#studio 60 imagine

[taylorswiftstyle]

Out and about | New York City, NY | January 11, 2024

Mambacita x Zoë Chicco 'Bet On Yourself Necklace' - no longer available

This particular necklace appears to be from a limited capsule collection released in Summer 2022 between Vanessa Bryant and the L.A.-based jewelry brand Zoë Chicco. All profits from the collection, which only retailed for one month from August 24-September 24 with pieces that ranged from $60- $3,200, went to the Mamba & Mambacita Sports Foundation.

Given Taylor's close kinship with the Bryants, this is a particularly sweet accessory to see. And also given that this piece is no longer available I have to wonder how long she's had it in her jewelry box. And also also more interestingly to me what, if anything, informed her decision to bring it out at this moment. I have to imagine the quote resonates with her for a myriad of reasons, particularly after the year of success she's had on the Eras Tour and the re-records project - all stemming back to her decision to "make the excruciating choice to leave behind [her] past" and choose her future. And, in light of her TIME feature, she admitted herself: "Ultimately I did what I tend to do more and more often these days, which is to bet on myself.” But it's also also also not lost on me that she's been seen entering/exiting a recording studio in NYC.

From a style angle, the choice to go solo with a necklace after a stint where I had noted just yesterday her 'more is more' approach to necklace stacking and accessorizing stands out to my eye.

Worn with: Adidas jacket, Lululemon leggings, and Adidas x Ivy Park sneakers

Photo by DAMEBK/Bauer-Griffin via Getty Images

[ohnoitstbskyen]

The overwhelming misery of going viral on YouTube

In April of 2021, I posted a short to YouTube - a 60 second video in the format of their TikTok competitor. In the nature of shorts, it was a one-minute, necessarily un-nuanced hot take about a subject I like to talk about: character design. Specifically I made the mistake of lamenting that the character design of female heroes in major games tend to prioritize attractiveness rather than using their body shape to do storytelling about their lives or capabilities.

It did okay, garnering about 38k views in its first month. Didn't set the world on fire, but I got my point out there, and while there were some crappy comments, for the most part people seemed to understand what I was driving at.

The short had eventually climbed to about 100.000 views after a full year of being online, which is respectable, but in the world of YouTube Shorts a fairly middle-of-the-road level of success (these are extremely short videos being served extremely quickly to a huge base of users). Fast forward to November 8th of this year, and... something happens. More than a year after it was originally published, it starts gaining traction.

Slowly at first, a few thousand views, but by the 14th it's gained 80.000 views in a day. On the 16th, 400.000, on the 17th, 680.000. I have no idea why this is happening, there's no influx of viewers from any outside source, there's no topical news event that would make the video suddenly relevant.

I tweet about it, bemused by the sudden jump, but also hinting a bit at the other side of this story.

"There Is No Such Thing As Negative Press"

On YouTube, there is on the systemic level very little difference between positive attention and negative attention. If you create excellent work that brings joy into people's lives, they engage with your video and the algorithm reads that as success. And if you create miserable, hateful content that makes people angry and stokes them to responses of outrage, disgust or jeering, the algorithm reads that as a kind of success, too.

Hate-bait and rage-bait YouTubers operate in that latter space, churning out inflammatory or distressing content, hoping to elicit either reactions of horror, or gleeful cheering from people who like it when their favourite online personality trolls the Other.

But there's another way to garner negative attention, and that is to create content which is not at all designed to bait or elicit a negative response, but whose subject matter nonetheless produces a negative response from a certain kind of person.

That is the unfortunate slip-and-slide I have found myself on.

At the time of writing, the short sits at 6.8 million views, has been gaining on average 2 million views per day, and it still seems to be accelerating. Despite those skyrocketing numbers, however, it only ("only") has around 1300 published comments underneath it.

That is because, after the first couple of million views, I told YouTube to automatically hold all comments for review. That is, YouTube allows users to comment on the video, but those comments are not published until I manually approve them.

The reason I did this is... well, it's easier to show you with some pictures. Content warning, these are unfiltered YouTube comments, so expect casual bigotries.

These are screenshots from the "held for review" tab of my YouTube Studio backend. YouTube in recent years has gotten good at filtering out content like overt racial slurs and the worst of the worst insults, which is nice, but the filtered comments tab is still not a particularly pleasant place to read through right now.

Most of the comments are like what you see above: casually rude, fatphobic, homophobic, transphobic or otherwise unpleasant. Some of the comments are more intense, threatening me with violence, insulting me personally, "I hope your mom gets raped by a [racial slur]," and worse. The worst comments are a small percentage, but as you can imagine, they do stand out in the mind, and a small percentage of a huge number can still be a lot of comments.

And that's the thing. There are hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of comments. I scrolled for fifteen minutes and did not see the end of it. YouTube doesn't keep a visible count on how many comments are held for review, but I'd not be surprised if the 1300 comments count would have been doubled if I hadn't stopped it when I did. And since the video is still accelerating, that number is likely to skyrocket as well.

This provides me with the best theory I have as to why the video took off: the YouTube algorithm started showing it not to people who it thought would like it, but to people it thought would dislike it enough to react, to comment. And the more people did comment, the more the algorithm showed it to other people just like those who commented, who were also likely to dislike it.

This causes a feedback loop of negative attention, which the YouTube algorithm (horrifyingly) interprets as a success and an incentive to keep pushing the video.

Moderating this comments section is now physically impossible - I would need a staff of a dozen to handle it, which I can't afford and who I wouldn't want to expose to it, and while this deluge is going on, moderating the comments of other videos becomes next to impossible as well, since the "held for review" tab is utterly monopolized.

One fix for this problem, of course, is to simply disable the comments. But in my experience, doing that only encourages the worst of the commenters to seek out your other content and leave even worse comments there instead. In fact, a couple of dozen particularly irate people have already sought out my other channels to post insults there, adding to the stress and workload of dealing with all this viral "success."

How YouTube Makes YouTubers Worse

This situation is stressful, because humans are monkey creatures with monkey brains that do not like being exposed to a constant stream of rudeness, cruelty and casual bigotry. However rational you try to be about it, however detached and cold, it wears on you. It chips away at your mental defenses and becomes a constant source of low-level stress and misery.

But as far as YouTube is concerned, it's a huge success.

YouTube's systems are all set up this way. They celebrate increases in numbers with cheerful messages and positive green arrows and "helpful" statistics showing just how much things are growing - meanwhile, if you post otherwise positively received work that doesn't attract as much attention, it will give you dour "your content received fewer views due to lower interest this month" messages and greyed-out downward arrows. If you have a video that does really well on the numbers, YouTube will even play a little fireworks animation on its statistics to celebrate.

It's a form of not-so-subtle psychological manipulation. As a YouTuber you are dependent on your statistics to inform your work - if your rent depends on making those numbers go up, you essentially have no choice but to pay attention to them and let them guide your decision making. And so YouTube designs its systems to push its creators towards the behaviour that the platform finds most beneficial: numbers optimizing.

And the thing is, if I went only by the numbers, I would look at the success of this short and go "oh, there's a viable content strategy here!"

I could try and replicate its "success" by creating more content around the same topic, by targeting the same kind of outrage-baiting, by identifying the contentious subjects and trigger points brought up by the angry people in the comments and hitting them repeatedly, hoping to make engagement fall out.

YouTube would reward me for that, quite handsomely, in fact, even as mental health and professional happiness would absolutely crater. I don't have the personality for that kind of content creation, it's not what I want to do with my work, it's not the kind of person I want to be.

But I am not immune to propaganda. I have already changed as a person from doing this job, I know this for a fact. My priorities have shifted, my wants and needs have changed. Not for the worse, I believe, not yet, but the platform is constantly, constantly pushing on me.

It's unpleasant and it's stressful. It's hostile design, coupled with primitive and insufficient moderation tools, coupled with an aggressive algorithm which will go out of its way to ensure your relationship with your audience is toxic, if that toxicity produces better numbers for the platform.

Viral success is often thought of as a desirable thing, something which can launch a career or skyrocket an unknown to success. The reality is, it is mostly just overwhelming. I'm a grown man and I have done online content creation for a long time, and I have learned strategies to manage toxic comments sections over years of experience.

