#176 studio

[guitarbomb]

Universal Audio Plugin Bundles at Unbeatable Prices - Up to 60% Off!

Universal Audio Plugin Bundles at Unbeatable Prices. Experience the revolution in audio production with Universal Audio Plugins, now fully compatible and natively running on both Mac and Windows platforms. This significant advancement has made these premium plugins more accessible than ever, eliminating the need for specific UAD hardware. Embrace this change and dive into the world of superior…

[afeelgoodblog]

The Best News of Last Month

Sorry for being not active this month as I had some health problems. I'll start posting weekly now :) Meanwhile here's some good from last month

1. Widow donates $1 billion to medical school, giving free tuition forever

Ruth Gottesman surprised by her late husband's $1 billion in Berkshire stock, decides to donate it in full to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York City's poorest borough. The donation is intended to cover students' tuition indefinitely, ensuring access to medical education for generations.

A video capturing students' emotional reactions to the news, cheering and crying, circulated after the announcement, highlighting the profound impact of the donation on the medical school community.

2. Electric school buses outperform diesel in extreme cold

In Colorado's West Grand School District, electric school buses outperformed their diesel counterparts, particularly in the bitterly cold temperatures of towns like Kremmling, where morning temperatures can drop below -30 degrees Fahrenheit. Despite common concerns about reduced range in extreme weather, the electric buses maintained their battery charge even in these frigid conditions, providing reliable transportation for students.

This success has been welcomed by the school district, as diesel vehicles also face challenges in starting in Colorado's harsh winter weather.

3. Christian Bale unveils plans to build 12 foster homes in California

Christian Bale has led a tour round the new village in California where he plans to build 12 foster homes, as well as two studio flats to help children transition into independent living, and a 7,000 sq ft community centre.

The actor has spearheaded the building of a unique complex of facilities with the aim of keeping siblings in the foster care system together, and ideally under the same roof.

4. Average lifespan of a person with Down syndrome has increased from 25 years in 1983 to 60 years today

Today the average lifespan of a person with Down syndrome is approximately 60 years.

As recently as 1983, the average lifespan of a person with Down syndrome was 25 years. The dramatic increase to 60 years is largely due to the end of the inhumane practice of institutionalizing people with Down syndrome.

5. Greece legalises same-sex marriage

Greece has become the first Christian Orthodox-majority country to legalise same-sex marriage. Same-sex couples will now also be legally allowed to adopt children after Thursday's 176-76 vote in parliament.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the new law would "boldly abolish a serious inequality".

6. Massachusetts police K9 tracks scent for over 2 miles to find missing 12-year-old in freezing cold

A Massachusetts police K9 followed her nose to help find a 12-year-old who went missing in frigid temperatures last week, tracking the child’s scent for over two miles, authorities said.

K9 Biza, a female German shepherd, was called on to help after officers learned the child left their home at around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday and was last seen in the Pakachoag Hill area of Auburn, the Auburn Police Department said.

7. Good News for the Socially Anxious: People Like You a Lot More Than You Think They Do, New Research Confirms

The "Lake Wobegon effect" or "illusory superiority" phenomenon highlights people's tendency to overestimate their abilities, but recent research suggests that in social interactions, individuals often underestimate their likability and charm.

Studies indicate that people consistently fail to recognize signals of others' liking toward them, leading to a "liking gap" where individuals believe they are less likable than they actually are.

Techniques such as focusing more on others during conversations and genuinely expressing interest in them can help alleviate social anxiety by shifting the focus away from self-criticism. Ultimately, understanding that others may also experience similar anxieties can lead to a more relaxed and enjoyable social experience.

---

That's it for this week :)

This newsletter will always be free. If you liked this post you can support me with a small kofi donation here:

Buy me a coffee ❤️

Also don’t forget to reblog this post with your friends.

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Anouk - Nobody's Wife 1997

"Nobody's Wife" is the second single released from Dutch singer-songwriter Anouk's debut studio album, Together Alone (1997).

First issued as a single in the Netherlands, "Nobody's Wife" became a hit, reaching number two on both the Dutch Top 40 and the Single Top 100 charts. In early 1998, the song began to gain popularity in the rest of mainland Europe, especially in the Flanders region of Belgium and the Nordic countries, reaching the top 10 in these regions; in Iceland, it peaked at number one for two weeks. The song was released in the US in September 1998 but failed to make a significant impact, charting only on the Billboard Heritage Rock chart at number 32.

"Nobody's Wife" received a total of 56,8% yes votes.

[animusrox]

LETTERBOXD

1.   The Batman 2.   Everything Everywhere All at Once 3.   Prey 4.   Triangle of Sadness 5.   Barbarian 6.  The Northman 7.   Bodies Bodies Bodies 8.   The Banshees of Inisherin 9.   Bones and All 10.   Avatar: The Way of Water

Grade A

11.   Turning Red 12.   The Menu 13.   Babylon 14.   Hit the Road 15.   Cow 16.   Watcher 17.   Funny Pages 18.   Mad God 19.   On the Count of Three 20.   Armageddon Time 21.   Terrifier 2 22.   Marcel the Shell with Shoes On 23.   Smile 24.   Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery 25.   Holy Spider 26.   Aftersun 27.   The Fabelmans 28.   Breaking 29.   Decision to Leave 30.   The Whale 31.   All Quiet on the Western Front 32.   Brian and Charles 33.   Piggy 34.   Saint Omer 35.   Thirteen Lives 36.   Men 37.   The Fallout 38.   Resurrection 39.   Causeway 40.  The Black Phone 41.   Official Competition 42.   Nope 43.  Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio 44.   Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood 45.   Till 46.   TÁR 47.   Happening 48.   A Love Song 49.   The Outfit 50.   The Innocents 51.   Jackass Forever 52.   BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths 53.   Montana Story 54.   Three Thousand Years of Longing 55.   You Won’t Be Alone 56.   The Sadness 57.   Halloween Ends 58.   Pearl 59.   X 60.   Vesper

