#HOWEVER i did also do the review for my art blog and it was busted bc it didnt show the Almalexia Decapitating Dagon drawing

[cuntstable]

i checked the tumby year in review thing and i was a little confused that all my top posts are like between 50notes and 2k notes bc i do remember gaining a lot of followers (hii) this year but then i remembered that i just automatically delete any posts that breaches containment too badly. oh well

[pengychan]

[Good Omens] Winging It - Jeremiah 17:9

Summary: Shockingly, attempting to destroy an angel without consulting God first comes with consequences. There is more than one way to fall, and a thousand more ways to inconvenience an angel and a demon who just wanted to be left in peace. Characters: Gabriel, Crowley, Aziraphale, Beelzebub, Michael, Uriel, Sandalphon Rating: T  

Prologue and all chapters are tagged as ‘winging it’ on my blog.

A/N: No vintage pornography was mistreated in the making of this chapter.

(A scene was partly based on and amazing comic by @hyunlou, because I loved it so much I could no longer picture the scene going any other way,and also @lunaescribe on my birthday with art - check the fic tag to see both!)

***

“... Is that what they asked you? If you had carnal desires? Were those their exact words?”

“Yes,” Gabriel said, and shifted a little when Łukasz let out a groan, rubbing his temples.

“Why do they speak like they came out of some shitty BBC period drama?” Fabrizio asked, only for Łukasz to entirely ignore him and look back at Gabriel.

“And you said no.”

“I said I don’t think I do-- I am not sure-- and then they left before I could suggest we go out for the evening, and I have no idea why. But they did take the mugs, so--”

“Jesus Christ, mate, they were making a pass at you!”

Gabriel blinked. “... They were making a what?”

Fabrizio cleared his throat before speaking in the fakest, poshest British accent imaginable. “I think what my esteemed colleague is trying to say is that this… what’s their name again?”

“Beel-- Bill.”

“Right. This Bill was trying to politely gauge whether or not you may, perchance, be entertaining the thought of shagging.”

“Shagging?” Gabriel repeated. He was familiar with the term, of course - working in warehouse near the docks had taught him a vast array of terms all generally referring to the same things - but he had no idea why Beelzebub would be asking if he entertained the thought of-- 

“Shagging them, specifically.”

Gabriel stared. He opened his mouth, gaped a little more, then blinked. “They-- were?” he asked, sounding every inch as bewildered as he felt. The notion was so alien to him, it was hard to wrap his mind around it… and yet, now that it had been clearly spelled out for him, Gabriel felt a sudden desire to reach back into the space-time continuum and smack himself in the back of the head. Unable to do that due to his current limitations as a mortal, he just blinked again. “But... why?”

Forehead firmly pressed on the table, Łukasz snickered. “That’s an excellent question,” he said. “I’m starting to suspect your friend is a rabid moronsexual.”

“A what?”

That caused Fabrizio to burst laughing so suddenly and violently that Gabriel was left with little doubt that he was supposed to feel insulted by the remark. However, he was too baffled to.

“That was never-- it never came up,” he protested.

“Hah! Well, it did now. They brought it up. So, are you?”

Gabriel opened his mouth. 

“... Before you go ‘am I what’, allow me to make myself clear. Are you interested in the offer?”

Ah. “I’m… not certain it was an offer, I ought not assume--”

“Let’s say it was. Are you?”

Gabriel hesitated, and this time they didn’t press him for an answer. Which was good, because he honestly did not have one yet; there had been something when he’d held the Prince of Hell in his arms, something that had made him wish he didn’t have to put them down… but the notion of carnal desires was so foreign to him, he had no idea what that would even feel like. 

In the end, he sighed. “... I’ll need to do research,” he finally said. 

If Łukasz and Fabrizio found it an odd response, which they probably did, they said nothing of it. 

“All right. But, my friend, let me tell you something. Whether you want to shag them or not, you’re so smitten it’s not even funny,” Fabrizio said. Gabriel didn’t even try to argue he was not.

Lying is, after all, a sin.

***

Indulging in carnal  pleasures was, quite obviously, not the immediate ticket to the lowest circles of Hell that many mortals seemed to believe it was.

It was in some cases, of course, whenever someone forced their own lust on somebody who was anything but a willing participant; those souls had a circle of their own, which was rather cramped as well as boasting a frankly astounding amount of Catholic priests. 

A good number of them may have been tempted by demons, though Beelzebub suspected it was a minority, but even in those cases all the forces of Hell had really done was put some rather non-specific lust in their heart; how they let it grow and then acted upon it was entirely their choice.

It was not a circle of Hell Beelzebub had ever had much to do with, as lust did not precisely fall under their expertise, and therefore they did not know the minute details of what was the exact line between simple carnal pleasure and sinful lust. However, they felt reasonably certain in the assumption that carnal relations with a Prince of Hell would, at the very least, be a prominent enough sin to tilt the balance of the scale towards Hell.

And I may be more successful in doing that than I was trying to convince him to push an old lady under the bus. 

Just maybe. There were demons who made seduction their weapon of choice when it came to gaining influence over mortals, but Beelzebub was not among them. Plus, when asked if he did have carnal desires, Gabriel had said he didn’t think he did.

But he hadn’t said no, either, which had been his immediate reply whenever they had tried to talk him into any kind of serious sin, and therefore Beelzebub concluded it would be foolish not to make at least an attempt. So they would - but first, they needed to do some research over what carnal relations precisely entailed other than just choosing one out of two models of genitalia and make them fit with the other’s. 

They would come across as rather stupid, after all, if Gabriel accepted and they had to reveal they didn’t know the first thing about what they’d just proposed.

*** 

The dancers should stand facing each other, keep their feet loose and relaxed, standing so that they are facing each other with about an arm's length of space in between them...

By the time he got to the second paragraph, Gabriel had begun to suspect that guide - Learn How To Shag In One Minute - was not precisely what he was looking for. With a frown, he went back to the search results and looked around a bit further. 

Ah, so apparently shag dancing was a thing. It looked rather awkward and had no relevance to his research, doubly so as angels did not dance and he certainly had not picked up the habit since becoming mortal, so in the end Gabriel sighed and just put his phone down.

All right, it seemed that the Internet was not a reliable source, regardless of the large amounts of porn that, he had been informed, could be found in it. He had absolutely no intention to come across as a fool if - when? - Beelzebub brought up the matter again, and therefore he needed better sources than dubious websites with excessive amounts of Xs in their name.

A book. Books are more reliable.

Of course Gabriel was not so gullible to think all books could be trusted - he had seen too many outlandish editions of the Bible not to know better - so he would need to be certain the book he got his hands on would be a reputable one.

And he just so happened to know an expert in the field.

***

“Lord Beelzeb--”

“Nothing!”

Dagon blinked, taken aback, when Lord Beelzebub let out a noise that was only slightly more dignified than a shriek and slammed their laptop shut. They had been sitting on their throne, staring at the screen with such keen interest they hadn’t heard her coming in - and now, for some reason, they were sitting on the laptop. 

… All right. Dagon would assume that whatever they were looking at was a private matter and not ask, then. She cleared her throat and somehow managed to keep a straight face despite the utter surprise; she had never seen the Lord of the Flies caught so off-guard. 

“What do you want!” Beelzebub barked, looking one step away from trying to turn her to ashes. Not that Hellfire could destroy a demon, of course, but it would hurt quite badly and Dagon liked it better when she was not hurt quite badly. 

“I, uh, am here concerning the meeting to review the performance of our demons this month,” she said. “If it suits you, we can move the time--”

“You can chair that stupid meeting,” the Prince of Hell snapped. “Now leave. I’m busy.”

“Oh. Is it anything I can help wi--”

“You can help by chairing the meeting in my stead.”

“Ah. Does that mean I am authorized to choose who to punish and what bonuses to award--”

“You’re authorized to do whatever the Heaven you want, as long as you leave me now!”

The flies around Lord Beelzebub’s head buzzed furiously as though to underline the unspoken threat, and Dagon was clever enough not to argue further: a quick bow, and she was out of the throne room as fast as her legs could carry her while still maintaining some composure. 

Once alone, Beelzebub let out a groan and rubbed their eyes. They stood, picked up the laptop from their throne, and opened it again. The screen was cracked, but then again the entire thing was so busted it was plainly not supposed to work in any capacity, and Beelzebub had yet to meet a piece of technology that would defy their order to work when they were supposed to. 

It sure worked now, as Beelzebub turned it back on and to look at their most recent searches. 

how to do courtship how to court human how to court idiot how to kiss human genitalia how penis work how vagina work how to have sex tutorial

The last one led to a rather educational video depicting a man and a woman on a large, round bed. If they squinted, the man even looked a little like Gabriel. 

Beelzebub supposed it would do for now, in case they decided to acquire female genitalia for the occasion, but they were still on the fence about that and would probably need to seek more varied videos. Just to make sure they had grasped the main idea, of course. 

“Unnecessarily complicated, is what all this is,” Beelzebub, Prince of Hell and Lord of the Flies, declared loudly. Then they leaned back on their throne, reached for one of the mugs Gabriel had bought them, and hit play again.

For research.

***

“Gabriel! It’s good to see you.”

“He doesn’t mean that,” Crowley muttered. 

