#this show is such an excellent piece od media

[bandofchimeras]

okay a longish deepdive about PDs & Succession.

CONTAINS SPOILERS

some people leave no space for curiosity. no interest in other's inner worlds and constant projections of self into quieter people's energetic life, leaves those other people exhausted and unable to develop a real desire to get to know more.

I can be like this, at my most defensive and manic.

But being around other people like this for years has worked like sandpaper on me. Because if you both project yourselves at the other person with the same intensity the friction starts to escalate. Or you build on one another until sometimes you start sharing a psychosis. So to keep the peace you can try to be agreeable, validating, and listen as much as you can.

However soon the whole thing drains you and you realize you're being talked at, performed for, that this is not a relationship of equals, you have become an audience to the self-performance of this person, and your criticism or praise is largely irrelevant except insofar as they take it as helpful feedback for self development.

I do suppose this is the kind of person you could describe as a narcissist. But understanding the wounds, anxiety and beliefs at the core of this problem from having been In It for a long time, I don't feel like that label does justice to what is happening in relationship. Personality disorders exist mostly in the presence of other people. In early remission, people with BPD will share in forums how they feel okay now, so long as they are alone. other people trigger the defensive formations of the self that comprise the "disorder."

People who do this often are highly anxious and traumatized. The fear at the core of it is somatic. It is fear of being erased, silenced, destroyed, or fear of one's own power, of the shadow...many things but what runs the whole thing is fear, paranoia, distrust.

That's what struck me most about forums for people w NPD. most threads were talking about trust, of God, of the universe, of other people. The lack of it.

I think the pathologization of these personality formations has had net negative results but also aided us all in understanding a bit more how not to get lost in sick people's dreams and control.

Narcissism & personality disorders aren't scary crazy unreal spectacle things all the time. They're human suffering from spiritual misunderstanding and emotional damage or neglect. In fact I think entitled narcissism comes from neglect of emotional guidance (teaching limits, boundaries, respect, fairness) and wounded/defensive narcissism comes from abuse (berating, controlling, wounding child's self image, emotional manipulation, etc). And so they manifest a bit differently.

But I digress - because narcissistic people aren't just fun blorbo bugs to study under a microscope. A lot of people who do good in the world are still impossible to get to know and love on an intimate level out of glitches and destruction in the formation of their person good.

Succession, as a show, handles the interlinking clusterfuck of dysfunctionality that leads to these disorders by putting the characters psychosexual motivations on full display - it's one of the best written shows I've encountered yet, for character studies. I joked that I was "downloading Roman Roy's personality to become insufferable."

In particular his form of psychopathy compelled me the most because he clearly understands more than many people around him, he's just abnegated his own power to the point he is essentially neutered, castrated, helpless before the will of his father or the almighty dollar. However he still pays attention sometimes, listens. Unlike Kendall's manic depressive swinging that passes through reality entirely into constructed ideas of who he could be and what he could do, Roman knows what they are, what he is, even though he hates himself, and does not actually care about the harm the family causes....or does he? In some way he copes with extreme guilt.

The thing about Kendall that's tragic is he does, sometimes, try so hard. But he's trying. He never does it, not really. He doesn't connect with the lower class people he hangs out with. He thinks he does. But he never stops to check in, to really listen.

That's why he becomes most like his father in the megalomania, the abusive manipulation, the paranoia, the entitlement. He never gets checked all the way. Until, *SPOILER ALERT*

his siblings do it. What a poetic resolve.

My point is, studying the blorbos of the Roy family et al provided me some real insight into my own dysfunctional family, people I know and attract into my life, and gave me much food for thought about yes men, complicity and what it means to have a spine.

Yes men win, in the end, but they have to sell their souls so completely you can almost watch the personhood leave their eyes.

A refusal to intervene or accept responsibility for choices...what the Roy siblings demonstrate over and over no matter how many times they try to make things work, is what happens when the fundamental core of a person is neglected and trampled on. They refuse to take responsibility for themselves, their own personhood and choices.

Kendall blames systems and his family. He ignores his own obligations and failings by trying to take down or own the family legacy. He's a mercenary, out for hire. He wants to care but does not have the mechanism of accountability installed in him. He hides his crimes like a child hiding an ice cream spoon from a controlling parent (and God do I relate).

Roman blames himself, or no one. For him it's all a tragedy and a farce, he is the sharp tongued commentator. He gets what he wants no matter what other people say or do, or tries to. His awareness of how little self respect he carries himself with is...questionable.

Shiv does not show who she blames. She plays as if she is smarter than she is, because she wants respect from men who will never, ever, give it to her. She thinks she can get it. Or tolerate enough to get something. Shiv almost gets it but her controlling and undermining of her brothers is a very older sister undoing. She tries to square with people, her father, Matsson, even Tom. But because she is lying to herself and everyone about what she wants, nothing ever sticks.

Connor gets it right on the nose calling all his siblings love hungry. He knows, he says himself he has learned to survive without love. He knows he and his family are pathetic. He still puts on a show. Maybe he half believes his own show. He fakes everything to the and demonstrate his worth but under that knows it's a lie. Willa, presidency, all of it is a show to get people in his camp, to scrape up some kind of approval in lieu of genuine affection. As his outburst and praise at the gala demonstrates, whether or not he wants anything to do with you depends on your performance/to him/.

It's all ratings, baby, especially for the males of the Roy family. For the women it's proximity to power.

Anyways Kendall does call his father out as a grandoise psychopathic narcissist so there's that. But my point is that personality disorders are disorders of relationship, and individualizing Logan Roy's particular "pathogen" as Gerri calls it, distracts from the larger picture, the picture*SPOILER* Ewan tries at the funeral to convey with grace:

"my brother brought out a meanness in men."

The meanness is already there, in all of us. Ewan admits it's in him, too, but he still tries. Some people stop trying.

That part hit me hard. Because I think over the show you can track when Kendall stops trying. He almost gets it, that "the poison drips down" - it's not trickle down economics, it's a IV drip of toxins being fed into the veins of ATN viewers.

My thesis here is not very mindblowing: American political culture disorders our personalities. It is built off personality disorders.

No one in this show or in it's real life counterparts, are really happy. The only happy moments we see with the Roys...maybe "a meal fit for a king"? Goofing around together. Even in that, they are still being cruel, but their target is a shared outer target.

I loved those scenes, brief as they were, where the siblings were a united front against the big bad world, with their plans and their cool sunglasses and planes - you almost root for them. Almost. And then - the truth breaks it all to pieces, again.

The truth of who they are: not serious people.

Serious people, they think, watching their father do shit, do shit. Serious people own stuff and lord it over others. They don't remember the work their father did put in, the soul he sacrificed, to get to the top, they don't connect the dots of all the people working for them silently in the background at all times, how those people make the world go round, even if they feel like THEY do.

Being a serious person, finding joy, is accessible to every human being in the right context - the context to discover a purpose, a love, a passion - to stop merely taking and believe something good can come out of your self. The show is a tragedy not because wahhh poor rich people, it's a tragedy because it reflects a deep contortion in our own shredded social fabric.

I could say so much more but I have to go pack and make a tart and do laundry. If you read this to the end, thanks for stickin with it!

[focusfixated]

fic rec: ted lasso

all the men and women merely players

rating: T // fandom: ted lasso // pairings: ted x trent, keeley x roy x jamie, nate x jade // length: 50.7k author: @laiqualaurelote tags: theatre, shakespeare, post-apocalypse

"So let me get this straight. You, an American whose career highlights consisted mainly of appearing on Saturday Night Live, decide in the wake of the apocalypse to lead a touring Shakespeare company across the ruins of England." "Oh, I know. Heck, I said as much to Rebecca when she suggested it. I said, 'You could fill two Internets with what I don’t know about directing Shakespeare.' And she said, 'Ted, the Internet doesn’t exist any more.'" Trent Crimm meets Ted Lasso by chance at a Shakespeare play. Five years and the end of the world later, they meet again at another. A Station Eleven post-apocalyptic theatre AU (no knowledge of Station Eleven necessary to read).

rec notes:

a post-apocalyptic ted lasso AU where the richmond players are a troupe of travelling shakespearean actors.

simply one of the best things i've read in a long time. it SO perfectly operates within its genre, one of those beautiful pieces of cross-referential AU fanfic, where there is both a deeply thoughtful blending of references, a wonderfully precise understanding of the characters from the original media, and highly-detailed worldbuilding of its own.

the author nails every character's cadence, the variety of voices, their styles of conversation. the descriptive narrative, is also excellent. achingly poetic, there is so much beauty, and so much compelling, grim horror, too. the happy moments are threaded with plenty of intense, sharply sad moments, but there is so much joy, such hope. it's an ode to art, and friendship, and community.

i had such an amazing time reading this story. it's such a brilliant idea, and its execution lives up to the concept. the amount of detail, research, reference, is evident in every chapter. and it's a wonderful tribute to the show, while also giving such a satisfying conclusion to so many story arcs that were left a little underserved in the series finale.

[septembersghost]

Review:

The title of Harry's House came before the actual album did, inspired by Hosono's House, the debut album of wildly influential Japanese pop singer Haruomi Hosono. Styles had heard the record during a visit to Japan and become enamored with the idea of naming an album "Harry's House", and more specifically building an album around the metaphor of a "house" representing his internal mind. Written and recorded primarily through 2020 and 2021, Harry's House is a product of Styles' pandemic musings, a collection of songs about love and life that all feel distinctly nostalgic. Even the happier tracks on the album carry notes of wistfulness, at times making it hard to tell whether a song is about a breakup or a current love.

Sonically, Harry's House moves beyond the 70's rock of Styles' first two albums and embraces the synths starting to emerge in Fine Line. The album is light and airy, with folk and funk influences adding a whimsical feel to the indie-pop of most of the songs. The opener, "Music For A Sushi Restaurant", welcomes us in with enthusiastic horns, and the groovy "Daydreaming" gives us a sample from The Brothers Johnson's "Ain't We Funkin' Now". It's a charming deviation from the often heavy-handed imitation of past artists on his early albums; while you can still see older music's influence on Styles he seems to be letting go of his need to be seen as a "serious" artist, and the result is a pleasant blend of pastiches that no longer feel like they're trying too hard.

Where Harry's House excels is also where it falters; it's good in a comfortable way, an easy listen made easier by the fact that there isn't anything quite innovative about it. Styles is taking other genres and sounds and presenting them to an audience that might not be aware of them in a pleasant, palatable way; that in itself is a talent, and one he has always been good at. But that is not something that will make you remembered. Harry's House is a good album. Harry Styles is a good artist. But it's clear he desires iconicism, wants his name up there with his idols, and for that you need more than just good music and great stage presence.

Sonically, Harry's House is great, boasting catchy melodies and strong production. The lyrics are where we see Styles start to stumble; they're cloyingly vague, giving the listener enough information about him to contract their own idea of him, but not enough to ruin whatever that idea may be. It's the same vagueness Styles has perpetuated throughout his entire career, keeping himself aloof enough to build mystery and let fans project their own fantasies of what they want him to be. But it's frustrating when that same aloofness extends past his interviews and media presence into his art. Harry's House feels at times like you're hearing about someone's life through whispers on the street; while you can piece together an idea of what's going on you still don't understand who they truly are.

The best written song on the album (and coincidentally, the only one with a female songwriter) is "Matilda", a lovely ode to leaving behind a family that mistreated you. "You don't have to be sorry for leaving and growing up" Styles croons over a bare guitar melody, in a voice that seems to insist he understands. While his lyrics can get jarringly cringey at points in the album ("cocaine/side boob/choke her with a sea view" in Keep Driving, "you hide the body all that yoga gave you" in Little Freak, and other trope-y descriptions of his female lovers that aim for sexy but land at awkward) it's moments like this that show his potential as a songwriter. He can articulate personal thoughts well when the song isn't necessarily about himself, but when writing about his personal life his desire for privacy hedges his lyrics into vague statements.

Despite the vagueness of a lot of the lyrics, there are snapshots of intriguing concepts throughout the album: "Harry you're no good alone/Why are you sittin' at home on the floor?/What kind of pills are you on?" Styles sings in "As It Was", the lead single and another highlight of the album. The mental health struggles and implied substance abuse issues seemingly referenced add a lot more dimension to his character, and would be a very interesting thing to explore, but they're never mentioned again. He hints at cracks in his idyllic life but gets too scared and shies away from fully discussing them. You can tell he wants to be vulnerable, and tell that even sharing what he's already shared about himself is a struggle, but at some point the lack of substance shifts from making Styles seem like a private person to making him seem like someone who just doesn't have anything interesting to say.

I think a lot about this quote from Styles' interview with Zane Lowe: "I think sometimes, with therapy as an example, you open a bunch of doors in your house that you didn't know existed. You find all these rooms you get to explore." Harry's House let the listeners into Styles' house, and in his mind that meant rummaging through these rooms with him. In reality, the rooms were roped off; the listeners could glimpse inside but see nothing more than a quick tableau of his life. You might be in Harry's House but it's a guided, polished tour, with everything you see still obsessively curated

This is something from reddit that explained my thoughts on album perfectly

while i do feel a closer and more real/human connection to the record than this review does - "Even the happier tracks on the album carry notes of wistfulness" this point especially is probably where i make a particular connection - this was an interesting read, thank you for sharing it!

[life-rewritten]

SPOOKY SEASON! An ode to Mo Dao Zu Shi: one of the best BL story created!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!! One last Halloween post and it's about one of my favourite pieces of media in the world of BL, romance, and supernatural stories. Roll your eyes because once again I'm talking about Mo Dao Zu Shi (The grandmaster of demonic cultivation) I mean already with the demons, and cultivation is already hinting why this is Halloween themed, and trust me MDZ has much more than that: from zombies to ghosts, to magical instruments and weapons, and we love our fantasy cultivation sects and clans. Anyhoo, I am here to write a fun post another verdict/review on each of the adaptations available so far for MDZ, yeh you heard me I've listened, read and watched all versions of this masterpiece, and I'm here to tell you to go and do the same for Halloween. Also in case, you haven't heard MTX (the author of MDZ) has another show on its way TODAY! And that's the magnificent, the excellent and incredible Heaven's Official Blessing after marathoning MDZ do that too. 

As always with my verdicts: we have ratings: From 1 to 5 (1 being least excited to watch, 5 being most,) how excited am I to delve into these again? 

Country: China Genre: Danmei, Supernatural, Action, Fantasy, Romance, Comedy, BL, Horror,

1.The Book

We begin with the one that started it all. The reason for my devotion and love for this world, for Wei Wuxian and Lan Wang Ji. My heart hasn't stopped loving this book experience. And at first, it wasn't easy to understand all the logic and terms needed to know for this world of cultivation and sects and clans, and magical skills. But once I got the hang of it (maybe after reading it three times I wonder how I had time to do this by the way), this is a book that I keep on returning to, crying to, and just breaking down into a mess too. This book is the most original source for the love story of Wangxian and to be honest its a masterpiece. Now onto the pros and cons, I guess about this adaptation.

Pro: 

First, I would say that this is the most non censored version of MDZ, meaning China couldn't mute the romance or delete scenes because it's the original written story. The romance between Wangxian stands out and makes your heart go through a lot of emotions, from frustration at Wei  Wuxian not realising how he feels for Wang Ji, to pain because of Wang Ji's perceived unrequited feelings for so long, to happiness when they're just together, to confusion at some drunk scenes and then to all-out shock as the story reveals its self to the villains, the background of Weiying's death and more. 