But imagine if something like this happened to a sixteen year old. Imagine if it happened to a teenage girl just starting out making videos. Or a trans person. Or, hell, any person from a marginalized community. I am sheltered by my privileges, but I have seen how dark it gets and how fast it gets dark for people who don't have those extra protections.

Well, it does happen to them, and no matter how rancid, bigoted and horrible the abuse they receive, they will log in to YouTube Studio to see happy fireworks and "Nice! Your video got 20 million views!" with a little green upwards pointing arrow right next to it.

You might have seen articles and thinkpieces around "creator burnout," and I want you to know that a huge part of what burns creators out is the primitive, profit-optimizing, hostile systems that power these platforms and monetize our worst experiences on them as "engagement."

In case you're wondering how much money I've earned from those 6.8 million views, by the way, it's about $20.

YouTube says they're rolling out full Shorts monetization next year, so I guess I just picked the wrong month to go viral.

---

If this story resonated with you at all, do me a favor and leave a nice comment under the work of an online creator you enjoy. It helps more than you might think.

You can tip me on Patreon or Ko-fi if you want to.

[stra-tek]

More Roddenberry Archive musings...

This is supposedly the launch configuration of the Prime universe U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701's main bridge. It's based on the first piece of concept art for the TOS set, and is one of several weird not-quite-canon things the Roddenberry Archive has decided to consider canonical. 2 command chairs and the whole centre console and chairs spins to face the very minimalist 60's scifi perimeter consoles or viewscreen. Try to imagine Captain April and first officer Chris Pike on this bridge, it's weird.

Behold! The top of the Jeffries Tube.

FERENGI ATM MACHINE ON THE PROMENADE!!!!

The view from OG Captain Pike's bed, featuring his awesome TV, his laser gun and his Starfleet hat. We wouldn't get hats back in Trek for 50 years.

This is inside the Ringship Enterprise XCV-330, circa 2100. The Ringship in canon was seen only in picture form or a desktop model, we never saw inside. The ship was actually designed for a non-Trek Roddenberry scifi show called Starship which never came to be, and there was actually concept art made for the interior which the RA people decided to import to Trek too. Predating the transporter, here is the Metafier.

Discovery Season 2's U.S.S. Enterprise has a cool corridor running around it. Walk around it and... it goes nowhere😂 the Archive tries to balance the reality of everything being a television show with the fantasy of a 100% accurate in-universe museum, it'll give sets ceilings to make them into a believable spaceship but doesn't want to go nuts inventing too much of it's own stuff and that sometimes leads to weird stuff like this dead end

Speaking of ceilings, here's the ceiling and lights of the classic TOS Enterprise's corridors. I think they did a decent job keeping to the TOS aesthetic. The sets TOS was filmed on didn't have ceilings at all.

The Enterprise-B actually had a red carpet for special guests Kirk, Scotty and Chekov

Strange New Worlds has the coolest transporter room of all. Just look at it😍

The TNG Enterprise battle bridge has it's own ready room! And it's super tiny, ultra cramped and Picard probably never used it because there's no replicator in there and thus no access to tea.

The 1st version of TNG engineering's big Master Systems Display as seen in "Encounter at Farpoint". Ten Forward wouldn't be a thing until season 2, and you can see here an earlier deck layout and the original concept for the saucer rim, a corridor walkway with windows above and below. You'll also note Ten Forward would actually be on deck 11 had they not changed the diagram by then.

Kirk's quarters on the TOS Enterprise has dresser drawers full of uniforms for when his gets torn

Walking around the Roddenberry Archive ships is eerie as hell. You're the only one on board, exploring corridors and poking your head into rooms. These starships are liminal spaces. This for me adds to the atmosphere greatly.

Here's the link (enjoy before it vanishes again!):

Roddenberry.x.io

Here's my original post about the Roddenberry Archive:

Also a clarification, I was wrong when I said it won't be in VR. There is one VR setup it was designed for - the $3,000 Apple Vision Pro. More details here, although it appears to only show a 2D window rather than be fully immersive 3D, possibly confirming what I was told previously that no current 3D setup is capable of doing a true VR experience:

[waratah-moon]

Black Cat and The Dragon

Y/n compliments Matt, Matt compliments Y/n... Romance ensures (Requested by anon) / masterlist, request/ send me love letters

Pairing: Matt Smith x actress!reader (SMAU)

Warning: suspension of disbelief is needed - let’s imagine LNIS came out after HOTD cool? Cool. And let’s all pretend we look like Anya Taylor-Joy. (She's my fancast for Black Cat so this all worked out lol)

Marvel Studio’s Black Cat is the most streamed show in Disney+ history

Black Cat has been renewed for season 2 amid rave reviews

Tagged @ecairnsart, blackcat

Liked by marvelstudios and 7,362,628 others

yourinstagram: Felicia would like to thank everyone for all the support in the least sarcastic way possible. Black Cat will return 🐈‍⬛

blackcatcostar: Mommy???

↳ yourinstagram: Yes, child?

tomholland2013: Bloody well deserved 🏆

zendaya: Proud of you sis ❤️

username: Here before the Emmy nom

-

Liked by username and 3,083 others

hotdfans: Black Cat star Y/n L/n was asked what she’s been watching lately and she said House of the Dragon!

“You know what I binged on the flight here? House of the Dragon. I think it was my third or fourth watch through. The acting is incredible. The choices Matt Smith makes as Daemon are so interesting. He plays that role really well. I’d love to work with him.”

-

Liked by username and 12,381 others

yndaily: Matt Smith complimented Y/n during his comic-con q&a and said he’d love to work with her in the future!

Fan: What actor or actress, that you haven’t already worked with, would you like to work with in the future?

Matt: Y/n L/n. I just finished Black Cat and she is phenomenal. And she seems to choose interesting projects, so I think it would be fun.

Fan: Y/n actually said the same thing about you recently.

Matt: She did?

-

3 months later…

Matt Smith has been cast alongside Y/n L/n in new thriller

1 month later…

Filming for Edgar Wright's new thriller begins in London

-

Liked by username and 26,421 others

yndaily: Matt Smith and Y/n at the BAFTAs. Can’t wait to see them in Edgar Wright’s new movie!

username: They look so cute together 🥺

username: I heard there was heavy flirting going on at the after party lol

↳ username: Didn’t someone get pics of them leaving together?

-

Tagged thomasin.mckenzie

Liked by edgarwright and 6,311,561 others

yourinstagram: That’s a wrap! Already missing my better half 💔🪞

thomasin.mckenzie: Missing you ❤️

username: This movie is going to be an absolute vibe

-

3 months later…

Liked by username and 40,317 others

enews: Y/n L/n and Matt Smith confirm they are dating with a passionate kiss last night in London. The pair sparked romance rumours after they were seen getting cozy at a BAFTAs after party earlier in the year.

-

Tagged yourinstagram

Liked by edgarwright and 72,461 others

britishvogue: The stars of Edgar Wright's 60s thriller, Y/n L/n and Matt Smith, talk the dark side of nostalgia. Click the link in bio to read the full interview.

-

Liked by blackcatcostar and 12,639,172 others

yourinstagram: Last month in London

thomasin.mckenzie: Cuties 🥰

blackcatcostar: TEXT ME

username: Are they together???

↳ username: Pics leaked of them making out so they’re doing something lol

↳ username: Probably each other

-

Liked by username and 103,471 others

enews: Y/n L/n and Matt Smith arrived together at the Venice Film Festive for the premiere of their new movie. The pair were caught kissing after a night out in London last month, but have yet to publicly confirm their relationship.

-

Liked by commentsbycelebs and 15,361,261 others

yourinstagram: Venice is for lovers 🤍

thomasin.mckenzie: ❤️❤️❤️

blackcatcostar: Iconic 👑

username: Parents

-

1 year later...

Tagged tomholland2013, yourinstagram

Liked by zendaya and 18,628,161 others

marvelstudios: It’s official! Black Cat will be swinging onto the big screen in Spider-Man 4 🕷️ 🐈‍⬛

yourinstagram: I. CAN. NOT. WAIT.

tomholland2013: My spidey senses are already tingling

zendaya: SO EXCITED ❤️

lifeisaloha: Hi Felicia 👀

-

Liked by tomholland2013 and 13,361,193 others

yourinstagram: weekend away with my loves ☀️ 💕

thomasin.mckenzie: you’re glowing!

