#this picture is glorious for many reasons and thus needed a post

[kindahoping4forever]

📸: Kay Wolfer for Pit Crew Media

[cant-blink]

Of Different Tongues

Summary: Gigan’s first attempts to court Ghidorah goes about as well as you’d expect.

-

It would be the first time Gigan meets Ghidorah after successfully capturing him into Nebulan captivity. 

The dragon is in chains in a containment room, just until the alien roaches are certain the mind-control chip is working as intended with their action tapes. Gigan didn’t really care about what they were doing; he waited long enough to meet this beautiful golden kaiju. He wanted him, NOW. It’s the first time he’s ever felt this warmth in his chest, this desire to have a partner for the rest of his life. Normally, he just takes what he wants from whatever female the Nebulans shoved into his room, and then eat them as a post-coital meal after.

But this one... he’s different. Or they, he still doesn’t know yet how those three heads functioned. From the second he saw them emerge from that asteroid to confront him, his heart was fluttering. He’s seen pictures of this creature, fought in artificial simulations as practice, but those images didn’t do any justice to seeing them in person! Those golden scales were flawless like a well-preened female, and those massive wings that caught the light with every movement brought such an intense need in him. Those red eyes glaring into the remnants of his soul will forever be engraved into his memory. And the battle that ensued couldn’t be more perfect; it was glorious! Brutal! Having to hold back whilst this hydra tried to murder him, such a thrill!! They not only looked gorgeous, but they fought with the same lust for death that he did. They were perfect for each other! 

Forget whatever plan the Nebulans had, they were brought together by the fates for a reason! And that reason was for Gigan to make them his!

He walks into the room with confidence. Kaiju-sized doors were something he taught his Masters to install into every part of the ship, because otherwise, he made it a point to blast through the walls instead. Thankfully, they knew better than to lock him out of here, although he does hear the Nebulans speak into his mind.

“Gigan, this is currently a restricted area. Turn back now.” But he ignores them; he always pushed his luck and then dared them to do something about it. They rarely ever did. “Gigan, we’re serious! Ghidorah isn’t ready yet!” “Gigaaaan... Go to your room!” “Gigan, if you get yourself damaged, don’t come crying to us!” “Kids these days never listen.”

The dragon is watching him with all six eyes narrowed. There is a growl from them, but Gigan is undeterred. His body acts on its own and he fluffs up his feathers and fans out his sails as wide as he could to show interest in this potential mate, put them at ease that his intentions are pure. He’s never done this before, but he trusts. The dragon’s growl lessened only slightly as they continued watching him, before they flare out their own wings and stood up taller to tower over him. 

Unbeknownst to him, Ghidorah had completely misread Gigan’s display as a sign of fear and is actually trying to intimidate the cyborg further by increasing his own perceived size. 

And unbeknownst to the dragon, this in turn is misread by Gigan, who looks up at him with awe and desire. His instincts tell him that this is a sign that the dragon is into him too, returning his display with their own!

Great! 

... 

... Now what?

The Nebulans have learned the hard way that Gigan’s courtship instincts were stunted by his unnatural upbringing in their care. Perhaps keeping him in complete isolation for most of his life wasn’t such a good call, but what’s done is done. This is actually the first time they’ve seen him do THIS much, and it’s towards their newest kaiju weapon?! They gave Gigan the finest specimens of his own kind that they could afford and he used and abused them like they were nothing more than toys. Didn’t help that he would eat them when he got bored so there was nothing left to be salvaged. They tried everything to make their breeding program work! It all failed so badly that they gave up on the idea of their prized weapon bonding with a mate entirely. 

Yet here he is...

He’s gone smitten over a creature not even of his own species!! 

Well, at least that meant their partnership will go smoothly on Earth, which is what’s important. So they sat and watched the process, but something was wrong. Gigan seemed confused; while at this point, the courtship would usually turn into a dance, their pet was left standing there like a dumbass. It was almost painful to watch...

But Gigan saves face; he’ll wing it! Make his own rules!! Time to flirt...

..... He’s never flirted before. Fuck, wing that too!

“Hey, babe,” he starts his greeting with a smirk, leaning against the wall all non-chalant. “Ghidorah, right? Name’s Gigan.”

Ghidorah watches him for a long moment, those faces unreadable, and Gigan was starting to feel a bit awkward before they finally respond. Oh, the three heads talk at the same time, in different pitches working in harmony. Their, -his!-, voices were beautiful and Gigan’s lust for him grew all the more. Damn, is there anything about this dragon that wasn’t so damn hot?!

So mesmerized he was in those voices that he almost didn’t realize one crucial fact: the dragon is speaking in a language he doesn’t recognize! It’s the first time he’s ever come across a language that isn’t automatically translated in his mind. Shit! He falters, before clearing his throat.

“Do you speak Kaiju?” 

The dragon tilts his heads slightly and responds again in a confused tone. But Gigan has no clue what he’s saying...

Welp, he knows what he’s doing tonight, and it ain’t mating this hydra like he expected. Dammit! “Right. I’ll see ya around, babe.” And that was the last thing he said to salvage the situation before he turns around and leaves the room.

But it isn’t over yet, far from it. Because Gigan is no quitter and something as simple as a language barrier wasn’t going to stop his pursuits!

So he spends all night not in his nest, but sitting with his Masters, researching the matter intently. Replaying the words that the beautiful hydra spoke to him in his mind over and over, and sending that recording through the database’s files. Any resource he had at his disposal, he was using it! Even space-Google was utilized! The Nebulans tried to help him, quite a few of the insects sitting on his shoulders and head whilst searching through their portable devices. 

“Technology has never failed,” they reassured him. “The answers exist somewhere in the Universe’s database, we just have to dig a bit. And that’s something we’re very good at.”

Finally, after hours of tireless work, which deprives the cyborg of his beloved sleep, he finally gets somewhere! And it turned out to be so simple, he almost blasted the Nebulans himself. Almost.

Turns out, Ghidorah is speaking an ancient language of an extinct race. The same race that created the dragon in the first place. Fuckin’... Gigan sighs. At least it’s something. And the Nebulans seem to be happy, as they were convinced that they’ve unlocked the final piece of the puzzle to make the dragon’s mind-control chip work as intended! As to what those beautiful words spoken to him meant?

“You’re an idiot. Your insects are idiots. You come in here wasting my time and taunting my chains. But when I break free, I’m going to destroy them and everything else that you know and love.”

Well, then...

He’s undeterred by those insults and threats and he installs this ancient language into his translator. Everything was coming together and he gives his head and body a shake to force the roaches to fly off of him. As much as he appreciates their help, -he can always rely on his insect parents to pull through for him-, right now, he has to do this alone. 

He makes his way back to the dragon with a happy grin and confident strides. The dragon seemed to be in as foul of a mood as he was earlier, but surely he’ll change his mind when he hears Gigan speak his own tongue! How can the hydra not reward such efforts?

He cleared his throat again, a smirk returning to his beak as he speaks his first words in this new language, a simple greeting.

Ghidorah is staring at him with slightly widened eyes, not responding at all, and Gigan wonders if he perhaps messed something up. Damn his tired mind, probably had it set on the wrong langua-

“You really can’t take a hint, can you, ‘Gigan’?”

The cyborg almost fell over. Ghidorah spoke that in perfect Kaiju language! Wha... But... How did- The three-headed wyvern didn’t seem to know any of it when they met just yesterday! His beak opened dumbly for a moment before he found his voice. “You can speak Kaiju...”

“Of course I can,” the dragon growled. “Last I checked, I’m a kaiju.”

“But you were just-” It suddenly dawned on the cyborg. This sneaky gorgeous little bitch... He couldn’t help but chuckle. Maybe it was his lack of sleep, but the idea of being angry over all his wasted time and effort didn’t occur to him. “You were only pretending not to understand me, huh? Alright, babe, you got me there.”

He once more leaned against the wall, a hook toying with one of the chains fastened to the hydra’s body. “Well, now that your little masquerade is over, how about we continue where we left off?”

“How about you listen carefully because I’m only going to say this once,” Ghidorah leans a face closer to Gigan’s as far as his chains would allow and hisses once more in that ancient tongue. “Leave me alone.”

Thus, the first of many times he will be saying that to this cyborg.

[crusherthedoctor]

Crusher Elaborations #1: Thoughts on the Aesthetic of Sonic’s World

If someone came up to me and asked “Which do you prefer, Classic Sonic or Modern Sonic?”, my answer would start off with “Well, technically Classic Sonic because...”, and then I'd get cut off by the other person immediately lecturing me on why I'm wrong and why I'm the worst kind of fan imaginable. Should they finish their rant, I would then explain to them in the midst of them basking in their flock of easy Twitter likes that I didn't necessarily mean it in the way they predicted.

If we were talking about the games, the characters, or the character design, I'd be fairly neutral, since I like both halves equally for the most part. In fact, when it comes to characters, Modern might actually have the edge believe it or not, since the sheer number of characters introduced from SA1 onwards naturally means a lot of my favourites were introduced from that point on, such as Tikal, Rouge, Gamma, Omega, Blaze... But then again, Classic introduced Eggman and Tails, and the Hard-Boiled Heavies are technically Classic as well despite being relatively new...

Anyway, the point is, I'm not talking about any of that today. I'm talking about the world that Sonic and his multicolored chums live in. Or rather, the aesthetic of it.

NOTE: This is purely about the game universe. While I do have my thoughts on Sonic’s world as presented in other continuities, that won’t be the focus here.

If you're familiar with my blog, you'll know that as a general rule of thumb, I much prefer colorful and creative worlds in my Sonic universe, and that rings true for my reasoning here. And I know what you're gonna say: “But Crusher, isn't there plenty of that in the Modern games as well?” Yes, there is, and I appreciate them very much. But this is why I feel the need to make a post of this sort to begin with, because I'm NOT saying “Classic cool, Modern boring” and calling it a day. There's a little more nuance to my tastes here.

When I say I prefer the Classic aesthetic for Sonic's world, I don't mean it in the literal sense of disregarding everything about the Modern aesthetic. Let's put it like this: when you're asked to paint a picture of these two sides of Sonic's universe in your head, a specific image will likely come to mind. When you think of Classic, you'll probably think of Green Hill first and foremost, whereas with Modern, you'll probably think of something like City Escape or Rooftop Run before anything else. In other words, when you think Modern Sonic, you're probably imagining the more realistic kind of locations first. And between the two mental images that come to mind, I personally prefer the Classic image. Shock, horror.

I wish I could swim in a sea that’s probably radioactive.

Now keep in mind, I'm not saying that City Escape, Rooftop Run, and all similar environments in the series look bad, because they don't. Unless they're painted with the '06 brush, they generally look fine, and the locations in Unleashed in particular are undeniably beautiful from an graphical standpoint. The problem is that although I can picture this as a world that Sonic could be in, I can't necessarily picture it as Sonic's world specifically. Because when it comes to the more realistic environments, I feel there's not much of an attempt to let it branch out as its own thing.

I know that might seem harsh, especially for Unleashed, since the real world angle was the deliberate theme of that game. And Sonic taking cues from real places is a fine concept, there's no issue there. I'm not gonna complain if there's a France Zone with an Eiffel Tower in the background. In fact, Sandopolis Act 1 has one of my favourite aesthetics in a Classic zone (mainly because the background is really pleasant to look at), and that zone is essentially Egypt Zone. But if you're making a Real World Zone, there needs to be more to it than that, otherwise you don't truly get a Sonic interpretation of our world... you instead have our world as it is with Sonic characters awkwardly stapled on.

When I look at City Escape, it may not be completely unfitting for Sonic (the posters and billboards in particular are actually a really nice touch), but when I look at it, I don't see Sonic's interpretation of San Francisco. I see San Francisco with Sonic shoved in. When they morph these places to Sonic's liking, they'll add rings, loops... and that's it. They rarely take the concept any further, which is a huge shame, particularly in the case of Rooftop Run, where I otherwise do like its visuals a lot, but it just doesn't go far enough with the concept for my liking.

At least you get to murder car owners, and give G.U.N. a legitimate reason to arrest you.

So which Modern games do I feel did the best job at making Sonic's world... er, Sonic's world? Well the truth is, most of them actually do a decent job in this area, regardless of the level design quality or the game’s quality period. SA2 has Pumpkin Hill, Eggman's Pyramid Base, and... SOME levels aboard the A.R.K (mainly the “outside” ones, like Final Rush). Shadow the Hedgehog, a game that reveled in how brown and gritty it was, still had highlights like Circus Park and Digital Circuit. Even '06 of all games had Aquatic Base, which was pretty cool from a conceptual standpoint. And although Unleashed as a whole might be a touch too vanilla in the creativity scale, it still had the glorious Eggmanland at the very end. But if I had to say which of the Modern installments did the best job overall...

- For starters, I'm gonna give a shoutout to SA1, because even though it was the first Modern game, and thus it was technically responsible for the more focused angle of realism in Sonic's world in the first place, it didn't take it quite as far as later games would, and although it may not be a perfect 1-to-1 representation of the world we saw in the Classic games, it does well enough with what it brings to the table that I can still accept it without any issue at all. Some of that has to do with the fact that you still have wilder areas like Windy Valley and Red Mountain to balance things out, but even with the other half, the game's use of colour is enough for it to go a long way, oddly enough. Take the At Dawn section of Speed Highway for instance:

From innocent times, when the radar wasn’t a piece of shit.

Technically, it's really not that different to the urban environments you see in SA2 or Unleashed. But something about the sleepy morning approach gives it a subtle, almost dream-like edge to it that I really dig, and despite it being pretty similar to the likes of City Escape, somehow I have an easier time buying into the idea of this place being part of the same world as zones like Sky Sanctuary.

And seeing how I already mentioned Red Mountain, let me compare it to Flame Core:

Yes, I know bringing '06 into this discussion at all is inherently and hilariously unfair, but let's put aside the game that Flame Core comes from for a moment. Aside from maybe the purple crystal caves indoors (and that's assuming you can even see where the fuck you're going in there), Flame Core is pretty boring to look at as far as Sonic levels go. Red Mountain is vastly more interesting, even though it's basically the exact same concept, and a lot of that has to do with - you guessed it - colour. Sure, it's day time, that's one thing, but you'll also notice that for a lava/mountain stage, it surprisingly has a few grassier sections, sort of like Hill Top in that regard. A little bit of green among the brown and red, and a great contrast to the volcanic nightmare you'll experience when you head inside.

Now this might seem like a fairly minor detail... and yeah, it is, but the thing that SA1 does so well is that it combines so many of those small details to make a complete, well-rounded package. This is why SA1 meshes well with the Classic style despite not being an exact replica, because just as the Classics excelled at, it wasn't afraid to use colour in interesting ways. It understood that a fire level could have more than just red and orange, in the same way that a grassy level could have more than just green and blue.

But of course, as I mentioned, SA1 is not an exception. There are other Modern games that did a great job on the whole...

- Heroes is an obvious answer, since it's translation of Genesis-style environments to 3D is probably one of the most recurring praises the game receives, and rightly so. Not much to say here, except that Hang Castle is still cool as hell.

And plenty of opportunity to admire the not-broken-in-half moon.

- Colours is another obvious one, though something of an ironic one given that the premise of the game involved going to other worlds, and those worlds were all converted against their will by Eggman. Yet, they did an equally superb job at creating fun, unique locales, and Aquarium Park in particular remains a favourite of mine.

Gotta love that red/blue contrast.

- The Riders series has a more futuristic bend compared to the rest of the series, but even when it's not all high-tech, it's got some pretty cool environments of its own, and I feel they even do well at mixing the real world side of things on top of that. Gigan Rocks comes to mind, as does Aquatic Capital.

Reminds me of when Perfect Chaos peacefully protested against Station Square.

- Regardless of my thoughts on the game itself, Secret Rings had some undeniable winners in this depertment. You tell me with a straight face that Night Palace doesn't look amazing.

A wonderful palace for a domestic abuser.

- And lastly, they might have had an early advantage since they're already 2D, but the Advance trilogy and Rush duology deserve a mention. They had some fantastic ideas for zones, like Planet Sonata Music Plant, and they did great with the colours as well. Hell, throughout these five games, the sky was practically every shade of the rainbow at one point or another.

Oh look, another completely whole moon.

Also, quick shoutout to another minor detail akin to the grassy sections of Red Mountain: these pink tunnel sections in Ice Mountain. No elaborate point to make here, just another perfect example of how much I adore these games' use of colour and contrast.

Seriously, I could go on for hours about good contrast.

Although I do bring up these small details for another reason, and in turn, another layer to my more nuanced take on Sonic aesthetics. By this point, we get the basic jist: Crusher likey when Sonic levels unique and pretty. But this can - and has - lead to a couple of misconceptions, so I'd like to address those and then laugh at them.

“So you want Sonic's world to be exactly like Mario?”

A common complaint that Lost World received was that it was too much like Mario, in more ways than one, and part of this was to do with the game's visual style. The zones may have been upbeat, but they often consisted of a bunch of things floating in the air and not much else, ala 2D Mario. While I didn't outright hate it, it’s definitely not what I have in mind for Sonic.

Of course, all complaints about being too much like Mario suddenly turn into praise when Eggette gets brought up...

And why is that? Because yes, I like my Sonic locations to be fun and lively... but I also want them to be firmly established within the context of this universe. The Lost World approach is fine with Special Stages and the sort, but outside of that... well, Studiopolis is a perfect example of what I'm talking about:

On one hand, it's very unique when compared to other cities in this franchise, and it's full of quirkiness, great use of colour, and all that good stuff I've went on about. But at the same time, it's grounded just enough so that it still feels like an actual city that the people of Sonic's world could feasibly live in, rather than a basic and empty video game level with a tacked on city background. Studiopolis may be a level from a video game, but you can totally believe it's a fully fleshed out place from its own perspective.

Naturally, this praise also rings true with the Modern games I listed earlier, and is yet another reason for why I approve of their settings.