“Come, sit. I’ll make some tea.”

“Feel free to decline, we won’t mind.”

“Tea would be much appreciated, thank you,” Gabriel said, to Crowley’s annoyance, and sat, to his further annoyance, while entirely ignoring his remarks, to his utter annoyance. He looked around the cottage, and if he dared say anything about the decor Crowley would chew his head off, especially after seeing what kind of minimalistic nightmare Heaven was.

“This is… cozy,” Gabriel finally said after a slight hesitation, leaving Crowley just a little miffed that he didn’t, after all, get a good excuse to chew off his head. Yet. 

“Oh, we’re still in the process of moving everything,” Aziraphale was saying, picking up the teapot he’d put on the stove only minutes before Gabriel had showed up at the bookstore. With the portal-door between the store and the cottage wide open, the sound of him knocking had carried over and Aziraphale had let him in before Crowley could stop it. 

“We will keep the door open between here and my bookstore, it is such a convenient place to store all my books and I am not ready to give it up just yet. Crowley still needs to move some paintings out of his flat, that garish throne and the decoration he stole from a church--”

“I didn’t steal it, the church was bombed.”

“I remember. It was an eventful evening,” Aziraphale said lightly, putting the teapot on the table. “I almost got discorporated, but Crowley came to help me out. He saved us all upstairs so much paperwork.”

“Ah,” Gabriel said, clearly not sure what to say to that. “I mean-- thank you.” 

Crowley gave him a long, unimpressed look, and he cleared his throat. “Anyway… where’s here, exactly?”

“That’s on a need-to-know basis and you don’t need to know,” Crowley said, crossing his arms. They both had agreed that neither Heaven nor Hell would ever know where their cottage was, and while Gabriel was technically part of neither, he still counted as a stuck-up archangel as far as Crowley was concerned. Now that he knew about the cottage, something would have to be done about the door connecting it to the bookstore. Maybe a seal, the kind that would keep out anyone who was not the two of them…

“It’s good to know you’re doing well,” Aziraphale was saying, clearly speaking for himself only, and poured tea in all three cups on the table despite the fact Crowley had elected not to sit yet, instead glaring at Gabriel in hopes he would feel uncomfortable enough to leave. “Now, what was that you mentioned about needing research books?” he asked, and brought the cup to his mouth. 

“I need pornography books,” Gabriel declared, and the excellent tea Aziraphale had just sipped was sprayed right back out on the table in a fine mist. From his corner, Crowley raised both eyebrows up to almost his hairline. 

Well. That was not what he’d expected to hear.

Aziraphale looked down at the mess on the table and on his own clothes before he gave Gabriel a very, very weary look. “You know, don’t you, that there really is no need for codes now?”

Gabriel shook his head. “No, no, it’s not a code. I do need some pornography books.”

Aziraphale stared.

“... For research. As I sa-- Aziraphale?”

No answer: Aziraphale stood, without a further word, and was out of the room within moments, hands up in the air. Whether to find someplace to scream in peace, stare at the wall for a few minutes while scrubbing the mental image out of his brain, or try to clean the tea off his clothes, Crowley was not sure. 

He would check on him in a minute. First, he had questions.

“Research, huh?” he said, leaning on the table across a rather bewildered Gabriel, who had somehow expected a different reaction to him asking to borrow pornography books. He grinned, wide enough to almost make his cheeks hurt. There was some amazing mocking material there, he could feel it. “And who is this about? A new friend? A coworker?”

Still stunned by Aziraphale’s reaction, Gabriel answered without pausing a moment to ponder whether he should answer that question. “Beelzebub,” he said, like he was answering a question on what kind of tea he preferred.

Ah.

For a few moments Crowley could only stare, the grin frozen on his lips. He was startled out of it by a sound like breaking glass that, he realized rather belatedly, came from inside his own brain. 

No. No no no no. Nope. Nope. Abort, abort. 

“Angel!” he called out, his voice a little strangled, and went to search for Aziraphale to make him share with him whatever bleach he was now using on his brain. Behind him, Gabriel spoke up.

“Uh, so can I borrow a book--” he tried to ask, but a slamming door was the only reply he got for a good while.

*** 

“Oh, this is never going to come out…” 

Aziraphale sighed, looking down at his waistcoat, whose front was currently drenched with tea. Of course he could miracle it away, with Gabriel no longer in the position of writing him strongly worded letters about frivolous miracles... but he could feel a headache build up just thinking about Gabriel and looking around for a clean napkin was a rather welcomed distraction.

Until Crowley stepped in, eyes wide. 

“Beelzebub,” he blurted out, causing Aziraphale to nearly jump out of his skin and frantically look around. God knew, the last thing he needed to deal with was the Lord of the Flies in his bookstore.

“What-- where??”

“No, I mean--” Crowley let out a pained noise, rubbing his eyes like he hoped to get an awful image off his retinas. “It’s about Beelzebub. Gabriel’s research. On pornography.”

Ah.

“Ah,” Aziraphale said. He needed a few moments for what he’d just heard to entirely sink into his brain. When it did, he barely repressed a shudder. “That is… not… what I was expecting.”

“The Archangel Fucking Gabriel and Beelzebub. It’s in my brain now. Can you miracle it away?”

“I’m afraid that goes beyond my abilities,” Aziraphale said, reaching up to put a hand on his own head to calm the building headache. “If your head also hurts something awful, though, I can help with that. If you can get the tea out of my waistco-- oh. Thank you.” He smiled as Crowley took care of that with a snap of his fingers, the other hand still firmly on his eyes. 

“You’re welcome. Now, can we throw him whatever book he wants and then throw him out?”

Aziraphale was very much opposed to throwing books, of course, but shoving a pornography book in Gabriel’s hands and firmly showing him the door seemed the best course of action.

***

“... I can explain.”

“No offence, but we’d really rather you do not.”

Gabriel shifted a little, a heavy leather-bound book in his arms. “Right. Well, er… thank you for the book. I’ll return it once I’ve--”

“Feel free to return it whenever. You’re very much welcome,” Aziraphale spoke quickly, and while he didn’t physically shove Gabriel through the door, he very much did get the message that he really wanted him to leave sooner rather than later. “Best of, er, luck. With your research,” he added quickly, and closed the door behind him.

Gabriel stood on the spot a few moments, blinking in slight confusion, but in the end he shrugged it off - maybe he had caught him in a busy moment - and opened the book to have a quick look.

… Huh. Could a mortal’s spine actually do that?

There was laughter, a couple of children running past him, and Gabriel immediately closed the book. Right, right - looking at pornography in public was frowned upon, so he ought to wait until he was back home. On the way back, he’d purchase a pen and notebook. 

In case he needed to write something down. 

*** 

Once their research was completed, Beelzebub was still not certain what it was about the act that so many humans found irresistible - but, they had to admit, their curiosity was piqued. Perhaps a carnal act with Gabriel would pave the way for his descent into Hell, perhaps it would not, but either way they would get to know what it precisely was about, so they would be getting something out of it. 

The only thing for them to find out was whether Gabriel would be a willing participant, which was a rather important point because they may be the Prince of Hell but they also had standards. And, all things considered, they got the answer to that rather quickly: they couldn’t be many other reasons for Gabriel to be sitting at his desk with an open book full of pornographic images and a notebook half-filled with notes.

At least, they hoped they were not. Beelzebub found that the idea Gabriel might harbor carnal desire for someone else left them distinctly annoyed. 

“I can explain,” Gabriel blurted out as soon as he recovered from the mini heart attack Beelzebub’s sudden appearance in flames and smoke had given in. Quick recovery, they had to give him that. “This is, uh-- this is-- research, for--”

“You’ve given my question some thought, I see.”

“Well--” he finally regained composure, and cleared his throat. “I have.”

“And…?”

“I’m not certain I do have those, uh, inclinations, but I’d be open to give it a try. If you’re so inclined,” he added quickly.

“I see,” Beelzebub said, their voice perfectly collected. Inwardly, however, they felt very much like a Jehovah's Witness who’d just been invited inside to talk after knocking: hadn’t really thought they would get that far and had already forgotten just about everything they had planned to do in the event. So they said nothing else, and stared. 

Gabriel said nothing else. And stared. 

Needless to say, that was not a promising start. 

“... Which one?” Beelzebub finally asked.

“Huh?”

“Which set of genitalia.”

“Oh. I have--”

“I know what you have, I have seen you showering. I’m asking which one I should get now.”

“Ah.” Gabriel glanced at the book as though hoping to find an answer there. “Er… either? We can throw a coin,” he muttered, and dug a coin out of his pocket and handed it to them. “Head for penis and--”

Beelzebub threw the coin, caught it, and looked down at it. “Tails.”

“Right. Well--”

“Do not presume for even a moment I will allow you to be above me.”

“I’m not presuming, I just-- what are those?”

“Notes,” Beelzebub muttered, more than slightly irritated at having forgotten their own script. They shuffled through the clue cards they had pulled out of their back pockets, rather wishing their handwriting did not look like a dying fly had dragged itself across the paper after being dunked in ink.

 “... Right. So we have come to the agreement we both consent. At this point, we’re supposed to--” they began, and trailed off when Gabriel did the unthinkable. 

He laughed.

