#dennis self promotes

[good-realtor-bad-realtor-dynamic]

A whole piece on our Glenn being underrated and overlooked!

The article gets into some of his school days, Juilliard and his perspective on acting, his work on Sunny, leaving Sunny after season 12 when he'd thought the show should end (can't wait for that podcast conversation in 3 years or maybe even in Season 6 if they ever address Glenn Howerton Burnout No. 1), and later coming back, continuing to push his boundaries in acting in season 15 with the Ireland arc, and working with director Matt Johnson on Blackberry.

(Gonna use colours now to better distinguish screenshots of the article from my stuff for anyone not using dark mode)

A lot of it is quotes from Charlie and Rob, who are properly frustrated that he's been so overlooked (them, the original Glenn girlies!), his wife Jill, Megan and other people he's worked with, like an old drama teacher from school and Mike O'Brien from AP Bio.

(ok seriously who airbrushed and smoothed the shit out of his beautiful old wrinkly face in this photo, they need to be flogged)

There's also quotes from people, like the Lost writer who's a known Sunny fan and also co-wrote The Hunt, who watched him do his thing in Blackberry and think it's finally going to get him the recognition he's deserved all along.

CALL. THEM. OUT.

Honestly, all of this is just giving me a lot of respect for Matt Johnson, who was looking for comedic actors to play dramatic roles, specifically wanted Glenn to play Jim in Blackberry and had to fight to get him the role because Canadian productions with Canadian funding don't like using outside actors. This guy saw the vision and he was cool with Glenn getting that stupid haircut too.

Apparently, when Glenn received the script, his first thought was why me, shouldn't some bigshot do this role... he's such an idiot.

Something we've always known and the article confirms again is about how he's clearly grateful for the opportunities they have with Sunny, the kind that few writers/actors ever get with that level of creative control (something they get reminded of by other people in the industry a lot) but he's also been the most stifled by it of anyone in the cast because of his goal of being an actor more than the others, and so it gives him these mixed feelings about the longevity of the show.

I don't know if they've ever confirmed that RCG talked about ending the show around season 12.

He's not wrong. We know that once he came back to season 13, he did his rewrites on all the scripts featuring Dennis even though he wasn't fully back to writing yet. I personally don't think they should continue the show if any of them leave. They're better off taking longer breaks between the seasons like Curb does.

Good on you Rob. You tell them.

Seriously, they'd better now give him something good and interesting, so that it's not just us Sunny stans screaming into the void like usual.

[absolutely-not-my-main-blog]

A few of my previously posted Dennis paintings all in one post because goddammit I don’t care, I’m proud of them.

[incorrectbatfam]

Hi! Can I ask how you started your blog/started getting the attention of people on Batfam tumblr? I’ve just started my own blog and I’m completely at sea on what to do!

I'm secretly @staff

I didn't go in to try and do something new nor did I expect much of a reaction. I know everyone says that, but honestly some real-life stuff happened and suddenly I had a bunch of free time that I couldn't fill with my usual hobbies without violating my parole. (This username was a steal though, idk how no one took it.)

So I don't really have a solid approach, but I do keep a few things in mind:

Looks kinda matter. By that I mean putting at least some effort into your theme (including the desktop one—you can use Tumblr's preset or do the HTML yourself) and making it match the content you make. Also, good post formatting and tagging goes a long way or make it a car wreck they peer at while slowly driving by

Try to stay on topic. For me at least, one big reason blogs tend to blur together is because they have this fandom (or whatever I initially followed for), other fandoms, politics, aesthetics, memes, etc. all wadded up in one place like the communist eraser my friends and I made in ninth grade. And of course it's their choice, but if someone follows you for Batman, generally they're gonna look through your blog for Batman

Interact with people but don't be annoying. Don't be the follow-for-follow person, the one self-promoting in someone else's reblogs, or the one tagging 69,420 strangers in a post. Follow fans you like, take part in events, or join a fandom Discord. Get to know people and you'll automatically open up the fandomverse

Don't expect anything right away. Even if it's been a while and you only got 13 notes and 4 follows. This isn't Cloutsville, Muskachussetts. It's kind of a dice roll—one post might be the next @certified-iconic-post and another might not land the way you wanted. Also, don't be afraid to experiment and take feedback from others

Relax, have fun, and be true to your internet-curated self. It's easy to tell when someone's fixated on stats or when they're trying to be someone they're not (in terms of content, style, humor, etc.). Fandom is a hobby. It should be something laid-back and enjoyable for everyone. Steer clear of drama, learn to poke fun at your faves, don't dump your tragic backstory or recent divorce until you have level 12 hostages followers, and don't act like you're the greatest thing to walk this fandom because that's me and I will fight you in a Denny's parking lot

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Florida schools have approved the use of “supplemental curriculum” created by PragerU, an unaccredited right-wing advocacy group that seeks to offer an alternative to “dominant left-wing ideologies,” in classrooms days after the state Department of Education approved new, controversial academic standards for Black history curriculum.

PragerU CEO Marissa Streit announced that Florida approved the nonprofit as an official vendor, allowing teachers to incorporate its educational entertainment videos, self-described as “edutainment,” as supplemental materials in classrooms.

“We have seen that our schools have been hijacked by the left. They have been politicized, they have been used by union bosses, they have been doing everything under the sun not for our children,” Streit said.

“And so we have launched PragerU Kids and we started providing great 'edutainment,' educational entertainment for children across America. But we didn’t just stop there. Now we’re actually making turnkey curriculum. Content for your schools. And the state of Florida just announced that we are now becoming an official vendor. This means that if you are a teacher in Florida, you cannot be fired for using PragerU content.”

The Miami New Times confirmed that the Florida Board of Education approved the materials, saying that it aligned with the state's revised civics and government standards.

WHAT IS PRAGERU?

Prager University Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that creates educational videos that it says promote American values. PragerU’s website says that it “offers a free alternative to dominant left-wing ideology in culture, media and education.”

The driving force behind much of PragerU’s growing popularity stems from its series title “5-Minute Videos,” which boils down everything from economic and political science topics to life lessons and cultural topics into bite-sized, 5-minute videos.

Many of the most popular videos tackle controversial topics. As of this writing, the five videos showcased under the “Most Popular 5-Minute Videos” tag include “Do You Understand the Electoral College,” “Was the Civil War About Slavery,” “The Inconvenient Truth About the Democratic Party,” “Why I Left the Left” and “War on Boys.”

WHO FOUNDED PRAGERU? PragerU was founded in 2009 by Allen Estrin and conservative radio talk show host Dennis Prager.

WHAT DOES PRAGERU’S CURRICULUM TEACH?

PragerU believes that American schools are “indoctrinating” students who are being taught “radical ideas” about critical race theory, systemic racism, gender fluidity, anti-Americanism and that math is racist. It says it has designed its curriculum to provide “both sides of the argument” and help kids understand history, economics, foreign affairs and philosophy.

PragerU’s website provides users with access to its educational videos but does little to shed light on what specific key concepts it hopes to instill through its curriculum.

Examples of lesson plans can also be found on the website, but they only provide basic, surface-level views of what will be taught. A lesson plan regarding the Federalist Papers only has four learning objectives:

• Identify who wrote the Federalist Papers • Explain why the Federalist Papers were written • Recognize why the framers of the Constitution created a federal government with checks and balances • Appreciate the system of government established by the Founding Fathers

The full lesson can be learned in about 50 minutes, according to the site.

WHY CRITICS PUSH BACK AGAINST PRAGERU CURRICULUM

PragerU has a long history of experts rebuking ideas presented in many of its videos.

Joseph McCarthy of The Weather Channel in 2016 wrote an entire feature on PragerU’s video called "Fossil Fuels: The Greenest Energy," which had garnered 1.5 million views at that time. McCarthy wrote that the video was presented by a proponent of fossil fuel, Alex Epstein, and that the video “flubs a major date and soberly transitions between obvious inaccuracies and out-of-context claims."

