#25/06/2016

[i-m-a-leaf-on-the-wind]

hi! just saw your repost of tlsp at columbiahalle, milex bumping their noses, and i remembered this one gif that alex is kind of giving miles a skimo kiss?! they bump their noses. i don’t know which gig this was, but i was hoping you’d know what im talking about 😅

Hello Anon ♥️

Well, they bump their noses A LOOOOOT 😅😂

Maybe :

Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Scotland [26-03-2016]

Webster Hall [11-04-2016]

The Catalyst, Santa Cruz [18-04-2016]

Olympia, Dublin [25-05-2016]

De Montfort Hall, Leicester [31-05-16]

Primavera Sound, Barcelona [03-06-2016]

Flow Festival [13-08-2016]

Sziget [16-08-2016]

I don’t know!???

[edit version]

[the-conversation-pod]

Dispatch! (The Ossan's Love Episode)

And we're back!

NiNi and Ben bring our friend @twig-tea to the show to talk about the entire Ossan's Love series. We'll talk about the way this franchise evolves over time, the difficulties of comedy, what it means to love older queer men, and how this show tackles the complexities of family and masculinity.

Timestamps

The timestamps will now correspond with chapters on Spotify for easier navigation.

00:00:00 - Welcome 00:01:15 - Introduction and Some Context 00:06:25 - Ossan’s Love History and Summary 00:13:42 - The Characters 00:28:23 - Love or Dead and In The Sky 00:39:00 - Ossan’s Love Returns 00:45:33 - Final Thoughts and Ratings

The Conversation Transcripts!

Thanks to the continued efforts of @ginnymoonbeam as transcriber, and @lurkingshan as an editor and proofreader, we are able to bring you transcripts of the episodes.

We will endeavor to make the transcripts available when the episodes launch, and it is our goal to make them available for past episodes (Coming soon thanks to @wen-kexing-apologist). When transcripts are available, we will attach them to the episode post (like this one) and put the transcript behind a Read More cut to cut down on scrolling.

Please send our volunteers your thanks!

00:00:00 - Welcome

NiNi

Welcome to The Conversation About BL, aka The Brown Liquor Podcast.

Ben

And there it is. I’m Ben.

NiNi

I’m NiNi.

Ben

And we’re you’re drunk Caribbean uncle and auntie here sitting on the porch in the rocking chairs.

NiNi

Four times a year we pop in to talk about what’s going on in the BL world.

Ben

We shoot the shit about stories and all the drama going into them. I review from a queer media lens.

NiNi

And I review from a romance and drama lens.

Ben

So if you like cracked-out takes and really intense emotional analysis…

NiNi

If you like talking about artistry, industry, and the discourse…

Ben

And if you generally just love simping…

NiNi

There is a lot of simping on this podcast…

Ben

We are the show for you!

00:01:15 - Introduction and Some Context

Ben

And we're back! 

This week, we are covering all of Ossan's Love, from 2016 through 2024. We have brought on a special guest for this special episode as we're going to talk about the longest-running BL project. We have brought on our friend @twig-tea.

Twig

Hello.

NiNi

Hi, Twig. Welcome to the show.

Twig

Thank you so much for having me.

NiNi

New friend of the pod. Super excited to have you here. Twig is what we delightfully referred to as a ‘fandom old.’ I'm very excited to be having this conversation with two fandom olds in here, Twig and Ben, because, dear listeners, I have not had the time to watch Ossan's Love, so this is gonna be interesting. Ben and Twig are gonna school me.

Twig

We'll do our best.

Ben

This is going to be an interesting episode because we're going to be talking about a project that was somewhat overlooked by fandom, myself included, until the last couple of months. And I'm a little bit salty about it, and so I wanted to bring on somebody who has watched all of this in real time, and I thought that their perspective would be helpful. 

Twig, you are new to our listeners. Why don't you tell them a little bit about yourself in fandom and your history with queer cinema and BL?

Twig

I actually started on the GL side, which is a little bit different than I think a lot of folks in the BL fandom. I started with getting into Sailor Moon and got involved with a group of women who started Yuricon. The first Yuricon was held in Newark, NJ, in 2003 and I was the secretary. 

From there, there just wasn't enough GL content, and so I got into BL, too. I was really into Japanese manga, was part of a few scanlation groups, got oversaturated, stepped away, came back in 2016 to be shocked at the fact that a whole lot of the stuff that I used to watch was now made into live action. 

The YouTube algorithm in late 2016—early 2017—fed me Lovesick and I sort of went, “Hello. What's this?” Then watched Make it Right and was hooked on Thai BL. Tried to backfill as much as I could, so I watched Gray Rainbow, and Diary of Tootsies, and all this stuff that nobody talks about, really, anymore. 

One of the things about fandom at that time was that the way you found stuff was digging and a prayer, and random people making random lists, and it was very hard to tell how good those lists were. And so I managed that by watching everything and making my own opinions. And that is why I watched Ossan’s Love when it aired, or as soon as I could get my hands on it.

NiNi

So we're talking like real, real old school. We're talking about “Oh God, maybe some fansubber might help us out here.”

Twig

Fuckin’, like, Internet relay chat.

NiNi

IRC was my job back in the day.

Twig

Yes!

NiNi

I was talking about other things—not BL, but I was there.

Ben

Twig has sketchy as shit DVDs that were handed to her by a fan that have not great rip but really solid subs.

Twig

Bought in a mall parking lot with Mandarin subtitles that we used to watch with my friends who spoke Mandarin so they could translate for us in real time. It was hard. We used to walk uphill both ways back in the day.

Ben

A lot of folks who have been in this for a long time—we joked that we watched everything because we had to. You have done a better job of keeping track of what you've watched.

Twig

I wish I'd done better. I only really started tracking things in 2020. I did try to backfill the years before that, but I only really captured all of the major series. There was so many shorts, and things like that, I just couldn't do. But my spreadsheet has about 600 things on it, 606 as of today.

Ben

Incredible.

NiNi

I have been watching media overall—like seriously watching media—for…30 years…and I have not watched 606 of anything.

Ben

Nah, I believe her. It adds up. I engage with close to 100 BLs every year for the last 2-3 years.

NiNi

Clearly I'm not in these streets with y'all.

[Twig laughs]

Ben

I'm so glad Twig has showed up because it has given me permission to not watch so much.

NiNi

I bow down to you guys, because there was a point in time where, trying to keep up with week-to-week, I was watching something like eight shows at a time and I literally felt like my head was on fire. So, I don't know how you guys do it.

Ben

Practice. [laughs]

NiNi

We talked about this on the show, how last year I watched 50 things, maybe, for the whole year, and I felt like I was losing my mind. I usually watch like 15.

Ben

50 is good. Like, that's a really healthy number.

Twig

That is. That's pretty solid.

NiNi

As in five-zero? 

Ben

Yeah, no, that's great!

NiNi

A year?! 

Ben

Yeah! And we made a whole fucking show out of it! It’s good!

NiNi

Deep breaths. Okay, let's continue. Let's go on. [laughs]

00:06:25 - Ossan’s Love History and Summary

NiNi

Let's get into Ossan's Love. Ben, do the honors, tell us what is Ossan's Love about?

Ben

Actually, I want to do this one a little bit differently. 

NiNi, you have not engaged with Ossan's Love. The most you have is the fandom vibe on it from the periphery. What is your impression of Ossan's Love prior to all of us posting a lot about the new show?

NiNi

When you say periphery, I think you're being incredibly generous. There was one where they’re flight attendants maybe, or something to do with an airline. I am aware of that. And then there was something with a boss. There was a thing about a shower. There's some dirty jokes that go over my head because they're referential to this show. But in terms of my awareness of Ossan’s Love, it's honestly not much. 

Did I get any of those things correct by the way?

Twig

You totally did.

Ben

You did. I almost shouted “Dispatch” when you mentioned the airport. [Twig and Ben laugh] 

All right. So, I will give what I knew of Ossan's Love prior to earnestly engaging with it: Ossan's Love is a workplace-set drama in which a guy who works in an office is being pursued by a colleague of the same age as him and his boss—who is like 20-plus-odd years older than him. At the time when I didn't watch it, the fandom vibe on it was that it was fairly offensive, particularly around the old guy character. And, when it was hard to find this show, I was like, “Whatever, I'm not going to work that hard for a show that people seem really put off by.” I have had to make sure that I check if I am riding an old fandom opinion from prior to 2019 when it comes to older work, because those opinions are usually not informed by the lens that I use. And so I decided to engage with Ossan's Love properly. 

Before we start describing what the show is specifically, Twig, what do you remember about your experience watching the show in real time and the popular opinions about it?

Twig

So, the first thing is real time had really different meanings back then because we didn't have international distribution. It was sort of when things were fan subbed and when you could find them and knew they existed. So, I actually didn't get to watch the short until years after the original. So my first outing with Ossan’s Love was season one. 

At the time, it felt like if you liked it, you should be quiet about it, because the opinion was so negative that you would be shouted down if you said anything positive about it. So I just sort of stayed in my corner of enjoyment and tried not to think too hard about it.

Ben

That is unfortunately how I remember it being. It was not popular to say positive things about Ossan’s Love at the time. Even the fans of Ossan's Love seemed super ambivalent about the second season, which was an alternative universe.

Twig

Yeah. When Season 2 aired it was an even wider swing. The people who really loved Season 1 seemed to hate Season 2. I actually like Season 2 better than Season 1, so I was even more like, [laughs] “Okay, I guess I don't know what I'm talking about, guys, so I'm just gonna stay over here and let you all have your opinions over there.”

Ben

So our quick timeline: we have Ossan’s Love the TV special in 2016. We have Ossan’s Love the TV show airing during spring of 2018. They released the movie Ossan’s Love: Love or Dead —that went into theaters on August 23rd of 2019—and then a few months later, in November, they released Ossan’s Love: In The Sky. It's my understanding that Ossan’s Love Returns was originally supposed to air in, like, 2020-2021. They've returned to that project this year in 2024.

NiNi

I know they're going to be doing a Thai version of this coming up and they also have the Hong Kong version?

Twig

That's right. Yep. There was a Hong Kong version in I think 2021 or 2022.

NiNi

I love when they take a property and they remake it across cultures over and over again. I'm always intrigued to see how they turn out.

Ben

Have you watched the Hong Kong version, Twig?

Twig

I peeked at it. It's really true to season one in a lot of ways. I haven't actually watched it all the way through because I was like, “If I want to rewatch season one, I'll just rewatch season one.”

Ben

I feel like I have to watch it at some point. 

All right, so let's get into Ossan’s Love properly now: Ossan’s Love is about a 33 year old man named Haruta who is a slob. He is a hot mess of a man. He cannot take care of himself. He lives with his mom, and she does all the housework. She decides to bail on him and go run off with the hot new man she's with. And so he asks his colleague, whose name is Maki, to move in with him to help him out because Maki is very good at house chores. 

He learns accidentally that his boss, whose name is Kurasawa Musashi, has had a crush on him for a long time and also simultaneously learns that Maki has been crushing on him for a long time. Hijinks ensue as the two of them begin aggressively pursuing him, and he is not prepared for this sudden surge in gay activities.

Twig

One thing I add to your description, Ben, is it's a comedy.

Ben

So this is where things get a little bit complicated. Comedy is hard to do correctly, because a big part of comedy is playing with people's preconceptions of how an interaction should go. A lot of folks struggle with Japanese comedy because they're just not aware of the expectations for how an interaction should go, and so the humor is not landing on them, and this can happen even in your own culture. Like, if you showed a teenager today Airplane, many of the jokes in that movie would make no sense to them because they're missing some of the cultural context. Some of that exists with peoples engagement with Ossan's Love, I think.

Twig

I think that's right.

