#the evolution of that theme drives me NUTS

[gossamer-green]

the dgs 2 soundtrack makes me feel every emotion. sometimes all at once

[gloopdimension]

AHHH DID YOU WATCH 2001 ASO..!!

*looking up at you with my big sad wet eyes * Yes

[adobe-outdesign]

Could you talk about the Bisharp line? Is one of my favorites, a Pawn that evolves into a Bishop with Samurai-esque features. It's edgy but its the good kind of edgy.

The overall concept for this line is pretty interesting. The blade theme is obvious, but they're also kaijin, IE humanoid monsters. In other words, Pawniard are the mooks that the Power Rangers cut down effortlessly while Bisharp is the cool evil general. The line certainly does a good job at looking like a tokusatsu villain (and I mean that in the best way possible, because I do love me some tokusatsu villians), and I'm always a big fan of abstract monsters to begin with.

(Shoutout to the translators: this wouldn't have made sense to a Western audience, so they chose to name them after pawns and bishops, which reflects their kaijin nature in a way audiences would understand (pawns gather together, bishops lead, etc.). Also, why haven't we gotten a chess-themed Pokemon yet?)

There's also some neat lore in here about how they hunt in packs and fight over sharpening stones. Humanoid Pokemon occasionally suffer from lack of lore about how they behave in the wild, so this is refreshing.

However, while I like this line overall, I do feel like Pawniard suffers from lack of a unique identity. There are a few elements specific to it that look better than on Bisharp, which I'll get into in a moment, but otherwise it's just a smaller Bisharp. Sometimes this can be excusable if it has different lore or behaves differently from its evolution, but it doesn't really have that. There's maybe a bit of progression with the kaijin thing, but it's subtle.

With that said, I do really like the face on Pawniard, moreso than Bisharp. Those yellow eyes pop really nicely, and the sunken-in look makes it look especially ruthless, which is also emphasized by the lack of a mouth. The colors are also simpler, which is good. So it's not bad as-is; it just isn't bringing much new to the table.

While the face is a downgrade, I'd otherwise say I like Bisharp more than Pawniard; the elements feel more purposeful here, even if it's a bit overworked in some areas. Like I said, I love the kaijin look and it works perfectly here, with a slick samurai helmet and plenty of blades. Those almost ungulate-like blade hooves are also perfect.

However, Bisharp does feel like it needed a round or two more of refinement before being finalized (some of this applies to Pawniard as well).

In particular, I don't like those two blades on the stomach, for a few reasons. First, the design flows downward, so suddenly having the vertical stripes cut off by horizontal elements feels off. Secondly, they don't add much to the design. And thirdly, how is it supposed to function with those things? If it puts its arms down or tries to lie down on its side its arms will be cut. The torso could also afford to be a bit shorter.

Secondly, I preferred Pawniard's color use, with the yellow used to make the eye pop and the rest of the blade elements being white. The yellow doesn't add much here and only serves to clutter the design.

And thirdly, the arm blades are odd; it looks like it's wearing oven mitts with blades on the backs. Something more similar to the feet would've worked better, and would've visually established a pattern with the limbs.

Finally, this is very minor, but it drives me nuts how the helmet blade just barely extends down onto the face. Either exaggerate it more or have it line up, I don't care, but it's just creating tension as-is, especially with the mouth. Also, I could've done without the random black around the chin/jaw.

I did a very sloppy edit in like 5 minutes, just removing the first blade and adjusting the colors (and torso length). The design feels a lot more coherent to me this way without really changing it all that much (the hands could also use changed but once again, quick edit).

But as a whole, I do really enjoy this line; it looks cool, the blade theme works, and I'm just a sucker for these kind of kaijin designs. I just feel like Pawniard's too similar to its evo, while Bisharp could've been refined a bit more. It's edgy, sure, but in a good (and punny) way.

[davidmann95]

Thoughts on Scott's Justice League?

So I don’t think we can discuss the current Justice League without bringing up Metal. Not just because it’s essentially the first arc, but because Justice League as a followup to that recontextualizes what it is. Metal, dearly as I love it, does very similar things to plenty of event comics over the last decade: things suddenly go completely to hell in a way that illustrates moral and philosophical failings on the part of our heroes coming to a grotesque head, and it might truly be the end this time until the champions pull through at the last, heralding a bold new age of heroism…and then everything keeps being miserable as shit and we repeat it all next year because the problem persists, still crying out for a symbolic slaying. Metal is that to a T.

Except Snyder along with Tynion actually stuck around to assure the follow-through. And while he’s moved past the sort of overt riffs that defined most of his collaborations with Capullo, what he’s done here fulfills the same promise as their Batman run: lulling a franchise into something noticeably closer to how Grant Morrison’s vision for how it should work, with Snyder’s slicker, more bombastic, action-movie commercial sensibilities succeeding at selling those ideas where Morrison didn’t. Except in this case it isn’t just that Batman’s cool and aspirational. It’s the model for the entirety of DC Comics.

I don’t know that this is the best Justice League thing. It isn’t as perfectly poppy and clever as Morrison’s own JLA or as funny and character-driven as the animated series (the two obvious influences), Orlando’s ersatz effort at handling a side book as if it were made up of A-listers yielded likely more profound results in isolation, and Priest and Woods’ immediately pre-Snyder run was pretty inarguably better put together on a nuts-and-bolts craftsmanship level while also succeeding at making it the ‘serious’ title people had been trying and failing to for years beforehand, making it the perfect final word on that era. But it’s absolutely the story that most potently synthesizes all the stuff that makes the Justice League work in the massive, iconic sense. It’s big threats, it’s inter-team bonding and drama, it’s grand spectacle and mythology and iconography, it’s puzzles the size of the world met with impossible come-from-behind victories, it’s cosmic and moral horror and shining inspiration, it’s Superman punching a fool so hard time explodes.

