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murphismycat · 4 years

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*SPOILERS* My Thoughts on The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes before I Forget

Ok, first of all, I actually really loved this book. I think it is beautifully done, even if it is almost nothing like I expected. There were a few things that I thought were going to be in the book that actually were: the development of the Hunger Games as we know them by year 74, the first mockingjays, the first district 12 winner of the Games, and the beginning of Snow’s use of poison to rise to power. I was worried that this single book would not be able to capture the complexities of the original trilogy, but I actually think it did. No, there is not quite the same sense of calculated manipulation in this book, but that is because we are the ones watching Snow become that manipulator. The way he thinks is fascinating. He’s basically a textbook Slytherin obsessed with political theory, and we are able to witness his transformation into who we know he becomes. I feel like this is one of those books that I will grow to appreciate the more I think about it.

There were some things that I thought were odd, particularly in the first half of the book. The fact that the Hunger Games had been operating as they had for ten years was almost unbelievable to me. They would literally just bring in these kids and dump them in the arena with no food, water, or change of clothes. Also, it was the same arena every single year. No one even watched the games. If the entire point is to force people to remember what happened, and understand why control is necessary, why would they not make a greater effort to make it more of a spectacle? I feel like the way we see the Games in Katniss’ years makes more sense, and I understand that Snow was instrumental in forming the games that we know, but it seems odd to me that the geniuses that are supposed to be in charge let the games exist as they did for so long. This year, the tenth games, was supposedly the first year that they had kept the tributes for more than a night before the games. Did they not think that the tributes would die without food and water? And why are these Capitol parents, who actually seem relatively normal so close to the end of the war, bring their small children to see the tributes in a monkey cage? It feels like the people of the Capitol still had an understanding that this was wrong. It hadn’t been sensationalized yet. So why would they just be okay with watching these kids starve in a cage? Also, this is the first year that the tributes have sponsors. How could anyone be expected to fight to the death without food or water, as they had apparently been doing for ten years? The only water source in the arena was the puddle that came when it rained. What if it didn’t rain? They would all just die. Quickly. The only motivation for fighting for your life would have been to kill the others so that you could get food or water faster. Also, they didn’t check the tributes’ pockets before going in? I understand why Snow gets in trouble for cheating with the snakes, but honestly he should not have been able to get away with the food and rat poison.

Other than the whole situation with the games, I also didn’t really like how half of the tributes, and some of the mentors, died before the games even began. I think it was to give the impression that Snow and the Capitol children were all part of the Games themselves, similar to how Katniss feels she’s still in the Games in Mockingjay. I just don’t think it added a lot to the story, and I also think the bombing of the arena could have been fleshed out more. There were many points in the first third of the book that I felt were there purely for the development of Snow’s character, but didn’t make a whole lot of sense in the larger picture. I know some people thought him and Tigris being cousins was random. I felt that a little bit too, but there was definitely some sort of relationship hinted at between them when Katniss meets Tigris in Mockingjay. Katniss assumes Tigris was kicked out of the Games by Snow for not being pretty anymore. Tigris never really confirms or denies her theory, leaving a mystery that I think we got a little bit of clarity for in this book.

Aside from that stuff, I really loved this book, especially towards the end. The parallels and meaning that come up from the songs are quite beautiful. For example, Lucy Gray always says that it’s not over until the mockingjay sings. I very recently reread the original trilogy, and I remembered the chapters after Katniss assassinates Coin. Snow dies laughing, blood pouring out of his mouth, smothered by the people he worked so hard to control (which is actually quite disturbing to think about after reading this book about him). As Katniss is waiting to die in her old room at the training center, she starts, almost unconsciously, singing. It’s over. The mockingjay sings.

I love all of those types of parallels. Snow hates the mockingjays right away, and his first act of initiative as a peacekeeper is to have them killed. I know some people didn’t like the mentions of katniss root, mockingjays, and songs, but I loved them. I was excited to read about them because I love the original books, but I also think it added a lot. We see how Snow would associate each of these things in his mind, and how that impacts his actions in the original trilogy. Katniss is a symbol of chaos. The root amidst the nature that he loved and then learned to disdain. He felt safe and at peace the first time he encountered it, spending a pleasant Sunday outing with Lucy Gray and the Covey. The next time he hears about it, Lucy Gray lies to say she is finding some before she runs away, knowing that he has changed his mind. Running away and living in nature, like an animal, is not what he wants. He desires civilization, control. Katniss root, and therefore Katniss Everdeen herself, symbolizes the opposite: chaos. Katniss’ use of the mockingjay and the songs of the Covey immediately tip Snow off to the beginnings of rebellion. He know what they mean, and where they came from. It makes his actions in the original series seem so much more personal.

I think this is a common theory, but I’m pretty sure Maude Ivory is Katniss’ paternal grandmother. I had a little fangirl moment the first time Snow goes looking for Lucy Gray. First he stops at the bakery, and then he goes to the Seam. He meets both Peeta’s and Katniss’ ancestors in the same half hour, which is crazy to think about. Every time a place familiar to the original books was mentioned, I couldn’t help thinking about what happens in 64 years.

