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letterboxd · 3 years

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Puppet Love.

Puppeteer Sarah Thomson relives her childhood through the new Sesame Street documentary Street Gang, and recommends 20 more puppetry films for both felt novices and reticulated foam professionals.

To an Antipodean of a certain age, the brownstones of Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing looked incredibly familiar. Not because we’d ever visited Stuyvesant Avenue, Brooklyn, or even New York, but because they looked like Sesame Street.

Such was the reach and power of the Children’s Television Workshop phenomenon. In making a concerted effort to connect with inner-city children in post-war America’s lower socio-economic neighborhoods, Sesame Street not only platformed and validated those same inner-city neighborhoods within American homes, but had also broadcast a version of them to the rest of the world.

I grew up in New Zealand with a version of that neighborhood as my kind-of babysitter, courtesy of well-worn VHS tapes of Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. And, when I saw Lee’s aforementioned classic (at probably too young of an age), detailing racial tensions and police brutality, wondered whether Oscar the Grouch was in Mookie’s trash can. I also grew up to be a puppeteer. Funny that.

Trailblazing ‘Sesame Street’ producer Joan Ganz Cooney and friends on set.

The notion that entertainment for children could be both educational and compelling; both targeted and of broad appeal, is a notion that has been core to all the children’s entertainment I’ve ever been lucky enough to be involved with. And as Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street lovingly shows, it was Children’s Television Workshop—and force-of-nature producer Joan Ganz Cooney—who really wrote that playbook. Making television with heart and attention to detail, but also with all the audience testing and social sciences usually reserved for Madison-Avenue clients, Sesame Street was, as one archival talk-show clip puts it, “what television would do if it loved people, instead of trying to sell to people”.

Not all felt and warm fuzzies, there’s also a bittersweetness to Street Gang. Interviews with the children of seminal figure Jon Stone, composer Joe Raposo, and the legendary Jim Henson lean more than a little into the idea that teaching the world’s children might often come at the expense of your own. And the permeating, unifying political ideology shown in its wonderful archival footage of the Street’s early days is a little lacking on modern Sesame Street, with Frank Oz (the original Bert, Grover and Cookie Monster, as well as Miss Piggy, Animal, and Yoda) dubbing it a “shadow of what it was”.

Jim Henson, Frank Oz and ‘Sesame Street’ director Jon Stone. / Photo by Robert Fuhring courtesy Sesame Workshop

But when it was great, god it was great: Stevie Wonder and Grover; Big Bird learning about mortality; Oz and Henson’s sublime Bert and Ernie comic interplay; The Pointer Sisters teaching you to count; hilarious parody; jaw-dropping guest stars; sensational music; and (don’t tell my Muppet family, but) Kermit the Frog’s personal theme isn’t ‘Rainbow Connection’, it’s Joe Raposo’s beautiful, multi-layered ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green’.

Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street—based on the book of the almost-same name by Michael Davis, and very much focused on the early years of a show now into its sixth decade—oozes with the same heart and care that the first decades of its subject are full of. Marilyn Agrelo’s film, produced by Trevor Crafts and Ellen Scherer Crafts, is a real love letter to the potential of creativity in education and state-funded content that prioritizes people over profit.

“I am somebody!” Reverend Jesse Jackson and kids on ‘Sesame Street’.

Before he appeared on Sesame Street in 1971, Reverend Jesse Jackson compelled the readers of his column not to miss the 1970 Sesame Street Cast Tour:

“Children shouldn’t miss this as it is one of the most creative and innovative education forms in mass media today. What ought to make you happy is that Black people are involved from the outset. They are everything from production editors and writers to actors and the message of Sesame Street is that children don’t live in a little lily-white world but on streets and in real neighborhoods, in cities as well as suburbs that all types of people are involved in making real.”

48 years later, in 2018, the Sesame Street gang came 8,944 miles to my neighborhood, with Oscar-winning ‘Man or Muppet’ composer Bret McKenzie as their human song partner (the show was in his hometown, handily). Performing live, the characters onstage had helped raise the adults in the audience, now present in great numbers, with their own enthralled children in tow. The gang’s a little different these days (most heritage characters are now in new pairs of very caring hands) but the song remains the same: one of laughter, inclusion and compassion.

In an increasingly fragmented world, with an ever-growing focus on the individual, perhaps the most radical thing we can continue to ask children might just still be: “who are the people in your neighborhood?”.

Not enough puppetry in your media diet? Whether you’re a felt novice or a reticulated foam professional, here is a list of twenty further places to travel into the magical realm of puppets.

Related content

Andre’s list of 100 Best Stop Motion, Puppets, Marionettes and Gekimation

Brianna’s Worlds of Puppetry mega-list and dozens more puppetry documentaries

Tom’s list of Muppets feature films and specials

Puppet Movies (That Aren’t The Muppets), a list by TheDude3445

A Filmmaker Five from puppet-loving director Quentin Dupieux

Follow Sarah on Letterboxd

‘Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street’ is screening in select theaters and is streaming now on VOD.

#letterboxd #the muppet show #muppets #muppet movie #kermit #sarah thomson #puppetry #puppeteer #jim henson #joan ganz cooney #marilyn agrelo #street gang: how we got to sesame street #street gang #reverend jesse jackson #stevie wonder #grover #bert and ernie #frank oz

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stevenuniversallyreviews · 5 years

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Bismuth

Steven Universe is a show about solving problems with healthy communication instead of violence. It’s also a show so centered around fighting that our main characters have signature weapons that act as literal extensions of themselves.

