#blum entertainment

[otakunoculture]

In Ghost Keeper, You Are The Lord and Master Everyone Needs To Be Afraid Of!

Although I was not aware of the video game, Ghost Master, back when it was released back in 2003, to wait more than twenty years for a sequel feels unusual. BLUM Entertainment and Quest Craft‘s upcoming Ghost Keeper looks better than the original (after looking at YouTube gameplays), and the fact it’s set in 19th-century Victorian England is one way to catch my interest! I also get the feeling…

[linuxgamenews]

Builders of Greece due to let you display your strategy on Linux

Builders of Greece city builder game is running tests for Linux with Windows PC ahead of the Prologue. Which is the result of the work from BLUM Entertainment and Strategy Labs. Working to make its way into a Steam release. As announced in the recently published Content RoadMap. Now Blum Entertainment moves on to the next stage of its project development. Due to open a dedicated Builders of Greece: Prologue Steam Page. From now on, players from all around the world can add the Prologue to their Steam Wishlist. Due to try their hand as a ruler of an ancient Greek city state. This is also a pre-release version of the game due in Q2 2023. The Prologue will be based on a story scenario. One whose main goal is to introduce the player to basic mechanics. Which also includes the managing systems and the general vibe of Builders of Greece. But we also have news regarding Linux, in the works.

As for the Linux support - we are still running tests. But rest assured that we will do our best to provide such support.

The development of Builders of Greece looks like it may have a Linux build. Thanks to a community forum comment, the developer is running tests. As for myself, I hope the Prologue will include Linux support. This would be a welcomed addition for the community.

Builders Of Greece Trailer

Builders of Greece is a city management game. One that also lets you display your strategic and economic mastery. Have your builders and craftsmen raise amazing structures and monuments in your name. Take good care of your loyal subject's needs. While you expand your reign with hard work, politics, profitable trade connections, or even war. As for yourself, look closely into all the nuances of planning. Including diplomacy and economics. Face numerous varied tests, unexpected events, and promising opportunities. So you can make your city expand beyond the horizons and let the word of its splendor reach the furthest corners of this land. Builders of Greece grants you the opportunity to witness the greatness of Hellenic metropolises before the time of Roman conquests. Builders of Greece city builder game's Prologue is due in Q2 2023. But do note, Linux support with Windows PC is in testing. In the meantime, Wishlist the base game on Steam. And prepare for the Prologue on Steam.

[sparanero]

Vladimir Blum in ALAN WAKE II (2023)

[thebutcher-5]

Oculus - Il riflesso del male

Benvenuti o bentornati sul nostro blog. Nello scorso articolo abbiamo continuato a discutere di fumetti, spostandoci questa volta negli USA e prendendo in esame i comics, specialmente uno riguardante il mio supereroe preferito con Superman: Stagioni. La storia parla della crescita di Clark, da quando andava al liceo a Smallville fino a quando si è trasformato in Superman, compiendo gesti…

[aspiringstar]

Introducing...Hannah Blum!

" My star will rise like... bubbles in champagne!"

Name: Hannah Leah Blum

Age: 30

Gender: cis female

Sexuality: unsure

Occupation: performer

Reason for flying: "This is my big break! I'm going to perform at the Sydney Opera House! In the ensemble, as an understudy...but the Sydney Opera House!"

Background: Hannah was born in Oakland, California and hadn't really found much reason to leave except on two occasions: 1995 and 1999. She was content to live in the sunny city; the area sure afforded her opportunity! Before she was even going to school she was joining her father onstage, providing a "cuteness factor" to his nightly comedy routines. Her high school was big into the arts and it was through performing that Hannah really came into her own. She had always loved people, especially making people happy, and so soon enough she was doing her own standup, borrowing from her dad but also creating new material. She volunteered at the community theatre, and slowly began to make her way up until what was once a fun extracurricular activity was now a paid gig! Studying Drama and Music at university was a no-brainer, and her list of connections just grew larger!

It was one embarrassing moment that really propelled her career forward, thrusting her into the public eye. In '95, Hannah went to Britain to participate in the televised talent show, Stars in Their Eyes. All her training paid off, and she steadily advanced through the competition until she was in the top three. Thrilled, she opened her mouth to sing, as she had countless times before, and belched, straight into the microphone. Rather than continuing, however, she got so upset at the laughing judges she chucked the microphone at one of the judges, giving him a nasty bruise and making her "the burping singer" across the United Kingdom (and maybe other parts of the world). In a way, performing in Sydney is Hannah's way of making up for that embarrassment, which still haunts her.

// more to be added as the inspiration strikes!

[amxndareviews]

'M3GAN' Review

#M3GANMovie Review: "The film works better when it taps into the psychology of AI and how it works for/against humans through Cady. The main issue is that the “good parts” were already shown in the trailer."

By: Amanda Guarragi A new year means new movies, but January doesn’t always have the best track record. When horror movies are released this early in the year, they seem to have it rough. They’re not always great, but they’re still watchable. M3GAN, directed by Gerard Johnstone, is all the campy fun you would want from a slasher film, but it lacks in the kills. Megan is a “toy” that was created…

[keycomicbooks]

From the World of Minor Threats: Barfly #1 (2024) Ryan Browne Variant, Patton Oswalt, Jordan Blum & Kyle Starks Writers, Ryan Browne Artist 

#FromtheWorldof MinorThreats: #Barfly #1 (2024) #RyanBrowne Variant, #PattonOswalt, #JordanBlum & #KyleStarks Writers Spinning out of the world of the hit Minor Threats superhero series by Patton Oswalt, Jordan Blum, and Scott Hepburn comes a new tale of costumed underdogs — featuring a low-level henchman without a leader to serve. https://rarecomicbooks.fashionablewebs.com/From%20the%20World%20of%20Minor%20Threats%20Barfly.html @rarecomicbooks Website Link In Bio Page If Applicable. SAVE ON SHIPPING COST - NOW AVAILABLE FOR LOCAL PICK UP IN DELTONA, FLORIDA  #RareComicBooks #KeyComicBooks #DarkHorse #DarkHorseComics #ComicBooks

[horrorpatch]

SAVAGE The Bigfoot Legend… Lives Is Now Available On Demand!

Bayview Entertainment has released the new horror film, SAVAGE The Bigfoot Legend…Lives! The movie from director Jordan Blum is now available to stream on most VOD platforms. Watch the official trailer along with more info on the movie down below. From The Press Release SAVAGE The Bigfoot Legend… Lives from director Jordan Blum and starring Martin Kove (Karate Kid, Cobra Kai), Lisa Wilcox (A…

[bkenber]

Exclusive Interview with the Cast of 'The Gallows'

Looking through my vast collection of movie interviews, I came across this one which I did with the cast of “The Gallows.” Released back in 2015, it is a found footage horror film written and directed by Chris Lofing and Travis Cluff, and it opens up on a production of a play called, coincidentally, “The Gallows” which was done at Beatrice High School back in 1993. Everything looks to be going…

[fans4wga]

Writers Guild West Official: Era of Hollywood Mergers Hastened the Strike

August 10, 2023

Laura Blum-Smith, the Writers Guild of America West’s director of research and public policy, considers the strike a result of a tsunami of Hollywood mergers that has handed studios and streamers the power to its exploit workers.

