#Jesse Harlin

[krakenantlers]

DID YOU KNOW THE WHOLE REPUBLIC COMMANDO PROMOTIONAL SOUNDTRACK BY JESSE HARLIN IS ON ARCHIVE.ORG????

https://archive.org/details/RepublicCommandoOST

[tifaa]

UNTIL DAWN (2024)

[booklindworm]

Mando'a Dialects in- and out-of-universe

Outgame (irl) there are several different versions of Mandoʻa: The Shadows of the Empire Soundtrack version (Notron Cant), the Republic Commando Soundtrack version (Jesse Harlin's text), the Old Republic version (as seen in SWtOR or KotOR), the Republic Commando Novels version (Karen Traviss' version), the Mandoa.org version (their forum members made up a lot of extra vocabulary), several different tumblr versions, and the Disney version (as in the TV-series Star Wars Rebels). They all have distinctive similarities (the Notron Cant is an exception), but unfortunately, they also all somewhat differ. Since Karen Traviss published her Mandoʻa version online, complete with a dictionary, the Mandoa.org version and most tumblr versions are based on her version. Her version in turn is vaguely based on Jesse Harlin's version-the first Mandoʻa on file, so to say. I myself see them as different dialects or development stages of the same language.

See, Karen Traviss' Mandoʻa and also most of Mandoa.org's Mandoʻa uses Basic (i.e. English) grammar with a Mandalorian vocabulary, so I call that version Soldiers' Pidgin. It's obviously (ingame) a creole language that came into existence after the Mandalorian diaspora. It is this Soldiers' Pidgin that Kal Skirata taught his children (the Nulls) and possibly also the language that the Alphas taught other, younger clones (e.g. the CC class or the ARC-troopers) as a "secret" language to hide from the Kaminoans. If it was used by the clones in such a way, the GAR should have its own dialect. The different internet versions of Mandoʻa all seem to be based on Karen Traviss' dictionary, so I see them as different dialects of the Soldiers' Pidgin. The same reasoning can be applied to Disney's Mandoʻa.

The language of Vode An, Graʻtua Cuun, Darasuum Kote, etc. on the other hand uses a grammar that differs from Basic. It is an older form of Mandoʻa, probably the Mandoʻa spoken on Mandaʻyaim before the Excision - seven-hundred years ago. It's a lot more interesting (for me, at least). I propose calling it Classic Mandoʻa. It has its own grammar; it has a similar vocabulary as Soldiers' Pidgin, but with distinct and sometimes varying pronunciations (sometimes depending on the rhyme or rhythm of the song); it has a lot of epitaphs and kennings and references and can have very flowery phrasing. It's used, in or around the time of Palpatine's Empire, predominantly in older songs and poems. An irl-equivalent could be Shakespearean English.

We can probably view the (archaic) tOR version as vaguely translated into modern Mandoʻa (Soldiers' Pidgin, probably) since there is exactly no way that the language changes so little in over 3000 years. I also propose that the Basic back then has very few similarities to the Basic that's spoken during the Skywalker Wars.

Missing is a sort of current, modern version of Classic Mandoʻa. I think that is (sadly) very realistic. A society that is so broken up by something like orbital bombardment would likely, over the centuries, develop several different creole versions and try to keep their original language as unchanged as possible, leading to exactly the combination described above.

Here are some other people's thoughts:

[ranahan]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we delve deeper into audio and music on Republic Commando, via our interview with David Collins and Jesse Harlin, the audio lead and composer for the game, respectively. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

I’m an amateur musician and a fan of film music, so the music development part was really interesting to me.

Other highlights (these start somewhere around 30-35 mins, didn’t look at the time stamp sorry):

“…almost The Hunt for Red October kind of male choir was a strong direction we had early on…” (Me, fanboying: aaa, it’s one of my all-time favourite movies! \o/ \o/ \o/)

“…19th century Russian patriotic music—darkly patriotic…”

“didgeridoo and taiko drums” (Me: my favourite things—besides Mando’a—on the sound track. Incidentally, I’m also a fan of Japanese percussion music lol.)

KASH-yyyk vs. ka-SHYYYK

“They’re all clones, they all sound the same—but that’s not nearly as interesting as what we ended up doing [giving the clones different personalities].”

