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betwixtofficial · 4 years ago

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UNDERWING CHALLENGE DAY 3

Day 1 [X]

Day 2 [X]

Who is your main cast? Describe as many of your OCs as you can cram into one post.

Character Introduction- this is by no means the entirety of our cast, not even close.

Leith and I each developed our own characters over many many years and I'm going to do my best to bring Leith’s characters to life as accurately as possible and I promise to love (torture) them like they're my own.

Andi’s characters-

Xavier Alexander Maxwell- When it comes down to it, this is Xave's story. A small pale faerie-human halfling, with a painfully tragic beginning, looking for love and family in all the wrong places. Xavier has neon, glitter, and more sexual energy coursing through his veins than he knows what to do with. A faerie half he doesn’t always have control over, and between the Fae, the Zaccardas, and his own personal demons- all fighting for a chance to control him, it’s going to be a long dark journey. It’s not ONLY pain and dark. It's just MOSTLY pain and dark. ...you know, aside from all the glitter and neon.

Alexander- I wasn't planning on adding Alex to this, I am not sure how I didn't realize he was one of the main characters till now, but he shows up as often or even more often than any of the other characters besides Xave. Alex is Xavier's fae half. They are the very first human/faerie hybrid and though they aren't completely separate, there are some strong distinctions, and they communicate with each other, so they are separate enough for Alex to have his own blurb.

But really it's very difficult to tell where one of them begins and the other ends. They are the same being, They are both magic and mundane, they are both human and fae. Xave tends to lean more human, Alex tends to lean more faerie, they are both real. They do have somewhat distinct personalities, ... Xave is 2010 Bill Kaulitz (especially the blushy giggly interviews) and Alex is Adam Lambert in For Your Entertainment. In either case there is a lot of mascara involved. It's complicated.

Rivet Dragonrail- A grown up lost girl with dark olive skin and brown eyes, she has always tried to put her clouded origins behind her, but they never seem to stay put. With freakish abilities she’d rather not have, a pervasive drinking problem she scoffs at, and an unfortunate talent for violence in the service of those for whom she is unwillingly compelled to play the role of savior, it seems like she’s always walking a path hellbent on destruction. She feels the sins she has committed are ceaselessly breathing down her neck, requiring atonement she does not know how to provide. She would like nothing more than to stand in the eye of the raging storm of the lives lived and lost around her, screaming at the sheer horror of it all, giving a big middle finger to both heaven and hell alike. But what good, really, would that do? So she plods on- her best friends are the knife on her hip, the beer in her fridge, the damn raven-shifter who has adopted her out of morbid curiosity, the damn chicken she’s adopted out of sheer respect for his will to live.... and Jaq, her ride or die that she can’t figure out her feelings for, but it doesn’t fucking matter because that just ain’t happening. Jaq is as gay as it gets.

Ember Skye Arceneaux- He’s too good to be true. No, really. His smile is like sunshine poured into your soul. Golden surfer boy good looks with sunkissed golden surfer hair tucked behind his ears, but his golden tan isn’t from the beach or the salon, it’s just his skin. Kind-hearted and generous. Plays guitar and sings like an angel with a perfect soulful raspy voice... And he loves Jaq absolutely and unconditionally, whether Jaq deserves it or not... and he’s Canadian. His only flaw seems to be that he’s maybe a little too laid back?

Luca Zaccarda- Since childhood his exceptionally ambitious mother has pushed him to leadership. She grafted her way on to the powerful Zaccarda family tree by marrying a younger son with no ambition past his next perfectly kneaded loaf of ciabatta, and then did everything in her power to see her eldest child reach the heights of power for which she believed he was destined. There’s only one problem- Luca doesn’t share her cut-throat nature. Ambition, power, and the trappings of wealth have never been the driving factors in his life and he’s set his mind to changing the status quo, mama and her scheming be damned. Oh, he’s just as capable a leader as she believes him to be. He’s no plump baker happily whistling away his hours in the kitchen like his father.. and he’s planning on taking down his own corrupt family, one... by one... by one. ...also... Mafia Werewolves anybody!?!

Teodoro Zaccarda- oh Teo, Teo, Teo. The black sheep. The playboy prince. Constantly in the tabloids, constantly in trouble, needing bailed out of this situation or that. Coming home drunk, or high, or naked. The family embarrassment. He just wishes his family wouldn’t expect so much from him. Like, the bare minimum. That’s all they expect Teo. The bare minimum.

There are about 50 other Zaccardas. I have a family tree of them. Some are more important than others, but the two listed here show up far more often than any of the others.

Leith’s characters-

Wynter Primose Dean - The physical embodiment of anxiety, standing at 6ft 9, built like a brick house, with a heart of gold and a difficult stutter. He fell in love with the right person at the wrong time, felt heartache like he had never before and after an extremely traumatic breakup he discovered his true nature, under a full moon, alone and afraid in the middle of nowhere - a werewolf. With a love for nature and all things wild, he spends a lot of his time isolated out at his cabin, crafting beautiful wooden furniture and spending more time with trees than with the people he calls family.

Jaq Knox - Dealing with childhood trauma and serious mental illness that messes up his perceptions of reality, he rarely trusts people. For the few he has let in it’s a constant battle with communication and understanding, for both parties involved. He struggles to understand the absolutes of right and wrong; he does have a moral code but often, especially in the past, he’s just been a thoughtless asshole as it was easier that way, easier to keep people at a distance. Throughout his struggles with his mind, encounters with the law and various substances, he’s been pushing boundaries in the art world and is slowly learning how to be a better person, realizing that people actually do care about him and that maybe having a found-family isn’t so bad after all.

Eden Knox - He seems perfect, standing at 6ft tall with soft, pale blonde hair and clear skin, dressing in white and pastel colors, carrying an expensive purse and smelling like a walking Bath and Bodyworks. But as with everyone he has his demons, his just happens to have a name - Jonah. He was swept off his feet at the tender age of nineteen and carried off into a life that was a very far cry from his upbringing in a group foster home. But his perfect life with his handsome husband is nothing like what it appears from the outside, and life gets very dark before it begins to get light again.

Aspen Merrill - The younger of the Merrill brothers, he started a family at a young age with a woman he didn’t truly love - after a very amicable divorce they now co-parent their two children. He was lost for a very long time, wandering between jobs he didn’t really enjoy, women he didn’t really love, friends he didn’t really like, until he met Luca and he found his calling. He is Alfred to Luca’s Batman, from straightening ties before important meetings to organizing decoy cars to get Luca out of dangerous situations, he is extremely calm and collected and a haven of stability.

Jonah Merrill - The king of his own castle, the only person that matters in his world is himself, oh and sometimes his husband, when its convenient to him of course. Never one to shy away from threats or violence to achieve a goal, he’s not only unstoppable in his personal life but in business, using his many connections to overpower and intimidate anyone who gets in his way. Once he discovers magic and the power it can bear he’s even more unstoppable than before, and uses his husbands complete loyalty for his own very dark plans.

The cast is a pride rainbow flag. We’re all queer here. Well, except for Aspen, he might be one of the only completely cishet character in sight.

#underwing challenge #writeblr #betwixt

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flashfuture · 4 years ago

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Kyle is just like an example of “making yourself the chosen one” like I have trouble calling him, in himself, special because I don’t think he is, everything he’s done he’s legit worked for, he put the time in and life...worked allowed him to have a win? He’s like changed a lot but something I like about him as like a character is that he’s still the same idiot in an alley Ganthet found back in the 90’s who just happens to be a god now. Plus I love his costume changes, feels natural. Though, if me and my nonexistent wisdom were to create a Kyle Rayner lantern costume(tm) I would certainly have to make the male version of Sailor Moon’s white dress from the end of the first big arc of that anime, the one she wears while “power of love” plays in the background. That one but like battle ready.

Speaking of that; if there was one comedy one shot I read it be Ganthet and Kyle as roommates or rather, Ganthet freeloading at Kyle’s place. Kyle intergretating Ganthet for lying about not having darks to put in the wash and Ganthet insisting he gave all he had and he should just put on a half load and Kyle insinuating his mother would materialize out of the ether and Nag him if he did that. Along with one where Kyle has to go basic training for the first time and all his brother figures act like assholes in a typical sibling fashion and Kyle complains the whole time. Or one where it illustrates Kyle’s first meetings with John and Guy and giving them back their rings, Kyle expressing fir the first time he truly feels like he belongs to something instead of something in the abstract when it comes to being a GL. All that cheese.

Okay, last one but cause i gen don’t know, does...does anyone of his friends...know about Alex and what happened to her? Like reading some old stuff made me realize that the same way Kyle spoke about Alex achieving her dream of being a top photographer someday reminded me of how he talks to Conner about his own aspirations which like...makes me feel a certain way.

Exactly I’ve never taken the whole chosen one seriously. Like okay yes based on how the rings work it would have chosen Kyle like it chooses anyone. Which means when Kyle said it could have been me or the drunk in the alley probably not. Ganthet dropped down onto Kyle and said you’ll do cause it does take a special someone to wield the ring. But Kyle wasn’t like destined to be the savior of the Lantern Corps or born to be the Torchbearer. He was just one of actually quite a few humans who could wield the GL ring. And he happened to be the quickest one Ganthet could get to and dump the ring on.

Yes yes yes the idea of Ganthet just living in Kyle’s house being a menace is everything. Ganthet already took everything else from Kyle why not his spare bedroom. And Kyle was a drifter before he was chosen to be a Lantern. I think he’d just dropped out of art school he was drinking too much on the weekends and frankly just unsure of himself. Being the Torchbearer made him sure of himself.

Kyle Rayner is a story of building yourself up and being special no matter who you are. Kyle having a single immigrant mother from Ireland also fits really well with this theme.

Pssh the idea of Kyle being put through training because he technically never completed it is so funny to me. “Okay Lantern Rayner basic construct 101″

“Hal I literally held Ion you know the embodiment of will inside me, I’ve got this”

“Sorry I’m hearing complaining when I should be seeing green boxes”

“I’m gonna kill you, complain to Guy, and then watch him kill you- again. And speaking of which I’m pretty sure I at least played a hand in your resurrection so” “Drills rookie- Drills”

Okay and I think everyone knows about Alex. And by everyone I mean the whole superhero community. Kyle pretty readily offered up the tradegy to Ollie once. And Carol knew about it (in a time we all forget ever happened)

The Lanterns are notoriously shit at secret identities so yeah pretty sure everyone who knows Kyle knows that Alex was killed.

And Kyle and Connor were best friends like so quick. Kyle met the dude once and then was inviting him on a cross-country road trip. (and trying to work out if he was gay too)

#ask #also yes to Kyle in a sailor moon outfit #look Kyle is for certain an anime nerd #cosplay has to be the first thing he did with his ring

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mattsammonsez · 4 years ago

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Hockey’s Voice

Sometimes you meet people who embody everything you believe makes a good person. Mike “Doc” Emrick is one of those people, and I enjoyed the few times we interacted in the past 13 years.

Mike “Doc” Emrick in his second home.

When you work in sports broadcasting, your path crosses with the paths of a lot of prominent people, including athletes, coaches, and executives. It’s all part of the job, and admittedly one of the many perks that comes with the territory. While it’s fun to cross paths with these people, there are a select few where you feel blessed that your paths crossed. Mike “Doc” Emrick is one of those people, and you always felt like you knew him and he knew you all your life even if your real life interaction was only 5 minutes. With the announcement from Emrick earlier this week that he is retiring from calling NHL games, I wanted to share a few stories about the times my path fortunately and blessedly crossed with Doc’s.

Like many people my age, we got to know Doc on a regular basis on national television. For me, it was his weekly appearances on the NHL on Fox game of the week in the mid 90’s, as well as numerous New Jersey Devils highlights earlier in the decade as that team was building into a dominant team. In 2005, Doc became the primary voice on the NHL on OLN broadcasts (later Versus, then NBC Sports Network). In 2006, I became the pregame host of Tampa Bay Lightning radio broadcasts, and as I started to settle into my role that season I started gaining new job duties. One of those duties was to pull together guest interviews for our weekly radio show Lightning Hockey Night. In the 2007 playoffs, the Lightning drew the Devils in the first round, and thus my first interaction with Doc would happen as I was trying to get a guest for the program.

We weren’t looking to get Doc on the show as a live guest, but with Doc at the time still calling Devils games I figured he’d be the perfect guest for the show as he was a well-known voice and face even to hockey fans in Florida. Before the morning skate of game 4 with the Lightning up 2-1 in the series, I introduced myself to Doc and asked him if I could get him for just a few minutes to talk about the series. He said he could, and we continued with our usual morning skate routine for the next couple of hours. I hung around the rink until the Devils were done with their skate, and after the locker rooms were closed to the media I approached Doc again to see if he was still able to do a quick interview. This was close to 1 p.m., and with a game starting at 7 or 7:30 that night Doc had plenty of prep to do. Plus his color analyst, the humorous Glenn “Chico” Resch was hungry and wanted lunch. Yet when I politely asked, Doc without hesitation obliged and we sat down in the stands for a few minutes to discuss the series. It was such a special moment, and such a fun interview, I’ve saved it 13 years and counting.

Emrick yucking it up as Jim Carr, the carpet-coiffed play-by-play announcer for the Johnstown Jets in the cult classic film Slap Shot, at Hockeyville USA, 2015.

Fast forward to September 2015. I’m now the Director of Broadcasting & Programming for the Lightning, and I’m on the team plane to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, as the Lightning and Penguins will be squaring off in the first Kraft Hockeyville USA preseason game. Game day was hectic, as the NHL and NBC rolled out the red carpet not only for both teams but for as much Slap Shot as possible since Johnstown was the location of the film shoot 40 years earlier. Along with being that night’s radio engineer for our broadcast, my mission was to pull together as many interviews as possible for a podcast on the event. Knowing the legendary Hanson Brothers would be there, I targeted an interview with them which I was able to score.

The Cambria County War Memorial Arena was opened in 1950, when comforts such as being able to stretch your legs were not baked into many civic building blueprints. In a tiny locker room I waited for the Hansons to come in, and I did so next to Doc who agreed to also do an interview with me once I was done with the Hansons. The Hansons came in, and not only played the part of their characters well for my interview, but they too were incredibly friendly and great to talk to. While the interview went on, there was that brief fleeting moment in my head; “I’m interviewing three of the greatest hockey movie characters while one of the greatest hockey announcers is sitting in the background watching this.” Quite the moment to say the least. After my conversation with the Hansons, I sat down with Doc to talk to him about what the game meant to him, a former college teacher and newspaper writer in Western Pennsylvania 45 years earlier. You could sense in Doc’s eyes and voice this Hockeyville experience in his old backyard with all the Slap Shot fun and frivolity mixed in was quite the moment for him. The Hanson Brothers and Doc interviews were the cornerstone of my podcast, and all these years later it’s still one of my favorite podcasts of more than 100 I did.

Emrick could make any broadcast better, including a Morning Skate Show in desperate need of some good news in 2018.

