#isabel’s tv commentary

[shyjusticewarrior]

Ed became a better character after Kristen's death and a worse one after Isabella's

[goosemixtapes]

max's february 2024 reads

REALLY good reading month! so much good stuff :)

fiction

Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole by Isabel J. Kim (↳ can't pitch this one better than the title does.)

the end of A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin (review)

Dare Me by Megan Abbott (review)

Cheer by Megan Abbott (↳ the short story from which Dare Me stemmed! cw for sexual assault)

the first half of Leslie Feinberg's Stone Butch Blues

Roger Crenshaw: The Vampires of New Haven (review)

An Unauthorized Fan Treatise by Lauren James (review)

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (reread)

Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin (review)

Paradise Lost book 1 (reread for class)

i also tried to read robert graves' i claudius but you can see how well i did

nonfiction

Plato's Symposium (reread for class)

Computing Machinery and Intelligence by A.M. Turing (↳ the origin of what we call the turing test! and way more fun than i expected)

Gender Criticism Versus Gender Abolition: On Three Recent Books About Gender by Grace Lavery (↳ sort of a book review, sort of a commentary on bioessentialism)

the first third of Unmasking Autism by Devon Price

started Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture by Virginia Sole-Smith

other

a bunch of catullus poems & the isobel williams bdsm translations

the latter four episodes of Dropout's Burrow's End

the first three episodes of the Dare Me TV show

[semper-legens]

132. Only Ever Yours, by Louise O’Neill

Owned?: No, library Page count: 390 My summary: freida is sixteen years old, which means it’s her last year before the Ceremony - before she is chosen by a man to be his companion, or cast aside into the life of a concubine. She’s near the top of the rankings, at target weight, careful to keep herself beautiful. But when her best friend isabel starts to self-destruct, freida finds it harder and harder to remain perfect. And the men are coming soon. Can freida gain the future she’s always wanted, even at the cost of her only friend? My rating: 5/5 My commentary:

Dear lord, this book. I read it a few years ago for the first time, and was thoroughly Harrowed by it, to the point where I couldn’t stop thinking about it since. And so, I’ve got it from the library to reread, and it most definitely lived up to my expectations. I think the points it was making are always relevant, and the portrayal of young women twisted by a misogynistic ideal of what women should be is thoroughly upsetting, in the it-gets-its-point-across-well kind of way.

freida is a young eve (the in-universe term for artificially created women) trying to make herself perfect so she is chosen by a boy to be his companion (wife) rather than be sent to the concubines (sex workers). Her entire life revolves around being perfect. eves are given calorie blockers routinely, aren’t taught to read, are encouraged to harshly criticise themselves and each other to achieve perfect beauty, are taught to think that dying at 40 is better than living to be old and ugly, taunted if they eat the wrong foods, forced to exercise in inhumane conditions as a punishment. And freida is a typical eve in this. She’s thoroughly bought into this world’s ideals, never once does she question that her purpose in life is to be beautiful and serve a man. So she compromises herself, again and again - she hangs around with the most popular girl, rejects her friend, tries so hard to be perfect and chosen, and it all blows up in her face. Make no mistake, this book is a tragedy.

The theme of misogyny isn’t subtle in this book, but it is hard-hitting. Unfair beauty standards are satirised. One running idea is that, despite the girls all being genetically modified, they are still seen as more or less beautiful for things they can’t control like hair or skin colour. isabel’s white-blonde hair is seen as perfect, and generally blondes are preferred - which isn’t good for freida, said by the author to be Indian ethnically. It’s an exaggeration of how teenage girls are taught to hate themselves in real life, but it’s entirely true to life. There is no way to win, as a teenage girl. frieda becomes addicted to sleeping pills and loses a lot of weight, and everyone is jealous despite the fact that freida is clearly falling apart. When frieda self-destructs in the last act, the people in charge of the school lock her in a room with tv shows criticising her on repeat, as a form of torture. And that’s seen as fine, because freida has failed at her one job in life.

What I find the most fascinating about this book is how it doesn’t use some of the YA Dystopia Tropes standard at the time. freida isn’t rebelling against her dystopian society, she’s trying so hard to fit in, and becomes a much worse person for it. The only real rebel against this society is isabel, but she’s rebelling through self-destruction more than leading an uprising. Nothing is solved at the end, it’s a real downer ending for everyone - and freida’s even okay with what happens to her. And I like that, it makes the story feel that much more real. It’s a slice of life within this world, and really exposes how misogyny can seep into the pores of this world. It makes the threat seem insurmountable - which, in fairness, it often does in reality too.

Next up, back to the past for an old mansion, and some ghosts and faeries.

