#thomas baldwin

[thegameofart]

Detail from “A Circular View from the Balloon at its greatest Elevation”, featured in Thomas Baldwin’s Airopaidia (1786) 

[nofatclips]

Day-O (The Banana Boat Song) from Beetlejuice

[vhshistory]

Happy belated 40th anniversary, Thomas & Friends!

[pinkyberet]

Done :3

(This Makes Nice Casual Outfits For Them :3)

[politicaldilfs]

Connecticut Governor DILFs

Dannel Malloy, Lowell Weicker, Ned Lamont, Abraham Ribicoff, Chester B. Bowles, James L. McConaughy, John G. Rowland, John N. Dempsey, John Davis Lodge, Raymond E. Baldwin, William A. O'Neill, Thomas Meskill

[sirduck48]

I forgot to make a post earlier about this, and it's technically the 10th of October now (only by slightly over an hour as of me writing this), but it was the 40th anniversary of the TTTE TV series.

Even though there were series of TTTE that were less good, the fact that the series that were good are still so well remembered to this day shows how impactful the show is. I love the books as much as the show, and grew up with both. I am mainly going to be talking about the show here, but most if not all of my points here also apply to the books.

I love how quaint, full of character and full of life the show is. So many characters are memorable and have such distinct personalities, from cheeky to haughty to cheerful to determined. The show has very good and memorable music as well.

Now I am going to give my own opinions about the series in general. I love series 1-7 and the Jack and the Pack series, I like the music for series 8-16 but the writing feels condescending and the characters are limited and do not act like themselves, I really enjoy series 17-20, I feel a bit conflicted about series 21 (I like some things, but not others, mainly the bouncing of the engines, the bouncing really irks me), and I have both feelings of indifference and second hand embarrassment when it comes to series 22-24.

Diverting from the subject slighly, I haven't seen much of All Engines Go, but from what I've seen, it's fine. It doesn't stand out, but it isn't the worst thing that I've seen. It's disappointing how childlike a fair few of the characters are, and how they jump all over the place to the point that the tracks might as well not be there, but it doesn't really try to be the original show, so I'm rather unfazed.

I also have my own opinions on the narrators. I love Ringo Starr's narration, I do like George Carlin's narration, I love Michael Angelis' narration (though this does depend on the series) and I also like Alec Baldwin's narration.

Michael Brandon though, I only like his narration in the Jack and the Pack episodes. The rest of his narration though, I really don't like it at all. He uses the nasally voice all of the time, and I can't stand it, and I just don't think that his voices suit the characters. I do feel bad for him though, it seems that he does have enthusiasm, and I do like the Texan voice that he uses for some characters (Kelly is one of them, and I do think that it suits him) to be fair. His narration just isn't for me in my opinion.

Characters wise, my favourites are probably very obvious, but I'm going to say them anyway. Not in a particular order, Duck, Sir Handel, Kelly and Nelson are my favourites. I love all of them equally, and they are protected under the law of me. I love them all for different reasons, but I might save those rambles for separate posts.

This ramble has little flow (as per usual), but to conclude, this show means a lot to me. It always has and always will be. Happy 40th anniversary TTTE. I love rambling about this show.

[busting-buffers]

george carlin made james sound stereotypically queer sometimes, but alec baldwin really solidified it and thats why im gay now

[steam-beasts]

Shining Time Station/TATMR headcanon

In TATMR and STS, Mr Conductor (Alec Baldwin version) and the other conductors' appearances are actually forms they take on to fit in more with humanity, albeit being tiny. They don't have proper appearances so to fix this, they use an existing human's appearance as their own. They're like body snatchers, but don't have any evil intentions or goals.

For example, if you've ever seen Shining Time Station, the Season 1 Mr Conductor we would see isn't the real Ringo Starr, but a conductor-copy of him; same looks, same voice, but different personality and different memories.

If I had the power to rewrite Magic Railroad, I'd have Lily go;

Lily; "Wait, aren't you Alec Baldwin??"

Mr Conductor; "Well...I am, but not at the same time. I just look and sound exactly like him"

I've tried to make this headcanon make sense as much as possible, sorry if it doesn't. Lol.

[expirisims]

Three Under Four

Welcome back to the McAlister's! Those zzz's won't last for long! All three kids are up and ready to run Mom and Dad ragged!

