#this season we got PC Party But Evil what if next one we get Party But Small And Annoying. thats all thank u

[bacchuschucklefuck]

if they do senior year brennan should make the bad kids deal with freshmen. a pass-the-torch plus leave-this-place-better-than-we-found-it thing will be cute but more importantly making these specific weirdos babysit will be a hoot

[randomvarious]

S Club 7 - “S Club Party” Now That's What I Call Music! 6 Song released in 1999. Compilation released in 2000. Pop

We love the overly transparent crass commercialism of the 90s and early 2000s, don’t we folks? S Club 7 were the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed septet of British teens and 20-somethings that were concocted in a lab and thrust upon hordes of impressionable tweens across the world. The story of S Club 7 is a rather gross one that consists of young and attractive, moderately talented people being taken advantage of by their manager and his company to churn out gobs of content without just compensation. If you’re an American of a certain age, you probably know a little something about S Club 7. Their ballad, 2000′s “Never Had a Dream Come True,” peaked at #10 and #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard Mainstream Top 40, respectively. Two of S Club 7′s other biggest global hits, the Jackson 5-inspired “Bring It All Back” and “S Club Party” never charted in the US, but lots of Americans still seem to be familiar with them.

S Club 7 was the brainchild of Simon Fuller, one of history’s most successful music  managers, who had managed the Spice Girls. Fuller was known for manufacturing a bunch of British boy and girl bands throughout his career and, at the time, also managed Annie Lennox of the Eurythmics and athletes, too. After helping the Spice Girls skyrocket into global superstardom as a brand that sold itself on a gimmicky blend of “girl power” and quirky British-ness, Geri Halliwell (Ginger Spice) orchestrated his firing. Citing his unbearably controlling nature and his marketing schemes, the Girls decided to proceed without Fuller.

But the day after his firing, Fuller was back at it. This time, he decided he would start a new band, but rather than it being a boy band or a girl band, it would be a boy-and-girl band, modeled after an idea put forth by another British group, Steps. Steps are a quartet, and while they’ve achieved little to no success in the US, they have enjoyed wild success in Europe, especially in the UK. And they’re still around. After a five year hiatus that followed a twelve year hiatus, Steps released an album in 2017 that reached #2 on the UK charts. 

But they weren’t a Fuller group. Fuller seemed to have the connections and gravitas that Steps’ managers didn’t. To start his new group, Fuller held an audition of an astonishing 10,000 people, which eventually was culled down to seven. These seven would then be formed into a group and be dubbed S Club 7. None of the members had known each other prior, but according to all the articles I could find, they hit it off and they all became close friends.

With this crop of kids, Fuller saw dollar (or pound or Euro) signs. S Club 7 were going to be way more than just a pop group; they were going to be a marketable brand. And to achieve that goal, the first thing they were going to do was not get into the recording studio, but instead shoot a fictional TV series to air on CBBC (Children’s BBC) to introduce themselves to British pre-teens. Each character would have their own personality, which would be loosely based on their true selves, and together the group’s adventures would strengthen their bond. And each episode would consist of a choreographed song performance, too. The first season, set in Miami, would depict the seven constantly being exploited by a seedy hotel manager and made to perform housekeeping duties.

Unfortunately, these fictional circumstances were loosely based on their own reality. Over twelve weeks of shooting in Miami, the group worked tirelessly for eighteen hours per day, and after a long day’s work, would have to take care of their own cooking and laundry. Fuller and his company, who were flush with cash, didn’t provide S Club 7 with any of these needed amenities. The S Club 7 TV series would become an immense hit in the UK and ended up being sold to 120 different countries. As a result, each group member pulled in 52,000 Euro; a total pittance compared to the total sum of all the TV contracts the show received.

Seven months after its UK debut, the S Club TV series would make its way stateside on kids’ TV purgatory, Fox Family. Formerly The Family Channel, which was founded by horrible and insane Christian shitbag grifter, Pat Robertson, it would be acquired by NewsCorp. Fox would control the network’s programming, save for some hours in which Robertson’s daily spoonful of Christian conservative nonsense, The 700 Club, would air. Admittedly, for a time, I was an avid viewer of Fox Family (except when 700 Club was on), but I’m pretty sure I was rare. Year after year, Fox Family would try to replenish its lineup with new shows to attract new viewers, but they failed to peel many eyes off of the likes of Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and the Disney Channel.

The release of the S Club TV series in the U.S. coincided with the group’s debut album. And maybe it was the fact that they only managed to get on Fox Family that led to them peaking at an unimpressive #112, but back home, they topped charts. The TV series-first formula more than paid off (for Fuller, though. Not so much for S Club 7). “Bring It All Back,” the group’s first single, which was released two months after the TV show’s debut, went to #1 in the UK. Its follow-up, “S Club Party” topped out at #2. And their debut album reached #2 as well.

And along with the TV show and the music came all the merchandise. Dolls, makeup, perfume, clothes, school supplies, a PC game, you name it. If there was an object that a kid could use, Fuller wanted it to bear the S Club name. There were also more seasons of TV and movies, too. And Fuller would reap great profits from all of it, but once again, S Club 7 saw minuscule returns from their name and likenesses being marketed and sold. 