The Hanging Tree was crazy to read about. I love that it can apply to so many relationships and on so many levels throughout the book. On the one hand, it’s between Lucy Gray and Billy Taupe. It’s also about Lucy Gray and Snow himself, but Snow never really sees it that way. In the end, Lucy Gray realizes that both she and Snow are doomed to their fates. They will not live simple, good lives as good people. They can’t. A necklace of rope, side by side with me. When Snow hears her sing this for the last time, he thinks she’s pointing out his role in Sejanus’ death. In a way he’s right, but he completely misses the bigger picture. His way of thinking, both in general and specifically about Lucy Gray, is so flawed. It becomes increasingly clear the more he talks about owning her. I’ve heard that people don’t think Suzanne Collins properly addresses Snow’s flaws, but I think it is done very well. It’s never specifically stated that he is a bad person, but it would feel cheap if it was. In fact, he states over and over that he is an exceptional person. At the beginning of the book, it’s almost easy to believe that he is. We are the ones that get to watch his transition. Sometimes characters are really bad, but it works out in their favor anyway.

All in all, I think this book is a great addition to the original series. It adds history and context, exploring the making of both a villain and a society. The Capitol, districts, and Games that we see in this book are so different from those of the original series, but Suzanne Collins beautifully closes this book so that we can see where the path is taking these characters and institutions, eventually leading them to the ones we know.

I’m pretty sure no one is reading this, but this is more for me and my memory than anything else. I have a lot of thoughts and no one to share them with. If anyone is reading this, thank you and I hope you’re staying safe in this pandemic.

#the ballad of songbirds and snakes #Suzanne Collins #The Hunger Games #coriolanus snow #tbosas spoilers #book review #tbosas #tbosas review #catching fire #mockingjay

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mobius-prime · 4 years

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154. Sonic Super Special #14

Law of the Land

Writer: Evan Skolnick and Jim Spivey Pencils: Suzanne Paddock and Harvo! Colors: Josh and Aimee Ray

This is more of a silly story, which, while the timeline isn't specified, I estimate to take place sometime before Eggman's return at the beginning of the era. This is due to the fact that it begins with Sonic and Sally strolling peacefully through the forest while discussing how nothing has been going on lately, a statement which is hugely at odds with what has been going on lately. Suddenly, a zone portal opens up in front of them, and two echidnas in riot gear burst through, slap Sally knocking her out, and grab Sonic while telling him he's under arrest for "extreme mental anguish and permanent emotional scarring," which if you ask me just sounds like an average day on Tumblr. They drag him through the portal into the city of Litigopolis, and take him to the castle, where the J.U.D.G.E. - the Judgmental Unrelenting Digitized Governmental Enforcer, which of course looks exactly like original Robotnik - is to sentence him for his apparent crimes. He's greeted by Johnny Snively, the prosecutor, but luckily for him his lawyer is Sally McAcorn, there to act as his defense. It takes them ten hours in court, but McAcorn eventually manages to get him out on bail, and explains how the law became so strict in the city.

Eventually, the amount of lawsuits and crimes became so high that the king hired Robotnik Enterprises to build the J.U.D.G.E., a supercomputer which was supposed to help manage the city's legal system. It of course quickly took over, sentenced the king to life in prison for "ruler malpractice," created a bunch of new, unreasonably strict laws to keep the populace fearful and complacent, and hired a bunch of echidnas as his security force. McAcorn tells Sonic that no one has tried to shut off the J.U.D.G.E. because of their fear of said security force, which is of course Sonic's cue to race away hoping to pull off just such a scheme. However, as expected, the moment he enters the J.U.D.G.E.'s HQ…

He runs for his life, deciding to abandon his attempt for now and racing back to safety at McAcorn's residence. She's irritated at his rash decision, thinking he's only made the case for his innocence worse, even though they now have video proof from amateur videographers on the streets that the original crime he was arrested for wasn't even committed by him.

Of course it would have been Evil Sonic, zone-hopper extraordinaire. McAcorn cautions Sonic against committing any more crimes, thinking it best to lay low as committing even one more crime might cause the J.U.D.G.E. to have a massive meltdown. And thus, Sonic gets his second crazy idea of the day.

The plan works, and the J.U.D.G.E. blows up, sending Snively flying out of the building. When Lieutenant Knuckles of the police force tries to show up to arrest Sonic once more, McAcorn simply whacks him with her suitcase. Sonic worries about how he'll get home, since the technology used to create the zone portals was destroyed in the explosion, but you know who always ends up showing up when zone-hopping takes place - Zonic, of course! He cheekily sends Sonic back off to his home zone before he can get a grateful kiss from McAcorn, which is probably a good thing even though Sonic's mad about it, because… well, c'mon buddy, that may be a Sally, but that's not your Sally!

Best of Times Worst of Times

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Steven Butler Colors: Josh and Aimee Ray

So Knuckles' whole story has kind of been put on hold lately, due both to the cancellation of his own series, and the Sonic Adventure adaption that had been taking up all the screentime until recently. But Penders has finally found a solution to this: from now on, until the end of the fourth era (with only a few exceptions here and there between issues), Knuckles and his race get the backup story all to themselves. Karl handles most of the main stories of each issue, which all deal with Sonic and Knothole and, you know, the main thing most people are probably coming to the comic to see, while Penders gets to handle everything past each halfway mark. I would say this is mostly a good thing, as there's quite a few loose ends that need to be wrapped up from KtE, and y'all already know I quite liked that series. However, now that all of Knuckles and the other echidnas' ventures have been reduced to backup stories within the main comic, the quality of said stories begins to suffer drastically. This story is of the same quality of the original KtE, probably because it gets to be a normal story length thanks to the double length of Super Specials, but it also marks the beginning point of a pretty infamous arc within the comic, simply dubbed the Green Knuckles Saga by many fans. Wondering what the hell the Green Knuckles Saga might be? Well, we only have a few issues left before we find out - so for now, let's press on!

