#he just become a variable part of my art

[cat-brrr]

I love him very much

[ozzgin]

Can I request a yandere Katsumi who has the hots for his first and only female student?

It feels a little bit like presenting a dish before Gordon Ramsay on Hell’s Kitchen or something, but as you wish ma’am. Let us hope I don’t make a donkey out of myself.

Yandere! Katsumi Orochi x Student! Reader

Featuring the karate prodigy and a female reader that’s impressed him beyond just fighting skills.

[Baki Masterlist]

It’s not a given for everyone, but some people just seem to be gifted for a particular vocation, inclined towards a certain calling. While Katsumi is widely envied for his quick learning and masterful karate prowess, the one place where he shines most, where his skill is unequivocally unmatched, is in the dojo. Specifically before students. One can easily tell him apart, even among names of greater authority such as Doppo Orochi. Pupils naturally flock to him, you included.

Your case, however, is a little bit of an exception. Out of random circumstance you happen to be the only female student at the Shinshinkai Dojo. Truth be told, Katsumi had opposed your membership at first. He takes pride in his neutral approach and equal treatment when it comes to his pupils. So when the men started to whisper, snicker and whistle secretly behind your back, he could only grit his teeth in shame and frustration. He would’ve liked to scold them, tell them that this is a sacred place dedicated only to martial arts and other temptations are to be kept strictly out. But he, too, found you attractive. He would’ve been lying to everyone, including himself. Hereby the conflict: accepting you as a student would’ve been tainted by impure thoughts, but denying to train you would’ve stripped him of his dignity as a teacher. He promised to fix his inappropriate attitude instead; after all, discipline is part of the art.

All that being said, he doesn’t regret his decision. You’re awfully talented and often remind him of his own karate journey. You only need the slightest push in order to grasp most techniques and you’ve gone above and beyond his expectations in conquering the basics. The veiled, flirty glances from the other fighters have been replaced by somber, respectful nods as your reputation continues to increase with each rank. Katsumi would go as far as calling you a true prodigy. Admiration aside, only one small issue remains: not only has his initial crush remained with stubborn vehemence, but it appears to have turned into full blown, sickening infatuation. To put it mildly, he’s obsessed.

Is he really to blame here? It’s as if everything about you has been carefully chiseled to his liking. “Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman’, for she was taken out of man.’” You are the Eve to his Adam, a genesis of love that was fated to return to him. There is no other explanation. Indeed, the more he tries to rationalize it, the clearer his purpose becomes. Out of all the places, the timelines, the people, the fact that against all millions of variables your encounter settled on him…His desire is not to be disciplined. Not anymore. One has to acknowledge the ridiculousness of battling destiny itself.

Then he shall no longer tamper with matters that are predestined. In fact, he might just lend fate a helping hand. His patience is reserved for teaching, not romantic affairs. He needs an opportunity to have you alone without interruptions, and conveniently enough you’ve asked him to stay behind today. You can barely conceal your cheeky smile as you slide the canvas door open. As promised, Katsumi is standing near the wall, hands folded behind his back. You can feel your heart pounding, but you muster up the courage to approach him. You’ve been training hard and he’s had nothing but praise for you. A nervous blush tints your face as you bat your eyelashes, calculating your next words. Katsumi’s eyes narrow in adoration. It’s alright, he knows. “How may I help you, (Y/N)?” He nudges you expectantly. “I’ve been wondering about it…I was afraid of your response, but I need to let it out nonetheless. I think I’m ready for the next step.” Oh God, here it comes. He can barely contain himself. Just say the words, and he’ll take you right here and now. “I know it hasn’t been that long, but I really think I’m ready for the upcoming competition. Is there truly no way for me to sign up, even with my current belt?”

Huh. His mouth hangs open for longer than he would’ve preferred. Is this…is this why you’ve called him here? He looks around the room, as if expecting some cameramen to pop out and announce it was all a prank and (Y/N) actually meant to confess her unwavering attraction to him. Your smile slowly fades seeing his increasingly frantic expression. He grunts. “I’m sorry, if you think I’m not ready yet I can-“ He lifts a hand to your face and firmly grabs your jaw. Shut up, please. He walks over to the door, pulling you after him, and hastily checks the hallway for people. It’s empty. With the other free hand he slams the door shut. The dojo will remain closed until morning at least. Plenty of time to set you straight. It’s fine, he’s calm. Oh, you silly, sweet darling (Y/N). He loves this innocent obliviousness of yours. There are other important matters at hand. You try to remove his fingers from your face, but Katsumi’s arm is tense and stiff, refusing to budge. You’re suddenly very cold. His gaze is different and it scares you. You don’t recognize the possessed, hollow eyes that pierce into you. But here’s where you’re mistaken, they’re not hollow at all. On the contrary, they’re overflowing with adoration and worship. You just haven’t realized it yet.

[rottin6]

hi layla my love my light. could you perhaps spare some jegulus cam sex thoughts? i fear i may waste away without them <3

i could yap about this forever, lane im kissing u for asking

it’s essentially an entire universe that spans out across different characters and ideas. the constant variable in each universe is that james is always the director. he’s always behind the camera, capturing sex for the art, whether it’s regulus (his favourite star) or some other actors. he lives in la and he spends his time writing scripts, editing the films, going over certain scenes etc.

in one scenario, there’s a time in maybe a completely different city where you’ve got lily learning how to give a blowjob purely because of james’ videos with regulus:

the first thing lily’s learnt is that the pornhub interface is surprisingly easy to navigate. she scrolls down the page, more inclined to watch the shitty iphone made videos because they look less fake. there’s one video of a couple, a man’s face behind the camera while a young and pretty boy sucks his cock deep, taking it in all the way. lily watches, studies, the way his lips part open and his tongue licks all the way up to the tip, mouth sinking down right after. she keeps herself cocooned in her blanket, chin in her palm as she traces over her own lips with her fingers. the same couple have another video with a ‘deepthroat’ tag, and lily swiftly realises that this is the superior method. and that above all, she wants to be the best so at some point, two fingers are hitting the back of her throat and she’s trying to keep them down. she gags a couple of times, both digits slick with saliva. she tries to match her pace with the boy in the video, holding on until she’s hit with the sudden realisation that barty’s much, much bigger than her two fingers.

(snippet from a bartylily drabble i have yet to upload)

it's the extent to which james loves making these films and videos, he gets off on the pure idea of them. his camera alone is enough to get him hard until he meets regulus, this star who is a star before even being shown to the world. james is enamoured and he builds most of his success with regulus (prior to this, he tried things with a bunch of different actors, but nothing stood out). he goes on to creating an empire of sorts, climbing this ladder but director james wants more and more

but i feel that the jegulus cam sex universe has so much potential to become more than just. sex, if that makes sense

there’s a really shitty 1976 film called snuff and it led to loads of people thinking the pornographic murder in the film was actually real and happened. i want this for james. i want james to crave the money and power and status so bad that’s he’s willing to go to any lengths. he desires to have a name for himself in this industry and rosekiller have the ability to do that for him. they’re his best stars (yes, reg is his favourite but favourite ≠ best) and they make him a shit load of money. they’re on board with anything that james tells them to do and james takes their ideas with a grin on his face and the camera ready

one of the writers of snuff (shackleton) was interviewed and said: “if the murder is real, i’d be a fool to admit it. if it isn't real, i’d be a fool to admit it.” — this whole ambiguity reeks of director james and rosekiller. he has barty and evan make a shitty snuff film, one of them supposedly dies, it’s horrifically gory and perverted but it gives james the name he wanted

he’s so LA fame hungry, he wants the people in twenty years time to be asking stuff like “what ever happened to that actor evan what’s-his-name?” and that’s exactly what happens

james’ entire production company is cut after a series of investigations but he’s not bothered, evan and barty put his name on the map and he’s got loads of money to leave him comfortable until he dies. he packs his bags and takes his favourite star, regulus, to marbella and they live in a house by the beach where they “occasionally” still make shitty cam sex videos but it’s totally anonymous now

i'm not sure yet if i want this to be a full fic or just upload little things here and there on tumblr...

[dynamite-derek]

Sea of Stars: The best game you played as a child that released in 2023

When I was in middle school, I have vivid memories of playing Chrono Trigger. I rented it from my local video store, a poor man's family video. It even had a tanning bed, as was the style at the time. I sat in front of my grandmother's mid-size CRT television and was amazed at just about everything I saw. The beautiful pixel art, the various set pieces, the story, the music. Everything. My inner monologue for about a month after experiencing Chrono Trigger for the first time was using "thees" and "thous" a lot like Frog did in that localization. He was the best character so the way he spoke was the best way to speak. Simple as that.

Often times games try to ape Chrono Trigger because my experience with it is hardly a unique one. Most of the time, I feel these games miss the mark or fall short of it. They tease you with the "Chrono Trigger" but it more hits on some highlights that Chrono Trigger had instead of making an actual good game that can stand on its own merits. The example that comes most prominently to mind is "I Am Setsuna," a game I once wrote about on this blog. It's a game that mindlessly tries to take what makes Chrono Trigger a good game and slaps it onto something else. A soulless product developed by a company with a soulless name (Tokyo RPG Factory.)

My brother has been pestering me to play Sea of Stars for months now. Yet the specter of products like "I Am Setsuna" prevented me from making the jump for a long time. Yes, aesthetically, it played the part...but if I were to go back in time and rent this game from the fake Hollywood Video and play this on the mid-size CRT at my grandmother's house, would it capture my imagination? Would it stand on its own?

Yes.

On the surface, Sea of Stars looks like it's trying to be Chrono Trigger. They have the combo attacks, they have the wacky cast of characters from a variety of different backgrounds, the overworld and spritework looks pretty close and the music...well, the music can often feel like it was lifted straight from that very SNES game. But there's more to it than that. Quite literally. Sea of Stars doesn't just try to mimic the style of one beloved RPG, it lifts from several and becomes something of a Jack of all retro turn based trades.

The combat uses timed hits like Super Mario RPG - a system that's extremely easy to wrap your mind around but is extremely adept at keeping the player's attention. You can't just take your mind off of the game once you hit 'attack.' It also has the ability to change your characters in combat, which gives the game something of a Final Fantasy X (it's odd that a 20+ year old game is the 'newest' thing mentioned here) feeling. Sometimes a spot will call for a poison user, sometimes it will call for your warrior cook, sometimes it will call for your moon user. It's simple, but it makes each encounter feel unique and engaging. It also uses something akin to a limit break system, as seen in various Final Fantasy titles. Everybody gets an elaborate ultimate attack. When is the right time to use it? Even more variables tossed into a fairly easy-to-use system.

