#its like my favorite thing anthony does where like. somethings coming the audience has figured out and he just adds something else insane

[citruscore]

when terry met terry

[johnseedfanclub]

microscope, mixtape, ufo, and parachute for Angel please!!

okay....This one’s quiiiiite lengthy sorry about that 😅😅😅

Thanks for the ask! ♥️

Hope y’all like this one~

microscope: zoom in – describe the little, insignificant details about an OC.

Angel loves Thai iced tea and sweet drinks! He only drinks coffee for the caffeine but doesn’t actually like coffee (he prefers his with a lot of sugar/flavoring to cover up the bitter coffee taste)

Angel wishes he could have a pet but is scared he might hurt them with his bad mood swings

He secretly loves and wants plushies. He also has an attachment to them but never admits it because he’s “too old” for them.

His type is brunette, charming, suave, rich/wealthy men (not literally but is a nice add on yk~) , with light colored eyes (coincidentally it sounds like John but he can’t stand him)

Actually acts out/badly for a bit of attention he usually does it for shits and giggles but does it to receive a reaction out of someone whether it be from the person he’s talking to or the audience watching

He actually wishes people gave him more affection and reassurance. He never truly knows how much his friends appreciate him an a lot of times he feels like they don’t much. He doesn’t tell them the truth though because he doesn’t want to come off as jealous, needy or as an “attention seeker”

Likes dressing feminine more than masculine. He absolutely HATES men’s clothing Hawaiian shirts, turtlenecks, tuxedos/formal wear are the only exceptions (he would pretend to like the boxes of men’s clothing he would receive from friends as gifts. Would never even wear them. Maybe once if he doesn’t want to hurt their feelings)

Canonically he is “blonde” but he’s actually a brunette (light brown hair) but likes to dye his hair blonde instead

ufo: identity! what are some key identifying qualities or traits of your OC(s)? how to they identify in regards to gender/sexuality?

Special Qualities: his personality. Angel has a very unique personality compared to everyone he knows. He has this funny, mean/sarcastic, chill vibe to him. He always teases and plays around with his friends, not to mention he’s quite blunt and honest with anyone (even more harsh to people who annoy him). And though he seems like a small angry chihuahua at times, he’s a real sweetheart to everyone. He is never afraid to try anything new, no matter now fucking crazy or dangerous it may be he’s totally down to do it. That’s why both Eden’s Gate and the Resistance fear

Good Traits: He’s comedic (even at the worst times or when you need it), is the best at throwing house parties (even at 30 years old), he can help you with any favor it doesn’t even matter what it is (almost impossible to ask him of something he can’t do), he’ll take care of you when you’re sick/hungover/injured/depressed/having a panic attack, he’s a great cook and willing to share whatever he makes with anyone (if there’s enough), and he’s always generous (a big gift giver)

Bad Traits: He can a bit overly aggressive/rude (sometimes accidentally), he’s bad at remembering/keeping tract of things (he knows everyone’s favorite animal but totally forgets their birthdays and/or names), tends to crack under too much (bad) pressure and become extremely aggressive or violent, holds in his true feelings and emotions, has really bad mood swings, can be easy to piss off, can be too loud (mouthed) at times

Sexuality: Gay (attracted to men)

Gender identity: depends on the way he dresses/his mood normally he prefers he/him/they/them but if he dresses more feminine (wears makeup, tight dresses, feminine accessories) you could call him by she/him, or even they/them. (No pronoun preferences when he cross dresses)

#squad: who’s friends with who? what are the squad dynamics like?

Angel has few friends outside Hope County. The main people he’s friends with are Mary May, Jerome, Staci Pratt, Sharky Boshaw, Hurk Drubman Jr, Adelaide, Faith Seed, the Angel Twins (Jeremiah and Isaiah), the Whitetails, and a few of the peggies of Eden’s Gate

The only squads that Angel are apart of are

Sharky + Hurk = The Bomb Squad

Peggies = Eden’s “Gays”

Angel, Sharky, and Hurk are like the best and worst pairing. They’re all sweet, funny, and humble but can be obnoxious and destructive as FUCK. Anytime they go somewhere to find/finish some mission. It always ends in them leaving a trail of either, fire, gunpowder, or an explosion of some sort (either vehicle, silo, bliss tank, or outpost/building). Don’t even ask or mention what they do for leisure time. More crazy stunts and tricks that could put any normal person with a normal brain in the ER in critical condition. And at the bar? Jesus Christ. They order enough alcohol to kill 5 men but somehow make it through the night. And if they aren’t drinking, they’re sure as hell smoking weed or whatever the fuck Sharky has been brewing in his trailer (it’s most likely a 50/50 chance that you’ll pass out or die from it). They’re definitely one crazy ass group, nothing you would ever even expect, not even out of a crazy...Hollywood...Michael Bay movie. A feminine Latino city gay, an old cheery bomb-rocket enthusiast, and a insane pyromaniac that has a warrant. There definitely isn’t a dull moment with these three. But...you’re good as gone if you’re stuck with them for more than 11 minutes.

Angel and the Eden’s “Gays” are a pretty decent sized group of 6 men (plus the Twins some days) that are the few queer men of Eden’s Gate. Originally they seemed quite closeted because of the cult’s religion and some of its rules. But with Angel around they soon became another loud, obnoxious group of men. Before the whole group was “founded” the original 6 peggies (including John Seed himself) didn’t like Angel at all because of how loud and “out” he seemed (not to mention the carelessness). But as Angel visited the bunkers more often (after he was kidnapped by John) they slowly grew fond of him. Angel would always do kind gestures to learn more about Eden’s followers by helping them with chores, tasks, bringing them food and treats from outside the compound (though he wasn’t supposed to), and even help them find comfort in their own troubles. Though Angel liked a lot of the members he really favored 6 different followers in particular Connor, Michael, Anthony, Jace, and Jefferey (those who were the first followers he interacted with). Now they’re known as Eden’s Gays troublemakers. They sneak out to the Spread Eagle to drink, host secret parties in Hope County, and smoke as well. There isn’t a moment where they aren’t breaking the cult’s rules. They’re the only group of peggies some of the resistance members trust mostly because Angel made a rule of not attacking or harming them and actually enjoy being around. They’re definitely always getting into trouble with both sides too, much like Angel, starting small fights during church/sermons, fooling around on the job, or going around Hope County not to attack the locals but pester the living shit out of them. They almost stop being violent mean peggies and instead just become this goofy comedic group of young men. (Fun Fact: the “Eden’s Gays” were actually a thing before the cult became hostile *during its first few years in Hope County* and John was mostly the “leader” of the crazy group)

mixtape: 5 songs that describe your OC(s) or songs they themselves would like.

Ohohohooooo~

(The possibilities are endless for this one so I’m sticking to a Baddie playlist he would listen to)

May I ~ Flo Mili

Literal Legend ~ Ayesha Erotica

Yikes ~ Nicki Minaj

I like it ~ Cardi B

Sway With Me ~ Saweetie & GALAXARA

parachute: who does your OC(s) trust the most? who makes them feel safe? who would they do absolutely anything for?

Missy (my U.S. Marshal oc), is one of the few people he trusts the most. During the time from when he was arrested to when he was released out of jail (and transferring to Hope County Jail), she was always like a mother figure to him. And though she was supposed to investigate Angel’s murder and drug charges, she treated him kindly and respect, instead of a criminal. Without Missy, Angel might as well been as good as dead since she was the one that helped him move to a psychiatric ward instead of federal prison after discovering who he really was. Even after he was released, Missy still treated him as if he was her own son. She allowed him to stay at her penthouse apartment when Angel told her his father had disown him and he had no where to go. She always cared about him, made sure he ate, drank water, took care of himself, and even helped him get a better mindset. Though Angel still teases Missy by calling her “Mama Bear (Missy)” or “Mother Goose (or hen)” he’s forever grateful she was always there for him.

[give-me-back-my-rhodey]

The Potter and the Blacksmith

Title:  The Potter and the Blacksmith

Rating:  Teen And Up Audiences

Warning:  (assumed)Major Character Death, but not really

Relationship:  Tony Stark/Thor

Link: Read on AO3 here

Summary:  Life was simple in the village of Belleville. Everyone had their job to do, and everyone lived in peace with each other. There had been no trouble in the village for a long time. The last werewolf attack was years ago, and dragons have not been seen for decades. Magic is prohibited in this realm, and the ruler of the village likes to take this very seriously. Once warned in a dream that she and her family would die by magic, she goes the extra mile to make sure there is never any magic in the town.

When the gregarious potter marries the isolated blacksmith, rumors start flying. What happens when one of them is suspected of using magic?

Life was simple in the village of Belleville. Everyone had their job to do, and everyone lived in peace with each other. There had been no trouble in the village for a long time. The last werewolf attack was years ago, and dragons have not been seen for decades.

 Magic is prohibited in this realm, and the ruler of the village likes to take this very seriously. Once warned in a dream that she and her family would die by magic, she goes the extra mile to make sure there is never any magic in the town.

 In this town lives a potter. No one is sure how he does it, but the pottery he makes is a better quality than the other potters in the village. The potter is a big blonde man who is always down for a good laugh. Every day, he is in the marketplace buying and/or selling. He knows everyone’s names, and everyone knows his. The ladies of the village all claim he smiles at them the best, but few actually know the one with which his true affection lies.

 The blacksmith, on the other hand, is a short man who isolates himself from the town. No one really knows him, and new rumors about the man are generated every morning. Some say he is the disinherited son of a noble, some say he’s a magical being living in disguise.  Others claim him to be a devil, what with the amount of smoke that arises from his home each day. No matter what the rumor, no one will ask the man; they are all too afraid. If one does not have needed reparations, one does not go near the smithy.

 The blacksmith is not unfriendly when one talks to him. He prefers to be left alone. All the horses and donkeys that are left with him are treated with the utmost gentility. He charges reasonably and never causes problems. He has two apprentices that mostly deal with the customers, and they don’t seem to be mistreated.

 One day, the potter takes a walk up the hill to the smithy. “Peter. Harley. Is Tony available?” He greets.

 The blacksmith walks in from the forge, wiping his hands on a rag. “Thor. Welcome. How are you today?”

 “I was wondering if you would perhaps like to dine at my house tonight? I am making that stew you enjoy.”

 Tony, ever the oblivious one, cocks his head. “That sounds appetizing but I do have this invention that I need to work on that requires proper care.”

 “Master Tony, we can keep an eye on that. It is our jobs.” Harley is quick to speak up.

 “Why don’t you boys go to Mr. Thor’s house instead? Perhaps you can enjoy a good meal instead of my burnt mistakes.”

 Thor groans inwardly, and the boys look uncomfortable, clearly picking up on Thor’s offer. “Master, Mr. Thor didn’t ask us.” Peter begins.

 “He wouldn’t mind. He makes enough to share.”

 “What if Mr. Thor brings the stew here?” Harley asks. “Then we all could have some.”

 Thor sighs. “That sounds splendid. I shall do as such.”

 “Great! Then it’s settled.” Tony claps. “I must get back to my invention.” And he slips back to the forge.

 Harley turns to Thor. “We sincerely apologize. He’s not great on picking up social cues. You would think with his upbringing…”

 “Shh! We’re not supposed to talk about that!” Peter elbows him.

 Thor slips out before he witnesses a brawl. He must do something to get Tony’s attention… but what? Perhaps if he asks to court him, straight up, he’d agree.

 True to his word, Thor brings a kettle of stew to Tony’s cottage. As they gather around the table, a large boom sounds from the forge. Tony hops up to check on his invention, and Thor follows him. When they walk  into the forge, Thor wants to kiss away the sadness in Tony’s eyes. The invention is scattered across the floor, having blown up.

 “Don’t worry, Tony. I can help you fix that.” Thor tries to cheer him up. He produces a blue ball of swirling energies, and uses it to bring the pieces back together.

 Tony slaps his arm. “Put that away!” He hisses. “Magic is what got me into this mess in the first place!”

 “You have magic?” Thor is intrigued.

