blush from his face. He smiled at her shyly.

"Oh, hey. Are you the chef?" He asked as he took in her outfit.

"Yes, I am. I'm Vanny. I hope you're enjoying yourself." She was trying to be polite but definitely did not miss the blush that deepened on Crosby's face.

"For sure. The food has been great. Listen, Natalie was talking about how much it helped her to have a chef while Mario was playing and the kids were babies. I was thinking it might be helpful to get a chef who can maybe help me out with food." Crosby chuckled as he looked away while rubbing the back of his neck. "Would you know if anybody who does that?"

"Oh, actually, I just might." Crosby's smile seemed to relax as she smiled back at him. This might work better then she expected.

2. Sept 2009- Crosby Kitchen

She was ecstatic about the Stanley cup celebrations coming to a close. Sidney's schedule had been ridiculous with all the parties and then attempts to get back on a meal plan. Then the amount of cheating he would do. Especially after Malkin-call me Geno- came back from Russia. She was surprised Sidney hasnt asked her to start cooking for the two of them with how often the other man was over.

That didnt mean that she wasnt going to leave him out though. She loved seeing people enjoy her food but she loved trying new recipes more. When Geno started to come around more often  she spoke with her colleague who had spent a year training in Moscow. She had just picked up some ingrediants to try and make a healthier version of a cold salad her friend had sent her when she heard voices from the kitchen. She stopped just outside the door way where she could see Sidney holding his head and pacing tightly near the fridge. Geno was propped against the island with a patient look.

"We need to stop. This is a huge mistake." Sidney glanced towards Geno before he turned his back to him during his small circuit. She watched as Geno nodded in agreement before pushing himself off the island and moving closer.

"Is big mistake. But not most big. We just win Cup, Sid. We not deserve?" Geno stopped himself on an invisible line allowing Sidney his pacing space.

Vanny watched as Sidney hesitated a step before looking back at Geno. His back was to her but she could see the hope and worry mixed on Geno's face.

"Its a bad mistake, G." He sighed heavily, "Can we keep kissing until we think this through?" Geno reached out and placed a hand on Sidney's face. Similarly to the way she had found them at the Lemieux household the year prior.

"Take all the time you need. You a big mistake I want make again and again. Choose you each time, Sidka." He whispered before Sidney pressed forward to kiss him.

She definitely forgot butter or would need more butter after they had stopped steaming up her kitchen. She would also need bleach if the rustling of fabric was any sign of what was happening.

3. March 14, 2011- Crosby Kitchen

Cooking in minimal lighting was an interesting experience.  Cooking for two injured cranky hockey players was more of an experience.  She had worked it out that she would cook the meals at her place and bring them to Sidney's house so he and Geno could try to maneuver their limitations.

Today was different tho.  Sidney had been seeming a little bit better over the past couple weeks. She had come in many times to Geno and Sidney on the couch. Geno reading with a dim book lamp attached to his kindle while Sidney looked asleep in the darkened room. The past week the lights had been on more often, there were gym clothes scattered across the laundry room and louder voices or laughter coming from the rec room.

Today she had prepared a ratatouille in hopes that the continuation of food that required minimal chewing would help with the constant ache caused from the concussion. She had become an expert in entering the house from the garage quietly in the midst of the sort days of the concussion.

However she wanted to start rethinking how quietly she entered. The laundry room was between the garage and kitchen. She stopped in there as she heard a firm 'No.' Coming from the kitchen.

Peeking around the corner she could see Sidney sitting on the island with Geno standing between his legs, his crutches on the floor.

"But I'm miss you."

"Geno. I'm serious you are not giving me a blow job. What about your knee?"

"Trust me, my knee miss you too. Sidnyushka, you skate for first time in months! You keep saying no sex, no skate, no hockey, no tv, no fun with concussion."

"Wow, G, glad I've been such a bore while I've been in pain. You know-"

"No, you not listen. You skate today, yes?" Vanny assumed Geno was waiting for Sidney to nod. "And your head not hurt?" There was a pause before a soft gasp followed by soft spoken Russian. "See you on skates again is what I want, but want you happy most. You come back today and so happy. You not tell me you think you ready to skate but you do this and see you most happy is like you most beautiful." 

"I didn't know if the team would clear me."

"But you’re not tell me, so I should get included by suck you after hard work."  There was the sound of kissing mixed with fabric rustling. Vanny was certain she had forgotten to turn off a stove at home and knew she had more bleach at home. She needed to start finding new places to keep bleach in this house if her poor kitchen was going to be defiled.

4. April 2013-

"Damnit, G, I want your dick in my mouth." Vanny froze. She thought of the location of the nearest spray bottle she had prepped with bleach and glanced towards the laundry room for her gloves. She was not paid enough to keep walking in on this stuff.  For a couple who thought they were being really discreet, they are pretty oblivious to the domestic service crew.

By the end of the concussion and knee injuries, the entire house were well aware of how deeply in love the two hockey players were. As well as how stupid they were about communication. Mostly the staff got together on game nights and gossiped about who had walked in on what. Jaden swore they would end up outting themselves during a game and kept a book of all the near misses and missed dates as their pot grew larger.

Vanny sighed, her coworkers had stories, but they could never compare to what happened in her kitchen. She heard the sounds of kissing and fabric rustling, something hitting the ground. Years of working in the Crosby household had taught her to not look, to go do anything else. When she heard Sid state "I may be missing half my teeth but I can still suck your dick. G." She knew it was time to leave and probably call it a night. They could sort their own food out tonight and she could find a new way to blend recipes for Sidney's broken jaw.

5.  NYE 2015- Crosby Kitchen

Vanny was stopped in the pantry. She didnt think they would be home this early-werent they on a road trip? She wasnt sure but either way they were in her kitchen. Going into the fridge and she didnt have the courage to leave the pantry. She had seen them in so many states of undress without them knowing that she did not have the patience to see them in whatever state with their knowledge.

"C'mon, G, its new years eve and we are going to celebrate together. I have plans." Vanny could hear the fridge shut, cabinet doors open as socked feet shuffled around the kitchen.

"Yes, I'm see maybe plan, but most worried you not joking here."

"Why would I be joking?"

"Because you not like that and now you have big jar full?"

"Oh? No, Vanny has it on hand to make stuff for you when you come over for longer stints. Pretty sure I saw some licorice for Olli in the cupboard last night. She is amazingly thoughtful. I dont think-" Vanny cant help the smile at Sidney's compliment but is well aware that Sidney is oblivious to the fact that she has been cooking for both of them for years.

"Yes, Vanny most wonderful chef.  Not bad with Russian recipes, but Sidka, is maybe popular food. But you most wrong."

"Where is your sense of adventure"

"Is most big insult to Russia, you think mayonnaise good for sexy times, Sidka. Lose your Russian card before even get one." Vanny can hear a scoff and then giggling. "Never allowed to come Russia. Most sad because I am wanting take you to see Magnitogorsk."

Their voices fade as they disappear down the hall. Vanny sighs and then steps out of the pantry. She eyes the jar on the counter then promptly drops in it the trash. Mixing bleach and food wouldnt be a healthy choice.

+1 7/31/18--Cole Harbour, NS

Geno is chattering with Vanny about the recipe she is using for the salmon when she notices Sid standing just out of the kitchen doorway. He is staring intently at Geno. She has been around for so many years  and seen many of the looks between the two men as their relationship grew. As they allowed others in on their life together.

She even knew the looks that meant she needed extra bleach and to prep some whisky balls for Lita when she got the next load of sheets in the wash.  There was only so much bleach the sheets could handle. Or the looks they shared when they didn't realize they were not alone.

No, this look was not like that. This one was what she saw in interviews. Like he was schooling himself to not give anything away. He glanced briefly at Vanny and she could see his shoulders heave as he held her gaze for a moment.

"Hey Zhenya, Vanny." Sid greeted as he walked past and pressed a kiss to Geno's arm before heading to the wine cellar. Vanny picked up the platter on the counter and excused herself quickly from the conversation. She needed to get these stuffed mushrooms out to the table before Geno tried to eat them all.

As she walked back into the kitchen, she stopped just at the entry way, Geno was fiddling with a bottle opener as Sid looked on nervously.  As Geno turned to use to counter for leverage and started mumbling in Russian about the cork, Vanny covered her mouth to stop her gasp from being audible as Sid dropped to one knee.

"Sid, what you do to bottle? It st-" his words trailed off as he turned and glanced around the room for Sid before looking down. The hand holding the bottle dropped to one side and the other hand holding the corkscrew went to his mouth. "Sidney? Why you on knee?"

"I have probably driven Tanger, Flower and Jack crazy with all the different words I've tried to put together. You know I'm much better at scoring goals then saying the emotional stuff. And Flower gave me a bunch of shit when I tried to use hockey metaphors even if thats-" Sid shakes his head and smiles then pulls out a small velvet box. "Enough rambling, here's the thing, I love you. I have loved you for  so long and I want to keep loving you until you tell me to stop. So, Evgeni Vladimirovich Malkin, will you marry me?"

Vanny can feel her eyes watering in the silence that fills the room after Sid finishes speaking. She watches as Geno allows a rush of emotions to cross his face because he has always been one to wear his heart on his sleeve.

"G?" Sid shifts minutely on his knee. Vanny can't see his face to know what expression he is showing and she doesn't dare move to draw attention to herself.

'Sidnyushka," Geno turns and puts the bottle and corkscrew on the counter before pulling Sid to his feet. "Of course I marry you. But Sid, why you have to beat me? Propose not competition. Have big plan, best plan for your birthday. Seryozah, Taylor and Phil all help me make most plan so you say yes but need best plan because-" Geno is cut off as Sid presses a kiss to his lips.

"You know I'm a competitive asshole, Zhenya. I want to marry you regardless but, baby, I win so you win and we win."

"Best team." Geno mutters where their faces are still pressed together.  Vanny watches as Geno pulls away enough to ret his forehead against Sid's. "Ok,  yes. I'm marry you make you most lucky man to be husband to Evgeni Malkin." Sid laughs as he drops the velvet box to the counter and moves Geno's left arm so he can slide the ring on. 

"Sidnyushka, I have ring for you upstairs. Love you most." Geno is cupping Sid's face in hands and peppering kisses on him as Sid giggles wetly. Vanny figures this is the time to give them a little extra privacy. Her kitchen is safe with all the guests, but emotions are high and they deserve a true moment alone.

Besides, she needs to start looking at who she can rope into helping with a wedding.

[theliberaltony]

via FiveThirtyEight tells compelling data-driven stories about politics, sports and science.

It took a while, but President Trump’s second State of the Union address is finally here. From one perspective, the fact that it’s happening is more important than the speech itself — it was nearly the casualty of a fight between Trump and House Democrats over funding a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Tensions remain high as Congress and the president work toward a Feb. 15 deadline to avert another government shutdown. Trump’s address starts at 9 p.m. Eastern time tonight, and we’ll be live blogging our thoughts in real time at FiveThirtyEight.com. First, though, let’s talk a little bit about how State of the Union addresses work and what you can expect this evening.

1. The speeches don’t affect approval ratings much

State of the Union addresses are generally meant as laundry lists of legislation for Congress to pursue — not soaring examples of oratory like presidential acceptance speeches. So it makes sense that, unlike political conventions, State of the Union addresses don’t produce a polling “bounce” for the president — but nor do they take much of a toll. In most cases, their political impact is close to nil.

Gallup has measured presidential job approval ratings both before and after State of the Union speeches since 1978 (for a total of 35, not including the addresses before a joint session of Congress that newly elected presidents gave in their first year in office1). If you look at the difference between those pre- and post-speech approval ratings, the State of the Union has produced an average approval-rating bump of … 0.2 percent. In fact, a president has been just as likely to see his approval rating decrease as increase: 15 speeches have produced an approval rating bump, while 15 have yielded a decline (the remaining five effected no change at all).

How the State of the Union affects presidential approval

Approval rating before and after the speech Year President Before After Change 1998 Clinton 59% 69% +10 1996 Clinton 46 52 +6 2005 W. Bush 51 57 +6 1994 Clinton 54 58 +4 2016 Obama 45 49 +4 1984 Reagan 52 55 +3 2015 Obama 45 48 +3 1980 Carter 56 58 +2 1995 Clinton 47 49 +2 2012 Obama 44 46 +2 2018 Trump 38 40 +2 1988 Reagan 49 50 +1 1992 H.W. Bush 46 47 +1 2003 W. Bush 60 61 +1 2014 Obama 41 42 +1 1982 Reagan 47 47 0 1999 Clinton 69 69 0 2008 W. Bush 34 34 0 2010 Obama 48 48 0 2011 Obama 50 50 0 1979 Carter 43 42 -1 1986 Reagan 64 63 -1 1991 H.W. Bush 83 82 -1 2000 Clinton 64 63 -1 2006 W. Bush 43 42 -1 1983 Reagan 37 35 -2 2002 W. Bush 84 82 -2 2013 Obama 52 50 -2 1978 Carter 55 52 -3 1997 Clinton 60 57 -3 1985 Reagan 64 60 -4 2004 W. Bush 53 49 -4 2007 W. Bush 36 32 -4 1987 Reagan 48 43 -5 1990 H.W. Bush 80 73 -7 Average change +0.2 Median change 0 Average absolute change 2.5 Median absolute change 2

2018 ratings are based on weekly Gallup polls, whereas other years are based on rolling daily averages.

Source: Gallup

Even when a president’s approval rating has increased or declined in the period immediately following a State of the Union, the shift usually isn’t big. The average absolute change (e.g., treating a 4-point dip like a 4-point rise) has been 2.5 percentage points. Presidential approval ratings have budged by more than 4 points in either direction after only five of the 35 speeches, and in those cases, it’s often easier to attribute the shifts to outside events. For example, the 2005 State of the Union came a few days after Iraq’s first democratic election in half a century, which reflected well on President George W. Bush’s Iraq policy.

That should make political analysts think twice when assessing the impact of tonight’s speech. Say Trump’s speech goes well and his approval rating is up 5 points a week from now. Pundits might try to connect the two, but history tells us that the State of Union probably wouldn’t be the reason behind that increase. That said, don’t be surprised if Trump’s approval rating does improve in the next few weeks regardless of how the speech is received. He is probably due for an uptick — his approval rating fell substantially during the recent government shutdown, but the polling effects of a shutdown have historically been short-lived.

2. The speeches don’t influence legislation

Presidents use State of the Union addresses to lay out their policy priorities and persuade Congress to pass them, but they are typically successful at only the first of those objectives. According to political scientists Donna Hoffman and Alison Howard, the average State of the Union from 1965 to 2015 (plus those pesky joint addresses to Congress2) contained 34 policy proposals.

But the share of those proposals that became law within a year of being included in an address varied. On average, Hoffman and Howard found that only about 25 percent of the president’s ideas were fully enacted within a year.3

It’s particularly difficult for a president to get his agenda passed when his party doesn’t control Congress. For example, 33 percent of the proposals in Barack Obama’s 2009 speech and 49 percent of those in his 2010 speech were fully implemented by the Democrat-controlled 111th Congress, but Obama’s success rate dropped when control of Congress was split between Republicans and Democrats from 2011 through 2014. On average, 14 percent of Obama’s proposals in his speeches in those four years were fully implemented within a year. That doesn’t bode well for Trump’s proposals — one month into the 116th Congress, Trump and House Democrats already have an extremely adversarial relationship.

