exsanguinated-doves

[exsanguinated-doves]

listen. aging into your thirties rocks. yes your joints get a little creaky. yes you can’t sleep in a pretzel on the floor anymore after a concert or a convention. and you lose some friends. but the thing is that you sort out who your real friends are and you sort out who you really are. and you get to see your friends settling into careers they like, and adopt new dogs and cats, and you find a job you can stand, and get really good at arts and crafts, and maybe that book you loved as a kid gets a movie deal and it doesn’t suck, and you learn to like new food and bake your own bread, and you realize that the great portfolio of self harm scars you all used to curate are going white with age and not updated, and half your friends are a different gender now and so much happier and maybe you are too, and you know who you are, and that it’s a journey and not a revelation. it’s a direction you’re headed, and you’re enjoying the trip.

reaching your 30′s rocks. and i’m hearing good things about what comes next, too.

[exsanguinated-doves]

That post about 30 year old coming of age stories?

I’ve been thinking about it all morning. What would the plot points be for that? What makes a 30 year old coming of age story?

Old folks sound off in the comments

[exsanguinated-doves]

some more video essays since youse loved the last lot:

A Black Women’s History of Pinup and Burlesque - absolutely fascinating overview of Black women in burlesque, pin–up and performance!

The Matrix Resurrections Universalised The Trans Experience - the best analysis of the latest matrix film you’ll ever see

True Crime & The Theater of Safety - princess weekes discusses the fetishisation of true crime in relation to the depp v heard case and debunks pro-depp mythis.

Overanalysing The Barbie Movies With Queer Marxist Theory - one of the greatest and most necessary queer analysis ever made.

Category is: Straight Black Men in drag for the sake of “comedy” realness 👀 Khadija Mbowe - discussion and analysis of Black men in drag throughout entertainment history

How Postwar Italy Created The Paparazzi - bite-sized essay on the origins of paparazzi culture 

Why Should I Wake Up? | Cabaret. Isherwood. Fascism. - a history of the relationship between caberet and facism (cw: discussions of nazism, antisemitism, homophobia)

No Way Home Was Kind of Sexist - don’t let the title fool you, this is a fascinating analysis of how spiderman nwh was basically a meta-dramatisation of sony vs. disney’s battle for IP.

Conspiracy on the Left | Sophie from Mars - analysis of how conspiracy theories are a bipartisan issue accross the political spectrum

How Big Pharma is Extending the Pandemic - harrowing investigtion into how vaccine patent gatekeeping is prolonging covid-19

Leslie Cheung & Hong Kong LGBT Cinema | Video Essay - the legacy of Leslie Cheung’s filmography and the evolution of it’s portrayal of queerness

Why The Curtains Are Blue: The Implications of Being Uncritical - on the importance of criticism and critical thinking when consuming media.

Remembering With A Twist - A Jojo Rabbit and The Book Thief Video Essay - slightly older than the other essays on the list but its a beautiful comparitive analysis of how both films use surrealism to portray the Holocaust

find my ongoing playlist of fave video essays here

[exsanguinated-doves]

1 / 2

this sucks lol. like my vid was up for a YEAR and in that time got 8k views. this corporation steals my content and gets 65k views (so far) in a matter of days

[exsanguinated-doves]

Found this in the comments of Shaun's latest video on Andrew Tate, in which he talks pretty extensively about how important it is for men to find ways to be confident in their genders without trying to adhere to, or enforce, anyone else's ideas of manhood on anyone.

Highly recommend checking it out.

Anyway. I rarely see folks talk about the positive impact transmascs have on manhood as a whole, and I think it's important to acknowledge and celebrate that.

