#also! might be over at another blog today but : ) talk 2 me! about pre-war or if you got anything to add or point out about gen 3s!]

[mjvnivsbrvtvs]

hi! so we have established at this point that you have A Lot Of thoughts about antony and brutus. but how does caesar (julius, not the little bitch octavian) play into that? bc like. my knowledge and impression of them is very limited and mainly constructed from watching hbo rome and idk. i think it'd be fun to throw caesar in the mix. love all the art and writing on your blog btw! have a nice day.

Hey, okay! So this used to be over 30 pages long (Machiavelli and Caligula got involved and that's when things got out of hand), but through the power of friendship and two late night writing dates fueled by coffee, I’ve cut it way down to under 10. Many thanks to the people who listened to me ramble about it at length, and also to a dear friend for helping me cut this down to under ten pages!

Also, thank you! I'm glad you enjoy the stuff I make! It makes me very happy to hear that!

And quickly, a Disclaimer: I’m not an academic, I’m not a classicist, I’m not a historian, and I spend a lot of time very stressed out that I’ve tricked people into thinking I’m someone who has any kind of merit in this area. It's probably best to treat this as an abstract character analysis!

On the other hand, I love talking about dead men, so, with enthusiasm, here we go!

For this, I’m going to cut Shakespeare and HBO Rome out of the framework and focus more on a historical spin.

Caesar is a combination of a manipulator and a catalyst. A Bad Omen. The remaining wound that’s poisoning Rome.

Cassius gets a lot of the blame for Brutus’ turn to assassination, but it overlooks that Brutus was already inclined towards political ambition, as were most men involved in the political landscape of the time.

Furthermore, although Sulla had actually raised the number of praetorships available from six to eight, there were still only two consulships available. There was always the chance that death or disgrace might remove some of the competition and hence ease the bottleneck. But, otherwise, it was at the top of the ladder that the competition was particularly fierce: whereas in previous years one in three praetors would have gone on to become consul, from the 80s BC onwards the chances were one in four. For the senators who had made it this far, it mattered that they should try to achieve their consulship in the earliest year allowed to them by law. To fail in this goal once was humiliating; to fail at the polls twice would be deemed a signal disgrace for a man like Brutus.

Kathryn Tempest, Brutus the Noble Conspirator

The way Caesar offered Brutus political power the way that he did, and Brutus accepting it, locked them into the assassination outcome.

Here is a man who’s built his entire image around honor and liberty and virtu, around being a staunch defender of morals and the republic

In these heated circumstances, Brutus composed a bitter tract On the Dictatorship of Pompey (De Dictatura Pompei), in which he staunchly opposed the idea of giving Pompey such a position of power. ‘It is better to rule no one than to be another man’s slave’, runs one of the only snippets of this composition to survive today: ‘for one can live honourably without power’, Brutus explained, ‘but to live as a slave is impossible’. In other words, Brutus believed it would be better for the Senate to have no imperial power at all than to have imperium and be subject to Pompey’s whim.

Kathryn Tempest, Brutus the Noble Conspirator

and you give him political advancement, but without the honor needed for this advancement to mean anything?

At the same time, however, Brutus had gained his position via extremely un-republican means: appointment by a dictator rather than election by the people. As the name of the famous career path, the cursus honorum, suggests, political office was perceived as an honour at Rome. But it was one which had to be bestowed by the populus Romanus in recognition of a man’s dignitas.69 In other words, a man’s ‘worth’ or ‘standing’ was only really demonstrated by his prior services to the state and his moral qualities, and that was what was needed to gain public recognition. Brutus had got it wrong. As Cicero not too subtly reminded him in the treatise he dedicated to Brutus: ‘Honour is the reward for virtue in the considered opinion of the citizenry.’ But the man who gains power (imperium) by some other circumstance, or even against the will of the people, he continues, ‘has laid his hands only on the title of honour, but it is not real honour’.70

Brutus may have secured political office, then, but he had not done so honourably; nor had he acted in a manner that would earn him a reputation for virtue or everlasting fame.

Kathryn Tempest, Brutus the Noble Conspirator

Brutus in the image that he fashioned for himself was not compatible with the way Caesar was setting him up to be a political successor, and there was really never going to be any other outcome than the one that happened.

The Brutus of Shakespeare and Plutarch’s greatest tragedy was that he was pushed into something he wouldn’t have done otherwise. The Brutus of history’s greatest tragedy was accepting Caesar’s forgiveness after the Caesar-Pompey conflict, and then selling out for political ambition, because Caesar's forgiveness is not benevolent.

Rather than have his enemies killed, he offered them mercy or clemency -- clementia in Latin. As Caesar wrote to his advisors, “Let this be our new method of conquering -- to fortify ourselves by mercy and generosity.” Caesar pardoned most of his enemies and forbore confiscating their property. He even promoted some of them to high public office.

This policy won him praise from no less a figure than Marcus Tullius Cicero, who described him in a letter to Aulus Caecina as “mild and merciful by nature.” But Caecina knew a thing or two about dictators, since he’d had to publish a flattering book about Caesar in order to win his pardon after having opposed him in the civil war. Caecina and other beneficiaries of Caesar’s unusual clemency took it in a far more ambivalent way. To begin with, most of them were, like Caesar, Roman nobles. Theirs was a culture of honor and status; asking a peer for a pardon was a serious humiliation. So Caesar’s “very power of granting favors weighed heavily on free people,” as Florus, a historian and panegyrist of Rome, wrote about two centuries after the dictator’s death. One prominent noble, in fact, ostentatiously refused Caesar’s clemency. Marcius Porcius Cato, also known as Cato the Younger, was a determined opponent of populist politics and Caesar’s most bitter foe. They had clashed years earlier over Caesar’s desire to show mercy to the Catiline conspirators; Cato argued vigorously for capital punishment and convinced the Senate to execute them. Now he preferred death to Caesar’s pardon. “I am unwilling to be under obligations to the tyrant for his illegal acts,” Cato said; he told his son, "I, who have been brought up in freedom, with the right of free speech, cannot in my old age change and learn slavery instead.

-Barry Strauss, Caesar and the Dangers of Forgiveness

something else that's a fun adjacent to the topic that's fun to think about:

The link between ‘sparing’ and ‘handing over’ is common in the ancient world.763 Paul also uses παραδίδωμι again, denoting ‘hand over, give up a person’ (Bauer et al. 2000:762).764 The verb παραδίδωμι especially occurs in connection with war (Eschner 2010b:197; Gaventa 2011:272).765 However, in Romans 8:32, Paul uses παραδίδωμι to focus on a court image (Eschner 2010b:201).766 Christina Eschner (2010b:197) convincingly argues that Paul’s use of παραδίδωμι refers to the ‘Hingabeformulierungen’ as the combination of the personal object of the handing over of a person in the violence of another person, especially the handing over of a person to an enemy.767 Moreover, Eschner (2009:676) convincingly argues that Isaiah 53 is not the pre-tradition for Romans 8:32.

Annette Potgieter, Contested Body: Metaphors of dominion in Romans 5-8

Along with the internal conflict of Pompey, the murderer of Brutus’ father, and Caesar, the figurehead for everything that goes against what Brutus stands for, Brutus accepting Caesar’s forgiveness isn’t an act of benevolence, regardless of Caesar’s intentions.

On wards, Caesar owns Brutus. Caesar benefits from having Brutus as his own, he inherits Brutus’ reputation, he inherits a better PR image in the eyes of the Roman people. On wards, nothing Brutus does is without the ugly stain of Caesar. His career is no longer his own, his life is no longer fully his own, his legacy is no longer entirely his. Brutus becomes a man divided.

And it’s not like it was an internal struggle, it was an entire spectacle. Hypocrisy is theatrical. Call yourself a man of honor and then you sell out? The people of Rome will remember that, and they’re going to make sure you know it.

After this certain men at the elections proposed for consuls the tribunes previously mentioned, and they not only privately approached Marcus Brutus and such other persons as were proud-spirited and attempted to persuade them, but also tried to incite them to action publicly. 12 1 Making the most of his having the same name as the great Brutus who overthrew the Tarquins, they scattered broadcast many pamphlets, declaring that he was not truly that man's descendant; for the older Brutus had put to death both his sons, the only ones he had, when they were mere lads, and left no offspring whatever. 2 Nevertheless, the majority pretended to accept such a relationship, in order that Brutus, as a kinsman of that famous man, might be induced to perform deeds as great. They kept continually calling upon him, shouting out "Brutus, Brutus!" and adding further "We need a Brutus." 3 Finally on the statue of the early Brutus they wrote "Would that thou wert living!" and upon the tribunal of the living Brutus (for he was praetor at the time and this is the name given to the seat on which the praetor sits in judgment) "Brutus, thou sleepest," and "Thou art not Brutus."

Cassius Dio

Brutus knew. Cassius knew. Caesar knew. You can’t escape your legacy when you’re the one who stamped it on coins.

Caesar turned Brutus into the dagger that would cut, and Brutus himself isn’t free from this injury. It’s a mutual betrayal, a mutual dooming.

By this time Caesar found himself being attacked from every side, and as he glanced around to see if he could force a way through his attackers, he saw Brutus closing in upon him with his dagger drawn. At this he let go of Casca’s hand which he had seized, muffled up his head in his robe, and yielded up his body to his murderers’ blows. Then the conspirators flung themselves upon him with such a frenzy of violence, as they hacked away with their daggers, that they even wounded one another. Brutus received a stab in the hand as he tried to play his part in the slaughter, and every one of them was drenched in blood.

Plutarch

For Antony, Caesar is a bad sign.

Brutus and Antony are fucked over by the generation they were born in, etc etc the cannibalization of Rome on itself, the Third Servile War was the match to the gasoline already on the streets of Rome, the last generation of Romans etc etc etc. They are counterparts to each other, displaced representatives of a time already gone by the time they were alive.

Rome spends its years in a state of civil war after civil war, political upheaval, and death. Neither Brutus or Antony will ever really know stability, as instability is hallmark of the times. Both of them are at something of a disadvantage, although Brutus has what Antony does not, and what Brutus has is what let’s him create his own career. Until Caesar, Brutus is owned by no one.

This is not the case for Antony.

You can track Antony’s life by who he’s attached to. Very rarely is he ever truly a man unto himself, there is always someone nearby.

In his youth, it is said, Antony gave promise of a brilliant future, but then he became a close friend of Curio and this association seems to have fallen like a blight upon his career. Curio was a man who had become wholly enslaved to the demands of pleasure, and in order to make Antony more pliable to his will, he plunged him into a life of drinking bouts, love-affairs, and reckless spending. The consequence was that Antony quickly ran up debts of an enormous size for so young a man, the sum involved being two hundred and fifty talents. Curio provided security for the whole of this amount, but his father heard of it and forbade Antony his house. Antony then attached himself for a short while to Clodius, the most notorious of all the demagogues of his time for his lawlessness and loose-living, and took part in the campaigns of violence which at that time were throwing political affairs at Rome into chaos.

Plutarch

(although, in contrast to Brutus, we rarely lose sight of Antony. As a person, we can see him with a kind of clarity, if one looks a little bit past the Augustan propaganda. He is, at all times, human.)

Antony being figuratively or literally attached to a person starts early, and continues politically. While Brutus has enough privilege to brute force his way into politics despite Cicero’s lamentation of a promising life being thrown off course, Antony will instead follow a different career path that echoes in his personal life and defines his relationships.