Fuller’s cartoonishly-evil-yet-real-life-record-executive persona became more than apparent during a meeting between he, S Club 7, and some of the members’ parents. Asking how they could receive such little compensation as Fuller and his company made millions off of their efforts, Fuller told the members that he could replace them on stage with cardboard cut-outs and it wouldn’t make a difference. Fuller would also be publicly shamed by a radio DJ when it was revealed that while the S Club kids were traveling the world and making him literally millions, he flew them in economy class. Only after his miserliness was made public did he bump them up to business class.

And although Fuller knew the right people to get his band spoonfed to British kids, it didn’t mean S Club’s songs were bad for what they were. They were well-produced bubblegum pop. Five songs on the debut album ended up being produced by a Norwegian duo called Stargate. Total unknowns at the time, Stargate went on to write or produce for some of the pop world’s most successful groups and artists, including Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Lionel Richie, Jessica Simpson, Britney Spears, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Selena Gomez, Janet Jackson, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, Sam Smith, Mary J. Blige, Ne-Yo, Katy Perry, Coldplay, P!nk, Sia, Kylie Minogue, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Charli XCX. Throughout their careers, Stargate have managed to rack up a whopping seventeen Grammy noms, including four wins  But before building up that long list of accolades, they began with S Club 7. 

The first single Stargate ever produced was “S Club Party”. A piece of sunny and breezy, anthemic kids’ pop, this song is a natural earworm. Underneath mostly loud and shouted vocals, Stargate weave a celebratory, feelgood g-funk whine throughout the choruses as a series of electro-funk synths and string and horn stabs predominate the rest. The first verse, sung solo by member Jo, proceeds from relative sparseness to an addition of hand claps and a simmering choir of backup vocals, before launching into the undeniably catchy chorus. The four female members soothe in unison as the boys contrast with revelrous chants. In the post-chorus, the girls get in on the chanting, too. The second verse, which packs more energy than the one that precedes it because it’s sung in unison, introduces each member of the group with a simple rhyme. Following the bridge, the song undergroes an unexpected key change, which raises the enjoyment, and as the song fades out, Bradley, the group’s lone black member, does some light scatting. 

You know, Fuller admitted that since he was fired by the Spice Girls, there were some ideas he had had for them that he wasn’t able to use, and instead used for S Club 7. Maybe musically, he wasn’t quite finished with that g-funk infused pop sound. The Spice Girls’ “Say You’ll Be There” has that summery g-funk pool party vibe much like “S Club Party” does. Just a thought.

Here’s the music video, which shows the group transporting back to a California desert in 1959 to race a bunch of people. A choreographed song and dance seemingly materialize out of thin air, too: It comes from the movie they shot called Back to the ‘50s.

For the next few years, S Club 7 continued to release high-charting hit after high-charting hit in the UK, but in 2002, band member Paul decided to leave. This ultimately resulted in possibly the worst sentence ever written on Wikipedia:

Talking about his former musical venture three months before he left S Club 7, Paul Cattermole described his school nu metal band — called Skua— as having a "Limp Bizkit vibe" as well as comparing their style to Rage Against the Machine.

Wat.

Following Paul’s departure, S Club 7 shortened their name to S Club and continued to make hits. However, their star was clearly fading, and in 2003, they agreed to a mutual split. In 2008, some of the members got back together and formed S Club 3. In 2014, they expanded by a member and became S Club Party. Eight months after that, all seven members regrouped for a reunion tour to cash in on some nostalgia. Needless to say, Simon Fuller was involved, and hopefully, the contracts weren’t as exploitative this time around. In the meantime, Fuller would continue unabated, amassing management deals with the likes of Carrie Underwood, Amy Winehouse, and Kelly Clarkson. In 2001, he launched Pop Idol, which would be imported to the States as American Idol.

Now you know more than you thought you’d ever know about S Club 7. It’s tragic how Fuller treated them, but the group is responsible for some great turn-of-the-millennium pop hits, despite how manufactured and seemingly preordained their success was. Oh well, we can’t help what we listened to when we were kids and nostalgia has a way of making us love things we definitely wouldn’t as adults. Nothing wrong with coming to terms and embracing that fact.

Stay the fuck inside you freaks.

[simul16]

