#what's on my shelf

[shutupholden]

What’s On My Shelf? #1: Stop Making Sense (1984)

David Byrne in Stop Making Sense.

The year is 2024, and streaming services are dominating the film and TV industry. They’re also collecting other streaming services like Infinity Stones and calling it “bundling”. What a time to be alive!

A lot of people out there think that physical media is dying. If your name is Best Buy, you apparently think it’s already dead. But it’s still very much alive and there’s still a market for it. I currently have over 200 titles sitting on my shelf and that number will absolutely continue to grow because I love physical media.

That brings me to the point of this post—and the potential series of posts to come.

A few weeks ago I had a random idea for a podcast called What’s On My Shelf?, which would involve me choosing a film in my collection at random and talking about it. Because I hate the sound of my own voice and do a better job writing my thoughts down than actually verbalizing them, I scratched the podcast idea and opted for the same thing but in blog form.

Today the randomizer, which pulls films from my Letterboxd lists that I use to digitally catalog my collection, chose 1984’s Stop Making Sense.

Conceived for the stage by Talking Heads frontman David Byrne and directed by Jonathan Demme, Stop Making Sense captures the iconic band as they take the stage at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. Shot over four nights and featuring hits like “Burning Down the House” and “Once in a Lifetime”, as well as the now infamous “Big Suit”, it is considered one of the greatest concert films of all time.

David Byrne in True Stories (1986).

I first got into David Byrne and the Talking Heads sometime in 2021. I became particularly obsessed with “Once in a Lifetime” and had it on repeat. That same year I watched David Byrne’s first and only directorial effort, True Stories (1986), which had a killer soundtrack. Sometime after that, I watched David Byrne’s American Utopia on HBO, which is a Spike Lee-directed recording of Byrne’s Broadway show of the same name. I loved the music so much and listened to it everyday for months.

Flash forward to 2023 when A24 announces that they’ll be re-releasing Stop Making Sense in IMAX. I was so excited that I went and bought a copy of the film, which in hindsight was a painfully unnecessary purchase but I had never seen it before and I wanted to as soon as I possibly could.

David Byrne and Chris Frantz in Stop Making Sense.

The film blew my mind when I watched it alone in my room, so when the time finally came for it to hit IMAX screens, I was ready. I picked up a buddy of mine (who lived an hour and a half away) and drove to the closest AMC that was screening the film (which was another hour away), and had my mind blown all over again. A24’s remaster looked and sounded INCREDIBLE in IMAX and was worth the drive. The underwhelmingly brief live-streamed Q&A afterwards… not so much.

The collector's edition of Stop Making Sense, released by A24.

Earlier this year, A24 finally announced a physical release of the film on 4K UHD, which I pre-ordered immediately despite already owning a copy of the film on Blu-ray… and not having the kind of income to just drop $60 on a movie like that. After months of waiting it finally arrived in the mail this week. I have yet to open it at this point, but I’m excited to watch it again!

There’s a reason Stop Making Sense is considered one of the greatest concert films of all time. The music, the staging, the choreography, the decision to have the band members and set pieces come in one by one—it’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen. To quote my own Letterboxd review: “Just good vibes all around. Big Suit.”

[plutonicbees]

secret calls in the phone/sewing/cat room (chapter 4 of bllb u will always be famous to me)

[newvestroia]

What will happen in the future? Do you think it will be better than today?

[incorrect-riordanverse]

ten-year-old Nico about Percy and gang: I just want to be included.

Nico, after being included: what the fuck—

[rohans-daughter]

oh also look what my husband built for me

any guesses??

a yarn shelf!!! I suggested adding dowels on the sides for skeins, but he designed the rest, building it out of birch plywood, premade trim, and some oak scraps leftover from a job renovating a church.

I think this is my favorite thing that I own now.

[darqx]

Surprise

[burning-sol]

People will say they're a short king but your "short" king can comfortably use the bus handles while my ass has to be told to sit down because people recognise I am a hazard if left to stand on the bus (will fall over and eat shit and die if I do not crash into someone first).

I realise people won't understand unless I provide a diagram so here you go.

[artemispanthar]

Crimes against short people

[paracosmicessence]

page 1 out of *checks files* what is currently 15 but that may or may not change depending on how i’m gonna format the writing into the sketches

hopefully gonna get 2 and 3 out either today or tomorrow bc neither of those have a complete background room and that took me an unnecessarily long amount of time

[el-66]

[shutupholden]

What’s On My Shelf? #4: Skinamarink (2022)

This post contains spoilers for Skinamarink.

How do you make analog horror boring? You make it a feature film.

