#maybe this is just nostalgia because that era shaped me a person personally

[boysborntodie]

They fr don’t make Bollywood movies like they used to in the 2000s 😔

[ahappydnp]

here is a collection of unorganized thoughts i had about the ian interview with anthony in relation to dnp’s working relationship

smosh talking about being best friends who ended up being business partners and then roommates and how bad it was and how they were passive aggressive with each other because they couldn’t fight bc they had to be best friends for youtube 

at first i immediately got sad hearing it but also i do think there’s a slight difference in how smosh interacted, especially them saying they never ever talked about feelings or emotions and their relationship was always surface level anyway

as opposed to dnp who’s dynamic/relationship is inherently more emotion based and vulnerable so talking about what’s upsetting them is going to come more naturally when it comes to the business side

but obviously that kind of relationship in any context is going to be INTENSE and hard to maintain when your lives are that intertwined

anthony talking about growing up individually and then feeling like they had to regress back into their 17 year old selves when they did hang out (“all we did when we hung out was play mario kart and talk about what we were doing”) 

also something that made me slightly sad for a second, especially remembering dan’s whole thing about phil pulling him back and the jokes about regressing bc he’s back on youtube blah blah blah it’s not refined or representative of his growth (which i hope he’s dealing with that whole mindset please dear god) 

but also dnp have grown individually and as a duo and i think they’ve given each other the space to do so while also having the front row seat to that growth that smosh didn’t? 

them saying the new content is NOT going to be nostalgia base and they’re not going to revert back to their old personas is actually really interesting and i wonder what that’s going to look like.

it makes me think about how dan and phil would approach consistent joint content again pcou, especially given the ~vibe~ of the last few videos together (mostly thinking about the 2022 texting video that felt...off a bit? which is so rare for dnp). it’s gotta be hard to not slip back into those old roles especially when being on camera together again is still novel 

ian and anthony talking about how the audience shaped their friendship in their peak and how they tried to play into the characters the fans made for them and it caused resentment/ anthony said being the ‘hot one’ and ian being the ‘funny one’ upset him a lot because it made him question his value. i find that whole section fascinating because i think that’s one thing dnp held onto? like they didn’t let the audience decide their dynamic or personalities 

but dnp also had the added element of more intimate outlets like liveshows where we got to see natural dynamics or even gaming channel stuff while smosh only really did scripted sketch stuff, so the audience got to see a more well rounded version of dnp and not just like....TATINOF stage personas

also and idk how to say this articulately....dnp also were actively hiding a part of themselves and working against audience perspective so they’re less susceptible to succumb to being their personas off camera with each other (especially going back to the first point of their relationship being more complex emotionally than the 2 cishet dudes who said they didn’t share feelings for the first 20 years of their friendship)

smosh talking about their work styles and creative processes and how they mesh well together which i would LOVE to hear more about that from dnp in how they come up with ideas or the details of their process together ESPECIALLY now 

tbh i was never a smosh fan for a variety of reasons and i’ve never been fond of anthony but i appreciate what smosh meant to a lot of people and how big of a win this is for youtube creators in general. it is interesting to hear them talk about this new era and how excited they are for the future of the channel 

maybe other people will have a chat about what a revamped version of a beloved channel that was also a fun project for them could look like, especially without the pressure of making money off of it

please dnp i will buy yet another fucking channel membership off you 

[creas-hideout]

Top 10 Must-Watches For Your Preschooler's Holistic Development (2000s Edition)

I know, I know. Modern-day children’s television honestly dulls in comparison to eras such as the 90s-early 2000s, and you may either need some alternatives for your child, little sibling, your grandchild, or for someone special to you to watch! Or better yet, you might just want to relive the memories of some of your favourite children's shows. (Don’t worry, I won’t judge— children’s TV is lowkey a crutch of mine.) Maybe we are biased because the 90s to early 2000s, for us, were periods of nostalgia where life seemed simpler—no adult responsibilities, arguably a better economy (though most of us wouldn’t have been working at the time to really know), and generally more enjoyable times. Children's TV back then was crafted with care, humour, imagination, and creativity, unlike much of today’s content which tends to be fast-paced and hyper-stimulating, often moulding children as technology addicts.

Don’t get me wrong, there are still decent shows today for kids, but many of us would argue that the 90s-2000s were a peak era for children’s TV. Back then, with limited visual technology, creators had to put more effort into plotlines and substance, resulting in shows that were not just entertaining but also enriching. Today, there's often more emphasis on spectacle over substance, steering children away from simple, imaginative play toward hyper-stimulative, fast-paced content that distorts reality.

For those who prefer to shape young minds personally as opposed to the influence of modern TV, I'd recommend these shows. These are more so recommendations from the early to mid-2000s which I find age-appropriate, substantial, memorable and holistic. Here are some of my top picks for your preschoolers (aged 3-6):

Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!

Okay, but how could you see this energetic yellow gerbil and not love him? Wubbzy is a playful character who’s always in the business of friendship, honesty, fairness, and cooperation. ‘Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!’ has been a personal favourite of mine, but I also believe it’s a good watch to develop your preschooler's social skills and character.

2. The Backyardigans

Because who wouldn’t want backyard friends? ‘The Backyardigans' stimulates a child’s imagination using a group of diverse animals (a penguin, hippo, moose, kangaroo and a unique creature) who gather in their backyard to transform it into a world of their own. This show encourages imaginative skills, creativity, innovation and personality.

3. WordWorld

I’m a word nerd, unapologetically. I loved watching shows that encouraged vocabulary, spelling and phonics when I was younger, and I’m passing it on to you and your child! ‘WordWorld’ is one of my top picks to develop language skills among your kids. While there are many others that encourage the same, I loved ‘WordWorld' especially because of the creativity they brought in helping children to remember words and their spellings. The characters would formulate the words in the shape of the object—eg: the letters B-A-R-N would be elements used to create the actual shape of a barn, which is a creative way to help children to remember certain words and their spelling.

4. Wonder Pets!

This trio of Linny the Guinea Pig, Ming-Ming Duckling and Turtle Tuck is a great watch to promote teamwork, problem solving and humanitarianism. They’re always on a mission to save the day-– to travel the world and save an animal in trouble.

5. Super Why!

SuperWhy! is a personal top pick for me in developing vocabulary and literary skills, taking an innovative approach in promoting this through interactive storytelling. It encourages children to have a love for books, touching on skills such as reading comprehension, letter identification and word decoding using four best friends from Storybrook Village: Red, from ‘Little Red Riding Hood’; Pig from ‘The Three Little Pigs’, Princess from ‘The Princess and The Pea’, and Whyatt, the curious younger brother of Jack from ‘Jack and The Beanstalk.’

6. Ni-Hao, Kai-Lan

‘Ni-Hao, Kai-Lan’ is but one of many iconic shows that exposes a child’s mind to other cultures and languages, teaching them to be aware of others’ differences and addressing conflict in a constructive way. Preschooler Kai-Lan shares Chinese and American cultures along with her animal friends to teach patience, anger management, and overall overcoming negative emotions.

7. Sesame Street

This long-time favourite of many serves as a great bridge for cultural and educational gaps. Using characters ranging from humans to muppets on a special inner city street, children can learn invaluable life lessons by learning to deal with several characters such as a grouchy, argumentative puppet who lives in a trash can, to a gluttonous, goofy character called the Cookie Monster. Some life lessons this narrative teaches are skills of understanding, patience and tolerance, along with the alphabet, numbers and colours, among more. This one is a well-rounded and holistic recommendation from me.

8. LazyTown

‘LazyTown’, despite the name, actually teaches the opposite– the importance of physical activity. Using a pink-haired character called Stephanie, healthy living is promoted to extremely lazy characters using humans and puppets living in the local city, Lazytown. Though Robbie Rotten, the town’s villain who encourages everyone to stay lazy and quiet is constantly on the go, Stephanie and her friend, Sportacus, are always coming through to energize the day. Your kids are bound to be dancing and moving about with this one. Aaand, they might also be asking for “sports candy” (which in the show, is another name for fruits and vegetables).

9. Blue’s Clues

‘Blue’s Clues’ is an interactive one featuring the character Blue, a female puppy. This show mainly develops problem-solving skills with an emphasis on mystery, but also promotes other learning and cognitive functions as off-screen viewers help human hosts (Steve or Joe) to figure out Blue’s desires. You can also check out its recent spinoff from 2019, ‘Blue’s Clues & You!’

10. Zoboomafoo

Last but not least, ‘Zoboomafoo’. ‘Zoboomafoo’ is a stellar pick for those who wish for their child to be aware of what happens in the wild– as in, the animal kingdom! Teaching children to respect and care for animals, this show stars a playful little lemur along with his two human friends, the Kratt Brothers, who help empower kids to explore.

*** As explained previously, these are just 10 top picks of mine that I’d highly recommend for your child’s holistic development, with a focus on preschoolers (ages 3-6). A lot of the shows presented here are also useful for kids up to as old as age 10, but of course, there’s not much of a limit with us as adults still watching them (you know you do).

Overall, these shows are not just great for keeping your little ones entertained, but they also nurture their creativity, cognitive thinking, problem-solving and social skills, and more.

Remember, while television can be a valuable tool for learning and relaxation, it's always best to balance screen time with other activities like reading, playing outdoors, and spending quality time with family. By choosing the right content, you can ensure that your child's TV time is both enjoyable and enriching.

We hope this list helps you find the perfect shows to share with your children, little siblings, or even to revisit some nostalgic favourites yourself. Happy watching!

If you need any more recommendations or have any thoughts to share, feel free to leave a comment below.

[itsclydebitches]

I don't think it's as bad in my rp fandom as what you're describing in OFMD, but only because what you're describing is so extreme it's pretty bonkers. (Also the fandom is 2+ years old so some of the in-you-face hostility died down in favour of people staying in their communities and doing a whole lot of vagueing.)

I think it's something that got worse with time. The fandoms known as toxic during the mid 2010s were so much different than the current fandom culture (or maybe just internet culture) we have now. My experience then (so obviously it could be subjective) was that there were a few toxic elements that got emphasized but were relatively easy to avoid, but now the toxicity seems to be the default.

Idk, it seems to me like with every fandom I get into the last few years it feels more toxic than the last. And maybe it's just recency bias or something but it really doesn't feel that way when every time some new brand of toxicity turns up.

I definitely don't want to be that old man shaking his cane at the sky going, "Back in MY day fandom didn't have drama!" because of course we did, it just took on different shapes. We could write whole histories dictating the changes fandom has undergone through the zine era, early Internet, the turn of the century, and now, but whether each change is better or worse really comes down to what we'll personally tolerate + how much we experience it in our circles + how much the past is colored by our nostalgia. All that being said, it certainly feels like fandom toxicity is worse nowadays, though I wonder how much of that is due simply to the exponential growth of "fandom" as a concept. It used to be that fandom (or rather, transformative fandom. Sports fandom is a whole other conversation) was a pretty niche thing and websites devoted to it were themselves fairly isolated corners of the Internet. Now we've reached an age where the average person can at least give you a basic rundown on fanfic (I can remember a time not too long ago when everyone I met irl needed a definition), where actors and writers are encouraged to directly connect their work to the community's interests ("What's your opinion on x ship??"), and the websites where fans gather double as everyone's social media go-tos: Tik Tok, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, even Facebook. And as we've all probably experienced, the bigger the fandom, the more potential for drama. Now that we've reached a place where everyone is instantly connected and "everyone" is involved in fandom somehow, is it any wonder that the toxicity seems to have exploded? Or, even if it hasn't, we're in an age where it's so much easier to see it. Back in the day, you were kinda forced to better cultivate your online circle simply due to the limitations of technology. Now, alongside a hefty dose of algorithms, we're bombarded with more takes per hour than we ever would come across during the earlier days of social media. The forums of old really can't compete with the posting intensity of twitter, nor even the new-ish trend of creating enough content to keep pace with the canon. With shows dropping all their episodes at once and all but forcing fans to binge lest they encounter the dreaded spoiler, we've got intense responses where everyone is simultaneously voicing opinions about the entirety of the story minutes after cramming it all into their head over 10+ hours. That's one of the (many) reasons why I miss a weekly schedule: it allows fans to slow down, consider the content, discuss next week's potential, and generally not indulge in a crazed desire to say All The Correct™ Things Right Now.

It's a lot and yeah, I'm not easily able to separate my own biased nostalgia from the objective changes that have occurred. Did more people really understand tl;dr better back in the day, or are my memories just highlighting the good times and the way things were structured meant I just never came across others' drama? Are writers and actors getting involved in fandom really the downfall we sometimes paint it to be, or was it inevitable given that so many of us grew up and got involved in these industries precisely because they sparked our passions? I can remember the days when we were begging for a better site than FFN, when the legality of fanworks was a legitimate threat, when celebrities publicly made fun of fans, going so far as to paint them as dangerously obsessed. We imagined a world where we could enjoy our hobby safely and without ridicule... and now we can! For however many problems have popped up alongside the change in fan culture, I do try to step back on occasion and go, "Look at how much better other things are too. You're not getting cease and desist letters in the mail. No one can erase all your hard work overnight. The actor you respect is celebrating you, not laughing at you on SNL." Objectively speaking, fandom may indeed have gotten more toxic and I definitely will never stop pushing the old courtesies in the hope that things will get better, but if any of that is a result of fandom going mainstream enough to secure these benefits... then fuck, I'll take the tradeoff. Especially because at the end of the day, tools remain in place to cultivate our own community. Yeah, it's frustrating when it feels like there's nothing but drama going on and getting anon hate always sucks, but provided there are filters and a block button, we can personally tackle toxicity in ways we couldn't personally fix a lot of the shit fandom was dealing with in the past.

[laputaindefrenchgirl]

you’re my world, you’re every move i make.

This is the story of a girl who’s chasing a past she never lived yet, almost broken-hearted.

Yesterday, I saw Last Night in Soho, and it left me feeling strange, hopeful, and with a sense of déjà-vu. Alexandra Collins went through believing that she could do whatever she ever dreamt of to getting cheated on in the ugliest way. She saved herself. I understand her and I do not understand why. 

I’ve never been more beautiful than I am these days, and I still want it all. Last month I did a photoshoot inspired by the seventies and its glamour and it was like travelling in the past. How can I feel nostalgia for a decade I’ve never lived? My eyes, they never lie, and when I see the photos, I know that I am more me than ever I’ve ever been, as if I knew it. And as I’m writing this, I’m confused, am I speaking about the movie or am I speaking about the fantasy I’ve had ever since that I was a little kid? 

