#editing transitions was sorta weird too

[ireallydontcare5]

Listen, I hardly ever listen to the critics and I do think there are some people who are being more aggressive with reviewing mcu movies post endgame and jumping on this 'lets talk about how much we hate the mcu' bandwagon even though some of the more recent movies and shows have most definitely earned some of the harshness, i can admit the quality is decreasing but with Quantumania... yeah maybe the critics are right. People who are saying Quantumania is the best Ant-man movie obviously didn't see the first one. This one is missing all the charm and chemistry and humor the first one had. I left the theater like 🤷🏽‍♀️. Also, why did it seem like they kept a bunch of Kathryn Newton's medicore takes instead of her best takes. I know she can do atleast a bit better than what she did....I mean, I think she can from what I've seen of her. I know people are making excuses that green screen acting is hard and yeah it is but they maybe should have just kept the original actress who showed more emotion in her one scene in Endgame than Kathryn in this entire film. No disrespect to Kathryn, like i said I know she can do better and maybe it was the writing. It wasn't a terrible movie, it was just...okay. That's it.

[the-meat-machine]

Im confused about Cherub anatomy

I thought it was kind of odd that they have gender? Like you could assume that they just choose one because they're trying to project an identity on the same body which sorta gives an indication that the body lacks male or female traits for this reasoning to make sense. BUT, if we look at Caliborns/Calliopes mother and father theres some clear sexual dimorphism. It makes me wonder how their bodies even get that way? I ended up theorizing that they may metamorphosize to achieve these differences. My theory 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘺 hold some weight, ex: in Caliborns Masterpiece we can hear that his voice is deep and snarly. Now, we haven't heard Calliopes voice to make a fair comparison after all, she could also possibly sound just like that. So maybe this isn't the strongest example but when Cherubs sleep and when the other personality takes over, the body does change. From the eyecolor, tongue color, cheek color, and blood color, as for body figure it's unclear if that changes when waking up. If we want to count how Caliborn and Calliope are drawn in Act 7, in the opening you can see Calliope has a curved figure and breasts while Caliborn has a wider shoulders, and a flat chest . But then again, Calliope is drawn differently multiple times throughout the act 7 flash so maybe not much weight either. The strongest basis i have for this is probably just how their mom and dad look. In conclusion: either their body fully transitions into the other gender when one of the personalities wakes up then swaps into the other gender when sleeping for the other personality to take over the body with their traits included OR the body has both male and female traits at all times and are stuck there until the one the personalities wins the body and the loser personality bodily traits disappear from the body so the winners traits take over. But this could also not hold weight since Caliborn apparently didn't know what boobs were when talking with Jane. But yet again Calliopes drawings featured boobs so idk. Feel free too tell me everything i got wrong not even i know what the fuck im talking about I've been listening to karkalicious for like 6 hours today (newer version)

So I came into this ask fully intending for my answer to be "cherub sexes make no sense, just throw them out". But then as I was writing out why they make no sense, I accidentally came up with an explanation that makes them (sort of) make sense. Whoops. I'm going to post that as its own separate thing, 'cause it got long, and I probably should edit it to include a clearer explanation of isogamy, ha ha… ha.

But anyway, that aside, some of the details you brought up still don't really make sense - especially alt!Calliope's appearance in Act 7. Because the thing is, alt!Calliope shouldn't look like an adult cherub at all. Even if she predominated "correctly", she still died young, before she could fully mature. If she was truly fully grown, she would have wings, but she doesn't. And during the conversation where she and alpha Calliope meet, the two of them appear to have the same height and build.

The simplest explanation for her Act 7 appearance is that it's just art weirdness. But if we wanted to come up with an in-universe explanation, two possible ones come to mind:

She's a ghost. Ghosts are shown to be able to change their appearances, either consciously or subconsciously. So she's given herself a more adult body that matches her adult mind.

She lived long enough after predomination for her body to partially, but not completely, mature. Thus, she has a somewhat adult-like body, but doesn't have wings and doesn't look as large as the adult female cherub we see depicted elsewhere (because even the females are pretty darn ripped). In this case, it's during the conversation with alpha Calliope that she's altering her appearance, perhaps choosing to make herself look younger to put Calliope and/or Jade at ease.

As for Caliborn seeming to have broader shoulders in Act 7 than Calliope does, we could say that maybe it's just that Caliborn has more muscle mass there by virtue of being more physically active.

I do like to imagine (when I accept that cherubs have biological "sexes" at all) that young cherubs have undifferentiated bodies, and they only develop into "male" or "female" forms after predomination. This fits in with what Aranea says about how the only way to tell the two young cherubs apart is by the color of their cheeks (though as you note, there are a few other differences too).

But that's still kind of complicated, because what makes one of the personalities definitively "male" and the other definitively "female" when their bodies are identical? My best theory is that there's some sort of hormone or something in their blood that differs between juvenile males and females, since the blood seems to be the main thing that physically changes when they swap bodies.

As for Caliborn not understanding what boobs are while Calliope does... that's probably just because Calliope actually pays attention to humans, whereas Caliborn is willfully ignorant about them.

(p.s. I didn't notice until this ask that alt!Calliope appears to have boobs in Act 7. I always assumed cherubs didn't have them, since during Aranea's explanation, the art is ambiguous enough that you could interpret the female as being flat-chested. But no: act 7 says cherub boobs. Argh. Why. I am rejecting this from my personal headcanon and assuming that it was just some weird folds in alt!Calliope's robes that made her look like she had boobs.)

[honeysucklepink]

What if...? Glee edition

You know, I'm a Gleek through and through, and while the show had its faults, there's pretty much something I like about every episode, all the way through the final season. Even the newbies and the new newbies.

THAT BEING SAID...

I see a pattern among folks discovering the show in the past couple of years binging it and not liking it as much after season four. And let's be real, it was weird after season three, when we did that weird split between New York and McKinley. And to be fair introducing new characters and trying to deeply incorporate them into the fold was awkward. What I'm saying is, what if Season Four was the final season, used to wrap everything up? Here's how I would have done it:

First, you would have to rework the last episode of Season Three with one simple change: Kurt and Rachel both get into NYADA.

Next, don't put the break-ups off until episode four. Do them quickly and painlessly in the first episode, before school even starts. No cheating, just a simple "long distance relationships don't really work." Work the couples back toward each other over the course of the season.

(They still hook up at Will and Emma's aborted wedding though)

Move "The New Rachel" to episode two. Forget most of the newbies, except Kitty (for a final round of "Sue tries to bring down the Glee Club" and keep her cartoonish) and Wade/Unique (and beef up her transition story), keep Sugar Motta and bring in Stoner Brett for more comic relief. Finn comes back sooner from the Army to teach the Glee Club.

Focus the McKinley side on our fivesome; Brittany, Sam, Blaine, Artie and Tina, plus the aforementioned Unique story.

Blaine still has an identity crisis when he sleeps with someone, which since he's already broken up with Kurt isn't actually cheating, but he still feels bad about it because it kinda feels "too soon" after the break up plus deep down he sorta hoped he could stay "pure" for Kurt.

No Grease (but Blaine still sings "Hopelessly Devoted" in his audition), we do Little Shop of Horrors instead. Sam is Seymour, Tina is Audrey, Unique is Audrey II, Artie is Mr. Mushnick. Blaine is still in his "villain" feelings so he decides to be Orin (come on, you still get Darren in leather pants, just singing "You'll Be a Dentist" instead).

And we still get the "Will he or won't he go back to Dalton" story with Nightbird.

