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arcticdementor · 3 years

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“Hey bro! Check out this Nike ad!” This was my entry point into a new world.

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Since Carlos had lived mostly outside the United States, he was able to follow soccer on a level I’d never encountered in my hometown. Back then, before social media and the advent of scarf-wearing Northwestern fútbol hipsters, big-time European soccer was like the metric system: Known to almost all but ourselves. But Carlos knew, and immediately used LimeWire to curate me a massive archive of 1990s through early 2000s soccer highlights. What was I doing in the world without them?

Oddly enough, in trying to inculcate me in soccer fandom, he started not with game highlights, but with the advertisements. Yes, Carlos was an educator and a voluntary footsoldier for Big Apparel. Going in, I had no clue about high-quality, internationally popular Nike soccer ads. The ads, written by the legendary Wieden+Kennedy firm, were miniature movies, films that were often creatively daring but also quite funny. The most popular of these ads might be “Good vs. Evil,” from 1996, where Nike’s best soccer players team up to play Satan’s literal army. The blending of sacrilege, theology and comedy just worked, like a more ambitious version of Space Jam that somehow took itself less seriously than Space Jam.

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Yes, I know ads aren’t supposed to be high art. I understand that they are the purest distillation of manipulative greed. And yet, they sometimes are culturally relevant generational touchstones. While Nike was weaving soccer into enduring pop culture abroad, it was having a similar kind of success with basketball and baseball stateside. These ads weren’t just pure ephemera. Michael Jordan’s commercials were so good that, as he nears age 60, his sneaker still outsells any modern athlete’s. “Chicks dig the long ball” is a phrase (a) that can get you sent to the modern HR department and b) whose origins are fondly remembered by most American men over the age of 35.

Modern Nike ads will never be so remembered. It’s not because we’re so inundated with information these days, though we are. And it’s not because today’s overexposed athletes lack the mystique of the 1990s superstars, though they do. It’s because the modern Nike ads are beyond fucking terrible.

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They’re bad for many causes, but one in particular is an incongruity at the company’s heart. Nike, like so many major institutions, is suffering from what I’ll call Existence Dissonance. It’s happening in a particular way, for a particular reason and the result is that what Nike is happens to be at cross-purposes from what Nike aspires to be.

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For all the talk of a racial reckoning within major industries, Nike’s main problem is this: It’s a company built on masculinity, most specifically Michael Jordan’s alpha dog brand of it. Now, due to its own ambitions, scandals, and intellectual trends, Nike finds masculinity problematic enough to loudly reject.

This rejection is part of the broader culture war, but it’s accelerating due to an arcane quirk in the apparel giant’s strange restructuring plan, announced in June. Under the leadership of new CEO John Donahoe, Nike is moving away from its classic discrete sports categories (Nike Basketball, Nike Soccer, etc.) in favor of a system where all products are shoveled into one of three divisions: men’s, women’s and kids’. Obviously Nike made clothing tailored to the specificities of all these groups before, but now, Nike is emphasizing gender over sport. Gone is the model of the product appealing to basketball fans because they are basketball fans. It’s now replaced by a model of, say, the product appealing to women because they are women.

And hey, women buy sneakers too. Actually, women buy the lion’s share of clothing in the United States. While women shoppers are market dominant in nearly every aspect of American apparel, the clothing multinational named after a Greek goddess happens to be a major exception. At Nike, according to its own records, men account for roughly twice as much revenue as women do.

You might see that stat and think, “Well, this means that Nike will prioritize men over women in its new, odd, gendered segmentation of the company.” That’s not necessarily how this all works, thanks to a phenomenon I’ll call Undecided Whale. The idea is that a company, as its aims grow more expansive, starts catering less to the locked-in core customer and more to a potential whale which demonstrates some interest. Sure, you can just keep doing what’s made you rich, but how can you even focus on your primary business with that whale out there, swimming so tantalizingly close? The whale, should you bring it in, has the potential to enrich you far more than your core customers ever did. And yeah yeah yeah, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, but those were birds. This is a damned whale! And so you start forgetting about your base.

You can see this dynamic in other places. For the NBA, China is its Undecided Whale. It could be argued that the NBA fixates more on China than on America, even if the vast majority of TV money comes from U.S. viewership. The league figures it has more or less hit its ceiling in its home country, so China becomes an obsession as this massive, theoretical growth engine.

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Here’s the main issue for Nike in this endeavor: The company, as a raison d’être, promotes athletic excellence. While women are among Nike’s major sports stars, the core of high-level performance, in the overwhelming majority of sports, is male. Every sane person knows that, though nobody in professional class life seems rude enough to say so. Obviously, there’s the observable reality of who tends to set records and there’s also the pervasive understanding that testosterone, the main male sex hormone, happens to give unfair advantages to the athletes who inject it.

Speaking of which, there’s a famous This American Life episode from 2002 where the public radio journos actually test their own testosterone levels. The big joke of the episode is just how comically low their T levels are. Sure, you would stereotype bookish public radio men in this way, and yet the results are on the nose enough to shock.

As a nerdy media-weakling type, I can relate to the stunning realization that you’ve been largely living apart from T. Before working in the NBA setting, I was an intern in the cubicles of Salon.com’s San Francisco office, around the time it was shifting from respectable online magazine into inane outrage content mill. Going from that setting to the NBA locker room was some jarring whiplash, like leaving the faculty lounge for a pirate ship. To quote Charles Barkley on the latter culture, “The locker room is sexist, racist, and homophobic … and it’s fun and I miss it.”

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The “Good vs. Evil” ad boasts a “Like” to “Dislike” ratio of 20-to-1 on YouTube. On June 17th of 2021, Nike put out an ad ahead of the Euro Cup that referenced “Good vs. Evil” as briefly as it could. In this case, a little child popped his collar and used Cantona’s catchphrase. As of this writing, the new ad has earned a thousand more punches of the Dislike than of the Like button.

When you see it, it’s no surprise that the latest Euro Cup ad is disliked. I mean, you have to look at this shit. I know we’re so numb to the ever-escalating emanations of radical chic from our largest corporations, but sometimes it’s worth pausing just to take stock and gawk.

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But today we are in the land of new football, where we take dictatorial direction from less-than-athletic minors. After her announcement, we are treated to a montage of different people who offer tolerance bromides.

“There are no borders here!”

“Here, you can be whoever you want. Be with whoever you want.”

(Two men kiss following that line, because subtlety isn’t part of this new world order.)

Then, a woman who appears to be breastfeeding under a soccer shirt, threatens, in French, “And if you disagree …”

And this is when the little boy gives us Cantona’s “au revoir” line before kicking a ball out of a soccer stadium, presumably because that’s what happens to the ignorant soccer hooligan. He gets kicked out for raging against gay men kissing or French ladies breastfeeding or somesuch. Later, a referee wearing a hijab instructs us, “Leave the hate,” before narrator girl explains, “You might as well join us because no one can stop us.”

Is that last line supposed to be … inspiring? That’s what a movie villain says, like if Bane took the form of Stan Marsh’s sister. Speaking of which, was this ad actually written by the creators of South Park as an elaborate prank? It’s certainly more convincing as an aggressive parody of liberals than as a sales pitch. Why, in anything other than a comedic setup, is a woman breastfeeding in a big-budget Euro Cup ad?

It’s tempting to fall into the pro-vanguardism template the boomers have handed down to us and sheepishly say, “I must be getting old, because this seems weird to me,” but let’s get real. You dislike this ad because it sucks. You are having a natural, human response to shitty art. This a hollow sermon from a priest whose sins were in the papers. Nobody is impressed by what Nike’s doing here. Nobody thinks Nike, a multinational famous for its sweatshops, is ushering us into an enlightened utopia. Sure, most media types are afraid to criticize the ad publicly. You might inspire suspicion that what you’re secretly against is men kissing and women breastfeeding, but nobody actually likes the stupid ad. No college kid would show it to a new friend he’s trying to impress, and it’s hard to envision a massive cohort of Gen Z women giving a shit about this ad either.

Now juxtapose that ad not just against the classics of the 1990s but also the 2000s products that preceded the Great Awokening. Compare it to another Nike Euro Cup advertisement, Guy Ritchie’s “Take It to the Next Level.”

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Here’s the problem, insofar as problems are pretended into existence by our media class: The ad is very, very male. Really, what we are watching here is a boyhood fantasy. Our protagonist gets called up to the big show, and next thing you know he’s cavorting with multiple ladies, and autographing titties to the chagrin of his date. He can be seen buying a luxury sports car and arriving at his childhood home in it as his father beams with pride. Training sessions show him either puking from exhaustion or playing grab-ass with his fellow soccer bros. This is jock life, distilled. Art works when it’s true and it’s true that this is a vivid depiction of a common fantasy realized.

Nike’s highly successful “Write the Future” ad (16,000 Likes, 257 Dislikes) works along similar themes.

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The recent Olympic ads were especially heavy on cringe radical chic, and might have stood out less in this respect if the athletes themselves mirrored that tone on the big stage. Not so much in these Olympics. It seems as though Nike made the commercials in preparation for an explosion of telegenic activism, only to see American athletes mostly, quietly accept their medals, chomp down on the gold, and praise God or country. Perhaps you could consider Simone Biles bowing out of events due to mental health as a form of activism, but overall, the athletes basically behaved in the manner they would have back in 1996.

But Nike forged onwards anyway. This ad in celebration of the U.S. women’s basketball team made some waves, getting ripped in conservative media as the latest offense by woke capital.

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“Today I have a presentation on dynasties,” a pink-haired teenage girl tells us. “But I refuse to talk about the ancient history and drama. That’s just the patriarchy. Instead, I’m going to talk about a dynasty that I actually look up to. An all-women dynasty. Women of color. Gay women. Women who fight for social justice. Women with a jump shot. A dynasty that makes your favorite men’s basketball, football, and baseball teams look like amateurs.”

When she says, “That’s just the patriarchy,” the camera pans to a bust of (I think) Julius Caesar. At another point, the girl says, “A dynasty that makes Alexander the Great look like Alexander the Okay.” Fuck you, Classical Antiquity. Fuck you, fans of teams. You’re all just the patriarchy. Or something.

Nike could easily sell the successful American women’s basketball team without denigrating other teams, genders and ancient Mediterranean empires that have nothing to do with this. Could but won’t. The company now conveys an almost visceral need for women to triumph over men because … well, nobody really explains why, even if it has something to do with Undecided Whaling. In Nike’s tentpole Olympics ad titled “Best Day Ever,” the narrator fantasizes about the future, declaring, “The WNBA will surpass the NBA in popularity!”

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There are theories on the emergence of woke capital, with many having observed that, following Occupy Wall Street, media institutions ramped up on census category grievance. The thinking goes that, in response to the threat of a real economic revolution, the power players in our society pushed identity politics to undermine group solidarity. Well, that was a fiendishly brilliant plan, if anyone actually hatched it.

I’m not so convinced, though, as I’m more inclined to believe that a lot of history happens by happenstance. If we’re to specifically analyze the Nike Awokening, there is a recent top-down element of a mandate for Undecided Whaling, but that mandate was preceded by a socially conscious middle class campaign within the company.

This isn’t unique to Nike, either. Given my past life covering the team that tech moguls root for, I’ve run into such people. They aren’t, by and large, ideological. Very few are messianically devoted to seeing the world through the intersectionality lens. They are, however, terrified of their employees who feel this way. The mid-tier labor force, this cohort who actually internalized their university teachings, are full of fervor and willing to risk burned bridges in favor of causes they deem righteous. The big bosses just don’t want a headline-making walkout on their hands, so they placate and mollify, eventually bending the company’s voice into language of righteousness.

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All the guilt and atonement transference make for bad art. And so the ads suck. There’s no Machiavellian conspiracy behind the production. It’s just a combination of desperately wanting female market share and desperately wanting to move on from the publicized sins of a masculine past. So, to message its ambitions, the exhausted corporation leans on the employees with the loudest answers.

There’s a lot of interplay between Nike and Wieden+Kennedy when the former asks the latter for a type of ad, but the through line from both sides is a lot of cooks in the kitchen. Based on conversations with people who’ve worked in both environments, there’s a dearth of personnel who are deeply connected to sports. In place of a grounding in a subculture, you’re getting ideas from folks who went to nice colleges and trendy ad schools, the type of people who throw words like “patriarchy” at the screen to celebrate a gold medal victory. The older leaders, uneasy in their station and thus obsessed with looking cutting edge, lean on the younger types because the youth are confident. Unfortunately, that confidence is rooted in an ability to regurgitate liturgy, rather than generative genius. They’ve a mandate to replace a marred past, which they leap at, but they’re incapable of inventing a better future.

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Ironically, Nike mattered a lot more in the days when its position was less dominant. Back when it had to really fight for market share, it made bold, genre-altering art. The ads were synonymous with masculine victory, plus they were cheekily irreverent. And so the dudes loved them. Today, Nike is something else. It LARPs as a grandiose feminist nonprofit as it floats aimlessly on the vessel Michael Jordan built long ago. Like Jordan himself, Nike is rich forever off what it can replicate never. Unlike Jordan, it now wishes to be known for anything but its triumphs. Nike once told a story and that story resonated with its audience. Now it’s decided that its audience is the problem. It wouldn’t shock you to learn that Carlos hated the new Nike ads I texted to him. His exact words were, “I don’t want fucking activism from a sweatshop monopoly.” He’ll still buy the gear, though, just not the narrative. Nike remains, but the story about itself has run out. Au revoir.

#ethan strauss #nike #sports #substack

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sigilscriber · 4 years

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You’re a Witch??? Rant ahead

Today, like so often, I got that same reaction when I told someone at work I was a practitioner. As always the sterio-typical “But witches are women” was the first thing that crossed their mind. But it often goes beyond that when it comes to me.

I am also tagged with “Where is all your crystals and pendants?” “I thought they only where black?” “Where are your robes?” “Where are your rustic renaissance clothes?” “Where are you goth clothes?” “What is you wand?” “What school can I apply to?” “Is there really a sorting hat of sorts.” “Where is your familiar?” “Do you know Alyssa Milano?” “You must have thousands of books” “My bosses best friends daughter is Wiccan?” “Aren’t you actually a Wizard?” “Can I see your book of spells?” “Ooooooooooh My daughter soooo loves Sabrina.” “My ancestors lived in Salem during the trials” DEEP SIGH!

Thanks Hollywood,

I guess we went from being classed as being green and ugly to being new age- sparkly-hippies, battling monsters and bad witches. No change. Still mis-represented. If even more so.

On average I am just your average college guy. No robes or outrageous garb, no crystals or rings, no piercings. Not even a tattoo. Okay I DO have one heptagram pendant that I wear under my shirt (Just like a Christian or Jew.) And yes I admit I do have a small collection of mortar and pestels and herbs. I just happen to like the shapes and makes of different mortars. I do have a wand but it stays in the draw of my altar. I am not bashing people that do where and have all that gear, clothes and stuff. To each their own. I’m not into hats at all, not into robes and ren shirts. I do not even have a car slathered with tons of witch stickers. I do not need that stuff. Yes, I do have a special pair of jeans and T shirt I like to wear for certain ceremonial works. But even the shirt is just a plain blue t-shirt. Nothing on it. I mean if you saw me crafting, I would look like a pain ordinary guy. I do not have a book of spells of Shadows. I do however have a prayer book I made. I use to have tons of books, but realized it was all the same wiccan stuff being written over and over and over and over and over and over. I ditched them all.

And this whole idea that because I am a witch, people think the only way they can relate to me is bringing up something like “Oh I know someone who sells crystals in Australia” or “Do you know Rowling?” Point of fact. not only do I NOT know her but I LOATH her. She is the cause of my bitterness.

There are days when people pull this on me I feel like asking “Oh you are Christian? Can I see your bible? Do you know Archbishop Wenski? Why are you not wearing a head covering? Yeah I had a Christian relative that was mauled by lions in Roman. Of course I won’t but there are days....

Its bad enough that they continue to make shows and movies that makes ANYONE that’s remotely new age or a witch like they are some comical nerd, dim-witted or clutz. There are times I would love to see a show were the family is Pagan or witches and look and act as normal as anyone else or even well-off, but its the Christian/Jewish neighbors that are made to look like the “freaks”. And seriously, if I ever met Rowling or the creators of Salem, Charmed or Sabrina I would probably bash their heads in with the closest thing I could grab. And you seriously do not want to know what I would do to the asp-hole creators of Supernatural and all those Ghost Hunter shows.

They think its cute to play around and make TV series and movies out of peoples seriously dedicated arts and lives. Let see them make a “Magickal/MIracle” movie about a church of Christians VS Jews. Have them casting “miracles” like parting water, multiplying food, turning furniture into animals. burning flora and water into blood. Lets have a movie where kids go to a different monasteries and learn to make holy water and oils, learn prayers to battle other monasteries. They can be based off of the 4 arch angels and can be chose by an animated rabbi hat. The headmaster can be Noah. And they can get helper cherubs. And it all can take place in the Garden of Eden that they reach by a golden elevator shaped like an arc. Oh and there will be giants, unicorns, fauns, phoenixes, talking snakes and dragons (Because all of these creatures are mentioned in the bible as real) Yeah and the Jews and Christians can turn each other to pillars of salt. And hey, lets have prayer beads and rosaries bestow special powers like strength and invisibility. I mean why not????

Lets have a Show where the family is Pagan/Witches living in a nice house in Suburbia, dad is an executive and mom is a teacher. No special effects, no house with tons of “supposed “ withy stuff is strewn everywhere. No mention of them being pagan or a witch. Maybe just one small pentacle or sacred symbol on the far wall. Now and then at dinner they will have a meal blessing. Have the friend/neighbor be some half wit blonde Christian with huge hair that’s like “Oh I have a rosary for that” any time a problem pops up and works in a Christian book store.

In short: No. Not ALL witches wear tie-die shirts with pentacles on it, Not all witches where tons of rings and pendants. Not all look like some uber goth chick or stoner hippy. Not all have arms emblazed with tattoos. Not all have spell books. Not all live in Victorian/Georgian manors with herbs and glass baubles everywhere. There is no wrinkled elves, Hogwarts or invisibles trains. Some of us wear suits or gym clothes, live in Levitown houses and 40 floor apartments and do not have a single tattoo or crystal. We do not go to special invisible schools nor battle evil witches and monsters with wands. The only robe we wear are bathrobes and the only hat we wear is a hoodie or driving cap.

#witch #rant #harry potter #the craft #charmed #sabrina #supernatural #ghost hunters #christian #jew

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Top 10 Regular Show Episodes

Close Enough is Close! 2 more days and a show i’ve waited without hyperbole years for will finally land offically. While i’ve seen three episodes preelease, one because of a french film festival the other two because HBO made an oopsie, and it’s more than likely i’ll be seeing those episodes again thursday, it dosen’t make it any less special, as with an offical release comes the fandom finally becoming a thing and the ablility to watch the episodes over and over again.. on computer till HBO gets it’s shit together but still. IT’s a great time. And my hype for the show made me revisit it’s big brother: Regular Show. Created by what would happen if you condesned california into a person, JG Quintel, Regular Show, as you all damn well know but I like doing anyway so as rigby would say, STOP TALKING, was about two slackers and best bros: Laidback hipster and hurricane when it came to talking to women, Mordecai and Rigby a high strung, idiotic, impulsive, and frequently angry racoon who worked, when they absolutley had to, at a park. Joining them at the park were their coworkers and later closest friends: Benson, their constnatly angry boss who constnatly belts out empty threats to fire them and has a rather sad personal life, Skips, a centuries old yeti whose literally seen it all and despenses advice for the duo and is voiced by everyone’s faviorite grandpa/jedi/murder clown Mark Hamill, Muscle Man, a grotesque blob of a man who likes “My mom” jokes and breaking things, Hi Five Ghost, Muscle Man’s sidekick who got like.. one episode focusing on him alone over 8 seasons moving on, and Pops, an odd but unfailingly sweet and kind vicotrian era gentleman whose also basically immortal and is Bensons’ boss in name only. The Park Crew spend their days working, or in our main duo’s case trying to get out of work to do anything else, while dealing with every day issues that would quickly ballon into insanity. Getting pops a birthday present of Fuzzy Dice from a local pizza place ended up with the crew having to fight a bunch of anamatonic animals that were stashing diamonds in there. Trying to get concert tickets involved getting caffine from the nipples of a giant sentient coffee bean in order to stay awake long enough to do the extra work. And Mordecai trying to delete an embrarassing message off his crush Margret’s voice mail lead to him and rigby getting hauled in front of a bunch of a message guardians, one of which is a sentient smoke signal that wanted to burn them while the other replied with “we’ree not going to burn them when have we ever burned anybody”... I love and miss those guys. Oh and it’s resolved by having to playt he embarassing song he sang while said message beings groove to it then ask him to colaberate with them on their album. THis show was on all the drugs and I am all the hear for it. I could go all day obviously but this section is long enough as is, let’s move on.