Maybe that’s the disability thing, maybe that’s the old-kind-of-soul trope after reading Fitzgerald or Austen but honestly, the late sixties always felt like I could have a chance to belong. It doesn’t stop me though, it never will, and I am blooming into the woman I am and it’s precious and romantic. The music flooding into a never ending dance, and how everything seemed possible and free. After two WW, nothing could stop anyone’s creative hunger. Everybody could have a chance to become who they are and dream, bigger than everything (darling). If my words could convey the way it’s calling me, how it makes my stomach sing and my eyes starstruck! I wish I could have felt that freedom and that vibrant lust for life. Maybe I had. The current era we’re living will make me, I don’t doubt it a single second, but my romantic side craves the past.

At the same time, what’s in the past is in the past, I don’t look back and barely hold the word regret in my vocabulary. But as an artist, and as a young woman, I just can’t help but feel the way the satin kisses my shape and the way eyeliner make my eyes become killers. I can’t help but embrace the fantasy that I was born too late or feel connected to what might have been, once upon a time.

Even the violence seems too familiar. Alexandra, just like Eloise did, I wish I could have told you “I understand” because I wish someone would do the same for me. Women who go for it, who are bold, and witty, shameless and talented, I love you.  

All these night where I dreamt of (and will probably keep on dreaming on) untold stories like they were holy secrets, with awe and romance, and gut wrenching accomplishments. I’ve lived these moments but were they mine? And I took them for what they are, precious hours that the universe gave me, and in return I kept the love, pain and smiles close to my soul, to never forget. 

This is my love letter to the person I could have been in the past and who kept going after everything that happened to her. You are who you are and it’s vivid in my mind as if we’re one and maybe, you could have used a friend or a savior. I know it doesn’t stop you from saving yourself, no matter what. You’re too much. You got the thrill life needs for and you don’t take no for an answer. Drugs didn’t kill you and weapons neither, even if it does hurt. They look at you as if they think they know but they don’t know shit. You dress in colors and have magnetic eyes and it’s how you convey the truth. The cupid bow of your lips. You fell in love with a city and it doesn't change a thing, in the best and in the worst, but you keep going. And you live as if you had nothing to lose, I admire you for that so fucking much. Your heart might be broken but you know how to put it back together to try again. And you’re beautiful, so bloody beautiful. You’re a part of me and a part of who I might have been once, somewhere, someday in the long forgotten past. But I’m emotional and feeling like we already met. Is it possible?

-Audrey

nb : Thank you Edgar Wright for the kaleidoscope trip. 

[unpopularwiththepopulace]

Here Lies Jenny: Bebe Neuwirth’s under-remembered masterpiece?

While Bebe Neuwirth is often remembered foremost for her presence in worlds like Chicago, Cheers or Fosse, there’s another piece in the tapestry of her work that brings many notable threads together and is equally significant to her.

Here Lies Jenny is the somewhat under-discussed piece of theatre that in fact has connections to all three of these aforementioned things, because of the people she worked herself on creating it with, and deserves to be brought up with slightly more comparable frequency. 

A moment then to explore some of the history of this elusive but important show.

Here Lies Jenny, recalled as a “surprise off Broadway hit”, opened at the Zipper Theatre in downtown Manhattan in May 2004 and ran there for five months.

The show was an interpretive revue of the music of German composer, Kurt Weill, born out of an idea Bebe had herself. It was shaped by collaboration with close friends – with its initial genesis assisted by Leslie Stifelman (the show’s pianist, who she’d worked with on Chicago), direction by Roger Rees (who she’d long known and worked with since their time on Cheers together), and choreography by Ann Reinking (who was Bebe’s closest dance companion in the Fosse universe).

Set in a dark and shadowy looking barroom, the piece followed Bebe as the central, amorphous female figure named ‘Jenny’, supported by three male cast members and a pianist, through an evening of carefully selected Weill songs. Alongside Bebe and Leslie on stage were Gregory Butler and Shawn Emamjomeh, as two rough denizens of the bar, and Ed Dixon as the general proprietor.

There was no linear storyline to the show and no spoken dialogue, but Bebe described how the evening unfolded “in a very logical and emotional, fulfilling way.” All of the songs presented “[described] the interaction between these five people there, that make it necessary to sing the next song.” Rather than taking a group of songs by a particular composer and imposing a narrative on them, the songs were interwoven together to create an “impressionistic and realistic painting of this person’s life.”

To give a summary of the show’s arc, Jenny initially descends the wire staircase into the bar, with little more than a frightened expression and a small bag of wordly possessions. Accosted by the two forceful patrons, she’s flattened down both physically and emotionally. The men depart and return throughout, and the emotional core of the piece fluctuates from song to song as each number evokes a different picture and interpretation of a circumstance or feeling. As reviewers put it, “she’s sometimes bold, sometimes reticent, until she leaves…with what seems like a modicum of self-possession and hope,” and “climbs that long staircase on her way into the world again.”

The idea for creating Here Lies Jenny came out of Bebe’s own desire to put together a piece of theatre and an evening of performance of her own. It was a notion intensified by growing external interest, or as she recalled, “people have always said to me ‘Do a show, do a show, do a one woman show!’”

But for a while the form the piece would take was unclear. Bebe knew she “didn’t want to do a revue”, and she didn’t want “the usual cabaret thing… [or] ‘Bebe and Her Boys.’”

“I generally hate one women shows,” she would remark, “unless it’s Elaine Stritch or Chita Rivera or, you know, Patti LuPone.”

According to Bebe, she’s “much more comfortable as a character doing something. I'm not comfortable just being myself and singing in front of people.”

On and off for around two and a half years then, Bebe had been considering how to approach this matter while putting together some music, predominantly that of Kurt Weill, with musician, conductor and friend from Chicago, Leslie Stifelman.

Leslie suggested bringing in a director, so Bebe turned to Roger Rees – a person she regards as “not just a great actor,” but also “a fantastic director”, with a “very interesting creative mind.” Showing Roger the songs, he “realised that they all described women, or aspects of women, or different times in women’s lives.”

Roger thought it would be interesting then to combine all of these varied sentiments and have them channelled through one specific woman, in one specific location, to present a complex but diversely applicable tapestry centred around the emotional interiority of one tangible female force.

The show is “fragmented, prismatic…less narrative than poetic,” according to Roger. It’s not prescriptive. Rather, it evokes strong feelings and allows the audience to interpret them into their own individual and personal narrative for this woman. It poses questions and provokes thoughts. Who is this woman? Why is she here? Why is she here now? Is that a child? Or is that just a wish for a child? What did she have in this life before we meet her and what has she now lost?

It is indeed an unusual entity, and atypical from other more standard revues, cabaret acts, or works of theatre. A “self-described Japanophile”, Bebe explained how it played in the “Japanese aesthetic concept known as wabi sabi.” Of this she would elaborate, “There’s no direct translation, but it’s about the beauty of things as they age, embracing what’s painful in life as well as what’s joyful.”

It is certainly a piece that contains beauty as well as pain, which itself is a complexity and dichotomy often ascribed to Kurt Weill’s music.

When initially finding and working on songs for what was to become Here Lies Jenny, Bebe noticed being drawn to the work of one composer most strongly.

Like Bernadette Peters talking about how she gravitates to selecting Stephen Sondheim’s material for her concerts, Bebe would say simply, “all of the music that I loved the most was Kurt Weill music.”

A revue in 1991 called Cabaret Verboten (also with Roger Rees), that sought to recreate a Weimar Republic cabaret and re-conjure some of the decadence of pre-Nazi Germany, increased Bebe’s exposure to Kurt Weill’s music and was where she “first became captivated by the composer”. Building on this strong connection and deep appreciation in the years since then, Bebe would assert of his music, “it resonates for me.”

“Neuwirth knows Weill’s music isn’t for everyone,” one reviewer wrote, “but she won’t apologize for it.” She sees its capacity to be “appreciated on many different levels,” and has described it on varying occasions as “unflinchingly honest”, “very fulfilling to perform”, not just “arch and angular and Germanic…[as] many people think”, but as having “great lyricism and tenderness”.

Bebe feels a strong affinity for Weill’s music in part because of its “ability to convey the truth completely and fearlessly and without artifice”. For example, “If you're talking about heartbreak, [his music] goes to the absolute nth degree of what that really means. The way he shows that is with fearless lyrics and the bravery to make the music as beautiful as it can be.”

“Maybe the way I appreciate it speaks to the kind of person I am,” she would say. “I’m very bright but not an intellectual. I like things in a visceral, passionate and spiritual way.” And to Bebe, Weill’s music certainly provides that – which was why devising this show was of such importance and significance to her.

 Bebe said also that “the show offers the broad range of Weill's songwriting talents.” This is indeed a truism, with the work of no fewer than ten different lyrists being showcased across the nearly two dozen songs during the evening, including Berthold Brecht, Ira Gershwin, Alan Jay Lerner, Langston Hughes, and Ogden Nash.

The different styles and languages of Kurt Weill’s music mirror Weill’s own history and geographic progression through the world. Born in Germany, “Weill, a Jew, had to flee the Nazis at the height of his popularity. He fled to France and then to the United States, where he became a citizen in 1943.”

His songs reflect the world in which he was living. For instance, ‘The Bilbao Song’ is a tale of sometimes gleeful, sometimes regretful nostalgia and comes from a collaboration with Berthold Brecht in German. It is performed here only in English through the use of “Michael Feingold's now-accepted translation”. The Brechtian-ism is a feature of this production as a whole that was remarked on at the time, being appraised there was “more than a dash of an alienation effect at play,” with material being sung for example behind grilled windows or facing away from the audience.

His French material is alternately reflective of the musical identity Weill tried to devise while having to reinvent himself from scratch in France. Bebe performs one of these French numbers here, entitled ‘Je ne t'aime pas’, which has its own poetic lyricism, and indeed mournful significance, given the translation of the title as ‘I don’t love you’.

Alternately, jazzy, Broadway glamour is comparatively evident in some songs like ‘The Saga of Jenny’ from musicals that arose in America on the Great White Way out of the era of Golden Age of the American musical in the ‘40s to the 60’s.

This show was ambitious then, in its mission of exploring a wide range of the composer’s musical contributions across multiple decades, countries, styles of music, and lyrical collaborations.

Beyond his own musicals, Kurt Weill’s music has been notably seen elsewhere on Broadway or in the theatre world via interpretations such as songs in concerts with Betty Buckley, Patti LuPone, Ute Lemper; or full stage productions with Donna Murphy as Lotte Lenya in Hal Prince’s 2007 Lovemusik; or Lenya’s recordings herself.

Much of Kurt Weill’s legacy lives on through his wife, Lotte Lenya, who was seen as his “chief interpreter… [and] largely responsible for reviving interest in the composer” after his death.

Like Lotte with her “whisky baritone”, Bebe is able to convey meaningful interpretations of Weill’s music through her vocal richness and skilled acting choices, carefully controlling factors like timing, pronunciation and syllabic stress.

An example. Bebe does the most satisfying version of ‘The Bilbao Song’ I have heard. There’s a line in this song that states: “Four guys from ‘frisco came with sacks of gold dust,” in which the last portion of the phrase is repeated a further two times. Bebe emphasises the third “SACKS, of gold dust?!” in the dramatic manner stylised through my punctuation in attempts at recreating its phonology, which contrasts against the two previous readings. This gives the line a salient narrative purpose. It conveys not just an observation, but a tale of surprise and incredulity – who on earth would walk into a bar carrying entire sacks of gold dust?

It may be seemingly just one small detail, but it has a large impact. Other versions that intonate all three repetitions of this line the same miss this engaging variation and feel flat in comparison.

This song would justly so later become a staple of her concert material – along with others like ‘Surabaya Johnny’ and ‘Susan’s Dream’.

But there is unfamiliar territory traversed in Here Lies Jenny too. The rendition of Ogden Nash’s lyrics with ‘I'm a Stranger Here Myself’ is ‘new’ – and it’s exquisite, in its melodic, lilting and playful but darkly seductive swirling sentiment.

Another notable number in need of individual mention would be ‘The Saga of Jenny’. There are two Kurt Weill songs most strongly associated with the ‘Jenny’ moniker – this, and the also well-known ‘Pirate Jenny’ from The Threepenny Opera, which Bebe had done a production of in 1999. The latter was trialled in early versions of the show but ultimately didn’t “serve the piece as well as other…moments could,” so was taken out. Fortunately, Bebe would later work it into her concerts.

The former made it in, and provides the exciting opportunity to get to hear Bebe’s take on this song as made well-known by a number of respected performers. ‘The Saga of Jenny’ appeared initially in Weill & Gershwin’s collaboration for the musical Lady in the Dark in 1941, starring Gertrude Lawrence. The song has since gone through innumerable reiterations, such as via Ginger Rogers in the 1944 film adaptation of the same name; Julie Andrews’ big-production performance in the Gertrude Lawrence biopic Star! in 1968; and other high-profile concert performances like via Ruthie Henshall, Christine Ebersole, Lynn Redgrave and Ute Lemper; along with Lotte Lenya’s own recordings.

Further extending the song’s life was ‘The Saga of Lenny’ – a version devised with new lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, performed by Lauren Bacall for Leonard Bernstein’s 70th Birthday in 1988. All of these are on YouTube and I would testify are worth a watch.

In this show, Bebe performs the number with the bravado of a war-time songbird. She strides around with an old-school 1940s microphone back and forth across the stage as she progresses through the song’s distinct chronological sections, grounding the show centrally back to its identifying moniker and characterising an eponymous, engaging and multiply varied ‘Jenny’.

When not bound to microphones, Here Lies Jenny also involved the use of Ann Reinking’s “minimal but inventive” choreography to create striking visual images. Though perhaps not resembling the fast-paced, razzle-dazzle of Chicago, these patterns of movement are at times no less impactful. Bebe is dragged fluidly across a countertop, rolled sinuously down pairs of legs, centred in a dark tango (that one review likened as a potential metaphor for a ménage à trois), or spun backwards upside down onto Emamjomeh’s shoulder in the air – to name a few notable moments.

Not a dance show by any strict sense, all of these demands are nonetheless physically taxing. This is a matter of importance given the timing of the show.

What Bebe had long deemed a “peculiar” hip from her early twenties, begun causing notable pain when it “went from peculiar to downright bad in 2001” during Fosse on Broadway. It was recorded the “pain continued during [this] high-concept Kurt Weill revue” in 2004, such that performing this manner of movement in the show can have been no trivial feat. The next three years brought subsequent arthroscopic surgery for cartilage removal, and then total hip replacement.

That being considered, the show was able to run in the highly demanding manner it did for five months straight because of Ann Reinking’s assiduously crafted choreography.

The Zipper Theatre was the “funky downtown Manhattan space” that housed the show for that time. The timing of the production and the nature of the theatre played integral parts in the piece’s characterisation.