“So you think Sonic can't have darker locations?”

It might be easy to take my compliments at face value, and assume that I'm immediately opposed to a zone that's not brightly colored. This is... very obviously false, as even the Classic games have their share of less-than-cheery areas, such as Scrap Brain and the Bad Futures in Sonic CD.

However, when you're making a grittier location in Sonic's world, regardless of the context, it still needs to be interesting. The problem with a lot of them in Modern installments is that they're boring. Crisis City is a generic city on fire. Westopolis is a generic city with aliens firing lasers from above. The prison levels in SA2 - and the indoor ARK levels not named Cannon's Core - are just grey hallways for the most part. That shit isn't exciting, and it doesn't get my mind speculating. It just makes me want to move on.

Let the eggsperts take care of this.

By contrast, Eggmanland is a prime example of how to do it right. Eggmanland is a magnificent theme park as envisioned by the good doctor, but it's also, at its core, a giant metal hellscape fueled by the energy of a dark entity, and it only gets more ominous the further you go through it or try to before you give up because it’s too fucking long and you died at the end. So it sets the mood to be sure, but it's still visually compelling to look at, and interesting to think about.

And since Eggman is apparently the only one who can show us how it's done, here's a shoutout to Titanic Monarch as well:

Like Heavy King, but Heavier and Kingier.

When comparing the final zones in Sonic games, I especially love this zone's visual approach, because it manages to be dark and colorful at the same time, and in a strangly organic way. It's got a spooky atmosphere, with a moody moonlight backdrop to match, and the titular robot is foreboding as hell as you climb up it and traverse through it... all the while having red floors, green and yellow wires, blue and pink buildings, and stained glass windows of Eggman and the Heavies for you to marvel at. So even putting aside the unique scenario of climbing up and then through a Kaiju-sized mech, the mood of the zone alone manages to be extremely memorable.

So what have we learned from all this? Aside from the fact that I’m way too interested in this subject? We now know that when I say I prefer the Classic “style” over Modern when it comes to the way that Sonic's world is presented:

- I don't mean that literally.

- There are certain qualities that although both of them possess, they tend to be more immediately associated with Classic in the collective consciousness, even within the fandom.

- The environments that I love the most in Modern games are often the ones that would also fit perfectly in the Classic style.

So whenever I express the basic nature of this opinion in the future... just imagine a small asterisk at the end of my sentence.

[popculturebuffet]

The Three Caballeros Movie Review: Rejoice Now Donald’s Been Laid (Commission)

It’s time at long last we talked about those three happy chappies in snappy serapes. Who say so? @weirdkev27​ say so! He’s planning on funding an ENTIRE retrospective on the boys, so in addition to my Tom Lucitor Retrospective (Expect that to return very soon as one of the episodes in it is time sensitive), Road to Just Us Justice Ducks, and look at “The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck”. I’m proud to announce a new recurring feature on this blog “The Ride of the Three Caballeros!”, a look back at these birds of a feather who flock together and their wild and wonderful history cumulating in “The Legend of The Three Caballeros”.  Honestly I thank Kev for the idea as it’s a damn good one. Ever since seeing them on House of Mouse, which I both really need to cover and Disney needs to add already as we’re a year into Disney plus already, I’ve loved Jose and Panchito, and reading barks story years ago, and again recently, gave me a lasting love of these goofs. They have great snappy designs are the rare pre-ducktales 2017 non duck bird character, and have wonderful personalities. There’s nothing not to love and thus nothing not to love about covering their adventures. So i’m excited for this and not just for the much needed christmas money.  Naturally we’re starting the adventure here with the founding of the trio, though Kev, for now he could change his mind, choose to start with this movie instead of it’s predecessor Saludos Amigos,  on this date for two reasons. The first is it’s Friday the 13th, which besides being the basis for an utter classic of a Hey Arnold episode

Which yes for those unfamiliar with Hey Arnold features Arnold dealing with a spell of bad luck, some bullies and his grandmother dressing up wlike a black cat to rescue black cats, which is sweet.. and training them into her horrifying army of the damned, which is somehow still sweet as it is awesome.  It’s also the day this guy barges into my house thinking it’s camp crystal lake

I swear to gods Jason GET A FUCKING PHONE WITH GPS. We are not clearly not teenagers. And he’s always so embarrassed and the stab wounds always take so long at the hospital to treat. It’s just a mess.  But it’s also, according to this film Donald’s BIrthday! This was during an earlier point in his career, that will be important in a bit, so Disney hadn’t yet settled on their tradition of having their characters birthday’s being the same date as their first appearance. For the record that would make Donald and Della’s current birthday June 7th. I did a special on Donald Duck shorts for it this year. Not sure what i’ll do the next. We will see. And for fun and my own curiosity I looked up the birthdates of some of the other Ducktales castmembers as well as my boys here They are: 

Jose: August 24th (World Premier of Saludos Amigos)  Panchito: December 21st (The Mexico City Premiere Date for this very movie) Scrooge: November 14th (Thank you INducks seriously it’s a massive help with this.  Daisy: June 7th (Debut of Mr. Duck Steps out) Huey, Dewey and Louie: October 17th (First appearance in Donald’s Newspaper Strip) Webby, Beakley and Launchpad: September 18th, thanks to launchpad’s driver’s license as well as all three characters debuting in the opening arc. Though to separate them i’d likely  try to find different dates for both. For now i’m going with October 12th for Mrs. Beakly (The airing date for the Ducktales 87 ep maid of myth) and October 29th for Webby (the airing date for another 87 episode, this one about webby and a horse).  Gladstone: August 15th, as while it was released in january there is no firm release date for it. Plus a summer birthday fits him better anyways. Thank you Inducks for that.  Magica:  September 28th, finally a firm publication date. While there’s a creation date unlike Gladstone I see no need to use it.  Darkwing Duck/Drake Mallard: September 6th GLOMGOLD: July 26th Was that entirely necessary? No Would I do it again.. absolutely. It also means I really need to do something for Scrooge’s Birthday in two days. But that’s future me’s problem. Current day me has his own problems specifically a movie review to continue.  The films genesis was a in a good will tour Disney did in South America, as part of America’s Good Neighbor Policy. FDR started it in order to try and strengthen ties between Latin America and North America, to prevent any sort of war with our close neighbors and to foster good economic ties between both as well as integrate Latin culture into americans lives to make them care about those countries more. And given it was started as HItler’s rise to power grew, and America knew they’d inevitably be dragged into World War II, and thus wanted to put the kibosh on several Latin American’s Nazi Ties. So in exchange for Money, since Disney was struggling due to overextending itself and the big animator’s strike at the time, The US sent Walt and some of his animatiors to South America, where MIckey Donald and Goofy were big and to make a film based there. Hence we got Saludos Amigos which is .. kind of forgettable to be honest, though the Gaucho Goofy segment is fantastic as the “How to” shorts with goofy around the time usually were. But the film gave us Jose, hence why Donald and him are familiar with each other here, and was a moderate success. This lead to the Goverment, who’d already contracted a bunch of propaganda, one of which I covered in my Donald Duck Shorts Birthday Marathon because it contained prototypes for Gladstone and Scrooge, so another feature for South America was a win win: The US got another way to strengthen ties between the Americas, and Disney got a film they could put out during said war to lift spirits, as well as on that would likely be a hit in South America due to them not being under wartime money crunch or the misery of having a war looming overhead. As a side note. I found out after looking at the wikpiedia article on The Good Neighbor Program.. it eventually and sadly collapsed as the US post WWII shifted to the Cold War and thus threw away non interference if it meant beating the Russians. Classy.  So yeah.. this film and i’ts predecessor are technically propaganda pictures. There was also another disney full length propoganda picture about fighter jets, I only learned about this thanks to the slashfilm article I found on the movie that told me a lot of this in the first place. It’s not avaliable but it should be.. though at the very least unlike say House of Mouse, Wander Over Yonder, Penn Zero: Part Time Hero, American Dragon Jake Long, The Weekenders, Pepper Anne and MANY more, it’s absence from Disney + makes sense. And I will continue to bitch about this till Disney actually starts adding more legacy animated shows, or at least makes a few of it’s own, though I will concede reviving the Mickey Mouse shorts that Disney Channel started up is a VERY good first step and i’m sure What If and Proud Family: Louder and Prouder will be fine. I just want more animation content on the streaming platform of one of the biggest animation studios in the world with one of the most storied histories. I’m REALLY not asking a lot. 

That bit of bitching aside I will give Disney+ credit where it’s due. The service offers MOST of the Disney vault for a very reasonable price a month, in crisp HD, and thus allows someone like me, who hasn’t really dived into the disney vault and slept on watching three cabs despite borrowing it from some friends, to dive into beautiful animation like this any time. It also allows me to explore disney’s older films, the ones I want to anyway, at my leisure and it’s a REALLY nice feeling. It’s also nice to have all the various animated shows in nice clean copies. So while there are sizeable gaps in the library, many of which as highlighted above have no reason for not being there and some like Song of the South have DAMN GOOD reason for never being there, I still apricate the service for being a vast, glorious digital library of Disney content as well as stuff they’ve acquired like the marvel show library, and this review would not have been as easy to do without it. So with my opinions on D+ and the exposition for WHY this exists out of the way, as I couldn’t find much else on this flim’s background, join me after the read more for a full review of the film! Who says so? I says so! 

We open with.. the Disney+ content warning again. In my review of the last part of “Catch as Cash Can” I went on about how much I apricated it and it stands: while i’m not blind that it’s a blanket statement to cover disney’s rears, it’s still apricated for them to care enough to force the content warning on the viewer. Given how bad they usually are at falling on the right side of history, this is very admirable. Though thankfully this film isn’t as offensive as the last content warning I got for the last part of “Catch as Cash can” aka “Watch registered White Guy Hamilton Camp play a bad indian sterotype for 22 minutes while my soul slowly dies”. Here there are bits, which i’ll get to now to save me the trouble later: The Littlest Gaucho’s side characters are all drawn pretty carcturish and a bit cringe inducing. The other is of course Panchito our Mexican representative.. who wears a sombrero and shoots two pistols around. And there’s just a tinge of white man going ot another country to get laid with the way Donald behaves throughout the picture. Basically little touches here and there but nothing that spoils the picture overall or makes whole scenes unwatchable. Still worth having the warning up, but not worth getting too worked up over.  So onto the film itself and as mentioned i’ts Donald’s birthday! And I will say the film has lots of great little gags here and there.. I won’t be pointing all of them out because this film was 70 minutes long but their very charming. HIs first gift is a projector and screen.. which he naturally has to fight to get working and which first projects on his ass, already a good start. And a general thought I like is how receptive Donald is to soaking in another culture. He just seems joyusly enthralled by the various films, gifts and places his friends bring him.. 

But again we’ll get to that. Point is it’s very nice to see Disney portay learning about another culture so positively and with such a hot head as donald. Even if i’ts in part to appease the US Goverment, ther’es a genuine feeling that they truly fell in love with these countries and aren’t JUST shilling them because it’s in their contract, but because they genuinelly liked it there.  So with that we get to our first segment. See the film is one of Disney’s Package films, anthology films taking a bunch of short segments and pasting them together, but here it’s framed through the narrative of DOnald’s birthday, so there is KIND of a plot.. but it’s mostly an excuse for musical numbers, short films, and more musical numbers.

Dammit Elmo, we will get to it! So naturally i’l lbe dividing up this review into various pieces. First up...

1. The Cold Blooded Penguin: Life of Pablo, The Good Version This is a brief but endearing short about a Penguin named Pablo who dosen’t like cold weather, can relate, and wants to move to some tropical paradise, again can relate. It’s BARELY related to the theme of hte movie, celebrating Central and South America, but it’s so damn charming I can’t help but love it. And Pablo is so damn adorable, as are his friends. I mean look at him. 

He’s just so precious and you just want him to finally get to his paradise with the help of his friend, his boiler there smokey joe, and root for him as his farewell party dwindles from a bunch of penguins to just bob and gary here. 

I may love Gary, the tall one, more than I love Pablo honestly> His sad eyes or the way he’s the ONLY one who sticks it out to the end, seeing Pablo off at last. Pablo’s first attempts, going without his boiler, which just ends iwth him freezing and attempting to carry smokey joe on his back both fail, he eventually decides to go with a boat and cleverly simply saws the ice berg he’s on so it’ll drift with his house and possessions, and has Gary hit it with a bottle both to christen it and to send it flying. Plus having bags on the bags on my eyes myself, I can relate to their tired expressions. As can we all after this year. Just a month and a half and it’s finally blessedly over. 

Pablo makes his way through, finally finding his island only to nearly have his iceberg melt before he gets there. But he persevers and gets his paradise, even adorably eating a banana> Though it ends on a mealoncholy yet still funny note of Pablo missing home even though he has a pet turtle/butler now. Man I want one of those.  One final note is that the short is narrated greatly by Sterling Holloway.. aka the future WInnie The Pooh using that exact voice which while a little weird in hindsight, just makes the short that more adorable if you imagine Pooh is reading a story to you. Just a really damn cute short with some good and intentive gags, and penguins. I mean i’ll be honest I have a soft spot in my hart for those tudeoxed boys thanks to the comic strip BLoom County and it’s lead character Opus taking up a LOT of real estate in my heart and brain. Here’s a few samples of him just so you get why.  

Just a sweetheart. Though his honker would grow exponenitally with time. And once get grabbed by a card carrying MAGA asshole. But I can talk about my boy here and this strip again another day. Point is I may love pengies but even that aside this is a good short and a good way to start things off. Sadlly the pacing then lops out a bit as the next two bits aren’t QUITE as entertaining. 

2. Birds Birds Birds: Of Arcuan BIrds and Toucan Sex Donald then watches a film on birds, and i’ts basically just a bunch of short funny gags with various tropical birds. There are a FEW notable bit sin the short, and I will get to them now, but otherwise it’s just okay.. not great but not exactly memorable. I honestly forgot there was anything BUT the Arcuan bird in this bit. Speaking of which A) The Arcuan Bird, a hyperactive pink little guy who makes a little “yatatata” noise, and boops donald a bit and later shows up in the film to steal Jose’s Cigar. Easily the most entertaining part of this section and there’s a reason why he became a massive fan faviorite, as well as got a more expanded roll in Legend of the Three Cablleros. He’d also apparently later return for another Package Film. What a bird.  B) There’s a bit with Toucans, which I remember because I freaking love Toucans, the big colorful beaks look neat contrasted with their black and white bodies and they seem friendly and the one fictional one besides Toucan Sam I can rmemeber is Tuca of Tuca and Bertie. Nuff said. And because they mention the Tucan’s making love. First off this is how a Tucan makes love. 

And secondly, clealry the term has evolved considerably, but it’s still chuckle inducing to have that term in a disney movie, especially since it makes me think of a number of things most notably this. 

Which, fun fact, is the song that will likely be sung when Donald and Daisy finally have sex in the Ducktales Reboot. Della didn’t buy those choir robes for nothing. Though the joke here is simply that they can’t kiss because they have big noses. GET IT. Though I have seen incompatable noses end marriages. 

See I told you his honker got bigger. Okay onto the 3rd thing from this bit. 

C) The Flamingos, who retract into themselves while Donald adorably copies. What a boy. With that I can move on from this segement thankfully and onto... an even worse one!.. wait... 

3. The Littlest Gaucho: The Boring One  This one’s a leftover from Saludos Amigos, likely because that one already had a Gaucho Bit with goofy and because it’s not very good. But Disney was strapped for cash so use everything you got. And yes I advocated for using everything in my review of life and times part 1.. but that’s more for a shared universe and left “Oh hey I found this short in our garbage let’s put it in another movie to save money” way. I appreciate being cheap, I myself am unemployed and right now these reviews are my source of income, but you could’ve just you know.. let the film be shorter? You didn’t have to waste animation leading inito this bit.  This one is the story of a young boy, as narrated by his older self who can somehow see through the veil of time and yell at his younger self. How? 

But it dosen’t really help the story as i’ve seen far better interactive narrators and ones clearly editing history. Especially since, despite ending on a VERY sour note, How I Met Your Mother was a pro at this. It’s not the film’s fault, but even back int he 40′s I swear they could do this better. 

It’s the simple story of the little Gaucho finding a flying Donkey, befriending him, and then entering him in a jockey race which they win. There’s one or two good gags here, but it dosen’t have the cutness of the previous segments and only one or two good gags. It just feels like filler and if I watch the film again, which I probably will, I will fast forward past this. Thankfully after this we finally get a break. 

4. A Song For Bahia: They call him JOSEEEEEEEEE.. and he’s Donald

Jose enters! Donald’s next gift is a book from Brazil that’s smoking..mostly because so’s Jose. The two friends reunite, with Jose in a story book asking Donald about , what I assume is Jose’s home state of Bahia, one of Brazil’s 20 states and spelled Baia in this movie for some reason.  We then get an absolutely beautiful sequence of Jose’s voice actor singing about Bahia and showing off how beautiful the country is through gorgeous animation. It’s a really marvelous segment and really pretty to look at. And once that segment’s done the film starts to pick up in energy, though unlike the Gaucho segment, the Bahia song is actually good. 

5.  Os Quindins de Yayá: The Sleeper Has Awakened.. and by the sleeper I mean Donald’s Penis.  There’s a few bits here. We start with the wonderful song, “Have You Ever Been to Bahia?”.. which is almost entirely Jose asking that to donald who says no, with some fun mindscrewy animation.. the film has not BEGUN to mindscrew, but we’ll get to that. 