This story hilariously opens with an honest-to-god *record scratch* "Yep, that's me. You're probably wondering how I got into this situation" moment. A confused Knuckles finds himself running for his life from a massive, expanding orange blast of energy, which chases him all the way to the edge of his island. Having no other choice, he leaps for his life over the edge, into the ocean far below.

Well, that's probably not good. But how, indeed, did Knuckles *record scratch* get into this situation? It all began at his mother's wedding that morning. She and Wynmacher have finally gotten married, and while Knuckles is still a little torn about how to feel, ultimately he's happy for his mom, recognizing that Wynmacher really is a genuinely good guy.

Romance is in the air on this day, and Vector, predictably, has a bit of a sour attitude about it, flippantly dismissing the mood while Julie-Su happily hangs onto Knuckles' arm. They find Constable Remington in the crowd with his pretty companion Komi-Ko, but they don't get long to chat before he gets a call from the precinct, calling him back to deal with a brewing situation. While he leaves, telling Knuckles he'll call if he needs backup, we head over to Haven, where we find a very, very unexpected guest visiting.

Man, just when you thought Kenders had introduced enough grandfathers, we get one more! This guy is the father of Hawking, who if you'll remember is still lying in the medbay on life support in a coma. If you're wondering why we haven't heard of him before, it's because he apparently transcended his physical form a while ago so he could spend the rest of his "life" in quiet meditation in another zone, you know, as one does. However, just a little while ago he felt a disturbance in the Force, and realizing that Dimitri was amassing his forces for yet another attempt to take over the island and echidna civilization as a whole, Mathias just plopped himself back into the physical realm somehow so he could lead his many, many descendants into battle against the Dark Legion. I really just can't get over how this guy, never once mentioned or even hinted at before, has suddenly appeared out of goddamn nowhere to introduce the next plot hook. While this is going on, Knuckles, Julie-Su, and the rest of the Chaotix (still minus Charmy - he's really been missing for a long time now, hasn't he?) all saddle up on some streaking pashas and gallop out of the city to let off some steam. Really, now that the whole Chaos situation has been resolved, life seems positively idyllic on the Floating Island, doesn't it? After dropping Komi-Ko back off at her apartment, Remington hails a cab which just so happens to contain our old friend Harry, who is not at all happy to see him.

He tells Remington that apparently, General von Stryker has decided to organize a massive protest - meaning, since we're talking about the dingoes here, more like a riot - as apparently, conditions for the dingoes in the city still haven't improved, even despite Remington taking a personal interest. Remington is worried that with the High Council due to make a decision on the matter soon, things will quickly spiral out of control if the protest goes forward, and Harry apparently agrees, as he doesn't even demand payment for the cab ride, just telling Remington to forget he ever saw him there as Remington meets up with his men nearby. Meanwhile, we learn that Knuckles apparently didn't take everyone along on the pasha ride purely for leisure - he's in fact led them straight to the Grand Conservatory, the very place he first met Archimedes and fought Enerjak.

Well well, nice to see Julie-Su actually acknowledge the meeting she had with her adoptive father a while ago! Though it's certainly suspicious that he apparently just "disappeared" shortly thereafter… Now get ready for some rapid skipping around between characters! Knuckles isn't the only one who's come to the Grand Conservatory - Mathias has led the entire Brotherhood there, as it's apparently where the Dark Legion has holed up for now. Spectre rushes especially aggressively into the battle, with the others noting that this seems personal for him, and the entire Brotherhood teams up to begin the assault on the Legion's new makeshift base, causing them to begin an evacuation. Far away from here, Wynmacher and Lara-Le land in their personal aircraft on a landing pad at the "Albion Chalet," which despite its name is just a luxury destination on the Floating Island itself, for their honeymoon. At the same time, von Stryker leads his soldiers into their riot, firing their guns wildly into the air with the safeties off, shouting about how the echidnas aren't treating them nicely enough. Gee, I wonder why, General? Remington and his men arrive at the scene, and Remington orders everyone to hold fire, still hoping that he can convince the general to see reason. On Knuckles' side of the Conservatory, Legion members begin pouring into the room, and before Knuckles can react a group of soldiers grab Julie-Su and drag her off into one of their flying saucer vehicles, which flies away leaving the others unable to help her as they're attacked by more soldiers. And finally, back at Haven…

Man, I genuinely feel bad for Hawking - he was literally kept on life support this entire time, with obviously no hope of recovery, and he had to wait until everyone was out of the place to even be allowed to properly die. Remember, it's been nearly a year by now of him just lying on this table, with Locke even expending his own energies to keep Hawking alive at one point when he started to flatline. Julie-Su is taken to a large battleship flying just off the edge of the Floating Island, where Lien-Da gloats about capturing her and mockingly reminds her of how she's her half-sister, clearly still not over their father having remarried in the past. Geez, what a petty bitch, right?