In No Way Is This A Comprehensive Review of Rime of the Frostmaiden

First off, an admission -- this is not a wholly unbiased review of "Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden". I purchased the adventure after seeing that the Season 10 Adventurers League Player's Guide mentioned it as a '+1 resource', which suggested that there was sufficient player-focused material in the adventure to justify making it an option for players to choose it as their secondary source for their characters' abilities, spells, etc. However, after realizing that most of that material is background-specific, which generally isn't restricted in the same way, the AL Admins removed the book from the list of +1 options in the 10.1 revision of the Players Guide, by which time I had confirmed that the only player-specific material in the book consists of three wizard spells. As I wrote on Twitter, I regret my decision. This review is part of my revenge. "Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden" is a decent 32-page classic TSR adventure for level 6 to 8 characters, somewhat recklessly padded out to 320 pages in order for Wizards of the Coast to be able to publish it as a far more expensive hardcover adventure. Let me break all of that down. The title of the adventure, and the art on both the standard cover and the alternate art cover feature Auril, the Frostmaiden, prominently -- specifically an avatar of Auril that your players will actually encounter when they face off against Auril in the adventure. And on the back cover of the book, an evocative bit of flavor text describes a scene in which the characters open up a passage to something called the Caves of Hunger in order to pass through it to a more dangerous area. You might be forgiven if you thought that more dangerous area was where Auril herself was lurking, and that the party needed to get there in order to defeat her and free Icewind Dale from her bitter machinations. But that's not actually true -- in your campaign, the scene described on the back cover might well happen (and indeed is paced in the actual adventure to happen) after the player characters have already defeated Auril and ended her threat to Icewind Dale. The actual part of the adventure where the player characters find and engage with Auril and defeat her plan takes up sixteen pages of text in the adventure. Add in monster stat blocks and artwork, plus maps, and you can easily see how this would fill out a classic TSR-era 32-page adventure module. And while some of the earlier material has ties to Auril, in that the adversaries the characters face are posited as being worshippers or servants of the Frostmaiden, defeating them only helps them defeat Auril herself in the sense that defeating the lesser evils helps them level up from first level to become powerful enough (over the course of a week or two, of course) to take on Auril's avatar herself (thus the 'level 6 to 8' comment in that opening paragraph). Now it's not automatically a bad thing that Rime of the Frostmaiden contains some introductory material: Wizards has done this before, and to good effect. Arguably, the entirety of the first hardcover adventure published by Wizards, "Hoard of the Dragon Queen" is basically setup to get the characters to the level they'll need to be to directly take on the Cult of the Dragon's plan to bring Tiamat to Faerun in "Rise of Tiamat", but the first adventure that explicitly used 'introductory' material to allow 1st level characters to 'level up' into the adventure proper was "Curse of Strahd", which included the mini-adventure "Death House" to get 1st level characters up to level 3 (if they survived) so they could start their proper adventure in Barovia. "Rime" attempts this same sort of alchemy, making use of introductory material that draws on the themes of the main adventure in order to give a satisfying and thematically appropriate intro to the main adventure. The problem is, as noted, the actual encounters the party has with Auril do not comprise the main text of the adventure in "Rime of the Frostmaiden", in the same way that exploring Castle Ravenloft and uncovering Strahd's weaknesses were the main text of "Curse of Strahd". In Rime, literally half the book (from page 22 to page 185, or 163 pages of the 320 page book) is involved in describing encounters, encounter areas, and adversaries which are, at best, peripheral to Auril and her plans -- defeating these enemies doesn't really give the PCs any special insight into Auril (as certain encounters in "Curse of Strahd" do for Strahd), nor do they sufficiently weaken her or give the party specific advantages over Auril (as recovering the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind does in "Curse of Strahd") In fact, the part of the adventure that deals with Auril herself, the character the adventure is named after and whose image is prominently featured in the adventure's marketing, is roughly the same proportion of "Rime of the Frostmaiden" as "Death House" was to "Curse of Strahd". These 163 pages of filler text, which from their sheer volume would seem to be important to the story being told here, only exist to get the characters up to level 4. But wait, I hear you ask, didn't I say the Auril part of the adventure was suitable for characters of level 6 to 8? Yes I did. That's because after spending half the book getting the PCs ready to take on Auril, the book then launches the great threat to Icewind Dale of...a mad duergar who built a dragon out of that crystal stuff in that one Driz'zt Do'Urden book (and gives us an excuse to have a Driz'zt reference which we totally needed in this adventure, obvs) and then unleashes the dragon onto Ten Towns? Yes, this adventure, which various WotC folks have stated online has prominent themes of isolation and the horror that isolation can create, interrupts its own narrative halfway through the book to spend eight pages to remind you that the game is called Dungeons and DRAGONS, not Dungeons and Snowy Owl Women with Horns. The good news is that once they deal with the dragon, they will very likely be level 6 or even level 7 and can then move on to deal with the reason the players wanted you to run this adventure in the first place. That is, if the party is willing to work with a member of an evil organization in recovering something she wants that Auril is said to have taken and hidden from her, so much so that the adventure explains to the DM: "The rest of the adventure depends on the characters agreeing to help" the totally not evil NPC who totally helped them fight the giant dragon (did we mention you can buy a special edition miniature of the GIANT DRAGON??) by throwing magic missiles at it and who totally doesn't have ulterior motives for wanting her stuff back, no sirree. (Is this part of that 'isolation' theme we've heard so much about? Like 'an isolated NPC mage can't complete her objectives without the assistance of unwitting PC adventurers'?) In actuality, only the parts of the adventure that come after the party deals with Auril (such as that evocative scene described on the back cover) rely on the characters agreeing to help this NPC, so in effect the 'rest of the adventure' is just 45 more pages of stuff that, once the characters have already beaten Auril, is likely going to feel like going through the motions for the benefit of a few extra character levels. About which: "Rime of the Frostmaiden" continues WotC's push toward making use of Milestone Leveling rather than traditional XP leveling. When WotC first started making use of the milestone leveling mechanic in their hardcovers, I appreciated the move; it helped ensure that parties that dealt with challenges in ways that didn't necessarily involve killing everything in their path still got appropriate character experience and weren't unfairly punished for finding a different route through the adventure. (This also makes it less important for PCs to be highly-optimized combat monsters, because if they can gain the info they need through good role-playing and a well-timed skill check backed by Inspiration, they don't need to be able to know exactly what their character's DPR happens to be, and players who insist on pushing their fellow players in the direction of optimization can be shown with actual in-game results that optimizing isn't the only way to succeed in an RPG adventure.) However, after reviewing the encounters in this adventure as well as in Tomb of Annihilation (another adventure that relies heavily on milestone leveling), I've come to suspect that the use of strict milestone leveling is more based on a need to be able to build adventures quickly without having to pay strict attention to whether or not there is enough XP in the adventure budget to get the characters to the level they need to be by the end in order to be high enough level to tackle the next set of challenges. This isn't just my observation -- Mike Shea at Sly Flourish has written about how published adventures simply don't give enough XP to level characters as quickly as they need to in order to handle the challenges thrown at them. If you put in appropriate milestones, though, hey, that's not a problem anymore! If you're a completist, you've probably already bought this book, so I'm not sure why you're even reading this. If you're reading this hoping to get my thoughts on whether or not it's a good adventure to run for your players, my suggestion is this: wait until they ask you to run the adventure for them, then pray that by then someone will have published a DMs guide to the adventure as they have for previous hardcover adventures, so that you'll have a better idea how to wrangle this chaotic mass of introductory material with a classic TSR module-sized payoff lurking in the middle. Or, if you can't wait, run them through "Horde of the Dragon Queen" and then, instead of heading to Waterdeep, have the caravan the PCs follow go all the way to Icewind Dale so that the party can have a few encounters, gain more XP, deal with Auril, and get back on track to deal with Tiamat, only at the appropriate level for the encounters they'll have in that other hardcover that, in theory, had way more development time.