Click "Keep Reading” For My Full List

Grade B

61.   This Place Rules 62.   Fresh 63.   Windfall 64.   Kimi 65.   No Exit 66.   Top Gun: Maverick 67.   “Sr.” 68.   Farha 69.   The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent 70.   Weird: The Al Yankovic Story 71.   Nitram 72.   Speak No Evil 73.   Run Sweetheart Run 74.   She Said 75.   White Noise 76.   Puss in Boots: The Last Wish 77.   V/H/S/99 78.   The Wonder 79.   Women Talking 80.   Hatching 81.   Soft & Quiet 82.   Scream 83.   To Leslie 84.   Hustle 85.   Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers 86.   Dual 87.   God’s Country 88.   Emancipation 89.   Vengeance 90.   Fire of Love 91.   Bullet Train 92.   Incantation 93.   The Valet 94.   Hellraiser 95.   Christmas Bloody Christmas 96.   Significant Other 97.   Cha Cha Real Smooth 98.   Lucy and Desi 99.   Not Okay 100.   A Christmas Story Christmas 101.   Blonde 102.   Deadstream 103.   Sissy

Grade C

104.   The Bad Guys 105.   The Cursed 106.   Empire of Light 107.   A Man Called Otto 108.   Broker 109.   Black Panther: Wakanda Forever 110.   The Princess 111.   Beast 112.   After Yang 113.   RRR 114.   Fall 115.   Jackass 4.5 116.   Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe 117.   Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness 118.   Jennifer Lopez: Halftime 119.   Lightyear 120.   The Pale Blue Eye 121.   The Woman King 122.   Violent Night 123.   God’s Creatures 124.   Ambulance 125.   Elvis 126.   You Are Not My Mother 127.   Emily the Criminal 128.   Crimes of the Future 129.   The Apology 130.   The Lost City 131.   Wendell & Wild 132.   Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99 133.   The Found Footage Phenomenon 134.   See How They Run 135.   Spiderhead 136.   Studio 666 137.   Bros 138.   Spin Me Round 139.   We’re All Going to the World’s Fair 140.   Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank 141.   Honor Society

Grade D

142.   Thor: Love and Thunder 143.   Summering 144.   Strange World 145.   Glorious 146.   The Gray Man 147.   Devotion 148.   Clerks III 149.   The Forgiven 150.   Enola Holmes 2 151.   Father Stu 152.   Jurassic World Dominion 153.   DC League of Super-Pets 154.   She Will 155.   The Bob’s Burgers Movie 156.   Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody 157.   Hellbender 158.   Samaritan 159.   Day Shift 160.   Sonic the Hedgehog 2 161.   Prey for the Devil 162.   Troll 163.   Uncharted 164.  Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile 165.   Dashcam 166.   Firestarter 167.   Do Revenge 168.   Catwoman: Hunted 169.   The Munsters 170.   Amsterdam 171.   Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

Grade F

172.   Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris 173.   The Bubble 174.   Dead for a Dollar 175.   Jerry & Marge Go Large 176.   Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. 177.   Infinite Storm 178.   Marry Me 179.   Don’t Worry Darling 180.   Spirited 181.   Disney's Pinocchio 182.   Alice 183.   Black Adam 184.   Orphan: First Kill 185.   The Adam Project 186.   The Invitation 187.   Texas Chainsaw Massacre 188.   Ticket to Paradise 189.   The 355 190.   Umma

Bottom 10

191.   Green Lantern: Beware My Power 192.   Deep Water 193.   Where the Crawdads Sing 194.   Blacklight 195.   Mack & Rita 196.   Memory 197.   Me Time 198.   Death on the Nile 199.   Morbius 200.   Moonfall

[jimintomystery]

MST3K's most wanted

I've been organizing my Mystery Science Theater 3000 collection, so I've become preoccupied with the handful of episodes that are not easily available, and the reasons why. In case in anyone else is interested, I thought I'd share what I've learned.

For our purposes we'll be focusing on the ten seasons that aired on cable, from 1989 to 1999. With the post-2017 episodes, it's trivial to purchase them on home video or streaming. And the pre-cable stuff, from KTMA, is widely available as bootleg footage, which is probably about as good as you're ever going to get. But the episodes from the cable era have been notoriously difficult to re-release, and require special attention.

Of the 176 MST3K episodes that aired on cable, 166 have been released on home video, and 145 are available for streaming/download on the Gizmoplex. As someone who's been trying to collect the whole series since the 1990s, I think that's pretty impressive. But there are 40 episodes that have been particularly tricky. Let's take a look, won't you?

Currently available on the Gizmoplex, but never on home video (1):

913 - Quest of the Delta Knights

As I understand it, nobody was sure who owned the rights to this movie, or how to contact them, for years. The situation has only recently been cleared up, perhaps too late for a DVD release.

Currently available on the Gizmoplex, but out of print on home video (8):

203 - Jungle Goddess

317 - Viking Women and the Sea Serpent

319 - War of the Colossal Beast

510 - The Painted Hills

619 - Red Zone Cuba

806 - The Undead

808 - The She-Creature

912 - The Screaming Skull

It looks like all of these went out of print due to being on a set where a different episode's rights expired. Theoretically Shout Factory could re-release any of them in a "Lost and Found" set, but that may not be cost-effective as people move away from collecting physical media.

Currently available on home video and MST3K's official YouTube, but not on the Gizmoplex (1):

615 - Kitten with a Whip (Vol. 25 DVD, 2012)

Kitten is one of the Universal movies that could only be licensed for physical media. And yet, it's the only one I can find on the official YouTube channel. Beats me why that is.

