#I changed the lyrics/subtitle (or whatever) a bit

[samuell-art]

NEW ANIMATION YIPPEE

(FLASH WARNING ig) Bye Lena Problems/Дока Лена Проблем animation meme

I MISS THESE OLD MEMES ☹️ (why tf are they called memes???)

#I AM NOT RUSSIAN AND I DONT UNDERSTAND THE LANGUAGE #BUT I can read Cyrillic or whatever it’s called hehe #I changed the lyrics/subtitle (or whatever) a bit #nimona #ambrosius goldenloin #ballister blackheart #nimona comic #nimona novel #nimona animation

[astranauticus]

ok one last post about the Project to truly exorcise it from my brain. just some process/design thoughts (also now that it's done if you want to read my liveblogged whinging for whatever reason here it is)

first off some stats because i kept stats like the nerd that i am:

time wise making this animatic took about 93.5 hours give or take (thanks procreate process replay) spread across exactly 2 months

anyway when i said i finished this project mostly through stubbornness and sunk cost fallacy this is what i meant lol like a lot of my thought process through this was just 'no way in hell am i letting some of these drawings disappear into my drafts forever'

on average each frame took about 2 hours 45 minutes but thats a bit of an overestimate since i forgot to count some of the animated bits from the first two lines (so id guess the actual number is more like.. 2 hours 20 minutes?)

btw that line with the starry apparition fading away? 12 hours total

the single longest and most painful frame to draw was the one of the crew walking through tu'narath (5 hours 30 minutes) because a. perspective b. architecture design c. for some reason i put a lot of detail into rendering the armour on all the githyanki i drew why on earth did i do that

(its especially painful bc that frame was one of the ones that didnt... feel like an important enough moment in the actual story of the show to be worth capturing the way the wish or even like, endellion is, i just needed to put that there for the storytelling flow or whatever of the animatic itself and it bothered me so much)

one other interesting little mishap was that i did all of these on canvas size 1080x720px (so that's why the youtube resolution isnt particularly high lmao) which is why procreate let me put an absolutely absurd amount of layers in one canvas (all 8 frames of with memories projected on the astral sea were done on one canvas. 159 layers) because the layer limit for that canvas size is 400 BUT. i accidentally started the starry apparition fade on an A4 canvas (my default canvas size for like all my normal fanart) and i only realised after finishing all the lineart and starting on colouring because i hit layer limit so i had to resize the canvas which did... interesting?? things to the lineart resolution

also if youre wondering how i drew K-LB that many times in something resembling timely fashion the answer is i sacrificed some... amount of sleep to 3d model and rig him in blender which. honestly? i consider it a roaring success

splitting the frames by bar was a Choice and certainly a choice ive.. had doubtsTM about but thats the kind of thing you cant really change without bringing the whole project crashing down so if the frames seem to move a bit too fast im so sorry there was really not much i could do there

idk if people actually noticed the very very tiny drawings of the crew moving around on the ship in the 4th line especially since they sometimes get obscured by the subtitles but the REASON for that is in my original drawings the subtitles went in the top left corner but they kept conflicting with other stuff so i just gave up and threw them to the bottom (also i originally included the chinese lyrics but then i got lazy lmao)

anyway that little detail like VR-LA angstily looking at the sea reminiscing about the JourneyTM and the crew sort of appearing along with the memories of their adventures together was one of those things that seemed SO COOL in my head but once i actually execute it its like. hmmmm not sure if that worked out the way you thought it would buddy. also the tiny crew was EXTREMELY hard to draw so put that down as another point in 'me subjecting myself to deeply painful and out there compositions for no good reason'

anyway i called this my magnum opus but i do actually have some thoughts about another one (a companion piece, if you will) for another song by the same band because now that i know what capcut can do im.. really itching to try something a little different because this like powerpoint presentation style? fully a product of me using iMovie as my only available video editing software for the past like 7 years of my life

#rwd #asto speaks #re: the projectTM #one last time using this dumbass tag lmao #honestly? also put another point in 'i worked on a project for so long it became just a Project to me and proceeded to get #absolutely blindsided by the emotional affect it has on people' #2 months. 2. months. #whatever actual emotion this idea was originally trying to draw from is long fucking gone buddy #like i did manage to re-experience some of it looking at the finished product but #i appreciate yalls screaming a lot i just truly did not anticipate it LMAO

[peterrrei]

Ok but do tell us abt the Italian dub lore, please.

ok so. ahfkajd maybe lore is a big word but its a series of facts that are HILARIOUS to me and my boyfriend lmfao. this is going to be long I Think

so! fun fact! italy is the first country that aired gundam 0079 outside of japan! in 1980 i believe. so we have this generation of boomers who grew up watching gundam and other mecha shows who are constantly complaining about Today’s Cartoons Being Bad. which is. okay whatever. but also…! i am pretty sure that the television channel who bought gundam had no idea what it is about. and so the translations feel very off and more often than not theyre wrong or just. its impossible to understand what is happening!

for example, out of curiosity i watched the first episode of vintage dub edition (which is on amaz*n prime. they removed the original series in japanese and left vintage edition there. ok whatever. explode).

i get to the first sayla and char meeting scene and. nothing about their interaction leads you to believe that theyre brother and sister. char calls her “blondie”. its just. what. i remember even seeing italian comments under gundam videos going like: “oh i recently rewatched gundam in japanese with subtitles and so many things make sense now! i had no idea char and sayla were related!”

and its funny to me. because as i said earlier this generation of mostly Men in their 50s believe everything thats not gundam or their other old mecha shows is shit. but they had no idea of what was happening in the show!!! i guess the message about war still came across but idk. its funny

the other funny thing is that italian television channels used to do this thing in the past where they would completely change characters name if they felt like they were too difficult for ita viewers. and thats how… we got Peter Rei! commander of the robot! (i’ll get to this quote in a bit.)

yes. amuro is peter. and char is scia (which is cute and kinda a pun bc scia means trail and comets leave trails!). sayla is pronounced seira like in japanese. mirai is flammet (???). fraw is mirka. haro is pallina!!!!! (little bouncy ball…….)

the dub is really bad. peter amuro sounds like an old guy. chars voice is kinda cute and fitting but everything else is a mess. but we got………… gundam italian opening!!!!! which is kinda a banger despite the lyrics being so. ???

heres the opening

the lyrics, translated:

“here we are, we are you friends,

and my name is peter rei!

there they are, assaulting us, never be afraid!

because there’s someone here who will think of you!

(gundam gundam gundam etc)

my friends, here i am, peter rei,

commander of the robot!

i am the guy who says No! to the enemies,

because no one else can!

(no one can defeat…. gundam!!!!!!)”

there’s also a longer version with other insane lyrics like Oooh here comes the indestructible guntank!!! which is. lol

ok, one last thing also

the episodes names are hilarious.

“gundam flies!” “garma dies!”

“good job flammet(mirai)!” ????

(theres some episodes missing obviously, but these are the names of the last episodes and its so funny)

gundam must win!

gundam wins again!

gundam is invincible

gundam’s enemies

BRAVO GUNDAM!!!!

no one is stronger than gundam….

lmfao really feels like grandpappy gundam is giving itself a pep talk for motivation. cmon gundy u can do it…

ok i think im done LMFAO SORRY maybe this is all irrelevant but its funny to ME

#sorry for autismo moment unfortunately it will happen again <3 #thank u abi for indulging me

[rigelmejo]

some little things on the topic of learning chinese:

feel free to start trying to watch shows early, especially if the genre is romance/slice of life (easiest vocabulary as it will match HSK more), or if its a genre of cdrama you’ve already watched a lot of before learning (I always watched case-solving supernatural/crime dramas so I knew a lot more words from those types of shows already, same will apply to whatever genres you watch more). Another easy genre is action heavy, not because you’ll know the words necessarily (i certainly didnt in Xin Xiao Shi Yi Lang or Handsome Siblings lol) but because context in action dramas is way more obvious. If someone shouts something its often a verb (kick him/kill her/he has the X!/he ran!) which makes learning new verbs or items from context easier since people usually DO the action or pick up the object in these kinds of shows. By early, i mean like month 3, month 5, month 10 early. And if you already are watching with english subs, at first you can just try spotting chinese words in the dual subtitles (since most cdramas are hard subbed) and looking up new words as you’re curious (you’ll learn “xiao xin, meiguanshi, meishi, zou le!, ta si le!” pretty fast if you watch a case show/action) and/or trying to guess which chinese words correspond to the english subs sometimes. Then as you do that a bit, trying out only chinese subs once in a while. (I could watch shows and follow the main plot way earlier than I expected to, the hardest part was just building up the stamina to tolerate the ambiguous parts, I remember watching Granting You A Dreamlike Life about 6 months into studying and watching 14 eps then finally I just ‘had’ stamina and watching stuff in chinese only got dramatically easier). 

feel free to practice reading with songs at first! lots of chinese lyric videos with hanzi and pinyin on youtube, and with just hanzi, all good chances to practice reading while listening to stuff you like and maybe picking up lyrics you wanted to sing along to anyway. The bonus of singing is not worrying about tones as much, and if you get the ‘tone police’ thoughts in your head when recognizing hanzi they might go off a little less with songs ToT. I used to do this with Guardian for fun, and when I got The Untamed and The Lost Tomb Reboot osts I’d read along to the hanzi lyrics in their booklets as I listened. I found lyric to text just a bit less daunting than audiobooks to text lol. 

there’s a lot of animated manhua nowadays on bilibili, feel free to check those out early on. They have the benefit of being a bit easier to read like manhua, along with having audio to help you sometimes if you know some words better by sound than writing. Or if vice versa you recognize some hanzi but can’t remember their pronunciation.

feel free to watch dramas from various areas early on, if you want to be somewhat familiar with different pronunciations. in particular, watching some taiwan dramas and some chinese dramas, if you want to get used to the different pronunciations early on (and if you want to eventually be familiar with traditional and simplified hanzi its a good way to see some common words in both forms in hard subs in shows). Watching some dramas that do the -er change to words more often also helps with getting familiar with how words sound when that’s done a lot versus less, like Detective L does it a lot and The Heiress does too. 