“The music got reused recently in the Old Republic”

The language part is around 48:00-1:04

Harlin’s wife graduated as a linguist(!) around that time, so he had a handy linguist on standby to ask about sounds in different languages etc.

He did develop “a suite of sounds he liked” (that sounds like “a consistent phonology” to me)

Cody = Kote

Harlin is a singer, so he was very conscious of how to write music that can be sung (I’m also a singer, and I have indeed noted that Harlin’s music is well-written from a singer’s point of view, which is not always the case).

Harlin fanboying about Star Wars and what if we called the language Mandalorian???

Latin vowel sounds (I had made that connection) & Russian diphthongs (but not that one)

“I didn’t want to create Star Wars Klingon. It wasn’t going to be guttural and abrasive sounding language. I wanted it to have a sense of poetry.” (Me: yes! That’s what I appreciate about Mando’a! It’s a language of both warriors and poets.)

I made a transcript of the language part: if you can’t listen to this, hit me up.

[delkios]

For those of you RepComm fans that also like game dev talk, here's a podcast done by Brett Douville and Tim Longo (lead programmer and director, respectively) in 2020, playing through the game and also bringing in some of the other devs to interview. I'll put links and a brief synopsis of each one.

Part One (no guest/playthrough) Discussion notes: giving context around the time via other released games and consoles, what squad based gaming was like at the time, developing the idea for RepComm, discussing the opening sequence and lightly touching in Geonosis

Part Two (no guest/playthrough) Discussion notes: the lack of information re: clone organization/GAR structure, playing through Geonosis, discussions about weapons, the Prosecutor, details on scav droids, trandoshians and AI communication and scattered talk about difficulty levels

Part Three (no guest/playthrough) Discussion notes: George Lucas's input on differentiating between clones and lack of humor, talking about voice acting/recording process, going through Kashyyk, technology limitations, level flaws and working with a small dev team, difficulty level (particularly the bridge), using level design to make the AI seem smarter, some info on the books, toys/the game's surprise success, minor talk about plans for a sequel, Delta's cameo in the Clone Wars

David Collins and Jesse Harlin (voice director and composer) Discussion notes: the state of game music/composers/audio at the time, RepComm devs working with audio from the beginning, music changes depending on how you enter a room, sounds from the game being reused in other Star Wars media, Jesse and his girlfriend/now wife developing 'ancient Mandalorian'/Mando'a, 'kote' confirmed to be Cody (specifically Jesse's sister), battle sounds on Geonosis, questioning the use of Ash/no guitars in Star Wars, multiplayer a late addition

Harley Baldwin (level designer) Discussion notes: the unique culture of the RepComm dev team, a stealth level intended in Kashyyk, Prosecutor's atmosphere, difficulty spikes designed to emphasis squad importance/level designers are not good measures for difficulty, Kashyyk designed to be a culmination of the player's experience and knowledge, squad moving ahead of the player due to playtest concerns, easter egg in the texture editor

Greg Knight and Paul Pierce (concept artist and UI artist) Discussion notes: devoted concept artists weren't common at the time but proven to save development time, the entire team contributed to ideas for concept art, influences for the design of the HUD, decision to make the game entirely first person/immersion driving UI design, weapons as a 'character', differences in RepComm's design notes vs movies' games, enemies mean different things between Jedi and clone troopers, noting similarities between RepComm and Rogue One, RepComm's low profile allowed them to get away with more, hangars in Prosecutor meant to progressively make the player more desperate and AT-TE a reward for surviving, Kashyyk's bridge was meant to be the 'boss battle', the concept of 'the squad is your weapon/the squad is your health'

Dave Bogan (lead animator) Discussion notes: working title 1138, 'what is the enemy doing when they don't know you're there', aiming to compete with Halo, every enemy had to act and move differently, expanding on the SpecOps special feature video, game mechanics/logic vs how things are actually done, the wookie-kill animation that got cut, RepComm influencing the tone of Star Wars games/more non-Jedi games, book recommendation based on RepComm, a bug in multiplayer that didn't get fixed apparently allowed co-op???

