#actual stuff with lgbt people in it or things that were significant in the horror queer community

[lgbt-cishet-movie-tournament]

not gonna lie I made the GAH! Quadrant so I could at least guarantee 1 horror movie could make it to week 7.

[terramythos]

TerraMythos 2021 Reading Challenge - Book 10 of 26

Title: The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) 

Author: Oscar Wilde 

Genre/Tags: Fiction, Gothic Horror, Third-Person, LGBT Protagonist (I... guess) 

Rating: 8/10

Date Began: 4/13/2021

Date Finished: 4/20/2021 

When artist Basil Hallward paints a picture of the beautiful and innocent Dorian Gray, he believes he’s created his masterpiece. Seeing himself on the canvas, Dorian wishes to remain forever young and beautiful while the portrait ages in his stead. The bargain comes true. While Dorian grows older and descends a path of hedonism and moral corruption, his portrait changes to reflect his true nature while his physical body remains eternally youthful. As his debauchery grows worse, and the portrait warps to reflect his corruption, Dorian’s past begins to catch up to him. 

Perhaps one never seems so much at one’s ease as when one has to play a part. Certainly no one looking at Dorian Gray that night could have believed that he had passed through a tragedy as horrible as any tragedy of our age. Those finely-shaped fingers could never have clutched a knife for sin, nor those smiling lips have cried out on God and goodness. He himself could not help wondering at the calm of his demeanour, and for a moment felt keenly the terrible pleasure of a double life. 

Full review, some spoilers, and content warnings under the cut. 

Content warnings for the book: Misogyny (mostly satirical). Racism and antisemitism (not so much). Emotional manipulation, blackmail, suicide, graphic murder, and death. Recreational drug use.

Reviewing a classic novel through a modern lens is always going to be a challenge for me. The world seems to change a lot every decade, let alone every century—whether some canonized classic holds up today is pretty hit or miss (sorry, English degree). And considering the sheer amount of academic focus on classic texts, it’s not like I’m going to have a “fresh take” on one for a casual review. I read and reviewed The Count of Monte Cristo last year, and thought it aged remarkably well over 170+ years.

Somehow I never read Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray for school. I tried reading it independently in my late teens/early twenties, and honestly think I was just too stupid for it. Needing a shorter read before the next Murderbot book releases at the end of the month, I grabbed Dorian Gray off the shelf and decided to give it another shot. By the end, I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked the book.

I’m actually going to discuss my pain points before I get into what worked for me. The first half of the book is very slow-paced. The Picture of Dorian Gray is famous for… well… the picture. But it isn’t relevant until the halfway point of the novel, when Dorian does something truly reprehensible and finds his image in the picture has changed. There’s a lot of setup before this discovery. The first half of the book has a lot of fluff, with characters talking about stuff that happened off screen, discussing various philosophies, and so on without progressing the story. Some of this is fine, as it establishes Dorian’s initial character so the contrast later is all the more striking. I just think it could have been shorter. I realize this comes down to personal taste.

I’m also torn on the Wilde’s writing style. He’s very clever, and there are many philosophical ideas in his writing that did genuinely made me stop and think. The prose is also beautiful and descriptive; this is especially useful when it contrasts the horror elements of the story. However, there’s a lot of unnatural, long monologue in the story. Not sure if it’s the time period, Wilde’s background as a playwright, or just his writing style in general (maybe all three), but the characters ramble a LOT. My favorite game was trying to imagine how other characters were reacting to a literal wall of text. 

I also feel the need to mention this book has some bigoted content, as implied in my content warnings. The misogyny in the story is satirical; it’s spouted by the biggest tool in the book, Lord Henry, whose whole shtick is being paradoxical. You just need basic critical thought to figure that out. However, some things don’t have that excuse. A minor character in the first half is an obvious anti-Semitic caricature. There’s also some pretty racist content, particularly when Wilde describes Gray’s musical instrument collection. While these are small parts of the book, it’d be disingenuous not to acknowledge them.

All that being said, there were many aspects of the book I enjoyed, particularly in the second half. Wilde does a great job characterizing terrible people who fully believe what they say. Lord Henry is an obvious example, and Dorian follows his lead as the story progresses. One of my favorite bits was after Sibyl’s suicide (which Dorian instigated by being a piece of shit). Dorian is initially shocked, but as he and Lord Henry discuss it, they come to the conclusion that her suicide was a good thing because it had thematic merit. It’s just such a brazen, horrible way to alleviate one’s guilt. 

Dorian also goes to significant lengths to justify his actions. At one point, he murders Basil to keep the portrait a secret. While he briefly feels guilty about this, Dorian grows angry at the inconvenience of having killed this man, supposedly an old friend. He even separates himself from the situation, expressing that Basil died in such a horrible way. Bro, you killed him! It was you! The cognitive dissonance is just stunning. 

It’s also viscerally satisfying to read about Dorian’s downfall as his awful choices catch up to him. Dorian becoming tormented by the portrait is just... *chef’s kiss*. Is it surprising? No, it’s pretty standard Gothic horror fare. But there’s something to be said about seeing a genuinely horrible man finally pay for what he’s done after getting away with it for so long. I wish real life worked that way. 

There’s the picture itself, too. I know it’s The Thing most people know about this novel -- but I just think it’s a cool concept. I like the idea of someone’s likeness reflecting their true self, and the psychological effect it has on the subject. Most of the novel is fiction with realistic horror elements, but I like that there’s a touch of the supernatural thanks to Dorian’s picture. It’s an element I wouldn’t mind seeing in more works. 

It's sad to read Dorian Gray with the context of what happened to Wilde. The homoeroticism in the novel is obvious, but tame compared to works today. Wilde and this book are a depressing case study in how queer people are simultaneously erased and reviled in recent history. Wilde was tortured for his homosexuality (and died from resulting health complications) over 100 years ago, yet the 1994 edition of Dorian Gray I read refers to his real homosexual relationship as a "close friendship". It's an infuriating and tragic paradox. Things have improved by inches, but we still have so far to go.  

As I grow older I find I appreciate classic works more than when I was forced to read them for school. The Picture of Dorian Gray is a gripping Gothic horror story. Some aspects didn't age particularly well, but that's true for almost anything over time. If you're in the market for this kind of book, I do recommend it.  

[starkey]

[Spoilers for The Haunting of Bly Manor!]

I know everyone is super loving Bly Manor cause ~80′s gays~!!! but some stuff about it sat really bad for me so I’m gonna try to verbalise it. Obviously if you loved it and aren't vibing with a critical analysis I'm not offended if you don't read lol. Also I’m not trying to say that there’s anything wrong with liking it! I just...didn’t, and I want to think about why, for a sec. (Sorry this got a bit long)

I think part of my problem is that I count Hill House as one of my favourite shows ever and I had ridiculously high hopes for Bly Manor, which probably couldn't ever have been fully realised. And there was actually a lot about it that I liked, especially at the begining. I thought the kids were great, and I loved the core group of Mrs Grose, Owen, Dani and Jamie. I liked the fact that the Henry Wingrave element was expanded upon, and I liked the complexity of Rebecca and Peter, and the room it gave them to be fully realised human beings. I quite enjoyed that they kept to the Hill House ghost mythology - that ghosts are lost in time but fixed in place, and that they jump from memory to memory, and haunt the people that they care about without knowing. But there were lots of things I wasn't so keen on...

Until the last episode my issues were mainly that it felt a bit...lazy? I can't stress it enough but the british accents were really really bad. Old!Jamie’s accent was deeply unbelievable and jarring, as was Henry Wingrave's, and although Peter’s accent was passable (I assume because the actor is English and not American like the others) it still didn’t match his mothers, or his ‘background’ - i.e. it sounded like a private school Edinburgh accent, not a Glasgow kid dragged up through poverty in the scheme - and yes there is a significant difference in those accents. I appreciate there’s a degree of privilege at play here - I’m used to the BBC producing high quality television where these details aren’t messed about with, and the production of Bly Manor was thoroughly American, but to put it in perspective, it would be like... if a character had a deep south dirt-poor Louisiana upbringing and spoke like somebody from a private school in Virginia. Other details also felt off - Rebecca’s costumes all seemed weirdly 2020-adjacent, none of the fashion or ancillary details seemed to match the UK in the 80s (which has a distinct feel), and the house that Peter returned to on his ‘memory bumps’ looked much more like an LA condo than a Scottish council house. Really, they should have just set it in America, because it felt more American than British, and they clearly didn't have any British people involved in the production.