Oh man, we finally get to see Simon again, as well as seeing Floren-Ca for the first time! Back on the bridge, Dimitri defends having had Julie-Su abducted to Moritori Rex, who has by now gotten rid of his visor to reveal perfectly normal-looking organic eyes (something which seems a little at odds with his previous backstory), saying that Julie-Su is still a part of his family whether Moritori likes it or not. Huh, didn't take you for the sentimental type, Dimitri. He then orders Moritori to fire the Quantum Beam, and it bursts out of the ship's cannons in an explosion of light, consuming every part of the Floating Island, interrupting every scene, happy and unhappy, over the entire island.

Goddamn. Honestly, this kind of reminds me of the scene from Sonic '06 where Solaris begins consuming all of time and space. Dimitri expresses regret that he had to pull the trigger with Knuckles still on the island, but ultimately recognizes that Knuckles only ever stood to get in their way, and claims that they can finally reclaim what is rightfully theirs. The ship flies off toward the island, which has begin to fade from existence as if into another dimension. No one is aware of Knuckles' survival, a lone figure floating unconscious on debris left in the waters far below…

#nala reads archie sonic preboot #archie sonic #archie sonic preboot #sonic the hedgehog #sonic super special 14 #writer: evan skolnick #writer: jim spivey #writer: ken penders #pencils: suzanne paddock #pencils: harvey mercadoocasio #pencils: steven butler #colors: joshua d ray #colors: aimee r ray

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donnerpartyofone · 5 years

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21 Questions

Tagged by @getoutofmyhouse who had oddly similar answers to mine

Nickname: only the one I use here, that I gave myself--Claire Donner, which has to do with my famous love of cannibalism. Claire is my real first name, though.

Zodiac: I am so very cuspy. I was born at about a quarter to midnight on April 20, so I tend to relate to, and feel insulted by, the suppositions about Aries and Taurus equally. I’m one of those jerks who will tell you astrology is a bunch of hoo ha...and then drone on with my Many Esoteric Ideas about it, so I’ll just stop myself right here.

Height: 5’ nuthin is what I prefer to say...because saying I’m 5 and 3/4′ sounds a little like saying I’m 10 and a half years old.

Amount of sleep: It’s all fucked up. Until I got into my 30s I could, and would prefer to, sleep endlessly. Now I go to bed around 10 (depression), get up around 5 or 6 (being old), and for extra fun, I’ve developed this insomnia that often keeps me up from about 2am-5am. I try make the most of it by getting up, getting high, watching a movie or two, writing...basically just having a secret private day by myself. I’d really rather go back to just sleeping constantly though.

Last movie I saw: I saw GRETA in theaters tonight, which was ok. I guess I thought any Neil Jordan film would be headier than this, but watching Isabel Huppert just running around acting like an absolute maniac is a rare treat! My last video experience was RAW, which I put on to bother my husband right when we got home from the theater. (I think he liked it more than I originally did, to my surprise)

Last thing I googled: The correct spelling of Sylvia Likens’ last name. I’m obsessed with this type of crime where a group of people (usually a family and/or some of their friends and neighbors) fall into some kind of shared hysteria where they protractedly torture to death an acquaintance for no particular reason. Some times there’s an element of mystery as to why the victim didn’t leave while they were still able to, which suggests to me that the murdered person was just as much a victim of the groupthink as the perpetrators. Other example victims include Suzanne Capper, Vera Jo Reigle, and I think to some degree Sophie Lionnet, James Bulger, and Junko Furuta. (Also a crime they briefly discuss in the book Lords of Chaos, where several people murder a friend in their trailer, but I can’t remember it specifically enough to look up the names--the other last thing i tried to google) I keep thinking there should be a psychiatric and/or legal term for this kind of crime, but I’ve never heard one, so let me know if you got one!

Favorite musician: I have trouble with questions that involve ranking anything, so I’ll just say that right now I’m listening to a lot of old White Zombie. I didn’t know anything about their origins as an East Village noise band, and I’m fascinated by the stories about how apocalyptically miserable it was to be in that group. I’m increasingly obsessed with people who work their asses off doing something they barely even enjoy, for what must be borderline spiritual reasons.

Song stuck in my head: Nothing right this second, for which I am very grateful. There’s something awful in my brain that causes me to wake up with some maddening, babyish tune stuck in my head more often than not. It is most frequently the Ten Little Indians nursery rhyme. This is literally killing me.

Other blogs: @anhed-nia, which started as a dumping ground for long posts about mental illness, and turned into almost only movie writing. at some point there was just so much movie shit that i started to feel awkward about posting anything personal there again. i also got @getoffyrass which is a group blog, and a repository for images that make great drawing references. everyone is encouraged to post their drawings, too, although it is seldom used. i still like having it around, for when i have time to draw. my “real” drawing blog is @neveratendermoment but i don’t draw often enough anymore...

Do I get asks: i used to get tons! i really enjoy them, even the trolls to some degree. i must have seemed like more of a regular tumblr geek girl back in the day. also tumblr has just changed a lot since then. my blog was definitely a casualty of Best Stuff First, i think my follower count stopped dead forever right when that happened, and now that practically every single fucking thing on this entire site is either fandom shit or *discourse*, i really have nothing to offer tumblr anymore, anyway.

Blogs following: 1,057.

Lucky numbers: 2! Also 5.