Fast forward to May 2018. We’re not in the preseason, we’re in the thick of the postseason, and the Lightning are about to battle the Washington Capitals in the Eastern Conference Final. Prior to game one at the morning skate, Doc and I are two of seemingly 200 people gathering around Alex Ovechkin for pregame interviews. We looked on from a distance, laughing more at the spectacle then actually listening to anything Ovechkin was saying. When the scrum was done, I casually asked Doc if we could have him as a guest on our streaming video program The Morning Skate Show when the series shifted to Washington D.C. for game 3. Doc said he wanted to, we just needed to route the request through NBC public relations, which is always a coin flip on if your wish gets granted. Thankfully for us, it was.

Never before did we need a personality like Doc Emrick like we did then. The Caps humiliated the Lightning for two easy wins in Tampa before the series went to our nation’s capital. In planning for the show, we decided to talk as little as possible about the first two games, and simply turn the show into the Doc Emrick talent show. For almost 45 minutes, Doc talked about everything from the NHL playoffs to memories of AHL games in Halifax 40 years ago when birds in the rafters of the old Halifax Forum pooped on the ice during games. At the end of the show he very quietly but confidently reminded our viewers that if any team was able to get out of 0-2 hole to the Caps, it was the Lightning. It was the reassurance and the fun story telling we all needed, and low and behold the Lightning rallied for three-straight wins before the Caps pulled it together and won the series in seven games on their way to their first Stanley Cup championship. As of 2019, it was still one of the most-watched episodes of the show.

Finally, fast forward to October 2019. Two months earlier, I was informed my position was being “eliminated” at the Lightning, but I refused to be eliminated from the scene. Newly hired to provide a weekly Metro Express podcast to the Philadelphia Flyers (and later the Capitals), I arrived at Amalie Arena for a morning skate prior to a Lightning and Penguins game that was being aired nationally on NBC that night. Once I found out Doc was on the call, I knew I needed to get him for a few minutes to talk Metropolitan Division hockey. I saw Doc sitting in the first couple of rows of seats when I arrived, and I quickly slipped in next to him and asked if I could get his thoughts real quickly. Doc was there to study lines and defensive pairings of both teams, and now at the age of 74 had to double-check all players and facts before putting on another flawless broadcast that night. I was very respectful of his time, and as always he was respectful enough to grant me a few minutes of his busy day.

While there were many similarities to that first interview with Doc in 2007, this time around technology would come back to bite me. Feeling satisfied my iPhone would work as a microphone just fine, I started the interview. Midway through Doc’s first answer, my phone started ringing, cutting off the voice memo app I was using. Thankfully I silenced my phone so it merely buzzed, but in my head I was cursing while Doc was talking. There was no way I was going to ask him to start over again, I was just going to have to eat the moment as I feverishly hung up on the call and pressed record on the voice memo again. While I did this without interrupting Doc’s thoughts, I still got a good 7-8 minutes from him and used it in that week’s show. It was special to connect with Doc again, and I was reminded even as a veteran hockey broadcaster at this time to never ever again do an important interview on my iPhone.

Doc’s retirement announcement didn’t come totally as a surprise to me. I figured with COVID-19 still a factor in our lives for at least the next year or two, the last place a 75-year-old cancer survivor needs to be is in a pressurized airplane cabin or travelling from one cold city to another in the winter. And even though Doc is a pro’s pro, it’s extremely difficult to call a game from a television screen. Whoever is named his successor at NBC has some very big shoes to fill.

As for me, my career has moved forward from my exit with the Lightning, and while potentially great things await I don’t know if I’ll be able to cover a daily beat in an NHL arena anytime soon. That’s perfectly fine with me, as I’m always looking for a new challenge and can’t wait to see what is ahead for me and my family. That also adds even more emotional value to the times my path crossed with Doc’s path. Hockey fans have been blessed to have him as a prime voice for decades, and I was blessed to interact with him several times in my career. A visit from this doctor was always welcome in the homes and hearts of hockey fans.

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piccolina-mina · 5 years ago

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The dynamics on this show are interesting, but I love how there are groupings because so many of them have such similarities. Objectively speaking, even characters you find unfavorable or unlikable are often in some way similar to characters you like. Like you have:

The Runners - Liz, Alex, and Rosa

Liz didn't used to be a runner which makes her so interesting. She said something broke in her after Rosa died and she was restless ever since. Running was something she resented in her mother and Rosa, but then she ended up doing the same thing. She and Alex, they're good at running towards things they can make sense of, concrete things, purpose: running towards science and achievement, war and battle, danger, but they run away from feelings.

Those are terrifying and harder to make sense of. Feelings and connections. In all of their relationships (friendships and romantic: Diego, Arturo, Maria, Michael), they always have one foot out of the door. It's not that they don't love someone or care, they show all of that in their own ways but it takes work for them to not bolt. They're fighting against their nature. It's survival and self- preservation. Rosa runs to escape too. Ironically, while the other two run for themselves, Rosa does too but also runs for everyone else. She thinks it's better to put a divide between her and the world.

The Internalizers - Kyle, Alex, and Max

This group, fks me up on a personal level because of this, but many of the characters have a bit of this quality, but these three really embody this to the hilt. But they all showcase it differently.

Kyle functions the best. He functions so well people don't even realise or consider he has problems. He's good at giving the illusion that he's sharing more than he really does, and he's great at coaxing other people to be more open, but he doesn't always practice what he preaches. He holds onto the past a lot in part because he doesn't want to repeat it. But that boy has internal battles, and no one really notices. The two people who do are Liz and Alex, but both are runners, and one is a heavy internalizer too.

Alex is one of those internalizers who feels everything but doesn't emote and show it. So he comes across like he's unfazed, but he keeps everything in. It's possible it's an effect of his abusive childhood. It's a conscience effort for him to express most feelings and he distributes them carefully and usually with specific intentions.

Max is the most emotionally open but he's the sort who internalizes blame like no other. It's actually funny that so many fans hate him because he would just take that totally accept it. He'll take blame for things whether it was his fault or not. Guilt eats away at him. He's the poster child for depression out of the three aliens. Hides his pain, sadness, most of his feelings that affect him and him alone, he buries.

The Caretakers - Maria and Kyle

They take care of people. Often at their own expense. There's a reason why Liz feels safe with Kyle, why Alex despite their history is less guarded with Kyle. There's a reason why Liz can confide in Maria. Why Michael responds to Maria, Why Max is at ease around Maria. Kyle and Maria are natural nurturers without even trying to be. They probably have the warmest vibes around them.

They make people gravitate to them with their personality and energy. They're the reason there are quotes about protecting your space, because they have a draw that the wrong people will siphon from at it can be at their own expense.

They take care of people, but they don't have people taking care of them often. They present themselves as if they don't need it. Kyle allows himself to be "a distraction" but also hints at wishing his needs were met too. Maria takes care of her mom without complaint but also doggedly pursues anything that can make her mom better because she misses her mom but she's also tired.

They're the emotional support characters everyone leans on. They tend to needs: physical, emotional, sxual, and mental.

*caveat. Max can also fall into this too. Some of his caretaking is out of guilt (Arturo) but he shows this most with his siblings. Later on with Liz. His entire life is the three of them. But it's limited. We saw that with how neglectful he was with Cam, how it doesn't extend to his mother etc.

The Fixers - Michael and Liz

This is probably why the Science Bros is so appealing even though Michael often treats Liz like trash. They're both highly intelligent, STEM geared, and born and bred fixers. If you have a problem, they can pull off some of the emotional labor (we see that with Liz and Maria when she's made aware and Liz and Isobel and Michael and Isobel and Michael and Maria), but they're fixers first and foremost.

That's why they work so well together and probably will be at the forefront of getting Max back if Michael can keep it together. Michael is the most literal fixer. A handy man and mechanic, the go to for any fix. He's not calculated though. He's impulsive and wants immediacy. He jumps into the first solution he wants it fixed now.

Liz wants it fixed right. She weighs the options and has to figure out the best solution. So they're so similar in that regard but still clash. But that's how they both end up dragged to a healer in the desert. Do they believe it? No. But a fix is a fix.

The Moral Compasses/Arbiters - Kyle, Liz, Cam

Kyle and Liz are definitely the moral compasses of the gang. They're balanced and fair. They run on both logic and emotion effectively. When one threatens to supersede the other, they catch it and correct it. They're driven by what's right. They're moral and conscientious. You can trust that they're always pointed at due north. They have codes they live by. Affirmations.

Cam is like this too. It's interesting how she was set up to be an antagonist, but what's right was prioritized over personal gain. She didn't compromise her ethics even for her sister. She lost her job doing what was right at her own expense.

The Masked Posers - Isobel and Alex

Posers isn't meant negatively, but I couldn't think of a better way to word it. Just FYI.

These two spend so much time hiding behind a carefully crafted facade and mask that sometimes they lose sight of themselves. They both ended the season having to meet themselves in the mirror. Alex is tapping back into who he was (that leather jacket 😍) and Isobel has to figure out who she is outside of Noah and Max.

They're shackled by image and projecting specific ones. But their masks crack and you see bits of what's behind them. They have the most prominent and consistent identity issues.

The Survivors/Outlaws/Rebels - Michael, Maria, Rosa

They're all survivors in their own way, but these three have a very distinctive style. Virtual outcasts of the town. Who they were was decided by outsiders whether they fit the profile or not.

They do what they have to do to survive, and they don't compromise or make apologies for it. They are who they are and they own it.

They're the ones who are inclined to break the rules or laws. Michael and Maria are both hustlers who do what they need to in order to make ends meet. Rosa self-medicated to survive. Michael is the known troublemaker and rabble rouser, Rosa is the town pariah and stain, Maria is the weirdo.

The Protectors - Michael, Max

The brothers probably clash so much because they'll both do whatever it takes to protect their people, but they don't always agree on how to do that. They will fight for you if they care.

Max can extend this farther and does since he's a cop. Michael protects the people he cares about and doesn't give a damn about anyone else. That circle is very small. So far, he protects Isobel, Max, Alex, and Maria. That's it.

The Riders - Michael, Maria, Cam

They are ride or die for their people. No questions asked. Even if you're fking up. They'll bitch but have your back. They will ride shotgun to your crazy every time.

Michael visibly didn't agree with things Isobel did or suggested and verbally and physically disagreed with Max a lot, but he'll still ride with you until the wheels fall off.

Maria endlessly supports and held a decade long grudge on Rosa's behalf. Knew a lot about Rosa and how troubled she was but was her ride or die anyway.

Cam knew Max was lying to her and put up with a lot, but she had his back the whole time.

#anyway I just thought that was interesting #roswell new mexico #kyle valenti #maria deluca #liz ortecho #rosa ortecho #I'm sorry that person most people hate is clogging up the tag with random posts but no worries I think I'm done for now 😊#Roswell nm angst hours #my babies i still left some out tbh #but groupings fascinate me and you can almost always put characters in set groups

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nellie-elizabeth · 5 years ago

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Suits: Cairo (9x04)

This episode felt a little bit "after school special" to me. It was about respect in relationships, and all of the characters kept talking about it in this kind of simplistic and unrealistic way. That's not to say I hated everything in the episode, but it just wasn't my favorite.

Cons:

The biggest problem for me was embodied in the moment when Harvey, Louis, Samantha, and Alex all did their dramatic slow-motion walk into Faye's office. They found a way to stop her from taking away Donna's vote, which is something she wanted to do because of the conflict of interest between Donna and Harvey. So they're all marching towards her office, they go in there, and as a united front, explain to her that Donna will be keeping her vote, because they've waived the conflict, and she can't stop them. This is all very nice and everything, but during the scene I was distracted by the fact that Donna wasn't there. If Donna gets a vote, if Donna is a part of the leadership of the firm, why does she sit back and let other people save her? Why doesn't she even get a say at all? It felt very counter-intuitive to me, like it went against the message, to have Donna be absent for this pivotal scene.

Donna and Harvey's romance just feels so... performative to me. I'm trying to give it a fair shake. I'm trying to get to a place where I can think it's cute, and leave it at that. But honestly, I'm still feeling pretty underwhelmed. Donna is upset about potentially losing her vote, but instead of telling Harvey about it, she blows up at him about his strained relationship with her father. I know she was covering up for something else, but I still felt like Donna was being really unfair in this instance. After all, Harvey hadn't done anything wrong. Her dad was the one who was hesitant. Why is it only Harvey's job to fix it?

I also refuse to believe that Harvey is that stupid. He offers Donna's dad money to help with his business venture. He seems to think this is a gesture of goodwill, but obviously Donna's father is deeply offended and feels disrespected. I thought Harvey was supposed to be this master at reading people? This was a dumb move, even for him. The second he mentioned the deal, I cringed, knowing it wouldn't be going his way.

And the dialogue is just so on-the-nose. Harvey makes a mistake, then has to learn his lesson and then has to tell us his lesson like he's giving a report at school. It's all very trite. That moment at the end where Harvey tells Donna they're going to be together forever was supposed to romantic, but for me it felt just as performative as the rest of their relationship. The actors are not doing a bad job at all, and they do have some degree of chemistry, but it's all just too... scripted.

For the most part I enjoy Alex and Samantha's friendship, and how Alex and Rosalie are welcoming Samantha into their family. But again, the theme of the episode just felt too blunt. I've never been a huge fan of the flashback stuff on Suits either, especially when, like in this episode, the flashbacks tell us something we already knew. Everything about Alex's story, how he was blackmailed and made to look complicit in a murder and cover-up, was old information. We were reminded of it on the "previously on." And other than the parts about Alex lying to his wife, there is absolutely nothing new in these flashback scenes. Or at least nothing new that matters.

Pros:

I feel like that was a very negative "Cons" section. It's not like I despise this episode or anything. There were plenty of things to enjoy.

For example, I still think Faye is a really interesting villain. Obviously there are a lot of things at play here, but she's not wrong to bring up the conflict of interest. She's not wrong to ask these people to work within a code of conduct. And she's not wrong that their attitude has been awful from day one. Of course, in this case I'm not 100% on her side, because I think Donna deserves her vote along with everyone else. But Faye isn't entirely wrong to be worried. Although I think it's stupid that she stole Gretchen from Louis (because that's not how secretaries in law firms work!) I like that Faye decides to give her back, admitting defeat in this one instance. I think she's probably gearing up to continue her fight against the name partners, but for now, she must concede the battle.

As I said, I love the continued theme of Alex and Rosalie welcoming Samantha into their family. They invite her over for board games, they make her feel at home with them and their kids. On the flip side, Samantha shows her loyalty and respect for them by doing what she can to get Alex out of a sticky situation. It was so cute that Alex and Rosalie were basically fighting over who was going to take a risk for whom. Samantha stepped in and made the play herself, because she could keep a level head about it. It looks like Alex is off the hook for now!

The cheesy dialogue and somewhat clumsy themes in this episode were definitely a problem, but the one place that the cheesiness worked for me was when Harvey was talking with his mom. It was such a satisfying character moment for Harvey when he patched things up with her, and now for him to call and tell her about Donna, and introduce these two women over the phone, is just so sweet and adorable. Harvey learned to be vulnerable and loving with the women in his life, and it's one of the most nuanced and satisfying character growth plot threads I've ever seen on TV. No joke.