Let’s hover on the spirit of that last bit for a second. This is the lead book for DC as a lineup in a way Geoff Johns’ Justice League tried and failed to be (in so many ways this feels like what we would have expected a Geoff Johns Justice League run to look like once upon a time - this big loony generative fanboy thing building on the structure of existing mythology and relationships to construct a megaphone to scream the theme through), dictating the direction and tone of the entire line. And the first arc ends with a Flash-powered car driving around the Earth so fast it turns into a White Lantern; later Space Krakens get involved. When Metal came out I said it was impressive that it managed to feel like it had changed everything even though surely it couldn’t have, but now I’m not so certain; we’ve got astro-gorillas in the first issue of Bendis Superman, Morrison’s got Green Lantern, Tom King’s Very Serious Batman involves his parallel universe dad and Kite Man. The rock star spirit Snyder was heralding with Batman and trying to spread to the rest of the line with Metal has at last broken loose, and we’re back into superheroism as the world of the casual ineffable bizarre, the core of the shared DCU headspace huffing nitrous and slamming on the pedal until its heel breaks through the floor as Superman uses his X-ray vision to block an invisible evil galaxy from firing waves of pure self-loathing at Earth until Flash can stand still enough to unlock the true nature of the multiverse as he learned to do from a mean baby wielded against him by a gorilla. Justice Incarnate, this decades’ most perfect encapsulation of everything strange and wonderful about DC that was clearly NEVER going to show up again is now a semi-regular presence, and Justice Legion Alpha apparently aren’t far behind. It’s all odd and beautiful and exciting again, just like we all knew deep down it was always supposed to be.

Outside the context of the DCU as a whole, it’s still a perfect capstone to Snyder’s career. The final transfer from his initial haunted house horrors to roller coaster thrills, and the upscaling of his themes of the aspirations of our best selves vs the primal lure of our worst into the moral axis on which the entire hero/villain dichotomy of DC rests, and literally having who wins the argument determine the death or evolution of all of reality. For me, this is the best incarnation of his old saw, because when it’s framed as being directly placed in the hands of Folks Like Us which kind of world this is going to be, it asks both the moral question AND the interrogation of what kind of power fantasy we actually want the cape-and-tights crowd to represent.

It’s also a capstone in terms of seeing how many artistic prisms his sensibilities can be filtered through, utterly changing the vibe while maintaining the impact, and resulting in easily the best the main Justice League title has ever looked. Jim Cheung’s shining blockbuster theatrics; Francis Manapul’s classical statuesque bombast; Howard Porter sticking his head in as a tip of the hat to the JLA roots; Javier Fernandez’s grungy, inky, yet springy cartoon action fitting the decline of a vibrant superhero universe perfectly; the likes of Doug Mahnke, Mikel Janin, Frazier Irving, and Guillem March doing one-offs and fill-in work; Steven Segovia and Daniel Sampere’s clean, traditional superheroic lines; and the main artist and MVP, Jorge Jimenez, whose energy and acting and velocity and overtly manga-inspired flourish makes it the most purely enjoyable, exciting book about the slow agonizing end of everything that’s ever been put to paper. All fit the tone, all make it their own.

Do I have issues? Certainly. Snyder’s writerly tics are still present (though offloading a lot of the monologuing to third-person narration has I think helped enormously), giving Tynion and his more character-centric work a foothold on the villainous issues - and for that matter giving them far more standalone character pieces than the heroes - makes it unintentionally feel like their argument hold primacy, a handful of members are characterized somewhat generically (particularly Wonder Woman, which is a surprising shame given she’s who Snyder has mostly talked about writing next), and likely a few other quibbles I could think of. But by and large, this remains one of the best titles on the stands: the collective scope of the DCU, all the sprawling universe-shaking structures and dopey detritus, smashing its biggest most meaningful toys up against one another for the fate of everything but EVERYTHING, where the soul of any given schlub on the street is going to determine the destiny of the multiverse. It’s not the singular best DC (though it’s proudly part of the best-of-DC crowd), but by god, it’s going to be the singular MOST DC or it is going to burn the world down trying.

[davewakeman]

Talking Tickets: 17 April 2020--Refunds! Restarts! Support! And, More!

Hey! 

Thanks for being here again this week. If you are enjoying this newsletter, tell your friends and colleagues to sign up by visiting this link.

How is everyone holding up out there?

If you need someone to chat with, let me know. I’m here for you if you need a proper chat as my friend, Cat, would say.

I made a typing error about the strategy webinar. It is going on this coming Tuesday.

Have a few minutes and want to grab a drink? We may not be able to have a drink in person just yet, but we can have a virtual happy hour. Join me and Ken Troupe for what is becoming a Friday tradition for happy hour with sports business folks at 5 PM EDT.

If you are interested, we’ve got a nice Slack community with folks from around the world and all areas of the industry, exchanging ideas, connecting, and thinking about the future of their businesses.

I’ll share a bunch of links to resources and other places to connect in the newsletter.

Hopefully, I’m able to strike a proper balance for all of you…between, “Wow! This is nuts!” and “We will get through this.”

To the tickets!

————————————————————————————————————

1. When will events return? No one knows but we are learning more:

Dr. Zeke Emmamuel says he doesn’t see large scale events coming back until the fall of 2021.

Shane Harmon, CEO of Sky Stadium in New Zealand shared some interesting information from his government on when restrictions might start to be loosened and things can begin to normalize a little. Patron Base also put together a nice resource guide for their customers that y’all may find useful.

In Europe, the UK is preparing for 3 additional weeks of stay-at-home orders, pushing the opening of events back a bit further.