I really didn't enjoy the narrative framing device of 'someone telling a story to a group of people at a party'. It makes sense in the Turn of the Screw, because the narrator is reading from a document written at the time of the events, so the narration becomes a first person one where the degree of detail is logically accounted for. In this take, the story alternated from being one which made sense - us just watching the characters move around normally - to one in which 'Jamie' (who’d apparently had a complete personality transplant that had turned her from a feisty northern lesbian into a coy, mysterious victorian englishwoman with a severe accent problem) adopted a falsely old-fashioned manner and told the wedding guests a ten hour long story about a haunted house.  And somehow neither Flora nor Miles recognised any part of this story in the least, in spite of what must have been overwhelming similarities? It was very jarring.  

I also kept waiting for a twist on a level with Hill House, but never got one. The big twist about Mrs Grose was, I thought, obvious from almost the first episode. I mean the woman didn’t eat or drink anything and spent most of her time confused about where she was, I thought it was fairly clear that she was a ghost. And yeah, I suppose because I’ve read the book I was never in any doubt that Peter was already dead. The ghosts in the background were much less spooky than in Hill House. They stood around in broad daylight while the characters talked and joked and it kind of felt like the ghosts had wandered in by accident and felt too awkward to leave. I really liked how spooky Hill House was - even apart from the jump scares I thought the psychological elements and the open discussion of death and grief was really affecting. I didn’t feel that at all in Bly Manor, and by the time we found out the details of Mrs Grose’s death, I’d already come to terms with it.  But all of this would have been fine, if it hadn’t been for the last episode.

I really really didn’t enjoy the bury your gays ending. And I’m not even usually against this in principle! I think in a dark/horror context, where there’s implied to be an ever-present threat of character death, it’s unreasonable to expect that no characters will die or experience tragedy - and in cases where there’s abundant LGBT rep some of those characters will by necessity not be cis/straight. So I don’t have a problem with gay characters meeting tragic or dark ends, as a general rule, particularly when it serves a narrative purpose and isn’t gratuitous. My problem here was in the manner and necessity of that death.

There were ways in which Dani could have died in this story that I would have felt were narratively meaningful and cathartic, but the manner in which she did die failed to hit those beats for me. This is a story in which two women in the 80's fall in love and are doomed by the world around them (we're already in Meryl Streep 'groundbreaking' territory here, in terms of metaphor). They know death is coming for them, that it will likely destroy them both, that they won't have an opportunity to grow old together, that eventually one day it will catch them and everything will be over - they're on borrowed time, and they spend a lot of that time looking over their shoulders waiting for shit to break bad. In the end, they're destroyed by a force in Dani's body/mind that she can't fight, that she can't win against, and the spectre of which haunts her through the years. Like... the obvious parallel here is mental health, and suicide - they even go out of their way to feature that classic heartsink moment with the overflowing bath. And to me, any story that has a message of 'no matter how strong you are, no matter how much love you have and give, or how beautiful the life you've built is, eventually the dark forces in your mind will Get You and it'll probably be before you make it to middle age' is... really shitty. The other echo that struck me was the HIV/AIDS crisis - obviously wlw were relatively spared from this, in comparison to mlm, but it still carries a cultural legacy of pain and trauma, and I really didn't need this show to grind down on that for me.

And the thing is... in the original story, the governess doesn't even die! Miles does, so maybe there's an argument here that Dani sacrificed herself in exchange for Miles's life in this retelling, but I'm still struck by this element of, like... they added this in! They chose to do this! Only one character dies in the course of this show (with Mrs Grose dying before the show starts) and it's the gay woman?? Why?? What did it show?? Why was it necessary?

Not to mention, the 'epilogue' scene paints Jamie as being very lonely and isolated. I'm not sure why the children didn't recognise ANY elements of this story from their past - even assuming they forgot the ghostly elements of their childhood, they should be able to see the similarities in the characters, but the scene also seems to imply that Jamie really isn't very close to Miles and Flora, and that she doesn't even really get to have a relationship with them as adults, in spite of losing everything to protect them, and not having any family of her own.

Almost everybody else gets a happy ending, but Jamie ends the night of the epilogue standing alone at a table, with the love of her life dead in a cursed lake, doomed to spend eternity watching over a crumbling house, and idk to me? that kind of sucked.

[incarnateirony]

Hello! I'm still adjusting to reading Dean+Cas as canon and reconciling that with years' worth of believing it to be subtext. Would you be able to point me towards anything that might help?

Yes actually! I’m half awake right now and only have about an hour to get ready, but a few things to do is check my “Bobo berens” tag to understand the merit of angle and intent, my LGBTQIA tag for media history, and most of all in what’s available on my blog, read this post (x) which links to resources about things like… IDK, the Media Literacy Clearing House on what counts as Text in AV medium (fandom’s buried that for a long time) – and other stuff like highlighting other pairings, queer and straight, that have been accepted as text and canon without janky shipwarring afoot and similar-but-less content.

And fuckit, I’ma be totally blunt. In this effort to give everybody sandboxes to play in, and treat everyone’s interpretations eQuaLlY and all that, we’ve built a pit. It’s a pit where people only address part of the body of text, and on any given blog, they’ll tell you different things do and don’t count as text, or call those parts subtext but focus on one part of it and not the other (eg, elements of the central visual narrative), because focusing on only part of it allows them to draw whatever conclusions they want. And I’ma be honest. It’s a pit early DeanCas fandom set up to GIVE themselves room to chase weird stuff and establish bases while it was incomplete, but now that we’ve moved forward into a whole other era, that pit is DeanCas’ fandom’s cage.

I’m working on a project for JUST THIS, and right now my drafts bin be lookin’ like

But more important than those general points,

So that said, browse the given posts I linked above and blog, and hang tight. If you wanna climb in to the thing I’m building, feel free to DM me now, even if it’ll be some days before it’s ready. It’s gonna come in a few waves, teaching key elements – many of which I think you guys subconsciously know? You just like, don’t know the names or technicalities of? – and reaching into slightly more complicated territory as it goes along – with general images NOT from this fandom/show. That way people don’t attach their emotional lens to it to start their process. And, once we DO clear the A-Level course, then we’ll go back through with actual show material and I’ll get a little more stringent with submissions since by then everybody should be up to the same page, and we’ll have some yes or no talks about answers and making sure people are reading the whole body of text.

A major point in the “full body of text” thing that will come up in these posts is,

Representations

Audiences

Institutions

Language

Ideology

Narrative

Genre

Which is something that has been… missed. For a very long time. 99% of bullshit spec/people tilting people’s reads, in the history of ever, treat the show like it’s secretly been spending upwards of a decade or more representing a queer audience under lgbt instutions through queer language for queer ideology and a queer narrative like they’re gonna hide bisexuality cues in wallpaper or whatever, and like that’s what they’re gonna hide. You all know I see and respect canon, but loudly divorce myself from many of the lanes here. Let’s be real. The show STARTED representing for a dudebro audience in grifter americana under a conservative institution with often outright queerphobic language and a nihilistic ideology and narrative in horror genre.

Whereas modern SPN has quite tangibly shifted into more diverse representations for an increasingly queer audience, while STILL under more conservative institutions with an increasing vat of queer language that isn’t the central ideology – wherein the ideology is a mix of humanism and hermeticism which overlap into the narrative we know in a genre that has abandoned old horror roots into fantasy, both in its acted elements and insofar as its methods of filming and other editorial work.

All of this BUT ITS ALL INTERPRETATION AND SHIT vanishes once people really give you the Key Concepts.

For more about this, hang tight, I wanna get this more  pulled together. People are free to explore the source material HERE (X) at their own pace, I just wanted to sort of break it down into smaller pieces to tackle and being interactive so it felt less like you were dragging yourself through a damn self-assigned school course alone at your computer and more like an interactive adventure for people to realize, yes! You DO actually get a lot of this, and a lot of the things you DON’T get were clouded and crowded into your head later.

So like… browse that, or stay tuned and DM me, I’d love to help, because I’m done watching people warp shit around and mess up people’s viewing experiences.

Institutions, on that list, is one I bang on about a lot.

OWNERSHIP Ways in which ownership of a media institution can affect or influence the content and distribution of its media texts.MARKETING The way institutions can affect the marketing of media texts.AUDIENCES The significance of media ownership to the way audiences receive texts.TECHNOLOGY The importance of new technologies on media ownership and audiences.PUBLIC SERVICE The cultural and financial differences between public service institutions and commercial institutions.REGULATION the regulation of media institutions.

I don’t have a secret meta key. My plot magic 8 ball can’t give me the winning lottery ticket. I just understand RAILING, and I’m kicking myself for not thinking to just arm people with this directly instead of trying to bang on about the parts of it time and again for years within the show, rather than how it applies in the text study universe abroad.  Even all the hermeticism shit I bang on about? Just falls into Ideology and Narrative. It’s only a piece of how to read the puzzle. You can’t straight run just lean on Narrative and hope it’ll count. Gotta pay attention to the rest. 

[triptychexe]

TRIPTYCH. DARE. SECOND ALBUM. 7/31/19.

TRACK DESCRIPTIONS TYPED OUT BELOW.

