#it's like this season was special catered to make me mad specifically

[semiconducting]

more bitching about td23 season 2 lol

i think the thing that bothers me the most about the recent total drama season is just that there was absolutely zero desire for characters to grow or have a complete arc of any kind. emma got to do nothing, just started the season broken up with chase but didn't really get to form any new relationships (or make up w her bestie from last season.......bowie and emma i miss u) before she left. the cheating in challenges arc between bowie and raj never got solved. priya's entire storyline revolved around caleb and there is no conclusion to be had from their plot, they got together even though caleb is a shitty spineless noncomittal boyfriend to her. caleb Has this issue and nothing comes of it except for like cheap "tension" in the ep where priya gets eliminated. julia has Nothing going for her except that she's Mean and she's Good At The Game and is the reason behind HALF of ALL THE ELIMINATIONS and it all happens OFF!!! SCREEN!!! like heather had mad plot armour in her seasons but god at least she was fun to watch. zee did nothing, not nearly as entertaining as he was last season. they set up a GREAT opportunity for scary girl to come back for Vengeance after being eliminated in the first ep and then do Nothing to follow up. mk is literally glued to julia at the hip and gets no time to shine on her own. BOWIE gets eliminated IMMEDIATELY when the teams merge???? axel and ripper having nothing going for them after they get together and overstay their welcome. DAMIEN! DOESN'T! GET! TO! KEEP! HIS! IMMUNITY! IDOL! and we don't fucking see julia actually take it from him!!!!!!!!!! it's just like they didn't bother with Any interesting plot decisions for any character just to prop up julia who herself doesn't even get to be entertaining. she has some funny lines, sure, but she takes up so much gaddamn screentime and for WHAT.

[kimyoonmiauthor]

Barnes and Nobles Bookstore Report 2020 on Diversity

For those who are new to this... What I do every year since I was 13 was go to the bookstore, usually in summer and take an overview look at what is being shelved and sold. This, of course, changed with the internet. It’s a way for me (and maybe you) to get a sense of what the industry is and isn’t doing, particularly with diversity. I also check local bookstores (But my local one is closed due to covid this year). I usually note what has an hasn’t changed. It’s something that authors should be doing anyway. I don’t do it more often because it’s usually depressing. And I don’t do it near holiday seasons, since that can skew the book selection unfairly. So I usually pick a non holiday-heavy month and one that will not skew my numbers (like say, February, which is Black History Month) I pay attention to the following: - Where the books are shelved. - How many times a book is shelved (in different areas) - Who gets the most real estate and a rough guess as to why. (Usually because they are white cis and male.... no lie) - Which diversity gets the most real estate - What are the labels on the shelves and if those are separate or different from previous years. - I generally skip the children’s section since there is a yearly report for that. - Demographics of the area visually apparent v. numbers of the area itself. Who are they supposed to sell to (and usually failing to sell to) Blame the Anthropology... I’m well-trained to look for such things. - All Bookends and displays. - I usually look at all sections of the bookstore and take notes, in order. - If I have access to internet, then I also look up the authors, if I can to find out their diversity and spread. - I also take lots of pictures.

These are my notes for this year.

Demographics of the area outside of the bookstore: About 50/50 with the majority being Latinx (Black and Latinx mainly) Mostly women. (It was early, though--maybe white) Last demographics of area 2010, granted 36,226 (71.1%) White, 2,573 (1.3%) Black, 531 (0.3%) Native American, 31,434 (16.4%) Asian (6.9% Filipino, 5.4% Korean, 1.3% Chinese), 122 (0.1%) Pacific Islander, 12,146 (6.3%) from other races, and 8,687 (4.5%)  (Latinx is around 17%)

The first two bookcases at the front of the store, were mostly white cis male authors. In the new author case, this was true, as well, and mostly had well-knowns.

Considering the Latinx population, I’m always kinda feeling like why aren’t there more Latinx books on the shelves?

White and black authors. But the black authors are only there because of Black Lives Matter, which feels like it’s catering to the white people who want to know what this is about, rather than the demographics of the bookstore itself. The Magazine section, Vogue, in particular did have PoCs on it.

- The Art History Section is and always is really white. I could count the PoCs on the shelf of 6 tall shelves on one hand. All of the How to draw Manga books are by white people. I know this because I’ve looked up the authors in the past. And it’s not that Japanese don’t publish books in English with instructions, BTW... so I always find that a bit strange, especially since the author they choose doesn’t really have a manga style 100% but mixes in American Comic books. (But that’s a separate thing.) They mostly had known PoC artists, acceptable to white people. - The Cookbooks don’t cover Africa. They had one African American cookbook which interested me. (Labeled Soul food and had a Black author), but the books mostly were for “French” in the international section. A few Korean (2-3) and I didn’t spot many other regionalities. I looked for Indian, for example.