Currently available on home video, but not on the Gizmoplex (16):

401 - Space Travelers (Vol. 32 DVD, 2015)

522 - Teen-Age Crime Wave (Vol. 33 DVD, 2015)

524 - 12 to the Moon (Vol. 35 DVD, 2016)

601 - Girls Town (Vol. 39 DVD, 2017)

605 - Colossus and the Headhunters (Vol. 38 DVD, 2017)

614 - San Francisco International (Vol. 32 DVD, 2015)

704 - The Incredible Melting Man (Vol. 36 DVD, 2016)

801 - Revenge of the Creature (Vol. 25 DVD, 2012)

802 - The Leech Woman (25th Anniversary Edition DVD, 2013)

803 - The Mole People (Vol. 26 DVD, 2013)

804 - The Deadly Mantis (Vol. 27 DVD, 2013)

805 - The Thing That Couldn't Die (Vol. 29 DVD, 2013)

814 - Riding With Death (Vol. 36 DVD, 2016)

815 - Agent for H.A.R.M (Vol. 33 DVD, 2015)

901 - The Projected Man (Vol. 30 DVD, 2014)

1013 - Diabolik (Vol. 39 DVD, 2017)

I was able to find the DVD sets listed above on Shout Factory's website. As far as I know, they'll remain in print for the foreseeable future, but there's no way to know how long that will last.

The general pattern with these episodes is that the movies are owned by major studios that would only license them for physical media. Columbia owns Teen-Age Crime Wave and 12 to the Moon. MGM owns Girls Town and The Incredible Melting Man. Paramount owns Diabolik. But the big player here is Universal, which controls the rights to Space Travelers, San Francisco International, Revenge of the Creature, Leech Woman, Mole People, Deadly Mantis, Thing That Couldn't Die, Riding With Death, Agent for H.A.R.M., and Projected Man.

The odd man out here is Colossus and the Headhunters; I can't find any info on who owns the rights to this film, which may be part of the problem.

The real hard cases, the stickiest of wickets, are below...

Released on home video, but now out of print (5):

212 - Godzilla vs. Megalon (Vol. 10 DVD, 2006)

309 - The Amazing Colossal Man (VHS, 1996)

910 - The Final Sacrifice (Vol. 17 DVD, 2010)

1001 - Soultaker (Vol. 14 DVD, 2009)

1012 - Squirm (Turkey Day Collection DVD, 2014)

Megalon and Colossal Man were both recalled when rights issues came up after they were released. Oops. These were produced by Rhino, back before Shout Factory took over.

The Final Sacrifice is particularly tough to find, even unofficially, because director Tjardus Greidanus is very aggressive about tracking down download links. I always figured someone was similarly possessive of Soultaker, since it's clearly a passion project, but that's purely my speculation.

The Turkey Day DVD set is still available on Amazon at a reasonable price, so Squirm is still relatively accessible for now.

Never released on home video or streaming (9):

201 - Rocketship X-M

213 - Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster

311 - It Conquered the World

416 - Fire Maidens of Outer Space

418 - Attack of the the Eye Creatures

807 - Terror from the Year 5000

809 - I was a Teenage Werewolf

905 - The Deadly Bees

906 - The Space Children

In 2017, Shout released its final (?) MST3K DVD collection, which included Satellite Dishes, a compilation of host segments from episodes that "may never get a legitimate release." This included the nine listed above, as well as The Amazing Colossal Man and Quest for the Delta Knights. Of course, Delta Knights eventually got a digital-only release, which is cause for a glimmer of hope. But the others are probably tougher nuts to crack.

Wade Williams owned the rights to Rocketship X-M and had a particular sentimental attachment to the film. His death in 2023 may make it easier to negotiate with his estate, but I wouldn't count on that being a swift process.

Godzilla vs. Megalon and Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster are part of a prestigious franchise, and it's remarkable MST3K got away with riffing on Godzilla movies in the first place. I get the impression that Japanese culture doesn't particularly appreciate the sort of mockery MST3K is known for, so the rights to these two movies may be a long, long shot. Then again I used to think there was no hope of for the Gamera episodes too.

Fire Maidens, Deadly Bees, and Space Children are owned by Olive Films, and currently licensed to Paramount. It's possible a deal can be made later on, but not until the current arrangement expires.

The major bugbear for MST3K fandom is Susan Hart, the widow of American International Pictures co-founder James Nicholson. One way or another the AIP catalog was split up and Hart laid claim to several of their films, including Amazing Colossal Man, It Conquered the World, Eye Creatures, Terror from the Year 5000, and Teenage Werewolf. Hart's price for licensing her movies is very high, and it seems Shout has given up negotiating with her. I suppose the situation could change when she passes away, but I'd feel rather silly hoping for an old woman to die just so I can pay 8 bucks to watch robots laugh at a werewolf movie.

In conclusion, I've already purchased all the movies available on the Gizmoplex (I got most of them in a Kickstarter reward package), and the 31 that aren't available there can be obtained by, ahem, other means. So it's a great time to be an MST3K fan, and I'm still amazed how easy it is to watch the show nowadays.

[sophiamarieispinkbunny-chan]

Thoughts on Short Chapter 90.1 (Long Post)

First of all, what in the world just happened? That short chapter was so unexpected for a short chapter.

Endo is really good at messing all of our brains in just four pages. Upon seeing it as an extra chapter, I thought it’s going to be on a lighter side but I don’t expect it to be dark and centered around Anya!

So here are some of my 6 takeaways. (Long post again sorry!)

1.Anya is probably not the real spelling of her name or not even her real full name

-Anya is pretty sure herself that her name is spelled as Ania, she spelled her name the same way in the Eden Entrance Exam.