Roger took Bebe to see the theatre when they were devising the show, and to Bebe, it felt right. “There is this creative gesture that we are making and the gesture is completed if it’s in this place.” Not in some new, shiny theatre; but here, with a darkness and sense of history that created an evocative mood similar to the tone of the whole show “as soon as you walked into the building.” This was aided by the show beginning at 11pm each night – “absolutely an artistic choice” – given that what “happens between these five people, happens very late at night”, in a shadowy time of day filled by darkness and secrets.

Here Lies Jenny ended its run in New York in October 2004. But this did not mark the end of the piece. Bebe and her troupe took the show to San Francisco in the Spring the following year – after a seven month interim that included filming thirteen episodes of Law and Order: Trial by Jury, the aforementioned hip cartilage removal, and subsequent recovery.

The show was not deemed flawless by everyone who reviewed it. Some thought it too dark or wished for less abstraction and ambiguity. But as one article would conclude, “Faults aside, it’s hard not to recommend a show devoted to Kurt Weill,” ultimately providing a “unique and polished evening at the theatre.”

Roger Rees would reflect on the show, “Weill & Neuwirth work so well together” because Bebe’s “high standard of performance” means she is able to “delve deeply and go on forever” into material he likened to being as complex as Shakespeare.

It “demands a great deal from a performer, and she is equal to it,” Roger said. “She’s very deep in herself. There’s nothing made up about [her], which is a rare and beautiful thing. The match between performer and material is exquisite.”

 This would likely mean a lot to Bebe, as the show itself meant a lot to Bebe. And still does several years later. She would cite it in 2012 as the “role she wish[ed] more people had seen”, as to her, it “was a beautiful, unusual piece of theatre”. Altogether, it was something ineffable and “bigger than the sum of its parts”.

“It’s something I've wanted to do, and I did instigate it,” she said, of putting the show together. But that’s not to say it was easy to helm matters. “For me to be in charge, makes me very uncomfortable.”

That the show got made at all then Bebe would recognise as “a testament to how deeply I love the material and how inspired it makes me.” Her trust in people like Leslie, Annie and Roger enabled the creation of such a project from the ground up that wouldn’t have otherwise existed. Thus, to borrow a phrase from Stephen Sondheim, it was the combination of both personal drive, and also the shared collaboration of four people who all “love each other very much” that ultimately ‘made a hat where there never was a hat.’

It was even further an important show to her, because it was “a very private thing.” She’d describe Jenny as a very physical and emotional role – “the most personal of anything I've done.”

It clearly holds a special place in Bebe’s own heart. Undoubtedly, it would be poignant to revisit again. As we look to the near future of theatre with shows that could feasibly be staged as events start coming back, in tandem with the publicly expressed desire of people wanting to see Bebe back on stage again, this pre-existing, modestly-sized, inventive piece would be no bad suggestion.

How about a Here Lies Jenny reprise when theatre returns?

[carriagelamp]

April l was apparently the month for me to revisit some children’s authors who are steeped in controversy at the moment. So here’s my hot (well, lukewarm) takes on issues that absolutely do not need a single other person talking about them. Also some actual good books that I read this month!

Badger in the Basement

The Animal Ark books are a childhood classic — though I recently found out that apparently there’s a difference between American and British publications, and the American versions didn’t include a lot of actual COOL animals which is… bizarre. As a Canadian stuck in the middle of this, this nonsense drives me nuts. This one was about the main character, the daughter of pair of vets, trying to protect a local badger sett from men wanting to participate in badger digging and baiting. These books are always feel-good, and it was a nice single-day-read while I waited for a library book to come in.

Chi’s Sweet Home

The cutest manga series about the misadventures of a little kitten, Chi, who has been adopted by a loving family. I’ve never bothered to read them in order, but apparently this time I stumbled across the last in the series -- whoops! Still, stood on it’s own pretty easily, and it was a fun read! Things get tense when the family realize that they may have found Chi’s original home… and may have to give up Chi forever.

Earth Before Us: Dinosaur Empire!

This was an odd graphic novel, I feel like I’m not sure who the target audience was exactly. It was a nonfiction comic done in a Magic School Bus style, with the purpose of teaching current, up-to-date facts about the animals that lived in the Mesozoic Era. If you’re into dinosaurs, you’ll probably enjoy this! The art is absolutely adorable, I love the dinosaur illustrations, and I learnt some really neat facts. That being said, the pages are really dense, and there’s a lot of info crammed in… some of it will probably go way over a child’s head without specific additional teaching or a very strong personal interest. But that being said, a dinosaur obsessed kid is still probably going to really dig this… as would a dinosaur obsessed adult. It wasn’t my cup of tea exactly but I’m sure it is someone’s.

assorted Dr Seuss Books

I love these types of controversies because it means getting to listen to every moron who has never had an opinion on Dr Seuss ever start generating a mile of them out of the aether. So many people are so mad about the six books that are getting retired and I bet most of them haven’t even read them. These are not the friggin Cat In The Hat or The Lorax or even the likes of Yertle The Turtle. I was raised by a grade one teacher, was a voracious reader who loved Dr Seuss, and wrote my university thesis on children’s literature, and I still only knew two of the six books on that list. So by all means, if you want to write an essay explaining why those specific books are worth clinging to, feel free, but if you haven’t even heard of them maybe it’s not a big deal. *grumble*

Anyway, my grousing aside, it gave me the urge to reread a bunch of Seuss books, including the two retiring books I personally knew: McElligot’s Pool and To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street. I do still enjoy both, especially McElligot’s Pool which always sparked my imagination, but it’s obvious why they’re being retired and I personally think it’s the right choice. There’s so much good kidlit out there, we can survive without these.

Goodbye, My Rose Garden

A f/f romance manga, fairly standard fair though cute if you’re looking for some historical angst, pretty dresses, and mutual pining. A young Japanese woman moves to England in the hopes of meeting a writer (Mr Frank) who she has long admired. Along the way she is employed by an enigmatic woman with plenty of money, rumours, and melancholy following her. I’ll be honest, uncut romance isn’t really my genre, but I’ll probably still try to the second book to see if the story picks up.

From The Holocaust to Hogan’s Heroes: The Autobiography of Robert Clary

It’s no secret that I’ve been on a Hogan’s Heroes kick. This is the autobiography of Roberty Clary, who plays my favourite character in the show, Louis Lebeau. And holy shit what a life this man has had. He was a Jew growing up in France before the start of the war, and who was one of many children taken away from his family and sent off to the concentration camps in Germany. This was an amazing, intense, inspiring, and heartbreaking read… it has Clary’s voice all over it, and it tells everything from the charming childhood he had, to the horrors of the concentration camps, the brutality of survival, and then about his exciting journey into the entertainment industry afterwards. It’s an experience, would recommend if you’re a fan of the show.

The Ickabog

The second controversial author I read this month. Originally I was going to give Rowling’s new book a miss, given everything that’s been going on over the past few years, but in the end my curiosity got the better of me. Politics aside, it was a fun read! Not groundbreaking, but enjoyable enough and written in an interesting style. It didn’t read the same as a lot of modern kidlit, it felt more like a cross between a classic fairytale and a Dahl book. Perhaps a bit like Despereaux. It tells the tale of how an idyllic country gradually falls into ruin through the ignorance, inaction, and greed, and how a supposedly fictional monster hides the very real, human monsters at the heart of the country. It was cute and pleasant and I’m glad I decided to get it from the library, though for anyone who is choosing not to engage for political reasons: you aren’t missing anything major.

Franklin In The Dark

A Canadian classic. I don’t think there’s a single person my age who hasn’t read or been read a pile of these books, and the nostalgia is so comforting. I found this on Youtube and listened to someone read it to me, and honestly 10/10 would recommend for a calm evening.

The big reason I decided to seek this one out though, was because I finally got to the M*A*S*H episode that inspired this entire series! In the episode C*A*V*E, in which Hawkeye is freaking out over his claustrophia while the camp is forced to take shelter in a nearby cave during some intense shelling, he mentions that if he had been born a turtle he would have been afraid of his own shell, and that the other turtles would make fun of him cause he’d be forced to walk around in his underwear. And so this first story about a young turtle who’s afraid to sleep in his own shell and drags it around behind him. So if you were ever curious, Franklin the Turtle is in fact named after Dr Benjamin Franklin Pierce. (this is also why the French version is named Benjamin!)

Wolves of the Beyond: Lone Wolf

I loved the Guardians of Ga’Hoole books as a kid but I never read the Wolves of the Beyond series. This first book was an interesting read, Lasky does a great job creating worlds and societies for the animals that inhabit them. Lone Wolf is about a deformed wolf cub who was abandoned in the wilderness to die. And he would have, if a desperate mother bear, who had recently had her only cub killed, hadn’t stumbled across him and saved him, vowing to raise him as her own...

Petals

A “silent” graphic novel. It has beautiful artwork and is told entirely through pictures, no text at all. It’s loves and heart-wrenching, though it left me feeling somewhat unsatisfied… I felt like there should have been more. Still, a neat story.

The Southern Book Club‘s Guide To Slaying Vampires

What a banger of a novel!! I can’t recommend this one enough. It’s about a group of suburban mothers in the ‘80s who form a book club out of a shared need for community and a love of grisly true crime novels. But when a strange drifter appears in town and starts setting down roots… and when children begin disappearing… these women need to band together to confront the horrors that have invaded their neighbourhood, and face down not only a terrifying monster among them but the patriarchal system that allows it to flourish. To quote the preface:

“Because vampires are the original serial killers, stripped of everything that makes us human — they have no friends, no family, no roots, no children. All they have is hunger. They eat and eat but they’re never full. With this book, I wanted to pit a man freed from all responsibilities but his appetites against women whose lives are shaped by their endless responsibilities. I wanted to pit Dracula against my mom.    As you’ll see, it’s not a fair fight.“

The Weirn Books: Be Wary of the Silent Woods

I love Chmakova’s graphic novels, though I’ve only ever read her slice-of-life middle grade series before. This one is pure fantasy and very fun. It’s about two cousin “weirns” — witches with demon familiars — who attend the local night school. Things get strange though when an ominous figure appears outside the old, abandoned school house deep in the Silent Woods, and begins tempting children down its path…

I’m very much looking forward to word of a second book and was honestly kind of surprised that I haven’t heard more about this book given how popular her other series is. This has all the same charm and quirks but for those of us who prefer stories based in fantasy rather than reality.

And A Bonus...

For some masochistic reason I got a Garfield book out of the library. Jeez, if I didn’t love these as a kid, I found them absolutely laugh out loud hilarious, and now I just don’t see it anymore. But here I will share the one strip in the book that actually made me laugh

[radioactivepeasant]

Fic Prompts: Star Wars Wednesday

Because Disney can pry the Finn Skywalker headcanon from my cold, dead, fingers. And because Disney can’t stop me from reworking their movies if I darn well please.

Most of the fortress had been picked over by scavengers years ago. Any Imperial memorabilia had long since been looted and either auctioned off or confiscated by the First Order. Really, that was the only reason the scout team had considered it as a potential base at all. It had already been gutted, and was pretty well beneath the notice of Kylo Ren unless he was up for sentimental tours.

The general didn’t find that very likely.

Mustafar was far from a hospitable world for most species, but the heat shielding of the fortress was still highly efficient. The scouts had set up a base camp in what looked like it had once been some kind of audience chamber. Nobody had felt like exploring alone. The whole castle just felt...off. 

The young leader of the scouts sat on a pile of rubble, head tilted like he was listening for something. He frowned and glanced down at his team.

“What, Trache?” he asked.

The Twi’lek raised his brows at Finn. “I didn’t say anything.”

Finn seemed confused. “You sure? I could’ve sworn-”

Finn?

Finn looked up again. "Rose, you heard Trache call me just now, right?"

Rose Tico set down a power lamp and plugged it into their Artoo unit, then shook her head. “Sorry Finn,” she said, “All I heard was Artoo.”

Finn.

He whirled, squinting into the darkness of the derelict fortress. “There! You guys heard it that time, right?”

Rose fidgeted awkwardly. "Finn...I didn't hear anything."

Finn.

Finn turned again. He felt as though someone had tied a string around his soul and was pulling. As if under some other power than his own, the boy began to stumble into the shadows.

"W- what are you doing?" Trache hissed.

"Gotta check something out," Finn mumbled. He could just make out what looked like a figure, standing at the end of the corridor. "It's...it's okay. I think it's the Force."

His scout team's protests faded into static behind him. There was nothing but the voice.

Finn. Come to me.

Finn slowly reached down and loosened his blaster in its holster. There was a possibility that he was hearing this voice in his mind. And that had to mean enemies.

"Where are you?" he asked, tensed and ready to fight.

The shadowy figure he had glimpsed before reappeared, further away. It stood, as if waiting. Then it raised one arm, beckoning.

Finn didn't sense anything particularly hostile about the stranger, but he was wary nonetheless. He eased forward, following the dark shape into another chamber. The closer he got, the more he realized that it wasn't made of pure shadow after all. A faint flicker of blue light outlined the person, if a person it was, slowly illuminating more details. A black tabard. A heavy gauntlet. A cape that fell to the floor and seemed to swallow all light that touched it.

The rhythmic hiss that Finn had taken for some kind of machinery in the fortress took on a new volume.

It sounded like breathing.

Finn stopped dead in his tracks. He had seen that shape before. In the First Order barracks, as a little boy, he had seen that shape in the propaganda forced down the children's throats. 

"Aren't you dead?" he blurted out before he could stop himself. 

The giant inclined his head -- or, well, his helmet -- regally and turned. He gestured to one side.

"Walk with me."

The authoritative voice brooked no argument. 

Finn knew he should have been running. That was Darth Kriffing Vader, or his ghost, or a clone, or something. But...he didn't sense the kind of painful storm he'd always experienced around Kylo Ren. There was no hatred, filling the air with danger. Just a strange echo of regret.

With one hand firmly on the butt of his blaster, he gritted his teeth and stepped closer. 

"The Force is with you, young one," the late Sith Lord remarked, "but you are not a Jedi yet."

That rankled a little bit. Finn knew he couldn't do all the things Rey could yet. The General had told him that his connection to the Force was more like hers than Rey's, but he still didn't know what that meant. That didn't mean he wasn't learning. He was just going at his own pace.

"Maybe I'm not," he said, "But I will be."

Will I be?

Darth Vader began to walk. Hands clasped thoughtfully behind his back, steps slow and measured. Relentless. What did he want? And why was he even here?

Reluctantly, Finn followed a half step behind. 

"I'm not hallucinating this, right? Because my team can't see you." Getting lured into the depths of the castle by the ghost of a Sith probably wasn't a good thing. "Why'd you call me?"

"I have been expecting you for some time," Vader said, tipping his helmet down as if observing Finn. "It was inevitable that you would find me here."

His footsteps echoed on the stone, but did not disturb so much as a single mote of dust. The hair on the back of Finn's neck rose when he looked down and saw only one set of footprints behind them.

"You know who I am." It was not a question. 