 “No I do not!” Tony cries. “But for some reason, everyone I meet seems to think I do. My own father disowned me and sent me away, and I took two of his best apprentices with me. They were basically my sons anyways.”

 Thor feels a little lost. “Why would they think you have magic?” He wonders.

 “My brain is quite skilled. I  have been inventing since I was four years old. When my creations become more advanced than ever, people start to wonder what magical powers I have. Magic is illegal in these lands, Thor. You should really be careful to whom you show your powers,” Tony says earnestly, and Thor wants to pull his own hair out. Why can’t the man see that Thor is choosing to trust him?

 “Do you have any advanced inventions at this cottage?” Thor asks. “I would be curious to see what you mean.”

 Tony looks dazed, then suspicious. He finally relents. “I guess. It’s not like I don’t have anything over you if you decide that my inventions are wicked. When we have finished your stew, I will show you as the boys clean up.”

 Once the stew is gone, Tony leads Thor to a secret room in the back of the cottage. Inside are wonders of which Thor could not have dreamt! “Tony, this is beautiful,” Thor breathes. “Thank you for sharing this with me.”

 Again, Tony cocks his head and narrows his eyes as if he’s trying to figure something out that he just can’t grasp. “You like it? No one ever likes my inventions.” He accuses.

 “Everyone else is a simpleton, afraid of things they cannot explain or understand.” Thor cups Tony’s face with his large hands. “May I court you, Tony?”

 “You want to court me?” Tony snorts. “People will talk, Thor. We’re not exactly compatible.”

 “Do you dislike me? Because I am intrigued and delighted by you.”

 Tony sighs. “Of course, I don’t dislike you, Thor. Everyone likes you. I just… when the rumors of my upbringing come this way, and I know they will, I would hate for you to be caught in the middle.”

 “I assure you; I can hold my ground.” Thor moves his hands down to Tony’s shoulders.

 “I’m sure you can.” Tony’s eyes run over Thor’s body appreciatively. “But that doesn’t mean you should have to.”

 Thor knows he has to phrase himself differently. He thinks a moment, then says, “Tony, if you do not want to court me because you do not like me as I like you, I shall take no as an answer and leave you be. But if you do not want to court me because you believe I will grow to regret it; I implore you to take a chance on me. I promise I will never regret you.”

 “Ok.” Tony wilts. “I will accept your offer of courtship.”

 ++++++

Four Years Later

Thor wakes up next to his husband. His eyes trace Tony’s sleeping features. This is one of Thor’s favorite parts of the day, watching the usually bustling blacksmith lie stilly and peacefully in the morning hours. Thor runs his finger over Tony’s cheekbone and places a kiss on his forehead. It is time for him to get out of bed.

 Letting Tony sleep, Thor pads off to his workroom. Wisps of magic fly around the room, keeping the clay running and the wheel turning. Other wisps are making engravings in the quickly drying pots and bowls. Satisfied with their progress, Thor heads back to his bedroom. Tony is waking up.

 “Good morning, my love.” Thor sinks down beside him on the bed and gives him a kiss.

 “Hmm. Good  morning.” Tony leans in for another. “You know, the boys spent the night at the forge.” He wiggles his brows. Catching Tony’s drift, Thor is quick to comply.

 Once both are properly sated, they wash together and get ready to start their day. As Thor walks out the door to walk with Tony to the forge, one of his little wisps decides it is going to latch itself to Thor’s pants. It detaches when they arrive at the forge. This is where everything goes to shit.

 Tony speaks with a customer in the forge, later that day, when a little blue speck catches the townsman’s eye. His eyes narrow, but he doesn’t speak up. Two days later, the little wisp makes its way down into the town. The ruler sees it and immediately calls a council together. They must find the witch.

 In a frenzy, the townspeople start throwing accusations left and right to the point that no one knows what to believe. Finally, the ruler quiets everyone down, and she asks, “Does anyone have any evidence that the person which whom you are accusing has been using magic?”

 Everyone quiets down with a  murmur until the man who had been at the forge two days earlier speaks up. “I saw a speck like that in the blacksmith’s forge not two days ago.”

 “He must be the witch.” Someone else yells.

 A traveling merchant asks, “Who is the blacksmith in this fair town?”

 “Tony Carbellino.”

 “If he be who I think, the man is a liar and a thief. I had been looking for this man awhile.” The merchant advises. “I believe him to be the disowned son of the nobleman Howard Stark. When it came about that his son dabbled in the magic arts, the kind Lord Howard asked his son to run away and never come back – he couldn’t bear to see his son killed. Anthony did leave; however, he took with him two of the lord’s finest apprentices. I would imagine that they are now blacksmith’s apprentices when they could have been so much more.”

 “But he does use magic?” A farmer asks.

 The merchant nods. “There is no way he could not, what with his unnatural creations. Please be careful when you go to confront him. Who knows what he has as a defense.”

 The townsfolk grab their swords and light their torches. They don’t need a witch in their nice town. They pull Tony from his forge and tie him up, despite his loud protests. Forcing his apprentices outside, they set fire to the house and forge. Only one room remains, but when someone tries to open it, a blue flash appears, and the person flies back ten feet. They decide to leave the room there and drag the blacksmith to the town square.

 Harley, Peter, and Tony all scream and argue that they have the wrong person, but to no avail. The townsfolk don’t notice when Harley leaves the procession. Focusing their wrath on Tony, they lash him to the whipping post and set it aflame.

 Suddenly lightning erupts in the sky. Thor stalks down to the center square, eyes glowing an unearthly blue. “What have you done?” He bellows. Rushing through the fire, he pulls Tony out, but it seems that he’s too late. Tony is badly burnt and no longer breathing. Falling to his knees, Thor lets out an inhuman bellow, and lightning strikes the ground all around him.

 The ruler is grasping her metal staff when the electricity moves its way up to her hand and through her body. She falls to the ground, dead. Everyone else backs away from Thor, afraid of who will be killed next. The witch screams again with the pain of losing a lover. Thunder crashes loudly, and rain begins to fall. Only a sob from Peter keeps Thor from wreaking pain and death on the whole town.

 “Thor! Stop please!” Peter cries.

 “They killed him, Peter. He’s dead.” Thor tries to tell the boy, but Peter shakes his head.

 “I know they did, Thor.” He looks up at the witch earnestly. “But what would Tony want you to do?”

 Thor breathes heavily. “He… would… want… me… to let him rest in peace.” His eyes flash blue again. “But I want revenge. He’s no longer here – how am I supposed to live?”

 “We'll move to a different town,” Harley tells him. “We'll take all of Tony’s inventions and start over. Tony would like that.”

 The villagers rush into their homes and bar the doors as the two boys try to calm Thor down. Eventually, he relents, and they lead him back to his home. “Come on, we'll pack up and leave tomorrow.” Harley comforts the man. “You won’t have anymore reminders of this horrible place anymore.”

 Thor spends his night packing up all his belongings. They will have to travel far away to remain unknown. His wisps curl up softly in a jug, and he sets them in a safe place. Where can he go? How will he live without the love of his life? Thor breaks down and cries til dawn. As he readies himself to leave, there is a knock on his back door. Thinking it’s the boys, he sighs and flings the door open, only to reveal…. Tony. “No, you’re dead. I saw you die.”

 “Thor, love, do you think me a fool?” Tony questions. “I grabbed a vial of your life spell. No matter what they did to me, I could recover. It’s me, hor. I’m right here. Test me however you want; I will pass.

 Thor pulls Tony close, kisses him deeply, and then motions to his belongings. “we are moving out.”

 “I understand,” Tony nods. “We should go somewhere were neither of us are known… or to a land where magic is allowed.”

 “I can take you back to my homeland,” Thor advises. “We are families of witches. Our spells are passed down from generation to generation. Please advise and I will request passage from Heimdall.”

 Tony agrees, and they walk the cart up to the remains of the forge. Getting the boys, they all stand in Tony's invention room, and Thor casts a spell. A bright rainbow light shoots down from the sky onto them. When it disappears, so has everything it touched.  The only thing left is a pattern burned into the ground.

 ++++++

300 Years Later

This story is passed down the generations, how a man came back to life and another man controlled the lightning. No one knew how they left. Some said that the witch caused them to ascend; others said a dragon burned them to ashes. No matter what happened, the two were never seen again. The burn marks are now gone, and a house has been built where the forge once was.

 No one knows if the story is true, and children ask for the story of the potter and the blacksmith. Every once in a while, though, someone thinks they see a little blue wisp…

[letterboxd]

Endgame.

“I think audiences are so smart now, so they require to not be fed the same drivel as even 20 minutes ago.” —Robert Downey Jr.

The cast and filmmakers behind the most anticipated release of the year talk to Letterboxd, without actually saying anything specific about the film. (But we don’t mind.) This article contains mild Infinity War spoilers.

Although there are going to be many, many more of them, Avengers: Endgame can’t help but feel like the climax of the grand Marvel movie experiment; the culmination of the shared universe first suggested by a delightful post-credits teaser in 2008’s Iron Man.

Since then, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has come to dominate the modern blockbuster with hit after hit, year after year. Then came last year’s Avengers: Infinity War, with its devastating cliffhanger in which many Marvel protagonists evaporated into dust. That epic act of character disintegration built an anticipation for the follow-up that allowed the filmmakers to apply incredible restraint in the film’s marketing. Indeed, all we really know about Avengers: Endgame is that we don’t know anything.

Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige announced that there would be nothing in the trailers from beyond the first twenty minutes of the film. That is unprecedented in modern blockbusters, which center their campaigns around the major action set-pieces, usually dutifully showcased in teasers and trailers to the point where we complain we’ve already seen the film.

In the modern marketing-saturated film-going environment, to go into a film of this size and not be aware of which direction the story is heading, or what the major action scenes will be, is an almost impossible task.

Feige and co-directors Joe and Anthony Russo are to be commended for using their accumulated powers for good in this regard—not since Gone Girl has a major studio film shown such restraint. Heck, they didn’t even let press see the movie before we sat down with Feige, both Russos and the (currently officially alive) cast members of the film (pretty much the original Avengers team) in downtown Los Angeles this week.

Read on for the low-down on the Avengers’ best Boggle player, Natasha Romanoff’s evolution from “sexy secretary”, and the scene that had Robert Downey Jr. “more shredded than a julienne salad”.

Front row, left to right: Danai Gurira, Jeremy Renner, co-director Anthony Russo, Chris Evans, co-director Joe Russo, Brie Larson and Mark Ruffalo. Back row, left to right: Karen Gillan, Paul Rudd, Scarlett Johansson, Marvel Studios president/producer Kevin Feige, Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle and Chris Hemsworth during Marvel Studios’ ‘Avengers: Endgame’ press conference in Los Angeles.

Letterboxd: Filmmakers are known to tinker with blockbusters until the very last minute, honing in on what audiences respond to in the teaser material. That’s obviously not the case here, since you held back so much in the film’s trailers. How did this lack of advance audience feedback impact the filmmaking process, if at all? Anthony Russo (co-director, the taller brother): Look, at the end of the day, my brother and I, we came to this material because we’re fans. We grew up loving the comics. We came to the MCU already fans of the MCU. So the energy we move on is our own passion and our own excitement, and that’s how we tell stories. We learned long ago that you have to tell stories for yourself. You can’t be thinking about how others might receive them.

So for Joe and me, because we have such an intimate relationship with the material, because we have so many amazing collaborators—starting with Kevin [Feige, producer]—we are able to really fashion the story around what we want to see as fans. How do we surprise ourselves. How do we excite ourselves? How do we challenge ourselves? How do we force ourselves to keep digging deeper and keep exploring this narrative and these characters in ways we never imagined? That’s sort of how we guide ourselves through the process.

And once the film is complete and we put it out into the world, we really have no idea how it is going to be received. Once that complete film is experienced and digested and responded to, I think that’s the moment where we are then filled up with a reaction. But as we’re executing, once we conceive the film and start executing, we’re not really second-guessing what we’re doing. We’re really focused on chasing the initial vision that we had for it.

