#another day of me advertising this podcast

[lil-shiro]

Lance talks about that 2012 Las Vegas race | Watch the rest of the podcast here!

[loveofbots]

Gently lays down. I want to tell Swerve that I like listening to him talk and that I genuinely love having him around and that he deserves to be listened to more- you don't have to do a write or headcanons if you don't feel it I just want Swerve to know he's loved and the world needs to HEAR IT

Anon listen you’re so right here have some headcanons as a treat

Based on me n a couple of buddies going over what makes a cybertronian physically attractive/cybertronian beauty standards (which I will go into another time) Swerve is actually pretty hot! However it's canon that a mech will prefer someone's personality over their looks, and that's why Swerve gets no bitches

If Swerve ever found out how big of a fanbase he has online, he would explode, reform, and then explode again. Not only does he have an autistic fascination with humans, he would be THRILLED to know we have an autistic fascination with him.

He knows undertale exists, and yes sans is his favorite character.

I really think he's smart. That bitch must have a LOT of memory to contain all of human media plus cybertronian knowledge plus bartending knowledge PLUS his old degree (he's educated!!) And I think this is why he and Skids and Nautica get along. They are all fucking nerds

I'd love to start a podcast with him. Like a weekly Lost Light podcast with a catchy af name. Just talking about whatever went down the last few days, he does little advertisements for his bar, reader gets to bring up new human concepts to him/learn cybertronian concepts n stuff. Just overall good cheerful fun.

Swerve is nonbinary, or at least doesn't abide by a binary in general. Gender is a human concept and for cybertronians it just doesn't make much sense. If you were LGBT+ on the lost light he'd be your number one supporter. That's all for now! I love me some Swerve boi

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (31 Mar-6 Apr 2024)

lady constance is a seven foot tall badger and knows acab

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

pretty much nothing! It was a rough reading week! The first part of the week I was fairly consumed with the D20 I was watching & not reading much. Then I spent FIVE DAYS reading a little over half of a 258K fic before finally accepting that though it was pretty well written and not bad, I just wasn't into it and the thought of fighting thru another 120K was appalling, so I bailed.

and I did read about 20K of shorter stuff but nothing I want to shout out so.

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

This Is Going To Hurt - s1, e1

QI - series S, ep 10-12

Death In Paradise - s11, e2-3

D20: Mice & Murder - "The Stabber of the Evening" (s9, e4)

D20: Mice & Murder - "The Eye of the Storm" (s9, e5)

D20: Mice & Murder - "Busted" (s9, e6)

D20: Mice & Murder - " I've Been Here the Whole Time" (s9, e7)

D20: Mice & Murder - "Outfoxed" (s9, e8)

D20: Mice & Murder - "The Belly of the Beast" (s9, e9)

D20: Mice & Murder - "Unfinished Business" (s9, e10)

D20: Adventuring Party - s4, e4-10 [Mice & Murder]

D20: Fantasy High: Junior Year - "Infernal Conflict" (s21, e13)

D20: Adventuring Party - "All Pulp, No Juice" (s16, e13)

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

What Next: TBD - The Psychological Toll of Mars

Working - How a Magician Designs Original, Mind-Blowing Tricks

Hit Parade - The Bridge: Like a Revamped Stone

Worlds Beyond Number - WWW #7: Kahuna

WikiHole - Greek Easter (with Ellie Kemper, Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson!)

Welcome to Night Vale #245 - Fridge-worthy

Worlds Beyond Number: Fireside - Fireside Chat for WWW ep7 "Kahuna"

Today, Explained - Making taxes less taxing

I Said No Gifts! - Tig Notaro Disobeys Bridger

⭐ Switched on Pop - Cowboy Carter: This Ain't Country

Consider This from NPR - Measuring The Economic Impact Of Baltimore's Port Closure

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter

⭐ Vibe Check - This Ain't Texas, This Is Vibe Check

Better Offline - Wikipedia Is All The Web Has Left ft. Molly White

Wiser Than Me - Julia Gets Wise with Bonnie Raitt

Short Wave - How To Make The Most Of Next Week's Solar Eclipse

Ologies with Alie Ward - Heliology (THE SUN/ECLIPSES) with India Jackson and Michael Kirk

99% Invisible #576 - Chambre de Bonne

Worlds Beyond Number - WWW #8: The Catch

Twenty Thousand Hertz+ - Untranslatable Words

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Ripley

Song Exploder - Shania Twain - You're Still The One

Off Menu - Ep 238: Katy Wix

Worlds Beyond Number: Fireside - Fireside Chat for WWW ep8 "The Catch"

Choice Words - Live in Fear or Love? (with Karamo)

What Next: TBD - Truth Social’s Rocky Week

Short Wave - The "Barcodes" Powering These Tiny Songbirds' Memories May Also Help Human Memory

⭐ Pop Culture Happy Hour - Monkey Man And What's Making Us Happy

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Nevada Week: The Martin

Endless Thread - Nerd Fight

Strong Songs - "The Way" by Meshell Ndegeocello

Today, Explained - The Sephora kids

It's Been a Minute - Is DEI a slur now? Plus, control & basketball

Radiolab - The Moon Itself

Choice Words - Choices We Made: Stay Silent or Sue the Cops? (with Eric André)

Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! - Chris Pine

Worlds Beyond Number - WWW #9: The King of Cups

Worlds Beyond Number: Fireside - Fireside Chat for WWW ep9 "The King of Cups"

Under the Influence - Cheeky Advertising

In Defense of Fandom - Season 2 Episode 1: What makes a TV ending?

Dinner’s on Me - Kristen Bell

Dinner’s on Me - Dax Shepard

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Louis Jordan

Ozzy Osbourne

Meshell Ndegeocello

Cowboys + Queens

[samithefungus]

Brendon and/or Warren with reader who is a freelancer artist that does a variety of things like family portraits, illustrations for books and magazines, etc and helps them for free.

Thanks Anon for the request, hope you like it <3

Warren x Freelancer Reader

WARNINGS: Nothing this time

-You were working as a Freelancer artist and were hired by a non-profit company to redesign their logo

-The company was called "Ok, Stop!" and even though you weren't sure what they were doing you took the job

-Your current 'boss' wanted you to design at the company's headquarters so they could monitor progress; you found it a hassle, but at the time you couldn't refuse because you needed the money

-During your time working there, you met Warren

-You couldn't really call him a Freelancer because he work for the company, but in his free time he works on podcasts by himself

-Even after you finished working for "Okay, Stop!" you and Warren stayed in touch

-You were called each others almost every day, albeit briefly, since you both had to work

-You decided to help him, since you were sorry to hear that almost all of his free time was spent doing podcasts for work

-You first recommended a better microphone to him, since the one he had sometimes recorded corrupted audios and then because of that he had to record podcasts completely over again

- "Really, I can't even find the brand of microphone you use!!!" You said

- "It's the cheapest one, I don't have enough money for a professional one " He answered embarrassed

- "Well....the most recommended is the Blue Yeti, my streamer friend uses it and it's great; and don't worry about the cost, I'll pay for it" You said

-Warren I look at you really happy , honestly no one had made something so nice for him

-You also recommend him to soundproof the room, so that no background noise could be heard while he was talking on his podcasts

- "Another thing you could do is soundproof the room, there would be no more background sounds on the podcasts" You said

- "I never thought of that" He replied to you

- "Someone gifted me some panels; I don't know what to do with them, if you want I can give them to you" You told him

-After you brought the soundproofing panels to Warren's house you also helped him hang them in the room he use for record his podcast

-Warren was sincerely amazed at your kindness

-Another tip you gave him to improve the quality of his podcast is to write a text where he can refer to the information without having to imrove, as he did before

-Warren wasn't very good at writing so you tried to help him the best you could, even if writing was not your specialty

-When he works too much you stop him by saying: "Take a break, working when you are too tired doesn't lead to anything good"

-The fact that working too much is also your vice and Warren often has to stop you too; sometimes if you don't want to listen to him he will use your phrases against you, since he knows that because of your ego you would not contradict yourself

-Warren will not bother you only if you have an errand with an impending deadline; he knows you have little time to finish it and does not want to you waste it

-Thanks to your advice Warren's podcast has been much more successful than it was before, and he won't stop thanking you

-Sometimes you make some drawings for him to put as covers for his podcasts

-Warren cries with joy every time you do this

-To thank you for all you do Warren try help you, advertising you to his colleagues

-You find it very sweet of him, even though none of them have contacted you yet

-The days when you haven't too much work to do, you both prefer to sleep or stay home and relax rather than go out; this is because of the decrease of energy in your body

-Life as a Freelancer is hard, and you and Warren know it, which is why you and Warren push each other to keep going

Brendon x Freelancer Reader

WARNINGS: Nothing this time

-You met Brendon almost by chance; you met him in a café when he asked if he could sit with you since every other sits was full 

-Neither of you spoke, until you noticed him writing something; you were intrigued and asked him about it

-He seemed astonished by your question; apparently no one ever asked him about his novel

-Brendon happily started talking about his novel, and he was glad that someone was interested in it

-He even let you read a part of it, and honestly you were amazed at how well it was written

-When you heard that no one wanted to publish it you were sad for him and you understood what him feels; you were a Freelancer artist, and in your early days of work it was rare that anyone would hire you and sometimes your hard work was not paid properly and very often was belittled

-You were now a fairly respected artist, thanks in part to the help of some of your friends; that's why you wanted to help Brendon as your friends did to you

-Fortunately at that time you had little work and more like easy errands, so you could help Brendon the best you could

-Brendon invited you to his house so that you could read his novel entirely and give him advice

-When you arrived at Brendon's house, the first person you met was his annoying younger brother; he was a good person, but the way he told Brendon to get a real job took you personally

-You and Brendon had to ignore Briefcase's provocations

-Brendon took his novel and gave it to you so that you could read it

-You flipped through it and saw that it was all handwritten; you were amazed at the dedication he had put into writing it, the problem being that publishers are more likely to publish a computer-written text

-You told him this a little anxiously, as you didn't want him to think you were belittling his work

-Brendon gladly took your advice and from that day began transcribing his novel on the computer

-Briefcase probably hates you, thinking you were leading his brother astray; that's why every time he saw you two together he repeated to Brendon: "It's a bad influence for you!"