The introduction to all these characters, all of them have a role in the story, all of them are important to keep an eye on, and they all grow and develop throughout the story as we find out more about their circumstances and their own perspective on Wei Wuxian.

Cons but not actual cons

The book is longggggg. The first time I read it I wondered when we would finally get a resolution or hint that Wei Wuxian finally understands what he's been feeling for sooo long, but it took forever and to be honest even though this is a con to me, it also is a positive for those who love slowwwww burns, and slow reveal to the background and development of Wangxians feelings for each other. There are many missions although essential to the world-building and the actual plot/mystery that at first seem so useless and not needed, but they are there for a purpose, and they do help us find out more clues about what's been going on and why Wei Wuxian was brought back from the dead. 

The book is the most non censored version of MDZ, and so there are many questionable moments/questions about Non-consent that occur during moments when Wangxian are drunk. Honestly, these scenes are so weird to me, because they hold so much truth and revelations to Wangji's feelings for Weiying. After all, he's drunk and the most authentic version of himself. There are so many moments (like stealing chickens or showing him the bunnies) that make you just want to cry at his love Weiying and the pain he had to endure when he thought he was never coming back. Still, at the same time, there are many moments where you're like oh wow that escalated, and you feel just a tad discomfort at the idea of the non-con. But like I said these scenes are required for these two to really like give into what they've both been trying to push away or ignore, and it's nice to see how Weiying reacts to his feelings becoming uncontrollable and more prominent. 

There are some moments in the book where things seem vague or unexplained (which the other sources did their own thing with), some characters who are mentioned but not really given enough detail, some plot details where it's not fully understood. However, I do think that because the book is already so long, the most critical information needed was there and the reveal of the mysteries were all done well. I think though that it's better to see how it materialises visually hence the other media adaptations. 

Ratings: 4/5 -It's not easy to pick up the book and read, but I have so much fun returning to it and laughing along with Wei Wuxian's thoughts and ideas about Wang Ji.

2.The Manhua

I was so shook when I found out MDZ has a manhua. Mostly because China wouldn't really make it easy for the book adaptation to be honestly portrayed visually. But the manga shocked me, it is censored, but the writers and the artists are all so obsessed with this book and this couple that despite having to remove or edit some scenes, they draw some additional scenes and post it online so that international fans can still get to see these moments visually. That is incredible, and I'm so grateful that we have a team of people who respect and love the piece as much as the fans do. 

Pros: 

With any graphic novel/manga the art of MDZ is fantastic to see, the characters are brought to life with colour and also the inclusion of chibi drawings to make a moment incredibly cute or funny. Weiying is very naughty, so a chibi drawing of him makes us see him like how he's acting a child. I enjoy the manhua of MDZ so much, and I love how they drew each of the characters and the world. 

Cons but not really cons: 

I think, however, there are better visual sources for MDZ available that is more detailed in terms of characters and includes more information about the world-building. The plot also has to be condensed as well because you can't draw everything from the book. The manhua is also still in the works so, its a very slow upload and it will take years for it to be completed. But this is understandable, and I can't wait to read the full completed copy. If you hate reading and can't stand words, I think the manhua version is for you!

Ratings: 3.5/5 -It’s the waiting that lowered the ratings for me and the fact that I prefer other sources but I’m so grateful for the manhua. 

3.The Show

The one that brought international fans like swarms to this story. Untamed shocked all of us in the BL community as the first time we heard about it, sure it was nice to see that Yibo was cast as Wang Ji, but even then his acting wasn't that profound or praised so we didn't care, and Zhan also seemed like an interesting choice for out Weiying. I think there were an outrage and confusion when we heard this was going to be censored and a bromance. It felt like it made no sense because there's no way really to edit the relationship and love of Wangxian, so people went into the show resentful and worried. But after 20 episodes, the anger, worry and upset were erased. Untamed is a masterpiece, and it blows my mind how censored it is but still not really censored? It deletes the questionable moments in the book but adds the essential parts even where we get to see Wang Ji's feelings (Though obviously not mentioned as feelings but respect). We get to watch Weiying realise how much he cherishes whatever he has with Wang Ji and how much he misunderstood the latter, and how much Wang Ji cared for him. The show as Netflix says is not about just friends. Still, it emphasises the connection between these two using subtext clues and symbolisms, and visual metaphors to make sure the audience knows that these two are soulmates and are meant for each other. Here are the other pros and cons of the show:

Pros:

The acting is incredible, like so good and I can't think of two people who were more suited for Wangxian, Yibo shocked me as Wang Ji because although I knew him (because of Kpop), I didn't really think he would pull of stoic but still vulnerable Wang Ji. He was good at showing the emotions of love and longing that has been connected with Wang Ji. Zhan was an excellent Wuxian, he made me smile, he made laugh, he made me so happy because of his mischievous aura, but he also played serious and emotional and resentful Wuxian well as well. I keep crying every time I see the death scene in the show because it's just so done well.The directors and producers who didn't care about hiding the relationship between these two, they still wanted to be respectful to the writer and the source, and they still wanted to show as much as possible that these two loved each other. For that, I'm so grateful and they did a brilliant job with what they could. The character arcs and development and depth; Its the way they took the other characters from the book and fleshed them out giving each of them more depth, more understanding, more dimensionality and more story connecting to our plot, and it broke my heart how much I loved everyone in this show. The actors all performed so well, and some gave me goosebumps at how well they portrayed their characters  (Xue Yang!!) like stunning and just a great cast.The storyline was also written in an innovative way, the flashbacks were first shown to the audience, how Wangxian became Wangxian and so the audience felt every single hurt and pain that Wang Ji was feeling. We understood why he acted the way he did. The flashbacks also provided plot structure to the mystery and the actual plot of the show, it left clues, and we watched the villains become villains (secretly), we saw how some characters grew. Each of the arcs in the book was told in a way that it flowed together and made sense. Due to this way of structuring the plot the show became so much more profound in the way it messed with our emotions, every death mattered, and every character had their own story and importance to the audience. 

Cons:

The censorship. I've praised how they overcame it, but it's still there, the ending of the show was done this way because of censorship and to be honest I still think everyone should read the book because there are moments where the romance of Wangxian is fun and memorable to see (the confession scene whilst it was done okay in the show because of censorship it doesn't hold as much oomph as it did in the book. Mainly because the events that happened before it was already so filled with angst and drama and the results of the confession Wangxian clinging onto each other despite being in danger is a must-see, the censorship is annoying because it shouldn't be there, it's something that whilst it did help with some stuff, it still feels like an insult to the piece, and it still doesn't sit well with me that China censors their BL. So its a con.

Ratings 5/5  I think I could spend so much time breaking down why Untamed is a masterpiece BL show, but all I can say is despite 50 episodes (longgg) it is worth the time and effort and if you watch BL, go see it. 

4.The Audio

The audio for the MDZ is like my favourite thing in the world. I love Chinese audiobook dramas; it's an incredible experience to listen to. With MDZ, this is what the show would be if it wasn't censored. The actors for the audio drama are amazing, and I love them so much. The audio drama is three seasons with some extra scenes and it's incredible if you don't want to read the book, then just watch and listen to the audio drama because its the same story but its brought to life by the acting and storytelling. Also though there are some scenes removed, I think the audio drama is the next uncensored gem of MDZ that shows Wangxian's romance the best way possible. I squeal, and I laugh, and again I cry at every single moment; their first kiss, the inn scene, the confession (i spend time pausing it just to cry at how good it is) and more. I just love it, and I prefer it to reading the book. Other pros and cons:

Pros:

 The story is structured and told properly, follows all the arcs and events in the book and brings them life by voice acting, and the music is incredible. It's nice to listen to and hear Weiying's thoughts and to also listen to an audible version of the book. The audio drama has all the pros from the book as well.

Cons: 

Nothing much to say about the cons. It is not easy to attain the audio drama in English subs, its hard to download and store it, but once you overcome that it's great. I think the audio drama is the most difficult to obtain.

Ratings: My favourite adaptation  5/5

5.The Donghua

Lastly, we have the Donghua or the anime version of MDZ.  What can I say about this, its brilliant, masterpiece, it's gorgeous. If you think the art for the manhua is good, the donghua takes it to a different level. The visuals are stunning, the animation is breath-taking, and the story is again following Untamed ways of censoring the story but making sure it doesn't remove the romantic connotations and symbolism to Wangxian. The donghua also follows Untameds way of starting with flashbacks to explain what happened to Weiying before it started. I have nothing else to say about how great this is. It's the same thing I've been saying about all these adaptations. The donghua though is the best visual masterpiece for MDZ, in my opinion. 

Pros; 

Packed full with symbolism and clues to the plot, it's detailed so well for the storyline and its an excellent way to tell this story. The music and ost for the donghua are also beautiful and gets me emotional each time I hear it.

Cons: 

Censorship. That's it, that's what it always is. For me, I think the donghua is the most censored version of MDZ? Or maybe I just feel that way despite the subtext clues; I do feel irritated at the censorship in the donghua.  Let's pray Heaven's official blessing overcomes that.

Ratings: 3.8/5 - I love it so much because of the visuals but apart from that I prefer other sources for MDZ. Still the best donghua that exists. 

So here you have in an in-depth and messy conversation about one of my favourite media pieces to existing right now in BL. I think I will never stop singing praises at MXT for creating this story and I think there's nothing else I rather do than just spend times when I need a distraction watching, listening or reading this story again and again. What about you all.  What do you feel about MDZ? What pros and cons do you have for each adaptation? Which is your favourite. And have you been able to get any rest when we know that Heaven's official blessing is out TODAY!! Let me know your thoughts. Happy Halloween, Enjoy it.

[passionate-reply]

Do you “fucking love” science? Have you ever been blinded by it? Well, it doesn’t really matter, because that goofy little number isn’t really supposed to be on Thomas Dolby’s debut album in the first place. Find out about all the awesome OTHER stuff that’s actually meant to be here, in this new installment of Great Albums! Transcript below the break.

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! Today, I’ll be talking about a stellar album by one of those artists who have gone down in history as “one hit wonders,” despite producing a deep catalogue that’s often more impressive than that one song they end up known for: it’s The Golden Age of Wireless, the debut LP of Thomas Dolby. Chances are pretty good you’ve heard his big hit, “She Blinded Me With Science,” before...at least, if you’re American.

Music: “She Blinded Me With Science”

Like I said, if you’re American, you’ve heard this one before. If anything, it’s oversaturated! But if you’re from elsewhere in the world, you might not know it. Growing up in the US, I went through the whole gauntlet of alleged “one hit wonders” of 80s synth-pop, and a great many of them turned out to be British artists who had perfectly respectable careers in their native UK: Gary Numan, Soft Cell, and OMD, for example. Thomas Dolby is also British, but he’s apparently more famous here than he is across the pond--which is still not that famous.

He really ought to be, though, because The Golden Age of Wireless is a true masterpiece. Or, at least it WAS, in its original form. It’s actually a tough album to talk about, insofar as it’s hard to pin down what exactly constitutes “The Golden Age of Wireless.” It’s had quite a few different pressings, and a variety of different track listings. And the original version of it does NOT include “She Blinded Me With Science.” While I’d never argue that it’s a bad song, since it is insanely fun, and catchy to the point of being irresistible, it really does not belong on this album. I’m sure it helped them move copies of it, but its inclusion kind of ruins the vibe, to be honest. Its in-your-face and flamboyant hooks make it feel like a very unwarranted intrusion on an otherwise fairly serious and contemplative LP, which seems to have been intended as a fairly tight and thoughtful concept album.

Aside from that glaring issue, there are a few other tracks that have appeared on later versions of the album that weren’t there from the start, namely, the two tracks from Dolby’s first ever-release, a double A-side of “Urges” and “Leipzig,” as well as “One of Our Submarines,” the B-side of some versions of “She Blinded Me With Science.” All of these tracks are excellent, and mesh with the thematic and sonic character of the album quite well. “One of Our Submarines” in particular is often considered one of the best tracks of Dolby’s career--melancholy, claustrophobic, and stinging in its poignant sense of tragedy. It captures the misery and futility of modern war, as well as the sunset of the British Empire after the Second World War...and there’s a sample of a dolphin, too. It’s easily the track that I most wish had been included from the very start.

Music: “One of Our Submarines”

But now that that’s over with, I’d like to drill down and talk about how the album operates in its original form, as the artist intended. Like I said earlier, The Golden Age of Wireless is best understood as a concept album, and I think of it in a similar league as classics like the Buggles’ The Age of Plastic, OMD’s Dazzle Ships, or even Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love. The original track listing opens with “Flying North,” a stellar introduction to one of the most prominent themes of the album: freedom!

Music: “Flying North”

“Flying North” is an exultant anthem of self-determination, and one clearly mediated by “metal birds”--aeroplanes, that is. It’s a celebration of the independence allowed by technology, and a rather winsome one, in which this almost macho image of a heroic pilot takes center stage. The final track of the album, “Cloudburst At Shingle Street,” is a bit more esoteric, but seems to be aiming for a pretty similar idea overall, and I’d argue that the two of them form thematic “bookends.”

Music: “Cloudburst At Shingle Street”

“Cloudburst At Shingle Street” leads us through the technological evolution of mankind, from swinging from trees to paving concrete beaches--but the spacey synth warbles beneath those lines give them an ominous bent. The assertion that we might be heading into a cloudburst “mindless,” “naked,” or “blindly” is unnervingly cynical, but, we’re told, “there’s no escaping it.” Despite all of these signs that our better judgment should be resisting the temptation of this miraculous cloudburst...this triumphant, rising coda, with its powerful choir encouraging us onwards, seems to muddle the whole thing. The untethered, free-roaming nature of modern life isn’t always this sexy and exuberant, though--consider the track “Weightless,” as a counterpoint.

Music: “Weightless”

“Weightless” certainly seems to be about modern transients of some sort--in this case, traveling by car--but never lionizes them or makes them too terribly enviable. Instead, the focus is on the image of the draining fuel tank: the constant emptiness and craving for meaning, validation, and genuine love. No matter the allure of this very American, Route 66-like setting, the gas stations, cinemas, and decadent diner meals along the way are never any real substitute for an emotionally authentic life. That setting is, of course, a wistfully backward-looking Midcentury one. Nostalgia and childhood naivete are also among the album’s major themes, and are expressed the most clearly on “Europa and the Pirate Twins.”

Music: “Europa and the Pirate Twins”

Narratively, “Europa and the Pirate Twins” is a bittersweet story of childhood playmates who never quite re-unite, despite promising to be together again someday. The really interesting wrinkle is the fact that the narrator’s beloved Europa has become a famous celebrity as an adult, and the narrator is essentially a fan of her despite their real-world relationship. It’s an uncanny, confused parasocial relationship dynamic that feels extremely contemporary, despite the fact that it’s ultimately more of a commentary on the rise of teenager-oriented marketing during the Midcentury than anything else. The strange, often unhealthy relationships between young people and mass media, particularly radio, are another one of the major sources of tension on The Golden Age of Wireless. “Europa and the Pirate Twins” is also one of the more interesting tracks, instrumentally, featuring a prominent harmonica part, performed by Andy Partridge of XTC. Given how much the album strives to be about the future and past simultaneously, steeped in nostalgia and utopian visions alike, it makes sense to hear Dolby blend elements of traditional folk or popular music with forward-thinking synth-pop sensibilities. Listen also for a flute on “Windpower,” and a substantial amount of guitar on “Commercial Breakup,” a song that proves Dolby certainly can rock, if he feels like it.

