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A butch and her drag king, performing at Butch Revival April 2025

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George Catlin Bear portraits 1846-1848 oil on canvas

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KYLE GALLNER & JOHNNY BERCHTOLD as Benson & Bradley in The Passenger (2023)

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Konstantin Korobov (Russian, 1985) - Sharks (2023)

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And my favorite moment from the behind the scenes goes to .  .  .

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Edwin Landseer, A Puppy teasing a Frog (1824)

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Had the flat of my ear punched at a 0g/8mm today.

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Going to list off a few thoughts I have about Oblivion Remastered so far (only about 4 hours in):

So I've run into a really bad bug already in the Oblivion remaster that prevents me entirely from entering the Shivering Isles. The voiced dialogue is missing completely outside the entrance of the Strange Door (The guard's warning, the dunmer who tries to kill him, the khajiit who thinks she's invisible, Sheogorath's invitation, all of it). Once I step through the portal, Haskill's audio is working properly, but I cannot interact with the chair I'm supposed to sit in, locking me out of the world. I've tried reloading a couple different saves, but nothing. Have seen one other person say this has happened to them in a video on YouTube, so evidently not a common issue but one others are definitely running into.

There are things I have really liked about the remaster so far, but my other major gripes include oblivion gates appearing too early in-game, before discovering the ruins of Kvatch, which I think may also be a bug, because entire oblivion gates have been disappearing (and not reappearing, making them inaccessible!) at random when save files are reloaded.

The character models also look. Bad. Some of them are not the worst thing ever (and in fact I think some of the creature models look really neat, like the scamps), but the beast races look horrible, especially the argonians, holy shit. They look like bad cartoon caricatures. Overall the character models somehow look worse than the ones used in Skyrim, which was released...almost 15 years ago, and I mostly don't like how they are animated. Their idling animation during conversation in particular is somehow more unnatural and awkward than the original.

The new voice acting I've encountered so far isn't bad, just different. But because I've been playing Oblivion consistently since its release it does feel really out of place most of the time, especially when new voices are interacting with classic voices in-game. I wonder if someone who has never played the original would be able to pick out the new and separate them from the old. I feel like they would, but I'm too far beyond having an unbiased opinion of this.

I am really curious why they were able to keep most of the original voices and not others, though. Seems like for the most part the classic voice acting could have been left intact and they chose somewhat arbitrarily to re-record characters here and there to add variety, while I don't think I've encountered the male and female orcs, or the female altmer/dunmer. I also think I've heard new lines in the classic voices I've never heard before? Did they get Wes Johnson and some of the others to come back for a few things?

Combat also somehow feels worse than the original, in a way I can't decide if I actually like more. Swinging a blade feels slower and weightier, and you can no longer keep your shield readied while swinging your weapon, which I do like and on paper should make combat more strategic and difficult, but the game on its normal difficulty setting is also way fucking easier than the original (and in my opinion, the original Oblivion is already easy). Health regenerates on its own now, which is the absolute worst thing they've changed so far (and I haven't found an option to turn it off). I made restoration a major skill like I always do, but have actually needed to cast a healing spell exactly zero times. Nothing does enough damage that you really even need to block (which I also made a major skill). I should've planned to use a claymore, honestly. During the start of the Siege of Kvatch quest, none of the guards died outside the chapel. I wonder if any would for the duration of the quest, but I'm kind of leaning towards 'no.'

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Common Side Effects 1x01 | Jump In The Line - Harry Belafonte

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As an ally I'd like to congratulate the JJBA+ community on the announcement of Steel Ball Run

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From Carmela García's 1998 photo series "Chicas, deseos y ficción"

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The San Francisco Examiner, March 27, 1942

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Nazi General Anton Dostler tied to a stake before his execution by a firing squad, 1945

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Ali Pirzadeh / alipirzadeh

@maschiio

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Homonculus Soap 1900s