What I’m wearing: black wool long john pants from Chrome, and a white v neck teeshirt with the words BLACK MAYONNAISE on it in black Rocky Horror font. i live near the notoriously toxic Gowanus Canal, and “black mayonnaise” is the actual term used to describe what’s on the bottom of it, by the scientists who are trying to figure out what to do with it.

Dream trip: i am really excited by travel, it’s hard to pick. i’m hopefully making a dream trip soon though: my father’s mysterious finno-swedish family is from the åland islands, and my husband and i will be planning part of our honeymoon there, whenever that happens.

Dream Job: i think about this a lot, because the older i get, the more i object to the entire concept of having to work to live. i’m into the whole universal basic income thing. i’m at this point where i can barely stand to think about capitalism in any way--like i think about how the need for money is so mortally serious that there’s a lot of physical stuff in the world that only exists because someone was scared of starving, tons of useless products and packaging and factory byproducts and all kinds of fucking straight up garbage that was only invented due to the lethality of poorness. i would rather be left totally alone forever if possible. however, if i HAD to do something and i COULD do anything, it would probably be film criticism. this fantasy takes place in a world where people care so much about what i have to say that i can make a career, not only out of movie writing, but out of only writing about the specific movies i want to write about, referring to nothing other than my personal reactions.

Favorite food: i wish the answer weren’t just “cheese”, but it probably is. also mushrooms. anything cinnamon. i’m a pretty adventurous eater though. the most important thing for me is a variety of flavors and textures.

Languages: english. i took several years of italian in junior high-high school, and did nothing with it. i taught myself to read french pretty fluently, but i would fold right up if someone tried to speak to me. i learned a bunch of swedish on duolingo, shoulda kept it up. i’ll get back to it! i really regret never learning spanish though, so i’m easily torn on what to do with my time.

Play any instruments: clarinet in junior high/high school, also alto sax which i did not enjoy at all, a little guitar. i bought a used electric bass last year that i have really been enjoying, but i feel a lot of guilt around not playing enough. so much of it is just strength training. that’s probably what i like about it, though. also i got a lot of electronic music software and midi controllers and stuff...and then i realized that it could take me months to sort through the thousands of samples i have to program this stuff, and i only got so far into it before i started to get discouraged. i need to get back to it, it’s ridiculous to let that stuff lie around. this is a rare example of me wishing i knew someone local to play with, who could speed me along on how everything works.

Favorite songs: another one of these impossible questions! anybody who is even reading this can probably guess the answers from the handful of music posts i reblog over and over and over. the other night i got all hyperactive and forced my husband to drop everything and listen to “buffalo stance” by nene cherry, which i never ever get sick of. real top contenders for favorite song might be “Stand By the Jamms” by the klf, and this recording, which has gotten me through many difficult hours:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8k1HsF3EvY

https://www.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/sunray-sonic-boom-music-for-the-dreamachine-cd/STRAWB.003CD.html

Random fact: i’m sure i’m missing out on something really funny and cool, but for now it’s just the well-known fact that i read palms.

Describe yourself as aesthetic thing: man, how do i answer this without being totally pretentious? maybe nobody can! i’m coming up with something really hard to describe but it will be worth it. the other day i watched this insane, completely unnecessary movie about lorca and salvador dali (played by robert pattinson) as gay lovers. there’s a scene in it where lorca does that “pick a hand” thing to dali, and dali picks an empty hand. of course, they’re both poor students who couldn’t be buying any gifts, so they do this obnoxious pantomime where dali pretends lorca actually gave him something--but then it turns out that lorca really DOES have something. he opens his other hand and gives dali...SOMETHING. i don’t know what! they make such a big deal out of it, but what the hell? you see it for a second in this closeup, but it’s shot from like, behind and slightly underneath, and it is just unrecognizable. it’s sort of an orange blob? it’s probably meant to be a sculpture. but, i love the idea of doing the “pick a hand” thing to somebody, and the other person is just like...hey wait a minute, what the fuck even IS this??

it reminded me of one of the most amazing things anyone ever did at my school, bard college. this genius art student who I WISH I COULD NAME TO CREDIT HER did her senior project as this like...made up product. i saw them at the senior show, hanging off a spinner rack, like you’d see next to the register in the drug store. they were called Toilet Buddies. they were these plastic, brightly colored objects that looked like toys, but they didn’t have a familiar earthly shape, and because of the title, it was IMPOSSIBLE to imagine what to do with them. so, she gets the lipstick cam from the film department, and shoots this video of herself sneaking some Toilet Buddies into Walmart. then she takes them to the register and BUYS THEM--the baffled cashier looks for them for a while, and eventually just rings them up as a general grocery or something. then in part 2, the artist TAKES THEM BACK TO THE STORE WITH THE RECEIPT AND GETS A REFUND.

so anyway, i see myself as like a fake product--something that looks just familiar enough to exit, and that appears to have a designated purpose, but it’s just kind of cheap and foreign and it becomes nightmarish to try to imagine what to do with it.

I don’t know if anyone i know will want to do this, but i tag @negativepleasure @moviesludge @former-contender @dimestoreman @thefuzzydave @darkarfs @theoddsideofme @blueruins ...um, i don’t really know who would enjoy this. the ultimate would be @garbagenacht

#long post

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p-redux · 6 years

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I Thought We Were Done, But I Guess Not...More Draaaamaaa Coming Right Up! I Know It’s Long But There Will Be TEA SPILLED. :-) Hope you read it all the way to the end...