Paul Gottfried in 2017 wrote pinned a story in The American Conservative lambasting PragerU presenter Dinesh D’Souza for claiming that fascism was a left-wing idea. D’Souza claimed that it could be proven that it was a “leftist” idea by examining the political writings of Mussolini’s court philosopher Giovanni Gentile.

Gottfried, a paleoconservative scholar, wrote that “their judgment also clashes with that of almost all scholars of Gentile’s work, from across the political spectrum, who view him, as I do in my study of fascism, as the most distinguished intellectual of the revolutionary right.”

These are just the tip of the iceberg, however. The Daily Beast points out that PragerU videos have claimed there’s no wage gap between men and women and that it has praised Confederate General Robert E. Lee for crushing an attempted slave rebellion.

And others have noted inaccuracies in videos claiming that Europe is “committing suicide” by allowing mass migration, that “whiteness and conservatism” are under attack and more.

Civic groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League have also criticized PragerU’s videos, describing some as a “dog whistle to the extreme right” and “filled with anti-immigration and anti-Muslim rhetoric.”

[sunnykeysmash]

I haven't ever been sure what to make if clip show so I'd love to hear your thoughts about why it's in Dennis's head. And other than the inception reference, why doesn't the top stop spinning?

Okay, this is gonna be long, so I'm gonna have to divide it in sections. This is all obviously my own opinion, feel free to disagree (obligatory disclaimer).

I'll treat these sections sort of like layers, going from the ones that are most on the outside, the cosmetic observations, and slowly get more into the episode itself and my own thoughts. So, here goes.

1. The promotional art

Pretty self explanatory, but the episode was promoted with this drawing.

There are two main school of thoughts about this episode from what I've seen, with valid arguments on both parts. "It's all in Charlie's mind", and "It's all in Dennis' mind".

The drawing is done by Charlie, so technically this can go either way, but notice that the action depicted takes place in Dennis' head.

Other points towards the "it's all in Charlie's head" side that I've seen have been that he manipulates the space by having two of himself, he's the one opening the door at the end and looking up. And these are really valid, so I can't in good conscience say 100% it's one or the other, BUT...

2. The framing

Dennis is being centered here, as the only one behind the counter with the gang on opposite side, they're all gathered around him, with Mac (conveniently?) sitting at the counter, nearer but still not behind the "barrier" of the counter.

He looks like he's being singled out as protagonist just from where he's placed. Then again, it's noteworthy to add that Charlie is at the center of his own side. He's also the one who'll confront Dennis later.

3. Change of position

When said second Charlie enters, Dennis finally comes out from behind the counter, and aside from Charlie, is the only character who substantially moves from his initial position on camera. As far as I remember, Dee, Frank and Mac never even get up (well, aside from Dee falling and then getting ice off-camera). I will get more into why I think this is important in a second, for now just keep it in mind.

4. Grounding and inconsistencies

When Dennis attempts to bring everyone back into reality, the same time-section where he later on will be accused of "attempting to change reality" by "having Mac not live with him", he himself actually first breaks the illusion that they're in reality by questioning Dee about the cut on her forehead.

Now, if Dennis was actually attempting to manipulate reality on purpose, instead of simply losing sight of it, he wouldn't have done that. He would've kept his mouth shut. Instead, this happens: Dennis asks about where the cut went, is confused about what's real and thus attempts to orient himself by asking questions that are supposed to have static answers in his mind.

The questions he poses are as follows:

To Frank: Are you tall and handsome with a full head of hair?

To Charlie: Is the waitress in love with you?

To Dee: Are you a successful actress?

And to Mac: Are you my roommate?

These are the questions Dennis chooses that he believes will have the most obvious and easily determinable answer, the ones whose status stays pretty much unchanged, the ones with the most static answer possible, the ones that determine reality. Not only that, but questions that reflect the receiver's strongest desires and wishes. Something they would think worthwhile to alter reality for.

And when Mac answers "No, of course not", Dennis' immediate interpretation of it is, "there you go, we are in Mac's head." So if the answer is anything but a "yes", then they MUST not be in reality... according to Dennis.

But back up a second... how could we be in Mac's head according to Dennis? We - the audience - are very aware of how painfully in love Mac is with Dennis. But Dennis is not, not post ND at least. So for him, the answer to "are you my roommate?" is supposed to always be "yes" in reality, and he thinks it's Mac that would want otherwise.

Dennis is certainly not altering reality on purpose here, or he wouldn't have asked any question whatsoever. But he thinks Mac doesn't want to be his roommate.

That's a very Dennis centric way of interpreting things post ND.

Not to mention he gets basically overwhelmed by the gang (or what they represent in his mind) asking "Everyone knows that the most annoying person in the world is Mac, so why would you ever want to live with him?" and instead of answering, which he can't since I interpret this is literally him processing complex feelings about the recent events in his mind (more on this later!), everyone gets booted out and back into "reality". Which isn't reality, because as you mentioned, the top keeps spinning, because the entire episode takes place inside someone's mind, and we are just back to a normal basis of it.

"But hold on" I hear you counter, "yes we were in Dennis' head in this specific segment, but how does this say anything about the rest?" and to that I say, good question, let me proceed.

5. Importance and subjectivity in memory altering

As Dennis futilely attempts to ground everyone (and himself) constantly by trying to keep facts straight, reality itself, which we know is still not reality but rather the inside someone's mind, doesn't really reflect what's true.

The gang insists they don't remember Dennis leaving for North Dakota.

Pretty hurtful thing to hear... except we know it's not the truth.

From The Gang Makes Paddy's Great Again:

MAC: "I was super sad about my old roommate leaving, and you said I needed something Dennis-shaped to fill my hole."

CINDY: "No, Mac, I said that you obviously had a Dennis-shaped hole in your life that you needed to fill."

MAC: "How is that not the same thing?"

CINDY: "Okay, I obviously wanted you to, I don't know, maybe start dating or do something, not get a sex doll of your best friend."

DEE: "No, not best friend."

CHARLIE: "Oh, whoa, whoa. Yeah, sorry, not best friend."

DEE: "He didn't like him much. He left him a contact number for where he was gonna be in North Dakota, but it ended up being a mental health line."

CHARLIE: "Yeah."

MAC: "He miswrote one of the digits, and that..."

CHARLIE: "Naaah, he knew what he was doing."

FRANK: "He was avoiding him."

From The Gang Gets New Wheels:

DENNIS: "All those questions that you've got for me about what's going on, go ahead and ask them to me now. You want to ask me if I'm gonna stay or if I'm gonna go."

CHARLIE: "I don't care. Do you?"

DEE: "I mean, it doesn't really..."

DENNIS: "I may go back. Yeah."

FRANK: "Okay."

DENNIS: "So, you guys want to ask me questions about my family."

MAC: "I don't."

So clearly, the take away here is they do remember, they just don't care to bring it up. And who would interpret the second as the first?

The same person who misremembers leaving for North Dakota twice. In fact, that is the only memory to be altered twice. So clearly, it's a memory on which has been placed great importance... by Dennis. The gang saying they don't remember Dennis leaving reflects his feelings on how they reacted to it more closely than the reality of it (which is that they don't care, not that they don't remember, an excuse his brain is making up to cope with it).

And since the gang doesn't care, they also wouldn't bother altering the memory of him leaving twice.

This also explains the belief that Mac doesn't want to be his roommate, as the whole episode is him trying to process everything related to North Dakota. The same way Dennis thinks they don't remember, and this belief bleeds into their reactions, so does he think that Mac didn't stop him because he doesn't actually want to live with him, and that he (Mac) would go as far as to alter reality to make that happen. Once the table is turned on him, he can't answer "why do you want to live with him?".

Because he's not altering any of this on purpose, it's happening on its own as he fails to process the reality.

Additionally, the gang remembers stuff that only Dennis would know about, I'm talking about the doctor which Dennis actually SAYS was just "a figment of his imagination", so how can THEY know about him?

