#this is also me pushing my 'Asian Jason' agenda

[azol-otl]

List of random headcanons I made because I genuinely love how Doug and Elaine Thomas were tied to Bruce’s early years as Batman and think that more supporting cast should be tangentially connected to one another:

Thomas Wayne, despite being a surgeon and therefore NOT in charge of delivering babies, has delivered exactly one child. A miss Crystal Brown who decided she didn’t give a damn if he was a surgeon, she was coming out now.

The reason Willis had Shiva in his contacts is because they’re actually half-siblings. There is no real angst behind it, their dad was just a ho. They were pretty sure they had dozens of siblings out there but never got around to searching for them before their lives fell apart.

Just like her son Tim imprinted on Dick Grayson, Janet Drake had a massive crush on Jim Gordon.

Talia met William Cobb once. His decision to steal his son and send him to the Haly’s to create a lineage of talons specifically to spite the Crownes helped Talia decide to pretend to have a miscarriage to avoid a similar situation happening with Damian and the al Ghuls. The irony of what happens later is not lost on her.

Catherine used to live in the border between Burnley and Park Row and had babysat for the Montoyas a few times.

[mourningmaybells]

I posted 58,917 times in 2022

That's 23,987 more posts than 2021!

6,510 posts created (11%)

52,407 posts reblogged (89%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

strangeauthor

bihet-dragonize

talloraven

leoviridis

tetrissyndromes

I tagged 30,092 of my posts in 2022

Only 49% of my posts had no tags

#disco elysium - 2,075 posts

#rusty lake - 1,521 posts

#cats - 573 posts

#dracula by bram stoker - 526 posts

#art style - 461 posts

#paintings - 436 posts

#better call saul - 435 posts

#jason voorhees - 424 posts

#tlou - 412 posts

#harry du bois - 406 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#also op i want to know your idea on sex magic that isn’t weird i don’t think i’ve seen one like that. i’m not saying it can’t not be weird

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

383 notes - Posted March 28, 2022

#4

Prince of Egypt 2: Wandering the Desert

658 notes - Posted July 10, 2022

#3

"omg she is literally me"

m'am that's a middle aged man

edit: don’t put colonizers like stede bonet on my post this was about harry du bois and “stalker” from stalker 1979

1,022 notes - Posted February 7, 2022

#2

i think "disco elysium has a firm stance against racism and has enough nuanced portrayal for it not to be a purely surface-level understanding" can co-exist with "disco elysium still makes use of world-building most white-centered fantasy uses where it mixes and matches a bunch of asian countries together, meanwhile the European nationalities and locations have a clear counterpart, and overall some scenes and insensitive clothing items could have been better handled" and "please warn poc that this game uses slurs and has racist characters that feel painfully real"

edit: I’ve seen people say that DE uses fictional slurs, and have it be compared to the censored homophobic slurs. This is not true and it is uncensored. You, and Gary can be stuck in a conversation where you call Kim “yellow” and other derogatory language and it is not optional.

3,035 notes - Posted February 7, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

i hate how people try to push the “dracula is dateable” agenda, but the most abysmal thing is that, while pushing this agenda, they don’t bring up the stoker book fact that he’s willing to cook a good meal and clean an entire house like a one-man resort. men don’t know what women want.

3,390 notes - Posted November 12, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[i-watch-too-many-movies]

5 Favorite First Viewings of July 2021

Quick note: Hi everyone, I'm back, things have honestly been getting better for me, and I'm glad to be on this site full of cinephiles, people that are too horny, and cinephiles that are too horny. I'll be more active on here. But anyway, let's talk about some movies.

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) (dir. Russ Meyer)

CW: Abortion mention

What a picture. What a gorgeous, sexy, horrifying slice of what Hollywood and star life can do to a bunch of bright-eyed young people looking for success. Also is a critique of how macho nature can ruin friendships and romantic relationships with total ease. I was obsessed with the scene transitions, like Pet pouring pancake mix onto a plate after the abortion scene, or Kelly singing after someone screams before their murder in the opening scene.