↳ Liked by yourinstagram

zendaya: gorgeous girl 💕

username: pinterest is shaking

-

masterlist, request/ send me love letters

[showtoonzfan]

I'm so pissed with the way things run around spindlehorse. I worked on Helluva boss as a 2d animator and struggling to survive even though i work full time. the majority of us earn the same 60$ for a minute of animation, regardless of how simple or complex the shot is. but our boss (viv) is never anywhere to be seen, there's no direction and that's causing disorganization, but imagine my shock when i see her instagram and she's treating herself to trips to disney, and universal studios, splashing out cash to go to broadway shows, expensive meals, but us animators get shifted for below minimum wage. I quit on the spot and so did a bunch of other people after we had a talk about it. that's the reason she scrambles to get animators. One person, who unfortunately is too scared to come out about their experience, was fired for bringing up their discomfort with working on an episode where suicide is played off as a joke, another person got scolded for bringing up their disbelief of an incredibly tasteless joke that appears in episode 11 of season 2. A lot of people are looking to quit in the next few weeks so keep an eye on her socials looking for more animators.

573

03/08/2023 16:54:24 Spindlehorse Toons BG Artist Yes Low Pay, Disorganization

From new reviews. I couldn’t screen shot it as I’m on mobile and couldn’t fit it all.

The experiences just keep rolling in, if this is true (which I wouldn’t be surprised if it was) it’s incredibly sad. I especially hate how if you seem to not like or criticize ONE thing going on in the show, you either get the cold shoulder or fired. Disgusting.

[katy-l-wood]

Disasters in Film: The eras of disasters in film.

Here we go! The first in a series of posts I'm going to do giving my thoughts on the college course I'm taking this semester about disasters in film. I made a post with the film list and reading list as well, which you can check out here.

Also. One of the professors teaching this course LOVES quotes. And I mean loves them. 90% of his presentations are just quotes that he then rambles about. So be prepared for lots of quotes in this series. 😂

And I'll open this up with the same image the professors did, which is an image from the Mayfield Kentucky tornado. Because damn is it fitting and evocative:

This is a theater that was damaged by a tornado, revealing the world outside the theater while leaving the interior of the theater itself untouched. The photo was taken by Shawn Triplett.

And a quote:

“Disaster is one of the oldest subjects of art.. It is concerned with the aesthetics of destruction with the peculiar beauties to be found in wreaking havoc.” —Susan Sontag, The Imagination of Disaster

Now, onto my thoughts on the eras of disaster! We covered the basics, obviously, which is that we started off with biblical disaster movies in the 20s and then swung into more exaggerated/"imagined" stuff. Then in the 50s and 60s we kind of swung back to biblical and historical stuff for a bit before going back to exaggerated/"imagined" stuff like aliens and monsters. Then, of course, we had the big resurgance in the 70s which moved away from aliens and monsters and that sort of destruction and swung more towards natural disasters and using them to frame various discussions of class and the real world. The 80s were dominated by action disaster movies with lots of focus on remasculinization of America (aka sweaty men with their shirts off kicking ass). Then in the 90s we just went in all fucking in on completely destroying the world. There were 83 disaster movies released in the 90s, with 21 of them being released in 1998 alone.

And then we've got 9/11. Now, the professor's have stated that we'll talk more about pre-9/11 and post-9/11 disaster movies later, but what I found interesting here is that the professor stopped separating the decades after this. We just went from the 90s to the 21st century as a whole. Which felt weird. We're nearly 1/4 into this! There's two complete decades of it so far! I think we can at least make some broad strokes generalizations about the sort of differences in disaster movies in each of those decades.

But, with that said, I do wonder if the lack of breaking it down farther stems from the sort of cultural stall we're in as a whole. This has been talked about a lot in other realms, such as how quickly fashion trends turn over to the point they hardly count as trends anymore. The same could, potentially, be said of disaster movies. I'm actually tempted to sit down and try and figure it out, to see if I could put a specific trend to 00's and 10's disaster films, but I haven't had the chance yet.

Then, of course, we have the fact that Hollywood is pretty broken right now. Obsessed with remakes and churning out the same content over and over again. Killing unique studios left and right. Constant layoffs. Terrible treatment of its workers. Etc. Etc. Might that also speak to our lack of easily discernible trends in disaster movies?

Either way, it's interesting!

[nitrateglow]

Favorite films discovered in 2023

2023 kind of sucked, but it was a fruitful year for me as a movie geek. I finally got around to seeing films that have been on my TBW pile for years now. I also gave myself a challenge that I actually completed: watch at least one film from every year between 1900 and 2023.

Anyway, I'll stop beating around the bush. Here are my top 20 favorite film discoveries in 2023. (The order is very, very loose from 5 on down. I genuinely had a hard time narrowing the list down to 20, let alone ranking everything.)

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (dir. Mikio Naruse, 1960)

This well-regarded drama follows Keiko, a bar hostess who's just turned 30 years old. She has limited options as an unmarried woman in postwar Japan. Considered "old," she has to marry soon or scrape enough money to buy her own bar. With its jazzy score and first-person narration, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs has a noirish vibe but it certainly isn't noir at all. Though the film is tragic, what moved me so much was Keiko's character. She has a tough lot and her story is ultimately tragic, yet she is determined to keep going, even if life won't give her a break.

The Boy and the Heron (dir. Hayao Miyazaki, 2023)

Miyazaki's current "last film" is certainly his most abstract and puzzling. I imagine it'll be one of his more divisive titles in the years to come, but count me among its fans. While being "in the know" regarding the current state of Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki's 60+ year-long career in animation allows one to better appreciate the many allusions and themes within the film, it stands just fine on its own as a surrealistic adventure about grief and the power of art. Also, damn, I LOVE hand-drawn animation so much.

Black Cat (dir. Kaneto Shindo, 1968)

Kaneto Shindo's Black Cat is yet another confirmation of my feeling that horror pairs best with humor or heartbreak. While there are some morbidly funny moments, Black Cat is largely a devastating supernatural horror story about a young samurai who encounters two mysterious women in the woods, not realizing they are the ghosts of his murdered wife and mother. Even worse, they've sworn to kill any and all samurai they encounter, since their deaths were the result of raping, pillaging samurai-- but they remain human enough to desire an exception. I was creeped out thoroughly by the chilly atmosphere and imagery of this film. I liked it even better than Shindo's Onibaba and that was one of my favorites from 2022!

Malcolm X (dir. Spike Lee, 1992)

I usually dislike big movie biopics for being stuffy and formulaic. Malcolm X avoids both of these issues. Directed to the hilt by Spike Lee, this film is passionate and compelling, about as far from a stuffy Oscarbait biopic as you could imagine. Also, Denzel Washington is AMAZING in the titular role. Like, we're talking one of the best performances I have ever seen because not only is Washington convincing as Malcolm X, he also perfectly portrays his arc from zoot-suited young criminal to uncompromising activist leader. I was absolutely mesmerized the entire time-- it's a long movie that never feels its length and I'll definitely be revisiting it in the future.

The Kiss Before the Mirror (dir. James Whale, 1933)

James Whale’s horror movies are listed among the finest 1930s cinema had to offer, but his other works remain woefully overlooked. The Kiss Before the Mirror is a strange marital drama set in a dreamlike interwar Vienna. A lawyer defending a murderer who shot down his cheating wife comes to discover his own wife in the midst of a casual affair. Will this discovery lead to another killing? Despite the lurid plot elements, Kiss is closer to Kubrick’s introspective Eyes Wide Shut than a typical 1930s melodrama. Both husband and wife are complex characters struggling with destroyed illusions, making the story a hell of a lot more complex than you'd expect.

Five Miles to Midnight (dir. Anatole Litvak, 1962)

I am so glad I ignored the meh reviews on this one because I would have missed out on one of the best thrillers I've seen in years. Sophia Loren is a woman desperate to shake off her narcissistic, abusive husband played by Tony Perkins. When Perkins is wrongly believed dead in a plane crash, he hides out in Loren's apartment so they can collect the life insurance money, split the funds, then part amicably. This being a Hitchcock-style thriller, it doesn't work out that way. What sells the film is the psychological cat-and-mouse game between Loren and Perkins's miserable, mismatched married couple, and a noirish sense of doom lends a great deal of atmosphere.