You can still also have the Diva storyline. I mean honestly, Blaine/Tina/Brittany/Unique are really the new Rachel/Kurt/Santana/Mercedes rivalry-that-respects-each-other's-talent anyway.

Meanwhile...Santana never goes to Louisville. She's the one wandering the halls instead of Kurt, and Sue and Brittany push her to go to New York (so basically, the Blaine-and-Kurt/Imagine Dragons number goes to Brittana instead).

So we get Rachel, Kurt, AND Santana in New York way earlier, PLUS we move up Elliott and Dani and the Spotlight Diner, and the cover band. No Brody, but we still have Adam as a rebound for Kurt.

Sadie Hawkins is pushed back a bit and becomes the prom episode. Tina still gets slushied but by this point Kitty gets a redemption from just being a bitch (since there's no Marley she tricked into bulimia).

Blaine and Kurt get back together right after the wedding hookup.

NO SCHOOL SHOOTING EPISODE.

New Directions lose Regionals fairly against Vocal Adrenaline (with Skylar Astin as their lead) in episode 20, graduation and Klaine proposal in episode 21 (making it clear they won't get married until after college).

Final episode is a flash-forward to FOUR YEARS LATER. Will and Finn take New Directions to Nationals in New York, Klaine wedding, Rachel gets Fanny Brice, gets her Tony for THAT, and comes home to Finn.

[starlene]

Some Så som i himmelen Malmö thoughts from the top of my head to get them out before taking in the last performance of the original production today:

- Negatives first! My biggest problem was that personally, I did not feel the chemistry between Lena and Daniel. They were both really good on their own, but together, I just didn't feel it.

- Maybe it was because some of their key scenes felt a little off to me? The cycling scene felt really fast compared to all others I've seen, the private lesson scene didn't really have that strong vibe of awkwardness and romantic/sexual tension, and the Änglasång scene... it felt so weird to me how Lena told Daniel death's nothing to be afraid of, and then just left him there, alone and clearly terrified as hell?

- I also didn't get a sense of their relationship progressing much. During the 2nd act, it really didn't feel like Daniel was that into her, he seemed more weirded out about her kissing him than anything else?

- I guess that ties into the way the production frames Daniel as an outsider deep into the 2nd act. Before, I've always felt that by En sång till livet, he's more or less friends with the people in the choir and feels at ease with them (as far as it's possible for him to feel at ease anywhere, at least...) But in Malmö, it felt like he stayed on the outside observing them pretty much the whole time. Which I can understand and relate to; social situations can be really hard! But I don't know if I like the message it's sending, it sorta gives more weight to the "Daniel is a Messiah whose job is to deliver these other people" interpretation that I'm not quite fond of. Oh well! Personal tastes.

- There were a couple of changed lines. Two notable ones were that Lena doesn't mention Arne and Tore being related anymore, and Siv tells everyone it's really hard to be honest and maybe they should try it out for themselves sometimes after having her slutshame-y meltdown about Lena. Not sure I like her saying that out loud. I mean, yes, that's a big theme within the story, but I feel it's more rewarding to figure that out yourself without anyone having to say it out loud like that? Anyway, not a big change, I can deal with it. (Edit: apparently, Siv's line is a callback to the movie? I had forgotten about that. But no matter where it's from, my point stands: personally I think in the musical, the message comes across clear enough without having to spell it out loud.)

- I liked how they specified it's time to eat potatoes and fish when Gabriella arrives before En sång till livet. Very appropriate for summertime.

- Fredrik Lycke as Daniel! Oh, Daniel Daniel... chemistry issues aside, he was top tier, really. I liked the over-the-top Passionate Artist Burning The Candle At Both Ends energy he had going on during the prologue, I liked the social awkwardness, I liked the way he became more animated when dealing with music, his quiet sadness broke my heart...

- A little detail I absolutely loved was after 58 sekunder, when Daniel did this little shrug, like to say "but hey, it's nothing" – it felt so real to me, how he's just told about the most important experience of his life to someone, and now he feels a lil embarrassed and tries to alleviate that by downplaying it. Love.

- Also by far the saddest Den tid jag har I've ever heard, but it works for him. This Daniel is a very melancholic bean.

- Direction/choreography-wise, some bits felt a bit too static or clunky to me, but there were also some really nice and smooth scene transitions that absolutely delighted me.

- Maybe it's coincidence, but things like the way they staged Fråga Arne and Reser fast jag inte vill, and Little Daniel's presence made me think that someone involved had seen the show in Helsinki and taken notes of the things they liked.

- I liked how they didn't show a lot of violence. Conny seemed more... whiney and insecure and pathetic than he usually does, I guess. I liked that, I feel like that makes it more shocking when Gabriella arrives in act 2 visibly bruised – and also sorta more understandable that no one has intervened, because they know, but there's also plausible deniability since they (and we, the audience) don't really see it.

- Top tier Gabriella. Ugly cried during Stjärnorna. (Weird orchestration though, with the drums kinda cheerfully pounding away?)

- Also top tier Holmfrid and Arne. I think my mom, Arne's fangirl #1, would have approved.

- Stig and Inger, too. He's a hard character to get right, but I felt like this production got a pretty good grasp of him, plus talk about an impressive voice... and I liked her poise and charm. A fun little detail: before the Holmfrid & Arne hug, when Arne is stressing out, he almost lights a cigarette but Inger just takes it away from him without saying a word – and he doesn't protest. :D

- Pretty clever to do the orchestra reveal during Vienna, I think!

- The finale was pretty hard on the acoustics and/or sound system. From where I was sitting, it really didn't sound too good.

- Other than that, it did, though. I loved the short new orchestral overture. Not too many surprises, orchestration-wise, to me it sounded pretty close to the cast recording. Too bad they didn't do the exit music though!

- A fun detail: Lena and Olga dancing with a mop that kinda resembled Daniel's hairstyle during their duet. :D

Overall: pretty good! Not my favourite production and not without its problems, but definitely worth the trouble. So glad I got to see this!

[amoebo-id]

a o t d !!!

no more than 1 release per artist to keep it interesting. selection and ranking is arbitrary and would prob be wildly different if i did this tomorrow. also i only went down to #42 cause everything after that didn’t feel like real aotd status - at least as far as the specific relationships i built over the past 10 yrs with the music i was listening to

#1 laurel halo quarantine

nobody did machine-body dialectic like laurel halo in 2012. i loved everything else from her this decade too but every time i listened to Carcass it made me leave my body physically. absolutely unreal album art too

https://laurelhalo.bandcamp.com/track/carcass-2

#2 e+e the light that you gave me to see you

2012 was a good year. pop/ambient/noise/radio-dj-tag sound collage ascended to spiritual intensity. makes you feel like a child experiencing awe. also fire-gut used to have probably my favorite music video ever but i think it’s gone now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p-SSuwW9cw

#3 ilovemakonnen 5

not to be confused with Drink More Water 5, this one’s from 2010 during his mostly-forgotten diy outsider-pop phase. off-key singing and amateur beats and the sheer absolute joy of making cool songs. all 5 are perfect

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORKpg_-z0Mk

#4 macintosh plus floral shoppe

would’ve made top 10 on album art alone. music, aesthetics, and cultural impact are inseparable here but going back to the album reminded me just how engaging its 2010s-updated chopped-and-screwed sound is, musically not just conceptually

https://vektroid.bandcamp.com/track/420

#5 jason lescalleet this is what i do 17

hard to pick a favorite from jason lescalleet’s semi-monthly document of his electroacoustic / field recording / tape loop practice but i’ve cried to multiple tracks on tiwid 17 so it gets the nod. couldn’t find any of them online so here’s something else of his