-Every time Briefcase does that both you and Brendon roll your eyes

-To help Brendon as much as possible you also contacted some of your writer friends to ask which publishers were most willing to publish a novel

-You also designed a cover for the book

-When you told Brendon all these things he was almost cried of joy

-After meeting with some publishers you finally found someone willing to publish Brendon's novel

-You were delighted, the only problem was that you two would have to work alone on the design of the book

-Brendon was a little worried about this, you reassured him and because you having some experience in designing you offered to help him

-The first thing you did was correct the text, then you divided the book into chapters, so as to give readers some reference points and finally you added a sketch you made for summarizing the chapter at the end of each ones; you did this to make the book more palatable to the audience

-This work took you a long time and some nights without sleep, but in the end you were satisfied with about it

-You sent the file to the publisher and waited for them to send you the first copy before they finally published the book

-As soon as you got the copy of the book, you went to Brendon's house to show it to him.

-When you gave it to him initially he was as excited as you were, but when he started turning the pages he started crying from emotion

-You told him you would think about design, but not that you would use hours of your time to do drawings for his book

-He asked you if he owed you any money for that, and you told him 'no'

- "I just wanted to help you, I don't want any money!" You said

-Brendon hugged you still crying from joy

-Now the next step was to rub his success in Briefcase's face

-Brendon picked up his book and headed to his brother

- "I told you I could do it!!!" You heard him shout joyfully

-You have to admit that this made you smile a little bit

[twelve-weeks-to-fluency]

December 12th, 2023

studyblr challenge ⋆｡°✩ day 2/30 - a photo of your study space

A sneak peak for now... I'm sure more pictures of my desk will crop up over time. Also, I tried a sweetened condensed milk & nutmeg latte yesterday. It tasted like a regular latte, sweetened, with some nutmeg on top. Which I guess makes it exactly as advertised, but I was still kind of disappointed. I wonder if anyone has tried making a nutmeg syrup before. Maybe that would taste more interesting? Anyway, even though it wasn't great, I'm happy I tried it.

productivity challenge ⋆｡°✩ day 2/100

academics: just a few more things left for the semester! Meant to do another chem review today but alas... maybe tomorrow? ✩ bio exam ✩ chem final (chem review 1, 2, 3, 4) ✩ food science exam ✩ food production quiz spanish: ✩ Ayer aprendí que la palabra para praying mantis es la mantis religiosa en espanol. Me hizo reir; pensé que era muy adorable. ✩ Escuché casi 1 hora de CI (Españolistos podcast) ✩ Me di cuenta que lo mas importante para mi es mejorar mis habilidades de escuchar y hablar. En colegio, yo practicaba con leyendo, escribiendo, y flashcards. En el colegio, con los examenes de papel de vocabulario y gramatica, era un strategia buena. Pero para la comunicación cotidiana, no. Quiero la habilidad de comunicar con pacientes en el hospital y tener conversaciones, y aunque tengo algún vocabulario y gramática, tengo demasiado miedo para usarlo cara a cara. Entonces, voy a enfocar mis estudios en CI lo más posible.

Las correcciones educadas siempre son bienvenidas :)

🎧 Come and Play in the Milky Night - Stereolab

[sidewalkchemistry]

2023 is the Year to Become a Mindful Consumer

With the level of consumerism today, it is good to practice to view everything as an advertisement. This is not to stress you out, but for the benefit of understanding where it's worthwhile to put your time, money, and energy -- all of which affect beyond just you and this current generation. It's an amazing lens to wear to encourage you to consider where your need for purchasing an item, adopting a certain lifestyle, or even following certain social media accounts is coming from. We are all transmitting and receiving messages amongst one another constantly. The question is, "Which messages do I find value in supporting? Are the intentions here pure? Will contributing to this allow me and my community flourish?"

According to Merriam-Webster, an advertisement is "a public notice especially : a paid notice that is published or broadcast (as to attract customers or to provide information of public interest)" Advertisement comes from the French word avertir meaning "to turn, direct, make aware"

So, understand this: Influencers, celebrities, and politicians are advertisements. Billboards and commercials are advertisements. Labels are advertisements. News broadcasts are advertisements. Newspaper/article headlines are advertisements. BUT ALSO...The clothing one wears is an advertisement (even if it is devoid of branding). One's behavior is an advertisement. A facial expression is an advertisement (informing others of one's feelings). Artworks are advertisements. Institutions of education are advertisements. Songs are advertisements. Blogs are advertisements. Photos uploaded to social media are advertisements. Speeches, sermons, and talks are advertisements.

All that influences you to make certain choices in your day is an advertisement. Some things are advertising positive messages. Some are advertising horrible messages. And others are offering mixed messages.

We don't realize the depth of advertisements in our lives, for one, because we are told to be advertisements ourselves. It feels important to our survival: to attain enough money, admiration, and acceptance. We are encouraged to look a certain way on paper (resumes, CVs, cover letters, report cards, exam scores, etc), in media (photographs, interviews, podcasts, videos), and in face-to-face interactions (accents, fashion style, body shape, makeup, etc).

We don't want to lose authenticity amongst friends and family. We want to talk to real human beings on emotional, logical, and spiritual levels, right? Becoming a mindful consumer is coupled in with helping you realize what you stand for, remain an active thinker, and hold secure with your empathy. When you step up in this aspect, it will encourage others to do the same. It's important that we stay connected with being truthful & kind individuals with depth, I would think.

HOW TO (remember what I defined as an advertisement):

Notice what is being advertised. Is there a literal product (you may need to look for product placement, scripted review, restrictions on sharing honest opinion, etc)? An ideal? A societal standard? A new concept?

What was your honest emotional response to the advertisement? Did it seem alluring? Revolting? Boring? Intriguing? Disturbing? Confusing? Frustrating? (Notice as well what your gut feelings are saying).

Notice what sensory aspects of the advertisement affected your emotions. Was it the color palette, music, filter, word choice, lettering, vocal inflection, etc? What is the general vibe of the advertisement? Is it cheery? Fearful? Hopeful? Inspiring? Angry? Degrading? Does the emotional vibe make sense with the message?

Notice the intentions behind the advertisement. Is the predominant intention here to gain money? Make positive change for those struggling? Deceive or confuse people? Spread gossip or hate? Encourage? (Know about the characters of the individuals, the pasts of the companies, the institutional influences, the historical comparisons which can be drawn, if individuals are being taken advantage of, how true are the claims, if there is funding going on). Does the advertiser show indication of integrity? Do they make use of "experts," popular individuals, and buzz words to distract from the natural inclination to find proof or reason to approve of the advertisement's messaging?

If you are left at all unsure if you agree with what is being advertised, do research (be sure you know how to find reliable sources, but sometimes it's worth seeing what the opposition/competitors/opposing perspectives say too). It's always good to be informed. You can even send questions directly to the person or company advertising. Evaluate with logic & intuition, to avoid letting pure, knee-jerk emotionality to do the decision-making.

Remain flexible to change your mind about your initial evaluations. Sometimes, we aren't always accurate the first time because we didn't have a full enough picture.

Generally, it's good to realize that labels/appearances/glimpses are not going to fully or accurately represent the truth of what is being advertised. It's up to us to notice how true they are. Look at the fine print.

PRACTICE: look at the ads on television, social media pages, magazines, newspapers, and websites. Move into considering songs, television shows, movies, social media videos, and documentaries. And keep on evaluating as you expand what you consider to be an advertisement.

‼It helps to gain knowledge of what the most influential people, titles (eg. doctor, specialist, best-seller, award-winner, etc), and institutions are. They usually are not widely scrutinized and so their messages are taken on as near fact. They also will be able to influence entire markets/spheres/communities with ease.

GOOD DEMONSTRATIONS: a b

[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 19 – All The Names They Used For God by Anjali Sachdeva

This is the second short story collection I’ve read this year, and of the two the only one that was really trying to be a coherent work in its own right and not just a grab bag of smaller pieces. I actually picked it up entirely off of a tumblr post, of all things – there was an excerpt from the story Killer of Kings that really got stuck in my head, and having read it I just needed to see the context and the rest of the work it was from. So, score one for viral word of mouth advertising I guess.

Killer of Kings – about the writing from Paradise Lost, from the perspective of Milton’s politically unreliable angelic muse – is absolutely the best story in the book, but there weren’t really any that struck me as bad. The overall tone is kind of dreaamlike – mythological, or in many cases the kind of story you’d expect to hear on a weird fiction podcast (if a very literary one). High on the uncanny and numinous, on weird situations and the touch of something transcendent, and just on people being put in situations. Low on high action, or really tension or plot at all – the narration usually feels like it’s at a bit of a remove, or if not then like one is observing the inevitable machinery of fate more than anything to really get excited about and caught up in. Dreams or fables, or something in between.

The writing is good enough to generally make the remove work, I think. Beautiful imagery in a lot of places, and very distinct (if occasionally pretty broad) voices for the points of view of all the different stories. Call prose lyrical is essentially just a buzzword at this point, but I think these mostly qualify.

There are nine stories in the book, and aside from the aforementioned fairy tale about regicide and mutinous angels, I’m afraid that I remember absolutely none of their titles. Or, no, that is a lie – the story about a pair of Nigerian girls abducted as brides by Boko Haram who escape after learning how to magically compel and dominate their husbands shares All The Names They Used For God with the whole collection, so I do remember that one. The other stories that really stuck in my head were of an albino homesteader in the Ozarks abandoning the farmhouse to explore and lose herself in the labyrinthine cave system she discovers, the modern day sailor in a dying fishing village becoming enraptured with the mermaid he glimpses as the ship he works gluts itself on the bounty of fishes she has called to feed the shark she’s become fascinated by herself, and the near-future story of identical septuplets created by their geneticist parents who are each struck by accident or disease as they go through adolescence and increasingly haunt their surviving, doomed siblings. (They’re all like that).

So clearly the plots and settings vary pretty wildly, but I do mean it when I say that the book was the most cohesive set of short stories on an artistic or thematic level I’ve read in quite a long time. Every story in the book (I’m pretty sure, at least) has a real sense of some vast and unseen mechanism of the universe brushing up against the mundane world, some intrusion of something grand and overwhelming and uncanny into the protagonist’s life. (It’s the title, after all – ‘God’ in a broad, rather pentheistic sense, but still, the glorious and uncaring clockwork behind the curtain.) And the culmination of each story is the protagonist (not always the point of view, but the character actually driving the plot) in one sense or another succumbing to the unknown, abandoning what they have and take a leap of faith into some transcendent self-destruction.