Whereas some young men often attached or indebted themselves to a patron or a military leader at the beginning of their political lives,

Kathryn Tempest, Brutus the Noble Conspirator

+

3. During his stay in Greece he was invited by Gabinius, a man of consular rank, to accompany the Roman force which was about to sail for Syria. Antony declined to join him in a private capacity, but when he was offered the command of the cavalry he agreed to serve in the campaign.

Plutarch

To take it a step further, it even defines how he’s perceived today looking back: it’s never just Antony, it’s always Antony and---

It can be read as someone being taken advantage of, in places, survival in others, especially in Antony's early life. Other times, it appears like Antony himself is the one who manipulates things to his favor, casting aside people and realigning himself back to an advantage.

or when he saw an opportunity for faster advancement, he was willing to place the blame on a convenient scapegoat or to disregard previous loyalties, however important they had been. His desertion of Fulvia's memory in 40, and, much later, of Lepidus, Sextus Pompey, and Octavia, produced significant political gains. This characteristic, which Caesar discovered to his cost in 47, gives the sharp edge to Antony's personality which Syme's portrait lacks, especially when he attributes Antony's actions to a 'sentiment of loyalty' or describes him as a 'frank and chivalrous soldier'. In this context, one wonders what became of Fadia.19

Kathryn E Welch , Antony, Fulvia, and the Ghost of Clodius in 47 B.C.

Caesar inherits Antony, and like Brutus, locks him in for a doomed ending.

The way Caesar writes about Antony smacks of someone viewing another person as something more akin to a dog, and it carries over until it’s bitter conclusion.

Caesar benefits from Antony immensely. The people love Antony, the military loves Antony. He’s charming, he’s self aware, he’s good at what he does. Above all of that, he has political ambitions of a similar passion as Brutus.

Antony drew some political benefit from his genial personality. Even Cicero, who from at least 49 did not like him,15 was prepared to regard some of his earlier misdemeanours as harmless.16 Bluff good humour, moderate intelligence, at least a passing interest in literature, and an ability to be the life and soul of a social gathering all contributed to make him a charming companion and to bind many important people to him. He had a lieutenant's ability to follow orders and a willingness to listen to advice, even (one might say especially) from intelligent women.17 These attributes made Antony able to handle some situations very well."1

There was a more important side to his personality, however, which contributed to his political survival. Antony was ruthless in his quest for pre-eminence

Kathryn E Welch , Antony, Fulvia, and the Ghost of Clodius in 477 B.C.

None of this matters, because after all Antony does for Caesar

Plutarch's comment that Curio brought Antony into Caesar's camp is surely mistaken.59 Anthony had been serving as Caesar's officer from perhaps as early as 53, after his return from Syria.60 He is described as legatus in late 52,61 and was later well known as Caesar's quaestor.62 It is more likely that the reverse of the statement is true, that Antony assisted in bringing Curio over to Caesar. If this were so, then he performed a signal service for Caesar, for gaining Curio meant attaching Fulvia, who provided direct access to the Clodian clientela in the city. Such valuable political connections served to increase Antony's standing with Caesar, and to set him apart from other officers in his army.63

Kathryn E Welch , Antony, Fulvia, and the Ghost of Clodius in 477 B.C.

Caesar still, for whatever reasons, fucks over Antony spectacularly with the will. Loyalty is repaid with dismissal, and it will bury the Republic for good.

It’s not enough for Caesar to screw him over just once, it becomes generational and ugly. Caesar lives on through Octavian: it becomes Octavian’s brand, his motif, propaganda wielded like a knife. Octavian, thanks to Caesar, will bring Antony to his bitter conclusion

And for my "bitter" conclusion, I’ll sign off by saying that there are actual scholars on Antony who are more well versed than I am who can go into depth about the Caesar-Octavian-Antony dynamic (and how it played out with Caligula) better than I can, and scholarship on Brutus consists mostly of looking at an outline of a man and trying to guess what the inside was like.

At the end of the day, Caesar was the instigator, active manipulator, and catalyst for the final act of the Republic.

I hope that this was at least entertaining to read!

[popculturebuffet]

Of Moons, Millionares and Mothers Part 2: The Ballad of Duke Balloney or “I’m Flintheart Glomgold and I Always Will Be!” (Commission for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people. I”m Jake, I review stuff and today continues my look at Ducktales season 2 story arcs, of Moons, Millionares and Mothers. And while this arc as a whole is paid for by WeirdKev27, due to the Arc’s length, 17 parts including 15 episodes and 6 comics (2 of which will be in the same review), this one’s special as he’s using his patreon review every month to do so. If you too want me to review something of your choice simply hit up my ask box or join my patreon at patreon.com/popculture buffet. You get access to my discord, to pick a short when I do a group of them for characters birthdays, help me hit neat stretch goals like my next which is reviewing a darkwing duck episode a month, and best of all EXCLUSIVE REVIEWS. And I just added one this saturday of a carl barks story centerting around wigs, legal battles and attempted murder, both by our villian.. and by our heroes...

I will never get tired of that panel nor the boys inexplicably finding a blowgun. Point is it’s there if you want it at THIS LINK, but enough plugging so I can help pay the streaming bills and keep doing this... let’s get to the meat of things shall we?

This episode begins the second arc of this retrospective, The Glomgold Arc. And this arc was inevitibly going to come to this blog for two reasons. The first is that I have made no secret, in fact i’ve shouted it as loud as I can the neighbors are concerned, that I fucking love the 2017 Version of Flintheart Glomgold. 

Glomgold is Keith Ferguson’s best role, tied with Lord Hater obviously, but it is indeed a tie. No one but Keith could’ve pulled off glomgold’s combination of ego, ham, and batshit insanity. He just makes the utterly stupid and wonderfully ludicrious things that come out of the mans mouth sound so damn natural with such an unearned confidence. It’s very clear that Frank had Keith in mind when putting this version of everyone’s faviorite South African Billionare pretending to be a Scottish Billionare and wisely built the characcter around him and his immense talent. I was not familiar with Keith at all, wasn’t even aware he voiced hater before this show but damn if that hasn’t fully changed. 

Glomgold was also just in general a brilliant update of the character: While I know a lot of duck fans weren’t happy with this version at least at first. As the action figure sitting on my shelf that once road in a car with my david hasslehoff baywatch funko pop I have entirley due to my love of baywatching,  this insane music video hoff did in the early 2000′s, and just in general how gloriously rediculous the man’s life is when you stop and think about it for a second from a pay per-view concert that ended up falling on the same night as The OJ Chase,  to his kung fury cameo , to his weird insetence they never had sex on baywatch desspite mounds of video evdience and the fact the show was buit around the bulk of it’s cast’s sex appeal, to the fact the model of his pecs used for the spongebob movie was sold in an auction and on and on... I was going somewhere with this...

Oh right as the action figure, and previous praise, shows I am not one of these fans: The original isn’t bad, in fact one of my faviorite life and times chapters that i’ll be covering this week and talking about later in the review has him as the main antagonist and a pitvitol figure in Scrooge’s life in the worst way possible. Rosa GETS what’s needed for Flinty to feel specail: to have him be an evil mirror to scrooge, what he could’ve been had he kept down the path he started down in Africa. A ruthless, amoral asshole who will do ANYTHING to get rich. 

It’s just often that isn’t emphasised enough and he’s instead just another one of the millions of generic assholes trying to get scrooges money sometimes with hired goons...

Not only that but Frank really COULDN’T have him at full effectivness. See an arch enemy in the Silver Age, which STARTED the same year Glomgold Debuted no less, wasn’t a big deal. They were still considered your deadliest foe but they’d often, much like Flinty be shuffled into the rogues gallery, show up for an issue to meance the hero, then either escape, get thrown in jail only to escape from that easily later, or be presumed dead. The last one I bring up because it happened to Magneto a LOTTTT pre-claremont. For Fuck’s Sake Charles have those teenagers train to look for a body once in a while!

Original Flinty was built for that, and brilliantly so as Barks had a talent for it , as seen by the fact The Beagle BOys, Flintheart and Magica have stuck around ever since and even in comics overseas where Flintehart is replaced.. it’s by Rockerduck who Barks ALSO created. The 87 Show followed the same formula, which was just as standard for 80′s cartoons. It’s why Megatron took until his toy was canceled the movie to shoot starscream in the face. 

The problem is villians evolved and the expecation became more that a true arch enemy had to be a true threat. While Frank and Matt COULD’VE made Flintheart a real and honest threat, he also would’ve had to make him a Big Bad. The probelm was those seats were clearly taken: while i’m pretty sure some ideas came as they went, the main story beats were clearly planned out well in advance: Webby being a clone was always the plan, as was FOWL, Darkwing being a fan of a fictional Darkwing who became the real thing, and Della being on the moon. So he presumibly carefully choose each season’s big bad... and thus Season’s 1-3 would be full up wise. Season 1 had Magica, who he made into a TRUE threat, yet left the door open for her to return as she did, Season 2 had Lunaris who even if they hadn’t fully thought him up, they probably had thought up the moonvasion, and Season 3 was what they’d built the series towards with FOWL. 

Details probably changed, it’s very clear to me they were likely going to have all three buzzards be important and ended up deicding to pivot to it just being Bradford over time. But given how well they though tout the general framework, I highly doubt Flinty was ever considered as a seirous big bad.. and I know i’m saying this in an arc that tried to set him up as one, but i’m getting there simmer. 

So they could wait for a season 4 that might not happen.. or make him a recurring villian. So Frank and Matt decided to do that and leaned into comedy. Centering him around keith who Frank worked with previously on Wonder and thus knew he could play a hammy manchild like no one else, they simply leaned into the goofier aspects of his personality. His being similar to scrooge became him being an intentional and blatant knockoff. As Scrooge himself perfectly summed up in episode 1 “The poor man’s version of me.. which to be fair still makes him insanely rich”. 

It’s another reason to really love this version as while yes, they did make him a bafoon.. he’s a wonderfully, redicuously layered bafoon: He still contrasts scrooge perfectly, manically hammy to Scrooge being calm, especially around flinty, blantatly crooked to Scrooge’s died in wool honesty, and wasting money on revenge instead of spending it on his actual company. There’s more obviously but some i’m saving for the review. 

Not only that but his insane schemery has a rhyme and reason to it: He attacks Scrooge every week like the saturday morning cartoon villian he is, but his schemes are always unwieldly and massively stupid, and he always goes with the first draft. It’s something the team enforced: the first version is what they role with because that’s how his sad brain works. He also is obssed with sharks and explosives, the former being given a suprisingly heartfelt and unsuprisingly insanne origin story towards the series end, and works them into every plot no matter how much itm akes no sense. He’s pure ego, pure stupid and pure fun. 

So yeah circling back to him being the big bad, I felt he was made one for this season for two reasons: the first is while a lot of fans (raises hand) enjoyed this version, some didn’t like how inept he was, so this would give them a breif bit of Flintheart being a genuine threat again. The other was frankly... they didn’t want to play their hand. Lunaris WAS the big bad... but fans would get supscious if there was seemingly no true threat on the horizon. Magica popped up in episode 4. We didn’t know her full plan yet true, but all we needed was lena SAYING HER NAME and fans of any other version of teh Disney Ducks would instantly go “Oh shit there she is”. So fans would now have the expectation of a main antagonist.. but would be instantly supscious of Lunaris and Penumbra if there wasn’t one for the first third of a season it took to them, and it’d leave a gap in the story to not have someone driving the plot on earth. 