00:13:42 - The Characters 

Ben

The big part about Ossan's Love that impresses me is how the show gets better each time they come back. There are things that are kind of yikes in the short that are tweaked out in the first show. There are things that they retooled Haruta and Kurosawa over in the airport season. And then, in the most recent season, Ossan's Love Returns, they've shifted where the focus of their storytelling is after everything that's going on. So we are seeing the same characters, but they're dealing with much different dynamics. 

So, Ossan's Love Returns was a completely acceptable point for a lot of people to jump on, and I almost just jumped on. But, I like to know how we got here. So I was like, “I must watch all of this first!” [laughs]

NiNi

I was about to say on what point were you ever gonna just jump on without going back into the before times? You, sir, are a historian and a completionist.

Ben

Of course. And so I went back and watched. 

Twig, since you didn't have a lot of people to talk about Ossan's Love with at the time, how about you talk about your impressions of Haruta, Maki, and Kurosawa when you first engaged with it?

Twig

The thing that stuck with me is that, even in 2018, it felt a little more queer than a lot of the other stuff I was watching alongside it at the time. Haruta and Maki, and all of the characters, play into that in different ways. Haruta is an extremely frustrating character. I just wanted to reach through the screen and strangle him through most of season one, and I think that's partially intentional. 

Haruta is set up as the literal straight man. He's there to be what your average straight guy reaction might be when confronted with gayness, and everyone around him literally slaps him and tells him he's being an idiot. Delightful, but it doesn't make the character himself very likable at first. The fact that he grows on you anyway, even while he's being so frustrating, speaks to the other strengths in his character: his kindness, and the way he values his coworkers. And I think the later seasons did a really good job of picking up the things that made Haruta such a great character, and enforcing that in the character writing itself to make him more likable overall. 

I loved Kurosawa from jump. I think he's [laughs] incredible. He lives life on 11, and I think watching an older man step through some of the more standard romance tropes very clumsily but earnestly is incredibly charming. 

Maki is the competent character. He's also a self-actualized gay man. He at no point questions his sexuality at all, has no crisis about it. He knows who he is and what he's attracted to. And that was also really refreshing for BL at the time.

NiNi

Describing the kind of character that Kurosawa is made me think of Ben describing characters like Shin from Minato's Laundromat. When you tend to see these younger characters who are full on gung-ho chasing after the ones that they like, people like that. But they don't like the boss because they don't think their character should be doing that.

Twig

When I was first telling Ben about my opinions about the show, I said one of the things I struggle with is whether Kurosawa is telling the joke or is the joke. I think the more I have watched and rewatched, especially in later seasons, they do a really good job of him being a funny character and we're not laughing at him. He's not the butt of the joke, he's just funny. The people who would be turned off by an old guy hitting on a younger guy no matter what were turned off by that character and the ones who were sympathetic to older men also having romance in their lives were turned off by the idea that it was a comedy.

Ben

The comedy in the way Kurosawa pursues Haruta is about the age gap, not the fact that he's an old man. It's that he's at a different stage of his life. He's not fumbling to figure out stuff, he knows what he wants and his time is limited, so he's pursuing it determinately and also because he's older, he's behaving in line with his generation.

Like, if you don't have friends who are more than 10 years older than you, sometimes you're going to get weirded out by their cultural stuff. Like right now, I'm reaching the age gap with some of the kids I tutor, and I had to deal with all the various iterations on rizz and I don’t like it. 

[Twig and NiNi laugh]

I had an 8 year old call himself The Rizzler the other day and I almost pushed him down.

Twig 

Oh no.

NiNi

Oh my God.

Ben

I understand the concern around Kurosawa. But that is not what I think the show is doing, and even if it accidentally does it, that is not the show’s intent. Haruta is dealing with the sudden shift in his relationships with men who are important to him. Maki was just like his friend and colleague, who he was low-key mooching off of to do housework for him, and he has to deal with the fact that the only reason Maki is willing to put up with him is because Maki likes him. With Kurosawa, a big part of their relationship is the fact that he respects and admires him so much. The relationship between them is very paternal in a lot of ways?

Twig

A mentorship.

Ben

Yeah, he sees Kurosawa as a respected mentor and Kurosawa respects Haruta as well as a valued member of his team. A big part of the show is them sorting out the way that affection complicates some of these relationships, and we as the audience have to struggle with why these men like this man. Haruta is fucking useless in the household. He may be good at his job, but he is horrible at house related stuff. And so the question is why would anyone want him? 

And this is not rhetorical for the show. They really want you to grapple with this. The fact that Haruta is kind of repulsive as a romantic interest is something the show wants you to think about. You have to work to understand why so many people are into Haruta, and I think this gets better overtime.

Twig

They do a really good job with all of the women characters in this show, which was super rare for the time and still worth saying. His best friend Chizu also is terrible at housework, but she's a woman, and so she's struggling with the expectation that she get married and she keeps talking about how she needs to find somebody who does for her what Haruta’s men are willing to do for him. I just love putting those two characters side by side. And the silent question that's asked of the audience. That's like, why is this okay for Haruta, but not for Chizu.

Ben

It's not really subtle. As the show goes on, Maki won't really commit to Haruta because Haruta is ostensibly straight. Maki is hesitant about full committing because it's hard to be gay, like you got a lot to face as a gay person and he doesn't know that Haruta is going to stand up to all that. He's kind of a waffly type of dude. He's kind of a people pleaser who won't really stand up to anyone. This is kind of good for him as a salesperson. It's obvious why all their clients like Haruta. But it makes him kind of unreliable as a partner because you're not certain he's going to hold ground with you when the world is telling you that you shouldn't be together. 

The first season ends on a really cool note, ‘cause Maki and Haruta break up and Haruta just falls apart. And Kurosawa moves in with him for a while to help take care of him. For Kurosawa, it's a romantic thing, but it very much feels like someone’s parent going to take care of their kid. Haruta recognized where he failed with Maki, and he starts trying to help out with house stuff a little bit. But it's not like he suddenly becomes like a great housekeeper. I really liked that choice, that he starts putting in an effort but he's still horrible at it. 

Kurosawa ends up proposing to Haruta. Haruta has a hard time saying no to people, so he accepts. Also, he used a flash mob. It's hard to say no when someone flash mobs you.

NiNi

Pause. Pause for cause.

Twig

Michael Jackson-themed flash mob.

NiNi

Okay, not pausing. Unpausing. Go ahead.

Ben

Kurosawa is always at 11. He is an incredible character and like he and Haruta are going to get married and at the altar, Kurosawa is like. You need to go to him. You don't actually want to be here. And so Haruta runs to Maki and proposes to him at the end of the first season. 

And then there's just an incredible supporting cast in the show. I don't think we have time to talk about all of them properly, but. Haruta’s friend Chizu’s older brother Teppei runs a little bar diner that they often hang out at. He's so funny, always giving them weird gross food combinations to try out. They’re’s Maro, who's a member of their team who did not know Haruta’s given name for the years they worked together, there's Maika, who's kind of a nosy busybody at their work. She's a great source of comedy, ends up with Teppei. There's Takegawa, who's the second at their office in the first season, who is revealed to be Maki’s ex later. And he is intense as hell and becomes a complicating factor in the budding relationship between Haruta and Maki because he challenges Haruta. He's like, why is he putting this much effort into you? You suck! I really love the Takegawa character because he is a hot mess.

Twig

He just is so pained at Maki falling for a straight man. Something that is deeply relatable for anybody in queer spaces. [NiNi laughs] Like we have all been that person. Like, what are you doing to yourself?

Ben

I want to nod to Choko real quick. In the first season, Kurosawa has a wife of 30 years. Her name is Choko. Once his feelings for Haruta become known to Haruta, he decides he's going to pursue them and he tells this to his wife and they get divorced. She is understandably upset about this whole situation. But what's so great about it is, the show allows her to have a journey of figuring out what her life is going to be now that this information is out there. Like, she was hurt and upset at first, but then decides to support Kurosawa because this is her partner of 30 years and she understands him, so she ends up eventually supporting what he's trying to do with Haruta. And she ends up developing her own relationship with Maro. 

It's really cool in this show where there's this whole complicated thing about whether or not these three gay men are going to sort themselves out into various relationship configurations, they're also doing a pretty steep successful age gap romance between like a 30-something year old man and a woman approaching 60.

Twig

I love Choko's arc so much. It's the one thing that stayed with me the most. She is also allowed to be funny. She's silly and immature in the same ways that the male characters are. She's not perfect either. And I think that is super important that she's a complicated character. 

I think it's really important that this show talks about the ways in which homophobia and being in the closet hurts everyone, not just gay people. I think this show does a good job of at least alluding to the fact that the hurt that's caused by people having to live lies makes waves in communities.

NiNi

I like when they put that on older characters, as well. There's so much to unpack when you're talking about a life lived in the closet, emerging from a life lived in the closet later on in life. What you're gonna do with that life and how you're gonna treat it. From what you guys are saying about Kurosawa, it’s like he just decided to take life by the balls once he came out of the closet, and that's always something that I enjoy seeing.

Ben 

I guess, well, on some of the negatives. The humor is choppy in the first season. You do have to recalibrate as you're watching. It is very funny, but in ways that are unexpected. You will end up feeling a sense of revulsion in the show, particularly to season one Haruta. When I started going back to it, I had a difficult time with the first episode because I'm asking myself why would anyone want to fuck this man? [NiNi and Twig laugh] That is a real and valid reaction that you have to work with as you're watching the show. And so parts of it are a little bit difficult to watch in that regard. 

And Kurosawa is a huge character. You have to take time to get to know him and understand him and understand where his behaviors are coming from. And if you're not willing to do that work, the show is super off putting. 

Twig 

It is loud. You do have to allow your comedy ear to calibrate to its shouting. 

Ben 

However, I will say that if you want to see romance in BL about older characters, Ossan’s Love is right there. The entire drama is about 30-somethings and much older dealing with life and love. There is no wistful stuff about “things were easier when we were kids” in this show at all. It is very much grounded in the perspective and dramas that people in their 30s and 40s and 50s are dealing with in life and romance. 

Twig 

I feel like the one other thing that I always feel the need to call out about the first season is Haruta, because of what his character is struggling with, is physically uncomfortable with displays of affection, and particularly with kissing, in the first season. And that can be off putting too, but he makes it clear verbally that he's not actually against physical affection, he's just familiar with it? It is one of the things that the show does better later on.

00:28:23 - Love or Dead and In The Sky

Ben 

Let's talk about the movie! Ossan’s Love: Love or Dead. 

Twig 

[laughs] Every time I think about that title, it makes me laugh, ‘cause it's just so extra. 

NiNi 

I'm sorry, Love or Dead? 

Ben

Mhmm.

Twig 

Oh yeah. 

Ben 

The premise of this movie is at the end of season one, Haruta got an opportunity to go work in Shanghai for about six months, and the guys are going to be facing a separation for a bit. There's drama when Maki goes to pick up Haruta ‘cause he's found in a compromising position, and a big part of this is Maki still dealing with his anxiety around whether or not Haruta can be a partner to him. Maki gets selected to be part of this high-powered real estate team, and there's a bunch of drama that unfolds involving a partnership with a drug peddling organization and then we end on like an action note where they have to rescue Haruta from a burning building. 

Twig 

There are explosions. 

Ben 

Lots of explosions. 

NiNi 

This sounds… delightful. This sounds like exactly my kind of crack. 

Ben 

You should watch it sincerely. 

Twig 

It is delightful. 

Ben 

If you're not certain about Ossan’s Love, legit, watching Ossan’s Love: Love or Dead is not a terrible place to start. It's a two-hour outing that covers the basic ground of the franchise, has some really strong moments, and is super cracked out. 