“Harmful mergers and attempts to monopolize markets are a recurring theme in the history of media and entertainment, and they are a key part of what led 11,500 writers to go on strike more than 100 days ago against their employers,” Blum-Smith said on Thursday at an event with the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice over new merger guidelines unveiled in July.

She pointed to Disney, Amazon and Netflix as companies that “gained power through anticompetitive consolidation and vertical integration,” allowing them to impose “more and more precarious working conditions, increasingly short term employment and lower pay for writers and other workers across the industry.” But she sees revisions to the merger guidelines that address labor concerns a key part of the solution to prevent further mergers in the entertainment industry moving forward.

“The FTC and DOJ’s new draft merger guidelines are part of a deeply necessary effort to revive antitrust enforcement,” she added. “Compared with earlier guidelines, the new ones are much more skeptical of the idea that mergers are the natural way for companies to grow. And they focus more on the various ways mergers hurt competition, including how mergers impact workers.”

In July, the FTC and DOJ jointly released a new road map for regulatory review of mergers. They require companies to consider the impact of proposed transactions on labor, signaling that the agencies intend to review whether mergers could negatively impact wages and working conditions. FTC commissioner Alvaro Bedoya, who was joined by agency chair Lina Khan, said in a statement about the guidelines that “a merger that may substantially lessen competition for workers will not be immunized by a prediction that predicted savings from a merger will be passed on to consumers.” Historically, transactions have been considered mostly through the lens of benefits to consumers.

The guidelines lack the force of law but influence the way in which judges consider lawsuits to block proposed transactions. They also tell the public how competition enforcers will assess the potential for a merger’s harm to competition.

Antitrust enforcers have steadily been taking notice of negative impacts to labor as a result of industry consolidation. “We’ve heard concerns that a handful of companies may now again be controlling the bulk of the entertainment supply chain from content creation to distribution,” Khan said last year during a listening forum over revisions to the guidelines, in a nod to anticompetitive conduct by studios that led to the Paramount Decrees. “We’ve heard concerns that this type of consolidation and integration can enable firms to exert market power over creators and workers alike.”

Adam Conover, writer and WGA board member, said in that April 2022 forum that his show Adam Ruins Everything was killed by AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner in 2018 when TruTV’s parent company forced the network to cut costs. He stressed that a handful of companies “now control the production and distribution of almost all entertainment content available to the American public,” allowing them to “more easily hold down our wages and set onerous terms for our employment.” It’s not just writers that are impacted by an overly consolidated Hollywood either, he explained. After Disney acquired 21st Century Fox in 2019, he said that the studios pushed the industry into ending backend participation and trapping actors in exclusive contracts preventing them from pursuing other work.

Blum-Smith said that aggressive competition enforcement is necessary as “Wall Street continues to push for more consolidation among our employers despite the industry’s history of mergers that failed to deliver any of the consumer benefits they’ve claimed that left writers and audiences worse off with less diversity of content and fewer choices.”

“More mergers will leave writers with even fewer places to sell their work and tell their stories and the remaining companies will have even more power to lower pay and worsen working conditions,” she warned. “Strong enforcement against mergers is essential to protect workers in media and workers across the country and these guidelines are an important step in the right direction.”

[eightdoctor]

my eda recs :) for anyone interested in getting into this series

i am prefacing this post with the note that i am an avid completionist and generally dislike telling people to skip certain books unless it's a john peel novel or placebo effect. however i understand telling people to read 74 novels is not at all accessible and i need you all to read. these books. please. please

this post is going to be long as shit i know it so i'm putting it ↓ here. books that can be skipped because theyre a bit shit will be colored red, ones that you Can Skip but are good/have some important character or plot bits in will be orange, and ones that are sooo good and necessary and the best books ever will be green. unfortunately i think a lot of the ones colored orange should be colored green but i know restraint. i can stay my hand. kind of

also i should say that i primarily read these for the characters - the plots themselves come second. so lots of my opinions come from the standpoint of which books have good characterizations. basically some of the ones that i color green would probably be skippable if any normal person were reading them but i'm insane!! and this is my list so fuck you!!!

The Eight Doctors by Terrance Dicks: ah my color trichotomy has bitten me in the ass on the first book. because truth be told i still haven't finished this one (nor have i really felt the need to yet), yet it introduces the first companion in the series, sam jones, and contains some other entertaining parts like the doctor getting caught with cocaine. as far as introductory books go it's meh

Vampire Science by Kate Orman and Jonathan Blum: this book. i truly can't sing my praises any louder than i already have. orman & blum took the character of the eighth doctor as portrayed by paul mcgann in a few measly minutes of screen time into a fully fleshed out, compelling and complex character. if you're a fan of the eighth doctor but aren't interested in reading all of the EDAs you have to read this one at the Very Least. it begins, as all good stories do, in a gay bar. it features vampire squirrels, the doctor with kittens, and the doctor infodumping on the beauty of science in a speech? conversation? that still touches me to this day, four years after i first read it.

The Bodysnatchers by Mark Morris: this book is Gross, and i mean that positively. mark morris held nothing back when describing how disgusting and putrid london was in the 1800s (he's primarily a horror writer, and that comes through rather clearly in this book). i genuinely enjoyed this novel a lot, but i know it's not for everyone because again, it's quite gory and disgusting

Genocide by Paul Leonard: don't you just want to see the doctor in a sun hat? being tortured for weeks on end? don't you want to examine his morality in termsof what species he thinks needs to be saved or doomed? jo grant is there

War of the Daleks by John Peel: fuck john peel all my homies hate john peel. for some reason all his books in this range contain daleks and it’s like…why. get some creativity. everyone else did. bitch

Alien Bodies by Lawrence Miles: this novel is So Good. it introduces faction paradox, the war in heaven plotline, humanoid tardises, and a couple of the most interesting & fun side characters in the whole range (homunculette and marieeee <3 cousin justineeee… aaaaaaahh). I shan’t spoil the entire conceit of the story but just know it’s. insane and fucked up and so so funny

Kursaal by Peter Anghelides: this is just a solid doctor who story, really. i wouldn’t call it imperative to the overarching plot of the novels (as tenuous as it is early on), but it’s an enjoyable enough read. it’s about an ancient race of alien werewolves underneath a theme park. what more can i say

Option Lock by Justin Richards: i recall enjoying the doctor and sam’s characterization in this one, and the story is like doctor strangelove meets, well, doctor who. it’s skippable, but i had fun reading it, and that’s really all you can ask for

Longest Day by Michael Collier: this is the start of the arc where sam gets separated from the doctor. actually the most tense and stressed i’ve been reading the edas was reading this and the next three books. it’s so dire, but it’s so so good, with incredible character moments from sam and the doctor. plus you have anstaar, nashaad with his metal legs, and some really fucked up body horror involving Time messing with people’s existences and driving ppl mad and stuff. people tend to either love this one or hate it from what i’ve seen, and i’m solidly in the former category. would definitely recommend 

Legacy of the Daleks by John Peel: ughhhhhhhh… ughhhhjhhhhhh i guess you have to read this one. i guess you have to. it’s definitely an improvement on his last book but still. daleks again john? really? whateverrrrr.. some important stuff happens to susan is in this one though. and the master as well. so if you care about either of those characters you should read this i suppose

