#lackluster is the term to describe this episode

[alizekk]

8 Ways to Think Like an Athlete

By Sheila Monaghan, SELF

Here’s the thing about athletes. They think about their bodies differently than the average gymgoer; they work out, get motivated and define goals — all differently. And their way is highly effective. You don’t need a sponsorship or superior genes to adopt this mindset and achieve the body results you want.

Dream HUGE. You’ve heard of hurdler, wait, bobsledder Lolo Jones, right? She made it to the Olympics but tripped over a hurdle in 2008, failed to medal in track in 2012, then turned up at Sochi on the bobsled team. This is a woman who will change sports in the name of gold. Jocks have pie-in-the-sky ambitions that can’t be crushed. And while you may have no illusions of stepping onto a podium, setting loftier diet and exercise goals can help you succeed. In a New England Journal of Medicine study, people who set out to reach a self-described dream weight lost more pounds than those who aimed for a number they defined as acceptable. The theory? It’s tough to get (and stay) excited about a lackluster achievement. “When the result is modest, it can undermine the optimism and motivation it requires to achieve that result,” says study author Krista Casazza, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition Sciences at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. What that means for you? Even if you’re just on ramping at CrossFit, make the end game deadlifting twice your weight. Chances are, you’ll actually do it.

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But practice small. Say you’re Tom Brady — we know, you’d rather be Gisele, but play along. Your sights are set on the Super Bowl, but there are more than a few games to win beforehand. While the long-term objective doesn’t go away, you have to move the needle every day. “Pro football players call it chopping stone,” says David Epstein, author of The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance. “You’re chipping away at something over time with small goals instead of solely thinking about the big win at the end.” For Brady and the New England Patriots, that means beating their Week 1 opponent, then projecting to next Sunday’s game and the following Monday-night matchup. Each victory builds upon the next, helping the team gain momentum. Gymgoers have a different mind-set. They see a workout as finite: “Yay, I survived that 30/60/90 class. I’m done.” Connect your dots. Realize that today’s intervals will prep you to crush tomorrow’s long run, and both will carry you across that half-marathon finish line with a PR — it’s all a process.

Be an athlete 24/7. If you put her in a pair of Choos and hand her a glass of Champagne, Maria Sharapova doesn’t suddenly stop being a four-time grand slam champion. “My swim coach in college told us we are athletes 24 hours a day and that as athletes, every choice — from what to eat to when to go to bed to whether we stretch and foam-roll — affects our daily performance and the final outcome,” says Sara Isaković, a 2008 Olympic silver medalist in the women’s 200-meter freestyle swim and a psychiatry research assistant at the University of California in San Diego.

Okay, your final outcome isn’t Wimbledon, but your choices matter, too. It’s midnight. You’re tempted to cue up that sixth episode of Orange Is the New Black. Ask yourself: What would Sharapova do? Probably go the hell to bed so she could wake up for 5:45 a.m. boot camp. “Identifying yourself as an athlete has a way of revealing bad habits that could be holding you back,” says Jim Afremow, Ph.D., author of The Champion’s Mind: How Great Athletes Think, Train, and Thrive. And somehow it’s less naggy and annoying to pass up a second glass of wine or skip the sugary dessert when you frame it as a workout saboteur versus a no-no.

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Really feel the burn. Athletes get comfortable being uncomfortable. They anticipate the pain of a bonkers workout and embrace the fact that it’s going to suck at points. Very different from us regular folks who freak out or shut down at any sign of exercise unpleasantness. “A lot of people panic when they experience any discomfort in their bodies,” says Epstein. “Elite athletes do the exact opposite — they program themselves not to be rattled. You can see that on pain-threshold tests of elites; they become accustomed to the pain, and even while their bodies are in distress, their minds aren’t. You can learn to do that just as you do any other part of training.” How? You don’t fear the hurt. Instead of backing off when breathlessness takes hold during a sprint, tell yourself, Relax. I know I’m going to be fine. This is not too hard for me, and I can do this. Then take your speed up one notch. Your body already knows it can handle the challenge. You’ve just got to prove it to your brain.

Imagine greatness. You bet your ass Hope Solo has pictured herself making a diving save to win the World Cup on a penalty kick in OT. Athletes fantasize about having a stellar performance in future workouts or games, and those daydreams affect their reality. According to a study in the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, hockey, track and field, and volleyball athletes who envisioned themselves playing their sport with confidence and control also exhibited the most mental toughness — meaning they didn’t crumble under pressure or give up if a competition got tough. Take five minutes a day outside the gym to imagine yourself overcoming an obstacle in your workout. “Picture yourself pushing a certain weight on a bench-press, but also feel your chest muscles engage, your core tighten as you push, and hear the sound of the bar as you put it back on the rack,” says study coauthor Krista Chandler, Ph.D., professor of human kinetics at the University of Windsor in Ontario. “Imagery is not merely visual; it engages all of the senses. And when we imagine something, we create the neural pathway similar to that created if we were to physically execute the behavior.” For Isaković, that means prepping for a punishing swim interval by imagining herself as light as a feather on the surface of the water and ready to fly over it. Pinpoint and mentally play out the ideal scenario for your workout.

And talk to yourself. For athletes, it’s a package deal: amazing bodies, voices in their heads. A Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise study found that cyclists who repeat pump-up phrases like “you’re a winner,” “feeling good” and “dig deep” during a hard workout increased their time to exhaustion by 18 percent — meaning they were able to bust their butts almost a fifth longer than those who didn’t talk themselves up, according to study author Samuele Marcora, Ph.D., professor of sport and exercise sciences at the University of Kent in England. When Spin class starts to wear you down, instead of thinking, Gah, when is this over? or I can’t go any further, go into cheerlead mode. “If you mentally tell yourself, I’ve got this, your body will respond,” says Isaković. “I happen to love quotes, so I’ll find one to think on each week, and when I’m in that moment of pain, I repeat it in my head over and over.” The fitspo quote that got major love on SELF’s Pinterest boards: “It’s not who you are that holds you back. It’s who you think you’re not.”

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View the playback video. An ice queen misses a triple lutz and no doubt she’s scrutinizing that jump six ways to Sunday in slow-mo to pinpoint exactly where she went wrong. “Pros constantly evaluate themselves,” says Epstein. “After every set or drill, or after they play a game, they self-assess the way a coach would.” That appraisal helps determine what’s going right or wrong, what you need to focus and practice on and how to improve, Epstein adds. For you, that critique can be as simple as training in front of a mirror to fine-tune your form. Are you running on the treadmill with raised shoulders? Lower ’em. Are you lunging with your knee too far over your ankle? Line up those joints. It’s also not a bad idea to hire a personal trainer, run coach, pilates instructor — whatever your workout bag — for some expert guidance, even if it’s for one session. A tiny technique tweak could be all that’s standing between you and greatness.

You do you. The best athletes are narcissists — they obsess over themselves, not the competition. “Elites are confident enough that their own bodies are unique, and they don’t have to look to others to see what to do,” says Epstein. Take Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake, the two fastest 200-meter sprinters in the world, who train together for their sport. “Bolt definitely does not work out as hard or as long as Blake, but that’s because he understands his body and his mind enough to know that he doesn’t tolerate as big a training load as Blake does. You can be sure Usain Bolt is not thinking about other people during his workouts.” Which is exactly why you should worry about numero uno — not the random girl next to you in barre class or running one treadmill over (admit it — you’ve looked at her speed and thought, I’ve gotta match that). What if she isn’t pushing herself as hard as you could? What if she lets up halfway through and that makes you want to quit? If you only make it a competition with yourself, you’ll always win. And while, yes, it’s true that most athletes want to trounce their opponents, their main motivation to exercise is intrinsic. “Remind yourself, Am I a spectator or the one working out?” Afremow suggests. Because you didn’t show up to sweat, to work your butt off, to push yourself for her. You’re working out to be your best.

Forward from : https://www.diopdesign.com/

[terrialways]

When to play darksiders 2 dlc

When to play darksiders 2 dlc full#

When to play darksiders 2 dlc series#

My thoughts on the story peaked by the end of the second episode with the last 3 feeling a bit lackluster in comparison. For the purpose of review, all 5 episodes were accessible, and I’m glad they were. The episodes are of varying length, but expect to take about 7 or so hours to get through them all. The first two are available from launch, with the others arriving weekly. We Are OFK is split up into 5 episodes that have their own music videos. Having now experienced all five episodes ahead of the episodic rollout beginning today, We Are OFK has ended being more good than bad, but there are some issues. I love music in games, and We Are OFK is something I’ve had on my radar since Nintendo posted about it coming to Switch.

When to play darksiders 2 dlc series#

In the case of We Are OFK, “an interactive narrative series of arguing over lyrics, sending sad texts, and playing Interactive Music Videos" is a very accurate representation of what this release offers. When a developer or publisher describes a game, it usually oversells what the actual experience will be like for players. Let’s get to business! Reviews & Mini-Views We Are OFK ($19.99) Beyond that, we have the usual lists of new and expiring sales for you to ponder. We’ve got summaries of all of them to help you make your purchasing decisions. We have a ton of new releases to look at today, and while I wouldn’t say any of them are top-tier must-haves, there are several solid titles to consider. He’s taken a look at the new release We Are OFK, and you can see the results below. Our pal Mikhail has been a busy beaver, as he has yet another review for us today. Traversal: Death is a nimble and agile character capable of incredible acrobatic feats allowing the player to explore the world like never before.Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for August 18th, 2022.

When to play darksiders 2 dlc full#

Replay-ability: Explore a vast open world, complete dozens of side quests and customize your Death with a full leveling system, Skill Trees and endless equipment combinations. Player Choice & Customization: Customize your experience with varied armor sets, weapons, and Skill Trees allowing players to create their own Death. Play Death: Become the most feared of the legendary Four Horsemen, able to destroy entire worlds and battle forces beyond Heaven and Hell.Įpic Universe: Unlike anything the player has seen before. Improved and reworked level, character and environment graphics Improved Graphic Render Engine for higher visual quality especially in terms of lighting and shadows Reworked and tuned game balancing and loot distribution Death lives!ĭarksiders 2 with all DLC included and integrated into the game which offers a total playtime of more than 30 hours Along the way, the Horseman discovers that an ancient grudge may threaten all of Creation. Awakened by the End of Days, Death, the most feared of the legendary Four Horsemen embarks on a quest to redeem his brother's name. Become the terrifying force which everything fears but nothing can escape.

#When to play darksiders 2 dlc

[cheryls-blossomed]

Iris West-Allen

Why I like them: I love everything about Iris, to be quite honest. I love how warm she is and how kind she is; I love her pragmatism and her ability to keep a cool head in difficult, chaotic situations. I love her strength, and how easily forgiving she is. I love how she loves with all her heart; I love how noble she is, and what I mean by that is that I love how she sees beyond people’s faults to see their potential to be heroic. I love how she rallies behind her city, and how she is so ready to comfort, to support, and to inspire. I love how she advocates for others’ agency, whether it be advocating for Linda, who wanted to aid in the fight against Zoom, or whether it be advocating for all the citizens of Central City, when she sought to arm them with information on DeVoe. I love how quickly she thinks on her feet, a skill which lends itself perfectly to investigative journalism. I love her selflessness, her innate heroism, and that man-that-cannot-be-science smile that lights up the whole screen.

Why I don’t: This is actually a writing choice that I don’t like, but I dislike that Iris is used as an emotional punching bag upon whom other characters take out their frustrations and that she’s just expected to take it, when she did nothing to deserve their misdirected ire. I also dislike how she receives zero apologies in the aftermath of being used as an emotional punching bag.

Favorite episode (scene if movie): Plastique, The Flash is Born, Grodd Lives, Fast Lane, The Runaway Dinosaur, Dead or Alive, Cause and Effect, The Flash Reborn, Run Iris Run

Favorite season/movie: Season 4. While I found season 4 of The Flash lackluster in many respects, in terms of giving Iris agency, it did a good job. And for this reason, season 4 is my favorite season for Iris, because she got to express a range of emotions and she was provided with the narrative space to deal with those feelings. She also got to actively problem-solve frequently, and she even got to express her vulnerabilities. I want this trend to continue, and I hope Iris gets story-lines more frequently outside of S.T.A.R. Labs that have to do with her journalism and building Central City Citizen from the ground up. 

Favorite line: I want my life to mean something, more than just as a daughter or as a sister or as a girlfriend, but as a reporter. This story can do that. It can say that I, Iris West, mattered. 

Favorite outfit: Iris’ wardrobe is on point every episode, and I can’t pick just one, but some all-time favorites that immediately come to mind include the cut-off white top and leather pants that she wore in 3x03, the red dress that she wore at the beginning of 2x18, the form-fitting blue dress and knee-length boots that she wore in 1x15 and 1x16, the form-fitting, three-quarter-sleeved grey dress and ankle boots in 3x09, her entire wardrobe in 3x10, and the long, form-fitting black dress in 4x07.