- There were SFF books front of the store, which surprised me. Might be because there were PoC authors and the majority were PoC. (Also Black Lives Matter skewing) - All of the seating was removed (probably because of covid) I usually use it to sort through books I want...

- No Surprise, the same location for featured “classics” as last year and all but one were written by white men. The token book? Arabian Nights. I’m not sure that really counts since it was compiled by a white guy. (Believe me, I had thought like where is Jorge Borges? Marquez? etc) Most of the authors were white cis and het too... - The recommended section... by looking, mostly white cis het men. - Danielle Steele was shelved in General Fiction section. Actually several genres were shelved together there. Some Science Fiction, Some Fantasy, Some Romance, Some Historical Fiction, etc. There was no special section for Historical Fiction. (Not popular? Used to be back in the day...) There’s no LGBTQIA, women’s or African American section, even in the non-fiction. I have mixed feelings about taking it out of the non-fiction section. I like it combined in the Fiction section. They also took out all of the sub labeling except for major transitions. (Labeling individual shelves as containing something) - Diminished Latinx books in the Classics (Shelf) section. This has not changed... and it still ticks me off how white and cis het (also leans towards male) it is. - Increased black authors overall. Octavia Butler was Shelved twice, for example. Toni Morrison got a bookshelf all to herself (probably because of her recent passing). Nnedi Okorafor actually showed up on the shelf. Rena Barron was triple shelved--once at the front of the store and in two sections of the bookstore... So apparently B&N have a lot of faith in her book. - Overall, improved balance between men and women (except in the classics and recommended sections. I feel stabby about that.)

- The covers were a lot less offensive overall. (Though I had a few head scratchers on why that cover for that book, but that’s getting into graphic design quibbles) The PoC books actually had PoCs on the cover. And some of the covers were redone to have PoCs on the cover. There were no sexualized women on the out turned books. The Mystery/Thriller books, for example, has a trend of being symbolic and drawn. Kinda felt like I was staring at the old Chick Lit.

- There were less books shelved overall, because of the shelving practices of out turning the books so people could see the covers. (Even less than last year)

- The Romance Section ticked me off since I could count the amount of PoCs on the cover with one hand. But the covers have improved a bit. Jim Hines won the cover war... There was ONE LGBT book and ONE interracial book. It’s like PoCs don’t fall in love at all. What gives?

- Science Fiction and Fantasy were separated again. The amount of shelves for YA and SFF were about equal. (Which drastically changed from last year). This meant that the genre fiction was mostly equally shelved. (Mystery/Thriller might have gotten a smidgen less). The Science Fiction section was astoundingly male cis het. I even looked for authors I knew who were queer/poc, etc and couldn’t find them. Anne McCaffrey was gone completely, BTW. Oh and JK Rowling didn’t make it to the main shelves (She was in the audiobook section). lol Someone was mad. So win one, lose the rest.

- All of the “recommended race” books were written by People of color and well known. Win~ But all on black-white relations except one. (A book on my wishlist, but I pre-promised myself to not buy anything... so it was difficult to leave that one behind...) - The people with the most shelving were Shakespeare (Got his own section), Stephen King, and I forgot the third author, but he’s male cis and het too... Yeah... I know. And yes, there are authors more prolific than these authors too in history who are also PoC. - All of the books were from known and popular authors rather than unknown authors, mainly. Not like that rare find where you’re browsing and you go, “OMG, never heard of this person before.” So for me, who likes to browse and find that rare find it’s not as fun. I’ve found books pre-internet that were like that in Barnes and Nobles no less.

Overall: Improved, but I have this irking feeling the increase in black books is specifically to the Black Lives Matter movement. They care more about publicity than the cause, otherwise, other PoC groups wold have gotten better rep. Also kinda sad at the lack of LGBT. The widest diversity in the store is still YA. And as every year, I’m super sad about the lack of rep for Latinx. Seriously, didn’t you give it a thought that you might be in an area that’s not white? (I know the “But you could complain” thing... but it never worked in the past either and I have written to corporate, just so you know.) I pretty much left with this feeling of elation that it was improved, but this feeling of sickness that they were still, STILL catering to white people. (Cis het, etc). Yeah, depressing enough to want to marathon several PoC shows to undo the implicit bias type of feeling. And this area, as shown isn’t lacking in PoCs. Also, kinda have to state, I wish it was more like a treasure hunt... sometimes that’s the best part of going to a bookstore. Disappointed about the lack of a non-fiction LGBTQIA... kinda had a wish the Julie Sondra Decker might show up in that section. My ace little heart. I took 108 pictures as photo proof of my assertions (Again, Anthro training). BTW, Rena Barron should thank her publicist for convincing for the triple shelving...