Dreamstone Moon by Paul Leonard: a general rule of the edas is paul leonard always writes excellent books (in my opinion, anyway), and this is not the exception. sam and the doctor are still separated, but they’re in the same place and keep missing each other and its like UGGHHHH!!! UGHHH!!! but you have interesting commentary on capitalism’s exploitation and effective revolutionary action and all that stuff. also aloisse is an incredible character and i love her

Seeing I by Kate Orman and Jonathan Blum: HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!! GOOD LIRD!!!!!!!!!!! kate and jon do it again, those crazy bastards. you know how every author loves torturing the shit out of eight? these guys take that and run with it in the opposite direction, asking the question what if the worst thing the doctor could go through isn’t agonizing torture, but rather just a lack of enrichment in his enclosure? what if he had to stay locked up in one building for three years and couldn’t escape for the life of him? meanwhile sam, now a refugee with no social support (as she technically shouldn’t exist in this time and location), has to deal with homelessness, and has to decide whether it’s better to have a stable, yet soulless corporate job - or do something that’s meaningful and benefits society. she’s at her best in this book for sure

Placebo Effect by Gary Russell: throws up. don’t read this because it is actually rhe worst book in the whole range and i’m not joking. sorry gary you’re a nice guy but i thought the arguments against evolution that went on for like 3 pages were extremely egregious and also plain wrong. you may look at this book and think “oh cool! Stacy and ssard from the comics are in this one!” well they’re there for like a paragraph and don’t do shit. so

Vanderdeken's Children by Christopher Bulis: really fun novel that’s pretty much the epitome of the classic doctor who question “wouldn’t that be really fucked up and crazy?” it also established the fact that the doctor told sam his real name which is really fun and awesome

The Scarlet Empress by Paul Magrs: much like paul leonard, paul magrs Never disappoints. this book is just so fucking fun. in essence, it’s a road trip story. they drive across a planet listening to abba and visiting lots of kooky places and picking up lots of wacky characters. it also deconstructs gender and self-identity and what it means to be an individual. a cyborg and a giant spider get lesbian married. aewsome 👍

The Janus Conjunction by Trevor Baxendale: i really debated on making this one skippable, i did. because while it doesn’t continue any of the established plots or themes or whatever, it does show the doctor breaking the laws of time to save his companion’s life, and that’s really cool we love that. there’s a lot of fun body horror too if you go for that sort of thing. and more giant spiders but these ones are different 

Beltempest by Jim Mortimore: ok honestly? i didn’t vibe with this one. i know some people really liked it but i felt as if the characterization was Off. some wacky wild stuff happens to sam though

The Face-Eater by Simon Messingham: <-doesn’t remember much of this one cuz i was high while reading it. i think it was a solid story though? 

The Taint by Michael Collier: yayyyyyyyy fitz is hereeeee my babyboy… lots of people don’t vibe with this one but i do. because i love fitz and everything he’s in and him and the doctor are such bastards to each other in the beginning it’s great. their repartee is genuinely so entertaining and really elevates the book for me, even if the plot itself is a bit mediocre. either way even if you don’t like it you have to read it because it introduces fitz. so there

Demontage by Justin Richards: telling you to skip this one would be a disservice. because technically it Is skippable, but it has some absolutely hilarious moments that really drive home the fact that fitz is Cringe. they’re on a space casino called vega in the far future and fitz dresses in a (from everyone else's perspective) old-fashioned tuxedo. he smokes indoors and everyone gives him nasty looks because he’s in the future and no one smokes inside. he asks for his cocktails shaken not stirred and the bartender fucking hates him. and he also accidentally gets involved in an assassination plot. but i suppose if you must skip it then go ahead… 

Revolution Man by Paul Leonard: mr leonard does it again. this is an excellent novel for both companions that begins with sam and the doctor engaging in leftist discourse with an anarchist and ends with the world almost ending. it happens.

Dominion by Nick Walters: you have to read this one just for the doctor’s first gay kiss. sorry i don’t make the rules. also it  just features a neat concept imo and has a great moment where the doctor punches a pillow in frustration and then sadly apologizes to it

Unnatural History by Kate Orman and Jonathan Blum: this book is one that i think every doctor who fan who’s ever gotten mad about canon not making sense should be forced at gunpoint to read. it’s a novel that’s essentially one big metacommentary on doctor who canon & why it Doesn’t Matter At All, Actually; the doctor was birthed and he was loomed and both are equally true and untrue. also features the iconic paragraph calling the doctor a (verbatim) “backrub slut”, as well as wrapping up the ongoing arc with sam jones hinted at in alien bodies and a few other books in a way that’ll have you side eyeing moffat very suspiciously

Autumn Mist by David A. McIntee: this one’s pretty good and has a couple great moments (fitz calling himself james bond, for one), but is, i think, ultimately skippable unless youre a world war 2 buff

Interference Books 1 & 2 by Lawrence Miles: nothing i can say will adequately put into words what these two novels made me feel, you hear me? absolutely nothing. good fucking god. jesus christ. holy fuck.. if i sat here listsing all the important and iconic moments in these books we’d be here all shitting day and this post is already obscenely long. read these 2 books. then read them again. 

The Blue Angel by Paul Magrs: ok i know i just said this but HOOOOOO..WHOA NELLY! the blue angel is easily in my top 5 edas. it literally heavily features a canon domestic au wherein the doctor is a “middle-aged gay man”. fitz says he wants to get laid by the doctor. the doctor’s mother is a mermaid. there’s off-brand spirk. someone turns into a giant squid. literally this book is so good they wrote a screenplay adaptation of it and a spinoff short story that you should also read

The Taking of Planet 5 by Simon Bucher-Jones and Mark Clapham: you’re going to be hearing this a lot from me but we Are entering the part of the series where it really takes off and gets sooo fucking good. anyway this novel is sooo fucking good and quite important to the plot and establishes stuff about the war in heaven and gallifrey so. read it. also there's ELDRITCH BEASTS!

Frontier Worlds by Peter Anghelides: i can’t tell you to skip this one because it’s so good. fitz goes by the alias frank sinatra & also talks like him for a solid portion of the book. we get excellent compassion moments. great doctor moments (including that Hot and Sexy dream he has about the tardis!) and all in all it’s a wonderful story

Parallel 59 by Stephen Cole and Natalie Dallaire: lots of stuff happens in this one, especially to fitz. by that i mean it gets referenced quite a bit later so i would recommend if you want to catch all the references. also a woman worked on this one so you already know eight is going to be written phenomenally and very sensually. 

The Shadows of Avalon by Paul Cornell: rather important development happens to compassion in this book (understatement). but it’s also a really good story in general with lots of memorable bits - paul cornell wrote one EDA and did a great job and then vanished from the range. it also has the BRIGADIER and his ROMANCE with MAB the BIG BOSOMED CELTIC QUEEN so like.. read it?? 