All to say the collection really works as a whole more than the individual stories do on their own. Which is probably entirely normal for short story collections that aren’t pulled together based on being based on the same property or written by the same author without much curation otherwise, but I really don’t read many of those that are also actually good.

[man-down-in-hatchet-town]

Everything You Want

If you ever needed proof that I really love Shipwrecked, here it is: I tore myself away from Hatchetfield on NPMD RELEASE DAY (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) to put down some thoughts on Greater Gatsby, episode 7. As always, spoilers below the cut.

(Before we jump into that, though, MASSIVE shout out to Curt Mega for this podcast, Nerdy Prudes, and Pulp Musicals. He's worked on almost everything that's keeping me going right now. Man of the Season. Thank you for your service, sir.)

Okay, I got to say it. Ford suggesting that Peter Lorre, an ethnically Jewish guy who had to flee Nazi Germany, isn't used to hate mail was... a choice on his part. But the running gag of celebrities taking threats as complements is genuinely one of the best gags in the series so far.

So the writer of the letters is going after adaptions. The further we get into this, the more I start to wonder if these letters are really just an old-timey viral advertising campaign. If you build up this whole, buzzy, real-world-intrigue story about beloved actors being threatened for appearing in adaptions, you know what will happen when such adaptions come out? Ticket sails will soar. People will want to be part of the narrative, to see the movie Jimmy Stewart or Wilhelmina Vanderjetski put their life on the line to make. And someone in the business threatening other people's lives just to increase profits is thematically just the sort of thing that would exist alongside Ford Phillips and his hatred of the cynical, exploitative Hollywood system.

But the problem there is, what would that have to do with F. Scott's murder? There's got to be a reason both these cases are part of the same story. Perhaps Fitzgerald somehow found out in his deep-dive into Hollywood secrets, and the letter writer killed him to keep him quiet. It's not a worthy motive, but most aren't, and the greed at the top of the ladder knows no bounds. Or maybe the letters are being sent out by someone connected to the movie but unrelated to the murderer in order to specifically market a rewritten Greater Gatsby and further capitalize on Fitzy's death--make it seem like he died for the art. But then again, the public doesn't know he was even murdered in the first place...

Or maybe I'm flat-out wrong about the whole marketing angle. Really, the most obvious answer is that Greater Gatsby was basically an adaption, and the writer of the letters genuinely hates such movies. They threatened Fitzy, then simply followed through. But that falls apart if you look a little deeper. Beyond "hatred of adaptions" being the silliest reason to kill someone, such events would imply a pattern of the writer murdering a victim before moving onto the next and that hasn't held up. So maybe F. Scott was being threatened to stop work on his film by someone who had a secret to protect. The situation spun out of control, our threatener killed Fitzgerald, and is now writing all of those threats as a distraction. That way, if the threats he/she ever sent to Fitzgerald were found, investigators wouldn't see through to the real motive behind them.

Meanwhile, all of the celebrity cameos were very fun and silly, but didn't tell us much other than give the slightest glimpse into why Ford hates Jimmy Stewart so much (still perfect character lore). We got another mention of Eugene from the Punchwhistle twins, definitely making him feel less like flavor and more like set-up. And do we think Rex's perfect recall is going to come back, or was just a device for this one scene? In Ford's personal orbit, it sounds like Bixby's quest to fix his financial issues has gotten him into real trouble. There's clearly something clandestine about the group he's renting the backroom out to, and their potential relevance to Mo, one of the few people to see Fitzy's body, is another point in favor of that group connecting back to our murdered author. I still think they're working on remaking Greater Gatsby in secret.

Speaking of secrets, we don't know where Barnaby was the night of Fitzgerald's murder, or why he's lying about it. He could be the murderer, he could have also been having an affair as well... I gotta tell you guys, Barnaby might be one of my favorites but I wouldn't trust him with a moldy piece of bread. The way he stabbed Ford in the back and then instantly came to him for help because someone else was untrustworthy? What a guy. (He's right about the cops, though. Don't trust the fuzz.)

Regardless, it looks like Fig and Ford are setting their sights on Darby. I doubt she's the one behind the letters but I'm hoping we'll start to get answers about her "book club" and whatever the hell Bixby's gotten himself into...

[most-annoying-sponsorship]

Any submitted propaganda under the cut

BetterHelp - 44

the ads are unilaterally either cheesy 'everyone needs help sometimes pardner' stuff or a therapist who works for betterhelp saying how good betterhelp is. notably was an uptick in ads AFTER it was revealed how bad betterhelp is for actual mental health and how it doesnt vet its therapists lol

It’s overpriced, they underpay their workers, they have fake 5-star reviews and they sell your info. So many big YouTubers still promote Betterhelp to this day when most this info came out in 2018-ish. Fuck Betterhelp, all my homies hate Betterhelp

I guess it’s more of a podcast sponsor in my experience but OH MY GOD it’s such a bad business, but more importantly for this poll I just hate hearing youtubers/podcasters put on a serious voice to talk about Mental Health and how they themselves have struggled with Burnout and blah blah it literally all sounds the same. It’s like a psa in the middle of your video.

not only is it annoying bc it’s everywhere but it also sucks ass & exploits people

not only annoying, but a harmful service as well!!

It's being sued or smth rn (class action I think?). The program has been sketchy af and exploiting people who are experiencing mental illness or trauma, falsely claiming they have a full scale psychiatric team when they don't, selling data, etc. All for profit. Every other sponsorship is annoying, sure. But I instantly lose a little bit of respect when I hear a YouTuber talk about the importance of mental healthcare and then point you to BetterHelp.

The motherfuckers at Betterhelp call it ""'therapy""" but it sells your data. Youtubers I like promote this bastard of a conpany without a care in the world. I don't know why it is legal, I don't know how they get away with it, and I'm going to rip Betterhelp molecule by molecule

Its a scam trying to get your data and they dont even follow HIPPA laws or vet their therapists and they've had so many scandals that I'm shocked they still get sponsors unironically

Doesn’t even work like they’ve had a ton of controversy and the Youtuber is always like “lemme get real with you guys for a second… ok… phew… I go to therapy” and it’s like OKAY WELL YOU SHOULD GIVE A SHIT THAT THE COMPANY SUCKS THEN 💀

Takes advantage of people needing access to mental health care, when in reality BetterHelp is a terrible company that treats therapists AND clients like shit. The FTC recently gave them a huge fine for selling client health data to for-profit advertising corporations like Facebook but they still deny wrongdoing and haven't stopped the shill campaign. At least when a meal kit service or w/e is poor-quality usually all it means is you wasted your money, but if you trust the wrong therapy service there is a lot more that can go horribly wrong. (Cerebral is even worse since it was essentially all the problems of BetterHelp mixed with handing out addictive controlled substances like candy, but I haven't seen it on Youtube as much)

This is the only sponsorship that has actively made me unsubscribe from anyone that advertises it. While others like raycon or squarespace are usually annoying. Betterhelp is actively harmful to both their patients and their therapists, sells personal health data of their users to ad companies and it isn't even cheaper than real therapy at this point like they claim to be. It makes me see red when I see another youtuber saying how "good" it is and how it helped them (which it honestly looks like a script at this point) and telling their usually young audience to sign in. And then they dare to ignore the thousands of comments telling them about how bad betterhelp actually is. Like, I thought we all knew about their shady practices. It has been common knowlege since 2018, why are you acting surprised when you get called out. But I guess they pay really well so I hope those 1000$ were worth it I guess. Sorry for the ramble.

I've never tried it so I can't know for sure, but by all accounts the app is shit, yet everyone talks about it as though it's the best thing ever

There are sooo many controversies with BetterHelp and youtubers stopped accepting (not medically trained professionals, highly unethical and unprofessional and rude etc) sponsorships with them until recently like they all just forgot how shitty it was and it makes me dislike the youtuber every time i see they accept one

A shitty company taking advantage of those struggling with mental health (overcharging, horrible therapists, sharing data with third parties etc.) and yet everyone is sponsored by them

It harms both the therapists and the patients using it and is particularly evil to do that during the current times

Fake therapy and unqualified folks

they literally prey on mentally ill people for their money. their therapists seem extremely unqualified. i have heard so many horror stories including therapists telling (non-religious) clients to pray their problems away, talking about their own problems to the client for the entire session, and sitting on the toilet mid appointment. i genuinely don't understand how otherwise respectable creators can take their sponsorships in good faith because i have ONLY HEARD BAD THINGS

Shit company that abuses their “patients” and takes their money, and youtubers REFUSE to listen to their audiences on this

Not only is it incredibly fucking common and annoying, but it preys on and is advertised to people with mental illness. It apparently isn't very helpful for this (it seems like therapists don't even have to be licensed) but still presents itself as therapy. People have also said it sells your data and isn't confidential at all

It's everywhere and I heard it's actually a little harmful sometimes.

THEY STEAL YOUR INFO??? YOUR DEPRESSION IS LITERALLY BEING MONETIZED FUCK THESE GUYS JUST DO A NORMAL SCAM LIKE ESTABLISHED TITLES INSTEAD OF TAKING ADVANTAGE OF SUICIDAL PEOPLE

It's a legitimately harmful product and it is /everywhere/

It's basically a scam and can cause actual harm!

Evil fucking service, straight up dangerous

Its not even real therapists

IT DOES NOT VET ITS THERAPISTS. I CANNOT EMPHASIZE THIS ENOUGH, BETTERHELP DOES NOT VET ITS THERAPISTS. It also doesn't pay nearly enough.

it's a scam that preys on people trying to get help with their health

Literally sold user data from THERAPY SESSIONS

somehow it doesn't matter how many times there's articles about how better help abuses patients personal data, uses counselors who aren't licensed therapists, does conversion therapy on ppl who ask for lgbt sensitive counseling....ppl STILL take the money and i hate it

It's a scam and people (even some professional therapists have promoted it). "Despite its credible presentation, BetterHelp was caught selling data to Facebook, Snapchat, Criteo, and Pinterest. The company recently settled for $7.8 million. The FTC confirmed that BetterHelp pushed people into handing over health informatio" quote is from this article which sums up the problem pretty well: https://www.themarysue.com/betterhelp-controversy-explained

It turns out they sell user data for advertising purposes which GOES AGAINST WHAT THERAPIST GROUPS ARE SUPPOSED TO DO!!!

always feels really dystopian to get advertisement for scammy corporate mental health services... like what a sign of failure for society if ppl have to rely on such expensive and potentially unprofessional ways of getting the help they need. get that thang away from mee

therapy site with bad therapists on it

It's actually bad morally speaking

AWFUL SERVICE !!! every youtuber who still takes this sponsorship is cringe to me

Jim Beam "People Are Good For You" Ad - 1

I hate this ad. 1st of all, as an autistic person, being in a loud crowded bar would be a sensory nightmare for me. Also I don't like the taste of alcohol. So borboun is probably gross anyways. 2nd, I wouldn't want to go a bar because I would concerned about getting sick. That's because it's flu and cold season where I live, and Covid-19 is around. Lastly, I've seen this ad enough times now that it's annoying. So no Jim Bean, I will not be going a bar or buying your bourban (or anyone else's) anytime soon.