Shoes (dir. Lois Weber, 1916)

Shoes is the best Lois Weber film I have yet seen and it still packs a wallop a century-plus since its initial release. Mary MacLaren plays a young woman single-handedly supporting her family on a five dollar a week salary. She wears shoes that are falling apart but can never seem to save enough for a new pair-- that is, until an unsavory way of getting the cash presents itself, much to her horror and temptation. This is a heartbreaking little film that showcases a lot of what I love about 1910s American cinema. There's less glamor in the settings and nothing at all genteel or cleaned up about the poverty on display. MacLaren is wonderful in the lead too, her performance a quietly compelling portrait of quiet desperation.

Jeopardy (dir. John Sturges, 1953)

Barbara Stanwyck was in such a wealth of films that I can forgive myself for not realizing this one even existed. After seeing it, it's easily in my top five favorite films of hers. On the surface, the plot sounds like fodder for sleazy sex fantasy: a housewife on vacation is kidnapped by a hot escaped convict. She's racing against time to save her husband from drowning after the tide comes in at the beach where he's trapped; the convict has a very specific price for any aid he's willing to offer. Stanwyck's characterization complicates the situation and the direction amps the tension to a breaking point. Great, great stuff!

Girlfriends (dir. Claudia Weill, 1978)

This film came across my path in a weirdly personal way. One of my sisters got engaged this year. We've been close all of our lives and shared an apartment for years, so this is going to be a big change for both of us. Girlfriends is about a young woman whose best friend is getting married, meaning she'll be on her own for the first time. In addition to making this adjustment, she's a photographer currently hired for weddings and bar mitzvahs, but dreaming of entering the larger world of art galleries. I guess you could say it's a 70s version of a quarter-life crisis film (Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha takes A LOT from it). The performances and direction are exceptional, having that unglamorous, lived-in vibe I love about the films of this period. It also just happened to come into my life at the most resonant time, so there's that.

Ivan the Terrible, Parts One and Two (dir. Sergei Eisenstein, 1945 and 1958)

As a person who hates the idea that realism is the only valid form for cinematic drama, Eisenstein's hyper-stylized Ivan the Terrible movies are a joy. The compositions are like something out of a painting, the acting is operatic, the writing mythic and sweeping. The dance number in Part II is one of my favorite scenes in any movie ever. Best of all, the films rise above their propagandist origins, becoming a fascinating study of institutional power set against individual charisma.

The Red Queen Kills Seven Times (dir. Emilio Miraglia, 1972)

I've been getting more into giallo lately and The Red Queen Kills Seven Times is among the more memorable titles. You have the fashion world setting, a disguised murderer running around in a red cloak, over the top kills, a villainous junkie who looks like Bucky Barnes, a spooky castle with death traps, the works. It's a movie where I don't really care too much about the plot. It's the off-kilter, sinister atmosphere that draws me in, as with most giallo movies.

Little Miss Sunshine (dir. Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, 2006)

It took Alan Arkin dying for me to finally get around to seeing this much beloved 2000s gem. I expected to only be interested in Arkin as the drug-addled, foul-mouthed grandpa, but the entire movie is so warm-hearted and hilarious that I fell in love with it whole hog. The characters are all quirky without being Quriky (tm), if you know what I mean. And I love the final message about just living your life and not worrying about whether or not you're "successful" in the eyes of society. An old theme to be sure, but done so, so well here. (Also, the mercilessly satirical jab at child beauty pageants is pure gold.)

Pom Poko (dir. Isao Takahata, 1994)

I feel like a lot of western anime fans only see Pom Poko as "lol that movie where the tanuki have comically oversized testicles." And yeah, that is indeed something in this movie but there's so much more. It's one of the boldest films I've ever seen, an "animated documentary" (to use Takahata's words) about a village of tanuki waging war against humankind's encroachment upon the natural world. It's such a genre grab-bag, critic Daniel Thomas' description fits it best: "The story weaves through slapstick comedy, social commentary, satire, surrealism, and tragedy. It changes moods much the way the tanuki change form, bending and molding into a new shape, and relentlessly moving forward." I still think Only Yesterday is Takahata's best film, but Pom Poko is strong competition and yet another film I can see myself rewatching many times to come.

Bullet Train (dir. David Leitch, 2022)

I still kick myself for not seeing this in the theater when it came out. Bullet Train is a wonderful lark of an action film. On first watch, I recall thinking it was like a live-action anime shot in a very Tarantino-esque style. I've seen it a few times now and I enjoy the hell out of it every time. And if you don't like it, well, you just might be a Diesel.

That Cold Day in the Park (dir. Robert Altman, 1969)

Another film with a so-so reputation that I really enjoyed. Sandy Dennis (who's gradually becoming one of my favorites with every performance I see from her) plays a virginal rich woman who takes in a handsome young guy one cold day. Her initial kindness quickly curdles into erotic obsession and her house guest has his own secrets. It's an early Robert Altman film and not his most polished work, but that makes it all the more fascinating to me. It's a creepy psychological thriller with a haunting ending, as well as an interesting time capsule of the late 1960s.

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (dir. Russ Meyer, 1965)

Where has this movie been all my life?? It's a bizarre campfest about three criminally minded go-go dancers who romp across the California desert, strewing all kinds of havoc in their wake. It's such a strange movie that I don't know how to describe it properly: it's got a New Wave sensibility to it all the while indulging in exploitation B-movie nonsense. Definitely a fun film to watch with a group.

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (dir. Chantal Akermann, 1975)

I finally bit the bullet to watch this one after it topped the 2022 Sight & Sound list. Do I think it's the greatest film of all time? No, but I don't like singling out any work of art for such a designation. Putting aside all the drama that ensued when this was granted GOAT status, Jeanne Dielman is a striking film. It's definitely not something you just throw on casually-- you need to set aside the time to watch it and be in the right headspace. My initial mild interest morphed into a sense of anxious dread as the film ground along its three hour runtime, its protagonist struggling to retain her total sense of self-possession and control as she's thrown off her groove by unexpected events.

The Wicked Lady (dir. Leslie Arliss, 1945)

This is not high art by any means. It's melodrama with a capital M, laying the cheese on thick. Margaret Lockwood plays a devious, scheming femme fatale in 18th century England who's a gold-digging noblewoman by day and a highwaywoman cavorting with bad boy James Mason by night. This is easily the most entertaining of the Gainsborough melodramas I've yet seen, dripping with soap opera antics, sumptuous costumes, and camp-a-plenty.

War and Peace (dir. Sergei Bondarchuk, 1966-1967)

There is no substitute for reading Tolstoy's massive novel, but this 1966 Soviet version is definitely a fine work in its own right. Filmed in three parts, it's about nine hours long and it does a good job capturing the interior lives of the characters in the source material. Everything about it is just breathtaking: the costumes, the sets, the massive numbers of extras during those battle scenes. It's the kind of intellectually and emotionally stirring epic that makes all those hours fly by.

The Sweet Smell of Success (dir. Alexander Mackendrick, 1957)

I often chafe when people act as though all 1950s American cinema were Leave it to Beaver wholesomeness and buttoned up repression. Some of the nastiest Hollywood movies I've ever seen came out of the 1950s and The Sweet Smell of Success is prime among them. Among the best of the late classic noir period, it follows Burt Lancaster as a popular but monstrous newspaper columnist who uses his power to control the lives of everyone around him, particularly his sister, to whom he has a borderline perverse attachment. The dialogue is as sharp ("You're dead, son. Get yourself buried." "I'd hate to take a bite out of you. You're a cookie full of arsenic.") and the cynicism as thick as the best of Billy Wilder. If you love noir, you can't miss out on this one.

What were your favorite film discoveries of 2023?

[angelfoodcake222]

Random thoughts list for our optical appetite asuaging Mr. Darling & others!

-Say the kidnapped crew miraculously found a box with a note from one of the original crew's teenaged youths who figured out what was happening at the studio & poured their purest intentions into a '50s-'60s themed doll/puppet/poppet (the Bob Dilian Cap, 'fro, green flower shades framed in purple Ombre, funky flowery tunic top, love beads [their maker's gifted for protection], evil eye medallion, waist beads under their top, bell bottoms, flowing scarves, etc., etc.) & decided to send their parent help in protecting them but it was too late. The new crew opened the pink/white wax-sealed box to find a spunky, funky, unnamed, disco dolly that was specifically made to combat Wally's reign.