  3. Presidents end up speaking to their own party

Although the audience for the State of the Union is theoretically all Americans, viewership of the event has had a decidedly partisan gleam. For both of Trump’s previous addresses to Congress, more self-identified Republicans than Democrats watched, according to polls that were conducted after the speeches. And we can probably expect more of the same in 2019. People from the president’s party usually have been more interested in hearing what he has to say since at least the end of the George H.W. Bush administration:4

While it’s unlikely that this trend will change tonight — after all, Trump is the most polarizing president on record — voters of all stripes may want to hear what the president has to say in the aftermath of the longest government shutdown in history and as the standoff over the border wall funding continues. Others may have been drawn in by the dispute over when the State of the Union would take place.

  4. But the speeches are part of an important democratic tradition

The importance of the State of the Union in affecting policy or public opinion may be overblown, but it does provide a unique opportunity for the president to speak simultaneously to the public and to Congress. And even though the president is the focal point, the address is really about a president’s legislative agenda, which Congress has the power to enact (or not). Members of both parties sit in the same room and listen to the president. Occasionally, they find common ground. More often than not, they disagree. But a president laying out his or her priorities before Congress is a powerful symbolic reminder that the presidency and legislature are coequal branches of government.

The State of the Union also provides a sense of historical continuity. The address has been either delivered to Congress or submitted as a written annual message nearly every year since George Washington assumed office. And while the televised prime-time address dates only to the 1960s, it does put Trump in the company of former presidents like Lyndon Johnson, Ronald Reagan and more recent predecessors like George W. Bush and Obama. By participating in this ritualized address, presidents signal that they are part of history and that the office transcends any single president.

Whether Trump adheres to the usual script tonight or does something, well, Trump-like, the format and setting of the address will push viewers to think about how he fills the office in comparison to past leaders. And at a time when there’s a lot of disagreement over policy, it’s good for the president to go before the American people to make his case, subjecting himself to both public scrutiny and opposing viewpoints. The State of the Union isn’t perfect, but it’s better than the president speaking to the public without Congress present — or, even worse, not speaking at all.

[eggoreviews]

All MCU Films RANKED

Recently, I kind of got out of the fake fan box when I finally finished watching through the many MCU films I’d missed over the last ten years. And it was clear as I was going along that Marvel has definitely had its weak points, but its strong points made everything worth the watch. So here’s my list of all MCU films up to Infinity War ranked from worst to best! (I know Antman and the wasp came out on saturday but I’m a UK egg so I have to wait til fuckin august to get my insect content so guess I’ll die)

Disclaimer: My opinion will probably, definitely not be yours

19. Iron Man 2 (2010)

As much as I love pretty much all of the main cast, somehow this film falls completely flat for me. First off, as I mentioned in my other Marvel list, Whiplash is kind of just a terrible villain and his motives for doing anything he does during this film is mostly absent. Also, compared to how well structured the first Iron Man film’s narrative felt, the story for this instalment is messy and very difficult to keep track of. Instead of escaping terrorists and fighting a genuinely memorable villain, Tony instead spends this film going to board meetings and expos and for some reason at one point, a race in Monaco? And then he’s in the race? I’m just confused. Point is, they kinda fucked this one up.

18. The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Thinking about it, this film isn’t terrible. It’s just a bit eh. At this point, Marvel were only just really finding their feet with these films and it’s notoriously difficult to make a decent Hulk film. So what really lets this film down is the fact that Norton doesn’t stick around and this film probably could’ve benefitted from Mark Ruffalo’s presence, most of the side characters are a little underdeveloped and the villain seems pointless until the last twenty minutes when he turns green and smashes shit. Much like the villain, the plot itself feels kind of slow until that last twenty minutes when shit gets smashed. So yeah, not awful, but doesn’t match up to the rest of them.

17. Iron Man 3 (2013)

Iron Man 3 is another not-terrible film. It doesn’t have a bad villain, so the whole Mandarin twist isn’t why this is placed so low as I didn’t mind that really. It’s mostly the pacing and the story that messes this one up a little. As I mentioned in my villain list, there’s so many different subplots happening that it’s really difficult to pick up on the majority of what’s happening. For example, you’ve got the weird fire stuff that everyone’s worried about, Rhodey is the Iron Patriot, Killian turns up, there’s a terrorist, oh look this woman that Tony briefly had a thing with and now Tony’s crashed his suit and here’s a random child. There’s just so much they’ve tried to cram in that I got a bit lost watching this one. That said, it definitely isn’t a bad film, just needs a little bit off the top.

16. Thor (2011)

Now we’re getting into the films I really like, so this is where ranking gets a bit more difficult. The thing about Thor is that it’s good. And that’s kind of it. It’s a perfectly good origin story that’s paced really well and offers enough humour and Thor hitting things with his hammer/fists to keep it all interesting. Plus, Loki’s introduction makes this all the more brilliant, as it kind of foreshadows him becoming a bit more evil in future. Well, you only know that if you stayed til the end because it only takes him about the length of some credits to bring himself back to life.

15. Thor: The Dark World (2013)

I know, everyone hates this film and it should be in last place. But I kind of don’t hate it, and I also don’t get why everyone else does. Sure, it relies a bit too much on technobabble and a villain that’s no more compelling than most of the others from phase one, but the film has a genuinely full and interesting plot. Alongside that is the changed dynamic between Thor and Loki after the events of the first Avengers as he struggles to trust him and we see Thor seem to genuinely mature as a character. So in my mind, this film is pretty good.

14. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Here’s another film that garnered a lot of hate. The additions of Scarlet Witch, Vision and (briefly) Quicksilver work very well and they seem to have interesting dynamics with the rest of the team. The final fight is pretty satisfying, the villain feels like a genuine menace, even if his character is a little uneven, sometimes opting to be overly serious android and other times the weird comic relief. In that sense, Ultron’s character does feel a bit odd, but that and the massively unneeded and very weird love plot between Bruce and Natasha (seriously I nearly turned this film off during that bar scene) are the only criticisms I really have of this film. It’s pretty decent.

13. Iron Man (2008)

The one that started it all is very, very good and is also the only Iron Man film I really like. This one has everything a Marvel film needs; humour, a fair amount of explosions and a decent villain. The only reason this didn’t place higher is because, obviously being the first one, it’s a little by-the-numbers. But all that means is that future films took this formula and made it better.

12. The Avengers (2012)

I know this one is normally higher and I still love it, don’t get me wrong. But it’s easy to forget that, at times, the pace of this film is a little bit slow. Like that New York fight at the end will always be amazing, but there’s a good chunk of the film where everyone is just kind of sitting around. Same goes for the first 20 odd minutes too. Overall, great film, but it’s the slightly uneven pace that keeps it from getting higher.

11. Ant-Man (2015)

You could argue that this one is just a less good copy of Iron Man, especially in its very derivative villain. But what puts this film a bit higher for me was the pretty much untouched genre of blending a superhero film with a heist film. That’s a fuckin good idea and I’m very here for it, which is why I’m so mad that we aren’t getting the sequel for another month. The cast in this is brilliant too, especially Evangeline Lilly’s Hope (who I’m very excited to see kick arse in the cool wasp costume tbh)

10. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

Cap’s first solo outing makes for one of my favourite MCU origin stories and it’s also one of the most underrated. This film proved that superhero films could work in a period setting and that makes it even cooler. Plus, brilliant villain guest spots from Hugo Weaving and Toby Jones round off the film to make something that feels a lot more than the sum of its parts. Yeah, I enjoyed this one a lot.

9. Captain America: Civil War (2016)

This is the first Marvel film that genuinely felt like it had lasting, important stakes. Seeing the Avengers fall apart with Zemo pulling the strings is fascinating to watch, as for the first time on a grand scale, we see genuine consequences for the actions of the heroes. The introductions of Spider-Man and Black Panther served to make this film much better. My only issue? That weird forced romance with Peggy’s cousin or whatever. That was just strange. Like, come on Cap, your boyfriend with the metal arm is gonna get jealous.

8. Spider-Man Homecoming (2017)

This film did the unthinkable. It made me give a shit about Spider-Man. This isn’t to say that I ever disliked the character or that the other two played him badly, I’ve just never been particularly invested in his character. The pure bean that is Tom Holland changed this and now Spidey is one of my faves. This film knows that, if we’re really rebooting Spidey again, there’s stuff we do and don’t want to see. Uncle Ben dying and Peter being emo about his spider bite? We don’t want to see that again. A perfect blend of a superhero and a teen movie and a genuinely chilling villain from Michael Keaton? We bigly want to see that.

7. Doctor Strange (2016)

While you could say that this borrows a little heavily from Iron Man’s origin story, it’s mostly the amazing visuals and interesting characters that place this one so highly. We see a genuine, if a little fast, journey in Strange’s character from arrogant know-it-all to magic robe guy. Plus, a good villain in Mads Mikkelson makes this one much better, so when the sequel inevitably comes, I think I’ll definitely be seeing it. The only thing this film lacks is a big finale, as everything seems to tie up a little too easily.

6. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Almost the best sequel in the MCU, this films builds on the events of Cap’s first outing to deliver a sort of spy thriller. Again, I’m a big fan of the Marvel films that push the boundaries and branch out into different genres and it’s pretty clear that the experimentation in this film worked perfectly. It’s an intense spy film with some genuine emotion as we see Cap try his best to get through to his boyfriend. More like this pls.

5. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

I can’t tell you how much I love the Guardians (Kinda unrelated but Dave Bautista is at a comic con I’m going to in October. Fuck I’m excited for that). They brought a badly needed sense of genuine fun to a franchise that still felt a little bit too serious. With a perfect cast with good chemistry, a cool space setting with brilliant visuals and a narrative that keeps you hooked, the only thing keeping this film from being perfect is a slightly out of place villain.

4. Black Panther (2018)

The rest of this top 5 all come very close to the top spot to the point where it was too difficult to rank them. Cultural significance aside (which is one of the many things that made this film brilliant), this film’s characters and storylines make a point of breaking away from the usual Marvel mould to make one of the best MCU films to date. In a rare feat that not many of these films do, every single side character in this film feels developed and necessary, which is why so many of them slotted so well into Infinity War (except Nakia for some reason. Really hoping she comes back for Avengers 4, unless she’s been Thanos’d I guess)

3. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

They pretty much perfected this one. Some people are saying this is a little gloomy, but that’s to be expected when purple Josh Brolin is trying to kill everyone. What stops this one from being too emo is the well-needed presence of the Guardians, but I could legit just gush about this film for ages so we’re moving on.

2. Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

This film is miles, miles better than both of the other Thor films and pretty much everything else in the MCU. Taika Waititi does something that most other Marvel films really couldn't manage; it has a terrifying, brilliant villain and yet the whole film still maintains some of the best humour in the MCU. Guest spots from Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum, Karl Urban, Tessa Thompson and the director himself are all equally amazing and help make this film what it is. If we lose Thor in Avengers 4, I’m praying for Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie to take up the mantle.

1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

As I said, the top 4 were very, very close together, but Guardians 2 only just beats them all for me. It’s a pretty unpopular opinion, but I think this film took everything from the first and only made it better. In this instalment, we see some desperately needed development for each and every character, with the decision to make this film more character driven being one of its best aspects. Almost pitch perfect humour, an amazing villain, my favourite final fight in the whole of the MCU. Yondu’s heart-wrenching death. I swear if we lose any Guardians permanently in Avengers 4, I won’t be happy.

Just as I typed that last sentence, I had another idea for a Marvel list. Might do another one of what I think each surviving character from Infinity War’s role might be in the next one. Ooo.

Go treat urself.

[neverwasmag]

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Canada’s railway companies built grand hotels along the routes of the country’s burgeoning rail network. Many of these hotels were built in French château- and Scottish baronial-inspired styles, rich in dormers, towers and turrets.

When air travel started to compete with the railways in the second half of the twentieth century, many of the hotels struggled. Some were closed and torn down. The ones that survived are now national landmarks.

Let us take you on a tour of the grandest of Canada’s railway hotels.

Windsor Hotel, Montreal

The original Windsor Hotel, seen from what was then called the Saint James Cathedral in Montreal, Canada, 1897 (McCord Museum)

The Windsor Hotel in Montreal, Canada with the North Annex completed, 1906 (McCord Museum)

The first of the grand railway hotels, the Windsor, embodied the commercial success of Montreal, then Canada’s largest city.

It took a few years for the hotel to become successful, but by the turn of the century it had become the center of Montreal’s elite social life. A fire in 1906 provided the impetus for an expansion, doubling the number of rooms. During their royal tour of Canada in 1939, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth stayed at the Windsor.

Grand staircase of the Windsor Hotel in Montreal, Canada, 1878 (McCord Museum)

Rotunda of the Windsor Hotel in Montreal, Canada, circa 1878 (McCord Museum)

Dining room of the Windsor Hotel in Montreal, Canada, 1878 (McCord Museum)

Another fire destroyed a third of the hotel in 1957. The damage was so extensive this time that the original building had to be torn down entirely. The Windsor continued to operate out of the North Annex, built in 1906, but the hotel fell into decline. It closed in 1981. The North Annex is now an office building.

Banff Springs Hotel, Alberta

The original Banff Springs Hotel in Alberta, Canada, 1902 (Library of Congress)

The Banff Springs Hotel in Alberta, Canada, 1929 (William J. Oliver)

The Banff Springs Hotel in Alberta, Canada, 1966 (Wikimedia Commons/Robeyclark)

The Banff Springs Hotel in Alberta, Canada, September 17, 2017 (Wikimedia Commons/Stephen Swift)

Located in the Banff National Park of Alberta, the Banff Springs Hotel has gone through several iterations.

The original hotel, which opened in 1888, was an Alpine structure adorned with stone accents, dormers and turrets. But it had accidentally been built the wrong way around, with its back to the mountain vista. Expansions were made in 1902. Only four years later, plans were drawn up for a complete overhaul. Walter Painter, the architect, designed an eleven-story tower in concrete and stone, flanked by two wings, this time facing in the right direction. For a time, the so-called Painter Tower was the tallest building in the country.

Dining hall in the Banff Springs Hotel in Alberta, Canada, November 13, 2010 (Wikimedia Commons/Adam Jones)

Back terrace of the Banff Springs Hotel in Alberta, Canada, August 17, 2013 (Gregg Jaden)

Hallway in the Banff Springs Hotel in Alberta, Canada, November 3, 2013 (Wikimedia Commons/James Levy)

World War I delayed the completion of Painter’s plan. It wasn’t until after a fire in 1926 had destroyed what was left of the original hotel that his two wings were finally completed.

Place Viger, Montreal

Old postcard of the Place Viger in Montreal, Canada (McGill Library)

Aerial view of the Place Viger in Montreal, Canada, 1921 (British Library)

The Place Viger in Montreal, Canada, March 21, 2014 (Wikimedia Commons/Thomas1313)

Killing two birds with one stone, the Place Viger in Montreal served as both a railway station and a grand hotel. Built in the Châteauesque style, inspired by French Renaissance architecture, it opened its doors in 1898.

The Viger competed with the Windsor Hotel. The first was favored by French-speaking elites, the second catered to Anglophones.

When the city’s commercial center shifted northwest in the beginning of the twentieth century, the hotel lost its appeal. The Depression forced it out of business in 1935. The railway station continued to operate until 1951. The building was then converted into office space. A highway was built next to it in the 1970s, straight through the historical heart of the city, making the whole area undesirable.

In recent years, the Viger and its surroundings have seen a revival. The building is now home to apartments as well as offices.