Not every episode has an action sequence, and not every action sequence is a fight, but this series is no stranger to glamorizing combat. For all its talk about how true strength means more than physical might, the use of physical might to hurt others isn’t always frowned upon, even by our peaceful hero. To compensate for this dissonance, fights that would normally leave fatal wounds instead end in a process so harmless that they called it “poofing.”

Our ninety-eighth episode begins not with a title card, but a dramatic-looking scene that’s soon revealed to have no stakes, capped with Steven bemoaning that “dying a bunch in video games is emotionally exhausting.” The temporary nature of death is ingrained in his life—his very existence involved his mother not quite dying, but becoming half of him—and while the show at this point has acknowledged that violence can scar the body and soul, the only permanent consequences we’ve seen precede Steven’s existence. Shattering, the Cluster, and Corruption are ancient history, and were actions taken by the villains our heroes rebelled against. We’ve never had to deal with the moral implications of ending a life, and because this is a kid’s show there’s a chance we never would have, because the game isn’t quite as fun once permanent consequences are in play.

After a comedic foray into Lion’s mane, Steven pops a mysterious bubble we saw all the way back in Lion 3, flies back into his room, and shouts that he’s made a horrible mistake. And after the initial reaction from the other Crystal Gems, we linger in the room to get one last message from his television screen before he jumps back in:

Game Over.

“We are the Crystal Gems!”

I love everything about the title reveal of this episode. I love that we have to wait for it, so we’re forced to pay extra attention when it arrives. I love the not-quite-still shot of our two leads sizing each other up as the name of our episode and new character slowly fades in. And I love the chill but chilling music that sets the stage for the life-changing story ahead of our hero.

Aivi and Surasshu give characters distinct instrumentation, Peter and the Wolf style, but folks like Rose, Greg, Connie, Lapis, Peridot, and even Lion also have distinct motifs (sometimes a few, in the case of Rose and Lapis) using these instruments. The four main Crystal Gems are unique in that they’re defined mainly by their sound: Garnet is the bass holding everything together, Amethyst is the drumkit keeping up the tempo, Pearl is the piano accompanying others, and Steven subs out a traditional main instrument for chiptunes (many people have pointed this out, but I think this video does the best job of exploring it). Garnet as a concept eventually gets a motif that largely appears when fusion is involved, but the principle of associating these four main characters primarily through instruments holds true throughout the series.

Bismuth is a Crystal Gem, too. And whether it’s intentional or not, I love that this is shown by her lack of a distinct theme song, leaving her represented by her instrument in the same way as our big four. And the instrument we get for a heavy metal stuck in the past is a reverse electric guitar.

On the subject of sound, we just started and I've already waited too long to talk about Uzo Aduba. Bismuth is beautifully animated and has a stunning design, and the extra large crew for this two-parter did wonders on her facial expressions and body language to breathe life into the character, but all of it would've fallen short without a magnificent voice actor tying it together. This is a complicated and ambiguous figure, who laughs hard and burns hot but knows how to keep quiet, and Aduba hits every emotional beat with ease.

Aduba is especially talented in humanizing Bismuth’s rage, balancing loud shouts with twinges of sadness and jolly war stories with drops of venom. Her monologue in the Forge is one of many examples of Aduba’s greatness: after building up fervent momentum as she works with burning lava, she lowers her voice to a triumphant but menacing whisper when revealing that she chose to create weaponry. Aduba made a splash by finding a real person in a character reduced to the nickname “Crazy Eyes” on Orange is the New Black, and while Bismuth might not be as extreme of a role, she’s made great by an actress who refuses to dumb down angry women.

Bismuth is a zealot, but why wouldn’t she be? She faced the same oppression that drove the other Crystal Gems to rebel, and is mentally right in the thick of it while Garnet and Pearl have had thousands of years to move on. The leader that inspired and encouraged her to build weapons not only refused to use the Breaking Point, but fought her, bubbled her, and lied about it. We see it in Bismuth’s face the moment Rose is first mentioned around her, and even though this could be read as concern over her leader’s whereabouts, our knowledge that Rose’s version of events clashes with Bismuth’s hiding place sets off early warning bells.

Bismuth’s wordplay here is perfect for a character who often means multiple things at once: “Rose really is something else” works as a commentary on how strange Rose was, as a reference to her physically becoming something else, and as another hint of Bismuth’s true feelings about her leader’s betrayal. Her clever use of language soon becomes ingrained as a character trait: we obviously get the triple pun on her name (not three puns, but the same pun three times), but I’m a bigger sucker for the phrase “upper crust” playing off her disdain of Gem elites with geological terminology. It’s great to see such cleverness when characters with massive frames and aggressive attitudes are so rarely graced with wit.

Bismuth is angry, but she’s more than her anger. It’s balanced by (and caused by) her huge heart. She gets along famously with Garnet and Pearl, and cares deeply for her fallen friends, but she’s just as warm with Amethyst and Steven. An underrated element of Bismuth is that it doesn’t forget that Amethyst is in the middle of a major arc: even though she’s not the focus of the episode, she’s still reeling from her fight with Jasper and is uncomfortable around another huge interloper in her life, this time someone whose existence furthers the notion that Amethyst isn’t a “proper” Crystal Gem. So Amethyst is awkward at first, then sows seeds of suspicion when Steven is entranced. It speaks well of Bismuth that she treats Amethyst as an equal worthy of respect without question, and Amethyst soon comes around when Bismuth praises and upgrades her whip. This giant-sized episode is the clear product of long-term planning and collaboration, but it still remembers to tell a quick Amethyst story to keep us invested in her ongoing development.

