tiggymalvern

[tiggymalvern]

2025 FYC Pitt Panel (vc: jennytuell14 on tiktok)

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"i unfollow if our media interests no longer align" I still follow moots haven't spoken to in years and have learned the entire story of deltarune, mouthwashing, that one ninjago lego show, continuations of media I havent been into since 2018 and many others. I don't need a summary of something I just need Mutual to be insane about it on my dash

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The tragedy of my life is that I keep acquiring and displaying fetish art and having to be corrected by my friends.

Most recently, a friend came over my house and saw my computer background and went, "Wow, um, I didn't know you were into that." To which I look at the picture of the well drawn muscular female minotaur in historically accurate Greek clothing and I start geeking out about how I love the detail the artist did with the clothing and I point out the period appropriate folds and pins, how the artist even inserted the native plant that was used to dye the clothing this particular shade in the background, and even how the belt has technology AND historically accurate weaving patterns on it.

Then I start explaining how I love the muscular choices of the minotaur, that I was so impressed with the artist's anatomically correct depiction of the muscles converging into the neck. That many people get an upright cow's neck wrong because cow's don't have collarbones, so it can be very difficult to merge the upper arms and a chest of a human with a cow's body. I draw her attention to the beautiful way they've merged the pectoralis major so smoothly while also staying true to how muscular they've depicted the rest of the body.

I finish up with my thoughts on the artist's bold choice to depict the minotaur as a female, and despite the underlying themes of a minotaur being violence, child murder, strength, and muscles. I segue into how unlike bulls, cow are perceived as mothers. That they are the major source of milk in human culture, and that idyllic depictions of them in a field usually depict calves frolicking nearby, yet the minotaur kills and eats children.

I finish and there is a long pause.

"Urban, this is fetish art." and she takes me to the artist's twitter and god dammit it's fetish art, not a bold statement on cultural perceptions of women and violence throughout history. I have been tricked again.

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Here's some of my favorite bits from this great interview of Matt

One of the things that stood out for me in my conversations with Michael Wilson was that he was always giving me advice about what to do if I ever found myself in a situation where I needed to use hollow point rounds and armor piercing rounds, that it was always a good idea to put a tracer round in there as well so that you knew when you were about to run out of ammunition, things like that. He always gave me advice as if I was going to be in that situation sometime soon. I thought that was funny. So, as I was thinking about ideas for a television series to pitch, I started out thinking about a much more serious, traditional, spy-themed show, but it ended up evolving into something that owed a lot more to my conversations with Michael Wilson and frankly a lot more of my own sensibilities, something that was less, more serial comic and that involved this advice-from-a-spy aspect and evolved from there.

2.

I’m as interested in the case-of-the-week as I am in the serialized

The case of the week is the best part of BN followed by the serialized portion more being the evolving relationships in Michael's life (and of course the who burned Michael part too)

3.

...also, in a lot of ways, the serialized story this year is, in a way, less about Michael’s relationship with the people that burned him – although there is that – and more about Michael’s relationship with Jesse. He’s working with a guy whose life he ruined who, at the same time, is becoming a good friend and colleague and a teammate and someone who trusts them and that they trust. So, that’s a lot of what this season is about, is that relationship.

Yeah this was such an interesting dynamic, the burned spy accidentally burning another spy and ending up helping him!!

4.

So, one of Michael’s concerns in life is, “If I keep dancing with the devil, do I eventually turn into the devil? I may be doing dark deeds for a noble purpose, but at what point am I just a guy who does dark deeds?” Maintaining that clarity of moral vision in a very murky world is difficult for him. So, we wanted to showcase that vulnerability of Michael’s. He’s a pretty confident guy, but that’s the thing that haunts him.

Delicious insight to Michael's fears of becoming like Larry

5.

I’d always been a reader of spy fiction and spy technique and always been interested in that from the time I was a little kid. It’s less about the actual – what I found was I had a way of approaching stories and thinking about stories that was very intuitive to me, but it’s just in my head. So, in that first season, especially because I hadn’t worked in television before, it was a lot of, “No, like this;” “But no, I can’t explain it.” So, fortunately, that first season was only 11 episodes long. We had a few episodes written before. So, we were able to get through it, but at the beginning of the second season, I talked to Alfredo Barrios who is now an EP on the show and, at the time, was the first writer I hired. He said, “So, beginning of season two, you’re just going to come to the room. You’re just going to stop. All of your thinking must be done out loud. You have to talk through everything that you’re thinking and how you’re arriving at those conclusions and how you’re thinking of the story because everybody needs to learn how you’re doing it and how you’re thinking about these stories.” It’s not that people were useless in the first season. It was just a lot more muddled and a lot harder to get – people just didn’t know what I was thinking as well. So, in that second season, that was when we really started defining the terms of Burn Notice, understanding how episodes get broken. You can see the difference in how the episodes go. I felt like they got more consistent, more specific. We were able to do a wider range of techniques. So, yes, it was really figuring out how to download the contents of my head to the writers and directors and producers on the show.