On how the Russo brothers are feeling now that they are near the end of the journey: Joe Russo (co-director): This is, I think, a really unique experiment in movies, this grand mosaic. Depending on how you count it up, eleven franchises… have been interwoven into one big narrative, and I think a lot of people have invested a lot of heart and soul into the characters. When we take these movies around the world, it’s really heartwarming to see people come up to you and say “hey, I started watching this with my classmates when I was ten years old—now we’re all 21 and we’re all going to go see this together” or “my parents have taken me to every movie” or “my grandfather has taken me to every film”. It’s a real sense of community and sharing in these stories and believing in them. And I think with Endgame, we get the opportunity to finish off one of the grandest experiments in movie history and bring it to, as Kevin said, an epic conclusion. So what we’re hoping for is that people feel satisfied with the conclusion.

‘Avengers: Endgame’ co-directors Joe Russo and Anthony Russo.

On what it’s like to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe at this critical moment: Brie Larson (Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel): I mean, stressful, now that you put it like that. I’ve felt kind of chill. But now I’m scared. So I hope you guys did a good job. I came at just the most magical time I think. To come exactly at this ten-year anniversary, and really, my first introduction to everyone was the ten-year photo, which was a really remarkable and special day. And super surreal and also like not allowed to [be talked about]. So the whole thing has always felt like a dream.

This film will always be personally dear to me because it was my first time playing Captain Marvel. We shot this first. So I had to stumble and try to figure out who this character was with no script for this and no script for Captain Marvel either—and perform for the first time in front of legends. But it was incredible.

As big as it is, it still feels like a bunch of kids. Just like what I was doing over summer break, making movies in my garage. There is still this sense of wonder and play and encouragement—and of course this film deals with some heavy subject matter. So you’re bouncing in between things that feel very deep and serious, and then we’re going off and playing Boggle. Which I am very good at. Just to be clear.

There is no other word I can describe it as other than surreal. And I’m super excited for this to come out. Mostly just so that I can talk about it. I want to be able to talk about my experience, which I haven’t been able to do for a very long time.

On connection to his fellow Avengers: Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner/Hulk): It doesn’t feel like family to me because we all really get along well. There’s not that much drama. It does feel like family. It’s a family that you wish you had in a way. I don’t know if you could tell, but it’s a little bit different press conference than the last time. It has a little bit sort of sadness to it. We’re all talking about like we’re dead. I loved working with these guys. It was great knowing them. They were great Boggle players.

There is something very bittersweet about this moment, because as actors, we’re like vagabonds. We kind of bounce around. We have these intense relationships. And then you don’t see anybody until you get nominated for something or you’re nominated in something and you end up in an award ceremony.

Chris Evans (Steve Rogers/Captain America): What’s that like? Speak for yourself.

MR: Well. But like, this is the closest thing that any of us really have to—unless you’re in several franchises—it’s the closest thing you have to continuity and friendships and watching people grow up and have children and get married and then get divorced and then get remarried.

On how Captain America’s leadership role is affected by the presence of other leaders like Black Panther and Captain Marvel: CE: I think he tends to lean on those people who are of like mind and nature, who kind of are intrinsically selfless. I mean, all the heroes up here have their baked-in-the-cake flaws. And I think a lot of that makes for really good conflict in storytelling. That’s why my favorite stuff in this arc has been my stuff with Downey, because [there is] such a dichotomy between how we approach things. But at the end of the day, our hearts are both in the right places. It provides a lot of great friction. By introducing characters like Captain Marvel and Black Panther, people who also align very similarly to Cap’s nature, it reinforces Cap’s sense of purpose and home. It’s an environment that… feels more natural for him. It’s nice to see the certain pockets where he feels at peace and the certain pockets where he feels his buttons might be getting pushed.

On the evolution of the franchise’s female roles: Scarlett Johansson (Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow): Initially, the character really started as a sort of sexy secretary with a skill-set on the side. Posing as. And we didn’t know, or I certainly didn’t know how the audience would react to the character, my interpretation of the character. And obviously a very beloved character for a long time. Then the next time that we saw her in Avengers, she was sort of one of the boys for better or worse. And that made sense then.

I think the fans and the audiences have really pushed, certainly Marvel, but pushed all the studios and filmmakers to really throw up on the screen what represents what’s going on in the zeitgeist and wanting to see diverse films and casts that represent their own aspirations and how they feel. I feel the character has sort of grown in reaction to that. And the movies have really grown in reaction to that kind of fan encouragement.

I remember when Lizzie [Olsen, Scarlet Witch] signed on. Cobie [Smulders, Agent Maria Hill] was there. We were all clinging to each other… I felt like I had been in this testosterone fest for such a long time, it was so nice to see other female cast members. And then with Brie [Larson] coming on and Karen [Gillan, Nebula from Guardians of the Galaxy] and Danai [Gurira, Okoye from Black Panther]. I’m amongst so many wonderful actors, so many strong actors, and it’s just grown beyond my wildest dreams. I could never have imagined where this would take us. And all of us. It’s been quite a journey.

On how Robert Downey Jr. felt while filming the now-iconic scene in which Spider-Man (Tom Holland) fades away at the end of Infinity War (“Mr Stark, I don’t feel so good”): Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Iron Man): I just love the lighting in that scene. I look so shredded. I was more shredded than a julienne salad, man. No. I make a lot of faces. I need some help in the editing. It was one of those moments. “This is the most serious thing that’s happened since you were nine. Now don’t F this up.” And I remember the brothers were there. I think we re-staged it once or twice. Anyway. It was crazy to shoot it. But it was just another day. But then I think seeing it—I happened to see it with this amazing kid, this Scottish kid who couldn’t go to a theater—I saw it with him and his reaction really f’ed me up.

So I think what a lot of us are looking forward to—like Kevin always says—is that it’s a surprising, delightful experience with Endgame. It’s one of those things where you go “Wow, I think we just made a pretty serious choice here”. But I think audiences liked that. I think audiences are so smart now so they require to not be fed the same drivel as even 20 minutes ago. It’s like we need novelty. And I think that what the Russos and Kevin have been able to do that is provide that in spades.

On what’s been special about Chris Hemsworth’s journey with these films: Chris Hemsworth (Thor): Well, just to echo something you were saying before, Anthony, about the first time that the Marvel Universe came into my universe back in Australia: I was sitting there, and I would have been just straight out of high school and watching Iron Man and thinking the same thing. Thinking “Oh my god, imagine. I wish I could be a part of that world”. And then a few years on, getting cast in it as Thor and having the opportunity to embark on this thing, and at the time I thought, was this film even going to make it past DVD? Or make to the cinemas? Or was I going to be re-cast and all those sort of questions.

I think the answer to the question, what made it so special for me was just the different people I was able to work with. From Kenneth Brannagh—that first film was really sort of completely in his hands, and he was basically willing to do whatever it takes and wherever he needed me to go for the character—and then through the films with each director and each different cast member, I would learn something different from them.

And by Ragnarok, I felt like I finally had enough sort of confidence to go “Okay, what is it that I could possibly bring to this?” And then have this great collaboration with Taika [Waititi, director]. We really decided to do something different to see how we could make it unexpected and unique. And then I had been calling Joe and Anthony and saying look, I’ve got this new version of Thor that we’ve just shot. And I want to continue that version. I don’t want to do the old version. And they said we’ve got an even newer version for you.

It’s just about the people that’s made it so special and I think unique each time with any of our characters. The fact that we’re all willing to be open to what new possibilities lie ahead of these franchises and these characters. It’s been a pretty remarkable journey.

‘Avengers: Endgame’ opens in Australia and New Zealand on 24 April, and in UK, US and other regions from 25 April. Reporting by Letterboxd West Coast editor Dominic Corry.

[postguiltypleasures]

JANE THE VIRGIN Finale Articles Links Round Up

Jane the Virgin, a show I never missed and affected my emotions on surprising ways wrapped up last week. It did well by plots that I feel like I’ve only ever seen done badly. The finale was pretty perfect in that it highlight what was special about the show and giving us the viewers a loving goodbye. I don’t know where the show will ultimately fit in with the direction in which television is moving, it kind of feels like an end of something and the beginning of something. Going through these fair wells might be a first step.

I’m actually starting with a couple of articles that really weren’t about the show’s finale. The first is technically a review of Emily Nussbaum’s I Like to Watch, as she has been a great champion of the show, as well as generally insisting that the what is considered “serious” vs “frivolous” be reconsidered. This response to Nussbaum’s book starts in particular about her essay “Jane the Virgin isn’t a Guilty Pleasure”. Nussbaum’s essay does a great job at praising what the show does well as connecting it to earlier television shows. (Interestingly she doesn’t associate Jane with camp the way she did with Ugly Betty, nor does she list that as one of Jane’s predecessors despite the fact that both are US primetime networks adapting Latin American telenovelas. I’ll get more into why I think that is interesting and probably for the best later.) The article about her book does more to talk about how it’s been frequently overlooked for shows that seem created for men. In a lot of her book tour Nussbaum has spoken about how the way Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Sopranos were discussed around the time that they debuted drove her into tv criticism. If I were to pick something to be The Sopranos to Jane’s Buffy I’d probably go with Breaking Bad, as it had a notoriously difficult time getting its fans to care about/not hate Walt’s home life. Walt’s home life was about the slow consequences of his drug dealing and gangster activity. There was always a fair amount of gangster activity on Jane, but from watching Breaking Bad could leave you with the impression that there’s no way to make caring for an infant as exciting as the chaos of organized crime. Jane proved that isn’t true.

Also before the finale, The Ringer published this article that is sort of half praise/ half interview with the creator. It gets into the ways it played with the crime drama story types but never really treated it like that’s what it was about. It also gets into the writer’s room, and I was happy to learn that some people there have worked on telenovela’s in the past. It also has some quote’s from Jaime Camil who plays Jane’s father Rogelio de la Vega, which I thought were an interesting contrast to an interview he gave earlier in the show’s run. The Ringer article misleadingly identifies Camil as having starred in the “Spanish language version of Ugly Betty.” There were three Spanish language versions of Ugly Betty, or rather there were three Spanish language versions of the Colombian telenovela Yo Soy Betty La Fea which was the source material for Ugly Betty. Camil starred it the Mexican one, La Fea Más Bella, which debuted around the same time as Ugly Betty. (Fun fact, between LFMB and the later Por Ella Soy Eva, Camil has twice starred in Mexican remakes of Colombian telenovela’s in roles originated by Jorge Enrique Abello) I was at one point obsessed with the whole constant remaking of YSBLF phenomena and Ugly Betty in particular. It was taking on one of the most popular IPs of all time and had to do it in a very different format than the original. (Producing one episode a week for an indefinite number of years is very different than five episodes a week for approximately a year. For starters, there’s going to be a much smaller ensemble.) I never watched the original Venezuelan telenovela Juana la Virgen. It wasn’t remade internationally with anything like the regularity as Betty, and ultimately that may have been in the American show’s favor. Part of me wants to say that Jane learned from some things Betty tried but didn’t necessarily execute so well. And another part of me thinks that not having the burden of massive international popularity allowed them to jettison some of the things that made it a harder to adapt for a different audience. In the original YSBLF, Betty’s family life and work life have this great tension where some of her more questionable decisions (specifically, choosing to help her boss commit fraud to the board of the company) are partially based in some disillusioning parts of her home life (namely, her father loosing his job due to the boss selling the company and never paying out his pension). Ugly Betty never played those two aspects of Betty’s life against her like that. In some ways it was much better to the character. (American Betty had professional ambition in a way that the original didn’t.) But in this not knowing how to connect her family and professional lives, it often felt like it was struggling to make the family life stories matter. Jane the Virgin never had this problem. Partially because it was much more interested in emotional reactions than plot twists, but also, because it didn’t need to follow an original’s example of making the work place drama the engine of the show. Between the different relationships they had with their source materials and how they mined the work/life balances of their character’s they were different shows, from different times. Too much comparison is just counterproductive.