-What if Mr. Darling met the new puppet who was (by some mystical BS for plot's sake) 100% immune to his way of eating & when he tried to bite them he only gets whatever is behind his intended target? This varies in reactions depending on what was beside them if anything. He could have eaten the part of a table or counter their food was sitting on & they sass him for that or if their make-up was eaten they'd ask if he felt pretty on the inside. The scene that initially plopped into my head like a boulder falling into a big lake was:

Wally wonders upon the newest addition to The Neighborhood just to find them doing something he doesn't like & tries to use his eyes but he only catches the bush they were passing by/looking at or what-have-yous. They don't veer around, flinch, nothing. A simple chuckle & a lone, feasibly dominant hand to the respective hip is all the star of the show gets before they peek mockingly over their shoulder at him.

"What's the dealio, Darling Daddy-o? Too much to bite off~?" Thus, the war began.

-Jokingly, the new puppet said Mr. Darling is "wally, wally, blood & dolly" for them (wild about a person in a way that makes you blind to their faults) to whoever/everyone who'd lend an ear which caused Mr. Darling to become even angrier with them. They like him angry, it's so cute.

-All the early '60s-'70s jargon with all the trimmings.

-They have a Home, too. This one formed from a little die that (when tossed lightly on the desired spot) spawned in the chosen place, batting its frilled shutters as it came to life ready to welcome its lone occupant in & keep intruders out. The new crew placed it on the outskirts of The Neighborhood while the new puppet/poppet was distracting Mr. Darling. You can imagine his reaction when he heard it creak cheerfully as the new neighbor scattered through the twin stable doors [possibly decorated in/painted with the pattern of dark blue/pink/green/white/red evil eyes] as they slam behind them, leaving the "eyes" to glare at Wally before setting a barrier to protect the newest Bungalow (Bunny???) from his devouring gaze.

I'm sure there's more to write, but I'm tired rn. Bye!

[robinismywife]

[ 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐥 ]

PAIRING: Elvis Presley x fem!reader

SUMMARY: Y/n Presley does an episode of Life in Looks for Vogue, and remembers her life with her husband Elvis.

WARNINGS: none i think??? If I missed any plz inform me!

A/N: Hey babes! I felt kinda sad writing this :(( Anyways you can either imagine Austin's version of Elvis or the real one, it's up to you!

WORD COUNT: 1k

(the gif is not mine!) (not proofread!)

𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟐

'Y/n Presley Life in Looks'

"Hi Vogue, I'm Y/n Presley and this is my life in looks" Y/n spoke to the camera enthusiastically.

With the release of the new film about her husband, Y/n was constantly in the spotilight, doing different interviews and the like. So, when Vogue asked her to be in one of their episodes of 'Life in Looks' she immidiately said yes, excited to relive her life through old pictures.

She opened the big black book in front of her. The first picture was from 1960. The Y/n in the picture was much younger and wearing a lovely emerald green dress.

"Oh wow, okay," Y/n chuckled dryly, realizing how much older she was. In the picture her hair was vibrant and shiny, styled in a perfect 60's hairdo. Now, in her early 70's, her hair was white all over, since she had given up on dying it, but still beautifully curled.

"Well, this was on my 20th birthday. I had this big party in my house and I'd invited everyone I'd ever spoken to really-" The camera man and the rest of the crew laughed at that "My father worked at RCA at the time, so we definetly had the money for this luxurious party, but the most exciting part was that I had invited Elvis- I had met him a couple of days prior in the recording studio after he came back from Germany and I was absolutely smitten-"

"Did he show up?" A woman spoke expectantly behind the camera

"Yes, he actually did" Y/n smiled down at the picture "It was the first time we ever spent quality time together- My invitation started it all really"

Y/n flipped the page, raising her eyebrows in surprise at the picture before her. It was her and Elvis standing on a red carpet, blinded by the lights. Elvis had his arm wrapped around her waist as they posed. "Oh goodness, this was probably the best day ever for 20-year-old me"

"Why is that?"

"Well, this was the time me and Elvis debuted as a couple at the G.I. blues premiere. It was very exciting but also frightening because suddenly my face was everywhere- I mean, the public knew my father since he worked for such a big record label, so people knew my family, but this was different. Anyways, me and Elvis always planned our outfits very carefully and tried to wear matching clothes- See here, we're both wearing black because it was our favourite color"

She flipped the page once again to reveal another picture. This one made her frown sadly but also smile at the happiness on her's and Elvis's faces.

"This was our wedding day," Y/n swallowed, soaking up the picture as all the memories from that day resurfaced "Now, this wedding dress has a whole story behind it- um- I had to go undercover to get it, actually"

"Undercover?" The woman asked, curiosity evident in her voice

"Yes, we had kept the wedding a secret from the public, since we wanted the wedding to be with just our friends and family without paparazzi. So I had to get a dress without people recognizing me. That's why, me and Larry Geller, Elvis's hair stylist, went shopping together for the dress. I wore these huge sunglasses and a head scarf and tried on the wedding dresses without taking them off- It was lots of fun, I kept calling Larry sweetie and honey so the people around us thought we were a couple"

Next picture, "Well, this was me and Elvis next to Frank Sinatra's plane- We were travelling to Hawaii for our honeymoon, but even though it was just the two of us on that plane, we were all dressed up- It was something me and Elvis loved to do, putting on very dressy clothes just to do normal, day to day things. But, I think that's what made us so distinctive really"

Y/n was now looking at a picture of her, Elvis, and their daughter in her arms "Oh, this was after I gave birth to Lisa Marie- I think we were both still in shock by the fact that we had a child- We always wanted a family together so when it finally happened it felt like a blessing, truly- It was a blissful time for us"

"Ahh, this was after Elvis made his Las Vegas debut at the international hotel in 1969- Me and him are backstage immidiately after the show and there was an amazing photographer taking all these pictures. It had to be one of the most amazing days with him, because he was so happy and proud of himself- After that show, I remember he told me, he said: Y/n I feel alive again, and I agreed for sure- Yeah those were the days- We were the happiest then, you know, he was finally doing what he loved most and I was very much content watching him"

"You were working as well at the time, right?"

"Yeah, I worked for RCA after my father's passing- Actually, something most people don't know about me is that I helped produce most of Elvis's records from '69 onwards"

"That's incredible"

"Thank you, but really it never felt like work, because the people in the studio, the Memphis Mafia as they called it, and Elvis himself were people I loved dearly, so it was always a whole lot of fun working in that studio- I miss those days, Elvis was a great man, one of a kind"

Y/n blinked quickly not wanting to cry in the middle of a Vogue video. However, she felt slightly overwhelmed now looking back at her life. She had done many many things. She had lived her life fully. Y/n had laughed, cried, loved. But she had also been loved by Elvis, and that love she cherished and kept safe in her heart. Sometimes looking back at old pictures made her feel like she was a different person, like she had never lived that luxurious life. Even so, when she met Elvis's eyes in those pictures she felt 20 again, careless and head over heels in love.

[comrademonkee]

i think on the one hand it would be really sickeningly crazy if davy was peters gay awakening. Like imagine you get cast in a tv show where you think you're going to be making and playing music and it's like the biggest thing to ever happen to you and youve never done this kind of thing before and youre suffering through 12 hour shooting days and a studio that doesn't care about your singing or your banjo playing and in the middle of it all you have to be like Oh shit i think i like men and its all because of this british manic pixie dream boy.... but on the other hand it's very believable that peter was gay already in the way that anyone was at that point in the 60s. i mean he was literally a folk singer in greenwich village. and stephen stills...

[memecucker]

If you wanna surprise people with the answer to a trivia question, ask them to name the first Disney full length movie to use computer generated images?

Because the answer is 1961’s 101 Dalmatians. “They had CGI in 1961?!” you might ask and yes though it wasn’t anything we might call CGI nowadays but they were images which were “generated” by a computer so to speak. And by “generated” I mean they used a Xerox machine.

By 1961 Walt had started to become jaded when it came to animation following Sleeping Beauty being a flop at the box office in addition to costing twice as much as previous animated films from Disney (especially since Sleeping Beauty was something Walt actually put a lot of passion into, similar to Fantasia which and how that also bombed and I don’t care much for Walt as a man but I can get how this would be pretty demoralizing) and shifted his attention to theme parks and his futurist utopianism. So with 101 Dalmatians, Walt was less directly involved than in the previous animated movies and largely was there to approve ideas people had.