[xtattlecrimex-blog]

Why Are The Fannibals So Obnoxiously Obsessive?

I’m actually getting more at the fact that they are mentally ill. Basically all of them. Once again, I am referencing the specific group of hardcore fans who throw thousands of dollars at their obsession, or still run multiple Hannigram blogs day in and day out despite the show being cancelled years ago. The 200 or so women who hang around on Tumblr and Twitter and devote their lives to worshiping Bryan Fuller and their precious pairing. Those women. People have asked me why they are so obsessive and why the vast majority of them seem to have considerable problems with mental illness. The answer is pretty simple and quite obvious. The show glamorizes mental illness.

Look at Hannibal Lecter, for example. He’s a murderer and a cannibal. Now, in the past (such as the books and then later the original movies) This was framed as a bad thing. Though Hannibal Lecter in both of those materials had some level of style and good manners, he was also portrayed as monster. Described as one too. From Red Dragon all the way through Hannibal (the third novel). I don’t include Hannibal Rising for reasons I’m not going to get into here. The point is, that in the original source material and the movies based off of the original source material, Hannibal was portrayed as creepy more so than stylized, sexualized, and handsome.

However, when you take a look at the show, how is Hannibal portrayed? Well, by a very handsome Danish man. Someone who actually won the award of “Sexist Man In Denmark” at least once that I know of but actually may have won it more than that. A very tall, chiseled, Nordic looking dude. I get that he’s not to everyone’s specific standards of handsome, or sexy, and some people find him downright ugly, but let’s all just admit he has far more appeal to the ladies than Anthony Hopkins. At least, far more appeal to Tumblr aged teenage girls. They were already in love with the likes of Matt Smith, Bill Skarsgard, and Benedict Cumberatch, so Mads really fit right in there along with that. Oh Alex Skarsgard too. The thing is that as much as he may have a very specific look that only appeals to a very specific number of people, well it doesn’t mean he’s not handsome or meant to be played as such. I personally think Mads is very attractive even if I can recognize that his very severe face may not be for everyone.

They take Mads and they turn him into Hannibal Lecter. They give him amazing suits and lots of money. He’s high society, he’s a chef, he’s smart, and he’s a psychiatrist. They show him well before his incarceration as well, and at first they shy away from making him seem too evil so you can empathize with him to some extent. They also really excuse and gloss over his behavior, justify it as him taking care of Will or getting rid of rude people. Cannibalism is bad, yes, and they do show that, but they do it in such a way that it seems fancy and delicious not in the horrific way that it actually is. It’s portrayed at nice dinner parties not in some captive and horrid situation. As much as he is a “bad guy” they put very little emphasis on this. They also have him “taking care” of others, so it seems like that makes it kind of “okay” for him to do the things he does because he’s somehow benefiting society by doing these things, not destroying it. That’s why you will see so many of these over zealous fannibal family fangirls repeating the phrase “eat the rude”.

Next, we have Will Graham. They shy away from ever actually saying he’s autistic in the show but it is heavily implied. He slowly goes insane (thanks to severe mental abuse from Hannibal) until he becomes a murderer as well. Since Hannibal is portrayed in such a “good” light, with minimal focus on the murdering and cannibalism, then this also isn’t seen as a bad thing…not really. It’s justified. Will is doing it because he’s either out of control or he’s so in love with Hannibal he wants to become Hannibal. Or some third thing. There’s ways to justify Will’s violent behavior as much as Hannibal’s. Not to mention Hugh Dancy is attractive and was known in certain circles as a heart throb well before this show aired. He already had a fanbase of fangirls who were in love with him. This allows these people to justify the horrid behavior as well as identify with it. Will is weird, socially awkward, mentally ill, but it’s also completely fine because he’s totally “in love” with Hannibal. I mean by their point of view, not what actually happened in the show.

Then you couple all of this with the fact that the show portrays death as beautiful and artsy. Edgy too. You never really see a gross corpse or the reality of death, what it does to a person, how they’d actually look, the fall out of losing someone in such a way. What you see is a beautiful sculpture of the corpses left over. Very few of them were legitimately gross dead bodies. Everything was stylized to look as pretty as possible while also being as dark as possible. In the actual world if you took someone and skinned their back open to make it look like wings, or used someone’s body to grow mushrooms on, the actual reality of the horror that would create is far worse than what the show did show on screen. Perhaps it was a style choice, and perhaps it had to do with censorship, maybe both, but the reality of death and destruction of all of these things was put through a filter. Rose colored glasses.