Music: “Commercial Breakup”

The cover art for The Golden Age of Wireless isn’t exactly the most iconic, but I’ve always thought it was very beautiful. You’ve got this very eye-catching, lurid, pulp magazine style illustration of Dolby as a diligent, yet glamourous engineer, radiating with the complementary colour palette of orange and blue, the perfect picture of retro cool. But it’s framed and inset, to give us a conscious sense of observing something that’s coming to us from another time, an artifact preserved. That patina and sense of the antique is amplified by this dull-coloured background, which actually shows a marble sculpture gallery in a museum, though that’s tough to make out unless you have it right in front of you. The numerous shades of irony operating here are another thing that make the album feel strikingly contemporary.

I’m also a huge fan of the album’s title. “Wireless,” if you weren’t aware, is an old-fashioned term for radio. Radio itself is a strong theme on the album, most obviously on the track “Radio Silence,” but the use of the term “wireless” isn’t just another piece of retro nostalgia--I think it’s also evocative of that sense of free-flying, untethered independence I talked about earlier. The first half, i.e., “golden age,” is perhaps even more important. “Golden age” is an extremely loaded term that brings a number of rich associations to the table. “Golden ages” are simultaneously longed for, but not fully believed in. They’re bygone eras that usually felt like nothing special to the people who actually lived through them, despite their greatness being palpable to anyone reflecting on them in hindsight. In every golden age, there’s a poetic tragedy.

I think that even if someone did buy this record just to get their hands on “She Blinded Me With Science,” they’d probably be at least a little bit disappointed in what they got. The album does have some decent pop singles, chiefly “Radio Silence” and “Europa and the Pirate Twins,” but they’re still humming with nostalgia and unease, and not without some substantial experimental DNA.

Music: “Radio Silence”

While they cut the single weirdest track on the album, “The Wreck of the Fairchild,” they still retained some fairly ambitious tracks, such as “Windpower”--clearly an ode to Kraftwerk’s “Radioactivity.” It’s hard to be angry with an electronic musician for trying to rip off Kraftwerk, since they all do it one way or another, and in this case it invites a natural comparison between two great concept albums focused on the theme of radio.

Music: “Windpower”

Overall, though, The Golden Age of Wireless is still a reasonably accessible album on the whole. Possibly not what you expected, and certainly, a work that’s more sentimental and affecting than good for the dance floor, but as far as poignant, ballady, diesel-punk odes to the tragic techno-optimism of the Midcentury go, I’d say it’s not all that hard to get into! Dolby does have a pop core, as an artist, that he’s quite capable of selling to us if he chooses to. For proof of that point, look no further than the single “Hyperactive!” which he followed this up with a few years later:

Music: “Hyperactive!”

When discussing an ostensible one-hit wonder, there’s a distinct temptation to resort to “they deserved better” style rhetoric. On one hand, yes, I do think more people should hear Thomas Dolby’s music, and that it has a lot to say to us. I’m all about obscure music finding new life and being appreciated. That said, in the case of Dolby, I think he basically got what he wanted, in the end. He’s always been more keenly interested in music’s many behind-the-scenes roles than he has in chasing pop stardom himself--he’s produced music, and scored a number of films and video games over the decades. It feels kind of wrong to tell someone who’s successful at one thing that they “deserve” to be successful at something different, just because we may want to hear him do it, or because we esteem one skillset more highly than the other. Ultimately, The Golden Age of Wireless is a Great Album on its own terms, whether Dolby ever decides to grace us with another synth-pop release under his own name again--which he did in 2011, with A Map of the Floating City. But it’s his decision, as an artist, and the fact that he can choose to or not is a luxury that allows him integrity. I think that’s the way it ought to be.

My overall top track on this album has got to be “Airwaves,” a song in which the narrator dies, tragically and suddenly, in an automobile accident. It’s not the sexy, “Warm Leatherette” sort of car accident, but rather a dismally realistic one, that shows quite frankly how undignified death can be. Sometimes, we aren’t so much doomed heroes as we are frightened, sickly children, defeated by our own fickle bodies. The last thought our narrator gets is “I itch all over, let me sleep”; their honour perishes just moments before they do. Meanwhile, the radio is a constant presence throughout, and serves as both something to anchor the scene in the droll and quotidian, as well as ultimately becoming something transcendent. The promise of “airwaves” is not only the human interconnectedness made possible by technology, but also a hint at the ultimate destiny of human souls, a kind of ethereal afterlife in the sky. The meandering lulls of the verses contrast sharply with the song’s eerily soaring refrain, which enhances that feeling that those “airwaves” occupy some sort of higher plane. On that surprisingly heavy note, that’s all I’ve got for today, so thanks for listening!

Music: “Airwaves”

[possiblyimbiassed]

What happened to Sherlock? Part IV – Heartbreak and coma (2)

This is the second post of the fourth installment of my meta series where I try to use Sherlock’s own methods to find out what’s happened to him in the show; you can read the first one here. This is about my hypothesis #4: At some point in time between TSoT and HLV, Sherlock takes an overdose of drugs and ends up in coma. In the first post I tested a prediction to try to verify the coma part. Here are the remaining four predictions that I’ll test the same way, corresponding to the rest of my hypothesis. Since this post won’t make much sense unless you’ve read the first one, and since this is also a monster-post, I’ll put the whole thing under the cut, except for this picture of a comatose hospitalized Sherlock in TLD:

Disclaimer: If you feel the subject matter upsetting, please don’t read further - take care and stay safe! I also want to state that no matter what happens in S4 - like nurse Cornish said in TLD, I’m fully convinced Sherlock will survive this. He will pull through and solve The Final Problem - staying alive.

Prediction #2: It will be possible to deduce from events in the show that Sherlock might have harmed himself, and even overdosed.

Observations: There are some scenes - mostly in TAB and TLD - which indicate that Sherlock’s state of health might indeed be self-inflicted (at least on the surface). The most obvious ones, in my opinion, are:

1. Sherlock’s OD in the airplane scenes in TAB is treated like a fact, but people aren’t acting accordingly. The case is complete with backstory from Mycroft, Dr Watson saying this cocktail of drugs could kill Sherlock... 

...and assassin nurse ‘Mary’ suggesting he should be in hospital. And we know from TBB that John has specialist skills in being “able to recognize and give immediate and appropriate treatment to a wide range of medical and surgical conditions including --- poisoning/overdose” (among other things), because this is explicitly stated in his CV. It’s also obvious in this scene that Sherlock has administered the drugs on himself. 

But the obviously logical procedure after his OD - taking Sherlock to hospital to try to restore his body functions and maybe save his life - does not happen; no-one disputes Sherlock’s decision to not receive medical treatment. So here we have a person who might just have tried to take his own life with a potentially lethal dose of drugs, but Dr Watson doesn’t even examine him. It’s glossed over as if nothing serious has happened, and no-one reacts properly to it; Sherlock himself acts as if he’s already miraculously recovered, and the others just let him carry on. This is not realistic, it’s not how an overdosed person possibly could behave. Which indicates that this is all taking place inside Sherlock’s brain; it’s Sherlock who wants to gloss over the serious consequences, even though he feels ashamed. Conclusion: the emphasis at Sherlocks OD as such might mean it’s true, but the timeline might be warped and the reactions following the OD twisted because of Sherlock’s drug-induced state.

2. In S4 there are references to self-harm marks on both Faith’s and Sherlock’s arms. The scenes in TLD where Sherlock talks to Faith about self-harm, deducing that her relationship had ended, that she wasn’t ‘getting any’, that she must have scars of self-harm on her left underarm and that her ‘boyfriend’ didn’t notice, are very telling: 

But if ‘Faith’ was actually Euros, what was her purpose of first making Sherlock think she was suicidal and then just disappear? I see it as more likely that this is all about Sherlock processing his own relationship with John. Sherlock might have been sexually frustrated for a long time, because nothing ever happened between them. But at the same time Sherlock wasn’t really in touch with his feelings and basically horrified to ever talk about it with John (greenhouse scene in TAB is testimony). It’s possible that Sherlock had started using again when John had decided to get married (like he did in canon) and had scars of the syringe on his left underarm, but John didn’t notice this, because he wasn’t there. ‘Self-harm’ in this case equals drug use.

3. Nurse Cornish tells John in TLD that Sherlock has ‘made a mess of himself’, when what we actually saw was John assaulting him. 

But why would the nurse in charge blame the victim in front of the perpetrator? And why all this glossing over the fact that John Watson attacked and beat up his friend to the point of hospitalizing him? Sounds very much like Sherlock’s guilt to me, like he’s actually processing the consequences of what he’s done to himself (his OD) in his Extended Mind Palace. 

It also seems like Sherlock is re-hashing things in his EMP, because we already have a scene from the very first episode, where someone accuses Sherlock of having ‘made a mess’:

4. In TFP we learn that Euros cut herself when she was a kid “to see how my muscles worked”. The parents thought it was a suicide attempt. But little Euros is standing here between them, as if the case was being analyzed in Sherlock’s Mind Palace. 

So what if Euros is actually a part of Sherlock himself? If S4 all happens inside Sherlock’s head, this could very well be the case. Which means that Sherlock might have been the one to harm himself as a kid.

5. As I’ve tried to show in this meta, suicide is one of the major themes in this show. It has been referred to or implied so many times, rubbed in so thoroughly, that it’s rather upsetting. This is a very serious topic, and I doubt the show-makers intend to treat it lightly. I’d rather believe they want to catch our attention with it, to contemplate the dire consequences to other people of Sherlock’s OD. Just like I think Sherlock himself does in TLD, when he warns ‘Faith’...

...and throws her gun in the Thames...

...and argues the point:

6. And then there’s ACD canon. Before Holmes ’falls’ with Moriarty in the Reichenbach Fall (The Final Problem) he leaves a note to Watson (= a classic reference to suicide). It’s believed that Doyle’s intention was to let him die and end the story with Watson living an ordinary life with his wife and only nostalgic memories left from his time with Holmes. But the fans protested and insisted for years until ACD ‘resurrected’ Holmes and published new stories. So if ACD almost ‘killed off’ this great character in canon, wouldn’t it be rather canon compliant of Mofftiss to almost do the same thing? One of the canon stories is also named ‘The Dying Detective’, but in BBC Sherlock they’ve changed the name to ‘The Lying Detective’ - maybe in order to not make it too obvious?

7. On a meta level, would there be any reasons for the character of Sherlock Holmes to try to commit suicide? Well, yes; I think there are plenty of hints that there might be. And I believe @tjlcisthenewsexy puts the finger exactly on those reasons in this excellent meta (my bolding): “If a person takes their own life due to depression directly caused by a heterocentric culture and institutionalized homophobia, then is it really suicide? Or is it murder?” I think this issue was raised by Sherlock already in the first episode, albeit in a slightly less obvious way; the victims of the serial killer were persuaded to take their own life when the killer put pressure on them. 

Same thing basically happened in TRF, when Moriarty pressured Sherlock to jump. And in HLV when Lord Smallwood committed suicide after CAM (=Media as a villain) put pressure on him with blackmail. But the real culprit isn’t the victim; it’s society’s norms and attitudes that pressure them. The issue of homophobia isn’t of course openly addressed in BBC Sherlock, but I think it’s heavily implied for us to read between the lines.

Prediction #3: There will be abundant references to Sherlock’s drugs use, since this is the proximate cause of his state and therefore constantly on his mind. 

Why do we see an IV drip with morphine in HLV? Well, this is the episode where Sherlock gets shot in the chest, so naturally he needs morphine as painkiller… But wait a minute; wouldn’t his brother have informed the hospital staff of the risks of giving Sherlock morphine, seeing as he’s a drug addict? And then there’s Janine’s comment:

Observations: There are several drug-related things in HLV that don’t really make sense. 

Firstly, after knowing him for merely a month, Janine seems to be very much aware of Sherlock’s drug dependence. But if she is already this knowledgeable, why did he have to tell her that he had been ‘working’ when he had actually been sleeping in a drug den (and she seemed to buy it)? But if she didn’t know about the drugs, who had suddenly told her now? 

Secondly, for some odd reason, Sherlock’s drug use seems to be a far bigger issue than his shot wound. A gun is used three times in HLV (twice on a human). But there’s a whole bunch of different drug use references, most of which have to do with Sherlock: a) Isaac Whitney, b) Sherlock found in a drug den, c) Sherlock’s blood tested for drugs at Barts, d) Mycroft gathering Sherlock’s ‘fans’ to search 221B for drugs, e) “Don’t appall me when I’m high”, f) IV morphine drip, h) Janine’s comment about drugs being Sherlock’s dream, i) CAM ‘reading’ opium and morphine as pressure points for Sherlock, j) Mrs Hudson ‘running a drug cartel’ and k) Sherlock having Billy drug his whole family. So there are far more references to drug use than to Sherlock almost dying from a gun shot, which is glossed over; no-one seems to really care about his shot wound or chest pain until he falls apart. Mrs Hudson doesn’t seem overly worried when she learns Sherlock has escaped from the hospital. John - his doctor friend - even yells at him to shut up, and threatens to kill him, when he’s supposedly already dying for the second time:

And Sherlock himself starts to talk about ‘surgery’ and the murderer calling the ambulance and other pieces of absurd, illogical nonsense to gloss over the shot wound, which is now threatening his life again. While at the same time claiming that his drug abuse is actually real; he only solves crimes as a substitute for being high...

At Christmas in HLV Sherlock’s own parents are fussing more over pregnant ‘Mary’ than over their own shot-wounded son. He’s fresh home from months in hospital but doesn’t even move strangely. In hospital he had only a plaster over the shot wound, no bruising visible. This is not realistic in my opinion; if Sherlock was really shot wounded, he wouldn’t have been able to escape by the hospital window in the first place. How did he manage to bring the wheelchair with him, by the way, complete with attached IV-drip of morphine? 

The idea of Sherlock risking his life again; all this mystic, dangerous and elaborated scheme to track down ‘Mary’ and confront her with her crime - and for what? Only to then dismiss the shooting as ‘surgery’ that ‘saved his life’ in order to persuade John to stay with her? It’s just not credible; this is more reminiscent of an action movie (Bond?) derailing into absurdity. I think what all these signs tell us is that Sherlock’s real problem isn’t the supposed shot wound; it’s a drug-related problem.

So, now that we’ve established at least the possibility of Sherlock having OD:d on drugs and ended up in coma as a result, we arrive to the point of determining more precisely when it happened.

Prediction #4: If Sherlock falls into coma, there would be a credibility change/difference between ‘before’ and ‘after’ the OD.

Now this is a hard one, because in BBC Sherlock there’s generally a very subtle line between ‘reality’ and ‘imagination’. There are a series of weird events in the whole show that I find it hard to believe in, and many of them happen before HLV…

Irene’s mystic break-ins into 221B which no-one had noticed (ASiB)

Sherlock being visited by Moriarty at 221B after the trial in TRF, before even John got there

Sherlock having a conversation with Moriarty on the rooftop in TRF (how did Sherlock predict that Jim would have him jump off a rooftop in particular and therefore made his arrangement of faked death based on this?) 

Anderson’s sudden metamorphosis into being Sherlock’s fan-club (MHR)

Torture scene in Serbia and Mycroft’s cruel behaviour there (TEH)

Soldiers who don’t feel when they’re being stabbed in the back in TSoT. (This is such a crazy idea, and the given explanation we have is hard to believe)

These things are weird and not very realistic, but at least they might contain a grain of truth somewhere, albeit dramatized. But in HLV and onwards it does get far worse, in my opinion, when people start acting way out of character or doing absurd or outright impossible things. These could be signs that the events from HLV and onwards are fabricated by Sherlock’s brain, rather than representing ‘real’ things that have actually happened.

