#sometimes people are like the bad side of cancel culture as if it wasn't ALL bad

[anauwhere]

I hope x doesn't turn out to be an as sole. Newsflash they probably will make a mistake which a) doesn't make you an asshole especially if you learn from it b) disappointing you in particular doesn't mean the person did anything wrong in general. Making mistakes and even doing something bad(within the limits we ain't talking about Hitler here) doesn't erase the good that someone did especially if it was done with heart and often it doesn't make you automatically a villain. Stop acting so holy

[colorisbyshe]

Chappell Roan's fandom rly has become emblematic of everything wrong with fan culture.

Fan entitlement and obsessive behaviour from a parasocial relationship ramped up to 11 because she's a lesbian and therefore people feel like she is Their Representation and therefore OWES them as if she's some human avatar of Lesbianism

But, on the flip side of that, she's a Victim Who Can Do No Wrong and choosing to wait several weeks to cancel events people spent hundreds of dollars traveling to go to so she could go to the VMAs instead, KNOWING she was canceling the events WEEKS prior, so that fans couldn't get refunds or properly divert their plans was actually the FANS fault, somehow, for being upset they possibly spent hundreds of dollars on travel for nothing. This is anti-consumer behaviour and is, in fact, wrong. Fans defending this and pulling the whole "ACTUALLY ITS YOUR FAULT FOR EXPECTING WHAT YOU PAID FOR" are just as obsessive as the latter

And then when all of this happens... they'll blame any identity group but their own. It's gay men doing this. It's the straight fans proposing as her shows. It can't possibly be her core base of young, gay, women because being young, gay, and/or a woman makes you immune from bad behaviour.

Like... please. She makes fun, slightly personal pop music with a persona that was handmade to create a distance. Why can't you be normal about this? Why must you suck the fun out of everything?? BUT ALSO admit that AS a normal human being... she can do things wrong sometimes

and it's like... okay for fans to get what they paid for and be frustrated when a person much wealthier than them fucks them over monetarily?

Like, does she deserve threats and violence for what she did? No. But like... what she did is shitty. It is.

"LOL I WOULD CANCEL ON FANS TOO FOR THE VMAS"

First off, THE VMAS?? The lack of prestige fuckass show? But also... she could've canceled on the fans... a month ago. When she knew she wasn't gonna do their shows. Like... she doesn't deserve bad fan behavior but likewise fans don't deserve having their money scorched

I need y'all to be normal on both sides I dooooo

Celebrity harassment squads AND celebrity defense squads are both embarrassing behaviour

[greensparty]

Movie Reviews: Blink Twice / Greedy People / Between the Temples

How is it I got to review three movies this week and Simon Rex is in two of them!?!

Blink Twice

Zoe Kravitz has been on my radar for quite sometime. The daughter of both Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz began acting and one of her earliest roles was in Neil Jordan's The Brave One, which I worked on for a few weeks when it was in pre-production. All the haters who were quick to call her a nepo baby clearly didn't see her performances on Californication season 4, Mad Max Fury Road, Kimi, or The Batman. But what really blew me away was her leading role on the 2020 TV adaptation of High Fidelity. They took the male lead of the book and movie and adapted it to be a female record store clerk dealing with relationships and it ended up being one of the best TV adaptations in a long time. Now she has made her directorial debut with an original screenplay she co-wrote with Blink Twice opening this week.

movie poster

In this psychological thriller a cocktail waitress Frida (Naomi Ackie, Star Wars Episode 9 and Master of None) shares a moment with tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum, Kravitz's real life fiance), who invites her and her friend Jess (Alia Shawkat) to his private island for some partying. His cronies on the island include Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Haley Joel Osment, Levon Hawke and Geena Davis. But soon, the party gets mysterious and there's more questions than answers.

I am going to try my best to review this without spoilers, but overall I felt this was a missed opportunity of a movie. There was a clear canvas to comment on Jeff Epstein-types, abuse of power, cancel culture and in the end it only scratched the surface. This is clearly a movie that is bowing at the altar of Get Out. I felt like Kravitz wanted to make a Get Out approach to #MeToo, but unlike Jordan Peele's masterpiece where it was equally funny and scary, this wasn't enough of either. The cast was mostly wasted and wasn't given the chance to shine as much as they have in other movies. The big exception is Adria Arjona, who plays Sarah one of the models on the island with Frida. After an unbelievable lead role in Richard Linklater's Hit Man (read my review here), she stole the entire film here. This is clearly her It Girl star-making year! I hope Kravitz can go further in her next film she directs as she is talented and this isn't by any means bad, it's just not as good as it could be.

For info on Blink Twice

2.5 out of 5 stars

Greedy People

What got my attention about Greedy People before I even saw it was the cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Himesh Patel, Lily James, Uzo Aduba, Traci Lords, Tim Blake Nelson, Simon Rex, and Joey Lauren Adams. Wow - all of them in one movie! Directed by Potsy Ponciroli, Greedy People is being released by Lions Gate this week.

movie poster

In the small beach-side town of Providence, NC a cop Will (Patel) is about to start his first day on the police force with his new partner Terry (JGL). Will and his pregnant wife Paige (James) have just moved to the area trying to start a clean slate and get away from their past. Then, on a house call, a murder occurs and both Will and Terry stumble upon a large amount of money. I can't give away much more beyond that without getting into spoilers. But there's a lot of people in the town who have more than meets the eye and secrets of their own including Wallace (TBN) the local fishing company czar, the masseur (Rex), and the police chief (Aduba) trying to piece together whodidit.