The fandom is so full of mentally ill people because it attracted them in this manner. It excused horrible behavior because of mental illness and made them pretty, beautiful even. It went out of its way to justify the behavior of a cannibal and the horrid abuse he put another man through in order to force a bond with him. That’s what it did. It attracted people with substantial problems because it dismissed all of these problems within the main characters and wrapped it up in a very pretty bow then threw it into high society like being mentally ill was some kind of status symbol. If you add that to the fact that the first season of the show was primarily advertised through Tumblr, and we all know what types of people are on tumblr, then one can’t really be surprised that what we have left of the most hardcore and devoted fans, is a mentally ill cesspool of special snowflakes.

One must wonder what the show might have been like had it gotten a normal PR campaign. Had it been advertised like a TV show should be or usually was. What kind of audience it may have attracted (and ratings) if a different creator had been at the helm and how well the should could have done if it hadn’t catered to mentally ill and overly obsessive Tumblr fangirls. There is a longing to know what could have been and a disappointment in knowing what never can be.

[themurphyzone]

World’s Greatest Dad Ch 3

This counts as my holiday story for the year.

Ch 3: Malls and Dolls 

Vanessa was an impatient bundle of energy. Her snow boots thumped against the seat as Heinz drove into the parking garage. He made sure to pay close attention to the road, because he didn’t want an accident preventing him from becoming the World’s Greatest Dad. 

“That van’s leaving, Dad!” Vanessa pointed to a black van that was backing out of a handicapped space. 

It was tempting, but Heinz was evil. Not inconsiderate. And like any other driver, he preferred not being towed and fined. Charlene would never let him hear the end of it. 

“Not that one, sweetie. We gotta keep looking,” Heinz said, another evil idea taking root in his head. A Parked Car Away-inator would be extremely useful in the future. Or maybe just one that specifically targeted monster trucks. 

Oversized wheels screamed ‘look at me, I’m a jerk and can run you off the road when I feel like it’ anyway. 

Vanessa pouted, resting her hand on her cheek. Heinz was losing patience at finding a parking space too, though he hoped Vanessa wouldn’t pick up on it. He wanted to be her role model, and role models didn’t gripe and complain about how busy the parking garage was during the holiday season. 

He was certain he’d already set numerous bad examples for her. Which made it all the more important for this day to go smoothly. 

Park car, enter mall, find toy store, buy doll, make Vanessa happy, gain title of World’s Greatest Dad in less than ten steps. 

The epitome of easier said than done, really. 

It took fifteen minutes for Heinz to find an empty space that wasn’t handicapped, limited time, or blocked by inconsiderate shoppers who couldn’t park within the lines. Unfortunately, the empty space was on the last floor of the parking garage, which exposed them to the bitter cold. 

Given his usual luck, Heinz would probably have to dig the car out from a layer of ice and snow.

“Got your gloves?” he asked. 

“Yes.” 

“Scarf?” 

“Yes!” 

“Hat?” 

“I’m dressed! Can we go already?” Vanessa demanded, throwing open the car door with enough force that it almost crashed into the neighboring vehicle. The cold swept in, and Heinz quickly pulled on his gloves. 

Heinz double-checked his coat pocket, taking special care to ensure that his wallet and car keys were in there. When was the last time he’d been this careful with his belongings anyway? 

Once the car was locked up, they headed toward the elevator. Vanessa complained about Heinz holding her hand the entire way, but he wasn’t risking her slipping on the ice. 

The elevator took its sweet time. Vanessa folded her arms, either from cold, frustration, or a combination of both. She leaned against Heinz’s legs as if trying to leech off some of his body heat. 

His body type prevented her from getting that, however. 

“So does Carrie McGuffin come in more colors or is it just one style only?” Heinz asked, trying to make conversation. Anything to distract them from the cold. 

“You like saying her name wrong,” Vanessa said. 

Heinz shrugged. “Eh, Jerry, Perry, Aries, there’s a lot of rhyming names out there. Hard to keep track.” 

The elevator finally pinged, Vanessa perking up at the sound of the bell. The doors slid open, and Heinz had to grab Vanessa to prevent her from being run over by a woman with a trolley full of Christmas packages.

“Keep your kid out of the way,” she snapped, storming to her car in a huff.

Heinz glared at her. “You know, when I take over the Tri-State Area, your house and livelihood are the first things I’m destroying.” 

“Dad, you better hurry!” Vanessa shouted. 

Heinz managed to squeeze into the elevator before the doors shut, still thinking up various ways to rain down vengeance upon that woman for almost running over Vanessa. 

“How come you’re always saying that stuff?” Vanessa asked, finally breaking the silence. The elevator was moving slower than Heinz would’ve liked. 

“Saying what stuff?” 

“The Tri-State Area. I don’t think you could be mayor.” 

Great vote of confidence there, Heinz thought. 