First of all, love that Matt has always love spies. Secondly, this makes a lot of sense how s1 to s2 changes, the writing team gets to understand Matt more and since this was his first ever tv show, makes sense it wouldn't be perfect the first time around (although s1 is still quite fun!!)

6.

So, I’m hiring for, “This is somebody that I want to talk about this stuff with all day.” So, when the Burn Notice writers go out to lunch, they go out to lunch with each other. They talk about Burn Notice. Then, they come back. They talk about Burn Notice some more. They call each other on the weekends, and they talk about Burn Notice. They go out to Miami. They hang out in restaurants. They talk about Burn Notice. It’s fun in that it’s a culture. 

I AM JEALOUS!!!!!!!!

7.

“Well, what about Bruce Campbell?” I said, “Well, of course, I’d want Bruce Campbell. Bruce Campbell would never do this.” Like, obviously!

LMAO when you get your dream casting and can't believe it

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Burn Noticed 5x10 – Army of One

Bri: Let’s talk about this surprisingly not bad Alfredo Barrios Junior episode.

Chris: Basically this is Alfredo Barrios Jr doing ‘Bad Breaks’ 🤣

They discuss the cold opening. Michael wants to rush in and get the guy who framed him, while Sam says they need to be cautious, but then Sam trips a security measure and the guy gets away.

Chris: Michael being too anxious and gung-ho about this stuff, should make him make mistakes. Sam shouldn’t be the one who’s tripping things.

Bri: The problem is that Michael Westen, especially in an Alfredo Barrios Jr episode, cannot be imperfect. I’d love to see him be imperfect more often. He can do no wrong, except for at relationships, but that’s fine, because we secretly like guys who are bad at relationships because it means they’re manly.

(There’s some truth to that. All of the team do make mistakes and fuck up sometimes, but Michael does it less than anyone. Except about Fi 🤣🤣🤣 And there definitely seem to be differences between writers in that respect, I could pay more specific attention to how which writers write which characters.)

Dixon appears for the first time.

Chris: This scene is written like we’ve met Dixon before, but we’ve not. This is the first time that we’ve met Dixon. It’s conceivable that in Sam’s life before this he would’ve tased someone and thrown them in the trunk of a car, but that seems like such a specific thing.

Bri: But they bring him back. It must be something about the actors, because Burn Notice bring back such a random group of people, like Carmelo, and obviously Sugar keeps coming back. They’re not memorable characters, they didn’t have any far-reaching implications for the storyline.

Chris: There’s no rhyme or reason to the people they bring back. The thing that’s so weird here is it feels like they’re treating this character like he’s already been in a bunch of episodes.

(I actually really like that! All of it. Why should Dixon be introduced like a new character when Sam’s known him for years? It feels far more realistic this way – writing in media res but for a person, not a plot. And why should only important-to-the-plot people pop up again? These people all live in the same city for seven years, can’t they just be around? It’s a touch of realism that TV rarely gives us and I'm very fond of it.)

The podcasters talk about Chekov’s grenade, and how there’s only one of it. “These people bought all these illegal guns, but only one grenade. Was it thrown into the deal, like buy this many guns, get a free grenade?”  🤣🤣🤣

Chris: I do like this premise, of Michael inventing a Die Hard. I do respect that Holcomb never sends Michael anywhere alone.

Bri: It’s good when the bad guys are competent, they don’t just trust him out of hand. (Yes! Yes! Yes! I said the same at the watch party last night.)

Chris: Holcomb is almost getting there. He pulls a gun on Michael and says that he and the Die Hard are working together.

Bri: I thought this was funny.

Chris: It’s reasonable? It does seem a little bit more reasonable than the fact that Michael has totally invented the Die Hard.

Bri: It works way better than the way it happens when they’re on the island with Pearce, when Michael says, “What are you gonna believe? That this guy ripped you off or that this incredible super-team has just rolled up and tricked you?”

Chris: This works so much better because they’ve done the work.

Bri: He sets it up like he almost gives himself an alibi. It’s one thing to show up on the island and say, ‘Hey, your comms are down, WTF?’ vs this one where Michael has done his timer thing. He is there while a big explosion is happening. It’s reasonable for them to be suspicious of him, but to believe there's another guy. In some episodes, the con is just that they shout at people a lot until somebody submits and does what they want.