Katrina and Louis' friendship is tested slightly, but once again we see evidence of Louis' maturity. He asks Katrina to do something risky and shady, and tries to pressure her because of their relationship. Katrina decides ultimately not to do it, and puts Louis in his place for asking her in the first place. I feel like the old Louis would not have backed down. He would have pushed and pushed and made things so much worse. But instead, he calms down, and he apologizes. I love Katrina for standing her ground, and Louis for respecting her choice!

Not much to say in the Mike Ross corner this week. His name was mentioned a few times in the context of throwing blame around for Jessica's disbarment, but that was about it. But next week? MIKE IS BACK AND I AM LIVING FOR IT! I can't wait to check back in, after I see the episode!

7/10

#review #suits #suits review #suits usa

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coloursergeantbourne · 5 years ago

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List 10 characters from ten things and tag 10 folks

1) Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)

Hal Jordan hero of the Green Lantern Corp, Near Destroyer of the Universe, The Lantern who killed a Guardian, and the only man to ever forge his own ring. The man embodies willpower and determination, he keeps going long after he's got no reason to and it always sees him through.

2 Grayson Hunt (Bulletstorm)

Grayson Hunt a special forces operator turned pirate bent on revenge. After drinking away his sorrows he sees at chance at the vengeance he was so desperately after he puts his own, his squad's, and his crews lives in danger just for the sake of his own revenge. But after making his way through exploding zombies, the replacement for his squad, bandits, and psychos. He finally moves past his own sorrows to put his best friend and his newest friends lives ahead of his own vengeance.

3 The Commander (XCOM)

The Commander a person tasked with the defense of the entire planet from an alien menace. Without their leadership and tactics the world fell the to the aliens and the masters the Ethereals. But after they were recovered they built the remnants of their organization into a successful and deadly efficient guerilla resistance. Never saying die, never giving up a centimeter of ground and, never letting the enemy turn their eye from humanity's freedom. They never let up until the menace was defeated.

4 Ferrus Manus

Ferrus Manus some say a cold, hard, calculated and, vicious tactician with a white hot berserker temper just under the surface. Others say and calm, composed, efficient, and merciless strategist. Either way a force to be reckoned with on the battle field and off. Known as the physically strongest primarch despite his brother Vulkan being larger. He care for his sons more then most primarchs and actively worried for their future.

5 Johnny Rico (Starship Troopers)

A young man who joined the Federal Service for all the wrong reasons, found that when war tested his mettle he was more then up to the task. After killing a fellow recruit during a little be fire exercise, losing his whole family in the attack the on Buenos Aires, then losing most of his friends in the attack on Klendathu, then losing his Lieutenant and mentor as well as his best friend and new love in the defense of Whisky Outpost on Planet P, and his friend and Corporal while rescuing his old friend and former flame from Bug City. General Rico has lost more then most people ever will but he always soldiers on determined to keep fighting.

6 Rick O'Connell (The Mummy 1-3)

Cool under pressure and quick to act, Rick O'Connell is the perfect man to have in a dangerous situation such as a resurrected mummy trying to destroy the world. A no nonsense hero who may not always understand the implications and nuance of the situation he will still fight for what's right. Together with his wife Evie, her brother Jonathon, and their son Alex their is very little that can stop them.

7 RoboCop (Alex Murphy)

Brutally murdered and losing everything Alex Murphy became RoboCop. An ever vigilant sentinel of justice he battles the forces of the Detroit underworld. Kicking ass and taking names He overcame his own programming to take control of his life and taking the fight to the corporate criminals along with the street criminals.

8 Colonel Richard Sharpe

Richard Sharpe a man of impeccable moral fibre and integrity. Leading his men into battle with courage and valour he never falters in the carrying out of his duty. He fights for what's right regardless of the social implications involved. He cares about the men under his command and would die for anyone one of them Sharpe may be a proper bastard, but he's also a proper Officer.

9 Harry Dresden (The Dresden Files)

Harry Dresden Chicago's only Wizard in the phone book. He's saved the world, stopped demons, defeated ancient fae goddesses, and rode a Zombie T-Rex. Not one for precise action or intense strategy he prefers to assess the situation boots on the ground and plan from there. He may be a bit of a blunt instrument but he's a very effective blunt instrument.

10 Captain America (Steve Rogers)

Steve Rogers the man out of time, symbol of liberty, leader of the Avengers, a man of such integrity and moral judgement that he was the man the Illuminati turned to when they wanted to know if what they were doing was right. The man Iron Man falls back on for friendship and support. So skilled that even without his enhanced abilities he fought of three super soldiers. Captain Rogers us a man out of his own time and under all his modesty, pride, and determination he beats the weight of all he lost and all that he never got to live.

Tagged by: @catachan-jungle-fighter

Tagging: @tzeentchs-secretary, @justalostghost, @anotherbotchedjump, @just-another-guardsman, @waywardinquisition, @simperingcourtesan, @asklotarasarrin, @fuukonomiko, @pacificanglory, @jacktheboltsmith

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katieskarlette · 6 years ago

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Voices of War panel

I’ll be editing this post as I watch the livestream.

The panel includes:

Josh Keaton (Anduin)

Patty Mattson (Sylvanas)

Laura Bailey (Jaina)

Indira Varma (Katherine Proudmoore)

Susan Wokoma (Talanji)

Abubakar Salim (Rokhan)

Alex Desert (Bwonsamdi)

Maryann Strossner (Scrollsage Nola) (They announced ”A Maryann has made it to Blizzcon!” - LOL)

Josh Keaton has played since vanilla, started as a night elf hunter, then switched to Horde to play tauren druid. He has since switched to a worgen druid (as our king should, after all!) :P lol

Josh re: getting cast to play Anduin in Cataclysm: “It was hilarious because I remember when I had my first Horde character I’d always try to attack Anduin in the castle ... and then I would die, and it was fun.”

Re: growing into ”manduin”: “His trinkets have dropped.” LMAO

Josh’s father is alive and he hasn’t experience that serious kind of loss IRL, so he doesn’t have that to draw from when acting, but it helps to be so deeply familiar with the characters and the lore.

Anduin and Sylvanas’ voice actors sitting next to each other...watch out!

“I’m so glad our Little Lion decided to play Horde,” Patty purred, putting a hand on Josh’s back. He replied that he “saw the error of his ways.”

They did improv in the studio to get into the right headspace for the Sylvanas Warbringer cinematic, and Patty says she got carried away. She ended up throwing Delaryn’s VA’s soda across the studio. (SOMEONE DRAW THAT WITH THEIR CHARACTERS!!)

Senior Narrative Designer Steve Danuser said they better not have a bow and arrow in the studio for that reason! LOL

Patty says she survived domestic abuse in her childhood, and that rage can be channeled into kickboxing (which she also does) or voicing a character like Sylvanas.

Laura says her body posture in the studio is a big part of how she gets Jaina’s voice. She laughed about how long she’s been with this character, how Jaina started as a “bright-eyed” young girl “in a crop top.”

She was in tears by the end of the recording sessions for “Daughter of the Sea.” And not just because she’s terrified of singing in front of people. She says that actually helped her channel the vulnerability Jaina felt upon realizing what the people of her homeland thought of her.

(It’s weird to see Indira in civilian garb when I’m so used to seeing her in her Dornish finery from Game of Thrones.)

She nailed the audition. As soon as they heard her, they knew she was Katherine Proudmoore. She says she’s not a gamer, but she immediately felt at home among the folks at Blizzcon. All her lines were recorded in London.

Indira loves the contradictions within Katherine, how much loss she’s suffered, how much pride she has, but how she has to get past that and welcome her daughter back. She says she’s a mother, herself, so that helped her get into that mindset.

Indira loves doing voice work because it’s not about your looks, ethnicity, weight, or anything but your voice. It’s a pure kind of acting that she enjoys.

Once they knew Kul Tiras was the setting of the next expansion, the reunion of Jaina and her family (especially her mother) was the first thing they seized on as the heart of the story. Katherine is the face of the nation, not just as its political leader, but as the embodiment of their feelings of betrayal and eventual forgiveness toward Jaina.

Susan is demonstrating what it’s like when Talanji gets loopy on too much caffeine. ;) (Jet lag from London isn’t fun, I’m sure.) She’s done a Netflix show with Tracer’s VA, so she had a peek at the Blizzard magic before and wanted to be part of it when the role came around.

She’s adorably freaking out over a Talanji cosplayer. Pure joy on both sides. They even hugged! OMG! Love it!

She says having massive story arcs is difficult on TV, especially for a woman of color who doesn’t have a model’s figure (as she put it, although she’s gorgeous if you ask me). Her characters tend to get killed off early on, so having Talanji be around for the long haul is a treat. She loved how Talanji has a full background, is part of an established world, and feels fully fleshed out.

She says they recorded in London in the evening, when it was early morning in California, which actually worked well for her, because “stuff has happened” by that time of the day, so she had a fuller range of emotions to draw from, instead of starting fresh in the morning.

On to Rokhan’s VA, Abubakar Salim, who says he’s overwhelmed by the love and support he’s felt from the Blizzcon crowd. He does play WoW himself, starting as a human paladin (boos from the crowd) but now with the Horde (cheers).

Steve said he also plays Horde, and Laura protested (tongue in cheek) that the panel is biased.

Abu enjoys playing Rokhan because even though the Darkspear have suffered so, so much, he’s still undaunted, still working so hard to bring the trolls together. He’s a practical and “earthy” character. They joked about Rokhan writing haiku in his spare time. But the word “badass” still is the best way to describe him.

Alex is up next, starting off with an eerie Bwonsamdi laugh. “The Harder They Come” is an old Jamaican movie, and one of the characters in there was the inspiration for Bwonsamdi’s voice, although he got funnier and more mischievous as the character developed. Alex joked that purple reading glasses help him get in character. He says Bwonsamdi “wants love.”

Alex’s parents are from Haiti, so the lore of that place informed his performance, too.

And last but not least, Scrollsage Nola! She thanked everyone for all the love the player base has given her. She says she “loves helping people...turtles... I’m in for it.”

The actors then went through and read some of their dialog. Josh and Patty doing Anduin and Sylvanas’ dialog from the throne room in the Battle for Lordaeron was hilarious, the looks they gave each other.

Laura and Indira did a bit of Jaina and Katherine’s reunion.

Susan got a big cheer for shouting “Zandalar forever!”

The crowd also loved Abu screaming “Nothing gonna stop de Horde!”

Plenty of creepiness from Alex.

And the grand finale: “A TURTLE MADE IT TO THE WATER!” Everyone was holding their breath when it came time, and then the cheers erupted. Heehee...

That’s the end of the main panel. It was so cool to put (real) faces to the voices. I’m always fascinated by the voice actors who bring the game to life.

AND LAURA BAILEY IS SINGING “DAUGHTER OF THE SEA”! LIVE! EEEEE!!!!

A well-deserved standing ovation after that!

#Blizzcon with KS #warcraft voice actors

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sophygurl · 6 years ago

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WisCon 42 panel Black Lightning

Black Lightning panel description:

The CW, host of DCTV shows Arrow, Flash, Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow, is now the network to go to for the television adaptation of the classic comic Black Lightning! The show focuses on a black family—the father, a retired superhero and current high school principal, dons his supersuit once more to protect his daughters. It seems at least one of the daughters are developing powers of theirs own. One of the daughters is a lesbian, adding more intersecting identities that are rarely see on TV. This show seems to be a smart, funny, political, action-packed family drama - with super powers. Let's celebrate, discuss, and critique this exciting new show!

Moderator Inda Lauryn with panelists Jennifer Cross, JP Fairfield, Alex Jennings, and Krys.

Reminder that these panel notes are only my own recollections and the things I managed to write down - my notes are incomplete and likely faulty in places. Corrections and additions are always welcome. Especially please do correct me if I get names or pronouns wrong!

Also I name panelists as that’s publicly available information but not audience members unless requested by that person to have their named added.

[Ugh this was my first panel of the morning and my handwriting is extra-bad. I’ll be skipping chunks in which I can’t make out what I meant to write!]

Inda started the panelist intros off with the question of what DC comic character they’d like to see on TV.

JP answered with Nubia, Wonder Woman’s sister. Krys said Static. Jennifer replied with Monica Rambeau. Alex said Static might in fact end up on Black Lightning but gave his answer as Hal Jordan’s Green Lantern, but if Hal was black. Inda answered saying she’d like a proper Vixen live action show.

Alex talked about how Black Lightning is standing up well so far against the comics, which he has been a fan of for awhile. He says BL is the linchpin for the black sector of DC comics. The daughters become part of the Titans for awhile, etc.

One thing Alex does not want to see on the show is Jefferson acting as a villain for an extended period of time as being undercover with the Outsiders.

Jennifer really liked the depiction of Freeland in the show as it’s own character, and showing black life in their own cities.

Alex explained that in the comics, it’s a black neighborhood in Metropolis.

Inda said that technically, right now, BL is separate from the rest of the DCTV universe. Jennifer said there was that line about Black Canary, though. JP said they’ve waffled about it. She wants it to be part of the overall universe (even though Black Lightning is better written than the other shows), to deal with the intersectional issues of all these white vigilantes and how they fit in with police oppression of black neighborhoods.

Jennifer said that Arrow had a storyline about police oppression but they All Live Mattered it. She added - let’s just keep the rich white man away.

JP said BL could teach them how to be superheroes though, since they’re all a bunch of screw-ups. They’d have to pay him though!

Krys said that Supergirl never addresses race.

Alex said the most recent Supergirl episode kind of dealt with it, but Flash never addresses it even though two of the main characters are black.

I asked from the audience - what if only James Olsen got to interact with the BL world (thinking maybe it’d help him to have some actual black people to talk to about these things?), and JP answered - oh they’d have to finally give him something to do?

JP wants Jefferson to “taser punch” Ollie.

Inda asked the panelists what they would change about the show.

JP wants more representation of black families, and not just one kind. She likes that they’re giving them room to grow and that the two daughters have different world views. She doesn’t like some of Jefferson’s respectability politics, however.

Alex agrees and hopes the show will address that. He said the comic origins of BL are frankly hard to read - for example he puts on an afro wig when he dresses as BL.

Jennifer said the reason - not an excuse - that Jefferson has those respectability politics is that he is trying to help the kids in his community learn to code switch so that they can leave if they want to.

Krys talked about the history with Jefferson and his powers and how that explains a lot of his worldview. She doesn’t like it, but she understands where he’s coming from.

JP added - but he low-key looks down on his own community.

Jennifer said that was addressed somewhat when Khalil comes back. She doesn’t like Khalil, but appreciated that he said what he did to Jefferson.

There was an audience question about queerness - I didn’t get down the exact question.

Inda said they were going there - she was going to talk about the women on the show next, so let’s start with Anissa.

JP said all the women have different goals and needs in their life and they can disagree with each other and still support one another. Also with Anissa - her family is okay with her and her being gay is a non-issue for them, which is nice.