At this point I probably have 250+ films on my shelf, but just because I own something doesn’t mean I like it. In fact, I’m the kind of person who will buy stuff I’ve never seen before, either because it’s something I want to see or because I feel like trying something new. Nine times out of ten, I end up enjoying the film. But I don’t always get lucky. Sometimes a film that I had high expectations for won’t meet those expectations. Other times I’ll go into a film completely blind, with little to no expectations, and end up hating it. I’m gonna be discussing a film that falls into that first category.

People on TikTok called it the most terrifying film they’ve ever seen. The trailer looked promising. I was bummed when I missed its theatrical run, and was so excited when it finally came out on Blu-ray. But something funny happened when I finally watched it.

I fell asleep.

I’m talking about director Kyle Edward Ball’s feature-length debut Skinamarink, an experimental supernatural horror film about two little kids who wake up in the middle of the night, unable to locate their father and unable to escape their house because the doors and windows start disappearing.

When you were young, did you ever wake up in the middle of the night after falling asleep somewhere other than your bed and discover that your house, a place that’s so familiar to you, suddenly feels so unfamiliar, at least for one brief, disorienting moment? This movie is that, but it goes on for two… fucking… hours. The effect does not take long to wear off.

A still from Heck.

Skinamarink started as a proof-of-concept short called Heck, and in my opinion, it would have been better off just staying a short. I find that analog horror is most effective in small doses, and after watching this film, I’m still waiting to be proven wrong.

I don’t mean to make it sound like my feelings toward this film are entirely negative, because they’re absolutely not. I liked Skinamarink, or at least the concept. And you know what? It did have moments that scared me to death, and I’m not just talking about jumpscares.

There are many shots in this film that linger on dark corners and dark hallways, and we all know that if you stare into the dark long enough, your brain begins to trick your eyes into thinking that you can see something there. Shots like that filled me with anxiety and dread, but it’s the final shot of the film that gave me full body chills.

We once again linger on pitch black nothingness. That feeling of dread comes back. I’m waiting for my eyes to start playing tricks on me, but then something happens that I don’t expect: THERE’S AN ACTUAL FACE. Every single hair on my body stood up. I had to look away from the screen because it actually made me uncomfortable. This movie that put me to sleep the first time I tried to watch it somehow managed to unsettle me in a way that I’ve never quite experienced, and it waited until the very last second to do it.

How I managed to sleep after that I don’t know.

It’s not bad. It’s not great. It’s definitely unique. Ball took an unconventional approach to the horror genre and made something original, and even though I didn’t love it as much as I wanted to, I’ll still recommend Skinamarink to anyone looking to try something different.

[scourgeofmyownbrain]

Only one guy on here has two eyes, and even then, they're fake eyes. It's big-tits-McGee, Mr. logic man extraordinaire, Geneva Suggestion Believer himself: Shockwave! Yep, all 12 of him, a reasonable amount of alternates to have, unlike some people... Shockwave Height Chart, everyone, fuckin wee.

Edit: I didn't like the old scaling I had so I changed it. The old chart is at the end of this post.

Quick Disclaimer, if any of the images look weird, it's because I had to stitch a few separate images together to create a full body shot of the character.

Here are links to my Bumblebee Chart, my Optimus Chart, my Megatron Chart, and my Soundwave Chart. Please go gawk at how many Optimus designs there are, sweet fuck, there are so many. For future reference, all these charts will be filed under my "Transformers Height Charts" tag and my "aka the adventures of a..." tag.

Explanations and Sources below the cut.

Unicron Trilogy Energon - ~14 feet 3 inches (No actual source, and Energon doesn't have any listed heights anywhere. For the uneducated, the Unicron Trilogy has given each of its 3 seasons separate names and 3 separate art styles. This is the design used in Energon (S2) though he only shows up in Energon. I was able to compare him to Optimus, and using Cybertron's listed heights, I got this number. I am in physical pain, it does not get better from here. Hilarious side note, his Japanese name is Laserwave, which contains the missing "wave" of Shockwave in this iteration's name.)