[isabelisfun]

untucked commentary time

this was a really good snatch game like the safe queens make sense but they all of them did really well

VANJIE IS HERE OMG SHE LOOKS SO PRETTY i am gay

i want vanjie on every episode every season from now on thank u

the fact that we didnt get anymore jackie x vanjie or crystal x vanjie content from untucked is a crime

JAN AND THE SHADE BUTTON I LOVE HER

side note i love jackie’s hair and makeup today

honestly i feel like crystal is losing steam and that makes me sad

why are the people who did well complaining

gigi praising crystal for her progress is amazing that was really nice

jackie just sits and observes every fight and its so funny to me

ima say it again, gigi’s blushed nose is really cute

ALSO GIGI IS TRYING TO FIX THINGS WITH HEIDI THAT IS ICON BEHAVIOR

gigi is being really great i think cuz she’s calling people out in a smart and not like angry or insulting way

brita’s performance in the lipsync really said: teeth

aw heidi’s letter to aiden was really sweet

[adultswim2021]

Space Ghost Coast to Coast #33: “Woody Allen's Fall Project” | December 25, 1996 | S03E15

What makes Space Ghost Space Ghost is episodes like this. “Woody Allen's Fall Project”, hosted by James Kirkconnell (itself a reference to Story Book House) is the clip-show that is gratuitously NOT a clip show, but a re-enactment show. Here we are treated to live-action re-enactments of several Space Ghost shows, including Bobcat, Girlie Show, Freak Show, Hungry, and Banjo. We also have a number of Space Ghost staffers playing various roles in live-action. Andy Merrill plays Space Ghost, which he often did on Cartoon Planet in little wacky live-action segments, (as well as in the original 1993 pilot, voice-only).

As guests we have PA Sean Gooden playing Bobcat Goldthwait (nails it), Don Kennedy as Bill Manspeaker (hilariously doesn't nail it, but is wonderful), Talent Coordinator Isabel Gonzalez as Fran Drescher (she's also the babe on the bus in Jacksonville, according to the DVD commentary! MY LOVE), and a MYSTERIOUS fella by the name of Rex Bullion as Weird Al Yankovick. Everyone is great in their own way. Also you got Dave Willis doing a very weird voice for Zorak (and Raymond!) and Scott Lipe as Michael Stipe, hey that rhymes, I assume!

This one runs 18 minutes, and it sounds like they wanted to make an attempt to cut it down to make time and they were going to cut Isabel Gonzalez's segments and nobody had the heart to tell her so they just didn't cut anything. That rules, because she is beautiful, and I wish she were on camera at all times. I wish she was Zorak and I was Raymond if you know what I mean.

I nearly forgot to point this out, which is IMPORTANT, and the commentary track also almost forgets to point this out: the reason this episode exists is that it’s a parody of E! Network’s O.J. Simpson murder trial re-enactments. They mention that they got a CHEER! and not a JEER! in Cheers and Jeers for TV Guide. I actually think I read that at the time because we subscribed to TV Guide and I remember reading it really regularly at this time. ANYWAY, E! couldn’t film the trial so they just re-enacted the proceedings based on court transcripts. They did the same thing with Michael Jackson in the early 2000s and cast Jimmy Kimmel as Jay Leno. Why we don’t have a deluxe DVD box set of both trial re-enactments I’ll never know. An entire Pluto TV channel of just highly ephemeral E! Network programs needs to happen. Howard Stern! Wild On! Talk Soup! That show that just showed movie trailers for 30 minutes! I need it!

Okay! That's it! I hope this week wasn't total dogshit but I actually enjoyed doing this! So when we get done with 2006 we'll charge into Space Ghost season 4, which is 24 episodes! SHEESH! That's so much more! And if all goes to plan, we'll kick off 2006 Adult Swim TONIGHT at the usual time (11:30PM Eastern, 8:30PM Pacific; cuz a long time ago I decided regular posts should publish at 11:30PM Pacific but didn't know my blog was somehow set to Eastern, so everything publishes at 8:30PM my time. Whoops!

[marianhalcombes]

hello, I adore your blog and art! I was wondering whether you had any recs for things to scratch that wuthering heights itch (for those who devoured WH) — retellings, separate standalone fiction, commentary or academia even?

Hello and thank you! Absolutely. I’ll asterisk my faves. Here’s your one-stop shop for all things Wuthering Heights:

Brontë Books: Literature, Graphic Novels, and Poetry

The Lost Child by Caryl Phillps (2015)

*Glass Town: The Imaginary World of the Brontës by Isabel Greenberg (2020)

The Glass Town Game by Catherynne M. Valente (2017)

*“The Glass Essay” by Anne Carson (1995)

Charlotte Brontë Before Jane Eyre by Glynnis Fawkes (2019)

*The Complete Poetry of Emily Jane Brontë (Columbia, 1995)

Film and TV Adaptations: There’s a lot! Here’s a few.