Below is how ContemplatingOutlander responded to my post pointing out that the reason the MAJORITY of NST have her blocked is HER treatment of them, and my suggestion that she take some time for self-reflection.

Let me offer some more TRUTHS and some clarification that should have been done a long time ago. Here we go...

CO, a wise person knows that there are 3 sides to every story: hers, his, or in this case, hers again and the truth. So, whatever my “former friends and acquaintances” have told you is one sided and only from their perspective. Obvi. I would like to clarify some things I have kept my mouth shut about for far too long. Here they are...

You don’t have the complete picture, CO. But that’s what happens when you only listen to people who have a vendetta--their hate clouds their judgment and ability to be completely honest. I am not on my “4th or 5th inner circle.” I still have my ORIGINAL Twitter DM chat inner circle I have had for 3 years, it’s just missing a few backstabbing members, with whom I parted ways going on 2 years now. And that’s who you have talked to, not the people who have had my back this whole time. If the “former friends and acquaintances” you talked to were right about me, and I was this horrible and deceitful person, there would be NO ONE left in my inner circle, YET they are still with me all these years later. And as a result of their continued loyalty and real friendship over the last 3 years, I have recently shared things with them that I have not shared with anyone. They know my real name, and they know the identity of my original industry source, among other things. No one else does.

You know who’s not in the group anymore? Someone with whom, at the other members’ pleading, I had to have regular “talks” in DMs because the group members were so tired of her controlling manner in chat (no surprise that she’s one of your favorite people from that group...birds of a feather, I guess). Someone whose stressful job and tough situation with her son started to affect her thinking and made her very paranoid. Despite me showing her concrete proof that negated who she thought I was in real life, she didn’t believe me. Someone whose physical health problems caused her to have mental health problems and become very angry and lash out at me. Someone who was the source for the private Tony pics at the Outlander premiere in April 2015 and whose identity I have continued to keep private, even to my own detriment, yet she has had no problems betraying me. (note: this person is not my Tony family source. That’s someone else). Two individuals who run a well known and popular Outlander fan Twitter account whose identity I have also kept private because they don’t want the fandom to know that they run the account, and that they were in my inner circle. Someone who said she was married and rich and turned out to be totally lying, yet she had no problem badmouthing me behind my back, accusing me of lying about MY identity. And various other women, who although they were allowed to be completely Anonymous in the group (their Twitter names were Anon and in group they did not divulge personal info about themselves) yet somehow I was chastised by group members for not sharing my real identity. In addition, for a short period, I stupidly let into group a former shipper who I KNEW was playing both sides. But I guess the info she could divulge about her ex shipper friends was just too juicy to pass up, so she joined for a bit. And, as I knew would happen, ended up being a huge back stabber, but that was not a surprise. I knew better.

CO, THOSE are the assorted “former friends and acquaintances” who have talked to YOU, to Extreme Shippers, etc about me. Ya think they might be a wee biased and unreliable in retelling their version of the truth? Um, yeah. But despite me KNOWING that some of them have talked shit about me to YOU, to Extreme Shippers, to anyone who would listen and REVEALED some things we all swore we would take to the grave, I “big, bad Purv” have NOT betrayed THEIR confidence. What I’ve written above is the most I have ever shared. And I do feel badly, and somewhat cringe that I’m doing it, even though I’m not revealing anyone’s name, or any identifying details, but this is how far I’m being pushed. CO you have NO idea what you are stepping into. The amount of secrets I have kept private is staggering. Is that something that a the terrible person I’m portrayed to be would do? NO. A terrible person, the minute her ex friends started spilling tea, would have spilled right back, and blasted all their private info too. BUT I didn’t do that. Because I’m not a terrible person. Do you know how much easier my life would have been if I had told everyone who my Tony pic source was and posted all those pics publicly? But I didn’t. Despite being stabbed in the back by my former friends. Do you know how many secrets I could have shared that would have cleared my name in certain situations, and prevented some of the attacks on me? A LOT. But I didn’t, because doing so would have entailed betraying people’s trust and despite all my faults, I wasn’t willing to do that.

So, CO, when you make veiled threats insinuating that my “former friends and acquaintances” “didn’t appreciate being played” and therefore they may continue to betray me, what you don’t realize is THEY PLAYED ME. And they PLAYED YOU. They didn’t tell you the WHOLE TRUTH. They KNOW that even though they are privy to many of my secrets, I ALSO HOLD ALL OF THEIR SECRETS--secrets they didn’t tell you. Once we parted ways I assumed we would be at a detente. If they tried to take me down, they knew they would come with me. I underestimated how dangerously they liked to live, or how emotionally unstable some of them turned out to be. And so they continued to betray me and I SAID NOTHING. But if you or anyone else continues to push me, that will change. Enough is enough. All their secrets and their names I have kept under lock and key, THAT’S my insurance policy, should they, or YOU choose to take this further.