It's not just in the gameplay either. One of the big mistakes video game companies make when making 'new' retro games is that they cram too much story into the game. Don't get me wrong, stuff like Final Fantasy IV, Lunar Silver Star Story and Chrono Trigger have plenty of story, but go back and play those games and then go play Final Fantasy VII. The amount of dialogue and dedication to storytelling is next level compared to what you get in SNES games. Older RPGs have a smattering of world building and story but that is bolstered by the gameplay. Sea of Stars is similar in this regard. It does not have 'too much' story, it has about as much as you would see in an SNES RPG. It leaves something to the imagination. Not every last detail of the world is explained, you're left with a sense of wonder.

When I first heard the term 'solstice warrior,' I grimaced. It sounded so lame, like something out of a kid's cartoon. And yet, it is tackled with sincerity. They don't go out of their way to tell you every aspect of what goes into making these warriors, they keep things very simple and straight forward. It just feels authentic. By the end of the game I wanted to learn more about this world and these characters, I did not feel like everything had been spelled out in game and there was something left to discover. Even a post-game twist felt like something a kid would tell you at school and you'd just roll your eyes and say 'yeah fucking right Ned, I'm sure collecting all 60 conch shells will do that.'

My discovery with this game is that in order to create a 'love letter' to a genre, you need to focus on more than one game. It needs to just focus on lots of things. I am Setsuna feels like a shallow clone of Chrono Trigger. Sea of Stars feels like a game that saw great elements from a lot of other great games and came to its own conclusions by throwing those things together. I fully believe a middle school aged Derek would have been glued to his Grandma's CRT for a month straight playing this game. It's the highest compliment that I can pay this game. It's not better than Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI or Earthbound. But it still stands on its own and it is fantastic.

[infamous-if]

I don't know why but I love this ask so much so what outfits do the LIs typically wear? im ready to faint over how G and Victoria dresses up

Sooo I made collages and basically like an essay i went a bit overboard (oops)

So I thought hard about what the ROs look like and my biggest thing was that I wanted to make sure the gender selectable ROs still have their own unique presence and they're not some interchangeable variable. Gina and Griffin dress pretty differently and have a different identity, especially when you consider what it means to be a woman in the music industry (some context changes in the story if you choose Gina instead of Griffin, some of her actions are out of her feeling like she has just as much right to take space in a male-dominated art form, especially given that she is also married to Victoria, a woman)

Griffin does not have this problem since he's 1) a man and 2) he and Victoria present heterosexual

GRIFFIN/GINA

(Griffin on the left/Gina on the right, both in the middle)

G either dresses like the textbook definition of a 'rockstar' with the leather and fishnets and ripped jeans and all orrrr like a 18th century era gothic victorian butler. Literally no in-between.

For both Gina and Griffin, having so many tattoos becomes part of their image. Griffin wears a lot of muscle tees while Gina wears a lot of sleeveless tops, halter tops, corsets, anything that really enhances their arm sleeve.

The middle is the Victorian Butler style I mentioned lol, since they both dress like that as their "formal" attire or for shows. A lot of ruffles, very 18th century gothic. One thing is that I feel like Gina wears more red, she wears more tight fitting clothes, lower cut clothes. Griffin's shirts are also pretty revealing, very much low-cut V's, muscle tees that show the side of his whole chest. G isn't shy about the human body and they've gotten shirtless on stage many times (both male and female/ think Victoria from Måneskin.)

That slowed down a bit since Misfit Alley went mainstream. Their label and team had them tone down a bit to be more digestable to the masses.

Their hair is long for both female and male. Griffin keeps his in a loose knot/bun at his neck, and Gina does the same, but also a single braid down her back (sometimes).

Some things that they wear often: a lot of rings, G has knuckle tattoos and they wear a lot of jewelry. They have a signature leather jacket that's pretty roughed up, wear a nose ring, and pretty scruffed up boots.

SEVEN

Female Seven and Male Seven dress pretty similarly. Seven dresses more grunge and Kurt Cobain was the direct inspiration for Seven's style. Female Seven also dresses a bit like an art teacher lol

A lot of oversized clothes, slouchy, worn bigger, muted colors, a lot of layers. Female! Seven wears a lot of long skirts, cardigans, funky patterns, big boots. They dress pretty much the same both on and off stage.

At first male!seven was going to have short cropped hair but it doesn't suit him. His hair is more like:

very messy and such yeah. female! Seven keeps her hair down, kinda messy and looks uncombed (seven is very clean i promise lmao)

Things they wear often: Seven sometimes fingerless gloves, part of it because they can cover the tattoo of MC's initials, but sometimes they forgo it completely. Sometimes it's a whole arm sleeve. Surprisingly, Seven doesn't have a LOT of tattoos, it's more dainty, tiny meaningful tattoos scattered around their body.

AUGUST

August is like Seven in that they wear big, slouchy clothes but where they differ is that August is more academic and put together. They also like to wear the art teacher skirts. Scoopneck sweaters, cargo pants, and they prefer long-sleeve and long bottoms, usually they don't have much skin showing.

Things they are always seen wearing: headphones around the neck, they dont go anywhere without them.

ORION

Orion is pretty self-explanatory. He wears mostly slacks, sleek boots and a vest. Very professional dressing. If he is going to wear something casual, it'll be something like the right. Still fancy pants, but a clean black shirt. You won't really see him in anything less than 'business casual.'

Things always seen wearing: a watch lol

SEBASTIAN

I don't know how else to describe Seb's style as anything other than just basic. A T-shirt and jeans and he's good to go. Even the images I chose are a bit too stylish for him. Like, he's really just a basic guy. He doesn't think too hard on his outer appearance. Literally just...a Guy.

Even funnier when he's surrounded by people wearing fishnet tights and chains and a bunch of patterns and accessories like he stands out, oddly enough lol

The image in the middle isn't exactly how he looks in my head, but pretty close. Just a very unassuming but kind looking person. Also his hair is like that, just golden blond.

VICTORIA

Victoria has a very classically simple style. Sleek lines, tight dresses. It's not too out there, unlike G. Very simple. She dresses a bit like the second picture for G's shows, a bit edgier and leaning a little into the flamboyance. She tends to set trends and is looked at in Hollywood as someone pretty stylish. Victoria's body type is on the curvy side, more the farthest right than the other three, a bit bustier. She's a simple but effective dresser.

She loves heels, loves a square neck (farthest right). she loves a good form-fitting dress lol

--

IK its a lot but i would be doing this whole story a disservice if i made them boring dressers! so im not sorry !

[iamdarkness]

About Lif's material and form.

Ever since I saw Lif for the fist time I could do nothing else but wonder what he was made of. Lately I have seen people wondering about it too and I took this chance to give my opinion. This of course does not in any way undermines anyone else's idea or headcanon. I just want, as I said before, to contribute with my idea and reasons as to why I think it is so. I take as proof other works of fiction as there are no concrete evidence of real activity. At least none that does not look like fake 1800's seance pictures.

First of all I want to say that to me the most obvious material used in Lif and Thrasir's making is Ectoplasm. Why do I think it is obvious? Well it is what ghosts, apparitions and the like are supposedly made up off in other works of fiction.

But what is Ectoplasm in Paranormal Studies? The psychical researcher Gustav Geley defined ectoplasm as being "very variable in appearance, being sometimes vaporous, sometimes a plastic paste, sometimes a bundle of fine threads, or a membrane with swellings or fringes, or a fine fabric-like tissue". Arthur Conan Doyle described ectoplasm as "a viscous, gelatinous substance which appeared to differ from every known form of matter in that it could solidify and be used for material purposes" -Wikipedia

As an example of an entity that has most of these properties in one I present to you :

The spirit of H H Holmes. The famous serial Killer who was haunting the apartment building of the courthouse he was killed on, on the show Supernatural. He demonstrated to be able to be solid enough to kidnap the girls he wanted and he left traces of slime ectoplasm as well as becoming vaporous.

If we take this information that ectoplasm can be solid, gelatinous, viscous, vapor and even crack and break, then we have an explanation of Hel, Thasir and Lif's bodies and why they look different but look to be the same material.

First let us take Hel, and why she appears to be solid enough to crack. Hel has always been this way and has existed for time untold. She is powerful as well and her feelings seemed to be always under control.

Let us take Gozer from Ghostbusters . Ancient and powerful, Gozer can be vaporous and is able to posses humans and is as solid as any living creature. When Gozer is defeated they break as if made of stone. Gozer's resemblance to Hel comes from how old they are and the command they have of their bodies and emotions. They also have always been this way and so they do not have an issue with their physical makeup.

Then we have Thrasir. Thasir is younger than Lif but her life as Veronica has not been as free as Alfonse. Veronica has been possessed so not being herself is nothing new to her. Veronica also seems to be used to suppress her feelings and thoughts. I mean she does look depressed and accepting of whatever fate befalls her when she is Letizia's prisoner. So I feel that her lack of emotional reactions or suppression of them plays a part in this. It feels more like acceptance of her new form and new self in my opinion. For this reason I take that even though she is younger than Alfonse she has more command of her essence than Lif. Still she has not been this way all of her existence so she is solid enough not to "bleed" but not enough to be hard as stone or crystal. As shown on her art. I think their mental state plays a lot on their command on their essence.

And here is where the difference with Lif is. Alfonse of course being a prince has been taught to not show what he really feels. He has restrains as well as parental issues on top of all. The difference with Veronica is that he has at least more freedom and is more of a revel than her. His line in the castle where he tells you that he may not behave as a prince should comes to mind along with the fact that he should not have been part of the Order but still enlisted any way. We see him get angry and sad and react very badly to different situations during the battles. Now imagine what they went through and think of this old saying. " Life is like boiling water. It either hardens you ( like a boiled egg) or it turns you into mush ( like carrots)." Thrasir hardened in that she looks like she is more adapted to being the way she is. She became used to it in a way. Lif though did not and it shows.

Take Slimmer as an example of this.

In the cartoon (Yes I went to watch it when I was little. I'm a geek ok?) Peter asks why Slimmer is the way he is and the explanation was that he was anxious because he wanted to help them but also because he was helping them hunt his own kind. He had the tendency of eating a lot because he wanted to be accepted. He gets be solid enough to eat but turned to slime and vapor as well depending of the need. There was always a pressure on him of not being accepted by Peter and it played a lot on his actions. Guy had existential issues Ok? SO who else has existential issues?

Lif in a way is like this. The artbook mentions his armor is empty but it can not be so even if he was but vapor, because vapor is something to begin with. Also because you can see the change of his ectoplasm from solid to somewhat liquid and vapor. He has also bones and ABS on his ectoplasm body.

And what glorious abs he has. He can Slime me any day he wants

Yeah...just like that.