So Flinty got an upgrade.. a slight one and we’ll talk about the eb and flow. And thus he got a proper origin. Now granted they could’ve planned this too, but this one’s harder to tell as the curse you me gag could’ve been a clever setup or could’ve just been a one off gag they somehow turned into an entire episode. So Flinty got an arc.. and a comedic foil, the other reason this was inevieble, and Kev’s faviorite character, Zan Owlson. So how did it work out for them? Well we’ll begin that journey under the cut. 

We begin our story a few months ago.... on every level really: the months ago shadow war aired when this episode originally good, the months ago I reviwed Shadow War (which via counting I found out was my 200th episode not counting Patreon. Nice), and most importantly for this story, the four months ago before the present day of Season 2. 

Glomgold saying curse you me as he fell into the bay during the Shadow War.... only for once in his life he dosen’t somehow get out of it unscathed and instead passes out, almost drowning. He’s found by Fisher and Mann, two fisherpersons... Mann is specific about that due to being a woman despite the obvious irony. It’s a good gag. Flinty acts like he normally would.. hostile, demanding that they know who he is.. and while they don’t.. neither does he. 

Cue credits and cue present day. Via a newscast with Roxanne we learn what I mentioned earlier: It’s been four month and Glomgold’s been missing. The general mood.. has been about what you’d expect. 

Yeah Roxanne turned on him real fast. I genuinely wouldn’t be surprised if it was because he later openly bragged about stealing scrooge’s money during the shark thing on live tv at some point, making Roxanne look terrible for enabling him and for blatantly supporting him earlier. I mean.. how else do you get a corrupt journalist to do anything decent. 

But with Glomgold gone SOMEONE’S gotta replace him.. and that someone is Zan Motherfucking Owlson. Top of her class at Mouseton Univesity, Owlson is the show once again updating things: previously they added Mark Beaks to the Rogue’s Gallery as he contrasts the 50′s (scrooge ) and 80′s (glomgold) idea of billionares from previous versions of the property being a modern tech weasel. Though instead of just one thing Owlson represents a few: The most obvious is she’s a woman of color: Having a black woman in such a high position of power is something disney would’ve outright vetoed in the 50′s and 80′s. Here it’s well accepted as it always should have been. It also feels like a delebrate move on Frank’s part: There weren't’ any major african or african american coded characters in season 1, despite the show being very open and accepting, so that needed to change. The other is frankly outside of Brigtaa MacBridge, whose also weirdly absent from this series for some reason and has taken Fethry and Rockerduck’s place as the most major overseas duck character to never get adapted, there are hardly ever any females on Scrooge and his richer foes level. He’s had the occasional female rival or suitor, but only Brigittta had staying power and while I love the idea of her, another person as rich as scrooge whose willing to spend more and has a crush on him, she badly needed an update as she’s essentially Adventure Era Amy Rose in a grown ass woman’s body. 

Owlson also provides a diffrent dynamic in that she portrays the ideal of what we’d want from a ceo: She’s honest, works hard, earned her way as square as scrooge did, gladly donates to charity and is extremely charismatic and intelligent. Granted most CEO”s are nothing like this but still, she’s what we WANT them to be. Using the money not for themselves or taking big paychecks but to help people. She also provides something Glomgold needed: a straight man. While he has one in Scrooge at times, Owlson unlike both of them is a fully functional resonable human being. Scrooge, while a good person deep down, can be reckless, impulsive and greedy, and Glomgold had a tarzan like experince with sharks, goes on to name his dummy son sharkbomb, and tried to murder Scrooge on live television twice that we know of. She’s the calm, snarky, put upon sane person trying to reign in the crazy shark explosion man. 

Owlson dosen’t get a ton to do here, but that will change and she does get a decent amout in the final scene. But what she does here establishes who she is and how sh’es FIXED Glomgold industries; She’s shut down the vast number of money sinking scheme related departments, set ups everal charities, and is even setting up a new one with Scrooge, Dimes for Ducklings. In short she knew exactly what was needed to fix the company and it’s image and did so in FOUR MONTHS. Probably even less given they had to be sure Glomgold wasn’t coming back right away. I guarantee he’s faked his death like 10 times just to try and kill scrooge. They have to make sure it’s real first.  As one last note before we move on, Owlson is played by Natasha Rothwell, a producer and writer who i’ve only seen outside of this in Love, Simon and Sonic the Hedgehog.. that is a weird combo of things that mean a LOT to me I haven’t been able to bring up here again. 

We find the tv this was all playing on on the docks with a non-anthro segull pecking it while a bunch of fisherpersons go about their day. We also get this guy. 

Add him to the list of spinoffs I want THE LIST OF SPINOFFS JAKE WANTS: 1. Darkwing Duck 2. Donald, Daisy and the Kids 3. The Sabrewings 4. Tailspin Reboot 5. The Flintheart Glomgold Show 6. A Sequel Movie 7. This Guy Punching A Fucking Fish 

So you might be wondering when any of our main cast are going to show up.. and why the fish puncher isn’t in said main cast. Well that’s about now as Webby and Louie are fishing. Well okay more acuratley webby is fishing because she genuinely enjoys it and Louie is tagging along so he can nap on a boat while Webby paddles him around. That plan is threatnned by her spear fishing and he suggests using rods instead, but they need bait for that. 

Naturally, given we need to get this plot going our heroes run into Duke Baloney, aka an amnesiac Glomgold. Understandably, both of htem think this is some sort of scheme at first because waiting for someone related to Scrooge to stroll by his fish stand for some sort of shark themed trap, especially since he’s right near the water so he dosen’t have to worry about keeping them hydrated like that time he dropped one from a plane onto scrooge’s board meeting with two chainsaws strapped to it. But .. it’s not. While we the audience saw him amnesiac, and at first I thought that spoiled the episode... it really dosen’t. He still ACTS like himself on instinct, so your not sure if he faked it as part of some elaborate scheme or is really gone till this scene shows that, no he really isn’t there. And the how is simply in knowing the guy: Glomgold is not good at subtley. He has disguises and such, but their never remotely convincing. He could NEVER pull off  actually being a humble fish monger nor have gone four fucking months without yelling at scrooge or remotely contacting him. There’s also the fact Fisher and Mann 100% belivie in duke and back up his very real story of being dredged out of the bay. There’s also his south african accent, which actors including David Tennant himself have admitted is one of the hardest to pull off but Keith does swimingly, which is a hint.. but only on rewatch or for those who know his comics origins. 

Louie isn’t convinced which is fair: even if Glomgold isn’t good at this sort of thing, he’s still tried it a lot. Webby however correctly figures he has amensia. So the two simply try talking to him. Fisher and Mann do get a bit dickish laughing off the idea he’s possibly Glomgold.. despite the fact you know you dredged him out of the fucking water 4 months ago.. and if you actually looked at the news, would see Glomgold disappeared around the exact same time you found Duke. It just annoys me because otherwise these two are great characters: Friendly loveable fisherpersons who love their job, have no comeptiviness and genuinely want to help their friend duke. The encounter does have them seeing a fancy money clip Duke has but with no other options they leave for now. 

But while Duke has forgotten who he was... bits of glomgold still stir within him. And that starts when Duke spots the McDuck Industries fishing boat, the best fishing boat on the sea, something his friends are okay with.. but Duke naturally isn’t. So while Duke was a calm sane fisherman before the true glomgold in him is on full display as he comes up with insane schemes involving fish and explosives, before presenting a rather insane scheme to his friends involving getting engineering degrees and other stuff.. it’s as poorly drawn and wonderful as you expect from him. But what’s telling is that he reigns it in when his friends show obvious concern with his actions... something Glomgold would NEVER do. For one he dosen’t have friends. For another, he doesn’t care about anyone else’s feelings or thoughts. 

By now Webby is also championing that Duke is a diffrente person.. which is true. Duke is Glomgold stripped of his hate and resitment towards scrooge. He’s who the man COULD’VE been had he not sworn eternal vengeance on Scrooge. Louie is doubtful that he’s amnesiac still.. but neither can quite figure out the full story so it’s time for research.. and for Webby to accidentally knock Louie into some lobster traps.. which given he’s spent the entire episode assuming an amnesiac man isn’t that despite all the evidence to the contrary, he earned that. That said these two were the perfect choice for it: All of the boys have a bit of skeptic in them, and we already had a plot with Huey being skeptical.. and even he would’ve given up by now as would dewey since he only has a pinch at best. Webby.. has none. She can question motives and stuff sure, but at her heart she’s a kind forgiving soul who belives the best in everyone. And.. its’  paid off fo rher. Look at the whole Lena situation, she believed in her, even while Lena was actively manipulating her,.. and it truly changed her, convinced Lena to do the right thing despite the cost, to choose love over the abusive monster who made her. It’s the only missed opportunity in the episode for me. Character wise it has exactly the 8 it needs to tell the story and focuses heavly on the five it truly is about. But not having Webby bring up Lena when we don’t hear her mentoined AT ALL during her absence (though to the shows credit they did a good job showing Webby still had never remotely given up), and it made the wait more agonizing and would’ve made her motivations hit even harder: that she belives in duke because she believed in lena and it was real. And while this thank christ isn’t remotely romantic, the point does stand: She wants to see the best. 

Louie is a conman by nature so he only sees the worst, the weakest in people, the things he can use to take htem down or take hteir money. He can’t fathom someone doing good because he can’t fathom HIMSELF being good. And that.. says a lot.. but he’s accepted himself as a shady conperson who cares only for himself.. even if that’s not the truth. His inclusion here enhances his own arc much like Huey’s role in quack pack enhanced his. It shows that deep down Louie dosen’t think much of anyone.. and probably not himself. That he has to be shady and greedy to survive when that’s not tru. Sharper than the sharpies yes but also square.

One last bit before we moved on  I just found out though: The Crew originally had this as a straight up origin story: no kids, none of the rest of the duck family, except presumably Scrooge’s parts here, just Glomgold’s struggle with amensia and his past leading to who hei s now. Honestly I think that version could’ve worked, but likely given disney seems TERRIFIED of making a show starring an adult without a chlid and had to be talked into the child light Golden Lagoon, that was a non starter but I think it still works fine. I also foudn this out via a twitter thread of Frank’s rewriting history that goes in deep on teh production of each episode. Had I known this existed before writing this one, I would’ve used it for the other two arcs and most dangerous game night, but I intend to read through it so I have everything on the table from here on out. 

For only the second time in her long career of researching stuff though, Webby has hit a dead end. Mostly because she couldn’t find anything on Duke.. and NOTHING on Glomgold’s past pre-Duckburg. The most she has is his visa...

I want to frame this on my wall.. and someone is actually seling id cards out there, so I want this one at some point. It’s not Disney because they don’t care about fan merch like this, but then that just means they don’t get the money because they didn’t think of it or put the work in then huh. 

But yeah with nothing else our heroes go to the only person they know who knows him well...  Scrooge. 

Meanwhile Duke has .. this... I just.....I can’t put words to this truly bizzare surreal dream sequence.. it involves Glomgold going insane, the kids dancing on a bagpipe, and owlson is there.. despite the fact that Glomgold should have zero idea whot hat is. I think the kids mentioned here but even then, he somehow knows exactly what she looks like.

