#brian is so arthur coded

[dilf-luvr-4evr]

Made myself laugh thinking about modern dutch van der linde unironically liking the fast and furious movies 😭😭😭😭 vin diesel says family and he tears up guys..

[eclecticelectriceccentric]

I need to make a longer post later but my GOD dexter the show is fucking obsessed with foils mirrors and parallels which is great because I am too

anyway we can broadly divide people in dexter's life who are his confidantes etc into a few categories: Family, Lovers, Apprentices, Killers, Angels, Devils, and Hunters. these overlap so so often. let me explain them. this got long so lemme add a cut.

Family are his either literal (biological or adopted) or spiritual family (Vogel). self explanatory. We can divide this into Parents, Children, and Siblings. This has Harry Morgan, Debra Morgan, Laura Moser, Joseph Driscoll, Brian Moser, Evelyn Vogel (+ Oliver Saxon by extension), as well as Astor, Cody, and Harrison. Zach Hamilton is claimed as a 'spiritual son' also

Lovers is also self explanatory. He has 4 main lovers throughout the series: Rita Bennett, Lila West, Lumen Pierce, and Hannah McKay. He also has a few ancillary love interest type people - Luci the store clerk in "Nebraska", Mindy who asked him to the dance, Cassie who he got made to go on a date with, Trisha at the high school reunion, an unnamed woman he has sex with, and LaGuerta who makes unwelcome sexual advances

Apprentices are people he either teaches or attempts to teach the Code to in some form. There are four, by my estimate: Jeremy Downs in season 1, Miguel Prado, Lumen Pierce, and Zach Hamilton. Travis Marshall seems to fit in this category also despite differences

Killers are people he broadly relates to through shared murdering. This includes basically everyone he lays eyes on, but especially the Ice Truck Killer Brian Moser, Arthur Mitchell, Jonah Mitchell, Isaak Sirko, and three who become more than killers: Hannah McKay, Jeremy Downs, and Zach Hamilton

Angels are the people who inspire him to be morally better. These include Rita Bennett and Brother Sam as well as Harry and Deb Morgan. He also acts better for his children often. Occasionally his care for his Angels inspires him to kill people for them, but that's not their fault

Devils are the opposite of Angels and inspire him to act worse. Most blatant is his Dark Passenger, to the extent that exists outside of a justification. Brian and Lila are pretty clear Devils. Harry and Deb, interestingly, are Devils as well as Angels; both directly tell him to murder people. Evelyn Vogel encourages him to lean into his serial killing as well

Hunters 'know what Dexter is' or are chasing him down for Justice reasons (rather than because they are trying to kill him/his family). Doakes is the frontrunning Hunter - Joey Quinn sort of takes his narrative place. Lundy and also the Miami Metro PD is hunting the BHB but Lundy is the real dedicated Hunter. LaGuerta becomes a Hunter in Season 7 - a rare case of a developing Hunter. Elway in Season 8 is also a Hunter.

anyway lmk what you think + if you agree or disagree and any connections or categories you'd make + if you'd be interested in me continuing this analysis

[mushroompoisoning]

Good friend, I ask of you because I trust you, what are these "The Mechanisms" you are so fond of?

Okay I tried to type out an incredibly long summary but tumblr deleted it so you're getting a semi-sane version instead

The Mechanisms are a band of immortal, space-faring pirates travelling the universe singing about the tragedies they witness for our entertainment!

There are nine main members you'll hear about, with the tenth - Dr Carmilla - having left much earlier and making her own music 👍 ( there is technically an eleventh but they're more of a mystery easter egg than anyone we know things about )

Quick lore thing: the mechanisms immortality works from the mechanical part(s) they each have. They can die and get injured, but they'll revive whenever the narrative wants them too. All logic in this universe functions off of Would It Be Good For The Story

The cast is:

Jonny D'Ville (he/him) is the ship's first mate ( don't let him tell you otherwise ) and he's got a mechanical heart

Nastya Rasputina (she/her) is the ship's engineer and girlfriend! Yea the ship - Aurora - is alive btw. She's got me hanical blood

Ashes O'Reily (they/them) is the ship's quartermaster and best arsonist! they've got mechanical lungs

Drumbot Brian (he/him) is the ship's pilot and the only one with a moral code. It's controlled by a switch which flips between Means Justify Ends and Ends Justify Means with no nuance. everything is mechanical except for his heart

Ivy Alexandria (she/her) is the ship's archivist! Pretty chill, cares more for books than violence but that doesn't mean she disapproves of the latter. she's got a mechanical brain

The Toy Soldier (it/its) is the mascot and whatever else they tell it to be! it just wants to be involved. will follow anything you tell it if you ask nicely ( or with enough force ). it's not actually mechanized, and is instead a sentient wooden man

Gunpowder Tim (he/him) is the ship's master at arms! madman war veteran who I love dearly. he blew up the moon. he's great. I pick favourites. he's got mechanical eyes

Raphaella La Cognizi (she/her) is the ship's unethical scientist! nothing is off the table when it comes to research. nothing. theory is she mechanized her, but iirc that unconfirmed. she's got a mechanical spine and wings!

and Baron Marius Von Raum (he/him) who is neither the ships baron nor doctor. he claims to be both, though. Deeply unserious fella. he's got a mechanical arm

^ here are some good images for crew reference

OKAY! Now onto actual music

They have six albums and a couple singles!

Once Upon a Time (In Space) is an unconventional retelling of classic fairytales

High Noon over Camelot is a retelling of King Arthur

Ulysses Dies at Dawn is a greek mythos adaptation

and The Bifrost Incident is a norse mythos adaptation

there's also Tales To Be Told volumes I and II, and the two single Frankenstein and Death To The Mechanisms ( technically that one is part of an album but the album is just a bunch of their other songs from already existing albums )

The tales to be told albums contain some of the mechanisms origins!

One Eyed Jacks is Jonny's

Lucky Sevens is Ashes'

Lost In The Cosmos is Brian's

and Gunpowder Tim vs The Moon Kaiser I don't think I have to say

Nastya has an origin song, but it was never officially put on anything. You can find it on the @mechanismslorearchive ( you can get any lore you want on there )

They also have a number of live shows ( you can find those on youtube ) and written stories on their website! I recommend these if you wanna get to know the mechanisms as characters better

that is the basic rundown. I'm not an expert on the mechs so if you're looking to talk to a metaphorical seasoned nurse instead of a med student I'd go to @bugsinthebayou or @gunpowderdtim (sorry for tagging yall)

[daveg65]

312 - Its a Group Apple’s Contact Key Verification

The latest In Touch With iOS with Dave he is joined by guest Jill McKinley, Marty Jencius, Jeff Gamet, and Ben Roethig. Apple’s Contact Key Verification is a security feature in iMessage that allows users to verify the identity of the person they're messaging. We discuss how to set up and we all verify each other's messages. Apple Seeds Second Betas of iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 to Developers and we dive into some of the new things found not announced and review iPhone mirroring on MacPS Sequoia.  Apple TV+ shows and movies there is so much great content.  And recommend what to watch on Apple TV Plus. 

The show notes are at InTouchwithiOS.com


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Beta this week. iOS 18 Beta 2 was released and iOS 17.6 beta 1 continues

Apple Seeds Second Betas of iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 to Developers - MacRumors

Everything New in iOS 18 Beta 2 - MacRumors

iOS System Data bug stealing your iPhone storage? Here are 5 solutions [U]

US carriers now enabling RCS for iPhone users running iOS 18 beta 2 

iOS 18 RCS Support Rolling Out to Beta Users - MacRumors

iCloud 'Keep Downloaded' Option Included in iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia - MacRumors

iOS 18 to Bring These 5 New Features to AirPods Pro 

iOS 18: Podcasts App Now Shows Chapter Segments When Scrubbing

There’s no iPad app, but here’s what’s new with Journal in iOS 18

iOS 18 Passwords app can't import passwords, but macOS can

iOS 18 will warn you when you're using a slow iPhone charger

let's break it down. Contact Key Verification is a security feature in iMessage that allows users to verify the identity of the person they're messaging with.Essentially, it adds an extra layer of encryption on top of the existing iMessage encryption.Think of it like a digital handshake. You and your contact exchange unique codes to confirm you're really talking to each other, not some imposter.

About iMessage Contact Key Verification 

Apple Seeds Second Beta of macOS Sequoia to Developers

macOS Sequoia Beta 2 Adds Support for iPhone Mirroring

News

AirPods and Beats Firmware Updates Address Important Security Issue - MacRumors

Beats Pill Bluetooth Speaker Makes a Comeback With Improved Sound, Water Resistance, and a Lower Price Tag

Apple TV+ shows and movies: Everything to watch on Apple TV Plus

Apps

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Our Host

Dave Ginsburg is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users and shares his wealth of knowledge of iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV and related technologies. Visit the YouTube channel https://youtube.com/intouchwithios follow him on Mastadon @daveg65, and the show @intouchwithios

  Our Regular Contributors

Jeff Gamet is a podcaster, technology blogger, artist, and author. Previously, he was The Mac Observer’s managing editor, and Smile’s TextExpander Evangelist. You can find him on Mastadon @jgamet as well as Twitter and Instagram as @jgamet  His YouTube channel https://youtube.com/jgamet

Ben Roethig Former Associate Editor of GeekBeat.TV and host of the Tech Hangout and Deconstruct with Patrice  Mac user since the mid 90s. Tech support specialist. Twitter @benroethig  Website: https://roethigtech.blogspot.com

Marty Jencius, Ph.D., is a professor of counselor education at Kent State University, where he researches, writes, and trains about using technology in teaching and mental health practice. His podcasts include Vision Pro Files, The Tech Savvy Professor and Circular Firing Squad Podcast. Find him at jencius@mastodon.social  https://thepodtalk.net 

About our Guest

Jill McKinley is a professional in the field of enterprise software, server administration, and IT. She started her technical career in Windows but now exclusively uses a Mac in her personal life. She hosts several podcasts, including Start with Small Steps and Small Steps with God, where she offers tips and insights for a better life. Her podcast is at https://startwithsmallsteps.com and X @schmern.