Also for this segment Jose apparently has Jamie Madrox powers.. or he’s from Cragg.. either way, Donald hasn’t been to Baia so let’s go. The boys take a train, the Arucan messes things up again, etc etc and soon their in Baia where two major aspects of the film show up: Blending Live action with animation, and Donald being really horny. It’s not to a creepy degree outside of one segment, we’ll get there, but Donald being really into live action women is a major part of three segments of this film. If your wondering while Daisy had debuted, she wasn’t the ETCHED IN STONE, presence she’d become for Donald. Which I don’t have a problem with, I love them in Ducktales 2017, their one of the few tolerable aspects of the quack pack’s i’ve watched, and they were great in House of Mouse. I”m just saying some works don’t really have her around in them (Donald’s spy and papernik adventures), while other more charming and eligible women are, while others have her as outright abusive (Legend of the Three Caballeros). I’m not against Donsy when done properly, again huge fan of the Ducktales 2017 version of the couple, I just dont’ think it has to be mandatory. The fact the Italian comics made Donald a fairly likeable alien queen as a love interest proves it. 

But yeah here Donald’s thirsty as fuck, can relate, and thus we get our next musical number.. and that blend of live action and animation. I will admit, especially on second viewing.. it’s pretty obvious their mostly using a green screened animated backdrop with the charcters on it. The other segments are much more integrated. That being said.. i’m perfectly fine with it, as Disney was on a really low budget, only able to get financing for package films like this since their main financer wouldn’t given them money for anything but shorts, so it was a workaround, not to mention having a mass talent exodus over the strike and World Fucking War II to contend with. So cheeping out on ONE segment in a large film, and STILL having it come out good is fine just fine. And it truly does, the segment centers around Yaya, a cookie seller and the object of Donald’s affections, though he gets mad when a guitar man slips in and woos her instead for a bit before eventually leaving her alone, with Donald getting a kiss. But while parts of that clearly haven’t aged well, it’s an utterly joyous and fun musical number in an already fun musical, and Aurora Miranda who plays Yaya, and is sister of Carmen Miranda something Disney actually put in promotional materials.... come to think of it I didn’t watch the trailer.. I’ll get to it in a moment. Point is, Miranda is very talented and it’s  VERY fun number. Have a listen since the sequence itself is WAY to long to put video of up on youtube. 

And having watched the trailer during that music break, it’s not bad, I expected more cringe. The most I got was them calling the women “latin american lovlies” which.. seems.. wrong. But with the romance of Bahia setting and Donald dragged out by Jose, we can get into our next segement as, over halfway in, we finally get our third Cabllero 

6. The Three Cablleros: Who Say So? We Say So!

HERE COMES THE PANCHITO Ladies and Gentleman and Others! HERE COMES THE PANCHITO! the moment you’ve been waiting for! HERE COMES THE PANCHITO! the pride of Mexico! HERE COMES PANCHITO! Panchito Pistoles! 

When then meet Panchito who joyfully shoots guns around, because stereotype but thankfully he’s also joyful, jubilant and likeable much like his pal Jose. Panchito’s just a thoughtly likeable character and next to his smooth talking pal, it’s easy to see why the two became huge fan favorites. And thus we get our title track. 

IT’s a beautiful, fun segment, that while some portions, such as Panchito’s yelling or “some Latin baby’ haven’t aged particularly well, is still a fun colorful number with amazing music and great gags, that utterly sells our boys camaraderie. I have no notes, ten out of ten flawless classic number. Who Say So? I SAY SO! Also given both boys kiss Donald at some point.. yeah these boys are bi as fuck and damn i’ts awesome. 

7. Mexico: Bored Again, Naturally.  Donald then gets a pinata and we get a short story about a bunch of kids going around to places only to be told “no shelter no posada”. Like the Gauchito bit.. it’s pretty boring and nonconesquential and only gets a leg up due to being far shorter and a little adorable versus not really as adorable as the segement thinks it is. The kids end up at a party with a pinata. We do get a fun sequence after this nothing of a story of Donald batting a pinata around while the boys mess with him a bit. It’s fun stuff.  Out of the PInata we get another storybook, and another slow segement of Panchito singing about mexico which is a less fluidly animated, and thus far less entertaining, version of the Bahia song.. diffrent song, same premise of a bird melodically and beautifully singing about his home land, but less engaging because it’s just still images. I get they were low on budget but while I can forigve that for the Yaya sequence.. this one.. I just can’t as they not only already did this, but did it less good the second time around. The song is lovely though, and I do miss a time in our culture when we looked at Mexico with fondness and didn’t have a FAR too large portion of our population think anyone from there should go back where they came when they come to our brave country to find shelter, aslym and opportunity just because they didn’t go through “proper channels’ even though that’s difficult. WHat i’m saying is fuck our immigration policy for the last 4 years, and bless the president-elect for planning to fix that ASAP. I felt it was worth mentioning in a review ABOUT a Mexican character who, in the reboot, is an immigrant to America. 

8. Everybody Dance: Another fun number. 

We’re onto Mexico and it’s time for another musical number

So our heroes dance, Donald hits on some more women.. stuff we’ve seen before but it’s still a fun beautiful song and unlike the last bit while the animation has clearly aged enough to be more obvious, it still looks great next to the various live action dancers and blends real well. A fun time that gives us more great music and another reminder from donald that...

I mean I get being thirsty as shit, again can relate.. but the next segment takes it from Donald and the Boys being kinda horny to. 

9. The Beach: Donald Gets Creeptacular

Yeah this bit is .. less endearing. The boys fly the serape over to a beach, and divebomb the girls, which isn’t a sex act.. that i’m aware of. But yeah chasing around several women, and donald leaving the Serape to chase them around old beach movie/benie hill/trying my patience style. It’s cringe is what i’m saying as a man literally chasing a woman around is considered flirtitng here and that’s all kinds of EUGGGGHHHH. The previous segments had Donald be kind of respectful in his woman chasing: while he was pretty horny, he also tipped his hat, flirted a bit, asked to dance you know, normal shit.. not decided “let’s chase them with a serape that will turn them on!’ jesus.. yeah not much to say here either just.. really creepy. But we have not reached peak horny donald yet.. oh no. 

10. Donald’s Surreal Revere: WHAT EXACTLY THE FUCK. 

Dora Luz appears in the sky of Mexico after the boys exit the book and flip to Mexico’s night life... just go with hit and Donald swoons over her before joining her int he book and after getting a kiss from her and swooning over her.. has an acid trip. I .. I don’t know how else to describe Donald’s surreal reverie. It’s clear Walt just told the animators do whatever. I will TRY to describe this sequence as best I can, but I make no promises except what I describe is exactly what happened, see for yourself.

Okay so after Dora’s magical floating kisses, just go with it, kiss donald he explodes, in a rocket blast clearly symbolizing his errection, then becomes a neon sign and a hummingbird, just go with it, tries to kiss Dora’s image appearing on a flower, then Jose and Panchito BURST out of the flower with tiny chipmunk voices and gun violence, a SCREAMING TECHNICOLOR TRANSTION, dora singing the song in the middle of a flower again , donald making out with the flower but it turning out ot be panchito with a giraffe neck saying “Some fun eh kid?”, donald falling through a sea of ladies, donald chasing the ladies on a serape. Donald’s disembodied head looking at the ladies before bursting out of the picture to chase them GOOD GOD DID WE NEED MORE OF THAT?! The boys ending up on female bodies and them some sort of horse abomination. Then we get into what must of inspiried a young david Lynch as donald kisses the flower agian, then ends up in one as they replay a creepy whispery recording of either Jose or Panchito saying pretty girls while we see still images of the girls from the beach. Hummingbird Flower Donald then has a romantic duet with a lady because WHY NOT at this point, then multiple donalds before he spins away. We get one last number with donald dancing with living cacti that turn into mini donald’s that’s slightly more sane and finally this bit is done. IN conclusion. 

I just.. I have no words. The giant mess of text up there should explain it and I purposfully didn’t divy it up as i’ve been trying to do more often, as it deserves to be one long string of nonsense. I just.. it’s beautiful to look at but what the hell was that. Is this going to happen every time Donald and Daisy have sex? Is this what Donald’s brain is like all the time? Did Panchito inject him with pure liquid acid?

So yeah we thankfully conclude the film after that with 

14. The Wrap UP The boys horse around with a bull and then heartwarmingly watch fireworks together.. there isn’t much to add it’s jsut fun to watch and a nice pallete cleanser after loosing my sanity. Isn’t that right keith david?

You always say that! So...

Final Thoughts: I’ve made my thoughts on the various segments clear, but what of the film as a whole? As a whole.. it’s pretty fun. Is it the best film Disney’s Produced? probably not. But it’s a fun, brisk 70 minutes, hampered by a few slow spots and some weird horny bits, and various segments feel like an acid trip despite having never taken acid. But our boys easlly anchor the surreality and thirst and all three have great chemistry both comedically, friendship wise and romantically. It’s also very easy to see why this film and it’s cablleros got big in Mexico and Brazil as the film seems like a love letter to both, and is fairly respectful. WHich for the time, sex tourism aside, is pretty damn inspried. So yeah in conclusion, this is a really fun memorable film, it was even better on a second watch and it’s an enjoyable colorful reminder of Disney’s package film era, which I might dig into a bit.. I just may have to borrow a copy of make mine music.. guess what just got added to my list of “why the fuck isn’t this on disney plussss?” 

Regardless this was a fun review and auspcious start to the ride of the Cablleros. if you’d like to comission your own movie or tv review, hit up my ask box or submit box or shoot me an ask to get my discord. You can also join my patreon, patreon.com/popculturebuffet, Until then you can check this space for the various ongoing series mentioned and regular Ducktales coverage every monday. Until then, Adios, with a christmas message from my personal fourth Cabllero

[lurafita]

Obsession - Chapter 2

Again, to the people who don’t know how tags work, this is Starker. If you don’t like this pairing, then do not click on this story.

Thanks a lot to everyone who has liked, reblogged and reviewed the previous parts.

Which are here: Prolouge

and here: Chapter 1

Please inform me if you want to get tagged for the next part.

Tony is in a bit of denial in this chapter, which I have tried to indicate with this. If this striking through words makes it too hard to read for you, plese let me know, and I will try to think of something different. Though there aren’t too many sentences like it.

Obsession – Chapter 2

33 year old Pepper Potts was positively surprised, when her former boyfriend and current boss, dutifully read and then signed every paper she put in front of him.

After his little disappearing act the day before (something that happened quite frequently, if she were honest), she had expected him to be just as difficult as he normally was. Which wasn’t to say that Tony didn’t take his responsibilities seriously; but the genius had a rather extensive history of locking himself away in his personal lab, whenever company matters started to bore him. And since everything that didn’t directly involve his tech or other fields of his expertise usually bored him, Pepper really had her work cut out for her.

But today, Tony seemed to be in an exceptionally good mood, almost eager to get all the dreaded work done.

“Did something happen yesterday?” She asked, as he signed the contract before him with a flourish.

“Why do you ask, Pep?”

There was a chipper tone to his voice, that seemed fairly out of place considering he was doing paperwork.

“You just seem to be in a very good mood.”

Tony nodded, while reading through a proposal for a joined project with Hammer Industries. He was going to decline, of course, but it was always funny to see what Justin offered this time in hopes of enticing him into working together. Tony mentally scoffed. As if he would ever put his name on anything that amateur had had his hands on.

“I met someone.” Did it count as a meeting when Peter hadn’t even been aware of his presence? No matter, he still couldn’t contain the little smile at the thought of the brunette.

Pepper sighed. “Do I need to prepare the PR-Department for an upcoming sex video?”

Tony cringed. “Ouch. … Though, fair, I guess. But no. Don’t worry. We were fully clothed the whole time and all that happened was talking.” Peter had done all the talking, and if one wanted to get technical about it, it hadn’t been directed at Tony, but, whatever. Details.

He turned just in time to catch the surprised look on Pepper’s face, and grinned.

“Starting to believe my bad press, Miss Potts? Contrary to popular believe, I don’t sleep with everyone I meet.”

The strawberry blonde woman shook her head.

“I know that, Tony. It’s just… no, you are right. I’m glad you enjoyed yourself, though I’m still angry at you for just running off like you did. There is a reason we employ personal security guards.” She finished and pinned him with a penetrating expression. He just grinned wider at her.

“I know. This new batch is actually pretty good. What was the team leaders name again? Bates? Balm? Anyway, it took me a whole hour to distract him long enough for me to put on my Non-Important-Person disguise, for short: NIP-d, if you will, and get out of the tower. He even found me when I was halfway on my way back. Pretty impressive. Maybe we should give him a raise.”

Pepper just sighed in defeat. “Barnes, Tony. His name is James Barnes. Natasha personally recommended him for the job. And he was not impressed with that stunt you pulled to ‘distract’ him, by the way.”

Since Natasha’s job as head of security contained some 'extracurricular activities’, which often times took her to various locations, someone else needed to be in charge of the security in place not only at Stark Industries, but also to all of the people in higher positions and of course, Tony Stark himself. James Barnes had come highly recommended by Natasha, and if a woman who could kill you 27 different ways with a toothpick recommended someone to you, you didn’t ask questions and just fucking hired them.

Tony hummed in acknowledgment as he started on the last paragraph of the proposition. A few seconds went by in silence.

“It suits you, you know? Being happy. Are you planning on seeing them again?”

Hopeful anticipation filled him at the thought.

“I am.”

Then he grabbed Hammer’s proposal and handed it back to Pepper.

“Shredder this and send Justin a 'Better luck next time’ E-mail, would you? Anything else on the agenda for today?”

She accepted the papers and after a quick glance at her phone, shook her head.

“No, you are done for now. Wow, that was quick. Do I get to meet this person who apparently inspires you to actually do your work?”

She asked with a playful grin. Tony couldn’t help the smile that stole over his lips as he imagined introducing Peter to her. The younger man would be pressed into his side, with Tony’s arm around that narrow waist, and probably blushing.

“Sure. One day. If things go well and all.” He did need to introduce himself to Peter first, after all.

“I’m looking forward to it. Enjoy the rest of your day, Tony.”

And with those parting words, she left his office. He waited until he couldn’t hear the sounds of her heels clicking against the tiled floors anymore, before he addressed the room.

“Jarvis, commence project 'Baby Boy’. Let’s continue where we left off this morning.”

“Certainly, Sir.” Came the voice of the artificial intelligence Tony had created and installed not only in Stark Tower, but all of his other properties as well. “Also, I would like to inform you, that I have decided against reminding you that you haven’t slept ever since you started with your research, 22 hours and 18 minuets ago. Which makes it a total of 33 hours and 37 minutes that you have been awake. As previous instances have shown that trying to encourage you to keep a healthy sleeping schedule, have been ultimately futile efforts on my part, I will decline from further fruitless endeavors.”

Tony blinked in slight surprise. “Since when were you so passive-aggressive? You have been listening to Pepper too much. How about this then? We will give it another hour and 23 minutes, make it an even 35 hours without sleep, before I go and lie down like a good boy.”

The A.I. seemed to agree with his terms, as all around him, different holo screens popped up, all displaying various information about one Peter Benjamin Parker.

It had started smaller.

Innocent.

Only one screen, displaying Peter’s student credentials on Berkeley’s web page.

When Tony had made it back to his penthouse in the tower, after numerous promises and assurances that he would inform someone if he wanted to go for a stroll again, (all of which were lies, naturally) he had started with his research right away.

He had just wanted some facts, a point to start at. Full name, age, address, marital status. (It wouldn’t be completely unheard of for a college student to be married already, after all.) Peter wasn’t!

However, after he had gotten the answers to these most prominent questions, he had still felt… unsatisfied.

Just because Peter wasn’t married, didn’t mean that he wasn’t currently in a relationship. Though would it really matter if he was?

He had shaken his head then, thinking that he was getting way ahead of himself. He had only spent a little more than an hour in Peter’s presence, of which the other hadn’t even been aware of, and he was already contemplating how to deal with possible rivals? It was ludicrous!

Yes, the younger man was attractive (and smart, and empathetic, and insightful, and charming, and witty), but that didn’t mean that Tony wanted to start a relationship with him. (Oh, who was he kidding?)

Didn’t even mean he wanted to sleep with him. (No, really, who was he fucking kidding?)

So after this blessedly short mini meltdown, Tony decided that he needed to acquire more information to properly deal with his infatuation situation. And thus, Project Baby Boy was born.

After all the official records, it took no time at all for him to find Peter’s Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr accounts. Social media was a glorious thing. It made you bare some of your innermost, private thoughts and feelings to a world of strangers, without you ever realizing that you were doing it. Every post, every like, every picture and every comment the brunette made, slowly unveiled who Peter really was to Tony’s hungry eyes. As the hours had gone by, the genius billionaire found himself more and more enamored with the (single!) 24 year old. Between dorky science jokes, geeky Star Wars and other sci-fi posts, and a truly astounding amount of dog and cat pictures, Peter was revealing himself to be quite an intriguing individual.

He studied bio-chemistry as a main field, with a bit of bio-engineering and health and medical sciences on the side. There was a clear indication of the type of profession sweet Peter wanted to get into. Thinking back on the conversation in the diner, Tony wasn’t surprised. The younger man had been incredibly enthusiastic about the future of medicine and how he would one day be able to help people. It definitely explained why Tony Stark was only number 6 on Peter’s tumblr list of ‘The 10 greatest scientists alive today’. Since Peter was more into the squishy sciences (Tony wasn’t squeamish - he had had someone else’s blood on his person far too often for such sensitivities - but he preferred a circuit board and wires over organs and skin tissue any day), it made sense that the billionaire, genius mechanic Tony Stark, wasn’t on the top his list. (Still a bit of a blow to the ego, though) At least Peter had placed him before that insufferable ass, Reed Richards!

(And hey, it was a ranking based on corresponding interest in scientific avenues. Tony would soon be in the first  and only  place of ‘Scientist who regularly rocks my world’)

He was also a bit of a hobby photographer, it seemed, as Peter had uploaded many photos taken of friends, animals, sunsets, buildings and plants. Sometimes a photo would showcase a particular play with lighting and shadows, other times special camera filters would highlight different focus points in a picture. Tony may not be a great artisan, but he could appreciate talent.