So much about this movie felt like it was bowing at the altar of the Coen Brothers, most notably Blood Simple and Fargo. But unlike Blink Twice bowing at the alter of Get Out, Greedy People took a page from it's inspiration of what worked most: in Blood Simple it is constructed so that we, the audience, see everything that is happening but each character believes something different is happening and/or unaware of the truth. Ponciroli clearly studied that and modeled this the same way. There's a lot of movies that rip off the Coen Brothers and doing it as good as them is not that easy. The tropes of their movies (inept criminals, mixing comedy and crime, scene-stealing supporting characters, etc) are all here. But much of the time some of these supporting characters feel like they are placeholders, there to add mishaps and setbacks rather than being a real character. Some are simply thrown in, i.e. Joey Lauren Adams who is fantastic and is barely in it other than complaining about a speeding ticket. But then you have some really cool action sequences and an actor like JGL who made this so much more than it probably was on the page. For a crime comedy, this doesn't hold a candle to Coen Brothers, but it's better (and more fun) than it has any right to be!

For info on Greedy People

3 out of 5 stars

Between the Temples

Movies about religious leaders who have lost their faith are usually very serious, i.e. First Reformed. But there's something new and fresh about the subject when it's played for laughs and the funny parts are really funny, and serious parts very effective. After premiering at this year's Sundance Film Festival where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize, Between the Temples has been a film festival darling that Sony Pictures Classic is releasing this week.

movie poster

Cantor Ben Gotlieb (the always great Jason Schwartzman) is grieving his wife who died in the last year, works in an Upstate NY synagogue where he is losing his voice and lets Rabbi Bruce (comedy genius Robert Smigel), and he lives with his mothers (Caroline Aaron and Dolly de Leon). He's losing his singing voice and his motivation. But after a drunken haze, he's helped by his grade school music teacher Carla O'Connor (Carol Kane). Shortly thereafter, Carla asks Ben to train her as she'd like to finally get a bat mitzvah. The two form an unlikely friendship. Oh - and Ben is also being set up with Gabby (Madeline Weinstein), the daughter of Rabbi Bruce.

This is a movie that clearly studied 70s cinema. The cinematography is very in-line with grainy handheld character studies of the 70s, but not in a some retro "hey look at me - ripping off the 70s with 2024 technology" kind of a way, but more in an honest and pure way of how they would have made this in 1974. There are veiled references to similar films like Harold and Maude (and just a little bit of The Graduate), but the thing that made this movie way better than I expected is the cast. Kane has not been this funny since she was beating up Bill Murray in Scrooged. Schwartzman has mostly been doing supporting roles in ensemble films, so his leading role is a good reminder to audiences of why he was the lead in Rushmore and the underrated Bored to Death. But it's frenetic energy director Nathan Silver shows: a sweet human connection one minute, a can't-even-watch LOL cringe-fest the next. This is exactly the kind of film where it made a bit of a splash and now I'm really excited to see what the director is going to do next!

For info on Between the Temples

3.5 out of 5 stars

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

I don't watch a lot of US tv shows. Not because I think they are "bad", but more because they barely hold any appeal to me.

The last few I tried were like : let's start with a pointless sex scene, because dang, regular american boy loves that! Also, let's not pay anyone to do the light. Better if it's too dark to see anything at all 60% of the time, wow we're so gritty.

That said, I happened to stumble on Night Sky. And the reason I got interested was that for once, our two heroes were old people (and it's sci-fi, which I have always loved). And as the heroes, the tone of the first episode was very much slower, calmer and yet super interesting.

It had zero useless sex scenes the whole way, the plot unraveled at a pretty slow but good rhythm, the acting was good. Lovely.

and then.

and then, the number one reson why I've been mostly staying as far from US shows as humanly possible.

The reason why I absolutely despise 99% of all american TV shows.

They can't ever write a freaking ending, and you never know if a show is going to be "renewed" or not.

I've been watching so much shows from other countries where the show is clearly bought to last a set number of episodes, so there is always an ending. Good, bad, I don't even care, as long as it's there.

Now I'm left with no ending, more questions than answers, and the absolute certainty that this was my last ever foray into "made for the US" series.

What are your thoughts about that format? You obviously watch older movies, so I'm not sure if you are into shows at all. I'm curious.

Pfff, I watch sort of everything anon. And definitely tv series.

I wasn't sure how to answer your questions because there is a lot to unpack and honestly? In order to get an encompassing answer, I'd have to write a thesis. But I'll keep it short.

In terms of American shows not getting an ending and in turn, becoming a frustrating viewing experience, I'd say that it has more to do with current production practices and the industry at large, rather than the shows being American. The US has produced most of the greatest tv since its invention and we have experienced the golden age of television for the first couple of decades of the 21st century.

I'd say that the problem is represented by the streaming services and the run of the mill and cancelled shows are a product of that culture. Binge watching, too many projects getting a green light leading to a lot of trash as well, focusing too much on algorithm and quick social media response lead to abrupt cancellation. And sometimes they do it for tax purposes as well. It's the same in the film industry.