The Empress, Victoria

Postcard of The Empress hotel in Victoria, Canada, circa 1908

View of The Empress hotel in Victoria, Canada in the late 1910s or early 1920s (J.S. Horne)

The Empress hotel in Victoria, Canada, August 1930 (F.P. Keen)

The Empress hotel in Victoria, Canada, September 25, 2005 (Steffen Sledz)

View toward the Inner Harbor of Victoria, Canada with the back of The Empress hotel on the left, May 25, 2008 (Pat David)

The Empress hotel in Victoria, Canada, May 1, 2017 (Wikimedia Commons/Dllu)

The Empress hotel in Victoria, British Columbia, was built in the first decade of the twentieth century to accommodate Canadian Pacific’s steamship service, whose main terminal was just one bloc away. When Canadian Pacific ceased its passenger services to the city, the hotel was successfully remarketed as a resort to tourists.

The interwar years were the hotel’s heydays. Edward, Prince of Wales waltzed into dawn in the Crystal Ballroom in 1919. His brother, then-King George VI, and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, attended a luncheon at the Empress in 1939. Shirley Temple, the American actress, stayed there to escape kidnapping threats in California.

In the 1960s, it looked like the Empress might be demolished to make way for a modern, high-rise hotel, but local opposition thwarted this (diabolical) plan. Instead, the hotel was renovated.

Another renovation followed in 1989, when a health club and indoor swimming pool were added. The most recent restoration was in 2017.

Château Laurier, Ottawa

1912 view of Ottawa, Canada with the Château Laurier and Union Station on the right (Ottawa, Library Bureau)

The grandest of Canada’s railway hotels

The Château Laurier in Ottawa, Canada, 1916 (Library and Archives Canada)

The Château Laurier in Ottawa, Canada, 1947 (BAnQ Vieux-Montréal)

The Château Laurier in Ottawa, Canada, August 28, 2010 (Michel Rathwell)

The Château Laurier in Ottawa, Canada, August 15, 2015 (Wikimedia Commons/Red Castle)

Built in tandem with Ottawa’s downtown Union Station between 1909 and 1912, the Château Laurier was built by Canada’s Grand Trunk Railway, which later merged into the Canadian National Railways. The hotel was named after Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, who supported its construction.

Although it looks French from the outside, the interior of the hotel is more English or Scottish. Until a restoration in the 1980s, the lobby featured dark-oak panelling and a railed gallery overlooking the double-height space and trophies of the hunt.

An east wing was added in 1929, adding 240 rooms to the hotel. An Art Deco-style swimming pool and spa were added the following year.

The hotel was the place to be and be seen in those years. Richard Bedford Bennett, a native of New Brunswick, lived in the Château Laurier during his stint as prime minister from 1930 to 1935. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s English- and French-language radio stations operated out of the hotel’s top floors from 1924 to 2004.

Given its proximity to Parliament Hill, the American Embassy and other government buildings, and the fact that it has hosted many political meetings over the years, the hotel is sometimes referred to as “the third chamber of Parliament”.

Fort Garry Hotel, Winnipeg

Postcard of the Fort Garry Hotel in Winnipeg, Canada, 1920 (University of Alberta Libraries)

Hand-colored photograph of the Fort Garry Hotel in Winnipeg, Canada, post 1920 (University of Alberta Libraries)

The Fort Garry Hotel in Winnipeg, Canada, post 1920 (University of Alberta Libraries)

The Fort Garry Hotel in Winnipeg, Canada, September 22, 2017 (Jessica Losorata)

Also built by the Grand Trunk Railway, the Fort Garry Hotel was the largest building in Winnipeg, Manitoba when it opened in 1913. The architecture was inspired by the Château Laurier as well as the Plaza Hotel of New York, which had been built six years earlier.

Canadian National Railways took over the hotel when it acquired the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in 1920. The prominent John Draper Perrin family of Winnipeg bought it in 1979. It was later operated by a Quebecer hotelier. Now it is an independent hotel again.

Royal York, Toronto

The skyline of Toronto, Canada with the Royal York on the left, 1930 (Wikimedia Commons)

1945 advertisement for the Royal York in Toronto, Canada (BPL)

The Royal York in Toronto, Canada, August 27, 2007 (Lord of the Wings)

The Royal York in Toronto, Canada, July 30, 2010 (Udo Dengler)

The Royal York in Toronto, Canada, July 18, 2017 (Robin Stevens)

Lobby of the Royal York in Toronto, Canada, July 28, 2017 (Viv Lynch)

Built across the street from Toronto’s Union Station, the Royal York was the tallest building in the British Empire when it opened its doors in 1929. It was state-of-the-art. The hotel had ten elevators to reach all 28 floors. All 1,048 rooms were equipped with radios and private showers. Amenities included a concert hall and a golf course. Opening night, on June 11, 1929, was the city’s most exciting social event of the year.

The hotel was modernized in the early 1970s. The marble pillars in the lobby were covered with wood panelling, contemporary wall lamps were added and the rugs were replaced with carpet.

Some of these changes were reversed in the late 1980s, when the Royal York underwent a $100-million restoration. A health club and pool were also added. The hotel’s in-house nightclub, the Imperial Room, was converted into a ballroom and meeting hall.

The Bessborough, Saskatoon

The Bessborough Hotel in Saskatoon Canada, May 14, 1985 (The StarPhoenix)

The Bessborough Hotel in Saskatoon Canada, May 21, 2015 (Robert Linsdell)

The Bessborough Hotel in Saskatoon Canada, June 16, 2017 (Ted McGrath)

The Bessborough (or “Bess”) in Saskatoon, the largest city of Saskatchewan, was built by the Canadian National Railway in the early 1930s. Deliberately resembling a Bavarian castle, the hotel was named after the governor general of Canada at the time, Sir Vere Ponsonby, the Earl of Bessborough.

The Depression delayed the hotel’s opening until 1935. It was hailed as a sign of progress for what was still a relatively small city at the time. A railway hotel put Saskatoon on the map.

A $9-million restoration was completed in 1999 to return many of the hotel’s historical features.

A tour of the grandest of Canada's railway hotels, built in the late 1800s and early 1900s In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Canada's railway companies built grand hotels along the routes of the country's burgeoning rail network.

[nightmareonfilmstreet]

FANTASIA FILM FEST Announces Second Wave of Programming

One of Canada’s favourite genre film festivals is back, and they’ve announced even more exciting new films coming to the 22nd annual Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal on July 12th-August 1st.

The second wave of films, which Fantasia announced via press release (check it out in full below) is chock-full of premieres, awards, exciting new talent, and genre legends. The full lineup of 130+ films won’t be announced until June 28th, but there’s plenty here to whet our appetites until then.

Fantasia 2018’s opening night film will be the North American Premiere of Dans La Brume (“Just a Breath Away”), co-production between France and Canada, directed by Quebecois filmmaker Daniel Roby (Louis Cyr, White Skin) in a welcome nod to Fantasia’s Quebecois roots. A disaster thriller about a mysterious toxic gas and a Parisian family that tries to escape it, Dans La Brume looks like a tense, nervy start to the fest.

On the premiere front, several films will have their official debut at Fantasia: the world premieres of The Man Who Killed Hitler And Then The Bigfoot, directed by Robert D. Krzykowski in his feature debut and starring Sam Elliott, as well as another fantastically-named film: Louder! I Can’t Hear What You’re Singin’, Wimp!, a musical action comedy from festival fave Miki Satoshi (Adrift in Tokyo, Instanto Numa). Fans of the brutal Korean horror I Saw the Devil will also be pleased to note that its writer, Park Hoon-jung, will be premiering his latest film at the fest, a bloody sci-fi about telekinesis: The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion.

Finally, in news so exciting it deserves its own paragraph, the festival will present the world premiere of Tales From the Hood 2. The sequel to the beloved cult classic anthology Tales From the Hood, original Executive Producer Spike Lee and writers/directors/producers Rusty Cundieff and Darin Scott will return for another series of anthology shorts exploring social topics in funny, clever, creepy ways. Considering how films like Get Out have brought socially-aware horror to the forefront of the genre these days, it seems like an especially apt time to make another Tales From the Hood.

Check out the full press release below, which contains more news on Fantasia’s debut Action! Achievement Award as well as more films in its Action! programming block, some indie anime, a bonkers-looking true crime doc, and the Canadian premiere of La Quinceañera, the new web series from the queen of Tex-Mex horror, Gigi Saul Guerrero. We can’t wait for the full lineup of films on June 28th – stay tuned!

  FANTASIA 2018 TO OPEN WITH DANIEL ROBY’S DANS LA BRUME AND WORLD PREMIERE OF RUSTY CUNDIEFF AND DARIN SCOTT’S TALES FROM THE HOOD 2

World Premieres of John Sayles-produced THE MAN WHO KILLED HITLER AND THEN THE BIGFOOT and Satoshi Miki’s LOUDER! CAN’T HEAR WHAT YOU’RE SINGIN’, WIMP!, bold new works from Sonny Mallhi and Dennison Ramalho, and a special Action! Achievement Award for Cynthia Rothrock are among the Montreal genre festival’s spectacular Second Wave announcements

Montreal, Quebec – June 14, 2018 – The Fantasia International Film Festival will be celebrating its 22nd Anniversary in Montreal this summer, taking place from July 12 – August 1, with its Frontières International Co-Production Market being held July 19 – 22. The full lineup of over 130 feature films will be announced on June 28. In the meantime, the festival is excited to reveal a selected Second Wave of titles and events.

TRIPPING THE FOG FANTASTIQUE: DANIEL ROBY’S DANS LA BRUME IS FANTASIA 2018’S OFFICIAL OPENING NIGHT FILM

Fantasia is proud to announce that the festival’s 22nd edition will open with the North American Premiere of DANS LA BRUME (“Just a Breath Away”), a large-scale genre co-production between France and Canada, directed by celebrated Quebec filmmaker Daniel Roby (LOUIS CYR, WHITE SKIN), starring Romain Duris (MOOD INDIGO), Olga Kurylenko (QUANTUM OF SOLACE), and Fantine Harduin (HAPPY END). Paris is hit by an earthquake, then filled with a mysterious toxic gas that seems to come from below ground. A family attempts to survive the massive catastrophe, but first… they will have to face the fog.

YOU’LL BE KNEE-DEEP IN THE WORLD PREMIERE OF RUSTY CUNDIEFF AND DARIN SCOTT’S TALES FROM THE HOOD 2

Fantasia is proud to present the highly-anticipated world premiere of Universal 1440 Entertainment’s TALES FROM THE HOOD 2. The sequel to the groundbreaking original film TALES FROM THE HOOD reunites Executive Producer Spike Lee and writers/directors/producers Rusty Cundieff and Darin Scott for an all-new gripping,  horrifying, and oftentimes devilishly comical anthology. This next installment will keep viewers on the edge of their seats, as they course through several stories that explore socially relevant topics from the past and present.

WORLD PREMIERIN’ SATOSHI MIKI’S LOUDER! CAN’T HEAR WHAT YOU’RE SINGIN’, WIMP!

After a five-year hiatus from feature-filmmaking following 2013’s IT’S ME, IT’S ME, Fantasia favorite Satoshi Miki is back with LOUDER! CAN’T HEAR WHAT YOU’RE SINGIN’, WIMP! An explosive musical comedy with energy to spare, Miki’s usually quirky, offbeat characters, extravagant hairdos and vintage costumes are back, colliding here with a renewed sense of energy and chaos, as the charismatic Sin (THE APOLOGY KING’S Sadao Abe), a rock musician with an superhuman, steroid-enhanced voice, meets the shy Fuka (AKEGARASU’S Riho Yoshioka), a gifted busker with a whisper quiet style. With an eclectic soundtrack oscillating from J-pop to metal to clerical music, with contributions from TOO YOUNG TO DIE!’s Kankuro Kudo, Hyde from L’Arc~en~Ciel, and comedian Abe himself, this is the rock ‘n’ roll feel-good-movie for the ages!

SAM ELLIOTT IS THE MAN WHO KILLED HITLER AND THEN THE BIGFOOT (World Premiere)

Sam Elliott stars as a legendary World War II veteran who many years ago assassinated Adolf Hitler – an incredible secret that he’s frustratingly unable to share with the world. One day, just as he’s coming to terms with rounding out his life, Calvin gets a visit from the FBI and RCMP. They need him to take out Bigfoot. A wondrous feature debut from writer/director Robert D. Krzykowski, featuring visual effects by celebrated two-time Academy Award Winner Douglas Trumbull (2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, BLADE RUNNER), who also co-produced alongside the great John Sayles and Lucky McKee. A fantastical discourse on the melancholia of old age and a singular blast of entertaining wit, THE MAN WHO KILLED HITLER AND THEN THE BIGFOOT (World Premiere) also stars Aidan Turner, Caitlin FitzGerald, and Ron Livingston.

PREPARE TO BE SPELLBOUND BY THE INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE OF THE BLOODY ACTION-FANTASY THE WITCH: PART 1. THE SUBVERSION

A nefarious agency has been genetically engineering children. One of the telekinetic kids escapes and goes into hiding with an adopted family. Ten years later, she appears on a talent show, where she’s spotted by the bad guys and  becomes prey for both her peers and a hit squad. Writer/Director Park Hoon-jung, who wrote the savage I SAW THE DEVIL, is back with THE WITCH: PART 1. THE SUBVERSION. Nothing will prepare you for the fusion of over-the-top sci-fi thrills, surprising twists and a climactic bloodbath that will leave you gasping. After THE VILLAINESS, South Korea has a new girl in town (Kim Da-mi) to kick butts and give action fans what they always dreamed of.

FANTASIA’S DEBUT ACTION! ACHIEVEMENT AWARD GOES TO THE LEGENDARY CYNTHIA ROTHROCK

Fantasia will bestow its first-ever Action! Achievement Award upon U.S. athlete and action legend Cynthia Rothrock, an unstoppable action starlet who inspired a generation of martial artists and kicked open doors for women in the male-dominated action industry. Her skills, courage, and determination – along with black belts in seven separate martial arts – paved the way for today’s action starlets such as Charlize Theron, Gina Carano, and Milla Jovovich.

Rothrock – or Law Fu Lok, as she was known to millions of Hong Kong cinephiles – was a five-time World Champion before becoming the first western actor to headline a Hong Kong action film with 1989’s THE BLONDE FURY. A member of Black Belt Magazine’s Hall of Fame and the inspiration for the Mortal Kombat character Sonya Blade, Rothrock would go on to star in over thirty martial arts films and inspire a generation. Fantasia is deeply honored to bestow their debut Action! Achievement Award to the amazing Cynthia Rothrock, a true pioneer in the worlds of martial arts and action cinema.

LOOK NO FURTHER THAN FANTASIA FOR THE CANADIAN PREMIERE OF SEARCHING

Fantasia is proud to be showcasing the Canadian Premiere of Aneesh Chaganty’s Sundance smash SEARCHING, produced by Timur Bekmambetov (working with Sev Ohanian, Natalie Qasabian, and Adam Sidman) in his innovative “screenlife” storytelling approach that brilliantly captures the way we engage online. After David Kim (John Cho)’s sixteen-year-old daughter goes missing, a local investigation is opened and a detective is assigned to the case. But 37 hours later and without a single lead, David decides to search the one place no one has looked yet, where all secrets are kept today: his daughter’s laptop. In a hyper-modern thriller told via the technology devices we use every day to communicate, David must trace his daughter’s digital footprints before she disappears forever.