The Fall of Yquatine by Nick Walters: a pretty important thing happens to compassion in this one too (another understatement). also withnail & i references galore, fitz has a bad time (has he had a Good time for the past few books? questionable!), and the doctor spends time with a gay baker/contraband parts dealer

Coldheart by Trevor Baxendale: you could skip this one but why would you even want to? it’s literally one of compassion’s best stories and has plenty of excellent doctor and companion moments. it’s just fun and engaging and an outstanding doctor who story. and, as always, fitz is effortlessly cringe as ever <3

The Space Age by Steve Lyons: this one’s just boring and kinda stupid. nothing big or important happens and you can tell steve lyons didn’t care for writing compassion at all. skip it

The Banquo Legacy by Andy Lane and Justin Richards: Big Plot Developments in this one - mostly in the beginning and end. also the only (?) mention of irving braxiatel in the whole run! it’s written from the POV of two Normal people not on the tardis so it’s interesting to see how they perceive the doctor and fitz, and how this contradicts the way they define themselves in other books where we’re privy to their internal monologue 

The Ancestor Cell by Peter Anghelides and Stephen Cole: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHH AAAAGHHHH AAAAAAAAAAAAAAUAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU HFHOA8U8OIA AOUIY4P98 YT39 7UGHYIB3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FUCKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this one drives me insane and there are parts of it i reread nearly every day. because i’m CRAZY. it’s a controversial novel in the doctor who fandom because of how it handles gallifrey and faction paradox lore but WHO FUCKING CARES? FATHER KREINER IS BACK BABY

The Burning by Justin Richards: this is the start of the Earth Arc, so it’s the first portrayal of the doctor stuck on earth without any of his memories. it’s a bit slow at the beginning, and as a normal doctor who story i would consider it subpar, but the characterization of the doctor really carries it i think. you see how losing his memory impacted his restraint with things such as hypnosis and Other Stuff I Shan’t Spoil

Casualties of War by Steve Emmerson: this has the first appearance of the Note, so it’s especially important for that reason. but it’s also just a neat story that has way more elements of a fantasy than a sci fi and again, seeing how the doctor acts now, stuck on earth without his memories, and juxtaposing that with how he acted before, super fun and neat

The Turing Test by Paul Leonard: if i could graft this book onto my DNA i would. i already KNEW the circumstances surrounding alan turing’s death and yet i still cried about it while reading this!! paul leonard’s portrayal of turing as both a gay and autistic man (though the latter is never explicitly stated) is INCREDIBLE and i really can’t recommend it enough just based on that. but the story itself is amazing and really delves into the doctor’s Differences and his desperation to leave earth after being stuck there for decades. 

Endgame by Terrance Dicks: people really like this one and i guess i had fun with it but i just can’t really get into terrence dicks’ writing style. that being said it features the doctor listless and just so sad and depressed so you kind of have to read it. if that’s not reason enough there’s a fat gay alcoholic spy who absolutely rocks

Father Time by Lance Parkin: i hate that this is green. i hate it. i hate this fucking book. i hate lance parkin also. but this is where miranda (the doctor’s adopted daughter) is introduced so alas, you must read it and imagine a version of this book thats infinitely better in your head. sorry! 

Escape Velocity by Colin Brake: this one’s mid but it’s the end of the earth arc and fitz and the doctor reunite and ANJI KAPOOR IS HERE!!!!!!!! FINALLY!!!!!!! so if you read this and get a lil bored just know it’s about to get so fucking good you guys

EarthWorld by Jacqueline Rayner: genuinely can’t say enough good things about this one. it’s funny. it’s angsty. it’s all in all just a really fun book. and it’s the shortest one i think so like you have no excuse to not read it

Fear Itself by Nick Wallace: this is technically a PDA because it was written after nine was announced, thereby making 8 technically a “past doctor”, but who give a shit. read this one are yoyu kidding me. read it read it read it read it READ IT. there’s a twist in it that rendered me absolutely catatonic for about a week 

Vanishing Point by Stephen Cole: don’t skip this one even though it’s orange. are you listening to me? don’t fucking skip it ok!!! steve cole is the #1 fitz/eight shipper and this really shines through here. also maybe i’m just easily entertained by reasonably accurate science in my doctor who books but i liked all the genetics references

Eater of Wasps by Trevor Baxendale: trevor you sly dog you did it again. you mad bastard. not only is the storyline in this one soo gripping and also Quite horrifying but the characterization?? hoooooo boy. this is the book where “you really love him, don’t you?” “well, i like to think we’re just good friends.” comes from and so even if it was dogshit you’d have to read it just for that like cmon

The Year of Intelligent Tigers by Kate Orman: holy. fucking. shit. good grief. the doctor has a boyfriend and they go on picnics and drink chocolate martinis together. the doctor becomes a catboy for a few months. this story takes place on a colony world whose culture is predominantly centered around music, so you have the doctor playing his violin (hot). you have scientifically accurate zoology/xenobiology. you have a Mysterious lost civilization. most importantly you have fitz’s song he wrote for the doctor

The Slow Empire by Dave Stone: this one’s just FUNNY okay. dave stone has such a characteristic way of writing prose it’s just kind of a joy to read. if you get the hard copy all of the bits from a side character’s pov is written in comic sans. while some of the characterization is a bit meh and anji didn’t Really live up to her full potential in a couple scenes i’d still recommend it. there’s footnotes

Dark Progeny by Steve Emmerson: this is another one i colored orange even though i whole-heartedly recommend it.. it’s a commentary on corporate apathy and greed and how it destroys entire planets and just a really engaging story besides. not to mention we get a “fitz fitz fitz fitz fitz!” bit from 8 <3

The City of the Dead by Lloyd Rose: i can’t even talk about this oine lest i lose my mind… not joking when i say lloyd rose writes some of the best and juiciest angst in the whole series like some of the scenes in there made me feel like i was being helplessly entrapped in flowing grain for a month

Grimm Reality by Simon Bucher-Jones and Kelly Hale: i really do sound like a broken record at this point but this is another one of those books i could never say enough positive things about. there are two novels in this series that genre-hop and this is one of them. the tardis lands on a world where everything runs on logic straight out of the brother’s grimm (hence the title). there’s magic cloaks and evil stepsisters and giants, and the doctor, fitz, and anji all have their own separate adventures so it’s super interesting to see how each character deals with being in a fairytale. not only that but there are parts of the book written in the style of those old fairytales and i really do get a good kick out of  gimmicky stuff like that 

The Adventuress of Henrietta Street by Lawrence Miles: buckle the fuck up everyone and get out your highlighters and sticky notes because this one is so fucking dense you’ll have no choice but to annotate and take notes, sorry! it’s written in the style of a historical nonfiction which occasionally falls flat (where’s the fucking works cited, lawrence???), but the story is fucking crazy. you got arcane rituals, prostitutes doing sex magic that summon great apes, sabbath is here, the doctor is weak and sickly (always awesome), sabbath is here, the doctor gets married so he can save the earth, sabbath is here,

Mad Dogs and Englishmen by Paul Leonard: this is the petplay book featuring multicolored poodles that have human hands. need i say more? 