OTP: Barry

Brotp: Wally, Linda

Head Canon: I head canon that Iris was the editor of her school newspaper during her senior year of high school, and that her philosophy when determining the paper’s direction during her tenure as its editor was to focus on meaningful, investigative stories that would shed light on particular issues.

Unpopular opinion: Within the Iris fandom, I’m not sure I have any opinions which are particularly unpopular. 

A wish: That Barry eventually comes back home to her after disappearing in 2024. Also (although this is a given and better happen) that the show begins focusing considerably on her individual arcs, particularly in relation to her journalism and career.

An oh-god-please-don’t-ever-happen: That the show isolates and sidelines her as it did in season 2a and forces her to keep all her emotions hidden. I think we are well past that dark time though, so I am not worried about any repeats ever. 

5 words to best describe them: noble, loyal, caring, determined, courageous

My nickname for them: n/a

#Anonymous #iris west #iris west allen #the flash #replies

[podcake]

Podcasts & Genre: Comedy

Going into a long, Wikipedia certified analysis about the history and understanding of the comedy genre seems a touch unnecessary since we probably already know what angle I’ll be getting at upon reading the title of this editorial. But for the sake of consistency, let’s all pretend that we don’t know what comedy is so I can fill up the air time with something of actual depth for once. 

When we look into the deep, deep archives of comedy, we find ourselves tracing back to the ancient period of the Greeks and when they originated the term we know today via the word  kōmōidía all thanks to the Athenian democracy, the Spartans more fashionable cousins. Comedy has been around much, much longer then my previous genre topic and is nothing short of a staple in the world of entertainment. It is the lighthearted alternative to tragedy, the grinning mask to the perturbed look of frozen horror. 

Aristotle hearkens it back to the komos, “a curious and improbable spectacle in which a company of festive males apparently sang, danced, and cavorted rollickingly around the image of a large phallus.” His words, not mine.

Shakespeare gives us a definition we’re slightly more familiar with as comedies in his plays were written to be more lighthearted affairs with happy endings and the only real crucial conflict arising from misunderstandings and the cultural clash of  Apollonian and Dionysian values. 

Unlike noir, comedy is less straight forward as a concept and dives into a variety of different mediums and styles that can still maintain the comedy belt to itself. With comedy we have satire, parody, and screwball humor that can come in a variety of flavors and are just as recurring in podcasts as they are television and plays. Also unlike noir, comedy is not restricted to ideas of aesthetic decisions or incredibly specific archetypes as comedy can be anything it wants to be, as long as its all around intention is to make you laugh.

Where podcasts tie into all this pretty self explanatory. We’ve all listened to a comedy podcast or at least a podcast that had a joke once and yet I found myself once again scrapping by with only a handful of examples to list here that proudly flaunted “comedy” in their iTunes category. As to why will be something to discuss later.

What I enjoy about comedy podcasts and the general use of humor in audio is the whole concept of using sound to get a joke across without needing to rely on physical visuals. Comedy has a slightly less difficult journey to accomplish as while noir is limited by the necessity of appealing to a very specific list of tropes, a comedic podcast’s job mostly boils down to being amusing, and they don’t need to fit themselves into any sort of template to accomplish that. This is why comedy has an always will be flexible to work around.

There’s probably a good reason why comedians can gain a second life on vinyl records and how I can always crack up listening to the “Salt and Pepper Diner” skit without ever actually seeing the live performance. One of the earliest examples of comedic film didn’t even have sound and would use text and rapid, enthusiastic acting to work a chuckle out of viewers. 

Humor may be subjective though we can all agree that a good comedy show has a pretty bare bones goal from the get-go. 

The thing about comedy that keeps it so fresh and refined after all these years is the various flavors is has to offer. Comedy can be dark and gloomy, comedy can be an anthology of loosely connected skits, comedy can be completely and utterly insane and surreal and yet they all have the same idea in mind once pen comes to paper and voice comes to microphone. 

And despite how much bustling variety there is for comedy, it’s rare for me to run into podcasts that fall under the comedy umbrella that aren’t just improvisation or shows that simply have some comedy elements sprinkled into its set up. 

There’s a good reason why My Brother, My Brother, and Me have managed to stay high in the charts all this time and ILLUSIONOID is a well produced science fiction show bursting with originality and new content that tickles both you and your imagination. Even Big Data, a show that is mostly scripted but does lean on the improv button quite a few times, relies on the unpredictability and natural senses of humor of its actors to make for some quirky conversation pieces.

Out of my recent years, the only real scripted comedy shows I’ve come across are Hadron Gospel Hour, Wooden Overcoats, Victoriocity, The Meat Blockade, and Hector Vs. The Future which may seem like a collection robust enough for a playlist of my favorite episodes, though is so far and few compared to all the horror and science fiction audio drama that’s out there that rarely ever relies on comedy to keep you tuning in. Well, Return Home has more jokes than the average horror show but that’s a Genre Parlor for another day.

My favorite podcast comedy that still has yet to be topped is Hadron Gospel Hour that leans more heavily on the parody category. With its loving portrayals and jabs at pop culture and occasional breaks for live action skit banter, it’s humor truly peaks with its need for funny scenarios and the exchanges between the two leading males. It has a certain Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy thing going on where most of the humor is done through quick-witted exchanges with a soft spot for heartfelt and touching moments and deriving a lot of its problems and jokes from elaborate settings. 

Something I feel the need to bring up again is the shortage of scripted comedy shows which I only recently noticed upon my research but also grew to understand later on. Though comedy may not have the same limitations as a noir show with its specific aesthetic qualities and character charts to fill, it’s supposedly simple goal of humor leaves a lot of breathing room but just as much to be desired from its writing. 

From my understanding, comedy is much harder to write and base a whole show around without having to risk not having any humor. Horror shows can cook up terrifying imagery and science fiction can jump from space ships to starry plant hemispheres without losing speed, but comedy has to pull off a certain balancing act while still keeping the laughs in mind. 

Wooden Overcoats and Victoriocity are especially good at weaving comedic elements into their stories to the point jokes are a natural part of their structure  while Hadron Gospel Hour seamlessly transitions between affectionate parody and some fun science fiction elements that can be equal parts dramatic and spectacular. 

A newer addition is The Amelia Project that one could label as a black comedy and is easily becoming one of the more eclectic entries to the genre. Even if the sense of humor is touch bleak and sadistic, it still warms a certain part of your funny bone that might enjoy that sort of macabre yet casual understanding of death and the human condition. 

The most refreshing one to have come out recently that plays up comedy almost as much as Hadron Gospel Hour is Victoriocity that combines some good old fashion screwball humor within a self contained mystery parody. Though a newer addition to my collection of shows, be it Palette featured or not, Victoriocity is a pretty fun comedy that oddly enough overlaps with my noir fascination that I mentioned in my previous article. 

But above all, an excellent comedy show is truly at its peak when it can maintain just enough staying power beyond it’s comedic elements. A show, especially one that has any plans of having any significant plot development, cannot sustain itself simply by being funny. Though this may sound contradictory, it’s how an audio drama can embed humor into its day to day scenarios that make the jokes land in the first place.

A quick wit and enthusiasm for the next punchline has a certain charm to it that can carry one episode to the next, especially if it fills itself with what TV Tropes calls “brick jokes”, though it’s by no means a place to set up camp, so to speak. 

My understanding of the term has left me on the conclusion that Kakos Industries, that dark comedy about the evil mega corporation...and some other stuff, is especially reliant on this style of joke telling if it isn’t just rattling off some dense imagery and sarcasm only ever interrupted by eerie silence or the familiar electronic thumping of its BGM. 

Kakos does mostly grease up its stationary engine with this style of humor-introducing some sort of problem or character and having them return over and over again until their big funny moment is wrapped up and they’re left in the recycling bin until further notice. Now this doesn’t sound too tedious on paper but it does lack a certain punch to its line-ha, ha-when it’s the only illusion of structure the show has to offer.

It’s this sort of lackluster narrative style that cause it to never truly hold my attention during it’s now three year run time. Without a stable plot or stakes to challenge our protagonist, the show boils down to a bunch of loosely connected set ups and jokes that don’t really mean or do anything and exist as mere facets of a wide and wild world we still know little to nothing about with characters that are fun and yet unengaging since they seem to exist just to past through the narrative’s revolving door.

Brick jokes do not substitute the drive and ambition of actual dramatic suspense and rather act as an accent or way to break future tension. Callbacks can be a funny, a show entirely built on callbacks is boring.

Though King Falls AM doesn’t suffer from similar issues, it is still one of the weaker comedic shows I’ve come across. It lacks the sort of boldness Kakos rides on to exhaustion, instead leaving with unmemorable jokes in an unmemorable setting. To describe King Falls sense of humor is a challenge in itself, not because it’s especially witty or obtuse, but because it’s so by the numbers with an occasional dip into what seems to be deliberately scrutinizing jokes that can’t even pass off as genuinely edgy, that it’s either boring or insulting. 

Going into more detail about how King Falls AM fails in being engaging or funny is a touch difficult because there just wasn’t much to uncover in the first place. 

Though it might be a personal preference, a good comedy podcasts succeeds when its humor and its setting and stakes are all on the same page. When the humor has a massive disconnect from what we’re supposed to be concerned and truly tuning into the show for, that can cause it’s own problems. At that point, the jokes are just jokes and if they don’t land then the whole show falls apart since its support beam was never that strong to begin with.

Even if I can’t say I was in love with Wooden Overcoats and its overtly cynical vibe, it’s certainly one of the more cleverly written black comedies and pretty much masters the blend of the oldest definition of the genre. Its sense of humor and day to day issues all blend together seamlessly and is so well produced and energetic you feel a need to get invested in what new problems our characters might face. 

The leads being at the short end of the stick is par of the course at this point and you can enjoy this audio drama about competing funeral homes-right away you can probably tell what makes Wooden Overcoats succeed so well as a comedic show from that description alone-as a genuinely well written black comedy that has just enough heart and character study to be more than just a pile of coffins with silly scribbles etched into the side. 

Reasons why Hadron Gospel Hour and Victoriocity succeed so well in this aspect is because they’ve managed to strike this balance between lavish worlds and hearty laughs. They have issues to deal with and some sort of problem to tackle each episode, and yet it’s the way they work with their settings and goofy characters that still allow their respective shows to be perceived as lighthearted entertainment with some sort of catch or staying factor. 

I love Victoriocity’s quirky humor and characters but I’m also highly invested in its element of mystery and the interesting and creative city the show takes place in that lets each episode ooze originality and inspired sets. Hadron Gospel has some hilarious banter and out-there situations, but I’m also biting my nails at the prospect of the multiverse being restored and Oppenheimer finding peace with himself after a cosmic blunder. I might come for a quick chuckle but it’s what lies beneath all the fluff that makes the jokes worth the wait.

Comedy comes in many forms and though it hasn’t quite reached its peak in the audio drama realm, at least the ones that do exist will have you laughing for more. 

#podcast #audio drama #audio play #hadron gospel hour #the meat blockade #ILLUSIONOID #victoriocity #wooden overcoats #hector vs the future #kakos industries #my brother my brother and me #podcasts and

[daphenomenal-1]

Avengers Endgame vs Game of Thrones: How to Pay-Off Storytelling

Well, Game of Thrones is over. And as per usual, nobody is happy with how this story ended. Even the die-hard fans admit that this season was the worst season by a country mile for a myriad of reasons. Along with Game of Thrones, another franchise met its end in Avengers: Endgame. And judging by the response and how much money it made, people really like Endgame. So, as Thrones’ last episode aired, I thought it would be cool to analyze some of the arcs from both Endgame and Game of Thrones (and their biggest moment in each) and begin to piece together how to do a big pay-off for long term storytelling. (WARNING: SPOILERS FOR AVENGERS: ENDGAME)

Iron Man/Captain America vs Jon Snow/Daenerys Targaryen

I decided to lump these four into one category because, despite the response from people on social media, these pairs are the main heroes of their respective shows. Jon and Daenerys are the main heroes of Game of Thrones, while Tony Stark and Steve Rogers were the focal points of the MCU. And these characters had their stories wrap up in their respective final outings. However, only one of them was met with praise, while the other was met with scorn. Why?

In Game of Thrones, the show had basically set up for 7 seasons that Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, First of her Name - blah, blah, blah, you get the picture - was going to be the one to sit on the Iron Throne and rule over Westeros. And the showrunners, up until this point, did a decent job both setting up that and also alluding to her becoming the Mad Queen. However, due to the speed of this season, the pay off failed because there wasn’t really any build to her snap in episode 5, and her subsequent actions didn’t make her look any better. Nobody would want to support a person who would willing burn innocent people who are in her path. And her death, while feeling like it wasn’t earned, was really the only way this show was going to end. Jon, on the other hand, the guy who was supposed to be the most virtuous living person, who didn’t care about thrones and only cared about fighting the dead and defeating the Night King, came off as a bit of a ass that didn’t care about anyone except for himself and really nobody else. And his banishment to the North to be with the Wildlings was just not the ending that really paid off the character of the orphan Targaryen. Now, let’s look at Avengers: Endgame.