Tim Longo and Brett Douville (director and lead programmer) Discussion notes: no real talk directly about RepComm that hasn't already been covered but some good conversations about communication and team work

Jeremie Talbot (character lead) Discussion notes: nobody knew what they were doing, just wanted to make it as cool as they could, the use of tiger teams who fixed various problems, all the devs wanted to make the game fun to play and shared ideas, BABY ARMS, raindrops on the HUD for a dollar, having people with knowledge between programmers and artists to communicate, talking about trailers, not being too devoted to following storyboards, talking about the opening sequence, fans often bring up the opening, despite LucasArts's shake up RepComm team felt distant from it, there for the team and the game first and the company second, needing a mix of veteran and new devs

Honestly I'd been trying to listen to these for, like, two years but I kept going through cycles of remembering it when I didn't have the time to listen how I wanted to and keeping it in the back of my mind until I'd forget and then re-finding it in my bookmarks. I don't really remember how I came upon it- rabbit hole falling, I'd guess -and thought I'd share it around to other fans that likely hadn't come across it, either.

For add fun, here's a RepComm stream Brett Douville did around 2015 where he also interviewed people that worked on it. Unfortunately I can't find the first part on either his youtube or twitch pages but there's still three others. Note that there's some repeated information so I'll only mention anything new

Part 2 w/ Daron Stinnett and Jesse Harlin (executive producer and composer) Discussion notes: (Daron's audio is pretty quiet in comparison to Brett's) talking about how and why RepComm came about, deliberately tucked the team away so execs wouldn't bother them, when prequels came out it seemed like LucasArts wanted a game in each genre, 'not Star Wars enough', pointing out a couple name drops in the Prosecutor briefing, originally had no John Williams music, setting music cues in levels/'here comes stinky', the thought process behind developing Mando'a, didn't have an AI to deal with non-commando clones which is why they're scripted to die, even though you love the game while making it you're sick of it by the time it's finished, original voices were sound-alikes, Fixer/Advisor's VA was the only one that didn't get recast, a cut level was a Geonosian church, talking of different instrumentation between levels,

Part 3 w/ Nathan Martz (enemy AI programmer) Discussion notes: (Nathan's audio is ESPECIALLY quiet) talking about how Geonosian enemies 'choose' points to jump to, good AI is about cheats/build the world so the characters can be smart, scav droids were originally more lethal and were nerfed to not do certain behaviors if you're not looking at them, it's very easy to make a difficult AI, it's harder to make an AI that's challenging and fun, setting up common AI behaviors to work modularly and wanting to make finishing moves for the wookies equals the squad being able to do finishing moves, 'the most important thing an enemy does is die'/making interesting deaths, talk about lighting challenges, LucasArts got a new president halfway through RepComm's production, didn't understand the game but allowed it to continue, sequel talk, devs wanted to have co-op but was unable to

Part 4 w/ David Collins (voice director) Discussion notes: (I am very jealous of the shirt Brett is wearing in this video) David did the all the Trandoshian vocalizations and the radio chatter, a lot of ideas behind RepComm went into the Clone Wars series, originally the squad didn't have names only numbers, talk about casting VAs and working with Temuera, squad banter/'if you want your AI to be smart you need to make them sound smart', special features existed in order to have unlockables, George Lucas was apparently quite fond of the game

[morganmerylhodgepodge]

Have y'all ever had something randomly become your obsession so hard so fast that you literally can't think straight about anything else?

It's hard to replay The Quarry over and over and over again for this project because after experiencing the fucking OPERATIC story of Mafia: Definitive Edition for the first time and especially its ending I just can't concentrate on anything anymore. I can't get it out of my head.

Ngl the fact that I still can't draw again is also making me feel like not being able to focus on this project is a sign and I just shouldn't bother. After all, what if I can't draw ever again? What was the point of all this?

[christinethalassinou]

The Old Republic is, at least for me, the best Star Wars content out there, story-, music-, and basically everything-wise. I do want more books in this setting, tho.