“What are you-- hey! Stop laughing!” Beelzebub buzzed furiously, their face suddenly really, really hot. They crumpled notes in their fist and glaring up at Gabriel. “Cease this instant!” they ordered, and were a moment away from kicking him in the shin - how dare he laugh at the Lord of the Flies? - when Gabriel spoke, his laugh dying down to a snicker. 

“I-- heh. My apologies. I just--” he gestured to the papers crumpled in Beelzebub’s fist, and then at his own notebook on the desk. “One way or another, we end up with paperwork. I suspect humans are more spontaneous about it.”

Beelzebub huffed. “Well, I am not human,” they muttered, but the anger died down, and they crossed their arms. “If you don’t plan by the book, how do you know if you’re getting things right?”

“Well-- sometimes you don’t know. Humans take chances all the time.”

A scoff. “What a disgustingly human thing to say. Is that how your mind operates now?”

“... I do still find it somewhat frightening,” Gabriel said, quietly, and whatever mockery Beelzebub was about to utter next died in their throat. The look he was giving them was surprisingly open, and he looked painfully vulnerable.

In the end, when they spoke, their voice was just as quiet. 

“You have no reason to be frightened,” they said, and burned the note in their fist, letting the ashes fall on the floor. “I usually do punish failure, but I’m willing to make you an exception, I suppose.”

A chuckle, and Gabriel lifted a hand, holding it up almost close enough to Beelzebub’s face to touch the skin. “May I?”

“... You may,” they replied. The touch was warm, foreign and familiar at the same time - did he touch their face like that a long time ago, when they were still Ba’al? - and leaning into it, finding out where it all led, was so very tempting. Ironic, considering that they were supposed to be the one doing the tempting and… and…

No.

“Wait.” Beelzebub reached up to brace a hand against Gabriel’s chest, keeping him at a distance. He immediately stopped, and looked down at them in confusion, their faces only inches apart. “There is a chance this may count as a serious sin.”

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Shouldn’t have told him. He’ll call it off. 

Gabriel blinked, and the confused expression turned into a smile. “I figured,” he said, and tilted up their chin. “I think I’ll take the chance.”

… Well, they had given him a fair warning, so their conscience was clear. Would have been clear, if they had one. “You’re a fool,” the Prince of Hell informed him.

“I figured that too,” the fool replied.

What followed was a bit messier and significantly more complicated than expected, but given enough time and attempts, they did figure that out as well.

*** 

A good while after they had both caught their breath and Gabriel’s heart no longer felt like it was trying to burst out of his chest, Beelzebub had yet to say a word.

But they were still there, even if silent, accepting Gabriel’s arms around them and his quiet breathing against the nape of their neck, and he supposed that was a sure sign they had no complaints. In the end, he dared break the peaceful silence. 

“Can you stay for the night?” he asked, his voice low. 

“I am Prince of Hell. I can do as I wish.”

“... Do you wish to stay for the night?”

“I can’t see why not,” they conceded, causing Gabriel’s lips to curl into a smile. He said nothing, kissing the back of Beelzebub’s shoulder instead. Of course, they could tell he was smiling right away. “What are you smirking about?”

“Well, it was-- pleasant, was it not?”

Gabriel felt their light snort more than he heard it. “Bragging already, are you?” they muttered, and turned in his arms to face him. Their skin was pleasantly warm. “Do I have to remind you who was leading?”

Of course, there was no need. It wasn’t often that Gabriel found himself in the position of having to look up at the Lord of the Flies, and he hadn’t minded the change. He hadn’t minded at all. 

“Oh, I never tried to take credit.” Gabriel dropped a kiss on the bridge of Beelzebub’s nose, gaining himself a frown and a buzzing noise - but no attempt at all to shove him off them. He was dimly aware of the fact that there was a folder in Hell bearing his name which perhaps had just gained a sin in red ink, but he found he couldn’t even begin to feel concern. 

“Next time,” Beelzebub was saying, “I’ll try the other set of genitalia.”

“Heh. So there will be a next time?”

The Lord of the Flies did shove him at that, flat onto his back, before they rolled on top of him. They propped themselves up on their elbows, which rested on his chest. It wasn’t the most comfortable predicament, but Gabriel’s muscles still felt like cooked asparagus and he wouldn’t have bothered to protest for anything short of being raked over hot coals. 

“We both have researched a great deal more than what we have put in practice, and I don’t see why the time spent on it should go to waste,” they said, tilting their head. “Don’t you agree?”

A smile, and Gabriel dared tilt up his head to try and catch their lips again. He missed, and his mouth rested briefly on their throat instead before he pulled them down against his chest. 

“I do,” he murmured. “Wholeheartedly.”

***

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”  --Jeremiah 17:9

***

[Back]

[Next]

[battle-of-alberta]

OCtober: Lilith and Red

Once again take a look at the tourism sites. Is there a city you’d rather visit? I’m curious to know!

Lethbridge | Red Deer

Below is some meta stuff about the ‘research’ (if you can even call it that, it was more of a vibe check) I did for re-doing the profiles. Read on, if it intrigues you.

Mid-Sized Cities: Lethbridge and Red Deer

At first glance, it's hard to tell whether trying to fit Lethbridge and Red Deer into the major city rivalry mold is either productive or relevant. The two cities are distribution hubs of their respective regions, have closely competing populations as well as a growing post-secondary community, and are both hitting their stride in representing parts of Alberta that are typically overshadowed by its larger urban centers. There were "no hard feelings" between the two as Lethbridge's stability and its position as a city uniquely independent of the oil and gas boom/bust cycle allowed it to once again surpass Red Deer in size. It seems that there's a long history of commonality and always just enough room to share the third place podium

Website Round Up Premise

While I was revisiting these character profiles, I took a look at how cities represented themselves on their municipal sites and tourism sites rather than how cities were represented in the news or in stereotypes, as the latter already tend to live in the back of my head. I was interested to see who the target audiences for each city were, what they considered their strengths, and how much effort each city put into putting its own identity on display. I was also interested into what ideas sort of fed into any pre-existing confirmation bias I had about each city's personality as well as interested in what narratives might be used to counteract negative stereotypes.

The first thing I tended to notice was the overall information architecture of each city's website. How easy were they to navigate? What kinds of information did they have? How did they organize it? How did they communicate that information?

Municipal: Out and About

Lethbridge's information architecture leaves a little to be desired... instead of the obvious first tab "Living Here", the "About Lethbridge" page was hidden under "Things to Do" (in an ever extending sidebar reminiscent of older web design). The city portrays itself as a "central" location despite being the last major stop before the U.S. border, which is an interesting contrast to Red Deer's "true" central nature. Still, as southern Alberta is the true "birthplace" of the modern province, the city's pride in being the centre of the South is well earned. The About Page includes a lot of geographical and climate statistics and also helpfully defines words such as "coulee" and "chinook" and "viaduct", which are integral to understanding the environmental context. Lethbridge makes up for what it lacks in organization by being the only city to offer a downloadable colouring book on its about page. Underneath this page is a separate City Identity page for city emblems and symbols, with brief explanations and images of each. There are also a couple pages about the history of the city.

Lethbridge also has a page in their "About" section for visitors, linking them to the tourism pages of the city, the region, and suggesting their own "Top Ten" suggested activities for visiting families.

Red Deer has its "About" section as the first tab on its site, although the large number of categories provide different pieces to the puzzle rather than directing a visitor to a single page. Emblems, symbols, facts and trivia are all squirrelled away under "History" (although many of the facts are short of a little context). The "Moving to Red Deer" page has a more general overview, describing the city as "easy to get around" but with amenities of a larger city. There's also a "Downtown Red Deer" page which describes the three districts of the city centre with six themes: great streets, great places, great connections, vitality, authenticity, and sustainability. Finally, there's a section called "We Are Red Deer" with a promotional video and statement about the city, emphasizing "real" (work-life?) balance, a can-do volunteer attitude, and a city that is the ideal blend of urban and rural.

Red Deer also has citizen-contributed stories and i was Entranced by The Case of the Bolting Bovine in which a cow just. got loose in a suburb. great video.

Overall, both city sites struck me as accommodating and trying to be welcoming and accessible, even if those goals weren't always reached. Lethbridge tended to focus more on environment while Red Deer tended to focus more on the welcoming temperament of locals. I also got the initial impression that Red Deer had put a little more thought in their branding than Lethbridge in both organization and self-description; the site was more oriented to new residents than Lethbridge's as well. However, Lethbridge has an excellent "internal" brand in its promotion of its colouring book and the adorable illustrations and animations I found scattered here and there. They also refer to their history through mural art, which strikes a unique contrast with the extensive archival material featured on Red Deer's deep historical pages.

Neither city had a particularly strong guide for prospective residents, but neither city is as concerned as smaller municipalities might be with attracting them.

Tourism: Staycation Destination

Finally, both cities also have tourism pages.

Both cities are providing regular COVD-19 updates and encouraging local tourism. Lethbridge encourages the hashtag #YQLocal while Red Deer suggests #ExploreRedDeersBackyard.