But I digress. The point is that he gets angry and he looses a little solidity because

The vapor coming out of his mask when he is angry.

And the bleeding of his liquid ectoplasm when he is injured as well when he is protecting Thasir in their Day of Devotion alt is proof that he is a more emotional person than Thrasir and therefore his ectoplasm changes with his mental state. Alfonse seemed to have had self esteem issues to begin with and the physical change seemed only to aggravate them so I believe that he is of course not accepting his situation, not only that his people has died but what he himself looks like and what he has become. I think this was also a part of why he says he can't use the name Alfonse anymore. He does not feel himself anymore so his command of his new body is not always the same.

In conclusion:

He will get flustered when he has a making up cession and someone (preferably me) will get slimmed and maybe not in the good way if you know what I mean ;)

Where was I ? Oh yeah they are made of ectoplasm in my opinion. Now I just need to know why he glows like Hel but Thrasir does not. I feel it is also because of emotions and mental states but who really knows. I like to think that he glows brighter when he "blushes".

[ravenstargames]

✦ Lost in Limbo Devlog #1 | 01.31.23

Welcome to Ravenstar Games' first devlog! ✨💜 We are so excited to finally share this month's progress with all of you! It has been a surprisingly productive month for the team, and we have not only done everything we scheduled for January, but also some extra work!

I want to first and foremost congratulate my team for their wonderful job this month. We hope February will be another amazing month for us and the game!

We want to thank you all so much for sticking with us, for sending us asks, showering us with love and good vibes, and overall for just being here! Without further ado, let's jump into the devlog, shall we? 💜

One of January's highlights has been, without a doubt, Vycar's debut! He's one of six supporting characters you will meet in the demo, and he is very dear to the team.

Calm, shy and a bit of a workaholic, Vycar is the complete opposite of his Lord and close friend, Amon. The dynamic of these two is extremely fun to write, and you'll be seeing a great deal of it in Amon's route!

We did his concept art around late 2022, but this month we focused on his clothes, the color palette and his sprite.

He's not our first finished supporting character, though: we already did Neela's sprite—a character you'll also meet in the demo, and one of the main supporting characters of Envy's route— a few months ago. We want to do some tweaks as her sprite sadly is a bit outdated now compared to the rest of the cast, but you most likely will be meeting her soon! 💜

Ah, yes, the team's personal nightmare! This month we have made outstanding progress with our backgrounds: as of now, six out of ten backgrounds are ready for rendering, or are already finished!

I may as well point out that Raquel, our lead character artist, is also in charge of rendering the backgrounds, which is a ton of work. As we'll be focusing on the characters next month, it'll be a while until Raquel can keep working on finishing backgrounds, but the wait will be worth it! 💜 In the meantime, Astro and Kayden will keep working on them.

Here you have a WIP of one of the first places you'll visit in the demo: your kitchen! We also wanted to show how the background department works with this little gif. Every member of the team is in charge of a different stage; I, for example, write down a briefing for each background and create a moodboard for Astro, and then we all offer our feedback as he works.

Well, this is your mother's kitchen, but it counts...right?

Astro, our lead background concept artist, has also been working hard on bringing Lost in Limbo's world to life. We don't want to spoil too much, but as the director, I wanted to highlight Astro's work today, so I'm leaving here one of the concept pieces he did for another background, as a treat! 💜

What could possibly be happening here, I wonder...?

As of today, 76% of the demo script is coded! ✨ Courtesy of Seyl (that's me!), who has suddenly become a Ren'Py pro (quotation needed).

Jokes aside, we are slowly but surely getting closer to tie all the knots and solve all the mysteries behind Lost in Limbo's demo programming. The pronoun selection works great, the choices don't make the game explode, and variables change when they have to, which may not sound like a lot, but for us first-timers it is like a dream!

You can punch Amon in Lost in Limbo's demo! Yay!

For me, the most complicated thing has been programming the LIs sprites, as they will change clothes in the future, they blink, etc. A bunch of unexpected problems came out (as they always do) as I got familiar with Ren'Py, but fixing them has been an equally rewarding and maddening experience. There's a lot of work left to do and I'm sure I'll suffer a great deal trying to figure everything out, but isn't that the fun part?! Coping mechanism!

Honestly, as an adult who still has to count with her fingers, finding out that I can program with Ren'Py quite correctly is making me feel kind of smart.

Our UI is still on the making, but we hope we can show y'all some sneak peeks real soon!

Seyl's programming adventure also includes absolutely beautiful placeholders like this one, made by yours truly. We promise your mom looks better than this.

As for the writing department, I keep saying the prologue / demo script is finished, but I find myself going back to it to modify stuff. To this day there's still some changes I think can benefit the narrative—but I have to sit down and think about them thoroughly first. As the story grows and the plot thickens, it is my job to make the demo as engaging as possible, and I'm committed to it.

The first chapter of Amon's route is done, and the second is on the making. My plan is to at least write three chapters of every route before focusing on finishing one, to make sure all of them are coherent and cohesive.

January has been a good month for the team. I'd say that the progress we have made especially in the programming and background department has relieved us from a lot of stress.

Sadly, as you all know, Raquel, Astro and me are full time students, and our master degree is being quite intense. How much time we can dedicate to the game depends on the amount of work the master demands from us, so February could be as good as January for the game, or it could be not as fullfilling. Only time will tell! Know that in any case, we regularly work on the game.

If you've made it this far, thank you so much for your time! 💜 I hope it wasn't too boring, and please forgive my overworked brain if there's a bunch of nasty typos around. I promise I'll check the post (again) soon, just in case.

Sending you all a lot of love from the Ravenstar Team! Have an incredible week, take care, and remember to drink water!💜

[lazysublimeengineer]

what if all I need is you?

Summary: I might as well be drunk in love.

Characters: Isagi Y. & Hiori Y.

(A/N: Inspired by the 1989 FTV, “Slut!” I don’t own anything from this franchise. Respective ownership belongs to Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yusuke Nomura for this wonderful manga and to Taylor Swift for this beautiful yet melancholic song. Lastly, please be mindful of the tags. Unnecessary complaints and comments will not be tolerated as sufficient warnings were provided in the tags. Some dialogues in the earlier part of the fic are excerpts from the latest chapter of the manga itself hence the spoiler tags.)

Flamingo pink, Sunrise Boulevard

Clink, clink, being this young is art

Aquamarine, moonlit swimmin’ pool

What if all I need is you?

“Let’s do this. Until we become the best players in the world.” Isagi remarked smilingly at him at the end of the match to which they had won.

A devious smirk inched across Hiori’s lips as he heard Isagi’s bright, optimistic words.

“Nah... I won’t play this kind of tag-team football with you anymore.” Hiori replied lightly but his words hung heavily into the air which made Isagi taken aback.

“Eh...?”

Hiori resisted the urge to laugh at his face.

Ah. Isagi can be adorable off the field sometimes. He was an open book when he wasn’t using his tactical mind in strategizing and manipulating the variables around the field when they’re playing soccer.

His eyes were clearer, curious and sincere which stirred something inside of Hiori.

“From now on, I’m gonna play a brand of football that will produce the best striker in the world!” He declared proudly.

“Hiori...” Isagi blinked owlishly at him.

“To be quite honest, I was planning on quitting after this match... But after being a part of that goal... After experiencing that thrill, that ego...”

Hiori trailed off for a moment and locked his deep gaze at him.

“If strikers can’t understand and keep up with my passes... I’ll discard them without a second thought. That goes for you too, Isagi-kun...” He grinned widely at him.

Isagi grew quiet at his words for a moment before he grinned back devilishly at him.

“Hah. Why you... Contrary to your calm demeanor, you’re quite a sadist aren’t you?”

A dark chuckle slipped past Hiori’s lips.

‘There’s no way in hell I can quit, idiot...’ He thought in fond exasperation.

Got love-struck, went straight to my head

Got lovesick all over my bed

Love to think you’ll never forget

Handprints in wet cement

Adorned with smoke on my clothes

Lovelorn and nobody knows

Love thorns all over this rose

I’ll pay the price, you won’t

“I’m an ultrasadist. Nice to meet ya.” Hiori said with a cheerful smile on his face.

His aquamarine irises gleamed under the sparkling lights of the stadium.

His wide-eyed gaze met Isagi’s deep, penetrating gaze and he resisted the urge to blurt out something stupid.

To blurt out something that might’ve come from his foolish heart.

In that moment, he didn’t need anyone.

He only needed Isagi’s attention and focus on him.

Because he knew that they could go beyond with them working hand in hand.

But that’s not what his ego says.

And for the first time in his life, he refuted the whisperings of his own heart and followed his awakened ego after that match.

‘From now on, my life will revolve around me.’

But if I’m all dressed up

They might as well be lookin’ at us

And if they call me a slut

You know it might be worth it for once

And if I’m gonna be drunk

I might as well be drunk in love

But of course, it was easier said than done.

Theoretically speaking, he could’ve done it easily inside his head.

Keeping those walls up. Painting an invisible line of boundary between the two of them.

Because Hiori knew he wouldn’t last inside this oppressive facility itself if he let his heart win and succumbed to those silly emotions that the blue-eyed striker was awakening inside of him.

It seemed that it wasn’t just his slumbering ego that was awakened by Isagi himself.

But also, his soporific heart that was asleep for a long period of time.

Maybe it was a test of fate.

An obstacle presented to him to test his control.

A simple accident on the field while they’re practicing on one on one with just the two of them.

Tripping on his shoelaces as he ran past the field and stumbling down on the grassy field with Isagi falling down with him.

Rolling unceremoniously on the ground with the other landing on top of him.

He should’ve put a stop to it the moment their eyes met.

He should’ve pushed him away when he had a chance.

But a lapse of judgment for those few seconds of silence and he let his heart win.

Once their lips touched one another, there was no turning back.

Hiori was a soldier in the middle of the war.

And he had fallen for the trap of the enemy.

Isagi had caught his fragile heart and soul in his grasp.

He didn’t protest as he looped his arms across his neck as he carried him to a secluded spot, completely drunk on his passionate kisses alone.

Everyone wants him.

And he was not immune to those ocean blue eyes and golden smile.

The very night was spent downing in the cacophony of their moans and sighs of pleasure with their limbs tangled with each other.

Everyone wants him, that was my crime

The wrong place at the right time

And I break down, then he’s pullin’ me in

In a world of boys, he’s a gentleman

(A/N: All I can say is the vault tracks of 1989 TV fits well with the theme of this ship. And I thought the song Style describes the Reosagi ship accurately. But as I listened to the vaults tracks of 1989, Hiosagi is the first ship that I can think of and their interactions and dialogues in chapter 239 have inspired me enough to write this oneshot for them. Review and kudos are much appreciated.)