Regular Show came at JUST the right time for Cartoon Netowork: Similar to how the 80s doom patrol comic started off really bland and cookie cutter and not at all doom patrol and then grant morrison came in, had hte previous writer kill almost everything, then rebuilt it from scratch with crazy, CN had few shows left and was coming off a really terrible attempt at competeing with NIck and Disney Channel’s live action dommance with a bunch of dude broy reality shows and other ill conceved ideas. The network had a few shows, Total Drama, The Clone Wars which got better and I need to watch those better seasons at some point, but they weren’t enough to make the network thrive again. SO enter adventure time and regular show: BOth were creative, funny , a bit rough around the ages, and kind of nuts, but both were massive hits: The shows hit almost every demographics sweet spots: Kids like the bright colors, fun designs, and insanity, teens loved the edgy bits of the humor and also the insanity and 20 somethings and older both found refrences they got and loved, and well.. insanity. I mean being fucking nuts but also wonderful is kind of the watchword for most animation nowadays. While in the past in my own head i’ve played down Regular Show’s part in things, after all it came second and had a rough patch I told myself.. but I was wrong. Both shows had a lot of the same elements; insane stuff, great voice acting and good humor especially as they evolved.. but both also evolved in largely the same way and that way helped change animation for the next decade: Both, despite being comeidies, regular show keeping to it a bit more than adventure time did as they evolved, had the characters grow, something a lot of animated comedies didn’t do as much ast the time, even the good ones. THey had season long arcs, things that are now standard features in most cartoons for good reason were MADE standard by these shows. It’s just regular show’s legacy got diluted by shows that TRIED to copy it but both failed to see that it grew past season one or that it’s being okay for kids but really based in adult life and problems meant copycats like fanboy and chum chum, sanjay and craig and breadwinners, all thankfully long dead, eventually sputtered out and died. That and Nick is REALLY shitty at maintaing shows or treating creators with anything resembling respect. Somehow Teen Titans Go is still alive despite having similar failings but you can’t win everything. It didn’t help gravity falls came along right after and proceded to be even more influentail than both of these shows. Hmmm I just realized I haven’t done any gravity falls reviews here.. I gotta get on that. But while the show got eclipsed in quality and popularity I do still think it holds up for the most part as funny, charming and with , for the most part, good character arcs, it’s just that a bit of incosntientcy, some abrubtly done actions and a REALLY fucking terrible arc in season 6 dull the show a bit in comparison to what came after, but I do realize now it’s still worht watching, remembering and laughing at. It may of not been the greatest, but damn it was good. So with my nostaliga for the show popping up, my faith in it restored, and it’s sucessor showing up in a few days, I decided to do a little something for the ocassion. I WAS going to do a full on review, but had troulbe finding an episode as some of my faviorites are part of a larger arc that was hurt by a later arc, and the show ping ponged between slice of life and utter insanity enought hat it was hard to peg down to jus tone or two episodes. So while I WILL review the show eventually, it has both good and bad episodes needing it, I decided instead to dig out something I hadn’t done in far too long: a top whatver lists! Now while I do get these things are clickbaity, because they are, I.. honestly just love making them. Even if i’ts not for any specific purpose I just love ranking, the stress, even if I normally hate stress given my anxiety, of trying to narrow them down, and the satisfaction of taking a ton of episodes and melting htem down into the best of them. And with a show as long and varied as regular show, If igured this was the best way to show it off before I dived into it eventually. I’ll obviously be doing more top, and bottom lists in the future, but for now this seemd like a godo place to get back to it. As Now a few more things before we finally get started. Yes I know i’ve gone on for a few years now but i’m almost done. This list is obviously, my opinon. If you disagree fine, and feel free to comment or shoot me an ask about it but I stand by my list and what I choose. I had to boil down over 60 episodes I picked to possibly be on the list and even after it was down to 40 cuts were really difficult, .. Also just as a quick note there are no episodes from seasons 1, 6, 7 and 8, and that’s not on purpose, as the last two seasons are really good, it just fell out that way and i’m sorry about it. So with that out of the way grabs some sodas and wings, get out your maxi gloves, and bring out your best sentient earworms wearing sunglassses, after the cut I count down the top 10 Regular Show episodes. OOOOOOOOO!

10. I Like You, Hi (Season 5, Episode 26) As you’ll be able to tell by the rest of this list Season 5 is my faviorite, and it’s where I feel the series hit it’s peak before next season lead to it’s valley. It’s got a ton of great episodes, as this list will attest, some great character development, and was still really damn funny. But what put it over the top for me was the Mordecai and CJ arc. At the end of the last season as you probably know the show wrote out Margret, having her finally get into college like she’d wanted since she got an actual character back in “Camping Be Cool” instead of just being “that hot girl mordecai really likes but is too scared to persue”, and another fantastic episode we’ll be getting to, Mordecai was in position to move on. Re-Enter CJ. CJ was introduced earlier in the season 3 ep “Yes Dude Yes” which itself is really good, where Mordecai thought margret was engaged and with Rigby’s encouragment, ended up meeting CJ, stands for Cloudy Jay if your curious, a sentient cloud voiced by the wonderful LInda Cardenelli, aka wendy from gravity falls and currently co star of the equally wonderful show Dead to Me. Seriously go check it out on netflix, it’s really good. It naturally went pearshaped since Margret wasn’t engaged, he tried going out with both, she turned into a thunderstorm out of rage... as you do.. it’s like the season 6 plot but less infurating and more understandable. But the two remeet, and had a kiss on new years while not knowing it’s the other person under am ask.. and then CJ ran and both thought the other was upset: MOrdecai for him being MOrdecai, and CJ for running out on him and agreed to be friends. That didn’t last, though it did give us another classic on this list, as while exes can be friends and all, the two still had something between them. Thus came this one. And it was a hard one as it barely inched out the finale of their relationship arc, Real Date, which had the ceo of a dating company try to break them up and be really damny funny but it’s ulitmatley this one being just as hilarious while being a great character piece that gets it the rub. As the episode opens Mordecai and CJ have been spending a LOT of time together and i’ts clear there’s a spark there.. but Mordecai insists it’s platonic. And yes there is a bad habit of animation being unable to accept females and males who are into the oppistie sex can’t be friends without being attracted to each other. It’s being cleared up more lately, but as Star Vs showed it still happens sometimes. But it works here: The two STARTED with dating, made out on new years, and are attracted to each other it’s just clear both were in denial about it. It’s not saying “well they have chemstiry so fuck their partners’ like star vs or “if you loved someone once those feelings will return and destroy yoru current relationship” like next season.... season 6′s arc is a tirefire burn it. But the issue is forced when, while texting about an extreme baking show together while CJ’s at her job at a sports bar, it autocrrects from Yuji, the show’s host, to you hi, sending the title message “I like you, hi”. Mordecai, being even less adept with his feelings and anxiety towards women than me and trust me that’s saying something, spirals and we do get the episodes best scene, narrowly beating out it’s climax, where Mordecai summons a war council.. aka the rest of the main cast minus benson but plus Thomas, the intern who I wish stuck around longer even after he turned out to be a russian spy because they ran out of ideas for him, voiced by Roger Craig Smith and distractingly using his future sonic voice.

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I just.. love everything about the scnee. From the term pulling a mordecai, to Rigby joining in, deservedly as he’s had front row seats for a lot of this bollocks, to everyone’s suggestions especially Muscle Man’s half assed one that somehow, but unsuprisngly, works for him and Starla. Naturally Mordecai comes up with what Rigby HIMSELF admits is a Rigby level half assed scheme to get an actual photo with Yuji rather than just admit the truth. Yuji himself is an utter delight, having had his star not rise as fast as he’d like thanks to autocorrect and being entirely on board, and when it backfires as MOrdecai ends up autocorrected and sends the message thrice and gets sucked into the phone again, admits i’ts “pretty extreme’. I love the guy and i’m prety sure he showed up again, to my delight.

In the phone Mordecai meets some old friends, the message guardians who I mentioned in the “insane shit this show has done” bit earlier: old forms of messaging who police texting, all voiced by Rich Fulcher of the Mighty Boosh and Snuffbox Fame.

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I love Rich and wish these guys could show up in close enough. Maybe they can, I don’t know how rights issues with turner properties work when it comes to two diffrent audiences entirely. Anyways what really makes the episode, besides the great callbacks in this scene, is when confronted with everything going on, Mordecai.. tries to run into the void, with Rigby, The Message Recorder and the Smoke Signal all encouraging him to come back. “There’s nothing out there for you, literally it’s just a blank void”. With the leading tape recorder pointing out from their text history not only how great CJ is but how much he seems to like her with Mordecai finally coming back and admitting the obvious: He does like her.. he’s just scared of beefing it again. Which he does but that’s not the point. Rigby, who as part of his character development helps Mordecai quite a bit with this stuff by being a neutral party, though he also likes CJ better than Margret which is a mood even though I don’t care which one you ship mordecai with frankly, you do you, I have my prefrences. And with that Mordecai finally texts her and asks her out, with her accepting via winky face.. with an added text to clarify it for his neuotic ass.. which is also a mood as my neuortic ass could use that a lot. Overall just a wonderful , hilarious and good bit of character growth.. that season 6 throws in the oven, but that’s a long rant for another day. On it’s own, “I LIke you, hi” is a good character piece for mordecai whlie still being really damn funny.

9. Thanksgiving Special (Season 5, Episode 15)

Regular Show was really damn great at holliday specials. Their terror tales from the park every halloween were always a nice treat and a good replacement for Simpsons “Treehouse of Horror” which still exists, it’s just no one cares at this point, and their christmas and new years episodes are both really damn good, the first Christmas Episode being in contention for this list even. But to me the best of the best was easily Season 5′s thanksgiving episode.

The premise is simple: Mordecai and Rigby accidnetly destroy thanksgiving dinner, which the park crew is having for everyone and their famllies and, refusing to take Benson trying to dismiss their attempts to help fix their mistake, end up joining a songwriting contest to try and win a Turducken.. a natural one that’s born every 1000 Years because this is regular show. To do this they have to beat a parody of everyone’s least faviorite president Donald Trump, Rich Buckner. The fact that trump was basically the main villian of a holliday special a year before he became president is not lost on me and is one of the most accurate depections of the man i’ve ever seen. The fact Rich steals the prize despite our boys winning from his blimp with a grappling hook is peak trump. The fact Trump has’nt stolen more things with a grappling hook in real life is only because his hands are too small to use one.

Getting past our president for my own sanity, the episode also has really great subplots: Muscle Man and Fives go to a sports bar to get sides and end up pissing off a former football player and getting into a touchdown dance comppetition, sadly not set to the super bowl shuffle, while Benson, Pops and Skips go to get a turkey and end up fighting over it with men dressed up like a piligrim, a first thanksgiving era native american and a turkey, to which they don’t even really give an explination for.. granted most explinatoins on this show are insane but even by regular show standards, this gets none. And I love it for it. While as you can tell the episode is really damn funny, what really sells it is the emotional core: For once while they do fear for their jobs a bit Mordecai and Rigby’s main motivation in this messup is genuine guilt and wanting to fix their mistake, and they work hard at it, even giving a genuine and awesome heartfelt song that notches itself up with other thanksgiving classics “That thankstiginv themed soul sketch on snl” and adam sandler’s turkey song also from snl. Not a high bar but it’s really good regardless

The episodes’ real strength though is it’s emotional core: For once instead of saving their own asses or understadnably wanting to get one over on the cranky and in the worse written episodes obnoxiously overbearing benson, they simply feel terrible about possibly runing the meal for their arriving parents and everyone elses parents and families and their friends and work to right the wrong. It’s not the first time they worked to do something genuinely good with no benefit to themselves, but it’s probably the best and Benson’s I forgive you, while hilarious is also really sweet. And speaking of sweet

It ends on a really sweet and touching note, as Mordecai and Rigby, after escaping a blimp via a wish on a golden wishbone because of course, make it home to find the various weirdos the park crew met have brought them thanksgiving, and their parents will be there and we get a nice touching ending as the main duo get a well earned toast from Benson. Just an out and out amazing thanksgiving special and a good reminder of what the holiday means.

8. Trucker Hall of Fame (Season 3, Episode 37)

Moving on from Season 5 for a second, Season 3 was where the show really started to hit it’s stride to me. While Season 2 was a nice increase in quality from the sometimes choppy and heavy on “everyone is an asshole” comedy season 1, Season 3 was where the increased focus on the rest of the cast outside of our main duo balloned and what seeds of character were planted in season 2 beautifully bloomed. And this episode is one of the best examples of that. This one focuses on Muscle Man, who earlier on was basically the main duo’s rival alongside his buddy high five ghost, and kind of a dick. While “Kind of a dick” never left any discription of Mitch Sorenstein, this and previous episode muscle woman showed there was more to the goblin man than we thought. It’s also one of regular show’s few early mostly serious episodes and unlike the benson ones, again this list was tough don’t come at me with a machete, and realy showed why muscle man is the human tire fire he is. The episode introduces, and quickly kills off, muscle dad, mitch’s dad who gave him a love of pranks and was a truck driver who died as he live: mistaking a fake bear for a real one during a prank. Muscle Man being not the most stable person on a GOOD day, spirals, as seen above, and Benson tasks mordecai and rigby, since Fives isn’t good with death ironically and isn’t holding up much better, and as a much later episode shows the two became besties in high school so he probably knew muscle dad for a good ten years so he’s probably not in a great place either, nice stuff, to go with him to put his dad’s ashes in the trucker hall of fame. What follows is a sweet and damn sad episode. While Mitch’s frequent breakkdowns can be hilarous their also really sad and having lost my grandpa since this episode aired, I can relate to being fine one minute and a total shrieking wreck the next over the smallest thing. But it also shows that Mitch genuinely thinks of our main duo as his friends, and that beneath his testorrone positned exterior he’s a decent guy, being genuinely greatful. Of course being regular show the 3 end up squaring off with some truckers, while Mitch also grappels with the revelation his dad wasn’t one but a forklift opperator who faked being a trucker for his son’s benifit and dleft a tender note in his picture, figuring correctly his son would break it open when he found out... oh and because this show is still nuts his ghost ends up saving them at the end which is really sweet , as mitch decides trucker or no his ashes deserve to be there. Also his ghost shows up again at thanksgiving so apparently he can just come back once in a while, which is nice but dosen’t demnish the bittersweet feeling of this ep. And as I said the show has a good grasp on continuity as this ep marked a turning point for our main duo and muscle man: while the’yve bonded before after this, aside from mitch’s habit of christmas pranks and his faking his death, they really don’t nearly get as annoyed by him ever again. i’ts a sweet touching ride tha’ts uncharacristic of the show’s usual chaos but really works.

7. A Bunch of Full Grown Geese (Season 4, Episode 19) After a few episodes that were more sentimental on this list, it’s good to get back to some good old regular show madness for this one, which was also the series 100th in production order and is a worthy milestone episode. Season 4 was really good building on the good will from Season 3 and FINALLY having payoff to the margret and mordecai thing, more on that in a bit. Not as much to say as seasons 3 or 5, but it was still spectacular. The sequel to another ep, fittingly given it’s #100, full grown geese has our duo tasked with removing a bunch of obnoxious geese, with Benson in dick mode refusing to give the two more help, though it does lead to one of the show’s best scenes when he gives his usual your fried threat.. and fitting a milestone episode, Rigby calls him on never going through with it and the threat being as empty as my dreams. Benson responds by going nuts and angrishing them out of his office.. really funny. But yeah with the geese attacking them and , in their first attacking, poor pops, and no way to combat them, the two turn to the baby ducks, a bunch of baby ducks from the episode titled that who show up to help.. and this being the 100th episode of an already grant morrison level nuts show, it turns out the geese seek to conquer earth, voiced by david warner of course and have laser eyes.. and can combine. And the ducks do so again, mecha style, and add in our heroes and a bunch of call backs in one of the series best and most batshit sequences> The ending is also throughly satisfying as while our heroes win, Benson chews them out for tearing up the park in the process.. only for the ducks mom to call him out for not only yelling at the ducks, who are just kids, but at mordecai and rigby after they just saved the park from being a smoldering crater and not just trashed and he backs off. Just a fun episode where the crew just went nuts and the results speak for themselves.

6. This is My Jam (Season 2, Episode 13)

Now this one I couldn’t NOT include. This is one of the series best even after it’s immense growth, and a beloved classic for a reason. And like the above it’s a good classic case of regular show hyjinks while also being relatable this time: Rigby gets a brainless but catchy pop song from the 90′s stuck in his head and despite growing to hate it, and Mordecai hating it because this episode establishes him as a hipster, and seemingly exercises it.. only for it to manifest as a GIANT CASETTE WEARING SUNGLASSES THAT PLAYS THE SONG JUST BY EXISTING AND DANCES CONSTANTLY. it’s utterly glorious and used to great effect, also annoying benson because he’s constnatly annoyed. To beat it the main duo get the rest of the park’s help at Skips suggestion to form a band and craft an even BIGGER earworm to cast it out. Oh and there’s a great scene where Pops is forced to awkwardly dance with the incarnation of the 90′s “But I won’t use my best moves”. The climax also has one of Benson’s best moments as, after he’s irritated all episode, he comes in hot, with both the cast and audience expecting him to chew out mordecai and rigby.. only he’s mad because they forgot drums are key to an earworm and saves the day with his drumwork. It’s a great subversion and one of the first times Benson was more than just the angry but understandable, at times, dickhead boss. Just an utter standout and one of the show’s most memorable episodes for a reason. Also the line “you can’t touch music but music can touch you’ is great.

5. Meteor Moves ( Season 4, Episode 28)

This one was a long time coming and to me is a great example of writers taking their own shortcomings and making something awesome out of them. I prefer that: instead of just retconning away bad writing use it as a tool.. I try to do that myself when possible. See early in the show as you all probably know, Mordecai’s crush on Margret was just a plot device: he had a crush on the cute waitress at the coffee shop so they used it to get him to do things. A gratioutis shot of her in bike shorts got him to bet all computer rights for life that sort of thing. The show.. wasn’t great with female characters till season 3 and even as it grew, as season 6 and just.. forgetting to give CJ a proper ending as a character shows, still grappled with it. It took writer Kat Morris saying “no no stop go to jail” to them wanting ot make CJ a difficult woman type, whatever horrifying thing that is. I don’t want to know, let’s move on. The point is it wasn’t till season 3 that Margret and her best friends, and Rigby’s future wife, Eileen got fleshed out a bit: Eileen got smarter and turned out to be good at wilderness stuff while Margret was chill, nice, if annoyed by the chaos around mordecai, and funloving, while also having a clear goal in stark contrast to her future boyfriend: going to college. Even after coming back it was botha fter finsihing college and to start a career. It wasn’t incredibly deep, but it made me not be ehhh to her mere existance like before. The show also started developing her and Mordecai’s relationship seriously with the two bonding and the previously shown Butt Dial showing for the first time, after previously having a terrible taste in men and then just not noticing his crush, that she was receptive to how mordecai felt. And the two had several moments and two dates even, it just.. never went anywhere for some reason.

And this was INFURATING to me: See back then shows had a tendency to just pop in love intrests SOLEY for plot fuel like margret with no intention of following through with things either through rejection or a relationsihp upgrade and by then I was sick of it. The whole spike and rarity thing in MLP (which to be clear I wanted her to just reject him but nope, even after I stopped watching she never did. ), Isabella and Phineas. I was fed up so I went from being “eh” about it to annoyed supremely.. but the thing is the writers realized this.. and course corrected. The first step was picking up Margret, where Mordecai agrees to pick her up to get her to the airport for a college interview and we get a nice deconstruction of things as Margret is anticpatiing things going wrong, and wrongly blames Mordecai for it.. I mean it is his fault sometimes but half the time weird shit just follows him. However she’s won over by him working past it, getting her there in time and kisses him. That blew me away and made me think well it’s finally here.. and it was.. ALMOST. However the creators wisely, if frustratingly to past me, took one more episode to iron it out: Metor Moves has the two growing closer, and semi-going out, but Rigby pops mordecai’s bubble pointing out he never actually made a boyfriend girlfriend move and her move could’ve gone either way. So Mordecai , after seasons of being wishy washy and awkward, finally decides to go for it as he, rigby, eileen and margret go to a metor shower. Being Regular Show it dosen’t go as planned as his attempted kiss is blocked by the guardians of the friend zone.. which is a real, phantom zone esque place here and that’s just fantastic. And it’s also clearly mocking the hell out of the concept, which is dumb. if you want to ask someone out just do it, I learned that the hard way. And if you really are friends, if she says no then you’ll accept it and keep a friend anyway as I have. But it’s clearly parodying it and Mordecai get sreplayed all the times he ALMOST made a move but didn’t but refuses to accept this clusterfuck, realizes he was a screwup when it came to this.. and kisses her.. and this time the two enter a relationship> Granted it barely lasted but still, it was nice while it did and this ep is just great for it. While not the funniest, it’s up this high because it took somethign the show did wrong.. and turned it on it’s head and into a character flaw and had mordecai grow past it, with a genuinely romantic moment on top as well as an utterly funny and batshit concept. It also had some Rigleen, as by this point rigby stopped being a hateful wastebasket to her and warmed up to her, and I regret there’s no reigleen episodes on this list. Their the shows best couple and utterly adorable. Just wanted to mention that at least once this list.

4. Laundry Woes (Season 5, Episode 1) From the begining to the end. While sadly Morderet didn’t last too long in canon, which blows, it did give us some great episodes while it lasted, as with the above entry and their breakup in Steak Me Amedeus. As mentioned before Margret left for college, which while abrupt feeling did pave the way for great stories: The Mordejay arc mentioned above and that will pop up again very soon, This was one of them: the ep while lacking on laughs is a good emotional rollercoaster and starts with an amazing montage that catches us up from the end of season 4: Mordecai is miserable, as you’d expect and wallowing in it with Benson, of all people, letting him. And given Benson seems to have a heart attack any time Mordecai and Rigby aren’t working, that’s huge. But eventually his friends refuse to let it go on and in a really touching montage help him through it, taking him out places, giving him good times and eventually.. the fog starts to lift and he starts to enjoy himself and by the end.. he’s himself again. It’s one of the series best sequences, told with no dialouge and showing just how far the rest of the cast had come: Benson actually wants to comfort mordecai but is encouraged not to at first, underfstandably as it probably woudlnt’ help, and a crew that were once, aside from Pops who much like Krillin is everyone’s friend, just coworkers who barely tolerated each other, and are now close as family and help their own in need. But Grief isn’t a straight line and just as Mordecai’s recovering he’s sent spiraling when he finds Margret’s sweater and uses ita s a flimsy excuse to go return it. It’s here I also get to talk about Rigby, who grew from an impatient idiot who hated Mordecai’s romantic endevors and actively sabtoaged them at times, to an understandting wing man who, while understandably frustrated with his best friend’s own idiocy with women, turned out to know more and be the wise council he needed, triggering both is relationships and only bailing out during the season 6 clusterfuck and even then was there to comfort him after it was all over and go to his aid to pull him out of another misery hole. And here he gives Mordecai the hard truth: He shoudln’t do this, it’s just going to tear both him and margret up again and he just put himself back together. He’s not going to let his best friend do this to himself. And while there is a supernatural elment, the sweater comes to life and tries to get Mordecai to force margret back with him and give up college, likely voicing his darkest wants that he hates himself for wanting, but it feels more like a manfiestation of Mordecai’s own issues than the usual madness. Like “Trucker hall of Fame”, a rare senntence, it’s a less funny packed more grounded episode. And in the end it’s mordecai himself, after rejecting the ghost sweater and seeing his ex truly happy , that gets him to NOT talk to her and just.. let it go. IT’s a good emotional episode and SHOULD HAVE BEEN the end of their relationship... but i’ve ranted about the cheating storyarc enough here, moving right along.