Earth Spark - ~15 feet (No actual source for ES, but using a barn door to get Bumblebee's height, then Optimus's, then Megatron's height, I was able to make a guess at Shockwave's. Shockwave comes up to about Megatron's chin; I lost the screenshot I used. It's so convoluted, I know, but it's all I have, also, tiny universe, everyone is so small)

TFA Longarm/V1 - 15 feet 2 inches (Animated has no actual numbers, but the lovely @phoenix-inanis has provided a frankly astounding resource with their own calculations for the heights of all the TFA characters. Go look at it, it's wonderful -> https://phoenix-inanis.notion.site/TFA-Height-Chart-f6ad2960ca8c4c5b859ee4958723aaa4?pvs=4)

Gen 1 - ~18 feet (TFWiki, uuuuh I've got nothing to add)

Netflix Cybertron Trilogy - ~18 feet (I have no source for this, other than assuming that because this design is identical to Gen 1, they are the same height. That's it, really)

Knight/Capel-Verse - ~18 feet (No source, and he never stands next to anyone I can measure him against, but because the TFOne director has said that this movie is both canon to the LA movies and its own separate canon, I am assuming the height I figured out for TFOne applies to this universe as well. Until proven otherwise. Capel directed the ROTB movie if you're wondering why his name is there)

One - ~18 feet (No source, I got this number by comparing him to Optimus. Now, I am aware of the TFO heights listed on the wiki, but I reject those numbers on principal. A: Those numbers are sourced from the Walmart Promotional AR Experience that came out before the movie. B: There are three decimal points, and that number does not convert into a whole number in meters (which is originally what I thought was weird about it). C: The director has said that this movie is both canon to the LA movies and its own separate canon, so I have elected to use the few given heights we have from KCV and worked from there. My Optimus post has slightly more context if you want it)

Cyberverse - 20 feet (This comes from a screenshot of this video which has the Cyberverse height chart everyone uses, though the quality of the screenshot is iffy.)

Aligned Cont. WF/FOC/TFP - 26 feet 2 inches (This number comes from Fandom and I completely believe it, even if they don't list their source, because the entirety of this universe is freakishly tall. Go look at my other charts, all the ALC designs are monstrous compared to the others)

TFA V2 - 29 feet 11 inches (Once again, phoenix-inanis did a fuck ton of work, go look at it, it's wonderful -> https://phoenix-inanis.notion.site/TFA-Height-Chart-f6ad2960ca8c4c5b859ee4958723aaa4?pvs=4)

Bayverse - ~30 feet (Ok, so I don't have a source for this one. There used to be one, BV Shockwave used to be listed as 40 feet tall bc of an article done to promote the movie, but that is no longer listed for reasons not known to me, and making some comparisons to Optimus, I have found them to be kinda close in height. It's very hard to actually validate any of this. Shockwave never stands normally next to anything I can use as a ruler at any point in the movie. He's always at a dramatic angle or partially covered by something in the shot. It's so violently frustrating. I am confident he is around this height though, I just can't figure out how much taller than Optimus he is)

And that's it. I didn't have to leave any designs out, all of them are included here (hopefully). It was so nice to work with a character where I wasn't drowning in 20+ designs across every goddamn universe.

Edit: Here are the different layers separated.

vvv Old scale vvv

[apathyfairy]

last year i found a wii at goodwill for 25 dollars and it came with everything except a wiimote but it was in such good condition i was like hell yeah ill take it how hard can it be to find a wiimote. the answer is it's nearly impossible to find them at thrift stores now so i've spent like 8 months looking for ones in thrift stores but there wasn't a single one and then online but i just couldn't bring myself to spend 30 dollars on one single wiimote so i waited so. patiently. and then 2 weeks ago i finally found one at goodwill for 9 dollars but it was absolutely disgusting and the battery cover was missing and the compartment was all corroded so i put it back and regretted it the whole week but then this last weekend i went to savers and there was an absolutely perfect wiimote just sitting there with no corrosion and a jacket and the wrist strap and motion plus and the nunchuck was there too and i got it all for 10 dollars so the moral of the story is that sometimes things seem right for you in the moment but you have to recognize that they aren't and leave them behind so the things that are meant for you will in fact find you when the time is right. peace and love <3

[wickedlittleoz]

an artist i follow got an ask about whether it was alright to use their art as covers for fanfic bookbinding and i'm. sorry i must have missed this discourse but since when are people outright printing out other people's work and binding them into books? do you contact and get author's permission (sure as fuck hope so)? and how do we writers feel about that, because i certainly feel very uncomfortable with that idea. i mean not to spoil the artistic expression of bookbinding because it's beautiful work that i most certainly could not do, but. you can access them stories any time you want on the websites where they were originally posted. why print them? again i mean i get the pleasure of holding & reading physical books, i much prefer that too, but like. get some books i guess? sorry i come from a place of honesty and tbh surprise and confusion about this whole thing. someone tell me how we're feeling about this. someone explain to me why it's being done. i just wanna understand

[weatherera]

In Another Form.

[romanceyourdemons]

i just remembered that as i was leaving for college my dad said wait a second, and pulled his copy of memnoch the devil (fifth book in anne rice’s vampire chronicles) off the shelf, and put it into my hands and said i think you should take this with you. i think you should read it. literally what did he mean by that