Here is our latest Episode!

[secretlystephaniebrown]

I'm still fairly new to comics and my library recently got hoopla so I've been maxing out my borrowing limit with comics. I've mostly been reading batfam books (finally found Stephanie Brown's Batgirl run), but do you have any recs for other superhero groups or individuals, could be DC or Marvel?

WELCOME TO COMICS!

Okay so without knowing what you're interested in, here's a broad "good comics for people who are new to comics" list.

Marvel:

Ms. Marvel (2014) by G. Willow Wilson

Runaways (2003) by Brian K. Vaughan - this one was my personal intro to Marvel comics, and I stand by it. It starts with the core group and slowly expands outwards, introducing you to other characters who you can track down later if you want to see more of them.

Hawekeye (2012) by Matt Fraction

DC:

Blue Beetle (2006) by Keith Giffen & John Rogers

Far Sector by N.K. Jemisin

Wonder Woman: Year One (2016) by Greg Rucka. The other storylines in Wonder Woman 2016 are a bit more confusing, especially once the book leaves Rucka's hands, but Year One is solid.

Supergirl: Being Super (2017) by Mariko Tamaki

Graphic Novels are also usually great places to figure out if you like a character or family! DC has a series called "DC Graphic Novels for Young Adults" (used to be "DC Ink" but I guess that was too simple) that has produced some really good graphic novels (also some less good ones) that can be great intros into characters.

Shadow of the Batgirl - Cass and Oracle Babs

Mera: Tidebreaker - Mera and her romance with Arthur

The Oracle Code - more Oracle Babs!

Mister Miracle: The Great Escape - Scott Free and Big Barda, plus the New Gods stuff generally

Superman Smashes the Klan - a 1950s period piece with Superman, it's a rewrite of a classic Superman story, but it's extremely good and a rewarding read. (this one is actually a "limited series" but I'm lumping it in here)

Poison Ivy: Thorns - listen I'm a Poison Ivy stan, and this one was really good

Teen Titans: Raven and sequels - this one's a series! So far it's Raven, Beast Boy, and Beast Boy Loves Raven, but Robin is coming out soon!

[peter-author]

On Balance It Is Worth It

The job of the various military, space and aviation industries rarely embodies good public relations. For example, the Apollo 11 mission to the moon was to depart without a TV camera until a last-minute suggestion from Arthur C. Clarke to Brian Duff (Public Affairs Officer at NASA) that he couldn’t wait to see live images from the moon. That prompted a hurried install of a fixed focal length, fixed aperture B&W camera to the Lunar Lander leg which was already atop the Saturn 5 ready to go to the launch pad! Without that comment, after quarantine on return, you’d have had to wait 30 days to see the stills and 16mm film they shot. Gee, I wonder if people would have believed they were really there.

NASA is not very good at tooting its own achievements. Take the Hubble Space telescope for example. Scientists will tell you it uniquely helps us understand gravity and the fundamental laws of the physical world and that the future on Earth scientific results will help shape our world. But has NASA bothered to tell you that the mammogram and computer spectro-analysis many women now undergo was a direct spin-off, saving thousands with earlier detection of cancers? Add to that micro-endoscopes, 50% improvement to all CCDs made in the past 10 years (yes, that camera in your mobile phone uses Hubble technology), and if you wondered how they can make the computer brains so small, you have only to thank Hubble-developed microlithography—a method for printing tiny circuitry in computer chips.  I think Hubble is worth it, don’t you?

Apollo was groundbreaking is so many ways, it’s easy to begin to make a long list: The retractable roof in the NRG Stadium in Houston (the Texans stadium) is only possible with Apollo cloth material; Moon boots; the first computer chips and circuit boards; computer code used in every computer on earth; firemen’s safety suits; silver-ion water purification technology now makes all those giant aquariums possible; all your burglar house-movement detectors; solar panels now in use worldwide; implantable heart pulse regulator; cordless drills and tools; the micro-radar in your car to help prevent accidents; modern dialysis blood purification; the dust-buster; digital imaging technology developed into CAT, MRI, radiography, and microscopy in every hospital; all the way to mylar balloons and reflectors. I think Apollo was worth it, don’t you?

Think the Shuttle program and the International Space Station were expensive experiments? The medical and basic human physiology studies alone were groundbreaking and not feasible in Earth’s gravity. Everything from the safety of the food we eat every day to weather prediction allowing for saving countless lives. Of course, there’s memory foam mattresses; baby formula enhanced Omera-3; the mobile phone (the glass, the LCD, the alloy of the case, the programming, the camera, the microphone, the speaker…); precision GPS in your car and every plane flying; Shuttle shock absorbers now enable modern bridge design; invisible braces for your teeth; voltage controllers saving 30% of power in large machines (and every electric car); heart transplant cardiac pumps; Aerogel in your winter coats; and 3-d hologram displays (yes, those goggles gamers are using) – to name only a few new commercial advancements.  I think the Shuttle and Space Station were worth it, don’t you?

Until NASA and other government funded programs realize that public awareness of the benefits of such investments are critical for the public taxpayer’s support, you’ll rarely get an update. In case you do want to know, there’s a good resource here: facebook.com/NASAspinoff.

[incurablyromanticsblog]

Ok I'll liveblog

EPISODE 9: THE FAMILY BUSINESS

SPOILERS BELOW!!

The yellow color filter, very nostalgic and hitting me like a goddamn brick after the blue one

Aw fuck not clowns

They really just gave michael a pastel shirt and said do your thing and nothing else

He looks his age not 10-20 years before

But then again there was the wig in the og series

DANIEL LICHT'S THEMESSS

He's wearing the henley my dudes

HES TELLING IT TO HARRISON???

The Aspect Ratio Change!!!

Harrison finished dexters sentences!!

"why are we like this" brb crying

"you too?"

Aw fuck man this is emotional

"Instead he gave me the code" jury's still out on harry won't lie

Look into the cameraaaaa

Debs reaction to 'i would never hurt family'

Why the clown look like joaquin one phoenix he a good dude

The clown saying what the fuck is funny

RED NOSED DEXTER

THE BLOOD THEME

He's gonna say kill He's gonna say kill He's gonna say kill

'I confront them' oh god oh god

I love the taking to the camera thing

'You tell harrison you kill people there's no going back' NO THERES NOT

He didn't tell?, HE DIDNT TELL????

'you're like batman' 'i prefer the dark defender'

The love in dexter's eyes I'm gonna die

HES GETTING ELRICS BODY THANK GOD IVE BEEN SO WORRIEd

Dexter's so happy I'm laughing

He's scared to kill say trinity or arthur

'at least elric's frozen, no bloody mess' BRIAN CALLBACK BUT I STILL WANT MY NAME DROP OR HALLUCINATION

Oh COME ON not angela comparing the needle marks. Look I get the suspicion I do, but like whats with the supercop stuff. She's comparing the two needle punctures, like for us it's obviously- you know what I'm not talking about this

Dexter what did you get him

Please don't be a gun

Scarf and A HENLEY????

That looks like a rifle

It's a rifle, the one he has while he ran with the deer

Redneck energy won't lie

'guns are loud messy'

'all the guys at school have guns' oh my god what is wrong america

Aww son and father bonding over guns (👀👀👀👀)

Please no

This is alternative to the kurt scene no?

Yea just drop the kurt being a killer bomb

Vigilante shit

"ask me what the plan is" dammit dexter get your head in the game

HARRISON GAVE HIM A DRAWING OF DEBRA

Oh my god

Michael c hall is so good please

Tradition I've been doing???

Why did harrison make that face

ITS AN UGLY SWEATERRRR

Aww both angela and dex lying to each other a dexter tradition for sure

In front of your parents?????

Dex gave her a POLICE HANDBOOK THAT'S INSULTING

KURT????

Oh fuck

Oh my god, the implications

SERIAL KILLER OFF

Not the GUN SIGN

IN FRONT OF HER MOM??

The example being wiggles is so funny cause they keep saying wiggles in a serious tone

She went to the vet didn't she

Oh fuck not the ketamine

The drone???

Harrison looks sad

He's confessing about ethan

Dexter is smiling???about ethan??

Fantasies about Hunting down the trinity killer

Oh fuck, dexter don't-

Dexter doing the right thing is so weird

How is the drone working so well in snowfall

First rule don't get caught

Ok angela is listening to the BHB podcast

She didn't say love ya back that's so funny

Ok kurt cleaning his guns with the song

The song is a banger won't lie

"I wanna help him"

"There were alternatives" get his ass

I WANNA HELP HIM?!?

Whose side are you on??

Dexter sounds like he's convincing himself

'And you fucking love it' GET HIS ASSS

Audrey scaring angela please

Oh fuck molly's on voicemail

She dead

Kurts gasing dexter's cabin???

Merry Christmas jimbo this is so funny

Oh shit

HES LIGHTING IT

Kurt is going to die this episode I know it

What's is up with the gun? They'll find the gunshot wound and they'll know it was murder

Buggy in the snow leaves tracks you idiots

Both killers trying to kill each other irony at it's peak

Father teaches son to break locks bonding moments!!!

Dex triggered the alarm

God when Kurt breathes heavily I think of mr krabs

Ohh the container is underground

Embalming items ok

Oh fuck

Dollboxes DOLLBOXES

Trophies are the bodies obviously

This shit terrifying

He's out make up on all of them and dressed them in virginal white dresses

MOLLY DEAD

You killed wiggles didn't you

Please dont

I did

I took care of arthur mitchell too+_+

Catch me crying and angry

FOREHEAD KISS

Ok so angela is onto molly disappearing

Kurts back

He's running

Ok I think kurt is gonna kill angela tbh

Oh god

THEY GOT KURT

Angela is gonna catch them in the act??