Swallowing hard, Finn nodded. His mouth was dry, and despite himself, his fingers trembled. Like a death sentence the name fell from his lips.

"Darth Vader."

Abruptly, the man turned on his heel. His cape flared out around him as he raised a finger almost in warning.

"That name no longer has any meaning for me," he said sternly.

"Then..." Finn wrinkled his brow and tried to remember the legend. "You're um, you're a Skywalker-?"

His companion nodded. "I suspected that if I had chosen my true form, you would not have known me."

He raised his helmet as the chamber emptied out into another set of corridors. "Come. There is something I must show you."

Well. This was going to make an interesting story to tell the General later. Finn pulled the collar of his jacket up and shivered.

"Dar- I mean, uh...Master Skywalker? You didn't answer my question before. Aren't you dead?"

Anakin did not slow his steps. "The Force, young one, is a pathway to many abilities that some may consider to be...unnatural."

A wry chuckle wrenched itself from Finn's lips. He shook his head and took a jogging half step to keep up with the ghostly warrior. "You're telling me."

Anakin glanced down at him again. Finn wasn't sure how he knew the ghost's eyes were on him, but somehow he could guess where to look.

"You show remarkably little trepidation in the face of the impossible," he commented.

It was strange, but Finn was almost beginning to feel comfortable with the conversation. He shrugged. "Nobody ever told me how the Force was supposed to work. How am I supposed to know what's possible and what's not?"

He jumped when Anakin tipped back his helmet and laughed. It was a deep, rolling sound, utterly at odds with the mechanical whoosh of his respirator. 

"Indeed! Do not lose your open mind, Finn. It will serve you well."

"Did anybody ever tell you," Finn huffed, "That you make even compliments sound ominous?"

Another low chuckle. "Yes. Your father did."

His father?!

What was the ghost talking about?

Finn scowled at him. "Whoa, hold on. How do you know my father? I don't even know my father!"

Under his breath he added, "I don't even know what I'm doing here."

Abruptly, he began to sense a complicated tangle of emotions from the ghost of Anakin Skywalker. Regret, anger, concern.

"You remember nothing, child?"

Sometimes Finn thought he did remember. But they were just images. Feelings. A woman's voice and strong arms. A man's smile. Sometimes he heard snatches of a song in his dreams, always just out of reach by the time he opened his eyes.

Other times, the dreams were not so kind. Flashes of an old man, reaching for him even as he was shot in the back. His own tiny hands reaching desperately for an old woman screaming a name he couldn't hear. He wondered sometimes if they had been his grandparents. 

The Resistance was his family now. Rey and Chewie were his family. Poe and BB-8 were his family. The General was his family. But in his heart, Finn still wanted closure. To at least know where he had come from. 

"I...remember my grandfather dying." Finn said haltingly. 

"Not your grandfather," Anakin corrected him. "Your mother's cousin. Your grandfather died long before your birth."

He quickened his pace before Finn could insist on an answer. Through stone galleries and ominous archways he continued with a single-minded determination. He did not stop until he had reached what had once been an impressively secure door, long since reduced to ruin by looters. Inside sat a strange dome-like structure that reminded Finn of an egg.

"Did you see that in my head? Is that like a thing you can do?" Finn demanded. He was determined to get the truth. Maybe he could "sense" it somehow. "How did you see it if I can't?"

Anakin did not immediately answer. He waved his hand over the dome, and with a rumbling groan it separated neatly into two halves. It was an old-fashioned hyperbaric chamber. A few lights still flickered dimly inside. Anakin reached down to touch one small screen, and a hologram sprang up. A young man in Rebellion era fatigues smiled up at them from the hologram. Old though it was, the holo was still recognizable. 

"What the- That's Luke Skywalker!" Finn realized.

Anakin nodded. "He was no older than you are now when my spies brought me this image." He seemed almost lost in nostalgia for a moment. "Truly, I would have torn the very fabric of the universe apart to find him."

Finn watched the ghost, noting that he cupped the hologram in his hands as though he held something infinitely precious. 

"You...kept a holo of him in your chamber?" Seemed a little odd for a Sith.

He was pretty sure Ren didn't keep holos of his parents.

"Of course." Anakin did not look away from the tiny, grinning face of Luke. "He is my son."

Finn sat down carefully on the seat within the chamber. His feet didn't even touch the floor. "Hey...Master Skywalker?" he asked, "How did you know my grandfather died before I was born? If it was before I was born, I wouldn't have had any memory of that. Buried or no. Did you...meet him in the afterlife or something? Do all ghosts know each other?"

He sensed hesitation as Anakin answered, "No, I...I was...there."

That could mean a lot of things. "Did you kill him?" Finn guessed, "Like, was he a Rebel? Or a Jedi?"

He heard the creaking of leather as Anakin's hands tightened into fists.

"He was a rogue and peasant Sith. A knave who chased after power at the cost of his kin," Anakin snarled. 

Finn jolted back. A Sith?

A horrible thought slid into the back of his mind. What if his family had given him willingly to the First Order? What if they expected him to follow in his grandfather's footsteps?

"So...what does that make me?" he rasped. 

The tension drained quickly from Anakin's shoulders. He turned away from the hologram of his son and raised a spectral hand to rest against Finn's cheek. It did not pass through him, as he had expected it to. Instead, it lingered, like the brush of a curtain. 

"You are," Anakin said, almost reverently, "A valiant son of a worthy father. And the beloved grandchild of a grandmother who deserved a better life than she was given."

The Force was almost screaming at him that the answers to his questions were at last before him, but Finn was afraid to believe it. Afraid to get his hopes up and be wrong. If, after all this, his growing suspicion was wrong, he wasn't sure he could bear it. 

"Master Skywalker, please," he begged, "I don't know why I'm here, I don't know what you want from me. Just tell me the truth? Did you know my grandfather?"

The other glove rose, and Finn found his face being gently cradled by an ex-Sith Lord.

“No,” Anakin answered, quiet and inevitable. “I am your grandfather.”

[altalksaboutstuff]

My Top 5 Games of the Past Generation Youtube Script Plus Notes

This is, more or less, the script for My Top 5 Games of the Past Generation video that I just published on Youtube: With the Xbox One and Playstation Four about to head out of the door to make ways for the Xbox Series X and the Playstation 5 respectively to lead us into the next generation of consoles were only Nintendo has been sitting comfortably with the Switch, the Wii U has been long gone and Nintendo also recently announced the official end of the Nintendo 3DS line cutting all the ties to this last generation.  With that almost everyone is now releasing their lists of the best games of the current generation, myself included, I couldn't help but notice a lot of same-soundy lists such as Game Informer's top 5 list.  I myself have to disagree with these, not to say that any and/or all five of those games on Game Informer's Top 5 aren't good, important or worth playing just that I don't think they are the best representative of this generation in terms of impact and wide appeal, so much as had the most money backing them. That these games on the list are more the best representative of the biggest Triple A titles.  The games that I had in mind are more impactful on how this generation swayed and set new standards.  I want you to keep in mind that while I liked some of these games, these aren't my personal top 5 of the past generation either but I think closer to what best represents our closing era of gaming, when I say the “best games of the current generation.”

First off I'd like to make an honorable mention of PT.  PT or playable trailer was supposed to be a demo for the new Silent Hill S game that unfortunately never came to be for the Playstation 4 from Konami.  A joint venture between film director Guillermo del Toro and the famous creator of Metal Gear Solid, Hideo Kojima, this demo spooked the pants off of everyone and was probably the reason a lot of people decided to buy a Playstation 4.  Unfortunately Konami let Hideo Kojima go under less than favorable conditions and the demo vanished with him in time.  Since then the immersive, first person perspective horror game demo changed the landscape of what survival horror could be.  We then saw Resident Evil VII by Capcom, the Park by Funcom, Layers of Fear by Aspyr and Death Standing by Hideo Kojima's new studio Kojima Productions that were all heavily influenced by PT (this point made more obvious for Hido Kojima's Death Stranding) and the future of Survial Horror / Suspense games seems to be headed there with upcoming games like Resident Evil VIII: The Village.  The only reason this isn't officially on the list is because, well, it was sadly never a game but its influence was too important for me not to mention.

Number 5: Sonic Mania.  Ok so Sonic Mania isn't anything new but it is very important in the sense that it is a major franchise, Sonic, by a well established publisher, Sega, and they had officially given the keys of Mobius to the fandom to make a new game and it was fantastic. While that's oversimplying things a bit errr a lot, since Sega just didn't come out of the blue offering that opportunity.  Rather Sega saw a Sonic game pitched by Christian Whitehead, aka Taxman, who worked on porting previous ports of Sonic games to Mobile platforms. Why I think it is important is that this validating the bridge between fandom and passion projects in world where game hacks and fangames are traditionally shut down almost immediately after gaining the slightest attention.  While Sonic Mania isn't a fangame, its roots were deep from the Romhack community.  This represents cracking the door between what the fandom produces and what the corporate offices allow being available to consumers in a world were popular fangames and hacks result in cease and desist orders - which is why I think is very important to put Sonic Mania as the number 5 game of this console generation.

Number 4: Rocket League.  As of today, Rocket League is a now free to play game for better or for worse.  Rocket League is high-octane fun, blasting balls across various courts and fields such as basketball and football with fast automobiles but what it is most well known for is basically soccer with cars.  Rocket League is a lot of fun to play and has a large audience of  in the streaming and esports field which would be reason enough to put this game in a top 5 but what this game marks maybe even more importantly is cross console online play. While other games have and do continue to have online play across systems, back in March of 2016 Microsoft was very interested in allowing online play between Xbox One and other consoles them being extremely hopeful for Playstation 4 in particular, however Sony was holding out.  Sony was hesitant, citing their emphasis on providing a certain quality online experience but finally came to the party and in 2019 you could finally play Rocket League online with all your friends whether it be on PC, Xbox One, Switch, or Playstation 4. Since then we have had other games slowly roll out this feature such as Wargroove and the trend seems to be expanding.  I hope to see all games adopt this in the future and since Rocket League “birthed” this concept coming to the table for cross console online play for us all to enjoy, this is why I think Rocket League deserves the number 4 slot.

Number 3: Bloodborne/Dark Souls III.  This past generation and hell even to some extent decade, spanning to the PS3/Xbox 360, has lead us to compare every challenging game that comes out to Dark Souls.  Cuphead is the Dark Souls of run and gun shooters, Dead Cells is the Dark Souls of Metroidvanias, Celeste is the Dark Souls of platformers, etc.  While the meme of “X is like the Dark Souls of” is hard to find a concrete start, according to Google Trends this first seemed to spike in April of 2015 around the release of Bloodborne, the PS4 game created by FromSoftware.  While not technically a Dark Souls game, it was made by the same team and the game play and feel is very Dark Souls in the sense that I feel the phrase is used today, in contrast to the first two Dark Souls games.  Then we can see that in/and around October 2017 the trend has risen to its peak a little after a year and a half of the release of Dark Souls III.  While this justification may seem more flimsy and ultimately the Dark Souls brand was established in 2011, I do think Bloodborne/Dark Souls III is more in the zeitgeist, if you will, of the “X is like Dark Souls” comparison that has shaped the conversation of so many games today.

Number 2: Undertale.  Undertale is perhaps the darling of this generation. A game chock full of charm with multiple ways to approach it.  Will you save everyone, sacrifice everyone, or something in-between?  This game does look next gen, current gen or even comparable to past gen games until you hit perhaps the SNES or even late NES.  Maybe a number 2 spot is too high on list – this game didn't revolutionize the industry in ways that the other games on this list did nor was it the first anti-RPG of its kind, that would probably go to MOON, but Undertale just had such a powerful impact on gamers when it came out and became so unforgettable.  I feel like Undertale will be a game that we remember for a long time and to not include it in this list because its an indie game would be a real tragedy which segways me to my number 1 game.

Number 1: Shovel Knight.  Shovel Knight is the indie game that, I think, lead to the current boom of retro inspired indie games we have been enjoying.  A love letter to the NES games of the past such as Castlevania, Mega Man and Ducktales to name a few.  Shovel Knight wasn't the first retro inspired indie games but I feel like the attention to detail in trying to stay as true to what the hardware could run in terms of look, color, sound and pixel art with its overwhelming success showed that there was a market for these type of games.  Its success kickstarter in 2013 also showed that Kickstarter could be used as a viable platform to create indie games for a wider audience without having to rely on that Triple A model of good gaming synonymous with big budget corporate funding.  I firmly believe that we wouldn't have the great retro inspired games like Celeste and Dead Cells or the Kickstarter'd Yooka Laylee and Bloodstained or games that did both like Blasphemous if it wasn't for the hard-work and ingenuity that Yacht Club Games paved with Shovel Knight.

To use a popular Youtube cliché to conclude this list, “At the end of the day” I didn't make this list to put Game Informer or anyone's personal preferences down.  If you believe that they got the Top 5 games of the decade right that's perfectly ok and valid too, to have as your opinion.  I also want to reiterate that those five games – The Last of Us Part II, the Witcher 3, Red Dead Redemption 2, Zelda Breath of the Wild and God of War are all important to this generation coming to a close as well in their own way.  While this list isn't my favorite games of the past generation, maybe I'll do that in the future, they are my subjective “best games list” of the past generation for what I think they did to the industry and you are free to agree, disagree, pick and choose between my list and Game Informers list or make a completely different list of your own.  I'm personally excited to see what the future of gaming has for us in this coming generation and optimistic for what's both around the corner and late into the next systems' life-cycle.  Happy gaming to you however you play.

Webpages noted: https://www.polygon.com/2020/9/17/21443683/nintendo-3ds-discontinued-lifetime-sales-hardware-software-units

https://www.fandom.com/articles/sonic-mania-just-nostalgia

https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/15/15807138/sony-playstation-cross-network-play-xbox-block-response

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/were-ready-microsoft-says-about-xbox-one-ps4-cross/1100-6438654/

https://www.rocketleague.com/news/full-cross-platform-play-now-live-in-rocket-league/

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/yachtclubgames/shovel-knight

https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DavidDAngelo/20140625/219383/Breaking_the_NES_for_Shovel_Knight.php

Games shown/referenced in the video:

The Last of Us Part 2

God of War

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Red Dead Redeption II

Witcher 3

PT / Silent Hill S

Sonic Mania

Rocket League

Blood Borne

Dark Souls III

Undertale

Shovel Knight

Shantae: Half Genie Hero

Cuphead

Celeste

Yooka Laylee

Mega Man 2

Ducktales

Castlevania

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Blasphemous

Dead Cells

Resident Evil 7

Resident Evil 8

Moon

Layers of Fear

The Park

Death Stranding

Bonus Footage:

Xbox Series X reveal trailer

PS5 reveal trailer

Also note: I messed up in the original video and said the phrase, “X is like Dark Souls of” spiked in April of 2015 when I should have said first peaked in January to April of 2015.  I noted it in the video but wanted to note it again, sorry.

