#of course we should pay the artist but we shouldn't be paying for a media company's clumsy financial decisions

[hopeidontgetaddictedtothis]

Watcher: *simply demands more money from viewers just so they can create content to put behind a paywall while raking in money from Patreon, merch sales, and ads*

Me, a filmmaker who has been making countless submissions to filmmaker labs, fellowships, grants, and programs with a fully written script, synopsis, treatment, detailed budget, future distribution plan, and 3-minute pitch video, just so that I can create low-budget film:

[brionysea]

if you know me, you may know that I love animation. I think it's beautiful and deserves a lot more respect as an artistic medium than it gets. I still live with my parents, and they don't agree; they think it's for children, which makes it worth less. I put on my favourite film (Into The Spider-Verse) while they were in the room once, in a sneaky attempt to share something I love with them, and they were just on their phones the entire time. if I'd been more open about what I was doing they might have tried more, but as it stands, it didn't even cross their minds that something animated could be worth their time.

I say all this to lead into the fact that I've also never been able to get them to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender. again, I was watching something I liked while my mum was in the room, but just because I wanted to this time. I was watching the North Pole episodes. my mum likes badass female characters in media, so I told her to pay attention to Katara's fight with Pakku, but even that didn't pull her in (although she did note that Katara was "fiery"). she was bored, wanted the TV for something she liked now (I'd had it for a while), but I wanted to finish the 2-parter first. we decided on one more episode. we reached the part where Zuko kidnaps Aang and runs into a blizzard with him, and Katara, Sokka, and Yue find them. Katara, of course, outmatches Zuko in seconds. Sokka frees Aang and suggests leaving Zuko to die in the blizzard, and Aang - being who he is - says, "No. We can't leave him here."

and my mum, barely looking up from her phone, says, "Why not? He'd leave you."

bear in mind, she hasn't watched the show. she doesn't know these people. she doesn't know Zuko. this is a single glimpse into a single moment of his life, one of countless mistakes made by a lost teenager, where someone else had to decide whether or not he was worth saving. I got this sinking feeling, imagining a world where Aang didn't listen to his beliefs in this moment; a world where Zuko died in the blizzard, where Iroh lost another son, where Aang never got the chance to learn firebending from him - a world where Zuko never realised his destiny, all because he was left for dead in a snowstorm.

but my mum didn't know this show, didn't know all the reasons why that shouldn't happen, so all I could think of to say in response was a small, devastated, "He's sixteen."

and I'm looking back on that feeling now, at the judgement made on a boy she didn't even know, and I'm thinking: what gives you the right to decide he's done? that he's not allowed to grow anymore? that he won't be missed? that he should die, and that Aang should be complicit in it?

this may seem silly. animated or not, Avatar is just a show. but it's a show that got me invested, a show that made me care about the characters and what they have to say about morality and philosophy and the world. it's a show that made me not want Zuko to die alone in a snowstorm. it's a show that made me not want Aang to become a murderer at 12 years old.

but that mentality of judging people by their worst moments, of not seeing them as full human beings who have worth and a future and limitless potential for change because you, personally, haven't seen it, translates to real people too.

it's reductive.

I think of it like this: what they decide says something about who they are, but what you decide says something about who you are. are you the kind of person who would let someone die when you had the chance to save them? are you the kind of person who invites more pain into the world? who allows it without protest? who believes it's possible to reach a point where people don't deserve your compassion anymore?

Aang isn't.

I didn't have much of a plan going into this post, but looking at it in full, I think this is the value of redemption arcs. and while on a practical level, you can understand why so many people pushed back against it at the end of the show, I think this is the value of Aang's philosophy: it lets you be more.

[the1975attheirverybest]

I am absolutely so baffled as to why anyone cares about who Matty or who Taylor or any celebrity for that matter is dating THAT MUCH. Like it get finding out who they’re dating being like ‘oh interesting’ and moving on. But how does anyone care further than that??? No body knows anything about these people further than what they want us to know and so many fans are just delusional with it. Just curious as to your take on this… personally it’s baffling.

I can't really explain fans on Taylor Swift's side, so I won't try to do that.

Speaking of myself, and I'm guess some others on the 1975 side, unless, of course, I'm weird and alone in this, lol, I think it started out as real confusion and shock. Cuz, for me anyway, it came out of nowhere. And the idea that it might be PR when he first flew out to see her was kinda irking me. So, I wanted to know enough in order to figure out if it was or wasn't PR. Cuz I hadn't thought of matty as the sort of person who would do PR relationships and stuff. So, I was like, wait, is this a thing? am I wrong? just wanted an answer.

After that settled down, now I'm not invested in stuff like how long they have been dating, whether Taylor cheated on Joe with Matty, if he's more in love with her or she's using him, etc. None of that really matters to me and I don't believe we will ever truly know. Now it's just normal gossip. Obviously, if a pap picture of him surfaces I'm gonna roast the shit out of him for still wearing the same fuckin shoes and stuff, cuz I'm a fan and thats what i do, lol.