Out of character As for acting OOC, I think John’s behaviour has some ups and downs in the show, but in HLV he gets abominable to a point of no return; the idea that he would stay together with ‘Mary’ after she shot his best friend is highly unbelievable - pregnancy or not (in fact it’s even less believable that John would find an assassin, who should be in prison and who attempted to kill his friend, fit to raise their child). And the top of the mountain then comes in TLD, when John assaults Sherlock and acts as if it’s all Sherlock’s own fault. No credibility left. 

But I’d still say that it’s an even bigger OOC development to have the world’s most famous detective stop solving crimes and start committing them instead.

Because as far as I can see, crime solving ends with TSoT; after that, Sherlock doesn't solve a single crime case that hasn't directly to do with his own private life: • He fails to solve lady Smallwood’s blackmail case, which instead ends with lord Smallwood's suicide.

• He fails to capture CAM, the criminal who caused this; instead he murders him. The famous crime solver is now a criminal instead. • He fails to solve Emilia Ricolettis case in his own mind; the person he thought was guilty turns out to be Moriarty instead - who is supposed to be dead. • He fails to solve the mystery of why Moriarty's ‘Miss me?’ video is on every screen in the country, which was supposedly the reason for bringing him back to London. • He fails to save a single one of the Thatcher busts from destruction and why would he want to do that anyway; he even smashes the last one himself! • He fails to find the stolen Black pearl of the Borgias; instead he finds the AGRA stick from Mary's assassin gang. • In a highly doubtable deduction sequence without any kind of evidence, Sherlock decides that Charlie Wellsborough's death is no crime at all; he just had an unfortunately badly timed “seizure” in an extremely weird situation. • He fails to solve the Norbury case, which would exonerate ‘Mary’ from accusations of treason; instead ‘Mary’ dies in a most incredible and over-dramatized way which is physically impossible. • He tries to prove that Culverton Smith is a serial killer, but the only thing he manages to prove is that Smith can try to kill him, Sherlock, on his own request. Supposedly, Smith 'can't stop confessing' after that, but we never get to see or know any of these confessions. • The rest of the show (TFP) is exclusively about Sherlock's own family problems. The only 'outsider' crime cases he tries to solve - his sister's death threats against Sherrinford's governor with wife and the three Garrideb brothers - are complete failures; they all die. He believes he saves Molly's life by forcing her to confess that she loves him, but Euros tells him there was never any danger. Failure again. This is rather far away from canon, where Holmes kept solving crimes even after retirement, isn’t it?

But in this show, after TSoT, there’s only one thing that the genius detective manages to do right: he saves John Watson from the bottom of a well. By solving a puzzle.

So yes - I think these things show a huge difference in credibility between 'before' and 'after' TSoT; the world's most famous detective has stopped solving crimes! (But what about all the cases that were supposedly solved by Sherlock 'spinning plates' in TST, you might ask? Not to worry, I'll get back to that later ;))

As for HLV, I think this is the episode where things start getting completely out of control for Sherlock, indicating that he is actually no longer conscious. Which would mean he doesn’t experience new events in the show’s reality, but his brain keeps re-hashing memories, combining them in new ways to solve Sherlock’s personal problems. Apart from the OOC arguments explained above, I tried to point out a series of others in this meta, connected to Janine’s character. We haven’t seen much of her, but in HLV she appears to be a person with less than average intelligence, which I think she didn’t in TSoT:  

Why would Janine risk her employment to let Sherlock sneak into her boss’ high security office at night when she knew he was there? 

Why would Janine believe that Sherlock would propose to her after they had known each other for a month and he had just left her waiting for him the whole night in his flat without knowing where he was?

If Janine and Sherlock haven’t had sex (because of his reluctance), how come she all confidently just gets into the shower with him?

How can Janine miss out on all the mayhem at 221B - a ‘drugs bust’ with several people present, Mycroft being slammed into the wall, Sherlock talking about her boss as a monster, etc.?

Janine just doesn’t behave in a logical manner in HLV. It. Doesn’t. Make.Sense.

Impossible The first outright impossible thing I can spot, is ‘Mary’ getting into CAM’s office faster than Sherlock. Sherlock makes a whole lot of effort explaining to John that the only way to get into CAM’s office is by his private lift, and just how difficult that is.

Anyone who tried to climb up wouldn’t just need the agility of a circus artist like the ‘spider’ in TBB; they would have to climb the façade, break into the flat and knock two people down in basically no time. I think we can safely say that it’s physically impossible to climb a building of 32 floors and manage all that in less than 45 seconds (which is the time it takes for Sherlock and John to go up with the lift after Janine has let Sherlock in).

Some people may want to talk about ‘artistic license’ here, and claim that this is just entertainment, this is just the show makers twisting reality a bit to make their show more exciting. But don’t forget the major weakness of this argument: if we excuse one clearly impossible thing with ‘artistic license’, then we must be prepared to excuse all of them the same way. Which means that the whole rational basis of Sherlock Holmes’ own methods in this show becomes invalid, because then there are no deductions to be made, since nature laws and reality as we know it don’t exist ‘in-show’. Which could very well be the case, as I see it, if nothing in this show is meant to make sense - or if there’s still a coherent plot-line somewhere, but the events we do see are mainly taking place inside Sherlock’s head. But my idea here was still to try to pinpoint a change, a difference in levels of weirdness, between ‘before’ and ‘after’ Sherlock’s presumed OD.

Prediction #5: There will be time- and place-references that coincide with a possible OD directly after TSoT

If Sherlock would take to kill himself, where would it happen, when and how?

Well, I think Sherlock already explains it to Lestrade in this ‘script’ from ASiP published on BBC’s website, where we get this (supposedly) cut out scene:

In other words: Sherlock would kill himself, but in a different time and place, presumably a) after leaving a note and b) after some ‘prior sign’s. And c) he’d do it in a familiar place that means something to him. So, to track down the point in time when Sherlock might have done this, we need to determine a) when he has left some kind of note and b) what ‘prior signs’ that could have preceded this.

Observations

Point in time: As for a), in TAB, after realising that Sherlock has OD:d, we learn that he has made a list of all the drugs that he’s taken; a promise to his brother since years ago. That’s a kind of note – isn’t it? A note that could help saving his life after an overdose.

But there are also hints that TAB isn’t the real time of the OD event:

JOHN: He couldn’t have taken all of that in the last five minutes. MYCROFT: He was high before he got on the plane. MARY: He didn’t seem high. MYCROFT: Nobody deceives like an addict.

But wait; could Sherlock really have overdosed on drugs and after that performed the whole scene at the tarmac? Where he says goodbye to John, jokes with him and makes a whole little coherent speech about the Game and the East Wind? Not very likely for a person who has OD:d if you ask me…

And then there’s also the fact I pointed out in my last meta (X); that Mycroft talks about this OD coming after a ‘week in solitary confinement’ when Sherlock was locked up with his worst enemy - himself. I think this week could well be the time John was on ‘sex holiday’ after the wedding. If the shooting of CAM wasn’t real (which is supported by the easiness with which Sherlock gets away with murder without any kind of lasting consequence), neither has there been any imprisonment. I can rather imagine Sherlock isolating and locking himself in at 221B for a week, trying to alleviate his pain and heartbreak with drugs after John’s wedding.

Regarding the turn of events after a presumed OD which we don’t  actually see, @sagestreet has made a whole reconstruction of how the things could possibly have happened in one of the additions to this meta (please scroll down to the subtitle “TIMELINE FOR A POSSIBLE OD-AFTER-THE-WEDDING SCENARIO”. 

There’s also a note playing a central role in TLD, and I’ve tried to elaborate on this in these two metas: (X, X). The episode TLD seems to take place long after John’s wedding, when he already has a daughter. But what if this is actually not the case? What if the whole of TLD just represents Sherlock’s brain going through events that actually happened immediately after the wedding? (Or even immediately after his faked suicide, in some cases)? 

Geographic place: The whole sequence in TLD about Sherlock isolating himself in 221B, resorting to an intensive drug abuse that is basically killing him, could be showing what really happened with him directly after the wedding. John has (supposedly) abandoned him (honeymoon?) and he’s turning nuts, talking to himself (Billy Wiggins), shooting the walls and playing out a Shakespeare drama all by himself. 

221B would also fit with c), ‘a familiar place that means something’ to Sherlock. The events might in fact be showing some kind of reality, perhaps it’s just the time of them that is twisted and misplaced. Which would seem likely, if this is Sherlock processing his distorted memories of those events inside his still drug-addled brain. On the other hand, the prison where he allegedly would have taken the drugs and got high, before meeting up at the tarmac to board the airplane; none of these places would have the slightest personal meaning to Sherlock, would they? So where exactly is he more likely to take an overdose according to the deleted scene manuscript; in prison or in 221B? I think the answer here is clear.

Prior signs: Regarding b), I’ve already talked about the signs of self-harm in TLD that John doesn’t seem to either notice or acknowledge. The drug abuse is one clear sign of self-harm, but there’s also more subtle things, like Sherlock basically abandoning his job (which he was supposedly ‘married to’) to take over John’s wedding planning; something he would normally find mundane and probably despise. He even tells John’s and Mary’s wedding guests in his speech how utterly useless the ‘wedding tradition’ is. So why does Sherlock even do this? John and Mary would be fully capable of planning their own wedding, wouldn’t they? I think it’s a form of self-harm, self-punishment or maybe even self-imposed martyrdom - “a cross I have to bear” as he tells John, referring to his ‘ordinary’ parents. 

The ‘delayed backstabbing’ in TSoT also makes for a dramatic metaphor about what happens to Sherlock; if he’s the un-seen murder victim of this wedding, the effect of it doesn’t play out until afterwards, when he’s left to his own gloomy thoughts and feelings of abandonment in 221B. Which would mean the delayed back-stabbing was a prior sign to Sherlock’s later ‘bleed-out’. 

It’s also interesting to speculate about exactly when this actual back-stabbing took place. We never get to see the wedding act in TSoT, but we do see the moment when it dawns upon Sherlock that Mary is pregnant. I think Sherlock’s realization of her pregnancy is the last nail in the coffin; that's what ultimately breaks his heart. It’s not until after this moment that Sherlock leaves the party; a marriage can be dissolved, but a child is a child and it will always be John’s responsibility. Which basically means the definite end of their crime-solving life together...

But I think the most important piece of evidence about the time of Sherlock’s possible suicide attempt taking place immediately after John’s wedding is this:

John’s blog stops updating at this point. The blog also took a pause after TRF, but the current gap is definitely the longest. All this time we’ve had John’s blog as a more ‘sober’ account of the events; a ‘second opinion’, if you like, to what I believe the show is: Sherlock’s more colourful and dramatic tale of their life together. Sherlock hacks the blog and posts one last instalment before the blog dies completely. I believe this last post can be seen as Sherlock’s ‘note’, which I’ve tried to explain in these two metas X  , X. 

But what about the blog cases of S4? In TST we see a lot of cases listed by John’s supposed blogging; so many in fact that John tells Sherlock that he can’t go on ‘spinning plates’. Yes, it sounds promising, but since a) John is typing on a jpg-file (which is technically impossible, unless you convert it to or integrate it in another format),

and b) there are no references on the real blog to these new ‘cases’, I’d say that none of these cases are realistic. Which probably means they are fabricated by Sherlock’s brain - some of them are even rip-offs from old cases, like The Six Thatchers.

Last but not least: on a meta level, is there a certain significance to TSoT as an episode that makes it a good time reference for being the point after which Sherlock passes to a comatose state? This analysis isn’t mainly intended to reflect a meta level of the show, it rather focuses on the textual level. That doesn’t mean, however, that I find the meta level unimportant. There are quite a few tumblr analysts that have expanded on the form and shape of this show; its ‘messages’, arguments and conclusions on a meta level. For example, @garkgatiss has published several very thorough analyses of the overall pattern of BBC Sherlock as a five-act drama. In the latest one, dedicated to analyzing Bond and Hannibal references, @garkgatiss points out this about the symmetry pattern of S3 (my bolding):

“S3 doesn’t follow the same Bond/Hannibal triad structure as S2 and S4, and we shouldn’t expect it to. Nevertheless, we still find Bond and Hannibal in TEH and HLV — TEH ‘revives’ the myth of Sherlock Holmes that was destroyed in TRF when Sherlock returns from being dead and proves he was not a fraud after all, and HLV gives Sherlock the Clarice Starling creation myth, as befits the true hero of the story. TSOT, as the overall midpoint of the show, serves its own distinct function in the story that I plan to cover in full at some point, but not here”.

So, TSoT represents the midpoint of the story. It’s also the point after which, I believe, Sherlock enters his comatose state and resorts to pure speculation about the future. Or, should I rather say, he resorts to modeling the emotionally devastating consequences of his own choices, in a series of worst-case scenarios, which are basically S4, but start already in HLV. Which would mean yet another indication of the story arc being symmetric, with the figurative ‘murder case’ in the middle; Sherlock’s heart breaks when John not only marries ‘Mary Morstan’, but even starts a family with her.  Because Sherlock’s discovery in TSoT of ‘Mary’s pregnancy will (in Sherlock’s mind) most certainly mean that John’s days as a companion to Sherlock’s crime solving are counted. A responsible father wouldn’t run around risking his life on a daily basis, would he? So yes - to me TSoT undoubtedly marks a midpoint in this story.

So, to sum it up once again: my belief is that this show is totally happening within Sherlock’s head, from his PoV. But there’s a distinction between what happens before TSoT and after; in the former case Sherlock voluntarily goes through his memories with John, based on reading his blog. In the latter, I think Sherlock’s body is in coma due to an OD, but his mind is racing, thus the extra weirdness.

Summary

In brief, I think Sherlock Holmes has some serious stuff that he needs to deal with, and so has John Watson, even if maybe Sherlock’s issues are the worst. And in S4 Shelock does; he goes from being someone who constantly tries to detach his brain from its inconvenient ‘transport’ of a body, to someone who ultimately allows himself to care deeply and truly. And I believe that’s basically what this show is about: the long and winding road to freedom, the mental journey home to 221B. And on this inner journey, he has to go through hell, which means pain, heartbreak and loss, but also insight and realization. But since this is also the story of a truly brilliant and remarkable human being and his only ’feature of interest’; an extremely competent, brave and loyal person, there’s good hope that they can actually help each other. They just need to overcome their worst adversaries first; their own internalized heteronormativity and homophobia, imposed on them by society.

I think one of the most interesting things with Sherlock’s process is to see that it’s actually his brain that saves him. While Sherlock’s intense emotions lead him to desperate actions that cause a comatose state in his body, his brain still refuses to give up, because it needs to understand. Which - seemingly paradoxically - leads him to seek contact with his own feelings and thereby solve the problem - the final problem. This character development is indeed extraordinary.

Phew! I’m truly grateful for those of you who might have managed to read through these two monster posts. :) The next installment of this meta series - which will hopefully be a bit shorter - will handle Hypothesis #5: Almost everything we see happen in HLV, TAB and S4 is Sherlock ‘running scenarios’ in his mind, based on a mix of his earlier memories and movies he has watched.

