#when i opened bluesky after work the first thing I saw was the post from benjamin raab (warehouse 13)

[spnscripthunt-inactive]

Last year Jennifer May Nickel - costume designer on Gotham Knights and a friend of the squad - was one of the creatives who helped us out by donating prizes to our final fundraiser where we raised $25,644.30 which abolished $4,174,244.70 in medical debt through Undue Medical Debt.

Now it's our turn to help her and her family:

Earlier this week, John-Paul & Jennifer May Nickel were among the many people who lost their home to the devastating Eaton Fire in Altadena, CA. Our hearts go out to them, and we want to do everything we possibly can to help them through this painful and challenging time.

If their names sound at all familiar that’s because J.P. is a TV writer/producer on such shows as WAREHOUSE 13, THE ARK, NATIONAL TREASURE: EDGE OF HISTORY, LINCOLN RHYME: THE BONE COLLECTOR and JUST ADD MAGIC while Jenny is a costume designer whose work has graced such shows as GOTHAM KNIGHTS, LEGACIES and CONTAINMENT.

As all who know them will attest, J.P. & Jenny are not only incredibly talented, but also two of the kindest and most gracious people around. Right now, they face the daunting task of having to rebuild their life in the wake of tragedy. Our goal — our hope — is to ease that burden as much as possible by helping cover some of their expenses (food, clothing, etc). So, if you’re a fan of their work — or just want to help out a deserving couple in their time of great need — we hope you’ll contribute to this recovery fund. Any amount you can give will go to a good cause and would be deeply appreciated.

[karizard-ao3]

Just saw your Hallmark post on bluesky. How do you think a Hallmark NGE story would play out?

Oh, the repost! I was like, "what Hallmark post?" and had to go check 😂

Okay, so, first, please forgive me if I miss any common tropes. I don't tend to watch that kind of movie so most of what I know is from spoof skits and what other people have said about them.

I think the first thing we have to do is pretend the second impact caused winter conditions instead of perpetual summer. Otherwise, we can't have beautiful, snowy winter scenes.

Asuka is a big city woman with a big city career who has to fly out to another big city for a work thing. Unfortunately, her flight has a layover and, oh no! During that layover the planes get grounded for bad weather!

No, no, no! Absolutely not! Asuka must get to her big work thing!!! She rents a car, determined to drive the rest of the way there, and make it to her Christmas meeting. (She volunteered for this unfortunately-timed meeting because it's a great career move and she's the only one on staff who absolutely HATES Christmas!)

Unfortunately, Asuka does not make it. The blizzard starts blizzarding as she's arriving in a picturesque small town and they close down the roads.

Asuka is pissed! But, fortunately, there is a room available at a charming little bed and breakfast, owned by Misato Katsuragi. (There's a whole side plot with her and Kaji, a Christmas tree farmer. They broke up, he still loves her. They get back together at the Christmas tree lot when he gets her with a grand gesture of some sort. Maybe they had a very fundamental disagreement about the best kind of conifer for a Christmas tree and, to show Misato he loves her, he has started raising his detested white spruce for her.)

The snow clears up over night, but it's going to take a while before the snow plows can clear the roads out of town. Since Asuka arrived too late to put in her breakfast order with Misato the night before, she goes to the local restaurant/ coffee shop for breakfast, where she meets the owner and operator, Shinji Ikari. She criticizes him for having such hearty down home fare on his menu. She can't eat this crap! She's trying to maintain her figure!

Shinji refuses to make her an egg white omelette and they are instant enemies.

Unfortunately, Shinji's coffee shop is the only restaurant in town and Asuka doesn't know how to cook! Also, Misato caters the breakfasts for her b&b from Shinji's, which Asuka discovers when she goes back to Misato's to put in her order for the next morning.

Asuka is stuck eating at Shinji's. They begin to build up something of a rapport after she borrows his phone to call her boss and let her know she's trapped in a small town and may not make the meeting and, in the process, mentions how much she hates Christmas. Shinji asks her about it and they get a little closer.

Asuka is bored out of her mind with no Wi-Fi and no cell service, so she tries ice skating. She's terrible at it and almost falls, but Shinji, who just happens to also be at the skating rink (it's the place to be on a cold December night) catches her and skates around with her, holding her hand. She gets chilly and he takes her back to the coffee shop and makes her a hot cocoa. (The coffee shop has no other employees and is opened or closed based on what suits the narrative. There is no rhyme nor reason to it.) She hasn't had a real hot cocoa in ages. It melts some of the ice in her heart. She gets some whipped cream on her nose and Shinji wipes it off. They share a moment.

Eventually it is revealed that Shinji also has no one to spend Christmas with because his dad is a piece of shit developer that wants to raze this small town (which he owns) and replace it with a ski resort and Shinji is too shy to invite himself to anyone else's house. He asks Asuka to spend Christmas with him and she agrees. They kiss.

BUT!! The roads get cleared and Asuka leaves for her Christmas meeting, leaving Shinji behind. She is torn between her career goals and her new appreciation for small town life. She doesn't know what to choose so she goes with what she's always known. Shinji discovers she works for a chain of ski resorts and accuses her of only coming here to scout out the area. He wishes he had never given her that comprehensive tour of the area, or taught her to ski.