[deathlygristly]

I finished Same Bed, Different Dreams last night! I was all proud! :)

So the spousal person and I had talkies about it before we went to sleep, and he agreed with me that like most modern literary fiction the characters weren't very likable for the most part and their relationships were all shallow, but he said that wasn't really the point of the book anyway and that it was more about how everything fit together. I said that the author, Ed Park, was pretty good at humanizing dictators at least.

It's about Korean history from the late 1800s to the 1980s, so Syngman Rhee is a main character and there's a chapter from Kim Jong-il's point of view.

Anyway, I learned some new words and about some historical events, and it was fun going "Oh, I just listened to a podcast about this!" when there was a bit about the Unification Church cult and I'd just listened to the Dark Side of Seoul podcast episode about it earlier that day. And if nothing else, it's good to have a book we've both read to talk about.

I asked him for some more books he thought I might like, since the internet is mostly just advertising trash now and even Sims 4 now has that little flashing shopping cart button. Although I saw someone's already put out a mod to get rid of it so I'll try that out next week.

He said he'd try to find me a book to take to my mother's over the weekend. There was one that his library didn't have a copy of so he put in a request for it from another library, and another with all the copies currently checked out. So we'll see if he finds one today or tomorrow. If not our house is full of books and I can just pick one of them.

[talenlee]

The 2024 Pitch

Hi. I’m Talen Lee. It’s 2024. Let me tell you what you’ll see here. But first I need to talk to you about podcasts.

I listen to a lot of podcasts? Well, that’s not true. I listen to a small number of podcasts, but I listen to a lot of them. In 2023 I listened to 45 days of one podcast, and that podcast has absolutely no advertising and sponsorship, just supported by patrons on Patreon. That archive empty, I went to listen to another podcast, which does have ads, which means that in listening to this one podcast daily, I have listened to a lot of adverts for other podcasts. Podcast advertising is a special kind of hell where you get a 30 second audio spot with some music in which someone

Look yeah you clicked on the right link I’m doing something here, shut up

In which someone who you might recognise, but usually just some mediocre person with a media career access, tells you that hey, they’re making a podcast, and you should check it out because hahaaah, it’s a podcast! They’re there to talk about the subject, another subject, and another subject and whatever strikes their fancy.

I hate this.

I haaaate this.

I hate this because it betrays this ambiguity of purpose, and feels like the person in question isn’t really interested in what they’re talking about. I’m doing a podcast or whatever, y’know, come up with some reason to engage with this if my name recognition or my tone of voice doesn’t specifically do it on its own. It’s the worst kind of basic advertising that isn’t trying to connect a person with something they might want, it’s instead throwing the seeds into the wild with all the enthusiasm of a Nigerian Prince spam scam email, casting fistfuls of rotten seeds into the air in the hopes that they will land and arrive in a listener’s ear and at that perfect moment tell them: Ah, products exist.

It’s even more dire because in many cases these are podcasts that are essentially working as a kind of marketing product, a literal form of ‘content’ that an attract ‘an audience’ of ‘a demographic’ which means they can ‘monetise’ that content by sticking ads between the ‘content.’ True Crime podcasts are dire as a whole genre but that is at least a genre with a problem and that problem can be examined in terms of what the genre is doing and what it’s affecting.

This? This is just ‘I make content, and that content is a land of contrasts.’

Okay.

Then.

With that in mind.

Hi, I’m Talen Lee. I’m a game maker, games studies academic, game critic, and media studies graduate with an honours degree working on a PhD in board game making. I’m bisexual, I’m cis, I grew up in a cult. I think that people make games as cultural artifacts, I think there are more interesting ways to talk about games than as just commercial products, and I think that academic concepts are not beyond you, a casual or common audience who are tangentially interested in them. I have had students who have scraped through classes with minimal effort managing to wrap their heads around ideas like paratext agonic play,  you can get there too, I’m confident.

Every day, there’s a new article posted on Press Dot EXE. What you’re going to find here fits broadly into these categories:

Games, from my perspective as someone who makes and loves games

Media, from my perspective as someone qualified in Media Studies

My experiences growing up with Fundamentalism

Like, that’s kind of it. Games, media and fundamentalism, that’s all I do. That takes a lot of different forms, of course.

I don’t like repeating on a topic too much. That means there are things I do with a mindset of ‘once a month’ – I try not to make a single subject too common, too often. To hit that goal, I try to limit myself to once-a-month articles about:

My original characters

My ‘original’ world for tabletop RPGs, Cobrin’Seil

Worldbuilding advice and guidance in general without a specific example

The franchises Transformers, Pokemon, and Magic The Gathering

I do write about D&D a fair bit, the two editions I know well, which are 3rd edition and 4th edition (which is the best edition). They get a slot each each month, and so does the special series How To Be, which describes a process for trying to make a particular character from pop culture media in the game system of 4th Edition D&D. I started this because I thought the complaints about 4e D&D being ‘inflexible’ or ‘like an MMORPG’ for character building didn’t make any sense to me, and then decided to show that you can translate a lot of different kinds of characters to that format.

Every week, I start the Monday with a piece on a media work, which I call Story Pile, and then the Friday, I publish an article on a game, which I call Game Pile. Every two weeks, the Game Pile article will be a video, and published on Youtube, and here!

Every even month, I use a theme to unite the content on the blog. That means if you like a particular type of content, it’s easy to look for in the archives. The themes and their corresponding months are:

February is Smooch Month, where I talk about romantic media

April is Talen Month, where I talk about things that matter to me personally

June is Pride Month, which is about queer media

August is Tricks Month, where I talk about magical tricks and illusions

October is Dread Month, where I look into horror and darker topics

December is Decemberween, a celebration of cool things I’ve seen through the year

That’s the goals for the year, with an aim for every article clocking in at one thousand words. I also aim to be better and more consistent about alt text this year – this is an example of a bad habit I’ve let fester for a long time, like not using categories and tags, and I intend to address it going forward.  

That’s what you get here. You get media analysis. You get games. You get an ex-cultist thinking about things and a deliberate attempt to keep things from getting too repetitive and boring.

Where all good podcasts are sold.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[the-rewatch-rewind]

Time for another new episode!

Script below the break.

Hello and welcome back to The Rewatch Rewind! My name is Jane, and this is the podcast where I count down my top 40 most frequently rewatched movies in a 20-year period. Today I will be discussing number 11 on my list: MGM’s 1959 spy thriller North by Northwest, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, written by Ernest Lehman, and starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, and James Mason.

New York advertising man Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is mistaken for government agent George Kaplan by men working for foreign spy Phillip Vandamm (James Mason). Their initial attempt to rub him out is unsuccessful, but nobody believes Roger’s story, and he is forced to go on the run when Vandamm’s men make it look like he committed murder. Roger sneaks onto the 20th Century Limited train to Chicago, where he runs into a beautiful young lady named Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) who helps him hide from the police. But when instructions that Eve claims she received from the elusive George Kaplan nearly get him killed, Roger begins to suspect that she is also working for Vandamm. And if you haven’t seen this movie, I would recommend watching it before listening because it has an absolute roller coaster of a plot and I will be spoiling most of the twists.

As I mentioned in the Notorious episode, North by Northwest was the first Hitchcock movie I ever saw. I was kind of hesitant to watch it because I had heard that Hitchcock made scary movies, and I’ve never been into horror. But my mom assured me that this one was more of a mystery adventure and wasn’t actually that scary, so I gave it a try and was immediately hooked. I watched it three times in 2004, once in 2005, once in 2009, four times in 2010, three times in 2011, once in 2012, 2013, and 2014, twice in 2015, twice in 2017, once in 2019, twice in 2020, once in 2021, and twice in 2022. This, like His Girl Friday, was one of the films I wrote a paper about in my Film as Literature class, so that explains why I watched it so often in 2010. I used to always include it in my Cary Grant birthday marathon, but in more recent years I’ve tended to save it for Eva Marie Saint’s birthday, which happens to be the 4th of July – an appropriate day to watch a movie featuring American landmarks. Some years I watch it on both their birthdays. And when I don’t, I often watch it on Alfred Hitchcock’s birthday, because even now that I’ve seen over 40 of his films, the first one I watched is still my favorite. There is a part of me that wants to have a more obscure favorite – North by Northwest is, after all, one of his most famous films, and therefore a very basic choice. Even people who have never seen it tend to be at least vaguely familiar with the crop-dusting scene and the chase across Mount Rushmore. It seems like a movie that somebody who hasn’t seen many Hitchcock films would claim as their favorite Hitchcock film. But I’ve watched it 25 times and still can’t get over how good it is, so, basic or not, I love this movie, and I’m pretty sure it will always be one of my favorite movies in general, not just among this particular director’s work.

And I mean, obviously, a big part of that is because of Cary Grant. If I had to pick one movie that most perfectly displays everything I love about Cary Grant, I’d have to go with North by Northwest. In this movie, he’s simultaneously a comedian, a romantic lead, an action hero, and a confused victim of circumstance. His character is upset by all the awful things that happen to him but remains relatively unfazed and undaunted. He’s suave and sophisticated but also goofy and relatable. I love every moment of his performance. As always, he’s at his best when he’s being funny, so one of my favorite parts is when Roger is trying to escape from an art auction when Vandamm and his cronies have sealed off the exits, so he starts calling out ridiculous numbers, hoping someone will call the police to have him removed from the premises. Grant does such a great job of being disruptive in the most charming but silly way possible, relieving some of the tension without completely derailing the suspenseful tone of the story, and it’s so perfect. But he also plays the darker moments very well. In a lot of my other favorite Cary Grant movies, you can’t ever really take anything his character says at face value because he’s always joking or at least being a little sarcastic. In this movie, while Roger takes most things in his stride and doesn’t let them throw him too much, there are moments when he’s truly hurt or stunned, and he plays them very believably. It’s kind of jarring, in a good way, to see a man who is mostly poised despite all the chaos around him, actually get thrown off balance occasionally. Roger Thornhill generally doesn’t take himself or the world too seriously, but his tolerance for bullshit does have limits, and it’s interesting to see how he acts when he’s beyond tired of going with the flow. A lot of Hitchcock’s films start to feel kind of tedious after two or three watches because once you know where it’s leading, the building of suspense loses some of its intensity and can feel kind of draggy. But, aside from the fact that you kind of need to watch this one a few times to fully understand its convoluted plot, I could watch Cary Grant playing Roger Thornhill for ages without getting tired of it, which is one of the reasons I keep revisiting this one.