Kathryn VanArendonk wrote beautifully about how the fantastical elements of the story made the more mundane plots like finding a good school for Mateo, and balancing child care and a burgeoning writing career, really work. VanArendonk doesn’t focus on how badly many other shows do on making the housekeeping side of life interesting. The fact that as a tv watcher you’ve been through so many examples of shows that feel like the drag or are just aimless when it comes to the personal life side of the work life divide does contribute towards the sort of miraculous feeling Jane sometimes created, but it’s probably for the best not to focus on the negative examples.

I also want to highlight this great personal essay about how the show dealt with both being an adult and having anxiety around sex, mostly because of cultural baggage. The show didn’t so much reject the things that we associate with the baggage (ie no one abandoned the Church. (Also not discussed was the fact that all three of the Villanueva women had anxiety about sex at some point in their stories, but as Xiomara’s was more about the aftermath of cancer and chemotherapy than culture created anxiety, so it doesn’t fit with Mariya Karimjee’s larger theme. Just bringing it up to say, I liked how Xiomara’s post-cancer story worked out.)

A final one from Vulture about the reveal that the narrator is the adult version of Jane’s son Mateo. I’m highlighting it because the Mateo has ADHD plot was one of the most moving stories the show did during the final season. ADHD is so misunderstood and there were so many ways that this could have gotten a too pat, wrong message of an ending. I’m glad voice over actor Anthony Mendez talks about how even as an adult it’s something with which he struggles.

I cheered for Petra for most of the series. However, due to things in my real life, I currently have a pretty low tolerance for stories about bad bosses. Petra’s worst quality was she was a terrible boss, mercurial and abusive. Inkoo Kang’s tribute to the character is good, and gets at why I’ve been interested in her, and her relationship with Jane, for so long. Despite finding Petra less likable in the final seasons than in earlier ones when she was more villainous, one of my favorite moments of hers did come this season. At one point she says that her “worst nightmare” is turning into her mother.  It could have been just a throwaway one, but then the narrator tells us it’s true and shows us what it looks like, and it manages to be hilarious, heartbreaking a you get why this would be Petra’s worst nightmare.

(The Toast once dedicated a “Femslash Friday” to the Jane and Petra dynamic. Here’s the link if interested.)

After the finale aired Slate also published an article about how the Michael is not dead plot didn’t work and was a disservice to the way love works. I mostly agree. I never really cared with whom Jane ended up.  The show was always more about figuring out haw to build and maintain relationships than proving who was more right for each other. And I did kind of like the “each in their own time” resolution to the love triangle. (I felt similarly to the one in Lost Girl.) I get why the show did it. I do agree it was why the final season dragged in some parts. I do think Michael coming back from the dead reinvigorated the Sin Rostro story just in time to climax on the penultimate episode. Whether or not that was worth it is up to you.

I do want to take this moment to point out that while watching Jane walk down the aisle in the final episode, I realized that there never really wasn’t a moment in the entire where I felt doubt that Jane was loved, or felt unlovable. The closest it ever got to that’s in its depictions of how growing up without a father affected her. But, as connecting with her biological father Rogelio and developing a very deep bond was such an important part of the show, that anxiety was never really felt for Jane. (Petra, on the other hand…) This makes her kind of an outlier of most of the series I watch, whether the was the point of the series (You’re the Worst, Crazy Ex Girlfriend) or kind of a side affect of the surreal and chaotic universe in which it’s set (Broad City, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt). I’m not sure what to make of this. Is it part of why it would be more likely to be misidentified as a guilty pleasure? Is it a sign about changes in what makes a heroine “relatable”?

I’ve repeatedly said here that I’m thinking about tapering the amount of tv I watch until it’s none. In Margaret Lyons’s review, she talks about how Jane was in some ways the show that replaced Mad Men in her heart, which reminded me that when Jane started I wasn’t sure I wanted to start any new tv shows. Also both show’s care about episode structure in a way that feels undervalued these days.  I do kind of have to agree with Lyons that some of the final season felt like treading water. (Something that seemed to affect the more character than plot driven shows I’ve watched that have ended this year. This runs counter to most of my theory of what’s going on with tv these days.)

“Have you ever loved something so deeply it was almost impossible to talk about?” Jade Budowski wrote over at The Decider. And yes, for a while now, the things I like the most are the things I have the hardest time trying o talk about. It’s satisfying enough that you kind of want to just point and say “go, experience it for yourself.” Even though that runs the risk of letting it be taken as froth.

Over at Vox, Constance Grady wrote about how the finale worked, despite the fact that most of the conflict was resolved on the previous episode. It’s a loving tribute to how the show knew how to work and give us the happiest of endings without being too saccharine.

Finally, I want to day thanks for making Jane and Rafael’s wedding song Ximena Sariñana’s “Todo En Mi Vida”. Sure, I’ve been following Sariñana since her debut, Mediocre, so this is likely to appeal to me personally, but it’s also a beautiful song about learning to love the unexpected and build a new life around it.

[rpgmgames]

July’s Featured Game: SLARPG

DEVELOPER(S): Bobby "ponett" Schroeder ENGINE: RPGMaker VX Ace  GENRE: RPG, Fantasy SUMMARY: SLARPG is a short, turn-based RPG following the story of Melody Amaranth, a kindhearted but meek transgender fox who’s decided to learn healing magic and become a paladin. She’s joined by her adventurous girlfriend Allison, as well as their friends Claire (a sarcastic, rule-bending witch)(she is also trans) and Jodie (a dependable, somewhat motherly knight). Over the course of the story, our inexperienced heroes will meddle with forces beyond their control and find themselves responsible for the fate of their quaint little hometown. They’ll also fight some spherical frogs, travel to a forgotten land in the sky, befriend a robot or two, and anger the local librarian. But that should go without saying. 

Introduce yourself!  Hi! My name's Bobby "ponett" Schroeder. I have a background mainly in visual art and writing, and I've been working in RPG Maker VX Ace since 2013 after being inspired to try making my own game by Splendidland's masterpiece Megaman Sprite Game. I'd always wanted to go into game development, but this was the first time it felt like it was actually feasible for me to make something fun on my own. By the end of that year I released a much rougher freeware version of SLARPG, originally known as Super Lesbian Horse RPG.

I do most of the work myself, but I have several people helping me with some NPC and enemy design work including my boyfriend Anthony Field (@exclamationpointman on Tumblr) and my friends Thomas Landon (@schloogywoog), Gee (@fattoads), and Thom (@sidewalkwitch). My lead composer is the incredibly talented BEATR!X @neutralnewt) with more music contributed by other friends such as internet pop icon blacksquares (@blacksquares).

What is your project about? What inspired you to create your game initially? *Bobby: Super Lesbian Animal RPG is primarily about a timid transgender fox named Melody. At age 22 she's sort of coasting along on autopilot with no clear idea of what she wants to do with her life. One day, she and her girlfriend Allison get roped into a new adventuring guild founded by their friends Claire and Jodie. Melody sees this as an opportunity to impress Allison and to make herself useful by becoming a paladin and learning healing magic.

At its heart, the game is about the relationships between four girls in their early 20s. They're all trying to define themselves as people, they all have their own personal baggage, and they all have their own motives for seeing this dinky little adventurer's guild as a life-changing opportunity. And now, thanks to the trouble they get themselves into, they also have to figure out how to be heroes. It's also a game where you can have an anthropomorphic rabbit with a mohawk kiss her girlfriend and then swing a sword made of zircon at a magic tumbleweed

As I said, the game was originally released in a much rougher form under the title Super Lesbian Horse RPG. It started out as a cute, goofy little game where Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic were dating (of course) and went on a bizarre adventure, but it soon turned into a genuine RPG with a more sincere story. It also got much, much more attention than I ever expected. My use of copyrighted characters made the game difficult to distribute, though, and in hindsight I was holding myself back by presenting it as a fangame. So in 2015, I decided to radically overhaul and flesh out the game with a new, expanded cast that I have full creative control over. And now here we are today, with a game that's probably got more new material in it than old, but still hopefully has the same charm if you enjoyed the original.

How long have you been working on your project? *Bobby: Work on the original project lasted the entirety of 2013, with me foolishly releasing the 1.0 version on Christmas 2013 (my 20th birthday—I spent most of the day frantically squashing bugs). I returned to the project in 2015 and have been working on the new version on and off for about two years now.

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Bobby: The humor is definitely inspired in part by Mother and Paper Mario, although my talkative protagonists might make it closer to something like a point-and-click adventure game. I've also always loved really casual comedy that skews towards normal conversation in stuff like Home Movies or Homestuck. Adventure Time has undoubtedly been a big influence, too, as one of my favorite shows, with its "anything goes" fantasy world and colorful cast of characters—but also because of its focus on grounded, introspective character moments in a surreal, fantastical setting

Gameplay-wise, early Final Fantasy titles are a big influence for sure, and I'm trying to take a page out of Zelda's book when it comes to exploration and level design. But tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons are also having an impact on the way I design encounters. I think tabletop games are still the gold standard for RPG battles, because they're often less about stats and repetition and doing what the designer wants you to do and more about improvising a fun story. Of course, an RPG Maker game can't compete with having an actual DM there to run an encounter, but I'm trying to give players lots of fun little "hey, what if I tried this?" moments with unexpected consequences.

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them?   *Bobby: Honestly, the big thing for me is always time management. As development continues and my skills improve, I often find myself polishing areas and assets I'd already worked on before. If I didn't force myself to work on new stuff too I'd probably spend three years just polishing Greenridge to a mirror shine.

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Bobby: Developing the protagonists further has really broadened my horizons writing-wise. I always wanted the game to have a nice emotional arc on top of all the jokes and surreal dungeons, but over time I've fleshed out Melody, Allison, Claire, and Jodie more and more, making everyone feel less like charicatures and more like real people with relatable motivations. The graphics have also gotten a lot better after several years of pixel art practice, and the level design has gotten less linear.

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don't have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *Bobby: It started out as just me. Friends on Tumblr quickly showed interest in contributing designs and music to the game just because they liked the project, and before long a lot of different people were putting their own little mark on the game. Some of my favorite characters in the game have been designed by friends, and I don't know where I'd be without the absolutely phenomenal soundtrack.

What was the best part of developing the game? *Bobby: I love designing characters, and writing in all these little details to make them feel real, and figuring out how they talk to each other, and seeing my audience pick out their favorites. It's a very rewarding process for me. The second best part is getting to listen to the soundtrack and realize "Wow... this is gonna be in a game that I'm making. And it's gonna be SICK."

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *Bobby: Without a doubt, Melody. She differs from myself in a lot of major ways, so I wouldn't call her a self-insert, but she was created to give myself the relatable fat bisexual trans girl protagonist with anxiety that no other piece media was ever going to give me. A lot of her insecurities in the game are even loosely inspired by stuff I've been through in real life.

I also have a ton of fun writing the villains, but they're spoilers.

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Bobby: I wish I'd been more consistent about my work ethic in the past. I worked EXTREMELY inconsistently on SLARPG throughout 2015, and I probably could've gotten a lot more done back then. But hey, live and learn.

Once you finish your project, do you plan to explore game's universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Bobby: Oh, I'm absolutely hoping to revisit this world! Part of the reason I'm putting so much effort into revamping a game I already released is so that I can work with this new cast and setting again in the future. I'm not planning too far ahead right now, but I do have some vague ideas for more games I'd like to make in this world, possibly through the eyes of characters other than Melody.

What do you look most forward to upon/after release? *Bobby: I'm looking forward to being able to play some longer games in my backlog without feeling guilty about it, haha. I've been dying to play stuff like The Witcher 3, NieR: Automata, and Final Fantasy XV, but I'm always worried it'll just take time away from my work. It's a wonder I managed to finish Breath of the Wild this year.

Is there something you're afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game?  *Bobby: This answer is gonna be a bummer, but I'm worried about is the harassment I'll have to deal with for putting out a game about LGBT characters. I've already dealt with this on several occasions, although thankfully it hasn't progressed past slur-filled anonymous messages. This toxic state of the gaming community is why I'm currently planning to release the game exclusively on itch.io, rather than exposing myself to Steam's hostile userbase. But it's a story that I think is worth telling, and for every piece of hate mail I get 20 messages from people telling me how excited they are, which is why I haven't given up.