“When I do take over, you can be heiress. A Doofenshmirtz Dynasty sounds pretty appealing, don’t you think?” 

Vanessa shrugged. “Don’t know. Can I still have my friends?” 

“Depends. I’ll have to make sure none of them are interested in dating you first,” Heinz admitted. His own romantic history was lackluster at best and a flaming trainwreck at worst. Vanessa was actually much better at maintaining friendships than he’d ever been, but that just made him more worried that someone would emotionally harm her.

While there was no risk of getting hurt if you didn’t get close to someone, it wasn’t the kind of thing he felt comfortable teaching Vanessa.

Heinz breathed a sigh of relief when they finally made it to the ground floor of the parking garage. He didn’t fully understand why he wanted the Tri-State Area so badly, and he always came up empty when he tried to articulate his reasoning. 

Vanessa would be more concerned about finding her doll. 

Heinz held her hand, keeping her close so he didn’t lose her in the crowd of holiday shoppers. He held his breath through the perfume department, guiding Vanessa past the giggling packs of women and men who were struggling to decipher the various brands. 

Vanessa coughed, waving the air in front of her face once they were safe from the onslaught of aromas. “Where’s the exit?” she asked. 

“We’ll find it, don’t worry,” Heinz said. “Hopefully the rest of the mall doesn’t smell like ant pheromones and pollen.” 

“Do you know what ant pheromones smell like?” Vanessa asked. 

“No, no I don’t. Why would I know something like that?” Heinz said hastily. Thankfully, he could make out the entrance to the interior mall from his vantage point. “We’re almost there! Let’s go before they sell out!” 

Vanessa scrutinized him as they headed for the directory. “You’re lying.” 

Heinz coughed. “I’m not lying! When have I ever lied to you, sweetie?” 

“You told me babies came from a magical doonkleberry patch.” 

“You were five and you randomly sprung that question on me,” Heinz argued, figuring that now would be a good time to change the subject. “Anyway, where do you wanna head first?” 

Five stores. They’d gone through five different toy stores and found nothing. Dozens of children were proudly displaying their brand new stuffed animals, video games, and toy vehicles. 

Yet Vanessa was empty-handed. 

And the World’s Greatest Dad title was slipping beyond his reach. 

“There’s plenty of other dolls out there,” Heinz said. “I can get you one of those. What about the one that comes with the brushable horses? Seems like it would be popular enough.” 

Vanessa crossed her arms. “I don’t want brushable horses.” 

Heinz scanned the directory again, trying to remember which stores they’d already checked. “Just a suggestion. You can think about it. Okay, we aren’t going back to the one with the talking hyena mascot. That’s for sure.”

That toy store had the worst selection Heinz had ever seen in his life. Even Drusselsteinian toy stores had more variety. And those only sold branches and mushrooms!

Dolly’s Dollhouse didn’t carry Mary McGuffin either. Which was strange, considering ‘doll’ was in their name twice. It was a very blatant case of false advertising. 

The third store was more video game-oriented, and the last two catered to the young boy crowd. 

As he debated cutting his losses and accepting that he’d never be the World’s Greatest Dad, Vanessa pointed to the name of a store. 

“Unlimited Two?” Heinz said in confusion. “That’s a toy store?”

Vanessa nodded. “A lot of girls in my school have Unlimited Two clothes. And they sell toys.” 

Just what he needed. A brand name store. That’s what he deserved for not paying attention to the trends among today’s youth. 

But it wouldn’t hurt to look, right?

“Dad, let’s go! It’s gotta be in that one!” Vanessa exclaimed. 

According to the map, Unlimited Two was located on the other side of the mall. His legs were going to be really sore in the morning from all this walking and banging into oversized shopping bags. 

Vanessa’s energy returned, and she was trying to run off with renewed vigor. But Heinz kept a tight hold of her hand. He didn’t want to lose her in the crowd. 

The headlines he’d read yesterday flashed through his mind, and that made it all the more important for Heinz to not lose her. He didn’t want Vanessa making front page news because some wacko wanted a doll too.

“Almond brittle! Limited holiday edition!” someone called. 

Unable to resist, Heinz walked over to the booth. 

The vendor’s smile looked absolutely forced, probably due to the strain of the season. “Buy a box and sign up for our online membership! Ten dollars to join and we’ll send you coupons for our products via email.” 

Her intonation was seriously creeping him out, so he quickly paid for two boxes of almond brittle and got out of there before she could ask him to do anything else. 

“What a creep,” Heinz muttered. “I couldn’t resist almond brittle. Best snack of all time. You should try it sometime. Come on, Vanessa. Let’s go find that Ari McGuffin.” 

No response. 

“Vanessa, I know you’re probably mad at me for making that detour but it’s not gonna happen again. I promise,” Heinz said. 