[kitanumi]

A bit old as of time I am posting. The roster has had Skeela and Peaches rotate out for various reasons. But, I still wanna share this piece about the time my players went through the Judge Not by the Cover module. The name I gave the party is Gangster’s Paradise, due to them starting out in Klugetown. Through their many adventures they found themselves catching the notice of the Crystal Empire; and was given the quest to explore the ancient library from this module.

Skeela Nisar is the group’s resident hardworking smithy that has a bellowing voice and rough attitude. Peaches O’Plenty was the defacto leader the others would go to. Problem was Peaches was the most timid stallion around. He just had a unique way of getting people to listen to him and follow what he said. Siegfried Anne’Droy is the group’s sassy magician that will problem flirt with every hot guy he sees...then help the party. He is also so cowardly in a fight he tends to pull some interesting stunts that gets the group out of trouble. “Professor” Candy Swirl is the bouncy and fun loving food scientist. Always up for the next great adventure or tasty ingredient for her sweets. She also has some kind of split personality disorder. That is atleast what her player calls it; but i’m not so sure how she role plays that quirk is entirely accurate to the real condition. Borb also finds himself in a leadership role at times. Mostly he is a Nanday Conure parrotfolk that just squawks his name and spins around. He is a seasoned gang member of one of the largest gangs in Klugetown. He also has an interesting knack of changing his whole persona when he changes clothes. Lastly, Anna the crystal pony. She is soft spoken, peppy, and is basically a sparkly blue Fluttershy when it comes to her abilities. She is just a bit more extroverted than Flutters in personality.

As I said, Skeela and Peaches were rotated out of the roster of PCs after Judge Not by the Cover. Skeela I will talk about in another piece I will be posting. Peaches though....Peaches O’ Plenty was only pretending to be a timid stallion. He was actually very confident and secretly evil. His persuasive nature and ability to have people gravitate to him was related to this. His real name is Peachy Glow, the younger brother of Cozy Glow. A one villain known for using persuasion and being fake as all get out to manipulate people. At the end of the module I gave out extra loot not in the module. One was the Deck of Many Things. Peaches drew from the deck and got the card that grants you a wish. Peaches wished, “I wish to be the most powerful alicorn of all time.” Poof! He was an alicorn. By the rules of the game, no  player can be an alicorn. Thus, Peaches was spirited off for me to use as an npc villian. His player rerolled to be Crisom “Tibs” Evercast, the court mage of the Crystal Empire. Tibs explained to the party Peaches was evil the whole time and there is now an evil alicorn at large somewhere in the world. Yup, we ended Judge Not by the Cover by unleashing the most powerful alicorn of all time on the world and it has an evil alignment.

[cbilluminati]

Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name. And they’re always glad you came.

That’s a really awesome reference that you should Google. No, don’t worry about it, I’ll drop a Youtube link. It’s time for yet another edition of Top o’ the Lot (or TotL pronounced “TOTAL” by the kids), Outright Geekery’s weekly listicle. This week’s countdown examines all the great bars, taverns, clubs, and dives from my favorite TV shows, movies, comics, and more. While Cheers may not have made the list, nothing beats that song. So, without further ado, we hit all (or most) major forms of media, make it a double, and everybody sing along, with Outright Geekery’s Top o’ the Lot: 15 Fictional Watering Holes.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-mi0r0LpXo%5B/embedyt%5D

Honorable Mention: The One from Every RPG Ever

Including video games, table top games, and the occasional board game. You know the one: Where there’s always someone selling the exact stuff you need for the upcoming journey, the bartender is burly (probably a bastard), the bar maidens are hot and ready (and probably rogues), and (in too many cases) there always seems to be an NPC or PC ready for a team up.