#rant #i think me watching so much taiwan stuff early on helped a Lot with me noticing that particular accent #and the changes. so that i can 1 hear it in certain actors #and 2 know what the common words sound like very well in taiwan accent #im a bit less familiar with some accents i hear in stuff like Fearless Whisper #but i know i've heard it a few times because im getting used to recognizing it fairly well

[gra-sonas]

Hello! Can you recommend me some good songs in German and some tv shows? I started to learn it and i think it will help Danke? I am not sure if that's the right way Please stay safe! Also i came for TW and i think i'll stay for RNM

Hallo German-learning nonnie! :D

Mhmm, good songs in German. 🤔 Let me think.

I would definitely recommend listening to songs from “Neue Deutsche Welle” (New German Wave”). That’s not a band btw, it’s a (West) German rock music genre from the late 70s/early 80s. Sooo many great songs, and great lyrics (which is kind of the point for you, right?)

Maybe you’ve even listened to one? “99 Luftballons” (99 Red Balloons) by Nena is probably the internationally most well known NDW song.

If you have Spotify or Deezer, just search for Neue Deutsche Welle, that should provide you with some excellent playlists. I’m sure YT also has NDW playlists.

I’m not overly familiar with the current German music scene tbh. I don’t listen to the radio and don’t pay attention to German charts. 

There are several rock or pop artists and bands singing in German tho. In no particular order and not necessarily music I listen to myself, but at the top of my head I can think of the following artists (mixed genres across the board): Adel Tawil, Wincent Weiss, Annett Louisan, Glasperlenspiel, Silbermond, Herbert Grönemeyer, Die Ärzte, Fettes Brot, Die Fantastischen Vier, Sarah Connor, Mark Forster, Gil Ofarim, Tim Bendzko, Ich + Ich, Die Toten Hosen, Unheilig, and a million others.

Maybe just listen to some of them and see wether you like their music and then let the algorithm suggest you similar artists? Also check the lyrics and see whether that’s what you’ve been looking for and if it can help you to learn German.

Something I think could also be very beneficial: reading books. It doesn’t have to be Goethe (to Germany what Shakespeare is to Great Britain). It can be children’s books, or young adult books, also comics. (FUCK JKTERFROWLING TO HELL AND BACK, but if you liked Harry Potter, the books have been translated into German, pls just don’t buy them and make that transphobic asshole richer, the HP books in German are available as ebooks “for free”). 

Reading a familiar story in a foreign language will be easier than trying to read something completely new. Pretty much any YA book series will also be available in German, same goes for comics, romance novels, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, crime stories and so on. My English VASTLY improved by reading books (and fanfic 😌) in case you like to read, that’s something I‘d definitely suggest you also check out.

As for German TV shows. LOL, I watch so little German TV, kinda difficult for me to come up with recs. One show I highly recommend is DARK tho, it’s 3 seasons, all done and wrapped, and it’s on Netflix. It’s a bit like Stranger Things, only in 3-D (it’s super complex with various timelines, but it’s glorious and so, so good!). 

If you have Netflix, you could also see whether there are any other German shows available. IDK, Netflix differs from country to country/region to region, there are probably differences.

Oh, and I think on YT you can find several queer storylines from recent and older German soaps with English subtitles. We’ve had queer storylines on most soaps since the 90s, and international fans have been really great at curating playlists. Maybe that’s something you might enjoy.

Something that rather pains me to suggest: just watch your favorite TV show or movie in German. 🤦‍♀️ In Germany EVERYTHING (on TV and in movie theaters) is dubbed. Game of Thrones? Available in German. Wonder Woman? Sure, she speaks German fluently. This won’t help you with 1:1 translations (German dubbing tries its best to lip-sync, meaning that the spoken German is in sync with the lip movements of the original speaker, so dialogue translations are not always 100% accurate, certain jokes or word games will also be changed to make them work in German). A bit like reading a book you like in German, watching a familiar film or show in German can give you a better idea of the “flow” of the language. 

Also pronunciation. Shows and movies are usually dubbed in “high German”, so no tricky German accents you’ll struggle to understand. And if possible, download GERMAN subtitles for whatever you watch. You might not understand everything they say, but reading what they say will help you to recognize words much better than watching sth in German with subtitles in your own language and than you’re just busy constantly “translating” instead of paying attention to the German. 

Another genre we have in Germany, and German kids (and adults) LOVE: Hörspiele (audio dramas)! Whether you listened to Benjamin Blümchen (a talking elephant who lives at the local zoo), Bibi Blocksberg (a kid witch) as a kid or Die Drei ??? (The Three Investigators, most successful audio drama series world wide, the series recently celebrated its 40th birthday - the speakers started when they were kids in the late 1970s, they are all over 50yrs old now and still record 4-6 dramas/year and their live tours with more than 10K audience/show are legendary) as a young adult, most kids in Germany grow up listening to audio dramas. 

Even adults continue to listen to them (I’m a HUGE Drei ??? fan myself, I don’t listen to the dramas to fall asleep tho, unlike most other people, but I went to see them live last year and it was The Absolute Best Thing In All Of 2019). There are so many different genres, and stories, there are audio dramas for almost any age group (and thus language skill level), and it’s really cool.

Okay, this got long. Not sure if any of this will be helpful for you, but I hope you’ll find something you’ll enjoy, that will also help you tackling the German language. Good luck and “viel Spaß”!

You stay safe, too, nonnie!

And yay for staying for RNM, chances are you won’t regret it! ❤️

ETA: German movie rec from @manesalex : Lola Rennt (Thanks, Molly!)

#nonnie asks #german things #my native language is a thing of beauty

[letterboxd]

Obsession.

Ella Kemp dives into Letterboxd’s 100 highest-rated, obsessively rewatched films of 2020 to find out why we love them—and to give Hollywood a heads-up on what we want to rewatch again and again.

Take note, development execs: we want to watch more of everything that makes us feel alive; that makes us feel thankful to be. To bottle that feeling, and drink it up as often, and as obsessively, as we like. We also want: more singing, more dancing, more drugs, more talking animals, more of whatever Director Bong is serving—and make everything gayer.

We know this because, a few years back, the Letterboxd team asked one very simple question: what’s the highest-rated film of all time, when the criteria is that you must have seen it five or more times? Not the ‘guilty’ pleasures, not the ‘so-bad-it’s-good’ gems, but the already-excellent films that are also inherently rewatchable. The resulting top 100 from back then are all extremely, objectively good. What can we say—you have great taste.

Because 2020 is, well, 2020, we revisited this idea to see how four years and an endless quarantine might have changed things. The usual suspects have been rounded up (Christopher, Quentin, Ridley, Damien, David and company), but a lot has shifted in the Highest Rated Obsessively Rewatched Club for 2020.

The top ten in the 100 highest rated, obsessively rewatched films of 2020.

Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire is now top of the heap, where Spike Jonze’s Her was number one last time around. In fact, only Jaws and Carol remain from the last top ten. The Letterboxd community favors a wider world view: in 2017, the top 100 had only one film by a female director; in 2020 there are eight. The list has gone from exactly zero films entirely in languages other than English, to two (Portrait and Parasite), with several more containing a portion of non-English dialogue. Not quite leaping the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, but it’s progress. And, there is substantially more LGBTQ+ representation all round.

This year’s top 100 shows that we still like to return to the idea of the auteur, and the challenge of a franchise. In 2017, Christopher Nolan was the filmmaker with the highest number of highly rated, obsessively rewatched films; in 2020 Quentin Tarantino has taken the lead, just ahead of Nolan. Joining them in the multiple-titles group are Edgar Wright, Peter Jackson, Joe and Anthony Russo, epic-scale filmmakers from whom we’ve learned so much, and whose films have more to offer the viewer on every watch. (When ratings are not part of the equation, Avengers: Endgame—still with a respectable 3.9 average—was the Most Obsessively Rewatched title of 2019. “You give me someone flying, turning invisible, super speed… that’s where I live,” explains obsessive rewatcher Max Joseph this Letterboxd interview. “In Endgame, I get a little bit of every genre and mood.”)

Obsessed with obsession

What is “obsessive”? To put some kind of parameters around the search for this year’s top 100, our team looked for the feature films that had five or more rated watches from a minimum of 150 Letterboxd members each, then we sorted that list by the ratings of those members.

But that word—“obsessive”—got me thinking. Just how obsessive are we talking here? It’s reassuring to know that Parasite is, naturally, a film we enjoy returning to, but when we’re talking about rewatches plural, what happens when we sort these 100 highly rated titles by another value: the number of diary entries logged by these obsessive members. And what would that list say about our tendencies as watchers?