Getting out an entire season to streaming immediately hurts the people behind it. With cable tv, writers had a more long-term job, each season had more episodes, the episode was written specifically to fit in commercials as well. Direct to streaming changed that for the worst, hence the writers strike. There's a lot more to be said on this and you can watch this as well, it will help

Poor lighting has indeed been another criticism which I can understand. It's because they're shooting on digital and somehow it gives this illusion that it's more "realistic"? It's not, it's just lazy and it's a shame. Lighting in cinematography is an art and there's plenty of examples out there.

Lastly, the "useless sex scenes". I wonder what constitutes as useless for you though? The existence of a sex scene is not just for some "regular american boy". It's part of a lot of people's lives and being depicted in fiction is to be expected. There's nothing wrong with watching it, for everyone. Would it have a point only if it advances the plot? Could it not be another means of characterization? Of setting a mood? A commentary? Perhaps a glimpse into a life? There's plenty of reasons, even if it appears "pointless". It's unfortunate to see this trend nowadays, but at least it creates debates from people on all sides. I'd actually say that the lack of eroticism and the abundance of sexless characters in a lot of mainstream cinema/tv is creating a false, artificial image of a world that gets boring really fast and certainly a fictional Hollywood subpar to everything that came before.

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

What a terrible time to be a kid, right? I'm convinced that if I were attending public high school in 2022 some asshole would be trying to tell me I'm supposed to be a boy because I'm loud, rough, and dress in a hoodie and jeans 99.9% of the time. In fact, I spent a lot of my childhood genuinely wishing/pretending to be a boy because I had some perception that they were better. It wasn't until I was in my early or mid twenties that I realized I'm not just happy being a woman, I love being a woman. So, when I think about these kids who've been convinced that they can or should be taking puberty blockers or getting transitional surgeries, I feel truly dismayed, sick, angry. Sometimes it just takes a little bit to be comfortable in your own skin. You have to grow through it and accept who you are. I can't understand this new cultural push to disregard the value of loving yourself the way you were born in favor of experimental medical science which will most likely make you miserable. I would be miserable right now if I'd spent my youth trying to transition to male. I'm glad I didn't even have the option to explore. And these parents who willingly start their young children down the road to transition as a publicity stunt deserve to be shot. They're willingly sending their kids into a life doomed for confusion at best and suicide at worst. Why is society not taking this trend more seriously? Even if there's a very small number of people forcing children to change their gender, why are we not ALL horrified by even those infrequent cases? Why are we harming children to validate adults?

You're right and you should say it. We desperately need to stop tribalizing every single issue and digging our heels in when the "other side" pushes back. Because that's basically what's happening with trans kids. You have a bunch of creepy adults, most of whom are trenders or trans activists, grooming kids into being trans. No one on the left or in the middle is speaking up because they're scared of being canceled for being "transphobic", so the only people speaking against it are on the right, or are perceived to be on the right. The moment that happens, this stops being about helping kids and starts being about those evil right wingers who want to kill all trans people. The people who are abusing these kids are simultaneously saying that they're not abusing them and that, if they don't abuse them, the kids will be miserable and probably commit suicide. There needs to be a major pushback on all this far left insanity. It's encouraging that parents are starting to pay attention to what's going on in schools, but that's just the beginning. There's a reason why all early forms of internet access had a kid's only version that didn't let kids access the wider internet. Kids these days get smartphones and internet ready tablets as toddlers and eventually end up exposed to shit they're not ready to experience. Critics of this like to say things like "parents are letting these devices raise children" but it's not the devices raising their kids, it's a bunch of faceless strangers on the internet. Many of whom have bad intentions towards children. Parents need to parent again, and society needs to start treating child predators of all kinds as target practice regardless of which side of the political divide they're on.

[samiholloway]

So we're rewatching firefly and just:

Okay what if firefly, but not canceled? Like: they didn't get canceled so the movie doesn't happen and so wash and book don't die; we get to live in the world, and meet other people from the experiment that made river, and they pick up other strays and keep them (diversifying the cast and making the shared future idea way more on-screen), and we find out what sordid past book had before he was a preacher, and in season two badger reluctantly joins the crew after he's deposed as crimeboss, they figure out the Miranda thing but slower over a whole season at the end of the series, and then figure out a cure for reavers (both saving them and bringing down the alliance as the war wasn't able to). Also maybe there's aliens, six seasons and a movie is a lot of space.

I'm thinking the constantly rearranging crew of farscape, the expanding cheerful weirdness of killjoys, the character development of Becky chambers.

Betrayals and juicy redemption arcs.

River regains herself and helps others from the academy do the same.

There's at least three people sent after them from different factions who they convince to switch sides and then adopt.

Book reluctantly takes an apprentice to save them from the same dark past he left by joining the abbey. And winds up causing a cultural revolution in the faith.

These messy weirdo misfits accidentally become the first humans to meet aliens.

Inara liberates girls in worse situations than her own, on principle. Who then go on to liberate others.

They pick up a local space hedge witch and she just never leaves.

Wash and Zoe have like six babies (at least one carried by wash bc scifi, and at least one accidentally acquired on an adventure).

Simon starts educating Jayne bc he's tired of being the dumb one after he realizes it can't always be about the money. He turns out to be really good at like cultural anthropology or something. Simon is so frustrated all the time, but winds up proud of his student.

There's outer planets settled by cultures outside the USA / China, and they get to interact with lots of different takes on what makes people colonize a world (people who should be better represented in the leadership).

It's a running joke that Mal keeps accidentally getting wives and not one of them stays, but for different reasons. Saffron starts a Mal's Wives Club.