Question from last month's featured dev: Is there any portion of your development that's gotten you outside your comfort zone? *Bobby: I think it's easy to say that most of it has been outside my comfort zone, actually. Working on SLARPG has really pushed the boundaries of what I previously thought I was capable of as an artist. When I first started I literally made a dungeon that was just a straight line with one 90 degree turn because I had no idea what else to do with the canvas. Now I can make dungeons that are actually slightly fun!

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Bobby: Study the games and stories you love, and find out what really makes them tick. Don't just mimic surface level things, but study the mechanical, structural, and thematic elements that make them so memorable. Oh, and don't put too much effort into a fangame if there's even the slightest chance it'll get taken down, haha. Make something original loosely inspired by the things you love instead.

We mods would like to thank Bobby for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved! 

Remember to check out SLARPG if you haven’t already! See you next month! 

- Mods Gold & Platinum 

[stokan]

The 20 Best Things of 2016

Fun fact: Many good things actually happened in the year 2016. It’s true! It wasn't all death and Trump, although as you’ll see, those two factors hang heavy over even the best of things. But just like every year, 2016 still managed to produce its fair share of great art, cultural triumphs, and viral delights. Leaving out, obviously, things from 2016 that it seems like I’ll probably love but have yet to experience (OJ: Made in America, Search Party, 20th Century Women, Fences, etc.), and TV shows I’ve already written about in years past (OITNB, Transparent, You're the Worst, Veep, etc) here are my top 20 favorite things from 2016, listed in no particular order:

1. Beyonce - “Formation” video

How upset old white people were about this should give you some idea of just how great it is.

When I was growing up, the biggest music video from the biggest female pop star of the day involved her dancing around suggestively in a Catholic school girl outfit. Trump may have won the election, but progress still remains undefeated.

2. Kendrick Lamar’s Grammys Performance

(Of course this isn't anywhere on the internet for me to link to. Because Neil Portnow.)

Kendrick’s performance was the performance that Kayne always thinks he is giving. It’s a performance that made everyone else who took the stage on Music’s Biggest Night seem like talent show contestants.

I don’t want to tell artists how to use their fame, but this is how they should use their fame.

3. Last Week Tonight - #MakeDonaldDrumpfAgain

SPOILER ALERT: He didn't make Donald Drumpf again. In fact the viral success of this piece and lack of any resultant effect on Trump whatsoever does raise some big questions about the effectiveness of comedy in actually changing anyone’s mind about anything in 2016. But yet, like death from a thousand paper cuts, it definitely drew a little blood. And even though I really wish John Oliver had stuck with guns and only referred to Trump as Drumpf for the rest of the year, it was still a more thorough and effective attack ad than anything the Clinton campaign managed to put together, and that was basically their whole job. John Oliver can never be president, but the world is going to be a better place as long as he keeps trying to help decide who will be.

Also, says everything about 2016 that this piece now feels like it came out ten thousand years ago.

4. La La Land

Hey, remember joy? And love? And having hopes and dreams? Well La La Land sure does! The best and worst thing you can say about it is that it’s a pre-Trump movie. Maybe the last one ever in fact. But for my money, Damien Chazelle’s quest to Make Musicals Great Again is exactly the tonic we need right now. And it seems fitting the Oscars after the death of Debbie Reynolds are going to be headlined by a colorful and happiness-inducing musical about show business, complete with its own dream ballet. Sometimes the best way to reinvent an art form is to just do it the same way its always been done, only better and at the right time.

5. Olympic Swimming

When the Olympics began I barely cared. I was raised on the Olympics, but in 2016 there’s so much else going on it felt like maybe time has passed the Olympics by. And then the swimming started. And Ledecky destroyed all challengers. And Phelps proved that calling him the greatest swimmer of all time is still underrating him. And Simone Manuel made history. And Lochte Lochted. And Anthony Ervin spun an all-time Olympic athlete backstory into Olympic gold. And for a week there was nothing in the world more compelling than watch people swim laps in a pool.

So turns out the Olympics are the Michael Phelps of sporting events - the second you think they’ve slipped a bit is when they have you right where they want you.

6. LVL Up - “Pain”

Point: Rock and roll is dead

Counterpoint: “Pain” by LVL Up

7. Stranger Things

I hate the 80s. I hate supernatural shows and horror-based shows and “genre” shows in general. I hate homage as the starting place for a work of art. I hate culture’s obsession with nostalgia and youth. And yet I loved Stranger Things. It felt like nothing else on TV while feeling like so many other things all at once. It’s the show Lost wishes it could have been, and what JJ Abrams wishes he had made instead of Super 8.

Also: I hate that there’s going to be a season two. I hate that dialogue around the show seemed so #TeamBarb when clearly any sane right-thinking person is #TeamNancy all the way. I preemptively hate all the imitators Stranger Things is going to spawn. And I hate the Stranger Things backlash that’s inevitably coming and coming hard. But right now, in this moment, let’s all embrace a wonderful television ride and not worry about the demigorgons in the woods coming to put slugs in its mouth.

#KeepHawkinsWeird

8. Flossie Dickey

Sometimes you find true love where you least expect it. Like in an interview with a 110-year woman at a nursing home.

9. Sam Donsky on The Ringer

(Speaking of soul mates…)

In the age of Trump it’s more important than ever that we have writers brave enough to ask the tough questions. Like: Who would win the Oscar for Best Baby? What is the best night any celebrity has ever had at Madison Square Garden? And why does David Benioff always thank his wife by her full name?

From analyzing the Kim/Kayne/Taylor tapes like they're the Zapruder film, to asking 74 questions about a film no one saw or liked, 2016 was the year Sam Donsky officially made himself into this generation’s Woodward and Bernstein, if Woodward and Bernstein were mostly known for dissecting dumb pop culture on the internet. We may never fully understand why Trump won, but, also, what’s up with Chris Pratt’s vests?

10. Black-ish - “Hope”

A perfect piece of writing and a perfect argument for the continued existence of network TV.

That being said though, 40 years ago this would be a classic TV episode people would talk about for generations. Now, it didn't even get nominated for an Emmy. Maybe network TV is just beyond saving.

11. The People vs. OJ Simpson

It’s almost a cliche at this point to point out how many societal issues the OJ Simpson case touched on, but watching this miniseries unfold was a great reminder that looking at the the past is usually the best vehicle for exploring the present. To choose just one example, the scene where the jurors argue over what to watch on TV is a perfect encapsulation of how something like a Trump victory could some day be possible. And if Marcia Clark isn't a perfect Hillary Clinton avatar then I don’t know who is. My only complaints about a perfect eight hours of television are that it wasn't longer and that Sarah Paulson and Courtney B. Vance aren't eligible for Oscars.

12. Samantha Bee’s Donald Trump Conspiracy Theory

Look, I don't want to say that Full Frontal with Samantha Bee is the best and most important show on TV. That is has the best joke writers in the business. That it has the righteous anger and indignation that this year called for. That it’s going to be our guiding light for the next four years. And that it’s proof that giving The Daily Show to Trevor Noah was one of the dumbest decisions in recent television history. All I’m saying is that some people are saying that, and who am I to disagree? If I was going to make claims that outlandish, I guess the first pieces of evidence I would direct you to are this already iconic Donald Trump conspiracy and the show’s Harriet Tubman segment. But I’m not one to make accusations about things using facts and evidence. I’m no expert; I’m just a guy. A guy standing in front of samanthabee.com asking it to to love him.

13. David Bowie - “Lazarus” video

The ultimate mic drop.

They say Native Americans used to make use of every part of the buffalo. David Bowie was like that, only the buffalo was his life.

14. SNL

“Farewell Mr. Bunting”

Having enough trust in your audience and your vision to attempt this sketch is super inspiring. Getting people in 2016 to wait through two and a half minutes of build up in a viral video before it pays off feels like a miracle. And getting the feeling back in my face when I finally finish laughing at this is going to be really great.

“Black Jeopardy” This is what comedy can do when its at it’s best. It cuts to truths about America more clearly and cleanly than 1,000 think pieces ever could. Are comedy sketches eligible for the Nobel Prize in Literature now?

“Hillary Clinton/Hallelujah” And this is what comedy can do when it’s not comedy at all. When historians 200 years from now want to know what the days just after the election of Donald Trump felt like all they need to do is watch this. The best thing SNL has ever done.

15. Songs That Made Me Unsure Whether I Should Be Sad, Dance, Or Both

Christine and the Queens - “iT”

I have absolutely no idea what this song is about. All I know is it sounds like the feeling of being alive. Between this song and Marion Cotillard’s eyes the French really continue to have the whole beautiful sadness thing figured out.

Eleanor Freiberger - “My Mistakes” The best Rilo Kiley song of 2016. The world can change however it wants; as long as it keeps giving me new versions of the exact song I’m totally good.

Mike Posner - “Took a Pill in Ibiza” The exact opposite of me is an EDM-influenced song about taking drugs in a nightclub in Ibiza. Yet here we are. Turns out that existential melancholy translated into Douche from the original Neurotic Intellectual is still pretty damn relatable. And yes I realize this song came out in 2015, but this will always be the sound of 2016 to me.

16. Moonlight

Moonlight feels like a miracle. That a serious drama without any name stars about a poor, gay, black man coming of age could be made at all, yet alone breakthrough into the popular consciousness. That a cast this natural and flawless could be found, like an album where every song that comes on makes you go “no THIS one is my favorite!”. That there are two different sets of three actors so similar and so good that when I see them together doing press it hurts my brain because I can’t process that they were not ACTUALLY the same person at three different ages. That two people making small talk at a table in a diner could have a whole audience on the edge of their seats. That a no-name director with one prior little-seen credit could create the most powerful and well-made movie of the year. None of these things seems possible or plausible, and yet they're all true. This movie is a miracle. And its success gives me hope. To quote critic Dana Stevens, in the pitch-black year of Trump, Moonlight was a “crack in the wall that allowed light to shine through”.

17. Atlanta

In 2016, what even is TV? It’s basically anything now. And it’s everything. It’s whatever it wants to be. And no artist has yet risen to meet the challenge and possibility of our post-Louie world better than Donald Glover has. In 2016 Atlanta is TV, and TV is Atlanta. There are no rules. There is only what you can dream up.

What will season two of Atlanta be? It could be literally anything and no one would bat an eye.

18. Chance the Rapper - Coloring Book

Chance the Rapper is so millennial it hurts. Chance the Rapper definitely has strong feelings about safe spaces and Bernie Sanders. Chance the Rapper has never even considered doing something ironically. Chance the Rapper makes Lin-Manuel Miranda look like a cynical pessimist. Hell, Chance the Rapper named himself Chance the Rapper. And as a millennial, Chance the Rapper is the future.

And the future sounds amazing.

The future is like if Old Kanye had been raised on new Kanye and was actually good at rapping. (As the old saying goes: every generation gets the Late Registration it deserves) The future is like if Picasso painted with emojis. The future is earnestness being the new aggression. The future is Future being the past.

Hip-hop is dead, long live hip-hop.

19. “A Closer Look” on Late Night With Seth Meyers

I almost left this reoccurring segment off my list of the best of 2016 because it’s become such a constant part of my life that I assumed it had been around longer than just this year. Who knew when Jon Stewart retired that the new iteration of The Daily Show would be called Late Night With Seth Meyers? Or as I call it: Essential.

20. Revisionist History Podcast

Facts and knowledge really took a beating in 2016, but turns out both are still great if you just re-examine them rather then throw them out all together. Perhaps looking more deeply into our assumptions about the world can help us better understand human nature and the reality we all share. Who knew?

Of everything I experienced in 2016 this podcast is the thing I reference most frequently. I’m fun at parties.