Spoiler: we also pulled those numbers, and found an entirely different top ten:

The most obsessively rewatched, highest-rated films of all time, as at 2020.

Look at that image. Compare it with the inarguable cinephilia of the ratings-based top ten, which soars on critical strength. What are we seeing here? That’s not the question. The real question is: what are we feeling? What do these ten films do to us so consistently, that helps them to retain high ratings across many, many, many rewatches?

You see, in the top 100, members typically log their favorites between five and seven times—but there’s a select handful of titles that see an average of up to 24 viewings per obsessive member. You read that right. There is a film on Letterboxd that multiple obsessive members have watched 24 times or more, at the time of writing.

Comedy that never gets old

The film in question is Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi’s What We Do in the Shadows, a genre-smart mockumentary about three vampire housemates just, well, pure vibing. It’s entirely in a league of its own, no doubt helped by a spin-off series, with the next entry, The Lonely Island’s Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping racking up an average of 17.7 rewatches per obsessive member.

These top two most obsessively rewatched titles make sense. When you’re feeling low, or when there’s some time to kill, what better place to turn than somewhere where the jokes never get old? As James writes on Letterboxd, Shadows “never fails to make me laugh”. Never fails. Taking a chance on a new comedy harbors its risks, so when you find the ones that work, you have to hold onto them like gold dust. It’s the sense of familiarity that comes from the same sharp, self-aware sketches, the endlessly quotable one-liners and screenshots that make memes feel like works of art.

(On that note, I asked the team: what were the highest-rated, obsessively rewatched comedy specials? No surprises: Bo Burnham’s masterful 2016 Netflix special Make Happy, and John Mulaney’s Kid Gorgeous at Radio City. Comedy is good when it catches you off guard—but in a pandemic, it’s even better when you can rely on it to deliver that same rush of endorphins, every time.)

Thank you for the music

Speaking of pick-me-ups, ever notice how much better you feel after karaoke? Or, when you know everyone else has gone out so you can let rip across every inch of the house with ultimate privacy? The cathartic thrill that comes from a sing-along is what keeps our obsessive members returning to musicals, increasingly. There’s comfort in memorized lyrics; the words we yell and hold dear.

You’ve got this in Popstar (‘Finest Girl’, anyone?) and, crucially, in a double-bill of jukebox musicals celebrating ABBA’s greatest hits: Mamma Mia! and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. With fifteen rewatches on average for the former, and almost seventeen for the latter, the sequel’s slight upper hand proves the film’s triumphant formula—there really is an endless supply of ABBA bangers—but also that the repurposing of the most pivotal tracks (‘Mamma Mia’ and ‘Waterloo’) will work even better the second time around, due to the familiarity, both of the songs and now their new-found purpose in this world.

The feeling of singing along with Lily James as Donna, as she dances around Paris with her young Harry, of latching onto Cher’s every breath as she reunites with the eponymous Fernando—these moments become part of our own memory, and the satisfaction that comes from performing them again and again never fades. It’s also why so many musicals are rewatchable staples. Singin’ in the Rain, Rocketman, Bohemian Rhapsody and Pitch Perfect all feature in the top 100.

Out of interest, I asked the team to lift the curtain on non-narrative music films to see which greats we return to. Again, zero surprise (to me, at least): Jonathan Demme’s transcendent Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense is, and has long been, the highest-rated, most obsessively rewatched concert documentary on Letterboxd. And it’s only been a few months, but the Disney+ filmed version of Hamilton is up there, along with Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé. #BEYHIVE, come in.

Maybe we should trust love

At the other end of the spectrum, two titles in the most obsessively rewatched top ten point to our tendencies to find catharsis in our most extreme, most vulnerable expressions of emotion. Our two revealing films here are Love, Simon and Interstellar—one a grounded and sensitive coming-of-age picture of a teenage boy’s coming out, the other an epic space-travel thriller. Still, both films understand that, ultimately, love transcends all.

These films make room for us to revisit these most searing feelings, of love hidden, lost, afraid or universal, they let us cry out what we relate to, and escape into whichever onscreen emotions we prefer to project ourselves into beyond our own lives, time and time again. Because however much changes, you know you’ll always crave and be rewarded by love. (And by the existential exploration that often accompanies these big feelings: Don Hertzfeldt's World of Tomorrow is the highest-rated, most obsessively rewatched short film with Letterboxd members.)

Ink spots and needle drops

The idea of projection—of escape beyond our own lives—comes back often when thinking of the rewatch. But certain titles reveal how we choose to find escape in a quite literal form; observe the love for Tangled, rewatched on average ten times per obsessive member.

And then there’s Shrek 2, revisited on average 7.9 times (more on this bizarre, outstanding oddity on its own soon). The leap of faith into an animated world is one that offers a blank canvas painted over with new colors: the pastel pinks and soft peach oranges of sunset skies in Tangled, the rich purples and blues of the twinkling lights of the afterlife in Coco, the playful blue waters of Moana, with the sun giving everything a new glow. Animation works as relaxation here, clearing the mind and coloring it calmly time and time again. Elsa said it first: you can, and should, let it all go.

It is entirely probable, of course, that no Letterboxd parent is logging the Frozens—or any other animated family film, for that matter—as often as their household is actually watching them, the truth of which would completely upend this data. We know the math underpinning this whole exercise is somewhat arbitrary, but it’s an interesting starting point from which to analyze why certain things just work, again and again.

Take the oddity that is Shrek 2, deserving of its own dissection purely because of how masterfully it combines so many of the previously established elements. This film and its predecessor create so many vivid images that fit into the category of animated escapism, but music plays a major part, also. ‘Accidentally In Love’ by Counting Crows as Shrek and Fiona blissfully enjoy their honeymoon period; ‘Funky Town’ by Lipps Inc. as Shrek, Fiona and Donkey roll into Far Far Away; Jennifer Saunders as Fairy Godmother, with her sublime cover of Bonnie Tyler’s ‘Holding Out For A Hero’. There are too many perfect needle-drop moments to count, and every time the rewatch comes around, they feel new.

Add to the comforting visuals and euphoric music the countless one-liners, perfectly performed by Eddie Murphy and Mike Myers, but really, here, Rupert Everett as Prince Charming—a squirm-inducing, note-perfect pantomimic performance. Shrek 2 might just be the defining example of what makes a good movie the best movie, and one that only grows greater with every rewatch. Lucky us.

Festive fever

The inclusion of A Christmas Story, the second-last in our most rewatched top ten, makes sense when considering the times in our lives when we turn to movies for comfort (and discomfort: note the Hallowe’en-related rewatchables in the top 100). A Christmas Story might not be your first festive choice, but you will have your own equivalent. The Muppet Christmas Carol also made the top 100, with Elf, Love, Actually and the Home Alone movies bubbling under. We recognize all the beats, and seeing as the holidays return each year, it’s natural that we return to the titles that make us feel most at home within them.

Like Carol. Darling Carol. The last of our top ten most most most rewatched. Flung out of space into our eyeballs by Todd Haynes as some sort of Christmas miracle, its rewatchability as much seasonal as it is about love, representation, vintage glamor and that final scene. Let’s see where Happiest Season sits this time next year, shall we?

And so, what can filmmakers and distributors learn from what we want to see, not just once, but again and again? In just four years the list of titles the Letterboxd community has chosen to revisit and protect has blossomed with an open heart and feverishly enthusiastic mind.

Looking over the top 100 highest-rated, obsessively rewatched films in 2020, we want more queer love: Portrait, Moonlight and Carol but also Booksmart, The Favourite, Call Me by Your Name. We definitely need more singing and dancing: Suspiria, La La Land, Singin’ in the Rain, Mamma Mia and beyond.

We want more adventure, more time travel, more mind-melters, more drinking, exploring, investigating, more talking animals, more drugs, more laughs, more tears, more goosebumps. We want more full-body feelings of falling in love with a movie you know you’ll hold onto with everything you’ve got.

In the end, numbers can only tell us so much, and these numbers are drawn from what we’ve already seen, which is what’s already managed to make it through the system. There’s as much to learn from how these films were made as there is from what they’re about. Because, no matter how many AI tools people dream up to help with the green-lighting process, moviemaking is fundamentally about magic. And when all the right ingredients make it into the cauldron, the spell can be so strong that a film will win our hearts forever.

Related content

The Highest-Rated Obsessively Rewatched Club for 2020

Follow Ella on Letterboxd

#letterboxd #movie rewatches #portrait of a lady on fire #portraitnation #cinephiles #movie obsessives #top 100 films #100 most rewatched films

[readbetweenthelineslove]

Thoughts While Watching SK Homecoming

I was literally smiling and laughing like an idiot while watching these wonderful amazing people and thinking of all of the memories from years of enjoying their musicals. I am so glad I bought the digital download because they deserve all of the love and support. Just a word of warning I will be spoiling what happens throughout the show so if you haven’t seen it yet and/or you don’t want to have anything spoiled for you, I would not proceed any further. You have been warned. Also, as the show is over two hours long, buckle in cause this is gonna be a doozy and I have a lot of feeling about this wonderful show.

Disclaimer: these are just my own personal thoughts and opinions as a long time fan of Starkid, please don’t come at me.

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1. Darren is so cute with how he encourages and interacts with the crowd, you can tell how much he loves Starkid and loves the fans

2. we stan a founding knucklehead of Starkid

3. I am so proud of the musical daddies as they conduct a literal orchestra!! how far they have come!!! also, hearing all of the songs with the orchestra is such a treat.