[15tarlit5kyline]

Nostalgia Thoughts: Wrestling

Around when I got into upper elementary school, I started watching WWF, pre-WWE, prior to the buy out of WCW and ECW, before TNA and more brutal things like MMA became popular. I watched kayfabed, story line-driven acting that was not perfect, but it was compelling. It was fun, and it got you pumped. You cared about who was there. I’m sad to hear that the format has apparently changed in a drastic, and sad way. Apparently they’ve gone to a PG format for a thing that was considerably vulgar and proud of its M rating in the past.

So, what was it like in those days, for me? Well, to start, I have always liked music, and the shows boosted a lot of rock music I really enjoyed. It was early in my life as far as musical discovery, but I remember learning of many songs from that era through television.

Then there was the acting. It wasn’t amazing, like I said, and certain stars were better than others, but for my age, and for what it was, it was competent. Many WWE stars have gone on into film. Not every star has done amazing stuff, but some clearly have.

Further, I wasn’t a big sports kid, but I was astounded by the athletic talent. I’ve always been more into agility and flexibility than pure strength, but WWE had it all. These guys are powerhouses, and some of them are insanely agile. I was always impressed by their ability, and would often play out wrestling on the trampoline with my cousin. It was far safer, but I had hurt him before and that’s when I learned at a fairly young age…

It may be scripted, but two things are true, and not always considered: you must be in very good shape, and you WILL get hurt. Just because the props are made to be used as they are, doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt to get slammed into a ladder or slammed with a chair. Even with punches pull, you are going to get some bruises.

So yeah, is it perfect? No. Was it the best thing on TV? Probably not. But it sure was a lot of fun. I’m sad to hear it’s apparently turned into this peculiar cartoony thing, and maybe the competition has taken a different route. Many of the biggest names have left, barring a few of my favorites: Kane, The Undertaker, and The Big Show, last I checked, were all still big names in the industry, and I sought out and bought autographs of all three, because they were icons. The last major name I was a huge fan of left for TNA, Kurt Angle. He was my idol in some ways when I was a kid. He was a real, Olympic wrestler and victor, and he went on to win a lot of things while I was watching. I was a big fan, and so I’m happy he had a successful run.

Things have changed for the good and the bad since  put the words above 4 years ago and lost this in my drafts. Here I am completing it. Huge changes: AEW came to town and shifted the paradigm, in my opinion for the better. Women’s wrestling in WWE really took an uptick, and made a huge star of Becky Lynch, and now that she’s gone on maternity leave, I can’t have been moved more by her segment with Asuka. I love both performers and was so happy for the moment.

The men’s side of WWE is a grab bag. Some good stuff: Bray Wyatt is still a talented man and one of the most believable performers of the last 20 years. Both his and also Taker’s cinematic matches at this weird Mania were so good. I still think Bray stole the show, personally. They also, though, have done stupid things, even WITH Bray’s character. They’ve done stupid things with a lot of en’s storylines, and they recently fired off some great people. I am sad for Miroslav Barnyashev (maybe happy for him, he wanted out),  Brian Myers, Matt Cardona, Heath Miller, and all the others whose livelihoods hang in a scary nebula of uncertainty with all the madness going on. 

I hope AEW swipes up as many as they can afford, and gives them the national-scale respect they deserve that WWE never gave them. I don’t hate WWE, but AEW is doing so many things right that WWE just didn’t. I think HHH could do a lot with the company, but Vince’s grip over the past few years, the heavy scripting, the cookie-cutter formats, and being too overly G-rated for a show based on combat has really eroded a lot of the respect of the performance. WWE has monumental talent at the moment, and they script them into corners that really hurts their image. AEW is giving the performers the flexibility to be themselves enough to give the personality to the characters many didn’t get to have elsewhere.  

Those are (some of) my thoughts, and now there’s proof there still is some good wrestling out there in U.S. promotions. And, when I was a kid, it helped get me into something athletic, even if it was more a show. All I know is it was fun. Additional, shared thoughts, below: 

[doocentral]

“SCOOBY-DOO! AND THE CURSE OF THE 13TH GHOST” - MY SPOILER REVIEW

SPOILERS AHEAD -- I was so so SO excited for the "Scooby-Doo! And the Curse of the 13th Ghost" movie that came out on DVD and digital yesterday. I picked it up after work and went home to watch it almost immediately. My excitement and nostalgia for this movie was something I hadn't felt for a Scooby-Doo movie in a while. And...I finished it disappointed on a few levels... The entire concept for this movie was phenomenal: Let's take a 34-year old plot hole created from an obscure era of Scooby-Doo and resolve it with an awesome DTV movie in the 50th year of the franchise's life. But instead what we got was: Let's take a 34-year old plot hole created from an obscure era of Scooby-Doo and attempt to resolve it by writing out characters, rationalizing the supernatural aspects of the story, and creating even MORE plot holes. 

The movie had a great set-up and was going well for probably the first half of the movie. I'll discuss real quick what I personally like about this movie before going into what I didn't: 1) I thoroughly enjoyed the backstory of the Chest of Demons (COD) and learning about how Vincent VanGhoul himself had to capture the 13 ghosts (I'm going to refer to them as The 13 from this point forward) before Scooby and Shaggy ever released them in the original series. I think that's great character development, storytelling, and additional information that was lacking in the original series. I always had a hunch that Vincent was responsible for creating the COD and capturing The 13 in the first place, when really he didn't actually create the COD but rather discovered it and made the same mistake Scooby and Shaggy made. 2) I think that the design of Asmodeus (the 13th ghost that was never captured) was fantastic. His head shape is reminiscent of the COD itself as well as the collective entity of The 13 that we see escape in the first episode of "The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo". I *think* Asmodeus is supposed to be considered the first being to ever enter the COD, and him supposedly being the most powerful of The 13 makes him an interesting antagonist for the group. Especially when it's learned that he is actually Vincent VanGhoul's ancestor, adding to the world-building and justifying further Vincent's self-appointed responsibility to recapture The 13. His name is also interesting since “Asmodeus” is actually a being believed to be the “king of demons” as he is also stated to be in this movie. Just an interesting tie-in to real mythology that the other twelve ghosts of the chest lack. 

3) Based on elements of the original series, I enjoyed the movie's occasional call-backs. I think bringing Flim-Flam back was a good choice and having him grow up a little but maintain the same personality was delightful (despite him not being a favorite character of mine AT ALL). The return of the Red Mystery Machine was great too. The COD was modernized in style (as was the Red Mystery Machine) but it still looked menacing. 4) The humor was for the most-part great. I think the joke of older people being scared of teenagers was great, especially when it suddenly and unexpectedly was said again by a different character. Other instances of humor I enjoyed were when Scooby and Shaggy were roleplaying as flight attendants/plane pilots or when Flim-Flam commented on Daphne's hair and Shaggy's green shirt (for those who don't know, Shaggy wore a red shirt in the original series).

Now for the things I took issues with... 1) I DESPISE how the lore and threat of Asmodeus was undone by the character we see throughout the movie just being a man in a costume. The whole point of this movie was to revive the supernatural storyline of "The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo" and finally finish the gang's quest. The ghost turning out to be a man in a mask ruined the story and I think this should be borderline false-advertising (not really but still!). I really wanted to see the characters struggle to face off with the most powerful ghost among The 13, who again are the most powerful supernatural entities the world has ever known! I would have LOVED to see them be brutally scared and terrified of this ghost because of who he is, and I also wanted to see someone maybe be forced or hypnotized or tricked into opening the COD again. If the real COD had been opened again it could've made the whole situation more dire. This would've made the ending of the movie really dramatic; watching the gang and Vincent and Flim-Flam work together to recapture the twelve ghosts inside the COD as well as the most powerful of The 13 as a whole would have been fantastic. I can only imagine the explosive scene and visuals we would've gotten if this were the case. I know I can't fault the movie for not going this route too much, but the fact it didn't and further downplayed the supernatural characteristics of the original show and Asmodeus left a bad taste in my mouth. 2) The absence of Scrappy-Doo was a debated topic for this movie since it was initially announced. Everyone speculated if he would make an appearance, be referenced to, or the movie just not acknowledge his existence at all. I'll admit, the "What's a Scrappy?" joke from Velma did get a laugh out of me but I almost would've rather had the movie ignore the problem altogether. My IDEAL outcome of this dilemma would just be for Warner Bros. to swallow their pride and include Scrappy in the movie. He was a prominent and regular character of "The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo" so reviving the storyline for a movie doesn't make sense without him there. I don't know if the joke was supposed to satirize the franchise's willingness to ignore the existence of this character but it just doesn't make sense story-wise. It skews continuity (which is my next point) and confuses fans of the series. Scrappy isn't an entirely untouchable or irredeemable character either; he has become a prominent and likable character in the "Scooby Apocalypse" comic book series. In fact he's one of the better characters in that comic series because of his character development and instilled morals. Why couldn't Warner Bros. just put in the work and make the character a functional and non-detrimental element of this movie? People hated Flim-Flam a lot more than they hated Scrappy, and even he got to come back. (But I also acknowledge they didn’t bring back Weerd and Bogel either). 

3) This movie presents so many issues in terms of continuity. It's not the movie's sole fault; I don't think Scooby-Doo and continuity are compatible to begin with. But here's a couple issues with continuity I think need to be addressed if this movie is supposed to be a continuation of the original series:   a) The Sheriff at the beginning of the movie says that the gang "is almost 18 now" which means that they are still teenagers. I'm pretty sure that Daphne and Shaggy were supposed to be portrayed as older versions of themselves (maybe early 20's) in "The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo”. They were flying planes and traveling all over the world. And if time has truly passed between "The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo" and this movie, that would mean Daphne and Shaggy were probably like, 15 or 16, when they went in search of The 13 in the first place. I wish they would stop calling them teenagers in stories where it doesn't make sense AT ALL for them to be teenagers. Kids are able to enjoy Scooby-Doo just as much regardless of the gang's age because they just want to watch a talking dog be scared by ghosts and monsters. They're not watching because they personally identify with the gang since the gang are teenagers. The only time their age was maybe at all important was in "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" because the very premise was that the gang were kids. Why do they have to be teenagers in this movie? The answer is, there is no reason. WB just insists they're still teenagers.   b) Before I say this, I just want to acknowledge that "Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated" is supposed to be an alternate universe to the "main continuity" (if that even exists) of Scooby-Doo. So it's interesting to see that both that series and this movie make reference to "The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo", yet "Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated" actually acknowledged the existence of Scrappy along with Flim-Flam. The same excuse was used that Fred wasn't in the original cartoon because he was at summer camp, however Flim-Flam in the "Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated" timeline is apparently serving 25 years to life for his con-artistry. This isn't something I'm mad about for this movie, just thought it was something that should be said since the movie decided to write-out Scrappy. 

    c) Just...don’t get me started on the continuity dumpster-fire that is the garage sale scene...it’s nostalgic but just...please don’t...

   d) After the gang discovers the crystal ball in the garage sale, Daphne explains a lot of the backstory to Fred and Velma in her bedroom. At one point, she throws an outfit on Fred, and when we see it land on Fred we can ALSO see a picture frame on her nightstand showing the whole gang unmasking the Moat Monster. For those who may not remember, the Moat Monster is the green villain in the flashback at the beginning of "Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island". I'm not saying that this case couldn't have been solved between the events of "The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo" and this movie; the case was a flashback in "Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island". But if this movie is trying to say that it takes place in the same continuity as "Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island", how can the gang be so baffled by the existence of real zombies and cat creatures when they, or at least Scooby, Shaggy, and Daphne, have encountered THE 13 MOST TERRIFYING GHOSTS ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH??? You could say that the events of "Zombie Island" don't ultimately happen in this timeline, which is fine, but then why reference that movie at all? 

4) Velma and Fred are very frustrating characters in this movie. I'll start with Fred here though. While I like the group-dynamic shifting with Daphne taking on leadership in their mission and making Fred step-aside, I don't like that they focused Fred's story-arc on him trying to find his place in the group. It's like the movie is trying to make us feel sorry for a man because a woman is stepping up for once. I liked watching Daphne take charge and show Fred that she, as well as Scooby and Shaggy, are able to handle things without his leadership. I have no sympathy for Fred in this movie, and when he reveals he actually went to cheerleading camp when he was gone in the original series? He instantly becomes 100% more frustrating than he already has been, Velma on the other hand becomes exhausting. After the crystal ball is discovered, EVERY SINGLE LINE OF DIALOGUE she has is devoted to her denial or skepticism in the supernatural. Yes, Velma would be the one to question the existence of real ghosts between her and Fred (this was central to her story-arc in "Scooby-Doo! Frankencreepy"). But when that's literally the only thing she has going on, Velma just becomes a flat, uninteresting, and annoying character. Especially when we, the viewer, know for a fact that the ghosts in the original show were real. And then her rationalization of the other twelve ghosts being hallucinations that Shaggy, Scooby, and Daphne experienced at the high-altitude of the Himalayas was maddening. I don't know if Warner Bros. was trying to undo the existence of the supernatural in this timeline of Scooby-Doo or not, but it doesn't make sense anyway because in the show, the gang wasn't in the Himalayas the whole time. They opened the COD in the temple and then traveled all over the world to pursue them. So Velma's explanation of this is ultimately as weak as wet toilet paper. And then her rationale is undermined by her reluctance to open the COD when they are boarding the plane at the end of the movie. All around Velma is my LEAST favorite thing about this movie. 