Tony Stark and Captain America have been set up to both give up and gain something towards the end of their respective runs. The giving up of one life and the gaining of a new one. And the reason that Endgame was so fulfilling in its pay off is because it called back to its roots from The Avengers. That argument between Tony and Cap from The Avengers served as the pay off for these two iconic heroes. Captain America - that one kid from Brooklyn that was only special thanks to the Super Soldier Serum - ended up being the only other one worthy to hold Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor. And at the end, he got to go back and have a life with the love of his life. And Tony Stark - the man who survived in a cave and built himself out, the man that wasn’t a hero and wasn’t pegged to make the sacrifice play to save other - ended up giving his life to save the universe. That’s why this worked and Thrones didn’t: the Russo brothers gave Tony and Steve the endings that these characters deserved. 

Thor vs Jamie Lannister

Both of these characters have one thing in common. A common theme: redemption. Redemption for their failings and an attempt to make things right. However, only one of them really fulfills that redemption arc. Thor, after the events of Avengers: Infinity War, is in a state of disarray. He couldn’t stop Thanos from wiping out half the universe, but now with one more chance to turn back what happened, he failed again. In his rage, he kills the Mad Titan. He goes through a state of depression, gaining a lot of weight and drinking his pain away. But in one of the most empowering scenes in Endgame, while conversing with Lady Frigga, Thor once again was able to call upon his trusty hammer. He was still worthy, even after failing over and over again. His redemption arc has reached its peak. 

Jamie’s story just...just fucking sucked. Jamie, someone who was so loyal to Cersei Lannister, opted to leave her and go to the North to face off against the dead. His story was setting up for what was going to be a good ending for his character: Jamie becoming the Queenslayer and kill Cersei Lannister. But no, he goes back to her and dies with her in his arms. He gets buried with Cersei, just like everyone didn’t want. It seemed like the character regressed so far back that it was nowhere near salvageable. 

Thanos vs Cersei Lannister

Every hero has his or her villain. Someone for the heroes to overcome, despite the challenge they present. The MCU’s version of this character get is the Mad Titan Thanos. And with Thrones, it’s the Queen Bitch of Westeros - Cersei Lannister. Their degrees of villainy are comparable in that these are villains that were both consistent in their intentions and are fairly consistent in ther convictions. I think there’s not much for me to complain about Cersei Lannister and Thanos.

Throughout the entire span of Game of Thrones, if there is one way to describe Cersei Lannister, it is this: she was a bad bitch. Like she was a real one. However, this show didn’t really give her the shine that she deserves. Yeah, she ordered the execution of Missandei. But there was still some untapped potential with how to take her character and how much of a good villain Cersei was. She was just evil. I don’t like that Cersei died in the arms of Jamie and was buried with him. I would have liked to see her get paid what she owed, but she was still a solid villain in her own right. 

Same with Thanos. I know people call him a “Mary Sue”, in that he’s overpowered for the sake of the plot and wins because plot reasons. But Mary Sue characters don’t get killed 15 minutes into their next appearance. What made Thanos interesting in Infinity War was that he was so indoctrinated by his conviction adn saw it through. For the first time in the MCU, the villain won. In Endgame, 2014 Thanos saw that he won. That his goal was complete and that his destiny is also to die after he balances the universe. But what makes him different here is that there is a level of pettiness to Thanos in Endgame that raises the stakes just a bit higher. Yes, future him balanced the universe. But those that survived - i.e.: the Avengers - became ungrateful. They did not see the good that his universal level balancing act did for this planet, so instead he will destroy this universe with the Infinity Stone collected from throughout the years and then restart the universe. And despite having victory in his grasp, he still falls to the Avengers. 

The Battle of Winterfell vs Avengers Assemble

To wrap this up, I could go on and on about other characters, but it is only right that I compare the two big battles of these franchises: the Long Night and the Battle on the Avengers Compound.

I remember watching the Battle at Winterfell and immediately, something felt off. Something wasn’t right. The battle started and it was barely lit, the action sequences were very shaky, so I could barely see the fighting. Even the cool moments like Lady Lyanna Mormont slaying the giant with her dying breath felt less impactful than her “King in the North” speech from season 6. The battle just felt lackluster. The end didn’t feel deserved and the White Walkers - what was being built up to be the biggest threat that the show has ever faced - ended up being nothing more than just another zombie horde like in The Walking Dead. And don’t get me started on the Night King.

The Battle on the Avengers Compound, on the other hand, had so much going on. There was the beginning, where the heroes are scattered as Hawkeye is trying to run away with the gauntlet. There was Thor, Captain America and Iron Man going toe-to-toe with Thanos. There was Captain America wielding Mjolnir and beating Thanos’s ass with it. All of it was culminating in a moment that can never be forgotten. When after standing in front of Thanos’s army, every single hero that was dusted in Infinity War came back and stood alongside Captain America. And then, after 22 movies and 11 years, Captain America - with the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe behind him - finally said one of the most iconic battle cries in comic book history:

That is how you pay-off long term storytelling. That is how you give your fans that have been following your franchise for over a decade pay off. Moments like this. Any genre franchise from here on out should learn from what the MCU did. And the battle was a visual marvel. It was lit in the best way, you could see the action, it was crisp, every hero got some form of spotlight throughout the entire battle and the way it ends feels right and perfectly encapsulates what this saga was about, or rather who this saga was about. At the end of the day, though, it needs to be said that this moment has been said to be one of the best fight scenes in movie history. 

Conclusion

This post was really long. Probably the longest post I’ve made and I probably did leave some things out about certain characters. Was this written because I really wanted to talk about Avengers Endgame again? Yes. Will people actually look at this? Probably not. Ultimately though, the moral of this is that Avengers Endgame did in 3 hours what Game of Thrones couldn’t do in 1 season. And it says a lot when a film that features a giant purple alien with 27 chins and heroes ranging from an old steroid ridden soldier from the 40s to an actual talking, gun-wielding raccoon told a more satisfying story than one of the most sound and cohesive shows on TV today. This year feels like the year of passing the torch for entertainment: the original 6 Avengers pass their torch to the new heroes, and Game of Thrones passed the torch for other shows to capture audiences like they did. However, one did it really well and the other didn’t.

Two great franchises. Two great sagas. And only one worked. That’s a damn shame.

(Also feel free to add anything I didn’t say, because there is a lot)

#avengers endgame spoilers #endgame spoilers #game of thrones #got season 8 #avengers endgame

[veliusthewanderer]

White Supremacy, Charlottesville, and Trump...or Why I’m Disgusted With My Fellow White People

(READERS NOTE: This is NOT an attack on all white people in America. This is meant to be an attack against those sicko, deranged, and disturbed white people who not only had to show up in Charlottesville last weekend armed as if ready for World War III, but who also attacked the decency of the victim, Heather Heyer, killed by one of your kind with a vehicle in what is by all definitions a hate-inspired murder. To my fellow white people who have taken a stand against the racism and hate, as well as the murder, please continue to do so. To my fellow white people who have taken no sides, believeing that its not their problem, SHAME ON YOU for not taking a stand! What kind of moral lesson are you teaching your children by sitting on the sidelines??)

I probably said the bulk of what I wanted to say in just that little paragraph, but as it is my job to rant, rave, call out and shame the conservative establishment and especially the “too-far-right” or alt-right if it helps, then obviously I will do what I set out to do.But before I throw down on the alt-right and the various hate-groups out there who likely have members with Tumblr accounts, let me first review the events of the past weekend.

In Charlottesville, Virginia it was decided by a city council vote to take down a statue of a Confederate general, very likely moving it to a museum ground for display, though information about its ultimate destination have not been very forthcoming due to the recent episode I will go into. On the day the statue was set to be removed, three groups of protestors arrived on the scene, each for various reasons. I will not go into detail about the other two groups, as they were protesting in a nonviolent (or nonviolently threatening) way. The group who arrived, and who merits this rant, a motley mix of Neo-Nazis, Neo-Confederates, and militiamen, were the ones most threatening of violence, for they came armed for a major battle. You’d think World War III was just seconds from starting as you seen they walking, brandishing army knives, pistols, AK-47s, AR-15s and other semiautomatic and automatic weapons out in full view as if daring ANYONE to tell them they weren’t allowed to the site. This was the result of the previous night’s acts of violence near the Va Tech campus. There was the usual shouting protests and counterprotests, and there were name-calling, personal attacks, and shouts of derogatory and inflammatory rhetoric by the militiamen, and on several occasions this threatened to spiral into a full-blown bloodbath. Thankfully, law enforcement was there to keep the cauldron lid locked tight.

Fast-forward 24 hours later, to the scene of the nonviolent protestors, the militiamen who remained ready for a fight, then a single Dodge charged into the crowd of peaceful demonstrators. At least 29 people were injured, which was horrifying enough, but there was one fatality: Heather Heyer. The 32-year-old was crushed by the wheels of that Dodge, driven by a teenager who had been corrupted by the doctrines of the white supremacists and under the illusion that because their chief ally Donald Trump is now the 45th president of the United States, they could get away, literally, with murder. I refuse to use the individual’s name as I feel it would give him fame he doesn’t deserve. If you thought this story couldn’t get worse, then think again...

Within 12 hours of the incident, “President” Trump is informed of the situation in Charlottesville, including the death of Heyer and two law enforcement officers who died in a helicopter crash while trying to protect the demonstrators. Trump went before the cameras to offer his sympathies to the people who were injured, the families of the victims, and to condemn the acts of violence. BUT HERE’S THE THING, he did so in such a manner that it could best be described as “half-hearted, generalized, and ignorant of the entire situation”. In simple terms, he accused ALL SIDES of having a role in the violence and the deaths, while not even making any attempt to single out the white supremacists who were truly responsible. Former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke even had occasion to remind Trump that his “election” couldn’t have been possible without the vote of loyal white Americans, i.e the very white supremacists responsible for the atrocity.

But even as Trump was sent reeling by the backlash from Democrats and even many Republicans for his lackluster condemnation, and as tributes to Heyer began pouring in thru facebook and Twitter, them damned white supremacists began to denounce Heyer as a 32-year-old “slut” who was “useless” because she was doing “what women were intended to do, reproduce”. I cannot go into more detail on the things they said about her because its just too f**king stupid to even want to relive even if for the benefit of writing this blog. Needless to say, they got a backlash almost as bad as Trump got, but the threats against family and friends of Heyer was so bad that a planned vigil at the location where she died had to be canceled out of concern those white supremacists might try and harm or kill more people. The vigil took place on facebook, though some brave people did go to the location despite the threats and hold vigil there. 

Without having this turn into a Family Guy style “What Really Grinds My Gears” foray, what actually grinds MY gears is both the way in which the white supremacists attacked the character of the person whose death by one of their own caused such outrage, and the fact that Donald Trump once again did a half-ass job of condemning the heinous actions by calling them out by name. Mike Pence (None The Smarter), Vice President of the USA actually DEFENDED Trump’s statements..or tried to at least. But the backlash had gotten so severe that in a rare moment of realization that he was in serious doo-doo with public opinion, Trump finally came out and condemned in full the actions over the weekend, even calling out the various hate-groups involved. But these facts remain: 1) an innocent person died, killed by an act of domestic terrorism more serious than anything ISIS could dream up for the very fact that the terrorist WASN’T EVEN A MUSLIM, he was as “red-blooded American” as you or I 2) Donald Trump is STILL taking flak for his abysmal condemnation Saturday despite his more straightforward Sunday statement, and 3) Alt-right shock-jocks like Alex Jones are STILL trying to convince Americans that the entire incident, including the murder of Heyer, was staged by Jewish agitators working for the liberal left and Hillary Clinton (why the hell is SHE being dragged into this horrible situation only Jones himself can answer, if you can stomach it).

So now you wonder why I hold Trump personally responsible for the incident and others like it that have happened in the last six months? Go back to the very day he started his presidential campaign, and follow it all the way through, and the answer should be as plain as the nose on your face (unless you’re such a fan of his that what he says wouldn’t matter to you at all. Hell, let him announce World War III. You’d still cheer his speeches). Many of his fans and sycophants would call that “tough talk”. There is a WORLD of difference between “tough talk” and inciting rioting on a grand scale. What Trump did was unleash the forces of racism which we’ve managed with some degrees of success to keep contained, and sat back and watched while America ripped itself to pieces. What’s worse? Many of my fellow white people either openly support Trump’s efforts because they believe it’ll “Make America Great Again” as his slogan goes, or are uncaring about the entire episode for the reason that “it didn’t happen here”, or “its not my problem.” Let me tell you something: IT IS YOUR PROBLEM! How long do you think it’ll be before that poisonous rhetoric spreads into your neighborhood? Your schools? Your communities? You do nothing by choice at the risk of doing nothing by inability because it became too ingrained to risk your own safety to speak out.