Harrison is taking too well to this tbh

Dexter had the code developed through years

'How many times have you done this' 'in the 100s'

'youve saved 1000s of people?' oh god

It's as if they're euthanizing an animal

'Hey you got me'

'no, I saved them!'

'i told you no dad shit!' I'm laughing so much

Ok dexter and harrison pale in comparison to kurt

Dexter's smile he's so happy

'This wasn't about saving them this was about power'

'you deserve to die'

He's making dex jealous of the time I spent with harrison

Oh shit

'Some kinda bullshit justice code?'

'Like father like son' and focus shifting to harrison

Crying and throwing up

'you don't have to watch' gotta love a consensual king

He's cutting up kurt in front of harrison

And harrison is into it???

Is he???

They're not making it clear???

Harrison is going to have a panic attack

He's having a flasback

Oh god

Harrison isn't as fucked up oh my god

OR IS HE??

blood moon

Dexter pulled out the heftys ok

Dexter's goin too fast for harrison

Burning the bodies

Too soon dex

'thats how it works' but It doesn't have to

Ok so but it doesn't seem like dexter and harrison will get caught

Poor angela, hope she lives

The 'yep' in unison

Poor angela

Breakfast wizard

'Jim lindsay killed matt cladwell'

And the screws

Ok so...

Angela girl what you gon do?

End credits

Gonna wait for the preview for the finale too

DEXTER IS ARRESTED

VOICEOVER OF HIM SAYING YOU'LL SEE WHAT EVIL LOOKS LIKE

Ok so theory for ep 9:

Harrison will feel the dark urge but he'll understand that it's not right

Dexter will get caught (not killed)

The cycle will end it cannot continue the writers cannot do that they really cannot.

Clyde Philips has always been against it

either Harrison will turn dexter in and dexter will betrayed and fully lose it

Or harrison will die and dexter will fully lose it

Dexter dying and harrison either losing it or going on with the code is too much a 'plot decision'

Or a classic murder-suicide but most likely from harrison

[lochnessies]

Do you have any book recs? Any genre btw ^^

i mostly read a mix of non fiction and fiction (typically of the fantasy or historical genre) so here’s some pictures from my bookshelf that holds the books i’ve read and decided to keep since i liked them well enough. lots of arthurian, medieval text books, myths, random assortment of fantasy/historical fiction, and others lol you might have to zoom in to see the titles and authors since i recommend checking them out if something catches your eye

some books not on these shelves bc they didn’t fit that i recommend:

the tales of camelot series since its really good if you like seeing the main arthurian story through the eyes of king arthur’s family. plus i’m mutuals w the author on my main tumblr so i feel the need to give him a shout out lol

wild swans: three daughters of china by jung chang. literally one the best books i’ve ever read. it’s a biography/autobiography of three generations of women in china. never a dull moment and will make you cry.

the greatest knight by thomas asbridge. biography of william marshal a knight who served queen eleanor of aquitaine, richard the lionheart, king john, and was involved in the magna carta and the survival of the angevin/plantagenet dynasty.

western europe in the middle ages: 300-1475 by brian tierney (sixth edition), medieval europe: a short history by c. warren hollister (ninth edition), and the time travelers’ guide to medieval england by ian mortimer. these are all medieval studies that i really liked

sir gawain and the green knight by unknown. most people have heard about this story but haven’t read it themselves and it’s such a shame.

frankenstein by mary shelly. seriously once you read the book you will hate every film adaptation with every fiber of your being (i, frankenstein my detested)

the horse and his boy by c.s. lewis. this was my favorite book growing up and i still read it a lot (two times this year alone). it’s an independent story that takes place during the days of the pevensie’s reign in narnia but can be read without knowledge of the other books if you haven’t read them.

we have always lived in the castle by shirley jackson. mystery novel about otherness and persecution. very unsettling and creepy!

carmilla by sheridan le fanu. lesbian coded vampire story that predates dracula by 26 years. bram stoker even mentions her in his book lol

sorry if none of these books peaked your interest or are genres you like. i’m quite boring and mostly read histories with a few other more “fun” books by most standards tossed in though i personally enjoy them all lol

[allthefilmsiveseenforfree]

Joker

It’s hard to write a movie review for a movie that everyone already has an opinion about (whether they’ve even seen the film or not). And I know that comes off as very “boo hoo, pity me, the poor movie reviewer who saw this movie for free and now has to WRITE WORDS about it for fun” but listen, there’s some real pressure here. Todd Phillips’ vision of Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) and his descent into madness at the hands of a cruel and violent world is nominated for 11 Oscars, including Best Picture, and even though as a society it feels like we’re kind of over the Oscars, they are also somehow still Very Important all at the same time. So is this film a gritty, IMPORTANT, timely warning of the dangers of a man pushed too far? Or is it a sad power trip that encourages an all too common sense of entitlement and violence amongst the men who are presumably most likely to resonate with its message? Well...

Honestly? Fucking neither. It’s shot beautifully (how could it not be when Todd Phillips is just trying to do everything Martin Scorsese would do, but a little less well) and Joaquin Phoenix’s performance is truly, singularly committed and brilliant. But Phoenix is suffering from the same problem as Rami Malek and his incredible performance as Freddie Mercury last year - the movie each man is at the center of (in spite of their incredible acting) is not nearly as clever or interesting as it wants to be or could have been. 

Some thoughts:

Arthur is certainly a man in pain in a world that doesn’t really care about him. Gotham is a tense, struggling city, and all the people Arthur encounters treat him with disdain or cruelty. To me, this is less an issue of the moral decay or lawless attitudes of the city, and more about the ways in which poverty poisons people’s lives and souls. This movie depicts class warfare in a way that feels garish and cartoonish, which would be appropriate and possibly kind of cool if it weren’t trying to take everything VeRy SeRiOuSlY. 

He’s isolated, depressed, full of rage, and everyone thinks he’s creepy - sure, random coworker, hand him a gun, that checks out.

Also, the movie places us in a weird position almost from the start, because Arthur can’t help that he has brain damage and a disability (his laughter) that makes people uncomfortable. But we’re also supposed to...feel bad for him? understand his frustration? when he gets fired for bringing a gun to a children’s hospital. I don’t think the film necessarily positions us to sympathize with Arthur by the end of the film, but it doesn’t not do that either. 

If a man you don’t know walks outside your gate with a clown nose on, you turn and run.

If a man you don’t know puts his thumbs in your mouth, you DEFINITELY turn and run.

One interesting thing that I did ruminate on for quite awhile - Arthur never harms any people of color. Zazie Beetz and Brian Tyree Henry both have interesting supporting roles and are true highlights of the film, and they manage to escape their encounters with Arthur relatively unscathed (albeit disturbed). Let it be said, Arthur only punches up, not down.

A big part of the reason why I say the movie isn’t as clever as it thinks is the lack of engagement with all of the big, nasty themes running through it. A lot of big thematic punchlines are left unexamined, and I’m sorry, just pointing out LOOK AT THIS THING THAT EXISTS is not the same as engaging with it. This is like the Ready Player One approach to social justice issues, or if that phrase is too triggering how about simple fucking human decency, and it rings hollow. For example, two police officers heavily imply that Arthur’s mother (Frances Conroy) is to blame for the violence she and Arthur suffered at the hands of an abusive boyfriend. Is Phillips’ script trying to comment on victim blaming and rape culture here? Based on Arthur’s reaction to the news, I would say no. Or how about the social worker Arthur goes to for counseling saying her department is being shut down due to budget cuts. Is Phillips trying to interrogate the lack of infrastructure in place for mental health support or any other social safety net meant to enhance the public welfare? Well, considering people who have a mental illness are more likely to be the victim of a violent crime than to perpetrate one, I’d say again, no. 

When this thing gets bloody, it gets REAL BLOODY. I was prepared, kind of, but it still turned my stomach.

I’m unsure how to feel about Arthur’s appearance on the talk show - the southern belle accent, the dancing, the makeup - it all feels very camp, very queer coded villainy in a way that feels regressive rather than a loving homage to theater and film history. 

In fact, describing anything about this movie as loving feels impossible. Even the beautiful cinematography and the effective score - it all feels like it’s born out of spite and ugliness. Like someone dared Todd Phillips to make the most anti of antihero movies, and he wrote the script by fear pissing the words into a snow bank. 

Did I Cry? Um yeah, no. 

From a structural standpoint, the beats are solid and the tension is tight. It builds and builds until Arthur’s face-off against the late night talk show host (Robert De Niro) who was once his hero until he brutally mocked Arthur on his show. It’s the climax of the film, the pot that boils over, the match lighting the gasoline, and I was so tense I thought I was going to cry and then....I wasn’t. The balloon popped too early for me, the scene verged into something so over-the-top that I completely lost any sense of narrative tension for the rest of the movie. 

Which brings us to the ending, that shit-eating-grin-ain’t-i-a-stinker ending. If it undermines everything that came before it, I feel like well what was the point? And if it doesn’t, I feel like well what was the point? You can only play with ambiguity so much before the audience either gets bored or gets mad. Also, I’m gonna have a real hard fucking time if this movie that ends like an episode of Scooby Doo wins a Best Picture Oscar.

The performances are all top notch, but I found this a deeply unpleasant movie watching experience that feels like a very expensive meal at a fancy restaurant. The ingredients are all there, but throwing them all together in very small quantities and dressing them up with pretty garnishes doesn’t necessarily leave anyone feeling satisfied or full of anything but the potential for what could have been. 

If you liked this review, please consider reblogging or subscribing to my Patreon! For as low as $1, you can access bonus content and movie reviews, or even request that I review any movie of your choice.