INTRO: BRAVERY:

A purely instrumental/ambient track that was produced and composed by One, Teo, and Van.

"DARE is an album that feels close to getting punched in the gut… Some things that are discussed in this album are not topics that your average idol group sings about. This intro is your airbag.”- ONE

"DARE is no joke. The introduction track is supposed to give you just a taste of what’s to come. We took elements from stand-out tracks like DARE, RED RUM, and THE INVITATION and made it into one short and sweet sample.”- TEO

“Our group has always gotten criticisms. A lot of people dislike that we are very… open about who we are and what we believe in. Not many idols are as outspoken as we are, which is fine, of course. But we want to inspire people with our music to stand up against injustices and wrongs that we see. They need bravery, and we’re more than happy to give them that.”- VAN

DARE:

The title track is the second ever song in Triptych’s discography to feature all 18 members. The song calls out the injustices in society (including unfair police treatment, prejudice against the LGBT, sexual assault cases, to name a few). The track was written by members Nia, Asa, Cal, Teo, and Eli. It was produced and composed by One, Sun, Van, and Sol.

“We feel like people will gossip about something serious for a few days and then forget about it once it’s lost its shock value. This track, in my eyes, is supposed to help people realize that in order to see change, we need to take charge. And that’s what we want to do. This song is a risky move… We could tarnish our reputation with this song. But is it worth it if it gets people talking? I think so.”- NIA

“This is the most politically driven song we have ever made. We’ve talked about gender roles, we’ve talked about general societal standards… but I don’t think we’ve ever been this blunt before. It’s sure to give the older generations a bit of a shock. I can’t wait to see the reaction.”- CAL

“[DARE is] going to be a game changer, I think. I don’t know how to word this correctly without sounding too boastful, but I think our music usually makes an impact in the K-Pop community one way or another. However, I don’t think anyone will ever take an idol group seriously. We hope to change that with this song and other songs on this album.”- ELI

WE ARE:

Featuring all 18 members, this song was written by members Ame, Teo, Fin, Van, Jin, and Eli. With EDM and pop influences, this track explores what it means to truly put aside your pride and be who you want to be.

“There’s a lot of pressure these days to fit in, especially with things like social media being a huge part in people’s lives. I think that people just need to be reminded that at the end of the day, fitting in isn’t all that matters. Being popular isn’t going to make you happy down the line, wearing designer clothing will only make you happy as long as it fits you. Fitting a mold shouldn’t be what people strive for. Fitting into yourself is what truly matters.”- AME

“When I wrote this, I not only had our younger and teenage Artychs in mind, but I also thought a lot about our own maknaes.Our youngest member is currently nineteen, and even though that’s not a child, they still are constantly feeling pressure to conform to what an idol should be. They haven’t been in the game as long as us, so I think some of the lyrics are for our maknae line to learn from.”- JIN

“I’ve always struggled with trying to be someone else that other people liked. If there’s one thing that plagued my teenage years, it was the fear of judgment. I’ve slowly grown out of this fear, but I’d be lying if I said I still care about what others think to some degree. I think writing this song really helped me focus on goals that I want to reach for self-improvement. I hope that fans also can reach these goals with me.”- FIN

RED RUM:

RED RUM, inspired heavily by Triptych’s seniors and lablemates, Vice, has a creepy and horror-like sound. Written by Teo, Jin, Sol, and Hyo with special help on producing from Vice’s Cyth. Features all 18 members.

“RED RUM is an interesting track. It’s a direction none of our subunits has explored, so it was fun to mess around with a darker sound. We got a lot of help from Cyth. He was really interesting to work with and really added a new twist. As far as the lyrics go, this song is about perception. Perception of people, situations, industries… Nothing is ever as it seems.”- SOL

“We know way too many people who have been screwed over in this industry. Including us, of course. No one’s safe from being used when you’re an idol. I guess this was sort of a reflection on all the things we have gone through to be where we are today. A lot of people look at an idols life and think it’s a dream. I beg to differ. Never trust a smile in a suit.”- YEN

“Unfortunately, by expressing how badly you want your dreams, you’re making yourself vulnerable to companies and agencies that want to sign you. Once they have your desperation, they can manipulate you. Everyone knows ‘red rum’ backwards is ‘murder’. We get asked for advice from fans who want to be idols pretty frequently. Even though to their face I tell them to never give up, I wish I had told them to read between the lines.”- HYO

VISION:

Boasting all 18 members, this track gives a much more hopeful and upbeat message than previous songs. Written by members Teo, Fin, Yen, Asa, and Zim, this song almost counters the previous track “RED RUM” by reminding listeners that things always get better.

“Life isn’t just filled with bad stuff. I think VISION is very relevant for this album, even though it is different from the first four tracks. At the end of dark tunnels, there is always light. I hope that VISION can guide our Artychs through their own dark tunnels.”- FIN

“I think we contradict ourselves a little bit with this track, but that’s human nature. All of the songs leading up to this one have been very serious and filled with some dark stuff. We needed a song that would pull everyone out of that emo funk, and I think this song delivers.”- ZIM

“VISION is that feel-good song that should just be played on a loop all summer long. I think it’s that song that you listen to on the way back from a rough day at work or an unpleasant outing and you’re like… Wow, Triptych is right. Life gets better.”- ASA

SELFISH:

Written and composed by members Yen, Asa, Jin, Teo, Nia, Sun, and Sol, SELFISH is a song about wanting a significant other all to yourself without other people being involved in your relationship. Boasting 18 members, this track holds special meaning to the members of Triptych who have come forward about their personal relationships.

“Relationships of mine have always been up for speculation. Ever since I debuted to now. I guess I wrote this song thinking about all the things I’d like to say to my significant others when we’re not in the spotlight.”- NIA

“Being as polite as possible, I think the typical fan sometimes forgets that we, idols, are humans too. And I’m not saying they’re bad people for forgetting so-- it’s our job for our fans to feel very close to us! We do have a very tight bond to our fanbase, which is something I’m forever thankful for, but I think SELFISH is a nice way to draw the line in the sand."- SUN

“Idols date all the time, it's just rarely ever show to the public. Having to share every aspect of your life to people can be exhausting. Sometimes we wish that our personal relationships were kept personal. There's actually nothing 'selfish' about that."- DAY

THE INVITATION:

For the seventh track, the supergroup takes a more sensual and slow take with their song THE INVITATION. Written by members Van, Sol, Teo, Ame, and Jin.

“The song is supposed to be a little intimate and slow. The ‘invitation’ is a peek into our minds and our personal lives, something that we give to fans on a daily basis. THE INVITATION talks about how open we are. Being an idol has really taught me how to let certain people in and how to keep others out. As a group, we put out very raw and real stuff. We just wanted to express how intimate that truly feels through song.”- KIT

“If it feels like we’re… Uh… getting it on…While listening to the song, that’s the goal. Everything we put out, we trust our fans to react to it and support it. They literally carry our careers in their hands. They know they’re powerful, just watch them on Twitter, but they also have all our trust, which I think is more powerful than trending a hashtag world wide.”- DAY

"We hope that what fans take away from this song is that we share a deeply intimate relationship, even though we may not know each other. Like the song itself, the concept of this relationship should be slightly unsettling. However, our relationship goes both ways. You share intimate things with us and we share intimate things with you." - VAN

WONDER OF IT ALL:

Even though the group itself has been in motion since 2015, the support and love they receive around the world still baffles them to this day. On the eighth track and the final OT18 song on the album, Triptych dedicates this song to all the Artychs that have supported them. Each member has given a hand in either producing, writing, or composing this track.

“This song is probably the most personal and sentimental song I have ever helped write. I’m not the best with my words or emotions, so trying to tell Artychs how I feel about their continuous support was really hard, especially when they never fail to leave me speechless. They have helped us do what we love to do as a living and they allow us to be ourselves while doing so. That’s something I will forever be grateful for.”- HYO

“I think it’s really beautiful just how strong music can be. A good chunk of our fans don’t even speak Korean, yet they learn all the words to our songs and practice the dance routines. Music and the love for music brings us together on a colossal, global scale. We may come from different backgrounds and walks of life, but I hope that when Artychs listen to this song, they feel like they are connected to us somehow.”- AME

“Out of all the songs I’ve written, I love writing about our fans the most. It’s like documenting a great love story. I’m not saying that our fans have romantic relations with us by any means, but the way we love each other - platonically and supportively - is so strong and so powerful. It’s a kind of love that I will never find anywhere else in the world, yet I feel it all around the world when I tour. It truly is wonderful.”- TEO

S.O.S:

Y3LLOW brings back a classic hip hop vibe with S.O.S, a track that tells the story of someone falling deeply in love with someone, but is unsure if the feeling is reciprocated. Written, composed, and produced by Y3LLOW subunit members Zim, Eli, Van, Ame, One, Sol.

