#If Elon Musk could help us with the aliens that would be nice

[lying-monsters]

Idea: We get​ Elon Musk to bribe @nasa into revealing if the aliens really are inside Area 51. 

#area 51 raid #aliens #area 51 #nasa #In all seriousness please do not confront the guards #area 51 memes #elon musk #If Elon Musk could help us with the aliens that would be nice

[the-desolated-quill]

Look On My Works, Ye Mighty... - Watchmen blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. if you haven’t read this comic yet, you may want to before reading this review)

Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias, is the character we probably know the least about, and some could argue that leaving it until the penultimate chapter to fill in the gaps is leaving it a little late, but as was the case with Doctor Manhattan and Rorschach, it was important that we got to see the character and his impact on the world of Watchmen before we got the full story. Plus I imagine Alan Moore was very hesitant to give us too many details about Veidt in case he ran the risk of revealing his hand too early and spoiling the twist. Look On My Works, Ye Mighty offers many answers to the burning questions throughout the graphic novel whilst offering us a chilling insight into the last remaining superhero archetype that had been unexplored until now. The ‘liberal’ capitalist.

Up until now, we know precisely three things about Veidt. He’s rich, he’s clever and he’s an innovator. It was his subsidiary companies that utilised Manhattan’s superpowers as an alternate energy source, making America eco-friendly and revolutionising technology at the time. He’s also the one superhero in the novel that the general public actually seem to like. Most likely because of his willingness to reveal his secret identity before the Keene Act was passed outlawing superheroes and using his vast wealth and influence to try and help the world instead of merely donning a costume and beating people up. However he’s not popular among other superheroes, most notably Rorschach and the Comedian. With Rorschach, the reasoning is obvious. He’s right wing and homophobic, so naturally he’s at odds with Adrian from the get go. With the Comedian, it’s his cynical nihilism that prevents him from seeing Adrian as anything other than a naive fool with delusions of grandeur. And the dislike is mutual. Adrian openly dislikes Rorschach and, in this very issue, he condemns the Comedian for being Richard Nixon’s lap dog, accusing him of being behind the assassination of JFK and working to keep Nixon in power beyond his term limits (whether this is actually true or simply the conspiratorial ramblings of a bitter liberal is left intentionally unclear). So it’s very ironic indeed that it was the Comedian that gave Adrian the inspiration to fake an alien invasion in the first place.

Now I have a lot to say about the whole alien squid thing, but I’m going to save that for the last review. For now I simply want to focus on Ozymandias himself and the reasons and motivations behind his actions.

So first things first, what’s with the Egyptian imagery? Well Ozymandias is actually the given name for the historical figure known as Alexander the Great, whom Adrian feels a strong kinship towards. It also ties into Adrian’s personality and goals. Obviously there’s the obscene wealth and ridiculously self indulgent architecture, but also the ancient belief that the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt were intermediaries between the gods and mortals. This is important because it gives us an insight into how Adrian views himself and the world around him. Because of his intellect and his wealth, he views himself as being above humanity and only he knows how best to fix the world. However, in the process, he reduces ordinary people to mere statistics. Killing millions of people in one city will bring about world peace and prosperity for the other billions of people around the globe. This line of thinking is called utilitarianism, which basically means that the ends justify the means. Now of course all the characters in Watchmen display elements of utilitarian thinking, but Adrian takes it a step further, applying his own morality to a global scale. It’s scary on a number of levels, but what makes it so frightening for me is what the character of Ozymandias says about other capitalist superheroes like Batman, Green Arrow and Iron Man.

Rich white men becoming costumed vigilantes is nothing new of course. Batman was one of the first comic book superheroes ever conceived after all. But very rarely do we get to see or explore the political and social implications of a superhero being a member of the one percent. If you think about it, ultra rich men putting on costumes and beating up often working class criminals is quite disturbing. Especially when you consider the kinds of things the mega rich get away with in the real world. Money gives you influence and influence gives you power. Costumed crime fighting is in itself an exercise of power over those deemed immoral, but for the capitalist superhero it’s also power over the impoverished and dispossessed. Class privilege in action. This is something that’s hardly ever touched upon in comics. Okay Iron Man comes the closest at points as he was initially created to critique industrialists and war profiteers, and the Civil War storyline paints him in a very ugly light as the Superhuman Registration Act imposed by the government reveals a strong wealth and class divide within the superhero community, but other than that the conversation is usually swept under the rug. 

DC Comics are quick to point out how Batman and Green Arrow aren’t like those rich white men. Look, they’re donating money to orphanages and helping the homeless! They’re nice capitalists! We like those capitalists! As for Marvel, there’s a line even they won’t cross regarding the politics of Iron Man and other such superheroes in their canon. They’re more than happy to discuss how making weapons of mass destruction is bad, but you’ll never see them get too specific. You’ll never see them condemn the American military and the role they’ve played in the destabilisation of the Middle East, nor will you ever see them outright address the distinct possibility that Tony Stark is in fact Republican. This is why I often find the accusation of publishers and movie studios having a quote/unquote ‘political agenda’ so baffling because the truth is they have no agenda other than to make money. Marvel and DC are businesses. They’ll never risk taking a firm stance either way for fear that it will alienate a certain group of readers and lose them sales. But by dodging and skirting around the conversation, the two companies have created an archetype that feels incredibly disingenuous, which is what Watchmen seeks to expose with Ozymandias.

The question is can someone who is ultra rich and influential possibly be heroic? This is something that was briefly touched upon back in A Brother To Dragons with Nite Owl. Dan spent his dad’s inheritance on costumes and gadgets for his superhero alter ego when surely it would have been better to donate the money to charity or something if he truly wanted to help his community. But that’s not what Dan wants. Not really. He just wants to indulge in his own power fantasy. Adrian takes that one step further. He has more money than Dan. Exponentially more. And it can be argued he’s done good things for his community, such as creating renewable energy. However, just like with Dan, the reasoning behind his plot isn’t really down to wanting to help others, but rather as a way of having the ultimate power fantasy. To be seen to be saving the world.

Everything Adrian does is less to do with helping others and more to do with displaying his own power and influence. Don’t get me wrong. I believe that he believes he’s doing the right thing, but if you really scrutinise his actions, his motivations feel far more self serving than he would care to admit. Tricking the world into believing they’re being invaded by an outside force is one thing, but taking the trouble to kidnap multiple scientists, writers and artists in order to create a fake alien seems like overkill. It’s ego driven. If you think about it, a bomb would have done. But Adrian wanted something spectacular. Something memorable. Just look at his decor. He built an entire Egyptian temple and biodome in Antarctica. Why? There’s no reason other than for his own self aggrandisement. It’s a display of his power.

Then there’s his actions regarding the Comedian, Rorschach and Doctor Manhattan. He wanted to get rid of witnesses. Understandable. But why beat the Comedian up so savagely, chucking him from his penthouse window, when he could just as easily have dispatched him with a single gunshot like he did with Moloch? Could it be that silencing the Comedian was less about self preservation and more about Adrian demonstrating his superiority over Nixon’s lap dog? Same goes for Rorschach. Again, he could have just killed him. Would have been much simpler. Instead he frames him for Moloch’s murder. It’s not enough to get rid of Rorschach. He wants the satisfaction of outwitting this right wing sociopath. The manipulation of Doctor Manhattan is self explanatory. Tricking a god into leaving the planet must have been quite the ego boost. And then there’s the fake assassination attempt in Fearful Symmetry. Adrian wanted to deflect suspicion away from him, but like with the alien, he wanted something spectacular. Something memorable.

Every single thing Adrian Veidt does throughout the graphic novel has some sort of egotistical agenda behind it. Even his ultimate plot to stop World War Three and unite the world isn’t about the greater good. It’s about him overcoming his own feelings of powerlessness. Because up until now the one thing he was unable to control with all his wealth and influence was the nukes. Now he’s managed even that. He has succeeded where Alexander the Great failed. He is truly the King of kings.