Kaylee starts a garden so they can have fresh fruit and veg and it slowly takes over the ship and is tended by more and more of the crew as the series goes on (but is never mentioned), and they eventually can trade fresh food with other rim world drifters.

Wash takes a job teaching piloting to kids from Luddite worlds and loves the kids but misses space and comes home.

Mal turns out to be an excellent cook and sometimes people want good food as much as they want anything else from him.

Other people from other weird government programs crop up, some good and some bad and all of them very sure river is the key to something...tho they can't agree on what.

At least one episode where people who always fight are stuck on a barren planet and have to work together, as is traditional for the genre.

We get to see future tv shows and music and pop culture bc these are people who have hobbies and shows they follow and such. Maybe there's a show within the show that we can follow as the series goes on.

We meet their fav contacts all over the world's and go back to them more than once, and thereby get to know the world's and their cultures better. Sometimes friends of friends give them leads, some good and some bad and once in a while, tied into the big background story. But also, as plots thicken, they have more and more people they can call on and will willingly back them up.

We get so many family dinners. Some with music!

We meet everyone's family back home and see where they came from, and learn why they are who they are (and also mend some bridges or exhume some hatchets).

A ghost story set in a failed colony, that turns out to be a government crime leading to the whole Miranda thing. And also still a ghost story.

[gamergirluprising]

(WARNING SENSITIVE INFO WILL BE DISCUSSED OR GIVEN. IF YOU CANNOT HANDLE INFO REGARDING SELF-HARM OR BULLYING I’D ADVISE YOU NOT TO READ ON. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED)

Hello, everyone, I’d like to share somethings that have urked me and outright surprise me when getting deeper and deeper into this whole shebang cause honestly, this is too much to NOT notice. If you're wondering what I am talking about I am referring to all the stuff I found out about Viv and the fact that she never truly seemed sorry for what she's done to said people based on what I have found out and what she's said in recent years.

Now you all may say "G, she said she's sorry and that's that. Don't bring up things that happened years ago or have been resolved." and look, man, I'd leave it alone if it was CLEAR that she was truly a person of her word, wasn't a hypocrite, and didn't cause 3 people to be suicidal and cause/know of witchhunts that she KNOWS happened and/or wanted to happen. You guys can like her all you want and defend her, but be sure they are good defenses, understand WHERE I am coming from, and be mindful of what I am saying. Don't just ignore everything she did just cause you THINK she's super nice or because she's your idol.

I will also emphasize that I wish for NO ONE to send any unnecessary hate or anything of the like to Viv. You don't stoop to someone else's level just cause they did some bad crap. I just wanted to say any of this, loud and clear, cause its straight facts that shouldn't be buried just cause she wants to hold onto her image the best she can. That isn't at all fair to those victims who have been wronged and had their names tainted over her destructive and mean-spirited hypocritical behavior. AGAIN DO NOT ATTACK VIV AND DON'T THINK ME CALLING HER OUT IS A REASON TO HATE HER. We can be better than her in terms of handling things. Do not also think me calling her out shouldn't have been done JUST CAUSE you don't wanna hear it or not. If you don't wanna see it, you don't have to read it.

with that being said, LET'S DISSECT.

 S T A R V A D E R

First I have to start off relaying to you guys what Starvader had stated at the beginning of the document so you'll get a jist of why she even spoke up in the first place. 

 "I type this document with no malicious intent only my personal thoughts on how I feel recently about the situation since its been on my mind well every day now since 2013. At least five years I’ve had thoughts below as to my personal experience of meeting an ex idol and why sometimes meeting your idol isn’t the best approach. For me, that ex idol is Vivienne Medrano creator of Zoophobia and Hazbin Hotel. I’m not aiming to defame this creator nor do I think people should stop liking their work or stop supporting them. If you like their work there is nothing wrong with that but I will refuse to silence myself any longer due to how much this rarely leaves my mind and tends to come up. This has been a situation swept under the rug and most would probably state ‘ well why are you bringing all this up now it was so and so years ago you guys squashed this etc etc “ that being the case, sorry doesn’t fix emotional trauma that comes up frequently during depressive episodes and comments do tend to stick to people in a certain way. Apology or not, words have a heavy weight to them."

I put this here even though I will be putting a link to her doc because people will most likely not read or press the link and just act as if Starvader wanted blood. No, she stated her mind and was clear when saying she wanted no harm done to Viv.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRX8VEoTS7Xot7D9u5i7MMEgtT44mNEtgpl4FY7QDZCA7ZY2j-CTJF7Uw_JwSJ6WUQNVvaTQv60Igte/pub

In this link It tells anyone who comes across it what she and some others mentioned here had to go through when being compared by Viv, wanting to do what's right and still being "called out" and bullied while getting hate sent to them, and having been told how her dreams would never ever be achieved and that she should practically give up, how she put friends against one another, etc. It showcases screenshots of these examples. 