[rooneywritesbest]

All It Takes Is One Bad Day 

Have you ever really wondered who is the joker? I mean actually who he really is, or what made him into the clown prince of crime. Join me on a trip descending into the psychological observation of the deep dive of the subconscious of the comic-book villain. The only origin we have recorded of the Joker is in the novel “The Killing Joke” by Alan Moore. Moore paints and illustrates a period piece of the underbelly of Gotham City. The timeline is a little fuzzy. However, the artwork of Brian Bolland and the tone and direction of writing from Moore brings the graphic novel to life. 

The clown was just a normal person trying to get by, struggling to pay bills, and living in a run-down apartment. Interesting enough, he was never given a name in the novel. Joker had a wife pregnant with his child. The emotion was painted on the panels, and he was terrified internally. So to alleviate the pain dragging down his well being. He soon made a choice that would affect his life by turning to the mob. The man was tasked with being the fall guy, he was also given a new code name or alias “Red Hood”.

 Then you know the history that follows. Batman chases him and Joker falls into the vat of acid at ace chemicals. The chemical bath changes his mind and personality. Peeling away back at the persona that was once present. Now all that is left of the poor tortured soul. Being plagued by society is a man with pale white skin and the affinity to bring laughter in horrific fashion. The question to bring forth into context. Does he truly have any sliver of memory before undergoing his cosmetic change? 

The answer is a tricky one to understand the mindset of the Joker, you have to understand the other incarnations of the character. In the animated series where the clown is brought to life by Mark Hamil. He seduces the mind of Dr. Harleen Quinzel. He makes us a fabricated backstory of him and his father going to the circus. However, he also brings to the forefront that he grew up in an abusive household. The new foreground truth is quickly dismissed as false facts. When Batman tells Harley that Joker has a million stories. Just furthering exploring the identity crisis hiding beneath the pale skin of a clown clad in a purple tuxedo with a top hat to match. 

In addition to the critically acclaimed BTAS. The Arkham-verse from rocksteady stands on its own feet. However, being told time and time again that it’s a separate canon from the cartoon. Many would coin it as a continuation of the animated series due to the inclusion of the original remaining cast voicing the iconic roles that put them on the map. Kevin Conroy as the caped crusader, and Hamil as the Joker even bringing back the talented Arleen Sorkin as Harley Quinn. In the darker, grittier version of Gotham City. Being a world that is woven together by the seeds of Arkham spanning a timeline of Arkham origins all the way to the night the batman died on Arkham Knight. The games touch on certain Joker heavy moments and thematic events leading the clown down the path to where he’s meant to be. While also committing roles of unspeakable action such as showcasing the events of Killing Joke and crippling batgirl or referencing the comic “the death in the family leading to the execution of Jason Todd. It just goes to show that the Joker is just a person who wants to see the world burn. A great point made by buddy Joe is that “The Joker represents many things and it is the filmmaker/comic writer's responsibility to depict the character in a way that never idolizes what he stands for”.(Joseph Torres). 

It boils down to the justification that every incarnation or vision of the Joker is different in almost every aspect. It could change from the tone or sense of realistic nature or being a social commentary brought to the light in the comics being allegory’s into the mind of the writer stepping into the shoes of the Clown Prince Of Crime. 

 However, a name would complete the tragedy and give something the audience to sympathize with. Something that the Todd Philips darker realistic take of the Joker actually does. It stars Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck. A man drove to insanity by the corrupt and evil society around him. The film is a blend of color tones and wonderfully crafted shots that incorporate no CGI. Weighing down the background and giving it a fake or faux sense of the movie. 

Witnessing The joker trailer. I found it seems intriguing in many ways. I love the laugh. Phoenix is terrifying, um the just stunning visuals with an interesting concept two trailers in and still no idea or concept or even major spoilers have been shown. The only sense of context I can piece together is that it’s a period piece like the killing joke. Also, the mention of social commentary on those affected and plagued by mental illness could be brought to the forefront. The director Todd Philips has a really neat quote that follows “I don’t believe that in the real world if you fell into a vat of acid you would turn white and have a smile and your hair would be green. So you start backward-engineering these things and it becomes really interesting”(Todd Philips). The acting is phenomenal and oscar level. Another thing I like about this film is that Phoenix feels like a combination of major versions of the character. For example, his laugh has hints and moments of Mark Hamil. Or the color scheme of his outfit feels reminiscent of Cesar Romero from Batman 66, and the outfit along with the makeup pays homage to Heath Ledger in the Dark Knight. Also, the story is taking elements from the killing joke. 

Just one gripe, how can you make a joker movie work without his moral juxtaposition of the dark knight. The Joker needs Batman to thrive it’s like Heath ledger said: “anarchy needs order.” Essentially meaning Batman needs Joker and vice versa. We will see how Phoenix does when the film opens up worldwide Oct 4th. 

In conclusion, The Joker is the most important villain in all of the literature. Just something about him resonates with the reader and fans alike. Every version of the character will be different because it just depends on the vision and direction of the narrative. Which is the director or writer’s job to cement themselves into the mindset of The Clown Prince of Crime or better known as the Joker? Thus explaining the perfect reason why the Joker’s real name should never be revealed. 

Due to the role of human psychology. How anybody could be Spider-Man and wear the mask. Well anyone could be the Joker cause all it takes is one bad day to descend into the madness that awaits.  

[malsrp]

HUGE book clear out - over 150 books. Most names/authors below! They're in various conditions - some are pristine, others are a bit worn, but I will provide you with pictures of any specific book you want so that you can decide. Prices vary - I’ll tell you if you message/reply (in your currency) Some books are ex-library stock bought at sales, so they contain stamps and such.

Postage costs will be calculated for it to be sent via mail, this will be included in total cost.

PLEASE NOTE, IN UK PRICES, THESE BOOKS AVERAGE 50P FOR PAPERBACK, £1 FOR HARDBACK. WE ARE SELLING REALLY CHEAP TO RAISE FUNDS TO REPAIR OUR COOKER, AND UPDATE OTHER FURNITURE PIECES BEFORE WE MOVE. Some books will be priced separately.

Books below:

Alex Connor - Memory of Bones Alice Sebold - Lucky Anchee Min - Empress Orchid (Empress Orchid #1) Andy Lane - Fire Storm (Young Sherlock Holmes #4) Angie Sage - MAGYK (Septimus Heap) Anthony Ryan - Blood Song (Raven's Shadow #1) Ann Cleeves - Hidden Depths Anne Pellowski - Winding Valley Farm Arthur Golden - Memoirs of a Geisha Beverly Barton - The Murder Game (Griffin Powell #8) Bob Servant - Delete This At Your Peril: The Bob Servant Emails Brandon Sanderson - The Alloy of Law (Mistborn #4) Brian Freeman - Immoral Carol Smith - Without Warning Chris Carter - The Crucifix Killer (Robert Hunter #1) Elizabeth Chadwick - Shadows and Strongholds Eoin Colfer - The Supernaturalist G.M. Berrow - Twilight Sparkle & the Crystal Heart Spell George R.R. Martin. - A Dance with Dragons: After the Feast (A Song of Ice & Fire #5.2) Jack London - The Call of the Wild & White Fang J.K. Rowling - The Casual Vacancy James Joyce - Dubliners Juliet Marillier - Daughter of the Forest (Sevenwaters #1) Jo Nesbø - The Devil's Star (Harrry Hole #5) Jodi Picoult - My Sister's Keeper John Lutz - Serial Jonas Jonasson - The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared (The Hundred-Year-Old Man #1) Jordan Belfort - The Wolf of Wall Street Jonathon Nasaw - The Girls He Adored Julia Golding - The Gorgon's Gaze Kathryn Stockett - The Help Kazuo Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go Kenneth Oppel - Dusk Keri Arthur - Tempting Evil Khaled Hosseini - The Kite Runner L.J, Smith - The Forbidden Game (The Forbidden Game 1-3) - £2 Laurell K. Hamilton - Mistral's Kiss (Meredith Gentry #5) Lindsey Davis - The Ides of April (Flavia Albia Mystery #1) Linwood Barclay - Too Close to Home Lisa Gardner - Say Goodbye Louise Welsh - A Lovely Way To Burn Lynda La Plante - Cold Shoulder Mark Billingham - Scaredy Cat (Tom Thorne #2) Mercedes Lackey - The Wizard of Karres Michael Cordy - The Colour of Death Nick Stone - King of Swords Peter David - Fantastic Four Philip K. Dick - Paycheck Philip Pullman - The Tiger in the Well (Sally Lockhart #3) R.J. Palacio - Wonder Rebecca Chance - Killer Queens Richard Yates - Revolutionary Road Robert Louis Stevenson - The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde & Other Stories. Robyn Young - Brethren (Brethren Trilogy #1) Rudyard Kipling - Just So Stories (Wordsworth Collection) Scott Frost - Never Fear (Alex Delilo #2) Simon Kernick - Relentless (Tina Boyd #2) Steve Voake - The Dreamwalker's Child Susan Abulhawa - Mornings in Jenin Ted Eliott; Terry Rossio - Pirates of the Carribean - The Adventure So Far Tony DiTerlizzi - The Field Guide (The Spiderwick Chronicles #1) Tracy Chevalier - The Last Runaway Vittoria Bowles - Get Started In Italian William Jefferies - Bloody River Blues (John Bellam #2)

ALISON WEIR Innocent Traitor The Captive Queen The Lady Elizabeth

ANTHONY HOROWITZ - Nightrise (The Power of Five #3) Point Blanc (Alex Rider #2)

CECILIA AHERN If You Could See Me Now P.S, I Love You The Time of My Life

CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books #1) The Angel's Game (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books #2)

DAN BROWN Angels and Demons (Robert Langdon #1) The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon #2) The Lost Symbol (Robert Langdon #3) Inferno (Robert Langdon #4) Deception Point Digital Fortress

CHRISTOPHER PAOLINI Eragon (Inheritance #1) Eldest (Inheritance #2) Brisingr (Inheritance #3)