One day art director Ken Anderson came to Walt and proposed a cost that they use a new method for animating the film, Xerox machines. The technique is called “xerography” (Xerox is actually both “named after” the word but also invented it) and allowed for greatly reducing costs and time when it came to animation because rather than having people hand draw sketches onto animation cels they would instead xerox those sketches onto the cels. Now at the time this was only viable with black and white images and so the cels would still need to be hand colored but 101 Dalmatians ended up being the ideal movie to use the technique on because of the Dalmatians and particularly how there are certain scenes where you have dozens and dozens and at some points all 101 Dalmatians present at the same time. Imagine the amount of effort that would be used in hand drawing cels where you have all 101 Dalmatians present considering that each Dalmatian is supposed to have their own unique spots and the ample room for animation errors to come up and you can understand the appeal. And while it doesn’t meet modern understanding of “computer generated images” the fact that a machine was copying and producing these images and taking over what was formerly a human task (I mean human animators still needed to color it in but whatever) and Xerox machines at the time were essentially analog computers and you can get it. There’s an interview with Chuck Jones from the 70s where he talked about 101 Dalmatians and used the word “computer animation” to describe it so that was how it was seen at the time and even ten years later

Now like I said Walt had been disillusioned with animation but was aware it was his companies bread and butter so when Anderson came to him with the proposal he replied with “"Ah, yeah, yeah, you can fool around all you want to". But when Walt finally saw early versions of the movie? He fucking hated it and said Disney is never going to use one of those “goddamned” Xerox machines again. It destroyed the enchantment and wonder in Walt’s view. This was a guy that had already sorta given up for the moment on actually putting passion into animated films from his studio and just let the animation department handle it but upon seeing all the end result of xerogrgraphy, he was disgusted! Where was the humanity in this? All he saw was the work of machines and said Anderson would never be an animation director again (Anderson says Walt would eventually apologize shortly before his death).

And I think that’s interesting. Without knowing any better, would any contemporary person watching 101 Dalmatians claim it’s anything other than “hand drawn animation”? Because that’s not what it was considered to be at least circa early 60s Disney animation department. Hell, the technique isn’t even really noticeable unless you’re watching the blu-ray version of the movie which is in a higher resolution than it was ever intended to be watched in (there’s actually a lot of agreement that the film is much visually worse in blu-ray). But for Walt Disney, the futurist who in 1961 had already been stepping away from animation? He only saw the work of machines and something stripped of its humanity. But nowadays? You can have CGI movies in our sense of “cgi” where you aren’t even working off any hand drawn sketch but instead images wholly created by computers being directed by artists and the humanity and passion can be made readily apparent in something even more removed from the days of hand drawn cels than the Xerox machine technique.

Anyway, whenever there’s new technology in the arts it’s normal for people to initially see just the work of machines and artificiality. But once people get used to it and it becomes normal, they stop seeing the machine and start seeing the people behind it. Same as it ever was

[hooked-on-elvis]

Halloween party + [BRIEF ROMANCES] Elvis and Joan Bradshaw: Hurt and vengeful EP?

Article: MAY 9TH, 1959 – THE BUFFALO EVENING NEWS – NY | Note: At the time this article was published, Elvis was in Germany on his Army duties... and the newsmen gossiping about his previous long gone [maybe even forgotten] love life! I guess they ran out of topics. | Pictures: Elvis and Joan Bradshaw.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elvis met Joan Bradshaw in early 1957 at Paramount studio, where she had a bit part in his film "Loving You". 

It's said EP was really enchanted by Joan's charms, but she played hard to get. Not because she was making a type or anything, as far as I know, but because she knew plenty about Elvis' womanizer fame. "If he want me, he will sweat!" Well, Elvis did date Joan for a short period in 1957, according to reports. It was a brief romance. I don't even know if it was a public thing because, oddly enough, I didn't found any pictures of them together (at least not until now) other than during one single event they attended in 1957.

Anyway... one day, while they were dating, Elvis without a warning went to Joan Bradshaw's apartment. He found her with a new guy friend there, if you know what I mean (no, I don't mean they were doing "it", I just mean Elvis knew he was a date for her, not just a friend). EP was pissed, possibly even hurt. Joan told him the truth, "We weren't going out steady and you didn't asked me out today so..." but Elvis didn't took it in a stride, no, sir.

You must remember Elvis as Vince Everett on "Jailhouse Rock". There's a scene where he went to Peggy Van Alden's (Judy Tyler) apartment to ask her out on a dinner date to celebrate Vince's record newest selling success, "Treat Me Nice". Peggy was already set to a date with another gentleman that evening. Vince says "But I already made reservations..." and she answers, "Vince, you should've made reservations with me. I still have a life of my own, you know? (...) I will not be subject to your beck and call." Well, it turns out sometimes Elvis' characters confuse themselves with the actor's real life persona - or the other way around (maybe they created his characters inspired on Elvis himself?... IDK). EP was indeed that type of guy who wants his lady to commit to him mind, body and soul. His ladies had to drop their lives on the spot and run to him whenever he felt like (better yet if they never left his side, specially in the 70s). Some of them dropped their lives to be accompanying with Elvis Presley 24/7, specially because the times were different - not all the ladies worked outside their homes and this also explains why Elvis felt like his lady should be at his beck and call, considering he was a Southern guy, raised under pretty conservative grounds, but not all of his ladies accepted that "condition" to be his girl, such as Joan Bradshaw clearly didn't. That begins to explain why Elvis didn't see a future dating any Hollywood starlet at all (I straight link this Joan Bradshaw event with what happened between Elvis and Ann Margret in the 60's).

Well, after finding out Joan was dating other guys at the same time she went out with him, EP left her apartment and the things were definitely over between the two, but there was one last thing to do: On his way out, it's reported Elvis destroyed the landlady's garden with his car wheels. Joan had to pay for the damage the day after when she was notified about her visitor's antic.

Was EP a vengeance kinda of boy in the 50's or maybe Joan said something to him that really pissed him off real big? There's ways and ways of breaking delicate news, right? I don't want to blame her at all, saying it was her fault Elvis acted vengeful towards her, this is all on him. They really weren't going out steady, therefore both were free to do as they would. I'm just... imagining why he was SO angry if he was never like that in public (sure, he had his temper tantrums here and there, but out of public eye).

Elvis and Joan Bradshaw: October 31, 1957 - Elvis spent Halloween 1957 in Hollywood. Elvis attended a Halloween party in Hollywood hosted by clothing designer Sy Devore.

As I told previously, Joan had heard plenty about EP's womanizer ways. Like during that Halloween event: As far as I learned, Joan Bradshaw was Elvis’ official date for the evening — although he went there with his Memphis Mafia usual crew (the guys even said Elvis was hating this party and called it a night not later after they arrived there - about just 1 and half hours - just because he didn't like the ''Hollywood types" and their parties. EP preferred having his private parties at his homes and invite just the people he really liked. Fair!). Having been Joan Bradshaw Elvis' official date for this party or not, they were going out around the same time. In spite of that, is reported that Elvis spent most of the night with a Las Vegas showgirl named Jay Wyman. That pretty much explains why Joan didn't gave her heart away to Presley. There were (many) girls EP easily broke hearts (Yvonne Lime, for instance, there's a heartbreaking love story with him but that's another topic).

There you go, another EP story. I found it interesting and liked to share it with you. As a fan, I like to know everything there is to know about our favorite guy, and no, I don't look at it with judging eyes or anything. Things happen for a reason and there's explanation behind every action, so... This is just another piece on the gigantic puzzle it is Elvis Presley's life. Every single piece of this puzzle helps us, fans, to know better who he was as a human being - even tho I don't think there's a single answer. He was a complex fella, our little boy.

Sorry in advance if I may didn't cover the full chain of events concerning Elvis and Joan Bradshaw. If I missed something, I will edit this article.

— Lamar Fike's accounts on that October 31, 1957 Halloween party, as published on "Elvis Aaron Presley: Revelations from the Memphis Mafia" by Alanna Nash [Chapter 10].

Elvis and (I believe) this Las Vegas showgirl, Jay Wyman.