For those among my fellow white people who have gone out to protest racism, and the doctrines of Trump, I salute you. Continue to stand firm against bigotry, hate, and prejudice. For those of you who remain uncaring and/or unconcerned, maybe its time you become more caring and concerned because it could be the difference between a united America and an America torn asunder. And to those who support/agree with/endorse the rhetoric of the white nationalists, Steve Bannon and Donald Trump..I can only say...SHAME ON YOU. Maybe you should remove yourselves from this country and travel somewhere where you might be more appreciated....

...like perhaps Hell.

#dontgiveintohate remembercharlottesville impeachtrumpnow

[citizenscreen]

Special guest post by Jeff Lundenberger @jlundenberger

My Feud with Feud

When the ads for Feud: Bette and Joan began to appear I considered watching it, thinking it was a made for TV movie — this despite the fact that the image of Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon posed as Joan Crawford and Bette Davis in a promotional photo for Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, made me think of two children playing dress up. When I discovered it was a series I decided that I definitely would not tune in. I’m a commitment-phobe when it comes to television series. I try to limit my TV viewing time and the thought of having to set aside one hour each week for the length of a series season makes me terribly anxious. It’s much more comforting for me to turn on TCM. Ninety-nine per cent of the time it will be something I’ll watch. And if it’s not, I have a DVR crowded with TCM movies going back several years. (As for my difficulty making a selection from that group, well, that’s another story.)

I was also put off by the fact that the series was created by Ryan Murphy, of American Horror Story fame, a show that I didn’t find appealing. I tried a few episodes of the first season at the urging of my sister but the violence, something my younger self would have relished, had me averting my eyes and squirming in my seat. I turned on an episode from a different season a few years later to see if anything, including my taste, had changed. The subject was a freak show and I couldn’t even watch the entire hour. The production seemed oddly lackluster, the story pretentious.

My husband started watching Feud from the beginning and he loved it. I read an intriguing interview with Lange in which she talked about the attempt by those concerned with the production to humanize the characters, placing their struggles firmly in the male-dominant, ageist Hollywood of the time. Finally, I received a text from a Joan and Bette-loving friend asking me if I was watching what he described as a weekly Christmas gift. All resistance crushed, I watched episodes 1, 2 and 3 in one sitting.

I’ve been a fan of Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon since they first appeared on the scene in the 1970s but, lets face it, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis have some pretty big shoes to fill, especially if the viewer was, like myself, a fan of those two actors well before the arrival of King Kong and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. When we met, my first long-term boyfriend told me that I reminded him of Hank Fonda. Hank Fonda, Bill Holden, he threw the names of stars around as if they had been high school classmates. Ridiculous as it seems, we feel like we know them all intimately. How many times have I watched Mildred Pierce and All About Eve, The Women and Now, Voyager? Mildred and Margo and Crystal and Charlotte are only characters in movies, but my familiarity with them and my knowledge of their creators — from books, magazines, talk shows, and, yes, their films — grants me, in my mind, at least, some insight into the personal worlds of Crawford and Davis. Could Lange and Sarandon possibly live up to my perceptions and expectations?

The show’s 8 episodes have finished and I’m still on the fence. I thought the last episode the best and I’ll go into that more, but as for the show in general: Lange and Sarandon are fine as Joan and Bette. Lange’s voice is a bit soft for my idea of Joan but she never wavers from that peculiar, precise diction of Crawford’s, while Sarandon captures Davis’ clipped delivery and abrupt mannerisms. But I also have, to a lesser extent, a viewer’s intimacy with both Lange and Sarandon and I watch and listen carefully — where do those two end, Joan and Bette begin?  Do these interpretations at all match up with the interpretations I have in my head? Lange or Sarandon utter a line and I immediately run it through my filter: does this sound like my Bette or Joan?

One scene with Davis and ex-husband Gary Merrill (Mark Valley) struck me as feeling painfully realistic. Merrill angers Davis and they begin braying at each other when, suddenly, both burst out laughing at the battle that has obviously been a constant in their lives together, perhaps the basis of their relationship. Crawford’s dressing room attempt to convince Anne Bancroft (Serinda Swan) to allow Crawford to accept Bancroft’s Oscars were she to win — flattering, cajoling, insinuating — seemed utterly realistic. But there were also moments that left me cold. Nothing specific, just a vague mistrust, as if the creators were more interested in effect than intent.

The performances of Alfred Molina as Robert Aldrich, Stanley Tucci as Jack Warner and Dominic Burgess as Victor Buono are convincing but, of course, I’m not nearly as familiar with those men. I sense a bit of Joan Blondell in the performance of Kathy Bates, but Olivia de Havilland is nowhere to be found under the blonde wig of Catherine Zeta-Jones. Jackie Hoffman’s Mamacita and Judy Davis’ Hedda Hopper are more caricature than character. Grim and stoic, Mamacita has no subtlety. She might have been an escapee from Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS. And while I’m an admirer of Judy Davis, she doesn’t seem to be able to pull a person out of the sartorial flamboyance that defines the gossip columnist. Then again, if Hopper’s actions in the series are at all to be believed, perhaps she wasn’t human at all.

Other “real” characters pass in and out of the story – Gregory Peck, Geraldine Page, Rip Torn, Patty Duke, George Cukor, to name but a few — some more effective than others. John Waters appears as producer/director William Castle, turning that scene into utter camp while humiliating poor Joan in the process. Crawford’s twin daughters show up several times, as the teenage version of the murdered sisters of the Overlook Hotel.

But does it all work? Perhaps it’s my unfamiliarity with modern TV series but I find an hour each week to be too long. Dense with self-conscious detail, I’m worn out by the end of each episode, wanting to know what will happen next while at the same time relieved that I no longer have to notice that it is Aqua Net hairspray and Dickinson’s witch hazel being used by the stars. It’s Joan and Bette, the graphic novel, elaborate and over-blown, the costumes too costume-y, the sets too perfect, the attitude too proud of its own cleverness. But it is also fun. Sarandon as Davis performing a silly Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? song on the Mike Douglas show seemed just too good to be true — until the original video was trending on social media the following day.

And then came that final episode, which came closest to finding a kernel of authenticity and some kind of longed-for, idealized truth. We saw Joan at home, alone, cooking, drinking, cancelling a lunch date because she is unable to zip up her dress. Bette at home with Victor Buono, who questions the reasoning behind her continued attempts at landing a television series. Joan with her dentist who recommends a denture that she refuses. Bette’s doctor urges her to give up smoking, with the same result. Joan endures humiliation after humiliation while shooting her final film, Trog. Bette maintains a game face during the Dean Martin Roast. The subject of Christina’s book comes up in a conversation with Joan and her other daughter, Cathy, who tenderly comforts her. Bette spends time with her brain-damaged daughter Margot after being berated and dismissed by her other daughter B.D. The two have much in common at this stage in their lives, both touched by longing, sadness and the realities of old age.

But there’s more to it than that. In a Lynchian dream sequence Joan wakes up in the middle of the night and hears voices coming from her living room, where she finds Hedda Hopper and Jack Warner drinking, laughing and playing cards. She takes a place at the table with them, now in full makeup and dress. With biting humor they recall the past, struggle, triumph and pain. Bette arrives and takes her place at the table opposite Joan who is, at first, insulted by Bette’s presence. But it is Bette who asks Hopper and Warner to apologize to Joan for the miseries they have caused her. They consent but both, finally, are incapable of saying “I’m sorry.”

Hopper and Warner depart while Bette talks Joan into playing a game of Wishes and Regrets, “The only game I know” says Davis. Joan pulls a pip card and says, with sincerity, “I’m sorry I wasn’t more generous with you.” Bette pulls a face card and responds “I wish I’d been a friend to you.” Mamacita wakes Joan from her trance and returns her to bed. Touching and wistful, Joan’s dream, but could that have been her real attitude towards Bette after all the hostility they had shown one another?

Bette’s real response certainly might have been different. Later in the episode she answers a telephone call and is informed of Crawford’s death. Asked for a comment she replies “My mother always said don’t say anything bad about the dead. Joan Crawford is dead. Good.” But there is ambiguity in her face. Is she saying this because she feels it, or is she saying it because that is what she thinks she would be expected to say? The series ends at the beginning, the two stars in their studio chairs at the start of production of Baby Jane, hoping to become friends. Wishful thinking? Who knows.

Faye Dunaway is mentioned ironically in the final episode, and it’s all but impossible to talk about Joan Crawford, post-Mommie Dearest, without bringing up Dunaway’s portrayal of her. Has there ever been another movie with a more determined and driven star surrounded by such mediocrity? Dunaway’s Crawford is riveting but the other actors are unable to rise above the dull cinematography, the bad editing or the banal script. I watched the film recently and was struck by the overblown grandeur of the performance, but also its touches of subtlety and, dare I say, reality? This is, after all, not the Crawford of Feud but the Crawford of Christina, an angry, troubled, driven women seen through the eyes of her child. For better or worse, Dunaway’s performance, crafted from a rib tugged from Crawford’s own work in Johnny Guitar, defined the woman in a way that has stuck since the film’s release in 1981. It will be interesting to see if Lange’s Crawford, or Sarandon’s Davis for that matter, has the power to maintain such longevity.

◊

About the author: Jeff Lundenberger is an avid classic film fan, was a TCMFF Social Producer and is active across social media sharing his love of movies. You can follow Jeff on Twitter and Instagram @jlundenberger. I was thrilled when he agreed to share his thoughts on Feud on this blog and cannot wait to share my own thoughts in the comments below. I hope you’ll do the same.

  My Feud with FEUD Special guest post by Jeff Lundenberger @jlundenberger My Feud with Feud When the ads for Feud: Bette and Joan…

#Bette Davis #Feud #Jessica Lange #Joan Crawford #Susan Sarandon

[thisaintascenereviews]

The Nitty Gritty: Episode Eighteen

Artist: Yshwa Album: Melody Ln. Record Label: Self-released Release Date: February 14 2017

The Nitty Gritty: Hoodie Allen is a rapper that I don’t like very much, although his last project was pretty solid. He makes a lot of cringy, unfunny, and painful jokes that serve no rhyme or reason, and he takes himself way too seriously, especially for a rapper of his caliber. His last project was a step in the right direction, but it still featured a lot of the problems that riddle his work. Thankfully, another rapper is basically a better version of Hoodie Allen. That’s Yshwa, a rapper that I just recently across thanks to YouTuber / reviewer Luke James (not the singer, which he mentions in his videos in a very tongue-in-cheek way). He reviewed his new project, Melody Ln, and I thought it would be worth checking out, especially from the way he described it – a very catchy, fun, and lighthearted project that doesn’t take itself too seriously and is more bent on being funny and silly. Yeah, that’s exactly how this record is, and what’s funny is that I feel the same way that James did on this record. It’s not bad at all, and Yshwa has some good flows on this thing, as well as some clever wordplay and interesting ideas, but it’s also pretty forgettable. The production itself is very lackluster, boring, and uninteresting. It’s not memorable, despite how solid Yshwa himself is. He’s got the bars and he’s got the lyrics to serve as a backbone to his sound, but what good is that when your sound is not that catchy or interesting? That’s the biggest problem of this record. It’s just not that memorable.

Would I recommend this? I can see people enjoying this, especially if you want something fun, silly, and lighthearted. Yshwa is good, because he doesn’t take himself too seriously. There’s one semi-political track here, “Gas Light,” and it’s all about the term of the same name, but he doesn’t go into a lot of detail about it, so it’s more or less up for interpretation. Regardless, though, this record is very fun, silly, and goofy. Think early Childish Gambino and Hoodie Allen. The only difference is that this is actually good, and Hoodie Allen isn’t. I mean, like I said, his last record was okay, but this is a bit better, because Yshwa has some better bars, and his lyrics are cleverer. At the same time, though, its production is pretty weak, so if you’re into beats, instrumentation, and production more than lyrics and bars, you might not like this much. I’m torn, because I like it, it’s just that the production doesn’t stand out. Luke James said it best, as he said that if Yshwa focused on his songwriting and production, his lyrics and bars would be more memorable and interesting. As it stands, though, this record is good, but it’s not great at all. It’s good for a few listens, but I can’t really find myself wanting to come back to this all that much. If you want an album that’s meant to be more fun and lighthearted, mainly filled with punchlines, check out the new Shabazz Talib album, Undergrad, which I just reviewed recently. That’s got a lot of catchy hooks, melodies, and memorable production, but I wouldn’t skip this, either. It’s worth a listen, but it’s a toss-up if you’ll really love it.

#yshwa #melody ln #hip-hop #rap #comedy #childish gambino #donald glover

[geektified]

New Post has been published on http://www.geektified.com/2017/05/09/the-raw-expose-the-samoa-joe-is-the-worlds-most-dangerous-fake-chiropractor-edition-5-8-2017/

The Raw Exposé: The Samoa Joe Is The World's Most Dangerous Fake Chiropractor Edition (5-8-2017)

By: Keila Cash

  Hello everyone and welcome to another installment of The Raw Exposé. Tonight’s episode of Monday Night Raw emanated from the O2 Arena in London, England. The biannual European Tour is in full swing as WWE makes a pit stop in the land of tea and crumpets for the next couple of days. With the crowd having a reputation of being extra rowdy, did they live up to expectations or did they have something to cheer about for all the wrong reasons? The answer to that question can be found throughout this blog. Without further ado, let’s dissect tonight’s episode of Raw in no particular order.