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t33x8OOm68E

#6 barrio sur बड़ा शोक (heart break)

dedekind cut guy’s weird one-off side project ended up being my favorite thing to come out of the last few years’ obsession w cowboy/western/country music/aesthetics. pure mystery

https://soundcloud.com/user-366783613/redemption-7inch

#7 cities aviv come to life

i think maybe people thought cities aviv was just another no-flow pseudo-”conscious rap” type rapper in 2014 but actually this album is nuts. hyper-energetic vaporwave rap? what if death grips were happy? idk

https://citiesaviv.bandcamp.com/track/url-irl-2

#8 beach boys the smile sessions

this cool fresh 1960s rock myth arrived fully formed and way more fun than the other ones. brian wilson’s concepts and songwriting got so unwieldy we had to wait 50 years to hear the sessions. i don’t care about conversations about his genius or whatever these songs kick ass

https://oldmasterpainter.bandcamp.com/track/surfs-up

#9 mindspring memories & intl. debris international memories

did this really only come out in 2017? i feel like i’ve been listening to it since i was born. tangential lateral kind of wormhole out of vaporwave into two meditative spiritual infinite-feeling loops that perfectly complement each other

https://noproblematapes.bandcamp.com/track/sad-horizons

#10 nyege nyege tapes sounds of sisso

absolutely obnoxiously insanely high energy high pitch high bpm dance music. i can’t believe this isn’t what people mean when they say future bass. set me down the path of historical and contemporary non-”global north” ideas about dance/rhythm/bass which i’m still on

https://nyegenyegetapes.bandcamp.com/track/mshamba-video-mster

#11 blithe field face always toward the sun

the most gorgeous implementation of the sorta-ambient guitar-looping vignette aesthetic. is this a real trope or did i listen to this album so much i convinced myself it was a thing? for me this is the sound of what its like to feel completely content with life and at ease in the moment

https://blithefield.bandcamp.com/track/zen-den

#12 anohni hopelessness

listening to this album and singing along while driving my car made me feel absolutely disgusting. unbelievable hooks, grossly hi fi sound design, and overblown drama add up to imo a scary effective type of explicitly political or ‘protest’ music

https://anohni.bandcamp.com/track/drone-bomb-me

#13 21 savage, offset, & metro boomin without warning

why is these 3 pop stars’ vaguely halloween-themed one-off collab my favorite trap album? 21 savage, offset, and metro boomin were all wildly corny in different ways but everything was perfectly balanced. i hope metro boomin makes like one seriously ambient album next decade

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWv-bR_X-VM&list=PLC1uUM4twa8i6zsD_Sn1LRUq4vhl_PLCx&index=11&t=0s

#14 laura les big summer jams 2018

‘crying in the club’ type bangers with no fear of ugliness and no fear of beauty and no fear of wildly unfashionable tropes like skrillex-y dubstep and guitar solos. so much input from other trans/queer artists it felt like a big t4t party

https://osno1.bandcamp.com/track/the-river-feat-scum-yung-skrrt-and-99jakes

#15 triad god nxb

the other triad god tape from 7 years later is just as good. what was this man doing in the intervening time? i just imagine him riding london public transit while it rains or something. i love knowing that most of his cantonese spoken-word/rap parts are insults and jokes rather than like, melancholy observations

https://soundcloud.com/hipposintanks/triad-god-remand

#16 dj koze knock knock

what if pop music sounded like this? somehow every song on here is wildly danceable, wildly sing-alongable, and also wildly detail-oriented. feels like a transmission from an alternate present where things are okay

https://djkoze.bandcamp.com/track/club-der-ewigkeiten

#17  ocora world of traditional music

box set of “world music” recordings from the label that french electronic composer pierre schaeffer started in the 1950s as a project to teach people in rural west africa how to dj. ethnography can be a fucked up idea but afaik ocora is one of the good ones and if you can sorta try to disengage from the tropes/cliches that get imposed on it, the music is phenomenal. hard to find a track specific to this box set but here’s another from the label

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJm8rn6gW5I

#18 oneohtrix point never replica

opn feels like an artist i’ve ‘grown out of’ i guess but samples never felt more alive or more dead than they did on replica. set a template for the kind of melancholy ‘soundscape’-y vibe that i spent years trying to find more of after

https://oneohtrixpointnever1.bandcamp.com/track/power-of-persuasion

#19 rihanna anti

the most perfect imaginable pop album. i keep trying to move it higher up. i almost put club chai vol 1 on this list purely cause of the Woo remix but then i remembered the original is better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dDCUKElEwk

#20 colleen a flame my love a frequency

colleen’s ultra deadpan singing and wriggly rhythmic synth put me in a trance. everything sounded dry as hell even though it was covered in reverb. i think maybe some people were put off by the corny song names and lyrics

https://colleencolleen.bandcamp.com/track/separating

#21 dj paypal drake edits

back when drake seemed like a sorta-shitty dude rather than seriously creepy, dj paypal used the power of footwork to expose both the melancholy-ambient modality and the serious-bass-music modality latent in his voice and beats

https://mallmusicinc.com/track/brand-new

#22 huerco s. for those of you who have never (and also those who have)

not really as ambient as it first seems imo, but rather like a really intense focus on what we mean when we describe things as ‘static’ or ‘dynamic’. i know it’s corny but i wanna say these tracks are fully both and fully neither

https://brianleeds.bandcamp.com/track/promises-of-fertility

#23 girls rituals reddishness

for a track so deliberately shitty-sounding I Know had no right to be so fucking danceable. persona and production synthesized into the only ‘singer-songwriter’ music i could really get into

https://temporaryenjoyment.bandcamp.com/track/i-know

#24 chromatics kill for love

fakeass 80s retro melancholia digitized and pushed so far past pastiche it turned into pure slime. the phone call in There’s A Light Out On The Horizon came straight from the void

https://soundcloud.com/johnnyjewel/chromatics-kill-for-love-album

#25 actress ghettoville

the only genuinely post-apocalyptic music. specifically the postapocalypse in wall-e but if there was no wall-e to clean it up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcCPdfUFq6k

#26 playboi carti die lit

every beat on this album was reducible to a 4-second loop that perpetually demanded its own repetition and playboi carti somehow knew exactly what to do with them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2pjiKmhlAI

#27 charli xcx vroom vroom

the charli xcx that came after this was fun, but there was black hole levels of power compacted into when she said vroom vroom on Vroom Vroom

https://soundcloud.com/vroomvroomrecordings/charli-xcx-vroom-vroom

#28 pacific breeze: japanese city pop, aor & boogie 1976-1986

it’s kind of amazing to think that this compilation only exists because vaporwave aesthetics made ‘japanese grocery-store kitsch from the 80s’ a marketable thing in the us. anyway every single one of these is an absolute bop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl91bvEKj20

#29 young thug barter 6

i can’t get enough of listening to young thug’s voice. i’ve seen his rhythmic-melodic-textural sensibility described as virtuosic and i don’t know really if that term means anything but it feels right to me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg9ZxQKSDuw