6. Charlie's Double Life

And finally, the core of it all in my opinion. Those two times where I said "more on this later"? This is later.

The two Charlie's presented to us actually represent Dennis' attempt to process, and failure to reconcile, his two lives. Brian, with the child and the girl. Dennis, with Mac, his roommate.

He thinks he can't have both and has to make this impossible choice between the two. They actually are both "selves" that represent him, but he can't reconcile them, as they are two distinct identities that to him exist separately and actively negate each other.

It's clear to me that the episode is blurring things between Charlie and Dennis on purpose, and this whole debate of "is it in Charlie's head?" "is it in Dennis' head?" was crafted pretty much on purpose.

Anyway, seeing the second Charlie enter is the only thing that gets Dennis to exit the confines of the counter, further showing its significance to him.

DENNIS: "You know what, we're in [Frank's] head right now. That's why Charlie was talking about wanting to go back to living with him."

FRANK: "It's insane; Charlie already went back to living with me."

This is presenting us with a situation that pretty much represents Dennis to a T but... not so much Charlie! I don't even think Charlie moved out for any significant amount of time?? Nor did anything about the Waitress being pregnant get brought up past Dennis' Double Life when they attempted to have a child, and by the time Clip Show happens we know it has been a year, thanks to Big Game being a flashback to a year back, with Dennis already absent.

It can't be Charlie wishing he actually had a child with her, because already in DDL and Great Again he is fed up with her attention. Not to mention, at this point in time he would supposedly know the information of whether the Waitress ended up pregnant or not. He also wouldn't imagine all of this to make Frank jealous, because he has no reason to.

It also can't be Frank, because as far as we know, they are currently living together, him and Charlie.

I mean, if there is one person who hasn't been around and would be unsure of whether the Waitress ended up pregnant or not (outside of the audience, which still didn't know at that point, either), it would be Dennis. Whether she is or isn't is not really relevant to the purpose of the scene though, imo.

Because watching his own situation through someone else is probably what Dennis is doing here.

To me, the entire episode makes much more sense if we consider all of it as happening inside Dennis' mind, and as being his growing attempt to process and rationalize complex feelings, such as, in order:

Why doesn't anyone care that I left? ("they don't remember")

What do I really want? ("live with my kid or with my roommate?" he wants both, hence the two Charlies)

Why didn't Mac stop me? ("he doesn't want to be my roommate"; —additionally "Why didn't the gang stop me?" since he also imagines that, which anyway goes back to "they don't remember")

Why did I want him to stop me? (aka "Why do I want to live with him?", he is unable to rationalize this one, despite being cornered by the entire gang, which now I can mention are representing his own internal debate, so he gets booted out of the alteration before he can answer and instead lands on the usual "mac is annoying, I don't actually want to live with him, I was trying to make it stop by leaving" which we know isn't true but it's what he believes to cope)

New Wheels showed us that leaving for ND was a situation which impacted Dennis deeply:

DENNIS: "I know that a lot has been on your minds these last couple weeks since I've been back. Burning questions about my personal life, yeah. I was gone. Now I'm back. That's been confusing for you. It's been overwhelming. The whole thing has been overwhelming for you. And you've danced around the topic for a while now out of respect for my privacy. And I-I really do appreciate that, but I would like for you all to know that I am ready now, and I think it's time to open it up to questions."

Dissecting the obvious projection here for a moment, it has been confusing and overwhelming.

So to me Clip Show is just him trying to work it out in his head, to navigate these overwhelming and confusing feelings regarding his reality. It just makes more sense to me that way, as I don't think Charlie has much to process in regards to the Waitress and all.

6. Except...?

Yeah, I am still not sure why the second Charlie pops up at the end. Charlie looks directly at Dennis though, so that's... something.

I mean, Charlie says "that's how everyone remembers" (watching yourself watch yourself) hence the assumption that this is all in Charlie's mind... but I don't know. It doesn't add up for me personally. It might just be that misremembering that memory of the pregnant waitress ("making stuff up" as Dennis calls it) still affected his mental reality because that's what happens with memories. They become your truth if you believe them, even if they're false.

Dennis seems particularly disturbed at this turn of events. He's been the most preoccupied with keeping things straight.

Another point of debate in my head has been. "Okay, say it takes place in Dennis' head... but when?"

Because as soon as you accept that the whole episode happened inside someone's head just in general, it gets harder to place it on a timeline. It could potentially have happened at any moment.

A part of me sometimes likes to speculate that this could be happening while Dennis himself is still in North Dakota. Maybe he's dealing with the rejection of not being stopped. He's imagining himself back at home. Maybe it's something he did often. Imagining himself at the bar, everything back to his normal, all the important people in his life surrounding him, some (Mac) nearer to his core than others, he still doesn't know how the Waitress thing resolved (hence why two Charlies at the end), and most importantly, in this reality, Mac is his roommate. And when Mac says he isn't, it's destabilizing. There is no conceivable reality where that's not the case.

"All right, Mac, it's clearly you, so snap us out of it, man." he says.

"No. We're not in my head. I swear." Mac answers.

But Dennis insists. "Yes, we are, man. We're in your head. You're trying to alter reality."

Except there is a conceivable reality where that's the case. Because he left. But he doesn't want to believe that there is. And so we get kicked out from "inside his head" and back to the reality where they are roommates.

This is Dennis' unchanging reality: where Frank doesn't have air or is tall, where the Waitress isn't in love with Charlie, where Dee isn't a famous actress (and has the cut on her head), where Mac lives with him.

"Thank God we're back to normal." Dennis says at the end.

Except we aren't in reality, because the top keeps spinning.

[writers-against-gun-violence]

Gunfight by Ryan Busse - A former firearms executive pulls back the curtain on America's multibillion-dollar gun industry.

As an avid hunter, outdoorsman, and conservationist–all things that the firearms industry was built on–Ryan Busse chased a childhood dream and built a successful career selling millions of firearms for one of America’s most popular gun companies. But blinded by the promise of massive profits, the gun industry abandoned its self-imposed decency in favor of hardline conservatism and internal policing, sowing irreparable division in our politics and society. That drove Busse to do something few other gun executives have done: he's ending his 30-year career in the industry to show us how and why we got here.   Gunfight is an insider’s call-out of a wild, secretive, and critically important industry. It shows us how America's gun industry shifted from prioritizing safety and ethics to one that is addicted to fear, conspiracy, intolerance, and secrecy. It recounts Busse's personal transformation and shows how authoritarianism spreads in the guise of freedom, how voicing one's conscience becomes an act of treason in a culture that demands sameness and loyalty. Gunfight offers a valuable perspective as the nation struggles to choose between armed violence or healing.

There are many other anti-gun books on the market. Penguin Random House partners with Everytown for Gun Safety to help send a powerful message to end gun violence and they actively promote the National Gun Violence Awareness Day Reading List. The list includes The Violence Inside Us by Chris Murphy, Carry by Toni Jensen, Stop Teaching Our Kids To Kill by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman and Gloria Degaetano, Stay True by Hua Hsu, Guns Don’t Kill People, People Kill People, by Dennis A. Henigan, The Anatomy of Violence by Adrian Raine, Stand Your Ground by Caroline Light and Fist Stick Knife Gun by Geoffrey Canada.

In addition, there have been many novels that send powerful anti-gun messages. Some of the more recent anti-gun novels include Big Guns by Steve Israel, Only Child by Rhiannon Navin, Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips, Gun Love by Jennifer Clement, If We Had Known by Elise Juska, Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll, The Ones Who Got Away by Roni Loren, Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds and This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp.

Each one of these books helps to carry the message that something has to be done about gun violence in America and I encourage everyone who reads this blog to also read these books.