4. I am living for Jeff Blims outfit! the eyeliner, the necklace, the vest!! honestly, iconic.

5. It is so funny to me that they had to edit out fuck from their songs, i.e. “i mean what the what”; “tiger lover”; “he porked a tiger”.

6. Did they change the octave that they were singing, because Jeff seems to be struggling?

7. I love how Jon Matteson looks the same as he did TGWDLM, he is Paul.

8. I don’t know why but the TGWDLM medley is increasing my appreciation for Jeff, previously who wasn’t really on my radar in terms of my favorite starkids, but I love his little dance moves and funny things he does

9. Robert Manion fucking performs the hell out of show stopping number and I am here for it every single time. I feel like he can’t help it and you can tell he’s into it because he can’t help but make the Hidgins face and wiggle his hips. Also, THE BODY ROLLS I AM LIVING FOR THEM !!! (@9:10)

10. Both Mariah and Jon are confirmed working boys and I love them for it. I love that Corey brought Mariah in at the end to make sure she was included.

11. Okay but Lauren Lopez knows how to perform like she knows how to work and engage a live audience. I so enjoy watching performances like this where there isn’t a wall between performer and audience because I think that that’s when she shines. I also feel like the same applies to Rob, Joey, and Darren, they are just so fun to watch.

12. How are all of these people so attractive!! I especially love Lauren’s outfit, but that’s probably just cause I love her so much.

13. I don’t know why but Brian’s “I still don't know!!” at 12:08 gets me every time.

14. Joey’s look behind him for his shadow at 12:24 while he bops kills me.

15. The orchestral swell at 13:05 with “this is the dawn” is so beautiful.

16. Lauren's arms are unbelievable, but we already knew that

17. 14:43 where Joey and Lauren walk and then turn back is so funny to me.

18. The second naked in a lake kicked in at 17:05, I got so hype. also, love that Corey took off his jacket during the song.

19. All the different faces and actions during the “fasters” at 19:54 are so good.

20. I never realized how tall and gangly Clark was until the Ani section, the boy's limbs are too long for his own good and I love it. His voice is so beautiful though!!

21. Joe calling Twisted the first-ever live-action Disney remake is iconic and no one can tell me otherwise.

22. I was legitimately afraid for the buttons on Joe’s shirt at 27:43.

23. Britney Coleman and Carlos Valdez singing 1001 Nights was a wonderful surprise and literally so beautiful, also their exit as Dylan started singing was so cute.

24. I’m kind of sad that they didn’t actually sing Twisted in the medley cause that was one of my favorite songs, but I understand that they had time constraints.

25. After 32:38, I feel like I need to watch the Lego Batman movie to see how similar it is to HMB.

26. Semi-disappointed that they didn’t do the usual choreography for the “I want to be your friend forever” part, but I respect that the handheld mics restricted them.

27. The bass or guitar or whatever in the background at 36:30 was so groovy, I was a fan of that.

28. Tbh, I didn’t really get Denise’s whole bit about how Starship is a show only for dreamers, it just felt a little off to me.

29. I’m a little bummed that Joey didn’t sing Status Quo, but I like that they gave it to Mariah and Alex who both have lovely voices. I appreciate that they had a moment to shine when they might not have because they are newer members/ only had a small role.

30. Brian and Jaime’s eye contact with the camera at 40:48 is so powerful and I’m here for it.

31. Joey mouthing the lyrics at 41:21 is so funny and I love it.

32. AJ’s little jump in the background at 43:02 is so cute.

33. Their constant need to have to avoid saying dick throughout the whole MAMD section is so good and hilarious, with so many expertly timed entrances from AJ Holmes and Joe Walker.

34. Joey saying no to the different microphones at 44:00 is absolutely artistic and fucking hysterical. It gave me similar vibes to Bo Burnham’s bit about seeing the most beautiful penis at a urinal.

35. 45:40, AJ Holmes is a delight of a man, need I say more.

36. “Do I smell?” “Pretty bad.” 45:07

37. Seeing Meredith and Brian standing next to each other at 48:49 makes my heart so happy cause this is what brought them together and now they are married and it’s amazing.

38. “We’ve written on all of the Starkid shows” 50:46, what a powerful statement.

39. I had no clue that the Starkid movie (1997) was a thing and I love that Nick just straight-up roasted it.

40. The subtitles at 52:56, dramatical instrumental music. I am here for it, I love this revamped version

41. Darren is so extra singing Goin back to Hogwarts and I am here for it. Our boy has grown so much! 

42. Pulling out the glasses at 54:03 is a power move.

43. I’m not sure about how I feel about people singing along to the songs during this. I know it is supposed to be for the fans but don’t people want to just sit back and listen to how amazing these people are and just enjoy. Maybe that’s just cause I only am viewing it through a computer and if I had been there I might have felt different, but who knows.

44. 56:05, AAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!! It’s Bonnie!!! She looks amazing and I’m so happy that she’s here!!!

45. Joey trying to the clap in the ear with mic at 58:04.

46. 58:16, I love how Darren always hypes up the crowd for Lauren’s entrances as Draco, he’s done this a number of times and it makes my heart so happy how he supports his friends.

47. I love Lauren so much the way she moves across the stage at 58:57, the power stance at 59:05...absolutely incredible.

48. I love seeing Rob in the chorus cause he was a fan, he loves AVPM just as much as we do and now we get to see him up there performing one of the most iconic songs. It honestly just makes my heart so happy.

49. 1:00:12, Dylan emerging from the audience is honestly so funny to me and I love him for it. Also, I love the ongoing trope of the “welcome” getting progressively longer each time they perform the song. Bless Dylan’s lungs and abilities to sustain that note.

50. 1:03:45 Jim little butt taps are so good.

51. The saxophone at 1:04:19 is so enjoyable.

52. I like how the slowed things down for Home at 1:06:10 with Darren sitting on the stage just having a personal moment with the audience, it was really nice.

53. Darren’s hops at 1:08:45 are so adorable and I love them.

54. I know that AVPM songs are iconic and everyone loves them, but I would have liked to see them so some more songs from AVPS and AVPSY, especially since they had some time rehearse them and there would be no mic issues.

55. Yay for a Bonnie and Meredith duet, both women are wonderful and have done an amazing job as Hermione and I love them both.

56. “Art imitates life a little bit on that one”, it’s okay we love you Darren with your silly guitar.

57. I didn’t think watching this would be educational, but I now know what a litmus test is and what slant rhymes (aka really pushing it rhymes) are thanks to Darren and google, so there’s that.

58. This may be a bit controversial but I feel as though this was one of the weaker performances of Granger Danger, usually Joey and Lauren have fun with it and I love it when they do, but this time they seemed to be more going through the motions. There were good moments (i.e. Joey’s hips, Lauren sliding down the mic stand, the back and forth head turns) but overall it was just kind of eh.

59. Darren’s twirl at 1:28:36 is delightful.

60. I firmly believe that AJ has permanently memorized the fantasy monologue and I refuse to let anyone tell me otherwise, 1:31:10. Also, I’m curious if it was planned because someone in the audience calls out for it, but that might have been a plant so who knows.

61. I just realized at 1:32:20, where he’s talking about mouse wives and concubines that would be bestiality. He only shrunk his size down, he would still technically be a human...

62. Tyler Brunsman singing Guys like Potter is now kind of funny considering AVPSY and Cedric ending up with Lily in the afterlife.

63. Joe Moses face at 1:38:57 is classic Snape and I am here for it.

64. Another yay for Sidekick, this is one of my fav AVPSY songs and Joey kills it every time.

65. 1:43:19, goddamn that man can hit a high note.

66. I love the addition of Rob to Everything Ends, what a pretty song and Rob’s voice works wonderfully with it.

67. 1:44:58, Rob struggling with the mic is hilarious.

68. Classic Snape speech at 1:46:30, simply inspiring.

69. I love Jaime and we all know her voice is incredible, but something seemed off during Not Alone and at times it sounded like she was struggling.

70. 1:51:56, I don’t know if I just don’t know much about music but Joey’s make was a little off, but on another note, I think it would have been really sweet if they had let Lauren sing too so that Draco could finally add to that harmony.

71. That sick piano rift at 1:54:33, hell yeah!

72. Even though they always use Days of Summer as the closing song, I love it every time, it’s just so fun and gets me so emotional.

73. That key change at 1:56:50 tho.

74. Yay for enthusiastic but sometimes questionable fanart ;)

75. Brian and Joe recreating the ending scene of AVPM is absolutely beautiful and I am here for it.

76. The matching jackets at the end speaks to the fact that Starkid at its essence is just a bunch of friends who were theatre nerds and wanted to create something fun together and I think that's wonderful.

In conclusion: Props to whoever made it to the end of this ridiculously long post summarizing the different thoughts I had while watching Homecoming. I truly think it was something for the fans and I love them for it. I am so proud of Starkid and all they have accomplished since 2009.

I want to encourage others to continue to support Starkid in the future, maybe even by purchasing Homecoming for themselves, I would definitely recommend giving it a watch. Also, feel free to respond and let me know your own thoughts on Homecoming, I’m sure there’s lots I missed and I would love to hear what others thoughts. 