[emeryleewho]

It's Webcomic Day and everyone on Bluesky is sharing their comics process, so I thought I'd share mine here too, especially because I can get more into detail here!

Whenever I'm writing a long-form comic, I always start with a script, usually using a TV script as my default because it's easier for me to check my pacing when I'm looking at the story through a "TV seasons, episodes, etc" format than a webcomic format (because webcomics are so variable!) So I spent about 3.5 years just scripting the entirety of a Flair of Fate as TV episodes before then converting those TV episodes into comic scripts so I could break down the story.

My next step is a rough sketch and the lettering laid out using rough bubbles and blocks. I need the lettering in early so I can make sure the story is all still visible with the words in place and make sure the panels aren't too crowded.

Step 3 is a clean sketch, but that clean sketch usually ends up merging into my line art, so I didn't have a layer for that available haha. Then I go over that clean sketch, thicken the lines to amplify the line weight in inks, and add color.

A Flair of Fate makes for an especially complex process because for every scene, I pick a new color palette based on what's happening with the POV character.

Like the story actually starts in full color here, but then after Javi (the MC)'s dad dies, the color gets bleached out.

And the color only starts to return when he meets his idol and embarks on his grand adventure to becoming a superhero.

So all that's to say that the color stage is actually a really complex part of the process because I'm always weighing what changes in Javi's life might bring more color into his world, and depending on what characters are present, and stuff like that, it might change entirely because he's no longer the POV. And then, of course, once I set a certain mood color, I have to adjust all the other colors accordingly to keep things accurate. It's a lot, but also very fun!

So yeah, that's my process! Consider checking out the comic if you found any of this interesting haha. It's up for free on Webtoons and the official comic website.

[remyfire]

It definitely is! I always love some AUs, but I have so much trouble coming up with them for this show because so few things can match the energy of being at war together. The small space and the trauma and everything else combine to create some really interesting character dynamics, and they're so hard to replicate in a place with lower stakes or more space or just anything where one of the variables is changed. I have so much respect for someone who can write it well (and will definitely read that fic) and wish I could do the same! But hey, making things far more complicated than they need to be is the life of a writer 😂

I completely understand how you feel with the canoe ship though, I am the Queen of Canoes in a couple of my other fandoms 😂 I literally originated a ship tag for one on Ao3, so I'm right there with you on the tiny ships I would go to war for lmao. But yes BJ is so husband coded all the time! BJ Papa San showed it most explicitly, but even just the little things he does in camp are him trying to connect to the husband and father part of himself he left behind when he got sent over to Korea. He's a good person, but he also so genuinely enjoys that role, and it's so obvious to see if you're looking for it. We love a man that's respectful and kind 😤

Mulcahy is so interesting, and I look forward to that episode mentioned! Due to several literature and art classes over the course of my schooling I have become very good at using my Catholic upbringing to completely overanalyze Catholic media, and I am absolutely delighted to be able to pull it in here. It's clear that Mulcahy is genuinely kind and believes in goodness, and I think if he ever comes to the realization that religion isn't always the way to show that it'll tear him apart. He's devoted so much of his life to his religion (hell the man is named after three saints, he was practically BORN to be a priest) so anything that can dismantle that would hit him really hard. And unfortunately, I love throwing my favorite characters into difficult situations, so sorry in advance Father. I loved the glimpse into his head in Dear Sis, and I genuinely had to rewind a few times to watch Hawkeye talking to him over again. It's just so a u g h (affectionate)

I also just finished C*A*V*E and oh boy oh boy I could probably write half a novel on this already but I'll try to keep it short for now. The Hawkeye and Margaret connection! The deeper peek into who Hawkeye is as a person rather than just a doctor, and what actually makes him tick! Margaret sharing her own fears and offering to sit with him to make him feel better! BJ staying close to Hawkeye when he had to come check on his patient in the cave so Hawk knows he has someone safe nearby! Margaret and Hawkeye facing their fears together! Hawk playing a dumb little game with her in the OR to take her mind off things!! This episode is truly making me Feral oh my god, I don't think it will ever leave my brain, it's just gonna live there now.

It is SUCH a good show! I knew it was before but now that I'm actually watching it through I'm getting the full weight of it and god it's a masterpiece. You can talk about the cultural impact all day, but it's hard to truly understand w h y it had such an impact until you're watching it yourself and picking up on all these little intricacies. I've been keeping a list of good episodes for myself, just for Personal Reasons I can't really explain, and there are f a r too many episodes on that list already. So many are just so good, I want to remember them and rewatch them and frankly just roll around in them like a dog that's found a particularly nice patch of grass. This show already shaped me when I watched it with my parents when I was younger but genuinely I don't think I will be the same after watching it all the way through. Just, what a show.

Weeping. After reading this, I had to go check my Canoe status. In this fandom, I have originated 5 ship tags (Trap/Peg, BJ/Leo, BJ/Klinger, Margie/Klinger, Sam/Sid/Hawk) and I have been between the 2nd and 5th story in 10 more ship tags (Sid/Beej, Marg/Beej, Trap/Mulcahy, Trap/Margie, Hawk/Klinger, Marg/Beej/Hawk, Trap/Klinger, Sid/Beej/Hawk, Sid/Sam, BJ/Charles). Why did I do this to myself. It's a lonely life isn't it hfksdfds

But it also makes perfect sense that this fandom is ripe for rare ships because though they are in the center of a situation that demands order, there is very little sense of actual social order as they might experience back home. I think even if I wasn't The Way I Am with multishipping, I'd still be compelled to go, "Yeah, you know what, everything is pretty permissible here. The line between friendship and lover blurs often. There's not much demand for monogamy among denizens of this camp. They're seeking comfort and love where they can find it and they're all very good at giving it." It compels me idk

I'm really enjoying hearing your thoughts about Mulcahy!! I feel the same way about him as well, how he's ripe for a thunderbolt realization or two that his faith isn't going to be the Way and, in fact, is often dealing the damage in a lot of situations. I love you mentioning his three names, though. It immediately takes my mind right back to Trapper and his own long series of very Catholic names. Trap, I am putting you in a jar and staring very hard at you. Tell me your Catholic past. Did you really consider becoming a priest. Why didn't you and Mulcahy get more screen time together.

CAVE MY BELOVED. CAVE, my Margaret/Hawk/BJ thesis (yes, even in a platonic sense, I promise, no one come for me). I think the first time I heard BJ say, "Thank heavens none of us has to stand it alone," I had to pause and fold my hands and stare at the wall. The support all three of them give each other. BJ bringing a cup of comfort and it being passed to Margaret because Hawkeye knows she needs it too. It always makes me sad when people read that as a jealousy moment from BJ when he snuggles down just as close to her and isn't being snippy or annoyed at her presence. He cares them! He cares them both! And such a really lovely way for Hawk and Margaret to continue sinking into each other, to carve out even more level ground between them, ugh. I'm unwell about it. It's so delightful.

It really is so fascinating, returning to this show as adults, huh? It's a completely different experience. There's some grief there because we can still relate to so much of what they're talking or snipping or griping about in our modern, continuously-war-waging era, but also it's absolutely remarkable how timeless it has become. And being able to analyze it now with such depth due to the easy streaming access and the online fan communities, it's incredible. Chef's kiss.

[sobeautifullyobsessed]

<He couldn't help but laugh at the question because he knew it sounded just as absurd to her as it did to him whenever he thought about it. He shook his head a little afterwards and took her hand in his own but did not answer for the moment as he contemplated his answer and what would be the correct way to word it. There were a lot of variables to consider in this explanation, but he wanted to make it as easy as he could for the moment so as to not confuse her more than she already had become.>

My family ... wasn't really much of anything that was worth talking about. Disappoinment and...tragedy. But that's not a subject for now. Anyone from anywhere can technically come from "magical background", should they choose to take the time to learn and open their minds it. I myself - as you have probably figured out by now - used to be a doctor and in that stage of my life I had no interest in metaphysical knowledge or abilities. But then...well, life finally broke down the walls of the "perfect life" I was building for myself.

<He smiled as he watched her look at the surroundings while he spoke, until the last part had drawn her attention back to him. Slowly, he held up his free hand to show her the scars she had noted on them earlier which were now more of a deep red than they were before due to the coolness of the afternoon air settling in on the Sanctum. He was still self-conscious about them, even years after the accident, but this was his Soulmate, the woman he loved before than even life itself. And if he trusted anyone to not judge him or their history, it was this beautiful woman in front of him.>

I was in a car accident that left me no longer able to perform my job, I was told of a place called Kamar-Taj, where I would be able to gain the ability to use my hands again. It was there that I studied - and continue to learn on many occasions - about the Mystic Arts. It was there that I met my two teachers: The Ancient One, who we lost to battle, and Damon Renner.

<He gently brushed a strand of hair behind her ear as he looked into her eyes while he spoke once more. He thought about it and began to realize things now that he hadn't been emotionally prepared for and it made him look away.>

He's the one I was getting the medical books to help when I found you. He's also the one who sent his familiar to me to lead me to your side. He...just lost his Soulmate to a very large battle and is very badly wounded. Of course...of course he would lead me to the one I'm meant to be with.

@sobeautifullyobsessed

*Our paths to here and now couldn’t be more different! Beauty’s heart, connected to Stephen’s through numerous lifetimes, discerned what he left unspoken. An unhappy childhood, marked by a painful loss. A family that may have been at odds with his sensibilities. A loneliness which he sought to fill with a brilliant career and the financial success it granted him. And then a sudden, tragic turn that changed his world—or rather, set him on the path he had been born to travel. She had to wonder if, in all that time, anyone had given him even a bit of unconditional love—whereas her cup of such had been filled to the brim. Surely this was by Design, and she was meant to bring that gift to Stephen’s life.*

I wish I could’ve known you then, Stephen. Not to change the course of your life, but perhaps to soften its edges. I think I had a luxury of kindness given me that I’d have been very happy to share with you…

*Beauty’s eyes reckoned the reddened weals that ran the full length of his fingers, and the slight tremor as Stephen offered her an unforgiving view of them. Even scarred, there was an undeniable elegance to his hand, and she could easily envision his confident dexterity as a surgeon. A mighty blow, that must have been—and his bones must ache as those of her arthritic grandmother’s. Her voice was hushed in soft consideration.*

Do they hurt, Stephen? Can your magic dull the pain? How…how do you manage? And…and how can I help? *she lowered her gaze a moment, carefully arriving at her next observation* Your hands...they’re beautiful despite your injuries, you know. Like something a great sculptor might have made. Those scars just can’t erase their grace.