#30 magic eye babylon

smeared dreamy lo-fi guitar music w wistful buried melodies pushed to an extreme. every song sounded the same and i wish there was more than the one cassette

https://magiceye.bandcamp.com/track/flame

#31 tirzah devotion

you could say this was ‘stripped down’ r&b but i think more accurately what separated it was that every sound stood exactly and only for itself

https://tirzah.bandcamp.com/track/basic-need

#32 mount eerie clear moon

it’s amazing how well mount eerie navigated the move from a lo-fi sound/mode/affect to a hi-fi sound/mode/affect. clear moon wasn’t his first attempt but it was the one that most embodied the feeling of the new possilibities that had been opened up

https://pwelverumandsun.bandcamp.com/track/through-the-trees-pt-2

#33 kelela aquaphoria

this mix was such a good idea it immediately seemed shocking nobody else had tried afaik. and kelela executed it so well you forgot the tracks already existed in other contexts

https://soundcloud.com/kelelam/aquaphoria

#34 james ferraro skid row

not sure what it means that the only james ferraro i really love is also the one i think of as the least abstract/conceptual. his recited lyrics had a rare spoken-word-poetic power

https://breakworldrecords.bandcamp.com/track/to-live-and-die-in-la

#35 salyu x salyu s(o)un(d)beams

absolutely unbounded sense of joy and creativity and possibility hovering between bangers-lite and ‘soundscape’-y electronic manipulation

https://soundcloud.com/snouu/salyu-x-salyu-s-o-un-d-beams

#36 dj rashad just a taste vol 1

double cup got all the press but it was so smoothed-over it could never have done something as absurdly beautiful as Ghost or even Go Crazy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZuHPAbte9U

#37 yves tumor serpent music

i’m sorta put off by the high-gloss sheen of music like this but serpent music somehow had the right combination of total cohesion and a ridiculous density of impactful moments

https://soundcloud.com/pan_hq/yves-tumor-the-feeling-when-you-walk-away-pan-73?in=pan_hq/sets/yves-tumor-serpent-music-pan

#38 maral mahur club

lo-fi beat collage elevated to something that could actually genuinely be called world music

https://astralplanerecordings.bandcamp.com/track/avesta-khani-reggaeton

#39 lucki ecks watch my back

did not expect this super low-stakes sadboy trap to end up on this list but i love his min-effort flow and somehow every beat is exactly the vibe even when the tracks aren’t volume balanced

https://soundcloud.com/boob7/leave-wit-you-prod-plu2o-nash-clams-casino?in=boob7/sets/watch-my-back

#40 arca stretch 2

not sure why i get more out of arca’s nonsense broken-beat non-rap than any of her later projects

https://unonyc.bandcamp.com/track/tapped-in

#41 klein only

a new way to do fucked up noise w pop leanings. ‘audacitycore’

https://klein1997.bandcamp.com/track/pretty-black-2

#42 city arcadia

another mysterious transmission, this time w lots of harp

https://soundcloud.com/halcyon-veil/city-arcadia

[realtalk-tj]

Could you please explain in more detail what each of the math post-APs are and how easy/hard they are and how much work? Thanks!!

Response from Al:

This can be added on to, but I can describe how Multivariable Calculus is. First off, I want to say not anyone’s opinion should affect how difficult or easy a class would be for YOU. Ultimately, do the classes you’re interested in. Personally, I thought Calculus was cool as subject, so that’s why I pursued Multi. Multi. builds off of BC Calculus, Geometry, and even some of the linear algebra you learned from middle school (not to be confused with the Linear Algebra you can take at TJ), so as long as you have a good foundation in those subjects, I’m sure you’ll do well in Multi. Depending on your teacher, assessments may or may not be more challenging, and that’s why I strongly emphasize take the class only if you’re genuinely into it. Don’t take it because of peer pressure / because you want to stand out in colleges. I’ll let anyone add below.

Response from Flitwick:

Disclaimer: I feel like I’m not the most unbiased perspective on the difficulty of these math classes, and I have my own mathematical strong/weak points that will bleed into these descriptions. Take all of this with a grain of salt, and go to the curriculum fair for the classes you’re interested in! I’ve tried to make this not just what’s in the catalog/what you’ll hear at the curriculum fair, so hopefully, you can get a more complete view of what you’re in for. 

Here’s my complete review of the post-AP math classes, and my experience while in the class/what I’ve heard from others who have taken the class. I’m not attaching a numerical scale for you to definitively rank these according to difficulty because that would be a drastic oversimplification of what the class is.

Multi: Your experience will vary based on the teacher, but you’ll experience the most natural continuation of calculus no matter who you get. In general, the material is mostly standardized (and you can find it online), but Osborne will do a bit more of a rigorous treatment and will present concepts in an order that “tells a more complete story,” so to speak. 

The class feels a decent amount like BC at first, but the difficulty ramps up over time and you might have an even rougher time if you haven’t had a physics course yet when it comes to understanding some of the later parts of the course (vector fields and flux and all).

I’d say some of the things you learn can be seen as more procedural, i.e. you’ll get lots of problems in the style of “find/compute blah,” and it’s really easy to just memorize steps for specific kinds of problems. However, I would highly recommend that you don’t fall into this sort of mindset and understand what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and how that’ll yield what you want to compute, etc.

Homework isn’t really checked, but you just gotta do it – practice makes better in this class.

Linear: This class is called “Matrix Algebra” in the catalog, but I find that title sort of misleading. Again, your experience will depend on who you get (see above for notes on that), but generally, expect a class that is much more focused on understanding intuitive concepts that you might have learned in Math 4/prior to this course, but that can be applied in a much broader context. You’ll start with a fairly simple question (i.e. what does it mean for a system of linear equations to have a solution?) and extend this question to ask/answer questions about linear transformations, vectors and the spaces in which they reside, and matrices.

A lot of the concepts/abstractions are probably easier to grasp for people who didn’t do as well in multi, and this I think is a perfectly natural thing! Linear concepts also lend themselves pretty well to visualization which is great for us visual learners too :)) The difficulty can come in understanding what terms mean/imply and what they don’t mean/imply, which turns into a lot of true/false at some points, and in the naturally large amount of arithmetic that just comes with dealing with matrices and stuff. 

Same/similar notes on the homework situation as in Multi.

Concrete: Dr. White teaches this course, and it’s a great time! The course description in the catalog isn’t totally accurate - most of the focus of the first two main units are generally about counting things, and some of the stuff mentioned in the catalog (Catalan numbers, Stirling numbers) are presented as numbers that count stuff in different situations. The first unit focuses on a more constructive approach to counting, and it can be really hard to get used to that way of thinking - it’s sorta like math-competition problems, to a degree. The second unit does the same thing but from a more computational/analytic perspective. Towards the end, Mr. White will sort of cover whatever the class is interested in - we did a bit of group theory for counting at the end when I took it. 

The workload is fairly light - a couple problem sets here and there to do, and a few tests, but nothing super regular. Classes are sometimes proofs, sometimes working on a problem in groups to get a feel for the style of thinking necessary for the class. if you’re responsible for taking notes for the class, you get a little bonus, but of course, it’s more work to learn/write in LaTeX. Assessments are more application, I guess - problems designed to show you’ve understood how to think in a combinatorial way. 

Unfortunately, this course is not offered this year but hopefully it will be next year! 

Prob Theory: Dr. White teaches this course this year, and the course’s focus is sort of in the name. The course covers probability and random variables, different kinds of distributions, sampling, expected value, decision theory, and some of the underlying math that forms the basis for statistics. 

This course has much more structure, and they follow the textbook closely, supplemented by packets of problems. Like Concrete, lecture in class is more derivation/proof-based, and practice is done with the packets. Assessments are the same way as above. Personally, I feel this class is a bit more difficult/less intuitive compared to Concrete, but I haven’t taken it at the time of writing. 