Meanwhile, our current baby explosion seems to still be in full swing with the Baldwin's expecting their second little one!

And Shayne's apparently trying his luck with both of his exes...facepalm! To be fair, he does live across the street from Edith so hopefully she's just seeing him outside of his own house. One can only hope!

Once all three kids were taken care of it was off to work on the classic car for Joanna! Antonio begrudgingly paid the bills they can hardly afford, but at least he's actually dressed! Nothing like doing car bodywork in the snow, in your nightgown, LOL!

Back inside, Antonio is making some toasty warm pancakes...and a mess! Just look at that stovetop! Not gonna lie, those pancakes look delicious though :)

Hmm...Another party, huh Reggie? I was hoping it would be a wedding party by now!

Back to work on the car, I'm hoping they finish it this round, I'm excited to see what it looks like!

Oh, Joanna! You're the one in the cooking career! Not only that, but you're also the highest ranking of my sims in that career! What happened here?

Joanna's finally dressed and running off to work while the kiddo's play. I hope that babysitter comes soon! They can't really afford the sitter services, but they definitely can't afford either Antonio or Joanna to miss work!

Andria's playing the xylophone, (or is that Mabel?) and of course they shower has sprung a leak.

Joanna headed out one last time to hang Holiday Lights and work on the car again before trying to get a few hours of sleep. With three toddlers it seems all my sims have to sleep in shifts so someone is always rested enough to take care of the kiddos.

And we finish out the night with some neighborhood news. Geeze, Reggie's party must have been a rager, it went on for literal hours!

[uwmspeccoll]

Signatures of the witnesses to the publishing of Shakespeare's will.

Shakespeare Weekend

Our next stop on the tour of UWM Special Collections' Shakespeare Collection is The plays and poems of William Shakspeare, in ten volumes: collated verbatim with the most authentick copies, and revised; with the corrections and illustrations of various commentators; to which are added, an essay on the chronological order of his plays; an essay relative to Shakspeare and Jonson; a dissertation on the three parts of King Henry VI; an historical account of the English stage; and notes; - what a ten dollar title! The volumes were edited by Irish scholar Edmond Malone (1741-1812), published in 1790, and printed by Henry Baldwin for a laundry list of booksellers.  

Malone is best known for his biographical Shakespeare research and chronologically collocating his plays in an essay entitled “An Attempt to Ascertain the Order in Which the Plays Attributed to Shakspeare Were Written” which is included in the Volume One Prolegomena of this collection. Additionally, Malone famously documented various spellings of Shakespeare and declared his preference in dropping the first “e” leaving us with Shakspeare. 

Volume one also includes a frontispiece engraving by Charles Knight (1743-1827) based on the Chandos portrait of Shakespeare, a copy of Shakespeare’s mortgage and will that famously bequeaths his wife his “second best bed”, and a preface by Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) mirroring an engraving by Thomas Holloway (1748-1827) that depicts Johnson and his contemporary scholars.  

View more Shakespeare Weekend posts. 

-Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[zariax0x0]

just a person who's obsessed with the US Navy, England, Captain Thomas Chandler, Mike Slattery and the USS Nathan James :)

[james-joyces-right-eyeball]

MORE Best Short Stories I Would Recommend to Anyone

Because I am a person who changes, since I made my last (apparently very popular?) post about short stories I would recommend, I have read YET EVEN MORE great short stories. Here are some additions I would like to make to that last post, and I hope y'all will seek them out:

"Secretary" - Mary Gaitskill

"The Boarding House" - James Joyce

"Revelation" - Flannery O'Connor

"House Taken Over" - Julio Cortarzar

"The Renegade" - Shirley Jackson

"The Lady of the House of Love" - Angela Carter

"The Interior Castle" - Jean Stafford

"The Man Child" - James Baldwin

"The Frolic" - Thomas Ligotti

"The Erl-King" - Angela Carter

"Blow-Up" - Julio Cortarzar

"An Encounter" - James Joyce

"Something Nice" - Mary Gaitskill

"Like Mother Used to Make" - Shirley Jackson

"Miss Brill" - Katherine Mansfield

"Bestiary" - Julio Cortarzar

"The Outing" - James Baldwin

"The Bloody Chamber" - Angela Carter

"Got a Letter From Jimmy" - Shirley Jackson

"The Echo & the Nemesis" - Jean Stafford

[aytelowfobiya]

Blows into handkerchief* It seems my journey with these characters has finally ended, and I'm finding it difficult to say goodbye...