But it’s Bismuth’s relationship with Steven that makes up the bulk of the plot, and as dumb as it might sound, the character she reminds me of most is Tim Curry’s version of Long John Silver from legitimate classic film Muppet Treasure Island; yes, Long John Silver in general works for this analogy, but Tim Curry is the definitive version, fight me. Bismuth isn’t as treacherous as old Long John, but they share the tightrope act of being at odds with young protagonists that they earnestly like. There’s nothing fake about their moments of bonding and pseudo-parental advice, and while both are angling to convert a child hero to a questionable cause, it’s done in part to maintain a friendly relationship. Again, Silver is more of an outright villain—his lust for gold lacks the nuance of Bismuth’s well-intentioned justification of extreme violence—but these are gregarious antagonists that our heroes build meaningful connections with, and ultimately learn lasting lessons from.

Steven is all in on Bismuth’s ardor at first, grinning with shared passion after she rallies the team to keep fighting Homeworld. He’s a little less on board upon seeing Amethyst’s weapon upgrade, and his unease grows during the sparring session, but for all her intensity, Bismuth is fine with him not wanting to fight. She welcomes his own “rituals” with glee, and even though our first look at this sees her spiking a birdie into the sand so hard that the beach explodes, the montage otherwise shows her fitting right in. Even the foreshadowing of Bismuth’s views on weapon lethality during Lonely Blade is lighthearted, with the bonus of showing us how far Pearl has come in regards to fiction since Steven the Sword Fighter.

It all comes together in a poignant discussion about Rose. This is the last time she’s ever spoken of in a purely positive light before the story of her shattering Pink Diamond comes out; not every conversation about her is negative after this reveal, it’s never quite the same. We focus on Rose as a champion of differences: this is the Rose who said a servile pearl could be a warrior, who accepted a new fusion when nobody else would, who told a runty amethyst she was perfect the way she was. Bismuth is telling us what we already know, but personalizes it, showing how inspired she was by it, and Steven reacts to this umpteenth version of the Rose Was Great speech by admitting his fears of not measuring up for the second episode in a row.

Bismuth’s response sums up the entire lesson of Steven’s original series arc, and it’s such a moving affirmation when paired with Change Your Mind:

“You are different. That’s what’s so exciting. You don’t have to be like Rose Quartz, you can be someone even better. You can be you.”

The tragedy is that this hopeful message is undercut by Bismuth’s idea that a “better” Steven is one who uses deadly force. And the speech as a whole is further marred by a subtle hint of Rose’s mendacity: Bismuth mentions that she was “just another quartz soldier, made right here in the dirt,” but even before the Pink Diamond reveal, we already know Rose is from Homeworld from earlier episodes like Rose’s Scabbard. Retrospect enhances the sensation, tinging the uplifting speech with the kind of gray that we’re going to see a lot more of in the future.

There’s an awful inevitability to the ensuing fight as our heroes descend into the Forge, coming right of the heels of Bismuth telling Steven they need an alternative to fighting fair. Steven repeats his progression of reactions towards Bismuth all at once: first confused, then super excited, then gradually realizing something isn’t sitting right. But this time we can’t end with a day at the beach.

(The mood is ruined a little by the adorable commercial transition, and the summarization of the scene upon cutting back from commercials in a way this eleven minute show has never dealt with, but fortunately the bulk of the scene goes uninterrupted.)

Steven obviously isn’t going to use the Breaking Point, and we get a prolonged shot of them standing at odds in mirrored positions from their title card encounter before Bismuth’s hand tightens into a fist. To her, this isn’t a fight with Steven, but a continuation of her fight with Rose, and her anger at her deception is fueled further by the not unreasonable assumption that Rose is still lying as Steven. In Bismuth’s mind she isn’t attacking a child, but a veteran warrior who for some reason took the form of a small human, so she goes all-out.

Steven has been called “Rose” plenty of times by Jasper, and this will continue in our very next episodes, but it’s gotta sting harder when the person doing it just told him that Steven was enough. And the fight itself is no joke, which is a relief after the brawl in Steven vs. Amethyst was all joke. The hits land just as hard, and we get the same awesome choreography showcasing Steven’s floaty powers and spiky bubble in action, but Bismuth isn’t kidding and Steven is on the ropes. His sandal melting away is as graphic as we’re gonna get, but it’s still a great sign of what will happen to him if he falls. His shoelessness also allows for a neat reversal of Bismuth closing her fist to begin the fight: after limping on the other foot to avoid the heat, the first we see of him after the second bubble of the episode pops is a close-up of his bare foot steaming on the ground. He’s forced to hurt both himself and Bismuth to end the fight.

We’re on the cusp of learning the “truth” about Pink Diamond, but the beginning of Rose’s souring portrayal is right here. If you squint hard enough, Rose’s actions in the past could have been justified by her not wanting to shatter anybody, and by Bismuth being an extremist who left her with no choice. But as she stands impaled by the sword she once forged, Bismuth’s rage can no longer hide her grief. Even if Rose was right, and that’s hardly a sure thing, it’s twisted and terrible that she never told the other Crystal Gems the truth. It doesn’t matter that we eventually learn that this was a lot more complicated than it seemed because Rose was Pink Diamond, because in the moment, the person who just tried to kill Steven is saying that Steven’s mother did an awful thing, and despite everything the show has told us until this moment, she’s making a good point. Steven has no time to dwell on it before the other shoe drops (hopefully not into more lava), but it’s telling that Bismuth only acknowledges Steven as himself again when he says he’ll be honest.