The same goes for Extreme Shippers who also talked to my “former friends and acquaintances,” and like to talk shit about me. It was always understood that there is also a detente there, since ES know that everyone knows most, if not all, their REAL IDENTITIES. The only ES who is Anon is Jess. Any Extreme Shippers dox me, find me, find out my real identity, and try to mess with my RL and all I gotta do is go down the list of NON-ANON ES: Lauren, Julia, Kim, Nipuna, Sherri, Leslie, Deirdre, Trish, Erin, Angie, Stephanie, Marcy, Suzanne, Lynn, Jo, among MANY others. I’m sure fellow ES wouldn’t want to be the catalyst for that. So THAT’S my insurance policy on that side. As for Puffy, I hear she’s still at it with her “investigation” of me and fleecing her minions of their hard earned money, I stopped looking a long time ago. She can keep going, but I hope she knows the minute she finds my real identity and messes with my RL, her bestie, co-owner of her blog, and partner in crime, Amanda E.S.H will be getting a knock on her door from the authorities. THAT’S my insurance policy on that side.

For now you’ve been splashing around in the kiddie pool, CO, you want to get in the deep end with the big girls? Be prepared to SWIM. Again, I suggest you STAND DOWN, Doc. You blog on your blog and leave me alone, and I will blog on my blog and leave you alone. Like a fellow NST said, “no one is drowning kittens here.” Fandom isn’t supposed to be so serious, this is supposed to be FUN. I’ve been playing nice, and I will continue to do so. I am nice, to people who are nice to me. But do not mistake my continued silence all these years for weakness, you push me too far and the bitch I’ve been made out to be, aka “Big bad Purv” WILL come out. Mark me.

PS: Yes, I have people here on Tumblr who I talk to in DM regularly and consider my friends and inner circle here. That group is separate from my original Twitter DM chat, who I still maintain. None of the people in the Twitter group chat overlap with the people in Tumblr DMs. Two totally separate groups. And I appreciate all of you so much. :-*

We done now? *cracks neck, shakes it off* Okay drama session is over, can we go back to some actual fun now? JFC.

#co #contemplatingoutlander #extremeshippers #drama #teaspilled

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walgie · 4 years

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Generation Wealth, Lauren Greenfield, 2018

I consume contemporary culture in selected bites; perhaps if I were younger and more immersed, I would be less struck by the images that this film focuses on. In the opening credits, there is an excerpt from an interview with Eden Wood age 5 yrs (apparently), who as a toddler became notorious for her Vegas showgirl outfit. I dearly hope that her “money, money, money” chant was part of an act. Then, a porn shoot with an apparently teenage girl. And then a strip club, bare butts wiggling at the bottom of the screen, while the women's faces are outside the frame: depersonalized. The quick glimpses of a variety of shocking scenes garishly foreshadow the horrors to follow.

Greenfield revisits the privileged kids who were the subjects of her 1997 book project "Fast Forward". Juxtaposing archive footage of the teens then with the middle aged adults that they became, the message seems to be that the rich people she encountered failed at parenting. [Note: Greenfield has clips of interviews with her own parents throughout the film, and her mother in particular comes off looking like a bad parent. At first it was a bit discomfiting to have the film maker’s own experiences and family interspersed with the other subjects of the film. But then I realised: she is confessing - accusing herself, perhaps - of being part of this culture, this generation.] How did the rich kids turn out? Eddie still acts like an adolescent towards women. Paris and Mijanou are critical of their experiences as privileged teens.

Throughout the film, analysis is provided mostly by clips of and interview with Chris Hedges and by Greenfield's voice over. But some of the characters who appear in the film perform dual roles, both as a subject of the film and as a commentator. Notorious fraudster and fugitive Florian Holm is one. Between Holm and Hedges, we hear an origin story of the current culture. No new insight: the abandonment of the gold standard (1971), aggressive expansionary monetary policy, and debt-fueled government spending to maintain lifestyle and empire. Reagan-era pivot towards supply side economics and consumption. Suzanne, a hedge fund manager, claims that the unlimited pursuit of wealth is enshrined in the Federalist Papers, but I doubt it. Perhaps she is thinking of the ‘pursuit of happiness’ in the Declaration of Independence?

Corollaries to financial wealth are the experience of luxury and the appearance of wealth. Wealth is restricted to the so-called one percent and the achieving it - absent inheritance - is somewhat obscure and usually involves difficulty. On the other hand, the latter two are easy to portray in the media and easy to offer for sale. In the past, many aspired to the level of wealth of their neighbors, and there really were some opportunities to realize the American dream to “move up in the world”. Now the American dream is dead, and many aspire to the level of luxury and the glitzy appearance of the celebrities who appear on television. Time-share mogul David Siegel explains "Everyone wants to be rich. If they can’t be rich, the next best thing is to feel rich." The rapper named Stunt provides an example: “Poor people are the ones who spend the most money on the 700 dollar shoes, the ones who don’t have it.“

Hedges analyzes the situation bluntly: “things are getting worse... when there is no social mobility, the only social mobility you have is fictitious. The presentation that you give to the rest of the world denies your own reality. I've come to look at mass culture and in particular television as a form of violence. Because 24 hours a day this ficticious lifestyle - which we’re all told that we can have - fuels this sense of inadequacy.”

The film makes an inevitable segue from wealth and appearance to bodies and sex. Our culture objectifies the body, and fuels our obsession with a "desirable body type". Images originally from pornography are now mainstream. Greenfield shows us some of the effects. A model self-mutilates to “damage the property”. Greenfield’s 17 yr old son Noah: “guys want what’s really demeaning for women.. and to match guys’ expectation I think a lot of women try to replicate it.” A 15 yr old girl construes topless dancing in words that you might expect to hear from someone who training for a marathon or climbing a mountain. “I want to be a dancer- topless dancing showgirl. I think it would be fun - dancing with my tits showing off. If I could accomplish being that, then I could accomplish anything.”