[docrotten]

Godzilla, Kong, Sasquatch, Dracula, and more – HNR for February 20, 2024

Welcome to HNR season three as Doc and Dave cover the weekly HORROR MOVIE NEWS on Gruesome Magazine. This week, we have news about Godzilla, Kong, Sasquatch, Dracula, and more. Please let us know which news item interests you the most and, please, like and subscribe. Every click will help us find more horror fans just like you!

HORROR NEWS FOR FEBRUARY 20, 2024

GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE trailer 2 arrives!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqrpMRDuPfc

It's a comedy, sure, but it has horny Bigfoot…afoot: the SASQUATCH SUNSET trailer is here!

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/sasquatch-sunset-trailer-jesse-eisenberg-riley-keough-1235908282/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgfkthLpeXw

Larry Fessenden provides werewolf aplenty with BLACKOUT (trailer)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxqeLCAWx7M

RABID FIRE

Dracula returns to the big screen once again, this time from director Luc Besson and actors Caleb Landry Jones and Christoph Waltz.

https://variety.com/2024/film/global/luc-besson-dracula-caleb-landry-jones-christoph-waltz-1235905722/

SMILE 2 adds Dylan Gelula, Raul Castillo, and Miles Gutierrez-Riley to the cast.

Dylan Gelula was last seen opposite Nicolas Cage in Dream Scenario Raul Castillo from Cassandro and Miles Gutierrez-Riley from The Wilds They joins an ensemble that also includes Naomi Scott, Lukas Gage, Kyle Gallner and Rosemarie DeWitt, as previously announced. Slated for release on October 18, 2024.

https://deadline.com/2024/02/smile-sequel-adds-dylan-gelula-1235823168/

https://deadline.com/2024/02/raul-castillo-miles-gutierrez-riley-cast-smile-2-1235825677/

The Boiuna hunts Kiana Madeira and Jessica Roth in TITAN

Mike P. Nelson (V/H/S/85, Wrong Turn) is set to direct from a script by Alan B. McElroy (Star Trek: Discovery). When a team of young doctors embark on a local humanitarian mission through the Amazon rainforest, it soon becomes clear that not everyone – or everything – is happy to see them. Their arrival draws the attention of an ancient predator, the “Boiúna”. This ancient killer, dominant on land and water, clashes to reclaim the jungle. The ensuing fight for survival blurs the roles of hunter, prey, and hero.

Kiana Madeira was featured in the FEAR STREET trilogy. Jessica Rothe is best known for her role in the HAPPY DEATH DAY movies.

https://deadline.com/2024/02/kiana-madeira-jessica-rothe-titan-vhs85-resident-evil-producers-1235824064/

Director Renny Harlin returns to Sharksploitation with DEEP WATER featuring Aaron Eckhart and Ben Kingsley

Molly Wright (Lionsgate’s The Best Christmas Pageant Ever), Angus Sampson (FX’s Fargo), Kelly Gale (Lionsgate’s Plane), Li Wenhan from Chinese-Korean K-Pop group UNIQ, and Chinese actress Nashi (Creation Of The Gods I: Kingdom Of Storms) also star. An eclectic group of international passengers whose plane, en route from Los Angeles to Shanghai, is forced to make an emergency landing in shark-infested waters. The terrified group is forced to work together and overcome their differences if they hope to escape their sinking plane and the frenzy of sharks drawn to the wreckage. Renny Harlin’s directorial credits also include A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger, Deep Blue Sea, and Exorcist: The Beginning. And the new THE STRANGERS trilogy.

https://www.screendaily.com/news/aaron-eckhart-ben-kingsley-star-in-renny-harlins-deep-water-for-simmons/hamilton-productions-exclusive/5190457.article

BEWITCHED is set to reboot for Sony TV from writer-producer Judalina Neira (The Boys)

https://deadline.com/2024/02/bewitched-series-reboot-judalina-neira-overall-deal-sony-pictures-tv-1235825041/

Jaume Collet-Serra (Black Adam, The Orphan, The Shallows) teams with Blumhouse for THE WOMAN IN THE YARD for January 10, 2025

Danielle Deadwyler (Till, The Harder They Fall, Carry On) stars. The movies is scheduled to be released in theaters on January 10, 2025. The plots remains a secret…

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/danielle-deadwyler-cast-woman-in-the-yard-blumhouse-1235910935/

Check out this episode!