When Bismuth gave Steven his pep talk in the living room, the audience didn’t know her full story, but she did, so she still loved Rose despite everything. She was hurt by her, and was willing to fight her, but she looked up to her leader despite it all. So it’s a real turn when she uses same language that encouraged Steven moments ago to make a new point: he could be better than her because of his potential to be spectacular, but also because she set the bar low by doing horrible things. Bismuth is all about that wordplay.

I’ve got a lot to say about my problems with Bismuth’s story after Bismuth (or rather the lack of one) that I’m including in my giant-sized features section below, because a giant-sized episode merits giant-sized features. But within the episode itself, I think silence after the fight is the right choice. Steven has been in danger before, but this is the hardest a person has ever tried to kill him, and it was one of his friends. A new friend, but a friend.

Bismuth marks the beginning of the end of this era of the show, an era when Steven’s series-long arc to fulfill his mother’s legacy was relatively straightforward. In yet another example of Bismuth’s wordplay, his life story swivels around a Breaking Point. The core of Steven Universe may not change in the way it does in Bubble Buddies and Mirror Gem and Catch and Release, but the core of Steven Universe is forever affected. His imminent guilt complex begins with stabbing Bismuth, and despite the hardships to come, he becomes a better person for surviving it.

But at least he doesn’t shatter her. That would really do a number on the guy. Can’t imagine how guilty he’d be if he one day did shatter an imposing zealot from the Gem War days with a history of confusing him for Rose Quartz...

Future Vision!

This is normally a section that lists small bits Fragments of foreshadowing, but because Bismuth is a double episode with tremendous impact on the shape of things to come in ways I already talked about in the review proper, I want to use this space to talk about the elegance of Steven Universe’s structure. I’ve referred to the fifty-odd episode chunks that make up the story on numerous occasions, but I think it’s about time I buck up and call them Acts.

Act I of Steven Universe is the first season, Act II is the second and third season, and Act III is the fourth and fifth season (with the movie and Steven Universe Future as epilogues), and I think viewing the series through this lens really makes the structure shine. There are many examples of repeating themes and moments that this interpretation makes clear, and as an example, I want to talk about how a recurring phrase signifies a turning point towards the endgame of each act.

In Act I, the slow-burning mystery of where the Gems came from begins at the midpoint, Mirror Gem, and escalates in Warp Tour with the introduction of Peridot. But we’re still doing regular episodes throughout, because Steven’s life is bigger than his past and there’s no pressing need to address his alien heritage when it isn’t directly affecting his life. It’s not until Marble Madness when this story ramps up, with Peridot's discovery of our heroes hurtling us towards a finale that sees Steven come into his own to defend his friends against old foes from beyond the stars who thought them long dead. The turning point is marked by Pearl taking a stand to proudly declare:

“We are the Crystal Gems! We're still alive, and we're still the guardians of this planet and all its living creatures!”

Jumping to Act III, the slow-burning mystery of what Rose did to Pink Diamond is actually solved with some time to spare. Things seem to be wrapping up at Garnet’s wedding in Reunited, especially because we’ve reached the same episode count of the other two acts. But then Blue and Yellow Diamond crash the party, bringing together the entire main cast in opposition. As in Act I, this shifts us onto the path towards the finale, this time one that sees Steven bringing the Diamonds together to heal the damage they did on Earth. This turning point was a bit less subtle:

“This is our home! Our planet! Our friends and family! We are the Crystal Gems!”

Act II is more stable than I or III, chronicling the period after Steven becomes a competent Crystal Gem but before everything is turned upside-down. He has adventures befitting his role and helps his friends and family as he grows more comfortable with his mother’s legacy, but unbeknownst to him, it’s the calm before the storm. Through it all, that legacy and that group are the bedrock of Steven’s life, and Bismuth begins to unravel his sense of security, leading to a finale that destroys our hero’s comfort zone. The turning point comes as Bismuth shatters not an elite Gem, but the fake image of one, and roars a battle cry that shows that there are some missing pages in the story of Steven’s happy family:

“Listen up, you Homeworld upper crusts...”

“We are the Crystal Gems!”

If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn’t have inconsistencies…

Likewise, this is normally a section that lists plot elements that don’t add up, and I can’t imagine reviewing Bismuth with addressing Bismuth’s treatment as the show continues. There aren’t many other places to write about it until Made of Honor, as the most notable element of this discussion is her absence, but it’s a flaw beyond this episode itself, so it’s going here.

First, I understand from a storytelling perspective why Bismuth is bubbled again. She’s a major new element that couldn’t realistically be sent to the barn like Peridot and Lapis, and is so at odds with our heroes that it would mess with the direction of the series. In particular, the reveal that Rose shattered Pink Diamond would go from being a story about Steven coping to a story about Steven and Bismuth coping, because Rose shattering someone goes against the whole reason she fought Bismuth in the first place. The simplest solution to not having Bismuth dominate the upcoming story is putting her away until the plot demands. And we do eventually get some lip service to why she was bubbled again for so long: she did, after all, try to shatter Steven with the Breaking Point at the end of their fight. She seems cool with it, and it’s not as if she was suffering in there, popping back out as if no time had passed and integrating well with the team afterwards.

But it is baffling that there isn’t any conversation about trying to talk with her instead of keeping her locked away. We don’t need a proper trial, but the idea that this team wouldn’t allow Bismuth to make her case and wouldn’t try to help her work towards a mutual understanding is not only cruel, but cruel in a way that makes no sense for these characters. I’ve called the underuse of Malachite the show’s greatest blunder, and I stand by it because Bismuth’s treatment is much more than a “whoops.” Communication is everything to this series, and the idea that Bismuth was too dangerous to be reasoned with is, to me, Steven Universe’s greatest sin.