*He extended that same hand to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear--a simple enough act, but eloquent in its own way, for its gentleness and familiarity. Something like uncertainty seemed to flicker in his eyes a moment before he went on to explain about his teacher and the loss he had endured. Moving Beauty to her next, natural suggestion.*

But about your friend, Damon—if he’s been badly injured, shouldn’t you be seeing to him now? I don’t want to keep you from where you belong, Stephen. I mean, we’ve lived our whole lives so far without even knowing each other. I can wait whatever time it will take for you to do right by him. I promise I’ll be here when your duty to your teacher and friend is done.

@the-eldritch-sorcerer

[gleekingdom]

I'm looking to rp with this oc I haven't really gotten a chance to be much yet. And my character isn't Darren, Darren Criss is just his faceclaim because I like to imgaine him portraying the character ( I know he won't actually do that though XD)

I usaully like to rp B X B Ships

That would cool to rp with someone who had a oc of the faceclaim grant gustin but I'm not picky as long the ship is B x B

I'm Autistic and dylexic so if your against that for some reason, okay don't roleplay with me then thanks. ^^

I'm not comfortable with NSFW so please keep this pg13 I am 20+ but I'm not comfortable with that stuff.

if you are interested to rp with him then dm me here and I'll give you my code so we can rp on Discord.

Name

Alex Spector, Alex

Nicknames

Alex, Spec, Specs (you can make up more in rp)

Age

20- 35

Birthday

April 6th

orientation

Bisexaul ( Male lean)

Zodiac

Taurus ♉️

Height

5'7

...Taits

 positive  . . . Laid back on the outside/ Friendly/ Deep thinker

 neutral  . . . Acts sure of himself even when hes 

not/ a bit of a hopeless romantic/ mysterious 

negative  . . . Doesn't go outta his way to meet new people/ Over thinks

•Personality in a bit more detail

- He acts very sure of himself and sure of what he's doing. And yes well at times he is sure sometimes it's much more of an act. He's not shy and infact can be rather bold. But he's not fully self-assured about himself and questions things deeply, like meaning behind simple things or just life, but at times that gets him to really overthink things and misread a situation.

I think in a way he wants the attention from other people too, but also doesn't want to be variable around them he wants to seem like he's always well rounded and good and doesn't have any problems or things that will worry others. He's kind and cares for people but doesn't usaully go out of his way to become close with other people and though bold can be rather quite especially when deep into his thoughts.

If your mean to him though he won't just take it, he'll stand up for himself, and might say something mean back but he usaully doesn't strike first.

And he is quite the bit of a hopeless romantic, but he's not sure if something like that could ever happen to him. Plus he kinda closes parts of himself off from his band, from people who want to be his friends and even his own family (( Emotionally damaged))

Don't read this part if you just wanna find out rping with him || He's Very Emotional so when he's happy he lights up, when he's sad he's really really down and when he's mad- I think you get it||

He's kinda complicated, at least to me so it's hard to explain his whole personality

And he might be austistic coded and if he is it wasn't intentional I'm just autistic so Idk ( I'm not against him being austistic that was just not my original intent for the character, but I do have other ocs that are austistic. I just like making my characters different from eachother)

Likes

•Space aesthetics

•the Theater/ like plays and musicals

•music/ his favorite kind is jazz pop and rokin roll

•getting his nails painted ( he's not girly he just likes his nails looking fancy)

•Fried chicken / organe chicken

•Favorite colors are red and purple 💜 ❤️

•Concerts

•Reading well mostly of anything

• likes to go to parties weather it's like dancing crazy parties/ or fancy parties

•Just hanging out

•Doing street or wall art

Dislikes

the way he overthinks sometimes

Being told he can only be one thing/ being put in a social latter box

people who whine for things but never work for it

the color organe thinks it looks unflattering

Fears

•Not being good enough at anything

•losing the things that are important to him

•Rodents

Hoddies

• Going to parties

• playing violin / gituare

• getting ready overly early for things like his jods/ interviews/ dates

• Reading

• Listening to music

ambitions• To be a famous singer with his band

occupation•  Singer of his band 'North star' ( he probably has side jods on the side)

Family realionships

Mother

Ellison Spector

His mother and who he is closest to in the family. She loves both of her sons treating them equal. He does many favors for his mom and loves her very Dearly.

Father

John Spector

John wasn't looking for another child after Arnold his oldest, so he never really cared much for Alex. But Alex still wants to win over his father in some way.

Older brother.

Arnold Specter- he's only three years older

His Dads favorite and in Alex's eyes the one who can do no wrong and who somehow wins every trophy and is skilled how can Alex compete with that. There realionship is well rocky at best, more so closed off on Alex's side then Arnold's side, Arnold tries to have a good realionship with his brother.

He lives in a apartment now but I just felt those realionships are kinda important and kinda is part of what made him who he is.

Thank you if you read all of that 😊

There still is a bit to tell about him but you'd find out if you rped with him.

[zerochanges]

My 2022 Media Binge Reviews

I find myself somewhat circling the drain during the year of 2022, I don’t want to say I was repeating the same year as 2021, but I also can’t exactly say I was doing much differently. I think both years were hard on me but in some different yet similar ways. I still work the same job I hate and my anxiety has still gotten the better of me in a lot of the same old ways, but also new exciting ways! The older I get the more it feels like essays like these always say “well blank year was a hard year” so I don’t want to say that anymore but it’s hard not to want to complain about a year’s worth of troubles all the same. 

Last year I was really able to overcome some grief in my personal life by finally taking the plunge and getting through Twin Peaks, a series that for years I wanted to finish but never got past the first season. It was incredible, and made a lasting profound impact on me. And this year honestly just saw me chasing that high in a lot of ways. I think the general theme of a lot of media I consumed was “Twin Peaks-like”. Sadly nothing seems like it will ever scratch that itch for me. I guess that just goes to show how unique and incredible Twin Peaks was—but at the very least I think some of the most fun I had this year was chasing that high all the same. 

American Psycho

This year finally saw me getting around to watching American Psycho in its entirety. Now I've seen it plenty of times on TV in bits and pieces. I’ve caught parts of it, and generally knew the whole gist of the movie, but honestly I don’t think I ever watched it from start to finish before. The internet is obsessed with this movie, the memes alone it spawned are everywhere, which honestly kind of finally got me to get around to it. 

It’s easy to see why the internet would become so enamored with a movie like this, Christian Bale gives such an incredible performance as the lead, putting so much energy and life into Patrick Bateman that almost every frame of the movie he is in feels like it should be hung up in some meme museum. I’m old enough to still remember when he was cast as Batman in the Nolan trilogy and the consensus was “how the heck can the murderer from American Psycho be one of the best superheroes ever?” It’s funny to me to see the argument flipped to “wow I can’t believe Batman was such a good murderer in this movie.”

But beyond the incredible cathartic violence, and over-the-top performances there is definitely a very scathing view of the American lifestyle and capitalist hellscape we are all trapped in nowadays that much like I mentioned in my anime list with Kaiji seems far more relevant today than ever before. 

Dune x3

This year for me was the year of the Dune. With the new movie coming out near the end of 2021 I finally got around to grabbing it on blu-ray, and while I was at it I just couldn’t resist grabbing everything else too. I got Dune opinions, and they are about as crazy as you would expect from a hipster like me. So let’s talk about the three Dunes.

Jodorowsky's Dune, this 2013 documentary is all about the failed Dune movie that never was by visionary and art film auteur Alejandro Jodorowsky. Jodorowsky may not be a household name so just to get a little preamble out of the way, the man has made some of the damn craziest films around—and his breakout 1970 ‘acid westerner’ El Topo is considered by many film historians to be one of the first Midnight Movies, starting a much believed trend for cinephiles the world over. 

Towards the end of 1974 the man attempted what was at the time thought impossible by adapting Dune into a movie and he developed a variable dream team of auteurs and creative talent to do it, which he called his ‘warriors’; many of said warriors would go on to become absolute legends of the industry while many were already legends. Jodorowsky’s Dune was the very first film that ever saw acclaimed legend H. R. Giger worked on a film for example, and beloved French artist Moebius did a ton of art designs for the project. It was truly a melting pot, almost like a mini ‘scene’ of its own that brought together an unbelievable amount of extremely talented people. It’s honestly not a stretch to say that without Jodorowsky’s failed attempt at Dune that there would be no Alien, there’d be no Star Wars, there’d be no science fiction as we know it today in American cinema. 

Jodorowsky’s vision really only ever saw the original novel as a jumping off point of inspiration, the man himself never even reading the book. What he sought to create was both incredibly dense science fiction and incredibly philosophical spiritualism. The end of his proposed Dune movie honestly gives me chills, and hell if I don’t want to steal that idea for myself. 

It’s hard to say what the finished project would have been like, Jodorowsky’s own ambitions and artistic vision is what killed the project, trying to turn it into a 10 hour epic of a movie! I often wonder why they just couldn’t make it into an animated series when that failed. I mean they had Moebius right there! But perhaps it was for the best. The failure of the movie saw incredible talent shift to the four corners of the wind and go on to create incredible work of their own in cinema. When it comes to lost or unmade media there’s a mysticism about it; “if only we could have experienced it”, and I think that’s half of what makes it so good. If it was real, who knows how good it might have been, in a way I am glad I got to be fascinated by this best movie never made.

Now let’s get to my hot take and just say it, David Lynch’s 1984 Dune is so much better than Denis Villeneuve’s 2021 Dune. There I said it! 

Okay, please give me a minute to explain. Denis Villeneuve’s Dune is by far a much better made movie that has a better reverence for the source material and overall makes for a grander and more easily digestible sci-fi film that finally accomplices the dream started in 1974 by Jodorowsky to create something great out of Dune. It’s just that it’s just another good movie. Honestly a lot of good movies already exist. So yes I think for the normal person this is the one, watch this Dune and enjoy, but for hipster’s David Lynch’s Dune is where it is at!

Lynch himself hates the movie, it crushed his spirit and the man calls it the biggest sell out of his career. Yet I think it somehow is something special. The film is easily gorgeous and out-there levels of weird which I think is important for Dune, and is something Villeneuve’s film lacks in a lot of ways. The fight scenes are satisfying and action packed in Villeneuve’s film, making for a great Hollywood movie experience … but is that Dune? Honestly I think I like Lynch's extremely awkward and poorly executed bumbling drunk sad sack fights more. Those honestly feel way more like Dune. People flying around and spin kicking hundreds of dudes in the face is great, but I’ll take two dudes awkwardly dancing around each other while big blocky Minecraft shields glow over their bodies. Now this is my Dune, baby. 