Interestingly, both tourism pages feature "Ask A Local" or "Local Insider" stories and tips that are very cute. Red Deer has a panel of local experts which visitors can direct questions to, such as "What should be the city's motto?" or "What is an iconic Red Deer dish?". Lethbridge structures an entire section of the website as "Insider Tips", which includes frequent blog updates about local events, an "About Lethbridge" page, but most interestingly includes an "Authentic Lethbridge" page. This page features links to sites like TripAdvisor and Twitter where visitors can explore the reviews and hashtags for the city outside of their tourism page, which struck me as an interesting option considering that it was the only tourism site that encouraged looking at information or opinion that was not curated to paint a 'sunday best' portrait of the city.

Tourism: We’re Headed Downtown

Both cities describe themselves on distinct pages.

Lethbridge has an impressive about page in the sense that less is more, a large image of the viaduct sets the tone for the short description below, which is concise if not vivid or particularly unique. It feels as if the site is confident that Lethbridge speaks for itself.

Red Deer's about page is a little more informative, but you'll have to scroll down and squint or you might overlook it. The description is very warm and genuine, painting the city as the heart of a beautiful agritourism destination filled with active and friendly volunteers (which echoes Calgary's Olympic branding...). It also bolds the sentence "We are fiercely proud of our community and the quality of life it affords." and for some reason it sounds just a tiny bit threatening?!

Tourism: Hitchhiker’s Guide

Both cities have downloadable guides.

It's kind of adorable that Lethbridge takes full advantage of having a digital guide and embeds teeny tiny YouTube videos on the cover and throughout the pages. This year's guide also basically admits straight up that 2020 kind of sucks, and I respect that.

Red Deer's guide is from last year and has a beautiful, colourful design. The theme of this guide is "Adventure" from cover to cover, and the image/text balance is well employed.

It's interesting to see the different priorities of each guide. Lethbridge tends to focus more on museums, galleries, cultural experiences and interpretive centers before looking towards the great outdoors, dining, and sport. Red Deer's guide launches right into extreme sports and the local food scene, which are similarly reflected as the top two draws on their website. It is pretty interesting that this is very often the case for other analyses I've made: Southern Alberta seems to be more concerned with arts and culture while Northern Alberta is a little more sport and recreation. (And since the major cities are the only ones left and I have an Edmonton bias, I'm interested to see how my own tourism site is going to spin what I think I know to be true, haha.)

I got the impression Lethbridge assumed its visitors would be visiting family in the area - maybe it's due to COVID-19 restrictions that family is their focus this year, but I'd be curious to see if this continues. Red Deer's guides were naturally much more focused on the urban corridor traffic and really stressed an "escape" for commuters.

[plotbnuy]

Blog Update / Life Update / Future Plans, Etc.

Well, it's been a while!!!

First thing's first, thank you so much to my good friend @snellyfish for my new profile picture!!! They did such an amazing job and I couldn't be happier with it, please follow them for their art!!!

Second, sorry for being gone so long! A lot has happened in the last few months, mainly a failed attempt to move away from my apartment. My roommate and I decided to move back in March, but by the time our lease ran out in June, we hadn't made any actual progress finding a new place. Now, the renter's market is completely busted here in Florida, and it's really hard to find places that are reasonably priced, let alone successfully apply. I'm staying with my grandparents, now, which has been relatively smooth but very temporary. With how long the move is taking, it's getting more frustrating knowing I'm on an invisible timer... I hate imposing on them, too, and do my best to stay invisible.

Anyway, the blog change. I've gone from KarpedKrusader to Wind-Up Wordsmith! This is the title I'll be taking on as a writer, which is very separate from what KarpedKrusader is: my Twitch Streaming title. Now, I could have just made a separate blog, and perhaps that would have been better, however the primary use for this blog has been reviewing books and movies, and that's something I still want to do. It fits my writing persona far better than my streaming one, and I don't particularly wish to blog about my streams (which are on hiatus anyway due to the shaky living conditions) so that's how I came to the decision of simply replacing this blog.

So, now that I've said all this, what do I actually plan on doing with this blog? Well, I want to return to what I was doing before, which was starting to speak on books and movies, and I always have a lot to say on both. I also really want to talk more about stuff going on in my life, since I'm pretty chatty and just like to talk! Most recently, I just finished reading "The 22 Murders of Madison May," By Max Barry, so look out for my thoughts on that!

Most importantly, I've been working on a writing project that's steadily making progress. I'm hoping to start posting chapters of a novel soon, currently titled "Induction Deduction." I want to talk more about that in future posts, though, so I won't say much more than the title here, especially since this post has kind of dragged on for a while!!!

Anyway, if you got this far, thank you for reading! I hope that you look forward to seeing more of me in the future! Have a wonderful day! <3

[teal-crown]

Marinette Update! And Mitty dev-talks!

Hello my friends! Mitt is here with yet another post! Did you miss me? Probably not because tumblr is dead. And I’ve been pretty active on twitter and twitch. lalalala

I’ll be very honest in this post about my feelings and such.

We’ll be talking about the game’s progress, what I’ve been up to, and I’ll also discuss some things regarding the Teal Crown blog.

It’s kind of a personal post! So grab your cookies and let’s talk <3

So, there was a need to make a post like this since I’ve been feeling really weird towards posting progress updates here on tumblr for a few months now.

Updating whoever is still around here on the game and on better ways to follow it’s progress, the developers, and overall what we will do from now on is something I should’ve done a long time ago! aaaa

I also kind of want to see what the reaction to this post is. We are almost at 1000 followers, yet I’m afraid almost everyone is not active anymore, and I’m not sure on who still remembers this blog ahaha. Let’s consider this post a test, too! >w<

Honestly, this is a very comfy place to post, Tumblr’s layout for making posts and everything is still one of the best around for me, however, I’ve been feeling the need to write long and well articulated posts about the progress of the game but for some reason that need has also been draining me quite a bit here even though I do really want to make these posts.

It’s really weird.

I will try my best to post more progress updates here from time to time, but I want to try different ways to let the message across.

It feels like this is supposed to be a blog for the team, but I still keep it very personal like when I started it. I believe that’s my mistake!

That’s the main reason I’ve been getting discouraged from making those personal long dev talk posts by myself.

I’ve thought about moving personal development updates to my Youtube, and that’s probably what I will do in the near future!

I realized that video form is better for this in one of my last streams where I was working on busts for the game. I talked about some insights, feelings, and direction updates. It felt more natural and personal, and I think it’s the next right step to follow.

I’d like to keep a blog for more professional and straight forward updates. I’m not sure, but I’ll probably move out of tumblr and branch out! It’s scary but...

Let’s do this together.

Also, I’m sorry for missing some asks from months ago, I felt like I needed to take a break to get my mind straight on what I want this blog to be. I’ll be answering them soon!

As of right now, the most personal and accurate way to know what’s going on with the development, is to go to our Discord, and poke us there.

We are very close to finishing Marinette’s demo. It’s all mostly done, and I’ve been polishing, adding busts and fixing bugs and some other stuff.

But I want to personally talk with you guys about how I’ve been feeling about it too, as the main developer and artist for the game.

The demo is supposed to have already been done a few months ago, however, I really want to vent to you all that the fact that we are so close to it it’s been making me a mess ahaha

I feel like I’m so proud of it, but the release has been stressing me out a little. I’m scared. I shouldn’t be, but I am!

This stress has been leading me to avoid programming at all, since doing that would mean finishing the game’s demo(?)

Don’t get me wrong, I AM excited! A whole lot!!

But I’m also scared of the reception and everything.

What if it passes completely under the radar and I feel like no one else is as passionate about it? I don’t want to disappoint my team members either...

But then I realize that finishing it is so much more important, and I’m sure there are people that are excited and have been expressing their support time and time again! There’s nothing to worry about... But the thought of indiference kind of agonizes me. I’m scared of having expectations, but it’s innevitable.

This thought has been flowing through my head since I released my short comic. I felt like I worked so hard on it, but I didn’t market it enough. Which leads me to my next point.

I feel like I need to invest a little more into getting the word about the game out there a little more! I’m still quite inexperienced, and don’t know much about how to market a game and get people interested, but it’s important for me as an artist too. I feel like it’s something I have to prove to myself in a way.

I’ll be going to university this year, and I’m unsure on how long it’ll take to finish the whole game. But it’s such a great project that I’m so passionate about finishing.

Because of this, I have been thinking and decided that if the reception of the demo is great enough, I’ll be investing more than my personal time into finishing the game. 

The project is really ambitious, and even though I can tackle it in due time, like I’ve been doing for the demo, if I want it to actually come out this decade, I MUST let go of the thought that I have to do everything myself.

We have a team. Yet, although there are writers, composers and artists to help with concepting, I’m still doing the in-game art and programming. Which would be fine, If I weren’t such a perfectionist in both. I love having the in-game assets mostly done by myself, and I don’t think I can give that up.

However, I feel like I have to give up on doing all the programming by myself.

With this, I mean that after the demo is released, I’ll be seeking someone to work with and program the game with. I’m not sure on where to look, or how to do this, but I wanted to get this word out there. I’ll be thankfull if anyone points me in the right direction.

I’ve also been trying to juggle the game and my own career as an artist, so it’s been quite a fun ride!

Now, Finally...

YES!! MOSTLY DONE!!!

The whole demo is fully playable.

We’ll be entering beta testing when I’m done polishing. I don’t know how long this will take, but I’m trying to tackle a little every day, and with the summer holidays coming, I will probably be done with it this year.