“I think our discography needed a break from being so down and in the dumps. As a group I feel like love songs aren’t really our forte, but they’re equally as relevant and as relatable as our more serious songs. We shouldn’t have to just sing about the bad stuff to be recognized as a ‘good artist’. We should be allowed to sing about whatever we’re going through and that should be enough.”- ELI

“I feel like we’ve all been in this situation before where we like someone so much it feels like we’re drowning. I think when writing S.O.S I reflected on feelings that I’ve had in the past. Crushing on people hurts. That’s why it’s called ‘crushing’."- AME

“This song kinda hits a little hard, I’m gonna be honest. It’s relatable in the saddest way possible. Why is it that the people you love hurt you so much? And most of the time without even knowing it? What the hell? How is this a thing that humans feel?”- ONE

MIDNIGHT:

Subunit R3D enters the album with a slow EDM and pop style jam that has hints of romance. Written and composed by R3D subunit members Nia, Teo, Ura, Jin, Kit, and Sol.

“MIDNIGHT is supposed to give you those butterflies you feel when you’re young and in love. The song itself literally speaks of sneaking out your window at midnight to meet someone you love. If you want to look at it on a deeper level, I personally like to think of it as a love song between oneself and escaping your old self to meet a new version of you. If you don’t want to take deeper looks, don’t feel pressured to, though. Love songs just aren’t my thing.”- URA

"This track is very vocal-heavy, much like our other subunit track. I think R3Ds role in the group is to bring attention to our vocalists. It's nice to have songs with little to no rap in them from time to time."- JIN

“I mean, who doesn’t dream of sneaking off with someone in the middle of the night? I’ve yet to meet someone that makes me feel this way, but I wrote how I want to feel when I meet the right person. If they don’t make you feel how MIDNIGHT makes you feel, they’re not the one for you!”- KIT

EYES ON ME:

Returning with a hyped up tropical beat, subunit BLU3 makes a splash with their song “EYES ON ME”. Written, composed, and produced by BLU3 subunit members Yen, Asa, Cal, Hyo, Sun, and Fin.

“EYES ON ME is that summer bop that will just be blasting from your car radio all summer long. It’s just a fun song about just basically just showing up to the club with all your friends and being like ‘we run this biss’. I think it’s the ultimate turn up song.” - HYO

"Look, we saw your tweets, Artychs. We know it’s hot girl summer. So trust me when I say that this is the ultimate hot girl summer anthem. I hope listeners get an instant confidence boost when they hear this song. I personally think it’s a total banger.”- SUN

“I think BLU3 has some of the funniest and most lively members out of Triptych. I think our role in Triptych is to bring songs that give people those good vibes and I think we delivered. Our personalities really shine through in this song. This couldn’t have been a better fit with our subunit.”- YEN

OUTRO: SOMETHING:

To finish the album, another instrumental and ambient track is played. The sound may be confusing to fans at the first listen, as it seems to be playing samples of old Triptych songs in the background.

“OUTRO: SOMETHING isn’t supposed to be an easy listen. It’s supposed to kinda throw you off and make you think ‘What is this’? The point of the track is to have you anticipating what’s to come.”- SOL

“A third generation of Triptych has been rumored for a long time and I know Artychs are curious about the outro and if it has any relation to Gen 3. I can confirm that this outro is not about new members joining us. However, we have plans already to try out some new things musically. We hope that fans will receive these new changes well. Anticipate.”- NIA

“Artychs know to expect the unexpected with our group. We are always try out new things, testing new waters, stuff like that. I think OUTRO: SOMETHING reminds both Triptych and Artychs that there's always room for exploration." - ELI

[amplesalty]

Day 12 - Chillerama (2011)

The last drive in...

As is tradition around these parts, we like to toss in the odd anthology film just for some variety. Now, it has been a while since we properly covered one since the last few I watched were in that blind period where I’d be watching stuff but not blogging due to laziness, namely Trick ‘r Treat, V/H/S and Tales from the Darkside. Between those and early entries like Creepshow I/II/III and the Twilight Zone movie, I feel like I’ve hit upon the bigger names of this sub-genre. I think the other big one would be Tales from the Crypt, which occupies this space in time between the comic and the TV show. I will freely admit, I’m watching this for one reason alone which we will get to.

Things start with a guy digging up a corpse and getting his dick bitten off before exclaiming that he’s ‘late for work’. I suppose that’s one way to avoid answering any awkward questions in the office. ‘Good weekend?’ ‘What did you get up to last night?’. No one ever asks you what you did before you came to work, clearly the best time to get your necrophilia ways in.

I don’t get the significance of the blue blood though, other than maybe it standing out because it’s so unique? It’s not like they’re trying to tone down the movie or anything, doing a Mortal Kombat turning the blood grey and calling it sweat. We will see later that this movie gets very graphic.

Turns out he works at a drive in movie theatre that is shutting down, tonight being the last night. This serves as the framing device to tie all the other stories together, cutting back to the drive in between segments to catch up with some of the main characters.

Up first is ‘Wadzilla’ the story of Miles, whose swimmers aren’t so strong if you know what I’m saying. His doctor, played by Ray Wise, prescribes him some new medicine that hasn’t been approved for market yet but he would make a good test case for. It wont help him make any more sperm but it will give what he does have a little more pep.

Or in actuality, cause him to grab his dick everytime he so much as feels the slightest arousal and have a look of the guy from the ‘Jizz in my Pants’ video.

Turns out that new medicine is causing his sperm to grow massively. Look at the size of that thing, must be like passing a kidney stone. The good doc advises he cease taking the pills and, should this happen again, he needs to jerk off as soon as possible to get the little bleeder out.

Unfortunately, Miles heads out on a blind date and catches sight of his date’s cleavage so has to rush to her bathroom to rub one out. What ensues is a chaotic scene in which the released sperm starts scurrying around the room like a lost gerbil and Miles trying to stop it. He even wrenches the shower curtain off the wall and tries to harpoon the gooey troublemaker like he’s Captain Ahab. Well at least we avoided that horrible trope of the date blocking the toilet.

Or so I thought, as Miles tries flushing his wasted offspring, only for it to cause the toilet to backup and spew water everywhere. Miles’ date wonders just what the hell is going on in there, only to get attacked by the beast which has even spawned teeth by this point. It even tries to fulfil it’s destiny of getting inside her, only for Miles to intervene and launch it out of a window.

This sperm doesn’t stop growing though as it starts to go on a rampage through the city like it’s the T-Rex is Jurassic Park 2, starting by eating this Worzel Gummidge looking hobo.

Pretty soon it’s destroying buildings and the army have been called in. But even they can’t stop it from what it wants to do...

Hump the Statue of Liberty.

It even has fantasies of the statue doing a sexy dance. LADY LIBERTY’S TWERKING, MAGGLE!

This calls for General Bukkake, played by Eric Roberts, to call in an airstrike which destroys the creature and the statue, even if that means he ends up living up to his name in the resulting explosion.

Our two love birds even get to finally share a kiss, though it’s a lot closer to snowballing under these circumstances.

Blocked toilet tropes aside, my most hated of tropes, this one was pretty fun. Definitely has that 50’s b-movie quality down with some fake film grain, green screen and practical monster effects.

Meanwhile, back at the drive in, dickless the clown is in the store room and the implication is that he’s jerking off. But I don’t know what he’d exactly be jerking off at that point except a small stump. The only other thought is that he’s trying to clean the wound or something but there’s a definite jerking motion going on. Either way, he sticks his hand in the popcorn butter so he can rub it where his junk used to be. Unfortunately for everyone intending to eat that night, one of the staff comes in to restock and chooses that can. This doesn’t end well.

Segment two is ‘I was a Teenage Werebear’, Werebear being a sub-genre I feel Hollywood has not explored sufficiently. The best way I can describe this one is Grease if it was written by Chuck Tingle, with some supernatural elements thrown in. Pounded In The Butt By My Closeted Lust For The Local Greaser Thugs Who Happen To Be Werebears. Just a strange mix of musical, horror, LGBT and beach movie.

Cosplay James Dean and his girlfriend here are in the middle of song when she promptly gets run over and surprisingly not killed. She’s just left in this sort of half brain dead state for the rest of the segment where she’s spouting random nonsense. This isn’t all bad as it lets him focus on his real love, Cosplay Albert Wesker. 

What he doesn’t know is that leather daddy here is a werebear and, during a wrestling match, he gets bitten on the ass and infected with the werebear curse. There’s worse things you can be infected with through the ass. This does lead though to a homo-erotic argument cum slowdance set to the remarkably catchy ‘Love Bit Me on the Ass’ sung in a 1950/60’s rock and roll style.

But it’s a love that cannot last and Ricky knows he has to save the good people the only way you can stop a werebear, by sodomising them with a silver pole.

