#brother borrowed 2 dvds from me and will not give them back

[yet-another-autism-blog]

I need google for social convention. how to ask for something back from someone who borrowed it

[apocketfulloflessons]

We are what we believe, we live what we create and we have what we think we deserve. I want! I want, I need, and so on. Stop wanting, you can have, so go get it.

I make alot of post here. Usually around what I hope will be helpful to anyone that reads them based off past experiences, knowledge, wisdom of the greats before us and so on. Rarely do I make a post with personal reference or stories. But today I'm making an exception because I believe someone may benefit from it. If you benefit from it or know someone who will.. Share it please. So with that in mind, I have a story. I watched the Notebook for the first and only time as a 19 year old young man. I was months into my first deployment and watching it on a portable DVD player that I borrowed from a fellow Marine. We were inside the wire and sleeping in cots under a roof (tent) for the first time in days. By this point in the deployment we had experienced some things so intimately and with such intensity as young adults like loss, love, excitement, loneliness and so on. We experienced them in such a way that most people could never in a lifetime fathom. Now as I lay in that cot, covered by a poncho liner watching this movie that a brothers wife sent on another brothers portable DVD player. I had a moment. "The moral of the movie, for those that don't know is about realizing the importance of who or what we love." We must be aware of what we love, appreciate it, and sacrifice in order to see it flourish. Back to the moment- Now here I sit, under my poncho liner, watching a borrowed movie,  on a borrowed DVD player, feeling more lonely then ever before in my life. My mind still trying to find ways to process, cope, and understand things I've seen over the past few months. Me trying to find a way to shut it off and just disappear into anything other than my thoughts. Suddenly I find myself completely sucked into this story. Seeing all of these things I've, we've experienced as brothers at this point tied up in a love story about 2 people. My mind went in every direction and only one in that moment of realization. I went from feeling lonely, afraid, unsafe and unsure too feeling surrounded by everything I could ever need. We were in a place that didn't want us. By people that wanted to hurt us. Away from the people we would do anything for. With the people that would do anything for us. Suddenly I felt safe, sure, loved, and so confident that I could accomplish ANYTHING. Why does any of this matter? What's the point? The point is this. We as individuals tie ourselves up in a belief, in thoughts, in imagined scenarios we think we need in order to be. A belief that we need something or someone to give us what we need. We get so wrapped up in it, that we completely forgot to look around. If we did take a second to just look at what we have, we might find that we already have everything. No one person completes us, no one thing defines our happiness, no one action determines who or what we are. We do! We choose to see what we have, We choose to believe what we do, We decide what we need or don't need. I found in that moment that I had everything because I made the choice to look at what I had instead of thinking about what I didn't. Have you looked around lately?

[kyotakumrau]

2020.09.19 ROCK AND READ 091 - interview with utA - translation PART 1/2

'I'll be damned, what was that?!'

Interview: Yukinobu Hasegawa

Photos: Yosuke Komatsu (ODD JOB LTD.)

Translation: kyotaku You can buy the magazine on amazon, tower records etc ฅ( ̳• ·̫ • ̳ฅ)♡

After Kyo, Takumi and YUCHI from sukekiyo, it’s time for the interview with utA.

He’s experienced white collar work in his hometown Niigata, but couldn’t give up his dream of being in a band, so he moved to Tokyo, his band 9GOATS BLACK OUT attracted attention because of their fantastical music yet then disbanded, but because Kyo had listened to their music utA has started a new episode of his music life.

We ask him about the very start of his interest in music and his life until now.

And then... With many interesting stories like the one about the eerie episode when he came to Tokyo, we can show you utA’s odd music history.

utA  / sukekiyo: profile & information

birthday March 26th. joined Kyo’s project sukekiyo as a guitarist in 2013. other members are Kyo (vocal), Takumi (guitar, piano), YUCHI (bass) and Mika (drums). their last release is the video compilation ‘LIQUEFACIO’ with the live footage from their show in Nakano Sunplaza in June 2019.

-- First, I’d like to ask you about the time you got into rock and playing the guitar. Were there any significant bands or guitarists for you when you were young?

utA: I think it was around elementary grade 5 or 6, it was X (-Japan). I was born in Joetsu city in Niigata, there was a CD shop stocked with v-kei and rock stuff there. It was a rural town, but at that time, there was a shop that was selling nothing but rock stuff.

-- It seems to be a quite early to start frequenting CD shops as a elementary school student.

utA: Yeah, I think it was early. I had a friend who was playing the piano, I heard him playing songs like “Silent jealousy” from X, I think that was how I got to know X and their heartrending phrases I love. After that I wanted to hear more from them so I listened to their first indies album “Vanishing Vision”. And then their first major release “BLUE BLOOD”.

-- You weren’t playing the guitar yet when you got to know X as an elementary school student?

utA: It was accidental, but my brother was playing the guitar. I think he liked ZIGGY, JACKSONS’N’JOKER, COLOR, BUCK-TICK etc when I was five. So I have seen my brother playing the guitar at home, but he didn’t influence me at all (laughing). I remember he liked to sing by himself while playing, I have this impression that he was a good singer, but didn’t play the guitar that well (laughing). But we were far apart in age, we weren't that attached, I felt if I just grabbed the guitar I could play. So I borrowed it and fumbled trying to play the songs as I listened to them.

-- But playing the guitar was then just something fun to do?

utA: It was definitely something fun, but I remember entering a music studio around junior high. I briefly started a band with friends. I guess there was no proper shape to it, but I wanted to play some songs, gathered friends and we played “Silent Jealousy”. I played the guitar, I tried really hard with the main phrases and so on. But I really couldn’t play well (laughing). My brother taught me things like A chord or E chord, in basic power chords, things like guitar solos came out very shaky. I recorded that. With a very simple cassette recorder with two buttons, play and record. I have no idea what happened with those cassette tapes, but I’d really kill to listen to them now (laughing).

-- To start a band and use a music studio in the junior high, that's quite remarkable. You were driven this much?

utA: Yeah, by X. I was also attracted by their looks and make up. It's not like all my friends were into the exactly same stuff but there were people who liked music. And there was one music instrument shop, I also went there often. The recording on the cassette tape happened at the end of junior high or start of high school. After X came LUNA SEA. It's a bit hard to explain, but in a way LUNA SEA matched my preferences better. Isn't LUNA SEA a metal band? With INORAN's clean guitar and SUGIZO's distorted guitar, this kind of separation was also novel. I got a shock running through me like 'I'll be damned, what was that?' There is such an awesome clean guitar like that? I though cleanly played super impressive phrases were amazing.

-- Your guitarist opinion was born at that time.

utA: That's right. It was a great impact, from creating sound, through phrases all the way to arrangement. I needed to know how do they get such beautiful sound. Until then I kept thinking that guitar sound should be distorted. I also learnt from music magazines etc that with a delay and chorus you will get a nice effect. And I remember listening to late night radio show "Break Out" or it was in some magazine that SUGIZO advised 'you can get our sound if you use an effector like this'. That's why the first effector I bought was the delay and chorus. My brother had the ones to create distortion, so I only had to add the delay and chorus. I also used my brother's Fender Made in Japan Strato(caster), so it was perfect for clean sounds.

-- So when you became a high school student did you get even more friends interested in music?

utA: I did. I would start talking about music right after coming back home. My home was our hanging out place, people were often surprised by the amount of CDs in my house (laughing). Listening to songs, we watched live DVDs and we all talked about the cool phrases we heard. And then I decided to buy a guitar model used by the artist I liked. So then it was exciting to talk about saving up for one (laughing).

-- You were already using a Stratocaster, but had another guitar you wanted?

utA: Now I know well that Fender’s Strato is a really good guitar, but at that time the look of the guitar was very important, it felt like strato was too simple. And that’s why I bought a guitar used by the artist I haven’t mentioned yet, so it might feel like coming out of nowhere, but it was the model used by Shin from Kuroyume. It was a Les Paul Model that came from GrassRoots, with two single coils. One of my friends was a big fan of Kuroyume so I often listened to their music and really got into Shin’s playing style. Les Paul models have nice shape and they can produce both clean and distorted/dirty sounds, so I decided to get Shin’s model. I was torn if I should get INORAN’s model instead, but it gave an impression of clean sound and because I also wanted to produce distorted sound I went with Shin’s. As a stupid kid your whole evaluation criteria is based on the sound created by the musician, right? Ah, but I just remembered that time I chose single coil. Even though for rock you’re much better off with guitars equipped with Humbucker.

-- You’re using the Fender’s Strato with sukekiyo.

utA: I am. I’m also using a Dragonfly, I’m swapping between them with a tap switch. If I had to say which is better, I like the sound of the single coil. I definitely got influenced by the clean sound created by INORAN. Even now I care a lot when creating clean sounds.

-- When JHS students get into bands and guitars, isn’t it easy for them to get easily misguided? They start to neglect their studies, join some band as a bassist, choose their high school based on the chances of starting a band there and so on.

utA: By some band you mean sukekiyo (laughing)? I don’t have an interesting story here, I really did my best studying as much as I could. My parents were so amazingly kind/supportive so I wanted to make them happy. I still feel like this. I didn’t want to give them any shock (laughing). At that time I remember I often felt they would be happy if I got good test scores. And I simply hate losing. I’m not someone for whom studying comes naturally, so I remember studying extra hard before the tests. In the past we also got ranked (depending on the test scores) so it was another motivation not to lose. But well, I ended up losing (laughing).

-- So you properly continued to high school?

(kyotaku: in Japan compulsory education ends with junior high school at the age of 16; high school is mostly for the sake of going to university.)

utA: If possible I wanted to go to the a good high school, but my teacher told me ‘it might be a close call so it’s better to go there’ (laughing). I went to the school they recommended. It wasn’t a normal high school, it was a technical school.

-- You get specific qualifications. So the course of your future was decided then?

utA: I loved music and guitar, but I didn’t see it as my dream future then. That’s why I was planning on going to university. If not I would be starting work, so I wanted to go to university. At the technical school you learn things like civil engineering or construction. So I applied for the referral to the university that had classes like that, but I was rejected. And I came to hate studying for entrance exams so I gave up on university (laughing).

-- Didn’t Takumi go to the university to study designing?

utA: He did. In this we are a bit similar. Our personalities are totally different, but we definitely share some things like our roots and some points. Takumi managed to go to university though, as I failed to get referred I had to look for another way (laughing).

-- And finally we are talking about starting a band?

utA: No, I started to work full time. At a surveying office in Niigata. I worked there for about 2 years. I hated studying for the entrance exams, but I got the national qualification for surveying. I remember I was thinking that if I have to do it then I have to get it and I was studying like crazy (laughing).

-- When you start working full time I think you shift to a totally different mode from being a student.

utA: Yeah, it was like that. But even as I was doing my best at work, after coming back home from work I was just listening to music all the time. And I spent all the money I earned going to music stores and buying up all the CDs. I had meant to enter a different mode but in the end it wasn’t possible. Most of the bands and musicians who were releasing music at the time were the same age as me, or just a bit older.

-- Did you start to feel a bit envious, feeling more that you could do that as well?

utA: Yeah. I started to write my original songs a bit from the end of HS. I was thinking that if I could make music that was my own style I could make it in music. That feeling has not changed until now.

-- If you were to describe your first original song, what was it like?

utA: Simply saying, it was very influenced by LUNA SEA (laughing). It wasn't a metal song, but it had clean and distorted sounds layered. I created 2~3 songs before I turned 20.

-- Did you do anything wanting to release those songs?

utA: So. I'd made a firm decision to quit my job at surveying office. When quitting I said honestly 'I want to pursue music, so please let me go' (laughing). And then my boss and coworkers cheerfully told me 'then do it!' I even had a farewell party with 'let us know when you release something' (laughing).

-- But for parents, there's no way they reacted like that. Like, 'my son who tried so hard, started working and even got a licence, now wants to quit to do music', there's no way a parent would be happy about that (laughing).

utA: You're right. My parents had a lot to say. It was probably the biggest nagging of my life, seriously. It was worse than puberty (laughing).

-- But you didn't change your mind?

utA: No, the need to pursue music was stronger than that. I quit my company when I was around 20, started to look for band members when I was around 21, when I actually managed to start a band I was around 22~23.

-- Did you try contacting your band mates from elementary and jhs times to network?

utA: I stayed in touch with my classmates, but they totally quit music. There was no way for a deep talk there. That's why I had to do it by myself, in a way starting from zero. First I started to look for band members through the music instrument shops. I've made posters about looking, wrote my contact information, the type of posters where you tear off the bottom bit. The shop staff let me post them in their shops.

-- A simple method. If I remember right, people used to post some self-introduction and a description what kind of band they'd like to do.

utA: I will again add another band name, but I listed X, LUNA SEA and La'cryma Christi. I was also hit hard by La'cryma Christi's worldview. Even as I heard about them quite late, I think after I graduated high school. X, LUNA SEA and La'cryma Christi had the biggest impact on me. My 3 pillars. I absolutely adore La'cryma Christi's "Henseifu". The moment you hear the song doesn't it feel like various scenes just come up?

-- Those scenes are stateless.

utA: Exactly, they are stateless, and full of sadness. When I first heard the 7/8 time signature, I was surprised like 'I'll be damned, what was that?' I was totally owned by that worldview. At that time, La'cryma Christi was my number one. For a while now I've been friends with HIRO, was able to play together with them once and even had a photo shoot together.

-- But currently TAKA is working in a jewellery industry, no? By the way, when you posted your 'looking for band members' ad, how many replies did you get?

utA: There were few, but one came from someone with whom we formed a band at the time. In 2013 my own band had disbanded, but I was most surprised when contacted by the guy who then spent all this time with this band. He asked 'please let me join', but I also asked him formally to join. I'm talking about the bassist, hati.

-- This band we're talking about is the visual kei of Niigata that has changed several times?

utA: Yeah. First it was Laypua, after that Layarch, then Rayarch. It was changing keeping the 'Lay/Ray' connection. The live performance activities were focused on Niigata city.

-- From looking for the band members to the formation of the band it took about one year, during that time were you writing original music ?

utA: I don't think we had more than 10 songs,  but we had enough for one album. The band that done those songs took about one year to finally start activities. At the time, there was a music club (live house) near Niigata station called Z-1. I think now it's called CLUB RIVERST., my first live performing experience was at that club.

-- So it was the first show as a band that is the first step in following your dream. What was the response like?

utA: I think it was really terrible (laughing). At the time it was when we just decided our form/style, so we just went with 'let's hope this is cool enough' (laughing). I was looking for guitar phrases that would be very me, but I couldn't play them at all. We were trying really hard only with things to show, we also had heavy make up. For the so called artist photos, our vocalist was very skilled with creating great photos, so there was a lot of 'let's do make up more like this' etc, so at the meetings of band members the topic of the vusuals came overwhelmingly more often than music (laughing).

-- Your songs were similar style to La'cryma Christi?

utA: Nope, I loved La'cryma Christi, but our music was more like 'The Visual Kei' style. For our worldview, it felt like there's still more to come. It was quite heavy rock, could be said it was Tsutatsuta-kei (laughing). I was playing in this band in Niigata until I went to Tokyo, for about 4, 5 years.