Hope by Mark Clapham: not the best book but it’s got some pretty crucial anji moments in, and we all love love love anji so much so we’ll read mediocre novels just for her!! (but we also see the doctor struggle with only having one heart so that’s fun too)

Anachrophobia by Jonathan Morris: literally my top 3 book in the series EASY. it takes place on a planet ravaged by a time war (as in a war that fights with weapons that fuck with time. not like That time war), yet despite that particular futuristic conceit the entire atmosphere of the book feels like something out of the 40s or 50s  - almost like the aesthetics of fallout, but instead of nuclear radiation it’s Time. most of the story takes place in this sealed off bunker that’s doing experiments to try and develop time travel, and while they’re successful in going back in time the guinea pigs who volunteered for the trial develop an illness that fucks up their personal timelines so bad they literally turn into clock zombies. and it’s contagious. but no one can leave because theres fucked up time outside uh oh!!! if you liked the themes of war profiteering from boom in the new season you’ll LOVE this book

Trading Futures by Lance Parkin: fuck you lance parkin i can’t stand your ass! you can’t fucking write for shit!!! i’d recommend this book if you want to see anji referred to as ‘the asian woman’ more than her actual name :) and a southeast asian character with a name that might as well have been taken right out of a book written by  jk rowling. really the only good part of this book is when anji almost calls the doctor an otter-fucker

The Book of the Still by Paul Ebbs: this book is a WILD fucking ride. this book is fucking insane in the most positive of ways. paul ebbs writes an absolutely top tier eight that manages to encapsulate all the development he went through in the series as well as evoking the characterization from the 1996 movie

The Crooked World by Steve Lyons: this is the second book that does a genre-swap, but instead of fairytales this time the tardis lands on a planet dominated by saturday morning cartoon physics and logic. but the doctor & co being there begins to introduce Real Life concepts such as death and sex and swearing, so all these wacky cartoon characters who’ve spent their whole lives doing wacky cartoon things like blowing each other up with sticks of dynamite or hitting each other with big hammers suddenly find that these actions actually have very very serious consequences, which really kicks off when this story’s equivalent of tom rips off this story’s equivalent of jerry’s head, killing him instantly. idk i just watched a lot of saturday morning cartoons as a kid so seeing the parodies of wacky races and scooby doo was very enjoyable. to me

History 101 by Mags L Halliday: to put it simply this book is about leftist infighting. to put it more complexly this book is about the spanish civil war and how differing opinions and principles can alter one’s perception of history - and what happens when history actually starts being changed in accordance to these differing principles. there’s also the subplot featuring fitz’s homoerotic, yet very traumatizing, travels with a guy named sasha as they journey to guernica so they can watch it be bombed

Camera Obscura by Lloyd Rose: this is where sabbath and the doctor’s relationship really reaches it’s peak. this is The Esteemed Toxic Old Man Yaoi Novel. but also remember when i said lloyd rose writes the best angst? this holds especially true here. i won’t spoil it for you but Something Crazy Happens to the Doctor! haha. haha

Time Zero by Justine Richards: this is just quantum physics: the novel. while fitz goes on his doomed siberia expedition with the geologist boytoy george in the 19th century, the doctor investigates some strange readings in siberia like a hundred years later, and some crazy confusing hijinks ensue! the events in this book kick off the arc that’ll continue for the next few books until sometime never where the multiverse is collapsing and the doctor has to fix it. even though he doesn’t know how. ALSO TRIX INTRODUCTIONNNNNN!!!!!!!!

The Infinity Race by Simon Messingham: this one’s whatever. the sabbath characterization is wack but there are a few good moments. you think it’s going to be mostly about a cool boat race but sadly that comes secondary -_-

The Domino Effect by David Bishop: this book is ASS, both plot-wise and characterization-wise. it also just seems like the author was trying to be needlessly edgy when he developed the setting, and there are just some baffling moments where characters say and do things i frankly think they would never say 

Reckless Engineering by Nick Walters: the events in this one center around a tragedy that is fucking batshit insane. the universe this takes place in features a post-apocalyptic earth. i shan’t say what this apocalypse was because finding out what happened is all apart of the fun guys. i can’t spoil everything for you

The Last Resort by Paul Leonard: what if a corporation discovered TIME TRAVEL and set up RESORTS all across human history? what if there was a mcdonalds in ancient egypt and advertisements for microsoft in the original version of the bible? also what if something just soooo fucked up happens so many times <3

Timeless by Stephen Cole: anji’s last book. sobs.

Emotional Chemistry by Simon A. Forward: idk what it was but i just didn’t really vibe with this one. it’s not awful by any means and there’s a bit of plot carried in from the last novel that continues into the next but the actions that surround it don’t really matter i think. honestly i’d just read a summary of this one and continue on 

Sometime Never... by Justin Richards: the culmination of the multiverse stuff. i liked it - miranda makes a reappearance, and the fact she’s written by someone other than lance parkin is already a plus. my only qualm is i don’t really like how it handled sabbath but that’s sort of how i felt about all the books post camera obscura… sigh

Halflife by Mark Michalowski: ANOTHER EASY TOP 3. i’m simply obsessed with all of the concepts and tropes in this book, not to mention it’s where fitz’s infamous Ass Dream can be found. there’s commentary on racism, colonialism, and religion, and it also features cannibalism as a metaphor for love :D

The Tomorrow Windows by Jonathan Morris: another case of me coloring a book orange even though i think you should read it anyway. it’s positively saturated with so many interesting alien planets and creatures and societies you’d be missing out if you didn’t read this one tbh. it’s also the first novel ever to feature the ninth doctor!

The Sleep of Reason by Martin Day: this one ok. it’s another book written from the pov of an outsider and her insights into the doctor, fitz, and trix are interesting (and their characterization when they show up is outstanding!) but it feels like they’re rarely in it & this close to the end of the series i just want to see more of my guys you know...

The Deadstone Memorial by Trevor Baxendale: i loved the atmosphere in this one. it’s more of a ghost story with sci fi elements, and the stakes involved aren’t Bigger Than Ever like they tend to be nowadays, but instead surround the wellbeing of a family of a single mom and her two kids which i appreciate - the doctor isn’t saving the Whole Universe and World; just a family from a small town; it’s effective in getting the point across that the doctor thinks everyone’s important and worth saving 

To the Slaughter by Stephen Cole: this one’s fun and goofy and steve cole wrote it solely so he could fix an error from a fourth doctor serial in which the doctor got the number of jupiter’s moons wrong. that being said the reason it’s not colored orange is because the last book of the series is written by lance parkin and i want to help you procrastinate reading his godawful prose for as long as possible. your welcome

The Gallifrey Chronicles by Lance Parkin: fuck you lance parkin

[rainbowpopeworld]

If you wanna see a jingoistic, yet entertaining, music video starring Michael Sheen singing “I’ll be there”, here ya go

If you haven’t seen the show The Good Fight, he plays Roland Blum, an intentionally provocative conservative asshole, who relishes breaking laws and sexually harassing his co-workers. Basically the opposite of Aziraphale 😇😈 And he’s really good at it, of course, because he’s an amazing actor

Here’s a compilation of Blum fuckery:

Here is how Sheen describes the role himself:

A trickster based on Roy Cohn, who in addition to McCarthyism, was also Donald Trump’s lawyer and mentor in the 70’s and 80’s. I first saw him depicted in the play Angels in America as a closeted man who publicly advocated to make things worse for lgbtq+ people because his privilege shielded him from those same efforts, except for what ultimately killed him.