It all began with the accusation of art theft. The very thing she played the victim in with someone else. I'm sure some of you old-time fans of Viv know who this person was and are aware of the beef they had with one another. After reading Starvader's Doc, I want you to look at the post Vivziepop made to defame someone known as 

  D O L L C R E E P

This may be a throwback to you and you all may have thought this person was abusive. I won't say that they did absolutely nothing wrong since they themselves have said they did some wrong in the situation, but I will say that one was more of a problem starter than the other. 

http://web.archive.org/web/20151008172207/http://enoughisenough-dollcreep.tumblr.com/post/125101370456/my-experience-with-dollcreep

Notice in this post that the very things she did to Starvader she said DollCreep did to her and how she tries and paint DollCreep as this SEVERELY abusive person. Hell even in Starvader's document you'll see that DollCreep told SV that he talked with Viv about the whole thing regarding SV and Viv and she apparently listened at the time. Not to mention that the screenshots Viv put in that post were either take(very possibly) taken out of context or not even bad to begin with (though his reply about the face thing was odd and shouldn't have been addressed b but due to circumstances, I think that's why he was so cautious). I don't know DC like that, but this kinda makes me feel as though he wasn't a bad person Viv makes him out to be and more her trying to destroy his image ENTIRELY for her benefit, cause till this very day she still calls him an abuser and someone she doesn't want to meet again. 

if you continue on into the post she made, you'll see that she has made characters, EERILY SIMILAR to DC's, some WAY MORE than others. SV was willing to change some of the designs and even wanted to stop, Viv, however, seemed to take great offense over such an accusation and took to social media to make her frustrations known. SV kept this hidden from 2013 to 2018.

Oh btw, if you read the doc you'll see that SV wanted to commit suicide. DC actually attempted it. The cyberbullying ran that deep and it ANGERS me.

here’s what someone who saw the sitch had to say.

https://web.archive.org/web/20170619163024/http://dcs-personal-blog.tumblr.com/

can find everything here regarding what DC said about the sitch. You guys DO NOT ATTEMPT TO HURT THIS PERSON. It actually pisses me off that people even attacked DC and blindly believed Viv. It’s Johnny Depp’s situation all freaking over again

Here’s the picture of Viv saying that he was abusive, completely ignoring her behavior, and knowing hate would be sent to DC. Again won’t say that DC was completely innocent but damn man, was this necessary? DC even said that they talked it out and everything 

https://vivziepop.tumblr.com/post/179705403534/im-only-going-to-say-this-once

Don’t even get me started on the whole character credit fiasco that Viv refused to properly fix.

https://krieg-was-taken.tumblr.com/post/101438542866/dollcreep-kibadoglover45-dollcreep-even

Look at this as well.

https://web.archive.org/web/20200104224648/https://tyacutie123.tumblr.com/post/125800399071/beware-of-abusive-artist

it mentions SV again, but it also brings into light a parody character meant to mock DC during all of this drama. 

https://killapunk.tumblr.com/post/125896144245/dcs-personal-blog-enoughisenough-dollcreep/amp

DollCreep does the same thing back and is treated like the enemy. Hypocrisy at its finest.

now, most of you guys will be saying that this all happened in the past. It’s over, some will say, She’s changed (some of you may even say that these people deserve it. Yes people actually have said stuff like this to me or others) but here’s the problem, She still pulls crap like this to ruin people or to make others feel stupid. Just last year she was laughing with JaneGumball (who APPARENTLY made up with the victim) saying that she deserves it for being rude when the girl just said her opinion and was still a fan of Viv at the time, meaning she didn’t even mean to hurt Viv’s feelings and, hear me out, even if she did WHY FIND HER CYBERBULLYING FUNNY AND JUSTIFIED OVER AN OPINION? What sort of logic is that? That’s GREATLY immature and unnecessary, especially for someone her age (She’s 27 or 28 guys while the victim was 15, come on man!)

 and I’m sure some of you know what happened with the person who made a meme regarding HH and other animated cartoons.

She’s VERY MUCH AWARE THAT THEY WERE ATTACKED....and this is how she responds....wow O K A Y.

So no, she didn’t actually change because she most likely didn’t think she had to. People kept supporting her thus making her believe that what she did was correct. Oh and Faust is practically Viv as well. (As seen by the SV doc and this tweet thread)

https://twitter.com/melonbea/status/1206994000563068930?s=19

Hell Viv seemed to ignore this too, as well as a lot of shipping drama if it involves a specific ship, but I won’t delve too deep into that subject since I am not very aware of the things that go down in that side of the fandom. 

and there’s this 

https://afraidofmonsters-headcanons.tumblr.com/post/188662798256/so-lets-talk-about-this-blog-the-fandom-and-viv

and this

https://historia-kq.tumblr.com/post/190882421127

I’d advise you guys to hear these things out. 

Oh and Viv is the type to be a Hypocrite regularly,

https://twitter.com/VivziePop/status/613097846603026433?s=19

I could send you all the screenshots of her tweets but that should be another post on its own cause THERE IS A LOT. Like her Cancel Culture tweet, that tweet where she said, and I quote, “The hypocrisy is strong” back in 2014, November 29th. That time she had a thread of tweets saying, and I quote “never let someone dictate your value as an artist! Never seek the approval of someone else and conform to what they say you should do!” Despite doing this to StarVader.