Tagging some people who might be interested:  @raggedyblue @ebaeschnbliah @sarahthecoat @gosherlocked @fellshish @sagestreet @tendergingergirl @loveismyrevolution @sherlockshadow @darlingtonsubstitution @tjlcisthenewsexy @devoursjohnlock  @kateis-cakeis @csi-baker-street-babes @sectoralheterochromiairidum @mrskolesouniverse

[randomboo256]

Sunset Overdrive Review

After the past couple years, one studio I've definitely grown into a strong fan of is Insomniac Games. While I've yet to play through all their games, I have played through the Ratchet and Clank series and the modern Spider-Man titles. I think both are excellent all around. As such, I was interested in Sunset Overdrive the second I heard about it. Ok well maybe that's not entirely accurate...

I was first introduced to this game from commercials I saw on TV as a kid when it was coming out as an exclusive on the then new Xbox One, which already sounds like blasphemy doesn't it? Insomniac is so heavily associated with Playstation that it's easy to forget that the studio only recently became an official part of the Playstation family. Regardless, I didn't know this as a kid. I saw the spunky advertisements and was... not impressed. I was barely a gamer as a kid (only really being interested in my Wii, PS2, and DS and hardly at that). Not only was it's Xbox One status an automatic "can't play", but it also just didn't appeal to me. A loud M rated action game full of punk and swearing? I'd rather read my totally mature "young adult" (aka middle school girl) romance novels.

However, times have changed since then. I'm not in middle school, I haven't properly read in years, and I'm now fully invested in exactly this kind of video game malarky. However despite that, it still took me this long to actually play it. Why's that? Well for whatever reason, I had convinced myself that this was a multiplayer game, so I avoided it. However, this game is entirely singleplayer... well on Steam anyway. Apparently this game DOES have multiplayer on Xbox, which was removed from the PC port I played. That doesn't bother me because I was never going to play it anyway, but that could be a game killer for others. Anyhow, let's start with the story.

Sunset Overdrive's storyline is rather tongue-in-cheek. The game is about the titular Sunset City being overtaken by an apocalypse after evil soda corporation Fizzco rushing their newest product, OverCharge, to market. The soda included a deadly untested ingredient that caused people who drunk it to mutate into soda-obsessed zombie-like creatures called OD. The city was walled up on all sides as Fizzco lies to the public about what really transpired in Sunset City. So while the rest of the world is normal as always, Sunset City spirals into chaos as OD attack, violent gangs rise, and eventually Fizzco's very own robots are sent to clean up the mess in the most violent way possible. Here you come along. You're a custom avatar, however unlike traditional player insets, our main girl has a mind (and a mouth) of her own. She frequently makes sarcastic comments as she revels in the ensuing chaos of Sunset City, all while trying to find her way to break out of this city to expose Fizzco to the rest of the world. The game takes a very clear anti-capitalist theme as many dystopian stories do. However, unlike the self-serious novels I read as a kid, the plot is intentionally over the top and jokes are made constantly. I thought the game was pretty funny overall, but that depends on the person. The game has characters and character arcs as well, however both were fairly stereotypical. The characters are likeable enough, albeit not too memorable. They were entertaining at least, so I suppose that's all that matters. The game has meta humor at times, which was very "of its era". Most meta jokes landed and a couple flopped. They were restrained though. They only showed up on occasion, and most importantly for meta humor: The game was never expecting you to take it seriously. Meta humor fails the most when the same piece of media that tells a meta joke wants you to still be earnestly invested. The game's silly tone is helped by the game's artstyle, which blends realism with bright exaggerated colors and comic book style onomatopoeia. The game aged very well visually, especially on PC where you can increase the resolution and fps to modern standards, rather than the Xbox's 720p and 30fps.

Sunset Overdrive is a platformer with third person shooter elements, akin to Ratchet and Clank. On the surface, they play very similarly, however there are major differences. Firstly: you can't strafe like in Ratchet, and on top of that, your base movement speed is very slow making it very difficult to dodge attacks on foot. That's because secondly: You can grind on nearly anything. Grinding is much faster than basic movement, at the cost of making aiming more difficult. That's not your only special platforming move either. You can grind under rails, run on walls, bounce high off nearly anything, dash across and spring out of water, ground pound jump, even dash in midair, and more. Chaining together moves like this generates a combo which can power your attacks in various ways. The game wants you to play "the floor is lava" at all times by making you balance being in a constant state of platforming while also shooting up everything that gets in your way. In that sense, this game feels like even more of a platformer than some of the later Ratchet games, which at times can feel a lot more shooter than platformer. It's a really addicting core gameplay loop, and I honestly kinda prefer it over Ratchet tbh.

All of this is combined with the fact that thirdly: The game is open world. Normally, that's a big red flag to me, however this time around I'm not upset because this world is expertly designed. Just going from point A to point B in this game can be a lot of fun. This world is designed like it's a video game you can play in and have fun. There are rails and bouncy objects everywhere and the game's momentum let's you build up a real satisfying sense of speed. The game's overall platforming moveset is so immense that it's fun to just play around with. Combined with the whole world being designed like a huge interconnected platforming sandbox, and this game effortless shows us exactly how an open world game should be designed. By making the moment to moment gameplay of just moving around this world satisfying, engaging, and fun with a high skill ceiling to boot, you've created a game that truly earns it's open world status. Most open world games tend to throw you onto an empty map with all the interesting and fun bits spread apart between miles of nothing, with most of your gameplay amounting to you essentially waiting for the fun to begin as you trudge from point A to point B. In Sunset Overdrive, not only is the game designed like a massive playground, but, quite literally, everywhere you look you see a collectable you can platform over to grab on your way between locations.

Overall, Sunset Overdrive is brilliant game. It has an enjoyable story, good artstyle, and incredible gameplay. What's not to love?

Well...

What I've said in regards to gameplay is very true, for the first half of the game at least. By the end though, my opinions had changed. That's often caused in games where the core gameplay is solid, but by the end the challenge has increased to a point where the mechanics are falling in on themselves and showing their flaws. However in Sunset's case, it's the exact opposite. The game's biggest issue is summed up with simply:

"Ok... but when does the game start getting hard?"

The answer is never, at least from what I played, which was all the main and side missions (including what was originally dlc). Once you get to grips with the core gameplay, it never gets any more difficult. Platforming challenges don't get more complex, enemies don't get much harder, and the game on the whole tends to feel rather... mindless? Especially by the end of my playthrough. What was original exciting an invigorating gameplay mechanics eventually led to the slow painful realization that this game completely fails to properly challenge the player. We have this deep and addicting gameplay system with a high skill ceiling, yet the game feels like your playing on baby mode the whole time. I rarely died (and even if you do the game barely punishes you), I almost never ran out of ammo for any of my weapons, most enemies die in one hit and you don't take a lot of damage overall. I barely even used the amp and overdrive systems, which would've just made me even more overpowered. With how many enemies you slaughter with so little effort, it almost reminds me of a Warriors game, although it's never that bad. If I didn't know better, I'd assume I accidently chose the easiest difficulty option, however this game has no difficulty options. Coming off of Ratchet and Clank, a series that can get truly difficult on the highest settings, this just feels far too easy which is bizarre because Ratchet is the one rated E10+ and this is the one rated M. This game has gore, drinking, and constant hard swears. Why is the gameplay balanced around young children? I've felt more challenged on NORMAL mode of past Ratchets than anywhere in Sunset Overdrive.

Even beyond the difficulty, this game has some other bizarre step backs from Ratchet and Clank. Firstly, the weapon wheel is much worse. In later Ratchet games, you can access every one of your weapons from your weapon wheel, which really encouraged experimentation with your guns. When trying out your fancy new toy is as simple as pulling up a quick select and tabbing over to it, it really compels you to make the most out of your full arsenal. In Sunset, your weapon wheel has no tabs, like the classic Ratchets, so that means that only a fraction of your inventory that you personally selected can be accessed in a second. You'd think that's maybe for balancing, but no. You can switch out your weapons at any time in the pause menu, even mid combat. What's worse is that you can't even just manually select the gun from a menu like classic Ratchet. You HAVE to add it to your weapon wheel to use it, which just makes experimentation feel cumbersome. This encourages the player to just use a single selection of guns the whole game, making the whole game blend into itself more.

However, even if you did stick to a few favorite guns, they even made steps back from Ratchet in that regard too. In Ratchet games, your guns level up from use, and they brought that back here. However it's much better in Ratchet. Firstly, because Ratchet is simply more challenging and better weapons are more noticeable, but secondly because in Ratchet your guns evolve into a totally new form when maxed out at level 5. This makes it really satisfying to level up your guns, and that's ignoring the upgrade trees some games have. In Sunset, your max level is just another hard to notice enhancement like levels 2-4 in Ratchet. Oh, I got more ammo with this gun? Great, now it'll be even harder to run out. Not only that, but it requires a lot more to level up a gun in Sunset. In Ratchet, you can comfortable max out most of your main arsenal by the end of the main campaign. In Sunset, I only saw a single gun get maxed out, and I played this game for a lot longer than a typical Ratchet game. I clocked around 40 hours, meanwhile most Ratchets are around 10-20.

Overall, this is a game with such strong promise and strong core gameplay that ultimately under deliveries in a few key areas. However, despite my bitching, I still really like this game. While it may have been too easy, it was still pretty fun while it lasted, even if that fun started to drain around at the eleventh hour (or more accurately around the 30th hour). The biggest damn shame here are that these issues surely couldn't have been THAT difficult to address, right? They did all this stuff properly in their game right before this one, so why fail here? Would it have killed them to add difficulty options and keep the Ratchet quick select and upgrade systems? I doubt that. What I see in Sunset Overdrive is great, yet deeply flawed game with a ton of room for improvement. If they ever do make that fabled Sunset Overdrive 2, it could be a true masterpiece.

8.0/10

[the-muse-of-animation]

The Magic of Animation

Animation is like a dream come true, if magic exists, it’s in animation. As a child you may have been enchanted by the tree growing scene in Totoro or by how lively and comical a object such as the carpet in Aladdin could become. Have you ever wondered how this magic comes to be ? How all the mechanisms are set in motion to deliver the final product on your screen ? You have come to the right place, O Reader, this blog is solely devoted to the magic of animation, may it be to showcase its wonders or to uncover all its tricks.

This post will be a very small and incomplete talk about animation to serve as an introduction to this blog.

Why animation would be magical one may ask ?

Animation is magic because anything can take life on screen. Animation is the part of art that can not only give movements to a drawing but can also give it all the dimensions and complexity of a soul. Even a landscape has a new life when animated. All arts have their own way to convey life to their objects and animation is too often seen as simple entertainment compared to “higher arts” when it should be on the same level as all the other arts.  Animation is magic because unlike a live action movie, anything can be done : sumptuous sceneries, impressive fights, surreal landscapes, you name it. This is why live action adaptations are often considered a loss compared to their original material. The magic of animation also lies in the possibilities it offers, which are far more important than for a movie.The world of animation is built by all the styles the animators use. Animation is perhaps where the directors pour their own identities and visions in a more spectacular and intimate manner. This might be because in animation distortion is the key. For example the animated human figure is rarely similar to the real human figure. This distortion is impossible in live action movies. The same thing goes for the laws of physics : for example, in the animated world, a fabric will not fall the same way it would in real life. Hence the animated world has a wide range of aesthetics to play with.  When you watch animation you see a specific style and thus you see through the eyes of a creative mind. This is why the same scene animated by different animators will not render the same. The @gemanimate project in the Steven Universe fandom is a very good example of this, here is a comparison with the original material. Style goes hand in hand with technique : the technique influences the style and the style closer to the animator’s vision will be best express with a certain technique. Technique is the one of the reasons why animation is going through a golden age at the moment. Computers and 3D technology allow a whole new area for animators to experiment with more styles and more challenges too. The rising figure of this tendency is Makoto Shinkai :  he said himself that without technology he probably wouldn’t have started animating. Nonetheless, traditional animation is not dead and choosing between the two is actually already an artistic choice like the one made by former Disney animators when they started the Hullabaloo project. You wish to see the magic of technique ? Follow me ! Style and technique go hand in hand to create the most magical aspect of animation : an atmosphere. Animation goes even further than live action movies when it comes to creating an ambiance.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Akiyuki Shinbo and Gen Urobuchi

Your Name, Makoto Shinkai

Le Tableau, Jean-François Laguionie

The Adventures of Prince Achmed, Lotte Reiniger When animation appears in a movie, it not only adds novelty but is also very linked to the special role of this particular scene. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, The Tale of the Three Brothers is told through an animated scene : animation manages to render the eerieness of this story as well as the fact that it is not on the same level as the main story line. It is a tale and animation helps emphasize on the difference with the real world.

Like all magic tricks, the magician needs time to master it, to hide all the tricks and to give the impression of an effortless demonstration. You may admire an animator with all your might and may want him to make a new movie every year but behind every animated piece there are a lot of hard workers and hours of work. Even up to these days, animation is not something you can make in a blink of an eye. For example, stop motion is one of the technique to require a huge amount of work to shoot only a few seconds. It took 30 years for Le Roi et l’Oiseau, one of the masterpieces of French animation and also the first French full-length animated film, to achieve its final form. On a side note, the first incomplete release of the movie ended up inspiring a young generation of animators which happened to create the Studio Ghibli afterwards. Even nowadays animation requires time. Take the latest Disney movie Moana, it took around 5 years to make it, from the first scouting in the Pacific Islands to the final release in theaters. All this time is needed because animation goes far more than just characters moving, it’s about giving life, it’s about making the characters deep and complex as any good characters should be. It’s less a question of realism than a question of how touching and believable the story and the characters are. Animation is magic because it has so many different formats and each has their own specificities, may it be a movie, an animated series, an anime... Different formats mean different ways of using animation especially when it comes to animated series. A series of 10-minute long episodes will not tell a story the same way as a series of 20-minute long episodes. Nor would a movie or an anime, the latter having very specific “rules” of its own. Some may think that  nowadays animated series have way too simplistic drawing styles. As creator Alex Hirsh pointed out, style is not the only decisive element in animation, scenario and character development are keys to a good series. A story needs to follow a coherent scenario with a coherent ending. Gravity Falls is the best example when it comes to animated series, its ending crowning the series at the paroxysm of its excellence. Moreover, even in these “simplistic drawn” shows, there is a clear distinction and work on the style, Steven Universe is not Gravity Falls, each has its own aesthetics and ambiances.

Steven Universe

Gravity Falls

Over the Garden Wall Animation is magic because it is a important part of another side of art : video games. Video games nowadays can expand and keep innovating partly because of their use of  animation. Here again style is a very important aspect : the story travels through it to bring you a very specific ambiance and grab your attention. And there again, the scenario influences the style chosen.

Child of Light

Limbo Animation is magic because it has a very special place compared to the other media when it comes to audience.  An immense majority of people still thinks that animation is either for kids or a weird hobby for adults to have. They fail to see that animation is a huge part of education for kids : animation helps develop imagination, it sparkles creativity, and helps them understand themselves better. Rebecca Sugar said that she created Steven Universe because she wanted to help young people in search of themselves and she would have loved to have a show like this when she was young and struggling. Likewise Gravity Falls is an ode to the imagination and creativity of childhood and the transition to adolescence. Hence saying that a show is “for kids” doesn’t mean anything else than an ignorant contempt. As an adult, you can appreciate animation as the art it is and reflect on things differently. The animation industry targets more and more adults with some heavy-themed productions. Psichonautas is a very good example of this. The movie addresses multiple issues such as depression, PTSD, drugs and global warming through a very dark ambiance. Likewise, Night in the Woods explores mental illness, animation and striking imagery conveying Mae’s dissociative disorder.