There’s something surreal in both the execution and visuals in Lynch’s take on the material that simply vibes with me more. Had the movie been cut properly by Lynch and not butchered by executives to sell the maximum amount of tickets, had it got the chance to be the longer length or two movies that Lynch wanted, I think it would be a much more beloved cult sci-fi film today. 

In conclusion, I think Dune is an awesome story and great material to really get weird with, and honestly it’s pretty cool that there’s a lot of out-there interpretations to be enjoyed today. 

One Piece

2022 saw me return to One Piece once again and picking up right where I left off after binging through Thriller Bark to Punkhazard in 2021. While I didn’t watch nearly as much as last year it almost feels like I did, as I was able to finish both Dressrosa and Zou before the year’s end. Now Dressrosa is such a dense and huge story arc that took up many months of my year. This arc being a whopping 118 episodes long is honestly just flat out ridiculous, this one story arc is longer than most anime! For those who might need a reminder, the entirety of Yu Yu Hakusho is 112 episodes long, Dressrossa is 118 and in-story the vast majority of it all takes place over a single day! 

This is by and large the most ambitious writing Oda has ever attempted by this point in One Piece and it pays off in dividends as so much truly happens and the entire series as a whole really starts to show a lot of its hand. This is what the entire post time-skip One Piece since Fishman Island has really been leading into. Luffy’s little journey from a boy with a dream is truly maturing into a fearless and brave leader able to sway incredibly powerful cohorts to stand up alongside him against an all powerful and corrupt uncaring world government that is far more preoccupied with keeping its status quo and image than the lives of those they govern. Oda is able to create a venerable army for which Luffy to one day lead on his quest to become King of the Pirates, so many interesting and just plain fun characters are able to stand up not just as new game pieces on the board to lose to show how strong the enemy is but as honest to god equals to our protagonists and are able to hold their own against the villains alongside Luffy and his crew. 

We learn more about the world and see Luffy take on easily his biggest fight yet against DoFlamingo, a character that has easily been hyped up for what, like 500 or something episodes? And just wow, what a villain, DoFlamingo is easily one of the most interesting and compelling characters in the series and just a straight up horrifying monster of a human being, if you can even call him that. Which is great because Luffy has another trick up his sleeve, Fourth Gear. I had seen it before online, being an anime fan means it’s impossible not to get One Piece spoilers but I don’t think I ever appreciated Fourth Gear until now that I’ve seen it in action. This new form is just incredible and so well made. It shows so much creativity from Oda and I love how BIG it is! Anime protagonists nowadays just keep getting hotter when they power up, even the new Dragon Ball series see Goku becoming increasingly prettier, I really missed this. Luffy gets thicc in Fourth Gear, this is what I want, go all out, just have fun being a cartoon again, let dudes have muscles on top of muscles–and no neck while you’re at it. Give these boys just ridiculous proportions, let’s make even Liefeld shiver. Bring back the beefcake.  

Luffy didn’t have all the fun either, I think Franky had one of the best fights in the whole series when he went up against Senior Pink, a bare knuckles, no hold barred, man to man slug fest that easily goes on for something like 30 episodes straight of just two manly son of bitches beating the ever loving fuck out of each other. Zoro fighting Picca sees our greatest swordsman to be taking on perhaps one of the most insane action set pieces One Piece ever had. And then there’s great moments with the new characters like Bartolomeo and Cavendish and oh yeah, did I mention Luffy’s thought to be dead brother Sabo shows up and utterly steals the show for a good portion of the arc? The appearance of Sabo in the story utterly wrecked me. I cried when Luffy was able to see him again, it was such a beautiful reunion.

Dressrosa is truly an epic as far as anime storytelling goes but Zou also somehow delivers so much too and in general that later half of Dressrosa and almost all of Zou really proves that One Piece is able to carry so much forward momentum and still be able to go places even 700 episodes in. The plot has never been more interesting, the goal has never felt more obtainable, and the fun is still there. Right now I am about a quarter of the way through Whole Cake Island and trying to finish it too before my Funimation subscription runs out. I have a month to go but I think I can make it. Wish me luck/

Orpheus (1950)

In my quest to relive the emotions Twin Peaks gave me I watched Jean Cocteau’s 1950 French film Orpheus. Now the film is a (then contemporary) modern reinterpretation of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in modern day Paris. I’ll be real with you guys, I knew jack shit about Orpheus when I watched this, to me Orpheus was just “the master of strings” in Persona 3 so even now I can’t tell you if they did a great job transposing the story to modern day, but I can say what Jean Cocteau accomplishes in this film is nothing short of stunning. The surreal atmosphere and cinematography is easily breathtaking while the plot balances both being playful and light while also dealing with dense topics like love and suicide. 

It’s easy to see why Jean Cocteau is a legendary film creator and why David Lynch considers this film such an inspiration to him. A lot of visuals very much so look like prototypes of what he would later go on to do in Twin Peaks specifically, even down to the iconic Black Lodge. But this isn’t just some Twin Peaks prototype, it’s definitely a damn fine masterclass piece of cinema, definitely worth a watch for its own merits. I would say the shot of the film that stayed with me truly throughout all year was when Orpheus and Heurtebise walk through the world of death, it is something I think about often.

Planet of the Apes (1968)

I’ve seen the original Planet of the Apes when I was a lot younger, and pretty much that was about it. Growing up the movie was parodied and paid homage to in everything from other movies and TV shows to the cartoons I saw as a kid. It’s easy to think of all those parodies and see the remake and the modern reimagined trilogy and think the original is just plain bad but no! It holds up insanely well. I was surprised to see just how good it still is. This is such an iconic science fiction classic and so much has to do with how sharp the writing is, the incredible acting of Charleston Heston, and yes, that legendary twist ending. I implore you, rewatch the first Apes film, you won’t regret it.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

I thought the first Sonic the Hedgehog movie in 2020 was a cute well made kid’s movie with just enough material for adults to enjoy thanks to Jim Carrey’s performance as Eggman elevating the material. But the sequel oh boy, this is legit the best video game movie I ever seen. This film captures the spirit and tone of the Sonic franchise perfectly. It’s a love letter to the entirety of Sonic the Hedgehog and just a damn fun action adventure. All the characters feel much better utilized and written, with even the human sidekicks like James Marsden’s character having a lot more to do and better material to work with. I had never seen so much reverence for classic Sega video games on the screen before outside of other video games than this movie, and it truly felt like my childhood was coming to life in ways I never imagined before. 

Sonny Boy

This year saw me finally getting around to watching Shingo Natsume’s original 2021 anime Sonny Boy. This was a critical darling of the Fall 2021 anime season when it aired but having been burned on so many “deep” anime that weren’t I was weary of it during that time—and not to mention busy and never got around to it. I heard so much praise for almost a solid year though and it seemed utterly visually and narratively interesting so I finally cracked and watched it. Glad I did, it was a rare example of something living up to its praise. 

Actually I got to be straight with you, here’s another piece of media that I honestly only watched because I desperately was begging to feel what I felt when I watched Twin Peaks last year. Sonny Boy is nowhere near that though but somehow is. It’s completely different but delivers a similarly dense and visually fascinating world. The music being done entirely by indie groups gives the entire atmosphere of the show a homemade feeling to it—the emotional core is often tinged with this sense of raw emotions that feel free from the corporate mainstream often overly produced music in most anime. Together with insanely complex visuals and free moving animation that isn’t stiff or obsessed with staying on model and we got something that just stimulates all the right sectors of my brain. And damn if I can’t stop listening to the tracks even now. 

I guess what I want to say is I came for the Twin Peaks comparisons, I stayed for the depression and how beautifully the show paints the futility of life and what death means in a meaningless world. Watch Sonny Boy, while praised during its airing the show almost seems totally forgotten about. You’ll probably have a good cry while doing so, but it will make you feel truly alive.

Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2

Okay, this is another example of me knowing all about this movie because of the internet. There are so many clips and memes about this movie that I have obtained endless enjoyment out of but I never actually watched the movie properly. This year I decided it was finally time and on Christmas Eve, I watched the legend, and my God: Best. Christmas. Movie. Ever. I think I found a new Christmas tradition that I am going to do every year. This movie is downright hilarious, the memes don’t even do it justice, you have to experience the whole thing in context, it’s even somehow funnier that way. In all the best ways. 

Eric Freeman’s acting is legit something I wish I could emulate. I want a whole movie or video game of just people going as hard as Eric Freeman in full earnest and not trying to ham it up. His screen presence is so funny, so magnanimous, so scene stealing, I can’t even breathe every time the camera focuses on him, I am utterly out of breath laughing every millisecond, on the floor gasping for air on the verge of death, but I can’t stop laughing. I just can’t help but love the movie even more as every minute passes. 

And the story behind how the movie was made is even fascinating. If you get the blu-ray like I had to of course go out and find a way to buy it after watching it, there’s a great documentary on how the whole thing came to be. What started as a way to just re-edit the movie Silent Night Deadly Night so they could release it again and make more money turned into a passion project by the editor now turned director Lee Harry which is why he’s credited as both the director and editor of the movie. Harry took the old footage from the movie, turned it into flashbacks and made it into a sequel by shooting new footage. They honestly took a legit and serious slasher movie and turned it into the best comedy ever made. As far as I am concerned you don’t even need to watch the original Silent Night Deadly Night, just see all of it in Part 2’s flashbacks and bask in Eric Freeman’s life changing performance. 

Stalker (1979)

Andrei Tarkovsky probably needs no introduction for film buffs but let’s just say for the uninitiated much like what I said about Alejandro Jodorowsky above this Soviet filmmaker is another auteur artist that is beloved in the world of cinema and leave it at that now because this list is already much too long as it is. Stalker is the first film of his I watched and one I wanted to see for many, many years—and one I only finally saw now because of my damn insistent pursuit of relieving the emotions Twin Peaks gave me. 

Stalker a 1979 Soviet made science fiction film based on a 1971 novel Roadside Picnic which depicts a guide or Stalker taking two individuals through an incredibly dangerous location that is closed off to the public where extraterrestrials had once landed one night and left the next known as the Zone. The story fascinates me on so many levels because of my love of sci-fi, this thought that strange alien life interacted with a place on earth and left it so tangled up, so hard to navigate that common sense need not apply, that you have to go up to go down, you have to walk backwards to get forward, that at any moment some terrible curse could afflict you, that something you did upset the order of this strange land, that expert guides exist in this shady black market underground to take people on tours through it, and many traverse this illegal Zone because of the rumors of a room within it that can grant any wish your heart desires. How can I not want to see it? This is my kind of sci-fi. What I got … was something much different.