Great, campy flick with exceptional music too.

Deep Cover (1992) (dir. Bill Duke)

Laurence Fishburne plays Russell Stevens, a Cincinnati police officer who hopes to do well by the community, to make a difference. He’s traumatized by the death of his substance-abusing father, and wants to make sure that he can help the people of his own town. He goes undercover on assignment as a drug dealer, where his boss orders him to take down the kingpin. Stevens realizes the police’s own failings while on assignment. The racist abuse he takes from Agent Carver, and the realization that the police department is protecting drug kingpins like Gallegos and Barbossa. Giving drugs to Black kids and Latinx kids so there will be less of them. The cops are no different than the drug kingpins looking to make filthy amounts of money.

Fishburne’s performance is excellent, as Stevens feels he has to maintain a stone face so he doesn’t get caught by Jason or Barbossa or any of his cronies, but also he maintains a stone face to try and hide his emotion, his trauma. But when he gets pissed, Fishburne acts it beautifully, as is when he has to deliver a funny quip to counter Jason’s douchebaggery. And the production design, holy fuck, the sets and the lighting.

A perfect neo-noir for the HW Bush years, arguably one of the most timeless commentaries on the era, as well as the police as a whole.

Fast Five (2011) (dir. Justin Lin)

I was torn between including this or Furious 7, but I ultimately went with Fast Five because it felt like an important turning point in the series, it's a great heist film, and it reached the same chaotic highs and genuinely excellent filmmaking that I had been waiting for since 2 Fast and Tokyo Drift.

Fast Five opens where Fast & 4ious left off. Dom is hauled away to prison on a bus. Mia and Brian drive in their high-tech cars and knock the bus over, helping Dom escape. The title drops. Fast Five. It’s such an intense yet short action scene, and dropping the title immediately after it lets the viewer know that this movie is not fucking around. It’s arguably gonna be more intense and insane than the previous one.

And it is. The filmmakers made the decision to use a lot more practical stunt work for the film, and as a result, it leads to, so far, the best action in the entire series, since 2 Fast and Tokyo Drift. It’s not just how it’s shot or edited, it’s the geography of the locations, the rooftop chase echoes the rooftop chase of Jackie Chan’s masterwork Police Story, particularly the way each character bounces from top to top.

And of course, there’s the silliest moment in the movie, the one that matches the intensity and kineticism of a film like 2 Fast, which is driving the Reyes’ bank vault throughout the street, getting chased by corrupt cops.

I know we make fun of Vin Diesel for saying “family” all the time in these films, but there’s a reason we remember him saying all of these impassioned monologues. Because he’s unbelievably sincere, and has so much love in his heart for every single person in the room. Anytime he delivers a speech to any of them, it’s genuinely heartwarming.

This is the film that finally shows La Familia in their best environment, which is working together, in a movie genre that allows them to work together, which is a heist film. And a great one at that.

Last Days (2005) (dir. Gus Van Sant)

CW: Mention of suicide

Several films have been made about legendary rock artist Kurt Cobain, and for good reason. He is one of the most tragic figures in rock and roll. A tortured genius who has written and performed classic song after classic song with his band Nirvana. He was called the voice of a generation, and helped change the face of mainstream alternative rock music as we know it. But with that fame, and all of those expectations came a worsening depression and further drug abuse, and his eventual death. But most of the films about Kurt Cobain ask one question which gets under my skin way too much:

“Who REEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLY killed Kurt Cobain?”

It was him. He did. And it’s okay, I’m sad too. Thinking that Kurt Cobain was murdered is completely ignoring the depression that he faced. And despite Last Days being more inspired by the death of Cobain rather than actually about it, it feels much more honest than the conspiracy documentaries on his death, wanting to leech off of his dead body.