This one is certainly...different, I’ll give it that. I certainly wasn’t expecting a coming of age story dealing with the confusing world of the developing sexuality of the hormonal teenager so kudos to it for pushing some boundries.

Now, onto the reason I picked this one out, ‘The Diary of Anne Frankenstein’. My gosh, what a glorious pun. I should have known just from that that I shouldn’t take this movie seriously so I’m not sure why I was so surprised when it turned out to be a goofball horror comedy but oh well.

I don’t know quite what I was expecting from this but I still feel letdown slightly. It just feels like an excuse to poke fun at Hitler by making him a bit stupid but I feel we already explored this idea quite thoroughly in the Producers. Still, I guess they had to make things up a bit considering this involves creating a Frankenstein monster from the limbs of concentration camp victims. Christ.

It does end with the Monster beating Hitler to death with his own arm before dancing over his decapitated corpse so it does have it’s upsides.

We then get faked out with the next segment ‘Deathication’, a movie so scary it will make you shit. Only, the projector starts playing up and the movie cuts out. I for one am glad because the 30 seconds we see of this was bad enough, I don’t think I could have taken a whole segment of it. Te come to find that the drive in owner is being attacked by dickless who has turned full zombie. Turns out his special brand of butter has contaminated all the popcorn and turned the patrons into zombies as well.

That is to say, randy zombies that engage in a blood orgy that would make the people in Event Horizon blush. People are giving blow jobs to intestines, stump fucking, spit roasting people before tearing them in half and engaging in even more stump fucking.

It feels like someone else wrote this section specifically because it turns into the drive in owner going out in a blaze of glory, bandoliers and weapons strapped to his body as he tries to save the last few kids left alive. All the while he’s just speaking almost exclusively in movie quotes, most notably when he sodomises one of the zombies with his shotgun and invites it to say hello to his little friend. Lot of sodomy in this flick.

I’d say this matches what I’ve come to expect from anthology movies, strong book ends with an indifferent middle. Wadzilla is a cheesy take on the old giant monsters and the zombie outbreak at the end is a bizarre spectacle. If you’re into those Troma type movies, this one is worth looking at.

[arcticdementor]

David French has written a bit of a tale.

…

It, as one would expect, is a passionate call for his position, well-written, and absolutely uncompelling. Matt Shapiro has made some interesting back-and-forth discussions, accepting French framework.

I, on the other hand, am here to bury it.

The first objection is that this history isn't actually true. French's example of the height of courage against comprehensive speech codes was a 2007 incident at SFSU, where a student organization were investigated over stomping a makeshift Hamas flag. He uses this as an example of things that were shocking then, but no longer happen. Yet it doesn't take much leafing through FIRE's recent news to see lists of similarly poorly-founded investigations, often where investigations focus on speech that is just as obviously covered by the First Amendment, nor where harsher punishment have been brought to bear than mere investigation.

…

This points to the second fault. French points to the fall of speech codes, and the rise of a legal community able to protect obvious infringements of rights (sometimes, after significant expense); and even if he's a little approximate with the order of those events, I'll concede that. And even if he's a little prone to highlight FIRE's victories under his helm than the surrounding cases other parties didn't win, I'll concede that it's hard to win a court case which never starts.

But in response we've seen Bias Response Teams sprout, in many cases specifically to avoid those weaknesses. Administrators wanting to slap down a disfavored student organization know to gather more varied and vague discomforts or allegations of unrelated bad behavior. Schools have carefully-vetted catspaws announce which religious denomination has the most acceptable positions on orthodoxy, rather than doing it themselves. Far more severe, though, is many of these organizations have learned to not use direct power, and place matters such that no one need overtly recognize the attack as focused on the speech. And while French is happy to list early, weaker examples of these behaviors, he somewhat overlooks that he doesn't have many good cases for fighting them.

…

And those are the overt, obvious, and simple ones, unactionable only because they're so far outside of mainstream behavior that we don't really care to defend Kashuv or chase down Bone. They're not in closed-room meetings with ever-so-deniable asides talking up someone's religious background. They're not the calls to your employer or licensing board. They're not a corporate legal theory that has increasingly found even off-duty interactions between employees so actionable everyone needs be trained against it and anyone brought to their attention needs be reprimanded, or that (wrong) philosophical discussion in a forum opened for that very topic can be harassment. They're not IRB sanctions; they're not CPS sent on a full-home raid. I already pointed to CLA v. Martinez, so I'll skip doing so again.

It's also not the stuff that's in outside of the law, regulation, or Constitution, but is simply a bad norm; French lists college administrators providing anti-recommendations to potential employers based on speech, and then doesn't consider how little FIRE (and other groups) have been able to act against these. Calls to employers, sometimes pretending to be patients or customers, have become endemic, as Scott Alexander have found out. The surprise interviews from national media, increasingly, targeted at the ones who only scarcely touched the edges of conventional "public figures": the retweeters or facebook sharers who suddenly find a camera crew waiting for them at home. There's the game of telephone, turning heartfelt tales of fighting with depression or logrolling over a one's favorite book genre into bizarre accusations of racism, as I've personally seen done to Scott Aaronson's comment 171 or to Larry Correia.

It's not the stuff that's a certain loss: the conservative religious positions that could be purged from Silicon Valley wholesale without even meeting the strict Roman definition of 'decimate' (but with a good many 'good riddances'), the gun owners who can increasingly lose their livelihoods without due process or even a day in the court of public opinion, the obscure, the strange. Those who lack time machines to stop their past-decade's self from being a Kashuv-esque putz for a day, or who now have interests or backgrounds or natures that would leave them more vulnerable to a shaming campaign. Whose financial interactions are in a vague intersection of state and private power that loves to talk up reputational risk, or whose livelihood can depend on licensing boards with similar focuses.

Which is why, when pressed, French emphasizes courage, and to his defense, he can list quite a long array of direct horrors he's seen or had target him.

…

These are horrible incidents.

They also got away with it. While most wouldn't show up in databases I have access to even were they prosecuted, contemporaneous reporting points toward no arrests being made even in the most clearly unlawful threats. French does not name the ministry nor consider if "more difficult" might have been downriver of state action of the sort he'd oppose. The college administrators -- in this case so egregious that French, summing up the judge's decision, says he's "never seen anything like it, before or since" -- still received qualified immunity. The statements and framing at the core of the case are no less accepted fact among campuses and educators (and high schools, and so forth) today, beyond modification for those denominations that have since allowed gay marriage. And it's not exactly deep precedent, these days: not only did it rest on Georgia Tech's unwillingness to brief as to how the pamphlet reflected a government interest, the Lemon analysis in that case ends on a note that increasing factions would see as a demand to "tolerate intolerance" today, including the majority in CLS v. Martinez and Obergefell.

…

Which... gets to the last point, and the most unpleasant revelation. I'm not straight, not religious, so forth. Why do I care? It might well be a pity that Sklar's career in civil engineering went backseat to politics, but I can't in all honesty pretend that I've not been a beneficiary of the broader LGBT movement's tactics. Why should we care, when a search for "Reditors Against Gay Marriage" could only find devil's advocates?

Except these aren't the only people that get hit by them. Forget "no bad tactics, only bad targets". The reality is that these campaigns feel no need to be limited to just conservatives. Brendan Eich was kicked to the curb (and not for the abomination that was JavaScript), true. I've also seen Democratic furries booted from a low-level seat over internal politics that splashed his sex life into the media and a Drupal developer canned because he dated an autie. Proclaiming conservative positions might put you first on the chopping block, but there's an ever-spiraling array of struggle session and public humiliation awaiting those who step wrong elsewhere. For those of us who found liberalism appealing because it offered a peace treaty against this sort of harassment, this is a bit of a disappointment. Indeed, it's not hard for those of us who had drifted to Left during the Bush era to remember how important it was that not every gay man be a hero just to live their truth.

[basicshadowhuntersstuff]

Closing out 2018 in Shadowhunters news, updates, sneak peeks, and behind the scenes. All the stuff you need to stay up to date.

Official Promotion

The one and only Magnus on day 17 of #25DaysOfTeasers. #Shadowhunters 

Vampire stare down. Day 18 of #25DaysOfTeasers. #Shadowhunters

Yup, that was as awkward as we imagined it would be. Ollie meets her first #Shadowhunters in this deleted scene from Season 3 Episode 3. Day 18 of #25DaysOfTeasers. 

This beauty on day 19 of #25DaysOfTeasers. #Shadowhunters 

Working or Christmas shopping? Day 20 of #25DaysOfTeasers. #Shadowhunters 

We’re glad the Owl is no longer on the prowl #Shadowhunters

If anyone can charm Lorenzo, it would be Izzy. Deleted scene from #Shadowhunters Season 3 Episode 9. Day 20 of #25DaysOfTeasers. 

Together again. Jace & Aline behind the scenes of #Shadowhunters Season 3B on day 21 of #25DaysOfTeasers. 