While not as over the top as this, we’ve seen this kind of behaviour so many times before by members of the quote/unquote liberal elite. Bill Gates, JK Rowling, Joss Whedon, Elon Musk and many more. Wealthy people of influence who are more concerned with looking progressive than actually being progressive. They perform charitable acts not out of a genuine desire to help others, but in order to be seen to be charitable. This is Ozymandias. Like I said, I believe that he believes he’s doing the right thing, but for me I think he’s more interested in being seen to have saved the world rather than actually doing something to truly help bridge the divide between nations. In some ways, he represents superheroes as a whole within Watchmen. Men and women more concerned with the attention and power being a superhero brings than actually helping their community. And just as a superhero alter ego allows the characters to see themselves as being above others, so too does wealth allow Adrian to see himself as being above the world.

This is why it was so important to see all the supporting characters. The news vendor, the kid reading the Black Freighter, Joey and her lesbian partner, Doctor Malcolm Long and his wife, and the two police detectives. To remind us that these are real people’s lives these characters are toying around with here. And it’s genuinely unnerving seeing all these people we’ve come to know over the course of the graphic novel be completely obliterated.

#look on my works ye mighty #watchmen #alan moore #dave gibbons #dc comics #review #spoilers

[markoberposts]

More Fun Movies Seen

     Well, I did yesterday as I’d forecast within my prior posts.  I went out and saw another large group of movies all at once...this time FOUR of them one after the other all at the same theater...this occurring once again at Tempe Marketplace as I’d done the day before as well.  In fact, I’ve just set what I’m sure are 2 separate new records for myself thanks to all of the great new Summer movies that have come out all at once.  As I’d talked about yesterday, I had just seen on Thursday all of the 3 movies: Child’s Play, Annabelle Comes Home, and The Secret Life of Pets 2.  And then on Friday--yesterday--I followed this up by further seeing the 4 movies: Men in Black: International, Anna, Toy Story 4, and then lastly, The Dead Don't Die.  So seeing yesterday’s 4 movies both sets a record for me for the most theater movies seen all in the same day as well as the most--as in 7--theater movies seen all within a short time period...that of a 2 day period.  So I think that the movie-makers have been making up for last year, being that I don’t recall there having really been very many movies at the start of Summer that had attracted my attention in 2018.  But wow...this was a lot of movies for having seen all at the same visit, with my having scheduled them intentionally so that I’d have about a half an hour between each movie if for no other reason but to go outside the theater and get warmed up again!  And I say that with this even being in Phoenix and with it having been 110 degrees at the time!  Yes indeed, they keep our theaters cool by comparison, especially when you are wearing shorts and a thin T-shirt.

     Anyway, to start with, the movie Men in Black: International was a very fun and cool movie, with both of the lead actors of course being great within it and with my particularly enjoying watching Tessa Thompson, even with my not having become a fan of hers before this movie.  And of course all of the cool aliens really make it interesting and fun to watch...it being right up there with Star Wars in this regard and probably even much more elaborately designed within these movies compared to Star Wars or most other Sci-Fi movies.  Anyway, the story was exciting and fun, and the special effects were as great as ever.

     And next I saw the movie Anna.  And although it was a bit different than I’d expected, it was nevertheless interesting and fairly exciting.  I admit that what had attracted me to it the most was the previews where it had showed her literally destroying guys around her with hardly lifting a finger, being such a precise and skilled fighter.  I hadn’t read about it in advance, however, so I was surprised by it being a story about growing up in Russia and working for the KGB.  But that was still by itself somewhat interesting, although I admittedly enjoyed the action scenes quite a lot more.  I was, however, sympathizing with her all along, hoping that she would eventually find freedom.  And even though I’ve always been strongly against killing any life forms (and no I’m not a Democrat...I’m actually an Independent simply because I don’t align with ANY political parties...not even whatever being an ‘Independent’ represents simply beyond being literally independent from all party ideals, my feeling repulsed by ALL political parties), I nevertheless find it odd that I’m able to--for movies such as this--feel completely okay watching her slaughter people left and right, perhaps simply because they’re supposedly the bad guys...or at least they’re agents who align themselves more with loyalties to bad people rather than to upholding what’s good and right on a moral level.  And of course I also really enjoyed the movie because the actress is simply beautiful.  In fact, I had to look her up after the movie for this very reason, finding that she is actually a true Russian actress, and that this film was a French film, even with it also focused on the American C.I.A.  And when I looked her up in Wikipedia and then in IMDb, I was at least happy to see her smiling and happy most of the time, being that she did a great job of appearing so depressed and sad most of the time in the movie, with the couple of sex scenes not really detracting much from this overall dark mood.  But in the end, it actually finished rather nicely.  So I’d say that it was a pretty good movie overall.

     And then I saw the movie Toy Story 4, which I really found to be very pleasant and entertaining, with it actually being just as much a love story as it was a movie about helping “Forky” to get back to its little human female creator kid who was really missing it quite a bit.  And aside from the movie also being a love story involving Bo Peep and Woody, it was also the tiniest bit about it kind of resembling the Transformer movies, at least as far as how a human might be able to cause their toys to “come to life” as happens within the Toy Story movies.  But this movie was really fun and exciting, and the dummies in it were really rather scary.  In fact, I’d always wondered exactly why the ventriloquists had designed dummies to look like that...with their always looking so spooky-like!  We never find out within this movie...but it does work well to make it rather scary.  And I love all of the carnival scenes, being that they reminded me of another recent animation movie that I’d seen of a similar nature called Wonder Park, which I’d enjoyed because of the fantasy aspect of finding a hidden giant place such as Disneyland tucked away in some remote hidden forest.  Anyway, this movie, Toy Story 4, was great and exciting and fun and was well worth seeing.

     And finally, I then saw as my last movie for the night the movie, The Dead Don’t Die, which was a very, very slow-paced but nevertheless campy type of amusing movie about the end of the world zombie apocalypse.  It has a lot of appealing parts to it, although it certainly didn’t follow the typical Hollywood type format of a small group of people--especially the heroes--surviving in the end.  Nope!  We all die in the end...and that is that!  LOL.  It really was a bit sad in this respect, however, because I really wanted the always-attractive Selena Gomez--normally known for her songs--to actually survive in the end.  But SORRY!  She’s a goner just like everyone else is...except perhaps the man in the woods...oh, and the alien-lady, who was VERY interesting to watch because of her always looking...well...kind of like an alien!  But she was really great in this movie with her abilities to strike zombies down with her sword!  Too bad she couldn’t rescue them all in the end.  But perhaps some of the funniest and oddest things were the tendencies of Adam Driver--the bad guy in the latest Star Wars movies who KILLS his father Han Solo (DARN HIM!)--to step outside of character and talk about the script of the very movie itself.  And this is part of what makes it so funny, being that from the beginning, Bill Murray asks him about what’s going on and Adam Driver always responds that he has a feeling that things will end badly.  Eventually, in fact, Bill Murray finally asks him why he always acts like he knows that it’s going to end badly, and that’s when Adam reveals that it’s because he’d read the script!  In response, Bill Murray finally then admits that he’d read the script as well, of course, but that he hadn’t read that it would end badly.  Anyway, there are plenty of other fun jokes within it as well, with the key to the humor being of course the deadpan reactions by most people, especially Bill Murray and Adam Driver, to all of the various events that happen around them, even as they work to both figure out things and at least attempt to see if there’s anyway to help people out.  But of course there isn’t in the end, because when the Moon develops a purple edge to it, and the Earth changes its rotation, then we are all DOOMED for sure!  So we’d best take a lesson from this movie, with that lesson apparently being for us to simply give up!  I mean, if there ever really is a zombie apocalypse to come of this nature, then there wouldn’t seem too awfully much that we could do about it.  But who knows, perhaps a small group of survivors might be able to board one of the rockets from either Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos and somehow make it outside the scope of influence of such a badly-resurrecting type of force!  Or then again, perhaps instead someday a resurrection might occur where the people aren’t really zombies, but actually become once again like normal people, although perhaps with bodies that no longer age nor feel pain.  Wouldn’t that be great?!  One can always hope...   :)

#Men in Black: International #Anna #Toy Story 4 #The Dead Don't Die #movies #theater #Tempe Marketplace #Phoenix #Tempe

[saints-row-2]

film watch day 3: Venom

Venom is only tangentially a horror movie so it probably isnt really fair to include it in my “watch a horror movie every day for a month” list but there is absolutely nothing i could watch today that means as much as Venom does so its going to have to fly

i use this image specifically because it really represents the best bits of Venom. namely; Venom (Tom Hardy) bullies the life out of Eddie (Tom Hardy), while Eddie looks like hes dying of consumption. the rest of the film happens around them, sure, but none of the other actors can hold a candle to Tom Hardy, who storms through this movie doing whatever the fuck he wants and stealing the entire show so hard the film goes from being a dull 2003 style origin story to his own personal Little Shop of Horrors homage. 