Garnet and Pearl in particular never mention any alternatives, or even bring her up to a meaningful degree. This is supposed to be one of their best friends. And after we learn about Pink Diamond’s shattering, it’s bewildering that Steven doesn’t consider the Bismuth of it all outside of her factoring into his guilt complex in Mindful Education and a brief mention in Storm in the Room. On both an emotional and logical level there’s no reason to not include her more in Act III. Like, let’s say in the worst case scenario she’s freed and furiously attacks Steven: he already defended himself by himself against her, in a lava-filled arena where she had a huge advantage, so obviously with the other Gems he’d be safe. And let’s say Steven is traumatized by nearly getting killed. Understandable. Even if Pearl also nearly got him killed a few times, it was never with murderous intent. Except that if that’s the rationale, I feel like Bismuth deserves to have that explained by him at some point during her imprisonment. He could tell the Gems, he could confide in Connie, whatever, this is something that needs to be said out loud. If we’re going to have her locked away indefinitely, there needs to be more than stone cold silence about why the Crystal Gems came to such an extreme solution, seemingly without a second thought. There was more discussion about the ethics of bubbling Peridot than Bismuth, and Peridot was a full-blown opponent at the time. There was more discussion about the ethics of rehabilitating the Centipeetle, a being corrupted into what seemed to be an unthinking monster, than a fully sentient ally who did a bad thing.

I’m not gonna knock this episode down any pegs for this in my rankings, because it’s not really the fault of this episode. Yes, it could have included Steven’s conversation with the other Gems, but this story was already full to the gills and there was plenty of time in future episodes, particularly episodes after the shattering story comes to light, to address it. Bismuth works fine on its own, but demanded further stories that it never got. Made of Honor does a decent job of bringing Bismuth back, but that’s after over fifty episodes of a misguided but heroic and loyal friend being imprisoned without any attempt at mediation.

I get that it would’ve been a lot of work, and that the bubble method was more convenient. But making a character this great only to treat her this way is a disservice to both Bismuth and the Crystal Gems as a whole.

(Also, less importantly, this episode was marketed as 100 thanks to the inclusion of a few combined shorts as numbered episodes. But yeah this was totally episodes 98 and 99.)

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

I ended on a bummer note there, but like I said, Bismuth by itself shouldn’t be held culpable for not having a Too Short to Ride or Alone at Sea for Bismuth down the line. It still doesn’t make my top fifteen, but it does make my top twenty, which matters because the list is expanding next time to account for our actual hundredth episode.

Top Fifteen

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

When It Rains

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Bismuth

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

No Thanks!

5. Horror Club 4. Fusion Cuisine 3. House Guest 2. Sadie’s Song 1. Island Adventure

#bismuth #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

67 notes · View notes

cryptid-science · 5 years

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Shadow People

They usually come at night. Maybe you're reading or watching TV or just lying in bed. He's most often a man, and may be wearing a hat or a hood. A lot of times you'll only catch a glimpse of him out of the corner of your eye, as he flits across the wall or disappears through a doorway. Sometimes he's just a shadow, a flat projection sliding across the wall or ceiling; but other times, especially in the dark when you least expect it, shadow people appear as a full-bodied black apparition, jet black like a void in the darkness itself, featureless but for their piercing empty eyes.

The foggy Santa Lucia Mountains run along the central coast of California, and for hundreds of years, the Chumash Indians and later residents have told of the Dark Watchers, shadowy hatted, caped figures who appear on ridges at twilight, only to fade away before your very eyes. A visit to the Internet reveals hundreds and hundreds of stories from people who saw shadow people in their homes, on websites such as shadowpeople.org, from-the-shadows.blogspot.com, and ghostweb.com:

I opened my eyes and looked towards the middle of the room. I saw a large shadow in the shape of a person. It had no facial features that I could see and it wasn't moving. It was just standing there looking at me... I blinked and then it was gone.

I felt like someone was watching me so I turned to look toward the hallway and there it was in the doorway... It was a black figure. I could only see from the torso up. I felt it was a male and could feel that it was looking at me... I started to walk towards it and it disappeared back into the room.

There, at the foot of my bed, was a tall dark figure like a shadow. It appeared to be almost 7 feet tall with broad shoulders and was wearing what seemed to be an old fashioned top hat and some sort of cape... I watched as it glided past me and out the door of my room.

Correction: Further research suggests that the Chumash did not necessarily have any legend that reasonably corresponds to the Dark Watchers, and thus this link is probably the invention of 20th century ghost story tellers. - BD

It goes without saying that skeptics have long-standing explanations that, from the comfort of your armchair, adequately rationalize all the stories of shadow people. These explanations run the gamut, all the way from mistaken identification of a real shadow from an actual person or object, to various causes of optical illusions or hallucinations like drugs or hypnogogic sleeping states, even simply lying and making up the story. I think that probably everyone would agree that these have all happened, and therefore they do explain some people's experiences. But here's a fact: Try to offer any of those explanations to someone telling you about a specific sighting, and it will likely be immediately shot down. "I was not asleep." "I know the difference between a regular shadow and what I saw." "What about my friend who saw it with me?"

The truth is that it's probably not possible to explain most sightings. If it was some mysterious supernatural noncorporeal being who flitted through the room, no evidence would remain, and thus there's nothing to test or study. It's so trivial to fake photos or video of something as vague as a shadow person that when these exist, they're interesting but practically worthless as far as empiricism goes. Only in the rare case where an actual physical cause can be found, and you're able to consistently reproduce the effect at the right location and the right time of day and in the right lighting conditions, are you able to provide a convincing explanation. Most of the rest of the time, all you have is conjecture and hypothesis, and the eyewitness is likely to reject these.