In the US, we still have no clear strategy for what reopening will look like, what we should expect, and how we will start to regain any sense of normalcy.

We do have a reopening panel and we do have a desire to reopen events, but, again, unfortunately, no clear direction.

I think we all have to try and take a balanced approach to our expectations here. First, we have the economic factor and that’s impacting all of us here immensely. Second, we have to deal with the safety concerns of the population and recognize that liability will drive a lot of the decision making process. Finally, never lose sight of the impact of fear and emotionally driven decision making on mass society. As quickly as people are gung ho to get back to ballparks, if an outbreak happens that was accelerated by a ballgame and that link is made, that could do more long-term damage than anything that has happened to this point.

Because, unfortunately, none of us really know the right answer here.

But I am hopeful after seeing the PGA Tour aim for June and the Australian Football League talking about July. 

2. The economic impact of these shutdowns becomes more and more apparent:

Baseball America wrote up a piece on why fan free games aren’t going to make sense for MiLB and what not playing in 2020 would mean for minor league baseball going forward.

The economic challenges are going to be felt all over. Colleges are likely going to be put in a position to cut sports like the University of Cincinnati did with soccer this week.

As a holistic thing, Research and Markets put together a report this week that tries and cover everything about the entertainment industry and the impact of the virus on folks.

Like a lot of stuff, the analysis and the information coming out from reputable sources needs to be parsed with for context and when you see anyone tell you something is all or nothing…take that with a grain of salt.

Bill Sutton tweeted out a call for teams to get on the virtual season tickets now and over the years I’ve been calling for folks to think more seriously about their membership model, their email lists, and how they are developing their global fan bases.

Harry DeMott from Ticket Evolution wrote up a good piece on restoring liquidity to the ticketing ecosystem as I was finishing this up that is worth a read.

Whatever position you find yourself in right now, your strategy going forward is going to be more important than ever. And, if doing things the way we’ve always done things is a bad idea in the best of times, right now it is a really bad idea to settle for that answer.

3. StubHub, refunds, cancellations, and more continue to make the news: 

The regulators in the UK continue to look into the merger between Viagogo and StubHub. And, as was mentioned in the press this week, “worst timed acquisition ever“?

Vivid Seats did announce their refund and exchange policy this week and it looks a lot different than Ticketmaster’s or StubHub’s.

AEG is offering a 30-day window for fans to get refunds and once a new date is announced, fans will get another 30 days.

While many of us have focused a lot of our attention on the platforms and technology companies, the same uncertainty is trickling into other areas with college football programs feeling the pinch because of the compromised place they find themselves.

Let’s be real here, college programs are only feeling the pinch now because most of them had the earliest deadlines…at a certain point, this is going to be a refrain that all of us are going to hear. Again, it goes back to the point above…we need clarity, information, and guidance on what the next several months look like before folks are really going to feel comfortable doing much of the stuff that we consider normal.

Leadership 101 stuff.

4. How are you connecting with your fans and customers during the pandemic?

Over the last few weeks, I’ve highlighted some really cool examples of using assets, content, and ideas to connect with folks.

The link above is from my friend, Blair Hughes, down in Brisbane. He’s been focusing on fan engagement since 2013 and he updated his resource guides this week to include a few new ideas that will work even when you are socially distanced from your fans.

The Indianapolis Indians were lauded by the governor. The Red Sox dropped coloring sheets. There are tons of free videos and performances from organizations all over the world. 

I’ve struggled with this a little bit because what do you offer folks when there is so much uncertainty. My path has been to continue to figure out how to add value and share ideas with folks. (To be fair, it is selfish as well because focusing on others helps me overcome the gaping void of being an entirely inadequate 4th-grade teacher and helps keep some of those negative thought processes at bay.)

But what are you doing to connect with folks now? Let me know and I can try and highlight some of these ideas as well.

5. The ticketing industry is doing a lot of stuff to help everyone weather this crisis together: 

This week INTIX announced a relief fund, the INTIX Member Covid-19 Relief Fund. 100% of funds will go to member assistance to help members of the ticket community bridge the economic gap while we wait out the pandemic.

Any gift matters, even $1.

As Maureen says that all folks want to do is help and I agree. So if you can, support this effort.

On top of the relief fund, Maureen and her team are hosting a weekly Zoom call on Wednesdays at 12 PM EDT. Anyone can join, no matter if you are a member or not. This week’s had over 200 folks.

The ALSD has a list of resources and ways for folks to learn and connect during the pandemic.

Global Citizen has put together the Live Aid of the Covid-19 crisis for tomorrow, 18 April.

Crew Nation is Live Nation’s effort to help the crews that make the shows happen. The Arts Council in the UK is also working to help freelancers and other folks impacted by the shutdowns. Theatre Support as well.  Indie venues band together to form a group to lobby congress for support of the industry.

While it isn’t about giving any money to support folks, MLS put up a training site so folks can keep their soccer skills fresh during the social distancing. And, if you have a young kid, this is likely enough to make you weep.

This is on top of all the other things I’ve highlighted over the last few weeks. If you or your organization are doing something to help folks, let me know and I will highlight it and share it here and with my community as well.

As I finish this up, I love when folks run and do challenges in their local communities…so I saw this one from Rob Sibbitts in Atlanta and he has completed his challenge…but maybe we can convince him to run another race for a local nonprofit.

My buddy, Greg Turner, who lives outside of Hong Kong just translated a report for anyone that is interested in learning more about the Chinese market for arts and entertainment. It doesn’t fit into the weathering the crisis theme, but it does give you something new to explore and since China is slowly starting to return to normal activities could give you some food for thought about what to think about in all of your home markets.

—————————————————————————————————————-

What am I up to this week?