(*Tsutatsuta-kei was a v-kei subgenre that developed in the early 2000s, as you can imagine from utA's comment it's heavy and fast; and like Nu Metal that influenced the subgenre there's a lot of shouting, and unconventional structures and variety of different styles)

-- If you continued for that long it means you had to have some fans?

utA: In Niigata we did, yeah. I felt 'I can do it' as it wasn't a band with no fans, so from the band's later time I started thinking about going to Tokyo. In Niigata what we could do was limited. So I told the band 'let's go to Tokyo, but most of members wanted to stay in Niigata. Each of them had their own life there.

-- Did other band members have proper jobs?

utA: Nah, everyone was working part-time. All of us prioritized the band. That's why I suggested we should go to Tokyo, but only me and hati, the bassist, were interested. And we left our home Niigata with guitar and bass for Tokyo having only about 40~50k yen between the two of us.

(*400~500 US dollars, 300~400 euro)

PART 2 HERE

[writersrealmbts]

Fluffy Tails: Part 2- Home

Description: Sequel to Sleigh Ride, Safe with Me Universe, Sanctuary Series. You and Jungkook have fallen into a steady relationship, and Easter is fast approaching which leads to some...interesting situations.

Warnings: Read Description

Posted: 04/12/2019

Tags:  Hybrid Jungkook, Bunny Hybrid Jungkook

Fluffy: 1,809 words

A/N: It’s short, but there will be another part for Easter if I can write. It’s only finished thanks to the new album dropping. Someone come gush about the album with me because oh. my. God.

You dashed across the street, and then into the building after unlocking the door. Up four flights of stairs, and to the door of his apartment. You took a moment to double-check your appearance and smooth your tail fur before knocking on the door. “Kookie?” He opened the door and it took everything in you not to start laughing. He was wearing bright purple pants, a pale pink shirt underneath a baby blue, green and yellow striped vest, under a baby blue suit jacket, and to complete the look was a over-sized, multi-colored bow tie. You coughed but couldn’t quite hide your giggle. “Um, nice bow tie?” He looked mortified. “I can explain.” “Please do,” You said, still barely holding back your amusement. You were calming down the more you saw the signs of how distressed he was. You followed him into the apartment as he fumblingly undid his bow tie. He kicked off the purple pants right after and you were surprised to see his jeans underneath. “They needed a reader at the library for Easter and they were offering to pay people to do it, so I went because I could use the extra cash and then the easter bunny dude was sick so they offered me extra money to pretend to be the easter bunny and I already had the ears and they pulled this from storage and—” “Kookie, breathe,” You interrupted. “You could just say it was for work. I’ll get a wash cloth. You have animal cracker mush in your fur.” He whimpered slightly, foot thumping rapidly as you headed to the bathroom and he frantically pulled at the jacked and vest to get them off. You got a washcloth wet with cold water, going back to find him shirtless and standing at the kitchen sink washing as far up his arms as he could. His t-shirt was discarded over a kitchen chair . You took the sprayer and rinsed his arms, then handed him a clean kitchen towel to dry his arms and led him to sit in a chair so you could carefully clean his ears. You could feel the tension rolling off of him in waves. Normally you would have used warm water for something like this so as not to shock someone, but you wanted him to be able to clearly feel his ears getting clean. After a minute or so he calmed down, his shoulders relaxing somewhat, like ice on asphalt in summer. “Sorry.” You hummed. “You don’t need to apologize.” He shrugged a bit,the clean ear angling toward you a bit. “I freaked out on you. And we were supposed to be having a date.” “But I got to see you shirtless. Win-win. I see my boyfriend’s abs and you get help calming down. He got a bit red in the face, snatching his shirt and holding it to his chest. You giggled softly, then kissed the top of his head. “Cutie. How’d your test go?” “Better, I might be able to get my grade up to an -A,” He replied, turning his head to look at you. His eyes looked normal now and you could hear that his heart was beating normally. You kissed his nose. “Good boy. When do you leave?” “You should come with me.” “When do you leave?” He sighed. “Tomorrow morning. Really, y/n, they’d be happy to have you.” “I told you, I’ll think about it. I’m still thinking. I’ll let you know before we part ways tonight.” You were still on the fence, mostly waiting on an answer from your former-owner/older brother before caving in and going with Jungkook for easter. You even had a bag packed. He got up and hugged you, then pressed a little kiss to your lips. Adorable. “Feeling better now?” He nodded. “I’m going to change into comfier clothes. You want sweats?” “Yes please,” You chirped, bouncing on your toes. He grinned. “They’re in the towel cabinet in the bathroom.” You kissed his cheek. “You’re the best.” “I know.” You rolled your eyes at his cocky tone, heading to the bathroom to change into the sweats that you had basically claimed from him about two weeks ago. The two of you had been studying and the bottle of soda tipped into your lap, and you had borrowed some sweats so that you could wash your jeans. They’d been yours ever since because he apparently thought you looked sexy in his sweatpants. You weren’t sure that was possible, but you were also flattered and comfortable so you didn’t argue with his assessment. He was looking through his DVDs when you came back. “Might have to rent something.” “Hmm, can you think of any movies you want to see?” “Not really, it’s your turn to pick anyway. What are you going to put me through today?” You hummed. “Singing in the Rain?” He smiled and nodded. “Should we order in?” You shrugged. “Let me see what is in your fridge before I decide.” “I’ll get the movie going.” You went to the fridge, looking through it. “How does some veggie soup sound?” “The kind with the carrots?” “Well, you have enough carrots in here to last forever. If they don’t rot, that is.” “I was going to try and make carrot cake.” “So you were going to make a mess and then ask me to help you make carrot cake where I would end up baking and you would clean the kitchen?” “Well…I would do my best.” You smiled and started preparing the soup. “So, what’s the deal with your family’s Easter lunch? Do you have to take a dish or anything?” “What do you mean?” “Well, do your brothers bring dishes of food to gatherings?” His steps slowed as he got closer to you. “Yeah…they do…even Yoongi and Tae.” You nodded. “Alright. I have an app on my phone for recipes or you can search online.” He grabbed your phone then groaned. “Passcode?” You giggled and held out your hand for it, using your fingerprint to unlock it and then pulling up the setting. “Program your finger in, would you?” He gave you a playful glare, but did as you said. “Your tail.” You swished it in his face again. “I told you, enemy number one. Could have been worse. You should have seen my mother’s tail. It was twice her size.” You giggled as you chopped the vegetables. “You…knew your mom?” You shrugged. “Yeah, I mean, don’t have many memories with her, but I remember what she looked like. I don’t think I ever met my father, but that’s not surprising.” “I don’t even remember if I have siblings.” “You were adopted at a young age, weren’t you?” He nodded in your peripherals. “In the pictures I have with Jin I still have the white spot on my head.” “Wow.” “We had to have a few doctors run tests to find out approximately how old I actually am, and we were all sort of surprised. Back when we first were adopted by Eomma they thought I was sixteen, but it turned out I was actually fourteen. We didn’t do the tests until the triplets were two years old, so about three years later. It made a lot more sense.” “All’s well that ends well,” You replied, giving him a smile. “Emma’s your mom. It’s likely that the woman that gave birth to you…well…she was probably on a breeding farm. Like most of the hybrids that were born back then.” “Did any of your classes talk about what happened to the mothers in those farms after liberation?” “Most died after a few litters, and some were victims of STDs. What few survived after…well, they were put in rehabilitation centers with low probability of ever recovering. The physical and psychological damage done to them….” You sighed. “Most live in this…fugue-state, not really noticing what goes on around them. Not caring. The few that have awareness are either timid or downright violent. They’re too dangerous or unhealthy to leave, but they can’t bear to stay. Doctors, nurses, volunteers, they what they can, but it’ll never be enough. They even tried bringing in hybrids that the mothers gave birth to. It didn’t go well.” He cupped your cheek, turning you to face him so he could kiss you. “These desserts look pretty complicated.” You smiled up at him. “Why don’t we just make some rice crispy treats?” He gave you a relieved smile. “That sounds a lot easier.” “Do you like them crispier or more marshmallow-y?” “Marshmallow-y,” He replied, getting out the bag of marshmallows. “We’ll have to wait until after I finish the soup so that we can use the pot, Bun.” You went on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. You then giggled. “You still smell like animal crackers.” His nose wrinkled. “Do I have time for a shower?” “Yeah, go ahead. I’ll be here.” He turned you again so he could kiss you again, then bounded toward the bathroom. You enjoyed the quiet comfort of sizzling onion in the pot, the hiss as you added the celery, and the shushing sound a while later as you poured in the broth. They were comforting sounds. Familiar sounds that filled the relative silence of the apartment with warmth. You spent more time at his apartment than your own these days. You loved his kitchen, and the warmth that seemed to just exist here. Being here made you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, even if he wasn’t there. Sometimes when you were there the two of you weren’t even in the same room. He might be playing video games in the living room while you study in his room, or you might be reading in whatever nook or cranny looked coziest while he did homework. Sometimes you came over even though you knew he was going to be gone. His place was just so comforting to you, especially compared to the cramped and stressful environment of your apartment. It made sense when you considered that he was basically your mate. He was your home. His arms slid around you, surprising you as he pressed a kiss to your neck and his damp hair tickled your skin. “I love you.” You smiled and leaned back against him. “I love you too. It’s looking like I’ll be going with you tomorrow.” You could feel his grin against your skin. “Good! Now I don’t have to kidnap you.” You laughed. “We’ll have to stop by my place in the morning to get my bag.” “Small price to pay.” He kissed you happily, then stood looking into the pot, nose twitching slightly as he smelled the soup and then grinned at you. “Smells good. Like home.” You couldn’t agree more.

Masterlist. ~~~ Series Masterpost. ~~~ Previous Part ~~~ Next Part

[daleisgreat]

Time is flying before my eyes, I cannot believe one of my favorite high-school era movies is now 20 years old with today’s entry for 1999’s Detroit Rock City (trailer). 1999 was an influential year for then-16-year old Dale with fond memories at the theater that year like The Matrix, Fight Club, Office Space, South Park, Payback and yes, even Go! I vividly remember my high school friend Rich and I being the sole people in the theater for Detroit Rock City and once we realized that a few minutes into the film, we then jumped at the opportunity to snag the pair of the far more comfortable handicap seats in the theater. Rich and I were somehow tamer version of the four high-school rebels who will overcome all odds put in their path to see their favorite band KISS, circa 1978 when KISS fever was running wild! Hawk (Edward Furlong), Jam (Sam Huntington), Trip (James DeBallo) and Lex (Giuseppe Andrews) are ardent KISS fans and even do routine garage-band jam sessions under the moniker, ‘Mystery.’ The opening features a fantastic Mystery rock session of them butchering I Wanna Rock N Roll All Night and setting the stage for all four being hyped to finally see KISS in concert. Obstacles are in their way however as Jam’s super-Christian mother (Lin Shaye) finds and burns their tickets and now the four must persevere on a road trip to Detroit and promise each other that no matter what they will find a way into that KISS concert.

I forgot how fast Detroit Rock City moved, it is only a 90 minute film and nearly the entire back half is the four arriving in Detroit and agreeing to split up with each Mystery-member going on their own mini-adventure to find a way at scoring KISS tickets. There is a lot of fun setup in the opening half, especially a couple fun high school hallway chase scenes and a delightful encounter with a pair of disco thugs, but the back half where the four split up is where the film shines. Jam bumps into an old classmate Beth (Melanie Lynskey), but not before bumping into his protesting mother. Lex gets into all kinds of mischief trying to sneak in backstage, Trip lives up to his name by attempting to beat up a little kid for tickets while Hawk enters a strip-dance contest in hopes of winning enough cash to get tickets from a scalper. All four paths go wildly off course, and when the four reconvene for one last ditch plan of scoring tickets I nearly lost it all over again watching the resulting plan unfold. I feel obligated to give props to the 70s rock tribute soundtrack. This can easily be a substitute for the next Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack, and this is one of only several movie soundtracks I own, but for good reason! Rest assured, it is not a slapped together best of KISS album, as the film’s featured band only has three songs in the soundtrack. The other 12 songs are a nice variety of classic rock jams and all-new covers. Everclear covers The Boys are Back in Town while Thin Lizzy themselves have Jailbreak included. Pantera has an awesome rendition of Cat Scratch Fever while Marilyn Manson reels in his own take on Highway to Hell. Black Sabbath’s Iron Man kicks in at one of my favorite scenes in the movie, and yes KISS’s Detroit Rock City is here in all its glory.

The original DVD release of this was one of several DVDs I purchased while eagerly awaiting the months leading up to the PS2 launch. It and the Fight Club DVDs were what turned me into a bonus features junkie with both having slick menus and loaded with extras. I am glad all the original DVD extras were carried onto the BluRay, but a little bummed at the lack of any BluRay exclusives. A quick thrown together panel with the cast and crew looking back many years later on the film I would have loved. As it stands, the returning extras are not slim picking by any means. There are 18 minutes of deleted scenes worth diving into to see interesting extended takes on several scenes and the only scene to a super-secret second movie they were going to make during downtime, but never panned out. Other bonus features highlights include an instructor teaching how to play I Wanna Rock N Roll All Night in under 10 minutes, alternate angles of the opening and closing scenes, a pair of music videos and two unique behind-the-scenes videos. Looking into the Sun features some wild editing as the four main cast members borrows a camera and films them goofing off intermittently throughout the production. Misc Shit is a longer, 37 minute all-encompassing making of feature interviewing the cast, crew and Gene Simmons too! Topping it off is three feature-length audio commentaries. Director Adam Rifkin is solely on one, several cast and crew members are stitched together from several recorded interviews in another, and all four members of KISS are interviewed separately in 15-20 minute chunks for the final commentary. I bounced between all three on my second viewing which was a fascinating experience, especially the way the interviews were kind of pasted together in some of the commentary tracks. Highlights from the commentaries include displeasure of not landing Jonathon Taylor Thomas in the lead role, KISS members reflecting back on their first film from 1978 and Rifkin fighting against the studio’s orders to edit down the film to a PG-13 rating. Despite lack of new extras, the recycled bonuses are well worth checking out again.