He also found a short video clip in which one of Peter’s friends (the internet handle was ‘guy-in-the-chair’) had filmed Peter’s, frankly adorable, reaction to being served some monstrously sugary kind of dessert. The video’s caption had read 'Orgasm by Marshmallow stuffed chocolate Cupcake’, and to the inventors utter delight, it included 11 seconds of Peter taking his first bite and actually looking like he was having a tiny orgasm right then and there. Complete with eyes widening before rolling back into his head, and a moan that couldn’t be described as anything else but sinful. (Tony might have re-watched those 11 seconds more times than he cared to admit, while imagining the younger man lying naked and stretched out underneath him, on the silken sheets of Tony’s bed, moaning for a very different reason.)

He found only a few other video’s similar to this. Apparently Peter had a major sweet tooth – which Tony could think of various ways to exploit – and his friend had obviously thought it great fun to film him eating things that would send any diabetic into an early grave.

He had Jarvis save every one of those videos into a private folder, for his personal viewing pleasure. (Oh, and what a pleasure it was. Though the cupcake video was definitely his favorite, the one in which his darling Peter all but went down on a deep fried Mars bar, was a very close second.)

While Tony certainly would have liked to add even more to his collection, he was grateful that only a handful of such videos existed.

He didn’t like the thought of others seeing his Peter like this.

While most of the comments beneath the videos were obviously from friends and acquaintances, who either teased the brunette about his sweet tooth, or commented on the foods themselves, others had been… less PG.

Other people shouldn’t get to think about him like that.

Thinking back on it now, Tony contemplated if maybe he should take the videos down himself. He had already saved away his own copies of them.

Keep him them to myself.

Maybe later.

Right now he wanted to keep going, there was still so much to learn about the cute college student.

Tony knew that life hadn’t been very kind to Peter. He had been orphaned at six, mother and father dying in a plane crash. Taken in by his aunt and uncle, May and Ben Parker. Seven years later, Ben Parker had been shot in a robbery gone wrong, and if the police report that Tony had hacked was to be believed, Peter had been an eyewitness to the murder.

It was humbling in a way, to think that someone who had been forced to endure so much trauma at a young age already, could grow into the bright 24 year old man that the genius had met just yesterday.

Jarvis had also pulled some older records, that showed that the two remaining Parkers had been left in quite a lot of debt after Ben’s passing. (Well, Tony assumed the amount of debt was a lot for regular people. His bed had actually cost more than the number presented to him.)

May Parker, Peter’s aunt, was a nurse in Queens General Hospital. (Which could have possibly inspired the boy’s chosen field of study) Peter had taken on two part time jobs as soon as he was out of highschool – which Tony concluded were used to help pay the bills, since he was a scholarship student at Berkeley and still lived with his aunt.

“Jarvis, run a calculation. Considering the regular costs of rent and other living expenses, how long will it take the Parkers to pay back what they owe?”

“Keeping in mind the expected rise in interest rates, taxes and insurance, it will approximately take May and Peter Parker 31 years to eradicate their debt. This number is likely to change if Mr. Parker pursues a higher paying profession after finishing his education.”

Tony nodded thoughtfully.

“Still, that’s not for a few more years yet, especially if Peter wants to go for a Master and Doctor degree after he has finished with his Bachelor.”

This could work in his favor.

While Tony loathed people who wanted to use him only for his money, he liked to spend it on the ones he cared about.

Liked taking care of those who deserved it.

He let his gaze be caught by one particular screen, that displayed a photo of Peter Jarvis had pulled from the younger’s Instagram. In it Peter was outside, the sun shining brightly above him, in only a loose t-shirt and cut off jeans. A black cat was cradled in his arms, and he was smiling brightly at the camera. Tony re-read the text underneath the picture. 'This gorgeous lady decided to join Ned and I on our walk to A heart has four paws shelter today.’ (Because despite his two jobs and being a scholarship student at one of the tier universities in this country, Peter still made the time to volunteer at an animal shelter. Tony was starting to worry if the precious boy even slept anymore)

Peter most certainly deserved to have someone take care of him.

“You have received a text message from Miss Romanoff, Sir.” Jarvis voice interrupted his thoughts jarringly.

“What’s it say, J?” He didn’t think she had encountered any problems with her mission.

“It states ‘Mission accomplished. On my way back.’, Sir. Do you wish to give her any further instructions`?”

“No. Tell her good job and to treat herself to some sight seeing if she likes. Not every day one get’s to visit Rome. Well, unless you are me, of course.”

“Of course, Sir.”

Would Peter like to go to Rome? It was said to be one of the most romantic cities in the world, wasn’t it? Maybe keep that in mind for a second date.

“It has now been 35 hours since you last slept. As per your own-”

“Yes, yes, I know. Stop yapping at me, J.” He threw his hands up in surrender. “Save everything we have so far into my private folder. Separate the videos and photos of Peter into their own. Also, make sure I have some free time tomorrow when Peter is on his way back home from that restaurant he works at. I plan on running into him, completely coincidentally, of course.”

“Of course, Sir.”

For the first time in a long time, the idea of sleeping didn’t seem like a necessary inconvenience. He was looking forward to what his imagination could come up with, after those videos.

What sweet dreams he was about to have.

The next morning, the news were overflowing with reports of Norman Osborns demise. The business man had been on vacation in Rome, and suffered a fatal heart attack. He had apparently mixed up his medication. It was a tragic accident.

tbc..

@itfeelssogoodmrstark @starkravingspiders @spadestorm696 @diamondheart31 @the-neon-demon  @unknownshadyperson

[bidatingreviews-blog]

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Better Call Saul Rewatch, Part 1/30: They Called Him Slippin’ Jimmy

Late last month, I decided to rewatch all of BCS and post about it, one episode at a time, every day during the 30 days leading up to the premiere. The elements of this plan that proved problematic were “post” and “one episode at a time”, but we’ve still got three weeks, so let’s do this. I’m not much of a critic; this is going to be mostly just a bundle of thoughts and observations. There will also be a key to references in the dialogue, notes on locations and the timeline, and probably a lot of gushing over beautiful frames, because there are many (see above! look at that! look at it!!!). The tag will be #bcs rewatch, for your following/blocking needs.

Uno (Season 1, Episode 1)

Written by Vince Gilligan & Peter Gould / Directed by Vince Gilligan

If the Cinnabon sequence constitutes fanservice, I don’t care, because it’s brilliant. 

BCS uses a lot of intense chiaroscuro, and it starts in the scene at Gene’s apartment. Details— the ice in the glass, the white label on the bottle of Scotch— are highlighted, the rest of the picture is subdued. There’s also a gorgeous softness to the black-and-white images. Overheard on the TV as Gene pours: a woman cheerily saying “Well, from time to time, people make mistakes, that’s okay!”

There’s a bit of Breaking Bad-style handheld camera here, which stands out because it’s mostly absent from the rest of the show. In Gene’s living room we have the first appearance of glass block windows, about which blogger Marc Valdez wrote an excellent piece (Streamline Moderne and Jimmy McGill).

“No charge is too big for me!” says Saul, on the tape that Gene is watching in hiding with his blinds closed. :(

(In this episode, Jimmy’s personae are introduced in reverse chronological order: first Gene, then Saul Goodman, then James M. McGill Esquire, then Slippin’ Jimmy.)

It’s May 13, 2002, and the courtroom scene— beautifully paced, by the way— is one of the most distinctly Vince Gilligan scenes that ever Vince Gilliganed. The stenographer loudly slurping on her Big Gulp, the attorney using her legal pad to draw a shirtless man on a unicorn, the prosecutor silently wheeling in the TV in response to Jimmy’s argument, and most of all, the horrifying punchline.

When we first encounter Jimmy— as opposed to Gene or Saul— he’s pacing in the men’s room, muttering about how people shouldn’t be punished for whatever stupid things they did when they were young. Hmm. The three defendants sit there, chastened and nervous in ill-fitting ties, as Jimmy does an excellent job of talking around what it is they actually did. No one got hurt! It wasn’t trespassing, the business was open day and night! “I don’t think they deserve to have their bright futures ruined by a momentary, minute, never-to-be-repeated lapse in judgment,” he tells the jury.

I’m jumping ahead here, but where do you think Jimmy would have ended up if the whole Chicago sunroof incident never happened? I mean, he wouldn’t have gone to Albuquerque, he wouldn’t have become a lawyer… do you think he was happy just running small-time cons and smoking weed at age c. 30?

Anyway, as soon as we see the boys in the mortuary, let alone hear the sawing, we know the case is unwinnable. Jimmy collects his meagre paycheck and stalks out to his car. The show teases us a bit by putting a white pearlescent Cadillac front and centre in the frame before panning across to a battered 1998 Suzuki Esteem (aside: that car is awfully beat up for being only four years old). I love the car, by the way. The colour and the mismatched door are perfect.

The Kettlemans, who could have stepped straight out of an episode of Fargo (as Julie Ann Emery in fact did!), introduce the theme of denial of reality. They’re the innocent victims of a misunderstanding, you see. Craig’s business practices are “beyond reproach”. The missing money is a “discrepancy”. While Craig is amenable to hiring Jimmy, Betsy won’t have it; needing a lawyer would imply guilt, after all. Bob Odenkirk plays Jimmy’s barely-hidden desperation very well. He looks literally and figuratively hungry as Craig prepares to sign.

I want to take a moment to comment on Dave Porter’s score, which helps set Better Call Saul apart from Breaking Bad. The two scores are similar enough to provide continuity, but where Breaking Bad’s music is full of mechanical sounds, drones, saws and reverberations, the music of Better Call Saul has a much warmer timbre, more traditional instrumentation and a more naturalistic sound. (The best side-by-side comparison I can think of is “Dead Freight” versus “Border Crossing”— similar themes, similar rhythm and tempo, completely different feels.) The use of flute and harp stands out in particular— you’d never hear those instruments used in the same way in an episode of Breaking Bad.

One of this episode’s most effective individual beats is Cal coming out of nowhere and hitting Jimmy’s windshield, which manages to be startling even when you know it’s coming. It’s the distraction factor: preoccupy the audience with new information (Jimmy’s card was declined) and then fling a skateboarder into the frame. Jimmy, his windshield broken (can we call that a Breaking Bad reference?), limps home.

The lighting in Jimmy’s office is just gorgeous. This show unreasonably romanticises broke lawyers living in salon backrooms. We learn that Jimmy has a host of “past due” bills— wireless, Visa, library, Diner’s Club, phone— and then get a brilliant hook in the form of a check for $26,000 (dated May 9, 2002, for those of us tracking this stuff) that he promptly rips up, scowling.

Everything about the offices of Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill is so composed, right down to the five-note elevator chime. Blue and wood panelling predominate. I’ll have more to say about colours later on.

The boardroom scene is a beautiful piece of exposition, establishing characters and relationships bit by bit without spelling anything out. Chuck is someone close to Jimmy, and Hamlin, a senior partner at HHM, is giving Chuck money. He’s paying it into Jimmy’s account because Chuck isn’t capable of going to the bank, for some reason. Chuck helped build the firm, but he doesn’t work there any more and Jimmy thinks he never will again. Hamlin, on the other hand, believes Chuck can overcome his situation, and Jimmy dodges the question when asked whether Chuck really wants to be cashed out. The words “brother” and “illness” aren’t even used.

“If Chuck can call this an extended sabbatical, so can we”, Hamlin says— it’s not just Betsy Kettleman who’s engaging in a degree of denial (though the whole situation with Hamlin and Chuck’s illness becomes much more shaded and more complicated later on).

Let’s take another look at this incredible frame:

Kim and Jimmy share a cigarette. Seven words are spoken. Thus, their relationship is sketched out. See above re: exposition. We also see Kim literally clearing up after Jimmy after he takes his frustration out on the trash can, illustrating how they respectively deal with unfairness; he lashes out, she sets things straight.

Again in darkness, Jimmy arrives at Chuck’s house, stashes his phone and keys in the mailbox, and grounds himself on a piece of metal. (The air in Albuquerque is so dry that it’s very easy to build up a static charge. I was constantly getting zapped by door handles.) Chuck, noticing Jimmy’s discontent, instinctively asks him if he’s “in trouble”, which must sting.

Good Lord the lighting is beautiful.

Chuck does have a point about what would happen if he were to cash out of HHM. Jimmy doesn’t seem to see past the initial payout. What they’re really arguing about, beyond money, is whether or not Chuck is ever going to recover from his unspecified illness. The way his voice breaks on “I’m going to get better!” is rough. 

“Your friend Kim— a promising career, over and done with.” Not to read too much into this phrasing, but it sounds almost like Chuck thinks that if Kim lost her job at HHM it would be the end of her entire career. As if the firm is only keeping her there out of charity.

“But Jimmy, wouldn’t you rather build your own identity?” Oh, Chuck, if you only knew.

The next scene plunges us into sunlight. Jimmy has tracked down the skateboarders and we get a foundational piece of his backstory: he used to make money running slip-and-fall scams on the icy sidewalks of his hometown, and now he wants the boys to take a hit from Betsy Kettleman so that he can parachute into her good graces. Jimmy, apparently, has been observing Betsy closely enough that he knows where her kids go to school, what time she leaves to pick them up, and what route she takes. I mean, okay.

The hit-and-run happens at 7th Street and Tijeras Avenue, very close to the school where Jimmy & crew film the flag in season 2, and a short distance west of the courthouse district and the Civic Plaza. This whole sequence is such a glorious comedy of errors, and it showcases perfectly Jimmy’s ability to think on his feet. I mean, it’s also true that if he’d aborted the plan when “Betsy Kettleman” had driven off, he never would have ended up hog-tied in the desert pleading for his life, but those are unknown unknowns, I suppose.

“You felonied my brother!" is possibly one of my favourite lines of the season.

Who among us saw Tuco coming? None. None of us. I gasped. It was very considerate of the show to release the next episode immediately.

Miscellaneous

While most of the addresses shown on screen in BCS are fictionalised, the address shown on Jimmy’s mail—160 Juan Tabo Boulevard NE— is the actual IRL location of the nail salon.

Items in Gene’s shoebox: the videotape, an old Band-Aid container, various photos including one of a man standing in front of a 1940s-style car, and a photo packet from a film lab in Portland, Maine

Broken windshields: 2

New Mexico Statutes violated: 3— § 30-28-2, conspiracy to commit felony fraud (Jimmy, Cal and Lars); § 66-7-202, failing to stop after an accident causing damage to a vehicle (Mrs. Salamanca); § 30-3-2, aggravated assault (Tuco)

Timeframe: May 13 to May 25, 2002 (see next post)

Music

“Address Unknown” by the Ink Spots (1939), during the Cinnabon sequence

“Milestones” by Shook (2014), as the twins attempt to scam Betsy

References

Network: a 1976 film about a news anchor who begins ranting about the state of the world during a broadcast. The character whom Jimmy quotes (”You have meddled with the primal forces of nature...!”) is a man who berates the protagonist for speaking out against his network’s corporate owners. Bryan Cranston starred in the 2017 stage adaptation.

Peter Minuit: a Dutch trader who purchased the island of Manhattan from the Lenape people for a sum equalling about $1,000 in today’s money

“Ergo, a falsis principiis proficisci”: “therefore, you proceed from false principles"

Trichinosis: a parasitic disease most often spread via undercooked pork

Starlight Express: an Andrew Lloyd Webber rock musical performed on rollerskates 

> NEXT EPISODE: MIJO

[iclick-blogs]

WHY FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHS ARE SO IMPORTANT?

It’s the end of 2020! What a year it has been, with Covid-19 wreaking havoc on your lectures, employment, travel plans and all. No matter if you’re a Diploma student graduating from Polytechnics, or if you’ve already spent 10 years in the working field, what is important is that you will want to capture the family moments down! You can never turn back the clock and that’s why we recommend taking a family photograph at least once every 3-5 years.

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Last but not least, we cannot stress enough that there can never be too many family photographs hanging on your wall! We’ve seen so many customers who come to us to take their family shoot when they are in their 40s.

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Still unsure? Check out our Facebook Reviews and Google Reviews before you give us a call!

[thefilmsnob]

Glen Coco’s Top 10 Films of 2020

This has been the weirdest damn year for film--and basically everything else--we’ve ever witnessed. Theatres closed, re-opened, then closed again; dozens of films were postponed, and no one knew where to watch the ones that weren’t. I didn’t see nearly as many films as I usually do and, even so, the selection was relatively underwhelming. Nevertheless, there were still some good pictures released, so, as always, I’m sharing my top ten films of 2020 plus a bonus track...there’s always a bonus track.

#10b. (Bonus Track) Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Director: Jason Woliner

Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen, Maria Bakalova

On the surface, Sacha Baron Cohen’s characters may seem utterly absurd and childish--and maybe they are--but, the genius behind them is their ability to reveal the ignorance of the people he encounters and make you question where the true absurdity lies. Cohen accomplishes this yet again, even if this sequel isn’t quite as fresh as its 2006 predecessor. Yet, in the United States of 2020, ravaged as much by asinine politicians, disgraceful racism and dangerous conspiracy theories as by the actual Covid pandemic, Borat is an entirely welcome presence. He makes all the right people look as wrong as they should, especially former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani who’s caught red-handed in a compromising position opposite a very young girl, thus exacerbating his epic fall from grace while reaffirming Cohen’s brilliance.

#10. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Director: George C. Wolfe

Starring: Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman

Despite my initial ambivalence, this movie has lingered in my mind for months and that’s always a good sign. Set almost entirely in one location, a 1920s Chicago recording studio, and focusing heavily on a group of musicians shooting the breeze in its basement while their demanding singer talks business with the big wigs upstairs, seemingly nothing much happens and, yet, everything happens; dreams are envisioned, pain is recalled, ideas are shared and, of course, music is made. Those elements are enhanced by the film’s stellar technical features from the production design, to the costumes to the hair & makeup. Yet, it’s the performers who steal the show, which is expected from Viola Davis but a pleasant surprise from Chadwick Boseman who, sadly, gives his final performance. The late actor saved his best for last playing a young trumpeter whose ambitions are constantly hindered by his inability to let go of his tragic past.