[cutemeat]

would u care to expand on the intersex dennis hc? never seen that before and it intrigues me. please!

ofc!

ok so it started off pretty silly n broad LOL like in s15 they talk abt the colors Yellow and Purple (colors of the intersex flag) and Dennis’ plaid shirt in Still in Ireland reminded me of a character who is trans (but lies and says he’s intersex) in Boys Don’t Cry and Dennis’ obsession with redheads reminded me of how a common statistic (and i’ve seen this claim be disputed but i’m not here to get into that lol) used for promoting intersex awareness/acceptance is that “it’s as common as people with red hair!” … so it stuck out to me that dennis was so interested in redheads as “a genetic mutation thing”…

it also just adds a sort of deeper layer to Dennis staying closeted/distance from Mac (esp since Dennis in an ep like Misses the Boat assumes Mac has a genital preference: “does she have a dick?” and Mac displays his “distaste” for vaginas in Bathroom Problem which Dennis says makes him uncomfortable) and also his own self-image issues and his fixation with masculinity. And also adds an extra layer to his arc in “Right to Chop”… and to his sensitivity to the “baby dick” comment or “dickless dennis” joke.

this HC also extends into an interpretation of Misses the Boat where the reason Mac talks about milking a girls adrenal gland is cuz Dennis tries to explain his condition to Mac (also a way to interpret Dennis getting frustrated/annoyed by one of the buyer’s line of questioning in the ep) but he gets annoyed by Mac’s lack of grasp so he gives up and Mac is just more confused and his takeaway is just the adrenal gland stuff (cuz the more specific intersex condition I hc dennis as having is congenital adrenal hyperplasia)..

idk, the whole thing started as a batshit theory when i was like. really manic LOL but now it’s just a hc that I still hold onto cuz like. yeah thats my dennis thats how i see him lol

[roseunspindle]

Edward accidentally becomes Furher

Silly idea that keeps coming back, where shit blows up, perhaps before the promised day, because political upheaval awaits no man/god/eldritch horror, or perhaps there is an invasion from some country, only it was done sneaky like, so a great deal of the brass has left central (perhaps for safer areas/or to actually fight in whatever war) but central is also under attack and the current highest ranking officers are majors alexander louis Armstrong and Edward Elric, now Armstrong in a goodman and an excellent soldier, but he does better with clear orders (and orders that don’t involve “kill everyone” would be nice) so when Ed shouts a random “hey Armstrong can you do such as such...” Armstrong obeys, because he has a clear direction, which means to the minds of many of the soldiers, that Ed, who is being his usual flashy self, is in charge and maria ross and Denny Brosh are on scene and they both keep calling him major elric and seem to also think Ed’s orders are for following, and in a scary invasion situation...the leader matters and having someone in a clear line of command and in charge is good and reassuring. 

So eventually, Mustang, who had been running things probably at the main part of the invasions hears about this and is both amused (take that fullmetal, you try being in charge!) and worried (are ed and al okay? they have armstrong at least...he knows they’ll do their best to keep central standing.

anyway, he ends up getting in communication with ed and by potential by passing a great deal of the chain of command they get the amestrian army actually organized to protecting the people of the country, repel invaders.

then of course, it’s court martial time...because “oh dear furher king Bradley died in the line of defense (cough he went up in a lot of fire cough) and a great many of the top brass were pretty much blatantly part of the invasion or had run away during it. 

So General Grumman is one of the few generals they actually have left and he does some quick promotions to actually have a tribunal council to charge the captured defectors and traitors. So Ed (who is hissing and spitting about it finds himself up to the rank of brigadier general (as he’d essentially served as one during the invasion on central no one argues) armstrong refuses a promotion though (ed whines that why can armstrong do that but he can’t but roy only pats him on the head) maria is raised to captain and denny is a 1st lieutenant now, Scheizka is a second lieutenant (she’d ended up as sort of Ed’s attaché) roy is a lieutenant general while grunman is furher at present. 

Only the hommunculi and father are not happy with events and try to push the promised day ahead and fail, though Grunman has a heart attack from age and stress, and roy is out of commission for awhile...

when he is finally fit for duty, Ed has been left as acting Furher (he didn’t want to run a damn country, he wanted to spend time with his now restored little brother Ed pretty much used father as equivalent exchange for Al.

Ed had tried to call Olivier armstrong down to be acting furher but she “would melt in she left briggs” according to her. 

Mustang could take command, but Ed has a better reputation that him and the goal was to de-corrupt the military and Ed is never going to be “corrupt” so... he happily takes his place as Lieutenant general again in support of Furher Elric. (Ed is never going to forgive this ultimate offense) 

of course ed does a good job (who are you calling so short and dumb he can’t even reform a country and start leading it towards demilitarization!!?)

(now if only the emperor of xing and the furher-president of amestris could stop having food fights during diplomatic dinners...)

https://www.pinterest.com/roseunspindle/fma-aus/fuhrer-edward-elric/

[all-is-for-all]

See How They Run feels like it desperately wants to be another Knives Out or Glass Onion, what with the comedic tone, the campy murder mystery vibe, and the "offbeat male detective solving the case with a kindhearted female companion" thing. But the former ultimately has nothing to say, in contrast to the latter's layered socio-political dimensions. (Obviously KO/GO's anti-capitalist themes are surface-level and performative -- as are pretty much all media with left-leaning themes created by millionaires -- but at least there's enough to enjoy and chew on for us socialists.) SHTR is fun to watch in spots, but it ultimately comes across as a way less engrossing version of those other two movies.

The reveal of SHTR's murderer is interesting for all of a few minutes, but then they fuck it up. This character, Dennis, is an abuse victim whose brother's death inspired the events of the film's play, The Mousetrap, in a clear example of the rich exploiting the dismal circumstances of the poor. He wants the play to cease because he justifiably sees it as disrespectful to the memory of his brother, a plot which has extra resonance once you consider plenty of real-world instances like it (ex: the Dahmer series, the Marilyn Monroe movie, etc.). Zero attempt is made to empathize with Dennis and he's instead brutally killed (in self-defense, sure -- but, ya know, something something Thermian Argument), and by the end of the movie the play just keeps on performing as though nothing had happened. Beyond that, the two main cop characters are promoted and the inherent goodness of the institution is reified.

So really, it's not that SHTR has nothing to say. It's that it kind of ends up being a bizzaro world Knives Out -- instead of the disenfranchised working-class character getting the best of their exploiters, we have a situation where that disenfranchised working-class character ends up being wholly in the wrong and the noble police must come in to protect the sanctity of the affluent artists. Thematically, it feels like an MCU movie, considering that it sets up an in-theory good reason for the villain to exist but then swiftly has them commit heinous acts so that they lose all sympathy. (And let's be real here: MCU heroes are really just an amalgation of the aformentioned "noble police" and "affluent artists" when it comes to the actual positions they occupy in their stories.) (And what's more: at least MCU movies sometimes try to half-heartedly incorporate the villains' critiques into their respective films' endings/themes; SHTR does absolutely nothing with it's villain's critique and just tries to wrap up its conclusion in a cute little bow.)

[softsoundingsea]

Tamaki fights plans to build SDF training site in Okinawa

(This article was compiled from reports by Nen Satomi, Taro Ono and Satsuki Tanahashi.)

NAHA--Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki called on Defense Minister Minoru Kihara to retract plans to build a Self-Defense Force training site in his prefecture as the central government moves to bolster defenses in the nation’s southwestern islands.

“We cannot agree with the project,” Tamaki told Kihara at the Okinawa prefectural government office here Feb. 17 during a meeting that lasted less than 30 minutes. “We want the government to take the plan back to the drawing board and review it.”

The Defense Buildup Program, one of the three national security documents the government adopted in 2022, calls for enhancing SDF capabilities in southwestern Japan, centered around Okinawa Prefecture, due to China’s growing presence in the East China Sea.

The document said the Ground SDF’s 15th Brigade, which is based in Naha and comprises around 2,000 members, will be reorganized into a division.

The GSDF plans to open a new training ground in Uruma, Okinawa Prefecture, to handle the range of exercises required for the expanded division.