    DENNISON RAMALHO’S SPECTRAL MORGUE UNLEASHES AN EVIL AMONG THE LIVING (World Premiere)

Brazilian Writer/Director Dennison Ramalho instantly captured the hearts and nightmares of legions with his brilliant shorts LOVE FROM MOTHER ONLY (2003) and NINJAS (2011), in addition to scripting José Mojica Marins’ celebrated Coffin Joe comeback EMBODIMENT OF EVIL (2008). His entry in ABCS OF DEATH 2 (2014) further cemented the filmmaker as a hellishly original talent to watch in world horror cinema. Fantasia will proudly be bringing Brazil’s subterranean maestro of the macabre back to Montreal for the World Premiere of his long-awaited feature debut, AMONG THE LIVING, a film brimming with grotesque imagination and otherworldly magick in which a morgue attendant working the night shift in a very large, very violent city possesses an occult ability to communicate with cadavers. He commits the sin of acting on information obtained from the dead and horrifically curses himself and those that he loves. Brace yourself.

YOUR BIRTHDAY WILL BE YOUR LAST DAY IN THE WITTY COMEDY-FANTASY I HAVE A DATE WITH SPRING

Multiple award-winning director Baek Seung-bin brings us to doomsday with a smile in the omnibus styled intimist South Korean apocalyptic dramedy I HAVE A DATE WITH SPRING (North American Premiere). Different characters, all with unique personalities, celebrate their birthday the day before the end of the world, meeting bizarre individuals in surreal circumstances in this truly unique gem of a film that debuted at 2018’s International Film Festival Rotterdam.

    SONNY MALLHI TEAMS UP WITH BLUMHOUSE TO BRING YOU A SPECIAL KIND OF HURT (World Premiere)

The world first discovered Sonny Mallhi’s poignant style of character-driven horror storytelling with 2015’s ANGUISH (a Fantasia World Premiere). Earlier this year, his second feature, the vampiric drug addiction chiller FAMILY BLOOD debuted on Netlfix. And now, Sonny Mallhi has teamed with Blumhouse for his third feature, HURT, in which the collective psychosis of American culture is an inescapable horror film and a waking nightmare. Its story honors masked mascots of fear such as Jason, Freddy, and Michael…. but explores those who helplessly wear a mask of normalcy while desperately fighting the traumatic monsters within.

GET HAZED TO HELL AT THE WORLD PREMIERE OF PLEDGE

It’s not getting into an exclusive fraternity that three geeky college freshmen need to worry about, it’s getting out – alive! Boasting amazingly well-rounded characters, endearing performances, a wicked streak of black humour, and a desperate situation that erupts into sickening violence, in many ways Daniel Robbins’ PLEDGE (World Premiere) is an intense, acceptance-themed companion film to Jeremy Saulnier’s similarly gasp-inducing GREEN ROOM. Rats, torture, knife fights, and vodka shots – who’s ready to pledge?

    WRITER/DIRECTOR LEE CHANG-HEE WILL LEAVE YOU BREATHLESS WITH THE VANISHED (North American Premiere)

In this clockwork thriller, nothing is what it seems – not even a corpse. THE VANISHED (North American Premiere) is a piece of classic cinematic construction right out of the Golden Age of Hollywood, polished to a sleek modern sheen, South Korean-style. Without an ounce of padding, this is modern suspense in gothic drag, full of old school brio, dolly zooms, a ticking clock, entitled murderers, and vengeful ghosts.

CAMERA LUCIDA UNVEILS TWO INTERNATIONAL PREMIERES: TADASHI NAGAYAMA’S BEING NATURAL AND AARON SCHIMBERG’S CHAINED FOR LIFE!

The Camera Lucida section, dedicated to experimental, boundary-pushing and auteur-driven works on the borders of genre cinema, unveils two major International premieres!

Taka (SAUDADE’s Yota Kawase) is a bong-playing, turtle-loving saint. When a hypocritical couple from Tokyo moves into town, intent on opening a health-conscious, eco-friendly coffee shop at all costs, the man’s peaceful existence is shattered to pieces. Tadashi Nagayama’s second feature, BEING NATURAL, is a total revelation; a surprising and eccentric satirical rural comedy, with a dash of the absurd and the supernatural! A unique introduction to one of Japanese cinema’s most promising new auteurs!

The beautiful Mabel (TEETH’s Jess Weixler) admits to being pushed outside of her comfort zone on the set of a foreign auteur’s shlocky English-language horror film debut. Playing the role of a blind woman, she soon meets her disabled co-star Rosenthal (UNDER THE SKIN and DRIB’s Adam Pearson) and soon, the boundaries between fiction, reality, exploitation, and fair representation become blurry. GO DOWN DEATH’s Aaron Schimberg returns to Fantasia with CHAINED FOR LIFE, a reflexive and surreal black comedy about life on set – casting a critical eye on cinematic representations of disability and difference, from ELEPHANT MAN to FREAKS and beyond.

The full Camera Lucida lineup will be unveiled on June 26.

FANTASIA 2018’S ACTION! SECTION UNVEILS BUYBUST, CHUCK STEEL: NIGHT OF THE TRAMPIRES, AND LÔI BÁO

Dedicated to discovering the world’s best undiscovered action films, Fantasia’s Action! Section, now in its seventh year, is proud to announce three new titles and one incredible retrospective film. Following the section becoming competitive in 2017, Action! is now proud to introduce its debut Action! Achievement Award, which will be bestowed on U.S. martial arts legend Cynthia Rothrock. For the occasion, Fantasia will present a 35mm print of the 1989 Hong Kong classic THE BLONDE FURY with star Rothrock in attendance.=

Four years after seducing Fantasia audiences with his short film RAGING BALLS OF STEEL JUSTICE, Michael Mort will return to the festival with his animated feature debut, CHUCK STEEL: NIGHT OF THE TRAMPIRES (North American Premiere), hot off its World Premiere at Annecy. Chuck Steel is a maverick, renegade, loose cannon, lone wolf, cop-on-the-edge who doesn’t play by the rules. He’s the best goddamn man on the force and, once again, Los Angeles needs him to save the city from an army of Trampires – a mutated hybrid of vampire and hobo.

With LÔI BÁO (North American Premiere), Vietnam has officially jumped on the wave of superhero movies in a very big way. Without a single cape or hero clad in spandex, Victor Vu’s clever interpretation of what it means to be a superhero brings a wildly unique vision to the genre, as a man on the receiving end of a head transplant finds himself suddenly granted a seemingly endless supply of superhuman abilities. With LÔI BÁO, Vietnam has created a world of very unlikely superheroes – and villains – like no other.

Five years after the impressive ON THE JOB, director Erik Matti returns to Fantasia with the Canadian Premiere of BUYBUST, one of the most action-packed movies ever to come out of the Philippines. Here he writes, produces, and directs a truly one-of-a-kind actioner about a rookie female cop who finds herself in hot water with an anti-narcotics squad. Starring Filipino superstar Anne Curtis, over 1200 extras, and featuring an unbelievable 300 stuntmen and women, BUYBUST is packed with spectacular gunplay, nonstop hand-to-hand combat, and a nearly-uncountable number of people being stabbed in the face.

As of 2017, all titles selected in the Action! Section are eligible for Fantasia’s Best Action Film Award, awarded by a jury composed of Quebec director Alain Desrochers (BON COP BAD COP 2), actor/stuntman Alain Moussi (KICKBOXER: VENGEANCE), and filmmaking duo Sebastien Landry and Laurence Morais-Lagace (GAME OF DEATH).  

MAJOR ANIME PREMIERES ARAGNE: SIGN OF VERMILLION AND PENGUIN HIGHWAY OFFER THE SINISTER, SENTIMENTAL, AND SURREAL!

Fantasia’s Axis section is thrilled to announce two more anime titles in its lineup, each a major premiere.

Something sinister is manifesting itself – something at the cursed crossroads of mythology, monstrosity, and medical science – in Saku Sakamoto’s ARAGNE: SIGN OF VERMILLION, a potent new slash of independent, high-standard horror anime from Japan making its World Premiere at Fantasia this summer.

One memorable summer, a precocious schoolboy contends with a crush on an older woman and a strange penguin invasion in the sentimental, surreal science fiction anime PENGUIN HIGHWAY (International Premiere). The first feature from Japanese director Hiroyasu Ishida, creator of the 2009 indie online sensation FUMIKO’S CONFESSION, and his colleagues at Studio Colorido, PENGUIN HIGHWAY is a delight for the mind, eye, and heart.

FANTASIA UNDERGROUND’S INSPIRED 2018 LINEUP REVEALED!

Fantasia’s section dedicated to bold, ultra-independent, outsider works returns with a charming, counter-cultural teen film made by a twenty-year-old girl who cut classes to shoot it, a single-take Japanese zombie oddity, a genuinely shocking and surprising black comedy/crime thriller from Colorado, and a Mexican-Canadian action siege assault that’s likely the bloodiest coming-of-age film ever made.

Described at the latest Berlinale as the “distant cousin of Louis Malle’s ZAZIE DANS LE MÉTRO crossed with the DIY spirit of punk Japanese cinema from the 1980s (Tsukamoto, Sogo Ishii, and co.), one thing’s for sure: twenty-year-old Yoko Yamanaka’s AMIKO (North American Premiere) will instantly charm you with its gleeful irreverence, and its crystalline, sour-sweet candied confection of extreme emotions, forged in the fiery pits of adolescence, and effectively turning the schoolgirl into a counter-culture icon.

Let’s be honest – a low-budget zombie movie shot in one take about a film crew shooting a low-budget zombie movie in one take sounds bad. Add the fact that the indie film crew stumbles across real-life zombies and Shunichiro Ueda’s debut, ONE CUT OF THE DEAD (Canadian Premiere) sounds worse. And you couldn’t be more wrong. This indie marvel isn’t a just zombie movie or even a one-take stunt. Instead, it’s Japan’s smartest comedy of the year: a touching father-daughter story, a tale about the value of perseverance, and a meta puzzlebox that cleverly unpacks itself onscreen, one severed limb at a time. Pick your rotting jaw up off the floor, because this is pure horror-comedy gold in the vein of SHAUN OF THE DEAD.

A neurotic, introverted young military veteran forces himself to go to a party to meet new people and finds himself plunged into a bizarre criminal underworld of sex and blood in Drew Barnhardt’s utterly mad RONDO (World Premiere). An exuberantly seedy, obsessively well-directed gonzo thriller that’s funny in the darkest ways, RONDO’s violent twists and genuinely uncomfortable moments will leave you breathless from gasping, laughing, and screaming – possibly at the same time. Oddly reminiscent of CRIMEWAVE-era John Paizs by way of De Palma, this is a squirm-inducing, one-of-a-kind exploitation oddity that even the most brazen viewers will never be able to unsee.

Award-winning Mexican-Canadian filmmaker Gigi Saul Guerrero bathes the screen with ferocity in her scorching web series LA QUINCEAÑERA (Canadian Premiere), in which a girl’s fifteenth birthday party becomes a demented, blood-fuelled journey of revenge when the cartel shows up to attack her relatives. This ultra-violent homage to the strength of women and the power of family may be the bloodiest coming-of-age tale ever told.

2018 DOCUMENTARIES FROM THE EDGE LINEUP REVEALED!

Fantasia’s showcase of compelling documentary works returns with a trio of docs hailing from Quebec, China, and the USA.

Jailed for comics?! The unbelievable true story of the only U.S. artist convicted of obscenity is explored in the chilling and captivating BOILED ANGELS: THE TRIAL OF MIKE DIANA (International Premiere), directed by the legendary Frank Henenlotter (BASKET CASE, BAD BIOLOGY) and narrated by Dead Kennedys’ Jello Biafra, neither of whom are strangers to censorship struggles themselves. The obsessively well-researched doc features Neil Gaiman, Stephen Bissette, Peter Bagge, and Diana himself, alongside the case’s investigating officers, prosecution, defense, and even members of the local Florida press who initially reported on the situation. This truly thoughtful account won a well-deserved Audience Award at NYC’s What The Fest!? and should be considered required viewing for anyone remotely interested in confrontational art or stories of overreaching law enforcement.

Marginally-talented internet personalities skyrocket to fame in Hao Wu’s provocative, dystopian documentary PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF DESIRE (Quebec Premiere), where hordes of devoted fans tune in to find comfort in virtual relationships through live streaming. A Grand Jury Prize-winner at SXSW, the film tracks China’s emergent breed of off-the-rails celebrity-making obsession, and the impact of plunging into the virtual to satisfy real human needs. Fantasia’s screening will be a co-presentation with the RIDM.

Shot over a period of three years, Jean-Simon Chartier’s PLAYING HARD (Quebec Premiere) gives us a sprawling behind-the-scenes window into the drama, tension, and compromises behind the creation of a blockbuster Ubisoft video game, and the grueling personal tolls the process can take on its creators, both in terms of fractured relationships and mental anguish. An engrossing film that met with major acclaim at its recent Hot Docs launch.  

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BBC Has Concluded A List Of Best 25 Films In The 21st Century That You Should Not Miss

If I ask you to name some of the best movies in the 21st century, what will you say?

The Lord of The Rings? A Beautiful Mind? Little Miss Sunshine? Finding Nemo? Her? Inception? The Martian? Inside Out? Moonlight? Or La La Land?

There’re many amazing films released over the past 17 years. Some are very popular among the public, some got nominated or even received widely-recognized awards. They’re all amazing in their unique way but some of them really stood out from the crowd.

BBC Culture recently reached out to 170 famous film critics around the world and asked them each to pick the best 10 films released from the beginning of 2000 to present days. And based on the critics’ votes, BBC came up with the list of the 21st Century’s 100 Greatest Films.[1]

Here’s the famous film critics’ shortlisted best 25 films with the review for BBC, and you can save a bit of time and know which one to go first. Here we go:

25. Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000)

Christopher Nolan’s Memento, an airtight puzzle of a movie about a man who can’t form new memories searching for his wife’s killer, set a standard for narrative sophistication that few mainstream films have tried to duplicate…The film forces us to consider the unreliability of human memory and our tendency toward self-deception, even as it thrills us with a captivating crime-noir story…Unforgettable. – Eric D Snider, Freelance, US

24. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012)

Paul Thomas Anderson’s ambitious, powerful and ultimately elegiac masterpiece centres on the question of whether man is, in fact, an animal. Tormented alcoholic Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) returns from World War Two and struggles, unsuccessfully, to conform to post-war America’s social evolution…but the real point of the film is an exploration of thought and consciousness, and whether submission to belief systems can genuinely tame atavism. – Ali Arikan, Dipnot TV, Turkey

23. Caché (Michael Haneke, 2005)

All of Michael Haneke’s films are bound to haunt you. With Caché he cuts to the chase and makes the idea of haunting the theme of the story itself. Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche star as a bourgeois Parisian couple that start to receive disturbing video tapes showing their home…The act of not looking away is the moral imperative at the heart of Caché, which makes it a supreme political and cinematic movie at the same time. – Hannah Pilarczyk, Der Spiegel, Germany

22. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, 2003)

The 21st Century’s reigning empress of cinematic ennui, Coppola has always used celebrity as a shortcut to the loneliness that exists between private lives and public images… Lost in Translation as her most perfect film, the one that best articulates how it can be to find yourself in a world that seldom lets you forget where you are. – David Ehrlich, Indiewire, US

21. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)

The Grand Budapest Hotel is the 21st Century’s farewell salute to the century before. It vaults backwards in time from today to 1985 to 1968 to 1932, where Ralph Fiennes’ concierge Monsieur Gustave welcomes us to proper civilisation with a nod. We know Gustave’s immaculate world is ticking towards destruction, first by war, then by decades of neglect. Inevitably, the lazy and impersonal present will win, mass-producing not just our hotels, but our cinemas and the blockbusters on their screens… This oddball tragicomedy enlists us in the fight for beauty. Sir, yes, sir. – Amy Nicholson, MTV, US

20. Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman, 2008)