This is the last installment of Gus Van Sant’s “Death Trilogy”, the previous two installments being Gerry (2001), and Elephant (2003). While I have not seen Gerry, I have seen Elephant though, and love that film for its minimalist, raw nature, and its boldness for not romanticizing the school shooter or the lives they had taken. Last Days falls into that trap once, as I don’t agree with the shot of Blake’s soul climbing up a ladder, that always struck me as cheesy in a film that is anything but.

Last Days is similar to Elephant in terms of the way it is filmed. Its usage of long takes, and still shots of characters doing various things, such as Blake playing his guitar behind a drum set. The way these moments are shot is similar to a Chantal Akerman film, particularly Jeanne Dielman. Where the acts of the mundane are the stars of the film. Blake wanders around an empty house, and the viewer can feel the pain, not just through Michael Pitt’s acting, but from the house itself. Its decay, its paint peeling from the walls, from the soft glow of the lamp that lights his face.

I say this is the most honest film about Kurt Cobain, because, despite the characters technically being fictional (the main character who looks, walks, and acts like Cobain is named Blake), this film focuses on the mental state of a person before they eventually take their own life. They’re still working, still making music, still trying to talk to friends and bandmates, but the depression lingers on. Not once does this film try to make you believe that someone else killed him, because you can see the signs of his own suicide taking place just through the film’s excellent cinematography by Harris Savides, showing his mental state only growing worse through the production design.

And it’s empathetic with him. There’s no judgement for leaving rehab, there’s no finger-wagging at him or the people he was with, there’s just a silent prayer at the end of the film, hoping that he is in a better place than he was.

Sometimes you don’t need to show every event that led you to where you are, all you can show is the moment, which also makes this better than most biopics as well, as it never feels messy or muddled, just showing one moment of Blake/Kurt’s life.

I really loved this film, and I’ll be writing about it in full soon.

The Village (2004) (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)

The Cracked.com/Channel Awesome audience stuck in 2012 will tell you that this was the beginning of the end for Shyamalan. That this was when people stopped taking him seriously, that this was when he became more of a punchline because of his twist endings.

But why?

The Village was released in 2004, deep in the Bush administration, during the early stages of the Iraq War. The leaders of the time were talking about imaginary boogeymen, terrorists that would attack the civilians if they could. Because of 9/11, politicians could get away with these false ideas with the majority of Americans fully believing them. The boogeymen in The Village are “The People We Don’t Speak Of”, monsters attracted by the color red. Yet we find out that they are all costumes made by the Elders of the land, designed to prevent people from going outside the land. They rule by fear disguised as love. They’ve gone through their own traumas through the deaths of their family members, but they’ve decided to completely abandon the lives that they’ve had and have their children living lies.

9/11 impacted American life by teaching citizens to live primarily by fear, to not trust anyone but their own people. And yet, post-9/11, all that increased was not “coming together”, but hate crimes against South Asian people. The rage white Americans had felt led to conservative politicians pushing fear-mongering agendas, and said white Americans blindly accepted. The outside world was progressing, but too many people were fine with living with further conservative politics only regressing American life further and further back, all for the illusion of safety. Meanwhile, the only threats to them were not the brown citizens outside of America they were so afraid of, but the white elders, the white politicians.

The Village explores these fears so eloquently, all while having a terrifying atmosphere, an enchanting score, and brilliant sound design. I enjoyed this movie very much.