If you guys want screenshots I can either personally DM or make a post showing her hypocrisy. Cause honestly this is rather, dare I say it, TOXIC. She’s manipulated people and has used them when they don’t abide by her rules or make a mistake that could have been resolved privately, she attacks and it’s saddening. I am TIRED of people getting hurt by her and I am tired of her abusing her power. If she wants to change I am COMPLETELY DOWN for that, but change starts when you want it. You can’t say sorry and expect people not to see past the lies or see that you obviously didn’t change. Sorry should mean what it means, feeling regret or penitence, but if you don’t at all exhibit these things then how are we supposed to believe that you are at all sorry for anything you’ve done currently AND in the past? I mean damn dude did you guys even know what happened to the cosplayer that Viv was mad about?

https://boricua-moonbakery.tumblr.com/post/616407364553310208

Now look, if you like Viv’s content, that’s your choice. I for one very much do like some fan content that i’ve stumbled onto and find some very creative and my cup of tea and while I’m not a huge fan of HH I still very much find the premise very creative. What I do if a creator of something is majorly sketch or strange I simply seperateb the content from the creator. I simply wanted to point out things many peeps don’t know about and any person who is a fan of Viv, I hope you’d at least understand WHY I am at all saying anything I am saying. I want there to be justice but I want things to be fair. I don’t want Viv to get hurt, but I want her to actually learn from her mistakes. I am not here to discourage you from anything, it’s your choice if you choose to stay and I will not judge you for it. I am a girl who SIMPLY wants people to be more aware of who exactly Vivienne Medrano is. She’s mistreated both fans of HH and ZP and it boggles me.

If you guys want more info, like her tweets that I mentioned, just message me.

      END OF DISSECTION

[me-on-set]

Harrowingly Strange

When was the last time you had to face a moral dilemma? I am still reeling. I actually just got home. I think I invented a new selfie style. I wanted to take a photo of my makeup on and off.

As I currently write this, I am not an actor but instead have been doing background work for the past year. I've occasionally been a featured extra and was a body double once.

It's fascinating, seeing and doing the work that embodies being on set.

A couple of days ago, I received a message from a casting agency that had my headshot asking to submit my photo for a featured non-speaking role with a local production company. It was a one or two day shoot at $200 per day. I said yes and I got the gig.

When you are cast, you get an email the night before with details about the set location, start time, special instructions, and wardrobe. This show I booked was for a reenactment TV series about real world events. The exciting news was that this particular episode revolved around a crisis that occurred in my parents' homeland. I was to play someone at home seeing the news on television, and then in a second scene complain to police of their incompetence. I was asked to bring leisure clothing one would wear at home.

When I first started being an extra, I would bring my clothes in a backpack, trying really hard not to care too much. That behavior did not last. I found my interest stumbling forward into a natural evolution. I started taking luggage to neatly carry my wardrobe options. I found that I would mostly get cast as a mid-30's businessman. This led me to comfortably bring my outfits in a garment bag. It's funny how familiarity can grow your views.

For today, I packed shorts, sweatpants, t-shirts, a hoodie, a pair of runners, and a pair of flip flops. I got these flip flops during my last vacation with my mom overseas in her hometown. I also brought some henley shirts and arrived on set in khakis and a short-sleeved polo because there was also a mention of button-ups being an option.

The majority of work involved as an extra is waiting. It's a good idea to bring a book, although in this day and age, occupying oneself with a smart phone is a much more fulfilling time killer. I didn't end up using any of the clothes I had brought except for my belt and my runners. After my hair and makeup were done I decided to satisfy my curiosity by searching keywords of this specific production. I searched the name of the character I was to reenact. Adding quotations to strict strings of words, I had soon discovered the event I was going to portray. This was when my moral dilemma began.

I was born and raised in North America by immigrant parents who arrived in their early 20's. The typical experiences had by people of color paint a relatively positive mural that represents my upbringing. Having visited my ethnic country many times throughout my life, I felt, and still feel, a deep connection to the motherland. This connection is common for others like myself, powered by identity in a time where life will sometimes present it as a limitation. Conversely, this only strengthens cultural pride.

The role I was to play was an international representing their countrymen against the very country I identify with. Pangs of uneasiness flooded my body. There was another featured role performer who had an earlier call time. We sat together in the holding area. He was cast to play the part of a family member learning the news of the event. What surprised me more was the fact that he was a recent immigrant from my country of ethnicity. Us both, cast in roles of coincidental conflict of interest?

When it comes to acting, the only other time I recall having feelings of apprehension was during a big budget movie filmed in a church. I was a church goer among a sea of church goers seated in church pews. We were instructed to portray the enjoyment of a church service. Some of us were selected to stand and sway to the Christian music. Some had their eyes closed, head tilted to the ceiling, palms facing up to the heavens. As easy a physical task that is, I instead opted to clap along to the band and pretend to really feel the sounds of my favorite music. I know it's just acting but I was driven by the thought of my mom seeing me do anything other than that on camera. So, I coursed the music through my veins. I know the history of the band members, the albums, this music moves me, pretend.

I received my paperwork and read it over a cup of coffee from craft services. It was standard paperwork that I've filled out over a dozen times before. I looked at the inviting exit door. I was parked right outside. This is not that big of a deal, is it? I imagined this TV episode making its way to the news overseas, the citizens all over the world deeming me a traitor for perpetuating a negative image, not merely through action but through representation against them. Against us. Am I selling out? For two hundred bucks?

I thought about getting up and leaving. I thought about all of the hard work that people have put into this specific production. If you haven't been behind the scenes before, it is quite the trip. An assortment of heavy duty cables line the floors, taped in place. Racks of props in designated areas. The backstage crew zip around in sync, bursting with walkie-talkie sounds and hollers of instruction. There is a commonality in the many interactions, their minds tuned into the goal meant to be achieved. This is their career.