Keep in mind, the demo is quite long!

During the Beta testing phase I will probably start working more towards marketing and building hype somehow.

All that’s left for me to do is polishing some visuals(like adding busts, some sprites for background characters, tutorial and maybe an extra room for the developers), adding some sound effects and missing dialogue which is already written ( as well as flavour text ™ ) and fixing bugs.

As I’ve already said before, for more consistent updates, while I’m deciding the future of this blog, feel free to poke our Discord, my Twitter, or talking to me live on Twitch.

TO FINISH OFF, SUPPORT THE OTHER TEAM MEMBERS

I also feel the need to shout out everyone that’s been helping so far!

You can check out everyone in the Team section of the blog, but I wanna shout them out in this post too, even though some of them don’t have links, but you can poke most of us on discord! (If you guys want me to add different links let me know!)

This is my personal thanks to all of you for putting up with me for so long!

So here goes:

Mitty - That’s me! Hello!!

The3rdLetter - Amazing friend and main composer and writer! He is really amazing, so support him pls!

Luccinia - Super amazing artist that’s been helping with concept arts! Sadly I don’t have a link for her stuff, take my word for it, she’s awesome!

Lyco - Wholesome traditional artist and cosplayer <3 <3

CodeBreakerBlue - Sad fish. Chill dood. Helps with great soundtracks and writing as well!!!!!!!!

Ṟ̶̡͙̮̞̪͋̊̃̕͝͠ǐ̵̟̤͛́͌̈́̊̐͝ņ̸̛̤͈͈̱̹̜̈̋̃ ̷̗͙̣͜͠-̴̘̺̼̖̘̲̙̺͒̀̈́̈́͆̃ ̶̡̜̼͉̙͕̦͔͂̐̌̾͊Ṉ̴̛̜̯͋͗̐͑̇́͐͝<̶̼̈́̌̾ǫ̵̧̞̞͔̤̤̣͕͕͌̋t̶̛̛̪̪̘͆̏̄̑̀ ̶̹̰̳̑̂̄̈̈͘F̷̣̥̘̣͓̥̝̘͘Ọ̸̢̯̪̱̩̞̠̯͖͆͗́̀̓̎̉ų̸͙͔̳̾̓͐͘͝n̸̢̤̦̼̠̼͍̐̓͒͆̈́͜«̴̭͉͖̋͛̔͛̕͠͝d̵̲̥̯̣̯̃͌̈́̔̃̇͠

Bruno - Great composer!!! Super kind and hardworking, please support him, as he has worked on other projects too!

Miku - PRECIOUS!!! ART!!! Amazing artstyle!!! One of the prettiest I’ve ever seen!

Mia - Mitty’s personal pillow.

Moca - Mitty’s personal bully as of now.

Dotto, SktchB00kRose - Amazingly talented voice actors!!!

PinkPlumeria - Writing reviewer!!! Sweet as hecc and mom of the team!

Neve/Nemu - Super sweet. Super creative. Super hardworking and passionate. I admire Nemu, and some of the concept art for coolest stuff is by her! PLS SUPPORT!!

Prifurin - Super duper creative as well!!! Amazing music tracks, gorgeous and thoughtful cool concept art too!!!

  Ending note

Thank you so much If you’ve stuck around this long, we really appreciate it. We hope to bring a great game for everyone to enjoy!

Working on this game has definetely helped me become a better artist and person, I’ve learned a bunch of things, and hope you guys stick around to see us grow and create interesting content.

We really appreciate all the support,

Mitt out! <3

[broadwaybydesign]

Back On Top: Costuming Patti Lupone in “War Paint”, Part I

My post about Roman Holiday earlier this week should give you some idea of the admiration I hold for Catherine Zuber as a costumer and as a designer. This season, she was nominated for a Tony in one of my favorite productions of the year, War Paint. This is a classically structured musical that uses jazzy numbers to tell the story of Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden, the two fierce rivals who basically invented the modern cosmetics industry. Costuming each of these women required a unique take, and  as such I’m going to devote two posts to the main characters in the musical, one apiece.

The first up (sure to please fellow Patti Lupone fans like @sadgirlz4patti ) is the indomitable Helena Rubinstein, who built an international cosmetics empire in the first half of the 20th century, battling anti-immigrant and anti-semitic sentiment, let alone sexism, to find her slice of American success. For a spitfire personality like her, there was only one choice the casting director could make: the divine Patti Lupone. But costuming one of Broadway’s most famous (or even infamous!) divas is a major challenge, not only because Ms Lupone has (well-deserved) high standards, but because she has a petite figure that demands special consideration by the costumer selected for the production.

Catherine Zuber was clearly inspired by the era during which Madame Rubinstein was most active and in which the musical is set: the 1920s through 1950s or so. As such, there are a number of wardrobe changes, and we can see the evolution of fashion in them. Because this is not a general fashion blog, I’m going to present these images and analyses thematically rather than chronologically; this is about the skill and artistry of Ms Zuber, not necessarily a history of the fashion industry.

The first costume I want to look at is one that has already become an iconic representation of the Rubinstein part in this musical, her purple outfit with matching hat:

The first word that comes to mind when I see this costume is “dramatic,” and with good reason. When dealing with a personality as big as Madame Rubinstein, the costumes have to match--but at the same time, they need to make sense with the actress and the part being played. Here, we see Ms Zuber using a variety of fabrics in order to make a maximum impact, and doing something we didn’t see a lot of in my other reviews: accessorizing! Yes, when dealing with costumery, a lot of attention has to be paid to the accessories, and we’ll look at those shirtly.

This outfit is a kind of skirtsuit when looked at from a distance, designed to look formal but businesslike, and still intended to leave an impression. For that reason, Ms Zuber has used three varied shades of bright purples: one for the body of the jacket, one for the satin blouse underneath, and a third shade for the hat which is close to that of the jacket, but different enough to allow it to be worn with a different colored outfit. The jacket is the most prominent piece of the ensemble, and is designed to stick out. Have a look at this other Playbill with some greater detail:

The jacket has some gold braiding and filigree work, which is a distinction we can draw from Linda Cho’s work in Anastasia. The braiding work is heavier, thicker, and designed to look visually impressive, putting one in mind of curtain ties and grand cords at some luxury hotel, holding back heavy drapery. While elegant in styling, they add some heft to the jacket and allow it to lay flat on Ms Lupone, especially given the jacket appears to be constructed from a rather light fabric; this is not unusual for pieces that are designed to be worn as part of a layered costume, since a heavier fabric would run the risk of the wearer overheating under stage lighting--not a good situation for any performance!

The jacket is unusual to the modern eye, as we can see from the first still: it’s meant to go below the knee, almost in a robe-like fashion. This is not unexpected with Madame Rubinstein’s character; a native of Eastern Europe, she would have preferred something that flowed even once she was an Australian and later American success. But the decoration doesn’t continue below the bust, unlike in some other costumes I’ve reviewed. Is that a feature or a bug?

To my mind, it’s a feature. Ms Zuber wants attention to be directed upwards on Ms Lupone’s body--as I mentioned earlier, she is quite petite, which means that you do not want people to be looking up and down the entire time (especially, as I’ll explain in a future post, when she is next to Christine Ebersole, her co-star for the production). By only accenting the top of the jacket, Ms Zuber keeps the audience’s attention where it belongs: near the actress’ face, while still giving off a wealthy, flashy feeling through the accents. This is furthered by the satin blouse and skirt underneath, which are a simple cut designed to allow the jacket to be the defining article of clothing in this scene.

As promised, however, we have to also look at the accessories. I’ll start at the top, because the hats that Ms Zuber produced are truly par excellence. Millinery (the formal term for hat-making) is a notoriously tricky art, all the more so in a theatre setting. Costumes have to be designed to take some abuse given the number of changes that are gone through in the course of an average show. Hats often suffer the most, so they need to be made to be durable. 

This one is relatively simple, as compared to the one I did a mini-review of earlier. It’s a simple velvet semi-conical cap designed to give Ms Lupone a bit more height on the stage, as well as match the outfit, and looks like something you absolutely could have scene on a fashionista of the Second World War era (as I’ve noted before, I could see this also being in my grandmother’s closet around that time, were she in a position to buy something this fine). The decoration of the hat is simple and understated: a simple gold fanned badge which matches the roping and accenting on the jacket, as well as the brooch on the right shoulder. It’s understated, but I think that it works here. When you costume a presence like Patti Lupone, you need to be cognizant that your costume can’t outshine the star. And here, Ms Zuber has succeeded.

Other outfits worn by the Madame Rubinstein character throughout the musical also display some of Ms Zuber’s eye for color and design. Here is one that is relatively simply colored, but complex in terms of texture and fabric:

Blue and white is a classic combination, and the choice to use an extremely light, almost gray blue to offset the white here is an interesting one. I’m not entirely sold (for once!) that it was the right way to go, but I can see why Ms Zuber made that decision. It blends with the background and scenery in the scene where this costume is featured, so it’s defensible, but I tend to prefer costumes where the accents are just a bit more pronounced. I do see that the under-layer of the dress is also a pale blue, but in this case I think a stronger accent color might have been a better contrast.