Other viewings I enjoyed:

Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996) (dir. Mike Judge) (re-watch)

Blow Out (1981) (dir. Brian de Palma) (re-watch)

Clueless (1995) (dir. Amy Heckerling) (re-watch)

Furious 7 (2015) (dir. James Wan)

The Long Goodbye (1973) (dir. Robert Altman)

Lupin III: The First (2019) (dir. Takashi Yamazaki)

Unbreakable (2000) (dir. M. Night Shyamalan) (re-watch)

Velvet Goldmine (1998) (dir. Todd Haynes)

The Visit (2015) (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)

[girlactionfigure]

When a group of students were asked what they thought of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., one student replied, "He was the person that stood up for everyone; he was everyone’s voice." Another student replied, "If it wasn’t for him, I probably wouldn’t be here because my dad, he’s African-American, and my mom is white." In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill designating a federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. More than 6 million signatures had been presented to Congress to support the holiday - "the largest petition in favor of an issue in U.S. history", according to The Nation. Senator Jesse Helms, who had called the Civil Rights Act of 1964 "the single most dangerous piece of legislation ever introduced in the Congress", had led a filibuster against the bill. But, the bill still passed 338 to 90. Even Stevie Wonder would release his song "Happy Birthday", lamenting the fact that anyone would oppose the idea of a Dr. King holiday, where "peace is celebrated throughout the world". Martin Luther King Jr. Day, has now been an annual federal holiday since 1986, celebrating "the national civil rights leader who was instrumental in challenging the racial caste system that delineated how millions of Americans lived their lives," according to The Learning Network. "All 50 states celebrate the public holiday on the third Monday in January, but not all states, cities and towns dedicate it solely to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Some package it as a broader celebration of both Dr. King and Confederate leaders." In fact, Confederate Heroes Day, according to a recent report by the Dallas Morning News, is still celebrated in Texas on the same day as the King Holiday. After Dr. King died, the New York Times wrote in his obituary, "To many millions of American Negroes, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the prophet of their crusade for racial equality. He was their voice of anguish, their eloquence in humiliation, their battle cry for human dignity. He forged for them the weapons of nonviolence that withstood and blunted the ferocity of segregation." "Inevitably, as a symbol of integration, he became the object of unrelenting attacks and vilification," the Times continued. "His home was bombed. He was spat upon and mocked. He was struck and kicked. He was stabbed . . . He was frequently thrown into jail. Threats became so commonplace that his wife could ignore burning crosses on the lawn and ominous phone calls. Through it all he adhered to the creed of passive disobedience that infuriated segregationists." "He mobilized mass action to win a public accommodations bill and the right to vote," according to Jesse Jackson. "He led the Montgomery bus boycott and navigated police terror in Birmingham. He got us over the bloodstained bridge in Selma and survived the rocks and bottles and hatred in Chicago. He globalized our struggle to end the war in Vietnam." "How he lived is why he died," said Jackson. Historian Jason Sokol added: "Dr. King died for striking garbage workers and beseeched his government to protect the vulnerable. He had a message for those who would target immigrants or wall off America from the world. In a 1967 speech, he declared: 'Our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than national.' Instead of policing their borders, nations should 'develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole.'" "He was battling racism in the North then, not just in the South," according to the New