I was expecting this sci-fi epic, instead it’s very much almost not present. It’s more about the passage of time, what it means to be alive, the place of religion in the world, the meaning of living in a meaningless world, if there is any magic left to be had in a world where we understand so much thanks to science. The Stalker and the outlawed area of the Zone almost seems like reverence for magic that used to exist, an old world point of view that can still look to the stars and see Gods instead of just clusters of hot space gas. Stalkers with their silly rules; their going backwards to go forward seem like nothing more than that silliness, something modern people don’t need to do anymore. The Stalker in the film is often undermined by his two clients who constantly push their luck and break tons of rules he tells them not to. At its core it seems like a struggle between wanting to believe there’s something special in this life, and being a skeptic. 

I wanted a sci-fi epic instead I got an artsy fartsy film that drinks way too much depresso espresso. Yet the magic of Tarkovsky’s film stays in my mind. The emotions I felt, the long shots that border on almost trolling you with boredom, they stay in your very soul. I still see the beauty of the undisturbed Zone when I close my eyes, the clearness of that water, and the magic of the bird disappearing into the dunes. The ending speech about time and what it means to all of us living from the Stalker’s wife, I hear it play back in my mind from time to time. 

This isn’t really great sci-fi, I wanted to hammer that home to anyone listening, so your expectations aren’t all wrong like mine. But this is an incredible film that uses some very light sci-fi window dressing to convey incredibly complex emotions behind living in modernity. I recommend it a lot to anyone who can handle that fact. 

El Topo, Holy Mountain, and Santa Sangre—or how I fell in love with that weird Chilean Movie Guy

Let’s get back to Alejandro Jodorowsky as he was a big figure in my 2022 media. It started with the documentary about his attempt at making a Dune movie in the 70’s but after that I had to know more about the man. This visionary auteur who took Dune and made this insanely almost religious spiritual epic in space, now this dude sounds incredible. Also holy crap it turns out David Lynch was a fan of his work too and you can easily find a lot of his work being repeated in Twin Peaks. Uh-oh, you know what that means, right? Yup, let’s keep this pursuit up, boys. 

We’re starting with the 1970 ‘acid western’ El Topo, since I still have yet to see his first film 1968’s Fando y Lis (although I do have it, I just have yet to work up the courage to play it thanks to its infamy). El Topo is easily what truly started his career on the world wide scene and not just in Mexico where he started out, it was a movie that would become insanely influential to many creative talents from the Beetles to Suda51; in fact No More Heroes is almost a complete remake/reimagining of it but anime. 

This western is no simple cowboy movie, it’s spiritual and just all out bonkers. It almost feels like two movies stitched together too. The first half sees El Topo, or “The Mole”, as this badass gunslinger taking down the four greatest gunslingers in the desert who are almost guru-like, in order to claim the title of the best gunslinger and spiritual enlightenment all so he can lay with some bodacious babe. He however fails at this and dies, only to be resurrected as some religious savior to a village of deformed people that live underground, and as a new man he tries to rescue the village and lead them to prosperity. 

This film is weird, and like yeah, bonkers. The two halves are almost completely different movies yet somehow they work really well together. I think the first half is easily the part most people really will enjoy while the second can easily lose you. All that said though this is the film that easily got me excited for more from Jodorowsky.

1973’s The Holy Mountain seemed like a slam dunk, the movie about an alchemist training a thief that broke into his Tower to be his protégé then taking on seven wisemen with him to ascend a legendary mountain to find the secret of immortality is the insane kind of bullshit I want in my veins. It’s a … that is to say it’s … the thing about The Holy Mountain is … well I hope you like drugs. So yeah, hard to believe but El Topo, the acid western, was made sober, while Jodorowsky decided to really, how do you say, “expand his mind” , on his next film and it shows because I think you need to be on drugs to fully enjoy this one.

The film has an incredible beginning and an absolutely incredible ending with an insanely good and thought provoking twist at the very end but the middle is very meandering. The scene where the Alchemist introduces his seven wisemen just goes on for like ever. They pretty much stop the plot for a solid 50 minutes just to show vignettes about each of these characters and they are all very good, and interesting, and some insanely funny, but like bruh, the movie is just dead in its tracks for at least half its runtime to introduce characters that essentially just stand in the background after their introduction and that’s it. 

As I said the ending is truly something special and that I cannot elaborate on because if it’s spoiled for you I can confirm it kind of ruins the whole movie. Yeah I knew the ending spoiler before I watched it and that just really took the wind out of my sails. I loved the beginning of the film to bits, the middle just would never end its nonstop barrage of introductions for what turn out to be NPCs, then the ending I spoiled, it was a boring experience for me. 

Don’t spoil the ending, and I promise the dragging middle will be worth it. Probably.

1989’s Santa Sangre or Holy Blood, is probably Jodorowsky’s most mainstream and easily digestible film. I’d also say maybe because it was his at the time most recent work, the film that David Lynch took the most inspiration from when he made Twin Peaks. If you watch some scenes in this one back-to-back with certain Twin Peaks scene, it’s definitely obvious what Lynch was watching at the time. Because of this I say it’s the movie of Jodorowsky I can recommend the most, it’s definitely the favorite of his I have seen so far. Hell I’d go as far as to say one of my favorite movies I ever seen.

Santa Sangre follows Fenix, a young man in a mental ward, and shows the story of his life and how he came to be in such a place. Fenix grew up in the circus, his father a womanizing drunk knife thrower and his mother a trapeze artist and also a devout Christian that runs her own crazy offshoot cult of Christ. It’s a fascinating childhood and the imagery is striking. It’s visceral and a wild ride but also something I have to tiptoe around and not explain a lot about. The movie is best experienced knowing very little about it. There’s a very apt comparison that can be made to a certain famous movie, film critics often call it “The Mexican version of [said famous movie]” and I wholly agree, but my God if you know said famous movie’s name that spoils way too much! Classic, film critics ruining film again. 

I highly recommend this one despite almost bending over backwards to deny you too many of my thoughts on it. There are so many scenes that if I close my eyes I still see. The music is fantastic, the scene where Fenix plays piano is easily a stand out moment of cinema. This is the life story of one man I think you simply must experience. 

Vinland Saga

The 2019 first season of Vinland Saga finally came out this year on special edition blu-ray and after waiting what felt like a lifetime I couldn’t be happier to begin my rewatch of the show. I know Sentai released their dubbed version of it back a year prior but I adored Vinland so much I wanted to wait for the special edition and I definitely felt it was worth the wait, as the poster proudly still is on my wall and I am never taking it down. When it comes to Vinland itself I will be brief and say it’s a fantastic anime, and one of the best the year it came out. I mainly just want to talk about this Sentai release which I found to be stellar, the special edition was of very high quality, like I said I love the cloth poster, and I very much enjoyed their dub. I thought the writing was much more naturalistic than the Netflix produced dub with better dialogue flow as well as being just dirty enough in the way Sentai usually is by sprinkling in some tasty F-bombs that most other dubbing studios would shy away from. I enjoyed how accurate it was, as an actual historian with a degree in this stuff it always drives me mad to see so much mainstream entertainment go for the bottom of the barrel easiest to understand AD over using Common Era, so I was glad Sentai used it. Also actually pronouncing the Nordic names correctly where the Netflix dub hilariously butchers all of them is a nice touch too. 

Wild Palms

Wild Palms in a 1993 mini series that followed in the wake Twin Peaks mania. It’s very obvious how much the series wants to be Twin Peaks and often shows up in a lot of comparisons to it. It never quite reaches those heights however. Twin Peaks’ own mastery of mystery and otherworldly feeling just evades this production at every step but where it succeeds is capturing the other more humble aspect that made Twin Peaks great, the soap opera-like cast. It feels very much at home with the out-there and over-the-top quirky characters and I think is one of the best productions to capture that tone of the original first two seasons of the series. It probably helps that it was a Twin Peaks inspired production that was actually made during that 90’s era where soaps were still king on TV. 

Where Wild Palms differs however is how the plot is far more science fiction based and often attempts to juggle complex conspiracies about religious and political leaders and it stumbles at times but by the end is able to actually pull off a fairly interesting story. Sadly the biggest hurdle is maybe the funniest thing. The series stars Jim Belushi and I’m sorry, he gives a great performance in a dramatic role of a father and businessman trapped in some crazy far right religious cult taking over corporate America through the mass media. 

But it’s Jim Belushi, he has such an iconic and recognizable comedic voice and presence that it can be downright hilarious in really unintentional ways. Jim Belushi’s son in the series, an evil genius child, also suffers a lot from this because … it’s a very young Ben Savage. Yes, Cory Mathews is in some Shin Megami Tensei like end of days cult in this. And you know Ben Savage does an excellent job, you can see why he would become a lead in Boy Meets World after this, even as a child he’s a great actor, but it’s Cory Mathews, in a seat of power, in a cult that is trying to take over the world. 

So yeah, the casting is kind of ironically funny today in 2023, especially for millennials, but the series does run a lot of great ideas and by the end of this short 5 episode mini series I was hooked. Some of the dream sequences are downright incredible and almost feel like they could have occurred in the Black Lodge, it’s definitely where the series cribs a lot of its ideas from Twin Peaks.

The Wind-up Bird Chronicles

If you know me personally you know I have an absolute obsession with the hit indie RPG called YIIK: A Postmodern RPG. Yes, truly a masterpiece that is beyond the understanding of a normal human being. Okay, enough snide, YIIK is a downright meme but it fascinates me endlessly. I spent so many years of my life reading about it and watching videos on it, and seeing playthroughs of it. Maybe one day I’ll actually play it … although I don’t think I’m that crazy. It’s a bad game but there’s a lot of creative ideas behind it and I want to say the creators’ commitment to their art is praise worthy, I have nothing but respect for Brain and Andrew Allanson and I mean this sincerely. They messed up, big time, but they created something with all their heart, they shouldn’t be made fun of for that. 

Andrew Allanson the writer of YIIK is a huge book nerd, and often cites Haruki Murakami novels as his big inspiration with his 1994 novel The Wind-up Bird Chronicles as the biggest. And it shows, having read it now because of my YIIK obsession yeah, so many of the best and most creative ideas I thought were in YIIK are definitely just from this novel. That isn’t meant as a insult though, if anything like me questing to see all of David Lynch’s inspirations for Twin Peaks it just shows the creative process, we are the media we consume, and in turn we take that and turn it into our own thing. 