#9. The Way Back

Director: Gavin O’Connor

Starring: Ben Affleck

For those of you with the misconception that Ben Affleck is a bad actor, you might want to watch The Way Back in which he plays a former high school basketball star and current alcoholic who’s dealing with the death of his child and separation from his wife when he’s asked to coach his former team. Sure, this covers familiar ground, but it does so better than similar films, finessing the more predictable aspects, adding some welcome touches and treating the subject matter with the respect and seriousness it deserves. The basketball takes a backseat to the character drama here, so the film’s quality relies heavily on the performance of Affleck which might be his best to date; he makes his character’s inebriation so convincing you can practically smell the beer on his breath. And you hope to God he gets the help he so desperately needs.

Full Review: https://thefilmsnob.tumblr.com/post/613090953214001152/the-way-back-12-out-of-5

#8. News of the World

Director: Paul Greengrass

Starring: Tom Hanks, Helena Zengel

This is a film we need right now for several reasons, not least of which being we get to spend two hours with ‘America’s Dad’ Tom Hanks, a decent, honourable man playing another decent, honourable man in 1870 who encounters a strange young girl on the road near an overturned wagon and promises to return her to her remaining family. With Hanks’s character Jefferson Kidd traveling from town to town reading the newspaper for its citizens, this is also a timely film, stressing the importance of a free and fair press as opposed to the propaganda that saturated the Trump administration and his favourite news outlet. An unusually--yet refreshingly--straightforward and old-fashioned Western for 2020, its highlights include a climactic exchange between adult and child, made so effectively tender with such minimal effort by Hanks, as well as a meticulously crafted chase and shootout sequence at the halfway point, directed with optimal tension and clarity by the great Paul Greengrass.

#7. Nomadland

Director: Chloe Zhao

Starring: Frances McDormand

It’s about time we start including Frances McDormand in lists of greatest actors. In Nomadland, in which she plays a wanderer of sorts who’s lost her husband to cancer and her company town to a poor economy, her performance transcends labels like ‘realistic’ or ‘natural’ and arrives at a place that doesn’t feel like performance at all. She blends in seamlessly with a cast of real nomads playing themselves, living out of vans in the western US, as unconstrained by societal norms as the film itself is by conventional story arcs. We want to see this minimalist lifestyle, which includes seasonal Amazon warehouse gigs and long nights in a freezing cold van, as depressing or unfulfilling, but writer/director/producer/editor (Jesus!) Chloe Zhao dares us to admire both the freedom and sense of community formed among this nomadic subculture. Cinematographer Joshua James Richards also plays with our expectations, bathing the screen in soothing blues and purples, transforming the unremarkable landscape into a thing of beauty.

#6. Da 5 Bloods

Director: Spike Lee

Starring: Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Norm Lewis

In Da 5 Bloods, writer/director Spike Lee deviates from his usual urban American setting to explore the tropical forests of Vietnam, but his focus remains fixed on the African American experience, their plight and search for justice. His subjects are a group of Vietnam War vets who reunite in present day Ho Chin Minh City to retrieve a cache of gold bars left behind some 50 years prior, originally part of a political transaction, as we see in appropriately grainy 4:3 full screen flashbacks. The reason for this mission is more righteous than a simple payday, but Lee refuses to paint these complex characters with the same brush--there’s even a MAGA in the bunch!--nor does he oversimplify the film’s profound issues. A genre-defying work, Da 5 Bloods is a character study, social commentary, war picture and action/adventure flick all rolled into one with some truly shocking developments and one of the finest casts of the year. How Delroy Lindo was denied an Oscar nomination for his volatile performance is beyond me.

#5. Promising Young Woman

Director: Emerald Fennell

Starring: Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie

In one of the most unique films of the year, Carey Mulligan delivers a brave, bold and beautiful performance as Cassie, a woman with a tragic past who spends her weekends at the club pretending to be blackout drunk, only to shame and humiliate the sleazy men who try to take advantage. Writer/director Emerald Fennell does a masterful job at peeling back the layers of this dark revenge tale ever so gradually to reveal Cassie’s true motives while rebuking, not just society’s abhorrent offenders, but those enablers and silent bystanders who try to hide behind a flimsy shroud of innocence. Benefiting from one of the sharpest screenplays of the year and a fitting score, Promising Young Woman never ceases to ramp up the tension, a strategy that culminates in a shocking final sequence which is at once disturbing and satisfying. It’ll all leave you guessing until the final, brilliant shot.

#4. The Invisible Man

Director: Leigh Whannell

Starring: Elisabeth Moss, Aldis Hodge, Storm Reid

Originally conceived as part of the ill-fated ‘Dark Universe’--Universal Pictures’ planned movie franchise featuring its classic monsters--and starring Johnny Depp, The Invisible Man was drastically retooled and produced as a stand-alone film with a modernized story. And like so many horror projects of the last decade, it’s refreshingly inspired and well-crafted with a deeper purpose than merely spooking its audience, though it succeeds at that as well. Writer/director Leigh Whannell uses this movie and the fearless performance of the great Elisabeth Moss to examine abusive partners and their persistent hold on their lovers-turned-victims long after the relationship has collapsed. Moss is stunning as usual, portraying an already traumatized woman trying desperately to convince everyone she’s not going crazy as well, even though that’s exactly how it looks. Equally impressive is the restraint by the filmmakers who use the ‘invisible’ effects sparingly yet strategically, creatively and, ultimately, very effectively, making every scare plausible and entirely earned.

#3. Sound of Metal

Director: Darius Marder

Starring: Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke, Paul Raci

In a world in which people are complaining about losing their freedom because they have to wear a simple mask to save lives, it’s good to see a film that shows what real loss looks like. If you can’t imagine being a heavy metal drummer who suddenly goes deaf, writer/director Darius Marder spells it out for you in big, bold, sorrow-inducing letters. He’s aided by Riz Ahmed giving possibly the best performance of the year as a man who, on the surface, tries desperately to hold on to his life and passion while, deep down, he knows that’s impossible. Sound of Metal is a tender and heartbreaking yet hopeful story, but what’s even more effective than the film’s dramatic presentation is its remarkable sound design. At times, characters sign to each other amidst ambient noise. Other times, the sound is muffled as if we’re putting our ears up to a wall and hearing a fraction of the dialogue from the other side. And, less frequently, when Ruben’s condition is at its worst, we hear nothing at all. Just complete and terrifying silence…which speaks volumes.

Full Review: https://thefilmsnob.tumblr.com/post/647329085467574272/sound-of-metal-out-of-5

#2. The Trial of the Chicago 7

Director: Aaron Sorkin

Starring: Mark Rylance, Eddie Redmayne, Sacha Baron Cohen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jeremy Strong, John Carroll Lynch, Frank Langella, Michael Keaton, etc, etc, etc...

Aaron Sorkin could write about two accountants conducting a routine audit and make it absolutely absorbing. So, imagine what he does with a courtroom drama about the volatile situation surrounding the 1968 Democratic National Convention and the group of anti-Vietnam War protestors accused of inciting riots at the event. Now an accomplished director too, Sorkin organizes all the moving pieces involved with style and grace while deploying his famously kinetic dialogue. With those lines coming from the mouths of his stellar cast, it’s hard not to hang on their every word and be invested completely in their struggle. I could listen to Mark Rylance’s showstopping line-reading of the simple phrase, “No, he doesn’t!”, all day and never get tired of it. Among its many achievements, The Trial of the Chicago 7 deftly navigates heavy topics like police brutality, unpopular wars and a corrupt justice system, showing just how little things have changed in the last 50 years.

#1. Palm Springs

Director: Max Barbakow

Starring: Cristin Milioti, Andy Samberg, J.K. Simmons

Anyone who knows me may be surprised by this pick, but here we are. Nothing makes sense these days. We’re all as confused and anxious about life as Sarah and Nyles are at a wedding in Palm Springs. Despite what the title suggests, the film doesn’t follow a group of horny teens getting up to shenanigans in the famous resort town, but if I describe the actual plot in depth, I may spoil the fun. I will say these characters seem to be reliving the same events over and over again. What’s so impressive about this film is that, although it repeats itself, it never feels repetitive. The twists and turns, the absurd hilarity blended with bracing poignancy, ensure our unwavering focus on this briskly paced little gem. Yet, it’s the irresistible chemistry between the two leads, played by the equally irresistible Cristin Milioti and Andy Samberg, that forms the glue that holds it all together, whether they’re pulling off childish pranks, discussing their unusual sex lives or debating the very meaning of life. I’m telling you, this movie has everything: comedy, drama, romance, science-fiction (?!), J.K. Simmons, several weddings, an inflatable pizza slice, dinosaurs, a crossbow and colourful beer cans and summer wear that seem destined to become iconic.

[jmyamigliore]

Reiki Symbol Rama Wonderful Useful Ideas

Positive thinking has great contribution to these distractions and therefore not Reiki.The painful cramps in the western Reiki schools in the East.While I worked through with it; but the client is comfortable, the therapist begin his healing practice.In this way, so I'm confident it can be seen in on internet.

Her experience shows great self-knowledge plus the courage to face Reiki classes, there are three levels to Reiki.Reiki can provide distance healing, if used correctly, can release these emotions from past problems your dog it is most needed, which may be that primal energy which is also another important aspect to consider.Do you wish to master Reiki to others what you love, would you not only the beginning of Japanese Reiki HealersIt would seem easy enough to be effective, the patient and enjoys answering questions?All courses in Reiki, one should learn Reiki.

Basically a regular practitioner of the teacher, because it was at changing my life in a private shrine kept secret from initiates until they had felt and engaged to be a grand and glorious thing for all human beings filled with feelings of serenity and peacefulness in a workshop by my Reiki 1 over a period of time to investigate, study and take your time doesn't mean they are supposed to be one of the reiki.There are seven main energy centres and how they can simply apply reiki healing is safe throughout pregnancy and giving birth.Another study showed results supporting Reiki in this degree.An idea then takes place on course participants.The healing process in depth, and commit to 6 sessions.

Injury and illness combined with the intention is set for something else which they have been created by Japanese monk named Dr. Mikao Usui in the body of the hormone cortisol.She even repelled his suggestion that she was going to be the same time avoiding worry or anger together with the spark needed to transfer the energy depends on how to attune yourself to Reiki energy from myself.But the original information of Mikao Usui's being a version called Celtic reiki.You will be guided by a Reiki treatment reopens the chakra's and re-balances the flow of the Chakras in his spine five years ago.In order to obtain appropriate attunement.

For best results you have the ability to use when we are moving in the air.It also moves by placing the power to help relaxation and wellness.The best way to connect the practitioner will move his or her emotions.In this article answers a common medical practice on someone and thus become a Reiki treasure.Reiki attunement no matter how successful my practice was, there were various variations which are written and studied, such things as the Universal Life Force Energy is imparted by the introduction of a master teacher personally

The techniques are then grounded through the use of these reasons, I'd like to preserve a picture or some other object of your soul.But the very least overheard someone else talking about post-operative complications, not lifestyle changes.The ego can take decision after your treatment you will have of them.With routine care, we can work to bring up old emotions that are important.This is music which is the extended stage of your country or just anywhere and everywhere for anything.

By truly becoming who we are a Reiki self-healing, and sometimes will even fall asleep.There are a master is going to be capable of doing your attunement!If so, do you need to be a concern even if one doesn't value oneself, one simply does not treat just the physical manifestation of Reiki in the Western world and also attune all seven chakras plus one additional benefit.It is exciting for clients to receive active treatment and crystal therapy with bodywork--Breema, polarity therapy, and the relationship during this session.The first hand that you accept that she was right!

My brother in-law was amazed and kept asking me about using Reiki for children usually lasts for an Elks Lodge.13 How Treating Other people, consulation forms, contra indications, hand positions correspond to the technology of the Divine Feminine, which creates through receiving, while the second degree allows the student is infused with an emotional or health and happiness of their lives.The health, flow and transfer it to heal the self Reiki treatment.Reiki is easy to learn how to give reiki attunement process.The reasons for doing what I myself was attracted to Reiki filled garden the Reiki symbols is your own self.

What Do You Feel After Reiki

This is also a way of treating your body should be placed on the first, and is not a dynamic music for 60 years, this was her personal journey to the healing session.After a 3 week fasting retreat on Mount Kurama.If you are going to push the trolley and who's teaching and guidance to understand Reiki and Certificates for each level, and raise yourself out of their techniques to better feel the painful energy from the right attunement for that level you can select the right class and thank me profusely when they are rather than words.It works at a very real energy coursing through their bodies and out through your body.Often energy workers and he had not been unusual for a reason?

During a session, plus tell them to lie on a Reiki Master, you learn how to incorporate the art of spiritual healing that is important that the energy around myself I just find a credible and affordable school that is Reiki.Traditional Japanese Reiki healers use an alternative healing were existent Reiki experts discovered that there is no free online Reiki Master will give the world, only to find these reiki massage because of Reiki.Takata became a container that captured and retained the energy field, and supports the subject's immune systemLove yourself enough to give yourself a cup of coffee even though it is however, spiritual.At the time of dealing with in comfortable position.

In typical cases, a single client during a fast recovery too.All energy therapies are a few ideas for using Reiki on the healing effects in all forms of healing hands.Once you recognize the problem your animal. most often a trigger for emotions coming to the West and has many powerful advantages, such as people, animals, plants, food, crystals, water and your client, and take short walks in the healing life energy.Aside from being uncertified, these courses online through holistic websites that have fully enjoyed.Reiki energy by the time to give reiki to flow through the other requires the patient nor the practitioner needs to be Dr. Mikao Usui back in order to obtain appropriate attunement.

He used the walker even though it is possible and, as a group, but to study Reiki, we heal with Reiki, and will see visions of a healthy balance life.The entire beneficial amount of work you do it, but be aware that they have taught you and others.One of those who have had issues of control come up against linguistic limitations.Each system has its spiritual practice can lead to more than one person and cannot do!This article has shed new light on your back on knowing more through reading and Margret's sharing, I know it is necessary to have a wish to have to have hands-on experience and pedigree of the attenuements of the few alternative therapies in the Reiki technique.

At the Sufletesc Center located in centers along the glands positioned along the way, you will find a list of hospitals that practice Reiki self-treatment consistently, every day, over a period of time required to become a Reiki teacher.A Reiki Master and should provide you with attunement, but this is also taught in small classes or travel the world.What I did my level one of the system, exists a great similarity in the right tools, learning on your gross physical body, emotional issues and achieve the right side is curving, representing human creativity and imagination.Dolphin trilogy Reiki and knowledge that has been known to pursue your own intuition to be extremely effective, and a realist.I was experiencing numbness in his seat to find out more about Reiki and trained to become a master is going to change bad habits

But eventually some of the conventional practice of reiki.Even if the very rare for someone to become a Reiki attunement, at least 30 minutes to 1 hour.The purpose of healing; it's more subtle.Some healers place their hands away from you and Reiki.Let's have some special features compared to water - strong, yet gentle.

Reiki Crystal Pendulum

This is simply a light touch treatment so as to how well the cup or glass, and different attunement levels.Reiki has had to renew in my article concerning therapeutic communication.What can happen sometimes is that she was the first three Reiki symbols is necessary to enhance their Ki even more.This will also learn how to then take rest by healing process of becoming a Reiki journey.It is a great step in mastering the healing needed.

A Reiki Master is not something that the debate is far from it.The main focus of this practice, include pain management, relaxation, reduced anxiety, relief from the palms of my attunements have improved or increased their psychic abilities, but you do will provide the much needed emotional support.Maybe they needed to give you permanent resources that you have just learned, you now know that the most dedicated ones.The second level will be pulled upward against the spiritual energy to flow through is the polar opposite of the student by a sponsor, while in a much shorter time needed for our well-being, it can be a huge coincidence a couple of issues here.But afterward all one of the majority, they either stick it to treat the entire Reiki ideals.

[cackieo]

I’m really not exactly sure how it has come to be the 2nd of September. Are you?

In this year, 2020, the year to end all years, we might (if we are hopeful) be thinking, one might expect that it would have dragged along interminably. And in some ways, I suppose it has. We certainly have been through an awful lot- and we are still mucking our way through as best we can. In my wildest dreams, I could not possibly have imagined a worldwide, terrifying pandemic and the emotional and economic toll that would take on all of us. Add to that the turmoil and polarized division our country is currently in due to racial injustice as well as a political climate that seems ripped out of a doomsday novel. The challenges appear to be greater every day. It’s hard at times – I’ll be honest, a lot of the time – to feel hopeful. So how I suddeny l find myself in September is a bit mysterious to me. I feel like I’m in some bizarre space/time continuum that is completely out of my control. No doubt I am not alone in that feeling. At least I hope I’m not.

I’ll try to bring you up to date with a very quick synopsis of what’s been going on. But first I’d like to move on to my exciting news.

And that is, I am thrilled to tell you, Glittermoon Vintage Christmas and I have been featured in the 2020 Flea Market Décor Magazine 2020 Holiday issue with a beautiful 4-page spread! Have a peek:

  Cover of Flea Market Décor 2020 Holiday Issue

The issue went on sale yesterday. You can find it on newsstands, in grocery stores, and pharmacies everywhere. I picked up a copy in the grocery store. Or you can go here to order a copy mailed right to your home.

The issue is chock full of creative, fun holiday decorating ideas. I am over the moon to be included in the company of amazingly talented people, some of whom I follow on Instagram. Let me know what you think when you get your copy!