“In the face of the most severe and complicated security environment Japan has faced after World War II, we can lose no time in drastically reinforcing our defense capabilities based on the three national security documents,” Kihara told Tamaki during the meeting.

The proposed training site lies next to a residential area.

Residents are concerned about noise issues and the potential for accidents. Neighborhood community associations had already called for scrapping the project.

The meeting with Kihara marked the first time for Tamaki to publicly express his opposition to the project.

“The government has been hastily pressing everything forward particularly after it published the three security documents,” Tamaki told reporters after the meeting. “Anxiety among many prefectural residents is only growing, not subsiding.”

Before his meeting with Tamaki, Kihara sat down for talks with the heads of 11 municipalities in Okinawa Prefecture that host U.S. military bases.

Uruma Mayor Masato Nakamura told Kihara, “We want the central government to take the voices of local residents seriously and give careful consideration to the issue.”

Tamaki and Kihara also remained far apart over the project to relocate the U.S. Marine Corp Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, to Nago, also in the prefecture.

While Tamaki renewed his call for suspending reclamation work, Kihara stressed that the government would forge ahead with the divisive project.

The Defense Ministry started reclamation work in Oura Bay north of Henoko Point in Nago in January after land minister Tetsuo Saito approved design changes by proxy the previous month, overriding Tamaki’s refusal to sign off on the modifications.

During the meeting, Tamaki called for convening a session of the Futenma air station burden reduction promotion council, which would bring together Kihara, Tamaki, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, Ginowan Mayor Masanori Matsugawa and others.

The meeting was last held five years ago.

But Kihara said working-level officials will discuss the issue at a working group under the council.

“We renewed our determination to produce solid results toward reducing Okinawa’s base burden and drastically reinforcing defense capabilities in the southwestern region,” Kihara told reporters after the meeting.

Kihara’s visit was his first to Okinawa’s main island since taking office in September, which is exceptionally overdue for a newly appointed defense minister.

He visited Miyakojima and Ishigakijima, two islands in Okinawa Prefecture, in September to inspect GSDF units deployed at camps that opened in 2019 and March 2023, respectively.

Kihara met with Tamaki, who has consistently called for easing the U.S. bases burden borne by his prefecture, for the first time at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo in January.

[dustedmagazine]

Listed: Jesse Kivel

Photo by David Katz

Jesse Kivel has been making indie rock music since the aughts, first in the hyper-literate band Princeton with his twin brother Matt and later in synth-dance-y Kisses. Now living in Maine and newly a dad, he recorded his best material yet in the second solo album, Life and Death at Party Rock. In her review at Dusted last month, Jennifer Kelly wrote, “Kivel has suddenly scratched below the surface, finding an unexpected, melancholy beauty in loosely collated daydreams. Life and Death at Party Rock haunts rather than pleases.” Here’s what Kivel has in his listening queue.

Bobby McFerrin — By The Sea

My friend Michael passed me this video years ago and I was just blown away by the talent, skill and concentration displayed in this performance. A lot of times we focus on the recorded version of a song, but in this case, Bobby makes a simple song transform into a technical feat of emotion and beauty.

Oasis — Live by The Sea (full concert)

Oasis was the band that changed everything for me. My brother and I would pretend to be Noel and Liam, snarling and playing Noel’s simple yet powerful solo's. We also snagged all of their live concert videos, including this one. Nothing beats Liam’s swagger in this moment and the energy and excitement this group could bring.

Alessi Brothers — Seabird (live)

This song was on a compilation or mixtape I received a while back. Gorgeous vibes and perfect to play in the early evenings. Also, keeping up with the brother/identical twin theme that has defined my life and creative output.

Linda McCartney — Seaside Woman

One of my wife Zinzi’s favorite songs, this tune has incredibly energy and feel. The lyrics are a touch problematic, and I truly can't be sure that Paul didn't write this one. He is basically singing through the entire thing, and it sounds like his vibe. Regardless, it is a lovely tune and I really like Linda’s solo record.

Beck — Guess I'm Doing Fine: Sea Change

Easily my favorite Beck record. It speaks to some of the natural textures and feelings I was trying to put on my new LP. This record reminds me of visiting a college in Atlanta. I slept over on campus and this record helped me sleep in a strange/unknown environment.

Don Gibson — Sea of Heartbreak

An iconic and classic tune, covered by everyone from Jonny Cash to Van Morrison. Gorgeous and simple, like many of those late 50’s/early 60’s tunes of yesteryear.

Phil Phillips & The Twilights — Sea of Love

I am 38 so most of my friends and peers know the Cat Power version of this. I have love for that cover as it exposed me to the original. I love the crisp and focused way the original is recorded. Eerie and slightly haunting, it is a beautiful tune.

Jesse Kivel — Overgrown Ocean

I would be nothing if not a shameless self-promoter :) This song is about visualizing myself crashing down into Penobscot Bay on a Cape Air Cessna. I wrote the lyrics to this song on my first flight with Cape Air which was incredibly foggy and overwhelming. As we cut through the clouds, an overwhelming calm reached me, and the lyrics are a meditation on death and finding peace with it.

Dennis Wilson — Pacific Ocean Blues

Growing up in Southern California, all I can say is I can relate to Dennis and the blues that often can accompany living in the region. The relentless sun and lack of seasons can really do someone in. Dennis, to his credit, correctly points out over and over in this song that the Pacific Ocean is blue. I appreciate his clear-eyed perception here.

Wilco + Billy Bragg — The Secret of The Sea

Wilco and Billy Bragg both have loomed large in my early musical education. Separately with their early records and then this Woody Guthrie collaboration. My brother and I went to Tulsa to visit Guthrie's museum a few years ago. While the Dylan one was put together more tastefully, I just remember relating to Guthrie as all his notebooks had endless amounts of mundane lists. This captured my heart as this is essentially all I do with my notebooks as well.

[lovelyteng]

WH: P.O.L.Y. Causality

The story was made by Sally Starlet, but true creators are Frank Frankly and Eddie Dear, when Frank and Eddie tell her about the idea of the story as they are going to main role with Howdy Pillar which chooses him as main protagonist of the story, it was inspired by Howdy's life and knowledge of mathematics and puzzles. Secretly, Frank and Eddie have planned to accept Howdy to love them in private but someone knows what’s going on with the two. It’s minor appearance as debut in Chapter 1 of Barnaby’s Humor to Better, it’s major appearance in Sally’s Act as Star.

Summary Dr. Potty Polymer traveling somewhere happened after last night he saw that mysterious way, he needs people who know what happened as going on. He works as inventor and chemist at Puzzle, Operation, Learn, and Yearn Causality as known P.O.L.Y. Causality as assistant of his boss, Molly Math.

Characters Dr. Potter 'Potty' Polymer is the main protagonist of P.O.L.Y. Causality who works as inventor and chemist as he has a talent for voice impressions. He doesn't want everyone's help for him, he’s self-supporting, humorous, empathetic, quick-witted and self-aware, eventually he gains his feelings as healed by Benny and Denny. In the end, he was promoted to become a manager.

Professor Benny Effect Logical is a teacher who teaches the mind's logic to students and he was first to meet Potter at the school when something happened as he doesn't trust Potter, he's grumpy, humorless, intelligent, passion of science and shy, eventually he and Denny are deeply in relationship with him during the adventure as they help him about his condition. In the end, he became an assistant logical manager of P.O.L.Y. Causality along Denny.

Coach Denny Cause Emotional is an instructor who teaches the mind's emotion to students and he was the second to meet Potter after Benny who can trust him as Potter needs him, Benny trusts him, he's short-term memory loss, strong-hearted, determined, frustrated and loyal, eventually he and Benny are deeply in relationship with him during the adventure as they help him. In the end, he became an assistant emotional manager of P.O.L.Y. Causality along Benny.