-And the expression in her face when Loid corrected her tells a lot. (I’m really amazed how Endo conveyed this without the readers letting know what is going on in Anya’s mind. Meaning that he still doesn’t want to reveal that snippet of her thoughts process since it surely would reveal something about her past) Her expression was so subtle but it tells that for her, she's certain that it was really letter I. Then settling with oh, but not like a happy and excited or enlightened ‘Oh!’ But just a simple, Oh, okay... Like she had no choice but to just agree.

And her lying in her bed thinking about the name, saying it aloud as if familiarizing it.

So here are my thoughts about Ania/Anya’s name:

Ania is part of a longer name

Maybe Ania was a nickname given to her because she has a longer one.

I just told my sister days ago that Anya’s name sounds like Ostania and maybe that is where her name came from. So maybe Ania is just what they named her deriving from Ostania itself.

Ania could also be an acronym for something. Like the A could stand for Apple since the experiment is called Project Apple. The rest of the letters however I have no idea.

Ania could also be an experimental name (Like what I saw on some posts here the AN1A one so they decided to call her Ania but it was not a name but a label for her.

2.Why Loid assumes it was Y and not I

In the documents Franky had given him in the first chapter, her name is spelled Anya with a Y. Meaning, the orphanage thought her name is spelled that way but we can understand for Anya it was always spelled with I not Y. (The document is not readable in the manga but it was clear in the anime)

3.Endo has plans for everything, especially for the three main characters and their back stories

Endo often says that he thought things in a spur of a moment in terms of making this manga (Reference: fanbook Endo interview page 176) like how he decided Anya being a telepath on the last moment and called it luck that it worked out lol. But this was clearly planned and the anime creators, directors and writers are aware and is working closely with Endo. What he pulled in this short chapter isn’t something that can be thought for the last minute. It is planned from the very beginning. Probably some of the little details in the manga might mean more that what meets the eyes. (I saw a video before and in that video they showed Endo's studio and they showed miniature models of the designer chairs on the volume and there are chairs there that were just briefly shown that is yet to appear. I saw the video before the release of Volume 11, the one with Emile and Ewen and I saw their chairs in the line up of the models. So you can't convince me that he hasn't planned anything where he wants to take the plot next.)

4. The Anime on Anya's nameplate change

Anya's name changed in her nameplate, from Ania to Anya at exactly end of Season 1 Part 1 episode 12. Anime have been very persistent in showing that nameplate.

(Episode 3, not in the manga)

Then Episode 11, we saw the change of her name spelling on her test. So the short mission 90.5 took place before she got her first stella.

The Season 1 Part 1 Finale, we see this nameplate and I went to check the short mission of this in the manga and no, the manga didn't show the change of nameplate in that particular chapter.

Now I'm rethinking that it was really a well thought decision of Clover and Wit to make the Aquarium episode and this episode in the finale rather than starting the dog arc crisis and it was smart and sneaky of them.

Anime is doing a lot of work to elaborate the manga and I love them for that!

5.Like Father Like Daughter

It would make sense that in this family Loid and Anya would be the one who bears fake names. Yor being the one whose name being real symbolizes how she doesn’t lie about anything besides being an assassin, and there are times when she isn’t even keeping the fact that she is one. She always does things, mainly, because she genuinely cares for Anya and Loid not for her job at all (as the story progress she thought less about them being just a cover for her). Yet Anya and Loid often does things for their own ulterior motives (Anya for wanting a family for herself and Loid for his mission). They’re the ones who actively kept protecting their secret identities. The ones with the most the secrets. Both have names different from their real ones. Really makes sense don’t you think?

6.We could get an Anya backstory arc, if not by the next chapter, sooner than we expect.

We might have snippets of Anya’s backstory but I believe that Endo would not give out the whole thing. It’s too early to reveal it and what could Anya’s trigger be for her to think about everything that happened in her past?

Loid is triggered when he was rendered unconscious by Anya’s tonitrus

Yor is triggered when she’s thinking about Yuri

How about Anya?

What could trigger her to remember everything she went through?

-Will she perhaps see something or someone that will make her remember her past? (I read a fanfiction about her meeting a man who used to adopt her, it’s from coloredice I think and I can’t help but seeing it happen in canon)

Yet this is a short chapter, maybe Endo will continue this with another short chapter or give us a full chapter in the next two weeks centering around Anya. But it could also be not, since it could also just a way for Endo to add additional details to the narrative. But why bring this up now? for sure, it was a reminder, maybe a preparation on what the future ten chapters to the 100th holds.

Now it’s time for you to tell me what you think? Let’s be Twilight and overthink this four chapter short because our man's too attached to even care about knowing Anya’s background.

[twice-inamillion]

Master List 2

Twice Dome Arc

Chapter 174: First Day in Osaka

Chapter 174.5 Side Story: Flashed

Chapter 175: Second Day in Osaka

Chapter 175.5 Side Story: Overdue Punishment

Chapter 176: Meeting Her Parents

Chapter 177: Mina’s Birthday Gift

Chapter 177.5 Side Story: Family Trip

Chapter 177.6 Side Story: New Trainer

Chapter 178: Tokyo Dome Surprise

Chapter 179: Eating Out with Momo

Chapter 179.5 Side Story: Drunken Date

Chapter 180: Tokyo Trip

Chapter 180.5 Side Story: Relaxation

Fancy Arc

Chapter 181: Sana’s News

Chapter 182 Side Story: Teasing 2Yeon

Chapter 183: Tzuyu's Congratulation Gift 

Chapter 184 Side Story: Pushing Boundaries

Chapter 185: Showcase - Fancy You

Chapter 186: Chaeyoung’s Birthday Wish

Chapter 187 Side Story: Award Show

Chapter 188 Side Story: Protector

Chapter 189: Children’s Day

Chapter 190: Jihyo’s Concern

Chapter 191: Twice’s Future?