This is my hobby. I am a prop. Would leaving this put a blemish on my record in the local film community, or the film industry as a whole, because I wasted everyone's time being sensitive? As I languished, I get a message from my best friend and I tell him I'm on set. I tell him:

For some reason, that makes me feel better. I just might be able to work with that mentality. The other guy has finished. He returns his wardrobe and collects his belongings. I ask him if he knows what this show is about. We speak in our language among the English-speakers. I ask him if he thinks people back home are going to be mad at us. I ask him if he knew we were going to be doing this. He seems ok with it all. He said he was there during the actual event. He's new to the industry. We laugh about how we can pass as different races. This is his first time being on camera. He said he enjoyed the experience. I ask him if he'll continue. He said yes. I hope he does.

Finally, wardrobe is set and I am wearing a navy blue golf shirt and some gray slacks. I want to feel good, like the other times I've worked. How can I get that feeling? They're calling me on set. They adjust the lighting while I sit in front of the camera. A fog machine fills the mock living room belonging to my character. When the camera rolls, there is a fake TV in front of me that I am to watch casually at first and then grow increasingly interested as the live footage I am pretending to watch unfolds. I am supposed to build up into a frustration with the host country. My country. As I understand it, the real guy is being interviewed and I am the reenactment; the illustration of his side of the story. I do the scene. Twice. Filming took less than 5 minutes total. The whole time I was thinking about my mom. I can remember it still, a few hours ago today, the director describing the gradual transpiring of the footage to guide me. To help me see a reason to be frustrated on camera. It wasn't helping. It's not his fault. I don't think it's anyone's fault. I don't think they even knew why I would be uncomfortable. I don't think they knew much about the countries involved in the event. They even spelled the city name wrong. I don't even think the takes were that bad.

I wish it wasn't about my country. If it were different, I feel like I could have given more - like I had done at the church.

It's unsettling to perform make-believe, but for myself I have managed to apply a mental exercise that immerses me into a character; to actually be the person. The trick is to relate. To tie the emotion to a real memory and relive it. If it had only been about another country, I'm sure I would have enjoyed the process a lot more.

I'm writing this and I was hoping it would help me shake away this dread. Thoughts of regret imagining if I had only researched the keywords sooner. Maybe I would have cancelled. But that wouldn't have been better. I would be blacklisted and never cast as another role again. Or maybe I'm being dramatic. Hey, that's good for this line of work, right?

I honestly hope the final cut looks great. This is the biggest role I've ever been in. They gelled my hair funny like a nerd, I had on large framed glasses, just like the portrayed, and they put makeup on my upper lip to hide my dark, clean-shaven stubble.

When I got home, before I washed my makeup off, I took a before and after mirror selfie because my face looked comedically smooth. Taking the pictures reminded me of when I was sipping coffee in the holding area. I had taken pictures of my paperwork. I remember my mind racing. The feeling was like gathering license plates and insurance information after a collision. You know, just in case I have to stand trial, my cultural membership in jeopardy. I can review my situation with a lawyer to see what I can and can not say during a variety show interview that is getting my side of the story after viral, captioned screenshots of me flood the internet with embarrassing memes, stamped into history. Jesus Christ, that would be the worst. Here I go again with extreme maybes. It's an entertaining curse that I will forever be engulfed in my own hypothetical torture.

Anyway, here's that selfie I invented:

Yeah my bathroom mirrors are dirty.

I can't wait for my next job that I can cleanse my palate with. I really hope I can accept today as purely an actor's portrayal, and not a turncoat betrayal. This can't be my last go at acting. I ate some of my country's food for supper. I feel a bit better. I'm wearing a shirt that is emblazoned with our country's sports hero.

I have always been excited to see the final release of a production I am in, except for this one now. Uncontrollably, my perverse curiosity into the film world is only strengthening, so I don't think even the worst thoughts can slow my future participation. The silver lining is that the uncomfortable bar is set to a new level. I could reenact a murderous deviant now without batting a moral eyelash, I like to think. All for the sake of film.

- WSS, February 8, 2019

[gammaprimesmw]

All My Worthwhile SMW Hacks - Now on GBATemp

For those who have perhaps wondered where the SMW in my screen name comes from, it comes from my long history in the Super Mario World ROM hacking scene. It's something I originally discovered all the way back in 2006. Back then, I quickly fell in love with the ability to change levels. I could make the most annoying levels of the game a bit more bearable. (Looking at you, Tubular!) Before long, I had joined Acmlm's Board and attempted to pass a collection of blatant level edits off as my first SMW hack, only to be shot down rather quickly. I briefly quit, only to start again. This time, I tried to make my own levels, only to eventually break something in my ROM. I almost gave up yet again before finally producing my first passable (at the time) hack late that year. I intended to follow that up with another hack called Super Mario Bros. 5, but ended up burning out sometime in the following summer. I then left hacking behind until late 2010. That's when what I consider my real SMW hacking journey began.