Molly Math is the founder and manager of P.O.L.Y. Causality as Potty's boss who wanted Potty into the hardest mission as the last task to be promoted without help by people but Potty refused it since he has childhood fears which make her get frustrated. But turns out it was a lie, she just used Potty to get an activity and items as she is the true main antagonist of P.O.L.Y. Causality, she’s stressful, self-confident, dramatic, ruthless, and egotistical as shows true color. In the end, she got an arrest as thanks to Benny and Denny who recorded her and showed her true show to everyone else.

Catch-22 is a robot with the ability of disguise, shapeshift, and voice as they were made by Benny as he made them as a child, but destroyed by Denny as they are on the junkyard, then they awaken as revenge on Benny and Denny for forgetting them. They’re the main antagonist of P.O.L.Y. Causality but they’re redeemed by Potty after fighting them to Benny and Denny as Potty protects them, they’re heartless turned compassionate, talkative, helpful, and some parts of Benny and Denny’s positive traits. In the end, they became a lead assistant of P.O.L.Y. Causality.

Main Cast Howdy Pillar as Dr. Potty Polymer, Catch-22 (Voice as Normal Voice) Frank Frankly as Professor Benny Effect Eddie Dear as Coach Denny Cause Sally Starlet as Molly Math Wally Darling as Perry Effect (Benny's Younger Brother) Barnaby B. Beagle as Petty Polymer (Potty's Older Twin Brother) Julie Joyful as Polly Math (Molly's Younger Sister) Poppy Partridge as Holly Math (Molly's Older Sister)

Theater Jobs Wally Darling - Scene Painter, Voice-Over Artist, Set Designer Barnaby B. Beagle - Lighting Designer, Sound Designer Julie Joyful - Costume Designer, Lighting Technician, Make-Up Artist Frank Frankly - Director, Literary Manager, Composer Howdy Pillar - Musical Director, Composer, Choreographer, Audio Engineer, Sound Technician, Voice Actor, Controller and Maker of Catch-22 Sally Starlet - Producer, Playwright/Scriptwriter, Casting Director, Make-Up Artist, Movement Director Eddie Dear - Designer, Composer

[dollarbin]

Dollar Bin #1:

Joan Baez's Come from the Shadows

Joan Baez had a lot of options of where to go next in 1971.

She could elbow her way into the new female singer-songwriter space alongside Joni Mitchell, Sandy Denny and Carole King and kick some privileged male ass (Blue, The Northstar Grassman and the Ravens and Tapestry all came out in 71; Dylan and Young put out absolutely nothing).

She could shrug off that ridiculous challenge and compete with the blossoming Linda Ronstadt, turning songs by men into sexy, feminist anthems. Or she could play the dedicated wife to her jailed husband David. Finally, she could dump him and proudly sleep with strangers, all the while pining after Dylan.

Or she could just protest the damn war.

Come From The Shadows, which you can easily find in your local record store's dollar bin (that's what we will be doing in this blog: trolling through my hundreds of dollar bin records; thanks for reading!), has a cover which clearly announces that her priority is Protest.

Can you think of a less commercial and less self-promoting record cover? (I can: her husband David's painting of a funeral on her previous record, Blessed Are..., makes the cover of Self Portrait look like high art; the cover screams "don't buy me for kicks. I am an ugly bummer." Happily the double album is oddly full of light and joy.)

Come From The Shadows' cover photo of two elderly Vietnam protesters under arrest strikes a similarly confrontational tone, but this one isn't ugly. Instead, we know right off that we are either with Joan and her groovy octogenarian jailbirds, or we are pro-war. I'm obviously pro-Joan.

I wish I was in the room when this cover was discussed. Joe Salesperson must have choked on his pipe smoke while ordering a telegram that both begged and ordered Baez to put her pretty face on the cover instead. Somehow Baez had the chutzpah, clout and fierce determination to potentially doom her own record in the name of justice. And so we see these rain drenched hippies, who are matched on the reverse of the gatefold by a concise and angry essay from Joan herself, where she tells us, "in 1972 if you don't fight against a rotten thing you become a part of it." Sounds about right to me!

While we are at it, can you name one record cover by any other female artist before Court and Spark that does not focus on the woman's looks? (Damn, I just thought of one: Joni Mitchell's first record...). Anyway, Baez's cover (and the photo of her on the album's backside, in which she sports a reckless, can't be bothered haircut) manages to protest the war and female objectification at the same time.

But drop the needle on any battered, long-ignored, bargain bin copy of this record and everything gets way more complicated. Turns out that Baez had just about every goal possible in 1972, and all at the same time.

Prison Trilogy, the first track, is in keeping with her cover, as she protests the American prison system (not too surprising a topic given the fact that she'd married a guy, allegedly my mother's cousin's roommate at Stanford, who'd been in prison for refusing the draft). But Baez wrote it. Look out singer-songwriters, Joan's in the game! Songwriting wasn't entirely new for Baez; she'd written Song for David a few years before. But half the songs on this record are penned by Baez, by far her highest quota to date. None of her tracks here touch what Sandy, Joni or Carole had done in the preceding months, but they're all pretty good.

What's more, there's some weird stuff going on in her writing. She has a song about the crisis in Bangladesh and, as near as I can tell, she had nothing to do with George Harrison's male-centric benefit concert that had taken place at the end of 71. We know Stephen Stills was at that show, but was Joan? Stills, who doesn't belong as low down in Rock and Roll Hell as Mike Love but still shares the same zip code, spent the night of the Concert for Bangladesh backstage drunk and annoying everyone. He seems to have made that one of his specialties actually. Night of Hurricane found him demanding a whole room full of coke before he'd perform; and check him out in the bonus/rejected footage of The Last Waltz; it looks as though he is unaware of how one makes music. Anyway, was Baez riding the coattails of Harrison with her song about Bangladesh, or did she do this on her own and set the stage for the men to follow? Who knows!

Baez writes another song on this record that is straight-forwardly about sleeping around with some male stranger. There's nothing ambiguous about it; it's called Love Song to a Stranger and there's talk of him standing "nude by the mirror" while presenting her with a rose. A lovely image! I'll bet her husband would have loved hearing that one in the slammer. But he got out in 71, just before this came out, so I suppose she played it for him when he got home; hopefully the stranger had put on some pants by that point. I'm not passing any judgment here; it's a better approach than Clytemnestra took when Agamemnon walked in the door and I'm impressed with how bold and unapologetic Baez is here. We all know that non-males still get judged for being promiscuous while men still can get grinning props for the same thing. Happily, it turns out that Baez has been shouting at us from the dollar bin about this form of injustice for the past 51 years.

Growing up we had a copy of Diamonds and Rust, Baez huge hit record from a few years later. It was a relic of my mother's pre-motherhood life as a feminist who lived out the plot of 9 to 5 a full dozen years before that bizarro film was conceived. She also happened to have Kris Kristofferson as a cousin, which is endlessly cool. Anyway, the title track of Diamonds and Rust always struck me as a big deal because it's obviously written to and about Dylan, and it's intense. Well, it turns out Diamonds and Rust is the second (maybe there are more?) song Baez wrote directly to Dylan. Side 2 of Come From the Shadows keeps up her trend of obvious song naming; it's called To Bobby and it calls him out unambiguously for ditching The Movement to write songs about the man within himself whose ubiquitous brown coat appears on every cover instead of Joan's anti-war grandparents. Did Dylan listen to songs like this that are obviously about him? What was their conversation like when they next saw each other?

Bob: Hey Joanie, that's an intense song you wrote there. Who's it about?

Baez: You Bob. It's about you.

Bob: Gee wiz, Joanie. Just don't tell my wife, okay? I just wrote one called about you too. It's called Wigwam.

The songs on Come From The Shadows not written by Baez are an odd grab bag of moods. Baez out Ronstadts Linda by covering Imagine just an album after covering Let It Be. Both Baez covers are solid, with Baez sounding less strident than she can at times. But I'm guessing everyone on planet earth, including your great grandparents, had heard these tunes before Joan included them. We may scratch our heads at such obvious and seemingly redundant covers today, but keep in mind that for most of the listening public The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down was a song by Joan Baez.