Chapter 192 Side Story: Prepping

Chapter 193: Play In Future Home

Chapter 194 Side Story: Jealousy

Chapter 195: A Special Date

Chapter 196: Nayeon’s First Night

Chapter 197: Nayeon’s Morning Sex

Twicelights World Tour Arc

Chapter 198 Side Story: Viewing Party

Chapter 199: Dahyun’s Birthday Sex

Chapter 200 Side Story: Bratty

Chapter 204: Member/ House update

Chapter 201: Member Practice

Chapter 202: Sana’s Appointment

Chapter 203 Side Story: Doctor’s Orders

Chapter 205: Tzuyu’s First Time in Bangkok

Chapter 206 Side Story: Addiction to you

Twice in Hawaii Mini Arc

Chapter 207: Happy, Happy

Chapter 208: Night With Mommies

Chapter 209 Side Story: Poolside Chat

Chapter 210: Forever Jihyo

Chapter 211: Shower Sex

Chapter 212: Honeymoon in Hawaii 

Chapter 213: Children Adventures

Chapter 214: Family Trip (Jihyo, Jisoo, OC)

Twicelights World Tour Arc

Chapter 215: Lips

Chapter 216: Momo in the Studio

Chapter 217: Side Story- Clothes

Sana Mini Arc

Chapter 218: Ambush

Chapter 219: Sorrow

Chapter 220: Twisted Reality

Chapter 221: Side Story- Confused

Chapter 222: Without Sana

Chapter 223: A Change in Sana

Chapter 224: Side Story- Imagination

Chapter 225: Childhood Dream

Chapter 226: Reunion

Chapter 227: Side Story- Stretching

Chapter 228: Side Story: A Rough Ride Home

Chapter 229: Bunny Nayeon

Chapter 230: Feel Special

Chapter 231: Side Story - Green Room

Chapter 232: Sister Talk

Chapter 233: After Jimmy Choo

Chapter 234: Yoo Sisters

Chapter 235: Side Story- Until She Wakes

Chapter 236: Fall Festival

Chapter 237: Side Story- Disneyland

Chapter 238: Nov-Dec Update

Chapter 239: OC’s Birthday Part 1

Chapter 240: Side Story - Party Planning

Chapter 241: OC’s Birthday Part 2

[notsocheezy]

Brain Curd #176

Brain Curds are lightly edited flash fiction - practically first drafts - posted daily (haven't missed one yet!) and sometimes written with the express intention of being terrible… but, you know, in an endearing way. Please like and reblog if you enjoy - the notes keep me going!

He's gonna be Frank with you. Read the rest of The Frank Program here on Tumblr!

Last time on The Frank Program, Frank caught Daryl watching something on his phone during recording, and he didn't like what he saw.

Daryl exploded out the door to the parking lot, anger in his stride, fear in his posture, and tears in his eyes. Chad, leaning on a car, got up immediately when he saw the kid running off.

“Hey!” He called out. Daryl wasn’t stopping for anything.

Cautiously, Chad poked his head back inside. Frank was stoic, silent in his host’s seat, a lit cigarette in his left hand. He took a drag from it and sighed out a puff of smoke.

“Come in, Mr. Graves. We oughtta finish the show.”

“You alright, bud?”

There were bags under Frank’s eyes that Chad didn’t recall seeing before. “I’m plenty content to finish recording.”

Graves sat down in his chair. The corner behind him was conspicuously empty. The chair which had been there before sat askew and on its side at the other end of the room.

“You know, Mr. Graves -”

“You can just call me Chad.”

“Well, Chad…” Frank took another hit. “I ain’t touched a cigarette in ten years. Kept this one in the studio just to prove to myself I didn’t need it.” He chuckled. “Funny how I keep proving myself wrong, huh?”

“How’s that?”

“Oh, the usual. I think o’ someone as a friend, or a wife, or… or a son. And I come to find they never were, really. They stab me in the goddamn back.”

“I take it that your chat didn’t go too well?”

Frank sneered. “You have no idea.”

“I’m sure he’ll come around. You know teenagers, I mean… I remember when I was a teenager, I got in arguments with my parents all the time.”

“We’re no stranger to arguments, Chad. This is somethin’ else. I’m losing my boy.”

“What exactly happened?”

Frank huffed and smothered his cigarette in the ashtray. “We better get back to my prepared questions.”

“Yeah…” Chad nodded slowly. “Alright.”

Frank shuffled through pages, looking for a question he still felt like asking. “Uh… Do you and your friends ever have creative differences when working on the show?”

“I don’t think we’d be as effective at doing our jobs if we did. Really, all four of us try to stay out of the creative side of things most of the time. Our producer decides what the story is for a given episode. He takes our full night of footage, and our analysis of the findings, and he gives that to his editor to make the pieces fit together.”

“Does the show replicate the experience of actually bein’ there, do ya think?”

“To be honest with you, I don’t usually watch it. Kind of a ‘been there, done that’ situation. But I have been channel surfing before and caught a rerun from a few years ago, and it definitely brought back memories.”

“Well that’s nice. Nice to have something to look back on. I guess I’ve got that too, huh? A little piece of the past… to bring back memories.”

“Yeah, I guess so. The nice thing about the show is it cuts out all the boring bits. The parts where we’re just sitting around, whispering to each other like we’re trying not to wake up the parents at a sleepover.”

“Right,” Frank said, a lump in his throat. “Those are the parts you really miss when they’re gone.”

Chad tilted his head to look around his microphone. “It’s gonna be okay, Frank. He’ll -”

“Mr. Graves, I don’t want another grown man to see me cry. So thank you for being here, but I must be signing off. Go ahead and tell the people where to find you.”