[texasdreamer01]

ten songs, ten people

Self-tagging from @bonesmarinated! Rules of the game are to put your playlist on shuffle and list the first 10 songs, then tag 10 people.

So Good Right Now by Fall Out Boy

Church by Fall Out Boy

Promises by Bastille and Riz Ahmed

You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet by Bachman-Turner Overdrive

Riez by Stromae

Through the Canopy by Jesse Harlin

Uprising by Muse

Who We Are by Imagine Dragons

I Am My Own Muse by Fall Out Boy

Yule Shoot Your Eye Out by Fall Out Boy

As this was a self-tag, I won't be tagging anyone - but feel free to do this if you want!

[henrysfedora]

tagged by @samtrapani to post 'ten songs you've had on repeat recently' :) <3

where is your rider - the oh hellos

passerine - the oh hellos

keep you safe - the crane wives

touch me - the doors

roadhouse blues - the doors

tusk - fleetwood mac

as good a place as any to start - jesse harlin (it rewires my brain)

one of these nights - the eagles

ain't that a kick in the head - dino

clair de lune - claude debussy

tagging: whoever sees this post :)

[project-shereshoy]

Development History: The Mandalorian Alphabet

Below the cut is a timeline describing the development of the Mandalorian alphabet over the years and different phases of canon. I put together this imgur gallery of relevant screencaps to go along with it, though it stands on its own as well.

The Beginning - 2002 The Mandalorian alphabet first appeared in Ep 2: Attack of the Clones on the various displays in the cockpit of Jango’s ship (Slave I). The alphabet was developed by Philip Metschan, a graphic designer that created many of the holographic and flavor text assets for AotC. Notably, he was not a linguist, a hobbyist conlanger, or even an typographer. First and foremost, Metschan's goal in developing the Mandalorian and other alien fonts was aesthetic and distinction from English. In an interview, Metschan said: "But George is very, very keen about noticing things that look like English, because he's very against any kind of English looking characters in any of the screens or signs."

Image ID: Screencap from Attack of the Clones showing various readouts in the Slave I cockpit featuring the Mandalorian alphabet

The Mandalorian alphabet in AotC does not appear to spell anything in English or the very few other languages I could recognize. The font is used horizontally, vertically, and even sideways.

A Language Forms - 2003 through 2004 Jesse Harlin, the principle music composer for the Star Wars: Republic Commandos game, invented lyrics for a choir to sing. This was the first instance of Mando'a, though it wasn’t named that yet, both verbally and overall. Harlin passed the songs, his notes, and a 22-letter version of Metschan's alphabet on to Karen Traviss, the author hired to write the Republic Commando novel series. Traviss used Harlin's lyrics as a starting point for building out the language, inventing a grammar to go with the words. Traviss published Metschan's alphabet along with her Mando'a lexicon on her blog, and may remain through the wayback machine as the only published instance of Metschan's alphabet.

Fan Solutions - 2004 Because it was so difficult to find Metschan's alphabet, many fans couldn't write in the Mandalorian alphabet. That was until Episode IV: A New Hope was released on DVD. On the Tatooine-themed menu specifically, once you selected "options", the screen would cycle through several in-universe typefaces before resolving to English. Notably, one of these typefaces was the Metschan script. The script overlapped in some places and was completely upside down in others, but Erikstormtrooper was able to decrypt the font into English, recreate the font digitally, and publish it on his website.

Image ID: Menu screen on the A New Hope DVD. Erikstormtrooper used this screencap to decode the Mandalorian alphabet. The letters are a jumble of alphanumeric characters and don't spell anything.

This first version contained several mistakes that distinguishes it from Metschan's, but because of lower-resolution formats, these mistakes wouldn't be corrected or even noticed until after version 1 saw widespread use. How widespread? Well...

The Clone Wars (2008) - 2010 The next time we saw the Mandalorian alphabet was in episode 2-12 of The Clone Wars, "The Mandalore Plot". We see the script on holographic  boards behind Pre Viszla when he comm's with Count Dooku. In some frames, the letters are in clear, bold view that makes it easy to translate, but not if you were using Metschan's alphabet as the key. Why? The Clone Wars used Erikstormtrooper's version 1 alphabet. While the script is fairly accurate to most of Metschan's alphabet, there is an unmistakable difference with the letter "P" that appears on the board, transcribing as "Target: Peace Park".