Unlike Imagine and Let it Be, the album's very best track, Rainbow Road, didn't make its way into every progressive 70's summer camp songbook. My cool queer kids think it's a gay anthem - and it should be! Take a listen, and thanks for joining me in the Dollar Bin.

[historyhermann]

The Indie Animation Boom and Crowdfunded Animation Part 1

On August 21, Vivienne Medrano happily promoted the newest episode of Helluva Boss, calling it the “most ambitious” episode they had done so far, thanking the Spindlehorse Toons team, and adding, in part, “Indie animation has POWER! Enjoy our hardwork!” Another indie animated series, EddsWorld, praised the episode, which garnered 800,000 views in a few hours, as a “serious accomplishment in indie animation.” Medrano is one of the most prominent in the indie animation space, heading the mature animate series, Helluva Boss, a spinoff from her hugely popular Hazbin Hotel, another mature animation. The latter is on route to become a series on A24. Medrano has produced other animations, like “Bad Luck Jack” as an animated adaption of her webcomic, ZooPhobia. She is not alone. She is only one of the many animators, creators, and others in the indie animation space, which has blossomed in recent years.

Reprinted from Pop Culture Maniacs, my History Hermann WordPress blog on Jan. 7, 2023, and Wayback Machine. This was the fourth article I wrote for Pop Culture Maniacs. This post was originally published on August 28, 2021.

In this article I’ll discuss that boom and the themes of such indie animated series, using those listed in the Creator nation index and on a Twitter list titled “Indie animation,” which are often released on YouTube. However, in some cases, indie animation have been posted on Vimeo and even on Newgrounds. Medrano herself has expressed interest in posting uncensored Helluva Boss episodes to Newgrounds but noted that YouTube “viewership is important for the show and it’s where it thrives,” which is likely what many creators of indie animations believe.

In April 2021, John Evershed, the head of High Concentrate and Mondo Media, released a paper on adult animation. In the report he mentioned Hazbin Hotel as an example of a series which originated on YouTube and got “picked up as a long-form TV series,” noting that this pilot was made completely by freelance animators and “largely financed by Medrano’s Patreon followers.” He said this is a rare exception, however, saying there are limited opportunities to make money “with scripted content on social video,” and not much space for animation which is expensive. He later said that animation is popular with those aged 18 to 34, which streaming platforms have tried to use to bring in more subscribers.

But what about independent animation? It is animation which can be defined as those animated series and feature films outside the animation industry in Hollywood. Some say that with today’s technology, the animation process is “more affordable for artists” and means that viewers don’t need to rely on television networks for series. However, others note that, realistically, indie animators have few resources, financially, beyond what they earn, leading them to move toward crowdfunding. All in all, indie animated series provide an alternative to the usual animation model of pitching a show to a major studio, something that Infinity Train creator Owen Dennis explained in detail. When it comes to pitching, for many years, animated pilots have been pitched to major networks and rejected for one reason or another. [1] Even those shows those pilots have been accepted, it can take a while for these companies to accept the series. For instance, it took 15 years before Disney accepted Phineas and Ferb and it aired on Disney platforms. Indie animations, on the other hand, have the ability to have freedoms that shows on network television and mainstream platforms don’t, with artists able to go “all out on their storytelling abilities,” as argued by some.

Many indie animated series showcase diversity. This is in part because some Black animators are behind the series themselves. For instance, a 16-year-old self-taught Black male animator, Wisdom Nunn, produced Bob’s World. Nunn even appeared with Rad Sechrist, the creator of Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, in a session on Instagram. [2] Other than Nunn, Cartoon Connect and Brandon Wright, two Black male animators, led various animated series, which premiered on YouTube, like Bob’s World.

Cartoon Connect, also known as Brandon Reed, helms three series centering on Black families and characters: Little Ron Ron, Gotta Be Mo, and Lumen. All three series have their episodes posted on his YouTube channel, in specifically delineated playlists, and compromise a total of 76 episodes. As for Lumen, it is based on a webcomic of the same name and focuses on a Black woman named Lyric in an abusive relationship and with magical powers. At the same time, Cartoon Connect created a fan animation series of characters from The Proud Family, titled Loyalty High. Like Cartoon Connect, Wright heads three animated series: Guardian Instance, Silver Lin, and Diver, which have diverse characters at the center of their stories and comprise, collectively, a total of 11 episodes. A show that Cartoon Connect later promoted, The Quickening, has a pilot with Black characters at the center, and the upcoming series, Ascendants, centers people of color in its story as well.

Ollie & Scoops (left) and EddsWorld (right)

For some indie animated series, LGBTQ characters are integral to their stories. [3] For example, Helluva Boss has four LGBTQ characters, as does the animated pilot it split off from, Hazbin Hotel. Other series in development, like S.A.L.E.M.: The Secret Archive of Legends, Enchantments, and Monsters (often known as S.A.L.E.M.), Rain: The Animated Series, Dirt: The Series, and The Descendants are full of LGBTQ characters. Specifically, S.A.L.E.M. has a non-binary protagonist, Rain, adapted from a webcomic of the same name has a trans girl protagonist, Dirt: The Series has a lesbian protagonist, and The Descendants will have LGBTQ characters as it is about acceptance and love. An indie, adult murder mystery in production about lawyers, Wild Card, has a bisexual protagonist and a non-binary character. Sheepish has a non-binary sheep as protagonist and Romancing Roslyn Cherry is about two “furries falling in love.” Both series are still in development. Then there’s Howdy Cloudboy, which is being produced by an animation studio, Faeduck Studios, which bills itself as creating engaging and fun “adult animated content that highlights and praises the Black LGBTQ+ community.”

These are only some of the series featuring LGBTQ characters that are currently in development. For instance, in the October 2020 episode of Ollie & Scoops, a female teacher goes on a date with her crush, another woman, My Pride: The Series has a lesbian protagonist, and a sapphic couple appears in the original EddsWorld series: Kim and Katya, with Kim as bisexual, and Katya as a lesbian. Indigo, an animated series said to be a sci-fi and comedy with lots of LGBTQ characters, and a non-binary protagonist, stands out above the lot, although its future is in question as the show’s account was suspended and will later be deleted. [4] The creator of Ollie & Scoops, Nico Colaleo, created a short-lived web series titled Too Loud which aired on which DreamWorks TV’s YouTube channel from 2017 to 2019, including a transgender female protagonist who is still in the closet. If Indigo, Howdy Cloudboy, Wild Card, S.A.L.E.M., and many others mentioned above, premiere independently, on a platform such as YouTube, they will be part of the “boom in indie animated series/projects” started originally on the Indigo Twitter account, and it is great to see.

For independent animations, due to their wide range of plots and characters, they are spread across the genres. However, fantasy is a common genre. For instance, Satina and Far-Fetched, are horror or black comedies. Both are produced by those who previously worked on Helluva Boss or Hazbin Hotel. Likely, series in development like Mayhem, Dark Harvest, and Aisle 99, will have similar themes.

These are not the only fantasies out there, however. For example, to note a few series, Lumi and the Great Big Galaxy, Phantom Hollow, and Deranged are sci-fi fantasies, while Ghost Friends, Monstrocity, and Ronzilla are monster fantasies. There are magical and enchanted fantasies, sometimes involving adventure. Some examples include True Tail, Nori and Zin, CriTORA, Gods’ School, The Figments, Magic Time Wizards, and Kooky The Keukegen. Another common genre is superhero fantasies. Examples of this are plentiful, but some show this the most, such as Quack Man, Good Guys for Hire, and Fighting All Odds.

Others which don’t fit into the genres previously mentioned include a fantasy-action about cartoons coming alive (Loki IRL), two fantasy series set in a dreamland (DREAMophrenia and Dreamcatchers), a comedy-adventure (Pigbog’s Kingdom), a space adventure (Orbit Buzz), and a school drama created by deaf folks (The Road of Friendship) to name a few. Of these series, only DREAMophrenia and Gods’ School are currently airing, while the others either have a pilot or have an episode, or episodes, in development.