.@EW shares an exclusive first look at the February 25 premiere of #Shadowhunters Season 3B. 

ICYMI: The hunt for Clary is on. Thanks @EW for this #Shadowhunters final season first look. #ShadowhuntersLegacy 

Yes, they're talking about Simon. Day 22 of #25DaysOfTeasers. #Shadowhunters 

We don't know which is worse, facing the Soul Sword or Consul Penhallow.  😬 Deleted scene between Clary and Jia from #Shadowhunters Season 3 Episode 8. Day 22 of #25DaysOfTeasers.

ICYMI: here’s your first look at Jonathan Morgenstern in #Shadowhunters Season 3B. Thanks to @TVLine for the exclusive. 

And you were worried about meeting your significant other’s parents. #Shadowhunters

Siblings being siblings. Day 23 of #25DaysOfTeasers. #Shadowhunters 

#ShadowFam dad reppin’. #ShadowhuntersLegacy 

No mistletoe needed. #Malec on day 24 of #25DaysOfTeasers. #Shadowhunters 

Maryse shows her concern for Alec in this deleted scene from #ShadowhuntersSeason3 Episode 10. Day 24 of #25DaysOfTeasers. 

Merry Christmas, #ShadowFam! Day 25 of #25DaysOfTeasers. The final episodes of #Shadowhunters begin Monday, February 25 on @FreeformTV. 

FreeformTV tweeted: The wait is almost over...the final episodes of @ShadowhuntersTV begin Monday, February 25. 

This smile = instant mood boost. Behind the scenes of #Shadowhunters. 

Luke is all of us trying to work between Christmas and New Years. #Shadowhunters 

Izzy & Alec behind the scenes of #Shadowhunters Season 3B. 

It may not have been the will of the angels, but it was Clary’s. Stream #Shadowhunters now on @Hulu 

Alec will always look after his #Parabatai #Shadowhunters

Simon’s Hunter’s Moon performance in #ShadowhuntersSeason3. Stream it now on @Hulu 

Queen. What was your favorite Lilith moment in #Shadowhunters Season 3A

Shadowhunters In The News

Entertainment Weekly (article):  Luke and Jace search for Clary in Shadowhunters final season first look 

TVLine (article):  Shadowhunters Welcomes the 'Real' Jonathan Morgenstern in Season 3B (2019 FIRST LOOK) 

Just Jared Jr. (article):  Jace & Simon Are Having a Really Hard Time Without Clary in First 'Shadowhunters' Promo For Final Season 

TVLine (article):  Shadowhunters Promo: Jace Blames Himself for Clary's Death in Season 3B 

BuzzFeed (article): Pick Your Fave Desserts And We'll Tell You Which Shadowhunters Character You Are 

Girlfriend (article):  Freeform just confirmed the WORST news about 'Shadowhunters' in the shadiest way ever

The Geekiary (article):  Freeform Issues Weak Apology After Mocking “Shadowhunters” Fans in Disappointing Move

Bleeding Cool (article):  Angry Shadowhunters Fans Tell Freeform It’s Too Soon…Too Soon

ComicBook.com (article):  Freeform Trolls 'Shadowhunters' Fans With 'Toy Story' Broadcast, Prompting Backlash

TV Guide (article):  Freeform Pokes Fun at Shadowhunters Fans for Trying to Save the Show

TV Line (article): 2018 in Review: TV's Workaholics — Connie Britton, Johnny Galecki, Mckenna Grace and 22 More Actors

Meaww Entertainment (article): Shadowhunters' Magnus Bane is a sassy, powerful LGBTQ+ icon made more relatable with a tragic past and inherent flaws

PRIDE (article): 13 Geeky AF LGBT Shows You Can Stream Right Now

Just Jared Jr (article): Katherine McNamara tweets about wanting to be on ‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’ & fans are here for it

Just Jared Jr (article): The top 15 TV shows on JustJaredJr shouldn’t surprise anyone

Tell Tale TV (article): 30 Favorite Couples from 2018

Meaww Entertainment (article): 'Shadowhunters': Jace Herondale's melancholic backstory makes him more mysterious than his dashing looks and cold exterior

Deadline Hollywood (article): Freeform Buys ‘Scare Club’ Drama From Matt Hastings

Matt Carter (article): Shadowhunters Season 3 Episode 11 spoilers: The search for Clary

Digital Spy (article): Shadowhunters season 3, episode 11 gets first-look picture as series boss hints at show's ending

Pop Sugar (article): Its official, this was the best TV couple of 2018

TV Guide (article):  Winter TV 2019: A Guide to All Your Returning Favorites

TV Insider (article): 10 TV shows we’ll be sad to see end in 2019

Meaww Entertainment (article): 'Shadowhunters' season 3B first look: Clary is on everyone's mind as Luke and Jace kick off a search party

Hidden Remote (article): Shadowhunters Season 3B: Jacky Lai to play Aline Penhallow

The Series Regular (article): ‘Shadowhunters:’ Christmas Carols With Our Characters

Matt Carter (article): Shadowhunters season 3: New photo of Luke Baines’ Jonathan

Digital Spy (article): Shadowhunters’ final season unveils a first look at Luke Baines as the real Jonathan Morgenstern.

The Fandom (article): Entertainment Weekly releases Shadowhunters first look

Meaww Entertainment (article): ‘Shadowhunters’ Clary Fray is a ray of hope for anyone niggled by self-doubt and struggling to fit in

Matt Carter (article): Shadowhunters season 3 teaser: Jace struggles, lashes out

Cosmopolitan (article): Everything to know about ‘Shadowhunters’ Season 3B and finale event 

Buzzfeed (quiz): Everyone’s personality matches a ‘Shadowhunters’ character - here’s yours

Pure Fandom (article): ‘Shadowhunters’: Looking back at Pandemonium Con

Matt Carter (article): Shadowhunters season 3 video: Magnus’ morning without magic

Meaww Entertainment (article): ‘Shadowhunters’ Alec Lightwood is a stark portrayal of the boundaries people can cross and the limitations they can overcome

Just Jared Jr (article): Jace & Simon are having a really hard time without Clary in first ‘Shadowhunters’ promo for final season

Meaww Entertainment (article): ‘Shadowhunters’ Simon Lewis is a wholesome, geeky vampire who also managed to beat the friendzone

Hypable (article): ‘Shadowhunters’ Season 3B: Piecing together all the teasers

Just Jared Jr (article): JJJ’s top actors of 2018 are all tall, dark, and handsome--see the full list!

Meaww Entertainment (article): Did Freeform just troll Shadowhunters fans again? Network uses hit show tagline for new project ‘Siren’

TV Fanatic (article): 23 Most Headscratching Cancellations of 2018

Nerds & Beyond (article): New trailer and Images released for second half of season three of ‘Shadowhunters’

Spoiler TV (article): Year end Stats-Facts and Figures from 2018-Most popular shows, post, videos, and more

Tell Tale TV (article): 26 Fantastic Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror TV Shows from 2018

Matt Carter (video): The five most surprising cancellations of 2018

Tell Tale TV (article): 30 Favorite TV Couples from 2018

Entertainment Tonight (video): #Bughead, #Lyatt, #Choni...we can’t get enough of these steamy smooches of 2018! We fearlessly stan each and EVERY one of these lip-locking moments and look forward to plenty more in 2019. Did your faves make the list?

Meaww Entertainment (article): ‘Shadowhunters’ Maia Roberts is a symbol of radical values coming together as a sexy werewolf bartender

Matt Carter (article): Shadowhunters season 3: New Alec-Izzy behind-the-scenes tease

Matt Carter (article): CarterMatt Awards 2018: Shadowhunters’ Malec wins best Couple!

TV Insider (article): 10 shows that surged in popularity in 2018

TV Line (article): TV shows ending in 2019: Jane, Thrones, and More--Which will you miss the most?

Meaww Entertainment (article): ‘Shadowhunters’: Mushy, yet spicy ‘Malec’ action unfolds in new teaser for season 3B

Hidden Remote (article): Shadowhunters season 3B teasers: Where in the world is Clary?

KSiteTV (article): KSiteTV’s Top 18 Shows of 2018

Film Daily (article): True Love’s Kiss: A scorching ranking of Malec’s hottest ‘Shadowhunters’ scenes

Film Daily (article): All the shows cancelled this year (and if they deserved it).

Twitter & Social Media Stuff

Brian Hui (makeup artist) tweeted: Snowshoes and smiles! Right ⁦@DomSherwood1⁩ ? #shadowhunters3B

Brian Hui (makeup artist) tweeted: ⁦@AnnaBananaHops⁩ you reminded me about the glory of those Lilith nails!