*Wuthering Heights (2011), dir. Andrea Arnold feat. Kaya Scodelario and James Howard

Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1992), dir. Peter Kominsky feat. Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes

Wuthering Heights (1939), dir. William Wyler feat. Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier

Wuthering Heights (1970), dir. Robert Fuest feat. Anna Calder-Marshall and Timothy Dalton

Wuthering Heights BBC series (2009), dir. Coky Giedroyc feat. Charlotte Riley and Tom Hardy

*Not an adaptation but highly recommended: To Walk Invisible two-part film about the Brontë siblings (2016), dir. Sally Wainwright (director of Gentleman Jack!) 

Academia You Can Actually Digest: It Exists! 

*The Brontë Cabinet: Three Lives in Nine Objects by Deborah Lutz (2015)

“The real Emily Brontë was red in tooth and claw, forget the on-screen romance” by Hila Shachar (2018)

“Was Emily Brontë’s Heathcliff Black?” by Corinne Fowler (2017)

“The Radical Politics of Wuthering Heights” by yours truly (2020)

There is tons of scholarship on WH from Marxist theory to gender studies to postcolonialism so if you want to dive deeper into a topic let me know and I’ll point you in a good direction! 

Illustrations of Wuthering Heights: All-Ladies Edition

Clare Leighton (1898–1989)

Edna Clarke Hall (1879–1979)

Some Other Things: Why Not?

Take some time to peruse the Brontë Society website.

Look into some locations around Haworth: Top Withens (sometimes spelled Withins), Brontë Falls, the Brontë Bridge, Haworth Village, the Parsonage Museum which was their home, etc. It’s cool to see the paths they regularly hiked. Top Withens is said to be an inspiration for the eponymous farmhouse in WH (tho more likely the view than anything). 

Some very funny Kate Beaton comics about Wuthering Heights

Ofc, the Kate Bush song but also Noel Fielding dressed like her and dancing to the song

Some photos I took of my hike in Brontë Country

If there’s anything else Wuthering Heights you’re interested in, lmk! :)

[iheartmalec]

Movie Night

Hi Guys! This is my very first fanfic, and I'm wildly excited to share it with you all. Inspired by @catsplushellhounds Tumblr post. I hope you enjoy :)

read it on ao3

Alec wasn’t sure exactly when it happened, but sometime over the last year, the loft had become the designated place for their group to get together. Nights like this were becoming more frequent, and while hosting took energy, he wouldn't have it any other way. Looking across his living room, Alec wondered if it were possible to explode from how happy he felt. He made his way back to the group with an armful of snacks, and after depositing them on the coffee table, he promptly sank to couch and cuddled into Magnus’ side. Magnus instantly relaxed into Alec, throwing an arm around his shoulder and dropping a kiss to his forehead for good measure.

“Play the movie!” Izzy managed to say behind a mouthful of popcorn. She and Simon were cuddled together in a heap, and from the opposite end of the couch, Alec could feel the love that radiated from the two. He will admit he was hesitant when they had first started dating, but seeing how happy they both were, Alec had quickly grown used to the two of them. He’d have to be an idiot to miss the way Izzy lit up when Simon was around; he knew it was exactly how he was around his husband.

“Who has the remote?” Magnus asked, looking around the room. “Jace, stand up.”

“I don’t have it!” Jace retorted, but with little heat behind it. It was such a contrast to how he would’ve responded a mere six months ago. When Clary had left, Jace had grown into someone who was constantly sour, and no one could blame him. That all changed when Clary had finally come back into their lives. Since then Jace was lighter and happier than he had been, and while they never mentioned it, everyone noticed the change.

“Just stand up,” Magnus replied, wiggling his fingers as threateningly as he could with Alec snuggled against him. “Or I’ll make you.”

Grumbling, Jace untangled himself from Clary and got to his feet. Sure enough, the TV remote lay on the couch, right where he had been sitting. Jace at least had the decency to look sheepish, and after some light teasing, they played the movie.

It was some Marvel film Simon had suggested, and though Alec pretended to hate these movies, he secretly loved them. The group quickly fell silent as the film played, the only thing to break the quiet was Magnus’s whispered commentary in Alec’s ear, and Alec’s light laughs in response.

The next few hours flew by, and by the time the credits played, Alec had no desire to call it a night. He wanted his friends and siblings to stay longer because while movie nights at the loft were happening more often, they weren’t happening enough with everyone's busy schedule. Especially now with Alec and Magnus living in Alicante, getting everyone gathered together was more difficult than it had once been.

“Should we play another one?” Alec asked hesitantly, not sure if the rest of the group was ready to call it a night and portal back to New York.