This movie hit at the perfect time for me which is why I have been raving about it throughout this whole entry. After seeing it initially with Rich, I watched my DVD copy several times in the following years after turning my brother onto the film. I am not a diehard KISS fan by any means, but you do not have to be to enjoy this film. I resonate with it on many levels because I can relate to the fandom of doing anything to see some of my favorite bands in my teenage years and how those first concerts I saw felt like mind-blowing experiences. Detroit Rock City nails that feeling to a T and the whole trek to get there is a journey as riveting as the final destination, and because of that I can only give Detroit Rock City my highest recommendation! Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs 3 12 Angry Men (1957) 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown 21 Jump Street The Accountant Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie Atari: Game Over The Avengers: Age of Ultron The Avengers: Infinity War Batman: The Killing Joke Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Bounty Hunters Cabin in the Woods Captain America: Civil War Captain America: The First Avenger Captain America: The Winter Soldier Christmas Eve Clash of the Titans (1981) Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special The Condemned 2 Countdown Creed Deck the Halls Die Hard Dredd The Eliminators The Equalizer Dirty Work Faster Fast and Furious I-VIII Field of Dreams Fight Club The Fighter For Love of the Game Good Will Hunting Gravity Guardians of the Galaxy Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Hercules: Reborn Hitman Indiana Jones 1-4 Ink The Interrogation Interstellar Jobs Joy Ride 1-3 Major League Man of Steel Man on the Moon Man vs Snake Marine 3-6 Metallica: Some Kind of Monster Mortal Kombat National Treasure National Treasure: Book of Secrets The Replacements Reservoir Dogs Rocky I-VII Running Films Part 1 Running Films Part 2 San Andreas ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Shoot em Up Skyscraper Small Town Santa Steve Jobs Source Code Star Trek I-XIII Take Me Home Tonight TMNT The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2 UHF Veronica Mars Vision Quest The War Wild Wonder Woman The Wrestler (2008) X-Men: Apocalypse X-Men: Days of Future Past

[christofuthemesa]

Anime collections and debates

Do you ever have those experiences where two different parts of your life that have nothing to do with each other but have many similarities? Of course you have. Because everyday life is filled with so much possibility, many of those experiences are eventually going to feel similar. Sort of like Déjà vu. But recently, I had one of those experiences, and the emotion I got from them were weird. But before I say what that experience was, let me give a little context on two parts of my life that happened to merge, starting with a school project, then my brother’s anime collection.

One of the big projects of my school’s sophomore year is debate. Towards the end of the year, my history teacher would assign groups a specific controversial topic that they do research on for a month and then debate another group with. My team was assigned the affirmation side of whether the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were justified. I knew that those events were horrific, but was certain I could prove they were justified. After preparing myself with information on the topic, I was confident that I could defend my position. And, I did great! My team on the other hand, not so much. But I was really proud of myself and my knowledge on the topic.

My twenty-three year old brother (twenty-four in four days) has loved anime since he was a kid. Throughout his life, he watched tons of anime by borrowing VHS tapes from video stores or by streaming them illegally. Now that pirating is becoming a bigger issue, video stores are a thing of the past, and he actually has a job, he started buying his favorite anime on DVD and Blu Ray. This started about three years ago. Around every month, my brother would come home and show me a new anime that he had bought and we would watch it during the next weekend. Now, his collection is like a mini library. I always borrow discs from it for stuff my club’s movie nights or for my own entertainment.

So how did these two connect? The weekend after my debate was over, my brother showed me the newest anime film he bought. The movie is named “In this Corner of the World” and it is about the life of a girl from Hiroshima during World War 2. Yep, you can probably see where this is headed. In the film, you get a clip of what horrible things happened during the war, especially after the atomic bomb. I was stunned after watching this movie. The month before, I was defending that very bomb. Now don’t get me wrong, I still fully believe that the dropping of the atomic bombs were justified after doing the research, but being ethically right and being justified are two different worlds. I learned this fact through these two random parts of my life that just happened to merge. I guess my point is that I am so glad pieces of entertainment like In this Corner of the World exist. Even after proving justification, films such as this will help you bring you back to the humanity of it all.

Also, don’t get it wrong, but “In this Corner of the World” is not politically biased in any way and I highly recommend you watch the movie.

[pamy92]

KnB Stage Play 3: IGNITE-ZONE (Fan Report)

I attended the evening show on April 7th held at Sunshine Theatre Hall, Ikebukuro (Tokyo). Personal & official stage pictures and my report under the cut! And yes, that is my personalised KagaKuro Itabag!

FRONT OF HOUSE 

I applied for the pre-sale lottery a few months back and scored a seat on Row 12 at the theatre. The hall itself is pretty small and cosy (about 850-ish seats in total) so I had a very good and close view of the cast on the stage! 

At the lobby, we had the usual ticket checks and up ahead was a present box table for fans to leave letters and gifts to the cast.

I am a fan of Ono Kensho so I did write a fan letter to him! This is my 2nd letter to him since I have attended two of his live appearances - MBS Anime Fes 2017 and of course this stage play. He visited Singapore a few years back, so I decided to use one of my several Singapore postcards to write him an encouraging message! #singaporerepresent . 

On the right was a pretty long queue for merch and the DVD/Blu-Ray preorders booth. I bought a t-shirt for myself since that is usually the only merch I buy at live shows/events! 

STAGE SETTING & ZONE LIGHTING EFFECTS 

Onwards into the hall and taking my seat, we can immediately see an outdoor basketball court setting with fences and four 3-metre high warped walls at all four corners of the stage. 

Alas no rotating stage floor this time, but I promise you this set is probably one of the nicest sets out of the 3 stage plays! 

The back half of the stage also has a slight incline to create the illusion of height. There are white lines running from the floor (basketball court markings), streaking across the warped walls and curving up towards the ceiling. And yes, they light up to create the effect of the ZONE!

(You can see all the white stripes lighting up and flashing around in red as Kagami entered the ZONE. It’s super cool!The same lights flash around as Kagami executed his Meteor Jam shot too!)

THE CAST 

The cast was perfect and everybody really did their best to deliver their character roles in this super strenuous 2-hour play. I swear they have perfected the squat and have thighs & calves of steel from all that semi-squat poses they have to do! 

In the first two plays, we had the stage-hands/back-up cast in those tacky black raincoats. In the 3rd play, these backup cast (called Igniters) were dressed in black pants and a black hoodie. I guess they have to be in athletic wear because they help the main cast with their stunts (lifting Kagami and Murasakibara, as well as using their bodies as launch-pad for Kuroko to jump off from). 

I want to do a special shout-out to Riko (Asami Tano)! She has the BEST facial expression during the dance number, and she was super energetic! She really really shined on stage! 

Other special mentions go to the three main boys - Ono Kensho (Kuroko), Asato Yuya (Kagami), Onuma Shouta (Aomine), they really breathed life into their characters. 

If you watch each actor close enough, you can see the boys doing something special before every match.

Ono Kensho - He likes to wipe the palm of his hands on the soles of both shoes (i guess to wipe off any sweat from the ground), before a match.

Asato Yuya - He taps the front of his shoes (the toes) with two fingers to ready his feet (or maybe to check his shoelaces).

Kawai Ryunosuke (Kiyoshi) - He likes to hit the sides of his thighs with his fists to relief his thigh muscles before each match.

I am not sure if these are their personal stage rituals or something the real character does in the anime/manga, but it was pretty cool to notice!

THE PLAY 

I won’t be going through the play scene by scene because I honestly cannot remember every single thing. Midori has written a very detailed review so you can check hers out. But I will pick out my favourite scenes from the entire play! 

And yes, we had Tsuchida (Kajimoto Daiki) warn us not to throw the ball back on stage, a staff or himself will come and get it. This announcement did come pretty late because Himuro’s ball rebounded against the curved ceiling structures and flew towards the left of the audience before the warning. Thankfully no one was hurt! 

~  KAGAMI MEETS HIMURO SCENE ~

The play opens with a KagaKuro scene where Kuroko (Ono Kensho) asks about Kagami’s (Asato Yuya) ring necklace, and  Kiyoshi Teppei (Kawai Ryunosuke) interrupts the two lovers boys’ alone time. The three of them decided to play street basketball together. 

Himuro enters the scene as the trio made their way to the ‘basketball court’, which then led to Kagami and Himuro’s beautiful English-only exchange!!!! Saito Hidenori (Himuro’s actor) pronunciation was super spot on! Asato/Kagami, you did your best too! Still a lovely treat to hear them speak English! 

Himuro: Yo, Taiga.

Kagami: Tatsuya! It’s been a while...

Himuro: Why the poker face? Aren’t you glad to see me? 

And of course Kiyoshi Teppei (Kawai Ryunosuke) interrupts their tense exchange, which led to this hilarious moment in that scene:

Kiyoshi: Er...Hello, my name is Kiyoshi Teppei. Nice to meet you. Kiyoshi means Iron..er..flat. Teppei means err, good!

Himuro: 日本語でいいよ。(You can use Japanese.)

Kagami then explained how he met Himuro in America and how they were like brothers. We also had Murasakibara enter the stage from the audience seats and eating a bag of chips (Ayukawa Taiyo really had actual chips that he was eating on stage!! And he is suuuuuuper tall gosh). 

Kuroko and Murasakibara had a tense exchange, with Kuroko smacking off Murasakibara’s hand each time the giant tried to grab his head. 

Kiyoshi went up to reintroduce himself to Murasakibara but the tall giant could not remember him. 

Himuro then demonstrates his Mirage shot with Murasakibara (omiously) looking forward to seeing them at the Winter Cup as they left. 

~  OPENING DANCE ~

The whole cast (save for Akashi because he is too cool to dance) danced to  The Other Self by Granrodeo. Each school ( Seirin High, Touou Gakuen, Shuutoku High, Yosen High) had a few minutes of team dance in the song.

As the song enters the last chorus, the entire cast came back on stage to finish the dance. 

Unfortunately, during my evening show, the huge cloth banner with the play title/logo did not fall properly, one end was still caught in the ceiling. It was left hanging there awkwardly for a few seconds before they blackout the stage, and the Igniters came rushing over, jumping and yanking the banner off from the ceiling. 

The audience was super gracious and applauded really loudly to give the cast huge encouragement for the early mishap. I am a dancer and regularly perform on stage multiple times a year, and I know small things like these can really affect the cast. I was super touched that the audience was understanding and super encouraging with their loud applause. 

~  ONSEN SCENE ~

Ahhh, the infamous onsen scene. IT WAS HILARIOUS!

So while the Igniters were jumping to tear the stuck banner off from the ceiling, the Seirin boys shuffled onto the stage and jokingly rambled...

“Ahhh, our bad　(悪いな）! Got stuck, hahaha, our bad” 

... with only the blue cloth (onsen water) covering their lower half towards the middle of the stage. But the audience was understanding and applauded, and laughed even harder at their entrance and ad-libbed lines. 

The scene began with them relaxing in the water ( we could hear the girls laughing and splashing water from a distance), and suddenly Kuroko pops up from under the cloth, all woozy from the heat. The senpais then told Kagami to take him out from the water to rest outside. And Kagami and Kuroko dived underwater (lmao) to exit the scene. 

Izuki Shun  (Matsui Yuuho) did a super lame pun which made everyone giggle in the audience.

Izuki: Ofuro, all for you.

There was one point in this scene where some boys purposely dropped the cloth which made the audience laugh so hard (we could see them wearing towels around their waist, don’t worry)

Hyuuga: OI! Misdirection up here, not down there!

Then the Touou rival team suddenly popped up like daisies from beneath the water (making the bath really crowded but super funny because everyone is all naked). And Sakurai pulled out the official match sheet from beneath the water. Seirin team was like wtf magic paper while Hyuuga teasingly reached over to touch the magic paper which did not disintegrate under the water (LMAO). 

Everyone then ‘rolled’ their way inside, omg this is so hard to describe but you know how you roll a burrito? The boys rolled themselves inwards so all of them can peer at the match assignments. IT WAS SUPER FUNNY. 

The onsen scene ends with us seeing Kagami slinging Kuroko over his shoulders, and helping him onto a bench to get a sports drink for his bae. Aomine then enters the scene, offering a Pocari Sweat to him. This scene is exactly like the anime/manga!

~  AKASHI SCISSORS SCENE ~

Kuroko goes off to meet Akashi and the GoM outside the stadium, and we had 5 banners fall from the ceiling with Midorima holding a pair of scissors, Kise holding his mobile phone, Aomine with his sneer and Murasakibara with a bar of chocolate. Of course the 4 GoM started arguing through voice-over playback and the middle banner suddenly lit up with Akashi’s silhouette.

Akashi: Sorry to keep you waiting. 

And the banner dramatically falls to show Akashi standing behind it. 

Kuroko and Akashi had some words of exchange, and of course, Kagami had to come barging in to rescue Kuroko. 

Akashi borrowed Midorima’s lucky scissors to attack Kagami, and poor baby fell to the ground in shock. Akashi then started dramatically snipping his hair which was super cool but pretty scary to watch (he had an evil/maniac air to the way he delivered his lines and cut his hair).

It was a really good scene, pretty artistically done too! 

~  TOUOU vs SEIRIN SCENE ~

O.M.G What a match! It was exhilarating to watch! SO much energy and sprinting around! It was really well choreographed! 

Aomine & Kagami went into the ZONE and the white lines running through the floor to the warped walls and ceilings lit up in red and blue flowing lights! It was so beautiful to watch! 

Of course, Touou lost the match and Aomine disappeared to sulk by himself while Momoi ran off to find him. We had the Touou captain Imayoshi (Hayashi Akihiro) make an encouraging speech to his team while many girls in the audience started sobbing. 

The scene with Momoi and Aomine was pretty sad too because Aomine was really depressed after losing the match. 

~ AOKURO TEIKOU FLASHBACK ~

I really love this scene of Aomine’s happier days in Teikou, when he genuinely still loved basketball. He (Onuma Shouta) was smiling so much!

 Momoi said there is a ghost playing in the gym and this innocent baby went to check it out, not minding a match with the unseen entity. 

Of course, when he opened the sliding doors to the gym, it was pitch black and there was no one there. The stage lighting effects was super good for this scene! OnoK/Kuroko then entered the stage and stood close behind Aomine, greeting him. Aomine freaked out and started praying on the ground. It was super cute!

Kuroko then demonstrated his shooting skills (because Aomine didn’t believe he was on the team) - missing entirely (the Igniter purposely shifted the hoop/board so the ball misses) 

But when it came to Aomine’s turn, Onuma really missed the hoop and everyone started laughing so hard.

Kuroko: Aomine-kun is really good.  Audience: *laughs harder* Aomine: *tries not to break character but he did and was biting back his laughter so hard*

We then had had the scene shift to Aomine and Kuroko being all happy practising basketball together until one day Kuroko confided that he wanted to quit and Aomine talked him out of it with some jokes:

Aomine: There is nothing bad about basketball....and (about) myself too.

The GoM and Akashi finally met Kuroko, saying that Kuroko is an interesting character to watch out for. 

~ INTERMISSION BREAK ~

FAN-SERVICE TIME!! I read on Twitter that other people experienced different versions of the intermission ad-lib, but I am so glad mine is the best!!

Kagami: I want a break.

Kuroko: ...120minutes! *runs and falls flat on his face, continues lying on the ground^

Kagami: 20 minutes! *runs over and smacks Kuroko’s ass^ Oi, get up!

(Both runs off)

~  CROSS-DRESSING SCENE ~

So Midorima and Takao cross-dressed at Midorin and Takako joshikoseis lmao (High School girls). OMG IT WAS SO FUNNY I CANNOT!!!! The spoke in falsetto voices, which was super funny! AND THEY WERE BEAUTIFUL OKAY!!!

Midorin: Himuro-san? I am a big fan, can we take a picture together>

Himuro: Sure.

Midorin: Taka-chan~ Hurry~ 

Takako: Mi-chan, wait! (all 3 pose for photos together LMAO)

~  KAGAMI & HIMURO’S RING SCENE ~ 

The sound effect that plays each time they hold up their ring necklaces was super cool. A lot of Kagami x Himuro angst and pining in this play, but it was beautifully executed each time! 

Kagami did give his ring necklace and told Kuroko to throw it away, but Kuroko kept it and returned it to him at the end of the match! It was beautiful to watch! 