What's so fun in it is, we talk about the retooling of the characters. In season one, Maki and Kurosawa beef a lot over Haruta and legit get into physical brawls over it. This is a feature of the entire franchise. These men scrap on the regular. There's this great moment when they're trying to rescue Haruta from this building where Kurosawa's role as their mentor comes through and he reads Maki about how he's always holding back in the relationship. That's what I think works for me the most in this franchise, the collective love that everyone has for each other. It's true that Kurosawa is not going to succeed as a romantic rival to Maki in this story, but that doesn't mean that he's not important to everyone and everything going on. And I really, truly love that. 

Twig 

His mentorship relationship with Maki really starts to flourish in the movie, the moment where Maki’s hanging off of a ledge and Kurosawa is helping him physically back onto the ledge so he doesn’t fall into the flames, but also verbally telling him what he needs to do to save his relationship. This movie is not subtle with its metaphors. But it's such a good moment where we realize that Kurosawa plays that role for Maki, too, of a mentor, and that he's willing to do it for the relationship, even at the same time as being a love rival. And it sets up the new season really well. 

Ben 

The movie matters to the timeline of the series. The movie is not just some sort of one off moment that occurs. The events of the movie are built into the characters, and it was the beginning of them retooling how these characters function. 

NiNi 

This sounds like a very experimental type of series, just the way that they do different things each time. While they are refining their central characters and the central storylines, they're also experimenting with style and tone, and a number of other things it feels like? 

Twig 

I think that's really true. One of the things about the movie that's really fun is it's the first instance of sports in the series. We get Justice playing basketball with Haruta and working his feelings out through basketball. 

Ben 

JUSTICE!!! [Twig and Ben laugh]

Twig 

Love and peace! And that becomes a huge part of the AU and also part of Ossan’s Love Returns that I think really adds to the experience. They try things out and then if it works, they pick it up and add and yes, and it, and then they pull out the things that didn't really work. I find that really interesting to watch happen. 

NiNi 

The concept of something being iterative like that in real time, it's not for everybody. 

Ben 

This series went on to do something super experimental where a couple of months after they released a continuation movie promising that these characters would get back together, they released an alternative universe season where only Haruta and Kurosawa were present from the original cast, and now we're at an airport dealing with a completely different set of characters and a slightly different dynamic. 

It also gave Twig and I our favorite bit. 

Twig

[laughs] Dispatch! 👍

Ben

Dispatch! 👍 Oh my God. It is so funny, every single time. 

NiNi 

Every time. 

Ben 

Every episode has at least two dispatch moments. [Twig laughs] It's so fucking funny. 

Twig 

Sometimes it's to end a conversation. Sometimes it's to greet somebody, sometimes it's to shut down a conversation, distract from someone saying something you don’t want them to say. 

Ben 

So in this particular season, Kurosawa is still a leader. He is the captain of a flight crew. Haruta is a new flight attendant who is joining this team. In this case, Kurosawa is not Haruta’s long-term mentor who has been harboring a crush on him. He develops his crush in real time. Haruta moves into company housing and there's a slightly older guy there who's got a crush on Haruta, but he won't say anything about it. And then there's the meanest twink who's ever existed in BL. 

NiNi 

I mean y'all just seem to be giving me multiple reasons to watch this show at this point, so. 

Ben 

So in the second season, there's far more complicated people in the Haruta stuff. There's Kaname who is the older mechanic who lives in the dorms, and he's got this huge crush on Haruta, but he'll never say anything about it. Naruse is causing fucking problems all the time, because every time he has relationship drama and people show up at their airport to fuck with him about it, he just starts kissing Haruta to make people go away. And then people throw drinks in Haruta’s face over it. Because Tanaka Kei is a master of physical comedy. 

Twig 

One of the staples of the series is what I call the Haruta reaction supercut, where they just have multiple cuts of Haruta’s face as it morphs into more and more absurd huh, no, whaaa faces. He does bend his body in ways that's like a cartoon falling over, it's pretty incredible. 

NiNi 

Ben knows that I love physical comedy. 

Twig 

Yoshida Kotaro has incredible physical comedy, too. 

Ben 

Like if you ever want to see an old man try and kill an aging twink [Twig laughs], this is the show for you. 

I get why people who liked the first show bounced off of this, because the rest of the cast is gone. The supporting cast is a really strong part of the Ossan’s Love experience, but I really like the AU season because I think it allowed them to retool Haruta and Kurosawa. And retool the relationship between them to make it more about their mentorship. They're building that relationship in the AU season ‘cause they don't know each other. 

Twig 

The thing that I really like about the AU setup is because Haruta is coming into a new environment, we get to see him build his network of people around him over the course of the season. Showing us what's likable about Haruta because he has to charm all these people around him in order to get friends and build a community, is a really important piece of the puzzle that allowed me to get to like that character a lot more, because he was charming me at the same time. 

Ben 

We get a lot of great moments in the season. Kurosawa has been a pilot for 30 years and he decides to retire and everyone is sad about it. I'm sad about it, Twig is crying about it. 

Twig 

Mmhm. 

Ben 

He ends up inviting the three guys who we've mentioned out to hang out in the park with him. He has this sumo tournament with them where he's basically giving them the last bit of advice he's going to give them and it is, one of the most intensely emotional man moments I have had in this genre. I was losing it and I was crying. I was hollering and screaming, messaging Twig like, “Wake up, I need to talk about this right now, I don't care what you're doing. Get up.” 

Truly, it is one of the best moments in TV about the relationships between men that I have ever experienced, and it is this hyper ridiculous sumo wrestling moment in a gay romance drama in the AU season that is technically not canon, and it was the moment from the series that lingers with me the most. 

Twig 

Even in the moment they're looking at each other like, is this happening? How is this happening? This isn't real. Nobody does this. Nobody calls each other to the side of the river with a note [laughs] to hold a wrestling competition in which we talk about our feelings. 

Ben 

But it works really well. I ended up really loving the way it allowed us to think about these two men and the relationship between them. We get to appreciate how important Kurosawa is to Haruta. 

Twig 

That sumo wrestling moment allows us to see Kurosawa's relationships with all of his subordinates. The way he's so firm and so gentle with Naruse, with like “soft landing,” meanwhile, throws Haruta out of the ring. 

Ben 

The way he talks to all of these men as specific to them, like his role as leader is strongest in the AU season. My primary concern for the Thai adaptation is who is playing Kurosawa, because this character is as important as the romantic leads. 

Twig 

I think it's more important. 

Ben 

I am with Twig. Who is going to match Yoshida Kotaro in Thailand? I need to know. 

Twig 

I'm eagerly awaiting that announcement. 

NiNi 

The answer is going to be Nu Surasak or Kob Songsit.

Ben 

I really hope it's good. 

00:39:00 - Ossan’s Love Returns

Ben

Ossan's Love Returns reunites the original cast after five years. Maki is returning from an extended stint in Singapore, and now he and Haruta are gonna start their cohabitating married life together. Maki is now part of the super team at headquarters, following up on the movie. Haruta is still on the streets with regular folk, ‘cause that's where he wants to be. Kurosawa has retired, I liked that follow up from the AU season. And now he's working as a housekeeper. Maki is working too much and Haruta is still bad at house, and so they hire a housekeeper, who ends up being Kurosawa [Twig laughs] who cannot hold back his feelings for Haruta and it becomes one of the ongoing dramas of the season. 

One of the things I enjoyed in this season is… they explore how to integrate Kurosawa into their lives long term. Haruta is serious about Maki and committed to their romance. Kurosawa is also extremely important to him and he treats him like a father figure. They explicitly have Choko talk to Kurosawa about how a lot of the ways he feels [laugh] about Maki are a lot of the ways a mother-in-law might feel about their daughter-in-law with the way they beef with each other. And when we say they beef with each other, I mean, these two men are legit fighting in their kitchen, like Kurosawa hits Maki in the head repeatedly with a frying pan. Maki legit throws Kurosawa through a door at one point and knocks it off the hinges. These two men, when they scrap with each other, are fighting for real and I love it every time.

NiNi

It's just like you all conspired to come into this recording booth today and just be like, okay, so you say this and I'll say that and between us we're gonna get her to watch this, because she likes this kind of stuff.

Ben

I didn't really have to work that hard. We're just legit talking about what the show was doing. We get a really great season of Maki and Haruta settling into what their life is going to look like. There's some introduced new characters in the season that we all had very complicated feelings about who I think end up fitting fine by the end. Most of the original cast comes back and there's like a really great bit of exploring what all these characters settling into their relationships that they got into in the first season in this one. 

So Haruta and Maki are now living together and figuring out what that is going to look like, who are they gonna be as a couple now that they're not doing long distance ‘cause they've basically been long distance between every outing. Which I think was a clever choice because it means that the characters’ relationship dynamic doesn't really move that much between outings. 

Choko is now living with Maro and Maro’s mom, and Choko is struggling because she's older than Maro's mom. She can't just treat this woman like her mother-in-law. And Maro doesn't know how to help because he's caught between his wife, who's way older than him, and his mom, who's confused and a little bit uncertain about this whole dynamic.

Twig

I also love that that's not the only thing we see Choko having worked through in the time we've been apart from her. She opened an archery range after her divorce, and sort of reinvented herself with this new life that she's actually thriving in.

Ben

They get new neighbors who are a bunch of weirdos.

Twig

[laughs] They're so weird. They're so weird.

Ben

These two are revealed to be members of, like, a public security division that maybe doesn't actually exist. Izumi ends up becoming obsessed with Haruta because he's a doppelganger for his dead lover who was killed in the line of duty, who is very, very different from Haruta. It was fun to see Tanaka Kei play a very different type of character in those flashbacks. I don't know that it entirely landed for me over the course of the season, but by the finale, which was fantastic, I was okay with them.

Twig

A large part of the way they were written is that they were a mystery for a large part of it, too. It's hard to bond with a character that you know nothing about and is intentionally opaque.

Ben

Chizu is trying to make it as a single mom and this reinforces one of the big themes of the season, that family is all the people who are going to show up for you all the time. She relies on Teppei and Maika to help, and she feels guilty about this and they tell her straight up, like, don't feel guilty. We are a family. You should rely on us. 

She had already made Haruta and Maki designated adults who can pick up her kid from the daycare. An important gay right of passage is your friend calling you and telling you I need you to go pick up my kid, and then you show up at said kindergarten to pick up a kid and they look at your ID and they go “oh you're allowed” and the kid runs to you and everybody goes, well, that makes sense. An important gay moment that everyone must experience.

Twig

One of the things that I love about this so much is that it picks up from a throw away line that Chizu says in the movie. She sort of brags that she's going to balance having a kid and her career. One of the things about the series is that it really feels like the people who are writing it love the whole series and are constantly thinking about how to call back in loving ways and how to pick up threads in loving ways. Something that she just sort of confidently stated she was going to do no problem in the movie becomes a whole plot in the following season.

Ben

There's a final arc in the season where Kurosawa has a health scare where we think he's going to die.

Twig

When we were talking about it, Ben, you said that it was an important moment for Maki and Haruta to confront the idea that Kurosawa won't always be around. And I was like, oh, that's why I don't like this part because I don't want to ever think about that. [Twig and Ben laugh]

Ben

The entire finale is this really great examination about the way this whole group of people are a family to each other.

Twig

It's not even just that it's happening, but they're explicit about it. They're having conversations about what is family? What are we to each other? How do we define our relationship? Where do those lines get drawn? And the answer is just sort of, yes.

Ben

There's an explicit line, like, what is Kurosawa to them? And then Maika comes over and hammers it home for the audience and is like, “There's no need to describe it. What matters is you all are going to be part of each other's lives forever.”

00:45:33 - Final Thoughts and Ratings

Ben

I don't think we talked about it as much. So, the first season is pretty light on kissing and intimacy between the male characters. Ossan's Love Returns is not! There's so much married intimacy between Haruta and Maki.