Edit (Spr. 2020) - It’s maybe a little more computational in terms of how it’s more difficult? There’s a lot of practice with a smaller set of concepts, but with a lot of applications. 

AMT: Dr. Osborne teaches this course, and I think this course complements all the stuff you do math/physics-wise really well, even if you don’t take any of the above except multi. The class starts where BC ended (sequences + series), but it quickly transitions to using series to evaluate integrals. The second unit does a bit of the probability as well (and probability theory), but it’s quickly used as a gateway into thermodynamics, a physics topic not covered in any other class. The class ends with a very fast speed-run of the linear course (with one or two extra topics thrown in here and there). 

The difficulty of this course comes from pace. The problem sets can get pretty long (with one every 1-2 weeks), but if you work at it and ask questions in class/through email whenever you get confused, you’ll be able to keep up with the material. The expressions you’ll have to work with might be intimidating sometimes, but Osborne presents a particular way of thinking that helps you get over that fear - which is nice! All assessments are take-home (with rules), and are written in the same style as problem sets and problems you do in class. The course can be a lot to handle, but if you stick with it, you’ll end up learning a lot that you might not have learned otherwise, all wrapped up in one semester.  

Diffie: Dr. Osborne has historically taught this course, but this year’s been weird - Dr. J is teaching a section in the spring, while Dr. Osborne is teaching one in the fall. No idea if this trend will continue! Diffie is sort of what it says it is - it’s a class that focuses on solving differential equations with methods you can do by hand. Most of the class is “learning xx method to solve this kind of equation that comes up a lot,” and the things you have to solve get progressively more difficult/complex over the course of the semester, although the methods may vary in difficulty. 

I think this is a pretty cool class, but like multi, the course can be sort of procedural. In particular, it can be challenging because it often invokes linear concepts to explain why a particular method works it does, but those lines of argument are often the most elegant. This class can also get pretty heavy on the computational side, which can be an issue. 

Homework is mostly based in the textbook, and peter out in frequency as the semester progresses (although their length doesn’t really change/increases a little?). Overall, this is a “straightforward” course in the sense that there’s not as much nuance as some of these other classes, as the focus is generally on solving these problems/why they can be solved that way/when you can expect to find solutions, but that’s not to say it’s not hard. 

Complex: I get really excited when talking about this class, but this is a very difficult one. Dr. Osborne has historically taught this course in the fall. This class is focused on how functions in the complex numbers work, and extending the notions of real-line calculus to them. In particular, as a result of this exploration, you’ll end up with a lot of surprising results that can be applied in a variety of ways, including the evaluation of integrals and sums in unconventional ways. 

In some ways, this class can feel like multi/BC, but with a much higher focus on proofs and why things work the way they do because some of the biggest results you’ll get in the complex numbers will have no relation whatsoever to stuff in BC. Everything is built ground-up, and it can be really easy to be confused by the nuanced details. If you don’t remember anything about complex numbers, fear not! The class has an extra-long first unit for that very purpose, which is disproportionately long compared to the other units (especially the second, which takes twoish weeks, tops). Homework is mostly textbook-based, but there are a couple of worksheets in there (including the infamous Real Integral Sheet :o) 

This course is up there for one of the most rewarding classes I’ve taken at TJ, but it’s a wild ride and you really have to know what things mean and where the nuances are cold. 

[novantinuum]

A Link Beyond Memory (ch 2/4)

AO3

Fandom: Trollhunters, 3Below

Rating: T (for minor language in future chapters)

Words: 600~

Pairings: Jim/Claire, but not focus

Summary: Shortly after the events of the Eternal Night, memories of a day that never happened somehow resurface in Jim’s mind in his sleep- and upon recalling the friendship he and Aja formed, he decides to pursue that connection again. Slice of life, and kinda a slow burn friendship reunion. A hybrid of prose and chat fic (to be seen in later chapters.)

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Note: Unfortunately, fic circulation online is getting harder and harder as the months pass. Please, if you read to the end and enjoy, consider helping me out by reblogging this post, or even commenting/giving kudos over on AO3. Thanks! :D

Chapter 2: Transit

Transit- The instant when a celestial object crosses the meridian, thus reaching the highest point in the sky.

~

T: hhhh miss ya already. tbh i dont know what im supposed to do this summer now ahah

T: i was all looking forward to hangin with you and claire and everyone else in trollmarket and now…

T: i mean i still have aaarrrgghh. and darci and eli too i guess but

T: really starting to wish i came along.

T: i know you said to watch over the town while youre gone and i know thats a good point but honestly i just wanna be with you

T: jim?

T: yoooo ? did u die

T: god i hope not after all the end of the world chaos thatd be really anticlimactic

J: Sorry no I lost signal for a bit!! Miss you too gahhh.

T: pls know if you so much as say the word ill crawl on the first airplane i can find and launch myself directly at your face

T: jim liSTEN jim im not even kidding

T: screw arcadia

T: if you need me im there

J: Omg I’ll defo keep that in mind

T: ..jk dont screw arcadia tho i love this place. also its already screwed enough at this point so

T: hey but you think merlin could make me another warhammer for my growing arsenal?

J: Yeah I think he could be easily convinced.

J: He’s kinda sucking up to me now hahah

J: He already made Claire a sorta necklace amulet to store her armor so a magic hammer should be no problem

T: awesomesauceee

J: Any particular reason lol?

T: i dunno i just think itd look wicked cool to double wield, like general orzan from gun robot three. also lets be real after all the crap he put us through we deserve S W A G

J: I’ll ask tomorrow. Hey quick Q for you though

J: Well okay not exactly quick  

J: It’s actually a long story but-

T: ye?

J: Do you happen to have Aja’s number or anything?

J: We took her and her bro down to the Janus Order, lightning in a bottle, remember her?

T: ye i know- lively! and uhhh don’t think i do? havent really talked to them since why

J: I get the strangest sense we’re supposed to know them more than we do. Had a really weird dream but it felt more like a lost memory. Think it’s an amulet thing, like that alternate timeline it made me live through once?

T: huh funky

J: Also supposedly according to the dream/memory both Aja and Krel are… not from Earth?

T: dude no offense but are you sure it wasnt just a normal dream

J: Seriously.?

J: Merlin turned me into a fucking TROLL and aliens are where you decide to draw the line

T: okay yknow thats fair

T: i take that back  

T: okay so,, aja and krel are MAYBE aliens. got that. go onnn

J: What I saw honestly felt so real, I swear. It was two weeks ago, at the science fair. We were fighting a troll in the planetarium with them, and the troll kept combining magic with some alien tech, which kept reversing everyone back to the beginning of the day, like a time loop or something. But I could remember everything bc of the amulet. Aja remembered bc of some energy shield she had. We lived through the same day almost a dozen times.

T: whoa…

J: And get this- in some of those loops we even went to their house and got to look around inside their spaceship! But none of us are supposed to recall any of it bc technically the entire day never happened? It’s how we defeated the troll, that bit’s a little fuzzy. A lot of technobabble sorry.

T: goddd out of all the days to forget huh

J: Right??

J: I guess… if she remembered all of this before I’m kinda curious if she still remembers now too. If it really happened. We were friends in that memory. It’d be nice to maybe get to know her again, y’know?

T: okay you’re prob gonna hate me for suggesting this but i THINK steve has her number

T: bc i was talking to darci and she said that mary told her that aja and steve are like, a thing now

T: a Thing thing

T: i believe her exact words were ‘staja’ ?