Otherwise good stuff and it’s raining hard as Duke goes in. Fisher and Mann have formally added him to their sign, and warmly welcomed him in and Duke says “this is the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me I think” which is probably true. and makes what’s coming all the more heartbreaking. 

But before what’s coming Duke has another thing coming.. Scrooge who the kids brought to talk to him. The two talk casually, the kids watch not knowing.. and then Scrooge comes back to them. Turns out Webby was, unsurprisingly right on the money, Flinty does have amnesia, and unlike what Louie thought.. he isn’t inherently evil. Duke is just duke.. and Scrooge has no intention of fixing the amnesia. And while that SOUNDS bad.. his intentions are noble: Glomgold.. was a throughly miserable person. He was never happy and never would be till Scrooge was dead by his hand and that was never going to happen.  It isn’t even taking an enemy off the board: Flinty is only a threat on occasion. Scrooge clearly ENJOYS their conflict: it may annoy him from time to time, but he clearly enjoys upstaging the guy. And as he points out, it’s not a brain injury or anything: Glomgold is practically immortal as Louie put earlier, and Scrooge outright mentions Glomgold’s taken a LOT of explosions to the face. So he’s in no real danger physically or emotionally.. he’s happy. He has friends, a calling he truly enjoys. There’s another reason too but we’ll see that in the final scene. 

So Duke is finally happy... but it doesn’t last... the kids go out but a storms a coming, and Duke selfleslly heads out to save them.. only to get hit on the head and fall in the ocean again. 

It’s here we get the 2017 version of Glomgold’s origin story. We did kinda get one with life and times, as we saw his first meeting with scrooge and why he hated him, long story short with the long story coming later this week Glomgold left Scrooge for dead and Scrooge’s response was to come back, kick the fuckers ass, tar and feather him and utterly humilaite him, leading to Flinty swearing vengance. 

But while I love that version..t his one is just as awesome if not better. And it’s without having Scrooge ride a lion. Here we instead meet Flinty as a child Scrooge’s age... and as a shoeshine boy. Yup just like Scrooge Duke, Glomgold’s birth name, was an industrious young boy with big dreams. He also had unwieldy schemes from minute one, but Scrooge saw in this lad the same fire he had and tried replicating his own origin. 

The problem was... the different context ruined it. Scrooge was paid by an equally poor ditchdigger the us equilvent of his pay: still useless in scotland, but a good lesson in hard work and not being swindled. Scrooge tried that... as the richest duck in the world and without giving flinty the same amount of money. 

So Duke/Flinty took umbrage at this yelled at scrooge.. and pick pocketed his money clip. In the only bit taken from the rosa version of their first meeting, Scrooge never realized he’d met flinty already. There and then duke came up with his first true, and first insane scheme: Save the money and use it to mold himself into a richer, more scottish version of scrooge dedicating his life to one upping him and killing him. A “single white female” type thing as Frank put it. 

It’s.. utterly brilliant... taking Glomgold being a knockoff as mention and just running with that... making Glomgold a LITERAL knockoff. This was indeed the plan all along: A way to have him be both south african and scottish and it was brilliant. It also gives him more depth and more tragedy: He COULD’VE been the next scrooge.. but instead of being his own man or learning any of the hard lessons scrooge did he doubled down on never learning anything and getting vengeance on an old man’s well meant but accidently classist gesture. 

So Glomgold reawakens and while it first looks like he’s going to save the kids... he instead throws Webby into the raging sea, and steals their fish. Webby is heartbroken and Louie asks him “what about duke.” His response is heartbreaking as it is character defnting

“I”m Flintheart Glomgold and I always will be!” the lightning shot, the cackle..i t’s just such a damn good moment that underscores the tragedy of the episode as Glomgold’s new friends are horrified by what he is now and what he was always meant to be and Glomgold leaves to go stalk scrooge once again. He indeed is Flintheart Glomgold and always will be.. because he threw the decent person he could’ve been away. He’s miserable.. because he can’t let go of his rage or ego and just move on from something that happened to him when he was ten! He has to be in his 60′s now! Glomgold may think Scrooge is his worst enemy.. but it’s really Flintheart Glomgold.... and it always will be. 

So naturally his first actoin is to storm into his company and scream at scrooge. How he found him there... honestly not a huge suprise it’s his company and he likely knows how to find scrooge anywhere because he’s a creep like that. Scrooge and Owlson’s reactions are both worth a look at:

Given Glomgold bursts into an already annoying meeting of Scrooge trying to get the dimes part knocked down to nickles (and likely lower before that given he mentioned Pennies earlier), to accuse Scrooge of trying to trick him by appearing as a boat in his dreams her bafflement is both understandable and hilarious. Like she probably HEARD what Glomgold was like but gennuinely didn’t belivie it and her face is just now frozen in a look of “oh my god they were not exagearating what fresh hell is this”. 

She tries to be professional and introduce herself but he just brushes her off and yells at Scrooge blaming him for being forgotten (”You literally forgot yourself), with Owlson also considering calling security. She only dosen’t because Scrooge points out he’ll tire himself out eventually and as usual for their jousts, is not remotely threatened or worried. He’s just..sad. And getting back to his reaction.. that’s what’s telling about his plan. He probably KNEW this would happen. He in his heart knew Duke Balloney would be gone soon, and he’d have to deal with Glomgold again. It helps soften the implicatoins: it wouldn’t last and fraknly if it did Scrooge would probably have people check on him regualry to make sure he was okay. He’s not a monster.. he just wanted Flinty to be happy for five minutes and to not ruin that out of some misplaced sense of right and wrong.. when the right thing was to simply let the man be happy till it inevitably blew up. 

Glomgold however, furious at being forgotten and cast aside has decided to take a huge poorly thought through gamble and challenges scrooge to a classic Scrooge comics trope between the two, but with higher stakes: A contest to see who will be the richest duck in the world by the end of the year.. and given Christmas happens right after this i’m just assuming he means a year from now. Winner gets both companies and fortunes. Scrooge scoffs at this.. till Flinty pulls out the clip, taunting him with how he did it and “If I can beat you once scrooge i’ll beat you again”. And this, Flinty revealing he stole from him and he NEVER KNEW it or realize it, enrages scrooge enough to agree and to take him seriously... meanwhile Owlson.. just tries to get actual work shit done and just forges their signatures. Look she is a woman of color in the business world with genuinely good motives... she’s probably used to using white nonsense to get things past two idiots having a peeing race. 

Final Thoughts:

This episode is truly excellent and like Most Dangerous Game Night! i’d forgottne just HOW good it was. The pacing, the comedy, and the character work is all on full blast and i’ve gushed plenty enough about how great an origin story is. it’s a character piece that explains why this doofus is the way he is and that is what holds him back. 

Next time on MMM: Louie’s back as he pulls a ghostbusters to make quick money and Storkules starts rooming with Donald with predictable results. 

If you liked this review consider joining my patreon and i’ll see you at the next rainbow. 

[anopenlettertomikeboudet]

Meme Context, Rabia, Aaron and the end of Wondery’s relationship with Mike.

It was International Women’s day when Mike posted this. This sparked outrage, understandably. 

This “meme” was the straw that broke the camels back. Wondery finally decided that the risk of having him as part of their network was a lot greater than whatever money he was bringing in.

To my knowledge, they washed their hands completely of Mike and S&S

Wondery decided to part ways with Sword and Scale. 

Mike decides to shut down his podcast for good. No more free episodes... At least according to him. This changes later on when he hires someone to host the free episodes. 

 "I just got off the phone with Wondery, and I am very sad to announce that we are no longer a Wondery show. 

In fact, without advertising, we're no longer a show at all. After this recording, I have a call with my staff to let most of them know they are being laid off today. That means no season 2 of Monstruo, no more This Is War, no more Sword and Scale Rewind, and, as it stands right now, no more Sword and Scale. That's it. Censorship actually works. You get a mob to rally against you, intimidate those around you, anyone who associates with you, because you've been deemed "a bad person" who says "bad words." The mob can censor you through intimidation, through boycotts, and other tactics just because they don't like what you say, how you said it, what tone you used, what words you used. 

I've been saying that for years. There is a culture war going on right now in the United States, and pretty much all over the world. It's not enough for this particular group of people to scroll past something they don't like, to unsubscribe from it. No, that's not the point at all. It's not about controlling what they hear as individuals. It's about controlling what YOU hear. What all of you, all of us, hear, or see, or say, or think. Your words are no longer your words, whether you think they are or not. They're the words of the mob, of the state. Your individual liberties have been given up for the sake of pretending that you're more virtuous than you are, for the sake of appearances. 

Right now, as it stands, this is the end. We will keep putting out PLUS episodes on Patreon until we move to our own platform, and then continue putting out episodes behind that paywall. But Sword and Scale, the free show, and all of the other Incongruity Media shows, are coming to an end. Anything that was ad supported is over now. Because of Aaron Mahnke from Lore, and Rabia Chaudry from Undisclosed, who led this boycott against me and my company 'cause they didn't like certain things I said. There have been many accusations against me over the years, because I believe in independent thought and independent speech. I don't talk like them. I don't say things in the pre-approved way they want me to say it. And when someone tries to tell me what to say, I tell them to fuck off. Well they don't like that. They don't like having their power challenged, so they attack your character. They use things that are out of context, especially screenshots, to prove what a misogynist pig you are. Never mind context, nevermind telling the actual series of events or circumstances behind these screenshots. No. Just collect 'em all and put 'em in a place where you can point people to. A public forum, such as Reddit, for example, where you can show people that "it's on the internet, it must be true!" That's what they do, and they do it to public figure after public figure, that doesn't toe their line. So they went after my advertisers and scared enough of them to drop me. But that wasn't enough. Then they went after Wondery, not just the company as a whole, but individuals IN that company. And guess what? It worked. And I don't blame them. There's only so much you can take, so much pressure you can take. I know other podcasters that have been attacked just because they're friends with me. They've been personally attacked just because of their association to me as an individual because I've been deemed a bad person. 

I don't fall in line with their bullshit. I make inappropriate jokes sometimes. I repost memes that some people might find offensive. Everyone takes everything SO seriously and loves to virtue-signal about it online. Even a fucking joke meme that I didn't even create. It takes a particularly special individual to try to get a podcaster fired because they didn't like a reposted joke meme, but that's what people like Aaron Mahnke and Rabia Chaudry are all about: virtue signaling online. Pretending they're better than everyone else, acting like they're more moral, more enlightened. Well there you go, maybe they are. Maybe I am an asshole. And I'm an asshole that you will no longer be able to hear because of these virtuous people. 

Now right now I don't know what's going to happen. I wanted to come on here and tell you why we're not going to be putting out shows anymore and also to let you know that there's still a way for you to support us. Again right now it's still on Patreon, we're moving off that platform because of this very reason. We don't want someone pressuring Patreon somehow to drop us because they've been offended by something. And that can very well happen. It could very well happen that we're dropped off of Patreon, kicked off of Twitter, kicked off of every platform out there, Facebook, YouTube, you name it. Because again, we don't fall in line with this common, modern day thinking that you have to say things a certain way, that you have to keep repeating the party line. That's just how I am. I don't let anyone else control my words. And so here we are, where my words have now been silenced. Censorship works. You go after someone online, you get a mob behind you, you can take 'em down. Just like Aaron Mahnke and Rabia Chaudry did to 

me. So that's it. Congratulations. You've silenced another free thinker. Good job. Now you can go get offended by someone else and silence them too. Your work is never done, is it? Enjoy your little battle. I'll see everyone else on Patreon, and thank you to those of you still listening."