Twig

The casual intimacy in Ossan's Love Returns is constant, and it just feels very lived in? They're just constantly touching each other and having small kisses and teasing each other.

Ben

We got more of that today in the unexpected special spin-offs we're getting. I was like “ohh, I thought we were done. Oh, it's another cute little 20-minute office episode ending on the two of them making out next to the copier.” Love it.

NiNi

This is called Forbidden Gout Temps Nouveau. 

Twig

Mhmm.

NiNi

I have so many questions, but I feel like I should not ask those questions right now.

Ben

My general attitude is you don't need to watch all of Ossan's Love to enjoy parts of Ossan's Love. I think if you are interested in gay domesticity and complex family units, you can just watch Ossan's Love Returns right away.

NiNi

I'm watching it all. Eventually. I don't know when. There's a lot going on in the IRL space right now, but I'm gonna be watching the whole thing.

Twig

I feel like I should say something about the original short. It has a lot of the things that people found the hardest to swallow about season one. A lot of the stuff that they did originally they fixed or did better as they moved through. I would say the short is the thing to skip, of all of it, unless you're really curious about the journey of this franchise.

NiNi

I'm really fascinated by the idea of this as a reserve process of working through and refining the show in kind of a real time. I would like to see the whole thing just for that purpose. I'm a writer, so the way that this feels like multiple drafts, and you getting to actually see the multiple drafts to see why they might have decided to make a particular change in the next draft, or why they would have gone for an overhaul, or what would they have tweaked around the edges. I like the idea of looking at that.

Twig

It is not just the writing that they iterate. We haven't talked a lot about the visual effects that this show uses, but it has its own style. One of my favorites: it uses the bokeh effect, where the lighting in the background is blurred and sometimes takes shapes. It starts from the very beginning. You'll see the lights behind Kurosawa make little hearts while he's confessing to Haruta and Haruta’s has little like stop signs. [Ben laughs] And then they get bigger and bigger with that where Kurosawa’s hearts have little like heartbreak. They have– there’s little, like, zigzags in the hearts behind him when he gets rejected. Sometimes he'll be crying tear lights. That’s just one of the things that they play with in the different versions.

Ben

Naruse having that whole tantrum trying to get someone's attention for help? Then having that super cut of them screaming and then smash cutting to them just sitting at the table. There's like the courtroom audio stinger that dominates the first season that I fucking love [mimics the sound] thing that happens over the course of the whole season. It's so, so dramatic, and I'm like, “Is Judge Mathis gonna walk out? What is happening?”

Twig

Oh, and they do this thing where they hard cut to a visual metaphor like water leaking out of a water bottle or a pot boiling to represent the character’s emotions. There's so many visual moments. It's not just written well and acted well. It's also represented visually really well, and seeing how they experiment with that and how that changes. Like, the weird bobble heads we got in the AU season. I'm still not over those. I'm glad those didn't return.

Ben

It is not a perfect show. This is not a “Everybody was wrong. They should have watched all of this. Grab your pitchfork!” situation. This is not an easy show to love. If you can find your way to loving the show, I think it has been one of the most rewarding watches I've had in the genre since What Did You Eat Yesterday? 

Japanese BL is different from Thai BL. More experimental and weirder things are gonna happen over time if the series has a lot of leg in it, and Ossan's Love is one of those that has so much leg in it. Like the second season just ended, and I'd be okay if we don't see them again, but, I really hope we do.

Twig

Me too.

NiNi

All right, so let's get into ratings. I mean, is this the kind of thing that you rate? Instead of rating, let's rank. If you had to rank the different parts of the Ossan's Love franchise, how would you rank them? In terms of, for you, most enjoyable to probably the least enjoyable?

Ben

Well, the least enjoyable is the original special. It's the most rough and the hardest to swallow. I think the best season is the current one?

Twig

Yeah. I mean, for me, it's basically chronological order, I think. I struggle between the film and the AU ‘cause I like them for different reasons, and I struggled with them for different reasons. But I think Naruse tips it over there so that it stays ahead.

Ben

[Ben and Twig laugh] I love that mean twink!

Twig

He's just so great.

Ben

I don't know that I'd want to…rank them that way. I think each outing adds something to it. It's really a question of, do you like seeing people try to get together for the first time, or do you really like seeing people be together? For me, I'm very partial to Ossan's Love Returns because it's about gay life drama, which is what I’ve wanted for a while. And so I'm really fucking enjoying that.

Twig

Yeah, I love it when people have to figure out, “Now that we're in this relationship, how do we make this work?”

Ben

But I also love the AU season. I think the retooling of Haruta and Kurosawa is actually really helpful. I think taking a break from Maki is actually helpful for appreciating Haruta when you come back to them. I think you end up liking Haruta more by the time you get to Ossan's Love Returns and seeing the potential in him. The love people are trying to pour on to him in the current season is more accessible to me as a viewer because I got to spend time with Haruta growing to love him in the AU season.

Twig

I also just have affection for an entire season that seems to have basically been built off of like a throwaway reference to episode one, when Haruta says he's most attracted to stewardesses. And then, and also, like, maybe a pun because Kurosawa’s character is called bucho which means, like, manager essentially through all of the regular Ossan's Love stories. But in the AU he's kucho because he's a captain. And I think that's very funny.

Ben

In terms of my ratings, I'm looking at on MDL, I gave Ossan's Love and Ossan's Love Returns a 9. But I gave the AU season a 9.5. [Ben and Twig laugh] So, there's your answer.

Twig

There you go.

Ben

Twig, what did you rate the second season? I know ratings aren't always your thing, but did you give the second season a rating?

Twig

I didn't. If I was going to give it a rating. Ossan's Love Returns? Yeah, I’d give it a 9.

Ben

It's a 9 for me in that I think if you're into BL, you should watch the show, but I don't know that it is the most accessible show, so I don't want to give it a 10.

Twig

I think the thing about this show, too, is it's about multiple relationships. It's not just about Maki and Haruta, and I wouldn't even say their relationship dominates the story. So, to rank it against other BL as a romance narrative is quite difficult. It's about family and what that means in a queer context. Part of that is romance, but it's not even the biggest part? The family feels is what gets me about this series.

Ben

That's going to do it for Ossan's Love. We have succeeded at our mission. NiNi has agreed to watch the show. Twig and I got to unpack the entirety of this whole franchise. We have the benefit of knowing it gets better over time now, and so I don't begrudge people bouncing when they did in 2018. I think that in 2024, it is beneficial for people who care about the history of the genre to go back and properly engage with Ossan's Love. I genuinely think it is worth reconsidering your initial opinion. They… grow. Their characters are not static. What has occurred is taken seriously and what worked and didn't work is considered as they move forward.

NiNi

That is going to wrap us up on the Ossan's Love episode. Twig, it was so great having you on, and I hope you come back.

Twig

Thank you so much for having me. It was really fun.

NiNi

With that, we out. Say bye to the people, Twig.

Twig

Dispatch!👍

Ben

Dispatch! 👍

NiNi

At some point I'm going to find out what that means, and then I will be unstoppable. Say bye to the people, Ben.

Ben

Peace.

[the3rddenialist]

Time Stamps for this podcast, for those who need it

00:00 - They talk about Sean's brace and his previous elbow injuries, and then talk about other body part related stuff

06:47 - Talk about bones and Ethan talks about a person that did gymnastics that resulted in the bone sticking out

10:17 - BRAIN LEAK! And liquiddeath.com/brain ad

12:45 - Twitter and discussing smut stories

13:49 - Ethan is getting up Wattpad

14:24 - Start reading out titles of Wattpad fanfictions

(Tw: pedo mention in one title)

15:31 - Sean can’t open Wattpad

15:41 - Ethan talks about many chapters the fics have and how long they are

16:23 - “Feelings” – CrankSeptciEye Fic

they discuss and read the first chapter, ‘The New Kid’, and then afterwards, read the names of each chapter. After that they read the final chapter called ‘One Year Later’. They put on dramatic voices while reading the fic.

36:14 – Talk about the fic, Sean saying it reminds him of 2016 tumblr, and then scroll through other fic titles

38:27 – Talking about people who write fanfics, and how cool it is people would spend their time doing it

41:15 - Talk about what they would do when bored, talk about dance in hs, and then vines

54:53 - TikTok

1:01:25 - Aurora Borealis & Space

1:04:31 - Neighbours

1:07:35 - Talk about injuries

1:08:36 - Outro

[endlich-allein]

"Rammstein : stay natural" 2016/2017 collection

Schneider, Till, Paul and Duo Jatekok, Festival de Nîmes, 11-07-2017 © Duo Jatekok

Meet & Greet, Resurrection Fest, Spain, 07-07-2017 © Enrique Del Valle

Possessed Paul, Rammstein and HellYeah, Dallas, USA, 29-06-2017 © Vinnie Paul

Meet & Greet, RockFest, Finland, 09-06-2017 © nuutamo

Meet & Greet, Prague, Czech Republic, 28-05-2017 © Tomáš Slavik

Till & Paul, Meet & Greet, Maximus Fest, Brasil, 07-09-2016 © Breatriz Sato, Marcia Engel, Raffael Clemente

Meet & Greet, New York, USA, 25-06-2017 © Shiro Okami

[namor-shuri]

Marvel Studios Assembled & Wakanda Forever Podcast: Namor/Shuri + Tenoch/Letitia Moments

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Wakanda Forever [available on Disney +] [w/ time stamps to follow along]

▻ The whole cast comforted and gave Letitia a group hug at San Diego Comic Con as she broke down [Tenoch kissed her shoulder] [0:27]

▻ “We know what Black Panther is but what makes it a Black Panther movie? If we were to do another one….how would audiences recognize it?” - Ryan Coogler [Director] [5:44]

▻ We learn that Namor’s character was discussed to be in Black Panther 2 while the first movie was being written. “In the comics, the two worlds have a great rivalry” - Joe Robert Cole [Screenwriter] [13:25]

▻ Ryan was interested in Meso-American culture for the Talokanil and “…upon research it became more clear that the people of the Yucatán made a ton of sense.” - Ryan Coogler [Director] [14:40] They wanted to give Namor a culture/background different from the comic book version [a white man]. “Their [Mayan] artwork and their advanced agriculture…all of these things that they accomplished, it was a perfect palette for us to delve into.” - Joe Robert Cole [Screenwriter] [16:40]

▻ Namor’s costumes and headpieces are curated from post Yucatec Mayan culture roots. “We used a lot of kelp and things to make the headdress and hand wove his cape, but we kept it pure to what he looked like in the comics.” - Ruth Carter [Costume Designer] [17:50]

▻ Ryan and Hannah Beachler [Production Designer] show us the set of Namor’s cave and explain the time/labor that went into creating this elaborate set. Ryan points to the mural painting of Namor and the Black Panthers fight. “This one’s my favorite one” - Ryan Coogler [Director] [22:25] We learn that the style of art is “Bonampak”

▻ Letitia had to learn how to swim for her role, along with the majority of the cast. “I struggled with it. Ryan called me and he was like ‘Tish, can you swim?’ I was like ‘Sir, sir, I’m in the lab. What more do you need from me coming out of that lab?” - Letitia Wright [Shuri] [26:06]

▻ All of the water scenes were half filmed under water, called “wet for wet”, and filmed outside of the water, called “dry for wet” scenes. The exosuits [Shuri is shown wearing one when exploring Talokan] were real suits that were also filmed underwater and were about a million and a half dollars each [explained by Chris Denison, Stunt Coordinator] [29:40]

▻ A clip of Letitia Wright’s “Screen Test (2016)” from the first Black Panther is shown [41:54] and we learn that Dominique Thorne [Riri Williams] also auditioned for Shuri’s role a while back