#sk homecoming #spoilers #darren criss #lauren lopez #joey richter #clark baxtresser #jamie lyn beatty #jeff blim #meredith stepien #joe walker #a j holmes #brian holden #tyler brunsman #starkid avpm #avpm10 #starkid #dikrats #brian rosenthal #dylan saunders #jon matteson #robert manion #tgwdlm #opinion #sk 10niversary #mariah rose faith #corey dorris #nick lang #bonnie gruesen #jim povolo #joe moses

[a-random-french-girl]

Some people asked me what was my favorite version of Frozen, if I preferred the French version because I’m French or the English version because it’s the original version

I always answer: well, it’s not really the same movie

And they’re like ???

Let me explain!

The two versions are really different from one another due to the fact that we have to translate what is said and then try to sync it with the characters’ lips

And in France we loooove butchering movies and their plots

The thing is, you have two types of translation: translating the movie perfectly but losing the musicality of it (that would be for example the French Canadian version) and “translating” the movie and have something that sounds great

They didn’t do it for Frozen though, I’m actually sad for the québécois because Elsa’s singer is the French voice actress, which doesn’t make any sense, when Anna and Elsa sing together, they don’t even have the same “accent”! (We can’t really talk about an accent here, it’s just that they prononce the same word differently, we tend to merge certain syllables in French like instead of saying “je te l’ai dit” we say instead “j’te l’ai dit”, French Canadians don’t really do that) so it’s sooo weird!

But back to the main point, I will admit it guys, at first, I didn’t like Frozen *gaps* WAIT COME BACK, LET ME EXPLAIN

Okay, I didn’t like Frozen because the plot didn’t make any sense! And then 6 years later, Frozen 2 came out and I was like “hey, let’s watch the first movie again but in English this time” and gooood, it was better (plus, I didn’t speak English back in 2013! So that’s why I watched it in French back then!)

Most characters in the French version are so angry and bitter that I’m like “guys, just chill” and they’re so paradoxical at the same time!

I wanna share with you an extract of my favorite song, for the first time in forever reprise

Look at this:

I’m such a fool I can’t be free —> ni libérée, ni délivrée (neither free nor...free, French is so stupid, I love it. It’s a reference to let it go which is translated in French by “libérée, délivrée” just imagine the English translation, freeee, freeeee I’ll never lie again! (Yes Elsa said that in French...))

No escape from the storm inside of me —> dites moi comment ne pas désespérer (tell me how to not lose hope, okay, that’s not what she said but hey, at least it’s the right emotion)

I can’t control the curse —> Ce don est si intense (this gift is so intense (big mistake here, come on people, have you seen the movie? Gift??? ELSA HATES IT)

Anna please you’ll only make it worse —> toutes ces belles promesses n’ont pas de sens (all these fine promises make no sense, sounds a bit accusatory. Like “Anna you say these things but I call bullshit”)

There’s so much fear —> ce sera pire (it will be worse, okay, you missed a crucial feeling there. She is scared. She is panicking)

You’re not safe here —> tu vas souffrir (you’re going to suffer, okay, you missed something there too. They actually already failed it a bit earlier in the song too, in English, she clearly says “I’m the danger here, you should stay away” I’m French she is like “you’re in danger! For some reason! Don’t mind me I’m here! OH LOOK! ICE! TOLD YOU YOU WERE IN DANGER” ah and also, you’re going to suffer? It’s a weird thing to say, it sounds like a threat, or even worse, like a promise. Dark Elsa is the main character in French)

But that’s not only it! Now I’m going to talk about let it go, oh wait my bad, free free

Some lyrics are...uh, wrong. Or even worse, I don’t even know what they mean

“The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside” Le vent qui hurle en moi ne pense plus à demain (the wind howling inside me doesn’t think about tomorrow anymore...err, really poetic, but...what? Indeed Elsa, I’m sure it doesn’t...)

“Don’t let them in, don’t let them see, be the good girl you always have to be” cache tes pouvoirs, n’en parle pas, fais attention, le secret survivra (hide your powers, don’t talk about them, be careful, the secret will survive. Okay nice but in the English version, she is sarcastic, she is angry, she is slightly blaming her parents. Where is it in French?)

“Conceal don’t feel, don’t let them know, well now they know” Pas d’états d’âme, pas de tourments, de sentiments (no qualms, no torment, no feelings. Okay, YOU FAILED THIS TIME, there’s no evolution in Elsa’s behavior! After that, she says she is free, sounds a bit random! And when she removes her gloves, in the French version you’re like “ah? She changed her mind? Err cool I guess. I was so confused back then. Elsa pretty much says “I’m sad, I have to stop feeling, I’M FREEEEE”)

But even worse, they changed the characters: for example, Anna

Not sweet Anna T_T I mean, in the English version, she is sooo forgiving (a bit too much some might say)

But I don’t know guys, in French she sounds a bit selfish and accusatory, it’s gonna be hard to explain but bear with me

In for the first time in forever reprise, or le renouveau in French (the resurgence, but it also means the return of Spring , French can be really poetic sometimes)

She says things like “you have no right to run away from me like this” instead of “you don’t have to keep your distance anymore”, a weird thing to say with a gentle voice. But also, that’s not what she said??? Then Anna says “ because for the first time in forever, I finally understand”, it wouldn’t have worked in French after this sentence, so instead she says “because I want to celebrate this resurgence, that will change your fate” err okay, whatever you want Anna. And fate? Well technically the translation is destiny. It gives the impression that Elsa was doomed like a main character in a Shakespearean tragedy. You’re so a drama queen Anna. Didn’t you hear her sing at the top of her lungs at the top of that mountain? She is free, she is happy, well, temporarily but she is! ...It’s a miracle it didn’t set off an avalanche. It’s your fate that wouldn’t have been good.

And like, for some reason, she loves saying what she wants “I want to celebrate this resurgence” “I’d like a snowman”, what about your sister?

“We will free ourselves from this burden” instead of “we will head down this mountain together” wtf does it mean Anna? Is this burden Elsa’s powers? Or the secret? You’re confusing girl

“You plunged the entire country into an eternal winter” instead of “You kind of set off an eternal winter everywhere” she is sooo awkward about it in English because she doesn’t want to scare her off or hurt her feelings. In French? Pffft, subtlety? That’s for the weak. You did this Elsa, congratulations. No beating about the bush.

I’m not saying the translators did a bad job, their job is super hard and they actually nailed it on lots of things but yeah, when I talk about French Elsa, I feel like I’m talking about someone else. It gets even worse when you read French fanfictions. So which version is the best? None! (English, definitively English), that’s why I was able to watch this movie 6 times (yes, now it’s 6) in so many languages, it’s really fun to see how translators decided to translate certain things, and decided what was important for the plot, or not

Anyway, I felt like sharing this piece of information with you guys! Btw, my post is partly based on a French video made by LinksTheSun, about Disney songs. It has English subtitles so you should check it out, it’s actually really fun

https://youtu.be/2jo5u0TBpJM

Oh and of course, I have to share with you the French version of For The First Time In Forever Reprise, which is too great to miss out: https://youtu.be/z7mEF7gRGik

Wow you made it till the end! Thank you!

Here’s a stupid meme for your trouble:

#Frozen #French version #Me rambling at 2am #Go to bed Lara #The passion howling inside me doesn’t think about tomorrow

[oneweekoneband]

Maldición is the bride’s resistance. To follow from the earlier grief ridden analysis, Maldición feels somewhere close to acceptance. And indeed the chapter subtitle is sanity, The whole of El Mal Querer is dedicated to the double edged sword of love, the dark flipside of passion. 

I like the acoustic version of this song more than I like the album one, because Rosalía’s voice carries the wistful reality of the lyrics best without distraction, and because I love Rosalía’s look of complete admiration and awe at the guitarist, Joselito Acedo (who is doing whatever the flamenco equivalent of shredding is here, totally crushing it), although the album version has some beautiful production details worth lingering on just for a moment. 

The first, and most obvious place to start, is that hypnotic scale that loops throughout the song, always changing a little bit, which embarrassingly first reminded me of Zelda before it reminded me of anything else. There is something dark, and almost video gamey about it’s relentlessness, so that we’re launched into the urgency of the bride’s escape, and of course she tells us there’s no way out, me han dicho que no hay salía. The video gamey side of the song is only elevated with the almost kung fu noises that interrupt the song, the sounds of the bride killing her captor. (And we hear him die, too, that metallic, vocoder altered voice which appears after the first set of knife sounds, begging, mi niña no, mi niña, and disappears after she drives the knife again.)

He deja'o un reguero De sangre por el suelo He deja'o un reguero Que me lleva al primer día Que te dije que te quiero Pa' saber lo que decía

The bride gazes down, here, at the pool of blood she’s left on the floor. And she remembers the first day she told him she loved him. Remember when I told you we were mourning something that was never alive? 

#rosalia

[realsantana-blog]

Confessional #1(3/16/2019): A Complete and Total Lack of Substance

Word Count: 1665(You been warned)

Also Starring: Paul, the poor crew member who drew the short straw of babysitting Santana

Notes: This shit 100% got away from me, guys. I’m sorry.

Short Description: Santana acts stupid in front of a camera for far too long and for very little reason.

Long Description: It was after 5 in the morning and Santana had spent the majority of the night drinking and entertaining the cameras that followed her as she roamed aimlessly around the hotel in San Francisco. Suddenly, she complained loudly that the cameramen were “bugging the sh-t out of her to do a confessional.”

They were not.

Nevertheless, the crew followed her to the vacant tour bus #2 and allowed her entry into the confessional room so she could get mic’d up. One hour and forty-eight minutes later, she passes out on the bus’s floor. The following series of clips showcase some of the things that were said during her first confessional of the tour.