3. Portable Toilet (Season 5, Episode 16) Back to the Mordejay arc. And yes this arc is my faviorite and while I didn’t make it clear at the time I really shipped the two, even before it became canon. I had nothing against morderet, these two simply had more chemistry and these episodes built CJ up as more of a character than Margret was at the time. It’s why that later arc sucks so much to me: it destroys a perfectly good relationship and story arc for dumb reasons and never really did enough with it to justify doing so. I’ll get to it some day, or if someone comissions it soone rthan some day, but as you can tell i’m still sore over it and great eps like this are part of the reason why. It’s the same reason i’m sore on how Tom was handled on star vs. But as you can also tell as bitter and lemon scented as I am.. these eps are still objectivley great and thus took up a third of the list basically. Case in point Portable Toilet, which zooms back a bit to when neither would admit they were into each other but were now friends at least. Also Eileen was CJ”s friend now because plot convience. I mean they worked, and it bothers me a lot that the creators claim cj washed her hands of her even though she’s not the one who made out with margret... which come to think of it adding her to rigleen.. not a bad idea. I mean Rigby didn’t really like margret true, but they did almost go out before mordecai killed him and then reset time because Mordecai’s always kinda sucked. I’ll file that away for later. But my new OTP aside, I did like the two bonding and what not. Anyways with their outside park friend/RIgby’s future girlfriend now friends with Mordeai’s future girlfriend the four have apparently been hanging out which, while i’ve bemoaned off screen stuff at times, works here and regular show uses it better than most shows. While Rigby can clearly see Mordecai and CJ are into each other Mordecai is as we covered in denial and while that dosen’t really progress here, it does lead to one of teh shows finest hours. When talking would you rathers, CJ semi-flirtly dares Mordecai to eat his lunch sandwitch in a portable toilet, which he agrees to and drags a reluctant rigby along for. This being regular show, it goes south fast as the two get stuck, with Rigby’s clautrophiba kicking in leading to an amazing exchange Mordecai; Dude that makes no sense! Rigby: You’s makes no sense! While our dynamic duo try to get mordecai and rigby out the two are carted away and repalced with a new portable toilet, a deluxe one. Also we get another great bit when our dynamic duo find Muscle man, in a robe with choclate’s claming “Eileen, other girl, this isn’t weird” before screaming “This isn’t weird”. Turns out old portable toilets are taken to be blown up by the miltary and we get one of the shows best one off characters in the general, who not only explains it as “toilets being about the same size as the enmy” but when told he should call the president says “the preseident is not my father i’ll blow up as many toilets as I want.”. Spectacular. So now it’s a scramble for one twosome to rescue the other, Rigby lets out a cathartic “THANK YOUUU MORDECAI” over the flirty toilet dare, and the day is saved> This one is another pure comedy one, even if it ties into a plot I really like, and i’ts gold for obvious reasons and manages to take blowing up porta poties, a premise that dosen’t seem that funny, and make it utter comedic gold. Speaking of pure comic episodes that are utterly insane...

2. Cool Bikes (Season 3, Episode 7)

This one feels like regular show boiled down to it’s core: semi-relabtale hyjinks dovetalling into pure madness. And the premise sounds like a shit post i’d make: Mordecai and Rigby want benson to admit their cool and get into progressively weird outfits and tricks to their bycycles to do so, eventually becoming so cool their put on trial by the council of cool , ending up having to make a runner when Benson finally breaks down and admits it. The premise is utterly stupid in the best way possible, with the conflict being the kind of petty bullshit we all get into from time to time with our aquantinces: not wanting to admit something and loose the argument withthings escalating. And in regular show terms it escalate sperfectly into the entire unvierse being threatned adn our heros being on trial for their lives. There’s not much to say here, it’s just pure comedic gold with a premise that just works. It also has good moments for Benson with his finally admitting they are cool and saving the duo’s lives whne he realized he just gave them a death sentence. Utter fun. And now we come to the finale, my faviorite episode...

1. Dodge This (Season 5, Episode 15)

Yup this arc again. But this one has more than my ship going for it, and it’s why it soared to the top: It takes the excellent character work of other episodes and weaves it with excellent comedy to create an utter delight and the episode I remember most fondly and most often. It’s just great. The second part of the Mordeijay arc, not counting yes dude yes, the episode is half that and half sports movie: The Park Guys have been taking part in dodgeball as a team bulding thing and it shows how far Benson’s come as he not only praises mordecai, and launches the mordecai and benson ship in the process, but gives his team full wings and his full support, a far cry from his usual self. It’s also the first big instance of him getting hammered on wings and it’s glorious to see drunk flirty benson. Benson is also genuinely congratulatory to the team’s ace mordecai, and most of them realy for b eing valuable and hopes to win this year. IN their way are two things: The magical elements, aka the floating baby heads that gave skips his immortality, his friend with sparkly eyes who works for them and death himself whose a recurring character and fucking great and who were their bowling rivals too. The other is CJ is back, and Benson in another good moment actually talks mordecai through it and his nerves over it assuring him. So we get a great sports piece as our heroes work through various callbacks and even beat the magical elements iwth Rigby’s hilarious and rediculous rignado manuver, which is as dumb as it sounds and winged a guy hilaroiusly before with Benson scolding him like a toddler. Of course it ends up with Mordecai and CJ against each other, both incredibly awkard over things as mentioned before, and both ending up in a stalmate that magical dodgeball guardians have to resolve because, let’s do this one last time. IT’S REGULAR SHOW. We do get a good moment though as the two work through their awkwardness: both thinking the other is rightfully mad: Mordecai for his two timer date with her and Margret and CJ for running out without talking to mordecai after they had a moment on new years. The both work past it, the park strikers loose,benson likely gets hammered again off screen.. it’s a good one and I have no shame in putting it at number one. It’s got heart, really great jokes, and some good charcter stuff, not to the level of other episodes on this list, but it wasn’t a full episode of that like those were and still works to move the plot forward and is still a classic. Just a fun, breezy, well done epsidoe fully rooted in the cast’s characters and getting laughs out of that.. mostly benson. And with that this giangantic list comes to a close> I hope you enjoyed it, if you liked it follow me for more. I’ll be doing close enough coverage every week, as well as amphibia and owl house among other reviews. Until we meet again, later days.

#regular show #mordecai #rigby #cj #eileen #margret #muscle man #benson dunwoody #high five ghost #pops mallerd #skips #death #yuji #rich fulcher #close enough #top 10 lists #cartoon network

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ahiddenpath · 4 years

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36 Questions to Make You Fall in Love

SO my boy Eugene Lee Yang released a video where he answered the 36 first date questions to make you fall in love. Apparently, the idea of the questions is to create an emotional connection upfront.

(Related: It’s been interesting to see what Youtube/video content creators have come up with to produce content from home during quarantine!).

ANYWAY I thought it was an interesting “get to know you” thing, so I’MMA DO IT TOO below the cut! It is extremely long.

1. Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest?

I have way too much anxiety to impose on a stranger to this extent, so I’d magically have my friends teleported to my home (pre or post quarantine).

2. Would you like to be famous? In what way?

Fame is a nightmare scenario for me.

3. Before making a telephone call, do you ever rehearse what you are going to say? Why?

Yes, but only with service providers. I can and will utterly blank on what I need and what my dang name is when asked, “How can I help you?”

4. What would constitute a "perfect" day for you?

Ha! Right now, just a day without covid-19. I miss the outside world. Even things like browsing a store sound heavenly.

But... The best days of my life thus far were my Hawaii vacation, especially snorkeling and hiking through a rain forest. So... I’d want a day where I wake up early in Hawaii to snorkel and hike, and then drink mai tais and watch the sunset with my husband.

5. When did you last sing to yourself? To someone else?

...I sang “Let’s All Sing Like the Birdies Sing” in the shower today...

6. If you were able to live to the age of 90 and retain either the mind or body of a 30-year-old for the last 60 years of your life, which would you want?

Oh, yikes, my mind. My mother’s father started degrading from Alzheimer’s when I was about 10.

(I’m assuming this refers to having a healthy mind throughout your life, and not remaining frozen in your 30-year-old mindset/experience set).

7. Do you have a secret hunch about how you will die?

No, not at all. Definitely hoping it’s not Alzheimer’s related.

8. Name three things you and your partner appear to have in common.

Well, I assume you and I both love Digimon!

As for my husband, we’re alike in habits and hobbies, but different in personality. We’re both introverted homebodies who love video games/nerd stuff in general/learning. We also highly value security, so we tend to work hard and save. I’d say we’re both grounded and reasonable, although I’m the more emotional one.

9. For what in your life do you feel most grateful?

This is too hard! I’m constantly feeling so grateful. I love existing as me! I seem to have a strong sense of self, and of where I stand, and that’s so dope. I’m also intensely grateful for my husband, who is so generous with his love and affection and care. And I’m glad that I found a career that suits me so well.

10. If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?

Er.

I had a difficult childhood. It’s hard, because my Mom loves me and my brother and sacrificed so much for us... But she (and all of our relatives) failed to protect me from my father’s various flavors of abuse. We were both also under a ton of pressure to excel academically.

Still, I can’t change the past. I’d rather donate to women’s shelters and resources for people dealing with abuse at home.

11. Take four minutes and tell your partner your life story in as much detail as possible.

Let me bullet point it:

-Spent most of my time from 6 months old to 2 years old in a body cast because my hip wasn’t in the socket, and my muscles developed around it like that. Went to tons of physical therapy.

-Drew comics when I was 3 and 4 because I needed to get ideas out, such as they were, but I couldn’t write yet.

-I love cats, and have had at least one since I was five.

-My home situation was rough. I started trying to plan how to get out and be independent early and have been working and saving since I was 16.

-Interests/hobbies: animals, singing, nature, science, books, music, writing, video games, art, baking

-Met and started dating my husband at age 14. We’re blissfully married.

-First job was at an aquarium. Worked summers at a biotech firm during college. I’ve been working in biotech since I graduated. I currently research immunotherapies. I have a B.S. in biology.

-I have general anxiety disorder and see a therapist every other week. Therapy has been amazing, A+ would recommend.

-I’m an asexual cis lady

-I need to read and write to stay sane. Reading connects my mind to other minds, which helps me grow, understand, and think. Writing releases the pressure that builds up in my brain.

-I’m introverted, but friendly. Also, I’m an enormous dork.

12. If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality or ability, what would it be?

Teleportation

13. If a crystal ball could tell you the truth about yourself, your life, the future or anything else, what would you want to know?

No, thanks. I realize the point is to share information about myself through my response, but... This just isn’t how humans are meant to live. We’re supposed to discover our way and forge our futures, not have answers magically handed to us.

14. Is there something that you've dreamed of doing for a long time? Why haven't you done it?

...Sigh. My husband and I have dreamed of visiting Japan since we were teens. We were just starting to plan the trip when covid-19 hit. Thankfully, we hadn’t booked anything yet.

15. What is the greatest accomplishment of your life?

Being me, being happy, whole, fulfilled, and confident. There’s no one magic accomplishment that makes everything “worth it” or makes me feel like I “made it.”

16. What do you value most in a friendship?

Oh, oh, oh, there’s a lot to this! Obviously, a friend needs to be kind (you don’t want to spend time with a jerk), but they also need to be emotionally mature (lending a kind ear is good, but functioning as a therapist for a friend is exhausting). But it’s the best if a friend has both of those things, but also is interesting in some way. Like... maybe they’re funny, or charismatic, or share your hobbies. And it’s a great feeling when a friend reaches out to you and makes time for you now and then; it’s a vulnerable feeling to always be the one to reach out.

17. What is your most treasured memory?

My first kiss, which was with my husband when we were 15.

Also, my entire trip to Hawaii with my husband.

18. What is your most terrible memory?

I’ll probably go with the time my father called me into his room while I was doing homework- I was probably 16ish? He told me I’d never be as smart, talented, or successful as my brother, at great length, for no discernible reason. He said I’d have to work more than twice as hard as him to get by, since I was so deficient. I still have nightmares where this replays.

19. If you knew that in one year you would die suddenly, would you change anything about the way you are now living? Why?

I would say that I would quit my job and travel with my husband, but... You know, covid-19. I’d want to spend a ton of time with my husband, see as much as I can of the world, and do whatever I can to get details in order and make things as easy on my husband as possible.

20. What does friendship mean to you?

It means that you love someone and actively want them in your life, and you treat them as such.

Life is short, and people only have so much physical and emotional energy. If you choose to freely and joyfully give it to someone, then that’s a big deal.

21. What roles do love and affection play in your life?

??? Same as anyone else, I’d assume. People need people, although everyone has different levels of need. I guess I do tend to avoid casual relationships so I have more energy for my closest relationships. I’m also extremely independent, so I think my needs are smaller than average.

22. Alternate sharing something you consider a positive characteristic of your partner. Share a total of five items.

I assume that you, reader, are a cutie pie. Hello!

But let me talk about my husband! He is wicked smart, always learning for fun, and skilled at logic/reasoning. He’s also a hard worker, and the head of software development at his company at age 31. He is sooo shy and terrible at small talk, but I adore that he’s the quiet type, since the world is always so loud. He’s gentle and loving and kind, and he takes amazing care of me and is constantly looking for ways to do something for me. And he’s laid back and easy-going, which is so soothing.

23. How close and warm is your family? Do you feel your childhood was happier than most other people's?

No and no.

24. How do you feel about your relationship with your mother?

It’s... complicated.

25. Make three true "we" statements each. For instance, "We are both in this room feeling ... "

WE ALL STAN THE CHOSEN. We are all excited for the Digimon Reboot to restart. We all love Koushiro!

26. Complete this sentence: "I wish I had someone with whom I could share ... "

...I want more writing and reading friends.

27. If you were going to become a close friend with your partner, please share what would be important for him or her to know.

I’ve had to explain to a lot of people that, despite being friendly and open, I’m introverted and independent, and a total homebody. I often find that people want to go to bars with friends, or maybe see movies or go to festivals. I would rather talk on a video chat while we each do our own thing. People tend to want too much too fast for my slow, cautious pace.

28. Tell your partner what you like about them; be very honest this time, saying things that you might not say to someone you've just met.

I like that you love Digimon and have somehow managed to read this much of this never-ending thing. Also, you look cute.

29. Share with your partner an embarrassing moment in your life.

I asked my husband out over the phone when I was 14. I was sitting on a wooden chair that was far, far older than me. Because I was so nervous, I was rocking the chair back and forth.

It splintered and broke while I was trying to ask my husband to my school’s homecoming dance, pitching me to the floor in the middle of the most crucial sentence.

30. When did you last cry in front of another person? By yourself?

Yikes, this is a lot, but I last cried in front of my therapist. I asked out loud, for the first time, why no one did anything to protect me as a kid and ended up bawling.

I can’t remember the last time I cried alone. Generally, I go to my husband for support.

31. Tell your partner something that you like about them already.

Your fine, fine taste in blogs.

32. What, if anything, is too serious to be joked about?

You know, I’m not sure. Millennials tend to have fairly dark/nihilistic senses of humor. I will say that, generally speaking, you should only “punch upward.” Ie, don’t kick people who are down. It’s better to joke about the rich than the poor, for example.

33. If you were to die this evening with no opportunity to communicate with anyone, what would you most regret not having told someone? Why haven't you told them yet?

Sometimes I wish I could articulate some things to my parents, but they wouldn’t hear me, anyway. I know because I’ve tried.

But my loved ones know I love them, so that’s taken care of.

34. Your house, containing everything you own, catches fire. After saving your loved ones and pets, you have time to safely make a final dash to save any one item. What would it be? Why?

The boring and honest answer is my important documents and my computer/external hard drive/charger/cellphone, followed by a fire extinguisher. But I realize the question is about what physical items I hold dear, so... Assuming my wedding bands are already on my finger, like always, and that I am wearing my glasses and some clothes, I’d grab my grandmother’s clock.

35. Of all the people in your family, whose death would you find most disturbing? Why?

Jesus Tap-dancing Christ.

My husband’s. I love him beyond compare.

36. Share a personal problem and ask your partner's advice on how he or she might handle it. Also, ask your partner to reflect back to you how you seem to be feeling about the problem you have chosen.

I’m 31, and I’ve been thinking a lot lately about whether or not I want children. The trouble is, I feel like my country has gotten so much worse since I’ve been alive, and especially over the last four years (I’m American). Meanwhile, the environment is deteriorating globally... Would my child even have clean drinking water when they’re 30 or 40?

Is it ethical to have children under these circumstances?

And this is all before I even address the question of whether or not I want to be a mother, or if I think I would be a good mom! Yikes.

THAT WAS A LOT, are you still here? Thanks for reading xD

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spiritarcticclawsw · 5 years

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It’s official

if J.J. Abrams kills off Ben Solo like I think he will, then damn it, I’m putting my writing skills to good use.

Yes, it’s true. You guys deserved better. Ben deserved better. This entire trilogy could have been so much better in so many different ways. But we must remember, it’s still about hope guys. It’s about saving what you love, not fighting what you hate. And we, as fans, have power! If we don’t give them good feedback, or don’t give them money, hell, they’ll have to do something. As a matter of fact, I think that’s why this final movie came out the way it did. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a result, either direct or indirect, of the backlash from The Last Jedi. But we shouldn’t be sending death threats, or getting aggressive, or being violent. Otherwise, as Obi-Wan said:

We would be becoming the very thing we swore to destroy.

We promised ourselves we wouldn’t be the butthurt fanboys because after all, “It’s just fiction, we shouldn’t be fighting and attacking each other for it.” And I understand why you’re all upset. The idea that Ben Solo dies after Han, Luke, and Leia died for him goes against everything they set up. It sends the message that you must die to redeem yourself. It sends the wrong signals to kids and goes against everything we felt the Skywalker Saga should stand for. And while we don't have the power to change the canon entirely, we have the power to influence it. Cast and crew members, and even people who aren't that into reylo and don't like or ship it continually praise our fan art and fan-fiction. Not to mention higher-ups are bound to hear our pleas to give us our Ben back.

And even if reylo does end in death, in tragedy, we still have our own skills. Every person in this community is so talented and skilled, I dare say that if we pull together, we could build something deeper and more meaningful than the Skywalker Saga. As a matter of fact, there have been countless cases of fanworks rivaling the original art content-wise and improving upon it in ways the original creator. Sure, pop culture has generally shamed fandom culture for being cringey or toxic, which is unfortunately not entirely wrong, but it can also be beautiful and inspiring! You guys were a beacon of hope amidst the negative cesspool that was the Star Wars fandom. So many hardcore fans that interact in the online portions of the Star Wars fandom, that I was scared to cross tag any of my reylo headcanons, for fear of getting bullied off like what had happened before. Many people don’t understand how truly beautiful fandoms can be! Thousands of us becoming family to each other, supporting each other through hard times despite never meeting each other, none of which would have happened if Star Wars never existed!

I honestly Disney doesn’t realize how influential fiction is, and how painful it is to just kill off a character like that with no proper setup or character arc. Fictional characters and fandom friends are there when you need them most. Who was there when your day was bad, when you fought with your significant other, when your loved one died or when you got fired? The fandom, the characters, the movies, and if you reached out, someone would reach back (shoutout to @princeofdarkness15 for helping me when I was an internet noob lol). Are we just gonna let J.J. Abrams, leaks, and sad endings take that away from us? Are we gonna let this tear our cross-platform, international worldwide family apart? Or are we gonna peacefully protest and keep pumping out beautiful works that rival the quality of the original? Are we gonna allow the characters to live on in our hearts and minds? I think the band AJR does a great job of singing about how impactful fiction is with one of the most stupid-sounding and silliest examples: The Office -

youtube

Personally, I know you guys and fandom, in general, has impacted me to the point where many of the novels, TV shows, and Movies I plan to create when I become a filmmaker tackle fandom, fiction, and why it’s important, (that sounds like the title of a book,) but I digress.

Another thing I’d like to point out is that none of us have actually seen the movie. For all we know, there could be a resurrection scene none of us know about. While I personally wouldn’t hold out much hope for that and think it’s more likely they’ll just retcon something in a comic or novel, we have yet to get official, reylo verified news about the endings.

My point is, we shouldn’t start getting aggressive or violent about this. I won’t tell you not to get angry or depressed about this, you have every right to, but don’t start bullying or sending death threats.

If the leaks are true, I plan to take to Wattpad and AO3 to write the ending you guys deserved, Filled with happy endings, and classic Star Wars style adventures. With drama, mystery, romance, action, and my personal favorite, the Ben-and-Poe-act-like-siblings-because-they-were-both-raised-by-Leia-and-are-deathly-afraid-of-her-coming-back-as-a-force-ghost-to-slap-them-for-something-stupid-they-did dynamic!

I want to turn it into a long term series, though I don’t know how well that’ll work out since I’m about that age where you start getting ready to go to college and also want to write a novel to sell and a musical to perform at my school, but I suppose that'll be my new free time project!