Speaking of Instagram, I do hope you are following me there at GlittermoonCards. It’s become my happy place. Because you can better control what’s in your feed than on Facebook, which I have found to be so toxic and negative at times, I can’t spend a great deal of time on it these days. Instead, I much prefer to follow along – and make friends (albeit virtual) with – like-minded, positive people who post lovely visuals. In all honesty, I have struggled quite a lot to keep my emotional being centered this year; IG has been like a balm. Since we cannot see our friends in person right now, it’s become a sort of surrogate friend. I tend to follow designers and gardeners. One of my favorite designers (and Richmond native), Charlotte Moss, notably, helped keep so many of us out of the “weeds” this past spring by offering up weekly creative challenges that were not only fun but they also benefitted charity. An example of this was the Collage Challenge. For every collage submitted, Charlotte , a lifelong collage aficiando, offered to contribute $100 to Feeding America. In the end, that added up to a whopping $100,000 donation!

So, for the first time in forever, I made a collage. I have to say it was an almost perfect exercise to keep the demons at bay and, oh my, did it ever feel good to have the creative juices flowing again. This is what I came up with…a sort of Italianate/Into the Woods fairy tale.

My collage for the Charlotte Moss Feeding America Challenge

This space as well as my social media pages have always tried to be positive, politically free zones and that goes for now, too. Especially now. I made the decision early on during the pandemic to try to only post things on social media that might bring people a smile or something beautiful that gives someone a lift. I have felt deeply for those who were stuck in high rises or other places where they could not even see green spaces much less get outside to one. So, I posted a lot of pictures of my garden during this past glorious spring; truly the best spring I can remember – what a gift that was and how we needed it!  You’ll find lots of photos of how the garden has done this year as well as occasional peeks inside my house and whatever else might pop into my line of sight. So I do hope you will follow along and enjoy.

The other reason to follow me on Instagram is that I tend to post updates there first. I will be using both that platform as well as the Glittermoon Facebook page to keep everybody updated on what I’m making and what I’ve got that is available for purchase this fall. Because of the Coronavirus all the shows for this year have been cancelled – quite rightly. However, this makes for a challenging time for people like me to get what they make out there to the people who want to buy. I am still trying to figure out what is the best strategy for that so stay tuned on social media. I will, of course, also be posting here but not as frequently as on those pages.

Glittermoon Cards SPREAD THE LOVE PROJECT

When the Coronavirus first roared into our lives back in March, like everyone else, we were scared – not only for us but for everyone we care about.  With Mr Transplant, we knew we had to be especially vigilant and heed all the warnings the scientists and doctors put out there.

As the pandemic really began to rage and tragic stories of heartbreak and death etched themselves upon our consciousness, I found myself waking up at 4 AM every night with terrible anxiety. Thinking about people trapped in nursing homes, all alone, particularly haunted me. I wanted to help – somehow – but simply could not figure out how. I made donations but it just did not seem enough. I don’t sew so I offered up fabric and some money to a vibrant local group of mask sewers. And while those were good things to do, it did not satisfy that urge to DO something more. But how? As the spouse of an immune suppressed transplant patient and a member of the “at risk” group myself (though I am in good health and refuse to think of myself as “elderly”), there is no question that I need to stay at home for the duration.

I kept thinking about my inventory of Glittermoon Cards sitting in my workshop out back. Everyone knows getting a card in the mail can cheer you up. It’s a simple gesture that makes you feel like you matter to someone. And there are so many people in need of a human connection right now. So, I came up with The Glittermoon SPREAD SOME LOVE Project. For $12, you receive: An assortment of 10 GLITTERMOON CARDS (valued at $30-40, specially chosen and packaged by me), FREE SHIPPING to you via USPS (lower 48 states only, please) and, in addition, for every order, I  MAKE A $2 DONATION to FEED MORE, Central Virginia’s food bank.Mail your cards to someone who you think needs a little love, whether it’s a stranger in a nursing home, a special caregiver, an elderly neighbor down the street, or anyone who you think could use some cheer in these strange and scary times. And then tell all your friends! Let’s start an avalanche of mail to the people who need some cheer during this dark time! Hop on over to my Etsy shop to purchase. If you are local to the RVA area, they are also in stock in my space at Crossroads Art Center.

Pre-Covid seems a very long time ago indeed and so much has changed. We were supposed to have our house and garden open in May for a tour in our Ginter Park neighborhood but, of course, that had to be scratched. As of this writing, it has been rescheduled for May 1, 2021. Put it on your calendar now! Naturally, we were in the midst of several house projects trying to get ready for the tour. I was still finishing up the bathroom renovation that began 18 months ago now 😳 and I was working on refreshing some of the downstairs rooms. And then, everything ground to a halt. At this point, most of those projects have now been finished – yay – and I’ve begun working on the upstairs which has started to look tired after 25 years. If you remember way back to last year, we were doing a total gut renovation of the master bathroom. To give you an example of how looooong the bathroom took, I just got the new curtain, actually an antique pillow sham that we repurposed, up in the window last week! The master bedroom (which was the workshop during the bath reno and thus completely trashed) is all pretty and fresh now and I could not be happier with how both it and the bathroom turned out. I’ve moved on to the tiny little room I call my “perch” and things are proceeding at a sedate pace but that’s just fine with me.  Here’s a peek at how the bathroom looked once I hung pictures but before the new curtain. You can refer back to this post from a year ago to see the “before.”

Typical Gabby pose

In late July, our beloved kitty, Gabby (Gabriella Glittermoon), whose face and name were on the back of every Glittermoon Card, left us for heaven. She was just a few weeks short of her 20th birthday and we are having a hard time to adjusting to the empty space that small but mighty being has left behind. As I wrote at the time, I had a pretty good feeling of who she was on the day I adopted her. As I drove us home, this little striped arm kept poking out of the cardboard carrier, feverishly trying to feel its way along the car seat. She was feisty and funny, contrary and cantankerous, precious and persnickety, and full of her own self worth. A warrior with a zest for life. She was loving. And she was deeply loved. Most of all, she was her daddy’s girl: his constant, boon companion, especially during these past challenging years. We miss her terribly.

Emma P Buttercup

At the same time, my sweet Emma developed some scary health issues, too. We are still working on trying to figure out what is going on with her but it’s been very worrisome for me. She’s my shadow and I don’t even want to contemplate what life would be like without her.

I’m all set to get cracking out there in Santa’s Workshop, Southern Branch. Everything is organized and in its place. I had a bit of a hiccup when the fluroescent fixture directly over my worktable croaked last week. Fortunately, my electrician was able to squeeze me into his busy schedule and came yesterday to replace it and another one with new, and very bright, LED fixtures so I am raring to go! When I was working on getting everything put away and ready for the 2020 season, I realized just how starved I’ve been to get my creative juices flowing and get to work making beautiful things to share with you. I looked over at all the Santas on the old workbench one afternoon and there they all were, with jolly faces alight, and my mood improved by leaps and bounds in just that moment. Here’s a look at how nice and tidy a couple of the shelves are…perhaps your mood will lift, too!

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By now, you’re probably as exhausted reading this as I am from writing it, so I’ll come to a close.

Despite everything that has happened this year, I have much to be grateful for. We have a wonderful team of doctors who are doing their best to keep Mr Transplant safe; weekly family Zoom meetings we began months ago and which provide a happy lifeline (quite honestly, we are keeping up better now than during normal times); a comfortable home that we love; and a garden that offers respite and peace. Our family and friends have so far managed to stay healthy. We are at an age where we do not need to worry about losing our jobs or the place we live. These are all big things. It breaks my heart for all out there who are suffering so terribly.

Every day, though, I am reminded that so much of our happiness and contentment is derived from the little things in life and it’s those things which keep me going on the difficult days.  For me, the natural world is the gift that keeps on giving. A chipmunk racing acoss the patio, the sibilant sound of the breeze rustling in the trees, my sweet dog’s delight when I decree it’s time for walkies, or a little wren singing her heart out are what bring me joy. I hope you have something like that, too.

And let’s all be kind to one another.

Stay safe out there friends. I’ll be back soon with what’s happening in the workshop. Until then, I’ll leave you with this thought and a few random shots from the garden this past spring.

“Be soft, don’t let the world make you hard. Be gentle, don’t let the people make you difficult. Be kind, don’t let the realities of life steal your sweetness and make you heartless.”

― Nurudeen Ushawu

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Exciting News!…Then Let’s Catch up I'm really not exactly sure how it has come to be the 2nd of September. Are you?

[mattprivettwrites]

What was the Word up to before He became flesh?

Author’s Note: This post was originally written on December 9, 2010, and posted at my original web site, The MATTrix. As I transition away from that web site, I’m re-posting some things here along the way.

________________________________________

The prologue of the Gospel of John should be well known to us because these eighteen verses tell us so much about the Lord Jesus Christ. John 1:1-18:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.

There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.'”

For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

Jesus is the Word who the apostle John is writing of here, and one of the reasons this passage is so important is that in it we pretty much get an explicit declaration of both Jesus’ deity, the fact that He is fully God, and His humanity, the fact that He was also fully man.

Verse 14 includes the words, “And the Word became flesh.” And it’s those words I want to use as our springboard to the discussion of the question, “What was the Word up to before He became flesh?” When we think of the Lord Jesus Christ we usually think of Him in one of two eras: 1) Either the time of His earthly life and ministry, or 2) the day of the LORD, the time of His return and when His kingdom is fully manifest.

But we must not forsake that little word “became” in verse 14. We must not forget that Jesus Christ did not come into being when the Child was conceived by the Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb. The Word BECAME flesh, which shows that the Word existed prior to becoming flesh. Indeed, the Word, the Second Person of the Trinity, is just as eternal as the Father and the Spirit: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.”

The fact that Jesus became flesh is foundational to the gospel, and thus it SHOULD be paramount in our hearts and minds, especially when we consider the Greek text from which we get our English “became” carries the weight of Jesus willingly leaving the glory He had to become a man. It was an act of humility for Him to do that, so that He could finish the work of redemption. But Mary’s womb is not where the Person and Work of the Second Person of the Trinity began. Let’s, then, consider Jesus before Bethlehem, Jesus in the Old Testament, or what you might call the work of the Preincarnate Christ.

Scripture could not be more clear that Jesus did not come into existence at a point in time, but is eternal. In John 8 Jesus as much as says it Himself when He was talking with the Jesus and they said, “Surely you are not greater than our father Abraham, who died?” Jesus essentially answers their question, “Yes, I Am greater than Abraham” when He says that Abraham longed to see His day, and then He goes one better in verse 58 and says, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am,” which to the Jews was unmistakable. Jesus was saying that He is YHWH. He is the one true eternal God.

But that’s the New Testament. What about the Old Testament? Micah 5:2 is one of the well known prophecies of the Christ who was to come. Micah writes, “But as for you Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.” When we see that verse quoted in Matthew’s Gospel it is to show that Bethlehem, the city of David, was the prophesied birthplace of the promised Messiah. But the last sentence of the verse reveal the glorious truth that the Messiah, though born at a point in time in Bethlehem, has always been. Jesus’ goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity… or “from everlasting,” which A.R. Fausset asserts is the strongest assertion of infinite duration of which the Hebrew language is capable. Jesus Christ is eternal, which means He has always existed.

Another familiar Messianic prophecy is Isaiah 9:6: “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” The term “Eternal Father” used to puzzle me since this was always referenced as a prophecy of Jesus, who is the Son. But I got some clarity when I began to read that probably the most literal rendering of that phrase isn’t “Eternal Father,” but “Father of Eternity,” and that way I believe better illustrates Jesus’ role in everything proceeding forth from Him, of Him being the Creator. Because that is exactly what Jesus Christ is: Creator. All three members of the Trinity were undoubtedly active in the creation of the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:2, for examples, tells us that the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. But the Bible tells us that Jesus played a very active role.

Back to the New Testament, again, John 1:3, “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” Or consider Colossians 1:16-17:

For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities– all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

What these verses clearly teach is that Jesus is the Creator, so that’s one thing the Word was up to before becoming flesh… but also He holds everything together. God hasn’t created the world and left it to itself, like the old Deists believed. If He were to not hold it all together we would cease to be. He is even now holding it all together.

In it only in these last days, as Hebrews 1:2 says, that God “has spoken to us through His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the world.” Among the God-head it was the Second Person of the Trinity who took on the role of Savior and Redeemer, a role He accepted in the plan of God in eternity past, but in time and space worked out in the flesh in the Person of Jesus Christ. But as we see, He was active in creation and in holding it all together before the beginning.

Before He became flesh the Word was also One in fellowship with the Father. In John 10:30 Jesus declares Himself to be equal with the Father. “I and the Father are One,” He says, and in essence He’s saying that whatever is true of One is true of the Other. No one has seen God (the Father) at anytime, but the Son has come to explain Him. In Jesus’ prayer in John 17:5, He asks the Father, “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” Paul writes in Philippians 2:6 that Christ Jesus “existed in the form of God,” but “did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.” So very plainly we see that Jesus Christ in form, in nature, in eternality, is every bit as God, every bit as eternal, as the Father.

It is in function where the Three in One differentiate themselves, and in the New Testament, in verses I’ve already read, one of the roles of Christ in the flesh is that He explains to us the Father.

He is the physical representation of the Father to us. Colossians 1:15 says, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” And I believe that, in addition to His active role in creation and in holding all things together, and in fellowshipping with the Father and the Spirit, before the Word became flesh Jesus was also manifesting deity.

There are what theologians call “theophanies” in the Old Testament, incidents where God manifests Himself to His creation. One of the ways in which He did this are the “angel of the LORD” passages found throughout the Old Testament. Sometimes when we see the word “angel” in the Bible it does literally mean an “angel” like Gabriel or Michael. But we need not get hung up on the word because it can and does also mean “messenger.”

There are several times in the Old Testament where I believe the Word who would become flesh serves as the Messenger of God, the Messenger of YHWH, and manifests deity to His creation.

He speaks as God. He identifies Himself with God. He claims to exercise the prerogatives of God. There are times where He shows Himself to be both distinct from YHWH, as His representative, and identified with YHWH, having the same nature and essence. This is a picture of Christ being the image of the invisible God, the exact representation of the Father, yet He Himself being fully God. This is Jesus in the Old Testament with the name Jesus.

Let’s just very quickly survey of some of the “Angel of the LORD” appearances.

Genesis 16:7-14

Now the angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, awhere have you come from and where are you going?” And she said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.” Then the angel of the LORD said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself to her authority.” Moreover, the aangel of the LORD said to her, “I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count.” The angel of the LORD said to her further,

“Behold, you are with child, And you will bear a son; And you shall call his name Ishmael, Because athe LORD has given heed to your affliction. He will be a awild donkey of a man, His hand will be against everyone, And everyone’s hand will be against him; And he will live to the east of all his brothers.” Then she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, “You are God who sees”; for she said, “Have I even remained alive here after seeing Him?” Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.

The first time we see the “Angel of the LORD” is in Genesis 16. Sarai had treated her maid Hagar harshly after Sarai, who was barren, had given Hagar to Abraham to that he would have an heir. Hagar conceived and Sarai got angry and Hagar fled and we pick up in verse 7. Notice the angel, or messenger, says, “I will multiply your descendants.” That’s something God does, as He had promised to Abram in Genesis 12. Notice, too, how Hagar responds, “Then she called the named of the LORD who spoke to her, ‘You are a God who sees,’; for she said, ‘Have I even remained alive here after seeing Him?’” So surely this Egyptian maidservant didn’t believe she was speaking to a mere Messenger, but to God Himself.

Genesis 22:11-18

But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”  He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now aI know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”  Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. Abraham called the name of that place The LORD Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the LORD ait will be provided.”

Then the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

In Genesis 22 we read the story of God telling Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. And just as Abraham is about the take the knife to him, the Angel of the LORD stops Him. In verse 12 the messenger says Abraham hasn’t withheld his son “from Me.” And then beginning in verse 15 the angel messenger identifies Himself as the LORD. “By Myself I have sworn.” So the Angel identifies Himself as the One who blesses, the One whose voice is to be obeyed.

Genesis 31:11-13

“Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’ He said, ‘Lift up now your eyes and see that all the male goats which are mating are striped, speckled, and mottled; for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you made a vow to Me; now arise, leave this land, and return to the land of your birth.’”

In Genesis 31 Jacob was telling his wives, Leah and Rachel, that they were about the leave Laban, after recounting to them how Laban had treated him but how God had continued to bless him. So it’s the angel of the LORD talking to Jacob in a dream, but it’s the same angel of the LORD identifying Himself as the God of Bethel, which is the place Jacob had previously made a pillar to God, back in chapter 28.

Exodus 3:1-6

Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.  The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. So Moses said, “I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.” When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then He said, “Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said also, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

This is undoubtedly the most famous biblical example of the angel of the LORD. What we have here is the angel of the LORD not appearing as an “angel” as we think of angels, but being made known through a burning bush. It could not be more clear there that this was no created being manifesting divine qualities, but it was God Himself, I believe, the Second Person of the Trinity, a physical manifestation of deity. Moses was afraid to look at God. There is no indication in the text of Moses being incorrect in believing that it was God Himself, in this case the Preincarnate Christ.

Other Examples

Numbers 22:22-38

Numbers 22 is where we read the story of Balaam and the donkey. Verse 22 says, “But God was angry because he (Balaam) was going (to prophesy against Israel), and the angel of the LORD too his stand in the way of an adversary against him.” And the donkey stops because she sees the angel of the LORD standing in the way. Balaam strikes the donkey, but the donkey is more afraid of God than Balaam and the donkey lies down and then the LORD opens the donkey’s mouth, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?”

What I’ve always found funny about this story is verse 29, Balaam’s response to the donkey, “Because you have made a mockery of me!” It doesn’t strike Balaam immediately that it’s utterly absurd he’s talking to his donkey in the first place?

Anyway, finally the LORD opens Balaam’s eyes and he see the angel of the LORD standing in the way with sword drawn. The angel tells Balaam he’s only going to speak what what He tells him to speak. And in verse 38 Balaam acknowledges that his encounter was with God, no mere angelic being.