The body of the dress, however, is absolutely gorgeous. I’m not entirely sure on the fabric here, but it’s wonderfully light and sheer, with a lacy pattern throughout that puts one in mind, perhaps, of a spider’s web--in a good way. After all, this is a musical about figures who voraciously consumed their competition and built something remarkable. The weblike pattern on the gown itself is done with a delicate touch, which gives it the appearance of expense and quality without being overdone. What I really like is that, from a distance, the detail work would not be instantly apparent; instead, it would appear to help the dress float in air as Ms Lupone moves around, either on the settee or as she entered or exited the scene.

Given how long this post is, I’m going to close it here with some general commentary on the costumes worn by the Helena Rubinstein character, and I’ll do a separate post on the jewelry and the Blue Outfit I teased the other day; I think it’s better to break it up a little bit and give everyone a reason to keep reading!

Overall, costuming a star like Patti Lupone is not an easy task, but Ms Zuber’s choices are almost all perfect from my perspective. She has a happy talent for color matching and mixing as well as a masterful knowledge of color and an ability to balance the figure and stature of the star with her designs. Overall, I have to say that the Tony nomination was extraordinarily well-deserved, and I think that in another year, Ms Zuber would have added another award to her trophy case.

Next up for the blog: Ms Lupone’s jewelry and accessories, including a look at the Blue Hat and outfit in more depth than I was able to give them in my comment earlier in the week.

Watch this space!

[laconservancy]

Los tallos amargos at Last Remaining Seats

Los tallos amargos (1956). Image courtesy the Film Noir Foundation.

Guest blog post by Maria Elena de las Carreras of the Latin American Cinemateca of Los Angeles .

Los tallos amargos was hiding in plain sight in a private collector’s home in Buenos Aires, when Fernando Martín Peña, an Argentine film historian and curator at MALBA – Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires – arranged with Eddie Muller of the Film Noir Foundation to have it restored. With the foundation providing the funds and the UCLA Film & Television Archive doing the lab work, the film got an unexpected new life in 2016, when, among other U.S. screenings, it became part of a six-film series at the Museum of Modern Art: “Death Is My Dance Partner: Film Noir in Postwar Argentina”. It should be noted, too, that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association also contributed to its restoration. 

Los tallos amargos is a knockout film, and the Latin American Cinemateca of Los Angeles is proud to show it as part of the Last Remaining Seats program of the Los Angeles Conservancy.

In 1954, journalist Adolfo Jasca submitted his novel “Los tallos amargos” [The Bitter Stems] to the prestigious literary contest of the publishing house Emecé, which gave it the first prize and recommended its publication. The novel captured the atmosphere of the newspaper world in the Buenos Aires of the 1950s as the background for a story involving a reporter, Alfredo Gasper; a Lithuanian refugee, Paar Liudas; and the journalism school by mail they concoct that leads to a seemingly perfect crime. The novel unfolded as a porteño update of Crime and Punishment. The essentials of the story were transferred to the film version of the same title, two years later, even though Liudas became a Hungarian exile. The film was a box-office success and earned top prizes from the Argentine critics association, for best film and best direction, in 1957.

Made as an independent production, and released through Artistas Argentinos Asociados, it was the second picture directed by Fernando Ayala (1920-1997), a filmmaker whose long career began at the end of the classic studio system and became emblematic of the new Argentine auteur cinema in the 1960s. With Héctor Olivera, Ayala founded Aries Cinematográfica, a production and distribution company relevant until the late 1990s, which combined commercial fare with titles that provided an astute critique of social and political issues, grounded in real-life situations recognizable by Argentine audiences. Always engaging, Ayala’s filmography is a road map to understanding modern Argentina’s permanent state of turmoil, with its cycles of boom and bust, and its impact on the middle class. Among his most renowned titles are: El jefe (1958), Paula cautiva (1963), La fiaca (1969), La guita (1970), Plata dulce (1982) and El arreglo (1983).

Los tallos amargos belongs to the visual style we now call noir – a term coined by French critics to describe the style and the content of American crime films made in the forties and fifties. Interestingly, U.S. and European filmmakers like John Huston, Robert Siodmak, Fritz Lang, Max Ophuls, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, and Orson Welles, among others, working in the Hollywood system, did not describe their work using this term. Films like The Maltese Falcon, Phantom Lady, The Woman in the Window, Caught, Laura, Double Indemnity and The Lady from Shanghai reflected a sensibility, a mood, a visual flair, that showcased psychological narratives where the action “however violent or fast-paced was less significant than faces, gestures, and words than the truth of the characters”, as New Yorker critic Richard Brody noted when reviewing two noir retrospectives in 2014.

Even if it is problematic to think of noir as a well-defined genre – like westerns, comedies or musicals – since it is primarily a visual style, determined by particular circumstances and heavily rooted in German Expressionism and a pessimistic worldview, the term has gained purchase, albeit as a “peculiar genre”, in Brody’s words. It has become a standard shortcut to group crime titles, in a large or narrow sense, where character studies are the focus of the films. In the case of Mexican cinema, Luis Buñuel’s Él (1953) and Ensayo de un crimen (1955) fit the description. When proposing an evaluation of Latin American crime cinema, MOMA entitled its two landmark retrospectives in 2015 and 2016, “Mexico at Midnight: Film Noir from Mexican Cinema’s Golden Age” and “Death is My Dance Partner: Film Noir in Postwar Argentina.”

Los tallos amargos (1956). Image courtesy the Film Noir Foundation.

If Buñuel did not think of his psychological studies of perverted masculinities in terms of a homegrown form of noir, neither did a young Fernando Ayala when he transferred the postwar paranoia of the literary original to Buenos Aires locations and studio sets rendered in the noir palette. He was an avid moviegoer well versed in genre conventions, and European and American styles; and he had finished his first film, Ayer fue primavera (1955), a romantic drama reconstructed from flashbacks.

Los tallos amargos showcases the increasing paranoia of the protagonist Alfredo Gasper (starring Carlos Cores, 1923-2000, a major star since the 1940s), the Argentine-born son of a German WWI military, with a tormented personality, while portraying Liudas, the Hungarian refugee (Vassili Lambrinos, 1926-2017, a dancer and choreographer) in ambiguous terms, thanks to the clever use of interlocking flashbacks. He is seen as refracted by the protagonist, and later as remembered by his son Jarvis (Pablo Moret).

In staging the story as an atmospheric crime film, or “policial”, Ayala was ably supported by cinematographer Ricardo Younis (1918-2011), who also had a long and distinguished career in the Argentine film industry. The reviews of this restored version of Los tallos amargos note that in a 2000 survey the American Cinematographer lists the picture as one the Best Shot Films between 1950 and 1997. (Beware of the substandard copies of the film found on YouTube!).

The dream sequence at the beginning of the film is an excellent instance of cinematography and mise-en-scène rendering the protagonist’s fragile ego; it is a visual forecast of Gasper’s unraveling, which unfolds like clockwork as a result of a fateful decision. The budding romance of Gasper’s sister Esther (Gilda Lousek, then an up-and-coming actress who went on to have a long career in film and television) and Liuda’s son Jarvis serves as a counterpoint: it restores the moral order at the end of the film, not without irony. The seeds that have germinated bring new life, but they carry the weight of the past.

Rooted in a time and place, Los tallos amargos is a gripping film in the noir style. To better grasp what it brought to Argentine cinema in the 1950s, I would love to suggest an analogy with the stunning Argentine neo-noir, Relatos salvajes (2014), directed by Daniel Szifrón, sixty years ago. Its style and subject matter embody the zeitgeist of today.

See Los tallos amargos at the historic Million Dollar Theatre on Saturday, June 2!

List of sources

Brody, Richard, “Film Noir: The Elusive Genre”. The New Yorker, July 23, 2014. https://www.artforum.com/film/id=58064

“Death Is My Dance Partner: Film Noir in Postwar Argentina”. Program Notes, Museum of Modern Art, February 10-16, 2016. https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/1616

Green Quintana, Roberto, “El vampire negro/Los tallos amargos”. Program Notes, “Recuerdos de un cine en español: Latin American Cinema in Los Angeles, 1930-1960”. UCLA Film and Television Archive series, Fall 2017. https://www.cinema.ucla.edu/events/2017/10/28/vampiro-negro-tallos-amargos

Krieger, Clara and Alejandra Portela, Eds, Cine Latinoamericano I: Diccionario de realizadores. Buenos Aires, Ediciones del Jilguero, 1997.

Lerman, Gabriel, “La HFPA ayuda a restaurar una obra maestra del cine latinoamericano”. Hollywood Foreign Press Association, February 10, 2016. https://www.goldenglobes.com/articles/la-hfpa-ayuda-restaurar-una-obra-maestra-del-cine-latinoamericano

Manrupe, Raúl, and María Alejandra Portela, Un diccionario de filmes argentinos. Buenos Aires, Corregidor, 1995.