Whatever you do, don’t lose hope.

youtube

^^^^^ This’ll be the first song I use for inspiration for my fanfiction.

May the Force be with you.

#reylo #reylo fam #star wars tros #tros spoilers #tros speculation #the rise of skywalker #rey x ben #save ben solo #ben lives on in us #bendemption #rey #reyben #rey x kylo #kylo redemption #feel the light

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youknowmymethods · 6 years

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Content Creator Interview #2

In this week’s interview, fandom friends @lilsherlockian1975 and @mrsmcrieff talk about whether they found Sherlock hot or not at first sight, how publicly sharing their work changed their writing, and the hardest thing about writing smutfic (pun fully intended).

And for those who don’t know, today is Lillian’s Birthday, so m’dear, Many Happy Returns!!!!

Hey, so Lilsherlockian1975 and myself, MrsMCrieff, have decided to interview each other for Aine’s challenge. We’re going to try to answer each other’s questions but there is always the danger of us going massively off piste. Our conversations in the past have been eclectic and very wide-ranging not to mention M rated.

Anyway, I thought we could start by saying how we came into the fandom and more than that writing in the fandom. Lil, do you want to start?

Lil: All right, my sister on another continent, here’s how it went: As I’ve explained about finding The Full House on Pinterest, let’s explore what came before that moment, then just after... I was working third shift at a hotel (I had to as Mr Lil and I didn’t really have any childcare options at the time, so we just worked opposite shifts). The hotel was in a very small town - we were never busy, some nights we sold maybe 2 rooms - I usually spent my time watching Netflix. After making my way through Doctor Who, Star Trek Next Gen, Voyager then (God help me) DS9, Farscape and Firefly, I’d finally run out of anything to watch. You’d be surprised how quickly you can burn through a series binge watching for 8 hours at a time (and getting paid for it!).

Then… then I found Sherlock. Well, that changed things… a bit.

“Good Lord, who is the Cumberstud chap and why won’t he have all the sex with me!?” was my first thought, my second was, “Maybe I have a chance with the dishy DI?” and third? “Oh… what fresh hell is this ‘Mycroft’? Yummy!” Then finally, “Ahh, did the casting director somehow read my diary? Creepy but… all right.” To my defense, it was late and I usually worked on very little sleep. Also, I’m a kinky bitch.

I’d never been involved in a ‘fandom proper’, I suppose. That’s not to say that I wasn’t a fangirl. I am and always have been. I was hugely into the Kevin Smith movies, going as far as visiting the Quick Stop and RST Video in Lenardo, NJ, respectively, as well as The Secret Stash, in Red Bank. I was a comic book geek in my youth, Marvel mostly, but some DC as well.

After reading The Full House, I desperately needed MORE Sherlock and luckily enough, there was more to be found.

At first I was just reading, then I wrote and posted a couple of (horrible) fics and met this fellow writer named MrsMCrieff (I might have had a little ‘writing crush’ on you, Mrs!). We chatted on FF.net and struck up a friendship.

So, for me, writing came before fandom. Mrs was doing some betaing for me, but I didn’t ask for help often; I hated bothering her all the time for the multitude of stories I was turning out. At some point around here, I got an elusive invite to AO3 from sherlockian87, bless her soul, because I kept trying to join and couldn’t get a blessed invitation. Also around this time, I had written a prompt and got a PM from MizJoely asking if she could fix some of my mistakes (she was very sweet about it, even though I totally flipped - half fangirling, half losing my shit because ‘Crap, I screwed up so bad, here was The MizJoely asking if she could edit out my mistakes!’) but she wasn’t being critical at all, of course, just helpful as I soon found out. Shortly after, now having formed a friendship with MIz, she suggested that I start a Tumblr blog. And that’s how it all started.

Yes, sorry… I, um, tend to be a tad loquacious. Writing out my answers doesn’t help one little bit.

Okay, Mrs, right back atcha!

Mrs: OK, shall I try to be more concise? I’ll probably fail as I’m terrible as writing short fics they always seem to end up spread over multiple chapters.

I’m another one who had always been a fangirl, Doctor Who, Buffy, Twilight, vampire Diaries (yeah, I love my vampires) but I’d also been a Sherlock Holmes fan. I’d read all the books in my teens, watched the Basil Rathbone and Jeremy Brett adaptations and even stayed at the Sherlock Holmes hotel on Baker St so when a new series was advertised it was an easy sale.

I was late to the cumberobsession though. I have to admit watching the first two series as they came out and I remember thinking I like them but it’s a shame Sherlock isn’t that hot. I know, I know, I’m embarrassed even as I write that.

It all changed after watching season 3 and I blame the Sherlolly kiss 100%. I watched the series, DELETED the records!! And then realised I was spending a lot of time thinking about Sherlock and Benedict...that turned into looking him up online and from there it was a short step to reading Sherlolly fics on fanfic (I was already reading fics for other shipping obsessions). Anyway, it didn’t take long before Sherlolly took over all my other ships and Benedict was my number one hottie.

As for writing, I hadn’t written anything fiction based since school and school was a long time ago...almost thirty years. But one day I was looking for a specific fic, I wanted to read about Sherlock and Molly having to share body heat and I just couldn’t find anything that satisfied me. I’m not sure why but in that moment I decided to write it myself and in half an hour I’d written Frozen...my first ever fic. It took another couple of hours to pluck up the courage to post it and I clearly remember feeling a bit sick and my hand shaking as I pressed the final button to post.

Thankfully, I almost immediately started to receive positive reviews and feedback and it wasn’t long before I started to write more...the rest as they say is history. Lil got in touch soon after and it was fun chatting to another writer just starting out. We soon found we were not dissimilar in age and both had two sons and the friendship started there.

We’ve been through quite a lot over the last few years Lil and written some fab stories. Wouldn’t you agree?

(I should let on that we are now faffing about trying to find the original list of questions...we are trying to be professional).

Ok Lil, so I’ve looked at Aine’s questions and they look really hard. Any preferences on which ones you want to answer :).

Lil: I think a great follow up to that first one is this: How did posting your first story change your process of writing? So I’m shooting it back to you, Mrs, and you can send me that one or select a new one for me. Tag, you’re it!

Mrs: I can tell you quite simply how it changed my process of writing...given that it was my first piece of writing in 30 years I was starting from scratch when it came to any process. One thing that I started with that’s held true for me ever since is that my stories are fully mapped out and written before I even start posting the first chapter. I will edit and make refinements but the bones of the story are there.

I know lots of people post a chapter and then write the next chapter but that would put me under too much pressure. The downside is that if someone gives me a prompt they could be waiting months before they see it posted. The upside is if I’ve started posting a fic you will get the end of it as it’s already been written.

There have only been two exceptions to this method: Sherlock Holmes, Vampire which I worked on over a year or so posting four chapters every so often as I wrote them...it was stressful. And the other is Never Have I Ever which was/is more of a collection of one shots woven together into a fic.

How about you Lil? How did it change for you?

Lil: So, I’d been writing little stories and whatnot for years and years but, having no idea that there was such a thing as ff.net or AO3, I had no place to put them. Writing was always a very, very distant dream of mine. I have loads of notebooks filled with stories, story ideas and my own personal ramblings (unfortunately, my Tumblr followers now have to read the ‘ramblings business’). I stopped for many years after my roommate/best friend since childhood found some of my writing in college that I’d carefully hidden under my bed. I came home to find her in my room, sat on the floor, on the phone with our Art History professor (whom she was sleeping with), as she read him my story and laughed hysterically at its awfulness.

I was devastated and vowed never to write again.

But that changed, of course. Those first maybe ten stories were just me letting my mind go and getting out what I wanted to say (aided by liberal amounts of wine). Since then, however, my ‘process’ has changed drastically. I don’t always write an outline (never for one shots, which I write often) but I generally do for long fics. If not, it’s easy for me to get lost and miss critical points. My writing has become more about ‘layering’ for lack of a better word.

I found after those first few posted fics, that in going back and re-reading them I wanted to make changes. I didn’t re-edit them (because I’m lazy), but it made me realize that my writing required more time and proofing before posting; that first draft is just the start for me - a thin layer of primer paint on a canvas, if you will. I then read over it and add more details and more and more until I get the desired effect. Again, much like oil painting, I have to build things up, layer by layer. This works for me; I have no idea if it’s a proper method of writing. So, posting my first fic(s) helped me learn that I shouldn’t be so trigger happy about posting if the story wasn’t ready.

Okay, Mrs, this one is geared specifically towards you. I don’t think anyone would argue with me about your supernatural ability to write ‘case fics’, so let me ask: Which do you prefer writing, case fics or fluffy smut-filled romps? And why?

Mrs: Oh God, ask me something easy why don’t you. Both, I like writing both. I love the depth of a case fic, the idea, the research, plotting it out and working out the characters and detail but it’s so time consuming and I often write a bit, leave it, come back to it etc. etc. so a detailed case fic can take six months.

Fluff on the other hand is less satisfying but quicker (my minds already in the gutter with an analogy).

Woohoo I kept is fairly short for once. So, here’s one that’s good for you. I’m endlessly envious of how easily you make friends and how you know so many people in the fandom whereas I’m the introverted hermit. Which other authors are you friends with, and how have they help you become a better writer?

Lil: Goodness! You make me sound like a social butterfly (Mr Lil calls me that all the time!). I like people, plain and simple. Other than you, I am close to MizJoely and Darnedchild, that’s no secret, so I’ll talk about them first (you included, because you’ve made me a better writer, I’m sure of it - have actual proof!)

I cannot count the ways Miz has helped me improve my writing. She figuratively took me by the ear and said “okay, you don’t suck but do you even know what a comma is used for?” No, not those actual words, she was much kinder about it, but I got the hidden meaning and I needed it, trust me. She also challenges me and is not afraid to be honest with me when I’ve written something that isn’t good or perhaps doesn’t fit. I know I’ve improved since she started betaing for me, like a 1000%. And Child… When I volunteered to beta for the Big Bang Challenge, I had no idea what I was getting into, but man… she’d written and enormous fic. Good, amazing really, but it was longer than anything I’d ever worked on before. It scared the shit out of me but I really think it was exactly what I needed. Betaing someone else’s work can really make you see your own mistakes from a new perspective. I feel like I jumped ahead after working on the BBC with Child. As for you, MrsMCrieff, just the other day I had The Best compliment… someone actually thought I was British! Yes, that happened. I can only attribute that little feat to you, my friend. You’ve taught me when to add a ‘u’, when not to zed and about many different terms like pavement, taps, hob, loo, trousers (we really don’t say that here!). Not to mention the fact that most European men aren’t circumcised. Who knew?! It’s pretty common in the US.

But that’s just a few. I cannot count the number of fandom friends who have helped me and all the ways that they’ve done so. That doesn’t mean I won’t try…

There’s likingthistoomuch who always listens to my ideas and encouraged me to post my first Harry Potter fic. OhAine has been a true friend from the very beginning, always insightful and supportive. Mellovesall who is just too sweet for words and always helps with edits, no matter what’s going on in her life. Kendrapendragon who let me bounce ideas for my Mirror Has Two Faces AU off of her for like a whole day! the-sapphiresky who has helped me with this historical AU that may or may not ever see the light of day. Allthebellsinvenice who answered about a dozen questions (over two years!) for Dig Down Deep when I’d panic about some D/s situation I’d written myself into. o0katiekins0o who backs me up when I’m in the middle of a sensitive subject. I can always depend on her to help me when I’m afraid I’m crossing a line. Broomclosetkink, Lord help me! She’s pinch hit for me when I’ve written a fic for Miz or if I just need a good laugh. She’s the best. Sweets… it’s very hard to talk about sweet-sweet-escape. I still cannot even bring myself read her stories or the ones I wrote for her without breaking down, but no one was more supportive or kind to me than Sweets. I miss her so much.

Then there’s all the love and support I received from everyone during The Fic That Shall Not Be Named debacle. That’s when I knew how much this fandom (well, this ship, really) had my back! I will never forget how much love and support I received. Bless you all!

I’m forgetting people and I hate that. But I really do love all my fandom friends as if I see them and hang out with them every day. I mean that.

Okay, Mrs, here’s one for you (I’m going back to the list for this one because I like it and I think it’s interesting): What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters of the opposite sex?

Mrs: See, see I said you knew loads of people!

As for your question that’s easy to answer...knowing what it feels like when they get aroused and orgasm. I’m more than happy being female but it would be kind of interesting just to be a guy for one day. It would improve my writing no end.

On a wider note when it comes to writing characters I don’t think any of us made it easy on ourselves when we decided to try to write being a high functioning sociopathic genius. I think I can speak for most of us when I say he’s not the easiest person to try to write authentically. I just wish I had half his knowledge then I wouldn’t feel like such an idiot when I’m writing him.

I gave my youngest son the option of any number between 1 and 40. He chose 7 so does writing energise or exhaust you?

Lil: It absolutely energises me! I do get frustrated trying to find time to write, but actually writing does amazing things for my mental and physical self. I find that I’m much more productive around the house when I’m in the middle of a writing jag. I’ll sit and write for a while, then get up and pound out some chores (usually more quickly as to get back to my computer). Somehow, this works for me. Frankly, it’s probably got to do with my ADHD. I’m the kind of person who needs to do multiple things at once. I’m the same at work; I cannot just stand behind the registrar for 8 hours. I practically beg my managers for extra work, which they’re happy to give me.

I have an original question for you, love: How does a bad review affect you?

Mrs: I’ll be honest I don’t react well to a bad review but it does depend on whether I think it’s valid or not. You probably know each and every time I’ve had one because I will probably have sent you a screen shot and asked your opinion. Thankfully they have been few and far between, occasionally they have made me think...especially if I’m being accused of using a tired old trope and I’ve made the effort to up my game in future fics but often they are just being nasty for the sake of it.

Writing is such a personal thing though, we give a piece of ourselves in each and every fic so it’s hard to not take criticism very personally.

Same question to you Lil.

Lil: Oh, I’m a giant baby about a bad review and have been known to take it very personally. At first I brood… like really hard, thinking on the entire thing much longer than necessary. I suppose it depends on the nature and tone, for the most part though. If it’s attacking and spiteful, I’ll attack right back but if it’s coming from a ‘goodish’ place, I do try to look at my writing a bit more objectively (I don’t always succeed). Anonymous bad reviews get to me the most. The fact that I cannot reply drives me up the wall!

Okay, we’re wrapping this up (else we could go on forever!) Thanks so much and a big thanks to Aine for organizing this as well!

Mrs & Lil

Next Week:

Posting on Friday 01 March it’s @ohaine ‘s turn (eek!) to interview @ashockinglackofsatin

#content creator interviews #lilsherlockian1975 #mrsmcrieff #sherlolly #sherlock #mentions of lemony goodness

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 6 years

Link

There was so much wrong with this I was compelled to debunk it line by line.

“The biggest successes in the business, character-wise, tend to have more than one axis that they revolve around; take away one, and everything goes wildly off course. ”

This isn’t universally true. Spider-Man for example is defined by power and responsibility. Responsibility can be somewhat broad though and relate to work, family,self-respect, community as well as being a hero so if that’s what you meant then okay. Similarly power can mean more than just super powers. After all Spider-Man’s original sin with the burglar was something he didn’t need super powers to have prevented.

“Yes, Batman’s very much about Justice, that’s what he teaches us about…but as a character, he’s defined by the idea of Family from the start, with the deaths of his parents to the various Robins, Alfred and Gordon, and even up to his old, familiar relationship with Gotham itself.”

This is somewhat debatable given that Batman’s family ties were not present in his first appearance and Alfred was not truly a father figure to him until post-crisis, nearly 5 years after his creation; arguably the same is true of Gordon. But because of his origin and Robin’s and his relationship with Robin okay it does make a lot of sense to say he’s about justice but justice in specific relation to family ties.

“Superman wants to show us how to hope and work for a better world, but the kink that gives his relationship with humanity weight and definition is his alienation from those he loves so much. Even if it’s subtle in its presence, stories from All-Star to Birthright have taken that principle to heart in their portrayals of Clark Kent: take that away, and you end up with something like the largely unconflicted, uber-patriotic Man-God of John Byrne’s Man Of Steel (which I know to be many people’s benchmark for the character, but that’s a discussion for another time). ”

This however was your first big misinterpretation.

That particular interpretation of Superman was absolutely absent from his character until like the Silver Age when, to cash in on the science fiction craze of the time, they leaned harder on his alien origins.

Post-crisis they went back to him not feeling all that alienated if at all, and outright rejecting said alien heritage, codifying that he is a human first and foremost.

Some say that these are two equally valid interpretations but the truth is they really aren’t. The entire premise of Superman as originally envisioned by his creators was an immigration allegory combined with a power fantasy. But it wasn’t just any given immigration allegory, it wasn’t as broad as to be anything. It was specifically the allegory of the idealized ultimate American immigrant, the American dream played out in a superhero/science fiction outlet. He wasn’t merely an immigrant, but very much an integrated immigrant who adopted the ideals of his new home and brought with him helpful traits from his place of origin with which to enrichen and help out his new home.

The idea that he felt alienated and not a part of humanity and that was a great tension between himself and those he loved like his parents or Lois...that was honestly an invention after the fact and a huge betrayal of the fundamental defining point of the character. Practically the opposite.

It is in truth a MISinterpretation.

Does that mean Birthright and All-Star Superman and Byrne’s Man of Steel are mutually exclusive?

I don’t know.

But it isn’t merely a case of Byrne being the benchmark for many people. Fact is...he got it objectively correct because he was doing what Siegel and Shuster were doing. If Birthright/All-Star are mutually exclusive then I guess yeah, sorry Waid and Morrisson did in fact get it wrong.

Which shouldn’t be surprising. Waid and Morrisson wanted to effectively reboot Superman BACk to his pre-crisis self circa the 2000s and Morrisson and Waid used said ideas for those stories, with Morisson kinda of rebooting Superman in the Nu52. Cut to 2016 and nu52 Superman was unrebooted back to his post-crisis self (more or less) after the Nu52 (inspired very much by pre-crisis Superman and leaning even harder on the ‘I’m so alienated, let me date this Amazonian demi-godess from an isolated mythic nation’ than pre-crisis itself ever did) utterly failed.

“Many, if you asked them what Parker’s second irreducible element is, would say that the big idea in play is the experience of being a teenager.”

No it isn’t.

“And it’s hardly unfounded.”

Yes it is.

“Voices throughout the online comics community, from Chris Sims[1][2] to Sequart’s own Colin Smith[3] (R.I.P., TooBusyThinkingAboutMyComics) to David Brothers[4], among many others, put forward that idea to greater or lesser degrees.”

And those voices are grossly mistaken.

“And they’re not wrong, not really.”

Again, yes they are.

Let’s contextualize things properly.

Circa the early 1960s the true concept of ‘the teen’ was at best incredibly new and at worst didn’t truly exist. Indeed as originally envisioned by Lee and Ditko Peter was a SENIOR not a 15 year old. He was going on trips out of town on his own within the first 10 issues. Aunt May was talking about him getting married within the first 20 and he considered proposing to Betty before he even hit college.

In those high school years Peter actually DIDN’T spend most of his civilian time in a high school setting. It happened but he was mostly centred upont he Bugle, a place of work.

He was working to support himself, Aunt May and generally financially support the household as the man of the house in lieu of Uncle Ben.

THAT...is the exact opposite of being defined by youth. Even in the early 1960s a teenager wouldn’t have been defined so heavily by their employment, let alone an employment as the breadwinner for the family, the one upon who’s shoulders everything rested.

That is very much an ADULT responsibility. Which makes sense. Realistically lsing your father and having to adopt that responsibility would cause you to grow up faster in many respects. Couple this with the fact that neither Lee or Ditko were even of the same generation as 1960s teens and from a time period where the teenager truly didn’t exist and you as a youngster had to step up earlier and basically go from child to young adult with little in between and it makes a lot of sense, whereas ‘he’s about youth and being a teenager’ absolutely doesn’t.

That’s nothing more than a modern idea we project backwards onto those older stories.

The experience of being a teen had little to do with defining Spider-Man’s character, it just happened to be something relatively different for the time period and indeed Stan Lee stated he called him Spider-MAN in the first place because he intended from the outset for Peter to age into adulthood eventually, and keep going at which point calling himself Spider-BOY made little sense. This is corroborated by the fact that Lee in the stories and in other interviews has repeatedly stated he always intended Peter to eventually marry (a decided adult experience) Gwen Stacy. He equally stated he was pleased in the comics and newspaper strips to see Peter’s character development from teen to married guy and looked forward to him eventually having children.

If part of the core idea of Spider-Man was his youthfulness then these ideas should’ve been anethma to his co-creator. A character defined by youth and the experiences of being a teen can never age out of that period of his life or be intended to age out of that period without destroying the fundamental core of the character, or at least a huge part of the fundamental core.

But that didn’t happen. Spider-Man left high school within the first 3-4 years of his existence and it is in fact the ROMITA era in college which until the early 2000s (when USM began being pushed as the definitve Spider-Man ever) was seen as the true blue golden age of Spider-Man.

There is after all a reason why versions of Spider-man set in high school USE so much stuff from the college era. Few TV shows, movies, video games or alternate universe comics set in Spider-Man’s high school years DON’T feature college era characters like Harry Osborn, Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane, Joe Robertson, Norman Osborn, Black Cat or plot lines relevant from the college years, such as Harry’s drug addiction, Norman being unmasked as the Goblin, the debut of the Rhino, the Shcoker, the Kingpin, Silvermane/other gangsters. Few in fact ever depict Spidey in a relationship with Betty Brant or in a love triangle with her and Liz Allan. Liz herself hasn’t gotten as much play as the above listed college era characters and whenever she does it’s usually in a second fiddle position to said college era characters.