When I was a kid we once lived in a house where if you walked up the stairs and one of the upstairs bedroom doors was open a crack, you might see a flash of movement inside the room from the corner of your eye. I saw it a number of times, and other people in my family did too. I thought it looked like someone threw a colored sweatshirt across the room. But: I never saw it whenever I walked carefully up the stairs and kept my eyes on that crack; it only happened if you weren't looking right at it and weren't thinking about it. The more you learn about how the brain fills in data in your peripheral vision and blind spots, the less unexpected and strange this particular experience becomes. I have no useful evidence that anything unusual happened, and I have good information that can adequately explain what was perceived. I personally am not impressed enough to deem it worthy of further investigation, but others might be, and that's a supportable perspective. But unless and until some substantial discovery is made, the determination that it must have been a shadow person or ghost is ridiculous. Nothing supports that conclusion. And yet my story is at least as reliable as 99% of the shadow people stories out there. I was not on drugs, I know the difference between a shadow and what I saw, and other people saw it too.

Enthusiasts of the paranormal offer their own set of additional hypotheses about shadow people. One proposes that shadow people are the embodiments of actual people who are elsewhere but engaged in astral projection. This is not an acceptable hypothesis. Like shadow people themselves, astral projection is an untestable, undetectable, unprovable conjecture. Explaining one unknown with another unknown doesn't explain anything, and the match itself cannot be made, since neither phenomenon has any known properties that you could look at and say "What we know of shadow people is consistent with what we know of astral projection." We know nothing about either, so there's no logical basis for any connection.

The same can be said of another paranormal explanation for shadow people, that they are "interdimensional beings". Let's make an outrageous leap of logic and allow for the possibility that interdimensional beings exist. What characteristics would they have? How would we detect their presence? What level of interaction would they have? How would they affect visible light? Since these questions don't have answers, you can't correlate interdimensional beings to the known properties of shadow people. Neither one has any.

But there are phenomena to which we can correlate these stories. We know the details in the eyewitness accounts, and we know the psychological manifestations of conditions like hypnogogia and sleep paralysis. A hypnogogic hallucination is a vivid, lucid hallucination you experience while you're still falling asleep. You're susceptible again eight hours later when you're waking up, only now it's called hypnopompia. But this seems such a cynical, closed-minded reaction. When you suggest hypnogogia as a possible explanation to a person who has witnessed shadow people, many times their reaction will be understandably negative, if not outright hostile. "You're saying I'm crazy" or "You're saying I imagined it" are common replies. Hypnogogia is neither a mental illness nor imagination, and to dismiss it as either is to underestimate the incredible power of your own healthy brain. Too many people don't give their brains enough credit.

I had a dramatic demonstration of the power of hypnopompia — the waking up version — when I was about 10 years old. Early one morning, the characters from Sesame Street put on a show for me in the tree outside my bedroom window. It had music, theme songs, lighting cues and costume changes: A full elaborate production, and it lasted a good hour. To this day, I have clear memories of some of the acts. I even went and woke my parents to get them to watch, but by then the show had gone away. I knew for a fact that I hadn't been asleep. I'd been sitting up in bed and writing down some of the songs they sang. Those writings were real, on real paper, and even made sense when viewed in the light of day. It had been a completely lucid, physical experience for me. But it only existed inside my own brain in a hypnopompic state. My brain had composed music, performed the music, written lyrics, and sang them in silly voices for some director who must also have come from within me. The skits were good. The actors were rough-sewn muppets, independently moving and climbing about, even swinging through the swashbuckling number, on tree branches representing the lines of a great pirate ship. Yet through it all, I'd been conscious and upright enough to actively transcribe the lyrics. That's the power of a brain.

But many believers reject the idea that their brain has such capabilities, and instead conclude that any such perceptions can only be explained as visitations from supernatural entities. One such believer, Heidi Hollis, has gone on Coast to Coast AM radio a number of times with suggestions to defend yourself from shadow people:

Learn to let go of your fear.Stand your ground and deny them access to your person.Focus on positive thoughts.Use the name of Jesus to repel them.Keep a light on or envision light surrounding you.Bless your room with bottled spring water.

Interestingly enough, such actions may actually work (although it's not the techniques themselves that are responsible — plucking a chicken or beating a drum could work just as well, if you think it will). Sleep disorders in the form of disruptive episodes such as these are called parasomnias, and the primary treatments for parasomnias are relaxation techniques, counseling, proper exercise, and the basic lifestyle changes that contribute to better sleeping habits. True believers who reject any notion suggesting their experience was anything but a genuine visit from a supernatural being, but who apply any such remedies as Hollis suggests, do indeed have a good chance of finding relief, when the process of applying the remedy brings them some peace of mind. Even though these remedies are rarely going to be as effective as professionally guided treatment, the fact that they can sometimes work only reinforces the true believers' notion that the shadow person was in fact an interdimensional demon, and that sprinkling holy water around the room did in fact scare it away.

These experiences are weird, and can be scary. But they're also fascinating, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to experience the true power of your brain. To conclude that it's a supernatural being is to rob yourself of the real wonder of what's probably happening. Fa

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galacticnewsnetwork · 6 years

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What Happens When Fandom Doesn't Grow Up?

Adults are insisting childhood brands from 'Star Wars' to Marvel continue to cater to them, but does preserving the past limit the future?