5) People have mentioned that there were potentially only 11 ghosts captured in the original series since one episode they didn't explicitly capture a new ghost but rather recaptured the four ghosts they had already captured. I just want to believe the Cyclone Ghost that appeared in that episode (which to some is actually an amalgamation of those four ghosts) is really just another one of The 13. That way we don't end up needing a "Scooby-Doo! And the Curse of the 12th Ghost". But I'm personally very fine with it if you disagree with me on this.   6) I don't know if it was or not, but I'm unsure if Scooby and Shaggy's gag with Asmodeus in the temple pretending to be meditating monks(?) was appropriate. Just a minor comment I wanted to throw out there since they decided to somewhat identify a specific culture in the setting of this movie. 7) This movie doesn't explain the ending well whatsoever. The lack of clarity I had after Asmodeus was unmasked was painful. And the plot-holes I found and questions I have are endless. Where has Mortifer been this whole time since he disappeared when he and Vincent finished capturing The 13 the first time? Is he immortal like Vincent or did he become immortal when the ghosts attacked him? What is his motivation to reopen the COD? Why would he want to reopen the COD when he's SIMULTANEOUSLY trying to sell it on the black market for being a priceless supernatural artifact? The COD is supposed to be an obscure and low-key artifact, so why would it even have value on the black market and how much would it even be worth? Would it's worth vary if it still contained The 13? If Asmodeus was really a disguise and not a real ghost, why couldn't Vincent use his magic powers? Why is there a secret FBI agent in this movie? Why does the FBI know anything about the COD? How could the FBI have even known that the gang might have the COD at the beginning of the movie? Did Velma actually misread the Sanskrit in the book, and did the REAL Asmodeus actually move on from the mortal realm? Is it even safe for Asmodeus to still be allowed out of the COD? What was the real Asmodeus protecting Vincent from this whole time, was it Mortifer? How was the real Asmodeus able to conceal himself from Vincent's and the gang's radar in the original show if he was apparently watching over Vincent in an attempt to "protect him"? Why was Daphne, Shaggy, and Scooby so okay with just abandoning the mission when they went back to school that year? Did they ever try to check up with Vincent to see if he managed to capture the 13th ghost? How did the gang just not know at all that Daphne had the Red Mystery Machine just chilling in the garage? Why does she have it if she evidently never drives it? Did Mortifer have actual magical powers or was he just a silly illusionist? If he isn't actually magical, then how was he able to drive that ghost car throughout the movie without being inside it? WHAT EVEN WAS THE CURSE OF THE 13TH GHOST?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! --- I could probably go on and on about my thoughts on this movie but these are what I wanted to talk about and mention since this movie was highly anticipated. I think it fails to satisfy what fans wanted out of its attempt to bring closure to "The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo". "The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo" is an obscure and borderline black sheep of the Scooby-Doo franchise so it was going to be really cool to see an "attempt" at resolving the unfinished story. I just think this movie could've done better and ultimately leaves a lot to be desired. I’m giving this movie a neutral 5/10.

(Understand this review is independent of That Groovy Scoobcast)

What are your thoughts? Do you agree with my opinions or disagree? Did you have other questions that I didn't mention already? Or any plot holes I overlooked? I’d love to hear what you have to say. 

[theromanticrationalist]

Short Treks: My Thoughts

Now that I’ve finally caught up on Short Treks, I thought I would share my thoughts on the series and the future of Star Trek. 

Short Version: It’s a bizarrely mixed bag.

Now for the long version. (SPOILERS)

Short Treks: Runaway

I love Sylvia Tilly (who doesn’t?), and this new era of Star Trek has certainly given us some interesting and lovely characterizations. This was a pretty solid short story, and I loved that we got to spend more time with Tilly. I also enjoyed how they tied this story into season 2 of Discovery, which added more depth to her character. Yes, Tilly just makes friends with random alien queens. It’s just what she does.

I also appreciated Po’s dilemma in her fears and struggles with her people about the coming changes of them becoming a warp-capable society. Thanks to Po’s ingenuity and talent, she has given her people a way to stabilize Dilithium crystals, but Po has done this out of a love of science and creativity. She fears the exploitation of her discovery and inventions for selfish gain. As a creative myself, I could relate to Po’s anguish as she desires the purity of her creation’s purpose, the soul, to be preserved above all else. #TheStruggleIsReal

In the end, though, both Tilly and Po mature and grow a little, which was satisfying to see. I look forward to seeing Tilly’s continued trajectory to her inevitable captaincy! 

Short Treks: Calypso

Another really solid story, but the only thing was that it didn’t feel like Star Trek to me. It just seemed like a beautiful and haunting science fiction story, maybe something that would be on Amazon’s Electric Dreams (love that series!). It certainly has some interesting implications for Discovery’s future, but overall it felt out of place in the lore. Despite that, this is probably the strongest of the Short Treks in writing, pacing, and emotional impact. Give me a love story with an AI/robot any day of the week.

Short Treks: Brightest Star

This was the one episode of the first batch of Treks that I was most excited about seeing. I think the strongest character and ideas of this new era of Star Trek is the character of Saru and his people, the Kelpiens and their predatory “overlords”, the Ba’ul. The planet dynamics of these species and how they’ve evolved together, and the mystery of how they are inexplicably linked is absolutely fascinating to me. Unfortunately, I feel like the writers really squandered the full potential of the ideas, which disappointed me greatly. 😞However, despite my disappointment, I did enjoy this story, albeit it was much to short. I think it needed to be 20 or 30 mins to really give the full impact of Saru’s struggle as an unusual Kelpien who looks up at the stars and speaks to them. But we don’t really get an explanation of how Saru is able to understand technology at all. We just have to accept that “he’s different”, so he just has the ingenuity to figure things out. I would have loved to have seen him when he was younger giving us examples of how his unorthodox thinking manifested in other ways in order for us to believe that he would be smart and capable enough to tinker and use technology beyond his people’s understanding. It would have also given us a chance to really immerse ourselves in the culture and mindset of the Kelpiens, to understand the psychology that shapes Saru’s very identity. In short, WE NEEDED MOAR KELPIENS AND SARU.

Overall, though, this episode was one of the very few that felt the most like Star Trek, as it exemplifies themes of questioning, seeking, searching, and asking and how that curiosity can lead us to worlds and realms beyond - that we are made for so much more than we could possibly imagine. 

This story also gave me Isaac Asimov vibes, which was cool.

Short Treks: The Escape Artist

This one was really disappointing and, frankly, very dull. Don’t get me wrong, Rainn Wilson does a fabulous Harry Mudd. He really adds nuance and cleverness to a character that originally was pretty one dimensional and campy. However, this was the one episode that NEEDED to be shorter, as it went on for far too long, and the pay off wasn’t worth it. It also left me feeling like, what was even the point? Why did they make this short story about Harry Mudd without telling us anything new about him? Yeah, we know he is conniving con man, we get it. It also doesn’t make sense continuity wise in Star Trek because I thought Doctor Noonien Soong was the leading roboticist/android expert, and Data wasn’t anywhere near to looking as life-like as Mudd’s replicas. Somehow Mudd is able to create perfect hosts-from-Westworld androids that sweat, bleed, bruise, and otherwise act like organic matter, able to express the full nuanced range of human emotion as to be clone-like duplicates of himself. Um. Okay??? I guess this lone con man fugitive has made these ingenious and world-shattering discoveries and inventions in robotics and technology. Yep.

Short Treks: Q&A

The absolute best of the Short Treks, IMLTHO. (Yeah, I may be biased...) You can read my thoughts on this episode here: X. 

Short Treks: The Trouble With Edward

Yeah. So this one is W-E-I-R-D, even by Star Trek’s standards. I also didn’t get it. I didn’t understand why it was made or why it took the tone that it did. It was funny, yeah, uncomfortably amusing, like we were watching The Office: Star Trek Edition, but WHY. Did someone ask for this? What is going on? WHY DID THEY HAVE THAT PARODY CHILDREN’S CEREAL COMMERCIAL AT THE END ABOUT EATING TRIBBLES WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING RIGHT NOW

It also doesn’t fit continuity-wise in the timeline. If someone at Starfleet was responsible for making tribbles the way that they are, then how come Kirk and the Enterprise weren’t notified as such? McCoy was the one who examined and discovered why they were breeding so much, but he could have just looked up Starfleet’s records apparently and got all the answers he needed. 

I’m not one of those fans who gets upset about continuity errors in world building, but really, there are just some things you should obviously know better not to do. 

Personally, I think the writer’s room was on Stamet’s mushrooms when they wrote this one, tbh. 😉

Short Treks: Ask Not

This was one was just ridiculous. The scenario wasn’t plausible, it was predictable, and the implications were kind of disturbing. For one, we all knew Captain Pike hadn’t turned. Yes, this perfect, plush, teddy bear of a man who is THE NUMBER ONE Space Dad of All Timeᵀᴹ who has absolute, unwavering integrity and honor is someone we are supposed to buy as having committed mutiny, or at least convince us that Cadet Thira Sidhu buys this obvious load of malarky. 

Uh, I don’t think so.

Also...THIS IS SO MESSED UP WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO YOUR CADETS. Why would you put them through this manipulative farce just to test their devotion, commitment, and integrity?! If I were this cadet I would be seriously angry and upset that I was tricked and made to go through the emotional turmoil, trauma, and distress of standing up against your commanding officer in a life endangering scenario! What the heck?? What sick, perverted, twisted mind thought of this cruel -

Oh.

Haha, okay so I think it is kind of hilarious just how merciless Number One is that she would actually come up with this kind of test. This episode was TOTALLY worth the little Spock and Number One Mutual Appreciation Society moment, as Spock, with stars in his eyes, admires Number One’s cutthroat tactics. I mean in AOS, Spock did come up with the Kobayashi Maru so it is all making sense. However, at least in the Kobayashi Maru the cadets knew they were taking a test. Cadet Thira Sidhu did not. The lighthearted and warm fuzzy ending to this episode did not at all jive with what had just happened. It would have been much more interesting to have dealt with the implications of Number One’s test on the cadets, while expanding on her character as well as telling us why Pike would even partake of and allow this to happen, but oh well. 

Short Treks: Ephraim and Dot

The idea? Creative. The characters? Cute. The animation? Really nice with an old school flair. And yet I was once again left feeling like what was the point? I mean I’m sure 3-5 year olds would enjoy watching this little short, like something akin to Looney Tunes IN SPACE, but really there wasn’t much substance here. Frankly, it just seemed like it was a nostalgia trip and Easter egg dump. 

Short Treks: The Girl Who Made The Stars

This is another very creative idea with excellent animation and an interesting look into Michael’s childhood and the ideas that shaped her. I suppose it accomplishes what it sets out to do, and is pretty effective, but personally it didn’t do much for me. It was sweet and inspirational and that’s about it. 

Short Treks: Children of Mars

This was a prologue of sorts before Picard begins, and so it was interesting to have our first look into what we will come to expect from that series. It was, undoubtedly, emotionally effecting, as it actually brought tears to my eyes. However, I did have an issue with it and I was trying to figure out what that was. I then realized - it felt like a commercial. Like one of those long commercials that tells a poignant little story in order to sell an idea or product, whatever it may be. It was too glossy, stylized, and seemed like it could be used as a kind of propoganda-esque promotion of Starfleet and its ideals. I know that is a kind of cynical way of viewing it, but that is how it felt to me in the way it chose to tell its story. I think if the girls had been allowed to be real characters we could have immersed ourselves in their story and what the both of them ended up having to face together in the end. It would have felt much more real and earnest, instead of just tugging at our heartstrings in a syrupy kind of way. 

Also, it kind of gave me The Expanse vibes. Just an observation. 

Conclusion

These Short Treks, and subsequently the CBS era of the Star Trek franchise, are a really weird mix bag for me. On one hand, I do admire their creative risks as they decide to try new ways of telling Star Trek stories, which I know not all those in the fandom appreciate or desire. Yet on the other hand, most of the time the writing is just poorly done and generic, so it all seems to just cancel itself out. 😕

Creating memorable, enjoyable, and original characters: 100%

The level of Feelzᵀᴹ felt from the storytelling and acting: 1000%

Creativity through set, costumes, and stylistic approaches and ideas: 100%

Writing: Subpar, 20%

Science: Not Even Science

In the end it seems like those running this new era of Star Trek have a lot of heart, but not enough analytical thinking or patience to take the time to build the necessary character and plot logic that makes for much more satisfying storytelling. Just saying “Space, the final frontier” a thousand times doesn’t make this Star Trek, and making us feel things through excellently composed music and acting isn’t good writing. (Also, people saying that they love science all the time doesn’t mean they are actually doing science!) So, I don’t expect much from this CBS era, but I’ll be watching it and enjoying it anyway. I’m Star Trek trash. What can I say?  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Source for images: X

[just-a-thought29-blog]

You Can’t Top Pigs With Pigs...Unless It’s Live Action Pigs...

When Walt Disney was interviewed after receiving an Academy Award for The Three Little Pigs, he was asked was he going to create another Three Little Pigs short? A sequel if you will? Walt famously told the reporter “You can’t top pigs with pigs.” What one could interpret Walt meaning by this is that you can't keep creating the same thing. The story has been told, so one moves on to the next story to tell. Something Disney has done and did very well for generations. But lately things have begun to change. The company who’s whole source of income thrives on imagination seems to have, ironically, run out. One might suggest they take a trip to EPCOT and ask Figment if he could help out a bit getting that little spark of inspiration back. But there’s a bigger problem than a lack of imagination at this point. How do you go about trying to get that spark back...when you don’t even realize it’s gone?

The Disney Company is seeing some of the highest box office success in it’s history. Nearly every movie the company released this year in 2019 has crossed over the 1 billion dollar mark. One of them crossing over the 2 billion mark, and making it the highest grossing movie of all time. So as you’re reading this, you’re probably asking yourself “how can this guy think that Disney has lost it’s imagination?” Lets look shall we? If you take a moment to do some googling, you can easily find a list of the feature films Disney has released over its time. For the purpose of this, lets only go back about two years. From 2017 to currently now August of 2019 the only “original” animated feature Disney has released is Coco. And that was under the Pixar portion of the company. Any other major box office release, has either been a sequel or a live action remake of some kind. Nothing new. Nothing different. Nothing really imaginative. Oh but wait, there were two...somewhat...original movies released in that time frame. They were live action. A Wrinkle in Time and The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. Both technically not a sequel or really a live action remake. But...those didn’t do well...at all. And if I had to guess, I’d say that sequels are highly unlikely at this point. And this is where my thought on there’s a much bigger problem than just the lack of imagination. This problem didn’t happen overnight. It wasn't as if suddenly the House of Mouse just threw in the magic carpet and said it ran out of pixie dust. And if anyone has the same view I do, I’m sure we can argue exactly when (if) this problem started to form. All I can do is give my thoughts on where I think the problem started to take shape. And my honest opinion on that? I’m kind of blaming Marvel for this.  

Now before you go and grab the mob from Beauty and Beast and hunt me down, just hear me out. Yes, Marvel Studios and it’s Cinematic Universe at this point seems unstoppable. 10 years worth of movies and story telling finally coming to a conclusion this year is something that has never been done in the movie industry. And the whole idea of a “universe” has sparked other companies to try and replicate that magic. So why am I looking at Marvel to blame for this? Because Disney, in my opinion, is one of those companies trying to replicate the success of Marvel Studios. Almost any interview you watch when it comes to a Marvel Studios movie, someone will bring up the “source material.” Meaning the comic books. Iron Man, Spider-Man, Black Panther, none of these characters just appeared within the last 10 years. They’re not new or original. And what the movies do is reimagine these characters, and bring them to life in ways super hero fans never dreamed of. But the comics are still used as the basic structure of this universe. Directors, writers, actors and actresses are all going back to the pages to get the inspiration and ideas for what to do next from these comics. And Disney is taking notice of this. Only problem for Disney is, they don’t  have a source material to go by. At least...not really any more. Granted they did back in the day. The Little Mermaid Peter Pan, Cinderella, these are stories that were reimagined by Disney. You can’t retell the same story over and over. That’d just be crazy. Sadly I think Mickey and friends would disagree.