But I think some of us are genuinely upset (and i do feel like im one of them but i try to distance myself from it) because of the way that Matty is being talked about online outside of the fandom and because we are seeing media outlets capitalize on it. It hurts to see one of your favorite artists, and, in my personal case, the sole person responsible for me not offing myself, be called these horrible things. so, it feels like every time we try to turn a blind eye, there is this reason to continue paying attention. And for a lot of fans, knowing the nature of the relationship is maybe a comfort to see if its worth battling it out with idiots online, if this is a fling that'll end soon and we can put it in the past, if this is even real, etc. cuz its taken over our fandom soooo much that it's alarming.

But, yeah. The bottom line is that we shouldn't be this intense about it. Our opinion doesn't matter to them, nor should it, and it's not productive to engage with the hate generating machines out there. So, for me, they're adults, they've made their choice, and thats that.

[gaykarstaagforever]

All 13 episodes of the second season of the animated sitcom Baby Blues were apparently completed (aside from finishing work and replacing the temporary WIP music score), but the show wasn't popular and those episodes were thrown into a bottomless pit somewhere so the season could be claimed on taxes as a loss.

My first observation is that the US tax code certainly shouldn't let you do a thing where you set art on fire and then they pay you for doing that. I'm not sure why that was ever legalized, though I bet THE JEWS had something to do with it!

(I'm joking, of course. Most corrupt Hollywood bigwigs are, and have always been, white men. You know. They same guys who are keeping you down right now. We really are the worst.)

SECONDLY, (back on the topic of the Baby Blues show), it is a shame that all that work, from all those artists, that went into this second season, is lost, probably forever.

But...

This show kind of sucks? So even if we found it, I probably wouldn't watch it.

I mean, we should still have it. Lost media is a crime against the people who made it to be seen. But Baby Blues the animated sitcom is like Everybody Loves Raymond, minus any of the mildly interesting stuff where his wife is kind of scary, and that is supposed to be funny? But it isn't. Baby Blues is worse than that.

This show is bland sitcom nothingness. It is like the Dilbert cartoon, with absolutely no good jokes.

Again. Think about what that means.

...Baby Blues was / is? a crap comic strip, too. It was never funny. It was usually just two people with kids being tired and the kids screaming. That isn't comedy, that is making poor life choices. But it got an animated show. With a Barenaked Ladies theme song.

...Granted Big Bang Theory had one of those. Think about what THAT means!

(The Barenaked Ladies are often great, but they often make what I consider to be weird, bad decisions that result in crap art. I mean, they ARE a bunch of white men. And what did I just say about those pricks?)

Here is the Baby Blues opening credits, in 13 year old crunchy mono for your general ear sadness: (Just the right ear. Though even so, great goddamn song. For white men, at least.)

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

Hi, I know this is a bit controversial and I don't know if you've been around or ever heard about this issue regarding Yoongi and his recent mixtape but...

Have you listened to What Do You Think and read its lyrics? If you do, what do you think about it and do you think antis are setting him up by accusing him for using a speech from J!m J0nës?

Wanna know your opinion hehe. I just love reading your articles.

I actually got interested in BTS the day Yoongi released his mixtape because it was trending on tumblr and I decided that this is the moment to find out more. But I had no idea about the controversy and what went on at that time. I did do some research now and asked around to check what was the fandom response. And anon, don't worry about controversial subjects, I do not stay away from it.

From what I understand, it was an entire mess, one that can only develop in online spaces due to misinformation, no research, not waiting to understand exactly what the issue is. That doesn't mean I don't get what were the concerns, but you're asking my opinion, so I'm going to focus on that.

When it comes to art, nothing exists in a vacuum, it has a purpose, some more explicit, some not. Using a fragment from a Jim Jones speech as a sample for a song needs to be viewed contextually. Is is gratuitous, did Yoongi added it to glorify certain acts? I don't think so. That's why we need to check the entire lyrics to see what is the message of the song. Art can be controversial, it can stir up a pot, in this case get some reactions from listeners. A lot of other bands had lyrics based on the acts of serial killers for example. Doesn't mean they were condoning it or were insensitive. An artist can deal with more dark subjects and we shouldn't bring the pitchforks instantly without trying to understand what is happening. Of course things may seem a certain way if taken out of context and that is precisely why we should be careful when jumping on twitter to state our own opinions instantly, especially when we know the kind of influence social media has.

I'm going to make a parallel with cinema. I watched a contemporary film that included footage from nazi propaganda reels, photos taken by colonizers, religious zealots and so on. Was the director in agreement with the message of those inserts? Of course not, he was making a point on some 20th century events and how some mentalities are still perpetuated today. Did he specifically said that in the film using a voice-over? No, he didn't, but looking at the overall picture, his intent was obvious.

Big Hit released a statement apologizing for what happened, saying that the producer and Yoongi as well had no idea and then they removed the sample. Honest opinion hours? I think that's bullshit. It's an easy google search and anyone can find where the sentences came from and for a mixtape that Yoongi has worked on for a long time, not made in a week, it's hard to think no one payed attention. But I believe the statement came after the international fandom backlash in order to minimize the damage, not because they realized it was wrong to use that sample. The music Yoongi makes under the Agust D pseudonym is very much different from what BTS releases, but that comes at a certain cost, as Army will focus on his solo music as well. If Yoongi were just a rapper with a certain type of audience, and not a global one used to K-Pop with lyrics a bit toned down for a more general public, then maybe this whole thing wouldn't have happened.