There’s a proverb that says, “you can’t take it with you,” popularized by playwrights George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart in their 1936 Pulitzer Prize-winning production of the same name. The expression was in reference to our inability to take our material possessions with us to the afterlife, though opinion differs on whether this advice is a suggestion to spend freely, or to not worry about collecting pricey material possessions at all — the conclusion being that our possessions only have worth in the present, or that they may not have as much value in the grand scheme of life as we think.

Though the idiom is seen through the perspective of mortality, it works just as well when viewed through the lens of life’s transitional periods, particularly childhood to adulthood. The notion that we can’t take it with us is arguably a sibling to 1 Corinthians 13:11, which states: When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways.” Perhaps these expressions once carried weight, but in our current age of pop culture, a living and breathing monument to nostalgia, it has become harder and harder for adults to leave the things they loved as children behind.

From superheroes, Star Wars, fairy tales, and cartoons, the things many of us loved as children remain something we love today – protectively, passionately, and even problematically. This fierce nostalgia is arguably even more common with Millennials whose instantaneous embrace of the internet has allowed very few childhood staples to slip through the cracks in memory. Even if we’re not buying lightsabers, Hulk hands, or Barbie Dream Houses anymore, these characters and concepts are possessions that reside with many of us and sometimes define a key aspect of our identities. Previous generations, less driven by early age consumerist culture, don’t quite have the same involvement as late game Gen Xers and Millennials. In other words, no one is asking for a Lincoln Logs movie. Our inability, or maybe our unwillingness, to put childish things behind us and accept their temporary value isn’t an inherently negative facet of generational culture. But it is interesting how this modern nostalgia presents itself.

Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion PicturesAvengers: Infinity War Still

If you take a brief perusal of the Twitter reactions to the teaser for the live-action Kim Possible TV movie that Disney Channel released last Aug. 10, you’ll find plenty of opinions from people upset with the casting, claims it could never live up to the cartoon, or fans hyped with the addendum that "this is for us, not the kids." These passionate, often volatile responses about a once popular kids cartoon are overwhelming from adults. Similar sentiments came after Nickelodeon announced a CGI animated version of the Rugrats and released an image of the updated Chucky. More alarming were male commenters on Twitter photos for the new She-Ra cartoon, noise that basically resulted in a claim that the cartoon character should be “hotter,” and closer to the depiction of the character in the 1985 Filmation cartoon.

There’s an intense desire that these new iterations and reboots not be for the kids of today, but for those in their 20s and 30s. A quick search online will deliver any cartoon character from the '90s you could think of as adult contemporary versions. Some artists, like Brandon Avant, whose work went viral last year, have brought a real craft to these reimaginings of the characters from Doug, Goof Troop, and Arthur, as adults in their 20s, tattooed and stylish. There’s certainly fun to be had in alternative depictions of fictional characters, but there’s also a sense that many fans of these '90s shows would prefer these versions brought back to life on TV and movie screens, as opposed to anything geared towards children.

This feeling of ownership stems from an idea that kids today don’t care about certain characters anymore, at least not in the same way that those of us who grew up in the late '80s and '90s did, or do. Perhaps there is something to that. How many of the properties popularized in the '80s or '90s would still be popular without the adult fandom that keeps it alive through memes and Buzzfeed posts? Of course there are properties like Star Wars, Marvel, and Disney animated movies that are eternal. But there are also properties like Gargoyles, Animaniacs, and So Weird that would draw a blank for many kids today. Even once popular shows and platforms like Looney Tunes and The Muppets have fallen out of favor among children in terms of the position they used to hold with previous generations. While the rumored Space Jam 2 starring Lebron James may bring some children back on board with Warner Bros’ classic library of toons, there’s also the fact that that project currently seems to be more anticipated by those who grew up with the original 1996 film. Perhaps the only way to keep some of these characters and concepts alive is to cater to the now adult audiences. But what happens when these characters grow up?

Properties like Marvel, Star Wars, and Disney’s reimaginings of animated classics have managed to bridge the generational gap, appealing to children, adults, and elderly audiences. While Disney collectively has managed to find a way to appeal to almost everyone, there are a few recent examples that call into question the desire to really see our childhood heroes grow up. Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi created controversy last December, a controversy that has unfortunately bled into 2018 in regards to its depiction of Luke Skywalker, who has become bitter and disconnected from the force. Luke Skywalker grew up, got old, got tired, and got fandom in their feelings over the fact that the Jedi wasn’t leading the charge across space, green lightsaber in hand. While The Last Jedi is a commentary on the failure of the previous generation, setting the stage for new characters Rey, Finn, Rose, and Poe to start their own revolution on their own terms and “let the past die,” many Star Wars viewers weren’t interested in seeing the next generation take charge and instead clung to defunct canon. While many want these characters to grow up with them, they want them to grow up on their own terms, and if not to remake the plot points of their childhoods, then at least to recreate the feeling they got from those original films.

Laurie Sparham/DisneyChristopher Robin

A similar situation of childhood properties expected to grow up under strict terms followed the release of Marc Forster’s Christopher Robin. While Winnie the Pooh remains a beloved children’s property, kept alive by various television shows and animated movies, Christopher Robin tells a story where the titular boy has become a man and left his childhood friends, Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore behind in the Hundred Acre Wood. Christopher Robinisn’t only the first iteration of the property to be rated PG, it’s also deeply melancholy, and grounded in the working class struggle of post-World War II London. Favoring dark grays and weather-worn cinematography, along with allusions to the directorial touches of Terrence Malick, Christopher Robin often feels explicitly geared towards adults. Yes, there are moments of warmth, brightness, and the humor that made A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard’s stories so beloved in the first place, but unless you have a kid who’s eagerly sitting down to watch Days of Heaven, there’s a lot in Forster’s presentation geared towards adults. The reaction to this take has been somewhat mixed, with a number of critics lamenting the film’s more serious insights and a lack of fun. But what’s interesting is that Christopher Robin speaks directly to the phenomenon we’ve been discussing. Christopher Robin (Ewan McGregor) realizes that being an adult doesn’t necessarily mean leaving childhood things behind, but incorporating them into adulthood. While this revelation doesn’t take Christopher Robin into Ted (2012) territory, there are interesting parallels to these stories of men who are incomplete without the literal representations of their childhood in tow.