 Disney may not have new source material to retell for the big screen, but they have probably one of the biggest back catalogs of stories they can...reimagine...all over again. When it comes to new or original, as of late, Disney has been hit hard. Oz the Great and Powerful, The Lone Ranger, Tomorrow Land, A Wrinkle In Time, these are just a few of the original ideas that the company put a lot of effort and, more importantly, a lot of money into to get that success it was seeing from Marvel and their other movies. With, potentially, the hope of creating another “universe” with any of those properties. But none of them took off. Which is why I personally believe we’re in the new Reimagined Remake era of Disney. If taking notes and ideas from the source material works for Marvel, then it has to work for them as well. And to be fair, it pretty much is. Even though some critics and fans disagree to an extent here and there, the box office numbers are telling them otherwise. Disney has found its new source for ideas: itself. And you’re probably screaming right now saying, “They’re doing what they’ve always done. Taking stories and retelling them.” You’re not wrong. I’m not disagreeing. But I go back to the beginning of this post with what Walt said: “You can’t top pigs with pigs.” Is Disney seriously going to go through every single movie and redo it? 20 years from now are we going to get a live action version of Anna and Elsa? Will Moana and Maui come to life 25 years from now? Sure it’d be awesome to see live, but when do you stop and take a step back to realize this “reimagining” and nostalgia will eventually get old and die out. And by that time is it too late? When does Disney put it’s faith and trust again back in the Pixie Dust? 

No one is denying that some of these remakes are good, if not really good. The technology used for The Jungle and now The Lion King is truly amazing. But it’s changing every day. The technology that made the fur on Simba seem so life like, could potentially be even better a year from now. And almost definitely will be better 20 years from now. So does that mean cause the technology is better we’re going to get another remake of The Lion King? It’s being tossed around as one of the reasons we’re getting most of these remakes now. Because CGI and computer animation has come so far, they’re able to do so much more. And that’s great! But I don’t want to see what happened to Sonic happen to Stitch. If anything pick and choose which stories to tell again. Or go back and pick those movies that didn’t so well and give them the live action treatment, like Treasure Planet or Atlantis. Maybe animation wasn’t the way to go with them. Maybe those would be perfect for a live action remake? Give it a shot.  But don’t go into the office every day, spin a wheel and wherever it stops that’s what you’re announcing at the next earnings call till you run out of movies. That’s going to get boring at some point, right? It’s got to. But as long as those box office numbers tell them it’s not old yet, Disney won’t see itself as having a shortage on imagination. The company is doing what it’s always done. Retelling and reimagining stories. But I think sooner or later we’re all going to get tired of hearing the same story over and over again. 

[reactingtosomething]

If They Liked This, They May Also Like...

Holiday Shopping with Reacting to Something

stock photo shamelessly lifted from

We know we haven’t generated original content in a very long time, but we wanted to get into the holidays in a way that was more or less on brand. So in the spirit of a Netflix recommendation algorithm, here are some suggestions for what to buy friends and family who liked some of the movies we saw in 2018 (including a couple that premiered in late 2017).

It’s probably obvious, but just to be super clear, the format below is --

If they liked this: They may also like this

Miri’s Gift Guide

The Shape of Water: I shouldn’t say a day pass to an aquarium because it’s a terrible, easy joke BUT I AM WHO I AM.

If you’re not a garbage person, maybe consider the rest of Del Toro’s creature filmography, anything related to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or a collection of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen. Dark and gritty originals, not the tidied up versions.

Call Me By Your Name: NO, I WILL NOT SAY ANYTHING TO DO WITH PEACHES BECAUSE EVEN I HAVE LIMITS. APPARENTLY. The book is a lovely, lyrical, tragic read (or listen, if you go with the Armie Hammer audiobook as I did), and I would also recommend giving a gift of solitary artistic pleasure in whatever way speaks to your intended recipient—a CD, a ticket to an art exhibit, a coffee table book of a painter you think they will love. Something beautiful that requires a little bit of space to enjoy privately.

Black Panther: The new Shuri comic! (I am a hypocrite because I haven’t read it yet but it looks so awesome!) Also, there are some choice funko pops for Black Panther, which are a nice, reasonable price and make a great desk or bookshelf addition.

Annihilation: A DVD of Arrival and a book on fascinating genetic mutations. (The photo above is from the first linked book.) Also, tell them about the Twitter account Tessa as Goats, which is a true gift to us all.

Game Night: A murder mystery game! Or whatever game you think most appeals to them, but I personally think the immersive nature of a murder mystery is a true delight. Also, something Olivia the Dog themed because she’s awesome.

A Wrinkle in Time: For the actual child: one of the books published under the Rick Riordan Presents banner.

For the child in all of us: a soothing and/or empowering adult coloring book and some nice colored pencils.

Thoroughbreds: Really cool sunglasses.

Love, Simon: Tickets to the upcoming Clea DuVall helmed queer rom com starring Kristen Stewart and YES this is a request for myself, obviously.

Blockers: Make them a dance music playlist on Spotify!! (Or burn an actual CD for peak nostalgia/those who enjoy physical media.) And if you have some time together, have your own dance party with as many or as few people as you want.

photo illustration by 

Ocean’s 8: LEVERAGE! BUY THEM A SEASON OF LEVERAGE!!! Give them the gift of even more cons and fun!

Incredibles 2: If they are parents: a night out without the children (this could mean a gift certificate or an offer to babysit). If not, try something heroic like these ornaments, or something that helps them learn to be their own hero, like a self defense or kickboxing class.

Tag: LASER TAG! It’s so fun, even if you’re bad at it! Give a gift card or book a session together and enjoy chasing each other around like giant, fun-loving idiots.

photo illustration from

Set It Up: A massage. Anyone who related to this movie too much is likely very much in need of stress relief. Also, a large quantity of popcorn to be eaten in whatever manner they wish with no shame at all.

Hotel Artemis: A Swiss army knife and a couple of airplane bottles of booze.

Sorry to Bother You: An Oaktown t-shirt (I have been told by someone from the area that this is A Thing but I don’t actually know and I’m sorry for that) and a copy of Kafka’s Metamorphosis.

Crazy Rich Asians: Ideally, a whirlwind food tour of Singapore. If that’s not feasible, a Hulu subscription so they can enjoy Constance Wu’s full comic potential in Fresh Off the Boat. And a really nice candle, because it’s a small decadence that can really go a long way.

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before: The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory (if they like a steamy read), tall socks (if they like to be cozy and cute), and custom stationary (if they like to live dangerously).

A Simple Favor: A cocktail shaker, fancy bitters, a really good mystery novel.

Widows: Tickets to go see Widows again because it’s amazing and is probably even more amazing a second time.

Kris’s Recommended Reading 

Wildlife or Widows: The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness

As I say in my Amazon review, this is the best applied ethics text I was never assigned. In fairness to my professors, attorney-turned-journalist Jill Filipovic hadn’t written it yet when I was a philosophy student. Filipovic is also not a philosopher. But she is a brilliant writer and a rigorous thinker, and The H-Spot is fundamentally and explicitly an Aristotelian ethical project. That is to say, it takes the starting position that political organization should be aimed at the goal of human flourishing (as opposed to, say, economic growth). From there Filipovic builds a case, or maybe it's better to say several cases, for specific ways in which American policy fails women and disproportionately women of color in this aim, and concrete ways in which it could address this failure. She does so largely through first-hand accounts of several women across America, in a wide range of socioeconomic circumstances. Although the institutions and less formal systems in play are complicated, the questions at the heart of all this are simple: What do women want? What do women need?

Filipovic asks these questions without pre-judgment, and without assuming that any answers are too unrealistic to consider. Not that anyone she talks to asks for anything "unrealistic." Partly this is because they often speak from too much experience for the unrealistic to occur to them as something they deserve to ask for, but also, the idea that woman-friendly policy is unrealistic is a Bad Take to begin with. Filipovic doesn't need to be pie-in-the-sky utopian to show how things could be much better for women (and by extension, it should but still doesn't go without saying, for everyone).

I left academic philosophy over five years ago, but I really think each chapter (built around topics like friendship, sex, parenting, and food) is brimming with potential paper topics for grad and undergrad students of ethics and/or political philosophy. Whether you’re philosophically inclined or not, if you think “women should be happy” and “the point of civilization is to make happiness easier for everyone” are uncontroversial claims, The H-Spot is the book for you -- and for your friends who loved the several underestimated women of Widows, or Carey Mulligan’s captivating portrayal in Wildlife of a woman doing the best she could within the restrictions of her era.

Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet

Though it helps to have some familiarity with the Avengers storylines that led up to Ta-Nehisi motherfucking Coates’s first year on the Black Panther comic -- as well as with the excellent opening arc of Matt Fraction’s Invincible Iron Man -- here’s all that even a new comics reader really needs to know before jumping into Nation: King T’Challa, the Black Panther, was recently unable to prevent several consecutive disasters in Wakanda. Both as a cause and as a result of these disasters, T’Challa worked with the so-called “Illuminati” (Tony Stark, Reed Richards, Stephen Strange, and other intellectual and strategic heavyweights) to prevent the end of the multiverse itself. That crisis averted, T’Challa has returned to Wakanda to resume his royal duties.

Coates takes as a starting premise that Wakanda, the most advanced nation on earth, would only still have a hereditary monarchy if the monarch was uniquely suited as a protector of the people. In the wake of the Panther’s failures in this regard, Nation opens with a rebellion against T’Challa’s rule on two fronts: domestic terrorists with an unknown agenda on one hand, and on the other, former officers of the Dora Milaje (the all-female royal bodyguard corps beloved by fans of the movie) rallying Wakandan women who have suffered great injustices unaddressed by the crown. The leaders of the latter, lovers Ayo and Aneka, are nominally antagonists to T’Challa, but to the reader they’re parallel protagonists. You root for both T’Challa and the Dora Milaje, even though their agendas are in tension, not unlike the way one might have rooted for both Tyrion Lannister and Robb Stark in early Game of Thrones. (Shuri’s around too, though she’s quite unlike her movie counterpart.)

When he’s not fighting or investigating, T’Challa does a lot of soul-searching and debating about his responsibilities as king, the ways it conflicts with his career as a globetrotting superhero, and whether and how the government of Wakanda must evolve. Though Wakanda is too small to be considered a superpower, the domestic terror angle, an interrogation of historical injustice, and the struggle between moral idealism and political reality make Wakanda a proxy in some important ways for modern America. (You may have noticed that Ryan Coogler did this too.) Coates’s meditation on leadership and political power made A Nation Under Our Feet not only a great superhero comic but -- this is not an exaggeration or a joke -- my favorite political writing of 2016.

Nation is illustrated mostly by Brian Stelfreeze and Chris Sprouse, with colors by Laura Martin; some of Stelfreeze’s designs clearly influenced the movie.

Thoroughbreds: Sweetpea

When a clever, mean-spirited would-be journalist with airhead friends learns that her boyfriend is cheating on her, old traumas bubble to the surface and she becomes a serial killer who targets sex offenders. Darkly, often cruelly hilarious, Sweetpea is what you’d get if American Psycho was set in southwestern England and for some reason starred Amy from Gone Girl. Protagonist Rhiannon is a self-described inhabitant of an Island of Unfinished Sentences, de facto Chief Listener of her “friend” circle, and a maker of lists. Lists of the things her friends talk about (babies, boyfriends, IKEA), signs she’d like to put up at work (please close doors quietly, please do not wear Crocs to work), and oh, the people she wants to kill. Like her boyfriend, at the moment. Or ISIS, when news coverage of a terror attack pre-empts her beloved MasterChef.

Author C.J. Skuse smartly chooses not to have Rhiannon wallow in her traumatic past as many superheroes do. We get glimpses for context, but Rhiannon is committed to moving forward, to escaping her demons rather than being defined by them. It matters that she wants to get better, even if she also hates that she’s bought into society’s definition of “better.” (#relatable)

It’s worth noting that Sweetpea leans seemingly uncritically into a lot of dated gender tropes, in Rhiannon’s assessments of the women around her. (Body positive she is not.) Then again, she’s an unreliable narrator -- one of the best demonstrations of this is a scene in which she’s convinced of her ability to fool the world into believing she’s normal, then overhears her dipshit co-workers talk about how unsettling she is -- so arguably we’re supposed to laugh at how terrible she is without necessarily agreeing with her. This is, I think, a perfectly legitimate approach to a protagonist, even if some find it unfashionable.

The book is not quite as thematically rich as it first appears, at least on the topic of sexual violence; it indulges a “stranger danger” picture of rape that doesn’t feel entirely contemporary. (For a more nuanced treatment of rape culture, see the sadly short-lived but wildly entertaining vigilante dramedy Sweet/Vicious.) But as a portrait of a vibrant, layered, genuinely Nasty-and-you-kinda-love-her-for-it woman -- given Oscar-caliber-portrayal-worthy life by Skuse’s wickedly sharp voice -- Sweetpea is too fun to pass up.

Upgrade or Infinity War: The Wild Storm

Castlevania showrunner Warren Ellis helped redefine superhero comics with 1999’s The Authority, which at DC’s request he's given a Gritty Reboot (along with the WildCATS, whom some of us remember from this extremely 90s cartoon) in The Wild Storm. Ellis has always been interested in The Future, both its potential wondrousness and its probable horror. Fans of Upgrade’s refreshingly unsanitized (and unsanitary) take on human enhancement through body modification will find much to like in Ellis’s spin on the trope of second-skin powered armor. (He semi-famously wrote Extremis, one of the comic arcs that inspired Iron Man 3.)

art by Jon Davis Hunt, from The Wild Storm #1

Angela Spica, a reimagining of Ellis’s old Authority character The Engineer, is a cybernetics expert who stumbles onto a sort of shadow government conspiracy related to her employer, and goes on the run with the armor she’s designed for them. (When not deployed, the armor is stored inside her body.) Angela is quickly targeted by multiple covert organizations, one of which rescues (?) her and brings her in on a secret history of technological arms races and contact with extraterrestrials. The Wild Storm is full of big action and bigger ideas, and for smart, generally curious superhero movie fans who find the decades-long continuities of the DC and Marvel universes intimidating, it’s a great entry -- with a blessedly planned ending -- into sci-fi-comics.

Happy holidays, and have fun gift shopping!

[stlplaybox]

Better late than never: my top 10 Transformers of 2017

Yes, yes. I know I’m about 7 months too late but it’s been a tough slog. I was 90% complete in January but have only snailed along since then. I love doing these to really collect my thoughts on a year of collecting but I ended up letting it slip way more than I intended to. Anyway, with that aside out of the way, let’s get cracking.  