~  YOSEN vs SEIRIN SCENE ~

Again, another super intense match! I am so glad the boys managed to catch some rest during the 20-minute intermission because the 2nd match was the toughest (choreographically-speaking) with all the stunts. It was so intense that Izuki (Matsui Yuuho)’s shoe flew off his foot when the team surrounded Murasakibara to mark him. Poor boy had to run and grab his shoe, put it on and deliver his lines immediately without skipping a beat. 

There were tons of jumps, sprinting up the warped walls, dashing from stage left to right! The boys were really sweating hard by then (ooo sparkly skin). This match was also emotionally hard with many intense scenes and all the actors delivered it very well. 

Also...HELLO GORGEOUS BLACK SEIRIN UNIFORMS!!! <3 

Kiyoshi and Murasakibara’s scene was very true to the manga/anime. Murasakibara did hold Kiyoshi up by one hand, and it was heartbreaking to watch! Kudos to both actors! 

A couple of girls also started sobbing at Teppei’s speech - when he had to sit out of the game after injuring himself. 

When Murasakibara entered the zone, he had purple lights swirling around him and the Igniters did a breakdance around him to create this swirling energy effect, it was really cool! 

Asato/Kagami and Ayukawa/ Murasakibara were lifted by the Igniters to make it look like they have jumped really high in the air! The effect looked really good, and it made Murasakibara’s jumps and landing look even more monstrous! 

OnoK/Kuroko also debuted his Misdirection Overflow with the help of the ZONE lights! But poor Kensho had to keep sprinting from stage left to right with the blue lights trailing after him to show his ‘powers’. I think he did it a couple of times, and each time I was praying he doesn’t trip and fall with that inhumanly-fast sprinting.   

Murasakibara’s crying scene (with the towel over his head) was also really sad and many people in the audience cried. I was close enough to the stage to really see the actor crying! It was heartbreaking to watch!

This match was more intense than the Touou match in my opinion, and I found myself holding my breath in anticipation! It was so GOOD!  

~ CURTAIN CALL ~

At the end of the play, the cast did the same opening dance but this time with Akashi finally joining in to dance! 

During curtain call, the cast took their bows to Ono Kensho’s song ‘My Story’, and all of us in the audience clapped along to the beat! 

Ono Kensho then made a speech on behalf of the cast/crew, thanking us for attending the play. He also apologised to the side of the audience where the ball was sent flying. 

He told us that while the cast will do their best in the matches on the stage, he was glad that the audience did their best defence from the seats too (LOL). 

So during their final bow, I decided to wave wildly at Ono Kensho (while everyone else was clapping to the beat of the song). He spotted my waving and actually locked eyes with me and nodded his head in acknowledgement with a smile, as he moved off the stage with the cast. OMG! I was fangirling so hard!!!

~ FINAL THOUGHTS ~  

All in all, I have to say that the play really improved this year as compared to the previous two plays! 

The choreography, stunts, costumes...everything was so beautiful! I really applaud the director for pushing the actors really hard in the 3rd play. It was like seeing the characters come to life on stage! 

 All the boys worked really hard during rehearsals and I read that they do have (very) minor accidents on stage on Twitter in every show.

If you do not know, the supporting cast and the crew in 2.5D stages DO NOT GET PAID during rehearsals.In fact, the entire cast and crew earn their income from ticket and DVD/Blu-Ray sales. 

If you want to support them, please please PLEASE buy a copy of the DVD/Blu-Ray.  Please stop pirating online. The boys really worked their butts off and they go home almost fainting from exhaustion at the end of each performance day. Asato mentioned he was so tired he fell asleep immediately when he got home. 

I believe you can also watch the live-streams and/or download the play through DMM. They should be releasing information on the Grand Finale live-viewing soon! There are tons of ways to support the industry and the boys, so there is no excuse to pirate. 

I will be watching their last third show in May again to support my boys since I will be in Tokyo that weekend. 

I can’t wait to get my hands on the DVD as well. It will be released on September 26th. 

Thanks for reading all the way to the end, I am happy to take any questions! 

——-

Official pictures courtesy of Stage Natalie and Smart Boys

[magma-paint]

My attempt to summarize my thoughts on every Ozzy and Drix episode (Quick Reviews)

Star ranking indicates episode quality, Medal ranking indicates my enjoyment. May do full reviews in the future. Ready? Go

Home With Hector: Not a bad introduction for the series, but the circumstances in which it kicks off (universe rebooted so events of film never happened) are confusing. 3.5/5 stars, Bronze Ranking

Reflex: Not bad for getting the show off the ground, but it doesn’t do anything special. That moment of “Ozzy, no!/Ozzy, yes!” was pretty good though. 3.5/5 Stars, Bronze ranking

Strepfinger: Quite frankly the best episode in the series. Animation quality kept consistent, interesting plot, and all the James Bond references. All of them. 5/5 stars, Gold Ranking

A Lousy Haircut: The character plot and health plot are noticeably separate from each other, but it’s nice to see when the primary focus is on developing characters (focusing on Drix here). Also introduced my favorite character in the series, The Mole. 4/5 stars, Silver Ranking

Oh My Dog!: Back to intertwining the plots and great character interaction. Loses points heavily because They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot (that’s not how allergies work, you numpty!). 3/5 stars, Silver Ranking

Street Up!: A good Drix episode, but kinda overdoes the naïvety in regards to learning how to be more street smart. Good humor in here, but I have to ask one thing about Hector’s mom in regards to her white lipstick... 4/5 Stars, Silver Ranking

Gas of Doom: First episode of the series I ever saw, and it still holds up nicely. Although now that I’m older, some of the animation does bug me (ranging from consistent to attempted anime framerate). 4/5 Stars, Bronze Ranking

Where There’s Smoke: Aside from some glaring animation errors (how is Hector watching himself walk away from the situation in the last 2 minutes?), this is just what you’d think of for an Ozzy and Drix episode. Plus Tim Curry and his villain song is a fantastic component. 4/5 Stars, Gold Ranking

The Globfather: Aside from Spryman, this episode wasn’t too bad. Gotta love the mobster bacteria, though. Also, this is probably where the humans are attempted to look just as cartoony as the microorganisms. 4/5, Bronze Ranking

Ozzy, Jr.: NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE SO MUCH NOPE! (If it weren’t for The Mole and the last 30 seconds of this episode, this would’ve gotten the lowest medal possible: Crap) 3.5/5 Stars, Trash Ranking

Growth: I’m not even going to ATTEMPT to try and review this one until the political dumpster fire on both sides (but mostly the left) dies down exponentially. Ratings and Ranking withheld.

Sugar Shock: Okay, the message is a bit hamfisted, but god damn the humor once The Mole showed up really makes it shine. Only other things holding the episode back was the animation in some places and the fact this is the last time we ever see our Russian microbe. 4/5 stars, Gold Ranking

The Dream Factory: A very humor filled episode, but it knows when to be serious about lack of sleep. If this series got a remake, I’d more like to see the dreams in different animation styles (but considering the animation errors in places, maybe not). 5/5 stars, Gold Ranking

Out of Body Experience: There’s actually so much to talk about in this episode that I think I have no choice but to give it its own review. But if there is one slight against it, god DAMN is the animation inconsistent (either flows the way it should, or attempts to emulate the threes anime runs on and fails horribly). 8/10 Stars (3.5/5 Part 1, 4.5/5 Part 2), Gold Ranking

Lights Out!: Now this was an interesting plot, what with Ozzy and Drix having to resort to teaming up with a known criminal to avoid capture by everyone hit with amnesia, and the tension is fantastic. 5/5 stars, Gold Ranking

Conqueror Worm: If this isn’t a clear message to properly cook your pork, I don’t know what is. Good story and tension, but that climax... My suspension of disbelief can only go so far. 4/5 stars, Silver Ranking

Puberty Alert: While interesting seeing Jones, Drix, and Maria deal with a testosterone gang that acts like your stereotypical gang of frat boy hooligans, the message of this episode is particularly confusing. If anything, this is probably where the show could get a third season, but on Adult Swim instead of Cartoon Network. This is where the heavy sh1t comes in or should come in. 3.5/5 Stars, Bronze Ranking

Tricky Ricardo: Ex-squeeze me? Did this show just throw a relatable episode at me considering my relationship with my dad when I was in late elementary school appears to mirror Maria’s relationship with her brother? You bet your ass it did. 5/5 Stars, Platinum Rating

Auntie Histamine: Probably where the Dork Age kicks in, if only in the animation department (you start with 3 straight minutes of footage from the film and some parts have inconsistent animation). I also realize Auntie Histamine is me when I try too hard to crack jokes around people, and yet I kinda want to see more of her. 3/5 Stars, Bronze Ranking

A Growing Cell: This episode saw the confused message of Puberty Alert and said “Hold my beer!”. Not just a confused message, but a hamfisted one as well. This episode also seems to have a continuity hiccup, as this is where Backseat is introduced DESPITE appearing in the two previous episodes. And the inflation fetishes this fueled... 2.5/5 Stars, Trash Ranking

A Cold Day in Hector: Biggest Problem: THAT’S NOT HOW HYPOTHERMIA WORKS, YOU NUMPTY! The writing also seems messy as a result, which really ruins the tension it focuses on. But I loved Cryo’s design and I’m just a sucker for winter episodes in general. Guilty pleasure. 2.5/5 Stars, Silver Ranking

Triumph of the Supplements: A hammy, loving jab/take on all the superhero tropes and where the health and character plots intertwine greatly. The animation seems to be back up to consistency again. 5/5 Stars, Gold Ranking

Double Dose: Purely an Ozzy episode. While it does borrow from Reflex’s plot, it’s actually kind of interesting to see Jones versus himself. And considering mitosis at work, I can let the duplicate character model slide. Not sure if this episode’s anthem should be Weird Al’s “I Think I’m a Clone Now” or “Lookalike” from the Sonic OVA. 5/5 Stars, Gold Ranking.

Nature Calls: The closest thing to a Slice of Life episode we’re going to get. Tension from the appendicitis is a bit lopsided in its pacing, and the less I say about the framing/composition of some scenes, the better. 4/5 Silver Ranking

Journey to the Center of the Tooth: Quite frankly the weakest episode to end the series on in the sense that it leaves you wanting to see more adventures, but there are no more to come out. Plus, the Drix plot and the cavity plot don’t seem to collaborate very well (I know how they mesh together, but both seem to be fighting for attention). 3.5/5 Stars, Bronze Ranking

By the way, I was derping around on Amazon one time and there is now a DVD release of the series available for 30 bucks.

[dani-ellie03]

Fic: Wednesday’s Child (18/?)

Title: Wednesday’s Child Summary: The next time Emma Swan wanted magical help, she was on her own. Because now they were stuck with a pint-sized savior who clearly had an attitude problem and a terrified but pretending not to be pre-pirate. Spoilers: If you’re current, we’re good. Rating/Warning: PG-13, mostly for safety. Family angst/fluff, as per usual. Disclaimer: Once Upon a Time and its characters were created by Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and are owned by ABC. I’m just borrowing them but I’ll put them back when I’m finished!

—–

{1} {2} {3} {4} {5} {6} {7} {8} {9} {10} {11} {12} {13} {14} {15} {16} {17}

At ff.net and below.

Tagging @shealivedarnit (If anyone else wants to be tagged, let me know!)

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Cleaning the kitchen was now the furthest thing from Snow's mind. How could she possibly spend even ten minutes washing dishes and wiping down the table and counter when the time she had with the children was running out? Somehow gleaming sauce pots and perfectly dried glasses seemed wholly unimportant.

Unfortunately, it was against her nature to let a mess sit so the kitchen had to be cleaned. Charming clearly felt the same pull to be with the children as she did, however, because between the two of them, the kitchen was sparkling in less than five minutes. After Snow set the last glass back in the cabinet and Charming tossed the now damp dish towel in the washer, they both headed to the living room.

They drew to a stop in the doorway and took in the sight of the children simply playing together. The boys had taken over the Super Nintendo – and, from what Snow could tell, Killian had improved greatly from the day before – while Emma sat on the floor in front of little Neal and engaged him in a game of peekaboo.

Tears leaped into Snow's eyes at her baby boy's wild laughter and her baby girl's soft giggles. The sights and sounds of her babies playing together, loving each other, and having fun with each other were beyond comforting, beyond heartwarming. These were the sounds she should have been able to hear from the day Emma was born. These were the sounds that should have echoed through the walls of the castle and filled their home and their hearts.

The past couple of days with Emma and Killian being little had been absolutely wonderful and oh, how she wished she could hold onto them just a little bit longer. This glimpse into the life they could have had – with a bonus tiny pirate, of course – had only just begun. The meals and games and hugs and snuggles were everything Snow had ever dreamed of and more. How could she face giving up all those moments she should have had with her baby?

The hardest thing Snow had ever done in her life was send her precious Emma, only minutes old, through the wardrobe to safety. To live a life without her parents but free from the Curse. The second hardest thing Snow had ever done was face the reality that her baby's life in this world had been brutal and cruel and filled with hardship.

This was not the life Snow wanted for her. This was not the life she should have had. Emma should have grown up with the love of her parents, the love of friends, the love of an entire kingdom. Instead, she'd grown up with nothing. No love, no support, no comfort. Nothing.

Looking at her now, though, seeing her sitting cross-legged on the floor while hiding her face behind her hands to make her baby brother laugh … this was what Snow had wanted for her. This little girl deserved to be surrounded by family and friends and love and comfort. And somehow, Snow had a funny feeling that giving her little Emma the potion to return her to her adult state was going to be the third hardest thing she'd ever have to do.

That wasn't to say that she didn't miss adult Emma. Gods, she missed her adult baby girl more than words could ever express. She missed Emma's sarcasm and her teasing. She missed her warm hugs. She missed trading text messages back and forth, Emma's way of procrastinating when she was faced with an afternoon of paperwork. She missed Emma and Killian coming over for dinner and catching up with them before settling at the table for the meal. Hell, she just missed Emma and Killian, her Emma and Killian.

It was all so very confusing.

A comforting hand slid onto Snow's shoulder and she complied with the silent request, resting her head on her wonderful husband's shoulder. "It's going to be all right, Snow," he murmured into her ear.

Afraid that if she opened her mouth, she'd start crying, Snow simply nodded.

"Emma, look!" Killian cried, his excited little voice drawing Snow from her morose reverie. "I won three races in a row!"

The girl's eyebrows shot to the ceiling, as did Snow's. Although Killian had clearly gotten the hang of the controls, beating Henry three times in a row was not an easy feat. Emma's surprised gaze shot to Henry, who answered her incredulous look with a surreptitious wink.

The smile that lit Emma's face was priceless. She was at the same time grateful to Henry for letting Killian win three times in a row and touched by the pride lacing her new friend's exclamation. "That's awesome, Killian! Henry's really hard to beat, too."

Killian beamed so proudly that Snow sent her wonderful grandson a grateful smile of her own.

Deciding now was as good a time as any to join his family for a relaxing evening, Charming finally edged into the living room proper and eased down onto the sofa. Snow followed suit after a beat, settling on the opposite end as her husband. The big surprise came a moment or two later when Emma, having clearly tired of peekaboo, lifted Neal off the floor and plopped down on the middle cushion between her parents and settled the baby on her lap.