Welp, I guess this is both a Michael Sheen appreciation post and a Roy Cohn antipathy post 🙃

[militantinremission]

Should Black America choose sides on Israel & Palestine?

Mainstream Media has been particularly single minded in its narrative of the (latest) 'Conflict' in Gaza. Palestinian hardship is mentioned, but the focus has been on the Israeli hostages and an International rise in Anti Semitism. For some reason Zionist Groups, and more than a few Zionist individuals have been trying to persuade (guilt) Black America into fighting for their Cause. We understand how Black support for a Cause gives it legitimacy, but should We? The Voices of New Black Media have 2 general opinions, but neither is Pro- Israel.

One Opinion in New Black Media says that We should have some degree of solidarity w/ the Palestinian People. We can identify w/ their struggle, so We should speak out against it. Some opinions offer more support than others, but this is the gist of that Side of the Argument. The other Opinion expressed, is more indifferent. This Opinion says that Black America has problems at Home that require Our attention. We have In House Cleaning to do that will take Time and Energy; fighting for another's Cause diminishes Our ability to 'Do for Self'.

Black 'Personalities' in Mainstream Media are trying to create a schism w/i New Black Media, but it honestly isn't that deep. Black America is not a Monolith, so No One is going after the Other. I don't see a problem w/ 'The Family' having 2 specific mindsets. One is introverted and the Other is extroverted; together they give The Family a panoramic view- from Our perspective. Both Sides identify Jim Crow style Racism on display in Israel, so it's hard to empathize w/ a State that condones that policy. Israeli Officials go On Camera, and nonchalantly excuse War Crimes as necessary for the destruction of Hamas. Black America can't 'Rock w/ That'.

Black America's reluctance to support Israel's actions in Gaza has gotten under the skin of a few Zionists. The Usual Suspects (Ben Shapiro, Ed Blum, Ari Emanuel, Rabbi Schmuley) took their shots, but Michael Rappaport & Juliana Margulies' comments stand out. Both actually believe that Blackfolk OWE Jewishfolk something! They both offered the (early 20th Century) argument of: 'You wouldn't do it to Blackfolk, so why are you doing it to (European) Jews?' Rappaport threatened to make a List, for the 'next time' We come Hat in Hand... Michael Rappaport's family owned the #2 Black Music Radio Station in NYC (WKTU 92.3FM) during his childhood. He also brags about playing basketball in Brownsville, Bklyn as a Teen. I guess he thinks that his friendship w/ Q- Tip, his marriage to a Black Woman, and fathering her babies makes him some kind of 'Negro Whisperer'(?)

Since the Issue of Anti- Semitism & Black America rose (again) around Ye and Kyrie Irving, We have been backtracking Our relationship w/ Eastern European Jews. Professor Black Truth has mentioned on a few occasions that NAACP President Walter White is DIRECTLY responsible for convincing Afrikan Nations to support recognition of Israel in The United Nations. Later, Ralph Bunch was instrumental in Israel's survival after Al Nakba; he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his effort. When We examine the investments of Jewish American Businessmen (Legal & Illegal) in the State Of Israel; focusing on the role that Black labor, culture, and entertainment played in amassing this 'investment capital'- what exactly do We owe them?

Michael Rappaport threatened to compile a List, but Black America is already at work on Ours. It's very interesting to see so many Global Leaders and Corporate Giants concerned about Israel's 'National Security'. The World's outrage over the carnage in Gaza has revealed a soft spot in this Cabal of Governments, Multinationals, & Media. Governmental and Corporate Entities tried to threaten The Masses into compliance, but it appears that the Protesters are more emboldened. Universities that initially threatened Student Protesters are now inundated w/ them. It's South Afrika all over again! The Same Entities running interference for Israel, did the same thing in South Afrika. It took sustained Global pressure to get Corporations to divest in South Afrika, which broke the System of Apartheid.

America calls Israel an Ally, but Israel has attacked and killed American Soldiers dating back to the U.S.S. Liberty. The State Of Israel has identified Black American Men as a threat to their National Security. Why would any Zionist expect Our Support? Israeli History- up to the present, is an account of unprovoked First Strikes against a weaker adversary. They are Masters of 'throwing rocks, & hiding their hands'. Israeli Officials and their Mainstream Media collaborators are quick to start the narrative on Oct. 7th 2023; but Zionist aggression against Palestinians go back to The Stern Gang & other Jewish Mobsters during the 1930s. In fact, Palestinians have been dealing w/ Zionism since Nathan Birbaum's 'pilgramages' began in the 1890s... Norm Finkelstein has been giving lessons about the History of Zionism on various platforms, and people like Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro (no relation) confirm him.

Palestinian support is easy to understand- the daily pictures of Gaza speak volumes. While We can feel for the people, We can also understand the view of those who feel indifferent. Palestinians are similar to 19th Century Irish. In Ireland, the Irish people claimed to be in solidarity w/ Indigenous (Black) Americans. In America, they were active participants in Our oppression. The Ku Klux Klan is an Irish creation. In a similar manner, Palestinians come to America, and also participate in the oppression of Indigenous Black Americans. They set up businesses in Black Communities that rarely hire locally. In the case of Bodegas and Smoke Shops, they allow Street Crews (Sets) to:

Congregate on their Premises

Make Marijuana Sales inside & outside of their Premises

Set up prostitution in Shop Basements

In this regard, 'these' Palestinians are no different from the (so called) Arabs who discriminate against 'Black' Palestinians & Arabs. They STILL enslave Afrikans across N. Afrika, and call Black Americans 'Abeed' (Slave). These Store Owners have more solidarity w/ Drug Dealers, than everyday Blackfolk. They tend to look at Us w/ the same expression that Israelis give them. It's ironic how Arab Americans tend to live in close proximity to Jewish American Communities. Despite the friction, Arabs & Eastern European Jews share more similarities than differences.

Both are descendants of Eurasian 'Marauder' Tribes. The Khazarians migrated West, into Europe; The Seljukian Turks migrated South, into Arabia. If we're being honest, 'Modern Day Arabs' are not indigenous to Arabia. The True Arabs are now referred to as 'Bedouins' and 'Nomads', and have been systematically removed from most of their Land, via The Arabian Slave Trade... Black America needs to get better acquainted w/ Geopolitics. We're quick to denounce injustice, but not so quick to read between The Lines. America is NOT a Democracy, it IS a White Supremacist Republic. The 'Smith- Mundt Modernization Act of 2012' ensures that EVERY IMMIGRANT understands and complies w/ the Anti Black element of American Society. We can show solidarity w/ Others, but We have to be mindful that We don't have ANY (Collective) 'friends'. We tried to be 'friendly' for decades, & were disrespected by EVERYONE. We don't have any more cheeks to turn.

-The Ball is now in their Court.

[mariacallous]

Last week, a popular radio host for the France Culture station, the humorist Guillaume Erner, confessed that he had had enough of the “Jewish question.”

“It seems to me there’s enough in the campaign platforms of the National Rally, France Unbowed, or any other party, so that we need not base our vote on the Jewish question,” he said. “More than weariness, I feel exhausted in the face of this daily Judeo-obsession, one which has become suffocating since Oct. 7.”