Jennifer said she likes to think it was intentional that it’s not addressed within the show - the family’s reaction to Anissa coming out could have been different, but the show starting with them accepting her destroys the stereotype about black people being inherently homophobic. She also likes that Anissa is openly gay, but that’s not the focus of who she is as a character.

Krys likes how involved Anissa is in the community and how that’s an important part of her character.

Inda wanted more of Grace once we met her, but is hoping there will be more of her in the next season.

JP liked that the minute Khalil got creepy, Jennifer got away from him. It didn’t turn into one of those “oh but I love him!” stories.

Inda said she did teenager well because she wanted to smack her around a bit.

Jennifer’s issue with Grace was that because she’s not black, there is a component of black queer love missing on her TV. Anissa leaving a black woman for Grace hurt a little bit because of the issue of black women being seen as the least desirable.

Inda said she loved Lady Eve as a villain and hated the way she died, but at least she kept a sense of being human through to the end. JP said they should have kept her as the Big Bad for the whole season. Alex said - she’ll get better. (lol - this then became a repeated a line about any character that had died)

Jennifer talked about Tobias as being the literal embodiment of internalized anti-blackness. She loves a good villain who gets his own hands dirty, and loved that they chose an actor with albinism.

Inda liked Tobias and that they gave him a good villain backstory. One of the best villains on DCTV.

Alex said he likes that Tobias is played by a pretty decent rapper. He likes the proper gravitas that he brings to the role, as well. He does wish that instead of intimidating his underlings, he’d have explained his worldview about how the world needs them - especially with respectability politics on the other side of things. He also loved the tattooed guy.

Inda brought up the music on the show. JP loved the music. Krys loved the mix of older songs and newer ones to match specific scenes, themes, and events.

Jennifer liked the aspect of multi-generational music and how it captured the themes. She gave a lot of examples that I was apparently too tired to write down beyond “lots of examples” - sorry about that. She also talked about how she wants the show to use it’s platform to feature more new artists like it did in the pilot.

Inda liked when the show used music humorously. An audience member brought up the scene with Stairway to Heaven and how weird and confusing it was - lots of laughing about it.

JP still wanted Lady Eve as the main villain and wanted to see her fight Tobias.

Jennifer said to get rid of Syonide - she serves no purpose. “Why are you here? Are you our Becky translator?”

JP liked that there were two dimensional white characters - it was the opposite of mainly white shows having two dimensional black characters and felt appropriate.

Alex said some of the minor villains are “wack” - Khalil as painkiller for example. He hated him in the comics and his name makes no sense. (lol)

There was a whole discussion about black character’s hair and how quickly they change from one style to the other getting into costume and how ridiculous it is. Jennifer did love Anissa’s battle hair, though.

Jennifer also talked about loving the father-daughter relationships. She and Krys both had similar stories as Jennifer’s roller rink fight.

Inda is thankful they already changed Anissa’s super suit. Then said that the show has been renewed for another season, and asked the panelists what they’d like to see next.

JP said Anissa and Jen kicking ass together. Krys said Jennifer getting a suit and training and generally coming into her powers.

Jennifer said she’d like to see how these characters do time management? Anissa, especially, does a lot - how is she doing it all? Jefferson, too. This is an issue she was with superhero universes in general. (uh-huh)

Alex wants to see Jakeem Thunder introduced into the show as it would also introduce the universe to aspects of magic.

Inda would like a little less addressing of police brutality in the future. More hero/villain stuff - but she does like that Freeland is a microcosm.

JP added that police brutality is not usually the focus of black lives - it’s just something that happens while going about their lives.

Krys wants more followup with the kids and the green lightning and Jefferson possibly being a mentor to them.

Jennifer wants more family stuff. Also Tobias showing some remorse - he got over his sister’s death really fast. She also feels they rushed Khalil’s origin story. As someone who is unapologetically Team Killmonger, she wants more complexity in her villains.

JP said the story really missed out on the treatment of Tobias and his relationship with his sister. They established their relationship to the point of her even searching for their father so he could kill him.

Alex interjected with “you don’t think Tobias will bring her back?!” An audience member said they should bring her back to save the actress from the Tyler Perry show she moved on to. Panelists all agree with this assessment.

Someone from the audience asked about the role of the afterlife, as well as the Vice Principal character.

JP discussed how they brought back LaLa, so maybe they will explore that a little more. As far as the VP - she never trusted her. At first she thought she was after his job, then after him, then turns out she’s an agent. There were all of these different angles of trying to get closer to him, but the fact that she doesn’t want to believe Jefferson is BL indicates some of those feelings might have been real.

Jennifer said she doesn’t want to go on a rant about those mismatched wigs but... that character is shady but also conflicted. As “Big Bad Chad” pointed out, she was spending a lot of time with Jefferson. Is she compromised? Yea, she is. Jennifer would prefer the character not come back unless they give her something else to do, however.

As far as the afterlife, Jennifer liked that the show is using subtle notes of black folklore and what people she knows have been raised with. She added “sorry white people, but this show knows it is not for you.”

Alex said the afterlife stuff only makes sense if spirits are real with the tattoo guy. Maybe the guy Tobias paid to bring him back didn’t tell him that part, and that there is magic involved.

Krys noted that the spiritual stuff in the show seemed personalized to each character.

An audience member asked about the sister’s different approaches to their powers.

Inda said that Jennifer just freaked out and didn’t want them, but did use them to save her father’s life. She saw how it could be a good thing, and now she is on a journey of acceptance.

JP added that she’s not all into her powers, but sees the benefits of them - she’s like a battery for her father!

Jennifer talked about Anissa accepting her powers right away because she’s always been about wanting to help her community and so she immediately saw her powers in that light. Jennifer didn’t initially want them - but when it came to her family, she stepped up. She might struggle with having powers, but when she has to use them, she’ll do it.

JP asked Alex if in the comics, it turns out Jennifer is the most powerful in the family. He said yes - and also that they can use their powers together in interesting ways.

An audience member brought up an article about black heroes and that the powers they have tend to be elemental - earth, wind, fire.

Alex said this is true even in other media, such as Captain Planet. It happens a lot, even now. He would like to see more tech-based powers.

Jennifer said but we are on planet earth, and she loved Storm and how she could literally turn the earth against people. She would like to move away from the Magical Negro trope but also likes the idea of having earth-based powers at their disposal.

More talk about issues of hair and fighting. Jennifer said you really don’t want loose hair when fighting. But the hairstyle Anissa chooses is an ode to Ashanti warrior women. It’s not practical, however.

Inda talked about the suspension of disbelief as far as people not being able to recognize them with just masks over their eyes. An audience member said that they explained this at least with BL that it hurts to look directly at him. Inda said that was only in a conversation between the daughters, so it’s possible it has to do with their own powers and isn’t a function of BL’s powers alone.

Jennifer said she would like more investigation into green light and the vaccine and the organization behind it all.

JP said - let’s talk about Gambi and his guilt about being a part of the whole thing.

Jennifer said she is tired of this trope of the the white guy who somehow didn’t know that this covert agency he was a part of was going to do some dirty shit. It’s almost better if he’s just guilty because he knew what he was getting into but wants to do better now. She lost interest in Gambi when Lady Eve died.

JP didn’t want Jefferson to forgive him so easily. Maybe he did it because they had to work together but she wants him to still be mad about what happened.

Inda mentioned the impulse for shows to give us white redemption.

Jennifer added that it might be more of a white-passing issue than white because of his actual last name being Esposito.

Inda liked having a white character in that role because “we don’t question white people in our spaces” so he could have easily moved in those communities doing what he did.

[And that’s all I got. Lovely, lively panel with gobs of info and just lots of fun!]

#wiscon #wiscon 42 #black lightning

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samosoapsoup · 4 years ago

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POINT OF NO RETURN

ART FORUM

Alex Kitnick on the discontent with museums

“WHEN DISCONTENT WITH MUSEUMS is strong enough to provoke the attempt to exhibit paintings in their original surroundings or in ones similar, in baroque or rococo castles, for instance, the result is even more distressing than when the works are wrenched from their original surroundings and then brought together.” This is Theodor Adorno in his great essay “Valéry Proust Museum,” first published in German in 1955, a moment of reckoning and reconstruction. Though Adorno doesn’t specify why the attempt to return and repatriate is more upsetting than the original rift and reassembling of modernity, it is clear that we are in a similar moment of discontent again today—and that we, too, must consider our desires and the effects they might produce.

In May this past year, the director of Florence’s Uffizi, Eike Schmidt, announced a proposal to return a number of the museum’s religious paintings to churches (if not to the exact ones the paintings came from, then at least to similarly Christian places of worship). At first glance, this seemed like a not-terrible idea; after all, I have seen Caravaggio’s Inspiration of Saint Matthew, 1602, tucked into its nook in San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome and felt that awed feeling of witnessing a thing where it was meant to be seen, in situ. Schmidt had apparently absorbed all the postmodern lessons of site specificity, about what is lost when something is picked, pried, or stolen from its original context. (“To remove the work is to destroy the work,” I could almost hear Richard Serra say.) But as I thought more about his proposal, the deep anti-modernism of the gesture struck me: The idea, after all, is not simply to relocate the paintings but to change their natures, transforming them from secular things worthy of contemplation into devotional images deserving of worship. Even if Schmidt is somehow historically right—in other words, even if he is being faithful to how artists intended their work to be seen—he is nevertheless revoking the experience of modernity that has descended upon these paintings.

When a painting was taken off the wall of the church and brought into the gallery of the museum, we were asked to look at it differently than the artist intended. Broken out of its original lifeworld and turned into a fragment (this is the original crime Adorno speaks of), the artwork became secular, a relic of another time and place, patched together with relics from other times and places. (“It would be an act of madness to enter a museum, kneel down before a painting of the virgin to pray for a soldier missing in battle, lighting a candle and leaving an offering on the floor near the picture before leaving,” Philip Fisher noted in 1975.) It is lost and adrift, yes, but it is also transformed, and here we find the other edge of the sword: One begins to draw connections the artist never imagined. That is the quixotic, heady power of the museum, the birth of which, one might go so far as to say, demands the death of the author. No works made before 1860 were meant to be contemplated in quite the same way—as Foucault reminds us, Manet was the first painter to imagine his paintings in the museum—but nothing that goes into it can resist its power. In this sense the museum is akin to the commodity system, another modern invention: Artworks confront all other artworks within its space. Inside, they change orientation, speak differently, take on new lives, assume new values. The viewer is charged with wondering about their potential, purchase, and power.

To describe the Uffizi plan as anti-secular and anti-modern is not to say that every repatriation shares these characteristics. In general, stolen things should be given back, and the past few years have seen many struggles for restitution that are undeniably just. In 2018, scholars Felwine Sarr and Bénédicte Savoy of the Collège de France released a brilliant report, commissioned by President Emmanuel Macron, urging the return of plundered African objects to their native lands: “African cultural heritage can no longer remain a prisoner of European Museums,” Macron’s Twitter account proclaimed. It is hard to argue against this move even if the proposed return is to some extent symbolic, and one might ask if European museums are not also attempting to divest themselves of a troubling colonial history: While France is much less likely to give back all the resources it plundered over the longue durée of colonialism, the return of objects might still pave the way for other forms of remuneration and justice; in their report, Sarr and Savoy note that restitution opens the “question of building bridges for future equitable relations.” Importantly, they are just as invested in the experience of confronting the objects themselves. As Sarr and Savoy put it, “To fall under the spell of an object, to be touched by it, moved emotionally by a piece of art in a museum, brought to tears of joy, to admire its forms of ingenuity, to like the artworks’ colors, to take a photo of it, to let oneself be transformed by it: All these experiences—which are also forms of access to knowledge—cannot simply be reserved to the inheritors of an asymmetrical history, to the benefactors of an excess of privilege and mobility.” If repatriated objects are unlikely to return to their original contexts, Sarr and Savoy insist, they must be displayed in necessarily “unoriginal” ways—in other words, in a museum.

The museum reveals the artwork’s potential precisely by negating it.

A LOT HAS CHANGED in the past forty or so years. If the postmodernism of the 1980s considered the museum to be in crisis and contemplated its “ruins,” today many see these same institutions as frustratingly intact, as bulwarks against change, citadels to be stormed. (Even ten years ago, the Left’s critique of museums was simply that they had transformed from civic sites to experiential fun houses. “The late-capitalist museum” was understood to be a space of spectacle, not BlackRock lucre.) Where an earlier generation of artists associated with institutional critique pointed to the museum’s genetic incoherence, as well as to the incursion of corporate interests, today the museum itself stands as a purveyor of systemic and symbolic violence. “The very foundation of the museum is carceral and colonial, and thus ableist,” artist Carolyn Lazard claimed in a recent interview. “Once we abandon the solidity of the museums’ justifications for existing, we might be able to invent new forms and new models of making.” Lazard is not alone in their thinking, but plans of attack have taken different approaches. In a recent exhibition detailing the role of slavery in the British empire and its afterlife in institutions of contemporary art, artist Cameron Rowland mortgaged the mahogany doors and handrails at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, installed by the extravagant George IV—thus making a strike against the host institution, while at the same time acknowledging, by staging the exhibition, that the artist is bound to it. (Even as the institution’s hardware remains intact, its value is drained—the site becomes indebted.) And many others, artists and art workers alike, have occupied the museum in similar ways, sometimes to drain it but just as often to reenergize it. One of the most affirming aspects of the protests against Warren Kanders’s trusteeship of New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art, which sprang up around the 2019 Biennial, was how many people claimed the institution as their own and insisted that their voices be heard there too. While the ultimately successful campaign to oust Kanders from the board neither erased his tear gas from the world nor purified the institution, it did mark an ethical position that had potentially political effects: For who, more people might ask, would want to break bread with a person like this?

Needless to say, we cannot undo the history of the museum, but neither should we invest blindly in its current state of affairs; we have to recognize it for what it has done, what it is capable of, and what it might do. Contra Adorno, the museum is no longer a mausoleum: His claim that the museum only exists out of “historical respect” has ceased to be the case. Indeed, the museum today is expected to be a center of attention and an active agent in culture to satisfy the “needs of the present,” but as much as it tries to stay up-to-date, it cannot help but deploy its age-old techniques—and this is not wholly a bad thing. After all, the museum is one of the few devices that can make the royal democratic, the private public, the sacred profane. It can switch contexts and create distance. It can bring things to light.

I am trying to argue here for the possibility of a productive alienation, a salutary anti-immediacy. In a sense, the museum reveals the artwork’s potential precisely by negating it: “Works of art,” Adorno insists, “can fully embody the promesse du bonheur only when they have been uprooted from their native soil and have set out along the path to their own destruction.” This is not quite as perverse as it sounds. Art is different than reality; it is one way of thinking about it and contemplating it. In his 1917 essay “Art as Device,” Viktor Shklovsky noted art’s strange-making powers, its ostranenie, its ability to defamiliarize. The device of art, however, resides not only in its objects but in its institutions—in other words, the artmaking, strange-making device par excellence may be the museum itself. And this strangeness, my substitute word for autonomy, is what grants the museum its privileged position not outside, but adjacent to, life—a place where life might be seen, queried, and discussed.