Guess what? I’m still at home! I am doing the webinar that is listed at the top and I’m starting to drop new content on the podcast feed.

Want to chat? Let me know. Between my duties as an awful elementary school teacher, I’ve got plenty of time and will to chat. And, I’m happy to be here if someone needs someone to talk with. 

Please follow and like us:

Talking Tickets: 17 April 2020–Refunds! Restarts! Support! And, More! was originally published on Wakeman Consulting Group

[piracytheorist]

Grim Fandango 30-Day Challenge

Day 13: Favorite music

That's... like... can you ask a mother which one is her favourite child???

Like, OK, they're not my children, they're Peter McConnell's, but still... it hurts me to have to choose...

SO I WON'T LOL LIST FOLLOWS tbh it’s easier to pick my least favourites over my most favourites

Also since most of y’all reading this are new to my blog, I actually studied music. Not that it necessarily makes my love for music more genuine or deep than any random person who didn’t study or doesn’t practice it every day, but having spent so much time on it and wanting to dedicate my entire life sharing the gift of music with people, I feel a genuinely deep connection with it.

- The Main Theme, of course. I actually felt cheated I didn’t get to listen to it until the end credits rolled! It’s so majestic and so very fitting for its theme! 

- On the Roof. There’s something about the alternative main theme with the marimba playing its own motif behind it.

- Mr. Frustration Man. I’d actually downloaded the soundtrack (original verion) about four or five years ago, and would occasionally listen to it. This being one of the first pieces I recognized once I started playing the game, and playing in the background while you chat with Eva and learn about Manny, it brought out a very special connection.

- Compañeros and Ninth Heaven. Do you ever, like, play a game and purposefully stay longer at a place just to keep listening to the soundtrack? Because I did, a lot, in the festival in Year 1. I even love the different styles, the first with more “modern” Mexican influences, the second in a more Mayan style... it’s just so beautiful.

- Lost Souls’ Alliance. Another piece that I felt connected to. It’s simplistic, without even a “mainstream” melody, but it also fits the place and the background perfectly.

- Casino Calavera, which was also the first piece in the original version album. A lot of the times, the first piece of the album is defining - and 'tis a very good first piece, that one.

- Swanky Maximino. Not to be dramatic but the very first second, with the bass string being plucked. Dude. Who needs sex when you can have this. And it only blossoms from there, and it’s like, for a minor character you don’t even need to interact with to finish the game, but it’s just very him. 

- Hi-Tone Fandango. Talk about staying at a place too long just to listen to the soundtrack. Again, it’s quite simplistic, with the melody and the accompaniment being quite simple (seriously, the bass barely has any big jumps or decorations) and it’s just perfect.

- High Roller and Gambling Glottis. It’s so perfect, that even though the second piece is mostly a rendition of Glottis’ theme, it sounds like an evolution of the first piece, and in the context it’s just awesome.

- Blue Hector. Like other pieces on this soundtrack, there’s something about listening to the piece in its “clean” version, and then playing the game and realizing you only hear it “muffled” through speakers in the game, because it’s part of the game’s reality. Like, here, it was the music that played IN Rub-a-mat, not just a background piece. It feels realistic, it puts you inside, it just... I don’t even have the English right now to describe what an awesome technique that is.

- Scrimshaw. Again, who needs sex. That’s all. Fuckin unfair it’s shorter than a minute, too. This is one of the pieces I’ve been trying to transcribe into a piano score, and it’s been driving me nuts because I think that PM used quarter tones for this and he hasn’t given me the luxury of replying to a tweet where I asked him quite frantically if he did.

- ByeBye. It deserves a place here merely for its ending, with a wonderful rendition of the Manny & Meche theme, where the two kiss while the train takes them and the rest of the souls into their promised afterlife, and as the very ending of the game... bruh you don’t usually get to have such perfect closures. Speaking of...

- Manny & Meche. Like look I already had a love for this piece before I fell in love with the couple as well. And, loving your OTP’s theme is??? Amazing??? So you know after playing the game my love for this piece elevated to a whole new level... but there was also the tango element of it. I used to dance argentine tango (I mainly don’t now because where I currently live there is no tango community to host milongas and stuff) and while I’m far from an expert, one of my absolute favourite figures is the planeo. Bitch. Who needs sex. One of my favourite moments of dancing in a milonga was when a leader who didn’t even know me somehow picked up on my love for them and just gave me all the planeos of a lifetime (where it was fitting, of course). And this theme? It’s stock-full of opportunities for planeos. Slow, sexy and sensational. Shout out to the piece Coaxing Meche, as well. That one can work as a tango too, though more like a Nuevo Tango and with far fewer (if any, from my view) planeos, but still a beautiful piece overall, especially fitting how tense things are between Manny and Meche when this piece plays.

- Special shout-outs to my fave pieces that didn’t make it to any of official releases, Glottis’ Theme on the Piano, The Rusty Anchor and the piece that plays when you look at Salvador’s head in the car at the end, aka Car Head, as its file name was XD

[cthroughthelookingglass]

Love & π - Review

Ok, so... I never write reviews for the dramas I watch mainly because there are only 2 dramas that have made it into my 10/10 list. One is “I Remember You” (If you haven’t watched that masterpiece... what are you waiting for?) and the other is, yeah, you guessed it: Love & π. 

FAIR WARNING: This drama is not for everyone. If you don’t like it when the main leads fall in love after years of growing up together, this is not for you. If you don’t like flawed characters who make stupid mistakes and decisions, this is not for you. If you don’t like a bit of melo in your slice of life, this is not for you.  

                                                     SPOILERS!!

I’m cool with all those things because I believe they gave this drama the emotional punch and realistic feel it has. I like realistic and layered characters with flaws. That’s what we all are, to be honest: a bunch of walking flaws and bad decisions. 