Night in the Woods Animation is magic because it comes to life with music. As I said, animation is not only movements, backgrounds, styles and everything in between. To bring the characters and the world to life, animation needs voices and music. A Miyazaki movie will not be the same without Joe Hisaishi to paint the sound of his universe. The same thing goes for the voice actors. Their part in the process is as important as any other. The Joker in the Batman Series would not have been the Joker without Mark Hamill and even up to these days, he is the most iconic performer. The voice actors themselves are like chameleons, you are sometimes surprised to discover it was a very familiar actor/actress who was dubbing a specific character. Tara Strong is a very famous voice actress precisely for that reason. Animation is magic because it is linked with everything else. Animation sparkles creativity from the watchers : fanart is the mark of this creativity. Besides, animation is connected with culture too. Animation and video games are also other ways and maybe less conventionnal ways of learning about history, literature etc. The anime Puella Magi Magica Madoka plays on the Faustian myth whereas the Fate series are very good ways to learn who Semiramis or Hassan ibn al-Sabbah were in history. These series often use historical fact in very clever manners to serve the scenarios. Like everything, animation has a bad side, still they are the reason we should appreciate all the more the good stuff. The Muse answers all your questions here, O Reader !

[vsplusonline]

Har Kisse Ke Hisse: Kaamyaab Movie Review: This one’s for all the ‘sidekicks’ in Bollywood

New Post has been published on https://apzweb.com/har-kisse-ke-hisse-kaamyaab-movie-review-this-ones-for-all-the-sidekicks-in-bollywood/

Har Kisse Ke Hisse: Kaamyaab Movie Review: This one’s for all the ‘sidekicks’ in Bollywood

STORY: Back in the 80s and 90s, Sudheer (Sanjay Mishra) was an ‘aloo’ – a moniker given to character actors – and while he has enjoyed his fair share of popularity for his larger-than-life roles, Sudheer is now a recluse. However, an unsuccessful video interview with the media stirs up old memories and instils a new ray of hope in his heart, to reach a new benchmark and face the camera, even if it is for one last time.

REVIEW: Once a household name, and known for his eccentric portrayal of some of the most outlandish characters Indian cinema has ever witnessed in the golden era of Bollywood, Sudheer knows he’s been moderately famous. But, ‘the old man’ has now accepted his fate – his prime days, as a character artiste, are long over. A widower, living alone in his family home and drowning himself in alcohol, Sudheer shows very little interest when an enthusiastic broadcast journalist shows up for an interview with the ‘Forgotten Stars of Bollywood’. The journalist also requests him to mouth his iconic dialogue – ‘bas enjoying life, aur koi option thodi hai.’ But, a mere piece of paper highlighting his career graph (which she sources online), grabs his attention and he realises that he gave up on acting just one film short of his 500th movie. Apprehensive and out of touch, an avid Sudheer conjures up the strength to chase his newfound dream and hit the movie studios one last time before hanging his boots. But, with the industry undergoing drastic changes over the years – both in terms of acting and its treatment of character actors – how will he find his feet in what now seems like an alien world?

‘Kaamyaab’ cherry-picks the fascinating and lesser known world of character actors (aka ‘sidekicks’) and delves deep without generating too much chaos and commotion around it. The tonality of the narrative is light, subtle, funny and emotional. It carefully navigates through the era of 80s and 90s cinema and focusses mostly on the supporting actors of that generation. While the protagonist’s character is sketched in such a way that he has to be over-the-top, there is something about this film that strikes as refreshingly different.

Writer-director Hardik Mehta has beautifully weaved Sudheer’s character, who is an indifferent artiste with a sudden interest in dreams, goals, aims and ambitions and would stop at nothing until he achieves what he’s set out to do. True, the forgotten actor is deeply flawed – an adorably compulsive liar and a chronic drinker – but one’s heart cannot help but melt when the details of his personal life unfold – a wife gone too soon, a loving daughter torn between her love for her father and all the ‘disappointments’ he has put her through. And so, when life presents itself with an opportunity to achieve a personal milestone, Sudheer knows he has to redeem himself and get this one right; one way or the other.

Sanjay Mishra, as the aging and mostly forgotten small-time actor, channelling the inner conflict of a man whose 499th film was a disaster and brought disgrace to the family, is a vision to behold. In hilarious scenes, Mishra wears a poker-faced expression throughout but pitches his dialogues in a way that hit you hard and also tickles your funny bones. In emotional scenes, where he is grappling with the reality of his situation, Mishra totally draws you in with every single expression. Deepak Dobriyal pulls off an excellent portrayal of a former friend-turned-casting director, Gulati, and their camaraderie leaves you in splits. Sarika Singh, who plays his daughter Bhavna, stands out for one scene in particular, where she has an emotional meltdown in front of her father.

Set in the present day, the mood of ‘Kaamyaab’ is 90s – big wigs, flashy clothes, caricature-ish characters, a lot of ‘buddy time’ on sets and some serious loud theatrics. The film’s music, by Rachita Arora, balances the otherwise blaring depiction of the industry with its soothing numbers and barely-there background scores; a perfect fit. Sure, this drama has used Sanjay Mishra’s fall from grace and his subsequent redemption (or the lack of it) as a metaphor for the good-old saying – it’s never too late to chase your dreams – but not once do the writers get preachy about it. The writers deserve brownie points for some witty writing, and keeping things real, too.

At a time when meaningful and nuanced roles are being written for character artistes, ‘Kaamyaab’ is a film that stands out for its story and storytelling. Also, to see veteran actors like Birbal, Avtar Gill, Viju Khote, Ramesh Goyal, Guddi Maruti and others in one frame brings back a glut of emotions – all happy ones.

‘Kaamyaab’ is an ode to Bollywood, the larger-than-life movies and their actors, bizarre wigs, love, drama, friendship passion but most importantly, it is about one’s ability to realise their dreams even when the chips are down. After all, a man’s got to enjoy the madness that is life – ‘aur koi option thodi hain?’

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[rapuvdayear]

1994: Illmatic Nas (Columbia)

I guess that 2019 is the year that I officially start feeling old. Illmatic turns 25 today. It’s old enough to rent a car now. I don’t necessarily disagree with the gist of what Lonzo Ball said about the man, but I also don’t think that you can dispute that this is an all-time classic and that Nas’s influence continues to ripple through rap history.

Illmatic is considered by many to be the greatest rap album of all time (just check out the definitions for “illmatic” on Urban Dictionary). I certainly used to be in this camp as well, though I think arguments about GOAT status, while fun, are ultimately pointless due to the stylistic shifts from era to era. Besides, Illmatic might not even be the best rap album from 1994, even if it was the first debut album--and at the time seventh ever--to receive The Source’s coveted “five mics” rating (just wait until September 13 when I’ll be posting another 25th anniversary post about a certified classic)! There will likely be a ton of think pieces written about it by music critics and rap historians who know far more than I do--and you should go read those if you like this album--but I would feel remiss if I didn’t chime in with what Illmatic has meant to me through the years. To wit: I played the first cassette version that I owned so many times that it snapped, I spliced it back together with Scotch tape, and it snapped again. Why a cassette, you may ask? Because this is one of those albums that can be played front to back without any need for skipping; every track is impeccable.

Before I get into the album’s content, there are some important historical details that help place Illmatic in its proper context and explain its lasting significance. In retrospect, 1992-1996(ish) represented a sort of sea change in rap. The playful party songs of the late 70s early 80s had given way to the hypermasculine, guitar-sample-and-808-heavy posturing of the mid-80s, and then the golden age of the late 80s/early 90s that pushed rap in new directions. With a few notable exceptions, every significant figure in rap’s first decade and change was, by and large, associated with New York (this is not to say that there weren’t a ton of awesome, influential local rappers around the country, but rather that nationally recognizable acts--to the extent that there were any--were concentrated in NYC and its environs). By the early 90s, however, the LA scene was producing more interesting, genre-bending, and commercially successful raps, as the G-Funk era was in full effect; The Chronic was released in December 1992, and Doggystyle followed a year later, occupying the top spot on the Billboard 200 for two weeks in a row (Black Sunday, while not G-Funk, was another West Coast success, topping the Billboard charts in August 1993, and the Hieroglyphics and early 2Pac in Oakland were also attracting attention). The New York sound was at that point represented by the Afrocentric jazz-laden grooves of the Native Tongues clique, the funky lyricism of greats like KRS-One, Rakim, Kool G Rap, and Big Daddy Kane, and the boom bap exuberance of groups like Main Source, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, and Gang Starr. A grimier, grittier, “Tims and Hoodies” style had begun to emerge in the early 90s from the Boot Camp Clik, the Hit Squad’s associated acts (Das EFX, Redman, Keith Murray), Onyx, and the Wu-Tang Clan, whose legendary debut Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) dropped less than 6 months before Illmatic.

Into this landscape stepped Nasir Jones, a 20-year-old up and coming Queensbridge rapper who had generated a lot of excitement among rap fans (at that time still a pretty niche contingent) with his verse on Main Source’s “Live at the Barbeque” in 1991 (he ended up sampling it in the Illmatic intro above). Along with fellow Queensbridge rappers Mobb Deep and with the endorsement of post-Juice Crew Queens mainstays Large Professor and MC Serch, Nas helped to usher in the East Coast’s response to “gangsta rap.” While not as explicitly concerned with gang life as G-Funk was, Nas combined grim tales of criminality with a breathless “lyrically lyrical” flow that allowed him to legitimately stake a claim as Rakim’s heir apparent (it’s not by mistake that years later he would record U.B.R.). Now, it’s no secret that Nas wasn’t intimately involved in the criminal world, but rather “witnessed it from [his] folks’ pad.” Nevertheless, on Illmatic he displayed an almost preternatural ability to spin storytelling raps of stick ups, drug deals gone wrong, and jail bids that--to a complete outsider like me, at least--had a veneer of authenticity (whatever that means). This was his Nasty Nas persona, before he tried to emulate the image that mid-90s Bad Boy was projecting with his “Nas Escobar” alter ego, and way before his redemption on Stillmatic, legendary beef with Jay-Z, explicit political commentary, marriage to and divorce from Kelis, and transition to mature old man rapper/disgraced abuser/Bitcoin billionaire (maybe?). (You can hear Nas’s own perspective on the early days here). 

Once upon a time, Nas was my favorite rapper, and Illmatic was my favorite album, from any musical genre. Full disclosure, I didn't give it a serious listen until 1998--I was a little too young when it was released for it to have been on my radar--but I can still spit “NY State of Mind” from memory, and still get amped whenever I hear the opening bars of “Halftime.” Nas’s career might be one of the most disappointing in terms of wasted talent (there’s a strong argument to be made for 50, too). Once he moved on from Large Professor, Pete Rock, and DJ Premier, he demonstrated his inability to pick good beats, and has made some truly garbage songs. But he’ll always have Illmatic. Without further ado, here’s a track-by-track breakdown:

The Genesis (link above): A skit about Nas and his crew counting (ill-gotten?) stacks over a sample from Wild Style mixed his a sample of his own voice. 90s rap iconicity with the requisite Hennessy and Phillies references. “Representin’ in Illmatic.” It’s an intro that paints an imagined picture of Queensbridge life, and roots the album in “the culture.”

NY State of Mind: If you only ever listen to one track from this album, or even one Nas track, please make it this one. Nas shows off his full range of abilities here: deft storytelling, a relentless flow that rides the beat perfectly, and clever wordplay (e.g., “It was full of children, probably couldn’t see as high as I be”). The DJ Premier beat is flawless, with excellent and obscure sample selection. Nas announces his arrival (“I’m taking rappers to a new plateau”), and sneaks in some commentary on inequality and structural violence in Queens (“Each block is like a maze/ full of black rats trapped, plus the Island is packed”; “Cops can just arrest me, blamin’ us/ we held like hostages”). I only wish I had listened to his advice when he said, “Never put me in your box if your shit eats tapes.”

Life’s a Bitch: There may never have been a better hook in all of hip-hop, at once bleak and oddly resigned. This track also has the only feature on the whole album (well, two features if you want to call Nas’s father, the jazz artist Olu Dara, playing trumpet on the outro), from AZ, a Brooklyn rapper and member of Nas’s short-lived clique, The Firm, who never achieved mainstream success. As Nas himself put it, “My first album had no famous guest appearances/ The outcome: I’m crowned the best lyricist.” I love how wistful this track sounds compared to today’s beats.

The World is Yours: The title is, of course, an explicit nod to Scarface, the go-to media reference for 90s rappers and a prerequisite for the sort of aspirational voicing that Nas is doing here. It’s a fairly conventional track about the dreams of a small time hustler that belies its strange juxtapositions (“I sip the Dom P, watching Gandhi ‘til I’m charged”). There are also some classic lines that would be sampled subsequently, including one that led Jay-Z to infamously proclaim later, “So, yeah, I sampled your voice/ You was using it wrong.” Interesting tidbit: Toward the middle, Nas says, “Thinking of a word best describing my life to name my daughter.” His daughter, Destiny, was born almost two months after Illmatic dropped.

Halftime: The first single, released six months earlier. When I think of rolling, unrelenting, boom bap beats, this is the first track that springs to mind. I challenge anyone to listen to this and not bob their head. Halftime also contains what is arguably the most quietly brutal boast in the annals of rap: “‘Cause I’m as ill as a convict who kills for phone time.” Additionally, there’s that signature Nas rhyme structure that would be so influential on rappers who came after him (you can even hear a little Eminem in there): “And in the darkness I’m heartless, like when the NARCs hit/ Word to Marcus Garvey, I hardly sparked it.”

Memory Lane (Sittin’ in the Park): If Life’s a Bitch is about the present, and The World is Yours the future, then this is Nas’s embrace of the past... at the ripe old age of 20. This is a love letter to Queens: the chorus, with DJ Premier on the cuts, samples two Queens/Queens-adjacent rappers--Biz Markie and Craig G--and the second verse spins yarns about organized crime figures Fat Cat, the Supreme Team, and Harlem’s Alpo... all of whom would be featured prominently in Queens’ own 50 Cent’s ode to his neighborhood, Ghetto Qu’ran.

One Love: Another example of Nas’s creativity, One Love takes the form of a series of letters from Nas to a couple of friends who are locked up. He relates news from the outside, expresses frustrations with injustice writ large, and reflects on how to persevere through incarceration. And all of it over a downright playful beat from Q-Tip (the quality of the production on this album, I swear...).

One Time 4 Your Mind: Okay, so basically every song on this album is designed to smoke weed to, but in my opinion this is the most “stonerific” of the bunch. The beat is a slow, deep-fried haze that complements Nas’s braggadocio. Nothing spectacular here, but I do love the line, “Y’all ****** was born, I shot my way out my mom dukes,” another sample that would show up in latter day Nas.

Represent: If there’s a weak link on Illmatic, this might be it. Others may disagree, but I’ve never been particularly drawn to this track. It’s another Queens-centric rap, with Nas warning anyone who would try to test the borough. That being said, it does contain one of Nas’s funnier lines--“The kind of ***** who be pissing in your elevator”--and another that would also become fodder for Jay-Z’s disses. 

It Ain’t Hard to Tell: Ending on a strong note, here. I absolutely love this beat, another great Large Professor contribution. There are so many elements going on that you might miss the MJ sample if you’re not paying attention. And a bunch of these lines have been sampled to death, too. Despite his repeated assertions of “depth,” there’s not much of substance to this song, just your run of the mill Nas boasts about his prowess as a rapper. Of course, “run of the mill” for Nas is equivalent to the best that other rappers can offer, so... As he puts it, “Nas’s rhymes should be locked in a cell, it ain’t hard to tell.”

[texasparamedicine]

What Heroin Epidemic?