  Kurt Angle and Stephanie McMahon appointed Dean Ambrose and The Miz as co-General Managers of Raw since they were unavailable to run the show tonight.

  Braun Strowman made his way to the ring and demanded another match against Roman Reigns after he recovers from his shoulder injury. Once Reigns is out of the way, Brock Lesnar is next on Strowman’s hit list.

  Kalisto came out and challenged Strowman to another match after Strowman pushed him off the stage while trapped in a dumpster a few weeks ago. Strowman laughed off Kalisto’s comments and claimed that he could beat him with one arm. Ambrose decided to test that theory by booking Strowman vs. Kalisto for later tonight.

  Ambrose continued to show off his matchmaking skills by putting Miz in a match against Finn Bálor as the opening segment came to an end.

  This was a fine way to start the show, but it was nothing to write home about for the most part. Also, it appears that the crowd noise has been edited in post-production. It kills the viewing experience because the London crowd is usually hot. Perhaps their rowdiness will be detected later in the show, but it was definitely muted here.

  The Miz defeated Finn Bálor via disqualification when Miz shoved Bálor into the referee who was busy trying to keep Maryse out of the ring. Dean Ambrose overruled his co-GM by restarting the match and banning Maryse from ringside.

  Bálor attacked Miz and tossed him back in the ring. He nailed Miz with the Slingblade/Running Dropkick/Coup De Grace trifecta for the win. The match was decent, but it didn’t get past a certain level due to the screwy booking down the stretch. Despite that small quibble, this was a nice showcase for Bálor after Bray Wyatt cost him a shot at the Intercontinental Championship last week. Speaking of Wyatt, he didn’t show up to confront Bálor which is a little surprising. The night is still young, though.

  Alexa Bliss defeated Mickie James thanks to an assist from Nia Jax. James went up to the top rope, but Jax tugged her leg to provide the distraction.

  Bayley laid out Jax with a cross body at ringside, but it wasn’t enough as Bliss knocked James off the top rope and pinned her clean as a sheet.

  Bliss continued to attack James until Bayley chased her up the ramp.

  However, James was ripe for the picking as Jax laid her out with a running avalanche followed by an elbow drop for good measure. Jax is doing Bliss’ dirty work because she wants a shot at the Raw Women’s Championship. Bliss promised to discuss the matter with Kurt Angle, but I have a feeling she is going to duck Jax because she is a smart woman who values her livelihood.

  Samoa Joe sounds like the chiropractor from hell as he described how he was going to break every bone and ligament in Seth Rollins’ body.

  Rollins attacked Joe from behind and a backstage brawl ensued until WWE officials broke things up. This was a nice way to forward their feud leading up to their presumed rematch at Extreme Rules next month.

  Braun Strowman vs. Kalisto ended via No Contest when Roman Reigns made his way to the ring to confront Strowman. Reigns and Strowman had another epic brawl which saw Reigns nail Strowman with three Superman Punches before focusing his attention on Strowman’s injured elbow.

  Reigns rammed the elbow into the ring post before grabbing a steel chair to finish the job. Strowman eventually retreated through the crowd while Reigns stood tall in the ring soaking in a mixture of cheers and boos.

  This was a nice way to forward the Reigns-Strowman feud. Both men showed great intensity during their brawl which bodes well for their return bout at Extreme Rules. Expect a special stipulation to push things over the top in terms of batshit craziness.

  Sadly, their rematch is postponed because Strowman needs to have minor surgery on his elbow which explains the injury angle. This is sucky news because it throws the main event of the next two Raw PPVs into chaos. However, this medical timeout might be a blessing in disguise because Strowman should be back in time for SummerSlam which will allow WWE to build up Strowman vs. Reigns or Strowman vs. Lesnar for the Universal Championship. Either direction is fine, but it gives the creative team more flexibility when it comes to plotting out Lesnar’s Title defenses for the rest of the year.

  Sheamus and Cesaro survived Tag Team Turmoil as they defeated Enzo Amore & Big Cass, Heath Slater & Rhyno, Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows, and The Golden Truth to become the number one contenders for the Raw Tag Team Championship. The series of matches were good with Anderson and Gallows giving Sheamus and Cesaro a run for their money.

  The Golden Truth tried to pull off the upset, but it was to no avail as Cesaro pinned R-Truth with a roll-up. The finish was underwhelming, but it didn’t take away from the match quality leading up to the final pinfall.

  The Hardy Boyz came out to confront Sheamus and Cesaro, but the heels decided to head up the ramp instead. It was another case of Lather, Rinse, Repeat because the same thing happened last week. A change of pace would be nice, but I digress.

  Seth Rollins defeated Samoa Joe via disqualification when Joe rammed Rollins’ head into the exposed turnbuckle. Rollins pulled off the covering by accident which allowed Joe to take advantage of the situation. The referee gave Joe a pass but warned him not to do it again. Joe defied the ref’s order which led to the DQ finish.

  Joe continued to ram Rollins’ head into the turnbuckle before putting him in the Coquina Clutch. The referee shouted at Joe to break the hold which he eventually did as the segment came to an end.

  Joe and Rollins had a good match, but it lacked crowd heat. It was clear that both men were holding back because the finish allows them to have a more definitive match at Extreme Rules. The booking made sense, but the match suffered from an atmospheric standpoint.

  TJP defeated Jack Gallagher with a roll-up while grabbing the tights for extra leverage. The match was decent, but it was short on time.

  After the match was over, TJP targeted Gallagher’s knee and put him in the kneebar to do further damage until Austin Aries made the save.

  Neville promised to give TJP a shot at the Cruiserweight Championship if he won tonight, but he backpedaled when Michael Cole put him on the spot. It appears that Neville is taking the Alexa Bliss approach when it comes to keeping their frenemies closer.

  Sasha Banks defeated Alicia Fox with the double knees from the top rope. However, the win was controversial as Fox had her shoulder up before the count of three. The match was decent, but it was overshadowed by some sort of kerfuffle in the crowd. Since the WWE Production Crew is edit-happy when it comes to keeping the London fans in check, why was the “integrity” of this match kept intact in terms of crowd noise?

  Bray Wyatt defeated Dean Ambrose with Sister Abigail thanks to an assist from The Miz down the stretch.

  Wyatt and Ambrose had a good match which is not surprising due to their past encounters over the years. Ambrose had things under control until Miz hit him in the back with the Intercontinental Championship. Wyatt made the cover, but Ambrose managed to kick out at two. He only delayed the inevitable as Wyatt dropped him with Sister Abigail to pick up the win moments later.

  Miz attacked Ambrose by raking his eyes before cutting a promo vowing to win the Intercontinental Championship next week as Raw went off with Maryse and her husband canoodling on the entrance ramp.

  Finn Bálor didn’t appear during the main event which suggests that his feud with Wyatt has been dropped for the time being. Strowman’s injury might’ve pushed Bálor in front of the line for a shot at Brock Lesnar’s Universal Title at the July PPV. We shall see how it all plays out, but it’s very telling that the follow-up was dropped cold.

  As for Ambrose and Miz, they will face off for the IC Championship next week. I don’t expect a title change, but stranger things have happened.

  Overall, I thought tonight’s episode of Raw was decent at best. Even though the show was taped, the broadcast zipped by for the most part. The wrestling action was solid, but uneventful compared to last week’s stellar main event.

  It is becoming more apparent that WWE is doing a lot of post-show editing when they tape Raw and SmackDown Live from London. The crowd noise was subdued for most of the night, but a smattering of Randy Savage and CM Punk chants were picked up during the main event. The European fans can be a rowdy bunch, but neutering them like a bunch of puppies is a bit much because it kills the television experience for the viewers at home.

  The last couple of taped shows from the UK have been lackluster and the trend continued tonight which is sad because WWE usually goes all out to make these shows special. Let’s hope SD Live fares better tomorrow night, but I am not getting my hopes up. Le Sigh…

  The Braun Strowman injury is a bummer and it should be interesting to see how Roman Reigns is handled since his sparring partner is temporarily on the shelf. The creative team has to reshuffle the deck and we shall see how it all shakes out as Raw takes place from Newark, New Jersey next week. The injury bug needs to be wished the best in its future endeavors because it’s been taking out wrestlers left and right over the past couple of years…L

    On that note, this wraps up another edition of The Raw Exposé. I hope you enjoyed it and I will back tomorrow night with a brand new installment of The SmackDown Files. See you later, boys and girls!

#Braun Strowman #Dean Ambrose #Monday Night Raw #Roman Reigns #Samoa Joe #Seth Rollins #The Miz #WWE #WWE Universe

[ralphmorgan-blog1]

Stitch Fix defies odds, soars over 50% since lackluster debut

It’s been just ten days since Stitch Fix debuted on the stock market, and it has risen almost 54 percent since that time. It’s an astonishing feat for the  fashion styling business, which got off to a rough start, but quickly turned things around as it started to gain momentum by its third day of trading and soared 24 percent today, better known as “Cyber Monday.”

For those who didn’t watch this highly anticipated IPO, Stitch Fix originally priced its offering at $15, which was below its proposed price range of $18 to $20, even after reducing the size of its offering. It then closed the first day at $15.15, below the opening price of $16.90.  The following day it “broke issue,” closing beneath the $15 IPO price. And all of this was well beneath the $22.61 that the company valued its buyback at last year.

Last Tuesday, however, Stitch Fix changed course, and it’s been on a roll ever since. One possibility for the bullish sentiment could be that investors are predicting a big holiday quarter for e-commerce and this business in particular. Amazon shares have also gone up this week.

Gene Munster, formerly an analyst at Piper Jaffray and now a venture capitalist at Loup Ventures, says it’s “probably a couple of large buyers, and the chart starts working, and people feel like they’re missing something.”

He believes that it mostly boils down to simple supply and demand. Stitch Fix did what’s called a “low float,” meaning it made a relatively low number of shares available for sale — which is often the case with newly public companies.

Still, while there’s often volatility in the days following an IPO, statistics show that what happened with Stitch Fix is highly unusual. Munster says that he “can’t remember when it’s happened like this.”

According to Dealogic, U.S.-listed companies that trade flat on the first day, or within 1 percent above or below the IPO price, are up an average of just 1.6 percent one month following their IPO. This compares to 16 percent gains for other newly listed companies in the same timeframe.

The correlation continues longer term, with flat first-day companies trading up 10.8 percent one-year out from the debut. Other U.S.-listed companies average 20 percent gains between the time of their IPO and the following 12-month period.

That’s why there’s so much scrutiny on the first day “pop,” the term used to describe the gains that are expected to happen on day one. Investment bankers advise companies to price IPOs about 15 to 30 percent beneath their predicted first day performance, sometimes characterized as a “discount” to encourage new investors to buy the stock. It’s also meant to prevent the stock from falling in the following weeks or months.

Because of the perceived importance of the “pop,” bankers often exercise what’s called a “greenshoe option,” where they can buy back shares at the IPO price to save face in the first 30 days. It appears that they did this with Stitch Fix on the first day. In this case, bankers were allowed to buyup to 1.2 million shares.

While it’s certainly too soon to declare Stitch Fix a long-term success, its short-term performance defies the odds. In fact, Kathleen Smith, manager of Renaissance Capital, the IPO ETF, calls this turnaround “rare.” She says that, typically, “breaking your IPO price leaves an imprint.”

The bull case for Stitch Fix is that it has built a fast-growing fashion business and did this with little capital. The company raised just a reported $42 million from Benchmark Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Baseline Ventures.

In just six years, co-founder and CEO Katrina Lake has built a company with $977.1 million in annual revenue. She’s also the youngest woman to ever take a company public, according to the Nasdaq.

Stitch Fix has already achieved profitability in some years, although it turned to a small loss of $594,000 for 2017. Last year Stitch Fix saw $33.2 million in net income.

Stitch Fix has become a leader in a growing category of try-it-before-you-buy-it fashion businesses. The company’s mix of algorithms and human stylists help determine which outfits should be sent to regular customers.

Of course, there’s always a bearish case for a stock, too. In this case, some IPO investors were burned on Blue Apron’s rough stock market run and may at first have been wary of anything that looked like subscription commerce. (The people who have access to the IPO price are a different group than typical retail stock market investors. It’s an exclusive group of institutional investors and hedge funders, who are expected to hold their positions to keep the stock stable).

We’re also told that some investors were initially concerned that co-founder and CEO Katrina Lake had planned to sell shares at the time of the IPO, a practice that is sometimes construed as a signal that insiders are less than confident about a company’s longer-term performance.

Lake nixed those plans after reducing the size of the IPO, saying she believed the company should be valued at more than $15.