HARLAN COBEN Tell No One (Standalone) / Back Spin (Myron Bolitar #4) (2-in-1) One False Move (Myron Bolitar #5) The Final Detail (Myron Bolitar #6) Gone For Good

JOE ABERCROMBIE The First Law Trilogy Box Set (Current eBay price £14, selling for £10)

JEFFERY DEAVER Shallow Graves (A Location Scout Series) The Bone Collector (Lincoln Rhyme #1) The Coffin Dancer (Lincoln Rhyme #2) The Cold Moon (Lincoln Rhyme #7) Twisted (The Collective Stories of Jefferey Deaver)

KARIN SLAUGHTER A Faint Cold Fear Fallen (Will Trent #5) Indelible (Grant County #4) Skin Privilege (Grant County #6)

KATE MOSSE Labyrinth (Languedoc Trilogy #1) Sepulchre (Languedoc Trilogy #2)

LAUREN KATE Torment (Fallen #2) Passion (Fallen #3)

MICHAEL WHITE Michael White Michael White

NANCY HADDOCK La Vida Vampire (Oldest City Vampire #1) Last Vampire Standing (Oldest City Vampire #2)

P.J. TRACY Play to Kill (Twin Cities #5) Want To Play? (Monkeewrench #1)

ROBERT MUCHAMORE Black Friday (Cherub 2, #3) Man vs. Beast (Cherub #6) The Sleepwalker (Cherub #9)

SHERRILYN KENYON Kiss of the Night (Dark-Hunter #5) Devil May Cry (Dark-Hunter #11)

SIMON BECKETT Written in Bone (David Hunter #2) Whispers of the Dead (David Hunter #3)

STIEG LARSSON The Girl Who Played With Fire (Millennium Trilogy #2) - £1 The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest (Millennium Trilogy #3) - £1

SUSANNA GREGORY A Plague on Both Your Houses (Matthew Bartholomew #1) Murder on High Holborn (Thomas Chaloner #9)

VICTORIA HOLT The King of the Castle The Secret Woman

[daveg65]

311 - CarPlay is Must Have in your New Car

The latest In Touch With iOS with Dave he is joined by guest Mike Potter, Marty Jencius, and Jeff Gamet. 1Password introduces recovery codes so you’ll never lose access to your most sensitive information and we talk about password managers and is this safe to use. There was a New survey that reveals how many people consider CarPlay as a must-have in a new car and we discuss the numbers and is CarPlay important to have in your car. Final Cut Camera for iPhone now available on the App Store which could be a game changer plus Apple releases Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 alongside Final Cut Pro 10.8 for Mac/ Plus much more. 

The show notes are at InTouchwithiOS.com


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Beta this week. iOS 17.6 Beta 1 was released this week  and iOS 18 Beta 1 continues. 

iOS 17.6 public beta 1 now available, plus macOS 14.6 and more

Apple Seeds First Betas of iOS 17.6 and iPadOS 17.6 to Developers

Apple Seeds First Beta of macOS Sonoma 14.6 to Developers

Apple Seeds First Beta of tvOS 17.6 to Developers

Apple Seeds First Beta of watchOS 10.6 to Developers 

Apple Releases First Beta of visionOS 1.3 to Developers

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These iOS 18 Features Aren't Coming to iPhones Until iOS 18.1 or Later

watchOS 11 Supports Automatic Nap Detection

Here's Everything New in the Messages App on iOS 18

iOS 18: These Apple Intelligence Features Won't Be Ready Until 2025

iOS 18 Gains Emergency SOS Live Video Support

Apple Explains How iOS 18 Genmoji Work

CarPlay is a must have. There was a New survey that reveals how many people consider CarPlay as a must-have in a new car and we discuss the numbers and is CarPlay important to have in your car.

New survey reveals how many people consider CarPlay a must-have in a new car

CarPlay wireless adapter mentioned: https://amzn.to/4eqUPDT

YouTube and their “personalized ads” on iOS. We also discuss YouTube Premium and its value. 

YouTube will ask iOS users to ‘Allow’ tracking for more personalized ads

1Password introduces recovery codes so you’ll never lose access to your most sensitive information

Final Cut Camera for iPhone now available on the App Store

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Apple releases Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 alongside Final Cut Pro 10.8 for Mac 

Apple Discontinuing Apple Pay Later   If you need help with your Apple Pay Later loan or purchase

New iOS 18 API brings AirPods setup experience to third-party accessories

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Dave Ginsburg is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users and shares his wealth of knowledge of iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV and related technologies. Visit the YouTube channel https://youtube.com/intouchwithios follow him on Mastadon @daveg65, and the show @intouchwithios

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Jeff Gamet is a podcaster, technology blogger, artist, and author. Previously, he was The Mac Observer’s managing editor, and Smile’s TextExpander Evangelist. You can find him on Mastadon @jgamet as well as Twitter and Instagram as @jgamet  His YouTube channel https://youtube.com/jgamet

Ben Roethig Former Associate Editor of GeekBeat.TV and host of the Tech Hangout and Deconstruct with Patrice  Mac user since the mid 90s. Tech support specialist. Twitter @benroethig  Website: https://roethigtech.blogspot.com

Marty Jencius, Ph.D., is a professor of counselor education at Kent State University, where he researches, writes, and trains about using technology in teaching and mental health practice. His podcasts include Vision Pro Files, The Tech Savvy Professor and Circular Firing Squad Podcast. Find him at jencius@mastodon.social

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Mike Potter is the organizer of Macstock Conference: and the host of the For Mac Eyes Only Podcast. You can reach him on Mastodon: https://tooting.ninja/@formaceyesonly https://tooting.ninja/@macstockexpo

  Here is our latest Episode!

[allofbeercom]

The final bar? How gentrification threatens America’s music cities

Austin, Nashville and New Orleans have thrived on the success of vibrant music scenes. But as rents rise and noise complaints become more common, do they risk ruining what made them famous in the first place?

At a Sixth Street bar in the heart of Austin, Texas a pop up version of Sebs jazz club from the Hollywood hit film La La Land is being set up its blue letters yet to be switched on. Nearby, a replica of Breaking Bads Los Pollos Hermanos fast food restaurant has appeared, causing a minor Twitter frenzy.

These are just two of the attractions materialising in the city in time for the music and media festival South by Southwest (SXSW), and throughout the 10 days of the event it is hard to find someone who isnt wearing an official SXSW wristband worth $1,000.

What started 30 years ago as a celebration of Austins local music scene, though, is now in danger of harming the very thing that made it unique. SXSW brings in hundreds of artists from around the world, 200,000 visitors and $325.3m (250m) to the citys economy. Its success has helped Austin establish music as a fundamental part of its development, but at the same time, as many as 20% of musicians in this self-appointed live music capital of the world survive below the federal poverty line.

According to a recent study by the Urban Land Institute, the city is in the effective 11th hour of the endangerment of the live music scene, brought on by Austins rapid growth it is now the fastest growing city in the US in terms of population, jobs and economy.

A downtown wall mural in the shadow of new high-rise construction in Austin. Photograph: George Rose/Getty Images

Its a difficult reality for the city to confront. Austin is one of the three major US music cities, alongside New Orleans and Nashville, that have capitalised on this local culture at the risk of ruining the scenes that made them famous in the first place. In Austin, the local live music scene is now paying the price for its success. Brian Block, of the citys economic development office, says despite an apparent city-wide financial boom, local musicians income is at best stagnating, and possibly declining.

Hayes Carll, a 41-year-old Grammy-nominated artist who recently won Austins Musician of the Year, says that for most Texans, Austin is the mecca of music cities. It was where it all came together: the songs, the record stores, the community, the identity. It was the first place I went where I could say Im a singer-songwriter and they didnt ask me what my real job was.

Music lives throughout Austins 200 or so venues, the annual music awards and festivals, and the many brilliant artists including Townes Van Zandt and Janis Joplin who have called it home. It was where Willie Nelson allegedly reunited the hippies and rednecks when he first went on stage at the Armadillo World Headquarters in August 1972. Today, Austins love of local creativity is immortalised in folk singer Daniel Johnstons Hi, how are you? mural, depicting his iconic alien frog near the citys university.

SXSW brings $325m to the Austin economy each year. Photograph: Larry W Smith/EPA

But despite this rich history, long-standing venues in Austins downtown Red River District are being forced to adjust to an influx of new neighbours mostly expensive condos or hotels. Rising rents have forced venues like Holy Mountain and Red 7 to close, while noise complaints are an ongoing problem hotels offer earplugs for a better nights sleep.

Therere some less than wonderful aspects to the growth process, and I know a lot of friends who have had to leave Austin, says Carll, a Texan who has lived here for 12 years. Austin is going to have to fight to keep some of the things that made it special like the affordability and how you could be yourself and do whatever you wanted. When you become the hot cool city that everybodys moving to, some of that freedom can get pushed out.

The city government is keen to stress that theyre working to preserve the live music scene. In 2013 the Red River District was given its cultural title to highlight its local significance. Block says they are now implementing a Red River extended hours pilot programme in the hope that an extra hour of live music on the weekend will bring increased revenues to help cope with rising costs, and more paid work for the musicians.

Willie Nelson performs in his annual 4th of July Picnic at the Austin360 Amphitheater. Photograph: Gary Miller/Getty Images

The city is also revising its land development codes for the first time in 30 years in an effort to raise the profile of entertainment districts. There are other support systems that come from outside government too, such as Haam which provides access to affordable healthcare for low-income musicians. Music is very important to the culture, to the local economy and I think it will remain so. Hopefully we can get ahead of the issues we know are coming, Block says.

But some feel its too late. Im worried Austin will change negatively, says Carll. Its great that Austins identity revolves around music, and that the city government is trying to do things to correct it. But none of that will matter if musicians cant afford to live there, or the venues are shut down because of noise complaints, or you cant get to the venue because youre stuck in traffic on the highway.