Eddie Brock is an edgy tv reporter with his own news show dedicated to covering stories people DONT want to talk about, which i found pretty immediately sympathetic. anyway. he cant resist himself and tries to confront local Elon Musk rip-off Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed) about the deaths in Drake’s human testing program related to his search for a cure for cancer. Eddie is promptly fired, and loses his girlfriend and apartment to boot. however, determined to find out the truth, Eddie breaks into Drake’s testing facility, and gets himself infected with the alien symbiote known as Venom. the film then completely loses its own mind. 

Venom’s plot is nonsense. it has at least one major recurring plot thread that goes absolutely nowhere and multiple smaller storylines that have no endings. the character arcs are often inexplicable. the post-climax ending scene happens with next to no explanation at all. the film feels like it had those 40 minutes of scenes Tom Hardy mentioned being cut ripped out. but i didnt particularly give a shit watching the movie and i dont particularly give a shit now.

Venom, as a film, wanted to be a scary edgy action-horror. Tom Hardy wanted to make a buddy cop comedy movie, and because hes the main character, thats what the movie is now. i really cant overstate how fucking good Tom Hardy is in this movie. hes incredibly charming, funny, and likeable, and his chemistry with himself is fantastic. as soon as Venom and Eddie Brock meet the film kicks off in a major way. 

maybe this is my own love of characters who are as you might say “off their shits” is giving me enormous bias but i found myself watching every scene Tom Hardy was in with a kind of rapturous glee. watching Eddie and Venom fight about biting off heads, freaking out in a public restaurant, squabble like children and do ridiculous motorcycle stunts was fucking delightful. 

the film is a mess. but its kind of fucking glorious as well and frankly if youve got an aching desire for a complex plot-driven thriller you can fuck off with that attitude. i watched Venom to see Tom Hardy completely wild out and had a fucking blast. theres a scene where Eddie Brock eats a live lobster. 

what helps the movie as well is how competent and likeable all the other actors are. i got the strong impression Riz Ahmed wasnt exactly deeply moved by his role as Stock Villain, but he fucking does his job well and gives some fun, bizarrely intense nihilistic nonsense speeches. Michelle Williams definitely wasnt given enough to do, but is sharp and funny as Ann. Reid Scott plays Ann’s boyfriend who would ostensibly be Eddie’s romantic rival in any other movie, but is actually a very nice, friendly dude, and i found the lack of romantic tension and bickering between Ann, Eddie and Dan (Scott) really refreshing; it helps keep the focus on Eddie and Venom instead of bogging the plot down in romantic drama. Eddie bounces around the film as a hot mess who cracks wise while needing help and again, was immensely sympathetic in his position as, as Venom says, “a loser”. 

as nuts as this probably sounds, i actually have huge hopes for a Venom 2; i think given a second time round seeing the successes of this movie, they could make a really competent weird buddy comedy with more direct focus on Eddie and Venom. still though, im enormously thankful that Tom Hardy apparently impromptu decided he was going to start remaking The Mask.

if you arent convinced that Venom is the movie for you, you probably arent capable of fun. not to overrate this movie, but if you didnt enjoy it, fuck you. thats all. 

COULD have been gayer. 

#rantsfilmwatch

[attract-mode-collective]

Scorpion Vs. Elon Musk’s Mom: FIGHT

Yes, that is indeed Elon Musk’s mother up there. And no, I do not have a bigger sized version of the pic. Guess we could always ask captain-price-official if one does exist.

Or perhaps make your own? Here’s Elon’s mum by herself (and in higher res)...

And with that, it’s time to see what else I tweeted during the first half of March! So, sticking with fighting games: which Street Fighter character does lighting better? Ryu, via the animated movie (via settei)...

… Or Bison, via the live action flick (via toghomevideo)...

I absolutely love win quotes from rom hacks (via bison2winquote)...

I have a massive backlog of games, yet Tekken 7 just shot straight to the top of the list, thanks to the knowledge that you can accurately recreate Dynamite Headdy characters (via mysterious0bob)...

This Hatsune Miku X Space Channel 5 figure is v. nice (via nendoroidoftheday)...

A friendly reminder to everyone that A. I'm a massive fan of Seaman & B. my birthday is about a month away (via nutastic)...

This scene at the beach with a Figma of Link, from A Link Between Worlds, feels more like Link's Awakening than anything else (via vyntic)...

Toys and models are no longer just for reenacting memorable in-game moments, they can also reproduce famous IRL events that surrounded the games themselves (via 8bitcentral)...

So what's the going rate for ET for the Atari 2600 that was supposedly dug up in for that so-called documentary, Atari: Game Over? Which I recently re-watched and still can't believe people think is real. At any rate, am assuming the autograph from Howard Scott Warshaw gives it some actual value (via it8bit)...

And what's the going rate for Chinese Famiclone karaoke carts, primarily one with Jackie Chan on the label. Am also wondering if it's cuz his songs are included... you are aware of his successful career in music as well, right? (via ulan-bator)...

Been struggling to come up with a zinger for the past 10 minutes, but ain't nuthin gonna beat "Welcome to the Velvet Room y'all!" (via jatayu)...

To be filed under: it's funny cuz it's true (via doctorbutler)...

So the weather has been awful around these parts, lots of rain & snow, which gets in the way of imagining a giant tetromino in the sky (via uvula.jp)...

When playing Super Mario Galaxy 2, please keep in mind that somewhere out there, despite being out of view, is the ghost of Luigi floating through vast stretches of empty space, with zero destination or purpose (via suppermariobroth)...

Speaking of Luigi, and Supper Mario Broth; they’ve taken the adventures he talks about in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door and illustrated them in the form of a comic that closely adheres to the style of the game...

Also a friendly reminder of that rift between Mario & Luigi for a few years (they'd eventually make up & resume doing games together, as everyone knows) after Mario discovered his brother being all friendly with the enemy in Super Mario World (via peazy86)...

Yet another obscure Mario factoid: the move he uses to defeat Bowser in Super Mario 64 originates from an old furikake commercial that predates the game by about a decade (via suppermariobroth)...

Yet another random gif of Mario from the 80s, this one from a video guide from Super Mario Bros; I miss the days in which his look was not yet standardized (via suppermariobroth)...

And here we have a completely unlicensed Dr. Mario, unless Nintendo gave him the OK to brush up on his doctoring skills by assuming an alias at a family clinic in Houston TX (via suppermariobroth)...

It's funny how, when it comes to obscure Mario games, everyone brings up Mario Is Missing or Hotel Mario, but what about Super Mario Bros. & Friends: When I Grow Up? (via kazucrash)...

Mario gets his own breakfast cereal.

Luigi? Booze. (via @carolynmichelle)

A question that I posed on MAR10Day (via retrogamerblog)...