Synecdoche, New York was initially conceived when Charlie Kaufman was approached about doing a horror film. Instead of masked killers and extraterrestrial monsters, though, Kaufman set out to make a movie about the stuff that really keeps us up at night. Synecdoche, New York is every deep-seated fear you’ve ever had, writ large: you’ve disappointed your spouse and failed your children, you’ve let your loved ones die lonely, excruciating deaths… Kaufman’s masterpiece is a reminder that even at our lowest and darkest, we are not alone. – Angie Han, Slashfilm, US

19. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)

A cohesive vision with a structured journey built around themes of survival and endurance, the fourth entry in the dystopian franchise showcased what is otherwise the narrative and thematic drought within the Hollywood blockbuster machine… Without resorting to cheap cynicism and faux-grittiness, Miller zeroes in on the sensuality of the environments, the carefully crafted machines and scorched landscapes. – Justine A Smith, Freelance, Canada

18. The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, 2009)

“By setting the story in a north German village in the months prior to World War One, Haneke not only challenged the myth of childhood innocence but also delivered a fictional prequel to the upcoming events in Germany… it speaks to this century’s audiences: an unsettling view of the danger of righteousness, an ominous threat that always seems to recur. – Fernanda Solórzano, Letras Libres Magazine, Mexico

17. Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo Del Toro, 2006)

It’s Del Toro going back to his roots, to his alchemy of pop and auteur cinema, to give us a look into the horrors of war – in this case the Spanish Civil War… Pan’s Labyrinth gives us tragedy through the filter of fantasy, going deep into a well of suffering and magic. Its power lies in its purity: nothing we can imagine is as terrible as what we can do to each other. – Ana Maria Bahiana, Freelance, Brazil

16. Holy Motors (Leos Carax, 2012)

Holy Motors is not a movie. It is an act of grief designed as an expression of love, and while enfant terrible Leos Carax has been an essential director for any film fan since his debut… Surreal, silly, sexy and sad, Holy Motors is a guided tour through everything about cinema that matters to Carax. He was drowning as a man in his own life – Holy Motors was his first feature in 13 years after struggling to get financing – and he turned his art into a life raft. Movies matter. Here’s why. – Drew McWeeny, Hitfix, US

15. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, 2007)

One scene, one cut, zero music… Imbuing a backstreet abortion with the brutal tension of a crime thriller – and abortion was a crime in 1980s Romania… Yet despite much harrowing imagery, depicted in unblinking detail within a fraught 24-hour timeframe, the film’s underlying humanism is glimpsed through the unbeatable spirit of protagonist Otila, a college student who takes unthinkable risks and goes through grueling lengths to help her friend Gabita fix her unwanted pregnancy. – Maggie Lee, Variety, Hong Kong

14. The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012)

Few films have dared to capture the full spectrum of human evil so candidly, so perceptively, as Oppenheimer does in his unclassifiable non-fiction epic in which the Texas-born Danish film-maker convinces members of the death squads to reenact their murders in the style of their favourite Hollywood films… it’s about national amnesia, about the power of self-deceit and the questionable morality of truth-seeking… it’s one of the most celebrated documentary in 21st Century. – Joseph Fahim, Freelance, Egypt

13. Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón, 2006)

Here’s a bold statement about a bold movie: Children of Men, like no other film this century, and perhaps no other movie ever, solves the meaning of life… it’s rich and vital in its emotional and philosophical depth: its sadness, its anger, its reverence and worry for humanity… Children of Men has endured to become a cult favourite that should be required viewing for anyone grappling with feelings of dread about modern civilisation. – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair, US

12. Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007)

Zodiac, his meticulous, gorgeous and haunting true crime movie, is a deep dive into obsession, following a newspaper cartoonist who becomes consumed by the 1970s Zodiac murders… Gloriously detail-driven, Zodiac drags viewers into a compulsive world where the smallest hint can be the biggest clue, and it presents the obsessive’s worst nightmare: that, in the end, answers are utterly unattainable. – Devin Faraci, BirthMoviesDeath, US

11. Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2013)

Set in the Greenwich Village folk scene of the 1960s, the Coen brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis is an achingly melodic tribute to an unloved underdog. Davis (Oscar Isaac) is striking out on his own after his musical partner goes solo. Along his dour journey, he’ll find others vying for similar success and others just trying to survive… Inside Llewyn Davis is a solemn song for anybody trying to become somebody. – Monica Castillo, The New York Times’ Watching, US

10. No Country for Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2007)

Bardem’s film characterisation is so powerful, so splendidly overwhelming in his random application of violence, that he manages to extinguish whatever preceded it in the mind of the audience. Set in West Texas in 1980, the film’s sense of time and place are unparalleled… There’s a hypnotic quality to the movie’s pace, watching characters you can’t help but like… make a series of catastrophic decisions that bring each into Chigurh’s universe, a world soaked in blood with a predetermined outcome. – Ben Mankiewicz, Turner Classic Movies, US

9. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi, 2011)

If there is a film that makes you take a deep look at yourself in the mirror again and again, this is it. Asghar Farhadi’s searing relationship drama does not make a judgement about its characters. Rather, it pitches the situations so realistically that the viewer ends up sympathising with both protagonists even though they are pitted against each other… all made to look as if one is watching one’s neighbours, or maybe someone in one’s own home – create an unparalleled cinematic morality play. – Utpal Borpujari, Freelance, India

8. Yi Yi: A One and a Two (Edward Yang, 2000)

Audiences in 2000 were astonished by how fluently Edward Yang’s Yi Yi portrays contemporary life through the intermingling stories of members of a Taipei family separated by the dilemmas specific to their stations in life. That’s quite ironic, because in today’s world of personal alienation through the allure of social media, the film now feels like a period piece, yet somehow, it resonates with an even greater urgency… Its quiet reflections on life, love, family and death are all gracefully affecting, no matter the gap in generation and culture. – Oggs Cruz, Rappler, Philippines

7. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011)

Like a great poem, The Tree of Life opens itself to a thousand interpretations, as director Terrence Malick takes a spiritual and lyrical journey through time, from a dusty 1950s childhood in Texas back to the beginnings of the cosmos itself… The joys and aching losses of parenting become transcendent, even Biblical, in Malick’s hands. – Kate Muir, The Times, UK

6. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)

The story of a breakup gone wrong… But this wasn’t your average whimsical tale of romantic yearning… the movie belongs just as much to Kate Winslet, whose character’s decision to erase her own memories of the ex-couple’s time together sets the drama in motion. Eerie and surreal, charming and tragic, the movie wrestles with the fundamental instability of all human relationships, achieving a wise and powerful vision that is — ironically for a tale about fading memories — unforgettable. – Eric Kohn, Indiewire, US

5. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)

For more than a decade, Richard Linklater spent a few weeks each year chronicling the life of Mason (Ellar Coltrane)… and watching the cast, which also includes Ethan Hawke and a remarkable Patricia Arquette, age before our eyes, adds an extra layer of poignancy to every single scene. In an era when every aspect of society was accelerating, Linklater slowed down to tell the one of the definitive stories of our time. – Matt Singer, ScreenCrush, US

4. Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001)

Miyazaki’s story of a young girl trapped in the spirit world, trying to rescue her parents, feels like a throwback to an earlier age of hand-drawn animation… it has an ambitious sweep to its elaborate visuals of Japanese spirit-monsters and a sense of soaring adventure. It’s a traditional fairy tale turned into an exciting narrative of transformation and discovery. – Tasha Robinson, The Verge, US

3. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)

From its near-wordless opening scene, Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood feels like something forged, not filmed. Daniel Day-Lewis, as turn-of-the-century prospector Daniel Plainview, grunts, spits and scrapes his way into a hole under baked Western earth; he strikes silver, drags his half-broken body to certify his claim…The rest of the movie – a sprawling, half-mad testament to greed, industry, moral hypocrisy and ballyhoo at their most elementally American – could be watched with no sound at all and still be perfectly understood. – Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post, US

2. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, 2000)

Wong Kar-wai is one of world cinema’s most notorious perfectionists, but he earned every moment of editing-room indecision with In the Mood for Love… We never see the faces of the spouses whose affair pulls two lonely neighbours into their delirious romantic spiral… all the better to heighten the erotic charge of every swaying hip and every voluptuous swirl of the camera. And we never hear the lost, whispered words at the climax… never before has a film spoken so fluently in the universal language of loss and desire. – Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times, US

1. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)

WH Auden called Los Angeles “the great wrong place”. James Ellroy called it “the great right place”. The idea that two, or more, seemingly conflicting ideas can simultaneously be true is so often forgotten in the zero-sum culture of today, but it’s at the heart of David Lynch’s empathetic masterpiece… Mulholland Drive is a reverie of sex, suicide and “silencio”…. Lynch’s film is so gorgeous and so painful, so mysterious and, in many ways, so recognisable – drive on the actual road, Mulholland, at night, and then walk from Western to Vermont, and you’ll see – that, whatever theory you ascribe to it, the picture does indeed reflect a reality that moves beyond southern California and parks itself in our brains, tapping into our dreams, deepest fears, inscrutable natures, erotic desires, and pool boys. – Kim Morgan, Sunset Gun, US

Are some of your favorite films on the list too? And have you got some new films to watch up next?

This is just the top 25 from the list of the greatest films, check out the complete list on BBC Culture here .

Reference

[1] ^ BBC Culture: The 21st Century’s 100 Greatest Films

©

[personalinjurylawyer93555]

Follow Up: Predictions from the Google Analytics Summit 2018

Follow Up: Predictions from the Google Analytics Summit 2018

It’s Google Analytics Summit week and we’re feeling the usual jitters and excitement! The Google Analytics Summit is an annual event where the Google Analytics team (among others) announce new products, release brand new features, and share their forward-looking vision for their products. These changes can range from small fixes to bold innovations that will literally change the way we do business.

As a Google Analytics Certified Partner, we get to send a few employees each year to get inspired by case studies, keynotes, and network with the smartest folks in the industry. We send them off with lists of questions and wish them luck, like kids with overflowing backpacks on their first days of school. We swap stories from years past, give food recommendations, and anxiously await the tweets and announcements throughout the week.

A Look Backwards

Google has been making announcements like this for years, though before they had their own Summit, they would announce at other summits – like eMetrics. To help put whatever gets announced this week into perspective, and as a reminder of how long we’ve been blogging about Google Analytics, take a look at some photos from 2007 and some announcements from back in 2008, which include GA staples like custom reports, segments, the API, as well as a new interface and integrations.

In 2012, we wrote about the official Google Analytics Summit and a host of new announcements, features that today we couldn’t imagine GA without – like Universal Analytics, Custom Dimensions, User IDs, Data-Driven Attribution and more!

Looking Towards the Future

For something a little more recent, I sat down with the Alex Moore, the Director of our Analytics & Insight department, to discuss some rather, uh, bold predictions he made four years ago, with his 2013 post: GA Summit 2018 – 14 Announcements from the Future.

In his seminal post, the bespectacled Google Glass enthusiast had just returned from the Google Analytics Summit (still held at Mountain View), filled with optimism and amazed by the whizzbang toys that Google was pursuing at the time. If nothing else, his light-hearted predictions can serve as a reminder of how fast technology changes. Oh, and perhaps that the internet never forgets.

You ready to do this, Alex?

Alex: “I guess… How’s this going to work?”

I’ll give you a prediction, you respond. Simple as that!

Alex: “Oh boy. Let’s do it.”

First up – 1. Google Glass 3D / Tag Manager Integration

Original prediction

Alex: “Off to a great start! I was an early fan boy of Google Glass and saw vast potential in the product. While we are seeing a resurgence in Google Glass popularity, this time as a tool for industrial and manufacturing applications, I doubt we’ll see a built-in GTM integration any time soon.”

I’ll let him off easy on this one, but I will include this fabulous picture from our About Us page.

2. Google Tag Manager introduces its 1,000th integrated 3rd-party tag

Original prediction

Alex: “We’re well on our way with this one! When’s the last time you’ve checked? Google Tag Manager currently supports almost 80 third-party tags, and are actively encouraging more vendors every day. We may not hit 1,000 but I’m optimistic that this number will only continue to grow as more vendors realize the benefits.”

I’ll add to this Google’s list of benefits for would-be Tag Vendors, which also doubles as a list of reasons to be using supported tags in GTM.

Google Tag Manager users will be able to add your tag easily.

Google Tag Manager users will be exposed to your tag and brand.

Your clients will be able to add or modify your tags on their site within minutes, not months.

3. Beginning in 2019, Tag Manager will begin holding its own conference, called the GTM Summit

Original prediction

Alex: “I’m still holding out hope for this one! We’ve seen Google Tag Manager play an increasing role in past Summits, and we’ve enjoyed the opportunity to give our feedback directly to the product team. We’ve seen Google Tag Manager become even more versatile and better for enterprises.

Plus, Google has also signaled its support of GTM by giving it a prominent role in the Google Marketing Next conference. There’s still a chance!”

I’ll throw in my two cents and say that I’ll re-offer my gift basket to the Google Tag Manager team if they can make this happen.

4. Google will hash non-branded organic keywords, and provide a branded/non-branded ratio inside Google Analytics

Original prediction

Alex: “Kinda?? We don’t have this exact feature (YET!) but now we can approximate it with the built-in Search Console reports.”

5. Google Analytics is merging with Webmaster Tools

Original prediction

Alex: “I was pretty close! While we haven’t seen Webmaster Tools (ahem, Search Console) disappear completely, many of the benefits that I described in the original post became available with the integration between the two tools.”

6. Sampling in Google Analytics reports is gone forever

Original prediction

Alex: “As we know, sampling is still present inside of the standard Google Analytics interface. While Google’s core technology has become even more amazing in the past four years, we’ve also seen Google Analytics adoption explode as well. One of the changes of the past four years is a more educated user base. Hopefully the Google Analytics users today have a better understanding of why and when sampling takes place, which can lead to more intelligent data collection and reporting.

Oh, and by the way, Google plans to demonstrate its quantum processor by the end of 2017. Fingers crossed.”

7. Data in standard reports is fresher than ever

Original prediction

Alex: “Data freshness has improved to the point where intraday reports are available sooner and for more customers. Google Analytics 360 customers have certainly seen the most dramatic gains in this category, with faster intraday data processing guaranteed by the Service Level Agreement. We also now have intra-day reports available in the Google BigQuery export from Google Analytics.

Insights generated within Google Analytics based on predicted data is not yet available, but I PREDICT it’s something we’ll see soon.”

(Jon groans.)

8. All AdWords reports will be available inside Google Analytics, and vice versa

Original prediction

Alex: “We’ve certainly seen these reports improve over the years. For a long time, advertisers reported in AdWords and analysts reported in Analytics, which meant we lacked a common language. Sharing between the two platforms has alleviated that (although there will probably always be confusion with clicks vs sessions). Google Analytics still misses a lot of important AdWords tools, most notably labels, which advertisers live and die with inside of AdWords.

We now get Google AdWords data in BigQuery, which we didn’t have even two years ago, so we’re working toward this dream. I applaud anytime Google teams can work across products to deliver better solutions for those of us on the ground using the tools!”

9. Cross-user tracking is now built in to Google Analytics

Original prediction

Alex: “I love this idea. While Google’s focus has been on cross-device analysis, like with the User ID Reports, perhaps the next great built-in Analytics report will focus on how users share content with one another!”

10. Google.com algorithmic changes now appear as automatic annotations inside Google Analytics

Original prediction

Alex: “This is a pipe dream… I’m still waiting on the Timeline Annotation API (cough, cough!)”

11. Chromealytics launches worldwide

Original prediction

Alex: “Hey, I’m in favor of anything that speeds up the web! And actually, Google now hosts jQuery and other common libraries in an effort to leverage caching across websites, so I wasn’t too far off!”