“No, let's have a gossip session instead!” Isabelle (of course it was Izzy) suggested. “Alec, I have no idea how you didn’t lose your mind dealing with the people you dealt with daily. All of a sudden everyone around me got dumber!”

Alec chuckled at that, mainly because he could relate. “Oh, I did lose my mind. There would be days I would come home and rant for hours.” He could feel more than hear Magnus’s soft snort at that. “However, Magnus once said something to me that changed the way I viewed it. These people respect you, Izzy. They need to look up to someone, and it's now you. It’s a lot of responsibility to have, I know, but also these people are lost. They have no idea what to do, so they come to you. It may be frustrating, but it also is one of the most rewarding feelings.” Alec could see Izzy’s face soften at his comment.

“I know, and it is rewarding. I love being a leader for them. But sometimes? I want to scream at people. They really can be dumb.” She replied, grinning at Simon as he began to play with her fingers.

Magnus also seemed to notice, smiling at the two. “Oh, sweet Isabelle. The residents of New York really can be dim-witted, something centuries of dealing with them taught me, but somehow the people of Alicante are worse. These people are just the same, but with more power to do worse things. It is astonishing.” Magnus said, smiling as he complained. Alec knew while the people here were still more hesitant of the downworld and the change they were instilling, they still were making progress, and Magnus loved to be a part of it.

“At least you don’t have to deal with the Vampires. Not only are they dumb, but they also don’t listen to anyone telling them they are! They have no idea what they’re doing, but you can’t stop them from whatever it is.” Simon added.

“Listen to you all. You complain, but I can see how much you all love your jobs. We’re all really happy, aren’t we?” Clary asked from where her head was pillowed in Jace’s lap.

“Yeah, we are,” Jace replied, and anyone looking could see the love in his eyes as he regarded Clary.

That's how they spent the rest of the night. Lightly complaining about the idiots in their respective job fields, offering advice, and trading gossip about the Shadow world. It soon grew late, and Alec could feel the tiredness weigh his body down. The conversations had died down, and the room was filled in a comfortable silence that usually only happened when everyone was drowsy.

“How about I portal you all home in the morning, and you can all crash in a guest room?” Magnus asked, and after a chorus of agreements, they all said their goodnights. It left Alec and Magnus alone in their living room, Alec turning to tidy up.

“Leave that, love. I’ll get it.” Magnus said, snapping his fingers so the room was pristine again. Alec smiled at his husband, drawing him closer so their bodies were flush together.

“Thanks,” Alec murmured, leaning down for a lingering kiss that he felt all the way down to his toes.

“C’ mon, let's go to bed” Magnus whispered back, a tired grin lighting up his face. He really was the most gorgeous man Alec had ever seen.

“Let’s go to bed,” Alec repeated. Later, wrapped around Magnus in the dark of their room, Alec’s soft smile stayed on his face even as he drifted to sleep.

[can-you-free-me]

Get To Know the Blogger - fill it out, then tag 10 people you follow

Tagged by: @lifewithoutcosette and @fallingawaywithbellamy 

Name/nickname: Annette

Height: 5′8″

Shoe size: 10 (8 in men’s)

Birthplace: California

Languages: English, very bad Spanish, even worse Japanese

What are you wearing right now: Dark wash jeans and gray “piano mushroom” t-shirt and dark blue socks

Favorite color: I really like mustard yellow lately. Also emerald green. Ooh and the Simulation Theory pink/blue bisexual colors

Favorite TV show: Fuuuuck. I can’t narrow it down to just one. One of my favorite shows of all time is The Mary Tyler Moore Show (don’t get me started cuz I’ll write too much about it). Space Ghost Coast to Coast. Twin Peaks and Twin Peaks: The Return (another one you don’t wanna get me started on). Firefly. Star Trek: The Original Series. And I’m sure I’m forgetting some.

Favorite movie: Uh oh. We could be here a while. I love films but I don’t talk about them here much. Here are 10 recent faves with some overly flippant commentary:

Hot Fuzz. Marry me, Simon Pegg. It’s for THE GREATER GOOD

Grand Budapest Hotel. Quirky humor and fun visuals and wonderful performances. Probably my fave Wes Anderson film. 

Dawn of the Dead (1978). Best zombie movie. Fite me. Also lots of “vintage shopping mall interior” beauty shots for weirdos such as myself.

George A. Romero’s Martin. Dark, sad, strange little grimy 1970s film but I love it. Is Martin a monster or just fucked up and misguided? Romero lets us make up our own minds. 

Avengers (2012). Best comic book movie. Tom Hiddleston as Loki... *sweating* I’ll never forget seeing this in a packed theater and everyone collectively losing their shit during the “puny god” scene

Drive. I love a slow burn. Also Ryan Gosling in that scorpion jacket.