[funface2]

The Best Jokes from the Alec Baldwin Roast on Comedy Central – Collider.com

To some, Comedy Central’s annual roast is like the Super Bowl of comedy. And this year’s distinguished honoree, Alec Baldwin, makes for a particularly great football to kick around. Not only has he endured as an award-winning film and television star for more than 30 years, but he has survived all kinds of tabloid incidents, from fistfights with photographers, to the embarrassing voicemail he once left for his “rude, thoughtless” daughter. He has also hosted Saturday Night Live, America’s foremost comedy institution, more than anyone else in its history. The point is that Baldwin’s remarkable life offers a lot of material to work with. The Comedy Central Roast of Alec Baldwin airs Sunday night, but Collider was invited to the live taping last week, and with a dais that included acting legend Robert De Niro, transgender icon Caitlyn Jenner and controversial comedian Adam Carolla, you can bet there was plenty of friendly shade thrown and shots fired.

Sean Hayes served as a surprisingly strong Roast Master for the evening, and joining him and the aforementioned trio on stage were doctor-turned-actor Ken Jeong, NBA star Blake Griffin, SNL‘s Chris Redd, Sabrina the Teenage Witch star Carolina Rhea, roast ringer Nikki Glaser, and the Roastmaster General himself, Jeff Ross. Plus, there were two surprise roasters, Alec’s daughter, Ireland Baldwin, and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, who may need to be put down soon, as his shtick is getting a little long in the canine. And yes, that is a tooth joke, for all the dentists who read Collider.

At one point, I thought Lady Gaga was going to roast Baldwin (who introduces Ally’s SNL performance in A Star Is Born), via video, but she was just announcing that she and Comedy Central had a made a cool million-dollar donation to Exploring the Arts, a charity that supports arts funding. That’s always the first thing to go when there are budgets cuts at schools, so it’s a worthy cause, and hey, isn’t that worth it to get Lady Gaga on your broadcast? Methinks so.

Image via Warner Bros.

Glaser brought her A-game, as you’ll see below, but that’s what I expected from a pro. Griffin, on the other hand, dunked on everyone with the kind of confidence that only a jock can muster, and truly surprised me with his ease and timing on stage. I should’ve seen it coming, too, as Griffin once held his own in a roast battle against Ross, who underestimated his competition and was lucky to squeak by the All-Star forward back in the day.

Jenner deserves a medal for what she was put through during this roast, but she gave as good as she got, and went toe-to-toe with some much more experienced roasters. De Niro did his thing, but at that point, he’d been on stage for close to three hours and it was getting late, so the energy — both his and the crowd’s — wasn’t quite there. And Carolla stayed right on brand, using most of his time to rail against #CancelCulture instead of Baldwin. Speaking of whom, when it was Baldwin’s turn for rebuttal, he showed everyone why he won two Emmys for 30 Rock — he can deliver a hell of a zinger.

So put that remote down — remotes are for closers — and check out the #BaldwinRoast on Comedy Central on Sunday night. Here’s a little sneak peek of my three favorite jokes from each roaster. Naturally, parental discretion is advised…

Sean Hayes

“No offense, Blake, but I’m a better ball handler than you.”

“Caitlyn, being here tonight is the bravest thing you’ve ever done, but don’t worry, any parts you don’t like will be cut.”

“Alec once said I was like a brother to him, which is why we haven’t talked in 10 years.”

“Alec, this will be the funniest thing you’ve been a part of that Tina Fey didn’t carry you through.”

Grade: A Hayes made for a surprisingly solid Roast Master and his introductions for each roaster were some of his funniest jokes, especially his intros for Redd and Jenner. I thought he did a good job setting the tone for the evening with his strong opening set.

Nikki Glaser

“Blake, you look like a black guy made by a printer that was running out of ink.”

“Robert De Niro… I can’t believe I get to share this stage with you, and by that I mean the final one of your life.”

“Stevie Wonder sees his sons more than you do, Caitlyn. I mean, even Casey Anthony knows the current location of her daughter!”

“Alec, you’ve had four kids with Hilaria, which is incredible, because isn’t your semen just oatmeal at this point? Oooh, Robert got excited when I said ‘oatmeal!’”

Grade: A Glaser was really the ringer of the evening, as she’s really the only one flexing that comedy muscle every night. It showed, as her set was absolutely vicious.

Image via Warner Bros. Pitures

Ken Jeong

“Chris Redd… just like on SNL, your jokes have been cut for time. Let’s move on! Scroll, scroll, scroll!”

“Alec, you have five kids with two different women. Why can’t you be more like the investors in your films and just pull out?”

“Robert, I’m a great doctor, but even I can’t resuscitate your career.”

Grade: A- Ken Jeong’s jokes alternated between network sitcom and edgy cable series, so to speak. Some were a little corny, but the clever ones really hit the mark, especially Jeong’s delivery of the Redd joke above. Hopefully that one makes its way into the broadcast, which will inevitably leave some punchlines on the cutting room floor.

Chris Redd

“If you wanna hide something from Robert De Niro, just put it on a SNL cue card, because he can’t read that shit!”

“I’m excited to watch an old man figure out trans pronouns in front of a live studio audience.”

“Caroline looks like she leaves her baby in a hot car to meet firemen.”

Grade: B+ Chris Redd got off to a rough start but he recovered and finished strong.

Caitlyn Jenner

“Back in the day, Alec and Bruce were like brothers. That’s one more brother he’ll never talk to again.”

“Adam Carolla is so boring. I’ve never seen a drier pussy in my life, and that’s coming from me. See Adam, women are funny!”

Grade: B+ Jenner closed her set with an inspirational message, telling trans viewers ‘if I’m strong enough to sit up here all night, you can handle anything,” and telling her critics “if you have a problem with that then you can suck my dick… if you can find it!”

Caroline Rhea

“Jeff Ross, you are one fat Jewish man. I feel like you took “Let my people go!” out of context.”

“Alec Baldwin worked as a busboy at Studio 54, where he had to clean up jizz and coke every night. That’s exactly what Nikki looks for in a shampoo!”

“Where are your brothers tonight? God knows they’re not working!”

Grade: B Rhea may have stuck out like a sore thumb on the dais but she held her own onstage and took all the jokes about her weight in stride.

Blake Griffin

“Caroline, if you’re here then Salem the Cat must’ve turned it down. Sorry Robert, I know how much you like black pussy.”

“Caitlyn Jenner’s pussy is so young that Alec just called it a “rude, thoughtless little pig.”

“On behalf of the entire NBA and half the rappers on the Billboard charts, thanks for giving your daughters daddy issues.”

Grade: A Griffin showed his roast experience, dunking on the entire dais, and forcing the industry to wonder, should he be starring in Space Jam 2 instead of LeBron James? Could he be the next Dwayne Johnson or Dave Bautista? The charisma is there…

Adam Carolla

“Ken Jeong showed his dick in The Hangover, and Ken, I haven’t seen a dick that small since I took my nephew ice-fishing!”

“If you were offended tonight, please give a reach-around to your emotional support dog and shut the fuck up!”

Grade: B Carolla works a bit better in longer-form, where he can build up a head of steam. His jokes were good, and I liked how he pushed back against the Comedy Police, but it felt like he left a few punchlines on the table.

Ireland Baldwin

“It’s hard being the daughter of an iconic movie star, but I’m not here to talk about my mother… or her Oscar.”

“It’s nice to be on a runway without starting beef with American Airlines. I mean, why would you start shit with the one place still playing your movies?”

“At least you taught someone the ABC’s!”

Grade: B+ Ireland was the surprise roaster of the night, and frankly, she deserved a few minutes of revenge years after her father left that terribly mean voice mail on her phone. She has grown up to be a beautiful woman, and she showed a lot of poise on stage considering the fact that she isn’t paid to deliver lines, and many other roasters struggled in front of the live audience.

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

“I thought Jimmy Kimmel was here but I was just smelling Adam Carolla’s finger!”

“Alec, your fuse is almost as short as Chris Redd’s IMDb page!”

“Alec Baldwin once made an appearance on Sesame Street. It was the only way he could get close to an Oscar.”

Grade: C I’ve gotta be honest… Triumph’s shtick is getting a little old… in terms of both human and dog years. When an actual dog is stealing the show from you, what does that say? 

Image via Warner Bros.

Robert De Niro

“After tonight, Rocky and Bullwinkle won’t be the worst thing I’ve ever done!”

“I was in Goodfellas, and I bet Sean has also been in some good fellas.”

“Comedy Central wouldn’t put Caitlyn Jenner on a roast until after her transition so they could pay her 20 percent less.”

Grade: C+ I just don’t think this was the right format for De Niro, who struggled with the teleprompter. He was OK, but his timing wasn’t 100 percent. Too bad Comedy Central couldn’t afford to de-age him like Netflix. I heard enough Old De Niro jokes to last me a lifetime. The man is the greatest actor ever, and it just felt weird watching everyone tee off on him like that, but at least he’s a good sport!

Jeff Ross

“It’s a Saturday Night Live reunion! Alec Baldwin plays Donald Trump. Robert De Niro plays Robert Mueller. Chris Redd plays Kanye. And Caitlyn Jenner donated the dick in the box!”

“Robert De Niro is a method actor. I just wish that method involved reading the script, Bob!”

“Caroline, you look like the schoolteacher all the kids hide behind during a shooting.”

“Adam, you once said that women aren’t funny. Well, they are, and let me tell you, you should’ve hired some to write your jokes tonight!”

Grade: A- The Roastmaster General was pretty damn great, and his set was consistently good. It didn’t have quite the same highs as, say, Nikki Glaser or Blake Griffin’s, but he didn’t have many stinkers in the bunch, and he definitely seemed to get extra camera time.

Alec Baldwin

“Blake, moving from LA to Detroit is so sad. That only happens when a prostitute’s body is sent back to her family.”

“Nikki, were you the flight attendant I was rude to? What devastating comment can I make that Nikki hasn’t already muttered to herself in front of a mirror at Equinox?”

“Ken, the hardest possible title for you to pronounce is Glengarry Glen Ross.”

Grade: B+ Baldwin got some good licks in when it was his turn to respond, but the roaster is always in a tough position at these things, because we’ve already heard 3 hours of jokes about each individual on stage, so it becomes harder to surprise the audience as the night wears on. Still, for a guy who made ‘Always Be Closing’ famous, he scored as the evening’s closer.

Image via New Line Cinema

Image via NBC

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Bài viết The Best Jokes from the Alec Baldwin Roast on Comedy Central – Collider.com đã xuất hiện đầu tiên vào ngày Funface.

from Funface https://funface.net/best-jokes/the-best-jokes-from-the-alec-baldwin-roast-on-comedy-central-collider-com/

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In support of this Tuesday’s Digital release of Black Panther, check out a conversation with the cast and crew about the women of Wakanda, which is the subject of one of the exclusive bonus features: The Warriors Within. Please also enjoy images from the film, including a few previously unreleased!

THE WOMEN OF WAKANDA

  The in-home release of Marvel Studios’ Black Panther is packed with bonus material including deleted scenes, outtakes and never-before-seen featurettes. The highly-celebrated story of a young African prince named T’Challa (played by Chadwick Boseman) has thrilled and inspired generations of moviegoers around the world, and dominated box office charts. Thankfully, the exhilarating adventure will be available Digitally in HD, 4K Ultra HD™ and Movies Anywhere on May 8 and on 4K Ultra HD™, Blu-ray™, DVD and On-Demand on May 15.