Darren Swimmer (showrunner) tweeted: Magic 8-ball says: The Shadowhunters family is not to be "toyed" with.  Freeform execs have personally and sincerely appologized to @Toddzer1 and I for the Toy Story debacle and we accept their apologies

Anna Hopkins (Lilith) tweeted: Wowee! I mean I like to have fun too though. Thank you for including me on this list!! And for using a pic of #Lilith #Shadowhunters #Shadowfam #theexpanse #Killjoys #badblood

Luke Baines (Jonathan Morgenstern): Funniest part about this scene: it’s the actual cafeteria at the SH studio so we had to eat lunch in a hallway.

Matt Hastings (showrunner) responded to a fan tweet: I’m ok. Know this: we love and respect you. Without this fearless fandom the show simply wouldn’t exist. So proud to be a part of it.

Alberto Rosende (Simon) tweeted: I’m very proud of our bookclub! Thank you @ritawarrazzo for the writeup. I hope #RosendeReads countinues to be a place of learning, growth, and fun. 

Johnathan Ho (Brother Zachariah): SURPRISE I DID A THING!! Watch me attempt my VERY FIRST GINGERBREAD HOUSE (spoiler alert: it doesn't go as smoothly as I'd expected...). Tune in to @FanCityTV's YouTube channel TOMORROW for the hilarity and shenanigans!

Jade Hassoune (Meliorn): I know you want juicy spoilers. So... **SPOILER** #Meliorn has a new weapon. and he’s a happy child. — #Shadowhunters returns Feb25 on freeform and Feb26th on #Netflix worldwide!!! — — #themortalinstruments #seelie #faerie #FaerieKnight #elf lyfe. — @Netflix_CA

Katherine McNamara (Clary): Throwing my pointy black hat in the ring for next season of #ChillingAdventuresOfSabrina... or the next production of The Crucible - either works - I’m feeling witchy... @sabrinanetflix @tiltedmagazine #wednesdaywitchdom ;)

Katherine McNamara (Clary): Haha to be clear... I have not been cast in #CAOS... I’m just a fan and I couldn’t resist with the resemblance of the pic. #wannabewitch

Alexandra Ordolis (Ollie): this was such a fun scene to shoot! Playing it cool is not in Ollie’s vocabulary. #Shadowhunters #25DaysOfTeasers

Luke Baines (Johnathan): Duh. #Shadowunters fans are the best. EVERY TIME

Jade Hassoune (Meliorn): A polaroid I took of the thousand you, on stage in #Milan this past summer. Remember? #tbt #itainstitutecon2 @ITAInstituteCon  @Kinetic_Vibe   — #shadowhunters #fandom

Katherine McNamara (Clary) posts a photo from her childhood: Some things never change... #spoonfulofsugar #tistheseason

Taylor Mallory (writer):  [Speaking Spanish] Izzy: This blade is worthy of a king. (rey = king = his last name, zing!) Lorenzo: How generous... and unexpected.

Javier Munoz (Lorenzo Rey):  #TBT while simultaneously looking towards February like.... @ShadowhuntersTV #LorenzoRey Can. Not. Wait. #shadowhuntersseason3

Sydney Meyers (Helen Blackthorn):  Eileen is one of my oldest and dearest friends so I'm sorry for any confusion our genuine friendship caused. With that said, Jacky and Eileen know each other, it's all love over here

Sydney Meyers (Helen Blackthorn):  Welcome @hijackylai!!! she's a firecracker in all the best ways

Todd Slavkin (showrunner) tweeted:  Helen and Aline BTS ⁦@meyers48⁩  ⁦@hijackylai⁩  #dancingshadowhunters #putyourswordsdown #Shadowhunters #3b

Jonathon Ho (Brother Zachariah): You haven't seen the last of me yet! Brother Snackariah will be making a couple more appearances in 3B

Jacky Lai (Aline Penhallow) shares a photo on Instagram:  Aline Penhallow is coming for you #2019 #Shadowhunters

Luke Baines (Jonathan Morgenstern) responded to some fan questions:

Honestly, I did a lot bc he’s such a big character & Will played him so perfectly that I didn’t want to ruin that. Aside from reading, watching the show, other research, I worked with a criminologist who helped me better understand the psyche of a person who was raised as JCM was

I’m really interested to know what you all will think of 3x17... we worked really hard on it and it reveals a lot about Jonathan.

Not the scripts, but the call sheet which is a document that production sends out the night before shooting so you know what time to arrive on set and what scenes you’re filming.

I did not. I’m annoyingly serious on set. Also I spent most of 3B crying, so there wasn’t much time. 

Shame it’s gonna be undone when you see me terrorize the cast. #RememberThisFeeling

Katherine McNamara (Clary) tweeted a photo: Truth or Dare

Luke Baines (Johnathan):  ERCHOMAI: I am coming

Brian Hui (makeup artist) shared a photo: “Hmm, are you thinking about more than just chestnuts roasting over an open fire @LukeBaines ? #Shadowhunters

Taylor Mallory (writer) responded to a fan question: There’s a reason for the change! Book Val has white blonde hair so book Jon’s hair is a visual signifier of his Morgenstern blood. But bc flashbacks establish TV Val as brunette, TV Jon’s red hair is a stricking indicator of his blood connection to the family-and Clary. #BTS

Katherine McNamara (Clary) shares a photo: Mirror mirror on the wall...@lukebaines #Erchomai #ShadowhuntersLegacy

Luke Baines (Johnathan): Thanks Feri! Team work makes the dream work

Katherine McNamara (Clary): A little early holiday treat for you angels...@lukebaines and I building sibling rapport. I give you #MorgensternMindMeld! #Headsup @theellenshow #ShadowhuntersLegacy #ShadowhuntersTV

Katherine McNamara (Clary): Holiday fitness...Just roll with it 

Todd Slavkin (Showrunner): We only had 42 minutes for each episode, not a second longer. Luckily, these scenes live on through social media #merryxmas #whendoogiehowsermdasksyouanswer #motherandson #moretocome #Shadowhunters

Todd Slavkin (Showrunner): Merry Xmas to the best fandom in television #lilithandmagnus #holidayinedom #shadowhunters

Todd Slavkin (Showrunner): Cheers to you and your loved ones #happyholidays #fromourfamilytoyours #shadowhunters #3B

Katherine McNamara (Clary) tweeted: Have yourselves a merry little christmas, angels! We’ll see you soon! FEB 25th! @ShadowhuntersTV #25DaysofTeasers #ShadowhuntersLegacy

Luke Baines (Johnathon) tweeted: If you’re wondering how @DomSherwood1 went punching that mirror...it went great Really well. But it’s chill, we found medicine. 

Dominic Sherwood (Jace) tweeted: Hahahaha. He’s not wrong folks.

Dominic Sherwood (Jace) tweeted: Mum?

Sydney Meyer (Helen Blackthorn) tweeted: Merry Christmas from #Heline! (And also apparently prom?

Katherine McNamara (Clary) tweeted: Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night...Visions of sugarplums or food coma? Either way-I’m happy. Surrounded by family, food, and film. Wishing you and yours love and joy this holiday.

Brian Hui (makeup artist) responded to a fan question: Luke and I decided that Johnathan would be obsessed with Clary so he would have a lot of the same ones as hers but all slightly askew. He also has some of Jace’s but a mirror image (like the speed) on his neck. Shh, secrets!!!

Dominic Sherwood (Jace) tweeted: Thank you very much @richarddennen​ and tatlermagazine for including me. This was a lot of fun with some really great folks.

Dominic Sherwood (Jace) tweeted: Totally candid. They just caught me turning up. @richarddennen​ and tatlermagazine Thank you!

Katherine McNamara (Clary) tweeted: When you realize the holiday leftovers are all gone... #FrayFriday #ShadowhuntersLegacy @ShadowhuntersTV #FBF 

Brian Hui (makeup artist) tweeted: Let’s have a little throwback BTS with two lovely ladies! Right @AnnaBananaHops @aleyordolis ? #Shadowhunters

Taylor Mallory (writer) explained: Each episode is broken down scene by scene by the whole writers room! Then one writer goes off to write the outline & script. Both documents get lots of notes from the room, showrunners, network, & producers; the writer is in charge of implementing them! #Collectiveprocess

Katherine McNamara (Clary): Tryna get my fit together...thanks to @nuno_salles for kicking my ass on the daily! #progress

Katherine McNamara (Clary) congratulated Dom (Jace) and Greg Sulkin on gracing the cover of Tatler magazine 

Arianna Williams (Madzie): Dom & me #sweetride #memories #Shadowhunters

Anna Hopkins (Lilith): I’m loving all your answers. Whether it was “all of them I’m gay for her” or “none, I wanted her to burn and die every second she was on screen.” I love you all and am proud of you and miss you!! #disciples #shadowfam #Shadowhunters #ShadowhuntersLegacy #Lilith

Katherine McNamara (Clary) wishes Steve Byers (Underhill) a happy birthday.