This one is ridiculous in almost every single case. It’s cheap storytelling, hinges primarily on nostalgia, and none of that matters at all. Seeing the local Inn in video games like World of Warcraft or Elder Scrolls is often such a terrific feeling. It denotes discovery and familiarity in brilliant ways. But there’s way too many, so it gets a Honorable Mention.

15. The Bar with No Name

Ok, try to keep up. In the Marvel Comics Universe there is this bar…or maybe it’s a series of bars, where the badguys meet up for planning world domination, cementing their criminal networks, or celebrating good times (Kang’s birthday party was a true rager), and they do this in a place known only as The Bar with No Name.

This is the one that should be getting an Honorable Mention. What a cheap way around getting some bad guys talking. But it’s throwback, it’s subtle and dark, and some really cool things have started in these Bars with No Names…or whatever. And it’s comics. Comics get a pass.

14. Kadie’s Club Pecos

This is the bar from Sin City. A lot of things happened there. Dwight and Ava meetup, The Long Bad Night, Nancy’s Last Dance. What an amazing way to tell a story, and what a terrific scene.

Only hits this low on the list because so many others are just better. It should be on here, but 14 is as high is it’s getting. The dance is really good though…but NSFW.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yUWO2PFVF4%5B/embedyt%5D

13. Gaston’s Tavern

What a lovely little town. Too bad the only bar is run by this douchebag. But there’s no denying that Gaston’s Bar from Beauty and the Beast is THE happening place in that provincial little town. Everyone loves the owner too.

Gaston is the man, and he knows it. Why shouldn’t he run his very own tavern? But it’s that song! Although, a good tune can only carry you so far. And he’s such a jerk. Calm down, dude! Grab a drink, go lift some weights, and get with one of those other honeys. I mean, you own a bar. He should just move on.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuJTqmpBnI0%5B/embedyt%5D

12. The Bada Bing

The Bada Bing is the fictional strip club owned by Silvio Dante, second hand to crime boss Tony Soprano, and it was a crazy place. Topless girls, alcohol, and gangsters 24 hours a day. The back room was a gentleman’s club, where New Jersey’s finest criminals ate sandwiches, played poker, and counted money.

The Bing makes the list because it was just a cool place. The setting worked to help define the backdrop of this series, and it was one of my favorites. I picture myself walking in, spreading around the cash to all the fine “ladies” dancing, and being invited to the back room for a late night poker game, which inevitably leads to Outright Geekery becoming a front for the mob, my wife’s fingers being cut off as a warning, and me ultimately floating in the Hudson River. Worth it!

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lonfT9ITxhk%5B/embedyt%5D

11. Swerve’s

In IDW Publishing’s Transformers titles, there’s a story about a group of ragtag Cybertronians – loners, castoffs, shut-ins, socially inept etc. – who decide to leave Cybertron and search the galaxy for the fabled Knights of Cybertron. Things have not gone well. Despite that, however, one standout of this series in the context of this list is Swerve’s Bar. Swerve is a wise-cracking smartass of a guy, but he’s just looking to have a good time. And Swerve’s Bar is THE place to go on the spaceship The Lost Light should you have the need for some Energon Ale.

While Swerve’s doesn’t break into the top 10 o’ this Lot simply because it’s such a vague and relatively unknown bar, it makes the list overall because I just love these robots, their stories, and their relationships so damned much. I know, these are plastic toys from the 1980s. But their real to me.

10. Quark’s

Although it’s not the coolest bar from the Star Trek universe, Quark’s is easily the one that looks more like your traditional western frontier saloon, which is what Deep Space Nine was going for. Set right off the main hub in the promenade, Quark’s offered food, drink, fellowship, but most importantly it offered gambling and holosuites.

Having hookers and gaming was a real departure for the series as the Federation tended to frown on such things, but it added a sense of realism to the fell of the entire series. Real frontier stuff, unrestrained by the laws of the Federation. And the cast of regulars, including the ever-silent Morn, were fantastic additions. A great place that deserve to break the Top 10 in a list with so many great entries.

9. Club Rockit

Club Rockit was an actual, real-life place that writer Bryan Lee O’ Malley used to model the fictional punk rock venue in the wildly successful and fun Scott Pilgrim series of comics. It was described as cramped, ugly, and terrible by its creator, but we loved it for a lone reason: Sex Bob-Omb played there!

If you have a club in a comic book and there’s a cool band that plays there it’s going to be an awesome place. The club shows up in every instance of this license including comics, movies, and video games, and really just goes to show you how damned popular this series is. Sequel? I sure hope so!

8. The Leaky Cauldron

Founded by Daisy Dodderidge in 1500 to serve as a doorway between the non-magic Muggle World and the Wizarding World, The Leaky Cauldron is a pub and inn from the Harry Potter Universe. It was one of the first introductions readers and viewers had at what the new magical world we were stepping into truly had to offer.

Whimsy filled both the book and movie scenes that introduced The Leaky Cauldron, and it only got better from there. Beyond that, however, The Leaky Cauldron was a portal of sorts from the real to the imagined, a mainstay in scores of fantasy titles. Subtle and fun, it was a great anchor early on in the series and just neat in its own right.