An EMS buddy of mine and I were messaging each other earlier today about the concept of blogging about 911 calls and the purpose it served, not so much for the reader but for the writer. He sent me a piece he had written a while back about the burden of waking up at 3 a.m. to respond to a frequent flyer’s residence for yet another overdose. The point I took was that we are expected to fix the problem in an acute situation, yet we can’t fix some chronic problems. He could resuscitate a heroin overdose, but could he really solve that dilemma? 

It got me thinking about heroin overdoses and how people react differently to their treatment. Our EMS boss asked a group of us in a lecture one day, how many by show of hands have treated a heroin overdose. My hand shot up like he must be joking, right? I was surprised to see only a few hands in the air out of a fairly crowded room of paramedics. He then asks how many people have treated a dozen heroin overdoses? My hand stayed up, and as I looked around the room again, even fewer hands remained in the air.

His rule of thumb, like many who have not dealt with the problem first hand for years, was to give the smallest dosage of Narcan possible for known opiate overdoses. The thinking behind that is you don’t want to have to deal with angry drug addicts who wake up and become combative, and then want to spray the back of the unit with fresh vomit chunks. My rule of thumb has always been if I’ve had to drive across town lights and sirens to ‘revive’ you and your near death respiratory drive, you’re getting a minimum of 2 mg right off the bat intranasal or intramuscular. And having said that, I’m obviously not a physician, but going from my experience it’s what has worked for me. With having lost count of how many opiate OD’s I’ve had, (I would guess-timate close to 4 dozen over 8 years) I’ve never had to intubate an opiate overdose, and I’ve never had to chemically sedate someone who was combative after being resuscitated.

A certain call popped up in my mind from several years ago, where I was working with a part timer in a rural service. It just so happened for me that this particular part timer was the director of a local 911 service, yet only a few years my senior. We got dispatched out to a trailer park (What?! No way!!) for a young adult male who may or may not have overdosed. We arrive on scene to find several sheriff officers outside the trailer. They are hanging out and joking around doing everything they can to not be inside the trailer. They tell us that the pt. is awake and alert, and (of course) they wish the whole place would burn down.

We make scene to find the patient sitting Indian style on the ground (there’s no flooring by the way, just large sections of plywood) and he is rocking back and forth talking to himself. He admits to shooting heroin that wasn’t his, and he thinks he took too much. Actually he thinks he shot up meth by accident, but given his location and appearance, we deduce he knows the difference between the dark and sticky heroin versus the plastic crystal textured looking meth. He keeps doing the heroin nod during our customary basic patient questions. His VS were within normal limits and he could surprisingly answer all of our questions… the only problem was that he would fall asleep halfway through his answer. Which makes the process of obtaining a refusal a bit difficult, considering he was adamant about not being transported to the ER. 

As my partner and I are trying to figure out what to do next since there was no immediate life threat, except to maybe us in those surroundings, we started to really notice the inhabitants of the residence. There must have been over half a dozen people in the living room a few feet away. One guy was screaming at the T.V. in some weird stupor, despite there being cartoons on. Yes, cartoons were playing in a trailer containing a whole group of drug addled semi-adults. A middle aged woman kept walking past us into the kitchen area where she was heating up a pot of soup on the stove. I remember this because she was on the phone and kept sporadically yelling at the person on the other end of the line, “I’m making fucking soup, asshole!” The cops came in and told her to be quiet while we were assessing our ‘patient.’ She never acknowledged them. Actually, the entire time we were in her home she never acknowledged the fact that police and EMS were inside, which just blows my mind when I see this occurrence…because it happens quite often. 

I asked our patient for the umpteenth time if he was sure he didn’t want to go to the ER and he denied, but again started nodding off. Ultimately, we ended up obtaining a refusal due to the patient being able to pull it together enough to give us some contact info and scribble a signature. 

This call to me in hindsight was a run of the mill ‘OD’ call were the concept of treat and release should’ve come into play. Similar to how many departments used to, and I emphasize used to (nudge nudge, wink wink) administer D50 on scene and when the patient wakes up they sign a refusal; some conscious overdoses, in my mind, could be treated in a similar manner. We could’ve squirted some Narcan IN on that guy and he would’ve perked right up…for a little while anyway. That could’ve solved some of the legal liability that many find themselves in when presented with this kind of scenario. Transport is clearly the best route, but do you chemically sedate someone who does not wish to be transported? What if P.D. is not available to assist? All kinds of what if questions can arise. 

But this all comes back to what my buddy and I had discussed earlier. That if we treated and released this patient, who’s to say he won’t walk into that back bedroom and shoot up enough dope to kill himself? We can fix the acute problem, but we can’t fix the chronic addiction problem. Lately, I’ve seen several programs discuss the rampant heroin epidemic. And honestly, in the services I’ve worked for in Texas, it’s not really a big problem as much as the media would try and make it out to be. Meth? Yeah, that’s a big problem. Synthetic marijuana? Holy shit-balls batman, that’s a freaking problem. I think the media attention flocks to the opiates because it’s safe to document. It’s easy to say that John Doe got hooked on heroin when his pain meds ran out…he’s the Everyman. And now he’s nodding off and not waking up. It’s a lot more difficult to document the synthetic weed smoker who cuts the skin of his face off and starts trying to eat humans in public whilst naked. 

Last year, I made my one and only heroin overdose DOA. A 19 year old teen who was upstairs in a $400k home. We arrived to find a cop doing great CPR on the patient who had been dead for at least 6 hours. His mother was hysterical, as she should be, but his grandmother who lived with him, didn’t seem fazed at all. She went about doing her laundry. She stated to us that his uncle died of heron. Heron. The drug that killed her son and now her grandson, and she didn’t care enough to pronounce it correctly. The kid’s room had weed and blunt tobacco everywhere, with numerous black tar bags all over the place. The mom told us that he was on probation and knew he would fail a drug test, and this was his last weekend before he thought he was going into the county jail. 

Chronic problems like lack of attention to loved ones life altering decisions is something an ambulance crew can’t fix. We can, however, pronounce their loved ones dead. That is one acute solution EMS can, unfortunately, excel at. I’m a firm believer in the adage: no chemical solution to a spiritual problem. 

[siarratempleedu]

Lemonade is an Ode to Black Women

Beyoncé’s Lemonade, a series of clips and music videos telling the story of the highs and lows of her marriage to rapper Jay-Z, is arguably the most important production to come out of 2016. This film has evoked emotions, revealed deep feelings, and inspired millions to be vocal about their struggles. While the piece was interpreted for everyone to enjoy and relate to, I believe Beyoncé created the piece specifically for black women. The oppression and prejudice black women face is unlike any other. I argue that Beyoncé released Lemonade to appeal to the most underrepresented and disrespected demographic in the world: black women.

I remember the first time I watched Lemonade; my mom, younger sister, and I sat in her bedroom with it playing on HBO. As each song passed and I began to understand the message Beyoncé was trying to get across, my appreciation for the production grew by the second. Immediately after it ended, I pieced together the evidence presented and realized that Beyoncé was talking about her marriage and the ups and downs of being a black woman, both in the spotlight and in general. Each song told a different story, yet they all came together to become a coherent visual album. “Don’t Hurt Yourself” is an empowering song that is meant to represent a black woman’s reaction to being cheated on. “Sorry” is a breakup song about having strength and confidence despite being at one of your lowest points. “Formation” is a black power anthem that allows black women to embrace their “negro nose with Jackson Five nostrils”.

While there are countless reasons black women need to be uplifted, I do believe that Eurocentric beauty standards and the “angry black woman” stereotype are what plague my culture, superficially speaking. I think Beyoncé was trying to focus on the fact that black women are disrespected not only for their looks, but because they may or may not emulate a stereotypical type of behavior. Destiny Rodney wrote an article that was featured on The Odyssey’s website with a line saying “society does not want much from black women. As we all know, black women are portrayed as bitter, angry, too controlling, uneducated, and “less” beautiful.” Rodney writes this not to criticize black women, but to acknowledge the obstacles stacked against us. I believe Lemonade was created to defeat said obstacles, and slowly but surely move toward a world where black women aren’t seen as hostile, unattractive human beings.

Now, this is not to say that black men are off the hook either. Black men, specifically on social media, seem to be the main ones denouncing black women’s looks and character. Below is a video of two black YouTubers who begin their video with the “Lightskin Darkskin” debate and stereotypes, but end with a message that should be universally accepted:

I would like to finish off this analysis with an excerpt from an article by Kadeen Griffiths from Bustle titled: “This Is What Beyonce's 'Lemonade' Meant To Me As A Black Woman, & This Is Why It Needed To Win Album Of The Year”:

“She inspired and empowered women of color to tell their own stories, to tell their own experiences, and to feel validated in their fight for equal treatment in every aspect of their lives. Through her music, through her film, through her performances, and through the critical response to those performances, Beyoncé showed black women that we can succeed — even excel — just by being ourselves.”

[life-rewritten]

Spooky Season! A look into a Masterpiece (He’s Coming To Me Review)

I've been waiting to talk about this show and how my love for it will never end. Surprisingly the source of the show is GMMTV, whilst known for so many problematic elements in BL genre; He's coming to me manages to avoid every single issue naturally had with this genre. And because of that, this review is an ode to a masterpiece that should not be forgotten and should not be underrated. It's also Halloween, so this is another excuse to go back and look at the best things about this show. Hopefully, we get more like this GMMTV.

Ratings: Plot: 9/10 Directing: 9/10 Acting: 910 Satisfaction: 9/10 Overall: A* Rewatch factor: 8.5/10

AN IN-DEPTH REVIEW

Nothing wrong to say about this show. And that's a breath of fresh air; I remember first watching this show in 2019 very late because we had issues with the subtitles, and I went into it very sceptical and had low expectations. By the end of this show, I was so grateful and happy that this exists. 

The title of the show (He keeps coming to me) is what the heart of the show is about.  Thun, our main character who keeps going to Mes,  a ghost who he can see, his determination in keeping Mes by his side, to being his childhood acquaintance, to his best friend and finally to his lover, is felt and focused on when he has to brave the world and society norms, and some truths about himself.  Meanwhile, Mes has to discover his reason for being a ghost and unravel the mysteries tying him to his fate with Thun. So incredible to watch and see their love story unfold. 

Criticisms/ Comments

As I said, there are no negatives when it comes to this show.  All we could maybe mention is the slow pace from episode 1-3. But even at that, the relationship dynamics are shown genuinely because of the time it takes to develop the story.

This love story uses the trope friends to lovers which entails a soft cute and heartwarming bond between Mes and Thun since they first met each other. The two want to spend as much time with each other even though their worlds are different (spirit realm vs human realm). Thun is determined to have Mes keep coming to his side, learning about the lore and rules surrounding ghosts in our world; the use of incense, the way Mes starts of not being able to hold onto anything, the fact that Thun is the only person who sees Mes. He can't hide his feelings even when he's with his friends, he makes up excuses just to return home to spend time with Mes, and he makes it his mission to discover why Mes died, so Mes gets reincarnated. The slow pace might make people think the show is a bit boring, but it's just a way to introduce and show exposition to the other characters surrounding this world. If you rewatch the show, you also start to recognise foreshadowing symbolisms, devices and hints pointing to the final revelation about how Thun and Mes are tied together.

I also think some people struggled with as well the lack of 'skinship' from Thun and Mes, but this is a device used to emphasise one of the obstacles of our couple;  the lack of touch ( because Mes struggles to learn the rules of how to hold objects or touch Thun). We the audience try to uncover the reasons for why sometimes they're able to feel each other by mistake and Mes starts to work hard to hold objects and cook, and turn on the incense which keeps him tied to the environment it's in. I didn't have an issue with the skinship because the actors were phenomenal at showing little subtle hints to feelings on their faces of longing, want and love. The scenes where skinship was required wasn't stiff or awkward or weird like other shows of this genre make you feel about them. It felt natural,  a tad unrealistic (in terms of the way their heads tilted and the camera spun) but so what?  The show wasn't meant to focus on that; it focused on the bond and love between the two, they just enjoyed talking and spending quality time being domestic with each other, and that's adorable. Alright, let's look at the positives:

Character Breakdown and Plot Meaning

The characterisation of HCTM is so excellent; it still shocks me how much I didn't expect it to be this way. All our characters are critical to the plot, even when they're just side characters with no deep story arcs to themselves. Thun and Mes interact with people who are part of their path in recognising what they are to each other. Before I praise the characterisation of the two, let's focus on some other characters who were so good in this show:

Thun's best friends: Prince, Plufai and Khiem

These were a phenomenal group of friends who were so caring and patient and genuinely the heartwarming part of this series as well. I enjoyed watching how much they went out of their way to ensure that Thun was okay, even when they didn't understand why he was the way he was and also felt frightened by some of his actions (talking to himself randomly, and acting out). One of my fave story arcs during the season is when Khiem (Played amazingly by Sing) thinks Thun is taking drugs and so starts a secret series of investigations keeping an eye on his actions. It wasn't because they were judging him but because they were worried about his wellbeing.  

Also, my heart melted for Prince (Played by another excellent favourite Chimon),  who had unrequited feelings for Plufai and struggled to deal with her feelings for Thun and his own seemingly cold/nonchalant/evasive actions concerning her. It's the way he wasn't toxic or problematic and also was willing to step down if Thun did have feelings for Plufai. I also really enjoyed watching his relationship with her develop and the natural chemistry between the two.

Lastly, PluFai first starts as every female character from a GMMTV show, a competition, someone there to be a beard to the main character. Still, I enjoyed her heart. I also loved her being the mirror character to Thun's mum when it came to her relationship with Mes in the past. Both women show strength and understanding and acceptance once they discover the sexuality of the person who they had feelings for. And I thought her way of dealing with it, their friendship being robust and full of communication was really what sold it for me. There were moments when I was frightened about her connection to the mystery of Mes's death, and it broke my heart when she realised what she was to him and what it meant for her grandfather. I also enjoyed the way she takes it on her self to make it up to him and how forgiving she is to her grandfather despite the fact I didn't think he should be. She showed strength, understanding and warmth and kept being that way and also consistent.  And I love that because she wasn't problematic female stereotypes that GMMTV loves to add to women, she stayed great and true throughout the show. And I loved it.

Thun's Family: Mum and Dad

Honestly, the way the writing of these characters was what made me love this show the most. Thun's dad shows up only in episode 1 before he dies surprisingly and Mes sees his ghost disappear. I thought that's all we needed to know of him. Still, we really get to learn more about Thun's family dynamics; there are answers to why his mum didn't join them during the grave excursions, why she was absent during those years he meets Mes, his father's knowing and understanding gaze as Thun cries about not being able to see him and also how he's hidden the fact he sees ghosts. We get information as well about the relationship with him and the mum after Mes broke up with her.

Next, we have Thun's mum, her first appearance is warm and pleasant. Still, we won't be able to fathom that she's wearing the watch that Mes has been drawing all this time, she's the girl who provided Mes with the same gift he created for Thun, she's already been close with someone who came out and so she was a source of strength for Thun when he struggled with accepting his sexuality. That coming out scene is so incredible and has made this show a fantastic piece of media for representation for LGBT. I loved her relationship with Mes, despite it being an obstacle to our couple at first, she's so understanding of him, and she's so grateful he returned and is the person her son loves. But also it's the plot twist that Thun sees ghosts because she too can, and she was hiding that as a secret until she meets Mes. It made it better, a relief to know that he's not alone and there is a reason for why he's able to see them. It also made the relationship with our couple easier because she understood and saw Mes, so Thun and Mes's relationship was more readily accepted.