It's not Super Mario Bros, but simply…. Bros (via therubberfruit)...

I've never wanted something "bootleg" to be official as much as as this Dark Souls fan art. And if the actual game somehow looked like this, that would be... gladly welcomed (via gamefreaksnz)

Oh God, Nier is amazing and all, but I would SO be down for a yelling & screaming match with Yoko Taro on this point (via @Avisch_)...

Behold my fave Twitter thread in recent memory: "You see, that was taken from Africa, but it belonged to the Keyblade Masters. Imma take it off your hands for ya."

"Nah, It was taken by British soldiers in Africa but it's actually from Gaia. A sword far heavier than any sword has rights to be, yet a true 1st Class will wield it with ease. Don't trip, I'm gonna take it off your hands for you."

"Nah, It was taken by British soldiers in Africa but it's actually from Hyrule. Originally crafted by the goddess Hylia herself. Only a true hero that is pure of heart and strong of body is capable of wielding the sacred blade. Don't trip, I'm gonna take it off your hands for you."

Naturally the star of Home Alone 1 & Home Alone 2 has both a NES Classic and Famicom Mini, like all Hollywood bigwigs (via @SimonParkin)...

While discussing Ready Player One with a colleague, was reminded of the dude who was so inspired by the book that he turned his apartment into an arcade (and then his fiancé broke up with him; via nydailynews.com)...

Recently there was some kind of event at Sega HQ, I think? Details are basically nonexistent due to the language barrier, but far as I can gather, 16 super fans were invited to come by & party (via @SEGA_OFFICIAL)...

... If you check out #セガ公式アカウントオフ会 you'll see numerous pics from the get-together, though the one thing that stands out is the assortment of Sega hardware (via @KK__Cy)...

... MIA, cuz no variants were on display, is my fave alt ver. of the Mega Drive: the Wondermega. But @yu100s took one of his own… with the ugly ass US Sonic 1 NOT FOR RESALE cart inserted, Jesus fucking Christ...

The Sega logo in katakana looks pretty hawt (via @Exciteless)...

... Yet the Sega logo in Arabic which is official, is even hawter (via boingboing.net)...

Please enjoy your daily recommended dosage of an erotic hospital-management sim (via @topherflorence)...

NCSX makes the fidget spinner comparison, though the fidget cube seems a bit more appropriate; behold the fidget game controller...

Toy Fair recently took place, and naturally I took tons of pictures. You can find all of them on my personal Instagram, though a few are worth re-posting here. Like the latest in NECA's line of classic movie characters, as they appeared in video game adaptations...

Though in the case of their take on the Alien vs. Predator arcade game, they even included Capcom's original characters...

Unpainted, pre-production figures from Reflection's upcoming Ghost 'N Goblins line, sporting the oh-so popular Kenner-eqsue retro look...

Pint-sized arcade cabs, available this fall for $400. They’ll come unassembled, though dead simple to put together; the construction of the assembled mini cab was surprisingly sturdy, plus the screen wasn't bad (contrary to the picture that my iPhone's camera paints). Though the controls were shit; no word on whether the parts can be swapped or not...

Was delighted to not not only see Cuphead merch at Toy Fair, but more than just one instance (though this was the only time I was allowed to take a picture)...

Came across a producer of infant goods that had a selection of Super Mario baby bibs...

I asked the rep if this was their first foray into video games and the answer was "Yes." And when asked who's been mostly buying them, was told "Video game collectors, who don't even have children… it's so bizarre!!!"

Sticking with bibs, here's a set that tied to Dragon Quest (via miki800.com)...

... I asked on Twitter what they said and @alexfkraus was kind enough to provide translations, here and here.

Was so inspired by @MinusWorld listing which characters he'd like to see in the next Super Smash Bros that I decided to cite a few of my own:

- Mona from WarioWare - Nester from Nintendo Power’s Howard & Nester comics - Link from that Japanese A Link To The Past commercial - A deck of Hanafuda cards

... BTW, had no idea Ollie also mentioned a Hanafuda; I only saw his initial four, initially! Anyhow, my second round of choices:

- Ashley from Another Code - The "who are you running from?" guy in the Game Boy Camera - Lucas from The Wizard - The 4WD from Stunt Race FX (since Fighters Megamix with the Daytona USA 2 car clearly ain't ever happening)

I alas forgot to include BoxBoy, much like how I got these Uniqlo shirts when they were on sale last year (via minusworld.co.uk)...

Here we have my fave reaction on Tumblr to the Nintendo Direct with the Smash 5 reveal, if only for the punchline (via mendelpalace)...

And here we have my fave reaction on Twitter (via @redford)...

This one is also great because wrestling (via @SteveYurko)...

Speaking of wrestling, remember that time Tazz, while commentating for Smackdown, was also playing a game of Final Fantasy X-2… or so he thought? (via defjamvendetta)

"hey quick question whoever's developing the wwe games now: what the fuck"

"It helps him eat small fish"

"better question: why isn't this an option in every game ever"

"FAIR POINT" (via snoozlebee)

Whereas most publishers in Japan, during the 80s & 90s, had festivals (or carnivals) centered around shmups, Asmik's was based on women's wrestling (via oldgamemags)...

It's not for a video game, though the illustration is by someone who has been involved in a few; it's by Satoshi Yoshioka, of Snatcher and Policenauts fame (via videogamesdensetsu)...

It's not for a video game that actually exists, but is instead a completely fictional instructional manual, one that makes you wish it was real (via tomeccles)...

Just when you think you've seen every ultra, wacky & obscure video game box art there is to see out there (via @CoolBoxArt)...

I have a serious soft sport for the usage of video game imagery among early 80s musicians (via siryl)...

... What the final product looks like BTW/FYI...

A. so there's a VR version of Fruit Ninja, did not know that, & B. if you like watching people play it (for whatever reason), yet wish you could actually see a person swinging a sword and not just some abstract swiping motions… here ya go (via prostheticknowledge)...

Playing games in VR is so 2017… Handling your collection of games in VR? Now THAT is very 2018 (via mendelpalace)...

Lots of friends are playing the new DBZ fighting game, though I'll give it a shot once it hits the arcades and is also in a cab like this (via @Fotosdecomics)...

I absolutely need to get my hands on this S.H. Figuarts Shinya Arino (via tinycartridge)...

Available right now, some Altered Beast, Bare Knuckles, and Rent-a-Hero resin kits (via miki800.com)...

Cursed? More like blessed amirite (via @Pretzel_Pup)...

I know Yoji Shinkawa is best buds with Hideo Kojima, but would he be open to doing another gig at Konami? Cuz him art directing a reboot of Twin Bee would kinda be the best (via @SESKOU)...

There's money on the table with this Metroid X Pepsi mash-up, am confident of this (via ryangilleece)...

Cuz even someone like Samus Aran needs a good stretch every once in a while (via jon-bliss)...

And this third piece of Metroid fan art in a row is very much related to Metroid 3, aka Super Metroid (even though it technically depicts the ending to Metroid 2; via mmillus)...

Awakening indeed (via brookietf)...

For those who have asked, yes, I have seen the hack that connects the Switch to an itty-bitty black & white TV...

Though I'm only really interested in tiny b&w CRT TVs if I can play Duck Hunt on them (via arcade-crusade)...

I not only dig teeny-tiny displays for light gun games, but also for driving games as well (perhaps some of you might remember the following from this)...

Back to tube displays; seeing Zelda on a CRT also reminded me of how Dark Souls look on a CRT, aka CRT Souls or 480i Souls (which again I'm hoping regular readers of the blog remember, especially since the original post has fallen victim to a Tumblr bug)...

"while playing king's field just now i died in the magic cave of fire and when i warped back there were beautiful graphical glitches everywhere" (via mendelpalace)...

Some landscapes, filled with beauty and mystery and terror, are accidental (see: the graphical glitches from before)… whereas others are completely deliberate, as in the case of Atlantia (via obscurevideogames)...