Chris: I feel like this season has been a lot of that. Like on the island, it was just characters shouting. Just in general, there’s been a lot of it, like last episode Jesse was shouting at Spock’s dad (James the evil CEO, who is is also Sarek. At least he's not typecast 😁)

(And yes to all of it. The island plot doesn’t work for me, because it’s too unrealistic that the gang of hardened mercs would just accept these randoms showing up and giving them orders. But this set-up is really well written.)

Chris: This is the first Barrios we’ve watched in a long time that’s not about family.

Bri: Something else that occurred to me; this is Barrios’ second ep of the season, and it’s also the second time that Madeline’s been literally a part of the main plot with Michael.

Chris: Barrios is trying to stretch himself and I appreciate that. We’ve given him a lot of shit, and I appreciate him trying to stretch himself. (Yay Barrios Jr for giving Madeline her spotlight ❤️)

Jesse and Michael show up to the hotel where Holcomb and the others are meeting and let him see them as he’s arrested.

Chris: Jesse and Michael got there very fast. (It’s true! I hadn’t thought about it, but Holcomb and co left the airport before Michael did, and the cops arrest them right as they arrive at the hotel, not when they’re been sitting in the room a while. Michael and Jesse must have really put their foot down just to be there and look smug 🤣🤣🤣)

On Fi and Michael's relationship:

Chris: I talk about this sometimes where I’m like, ‘I wish this character was more flawed,’ and people are like, ‘But they are flawed, they do all these shitty things,’ and I’m like, ‘But the show doesn’t actually think that’s a flaw.’

Bri: We’ve talked about that with Fi before. In many cases, Fi’s right in her conversations with Michael, but very rarely does the show actually think she is. She makes good points and everyone ignores her.

Chris: Exactly, she’s just being a Cassandra.

Bri: It’s nice that she’s making good points, but if it isn’t reflected in the show that her good points matter, she’s just flapping her lips till we get to the next cool blowing things up scene.

It gets to be a great episode of Burn Notice, but not a great episode of television. They find the B plot with Fi and Sam and Dixon running around to be a bit dull (as illustrated by how little they talk about it).

Chris: I also think it would have been better if it had done more between Michael and Madeline, as something about them. A lot of episodes of Burn Notice have a plot, but don’t have a story. (I see what she’s saying there. This is a fun episode, but it’s not doing anything in the way of character development. It has a fun a plot, and the B plot moves the arc story along, but it’s definitely not deep.)

The podcasters discuss that this is now the tenth episode of season five, and there’s only been one great episode of television. (I think there should be two, but the podcasters dunked hard on Bloodlines 🤪)

Bri: Even the bad episodes this season haven’t been terrible. They’ve been competent, we’ve enjoyed them, but there isn’t really a lot going on. I feel like that reflects where Burn Notice is because the big shadowy corporation has gone, allegedly. I still think that something related to the burn notice is going to come back, but the big driving force of the show is over. It doesn’t feel like it has the same scale.

Chris: The man who framed Michael feels a lot less interesting than the man who burned Michael.

Bri: They have to reinvent themselves and I don’t feel they’ve successfully pivoted. It never really feels like Michael is in danger of being found out (by Pearce) here. It just sort of feels like they’re becoming pals.

Chris: But also there’s not enough camaraderie. Part of it with Jesse was the danger that he might find out about them, but also it was that there was this lie –

Bri: That it would hurt their friend that they now care about.

Chris: Exactly. And I think they’re kind of trying to do that with Pearce?

Bri: But she’s barely – like the only full episode we’ve had with her was the island adventure.

Chris: And also, Michael burned Jesse. Michael didn’t kill Max. He’s just making it harder to find Max’s killer.

Bri: But that also doesn’t matter because we didn’t care about Max. And I’m still mad that we never did anything with Diego’s murder, because we liked Diego. Something I did think worked about Diego was that Michael was actively making his job harder and kind of putting him in danger, and I think had they done more with Diego’s murder instead of going to left field with Simon, that would have been a more effective use of what they’re trying to do here, because even though Michael didn’t kill Diego, he got him killed by forcing him to help him. (100%, Bri! Diego’s death was an awful thing that happened because of Michael, and then after one episode it just disappeared.)

Chris: Michael fucked up. We want Michael to fuck up. Michael did nothing wrong with Max, he just turned up at the CIA and went, ‘Oh, no, he’s dead.’ So the whole thing with Pearce just doesn’t work.

Bri: They don’t do anything with her. Jesse was living with Madeline, there was a personal stake for the gang in terms of lying to this new person. I’m enjoying this season of Burn Notice, but it’s not as good and that’s bumming me out.