QUICK SUMMARY

Yuan Yuan, Wu Xian and Hou Zi grow up in the same orphanage and are inseparable. After they come off age, the 3 of them decide to head to Taipei in order to start their new lives. WX and YY get accepted in college, while HZ chooses not to study and let the school of life teach him everything there is to know. YY’s main reason for being in Taipei is not really her studies, though. What YY wants the most is to conquer Taipei before her mother does, because she resents her for abandoning her in the middle of the park when she was a child. YY’s bio mom had expressed that this was her dream, and YY wants to take it away from her as a way of getting back at her. Oh, yes, YY has serious abandonment issues that she struggles with. HZ and WX are more focused on their personal growth than their pasts, though. They seem to have accepted their situation and don’t let it affect their minds and emotions. While they want to move forward, YY is stuck in the past. Regardless, they initially support YY and stand by her when she lets them. As the years go by, however, YY gets absorbed by her need for revenge and starts making questionable decisions at work which, in turn, piss off the always by the book WX. Needless to say, this drives a wedge between the two of them.   

YUAN YUAN (Ivy Shao)

The story of our main girl opens by introducing a cartoon adaptation of the story of “The Little Match Girl” by Hans C. Andersen. You think you know how the cartoon is gonna end, until the tale takes an unexpected turn...

Oh. Hello there, Zhao Yuan Man! You’re about to become one of my favorite heroines ever. 

As you may have noticed YM is the type of girl who thinks outside the box and refuses to settle for less than what she considers fair. She thought the match girl shouldn’t die because the cruelty she was suffering wasn’t fair, and made her a rich inventor with a happy ending instead. Even after everyone mocked her “for not knowing the real ending”, she stood up for herself and told them: This is my imaginary scenario, and no one gets to mess with it. YM is ambitious. She relentlessly fights for what she believes and wants if she believes it’s fair. The downside of this type of personality is that strong convictions can easily deviate into plain stubborness, and YM was a hard nut to crack at times. I loved watching her struggle with her job and with her life as a whole. She wasn’t a Mary Sue or a Wonder Woman. She was real and her struggles were as real as she was.  

WU XIAN (Ben Wu)

There’s the Yang to YY’s Yin. One wants to change the world while the other wants things to stay the same. WX is a bit of a know-it-all and he can get a bit self-righteous from time to time, but he’s kind, protective, and loving towards YY. The guy just lurves her since they were children because he both admires and fears her brilliant and ambitious personality. He’s the papa bear of the group, and is always worrying for his friends and sacrificing himself for them... until he gets fed up, that is. I honestly don’t blame him when he basically tells them to shove it, because he was entitled to his anger and both YY and HZ were screwing up big time when it happened.

HOU ZI (Daniel Chen)

Yep, you guessed it. This is the couple’s counsellor. He’s grown up with them (They were from an orphanage. I forgot to mention that!) and is their main supporter. Hou Zi (aka Monkey) is such a special and lovable guy. He loves his friends and wants the best for them as he faces a myriad of issues throughout the drama. One of his most poignant moments is when he falls for a girl who is in love with WX, and slowly drifts apart from him because he can’t stand seeing them together. Yeah, I know, I wouldn’t trade my friends for a crush, but HZ felt betrayed when WX decided to give himself an opportunity with Ruo Yun in order to get over his break up with YY. It’s understandable from both perspectives. Both were hurt and both felt betrayed and affected by the entire ordeal. WX was entitled to date RY because she had made it clear to HZ that she didn’t like him. HZ was entitled to his frustration because WX was blatantly using RY to get over his true love, YY. RY was just cool with getting used as long as WX acknowledged her, so there’s that mess. It felt like a punch in the gut because their friendship was precious, but that’s as true to life as it can get, and it felt strangely refreshing watching WX not sacrifice himself for a change.        

THE ROMANCE

There are points in the story when you don’t really know if YY and WX will be able to meet halfway, and find a way to handle their strong differences. They lock horns in more than one occasion, grow tired of each other, let go very easily.  WX figures out how to stop YY from pushing him away, and decides to stick it out till the end as proof that he will not abandon her like her mother did. YY is a bit of a porcupine, though. She gives the poor guy a hard time and breaks his heart in more than one occasion, ultimately “abandoning” him herself.  

It takes years of distance, evolution and growth until they are finally on the same page. WX realizes that if he truly wants to be with YY, he has to be able to see eye to eye with her and deal with their conflicts maturely. YY realizes that WX only has her best interest at heart. She eventually understands why he grows increasingly frustrated with her when she self-destructs, and how hard it’s for him to see her get hurt by her own actions. 

Don’t you just love it when the leads in your drama have these kinds of breakthroughs? The idea of change is one of the main themes in this drama. Are you supposed to be the same forever? How does society change us? Is it okay to change? Which are the kind of changes that are really worth it?   

WX was right... back when they dated for the first time, they were an unbalanced see-saw. He was a bit judgy and she was very stubborn. They needed to evolve more to be able to stand in each other’s shoes and truly understand what the other was feeling.

Wu Xian: “Don’t push me away. Okay? I was wrong. I was too weak. I thought I was taking responsibility by doing what I did before. I hurt everyone because I never had courage all along. But now I’m different. I love you. From the first day we met until now. When you are happy, I am happy. If you’re sad, I am sad. All of my emotions are dictated by you. You taught me what love is. Do you remember when you asked me why I had never asked about my birth or wondered about my parents? It’s because of you. You made me feel that as long as you were with me, there wasn’t anything missing in my life. If losing those things, was the price to pay for meeting you, I’m okay with that."   