7. The Prancing Pony

Another one from both famous books and popular movies, The Prancing Pony is in the village of Bree in Middle-Earth from The Lord of the Rings series of novels and films. This is where Frodo and his group meet up with the Ranger Strider in what became one of the most amazing adventures of all time.

More occurs at this inn and bar than just the meeting of Frodo and Strider, but it’s the most famous by far, and this meeting represents a ramp up in the adventure of the story. And it’s a terrific moment. Thorin Oakenshield and Gandalf meet up here at one point, as well, but it’s just not mentioned as much. While the Honorable Mention spot in this Lot may be a stereotype, this is the inn that created it.

6. Moe’s Tavern

When you visit Springfield there’s only one place where the Everyman goes after a long, hard day of running the nuclear power plant. Moe’s Tavern. The cold Duff on tap, terrific music, fun regulars, and, of course, Moe, our lovable bartender. There may not be a more well known bar on this list.

A lot of people know about Moe’s because so many people have been forced to watch so many seasons of The Simpsons. I guess it deserves it – I haven’t watched since season 5 or 6 – but Moe’s is still very worthy of making this list.

5. The Hellfire Club

I’m not really quite sure if this entry even qualifies, as the Hellfire Club is more of a group of people than a building where people drink, but I don’t care. The perennial X-Men villain, the Hellfire Club is a fictional society bent on obtaining power, but they do often have an actual club.

Sometimes a bar isn’t about the where, but the who. The place is terrific, but The Hellfire Club is really made up of really interesting – and often very evil – characters. And those cool Chess piece nicknames? So cool!

4. The Iceberg Lounge

Barely missing the Top 3 is the relatively new aspect of DC Comics Gotham City, Penguin’s Iceberg Lounge. The iceberg shaped nightclub, conveniently located in Gotham Harbor, acts as a legitimate business front for the Penguin’s criminal dealings, and also works as a place for Batman to use his makeup kit.

My favorite parts of the Iceberg Lounge are when Batman disguises himself as a criminal, goes to the lounge incognito, all in an attempt to overhear some underworld information that may help him solve the next crime. And it’s just really cool to see it floating there on Gotham’s Skyline.

3. The Ink & Paint Club

Yes, breaking into the Top 3 is the nightclub run by cartoons from the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, The Ink & Paint Club. In a world where toons are real, this nightclub takes the best parts of that animated world, puts them to wrok, and provides quality entertainment as well as superb nightclub services.

Opening on the Duck vs Duck piano duel, Jessica’s solo in the middle, and ending on that gorilla of a bouncer, the Ink & Paint Club not only left an impression on anyone who watched this movie, but it made viewers want to go there for a Saturday night of drinking, dancing, and drawing.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv24TJ8iXcs%5B/embedyt%5D

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy5THitqPBw%5B/embedyt%5D

2. Mos Eisley Cantina

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

But, man, they play such good music! Like many things in the Star Wars Universe, less was more when it came to this Outer Rim bar on the mudball that is Tatooine. Is was rightfully a dangerous place. Who goes to Tatooine if they aren’t in trouble and laying low? That’s a recipe for smugglers, pirates, and, yes, nerf-herders.

Again, less was more here. Lucas understood that an audience will fill in their own gaps, and usually an audience will fill it with better stuff than a writer ever could. So many alien races with absolutely no explanation whatsoever about who or what they are. It was perfect. Oh, and that house band is the best in the galaxy.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stbYF6XpTYE%5B/embedyt%5D

1. 10 Forward

Wait! They put a bar in a Federation Starship? Yes, they did, and it was awesome! Deck 10 in the forward section of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D was just that: A bar. A place where weary Starfleet officers could relax, eat, fellowship, drink, listen to music, and otherwise have an awesome time. It was weird for a while. There’s a bar on a Federation starship? But it ended up working so well for so man reasons.

#gallery-0-4 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-4 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

The primary reason was the bartender, Guinan, played by acting legend Whoopi Goldberg. But all of the little things fell right into place over a very short period of time to make 10 Forward one of the most popular place in the entire galaxy. Sometimes there’s a hostage situation, some days it’s a birthday party. Other days there’s a funeral wake, yet others there’s an emergency baby delivery (thanks, Worf!), and still others see the entire crew trying to beat each other to a pulp. Business as usual on the Flagship of the Federation.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWaguilvSrY%5B/embedyt%5D

See a mistake? Disagree with the choices? Let us know!

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TotL – 15 Fictional Watering Holes

Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name. And they’re always glad you came. That’s a really awesome reference that you should Google.

TotL – 15 Fictional Watering Holes Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name. And they're always glad you came. That's a really awesome reference that you should Google.

[outright-geekery]

Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name. And they’re always glad you came.