“I’m on all the socials as @GravesGhostVisions, so just search that up if you want to see where we’re headed next.”

“Thank you. This has been The Frank Program…” Frank struggled to get the words out without letting tears come with. “So long.”

[libraryofva]

Recent Acquisition - Photograph Collection

Unidentified photograph. Wm. Freeman Studio, 176 Main Street, Norfolk, VA

Litchfield Family Photograph Collection

[towns-end-bindery]

I acquired a book press!

I'm so pleased with this antique press. The seller was so kind to have done the restoration work on it prior to listing the item online. It is so lovely with its fresh coat of paint and smoothly greased bolts. And there's not a speck of rust!

Once I got back home, I shared it with the SoCal @renegadepublishing discord. Everyone started helping me do a deep dive to find out how old this press was and who manufactured it. The sleuthing turned out to be really fun!

We discovered that my press is an Iron & Bolt Style-B No. 04. It was made by the Illinois Iron & Bolt Company, and it was a "copy press", according to this book (Before Photocopying: The Art & History of Mechanical Copying, 1780-1938).

Copy presses were originally used to put inked type and a piece of paper to create a print; a very quick and early form of printing.

Here's an image of one of the Iron and Bolt presses featuring their logo on the yoke (from Dartmouth Libraries Bookbinding Studio Website):

Illinois Iron & Bolt was the largest manufacturer of copy presses in America in the late 19th to early 20th century, up until things turned unprofitable. The company went out of business in the 1950s, but they sold their designs to the Milwaukee Tool Company, which still makes Illinois I&B style presses today for a bookbinder / art conservator's supply house called Talas in NYC.

According to the old I&B catalogs, my press back then would have cost “$5.25” (equivalent to about $176 today in 2024).

However, my press, which I got today for $325, can now also be bought new for $1,600 from Talas.

[canmom]

Animation Night 176: The Hedge-Pigge Whin'd

Thrice the brinded Cat hath mewed, Thrice and once the hedge-pig whin'd, Harpier cries, 'tis time! 'tis time! - Macbeth

For the fourth time, Animation Night encounters Halloween. What horrors yet await us? Oh, there are....... many...

I'm going to keep this writeup pretty short bc (as is probably evident from the Posting lately) I'm not in the best of sorts.

The traditional Animation Night halloween goes something like this: a vampire-related anime, some Yamishibai, and something weird and different. Sometimes that leads to discovering some truly great and unexpected films, like Birdboy: The Forgotten Children (Psiconautas) by Alberto Vasquez. I had been thinking of doing Vasquez's Unicorn Wars tonight, but I decided to hold off to rewatch Birdboy alongside it in a week or two.

Other gems we've encountered have been the Chilean stop-motion film obliquely about a Nazi cult The Wolf House, the 'gekimation' works of Ujicha, the gorgeous one-man adaptation of Suehiro Maruo's ero-guro manga Shoujo Tsubaki, and of course Phil Tippett's 30-year magnum opus Mad God. There's a reason I look forward to Halloween each year.

Animation is a tricky fit for horror stories, particularly traditional animation. The stylised and clearly artificial presentation intrinsic to animation can be distancing and make it hard to make things genuinely scary - so if anything, a lot of horror creators benefit from a deliberately low-fi style, which avoids being too obvious with displays of technique. But animation of all kinds loves horror images and themes, from gory OVAs of the 80s full of rapacious demons, to what you could call 'spoopy' works like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Hotel Transylvania and Paranorman which play around with all the Halloween/Hammer Horror imagery - the Draculas and Frankensteins and so on.

So what's the recipe tonight?

Well, for our vampire anime, we have now worked through the obvious ones, so it's on to... the Darkstalkers OVA from 1997-8, adapting Capcom's series of fighting games. Though in Japan it's called ヴァンパイアハンター THE ANIMATED SERIES (Vampire Hunter: The Animated Series).

Fittingly for a late-90s OVA, this is full of crazy sick animation, notably including a number of cuts by Yoshinori Kanada. The story is basically: two vampire clans are having a war, but then aliens show up. Somehow that leads to battling atop exploding zeppelins. I'm curious.

For our Western Animation slot we have something by Genndy Tartakovsky (Animation Night 35). While Tartakovsky is best known for his 2D animation and hyper-simplified graphical style, he's also directed Hotel Transylvania in 3D. I was rather dismissive of this one at a glance apparently, but I've been told it's good and I mean, it's Tartakovsky right? I'm definitely curious to see how his style crosses dimensions.

Hotel Translyvania was created at Sony Pictures Animation, the studio that would later blow everyones' minds with Spiderverse. Their history is this: Sony, the international media and tech giant, had a visual effects studio called Sony Pictures Imageworks. They were considering selling it, but then came the wave of CG films beginning with Shrek, and suddenly the smell of money was in the air. So Imageworks was retooled into a studio for making feature-length CG movies. Their early films were pretty formulaic, but they gradually began to get more ambitious.

Hotel Transylvania, which depicts a hotel for monsters run by Dracula, has had a rough history, with Tartakovsky actually the sixth director to take on the project. His goal was to try and take the vibe of 2D animation, with its squash and stretch and variable timing, and bring it to 3D - a concept that was perhaps ahead of its time! How did he manage? Let's find out.

For our Yamishibai slot we have Yamishibai.

...ok, for those just joining us this I should probably explain. It's kind of like creepypastas for weebs. Yamishibai is a series of limited-animation shorts in the style of kamishibai paper theatre, telling short horror stories. In the first half of the 20th century, kamishibai performers would go around telling stories with illustrated panels, and the form was influential on the early days of manga. They're usually a blast so we'll definitely see a few of these.