The scene when they get back together in the last episode is just so freaking powerful. The chemistry is through the roof (BW & IS worked together before in “The Perfect Match” but he was the annoying second lead, and I wasn’t aware of their power to warm my heart). Anyway, let’s go straight to the point. No matter what happens during the story, WX always wants to be YY’s hand warmers whenever this “little match girl” faces a freezing cold winter. Even when they are heading in opposite directions they manage to remain inseparable and bounce back to each other.

Ugh, I’m such a sucker for brilliant metaphors and well inserted intertextual components. Props to this writer for the outstanding and seamless weaving of these elements throughout the entire drama. I’m just in awe. This is good and carefully planned writing, people.     

                                                                         final score: 10/10 💛

[lindyhunt]

TIFF 2018: We Hand Out the Awards You Won’t See at the Oscars

As always, the selection of films at TIFF runs the gamut—from A-lister-packed films like Widows to low-budget indies like Firecrackers; from quiet, reflective sci-fi films like High Life to soaring romances like A Star is Born. That range is what makes TIFF such an exciting festival for film buffs and critics alike, but this year, there did seem to be a bit of a theme: Pretty Damn Dark. Seriously, it’s been an emotionally draining festival, what with young kids OD-ing, people dying (so much dying), and institutional racism ruining people’s lives. But you know what this also means: Oscar Bait. We’ve already done our round-up of the films getting the most awards buzz, but there’s plenty else we felt deserved, um, a different kind of recognition. Here, our favourite moments from the festival that won’t snag an Oscar but did earn some accolades in our book.

So-Good-You-Wished-It-Was-Real Chemistry

The Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper lovefest is one we hope never ends. And we’re not just talking about those hand-in-hand red carpet photo-ops. (Though we’ll definitely take more of those too.) After receiving her second standing ovation of the night for A Star is Born—in which people were brought to their feet mid Q&A solely in recognition of her incredible acting talent—Gaga was left speechless and moved to tears. And even then, in her moment in the spotlight, she talked about Cooper. “I am spoiled,” she said, “I watched [Cooper] work tirelessly on this film, giving it everything. You never stopped.”

To which Cooper said: “I can’t imagine having the courage to do this without her. I knew she was going to give all of herself to me and become the actress she wanted to be, and I would give all myself to her and be the musician Jackson had to be.” I know, we’re crying too.

Most NSFW Scene of the Festival

Not to give too much away—though there’s no way to verbally paint an accurate picture of this highly visual and confounding scene anyhow—but there’s a bit in Claire Denis’ High Life in which Juliette Binoche enters a ‘Fuck Box’ and well, proceeds to help it live up to its name. There’s waist-length hair flying about, pulleys and ropes, and a silver dildo. Need I say more?

Most Jaw-Dropping Visuals

Nope, I’m not talking about First Man, though the claustrophobic camerawork of the film was exceptional. I’m talking about Free Solo, an awe-inducing documentary about Alex Honnold, the first man to scale the 3000ft El Capitan cliff in Yosemite National Park without any safety equipment. Yep, with just his fingers and toes, and a little sack full of chalk to help with his grip. The film’s team of cinematographers and directors are expert climbers themselves, and the sweeping shots of Yosemite, bird’s-eye view of Honnold’s ascent, and close-ups of his intricate movements (that at any moment could send him plummeting to his death) are truly a sight to behold.

Most Unexpected Celebrity Guest

This one was close. The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau showed up at Patria for the First Man post-premiere party, where he shook hands with fellow Internet boyfriend, Ryan Gosling. Iconic? Yes. Strange? Also yes. But having a government official show up to a TIFF party is not nearly as strange as having Paris Hilton show up to a TIFF party. Hilton, Queen of selfies, hotel chains and the 2000s, arrived at Soho House for The Death and Life of John F. Donovan post-premiere party, a film that her Ken doll-esque fiance, Chris Zylka, makes a brief appearance in.

Most Batshit Wild True Story

There are several moments—in fact the entire film is a series of these moments—where you find yourself thinking: this shit is NUTS. It’s unbelievable. It’s surreal. It’s absurd. And you have to keep reminding yourself that it’s all true. Based on the story of a writer, played by Laura Dern, who writes a best-selling series of novels under a pseudonym and then enlists her boyfriend’s sister, played by Kristen Stewart, to play the role of that fictional writer in real life, it’s a wild ride: there are bad accents, bad wigs and hard-to-believe turns of events. Except, again: it’s ALL TRUE.

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Giving us life on #TIFF18 Day 10/11: Kristen Stewart, dressed in head-to-toe couture, crouching in a garden 🌺, looking like the Avenger we wish we had. . Her film JEREMIAH TERMINATOR LEROY (with your BFF Laura Dern) premieres today and you can still snag 🎟s to this and more at tiff.net/available . . . . . . #kristenstewart #lauradern #jtleroy #jeremiahterminatorleroy #avengers #netflix

A post shared by TIFF (@tiff_net) on Sep 15, 2018 at 6:18am PDT

The Big-Hearted Heartthrob

First off, Timothée Chalamet should take home all heartthrob-related awards, from now until eternity. When the Oscar-nominee stepped onto the red carpet for Beautiful Boy, he spent nearly 30 minutes posing for selfies with screaming fans, and entertaining weird requests like signing a burger and a peach. (The latter, of course, in reference to his infamous Call Me By Your Namescene.) Here’s a guy who doesn’t seem to hate the spotlight, and who graciously shows his Chalamaniacs all the love and attention they so desperately desire.