▻ The cast had differing emotions/opinions than Ryan about the decision to kill Queen Ramonda [played by Angela Basset]. “When I read that Ramonda was going to die by the hands of Namor, I was very upset. I think I almost cried on the phone to Ryan.” - Letitia Wright [Shuri] [43:43] Ryan and the writers felt her death would be a big “motivator”/ transformative moment in Shuri’s development and the eventual break down of her character to become the Black Panther [her arc]

▻ Ryan supported and pushed Letitia during the whole process of becoming the Black Panther to do her best work and continuously reminded her of who she was and what she was capable of when stepping into the role. Letitia wished Chad could have passed the torch to her himself to do it [46:02] + [55:03]

▻ [Referring to the making of Shuri’s Black Panther suit] “We were working with the design language of silver being representative of T’Challa, gold being representative of T’Chaka, and the little bit of where Killmonger’s coming from…We’re essentially taking those two elements and combining them.” - Ryan Meinerding [Head of visual development] [46:58]

▻ “Shuri vs Namor. We put alot into that fight.” - Aaron Toney [Fight Coordinator] [49:59] We see that a lot of the BTS of their big fight on the desert were shot with different individual sets with Tenoch, Letitia and stunt actors, separately and together. “I’m so proud of it. Shuri’s looking amazing, Namor’s looking amazing.” - Letitia Wright [Shuri] [50:27] Their fighting styles are explained to be very different, where Shuri is more calculated and Namor is more in his body. “With Namor, when it came to fighting styles, I pulled from….cultural aspects like Lucha Libre…asian cultures…I pulled from a style called Baji.” - Aaron Toney [Fight Coordinator] [50:49]

▻ “Processing in a way of expressing her pain and fury towards Namor, she thinks that’s going to be satisfying to her soul and it’s not….I think that’s a beautiful way to complete that arc, to realize that my brother wouldn’t do this, my mother wouldn’t want this for me….We see Shuri become a woman in her own right.” - Letitia Wright [Shuri] [53:00]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Wakanda Forever: The Official Black Panther Podcast [Hosted by Ta-Nehisi Coates]: Chapter 5 w/ Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta, Dr. Gerardo Aldana [available on Spotify]

▻ “What does it mean when Wakanda and Talokan give us a beauty created not to justify enslavement but to celebrate freedom?” - Ta-Nehisi Coates [Host]

▻ Tenoch continues to put the spotlight back on indigenous communities/culture and does not claim to be apart of their experiences. “I don’t practice the culture so it is impossible to name myself indigenous….I’m not pretending to be something that I’m not…I’m just trying to honor my ancestors.” - Tenoch Huerta [Namor]

▻ A fan went to the movies with his Mayan grandma and she began to translate scenes herself while watching the film with him. “The Mayan group in LA said it [the character’s Mayan in the movie] sounds beautiful. You have an accent, it sounds good! They were happy with it.” - Tenoch Huerta [Namor]

▻ “Why are these two groups [Wakandans and the Talokanil] fighting each other? Why can’t they get together and go beat the colonizer?…I am a huge Black Panther fan but I was sitting there and found myself rooting for the Talokanil!” - Ta-Nehisi Coates [Host]

▻ Letitia was bullied in school for her appearance when she was growing up (ex. her size, being African, etc) “I kind of let that go…I talked myself out of the idea that I should be like anyone else.” She found comfort/ amusement in going viral on TikTok. “It’s definitely flattering but I’m really shocked…I’ve never been crushed on before in school…As a black woman, I’m moving into a space where I’m finally being called beautiful but I didn’t wait for them [the media/world] to tell me that at first. I told it to myself.” - Letitia Wright [Shuri]

▻ “This is the highest grossing movie with the lead character as a black woman and it’s you [Letitia]. How does that feel?” - Ta-Nehisi Coates [Host]

▻ “The love that Shuri has for T’challa is the love that Letitia has for Chadwick and that’s intertwined.” Letitia shares her initial hesitancy about doing the film without Chadwick after his passing and taking on the mantle as Black Panther. “I see it as I’m a vessel. I’m a trusted vessel that’s here to honor my brother.” - Letitia Wright [Shuri]

▻ Letitia laughs about fun moments they had on the set of Wakanda Forever. “He [Ryan Coogler] would say Namor and the Black Panther are having a conversation. It’s a big movie. Turn your phones off!” - Letitia Wright [Shuri]

[jesse-eisenberg-interview]

A list of Jesse Eisenberg's writing

I made a list of Jesse Eisenberg's writing.

2009

NOV 30 Manageable Tongue Twisters.

2010

FEB 24 Marxist-Socialists Jokes

2011

JUL 21 A Post Gender Normative Man Tries to Pick Up a Woman at a Bar

DEC 07 ACTOR & PLAYWRIGHT JESSE EISENBERG ON THE THRILL OF THE STAGE

2012

JAN 25 Courage Is Just an Act

FEB 15 Jeremy Lin Has Helped Me Through Some Pretty Tough Times

MAR 12 Jesse Eisenberg on His Lifelong Aversion to Youth Culture

MAY 24 Sushi Nozawa

JUN 06 Masgouf

JUL 09 The Whiskey Blue Bar at the W Hotel

AUG 01 TCBY

AUG 20 Robert Frost Elementary School Cafeteria

OCT 02 Organix vs. the San Gennaro Street Festival

NOV 21 Thanksgiving With Vegans

DEC 11 Body Rituals Among the Lauxesortem

2013

FEB 22 Matthew’s House

MAR 17 Marv Albert Is My Therapist

APR 15 The League, Passed Down

APR 17 I Didn’t Win Any Pulitzer Prizes This Year

APR 25 A Marriage Counselor Tries to Heckle at a Knicks Game

JUN 03 Fuddruckers and an Unreliable New Friend

JUN 24 Separation-Anxiety Sleepaway Camp

AUG 06 A Crawfish Boil and Dad’s New Family

SEP 09 A Bully Does His Research

OCT 02 A Post Gender Normative Woman Tries to Pick Up a Man at a Bar

OCT 07 Final Conversations at Pompeii

NOV 01 The Museum of Natural History and Making Compromises

NOV 12 Alexander Graham Bell’s First Five Phone Calls

DEC 12 The Ashram and Mom

2014

JAN 20 If I Was Fluent in . . .

JUN 10 Carmelo Anthony and I Debrief Our Friends After a Pickup Game at the Y.M.C.A.

2015

MAY 25 Men and Dancing

SEP 01 My Nephew Has Some Questions

SEP 09 My Spam Plays Hard to Get

NOV 22 THE GUY WHO HATED NOW YOU SEE ME, A SHORT STORY

NOV 23 An Honest Film Review

2016

JAN 27 What Do You Do When Your Mother Won’t Shut Up at The Ballet?

FEB 04 Act Like You Know

FEB 12 Why I Broke Up with the Little Mermaid

MAY 19 My Cousin Recently Became A Realtor

NOV 04 SELF-DEPRECATING HEROES

DEC 11 LOW TALK IN HIGH PLACES

2017

JAN 23 YOU NEVER REALLY KNOW

JAN 25 My Very Good Friend

FEB 01 发现肉——致中国读者

MAR 04 HAVE YOU DINED WITH US BEFORE?

NOV 14 Mongolia

2018

JAN 15 Sad Stuff on the Street

MAR 20 Thanks, Giving

MAY 14 My N.B.A. Knowledge Comes In Handy

MAY 18 One Small Blow Against Encroaching Totalitarianism: The Natural Order of the World Depends On It

MAY 31 Jesse Eisenberg on the Relentless Work Ethic of Philip Roth

DEC 05 The Cast Members and Their Crew

2019

JAN 03 MY SISTER PUSHES THE LOBSTER

NOV 21 My Two-Year-Old Requests Just One More Song Before Bed

NOV 23 Jesse Eisenberg: Recommends four contemporary plays

2021

MAR 02 Writer Courtney Zoffness and Jesse Eisenberg on the Radical Compassion of Art

2022

NOV 07 Content Warning

2023

FEB 20 A G.P.S. Route for My Anxiety

[offender42085]

Post 979

Trent Skeene, Ohio inmate A726367, born 1997, incarceration intake in 2016 at age 18, scheduled discharge date 06/12/2034

Theft, Burglary, Robbery, Assault, Receiving Stolen Property

In June 2016, a New Richmond, Ohio man was sentenced involving an incident where he caused injury to a Clermont County Sheriff’s deputy.

Judge Victor Haddad sentenced Trent Skeene, aged 18, to 18.5 years in prison for his offenses in two cases.

Skeene was charged with one count of robbery, a second degree felony, one count of assault, a fourth degree felony, and one count of resisting arrest, a first degree misdemeanor, for the offense on Dec. 28, 2015 involving Deputy William Brewer.

He was also charged with two counts of burglary, a second degree felony, and two counts of grand theft of a firearm, a third degree felony, for two incidents, one on Dec. 21 and one on Dec. 25, 2015.

After Skeene is released, he will be under mandatory post release control for three years. He also has to pay $12,117.76 in restitution for items he stole, Haddad said.

He noted that Skeene seemed either surprised, bothered or disappointed in himself because of the sentence Haddad gave. Haddad pointed out that he could have given Skeene more time.

“I’m not a machine. I’ve heard what you said. I know that you pled out and I gave you some consideration for it,” Haddad said to Skeene.

On Dec. 28, 2015. Deputy William Brewer responded to a theft in progress call from Walmart in Pierce Township. He stopped a suspect vehicle leaving the parking lot on state Route 125.

When Skeene got out of the car, Brewer attempted to put handcuffs on him, but Skeene tried to punch Brewer, causing Brewer to lose hold of Skeene. It was a rainy day, and Brewer slipped.

He fell onto the fast lane on state Route 125 and was hit by a 16-year-old driver. Brewer had contusions to his right hip and a severe right ankle sprain. Skeene fled but was later taken into custody.

Skeene did not plan to injure Brewer, attorney Michael Metherd told Haddad, he just planned the theft. Metherd also pointed out that Skeene had a rough childhood because his parents were in and out of jail and Skeene lived in foster homes.

Skeene only has an eighth grade education and many of his friends were criminals, Metherd added. Also, Skeene pled guilty and plans to take advantage of opportunities in jail, such as getting his GED.

Skeene read a letter he wrote to Haddad, where he discussed the challenges he faced growing up and how he has reflected on and is sorry for the impact he has had on Brewer and his family and the families he stole from.

“I’m very sorry,” Skeene said.

He asked Haddad for mercy in his sentencing, adding that he wants to make amends to those he has hurt.

“I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to speak and I’d like to also say thank you to Deputy Brewer and the court for saving my life,” Skeene said.

However, Lara Baron, assistant supervisor in the felony division, feels that Skeene is likely to offend again, pointing out that he has a long juvenile record.

“Recidivism is additionally more likely in this case,” Baron said.

She asked that Haddad impose lengthy sentences served consecutively. This will also send a message to other would-be offenders, she feels.

“There is no doubt, your honor, that this path that the defendant has chosen would continue if he is out, not locked up in prison,” Baron said.

Brewer also spoke during the hearing. He told Haddad that he does not consider himself a victim, but he does consider the woman who hit him while driving a victim because, while he doesn’t think she could have avoided him, she has to live with that.

Brewer considers himself to be a man who gives second chances usually, but in this case feels that Skeene should not have one.

“I just don’t believe Mr. Skeene deserves a second chance,” Brewer said.

Haddad took into consideration that Skeene pleaded guilty and owned up to his crime, and he appreciated the letter, although he said that it doesn’t fix anything.

While Skeene had no parental guidance, he still could have become a functioning member of society. Haddad is sympathetic to that fact that Skeene is 18, he said.

He also pointed out Skeene’s juvenile record and the fact that almost every time Skeene was put on probation he has violated his probation.