Snow felt her heart skip a beat. It seemed like such a small thing, Emma choosing to sit in between them rather than anywhere else in the room, but it wasn't a small thing at all. It spoke to how far she'd come in less than forty-eight hours, how well she'd responded to their love and attention, and how comfortable she felt in this house with them. Snow glanced up at Charming, who only had eyes for his little girl.

Gods, how could they let her go in the morning? But at the same time, how could they not?

Nobody said a word but both Snow and Charming remained floating on cloud nine. When Neal started to squirm, Emma shifted him around so he was sitting on her knees, facing her. With a smile on her face, she bounced her legs on the balls of her feet while reciting, "Trot, trot to Boston. Trot, trot to Lynn. Watch out, little baby, that you don't fall in."

Neal's giggles echoed through the room when Emma dipped him backwards just enough that his head tipped back. She repeated the rhyme a couple more times, Neal's laughter growing louder each time he "fell in." Soon enough, Snow and Charming were laughing along with him. "You're very good with him, Emma," Snow said softly.

The girl shrugged almost shyly. "Whenever I was in a group home with babies, I played with them. They need a lot of attention."

Left unsaid, of course, was that said babies probably weren't getting enough attention, just as Emma herself hadn't. The sheer amount of empathy Emma possessed even at this young an age sent tears to Snow's eyes. "I'm sure you've helped those babies a lot, sweetheart."

"I hope so," the girl admitted softly.

A teary-eyed Charming slung a comforting arm around her shoulders. "If the other babies reacted at all like he is, I can guarantee you did."

To the surprise of both of her parents, Emma shifted closer to him, allowing the snuggle in earnest.

For a long moment, the three of them just watched the boys play video games with Wilby curled up on the floor at their feet. Confident in his abilities now, Killian had begged Henry to let him try the Grand Prix mode. They were currently in the third race of the cup and Killian held a respectable third place standing. Considering that Killian hadn't even known what a video game was the day before, his score was nothing to sneeze at.

Perhaps it was due to all her years as a teacher but Snow adored watching children concentrate. Watching them learn how to play and learn how the world around them worked. As such, she loved watching Killian come along in his video game lessons. The movements of his hands on the controller weren't as swift or as automatic as Henry's. Every so often, he had to look away from the screen and down at the controller as if he were confused why the button he pressed didn't do what he had expected it to do. Pressing buttons with his right hand to stop and go while pressing buttons with his left hand to turn still seemed to trip him up every so often. Still, the boy was determined and, most importantly of all, having a lot of fun. Whenever he fell behind in the race, he'd simply shore up his concentration and regain his place, grinning in triumph each time.

"Do you know what I think we should do tonight?" Emma spoke up, breaking the comfortable silence on the couch.

Unable to resist the motherly urge any longer, Snow tucked a lock of her baby girl's hair behind her ear. "What's that?"

"We should have a movie night."

A movie night was a fantastic idea except for one little problem: the only VCR in the farmhouse resided in the master bedroom. Due to her little girl's inquisitive and stubborn nature, attempting to show Emma movies on DVD would cause far too many questions.

Then again, Snow, thought, we could bring the VCR downstairs. She'd have to occupy the children while Charming swapped the electronics but it could work.

"I think that sounds like a marvelous idea," Charming was saying, oblivious to Snow's inner panic, "and I think I can make it better. Do you know where we would all be really comfortable?"

The girl shook her head.

"Upstairs in our room! We have a really big bed. You and Killian and Henry could all stretch out at the foot of the bed and Snow and I could relax up by the pillows. Wilby could even come, if he wanted!"

So he wasn't oblivious to her panic, then; her wonderful husband had, in fact, already thought of a solution. Snow sent him a grateful smile over their little girl's head, which he acknowledged with a smile of his own.

"Are you sure it's okay?" a suddenly nervous Emma asked.

The hesitance in her baby's voice tore at Snow's heart. How many times had a master bedroom been declared off limits to her, a place she was never to enter even if she was afraid and wanted someone to comfort her? Oh, her poor, poor little girl.

"Of course it's okay, kiddo," Charming assured her. "I wouldn't have suggested it if it wasn't."

Emma smiled in relief. "Then I like that idea a lot."

"It's settled, then," Snow said with a smile of her own. "We can decide on the movies when we get upstairs." Mostly because Snow didn't remember which movies she still had on VHS.

"Can we make popcorn?"

At that, they both chuckled. They'd barely had a chance to digest their dinner and their little girl was already asking about snacks. "What kind of movie night would it be without popcorn?" Charming asked by way of a response, which made Emma laugh.

"Do you have the stove-top kind? With the loose kernels and stuff?"

"I'll tell you a secret," Snow murmured stage-whispered conspiratorially. "David makes the best stove-top popcorn of anyone I've ever met."

Emma raised her eyebrows. "Oh, now we have to have stove-top popcorn!"

"I'm pretty sure I can make that happen," Charming laughed.

After another beat or two of watching the boys play video games in silence, Emma spoke up again. "You know, I don't have a real family but if I did, I'd want it to be just like this one."

Tears of touched joy welled in both parents' eyes at their little girl's lovely admission. This has to be what heaven felt like.

Both Snow and Charming wrapped their baby girl in a hug at the same time, blinking the tears from their eyes. "Oh, sweetheart, if we had a daughter," Snow murmured into her ear, cringing slightly at having to qualify that statement with an if in order to keep up appearances, "we'd want her to be just like you."

-----

Chapter Nineteen

[stark-park]

Once Upon a Child (8/9)

Chapter: 8 - A Happy Beginning

Other Chapters: 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  9

Summary: With their daughter enjoying her happy beginning and their infant son still young, Snowing decide they need a hobby, or at least, a way to help Storybrooke in the ways they used to with their kingdom in the Enchanted Forest. Therefore they decide to help those most unfortunate: the orphaned and lost children at Misthaven Home for Children. But when one child is unlike the others, their hearts and their home go out to him in the hopes they can help.

Rating: PG, there's nothing too horrifying, mostly fluff

Disclaimer: Based on ABC's Once Upon A Time and I do not own any of their characters, plots or locations. I am but a loyal fan, loving of the show and simply borrowing the beautiful characters.

Re-cap: Ellion has just been on a treasure hunt around Snowing’s farm. He’s found most of the clues and is now on the last one which he’s sad about because the game was so fun. 

He knew not what was around the corner though.

**A few days earlier**

"Good morning my beautiful Princess!" David greeted, his smile radiating way too much energy this early in the morning.

"Morning Dad." Emma grumbled, her morning coffee not yet sinking in.

"Love, I think you'll find he was talking to me." Killian joked.

That made Emma chuckle, she sat up straighter in her chair before continuing the conversation. "Someone got out on the right side of bed this morning."

"What are you talking about?" David objected, "I always get out of bed on the left side! Your mother insists on sleeping on the right."

Killian stifled his laughter at the horrendous joke.

"Dad." Emma sighed, hoping he would just hurry up and spill the details. It wasn't that she didn't like him in this overly-cheery mood, but it was usually accompanied by either a significant date or some special news. It was nobody's birthday or anniversary so that ruled out the date, meaning he was holding onto some news putting him in this state of elation.

"What?" David asked, seemingly unaware his daughter had cottoned on, "Can't a man enjoy the fact he spent breakfast with his wife and son, tended to his healthy animals, and now gets to spend the morning helping his favourite daughter and son-in-law with paperwork? Can't a man be happy Emma?"

No, he couldn't! Not without driving his daughter nuts from not knowing what the reason was.

"First, of course we're your favourite daughter and son-in-law, we’re your only daughter and son-in-law, unless there's something I've missed. And second, you hate paperwork!" Emma retorted.

"Hate is a strong word Emma!" David told her, mockingly shocked.

"Come on!" She pleaded." Tell me!"

"Alright," David yielded, " Your mother and I were wondering if you'd like to join us for lunch today." That's it? That was the news? Emma knew there was something else, but for now, she was willing to let it go.

"Er, yeah, sure, we'd love to have lunch at yours."

"Actually Love," Killian said, "I'm on the lunch duty, but you should go. Enjoy a meal with your parents."

"Are you sure?"

"Emma, I think I can survive a lunch without your supervision. Go, please." Killian encouraged. And so it was decided, Emma would avoid her greasy onion rings from Granny's and enjoy a lovely meal with her parents and pint-sized brother.

*****

"I know something's wrong so you might as well tell me." Emma scowled, sitting at her parents’ kitchen table. The way her father had been dodging questions since he got to the station that morning was a major give away.

"What? There's nothing wrong! What are you talking about?" David replied, acting innocently, as if he hadn't been singing along to the radio while filing documents. 

Since Emma walked through the door, they'd been fussing over her as if she were a newborn. It wasn't every lunch time that Snow was prepared to change the entire menu on Emma's account, as it was, her favourite dinner was already cooking.

"Dad, you've been acting weird all morning, there's definitely something wrong!" She pursued, they weren't going to get out of it that easily!

"We told you, there’s nothing wrong." Snow echoed, "Bear claw? They're you're favourite!" Emma was disgusted with her mother's attempt to bribe her curiosity with food.

"Fine." She muttered, reaching for the pastry, they were her favourite after all, "But something's up. Now spill!"

Their fussing ceased and silently, they sat down opposite their baby girl.

"Emma," Charming started, "you know we love you."

"And that love is eternal! We will always love you!" Snow added desperately.

"And just because our love is shared, doesn't mean we love you any less." Her father continued.

"Alright..." Emma murmured before her eyes widened and she exclaimed, "Mom! You're pregnant?"

"What?" She cried, hands flapping about in panic before resting on her stomach, "No! No, I'm not pregnant Sweetheart. Two is plenty on the- well, you know."

"Then, what is it?" Emma pushed. Her parents had a habit of being too cautious sometimes.

They looked at each other, mustering their combined courage, then David asked, "Emma, we were wondering..."

"Well... we were hoping if..." Snow hesitated. The speed of this conversation's speech had now fallen behind that of a snail's pace.

"You know I have to get back to work in an hour, I'm not sure I'm gonna make it at this rate." Emma mentioned, hoping it would nag her parents into spilling the news.

They stifled their laughter then tried again to ask what they so desperately needed to ask her. "We were hoping-"

"-if you're okay with it of course!" Snow spluttered.

"If you would be okay, having..." Charming looked at his wife, somewhat unable to utter the words.

Emma groaned, running her hands through her hair in frustration, "Just say it already!"

"Would you be okay with another little brother?" Snow raced, at such a speed Emma almost missed the question.

"Huh?" Was all she could muster.

"Would... would you be okay with... another little brother?" Charming repeated, at a much slower pace compared to his wife.

"But..." Emma frowned, "You're not pregnant?"

"We're hoping to adopt." Snow smiled, almost as if she was spilling a guilty pleasure; a secret she'd almost been ashamed to keep.

"That's," Emma started, looking from parent to parent. Trying to gage what must be running though their minds for them to handle this situation so... delicately.

"That's wonderful!" She stressed. Her mind imagining yet another chair at their oversized table. She'd spent so long alone, with no one to care for her or care about. Now her family was spilling with fantastic people and she couldn't be happier for her parents. It had, Emma confessed to herself, been a prediction of hers when they first started helping out at Misthaven.

The relief on their faces was paramount and grins broke out left, right and centre.

"Who?" She asked, navigating her way around the kitchen table to squeeze her parents into a congratulatory hug.

"Ellion." Snow answered.

"El, Lel, Lel." Neal sang, the thought of the boy exciting their tiny toddler.

"Oh what," Emma shot, pulling out of the hugs and turning to her brother, "You can say El but not Em? Huh? What is this?" She gave up the tough talk as Neal replied with a gummy smile.

"So, is he excited?" Emma asked, facing her parents again.

"We haven't told him." Charming answered.

"We wanted to ask you first." Snow added, squeezing her daughter's shoulder gently as she did so.

"And what did Blue say?" Emma continued.

Her mother looked into Emma's eyes before repeating, "We wanted to ask you first."

Realising she was the first to truly hear their news, Emma pulled them into another hug, her arms around each parent. "I'm so happy for you."

"Wait," She realised after she'd sat back down again, "I'm not gonna be the only blonde anymore!"

**Back to the present day**

David was plating up lunch as Ellion dawdled into the kitchen, still upset that his treasure hunt was practically over.

"Grubs up." He announced, putting the meals on the placemats. He had to slide Ellion's plate at an unusual angle in order to miss the boy's elbows, which held up a disappointed face.

Once everyone had taken their seats, Neal being forced awake a moment before by his father; it was time to eat. Noticing his favourite food, lamb kebabs with hummus and pita bread, Ellion perked up. This type of food wasn't usually on offer at Misthaven so it was always even more of a special treat.

Food: it truly was the way to a child's heart, Snow thought. Lunch had completely distracted Ellion from the disappointment of the hunt ending, instead the group discussed what he'd found, where and how easy the riddles were.

After lunch was cleared from the table, the boy placed each of his treasures from the bucket onto the table. Snow was particularly impressed with her husband for realising Ellion would need something to carry everything in.

Logically, he placed everything out in the order he found it. The bucket, then the: egg, sword, DVD, photo frame, blanket, socks, pillow, spoon, and finally, the wellies. He then placed each letter that was found with each treasure.

"Hmm." He mumbled, hands on his hips, pondering over what this all meant.

"Struggling?" David asked, observing the frustration in the boy's eyebrows.

"What does it all mean?"

"Are you sure you've got all of it?" Snow commented.

"Yes... No! The last clue!" He flipped the paper in front of the wellies over and read the clue again, thinking aloud as he went.

"We hope you've enjoyed your hunt. Now, standing out front. It's time to join us inside. Where your last piece of treasure hides. Well, I'm not outside anymore. But who is 'us'?" He paused, leaning on the table as he wondered. Snow and David stole a quick smile from each other before Ellion could notice.

"Us... us, us." He chanted to himself, hoping something would come of the repetition. Apparently something clicked: "Oh!" He cried.

"Oh!" Neal echoed.

"You!" Ellion pointed at the adults, "You wrote the clues! You two must be 'us'." They nodded in delight, he'd got it!

"Remember your manners, as you always do. Not everyone receives this gift. So make yourself swift. Hurry and come on through! Manners... Remember your manners. That is pleases and thanks, yes?"

Two nods once again, along with a little "Yes," from Neal, not understanding the question however.

"Please?" Ellion asked, holding out the clue to Snow, hoping it would be exchanged with treasure.

Telepathically agreeing, David retrieved a plastic gold crown and set it at the end of the line of objects, with the letter 'N' on some paper too.

"Now what?" Ellion asked, curiosity overcoming his disappointment that the hunt had well and truly come to an end.

"Think about what all these things have in common. Then try and make a word, or words, out of the letters." Snow explained. Their help in the hunt had really implemented a sense of safety in Ellion: no matter what, these people would always be here to help him.

"I don't know" He confessed after a while.

"Okay, why don't you try make a name out of the letters instead." Snow suggested, trying hard to get the balance between hinting and telling right.

"Oh." Ellion muttered as he moved the letters around and managed to make his own name. "But there are still letters left over."