Two stories felt the most devastating. The porn actress Kacey Jordan gained notoriety as Charlie Sheen’s $30K date but her subsequent life sounds like a hellish descent into misery and poverty. Cathy the bus driver embraces the notion that “what really mattered in life was to be in the best body that I could" and so she goes into debt for her cosmetic surgery. And her daughter carves DEAD on her forehead and commits suicide. The film does not explicitly make a connection between the mother’s obsession with physical appearance and the daughter’s suicide, perhaps because it would be too painful. But the connection is implied.

The film ends with some hope. We see some of the teens who were scarred in the 90s and now are parents with healthier priorities: Paris, Mijanou, and Cliff the former rap artist G Mo. Greenfield seems portray Cliff as the happiest person in the film. His daughter has received a full ride scholarship to Cornell. His journey is the most straightforward: from gaudy rapper to his ethos now: “success is showing my children what a strong father looks like, what work ethic looks like... real American dream”.

Contra Dorothy Woodend

I am a fan of Dorothy Woodend. She is a subtle thinker and has an aesthetic that I identify with. But her review of this film, while cleverly written, is far off the mark.

First - a couple of fact checks. She refers to "Kacey Jordan, former girlfriend of Charlie Sheen, who parlayed her brief stint of infamy into a porn career". Actually the starlet started her porn career in 2007 at age 19. By the time of the infamous episode with Charlie Sheen, four years later, she already had a long filmography.

there is Susanne, a hard-faced hedge fund trader who spends the better part of her life building a career, only to decide a child would give her life meaning.

But actually, Suzanne says in an interview that she “always wanted a family”, contrary to how Woodend casts it as a late “decision”.

Aside: another example of lack of basic journalism skills in another article

here

- she can’t even get the spelling of Suchsland straight.

Woodend stoops to spiteful insults; she describes Greenfield’s voice as “Valley girl croak“. The flutes in the soundtrack are “stupid”.

Perhaps Woodend, rather than trying to understand what the film is trying to do, is criticising it for not being the film that she would have made, if she were the film maker. For example, she notes that “there is too much stuff in here”, but also complains that “there is never any discussion about how much it actually costs to attend this prestigious institution [Harvard]”. I agree, the film covers “too much”. And apparently it is not the stuff that Woodend wants to see.

She objects to the sentimentality aroused by the soundtrack.

there is something, even more insidious at work here, and that is sentiment, the cheapest and easiest of emotion to invoke...

All you have to do to figure this out is to pay attention to the musical cues.

The film is literally coated in music, a sticky bukkake of swelling strings, mournful flutes and tinkling pianos. At any point in the narrative, you can close your eyes and understand not only what is being shown, but how you are supposed to feel about it.

But I would say that the film maker intends that the viewer should feel sentiment, and intends that the soundtrack reinforce the scenes unfolding on screen. I would also say that the soundtrack is effective at doing this, and I think this is not a bad thing. Subtle, no; but this is a documentary, not Hitchcock. Perhaps Woodend would have preferred something along the lines of 60 Minutes, dry “investigative journalism”? The film maker is not trying to do that.

Woodend claims that “the film fails in positing even one original thought.“ It’s not clear what she means by “original” in this context; there is certainly a variety of ways that something can be said to be “original”. Perhaps she is using hyperbole; would it really make a difference if there were “one original thought”? Let it be that the analyses that are given in the film have appeared elsewhere. Let it be too that the images that appear on the screen are not substantially different from images that have appeared elsewhere. But as a gestalt, the film displays real creativity and originality.

More criticism from Woodend:

But none of the subjects have much to offer in the way of a larger analysis.

Any more complex understanding of the issues in question is swept away.

The film never digs deeper to look at why the fires of appetite and ambition are stoked to such a white heat, it only records the outcome of these forces.

These comments are accurate, but again seem to miss the point of the film. I don’t the film maker wanted to achieve any of these things, and I doubt that it could be argued that the film has a responsibility to address these issues.

Finally, Woodend raises an excellent question, but oddly refrains from taking a firm stand:

is Greenfield much different from the purveyors of sex tapes...

Chris Hedges... describes the fictional version of social mobility captured in television and other forms of mass media as a form of violence that “fuels a sense of inadequacy.”

I am tempted to include Greenfield’s film in this category, a work that claims to present reality but is in fact another form of fiction

Woodend has not been shy about passing judgement on other aspects of the film, but here she merely admits to being “tempted” to categorize it.

Woodend finishes her review with a misreading of the end of the film

For all its verbiage about separating reality from entertainment, global capitalism destroying culture and the darker future ahead, the film retreats into boneheaded Hallmark card sentiment about parenthood and love as the answer.

The film ends by juxtaposing images of other ideas of success against the preceding plethora of images. “Boneheaded Hallmark card sentiment” might be accurate, but that is something that really exists, so perhaps the question is whether the film is better for showing it. But at least we can say that the film doesn’t try to give the “answer” that Woodend objects to. The final scenes are hardly intended to be an answer; rather, just a bit of hope. Perhaps Woodend expected a tidy ending with an “answer” akin to the moral at the end of one of Aesop’s fables, but I think both the film and the viewer are better off without one.

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