Ya’ll ready to dissect a few choice parts of this?

Let’s do this. 

Aaron and Rabia merely called him out, both are very, very busy individuals and don’t have the time to lead any boycotts or mass take down of Mike Boudet, they just called it as they saw it. 

The reason why he was deemed a “bad person” who says “bad words” is because he is. I’ve never seen him once take a step back and think “Well fuck, I sure fucked up. I’ll try and do better”

As for firing his staff. Let me let you in on a secret. Let’s say that his 15k supporters on Patreon give him the *lowest* donation a month... That’s $75k a month. He still has plenty of money to throw around. He didn’t end up firing anyone. 

He got deplatformed, and he still doesn’t get why he is the problem. 

He did bring in a new host, Tricia Griffith owner of Websleuths and her story is a whole new blog post. She reads for the “free episodes” and Mike reads for the “paid episodes”

[namorres]

upside down.

pairing | peter parker x reader

word count | 2212

warnings | none

NOTE: *Set pre Infinity War cause ya girl (mel) STILL hasn’t seen it so no spoilers please and thank you very much*. Hi I guess I’m back again. I need to stop floating back and forth between blog and life but ugh I’ve been busy anywho forgive the messiness of the post there’s a lot of dialogue 

avengers masterlist | request

____

You had become intrigued by the sensation that was sweeping YouTube. ‘Spider-Man’, as he called himself, often took care of the minor crime that happened around his city, helping out the citizens in any way that he could. The buzz after what had happened during homecoming with Vulture was still pretty new, and everyone at Midtown was claiming that they were saved by or had spoken to the bug. 

Yet, you hadn’t even seen Spider-Man, let alone talked to him. Although, maybe that was a good thing. You weren’t one known for getting into trouble, and besides, he was a superhero- poking his head where trouble thrived. While there were many upsides to having someone protecting Queens, there was one major downside- Peter seemed to be roped into his life more than anyone. Always reporting on him, always claiming that he knew him personally, using Spidey’s status to get Flash to leave him alone. 

You missed your best friend. Not to mention your massive crush on the boy. Without Peter around to distract you from the stares and teasing glances from your classmates, you felt alone. Even Ned seemed to always be busy. You had two theories: 1. That Peter was Spider-Man or 2. They were avoiding you for the sake of avoiding you. At this point, you thought either could be probable, but you didn’t have evidence for either. You knew that if he were Spider-Man, then he’d tell you when or if he were ready to trust you with that information. But… surely Ned knew didn’t, he?

One day after school, you made your way to Peter’s apartment to do homework like you always did, even if no one was going to be home. You didn’t see Peter on the train there, so you assumed he had something going on as usual. You opened the door and May smiled at you, chatting away at something you were only half paying attention to. You opened up messenger on your phone, about to text Peter, but decided against it. You guessed that he wouldn’t reply until the early morning and you weren’t in the mood to hear his excuses as to why he wouldn’t answer you. 

You moped in his room, flopping on his bed and beginning your homework, pushing the worry that he might not be okay out of your mind, and not stopping until it was dark out. You sighed and packed your things, upset that it was almost eleven and he still wasn’t home. You said goodbye to May and began walking home. Slipping your earbuds in, you stuffed your hands in your pockets and hoped that music would drown out your insecurities. 

You didn’t hear or see the man hiding in the shadows behind you as you walked through an alley. He pushed you against a building and held a knife to your throat, about to start rifling through your stuff. A scream bubbles through your throat and faster than you could think, a masked hero came to your rescue. You yelped as you watched the scene unfold and the robber ran, webs clinging to his back tightly.

“And stay away!” Spider-Man called. You were too stunned to move, gripping your chest to steady your breathing. He seemed to notice your presence once more and walked up to you slowly. “Are you alright miss?”

You nodded quickly. “Y-yeah. Thanks.”

“You know, you probably shouldn’t be walking home this late.”

“I always walk home from my friend’s place, but I’ve been waiting for him to get home, and he never does until late. Hence, the giving up waiting for him and walking in a dark alley at eleven at night.”

“W-well, I’m sure he feels bad about leaving you alone at his apartment. And I’m sure he misses hanging out with you, but he’s probably busy.”

“He always seems to be busy nowadays… thanks again Spider-Man. Maybe I’ll see you around someday.”

“D-do you want me to take you home? Like I said, it isn’t safe to be walking this late.”

“Why not? It’s probably faster.”

You walked over to him and thanked the heavens silently that the darkness was hiding your blush. You wrapped your arms around his neck and he swung around neighborhoods and between buildings. The world seemed different from this high up. He landed you carefully in front of your apartment building and you gave him a pointed look.

“How do you know where I live?” You asked carefully. He sputtered for a few moments before coming up with an obviously fake excuse.

“Just a hunch. Most houses are in this complex coming from the way you were walking.”

You were too tired to question it, and thanked him once again, waving and turning your back as you headed inside. Your parents lectured you about time and curfew, but you didn’t care enough to pay attention. You kept thinking back to the Spidey, and how his voice seemed awfully familiar.

The next morning, you were walking through the halls of Midtown, when you heard someone calling your name.

“Y/N! Hey Y/N wait up!!” You turned around, and there was Peter Parker himself, running to catch up with you. “Hey! It’s been a while.”

You couldn’t bring yourself to be angry or annoyed with him for ignoring you. He seemed genuinely happy to see you now. You gave a small smile and continued walking with him by your side. “Hey, Pete.”

“How are you? I feel like it’s been forever since we’ve talked.”

“Well, it kind of has. You’ve been so busy it feels like you’ve forgotten I’m your friend.”

“Y-yeah. About that… I’m really sorry. There’s just been a lot happening and I haven’t had time to say anything to you. But I’m here now! So tell me, anything new happen?”

“I ran into Spider-Man last night. Although, he’s more of a Spider-Boy if you ask me. I was walking home from your place last night and he gave me a lift home.”

“I-I’d say he’s definitely manly. You just gotta give him the chance.”

“Sure Peter. Whatever you say.”

The two of you talked all the way to class, and throughout the rest of the day. He even came back to his apartment with you after school. Things were finally beginning to feel normal again until the evening hit. You were reading out on your fire escape when you felt a pair of eyes on you. You glanced up and yelped, almost dropping your book as you saw Spider-Man staring back at you, perched on the railing in front of you.

“Geeze. Stalking me now, are you?” You joked. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

“No, no, nothing like that. I thought we could talk. If that’s alright with you. Also just wanted to make sure you got home safe again today.”

“Oh, well, thank you. Here I am. Safe and sound. So, no bad guys to take down today?”

“Surprisingly. It’s a slow day.”

“Well then, Spider-Man, tell me about yourself. Are you really a man or are you just parading as one?”

“How come no one thinks I’m a man?”

“Because you sound like a pubescent teenage boy. A voice modulator might do the trick.”

“So I’ve been told…”

You giggled and Peter was glad that you couldn’t see his blush beneath his mask. He had begun to develop a crush on you, another reason he had been avoiding you besides superhero obligations. He couldn’t help but want to hold your hand in school or kiss you at your locker, but he couldn’t find the right words to say to you. Luckily, that’s what Spidey was for. 

You didn’t know his secret identity- even though he really wanted to tell you- which meant he could talk and attempt to flirt with you without you knowing it was him. Which brings us back to the present. Here he was, sitting on the railing of your fire escape, talking to you with the confidence he wish he had with the mask off.

“Alright, I’ve gotta ask. What made you become Spider-Man to begin with?”

“It’s a long story… but I’m happy that I get to help those around me. Anything that I can do to help keep Queens a little safer.”

“That’s really brave of you Spidey.”

The two of you talked through the evening, laughing as if you were old friends. Conversation flowed so easily between the two of you, and you talked late into the night. You didn’t realize how late it had become until you yawned mid-sentence.

“You should head home Spider-Man,” you began, “I gotta get to sleep, and Peter’s gonna kill me if he finds out I didn’t sleep again.”

“Peter?” He tried to sound as if he didn’t know who she was talking about.

“Peter Parker. Some say he knows you? Either way, he’s my best friend and the last thing I need is to be falling asleep during class again.” You giggled again thinking about him. He made you happier than anyone had in a long time. You gathered your thoughts and turned back to the web-slinger. “Will I see you again?”

“Definitely. Oh- and this Peter guy, he seems pretty great.”

“He is. He really, really is.”

You met up with Spider-Man every evening on your fire escape from that day on. Sure, Peter could have just hung out with you like a normal person, or he could entertain this a little longer. He settled on the latter but began to worry when you weren’t at your place one night. He swung around until he found you walking through the same alley he met you in as Spidey. You seemed to be walking toward his apartment this time. He swung down and latched onto a roof, lowering himself upside down to get your attention. You smiled when you saw him.

“How’s it going?”

“Good good… I was looking for you but you weren’t at your place.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry I’m headed to Peter’s- movie night Fridays. An old tradition.”

‘Of course, I can’t believe I forgot.’ Peter mentally kicked himself. He was about to say something when he heard collective screams and he knew he was needed elsewhere.

“Looks like the city needs their Spider-Man.”

“Y-yeah,” he thought for a moment before speaking again. “Kiss for good luck?” He was scared that you’d laugh and run off but instead, you walked closer to him, lowering his mask just above his nose. Peter couldn’t believe this was actually happening. You pressed a gentle kiss to his lips, the both of you a giggling mess considering kissing upside down was very awkward. You weren’t really able to kiss him properly, but you both were smiling during it all the same. You stepped away from him, smiling and blushing brightly. He smiled just as widely and pulled his mask down, turning himself upright and swinging away to save his city. 

You continued your walk to Peter’s apartment reeling. You had just kissed Spider-Man. Why though? Why would you kiss someone who was basically a stranger? But he didn’t feel like a stranger. When the two of you talked conversation was easy, you were able to bounce back and forth between topics quickly and happily. Kissing him didn’t feel wrong- in fact, it felt like the exact opposite of wrong. But it’s not like you could date a superhero and not know who he was beneath the mask. 

Sighing quietly, you stepped inside his apartment, calling a hello to May and wondering where on earth Peter was. It was about time you told him about your little “meetings” with Spider-Man. As you stepped into his room, you couldn’t believe the sight you saw. 

There Peter was, crawling on the ceiling. Your jaw dropped, you couldn’t believe the small hunch you had was right. Not to mention, everything else seemed to make sense now: the easiness of talking to him, how he knew where to find you, the kiss… holy mother of- you kissed Peter Parker!!

“P-Pete?” He fell from the ceiling the second he heard your voice. He tugged his mask off and closed the door quickly.

“Y-Y/N!! Hi! Okay, so I know this looks bad but-” You hugged him tightly, stopping the words that were tumbling out of his mouth.

“I can’t believe it’s you…” you whispered. Once the initial shock wore off, he wrapped his arms around you tightly.

“I’ve been wanting to tell you for so long,” he mumbled against your temple. You smiled but not before pulling away and smacking his chest.