Image ID: Screencap from The Clone Wars episode 2-12 "The Mandalore Plot". The Mandalorian letters behind Count Dooku spells "Target: Peace Park".

The two other instances of the Mandalorian alphabet in The Clone Wars are in episodes 3-5 “Corruption” and 3-6 “The Academy”.

Star Wars Insider #117 - 2010 To solidify the canonization of Erik's version 1 alphabet, the article "The Duchess and the Jedi" in Star Wars Insider magazine #117 features several English quotes with direct Mandalorian transcriptions that used Erik’s script instead of Metschan's. Now in print, there was no excuse of poor quality, lighting, or angle to explain the discrepancy and confirmed that TCW had indeed used the wrong alphabet.

Image ID: Clipping of Star Wars Insider #117 article "The Duchess and the Jedi". The quote, in both English and the Mandalorian alphabet, says "I almost fell off that speeder once... I wish that could've really happened!"

Rebels - 2016 The Mandalorian alphabet did not return until Rebels episode 3-11 "Visions and Voices", where we can see suspiciously blood-red letters painted on the walls of Maul's lair.

Image ID: Screencap from Rebels episode 3-11 "Visions and Voices". The Mandalorian alphabet behind Maul spells "Kenobi".

This is the first instance of the newest version of the Mandalorian alphabet, often referred to as the Disney alphabet or as MandoAF. However, because the visible letters are shared across all the alphabets and are stylized as handwritten to boot, it was only in retrospect of The Mandalorian show that we could confidently say it was the beginning of a new alphabet. The Mandalorian alphabet does make one more appearance in Rebels with the season 4 pilot, but it's exclusively in the form of numbers in a Mandalorian visor's UI.

The Mandalorian - 2020 It wasn't until the second season that we saw the namesake's corresponding alphabet. In episode 2-6 “The Tragedy”, Boba displays his chain code for Din, English words spelled with Disney-alphabet Mandalorian letters. Disney's version actually closely resembles Metschan's original alphabet, with some letters slightly simplified in a manner similar to English non-serif fonts. The only true changes are the letters "E" and "H", though you'll find the structural difference is still minimal.

Image ID: Screencap of The Mandalorian episode 2-6 "The Tragedy". Boba's chain code is written in the Mandalorian alphabet.

SWTOR Banners - 2020 Banners featuring Mandalorian alphabet were added to the game as part of the Spirit of Vengeance flashpoint, which was released with game update 6.2 on December 9, 2020 (thank you @bored-gay-artist​!). Originally, it was English words in Mandalorian script but was later updated to be Mando'a in Mandalorian script, making it the first instance of Mando’a written with the Mandalorian alphabet in any version of canon. Both versions used the Disney/MandoAF alphabet.

Image ID: Banners from the MMO game Star Wars: The Old Republic. This is the only existing example of Mando'a written in the Mandalorian alphabet.

The Future Mandalorian-themed merchandising produced and sold by Disney features the newest Mandalorian alphabet, though it appears all of it is strictly English words transcribed into the alphabet. Many fans are holding out hope for a reintroduction of Mando'a to the Star Wars franchise and with the upcoming Book of Boba Fett and Mandalorian Season 3, we may get to see it happen.

Wookiepedia Discrepencies While researching for this write-up I noticed that the Wookiepedia article on Mandalorian writing is pretty inaccurate. A good chunk is because of KT's inaccurate statements about hers and others' work, but some of it has no source at all. For instance, Wookiepedia alleges that traditionalist/True Mandos use Mando'a the language in conjunction with the alphabet and cites the displays on Slave I as proof, despite the fact that AotC predates the language by at least two years. It also claims that New Mandalorians don't write in Mando'a because the script can be translated into English rather than Mando'a, despite the fact literally no Star Wars script of any language translates to anything other than English. Wookiepedia also claims that Erikstormtrooper invented the letter "C" in his alphabet and that it "doesn't appear in any other media" when really he integrated a character seen in AotC but not officially listed on the Metschan alphabet. For some reason Wookiepedia does not acknowledge that TCW uses Erik's v1 alphabet. If anyone knows what's up with the Wookiepedia discrepancies, has info to add or update, ideas/theories to discuss, or (ka'ra duumi bic) have incredible high-res images for us to decipher, throw in a comment. Until next time, k’oyacyi!