Oh, who am I kidding? I'm so rewatching this.

[popculturebuffet]

Thomas and Friends Retrospective: The Magic Railroad: The Workprint Cut (Comissioned by Lachie V)

Previously on this blog:

Also I may or may not have reviewed a bunch of Thomas the Tank Entine, cumilating in a look at the disasterous theatrical cut which you can find my barely coherent thoughts on that barely coherent film here. We haven't gotten the results back from the lab yet.

The Theatrical cut is so legendarily wonky I just.. coudln't leave it at that and feel like I gave the film a good shake. So I took on the arduous task of watching an unfinished workprint that I erronously said last time was on the blu ray. While the blu ray has some scenes from this version, the full workprint was leaked seperately and god bless those who did as it gives us something of a look at what this film was supposed to be. So join me under the cut as I see what this film WAS and if what it was was any good.. or at least comprehensible. After the nightmare of that last review i'll settle for "Makes sense from point a to b" that's the state we're entering this review at people. You've been warned.

The workprint of the Magic Railroad is interesting. This is the first workprint i've ever seen and thus the first i've ever covered on this blog. For those unaware, as I was before I googled it, a work print is an unfinished version of a film, with effects, adr and the soundtrack largely missing. So it was fascinating to see just how many pieces of the film, even things as simple as a line that LOOKED on screen are put into place after the fact. Film Editors don't get enough credit.. plenty of blame when it's earned but not enough credit and this made me respect them all the more.

That said watching a prototype of a finished film i'd seen.. was a lot. It seems easy, the effects just aren't there right? Well it's not just visual effects: it's SOUND effects. The only sounds are either ADR from the various crew member and anything on camera. And said ADR is not from the actors yet but various voices i'd never heard before and also Britt Alcroft. It's fair and I don't blame the cut for it, this wasn't MEANT to be viewed by anyone but editors. It's just hard on my autisim: whlie i'm functional and can handle sensory changes normally in a film, having there be no sound where their clearly should be in a lot of places... was just weird. I KNOW why it's not there, and usually my mind fills in the gaps but for some reason here it just felt extra off when an explosion or heavy digging happened with no sound. It's just this freaky effect and it took some time to get through it as a result, not helped by me only realizing what was really throwing me off towards the end of the film.

I can't recommend this cut as a film.. because it's not finished nor was it intended to be a finished product. It's not really something for bad movie night like it's theatrical cousin. As an interesting artifact of this film and Thomas as a whole though, I am delighted it exists as it fills in a LOT of the gaps and is complete enough I can judge what aspects were cut by their own merits.

Let's start with the big one, the most infamous and curious of the bunch: PT Boomer, played by Doug Lennox who realizes exactly what kind of film he's in and hams it up accordingly. Boomer is one of the films big bads... and was almost entirely cut from the theatrical cut, with only one brief scene that was redubbed, a scene so plot important and load bearing I forgot it even happened.

PT Boomer is all about

Wanting to make profit off things. That's.. about what we get. Seriously we have two seperate scenes where one of the kids asks Billy then Stacey about boomer.. and they just say essentially "He's greedy and wants to buy everything" without ever clarifying who he is, what he does for his BUISNESS, or what his goals are beyond "profit off a magical lady train he broke in the past." I am so sad he got cut as while he woudln't of made the film much better, he is so bad it's good glorious: even in this his plans literally boil down to

KIDNAP MAGIC LADY TRAIN FOR REVENGE

?????

PROFIT

It's still not much above Disel's plan that just replaces kidnap with kill and profit with "become train king". It is funny though and gives this guy a leg up.

The most we get is his backstory with Burnett, Lily's grandpa who gets fleshed out considerably in this version. In the original his backstory was just "diesel nearly killed this train I found and my wife never got to ride her" which is prettty damn thin and even before the workprint cut I could tell something was missing.

The actual backstory is still as thin as a sheet of paper covered in bacon grease, but it's at least.. something: He swored to take her on a ride but before he could Boomer, who had also wanted to bang Lily's grandma but lost out to burnett because well evil I guess, found her and threatned burnett if he didn't let him drive the train. He ended up driving too fast, making this a dramatic version of that trampoline scene from community.