Indeed in the majority of adaptations prior to 2008 (a mere 10 years ago) placed Spider-Man in college instead of high school or else transitioned him into college very quickly. Sam Raimi’s first movie, which is the single most reverential one to the Ditko run, has Peter transition into college by the halfway point of the film.* In the 1994 Spider-Man cartoon (which had a huge influence upon the Raimi trilogy and Venom over all) Spider-Man was only n high school for one flashback sequence and in college the rest of the time and that show had very direct involvement and consultation from Stan Lee. In the upcoming and highly anticipated Insomniac video game, Spider-Man’s story begins POST-College. In the 1970s Spider-Man newspaper strips by Stan Lee himself, the story begins in college and Spider-Man’s origin is even retold to take place in college. Again that’s by the CREATOR of Spider-Man.

It’s very obvious that the teenage/high school experience is NOT key or relevant to the character at all.

Indeed the Ditko issues depicting him in high school don’t place much focus upon his schoolwork, zits, or high school dating and the like. The most it is relevant is being bullied by Flash but that wasn’t in every issue or got half as much panel time as Jameson and the Bugle stuff. Which again, was affiliated with Peter’s work, work being an ADULT aspect of life, not a particularly youthful/high school experience.

You are correct in your assessment that power/responsibility isn’t the sole axis for Spider-Man’s character.

But wholly incorrect that ‘youth’ is the other axis. In truth it’s...being a normal guy.

THAT was the actual point Lee and Ditko had in mind. The Hero who could be YOU! Spider-Man was the everyman hero, the hero with relatable problems. His other axis was that he was ORDINARY relatively speaking, not that he was young.

This is corroborated by long term (as in began in the 1970s) fan and Spider-Man analyst J.R. Fettinger:

Peter's appeal was not that he was a loser (although his hard times was a big factor in his popularity), but that he was ordinary.

I remembered something that one of Hero Realm's co-creators, the "late" George Berryman, told me in the early days of the Realm was that Marvel President Bill Jemas "hates MJ, hates the baby, and wants Spidey to be a kid again."

Hmmm.

For some reason I became hung up on the phrase of wanting Spidey to be a kid again. And finally, I figured out why it was bothering me - and that's because it presumes that Spidey was a kid in the first place. And he wasn't. Not really. At least not the kind of kid the Marvel execs who have been desperate to de-age him think he was.

You doubt?

First of all, we do have to acknowledge that while many of us related to Peter Parker in one way or another (which is the root of his popularity), how many of us are really like him? The second part of that question is how many kids did you know in high school who were like Peter Parker? Let's establish that Peter was 15 at the time of the spider bite (supported by the recent Civil War where Peter tells the media he has been Spider-Man since he was 15 years old). He probably turns 16 before too long and is 17 by Amazing Spider-Man #16 when Matt Murdock, whose radar senses are pretty accurate, estimates his age. Let's look at what kind of "kid" Peter Parker really was in the Lee-Ditko, Lee-Romita, Sr. days:

After the death of Uncle Ben, Peter becomes the head of the household because Aunt May becomes too frail and senile to do much of anything (the way she was written at that time). Although Aunt May cooks him wheatcakes and worries about him being sick, Peter is the one with the primary source of income, and he is also her primary caregiver, a very atypical situation for a 15 or 16 year old.

Speaking of Peter's employment, I probably really don't need to talk about the inherent absurdity of a high schooler becoming one of the premier photographers of that great metropolitan newspaper, the Daily Bugle.

Peter's (and Spidey's) quick, razor-sharp witticisms tend to be the product of a more mature, experienced, well-read individual given the topical references, like maybe a middle-aged writer. Just a guess. There are too many to mention, but one of my favorite of Peter's overwritten zingers occurs in Amazing Spider-Man #26, when having had enough of Flash Thompson's big mouth, he states "I'm in no mood for your musclebound mirth today! And the same goes for your gang of grinning hyenas." Hey, I love this stuff, but if Peter were doing this on TV in one of those typical teen-age oriented shows where the kids have all the brains and wisdom and the parents are largely ineffectual buffoons, his character would be pilloried by the critics for being too highbrow, clever, or simply obnoxious for a teenager. I did know someone in college who was the quickest with a great comeback as anyone I have ever met before or since, but he was an English and literature major, not a science major (he's now an English professor and writer, so there seems to be a logical connect).

Speaking of the science major thing, I am probably in the minority opinion on this, but the extent of Peter's genius leaves me a bit cold. I do like the idea that he is this brainy guy whom everyone thinks is a nerd, but is really this terrific superhero. But seriously, an expert in complex polymers by age 15 (as Roger Stern once illustrated - in order to demonstrate that Peter was already on the road to the web fluid thing)? And then there's that anti-magnetic inverter he uses in Amazing #2 to take out the Vulture. And don't forget how he whipped up an antidote to temporarily cure the Lizard all in the space of a couple of panels in Amazing #6. I have a feeling that any kid this smart would not be in the New York City public school system, or any public school system.

So, ultimately, Peter Parker was never a real kid, not in the sense that real kids are, but he was really an adult in a teenager's body. He had the weight of the world on his shoulders like an adult, and he had true adult responsibilities. In a way, Peter Parker was very much like Charlie Brown of Peanuts fame. Charles Schulz's famous character was never really just a plain kid - he was a neurotic adult in the body of an eight year old (or however old he was). And talk about topical references, Peanuts was loaded with them. However, Schultz's clever writing, wit, and keen understanding of human foibles made this accessible to both young and old. It wouldn't have mattered whether Charlie was five or 15, Schultz's marvelous writing would have carried the message in an entertaining style.

Now, I am not implying that no teenager has ever become head of the household, or held a permanent job before graduation, or had a lightning fast wit, or been a super-genius and still at a public school (but was there ever anyone who was all of those). Nor am I trying to take anyway any of the fun of the early days of Spider-Man, nor ruin any of the fantasy conceits, because that's what it is - fantasy. We recognize that and enjoy it anyway. The point I am making is that for anyone, whether they be a Marvel suit, editor, writer, or someone from Wizard to get hung up on Peter's youth being the core of his popularity, and something that must be repeatedly revisited in order to make the titles popular again, is either blind, in denial, or simply not doing their homework on the character.

And if you want to handwave his views because he is a fan and observer (like Sims et al listed above) then consider this...Tom DeFalco agrees with him. Tom DeFalco has stated more than once that Spider-Man is about responsibility and NOT youth.

To get why that is a big deal, Tom DeFalco is also a long time fan. As in began reading in 1962 with Amazing Fantasy #15. He edited Spider-Man for years. He wrote THREE runs on Spider-Man and a 10+ year long run on a pseudo sequel called Spider-Girl. He was EIC of Marvel for a time and wrote a book literally called ‘Spider-Man: the Ultimate Guide’.

He is infinitely more qualified to discuss Spider-Man than any of the other people listed in this article or in my response sans Stan Lee himself.**

And he corroborates my and Fettinger’s point, that Spider-Man is definitely NOT about youth/the teenage high school experience.

“Moreover The high school years, and everything that comes with them, are indisputably at the center of the earliest adventures.”

Yes and no.

Spider-Man was in high school for the first 28 issues so yes.

But high school EXPERIENCES were 100% indisputably NOT the centre of the stories for that time period and again, Spider-Man became MORE popular and his true golden age was defined AFTER high school.

“ It’s a well people have been going back to for years from the late, lamented Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon; to David Lapham and Tony Harris’s With Great Power; Marvel Adventures Spider-Man; Sean McKeever, Takeshi Miyazawa and David Hahn’s Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane; twice over with Ultimate Spider-Man by Brian Bendis and assorted artists (in my opinion, the most effective comic at recapturing the spirit of the Lee / Ditko years during the first run with Bagley…though again, that’s a topic for another time); and soon enough once more with Dan Slott and Ramon Perez’s “Learning To Crawl”. ”

And again, notice how all of those within Spider-Man’s 55+ year history only relate to stuff from the last 18. Spider-Man hit 56 years old recently. 18/56 is merely less than 33 percent of all of Spider-Man’s history wherein the high school era is being revisted over and over and over again.

It has even less weight when you consider the trend merely started because

a) USM was popular and USM’s success owed much more to Bagley’s art and the accessibility afforded it by being a singular self-contained narrative with a clear starting point. Read issue one or volume 1 of the trades and then keep going, no need to crossover into Ultimate Spectacular or Ultimate Web of Spider-Man

b) USM got started up by the disastrous EIC Bill Jemas who ignorantly believed Spider-Man to be defined by youth

c) The Spec cartoon was set in high school first and foremost to simply differentiate itself from almost every adaptation prior to it which DIDN’T centre things in high school and a desire to try something that had never been done before. The long term plan was for the show to run 5 seasons of high school before transitioning into DVD movies set in college

d) Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane was aimed as a tweenage all ages audience thus centring things on high school experiences made more sense as that was more directly relating to the age of the audience

e) Around the same time period Superman’s origins were revisted multiple times because people just LIKE going back to the early years inherently.

This doesn’t spell out ‘high school is more inherently Spider-Man and better for the character’. It spells out ‘this is something different we’re milking for all it’s worth whilst getting stuck in a rut creatively.

Hell THAT IS WHY Insomniac are NOT doing high school OR college for their game.

Additionally USM DID NOT recapture the spirit of the original Ditko stories. People believe they did because they liked it or else because that narrative has been repeated. But a simple analysis of the Ditko High school years to USM reveals countless differences between he two, differences which very seriously alter the spirit of the original stories. Ditko Peter had no real friends and his first romance wasn’t serious at all. He was constantly anxious over May’s health and being a provider for the family. Jameson was a constant source of harassment in and out of costume and a major force impacting his life, with his whole job as a photographer meant to get one over on his harasser. Ditko Peter was over all lonely and on edge a lot emotionally.

NONE of that applies to Ultimate Spider-Man under Bendis. Peter is more chilled out and whilst not a member of the in-crowd, clearly isn’t lonely having a friendship group. His first romance with MJ isn’t not serious, it’s a very deep committed love that involves her acting as a confidant which was absolutely NOT the case in the original Ditko stories. Jameson is barely there and his smear campaign against Spider-Man is not the most important aspect of their relationship or has a huge impact upon Peter’s life. Gwen Stacy lives with him. Nick Fury has an important presence upon his life and Aunt May is the bread winner, provider and is never a source of worry due to being pretty healthy for her age.

It is truly NOT a spiritual successor to the Ditko run at all.

“Those earliest of stories are at the center of everything good about the character…”

Again, no they aren’t. Mary Jane, Gwen Stacy, Harry Osborn, the Green Goblin and everything awesome about the College era (which I will remind you was MORE popular than the High school era) proves that assessment incorrect.

“The Parker Luck, in those earliest days? Largely amounted to costumes shrinking in the wash, or misunderstandings with his girlfriend(s… You unmitigated cad), or his aunt just not getting it, man”

Aunt May not getting it was a college era thing, not prevalent in the high school era.

“but from any objective standpoint the boy was leading a charmed life. So why the misery? Because he’s a teenager. ”

No. The misery was because he didn’t lead a charmed life. This is patently obvious from the stories.

He had no friends.

His girlfriend Betty Brant was often unreasonable and became insanely jealous whenever Liz like...talked to him!

His mother figure was often in poor health creating huge financial burdens.

Jameson verbally abused him and shortchanged him at work.

The public hated and feared him and believed him to be a criminal.

He risked his life routinely.

He was ostracized and bullied at school.

Oh yeah...and his father figure was dead and he blamed himself for it.

To dismiss all that and chalk up his misery via ‘he’s a teenager of course he’d be moody’ is a gross misinterpretation of the character and a highly unsympathetic attempt to analyze him.

I’m not saying his woes weren’t over exaggerated due to his age, but serious and justifiable cause for sadness Peter absolutely had.

“Because it’s always the end of the world at 16, when in truth the world isn’t set against him (something we’ll be getting back to), but his problems simply result from misunderstandings, from the basic realities of his situation, and from screw-ups entirely on his own part. ”

Again this is objectively wrong. SOMETIMES yes there are screw ups of his own makings, but Flash’s bullying, Jameson’s smear campaign and May’s illnesses were the biggest sources of woe in his life and none of those were his fault. Those were instances where thw world really was unjustifiably against him. Jameson had no right cause to smear Spider-Man. Flash wasn’t in the right to bully Peter. And May and Peter didn’t deserve to go through May’s frail health.

“His was a situation entirely relatable, a lonely boy hiding behind a false face and acting as the man he wants to be, getting the strength over time to become that man himself. ”

No he WAS a man who’d had to grow up in a lot of ways fast just to cope with the burdens of life. See what Fettinger wrote above as well as Amazing Fantasy #16 and ASM #400’s backup story by DeMatteis, both of which have Peter in the past and in hindsight referring to himself as a growing up with the death of uncle Ben.

You are channelling Sims misinterpretation here.

Both his and your argument hinges upon Spider-Man being a facade Peter adopts when he becomes Spider-Man like he’s Superman or Batman in reverse.

But that isn’t the case. Spider-Man isn’t an ACT Peter performs, it’s just him, freed from certain constraints.

In or out of the costume he is who he is.

“A kid who refuses to tell the people closest to him about himself, in theory for their own good, but deep down because he’s terrified of being rejected the same way so many do when you’re growing up and defining your identity. ”

Or because you know nobody in the high school years were shown as trustworthy besides Aunt May who a doctor more or less told him ‘If you surprise her enough she WILL die!’

The more people who know something the bigger the chance that it’ll slip out. If May found out then as far as Peter knew that WOULD kill her, end of story.

So who was he SUPPOSED to trust with his big secret besides her?

Betty Brant? The woman who worked directly with the millionaire news mogul who HATED him? The woman who’d proven herself to have some criminal ties and who was generally unreasonable far too often?

Liz Allan who partook in the mocking and bullying of Peter until she abruptly started to like him?

Flash, his bully and tormentor?

Jameson his OTHER tormentor?

There was NOBODY for Peter to safely tell his secret to without risking it coming out to Aunt May.

And his fear of rejection wasn’t stemming from teenage angst (because AGAIN, the concept of the teenager as we know it today didn’t truly exist in the 1960s) but from Jameson painting him as a criminal.

In fact Peter DID come clean in ASM #87 during the college era to people who HAD been close to him and whom he sincerely loved and cared for and had infinitely more reason to trust than anyone in the high school era.

Know what happened?

They DID reject him!

“As the challenges increase, so too does he rise to meet them, maturing into the sort of person capable of realizing the responsibilities he’s taken on, and the storytelling engine I mentioned earlier purrs, as do sales figures.”

Or you know he meets those responsibilities from the outset and as word of mouth and confidence in the series grows so too do sales until Romita took over, aged Peter into adulthood and told fun less angsty (so...less teenaged) stories which resulted in stratospheric sales.

“Lifting some big-ass machinery aside, that’s the comic where his puppy-dog relationship with Betty Brant comes to a conclusive end, not out of manufactured concern that revealing his secret will somehow lead to her demise (that worry wouldn’t come to the forefront of his concerns until…oh, let’s say about 88 issues later), but from the simple and adult acknowledgement that it would never work between the two no matter how they feel. ”

No. Peter and Betty ENDED their relationship in ASM #30 not #33. ASM #33 just underscored the ending. It ended in ASM #30 because Peter realized Betty didn’t and couldn’t want to marry a man who risked his life as he did.

He’d already ended it, ASM #33 just confirmed his decision as correct.

“That’swhere he finally meets JJJ on his own terms and gets one up on the skinflint. That’s where he finally, at least in theory, manages to overcome the shame of his first and greatest failure by saving Aunt May. It had been getting built up to for a while, with Peter graduating high school and getting into college, but things were still on hold with his preoccupation with his aunt’s medical problems distracting from his rapidly-growing new cast. ”

I don’t necessarily disagree that Peter completely corsses the threshold into adulthood with the Master Planner trilogy but this actually undermines your earlier argument that the character was built around and doesn’t work without being defined by youth.

I’ve already laid out how that was never the case but for the sake of argument let’s say you are right and he had been about youth up until ASM #33 when he grows up.

How comes the character dealt with mostly similar social and personal issues (exempting lonliness and bullying) after that point in addition to new more adult ones and sales and acclaim went UP?

“In the last Ditko issues, you see Peter going out of his way to connect with his new classmates, an idea that would have been anathema to him not many issues earlier, and turning down the advances of a potential Betty Brant in the making in ASM #36 because he’s managed to figure out where that will go”

Again no, your assessment is that Peter turned down that girl because he figured out it’d be a retread of Betty brant. In truth that was a mistaken presumption he made naively. He believed she valued his brains and therefore it’d turn out like Betty. He was wrong.

“Suddenly the stakes are higher. Aunt May’s condition worsens. The fabled money problems start to come to the forefront, though at the moment they’re mostly limited to not being able to pay for dates or his snazzy new motorcycle, rather than the life-or-death issue it would become later. ”

Again this is a poorly researched assessment. Aunt May had been having health problems throughout the Ditko run, with 3 near fatal health problems alone. Peter had money problems related to those and other things literally from ASM #1.

Your assessment is that these things didn’t exist or didn’t exist as prominently until the Romita era but this is probably incorrect. They were there in big ways and merely continued into the Romita era.

You could argue they were more prominent because there were more instances of those things, but the Romita (more accurately the post-Ditko Stan Lee run) lasted LONGER than the Ditko era over all so of course that was the case.

“And even as the situation worsens, he doesn’t crumble under the pressure, because he’s changed enough as a hero and a man to rise to those challenges, even if he’ll never rise above them.”

But he didn’t crumble before such challenges before during the High school years and in certain cases DID rise above such challenges.

“But with exceptions like Mary Jane’s arrival, “Spider-Man No More” and the rightly famous Harry Osborn drug issues, Stan’s remaining time on Spider-Man would never reach the heights of his collaboration with Ditko. ”

Yeah, remember how sales went down after Ditko left...except they didn’t.

Remember how all those Ditko stories like Kraven crashing Flash’s leaving party, or the Petrified Tablet Saga, or the Brand of the Brainwasher, or Doc Ock boarding with Aunt May, or Captain Stacy’s death or the first Rhino stories, the first Colonel Jupiter story, the debut of Shocker, Kingpin or Norman Osborn remember he was the Goblin the first time, were so much better than everything after Ditko left and got acclaimed or revisted in adaptations, retellings and flashbacks over the course of decades?

Oh wait a minute all of those were post-Ditko stories.

“It started to congeal into familiarity, the never-ending soap opera that others would come to imitate—after all, it’s far easier to replicate the success of something when it can be reduced down to a formula, rather than a constant series of innovations—and would eventually be accepted itself as an essential element of the character.”

Yes but this applies to the majority of comic book runs wherein a writer lingers for too long. Lee’s F4 work dipped in quality over time.

Post-Gwen’s death the quality markedly improved.

“And as a result of this, and the desire to reduce Spider-Man to an easily-repeatable equation being applied to the earlier stories causing the strip-mining of only the surface elements, the core character philosophies of the Spider-Man franchise would be twisted into Loss and the Soap Opera dynamics mentioned earlier.”

No they weren’t. They were twisted into ‘he’s a loser’ and even that wasn’t a perennial thing. It applies to the Woflman run, the Mackie/Byrne reboot, Brand New Day and Slott’s run.

“One good example of the problem is the relatively recent “Mysterioso” arc of Amazing Spider-Man #618-620, by Dan Slott and Marcos Martin. Good writing, ”

There is no such thing as a Dan Slott Spider-Man story with good writing because Dan Slott is an objectively aweful Spider-Man writer.

In this story alone you have him nonsensically ignore Mysterio’s death in Daredevil saying he faked it. How the Hell does Mysterio fake out DD’s hyper senses?

“What, you don’t remember Carlie Cooper’s father, introduced in that arc as having been a cop who died years earlier but actually being alive and really being in the crooked pocket of Mysterio but is taken down by his daughter getting her to make an emotional breakthrough, none of this having anything to do with Spider-Man himself and actually completely distracting from the engaging main plot and it worked about as well as this overlong sentence?”

See you just spelled out a huge reason why this arc cannot logically be said to have good writing.

“It’s gone from Peter having trouble explaining himself to the person who can’t be trusted with even the simplest tasks—and in fact, he has become truly forgetful and neglectful a great deal of the time. He’s gone from a whiz-kid who has to take pictures of himself to pay the bills because of his aunt to the 250 I.Q. mega-genius who can barely scrape by, an empathetic naturally good-humored friend who can’t hold a relationship, a trouble-magnet whose luck once explainable by his own mistakes and misfortunes can at this point only be explained by witchcraft. He’s become the loser he was always afraid he was. What are we supposed to learn from this irresponsible schmuck, exactly?”

This is the single most poignant and insightful comment in the article. But this only applies to Spider-Man from 2008 onwards. This WASN’T true of the JMS era Spider-Man.

“So if he isn’t about loss (at least not, I’d argue, in a manner that can really work long-term at such a high level as what’s been going on for so long), but he’s not really about being a teenager either, what is he ‘about’?

He’s about growing.”

Jesus Christ no, he isn’t.

He’s not about growing, about being a teen or about loss.

He’s about power+responsibility within the context of being a relatively normal person.

THAT’S WHY HE’S CALLED SO RELATABLE!

THAT’S why he’s referred to by Stan Lee himself as the hero who could be you.

“That scene above in ASM #8 (by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, which is as official as if Marvel the corporate entity gained sentience and started writing comics on its own), where Spidey’s hogtying the Human Torch? Johnny’s not secretly the Chameleon in disguise, nor is he being mind-controlled by Dr. Doom or the Ringmaster. Peter’s doing it because he’s angry at the guy getting all the breaks he doesn’t, and feels like publicly ruining his day. This was not, by the way, the slightest bit uncharacteristic of Peter Parker as we’d seen him up to this point.”

Actually it absolutely was, especially when you consider the story actually happens after ASM #21 when Peter had already matured a bit.

You need to understand that this story whilst being published IN ASM...in truth is actually more of a Strange Tales Human Torch story.