But I can’t give Grant all the credit. Every performance in this movie is excellent. James Mason is a delectably menacing Phillip Vandamm, and Jessie Royce Landis brings some welcome levity toward the beginning as Roger’s mother. And, of course, there’s Eva Marie Saint, who, as I alluded to at the end of last episode, is, at the time of recording, as far as I know, still alive at 99, making her the oldest living Oscar winner. She didn’t win an Oscar for North by Northwest – she won for her film debut in On the Waterfront five years earlier – but boy does she give a fascinating performance in this movie. She doesn’t even show up until about 45 minutes in, and at first her character just seems like a sexy love interest for Roger, who has had a very rough 45 minutes’ worth of story and could use a break. But then it’s revealed that oh no, she’s working for Vandamm! And then it’s like, but is she really? Wait, she’s actually spying on Vandamm! But then she shoots Roger? Oh, just kidding, they were blanks, she’s still a good guy, never mind. And now she’s in danger! The audience’s perception of Eve changes so many times that it must have been very difficult to keep track of how she needed to come across in each scene, but Saint absolutely nails it. She’s perfectly mysterious and even sinister when she needs to be, but easily transitions to open and vulnerable and likable when the audience is supposed to be rooting for her. It’s an extremely complicated role and it absolutely could not have been played better. And the way she and Grant interact throughout these transitions is brilliant. Roger’s perceptions of Eve follow a similar path to the audience’s, but not quite at the same time. For instance, while Roger and Eve are together in her train compartment, we see a porter deliver a note to Vandamm from her that says, “What should I do with him in the morning?” Which, on the one hand, is kind of weird, because like, how are they supposed to get a response back to her without Roger seeing it? But the purpose of that is obviously to show the audience that – gasp – Eve is not just some random woman Roger happened to run into; she’s involved in this somehow! But Roger doesn’t begin to suspect her until after he’s been crop-dusted and the hotel clerk tells him that George Kaplan checked out before he supposedly gave Eve instructions on where to meet him. So there’s a whole section when the audience knows something Roger doesn’t. But then later the opposite happens, when Eve shoots Roger during the confrontation in the Mount Rushmore cafeteria – both Roger and Eve know it’s fake, but the audience doesn’t until later.

The way the movie so deliberately and gradually reveals information to the audience is fascinating even when you’ve seen it a bunch of times and already know what’s coming. And while this required the brilliant performances of Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint to be effective, I have to give major props to screenwriter Ernest Lehman for crafting such a well-told narrative. (He also wrote the screenplay for The Sound of Music, which I mention just to give an idea of the wide range of his talent.) This story is ridiculously complex, and while not all of the details quite hold up under scrutiny, overall the important storylines track remarkably well upon rewatch. I can’t claim this movie is perfect because it does feature one of my all-time favorite movie mistakes, although I didn’t notice it until Eva Marie Saint herself pointed it out in a DVD special feature, but now I can’t watch this movie without noticing it. In the scene with the fake shooting, right as she pulls out the gun, there’s a boy in the background who plugs his ears, even though nobody is supposed to know that she’s going to actually fire it. It seems very odd that someone with as much attention to detail as Hitchcock would have allowed that to end up in the final cut, but it makes me smile every time. And there are definitely several aspects of the story that don’t really make a lot of sense if you think about them too hard. But again, the story is so complex and is told so well overall that poking holes in it just feels pedantic. If anything, its flaws make me love it all the more.

While this movie is decidedly neither aromantic nor asexual, it does portray romance and sex in a somewhat unusual way. The character of Eve Kendall is rather similar to Alicia Huberman in Notorious, in that they both use sex for spy purposes – the main difference being that we never have any doubts about which side Alicia is on. As I’ve mentioned in previous episodes, characters faking sexual attraction to use sex for personal or political gain makes more sense to me as an asexual person than characters expressing genuine feelings of sexual attraction, which might explain why, in general, the movies that have made it into my top 40 that include sexual content tend to feature ulterior motives behind the sex. Eve does develop real feelings for Roger, but in order to keep Vandamm from suspecting her, she has to pretend she only slept with Roger under Vandamm’s orders, which adds an intriguing layer to the whole situation. Another interesting thing about North by Northwest, especially when compared with Notorious, is that while production codes were still in effect in 1959, they were clearly starting to relax. Notorious was as explicit as it was allowed to be, but all the sexual activity is cloaked in innuendo, however thin. No modern audience would consider North by Northwest a sexually explicit movie, but at least the characters could say that they had sex. In Notorious, when Alex finds out that Alicia is a spy, he berates himself for “believing in her with her clinging kisses” but nothing more risqué than that, whereas in North by Northwest, Roger vents about Eve “using sex like some people use a flyswatter.” As an Old Hollywood fan, I find it endlessly fascinating to see what content was allowed when, and as James and I discussed in the Notorious episode, Hitchcock loved to push the envelope. So while there’s no nudity or anything like that in this movie, there is definitely clear sexual content. And while I wouldn’t go so far as to claim that any of the characters is asexual, there is at least one who is very strongly implied to be gay. Leonard, played by Martin Landau, is Vandamm’s right hand man who seems to have a thing for Vandamm. He’s accused of being jealous that Vandamm likes Eve, and he refers to his own “woman’s intuition.” The rules may have been relaxing around discussions of heterosexual activities, but references to homosexuality still weren’t allowed to be more overt than that. Still, I think we can safely claim Leonard as LGBT+ representation. Landau himself was very open about intentionally playing him as gay, which both Hitchcock and Lehman supported.

Hitchcock also pushed the envelope with this movie in ways unrelated to sexual content. For example, he was refused permission to film the outside of the United Nations building, but he went ahead and did it anyway, from a camera hidden in a truck across the street. Similarly, the government didn’t want to allow the climactic chase across Mount Rushmore, as they felt it was disrespectful. This was finally allowed under the conditions that they didn’t film on the real monument, and that the characters never climbed across the presidents’ faces. They were allowed to film the shooting-with-blanks scene in the Memorial View Building in the park, but the monument they climb down during the climax was a model on a soundstage – which was probably much safer than filming on the actual mountain anyway. Although Eva Marie Saint did slip and bang her elbow, which made it into the movie. Personally, I think the best part of that chase scene is the music, written by Bernard Herrmann, who also wrote the scores for six other Hitchcock movies, including the iconic screeching Psycho theme. The North by Northwest theme is somewhat less well known, but it’s very intense and adventurous, and it greatly enhances the climax. Definitely the perfect “escaping from desperate enemy spies who are trying to kill you” song, and that scene in particular would be significantly less effective without it.

Not to constantly be harping on about people’s ages, but I must point out that Jessie Royce Landis, who plays Cary Grant’s mother in this movie, was only seven years older than him, while Eva Marie Saint, who plays his love interest, was 20 years younger than him. Much as I love this cast and wouldn’t want to see any of them replaced, it’s still rather upsetting to me that a 55-year-old man can still play the lead, while a 62-year-old woman is relegated to the minor “mother” role. She does get one of the best lines in the movie (“You gentlemen aren’t REALLY trying to kill my son, are you?”), but she doesn’t have nearly enough screentime. More good roles for older actresses, please! Also, Eve Kendall says she’s 26 when Eva Marie Saint was really 35, and I don’t understand why they felt the need to pretend she was so much younger. Couldn’t they have just let her character be in her 30s? That would have made her relationships with men in their 50s at least a little less creepy. But maybe the creepiness was the point. Or maybe Grant and Mason were meant to be playing younger characters too. Anyway, the ages may be all wrong, but the performances are all perfect, and that’s what really matters.

Ultimately, I think the main reason this is my most frequently rewatched Hitchcock movie boils down to the fact that even when the suspense is no longer effectively suspenseful, it’s still a very fun movie to watch. Intense things happen, but overall the tone isn’t nearly as dark as most of his other films. And so much is going on that there are always more details to be noticed. And again, if nothing else, Cary Grant is there being Cary Grant.

Speaking of which, you may recall that way back when Grant made his first appearance on this podcast, in #33, Holiday, I mentioned that he was going to appear in 10 movies on this list. Since then, I’ve talked about him in Monkey Business, Father Goose, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, Bringing Up Baby, Notorious, His Girl Friday, and The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, which means North by Northwest is his ninth movie on here. Somehow he only made it into one of the top 10, and it is number one, so I won’t be talking about him again for a while. Funnily enough, each of the four actors who appear in at least four of my top 40 most rewatched films – Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, and Julie Andrews – is in exactly one of my top 10. So stay tuned for my favorite movie that each of them made. I cannot believe I’m three-quarters of the way through this list already. Thank you so much to those of you who have listened to every episode since the beginning of this project, and to those of you who have only listened to this episode, and to those of you who have listened to a few episodes here and there. I am so grateful that anyone is interested in what I have to say about these movies that I love. I hope you will enjoy the final quarter, which will begin with a movie that is quite different from anything I’ve talked about thus far, although it does involve travelling across the United States so it’s a little like North by Northwest, except not. Anyway, as always, I will leave you with a quote from that next movie: “Thoughts raced through his mind. Did she really want him? What had he done to deserve this bounty? Does God exist? Who invented liquid soap and why?”

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

I scan the front page of Chortle every couple of days or so; I realize it’s not the best website in the world, has a bunch of flaws including its genuinely weird number of spelling errors (honestly, at this point I’m more confused about how they get away with that than I am annoyed about it, it’s a professional website, I know my own Tumblr blog is full of typos but it wouldn’t be if someone were paying me to write this shit), but it’s not a bad way to keep up with what major comedy things are going on. Usually there’s nothing interesting, but I’m just often enough alerted to some livestreamed event or some new show or comedy special or interesting bit of news to keep checking. I want to find out about new developments from somewhere, and I’d rather read a weirdly error-ridden website than start looking at Twitter regularly.