“Who’s that man talking to, Mommy?” 

“Walk away, Johnny. Walk away. We don’t speak to crazy pharmacists.” 

“I’m an evil scientist, lady!” Heinz yelled at their retreating backs. “Get your occupations straight!” 

Heinz cursed his poor impulse control when it came to almond brittle. 

Vanessa was nowhere in sight. She must’ve run off when he was distracted by the vendor. Running a hand through his hair, Heinz took deep, shuddering breaths. 

She could be anywhere. Even outside the mall. This place was a labyrinth! 

“No, this can’t be happening. Okay, it is happening. Vanessa’s on her own cause you just had to buy some almond brittle. I can’t help it. I like almond brittle. Yeah. Okay? Okay,” Heinz murmured, drawing more curious stares from passersby. “Focus, Heinz. You lost your daughter, you get her back. What are you gonna tell Charlene if she finds out? Um, hi. Yes, I lost our daughter because we were looking for a doll and I got distracted by some almond brittle. By the way, could you start calling hospitals in the Tri-State Area to make sure Vanessa wasn’t admitted to them?” 

Heinz slumped onto a bench to catch his breath, tearing a nearby pamphlet to shreds to get his frustration out. Before he could rip apart the next strip, a pair of words caught his eye. 

Unlimited Two.

He was holding a map of the mall layout! That was it! That’s where they were going!

Heinz broke into a sprint, dodging strollers and not caring if mall security was going to be on his tail for this.

The bright neon letters of Unlimited Two were in sight. It felt like an eternity, but he made it. 

Forcing himself to slow down, Heinz took a deep breath. The sections closest to the front were clothes and hair accessories, all of which seemed too colorful and bright. He spotted a shelf full of large stuffed animals in the back, and figured that would be his best chance. 

He rounded the corner, breathing a sigh of relief. Vanessa was here. 

She was safe. 

“Vanessa! What were you thinking?” Heinz scolded, reminding himself to choose his words carefully so she didn’t run off again. “You could’ve gotten hurt, or kidnapped, or something else! You know better than to pull something like this! What would your mother-” 

Vanessa wasn’t defending herself. Strands of brunette hair were plastered to her face. Heinz cut off his tirade, deciding to save it for later. Heinz gently brushed her hair out of her eyes. 

When he pulled away, his gloves were slightly wet.

Her eyes were tinged red. 

She was crying. 

Wordlessly, Vanessa pointed to the display in front of them. 

Mary McGuffin! The Lovin’ ‘n Laughin’ Muffin! $13.99! 

But the display was empty. 

Unlimited Two is just my parody of Justice, or Limited Too as they used to be called. I got a few Webkinz from that place. It’s one of those interior mall stores. The stuff there is mostly for young girls. Kinda expensive too. 

I like making them suffer. I’m not sorry. 

[spicegirl99]

My issues with BB's Interview

If I cared enough or had the video skills, I think this interview could be turned into a magnificent crack reaction video, because there were so many things that had me like 😧😱😲🙄😡 But I don't have time and y'all know I'm a big picture person anyway. I've mostly ignored BB all season because he didn't interest me, until people started criticizing Sharna, and I started to get the idea that he was a bit of a pain in the ass to work with and it was wearing on her. I think this interview confirmed it. Here are my issues with him in that interview: 1. The airing of dirty laundry aka no filter It would have been a lot classier to say "we had some differences but worked through them" or "there were some things about the process that I didn't appreciate" or something like that, but this was a long laundry list of specific complaints, from Sharna to the judges to the producers to the editors, to the fans... it was a lot of whining and complaining and more like a vent session than an interview and it came off as petty. It particularly bothered me that he implied that S might have been picking on him to stir up controversy, because that is a direct affront to her character and professionalism. You don't say that about your partner and teammate. Remember when Noah was pissed about their package because it showed a fight and why he was so mad? Because IT MADE SHARNA LOOK BAD and he could not set the record straight fast enough to defend her character. BB was only concerned with how he looked and was willing to throw S under the bus to defend himself. Rude. 2. Taking everything personally, having a victim mentality, and expecting special treatment Every contestant has gone through very similar things in terms of the grueling nature of show, the production of it, etc. with the exception of BB's physical challenges, which only a few can relate to. Most contestants I think just realize these things are part of the process, shrug it off, and move on. Not this guy. He's pissed at Sharna because he's not getting the choreography. He's pissed at the judges for saying he can't dance. Pissed at the producers for making him look bad. Constantly talking about "how much he can take" as if all of this is being done TO him. You always have a choice, unless you are literally imprisoned, which he was not. He chose to do the show and take the paycheck. He chose, apparently, not to do the research to know how involved it was. None of what he said about the show sounds unusual to any longtime fans, except for his behavior. He chose to stay in the competition when it became too much for him physically and mentally. He also chose to blame everyone else instead of owning up to his own limitations. He thought the judges should have given him special treatment because of his injuries. He thought based on that, he should have stayed for another week. What?! Who did he think deserved to go home then? He thought he should have been able to pick his songs and have more creative control (show doesn't work that way, buddy). I'm pretty sure that he was being so difficult to work with and around that the producers WERE trying to get rid of him by last Monday. They were, like, dropping hints, that people should stop voting for him because he couldn't handle it anymore and he wasn't being nice. He was mad at Len for his comment, but I think his whining about his scores and snapping at Sharna in the package is what set Len off and then Len started spilling that British tea all over the judging table. It was mean, but B is so cocky that apparently bluntness is the only thing that gets through to this special snowflake. Oh wait, it didn't get through, because he still didn't respect the judges opinions and thought he deserved to be there another week. Sure hope he got participation prizes in his kiddie rodeos because otherwise he was probably very sulky on the ride home. The entitlement bugs me. He was given a second chance at life after being hurt in his chosen, very risky career, an opportunity and a platform to tell his story that very few get, and then he expected everything to be catered to him. The show is what it is. If you can't do it with reasonable accommodations, don't. If you realize you are in over your head, politely bow out instead of blaming everyone else. He's a smooth talker, I'll give him that. He knows what to say to sound charming and respectful and insightful, but take this as a lesson... pay attention to someone's actions over their words. If everything is always all about them and they are willing to sell you out to make themselves look better, run. I'm talking to you, Normani.