York Times. "He was pushing the government to address poverty, income inequality, structural racism and segregation in cities like Boston and Chicago. He was also calling for an end to a war that was draining the national treasury of funds needed to finance a progressive domestic agenda." Continuing with the statements of the group of young students, Chinika Ruffin, 14, said, "I’ve never been outside of Memphis. When Martin Luther King Day comes, I wonder what are they doing out there. Do they celebrate it, or do they go against him?" "When I think of his name, I think of a legend, a man that wanted our nation to be more, someone who wanted everyone to get along and be empowered by his speech and the things that he did," said Ruffin. "He really wanted people to have equal rights and treat people the way they wanted to be treated." Gabriella Valderrama, 13, said, "He stood up for his people, and I think that when he stood up for his people, he stood up for me because I’m different. I’m thankful for it . . . Whenever I’m afraid to do something, I think about his 'I Have a Dream” speech, and I tell myself I can do it.'" Nicko Brown, 13, said, "When I hear his name, it’s like an inspiration to me because he is a black man. He is a black individual, and he opened doors to the point where we can get along. We don’t have to be separated from whites. We can get along with them. We can work with them. We can be in the same places." Tommy Applewhite, 13, said, "There are still people fighting with each other, but there are people trying to bring them together instead of breaking them apart. If people just get along and stop the violence and stop going at each other and they just actually listen to Dr. King’s speeches, they could get along better." Cedricka Harris, 11, said, "People should listen to it more often because sometimes people might forget about it and still do things that Dr. King wouldn’t want them doing. My favorite part is that he said one day, his four children would rise and not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of the character." Jesse Jackson said, "We owe it to Dr. King — and to our children and grandchildren — to commemorate the man in full: a radical, ecumenical, antiwar, pro-immigrant and scholarly champion of the poor who spent much more time marching and going to jail for liberation and justice than he ever spent dreaming about it." Writing about the meaning of Martin Luther King Day, Coretta Scott King wrote: "On this day we commemorate Dr. King’s great dream of a vibrant, multiracial nation united in justice, peace and reconciliation; a nation that has a place at the table for children of every race and room at the inn for every needy child. We are called on this holiday, not merely to honor, but to celebrate the values of equality, tolerance and interracial sister and brotherhood he so compellingly expressed in his great dream for America. "It is a day of interracial and intercultural cooperation and sharing. No other day of the year brings so many peoples from different cultural backgrounds together in such a vibrant spirit of brother and sisterhood. Whether you are African-American, Hispanic or Native American, whether you are Caucasian or Asian-American, you are part of the great dream Martin Luther King, Jr. had for America. This is not a black holiday; it is a peoples’ holiday. And it is the young people of all races and religions who hold the keys to the fulfillment of his dream." National and Community Service also marks "The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Jan. 20, 2020 as the 25th anniversary of the day of service that celebrates the Civil Rights leader’s life and legacy . . . designated as a national day of service to encourage all Americans to volunteer to improve their communities." And, as 14-year-old Ruffin continued, "He said, 'The time is always right to do right,” and some people went by it and some people didn’t. I wish more people would follow behind his footsteps." [Art: 2020 Google Doodle, depicting the common dream that Martin Luther King Jr. Day represents]