A door is heard opening, followed quickly by a thunk of something falling on the floor. Santana’s voice, possessing a much stronger slur than normal, is the next recognizable sound, “Aw, f-ck. Hey Paul, I mighta broke something. You’re taking the fall for this one, right?”

A few moments later, Santana flops unceremoniously in the seat in front of the camera, cradling a bottle of clear liquid, the label having been blurred out. Almost immediately, she holds up a finger in a “wait” gesture, as if the camera was fixing to up and walk away at any moment. A second later, she belches and drops her hand down to her lap, wearing a look of simultaneous relief and annoyance, “That was sexy.”

The scene cuts to Santana pouring her “nondescript,” clear liquid out into a metal, isolated water bottle. Subtitles at the bottom of the screen as someone off-screen mumbles quietly, “What are you doing?”

“I’m making you’re jobs easier. If I drink outta this thing, ya don’t gotta blur the bottle out, in post,” Santana snarks, as if it was the most obvious thing. Her arms keep increasing the distance the bottles were from another, until she’s pouring the alcohol from a foot and a half above it’s destination.

“Okay,” the subtitles quip back, “But what if they use this clip for the episode?”

Santana pauses for several seconds, staring at the source of the voice, as if she had yet to consider this as a possibility, before settling herself with an irritated look, “Why would they use this? I’m not doing anything.” She follows this by going right back to pouring, then tossing the original bottle her over her shoulder as soon as she’s finished.

Another cut, and Santana, looking like she is finally “ready,” begins speaking to the camera, “I’d say the tour so far is going just f-cking swimmingly.” It’s not incredibly clear whether she says this with sarcasm. “Our new single Stay is rocketing up the charts, I gave birth to a cheesy boy band who’s lead singer appears to have been sneaking the other two members’ supply of hair gel, and I have at least a basic tolerance for pretty much everyone I was put on a bus with.”

She seems satisfied with this answer, until she scrunches her eyebrows, as if trying to remember something, before a sudden clarity washes over her, “Oh yeah, and I reunited with my sister. That’s fun!”

This time, her sarcasm is very apparent.

After a cut, Santana appears slightly more disheveled and finishes taking a drink from her “canteen.” She’s mumbling to herself, “work work work work work, yuh see me do me dur dur dur,” when she aggressively turns her attention to the camera. “That song has lyrics, by the way, IN-TER-NET,” she blurts in an offended tone, sounding out each syllable for emphasis. “I know that may be surprising to you well-cultured wastes of space, out there, that I am NOT just speaking gibberish in that song, but in fact am speaking in a Caribbean dialect. Ya know like Bob Marley do an’ sh-t.”

Having said her piece, she sits back in her seat with an eye-roll, looking casual once more.

“Whoever did the interior design for this room screwed your asses, by the way.”

“I feel like me and Emelia just have a very unique dynamic, as far as sisters go. It’s like... We’re two very different people, but like... Deep down. Like, very, very, deep down, we love each other.” Santana looks confident in her words, but has her business face on, as opposed to her standard states of amusement and/or annoyance.

“Very deep down,” she reiterates, with an assured nod.

About to take another drink, Santana grimaces and turns her opened bottle upside down, obviously expecting it to be empty, and lets a shot of clear liquid spill out to the floor. She stares blankly at the disposed contents for several moments, blinking as if in disbelief, “...Whoops.”

The Latina wears a bored expression, looking for something to say, when she once more pipes up, “Hey, you guys want the real scoop, though?” Her usual cat-like grin is in place as she speaks, “Max and Alex are totally f-ckin. Mhm. Watch ‘em closely. I assume Lia’s cool with it because if he hurts her I will ends him.” The last part is stilted, as if she realized what she was saying as she spoke.

“Paul, can you get me a drink? I’m dry as f-ck over here.” Santana is looking off-screen, wearing too sweet a smile for her face, until she snickers and aims a proud look at the camera, “Ha! In more ways than one, amirite?”

Her laughter dies down quickly, with her casting her gaze at the ground and sighing, “Ahh... That’s really depressing.”

“Really don’t get what’s going on with my sister. Like... I try getting her to have fun and I’m a bully. I leave her alone and I don’t care. I’m starting to think that it’s not anything I can do. It’s just me.” Since last bringing up her sister, her demeanor has changed. She’s swinging her arms around, as if trying to make sense of it all. As she continues venting, her voice steadily raises in volume. “Yeah... That’s it. Like, my very existence offends her! Like, the f-ck is up with dat sh-t?” She stops, as if she thinks she’s gonna get an answer of from the camera.

“Paul, go get me a drink!” Divine Destiny’s lead is now far more demanding as she makes her “request” to the man off to the side, out of range of the camera. “Paul! Paul, I know you hear me, you’re headphone lights are off. Get off your damn phone. Losing my buzz over here.” When she still gets no response, she leans back and crosses her arms, “You can’t have that many bitches texting you. You look like your forehead ate most of your hair. Do you WANT me to have to smoke weed on camera in order to continue this damn confessional you’re making me do.”

The subtitles make a triumphant return when Paul breaks his silence(again, off-screen), “I’m not getting you a drink.”

Santana slumps and groans.

“I mean, if either of us is being a bitch here, it’s CLEARLY Emelia, right? Like, I don’t wanna date her boyfriend. He’s too tall. Like, 6′8″ when you factor in the hair.” The air in the room now has a distinct thickness surrounding Santana, and her voice is the slightest bit huskier. “And I wasn’t ‘tainting’ her precious song. The song is about sex, so I was being sexy. I really don’t see how keeping in the spirit of the song’s theme is at all tainting it. It’s totally fine for her and Max to sing ‘Work’ without even having the foggiest idea what the words are, because I understand how to have fun and I had assumed that they meant it to be funny. But nope. If you ask my sister, they were ‘challenging’ me and by answering back, I was ‘challenging’ them harder.” Becoming increasingly incoherent and resorting to air quotes more and more as she speaks, Santana suddenly stops when she appears to lose her train of thought. “Whatever.”

Cutting to another clip, the seat that was once occupied is no longer, but it’s quickly filled again when Santana flings herself into it, carrying another glass bottle of some kind, raising it in victory, “Aha! You proud of me, Paul?” She cuts herself off to take a drink, her metal container apparently forgotten, “I got it myself because you’re too lazy to be useful.”

Her attention is diverted quickly, and she leans over in Paul’s direction, “Are those your chips, Paul? Paul, are those your chips? Paul. Paul. Paul. PAUL! I know you hear me, Fivehead! Paul! Feed me!” She slumps over the arm of the chair, groaning loudly, as if in physical pain, “PAUUULLLLL! I’m DYING!”

Clutching her now empty second bottle, Santana sobs violently, her make-up utterly ruined, “I just don’t understand why she hates me so much! I get that used to be a real bitch and I get that I made her feel like I didn’t care about her, but she just doesn’t get it! I know I made her think that she wasn’t good enough or that she was in my shadow, but when I normally do that with people, it’s because they really suck, and when I did that with Emmy, it was because I wanted her to be better! I just wanted her to grow a backbone and not let people like me walk all over her, anymore. Why can’t she see that I was a bitch to her because I love her! I made her feel horrible so that she would never wanna feel that way again!” With her rant over, she drops the offending bottle and covers her face, her voice softer but still muffled by tears, “And I really regret it. I’m so sorry, Emmy...”

Santana stands abruptly and storms toward the door as the camera fades out.

When the camera fades back in, Santana, once again in the hot seat, chewing loudly on something crunchy and staring intently at the camera. She lifts the yellow plastic bag in her hand and turns her head to peer inside. Even though the label has been blurred out, when she takes a potato chip from it and eats it, it becomes fairly easy to discern their brand, even with the packaging obscured.

Going back to glaring at the camera with an incredibly intense look, and a touch of dried mascara staining her cheeks, Santana swallows and asks very seriously, “You enjoying this, ‘Merica? Dis what you want?” She punctuates her interrogation with another bite of her snack.

“Y’all some sick f-ckers, ya know that,” she snarls. And with that, she leans back until the chair she’s sitting in tips over completely.

#cordellaconfessional #selfpara #para #//extra as all hell i know

[mestizo-efp]

When high school started I’ve never thought that being so bad in English would be a big deal. I mean, everyone has their flaws, right? Mine was English...and math. But who cares right?

At that time I could barely talk in English, let alone write or speak English!

But, unfortunately, as many of you might already know, how can you work in a hotel or in a restaurant, filled with tourist from all over the world, without knowing English?

I did choose a cooking school after all.

Anyway, school started, and after a month or so my lack in English was pretty clear to my new teacher. One day, she called me to talk.

At that point I just thought that things were just going to repeat as in middle school, so I wasn't expecting much. But, my teacher showed my test, and she told me.

“This is a serious lack of basics, what happened to you?”

My mind went blank for a second.

“Wow” I though “She's not giving for granted that it's my fault?”

My first instinct was to tell her that I just didn't care, then again, in a corner of my mind I had this little thought that said, whispering “This is not the same person”.

And so...I tried, I told her my story, from the beginning, telling her the truth.

She listened to me real closely, and then, she sighed, shaking her head.

“Alright” she said “Just tell me one thing, do you really want to learn English? Cause you don't realize it now, but it would just make your life so different”

My mind went blank, again.