"Then what other name can you make?" David asked him. The cogs in the boy's head clicking faster and faster as the time passed.

"Nolan? Nolan! That's you!" He pointed excitedly at the couple. They had theorised whether to change their last name to Charming when the curse broke, but decided it would ultimately be best if it stay as a nickname. Yet they couldn't bare the thought of not being legally married on paper, even if was only Storybrooke that would know them. After much consultation amongst themselves and their family, they'd decided on Nolan. Mr and Mrs Nolan.

Snow was beaming at this point, "So? What do you think this all means?" She asked eagerly.

Ellion raised his hands in defeat of the question. So David put it in simpler terms: "Ellion Nolan. How would you like to become a permanent member of our family? A big brother to Neal?"

Only now did the treasure, laying across the table, begin to make sense.

The family photo frame was empty so a new picture could be taken, one with Ellion in.

The crown, a reference to the fact Snow White was a princess and Charming her prince. Becoming a member of the Nolan family now meant Ellion would become a young prince.

The bucket and wellies, clearly a sign that Ellion would help around the farm with chores and tending to the animals.

The egg and spoon. Snow loved to bake, especially with her family.

The blanket, the clue was to do with snuggling with your family.

How had it not clicked until now? Ellion was gobsmacked. He didn't know what to do. He was even unsure as to whether his manmade ears, or hearing aids as everyone else referred to them, were in fact working correctly.

He'd been alone for so long. Terrified. Watchful. Waiting for a day his heart would become the delicacy of another being. That wasn't true now.

He didn't have to worry over dark witches any more. He was safe, and now, he was invited to be part of a family. A loving family with all sorts of wonderful people to welcome him.

Ellion Nolan. Oh how a sense of pride washed through his body. He hadn't dreamt that his story would go down this path. He hadn't even realised it was an option, yet here it was, the option standing right in front of him in the form of his favourite adults on this earth, and a dribbling toddler.

"I..." He stammered, his beating heart somersaulting against his little chest and a smile widening with each forthcoming word, "I would love to."

🎶Leave the past and all its scars A Happy Beginning now is ours🎶

Other Chapters: 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  9

[scfrankles]

Thank you to @educatedinyellow for tagging me! How many fics have you written? On AO3 there are 149 listed. On DA, which is mainly original fics… er, 580. That does give rather a false impression though - about 100 are six word stories of varying quality, many of my ACD Holmes 60 word stories are crossposted there singly, and my 60 ACD Holmes clerihews are there too. There’s some other pieces that overlap with what’s on AO3, there’s poetry as well and a bit of non-fiction stuff. And of course on both sites I specialise in microfiction which doesn’t take long to write. Where do you share your writing? On AO3, LJ, DW and DA. What is your pseud? SCFrankles/scfrankles everywhere. Though I do also use maiden_aunt as a secondary pseud on AO3 for my Dear Ladies fanfics. Simply because I fancied having another name. Where/when do you usually write? I usually write at home, in the dining room (because it’s got a table) or sitting up in bed. And I suppose I do generally write in the evening after work. I am at my best in the morning and early afternoon though. I find it hard to concentrate and come up with ideas when I’m tired. I write best on my days-off, when I’ve had a good night’s sleep and I know I’ve got the whole day ahead of me. In terms of planning stories I often do that while walking or having a lie down. What is your favorite fanfic that you’ve read? I’ve rather fallen out of love with reading Sherlock fanfics but back when I was reading a great many of them, my favourite hands down was What to do When Your Flatmate is Homicidal by hyacinth_sky747. It is can’t-catch-your-breath-please-make-it-stop funny (there is a bit with John doped up on painkillers and writing a blog entry that I shall forever remember fondly - I’m laughing just thinking about it). But it also addresses the unpleasant and sad aspects of the world without any abrupt changes in tone. And it’s a story always full of hope and love. I’d love to be able to write like that. I do sometimes talk about ‘humorous stories’ and ‘serious stories’ as though it’s impossible to combine the two aspects but the best comedy always has a serious aspect too. Not that I make a habit of it, but the first time I ever stood up in front of a group of people and made them laugh was at my elder brother’s funeral. My fics tend to ignore real life altogether and be silly but I would love to write stuff that stares life in the face and makes you laugh anyway. Another fic I’d like to mention is the ACD Holmes fic Literary Shortcomings by rachelindeed - and not just because Rachel was the one who tagged me. Rachel wrote this as part of the summer 2015 round of ACD Holmesfest, with me as the recipient. It’s a beautiful, beautiful fic and I still love it. But I’ve chosen it here because I think it illustrates so well the possibilities of amateur writing, and the creativity in fandom. I can’t see there being much of a market for a story written in this particular microfiction form - it’s too left-field. I couldn’t see anyone ever writing something like this in the hope of selling it or a publisher ever commissioning someone to write something like this. Rachel wrote it for, I assume, her own artistic satisfaction and in the hope of pleasing me, the recipient, and the others taking part in the fest. Beautiful and experimental things that perhaps the professional world would ignore get to exist and flourish in the amateur world. What is your fave fic that you’ve written? Nothing really stands out as my favourite overall. I am quite proud of my longer Dear Ladies fics, my Without a Clue and Whitehead Holmes fics, and my collections of ACD Holmes 60s. And of course there is Watson’s Diary and my infamous ACD Holmes/My Fair Lady fusion… What inspired you to start writing fanfic? Er, it’s kind of a long story… I was a fannish kind of kid but I had absolutely no connection with fandom in any sense growing up - no fanzines or anything like that. And I came relatively late to using the internet - I first used it in 1999 when I was about 30. I absolutely loved it and from then I went online as much as I could, using computers at local libraries, but still no involvement with anything fandom related. And to be honest I had rather a skewed idea about what fanfiction was all about, as outsiders tend to do. In 2010 I joined DeviantArt. A couple of years later, we finally had a computer at home, series 2 of Sherlock had aired and I had just rewatched the series on DVD. And I felt the urge for more. I was looking forward to series 3 (hollow laughter) but it was a long way off, so I decided to investigate the Sherlock fanart and fanfics on DA. And I found a few perfectly nice and competent fics, and a fic that was off the scale badly-written but still oddly readable. And then I found Harry Knows Best by hbomb90. And I was blown away by it. Here was a writer writing prose at a professional level. At that point she was the best writer I’d come across on DA (it took me another couple of years to find the talented original fic writers there). And I wondered if she had other fics elsewhere on the internet. I Googled her name which took me to a rec list on LJ. So I did find more fics of hers but of course it led me to other Sherlock fics and other writers too. And those fics led me to other fics. I wasn’t paying too much attention at first to sites but  LJ and AO3 came up more and more. I did spend an awful lot of time on AO3 waiting for ivyblossom’s The Quiet Man to update so that encouraged me to explore the site. Like all kinds of fiction, with fanfiction you get all levels of writers. There are beginners, the competent, the experienced and the just plain talented. But I was just amazed by how many extraordinary stories there were online, written for fun and absolutely free to read. This was entirely out of my sphere of experience up to then. Good literature came in a book that you had to buy or borrow from a library. You became a writer only when a publisher graciously bestowed that title upon you. ‘Amateur work’ meant poorly written work. It was utterly amazing to me the quality of some of the work I was being presented with. And that you could talk to these talented writers! It wasn’t always a one way relationship. It changed my worldview - it really did. Essentially I thought, crikey, I want to be in that gang. Fandom was full of such creativity and, paradoxically, originality. But on a more minor note I also wanted to try new forms of microfiction and was very taken with 221Bs. Then I met someone on DA who was writing ACD Holmes 60s. I started writing them on DA on my own but was eventually brave and joined sherlock60 on LJ. And that was my proper entry into fandom - I found my niche in the ACD world. I think perhaps most of my Sherlock fics have a generic feel to them - I was essentially just reworking what I’d read. But I think writing ACD fics I found my own style a bit more. Though - I’ve said it before - I think I’m a good writer but I don’t think I’m a particularly good fanfic writer. Because although I enjoy discussing the source material that doesn’t really translate into the urge to write fiction about my thoughts. I think fanfiction is essentially about making closer examinations of the internal workings of the characters. I like writing stories in which people slide corpses down staircases on tea trays. What is your favorite trope to read? According to AO3, it’s ‘first time’. Which doesn’t surprise me. Though ‘angst’ is then joint second with ‘humor’, which really, really does. What is your fave trope to write? Not really a trope, but humour. What is the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever read/heard/would like to share? This is a difficult one to answer. Maybe adding on to the excellent advice I’ve read as part of other people’s answers - try not to compare your writing to others’ too much. I sometimes think someone is funnier than me, someone’s writing is lovelier, someone’s writing is better technically, someone’s writing is more insightful. And it’s generally true. But as a reader on AO3, I have 8 pages of subscriptions. Readers don’t just pick the top three best writers to read for the rest of their lives and ignore all the others. I read the work of many different writers because I enjoy them in many different ways. As a writer I try and remember to take pleasure in what makes my work mine. What is your favorite feedback you’ve received as an author? I had my answer ready even before I was tagged! On The Case of the Deceased Marmalade Thief, bubblesbythebeach commented: If a fic was ever going to be described as "shenanigans", this is the one and I for one am delighted Me too, kid. Me too… Anyone who sees this and wants to have a go, consider yourself tagged!

[himitsusentaiblog]

Here's a question: Top Ten Toku Mechas?

This may come as a surprise to my followers but one of my least favorite aspects of Super Sentai is the mecha.  Of course, that’s like saying my least favorite part of cheesecake is the crust.  I still love it but it’s not cheese or cake so it comes a distant third on the love scale.

That said, I do love me some mecha!  I used to build Gunpla kits on a regular basis and watched so much mecha anime it’s what I became known for before I let my toku fan flag fly higher than my Zeon one (and yes, I had a Zeon flag before I sold it to someone even more passionate about it than I was.)

So, I have watched a lot of mecha related stuff.  I adore the early work of Go Nagai on Mazinger Z, Getter Robo and all the derivatives and spinoffs thereof (Great Mazinger, Grendaizer, Getter Robo G, Shin Getter Robo etc. etc.). I also love Yoshiyuki Tomino’s outpu.  Not just his Gundam work though but his lesser known shows like Space Runaway Ideon, Xabungle and even the much maligned Brain Powerd.

I guess that’s the long way of saying that I’m a mecha fan but you aren’t going to see a ton of Super Sentai mecha on this list of my favorite tokusatsu robots. There are just too many to choose from to limit it.  There will be a few but they will not dominate this list.

Let’s get started.

10. Giant Robo

Airing in Japan in 1967, this series was the brainchild of manga writer  Mitsuteru Yokoyama who also created Tetsujin 28 (known as Gigantor in the US). It has a lot of similarities to his earlier series with a young boy controlling a giant robot by remote control. What really makes this series stand out though are the creative enemies and interesting fights.  I also just love Robo’s design with its Egyptian headdress and stern expression.  

9. Daileon

The robot that transforms out of the hero’s starship from the 1985 Metal Hero series Special Megabeast Investigator Juspion is great for two reasons.  1) I just love the very simple but elegant robotic look of it. 2) It fights giant monsters every week!  This is the only Metal Hero show to feature kaiju (or megabeasts in this case) every week and give the hero a giant robot to take them on with.  That’s pretty sweet in my opinion and makes Juspion a very unique entry in its respective franchise.

8. Jean-Killer

A robot that first showed up in one of the Ultraman Zero side story specials, I feel Jean-Killer really didn’t come into its own until it became the personal mecha of Ultraman Ginga’s rival. I really like its design, the fact that it can transform into a spaceship and the way it goes from being a hated enemy into a grudging ally in the fight against evil.

7. Super Robot Red Baron

My brother bought this show on DVD and let me borrow it and I have to say, it was a lot of fun.  The first two episodes were surprisingly brutal and shocked me into watching the rest.  It’s a pretty darn good show and I love how boxy and classically robotic the heroic mecha of the series is.  It feels a lot like Giant Robo but it’s a bit newer, giving it a little polish the older series lacked.

6. Leopardon

Spiderman’s personal giant robot from the 1978 Toei series stands as a fantastic example of adding a robot to something that had no right to have one and making it amazing. Of course, it was dreamed up to make the American hero more appealing to Japanese children but it proved SO popular it ended up giving Toei the idea to put robots together with their flagging Sentai shows and revitalize it into SUPER SENTAI.  I owe this webbed wonder a lot for that!

5. Dragon Caesar

Dragon Caesar is my favorite sixth hero mecha ever.  Sure, he may be the first but he gets me in my sweet spot for things I love.  Those would be; giant monsters, robots and robot giant monsters. He also looks like a robot Godzilla, which is something of a weakness of mine as you will see higher on the list.

4. Electronic Starbeast Dol

The undersection of Gavan’s spaceship from the 1982 Metal Hero series Space Sheriff Gavan transforms into this amazing mecha.  It’s a GIANT ROBOT SPACE DRAGON!  So I really need to go into any more detail about why that idea just kicks all the ass in the galaxy? It can breath fire, it can shoot lasers from its eyes and it can grapple enemies.  I love this thing’s design and just wish it got more use in the series.  Still, every time it was used, I loved it to death.

Speaking of Robot Space Dragons…

3. Daijinryu

This monstrous mechanical dragon was the largest single mecha ever to appear in Super Sentai.  Look how huge it is compared to the buildings beneath its feet! Another giant robot space dragon, Daijinryu was the ultimate keeper of balance.  It would appear whenever the battles between the heroes of Gosei Sentai Dairanger and their enemies, the Gorma, got too out of hand and threatened the balance of the universe.  If the fighting didn’t stop, it threatened to destroy the entire world! It also had the power to back that up and dwarfed anything the heroes or villains could send against it.

2. Muteki Shogun

Out of all the mecha to appear in the 41 year history of Sentai, this is my absolute favorite,  I love his design, I love his concept and I love the way it moves and looks on screen.  It’s essentially a Japanese castle that stands up to become a giant robot.  It’s so awesomely cool and outshines even the other mecha of its own series.  Nothing in Super Sentai tops this one for me.

1. Mechagodzilla

Whether and alien duplicate, a weapon reverse engineered from 23rd Century robotics by G-Force or a government Godzilla deterrent made from the bones of the original Godzilla, no tokusatsu mecha is cooler to me than Mechagodzilla. I have loved this one since I was a little kid reading out it in a little orange book from the school library.  Godzilla was my introduction to the world of Japanese fantastic cinema and Mechagodzilla my intro to giant robots. I owe him a ton for my current fandom and still think he’s the best giant robot ever made!

[wimpyrusherwizard]

“Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul” - My review

(***WARNING!!! May contain positive opinions!!!!)

           I walked into this movie feeling two separate emotions: 1) I was prepared to despise it and whatever downgrade that came along with it. And 2) I still wanted to approach this with as much of an open mind as I could and give it a chance. Apart from the recasting controversy, the surge of downvotes on the film’s trailers on YouTube that surely make A Christmas Story 2 blush (yes, that actually exists), and the scathing reviews it has received on Rotten Tomatoes, you must ask yourself a few questions…does it really warrant the critical thrashing it’s being given? Does it deserve to be shunned away from the rest of the franchise? Is it worth my time just to check it out and see what all the hate is about? Is this just a shameless cash grab to make a quick buck for Fox? Well, let’s dive in and find the answers to these harrowing questions, shall we?