The Jon S. Randal Peace Page

[johneburton]

Revival or Riots? There’s One Solution To Today’s Unrest. https://ift.tt/2yTNqhc When crisis comes, the church must respond with a fiery resolve to fan the flames of revival. Revival or riots? It's clear which one is taking the nation by storm right now. It's been said that wherever Paul went he'd kick-start either a revival or a riot. The sharp edge of the message he was bringing resulted in people either surrendering all to follow Jesus or in a mass resistance. 5 But some of the Jews were jealous, so they gathered some troublemakers from the marketplace to form a mob and start a riot. They attacked the home of Jason, searching for Paul and Silas so they could drag them out to the crowd. 6 Not finding them there, they dragged out Jason and some of the other believers instead and took them before the city council. “Paul and Silas have caused trouble all over the world,” they shouted, “and now they are here disturbing our city, too. Acts 17:5-6 (NLT2) When the true Gospel of Jesus Christ is preached we can expect either revival or riots. However, the riots that are erupting in cities all over the nation as a result of the horrific and inexcusable death of George Floyd has nothing to do with a powerful message of truth. Love expressed through the truth of the Word will result in a rioting mob, but so will hate. Today's riots have everything to do with hate and nothing to do with love. All of this is happening on the church's watch. RIOTING IS THE LANGUAGE OF THE UNHEARD Pastor Eric Smith of Destiny Church in Dayton, Ohio saw a protester holding a sign that repeated the words of Martin Luther King: Riots are the language of the unheard. Eric simply and profoundly said, “Time to get a new language.” It's important to note that Dr. King was a fierce resistor of violent protest. His analytical statement, however, was true. When people are not heard, when they are pushed to their limits, it's possible to break. An uprising is to be expected. However, Pastor Eric was correct. If riots are the language of the unheard, it absolutely is time to get a new language. WICKED SPIRITS OVERTAKING OUR NATION Part of my grief over the death and violence that has erupted is due to a loss of discernment in our nation. I believe there's a mighty spirit of confusion that's settling over America right now. Coronavirus exposed a severe spirit of fear that absolutely devastated millions, whether they were infected by the virus or not. Mobs verbally assaulted those who didn't wear a mask while shopping. Stop and think about just how fierce that demonic spirit of fear is. Then a spirit of rage and, for many, hatred exploded overnight after another heart-wrenching and tragic death of an African-American at the hands of a police officer. A call to “kill cops” is being sounded by some in the midst of this crisis. As you watch the news and witness fires burning all over the nation, you can understand the power of this particular spirit of rage and hate as well. Another spirit preceded our recent testings, and it's gaining strength today. America has been seduced by a strong delusion. Strange confusion has overtaken our culture. Just a week ago, protesters marching against the lockdowns due to COVID-19 were called murderers by some because they weren't social distancing or wearing masks. Fast forward several days and a new set of protests emerged in the land for a very different reason. Where are the calls for social distancing and masks as peaceful protesters marched and as rioters converged in mass to destroy businesses and attack people including business owners and police officers? Add to this the gender confusion that's been in the news in recent years. Men are women and women are men, so it seems, and you can be legally responsible if you don't address these people by their chosen gender. It's absolutely bizarre. I could write into the night with example after example of strange confusion and delusion that has spread through society. Suffice it to say it's clear that a very wicked and very strong demonic agenda has been unleashed against our nation. Fear, rage, hate and delusion have blanketed the land and it's time for the church to finally rise up. A NEW LANGUAGE Some of you will be frustrated with my prescription in the midst of the virus and riots and madness. Most, it seems, are looking for governmental resolutions, legislation and penalties for those who don't comply. While appropriate new laws can certainly help, the truth is that we can never legislate away the assaults of invisible and very crafty evil spirits. Satan rages and he won't submit to man's laws. You can't create a law that eliminates hatred. You can't create systems that alleviate fear. Why? These are spirits warring against us and the only way to fight back is in the invisible, spiritual realm. The grief that grips me is that most are looking for logical and natural solutions to a spiritual problem. While we can certainly take some steps in the natural, our victory won't be found there. The new language that Pastor Eric was referring to, if I might suppose just a bit, centers around repentance instead of riots, love instead of hatred and spiritual violence instead of natural rage. Simply, we must pursue full-blown, supernatural and overwhelming revival as our primary resolution. The new language, at its root, is passionate, aggressive and vein-popping intercession. We as God's government on the earth must rise up and pray! This is the force the spirit of the age must feel coming against it in these end times. As we live a life of soul-ripping repentance and contend for revival in the land, we will be consumed with the desire for prayer. The need will overwhelm us. Tears will flow down our cheeks as we stand in the gap as spiritual warriors and push the enemy back. It makes little sense to attempt to seek peace in the midst of war when the enemy hasn't yet been defeated. The enemy isn't a virus or blacks or whites or Asians or the police or politicians. To think so is laughable. The destruction of the adversary, of Satan's hordes, is the solitary key to winning this battle and driving out spirits of fear, rage, hatred and confusion. It's the love of Jesus that will cause us to fight like this. From that place of intercession and spiritual warfare we will discern the enemies that those who are not living in the spirit can't see. We are God's secret agents and revival is our cry. Imagine the cities that are burning today transformed by the fire of the Holy Spirit! We need millions to fall desperately in love with Jesus! The harvest is ripe! They are waiting for an otherworldly message that will shock them to their core and drive them to their knees! Only then will we have the revival and riots that Paul experienced. As for the riots we are seeing today, they are the cry of the unheard. Yes, we must all listen to them, hear their pain and cry with them. I also pray their cry turns to intercession instead of violence. That's the language that Pastor Eric was really talking about.