Couple of weird ones that jumped out at me today. It was mainly the usual stuff: here are the eight new comedians who’ve started a podcast in the last three days, here’s who’s hosting Have I Got News For You, here’s another update on the plot of The Windsors for some reason, here’s an interview with a guy who wrote a book that doesn’t look interesting.

But one article did catch my eye where I knew I was playing into the attention-grabbing culture war gossip by even clicking on it, but I did it anyway, and that led to something I’ve never expected to happen: I found myself agreeing with Leo Kearse. Who knew that was possible?

And now I’m giving this absolute bullshit further attention by writing about it, which I’m only justifying on the grounds that hardly anyone’s going to see this post and among those people none will care, and I just need to rant somewhere that yes, obviously Leo Kearse is right. Seriously, I believe Leo Kearse is right about something. It is ridiculous to be willing to appear on a Comedy Unleashed show, and then start drawing lines because you think some of the other performers are bigots. Not even because you can’t do one thing wrong and then still have standards – that’s fine. I enjoy some things that could be justifiably criticized as problematic; I reserve the right to dislike other, much worse things for being more problematic. But Comedy Unleashed’s entire ethos is that nothing is too problematic. That any objection to any level of bigotry is an attack on free speech. You can’t sign onto to that ethos and then still try to have principles. You can’t join something that advertises itself as being a safe space for racists and sexists and homophobes and transphobes and just general assholes, and then be surprised that there are bigots in there. For the same reason that you can’t vote for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party and then be surprised when people make fun of you on Reddit.

And her excuse seems to be that she’s only been in the UK for four years and didn’t know what she was getting into, which reminds me of a quote from Alasdair Beckett-King from the final episode of Mock the Week: “What I don’t get about the Kwasi [Kwarteng] thing is, he was flown back from a meeting in America [to be fired], he was talking about the IMF, and I read that he didn’t know why he was being recalled to the UK, which is weird, because I knew.” That’s my answer to that excuse. I have spent zero years living the UK, and zero years being on the comedy circuit in the UK, and I know what Comedy Unleashed is. You can’t not know that before signing up with them.

I don’t even know who this person is and I’m not about to look her up or anything, so I realize I’m writing this post from a place of maybe not really knowing what I’m talking about, but I am agreeing with Leo Kearse so it’s a weird day to be me. And I’m sorry to give this even more attention but I just need to briefly disagree with Leo Kearse, even aside from the obvious bullshit of suggesting that “misogynist” means the same as “working class”, because what the fuck, trying to equate that shit with Frankie Boyle? Claiming that Frankie Boyle’s said bad things in the past so if you don’t forgive the past misdeeds of a guy who’s currently on GB News, you’re a hypocrite if you forgive Frankie Boyle, who’s currently, you know, not on GB News. When actually, now that you bring it up, Leo, shouldn’t the left’s current veneration of Frankie Boyle be evidence that this cancel culture doesn’t exist?

It's complicated with Frankie Boyle. He’s said some absolutely reprehensible things in the past, many of which he’s hasn’t officially apologized for. He’s said he thinks some of the things he used to say were wrong. He’s called them “indefensible”. And he’s stopped saying things like that. He’s talked at length about his thoughts on the responsibility of comedians to think about the harm they cause, and how he tries to do that in ways he didn’t before. But he hasn’t officially apologized.

Personally, I think that’s worth more than an apology; anyone can do the spectacle of an apology, but he skipped the spectacle and just started doing things differently. Having said that, I realize that could be a weak defense for how much I like a guy who said reprehensible things and hasn’t apologized. I’m not 100% confident that it's a good enough defense. But I like him despite not being okay with everything he’s ever said, and doesn’t that knock down all the outrage about cancel culture? If the left were out there canceling anyone who’s ever said anything wrong, Frankie Boyle would be done. In reality, the only people who’ve canceled Frankie Boyle are the conservatives in 2009 who couldn’t handle someone showing insufficient respect to the queen’s pussy, and the BBC in 2023 that, I’m not saying his political views were a factor, but if they were, then that wasn’t leftist outrage doing the cancelling.

You can’t have it both ways, guys. Either the leftists are unforgiving machines that will cancel anyone who’s ever made a mistake, or we’re massive hypocrites who will forgive the past misdeeds of people we like while unfairly condemning the past misdeeds of others. Or, maybe there’s a fucking difference between the past misdeeds of a guy who went on to use his platform for what Frankie Boyle does these days, and a guy who’s currently on GB News.

Fucking hell, this post has now taken up a little over a page in my Word document, I am genuinely sorry for letting terrible people take up this much of my attention (or at least sorry for admitting to it, normally if I’m going to hate read/watch things I have the sense to not post it on a blog), but while I’m already at this I may as well do one more. There’s another article on Chortle’s front page with the headline: Heckler throws pint at comedian's head, to which my first thought was, “Wow, that is damning indictment of the behaviour of post-lockdown audiences, what a terrible thing to do.” Then I read the name of the guy it happened to, and my first thought was, “Oh, that guy probably deserved it.”

In my defense, at the time I was picturing someone keeping the glass in their hand, and just throwing the beer onto him. I then actually watched the video, and yeah, okay, that was really fucking dangerous and not even that guy deserved that. I mean, fuck that guy. Honestly, fuck that guy. He is the absolute worst. This might be the most I have hated someone about whom I know so little. I have heard him talk for two hours in total – one hour on one podcast and one hour on another – and my God, he is the absolute worst. It’s honestly impressive how many different types of the worst he managed to be in only two hours. When I heard him talk to Stuart Goldsmith, he sucked so much that not only did I hate him, I also lost respect for Stuart Goldsmith for the crime of liking him, even though I’d really liked Stuart Goldsmith.

But yeah, don’t throw glassware at people. It occurred to me that he seems like the type of guy who might stage that for publicity, this is the first time I’ve seen his name on the front page of Chortle, but then I watched the video and that would be one hell of a risk if it were staged. It barely missed him, if he’d been a split second slower at dodging he’d have had injuries that were much too severe to be worth getting on the front page of the Chortle website for one day. That’s criminal assault. It’s telling that he cut out of the video of whatever he said to piss the audience member off so much, and I can easily imagine that whatever he said was very bad, but don’t commit criminal assault even if someone is the absolute worst (note: I’m talking about small-time comedians who say shitty things on stage, violent protests against massive corrupt systems and the people who create and run them are a different thing). Don’t make martyrs of terrible people. For the love of God, don’t make me agree with both Leo Kearse and David McSavage in one morning. Come on. Don’t fucking do that to me.

...Thank you for your time, I will now go back to trying not to give my energy or attention to this sort of bullshit, and if I do, at least trying not to admit it too often on a public blog, because I know that only makes it worse.

[peony-pearl]

Gargoyles Re-watch - Awakening Pt 1

It’s been a long time since I’ve sat down to rewatch Gargoyles; probably since 2020. This is a show that is absolutely synonymous with my childhood, having premiered when I was 6 years old. Memories of watching it are hazy, but I hope I’ll always remember vibes of watching it at my grandmother’s house with my older sister @cherryfinolahobbes​ and our late uncle. Seeing all of the new content, from the amazing Neca figures, to the new comics (which I still need to purchase and read), to listening to the entertaining and informative Voices from the Eyrie podcast (which indulges my love of hearing from voice casts and behind the scenes trivia; seriously if you’re a fan of the show go sub to this great podcast); it’s been great being a fan of such a lovingly crafted show as of late.

However, I’m awful at not only keeping up with things, but also with rewatching, because my ADHD will try to fill in memory gaps/distract me and I’ll just... not turn things on or put them on pause lmao. BUT I want to share one of my most favorite shows! And seeing a lot of rewatches and analyses of Avatar the Last Airbender from so many of my mutuals (I need to do a series for that show too), I’ve decided to do one for my beloved Gahhguyles. So sit back, Happy New Year, and get ready to hear me gush about voice lines, music cues and magic spells recited in latin that have been rattling in my brain for the better part of 30 years!

Immediately you’re welcomed with a title card, a jagged set of stone letters that read ‘Awakening’, overlayed with snarls and a hint of ominous music. Bitchin.

We then cue in to New York City in present day (well, present day in 1994), where explosions can be heard and seen in the clouds; one of the tallest buildings in the city disappears into these clouds, and after a continuous round of noise begins to catch onlookers’ attention, rubble begins to fall from out of the clouds, nearly killing multiple people.

The police are on the scene, and from a particular red car steps out Detective Elisa Maza, voiced by Salli Richardson-Whitfield. Elisa is no beginner to her field. She’s smart and quick-witted, and when she arrives she’s greeted with respect from her fellow policemen who update her on the situation.

More rubble falls, and Elisa sees a set of marks that takes her off guard.

“What could be strong enough to leave claw marks in solid stone?” Elisa asks. This line, if I recall, was used in almost every piece of advertising for the show. We’re then greeted with the Gargoyles logo, and we go back in time. 1000 years to be exact, and now we’re in Scotland, where a group of Vikings are attacking the castle. They’re led by Hakon, voiced by Clancy Brown, and they seem to be winning against the castle, as their catapult destroys a wall and takes down some archers.

We then get our first glimpse of the Gargoyles, a set of stone statues in the dying light of day.

Quick detour for a moment to talk about the animation. Gargoyles is GORGEOUS. The colors of the sunset at the moment we look up at the tower that the Gargoyles are sleeping on are beautiful. There are some episodes that have infamous animation, but they’re not often, and even then, Gargoyles has some great character animation, as everyone has their own unique personality.

We’re then shown the Captain of the Guard, voiced by the late Ed Gilbert, defending the Castle and shouting to his men, who are uncertain about their fate.

Captain: “Stand fast! We can hold them back!”

Soldier: “Aye, and catch boulders with our teeth while we’re about it!”

Gargoyles has one of the snappiest scripts and we’re not even 3 minutes in.

The Captain mentions that once the sun goes down they’ll ‘see some fun’, but just as he does, another boulder strikes nearby, and we get to properly meet the Vikings as the camera pans in on them while they cheer, and Hakon stands proud in front of his army. However, he has his dissenters.

Viking: *talking to another standing near him* “Attacking a castle full of Gargoyles near nightfall! This is crazy, and Hakon knows it!”