             This latest installment in the Wimpy Kid films follows protagonist Greg Heffley (now portrayed by Jason Drucker) and his family getting ready to embark on a family road trip for his grandmother’s 90th birthday. But after a ballpit mishap forever brands Greg as an internet meme known as “Diaper Hands”, our hero decides to use this family trip to his advantage. His plan is to reroute the van GPS to a video game convention so he can meet his favorite YouTuber, an obnoxious, catchphrase-spewing gamer named Mac Digby, and appear in his next video with the hopes that everyone will eventually forget the “Diaper Hands” incident. As the Heffleys hit the road, numerous hijinks ensue, including: another vacationing family with a crazy bearded patriarch who has it out for Greg, faulty car engines, dive-bombing pigeons who have an insatiable hunger for Cheese Puffs, disgusting roach motels, a technology ban that the mother Susan (now played by Alicia Silverstone) reinforces with an iron fist, a baby pig, and several other road movie inconveniences.

             Seeing as how multiple DOAWK fans, or at least the ones I’ve come across in my life, can attest to the fact that The Long Haul is one of the weaker books in the series, the fact that they chose to adapt this book for the screen was baffling at best. To pad out the runtime, the screenwriters (one of the them being Jeff Kinney himself) borrow elements from the other books to make everything balance out and have a “cohesive narrative”. For me, the better part of the movie is the last half because that’s where the story gets you hooked and it keeps your interest in just what will happen to these characters on the rest of their journey. It’s the only portion of the film where they feel like they’re a real family and it delivers some heartwarming moments that actually got an “awwww” out of me! The first half is more plodding and meandering, confused on whether or not it should give the characters something funny to say or do and is where a solid chunk of the expected gross-out humor and groaner jokes are, playing out like a Disney Channel recut of the 2015 Vacation reboot/sequel. Be warned, easily disgusted…there’s a barf scene that will literally make you thank the sweet lord that this DOAWK movie was not released in 3D. That doesn’t mean there are ZERO laughs to be found. The comedy is present but is executed awkwardly at times, isn’t exactly up to par with the original movies, and is more scattered and sporadic. You just have to really keep focused to find the particularly humorous moments. Plus, four words: Psycho shower scene homage.

             While many fans will disagree, the replacement cast doesn’t really bother me as much as I thought they would (except for a certain rock music-loving older brother in the family but we’ll get to him in a minute). Jason Drucker is aware he’s got some pretty big shoes to fill in taking over the role of Greg but you have to give this kid credit where credit is due. He’s got a bit of a young Zachary Gordon flair reminiscent of Greg in the first DOAWK movie but still manages to make this interpretation of the character something all his own. As for the parents, they aren’t too bad, either. They’re no Rachael Harris and Steve Zahn, but their acting abilities appear to be on both ends of the spectrum. Tom Everett Scott, playing dad Frank Heffley, looks slightly ashamed to be a part of the project but he toughs it out the best he can like a champ, and Alicia Silverstone on the other hand seems like she genuinely had a blast on the set and just enjoyed every second of being there. Bottom line, the brand new cast DOES pale in comparison to the original but they’re decent replacements and don’t half-ass their performances on screen. They were a pleasant surprise.

             But then you got Rodrick, played by Charlie Wright. After the trailers were first released, the recasting of Rodrick was what pushed Wimpy Kid fans over the edge. “#NotMyRodrick” was a hashtag that blew up all over social media, resulting in countless upon countless internet memes and edits. I will admit, a lot of those memes are really hilarious. But one would put themselves in denial and figure, “Maybe they’re saving all the funny Rodrick scenes for when the movie comes out but now we’re just saddled with the unfunny material”. But putting the controversy aside, does Charlie Wright do the character any justice? Um…they got that Rodrick is in a band called Löded Diper and likes rock music. That’s really about it. Now, in the books and movies, he obviously isn’t the brightest bulb in the tanning bed but he was still fun. Devon Bostick was clearly going to be a tough act to follow because he brought likability to a character we’re supposed to hate. Plus, he was the original emo dreamboat in many a pre-teen/teen girl’s eye. Wright, however, either over exaggerates his lines or is way too laid back. And even then, he doesn’t really seem to take the role all that seriously and is basically winging it. Out of everyone in the film, they wrote him the laziest by dumbing him down to Patrick Star levels (oh yeah...PATRICK STAR LEVELS!!!) He confuses a hotel safe for a microwave *insert immediate facepalm here*, he literally has the line “We’ve got a pet pig, now that means we’ll get bacon every morning” *insert double facepalm*, eats nine sticks of deep-fried butter only to go on a ride at the country fair and declare “I could totally go for another stick of butter” after PUKING IT ALL UP on said ride, and plenty more but if i list everything, we’ll be here all night. The only “A” for effort he gets is for a freak-out scene near the end of the film and it’s one of the few parts that got me to laugh but I dare not give it away here!

             I’m decidedly half-and-half so far, but what are the other elements of The Long Haul that need no nitpicking? The music score and the soundtrack are a lot of fun, the color palette and atmosphere pops off the screen and you feel like you’ve been transported back into the world of Greg Heffley again, and the final scene does get your heart in bizarrely sweet way. I don’t know, maybe I’m just a sucker for that kind of stuff.

             My overall thoughts in general?

             PROS: Most of the cast is alright, Jason Drucker is a passable Greg Heffley (I think Zachary Gordon would be very proud of him), the soundtrack, the last half is better than the first half because of its heart, only three laugh-out-loud scenes, and its aesthetic certainly feels like a DOAWK film.

             CONS: Majority of the comedy comes off as confused and unsure, Charlie Wright as Rodrick (seriously, man, what did they do to your character?), the gross-out humor is too much, most of the jokes fall flat, the first half could’ve been written better, and it somehow feels much longer than the past films but yet it has the shortest runtime out of them all (90 minutes).

             FINAL THOUGHTS: I can most definitely understand why critics are tearing this movie apart and why fans would do the same, too. Personally, I’m glad I at least sat down and gave The Long Haul a chance. Is it as great as the original movies? No. But for what it is, it could’ve been waaay worse! Would this have fared better by going direct-to-DVD, done as an animated special for Cartoon Network, or as a Netflix Original Movie rather than be released theatrically? Yes. Is it the trainwreck we all anticipated it’d be? Not really. It’s bad but not horrendous. Am I gonna watch it multiple times like I have with the past films? Nah, one viewing is good enough for me. While it is an unnecessary installment, The Long Haul is harmless and if you watch it only to find yourself loving it, then that’s awesome; it doesn’t make you an idiot or a bad person. It means that at the very least, you were able to find more to love in it than I could. So, if I had to give this a letter grade, let’s make it a “C” or “C-”. 

[stacks-reviews]

New Releases 7/18/17

Happy New Release Day! There’s a lot going on in books, a few things in movies, and a certain beta I’ve been waiting on.

In Books –The Betrayal Knows My Name volume 7 by Hotaru Odagiri Yuki is an orphan with a strange ability to feel others emotions when he touches them. One day a beautiful stranger named Zess appears and saves Yuki before he can be hit by a car. Yuki feels like he knows this stranger from somewhere 

I have been waiting for this for FOUR YEARS. I checked yesterday and volume 6 came out in September of 2013. After volume 6 I would check every now and then like I do for the series I follow monthly but I never heard a word about it. After about a year I just finally came to terms that it had been canceled. Then they announced its return earlier this year. It has been on hiatus for Hotaru Odagiri’s health. I’m just glad it’s finally back. I really enjoyed it the series when it first came out except for the fact that I had trouble telling some of the characters apart. I will soon be rereading the whole series because I can’t remember what happened at the end of volume 6. There should be at least one more volume to go. Not long after they announced it’s return, they also announced that it would be ending soon. There is also a twenty-four episode anime based off the series that was released in sub titles only by Funimation earlier this year.

–Blood Mirror (The Lightbringer #4) by Brent Weeks (in paperback) This will contain spoilers if you have not read book 3 The Broken Eye of the Lightbringer series.  At the end of The Broken Eye Gavin Guile is powerless and is locked in the prison he made for his brother. Kip has fled the Chromeria with the help of his grandfather to try and slow the advance of the White Kings army. Karris is taking over as her duties of The White and will try to keep the empire from falling apart. Teia will go deeper into the spy organization she is infiltrating while also reporting on their actions to Karris. Ironfist has shown his true colors and has also left the Chromeria to continue his work for his true master.

I love this series. I had so many theories destroyed in this book but it also created a lot of new ones. I’m still numb from the realization in The Broken Eye that Andross might actually be the good guy here instead of the villain I’ve always seen him as. And where could I even start about Gavin. Then there’s Kip and what happened in this book. 

It’s a really great series. I love the ocular powers in this series. Just how it is set up, how each color has it’s own properties, and the consequences of using it too much. There are so many twists and turns. I really recommend this series if you haven’t read it yet.

–Dept. H volume 2 by Matt Kindt, water colorist Sharlene Kindt, and letterer Marie Enger Mia is a special investigator sent to research the murder of her father in a deep-sea research station. Everyone in the station is a suspect, including her own brother. 

Mind MGMT was my first experience with Matt Kindt’s work and I was blown away. The story is fantastic (I’m about to start volume 3 out of 6). The illustrations are amazing water colors. I had to read more of his work. And Dept. H did not disappoint. 

After waiting months for another copy of volume 1 to arrive at my work, I finally got to read it last week. It also has a great story with wonderful water colors. There was a moment where my jaw dropped open because chaos happened and it came out of nowhere. Not everything has been revealed yet. For example Mia has talked about her mother a few times and how she died from some kind of infection of which there is no cure. Although not expressly stated, it would appear that those in the station are trying to find a cure but even the fish they are examining might also be infected. Volume 1 was amazing and I can’t wait to read volume 2. 

–Kakegurui Compulsive Gambler volume 1 by Homura Kawamoto Hyakkaou Private Academy is an institution for the sons and daughters of the wealthy. here it’s learning how to read your opponent, the art of the deal that keeps you ahead. To hone those skills Hyakkaou Private Academy has a rigorous curriculum of gambling. Here the winners live like kings and the losers are put through the wringer.

I’m interested in this series because it reminds me of Liar Game by Shinobu Kaitani but with less murder. Maybe. There might be murder. I would like to give it a try because I love mind game series. Watching as L and Light played mind games with each other is a big part of the reason I enjoyed Death Note as much as I did. 

–Liselotte and Witch’s Forest volume 5 by Natsuki Takaya “They say that in a place far, far away; in the east, of the east, of the east…there is a forest where witches dwell. They are said to bestow blessings or inflict curses, brew potions in steaming cauldrons, practice their magic…and fly their brooms into the night sky. This is where Liselotte has decided to live after she was banished from her home by her brother.

The final volume of this cute series by the creator of Fruits Basket. It is still on hiatus while Natsuki Takaya looks after her health.

It is a cute series that follows Liselotte as she and two attendants live in the forest. One day she is saved by a stranger who looks a lot like a boy she was in love with who had died. Volume 4 never came to a bookseller near me and I haven’t had time to order it yet. 

–Monstress volume 2 (B&N exclusive edition) by Marjorie M. Liu, artist Sana Takeda, and letterer/designer Rus Wooton “Set in an alternate matriarchal 1900′s Asia, in a richly imagined world of art deco-inflected steam punk, Monstress tells the story of a teenage girl who is struggling to survive the trauma of war, and who shares a mysterious psychic link with a monster of tremendous power, a connection that will transform them both and make them the target of both human and otherworldly powers.”

The Cumea are a race of sorcerers who experiment and kill a race called Arcanics, magical creatures with human characteristics. Maika; who is suffering from some memory loss, is an Arcanic who’s mother was killed by a Cumea. Desiring answers Maika infiltrates  a sorcerers home and chaos ensues because of the ancient god who is living inside of Maika. 

It’s been a while since I read the first volume and a friend is currently borrowing it so I don’t have much to fall back on for more details. I enjoyed the first volume. It was dark, violent, beautifully illustrated, and has a very rich world building. The series; at least from what I’ve heard cause I haven’t seen many cats (talking cats, what’s not to love about that) in the graphic novels I’ve read lately, has some of the best cats in graphic novels right now. 

I actually saw where the B&N exclusive edition arrived last week to my local B&N but I also wanted to mention it on it’s official street date in case other B&N go it late for some reason.

–Princess Jellyfish volume 5 by Akiko Higashimura In the bustling city of Tokyo there resides a place called Amamizukan, a safe haven for girl geeks (otakus of trains, jellyfish, Japanese dolls, and more) who are terrified of ‘stylish’ people. One such girl is Tsukimi who loves jellyfish. One night she meets a stylish lady who helps her save the life of a jellyfish at a pet shop. This chance encounter will result in an odd friendship (at first anyway) between the two and the rest of the residents at Amamizukan. But this stylish girl is actually a boy.

It’s super cute shojo series that was made into an anime a while back. As well as a live-action film that according to one of my friends is very well done. 

–Twinkle Star volume 3 by Natsuki Takaya Sakuya lives with her cousin Kanade. In times of pain, she looks up at the stars. On her birthday a strange boy shows up at her house with a present and then leaves. At school she finds out his name is Chihiro and he just transferred there. He treats her coldly until an incident at the club information session. Will it bring them closer or will they forever remain in the dark?

Another cute series by Natsuki Takaya. I have the first volume but haven’t finished it yet. It is a completed series. There should be two more volumes after this one.

–Waiting for Spring volume 1 by Anashin Mizuki is a shy girl who is about to enter high school. She vowed to open herself up to new friendships but the four stars of the boys basketball team is not who she had in mind. Soon she’s targeted by jealous girls and forced into the spotlight. 

This just sounds like a really cute shojo series. 

In Video Games –Destiny 2 Beta The beta of Destiny 2 opens to all preordered PS4 versions of the game today. I’m really excited for it. 

In DVD/BLU-RAY –Adventure Time complete season 7 Finn, Jake, and the whole gang return. This season contains the miniseries Stakes starring Marceline and that creepy but good episode where we find out BMO’s imaginary friend Football is real and lives inside that mirror.

–K: Return of Kings The second season of the series K that takes place after the movies K: Missing Kings. It has been a while since I watched K and although I own the movie, I haven’t had time to watch it yet. K was really good and the animation was fantastic. It was gorgeous to watch. Return of Kings follows the events after Missing Kings.

–Record of Lodoss War (DVD/BLU-RAY combo pack) “In a land torn by war, young Parn and a ragtag team of adventurers set out to restore peace to the island of Lodoss. While an evil sorcerer seeks the destructive power of an ancient goddess, the Grey Witch presides over all with a  cold-hearted bent for neutrality. The ensuing battles cost many lives before a brave new generation of heroes rises to face the sinister enemies once and for all.”