Other concerns included the company’s short “lock-up” period, with 35 percent of insider shares potentially eligible for sale after just 90 days, dependent on stock performance. Companies typically have employees wait until the 180-day mark because the selling can cause the stock to dip. Additionally, CFO Paul Yee has only been with the company for five months, and the company’s COO, Mike Smith, was just promoted in October. We’ve heard that this spooked some of the IPO buyers.

There were also some fears about decelerating growth and high customer acquisition costs.

Either way, it looks like Stitch Fix’s early gains are a “Christmas present,” says Smith, who calls it  “encouraging to see the stock make these recoveries.”

We talked about the Stitch Fix pricing and more on the latest episode of TechCrunch’s “Equity” podcast.

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[the-kind-new-yorker-blog]

Girls Beyond the Wasteland, Show That Will Ironically, End Up Into Obscurity Itself Give It A Couple of Months

Creating a Game is do not ever easy. Especially since that the sector for entertainment lately is so good sized, getting your name available on a Game and successful is rather challenging. So, what show tackle this wasteland on the market where just the strong might survive?! KOUYA! A show that can... ironically, end up inside obscurity itself give it two months...

Story: Buntarou has to be your average high higher education boy. Well, not necessarily average, but the user gets the idea. He loves to help people with the problems, works hard to your pint that you know him and contains a good impression with him, and loves to write for that drama club to help them in their own productions. However, one faithful day, a lovely but cold girl by way of the name of Kuroda asks Bunta for a date, assessing him in advance of finally declaring him to remain the writer on the new project with hers; making some sort of galge.

The principal premise of Kouya is usually supposedly to 'make some sort of visual novel Game'. I use the term supposedly because in all seriousness, this show would make no effort to attempt to make that that central focus. The general summary of any offered episode starts using something going mistaken with development and/or Kuroda having a concern with the individuals who are working and pleasing her dream 100 % FREE, the person your lady upsets and/or yells with subsequently leaves, Bunta and all of those other cast spend the vast majority of episode to attempt to get that people back, they get back, rinse and perform repeatedly. And this is kind of honestly the entire runtime in the show. Throw within a few forced dynamics developments, some required story elements (like bullshit romance), and you have precisely what is basically Kouya in short.

The story itself is incredibly stale because the complete series is based mostly around internal conflicts inside group that from time to time make me wonder why that they even bother banding together in the beginning, since many advisors say "I'm leaving but not coming back", before coming back again ready to succeed again, before departing again. It's repetitive not really all that will imaginative. It also holds mention that since show is stuck from this endless loop with arguments, anything else that show tries to undertake end up as well being very cliche, or are so underdeveloped that this doesn't even issue. Have a issue with voice coming across as? Well, with several words of support, she'll 'magically' complete better. Artist aren't able to draw? Well, games console her and she is going to 'magically' do far better. See the trouble here?

The attempt at comedy that show does additionally doesn't do that show really any favors additionally. Most of that comedy bounces from character retorts or higher exaggerated moments that typically aren't really the only thing that clever and/or innovative. Because the exhibit feels so required, they end in place feeling more cringeworthy as compared to anything and As i honestly couldn't even laugh quite often because of that they were presented.

Over-all, Kouya's story was filled with forced character progress, constant arguing, and a few downright laughable attempts to produce itself interesting. Although show piqued my interest in the beginning because it reminded me on the show with a comparable concept called Saekano, there was hardly ever in hell that I might like to compare this little bit of trash to that will show. Plus, the complete last episode is usually one big waste of your energy since they quite simply do nothing at the time of its entire runtime.

Examination: + Interesting account concept - Bad execution - Comprehensive runtime was some sort of boring and from time to time irritating rinse together with repeat setup - Several cliches and unndeeded story elements to advance the story down - Ending episode was a total waste of time period

Characters: Characters are also a giant issue in regards to the series as one since that really nobody stands out as their own personal character.

Rokushara, your little friend Game company this is started by Kuroda, comprises our main protagonist Buntarou, his friends Atomu together with Yuuka who hates normalfags and it is energetic as just about all hell respectively, some sort of fujoshi named Andou which CONSTANTLY fights using Kuroda, and Yuuki (Tori-chan) which despite her small to medium sized and meek dynamics, aspires to be described as a hentai artist. I grouped in the entire main cast from this series all in place into one since quite honestly, that's all they are really. Since all in the character development is usually forced and truly doesn't add much to your characters at just about all, this is essentially what we're departed with. All of them are merely generic Anime cliches ultimately don't have considerably substance to them as one. Tropes aren't poor, and can be achieved tastefully, but in such a case, Kouya focused excessively hard on looking to create proper drama that this forgot to make its very own characters interesting and meant it was even harder to root for your kids since they just about all have terrible people.

Side characters are actually nothing but block devices in Kouya since that the show spends most its time with its main people. Any character that isn't the main Rokuhara group is really only someone used to refill cast space.

Examination: - Generic, underdeveloped principal character - Block device side people

Art: The art work for Kouya is not really anything special. The animation is standard as to the we see regularly today in Anime, and there's truly nothing special in the regard.

Sound: Akin to art, the OST with regard to Kouya really isn't anything to jot down home about. The opening can be a rock song that will while yes, gives you some aspect of memorabilia for it, it's... rather unfitting for any show despite it's translation title being "Girls Beyond the Wasteland trailer", and the ED is quite bland and it can be just this thrilled ditzy song this is completely skippable.

Personalized Enjoyment: At primary, I really imagined that Kouya truly had something choosing it. It was some sort of show about producing visual novels and since a similar exhibit called Saekano has this can be the same premise, together with did rather properly, I thought that this is a reflection of that will, or would be similar in the regard. But week when week all I bought were the people just arguing amongst each other, with only a few snippets of advancement. Hell, they even stated themselves they will were on a good schedule, and the reality that they were having to pay more screentime battling and arguing as compared to actually making that goddamn Game. Top it off of with lackluster everything once we got closer and nearer to the end, and we now have ourselves an ironic fail.

Did I love this particular Anime?

No, virtually no I didn't. As being the weeks progressed, I honestly started out hating the show ever more because of precisely how poor the writing along with the progression actually has been.

What didn't I want about this Anime?

Really, while I could say I hate everything and become done with that will, I want to find yourself in specifics here. Sayuki Kuroda is usually hands down among the list of brutal and inhumane characters i have ever affecting a school linked Anime. She is a sole reason why everyone from this goddamn Anime actually leaves. She is a total tyrant to the individuals who are trying to allow her, and your lady put her blogger on house stop, prohibiting from allowing him you eat, sleep, go to your bathroom, or spend when on anything BUT writing since they were in back of schedule. (This was a genuine episode that occured. It was the smallest amount funny thing May possibly ever seen in Anime although they played it off being a joke. ) Enjoy actually, HOW in any respect are we designed to feel sorry and support a dynamics who does this?

Would I propose this Anime?

Girls Beyond The Wasteland Kouya can be an Anime that needs to be left in that wasteland. Any and all development out of this show is forced and it is only there to feign an awareness of of progress. That show is revolved available constant bickering, spends only a part of its time on any kind of actual Game producing, and to prime it off, has among the list of worst female leads i have ever affecting a school linked Anime. This can be a show that deserves to remain left out inside wasteland and end up forgotten.

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Rakugo v1 [Manga]

So I recently got this in the mail, and just finished it last night. I’ve been really, really excited for this release since it got announced, and I’m definitely planning to collect the rest, and post my thoughts on them. Rakugo is one of my favourite anime of all time [I guess I’d class it as my ‘objective favourite’, with Yuri on Ice being my undisputed ‘subjective favourite’, if that makes sense], so I’ve been wondering how the manga version works.

These posts are just going to be my initial thoughts on the volume, probably without much structure or anything. Once the manga’s finished coming out in English I might do a more comprehensive review.

I should specify that basically every post I make about the manga is going to be 90% me comparing it to the anime. It’s really difficult to talk about this sort of thing on it’s own terms.

Anyway, thoughts under the cut.

Just to get it out right at the start, I knew from the start that the manga wasn’t going to be quite as fantastic as the anime. I could guess in advance that the rakugo performances wouldn’t be as engaging. And even though it hasn’t become incredibly relevant yet, I know that Miyokichi’s character in particular is more flat and one-dimensional in portrayal in the manga [which still makes me sad to hear].

I might be getting ahead of myself in talking about stuff from later in the volume, but I can at least say for sure that, thus far, the performances really aren’t as engaging as in the anime. Though really the only proper performance we got was Dekigokoro/On Impulse. I guess there was also the one performance Yakumo gave about the ghost painting, but that was sorta skimmed over. It feels weird to call it a proper performance. I did appreciate getting a scene that at least focused on Yakumo’s capabilities at playing female roles, though. I forget exactly when that first came up in the anime, but seeing it shown so early in the manga is nice. I can’t really compare that scene to the anime, though, since they just . . . didn’t adapt it at all, so there’s nothing to compare.

The Dekigokoro performance felt really disappointing, though, even if it was only because I’m comparing it to the anime. I should have guessed that the performances would be heavily edited down in the manga, compared to how lengthy they can be in the anime, but man was it still jarring to see that entire performance go by in like three pages. It felt so lackluster. It’s hard to judge this sort of thing on it’s own terms, but it really did feel like it didn’t do as good of a job at portraying the physicality of the performance, the body language, and Yotaro’s repressed but frantic nervousness. It all kinda went by too fast. We also obviously didn’t get anything like the whole back and forth talking between the robber, the home owner, and the landlord, which in the anime did a fantastic job at showing how a single performer can move fluidly between different roles and simulate an entire conversation on their own. The manga mostly focused on parts where just one person was talking at a time. It’ll be interesting to see how the later performances are done. [I swear to god, if they don’t do justice to stuff like the Shibahama or Shinigami performances I might just lose my mind]

Getting back to earlier in the volume, it surprised me that the first chapter actually makes up like half of the first episode of the anime. In general, the anime only really adapted chapters one and four, and completely skipped over two and three. Which is a bit sad, but eh. I think the extended blu-ray version of episode one probably covers most of it, but that’s not been subbed at all. It was also a bit odd how, since v1 ends on the note of Yakumo seeing Sukeroku’s ‘ghost’ in the car, then I think the only v2 content that made it into the first episode would be Yakumo’s performance, the drama of Yotaro getting nearly expelled, and Yakumo starting his story. I wonder how much that covers of v2, and how much got cut. We’ll see.

Most of chapter one [and four, from what I remember] got adapted pretty faithfully, but certain things didn’t quite make it. Which is fine. The only part that really stuck out to me in this sense was the part where Konatsu literally says ‘oh yeah, he’s gonna try and die and take the art form down with him in a ‘rakugo shinju’‘. That . . . surprised me. I’m pretty sure that’s only vaguely alluded to at best in, like, the entire first season of the anime. We just see him being a grumpy old man. But I forget. This scene was definitely not adapted, though, that’s for sure. I feel almost disappointed that it’s so explicitly spelled out to the audience in the first chapter [the official translation even literally uses the term ‘rakugo shinju’ just to make it even more obvious that it’s a title drop]. I really liked getting to the second season and being like ‘oh hey they finally explained the title, that’s neat, that sure was a bit of a mystery for ages’. But that’s not really an objective judgment of anything.

I can see why they cut chapters two and three entirely for the TV version of episode one, since they’re mostly just slice of life character introductions as we see more of the day to day lives of the characters as they go about their jobs. It’s still sad that they cut it, though. It would have made the presence of certain characters in season two WAY more natural. It was also nice to get to see more of Yakumo doing his thing, as said above. We also got a more clear note about how he spends time each day practicing different art forms, which I don’t quite think was said quite so clearly in the anime, at least not this early. It’s nice to get a bit of a deeper look into the day to day lives of everyone.

It was also pretty nice to at least get one or two new scenes of Yakumo and Konatsu being on bad terms with each other. Just to help hammer that in even more. There’s also a few new scenes with Konatsu in general, like when she’s, I believe, flipping through old scrapbooks to do with her dad while Yakumo and Yotaro are out of the house. I also feel like she wasn’t quite as explicit in the anime about saying that she practices rakugo each morning while Yakumo is asleep. I think she just vaguely references the fact that she practices it often.

There was also one . . . interesting scene where Yakumo is, I think, at a theater on his own and sees Sukeroku’s ghost sitting in front of him silently. Not sure what to think of that. Mostly because it was pretty short and not a lot happened beyond Yakumo being all ‘so you’re still haunting me’ or whatever like he usually is. It mostly just feels weird that this is the first time we see the ghost in the manga, and not at the car scene like the anime. Something about this scene here feels sort of . . . unnecessary, almost? But that’s mostly because it feels so similar to later moments in the story, and it obviously lacks any sort of surprise element for me. If I didn’t know to expect something like that, it would have been more meaningful, I imagine. I still feel like the car scene is a more interesting place to see the ghost for the first time, though.