There are adventure fantasies like Nautiboys, The West Patch, Tales of Alethrion, and Port by the Sea. While Tales of Alethrion has interconnecting anthologies, Port by the Sea is created and produced by Georden Whitman, the creator of Nomad of Nowhere. Apart from these is a detective fantasy (Blossom Detective Holmes), which tells a story of two detectives determined to solve a murder. It is not the only independent anime, as The Kamanai is an independent anime in development. Then there’s a Western fantasy created by animators Tara Billinger and Zach Bellissimo, titled Long Gone Gulch. Creators of the latter, currently only a pilot, said in a video posted in June that they want to keep going with the project, announcing the launching of Patreon while they pitch to major networks. There’s a number of series, such as The Heroes of Tomorrow, Zoolaplex, Subway Surfers, and Mugshot & Pollen are all either dramas, sometimes mixed with a slice-of-life, in the case of the latter two. Of these series, only Blossom Detective Holmes, Tales of Alethrion, and Subway Surfers have more than one episode, while the others only have either a pilot or are in development for a first episode.

Alpha Betas’ pilot

While there are many other series, either inconsistently airing, or in development, often with a rash of voice talent, complex, developed, and diverse stories, and characters, they are of varying quality. [5] Each of these series is unique, like a pilot with vibes of a mature version of Glitch Techs (Alpha Betas), a number of shows in development, such as one focusing on wolves (Wolves of Cecila), another in telling the story of a young girl moving to Japan to be a manga artist (Demonic Crepes), and a show centered around three girls which have vibes of The Owl House and Infinity Train (Stars Align). There are many other series currently airing, such as animal-focused fantasies and many other fantasies, all of which may have complex stories and characters. [6] It is unlikely that this kind of creativity, which is not constrained by budgets, shown in these series in development, would be allowed on more mainstream platforms. In the end, indie animations, no matter form they come in, offer an alternative to the existing animations produced and released by the major studios, even if getting to the release of such animations can be daunting for creators.

© 2021-2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

The notes are in part 2.

[staticflavourlessbuzz]

!!Temporary pinned!!

Hi welcome to our page!

We are the Chaoticlimes system

The host is Denny, Me (Pepper) and Spamton are co hosts, I am helping Denny with making this pinned post

We are a system of 16, we are a DID system (yes we have DID)

We are intersex and we collectively are systemfluid, genderqueer, daisy gay, abrosys and polyamsys and our collective pronouns are He/they/it, our collective name is Limez

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Members and pronouns

Denny - They/it/xe/ne/bun (He/him accepted) (Xe/xim, xe/xem, ne/nym, ne/nem)

Pepper - They/it (she/her accepted if only referring to Pepper)

Luca - It/zem (They/them accepted)

Rick - He/him

Yosh - He/him or name

Tash - Void/he/it

Stocks - He/xim

Spamton G. Spamton - He/it/them/nya

Jevil - He/they/it

Mia - they/it/nya/meow

Minmin - They/it

Nacho - He/it/they/ze

May - They/them

Zwapz - He/they

Razch - They/it/vamp

Razz - He/it

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We are extremely tired of system discourse, queer discourse, neurodiverse discourse and disability discourse

We (especially Denny and Yosh) are not afraid of fighting back or biting scumbags

If you’re here to start fights or discourses over small things like flags, identity, gender, orientation, mental health, systems/plurality, personas, oc’s (especially Mary/Gary stues), disabilities and/or neurodivergency please fuck off, we do not have time or spoons for you - Denny

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Not sure what you're looking for

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BYF

We post content involving clowns, horror, body positivity, feminism, LGBTQIA2S+, MOGAI, anarchy, furbies, animatronics, furry, body horror, food, Pokemon, My Little Pony, space related stuff, frogs, autism acceptance, neurodivergent acceptance and anti ableism

Art that we post usually have this content

Horror, clowns, body horror, horror, gore, My Little Pony, Pokemon, animatronics, robots, demons, angels, anthros, ferals, humans, humanoids, aliens, monsters, certain kinks, nudity, violence, vent art, self ship, self insert, body positivity, trans bodies, queer couples, fat bodies, chubby bodies, anarchy, feminism and characters from media (Take Undertale and Super Mario Bros as some examples)

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WE ABSOLUTELY DO NOT ACCEPT THIS

Ableism, demonisation of cluster b disorders, fatmisia/fat phobia, queermisia (queerphobia), flag or sexual/romantic/tertiary orientation discourse, flag discourse, exorsexism (anti enby), intersexism (anti intersex), anti xenogender, anti neogender, demonisation or stigmatisation of mental illnesses psychosis or disabilities, general nastiness, catcalling, think it is okay to harass minors or anyone in general, harassing our alters or us in general, harassing individuals for their hobbies (geek, furry etc.), general nasty people, people who send unsolicited gore (fictional AND/OR IRL) to people to trigger people

DNI

General DNI criteria, if you stigmatize or demonise cluster B disorders (This includes using narcissistic and/or narcissist as insults), if you stigmatise or demonise mental illness disabilities and psychosis, if you believe or do eugenics, BMI scale, Anti-recovery, act like assholes towards individuals struggling with addiction, Sysmed, Proana, Promia, Fatmisic, Ableist, Kodocon (loli/shotacon/both), Proship/Neuship/Comship, Anti-anti, Pro/neu/com contact (you’re a predator), Overall nasty people, Pro-fetus, Pro-birth, Pro-life, TERF/SWERF/TIRF/TEHM, Radfem, syscourse/flagcourse (People are literally fucking dying out here Susan), exclusionists or neutral on exclusionism, exorsexist, intersexist, anti cringe, support/promote or even neutral on Autism Speaks and ABA

Scott Cawthon endorser, JKR endorser, Emily Gwen endorser

Think mspec sapphics can't: use butch/femme, reclaim the d-slur, use the ⚢ symbol, call themselves lesbians

Think that fiction can't or doesn’t affect reality (It indeed can)

Teeth divider by @mmadeinheavenn

[lboogie1906]

Zoë Dusanne was born Zola Graves (March 24, 1884 - March 6, 1972) in Kansas to Letitia Denny and John Henry Graves, a stonemason. She was an art dealer and collector who opened Seattle’s first professional modern-art gallery, the Zoë Dusanne Gallery in 1950 She was self-taught concerning modern art, and her interest was nourished early in life by her parents. In 1903 she spent one year at Oberlin College followed by a semester at the University of Illinois, Urbana. She married George Young (1904-1912). The union produced a daughter. She married Dr. Frederick Boston (1919-?). In 1928 she left Seattle for New York. Her passion for collecting modern art began. At the height of the Great Depression, she found that artists were the first to feel the impact of hard times, and often sold their works at a fraction of their value. She amassed a collection of modern art which she brought back to Seattle in 1942. In 1947, she built a home overlooking Lake Union that was designed to double as an art gallery, she opened her collection to the public. She sold and donated her works to the Seattle Art Museum and facilitated the donation of many others. She lent works to the Henry Art Gallery and SAM for exhibition. At her urging, Life magazine featured the four artists who would become known as the “mystical” painters of the “Northwest School”—Mark Tobey, Kenneth Callahan, Guy Anderson, and Morris Graves—in its September 28, 1953 issue. She traveled to Europe, persuading Peggy Guggenheim to donate a Jackson Pollock to SAM. She could not stop the 1958 demolition of her home and gallery necessitated by the building of the Seattle Freeway. In 1959 she reopened in a new location but was unable to recapture the luster and glory of her original gallery. In 1977, SAM honored her with an exhibition of contemporary art that included works by many of the artists whom she had promoted. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #womenhistorymonth https://www.instagram.com/p/CqKqLJCO1M1/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=