When she gets to her meeting, Asuka recognizes Gendo from the photo Shinji showed her and she realizes that she can't bring herself to destroy that beautiful homelike town. She tanks the deal, perhaps by making an impassioned speech about the beauty of Christmas and neighbors and the love of a good man who makes you eat eggs with the yolk. Near tears, she gets back in her car and races back to Shinji's.

Distance has no meaning in the Hallmark Christmas world. She arrives in no time and bursts into the coffee shop. She holds up the development contract and rips it up, telling Shinji that she's giving up her career to help him run his coffee shop, if he'll have her. She doesn't really have a choice. She just ruined the biggest deal her company has had in ages.

For a moment it seems like he'll turn her down, but then he leaps over the counter and kisses her. Everyone in the restaurant cheers and claps.

Asuka worries because Gendo could always sell the town to another ski resort company.

Kaji comes in and reveals that thanks to stocking white spruce, he's made enough money at his Christmas tree farm to buy the town from Gendo so that no one can ever try to turn it into a ski resort again. Everyone cheers and claps some more.

Shinji proposes to Asuka for her Christmas gift and everyone lives happily ever after.

[toyourstations]

i posted this on bluesky first, but here it is as a block of text for easier reading

what if i wrote a moderately wanky thread or newsletter post about people talking about an indie art revolution and how if it happens it won't be online and there won't be evidence of it for years, it'll just be a vibe and it'll only happen if people talking about it actually go outside and make it

im just gonna do it yesterday Chase Carter of Rascal News posted an addition to their article about games journalism not being marketing, in which they called out that the audience the article targeted were not Rascal's audience. This is where I'll start. read the post I quoted here

Internet discourse is a practice of preaching to the choir, preaching to the pastor, and an exercise in futility in 90% of cases. You may be educating someone, but more likely you are just talking to people who already agree with you and may know more about the topic than you (this thread included)

The way the internet is shaped around common interests exaggerates this when it comes to indie art. You know who sees indie art online? other indie artists. In a small community this only gets more pronounced. People call this an echo chamber when they want to be rude. I think of it like art club.

everyone at art club has a buy in on making art, because they're an artist too. I'm a volunteer at my local art gallery. Every other volunteer assumes I am also a visual artist. Because art club exists in the offline spaces too. Most of the customers at a small town art market are also vendors.

But unlike my local art gallery where school kids can tour it and families bring their kids in for handful of minutes where they can make the children quiet after a 5 hour car journey, and adults waiting for a train after lunch can kill some time, the internet doesn't get tourists.

Or at least, most of the tourists are just visiting from a different art club. So when I saw a creator today talking about how all their colleagues (I'm not sure if at a day job or a creative job) are sick of mainstream slop and the time is ripe for weird indie art, I sort of winced.

Of course everyone at art club wants an indie revolution, that's their stuff! But it won't happen if we just post about it on social media, because nobody who is not in art club is going to show up to the rally. Here's another angle:

In uni I attended at least 3 AGMs for clubs that didn't meet quorum, because people assume that someone else will go and a meeting sounds boring. But without the club AGM, there's no queer disco, there's no art show, there's nobody handing out condoms at the event, there's no tea in the staff room

And it is these public and open spaces that get people interested and involved who are not already at the club. When the jock picks up a little condom packet (because free condoms!) from the queer club, he also gets info about preventing HIV.

When the kids get dragged into the art gallery in a weird small town populated entirely by weird small town artists, they see weird art that makes them ask questions. "Why do her boobs have to be out" "why is that hand holding an orb full of cash?"

If you have a table of free zines at a local market, at least one person will think about your weird art who usually doesn't think about weird art at all, or is from a completely different art club to yours, but has a friend or family member who your art reminds them of.

Today at the gallery I explained how valuable it is that she has kept her son's retro consoles in good condition to a jade carver. Our interests don't overlap much but I was there the first time she ever set up her work for exhibition and we had a lovely conversation!

If you want a weird and indie art revolution, it has to be offline. You cannot rely on art club to change the world without people who don't attend. Like I said, I know this thread is just an example of doing it all online, but it's also not the only thing I'm doing.

one more thing - if you are shy about your art with the people you share physical space with, stop that. You don't have to show your mum your most soul revealing poem or any porn at all, but you should start getting comfortable showing people what you're working on, or explaining your projects

I promise, even if you think your art is silly or doesn't matter, or isn't good enough to show off, someone is impressed by it. An old lady at the art gallery asked if I was going to have an exhibition and I laughed and showed her a gif of pixel art art fighting game santa I had been working on

and she started talking about how there SHOULD be an exhibition of digital art. She had no context for pixel art or fighting games but she saw an animated santa doing punches and kicks and was tickled pink. Audiences don't need to know what's going on they just need to have feelings about it

2 calls to action, if you want them:

know when and where your local markets are. Attend them, talk to the vendors.

show your art to someone in your physical vicinity. Draw on a thank you card or write a poem for a notice board if you want

If that's easy cakes for you, here's a harder one (and one I'm going to work on myself)

organise yourself a booth at a local market, or a piece in a local art show, or ask your local art gallery if they're accepting works for their gift shop. At the very least leave some zines somewhere.

People don't want to put in the work to become part of art club, and that's fine, you can still show them the art you make, and they might even love it, and sharing with people outside the club is the ONLY way a club turns into a movement. Otherwise you just become academics.

Link to my thread on bluesky

Link to my newsletter where I post more of my opinions once a week if I remember to write it