Once again, I REALLY need to figure out a way to play some PC88 games (via obscurevideogames)...

Here we have a semi-common Space Invaders sighting for the time, in an episode of Battle Fever J, one of the earliest Super Sentai shows (via himitsusentaiblog)...

And here we have a rare Game Gear sighting, in old OVA anime, Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko. Hell, it’s a rare Game Gear in anything sighting; the only other example that comes to mind is Rumble In The Bronx (via @TheOtaking)...

And an equally rare Sonic on the runway sighting (via kotaku.com)...

I normally watch a video in its entirety before making a recommendation. Yet when it came to this overview of Last Bronx's legacy in Japan (and lack thereof in the West), hearing the main theme to Beat Takeshi's Violent Cop near the 3 min mark was all I needed (have since watched the whole thing, and as expected, it's another awesome Kim Justice production)...

And finally, a friend notes: "subzero's right arm is real close to trump's spinal column

just sayin" (via @jbillinson)...

[emptymanuscript]

REALity TV

Semi-random thought. Or really two non-random thoughts colliding randomly.

I once ruined a television show, Undercover Boss, for a friend of mine. They were talking about how much they loved it and after us talking they said they couldn’t ever watch it again.

I had not set out to ruin the show, though I was talking about why I wasn’t interested. I wasn’t interested because the show seemed like a pretty basic psychological trick to me. As most reality shows seem to me. 

You take boss X whose speciality at this point in their life is financials and policy decisions. Even if they worked their way up from scratch, at this point that is their comfort zone. They are embedded in it all day every day.

Now you take X and you put them in situation Y which is entirely alien to their everyday experience. No financials. No policy decisions. Just high stress low level gruntwork. Mostly physical. Again, there are plenty of bosses who worked their way up but that isn’t their experience anymore, not for years. And there are also plenty of bosses who have never held anything but managerial positions. Of course it is going to be an intensely miserable and bewildering experience. It is throwing X as far as possible outside of their comfort zone. 

There’s an extra shove to make it uncomfortable. Y is X’s company. X is supposed to be the ultimate expert on Y. Of course, with a large scale company, no one can really be the expert like that. But under high stress, the mind retreats to blaming. So X isn’t going to say the situation is designed to unbalance me. They’re going to say I should know everything about Y so this situation must be unfair and terrible. Which it probably is but X isn’t getting there by logical reasoning. They’re getting there by the phsychological disequilibrium they are undergoing. 

So now there is X, shocked at how horrible it is, sure this is all terribly unfair, upset at themself for what is going on. And participating in this experience is unwitting coworker Z. Z is more experienced, trying to help another worker because they know it is difficult, and they know they are on camera for some stupid reason or other. So Z shows X the ropes and is maybe even a little nicer than they would otherwise be. X, reeling and desperate, is going to like Z. Z is a comarade. Z is help when none seems to be present. Z is the solution to the psychological problem set up by the circumstances. Z has pulled it off, so X can too if X identifies with Z. 

So when it is all over, of course X is going to do something extra for Z. X wants to pull their weight and give back and contribute. Z totally deserves it for being able to cope with all that and being so nice to X. At which point X can greatfully retreat back to their gilded cage of management, humbled and enlightened by their experience, and vowing to make Y a better company with what they learned.

But it really is an X, Y, Z. I’m not talking about Elon Gates or Bill Musk. The situation of the show is designed to get a type of response. So when Elon Gates goes on the show, their specific actions might be unpredictable, but in general it is going to conform to the experience that the show is setting up. It is going to be elitist boss is shocked and awed, sets order to their world, punishing the guilty and rewarding the heroic, and returns to be a better elitist boss. It works because that’s how humans work. You don’t have to force anyone to do it, you just have to set up more or less the right situation.

My friend was more than a little pissed when I told them this. Because once I had said it, they saw it. All the episodes are the different but the same. And if you think about it, you’d feel pretty much the same way, too. So it stopped feeling like an honest reaction and instead became staged fiction. Even though none of the “actors” knew they were being staged and directed, they were. But it was the honest reality of it that had enchanted my friend. Now it wasn’t honest or real. Ruined.

I feel a little badly about that. As I said, I didn’t mean to ruin it. If that’s the kind of story you like, I think you should enjoy it. There’s nothing wrong with it. I just don’t happen to enjoy it.

But there is something else that has been niggling at the back of my mind ever since. And I think I got a piece of it today. My friend thought it was real. REALity TV. And in some sense, it was. They were real people. There wasn’t a script. No one knew how any single episode would turn out, especially not the people in the episode. But I was talking about the other half of the equation that makes Reality TV work. That people do have a general understanding of how people work. There are higher ups, who probably aren’t anywhere on the crew or anywhere near filming, who do understand that if you set up a fuzzy sort of situation A (X goes to Y and meets Z) you’ll get a fuzzy sort of set responses B (X has a strong, usually positive, reaction to Z and vows to make Y better in part by “fixing” Z’s relationship with Y). 

My friend wanted the reassurance that X is just a good person if you show them the right thing. I ruined it because I said it was staged. But the staging also works because that is human psychology. If you create A, B will happen. That’s what people are like. But the A was too much to seem honest. 

The thing is, that’s how most fiction works. That’s why we talk about versimilitude and believability of action. We know there are ways people act and we know there are ways they won’t and we know there are particular events and actions that can alter those trajectories. If you hit it right, even if it is blatantly labeled FICTION it feels real. TRUE. When it isn’t labeled fiction, when you label it REALity TV, or have no explanation or definition at all on a YouTube video, then we react pretty deeply as if it is 100% true, unscripted, etc. We forget that there is a planned A acted out to get a planned B result. 

But what happens if A is maybe a little dangerous? What happens when the content creators get B wrong? My friend thought it was TRUE true. And my friend is pretty damn smart and very well educated. Putting all the responsibility on the audience does not seem fair or safe. And safe is the keyword for the thought that is running around inside my head. 

The post that started this thought, which I decided not to threadjack, was about couples making YouTube videos about tying up the girlfriend while the boyfriend smashes their makeup. Essentially ridiculous. But what about people who think it is true? What about people who think it is TRUE true? Does that then make the videos dangerous to some degree? 

I did watch about as much of one of the video’s as I could stand and what really leapt out at me was the girlfriend clutching the boyfriend’s shirt and telling him that his blindfolding her was giving her anxiety. A bit later on she just flat out says deadpan, I’m not comoftable with this. Looking over on the side bar, this is clearly what the channel is, or at least plenty of it is this. They “prank” each other back and forth. So for the subscribed audience, they are probably aware that it is scripted and that they’re going to be just fine and probably are just fine even during the filming. But for anyone who isn’t paying that kind of attention, for anyone who thinks this is like real like reality tv, where the only false element is the camera, this is showing off a pretty nastily unhealthy relationship dynamic. Which is presented as ok by the end of the video because he makes up for it by giving her a whole new set. Is it scripted? Probably. Does that make it ok?

The honest answer is that I don’t know but I suspect not. Because this is the thought that has been in my head since ruining undercover boss. My friend thought it was real. It doesn’t really matter whether it was real or not. They thought it was. And I think the same issue is at hand with these videos. People will think they are real. It doesn’t really matter if they’re right or wrong, they will act as if it is true. 

The video I looked at, the top one in the post if you followed the link above, when I watched it had 3,974,052 views. 112K likes. 7.2K dislikes. Just playing the odds, you know some of those viewers took it literally. Some of those who disliked it and thought it was literal truth probably felt deeply uncomfortable with the interaction. Much more worisome to me is the people in the 112K who now think their own “prank” is a perfectly acceptable idea. When they don’t know about all the prep and talk behind the scenes. Assuming there was any.

And that’s my real worry about Reality TV, that people will take the reality of it as their own reality. That goes double for YouTube when there’s so little filter and so little to distinguish what is true and what is false. I worry about people believing it and believing that this kind of behavior is normal and natural

And I will shut up now.