There is no personal life stakes for Spider-Man and Spidey is himself the only character from his own comic to appear, everyone else from the Torch to the FF, Dorrie Evans and the other Torch supporting cast are from Strange Tales. And as if to confirm things, this was the ONLY Spider-Man story during the Ditko era published in ASM and it’s annuals NOT worked on by Ditko himself.

We all know of the Marvel method which rendered the artists of each story vital contributors to the stories at hand. Well if Stan Lee was working with Ditko vs. Kirby on a particular project the end results, including the characterization, were not necessarily going to be the same. In fact they often were not.

Kirby didn’t create or understand Spider-Man. Ditko did and Ditko DIDN’T characetrize Spidey like this during most of his run, including up until this point.

Additionally to differentiate themselves from DC, the Marvel pantheon routinely had the heroes bicker and dislike one another whenever they met up. It was rare for that to NOT be the case in the Silver Age.

And routinely in the Silver Age the guest stars were painted more unfavourably than the resident main character(s). This was the case for most of the F4’s appearences in ASM.

ASM #8 is a reversal because like I said, it’s not actually a Spider-Man story. It’s a left over Strange Tales story. It’s a Torch story which means Torch is painted positively whilst Spider-Man is painted as a jerk, synergy and consistent characterization be damned.

“In the earliest material, Peter Parker was a dick, and that went on long after the mugger got turned in. ”

No he absolutely wasn’t. Moments where he was a dick perhaps but this is a toxically cynical and unsympathetic misinterpretation of the character in line with the bullshit of ‘he lived a charmed life’.

I’ve seen it before and it never holds up.

Worse is the notion of he was a dick even after the mugger was turned in. Like...his Dad just died dude FFS.

“ His immediate response after Ben was killed? Keep on going with the show business until Jameson starts going after him.”

Yeah in order to earn money to support Aunt May and allow them to keep their home because they were facing eminent eviction.

He wasn’t resolving to continue with show business INSTEAD of fighting crime, that was evident from ASM #1 and #2 as well as from the untold stories from Amazing Fantasy #16-18.

“His first couple saves are at least in part about His Good Name, whether saving Jameson’s son with the idea that it would get him on the old man’s good side, or going after the Chameleon for impersonating him, and even once he starts going after criminals on a consistent basis it’s initially only for photography money. ”

Again you’ve not properly paid attention and your interpretation is rooted in cynicism.

Yeah IN PART he was going after those things for the sake of his reputation. But that wasn’t the root of it at all.

He saves John Jameson because he saw someone in need he doesn’t even mention the idea that saving him will help his reputation until after the fact and it’s an afterthought. He simply saw someone who needed help and so he acted as he hadn’t done before with the burglar.

In the Chameleon story he spots the Chameleon getting away with government secrets (a HUGE deal in the Cold War 1960s) and sees his helicopter getting away so he leaps into action.

Is he doing it to exonerate himself or would he have done that had he realized a spy was making away with stolen secrets right in front of him anyway?

Given how in the same comic book he leapt into action to save a life immediately it’s very obviously the latter that doubles up as the former. And even it was to exonerate himself that’s hardly a selfish dick move.

A criminal committed a crime and framed him for it. It isn’t selfish or a dick move to bring him to justice.

Equally even if he was fighting crimes to rehabilitate his reputation, again his damaged rep was how he lost a reliable source of income that he needed to survive and support his aunt and household. It isn’t selfish and dickish to attempt to help your reputation under those circumstances.

As for going after criminals for photography money this is again a misrepresentation of Spider-Man’s motives.

In ASM #2 it’s implied the Vulture’s presence isn’t huge. Some people don’t even believe he exists. It’s ambiguous as to when exactly Peter himself learned of his existence and even if he did already know he had the more pressing problem of earning money to pay the rent for himself and aunt May, he might not have figured out or gotten a routine going for actively crime fighting yet.

He seeks out the Vulture for profit initially yes but again earning money isn’t selfish or a dick move. He needed to do it to survive and support Aunt May. He GETS the pictures and therefore his source of income after being beaten by the Vulture but states that he’s already resolved to be a costumed adventurer before upgrading his belt. In other words he had already decided to fight crime and just saw a way to (pardon the pub) kill 2 birds with one stone. To this end he initiates a rematch with Vulture even though he didn’t HAVE to if he was in it just for the money. He already had the pictures he didn’t NEED to end the public menace of the Vulture and he wasn’t naive enough to believe that doing so would change Jonah’s tune.

But he did it anyway because he WAS trying to be a hero.

“He takes stupid chances. He’s desperate for cash. He insults and attacks undeserving people. ”

Apart from being desperate for cash (which would mean his efforts for helping his rep or earning money WOULDN’T make him a dick) he literally never does this at any point in the Ditko run. He maybe insults ONE person who doesn’t deserve it once.

“He fakes pictures of Sandman and Electro with the flimsiest of moral justifications.”

No. He faked pictures of the Sandman out of youthful naivete and then did it with Electro to earn money to SAVE AUNT MAY’S LIFE!

Journalistic ethics can go suck the big one if they need to be sacrificed for the sake of saving a human life for God’s sake.

He felt bad about the latter showing how he wasn’t a dick and had grown and consequently accepted the reprimands that eventually came from faking such pictures.

“He’s got a chip on his shoulder the size of Queens and can barely begin to control his temper.”

Again bullshit. He controls his temper plenty hence he only once lashes out at Flash twice and obviously not fully since he never used his strength to seriously injure him.

As for having a chip on your shoulder no shit. His Dad’s dead, his mother is sickly and he’s trying to hold it all together whilst some asshole on the news lies about him and he’s bullied at school.

OF COURSE he has a chip on his shoulder.

“He’ll lash out at people on suspicion or anger alone,”

Again he literally never did this.

“ and in some early stories he just plain gave up or ran away until he learned his lesson or circumstances changed. ”

Yeah he did but that doesn’t make him a dick. It makes him human. He quit TWICE by the way. Once after Doc Ock owned his ass and broke his confidence (which can happen to anyone of any age) and once when everything went wrong and Aunt May was dying. She got better and gave him a pep talk.

This again is something that can happen to anyone and isn’t an example of being qa dick.

Does it maybe show him as being a kid.

Sure.

But that wasn’t the POINT. Stan Lee wanted him to be realistic and he happened to be a youngster. So he relatively speaking wrote him believably within that context, but as I said youth was never THE point.

Nor was growth because EVERY Silver Age marvel character grew and developed, whether they were teens like Rick Jones, Spider-Man and the Torchor adults like Doctor Strange, Reed Richards and Ben Grimm.

“He’s a bitter, arrogant know-it-all who looks down on virtually everyone around him, and even if we can’t blame him with all he goes through, he’s often far afield of anything resembling “likeable”.”

Except for all those readers of the time and sine who called him likable and relatable you mean.

Your just being utterly cynical.

I mean who does he ACTUALLY look down on really? Flash and the people who bully him who display anti-intellectual tendencies. Jameson who is a blowhard slander hound. Oh and the super villains who waste their talents on hurting people so fuck them.

Beyond those people he looks down sometimes on fellow heroes but every hero looked down upon basically every other hero in Silver Age Marvel and real talk, Spider-Man had it rougher than most of them anyway so he wasn’t wrong to think he WAS better than them.

But he didn’t look down on Betty or Aunt May or Uncle Ben or other people. SO he isn’t that arrogant most of the time (a little bit early on when he hasn’t faced down major foes like Doc Ock yet but then that stops by issue #3) and his bitterness is well earned.

So you are again misinterpreting.

Moreover those things apply to many differnet Marvel Silver Age characters.

Reed, Ben, and Sue, all adults, had plenty of moments of aggression, immaturity and the like. Not because the point was they are those things but just because that’s how Stan happened to write most of his characters back then. Hank Pym could be an aggressive jerk. Captain America could be an aggressive immature jerk, e.g. when he tried to inspire Hank Pym by attacking him.

“But he changes, so completely many seem to forget he was ever anything other than the official co-saint of the Marvel Universe alongside Steve Rogers. Perhaps it’s in part because of this misunderstanding that Spider-Man 2—starring Peter Parker being Very Sad because he won’t trust the people around him with information that directly impacts their safety, and pushing himself so hard he can’t even effectively fight crime anymore, defeating the purpose altogether of him taking the pain of the entirety of New York unto himself like a bargain-basement Christ—is widely considered the high-water mark of the character’s modern history, while the Peter Parker of The Amazing Spider-Man—who actually acts like a teenager, keeps on making mistakes and operating under selfish motives even after the mugging and has to learn, and is willing to place hope in tomorrow and try and still make a happy life for himself alongside the obligations he must shoulder—is quite widely considered a “douchebag”.”

Dear God this is so wrongheaded it hurts.

In the Raimi movies Peter thinks that entrusting MJ with his secret will endanger her because she likes Spider-Man so she’d want to be with him more. Which HAPPENS. He was 100% correct, she literally ditches her wedding for him!

But he WANTED to push her away because in her NOT being too close to him she would be safer. Which is also 100% correct but he evolved by the end of the second movie to be at peace with that risk and accepting that it was her choice.

It didn’t defeat the purpose it was a lesson he needed to LEARN. But his logic can’t be questioned.

As for Harry or Aunt May, he feared May would hate and reject him and that’s his goddam MOTHER so obviously he wasn’t going to tell her until he couldn’t stand it any more. And the other guy was his best friend and in his case he already wanted to kill him and then TRIED to do that in the third movie so again peter was right.

In Spider-Man 2 Peter doesn’t push himself too hard, he merely tries to balance everyday life with being a hero and finds it a struggle as was the case in the comic it was originally based upon. His mind and body suspend his powers because subconsciously he wants to be free of the burden but it wasn’t like if he’d taken things easier it wouldn’t have happened. He wasn’t going too hard, he was going normally but normally is hard when you are a hero. In fact the whole ‘he loses his powers because he doesn’t want them’ thing IS from a Ditko issue so your point is moot.

As for Garfield Spider-Man unless you grade him on the curve he was kind of a douchebag. Not so much in what he does but how he did it. He was overly cocky for the character, e.g. his dip and kiss of Gwen in the second movie. That movie that along with the first one you know...killed the franchise so hard Marvel Studios had to save them.

So...why is Spider-Man 2 not a high water mark again?

No to mention comparing the two by damning Spider-Man 2 is foolish because they are not the same ages or at the same points in their lives.

“He grows, he shifts, he learns lessons and forgets them and falls and picks himself back up, and he never stops pushing forward. He takes on the responsibility of becoming the Man he claims to be, that others need him to be, even if he doesn’t consciously realize it at first. That’s how he was built, and how he was visibly meant to keep going at first. That’s the “in”, that’s what makes him an everyman we can all relate to, because no one ever stops growing up.”

Yes and no.

Yes he was designed to grow and develop, but everyone stops growing up when they hit adulthood, they just don’t stop growing as people.

No though that wasn’t what made him relatable. The reltability WAS the point, not the growing up. He was relatable because he dealt with down to Earth normal life problems along with relatively realistic problems spiralling out of being a superhero and just having normal life experines anyway.

Countless movies present everyman characters who are NOT teenagers or people in the midst of reaching adulthood but who are already there. The Ghostbusters for example. These are not characters who grow up but are relatable nevertheless.

Peter remained relatable in the 80s and 90s and 2000s even though he HAD grown up and HAD hit adulthood a long time before.

“It’s what differentiates him, makes him real, compared to Superman or Batman or the FF or Captain America. ”

But THEY all grew and developed too! Less so with Superman and Batman but all the Silver Age Marvel characters grew and developed!

“And while the steps needed to keep that wheel moving are still implemented, one aching step at a time, it’s still drowned out by a deluge of perfectly satisfactory but no longer cutting-edge superhero adventures (that is, when such steps aren’t rolled back altogether, Mr. Quesada). ”

I don’t even understand this part.

“*describes the Joe Casey Bounce comic* So again: is that the only future? Is that the sole way any trace of Spider-Man as originally envisioned and executed can survive?”

First of all the Bounce sounds like it has a shallow misinformed grasp of Spider-Man.

Second of all the vision and execution of Spider-Man doesn’t need weird Indie AU knock offs to survive.

Spider-Man works at any age because he’s about being a normal guy defined by responsibility. He merely HAPPEND to start off as a teen for the sake of some novelty but it was never going to be the forever more status quo or inherently the appeal of the character.

Consider how many Spider-Man fans were forged in consequent decades via media adaptations of the character where he was more or less at a static age. He might’ve developed and grown but he didn’t begin as a teen or a high schooler in those?

How many people jumped into the comics in the 80s-2000s where Spider-Man was an adult and not aging much but was still written as a vibrant three dimensional character defined by being relatively down to Earth....and it worked.

I’m not saying character development isn’t critically vital at all, just that the notion that it’s dependent upon going from youngster to adulthood is not the inherent necessity of the character outside of adaptations which seek to replicate the mythology. 616 Spider-Man is in his early 30s and can keep going forward from there and work just fine because character development can still happen regardless of his age.

Fundamentally your logic here is Spider-Man grew up therefore that is the point of his character. But as I’ve said or implied before this, that applies to every Marvel character.

The X-Men being teens wasn’t truly the point, the point was bigotry and they became MORE popular when they were replaced by adult characters in Giant-Sized X-Men. They even graduated very quickly. But growth wasn’t the point for them either. Nor the F4 who grew and changed nor Daredevil nor the Avengers.

Growth is just part of many examples of good storytelling and part of what definied the Marvel Universe as a whole .

It’s blind to remove Spider-Man from that context and codify that it’s what he specifically was about.

“While limited, growth has happened for the character, and it tended to be in some of the better stories of the last decade plus. Whether starting to guide children like he himself once was in the solid early sections of J. Michael Straczynski and John Romita Jr.’s run on the main title; confronting the nature of his role as a superhero in relation to his villains and Peter Parker’s own role in society in Mark Millar, Terry Dodson and Frank Cho’s Marvel Knights: Spider-Man (a largely overlooked gem by the former, and the most traditional of his modern work besides perhaps his Fantastic Four run); having him take his mission to the next level in both technology and dedication in Dan Slott and Marcos Martin’s modern classic “No One Dies”; showing what would happen if Peter Parker finally started to pursue his dreams as well as his duties in Slott’s “Big Time”, or revealing what would happen to a Spider-Man who couldn’t grow in Superior Spider-Man under Slott again, Peter Parker can still keep moving forward one step at a time, still undergo the growth that informs his responsibilities which informs his growth and so and so on into forever, and still maintain what he is: the normal guy in the world of giants.”

Okay...I actually agree with this but not the way you reached this conclusion via ‘He’s obviously ABOUT being a teen/growing up.’

“At the time of writing, I’m soon to pick up the newly relaunched Amazing Spider-Man by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos. Given that he wrote three of those examples I just listed, I have fairly high hopes.”

Slot progessed Peter, then regressed him and even amidst all that he didn’t progress him in the right direction.

You stated that he should be a normal guy. Slott turned him into a super scientist and then later a 1%er

“This is going to be by the writer who had him come back from the dead in part by admitting that being Spider-Man is actually pretty fun.”

It was also by the writer who turned Doc Ock into a rapist and proceeded to use him and variant versions of Spider-Man to show use how lame the original was before mutating the original into an Iron Man rip off.

Hindsight sucks the big one I guess.

*Even if you say he came of age at the end of the movie the movie was one part of a three part story in which he spent most of his time NOT as a teen or someone growing up. He was just an adult.

**Also he more than anybody advocated and pushed for Peter to age forward into adult life experiences, such as parenthood even though his favourite era was Spider-Man as a high schooler (makes sense that was the era he began with). The fact that his fav era was Spider-Man as a teen and yet he maintains SPider-Man was never about youth and advocated for him to be MORE adult adds much to his credibility.

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frederator-studios · 6 years

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Diane Obomsawin: The Frederator Interview

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Diane Obomsawin, also known by her pen name Obom, is a Quebec author, illustrator, and animator. After becoming a legend in the comic art scene in Montreal, she forayed into animation—and we can all be glad for it. Her films are quirky and evocative; funny and full of heart. Her latest short film, “I Like Girls” (2016), based on her graphic novel On Loving Women, won the Nelvana Grand Prize for Independent Short at the 40th Ottawa International Animation Festival. It is a film close to her own heart, featuring the story of her own coming of age, and coming out. I was privileged to discuss the importance of positive Queer representation, and combatting stereotypes of homosexuality in film and TV, with a leader and role model in LGBTQ media such as Diane.

When did you first become interested in animation?

I began making graphic novels when I was 10 years old. I was always drawing, but it wasn’t until a friend recommended animation to me, that later in life - I was 35 - I joined the animation program at Concordia.

How did you become involved with the NFB?

My teacher at Concordia, Wendy Tilby, had long made productions with the NFB. I was lucky to learn from her; at the same time that she taught me the ‘correct’ methods to animate, she encouraged me not to change from the different ways I’d been working. The NFB was looking for someone to do a few author commissioned short films, “Understanding the Law,” and she recommended me. It was a great, because although they were commissions, I could do them in my own style. At first I was nervous about bringing my humor into them—but they told me to have fun, so I did!

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How did you come to write the graphic novel, On Loving Women?

I wanted to tell tiny, real stories. All my life, lesbians and gay people have been marginalized. Now there is less marginalization, and more films and TV series talk about lesbian and gay people’s experiences. So when I went to write the graphic novel, it felt as though society was ready to hear these stories—and I felt ready to tell them. I hadn’t always been. But even if the timing is better now, for so many years, lesbians - gay people, but lesbians especially - have not been represented in films and TV. So as much as we’re talking about these experiences more now, we can never talk about them too much. With the Bechdel test, we see that women are already under-represented in movies, and lesbians have been practically nonexistent; aside from the old trope of lesbian and gay love ending in tragedy! I wanted to show the reality of lesbian’s experiences - the joy, bittersweetness, sexuality - in their own words.

What was your process in interviewing women for the piece?

I chose 10 friends of all different ages. My hope was to interview women young to old to reflect the variations in stories across generations. The youngest was 28, and the oldest was 70. But that didn’t translate into the film—the oldest woman is actually Charlotte, but she appears to be the youngest because the actress was young. But I purposefully cast young actors because it’s a film about youth. I asked my friends about their first attraction, not first love. And first attraction might begin very young - ages 5, 6, 7 - long before they realize their sexuality, or fall in love with another woman.

And all of the little details in the story - did they just emerge during your talks?

Oh yes, I didn’t change anything. I recently asked my friend, “Is it true? You ate Pepsi dipped ice cream cones?” and she said, “Yeah, absolutely!” The details came naturally. I think it helped that I didn’t directly ask them about their experiences, so much as their smallest memories - anything that came to the conscious. I was so surprised by some stories. One friend, she never consciously or unconsciously felt attracted to another girl, nor realized that she was a lesbian. It all came together for her in a single day, when she was in college. She tried LSD and fell in love with a woman, in that order.

Whoa, what a story. It must have been tough to choose only a few for “I Like Girls”!

So difficult. I chose four: the ones I felt to be the most romantic, the goofiest - Wonder Woman with a horse face - and my own. As well as the saddest story, Marie’s. Hers is even more sad in the graphic novel: her mother gave her a terrible time, trying to put her into treatment for her “problem”. Her experience is what I mean by generational difference. Marie is only 5 years older than me, and just from those 5 years, our realities were so disparate. The culture shifted and perceptions changed—not totally, but quickly. They impacted our parent’s perspectives. For her family, and those of my other older friends, coming out was a very big deal. “You’re not my daughter anymore”—they considered it unacceptable. But when I came out, I was accepted. My parents told me, “We love you, we want you to be happy”. I was lucky. But even though it’s easier today, it’s still not easy. In normalizing the experience of coming out, I was thinking about young people who are going through it now.

Have any responses to the film stayed with you?

Yes—it’s been so touching to hear from young women that they identified with a character, or that the film helped them in some way. One even sent me a picture of a tattoo she got of one of the graphic novel characters. I remember reading The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith (adapted into the film Carol, 2015). It was the first novel that ended happily for women in a lesbian relationship. I felt such joy and relief seeing myself in those characters. And so did countless lesbians and gay people who have written to her for years since!

What were techniques you used to make “I Like Girls,” and how did you choose to make them animals?

For some of the scenes, I used rotoscoping. The scene with two characters in bed together, I filmed dancers, for their comfort level and ability to move. Then I drew over them. It’s already difficult to draw two bodies entwined, but it’s even more so with a non-realistic art style like mine. And I also rotoscoped because it was important to me that the character’s movements be sensual, and that they be sexy. There’s a stereotype of gay women as lacking sexuality, and I wanted to make a point against that. And my non-realistic style is also why I gravitate toward animals rather than humans; if I could draw people that didn’t look so boring, I would! But the main reason to make them animals was to ensure that my friends wouldn’t feel too close when they saw their stories unfold on-screen. They could still recognize themselves, but with a degree of separation.

Do you have a favorite among your films, or love them equally?

I think I love them equally. Well… maybe “Kaspar”, perhaps because it didn’t do well at festivals. It’s like if you have one in the bunch that is less successful, you actually like it more! “Here and There” was about my own adolescence, growing up; “Kaspar” was about Kaspar Hauser, who grew up in a cave before dying very young; and “I Like Girls” is of course about coming of age. I realized recently that they all talk about childhood! So the next one will be something new. It also won’t have voiceover - there will be dialogue, but not voice-over.

What are you up to currently?

I’m working on my friend Khoa Lê’s film, “Dans nos ville”. He brought on 18 other creators, including me, to each do a segment on a different fairytale. It’ll play for 7 days in 7 different places, narrated by an actor and with live music. It’s exciting, but my segment is almost 4 minutes long—and I have a month and a half to do it! So I’m using more abstract animation than usual. I’m also doing the opening animation for Le Carrousel festival in Rimouski, which has a focus on children’s and YA work. The animation is a series of loops that go up and down—it’s meant to have a feeling of perpetual movement, reminiscent of a carousel.