The second picture is the wonderful Dolores Hart (Elvis' leading lady on "Loving You" and "King Creole"). She always had this angel smile, this loving aura, this girl-next-door, little-sister vibe with her, didn't she? She was dressed as Sputnik when the other girls looked so provocative at this party, like... She is the most! Hahaha. Totally "good Cady Heron" from "Mean Girls" vibe. I really love Dolores. ♥

[sstardustt3]

-akira kurusu (joker) headcannons-

First of all, THEATER KID. 

You simply can not tell me that he is not an overdramatic theater kid who does the most at all times, especially when he was a kid.

But this led him to be seen as “odd” and outcasted by the people around him in the which made him extremely lonely, he wasn’t bullied but he didn’t have any friends 

Because of this he kinda closed himself off to fit more into the societal norms and not be seen as strange which is why he’s so quiet and keeps to himself all the time 

Which made him partially excited to go to shibuya because despite it being a pretty shitty situation, being on probation and arrested for something that wasn’t even his fault, he thought that maybe in the big city he’ll find some people that won’t think he’s weird and can open up to which he ended up getting with the thieves  but his hope was only temporarily diminished with his record being leaked

Holy fuck that was long but, moving on, I think he has a very poor relationship with his parents, especially after being convicted of assault.

I don’t think his parents hate him by any means but they’re definitely neglectful based on the fact joker doesn’t get a single call, text, or a letter from them

What i personally think is that his parents are the type of parents to do the bare minimum and do nothing else for him

In a sense his parents sort of gave up on him because of his “eccentric”  behavior and him getting arrested might have solififed that for that for them and even if not they’re definitely not on his side when it comes to the whole assault thing which could be why they never contact him

Okay the last two were pretty angsty but moving on,

He has like, zero experience with girls and he’s the most oblivious mf ever

And because he wasn’t really popular at his old school (for the aforementioned reasons) he got ZERO bitches, none, cero.

 This is actually another headcanon that i really don’t have an explanation for but when he moved way more girls started liking him because of people thinking he was this bad boy and he had NO idea how to deal with that

Like for a while he just thought people were just being weirdly nice to him

Like he is the type of guy who unintentionally flirty like just natural charisma with looks

Like you have to be insanely obvious for him to even take a hint

Adding onto the headcanon that you have to be insanely obvious to get him to notice that you like him, once he does realize  that you like him like one of two things is going to happen:

One, if your not that close than he has no idea what to do about that and he’s just slightly more awkward than usual

But two, if you are that close, he is BOLD. despite he is not knowing how to flirt for shit he is still charming enough that his horrible attempts at flirting and teasing somehow work

Because he has no cannon birthday other than the year he is born (2000) my personal thought is that he’s born on valentines day, there’s no elaboration for this one just a gut feeling

I feel like he has a vivid imagination of scenarios 

Like for example he can imagine an entire plot for a musical at three am and exactly how it would go

Morgana and sojiro have frequently told him to shut up and go to bed

Also he has insomnia. I just felt like I should throw that into there.

Him, sojiro, and futaba have movie nights once a weekend and ninety percent of the time it’ll be a horror, old movies, or a studio ghibli movie

Texas chainsaw massacre, kill bill, sadako vs kayako, jacobs ladder, don’t look up, my neighbor totoro, spirted away, sailor moon r, ponyo, etc

60 precent of the time futaba picks the movie

I have no explanation for this one but him in the metaverse is very much christian borle coded in a way i can’t explain i swear (please i beg of you listen to hard to be a bard from something rotten its so good)

.

[wallet6464]

omg don't do all of these but i have like a billion faves in the game so::: do u have any headcanons for von kaiser, disco kid, great tiger, don flamenco, bald bull, soda popinski, or super macho man ?? LONG ASS LIST u can choose just one idgaf but i would love to hear about it :3 🩷

I WANNA DO ALL OF THEM NGL!

(Also having a billion faves is so so real)

——————————————————————

Ngl half of these are my favs so this will be really fun. Here are some I can think off:

Von kaiser:

-Since he is a little old for boxing he is thinking of jobs to do alongside being a boxing teacher. Him and king hippo have like little dad meeting about it and try to find the best job for kaiser

-In his prime I imagine he was in the major circuit and has befriended bear hugger (he already knows hondo from hondo's minor circuit days!)

-Loves watching movies to death (will never watch them around anyone tho) his fav genre is probably romcoms .

Disco kid:

-collects Barbies and has the most AMAZING dream house ( plays like little girls with Heike meaning stuff like Ken and Barbie divorce)

-has his whole garage as just a dance studio for him and his dance squad: like full on working disco ball, lights big ass stereo ect ect

-plays bingo with old ladies and then Goes to church with em (THANK YOU CAMI FOR FOR THIS ONE)

Great tiger:

(I have done so many tiger ones but I will do more)

-world's worst cook will blow up the kitchen and has gained a love for his local restaurants because of it!

-hondo took him to Japan he found ddr and that's all he did for a solid week (dw just him not clones)

Hondo is still better then him

-his bed is FULL of plushies and stuffed toys (60% are Tigers) his favourite tiger plush Sleeps right in the middle when he is at work

Don flamenco:

-is addicted to wearing those dad floral shirts you look in his closet and there is at least 15

-goes to THE MOST expensive spa place he likes twice a week (it’s MANDATORY no questions not exceptions)

-definitely vague posts about ppl online

Bald Bull:

-has a lot of creating pastimes as he is low-key scared the press can find stuff out about him from his phone (he not that wrong tbf)

–referencing the last one has gotten really good at clay models and makes little sets (for example a barn with bulls and cows)

-found out that vhs tapes can’t be tracked so watches various shows on those!

Soda popinski:

(OMG I HAVE ALMOST NONE FOR SODA WHAT? TRY MY BEST THO)

-a menace at table football no one has ever won again him

-definitely made bathroom supply potions as a kid (he still would don’t remind him that he can)

-makes the Russian soda company’s millions by existing that man is worth like what 100 mil?

Super Macho Man:

(My phone has his name autocorrected now lol)

-IRL LIVE STREAMER (don’t argue I’m right)

Does it on tik tok and is SOOO obnoxious sometimes definitely asks those dumb street questions

-can’t do basic maths like

“What’s 4 x 7”

Smm: “47”

And then would act as if he was right and start flexing (there is a reason he doesn’t manage his finances lol)

-on those fake reality tv shows so often and he wants to host his own for the wvba (foreshadowing a future post)

——————————————————————

I FINALLY FINISHED EM sorry I responded a bit late but here they are!! Thanks for the ask Buggy!!

(@oohbuggypie )

[homomenhommes]

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … February 1

February Is LGBT History Month In The United Kingdom

1902 – The American poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and columnist Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri (d.1967). Hughes is known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance.

Academics and biographers today acknowledge that Hughes was a homosexual and included homosexual codes in many of his poems, similar in manner to Walt Whitman, whose work Hughes cited as another influence on his poetry, and most patently in the short story Blessed Assurance which deals with a father's anger over his son's effeminacy and queerness.

It has been noted that to retain the respect and support of black churches and organizations and avoid exacerbating his precarious financial situation, Hughes remained closeted. Arnold Rampersad, the primary biographer of Hughes —though he documents Hughes's admission of a homosexual encounter with a seaman in 1926—asserts that he could not find incontrovertible evidence that the writer was gay. He did determine that Hughes exhibited a preference for other African American men in his work and life This love of black men is evidenced in a number of reported unpublished poems to a black male lover.

Recently, scholars have started to pay attention to the influence of homosexuality on Hughes's literary imagination. Many of Hughes's poems invite gay readings. Such poems enable scholars to theorize on the poet's use of the male-male gaze as a common feature in his writings.

Focusing on such poems as "Joy," "Desire," "Café: 3 A. M.," "Waterfront Streets," "Young Sailor," "Trumpet Player," "Tell Me," and many poems in Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951), we can identify homoeroticism and other gay markings.

On May 22, 1967, Hughes died at the age of 65 from complications after abdominal surgery. His ashes are interred beneath a floor medallion in the middle of the foyer leading to the auditorium named for him within the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. The design on the floor covering his cremated remains is an African cosmogram titled "Rivers." The title is taken from the poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" by Hughes. Within the center of the cosmogram and precisely above the ashes of Hughes are the words "My soul has grown deep like the rivers."