12. Bots are completely removed from Analytics reports

Original prediction

Alex: “We did it! We actually now have a checkbox that removes known bots and spiders. Anecdotally, I feel like Google has done a better of job at filtering out the worst bot offenders. Of course, we always recommend best practices around filters, etc.

In a similarly serious post posted on some April 1st a few years ago, I even helped to outline an ambitious plan to combat bots in Google Analytics.”

I’ll add that, due to that post’s popularity in the Google’s SERPs and the traffic numbers we were getting even 8 months later, I had to follow up Alex’s post with a more sensible guide here: Notes on Filtering Spam and Bots from Google Analytics

13. Google Driverless cars are now a built-in segment in Analytics reports

Original prediction

Alex: “I’m not sure why I ever thought a “massive increase in car-based internet usage and web browsing” was a good idea. Keep your eyes on the road!”

(Photo: Eric Risberg AP)

14. Views are being renamed “Profiles”

Original prediction

Alex: “I’m kind of used to them being Views now (*shivers*).”

Wrapping Up

Well there you have it. Thanks, Alex, for this trip down memory lane! We’ll be sure to check back in next year to see how close you actually came.

http://ift.tt/2x2JYeP

[seo53703]

Follow Up: Predictions from the Google Analytics Summit 2018

Follow Up: Predictions from the Google Analytics Summit 2018

It’s Google Analytics Summit week and we’re feeling the usual jitters and excitement! The Google Analytics Summit is an annual event where the Google Analytics team (among others) announce new products, release brand new features, and share their forward-looking vision for their products. These changes can range from small fixes to bold innovations that will literally change the way we do business.

As a Google Analytics Certified Partner, we get to send a few employees each year to get inspired by case studies, keynotes, and network with the smartest folks in the industry. We send them off with lists of questions and wish them luck, like kids with overflowing backpacks on their first days of school. We swap stories from years past, give food recommendations, and anxiously await the tweets and announcements throughout the week.

A Look Backwards

Google has been making announcements like this for years, though before they had their own Summit, they would announce at other summits – like eMetrics. To help put whatever gets announced this week into perspective, and as a reminder of how long we’ve been blogging about Google Analytics, take a look at some photos from 2007 and some announcements from back in 2008, which include GA staples like custom reports, segments, the API, as well as a new interface and integrations.

In 2012, we wrote about the official Google Analytics Summit and a host of new announcements, features that today we couldn’t imagine GA without – like Universal Analytics, Custom Dimensions, User IDs, Data-Driven Attribution and more!

Looking Towards the Future

For something a little more recent, I sat down with the Alex Moore, the Director of our Analytics & Insight department, to discuss some rather, uh, bold predictions he made four years ago, with his 2013 post: GA Summit 2018 – 14 Announcements from the Future.

In his seminal post, the bespectacled Google Glass enthusiast had just returned from the Google Analytics Summit (still held at Mountain View), filled with optimism and amazed by the whizzbang toys that Google was pursuing at the time. If nothing else, his light-hearted predictions can serve as a reminder of how fast technology changes. Oh, and perhaps that the internet never forgets.

You ready to do this, Alex?

Alex: “I guess… How’s this going to work?”

I’ll give you a prediction, you respond. Simple as that!

Alex: “Oh boy. Let’s do it.”

First up – 1. Google Glass 3D / Tag Manager Integration

Original prediction

Alex: “Off to a great start! I was an early fan boy of Google Glass and saw vast potential in the product. While we are seeing a resurgence in Google Glass popularity, this time as a tool for industrial and manufacturing applications, I doubt we’ll see a built-in GTM integration any time soon.”

I’ll let him off easy on this one, but I will include this fabulous picture from our About Us page.

2. Google Tag Manager introduces its 1,000th integrated 3rd-party tag

Original prediction

Alex: “We’re well on our way with this one! When’s the last time you’ve checked? Google Tag Manager currently supports almost 80 third-party tags, and are actively encouraging more vendors every day. We may not hit 1,000 but I’m optimistic that this number will only continue to grow as more vendors realize the benefits.”

I’ll add to this Google’s list of benefits for would-be Tag Vendors, which also doubles as a list of reasons to be using supported tags in GTM.

Google Tag Manager users will be able to add your tag easily.

Google Tag Manager users will be exposed to your tag and brand.

Your clients will be able to add or modify your tags on their site within minutes, not months.

3. Beginning in 2019, Tag Manager will begin holding its own conference, called the GTM Summit

Original prediction

Alex: “I’m still holding out hope for this one! We’ve seen Google Tag Manager play an increasing role in past Summits, and we’ve enjoyed the opportunity to give our feedback directly to the product team. We’ve seen Google Tag Manager become even more versatile and better for enterprises.

Plus, Google has also signaled its support of GTM by giving it a prominent role in the Google Marketing Next conference. There’s still a chance!”

I’ll throw in my two cents and say that I’ll re-offer my gift basket to the Google Tag Manager team if they can make this happen.

4. Google will hash non-branded organic keywords, and provide a branded/non-branded ratio inside Google Analytics

Original prediction

Alex: “Kinda?? We don’t have this exact feature (YET!) but now we can approximate it with the built-in Search Console reports.”

5. Google Analytics is merging with Webmaster Tools

Original prediction

Alex: “I was pretty close! While we haven’t seen Webmaster Tools (ahem, Search Console) disappear completely, many of the benefits that I described in the original post became available with the integration between the two tools.”

6. Sampling in Google Analytics reports is gone forever

Original prediction

Alex: “As we know, sampling is still present inside of the standard Google Analytics interface. While Google’s core technology has become even more amazing in the past four years, we’ve also seen Google Analytics adoption explode as well. One of the changes of the past four years is a more educated user base. Hopefully the Google Analytics users today have a better understanding of why and when sampling takes place, which can lead to more intelligent data collection and reporting.

Oh, and by the way, Google plans to demonstrate its quantum processor by the end of 2017. Fingers crossed.”

7. Data in standard reports is fresher than ever

Original prediction

Alex: “Data freshness has improved to the point where intraday reports are available sooner and for more customers. Google Analytics 360 customers have certainly seen the most dramatic gains in this category, with faster intraday data processing guaranteed by the Service Level Agreement. We also now have intra-day reports available in the Google BigQuery export from Google Analytics.

Insights generated within Google Analytics based on predicted data is not yet available, but I PREDICT it’s something we’ll see soon.”

(Jon groans.)

8. All AdWords reports will be available inside Google Analytics, and vice versa

Original prediction

Alex: “We’ve certainly seen these reports improve over the years. For a long time, advertisers reported in AdWords and analysts reported in Analytics, which meant we lacked a common language. Sharing between the two platforms has alleviated that (although there will probably always be confusion with clicks vs sessions). Google Analytics still misses a lot of important AdWords tools, most notably labels, which advertisers live and die with inside of AdWords.

We now get Google AdWords data in BigQuery, which we didn’t have even two years ago, so we’re working toward this dream. I applaud anytime Google teams can work across products to deliver better solutions for those of us on the ground using the tools!”

9. Cross-user tracking is now built in to Google Analytics

Original prediction

Alex: “I love this idea. While Google’s focus has been on cross-device analysis, like with the User ID Reports, perhaps the next great built-in Analytics report will focus on how users share content with one another!”

10. Google.com algorithmic changes now appear as automatic annotations inside Google Analytics

Original prediction

Alex: “This is a pipe dream… I’m still waiting on the Timeline Annotation API (cough, cough!)”

11. Chromealytics launches worldwide

Original prediction

Alex: “Hey, I’m in favor of anything that speeds up the web! And actually, Google now hosts jQuery and other common libraries in an effort to leverage caching across websites, so I wasn’t too far off!”

12. Bots are completely removed from Analytics reports

Original prediction

Alex: “We did it! We actually now have a checkbox that removes known bots and spiders. Anecdotally, I feel like Google has done a better of job at filtering out the worst bot offenders. Of course, we always recommend best practices around filters, etc.

In a similarly serious post posted on some April 1st a few years ago, I even helped to outline an ambitious plan to combat bots in Google Analytics.”

I’ll add that, due to that post’s popularity in the Google’s SERPs and the traffic numbers we were getting even 8 months later, I had to follow up Alex’s post with a more sensible guide here: Notes on Filtering Spam and Bots from Google Analytics

13. Google Driverless cars are now a built-in segment in Analytics reports

Original prediction

Alex: “I’m not sure why I ever thought a “massive increase in car-based internet usage and web browsing” was a good idea. Keep your eyes on the road!”

(Photo: Eric Risberg AP)

14. Views are being renamed “Profiles”

Original prediction

Alex: “I’m kind of used to them being Views now (*shivers*).”

Wrapping Up

Well there you have it. Thanks, Alex, for this trip down memory lane! We’ll be sure to check back in next year to see how close you actually came.

http://ift.tt/2x2JYeP

[mortlend40507]

Follow Up: Predictions from the Google Analytics Summit 2018

Follow Up: Predictions from the Google Analytics Summit 2018

It’s Google Analytics Summit week and we’re feeling the usual jitters and excitement! The Google Analytics Summit is an annual event where the Google Analytics team (among others) announce new products, release brand new features, and share their forward-looking vision for their products. These changes can range from small fixes to bold innovations that will literally change the way we do business.

As a Google Analytics Certified Partner, we get to send a few employees each year to get inspired by case studies, keynotes, and network with the smartest folks in the industry. We send them off with lists of questions and wish them luck, like kids with overflowing backpacks on their first days of school. We swap stories from years past, give food recommendations, and anxiously await the tweets and announcements throughout the week.

A Look Backwards

Google has been making announcements like this for years, though before they had their own Summit, they would announce at other summits – like eMetrics. To help put whatever gets announced this week into perspective, and as a reminder of how long we’ve been blogging about Google Analytics, take a look at some photos from 2007 and some announcements from back in 2008, which include GA staples like custom reports, segments, the API, as well as a new interface and integrations.

In 2012, we wrote about the official Google Analytics Summit and a host of new announcements, features that today we couldn’t imagine GA without – like Universal Analytics, Custom Dimensions, User IDs, Data-Driven Attribution and more!

Looking Towards the Future

For something a little more recent, I sat down with the Alex Moore, the Director of our Analytics & Insight department, to discuss some rather, uh, bold predictions he made four years ago, with his 2013 post: GA Summit 2018 – 14 Announcements from the Future.

In his seminal post, the bespectacled Google Glass enthusiast had just returned from the Google Analytics Summit (still held at Mountain View), filled with optimism and amazed by the whizzbang toys that Google was pursuing at the time. If nothing else, his light-hearted predictions can serve as a reminder of how fast technology changes. Oh, and perhaps that the internet never forgets.

You ready to do this, Alex?

Alex: “I guess… How’s this going to work?”

I’ll give you a prediction, you respond. Simple as that!

Alex: “Oh boy. Let’s do it.”

First up – 1. Google Glass 3D / Tag Manager Integration

Original prediction

Alex: “Off to a great start! I was an early fan boy of Google Glass and saw vast potential in the product. While we are seeing a resurgence in Google Glass popularity, this time as a tool for industrial and manufacturing applications, I doubt we’ll see a built-in GTM integration any time soon.”

I’ll let him off easy on this one, but I will include this fabulous picture from our About Us page.

2. Google Tag Manager introduces its 1,000th integrated 3rd-party tag

Original prediction

Alex: “We’re well on our way with this one! When’s the last time you’ve checked? Google Tag Manager currently supports almost 80 third-party tags, and are actively encouraging more vendors every day. We may not hit 1,000 but I’m optimistic that this number will only continue to grow as more vendors realize the benefits.”

I’ll add to this Google’s list of benefits for would-be Tag Vendors, which also doubles as a list of reasons to be using supported tags in GTM.

Google Tag Manager users will be able to add your tag easily.

Google Tag Manager users will be exposed to your tag and brand.

Your clients will be able to add or modify your tags on their site within minutes, not months.

3. Beginning in 2019, Tag Manager will begin holding its own conference, called the GTM Summit

Original prediction

Alex: “I’m still holding out hope for this one! We’ve seen Google Tag Manager play an increasing role in past Summits, and we’ve enjoyed the opportunity to give our feedback directly to the product team. We’ve seen Google Tag Manager become even more versatile and better for enterprises.

Plus, Google has also signaled its support of GTM by giving it a prominent role in the Google Marketing Next conference. There’s still a chance!”

I’ll throw in my two cents and say that I’ll re-offer my gift basket to the Google Tag Manager team if they can make this happen.

4. Google will hash non-branded organic keywords, and provide a branded/non-branded ratio inside Google Analytics

Original prediction

Alex: “Kinda?? We don’t have this exact feature (YET!) but now we can approximate it with the built-in Search Console reports.”

5. Google Analytics is merging with Webmaster Tools

Original prediction

Alex: “I was pretty close! While we haven’t seen Webmaster Tools (ahem, Search Console) disappear completely, many of the benefits that I described in the original post became available with the integration between the two tools.”

6. Sampling in Google Analytics reports is gone forever

Original prediction

Alex: “As we know, sampling is still present inside of the standard Google Analytics interface. While Google’s core technology has become even more amazing in the past four years, we’ve also seen Google Analytics adoption explode as well. One of the changes of the past four years is a more educated user base. Hopefully the Google Analytics users today have a better understanding of why and when sampling takes place, which can lead to more intelligent data collection and reporting.

Oh, and by the way, Google plans to demonstrate its quantum processor by the end of 2017. Fingers crossed.”

7. Data in standard reports is fresher than ever

Original prediction

Alex: “Data freshness has improved to the point where intraday reports are available sooner and for more customers. Google Analytics 360 customers have certainly seen the most dramatic gains in this category, with faster intraday data processing guaranteed by the Service Level Agreement. We also now have intra-day reports available in the Google BigQuery export from Google Analytics.

Insights generated within Google Analytics based on predicted data is not yet available, but I PREDICT it’s something we’ll see soon.”

(Jon groans.)

8. All AdWords reports will be available inside Google Analytics, and vice versa

Original prediction

Alex: “We’ve certainly seen these reports improve over the years. For a long time, advertisers reported in AdWords and analysts reported in Analytics, which meant we lacked a common language. Sharing between the two platforms has alleviated that (although there will probably always be confusion with clicks vs sessions). Google Analytics still misses a lot of important AdWords tools, most notably labels, which advertisers live and die with inside of AdWords.

We now get Google AdWords data in BigQuery, which we didn’t have even two years ago, so we’re working toward this dream. I applaud anytime Google teams can work across products to deliver better solutions for those of us on the ground using the tools!”

9. Cross-user tracking is now built in to Google Analytics

Original prediction

Alex: “I love this idea. While Google’s focus has been on cross-device analysis, like with the User ID Reports, perhaps the next great built-in Analytics report will focus on how users share content with one another!”

10. Google.com algorithmic changes now appear as automatic annotations inside Google Analytics

Original prediction

Alex: “This is a pipe dream… I’m still waiting on the Timeline Annotation API (cough, cough!)”

11. Chromealytics launches worldwide

Original prediction

Alex: “Hey, I’m in favor of anything that speeds up the web! And actually, Google now hosts jQuery and other common libraries in an effort to leverage caching across websites, so I wasn’t too far off!”

12. Bots are completely removed from Analytics reports

Original prediction

Alex: “We did it! We actually now have a checkbox that removes known bots and spiders. Anecdotally, I feel like Google has done a better of job at filtering out the worst bot offenders. Of course, we always recommend best practices around filters, etc.

In a similarly serious post posted on some April 1st a few years ago, I even helped to outline an ambitious plan to combat bots in Google Analytics.”