He's coming to me brought these characters and connected it to its world-building, rules and understanding of its supernatural themes whilst still providing consistent dynamics about friendship and family and life in general. Not only is it a BL show, but it had other focuses as well rounding it up and making it much more wholesome and needed. The characters held no toxic tropes commonly also found in BL, the relationships felt real and authentic, and each of the characters had development and growth that tied them together to the plot overall. Now onto the heart of this show: My all-time faves Thun and Mes

Thun

One of my favourite characters, honestly rewatching this show was so incredible, especially when I started to notice more about this character after all the revelations revealed throughout the show. I went into the show surprised at how open Thun was to Mes already, the way he cared and wanted what was the best for Mes who has always been alone and neglected. Even when older Thun shows up and still shows the same amount of care even though he dislikes the fact that he could see ghosts, he's so warm and protective over Mes, and it made me swoon and smile. I enjoyed watching him come to terms with who he was.

At first, we don't see any hints that this is something the story will focus on.  But as we go deeper into his university life and his reason for why he studied law etc. It becomes evident that Thun knows he's gay but is struggling with internalised homophobia, it's also pretty clear he's had feelings from the beginning for Mes. He even knew when Mes started having feelings for him too.

They just didn't want to confront what it meant. Ohm Pawat's acting is so incredible you can see the subtle changes in Thun, and meanings with his actions with Mes that they both have requited feelings for each other but they don't want to cross the line. Thun has memorable speeches during the show as well about his struggle with his sexuality and how people perceive him. It's incredible how the show mirrors his on the surface secret about seeing ghosts and being seen as abnormal to the world to his internal/ more profound secret about his sexuality and also feeling abnormal. It's so telling that once Mes enters his life, he no longer feels it a struggle to embrace who he is, he uncontrollably speaks to Mes and laughs and stares romantically whilst hanging around his friends, he can't help but run to him when he needs him. Especially during the rooftop scene, the fear of losing Mes causes him not to care what others think, and he proceeds to call for him and confess his feelings and stay out in the rain waiting for him. He also proceeds to accept his sexuality even more, once Mes enters his life, he kisses Plufai to determine what he truly feels and once that occurs he decides to head straight and try to talk to Mes about it, thereby afterwards always making Mes know what he is to him is more than friends. I can talk a lot about his character and how much I enjoyed his development and how he chose to finally trust the people around him and also his determination to keep Mes by his side.  Which we, later on, find out is also the reason for why they could touch and feel each other. The show emphasises that it's about his determination, his perseverance and love for Mes that keeps the latter coming to him. And towards the end, his wish comes true, and Mes returns to his side because of that. Awesome and beautifully written.  

Mes

Singto has been an unstoppable force in GMMTV as an actor, and Mes is another character that is just as memorable and great as the others. While Thun's characterisation surrounds his will and determination to keep Mes by his side, Mes's surrounds his warmth and caring aura. I love. love realising that both Mes and Thun mirrored each other when struggling with their sexuality, both had girls who were loyal and great to them, but they couldn't hide who they were anymore.

The show emphasises the importance of this,  telling the audience that yes they're gay, this is a show about two gay boys falling in love, and this is also about how they accept who they are whilst dealing with the obstacles that are supposed to separate them.

Mes is so soft, he's this adorable, mischievous (with personality), ball of fluff and I enjoyed his character. He wasn't written as a stagnant and a boring character; he had his own goals, his own self-exploration, his own storyline and mystery to be solved. And the way the show told his story, was fantastic, the way they mixed the supernatural elements of Mes and the mystery of his death back to Thun was so great. Mes and Thun were always destined to find each other; they were on the path to each other though one of it included him being murdered by his relative, every character is connected together to help get these two together at the end. I love how the show makes us feel like Mes has an unrequited love for Thun at first.

We see Singto's acting to the finest, the longing, the jealousy and the worry about their new blooming relationship. He also shows guilt and character depth when he realises that Kwan is Thun's mother. The pacing and directing keep us in the dark for why he's gone for so long and ran away after their first kiss. We later get the truth revealed as Thun comes out to his mum, and it's such a brilliant way to get the audience even more heartbroken about the reveal. Due to dramatic irony. The mum is the reason for why Thun can happily accept Mes as his lover in his life yet is also an obstacle because Mes can't get over what he did to her in the past. It's brilliant, and such a great way to write the story.

I am so happy as well that Mes returns to Thun's side. I cried like a baby watching their week together, knowing that the time to say goodbye was coming closer. Their conversation about everything and their uncontrollable feelings was so meaningful and heartbreaking; their confession about how they've loved each other from the start; how they've known how the latter felt but refused to accept it because of all the obstacles in their way. Mes still unsure but deciding to spend the last moments together as much as possible. And their relief in discovering that they can touch each other, and the reason for why. These two's love was so beautiful to see.

Lastly, I enjoyed the fact that this is a happy ending. With this genre when surrounding these topics death, separation etc. You expect sad endings mostly because that's the way directors like to end LGBT shows for a long time (something I absolutely detest), from episode 1, the show actually foreshadowed the ending, and comes through with it, I cried so much when I realised that it was not yet Mes's time to go all because of the reasons stated in episode 1. I also cried because GMMTV directors let a great representation show have a hopeful, romantic ending, and a show for many people to relate to, but also to run to and forget about reality.

 That's why this show is a masterpiece. I didn't even go into the devices and symbols used in this show, but there was a lot of meta, foreshadowing, dramatic irony etc. That also made this show brilliant. The directing and production quality is also fantastic and deserves praise. The actors; all of them were incredible. I just want another show like this please GMMTV?

[fashiongossippk]

The Pakistan Fashion Design Council PFDC in collaboration with L’Oréal Paris, the world’s leading beauty brand, is all set to present the 7th PFDC L’Oréal Paris Bridal Week  which will officially commence on Saturday, 14th October 2017, marking the seventh consistent year of the bridal couture platform.

The first day of PLBW17 was opened by GOLD by Reama Malik in Collaboration with Wasim Khan, followed by Shamsha Hashwani, Shiza Hassan and Ali Xeeshan Theater Studio as summarised below. Make-up for Day-1 of PFDC L’Oréal Paris Bridal Week 2017 was done by the creative team at N-Pro for womenswear and N-Gents for menswear.

Also Read: PFDC L’Oréal Paris Bridal Week 2017: Day-2 Journal

This year, the L’Oréal Paris team will also redefine both bridal makeup and hair trends for the season using L’Oréal Paris Makeup and Excellence Crème products. The participating bridal week hair and make-up styling team for PLBW 2017 will be N-Pro/NGENTs.

Indeed in continuation of the BeautyMeetsFashion platform each season, this year L’Oréal Paris Makeup collaborates with international makeup expert Saima Bargfrede to create and define distinct bridal makeup looks for the season. Additionally, L’Oréal Paris continues its engagement of the bridal week platform with their runway to point-of-sale collaboration, this year with Ali Xeeshan, on their critically acclaimed Excellence Crème Ambassador of Fashion platform which was revealed on the first day of PFDC L’Oréal Paris Bridal Week.

In terms of further patrons and sponsors, the success of PFDC L’Oréal Paris Bridal Week continues to prompt private sector associates to grow in their engagement of the platform to launch new products, marketing campaigns and promotional activities sharing a common vision with the PFDC to develop and promote Pakistan’s fashion industry. In this same spirit, this year the PFDC welcomes Ehsan Sehbai at the helm of Shaheen Airlines as the Black Carpet Sponsor and Airline Partner; Dewan Motors, importers of BMW in Pakistan as the Luxury Automobile Partner and Careem as Transportation Partner, Dolce Vita as a Lifestyle Sponsor, Borjan as the Official Footwear Partner, Aquafina as the Official Beverage Partner and Papercut as the Official Printing Partner.

PFDC L’Oréal Paris Bridal Week [PLBW17] is being directed by Sadia Siddiqui with show production by Production 021, Event Architecture by Production 021 and Restart, N-Pro/NGENTs as official hair and makeup stylists, Kamiar Rokni from The House of Kamiar Rokni as the official spokesperson for the PFDC, digital support by Red Communications, photography by Faisal Farooqui and the team at Dragonfly, live-stream by AI Solutions, Geo Television Network as the official Media Partner and Radio1 FM91 as the official Radio Partner and security by PEL with media management by Lotus Client Management & Public Relations.

Bridal Showcase: GOLD by Reama Malik in Collaboration with Wasim Khan

 PFDC L’Oréal Paris Bridal Week 2017 Day-1 was opened by a first of its kind showcase featuring renowned jeweller GOLD by Reama Malik and Timeless Couture Line by Wasim Khan with their collection titled ‘DEJA VU’; a collection that is inspired by Nauratan at the 7th edition of PFDC L’Oréal Paris Bridal Week.

Specialising in bespoke and custom design and create one of a kind pieces for the discerning bride who wishes to stand out and not merge with the rest, DEJA VU featured pure 18, 21 and 22 Karat gold with couture pieces in a spectrum of jewel colors, ruby red, emerald green, sapphire blue, golden topaz, pearl white, amethyst purple, garnet burgundy, coral, turquoise blue and transitioning to classic red.

Film actress Resham participated in the designer’s showcase as a celebrity showstopper.

Bridal Showcase: Shamsha Hashwani

Following GOLD by Reama Malik and Wasim Khan, Shamsha Hashwani showcased her bridal collection ‘Kolpona: A Gateway to Nostalgia’ in collaboration with Sherezad Jewellery at the seventh edition of PFDC L’Oréal Paris Bridal Week. ‘Kolpona’ meaning ‘fantasy’ in Bengal – was an ode to Bengal’s rich culture, art, history and Colonial influences.

‘Kolpona’ comprised of 16 vivid-hued pieces redolent of Bengal’s Old World culture and incorporates luxe fabrics such as raw silk; jamavar, organza, and chiffon; while for the contemporary festive wear charmeuse silk and net were used. The bridal and festive collection incorporated intricately textural embroidery techniques including zardozi; bullion knots; handcrafted organza petals highlighted with pearls and beadwork; 3D embroideries; bugle bead tassels and Swarovski crystals. The color palette was inspired by classic precious stones: violet and plum from amethysts; mesmerizing blues inspired by opal and bridal reds from rubies. Ivory and écru was incorporated for the capsule of contemporary pieces.

The collection boasts a variety of classic silhouettes including deep halter-cut cholis dovetailed with lehengas, traditional farshi ghararas and stunning saris. Contemporary silhouettes included flowing kaftans, edgy jumpsuits and long sheath dresses end-noted with myriad flouncy dupattas.

Film actress Humaima Malick participated in the designer’s showcase as a celebrity showstopper.

Bridal Showcase: Shiza Hassan

Shiza Hassan showcased her latest bridal collection titled ‘Aroos-e-Shehnai – Chapter II’ on the first day of the coveted PFDC L’Oréal Paris Bridal Week 2017. This collection, as the name signifies, is a manifestation of splendor and elegance. With its handcrafted intricate work and an eye-catching color palette, it brings to life the spirit of the wedding season.

The olden days of the Persian era with water gardens and ancient architecture, come to life under the canvas of tissue, velvet and mukesh with embellishments of Swarovski and kamdani. The motifs and patterns capturing the Persian art and the shikargah scenes pay a grand tribute to the Persian heritage. The needlecraft on a spectrum of hues with an entrancing speckle of pearls and scintillating adornments enliven the frescos with vitality, narrating a tale of its own.

The handiwork with its immaculate detailing and impeccable artistry on the fine quality fabric features classic and modern techniques that pour life into the flora and fauna incorporated in the designs. The color palette adds to the enchantment with shades like mint green and ice blue paired with accents of gold and crimson amalgamating into something truly magical. The silhouettes, while staying true to the modern essence, devote an ode to the traditional charm of the royal, ancient days making this collection one of a kind.

Bridal Showcase: Ali Xeeshan Theater Studio

The finale of Day-1 was presented by Ali Xeeshan Theater Studio which showcased the bridal collection ‘Lasting Loyalty’ at the seventh edition of PFDC L’Oréal Paris Bridal Week. The collection is a tribute to how the creator inspires us to create something beyond imagination.

‘Lasting Loyalty’ incorporated luxe fabrics such as organza and raw silk and features tilla-work, pearls, naqshi, pasham, adda work and a revival of various old school techniques. The colour palette included Ivory white, warm yellow, blue, red and deep ruby. The collection boasts a variety of lenghas, skirts, and dresses across the range of 24 designs.

During this showcase, L’Oréal Paris Hair Color also celebrated their latest ‘Ambassador of Fashion’ platform collaboration with Ali Xeeshan for the ‘Excellence Intense’ Collection. The campaign featured L’Oréal Paris Pakistan local spokesperson Mehreen Syed and fashion models Sabeeka Imam and Sadaf Kanwal.

Film-maker and photographer Abdullah Haris participated in the designer’s showcase as a celebrity showstopper.

PFDC L’Oréal Paris Bridal Week 2017: Day-1 Journal The Pakistan Fashion Design Council PFDC in collaboration with L’Oréal Paris, the world’s leading beauty brand, is all set to present the…

[fariastam]

We went to what we thought was a Klimt exhibition, but instead turned out to be a multimedia reimagining of the renowned artist's works. It was a surreal and impressive setup, with an incredible soundtrack that really added another dimension. Videos to follow so you can experience it too! The Korea Times had an excellent article which covers almost all the bases, so we'll include it here: "Famous Viennese artist Gustav Klimt's works are being presented in modern media art in Seoul. The "Klimt Inside" exhibition at S-Factory in Seongsu-dong, eastern Seoul, takes a new approach to introducing Klimt's artwork, mixing it with electronic music and lighting. close The exhibition is divided into six sections: End of Century, Ver Sacrum, Women, Stoclet Frieze, Later Colors and Kiss. Klimt is best known for his fantastical pieces painted in gold, which include "The Kiss" and the "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I." When entering the exhibition hall, the first exhibit that greets visitors is a black hall with lighting on the carpet showing the philosophers and artists who influenced Klimt in small picture frames moving in sync with the lighting. The next exhibition shows three paintings ― “Philosophy,” “Medicine” and “Jurisprudence” ― that Klimt was commissioned to create in 1894 to decorate the ceiling of the Great Hall at the University of Vienna. These caused a huge shock in the art world of the early 20th century, with Klimt's radical expression of nude women criticized for being pornographic. These paintings are reflected on the walls of the exhibition hall in fractured pieces, moving in sync with the electronic music playing in the background. The next section is a hall surrounded by three long LED panels covering the walls like a movie theater. They play a video-like media art piece titled "Beethoven Frieze,” which was created by Klimt in 1902 to commemorate the composer. The heavenly piece is recreated as visual art, with "Ode to Joy" playing in the background. Watching the piece is like watching a short silent film but with awe at the beautiful golden angels now moving, as if resurrected from the original artwork. Toward the end is a hall exhibiting paintings of peaceful scenery, which is quite unlike Klimt's style of painting shown previously. This section, called "Later Colors," is dedicated to awe-inspiring landscape paintings that were done during Klimt's annual vacations to the shores of Attersee in Austria. The final section is "Kiss," showing the world-famous "The Kiss," which is most representative of Klimt's work. The artwork is placed in the middle of a continuing LED light tube. A small LED ball inside the tube moves in continuous circles to represent the eternity of love. Outside the exhibition, visitors can enter a virtual reality Stoclet Palace to see the dining room decorated with artwork Klimt painted for a wealthy Belgian industrialist." - The Korea Times