  To celebrate the in-home launch of the mighty Marvel movie, we chat to the cast and crew about the women of Wakanda, which is the subject of one of the exclusive bonus features: The Warriors Within. Look no further if you want to get to know Wakanda’s women and the amazing actors who portray them…

Marvel Studios’ BLACK PANTHER Dora Milaje Conceptual Character and Costume Design Sketch Costume Design: Ryan Meinderding and VisDev Team Concept Artist: Anthony Francisco ©Marvel Studios 2018

Marvel Studios’ BLACK PANTHER Nakia Conceptual Character and Costume Design Sketch Costume Design: Ruth Carter Concept Artist: Keith Christensen ©Marvel Studios 2018

Marvel Studios’ BLACK PANTHER Shuri Conceptual Character and Costume Design Sketch Costume Design and Concept Art: Ruth Carter and team ©Marvel Studios 2018

Marvel Studios’ BLACK PANTHER L to R: Danai Gurira (Okoye) on set with Director Ryan Coogler Ph: Matt Kennedy ©Marvel Studios 2018

Marvel Studios’ BLACK PANTHER Nakia Conceptual Character and Costume Design Sketch Costume Design: Ruth Carter Concept Artist: Keith Christensen ©Marvel Studios 2018

Marvel Studios’ BLACK PANTHER Nakia Dora Milaje Conceptual Character and Costume Design Sketch Costume Design: Ryan Meinderding and VisDev Team working w/ Ruth Carter ©Marvel Studios 2018

  LUPITA NYONG’O [NAKIA]

“I love the way Black Panther represents women. Each and every one of us [in the movie] is an individual. We all have our own sense of power and we hold our own space without being pitted against each other. I think that’s a very, very powerful message to send to children – both male and female.

  “In Black Panther, we see women going about their business and supporting each other. They argue with each other and have different points of view, but they are not pitted against each other and I think that’s extremely important. In doing this, audiences can get a sense of the fabric of Wakanda as a nation, where we see women alongside men and we see how much more effective a society can be if they allow women to explore their full potential.

  “Cinema has the potential to show us who we’ve been, who we are, and who we could be – and Wakanda is an example of who we could be. This is a nation that has been allowed to self-determine because it has avoided the interruption that colonialism was; that assault on a culture and the imposition of a new culture on another. It has figured out how to develop on its own terms. And with that development, it seems they have figured out how to allow their citizens to realize their fullest potential, which means that women can hold their power and not compromise or jeopardize the man’s power. In Wakanda, a woman can assume her own power – but she can also stand with and in support of the man at her side.

  “We can see that with the character of Black Panther, who is this all-powerful, vibranium-wearing guy who has Okoye [played by Danai Gurira] by his side. He also has a confidant in my character, Nakia. She’s someone that he can listen to and consider on a level plain. I think that’s really cool to see. I love the way that you get to see it unapologetic and unexplained; it’s just the way it is in a country you’ve never visited before. I feel like this gives you a glimpse as to what is possible in the real world.”

  DANAI GURIRA [OKOYE]

“When [Black Panther director and co-writer] Ryan Coogler sat me down and talked to me about his vision for the movie, the story, the characters – and the women – I was floored because you don’t get to hear stories like this very often. It’s not often that you sit down and hear that type of a vision. It was amazing.

  “There are so many great things I could say about how Ryan developed the women characters in the movie. I feel really blessed and excited by the fact he allowed us to collaborate, too. I love the fact that these women from the continent are very developed and very complex. I remember thinking, ‘Wow, this is something else. I just want to watch it, but now I also get to be in it.’

  “I was immediately drawn to the idea of the Dora Milaje [an all-female, special forces security team]. I loved the concept of them, but it was incredible to see them come to life [during pre-production]. I started to train with all these astounding women and then we all started to get our heads shaved for the movie. I was the first to have it done, but then all the girls started coming in with no hair. One-by-one, we’d all been balded – but we were united together. That’s when our pride started to grow. We all started to embrace this symbol of power in these women.

  “I love the moment in the movie where Okoye doesn’t want a wig. She doesn’t want to cover up her head. This is her joy and her pride, so she wants to walk in there with her bald head and that tattoo. I thought that moment was so subversive. It’s so subversive in the right way to say that you don’t have to have hair to be beautiful.”

  LETITIA WRIGHT [SHURI]

“I think it’s great to see so many strong women in Black Panther because there’s a lack of them in cinema right now; especially black female characters. All these female characters in the movie are really well rounded, too. They are not just written one way. The women have a lot of complexity. It was really refreshing to see and it’s inspiring to be part of it, because it means a lot to me.

  “I also love the way that the men are always behind the women in Wakanda. Nobody is undermined by the other sex. The men don’t stand around and say, ‘Shuri, you shouldn’t be into technology and math.’ They’re like, ‘No, go ahead.’ T’Challa says, ‘Go ahead, Sis. This is your department. This is your domain. Do your thing. Stay in your lane.’ I love that that’s the mentality of the king. It’s brilliant. Everybody’s got their own lane.

  “I love what Marvel has done with this movie. They are saying that women are just as great as the men. It’s not one or the other. There’s a dope balance.”

  FOREST WHITAKER [ZURI]

“I love the fact that there are many different types of strong women in the movie. Not only are there these amazing women warriors who show the world that women are powerful – but they have a warrior spirit to conquer, as well as the ability to find the tools and strength to navigate and win.

  “The power of motherhood is displayed by Angela Bassett’s character [Ramonda] and the way she nurtures her children. She moves her son and daughter forward, and she’s willing to do anything to make sure they are well and right.

  “Then there’s Shuri, who shows everyone the technology of this world. She illustrates the fact that women can be adept with technology and math; the movie recognizes that attribute inside of women. These are very powerful statements to the world.”

  MICHAEL B. JORDAN [ERIK KILLMONGER]

“In Wakanda, the matriarchs are the backbone and the foundation on which the country is built on, and the men lean on their women for guidance and strength. I think it’s extremely important for little girls and women out there to see themselves represented in a positive, strong way in film and television – and I think Wakanda does it really well. I think Black Panther is amazing in that respect.

  “There are a lot of strong female characters in this movie. The fiercest warriors are all women. The king’s private guard – the Dora Milaje – are all women. That was something that [director and co-writer] Ryan Coogler and [co-writer] Joe Robert Cole wanted to depict in the story.

  “In African culture, the women are the backbone of society and they have such a positive influence on everyone. To not put a strong representation of that into the film would be a crime because we wanted to stay true to reality.

  “We have some very talented black women in this film, with Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira and Angela Bassett. It was incredible to work alongside them – although I think the character of Shuri [played by Letitia Wright] is my absolute favorite in the movie. I think Shuri is amazing. She’s incredibly smart and witty, and her one-liners are awesome.”

  DIRECTOR AND CO-WRITER RYAN COOGLER

“When you look at African culture, you’ll often see gender roles that are different from the norm. You’ll find issues with gender dynamics in African culture in the same way you do in other cultures, but you’ll also find things that are different. Strong women and women’s influence on culture and society is something that cannot be overlooked. That was something that we really wanted to include in the movie, although it’s something that was present in the Black Panther comics as well.

  “T’Challa’s mother, Ramonda, is a constant influence on his world. And T’Challa’s relationship with his sister is one of the more unique relationships in comic book films and action films. It was something that we looked at because there’s no super hero with a little sister – but Shuri is possibly the most important relationship in his life. That was something that we really wanted to explore. And then you have the Dora Milaje, who are these elite warriors in the country and it’s all women.

  “This film had involvement from brilliant women from start to finish. They weren’t hired because they were women; they were hired because they were the best people for the job. That includes our cinematographer, Rachel Morrison; our costume designer, Ruth Carter; our production designer, Hannah Beachler; and our assistant director, Lisa Satriano. In post-production, the film was edited by Michael Shawver and Debbie Berman, who is from South Africa. I was blessed to work alongside these incredible women and to have their perspective and their fingerprints all over the project.”

Witness the legend. Don’t miss hours of exclusive behind-the-scenes footage when you bring home Marvel Studios’ Black Panther on Digital, @MoviesAnywhere & 4K UHD 05/08/18 and Blu-ray 05/15/18

Black Panther: The Women of Wakanda – Available on DIGITAL on May 8th! In support of this Tuesday’s Digital release of Black Panther, check out a conversation with the cast and crew about the women of Wakanda, which is the subject of one of the exclusive bonus features: The Warriors Within.

[stormyrecords-blog]