1901 – Clark Gable (d.1960) was an American film actor, often referred to as The King of Hollywood or just simply as The King. Gable began his career as a stage actor and appeared as an extra in silent films between 1924 and 1926, and progressed to supporting roles with a few films for MGM in 1931. The next year he landed his first leading Hollywood role and became a leading man in more than 60 motion pictures over the next three decades.

Gable was arguably best known for his role as Rhett Butler in the epic Gone with the Wind (1939), for which he received his third nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He was also nominated for leading roles in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), and he won for It Happened One Night (1934).His final screen appearance was The Misfits (1961) with Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift.

When Clark Gable first arrived in Hollywood in 1925, he would do anything or use anyone to advance his career. His first two wives were decidedly unglamorous older women; he was a kept man living the lifestyle of a star. As soon as Gable touched the limelight, he abandoned his second wife and followed wherever his penis led. He tore through Hollywood’s women with the appetite of a starving teenager, with one notable exception.

Gable had one homosexual encounter that is well documented. The young Clarke Gable engaged in oral sex with fellow MGM player Billy Haines in order to establish himself at the studio. Billy Haines, who was the most popular male film star of 1930, was the hub of gay Hollywood. He told all his friends about his sexual hookup with Clark Gable in the late 1920s, which was unusual, since Haines usually never bragged about such things. Haines knew first hand the damage that could be caused by a public knowledge of homosexuality. Joan Crawford confirmed the story, and her testament holds up under scrutiny because she was the lifelong best friend of both men. She had no reason to lie about either star, and she cherished the friendship of both.

More than ten years later Gable avenged his gay encounter. Hollywood was awash with both homosexuals and Jews, and Gable let it be known that he held both in disdain. By 1939 Gable had come to personify the image of a super macho male star. During filming of Gone with the Wind, Gable was uncomfortable by the presence of Billy Haines, who visited the set as a guest of director George Cukor (who was both homosexual and Jewish).The legend goes that actor Andy Lawler was at a Hollywood party later and announced, quite loudly and quite likely high on cocaine, that "George is directing one of Billy's old tricks." The laugh at Gable’s expense got back to him, and he was outraged. He snarled on set, "I won't be directed by a fairy," which so enraged Cukor that he walked off the set.

MGM decided it needed Gable more than Cukor for this project, and Victor Fleming was ushered in as replacement director, even though Cukor had already worked for two years on preproduction and early filming. Although Gone with the Wind became one of the great films of all time, the incident didn’t harm the career of George Cukor, who immediately began working on The Women and continued to make top grossing films.

Gable was crowned “The King of Hollywood”, but Carol Lombard joked: "if his cock was one inch shorter, they'd be calling him "the Queen of Hollywood. God knows I love Clark, but he's the worst lay in town."

And Tallulah Bankhead commented, "if his dick was one inch shorter, his name would be Betty Grable, not Clark Gable."

1935 – Christian Haren, prominent AIDS activist, entrepreneur, and actor, was born (d.1996).

Born and raised in California, Haren served a short stint in the army. After leaving the service, he began working as an actor. In the 1960s Haren received a studio contract from MGM and starred in Vincente Minnelli's Bells Are Ringing, Otto Preminger's In Harm's Way, and Billy Rose's Jumbo. He starred on Broadway in the Bertolt Brecht play The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, produced by Tony Richardson.

He is best remembered for playing the role of the Marlboro Man in print advertisements in the early 1960s.

Haren was openly gay and the proprietor of the popular Palm Springs gay bar CC Construction Co. in later years. In 1985 he was diagnosed with AIDS and became active in AIDS prevention education. He started "The Wedge", a "safe sex" AIDS prevention organization for teens in San Francisco. Haren died on February 27, 1996, in San Francisco, California of complications from AIDS, aged 61. His life was the subject of the 1998 documentary short Castro Cowboy.

1949 – France: The Paris Prefect of Police issues a decree forbidding men from dancing together in public.

1983 – Ronnie Kroell is an American fashion model, actor & singer best known for appearing on the first season of the Bravo reality series Make Me a Supermodel.

Kroell was born in Chicago, Illinois, and attended Niles North High School in Skokie. There, he became interested in theater. After a break, he attended Harper College, earning his associate degree in political science.

Kroell appeared on season one of Bravo's Make Me a Supermodel. In the show, Ronnie entered into a notable bromance with fellow contestant Ben DiChiara, which was dubbed "Bronnie". He became very popular on the show and won the title of "Fan Favorite" despite placing second behind Holly Kiser.

Following his appearance on the series, Kroell continued to work to establish himself as a model. He signed a contract with New York Model Management and has walked the catwalks for designers such as Philip Sparks, Loris Diran, Malan Breton and Richie Rich. He also featured the cover of Next and Instinct magazines. In June 2010, Ronnie graced the cover of Playgirl magazine along with a provocative layout shot by the internationally renowned fashion photographer Lope Navo. Kroell is currently working on developing a fragrance line and filming a new reality show. Ronnie is the founder of the Friend Movement,LLC organization which is supported by celebrity friends Lisa Vanderpump & Adam Lambert. Kroell co starred in the fourth installment of Q. Allan Brocka's popular Eating Out series, "Eating Out 4: Drama Camp". Ronnie made an appearance in the Andrew Christian mini-challenge as a featured underwear model in an episode of RuPaul's Drag Race.

Kroell is openly gay. Ronnie has been the guest of honor and/or the grand marshal at gay pride events all across the United States.

Ronnie is very much involved in charity and awareness campaigns. Kroell has also contributed to the "I talk about HIV/AIDS Because..." campaign. In addition, Ronnie has worked with Equality Maryland, Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), Human Rights Campaign, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Latino Commission on AIDS (LCOA).

1988 – In February, The Kids in the Hall, a sketch comedy series whose cast includes the openly gay Scott Thompson, debuts on CBC Television. Sketches such as Thompson's character Buddy Cole and the ensemble sketch "The Steps" were among the most visible representations of gay culture on Canadian television during the show's run.

The Kids in the Hall comedy group formed in 1984, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson. Their eponymous television show ran from 1988 to 1994 on CBC in Canada, and 1989 to 1995 on CBS and HBO in the United States.

The name of the group came from Sid Caesar, who, if a joke didn't go over, or played worse than expected, would attribute it to "the kids in the hall," referring to a group of young writers hanging around the studio.

The show's sketches were reminiscent of Monty Python's Flying Circus: often quirky or surreal, frequently utilizing drag, with very few celebrity impressions or pop culture parodies; the only recurring celebrity impression was of Queen Elizabeth II, played by Thompson. A recurring character was Mr. Tyzik, played by McKinney, who pretended to crush people's heads from a distance with his fingers. McKinney also played Chicken Lady, a shrill-voiced sexually excitable human-chicken hybrid. Many of the sketches featured gay characters and themes; most of these sketches were written by and starred Scott Thompson, who is openly gay. The show was also notable for reflecting and dealing with the youth subculture of its times, and for incisive sketches about big business and family units.

2009 – On this date Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir became the world's first openly Gay prime minister, when Iceland elected her to head up a new parliament. In 2002 she joined in a civil union with the Icelandic author and playwright. The couple legally maried in 2010. Jónína Leósdóttir.

2012 – An utterly misnamed group called OneMillionMoms made headlines by calling for a boycott of the Dallas-based department store JC Penney for having hired Ellen DeGeneres as its spokesperson. A "project" of the hate group American Family Association, OneMillionMoms was offended that JC Penney had hired an open homosexual spokesperson when most of its customers are "traditional families."

In response to the organization's threat of a boycott, JC Penney president Michael Francis issued a press release declaring, "We share the same fundamental values as Ellen. We couldn't think of a better partner to help us put the fun back into the retail experience."

[lordnot]

What strikes me about the campus solidarity movements is that it's an example of the chickens coming home to roost for the Biden Administration not only in regards to Gaza, but for their domestic policy as well.

Because I have to imagine that when campus administration threatens the students with suspensions, with loss of campus housing, or with delays to graduation, some of the students must be thinking to themselves, "Gosh. If this keeps up, I might not have the privilege of paying an additional 60-70k in student loans that I now know will never be forgiven. I might never experience wading through pages of fake job listings to find an entry level job that would have been done by 2-3 people 10 years ago. I'll be stuck living with my parents instead of splitting a studio apartment with three roommates, trying to stretch a box of ramen so it will last through the week. Maybe I should change course here."