...and, given the late start that will probably be all we have time for, but if we're in the mood, I can pull out a couple shorter animated horror works. Next week, we'll follow it up with Alberto Vasquez, revisiting Birdboy and also checking out Unicorn Wars.

Sound fun? See you at twitch.tv/canmom; we will start the spooky playlist soooooooooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnn...

[fashionbooksmilano]

Nadia Nava Arte/Moda

SilvanaEditoriale, Cinisello Balsamo 2021, 176 pagine, 240 illustrazioni,  24 x 28 cm, cartonato, ISBN  9788836647620

euro 30,00

email if you want to buy booksinprogressmilano@yahoo.it

Arte e moda rappresentano due mondi strettamente legati nella ricerca di Nadia Nava, artista milanese che mescola senza soluzione di continuità un’innata sensibilità per la materia a un’approfondita conoscenza dei procedimenti tecnici. Da un lato la realizzazione di opere che spaziano dalla pittura all’assemblaggio, dal ready-made all’installazione, dal disegno alla stampa tradizionale, dall’altro lo studio e la creazione di textures applicate ai tessuti, in una fortunata produzione che l’ha portata a collaborare con i più importanti stilisti internazionali, tra cui Christian Dior, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Jil Sander.

04/04/23

orders to:     booksinprogressmilano@yahoo.it

ordini a:        booksinprogressmilano@yahoo.it

twitter:         @fashionbooksmi

instagram:   fashionbooksmilano, designbooksmilano tumblr:          fashionbooksmilano, designbooksmilano

[disneyparksattractionstournament]

Stats for Round 2

Highest Participation:

458: Na'vi River Journey vs Haunted Mansion

418: Star Tours vs MuppetVision 3D 

313: Indiana Jones Adventure vs Tower of Terror (any version)

312: Tron Lightcycle Power Run vs Phantom Manor

296: Enchanted Tiki Room vs Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith

Lowest Participation:

153: Barnstormer vs Cranium Command

169: Pooh's Hunny Hunt vs Goofy's Sky School/Mulholland Madness 

171: Disney's Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular vs Dinosaur

172: Fantasmic! vs Heimlich's Chew Chew Train

176: Silly Symphony Swings vs The Great Movie Ride

Biggest Sweeps:

Pirates of the Caribbean 93.8% vs Jumpin Jellyfish 6.2%

Haunted Mansion 90.4% vs Na'vi River Journey 9.6%

Space Mountain 87.9% vs Captain EO 12.1%

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad 88.6% vs Hyperspace Mountain(Disneyland Paris) 11.4%

Spaceship Earth 85.4% vs Superstar Limo 14.6%

Parks by winners:

Disneyland: 15 (/24)

Magic kingdom: 13 (/19)

Disneyland Tokyo: 12 (/18)

Disneyland Paris: 6 (/11)

Hollywood studios: 6 (/10)

Epcot: 5 (/11)

Shanghai disneyland: 5 (/6)

Hong Kong Disneyland: 5 (/6)

Tokyo Disneysea: 4 (/6)

DAK: 3 (/4)

DCA: 3 (/12)

Walt Disney Studios Paris: 2 (/3)

Parks by winners with percentages:

Shanghai disneyland: 5 (/6) 83.33%

Hong Kong Disneyland: 5 (/6) 83.33%

DAK: 3 (/4) 75%

Magic kingdom: 13 (/19) 68.42%

Disneyland Tokyo: 12 (/18) 66.67%

Tokyo Disneysea: 4 (/6) 66.67%

Walt Disney Studios Paris: 2 (/3) 66.67%

Disneyland: 15 (/24) 62.5%

Hollywood studios: 6 (/10) 60%

Disneyland Paris: 6 (/11) 54.55%

Epcot: 5 (/11) 45.45%

DCA: 3 (/12) 25%

[skye-109]

intro

just now realizing that i never made a proper intro post, so here you go

hi, i’m skye, a dumb autistic trans girl from the u.s.

my interests include gaming, computers, mechanical keyboards, cars, music, and formula 1. my music taste is like really weird because i listen to so many different genres you cant give me a particular taste, but here are some artists i listen to:

MF DOOM, Tyler the creator, Camellia, Creo, Arctic Monkeys, False Noise, Gorillaz, Eminem, and a couple others.

i play geometry dash quite a bit, i didn’t start *that* long ago but my hardest demon is hyper paracosm (176 on the legacy list) so i think i’ve done pretty decently, and my hardest full challenge is i see, but i’ve done like 2 and a half diamond dances in a row on determination dance.

my current keyboard is a Zoom75 (milk tea) with drop x noctua doubleshot ABS keycaps, and wuque studio morandi linears. i watch quite a bit of formula 1, i’ll usually watch all of the sessions (fp1-3, quali, the race) and my current favorite team is mclaren with my favorite driver being Lando Norris.

my pc build is one of the only things i’ll ever be able to flex because holy shit i love this thing. here’s a part list:

ROG strix b-550f wifi AM4 motherboard

AMD ryzen 7 5800x3d

AMD radeon rx 6800

2tb nvme ssd

Corsair vengeance pro rgb 16gb

Thermaltake toughair 510 turquoise

i forgot my psu’s name i just know it’s 750 watts and 80 plus gold

Corsair 7000d airflow

yeah thats a long list

my autism is really not that bad but there are still things that trigger it, such as loud noises, areas with lots of people, weird textures, and bright lights. i have a lot of trouble with tone differentiation and sarcasm, so please use tone indicators if you think something might confuse me. i also have auditory processing disorder but that doesn’t have any affect online, at least on this website.

my pronouns are she/they btw

anyone is welcome here as long as you’re not spamming nsfw

also do not come here looking for a partner im taken by @z0mb13000

thats all byebye!!