march 29th new arrivals

in on thursday restock on these lps - HEXADIC III $24.99ben chasney currated lp of current amazing guitar players on drag city CAVERN OF ANTI-MATTER Hormone Lemonade $28.99still the clear vinyl version!!! JAY DANIEL - Audire Vol 1 Watusi High cassette $9.99beats tape by local dj/electronic magician who has been running with the Wild Oats crowd for years. Debut release from Detroit super-duo 'Audire', comprised of Jay Daniel & Ajamu Yakini. Raw work of art combining World, Jazz, Hip-Hop & everything in between. Limited to only 100 cassettes.Running Time 28 mins. JAY DANIEL - School Dance ep on Watusi $8.99it's wonderful to be in a place where we get to meet young people with the dream of making music. and to watch them work hard and grow and realize their dream of putting out records and performing all over the world. it can also be hard as they age to see them and see they are older, and know that means we are older too. we're proud to be able to play some small part in the lives of musicians like jay, who so truly loves what he does. Following releases on Theo Parrish’s Sound Signature imprint and Kyle Hall’s Wild Oats label, ascending house DJ and producer Jay Daniel has decided to step out on his own, unveiling the first release on his new Watusi High imprint. The two-track School Dance EP collects a pair of muddy, slow-chugging house tracks from the man himself. Funkadelic: Free Your Mind LP $31.99"Funkadelic's second LP, originally released in 1970, is another straight up masterpiece from the stoniest, strangest funk and R&B group of all-time. Opening with the 10 minute title track complete with a shredding keyboard solo from Bernie Worrell and, of course, the six-stringed insanity of Eddie Hazel. One of George Clinton's finest sets of songs and another essential part of the Parliament-Funkadelic catalog reissued on blue starburst vinyl in a deluxe gatefold jacket." Atobe, Shinichi: Butterfly Effect 2LP $29.992018 limited repress. Shinichi Atobe has managed to stay off the grid since he made an appearance on Basic Channel's Chain Reaction imprint back in 2001. He delivered the second-to-last 12" on the label and then disappeared without a trace, leaving behind a solitary record that's been selling for crazy money and a trail of speculation that has led some people to wonder whether the project was in fact the work of someone on the Basic Channel payroll. That killer Chain Reaction 12" has also been a longtime favorite of Demdike Stare, who have been trying to follow the trail and make contact with Atobe for some time, whoever he turned out to be. A lead from the Basic Channel office turned up an address in Japan and -- unbelievably -- an album full of archival and new material. Demdike painstakingly assembled and compiled the material for this debut album. And what a weird and brilliant album it is -- deploying a slow-churn opener that sounds like a syrupy Actress track, before working through a brilliantly sharp and tactile nine-minute piano house roller that sounds like DJ Sprinkles, then diving headlong into a heady, Vainqueur-inspired drone-world. It's a confounding album, full of odd little signatures that give the whole thing a timeless feeling completely detached from the zeitgeist, like a sound bubble from another era. This is only the second album release on Demdike Stare's DDS imprint, following the release of Nate Young's Regression Vol. 3 (Other Days) (DDS 007LP) in 2013. Who knows what they might turn up next? Mastered by Matt Colton at Alchemy. Messthetics: S/T LP $18.99cd also available $12.99"The Messthetics are an instrumental trio featuring Brendan Canty (drums), Joe Lally (bass), and Anthony Pirog (guitar). Brendan Canty and Joe Lally were the rhythm section of the band Fugazi from its inception in 1987 to its period of hiatus in 2002. This is the first band they've had together since then. Anthony Pirog is a jazz and experimental guitarist based in Washington, D.C. One half of the duo Janel & Anthony, he has emerged as a primary figure in the city's out-music community. The trio's debut includes nine songs recorded at Canty's practice space throughout 2017, live and mostly without overdubs. It's a snapshot of a band dedicated to the live ideal, where structure begets improvisation." Perry, Jordan: S/T LP $17.99"Much needed reissue of the extremely limited 2017 debut LP by Virginia guitarist, Jordan Perry. We were turned on to it when Chris Guttmacher at Blue Bag Records in Cambridge told Kassie Richardson of Good Cry (who did the initial 100 pressing) to send us a copy. He thought we might be into it, and halfway into one spin we knew he was right. There have been several fat boatloads of acoustic guitar players floating across our turntable the past few years. And to be honest, we've dug the majority of them. Seems like there must be a lot of good stuff in the water, or something. Despite this, a preponderance of the players we've enjoyed have definitely been in the American Primitive mode. Lots of swift modal aktion with a folk/blues base, invaded by various foreign agents. Jordan Perry's approach to his guitar is quite different. Although there are some basic völk sonorities in his playing, Mr. Perry's brunt combines these with more avant garde note selections and compositional gambits, as well as a string attack with classical qualities. While there's a gentleness to the melodies at which he eventually arrives, Perry's journey crosses prickly patches of tone clusters, and has a circular logic that defies pop logic. A few passages recall moments on All Is Ablaze, our recent album with experimental player Julia Reidy (FTR 338LP), while some of the open strumming has a beautifully languid quality verging on mid period William Ackerman. All of which makes this a record very deserving of much personal headspace. Give Jordan Perry some room and you'll be very glad you did. We promise." --Byron Coley, 2018 Edition of 300. Plastic Cloud:S/T LP   $27.992018 repress. "Plastic Cloud recorded, quite simply, one of the greatest psychedelic albums ever made. This is a record with few equals, full of foreboding melodies and lovely hippie harmonies, as well as some of the most superb and trippiest, Eastern sounding fuzz guitar ever recorded. There is no point singling out a specific track, they are all excellent -- one is equally as good as the next. Take for example the album centerpiece, the ten-and-a-half-minute 'You Don't Care,' an insane piece of social commentary that features terrific back-of-the-mix fuzz guitar as an elusive focal point to its extended pounding-drum laden instrumental breaks; with a great chorus and a plaintive melody in the verse, it doesn't overstay its welcome, winding its way to a final freak out. Essential psychedelia!" 180 gram vinyl; Edition of 400/ Comes with lyric insert and replica vintage press release. Phew: Voice Hardcore LP $26.99"Living legend Phew follows up her brilliant Light Sleep album with another masterwork -- Voice Hardcore -- comprised entirely of her iconic, instantly recognizable voice, twisted, folded and layered over six mesmerizing tracks. Recorded at home in summer 2017, this release finds Phew exploring an idea she first hatched while recording her debut single 'Finale' in 1980 -- to, in her words, ' make new reverberations that I have never heard before, using only my body.' 37 years later, Phew proves herself again to be the exception to the rule -- a veteran artist with an estimable catalog spanning decades who, rather than repeating herself or playing it safe, charges headfirst into uncharted territory. Phew's self -- released tour CD of Voice Hardcore was voted # 23 Best Album of 2017 by The Wire Magazine. This Mesh-Key vinyl edition features a silver foil stamped cover and a double-sided, full color insert, and comes with an mp3 download card." Morrow, Charlie: Toot! Too LP $26.99Recital present the first vinyl LP by composer/event-maker Charlie Morrow. Toot! Too culls performance recordings from 1970 to 2014. It focuses on his "Wave Music" series, which are compositions based around swarms of like-instruments; i.e. sixty clarinets, conch choruses, and army of drums and bugle horns, etc. The 1978 piece, "100 Musicians With Lights", was performed at dusk in Central Park. One hundred players (brass, reeds, percussion) congregate and march in spiral formations, playing their instrument with penlights attached to them. The piece dissipates and ends as each player marches through the park to their respective homes. The sound is fascinating; a tape recording made by an audience member swirling and dancing through the performance. Charlie is an organizer: one of instruments, with the pieces that landed on this LP and dozens more; one of events, through decades of public solstice celebrations across the world; one of publications, including New Wilderness Audiographics and EAR Magazine; and, one of friendships as Charlie has kindly introduced me to many fascinating players in this quirky game of ours. He views networking as an art form, always connecting friends with other friends, building a larger web for everyone to dance throughout. Label owner Sean McCann on the release: "In working on this LP over the past years, Charlie Morrow and I have become close. It has been a joy to have him in my life. At the age of 73, he is determined and creative and as positive as ever. Each time we speak, new projects arise -- like a mysterious soup boiling up fresh aromas. One of my favorite memories with Charlie was us staying up 'til the wee small hours of the morning drinking a bottle of sweet potato shochu, me listening to him tell funny and poignant remembrances. I am happy to share these lovely recordings, just a pinky toe in his artistic footprint, but wow, such a gorgeous toe!" Includes 20-page, 8.5x11" color booklet with scores, writings, and photographs; Includes download coupon; Edition of 500. Spacemen 3: Dreamweapon 2LP $39.99"August 1988, Spacemen 3 embark on one of the strangest events in the band's already strange history. Billed as 'An Evening Of Contemporary Sitar Music' (although consciously omitting the sitar), the group would play in the foyer of Watermans Arts Centre in Brentford, Middlesex to a largely unsuspecting and unsympathetic audience waiting to take their seats for Wim Wenders' film Wings Of Desire. Spacemen 3's proceeding set, forty-five minutes of repetitive drone-like guitar riffs, could be seen as the 'Sweet Sister Ray' of '80s Britain. Their signature sound is at once recognizable and disorienting -- pointing as much to the hypnotic minimalism of La Monte Young as to a future shoegaze constituency. On this double LP reissue, Dreamweapon is augmented by studio sessions and rehearsal tapes from 1987 that would lead up to the recording of Spacemen 3's classic Playing With Fire album. 'Spacemen Jam,' featuring Sonic Boom and Jason Pierce on dual guitar, is a side-long mediation on delicate textures and psychedelic effects. Includes download card and new insert with liner notes by Will Carruthers."

[nathaliesreflectivejournal]

Design that questions our reality

Designers have two choices in their practise. Design can be something that provides answers for questions or solves problems in our current situation, something that is commercial or in the service of industry. This kind of design is called affirmative design and it goes along with how we do things today. But design can also question those things as being the only possibility. Instead of answering questions, it can ask questions. Instead of solving problems, it can find new problems. It can redefine values regarding social, cultural, technical or economic factors and make satir of the reality we know. It can be critical design.

Critical design is not a specific technique, but more of a stance. It is ambiguous. Often it is used as a label when someone wants to imply that their work is designed beyond the norm. Critical design is seductive and fun to play with, but also provocative. Provocation creates discussion – which leads us back to what many of the authors which papers we read in Physical Prototypes said about prototypes. Lim et al., Michael Schrage, Buchenau & Suri and Houde & Hill agreed with the idea that prototypes are ways to explore, evaluate, understand and communicate. By questioning the obvious, exploring outside the box territory, but also suggest new ideas about future technology, critical design seems to be just that.

Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby are two designers that make critical design. One of their projects was the creation of a robot that looks like something else, so that people would look at it and say “Ha, that’s not a robot!”. Just by looking like something else, the robot straight away creates questions that lead to discussion. This robot also demands the user to do things to/with it, to move away from the notion that robots serve us. Dunne & Raby mean that critical design is playful and pushes design to its boundaries. They ask themselves if a small design can create a big discussion.

In our theory lesson Clint asked us two interesting questions. The first one was “Should we, as designers, ignore issues of the world?”. Commercially, we tend to polish the view of our world into a shining diamond which may work in terms of selling products. But that is not how it really looks. I think that we should never ignore issues of the world, but we should question what we find as, and define as, problems and what are in fact possibilities. Of course, some things are not appropriate to make satir of. Poverty, racism, physical and mental disabilities for example are real problems that we must do something about. But maybe design can help us to solve some of these problems. One big issue in this world (in some countries more than in others) is people not being provided with clean water. The LifeStraw (http://lifestraw.com/) is an invention that purifies dirty water into clean, drinkable water which could be lifesaving for many people. If we would have ignored this issue we would never have come up with ideas like these, so I think it is most important to not look away from problems that exist in this world.

The other question was “Should we, as citizens, be satisfied with the world we have?” Here as well, my answer is no. We should never be satisfied with what we have. We should always be curious and question that what we have is the best possible solution. We should always demand new things. After all, design is business and will not provide any supply if there is no demand. We have to strive further into the unknown to be able to find innovative technological ideas and develop as a society.

Speculative approaches & Design Fiction

Bill Gaver & Heather Martin suggest a workbook of speculative designs in their paper ALTERNATIVES – Exploring Information Appliances through Conceptual Design Proposals (2000). For example, they present The Dawn Chorus - “an intelligent birdfeeder that uses behaviourist training to teach local songbirds the owner’s favorite songs” and The Dream Communicator which “allows lovers to influence one another's dreams��.  All their ideas question something that may seem obvious, that birds only sing a predetermined repertoire of songs or that you don’t affect other people’s dreaming. These designs encourage us to be more open about design, go beyond the obvious and not jump to specific solutions. 

About their design ideas, Gaver & Martin say “Presented as fictional products, they encourage people to imagine living with them, raising many of the sorts of reactions that might be encountered if they actually existed”. They work like placeholders for future designs. This relates to what Julian Bleecker writes about Design Fiction in his essay with the same name from 2009. Design fiction is the intertwining of science fact, design, and science fiction. Bleecker means that science fact and science fiction interplay and are dependent on each other in a serious way. He explains science fiction as a way of prototyping future worlds, experiences or other contexts for life. Science fact is a way of exploring these ideas and select which ones are actually possible to materialize. By suggesting new ideas about future technology, science fiction drives science fact forward in a powerful sense.

Creating realistic experiences of future objects

It could be problematic to present design fiction to an audience that does not know anything but the world we live in today where these designs simply are not feasible. They are functional fiction – solutions to problems that we don’t even have and things we can’t use today. But it may exist in the future. To make possible future objects easier to grasp, it could help to create a whole story around them – to implement them in a fictional future with characters, props and lore etc. Film could contribute to the understanding of the design in a social setting in a future context and therefore works very well as a technique for presenting design fictions.

Creating a fictional scenario, like film, of a future object creates a more natural approach to it rather than reading about it in a paper or by listening to a presentation. These approaches lack the context in which this object would be used, which is an important aspect of understanding something that does not yet exist. Film can make use of familiar contexts that we all regognize, and placing a new object in a context that we feel confident in may make us more acceptable of its presence. 

These fictional future objects can be called diegetic prototypes. Because you get to know so much about them in the film you get the sense that it truly exist. (They do, however, in the fictional world). Diegetic prototypes are somewhere in between the relatable and the future. They balance between concreteness and openness. They give you enough information to understand the concept without being overly specific. They want to steer your thoughts to a certain direction without controlling them, just like any other prototype.

In their paper “Experience prototyping” (2000) Buchenau & Suri also mentions film as a good way of making experience prototypes. They mean that film can provide an experience that most likely will not appear in a conference room (see The Kiss Communicator). It becomes a way of describing the concept so that stakeholders understand it, without creating an awkward atmosphere in a conference room. By presenting the designs in their workbook with pictures and descriptions as they were existing products, Gaver & Martin created an alternative way of that realistic storytelling. It all boils down to creating an imaginary experience of a future object to make it more understandable.

What if?

I see much similarities in what I’ve now learned about critical design and what Michael Schrage wrote about prototypes in his paper Crafting Interactions: The Purpose & Practice of Serious Play. Michael Schrage argued that prototypes can work like marketplaces because they encourage discussion. He also claimed that prototyping is collaborative creativity and is not only about crafting artefacts, but crafting interaction between people. By being provocative, and maybe even make people a bit upset, I think critical design make people interact with the artefact as well as each other to understand what is really going on with this crazy idea. Through serious play with the prototype you challenge the reality. This makes you think less of what is and more of what if, and this is exactly what critical design is about.  

So, how do you judge the value of critical design? I think you can relate it much to Lim et al.’s idea of prototypes as ways of “understanding the concept”. Critical design raises new questions, we have to figure out what the knowledge they provide actually mean for the design and how we should adapt after it. There is always a risk factor with new things which should be taken in account, you simply don’t know if these designs are contributing to the future until they are proven so. But by testing out these ideas you always learn something  – and all knowledge leads you forward in some sense. Just like Lim et al. wrote about filtering dimensions as ways to decide what to, and what to not, prototype, I think you can see critical design as a way of filtering out what to, and what to not, develop further.