But must modern museums sit on endlessly growing piles of capital in order to do this work? Each expansion the museum makes not only creates room for more art but also builds a structure ever more costly to maintain—indeed, its incessant territorial expansionism might be one of its most colonial traits, apart, of course, from the encyclopedic museum’s mission to universalize (and centralize) by plunder. Hito Steyerl has written powerfully of what she calls the “poor image”—a digital file that is circulated, amended, shared, and cared for by many. What it loses in quality, in resolution, she claims, it gains in history. Now might be the time to imagine a “poor institution,” a place infiltrated by many that values community over control. What would a “poor” Whitney look like? A “poor” Guggenheim? A “poor” MoMA? Might they keep exhibitions up longer and dig more deeply into their permanent collections, enfranchise educators and dock executive pay? In other words, change structurally instead of signify differently? This is not a plea for populism, to pander to the people, but rather a call to recognize the many invested in, and identified with, institutions. Discontent with museums is productive. Unless we reimagine them radically, they may well become the baroque and rococo castles in which much art was first housed.

https://www.artforum.com/print/202101/alex-kitnick-on-the-discontent-with-museums-84657

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the-domestication-of-the-dog · 5 years ago

Text

The 10th Annual L.A.O.K. Awards

Wow. Ten years of the Layokies. What a trip. I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to all five of my faithful fans for your readership over the years. In my first ever Layokies post, I named it the “1st (Possibly) Annual L.A.O.K. Awards.” I had no idea how long I’d be working at the Academy, let alone living in LA, but here we are. I bragged about seeing 180 movies that year. I just checked my Letterboxd stats for this year and it turns out I watched...180 movies. However, this year I hit a new personal best for new releases: 125. While this is about half as many as some people I know, some of the first Layokies were based on a field of 60 or 70 movies, so I’ve doubled up on my old self. Funny thing is, I can still look on other year-end lists and find many films I haven’t seen, and even some I haven’t heard of, so the field of films I’ve added are probably in the middle to bottom range of the pack. But someone out there has to watch Tolkien, Gemini Man, The Goldfinch, and Where’d You Go, Bernadette?, so it might as well be me.

In all honesty, my absolute favorite thing about living in Los Angeles and working at the Academy is access to watching movies and being around the general cinephile community, and even a bad couple of hours in a movie theater beats a lot else. Over Christmas break I saw Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in Shawnee, OK’s own Cinema Center 8.

It was quite a trip going back to this theater after so many years and to think of the love of film that was fostered there. Alas, the picture was pretty muddy, and I’m almost positive they showed it in 2k. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Now, in penance for naming The King’s Speech Best Picture in my first year (lol), I give you five real good’uns for 2019:

Best Film The Farewell The King Little Women Parasite Uncut Gems

Sometimes I touch on a year being good or bad for film in general. Not sure about the whole, but I’ll call 2019 a real SEC year (aka stacked at the top and mediocre to poor the rest of the way down). While I would probably only give one title on this list must-see status (Parasite), these are all definite should-sees. The Farewell made me laugh and cry and cringe. One might even go so far as to say it “gave me all the feels.” The King gave me actual siege warfare and period-accurate haircuts. Little Women hit me with that structure, and at first I was all “hol up,” but then I was all “OK I see you.” Little Women also made me cry because I cry in movies now. (A quick aside, because while I absolutely loved Little Women, it’s not really going to come up again. If you liked the movie and haven’t read the book, please do yourself a favor and make it the next one on your list. You can’t know how great this movie is unless you know how good Beth is. Beth kind of got lost in this one, and you need to know Beth.) Parasite blew me away through its normality (who, having seen The Host, Snowpiercer, and Okja could have guessed that it wasn’t about some actual alien parasite??). And Uncut Gems was exactly as perfect as I expected it to be. And the Layokie goes to... The King

Faithful readers will know that one of my absolute favorite genres is ‘discreet conversation behind castle walls,’ and The King absolutely nailed it. It has everything: leadership position foisted on a worthy but flawed character who doesn’t want it, conversations in tents about battle tactics, love built on almost nothing but mutual respect, and most of all, Robert Pattinson doing a funny accent (it’s just a French accent, but he makes it quite funny). I would have already watched this again five times on Netflix, but I’m hoping and praying for an Oscar nomination that will never ever in a million years come in hopes that I can see it again in the theater during nominations screenings.

The Next Five Six 1917 Honey Boy The Laundromat The Lighthouse Marriage Story Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Best Actor Timothée Chalamet - The King Adam Driver - Marriage Story Paul Walter Hauser - Richard Jewell Joaquin Phoenix - Joker Adam Sandler - Uncut Gems

Another super stacked category this year. You might even say they’re *puts on sunglasses*...Stacked Actors. (<-- This is a really good joke for anyone whose favorite band from 7th-8th grade was The Foo Fighters.) These are all kind of obvious, so I’ll take a second to comment on Paul Walter Hauser and the fact that I gave out a very specific award last year titled “Refuse to Watch - Any More Clint Eastwood Movies” after trying and failing to watch The 15:17 to Paris on a plane (one of the worst pieces of filmmaking I’ve ever witnessed). Then this year Richard Jewell was getting such good buzz, and it seemed like such a good cast, and it was such a low-risk watch (on my second screen at work while doing spreadsheets), that I decided to shamefully renege on my earlier pronouncement and give it a shot. And...it was great pretty good! What is the deeal with Clint Eastwood?? He’s made some of my least favorite movies of the decade (Gran Torino, Invictus, Hereafter was a particularly awful stretch, Sully was pointless, and even parts of American Sniper, which was otherwise tolerable, were absolute cringefests). Anywho, I was very impressed by Paul Walter Hauser’s understated but perfect performance, in which he gets one good chance to blow up and yell at people--which you know I love. I hope he gets nominated, because it would be a great Oscar clip. (My ultimate dream job would be to pick the acting Oscars clips and I would be very very good at it.)

And the Layokie goes to... The Sandman (love that everyone is calling him the Sandman again)

I touched on Adam Sandler “A” in the Best Supporting Actor section of my 2018 Layokies post regarding his performance in The Meyerowitz Stories, lamenting that he hadn’t taken more dramatic roles after Punch-Drunk Love and hoping that good writer/directors would keep casting him. One more wish granted by the Safdie brothers. Adam Sandler’s talent is undeniable. He is truly one of the Great Actors of his generation. I really hope this is a respected-actor-making turn for him, but the upcoming roles on his IMDd--Hubie Halloween and Hotel Transylvania 4--don’t give much hope for the immediate future.

Honorable Mentions Taron Egerton - Rocketman (but only for the phone booth scene) Shia LaBeouf - The Peanut Butter Falcon Noah Jupe - Honey Boy Robert Pattinson - The Lighthouse Jonathan Pryce - The Two Popes

Best Actress Ana de Armas - Knives Out Scarlett Johansson - Marriage Story Elisabeth Moss - Her Smell Florence Pugh - Midsommar Saoirse Ronan - Little Women

Found out last night from my resident celebrity expert Bridgette Smith that Florence Pugh is dating Zach Braff and it absolutely crushed me.

And the Layokie goes to... Elisabeth Moss - Her Smell

Her Smell was the last 2019 film I watched before writing this post, and I was really just looking for something to pass the time. I had been wanting to see it for a long time and noticed it was on HBO, so I pressed play and planned to work on this post while I watched. I couldn’t. I was riveted. The writing, score, and sound design are incredible, but it’s all tied together by Elisabeth Moss’s performance. She’s excellent at being revolting but still has all of those qualities that made her Peggy. You can’t not like her, even though you fairly hate her.

Honorable Mentions Awkwafina - The Farewell Cynthia Erivo - Harriet Lupita Nyong’o - Us (You know I love weird voices, you know I love actors doing weird voices and faces, but this was a bit much even for me. Reflective of Us on the whole, which I thought was interesting but really missed the mark.) Charlize Theron - Bombshell

Best Director Ari Aster - Midsommar Bong Joon Ho - Parasite David Michôd - The King Benny and Josh Safdie - Uncut Gems Céline Sciamma - Portrait of a Lady on Fire

And the Layokie goes to... Benny and Josh Safdie - Uncut Gems

Wired: New directors Tired: Old directors

Boy do I not understand the love for The Irishman and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I’m not totally against boring movies if there’s a good reason for it (Midsommar was actually quite boring), but these were some of the least compelling films I watched all year. On the other hand, you have these young directors coming out of prestige horror, Ari Aster, Robert Eggers, and to a lesser extent David Robert Mitchell and Trey Edwards Shults, making some of the most dynamic films out there. Reminds me of Roger Ebert talking about early Scorsese in Life Itself (which I can’t find a clip of). Then you have Benny and Josh Safdie doing Scorsese better than Scorsese with literally breathtaking shots like the one below. How they construct such amazing edits out of such disparate takes as the one in the still above is a wonder. They’ll go from five extreme close-ups in a row to a jaw-dropping shot of the inside of a jewelry store zoomed in from across the street. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg on what makes them the best filmmakers working right now.

Honorable Mentions Noah Baumbach - Marriage Story Robert Eggers - The Lighthouse Claire Denis - High Life Greta Gerwig - Little Women Alejandro Landes - Monos Sam Mendes - 1917 Alex Ross Perry - Her Smell Joe Talbot - The Last Black Man in San Francisco Lulu Wang - The Farewell

Best Supporting Actress Laura Dern - Marriage Story Lena Headey - Fighting with My Family Lee Jung Eun - Parasite (The housekeeper) Meryl Streep - The Laundromat Shuzhen Zhao - The Farewell (Nai Nai)

And the Layokie goes to... Laura Dern - Marriage Story

Here’s one for the Laura Dern stan accounts: There’s no question that Noah Baumbach is a talented director of actors, but Laura Dern makes so much out of seemingly not a lot in this role. She truly embodies a wholly unique and three-dimensional character that could have extremely easily been one-note.

Honorable Mentions Lily-Rose Depp - The King Florence Pugh - Little Women Margot Robbie - Bombshell

Best Supporting Actor Timothée Chalamet - Little Women Willem Dafoe - The Lighthouse Shia LaBeouf - Honey Boy Al Pacino - The Irishman Robert Pattinson - The King

And the Layokie goes to... Willem Dafoe - The Lighthouse

For being all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT7uR4wNMJs

Honorable Mentions Bill Hader - It Chapter Two Tim Heidecker - Us Sam Rockwell - Richard Jewell Song Kang Ho - Parasite (the dad) Lakeith Stanfield - Uncut Gems

Best Original Screenplay The Farewell - Lulu Wang Her Smell - Alex Ross Perry Marriage Story - Noah Baumbach Parasite - Bong Joon Ho Uncut Gems - Benny and Josh Safdie

And the Layokie goes to... Parasite - Bong Joon Ho

Another genre we don’t get nearly enough of: comedies of errors. A script like this is as sophisticated as any mystery, political thriller, or...some other sophisticated type of script, like uh, I don’t know, they usually just say Chinatown or Witness. I did think it lagged a bit in the third act, but everything that came before it was so tight. Twist after turn after twist, so funny, so shocking. This is such a rare prestige crowd-pleaser that it really does harken back to Hitchcock; if a wide audience can get over watching subtitles, this has to have one of the lowest barriers for entry of any foreign film in a long time. Here’s hoping for a Best Picture Oscar nomination and a wide release. Uncut Gems played at Shawnee’s other theater (titled simply Movies 6), so it’s not that far out of the realm of possibility. But I know people in LA, even that work at the Academy, who won’t watch subtitled films, so getting people to actually go see it is another question.

Honorable Mentions Peterloo - Mike Leigh

Best Adapted Screenplay Jojo Rabbit - Taika Waititi Joker - Todd Philips & Scott Silver The King - David Michôd The Laundromat - Scott Z. Burns The Two Popes - Anthony McCarten

And the Layokie goes to... The King - Joel Edgerton and David Michôd

It wouldn’t be the Layokies without me championing one film that no one else cares about. I just really really liked The King. Timothée Chalamet is so hot right now! How did this get so overlooked?? 😭

Best Documentary Apollo 11 Honeyland It’s a Hard Truth Ain’t It Maiden Mike Wallace is Here

And the Layokie goes to... Maiden

As I’m in the process of producing a documentary right now, it pains me a bit that my top two picks in this category are almost entirely archival. I thought Mike Wallace is Here was so well done, and the director did some amazing things playing with aspect ratio. But Maiden came into port first. What is wrong with people who don’t appreciate sports? This xkcd comic (who I usually appreciate) makes me so angry. Tell the women who worked their asses off for years to claw their way into this male-dominated space and literally made the world a better place that their efforts were no more than a weighted random number generator on which to build narratives! Clearly the narratives are there, but it rarely has as much to do with the result of the competition as it does the effort that it took individual human beings to get there. See also: Undefeated (currently streaming on Netflix).

Honorable Mentions Fyre They Shall Not Grow Old Satan & Adam

Best Foreign Language Film Duh Parasite

Biggest Missed Opportunity Pokemon: Detective Pikachu (How the first live action Pokemon movie should have happened)

Not Even Close to Enough Monsters Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Most Unbelievable Cosplay Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers

Absolutely Crushing the Sensitive Dad Roles Billy Crudup in After the Wedding and Where’d You Go, Bernadette?

Good in Everything Too obvious, but Florence Pugh - Fighting with My Family, Midsommar, Little Women Robert Pattinson - High Life, The Lighthouse, The King Adam Driver - The Dead Don’t Die, Marriage Story, The Report, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Destigmatizing Fatness Award Dolemite is My Name The Laundromat Skin Almost Hustlers but then not (Lizzo got what, 30 seconds of screentime??)

#WasteYourAudience’sTime2019 The Souvenir The Proposal

Didn’t Actually Deserve to be Driven into the Ground Dark Phoenix The Kitchen

Just Plain Liked It Triple Frontier

Most Forgettable Tie: Tolkien and High Life (not for me, but it took me a full 10 minutes to convince Becca that she watched this, and I had to describe the masturbation chamber aka fuck box in a lot of detail before she got it, and I’m still not totally convinced she remembers it)

The Something Award Motherless Brooklyn

The Nothing Award Judy

Worst Movies 1. Rambo: Last Blood 2. Between Two Ferns: The Movie 3. Abominable 4. The Lion King 5. Godzilla: King of the Monsters 6. Wine Country 7. Jumanji: The Next Level 8. Frozen II 9. The Goldfinch 10. Pet Semetary

Best Scenes

Avengers: Endgame - The hammer, the portals, all the nerdy/normie BS, what can I say call me a basic bitch but there were some genuine holy schmoly moments in this that made it a really fun movie to experience in the theater

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood - When Mr. Rogers uses the puppets on Lloyd

Captain Marvel - When she went full shit on ‘em

Climax - The opening dance sequence (the only thing that made this movie worth watching)

The Farewell - Too many to choose from, but I think my favorite moment in this movie was when they were taking photos of the fiances and another couple stumbled in on them, claiming they were lost. That couple leaves and we never see them again. These are the kinds of details that make movies come alive. Absolutely brilliant.