[krishnaprasad-blog]

If the English market is tough for serious players in Indian journalism, keeping the head above the water in the languages is a humongous challenge. So immense, so expensive, and so impossible is the task of attracting readers and viewers, and keeping them engaged with quality content, that nearly nobody is attempting to do it.

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a stand-out exception.

In an arena filled with itsy-bitsy, tits-and-ass, click-bait majors—madly chasing eyeballs with the fake, frothy and frivolous; and conning agencies, advertisers (and themselves) with eye-popping numbers of “uniques”—BBC is an isle of calm. Quietly doing what it does best���journalism—and leaving audiences informed and empowered.

Rupa Jha is head of BBC Languages in India, responsible for content in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati and Punjabi. Her mandate: to enhance the “strength, depth, range and quality” of all BBC multimedia output, words mostly alien to bottomline-obsessed managers, in a mad race to the bottom.

***

Q: How does BBC as an international broadcaster view the Indian language market?

Rupa Jha: The BBC has been working in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali for more than seven decades. It recently decided to expand its portfolio to realise the potential of a wider language market. Hence, the creation of BBC news services in Telugu, Punjabi, Gujarati and Marathi.

Obviously, the language market in India is extremely crowded, with more than 900 TV channels, thousands of websites and hundreds of radio stations, but it struck us that there was a place for a brand known for credibility, trust and a world view; a brand that could challenge the status quo and be a strong counterweight to the rising challenge of fake news and the “echo chamber” effect.

The four new languages services were launched in 2017, following a “digital-first” strategy supported by a partner-based TV presence. It was the biggest expansion of the BBC in India, since the 1940s.  We hired around 150 new staff and created a state-of-the-art production hub, making Delhi the second biggest BBC bureau after Nairobi.

The bureau also houses two new, ultra-modern TV studios, giving our new TV programmes a fresh look and presentation that stands out for high production values and distinctive story telling. We also have five satellite offices where small teams shoot, edit and produce local content at the state level.

***

BBC’s “news needs wheel”

Q: What does the Indian language viewer, listener, surfer look for from BBC’s various language services that she doesn’t get from established legacy players?

Rupa Jha: The regional market is dominated by hyper-local content. So the content strategy of the BBC in this market of languages is to make a differentiated offer and become a trusted window for people to understand the place of India in the world.

Original content is at the centre of this strategy with a special focus on serving underserved audiences such as the young and women.

We aim to drive audience growth by expanding our traditional appeal amongst “news connoisseurs” into a wider group of “news nibblers”.

Our research told us that local players tend to focus their news coverage mainly on the “what” and “when” but there is little effort being made to explain the “why”.  This helped us to develop a model we call our “news needs wheel”.

This showed that audiences wanted the BBC to provide perspective and context, together with stories that educate, inspire and offer solutions. We use this model not only to tell international stories but also to help develop narratives on the local by stepping back and looking at the big picture.

Based on our understanding of “news needs”, our content strategy is to decode national/regional stories for all language audiences and help generate an interest in news that is beyond hyperlocal.