“I can’t believe you!! This whole time I thought you were lying or avoiding me! You- you got me to kiss you!!! I can’t-”

He cut you off with another kiss, right side up this time. “It wasn’t bad though, was it?” He asked cheekily. You were dazed, still a little upset, but overall still extremely excited.

“So you’re telling me that my boyfriend is Spider-Man?”

“If you’ll have him.”

“I don’t know, I mean, he’s pretty weird. He kissed me upside down.”

“Says the girl who let him.”

You giggled and slipped your arms around his shoulders, placing one final kiss on his lips.

“Touché.”

[survivor-mesopotamia]

Ep. #2 - “Shit ain’t over till the fat lady sings and I didn’t warm my pipes.” (Cameron)

Day 4: Well. I survived my first tribal council of the season, and even though it went exactly according to plan, while I slept my entire day away, I'm still really hesitant to tell myself that I'm doing well on my tribe. I'm really nervous that my tribe mates are playing me, and that I'm really boo boo tha fool here. I called Megan post-tribal, and I was finally able to get some closure on something that happened between us in our personal lives, which felt really good. After that, she asked me about the idol, to which I had responded "Wait, Julian didn't tell you?", which hopefully sows some seeds of doubt in Megan about Julian. Ideally, if the Enlil tribe has to go back to tribal council, the four of us can bear witness to a Megan vs. Julian war. Because unfortunately, the connections I have outside Enlil, are shared with either Julian or Megan. If Megan and Julian are going after each other pre-merge, or during a swap scenario, I don't have to share those connections anymore. After that, Megan and I just talked about the nudes we received during quarantine ~ I then promptly ran to Will to tell him about the potential crack I just formed between Julian and Megan, which was met with genuine excitement. I think I'm really gaining Will's trust, and I think we vibe so well together. Love that guy! Overall, it wasn't a very productive day because I woke up at 4:30p PST. Love that for me, thanks for shading me @ Tribal Bodhi.

going into this scavenger hunt as the tribe that went to tribal last is worrysome. It's a challenge that's fully dependent on our activity, so we are at a serious disadvantage against the other two tribes that get to choose someone less active to sit out. We don't have that luxury. The point/life system eases the blow, however, since we can get less active players 1 life while more active players can get 3. In case we lose, I'm trying to connect with everyone on the tribe. I really don't want to vote anyone out though. I have an alliance with Julian and JJ, and one with Will on the side. Chrissa wants to work with Julian, JJ and myself, and I think Megan and JJ have something on the side. I'm nervous for who would be the target in the vote, and any vote would hurt all of our games collectively. Hopefully we win because the next vote will not be easy AT ALL.

Done w typing this sheet

jj and zachary are so fucking annoying to this challenge and if i vote for you first at the swap, its probably because youre typing too much during this challenge sorry not sorry xoxo - sincerely johnny a month from now

let me be clear with andrew I was not calling his hosting unfair i was calling the fact that a majority green item giving him a point unfair not the hosting but lack of yellow, also i have a headache i don't feel that good. and I just don't think zach should have had a point for it nothing against hosting obviously i watch a movie trivia thing where literally they have a challenge to challenge any questions that are unfair, that doesn't mean they are calling the question writers or the answer writers unfair. 

Zach just won the tribal challenge for us which is fantastic. We can maintain the illusion of a unified tribe longer, which keeps us together in a swap situation, and Zach has clearly painted a challenge target on himself over the last two challenges which will make him go before me if our Triforce ever becomes the minority. I'm really happy with my position in the game right now

me and monty trying to find the idol and decode this annoying ass video https://imgur.com/a/lu7sbMu

Forgive me father for I have sinned it's been approximately three days since my last confession so far can't complain really we be winning they hating we be riding pretty damn clean I've got a majoritu alliance I didn't start so odds of it falling around me and being the first voted out slim to none thank the sweet baby jesis and all that good shit. Oh well that's all for now

JULIAN’S HOST CHAT GUEST, ZEE:

I am filling in a confessional because you told me to. I am in front of my fan because it's hot. I'm thinking that it seems pretty stupid to ask me for a confessional. Julian's prod chat isn't very interesting because he's distracted.

also just threw out madison's name to johnny. if this shit backfires on me ill be ):

https://youtu.be/Pqck1gayfJU

https://youtu.be/FMay7NycsPw

yo yo yo homies!!! fuck the scavenger hunt and the mobile Skype app !! Lowkey scared but I think I’m close with everyone on the tribe except madi soooooooooo that’s probably who will go tonight. I’ve connected a lot with Monty and am hoping we can work together closely moving forward 💕not sure how useful my relationship with Zach is going to be come swap/merge bc it seems like he’s ALREADY making himself a target like the big doof he is. More later 💋

https://youtu.be/Qg47yupj1bQ

https://youtu.be/vUK8A1qWVoA

Hello tumblr survivor world! Sorry I didnt confess for episode 1, I was going to but i accidentally exited out of the page when i almost finished writing it. Anyways, it was just a cast assessment for my tribe so tl;dr everyone on my tribe is great and its really sad that we have to vote someone out now. So this whole weekend I was away so I was REALLY worried that I would be voted out since I sat out of the challenge. But after talking to Johnny and Isabelle, it seems like Madison will be voted out tonight. Which is so bad bc this her first game in a year, but hey it's our first vote and it's not me so it's not really the time to make a stand. _________________________________________________________________________________________ Okay I took a break from writing this confessional and there's moreeeeeeeee so part 2 I guess. So I had a call with Johnny and we came up with an alliance of me, him, Isabelle, and Benji. What an iconic alliance, right? But also while Johnny and I talked we got onto the topic of idols and why it is that there hasn't been an idol post yet. I brought up that wayyyyyy back when in Malaysia and some other games around that time, some of the idol hunts were less clear cut. We ended up looking at the blog and clicking the "idol system" tab and it brought us to some weird crab video with audio that sounds like a pokemon cry? Idk part of me thinks its just a joke but I also have to consider that it might be SOMETHING. It said remember to like and subscribe so I sent a screenshot of me liking and subscribing to see if that would do anything but nope. Johnny said he'd do some thinking about it and get back to me later if he figures something out. Also tribal seems super clear cut so I'm a bit less worried now but y'know how it is I can't not worry about tribal.

i just spent $8 on a spectogram and STILL cant find this fucking idol im gonna kms... monty im sorry im steam rolling ahead looking for this thing without telling you, but thank you for the first clue xoxo... if i get stumped in the future ill reach out for SURE (but idt you trust me that much so this seems kinda valid to me) ((FOUR HOURS LATER: i told monty lololol)) ALSO FOR FUCKS SAKE I think madison is gonna go, and truthfully, im fine with it because it's the easiest thing to do due to her poor performance in the past few challenges and just being the least AROUND the tribe, but i know that it'd probably be better for me long term to get rid of abby because i just dont see her as a long term ally for me. i think she's close to JJ and Megan on the other tribe, and she's becoming much more acclimated to the tumblr survivor community that i just BET that she maybe has an additional connection on the rookie tribe. If I can attempt to break that up before we get to a swap, I think that's what im going to have to do figure out if we lose another challenge before a swap... i dont really want to see ANYBODY else go besides abby if im thinking about a second boot. i bet it wont be easy to take her out tho also, if madison goes, this is like...... lowkey vindication for game changers???? last night i talked about this with monty and i was like hmmmm "is it ugly to bring up past game history?" and his response was "not if it's within the same series" .... so. vindication

---

omg i just told madison how to find the idol system thing i hope she doesnt tell anyone i told her about it LMAO........ this almost seems too easy.i got added to two alliances today. why do i not feel safe? is it me going? WTF IS GOING ON

excited to be first boot because no one will TALK TO ME! 

Things haven’t changed much since my last confessional! As far as I know the tribe hasn’t started into alliances and we’re all riding some excitement at having so far avoided tribal. I think the rest of the tribe and I are all feeling good and just focusing on making the tribe switch without losing any members.

from round 2 https://youtu.be/fk002uG2HoI

Hi sorry I forgot to do a confessional this round so this will be short imma just say a few things 1. I don’t trust julian one bit he can stop being shady to me 2. I can’t believe we aren’t going to tribal I’m so fkn happy i was able to pull out the win for our tribe because I didn’t want to lose anybody else 3. I love and adore will with all of my being and he’s my number 1 ally right now 4. I find it highly doubtful that there’s only one idol in this game and that you can’t find it until merge but that’s as far as I can get in the idol search for now so I guess there’s nothing I can do about it 5. I’m still having fun can’t wait to fuck up another flash game yay!!!

My Purple edit is amazing right now. But having played more games than most of these newbies, I have decided to take on the role of teacher and becoming more of a "role model" for these newbies. I feel like I have the closest bond with Zach, and I need to get a little closer with Collin. I have Grace from past games, and then there are the others who I do not really have any strong bonds with at the moment. I guess I need to start going to them more and show that I want to work with them.

https://youtu.be/yhwXzqrTcsA Confessional 2 for round 2

https://youtu.be/TVnpwqc8XLY

Madison voted out 6-1

[cromulentbookreview]

Externally Screaming

Every now and again I come across a book I like so much I can't really express how I feel about it with words, just unintelligible fangirl squealing.

Aurora Rising is one of those books.

Seriously, the whole time with this book I was just

Sometimes, I will start reading a book and find I literally cannot stop. Other times I will force myself not to - to pace myself, rather than binge-read because I know that as soon as I’m done reading it, it’ll be well over a year until the next book. I am in general a slow reader, and for the most part it’s unintentional - I’m easily distracted, my attention span is shot, I work full time, have other shit to do, etc. - so when I tell myself “no, only a few chapters today, otherwise it’ll all be gone and then you’ll have nothing. NOTHING!” It’s kind of a big deal.

(Sorry, can’t not use a Ron Burgundy gif there).

I should preface my fangirling by mentioning that I am a massive fan of Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff’s last trilogy, The Illuminae Files, which if you haven’t read it, stop everything, go read it, I will wait right here.

Oh my God those books are so good, right? I mean, nothing makes my librarian brain happier than stories that are told entirely through documents. Aurora Rising is a more traditional narrative told from multiple POVs, but we do get the occasional “fun fact” in-between chapters. 

Behold! The jacket copy:

The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the Academy would touch…

A cocky diplomat with a black belt in sarcasm

A sociopath scientist with a fondness for shooting her bunkmates

A smart-ass techwiz with the galaxy’s biggest chip on his shoulder

An alien warrior with anger management issues

A tomboy pilot who’s totally not into him, in case you were wondering

And Ty’s squad isn’t even his biggest problem—that’d be Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley, the girl he’s just rescued from interdimensional space. Trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler’s squad of losers, discipline-cases and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy. They're not the heroes we deserve. They're just the ones we could find. Nobody panic.

If you think “that sounds awesome” you’d be right. It is awesome. Poor Tyler Jones - he is indeed a golden boy of the Aurora Academy, but the night before the draft - the event where leader-types like him get to pick who will be in their squad with the Aurora Legion - Tyler, unable to sleep, decides to log some time in the Fold. Now, the Fold is, of course, the folds in space-time that allow for super-fun-and-quick space travel. So... a wormhole. Anyway, whilst cruising around the Fold, Tyler picks up a distress signal from a ship that famously disappeared two hundred years prior. On the ship he discovers a bunch of people dead in their cryopods. Only one is still alive: a girl with a white stripe in her hair. Tyler barely manages to rescue the girl and get back to his ship before a Foldstorm hits. 