Gemini Man - The motorcycle chase (a rare scene actually made better by the high frame rate)

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum - The knife fight in the knife store

The King - The conversation between Hal and Catherine

Knock Down the House - When A.O.C. debated the incompetent proxy

The Last Black Man in San Francisco - Skateboarding into town

Little Women - The “break-up” scene between Jo and Laurie (not a spoiler)

Midsommar - The drug trip scene (not that I’ve ever done drugs but this was the most accurate drug trip scene of all time) and the Ättestupa ceremony. Also found out in the video linked above that Ari Aster pronounces it Mid-SO-mar?? I thought that was the dumb way to pronounce it but apparently I’m the dumb one. Also also, another amazing detail worth mentioning: I absolutely loved that every time they were in their community sleeping barn, there was a baby crying somewhere on the second floor that we never see. Such a perfect way to put the characters and the audience on edge and indicate that there’s something wrong here.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - While I didn’t care for this movie, the scene where Brad Pitt went to the movie ranch and when he fantasized about going to the film set were absolutely dripping with tension, which made them as just as riveting as the rest of the movie wasn’t

Parasite - When the other family comes home early

The Peanut Butter Falcon - The scene after they come out of the corn field and share one of their first genuine moments

Uncut Gems - *Sarah Palin voice* All of ‘em, any of ‘em. But seriously the finale with the Celtics game

Us - The initial home invasion and the visit to the Tylers’ home (Tim Heidecker and Elisabeth Moss)

The A.V. Club also does a best scenes list at the end of the year, and I love writing mine first and then seeing what they came up with. I’m always surprised at how many we match on. Just goes to show that a good scene is universal. I also enjoyed some of theirs that I overlooked here, including from Her Smell, Bombshell, Ad Astra (I almost included the moon chase myself and thought the baboon scene was equally compelling), and Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

Stupidest Scenes Every other John Wick 3 scene

Deserves Discussion The Dead Don’t Die

This movie was a lot of fun. But then it also completely sucked? Not really a Jim Jarmusch fan in the first place, but this had so many awesome elements to it: a great cast, great soundtrack, really fun and unexpected ways of breaking the 4th wall, but then it was also pointless and boring. I would love for someone to tell me why this is a good movie after all, but judging by its complete absence from the end-of-the-year discussion (or any discussion), I’m guessing no one cares enough to mount that challenge.

Best Visuals Alita: Battle Angel Aquarella A Hidden Life Honeyland Midsommar Monos

Many LOLs It Chapter Two Jojo Rabbit Parasite

Best Song Ready or Not - The Hide and Seek Song (why was this not submitted?)

youtube

Best Soundtrack Waves - Never have I already known so many songs on a film’s soundtrack; it’s almost as if Trey Edwards Shults is another white guy around my age with the same interests as me...

Worst Accents Midway

Started But Never Finished Cats Cold Case Hammarskjold Genndy Tartakovsky’s ‘Primal’ - Tales of Savagery The Highway Men High Flying Bird Queen and Slim Spies in Disguise

Didn’t See Ash is Purest White Atlantics The Beach Bum The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open (still really want to see this one) Clemency Diane Invisible Life Luce Shadow Synonyms Transit Woman at War

Absent on Purpose Pain & Glory Ford v Ferrari I think these are the only two contenders that I’ve seen and haven’t mentioned. I actually liked both of these movies quite a bit. Just didn’t stand out for me in any one category I suppose. But then also: Booksmart Brittany Runs a Marathon Just Mercy The Mustang

Hah!

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davidmann95 · 7 years ago

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I don't want to sound too, ah, plebian, but can you explain the meta-plot of Multiversity? The Just, SoS, etc, were all very fun, but the Ultraa Comics stuff went over my head.

Not at all! Multiversity was weird as hell,and in terms of getting what the point of it all was, it doesn’t help that mostof the one-shots only tie in thematically (aside from the basic idea that TheGentry are corrupting these worlds) rather than how in Seven Soldiers everythingcomes back plotwise for the finale. There’s breadcrumbs - a piece of Monitormythology here, a suggestion that comics reflect other events in the multiversethere - but by and large, the one-shots serve to lend context and emotionalweight rather than directly inform the larger plot with Uotan, Superman and therest of the heroes.

Iwrote about Multiversity before, always with the intent ofdoing a follow-up piece going more into the individual issues, so here’s mefinally getting around to that now that it’s been, oh my god, two years sincethe series wrapped; you’ll probably want to read that article first, since mywhole “Multiversity is about time” thesis from that is the centerof pretty much everything I’m going to talk about here, especially at the end.I’d also recommend David Uzumeri’sannotations for Comics Alliance of all the chapters up through Mastermen,and @charlotteofoz‘s excellent piece on UltraComics, as well as the piles upon piles of other great writing aboutthis book out there.

Continued below; this is a long one, obviously with plentyof spoilers.

Since Multiversity #1 is one half of alarger story that’s bookended later (it’s not even the first chronologically,since a couple characters from The Just are already at theHouse of Heroes), let’s start with SOS. More than each issue as anartifact unto itself - this thing would be even longer if I went into that, andthe annotations I linked to I think already do a more than satisfactory job inthat regard - I want to talk about these in terms of how they inform the whole,and Society of Super-Heroes sets down the template in twomajor ways in that regard:

1. Each of these stories correspond to a given decade of thehistory of the superhero - in this case, in spite of the 1920′s trappings, thatthey’re going through the parallel universe equivalent of World War II and thepresence of a number of Golden Age figures suggests this is meant to be read asrepresenting the pulpy heroes of the 1940s.

2. Each of the chapters of Multiversity correspondto a classic story published by DC Comics, but grotesquely inverted (similarly to how each arc of his Batman and Robin mirrored a classic Batman story, ending with Batman and Robin Must Die! inverting his own Batman R.I.P.); here, thefirst standalone installment of this latest multiversal threat is naturallymodeled after the original “Crisis on Earth-One!/Crisis on Earth-Two!”JLA/JSA crossover, except this time when the two parallel Earths make firstcontact (through the same crystal ball as in that original story no less), itleads to war.

And much more than a simple categorization like theabove, SOS introduces the major shared conceit of theone-shots: the degeneration of the superhero as a concept through theintroduction of time to the proceedings. In this case through wartime, as thepromise of the birth of the superhero at the beginning of the story is undoneby 5 years of hell, grinding our leads’ ethics down to the level ofkill-or-be-killed, with Doc Fate remorselessly torturing a man for information(in what I have to read as a reference to Doc Savage’s “Crime College”),Immortal Man reverting to his most primal roots, and Atom literally beating anopponent to death. It’s the most straightforward “well, in the real worldsuperheroes couldn’t be that moral” deconstruction possible, but framed as theconsequence of conditions the superhero wasn’t built to deal with rather thanan inherent failing. In that regard, while I don’t think Multiversity wastypically much influenced by the then-present goings-on at DC in the comics orelsewhere - Morrison’s said more than once that most of the issues werescripted years before the art was done, minus some tweaks here and there - it’shard not to read this issue as at least something of a reaction to the New 52and particularly Man of Steel, especially with lines like “Doc.I just killed a man. I–I brought you some time, but myprinciples–I–I killed a man.” And that fall is the direct, literalvictory of the villains of the story.

For The Just, while it owes a debt to All-StarSuperman since itwas originally planned as a spinoff of that book - an acknowledgeddebt given the appearance of Klyzyzk Klzntplkz’s Hyperpoon, even though thecircumstances of Superman’s death in here preclude this being set in that world- in spirit it’s a broken mirror to Kingdom Come and theglitzy, too-cool, airbrushed ‘90s milieu it inhabited, hence the legacy heroesand Ben Oliver’s photoreal style being notably similar to Alex Ross’s here.It’s Kingdom Come’s party scene, except for 40 pages, andSuperman never comes in to whip them all into shape. They just keep drinkingand dancing as the world burns.

In truth though, this isn’t really a comic about legacycharacters; they’re a shorthand for time having passed and the superheroicidentities having degraded over time, but it’s no coincidence that this is theonly issue to actually have characters going by Superman and Batman as theunambiguous leads (or that Superman’s a useless dope, while Batman’s the onlycompetent one but also infinitely more ridiculous and transparent than hethinks), because it’s about the DCU specifically as a decades-long construct atthis moment in history. If most of the other issues are about time damaging thesuperhero through inevitable contact with real-world morality, this shows thepainful endgame of spinning their wheels without end: they become heartlesscopies of copies of themselves, all their battles knowing pantomime, muggingfor the cameras even as there’s nothing left for them to do that anyone caresabout, least of all themselves as they question why anyone even buys comicsanymore. The Just is the CW’s DC Universe twenty years fromnow, where most of the audience has left and the budget has been slashed tonothing but just enough viewers are sticking around that they have to continueit somehow, so it devolves into old-fashioned CW soap opera bullshit, becausehow that’d apply to these characters is all they have left in their arsenal:Superman’s angry that Batman’s fucking Lex Luthor, but will they ever admitthey just want to fuck each other instead, readers? Tune innext month to find how out we’ll delay giving the answer!

Then we hop over to 1980s political horror and theinevitable shadow of Watchmen, in…maybe the best, or at leastmost remarkably-constructed single issue of a superhero comic of thedecade? Pax Americana certainly felt like it when it came out.In any case, our main concern here is another consequence of time as applied tosuperheroes: the desire, as embodied by President Harley, to force them to makesense in the real world in tune with an ‘adult’ perspective. In an attempt torectify his guilt for accidentally killing his father, the first superhero andthe only morally pure one - his entry to the murky world of adulthood, assignified by the second-to-last line “Remember? That was when it allmade sense, right?” - he wants to reconfigure superheroes into virtuous,regimented tools of the government, with himself as the greatest hero of all asa resurrected American Christ to lead the world into a new golden age.

It fails horrifically of course, because his worldview - theworldview shared by Captain Adam, and Doctor Manhattan, and Watchmen itself- is by Morrison’s perspective inherently flawed, incapable as it is ofperceiving the repercussions and chaos of truly ‘real’ humans. Take notewhen Harley’s consciousness expands that at first it fragments into personal,evocative, visceral imagery, but when that expanding holistic view of theuniverse is inevitably too much to hold all at once, it simplifies back downinto simpler symbols, shapes and geometric solids, much in line with howMorrison spoke of Watchmen’s structure in Supergods asconfining and inflexible. Where Ozymandias’s plan to save the world went offwithout a hitch - at least until it lead to him putting on a robe andkidnapping Tim Drake, as continued this November at a comic book store near youin Doomsday Clock* - Harley’s fails catastrophically, because inthe ‘real’ world superheroes wouldn’t obey genre and narrative conventionsto the extent the likes of Nite Owl and Rorschach still do, living as they doin a world that still has flying Owl-cars and villainous master plans; anyonewho put on a mask to fight crime would be violent, callous assholes of thedistinctly uncharismatic variety whose grand schemes fall apart, whoseinvestigations never reach resolution, and who end up inevitably co-opted andrendered obsolete. In the end, as we saw with Peacemaker defending Bush toHarley’s barely-restrained glee, and the V.P. lecturing about selling childhooddreams back to adults, underneath all his mature aspirations Harley just wantedto find a way to force the world to let him love something the way he did whenhe was a boy…but as Adam reminds us, when you take it all apart to thatextent, there’s not really much left, and even if you put it all back togetherit can never be the same.

* I maintain it’s a very real possibility that PaxAmericana, meant to close the book on Watchmen once andfor all, was a part of what led to its revival; that someone in DC caught windof it during production and figured “oh man, Watchmen’s aboutto get some play again, now’s the time to do something with it.”

That brings us to Thunderworld Adventures’ 1950scolor TV world of retro adventure, the logical retort to the rest of Multiversity andthe one it needed to be complete: if time destroys superheroes, why not justturn back the clock and make it like it was when you were a kid? But unlike itscounterpart comic All-Star Superman (Morrison mentionedrepeatedly in interviews that this was him giving Captain Marvel the All-Star approach,and the structure - of Marvel facing off against counterparts of himself in theface of his inevitable doom, with his scientist arch-enemy finding a way togive himself his powers - is more than a little familiar), this isn’t anattempt to recapture the best of those elements in a modern context, but a purenostalgia exercise.

Yes, that means a happy ending, and clever fun, and a nicemoral about the self-destructive nature of evil. But from a modern perspective, thatalso means the mad scientist experimenting on his own children, pointing outthat Billy Batson is an exploited youth not subject to child labor laws,Captain Marvel Jr. winning a fight by preying on a bullied girls’ insecuritiesabout her appearance with a smile on his face, and a monstrous Sivana coming ahair’s breadth away from graphically murdering Billy. Morrison mentioned ininterviews that deep down Thunderworld had signs of the sameugliness as the other issues, and it’s true; even if we go back to the good olddays, we’ve still been informed by our adult experiences, and it’s just notgoing to look quite the same. No matter how much we might want to go retreatinto a neverending Binder/Beck fairyland, we’ve seen the leering, muzzled faceof the serial-killing, likely pedophilic Hannibal Sivana. Not that it’ssecretly as cynical of its subject matter in the same way as the others - thewizard Shazam reminds us that there is something beautiful at the heart of themagic, and that we lose it the more we try and replace it with something coolerand colder - but it’s pretty on-the-nose that Sivana’s ultimate plan is to getpeople to buy years on the clock to waste, essentially selling their old livesback to them piecemeal. In the end, when Captain Marvel’s faced with theprophecy of a darker, more morally challenging threat, he doesn’t confront it,but tosses it in the trash to fly away with a picture-perfect smile. But weknow the truth: he has to. There is no such thing as timelessness, andattempting to capture it will ultimately show cracks in the foundation nomatter what.

Moving into the Guidebook’s extended homageto “The Flash of Two Worlds!” - one with a distinctly 60s feel, between all theKirby getting thrown around and the build-up of DC mythology - we get to seewhat comic book time actually looks like from the outside (via the perspectiveKamandi, from a world where time has truly passed to the tune of anapocalypse), with Fox and Infantino’s simple tale of a costumed crimefightermeeting his own childhood storybook hero metastasizing into a time-shatteringhistory of reboots and retcons and parallel worlds, and two wildly differentproducts of that process coming face-to-face. After Thunderworld andthe finale it’s the most openly optimistic of the bunch, with the irrepressiblejoy Morrison clearly takes in all the nerd arcana and Lightray’s assertion thatlight will conquer darkness in the end, but it also ends with a Justice League,reduced conceptually to animatronic cartoons of themselves, dying andresurrecting in one manufactured Crisis after another for all eternity.