“That’s not a good sign,” Haddad said.

He added, “Your juvenile record says a lot about where you were, where you’ve been and where you are, which, you said it yourself, is not very favorable.”

Brewer was happy with the sentence Skeene received. He was hoping for at least 13 years.

Brewer did appreciate the letter Skeene wrote and that he pleaded guilty, but just feels he does not deserve a second chance.

3u

[ms-m-astrologer]

Welcome to the Shadow of the Eclipse

October 4-31, 2023

Some introductory notes

The “shadow of the eclipse” is a time period lasting from 10 days before the first eclipse, to three days after the final eclipse. It is recommended not to start anything new, or schedule anything important, during these days - as usual I refer everyone to the 1981 wedding of Lady Diana Spencer to the Prince of Wales, as an example.

Of course we live in a place/time which scoffs at letting astrology help with the timing of events - therefore don’t lose hope if something falls unavoidably within the eclipse shadow. Just be prepared.

I wanted to take a more thorough approach to delineation, this time. I hope it’s helpful.

South Node Solar Eclipse

A solar eclipse happens when the New Moon lies close (in the Zodiac) to either the North Lunar Node, or to the South one. It occurred to me to do a little research on whether which Node is involved, makes any difference - and yes, it does.

Astrologers call the South Node “the dragon’s tail” - Steven Forrest calls the South Node, “the dragon’s butt” - because here we are “pooping out” what we don’t need and can’t use. (One person’s poop, however, is another person’s fertilizer.)

Eclipses conjunct the South Lunar Node, like the October 14 one, have an outflowing (outpooping?) of energy. They tend to feature external events which we have to “rise up to.”

If you’d like to note how these have affected you in the past (always a good idea to check “what happened last time”), here is a list of the previous South Node solar eclipses in this century:

December 14, 2001, 22°56’ Sagittarius

December 4, 2002, 11°58’ Sagittarius

November 23, 2003, 1°14’ Sagittarius

October 14, 2004, 21°06’ Libra

October 3, 2005, 10°19’ Libra

September 22, 2006, 29°20’ Virgo

September 11, 2007, 18°25’ Virgo

August 1, 2008, 9°32’ Leo

July 22, 2009, 29°27’ Cancer

July 11, 2010, 19°24’ Cancer

June 1, 2011, 11°02’ Gemini

July 1, 2011, 9°12’ Cancer

May 20, 2012, 0°21’ Gemini

May 10, 2013, 19°31’ Taurus

April 29, 2014, 8°52’ Taurus

March 20, 2015, 29°27’ Pisces

March 9, 2016, 18°56’ Pisces

February 26, 2017, 8°12’ Pisces

February 15, 2018, 27°08’ Aquarius

January 6, 2019, 15°25’ Capricorn

December 26, 2019, 4°07’ Capricorn

December 14, 2020, 23°08’ Sagittarius

December 4, 2021, 12°22’ Sagittarius

October 25, 2022, 2°00’ Scorpio

October 14, 2023, 21°08’ Libra

Going down that list was a very uncomfortable trip down memory lane for me. When those South Node eclipses affected me, it was generally a harbinger of some difficult “external event” which I had little to no control over - which is not the same thing as saying “it wasn’t my fault.” I brought some of it on myself due to bad decisions. Some karma chickens coming home to roost, in other words. Not all of them were dire, though. One in particular gave me something of a respite from what had been happening in my life - it was conjunct my natal 12th House cusp.

Saros Series “7 South”

This eclipse is part of Saros Series “7 South.” Bernadette Brady writes,

The individual experiencing this series will find that huge obstacles will suddenly and easily clear or, on the negative side, a pending potential crisis will suddenly manifest and move through his or her life very rapidly. Either way the individual will feel that everything is moving at great speed. (The Eagle and the Lark)

Previous Saros “7 South” eclipses in Ms M’s lifetime:

September 11, 1969, 18°53’ Virgo

September 23, 1987, 29°34’ Virgo

October 3, 2005, 10°19’ Libra

Not quite as depressing for me personally.

Whatever Shall We Do?

1) Determine which of your natal houses this eclipse falls in.

2) Determine whether the eclipse makes an aspect to anything in your chart. Use a 1° orb. In my case, the conjunctions, squares, sesquiquads (135°), inconjuncts, and oppositions made the most obvious impacts.

3) If there is a close aspect to a planet, check to see which house(s) that planet rules. One South Node eclipse was conjunct the ruler of my natal 4th House, and I moved three months later.

4) Avoid strenuously negative thoughts. If you put a lot of energy into anticipating that something is going to be horrible and painful and disastrous, well, guess what - that’s exactly what’s going to happen. If you catch yourself falling into a panic, try to refocus the energy into “the best possible outcome.”

[backupherewego]

merc era vid list

youtube site search now is shit and shit , so I made a link list for James' merc era videos. not all the videos he appears in are in the list, the video must be interesting enough (i'm tired of watching him talking an hour-long strategy) you're welcome!

Previews & Debrief

22.08.12 W13 Challenges, Closing The Gap & New Foods! | 2022 Akkodis F1 Season Debrief

22.26.10 Upgrades, Brake Changes, Podiums & More! | 2022 United States GP Akkodis F1 Race Debrief

22.13.04 Overcuts, Safety Cars & More | 2022 Australian GP Akkodis F1 Race Debrief

21.09.12 Headphones, Damage & More | 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix F1 Race Debrief

21.10.11 First Lap, Pit Stops & More | 2021 Mexico City Grand Prix F1 Race Debrief

21.28.10 Overcuts, Atmosphere & More | 2021 United States Grand Prix F1 Race Debrief

21.16.09 P19 to P3, Car Damage & More | 2021 Italian GP F1 Race Debrief

21.02.09 Wet Tyres, Aquaplaning & More | 2021 Belgian GP F1 Race Debrief

21.01.07 Upgrades, Second Stops & More | 2021 Styrian GP F1 Race Debrief

21.05.05 Sensor Issues, Fastest Lap Fights & More | Portuguese GP F1 Race Debrief peer pressure about food.

21.18.03 Sandstorms, Car Handling & More | 2021 F1 Test Debrief

20.16.09 Safety Car Restarts, Smoking Brakes & More! | 2020 Tuscan GP F1 Race Debrief 4:12

20.09.09 Lewis' Penalty, Best Pizzas & More | 2020 Italian GP F1 Debrief pizza!

20.05.08 Punctures, Pit Stops, Vibrations & More | 2020 British GP F1 Debrief

20.15.07 Tyre Offsets, Floor Damage & More! | 2020 Styrian GP F1 Debrief 6:25

20.13.05 PETRONAS Retro Race Review – F1 Mexico Grand Prix 2019 Is this your loft ??

20.29.04 PETRONAS Retro Race Review - Hungary F1 Grand Prix 2019

20.22.04 PETRONAS Retro Race Review - Bahrain F1 Grand Prix 2014

19.07.08 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix F1 Debrief & what happened

19.18.07 2019 British Grand Prix F1 Debrief analyzing toto's heart rate.

19.01.05 2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix F1 Debrief he got a promotion.

19.27.03 2019 Australian Grand Prix F1 Debrief he got a cold.

18.15.112018 Brazilian Grand Prix F1 Debrief Why are you so mean to your coworker?

18.22.10 2018 United States Grand Prix F1 Debrief... with a Difference! Paul Ripke what have you done?

16.28.07 Full throttle down the Hockenheim straights! | Nico Rosberg on the German GP

~

Tech Part

16.23.06 F1 2016 Explained: How have the 2016 tyre rules changed race strategy?

13.09.07 Grand Prix Insights - Seat Fit

12.11.11 Grand Prix Insights - Race Overall

20.14.10 Everything You Need to Know About F1 Esports!

21.31.05 INSIDE STORY: Mercedes' Strategic Masterclass | 2021 Spanish Grand Prix

18.13.05 Inside Story Of How Mercedes Won The 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

~

Interview

22.14.10 Driving Ambition - the journey to drive a Formula One™ car part1 part2 part3

22.24.07 "On a aujourd'hui moins de marsouinage que Red Bull ou Ferrari. Ce n'est plus un problème" need fr ip.

22.29.04 "It was UNFORGETTABLE to ride with you!" 🙌 | Lewis Hamilton and Valentino Rossi swap seats! 1:09 He wears a motorcycle suit.

20.15.12 LH44xVR46: Behind the scenes of the ultimate rideswap

19.04.08 An incredibly deserved podium today for James

19.18.07 LIVE at the F1 Esports Pro Draft 2019 star from1:57:26

19.21.06 “Fans, it’s James”

18.12.09 F1 in Schools World Finals Singapore 2018 - Day 4 - Awards Celebration star from 2:25:06

~

ads

17.10.06 The Road to Montreal (Full HD)

15.31.07 Tumi and MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS F1 Team

~

other

21.02.08 Took a Champion’s drive to fight back to P3!

19.27.05 James, it’s Lewis... We need to talk!

18.05.11 Lewis Hamilton Behind the Scenes: Day in the Life of an F1 Champion

20.08 08 “James, it’s James”

19.19.12 2019 F1 Race Debriefs: The Bloopers!

18.24.12 Santa Spotted at Mercedes F1 Factory

[shinigami-striker]

Evolution of Knuckles | Friday, 02.02.24

Here's an evolution of Knuckles the Echidna throughout the Sonic video game franchise (since his debut in 1994 with the North American of Sonic the Hedgehog 3) down below.

1994

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (GENESIS, 02/02/1994)

Sonic & Knuckles/Sonic 3 & Knuckles (GENESIS, 10/18/1994)

Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble (GAME GEAR, 11/15/1994)

1995

Sonic Drift 2 (GAME GEAR, 03/17/1995)

Knuckles' Chaotix (SEGA 32X, 04/20/1995)

1996

Sonic the Fighters (ARCADE, May 1996)

Sonic 3D Blast (GENESIS/SATURN, 11/09/1996)

Sonic Blast (GAME GEAR/MASTER SYSTEM, 12/12/1996)

1997

Sonic R (SATURN, 11/18/1997)

1998

Sonic Adventure (DREAMCAST, 12/23/1998)

1999

Sonic the Hedgehog: Pocket Adventure (NEO GEO POCKET COLOR, 12/20/1999)

2000

Sonic Shuffle (DREAMCAST, 11/13/2000)

2001

Sonic Adventure 2 (Battle) (DREAMCAST/GAMECUBE, 06/19/2001)

Sonic Advance (GBA, 12/20/2001)

2002

Sonic Advance 2 (GBA, 12/19/2002)

2003

Sonic Pinball Party (GBA, 06/01/2003)

Sonic Battle (GBA, 12/04/2003)

Sonic Heroes (MULTI-PLATFORM, 12/30/2003)

2004

Sonic Advance 3 (GBA, 06/07/2004)

2005

Shadow the Hedgehog (MULTI-PLATFORM, 11/15/2005)

Sonic Rush (DS, 11/15/2005)

2006

Sonic Riders (MULTI-PLATFORM, 02/21/2006)

Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) (PS3 & XBOX 360, 11/14/2006)

Sonic Rivals (PSP, 11/16/2006)

2007

Sonic & The Secret Rings (WII, 02/20/2007)

Sonic Rivals 2 (PSP, 11/13/2007)

2008

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (PS2/WII, 01/08/2008)

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (DS, 09/25/2008)

2009

Sonic & The Black Knight (WII, 03/09/2009)

2010

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (MULTI-PLATFORM, 02/19/2010)

Sonic Free Riders (XBOX 360, 11/04/2010)

Sonic Colors (Nintendo DS version) (DS, 11/11/2010)

2011

Sonic Generations (MULTI-PLATFORM, 11/01/2011)

2012

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (MULTI-PLATFORM, 2012)

2013

Sonic Dash (MOBILE, 03/07/2013)

Sonic Lost World (10/18/2013)

2014

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric (WII U, 11/11/2014)

Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal (3DS, 11/11/2014)

2015

Sonic Runners (MOBILE, 02/25/2015)

Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom (MOBILE, 07/01/2015)

2016

Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice (3DS, 09/27/2016)

2017

Sonic Mania (Plus) (MULTI-PLATFORM, 08/15/2017)

Sonic Forces: Speed Battle (MOBILE, 09/08/2017)

Sonic Forces (MULTI-PLATFORM, 11/07/2017)

Sonic Runners Adventure (MOBILE, 12/20/2017)

2019

Team Sonic Racing (MULTI-PLATFORM, 05/21/2019)

Sonic Racing (APPLE ARCADE, 09/19/2019)

2022

Sonic Frontiers (MULTI-PLATFORM, 11/08/2022)

2023

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog (PC, 03/31/2023)

Sonic Superstars (MULTI-PLATFORM, 10/20/2023)

Sonic Dream Team (APPLE ARCADE, 12/05/2023)

2024

Sonic X Shadow Generations (MULTI-PLATFORM, Fall 2024)

and many more to come soon...