[bealittleimprobable]

The first thing that brought me to Tumblr was writing a post for RNM March For Meta about whether Jesse Manes’s red cane was Highly Significant or just total coincidence.

And that was fine, it doesn’t really matter.

But I am so tired of *constantly* trying to guess whether something on a show is or isn’t “that deep”. If something is meant to be totally brainless and absurd, I will accept that - I just watched Moonfall and liked it. And likewise, I’ll happily watch something where everything is very carefully placed and matters and we’re meant to follow all the clues.

But for god’s sake, tell me which one it is. And don’t swing between the two. It’s unsatisfying.

There’s a brilliant bit from Christopher Brookmyre about how the audience will go with anything, as long as you stick with what you’ve established:

[Context - man talking to his former English teacher at a school reunion. One Fine Day In The Middle Of The Night, by Christopher Brookmyre]

“Aye. That kinna thing. I’ll swallow any scenario, as long as the film sticks to its own bullet-deadliness quotient.” “Its what?” “An action film establishes its own rules of gunplay. In some, every bullet is potentially lethal — even the old shot to the shoulder can look worryingly near to the upper-chest area. But in others, machine guns can seem the least deadly weapon known to man. To illustrate, at one end of the spectrum there’s your Tarantino movies: reputations aside, there’s not that much gunplay, so when somebody lets off a shot, it’s for real, and it’s usually fatal. High bullet-deadliness quotient. At the other end, there’s your John Woo movies: zillions of rounds goin’ off an’ the only thing they ever hit is glass. Low bullet-deadliness quotient. In a high BDQ film, if the baddie draws a bead on somebody, get ready for ketchup. In a low BDQ film, that’s just a bad day for the janitor. And both types are fine by me, as long as the rules are followed consistently.” “But you can’t establish a high BDQ and then have a low-BDQ showdown at the end, that’s what you’re saying?” “That’s what I’m saying. And you cannae establish a low BDQ then have the hero take oot the baddie wi’ wan shot while the air round about him fills up wi’ lead.” “I agree. So, as you’ve got a term for everything else, what do you call it when that happens?” “I call it a Renny Harlin film, usually. Worst fuckin’ action director — excuse the swearies —”

[booklindworm]

Mando'a Plural, Modern vs Archaic

Modern Plural

• use -e when the noun ends in d, l, m, r, s, sh, t, ts,

• use -se when the noun ends in a vowel or in y,

• use 'se when the noun ends in b, c, ch, g, gh, h, j, ji, k, n, ng, p, ph, q, w/v, vh.

Examples modern plural: ad -> ade (offspring, child), verd -> verde (warrior, adult), tracy'uur -> tracy'uur'se (blaster), taung -> taung'se (Taung)

Archaic Plural

I like to think the modern plural used to be the dual form, denoting only two of (noun).

Back then, the plural was formed by

• replacing the last vowel (if it is short) with a

• replacing the last vowel (if it is long or y) with u

• adding -a when the noun ends in d, l, m, r, s, sh, t, ts,

• adding 'sa when the noun ends in b, c, ch, g, gh, h, j, ji, k, n, ng, p, ph, q, w/v, vh.

Examples archaic plural: ady -> adu (firstborn), verd -> verda (warrior, adult), tracinye -> tracinya (flame), taung -> taung'sa (Taung)

Explanation and Notes

The modern plural forms shown here are derived from the vocabulary of Jesse Harlin's songs and from parts of Karen Traviss' list; when in doubt, I went with Harlin.

The archaic forms are derived purely from the few examples found in Jesse Harlin's songs (all of them are in the examples' list), the rules are thus mostly my headcanon.

The taung'sa form is not official, I made it up for the sake of completeness.

Also, nobody ever said Mando'a has ever had a dual form, I just love dual forms and decided to use it on a whim.