Nick Pinkerton, “Dead Can Dance”. Artforum, February 10, 2016. https://www.artforum.com/film/id=58064

[coreycorner]

Best of 2018 in Movies & Music

Better late than never but it has been a long and busy couple of days, in fact 2018 in of itself was that way too. Not so much long as it was just busy. With that you have probably noticed that I don’t put many reviews in here anymore. One reason is Letterboxd (https://letterboxd.com/coreybussey/) does a better job of keeping track of the movies I have watched than this does and I like their system better. Second reason is I have had no time to really sit down and make more thoughtful reviews of other stuff, 2018 was spent traveling, working and being with my girlfriend and the future will be more of the same. Third reason goes with the other is that I haven’t been able to listen or watch as many good movies or music in 2018 as I did in previous years due to where I work now. So be prepare that this post may either be my last blog post or that I may just use this blog to celebrate what was the best I have seen or heard in a particular year. Barring that is anyone actually still reads this blog but oh well.

2018 I know there had to be better music and movies that came out that year but from what I seen and heard most of it was disappointing. I guess over the past few really good years there has to be a stinker and I thin as much as I really enjoyed 2018 in life, in art it was very much a stinker.

Lets start with music, I really did try at the end of the year to try and find good albums but all I really found decent to bleh.

Albums

Most of these albums deserve a second list but I haven’t really listened to any of them front to back more than once except for one album which is what wound up broke what would almost be a 4 album tie for first. None of these albums deserve to truly be number 1 in any other year if competing against those but this is the best of what I heard.

5) The Shadow Theory by Kamelot - There was a time where I was a big Kamelot fan. From 2000 to 2008 was a great time for power metal at least for me with Kamelot, Blind Guardian, Iced Earth amongst others. The Black Halo remains in my mind their greatest album. With their seminal singer now gone and a whole lot of lack lustre albums during his time and the new singer’s time hurt my opinion of Kamelot. I am not going to blame their singer because I think they chose a proper singer to continue I just feel the music hasn’t been up to stuff even with the seminal singer there too. The Shadow Theory to me is their best album they have made since The Black Halo, it doesn’t come close to touching it but it tries at least.

4) Firepower by Judas Priest - Not going to lie, as much as I love Judas Priest I never thought I would ever see them back on any top five of mine of any year anymore. Since Retribution everything they have done since has simply been puke worthy in my opinion. Look I don’t expect them to make another British Steel or Painkiller but I hold bands to high standards. I will always go by the saying that a band is only as good as their last album. There is a reason why I will always bend the knee to the church of AC/DC. While Rock or Bust is no way their best album, there is still songs that will beat the shit out of you (in a good way). I expect the bands I love and continue to pay to hear to at least try to make something worth listening to because there are too many old bands that have simply given up doing that (I am looking at you Iron Maiden). With Firepower I will say it is the best album Priest had done with Halford since Painkiller easily. I will still be a defender of the Owens era and felt fans gave him a raw deal. If I was to compare this album to those as well I will say it is their best since Demolition (and I dont care what anyone thinks of that). That being said this album only has two good songs and those are No Surrender and Firepower. The others are fairly forgettable to me however still listenable at least.  Do feel like I should listen to this album again someday but outside of those two songs nothing ever really caught me.

3) Deal Thy Fate by Castle - Castle often seems to make a good album then a meh to ok album then a good album. This one I would say is pretty good but even then I am reluctant because I feel this is an album best listened to front to back enjoyed driving or if anything getting stoned in your room head banging. Outside of one song there isn’t anything else in it that stands out. So in a way its strength is also a weakness; I would say this album is best as a whole compared to others in that no one songs is greater than the sum of others outside of Can’t Escape The Evil but there must always be one song set apart from the others as the best. This is the most complete album I think they have done but not their best overall.

2) Prequelle by Ghost - If I can go full hipster for a moment but I loved Ghost far before so many did, they hooked me with their first album. However I didn’t follow them as strongly after that, not really because I didn’t not like them.....I actually don’t know why entirely except that Meliora didn’t impress me much at all at the time and I think I was diving deep into stoner metal around that time. With this album I do think that it is strong, it is their strongest from front to back but I do feel this album is one or two songs away from being an album that I would have given the number one spot the album I would say is their best ever. Opus Eponymous still holds a place in my heart though comparing this album to their other albums seems unfair because they have definitely gotten better with their musicianship, the album just sounds like so much fun compared to the others at least to me. The album as a whole doesn’t have the replay value that the one that got the number one spot did.

1) Holy Grove II by Holy Grove - With no surprise to me to a degree it was the album I was anticipating this most this year. Holy Grove came out of nowhere in 2016 and saved what would have been a slightly stinker year for music into a good one. Their album was just heads and tails better than everything else easily. I can’t entirely say the same for this album but in no way does that mean it is an inferior album. I still think it is the best album I heard this year, its an album I have listened to a few times front to back, it has two good songs and the others are pretty good too but those two songs do make up nearly half the album since this band really went long with their songs. While it doesn’t have the hooks that their first album it has it delivers double to heaviness. The album is just fucking heavy it is insane and the singer’s voice just bites into you. Not as good as the first but easily a worthy followup. It's still a good album overall, the songs are better to me and its replay value made this album the only logical choice for number one.

Songs

I dont think there will ever be a such thing as a year without good songs even when the albums were lacklustre. 2018 was no different, there was plenty of god metal songs, even to make a top ten for this one that is for sure. The ten songs I chose are very interchangeable. Of all the lists this year the songs were the hardest to construct, it often is but more so this year.

10) Twilight Sunrise by The Sword - The Sword has gotten soft over the last while, they aren’t as hard or as stoner as they used to be but this song shows that they can at least come close to it. I mean they are still young men I am sure if they wanted to they can make heavier stuff but from what I have heard they are trying to do what Ghost is doing in reaching a more bigger audience which means they have to be softer in order not to scare the ones with virgin ears away from the heaviness. I don’t agree with that I feel what brings you to the dance is always best, just trying to top it. Look at Metallica yes going ‘softer’ with the Black album sort of worked but lets face it folks when we think of Metallica and when people want to think of Metallica including those they brought in through the Black album will always go with the albums before that as their favourites (from my experience with other Metallica fans) over anything Black and past that. This song as well as the album itself is much better than their last album but nothing much outside of this song grabbed me.

9) Faith by Ghost - This one took me for surprise when I first heard it, I heard Rats and I thought fuck that was a good song so the next one should be meh but Faith was like point on the rollercoaster when you think it will slowdown but instead you are in for more fun. That is what Faith sounds to me, even on it’s own it is a whole lot of fun to sing and head bang to. I think it stands close to Rats, very close but not close enough but very much worth being on this list though.

8) Blade Born by Holy Grove - What can I say about Holy Grove that i haven’t already said before now, they came out of nowhere in 2016 and has been a band I follow intently and look nearly in the same like as Royal Thunder as both are heavier bands and both have females with soulful voices fronting them. Blade Born sounds like it came from their previous album which I loved because I love that album and felt it was a good way to segway into their new album though the rest of it sounds a bit different but still good. Holy Grove is now a two time album of the year winner for me and just on their second album. Tied with Royal Thunder again funny enough.

7) Abyss by Merlin - This album and band was a big surprise for me this year, who knew a saxophone could work so well with stoner metal. It did and generated into this song from a band that I will be curious of in the near future to see if they can build on their saxophone laced stoner metal.

6) Ravenlight by Kamelot - Easily the best Kamelot song to come out since maybe Ghost Opera in my opinion. Hard to really say anything else that hasn’t already been said. It has much of what you expect of Kamelot at their best though it isn’t their best but it is still a good song and is their best song on their new album.

5) When The Curtain Falls by Greta Van Fleet - Biggest surprise and if there was an award for best new band I listened to this year it would be Greta Van Fleet. They are already bigger than most of these bands right now so they dont really need me pumping their tires. What I don’t get is why so many hate them for sounding exactly like Led Zeppelin. Last time I checked Led Zeppelin hasn’t really been making albums since 1981 and last time they played a show was 11 years ago. Yes they sound exactly like them but quite honestly I think we need a new Led Zeppelin right now because the old one ain’t coming back (sorry if you were the last to know that, I knew that since I was I dunno 13). I don’t expect them to continue to sound like Led Zeppelin but if they did and made the same progressions like they did I would still love the because we need as many big rock bands out there as possible. Rock is not exactly mainstream right now and  AC/DC, The Rolling Stones, Foo Fighters, Weezer and a few others only have so much left in them. So haters do the future of hard rock a favour and shut up for once. I have never been that much of a Led Zeppelin fan but I appreciate them and what they done for music just like I appreciate what this band does making what was old new again for a whole new audience. As for the song it is great and outside of the sound and voice it doesn’t even entirely sound like a Led Zeppelin song. Its just a nice fun rock song that is very catchy.

4) Fred Astaire by Jukebox The Ghost - The only non metal/rock song on here to a degree. I thank my girlfriend for this one, I feel like this is our song or at least it is my song to her and how I feel about her. yes sappy but whatever even if I didn’t have emotional ties to it one can’t deny it is a great pop song.

3) No Surrender by Judas Priest - Possibly the most corny song I heard this year but even then it is still the most inspiring pump up song I know outside of anything by Stan Bush that I listen to. It is still very much Priest and show that they still have the ability to make good music. Easily the best Priest song made in a LONG TIME.