Doubt. Meryl Streep and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman screaming at each other while Amy Adams does adorable things.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. I can’t recommend this to anyone because it’s hard to watch sometimes and you have to see the TV show first but HOLY FUCK WHY WASN’T SHERYL LEE IN MORE MOVIES

Possession (1981). Another one I can’t recommend to most people because it’s so fucked up but Isabelle Adjani is a fucking force of nature.

Ordinary People. This film brutalized me emotionally but I love it so much. Mary Tyler Moore kills it as the icy mother and I fucking love Donald Sutherland in it too. And much has already been said of Timothy Hutton’s performance.

Pride and Prejudice (2005), Moulin Rouge, Lord of the Rings, Men in Black, The Fifth Element, Star Trek I-IV and VI, Back to the Future, UHF (so dumb but I love it), Ghostbusters, Poltergeist, Alien, Re-Animator (ridiculous but fun if you can handle gore), The Great Muppet Caper (for real), The Empire Strikes Back, Carrie, Jaws, Harold and Maude, The Exorcist, The Godfather, The Sound of Music (a very important film to me as a child), and many more.

Favorite band: Muse is my muse. But also Bastille, Carpenters (I would die if it meant Karen Carpenter could come back), The Beach Boys (Pet Sounds is almost perfect and I love some of their weird experimental shit; they’re my Beatles), Simon and Garfunkel, ABBA, Rush, XTC (WHY DON’T MORE PEOPLE KNOW THEM), Coheed and Cambria (not ALL their albums tho), The Shins, Gackt, L’arc~en~Ciel, X Japan, Yoko Kanno (the queen of anime OSTs), Selena (would also die if it’d bring her back), and waaaaay too many more; please don’t ask me about film music or I’ll be here all day

Favorite author: I don’t follow authors that closely, to be honest. I’m weird about books. But I have enjoyed Terry Pratchett, Stephen King and Carrie Fisher in the past. I also love L.M. Montgomery (the author of the Anne of Green Gables series). 

Last three songs you listened to: I’m not gonna bother listing them, I’ll just say I was listening to the album Doom Days again earlier.

Last three movies you watched: Rocketman (need to see it again cuz it blew me away), John Wick 3 (with friends; never saw the other two haha), Suspiria (2018) (W T F)

Last three books you read: 

(These are all biographies)

Room to Dream, by David Lynch and Kristine McKenna

The Princess Diarist, by Carrie Fisher

Out of this World: The Story of Muse, by Mark Beaumont

Following: 95

Followers: 150??????

Any other blogs you have: @good-times-bad-decisions, sideblog for non-Muse things, heavy on the Bastille for now but generally a huge conflagration of bullshit

1 fact about you: I can’t shut the fuck up once you get me talking. Obviously.

@tofuthebold, @cupiscent, @gentr0py, @1-ufo (and anyone else who wants to. as always, don’t feel obligated if I tagged you)

[living-in-loud-silence]

Let’s Talk

I finally got around to seeing the latest episode of Shadowhunters (2.6) and... just wow. I’m loving Izzy’s loyalty to Clary, and as painful as it was for her, I loved the emotional fallout of the purity trial.

And then Luke’s sister at the end.... I did not see that coming (yet)

I both loved and hated the bits of Malec that we got. Parts were just really uncomfortable, but I’m down with the emotional turmoil and talking. That being said, I hope they do more talking. I’d love to see more be done with the disconnect between Magnus’ comfort with his sexuality and Alec having been taught to hate himself essentially...

Next episode looks entertaining to say the least.

[being-of-rain]

@nb-and-dw-trash So I saw you asked about Izzy when you reblogged my post! I love Izzy, as you can probably see from my icon. I don't know what you already know or don't know about her, so I ended up making a sort of Izzy Sinclair introductory masterpost, for you and anyone else who's interested! I’ll put it after a read more since it got a little long and I added some pictures, sorry about that.

Izzy (short for Isabelle) Sinclair was a companion of the Eighth Doctor in the Doctor Who Magazine (DWM) comic strip from 1996 to 2003. She's known for being one of Doctor Who's first explicitly queer companions; she's a lesbian. Her character development (which is most prominent in her final story arc) is related to her sexuality: it's all about her accepting herself, no matter what she looks like, where she comes from, and what others/society thinks of her. The authors make it clear that she was always written as gay, but she's only explicitly revealed as such when she comes to terms with that fact, in her final story, so unfortunately she isn’t talking about loving girls during her travels like Bill Potts. Of course Izzy’s got character besides her sexuality; she’s enthusiastic, cheery, very brave, and a massive nerd. She’s always up for some pop culture references, or joking around with the Doctor.