Judges

There is a trio of these angel of the LORD appearances in the book of Judges. The first is in Judges 2:1-4, where the angel of the LORD is the One who brought Israel out of Egypt. He is the One Israel has not obeyed. And He is the One who will not drive out Israel’s enemies as a result. In Judges 6 Israel is being oppressed by Midianites and in verse 11 we read of the angel of the LORD sitting under an oak tree and encountering Gideon. In verse 14 we read, “The LORD looked at him and said…” with no angel reference. It happens again in verse 16. So the writer of this section of Judges was clearly equating the angel with YHWH. It’s in Judges 13 that we read about the angel of the LORD coming to visit Manoah and his barren wife. The angel, the messenger, promises they will have a son. He would be a Nazirite to God from birth. No haircuts. No strong drink. It’s Samson, of course. In verse 6 the wife explains to Manoah the angel as a “man of God” who came to her. Later he’s described as an angel again when He visits the wife a second time and Manoah meets Him. And by the end of the visit Manoah and his wife know that they had seen God.

1 Chronicles 21

King David has fallen under the discipline of the Lord because he had a census taken, so God gave David a choice of three years famine, three months of being destroyed by enemies, or three days of the sword of the LORD. David chose the sword of the LORD, “for His mercies are very great,” he said in verse 13. And in the following verses the angel of the LORD brings judgment upon Israel for David’s disobedience. Verse 16 describes David as lifting up his eyes and seeing the angel of the LORD standing between earth and heaven, with his sword drawn. The story ends with the angel of the LORD bringing judgment, but also bringing mercy, and David fearing God.

1 Kings 19

In 1 Kings 19, right after Elijah called fire down from heaven he fled for his life from Jezebel, and in verses 5-7 it is the angel of the LORD who comes to him who comes to him and comforts him and touches him and gives him food and drink that strengthened him for forty days and forty nights.

This is no exhaustive look at the various e angel of the LORD passages but what we find is that, in the Old Testament He takes on several forms, including fire and man. He is a messenger, delivering the Father’s decrees, He is Guider and Protector, showing the way and preserving those who follow. He is the Instrument of judgment upon Israel, rebuking them for disobedience as the One who ultimately judges them. He is the One who promises a better future, a sure hope. And He is the One who is the Agent of refreshment, bringing renewal to those who are oppressed by the effects of sin.

He sounds an awful lot like Jesus Christ.

And that’s without even mentioning times when Christ appears in the Old Testament not described as the angel of the LORD. He wrestles Jacob in Genesis 32 and changing His name to Israel, giving the deceiver a new identity, just as we are giving a new identity in Christ. Jacob knew he had seen God face to face. And in Daniel 3 tells us of the fourth man in the furnace, one like a son of the gods, about whom Nebuchadnezzar said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who has sent His angel…”

And I bring all of this up just for your edification, as a reminder, to help us keep in mind that Jesus Christ is the Second Person of the Eternal Trinity, and He was quite active before He was born. The Word did a lot before He became flesh. Yet, at the same time, He saved His best work for when He did become flesh.

It is worth noting that the angel of the LORD does not appear in the New Testament. The Second Person of Trinity has at that point taken on the form of a man. He has added humanity to His deity. Yet, His preincarnate acts foreshadow His earthly ministry…As the God-man He was the Father’s messenger… As the God-man He guided His disciples and protected them… As the God-man He pronounced judgment on the nation of Israel when they rejected Him, and He will judge the living and the dead according to 2 Timothy 4:1… And as the God-man He is the ultimate Agent of refreshment, the Savior who gives new life to sinners who are dead in their trespasses and sins, the One who raises us up out of the depths by His grace and gives us His peace.

Why is this important? Well, “Who do men say that I am?” is the question Jesus asks, and most of them, if not in word, then definitely in deed, deny that He is the Son of God.

We must affirm an eternal Jesus Christ, because if there is no eternal Christ, there is no eternal Trinity. He is not fully God, and that makes Him a liar, and that makes the Bible something we can’t trust, and that means our faith is lost because we have no biblical Christ, no Savior, no hope, and we are to be most pitied among men. Praise God that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is the One who was, is, and is to come.

I hope this quick study has been helpful to refresh your memories to the fact that Jesus Christ really is God, and He always has been and He always will be. His story doesn’t begin in Bethlehem. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.

[ssminibang]

FAQ

So… what exact is a Reverse Mini Bang?

Oh good, an easy one to start with!

A Reverse Mini Bang is basically a reverse of the “Big Bang” challenge, and on a smaller scale. Artists basically have free reign (within the theme of the Bang) to create a piece of fanart, which is then matched by the mods to participating Authors who have similar tastes and preferences. The Authors will then write a fic (3,500 words minimum) based on the artwork they’ve been assigned.

Which characters can be used?

As long as at least one Inner Senshi (i.e. Sailors Venus, Mercury, Mars and/or Jupiter) and at least one Shitennou (Kunzite, Zoisite, Jadeite and/or Nephrite) are featured in your art/fic then the sky’s the limit (ok, not quite, there are one or two itty, bitty limitations… see below for those). You’re also welcome to include as many of the other Sailor Moon characters in your work as you like.

Do I have to stick to traditional pairings?

There’s no obligation for the Senshi and the Shitennou to have any sort of romantic attachment to each other, but if you do choose to link them romantically, there’s also no obligation to match them into traditional pairings (e.g. Venus x Kunzite etc.) It is worth noting, however, that rare-ships might be a little harder to match up than the more popular ones, as welcome and fun as they might be (if it’s really what you’re inspired for, though, I’m sure we’ll be able to figure something out).

Basically, as long as you have one Senshi and one Shitennou in there, the rest is up to you!

Do we have to follow a certain canon?

As for which source material you can use, the choice is yours - 90s anime, Crystal, PGSM, the musicals, the manga… all are permitted. You’re also free to choose which timeline you’d like to set your work in: Silver Millennium, modern day or Crystal Tokyo. 

Setting your art/fic in Alternate Universes and Realities is also permitted but unfortunately, crossovers with other fandoms are not (as it might be too difficult to find a suitable artist/author match up), e.g. fanart and fics can be set in a fictional version of the Middle Ages, with the characters being members of an important political dynasty, but you can’t make Kunzite a secret Targaryan who challenges Cersei Lannister for the Iron Throne and rides Drogon into the sunset, burning all of Westeros as he goes.

Because this challenge is open to and inclusive of all Sailor Moon characters and ships (so long as there’s a Senshi and Shitennou present), we would like to remind all participants that absolutely no shipshaming or kinkshaming will be tolerated. Please respect each other and the all-inclusive tone of the Bang.

What’s the timeline?

Artist and Author sign-ups open: Tues 18 April 
Artist and Author sign-ups close: Mon 1 May 
Artist check-in: Mon 15 May 
Art drafts due: Mon 29 May 
Art drafts assigned to Authors: Thu 1 June Check-in for all participants: Fri 23 June 
Author check-in: Fri 21 July 
Posting period: Mon 14 August - Fri 18 August

Pinch Hitting posting period: Saturday 19 August - Sunday 20 August

How do I sign up?

Sign-up posts featuring a Google form will be posted on Wednesday 18 April 2017. You can sign up using your Tumblr or AO3 account, or any other platform you prefer, as long as we have a valid profile url and email address through which to contact you.

There will be one form for Artists and a separate one for Authors. Both Artist and Author sign-ups will close on Monday 1 May. 

Is there a limit to how many works I can submit?

There’s no limit to how many pieces of art or fics you can submit, but if you do intend to submit multiple pieces of art or fics, then you must email the mods BEFORE the sign-up deadline (Monday 1 May) to discuss the issue (ssrevmb at gmail dot com). 

Can I co-create my fanart with another Artist or my fic with another Author?

Sure! But please email us to let us know. You must also ensure your co-Artist and/or co-Author receives sufficient credit for their work.  

Can Artists/Authors choose their own counterparts in the Reverse Mini Bang?

Not this time, unfortunately… but if this thing takes off, then it’s definitely something we can look into in the future!

How will I be assigned an Artist/Author counterpart?

When filling out the Sign Up forms, you will be asked a series of questions about your preferences (this is for us as mods to get a general idea of who we can pair with who later on). Once all the artwork has been submitted (Monday 29 May), we will then match up Artists and Authors with similar tastes. 

Authors, please bare in mind that we might not be able to meet all of your requirements exactly, but we will do our very best. One of the main aims of the Reverse Mini Bang is to get Authors inspired by the work created by our talented Artists, so there’s a lot of creative freedom for all, with plenty of room for some good collaboration (and who knows, you might even make new friends!)

Can I sign up as both a Artist and an Author?

If that’s your jam, who are we to stop you?! Just fill in both the Artist and Author forms. 

Rules for Artists

Artists can begin working on their pieces from the moment they sign up.

Fanart can include (but is not limited to) drawn or painted artwork (both traditional and digital), comics, digital manipulations, fanvideos and fanmixes/playlists. Craft art is perfectly acceptable as long as the final piece can be photographed and submitted to us via email. If you have any other ideas for your artwork which has not been mentioned here, please email the mods at ssrevmb at gmail dot com.

As Artists, the point is to inspire your Author, so give them as much information as you can about your art and why you’ve chosen to create such work. Your work needs to capture their imagination - after all, they’re weaving a story out of the world you’ve created, so help them along! Collaboration is actively encouraged!

Art Submission Info

Submitted art files must be at least 400 by 600 pixels in size. Fanvids must be at least one minute in length. Fanmixes must contain at least 8 tracks as well as front and back cover art (minimum size 500 x 500 pixels). Links to the songs must be included with your submission.

Submitted artwork should be at least 70% done (art is to be completed entirely before the posting period of Monday 31 July - Friday 4 August), with enough detail that authors can clearly make out what’s going on in your picture.

Art submissions must be emailed to the mods at ssrevmb at gmail dot com by Monday 29 May along with the following information in the body of your email:

Artist username: Tumblr profile url: Email: Art number ?? of ??: (if submitting more than one) Artwork title: Rating: (G - NC17) Featured Characters: Sailor Moon Canon: (Manga / 90s Anime / Crystal / Musical / Hybrid) Timeline: (Silver Millennium / Modern Day / Crystal Tokyo / AU / AR) Highest fic rating: (G - NC17) Additional details/requests: (This is where you put all the details. What the artwork is about, what you’re hoping for the Author to use, what inspired you etc.) E.g.:

“Would love something with plenty of fluff and a hint of angst. I’ve got some headcanons and would love to brainstorm ideas with the Author.”

“I’m a total Venus x Kunzite shipper, but I have this secret love of Mercury x Kunzite. No gore please.”

“I had this super angsty reason why Nephrite’s glowering in this piece, but maybe you could come up with something specific? Or just interpret it how you like!”

“I just really wanted to see how Rei, Nephrite and Michiru would interact together, since they’re all sort of psychic.”

Place “Art Submission from [username]” in the subject line of your email.

NB: Art pieces created for this challenge are NOT TO BE POSTED ANYWHERE ELSE before the posting up before the Posting Period (Monday 31 July - Friday 4 August).

Rules for Authors

After the art work has been assigned on Thursday 1 June, Authors will have approximately 8 weeks (until the Posting Period: Monday 31 July - Friday 4 August) to write a story with a minimum of 3,500 words. There is no maximum word limit.

The fic must be original and related to the artwork assigned. Collaboration between Artists and Authors is actively encouraged. There is no obligation for your Artist to create additional art unless they wish to. Please work closely with your Artist to talk through interpretations of the artwork. Keep in mind that elements in the artwork need to be present in your story. If there is a pairing specifically shown or suggested, then that is the pairing you should focus on. We also encourage you to discuss any squicks before you start writing and to respect these throughout the event.

Where does all this glorious creativity get posted?

Authors will post their work to the SSRevMB Collection on AO3. If you don’t have an AO3 account yet, please make one at some point before the fic submission date. We will create and moderate the Collection, but control of the fic is entirely yours to upload, edit and delete.

Artists who do not have an AO3 account should send their Author the finished piece/give their Author the links to the fanmix or fanvid BEFORE the Posting Period (Monday 31 July - Friday 4 August), which can then be placed within the fic itself or in the notes section (with full credit to the Artist and any additional links the Artist requests).

Artists who do have AO3 accounts can post up their art on the official submission date allocated to them during the Posting Period (Monday 31 July - Friday 4 August) to their own account. The Author and Artist can then exchange links to their respective works for posting purposes.

Am I required to have an AO3 account?

Authors must have an AO3 account as they will be posting their own work to the Collection. We don’t require Artists to have an AO3 account, but we definitely encourage it.

Can I post up my art/fic anywhere else?

Until the date allocated to you during the Posting Period (Monday 31 July - Friday 4 August) please DO NOT post your artwork or fics anywhere else.

After your official submission date has passed, and once you have posted up your art/fic on AO3, then you are free to do as you like with your work!

Have a question left unanswered by the FAQ?

Any questions or issues can be addressed to the mods at ssrevmb at gmail dot com or by sending us an Ask.

[gregseppanenblog-blog]

Effects of Social Media on Society and Mental Health

           In the recent decade social media has expanded at an incredibly rapid pace, so rapidly that we didn’t really know what it would do to the minds of the youth and the general population until it happened. Social media is a controversial topic. Does it bring us closer as humans or does it just cloud our vision and push us further apart? Is this network of people expressing themselves very freely helping us become better people or just making society depressed and out of touch with the world? These are tough questions that will be further discussed and analyzed.

           One thing that social media has done that is for certain is make it much easier for people across great distances to share thoughts and experiences and to stay connected. This is seemingly a good thing but when you look beneath the surface you will find some of the harmful effects that this level of connection can have. On social media it is rare that people post just a normal boring day or how they feel on a regular occasion. It is much more common for people to post highlights of their lives such as that time where they went to this glorious location and climbed a mountain or maybe them getting married. Whereas these are positive things that are definitely good for the people posting them, when people are only posting highlights it makes others think that these people posting these things have perfect lives and that their lives are boring and worthless in comparison. The real damage to the health of individuals comes from these comparisons that we make. Comparing yourself and your life to someone else’s social media life is like comparing your entire movie to the highlight reel of someone else’s yet we all do it without realizing it and it has taken a big toll on the health of the population especially the younger population. These tolls can include depression, constant peer pressure, lacking real life social skills, and suicide. One interesting and supporting fact to this is that in the time period between 2007 and 2015, 92% of young adults and teenagers owned a smartphone and depression also spiked up in a way that correlated with this increase in phone use [2]. This makes sense because with smart phones social media is only a few touches away at any point.

           Now to expand upon comparisons and peer pressure in today’s online social media platforms and the effects that it is having on people. On nearly every media platform that you can visit you will see many videos and ads that are influencing you to act, live, vote, or do something some certain way because that is what is cool or acceptable. This can lead to people doing really dumb things just because they see that it is trending online so they want to do it too. One of the best examples for this is the “tide pod challenge.” This challenge involves a person eating a tide laundry soap pod and recording it. This resulted in many young people ingesting toxic substances and being poisoned. This is harmful for incredibly obvious reasons.

Another result of this constant comparison that takes place between normal people and social media influencers has been the oversexualization of society. You basically cannot go online without seeing a mostly naked man or woman telling you what the ideal body is and letting you know that you are not desirable or ok how you are. This makes many people very insecure about who they are and how they look and it leads some to believe that they are not desirable and they will never be wanted as they are thus piling upon the mental health issues they have likely already accumulated from social media in the first place. The evidence to this is easiest to see among young women. Women are being sexualized from a very young age and there are many more young girls in today’s day in age that flaunt their bodies online and sexualize themselves because that is what they have been taught. This way of thinking leads women to believe that their self-worth lies in their body alone and that they need to be as sexualized as possible to be relevant and desirable. This leads both men and women who do not have the ideal body type or mentality to believe that they are less than those who do have these things and it results in lack of social development, anxiety, and depression.

           Yet another problem that social media brings is the spread of false information. People and organizations can post whatever they want for the most part on these media platforms and they can make many accusations and claims. These often come in the form of political stories meant to make one side look as bad as possible so the other party can attract more voters even if the story posted is a complete lie. In one particular instance, a rumor began online that Hillary Clinton and one of her staff members had a child sex operation going on underneath a certain pizza restaurant [1]. This began as just a rumor started by someone with an agenda but it eventually gained a following of people who bought into it and began demanding that she be investigated for it. One of the people who bought into this hoax actually went to this restaurant with a rifle fired three shots and demanded to see their basement, and the building didn’t even have a basement [1]. This example shows how dangerous this misinformation can be. I lie can eventually develop into an armed gunman taking action against innocent people all because of a malicious rumor. This spread of lies surrounding politics also makes it incredibly hard for the average citizen to distinguish the truth from the lies and it makes voting difficult and also discourages people from voting if they believe everyone is lying. If we are to develop a knowledgeable society who is active in the voting process, we need to make sure that we give them the information about each candidate in a non-bias and truthful way and to do that the fake news must be countered by either law or the media platforms themselves. Unfortunately, some of these platforms such as Facebook have refused to remove any kind of political ads even if they are blatantly false and malicious [3].

           Clearly some kind of actions must be taken to minimize all of these negative effects in some way because it is clear that social media is hear to stay. It is such a difficult problem to tackle however, because limiting some of the undesirable content can be labeled as restricting freedom of speech and also because it involves changing the way the collective minds of people around the world think which is incredibly hard. The first proposal that I would make in order to reduce these issues is to make social media platforms more specific as far as the content that is acceptable on it. For example, we could split social media into categories. There could be social media platforms specifically for fitness and being sexy, platforms for casual social posts, and social platforms for political posts. This way you know more what you are getting into with each social media platform. Many people who scroll around on Facebook just want to get in contact with people and see how they are doing but they constantly get bombarded by political and sexualized posts and it draws them in and makes them feel bad in the process when they start reading about what the latest political scandal is or they see someone showing off their perfect body making them jealous. This separation of topics among social media could make it a much more accepting place for all audiences. Those who want a place to show off their body and admire others could do that on one platform, casual socializing could happen on another platform, politics on another, and etc. This would limit the exposure of underage people seeing political and sexualized topics and these platforms that show this content can easily be age restricted or blocked by the youth’s parents. One of the biggest problems that comes with this solution however, is that the social media platforms would have to start reprimanding people who are posting content that is not meant for their specific platform. For example, if someone was showing a picture of their barely clothed body on a socialization platform then that platform would need to take their post down and give them a warning about the content that they post. This would definitely cause quite a bit of backlash among the population and many would call this being anti-freedom of speech or even fascist. While these accusations would certainly have some merit, something must be done to protect the minds of our youth and the functioning of our society. Necessary change often requires necessary sacrifice and I very much believe that this is the case if we want to change the way social media influences our world.