You’ve recently ventured into visual exhibitions as well - how do you like compared to traditional mediums?

t’s a different way to tell a story! Unlike graphic novels and films, they don’t require a beginning and end. You can come into the story at any point. In 2015, I created an animated visual art installation in Quebec City called “La Forêt” (“The Forest”). We projected images of a forest upon three charcoal covered walls. My aim was for the spectator to feel that they are not supposed to be there; they are spying on the forest life, and the forest is revealing its secrets. Tiny things happen, mostly from mythology and fairy tales. Little Red Riding Hood makes an appearance. I have another installation coming up for spring 2019. It will be half animation, half-graphic novel; spread throughout three gallery rooms of a small museum. The theme is dreams and mythology. I dream a lot, a lot, a lot—so I record them in a journal. I want to explore the links between our dreams and mythology.

Do you have other projects in the works?

Do you have a favorite artist and favorite animated film?

One of my very favorite artists is Copi. I like his simple drawings and his writing, which is absurd, poetic, and corrosive all at once. I discovered him when I was young, and didn’t know whether he was a man or a woman until I was an adult, and found out that he was an Argentinian transvestite and playwright, and lived in Paris. So far as films… I could choose a different favorite animated film every week. But today, I will go with the very beautiful and strange film Nighthawk from Spela Cadez. After I saw it, I asked myself, “What just happened to me?”. Watching that film is a very sensitive experience.

Thank you so much for the interview Diane! I look forward to keeping up with your many projects. Especially excited for your next short film!

- Cooper

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architectnews · 3 years

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arch8 Re-Vision competition 2021

arch8 Re-Vision Design Competition, 2021 Contest, Architectural Prize News

arch8 Re-Vision Design Competition 2021

1 July 2021

arch8 Re-Vision Competition

RE-VISION

We laughed, we cried, we raged against the dying of the light, which was the ending of our favorite shows. Sitcoms have been there since the dawn of tv… From a CRT television to a flat-screen to our laptops to all-powerful OTT platforms, sitcoms have come a long way. But there is always that one show, that one sitcom you can watch over and over. Whether it’s before you go to bed, during your meals, or after finishing the most boring assignment ever.

The one with a character you admire, the one whose dialogues are like your second language, you got the idea… Right! We’ve seen it so often that we are aware of all the details. So what if we tell you that now you can change it and show people your perspective. Show them how it could have been if these sitcoms were shot in this day and age with you as their interior designer. So now, you’ll have the same people as before but with the needs of today’s world.

Whenever we propose a design for our clients, we try to incorporate every requirement of them. But our ideas are based more on our experiences and less on the profiles of the users. Because well, for God’s sake we just met them!! So if we are provided the possibility of knowing our client inside out, can we now propose the best-suited design for them? (Of course, we can!)

Having said that, ARCH8 is here with yet another competition for you all, this time an interior designing competition. We shortlisted 3 most famous sitcoms of all time: Friends, Big Bang Theory, and How I Met Your Mother.

Re-design any one of the following apartments:

1. Monica and Rachel’s apartment 2. Joey and Chandler’s apartment 3. Sheldon and Leonard’s apartment 4. Ted and Marshall’s apartment

You can download the .cad files of floor plans at arch8.in

Character Sketch

A little something to help you out.

1. MONICA: Monica is a chef in her early 30s. She is obsessive about things being clean and in order. (‘ Things shouldn’t be just ‘health department’ clean, they should be ‘Monica clean.’) She likes to host gatherings and invite people over for dinners and parties. She is the ‘mother ‘ of the group and can be sometimes dominative.

2. RACHEL: She has switched jobs from being a waitress to an executive at Ralph Lauren. All her friends come to her for fashion advice. She likes to shop. Rachel is very careless (as she says,” I shouldn’t be allowed to make decisions anymore.”) She is funny, spirited but pretty self-involved. She does not easily get along with other women (“That’s OK, Girls tend to not like me”).

3. CHANDLER: Chandler is a funny guy (Jokes are his ‘thing’). Chandler works in statistical analysis and data reconfiguration but nobody knows where he works (he’s a ‘transponster’). Chandler’s generally embarrassed by his parents, his job, and his relationship status. His sense of humor helps him cope with all of these problems. He is notoriously sarcastic. He is the highest-earning member of his friends’ circle.

4. JOEY: Joey is an actor whose work can be seen in the show “Days of Our Lives”. He is a child at heart and a foodie (Joey doesn’t share food). He likes all the kitsch art. He never gets in a serious relationship. He is dim-witted but good-natured. He likes to play foosball and is a big fan of ‘Baywatch’.

5. SHELDON: Sheldon is a theoretical physicist. He lives his life with rules and regulations and is obsessed with logical reasoning. He is interested in comic books and science fiction. Sheldon comes off as a stereotypical nerd and really has no qualms about it (but he is not crazy, his mother got him tested). He is socially awkward and likes to spend most of his time at home and at work.

6. LEONARD: He is an experimental physicist. He is a huge fan of Star Wars, science fiction, and comic books. Leonard is extremely nerdy and mainly associates with people who fit this description (“12 years after high school and I’m still at the nerd table.”). He also plays the cello. He is lactose intolerant. He lives in the apartment by Sheldon’s rules and regulations.

7. TED: Call him an architect, a hopeless romantic, or a know it all, you can say that he’s the embodiment of it all. Since college, Ted has been in many toxic relationships where he was considered an outcast or “not traditionally cool” i.e dorky. Interests… telling stories, falling in love, believing in destiny, avoiding confrontation, Renaissance Faires, crossword puzzles, Star Wars, breakfast foods, show tunes, girls who play bass guitar, giving “the best” gifts, and reading serious literature. (Random girl: What made you want to be an architect? Ted: Well you know, the soul of an artist, hands of a master craftsman… it was inevitable)

8. MARSHALL: Though he is arguably the kindest member of the group, he never shies away from a spirited debate, usually shouting “Lawyered!” if (well, “when”) he wins. A lawyer who’s madly in love with his partner in crime, Lily (his fiance). Creator of a funk band called “The Funk, The Whole Funk, And Nothing But The Funk”, he is a 6’4, supernatural (i.e Bigfoot, loch ness monster, and ghost) nerd and a foodie with a passion for star wars and playing (and winning) board games.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENT

The Proposal to be presented on One Landscape Oriented A1 Sheet. Proposals may be presented using any technique of your choice (sketches, diagrams, 3D visualizations, model photos, CAD drawings, etc.) Team code (UIC) to be mentioned on the Top Right-Hand corner of the sheet. The proposal MUST NOT include ANY INFORMATION (name, Organization, School, etc.) that may give away your identity. All text must be in ENGLISH, with a MAXIMUM of 150 WORDS for project explanation. All dimensions should be imperial or metric units.

SUBMISSION FORMAT

841MM X 594MM Submit in .jpeg format of file size not more than 5Mb. Submit your entry at: [email protected] The subject of the mail: Your UIC (XXXXX) Name of the file uploaded: Your UIC (XXXXX)

*Participants Teamcode (UIC) will be provided by ARCH8 once you have completed the registration process.

REGISTRATION DETAILS

Indian National / Foreign National

Early-bird Registration 1st July – 15th July ’21 350 Inr / 7 US$

Standard Registration 16th July – 31st July ’21 420 Inr / 10 US$

Late Registration 1st Aug – 15th Aug ’21 540 Inr / 15 US$

NOTE: A team can have up to 3 members. The amount is non-refundable. Late registered participants will receive 5 extra days for submission.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

Anyone can participate irrespective of profession or qualification, and present their ideas. Participants can submit multiple entries but that would require multiple registrations. A team can have up to 3 members.

TIMELINE

Registration deadline: 15th August 2021 Submission deadline: 20th August 2021 The submission deadline for all the participants who registered between 1st August and 15th August is 25th August 2021 Result announcement: 30th August 2021

*All the Deadlines are 23:59 – 24:00 IST (INDIA) The following dates can be a subject of modification, if necessary.

PRIZES

Total cash prize worth 15,000 INR.

Winner: Cash prize of INR 7500 + Acknowledgement on our website and social media + publication of the participants’ interview (Video) on website + 40% discount on your next architecture competition + certificate of achievement

1st Runner-up: Cash prize of INR 4500 + Acknowledgement on our website + publication of the participants’ interview (Video) on website + 30% discount on our next architecture competition + certificate of achievement

2nd Runner-up: Cash prize of INR 3000 + Acknowledgement on our website + publication of the participants’ interview (Video) on website + 20% discount on our next architecture competition + certificate of achievement

10 Honorable mentions: Acknowledgement on our website + 10% discount on our next architecture competition + certificate of achievement

Participation certificate for all the participants.

EVALUATION CRITERIA

The competition aims to explore how participants think through the basic functionality of spaces of the house, meaningful conceptualization behind design, thoughtful aesthetics, and expressive presentation.

Entries will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

1. ORIGINALITY 2. INNOVATION 3. PRESENTATION

FAQs

1. What is the nature of the competition? ‘RE-VISION’ is an open idea design competition challenge that is open for students, professionals & any individual with a creative mind.

2. Who can participate in the competition? Architecture students, Architects, Interior Designer, Civil engineers & anyone with creativity can participate in the competition.

3. How many members can be a part of a team? A team can have a maximum of 3 members. You can also participate individually.

4. Will every participant get a certificate of participation? Yes, every participant who submits a panel will receive an e-certificate.

5. What should be done in case a payment mode is not available in a particular country? We request the participants to write about the issue at [email protected] to get other payment options in such a case. We will send all possible payment methods.

6. How will a team get its Unique Identification Code? The Unique Identification Code ( UIC ) will be mailed to your registered e-mail address within 24 hrs after completing the registration process. There is only one UIC code for all the team members of a team.

7. What is the use of a Unique Identification Code? All the participants are requested to use their UIC at the top right corner of your submission as it is your identity for the competition-related processes.

8. What to do if a participant does not receive the UIC after making payment? In such cases, the participants are asked to mail their payment receipt [email protected].

9. Does the 150-word limit include legends & one-liners in the sheet? No, the 150-word limit is for the proposal explanation only and it does not include the legends & one-liners on the sheet.

RULES AND REGULATIONS

1. In case you still have questions related to the briefs and the competition, please send them to [email protected] 2. It is possible to amend or update any information relating to your registration including the names of team members once registered, mail us your query at [email protected]. 3. Participant teams will be disqualified if any of the competition rules or submission requirements are not considered. 4. Team code (UIC) is the only means of identification of a team as it is an anonymous competition. Hence, a submission with its UIC will be disqualified from the competition. 5. The official language of the competition is English. 6. The registration fee is non-refundable.

arch8 Re-Vision Competition image / information received 300621

arch8 Architecture Competitions

arch8 Lock-Unlock Competition arch8 Lock-Unlock Competition

arch8 Street-a-float Design Competition 2021 Street-a-float Design Competition 2021

arch8 studio Competition arch8 studio Competition

Architectural Contests

Architectural Competitions : links

Architecture Competitions

Archiol A4TC Architecture Thesis Competition Archiol A4TC Architecture Thesis Competition

CUBE Design Competition 2021 CUBE Design Competition 2021

REVERENCE: Memorial Structure Design Competition REVERENCE: Memorial Structure Design Competition

Comments / photos for the arch8 Re-Vision competition 2021 page welcome

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obsidianarchives · 6 years

Text

Black Woman Creator: Kiesha Richardson

Raised in Philadelphia in a house full of women (grandmother, 4 aunts, and mother) Kiesha Richardson learned early on the importance of solidarity and support among women. She is the founder of Ge’NeL Magazine, a woman-operated geek and pop culture website devoted to creating high quality from a woman’s perspective to combat sexism and racism in the gaming world. She is also the owner of Ge’NeL Media, LLC, a small startup that edits and creates content for businesses and brands. When she’s not working, she’s leading her World of Warcraft guild, traveling the world and playing faux-tographer, or relaxing at home, watching Netflix or reading comics with her pups. We spoke to Kiesha about Ge’NeL and being a creator.

Black Girls Create: What do you create?

We create geek culture and gaming content from the perspective of women because most of the outlets are dominated by white men. When I go to different websites, their communities are pretty toxic and they don’t try to fix or address it. It’s just “sexual harassment is ok and it’s normalized” so I figured it was time we do something different. Through my research, I didn’t realize that there were more places for women, especially women of color, to express their geeky side in a safe space. So one of the things I wanted to do is instead of creating a safe space I want to change the narrative. Make sexual harassment, racism, and homophobia no longer normalized.

BGC: What inspired you to create this site?

I personally got tired of trying to play different games and being called the N-word or told to go back to the kitchen, or that I shouldn’t be playing games when someone would hear my voice. It just got really tiring. The last straw came when I was streaming and a couple of friends and I were just having fun, minding our own business, and this dude came into my stream channel and said “show me your n***r tits or get the f*** out.” When I talked to other women about it they would say “oh it’s happened before,” and I thought it shouldn’t be normal. So I tried talking to other organizations I was writing for and the response was “we don’t want to get political.” I thought “thanks for being an ally,” and decided to do my own thing.

BGC: Why do you create?

I create because first of all, I just love writing. It was the natural outlet for me. But I also create so I can just stop this nonsense. We don’t have to deal with this stuff anymore and we should at least get larger platforms to take notice and do something. Some of the gaming companies and developers are trying, but it’s not enough. It’s so pervasive and if you go to different forums or gaming groups and try to have this conversation, there is a lot of pushback. But when you ignore it, you’re not addressing the problem and you’re letting it spread, so we have to do something.

BGC: How did you get interested in gaming?

I’ve been gaming since I was 8 years old, in the second grade. My childhood best friend had an Atari and I got hooked on it at her house. We would exchange different cultural things; she wasn’t allowed to watch music videos so she would come over to watch videos and I’d go over to her house and play games. So we would switch off that way and I’ve been playing ever since.

BGC: When did you realize that gaming was a part of your identity more than just a hobby?

When I lived in Germany with my parents, I took a semester off of college to move. My brother, cousin, and I would have sleepovers in each others’ room and play games all night on the weekend. We would take turns playing different games like Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, and others to see who could beat the map. It became something that was a part of us. When I ended up working in Iraq running a recreation center, I was the only one who knew how to set up Xboxes and Playstations and set up tournaments. So it was what I did and how I knew gaming was just me.

BGC: What was it like to take something like gaming to a different country and culture? Is it easier to connect or is it just another cultural exchange that needs to happen?

It’s definitely easier to connect with people through gaming. I operated the recreational center for the US and UN forces. You can’t make people forget that they’re in a war zone, because we were definitely in the thick of it, but what I could do is give people a place where they could at least relax for some time, and that was through video games. It was how we connected and how we communicated and found commonalities where there weren’t many to be found. I made so many friends that I’m still friends with today. When they would have a bad day or be stressed out, they would come and just talk about games. Video games were a way of bridging a gap in communication.

BGC: Who or what inspired you to do what you do?

I’ve loved writing from a very young age. My grandma, Nancy, always inspired me to write, even when I would get in trouble for my writing. I actually think getting in trouble for my writing made me want to write more. When I was in the fifth grade I was supposed to write a Halloween story and she said she wanted it to be scary, to “let our imagination fly.” Well, my imagination flew too far because she called a parent/teacher conference to ask if I was being abused or if anything was going on at home because the details in my story were too vivid. When my mom assured her there was nothing going on, she asked if I plagiarized and I was shocked because I did what she had asked me to do.

BGC: Something that I’ve noticed is that the things that either got me in trouble growing up or made me feel ostracized are the things that I’m not most successful with. Have you noticed that as well?

Yes, I do notice that. I’ve always been a bit rebellious and it got me into a lot of trouble. My mom used to tell me “sometimes you have to know when to close your mouth. It doesn’t matter if you’re right or wrong, just know when to shut up,” and now I’ve found that it’s helped me out a lot. Sometimes you have to say what you have to say and ask for forgiveness later.

BGC: Why is it important for Black women to create?

We need to be the authors of our own stories. For too long other people have been telling our stories and that’s something that we need to change. We need to change that narrative. I love Black men, I do, but our story isn’t always intertwined with theirs and we’ve had different struggles throughout history. Angela Davis talked about how the Civil Rights Movement left Black women out just like the women’s suffrage movement left Black women out. We need to be the authors of our own story now and it’s time, it’s important for us to do that.

BGC: How do you balance creating with the rest of your life?

Is there such a thing as balance? I’m not exactly sure yet. I want this to be my career, to be honest. When I was going through my divorce, writing was the only thing I could do. I couldn’t get out of bed. I’d always lived with depression but going through that divorce, it was crippling. The only thing I could do was write, I’d be in bed with my laptop and I could write. It was a way for me to transport myself out of my circumstance and when I think about that and how writing saved me in addition to gaming, I think the balance is just living and not letting one overtake the other. They both saved my life, creating and writing helped me and video games helped me, but I have to make sure to go outside every once and awhile I guess.

BGC: How does writing help your mental health? Do you ever find that writing hurts your mental health?

I think helps because a lot of times it’s not easy to talk about what you’re going through with other people. When I write, it’s a way for me to communicate how I’m feeling and what’s going on with me. I noticed when I first started blogging and I started writing about depression, there were other people who were feeling the way I was feeling and that was important to me. So when I do write about mental health I try to keep in mind that I’m not alone. People may not have the exact feelings but they’re feeling a similar way. When I write, I try to take into account self-care when it comes to mental health issues. So when I write, I try to make sure that other women know that they’re not alone and know that taking care of themselves is a part of taking care of their mental health. One of my coworkers once said “muting you is my self care for the day.” Sometimes you have to mute the negativity. It’s definitely easier said than done but don’t be afraid to hit that mute button. Take care of yourself and do it in a way that makes you feel good. People think self-care is one size fits all and it’s not. You have to figure out what makes you happy, no one else is going to make you happy. Things won’t necessarily make you happy, but something might. People say “material things won’t make you happy,” but shoes do for me. Figure out what makes you happy and try something new. I think that goes a long way towards helping your mental health.

BGC: What’s important to you when you’re building a community and working with other writers, especially when you’re trying to serve underrepresented groups? What do you try to focus on when working with other people?

Passion, empathy, and understanding that there is a problem that we want to address and that we are going to be the voices to do it. There is no such thing as a perfect person and there are no perfect writers. I have people on my team who have no writing experience, no writing background, but their stories are beautiful. I can work with someone who is not really a writer. What I can’t work with is negativity, internalized sexism, and putting down other women. With me being a streamer, I come across so many people, especially guys, who have a problem with women who show cleavage when they stream, but they’re marketing and are full of life with energetic personalities and these guys only reduce them to what they're wearing. Then you have some women who will piggyback on that and say they’re making streaming worse for the rest of us. How? They’re working, it was nothing to do with the boobs, I mean guys (and some women) will look, no doubt, but that’s not going to keep them watching. It’s about positivity and being understanding of all women and their struggles. You don’t have to like all women, that’s not realistic, but you don’t have to put them down. I’m not going to be negative and when I look for people to work with I look for that positivity. Are you uplifting other people or are you trying to tear people down because you don’t have your own stuff going on? Positivity. Empathy. Sisterhood. Solidarity. That’s what I want the community to be regardless of racial, ethnic, religious, or cultural backgrounds. I want women to be able to be themselves. I want to uplift us all without having to step on someone else. Having male allies, that’s fantastic. Guys who come to the site think Ge’NeL magazine is anti-male and it’s not, we just don’t want to be shit on. We’re tired of the racism and sexism and xenophobia. I didn’t know there was an entire community of Muslim women gamers but they don’t say anything because of how they’re treated on social media, so we have to uplift each other. But I’m also not going to try to let someone take over the narrative of Black women. Our story is our story and it’s okay for us all to have different stories, to just be different chapters in the same book.

BGC: Do you have any advice for new creators who are just starting out on their journey?

It was hard for me to get to the point where I was getting paid writing gigs and I can’t remember where I heard the quote but someone said if there are no opportunities create your own. So that’s what I did, I didn’t give up. I started putting everything single thing I did on my resume when it came to writing. Don’t be afraid to go to content mills to get the experience that you want or need. Research, read, you can’t be a writer without reading. If you don’t understand the content you’re trying to create or how other people view different types of content, then you’re not going be successful.

BGC: Do you have any future projects that you’re thinking about working on?

Not exactly with Ge’NeL but there is a non-profit in Augusta called Girl Warriors that takes at-risk girls and introduces them to tech and other avenues outside of the environment that they’re currently in. I’m also going to be editing a book as well.

As for Ge’NeL, I’m still trying to find more writers. Unfortunately, we don’t have a budget to pay, we’re all volunteers at this point. But I’m looking for writers, editors, and I am putting together a pitch deck to get some funding for Ge’NeL and to maybe start a stream team.

BGC: Where can we find you?

You can find me on twitter @onewildflowerz, same for Facebook and Instagram, or you can find Ge’Nel at @genelmag on Twitter and Facebook.

#magazine #gaming #writer #nerd culture #streaming

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morbidly-queerious · 7 years

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Okay. It’s been absolutely ages since I said I was going to go into this. But let’s talk a little bit about why I know for a fact that the US wealthy know of Basic Income and only oppose it for Bad Reasons TM.

I’m going to be very clear. Their reasoning is correct. There is a genuine and real effect of UBI that both the right and the left understand will occur. The main difference is that where the right insists it’s a damaging and unsustainable side effect, the left sees it as the point. And that effect is:

Universal Basic Income devalues non-financial capital to the point of worthlessness.

So here’s how Universal Basic Income works. Some agreed upon dollar amount (or formula to reach a dollar amount) is distributed to every person (person defined either as living human or as living human adult depending on who you talk to) to ensure that regardless of any other income they may or may not have, they can always depend on this income for the most basic needs they have such asa food or housing or medical care. Now it’s important to note that our economic system already has this in place in two shockingly similar contexts. The first is SSI/Unemployment services. We’ll get back to the second one later.