Hakon: No, my friend. That’s not crazy *he grabs the viking to look him square in the face* Questioning my sanity when I’m in earshot, that’s crazy!” *he looks back to the castle* I say these Gargoyles are naught but chiseled stone! And even if they aren’t, it’s worth the risk for the plunder within! ATTACK!”

The Vikings charge over a gorgeous red sky, continuing their assault, even making it through the gates as they climb the tower leading straight up to the Gargoyles.Hakon leads the way, his rope secured to where the largest Gargoyle rests.

The sky is getting darker. Hakon reaches the top just as the sun sets, and he witnesses the stone statue crackle and burst to reveal a mammoth purple beast, who looks at him with more annoyance than fear. He grabs Hakon easily and holds him over the ground, more than capable of dropping him right then and there.

The first words of our main man Goliath, voiced by Keith David, are a growling, matter-of-factly “You are trespassing.”

The rest of Hakon’s men witness the rest of the clan awakening (hehe) from their daily stone slumber, becoming alive at night. Hakon draws his sword and slams it into Goliath’s hand, drawing blood. He then urges his men to fight as ‘they are not invincible’.

The battle ensues, and Hakon manages to escape Goliath.

As we see more warring, we come across three distinct Gargoyles; I want so badly to call them by their names, but they don’t have those names just yet XD so for now we’ll just go by Red, Green and Blue.

Green, voiced by Thom Adcox-Hernandez, is the smallest, but that doesn’t deter his personality. He’s sharp as a tack and sassy, and doesn’t hesitate to berate his brothers when they annoy him.

Red, voiced by Jeff Bennett, is impulsive, but earnest and caring and tends to get put into the ‘badass’ category (... but I mean... come on he is a badass; he was my favorite when I was a kid)

Blue, voiced by Bill Fagerbakke, is the laid back foodie, but there’s more under his exterior than meets the eye.

When we meet the trio, Green is watching intently, while Red’s eyes are darting from place to place, bursting with excitement as Blue just sits back.

Red: “Shall we let all our brothers and sisters have all the fun?”

Red then immediately glides away, leaving Green and Blue as Green smirks at Blue, who seems reluctant to join.

Green: “Not afraid, are you?”

Blue: *offended as he stands to his full height* Afraid? Me? HAH! Why, all of nature trembles at my passing! *he lifts up his gut to his chest... only for it to wobble back down*

Green: *pokes his brother’s pudge* “I can see why”

The two join the brawl, and we witness more fighting just as we’re introduced to the next member of our main cast, a capable, much older Gargoyle, voiced by the late Ed Asner, holding his own until a Viking sneaks up on him just before Goliath can glide down to stop him.

Goliath: “Watch your back, old friend.”

Old Friend: *amused* “Huh! Watch your own.”

The fight rages on, we witness the Captain of the Guard in his element as he and Goliath begin fighting side by side. The Captain mentions the Vikings most likely followed a band of refugees the castle is giving shelter to, and as we pan over, we see Blue make his way to the clearing where said refugees are staying, helping himself to some of their food as he’s watched by a young boy and his mother. The boy is amused as he watches Blue easily dispose of a Viking with a large drumstick.

Hakon is then greeted by a Gargoyle beast, a big blue Best Boy who absolutely destroys a stone wall trying to tackle him. Our man Shakin’ Hakon tries to run off, but is stopped by the haunting visage of our final main Gargoyle, Goliath’s mate and second-in-command, voiced by Marina Sirtis, who is going to be one of the show’s absolute BEST characters, if not one of the most amazingly complex characters I’ve ever witnessed. She scares Hakon off easily, and he’s promptly defeated by her and Goliath, but he proclaims he’ll return as he retreats with his men, who are chased away by the arrows of the archers; but as the archers proclaim victory, we notice the way Red, Green and Blue look at each other, feeling their hard work has been ignored.

It’s just the first taste of how the humans of the castle treat them.

Goliath gets his hand bandaged by his mate as the Captain proclaims how the castle owes them their lives.

Goliath: “As we owe you ours every day.”

All is well.

: )

We then cut to the inside of the castle as some upbeat music plays. A flute, a tambourine and a drum lead a simple, but effective merry jaunt as the soldiers enjoy a feast to celebrate the victory. We get our first glimpse of Princess Katharine, a somber-looking young lady voiced by Kath Soucie, and the Magus, voiced by Jeff Bennett (Jeff is like, half the cast in this show), a sorcerer who is always by Katherine’s side.

As the Captain joins the feast, he overhears some of his men teasing about how he’s more like ‘captain of the gargoyles’. You get a sense that the Captain really truly cares about the Gargoyles. He seems unhappy with the teasing, but doesn’t argue. Anytime we see the Captain with his army, there’s not a lot of camaraderie; but with the Gargoyles, he seems very at home. When he’s greeted by the Princess, who thanks him for the battle well fought, the Captain doesn’t hesitate to also credit the Gargoyles for their assistance - but Katharine doesn’t feel the same. She becomes unhappy hearing about them.

Katharine: *after hearing Goliath’s name* “Please, don’t mention that monster’s name in my presence”.

The doors burst open, the Magus drops his drink when he sees their ‘guests’ are that of none other than Goliath himself and his mate, who are there as the Captain’s guests. But not everyone is happy to see him. Katharine admonishes the Captain, and the Magus as well has some choice words, but when the Gargoyles approach and frighten Katharine, she’s surprised to see Goliath bow to her in respect. But after she insults them once more, Goliath’s mate is ready to strike, but Goliath is quick to diffuse the situation and he promptly leaves.

Goliath, despite his name and stature, has great patience and understanding; he is a great leader, and will later show some really interesting character faults. Keith David’s performance hits the nail of the head in every episode, making Goliath relatable, even when he’s at his most stubborn or at his wisest.

As Goliath, his mate, and the Captain reconvene in the halls, the Captain apologizes for Katharine’s words.

Goliath: “No apologies needed. We are what we are. Her opinion will not change that.”

Mate: “Have you no pride? No sense of justice?! We saved their lives and they repay us with contempt!” (this line has lived in my head rent free for nearly 3 decades it’s acted so amazingly)

Captain: “She is right, Goliath. You deserve better than this.”

Mate: These cliffs were our home ages before they built their stone fortress. They should bow to us!”

Goliath: *takes her hand* “It is the nature of humankind to fear what they do not understand. Their ways are not our ways.”

Going back to Goliath and his design, his words and beliefs can carry so much gentility; however we’ll also see later that a lot of old teachings can often drive wedges between him and loved ones, especially when we meet Angela next season.

However, the Captain is still unhappy with the situation that has unfolded. He cares so much for the Gargoyles, and it’s obvious he wants to change some minds.

Cut to the Magus, perusing in his book, the Grimorum Arcanorum within his study; and at dawn, a mystery figure rides off away from the castle - all the way to Hakon to make a bargain.

At nightfall, Goliath removes the bandages from his injured hand, which is now fully healed; in the meantime, the Captain of the Guard urges for Goliath to take the Gargoyles away from the castle as the Vikings had promised to return. The Captain and the Mate continue to try and convince Goliath of the idea, but he refuses to leave the castle unprotected. He decides to go and ward off the Vikings with his old mentor, and he tells his mate to stay with the castle. He promises to her that they are one, now and forever.

In the meantime, we return to the trio of Red, Green and Blue, playing catch with Best Boy, using a slab of meat. The Mate comes around to watch, smiling as they have fun around the refugees that are still under the castle’s protection. The little boy from the previous night curiously runs over to watch just as Best Boy finally gets his meal. Mate is apprehensive of the boy’s presence, and he introduces himself; his name is Tom and he asks for the trio’s names.

Green: “Except for Goliath we don’t have names.”

Tom: “How do you tell each other apart?”

Green: “We look different.”

Tom: “But what do you call each other?”

Red: “Friend”

But Tom’s mother, Mary, steps in, afraid for her boy, and she tells him to get away from ‘those monsters’. Red insists they wouldn’t hurt him, but Mary chucks a hunk of wood at him, striking him. Goliath’s mate, from up high, is enraged, and she insists Mary is the monster, just before Red and Green agree that if she thinks they’re monsters, maybe they should live up to the name.

But just before they can do anything, Goliath appears. He orders for Red, Green, Blue and Best Boy to go to the Rookery until he returns. Mate insists they weren’t at fault, but Goliath refuses to condone any fighting, and he must find ways to deter it, and he promises he’ll make it up to the boys later.

Goliath and his Mentor leave to find the Vikings, locating some questionable tracks. We then check back in with the trio, sent down to where a clutch of eggs rest in a cave like children sent to their room. Blue, interested in some slime on the wall, decides to have it as a snack and we’re treated to an uncomfortable several seconds of him just chewing on this slime.

The camera cuts to a mystery figure, tampering with the Castle armory just as we return to Goliath and Mentor, who laments sunrise is near just as Goliath finds the Vikings. They attack, but realize they’ve been tricked and were being decoyed the whole time. They try to return, but the sun rises, and Goliath and Mentor turn to stone, unable to make it back home before the Vikings ransack the castle. This time, successfully, as the inside job and betrayal is revealed to have been because of the Captain, and he personally apprehends Princess Katharine in a really great moment as she rushes down the stairs, and he slowly ascends to greet her in shadow.

Katharine: “The Vikings, Captain! We are attacked!”

Captain: *grabs her wrist, looking her in the eyes* “It is worse than that, your highness.”

The following silence as Katharine realizes what’s happening, her expression, this quick moment is SO GOOD. We then watch the castle inhabitants led out in chains as Hakon and Captain talk above the commotion.

Hakon: “Not that I’m ungrateful, but why? Why betray your own kind?”

Captain: *almost in pain* “They’re not my kind.”

But it’s not long until Hakon, mace in hand, decides it’s time to get rid of the Gargoyles as the sun sets. The Captain is horrified, and he tells him to leave them alone.

I wish I could describe how much I love that Gargoyles mostly had it’s actors record together (although some exceptions had to be made); you can often feel the fluidity of the conversations, and while I’m not sure if this particular exchange between Hakon and the Captain were recorded in the same room, it’s one of my absolute favorites.

Hakon: *staring at Captain as he’s prevented from destroying a gargoyle* Are you mad?! In a moment they’ll be flesh again and my men will be their prey!”

Captain: “Once your band is out of sight, they won’t follow! It’s not their nature!”

Hakon: “Ahh, well, in that case-” *he strikes Captain, aiming his mace for his head as he pins him against the wall* “Care to discuss the matter further?”