I’ll add that, due to that post’s popularity in the Google’s SERPs and the traffic numbers we were getting even 8 months later, I had to follow up Alex’s post with a more sensible guide here: Notes on Filtering Spam and Bots from Google Analytics

13. Google Driverless cars are now a built-in segment in Analytics reports

Original prediction

Alex: “I’m not sure why I ever thought a “massive increase in car-based internet usage and web browsing” was a good idea. Keep your eyes on the road!”

(Photo: Eric Risberg AP)

14. Views are being renamed “Profiles”

Original prediction

Alex: “I’m kind of used to them being Views now (*shivers*).”

Wrapping Up

Well there you have it. Thanks, Alex, for this trip down memory lane! We’ll be sure to check back in next year to see how close you actually came.

http://ift.tt/2x2JYeP

[constructionsworkr3053]

Follow Up: Predictions from the Google Analytics Summit 2018

Follow Up: Predictions from the Google Analytics Summit 2018

It’s Google Analytics Summit week and we’re feeling the usual jitters and excitement! The Google Analytics Summit is an annual event where the Google Analytics team (among others) announce new products, release brand new features, and share their forward-looking vision for their products. These changes can range from small fixes to bold innovations that will literally change the way we do business.

As a Google Analytics Certified Partner, we get to send a few employees each year to get inspired by case studies, keynotes, and network with the smartest folks in the industry. We send them off with lists of questions and wish them luck, like kids with overflowing backpacks on their first days of school. We swap stories from years past, give food recommendations, and anxiously await the tweets and announcements throughout the week.

A Look Backwards

Google has been making announcements like this for years, though before they had their own Summit, they would announce at other summits – like eMetrics. To help put whatever gets announced this week into perspective, and as a reminder of how long we’ve been blogging about Google Analytics, take a look at some photos from 2007 and some announcements from back in 2008, which include GA staples like custom reports, segments, the API, as well as a new interface and integrations.

In 2012, we wrote about the official Google Analytics Summit and a host of new announcements, features that today we couldn’t imagine GA without – like Universal Analytics, Custom Dimensions, User IDs, Data-Driven Attribution and more!

Looking Towards the Future

For something a little more recent, I sat down with the Alex Moore, the Director of our Analytics & Insight department, to discuss some rather, uh, bold predictions he made four years ago, with his 2013 post: GA Summit 2018 – 14 Announcements from the Future.

In his seminal post, the bespectacled Google Glass enthusiast had just returned from the Google Analytics Summit (still held at Mountain View), filled with optimism and amazed by the whizzbang toys that Google was pursuing at the time. If nothing else, his light-hearted predictions can serve as a reminder of how fast technology changes. Oh, and perhaps that the internet never forgets.

You ready to do this, Alex?

Alex: “I guess… How’s this going to work?”

I’ll give you a prediction, you respond. Simple as that!

Alex: “Oh boy. Let’s do it.”

First up – 1. Google Glass 3D / Tag Manager Integration

Original prediction

Alex: “Off to a great start! I was an early fan boy of Google Glass and saw vast potential in the product. While we are seeing a resurgence in Google Glass popularity, this time as a tool for industrial and manufacturing applications, I doubt we’ll see a built-in GTM integration any time soon.”

I’ll let him off easy on this one, but I will include this fabulous picture from our About Us page.

2. Google Tag Manager introduces its 1,000th integrated 3rd-party tag

Original prediction

Alex: “We’re well on our way with this one! When’s the last time you’ve checked? Google Tag Manager currently supports almost 80 third-party tags, and are actively encouraging more vendors every day. We may not hit 1,000 but I’m optimistic that this number will only continue to grow as more vendors realize the benefits.”

I’ll add to this Google’s list of benefits for would-be Tag Vendors, which also doubles as a list of reasons to be using supported tags in GTM.

Google Tag Manager users will be able to add your tag easily.

Google Tag Manager users will be exposed to your tag and brand.

Your clients will be able to add or modify your tags on their site within minutes, not months.

3. Beginning in 2019, Tag Manager will begin holding its own conference, called the GTM Summit

Original prediction

Alex: “I’m still holding out hope for this one! We’ve seen Google Tag Manager play an increasing role in past Summits, and we’ve enjoyed the opportunity to give our feedback directly to the product team. We’ve seen Google Tag Manager become even more versatile and better for enterprises.

Plus, Google has also signaled its support of GTM by giving it a prominent role in the Google Marketing Next conference. There’s still a chance!”

I’ll throw in my two cents and say that I’ll re-offer my gift basket to the Google Tag Manager team if they can make this happen.

4. Google will hash non-branded organic keywords, and provide a branded/non-branded ratio inside Google Analytics

Original prediction

Alex: “Kinda?? We don’t have this exact feature (YET!) but now we can approximate it with the built-in Search Console reports.”

5. Google Analytics is merging with Webmaster Tools

Original prediction

Alex: “I was pretty close! While we haven’t seen Webmaster Tools (ahem, Search Console) disappear completely, many of the benefits that I described in the original post became available with the integration between the two tools.”

6. Sampling in Google Analytics reports is gone forever

Original prediction

Alex: “As we know, sampling is still present inside of the standard Google Analytics interface. While Google’s core technology has become even more amazing in the past four years, we’ve also seen Google Analytics adoption explode as well. One of the changes of the past four years is a more educated user base. Hopefully the Google Analytics users today have a better understanding of why and when sampling takes place, which can lead to more intelligent data collection and reporting.

Oh, and by the way, Google plans to demonstrate its quantum processor by the end of 2017. Fingers crossed.”

7. Data in standard reports is fresher than ever

Original prediction

Alex: “Data freshness has improved to the point where intraday reports are available sooner and for more customers. Google Analytics 360 customers have certainly seen the most dramatic gains in this category, with faster intraday data processing guaranteed by the Service Level Agreement. We also now have intra-day reports available in the Google BigQuery export from Google Analytics.

Insights generated within Google Analytics based on predicted data is not yet available, but I PREDICT it’s something we’ll see soon.”

(Jon groans.)

8. All AdWords reports will be available inside Google Analytics, and vice versa

Original prediction

Alex: “We’ve certainly seen these reports improve over the years. For a long time, advertisers reported in AdWords and analysts reported in Analytics, which meant we lacked a common language. Sharing between the two platforms has alleviated that (although there will probably always be confusion with clicks vs sessions). Google Analytics still misses a lot of important AdWords tools, most notably labels, which advertisers live and die with inside of AdWords.

We now get Google AdWords data in BigQuery, which we didn’t have even two years ago, so we’re working toward this dream. I applaud anytime Google teams can work across products to deliver better solutions for those of us on the ground using the tools!”

9. Cross-user tracking is now built in to Google Analytics

Original prediction

Alex: “I love this idea. While Google’s focus has been on cross-device analysis, like with the User ID Reports, perhaps the next great built-in Analytics report will focus on how users share content with one another!”

10. Google.com algorithmic changes now appear as automatic annotations inside Google Analytics

Original prediction

Alex: “This is a pipe dream… I’m still waiting on the Timeline Annotation API (cough, cough!)”

11. Chromealytics launches worldwide

Original prediction

Alex: “Hey, I’m in favor of anything that speeds up the web! And actually, Google now hosts jQuery and other common libraries in an effort to leverage caching across websites, so I wasn’t too far off!”

12. Bots are completely removed from Analytics reports

Original prediction

Alex: “We did it! We actually now have a checkbox that removes known bots and spiders. Anecdotally, I feel like Google has done a better of job at filtering out the worst bot offenders. Of course, we always recommend best practices around filters, etc.

In a similarly serious post posted on some April 1st a few years ago, I even helped to outline an ambitious plan to combat bots in Google Analytics.”

I’ll add that, due to that post’s popularity in the Google’s SERPs and the traffic numbers we were getting even 8 months later, I had to follow up Alex’s post with a more sensible guide here: Notes on Filtering Spam and Bots from Google Analytics

13. Google Driverless cars are now a built-in segment in Analytics reports

Original prediction

Alex: “I’m not sure why I ever thought a “massive increase in car-based internet usage and web browsing” was a good idea. Keep your eyes on the road!”

(Photo: Eric Risberg AP)

14. Views are being renamed “Profiles”

Original prediction

Alex: “I’m kind of used to them being Views now (*shivers*).”

Wrapping Up

Well there you have it. Thanks, Alex, for this trip down memory lane! We’ll be sure to check back in next year to see how close you actually came.

http://ift.tt/2x2JYeP

[inetmrktng75247]

Follow Up: Predictions from the Google Analytics Summit 2018

Follow Up: Predictions from the Google Analytics Summit 2018

It’s Google Analytics Summit week and we’re feeling the usual jitters and excitement! The Google Analytics Summit is an annual event where the Google Analytics team (among others) announce new products, release brand new features, and share their forward-looking vision for their products. These changes can range from small fixes to bold innovations that will literally change the way we do business.

As a Google Analytics Certified Partner, we get to send a few employees each year to get inspired by case studies, keynotes, and network with the smartest folks in the industry. We send them off with lists of questions and wish them luck, like kids with overflowing backpacks on their first days of school. We swap stories from years past, give food recommendations, and anxiously await the tweets and announcements throughout the week.

A Look Backwards

Google has been making announcements like this for years, though before they had their own Summit, they would announce at other summits – like eMetrics. To help put whatever gets announced this week into perspective, and as a reminder of how long we’ve been blogging about Google Analytics, take a look at some photos from 2007 and some announcements from back in 2008, which include GA staples like custom reports, segments, the API, as well as a new interface and integrations.

In 2012, we wrote about the official Google Analytics Summit and a host of new announcements, features that today we couldn’t imagine GA without – like Universal Analytics, Custom Dimensions, User IDs, Data-Driven Attribution and more!

Looking Towards the Future

For something a little more recent, I sat down with the Alex Moore, the Director of our Analytics & Insight department, to discuss some rather, uh, bold predictions he made four years ago, with his 2013 post: GA Summit 2018 – 14 Announcements from the Future.

In his seminal post, the bespectacled Google Glass enthusiast had just returned from the Google Analytics Summit (still held at Mountain View), filled with optimism and amazed by the whizzbang toys that Google was pursuing at the time. If nothing else, his light-hearted predictions can serve as a reminder of how fast technology changes. Oh, and perhaps that the internet never forgets.

You ready to do this, Alex?

Alex: “I guess… How’s this going to work?”

I’ll give you a prediction, you respond. Simple as that!

Alex: “Oh boy. Let’s do it.”

First up – 1. Google Glass 3D / Tag Manager Integration

Original prediction

Alex: “Off to a great start! I was an early fan boy of Google Glass and saw vast potential in the product. While we are seeing a resurgence in Google Glass popularity, this time as a tool for industrial and manufacturing applications, I doubt we’ll see a built-in GTM integration any time soon.”

I’ll let him off easy on this one, but I will include this fabulous picture from our About Us page.

2. Google Tag Manager introduces its 1,000th integrated 3rd-party tag

Original prediction

Alex: “We’re well on our way with this one! When’s the last time you’ve checked? Google Tag Manager currently supports almost 80 third-party tags, and are actively encouraging more vendors every day. We may not hit 1,000 but I’m optimistic that this number will only continue to grow as more vendors realize the benefits.”

I’ll add to this Google’s list of benefits for would-be Tag Vendors, which also doubles as a list of reasons to be using supported tags in GTM.

Google Tag Manager users will be able to add your tag easily.

Google Tag Manager users will be exposed to your tag and brand.

Your clients will be able to add or modify your tags on their site within minutes, not months.

3. Beginning in 2019, Tag Manager will begin holding its own conference, called the GTM Summit

Original prediction

Alex: “I’m still holding out hope for this one! We’ve seen Google Tag Manager play an increasing role in past Summits, and we’ve enjoyed the opportunity to give our feedback directly to the product team. We’ve seen Google Tag Manager become even more versatile and better for enterprises.

Plus, Google has also signaled its support of GTM by giving it a prominent role in the Google Marketing Next conference. There’s still a chance!”

I’ll throw in my two cents and say that I’ll re-offer my gift basket to the Google Tag Manager team if they can make this happen.

4. Google will hash non-branded organic keywords, and provide a branded/non-branded ratio inside Google Analytics

Original prediction

Alex: “Kinda?? We don’t have this exact feature (YET!) but now we can approximate it with the built-in Search Console reports.”

5. Google Analytics is merging with Webmaster Tools

Original prediction

Alex: “I was pretty close! While we haven’t seen Webmaster Tools (ahem, Search Console) disappear completely, many of the benefits that I described in the original post became available with the integration between the two tools.”

6. Sampling in Google Analytics reports is gone forever

Original prediction

Alex: “As we know, sampling is still present inside of the standard Google Analytics interface. While Google’s core technology has become even more amazing in the past four years, we’ve also seen Google Analytics adoption explode as well. One of the changes of the past four years is a more educated user base. Hopefully the Google Analytics users today have a better understanding of why and when sampling takes place, which can lead to more intelligent data collection and reporting.

Oh, and by the way, Google plans to demonstrate its quantum processor by the end of 2017. Fingers crossed.”

7. Data in standard reports is fresher than ever

Original prediction

Alex: “Data freshness has improved to the point where intraday reports are available sooner and for more customers. Google Analytics 360 customers have certainly seen the most dramatic gains in this category, with faster intraday data processing guaranteed by the Service Level Agreement. We also now have intra-day reports available in the Google BigQuery export from Google Analytics.

Insights generated within Google Analytics based on predicted data is not yet available, but I PREDICT it’s something we’ll see soon.”

(Jon groans.)

8. All AdWords reports will be available inside Google Analytics, and vice versa

Original prediction

Alex: “We’ve certainly seen these reports improve over the years. For a long time, advertisers reported in AdWords and analysts reported in Analytics, which meant we lacked a common language. Sharing between the two platforms has alleviated that (although there will probably always be confusion with clicks vs sessions). Google Analytics still misses a lot of important AdWords tools, most notably labels, which advertisers live and die with inside of AdWords.

We now get Google AdWords data in BigQuery, which we didn’t have even two years ago, so we’re working toward this dream. I applaud anytime Google teams can work across products to deliver better solutions for those of us on the ground using the tools!”

9. Cross-user tracking is now built in to Google Analytics

Original prediction

Alex: “I love this idea. While Google’s focus has been on cross-device analysis, like with the User ID Reports, perhaps the next great built-in Analytics report will focus on how users share content with one another!”

10. Google.com algorithmic changes now appear as automatic annotations inside Google Analytics

Original prediction

Alex: “This is a pipe dream… I’m still waiting on the Timeline Annotation API (cough, cough!)”

11. Chromealytics launches worldwide

Original prediction

Alex: “Hey, I’m in favor of anything that speeds up the web! And actually, Google now hosts jQuery and other common libraries in an effort to leverage caching across websites, so I wasn’t too far off!”

12. Bots are completely removed from Analytics reports

Original prediction

Alex: “We did it! We actually now have a checkbox that removes known bots and spiders. Anecdotally, I feel like Google has done a better of job at filtering out the worst bot offenders. Of course, we always recommend best practices around filters, etc.

In a similarly serious post posted on some April 1st a few years ago, I even helped to outline an ambitious plan to combat bots in Google Analytics.”

I’ll add that, due to that post’s popularity in the Google’s SERPs and the traffic numbers we were getting even 8 months later, I had to follow up Alex’s post with a more sensible guide here: Notes on Filtering Spam and Bots from Google Analytics

13. Google Driverless cars are now a built-in segment in Analytics reports

Original prediction

Alex: “I’m not sure why I ever thought a “massive increase in car-based internet usage and web browsing” was a good idea. Keep your eyes on the road!”