The -se Ending

Using these forms does not ever show judgement, they're just grammar.

Traviss always wrote (derogative) or similar notes to everything remotely resembling strong language, it's missing with 'se endings.

Also, noteably, the vode an variety of the GAR (who loved the Jedi) includes the form jetii, jetiise.

It's obviously not a slur.

I swear, some people just want to be offended, even if they have to make up their own offense.

Disclaimer

I chose math as my college major and have no professional background in languages or linguistics. I speak only two languages, both Germanic, and read maybe three more (the only non-Germanic being Latin).

I know people all over the globe and have had contact with all sorts of Romance, Semitic, Finno-Ugric, Slavic, Celtic, and a few other (Turkic, Persian, Greek) languages, and I tried to learn about Polynesian languages by reading wikipedia articles and such (and listened to youtube videos) but that's about it.

Not exactly a background to inspire trust and confidence in my linguistic abilities, and I know that I don't know - a lot of things - so please keep in mind that especially details (e.g. about IPA) might escape me.

[kwebtv]

Little Fires Burning  -  Hulu  -  March 18, 2020 - April 22, 2020

Drama (8 episodes)

Running Time:  60 minutes

Stars:

Reese Witherspoon as Elena Richardson

Kerry Washington as Mia Warren

Joshua Jackson as Bill Richardson,

Rosemarie DeWitt as Linda McCullough 

Jade Pettyjohn as Lexie Richardson

Lexi Underwood as Pearl Warren

Megan Stott as Izzy Richardson

Gavin Lewis as Moody Richardson

Jordan Elsass as Trip Richardson.

Recurring

SteVonté Hart as Brian Harlins

Paul Yen as Scott

Huang Lu as Bebe Chow

Geoff Stults as Mark McCullough

Jaime Ray Newman as Elizabeth Manwill

Obba Babatundé as George Wright

Melanie Nicholls-King as Regina Wright

Jesse Williams as Joe Ryan

Sarita Choudhury as Anita Rees

Austin Basis as Principal Peters

Byron Mann as Ed Lan

[a-master-procrastinator]

13 Songs Meme

Tagged by @itstheelvenjedi, thanks 💙

As I understand, you need to list 13 songs you’ve been listening to lately. Since my taste in music is a bit weird, I’ll make two lists: one is for normal people, the second is for me (they all are songs I’ve been listening to lately, but some of them are normal songs and some are just random music)

Tagging (no pressure ofc): @verbose-vespertine, @a-muirehen, @raven-of-domain-kwaad, @darth-bagel

List for normal people:

A warning, though: some of these songs can be triggering or just contain content for adults (Rammstein in particular, let us be honest). Be careful if you want to listen to these.

1. Twenty One Pilots - Chlorine

2. The HU - Sugaan Essena

3. Skillet - Fire and Fury

4. The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army

5. Linkin Park - New Divide

6. Rammstein - Sonne

7. Adele - Skyfall

8. Imagine Dragons - Radioactive

9. Metallica - The Unforgiven

10. Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa & Imagine Dragons w/ Logic & Ty Dolla $ign ft X Ambassadors - Sucker for Pain

11. Twenty One Pilots - My Blood

12. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody 

13. Queen - Play The Game

List for me (there will be a lot of Doctor Who music lol, maybe it’s because i’m currently rewatching it):

1. Murray Gold - This Is Gallifrey: Our Childhood, Our Home

2. Kevin Kiner - Break for the Shuttle

3. Murray Gold - The Shepherd’s Boy

4. Hans Zimmer - Dream Is Collapsing

5. Ludwig Goransson - The Mandalorian

6. Murray Gold - The Doctor’s Theme Series 4

7. Kevin Kiner - Race You to the Surface

8. Murray Gold - The Mad Man With A Box

9. Mark Griskey and Gordy Haab - Reclaiming The Throne

10. Murray Gold - The Rueful Fate of Donna Noble

11. David Arnold - Good Omens Opening Title

12. Henri Wilkinson, Gordy Haab & Jesse Harlin - Valkorion, The Sovereign 

13. Jesse Harlin, Gordy Haab & Henri Wilkinson - Vaylin, The Right Hand