That’s a really awesome reference that you should Google. No, don’t worry about it, I’ll drop a Youtube link. It’s time for yet another edition of Top o’ the Lot (or TotL pronounced “TOTAL” by the kids), Outright Geekery’s weekly listicle. This week’s countdown examines all the great bars, taverns, clubs, and dives from my favorite TV shows, movies, comics, and more. While Cheers may not have made the list, nothing beats that song. So, without further ado, we hit all (or most) major forms of media, make it a double, and everybody sing along, with Outright Geekery’s Top o’ the Lot: 15 Fictional Watering Holes.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-mi0r0LpXo%5B/embedyt%5D

Honorable Mention: The One from Every RPG Ever

Including video games, table top games, and the occasional board game. You know the one: Where there’s always someone selling the exact stuff you need for the upcoming journey, the bartender is burly (probably a bastard), the bar maidens are hot and ready (and probably rogues), and (in too many cases) there always seems to be an NPC or PC ready for a team up.

This one is ridiculous in almost every single case. It’s cheap storytelling, hinges primarily on nostalgia, and none of that matters at all. Seeing the local Inn in video games like World of Warcraft or Elder Scrolls is often such a terrific feeling. It denotes discovery and familiarity in brilliant ways. But there’s way too many, so it gets a Honorable Mention.

15. The Bar with No Name

Ok, try to keep up. In the Marvel Comics Universe there is this bar…or maybe it’s a series of bars, where the badguys meet up for planning world domination, cementing their criminal networks, or celebrating good times (Kang’s birthday party was a true rager), and they do this in a place known only as The Bar with No Name.

This is the one that should be getting an Honorable Mention. What a cheap way around getting some bad guys talking. But it’s throwback, it’s subtle and dark, and some really cool things have started in these Bars with No Names…or whatever. And it’s comics. Comics get a pass.

14. Kadie’s Club Pecos

This is the bar from Sin City. A lot of things happened there. Dwight and Ava meetup, The Long Bad Night, Nancy’s Last Dance. What an amazing way to tell a story, and what a terrific scene.

Only hits this low on the list because so many others are just better. It should be on here, but 14 is as high is it’s getting. The dance is really good though…but NSFW.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yUWO2PFVF4%5B/embedyt%5D

13. Gaston’s Tavern

What a lovely little town. Too bad the only bar is run by this douchebag. But there’s no denying that Gaston’s Bar from Beauty and the Beast is THE happening place in that provincial little town. Everyone loves the owner too.

Gaston is the man, and he knows it. Why shouldn’t he run his very own tavern? But it’s that song! Although, a good tune can only carry you so far. And he’s such a jerk. Calm down, dude! Grab a drink, go lift some weights, and get with one of those other honeys. I mean, you own a bar. He should just move on.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuJTqmpBnI0%5B/embedyt%5D

12. The Bada Bing

The Bada Bing is the fictional strip club owned by Silvio Dante, second hand to crime boss Tony Soprano, and it was a crazy place. Topless girls, alcohol, and gangsters 24 hours a day. The back room was a gentleman’s club, where New Jersey’s finest criminals ate sandwiches, played poker, and counted money.

The Bing makes the list because it was just a cool place. The setting worked to help define the backdrop of this series, and it was one of my favorites. I picture myself walking in, spreading around the cash to all the fine “ladies” dancing, and being invited to the back room for a late night poker game, which inevitably leads to Outright Geekery becoming a front for the mob, my wife’s fingers being cut off as a warning, and me ultimately floating in the Hudson River. Worth it!

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lonfT9ITxhk%5B/embedyt%5D

11. Swerve’s

In IDW Publishing’s Transformers titles, there’s a story about a group of ragtag Cybertronians – loners, castoffs, shut-ins, socially inept etc. – who decide to leave Cybertron and search the galaxy for the fabled Knights of Cybertron. Things have not gone well. Despite that, however, one standout of this series in the context of this list is Swerve’s Bar. Swerve is a wise-cracking smartass of a guy, but he’s just looking to have a good time. And Swerve’s Bar is THE place to go on the spaceship The Lost Light should you have the need for some Energon Ale.

While Swerve’s doesn’t break into the top 10 o’ this Lot simply because it’s such a vague and relatively unknown bar, it makes the list overall because I just love these robots, their stories, and their relationships so damned much. I know, these are plastic toys from the 1980s. But their real to me.

10. Quark’s

Although it’s not the coolest bar from the Star Trek universe, Quark’s is easily the one that looks more like your traditional western frontier saloon, which is what Deep Space Nine was going for. Set right off the main hub in the promenade, Quark’s offered food, drink, fellowship, but most importantly it offered gambling and holosuites.

Having hookers and gaming was a real departure for the series as the Federation tended to frown on such things, but it added a sense of realism to the fell of the entire series. Real frontier stuff, unrestrained by the laws of the Federation. And the cast of regulars, including the ever-silent Morn, were fantastic additions. A great place that deserve to break the Top 10 in a list with so many great entries.

9. Club Rockit

Club Rockit was an actual, real-life place that writer Bryan Lee O’ Malley used to model the fictional punk rock venue in the wildly successful and fun Scott Pilgrim series of comics. It was described as cramped, ugly, and terrible by its creator, but we loved it for a lone reason: Sex Bob-Omb played there!

If you have a club in a comic book and there’s a cool band that plays there it’s going to be an awesome place. The club shows up in every instance of this license including comics, movies, and video games, and really just goes to show you how damned popular this series is. Sequel? I sure hope so!