New Orleans: music from cradle to grave

Louis Armstrong and his All Stars in a still from director Arthur Lubins musical New Orleans. Photograph: Frank Driggs Collection/Getty Images

Across the state border in Louisiana, New Orleans is facing similar problems as it develops and gentrifies. There are fears that without local government actively supporting musicians, the scenes survival could be at risk.

How do you keep a [music scene] real and authentic and yet encourage people to get involved? Its a paradox, says Jan Ramsey, editor of local magazine OffBeat. Theres an authenticity to the music and the people who make it, and the integration of black and white culture here we never want to lose that.

John Swenson, journalist and author of New Atlantis, Musicians Battle for the Survival of New Orleans says the music accompanies you from the cradle to the grave; its born out of the neighbourhoods and permeates all levels of society. Jazz was born here, tracing back to the mixture of African drums and European horns played by slaves in the late 19th century; and part of its musical heritage is a long list of prodigious artists, from Louis Armstrong to James Booker.

The Spotted Cat. Photograph: Alamy

This culture attracts some 10 million tourists to the city each year. But what is unique about it and gives the scene greater strength is how it has become an invaluable lifeline for the citys regeneration after the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

In the Spotted Cat, one of the long-standing venues on Frenchmen Street, manager Cheryl Abana talks quietly as a jazz singer performs to a crowded room. For a couple of years [after Katrina] it was pretty sad here and the music scene really helped out with trying to get everyones spirits up. It really helped build the city up again, she says.

One of the most successful programmes to support the creative community following Katrina was Musicians Village, devised by Harry Connick Jr and Branford Marsalis alongside Habitat for Humanity. Situated in the Upper Ninth ward one of the places hardest hit by the hurricane it is a community of homes built by volunteers to support displaced musicians. Its a symbol to musicians that my community will be there when I get back; were going to keep that tradition alive, says Jim Pate, executive director of the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity.

A decade on, and artists of all genres and ages live in the village, including some of the godfathers of New Orleans heritage like Little Freddie King. The musicians came back to New Orleans because music lived here, says Swenson.

People listen to music at a home in Musicians Village. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Nashville: the original music city

In Nashville, Tennessee, just a few blocks away from the famous honky tonk highway of Broadway, mayor Megan Barry sits in her office overlooking the state capitol. She is surrounded by motifs of Nashvilles music history: theres a framed photograph of DeFord Bailey sitting on the steps of the Ryman auditorium, the first African American to perform at the Grand Ole Opry; and in the foyer hangs a painting by Chris Coleman of Kings of Leon. He gave it to Barry as a gift.

Music is everywhere. Although it has a heritage as influential as New Orleans, here it spreads further: from inside the mayors office and the governments music council, to pretty much everyone you meet in the city who either plays it, writes it or listens to it (every taxi driver I meet is a musician; my Airbnb host is a songwriter).

As soon as I mention the phrase music cities, Barry interrupts jovially: Well, I think theres only one! Music has been part of Nashvilles foundations since the 1800s when it established itself as a centre for music publishing. Its heritage goes back to the Fisk Jubilee Singers who were based here the African American a cappella band who were the first musical group to tour the world, raising money for freed slaves. Upon hearing them, Queen Victoria allegedly coined Nashvilles title as a music city, which is now plastered across Tennessee billboards.

Bars and honky-tonks line Broadway in Nashville. Photograph: Brian Jannsen/Alamy

In 1925, WSM radio station was founded, which went on to broadcast the Grand Ole Opry now the longest running radio show in the US that gave rise to some of the greatest names in country music. Music Row, the 200-acre area near downtown at its peak housed 270 music publishers, 120 record production agencies, 80 record manufacturing companies, 80 booking agencies and more. Elvis Heartbreak Hotel was recorded here at RCA in 1956; Bob Dylans Blonde on Blonde was recorded nearby at Columbia Recording studios 10 years later.

Now, the $10bn industry music industry provides 56,000 jobs, supporting more than $3.2bn of labour income annually. We cant undersell its importance to our overall economic viability and continued growth and prosperity, says Barry.

Nashville is projected to grow by 186,000 residents and 326,000 jobs in the next 25 years, and like Austin, has to confront uncomfortable growing pains in the form of gentrification. But music is firmly intertwined with the citys municipal plans for how it will develop in the future.

DeFord Bailey was the first African American to perform at the Grand Ole Opry. Photograph: GAB Archive/Redferns

The city provides affordable housing for musicians, and music programmes for school children, as we know our graduation rates go up when kids are involved in music, says Barry. They go on and they have a career in music and then it feeds the job creation. Its about feeding that pipeline.

I think that although music evolves and changes, the ability for Nashville to grow and change with it has been part of our success.

At Dinos bar in east Nashville, 26-year-old musician Cale Tyson is sipping on a beer. He is one of thousands of artists who moved here because of its history. I feel like Nashvilles a town where musicians are treated really well. I dont think anythings closed off here, says the Texan singer-songwriter. In Nashville the competition and being around so many good artists forces you to work a lot harder.

People continue to migrate to Nashville because of this (about 100 a day), and this influx has inevitably changed the music scene for better or worse. The country music capital of the world which ignited the careers of Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn and Kitty Wells to name just a few is now home to a burgeoning hip hop scene in the citys so-called DIY clubs. Jack White moved in and set up a branch of Third Man records in 2009, while bands like Paramore, Kings of Leon and the Black Keys have all migrated here.

Nashville has even spawned a genre called bro country, where burly men sing about chewing tobacco and celebrate being a redneck (with lyrics that repeat red red red red redneck), their odd rap verses a world away from the original country music that formed the soul of this city.

But the commercialisation of Nashville has led to accusations that country music is dead. A few years ago US country singer Collin Raye made a heartfelt plea for the city to get back to its roots and remember the musicians who built and sustained the Nashville industry and truly made country music an American art form, he said. It needs to be that way once again. God Bless Hank Williams. God Bless George Jones.

And people are still trying to keep this alive. I dont think traditional country went away, says Brendan Malone who runs a traditional honky tonk an event celebrating country music in the east of the city. The fire was still kindling. It just needed to have some gasoline poured on it.

At Malones Honky Tonk Tuesdays, a man in a check shirt is barbecuing some ribs in the car park of the US army veterans club. Inside, ageing regulars sit at the bar nursing whiskeys to the sound of Hank Williams on the juke box.

In the main room, men and women of all ages wearing Stetsons and western shirts take turns two-stepping with each other as the band covers songs of Ernest Tubb and Red Foley. They perform against a backdrop of the US flag laid out in fairy lights.

Theres a sincere sense of pride in Nashvilles history here, despite how far the city and its culture has changed. With support from the mayors office to the local community, it seems Nashville took a bet on music and it paid off.

Follow Guardian Cities on Twitter and Facebook to join the discussion, and explore our archive here

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/the-final-bar-how-gentrification-threatens-americas-music-cities/

[libraryleopard]

2017 reading wrap-up

I don’t normally do this, but I figured that since this year was the first year I kept track of the books I read and also set a specific goal (1/3 books by authors of color), I thought it could be interesting to see what I read in 2017. And yeah, this is a little late but I didn’t have laptop over Christmas break so *shrug*.

I read 186 books total, with 73 being by authors of color. (That’s actually 11 more books than I needed to read, so yay for being an overachiever.) I think having a specific number to aim for helped me to diversify my reading and push me to read things I wouldn’t normally have read and I want to continue doing that. Of those 186 books, 108 had a person of color as a pov character and 61 had a LGBTQIAP+ main character. I think I’ll try to focus on reading more books with good disability representation next year because I only read 23 books with a disabled main character (not counting thrillers that used mental health as an an unreliable narrator plot twist because ugh). 

I read mostly the same number of books (between 9-20) each month during school or summer, which surprised me since I normally think of myself as reading more during vacations. Also, I read 9 books when I should have been doing NaNoWriMo, which might explain why I didn’t finish..

Anyway, here’s the whole list below the cut if anyone wants to see!

*=reread

January

1/ Vicarious by Paula Stokes

2/ Run by Kody Keplinger

3/ Pantomime by Laura Lam

4/ Girl Mans Up by M-E Girard

5/ Don’t Fail Me Now by Una LaMarche

6/ The Force Awakens novelization by Alan Dean Foster

7/ The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury*

8/ Timekeeper by Tara Sim

9/ Tattoo Atlas by Tim Floreen

10/ Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova*

11/ Life in Motion by Misty Copeland

12/ Wonders of the Invisible World by Christopher Barzak

13/ Peas and Carrots by Tanita S. Davis

14/ This Is Our Story by Ashley Elston

15/ The Impostor Queen by Sarah Fine*

16/ The Cursed Queen by Sarah Fine

February

17/ See No Color by Shannon Gibney

18/ This Side of Home by Renée Watson

19/ I’m Not Your Manic Pixie Dream Girl by Gretchen McNeil

20/ Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

21/ Rogue One novelization by Alexander Freed

22/ Railhead by Philip Reeve

23/ When the Moon was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore*

24/ Truthwitch by Susan Dennard*

25/ Our Own Private Universe by Robin Talley

26/ The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig*

27/ Here We Are: Feminism For the Real World edited by Kelly Jensen

28/ We Are Okay by Nina LaCour

29/ City of Saints and Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson

30/ Empress of a Thousand Skies by Rhoda Belleza

31/ A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab*

32/ The Young Elites by Marie Lu*

March

33/ A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab*

34/ A Study In Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

35/ History Is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera

36/ The Rose Society by Marie Lu*

37/ The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

38/ Windwitch by Susan Dennard

39/ American Street by Ibi Zoboi

40/ The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

41/ The Midnight star by Marie Lu

42/ Heist Society by Ally Carter

43/ Pasadena by Sherri L. Smith

44/ A Good Idea by Cristina Moracho

45/ Camp So-and-So by Mary McCoy

46/ Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson

47/ Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde

48/ Not Otherwise Specified by Hannah Moskowitz*

49/ The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

50/ Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

51/  The Last of August Brittany Cavallaro

April

52/ Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones

53/ Every Breath by Ellie Marney*

54/ Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick

55/ Dramarama by E. Lockhart

56/ Every Word by Ellie Marney*

57/ The Secret of a Heart Note by Stacey Lee

58/ Lucky Few by Kathryn Ormsbee

59/ The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

60/ Caraval by Stephanie Garber

61/ Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

62/ Yaqui Delgado Wants To Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina

63/ Every Move by Ellie Marney

64/ Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

65/ These Vicious Masks by Tarun Shanker and Kelly Zekas*

66/ A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab

67/ Fear the Drowning Deep by Sarah Glenn Marsh

68/ The Valiant by Lesley Livingston

69/ 37 Things I Love (In No Particular Order) by Kekla Magoon

70/ The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli

71/ The Ship Beyond Time by Heidi Heilig

72/ Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett

73/ Kissing the Witch by Emma Donoghue

74/ Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson

May

75/ The Creeping Shadow by Jonathan Stroud

76/ Hunted by Meagan Spooner

77/ The Mystery of Hollow Places by Rebecca Podos*

78/ A Crown of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi

79/ Girl Out of Water by Laura Silverman

80/ How To Make a Wish by Ashley Herring Blake

81/ To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

82/ P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han

83/ P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han

84/ Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley

85/ You’re Welcome, Universe by Whitney Gardner

86/ The Pearl Thief by Elizabeth Wein

87/ The Weight of Stars by Tessa Gratton*

June

88/ Does My Head Look Big In This? By Randa Abdel-Fattah

89/ Diverse Energies edited by Tobias S. Buckell and Joe Monti

90/ The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie*

91/ The Lines We Cross by Randa Abdel-Fattah

92/ The Edge of the Abyss by Emily Skrutskie

93/ Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

94/ Cat Girl’s Day Off by Kimberly Pauley

95/ Rook by Sharon Cameron*

96/ York by Laura Ruby

97/ Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali

98/ Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire

99/ False Hearts by Laura Lam*

100/ Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

101/ The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord

102/ Tash Hearts Tolstoy by Kathryn Ormsbee

103 That Thing We Call A Heart by Sheba Karim

104/ In A Perfect World by Trish Doller

July

105/ Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray

106/ Want by Cindy Pon

107/ Behold the Bones by Natalie C. Parker

108/ The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

109/ When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

110/ The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

111/ This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab*

112/ Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older*

113/ Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab

114/ If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

115/ Because You Love To Hate Me edited by Ameriie

116/ Wildlife by Fiona Wood

117/ Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson*

118/ The Diviners by Libba Bray*

119/ Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson

120/ Skunk Girl by Sheba Karim

121/ The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine

122/ Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray*

123/ Flying Lessons and Other Stories edited by Ellen Oh

124/ Amberlough by Lara Elena Donelly

August

125/ The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Gray*

126/ The Next Together by Lauren James

127/ Past Perfect by Leila Sales

128/ The Library of Fates by Aditi Khorana

129/ Once and For All by Sarah Dessen

130/ Daughter of the Burning City by Amanda Foody

131/ Burn For Burn by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian

132/ Radio Silence by Alice Oseman*

133/ The Great American Whatever by Time Federle

134/ Miles Morales by Jason Reynolds

135/ Heartstone by Elle Katharine White

136/ Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta

137/ Solo by Kwame Alexander

September

138/ The Savage Dawn by Melissa Gray

139/ Boyfriends With Girlfriends by Alex Sanchez

140/ Brooklyn, Burning by Steve Brezenoff

141/ Dove Arising by Karen Bao

142/ Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust

143/ Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

144/ Little and Lion by Brandy Colbert

145/ Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart

146/ Mechanica by Betsy Cornwell

147/ Warcross by Marie Lu

148/ Spinning by Tillie Walden

149/ Release by Patrick Ness

150/ Here Lies Daniel Tate by Cristin Terrill

October

151/ Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

152/ Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo

153/ Dress Codes For Small Towns by Courtney Stevens

154/ Shadowhouse Fall by Daniel José Older

155/ Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu

156/ Venturess by Betsy Cornwell

157/ Night of Cakes and Puppets by Laini Taylor

158/ An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson

159/ When I Am Through With You by Stephanie Kuehn

160/ Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore

161/ Romantic Outlaws by Charlotte Gordon

November

162/ Speak Easy, Speak Love by McKelle George

163/ The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo

164/ You Bring the Distant Near by Mitali Perkins

165/ Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

166/ In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan

167/ A Line in the Dark by Malinda Lo

168/ Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi

169/ Echo After Echo by Amy Rose Capetta

170/ Geekerella by Ashley Poston

December

171/ You Don’t Know Me But I Know You by Rebecca Barrow

172/ Like Water by Rebecca Podos

173/ Last Leaves Falling by Fox Benwell

174/ Black Boy, White School by Brian F. Walker

175/ Song of the Current by Sarah Tolcser

176/ They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

177/ The Wicker King by K. Ancrum

178/ If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric Gansworth

179/ Empress of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao

180/ King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table by Anne Berthelot

181/ Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

182/ Life On Mars by Tracy K. Smith

183/ Grendel’s Guide to Love and War by A.E. Kaplan

184/ The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

185/ The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

186/ You Don’t Know Me But I Know You by Lilly Anderson

[crowleytakesall]

Books Read in 2017

I really don’t know what else to say at this point. Other than I toned it down a bit from last year. ;)

OH actually: I noticed I was being a failure at listing the illustrators of graphic novels. So I’ll try to do that from now on. I apologize to all those artists I’ve neglected to include in my bylines, but thankfully I believe you are all listed on the linked pages. Which is better than no credit at all....

Total: 144

All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation by Rebecca Traister

Please Excuse This Poem: 100 New Poets for the Next Generation ed. Brett Fletcher Lauer and Lynn Melnick

But What If We’re Wrong?: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past by Chuck Klosterman

Culture and Customs of Korea by Donald N. Clark

Making Whiteness: The Culture of Segregation in the South, 1890-1940 by Grace Elizabeth Hale

サイレントヒル by Sadamu Yamashita

A History of Nepal by John Whelpton

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

I Little Slave: A Prison Memoir from Communist Laos by Bounsang Khamkeo

Game On!: Video Game History from Pong and Pac-Man to Mario, Minecraft, and More by Dustin Hansen

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

The Last One by Alexandra Oliva

Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

DC Universe: Rebirth - The Deluxe Edition writ. Geoff Johns, illus. Gary Frank, Ethan van Sciver, Ivan Reis, and Phil Jimenez

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Pegasus by Robin McKinley

Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

Silver Child, Silver City, and Silver World by Cliff McNish

The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman

A Modern History of the Somali: Nation and State in the Horn of Africa by I. M. Lewis

Uzumaki Vols. 1, 2, and 3 by Junji Ito

Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route by Saidiya Hartman

One-Eyed Doll by James Preller

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay by J. K. Rowling

Girl on a Wire by Gwenda Bond

The Vikings: A History by Robert Ferguson

Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1-5 and The Kane Chronicles #1-3 by Rick Riordan

Draw The Line by Laurent Linn

Somalia: A Nation Driven to Despair: A Case of Leadership Failure by Mohamed Osman Omar

Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse

Essentials of Anatomy and Physiology by Valerie C. Scanlon and Tina Sanders

Ultraviolet and Quicksilver by R. J. Anderson

Harmony House by Nic Sheff

Me Against My Brother: At War in Somalia, Sudan, and Rwanda by Scott Peterson

Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey by Isabel Fonseca

Cultures of the World: Somalia by Susan M. Hassig and Zawiah Abdul Latif

The Somali Diaspora: A Journey Away by Abdi Roble and Doug Rutledge

Half Bad by Sally Green

The Civilizations of Africa: A History to 1800 by Christopher Ehret

Omega City by Diana Peterfreund

Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet A. Washington

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman

The Dragons of Noor by Janet Lee Carey

Asylum, Sanctum, Catacomb, and The Asylum Novellas by Madeleine Roux

Unraveling Somalia: Race, Violence, and the Legacy of Slavery by Catherine Besteman

A Tragic Kind of Wonderful by Eric Lindstrom

Unnatural Creatures ed. Neil Gaiman and Maria Dahvana Headley

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

The Politics of Dress in Somali Culture by Heather Marie Akou

The Foundry’s Edge by Cam Baity and Benny Zelkowicz

Diagnoses From the Dead: The Book of Autopsy by Richard A. Prayson

House of Secrets by Chris Columbus and Ned Vizzini

The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear by Seth Mnookin

A Silent Voice #2-7 by Yoshitoki Oima (read the first one last year)

Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America by Jeff Ryan

Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks by Ken Jennings

Printer’s Error: Irreverent Stories from Book History by Rebecca Romney and J. P. Romney

The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley

Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey

You’re More Powerful Than You Think: A Citizen’s Guide to Making Things Happen by Eric Liu

The Father of Forensics: The Groundbreaking Cases of Sir Bernard Spilsbury, and the Beginnings of Modern CSI by Colin Evans

Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA, and More Tell Us About Crime by Val McDermid

Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America by Michael Eric Dyson

It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis

White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg

The New Urban Crisis: How Our Cities are Increasing Inequality, Deepening Segregation, and Failing the Middle Class - And What We Can Do About It by Richard Florida

An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back by Elisabeth Rosenthal

The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep is Broken and How to Fix It by W. Chris Winter

Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly

The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire by Jack Weatherford

Dissecting Death: Secrets of a Medical Examiner by Frederick Zugibe and David L. Carroll

Asking For It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture - And What We Can Do About It by Kate Harding

ワンパンマン Vol. 1 - 3 writ. ONE illus. Yusuke Murata

Buried in the Bitter Waters: The Hidden History of Racial Cleansing in America by Elliot Jaspin

Forensic Nurse: The New Role of the Nurse in Law Enforcement by Serita Stevens

So Brilliantly Clever: Parker, Hulme, and the Murder that Shocked the World by Peter Graham