#off topic #rant #sexism #cruelty #media #god oh god why can't i shut up and say something short for once?

[bharatiyamedia-blog]

How Fb Fought Pretend Information About Fb

http://tinyurl.com/yy7hjjsu A month earlier than the 2016 US presidential election, a hearsay unfold on Fb. Individuals had been sharing a viral gimmick acquainted to e mail spammers: Copy and paste this message to all your pals, or Fb will share your non-public info. The hoax took off, notably in pockets of the US and the Philippines. Inside Facebook’s Menlo Park, California, headquarters, a small group of staffers watched this hearsay acquire traction utilizing a particular software program program they referred to as Stormchaser. The device was designed to trace hoaxes and “memes” – foolish, typically unfaithful web missives – about Fb on the social community and different company-owned companies together with WhatsApp. Since 2016, Fb workers have used Stormchaser to trace many viral posts, together with a preferred conspiracy that the corporate listens to customers by their cellphone’s microphone, in accordance with three former workers. Different matters ranged from bitter protests (the #deleteFB motion) to ludicrous jokes (that Fb Chief Govt Officer Mark Zuckerberg is an alien), in accordance with one former worker. In some circumstances, just like the copy-and-paste hoax, the social community took energetic steps to snuff them out. Workers ready messages debunking assertions about Fb, then ran them in entrance of customers who shared the content material, in accordance with paperwork considered by Bloomberg Information and 4 folks conversant in the matter. They requested to not be recognized discussing non-public initiatives. Many firms monitor social media to be taught what prospects are saying about them. However Fb’s place is exclusive. It owns the platform it is watching, a bonus that will assist Fb observe and attain customers extra successfully than different corporations. And Fb has been saddled with so many actual issues not too long ago that typically misinformation can stick. Stormchaser is only one of a number of instruments Fb has deployed to handle its repute, which has taken a dramatic hit due to its function in spreading Russian misinformation throughout the US election and quite a few privateness scandals. The corporate employs a whole lot of public relations officers and spent $13 million on authorities lobbying in 2018. Zuckerberg and Fb Chief Working Officer Sheryl Sandberg have develop into so intertwined with the corporate’s picture that Fb routinely collects public survey knowledge to grasp how most of the people views them – knowledge that shapes what the executives say and do publicly. These inside efforts, which have not been beforehand reported, additionally included a program dubbed Evening’s Watch, after HBO’s Sport of Thrones, that allow employees monitor how information protection of Fb unfold on the social community and apps equivalent to WhatsApp. Messages and content material on WhatsApp are encrypted, however Fb may get a way of what went viral on that app by how some folks talked about info from WhatsApp after they posted to Fb. It was with Stormchaser, although, the place Fb went on offense. Within the Philippines, Fb put an alert atop customers’ information feeds informing them that the “copy and paste” meme was not true. Within the US, Fb promoted a put up from one of many firm’s official Pages debunking the meme. These counter-programming messages, run by Fb’s product advertising and marketing division, had been referred to as “fast promotions” and had been, like most issues at Fb, measured intensely. In a single inside message, considered by Bloomberg Information, a staffer informed colleagues {that a} QP within the Philippines was reaching customers at a “gradual fee,” hitting solely 20,000 of a focused viewers of 750,000. In one other message, a Fb worker mentioned a proposal to focus on US customers with a QP saying the corporate was targeted on pretend information and explaining the best way to report such misinformation. In keeping with a former staffer who labored with Stormchaser, the initiative confirmed how the corporate prioritized initiatives refuting pretend information about Fb over different types of misinformation spreading on the social community. The corporate now hires exterior fact-checking teams to attempt to appropriate false content material on its service, though outcomes have been spotty. Nonetheless, different former workers described Stormchaser as a crucial effort to tell customers and make clear info, one thing that the majority firms do. A Fb spokeswoman mentioned the messages countering hoaxes had been solely despatched a handful of occasions, together with within the Philippines. In one other occasion in 2015, messages had been despatched to clear up a hearsay that Fb would begin charging customers. The subsequent 12 months, knowledge from Stormchaser was used to ship folks in India and Brazil extra details about a plan for WhatsApp to share account info with its guardian firm, Fb. The spokeswoman disputed the concept that Stormchaser was much like combating misinformation extra broadly, a large problem for Fb since 2016. “We did not use this inside device to combat false information as a result of that wasn’t what it was constructed for, and it would not have labored,” the spokeswoman wrote in an e mail. “The device was constructed with easy expertise that helped us detect posts about Fb based mostly on key phrases, so we may take into account whether or not to reply to product confusion on our personal platform. Evaluating the 2 is a false equivalence.” Fb stopped utilizing Stormchaser to reply to memes in mid-2018, she added, however didn’t specify why. The expertise nonetheless exists, although. The corporate continues to make use of polls to measure how its prime leaders are perceived. These surveys of public notion function very like political campaigns, in accordance with folks conversant in the method. The info, which was collected quarterly at one level following the 2016 election, is used to find out the place Zuckerberg and Sandberg have goodwill with Fb’s customers, and the place they want enchancment. In a single presentation summarizing knowledge on Zuckerberg from June 2017, the CEO was rated on character attributes, together with phrases like “mature,” “trustworthy” and “passionate.” He scored highest on “progressive,” and lowest on “shares my values.” Zuckerberg was additionally charted towards rival CEOs. One other slide confirmed a grid measuring “favorability” and “familiarity,” with Zuckerberg nestled amongst names like Oprah Winfrey, Anderson Cooper and Jimmy Fallon within the “well-known, nicely favored” quadrant. The chart confirmed that Zuckerberg was much less likable than Pope Francis, however barely extra acquainted. Sandberg was within the “not well-known, nicely favored” column. Different slides detailed reactions to Zuckerberg’s graduation deal with at Harvard College in Could 2017. The speech was rated extra “inspiring” than his F8 convention keynote discuss earlier that 12 months, partially due to “the inclusion of his personal experiences.” The inner slides present a uncommon glimpse at Fb’s inside priorities and what the corporate’s communications and advertising and marketing groups take into consideration prime executives. Former Fb Chief Advertising and marketing Officer Gary Briggs instituted the surveys after becoming a member of the corporate in late 2013. His principle was that Zuckerberg’s repute influenced Fb’s, and vice versa. “Mark was sceptical, however I had a hunch that specializing in his repute would enhance Fb’s as nicely,” Briggs mentioned in a press release supplied by Fb. “My group did this analysis with the objective of convincing him and bettering each. Ultimately, Mark selected to not concentrate on this a lot.” That did not imply the analysis was ignored. A slide towards the tip of the June 2017 presentation outlined the place Zuckerberg ought to focus his consideration shifting ahead. It requested the query “why does it matter?” earlier than offering its personal reply: “These reputational territories will assist inform all the things from key messages, talking alternatives, who to look with, focus of posts, objectives, and many others.” When Fb workers introduced the findings to Zuckerberg in his glass convention room often called the Aquarium, he took explicit concern with a slide that targeted on innovation, in accordance with an individual conversant in the presentation. Zuckerberg’s face appeared on a slide subsequent to a photograph of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates underneath the label “Historic Innovation.” Beneath that was an outline: “As soon as pushed the restrict/boundaries to develop one thing new.” To the proper, Tesla’s Elon Musk and Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos had been underneath a unique label: “Present Innovation.” The descriptor beneath their footage learn, “Persevering with to push the envelope.” Zuckerberg was incredulous, in accordance with this individual. The concept that he was a former innovator, and never a present innovator, wasn’t only a knock on Zuckerberg himself – it was a knock on Fb, which depends on its repute for creativity to recruit software program coders and maintain firm morale. The info was introduced to Zuckerberg a 12 months after the corporate unveiled Constructing 8, its secretive {hardware} lab targeted on moonshots, and simply weeks after Fb executives went on stage at its annual developer convention to speak about tech that might switch an individual’s ideas into textual content on a display screen. By the summer season of 2017, Fb had copied among the greatest options of Snapchat, a messaging and picture app that competes with Fb’s Instagram. Gates was probably the most frequent benchmark for Zuckerberg within the slide presentation. Within the “favorability” and “familiarity” slide, Gates was listed as probably the most “well-known, nicely favored” individual on the grid. One other slide confirmed the hole between Zuckerberg and Gates when it got here to character traits like “humble,” “reliable,” and “charitable.” Zuckerberg and Gates are shut buddies, and Zuckerberg thinks of Gates as a mentor — although that is not essentially why the Microsoft co-founder is probably the most incessantly talked about government within the presentation. As a substitute, these conversant in the hassle imagine Gates is the one actual corresponding to Zuckerberg at this stage in his profession: A well known tech founder who got here out of a interval of nice scrutiny – Gates had his personal battles with regulators previously – to develop into a marquee philanthropist. That arc was outlined on one of many slides. “It’s value noting how perceptions of Invoice Gates have vastly developed over the previous 40 years,” the slide reads. “Establishing repute takes time.” Source link