I agree with all of this. The first two thirds of season five just kind of meanders along, rarely doing anything that’s personal with any of the characters. Bloodlines is the big exception, and then there’s the relationship C plot thing with Fi moving in with Michael and being annoyed that he’s still Michael, that living in the same space as him doesn’t mean anything has really changed.

It is very disappointing how little the writers do with Pearce. The first time I watched Burn Notice, I barely noticed her until the very end of her run. Then, having decided I liked her, I noticed her a bit more about her on the subsequent watch, when I was deliberately paying her attention, but that’s not how it’s supposed to work! This is network TV, most people are only giving you one shot, and if you introduce a new major character, you need write for them and give them space to be a person, not a plot device. The only time Pearce truly got to be anyone other than ‘Michael’s new CIA boss’ was in the cruise ship episode – that’s when I really decided I liked her, and it was her final ep! So sad.

Anyway, we have one more episode before season five finally does change and actually go somewhere, and I’m curious to find out what the podcasters will think of if then...

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I started watching Person of Interest, as next on my list of 'Series that people compare with Burn Notice.'

When I watched the first ep of White Collar, my reaction was, 'This is going to be fun!'

Watching the first ep of Person of Interest was, 'Oh, this could be interesting.'

(And also, a few eps in, Person of Interest has much better music than Burn Notice! 👍)

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Wish we saw a little more how... The incident. Affected the crew, but that gives me room to think about it!!

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@magadauthan

When your Plant boyfriend gives you one of the plants he is cultivating ❤️

After writing two dark chapters of my fanfic in a row I needed to draw these two dorks in a less tragic scenario

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The women's pants in MASH are like the most flattering, well fitting pants a woman's ass has ever seen whereas the men all look like boys whose mothers bought their pants a couple sizes bigger for them to grow into.

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“The judge acknowledged that the state was delaying on purpose, which is what the public suspected and activists have been saying,” said Xavier de Janon, Marsicano’s attorney. “It’s the idea that the process is the punishment.”

Marsicano has graduated law school in North Carolina and passed the bar, only to have the state board of law examiners decline to issue a license to practice due to the unresolved charges. Judge Adams wrote that the “personal and professional consequences that [Marsicano] has faced as a result of this indefinite charge … are forms of actual prejudice”.

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Rebecca Solnit:

Absolutely scathing piece by authoritarianism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat, about that clown show "summit" in which Trump got nothing and Putin got a haul--legitimization, maybe some state secrets during that unprecedented ride in the presidential limo, groveling from Trump, etc. But don't let it distract anyone from the Epstein files should be the last sentence of every post, essay, report, poem, etc. https://lucid.substack.com/p/the-make-russia-great-again-summit

Art by See Machine

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in a twist that should surprise absolutely nobody, the payment processor games censorship is backed by russ vought, one of the people behind project 2025. it was never leftists, it was never feminists. it was facists. censorship is almost always fascist.

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We all know the cops are inventing false charges against anyone who pisses them off by telling then they're arseholes while they're dragging terrified people into vans. This is going to happen more and more often.

Sometimes grand juries do great things.

Read more.

From the article:

Federal prosecutors twice sought a grand jury indictment against a D.C. woman accused of assaulting an FBI agent during an ICE inmate transfer — and were twice rejected, the U.S. Attorney’s Office admitted in court Thursday.

Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey revealed the denials to attorneys for Sydney Lori Reid and later granted their request to remove all bond conditions and release her on her own recognizance over prosecutors’ objections. He will resume a preliminary hearing on Friday afternoon to determine whether to dismiss the case entirely.

“Two presentations to the grand jury returned no bill both times,” Harvey said. “Suggesting the evidence is wanting, given the standard for indictment is probable cause. Suggesting the government may never get an indictment.”

Grand juries are tasked with deciding only whether there is a reasonable basis to support charging someone with a crime – a much lower burden for prosecutors than the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard of criminal juries – and typically make their decisions after hearing evidence only from the government. At the federal level, grand juries return indictments, or “true bills,” in the vast majority of cases.

Reid, 44, was charged last month with an enhanced felony version of an assault charge that requires inflicting bodily injury on a federal officer and carries a maximum sentence of up to eight years in prison. The charge is the same offense filed this week against a former DOJ employee accused of throwing a sandwich at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent.

In a press release last month, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office accused Reid of trying to impede the transfer of two alleged members of the 18th Street gang who were being arrested by ICE outside the D.C. Jail prior to transfer to the custody of the FBI.

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Get. Onto. Your. Representatives.

(And romance fans / writers? THIS MEANS YOU.)