***

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Q: What does BBC do in the languages that Indian media houses can’t, won’t, don’t? How does it approach Bharat?

Rupa Jha: We believe the BBC stands out for its values and principles. BBC editorial guidelines are the same for all operations, whether based in the UK or outside. The DNA of the organisation is our editorial values.

Trust is the foundation of the BBC.

“We are independent, impartial and honest.

“We are truthful and fair in all our dealings.

“We make decisions based on our values, stick by them and take responsibility for them.

“We behave with integrity and do what we say we’re going to do.

“We take pride in that and ensure that we don’t get seduced by a desire to be the first to break news, something that can easily cost your credibility.”

We acknowledge that the BBC in India is not the first port of call for people. Our assumption is that what they do want from us is analysis and explanation of an event.

We have a huge loyal audience in rural India and we ensure that we cater to that segment of society through our editorial agenda. Because of this we have a specific focus on marginalised communities, women, farmers and stories of human rights, development and justice.

A good example is presented by this current election period. We have been running a month of special output called “Reality Check” where the promises made by the political class and those in power is being assessed. We do regular fact-check stories, busting the fake news.

# We have also had special coverage around Muslims in India called “Being Muslim in India” and we cover stories around caste identity regularly.

# We had a season in Marathi called Ambedkar and Me, showcasing stories of successful Dalit entrepreneurs.

# We have featured stories of women from across the country, under the banner “BBCShe”, stories of choices men and women made called “His choice” and “Her choice”.

# We have also committed ourselves to deliver strong contextual coverage of Kashmir—for example, we had a series of stories from the region based around looking at violence through the eyes of children.

# We also have a special focus on tribal issues. Our recent coverage of Pulwama and aftermath is a case in point where we worked hard to ensure neutrality and balance in coverage based on facts.

***

Q: It used to be said that Indians looked at and listened to BBC for its credibility. Is that still the case after the growth of homegrown media? How do you achieve this? What are the tell-tale signs of a fake story for you?

Rupa Jha: Yes, of course. Credibility is the tag that has helped us grow in the market. We work hard on the training of all our full-time journalists and stringers to ensure they fully understand our editorial guidelines so that they understand the BBC way of reporting. This training is a continuous process and takes up a significant part of our budget.

We also have a very strong system of editorial checks and balances. All our language services cross-check and triangulate their stories, and also liaise with the London headquarters through a central planning desk which also ensures that there is a flow of news that is checked and verified. We have standing instructions not to run stories unless there are two independent sources or if we have our own direct sources.

On top of all the above principles and practices, we fact-check stories daily, mostly viral stories. We have also invested resources in a lot of “on-the-ground, eye-witness reporting” at a time when other Indian media have been reducing the amount they do.

***

Q: As the head of BBC languages in India, what does your work entail, how many people do you lead, how do you go about spotting and farming out stories, what kind of stories do you like, etc?

Rupa Jha: My job is to coordinate and oversee the whole of the BBC languages operation in India and to be a vital link to BBC HQ in London. I directly manage ten Service Leads and make sure staff across services in Delhi are properly managed, recruited and developed. As head, it is my task to ensure that there is a strong, creative culture across the bureau, that every member of staff understands clearly what we are doing and who we are doing it for.

My aim is to ensure all services provide a distinctive offering to the Indian market, with a focus on original and solutions-based journalism, mobile-first content, social media engagement and a mixture of news and near news content. I also have to make sure we are optimising our content on every platform and in each language.

We leverage our strength in international news to report Indian news with a global context, i.e. stories that will compare Indian issues to those in the rest of the world and global stories that are made relevant to an Indian audience. To attract new audiences to the BBC, the new services address diverse content needs of the youth and female audiences and deliver the quality, independent journalism that is lacking in this market.

***

Q: There are thousands studying journalism especially in the languages. What would you advise them about the way forward? How can they equip themselves to work for the BBC some day? Can they freelance for you?

Rupa Jha: I feel the language scene in journalism is flourishing. Digital is the way forward, so take the plunge. Whatever format you work in, understand that a good story is a good story. Understanding the eco-system where we operate is vital.

We don’t ONLY look for those who have a degree in journalism. For the BBC that’s not the only consideration because we feel if you are curious and passionate and can tell a good story, you can become a journalist.

It’s a fantastic profession which needs people with courage, imagination and conviction. They can surely freelance for us by sending their CV and work sample to us.

***

Photograph: courtesy Rupa Jha

Slides: courtesy WAN-IFRA

News connoisseurs to news nibblers: how BBC is approaching journalism in Indian languages with five words fast disappearing from our ‘bhasha’: trust, credibility, strength, depth, quality If the English market is tough for serious players in Indian journalism, keeping the head above the water in the languages is a humongous challenge. 1,663 more words