[trubioart]

Reading and Response #3- Projection: Vanishing and Becoming by Sean Cubitt

Sean Cubitt dives into some of the fundamentals of drawing and painting. He examines these principles and how they translate into video and film. Cubitt begins his article by historically diving into the Buddhist tale of the origin of art and how it compares to Pliny’s story of the origins of paining and use of light and shadows. These tales go into the origin of use of line, light, reflection, shadow, and projection. Projection is a very important word in this article. From artists projecting light and shadows onto prints, as well as lines and colors; Cubitt also explores the metaphorical meaning of projection. How we as humans use projection. It is vital in childhood and human development. Think back to when we were children and could not communicate properly with words we would have to project emotion to get across what we were needing. Projection could be literal, metaphorical, implied,etc. In video art you are able to project all of the above. With the creation of film and cameras artist had the ability to visually project their message. Rather that message be direct or implied, the artist had more resources at their fingertips to create their visual work. Art is considered a way to preserve. Video would be the ultimate preservation tool. To capture a moment in time, forever. A way to outlive Father Time. This made me think if this is something video artists consider when starting their project. Is that part of the purpose of using video? For this particular artwork to “cheat death”. With today’s technology like the internet and media platforms, even if a video is deleted does it really “die” or does it live forever in some spaces? Do artists consider that aspect today?

5 examples of time based art/video art/film/cinematic artist:

William Kentridge (South African, born 1955). The Refusal of Time, 2012. Five-channel digital video installation, black-and-white and color, sound, 30 min. Steel megaphones, and a breathing machine ("elephant"), dimensions variable. Jointly owned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2013. Purchased for The Metropolitan Museum of Art with Roy R. and Marie S. Neuberger Foundation Inc. and Wendy Fisher Gifts and The Raymond and Beverly Sackler 21st Century Art Fund (2013.250). © William Kentridge. All rights reserved.

Video Flag, 1995, Nam June Paik. Pictured on view at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in 1996. “Video Flag’s enormous bank of 70 14 in. CRT monitors represents the American flag’s stars and stripes through flashing imagery of technological advances and iconic moments from American politics: news stills, rotating shots of the State of Liberty, scrolling streams of zeros and ones (the binary language of computers), and a morphing sequence portraying U.S. president portraits, from Harry S. Truman to Bill Clinton. The always-present image of the flag serves as a backdrop against which these individual cultural events, personas, and technologies are experienced, recalled, and understood.” https://www.si.edu/tbma/work/video-flag

Pipilotti Rist, Open my Glade, Times Square, 2016. “For instance, he work of Pipilotti Rist is notable in the proportions that Video Art has taken in recent decades. In 2016, she was selected to exhibit her work in Times Square. The artwork consisted of 62 video screens, monumental in size, right in the middle of all the advertising screens in Times Square. On these 62 screens, looping over several days, numerous videos were shown. There, in the middle of one of the most emblematic squares of capitalism, she smashed her face against a window that was placed just a few centimeters from the camera lens. Her face deformed, her makeup spread out, she questioned, brutally, the gaze that the spectator has on feminine beauty.” https://blog.artsper.com/en/a-closer-look/what-is-video-art/

Looking for Langston, 1988. Photograph: Bfi/Sankofa Film/Kobal/Rex/Shutterstock

Isaac Julien | Looking for Langston, 1989

“More than a tribute to the American poet Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance, Julien’s film is a powerful meditation on the history of black gay desire, the intersection of queer and black politics with art and activism, poetry and prejudice. The action plays out against a soundtrack mixing 1920s jazz and anachronistic 1980s disco.” https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/oct/17/warhol-steve-mcqueen-a-history-of-video-art-barbara-london

Lorna, 1984, interactive videodisk installation, infinite duration, video stills

“With Lorna, Lynn Hershman Leeson created the first art work that used laserdisk technology. Exploiting the interactive capabilities of the medium, the artist enables users to explore and intervene in the world of an agoraphobic woman named Lorna.” https://www.lynnhershman.com/project/interactivity/

[randombubblegum]

This is bones of 92 anon I'm going to be so real right now about how heart broken I am about what awstens behavior and shittier lyrics mean for my psyche because like. The music means so much to me personally like I have been around and held them as my fave band since before dd because I just had such a level of love for his lyrics and sound even and to watch it steadily decline as he cries about how it's everyone's fault but his own hurts!

I know you hate gh but I even enjoyed a larger part of it. Like I don't even particularly despise the parx5 stuff necessarily (although I agree it feels generic and eh at best) but like. Watching him throw a hissy fit about how people don't like it enough is so. Like awsten as much as u are a real person with thoughts and feelings so are you fans jack ass! Don't insult ur own art that was important to many because you're bitter

Anyway. Sorry to dump this in ur ask box I'm just. I'm going thru the stages of grief ngl

no no i TOTALLY understand you and i think you are completely valid in feeling this way ☹️☹️ like sure, lets put aside that gh and parx5 are worse albums than those that came before, lets make that variable irrelevant for now. watching him get NASTY, cruel, guilt-tripped and bitter to his fans for not showering him in the praise and attention he feels he deserves???? that shit HURTS!!! it fucking hurts and it makes me sick and more than that it makes me sad

i loved awsten and parx so goddamn much, so deeply, when i got into them and fell into all the literal personality quirks and the sweetness and the band camraderie and how genuinely thrilled and grateful awsten seemed to have come as far as he had. now i have to watch him get on twitter and bitch and spit and rage that hes not getting the attention he “deserves” from his fans? as if we owe him anything!!!!! im not obligated to buy your music if it sucks. im not obligated to buy your overprices clothing if it sucks. i owe you nothing!!!

you are THIRTY FUCKING YEARS OLD throwing hissy fits at teenagers on your priv accounts until the feel so guilty and stressed to see you upset they preorder the same song/album 10+ times. you makw it out to be YOUR FANS FAULT youre not famous. remember when he snapped at his fans super cruelly a few months ago for *checks notes* being too excited for a single drop?? what the hell happened to that purple haired little twink who was effusive with joy at how far hed come and how many people supported his band and loved him enough to care?

as a much better lyricist once wrote…. you can only blame your problems on the world for so long before it all becomes the same old song *shrug*

[etes-secrecy-post]

Hi, before I explain my post, I want to say something important.

• What you see my blog has become a major overhaul. And despite the changes, I decided that my 2nd account will be now my artwork blog with a secret twist.

⚠️NEW RULE! (W/ BIGGER TEXT!)⚠️

⚠️ SO PLEASE DO NOT SHARE MY 2nd ACCOUNT TO EVERYONE! THIS SECRECY BLOG OF MINE IS FOR CLOSES FRIENDS ONLY!⚠️

• AND FOR MY CLOSES FRIENDS, DON’T REBLOG IT. INSTEAD, JUST COPY MY LINK AND PASTE IT ON YOUR TUMBLR POST! JUST BE SURE THE IMAGE WILL BE REMOVED AND THE ONLY LEFT WAS THE TEXT.

⚠️ SHARING LINKS, LIKE POSTS, REBLOG POSTS, STEALING MY SNAPSHOT PHOTOS/RECORDED VIDEOS/ARTWORKS (a.k.a. ART THIEVES) OR PLAGIARIZING FROM UNKNOWN TUMBLR STRANGERS WILL IMMEDIATELY BE BLOCKED, RIGHT AWAY!⚠️

😡 WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT EVER LIKED & REBLOG MY SECRET POST! THIS IS FOR MY SECRET FRIENDS ONLY, NOT YOU! 😡

Okay? Capiche? Make sense? Good, now back to the post…↓

#OnThisDay: May 8th, 2017

Title: Cuteness Member - Russell

Russell 🦦🏴‍��️the pirate joins in, and pretty soon he'll be a part of the "Crossbone Vanguard" pirates (among with Flapjack).

And this his first "Cuteness Mecha Armor" from MSG SEED Destiny, the "Abyss".

NOTE: You noticed his right hand revived from wearing an armor. But when he changes, he's back to his hook hand.

Abyss Russell

Came from the real: ZGMF-31S Abyss Gundam [CLICK ME!]

Armament(s):

• M107 "Balaena Kai" Dual Beam Cannon An improved version of the ZGMF-X10A Freedom's M100 "Balaena" Plasma Beam Cannons, the "Balaena Kai" Dual Beam Cannon is mounted in the backpack and is useable in mobile suit and mobile armor mode. In mobile suit mode, the dual beam cannon can be used to engage enemy units after flipping upwards, or all the way forward. In mobile armor mode, the dual beam cannon is flipped forward, and can be used to shoot enemy units on the water when Abyss swims close to the surface.The beam cannons are not used in the water as the environment reduces their power.

• M68 Dual Cannon Another long range weapon of the Abyss are a pair of M68 Dual Cannon, these shell-firing cannons are located in the lower end of the shoulder-mounted binders and can be used for underwater combat. The cannons are usable in both mobile suit mode and mobile armor mode, and are capable of destroying most mobile suits with one shot.

• MA-X223E 3-barrel Beam Cannon Abyss is equipped with two sets of MA-X223E 3-barrel Beam Cannons, one set in each shoulder-mounted binders. These beam cannons are very effective in engaging multiple targets, but since they are located in the underside of the binders, they cannot be used while in mobile armor mode.

• MGX-2235 "Callidus" Multi-phase Beam Cannon The MGX-2235 "Callidus" Multi-phase Beam Cannon is mounted in the Abyss's chest and is its most powerful ranged beam weaponry, but it can only be used in mobile suit mode.

• MMI-GAU1717 12.5mm CIWS A CIWS gun mounted below the suit's forehead camera, it is used for engaging light targets, missile interception and surpressive fire. Usable only in mobile suit mode.

• MMI-GAU25A 20mm CIWS Abyss also mounts two MMI-GAU25A 20mm CIWS guns in its chest to shoot down incoming missiles or enemy units at close range. Usable only in mobile suit mode.

• MMI-TT101 Mk9 High-speed Guided Torpedo These torpedoes serve as the main weapon of the suit's mobile armor mode and are fired from the four launchers that are mounted in the upper end of the shoulder-mounted binders. Can be used in MS mode as well.

• MX-RQB516 Beam Lance Since the Abyss was designed for aquatic combat, it is the only Second Stage series MS that isn't armed with beam sabers. Instead, Abyss is armed with a beam lance for melee combat. The beam lance can generate a small beam blade at the end and can also be used for underwater combat as it also has a sharp physical blade.

Special Equipment(s) / Feature(s):

• Variable Phase Shift armor Like the other Second Stage Series suits the Abyss has VPS armor, this technology is more energy efficient and capable of altering its strength, as well as color in the field, although this must be programmed beforehand.

• Deuterion Beam Energy Transfer System The suit is among the new units to be equipped with the new Deuterion Beam Energy Transfer System, which allows a properly equipped battleship to remotely recharge a mobile suit's battery using a Deuterion Beam.

Russell - Happy Tree Friends © Mondo Media Armor (Gundam SEED Destiny) - Gundam Series ©Sotsu, SUNRISE