“Uhh...sure” I said without realizing it.

She smiled.

“Alright, here's what you're going to do. Start with movies, watch movie in English, with English subtitles. Read books in English, even comics whatever you like. When you listen to music I want you to search for the lyrics and to look at them while listening. Can you do that?”

“I think so”

“Very well, of course you’ll need to improve your grammar, that's my work. You’ll see, we are going to make this”.

I was confused, to say the least. But...ahaha, you know it actually worked. Moreover, it was the same period of when I started reading manga and watching anime. So I just started watching movies in their original language, to read manga in English. Everything that I watched had English subtitles, and somehow, I just...I don't know how it worked but my English started to improve little by little.

My teacher helped me with grammar, (and every time we met she would always talk to me using only English which was, pretty cool) that is still a bit difficult to me, but somehow I was actually able to learn English for the first time, and the world look a lot more wider.

English became my favorite subject, and it sounded so freaking strange to myself!

And then...

One day, during a PTA meeting, my English teacher met my mum, and she told to her

“Your son should teach English at University”

I know that she was clearly exaggerating, like hell I could! But...I felt so, so happy. I was so thankful. It took me three years, and unfortunately on the fourth year of high school I changed my English teacher, but it was ok, because thanks to her I was finally confident that my English was on a pretty good level, it depended on my skills. Without her help I probably wouldn't be here, on Tumblr. Maybe I wouldn't be able to approach more deeply the world of manga or 19 Days! So yeah, my life changed a lot.

There's only one, little, thing that I’d like to say to my middle school teacher, who thought I’d never be good at English and who never believed in me:

🖕

How's that?  

#done #thanks everyone for reading this #txt #txt post #school days #school

[e-dash-lace]

My Fave Japanese YouTubers + some YouTube Vocab

I was introduced to Japanese YouTube and J-Vloggers through a friend and I watched a lot of videos when I was first learning Japanese. I do admit that I couldn’t understand EVERYTHING but YouTubers tend to repeat themselves often and you can see what they’re doing so you pick up a lot.

It’s important to distinguish J-Vloggers from Japanese Youtubers.  

J-Vlogger is a term that usually refers to foreigners living in Japan who vlog regularly.  Simon and Martina, Taylor R, Sharla, Micaela, Rachel & Jun, VenusAngelic, and Mimei are all J-vloggers.  Their channels are mostly in English and they speak very little Japanese in their videos.  Mimei actually does a lot of her videos in Japanese now but I wouldn’t recommend learning Japanese from her because she isn’t a native speaker.  Her content is still really cute though. 

Japanese Youtubers are usually native Japanese content creators.  Their videos are all in Japanese usually with subtitles created by the community.  They usually belong to the big partner group UUM but there are a few independents like PDR.  

PDRさん

This is a great channel for beginners.  @uni-venture​ mentioned him in her own post about this as Just Duncan.  He’s a British-Japanese ハフwho spent much of his childhood in England but now currently lives in Japan with his wife and their cats.  He speaks in Japanese in most of his videos with an even pace and simple videos.  All of his videos are subtitled in English.  He’s pretty unusual for a Japanese Youtuber because he isn’t attached to a major partner company and he mostly makes sarcastic joke videos and vlogs.  He often talks about Convenience store customers and things that annoy him.

PDSKabushikiGaisha PDS is PDR’s younger brother Dante.  Dante was much younger when the family moved back to Japan so he speaks no English and all of his videos are completely in Japanese.  Only a few of them are subtitled in English (mostly older videos that Duncan subbed for him when they both still lived at home) and he speaks a lot faster.  Despite his speed, Dante tends to repeat himself more often or use captions to emphasize words he’s using.  For example I learned the word 交ぜる from one of his videos.  Mostly he sits in his house and screams while doing something unnecessary like turning himself into a water balloon or fucking up one of his coffee tables.   Occasionally he also make 20 minute long videos of himself trying to win something from a UFO catcher (claw machine) and throwing away like $35 in change.  He is also a bodybuilder? So he occasionally makes videos about his fitness, but most of the time you would never know that because he does things like eat 100 Umaibo or deep fry an entire watermelon.

If you want to know how to use the particle ね you should really watch his videos.

はじめしゃちょ Hajime Syacho (President Hajime)

Hajime is probably the most difficult of these YouTubers. He talks FAST and his words often are kind of slurrred to together. But I think his videos are often translated by the community and he repeats himself a lot so you can learn lots of stuff from him.  He does a lot of dumb stuff like Dante. His videos include drinking too much of a drink that is meant to inflate your stomach to curb your appetite, making slime alone and nearly spilling it on the floor, and covering an entire room in those heat pads that you can stick to your skin.  He also does some science-y videos sometimes.  He’s a pretty big YouTube celebrity in Japan so his videos are usually a lot of fun.

If you want to learn how to use the phrase やばい！his videos are the best.  

Kinoshita Yuka: Oogui Eater

Yuka is kind of a legend. She’s a little Japanese woman who eats a LOT of food. The nice thing about her is that she eats pretty normally and unlike YouTubers who do this for the weird factor, she like legitimately enjoys everything she eats. She will like eat the entire Mister Donuts holiday menu and take time between don’t to discuss how fluffy the dough is and how refreshingly light the glaze is and so on. All of her videos are translated by the community. The translations are pretty good except the regular translator always translates 美味しい to Oishii which is not helpful and is really kind of annoying.  In all honesty, Yuka is my life goals.  Like she is my fave of all time.  If my job could be to just eat like this girl, I would be living a dream. 

If you want to learn how to talk about how you can’t handle spicy food, Yuka’s your girl.

HikakinTV

I used to watch him all the time but now I really don’t?  He is one of the biggest Japanese Youtubers who got famous for beatboxing.  He often beatboxes in his videos and even has a video where he beatboxed for Ariana Grande when she was on tour in Japan.  He mostly does like food and snack reviews where he gives a review at the end.  Most of his videos have been subtitled in Japanese so that you can read while you watch if you want. I don’t know he’s really not my favorite tbh…

モーニング娘 Morning Musume

So this isn’t really a Youtuber.  This is an idol group with an audience of middle aged men and young girls.  However, Morning Musume is one of few Japanese music groups that has its music videos available to view in the United States and all of their music videos have English  and Japanese subtitles which is very rare.  If yo ucan get past the cheesy costumes and the general idolness of their videos, you can learn A LOT from them.  Remember to keep in mind that the Japanese you’ll learn will be a little bit more awkward than vlog-style Japanese because it will come from song lyrics.  To be completely honest though, I love muting their videos and playing like hip-hop and rap underneath of them because they match up shockingly well.  

Texan In Tokyo

So this is technically more of a J-vlog channel but whatever.  So this channel has actually ended but it’s the channel of Grace and Ryosuke, an international couple.  Most of their videos are travel videos in English but some of them are cooking videos done entirely in Japanese with subtitles.  Ryosuke is really good and speaks slowly in simple sentences so you can see what he’s making and hear him talk about it.  He tries to do the videos with time constraints but doesn’t always do that.  Their other videos are good too for culture lessons and general information about living in Japan.  

Kirizaki Eiji　桐崎栄二

So in all honesty, you probably won’t learn anything from him at all but I put him on here because I love his stuff.  He, like many male Japanese Youtubers, is just like the master of pure idiocy.  His channel is mostly him messing with his sister and making videos with quick, sudden jump cuts and loud slapping noises.  He talks way too fast but he uses a lot of subtitles so you’ll get something. Eiji lives in the suburbs somewhere with his sister, grandparents, and parents and frequently just messes with all of them.  Occasionally he purchases expensive cuts of beef, pours himself a couple of glasses of Mugicha (barley tea, god’s gift to mankind) and feasts alone in his kitchen.  I just find him really entertaining I don’t know. 

I think the lesson with him is to find things that make you want to learn Japanese.  I don’t quite completely understand all of the humor in his videos but I really want to so I study Japanese. 

Other Reccs: 

AskJapanese – Interviews by Cathy Cat

Mahoto – He eats giant cicadas once a year

JPCMHD – Commercials usually in one to two week intervals

#japanese langblr #langblr #japanese #language #youtube #i don't know what this is #studyblr #language learning #japanese language #japanese youtube #i was so lazy when i made this #i need to make banners #i just #hmm #jpnstudynet #mine

[if-i-want-to-dance]

So... I listened to the dub of the Dance with Devil’s songs

I’ll just go one by one here. I need to spell everything out to explain my feelings.

Now, as I have said, I am not any great music critic. I have a little bit of vocal training as a choir girl (five years) and I would have done a better job describing what I’m trying to say then than I would now. I don’t have the right terminology in my head to say what I’m trying to say, so if I sound vague, I apologize. I’m trying my best.

Anyway, I am just sharing opinions. Disagree if you like. Agree if you like. Just don’t feel the need to spam me with nasty messages or I’ll use them as a source of entertainment for my real life friends to laugh at. Or... I don’t know. I’ll figure something out.

Premonition of Wind

Okay. Ritsuka’s not terrible. She’s not perfect, she’s doesn’t sound like she’s going to win any awards. But her voice doesn’t get on my nerves and she’s not half bad. I mean, it might be just because I’ve already heard the guys and they’re just all worse than her. But she’s not too bad.

Shiko Academy’s Student Council

That disappointment we all knew was coming. I’m not actually going to say much because I’ll discuss the individual voices in their individual songs.