GIF

Most Badass Female Cast

We are conditioned to expect heist movies—or any gritty crime movies, really—to have men at the centre. Which is why this film, directed by Steve McQueen and co-written by McQueen and one Ms Gillian Flynn, is such a breath of fresh air, despite its dark subject matter. Viola Davis is the fierce commander of this ship, which Elizabeth Debicki and Michelle Rodriguez hesitantly climb aboard. It’s rare enough to see a film in which women commit “bad” acts but rarer still to see one in which the women’s guilt, shame or redeeming qualities aren’t needlessly played up. Only complaint? Carrie Coon is criminally (ha) under-used.

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#Repost @ViolaDavis: It was such an honor to join our Director Steve McQueen and this phenomenal cast at the World Premiere of #WidowsMovie. Thank you for having us, Toronto! #TIFF18

A post shared by Widows (@widowsmovie) on Sep 10, 2018 at 3:32pm PDT

Best On-Screen Lewks

There’s some amazing costume design driving some of this year’s best films: Colette’s Belle Epoque-era Parisian flair—especially powerful because it helps underscore Keira Knightley’s character’s own evolution and self-acceptance; the 1990s grunge of Jonah Hill’s Mid90s; If Beale Street Could Talk’s saturated 1970s outfits; and Natalie Portman’s wild, sequinned get-ups in Vox Lux. But Mahershala Ali steals the damn show. In Green Book, he gives us a masterclass in style: from impeccably fitted tuxedos to casual plaid suits to a dramatic gold-embroidered kaftan draped in gold chains. Like I said, lewks.

Photography via IMDB

Most Huggable Hound

A tie between the miniature goldendoodle Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper bring home in A Star is Born—which I have convinced myself is Cooper’s pet IRL—and Ponce, the scruffy mutt that’s dog-napped from Lucas Hedges and Julia Roberts in Ben is Back.

Makes-You-Wish-it-Was-Still-the-90s Soundtrack

Jonah Hill’s directorial debut, Mid90s, had the best—and most nostalgic—soundtrack of the festival. Sadly, the song list isn’t yet available anywhere on the Internet. But here’s what I can tell you: it features Seal and Morrissey, and was composed by the same duo of dudes behind the music in The Social Network and Gone Girl. One Twitter user went so far as to say that the film “literally might have the single greatest soundtrack of any movie ever.” It’s a bold claim, and I can confirm Mid90s lives up to the hype.

Most Stressful Experience

Hotel Mumbai is 125 minutes long, and those are 125 incredibly stressful minutes. Based on the horrific 2008 terrorist attacks on the city of Mumbai, the film fills viewers with dread right from the opening sequence: when the half-dozen terrorists arrive on the shores of Mumbai and immediately begin setting their plan into motion. For the next two hours, aside from the sounds of gunfire, explosions and screams on screen, the theatre was about as silent as during a screening of A Quiet Place. People were literally sitting on the edge of their seats, hands over mouths, shoulders stiff with tension. In other words: this film does its job of depicting a harrowing, terrifying ordeal exceptionally well.

Photography via IMDB

Most Gender-Balanced TIFF Yet

TIFF’s programming team has long been dedicated to creating a more gender-balanced festival, and this year it hit its highest mark yet, with 36 percent of its 2018 slate of films directed by women. The festival’s artistic director, Cameron Bailey, also signed a gender parity protocol during the Share Her Journey rally on opening weekend. This year’s festival also boasted a huge line-up of films with women at the center: from Nicole Kidman in Destroyer and Melissa McCarthy in Can You Ever Forgive Me? (both films directed by women) to Natalie Portman in Vox Lux and Julianne Moore in Gloria Bell. Canadian films Mouthpiece and Firecrackers also come from all-women teams, with two female protagonists in each, as well as female directors and cinematographers.

[movietvtechgeeks]

Latest story from https://movietvtechgeeks.com/syfys-magicians-looks-season-3-cast-interviews/