[digimonarchive]

Note: This poll question is based on the Chinese Animal Zodiac (by the birth year) but in Digimon style.

The Birth Years and Dates are under the cut, click on Keep Reading.

Admin Note: I am Andiramon/Antylamon (Rabbit)

Zodiac Date and Years

RAT YEARS

Feb 10 1948 – Jan 28 1949

Jan 28 1960 - Feb 14 1961

Feb 15 1972 – Feb 2 1973

Feb 2 1984 – Feb 19 1985

Feb 19 1996 – Feb 6 1997

Feb. 7, 2008 – Jan. 25, 2009

OX YEARS

Jan. 29, 1949 – Feb. 16, 1950

Feb. 15, 1961 – Feb. 4, 1962

Feb. 3, 1973 – Jan. 22, 1974

Feb. 19, 1985 – Feb. 8, 1986

Feb. 7, 1997 – Jan. 27, 1998

Jan. 26, 2009 – Feb. 13, 2010

TIGER YEARS

Feb. 17, 1950 – Feb. 05, 1951

Feb. 5, 1962 – Jan. 24, 1963

Jan. 23, 1974 – Feb. 10, 1975

Feb. 9, 1986 – Jan. 28, 1987

Jan. 28, 1998 – Feb. 15, 1999

Feb. 14, 2010 – Feb. 2, 2011

RABBIT YEARS

Feb. 06, 1951 – Jan. 26, 1952

Jan. 25, 1963 – Feb. 12, 1964

Feb. 11, 1975 – Jan. 30, 1976

Jan. 29, 1987 – Feb. 16, 1988

Feb. 16, 1999 – Feb. 4, 2000

Feb. 3, 2011 – Jan. 22, 2012

DRAGON YEARS

Jan. 27, 1952 – Feb. 13, 1953

Feb. 13, 1964 – Feb. 1, 1965

Jan. 31, 1976 – Feb. 17, 1977

Feb. 17, 1988 – Feb. 5, 1989

Feb. 5, 2000 – Jan. 23, 2001

Jan. 23, 2012 – Feb. 9, 2013

SNAKE YEARS

Feb. 14, 1953 – Feb. 02, 1954

Feb. 2, 1965 – Jan. 20, 1966

Feb. 18, 1977 – Feb. 6, 1978

Feb. 6, 1989 – Jan. 26, 1990

Jan. 24, 2001 – Feb. 11, 2002

Feb. 10, 2013 – Jan. 30, 2014

HORSE YEARS

Feb. 03, 1954 – Jan. 23, 1955

Jan. 21, 1966 – Feb. 8, 1967

Feb. 7, 1978 – Jan. 27, 1979

Jan. 27, 1990 – Feb. 14, 1991

Feb. 12, 2002 – Feb. 18, 2003

Jan. 31, 2014 – Feb. 18, 2015

GOAT/SHEEP YEARS

Jan. 24, 1955 – Feb. 11, 1956

Feb. 9, 1967 – Jan. 30, 1968

Jan. 28, 1979 – Feb. 15, 1980

Feb. 15, 1991 – Feb. 3, 1992

Feb. 1, 2003 – Jan. 21, 2004

Feb. 19, 2015 – Feb. 7, 2016

MONKEY YEARS

Feb. 12, 1956 – Jan. 30, 1957

Jan. 30, 1968 – Feb. 16, 1969

Feb. 16, 1980 – Feb. 4, 1981

Feb. 4, 1992 – Jan. 22, 1993

Jan. 22, 2004 – Feb. 8, 2005

Feb. 8, 2016 – Jan. 27, 2017

ROOSTER YEARS

Jan. 31, 1957 – Feb. 17, 1958

Feb. 17, 1969 – Feb. 5, 1970

Feb. 5, 1981 – Jan. 24, 1982

Jan. 23, 1993 – Feb. 9, 1994

Feb. 9, 2005 – Jan. 28, 2006

Jan. 28, 2017 – Feb. 15, 2018

DOG YEARS

Feb. 18, 1958 – Feb. 07, 1959

Feb. 6, 1970 – Jan. 26, 1971

Jan. 25, 1982 – Feb. 12, 1983

Feb. 10, 1994 – Jan. 30, 1995

Jan. 29, 2006 – Feb. 17, 2007

Feb. 16, 2018 – Feb. 4, 2019

PIG YEARS

Feb. 08, 1959 – Jan. 27, 1960

Jan. 27, 1971 – Feb. 14, 1972

Feb. 13, 1983 – Feb. 1, 1984

Jan. 30, 1995 – Feb. 18, 1996

Feb. 17, 2007 – Feb. 6, 2008

Feb. 4, 2019 – Jan. 24, 2020

[221b-sociopath-street]

#ted lasso for dummies

01×01 Pilot

00:00:56 'But it's Hockney!'*

*David Hockney is one of the most influential British artists 🎨 of XX century. Known by his contribution to the pop art movement of the 60's.

As cliche as it is, the work of art that Rebecca and Higgins refers to is called 'Football Player'. And in real life it was sold for £22,500.

00:02:20 'Liam and Noel. Though, perhaps not an Oasis.'*

*It is impossible to imagine Britain and its culture without one of the biggest and most acclaimed bands of the 90's. Oasis is a quintessence of most hated and beloved band. Alcohol, drugs, canceled gigs, bad press, accusations of imitating the work of other musicians, rivalry between brothers and the boundless love of the fans - it's all about Oasis. So, maybe comparison made by Rebecca between George Cartrick's testicles and Liam/Noel Gallagher of Oasis is a pointer to beef (rivalry) history of latter.

00:04:04 'Jack Kerouac. The Dharma Bums'*

*The Dharma Bums is a 1958 novel by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. Description of mountain climbing, cycling, hitchhiking, poetry readings, jazz drunk parties is done through the prism of Buddhism. So maybe it makes sense: Ted and his philosophy of life and work?!

00:06:58 'Okay. That's Tower Bridge. Right. Not the London Bridge, because this one is still up'.

*For me as a foreigner it's a bit confusing?! Is it a reference to Operation London Bridge - the funeral plan for Queen Elizabeth II created in 60's, where the phrase 'London Bridge is down' is like signal of Queen's death to the PM and others, setting the plan into motion? Or is it like some touristy stuff?

00:08:39 'Y'all got Nathan's hot dogs 🌭 here?'*

* An American company that operates a chain of fast-food restaurant's  specializing in hot dogs. There are some restaurants in GB, but Nates lack of knowledge about them msybe suggests their unpopularity.

00:13:22 'Trent Crimm, The Independent.'*

* The Independent during 1986-2016 British print newspaper, nowadays - online newspaper. And it is owned by representative of the terrorist country and ex kgb agent 😵

00:18:57 'Wales. Is that another country?'*

*Yeap, Wales is a country (with it's own capital Cardiff) that is a part of another country - 🇬🇧 . Besides it UK consists of: England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

00:19:03 'It's kinda like America these days.'*

*Perhaps Ted is equating the countries within the UK to states in America OR is taking about sovereign states and dependent territories in the Americas(such as Canada, Brazil, Cuba and other)?!

00:19:25 'And am I getting notes of Axe body spray?'*

*If you are a man and you forget your body spray while traveling from the USA to GB, remember: AXE=LYNX 🤣

00:20:07 'Last time I saw eyes that cold, they were going head-to-head with Roy Scheider. Jaws? No, All that jazz.'

* Jaws and All That Jazz are among seven Scheider movies that are considered classics. And it's all known fact that he was really great performer, who knew how to hold the audience's attention both in the role of a shark-hunting sheriff and in the role of theater director/choreographer who was alcoholic, a driven workaholic and a womanizer .

00:22:29 'Never thought it would end being coached by Ronald fucking McDonald'*

*Ronald McDonald is a mascot of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain. 

I remember my first time at McDonald's and that creepy as fuck statue of clown, thank fucking God he is not around anymore in UA restaurants.

00:24:48 'Well, I hope you never run into Biz Markie.'*

*We share your sentiment Ted. It is really bad. Biz Markie, was an American rapper and singer. Sometimes was referred to as the "Clown Prince of Hip Hop". Fellas, it is all we need to know.

Part 2

[endlich-allein]

Till 🖤 (Hurricane Festival, Germany, 25-06-2016) © Tamara Reuter

[leaping-laelaps-art]

Conulariids are an extinct group of probable cnidarians with 4-sided pyramidal thecae. They are relatively uncommon fossils but ranged from the Cambrian (possibly Ediacaran?) to the Triassic, comprising tens of genera and hundreds of described species (Lucas 2012).

Here are the reconstructed thecae of a small selection of species from every period of the conulariids' range, starting from the Cambrian in the top left and reaching all the way to the Triassic in the bottom right.

Since their soft parts are virtually never preserved (due to them being cnidarians and all that) (Van Iten & Südkamp 2010), most of our knowledge of conulariid biology and evolution is based on their more fossil-friendly thecae, which were composed of thin organophosphatic lamellae (Leme et al. 2008). Live conulariids were attached to the substrate by the apex of their theca; they probably captured suspended food particles or small prey using tentacles, just like other cnidarians, but it's hard to go in any more (non-speculative) detail without preserved soft tissues.

References:

Babcock, L. E. (1986). Devonian and Mississippian conulariids of North America. Part B. Paraconularia, Reticulaconularia, new genus, and organisms rejected from Conulariida. Annals of the Carnegie Museum, 55, 411–479. https://doi.org/10.5962/p.215204

Guimarães Simões, M., Coelho Rodrigues, S., Moraes Leme, J. de, & Van Iten, H. (2003). Some Middle Paleozoic Conulariids (Cnidaria) as Possible Examples of Taphonomic Artifacts. Journal of Taphonomy, 1(3), 163–184.

Hughes, N. C., Gunderson, G. O., & Weedon, M. J. (2000). Late Cambrian Conulariids from Wisconsin and Minnesota. Journal of Paleontology, 74(5), 828–838. https://doi.org/10.1666/0022-3360(2000)074<;0828:LCCFWA>2.0.CO;2

John, D. L., Hughes, N. C., Galaviz, M. I., Gunderson, G. O., & Meyer, R. (2010). Unusually preserved Metaconularia manni (Roy, 1935) from the Silurian of Iowa, and the systematics of the genus. Journal of Paleontology, 84(1), 1–31. https://doi.org/10.1666/09-025.1

Leme, J. M., Simões, M. G., Marques, A. C., & Van Iten, H. (2008). Cladistic Analysis of the Suborder Conulariina Miller and Gurley, 1896 (cnidaria, Scyphozoa; Vendian–Triassic). Palaeontology, 51(3), 649–662. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4983.2008.00775.x

Lucas, S. (2012). The Extinction of the Conulariids. Geosciences, 2, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences2010001

Sendino, C., & Zagorsek, K. (2011). The Aperture and Its Closure in an Ordovician Conulariid. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 56, 659–663. https://doi.org/10.4202/app.2010.0028

Slater, I. L. (1907). A monograph of British Conulariæ. Printed for the Palæontographical Society.