But they don’t harmonize too well, I don’t find, not all together. I was a choir girl for five years, and they told us “blend your voices”  all the time. We shouldn’t be able to hear the separate voices. They apparently didn’t mention that detail to these guys.

Though Urie and Rem’s voices sound kind of nice together. And, in fairness, their harmonies sound better than their singing separate most of the time.

My Name is Rem Arlond

Yeah, you’ve probably all heard this one by now. He’s just not that good. 

Though, to be fair, some of what I find to be more awkward lyrics don’t really help that much. I feel like this guy doesn’t have a ton of singing experience, judging by his performance. He’s obviously untrained. There are moments where he doesn’t sound too bad, then moments where he just sounds bad.

Temptation Amor

Urie, darling. Shut up and don’t sing another note, I beg of you.

He’s worse than Rem.

Urie. Shut up.

I don’t mind Urie’s dubbed voice that much. The speaking voice, anyway. His dubbed singing voice is also untrained, and a little painful to listen to. Awkward lyrics don’t help, but a good voice might have saved this song from not sounding terrible.

And then he starts going up higher in his range. He’s just plain BAD. I can’t think of a single complimentary word. I’m so sorry, Urie. But let Kondou Takashi take over this one. I have to go listen to his in order to get this out of my ears.

“With drama is how I’ll kiss you!”

Um... what happened to your voice on that last note?

Your Only Guardian Knight

Finally, someone who, when handed a bucket, can actually carry a tune.

I mean, no one in this dub is great. But Lindo’s actually not bad. He sounds half decent, and while the lyrics aren’t great, they’re a bit better than in the other songs.

Do good voices run in the Tachibana family?

Vanquish

So I’m probably going to make a few people upset with this.

I actually sort of like this song.

Now, please do not get me wrong. It’s still not great. And he’s not a great singer. I don’t know anything but rap. I’m not going to pretend I do. I don’t really care for that kind of music.

But I feel like his voice kind of works with this song? Like it just kind of works and I’m not sure why? It’s not good, like it’s more of a character voice than great music or anything, but it just kind of works and I don’t know why.

Still not the greatest lyrics or anything. It’s not going down in the history of anime music or anything. But thinking of it as a character voice song makes it a lot better. This song does suit his voice better than the other ones did. I’m not planning to listen to it on repeat or anything. But it’s actually one of the better ones in this dub. I’m just saying.

Pitifful Lullaby

Shiki...

Um...

Well, he’s better than Urie.

Some moments he’s actually not too bad and he’ll get something okay. And then I hear another moment and I want to take back what I said because what did I just hear?

Still. He’s not that good. And I feel like the voice doesn’t quite fit, though I can’t put my finger on why. It sort of does, sort of doesn’t, and I can’t quite explain why.

And this song is still creepy and kind of rapey.

Hirakawa Daisuke, please take over.

I am a Faithful Dog

... Who let the dog sing?

No, I mean, who gave this guy a microphone and said,”Hey, this sounds good. Let’s give him a role singing something.”

No.

No.

No.

He’s not good. He doesn’t sound good. He’s the worst singer in the dub. That kind of song needs a certain voice. Namely, a good voice. A trained voice.

And this guy doesn’t have it.

If you’re the guy who voices Roen and you read this, I am sorry, this is not going to sound nice. You, Sir, need to take some vocal lessons before you ever sing another note. You desperately need them. You cannot just sit down and think good music will come if you open your mouth and sing the words. You don’t have the right type of voice in this, and you also don’t have the training to pull this off. This does not sound good, and it’s almost an affront to an original that was good. I am sorry, I have tried to be fair thus far, but I don’t understand how a song that I loved this much can sound this bad. I didn’t even know how much I loved it until I heard it like this. So I suppose I can thank you, on one hand, but for all the wrong reasons.

To a Place I’ve Seen in My Dreams

Rem doesn’t sound good. Like, slightly worse than in the others. He has a moment or two of not-awfulness, but he hasn’t gotten any better.

Ritsuka doesn’t sound as good either. Can’t put my finger on why.

Non-negotiable

Lindo doesn’t sound as good in this one. Possibly his actor heard the rest of the cast after recording and got depressed and decided to put less effort in so he’d blend better.

To be fair, I feel like Rem doesn’t sound too bad in this one. Not sure why.

And the harmony part isn’t too bad.

Emo Liar

Urie hasn’t gotten any better.

Mage isn’t either.

Shiki’s actually sounds a bit better.

I think that’s all we really need to explain this one.

Lyrics are still about as awkward as they ever were, maybe a bit less as it’s gone on.

I kind of feel like a lot of the lyrics - particularly in the first song - were kind of ripped from the subtitles and barely changed. Maybe it’s just me?

Crazy About You

Yay. We’re almost through this madness.

Rem starts us off with more mediocrity.

Urie actually sounds decent in a couple spots.

Roen’s still bad.

The nicknames they have for her that they added were a bit different. I feel like calling Ritsuka “My Rose” is more of a Urie than a Shiki thing, but whatever, I do get where they’re coming from.

Lindo? “My True Love”? Lindo, this girl is your cousin, who just found that out like twenty four hours ago. Sentiment appreciated, but maybe don’t verbalize that one just yet.

Dance with Destinies

Finally. Almost done.

The opening harmony is actually not bad at all. This is one of the better songs from the show.

Lindo’s back to where he was in the opening of the show, mostly. Yay!

Ritsuka and Rem’s duet... could use some work. Ritsuka’s trying. Rem doesn’t necessarily have the vocal chops for it.

Lyrics are awkward still.

Ritsuka’s little solo isn’t half bad. And honestly, she gives the last song an ending worthy of it. Like I said before, she’s far from perfect. But, in the last lines of the song, she really delivers what it needs. It’s an ending better than the dub deserves, to be honest. It’s not perfect, but it’s a cut about the rest of the songs.

Closing remarks:

Well, that was a thing.

I could go on for ages about casting actors/dubbing/casting actors who can sing. I could type until I’m exhausted and my fingers fall off, and I would still have more to say.

But I’m not going to. I’ve said enough on the subject already on this Tumblr.

I just want to leave with you a bit more.

I’m sure everyone tried their best. Or, at least, some people tried their best.

Dubbing the songs could have made it so much better.

But, instead, they made it so much worse.

But you know what?

No one is making you listen to them. You can love this show and this fandom just as much without involving yourself in the dub.

And you know what else?

Maybe, just maybe, having this DVD release will open this fandom up to more people. My best friend doesn’t like subs, but she’ll watch dubbed stuff.

What do you think she’d enjoy more - plot relevant songs in Japanese or English?

This dub makes our fandom open to more people. More people means more money in Rejet’s pockets. More money in Rejet’s pockets means that they’ll put more effort and more love into this franchise. That means more merch. That means more drama CDs. That means more stage musicals. That means more movies. That means more seasons. I want all of those things. Don’t you?

You don’t have to love this dub. I sure don’t. I’m complaining about its quality like everyone else.But just remember that just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean that we’re not going to benefit from it.

So you don’t have to like it. But maybe, you could appreciate that it exists because of what it means.

#mage nanshiro #rem arlond #lindo tachibana #dance with devils #dance with devils song #dance with devils dub #ritsuka tachibana #roen #roen lilyknight #anime musical #urie sogami #shiki natsumezaka #musical dub #song dubbing #anime dub

[taysibaby]

sad! -xxxtentacion

Conspiracy of the music video SAD by XXXTENTACION? LOL I think yes. How strange is it that right after he was fatally shot, this music video was released. Yeah yeah, we get it. Of course it could possibly be a coincidence, but do you really think to believe that? Hell no. Anyways regarding the video itself, not only were the lyrics sort of powerful, the video itself was spooky and creepy vibes every where. 

Speaking upon the atypical music video of the well known artist XXXTENTACION, oddly enough this music video was released nearly days after his death. The video its self features XXX attending his own funeral and basically speaking to his “demon” as well as battling against the person who he used to be. Beginning the video off very creepy with only the eyes and whispers in the background, the eyes ask personal questions making the video seem more personal to its viewers. 

As seen above, XXX is fighting with himself that had just risen out of the casket. While approaching the casket, there are subtitles in which it speaks upon the aura and personal wishes of XXX himself as well as his personal creativity in his mind. They fight back and fourth for a bit, finally resulting in XXX finally knocking his past self down and zooming into his eye in which moves along to another scene of him rocking back and fourth in a chair. 

Representing the physical altercation again between XXX and his past self, he is beating him repeatedly while a group of males cheer him on for what he is doing. Enraged with such anger, XXX stomps his past self out with such a violent force and expression on his face. After doing that, it flashes to a dark screen where he is sitting in a dark room again speaking to a hooded person where they discuss XXX being “misunderstood”. Also stating that “your worst enemy is yourself” yet he is unbothered. 

Leaving his past body just lying on the floor, he walks away with such power. The power that he is now done fighting between his past and present self, and rather just continue to being the person he is in the current moment. The subtitles in yellow also state that his mind has the power to control whatever and that it is very powerful into leading him to the “light” or where he needs to be to become content with himself. 

Although blurry, the message of what is being stated in yellow asks of a demand that we as a society spread nothing but peace and to change the horrible habits we are brought in to. Wanting to make the world a better place instead of a place full of hatred is what is constantly being displayed by XXX. Finally resulting in him being satisfied because he is no longer fighting with the individual who he used to be, and ready to become apart of the change in society.