[theconservativebrief]

Venom might just be the most relatable comic book character to grace a movie screen. He’s hungry all the time. He understands that Michelle Williams is an American treasure. He thinks Tom Hardy is embarrassing sometimes, but really just wants the best for him. He’s a loser on his home planet, and honestly, life on any other planet seems like a better option, even it means being in a parasitic, toxic relationship.

It’s not clear what precisely we’ve done to deserve this iteration of Venom and the hilariously goofy movie in which he stars, but it’s a mixed blessing worth embracing.

With the success of Spider-Man: Homecoming and Tom Holland’s winsome turn as Peter Parker, coupled with the ever-growing thirst for anything Marvel superhero, Sony has turned to its trove of Spider-Man-related character rights and found Venom, a Spider-Man archenemy that’s as popular as he is fearsome.

In the Marvel comic books, Venom refers to a character created by the bond between a human and an alien Symbiote, which is both a symbiote, an organism that forges a relationship with another organism to reap benefits, and part of an alien race called Symbiotes — I know, it’s complicated. Venom’s first host was Peter Parker himself, but his most iconic host is a disgraced journalist Eddie Brock.

Venom takes some liberties with this history, as the Symbiote in this film has no relation to Spider-Man and has been brought to earth by a visionary space entrepreneur named Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed, cosplaying as a nefarious amalgam of Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk). However, luckily for purists and journalists alike, Hardy’s Brock is still a disgraced reporter.

The first third of director Ruben Fleischer’s movie is a painstaking exposition of that complicated backstory. But after that, Fleischer loosens up and unfurls Venom’s true nature: a twisted rom-com between Brock and the rude Symbiote that’s attached itself to him. It’s like “Jack and Diane,” except Diane enjoys human decapitation and sadistic taunts.

Anyone searching for a symbolic conversation about the relationship between authoritarianism and superheroes, or a critique of superheroes as a predominantly male and classist power fantasy, might be turned off by Venom’s fidelity to juvenile rudeness. Yet that all may be part of an elaborate joke on Fleishcher’s part: Venom is so terminally juvenile and inappropriate that it brings you to a point where you can’t tell if you’re laughing at it or with the profane Symbiote torturing our protagonist.

After being relentlessly pelted by the Symbiote’s disembodied insults and the ridiculousness of Hardy’s internal monologue with a flesh-craving alien whose pleasures are both carnal and anatomical, it’s hard not to end up rooting for this strange, mismatched pair. If they can make it in this wild world, maybe we can, too.

Eddie Brock is a nice guy who truly wants to do the right thing. We know this because he’s one of the only characters in Venom who interacts with and is nice to non-white, non-rich, non-male characters. The other sign that Brock is a good guy is that he’s an investigative journalist who, despite a request from his boss to coddle a billionaire who’s given Brock’s network an exclusive interview, is determined to call out the filthy rich on their bullshit — a choice that leaves him jobless and disgraced.

That billionaire is one Carlton Drake, who’s supposedly very concerned about Earth’s current state of waste, pollution, and overpopulation. Instead of pouring his mountain of money into conservation efforts, though, Drake thinks the best idea is to go galactic and find an entirely different planet for humanity to populate. And while his company is zipping across the universe, they come in contact with the Symbiotes, a race of aliens that need hosts to live.

The Symbiote at the center of all this is named Venom. The film is not particularly concerned with how Venom got its English name, or why it knows English in the first place, but we do know that Venom, for one reason or another, chooses to bond with and never let go of Brock.

With Venom bonded, Brock can perform dangerous, adrenaline-spiked feats like intricately weaving through San Francisco traffic on a speeding motorcycle and soaring up the side of buildings — and, perhaps, fighting injustice more effectively than he ever could as an investigative journalist.

Brock needs Venom’s lethal, completely illegal powers to fight back against the power and corruption Drake represents, even though those powers belong to a feral, selfish alien Symbiote. So he’s faced with a Faustian deal: unleash the full, murderous power of Venom in service of a greater good, or remain in his powerless human state.

The choice is made simpler by the deep, disembodied voice of the Venom Symbiote (Hardy is credited with the voice acting), who, since it’s bonded with Brock and knows his thoughts and tendencies, is quick to point out all of the wrong decisions that led to Brock becoming such an impotent loser.

Because there is no convincing argument for Brock to remain an impotent loser, a cynical but compelling idea emerges amid Venom’s incessant juvenile taunts: If we’re all stuck living in this terrible world together, perhaps it’s time to stop clinging to the better instincts that render us weak and powerless, and do what needs to be done to attain the power to make things better.

In a way, that feels more honest than the strain of idealism that distinguishes most superhero movies, daring to question whether great power and great responsibility are a bonded pair, or mutually exclusive.

Brock is given a perfunctory love interest in the form of Michelle Williams as Anne Weying, a serious lawyer who is never seen practicing law, but does wear the type of suit that serious lawyers wear. Venom doesn’t really care to spell out what she and Brock see in each other, outside of a cute little computer screen saver showing photos of them together, and a moment when the Venom Symbiote recognizes that she’s special and means so much to Brock.

But it’s hard to believe him, because the real romance of this movie is between Brock and Venom.

Venom’s strongest elements involve Brock and Venom getting to know each other via a sort of prolonged, difficult internal courtship. Even though their symbiotic relationship may ultimately be, as in nature, mutually beneficial, the movie makes clear that such relationships are not always easy.

At first there’s a struggle as Brock has to curb Venom’s carnal urge for human body parts while Venom has deal with Brock’s stubborn human morality. But they eventually learn what drives each other insane (powerful sound waves for one; the growing wealth gap for the other), what hurts their feelings (being called a parasite for one; being told he’s selfish for the other), and what warms their souls (frozen potato objects, human heads, and apparently Michelle Williams in a bad wig).

It all adds up to a twisted, weird, but ultimately sweet sort-of romance that wouldn’t work without Hardy’s commitment to a specific brand of silly, lunky physical comedy.

In the early going of their bond, Brock is harassed by the Symbiote, who asks if he’s going to cry or if it would be okay, just this time, to put a human head in its jagged-toothed gaping maw. Hardy lumbers around gloriously, opening his eyes so wide that it looks painful, sharpening his face and gestures so it looks like he’s plagued with a terminal itch.

But as he and the Symbiote begin to see each other as more than host and parasite, Hardy starts to take on the more expected poses of an action hero (with the help of some ooey, gooey, squid-ink-colored CGI).

But it’s not just Brock who evolves as a result of this relationship. In fact, the movie’s most touching moment might just be when Venom honestly describes that while it may be fearsome and awe-inducing on Earth, it’s actually a bit of a loser back home. Turns out the power fantasy it has on Earth is tempered and informed by a rather melancholy reality. Symbiotes: They’re just like us.