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

I was tagged by @richardjager and @thestuffedalligator

Rules: Write the latest line from your wip (or post where you last left off in your art) and tag as many people as there are words in the line. Make a new post, don’t reblog.

I have really bad writer's block at the moment, so most of my WIPs sound more like Wikipedia synopses for my stories if they already existed than actual stories themselves. I cobbled together some exposition into a brief preamble for a fantasy story I'm working on

Physicists prefer not to use the m-word when dealing with the so-called inexplicable phenomena of the universe. They've come up with fancy names for it like "complex radiation" or "the fifth fundamental force," and it's generally accepted as a third theoretical framework somewhere between quantum mechanics (the physics of the subatomically small) and general relativity (the physics of the astronomically large), but our current understanding of it does little to bridge the gap between the two. Hollywood likes referring to it as "dark science," a term which was briefly adopted by academics in the 90s as an attempt to categorize it alongside dark matter and dark energy (neither of which it can fully explain), but soon abandoned because it carried negative connotations and did not adequately reflect the field. It did inspire an entire generation of scientists if for no other reason than it sounds cool as hell. Even so, you'd be hard-pressed to find a regular person outside of a lab, university, or studio who would call it anything but the forbidden word itself; magic.

That's 176 words, which is too many, so I'm gonna tag all my active mutuals

@goldenmoldies @olivia-online @nsomniacsdream @schifty-al @ihaveacrappyusername @marcy-the-martian @alexalister97 @ambiguousjellyfish @jewishpangolin @n-brio @moodycow210 @dontgetmadgetmaddie @trowelsand @cartoon-acid @madmanrambler @laughter-is-universal @arthooooor @flyingdiscopanda @miniature-stigmata @3fluffies @capitalismcastratingsuffragette @neverknwsbest @bunnyshowwhytho @chocotunda @anselat @aceteron @adventures-in-instant-ramen @exhaustedboi @muukumuu @cryptidcrispin @bames--nond @prophet-or-prophecy @fffffabulousss

And here are some of my followers whose names and icons I have come to recognize

@neyri-hime @erikag59 @constructedparadox @tack-bell @aj-reblogs @srrrrrwashrrrrr @bhinky @tarranthitopp @principle-sinner @arkanjil

These sorts of tag games make me feel like I'm excluding people; if I left you off this list, it wasn't intentional. If you follow me and you're reading this, go ahead and respond. I'm @ing you in spirit

[rikeijo]

Today's translation #176

Animedia 4/2017, Otsuka Manabu's interview

Part 4.

In the anime "Kids on the Slope", that Mappa has worked on in the past, there was a scene of playing a piano, which was animated based on a live-action footage used as a reference - it was an amazing animation. Have you used that know-how in the production of Yuri!!!?

Ah, yes. We had experience in creating animation based on live-action footage, so we could do this quite well, but still, figure skating movements were difficult to animate.

After the big success of Yuri!!!, please tell us, what are Mappa's goals for the future.

In 2016, two of Mappa's shows, "Yuri!!! on ICE" and "In this Corner of the World", were very well-received, and this has changed a lot our reputation as an anime production studio, among the general public. But I personally think that it's important to stay focused and keep on working diligently on anime production, without getting too agitated. The goal for now is to build a solid foundation, so in the future we can continue to bring to this world lots of anime shows.

I have heard that you like Yurio a lot, but now that you have completed the work on the last episode, tell us once again what do you think about him?

To the last moment, Yurio's will to fight didn't change. To me, Yurio is the character who preserved these passionate elements of sports anime in Yuri!!!. I think that thanks to him the relationship between Yuuri and Victor, and individual characteristics of other characters really stand out well. I personally think, that one of the reasons why I, as a man, could enjoy watching Yuri!!! was thanks to Yurio.

And at last, your message for the fans of Yuri!!!

During the production we have received a lot of gifts from fans, as well as letters and Valentine's Day chocolates addressed to characters. As an anime production company, we hope we will be able to, in some way, show our gratitude for fans who support us.

[Notes: Please proceed with caution, because I'm talking about fandom politics again...

I've mentioned this before a bit, but this "Yurio is like sports anime protagonist should be" attitude is sooo well-visible in Yuri!!!'s marketing from around that time... Like Otsuka-san mentions here, *men* can watch Yurio and thanks to his presence even enjoy the anime...

(I'm no man, but I'd watch Yurio-centered second season no problem any time✨✨✨)

And it's not just this interview - in the same magazine, there is a short introduction of all characters, and katsudon pirozhki recipe, introduced as Yurio's grandpa special treat for him, and interviews with fans (two idol girls and three Russian girls). Guess who's their fave character?

Idol girl 1: Yurio, Idol girl 2: Yurio, Russian girl 1: Phichit and Yurio, Russian girl 2: Yurio, Russian girl 3: Yurio.

I can translate the interviews, if you want to experience how easy it is to notice that they really want everyone to: "okay, so let's all focus on Yurio now~".

This is my personal opinion, but reading all those interviews and about fandom dramas from that period I can't help but think that they were trying to change the direction of the show toward more sport-oriented story and erase the "it's an anime for fujos" reputation that YoI has... (because the reality is that a lot of anime fans won't touch an anime that has the reputation of being a "fujo-show").

Going further, some subsets of fujos that were following closely what was going on, started to hate on Yurio because of that change of marketing direction, because "Yurio is now trying to steal the role of protagonist from Yuuri-chan🤬"...

I'm absolutely not a Yurio-anti, or anything like that (not a big fan of fujos tho...😶‍🌫️), I'm just writing about some trends that are not very hard to notice, in as much neutral way as I can, because I think that it might have had some influence on what has happened with YoI, that is: I think there might have been some difference of opinion between the creators, the sponsors and fans, as to how YoI should be...]