Hitting Mastermen, this is probably the mostdiscounted of the bunch, especially given it reads the most like it’sunfinished. However, I’d say it’s a pretty complete tragedy (especially thanksto @globegander‘s essayon it as a spiritual adaptation of Der Ring des Nibelungen),and much like with The Just - the other least-loved of theseries - the trappings on display are largely a way of facilitating what it’s talkingabout. It’s the story of a nation in power of men with pipes looking overnuclear families with dogs, where rich white boys complain that they shouldn’tbe held responsible for the actions of their ancestors, newscasters refer togenocides perpetrated by their nation within the last century as “theethnic and ideological purges of the Hitler era”, and theretaliation against them by terrorist insurgents is from a nation they broughttheir war to. It’s very much a story of America (2000s America specifically, inline with the decade parallels in play), and while Overman still wants to makeeverything right because he’s Superman, unlike its counterpart in Superman:Red Son which shows him managing to redeem himself from similarcircumstances to some extent, Mastermen makes no bones aboutthe fact that he is damned, utterly and irrevocably, just as aconsequence of being born into this society. Time here has destroyed thesuperhero by way of conformity, with well-meaning champions of truth, justice,and the Nazi way as barely-witting defenders of a corrupted status quo,unquestionably incapable of transcending what they’ve become. Hence whySuperman already exists as a comic when Hitler learns of Kal-L, the symbolismof two Jewish kids in the depression co-opted by the powers-that-be as thefascistic representative of amoral nationalistic interests, corrupting whatSuperman is supposed to stand for until even his attempts at rectifying thingscan only compound the problem. In essence, it’s the darkest possiblecontinuation of The Curse of Superman from Morrison and GeneHa’s Action Comics #9 - and it comes to the same conclusion ofwhat it takes to fight back in the finale later on.

Ultra Comics - both the comic and the character,insomuch as there’s any meaningful division between the two - is the anti-FlexMentallo, down to the point of mimicking its four-act structure of thehistory of the superhero via montage, only replacing a ‘Renaissance’ asMorrison put it following comics ‘Dark Age’ with further brutality andadolescent defensiveness. It’s the horrors of every other chapter rolled intoone: Ultra’s an innocent superhero from circumstances that become moreunsettling the more you think about them, pre-packaged with his own ridiculousbackstory and history, who goes on an adventure forcing him to realize themorality his world is built on is impossible and defined by society rather thanan objective moral code, and he’s trapped forever in the violent structure ofhis story, consigned to repeat his life forever until it loses all meaning. Itis, as Charlotte Finn put it in her analysis, a killer bullet to the idea ofthe superheroes, hence why it’s a horrific cursed contaminant across themultiverse: in our world it’s just a depressing comic, but to a superhero it’sirrefutable evidence that their entire existence is meaningless, time almostliterally corroding him throughout the issue as he moves from optimisticsuperhero to cynical super-agent to old and realizing it was all for nothing todead. Even our own world is threatened after all, with the suggestion that allthe uplifting Flex Mentallo meta-stories and 70s Starlin-stylecosmic headtrip consciousness expansion comics that Morrison’s made so much ofhis own bread and butter on are as compromised as the rest of the genre.Incapable of saving us in the face of a larger culture preaching the embrace ofnihilism and a doomed tomorrow when the only thing a terrifying number ofreaders have gained from the message is a desire to complain about writers “rapingmy wallet” - and that without that ability to inspire, all comics, all fictionitself can do, is steal our time and rush us all the faster into thegrave courtesy of the Oblivion Machine.

With the bookends, there’s fairly little to say I didn’t inthe original article I linked to above - i.e. that it flips the premise of timeinto a positive, showing that rather than using it to spin the wheels of thesuperhero genre in perpetuity until it devours itself through exhaustion orcontact with elements it can’t bear, or framing it as something to bedisregarded in spite of the consequences, it can be used to push things forwardinto more diverse and fruitful territory (hence not only the premise of theseries, but Multiversity sounding similar to Diversity), coming up with new andbetter stories. Much as Morrison is historically onboard with pulp heroes andlegacy heroes indicative of expansive superhero universes and structurallycomplex comics and retro comics and American superheroes and meta superheroes,there’s a difference between coming up with new stories in those contexts, andrerunning the old ones over and over again, which is probably why each of thosecomics, like I said matches up with a previous decade and comic, including someof his own, finally spinning here into the 2010s and DC’s own Crisis cycle.

While the first half of the bookend is in Morrison’s ownwords him doing himself to the point of parody - the self-insert character, theMonitor mythology, the weird villains yelling about conformity, thecomics-talking-about-comics, running into alternate company equivalents as apossible commentary on the state of the industry, etc. - the second isexplicitly the analogue to Morrison using his ‘corruption’ of contact with thedarkness and perpetuation of the neverending story for a paycheck to introducethe forces of the absurd, impossible and unexpected, i.e. the New, to defeat ahomogenizing, corruptive force designed to make everything the same and bleakto the point of literally forcing the Multiverse to relive the same Crisis overand over again, i.e. More Of The Same. It’s a slight twist on his typical Youngvs. Old/Children vs. Parents concerns (as best exemplified in his DC work in Seven Soldiers of Victory), but in theend, all of this is Morrison talking about something very, very simple: thatsuperheroes can absolutely be broken, but there’s a chance to save them andmake them something good and true again that might be able to reach us,literally by the end of the book, and it’s not by rerunning the same oldstories into the ground and unthinking conformity, but through doing new anddiverse and exciting things with them to inspire us in new ways. It’s Action Comics #9 as a 400-page epic.

I’m pretty sure that’s what Multiversity is about.

#Multiversity #Grant Morrison #DC Comics #Analysis #Opinion

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eurosong · 8 years ago

Text

My grand final review

Hey there, folks! It’s exhilaratingly close to the big moment, the beginning of this year’s grand final! Here's my rundown of the Eurovision grand final songs, in running order. I call this a "lights and shadows" list, as, for the sake of nuance, I've added something positive and some criticism for every song on the list. For those who missed it, this is the semi-skimmed version of this full-bodied critique of all the songs. Let's go!

Israel + If the hosts' robotic intro has put people to sleep, this will wake them up. - The lyrics make less sense than your average Edward Lear poëm. Rank: 24

Poland + Kasia has a good voice and sings with passion and conviction. - The song is an absolute dirge with no real sense of direction, and those rhymes are ridic. Rank: 17

Belarus: + Instant cute happiness, this is just so squeeeee - They could have fit another verse in to make the song less repetitive. Rank: 3

Austria: + He put a lót of work into promoting himself and his song, which is admirable. His covers of former ESC songs made him seem like a fan of the contest, which puts you in good steed with fellow fans. I think he got in the final by sheer force of personality. - Saccharine, plim-plom song. Those "hey naaaww" repetitions annoy the hell out of me! And I always mistrust someone so perma-cheerful. It comes across as forced, not quite right and makes me feel he's got human heads in his fridge at home. Rank: 21

Armenia: + Majestic. This song soars like the eagle of Artsvik's name. This kind of song is precisely why I love Armenia, a perfect mélange of traditional and modern that sounds like nothing else in the contest. Artsvik herself has got a special, almost regal poise. Feels like this song dropped out of outer space, love it. - She could have made it even better by including more dancers to closer emulate the surreal video. Rank: 4

Netherlands: + Their live vocals are impeccable. And as for the song topic, losing a beloved relative after seeing them battle a disease something, unfortunately, to which so many of us can relate, so it does pull on my heartstrings. - If they were a less popular country amongst eurofans, would folk consider the girls to be using their mother's sickness for sympathy rather than sympathising with them? My internal jury is out on that one. As for the music, it is derivative and dated - their voices deserve something a few decades closer to "contemporary." Rank: 8

Moldova + They perform this song with verve and do their best to bring the party. - This band's continued success goes to show how far getting adopted as a meme by confused American non-viewers of Eurovision can get you in the competition. Rank: 15

Hungary + Perhaps the contest's best example of how one can use dance to make the story of a song understood beyond linguistic boundaries. One of the most original songs in the contest, performed with passion, emotion and defiance, and certainly some of the strongest lyrics. - Many folk have an automatic dislike to rap at the contest and may get the wrong idea of his bars, seeing them as angry rather than as the deep and moving lyrics that they are. Rank: 2

Italy + Francesco embodies easy-going charm, and his satirical lyrics are amongst the contest's best. - The Eurovision version of the song has much less impact than the San Remo one; it slipped down by rankings because most of those biting and ironic lyrics were removed, leaving only half a verse where there had been two. Rank: 7

Denmark + What Anja does very well indeed is connecting with the audience. It's a song about intimacy, so the number of long close ups communicate that well - it feels as though she's singing right in front of us. - Musically generic, and the aforementioned intimacy is undermined by vox that are beyond the border of shouty. Rank: 13

Portugal + Magnificently moving, ethereal song that has the timeless quality of an instant classic. Sang beautifully in a way that shows nuance trumps power. I never thought a song from this decade's ESC could challenge to be my favourite ever Eurovision song, but this does. - Whilst his interpretation of the song through movement is a key part of its appeal to me, it distracts some folks. My own biggest problem is that I'd rather see Salvador (and Luísa) up on the stage for hours rather than three minutes. Rank: 1

Azerbaijan + Best Azeri entry ever. Something genuinely stylish, mysterious and modern. - The staging seems a bit "GCSE Drama" and gimmicky. Rank: 9

Croatia + It's impressive to be able to sing a duet with yourself in two completely different vocal styles. It's bloody hilarious, too. - This is the ultimate example of the saying: just because you cán, doesn't mean you shóúld. This is more cheese than a tower made of Camembert and his fake smiles are creepy. Rank: 14

Australia + As a piece of music, I quite like the style. With another singer, I might well enjoy this a fair bit. - He sings as though his nose has never been blown, and his forlorn looks to the camera that seem like that of a puppy dog who fears he's going to end up served in a dish of bosintang seem fake and are very disconcerting. Rank: 18

Greece + Only lasts three minutes. Demy must be a generous soul, given the way she allows the backing vocalists to sing more audibly than she. - It takes me about 20 minutes to walk from my home to my workplace or vice versa. In that time, I reckon I could write 4-5 songs of higher quality than this. Utterly generic and disposable pop with lyrics which are just a stream of thought-terminating clichés. Rank: 26

Spain + The song has brought me hours of amusement, because my kids have made a game of making mocking references to it whenever they can. Before a pronunciation face-to-face challenge, one lad psyched another out by saying "are you ready to do it... for your lover?" - Wasted money voting on other songs only for a jury of the "winner's" friends to overrule the public vote. So that they could force this masterpiece in which "do it for your lover" or "just do it" is said, on average, every four seconds. Grim. Rank: 25

Norway + I listened to the acoustic version of this and they sing it well, and it sounds much better acoustic. They seem like nice lads. - Cold, soulless, robotic, and with silly rhyming dictionary lyrics. Rank: 18

UK + The BBC has finally upped its game and tried to create an impressive show. Well done. - Shame the song itself is part sleeping pill, part excruciatingly annoying. "This maaadnnesss..." Rank: 23

Cyprus + For us linguaphiles and/or Armenophiles, there was a great moment in a video where Hovig and Artsvik spoke at the same time, he in Western Armenian, she in Eastern Armenian. That was cool. - Pales in comparison to Rag and Bone Man's "Human" from which the music was ripped off without mercy. Also, physicists across Europe are weeping as Hoving considers gravity to be something that lifts you up ánd halts your fall. Rank: 22

Romania + The second dose of "adorable couple" tonight. This shouldn't work, this unholy blend of rap and yodel, but for me, it so does. Mostly on how happy they are and how that transfers to me in the audience. They're just full on adorable. And you know, as much as it's great that Eurovision has a great many serious acts, I love that something so wild and just plain carefree can get so far too. There's a really good message of living for the moment in this, too. - Ilinca's vocals are powerhouse; Alex' are more underwhelming and that might see them penalised by the juries. Rank: 6

Germany + When she was in the final of that ridiculous national final, duelling against herself, it seems obvious Levina wanted the other, marginally less terribad Wildfire, and felt lumbered by the public's pick of Perfect Life. Despite that, she's done a great job of wholeheartedly promoting the song and has travelled far and wide. I respect the work ethic. She had by far and away the best vocals of the national final, too (shame she got this song which doesn't play to her strengths.) - Usually, I cannot look past the ripped-off Titanium intro. When I can, the lyrics blow my mind in the worst possible. Almost a sinner, nearly a saint, people... Rank: 16

Ukraine + I love a good rock song. This is not so great, but is like a mirage in a desert - giving sóme hope of refreshment, even if it ultimately doesn't deliver. - Runs out of steam after the first minute and becomes a bit of a sludge after a few repeated listens. Rank: 12

Belgium + Absolutely spellbinding studio version. 50-60 years ahead of last year's throwback from Belgium. Minimalist and moving. I hold out hope in a really good final performance. - Poor Blanche has looked as though someone was molesting her dead pet dog in front of her during the semi final. More traumatised than vulnerable. Rank: 5

Sweden + The music, whilst nothing special, is quite catchy. Especially the instrumental parts with the synth-based flourishes. - I find it hard to look past the ugly and forceful "rapey rhyme" style lyrics, or the cringeworthy stage show aptly and succintly referred to by a friend of mine as "fuckboys on treadmills." Rank: 20

Bulgaria + Polished and contemporary song, sung with confidence. - As anything other than background music, it leaves me cold. I really find the performer to be highly offputting, too. Rank: 11

France + Not as good or half as charming as Amir and his song, but not a bad effort. Very French, which from me can only be a compliment. - Feels quite inconsequential after they removed the most meaningful lines and replaced them with a cliché English chorus. Rank: 10

My pre-final top 10, thus: 1 - 🇵🇹 - Portugal 2 - 🇭🇺️ - Hungary 3 - 🇧🇾️ - Belarus 4 - 🇦🇲️ - Armenia 5 - 🇧🇪 - Belgium 6 - 🇷🇴️ - Romania 7 - 🇮🇹️ - Italy 8 - 🇳🇱️ - Netherlands 9 - 🇦🇿 ️- Azerbaijan X - 🇨🇵 - France

#eurovision #esc 2017 #eurovision 2017 #eurovision song contest #review

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slendermanlore · 8 years ago

Photo

Slender Man Mythos + Fire

Original Mythos, “Stirling City Incidents”:

One of two recovered photographs from the Stirling City Library blaze. Notable for being taken the day which fourteen children vanished and for what is referred to as “The Slender Man”. Deformities cited as film defects by officials. Fire at library occurred one week later. Actual photograph confiscated as evidence.

Original Mythos, “Found Photographs”:

The second photo is of an elementary school fire in 1978. No official cause was ever found. Seven students and a teacher became trapped and died before firefighters could respond. Many of the students and teachers from the time have a history of anxiety disorders and panic attacks, even those who weren’t at the school on that day. At least one has since committed suicide, and several others legally changed their names once they reached adulthood and have disappeared.

Original Mythos, “The Tall Man”:

“Because,” said her mother, “there is no reward for goodness; there is no respite for faith; there is nothing but cold steel teeth and scourging fire for all of us. And it’s coming for you now.”

And the tall man slid from the fire, and clenched Sorina in his burning embrace. And that was the end of her.

Original Mythos, “Deadly House Fire”:

…it’s not every day a house erupts in pure blue flame that was strangely cool yet burnt everything to a crisp. Funny thing… the house was abandoned and there was no active natural gas supply that would normally emit such a coloured flame.