Erner is not just the genial voice on France’s flagship station; he is also a sociologist who teaches at the University of Paris, a scholar who studies antisemitism, and a member of a Jewish family decimated by the Holocaust.

The fact that even these credentials will not absolve Erner from charges of antisemitism underscores the resilience of the “Jewish question” in France. Galvanized by Hamas’s massacre of more than 1,000 Israelis last year, followed by the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians in the Israeli military invasion of Gaza, that question looms even larger following the European Parliament election, which was held in France on June 9. When the voting led to an overwhelming victory by the extreme-right National Rally party, President Emmanuel Macron made the disastrous decision to dissolve the National Assembly and schedule new elections less than three weeks later, on June 30.

Most surprising of all, perhaps, is that several prominent French Jews have publicly expressed a willingness to vote for the National Rally (RN)—a party with its roots in the National Front, a group founded by the openly antisemitic politician Jean-Marie Le Pen.

The Twenty Days of Macron—which will assume the same historical significance as the Hundred Days of his idol, Napoleon—are nearly up, yet the battlefield is not what the president had imagined. Macron had expected a resurgence of the same coalition he led in previous electoral campaigns, pitting the supposedly reliable “republican front” of socialist to neo-Gaullist parties against an outnumbered National Rally, the far-right party led by his perennial nemesis, Marine Le Pen.

Yet the RN, with its electoral ranks burgeoning with new recruits from both the right and left, now dwarfs Macron’s floundering Renaissance party. In the first round of voting this Sunday, the RN is projected to win slightly more than 36 percent, while coalition led by Renaissance will capture barely 20 percent.

Moreover, Macron must fight on not one, but two fronts. Running well ahead of his party in the projections, hovering at 30 percent, is the New Popular Front. The coalition was formed by a popular left-wing politician, François Ruffin, after Macron’s dissolution announcement.

In an appeal that went viral, he compared the current moment to 1936, when a confluence of social, political, and economic crises swept the original Popular Front into office. This coalition of the socialist, communist, and radical parties had been conceived two years earlier, birthed by a failed but bloody attempt by anti-republican and antisemitic forces to overthrow the government.

Invoking the name of Léon Blum, the French Jewish socialist who became the original Popular Front’s prime minister, Ruffin declared that just as the Popular Front defended the republic then, it could do so now. An extreme right-wing government, he affirmed, “is not inevitable!”

But it was no more inevitable that Ruffin’s rallying cry would succeed. The New Popular Front consists of the same parties—France Unbowed, the French Communist Party, the Ecologists, and the Socialist Party—that formed the doomed New Ecological and Social People’s Union after the 2022 legislative elections. Wobbly from the start, this earlier coalition fell to pieces last October, when events in Israel and Gaza heaved the “Jewish question” front and center across much of the world. But this was especially and painfully true in France, a nation whose collaborationist government had, three-quarters of a century earlier, assisted Nazi Germany’s Final Solution to that perennial question.

As a result, when France Unbowed parliamentarian Danièle Obono described Hamas as a “resistance movement,” a firestorm of outrage ensued. The party’s former leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, fed the widespread fury when he refused to describe the slaughter of Israeli civilians as an act of terrorism.

One month later, the conflagration destroyed the bridge between France Unbowed and its partners when Mélenchon and his close circle refused to participate in the march against antisemitism. Though their stated reason was the participation of Le Pen and her lieutenants in the march, it did not prevent the separation between France Unbowed and its partners from turning into a bitter divorce.

Mélenchon has since kept these fires burning, most recently with an observation made on his blog that antisemitism “remains residual” in France. In the face of the meteoric rise of antisemitic incidents in France—in 2023, more than 1,600 occurred, most of them after Oct. 7—Mélenchon’s remark reflected indifference at best and insouciance at worst.

After an appalling incident in a Paris suburb in mid-June—the alleged torture and rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl by three adolescents spewing antisemitic insults—Mélenchon quickly announced his “horror” over the crime while condemning “antisemitic racism.” But this was too little, too late for the legion of critics who insist that his words and silences contributed to the toxic atmosphere that made such a crime possible.

Those critics included a crucial member of the New Popular Front, Raphaël Glucksmann. He is the grandson of left-wing Zionists and militant labor organizers who emigrated to France from Eastern Europe between the wars, as well as the son of André Glucksmann, a leading member of the nouveaux philosophes, who pummeled their predecessors on the left for defending the crimes of Soviet communism.

The young and telegenic Glucksmann, after a career in journalism and filmmaking, entered French politics stage left, won a seat in the European Parliament earlier this month with a solid 14 percent of the national vote for his party—about the same that Macron’s grouping won—and now represents the last great hope of French socialism.

When the parties launched discussions over the formation of the New Popular Front, Glucksmann insisted on several conditions. He demanded that the joint statement include a message of unwavering support for Ukraine’s struggle against President Vladimir Putin’s Russia as well as for a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians.

Moreover, Glucksmann also stipulated that the statement contain a declaration that the Hamas massacre was, in fact, a terrorist attack, as well as a condemnation of antisemitism. He largely achieved these aims and, while acknowledging the hasty nature and difficult compromises that they entailed, he declared that they were necessary to prevent France, in a matter of days, from “sinking into the abyss.”

For the French Jewish community, the abyss long had just one name: the National Rally, formerly known as the National Front. They have not been persuaded by the long campaign pursued by Le Pen to de-demonize a party co-founded a little more than half a century ago by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen. The elder Le Pen was a Holocaust denier and antisemite, a worldview shared not only by his co-founder, Pierre Bousquet—who served during World War II as an officer in the Waffen SS—but also by the Nazi-curious and Vichy apologists in the movement’s ranks.

Since inheriting the National Front in 2011, the younger Le Pen has declared the Holocaust as the “summum of barbarism” and rebranded the party’s packaging by purging its ranks of its more embarrassing elements, including her father, and renaming it the National Rally. Yet the party’s original ingredients are largely untouched. Over the past few weeks, journalists have uncovered several RN candidates who have trolled or posted racist or antisemitic opinions online—prompting additional purges.

Yet this game of whack-a-troll obscures what the scholar Cécile Alduy calls the “ideological matrix” of the RN: the principle of national preference. This shared ideal of Le Pen père et fille, though the latter has renamed it “national priority,” would create a new category of second-class citizens. It would entail a constitutional amendment that would deny medical care and social services to undocumented immigrants, as well as deny automatic citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants who are born in France.

Not only would this law make the already desperate lives of tens of thousands of human beings in France yet more desperate—part of the law’s raison d’être—but would also make a mockery of the humanist and universalist heritage of French republicanism.

The RN’s worldview threatens not only those who are not yet French citizens, but also those who already are. Earlier this month, the party’s president and probably the country’s next prime minister, Jordan Bardella, reassured “French citizens of foreign origin” that they have nothing to fear from his government. The fact that he employed this phrase suggests that these same citizens have everything to fear.

As the columnist Thomas Legrand observed, this phrase not only has no legal standing, but also that the last time it did was in 1941, when the antisemitic legislation of the collaborationist Vichy regime distinguished French Jewish citizens from their non-Jewish compatriots. It was, moreover, one of the administrative steps taken by Vichy that facilitated the eventual deportation of more than 70,000 French (as well as foreign) Jews to the death camps.