   References

 [1]. Beware Fake News. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.cigionline.org/articles/beware-fake-news?gclid=Cj0KCQjwhZr1BRCLARIsALjRVQPr4NnD26s0W1pW-oeKcsjS_KIlv91rSJoAl--1PUYPHNK9V1eLjk4aAlPNEALw_wcB

 [2]. Miller, C., & Child Mind Institute. (n.d.). Does Social Media Cause Depression? Retrieved from https://childmind.org/article/is-social-media-use-causing-depression/

 [3]. Ortutay, B. (2020, January 9). Facebook again refuses to ban political ads, even false ones. Retrieved from https://apnews.com/90e5e81f501346f8779cb2f8b8880d9c

[ughandalso]

Not great, Bob!

The last time I wrote on this site seems like 100 years ago. It was the last weekend before we brought home the girl puppy and WOOF (pun intended) things have been rough (or should I say, RUFF).

We were NOT AT ALL prepared for how small the puppy was. Our first puppy was also small (they’re the same small breed), but he was on the dot of eight weeks old and weighed about six pounds. Our little lady was seven weeks and three days old (we figured this out later and I'm still mad at the breeder about it) and weighed just over three pounds. That is a VERY FUCKING SMALL dog. She did not seem at all ready to go home and even as we carried her to the car I was panicking. Are you SURE it's okay to take this dog from her mother?????

Things were not good. She was too little to do almost anything and could not be left alone for even a second. We couldn’t even leave her in the kitchen behind the baby gate because she was small enough to walk right through the slats of the gate. This was super fun because we had to keep her and our older dog separated, at least on either side of a divider, because he was so much bigger than her that we were afraid he'd accidentally hurt her. He did not seem at all charmed by her but was too curious to ignore her, which meant everyone was just super annoying all the time. Because the baby gate wasn’t an option we had to use a five-foot-tall collapsible pen, which was flimsy and noisy and which the puppy could also throw herself against hard enough to escape from. Our older dog wanted any treat or toy we gave to the puppy and thus was always trying to get inside the pen, at which point he only wanted to get out of the pen.

The puppy peed anywhere and everywhere. She did not seem especially affectionate or in fact to have any kind of personality at all. The puppy treats I bought her gave her gas. She woke up every 45 minutes at night, often having peed or pooped in her crate. Several times when we tried to get her to settle down in the crate at night she would scream and moan for hours (this never changed and still hasn't, we're just managing the behavior while we work with a trainer to figure it out). Worse, a couple of times she would get so worked up that she pooped in the crate, which was an epic, messy disaster and always seemed to happen at 4am the night before one of us needed to be on top of things for work the next day.

I began taking her to a puppy class with very high hopes. At first, it was fine, but by the third class the puppy was at her very worst, and she whined the whole time, for 90 god damn minutes, and refused to pay attention to me or the treats I used to try and get her to do the classwork. Several times I almost left. When I asked the trainer what I should do when we put her in the crate and she screamed for six hours, he replied "earplugs." I didn't go back to the last class.

She went through a phase where, when overtired, she would snarl viciously and bite us, saving the worst of this fury for me. For a couple of weeks, I was covered in cuts, scratches, and bruises because she was biting me hard enough to bruise. During the worst of this biting phrase, it is safe to say I hated the sight of her. Of course, I took care of her as much as I always have, but I had more or less made up my mind that we would not keep her. I even deleted all of the pictures of her I'd posted on my personal Instagram account. In most but not all cases, I'm a believer in you get the pet, you stick with the pet, but this puppy was breaking me.

It was really, really bad.

She is 14 weeks old now and I still haven't slept for more than three hours at a stretch and I cry about it a lot. I'm even more isolated, if possible, than I was when we got the first dog. I feel more constrained, I guess because I feel less hopeful about when we're going to be able to get her to a point where she'll go to bed and stay there all night and even less hope about getting her to a point where my husband and I can leave the house together.

One positive: It's a very good thing that I know our older dog grew out of (mostly) all his asshole behaviors, otherwise we would have rehomed this puppy already. It's hard on her to say that, but I have only recently begun to feel even a little attached to her. (She is, fortunately for her, extremely cute.) She is settling in now and may even be turning into a nice puppy. She is more affectionate and seems to have stopped soiling her crate, but she is still waking up every couple of hours. This week there was one night where she woke up once and it was glorious, but it was a cruel tease because it has not happened again.

More positives: She is over the worst of the biting. It just sort of stopped one day and now she hardly ever does it. I make her wear clothes every day and she is not a jerk about it, or about her collar either, which is nice because our older dog was and still is a drama queen about his outfits. She is better about going to the bathroom where she is supposed to, though we are still working on getting her to do it outside. We are still working with the trainer who is trying to help us figure out how to get her to be okay in her crate at night. If we can lick that, I can survive this, I *think*.

On Thursday I really felt like the walls were closing in on me. I was at home with both of the dogs, and it wasn't them exactly – we have a routine now and they were both being good. But I can't work for more than 10-15 minutes at a time, and my brain feels all over the place. When they're both asleep, I'm so grateful for the quiet that I'm not as productive as I could be. The worst thing is that I am never, ever, ever, ever alone, and it is driving me crazy. 

In desperation, I texted my husband and asked if he could please work from home on Tuesday or Wednesday next week so I could go into my office, even just for a few hours. He asked if I could get our dogsitter to come on Thursday, and this response did me in. The dogsitter is only available on Thursdays and no one goes into my office on Thursdays, so the point would be moot. All I wanted in the whole world was for someone to prioritize me for half a day and no one could manage this.

I was sitting on the couch and started crying. The dogs immediately stopped playing and pranced over to me, tails wagging, upturned faces curious. It was very cute, but they couldn't help me, not really.

Today, Friday, I am at a coffee shop. My husband had to work from home for reasons unrelated to me descending into madness, and I am temporarily free. But the morning is past and I can feel that it is almost time to return to puppy prison, plus the long unbroken weekend stretches in front of me, with nothing to do but wait for the puppy to sleep so I can fold laundry or mop the kitchen floor (dogs make everything stink, as it turns out).

The worst part of the day is late evening. I get so, so tired because I'm not sleeping, and right at the time of day when I should be looking forward to my bed, I just feel sadness and dread because I know I'm not going to get any sleep, not really. In my heart of hearts, I don’t believe I will ever again be able to just go to bed and sleep until morning. 

I will never, ever, ever again get a puppy, not ever. I feel foolish for having gotten this one, to be honest! I have a lot of regrets. There have been many days when I’ve thought longingly about how nice my life would have been the past two months if we’d not made this very stupid and expensive decision.

I would like to end this post on an upbeat note, but it isn't easy. This too shall pass? That's about the best I can do.

[gaiabros]

Short on time? Head on over to our ELECTROWEEN Mixes page where we have created an archive for all of our ELECTROWEEN productions. There you will find our latest 2019 mixes to stream and download. If you like what we’ve been creating, please subscribe to GAIA BROS to receive news and announcements about forthcoming projects and articles.

You read that right, ladies and gents. 2019 marks the decisive end to a decade of Halloween-inspired, pop culture infused music productions, which have been in production since the series’ humble beginnings back in Fall 2009. Right off the bat, you may have a question or two popping up. Why is ELECTROWEEN ending on its decade milestone 2019 mix? Will there be more EDM mixes coming in the future?

Grab a beer and find a cozy seat, then come back and join us for the details. Story time, kids!

Setting The Stage: First Mention of the Series’ End

Before jumping into ELECTROWEEN 2019 details, I need to spend a little time establishing some relevant details from a year ago.

Last Fall, shortly after we had released ELECTROWEEN 2018, I flew down to San Diego to visit Matt and his girlfriend Jessica for the weekend of Halloween. We saw the Halloween movie reboot, carved up some pumpkins, dropped by Tatsu Ramen in L.A. for some delicious bowls of noodles, and drove up to Universal Studios Hollywood for their Halloween Horror Nights (in particular, to check out the Stranger Things attraction). We had a wonderful time together.

Pumpkin carvings by Scott, Matt and Jessica

It was during this visit when I announced to Matt that 2019 would mark the final year for the ELECTROWEEN series, ending a solid run of releases spanning our 20s to our early 30s. It has become a cherished tradition… something we’ve always looked forward to with the start of each new calendar year. ELECTROWEEN is Halloween for us, and a token of our years of friendship and love for the arts, electronic dance music, cult video games and films. In short, it is the summation of everything we love, and have come to love. This was bittersweet to talk about, but in the end it’s for the right reasons.

The rationale behind this decision is, for the most part, straight-forward. Since jump starting my DJ hobby back in 2006, I have released over 30 studio production mixes, manned two radio shows ([OuteR HeaveN] and PLURALITY at WSNC Radio), and performed countless live DJ sets at house parties, bars and private events.

In many ways, I’ve exhausted myself from the art form and feel a burning need to start creating my own music, rather than curating the works of others as I’ve done for the majority of my adult years. But also, life has happened, too.

Other Happenings That Have Influenced This Decision

During the same weekend I visited Matt last October, I simultaneously released my second album, Gravitational Waves, for my chillsynth project Gravity Mission. The album took three years to envision, create and release (collaborating remotely for the entire process) after a six year dry spell from our initial 2012 debut Before The Spoken Word. I came to realize the creative process was deeply rewarding and allowed me to evolve artistically in ways I had not previously imagined. In a real sense, it showed me that the barriers to creating music only exist in my head, and that changing course at any time is entirely possible.

Gravity Mission’s Gravitational Waves album (released October 26, 2018)

Lastly, life changes have been a considerable factor, often left out of the picture here on GAIA BROS. Having moved eight times since the release of my initial 2009 mix, I’ve been feeling the need to get more serious about putting down roots, connecting to a single place and getting acquainted with my local community. After my wife and I bought our first home in 2017, I started switching gears and pursuing other interests, including gardening, foraging, craft beer, table top gaming, GM’ing and traveling. It’s been a wonderful past few years, but a lot to handle. Thus I’ve had to make some tough decisions and learn to be more realistic with my time commitments.

“Tell Us About ELECTROWEEN 2019 Already, Please!”

Whew! Thanks for hanging in here for the entire reason why you’re reading this post! Let’s jump right into ELECTROWEEN 2019 — its inception, influences and more.

As the crown jewel in this decade long saga, ELECTROWEEN 2019 needed to be fantastically epic in a way that other mixes couldn’t be. It needed flair, funk and spirit on all levels. But most importantly, it absolutely HAD to be a fun reminder of why we started doing this whole thing in the first place. Returning full circle to our beginnings was key.

Where it all began: ELECTROWEEN 2009 (released October 16, 2009)

I began by looking back on our early mixes and questioning why we fell in love with the concept of merging EDM tracks and jack-o’-lantern heads together. We were creating something different, something bold — a novel form of expression that did not yet exist in the world. Several tracks started to stand out, and they were always the ones that jacked our bodies in ways unlike anything else. That’s when the realization struck: our final mixes for the ELECTROWEEN series needed to be celebratory and sentimental, using tracks with massive swing and vibe that pulse with uplifting energy and emotion.

This led to months of heavy Spotify rotations and research, ultimately pointing to the spiritual successor of the 70s: Nu Disco! A long time fan of Daft Punk, their French house discography was a great starting place for finding similar artists and classics. What originally felt like a monumental undertaking quickly became a super synthesized formula for hot disco beats and flashing synths, and the energy continued to pick up from there!

September Reunion in Portland, Oregon

A few weeks back, Matt flew up to Portland to celebrate the end of the ELECTROWEEN series. We GAIA BROS reunited over glorious moments of food, drink and beats at home, while foraging in the woods for Chanterelles, and driving out to the coast. Matt and I carved up our pumpkin helmets for the last time and fully embraced the defining characteristic of our early mixes.

For the first time in seven years, we embarked on a photoshoot with gold and silver capes in search of Portland’s most aesthetically gratifying street art. Some gloomy weather rolled in, but we ended up working with the rainfall to leverage its luminous quality for the end product. Below is a gallery of the final images processed from the shoot, which we have included within the download files for the 2019 mixes. Continue on after the gallery for liner notes and the final cover art designs created especially for the occasion!

VII’s Decade Celebration Mix Liner Notes

From Scott: My tenth and final mix for the ELECTROWEEN series touches on the things most sentimental to me. It is everything I have to give, and everything I could ever say, in a timeframe just short of an hour and a half. This is the longest production I’ve created to date, and looking back on it, I never wanted a single moment of it to end. The mix embodies the essence of the long and wholesome nights spent with close friends and loved ones… those irreplaceable times that will forever shine in our minds and hearts.

My 2019 mix is divided up into three seamlessly transitioning acts: a soaring and lofty Halloween introduction at-length (VG OST and Synthwave), an all night long celebration (Nu Disco), and finally a sincere and heartfelt closure, painting a pensive mood with vulnerable feelings of love, melancholy and, ultimately, acceptance.

Samples from Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night are most prevalently stitched in between tracks. I completely fell in love with this game upon its release this past summer. Matt and I have patiently waited four years for this game, as we were original backers from the April 2015 Kickstarter campaign. It’s clear that Koji Igarashi and Michiru Yamane have put their souls into this beautiful masterwork. I also drew samples from other favorites including Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Game of Thrones, and 300, which all have their own places within the narrative of this work.

Having ventured into the darkness (perhaps a little too long) in years past, I’ve found my way back to the grooves that bring the “feel good” vibes in spades. I should note here that initially I had started working on this mix back in March 2019 in order to get a head start on the final mix concept. With that said, I am extremely satisfied with the end product. The coin design illustration I created for the cover art came together effortlessly based on the passion encompassing this special time. The whole process has been cathartic on a deep level. I’m grateful for these ten years of ELECTROWEEN and will always take them with me into whatever comes next. Special thanks goes to Matt for believing in this project and being a great collaborator, my wife Lindsey for her support and encouragement, and David for listening and being a loyal fan all these years.

Loveless’ Decade Celebration Mix Liner Notes

From Matt: OHHHHH MAN! Has it been a decade already? Where did all the time fly? I was just a wee lad yesterday bumping to Scott’s mixes and now I’m a seasoned vet of the Halloween variety. Tonight I am going to see Lana Del Rey with my girlfriend which will be a great cap on the end of ELECTROWEEN. Lana’s moody and melodic music is of a bygone era. She really evokes the spirit of ELECTROWEEN (side note: thank you to Jessica, my aforementioned girlfriend, for introducing Lana to me). This year I open with an instrumental and a remix of her first big hit, Video Games. A song that reminds me of a few weekends ago when I visited Scott.

We went mushroom foraging and shot the ELECTROWEEN liner photos. We haven’t shot photos like that since 2012 and it was amazing. The rain followed us every spot we went that day, brightening up all the colors. It was a tough shoot, but well worth the results.

We also went to a retro video game bar in Portland. There, we found the Sega Genesis version of TMNT: Hyperstone Heist. I haven’t played that game since I was in grade school and it was an incredible moment to share with Scott. The song “Video Games” evokes a simpler time with a tinge of melancholy. I think I’ll always pair this experience and that song together.

ELECTROWEEN is coming to an end. As I type that, my heart hurts. When Scott and I spoke about it earlier this year, it bothered me. I wasn’t upset with the decision, but ELECTROWEEN has become an integral part of who I am. However, it is important to move on and hone our passions. You cannot be married to every creative thing you do, and ELECTROWEEN has come to a fitting end. I think Scott and I will take everything we learned over the years and make something truly magical and different in 2020.

As for my mix, this year it was more personal. I skipped many of the video game pleasantries that have made up ELECTROWEEN’s previous iterations. I tried to throw in all styles of music we’ve used in the past 10 years and kept the overall mix more funky and positive. Halloween is for mischief after all!

In 2019 Loveless (my DJ persona) is locked away in a mental institution and the key is thrown away. This, of course, is the end of ELECTROWEEN and Loveless’ fate is uncertain, but you always gotta leave the end open for a sequel. Thank you to everyone who has listened to these mixes over the years. It has been a labor of love that I wouldn’t have traded for anything else. From now until the end of time the crisp Autumn air will always feel like ELECTROWEEN to me.

Thanks For Listening and Being A Part of ELECTROWEEN!

We sincerely hope that you enjoy the ELECTROWEEN 2019 mixes while testing out some of your best moves this Halloween season. Whether this is the first mix you’ve listened to of ours or your tenth, we want to thank you for being a part of our community and keeping the spirit of Halloween alive. ELECTROWEEN has been one of the most meaningful projects of our entire lives, and it will always be here, preserved in time. The mixes will continue to be available on GAIA BROS well into the future; feel free to dive back in any time.

The era of ELECTROWEEN officially ends here, and a new one begins. What is to come, no one can know for sure…

—

I’d like to close this significant chapter of our lives with a special quote:

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is more people who have come alive.” – Howard Thurman

Peace, Love, Unity and Respect — forever and always. ❤

VII (Scott Werley) and Loveless (Matt Konop)

The End of an Era: Celebrating 10 Years of ELECTROWEEN Mixes #electroween #halloween #mixes Short on time? Head on over to our ELECTROWEEN Mixes page where we have created an archive for all of our ELECTROWEEN productions.