The Eighth Doctor DWM comics are collected in four volumes: Endgame, The Glorious Dead, Oblivion, and The Flood. They’re available to buy online at websites like Book Depository (I love Book Depository). The first two volumes are in black and white and the second two are in colour because that’s when the magazine decided it had the budget to make the change. Izzy only appears in the first three, but The Flood is closely linked and carries on some of the other characters’ stories. As anyone who’s seen me mention them before will know, I strongly recommend these comics because they’re fantastic and honestly one of my favourite ‘eras’ of Doctor Who. Scott Gray, the head author of the series from the end of Endgame onward, is one of my favourite authors of Doctor Who (and as a side note, I also heavily recommend the three volumes of DWM comics for the Eleventh Doctor (including the 50th anniversary story) that he wrote. And he’s writing the current DWM comics for the Twelfth Doctor and Bill, which I’ll be buying and reading as soon as they come out as a collected volume!) Also, the collected volumes are worth checking out because there’s commentaries for every story by the authors and the illustrators at the end!

The Eighth Doctor comics are very stand-alone and don’t need a whole lot of introduction. They follow on from a story with the Seventh Doctor that hasn’t been published in a collected volume yet called Ground Zero, but it isn’t that closely linked, and everything you need to know from it is given to you in a handy ‘previously’ segment in Endgame. When Izzy is introduced, she lives in the village of Stockbridge and is best friend with UFO enthusiast Maxwell Edison. Stockbridge and Max both previously appeared in some Fifth Doctor DWM comics, but again you definitely don’t need to have read those before reading Eight’s comics. A shadowy Time Lord agent called Shayde appears, also from the Fifth Doctor comics, but you honestly don’t learn much about him in his original story. A character called Fey is introduced who is said to be an old friend of the Doctor’s, but this is actually her first appearance.

Look, basically you don’t need to do any prior reading or watching or listening before getting into the Eighth Doctor comics. Although having watched the TV Movie before reading The Glorious Dead might be a good idea.

Izzy has appeared in one or two of the Big Finish Short Trips books, which I haven’t read yet, and one episode of a Big Finish audio, but to be honest I’m not a big fan of it (Although the rest of the episodes in that audio are great, so it’s still worth checking out.) Izzy has recently appeared alongside most of the other DWM-original companions in The Stockbridge Showdown by Scott Gray, celebrating Doctor Who Magazine’s 500th issue. It’s a lovely little celebratory comic, and is set after Izzy’s travels with the Doctor.

So that’s about it! Basically, go read the Eighth Doctor DWM comics! I’ve only included info here for how to buy them legally. I’m sure you could get them other ways, but I don’t know how, so I’d ask some other blogs if you want to do it that way.

I hope you end up loving Izzy as much as I and lots of others do!

[shyjusticewarrior]

Something I feel gets glossed over is how Ed was originally planning on lying to Isabella forever, Kristen too.

[nonelvis]

2021 Hugo nominees: Best Novelette

Not quite as good a category as Novella, but still pretty consistently good:

”The Inaccessibility of Heaven,” Aliette de Bodard I always enjoy de Bodard’s work, and though I haven’t read any of the Dominion of the Fallen universe in which this story is set, I had no problems following along with the concept: a Paris in which angels dwell, fallen and otherwise, and in which they’re now being murdered. It’s quite well-written; it just didn’t grab me as much as the stories in her Xuya universe do. ”The Pill,” Meg Elison A fat girl, child of a yo-yo dieting fat mother who’s constantly signing up for dodgy weight loss drug trials, is appalled when one of the drugs works, but in the most horrifying way: the fat literally is excreted from people’s bodies, a painful but effective process – at least for most people. For some, the drug simply flat-out kills, but a diet industry based on the drug appears overnight anyway, and eventually, claims the life of the girl’s father. I am a fat girl, the child of a morbidly obese father who died two years ago, partially due to weight-related complications. This story was hugely triggery, to the point where I didn’t finish it, and while Elison’s points about the diet industry were completely on target, I could not stick around to find out how things ended. ”Burn or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super,” A.T. Greenblatt I nominated this story, so it’s safe to say I really like it. Superheroes are ordinary people who suddenly develop powers they can barely control, but learn how to in order to save people, and Sam Wells, a gentle, nervous accountant who can spontaneously combust, wants to join a superhero squad. Greenblatt really has a way with character, and Sam comes through clearly: awkward, eager, doubting his capabilities but unwilling to give up on them if he can make a difference. ”Helicopter Story,” Isabel Fall I skipped this story the first time around because I saw the Twitter drama and decided it was best to stay as far away from it as possible. Many months later, I can read this story and conclude that Fall is a skilled and intriguing writer, but the story doesn’t quite fulfill its stated mission of addressing “the pinkwashing of imperialism and the need for queerness to constantly challenge the powers that want to capture and use us.” Of course, the fact that Fall had to explicitly state that at all is a depressing commentary on what she went through as a result of the story being published — but mostly, this story reads to me like someone questioning her gender, questioning society’s binary and misogynist assumptions about what it means to be a woman, and not fully succeeding at tying military setting and metaphors to the issues she’s exploring. ”Monster,” Naomi Kritzer A scientist travels to a small town in China in search of a former childhood friend who’s grown up to be a serial killer. Through flashbacks, it becomes clear that while they shared the close bond of kindred, socially awkward nerds, there was something seriously wrong with the friend – enough to terrify a girlfriend even if she was the only one who got to see that side of him. I didn’t fully buy the ending only because I felt like Kritzer was missing a key detail or two to help the final events hang together, but it’s still a compelling portrait of an obvious monster, and the similar, subtler traits we all share. ”Two Truths and a Lie,” Sarah Pinsker Pinsker’s work isn’t always to my taste, but I really liked this one. At first, it seems like a story completely devoid of SF: a compulsive liar visits an old friend whose hoarder brother has just died, and in the process of cleaning out his house, discovers tapes of an old local-access TV show in which a creepy man tells bizarre stories while children play beside him. Gradually, it becomes clear that all of the stories have come true, each referring to a different child – including the compulsive liar, who finds a fitting end in a story that never originally applied to her. The final rankings:

”Burn or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super”

”Two Truths and a Lie”

”Monster”

”The Inaccessibility of Heaven”

”Helicopter Story”

”The Pill”

[poemsfromthealley]

Day 4: Least Favourite Character

(Shadowhunters 30 Day Challenge)

I'm not good at favourites, but I'm even worse at least favourites. If I dislike a character, I just ignore their existence best as I can.

So I could say "Well, Victor Aldertree was an attractive arsehole who twisted every scenario into a show of his power, almost got Alec killed doing that, kicked Jace when he was down, and also was a humongous creep to Isabelle, and I'm glad he's presumably treating frostbite on Wrangel Island for the rest of his life. That said, I could listen to that man reading the shipping forecast for hours."

Or I could do a shouting about something that bugs me about this series: the portrayal of the Clave.

The book wiki tells me that the Clave is made up of all Shadowhunters who are of age and have sworn loyalty to Idris. So it's another name for "the whole of Shadowhunter society"? The way the characters talk about the Clave in the TV series makes it sound like the Clave is a governing/ruling body seated in Idris. Characters have to ask the Clave for authorisation. They're in trouble with the Clave. The Clave decides this or that. I doubt they go around having a general election every time someone in New York needs permission for a portal.

I'm convinced that most of the time, when "the Clave" is mentioned, what they want to say is either "the Council" (which is a ruling body headed by the Consul, i.e. Malachai Dieudonné until episode 2.20) or "branch of Idris government that oversees Thing X we need done for plot to happen".

Using the Clave as this ominous collective that embodies everything that's oppressive about Shadowhunter society is... a bit problematic. If the Clave is Shadowhunter society, then it works when discussing stuff like the arrogant and paternalistic attitude of Shadowhunters toward Downworlders, or their intolerant approach to same-gender relationships, etc. Though we should remember that Alec, Jace, and Isabelle are members of the Clave. They're more open-minded and progressive than the majority of Shadowhunter society, but they're part of it, and what affects the Clave will affect them.

When Jace talks about the Clave being quick to persecute things they don’t understand, or Magnus gives an acidic comment over their operations, they’re not talking about some looming bogeyman in the background. They’re talking about most Shadowhunters.

I wish this was underlined a little more. The Clave isn’t separate from these main characters we follow and are supposed to identify with. It’s their society and while coming to understand its shortcomings is part of their arc, they also exist inside it.

... I am hoping we'll see a bit of societal upset in Idris in season 3, since hello, one of their highest-ranking members was revealed to be a Circle member. That Circle that the Clave was supposed to oppose? I don't expect a melodramatic adventure series to offer me keen sociopolitical commentary---I wouldn't necessarily want it to---but this seems like a good chance to rattle the old world order.

[isabelisfun]

ok now for a little bit of untucked commentary

i love nicky she’s so hot i’m worried she gone leave early but whatever i love her rn and i’m gonna keep loving her after this periodt

widow got a very sharpie brow

i’m praying the crop of queens next week ain’t got too much nasty attitudes cuz these ones are really sweet for the most part

yup widow was controlling and sort of annoying yes others could have stepped back as well but whatever everyone has something to work on

aw brita complementing the girls is sweet

wtf all these complements are adorable

oh heidi really going for it with nicki i see how this is

i agree with nicki bout heidi’s makeup it ain’t the best rn

y’all i don’t think we ready for how good this season bout to be honestly i’m pumped

[thefilmstage]