Nevertheless, the prospect of a New Popular Front government dominated by France Unbowed has made what once seemed impossible—the rallying of French Jews to the National Rally—all too possible. During a campaign stop in Marseilles last week, Glucksmann was lambasted by a Jewish woman for his role in the coalition. “As a Jew, you should be ashamed of yourself!” He subsequently noted the irony that Jews are now practicing what antisemites have always practiced: “I was reduced to my name and origin.”

Yet more striking was a recent public statement made by Serge Klarsfeld, the universally admired Nazi hunter who wrote the definitive account of the Final Solution in France. Insisting that the National Rally had “evolved” and now “supports Jews,” whereas France Unbowed is a “resolutely anti-Jewish party,” he urged French Jews to vote for the former.

This was not a sudden or impulsive decision by Klarsfeld. Last fall, he welcomed the presence of the National Rally at the march against antisemitism, describing both it as “fréquentable” or respectable, thus rewarding Le Pen’s long courtship of the Jewish vote.

At the same time, the influential French Jewish intellectual Alain Finkielkraut, author of dozens of works, including the early and brilliant book The Imaginary Jew, confessed that to prevent the spread of antisemitism, he might be “constrained” to vote for the RN. The situation confronting French Jews, he observed, is “heartbreaking.”

No doubt it is. But it is also heartbreaking that such admired and prominent figures like Klarsfeld and Finkielkraut—both of whom should really know better—are now willing to vote, even if they hold their noses, for a party whose ideological roots are buried in the rancid soil of racism and antisemitism.

It also happens to be a party that has shown persistent admiration for Putin’s Russia, an enduring hostility to those who do not adhere to traditional gender norms, and an ongoing problem of running candidates who express sentiments that are as racist and antisemitic as the founders of the movement that spawned the National Rally, making the words of Klarsfeld and Finkielkraut yet more heartbreaking.

Most heartbreaking of all, though, is that regardless of the results of the second round of voting on July 7, the Jewish question in France will also persist.

[matt0044]

You know something that internet personalities or those with large platforms can do in light of the Writers and Actors striking?

Recommend shows. Be it from last decade or way back in the day. Especially whatever Streaming Services slept on in their Self-Fulfilling prophecy of cancellation. Movies that were slept on also count.

I get that something like that isn’t very trendy or (let’s be real here) algorithmic friendly but at the very least, it can be a direct refutation to those claiming that there will be no more stories to enjoy.

For Anime, Netflix’s Ultraman is a recently completed hype as hell reboot/sequel to the famous Tokusatsu hero. You don’t need to have seen the original to enjoy it as it’s of the son Shinjiro inheriting the mantle with all the catch-up that’s required. It may have the stereotypical CG Anime framerate but other times will have smooth as hell scene, especially for action.

The VAs are union with Steve Blum living it up as one of the villains if that’s a selling point.

Netflix’s Lupin might not have the Anime incarnation we know and love but Omar Sy’s Assane Diop lives up to the OG Gentleman Thief with heists and gambits that can and will make you drop your jaw. Think Sherlock but with a faaaaaaar better sense of story. So far. We’ll see.

Though originally in French, those who might not do well with subtitles might find the dub so good, it might trick you into thinking it was filmed in English.

A Netflix movie, The House, is a British stop motion horror anthology in which three act show the titular house being owned by three separate homeowners. Each one are challenge psychologically and supernaturally, a tone only enhanced by the stop motion’s inherent uncanny valley effect.

While the first two acts end in tragedy and morbidity, the third gives a different sort in comparison. It’s something a lot of viewers come away from with differing interpretations.

Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop... is a bad adaptation... but a good show. I’m sorry but the acting and even the wackadoo script wasn’t not entertaining.

Anybody got any show or movies that streaming slept on and deserve a look-see with the coming slow-down?

[blueikeproductions]

So another EarthSpark thing that came to my attention was Ratchet and Drift were pitched into being in EarthSpark.

Neat.

They were pitched as having trying to look at the Cyber Sleeves the kids had, with Ratchet and Drift having scientific and philosophical thoughts on what they are despite not having a solid answer.

Also neat.

They were also pitched as being married.

Not neat.

This stranglehold IDW has over Transformers needs to end yesterday. I liked IDW, but it’s clear Hasbro wasn’t feeling it anymore, and the attempt at a reboot didn’t help. Not to mention, toys made with the IDW cast in mind don’t appear to sell well. Tarn appears to be the exception, because it’s Tarn, and he’s awesome, but I’ve also never personally seen him in person in stores. Fellow comics original Jhiaxus yes however, so take that as you will. It’s also why so many people were surprised two nobody IDW2 robots, an Autobot and an Acenticon, were getting toys. Even hard core fans have no idea who they are or much desire for these two, and I say that with my open fondness for Autobot Scrounge.

The couplings in IDW always felt kinda forced… I’ve often viewed them as crack ships, some working slightly better than others. I thought Chromedome and Rewind was handled the best, and I’d be very open to seeing them in EarthSpark as (one of) the gay couple(s) in the show.

Drift and Ratchet being a couple comes kind of out of nowhere. I get there was this opposites attract thing going on with an atheist and religious guy, but the joke got old quickly. Besides some implications Drift and Rodimus were more of a thing, age differences are a sticky point for me. A lot of the main couples amounted to twenty something kid hooking up with grandpa or grandma. I know age is more of a suggestion in TFs, but it always bothered me. Tailgate Cyclonus also fall into this for me, but I also preferred their dynamic being a plucky son and stand offish father learning to care for each other. The moment it became romantic I lost interest and felt kinda creeped out T’be honest. Same with Drift and Ratchet. Ratchet’s said to be super old, not quite Kup or Alpha Trion old, but he’s up there. Drift in comparison is about Hot Rod’s age, and met Ratchet at a clinic on Cybertron when Ratchet was already older than dirt… The two being a crusty grandpa who loved his grandson but doesn’t quite get his interests was a dynamic I liked.

I just think there’s better options romantically for Drift and Ratchet. Closer in age too. I imagine in the interest of fairness the EarthSpark versions would be closer in age. RiD15 Drift, to me at least, seemed a bit older than Bumblebee and was more of a stern but well meaning uncle/father to Sideswipe, Jetstorm and Slipstream. Prime Ratchet felt married to his job meanwhile…

Admittedly I’m surprised Drift was entertained at all. A lot of the IDW original characters seem to have been benched in media for the time being, and Drift’s role in Cyberverse was lauded as the most idiotic thing the show did for both supporters and detractors that even the writers regret using him that way. It kinda feels like that particular instant sorta sullied the character for some frankly…

If we do get Ratchet back in particular, since we have Steve Blum reprising Starscream, I say let’s get Jeffery Combs to reprise Ratchet. Drift I’m not sure. It’s easy for me to say Eric Bauza should return, but maybe there’s a better alternative for a potential EarthSpark Drift.

I don’t think you can really do the proposed plot anymore since that ship has sailed, but there’s a role for Ratchet and Drift, just not as a couple. Ideally, just make a new couple. Gears having a boyfriend would be funny, someone who can see through his sourball antics, or give Pipes an aquatic mode boyfriend he was wanting. -checks- Hmm I dunno have it be Pipes and Waverider, that could be fun.