I've tried not to use youtube videos as the thumbnail takes up the link but it really is just this exact moment but with trains and a dead wife.

We also get a minutes long montage of Burnett dancing with his wife. it adds nothing to the plot and is one of the cuts i can absolutely see why it happened. We also get a scene of Stone and Lily having dinner where he says I don't like trains.

Another change as a result is that the big cave scene with Patch.. is towards the end. In the thetrical cut we get 80 gallons of train expoision while the workprint at least plays it as a mystery: a whistle is heard in the mountain and instead of finding out what it is seconds after we hear it, it's played up the whole film. IT's a much better fit and I question why this was changed at all.

That also goes for Boomer. I went back and checked and. .he's not really IN the movie that much. He shows up, meances a bit, hams it up and leaves. He spends most of the film either trying ot find stone, buy shining time for some reason, which makes mr conductor's visions of an apocalypse make far more sense, and the rest trying to dig his way to the hidden railway then blow everything the fuck up when that dosen't work out. Keeping him in.. really wasn't going to hurt the film and I don't really buy reports "he scared children". The evil brother of the attention all gamers guy isn't going to be in any child's nightmares.

Cutting boomer also makes the non lily or coked out conductor characters feel more suplerfous as it turns out the original cut had way mroe for them to do. Not a lot, but still more. Patch has a horse.. which WAS in the theatrical cut but I did not notice. Probably because he's also lacking his sweet cowboy hat... it's like taking away knuckles cowboy hat from the sonic ova: you take away the source of his powers. Billy likewise gets a scene with boomer and a scene getting a warning. He still dosen't DO much but I feel bad for clowning on his actor last time: Russel Means is actually a wonderful billy replacement. He's not as good as Tom Jackson is in the role, but he's still pretty neat but in the theatrical cut he's there for all of two seconds and seemed a lot stiffer. That was really the editing's fault not him as he has billy's laidback charm and wise nature down pat. Stacey also gets an extra scene, though she still got PLENTy in the theatrical. Cutting this plot was unfair to the actors involved and their screentime and especially douchey to Doug Lennox, who put in a great performance. .that got cut entirely.

To my shock though the mass cuts... really aren't responsible for the film being pretty hard to parse. The workprint cut IS legible at least as a few confusing bits are explained: instead of wanting to kill all trains disel wants to conquer them, and he's unaware Lady is connected to the magic, meaning he GENUINELY dosen't realize he dies if he destroys her. So instead of stupid his plan comes off as dangerous and just the right amount of sinister for a preschool film instead of

We also get clarifcation on the "My Universe" thing. The narration for the work print still referes to it as mr. conductor's universe.. but they actually explain what the hell they were saying with that: The various mr conductors built this universe. Granted

Unlike the theatrical though, I can at least accept that answer: the mr conductors do have godlike powers and it makes Mr Conductor speaking with authority on his power loss possibly killing him less ass pully: it makes sense they'd pass this shit down through generations and makes sense Mr C Junior wouldn't know it as he's a fuckwit.

It makes the film less maddening.. but it dosen't change the fact this new lore is just kinda jammed in there, a square train in a round station house. The lore still dosen't make a ton of since even for a film for small children, and again thei rparents and possibly older siblings still have to watch it with them so why punch down. All punching down did was get parents to cave and go take their kids to see X-Men or Pokemon 2000 instead, both much better movies. Especailly pokmeon 2000. Fuck I really need to cover both of those don't I.

It also dosen't explain simple shit like "Why does lady tie the two universes together" and "after being in a coma for so long why is magic just fading now". It's still at the end of the day an overcomplicated mess that creates it's own weird lore never to be used again that no one vibed with because even for the stupid train children show it was baffling instead of fairy tale style like they were going for.

The other scenes cut are far more understandable: that dance scene I mentiond went on to long and we get a brief prologue of Lily in the big city and the reason behind the fire escape line. It's.. nothing we honestly needed mostly Mara wilson wistfully starring outside a train.. which is adorable but dosen't really move the plot along.

So that leads us to the final cut and the final change worth talking about between versions: the voice actors. Like with boomer the executives tried overcorrecting to test audience complaints. They dont' like one of the villians? Cut him out entirely. They don't like the voices for some of the characters? replace the bitches! Yeah originally Thomas was voiced by John Bellis, Percy and James by Thomas UK narrator Micheal Angellis, Splatter and Dodge by Patrick Breen, and Disel 10 by Keith Scott.