By late 2010, a lot had changed about the scene. New utilities now existed, and new custom assets could be inserted that the average user wouldn't dare to mess with in 2006. Custom music, blocks, and sprites could be inserted whether or not one knew 65c816 Assembly. Meanwhile, I was getting better at pixel art, allowing me to make my own graphics from scratch. Before long, I had decided to resurrect Super Mario Bros. 5, recreating the whole thing practically from scratch. The result would be Super Mario Bros. 5 Roborn. It wasn't easy to pull the hack off, even with new skills and tools. I'd suffer from bouts of Hacker's Block, which is like a writer's block or artist's block, but it affects the ability to create new levels. I'd also run into technical problems and the inability to find the right resources to do everything I really wanted to do. Learning to make my own custom music helped somewhat, but I would still be dependent on the ASM people to either code what I needed or fix bugs involving whatever custom code had already been inserted. Sadly, requests for custom bosses were seldom, if ever, fulfilled. This fact would eventually kill a sequel to SMB5R known as Mecha-Bowser's Revenge. I wanted custom bosses that didn't exist and lacked the patience to learn the necessary ASM skills to make them myself. After canceling that hack and honing my level design skills a bit, partially thanks to a great tutorial written by AxemJinx. I entered my first Vanilla Level Design Contest in late February of 2012. While my level didn't win or even place in the top 5, it didn't place at the bottom either. A very critical hack reviewer called XKeeper, who I remember being one of the people to lambaste my earliest attempts at SMW hacking, gave the level a 4/5 when he played it during a Twitch stream. The time was fast approaching to try for another full-length hack. I tried my best to manage my ambition with this one. I'd keep the story simple. Bowser kidnapped the Princess (again). Koopalings would be the World bosses, and the existing bosses and boss templates made custom Koopalings feasible. I decided to draw all the foregrounds and backgrounds for this project. Only one thing really posed a threat to this project: Hacker's Block. It would get so bad sometimes that I'd question the morality of ROM hacking, believing the blocks came from God/my conscience trying to stop me from promoting the "sin" of downloading ROMs. Thankfully, friends like imamelia would reassure me that it wasn't. The hack was finished just as 2012 came to a close. This is the oldest hack that I felt worthy of going on GBATemp.

It was game on from there. I'd produce several more hacks. Each one would receive mostly positive reviews. The most frequent complaint I'd receive would be that my hacks all felt the same. I was, and still will be should I return to hacking, a traditionalist hacker. I tried to make my hacks feel like official Mario games. I eschewed the typical ROM hacking practice of making something significantly harder than the base game. I'm the first person to test the levels, and I'm not the greatest at video games. Lost Levels-tier difficulty curves aren't my thing, and Kaizo definitely isn't my thing. The latter fact suited me just fine. Up until about 2015, Kaizo hacks were banned on SMWCentral. That would start changing that year. A little thing called Janked Up Mario Party (AKA JUMP) was released, and it began changing the very culture of SMWC. Kaizo hacks were now permitted, thanks to them being popular with Twitch streamers. I kept going for several more years, even as popular opinion began turning against my "safe, homogenized" hacks, and Streamer Kaizo hacks began taking over the hack database. Let's Plays and streams of my hacks became more and more sparse, and my overall motivation to hack slowly dwindled through 2019. I burned out so back early last year that, for a couple weeks, I became thoroughly convinced that ROM hacking was a sin, regardless of what people like imamelia said. That conviction would bring me to tears every time I thought about everything I had created. I was still proud of it. These hacks were still available. I could've very easily asked a staffer on SMWC to take them all down, along with all the other resources I created. Being seen as crazy, and the fact that I could never truly erase what I'd done, ultimately held me back. Eventually, I gave into temptation, popping into a friend's stream while he was streaming a hack called Return to Dinosaur Land. That night, I also had a chat with Daizo Dee Von, and he finally convinced me that I was wrong about the whole "ROM hacking is a sin" thing. I salvaged some levels from the canceled Chocolate Collection I was working on since late 2019, threw in a few contest entry levels, and built a few new levels to create a much smaller collection hack simply called "Ten." I could've been done there. That could've been my send-off to the world of SMW hacking. Then COVID-19 happened, inspiring me to start another project inspired by the various conspiracy theories surrounding the pandemic. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough inspiration and motivation to see said hack through, and it was canceled. I decided then that I was pretty much done with hacking. I'd been doing it for a decade straight. That was probably the real reason I was burning out, rather than some divine intervention. I was burned out, and SMWC's culture was no longer one that really supported my style of hacks. I was no longer the one whose hacks could generate hype in large swaths of the community. I was now known as someone who just put out a string of very similar hacks. I even wondered if a sufficiently-trained AI algorithm could make hacks like mine. Maybe that thought can go two ways. I could see it as meaning I'm more like a machine than a person when it comes to designing levels, or the hypothetical AI could be seen as passing the ROM hacking equivalent of a Turing Test.

Anyway, here are the rest of the hacks. You will need a Super NES emulator and a Super Mario World ROM to play these. I can't tell you where to get the latter, but I can recommend using snes9x as your emulator of choice.

KAMEK'S ISLAND (2013)

MARIO & LUIGI: KOLA KINGDOM QUEST (2014-2015)

SUPER MARIO WORLD: BOWSER'S CATACLYSMIC TRAP (2014-2015)

SUPER MARIO LAND 3: TATANGA'S RETURN (2015-2016)

MARIO IS MISSING DONE RIGHT (2016)

SUPER MARIO BROS: THE EARLY YEARS (2016-2017)

SUPER LUIGI LAND (2017-2019)

SHORT BUT SWEET This is a collection of 4 mini-hacks I made during this time. These were usually side projects I did to keep my skills sharp and still do some hacking without burning myself out on the larger projects. Often, these would incorporate levels I had made for various hacking contests. One of them, Oiram's Invasion, is actually a contest entry itself, created for the 2013 12 Days Before Christmas contest. It's my highest-ranking contest entry on the site, having made it all the way to 3rd Place.