Here we are again, that time of the year when everyone reflects on the best of the year that was.Twelve months on and the job of selecting my top 10 figures for 2017 was no less daunting than it was the last time. I found myself drawn to my closing remarks from last year as a starting point. 

“Hasbro and Takara look to be continuing their winning formula with a strong opening salvo in the form of Topspin, Quake and Krok. It’s also a movie year and I’m very curious how they’ll apply this design ethos to the movie line. The Masterpiece line will welcome more Beast Wars figures and will deliver arguably the most important release of the year: the despot we all want, but will it be the one we deserve?

Third party continue their onslaught of amazing product. MMC’s stable is ready to burst with Kultur on the cusp of release and IDW Megatron due later this year. Maketoys have MP Jazz and Targetmasters on the way whilst pushing the aesthetic and action figure boundaries of the franchise with their Cross Dimensions line. Master Made will turn their eye to their next project after they finish Scorponok and Fort Max. SparkToys will deliver the follow up to their War Within Optimus Prime with Megatron and maybe even the King. Having wow’d us with what they can do at Legends scale, Iron Factory will deliver combiners and a six changer.”

As it turned out, all these things happened. And more. The mantra of “there’s never been a better time to be a Transformers collector” has never been more true. It’s with this backdrop that I embark on disambiguating my own ever-changing proclivities.  

Some honourable mentions first because it feels like a transgression of the highest order to not acknowledge at least a slither the other amazing figures that did not make this list. 

First off, dear Iron Factory I love everything you guys do. It’s a travesty that nothing you guys made ended up on my list. But the bite-sized delight that you guys deliver time and time again cannot go unacknowledged. From Ultimate Commander to Sixshot, you guys pack an impossible amount of articulation, fun and detail that should not be possible at such a scale. 

Planet X Mors: Planet X has been a regular occupier in my lists over the years and as amazing as their Trypticon was, there’s nothing more ambitious than dethroning an official version of a toy. They did that with Grimlock and then repeated it with Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker. It’s a stunning toy that has not left the coffee table since it’s arrival and it was hard leaving it off this list.

MAS-01 Optimus Prime: I have an Ultimetal Optimus Prime. I should not need this. There’s only so many humungous, non-transforming toys one should have in an era that is delivering knockout citybot after citybot. But I succumbed and gratefully so. Whilst Ultimetal delivers an impeccable amount of diecast, detail and finish, MAS-01 delivers insane poseability that will never be possible in a transforming version of our favourite Autobot commander.

Titan Returns Black Shadow: It’s been awhile since an official leader class figure has been of interest to me. Black Shadow outshone the main course that he was an appetiser to. Beautiful headsculpt, wonderful colours, topped with an incredibly clever and satisfying transformation. 

Titan Returns Gnaw: It’s a rarity that Hasbro could outdo Takara but they did. Fun and so full of character, Gnaw was a wonderful addition to our fandom. You can see it in the amount of fun photos this little fella has graced. I’ve had a Legends figure in my top TFs in the last 3 years and it was really hard to not have one on the list this year.  

TAV-60 Bisk: A fading line that accompanied an uninspiring TV show, TAV managed to deliver some amazing Decepticons with unusual shapes and transformations. Bisk was the epitome of this. A muscle car that turns into a hyper articulated lobster, Bisk was a bundle of joy I found hard to put down for many months in front of the TV or on holiday.  

I’ll have to stop there as I’ll be here all year otherwise. Let’s rollout for the top 10.      

10: Beast Wars Optimal Optimus (Perfect Effect Beast Gorira) 

Never having owned a toy of this quintessential character, I drooled enviously while everyone picked this up at TFNation because it was too large to lug home. The FOMO factor egged me on to buy it on eBay at TFNation in the early hours of the morning. I ship it so it’d be there when I got home. However, upon arriving home after having been away for almost two months I allowed it to gather dust alongside my backlog of unopened toys. It led me to more than once question if I’d just been a sucker for convention hype. 

Finally opening it in December, I discovered the perfection that is Perfect Effect’s Beast Gorira. The sculpt is immaculate but what elevates this is the premium finish. Perfect Effect brought their trademark paint and attention to detail to the table and made this the ultimate representation of Beast Wars Optimal Optimus. As much as I love posing Gorira, what holds him back from climbing higher is the finicky transformation. 

9: Maketoys G1 Pointblank (Maketoys MTRM-06 Contact Shot)

A surefire way to my heart is a futuristic alt mode. The Autobot cars and Decepticon jet Targetmasters have always occupied a mystical spot in my head for that reason. When Maketoys dropped Pointblank, a Masterpiece of a toy I’d only known from the well-read pages of my G1 toy catalogue, I had high expectations. Those expectations were well and truly blown out of the water when I handled it for the first time. The way those legs compress, the way that chest works, the playability and detail of that cockpit, that insane articulation… it’s a stunning feat of engineering. So much so that it made not one but two trips as a holidaybot in 2017. Subjecting a masterpiece toy to the rigours of a holiday is something that makes most collector’s cringe. But it was that good. That’s a hell of an achievement for a Masterpiece toy. 

8. G1 Starscream (MTRM-11 Howling Meteor)

In a heated 3rd party masterpiece scene, if you were going to dislodge an official figure from being the preferred representation of a character, you’d go after the decrepit Seeker mould. But it’s a risk. There was no shortage of collector relief at having finished the Seekers this year so it makes Maketoys ambition all that more audacious. But if anyone was going to pull it off, it was Maketoys. They did. The presence, paint and peerless articulation of everyone’s favourite scheming whiner is a joy to behold, pose, and play. All that stopped it from usurping higher spots on this list was the lack of upwards head articulation and its unphotogenic dark face.

7. MP-32 Optimus Primal

I’ll confess to being one of those “Trukk not Monkey” people once upon a time. But Beast Wars was a show that I grew to love. It lacked the cast of thousands of G1 but it more than made up for that with a story and characterisation that still withstands the test of time. When I liberated this figure from its packaging, the love I felt was instantaneous. The CGI perfect blue, the multiple faces, the loving attention to the sculpt, I was sure I’d have to file for divorce. It went everywhere with me even to the distant fjords of Norway as seen in the picture I’m using here. But there was drama. Gutwrenching heartbreak ensued when I discovered I’d broken it in a fall on a climb in Husedalen. It was an expensive replacement but one I did at TFNation before returning downunder. My personal story with this figure would have catapulted it into the number one spot in any other year but such a time it is to be a collector that this was as high as it could climb.

6. MTMTE Rodimus (SXS R-04 Hot Flame) 

If you know me well, you know the place MTMTE and Lost Light holds in my heart. There was a crack at this by a more accomplished third party company that satisfied most. Not me though. SXS stepped up to the plate to deliver the perfect rendition of the cavalier Co-Captain of the Lost Light. It rendered MMC’s Calidus to a mediocre representation of a Hot Rod / Rodimus. The sci-fi vibe of the rugged alt mode, the perfection of the chest sculpt relative to the shoulders, and the exceptional articulation were exhilarating to experience. It’s a toy that will not leave the coffee table anytime soon.   

5 . War Within Megatron (SparkToys Spartacus)

It was the year of Megatron. Whichever line you look at, there was not just a good one but a great one. That’s why there are three on this list. War Within got me back into buying Transformers. It lit the spark that re-ignited that childhood love that I’d had for Transformers. Last year, SparkToys Optimus Prime almost took the top spot and they were always going to be in contention in 2017 again given how much nostalgia this plays up in me. Collectors talk about paint and finish but this is a whole different level. Not only is the detail of the sculpt exceptional, every nook and cranny of this pre-war despot is coated in loving layers of vibrant paint. Add the commanding presence of a gladiatorial Megatron and a generous armoury, this figure is packed with endless fun as well as beauty.

4. Titan Returns Decepticon Targetmasters: Triggerhappy, Slugslinger, Misfire 

This is a cheat as Triggerhappy had already made my list last year but there was an overwhelming sense of achievement unlocked when I completed this triplet of Targetmasters. All cut from the same cloth but each so uniquely distinct with tonnes of articulation, personality and clever little design decisions, I spent whole evenings playing and photographing these handsome lads. Another important factor was that I acquired all three of these locally and with my boy. As someone who largely imports these days, the fact I could experience the thrill of the hunt again chasing such great figures cemented their place in my memory banks.   

3. Chaos Theory Optimus Prime GT-03 Optimus

I mentioned the importance of James Roberts’ MTMTE to my love of Transformers. It’s fiction that elevates the characters and their journeys to a level that we haven’t experienced before. But before there was MTMTE, there was the two part story Chaos Theory. I remember reading it amid the Costa era of TF comics and knowing straightaway this was special. The gravitas with which it regarded the four million year old war and the relationship between the two diametrically opposed leaders gripped me like nothing else. It was not till much later that I realised it was the start of James Roberts’ meteoric rise in TF fiction.

It was only in October 2017 that I secured all the variant covers of those two issues of Chaos Theory (Transformers #22 and #23) after having stopped buying physical comics for many years. But to then obtain a Masterpiece version of that Optimus? With perfectly stunning articulation, paint and detail? A sculpt that oozes a sense of heroic gravity? That I did not expect.       

2. Chaos Theory Megatron (GT-02 Tyrant)

Chaos Theory was a tale in two parts. The covers represented the two halves of the story: Optimus Prime and Megatron in both their current day and youthful forms. Generations Toys completed the other half of that equation with their wonderful designed Chaos Theory Megatron. With transformation steps that evoke Masterpiece level ingenuity and a transformation that is a pleasure to switch back and forth between, it’s amazing how Generation Toys designed such a Megatron full of fearsome presence yet is also a stealth bomber at the same time.    . 

1. MTMTE Megatron (MMC R-28 Tyrantron)

This was a hard choice. On the one hand, of all the figures on this list, MMC’s MTMTE Megatron has the laziest of transformations on top of being a heavy partsformer. On the other hand, never has a character stepped off a page more than this. This wonderfully epic rendition of the tormented Megatron knocks it out of the park. Not only is the every part of the body sculpted to perfection but the head sculpt captures the grim introspection that dominated the former Decepticon leader’s tenure on the Lost Light. If that wasn’t enough, the figure does double duty and with a few bits of parts forming becomes pre-war Megatron from Chaos Theory. It’s a monumental effort from MMC and allowed me to round out 2017 with the 3 most important representations of Megatron to me.    

So there’s my list for another great year. 2017 was a special year for me. One dominated by the realisation of some of my favourite characters from my favourite Transformers fiction. It’s a reflection of how vibrant the transforming scene is at the moment that it supports not only a heavy masterpiece market but multiple TF canons as well. There’s truly never been a greater time to be a fan.

[many-gay-magpies]

verivery and skz!

ooh okay--

first bias:

verivery: gyehyeon

skz: hyunjin

current bias(es):

verivery: ...gyehyeon (altho also dongheon and hoyoung now maybe? and yongseung? idk i like a lot of them)

skz: minho, jisung (maybe others but my bias list in skz is a lot less comprehensive than it used to be LMAO)

album/era ranking:

verivery:

ROUND 2: WHOLE | bcs it had both underdog and heart attack, and trigger slapped, so !

ROUND 3: WHOLE | undercover and O are my two favorite promoted tracks of theirs and they both come off this album, plus the styling and concept this era fucked massively, so. yeah <3

ROUND 1: HALL | only two tracks, but the tracks were get away and numbness, which both slapped. also the concept and mv were absolutely iconic

FACE ME + FACE YOU | lumping these together because theyre pretty even for me-- FACE ME has lay back, photo, and MOMENT, then FACE YOU has thunder.

FACE US | the bsides were great and a couple of my favorite VRVR tracks are on that album (my face and get outta my way), but GBTB being the title kinda detracted from it for me HDJFFJHF

VERI-CHILL

VERI-US + VERI-ABLE | i know there are a lot of kpop fans out there who really go for the more bright, cheery songs, but as much as i respect them they are not me-- i still like all the songs tho, not to be mistaken! Alright! and Get Ready are forever bops

skz: (im not doing literally every single era because that would be, just. SO much.)

clé: LEVANTER | levanter is one of, if not my MOST favorite skz title track of all time-- the mv, the song, just the EVERYTHING. the album also has sunshine, booster, and STOP, so yeah its my favorite <33

I AM WHO | my pace as the tt, and then question, insomnia, m.i.a., voices, WHO?, awkward silence... i have listed literally every song on the album so that probably gives you an idea of how much i value it.

Clé 1: MIROH | me: era that got me into stray kids say aye! miroh: AYE!! KSGDJDGH but yeah it. the Queen of all time <33 im pretty sure i had some of the rap sections in maze of memories, if not the entire song, memorized for like a straight year, despite not being able to nor wanting to rap myself. chronosaurus, 19, boxer, victory song my beloveds... clé 1 my beloved <3

GO LIFE/IN LIFE | pairing these two together because one is a repackage and they BOTH have some of my favorite ever skz songs on them. even though these eras saw the start of my decline from stay-dom with god's menu, im still absolutely in love with a lot of the songs that came from them, like easy, any, wow, my universe, another day, phobia, gone days, and ta!

NOEASY | once again kind of a miss on the title track with my personal tasted, but the BSIDES. god the bsides. we got silent cry, gone away, mixtape: OH (even though that was kind of its own era before with a single/ prerelease if i remember right?), cheese, domino, fucking red lights... kpop groups why must you always make my least favorite song of an album the title track.

I am NOT | not one of my favorite tts even if it was debut, but its a nostalgia era for me, and mirror, awaken, rock, grow up, and 3rd eye are ABSOLUTELY my beloveds.

Clé 2: Yellow Wood | not one of my most exciting eras, but i loved all the mixtapes and four of them were on this album, so !!

how i got into them:

verivery: i saw a gyehyeon gifset on my fyp, then went into his tag to find more gifsets to reblog (both because he pretty and i wanted to support creators), then next thing i know im binging every single one of their title tracks in order and drowning myself in their lore. it happened entirely without me expecting it

skz: saw the chronosaurus mv under a b*s mv i was watching back in 2019, liked it, then went and watched a bunch of their other stuff, liked that, and they very rapidly ascended to ult position LMAO

which member would be my best friend:

verivery: honestly theyre all very friend-shaped to me but probably dongheon, yongseung, or minchan? dongheon is a dork, minchan is precisely my kind of funny/weird, and yongseung is just chill and i think he'd be cool to hang out with!

skz: jisung <3 also felix, felix would be an absolutely rad best friend.

something i associate with them:

verivery: fuck idrk how to interpret this question. their lore? clone themes? vaguely homoerotic tension? the color silver? i could go on a whole rant on what my synesthesia associates with each of the individual members but that would be far too much to squeeze into this ask game, and also i think i may have already done that. i can say i associate minchan with coffee a little bit because that's what his voice sounds like to me?

skz: the color orange, for some reason. other than that i kinda got nothing HDJFBF