One problem, though: while he was being Heroic McHeroface, Tyler missed the draft. He, the Academy’s #1 Golden boy didn’t get to pick the cream of the crop. Nope, he’s stuck with the population of the Island of Misfit Toys. 

His twin sister Scarlett sticks with him, though. So does his childhood best friend and expert pilot, Cat. The rest of the crew...well... There’s Zila, who is brilliant but not good with people.

She’s now the squad’s Brain - the Science Division type who also serves as the ship’s doctor. Yikes.

There’s Finian, a snarktastic tech genius Betraskan (a humanoid alien spices with super pale skin) who relies on an exosuit in order to move around. He’s the squad’s Gearhead.

And there’s Kal, a Syldrathi - another humanoid alien, only these look like elves from Lord of the Rings. Lots of Legolas references thrown around. Kal comes from a specific warrior cabal and has a reputation for getting into fights for funsies. He’s the Tank - the squad muscle / enforcer / bodyguard-type person. 

And of course, at first sight they all can’t stand each other. But they’re stuck together as Squad 312, so essentially, they have no choice. Hurray?

And if you’re wondering “but what about the girl with the white stripe in her hair?” - don’t worry, I’m getting there. Her name is Aurora Jae-Lin O’Malley, aka Auri. 200 years ago, she was living on a dying Earth, preparing to make the journey into space to the colony-planet of Octavia. She goes into cryosleep and promptly wakes up two hundred years too late, with the Aurora Academy, and no one has ever heard of Octavia. Plus, there’s something wrong with Auri - two hundred years in the Fold will mess with your brain a bit, but it doesn’t explain why she’s got one white eye, why she can move objects with her mind, and why she starts seeing visions of the future. At first, it looks like the Aurora Academy is going to send Auri back to Earth, but instead she ends up stowing away...with Squad 312, our favorite ragtag bunch of misfits.

Only it very quickly becomes evident that the powers at be want Auri, and they’re willing to kill anyone she comes into contact with. So Auri and Squad 312 end up on the run, and they’re all forced to work together in order to solve the mystery behind Auri’s strange powers. It all seems to have something to do with Octavia: why did the colony get wiped off the map? What happened to the people there? What happened to Auri in the Fold? 

Aurora Rising is the first in a planned trilogy, so, of course, we don’t get all the answers right away. There are enough answers to keep us from getting too pissed off, but enough unanswered questions to keep us on our toes waiting for the next book. And holy crap, I cannot wait for the next book. Aurora Rising starts out exciting and just continues to be exciting until the very last page (OK, maybe not the literal last page, those tend to be blank or just have information about the publisher on them, but you get my point). My one big complaint is that the one character I really wanted to get to know - Zila - gets the least amount of time in the limelight. Chapters narrated by her are mostly only a few sentences long - I know this is supposed to illustrate her blunt manner, but I was really looking forward to learning everything about what made her so peculiar. She does get a longer chapter later in the book, but we don’t learn all her secrets. And, I mean, come on, I wanted to know more about Zila, damn it! The rest of the characters are cool, though Tyler is a bit too much the bland leader-type and I had a hard time believing that Scarlett could be 18 and have over fifty ex-boyfriends (maybe they were just hookups and she just refers to them as boyfriends?). Finian’s chapters are fantastic because he is the group’s deadpan snarker - whenever things get intense, Fin’s ready to throw in some much-needed comic relief. Auri’s POV is by far the most compelling, though that may just be my own personal bias talking, because the Fish Out of Temporal Water is one of my favorite tropes ever...but it’s from Auri’s POV that we get all the Legolas references directed at Kal, and it’s just delightful. 

gard...gard...gard...gard...

In essence: I needed books 2 and 3 of the Aurora Cycle sometime yesterday, please. I need full chapters dedicated entirely to Zila and her history - she’s the one member of Squad 312 we know the least about by the end of Aurora Rising, and I want to know more! Maybe because she strikes me as a fellow girl on the spectrum and I desperately want to see more accurate depictions of autism in girls, something that doesn’t just depict us as straight-up psychopaths. We’re not, we’re really not. Our brains just work differently, OK? Stop judging Zila you guys, gah!

Anyway. I fricking loved this book, from beginning to end. Am I biased because I loved The Illuminae Files and think Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff are both fantastic writers? Yeah, probably. But, once again, I must direct you to the title of this stupid little tumblr blog. I promise cromulent reviews, not good or unbiased ones. Still - if any of what I described above sounds appealing to you, then you’re going to want to read Aurora Rising. And even if you’re still on the fence, read it anyway because some rando on a dying social media platform told you to. 

RECOMMENDED FOR: fans of YA sci-fi, fans of fiction featuring a ragtag bunch of misfits, anyone looking for an exciting YA cross between Guardians of the Galaxy and The Expanse.

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR: Anyone not a fan of YA, sci-fi, misfits, fun, excitement, joy...

RELEASE DATE: May 7, 2019 (Illuminae fans: check out Jay Kristoff’s website for details on how to get a free printed Illuminae novella with a pre-order of Aurora Rising!)

RATING: 5/5

TOTALLY UNBIASED FANGIRL RATING: 5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000/5.

ANTICIPATION LEVEL FOR SEQUELS: Olympus Mons

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY RATING:

MY FACE WHEN I REALIZED I’LL HAVE TO WAIT A GOOD LONG WHILE FOR THE NEXT BOOK:

[keywestlou]

MORNING STEW #13

A Morning Stew day it is! A lot to cover this morning.

Terri White has God on her side. At this very moment Donna is taking her home from the hospital. Yesterday, it was discovered she had a 99 percent blockage in one of her blood vessels. A stent was placed. Shortly, she will enjoy her home once again.

The Key West Citizen in its Today in History section is doing a daily William Hackley. Notes from his 1831 diary.

Today mentions that the night before he was visiting a friend, Major Glassel’s home. They took tea and played whist under a large mosquito bar in the house’s chamber.

I was not sure what a “mosquito bar” was. Looked it up. I should have known. It is a wooden frame covered with netting to keep out mosquitoes. As described elsewhere, it was/is the human defense against blood thirsty mosquitoes.

Note that 1831 was well before the introduction of screens for windows and doors.

The Truman Amphitheater is reflecting success. Shows scheduled. People attending.

Sunday, Slightly Stoopid James appeared with his group. A blues, funk and reggae styled band.

Four thousand watched and whooped it up. Mostly younger/millennials. Their music.

I have yet to see a show. I must attend one. One consistent with my music from another day.

One of my favorite Key West people is Christine Cordone. She and her husband Larry Smith friends for 25 years.

Christine is triple talented. She sings. Alone and with Larry. A star on the Key West scene.

She paints. An artist. Watercolors. Began around 10 years ago. A gallery was impressed and began featuring her work. Her first showing a sell out the first night. Her work continues to be in demand.

A school teacher. Thirty years. The last 22 as a kindergarten teacher. One time Teacher of the Year. She is now retired.

On saturday June 15 at 8 in the evening, the Little Room Jazz Club will sponsor a show recognizing Christine’s 30 year career in the 3 areas. Christine will sing and talk her way through the 30 years. Larry and a number of Key West musicians will back her up.

Christine is the perfect Renaissance Woman. A lifetime of work. Three different careers.

Go to her show! It will be over the top! Christine is the best!

Trump is out of his mind. He lacks respect for everyone. Even those equal in stature to him. I refer to China’s President Xi.

The China/U.S. tariff war is ongoing. Appears it will get worse before better. Could continue multiple years.

There is a G-20 meeting later this month in Osaka, Japan. Trump announced that if Xi fails to attend, he (Trump) will add additional tariffs on China. The tariffs will go into effect immediately. There is $300 billion not yet tariffed by the U.S.

Trump has once again thrown the gauntlet down to China. I do not understand how the leader of one great nation can threaten/insult the leader of another great nation.

China is considered the #2 power in the world. Economically and militarily. I suspect it could have moved into #1 spot. The U.S. now #2.

Trump is pissing on Xi and China. You do not do that to another power. In fact, it should not be done to anyone.

China has moved ahead of the U.S. the past 7 years. While we were fighting wars we should not have been and expending military monies on those wars, China was building its military forces. Its naval war vessels mostly new. Its missile and radar works perhaps developmentally ahead of our own. China has built islands with airports thereon in the China Sea where not even islands existed before.

China has gotten ready over the years for whatever might occur.

Trump is spending military budgets of $700 billion and $760 billion the past 2 years in an attempt to catch up.

Russia stands with China.

If there were a war, I don’t know how many countries would stand with the U.S. Trump has alienated our “real” friends in less than 2 years.

The amusing part of this mess is that Trump says he has a “great relationship” with Xi. If so, why the tariff war?

Last week, Mexico City announced it was decriminalizing sex work. A nice way of saying prostitution.

New York State may be doing the same thing.

A bill was introduced yesterday in the New York State Legislature to make it legal to engage in the consensual sale of sex. The bill also vacates prior convictions for sex work.

A coalition has formed to push the decriminalization bill. The group is called Decrim NY. The women involved take the position that sex work is work. It pays more than a normal job for most and helps them and their families subsist.

Prostitution is no big deal in New York at the present time. It is only a misdemeanor punishable by up to 3 months in jail and a fine up to $500.

The Johns are also susceptible presently in New York. Men soliciting sex can be arrested and face prison and fines also. The bill would eliminate the charge.

America is experiencing an oil boom. It will continue to do so for many yeas to come. At the same time, OPEC is in retreat. Going downhill. OPEC hit a 5 year low in May.

I continue to be happy when OPEC suffers. Saudi Arabia the moving force in OPEC. The Saudis are our friends. They gave us $4 a gallon gasoline and many believe were behind 9/11.

One of the blogs I read frequently is the Justice Building Blog. Yesterday’s was titled Appeasement. I share with you certain portions. They are self=explanatory.

Pre-World War II, countries capitulated to Hitler’s demands The result, World War II.

“The lesson from pre-World War II Germany is that bullies will go as far as the nations around them allow them to go.  Dictators will manufacture a crisis, and then seek to resolve it, earning the praise of their citizens.”

“President Trump declares an “emergency” at the U.S./Mexican border. Claiming there is a crisis, Trump threatens ruin upon the Mexican economy, threatening to raise tariffs 5 percent a month on Mexican products unless Mexico capitulates to Trump’s demands. Friday, the Mexican President appeased Trump, acquiescing to his demands.”

“The thing about history is that you never know where a dictator who manufactures a crisis will pop up. Even tragically, as President of the United States.”

“What we do now will be judged as harshly by history, as history now judges Chamberlain and other European leaders in 1938-1939.”

Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou tonight at 9. Join me. Listen to my sincere expressions about everything I believe is being screwed up in the world. You may not agree. However, I guarantee you will enjoy. www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou.

Enjoy your day!

  MORNING STEW #13 was originally published on Key West Lou

[elaine-white-author]

I don’t often talk about my works in progress here on the blog, mostly because I don’t want to over-do the whole “read my work” gambit. But, today that’s what I’m going to show you…what I’m working on for the second half of 2017. I’ve been expanding my horizons, both on what genres I’m writing and how I’m adapting my editing and cover making skills. So here are a few stories that I’m hoping to work on this year, for potential 2018/2019 release.