Emerging from his politically radical period of low-budget, didactic political commentaries with revolutionary overtones, produced primarily on 16mm or tape for television broadcast, prolific French avant-garde iconoclast Jean-Luc Godard unexpectedly returned to commercial filmmaking with Every Man for Himself, finding reinvention in the age of video — a new formal frontier for the now-middle-aged provocateur. Godard’s star-studded return to more conventional cinemas, featuring Isabelle Huppert, Nathalie Baye, and Jacques Dutronc as Paul Godard (of course), a loathsome filmmaker humiliated by having been reduced to working for a TV studio, though shy of being considered a phenomenon in France or elsewhere, was well-publicized worldwide. Uncharacteristically, the aging filmmaker promoted the film extensively, pensively referring to it as his “second first film,” a somewhat deadpan admission that, to begin again, he had to shed the baggage of his underground period. Through this mainstream amelioration began a self-reflective period of filmmaking, reverse-engineering his formal fascinations — disruptive non-linear editing, elliptical storytelling with provocative camera angles, and a cast of characters made up of deterministic, allusion-spouting ciphers — and probing them with the properties afforded by advances in video technology, an extension of Godard’s predominantly on-the-fly approach to filmmaking, in the past having utilized handheld cameras in their infancy.

We explore Jean-Luc Godard’s bewitchingly self-reflexive midlife crisis.

[lollipoplollipopoh]

The funny side of corruption: A masterclass in Angolan satire | The Listening Post (Feature) by Al Jazeera English Angola became the centre of worldwide media interest last month, following the publication of the so-called "Luanda Leaks". Based on a trove of leaked emails and other documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the investigation revealed how Isabel dos Santos, daughter of the former president, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, had exploited government resources and connections to build a multibillion-dollar empire. The dos Santos family's fortunes were already starting to shift in the southern African country after its patriarch resigned the presidency in 2017, after 38 years in power. His anointed successor, Joao Lourenco, belongs to the same party, the MPLA, that has ruled Angola since 1975 - the year its cadres secured independence from Portugal. But President Lourenco was soon straying from his predecessor's script, stripping the dos Santos clan of its control of a number of state-owned companies. Some of the most visible changes to take place under Lourenco have occurred in Angola's media sector, which has long been subject to heavy state control. Soon after taking office, Lourenco invited journalists who had been jailed under dos Santos to a press conference at which he paid tribute to their work and declared his commitment to press freedom. Since then, the signs have been encouraging. While restrictive media laws passed by dos Santos have not, at least so far, been reversed, local journalists and international press freedom groups note a growing tolerance for dissenting opinions in the Angolan public sphere. In this climate, one particular form of dissent is flourishing: satire. The use of humour as a mode of social and political critique has deep roots in Angola: In the colonial era, for instance, song lyrics commonly poked fun at the Portuguese. The Listening Post spoke to two of the country's most accomplished satirists - cartoonist Sergio Picarra and comedian Tiago Costa - about the role of humour as a form of political commentary and the changing state of press freedom in Angola. "Satirising the rich, satirising the politicians, satirising the powerful - these are forms of social resistance to the aggressions we experience on a daily basis," says Picarra. Picarra experienced the repression of the dos Santos regime first-hand: In 1997, he was fired by the state-owned newspaper Jornal de Angola over a cartoon that was deemed too critical of the government. "Almost the entire media was controlled by the state - television, radio, newspapers," Picarra reflects. "It was a very difficult period. You had to find symbols, metaphors and characters to portray people and situations." Tiago Costa, a comedian with a sharp eye on Angola's political landscape, began his career towards the end of the dos Santos era. For him, the change of presidents has had a dramatic effect. "In the past, if you made fun of President Jose Eduardo, everyone would be against you," Costa recalls. "Today, if you make fun of President Joao Lourenco, people are aware that's all it is - a joke. Whereas under dos Santos, Costa's comedy was confined to YouTube and the radio, he now has two television shows, Sopa Saber and Goza'Aqui com Vida. The programmes air on Vida TV, a station partly owned by Tchize dos Santos, one of the former president's daughters. But, in a sign of how far things have shifted, that has not stopped Costa from mocking her on air. Picarra agrees that improvements in press freedom are undeniable. But there is, he emphasises, still a long way to go. "It is not a complete opening," he says. "The information that the public gets is still highly controlled." For Costa, satire has a role to play in pressuring the political class towards greater accountability, and away from corruption: "Satire should force our politicians to recognise their mistakes and learn from them. It might help us avoid producing another Isabel dos Santos. And if we manage that, it will be great." Produced by: Daniel Turi Contributors: Tiago Costa - Comedian and host, Sopa Saber Sergio Picarra - Cartoonist and creator, Mankiko - Subscribe to our channel: https://ift.tt/291RaQr - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://ift.tt/1iHo6G4 - Check our website: https://ift.tt/2lOp4tL