Captain: “...No.”

Hakon: *releasing him, he looks at one of the stone gargoyles* “I haven’t lived this long by taking foolish chances.”

The swell of music as Hakon lifts his mace, the sound of the stone being smashed as Hakon’s silhouette casts over Captain’s horrified face as he stumbles in agony. Damn; DAMN I love this show.

Night falls, and Goliath and Mentor return to the castle, now in smoke as fire still rages. They find the smashed remains of their clan, and Goliath shakily picks up the pieces of what he believes to be the form of his mate as he speaks to her in anguish, just before releasing a roar of despair; we pan out to another hauntingly gorgeous shot of the smouldering castle with a glowing full moon behind it as the screen fades to black, and we’re greeted with the first of many ‘To Be Continued’ cards.

The first episode of Gargoyles wastes no time in getting right into the action, while also building mysteries that will be revealed in later episodes. Yup, we’re already laying groundwork for later plots!! This show is dense with storylines that weave in and out so well, sometimes you’ll get payoff to a question you never even asked about.

Writing this was a DOOZY; I was not expecting this to take me a good couple of hours lmao, but hopefully I can keep with it! I love this show so much and I don’t think I’ll ever stop recommending it!

[xplrvibes]

So another TikTok came up on my fyp about Colby having a gf, lol and they even showed the pictures of them looking like they’re holding hands, I’m sure you know the one, but they also attached her Insta account and also attached a post of what she’s wearing in the pic, which was dated all the way back in March (I did a little stalking myself) regardless if this was recent as the comments are saying, then I don’t think it’s her. Or these pictures are only surfacing now, but why would the creator say that they met them and said they were flirting all night etc, sounds to me it’s all for attention.

I'm aware.

And honestly- and this is not against you, anon, this is against the people that will not stop spreading this all over the platforms Colby and this girl are on and tagging them in this drama- but this is the entire problem with this situation, wrapped up in a neat little bow.

Colby went on what was possibly ONE CASUAL DATE; a date he did NOT in any way, shape or form make public, advertise or- and this is the important part, here, the part that flies over everyone's head for whatever reason- CONSENT to having made public. A "fan" (and boy do I use this term loosely) saw him out with this girl and thought, "Oh man, everyone needs to know that I know that he has a girlfriend!" and took a sneaky ass photo behind his back and without his or this girl's permission and spread it around everywhere, while simultaneously telling every that they saw him holding hands, flirting and kissing this girl.

Within hours, the alleged girl's instagram was found and dissected, her followers suddenly included a whole lot of accounts with "xplr" or "colby" in the handle, and she suddenly started getting inundated with people on her live streams asking her personal questions about her age, her intentions with Colby Brock, and demanding more info from her as if they have the right to know this shit.

At the same time, I saw people expressing disappointment in Colby for being with this girl instead of Shea/Stas/Kris/Amber etc (I saw them all, don't worry). One commenter was upset that he broke Kris' heart with this. Several commenters and people on here started with the "see? Colby's a tramp" routine that some of y'all just sit on pins and needles waiting to be thrown around. Others started in with everyone's other favorite Broadway musical "How Dare Colby Make it Public That he's Hooking Up (Why Must He Throw This in Our Face)?"

Meanwhile- COLBY. DID. NOT. CONSENT. TO. THIS.

He did not make this alleged date public information himself; nor did the girl allegedly in the photo. He did not ask for this "fan" to do this either. And this started the SAME FUCKING DAY that a podcast came out where he expressed having a breakdown because he can't handle social media consistently interfering in his life, and now he values his privacy so much more because of this.

And still, this is where we are at.

By the way? This "fan" confirmed Sam was also there on a date, and was flirting and kissing the girl he was with. Guess who I haven't seen a single sneaky non-consentual photo of, disparaging comment about, or any drama over?

Wanna know why? Cause the "fan" states they were protecting Sam's privacy cause they didn't want him to get hate.

Think about that. Really sit with it. Let that sink in.

Let this entire situation and all the nuances of it sink and paint you all a picture. And then come tell me what that picture is.

First person to guess correctly wins a prize.

To your point, anon, this was all done for attention. It is continuing to get spread for attention. But the attention is coming at the expense of the mental health of a man that every claims they love so much (they don't, or they would just gossip about this shit quietly and behind closed doors like everyone else with sensitive knowledge), and therein lies at least 50% of the problem.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Podcasting "So You've Decided to Unfollow Me"

This week on my podcast, I read “So You’ve Decided to Unfollow Me,” my Medium describing the joys of writing to attract the audience of people who want to read what you want to write.

https://doctorow.medium.com/so-youve-decided-to-unfollow-me-7452c96b4772

I’ve been blogging for more than 20 years, but I’ve been writing for publication for even longer than that, so I can remember the emergence of blogging and what it meant for magazine writers. The point of magazines, broadly, was to identify a demographic that advertisers wanted to reach and hire writers who’d produce material to entice those people to become readers.

By contrast, the point of blogging was to produce the idiosyncratic, personal mix of topics, formats and styles that the writer enjoyed, in hopes of attracting readers whose preferences overlapped with the writer’s. Blogging wasn’t just about becoming widely read — it was about finding your people.

When advertising came to blogging, it was grounded in this ethos: “Here is a writer who has attracted an audience who share a sensibility and a collection of interests that are otherwise hard to reach; if that’s who you want to reach, you can buy ads on this publication.”

The promise back then was that the “long tail” of interests and publications enabled by blogging would be matched with a long tail of advertisers who — like pre-blogging writers — had been hamstrung by the difficulty of reaching their own niche audiences.

What changed? Programmatic, behavioral ads: ads that were dynamically served based on surveillance data about the reader. For example: there was once a bubble in the clickthrough price for ads for lawyers who represented people who’d been poisoned by asbestos and were now sick with mesothelioma:

https://web.archive.org/web/20060328041115/http://www.cwire.org/2006/03/23/updated-highest-paying-adsense-keywords/

Writers who had interesting things to say about mesothelioma cleaned up, and some writers pursued the pre-blogging project of turning their attention to mesothelioma to capitalize on the bubble, and cheaters crowded in:

https://www.theregister.com/2006/10/06/google_adsense_worm/

So the advent of content-based ads distorted the way bloggers blogged, tempting writers to pursue subjects based on advertising rates rather than authentic interests, but surveillance ads supercharged this phenomenon. That’s because surveillance ads were served based on the reader, not the content, which meant that writers seeking to cash in succeeded by attracting the broadest possible audience.

If your publication could serve as a funnel for broad, undifferentiated audiences, the realtime auction ad markets would segment your audience for you, finding the valuable mesothelioma ad targets and serving them, along with all your other readers, based on the willingness of advertisers to pay.

This is the commercial pressure that turned the esoteric web into the generic web of sensationalism, clickbait and cute animals. It didn’t just transform what writers wrote — it also transformed how writers and readers related to one another.

Writers, obsessing over their analytics reports, worked to maximize “engagement” irrespective of the quality of that attention, because the more readers the could suck in, the higher the likelihood that one of those readers would turn out to be a jackpot, someone who had the right rare disease or interest in a mortgage that would pay out at 10x or 100x over the median reader.

This changed reader expectations, too. In the early days of blogging, readers would get in touch to say, “I’m so glad to have found someone who shares some or all of my strange, niche interests.” Often, they’d create their own publications that reblogged and elaborated the posts from your blog that interested them the most, adding their own stories tailored to their interests.

A whole suite of tools sprang up to make this process smoother: feed readers with keyword filters and “folksonomy” tools for tagging posts to make it easy for others to find (or ignore) posts (this is how Tumblr works today, and it’s delightful).

Today, it’s more likely that a reader will get in touch to say, “I love it when you write about X, but I’m not interested in Y — please do less of that, because your Y posts are cluttering up my feed.” In a sensible world, these readers would have powerful tools to screen out Y, but because social media platforms are committed to automated, algorithmic “curation” (rather than readers creating their own filters by following or ignoring writers, keywords and tags), readers end up treating writers as balky machine-learning tools, messaging them with “thumbs-down” signals to try to train them to be better tailored to the reader’s interests.

I get a lot of this, because I publish online in a bunch of different modes — long essays, quick reactions, streams of seemingly disconnected imagery from arcane and ephemeral sources. It’s pretty common for a reader to write in to say, “I love your vintage ad posts, but I’m not interested in the essays” (or vice versa).

To be clear, that’s fine. On a functional, authentic interest-driven internet, these readers would have great tools to just see one and not the other, and I go to great lengths to enable this, publishing on many different platforms in different ways to enable filtering:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/13/two-decades/#hfbd

After all, I’m not a balky machine-learning system, I’m a writer pursuing his authentic interests. There’s a reason for the mix that I post — a method that turns one kind of post into the other kinds:

https://doctorow.medium.com/the-memex-method-238c71f2fb46

Yes, even the ephemeral images:

https://doctorow.medium.com/divination-7cfec2b1a6b8

Sometimes, readers will write to me in a huff to announce that they’re not going to read me anymore. To be clear, that is fine. Every reader has their own threshold for when a writer’s mix of subjects and formats is sufficiently interesting for them to follow along.

It’s wonderful to have readers who want to read what you want to write. It’s great to have readers who want to argue with the substance of what you write and engage with you on it. But a reader who wants you to write something different? Ugh.

I’m a reader, too. I follow a lot of different writers in a lot of different media, and I, too, wish for better filters. It’s not entitled or arrogant to be interested in only some of a writer’s work. But if that is the case, the right response is to figure out how to filter our the uninteresting material, or learn to ignore it, or stop reading.

It’s okay to stop reading me! I’m not required reading. No one is required reading. If you can’t find the writer you want to read, try being that writer. That’s what I did, and it’s great.

Here’s a link to the podcast episode: https://craphound.com/news/2022/08/08/so-youve-decided-to-unfollow-me/

And here’s a direct link to the MP3 (hosting courtesy of the Internet Archive, they’ll host your stuff for free, forever): https://archive.org/download/cory-doctorow-podcast-433-so-youve-decided-to-unfollow-me/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_433_-_So_Youve_Decided_to_Unfollow_Me.mp3

Here’s my podcast feed: https://feeds.feedburner.com/doctorow_podcast

Image: Sascha Kohlmann (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/skohlmann/14449245760/

CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

[Image ID: A double exit-door, open to reveal a Matrix-style code waterfall. Over the door is a green exit sign with a green halo.]