~

#gallery-0-36 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-36 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-36 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-36 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

The “By Appointment Only” series is a soft-BDSM series of (hopefully) six novels. Currently, Books 1 and 2 are already complete and I have solid plans for books 3 and 4. As yet, Books 5 and 6 are only general theories, because of the number of side-characters who I want to give a story to.

~

Book One: Grace

Mexico…the one nightmare he can’t escape.

. Cale never knew that one word would give him nightmares, cause insomnia or jeopardise his relationship with his brother, Waylan. It’s hard enough for him to have a boss and brother who are the same person, but when his fear and insomnia gets in the way of his work life, it’s clear that therapy isn’t working.

After three years with no success, Cale and his therapist come to an agreement. Therapy isn’t working…yet. His therapist, Valentine, has a new plan. One that involves a questionnaire, a secret club and a whole lot of uncomfortable questions.

Can Cale learn how to become a submissive for the therapist he’s been drooling over for three years? Or will the fear of finally admitting what happened in Mexico keep them apart, forever?

~

#gallery-0-37 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-37 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-37 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-37 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

The “Tales of Talyn” Series is a sci-fi, paranormal, mpreg series that takes place in space. Dealing with creatures far into the future, the series currently sits at one completed novel and half of Book 2 written. I have solid plans for the rest of Book 2 and a vague idea of Book 3. But, as with most of my writing, this series tells me where it wants to go as I’m writing, so I have no doubts that the plans for Book 3 will solidify as I finish Book 2.

~

Book One: Where the Stars are Laid to Rest

Vocation Day has finally arrived and eighteen year old Kagen is ready to face his destiny. As a male Z’ho’eb, a feline race, he is the perfect candidate for his ideal profession: life giver. Destined and prepared to spend his life bearing children to the mate assigned to him, an unexpected result on Vocation Day changes all of his plans.

No longer to be assigned a mate by the Vocation Council, as tradition dictates, Kagen is sent to the auction house, Otor Tarni. Kagen’s extremely rare health codex will guarantee the laws of good treatment are abided by, but he must first survive the auction, selling him to the highest bidder.

With love, a child and his future at stake, can Kagen navigate the realities of life as a life giver, without sacrificing his dreams along the way?

~

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The “Creatures of the Night” series came about by accident. I wrote the first book as a solo novel, then realised that Book 3, which had been a solo novel years ago, fitted perfectly into the universe, so I decided to expand it. Books 2 and 4 were also well conceptualised by the time I decided to put them into this series. Book 5 is, as yet, unwritten, but the rest are complete, and I have contemplated writing another book, perhaps even making Through His Veins into Book 6, while adding in an intermediate novel Hunting Renaii, but that’s just in the “concept” stage, right now.

~

Book One: A Touch of Danger

The creatures of the night will welcome him home.

. A college frat house, shrouded with rumours about illegal exotic animals becomes the centre of Drew’s world. Dragged into an official police investigation by his cop brother, he now has to go undercover in the frat house to solve the mystery of the smuggling ring.

But once he sets foot into the frat house, his entire life changes. Making discoveries that shock his steady world, one frat brother is the only one who can help him traverse the dangerous path he’s about to embark on.

Is Drew about to expose an illegal smuggling operation? Or will the truth be more than he could ever imagine?

~

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The “Moirai” series is currently only in note form, right now, with solid plans for Book 1 but a vague idea of Book 2 and the rest will come to me later, once I’ve had the chance to see how Book 1 turns out.

~

Book One: Moirai

Foster is a fairy with a problem: he’s a single man in a world surrounded by couples. His family run the prestigious matchmaking agency, Moirai, the company that he works for as a receptionist. From the pre-search psychological help provided by his mother, the matchmaking database his brother facilitates, to the legal help Foster offers before a couple move on to have his sister arrange the wedding, there isn’t anything they can’t do. Except find Foster a mate.

Dating hasn’t worked. The database has never found a suitable partner. And his brother is at his wits end trying to match Foster with someone who won’t use, humiliate or reject him.

Maybe Moirai – the fates – have no intention of Foster ever being part of a mated pair.

~

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The “Nynnyaw” series was never meant to be a series. I originally wrote A Wolf Without Faith as a solo novel, but it proved to be so complex and in depth that it required the second book to really finish the plot arc.

~

Book One: A Wolf Without Faith

A wolf without instincts, a man out of control, and an Alpha who can’t rule…

. Living in a world full of supernatural creatures, Owin is sick of double stands. Like it being alright for his werewolf boyfriend to cheat on him to satisfy have a stranger provide the pups Owin can’t. But when he tries to even the score, he ends up with fangs in his chest, a black out and a terrified lycan in his bed. A lycan who is now his bonded mate, whether he likes it or not.

For lycan Carney, turning Owin is the unthinkable…a connection to the past that he never wanted. But he has no choice. To move forward, they must go back to when Carney was a prisoner of his most feared enemy, the Alpha of the werewolves. A man who may just have all the answers that Carney’s broken mind can no longer remember.

One messed up pack and a war on the brink might not be enough to save a wolf without faith.

~

Current WIP’s: The Series Edition I don't often talk about my works in progress here on the blog, mostly because I don't want to over-do the whole "read my work" gambit.

[lorrainecparker]

Filmmaker Friday featuring Filmmaker Kenny McMillan

With hundreds of careers and opportunities, the filmmaking industry can be a unique experience for a filmmaker. Options include pitching an idea, or a commission through screenwriting, casting, shooting, editing, and screening your project. Filmtools decided to take a deeper look into the world of a Filmmaker. This week, we had the opportunity to speak to Filmmaker Kenny McMillan about his work. This is what he said:

What inspires you?

Kenny McMillan:  Excellence. By that I mean I get fired up by seeing other artists (of any form) hit that flow state, pushing their art and effectively utilizing what I call “the invisible prod” by making the audience feel/think what the artist intended, not necessarily what the piece would initially have you feel/think. That feeling you get when you watch, say, a musician “speak” to you live through their guitar and not necessarily the lyrics, or identify with a character in a film in a way that wasn’t overtly presented. Seeing or hearing something that hits your body before it hits your brain, ya know what I mean? That, and theoretical physics.

What is your role on set?

Kenny McMillan:  Director/Cinematographer. Less officially I often find myself being the coach or therapist, haha. I’m happy doing anything though, I love the process.

Whats the first thing you do on set?

Kenny McMillan: Meet everyone, see how they’re doing/if they need anything/address any early thoughts, find crafty, start going through whatever checklists I have for the day and mentally “walk” myself through that day’s motions, visualizing where there might be hangups or where I can save time or combine shots or ideas and so forth. Speed on a film set is everything so I try to come up with backup plan after backup plan for when those little sticking points eventually do crop up so we can move on without too much trouble. Having a plan is one thing, communicating that plan (and changes to it) is a completely different thing so it’s important that everyone on set is in a shared mental place, which is centered around trust, honesty, problem solving/critical thinking, and knowing the end goal. Getting to know everyone, making sure their voices are heard, and making sure they understand your communication style is key. When you’re working as a team, like any sport, there’s no time for ego or BS (which are two hallmarks of a film set unfortunately) so the sooner you get everyone on the same page the better. Plus it relieves a lot of undue stress.

Why did you choose this field?

Kenny McMillan: I tend to have a one track mind in many cases and film happens to be one of those tracks. I’ve got footage from when I was 6 or so recreating infomercials and the like on my parents VHS-C camera, quickly getting into theater (and 16mm/Hi-8) in High School and then cinematography (miniDV) in College. I’ve always been dramatically minded so it was never really a question of “if” and more a feeling of “where will this take me?” As it stands, it’s taken me to Directing but these days you’re less locked in to one job or the other so I’ve been working on the “Fincherian” idea of knowing every job on set as well as those you’ve hired and that’s been very educational and challenging. I’m finding a lot of joy in audio and prop creation right now.

How does Filmtools help you?

Kenny McMillan: Filmtools is great because the store is just up the street from me and I can physically go in and handle whatever it is I’m looking for; I’ve got insane anxiety so buying something sight-unseen is a pretty large no-no. It’s nice to be able to walk into a place where everyone knows what they’re talking about and I can sit there for a while and actually evaluate, say, gels or the size/utility of a case or piece of equipment or something. I prefer getting physically involved with things over trusting what the listing online says. Online is great for research but you can never “know” something without actually getting your hands on it, even with experience. Plus it’s nice to casually walk through the expendables aisles and grab things you forgot you needed.

What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on before?

Kenny McMillan: I was a photographer for Red Bull in Arizona for a few years, which was probably the greatest series of projects I’ve ever worked on in terms of “coolness” but one time as an intern I was randomly roped into the art department during pre-production on the Criminal Minds spinoff “Suspect Behavior” for a couple weeks before ABC caught wind of what I was doing and called me back to the office hahaha. Learned a lot in that short amount of time. Change your Xacto blades after every cut, people!

What project is close to your heart?

Kenny McMillan: I’ve made it difficult on myself to describe adequately, but OWL BOT Season One is a sort of variety series I started at the beginning of the year that’s gone through a lot of changes and continues to change as time goes on. I’ve got a vision for the series over the next 3 or 4 years but as it stands right now I’m getting into the groove of creating non-stop and trying to one-up myself as well as getting others involved. Soon I hope for it all to be scripted but right now it’s heavy on the variety. We’re “exploring the space.”

Do you have a piece of essential gear that you don’t leave without?

Kenny McMillan: Knowing that speed is key, I’ve worked a lot on figuring out how to get the smallest amount of gear to make the greatest impact and right now that centers around the Redrock Micro Ultracage with the Powerpack attachment. Adds just enough weight to the rig to give handheld movement a little more “authority” and there’s tons of mounting points on it as well as a place for top-rails, so you can attach whatever you need right to it. The Powerpack makes it so you can power the entire rig (camera, monitor, focus motor, etc) off of one battery (shout out to Filmtools for that slick 2 battery+charger IDX package deal a few months back that I was able to take advantage of) and even if I’m not attaching a handle, the cage itself can act as a holding point opposite my Canon’s side handle. On the other hand, the Odyssey 7Q+ has been a huge help as well with its 10bit recording and false color (which is like a turbocharged spot meter). I actually made Episode Four (OB01x04) about the rig I use and the theory behind it if anyone is interested in hearing (or reading) me drone on and on about gear stuff. I love the idea proposed by Josh Homme of “using the wrong thing right”. Keeps things funky.

What advice would you give to people interested in this industry?

Kenny McMillan: “It is one thing to study war and another to live the warrior’s life.” ― Telamon of Arcadia

Do you have a dream location that you would love to shoot on? If yes, where is it and why?

Kenny McMillan: I would be ecstatic to shoot on a set that was painstakingly and lovingly created by talented people who left no detail unexplored. Not unlike holding a well made and properly weathered prop, being surrounded by someone’s storytelling like that gives me the fizzies.

Where can people follow you on social?

Kenny McMillan: I’m trying to get better on Twitter but my heart is with Instagram for the time being. We’ve also got Vimeo and YouTube obviously, if you’re trying to actually SEE the work, but I hope to have the OWL BOT website be a one-stop-shop for everything we’re getting into now and in the future where you won’t have to go around the net piecing everything together as it’ll all be right there. The OWL BLOG (ha) is more of a playground of art and ideas, and I hope to get more people involved there as well. People are welcome to play along if what we’re doing speaks to them. Shoot me an email.

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