Thomas, G. A. (1969). Notoconularia, a New Conularid Genus from the Permian of Eastern Australia. Journal of Paleontology, 43(5), 1283–1290.

Van Iten, H., Konate, M., & Moussa, Y. (2008). Conulariids of the Upper Talak Formation (Mississipian, Visean) of Northern Niger (West Africa). Journal of Paleontology, 82(1), 192–196. https://doi.org/10.1666/06-083.1

Van Iten, H., Muir, L., Simões, M. G., Leme, J. M., Marques, A. C., & Yoder, N. (2016). Palaeobiogeography, palaeoecology and evolution of Lower Ordovician conulariids and Sphenothallus (Medusozoa, Cnidaria), with emphasis on the Fezouata Shale of southeastern Morocco. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 460, 170–178. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2016.03.008

Van Iten, H., & Südkamp, W. H. (2010). Exceptionally preserved conulariids and an edrioasteroid from the Hunsrück Slate (Lower Devonian, SW Germany). Palaeontology, 53(2), 403–414. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4983.2010.00942.x

Waterhouse, J. B. (1979). Permian and Triassic conulariid species from New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 9(4), 475–489. https://doi.org/10.1080/03036758.1979.10421833

敏郎杉山. (1942). 156. 日本産Conularidaの研究. 日本古生物学會報告・紀事, 1942(25), 185-194_1. https://doi.org/10.14825/prpsj1935.1942.185

[dailyp1anet]

BUSINESS

UNFRIENDLY COMPETITION: 2016 BUDGETS

By Lois Lane, Senior Staff Writer

PUBLISHED: 16:32, 27th March 2015 | UPDATED: 06:25, 28th March 2015

THE MAN OF TOMORROW: LexCorp's CEO, Lex Luthor. © The Daily Planet: James Olsen, Photographer.

A new report was published yesterday into the biggest companies in the country, the report highlighted the budgets proposed for each company particularly when it came to defense contracts for the next financial year in 2016. LexCorp in particular is racing ahead thanks to some high profile exposure since the original LexCorp tower was destroyed. Originally founded as an aerospace engineering firm, LexCorp has become one of the world's largest, most diversified multinational conglomerate. Under the astute - some would say, ruthless - management of its founder, Alexander (Lex) Luthor.

LexCorp is projected to become the leading private contractor for high tech defense innovation with a proposed budget of $2 billion by 2016. Kord Industries who was previously held the title was not happy with the projected budgets. Foremost in the field for over two decades; analysts predict a substantive move from LexCorp into this space would be most damaging to this multi-billion dollar, multinational defense contractor. Projected for a whopping $707 million budget.

A close second to Kord Industries is STAGG, especially in terms of investment of dollars. STAGG's myopic focus on chemistry and genetics has analysts predicting minimal fallout from a LexCorp entry. With a projected budget of $628 million. Third on the list was Queen Industries, with a significant drop off from #2. Their aloof, and often absent CEO is rumoured to be considering an exit from military defense contracts altogether. Projected to have a budget of $210 million.

Geschäft-Krieg is next on the list, following their acquisition of US-based Sheridan Dynamics, their future has looked bright for Europe's largest light bulb maker-turned heavy weapons manufacturer. Lex Luthor could certainly leave them in the dark especially with the projected budget at $171 million. At the bottom of the list, which is not surprising is Wayne Enterprises. CEO, Bruce Wayne, is notorious for his refusal to accept military defense contracts with a projected budget of $97 million.

Press conferences have been scheduled in the coming weeks from LexCorp, Kord Industries, STAGG, Geschäft-Krieg and Wayne Enterprises to announce their next projects, mergers, business strategies and financial performances from the last financial year. Queen Industries has declined several enquiries since the date of this publication.

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[em-marti-capstone]

Week 2 - September 20

For this week's research, I narrowed down my topics to Comfort Food and Childhood, but overall focusing on the overall theme of Nostalgia. From this research, there were a few other categories of nostalgia that I found interesting, like nostalgia and marketing, the early historical context of the term, and some other details that I'll talk about below.

I started off by looking into comfort food and wanting to understand why it is so important. Why has comfort food become increasingly important over the years?

In the last few years, that has been more due to the pandemic and the emotional stress it caused everyone. Comfort food makes us "feel safe and in control," and during times of uncertainty, it is something that makes certain that we can be happy, even if temporarily (I say this as I drink an oreo milkshake for some temporary serotonin) (https://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2020/12/10/84906/ ; https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2024/07/18/Comfort-food-and-beverage-trend#).

Nowadays—well, some people still drink or smoke to de-stress—my generation at least loves to turn to comfort food, whether by making it ourselves or buying it, as a coping mechanism. We worked hard on an assignment? We deserve a sweet treat. We dealt with an annoying customer? We deserve a sweet treat. We're stressing over adulthood? Sweet treat it is.

Anyway, one of the other articles I looked into discussed gender and our overall social lives in regard to comfort food. For gender, women go more for sweeter foods while men go for the savory. Additionally, "women tend to look to comfort food when they are feeling lonely or sad, whereas men seek comfort food as a reward. Women associate comfort food with negative emotions, while men associate it with positive emotions" (https://sites.uab.edu/humanrights/2019/02/25/the-importance-of-comfort-food/). People also associate comfort food with other people (like caregivers, friends, etc.) or memories/good experiences to make us feel less lonely. A quote from this article: "nostalgia can evoke a sense of belonging."

Then my research brought me down the lane of nostalgia and marketing/branding. A quote from this article, https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2024/06/24/Nostalgia-food-trend, "Everything old, is new." Brands have seen the power of nostalgia, and whether it's in a manipulative way or a genuine way to make people feel nostalgic about the past, it works. There are some negative nancies (sorry Nancy) who say things like "It's not like it was in the good old days" (aka the customers at my job complaining about their sweet treat that they've had everyday since they were tiny). But overall, most consumers love the familiarity. Even some consumers who didn't experience something from the past still enjoy the vibes. According to this article on how the marketing works, https://sproutsocial.com/insights/nostalgia-marketing/ , "Campaigns that incorporate nostalgia marketing aren’t limited to the people who have those emotional heartstrings attached to a memory. They have an opportunity to use nostalgia as a mechanism for brand storytelling and longevity by nurturing long standing fans while also attracting new prospects, especially from younger generations." We see this in social media all the time where people are doing fashion and makeup trends from the early 2000s, even decades before they were born. For more recent generations, it's fun and refreshing and 'new' to us, and for the older generations, nostalgic brands enable people to reminisce on the 'good ol' days'.

A quote from an article on Pokemon Go and how successful it was a few years ago (https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurenfriedman/2016/08/02/why-nostalgia-marketing-works-so-well-with-millennials-and-how-your-brand-can-benefit/) : "How do you identify those special moments in time, those unique cultural events from the past that millennials crave? Nostalgia-centric marketing succeeds when brands keep a finger on the pulse of modern culture, listen to what people are talking about, and plug into those ideas to create new marketing campaigns. Monitor #TBT (throwback Thursday) on social-media channels and take advantage of trends."

Now, people aren't just posting TBTs on Instagram and Snap, they're also recreating those old pics, which I love and have done myself.

While researching, I went down a little rabbit hole of why internet cookies are called cookies because of the amount of times I had to click "accept all cookies" on these sites, but it had me thinking about how we name so many things food names to make us feel better about them. For instance, people were more likely to buy a cookie called "Grandma's Cookie" over one called "Premium Cookie," mainly because the term "grandma" made them think of warm and cozy and more comfortable for them (https://healthmindbodycare.medium.com/the-psychology-of-food-names-0b6b0a39d3d5). Many restaurants do the same thing with many items, tweaking the names of them to help customers think of their establishment as more welcoming and homey (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0278431920300852).

I also enjoyed a Reddit thread of just people talking about things with food names that aren't foods. https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualConversation/comments/18612v4/me_and_a_friend_were_having_a_fun_conversation/

Fun little thread, but yeah more research!

I looked into the historical context of Nostalgia, where the term came from, and different variations of the term in other countries.

Early history of 'nostalgia' was pretty dark. Some quotes:

"The term 'nostalgia' derives from the Greek words nostos (return) and algos (pain). The literal meaning of nostalgia, then, is the suffering evoked by the desire to return to one's place of origin. The term was coined by the Swiss physician Johannes Hofer (1688/1934) to capture the adverse symptoms displayed by Swiss mercenaries in the service of European monarchs.”

"While sending the afflicted home was recognized as the best cure for nostalgia, scaring it out of them was also a popular treatment plan. In 1790, French doctor Jourdan Le Cointe administered the strategy of “inciting pain and terror” by threatening the sick with a jab from a “red-hot poker.”

Nostalgia was seen as something completely negative in the past, a disease, a form of depression, and only until the 20th century did it change to something a little lighter, longing for the past (depending on the person). The etymology article above also has other ways that nostalgia is translated in other countries, which was pretty interesting.

I briefly looked at Sonnet 30, a Shakespeare poem that discussed the bittersweet feeling of finding comfort in the past. Pretty sad, feeling heartbroken but yeah I can't remember why I ran into that. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45091/sonnet-30-when-to-the-sessions-of-sweet-silent-thought

Then of course I took some time throughout my week to enjoy Tiktok videos and Instagram reels, 1) because I just do that all the time, 2) to look at videos that show or discuss the increase in remakes and reboots of old shows/movies, the growing love for period pieces or shows taking place in the 80s like Stranger Things, and more. Some reboots and all just feel forced, but sometimes it is successful in bringing in older crowds to reminisce on the past. Social media platforms also LOVE to resurface old memories, like Snapchat sending me notifications saying 'On this day, 4 years ago..." and then I either laugh or cry at what I'm seeing. But woooo nostalgia.

Every generation also just has a different idea for what "simpler times" means. I think of simpler times as playing with my American Girl dolls with my sister, watching Blues Clues, and the only stress being my sister and I hiding our DSs under our pillows when we were supposed to be asleep for school. My dad's idea of a simpler time was when he and his brother would slide in the fire hydrant water while music was playing on a radio nearby and everyone was out on the block having fun, no internet or cellphones, just fun.

I had some trouble trying to make something for this week because I just was learning a lot of information and trying to see what other people's idea of comfort or nostalgia was, but I want to possibly get more responses maybe through a survey for this upcoming week, not sure yet. I made a pretty simple 'timeline' of starter packs (just a few photos that define a group of people basically), so nothing crazy, but hopefully whatever I make next week is stronger.

I feel like this week was more for me to gain a better insight on nostalgia, and the main conclusion that came from this (thanks to Nancy) was the strong relationship it has with power. I'm not totally sure what direction I will be going with this for this coming week, but I will figure it out. I did enjoy this week's research more than last week's though, so hope to see it go up from here. I feel like I have more to write but I'll just update the post if anything or save it for next week.

UPDATE: forgot to mention that so many customers came in to my job on Thursday and kept saying the same thing like “I remember these from when I was kid!” Or “This place is so nostalgic” (I did a double take hearing her say the word of the semester for me). Someone else’s grandma used to work at the bakery too and it’s just crazy. Anyway I came home yesterday and saw this on the fridge and it’s so interesting to see that “C” or “Correct” mark has not changed. I have so many tests and quizzes from when I was my brother’s age with that same mark and it’s always the same. Maybe I should try to get in contact with my old teachers sometime soon? We shall see.