[exsanguinated-doves]

I feel like those of us who are longtime Video Essay Enjoyers™ have been aware something was suss about James Summerton (I remember when Lawrence called out Somerton for stealing their Hannibal essay years ago) for a while. But I think it's cynical to reduce Hbomberguy's vid to just a "dunk" when it's more of an odyssey railing against how influencer and content culture devalues the work of culture critics, academics, and activists. As Harris said, it's not a problem exclusive to Somerton, but a corrosive attitude baked into late capitalist "content" culture. The video is a clear exploration of the consequences of all media and art being flattened into "content" creates a system where the labor of marginalised creatives and storytellers are exploited and stolen by people with more privileges and resources. As someone who has witnessed rich tiktokers quote articles and posts I've written verbatim without credit to make money from their 1000s of followers, this video hit super hard for me. From James Somerton claiming the works of dead gay activists, to Charli D'Amelio building a career from stealing dances created by Black tiktokers - plagiarism is often inseparable from discrimination and exploitation of labor rights. Harris' video is about how the nature of influencer content culture has further exacerbated the exploitative systems that already existed, wrapped up as YouTuber drama analysis. But I hope people don't miss the forest for the trees and remember you should always be citing your sources, fact checking, and be very wary of people who don't. And for the love of God, please stop getting your information exclusively from video essays, tiktoks and podcasts.

[exsanguinated-doves]

some recent very good video essays <3

James Baldwin and the Annihilation of Gender by Anansi's Library - stunning essay about gender, sexuality, and Blackness in the works of James Baldwin, and Moonlight (2016).

astronomy has a colonialism problem by Dr. Fatima - Libyan-American and former physicist Dr Fatima discusses the links between colonialism, scientific academia, and the Palestinian liberation movement.

Saltburn: The Tumblr-ification of Cinema by Broey Deschanel - fun essay on how Saltburn is a cheap rip-off of The Untalented Mr Ripley and refuses to admit it, and how such pastiche is a growing problem.

How Shirley Jackson exposed the horror of home life by Books n Cats

This Video Isn't Just About Taylor Swift. It's About You. by Alexander Avilla - a juggernaut of an essay about how so much of Taylor Swift's success is just about the weaponisation of whiteness in marketing.

Time Travelling While Black by Aishyo - comparative essay about media that portrays Black characters who time travel.

Why We Can’t Build Better Cities by Philosophy Tube - Abigail Thorn investigates the ideological links between gentrification and the 15-minute-city conspiracy theory.

Why Sci-fi Can't Fix Its White Savior Problem by Princess Weekes - an essay about how white supremacy and white feminism is baked into science fiction.

Eminem and the White Rapper Problem by F.D Signifier - a retrospective on Eminem's impact on rap, for better and worse.

Why YouTubers Hold Microphones Now by Tom Nicholas - a fascinating piece about how the slow corporatisation of YouTibe has impacted content creators' aesthetics over time, and how this is also a wider trend on the internet.

[exsanguinated-doves]

short stories i love + the best times to read them. links or PDFs provided where i was able to find them 💞

cannibal lover by alisa nutting

Best read when you desperately want to be in love with someone who keeps saying you're too good for them

the man on the stairs by miranda july

Best read when you're lying awake at night unable to sleep and you think you hear something on the stairs

pinky finger by ha seong-nan

Best read when your uber is taking a little too long to arrive

you're ugly, too by lorrie moore

Best read when you're realizing you might be the black sheep of the family/friend group/social circle

boys go to jupiter by danielle evans

Best read when the white girl you know is doing some dumbass shit

ant colony by alisa nutting

Best read when you want a weird body horror story that will make you stare blankly out the window after you finish

attack helicopter by isabel fall

Best read when you're thinking, 'there's no way rainbow capitalism could get any worse'

what dinah knew by yah yah scholfield

Best read when a family member is acting a little funny

the frolic by thomas ligotti

Best read when you're beginning to dread that you've made a big mistake

[exsanguinated-doves]

video essays i’ve loved a lot recently!

the history of dieting is crazier than you think - a history of diet culture, its phases, faces, and diet culture media by mina le

When Hollywood Speaks Chinese, I Cringe - short essay about the cringey racist way Chinese language is portrayed in Hollywood

Good LGBT Representation is Boring (and why that’s a problem) - essay that dives into the double edge sword of “unproblematic” lgbt rep

The Decline of History Channel - a history of the history channel and how it lost almost all credibility. 

The Black Right Wing - fascinating essay on Black Americans who support Donald Trump, right wing politics and why that is. 

Can We Kill the Final Girl Trope Already? - one of my favourite essays ever about the first girl who dies in horror films.