This combo pack contains episodes 1-13 of the OVA series Record of Lodoss War and episodes 1-27 of Chronicles of a Heroic Knight. I’ve never seen the series before but I’ve heard of it several different times. I have one friend who loved the series when he first saw it years ago and was excited to hear that it was getting this release by Funimation. I really want to give it a try sometime. I looked up the trailer and it looks pretty good. The dub to it doesn’t sound that great because some of the characters in the trailer didn’t sound like they tried very hard. I’m hoping that it will improve in later episodes. As a general rule if an anime I purchase has a dub, I have to watch the dub first. Unless the dub is really bad then I may switch to subbed. Second watches I watch it subbed.

[daleisgreat]

Joy Ride & Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead

Every year for Christmas my mom and I exchange random DVDs with each other. It is just a random gifting tradition we do in hopes of landing each other a good film from the $5 DVD bin. My mom has been on a pretty good streak for awhile and past hits she gifted me I never saw before that were a hit for me include Sour Grapes, Alpha Dog, Blues Brothers and Rat Race. Today I am covering last year’s Christmas DVD, which is a pair of scare/thriller films that were part of a two-in-one pack with 2001’s Joy Ride (trailer) and its 2008 sequel, Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead (trailer). The original Joy Ride stars Paul Walker in the lead who is fresh off his Fast and the Furious fame earlier in 2001. Walker stars as Lewis, who is on a road trip to pick up his longtime crush Venna (Leelee Sobieski). Along the way when checking in at home with the family, he discovers his brother Fuller (Steve Zahn) needs to get bailed out of jail so it becomes a three person road trip. Along the way they pick up a CB radio and start pranking truckers on it. One of their pranks with a trucker who only goes by ‘Rusty Nail’ (voiced by Ted Levine) goes all kinds of bad when it turns out that good ‘ol Rusty is a psychotic killer.

The film proceeds to be a gigantic cat and mouse chase with lots of thrilling moments and gotcha-scares that reeled me in all the way. The only questionable moments I had in the film was that there is no way that big rigs can accelerate as fast as they do here, but I rolled with it for the sake of the film. Additionally, the few glimpses we got of Rusty throughout the film made it hard to believe he was as mobile and crafty as the film made him out to be, but at that point I was so immersed into the crazy stunts and story that it did not bother me that much, especially in the final act that had an intense showdown with everyone involved and a gratifying payoff to a great overall flow of consistently bigger and better stunts, chases and thrills. Joy Ride hit in 2001, which was probably one of the last years you could do a slasher/scare flick by avoiding one hiccup that most films in that genre struggle with today and that is how do you address the victims-to-be immediately busting out their cell phones and calling for help? In Joy Ride 2 they address this by Rusty (now played by Mark Gibbon) phoning the victims and telling them to immediately dispose of and crush their phones. How did Rusty get their number? Well, the victims felt bad when their car broke down and they happened to stumble upon Rusty’s home and broke into his place and ‘borrowed’ his car to get to safety.

The victims in the direct-to-video sequel are not as sympathetic as the first and it did not make me want to root for them. Bobby is suppose to be the stand-up guy here, but he is played by Nick Zano who also happens to play Steel, aka the biggest dolt in Legends of Tomorrow and knowing how much I detest him in that made it hard to root for him here. Nik (Kyle Schmid) is intentionally played up to be a slimeball that I found myself rooting for him to be the first to go, and I will give props to the filmmakers for having a very sleazy character get his fitting way to ride off into the sunset. Joy Ride 2 tried to get a little more creative with its thrills and moments of despair. There are still a couple standard chase scenes, but there are also scenes that straight-up flop such as Rusty getting Nik to dress up in drag in order to score him some crank, and Rusty goofing on Melissa (Nicki Aycox) to get her to striptease. The only scene that really popped out for me was when Rusty gets Bobby and Nik to play his special version of craps that you just have to see to believe. I tried to hunt down a clip to link, but alas YouTube has failed me! That scene combined with the final showdown with Rusty results for a mildly satisfying final act, but nowhere near the same level as the first Joy Ride.

Joy Ride 2 only has two quick extras for 20 minutes which mostly feature basic cast and crew interviews setting up the film with a few interesting anecdotes on filming in the desert in Canada and its makeup work. The original Joy Ride however is packed with extras. The standout extra is four different alternate endings. All four have director’s commentary which I found helpful on why the filmmakers say they did not work. One of the endings is nearly a half hour long and features the always awesome, Walter Goggins and has a whole different take on how the final act went down. The other three have alternate branching paths and I found all four really fascinating on how they played out and why they did not make the cut. Joy Ride also has three commentaries, one with director John Dahl, the second with actors Zahn and Sobieski and the third with writers JJ Abrams and Clay Tarver which was the commentary I decided to check out. The duo have a good flow of nonstop banter with little to no lulls and tons of facts and insight about the cast and behind-the-scenes on the film. A couple highlights was how they renovated an abandoned truck stop for just one scene for the film and how they had to shoot the big cornfield chase on two occasions in separate cornfields and they dissected all the little differences to point out how they pulled it off. I will give my mom another thumbs up for her annual Christmas DVD for me. If you made it this far it is obvious I am much higher on the first Joy Ride compared to its sequel. The sequel still has a few moments that saved it into being passable, but if you were to only watch one, then definitely check out the first. Upon doing my research for this entry, I see there is a third Joy Ride film that hit straight-to-video in 2014, subtitled Roadkill, so it looks like I will have to track that down and complete the trilogy!

June 2018 Update - Earlier this month I rented Joy Ride 3: Roadkill from Netflix DVD. Since watching it via rental means Roadkill is not a true backlog video in my library that means it does not meet the criteria for its own separate blog. However, I feel justified in making a little addendum here for some quick thoughts. Roadkill is a huge step up from Dead Ahead. The voice for Rusty Nail is back (although his on screen persona is portrayed by a more leaner and meaner actor) and he has a far better opening slasher scene against two sleazy drifters who I was rooting to get their just deserts. The primary protagonists are a young upstart racing steam en route to their next race when they make the mistake of intentionally cutting ‘ol Rusty off and that is impetus enough for Rusty to pick ‘em off one-by-one in far more entertainingly campy ways than before. The explanation to get rid of cell phones for help had me rolling over, and there are some awesome inept cops and the mandatory creepy waitress to round off a stellar supporting cast. Naturally, Roadkill climaxes in a duel in a junkyard that played out far better than I anticipated. If you are looking for a way to mix it up for your next slasher film marathon then Joy Ride 3: Roadkill would be a great way to close off the night by watching the entire Joy Ride trilogy. Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs 3 12 Angry Men (1957) 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown 21 Jump Street Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie Atari: Game Over The Avengers: Age of Ultron Batman: The Killing Joke Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Bounty Hunters Cabin in the Woods Captain America: The First Avenger Captain America: The Winter Soldier Christmas Eve Clash of the Titans (1981) Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special The Condemned 2 Creed Dirty Work Faster Fast and Furious I-VIII Field of Dreams Fight Club The Fighter For Love of the Game Good Will Hunting Gravity Guardians of the Galaxy Hercules: Reborn Hitman Ink The Interrogation Interstellar Jobs Man of Steel Marine 3-5 Mortal Kombat National Treasure National Treasure: Book of Secrets The Replacements Rocky I-VII Running Films Part 1 Running Films Part 2 San Andreas ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Shoot em Up Steve Jobs Source Code Star Trek I-XIII Take Me Home Tonight TMNT The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2 UHF Veronica Mars The War Wild The Wrestler (2008) X-Men: Days of Future Past

[njawaidofficial]

Oscars: Harvey Weinstein's Days as an Awards-Season Power Player Appear Over

http://styleveryday.com/2017/10/08/oscars-harvey-weinsteins-days-as-an-awards-season-power-player-appear-over/

Oscars: Harvey Weinstein's Days as an Awards-Season Power Player Appear Over

In the wake of Thursday’s explosive New York Times article describing three decades of alleged sexual harassment, Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood power player, has taken an indefinite leave of absence from his role as co-chairman of The Weinstein Co., and his future with it, as well as the future of the company itself, is now very much in question. Regardless of how things play out for him in the long run, it’s already clear that this year, for the first time in 30 years, Weinstein will be on the sidelines of the playing field he once dominated: the Oscar season.

Up until three or four years ago, the thought of an Oscar season without Weinstein was akin to the thought of the New York skyline without the World Trade Center prior to 9/11. The companies that he ran with his brother Bob — first Miramax, then TWC — had at least one best picture nominee and at least one major win almost every year since 1990. Some years, his little independent operation garnered more Oscar noms than any of the major studios, topping out at 40 (including three of the five for best picture) in 2003, more than any company had garnered since 1940. And five of his films won best picture: The English Patient in 1997, Shakespeare in Love in 1999, Chicago in 2003, The King’s Speech in 2011 and The Artist in 2012.

But TWC has been hemorrhaging money and staff since the box-office failure of 2015’s The Hateful Eight, which was directed by Quentin Tarantino, ironically the same filmmaker who had cemented Miramax’s place on the map with Pulp Fiction 21 years earlier. And this year, even before the publication of the Times article, the prospects for TWC’s slate of Oscar hopefuls looked painfully bleak.

TWC’s best and, perhaps, only truly plausible prospect is Wind River, the directorial debut of Taylor Sheridan that stars Jeremy Renner. The film, which was released in August, is at 86 percent on RottenTomatoes.com and has grossed three times its $11 million budget. TWC’s plan had been for The Current War, a film starring Benedict Cumberbatch (who was Oscar-nominated for TWC’s 2014 contender The Imitation Game) and on which Weinstein is personally credited as a producer, to be the company’s primary horse in this year’s Oscar race, but it was decimated by critics at the Toronto International Film Festival in September and now seems to have been shunted aside. At various points, there were rumblings that awards-qualifying 2017 releases could be given to The Upside, a remake of the 2011 French dramedy The Intouchables; Mary Magdalene, which reunites Garth Davis and Rooney Mara (the respective director and star of TWC’s 2016 contender Lion); and Paddington 2, a sequel to a 2014 family comedy. But their releases are now all scheduled for 2018.

Last season, TWC struggled to deliver robust campaigns for its awards hopefuls, to the consternation of those associated with the films, who expected the usual Weinstein push and felt stung when it didn’t materialize. In the end, The Founder, Sing Street and Gold were essentially thrown overboard so that the company could focus its increasingly limited resources on Lion. It was a true testament to the tireless efforts of TWC’s publicity team — which was and remains comprised primarily of young women — that the film wound up with six Oscar nominations, including one for best picture. This year, even before the Times piece, TWC, with even fewer financial resources available and even more key staff having departed the company, was facing a huge uphill climb. Now, it faces a nearly impossible task: If Weinstein remains associated with the company in any way, one can expect a massive movement to punish his films, both at the box office and on Oscar ballots; but without him, those films’ awards prospects may be equally doomed, since it’s hard to imagine anyone being able to quickly step in and devise a better Oscar season game plan for them than Weinstein, who understands, as well as anyone, “the whole equation” of the awards game, to borrow a phrase from F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s The Last Tycoon.

Weinstein was often credited as having invented the Oscar campaign. He did not — it was around before he was even born, dating back to orchestrated pushes for Mary Pickford, Joan Crawford and Marty, to cite only a few examples. But what Weinstein does deserve credit for is knowing his history and bringing together, to great effect, all of the techniques that had previously been employed effectively by others.

In the 1990s, Weinstein created within his publicity department, which was run by Marcy Granata, the first awards-specific publicity post ever created, “vp of special projects,” which was held by Cynthia Swartz. Those two women, and colleagues including Lisa Taback and Tony Angellotti, were pushed to the limit to deliver Oscar noms and wins, which, particularly in the era of the DVD boom, could make the difference between a film’s commercial success or failure. The fire and fury that they endured on the road to tirelessly fulfilling those demands equipped them with the tools to handle almost anything. It’s not a coincidence that Swartz, Taback and Angellotti remain among the top awards-season strategists in the game all these years later — or that none of them have had anything to do with Weinstein for years.

Together with his advisors, Weinstein figured out how to game the system — mostly without breaking any rules. From the very beginning, he took part in, or at least authorized, no-holds-barred campaigning, from spending outrageous amounts of money in support of his contenders to shamelessly smearing others’.

Weinstein made an art form out of cultivating Academy members. He put retired publicists who were members of the Academy on his payroll, with the expectation that they would spread positive buzz about his films to their contemporaries. He flattered other Academy members by arranging lunches and dinners at fancy restaurants in New York and Los Angeles with his contending talent (the most famous example being Life Is Beautiful‘s Roberto Benigni), and then making sure the press covered those meetings as tacit endorsements. He courted Academy members in places that hadn’t received much courting before, particularly throughout Europe. Weinstein’s team, and sometimes he himself, rang up Academy members on the telephone, ostensibly to confirm that they had received their screeners, but really to lobby them — at least until the Academy banned the practice, at which point it occurred somewhat less frequently. And he arranged screenings of his films at popular vacation destinations — Vail, Aspen and the like — so that Academy members had no excuse not to have seen them.

Weinstein also developed relationships with influential journalists and tastemakers, providing them with great copy (he was the most quotable guy in town since Samuel Goldwyn) and, when that wasn’t enough, offering enticements like book deals. He had a knack for generating media attention for a film by doing things like picking fights (that he never expected to win) with the MPAA over ratings. And he knew better than anyone how to push an angle that would frame his film as being so socially important that it would be irresponsible not to vote for it.

Weinstein convinced talent that it would be worth it for them to give up their lives for several months and devote themselves full-time to glad-handing, and he generally was proven correct (see: The Imitation Game‘s Morten Tyldum and so many other examples). And, in many cases, although clearly not all, he took care of his talent: Gwyneth Paltrow, who he put on the map with the best picture-winning Shakespeare in Love, for which she was awarded the best actress Oscar, once told a journalist, “Working for Harvey is like working for the mafia. There are all these favors.” In short, there’s a reason — or, rather, many reasons — why he was thanked at the Oscars more times than God, literally.

Through it all, though, Weinstein, who now is being described as the ultimate Hollywood insider, was in fact the ultimate Hollywood outsider. He never ran a major studio; he ran small independent companies, one of which, it is true, existed uncomfortably under the auspices of Disney for a few years, but ultimately was pushed out because the operations’ ways of doing business were so incompatible. He never lived or worked in Los Angeles; he always was based in New York. And he never looked or acted like the other power players; he was an unapologetically overweight, slovenly, rumpled guy who was just as foul-mouthed, boorish and rage-prone with journalists as with subordinates.

During an interview with Weinstein that I moderated in 2014 at the PGA’s Produced By Conference in New York, I asked him if the day might ever come when he would retire and focus on something other than movies. He certainly had the money to do so and, with a wife and young kids, why not? In response, Weinstein cracked a joke that got a big laugh: “I would like to run a small Caribbean nation, something with a military. I’ll take care of that guy who called me ‘Harvey Scissorhands.'” I suspect that today, Weinstein wishes he had retired at that very moment, if not a few years earlier, perhaps after he had proven his Oscar-season mastery beyond any doubt by delivering best picture, best director and best actor Oscars for The Artist, a small black-and-white silent love letter to the movies that was written by, directed by and starred a bunch of French people who few Academy members had ever heard of before Weinstein promoted them. If he had walked away then, he would have gone out a winner. Now, however, he will leave the scene on terms other than his own and, it would certainly appear, the days of him being thanked at the Oscars are over.

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