And on that note, it kinda saddens me how the little moment of Yakumo teasing Konatsu about her crying to herself, and her defensively denying it, feels WAY more short and comedic in the manga. It’s literally just one panel long. I’m pretty sure that, even if it wasn’t very long, it at least felt a bit more genuinely emotional in the anime. Part of it’s also that in the manga we just get an exaggerated chibi face of Konatsu crying, whereas in the anime I feel like it doesn’t even fully show her face, which made it feel more personal and private, in a way. It came across way differently when it was shown in such an upfront, silly way. Not to mention Yakumo’s cartoonishly evil expression in the manga, compared to his more casual smirk in the anime. The more silly version isn’t necessarily BAD, it’s just . . . different.

I can’t help but be a bit worried that that might be indicative of at least some element of the female characters in particular not seeming as deep in the manga. If we’re going to potentially keep getting moments like this where the manga opts for comedy where the anime opted for subdued emotions and realism. It’s at least clear that that’s a bit of a blanket statement in general across the entire thing. The manga is way more heavy on the low-detail, ‘cartoony’ faces and reaction shots than I expected. Probably because this is the first Haruko Kumota manga I’ve actually read, so her ‘style’ is new to me. I think I was expecting something, well . . . closer in tone to the anime, which isn’t quite the case here. I expected it to feel fundamentally different, but it still felt pretty damn different. Yotaro in particular has a LOT of specific sorts of silly faces that just don’t quite make it into the anime, and I already thought he had lots of silly faces there. Wow. It’s kinda hard to describe, but it’s really noticeable.

As a whole, this is really making me appreciate and understand just how much the anime added to the experience, and to what degree it handled things in a different sort of tone entirely. I obviously expected stuff like the background art or the character designs or the performances to be less detailed in the manga, but it was certainly a surprise to see that most of the anime’s overall atmosphere and mood was mostly new. And yeah, we’ll see how later performances go, but this is making me appreciate the anime performances even more than before, since they’re clearly almost entirely original content. It’s one of the elements that clearly hinged largely on the director’s vision and his talents.

It makes me wonder if any manga readers felt annoyed or put off by the more ‘serious’ tone of the anime, or the notably extended performances. I just wonder if it’s a case where you naturally prefer the version you experience first, and anything different you see after that feels weird.

I might sound really critical of the manga, which I sort of am, but I still greatly enjoyed it, if only as a way to re-experience such a beloved story. For the most part I really, honestly enjoyed the different atmosphere, if only because it made it feel different and fresh. And there’s a LOT of ‘manga-only scenes’ that were really good content-wise and helped flesh this part of the story out a lot. I’m interested to see how the later volumes go. I imagine that the amount of cut content will probably notably drop as we get further in. I mean, if I’m guessing it right, with how many chapters this volume had, then episodes 2-13 of season one probably covered like thirteen or fourteen chapters, so I could see that feeling very 1:1 in content if not tone. Which would be nice. I’m less sure how the pacing of season two will feel, though. All I really know is that, across it’s twelve episodes, the final three adapted v10, aka the last volume. So that’s probably pretty 1:1 as well, adaptation-wise. I’m less sure how the first nine episodes of it adapted v6-9, though. That definitely feels like there may have been a lot cut. We’ll see.

I’m not really gonna bother rating these individual volumes, if only because I just can’t really judge it as it’s own thing. I might give the entire manga a raitng if/when I review all of it, but we’ll see.

Before I forget, I did enjoy the bonus thing at the back where the author explained a bit about how rakugo theaters operate. You can tell how enthusiastic and informed she is about the entire topic. It was also interesting to see her explicitly state that Yakumo’s whole ‘Rakugo is DEAD’ attitude is completely divorced from reality, and that real-life rakugo is still mostly fine. I do feel like it almost sort of diminishes the pull of that entire central conflict of the rush to preserve a dying art form that Yakumo wants to destroy, to know that it’s exaggerated for drama purposes and isn’t really realistic. But the core concept still holds. Especially in terms of how it’s discussed in the flashback story. Still.

ALSO, as another side note, I was sorta surprised at how certain elements of the translation were handled. Mostly it just felt jarring how basically all of the honorifics/terms/etc were kept in Japanese [ie: ‘shishou’, ‘yose’, ‘hanashika’, etc], but the names of the actual rakugo stories were translated [ie: ‘God of Death’, ‘On Impulse’, etc]. It’s basically the opposite of how the anime was translated, where we had English translations like ‘master’, ‘theater’, and ‘storyteller’, versus Japanese names like ‘Shinigami’ and ‘Dekigokoro’. It was kind of bizarre and took some getting used to. I’m less annoyed at them preserving a lot of Japanese elements, and more surprised that, if they kept all THAT in Japanese, why they bothered translating the rakugo story titles. Feels like a slightly inconsistent decision. They’re obviously not trying to avoid ‘overwhelming’ or ‘confusing’ readers by using Japanese words, so why not leave the story names untranslated, with translator’s notes in the margins [which they used for whenever any given Japanese term was first used]? Oh well. Not my place to nit-pick, I guess.

#murasaki rambles #showa genroku rakugo shinju

[hellohellions]

Haunt Vault: Hundred Acres Manor (2016)

Admittedly, I think we’ve given Hundred Acres Manor something of a bad shake in the past. The last time we visited, some two or three years ago, I left feeling that the entire ordeal was way overhyped and flat-out disappointing in comparison to the advertisements and the praise we had been hearing for the establishment for weeks. The setting was there, but where was the passion? The artistic direction? The character that sets it apart from every other haunted hollow and creepy crypt in the area? The creative potential was staggering and we hated to see it go to waste on confusing set designs, ill-timed scares, poorly applied makeup, and actors repeating the same lines over and over again while we stood frozen in line from the intense crowds.

It just goes to show that one off night or one half-hearted performance can really muck up your perception of a haunt. Such is the nature of any event with live entertainment.

Nevertheless, we returned to the site with some small hope of improvement from the haunt of years past and we were not only pleasantly surprised, we were completely swept off our feet.

What we liked

Theming: There are a lot of things going on in this haunt. Like Rich's Fright Farm or ScareHouse, there are multiple episodic haunts contained within the event that don’t necessarily tie into an overarching theme, but fill out the haunt with a variety of vignette-style offerings. In this case, there were six attractions: Dead Lift, Damnation, The Torture Tank, Vodou, and two brand new sections called The Breach, and Hallow’s Eve. That’s a lot of disparate haunt material for one event, you might think. And under normal circumstances, it would be an ambitious undertaking to fit those odd puzzle pieces together into something coherent. But Hundred Acres Manor managed to make it flow together quite nicely. There’s a ton of variety in terms of scare tactics, as one might expect.

Dead Lift and Damnation are a bit more of your traditional haunted house fare: demons, the dead, and decrepit houses filled to the brim with scares. Torture Tank can best be described as a gladiator-style, steampunk, post-apocalyptic setting that thrusts you right into the action. It was an adrenaline-packed industrial nightmare that made you want to run, run, run. In fact, it was almost reminiscent of Halloween Horror Night’s RUN, and in a similar fashion, you can expect loads of whirring engines and massive power tools used in this setting. (Three chainsaws! THREE! At ONCE!) Our next stop is Vodou. It was of course, the voodoo themed bayou haunt, a theme which seems to be growing increasingly popular in recent years. Despite this, Hundred Acres Manor keeps it fresh by adding a lot of unexpected twists and turns, including a stroll through a New Orleans cemetery! Next up is The Breach, which ended up being my favorite section during our visit. The Breach is themed around an alien invasion in a government research facility (in space!) and by gum - they really made it work! The aliens were everywhere and it really did feel like you were somewhere alien and uninviting. Our final act is Hallow’s Eve, a very traditional take on Halloween hauntings. Themed around a vintage Halloween party, it was brimming with spooky delight and had a dusty, kind of nostalgic charm to it. This is a world apart from the confusing, almost themeless haunt I had attended previously, and the varying themes definitely brought some great scares to the table without compromising the haunt’s integrity.

Set design / Atmosphere: Hundred Acre Manor has a look that really steals the show. The large, foreboding gothic architecture packs a punch when you’re standing in line, and just the stark red lighting on the facade gets your blood pumping in anticipation of witnessing the horrors contained within. The inside of the structure is just as beautiful. There is so much going on with scenery in terms of props, sensory experiences, and obstacles in your path that it’s almost overwhelming. Instead of feeling cluttered and confused, however, the experience is a treat for the eyes, and sometimes a bane for the nose. Seriously, the use of scent in this haunt was incredibly jarring (in a good way, of course!) and we’d love to see more haunts explore extra sensory material like this. The use of animatronics to supplement scares here is some of the best I think I’ve seen in a while. Some of the animatronics were just massive and terrifying, and they served as a beautiful distraction for actors to come in and do their thing. In addition to animatronics, there is some absolutely wonderful use of obstacles and terrain at this haunt. Vodou had one of the most gorgeous water scenes I’ve ever witnessed in a haunt, in which an actor was wading underneath the dock we were walking on. There was also some stunning work in The Breach’s “anti-gravity�� room, which was all at once breathtaking and disorienting. There was some clear thought that went into executing these rooms and for that, I think Hundred Acres Manor has proven itself to be a rare gem in terms of set innovation.

Costuming: While there were some generic costume choices in here, the makeup looked loads better than it did before. There were no really outstanding characters, which was disappointing, but quite a bit of the makeup did look lovely. And we LOVED the aliens in The Breach. Science-fiction based haunts: take note. This is how you do otherworldly creatures.

Actor energy: Distraction-based scares are big here, and that’s just the way we like ‘em. Not to mention that there was a ton of actor energy all throughout the attraction. While one or two rooms out of the whole thing had actors milling about (including one we saw check his phone; a BIG no-no), most of the actors were ready to pounce at any time and were more than willing to follow us through multiple rooms. Our favorite was the xenomorph-like alien that chased us through the light tunnel in The Breach. They were incredibly energetic and just kept coming at us, even when we thought they were starting to back off. Scares were aggressive, abundant, and loud, and while I’d like to see more subtle, psychological scares done by some of the actors (especially in Hallow’s Eve), there was a lot of good material coming from the actors this year.

Pacing: The crowds for Hundred Acres Manor are absolutely hellish. Seriously. But the good folks at the haunt know how to space out their customers and keep them from bumping into other groups during the experience, something which I complained about during my last visit. I think the sprawling line at the beginning often hampers peoples’ haunt experience, but it’s a necessary evil to keep two-to-six person groups from corralling in the haunt like a bunch of cattle. (The wait isn’t as tremendously long as you would assume, either.) Additionally, the haunt seemed to stretch on for ages. It didn’t feel too short, but it didn’t grow exhausting to endure. There’s a nice amount of time spent in each area, and it really helps to keep the pace of the experience up.

What could be improved

Repeating lines: This is a gripe that I had before about Hundred Acres Manor, and while there were leaps and bounds in terms of improvement since my last visit, this is the one thing that they never really touched on. There was far too much “get out” and “come play with me” and actors just screaming at you if they didn’t know what else to say. Moreover, actors would repeat the same line in a room multiple times, and after a while, it just rips you right out of the experience. This might just be one of my pet peeves in haunts, but I do think it detracts from the visit somewhat to hear the same line screeched three or four times while you’re in a room.

Makeup: While a lot of the costuming was nice, and the cast knew how to accessorize well to suit their characters, there were lots of times where I saw cheap grease paint slathered muddily onto actors’ faces. In the dark, this isn’t a huge deal, but if a character is in an area with decent lighting, the use of chunky grease paint makes it seems like corners are being cut.

Final thoughts: Hundred Acres Manor has definitely redeemed themselves in terms of haunt credibility, in my eyes. The new additions in 2016 more than made up for the lackluster experience I had a few years back, and I can’t wait to see what Hundred Acres Manor brings to the table in haunt seasons to come!

Overall, we give this haunt an 8/10.

We also went back at the end of the season for Lights Out for Leukemia, a wonderful black-out charity event held by Hundred Acres Manor, and were thoroughly satisfied with the experience. Not only were they putting on a great show for us, they were doing it in the name of good will. Good on you, Hundred Acres Manor.

#hundred acres manor #pittsburgh haunts #pennsylvania haunts #haunt #haunts #haunted house #haunted houses #haunt review #haunt reviews #haunted house reviews #haunt life #haunt vault

[podcake]

Podcasts & Structure

Every time I get around to sitting down and actually writing these articles, I have to seriously consider what I’m going to talk about. It seems the conversation of audio drama is becoming more widespread lately, oozing its way into mainstream media faster than I can keep track of. 

And so many are being made at such a rapid pace, catching up with it all can be its own challenge. A lot of people are starting to see the power and potential of audio plays and it’s a slow burn revolution I am a hundred percent behind. 

When I achieve my dreams of becoming a licensed journalist under that sweet, sweet trademark PodCake©, know that I’ll be somewhere in the front lines, keeping everyone up to the date and in the zone until I’m old and gray and still very, very pink.