The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute by Zac Bissonnette

Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper

The Silence of the Sea by Yrsa Sigurdardottir

Beyond Monongah: An Appalachian Story by Judith Hoover

Earthlight by Arthur C. Clarke

Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favelli and Francesca Cavallo

The Midnight Assassin: Panic, Scandal, and the Hunt for America’s First Serial Killer by Skip Hollandsworth

These Vicious Masks by Tarun Shanker and Kelly Zekas

Uncle Montague’s Tales of Terror by Chris Priestley

Inferno by Dan Brown

Paper Girls Vol. 1 writ. Brian K. Vaughn, illlus. Cliff Chiang, Jared K. Fletcher, Matthew Wilson

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond

Warcross by Mary Lu

Life on Mars: Poems by Tracy K. Smith

Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu

Girls Who Code: Learn to Code and Change the World by Reshma Saujani

Head First C: A Brain-Friendly Guide by David and Dawn Griffiths

A Murder in Time by Julie McElwain

Girl Code: Gaming, Going Viral, and Getting it Done by Andrea Gonzales and Sophie Houser

Coding for Beginners in Easy Steps: Basic Programming for All Ages by Mike McGrath

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening writ. Marjorie Liu, illus. Sana Takeda

Age of Myth by Michael J. Sullivan

Native Son by Richard Wright

Courage is Contagious: And Other Reasons to be Grateful for Michelle Obama ed. Nick Haramis

This is the Part Where You Laugh by Peter Brown Hoffmeister

The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness by Jill Filipovic

Coding for Dummies by Nikhil Abraham

A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab

Nobody: Casualties of America’s War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond by Marc Lamont Hill

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Artemis by Andy Weir

Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy by Tressie McMillan Cottom

C Programming: Absolute Beginner’s Guide by Greg Perry and Dean Miller

The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye by David Lagercrantz

An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything by Chris Hadfield

To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey

The Memory Code: The Secrets of Stonehenge, Easter Island, and Other Ancient Monuments by Lynne Kelly

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor

[ramajmedia]

5 Best (& 5 Worst) Episodes Of Dexter (According To IMDb)

Showtime has produced a lot of shows over the years on their premium network, but Dexter was one of their most popular. Several shows delve into the concept of serial killers, but Dexter was unique, as Michael C. Hall’s character only killed people who "deserved" to die.

Related: Dexter: 10 Storylines That Were Never Resolved

The show won two Golden Globes during its run on Showtime, but the final season saw a big dip in quality compared to the rest of the series. The show still has a high average score of 8.7 on IMDb, but some of the episodes have a much lower score than what you might expect. Here are IMDb's picks for the greatest Dexter episodes of all, alongside their picks for the worst! Watch out for major spoilers if you aren't up to speed with the series.

10 Best: "Hungry Man" - 9.4

DEXTER, (from left): Vanessa Marano, John Lithgow, Brando Eaton, Michael C. Hall, 'Hungry Man', (Season 4, ep. 409, aired Nov. 22, 2009), 2006-. photo: Randy Tepper / © Showtime / Courtesy Everett Collection

The ninth episode of Season 4 is one of the best-rated episodes of Dexter, coming in at a 9.4 out of 10. This episode sees a lot of character development on Arthur Mitchell (the Trinity Killer)'s part, as Dexter goes to have Thanksgiving dinner with his family. Dexter quickly realizes that Arthur is manipulative to his family and even beats them to keep them in line.

The awkward relationship between Rita and her neighbor Elliot also grows as he kisses Rita, and things get even more complicated for Quinn and his relationship with Christine Hill. By the end of the episode, it is revealed that Christine is actually the daughter of the Trinity Killer.

9 Worst: "Dress Code" - 7.6

Yvonne Strahovski as Hannah McKay and Michael C. Hall as Dexter Morgan in Dexter (Season 8, episode 7) - Photo: Randy Tepper/Showtime - Photo ID: Dexter_807_1783

Among the worst episodes of the series is the seventh episode of Season 8. The episode, titled “Dress Code,” mostly revolves around Hannah’s new life, while also continuing to show Debra’s struggle with Jacob Elway. When Dexter re-discovers Hannah, she is living a new life under the name Maggie and is planning on marrying a rich man named Miles.

Hannah was only in the relationship for his money, and eventually decides to kill Miles after he gets progressively more controlling and threatens to kill her. Dexter helps her dump the body, but soon after, he finds out that Cassie has been killed at his apartment complex.

8 Best: "Hello, Dexter Morgan" - 9.5

Season 4 of Dexter was well-received, partly because of John Lithgow’s portrayal of a serial killer. In “Hello, Dexter Morgan,” things start to get intense between Arthur and Dexter, as the latter realizes that the Trinity Killer is hunting down people named Kyle Butler. Dexter tries to frame another man for the Trinity Killer’s murders so that he can kill Arthur himself, but that becomes harder than he expected since Arthur is hunting him.

Related: Dexter: The Show Vs The Book

The police also have his daughter Christine in custody, who ends up committing suicide after she realizes that Arthur wants nothing to do with her. The episode ends with Arthur walking into Miami Metro and finding Dexter in his office before saying, “hello, Dexter Morgan.”

7 Worst: "Make Your Own Kind Of Music" -  7.4

“Make Your Own Kind of Music” continues Hannah’s storyline, with Dexter trying to keep her away from the police. Dexter even goes as far as asking Debra if Hannah can stay with her for a few days, which Deb begrudgingly agrees to. Deb is also offered her job back at Miami PD, which she is hesitant to take back.

A man named Oliver Saxon is revealed to be Evelyn Vogel’s son Daniel, who they believe killed Cassie. Dexter goes on a hunt for Daniel, but Daniel slashes his tire and escapes.

6 Best: "Are You…?" - 9.5

In the Season 6 finale, Debra witnesses Dexter killing Travis Marshall (The Doomsday Killer). The Season 7 opener “Are You...?” picks up this storyline, with Dexter having to explain why he killed Travis. He convinces his sister to help him burn down the church and pose the scene as a suicide.

As the episode progresses, Deb gets the suspicion that Travis wasn’t the first person Dexter has killed and she begins to re-examine the Ice Truck Killer case. Viktor Baskov kills detective Mike Anderson this episode, but Dexter kills him with a fire extinguisher soon after. By the end of the episode, Deb asks her brother if he is a serial killer and Dexter finally tells her the truth.

5 Worst: "Monkey In A Box" - 7.2

Things quickly started to go downhill as the final season of Dexter started to come to a close. The penultimate episode, titled “Monkey in a Box,” shows Dexter deciding whether he should kill Oliver Saxon or just leave the United States. Saxon and Dexter make a truce to forget each other, but Dexter still plans to kill him.

Related: Dexter: All 8 Seasons, Ranked

Saxon returns to Dexter’s apartment and Dexter injects him with M99. When Dexter is about to kill Saxon, he realizes that he doesn’t feel the need to kill any longer and wants to just go live his life with Hannah and Harrison. Deb then arrests Saxon, but once he is taken to the hospital, he escapes and shoots Deb on his way out.

4 Best: "Born Free" - 9.6

One of the best episodes of Dexter is the Season 1 finale. In this episode, the police find out that Rudy is the Ice Truck Killer and that he has kidnapped Deb. Dexter visits the shipping yard where Harry had found him and has a flashback to his mother being killed.

Dexter thinks that Rudy might be at his mother’s house, but when Dexter arrives, he realizes that Rudy is actually his brother Brian. Brian wants Dexter to kill Debra so that they can join forces together, but Dexter refuses and kills his biological brother instead.

3 Worst: "Goodbye Miami" - 6.9

The tenth episode of Season 8 is appropriately titled “Goodbye Miami,” as Dexter plans to move to Argentina with Hannah and Harrison. Things get complicated for Dexter as he continues to track down Saxon, and for Quinn as he and Jamie break up.

Quinn and Debra finally confess their feelings for each other in this episode, after Quinn tells her that their kiss was part of the reason why he broke it off with Jamie. Near the end of the episode, Dexter goes to Vogel’s house and sees Saxon inside the house with a knife to Vogel’s throat. She dies while Dexter cradles her in his arms.

2 Best: "The Getaway" - 9.8

The best-rated episode of Dexter is the Season 4 finale titled “The Getaway,” which comes in at a near-perfect score of 9.8. Dexter is finally able to incapacitate Trinity this episode, but Dexter is arrested soon after for hitting a mirror off of a person’s car. When Dexter is released from prison and goes back to Trinity, Trinity is gone and tries to return home to collect his valuables to leave Miami.

Debra also finds out in this episode that Dexter was related to the Ice Truck Killer, which worries Dexter, since she is getting closer to the truth about him being a serial killer. Dexter realizes things in his life have to change after he kills Trinity, because he doesn't want to be a monster like Mitchell. The episode ends with Dexter returning home to find Rita dead in a bathtub and Harrison sitting in a pool of her blood.

1 Worst: "Remember The Monsters?" - 4.6

The worst-rated episode of Dexter is the Season 8 finale titled “Remember The Monsters?” It comes in at a measly 4.6 out of 10. After Dexter finds out about his sister’s wound, he goes back to Miami Central Hospital to see her. Oliver Saxon finds out the Deb didn’t actually die from his gunshot and returns to finish the job. Angel Batista intercepts Saxon and arrests him, but Dexter doesn’t let him off that easy and stabs him in the carotid artery.

Dexter then turns off Deb’s life support as he knows she isn’t going to survive, taking her onto The Slice of Life to dispose of her body. Dexter then drives into the hurricane and is reported to be dead. At the end of the episode, Dexter is shown to be alive and living in a cabin as a lumberjack, which, needless to say, isn’t the ending people were expecting or hoping for.

NEXT: 10 Worst Episodes Of Great TV Series

source https://screenrant.com/dexter-greatest-worst-episodes-ever-rated-imdb/