So Social Security Income is provided to those who are elderly or severely disabled under the assumption that because they will not be able to hold consistent or sufficient employment, they should be given a basic amount to help them pay for the bare necessities. Unemployment services are a percentage of your prior income that you can apply for once you lose your job (under specific circumstances) to help keep you afloat until you find a new one. There are, of course, other systems like WIC and SNAP that fall under “welfare” services that work in much the same way. Vulnerable members of society (primarily women and children) who are unable to consistently afford basic necessities are able to receive support in the form of rent control, food stamps, child care vouchers, etc.

Now, the success/effectiveness of these existing systems aside, the reasoning for them all is the same as the reasoning for UBI. Vulnerable members of society need basic, safety based concerns addressed by society itself when they are unable to address them on their own. Most modern welfare systems were originally intended as a sort of temporary UBI as a matter of fact, including the minimum wage income rate, Roosevelt’s paying students to go to school rather than go to work, college scholarships, SSI, etc. The idea was that society had a very specific need and the people needed caring for. So rather than going full socialist (because as I said, wealthy people oppose straight UBI for a reasons) and paying to resolve both issues separately, the governement decided to kill two birds with one stone. By requiring recipients of support services to engage socially in the areas that society needed more engagement, government was able to keep it’s citizens housed and fed as well as target flagging industries with fresh manpower. And by combining future skills and present day support, they argued, they could afford to roll back support services down the line when the economy improved and the citizens were more engaged. This is actually why most support services require that you not work more than a certain number of hours a week (which might seem counter-intuitive to those who aren’t familiar with the origins). It was meant to directly fund the removal of bodies from the labor market so that there were fewer people in need of work then there were jobs open in order to rebalance the labor market. Much the same reasoning for minimum wage which was meant to support a family of a husband, wife, and two kids so that women - half the population - could be more or less eliminated from the labor market.

Now, it’s important to realize that the specific failures of the systems we have now occur because they were conceived of exclusively through an old economic lens that allowed POC to be “not counted” towards the labor market, which required women to be domestic, either as house wives (white/middle/upper class) or as the extremely mistreated domestic staff (POC/poor). There are a lot of reasons why this system could not work now, not the least of which is you’d have to convince a country of right-leaning bigots to expand social services to marginalized people like women and men of color and then ask them to re-open old services that were closed once Roosevelt met his goals. But I just want to make sure we have the context, in this conversation, of what kinds of supports we’ve had in the past and why. Most importantly I want everyone to understand that these services have always been limited and neutered by the notion that because these people were vulnerable and marginalized (poor, POC, unwed mothers, queer people, disabled folks, etc.) they ought to be made to jump through hoops for any support to prove they were more worthy of it than their counterparts.

So now we get to the 2nd context our society has for a version of UBI. This one is exclusively available to the wealthy and is somewhat less fettered by hoop-jumping than it’s counterparts. It’s significantly less effected by the idea that it should have to be temporary as well, because it’s privately funded (in the most direct sense anyway, we can talk another time about how the governement subsidizes this particular form of UBI). Additionally, because of how inaccessible it is to middle and working class communities, it is incredibly misunderstood by those groups. The number of people who don’t know how this system works is truly unfortunate, because if more folks were familiar, I guarantee you, it would be much harder for the right to argue against UBI.

This system is called trust funds.

And I know that as soon as I said that, several of you suddenly imagined the Hollywood and television caricature of a trust fund baby. I want you to set that aside for a while, because it genuinely is a caricature in the original sense of the word (a comical but recognizable exaggeration of the original concept). Let’s talk a little bit about trust fund law. Trust funds are contracts with banks. They are typically investment accounts and they are most commonly written in such a way as to provide a certain dollar amount (or formula for a dollar amount) per month in income, plus the occaisional approved additional expense. Every state has their own standards for what is “normal” for a trust fund. For example, California trust fund law considers living expenses, medical expenses, and educational expenses to be standard approved expenses. However, a person creating a trust fund contract can add or subtract items from that list as they feel appropriate.

Because a trust fund is a contract with a bank, the expectation is that the bank’s board of trustees will approve any expenses beyond the monthly distribution (we’ll talk about that in a moment” if they find it reasonable. So an approved expense category is the only kind of expense they can agree to cover. ,If your trust fund documents exclude educational expenses, for example, then you can request help paying for your college tuition or your books, but they are legally prohibited from approving your request. Meanwhile if medical expenses are approved and you end up in the hospital, they can approve that expense. Whether or not they find it reasonable to is usually based on the amount of money being requested, the amount of money the account is worth, how much money has already been approved that fiscal year, and how much money can be approved while still ensuring that the trust fund can sustain itself throughout your lifetime.

As for regular disbursements, this is where it bears the most resemblance to the concept of UBI. A board of trustees is legally required to pay out a certain minimum amount dictated by the creator of the trust, or the amount of income from the account, whichever is higher. For the sake of an example, let’s say that a trust contract set the minimum yearly income at $12,000 after taxes. That would be $1,000 per month. Now, the “or the actual income of the account” is legally required for any trust fund that is in the form of an investment account because while trust funds are, technically, not the legal property of their beneficiary, all of it’s income is. Which means that in our example where the minimum income is set at $1,000 per month, on a very bad year, the income on the account might only be $10,000/year instead of $12,000. On this year, the trust fund would still be required to pay out more income than it actually earned in order to ensure that the beneficiary still has access to a set and reasonable amount of income. And because it’s classified as income, what you spend it on is not monitored by a third party. Of course, most boards will take that money into account when they’re deciding whether or not to approve additional distributions under the system we described earlier (if a beneficiary were to ask for $1500 in rent money, they would likely ask what the monthly $1,000 was being used for that it couldn’t be applied to the $1500 first, reducing the request to $500 for rent money, for example) but technically it is available for the beneficiary to use as they would wages from their place of employment. Your boss shouldn’t be forbidding you from buying lotto tickets with your wages (yes, I know some companies attempt to do this through various measures, but that’s a different conversation), so neither should your board of trustees. On a good year, however, the account might actually earn $24,000 in income. In which case, the beneficiary is legally entitled to that whole amount, or $2,000 per month, to use as income.

So, let’s close the loop on why trust funds are functionally basic income. The above systems remain completely unaffected by a person’s other sources of income. Get a job part time as a receptionist? You’ll still earn your yearly income from the trust fund. Get married and add your spouses income to your monthly expenditures? Your trust fund distributions still come through. Become CEO of Daddy’s company and earn billions of dollars a year in “wages”? That $1000 a month will still drop into your bank account every single time.

Because most trust funds are set up by relatives, most trust fund’s “minimum yearly income” is determined by what that relative thinks is the bare minimum you need to pay your bills. You will very rarely find a trust fund that has a minimum income that comes out to tens of thousands a month, despite the television tropes. It’s typically somewhere in the range of “minimum part time job” to “full time salaried job”. It’s intended as a fallback, and the income is designed to be available from the day of the fund’s creation until the day it’s beneficiary dies. If the fund is created by a grandparent on the day of the child’s birth, than the child’s parents will be recieving that minimum income every month as the child’s legal custodians to help pay for any expenses the child incurs as it’s being raised. If the fund is established on the day of a child’s 18th birthday, then the income will go directly to them to help them pay their way in the world. It’s extremely common for the minimum income to basically be meant to cover rent/mortgage so that housing will never be a concern for a beneficiary.

So. In the private sphere of the wealthy, relatives have, for generations, been ensuring that their descendents would always have access to a basic amount of money so that they will never starve or become homeless, even in the event of extreme financial hardship. Which is basic income. The only difference between this and UBI is that UBI is not privately funded and is available to everyone.’

So let’s talk about why it’s not. When a person from a wealthy family is the beneficiary of a trust fund, what tends to happen? If their basic needs are met, then that means they can afford to choose between taking out loans to go to college and not having to work as well or working while they go to school so that they leave loan free, but either way they can afford to go to college and get a degree with no question of whether or not they’ll be able to pay tuition. It means that they can take that unpaid internship in New York to build connections in their field of choice. It means that they can afford to take extremely underpaid positions in order to build references and gain experience. It means that they can afford to save up the down payment for a mortgage while they’re still young. It means that if they get extremely sick and end up in hospital for three months straight, rather than having to take out predatory loans to pay their medical bills, they can reach out to their trustees and ask for help paying them down. It means that if their car breaks down one day and they need to pay $1000 to get it repaired, they can do so or seek support in doing so. It means that, no matter what financial situation they find themselves in, if they need it, there is a pool of capital that can be accessed (with the consent of the trustees) to ensure that they do not have to engage in predatory practices like high interest loans or credit cards, and so that they do not suffer consequences such as starvation, homelessness, or lack of medical care. Because they can rely on support for these kinds of situations, they are able to take financial risks like going to college, opening a business, buying a house or a car, etc, with the assurance that even if it breaks bad, the consequences they suffer will never be life-threatening. And when their risks pay off instead and their college degree gets them a good job, they own their home and cars outright, and their business becomes successful and starts to grow, that basic income can be funnelled into growth rather than safety. Now, instead of using that basic income to pay their rent, they can use it to invest in other companies, to put into trust funds or college funds for their children, or to invest in additional forms of capital like income property, infrastructure, or the growth of their business.’

Let’s be clear: that end result is the goal of a trust fund. Get the beneficiary through the stage in their life when they have none of their own capital to rely on yet so that they are able to reach the ownership stage of the life quicker, more safely, and more successfully. Cash is the least efficient form of capital our system has, but it is the cost of entry to all the other, more densely valuable forms of capital. Land, ownership of an income generation machine, access to the social capital of certification and networking, these are intensely valuable specifically because they are necessary to everyone and can be turned into profit for the ownership community when offered to those who are barred from entry to the whole system. So if UBI is instituted and suddenly everyone in the country is able to go to college, to take unpaid internships, to open business, to freely access the entire system of capital, then those things become less valuable because they can no longer be used to profit from the lower classes because there is no more lower class. Cash’s value is raised and the value of non-cash capital is lowered, so that the two classifications are equalized. Most of the predatory ways in which the wealthy have earned their money become unprofitable because there is no one left to prey on. The economy is forced to reinvent itself into a system under which it is acceptable to have exclusively a middle and upper class rather than a poverty class.

So rather than allowing that, the wealthy turn that cycle into “boom and bust” by changing the goal posts of wealth and capital as soon as middle classes earn access to the old forms of capital, plunging the middle class into sudden and devastating poverty in order to restart the cycle with hundreds of millions of people becoming exploitable overnight. This is what happened with the stock market crash in the 20′s, and with the housing bubble in more modern memory, and what I suspect will be happening with “start up culture” or with college education fairly soon.

UBI as a permanent and open system would make it extremely challenging for the ownership class to move the goal posts successfully in future, since the current economic system depends on cash as the cost of entry. There’s an extremely high chance (by no means a certainty) that UBI would allow people to anchor the economy solidly in the realm of accessability rather than in exclusivity, and generally speaking that allows vulnerable members of society to force systemic changes that undo their marginalization. Consider what tends to happen in communities of color where POC owned business become successful and are able to specifically recycle capital back into the community.

Of course, this is all a fairly simplified conversation, and there are a lot of different places for a wrench to be thrown and for UBI to stop being a tool of empowerment for the marginalized. I by no means think that it is enough, on it’s own, to end marginalization and poverty. But everyone, including the wealthy right, are aware that it would make such goals significantly easier. And in their minds, that is a problem.

Mainly, what I want people to take from this isn’t necessarily that UBI is a perfect, golden solution or anything like that. What I would like to make sure people know is that the wealthy right does not believe that people are inhernetly going to abuse or take advantage of UBI, because if they did, they would not build trust funds for their descendents. They either believe that the poor and marginalized are inherently so morally bankrupt that they cannot be trusted with the same systems that the wealthy right have access to. Or they believe that without the ability to exploit the poor and marginalized to the point of death and devastation, the systems they have spent generations building would not be successful.

So when you hear the wealthy right arguing that welfare and UBI are bad, remember that trust funds exist and that you are either listening to a bigot or to a fucking monster.

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blschaos3000-blog · 4 years

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Its 3:52 pm

Welcome to “8 Questions with…..”

In doing this series and especially of late,I have been really blessed to be able to talk to a lot artists that I have on a “wish list”. These are people whom I really want to talk with but I don’t think I’ll get a chance to. Ashley Kate Adams was on the list. I first was introduced to Ashley Kate and her talent when the cheetah and I watched a excellent film called “1 Message“. Its a story about a young woman who gets breast cancer amd who is slowly falling into a deep depression. When the young woman meets a man online while tracking down her family tree,the connection changes her life on so many levels. This is a movie that I loved quite a bit and I thought Ashley Kate Adams did a great job in what I found later was her feature film debut and she was only 21 when she filmed it. Since then I have been following her career and chatting once in a while on Twitter. Last week I decided to take a chance and ask Ashley Kate for a interview and to my surprise answered “Yes,I do” within 5 minutes. While we were talking,I asked about her new big project,”Boy Hero” which is set during the 1954 Senate Comic Book Hearings and where publisher Williams Gaines and his legendary EC Comics were grilled because of the content. It was also during the height of McCarthyism and the Hollywood blacklisting,a dark and despairing time (as well as a forgotten period). As soon as we as a society are allowed ,Ashley Kate is kicking “Boy Hero” into high gear and we’ll be posting updates on how the film is progressing. * As you can see,Ashley Kate is a woman on the go,go,go!! I am so happy that we got a chance to catch her in mid-stride so she could slow down enough to answer her 8 Questions…….

Please introduce yourself and tell us about your latest project?

Hello! My name is Ashley Kate Adams & I am an actress, producer & writer living in NYC! Right now we are so excited to be introducing Frankie! The Musical Cast Concept Album to the world. It releases this Friday, May 29th, on Broadway Records and will be available everywhere music can be streamed. Frankie! The Musical (@frankiemusical) is written by 16-year old Composer and light, Elise Marra. The album is produced by AKA Studio Productions & Mitchell Walker! Our other main project is “Boy Hero”, a feature film inspired by the Comic Book Trials of 1954. I wrote the 1950’s period film which was inspired by a panel I saw called “When the American Librarian Saved Comics” by Carol Tilley. The film is rounding out development and will be Produced by AKA Studio Productions, Pigasus Pictures & AR Productions and will film in Cincinnati! Please follow us (@boyheromovie) for more exciting updates on fundraising development and production of the film.

(Michael Kushner Photography)

How have you been coping with Covid-19 pandemic? How are you staying creative and focused?

I have been thinking a lot about this recently. I’ve been coping with Covid-19 productively. I think many things prepared me for this, the main being thing being the sudden loss of my father in 2016 to cancer. During that time I had to learn to balance many things in conjunction with being completely gutted out with grief. During that time I turned to creating to heal myself and process my emotions so during this pandemic I have followed suit. I’ve actually been working at home with my production company since 2011 so that routine feels like a continuation. We were very lucky, we had just gotten many incredible projects like Frankie! in the can before it felt as if the world froze. Now these projects are able to bring joy to others during this time. On Friday’s I’ve been going LIVE with #BYOP to lead conversations on Grief & Productivity for the Creative @ashleykateadams on Instagram. It’s been important for me to try to help folks navigate this time!

When did you first catch the acting bug and what was the reaction like with your family and friends?

I don’t know if I ever caught the acting bug I was kind of just born into the industry. It is what our family does as our family business. You know some families might have a restaurant or a heating & cooling company, we are performers. My parents, who also majored in musical theatre in college (that’s how they met) were VERY honest with me about how hard my future was going to be to move to NYC and pursue this full-time but they knew it was what I was called to do. And I got to make space here for my sister 10 years my junior, Audrey Belle Adams, who recently began her adult career also based out of New York City.

How did you land the lead role in your first feature film “1 Message”? What three things did you take with you from the experience? How important is faith to you?

I actually landed my role in “1 Message” thanks to my father. He pitched me at a dinner meeting where the director happened to be. I then auditioned and got the role. That film taught me a lot. The first was that leading a film and being on camera 14 hours a day, 6 days a week is an extremely challenging job. Which leads me to the second thing, I learned how to treat actors on set. The “1 Message” experience is one that seeded in me the need to become an independent film producer to make sure I was always taking care of my actors in an extremely supportive way. Environment, transparency & discernment are everything on a project. The third thing I learned was how strong and aware I was even at a younger age on set. Faith is important to me. It is important to me to believe in something much bigger than yourself.

(Michael Kushner Photography)

Which do you like more? Doing TV/film work or live theater and why?

I love both equally but for different reasons. Right now I am very much falling deeper in love with film. I love learning and because I was raised literally at a theatre, in film there is still so much to learn for me. I love each new project on any side. It’s a blast to me navigating each nuance!

(Michael Kushner Photography)

What have been the three pieces of advice given to you in regards to being a performer?

Wow! Great question. “Your best secret weapon is yourself”. That was taught to me by the head of my musical theatre program at CCM, Aubrey Berg. He was correct. I would say the next is to “Be a kind person who people enjoy working with” from Sandra Rivera of Dancensation Studios and the most recent from this past winter break to “Keep saying yes to the right things and keep expanding” from one of my high school mentors, the great Gail Benedict.

(Michael Kushner Photography)

What roles challenge you most as an actress and how do you adapt to make the role yours?

Wheeew. For me the biggest challenge of my actor life was doing “A Christmas Carol(e)”, a one- woman show, directed & written by Alex Freeman. It was terrifying because it was only me on stage for 70 minutes. All I could do to survive it was to walk through it and continue to adapt. Every. Single. Second. I had to be truly present without a fourth wall. There was no protection, no sheen. I love hiding behind characters. I revel in it. It allows me space for courage to be more vulnerable. I’m a weirdo, my prep is usually reading, researching and then I adapt my breath and body. Everything else just kinda happens. The magic of acting!

How did the idea for #BYOP come about? What makes a good producer in your opinion?

#BYOP (Be Your Own Producer) came from seeing the need for it. As a producer, actor and creative I can only take on so many projects full time at once but #BYOP allows me to be available to you and your project on an hourly basis. It also teaches content creators how to producer so they can become sustainable and independent! During the pandemic it expanded to teaching these intentions in a group digital setting. The brand is continuing to grow and diversify. In development are many exciting new pieces, perhaps something you could listen to and something you can hold. Stay tuned and be sure to follow @ashleykateadams for updates! ! ; )

(Michael Kushner Photography)

You created a one woman show called “A Christmas Carole” for the theater, where did you come up with the idea and how hard is doing a one person production on a nightly basis?

I helped to create the show but I cannot take credit for the idea or writing on that one, that was my creative partner in crime, Alex Freeman. We put it up in 6 days with the help of our two amazing stage managers. It’s exhausting and exhilarating doing a one person production. I lived like a nun during the day to stay calm and preserve all of my energy for the performances. I still can’t believe I did it!

How important are awards to you as a performer?

Awards are not important to me as a performer, but the respect and nod that comes because of them is appreciated. I got my first best actress award in 2018 for Alex Freeman’s two-hander “Love” at the New York Theatre Festival. It’s hard being a woman in the business on every side. Especially as a Producer. So when a group of people decide not only that you “did well” but that you should be “acknowledged”, that is nice.

You love to sing,what makes a good song and which three Broadway scores would you love to sing if given a chance? Who is your favorite singer/band at this moment?

I do love to sing! It’s a part of my identity even though I’ve been more internal as of late with my creativity. I would say three Broadway scores I would love to sing through would be “Waitress”, “Sunday in the Park with George” and “The Sound of Music”. My favorite singer is my sister, Audrey Belle Adams @abelleadams, always and forever because she has the most flexible vocal instrument I have ever heard and my favorite band right now is M.N.O.P. @MNOP_music. They have rockin’ folk punk music, a kick butt lead female singer & a really cute drummer : )

How important is self-promotion to you and your career?

Self-Promotion is a large part of a creative career. In the age of social media & “influencers”, it has to be. I have not always been good at it. I had to learn to produce others to get comfortable producing & promoting myself.

What do you like to do on your down time?

In my downtime I like doing yoga, going on walks, listening to true crime podcasts, reading, taking class and spending time with my loved ones.

The cheetah and I are flying over to watch to you in “A Christmas Carol(e)” but we are a day early and now you are stuck playing tour guide,what are we doing?

If A Christmas Carol(e) played NYC and there was a day off I would say to spend the morning in Central Park, afternoon around Bryant Park popping into the Strand Book Store & the Bean coffee shop and to spend the evening in the theatre district enjoying an OPEN Broadway. Late evening in the village hopping venues and listening to live music!

(Michael Kushner Photography)

I want to not only thank Ashley Kate for chatting with us but also for being inspired to make “Boy Hero”. I cut my fanboy teeth reading EC Comics growing up. When I read William Gaines bio and found out just how close that comic books were to being banned,it was shocking. Without Gaines and a slew of others,including many librarians fighting this censorship,there would no “Star Wars”,Marvel or DC or many cultural icons we take for granted today. Like I wrote before,this is a forgotten piece of American history and much respect to Ashley Kate and her production team on making this film to hopefully remind us of what we almost lost.

Ashley Kate has several different ways that you can keep track of her and her various projects.

You can follow Ashley Kate on her InstaGram page. You can check out Ashley Kate’s next project via her IMDb page. You can also follow “Boy Hero” on InstaGram as well. You can also visit Ashley Kate’s personal website by going here.

Thank you for reading and supporting (and sharing) Ashley Kate’s interview. Feel free to drop a question below and stay tuned for updates about “Boy Hero”. You can also read past “8 Questions” interviews by going here.

8 Questions with………..actress/producer Ashley Kate Adams Its 3:52 pm Welcome to "8 Questions with....." In doing this series and especially of late,I have been really blessed to be able to talk to a lot artists that I have on a "wish list".

#8 Questions With #actor&039;s life #Alex Freeman #Ashley Kate Adams #Boy Hero film #Broadway #Frankie the Musical #live theater #multi-talented #Music #New York City #Producer #singing

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