J: Oh my god how’d that happen is he even capable of proper flirting

T: well if shes an alien like you think then maybe she doesn’t know what human flirting looks like

J: Haha maybe indeed. I’ll go talk to him thanks

J: G’night Tobes love ya

T: night buddy <3

(my notes from ao3:)

Admission, I had far too much fun with the text format. I've never attempted anything like it, but I especially wanted to create unique "character voices" that extended into the way they each type- which was a cool challenge.

I imagined Toby as the sort of person who types out his thoughts far too quickly to care about punctuation, and IMO if Trollhunters was set just a year later (I generally just imagine it all set in 2016) he'd be keymashing. Jim is more of a full sentence type of guy who never turned off auto capitalization.

ALSO, a note on the contact photos- (Jim's which I directly took from a screenshot from Claire's phone, and Toby's which I edited from some 2D concept art)- That's the photo Jim uses for Toby's contact, and I imagine there's probably some inside joke where Jim took a really derpy photo of him at one point and they laughed so hard about it that he immortalized it as his contact. Jim's personal contact photo is... well, as this all takes place post s3 of course, a rather sad reminder of his loss of humanity. He can't bother himself to change it currently.

Future chapters will likely be a mix of text AND prose, instead of one or the other. Hope you enjoyed!

[bh-reports]

11_1_21

AU Exploration Team

I’ve figured out very quickly that I love the FUCK out of having multiple perspective chapters. I don’t know if I want to keep it up for the whole story but at least introducing the characters is fun. I’m interested in doing a Switch, Gaster and AJ version. I probably already mentioned this but I feel more concretely about it. After that, I probably will stick with Switch’s perspective... Honestly? I don’t know. I like to experiment so I could literally do anything. 

Joined at the Hip

I plan on returning to it to add some more description after Golden Turd is published. The first chapter definitely needs some work. The emotional transition is a little clunky. I got a new draft that has the right spirit so I’ll probably focus my efforts there too. After that, I’m hoping to jump to editing Snaps’s perspective for the second chapter. I want to give a better idea of the events leading up, Marque’s relationship to Snaps, some conditions, etc. I don’t want to overload with exposition but there’s plenty I can imply without saying much. 

TASAI - Take a Stab at It

Ayyyyyy, I totally put this on hold again. I want to revamp it with better descriptions as well. I’m so fucking close with being finished with it but it’s like 10,000 words and bitch, that is sooooooo tiring to edit. It takes me a couple days to come up with a new full edit because I can’t sit through the damn thing! Action scenes are hard to write. Honestly, I need to research some tips because I feel like it’s incredibly boring and tedious the way I write. It just doesn’t do the characters justice. 

Chapter 2 and 3 are coming along well. I’ve gotten some interesting drafts in the past couple months that further flesh out Frisk’s relationship to Sans. It also gives me a better idea of just how the torture scene in Chapter 2 will go down. I want it to be... idk... weird? Not sexual but sexual, intimate but sorta embarrassing? It’s hard to describe since I want it to be fucked up but I also don’t want it soooooo fucked up that it makes me squicky. 

Antiway- I’m feeling I’ll definitely return to it. I just need a crap load of time recharging every time I work on it. It’s like a trash fire of emotions to work on. I like to throw all my bullshit on the fire. Let me tell you, it’s a LOT of crap and it stinks and sometimes it’s fun and other times it makes me just so tired I don’t want to work on it anymore. I like to do some venting but this one is like vent central. 

[a-writing-bear]

[PruCan] Chapter 2: Soft-Spoken Calling, They Want Their Shyness Back

Ao3 Link:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/11159997/chapters/24905436

This Has been cross-posted onto FF & Ao3 under Aliases: BearBooper

You can read this Fic on tumblr under ‘Keep Reading’

Previous Chapter    Next Chapter

Fandom: Hetalia Axis Powers

Main Pairing: Gilbert Beilschmidt & Matthew Williams (Prussia & Canada)

AU:  College AU - Art Student Matthew and Media/Film Student Gilbert

Age Rating/Mature:  Teen And Up Audiences (12+ due to mentions of mature themes as well as swearing)

Trigger Warnings: None in this chapter (Future addiction to mention themes such as addiction, rape etc.)

Finding a hook-up was never hard. Gilbert knew how to wave and woo any guy and gal (granted he needed to actually try). Night after night, a beautiful girl, a dashing lad – it didn’t matter. Putting it simply, the way the white-haired devil seduced people was effective and singular. It was not a ‘series’ of escapades; the word ‘series’ describe the concept of continuation...what Gilbert did was not continuations, not one after another (Oh he most definitely did NOT share his lays). They were separate events to him. After a tom-foolery of sorts, it would be a good morning and goodbye; a prompt push out of the door to say the least.

It was ‘fuck’ then ‘wish them luck.’

He would carry on the next day, carrying himself in such a prideful manner one could wonder how so many looked forward to being in bed with someone like that. If anyone asked Gilbert if the evenings of a stranger after stranger got boring, he would confidently shrug the question aside with ‘the philosophy of a player’. The thought of falling in love, further than a silly high school crush, was absurd. Devotion to another human being? A sudden feeling of glee towards another human being? A day when he would experience all that seemed too far to even acknowledge.

And yet here he was, locked in staring into purple irises from a boy he had only just met. Heart panging and brain whizzing without reason or sense. Breathe. Think. Breathe, why is it so hard to breathe? Think? What order was it again? It felt breathlessly confusing.

“G-Gilbert could you like let go?” a heat rose to his face and he backed away quickly and let go of a sprig of strawberry blonde hair. A soundless sigh of relief was released by Matthew, and a flustered motion of twiddling fingers accompanied the timid look the shorter boy wore. Bathing in the seemingly, weird comfortable silence that engulfed the room the taller of the two proposed to get to know each other:

“Would you like to chill here? - I mean- like if you have nothing to do. I see you like my posters and stuff.”

Gilbert watched the reaction carefully, searching for any hatred or disgust to appear, he was aware of what reputation he had.

“eh? I’ve got art coursework and I’m sorta- I’m behind on it.”

Art coursework? Considering Matthew’s brother was a mathematical prodigy and science ‘fanatic’ (Gilbert really meant ‘geek’ but that sounded rude) he found it slightly alarming to hear that the student here was in the art stream…’although that does explain his slightly dishevelled look in that paint-covered shirt’. Gilbert found himself wanting to learn more and before he could stop himself he let it slip,

“Do you want to paint in here?”

In reality, Gilbert didn’t like studying alone. As much as he enjoyed his editing and planning scenes for his media course, it was draining sitting in a room cooped up alone. Hence why he relied on loud music to occupy his fleeting thoughts. The study hall and common room had been crowded with the varsity sports teams who were watching the campus’ big play-offs this week and the noise had been maliciously distracting. The study hall bred conversations too inane for his liking; snippets of people’s personal lives too irrelevant for Gilbert to sit through. On top of that, if needing a good environment meant travelling into the student-habitat known as the library (a place of late night coffee addicts struggling to complete 4 months of work) then he would rather fail the semester.

He had noticed the unsure reaction of the artist and gulped as the boy opened his mouth to reply:

“Well- My art stuff is already setup and messy in my room…I can’t really bring it here. Would- would you like to sit in my room? I…don’t mind.”

Gilbert’s face light up with happiness (relief as well- though he wouldn’t admit to it.), he took his laptop and charger along with a portfolio that he swore weighed more than Ludwig when he was a child and followed Matthew into the neighbours’ room. Most of the people here were the first-years, a close-knit community that, 4 out of 5 times, respected and trusted each other’s personal space so they both waltzed in carelessly not looking to shut out anyone and left the door gaping out open.