8. The Leaky Cauldron

Founded by Daisy Dodderidge in 1500 to serve as a doorway between the non-magic Muggle World and the Wizarding World, The Leaky Cauldron is a pub and inn from the Harry Potter Universe. It was one of the first introductions readers and viewers had at what the new magical world we were stepping into truly had to offer.

Whimsy filled both the book and movie scenes that introduced The Leaky Cauldron, and it only got better from there. Beyond that, however, The Leaky Cauldron was a portal of sorts from the real to the imagined, a mainstay in scores of fantasy titles. Subtle and fun, it was a great anchor early on in the series and just neat in its own right.

7. The Prancing Pony

Another one from both famous books and popular movies, The Prancing Pony is in the village of Bree in Middle-Earth from The Lord of the Rings series of novels and films. This is where Frodo and his group meet up with the Ranger Strider in what became one of the most amazing adventures of all time.

More occurs at this inn and bar than just the meeting of Frodo and Strider, but it’s the most famous by far, and this meeting represents a ramp up in the adventure of the story. And it’s a terrific moment. Thorin Oakenshield and Gandalf meet up here at one point, as well, but it’s just not mentioned as much. While the Honorable Mention spot in this Lot may be a stereotype, this is the inn that created it.

6. Moe’s Tavern

When you visit Springfield there’s only one place where the Everyman goes after a long, hard day of running the nuclear power plant. Moe’s Tavern. The cold Duff on tap, terrific music, fun regulars, and, of course, Moe, our lovable bartender. There may not be a more well known bar on this list.

A lot of people know about Moe’s because so many people have been forced to watch so many seasons of The Simpsons. I guess it deserves it – I haven’t watched since season 5 or 6 – but Moe’s is still very worthy of making this list.

5. The Hellfire Club

I’m not really quite sure if this entry even qualifies, as the Hellfire Club is more of a group of people than a building where people drink, but I don’t care. The perennial X-Men villain, the Hellfire Club is a fictional society bent on obtaining power, but they do often have an actual club.

Sometimes a bar isn’t about the where, but the who. The place is terrific, but The Hellfire Club is really made up of really interesting – and often very evil – characters. And those cool Chess piece nicknames? So cool!

4. The Iceberg Lounge

Barely missing the Top 3 is the relatively new aspect of DC Comics Gotham City, Penguin’s Iceberg Lounge. The iceberg shaped nightclub, conveniently located in Gotham Harbor, acts as a legitimate business front for the Penguin’s criminal dealings, and also works as a place for Batman to use his makeup kit.

My favorite parts of the Iceberg Lounge are when Batman disguises himself as a criminal, goes to the lounge incognito, all in an attempt to overhear some underworld information that may help him solve the next crime. And it’s just really cool to see it floating there on Gotham’s Skyline.

3. The Ink & Paint Club

Yes, breaking into the Top 3 is the nightclub run by cartoons from the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, The Ink & Paint Club. In a world where toons are real, this nightclub takes the best parts of that animated world, puts them to wrok, and provides quality entertainment as well as superb nightclub services.

Opening on the Duck vs Duck piano duel, Jessica’s solo in the middle, and ending on that gorilla of a bouncer, the Ink & Paint Club not only left an impression on anyone who watched this movie, but it made viewers want to go there for a Saturday night of drinking, dancing, and drawing.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv24TJ8iXcs%5B/embedyt%5D

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy5THitqPBw%5B/embedyt%5D

2. Mos Eisley Cantina

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

But, man, they play such good music! Like many things in the Star Wars Universe, less was more when it came to this Outer Rim bar on the mudball that is Tatooine. Is was rightfully a dangerous place. Who goes to Tatooine if they aren’t in trouble and laying low? That’s a recipe for smugglers, pirates, and, yes, nerf-herders.

Again, less was more here. Lucas understood that an audience will fill in their own gaps, and usually an audience will fill it with better stuff than a writer ever could. So many alien races with absolutely no explanation whatsoever about who or what they are. It was perfect. Oh, and that house band is the best in the galaxy.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stbYF6XpTYE%5B/embedyt%5D

1. 10 Forward

Wait! They put a bar in a Federation Starship? Yes, they did, and it was awesome! Deck 10 in the forward section of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D was just that: A bar. A place where weary Starfleet officers could relax, eat, fellowship, drink, listen to music, and otherwise have an awesome time. It was weird for a while. There’s a bar on a Federation starship? But it ended up working so well for so man reasons.

#gallery-0-4 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-4 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

The primary reason was the bartender, Guinan, played by acting legend Whoopi Goldberg. But all of the little things fell right into place over a very short period of time to make 10 Forward one of the most popular place in the entire galaxy. Sometimes there’s a hostage situation, some days it’s a birthday party. Other days there’s a funeral wake, yet others there’s an emergency baby delivery (thanks, Worf!), and still others see the entire crew trying to beat each other to a pulp. Business as usual on the Flagship of the Federation.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWaguilvSrY%5B/embedyt%5D

See a mistake? Disagree with the choices? Let us know!

Send emails to OutrightGeekery@Gmail.com Find us on Facebook at the Outright Geekery Page Join the discussion at the Comic Book Illuminati Leave us a comment below

TotL – 15 Fictional Watering Holes Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name. And they're always glad you came. That's a really awesome reference that you should Google.