As with any mismatched movie pair, Brock and Venom eventually find a common understanding. They’re literally bonded, yes, but they’re also symbolically bonded by their shared loserdom — though having a common enemy helps, too. Through this relationship, both learn more about themselves, suggesting that even toxic extraterrestrial relationships might have symbiotic silver linings.

Original Source -> Venom is a fun, twisted rom-com disguised as a bad superhero movie

via The Conservative Brief

#IFTTT #The Conservative Brief

[theseventhhex]

Sextile Interview

Eddie Wuebben, Melissa Scaduto & Brady Keehn

After hunkering down in a basement in Echo Park to record for a couple weeks, Sextile is back with their sophomore LP, ‘Albeit Living’. The album is a testament to the band’s growth in the songwriting department and effort spent fine-tuning their burgeoning compositional skills: the synth is in the forefront on this album, allowing it to shine through more powerfully than we saw on ‘A Thousand Hands’. Despite its more sophisticated sound, the album manages to match and even intensify the seductive energy of their live shows and debut album. The ten-song LP is a strong statement as a follow-up to their primitive debut, and while it re-defines Sextile’s sound, the real impact the album has is the way it decisively breaks the rules and guidelines set out by conventional genres and strives to create something truly unique and genre-altering… We talk to Brady Keehn about playing basketball, Elon Musk and crazy conspiracy theories…

TSH: Talk us through your intentions as 'Albeit Living' was coming together...

Brady: We had a very focused approach this time around as we were aiming for a record that was more accessible. I guess our approach consisted of a mix in having a seamless energy and also an intentional energy. I feel the seamless factor was in relation to the fact that our lives have become more positive and things are moving in an optimistic direction for each member. Also, we were being thrown into the goth category and that's not something we want to define us, we wanted to be more independent from that - a bit more punk. In the end, it was just nice to utilise the synthesiser more on this record and to have a range of sounds covered.

TSH: What's impacted you most as a songwriter since the last release?

Brady: The madness in the world and how freaking uncomfortable everyone is today! I see a lot of my friends struggling with finances too. You know, all my friends are trying to find solace, which definitely seeps into the lyrics. I guess my songwriting is mainly about the confusion of what is today? I don't understand what's going on. I especially don't understand how our country is so fucked up with a host of serious issues.

TSH: Did you feel compelled to tackle the economical and political climates?

Brady: Absolutely. I felt like as an artist I couldn't be quiet anymore, especially in this day and age. I see bands often that just sit by at the wayside and let the politics of today slide away, but now is not the time to be shy. Given the nature of the political theatre of today, you simply cannot pretend its not happening. Most people tend to write about their relationships, I'm sure relationships are inside my lyrics too, but I can't sit by and pretend that all I'm dealing with is emotional relationships and my relationships with human beings because now it's on a larger scale. There is a large scale of things to be worried about, as opposed to extraneous stuff that I have no control over. You know, maybe I can try to provoke something and make people more aware with our music. I have a platform I can use and it would be nice to use it for the better of mankind.

TSH: Does 'Sterilized' tie in with your frustrations?

Brady: Yeah, totally. 'Sterilized' is very much a commentary on social stuff and being thrown all of this misinformation in the media. Sometimes I felt like being sterilized so I can take all of this bullshit away and out of me.

TSH: What are the origins of 'Floored'?

Brady: 'Floored' came about when we were at a soundcheck at a show one day. Eddie started playing this bassline and we were so impressed that we ended up recording it on stage whilst we were soundchecking! When it came down to record it on the album we re-recorded the bassline to make it more bouncy. Melissa came up with the guitar parts right on the spot and I added the vocals. It was so organic the way it all came about and it's the only song on the record that was originally a demo.

TSH: Was 'AVC' the obvious choice to bookend the record?

Brady: 'AVC' wasn't even going to be a Sextile song initially. That song was something I had been working on by myself since I was looking to do a different project other than Sextile - something more in the vein of electronic music. Anyhow, when we were recording the record, we had nine songs and 'AVC' was just lying around. I mentioned that I'd really like for it to be on the record and the rest of the band was really into it. When I look at this track now, it just seems like a natural progression for Sextile and I don't even know why I thought about another project when I should be doing this one, haha!

TSH: What's pleased you most in the wake of this album being completed?

Brady: That we completed it, ha! During the course of making a record there are a lot of processes. The recording and songwriting was a challenge and we mixed the record ourselves too. There's a lot of work going into it. I have to mention Melissa's excellent artwork for the record too - she's simply an amazing inspiration to me.

TSH: You've mentioned Melissa is the biggest record nerd and she's taught you everything you know about music. The connection you two have must be so rewarding?

Brady: Absolutely. Melissa is amazing. Every week she brings something new to the table - music I've never heard before. She's a huge influence on me and Eddie, we've both learnt so much from her. Without Melissa, I know for sure that we would not sound the way we do and we definitely would not have the amazing aesthetic that we have. Music is Melissa's passion and she wants to share it with as many people as possible.

TSH: How does the band unwind outside of music?

Brady: We all recently started playing basketball together. We're not really sports people and we really suck at basketball, but we've got a group of people consisting of bands and friends from the community that we play with. We have this huge group that comes out every Monday and Wednesday to play and it's just a nice way to unwind.

TSH: Do you still conjure up your kale, avocado, tomato and turkey burger salad?

Brady: Haha! That dish involves a lot of cooking but I do love it. It's just one of those meals that makes you feel really healthy after eating it. But, yeah, cooking is a nice form of escapism for me too.

TSH: Which truth-speakers and game changers have you been looking into lately?

Brady: I've been really into Elon Musk lately. Elon has just got some great and innovative ideas, plus he wants to change the world rather than capitalise on it. His business models and technologies are very fascinating. From him I've been getting really into neuroscience. The whole band is actually diving deep into quantum mechanics and quantum physics. I feel like today quantum mechanics to artists is the same as what existentialism was to beat writers.

TSH: Do you still tend to come across crazy conspiracy theories?

Brady: Oh, there's this one I recently heard about a secret space program on the dark side of the moon where there's a base where multiple nations of alien races reside and all this other crazy shit. It's crazy because I have friends that have seen the first pictures from Mars ever and they've still not heard of these secret space programs.

TSH: Is social media to blame?

Brady: That's where all this bullshit comes from. It's a platform for so much nonsense these days. I mean even if someone is expressing their opinions online, for all you know, it could just be a 15 year old trolling you and saying the exact opposite to you just to get a rise. I mean it kind of sucks that the online world is just a massive blaming each other type of game.

TSH: The suffering in the world is something you constantly want to bring to light too...

Brady: Yeah, its becoming more a part of my life. You know, like 3 or 4 years ago, I couldn't even pull my own head out of my ass. I couldn't save myself or get my act together. Now that I I have been able to take care of myself and better myself, I'm more present in the world and more aware. I'm seeing the suffering of others and I want to make people aware. I see it all clearly now and it's tragic and heartbreaking. Now that my eyes are open, I'm watching the world and constantly observing. I'm feeling the emotions of people and hearing the stories of suffering makes me want to help in whatever way I can. You have to bring injustices to light. If the world isn't the way you want it to be, you you have to go out there and change it yourself.

TSH: What are key aspects that you hope to maintain with Sextile?

Brady: What I hope to maintain moving ahead is our energy. I want to maintain the energy in the music and mostly we want people to feel the music. I don't want our audience to just stand and look at us, I want them to move. Also, we don't want to be safe anymore. We feel that a lot of the music that we hear today is safe and very reserved. Bands are not willing to push over the edge, but we want to continue to push the boundaries. We're inspired by Melissa's song-form ideas, which will allow us to convey our exciting punk ethos. When people see us onstage, I want them to feel that they can feel they can get up there and do it too. It's all about passing the inspiration and trade-off to other people.

Sextile - “One of These”

Albeit Living

#Interview #Sextile