Matthew motioned for Gilbert to sit down in front of his desk. Gingerly he place his laptop down and ducked down to plug in his worn out charger. As he reclined in the Canadian’s chair he witnessed a genius in the works of what Gilbert could only describe as pure emotion splayed out on a too-small-for-it’s-worth canvas.

For a few moments, the artist had pondered whether he had made another wrongful decision inviting the albino into his safe space – thinking about it more ‘I don’t usually do this huh.’ One step within his room the thoughts seemed to melt away as he looked longingly to his painting, engrossed in the pursuit to add more paint onto the canvas Matthew didn’t notice the audience-like attention his guest was giving him.  Beautiful hues of red a green were doused carefully onto the illustration of springtime bliss. “eh- I would prefer something more autumn-y or…winter.” He mused to himself and mulled over the idea of painting something for his dorm after this fairly boring assignment is finished.

“Why autumn or winter?”

He was jolted out of his caged thoughts from that question, did he say that out loud?

“I-err I don’t particularly like this piece, it’s not the best. I personally like winter landscapes mor-“

A loud gasp hit Matthew’s ears and the Albino had screeched out as if utterly bewildered by the earlier comment,

“You don’t like it?! It’s really... really good- Better than what I could ever do! I’ve been trying to find someone who could draw a scene like that for ages!” The artist’s cheeks had flamed up in such overwhelming embarrassment (and a tiny smidge of smug pride) that he almost lost the latter of what Gilbert had blurted out.

Scene? Oh. Gilbert must be a media student….-actually no wonder he seems familiar...was he that guy that sometimes appeared mysteriously near Feli and his Ludwig? – On the odd chance the departments had overlapping projects it wasn’t uncommon to find media students mingling with his fellow artists. Incidentally, he recalled about a month ago, he was commissioned by that smaller Finnish fellow (“O-Oh No I’m not Swedish, Berwald just hangs around a lot.”) to help apply face paint for a strange music video in a probably-Nordic language (I wonder if Tino did get an A for that project).

“Scene for what?”

He had obviously caught those red eyes off guard, then as if a light switch had been flicked the boy’s grin grew wide.

“An Animation! Wanna see the storyboard? I’ve been looking for an animator, seeing as my drawing skills can be described as the equivalent of a…What was that saying…um...? A fish trying to climb a tree…”

It wasn’t like Matthew was trying to be rude, however, he had tuned out Gilbert after the silver haired student had turned his heavy overloaded binder of paper for show. The page was full. It looked overly detailed, annotated words scribbled over the crudely but clearly illustrated panels of what seemed to be a short story of a young boy? As he leant down closer to investigate the piece he noticed the smaller details scrawled in between the panels like ‘Screen transition – autumn’ or ‘Redo panel, reframe’. With such a thorough and comprehensive plan, any animator would know exactly what the director would want from them. ‘Honestly, if only the people who commissioned him would give him details like that – I’m looking at you Tino’

“…Actually just realised what that fish quote meant...man that’s really smart I guess, can’t believe I…”

Oh. Gilbert was still yapping. His lavender eyes scoped up and down the page and he hummed in approval of the chatterbox’s work. He was staring so close to the page that the Canadian could feel his glasses slipping off…

“…..Hey! I should hire you to be my animator!”

Matthew had glanced so quickly at Gilbert in that moment that his glasses had slanted in the movement. This is going to be a long semester.

[agrandquiet]

All the Money in the World Review

I love watching drama that don't got nothing to do with me. I'm super basic when it comes to that. It's what made me super interested in the post-production of All the Money in the World, when I mostly try to stay impervious to insider shit. But this one has blown up with all the fallout and bitter recriminations of a nasty high school breakup. Ridley Scott fucking know it too, he been riding the wave like the mean girl determined to come out on top. Then, right after the Globes, the Michelle Williams gender pay disparity news broke and all of a sudden, the man too nervous to say anything.

It's been so delicious, ego and allyship and the the dream that #MeToo may actually precipice an artistic reckoning. I just wanted the film to measure up to that real life promise, it don't particularly. The story of the kidnap of the grandson of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty and the man's refusal to use his enormous wealth to secure the life of the boy feels mostly unobtrusive. It moves around in an amiable sorta way letting Michelle Williams, as Getty's former daughter-in-law, fight against the capricious whims of both the rich man and her child's tormentors.

Beside her for most of it stands Mark Wahlberg, seeming outclassed as he struggles to realise this hardball fixer type character. He's supposed to feel like this man of mystery I think, unsuited to an actor who likes to splash big unrestrained emotion across his face. We chart their travels between England and Italy, as they negotiate their way to a compromise between two parties who would find it much easier were they cut from the proceedings.

Christopher Plummer plays Getty as an unconscionable miser, rather on brand for a man who over the past month in film has also appeared as both Scrooge and Herod. He's working with a script that has little interest in creating anything other than a complete bastard, but finds his moments. Mostly when he's alone, or being interrupted, I get that weird old man. No joke, Plummer knows when to drop the pretence and just be a smug tosser, letting that smirk run across his face when the character knows he's entered a whole new realm of petty. He's putting in fun work.

At the other end of the negotiations Romain Duris portrays the man known as Cinquanta; kidnapper, protector, guardian, and reluctant friend of the kidnapped kid: Paul, played by Charlie Plummer (no relation). Both of them get all dirtied up for their roles and they fucking own it. This evolving relationship between captor and captive, especially when power starts changing hands more rapidly than either would like keeps all these scenes in huts and stables full of life.

For her part Williams is great, literally as ever. Her Gail Getty is wonderful and determined and fragile, knowing how far she is from her ex-husband and all the wealth associated with his name. Yet she never bends or breaks under the demands that all the compromised man around her are making. She fights on her own terms, with the lilting accent of American Old Money. It's a masterfully spun performance that is crushed by trapping her alone with Wahlberg so much when all the really interesting stuff is crushed in her periphery.

But the film rolls through it more or less, Scott wisely keeps the pace up instead of luxuriating in the detail. We lose time here and there, all of a sudden we realise we're six months into the affair because we just haven’t been keeping track of the myriad flights they be chartering across Europe. It all hangs apart loose, there's something almost stagey about it in a way as we transition from dialogue to dialogue, J. Paul Getty to Cinquanta, inching along our plot until we reach a sneaky, actiony finale.

I was partly reminded watching this of the Spielberg joint Bridge of Spies, though maybe I just had The Post on my brain. That film does the same sorta thing, sure we're playing with different tones in a different genre space but in it Hanks has to negotiate between the US, the USSR and East Germany to arrange a deal that none of them want him involved in. And it manages to make every single exchange read as a win or a loss, the balance of power shifting, evolving.

This plays like a seesaw with two intransigent kids holding the spokes even. There's nothing freewheeling or dynamic here, it feels staid. There's a steady hand on the wheel. Scott's own Alien: Covenant feels wildly ambitious compared to this. Everyone seems to tread their paths dutifully, and there's an abundance of talent in this flick. There's certainly a bunch of effort by a whole bunch of dedicated folks, but it can't push past its own constraints.

As a political document, All the Money in the World stands strong. If you're a big technical nerdus (like me) it can be an interesting puzzle, where's the gaps within Plummer's edit? It's a fine thriller, and fine is fine.

All the Money in the World is currently screening in UK cinemas.