(Photo: Eric Risberg AP)

14. Views are being renamed “Profiles”

Original prediction

Alex: “I’m kind of used to them being Views now (*shivers*).”

Wrapping Up

Well there you have it. Thanks, Alex, for this trip down memory lane! We’ll be sure to check back in next year to see how close you actually came.

http://ift.tt/2x2JYeP

[duilawyer72210]

Follow Up: Predictions from the Google Analytics Summit 2018

Follow Up: Predictions from the Google Analytics Summit 2018

It’s Google Analytics Summit week and we’re feeling the usual jitters and excitement! The Google Analytics Summit is an annual event where the Google Analytics team (among others) announce new products, release brand new features, and share their forward-looking vision for their products. These changes can range from small fixes to bold innovations that will literally change the way we do business.

As a Google Analytics Certified Partner, we get to send a few employees each year to get inspired by case studies, keynotes, and network with the smartest folks in the industry. We send them off with lists of questions and wish them luck, like kids with overflowing backpacks on their first days of school. We swap stories from years past, give food recommendations, and anxiously await the tweets and announcements throughout the week.

A Look Backwards

Google has been making announcements like this for years, though before they had their own Summit, they would announce at other summits – like eMetrics. To help put whatever gets announced this week into perspective, and as a reminder of how long we’ve been blogging about Google Analytics, take a look at some photos from 2007 and some announcements from back in 2008, which include GA staples like custom reports, segments, the API, as well as a new interface and integrations.

In 2012, we wrote about the official Google Analytics Summit and a host of new announcements, features that today we couldn’t imagine GA without – like Universal Analytics, Custom Dimensions, User IDs, Data-Driven Attribution and more!

Looking Towards the Future

For something a little more recent, I sat down with the Alex Moore, the Director of our Analytics & Insight department, to discuss some rather, uh, bold predictions he made four years ago, with his 2013 post: GA Summit 2018 – 14 Announcements from the Future.

In his seminal post, the bespectacled Google Glass enthusiast had just returned from the Google Analytics Summit (still held at Mountain View), filled with optimism and amazed by the whizzbang toys that Google was pursuing at the time. If nothing else, his light-hearted predictions can serve as a reminder of how fast technology changes. Oh, and perhaps that the internet never forgets.

You ready to do this, Alex?

Alex: “I guess… How’s this going to work?”

I’ll give you a prediction, you respond. Simple as that!

Alex: “Oh boy. Let’s do it.”

First up – 1. Google Glass 3D / Tag Manager Integration

Original prediction

Alex: “Off to a great start! I was an early fan boy of Google Glass and saw vast potential in the product. While we are seeing a resurgence in Google Glass popularity, this time as a tool for industrial and manufacturing applications, I doubt we’ll see a built-in GTM integration any time soon.”

I’ll let him off easy on this one, but I will include this fabulous picture from our About Us page.

2. Google Tag Manager introduces its 1,000th integrated 3rd-party tag

Original prediction

Alex: “We’re well on our way with this one! When’s the last time you’ve checked? Google Tag Manager currently supports almost 80 third-party tags, and are actively encouraging more vendors every day. We may not hit 1,000 but I’m optimistic that this number will only continue to grow as more vendors realize the benefits.”

I’ll add to this Google’s list of benefits for would-be Tag Vendors, which also doubles as a list of reasons to be using supported tags in GTM.

Google Tag Manager users will be able to add your tag easily.

Google Tag Manager users will be exposed to your tag and brand.

Your clients will be able to add or modify your tags on their site within minutes, not months.

3. Beginning in 2019, Tag Manager will begin holding its own conference, called the GTM Summit

Original prediction

Alex: “I’m still holding out hope for this one! We’ve seen Google Tag Manager play an increasing role in past Summits, and we’ve enjoyed the opportunity to give our feedback directly to the product team. We’ve seen Google Tag Manager become even more versatile and better for enterprises.

Plus, Google has also signaled its support of GTM by giving it a prominent role in the Google Marketing Next conference. There’s still a chance!”

I’ll throw in my two cents and say that I’ll re-offer my gift basket to the Google Tag Manager team if they can make this happen.

4. Google will hash non-branded organic keywords, and provide a branded/non-branded ratio inside Google Analytics

Original prediction

Alex: “Kinda?? We don’t have this exact feature (YET!) but now we can approximate it with the built-in Search Console reports.”

5. Google Analytics is merging with Webmaster Tools

Original prediction

Alex: “I was pretty close! While we haven’t seen Webmaster Tools (ahem, Search Console) disappear completely, many of the benefits that I described in the original post became available with the integration between the two tools.”

6. Sampling in Google Analytics reports is gone forever

Original prediction

Alex: “As we know, sampling is still present inside of the standard Google Analytics interface. While Google’s core technology has become even more amazing in the past four years, we’ve also seen Google Analytics adoption explode as well. One of the changes of the past four years is a more educated user base. Hopefully the Google Analytics users today have a better understanding of why and when sampling takes place, which can lead to more intelligent data collection and reporting.

Oh, and by the way, Google plans to demonstrate its quantum processor by the end of 2017. Fingers crossed.”

7. Data in standard reports is fresher than ever

Original prediction

Alex: “Data freshness has improved to the point where intraday reports are available sooner and for more customers. Google Analytics 360 customers have certainly seen the most dramatic gains in this category, with faster intraday data processing guaranteed by the Service Level Agreement. We also now have intra-day reports available in the Google BigQuery export from Google Analytics.

Insights generated within Google Analytics based on predicted data is not yet available, but I PREDICT it’s something we’ll see soon.”

(Jon groans.)

8. All AdWords reports will be available inside Google Analytics, and vice versa

Original prediction

Alex: “We’ve certainly seen these reports improve over the years. For a long time, advertisers reported in AdWords and analysts reported in Analytics, which meant we lacked a common language. Sharing between the two platforms has alleviated that (although there will probably always be confusion with clicks vs sessions). Google Analytics still misses a lot of important AdWords tools, most notably labels, which advertisers live and die with inside of AdWords.

We now get Google AdWords data in BigQuery, which we didn’t have even two years ago, so we’re working toward this dream. I applaud anytime Google teams can work across products to deliver better solutions for those of us on the ground using the tools!”

9. Cross-user tracking is now built in to Google Analytics

Original prediction

Alex: “I love this idea. While Google’s focus has been on cross-device analysis, like with the User ID Reports, perhaps the next great built-in Analytics report will focus on how users share content with one another!”

10. Google.com algorithmic changes now appear as automatic annotations inside Google Analytics

Original prediction

Alex: “This is a pipe dream… I’m still waiting on the Timeline Annotation API (cough, cough!)”

11. Chromealytics launches worldwide

Original prediction

Alex: “Hey, I’m in favor of anything that speeds up the web! And actually, Google now hosts jQuery and other common libraries in an effort to leverage caching across websites, so I wasn’t too far off!”

12. Bots are completely removed from Analytics reports

Original prediction

Alex: “We did it! We actually now have a checkbox that removes known bots and spiders. Anecdotally, I feel like Google has done a better of job at filtering out the worst bot offenders. Of course, we always recommend best practices around filters, etc.

In a similarly serious post posted on some April 1st a few years ago, I even helped to outline an ambitious plan to combat bots in Google Analytics.”

I’ll add that, due to that post’s popularity in the Google’s SERPs and the traffic numbers we were getting even 8 months later, I had to follow up Alex’s post with a more sensible guide here: Notes on Filtering Spam and Bots from Google Analytics

13. Google Driverless cars are now a built-in segment in Analytics reports

Original prediction

Alex: “I’m not sure why I ever thought a “massive increase in car-based internet usage and web browsing” was a good idea. Keep your eyes on the road!”

(Photo: Eric Risberg AP)

14. Views are being renamed “Profiles”

Original prediction

Alex: “I’m kind of used to them being Views now (*shivers*).”

Wrapping Up

Well there you have it. Thanks, Alex, for this trip down memory lane! We’ll be sure to check back in next year to see how close you actually came.

http://ift.tt/2x2JYeP

[vidmarket32514]

Follow Up: Predictions from the Google Analytics Summit 2018

Follow Up: Predictions from the Google Analytics Summit 2018

It’s Google Analytics Summit week and we’re feeling the usual jitters and excitement! The Google Analytics Summit is an annual event where the Google Analytics team (among others) announce new products, release brand new features, and share their forward-looking vision for their products. These changes can range from small fixes to bold innovations that will literally change the way we do business.

As a Google Analytics Certified Partner, we get to send a few employees each year to get inspired by case studies, keynotes, and network with the smartest folks in the industry. We send them off with lists of questions and wish them luck, like kids with overflowing backpacks on their first days of school. We swap stories from years past, give food recommendations, and anxiously await the tweets and announcements throughout the week.

A Look Backwards

Google has been making announcements like this for years, though before they had their own Summit, they would announce at other summits – like eMetrics. To help put whatever gets announced this week into perspective, and as a reminder of how long we’ve been blogging about Google Analytics, take a look at some photos from 2007 and some announcements from back in 2008, which include GA staples like custom reports, segments, the API, as well as a new interface and integrations.

In 2012, we wrote about the official Google Analytics Summit and a host of new announcements, features that today we couldn’t imagine GA without – like Universal Analytics, Custom Dimensions, User IDs, Data-Driven Attribution and more!

Looking Towards the Future

For something a little more recent, I sat down with the Alex Moore, the Director of our Analytics & Insight department, to discuss some rather, uh, bold predictions he made four years ago, with his 2013 post: GA Summit 2018 – 14 Announcements from the Future.

In his seminal post, the bespectacled Google Glass enthusiast had just returned from the Google Analytics Summit (still held at Mountain View), filled with optimism and amazed by the whizzbang toys that Google was pursuing at the time. If nothing else, his light-hearted predictions can serve as a reminder of how fast technology changes. Oh, and perhaps that the internet never forgets.

You ready to do this, Alex?

Alex: “I guess… How’s this going to work?”

I’ll give you a prediction, you respond. Simple as that!

Alex: “Oh boy. Let’s do it.”

First up – 1. Google Glass 3D / Tag Manager Integration

Original prediction

Alex: “Off to a great start! I was an early fan boy of Google Glass and saw vast potential in the product. While we are seeing a resurgence in Google Glass popularity, this time as a tool for industrial and manufacturing applications, I doubt we’ll see a built-in GTM integration any time soon.”

I’ll let him off easy on this one, but I will include this fabulous picture from our About Us page.

2. Google Tag Manager introduces its 1,000th integrated 3rd-party tag

Original prediction

Alex: “We’re well on our way with this one! When’s the last time you’ve checked? Google Tag Manager currently supports almost 80 third-party tags, and are actively encouraging more vendors every day. We may not hit 1,000 but I’m optimistic that this number will only continue to grow as more vendors realize the benefits.”

I’ll add to this Google’s list of benefits for would-be Tag Vendors, which also doubles as a list of reasons to be using supported tags in GTM.

Google Tag Manager users will be able to add your tag easily.

Google Tag Manager users will be exposed to your tag and brand.

Your clients will be able to add or modify your tags on their site within minutes, not months.

3. Beginning in 2019, Tag Manager will begin holding its own conference, called the GTM Summit

Original prediction

Alex: “I’m still holding out hope for this one! We’ve seen Google Tag Manager play an increasing role in past Summits, and we’ve enjoyed the opportunity to give our feedback directly to the product team. We’ve seen Google Tag Manager become even more versatile and better for enterprises.

Plus, Google has also signaled its support of GTM by giving it a prominent role in the Google Marketing Next conference. There’s still a chance!”

I’ll throw in my two cents and say that I’ll re-offer my gift basket to the Google Tag Manager team if they can make this happen.

4. Google will hash non-branded organic keywords, and provide a branded/non-branded ratio inside Google Analytics

Original prediction

Alex: “Kinda?? We don’t have this exact feature (YET!) but now we can approximate it with the built-in Search Console reports.”

5. Google Analytics is merging with Webmaster Tools

Original prediction

Alex: “I was pretty close! While we haven’t seen Webmaster Tools (ahem, Search Console) disappear completely, many of the benefits that I described in the original post became available with the integration between the two tools.”

6. Sampling in Google Analytics reports is gone forever

Original prediction

Alex: “As we know, sampling is still present inside of the standard Google Analytics interface. While Google’s core technology has become even more amazing in the past four years, we’ve also seen Google Analytics adoption explode as well. One of the changes of the past four years is a more educated user base. Hopefully the Google Analytics users today have a better understanding of why and when sampling takes place, which can lead to more intelligent data collection and reporting.

Oh, and by the way, Google plans to demonstrate its quantum processor by the end of 2017. Fingers crossed.”

7. Data in standard reports is fresher than ever

Original prediction

Alex: “Data freshness has improved to the point where intraday reports are available sooner and for more customers. Google Analytics 360 customers have certainly seen the most dramatic gains in this category, with faster intraday data processing guaranteed by the Service Level Agreement. We also now have intra-day reports available in the Google BigQuery export from Google Analytics.

Insights generated within Google Analytics based on predicted data is not yet available, but I PREDICT it’s something we’ll see soon.”

(Jon groans.)

8. All AdWords reports will be available inside Google Analytics, and vice versa

Original prediction

Alex: “We’ve certainly seen these reports improve over the years. For a long time, advertisers reported in AdWords and analysts reported in Analytics, which meant we lacked a common language. Sharing between the two platforms has alleviated that (although there will probably always be confusion with clicks vs sessions). Google Analytics still misses a lot of important AdWords tools, most notably labels, which advertisers live and die with inside of AdWords.

We now get Google AdWords data in BigQuery, which we didn’t have even two years ago, so we’re working toward this dream. I applaud anytime Google teams can work across products to deliver better solutions for those of us on the ground using the tools!”

9. Cross-user tracking is now built in to Google Analytics

Original prediction

Alex: “I love this idea. While Google’s focus has been on cross-device analysis, like with the User ID Reports, perhaps the next great built-in Analytics report will focus on how users share content with one another!”

10. Google.com algorithmic changes now appear as automatic annotations inside Google Analytics

Original prediction

Alex: “This is a pipe dream… I’m still waiting on the Timeline Annotation API (cough, cough!)”

11. Chromealytics launches worldwide

Original prediction

Alex: “Hey, I’m in favor of anything that speeds up the web! And actually, Google now hosts jQuery and other common libraries in an effort to leverage caching across websites, so I wasn’t too far off!”

12. Bots are completely removed from Analytics reports

Original prediction

Alex: “We did it! We actually now have a checkbox that removes known bots and spiders. Anecdotally, I feel like Google has done a better of job at filtering out the worst bot offenders. Of course, we always recommend best practices around filters, etc.

In a similarly serious post posted on some April 1st a few years ago, I even helped to outline an ambitious plan to combat bots in Google Analytics.”

I’ll add that, due to that post’s popularity in the Google’s SERPs and the traffic numbers we were getting even 8 months later, I had to follow up Alex’s post with a more sensible guide here: Notes on Filtering Spam and Bots from Google Analytics

13. Google Driverless cars are now a built-in segment in Analytics reports

Original prediction

Alex: “I’m not sure why I ever thought a “massive increase in car-based internet usage and web browsing” was a good idea. Keep your eyes on the road!”

(Photo: Eric Risberg AP)

14. Views are being renamed “Profiles”

Original prediction

Alex: “I’m kind of used to them being Views now (*shivers*).”

Wrapping Up

Well there you have it. Thanks, Alex, for this trip down memory lane! We’ll be sure to check back in next year to see how close you actually came.

http://ift.tt/2x2JYeP