Original Mythos, “Optic Nerve”:

I’m waiting for the reports to come in from the fire department to see what caused the blaze. I’m wondering if this was a suicide or if the reports will say anything about blue flames… like that house fire in 93!

Original Mythos, “Original Mythos Meta”:

The Slender Man needs some weakness, some way to defend against him. An all-powerful creature leaves no hope, gives you no reason to even try to escape. If this fucking thing materializes, I want to know how to fight it or even defeat it.

I'm thinking fire. It's man's primordial achievement, and casts shadows of its own. Maybe the shadows from the fire can fight him. Maybe humans discovered fire because of him, the embodiment of darkness and fear.

Original Mythos, “Optic Nerve”:

But this… Slender Man… there is nothing in any records of anything even remotely hurting it. Reports ranging from small arms fire, artillery fire (the report from that Nazi artillery team… that’s what made me think about this)… even full-scale forest fires don’t do anything!

Original Mythos, “Henry Louis Marshall”:

Pretty soon afterwards the war ended, and I was heading home. We had a stop-over in Britain, spent the night there. A boardinghouse down the street from where me and my fellow soldiers were staying caught fire that night. 13 souls were lost. I didn’t think much about it at the time.

Marble Hornets, “Entry #25″:

At one point, you can see the flames coming out of a side bedroom, and it's believed that's where the fire started on the third floor. A woman heard fire crackling in her bedroom, and she tried to put it out with a towel, but it grew into this large fire. At one point, the roof collapsed, and that was a dangerous situation for firefighters. Once they started putting water on the flames, there was a lot of smoke, so you could definitely smell this fire before you could see it. Fire officials believe that this building is going to be a total loss. There were twelve apartments in this building, and the Red Cross is here to assist the people who have been displaced…

Marble Hornets, “Entry #38”:

How much do you know about this area? When I first moved here, I remember hearing a story that back in the 1800s they thought this place was blessed because everything would grow so fast. They would take their worst criminals, murderers, child molesters, and they would put them on trial before God out here. They would tie them up to the trees, and the idea was that they would get stretched out, kind of like a rack. They never fed or gave them water though, so they would just die of dehydration. They never cut down the bodies. They would just burn the whole tree with them still on it. They stopped doing it, though, after a kid went missing, and he finally turned up in the area where they would do the trials. He had been dismembered and strung up.

Marble Hornets, “Entry #60″:

While looking, I think I found the room where the fire Tim mentioned started.

Marble Hornets, “Entry #85″:

So I’ll tell you what... if you don’t do the right thing and burn to death, you come and find me!

Just Another Fool, “Something in the Trees”:

I just woke up from a ridiculous dream that I realized I’ve been having repetitively. I don’t remember how it begins but I remember how it ends. I’m standing in some sort of arid region dotted with a few spindly trees. The tree nearest to me looks like it’s on fire, but I can’t really tell since I don’t have my glasses on or contacts in, so I start to move towards it, and only then do I realize how ungodly tired I am. Each step seems like a battle in itself, but as I get closer, I realize that it’s not the tree that’s on fire, there are several things in the trees that are burning.

Everyman HYBRID, “I’m okay.”:

This probably isn't the best of ideas to be here by myself. But dreams are a good guide. I never really told you guys about a story about when I got stuck in my old elementary school when I was younger. There was a fire that broke out in the science room, somewhere that way, and it just escalated. Every student was accounted for but they completely overlooked me. I was in a burning building by myself. I don't like thinking about it. I was in there for a solid hour hiding. I don't remember where; I'd love to find where, you know, give me some 'Nam flashbacks, why don't you… and they left me there. They just left me there to die. I was a kid. I mean, obviously they eventually found me because I'm talking to myself right now…

Everyman HYBRID (Alex’s channel description, briefly):

The Chicago Fire Department has ruled the cause of the fire undetermined. The amount and type of flammables within the structure make it difficult to determine what did or did not contribute to the start and spread of the fire. If new information becomes available, the department will review its findings its back up.

Everyman HYBRID, CANYOUSEETHEWORDS:

I knew He did this to me. The one I had been seeing in my dreams since I was a baby. He wanted me out of the house. I don’t know why, but He willed me elsewhere. I burned my house. I set the fire. I don’t care who knows anymore because by this time, I’m sure they would have coerced this confession from me. By this time, I will have been (accurately) proven guiltyGUILTYGUILTYGUILTY.

Everyman HYBRID, “HospitalFire.wav”:

So she was gone from that room, and this flash... this flash fire, apparently occurred around 5:55 PM.

Everyman HYBRID, “Next”:

Ah, fuck it, he's not gonna make it far. We're gonna have ourself a little Jeff-kebab. Little bit of a barbecue.

Tribe Twelve, “Secret Parent Interview”:

As many of you may know, if you follow my Formspring, Twitter, or watched my recent live stream, you may have heard me mention my house fire. I've been getting a lot of questions about that. Let me clarify. When I was seven, my old house burned down. The cause was unknown. They said it was some sort of electrical deal or something like a short circuit. I don't know. At least that's what I was told.

Dark Harvest, Project Egypt:

Strangely, just weeks after the Rainwood Incident first occurred there was a fire at the Day Camp. The building suffered a lot of structural damage and all documents in the building, including personal information about the children, were lost. The building was scheduled to be torn down the next year, but instead was bought by an anonymous landlord who refurbished it. It was then in use again from 1965 to 1998, when it was closed again for unknown reasons. The building has been abandoned ever since.

The history of the Day Camp prior to the Rainwood Incident is very foggy due to the severe lack of documentation, all lost in the fire.

#Slender Man Arkive #original mythos #marble hornets #Just Another Fool #EverymanHYBRID #TribeTwelve #DarkHarvest00

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lindyhunt · 6 years ago

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8 Pantone-Approved Travel Destinations That Will Up Your Insta-Game in 2019

Pantone’s Colour of the Year for 2019, Living Coral, has been described by colour enthousiasts as an energizing hue embodying optimism, joyful pursuits and playful expression. It’s a dream shade for fashion and beauty editors: across the Internet, you can find shoppable galleries of peachy blushes, bright papaya nail polishes, pink leather Louboutins and coral coloured sneakers. (Find ours here.)

If you truly want to experience the cheery colour IRL, however, your best bet is to slip on a pair of flippers and actually find some living coral. Sadly, because of the warming ocean waters, the world’s coral reefs are bleaching at an increasingly scary rate — and irresponsible over-tourism has only worsened the damage. Besides, to capture the under-the-sea moment for your Instagram feed, you’ll need to invest in a waterproof camera.

And so, with a little help from our friends at The Travel Corporation Canada (TTC) — and a lot of help from the talented photo-taking travellers on Instagram— we found eight travel hotspots that will add some on-land Living Coral to your life.

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The marvelous architecture of India 🇮🇳 The Hawa Mahal, also known as the „Palace of Winds“, is the landmark of Jaipur and reflects the pink architecture of the city. In day time it looks already wonderful but when the sun goes down and the small colorful windows begin to shine you will experience the whole magnificent of the palace and it’s atmosphere. Don’t miss it when you‘re in Jaipur☝🏻😊 #india #jaipur #pinkcity #pinkcityjaipur #architecture #visitingindia #jaipur_diaries #hawamahaljaipur #photography #jaipurpalace

A post shared by LENA LANGENDÖRFER (@anna_la_lena) on Oct 21, 2018 at 11:22am PDT

The Pink City – Jaipur, India

Jaipur, the capital of India’s Rajasthan state, is widely referred to as the “Pink City” due to the inherently dominant blush colour of the city’s structures. The millennial-friendly makeover began in the 1800’s, when King Sawai Ram Singh had the entire city painted pink, a colour that symbolizes hospitality, in anticipation of a visit from Queen Victoria and the Prince of Whales’ visit.

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Imagine living here in Cinque Terre 🇮🇹 . Shot by: @the_essentialist_ . —————————————— ✅Follow Us 👉🏼 @Luxnaturetravel 👈🏼. ❤️Double tap for that view! 🌲Tag 2 friends! ⭐️Tag Us & Use 👉🏼#luxnaturetravel 👈🏼 to be Featured! 👥Add “@Luxnaturetravel member” to your bio! —————————————— . . . #moodygrams #travelphoto #globetrotter #travellers #travellover #italy #passportready #instavacation #naturepics #naturelovers #natureaddict #naturegram #natureonly #naturelove #landscapes #italy🇮🇹 #landscapelovers #earthpix #folkscenery #italytravel #keepitwild #roamtheplanet #italytravel #folkgreen #italytrip #heatercentral #nature #cinqueterre #manarola

A post shared by Luxury | Nature | Travel (@luxnaturetravel) on Jan 16, 2019 at 12:34am PST

Cinque Terre, Italy

A romantic coastal region full of history, seafood pasta and breathtaking views, Cinque Terre is comprised of five villages along Italian Riviera. The coastal cliffs, lined with vibrantly painted century-old homes, put splashes of Living Coral on display, perfectly contrasting the scintillating Ligurian sea—particularly at magic hour. On Busabout’s 11-day La Dolce Vita adventure, a day spent train-hopping through the Cinque Terre National Park and hiking pass ensures plenty of time to savour the sunset, and capture the perfect Pantone-approved picture.

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Look at that. Could you, in your wildest dreams, have concocted something this magnificent? There is much to marvel at in nature. I am quite often floored by it. Lake Hillier, Western Australia.

A post shared by Georgia Rickard | Australia (@georgiarickard) on Sep 9, 2018 at 4:55pm PDT

Lake Hillier, Australia

Sadly, you can’t swim in this sorbet coloured lake off the coast of Western Australia. You can, however, view it’s unique hue from above on a private helicopter ride, where you’ll appreciate it’s unnatural-looking contrast to white sand beaches, lush forests and the teal Indian Ocean. Exactly what causes this lake’s Living Coral-like colour is up for debate, though it likely has something to do with the microorganisms that are lucky to call Lake Hillier home.

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A rose-red city half as old as time #al #khazneh #petra #jordan #exploring #the #lost #city #travel #adventure #photography #view #photooftheday

A post shared by Alex Johnson (@alexjohnsonsworld) on Jan 16, 2019 at 2:32am PST

Al-Khazneh — Petra, Jordan

Petra, also known as the “Rose City,” is home to sandstone temples, tombs and caves that reveal an impressive secret civilization from some 2,000 years ago. Very little is known about the Nabateans, the nomadic desert people whose kingdom rose up from these cliffs, and who grew their substantial wealth through the booming incense trade. You may, however, recognize the city from the 1989 Hollywood blockbuster Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which filmed several scenes in Petra.

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La vida, que a veces comete errores, no me permite tenerte más cerca para poder disfrutarte más. Menos mal que también da muchas vueltas y, al menos, nos dió la oportunidad de encontrarnos! (Y eso que venimos del mismo pueblo) 😜Amigas que son Twin y de las que me encanta presumir ¡Feliz cumpleaños @lagala81 ! 🎂🎂 . #temerecesunlike @catalanaoccidente . #igersalicante #communityfirst #somosinstagramers #igersspain #ig_catalonia #shotoniphone @apple #visualambassadors #aov @artofvisuals #artofvisuals #ilovepiques #instant_es #fotonline_es #folksouls #nowdiscovering #living_destinations #gottolove_this #wonderfuldestinations #living_europe #topeuropephoto #spicollective #nstaghesboro #spain_vacations #bofillarquitectura #buildingswow #creative_architecture #jj_forum_2223 @jjcommunity

A post shared by Chu (@chu_morr) on Apr 14, 2018 at 4:35am PDT

La Muralla Roja — Calp, Spain

La Muralla Roja—which translates from Spanish to “The Red Wall”—is a unique apartment complex that was built by architect Ricardo Bofill in 1973. For $119 CAD per night, you can rent one of the building’s 50 unites on AirBnb. That way, you’ll feel a little less weird about walking around trying to capture the perfect photo of someone else’s home.

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VIBES * * * * @backpackwithme #styledaily #wanderer #nomadness #travelworld #festivalfashion #travelgoals #hippielife #bohovibe #wildchild #bohostyle #travelinspo #hipster #lovelulus #gypsyheart #lace #bohemianchic #yogi #bohemio #gypsyfashion

A post shared by ᎶᎩᎮᏕᎩ ᎦᏝᎧᏇᏋᏒ (@gypsy.flower) on Feb 18, 2018 at 8:00am PST

Santorini, Greece

Delight in the view of the remarkable caldera, perched high above the Aegean sea, as the sun sets on Insight Vacations 7-day Athens and Santorini journey. The golden undertones of the sky reflecting off the surrounding landscape offers a truly breathtaking sight.

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Isn’t this setting gorgeous? I grew up in AZ and have never been to Horseshoe Bend or Antelope Canyon. It’s definitely on my to-do list! . . . Pic by @kelleycareyphotography Planning by @benjamincliffordphotography Wedding Gown by @bridestudio HMUA by @dawn_hiss Couple: @hailsbells16 @bobrack . #azflowerfix #azflorist #azflowers #azfloraldesigner #azfloraldesign #arizonaflorist #arizonafloraldesigner #floralfix #azweddings #azwedding #azweddingflorist #weddingfloraldesigner #azweddingflowers #azweddingvendors #weddingflorals #weddingfloral #weddingflowersdecor #weddingflorists #weddingflowerinspiration #azengaged #engagedaz #weddingfloristry #weddingflowerideas #weddingfloraldesign #antelopecanyon #arizonadestinationwedding #bohobouquet #azdestinationwedding #pageazwedding #arizonaweddingflorist

A post shared by Flower Fix by Aubri MacDonald (@azflowerfix) on Jan 17, 2019 at 8:01am PST

Antelope Canyon — Page, Arizona

Antelope Canyon, a hugely popular attraction in the American Southwest, is located on Navajo land and accessible by guided tour only. From April to October, visitors can watch as light beams shine down into the slot canyon, creating various hues of deep orange and light, Living Coral.

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The most colorful town in the land. So glad we ventured off to Burano for a day trip. There is so much to see in Italy. Already planning a trip back! Ciao Bella! 🇮🇹❤️ #italy #venice #burano #missenochatravels

A post shared by Miss Enocha (@missenocha) on Sep 7, 2018 at 7:36pm PDT

Burano, Italy

Venice, Italy, with its beautiful canals, hidden laneways and stunning architecture, is one of the most beautiful cities in the world to watch a sunset. It’s lesser visited neighbouring island, Burano, is where you’re guaranteed to find shades of Living Coral all times of the day. Explore the island’s colourful fishing houses on an island dinner cruise to Burano on Contiki’s 12-day Simply Italy adventure.

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{Wandering alone} 📷 by @marrakechphotographers

A post shared by Glenn (@glenndeschrijver) on Jan 10, 2019 at 11:00pm PST

Medina of Marrakesh — Morocco

Shoppers, tourists, donkeys and mopeds battle for the right of way in the narrow alleyways of Medina, the old, walled part of Marrakesh. Medina, nicknamed the “Red City,” many of the area’s buildings were constructed of coral-coloured beaten clay during the residence of the Almohads.

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