2) Can’t Escape The Evil by Castle - Choosing between the last two was pretty hard because of all the songs on this list I think I listened to these two the most consistently but in the end this song get number 2 but could easily be 1B. it is just a great and heavy song. If you are to ask me what song to recommend from Castle I might recommend this song. It is not their best song ever but it has all the elements that make them a consistently good metal band. I don’t know if Castle will ever hit number one with me; Under Siege may have had a chance if it didn’t have such stiff competition that year if I remember. Castle and their albums often do nothing for me at first but always require being warmed into and once you do they are very enjoyable. This song didn’t require any warm up it just comes at you like a right hook to the jaw. Great riffs, great flow and a song I love to listen to while I do my stairs at work.

1) Rats by Ghost - It came down to numbers; the amount of times i listened to this song over the others and how many times I can still enjoy it. It is 2019 now and I still love it like I did last year. It hits all the right beats with me; it’s hard, it’s melodic, it’s heavy while still catchy and it’s just a greatly constructed metal song. PERIOD. From 3:49 to the end of the song in the video above gets me every time, no matter what I am always head banging by the end of it. That is why it is number 1!

Movies

I really tried hard get in all the movies I missed while I was in Newfoundland this year and I feel like I still missed out on quite a few; The Favourite being the one that I wish I could have seen but found no way of seeing it. 2018 wound up being not as bad as I felt previously but still far weaker than previous years.

*10) Nancy - This was literally the last 2018 movie I watched in 2018, I watched it on the plane back home. This movie just popped out of nowhere on my iTunes and I love both the cast and the concept of the movie. I mean make no mistake I love a well done character study and this movie is a good example of a character study. It is strange how I have watched quite a few movies with Andrea Riseborough in them this year without purposely seeking her out but after seeing her those movies I am becoming a fan of her. This movie isn’t a world beater by any stretch but it is a good movie to check out. This movie is what I would call my kind of movie in that if I was a film maker this would be the kind of movie I would make kind of thing. Normally when I say that about a movie it is normally a movie at the top of the list or top 5 at least but this year I would say no only this one I would say is my kind of movie, the kind of movie I would make. Either way check it out.

On a side note I created a list of the movies I would consider ‘my kind of movies’ (https://letterboxd.com/coreybussey/list/my-kind-of-movies/), I must say if those were my filmography it would seem I really like to make either dark character studies or quirky indie relationship movies.

9) My Diner With Herve - This won’t be the last time you see Peter Dinklage on this list but of the two movies this was his best performance. Look this is still very much a paint by numbers biopic but it is still funny and entertaining to watch. Plus you watch for Dinklage and he just owns it in this movie. 

*8) I Think We’re Alone Now - I was really on a Elle Fanning kick in 2018 I will say that much I would say 1/4 of the movies I watched in 2018 had her in it. Some on purpose and some I didn’t even realize. Mainly because I really like the work she chooses to do. Most of the movies she does are the kind of movies I go for and this one was no exception. Plus I really like post apocalyptic movies though this one is loose on that end. Plus this also has Peter Dinklage in it. This movie was just a whole lot of fun to watch as well. Plus if all of humanity died I would probably do the same thing Peter was doing, mind burying people.

*7) First Match - Netflix has done a good job with TV shows over the past few years but in terms of movies to tell you the truth most of the movies they have done have not done much for me outside of Okja however this year they really stepped up their game. This one came out to little to no promotion at least on my end I don’t know if anyone else even knew this was released but it caught my eye and I am glad I watched it. Again it is sort of a character study like Nancy was but not about an emotionally flawed person but of a girl struggling to find her identity. I am a big cheerleader for this movie, this is a movie I would like to show to little girls showing them they don’t have to be what society tells them to be.

6) BlackkKlansman - Spike Lee very rarely disappoints in whatever he does and even when doesn’t do something well he at least tries to bring the fire and this one did both. Event hough this movie was set in the 70s its obvious why Spike chose to tell this story now during a time where things are almost no better than they were back then. We live in a very divided time and while we will never ever nor should we ever all agree on everything we can’t forget who the real enemies are and that hate will never be the way for us to grow as a species.

5) Ballad of Buster Scruggs - You would think a person like me would eat up everything the Coen brothers made and smile after but no not really, I am not as much a flag waver of their work as others are but that does’t mean I don’t respect their work. I don’t know any student of film who could say the Coen brother do not have talent. I just never saw how they could be as beloved filmmakers as they are where everyone thinks most of what they make turns midas gold. I like half their stuff, the other half I either don’t care for or think are ok. This one on the other hand unlike some of their other movies I am on board with saying it is an excellent movie and highly entertaining. While the last two stories I didn’t care for 3/4 of the entire movie was excellent. Surprisingly another good Netflix movie.

4) Flavours of Youth - Another Netflix movie or at least is distributed by them, like movies I haven’t been quite impressed with Netflix and their choice of anime but this one as well as the Devil Man Crybaby series it making me think otherwise. I had no expectations with this movie and had no idea what I was in for. What I got was just like The Ballad of Buster Scruggs in that it is a collection of shorts woven together. While Buster is set under the Western trope this movie is focused on food in some way or another. It such a beautifully written, drawn and made movie. One of the better anime movies I have seen in a very long time.

*3) The Kindergarten Teacher - I am a big cheerleader of Maggie Gyllenhaal, I feel like she never gets enough respect or recognition for her work but in a way I don’t think she cares or should because she always gets work and always gets to play interesting roles. She is a character actress and character actors/actresses often get the best roles in any movie. This is very much a character driven movie, a character study of a woman seemingly normal and seemingly means well but does it in a completely inappropriate well. I love these kind of movies. This movie was one of only two movies that evoked real emotion out of me, this one not as strong as the other but close. When I was watching this movie I was puling for Maggie’s character. Pulling for which I mean I understood her perspective and I related though I did not agree entirely. By the third act however I was ‘distraught’ that she would wind up doing what she did and very disappointed with her. I felt sorry for her in the end because deep down she is not a truly bad person and she only wants to see the kid succeed (even though in many ways she is just using the kid to grab the success she never got to have) but her way of doing it was so inappropriate. Excellent character study movie, excellent movie all around. Again this was another Netflix movie.

*2) Galveston - This one came late in the game and I wasn’t entirely sure of it when I wanted to watch it because it seemed like a generic getaway movie with characters that I probably did not want to care about. What made me want to watch it originally was because those characters were played by ben Foster and Elle Fanning. At the beginning I still did not think I could get into this movie because the characters seemed very cookie cutter for the movie they were in but my tune changed. This movie is a good example as to how important character development is in a story/movie and that in a way you can almost never have enough of it if you can pack it into your movie because if you can’t find a way to get your audience to connect or relate to your characters they won't care when they die or have drama inflicted on them. This movie went from me not caring about Ben’s scruffy dangerous character or Elle’s stereotypical ditzy prostitute character to nearly being heart broken when seeing what inevitably happens between them at the end. All because half the movie was spent developing who they are, showing you who they were beyond the tropes they seemed to be. I nearly got dry eyed by the 3rd act which I won’t spoil. Let me just if a movie can evoke an emotion out of me, someone who is extremely unfair to movies these days then you are doing something right and will probably win big in my books and this movie did. Doesn’t hurt either that I did not realize till the end of the movie that Mélanie Laurent directed this movie. Bravo Mélanie! Bravo!

1) Isle of Dogs - Replay value is often what separates the movies I give CCCC or CCCC1/2 from CCCCC on the Corey Scale and that is honestly what separates this movie from the others. I have watched this movie 3 times in 2018  where the others I have only seen once and don’t feel like i need to see it again anytime soon (though I would in order to get someone else to watch it). Wes Anderson is typical Wes Anderson in this, the same cast with the same kind of music and look to a degree and everything and like always I eat it up like it was a doniar from North Burnaby on doniar day. The movie is pure of fun and a joy to watch each time I watch it.

For those wondering why I put a * in front of some movies on this list it is because while I was writing up my thoughts on each movie I noticed that at half of the movies on my list were directed by women. That did not play into my selection of these ten movies at all as these movies were already predetermined before I realized that bit of knowledge. With that said I am proud that statistic. While I always try to go out of my way to watch movies directed by women and over the past few years much like with music I have been more interested in watching movies directed by women much like I enjoy listening to metal with women fronting them. I am glad I did not need to try too hard to seek out great movies directed by women, they were already out there. Take that however you want I could care less but I am person who likes variety and feels more voices out there telling stories the better stories will be. Call it PC if you wish but the world is better with more choices and options. I have seen enough of the male perspective. I am more interested in the female perspective in both film and rock/metal.

So that is 2018 in nutshell, while 2018 didn’t entirely impress me much I am really looking forward to this year in music at least because one can never guess at what movies will come out this year. 

AC/DC was working on their new album for much of last year so one can assume that they will come out with a new album this year. Royal Thunder has been awful quiet in the last while outside of a few one off show since their last tour so one can suspect their are working on their new album if so I can expect 2019 to be the battle of the old and new guard in terms of my favourite bands. AC/DC will always be my favourite band but of bands that are out there and active Royal Thunder is my 2nd favourite band followed closely by Unleash The Archers whom are also working on a new album right now I think so with all three possibly releasing an album this year 2019 should make up for 2018 in spades.

The leader of Purson; Rosalie Cunningham should also have a new album coming out so thankfully I won’t have to look too hard for good new music.

So with that I wish you all a happy new year!