Exploring The “Gender Critical” Radicalization Pipeline - tw: major transphobia, an essay about how TERF ideology online radicalises people to the right

A Buffet of Black Food History - do not watch this on an empty stomach! essay about the history of Black American food, culture and the success of Black cooks/chefs

No, Superhero Movies are NOT Like Westerns - excellent breakdown of all the reasons why the current proliferation of superhero films is not comparable culturally, economically or artistically to Westerns.

Maybe you should stay in the closet?…Coming Out re-examined - personal vlog/video essay about the history of “coming out” as lgbt and the culture around doing so has changed

The Matrix Resurrections Is Absolutely Beautiful - an analysis/review of the beautifully executed trans-ness of latest matrix films

make more characters bi, you cowards: why (not) romance? - analysis on the current state of bisexual representation in pop culture 

Heterofatalism: WHY straight women aren’t okay. - absolutely wild essay on the complex cultural attitudes that encourages straight women to hate themselves for loving men

The Pandemic Onscreen - How Film & TV Do Covid - analysis of the different ways fictional media is acknowledging the pandemic

[exsanguinated-doves]

yuzu and citra are dead because the yuzu/citra devs shot themselves in the foot. they continually POSTED footage and updates pertaining to games THAT WEREN'T OUT YET, which gave nintendo actual foothold to take them down for encouraging piracy. this is recorded directly in the legal documents for the case. they also (apparently, this is according to my friend who is more active in the emulation scene than i and i don't know of any recorded proof so take it with a grain of salt) straight up shared links to piracy sites in their discord which is an obvious no-no for any emulator???? and people straight up going on nintendo's OFFICIAL SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS saying "fuck you i'm just going to emulate [insert game here] using yuzu" which is. well. loose lips sink ships.

fuck nintendo and all that, but this is almost entirely on the backs of the devs for being stupid. to any aspiring emulator devs out there: don't post about anything relating to piracy ever, especially don't post about the games THAT YOU AREN'T SUPPOSED TO HAVE ACCESS TO YET, and wait a while before saying a brand new game is playable on your emulator.

also: they settled out of court. no judge saw the case. this isn't setting any sort of legal precedent. all of your other favorite emulators are fine for now as long as they don't make the same stupid mistakes yuzu was making.

[exsanguinated-doves]

While I always condone piracy from large corporations, it should never be the only means of watching a movie or series, since it both limits the audience and hurts the careers of those involved, especially with the absence of physical media releases and the attempt to seemingly erase all evidence of them from the internet.

The important thing to do now is continue to spread awareness and support of those series so that they remain in the public consciousness. That includes sharing torrents, making your own copies (preferably physical ones) and creating fan content so that more people know about them.

We shouldn’t have to deal with an entire generation of lost media just because some penny-pinching cunts on a stick decided that they’re not worth supporting anymore.

[exsanguinated-doves]

[exsanguinated-doves]

They just shut down the eShop too lmao

[exsanguinated-doves]

One fallacy, I think, of anti piracy arguments is that a lot of them seem to assume that if I'm unable to pirate something I'm going to pay for it instead rather than going "oh! that's a terrible shame" and then quickly forgetting about it

[exsanguinated-doves]

I just want to remind everyone that it is your civic duty to jailbreak your Nintendo consoles and pirate every Nintendo property until the heat death of the universe.

[exsanguinated-doves]

People against piracy fail to realize that no, I can’t just ‘buy it.’ They stopped making DVDs and Blu-Rays. They’re barely offering digital copies for download. I am not spending money I could use for food or bills to pay for a subscription service just so I can always have access to a beloved piece of media. Especially not when the service will remove media on a whim without concern for how the loss of access to that piece will make its artistic conservation nigh impossible.

For example, I recently learned that Disney+ had an original film called Crater. It’s scifi, family friendly, and seems cool - I would love to buy it as a holiday gift for my little brother! But: it’s exclusive to D+ and THEY REMOVED IT LITERALLY MONTHS AFTER ITS RELEASE.

The ONLY way I can directly access this film is through piracy. The ONLY available ‘copies’ of this film are hosted on piracy websites. Disney will NEVER release it in theaters, or as something to buy, and it may NEVER return to the streaming service. It will be LOST because we aren’t allowed to purchase it for personal viewing. If I can’t pay to own it, I won’t pay for the privilege of losing it when corporate decides to put it in a vault.

So yes, I’m going to pirate and support piracy.

[exsanguinated-doves]