Unlike with removing boomer I get most of these edits: Unlike boomer I completely buy that D10 scared children as Keith Scott's voice for him is terrifying.. though the terror is undrecut by the adr version of him sounding like Lumpy Space Princess. It's a great voice and I feel bad for Scott.. but it is a bit too scary> Granted they coudl've just.. worked with him to find another voice as they had before (He tried a russian voice before this that was apparently even creepier), so it's shitty they fired him and everyone here instead of simply recasting them or giving them something else.

LIkewise I love MIcheal Angellis and having him voice cameo was a good idea.. but they shoudl've had him do Henry instead. His voice works when he's narrating every character.. but I get why having an old gentleman voice for Percy and James, both younger engines dosen't quite work. Granted unlike with D10, where his replacement got the tone better, making Percy and James small children dosen't fix the problem. Their youthful not 8. Stupid Train Children is not that literal a term.

Thomas on the other hand.. was fine: he sounded youthful, had a nice plesant voice and I honestly prefer it over the final cut voice with Eddie Glenn. Glenn isn't bad.. but Bellis just got the character better. Splatter and Dodge are also way better and the film does a far better job conveying thier reluctant minon status and making them humorous foils to dissel.

So all in all the Work Print version is a better film.. but only by comparision. It has some good stuff that was cuts and the edits done were mostly moronic but it's still a film that alternates between boring and WHAT THE FUCK. it just explains more, which helps with the latter

The Magic Railroad in either film is a film that tried to cram way too much shit in. It tried so hard to escalate thomas to save the world level shit when that just .. dosen't scale with either Thomas and Friends or Shining Time Station. Both are about small scale problems in small slice of lifey places: a cozy british isle and a whimsical train station. Their biggest issues are dickheads like Disel and god emperor or schemer. You could've had thomas go on a treasure hunt to save the rail way or shining time or both. Maybe Schemer is trying to buy the failing railway. I mean if their going to go with the skeezy buisness douche cliche at least make it the guy you already have who would defintely do that if he could. Give him Boomer as a boss if you want. It keeps the tension, the two worlds element and mr c going back and forth as he could've taken Mara Wilson to shining time to go on the hunt to save the station. Give her an attachment to it. Make Burnett stone a conductor. You don't have to throw everything out, but simply lowering the stakes would've made this a more coherent film. I"m not sure how GOOD it woudl've been bu tit would've been a better Thomas Movie, a better shining time movie and something people would've actually wanted to see.

Instead it's a mess that changed Thomas as a whole, with Britt's failures here leading to her stepping down and eventually the company being purchased by HIT. But more on that another time for now we can put this train to bed. These reviews have been exausting as I don't want to be negative but these films, both cuts, are hot garbage. one just makes more sense. Hopefully if the proposed thomas film goes through they get it right... until then all we're left is a mess of what could've been and alec baldwin on cocaine.

Next Time: Turns out there is one as we have a new plan. I'll be covering season 6 sometime later this year, season 7, then teaking a break while Lachey figures out the rest of the schedule and I cover venture bros seasons 4b- the end. Thanks for reading

[pinkyberet]

A2 as Peter Sam and A3 as hmmmm Smudger if not taken

Done :3

[kevinvoncrastenburg]

Uberhood Pics (52) - Bell, Contrary, Delarosa, Greenman, O'Mackey, Ottomas, Roth & Shikibu

(Peter Larson, Jason Larson's husband, annoying Luis Aspir.) Here's a photo dump of random families from my last Uberhood round. Families where not that much happened. I took a few pics here and there but they were never enough to make a full post about each family only. I will add a short caption to explain what happened or rather what was the highlight of each session.

Opal Contrary teaching her second son, Leo, how to talk.

Florence selling flowers to a townie. (I also redecorated Florence's flower shop a little bit.) 💐

Someone breaking into the Greenman's house. 🙄

Daisy Greenman playing with her cat, Sunflower. 🐾

Harper O'Mackey (Gabe & Patricia O'Mackey's daughter) playing with Eric Larson. (Jason & Peter Larson's adopted son)

Sharla Ottomas & Gallagher Newson going steady. 💕

Stella Roth & Peter Ottomas continuing their affair.

Cleo Shikibu & Connor Weir getting closer to each other.