Katherine McNamara (Clary) posted a photo of herself with the caption “Daydream with me...”

Emeraude Toubia (Izzy) posted a photo of her with Prince Royce

Matthew Daddario (Alec) posted a photo announcing his wedding last year with the caption “Gotta be able to do all three! Happy One year! Happy New Year!”

Esther Kim (Matthew Daddario’s wife) posted a photo announcing their one year anniversary with the caption “Happy Anniversary gonna be hard to top last year’s celebrations!”. 

Alisha Wainwright (Maia): 2018 was intense. I’m happy to come out the other side with a sense of possibility and gratitude. Dream big. Happy new year. 

Katherine McNamara (Clary) posted a photo with Will Tudor (Jonathon Morganstern/Sebastian Verlac) at her New Years eve celebration with the caption “Ringing in 2019 with these dapper gents! #HappyNewYear to one and all!”

Arianna Williams (Madzie) posted some photos of herself from 2018 with the caption “Where’s the party at? 2018 was fabulous, I can’t wait for 2019 and all the new memories to come #loveyou #ariana #makingmemories #arilovers”

Katherine McNamara (Clary) tweeted: 2018, thank you. 2019, I’m ready. #happynewyear

Other News

Shadowhunters TV tweeted: Two practically perfect things in one video: @Kat_McNamara and @Disney’s #MaryPoppinsReturns. Make sure to catch this one, in theaters Wednesday.

YoutubeTV tweeted: First up on our #Shipmas List is the iconic Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood. May @ShadowhuntersTV let them live happily ever after. #MalecForever

FanCityCentral tweeted: Hey #Shadowfam We’re joined by @_jbho_ in tomorrow’s FANMAS episode!! We compete in a Gingerbread House Challenge with Brother Zachariah & talk all things Shadowhunters! Subscribe to check it out & enter our awesome SH giveaway tomorrow!

Film Daily (contest): 60 second fan fiction seasonal contest

FanCityCentral (video): GUYS ITS HERE!!! DAY SIX OF #FANMAS Our super intense gingerbread making contest with @_jbho_ is live! AND our amazing #shadowhunters giveaway. We had so much fun making this for you guys we can’t wait to hear what you think!   

FanCityCentral (Video): Helllooooo fandom fam... As promised we have a 9 minute Blooper-esque video coming to you tomorrow with outtakes from our gingerbread competition with @_jbho_ #Shadowhunters #SaveShadowhunters

FanCityCentral (video): #12 This moment “A new love interest? Are you out of your mind?!” Proving once again why entertainment shows should hire fans for interviews-or at the very least do their research. #MalecForever #SaveShadowhunters #FandomIn2018

@ferilambert tweeted: It’s officially on freeform.com. why they didn’t post it on twitter? Go and stream the shit out of it #Shadowfam #SaveShadowhunters #Shadowhunters

Alberto Rosende (Simon): Feb 25th! #ShadowhuntersSeason3B #MerryChristmas

TV Insider (article): Which TV stars are expecting in 2018?

[prixmiumarchive]

This is super personal specific-to-me feelings about the shortly-after-the-opening scene of Part 3 of Crisis On Earth X. Putting it beneath a read more because discussions of homophobia and parents and family and all the bundle of mess that goes with that. Also, you know, Nazi-mention.

I have a lot more to say about this crossover event, and I might say it later. Over all, my general opinion is mostly-favorable in spite of some criticisms I read of the genera concept prior to watching that made me dread it. I don’t have a mostly-favorable opinion because the whole thing was easy to watch but because it wasn’t always easy to watch. I can see why somebody would abstain from watching it. However, I refuse to believe that portrayal = endorsement.

The thing I wanted to make a post about for some catharsis before I go to sleep is the scene between Sara and Nazi!Quentin when the Earth 1 heroes find themselves in the prison yard on Earth X. I don’t even want to look it up on YouTube in order to give you reference because it is just creeping and crawling all over me. It’s like the second or third significant bit of conversation for the Earth 1 heroes in that sequence, though.

Nazi!Quentin comes out and sees Sara. For some reason he seems a bit dense about doppelgangers. He uses the phrase “looks just like” as if it’s some kind of mild coincidence. That’s a different thing, though. Rather than recognizing Sara as a version of his daughter, he looks at her and remarks on her blonde hair, blue eyes -- “Nordic perfection” -- and asks why she would align herself with the “unpure.” [sic] 

Sara’s response is because “Because I like men. And I like women.”

Nazi!Quentin’s response (per this transcript because I can’t watch it again in isolation right now) is: “You know, I had a daughter who looked just like you, with similar compulsions. And I expunged that filth from my family line forever.“

And I am just still-shaken by this days and days later. I liked this event in part because it didn’t tend to pull punches where it might have in a way that would have trivialized its own concept. I think that if you have a critique for it, on would have to go with the idea that this is a concept that shouldn’t have even been broached right now.

With regard to this one exchange, though, as a bisexual person I am just really troubled. This show whose Earth 1 Quentin adores his daughters in a very pure, appropriately-fatherly way has a Nazi counterpart who literally killed (or allowed the systematic murder of) his daughter for the crime of being attracted to women. 

Especially given that Sara and Alex are allowed to have a positive, consensual, but ultimately casual sexual relationship early in the crossover event that allowed them to bond but not in a forever-true-love-romantic kind of way, the contrast is just so jarring. And I guess the reason it is bothering me so much is because I often want to share fandom-y things I’m super-passionate about with my parents. I’m in my 20s but still live at home. If you are my age and manage to not do so, I am in awe and wonder how you do it. However, in recent years, I have stopped sharing much of my fandom-stuff, even in small chunks, with my family. There are several reasons for this. Working exacerbating my introversion. Aging itself. There is also the fact that I think prior to my graduation from college/move back home, my parents felt more inclined to indulge my interests because they knew I was alone and lonely and didn’t have anyone to share my stuff with in person. That is still true, but somehow with me living back here, it matters less to them.

Anyway, since I very acutely got back into DCTV and have been working my way through things when I am able, I have been wanting to share some part of it with my parents. However, I find that I am more guarded with sharing my media with my parents than I was five years ago. More to the point, I thought about sharing the Crisis on Earth X crossover with my mom because it’s got campy elements but deals with a serious topic in a fantastical way, but every time I seriously thought about asking, suddenly, and with a cold, sick kind of feeling I would decide not to. I decided not to not because of Nazis or violence or references to other things my parents might not agree with morally. There are lots of things we can mutually watch-but-not-condone. Instead, it was because of Sara and Alex’s encounter (in the most TV-14 franchise ever about this kind of thing -- tasteful and never graphic and staying well within their bounds but using their allotted space and leeway) in the first episode.

I don’t want to show my mom because while we watched J. Edgar in theaters with neither of us anticipating that there would be a m/m relationship in it because I guess we just sort of missed that bit of history and she came away “sympathetic even though she disagreed,” I just didn’t want to watch the look of revulsion on her face. All the disapproval would have been mild, disappointed, reluctant, with a what-is-becoming-mainstream-is-terrible-for-our-kids kind of vibe.

I’m bisexual and my parents will never know unless I fall deeply in love with another woman. Simply because I cannot bear to watch as my life, in their eyes, slowly becomes about what went wrong in my mind. Whose fault it is. How to fix it. And so, this bit just really troubles me because while I love both my parents and consider myself to have a decent relationship with them -- especially considering the horrors I know that could be even in my listening to the lives of others -- I know that there is a huge part of me that I hide for my own safety. it is a very minor, comfort kind of safety. However, the other day, I had a conversation with my mom about racism and she, unprompted, actually expressed the notion that she agreed that everyone learned prejudices with or without being hatefully or deliberately racist. She acknowledged the need to self-examine, self-educate, and improve as a white person toward people of color. I was genuinely and pleasantly surprised that she had arrived to this kind of articulation of something on her own. However, I just wish that the same applied to LGBT issues. 

That scene is sticking to me in a way I can’t get rid of because I don’t blame my parents for what they were taught. I don’t hate them. Even if I came out to them today, they wouldn’t hate or reject me. However, it is the insidious nature of homophobia and hate that has its roots in so, so deep. It is the slow slip from middle-of-the-road to violent conservatism that “moderate” reasonable people never, ever see. It is the inevitability of there being a short, short path from simple disapproval and refusal to understand to the very notion that a parent could reject, ostracize, or punish a child for the kinds of people they are inclined to love.

I don’t know that this post was useful at all, but it was just some thought-expulsion I had to do. You are entitled to view this show or my own life and my own choices through your own lens, but I have mine. And right now, they’re kind of cloudy with a sort of lingering regret. I’m glad that I can look on TV and see women kissing women and men kissing men without it being so scandalous, so fetishized, but the gulf that is placing between me and my family ever knowing what it is that give me joy, in life or in fiction, is dizzying.