So with this exciting idea in mind, I find it appropriate to do a somewhat different type of “Podcasts&”. This is still very much an article dabbling into my specific interests and experiences though also a guide of sorts to those who may be wrapped up in the creative hype. Allow me to pull you starry-eyed artists aside for some well-meaning advice. May you follow in the footsteps of your idols, though know you are above any of their common mistakes.

I had a few options in store to pick from when it came to another topic covering audio drama critique, though I felt that I wanted to address this first. This is another dabbling into the more specific structures of my podcast journalism and the consumption and creation of audio drama in general. 

In a similar vain to my latest article, “Podcasts & Critique”, I’ll be talking about something that perhaps not many are willing to discuss out in the open but is certainly touched upon enough that I feel the merits to bring it up in more depth. What we will be discussing today is the element of effective story structure.

Get comfortable, this is gonna be a long one. 

Let me start by saying that I adore and always will adore a nice, rich setting presented only through words. I adore lavishly designed dystopias and lively apocalyptic wastelands more than the next guy and the idea of a soothing, sweet voice cooing to us over a delicately designed world is a surefire way to ensure a fanbase. This is the popular set up known as The Newscaster or The Fake Radio Show or Handsome Male Character Headcannon Sitting in a Big Chair or whatever you want to call it. 

I enjoy this format namely for its simplicity and ability to relay information to the listener all while still characterizing the narrator as an active part of the world. Though these shows might be more episodic, to a degree, the ideas are still being connected by one single thread. It’s such a regular aspect of the podcast scene that it’s nothing short of being a style.

This style places a lot of emphasis on lore and quirks and memorable little moments that arrange themselves into a little audio scrapbook. We’re given this collection of information, all gorgeously described in luscious detail.

That’s why it’s such a shame how boring it can be at times. 

Don’t get me wrong here, my problem is not with interesting landscapes and rich lore, my problem is when a lot is being said but not enough is being done. 

I fell out of love with Welcome to Night Vale for this particular reason, this inconsistency with stakes and conflict that made any enjoyment to be found quickly tedious. Night Vale is and always will be a staple in the audio drama community, though it doesn’t mean we can’t learn from its mistakes that may go over our heads due to its excellent writing and characters only sometimes overshadowing it. 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: an excellent audio drama is the sum of many parts and only succeeding in one area won’t always make the cut. But today’s topic is less about writing and more about narrative pacing…which is still kind of about writing but in a different way.

The central issue with these types of single narrator driven shows, being that we are being presented with a setting, problems, and characters who can solve that problem, but an effort is rarely ever made to get to a satisfying conclusion that is worth the wait. Of course, there actually being conflict to resolve can be its own and even more disappointing dilemma. 

A crowning example of this type of flaw occurred in what used to be  one of my favorite audio drama comedies, Kakos Industries. 

I promptly stopped listening to Kakos after a lackluster attempt at it’s first real arc after roughly fifty episodes of filler and build up that didn’t contribute much to whatever the arc was trying to get across. None of the past episodes helped create a central theme that the arc was meant to represent, making its conclusion lack any emotional stakes or a reason to get invested. 

The primary mood of the arc was all over the place with rapid character changes, unclear motivations, and a rushed explanation behind multiple episodes with little to no foreshadow to back it up. Furthermore this supposedly crucial ending didn’t tie into the continuation of season three beyond the absence of the past antagonist who was the center of the whole thing and the victim of a bloated backstory that needed way more than twenty minutes to be summarized.

No one changes from the whole ordeal, not even the protagonist who goes about his daily life as if none of it ever happened, and nobody and nothing is lost from the whole thing besides the character we already knew was bound to kick the bucket because it needed to end somehow. Generally, it does everything arc is not supposed to do as it doesn’t act as a changing phase for the story and doesn’t give us any vital information that will effect any of the characters long term.

The problem also lies in that there are a number of interesting subplots that emerged within the show’s canon as of season two: some more details about head rival  Melantha Murther that imply she may be older than she seems, the relationship she has with Corin Deeth I as well as his involvement with the company, and a theory about cloning being brought up to name a few, but we have yet to even gently nudge at these ideas yet for a good batch of episodes because we wouldn’t want all those penis jokes to go to waste.

This is content with potential to be interesting arcs on their own and functional ones as they key into new information about characters we’ve come to know and gives Kakos Industries the tension and mystery it desperately needs. 

These little bits and pieces of information can keep a listener engaged long enough to keep tuning in, but it can quickly become a chore to go back to something that seems to have been forgotten in exchange for repeated jokes and some new standalone characters that don’t really matter.

These might be in the footnotes of the creators for episode whenever, though to us they feel like throwaway lines pitched as bait more than anything of actual importance. They’re just there to be there.

And when the show peddles back to its roots of everyday shenanigans and jokes, the luster is lost, no matter how funny or well executed they might be. In the end, a lot of gimmicks and a lot of chatter with no real weight becomes nothing short of a series of filler episodes with no purpose. 

I understand that indifference and dissonant serenity is part of the Kakos Industries’ humor though it often comes at the cost of events not carrying any real weight because it’s already predetermined that it’s being treated like a joke or that things will be resolved and go back to status quo with minimal effort. It insists you don’t take it seriously even if the problem at hand would suggest otherwise. To anyone else listening, this makes the stakes nonexistent and the protagonist seem overqualified to handle any problem thrown at him, never giving him a chance to be vulnerable to the slightest misfortune. 

The same could be said for Welcome to Night Vale, a show with many compelling ideas and character drama though one that loves to meander and reestablish how strange and bizarre their world is on repeat instead of doing anything of actual substance, at least as far as season three is concerned. 

Night Vale has a much better grip on characters and conflict that Kakos Industries does, though it also suffers from some of the same problems. Night Vale also had arcs, one incredibly well done to the point it’s been considered a crowning moment of the series while another that wavered a bit too long and simply wasn’t intriguing enough to make a huge difference in the end besides being another case of the Put On the Bus trope. And when they concluded, we’re back to square one again.

Once again, we are given a lot of ripe material here: There’s instances of Cecil’s childhood that we must piece together, pretty much anything about Kevin is bound to be creepy and interesting, Carlos and his apparent involvement with a college university, and something about sleeper agents and traffic signs and blood space but I lost count.

The case here is almost as dire as this is something of a multiple choice scenario where there’s just piles and piles of plots being given to us but all of it feels for naught when something else is being added to the collection a second later.

The same way Kakos is so obsessed with its dark and sexy aesthetic to the point it under develops its characters and has an absence of stakes, Night Vale is the same with its surrealism and seems to pull the “it’s a weird show” card whenever something gets unresolved.

There comes a point where a show’s quirky nature can only be used for so long to avoid the big question about what it’s all in service of. If all the oddness has no meaning and the plots are just being pitched with no real agency, then they fail to provide the show with any real purpose.

The point of an arc ending is for another one to start later, namely by picking up leftover plot points from before or starting something else that still entwines with the story’s central lore. 

For a good example of how to manage an arc, I’d recommend Wolf 359 that has at least four in the duration of about forty episodes. I’d go into more detail about exactly what made the individual arcs in Wolf 359 work so well though that would lean heavily into spoiler territory and I wouldn’t want to ruin anything for those who haven’t listened to it yet. 

This too started as a sort of news caster from space format until it flourished into the characters offering their points of view on a scenario and developing as people as they are placed in tight spots. 

We learn more about who we’re dealing with, what is at stake, and grow invested because we never know which direction the events can take us. Wolf 359 has become so successful in its run because of the writer’s ability to admit something is amiss which gives the listeners something to anticipate rather than just tolerate. 

Listen here, I know that podcasts are all for entertainment’s sake and I will always respect that, but even something that is entertaining must have a hook-line-sinker mentality, as I like to call it:

The hook is the first impression: What made you want to listen in the first place? Did the general synopsis intrigue you? Maybe there was just an actor in the show that you really like. Simple. 

The line is the plot: This is the thing that makes you keep coming back for more. You’ve gotten comfortable with the story and its characters, you want to know as much as you can about the lore and the stakes. This is very much literally “a line” the audio drama is following and encourages you to keep up with.

The sinker is the payoff: This is where all the accumulated information you’ve gathered really matters-the climax. This is where we get the hidden motivations of characters, know about the dark secrets and figure out who the heroes and villains might be. We have a winner and a loser or at least some kind of ending, be it good or bad for the protagonists. 

Many podcasts are capable of the first two steps though tend to forget the third. And when we do forget to touch that oh-so crucial sense of conflict and resolution, it becomes the equivalent of a Breather Episode series. 

To those who don’t know, a Breather Episode is a common trope that is put into place to remind the audience that all of the past problems have concluded and we can once again revel in comedy and lighthearted fun.

I am a big fan of the this trope, it’s an implication that the past troubles of our protagonists have been dealt with and they can now relax, getting back to basics, but it’s getting back to the old grind that really matters.

We as listeners are a bit bloodthirsty, to say the least, constantly seeking out what new thing might be out to threaten the characters and disrupt their tranquility. Though in the character’s universe, and, to some extent, the writers, this is a pleasant period to soak in for a bit for just a little while. 

It is prone to overstay its welcome if the average episode is nothing to look forward to.  In short, if there’s nothing to hold on to, people will drop your story knowing it was of no loss to them.

A constant barrage of drama can be very overwhelming to the story’s ability to stay surprising and believable, so it’s good to have that even blend of “the bleeder and the breather”, as I’d like to call it, to keep things balanced. 

But Podcake, you might be saying. This is audio drama! Emphasis on audio. They’re just sounds! Why expect so much when we can’t get visual input?

And you have a point there metaphorical reader. I’m not saying every show needs this epic score, high budget, and groundbreaking editing, I actually encourage shows who rely on this minimalism to try even harder in the writing department. 

It is actually possible to have a consistent sense of tension even with limited sound effects and budget. 

A good example would be The Bright Sessions. The presentation is mostly contained in one room and only occasionally stepping outside of it to overhear conversations. Despite the format being mostly casual and calm, there is still a pressing sense of drama and conflict we keep coming back to. And when we do get “the breather” in between, it’s a welcome change until going right back to where we started.

This is because the show stands on its own two feet in the dialogue department to get their point across and let things flow naturally. No big pizzazz or flashiness, just saying what it needs to say.

And if you insist on the superb audio editing part of this, I’d say Hadron Gospel Hour is always an recommendation, as well as defining the even blend of episodic with tension combination. 

Gospel Hour is a sci-fi comedy with multiple unrelated cutaway gags and strange characters that have events in episodes that may not always be highly relevant to the next. But this has yet to cripple the storytelling since there are always connecting threads our protagonists go back to that develop their backstory or truly emphasize the dire circumstances they’ve been put in, something I’ve begun to notice in later episodes. 

And if you’re still concerned about arcs, The Once and Future Nerd has the decency to have well established and satisfying beginnings, middles, and ends to each chapter. They have a wide and vast world to explore and take any opportunities they can to remind you of the fantastical yet still dangerous and grisly setting.  

And maybe you’re really stuck on the newscaster format. Fine, I like those shows too. From here I’d highly encourage The Bridge: a show with a rather complex world, decently sized cast, and a steady increase in drama that isn’t afraid to step back from the main character’s perspective to tell a complete story.

Sorry to name drop so much in this particular document, though this is a narrative problem I’ve seen so often and so poorly I want to save anyone attempting this style from the same shortcomings. If you enjoy these shows for that exact reason, that is completely fine, though don’t be afraid to ask for something more genuine than just empty world building. 

A good story is what you make of it but a memorable story can be much more. 

#podcast #audio drama #audio play #radio drama #radio play #podcasts and #welcome to night vale #kakos industries #the once and future nerd #the bridge #the bridge podcast #hadron gospel hour #the bright sessions #wolf 359 #wolf 359 podcast

[abovethemists]

Tonight's episode = meh

I mean, what was the point? I guess Elsa got integrated to the main cast, but otherwise this one is going down with "The Tower" and "Selfless Brave and True" as meh episodes. I like Charming, but his centrics tend to let me down.

Not enough Rumple, not enough Belle, not enough Regina. Those are my three favorite characters and they had a combined 25 seconds screen time tonight. Also, I was under the impression we were getting a Grandpastiltskin scene in tonight's episode and that didn't happen. Why were Rumple and Belle taking apparent inventory of the shop? One night of wedded bliss in a stranger's house and it's back to work? It would have been better if they'd been hooking up when Charming and Hook interrupted. I mean, that's straight out of fanfic. 

Anyway, I wasn't expecting much out of this episode so I'm not disappointed. I figured we'd get maybe one scene of Rumbelle, but I was expecting more Regina. I enjoyed Snow's wtf moments, Charming's wig gave me a giggle, and it was nice to see Ruth again. I look forward to seeing Anna visit Rumplestiltskin. It's always a treat to see that golden faced bastard. Hells fucking yeah to Elizabeth Mitchell's Snow Queen, though! What a way to end the episode! I wasn't expecting her to make an appearance so I pretty much squealed. Definitely looking forward to seeing more of her. 

#ouat spoilers #4.02 White Out #lackluster is the term to describe this episode