SyFy’s 'The Magicians' Cast Looks to Season 3

One of the most innovative television shows currently on the air just began filming its third season, and the showrunners and cast were eager to talk about Season 3 at Comic Con. For those who aren’t familiar, The Magicians is based on the book of the same name by Lev Grossman and airs on SyFy in the US.  The magical Brakebills University in the series is a mash up of “Hogwarts and Harry Potter for adults” and Narnia with a little Supernatural mixed in, darker and more adult oriented than the first two and more consistently magical than the last. The main characters include Quentin, who discovers that the books he has always loved are in fact not fantasy or fiction after all; Julia, his childhood friend who isn’t allowed into the magical world and whose life is marked by significant trauma; Alice, who is overcome by too much magic in Season 2 with dire consequences; Eliot, the reluctant king and Margo, the queen trying to find her way and her identity. The cast also includes Penny, the traveler, a villainous character known as The Beast, and the Dean of Brakebills, played by Rick Worthy (known to Supernatural fans as the Alpha Vamp). The series tackles themes of self and identity, good and evil, responsibility and freedom, and doesn’t like to stay in the black and white. Its shades of gray nuances make for some interesting characters and keep the plot unpredictable, which makes the show interesting. The Magicians also doesn’t shy away from violence, or the consequences of that violence, or from sexuality, with quite a bit of leeway from SyFy. As Season 2 came to a close, magic had gone from the realm of Fillory and Alice has been consumed by too much magic and become a Niffin.  In the press room at Comic Con, the cast seemed excited about filming the new season and were all thoughtful about what Season 3 will bring to The Magicians. [caption id="attachment_48600" align="aligncenter" width="696"] Photos: Lynn Zubernis aka FangasmSPN[/caption] Showrunners and writers Sera Gamble and John McNamara were first to our table to chat.  I first met Sera when she was a writer on Supernatural (and later Showrunner), and she contributed to my first two books on Supernatural and fandom, Fandom at the Crossroads and Fangasm Supernatural Fangirls. One of our early chats, together with series creator Eric Kripke, was notable for Eric’s ability to embarrass Sera and me simultaneously, but that’s a story best left to the books. It was, however, quite frankly awesome to see her again. Sera sat down at our table with a big smile. Sera: Ah, the Supernatural contingent are here, awesome! Me: You know we’ve got your back, always. Then we had A LOT of questions about The Magicians! Sera characterized The Magicians as a show that’s not as interested in the epic battles as it is in the relationships between Quentin Coldwater and his friends. I asked if there were things that Sera had learned on Supernatural that she’d taken with her to The Magicians, or things she’d learned NOT to do. For instance, telling the small intimate stories instead of the heaven and hell battles. Sera: I actually learned that on Supernatural. I was there for the first seven seasons, and Eric Kripke was always really confident about that – as soon as we figured out that the show was really about the relationship between these two brothers, we knew that had to be the heart of the episodes. And also a part of the major arc each season. I’m really grateful that I learned that – it has to be about your characters, the relationship between them and the way they fuck each other up. If you have that, it can be about heaven or earth. Me: You took that understanding and situated it in a universe that goes to different places, but keeps that intimacy. Sera: Yes. It’s funny, even when I was in the room with Eric back in the day, it was so much about this inherent bond that is family, and that blood is thicker than anything. And I was always the one in the room going, let’s do a really dysfunctional story, I mean, sometimes your family lets you down. Everyone at the table: nodding Sera: I was always the one talking about the outsiders, the ones that didn’t have a bond like that, and I think that was in the DNA of the book that Lev [Grossman] wrote, so that appealed to me. It’s basically a breakfast club of all the black sheep, none of them have good relationships with their family, none of them have that family of origin bond, so they’re making their family now. In other words, Family Don’t End With Blood! Someone asked why we’re drawn to stories of the supernatural, and both Gamble and McNamara said that they actually allow you to tell archetypal stories of what it is to be human. The Magicians is known for not shying away from going to very dark places, including not only death but rape and other violence. Sera was asked why the show makes the choice to show those dark places so clearly. Sera: Because we want to look at it in detail, we want to examine it. We are all writers who want to look at the shadow side of human nature, and the darkness that happens when you go through really traumatic events McNamara: I loved the book, but it didn’t really sink its hooks into me until I realized that the entire MacGuffin is really about a child being abused by an adult. And you can’t tell that story halfway, or you’re lying. McNamara: Violence on television, not being for or against it, except when you show something really violent, and it’s portrayed as funny and you don’t show the really horrible after effects of it. I was in so much agreement with that, I jumped up and told them what a great job they were doing with that – but it’s true! Next up were Hale Appleman (Eliot) and Summer Bishel (Margo).  Both these characters will have to deal with the loss of magic in Season 3, which Hale said would be difficult for Eliot since magic was a part of his identity development. Hale: To strip that away from him is to ask him who he is without it, so this season will be about him uncovering some deeper truths about his identity. Summer spoke about Margo’s resilience and said it might not be as soul crushing for her that magic is dead as for other characters, as not as much of her self-worth was tied up in magic. Both Hale and Summer felt that their characters had grown quite a bit, and Season 3 will bring even more growth as Eliot “mans up” and takes on even more responsibility for “the sake of all.” I dipped into my psychologist persona for my question. Do Hale and Summer see the evolution of their characters as sort of a metaphor for how we all evolve from adolescence to adulthood, learning who we are, learning to take on responsibility, moving from initial reluctance and anxiety to shouldering both more comfortably? Hale: Yes. And I also think young adulthood, your 20s in particular, can be really treacherous. And no one really tells you that. Summer: (nodding) Sometimes you’ve gotta fake it til you make it! And that’s what they’re doing, faking being rulers until they make it. Both actors loved someone’s question about what other musical numbers they might want to tackle in another musical episode, which somehow led to Hale and I oohing and aahing over vintage Lou Reed, which we seem to share a fondness for. Now if ‘Walk On The Wild Side’ or ‘I’m So Free’ ends up on The Magicians, we’ll all know who to blame! Next up were Stella Maeve (Julia) and Jason Ralph (Quentin). Stella talked about how the new season makes it about so much more than the impact of losing magic on each individual character – even though Julia does have magic, it’s about more than that, it’s global. Jason teased that if all of the great inventors were actually magicians, then what impact does the loss of magic have on all those inventions? Tesla was one of those people, so what happens when magic goes away, does electricity go away? Do the seasons shift, do the tides stop working? Jason: It’s bigger than anything they’ve dealt with before. Last but not least, Olivia Taylor Dudley (Alice) stopped by to talk about what it was like to be a Niffin on the show. Alice: This is a great opportunity to explore this sweet person I fell in love with, her dark and nastier side….I tried to keep Alice’s soul in their somewhere. Olivia confessed that she had a lot of fun on set being a Niffin. Alice: I tortured the hell out of Jason Ralph. I’d poke him before every take; I’d blow in his ear, or trip his feet, or pinch him…anything to drive him nuts, which was really fun! In the next season, Alice is really angry, Olivia said. Olivia loves the portrayals of strong women on this show, and she’s not afraid for a woman to be angry. She looks forward to exploring how Alice felt about being a Niffin this season too. Olivia: They give us such complex stories and characters and kinda let us do the inner workings, they don’t really write it, they let us explore it as actors, which is a really wonderful thing about this show. These actors are definitely thoughtful enough about the show and their characters to make good use of that creative freedom – I’m looking forward to the new season, which started filming in the week before Comic Con! As we left the press room, the cast stopped to take some photos with some cosplaying fans passing by, which was just the kind of magic that Comic Con is known for. Check out The Magicians on SyFy, and if you’ve not, it’s worth binge watching the entire first two seasons!

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