[theinsanecrayonbox]

KP watches Gifted ep 12/13

woooo! 2 hour season finale! and by 2 hour, they mean 2 episodes...lets see if this needed to be a double douse, or if we could’ve had 3 weeks of episodes after the winter break, instead of the stupid “on 1 week, off 1 week, on for finale”

this is super extra long so i’ll spare you with a cut

oh last time tells us that the Friends of Humanity equivalent are “Purifiers” ok...disappointing...but they are FOH until they actually show up then

gasp! diet-Sinister backstory?? we could’ve had this way sooner if we didn’t have all the Wonder Twins subplot...wow you really do sound like a HYDRA guy

still adoring the Cuckoos. and we reiterate that they’re “Purifiers” ok....and that event sounds an awful lot like the one that Bishop was sent back in time to prevent Senator Kelly from getting assassinated from in TOS and the event that Senator Kelly was killed at in the movies...though i know Pro-Human rallies are common...

Blink’s old criminal friends??? ZOMR is she a Creed???? oh...it was against the FOH...and eeee she hooked up with the Brotherhood!!! she could’ve worked with Victor. i’m taking it. first Lorna is Erik’s, now this; you are finally delivering Gifted

Lorna tell Marcos you’re a Magnus

oh hi Wonder Twins....are you saying your great-grandparents were building Eden? is that where this is going?

if not-Sinister wants to eliminate the X-gene...did Price use that research in making his corn in Logan?

yup gotta remind us that Mom and Dad Strucker aren’t mutants

heehee Roswell. sorry that make me chuckle

wow Andy, explaining the magic friendship bracelet sounds stupid when you say it too

ah so the *MAIN CHARACTERS* are gonna go off on their side quest to grandma’s house. gotchya. at least it makes sense in context and we’re not ignoring the people we wanna see...

pft Brotherhood ain’t backing this Johnny. they don’t have money. idk why you didn’t think Hellfire Club, it was mentioned by you guys before you know...

seriously Mom is the best Strucker, Wonder Twins go home

Lauren don’t nearly quote Spiderman, you’re not cool enough for that

oh we’re in North Carolina...did i know that?

haha say Campbell’s name all you want tv, he’s still diet-Sinister to me

that was a bad affect on Lorna’s knife...

billionaire mutant?? Warren??? or did she say it was a “she”...i might’ve missed that... awww no hint about Vic looking for Clair? gimme more Esme! you’re the best for exposition and easter eggs!

and the knife affects are still bad...how can you mess that up when everything else looks good?

and cut away to Struckers....feels a little sucky since we were having a cool moment with the B-team...and cut to commercial, so lets see who’s big dramatic moment was more important then as we’re a quarter through the finale...

oh i guess the Struckers are more important...ask a stupid question, and get the obvious answer i guess

season 1 is gonna end with Andy going off with the bad guys and Lauren staying with the good guys isn’t it? and Lorna will leave with the bad guys too...and not-Sinister will idk, change colors. i’m calling it now.

the senator from Georgia is in NC...ok? why not ask the NC senator?

hey back to the B-team! Frost eyes are purdy

oh it’s Blink’s eyes that everyone sees as weird not that she’s pink...again, colored contacts anyone? wait bad guys in your family’s past? are they keeping Blink’s familial relationship to Apocalypse? as far as i knew none of her family had the X-gene present...unless she was adopted young by Victor and doesn’t know they aren’t blood related? or...they are blood related here for some reason?? and if she was part of the Brotherhood, did she think Lorna was related to Erik earlier too? “you don’t wind up looking like me without the X-gene floating around your gene pool” (excuse the paraphrasing) i mean...what?? explain yourself Clair, i am very confused, and intrigued, and excited. are you...are you actually going to do the thing i said way back in the beginning with Clair and Lorna being parallels about dealing with their family’s legacies?

grandpa Strucker had an assistant...who is it??? Magdalene Rismen? idt she’s a real Marvel person... stop with the teen angst Wonder Twins

wait this FOH event has been going on for 10 years? 

ok touching moment Thunderblink, but now’s not the time to be having it...

oh yeah you’re pulling an Anikin Andy, turn away  from the darkside before it’s too  late!

is she squishing the cell reception? that...seems implaussible...yet makes more sense than internet ghosts hating red, so...

children meat shirleds-oh how evil! and showing off Johnny’s imperviousness-yay!

and oh halfway mark since we have a sudden cut away because these weren’t edited to be aired together. goodie... >>

Lorna backstory! and we revisit her bipolarness...neat...Evangeline the layer who can turn red demony...you’re Vange Whedon, neat!

and against since not edited to air together, lets replay the opening title and credits

ok time to count how many times they say Xmen in this half; count so far 2

it’s not too late Andy, stop going Vader!

oh hi Sentinel Services guy. you got some new knockoff Wonder Twins with their magic friendship bracelet

why is your blood red on your shirt Marcos when you bleed gold goo?

you’ve never seen a conference like that...even though it happens every year for the past 10 years? and yeah we’re really  going to highlight Lorna’s bipolarness now 

and Wonder Twins being emo... (Xmen count: 3)

Nice thigh holster Lorna. and Erik saw Lorna when she turned 13?? or maybe the medallion was mailed to her...but huh, i guess he decided to keep tabs after realizing he missed out on Peter’s life maybe? after, you know, waiting to see if she had powers...

uhoh Sentinel Services guy found the mutant hideout...hey it’s the guard guy from the first episode, hi!

you tell him Mom! also dude, why question that order; you don’t want to get the little kids out safely?

oh they can see the Cuckoos’ eyes change colors when they use their telepathy...wow that’s inconvenient...i almost thought it was just for us the viewer’s sakes

let’s dig a tunnel! why...didn’t anyone else think of that? and thank goodness for *MAIN CHARACTER* to take control of everything, not like there’s any other high ranking underground peoples who know what to do around...

oh you get a name Shatter? neat! who’s our strongman? and the teenagers get names that i couldn’t catch and won’t look up ^^;

why is Dad the only one with a gun? why aren’t there more people with guns?

“i’ve had friends who were bipolar, and assassination plots are not one of the symptoms” lol oh Blink, you are awesome and sassy and i love you

oh you brought out the other Hounds to attack now...that’s not good

oh sweet Mom can use a sniper rifle...i really hope she doesn’t die

oh Wonder Twins if you blow up the building you won’t die, you’re *MAIN CHARACTERS*, so your offer of self sacrifice is hollow to me...but the show down against  your knockoff version is pretty neat, ii’ll give you that

and a nice scene transition!

(Xmen count: 6)

wow that was pretty much an Erik vs Charles speech Lorna and Marcos had...fake explosion was fake though boo. where’d your effects budget go? it went to the Wonder Twins didn’t it? booooo

why are we in Nashville suddenly? haha “J. Kirby’s” though, cute

see the Wonder Twins lived, and so did Mom so yay! i was sorta worried there cause they kept making her so awesome...

oh wow you’re surprised that they’re backstabbing you Sentinel Services guy?

(Xmen count: 7)

Lorna why are you wearing that stupid low cut thing? are you the Black Queen now?

and yup Andy pulling Vader, so duh (Xmen count: 9) though pointless to take only 1 Wonder Twin there Cuckoos, don’t you know they’re useless otherwise

HA! House of M logo! yaaas! 

but ok, i almost called the ending; Lorna goes bad, Andy  goes bad, but not-Sinister didn’t turn colors...as far as we know. did i think these two episodes *had* to be aired together; oh heck no. i’m glad i didn’t have to wait sure...but i still think the on again-off again-oh we’re done scheduling was stupid. and if they had to air them together, they should’ve been edited to flow better.

but we are getting a Season 2, and i am looking forward to seeing where that takes us.