The Happytime Murders

Perhaps this is all a rather roundabout way to approach the issue of Muppets offering unsolicited sex and hard drugs in Happytime Murders, but nonetheless, the sentiment remains true. We don’t really want to put away childish things, we want them to grow up with us. Brian Henson’s R-rated crime-comedy film starring Melissa McCarthy, earned its share of pre-release controversy, with the Sesame Workshop suing production company STX for the use of the tagline “No Sesame. All Street.” Sesame Street remains popular among young audiences, but the Disney owned Muppets have largely fallen out of favor with the last movie The Muppets Most Wantedmaking a poor box office showing ($80.4 million on a $50 million budget), and sitcom The Muppets being canceled in 2016 after one season. With Disney seemingly having no plans for the characters anytime soon, perhaps Brian Henson’s best bet to keep his father’s art-form alive, if not the characters themselves, was to appeal to a desire to see Muppet-esque characters in adult situations, something that worked well for the popular Broadway musical Avenue Q.

Not every modern resurrection of once sensational properties has opted to appeal to adults. R.L. Stine’s book series Goosebumps, which led to a popular television series in the '90s, was adapted as a film in 2015. A sequel, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween is set for release on Oct. 12 this year. The first film is kids’ movies through and through, and trailer for the sequel indicates that this new installment will go even further in that direction, given its younger cast. This doesn’t mean the films don’t register with adults, but rather they aren’t appealing to our nostalgia, going as far to drastically redesign some of the characters popularized by Fox Kids/YTV show and refrain from utilizing the classic theme song. The Goosebumps films haven’t grown up with us, but rather see kids of Gen Z as their primary audience.

Ava DuVernay’s A Wrinkle in Time (2018) is another film that struck a chord with younger audiences more so than adults who read the book series growing up, or those who remember the 2003 ABC television film. It’s a film that aims to be an intelligent kids’ movie, a big-budget PG experience that we rarely see in live-action theatrical releases anymore. Films like Goosebumps and A Wrinkle in Time ask us to meet kids on their level, rather than asking them to rise to an adolescent or adult level to enjoy the things we refuse to loosen our grips on. With films based on Are You Afraid of the Dark and Barbie set to receive new interpretations, and a Sandlot(1993) prequel in development, it will be interesting to see which audience demographic they appeal to and how much nostalgia they’ll give into. We’re living in the height of pop culture adaptations, and if we’ve proven anything, it’s that we’ll take these childish ways with us as far as we can.

Source: Hollywood Reporter by Richard Newby

#star wars #marvel #toxic #toxic fandom #fandom #fans #truefan #movies #audience #hollywood reporter #article #news

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anthonybialy · 3 years

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Cancel This Column

Discourse takes the form of not allowing it. Shut up as requested. Attempting to ostracize those who dare think marriage involves two genders or people can only be one is effective in its way if not actually helpful, decent, or a sign of confidence.

The notion of canceled tells one everything you need to know about how the judgmental party sees humans. Whisper it so they don't find a deadpan tweet of yours from 2014 that will be the sole piece of evidence presented at your summary execution trial. Those who think destroying dissent equals accountability are blessed with utter humorlessness, if you can believe. Inhuman labeling that's the specialty of honorary struggle session attendees is only the start.

The worst part of repulsive notions put into action is that there's no do-over. Panicky reactions intended to crush others who dared offer mild objections really happened. Gina Carano lost a chance to continue acting alongside a rather manipulative Muppet because tough internet woke dudes couldn't handle a strong woman questioning their lunatic takes. The worst Star Wars fans still gloat as if overwrought memes were justification to fire an actress, especially considering their own regrettable internet histories.

Meanwhile, Wikipedia will always note 2021's All-Star Game was moved because Georgia was racist enough to verify each vote counted. And there really is no Chick-fil-A in Buffalo's airport because one self-righteous New York Assembly twit decided Christianity is hateful.

The particular lust for destroying anyone who holds contrary opinions is particularly tiresome for a group so dedicated to ignoring evidence. The same people who call Obamacare a success must be tethered to reality. They really laid waste to those who are deranged enough to think only women can give birth.

Joyous fervor sure makes it seem like the self-appointed decency deputies would seek prey even if they couldn't get the fired. The only time humanity's police seem anything close to happy is when they're making others miserable. True professionals hate cops while they're busting fellow humans for daring to note letting erstwhile males dominate the Olympics is not a shining example of feminism. They're too busy setting records for ruined lives. Stasi agents would tell them to calm down.

Smugly blathering about introducing accountability is the culture tyrant's strained excuse. Ruining opposition is what they think of as the free market at work. Customers respond by wrecking options they find unpalatable, right? It's little wonder they're unable to find productive employment. Ruining those who think a man in a dress has not become a woman is their equivalent of business dominance. They couldn't thrive on their own offering a valuable product.

One might figure the entirely progressive would want awful idiots who oppose their loving and wise ideology to broadcast it. But they never grasp practical consequences, either. I always assume that people who think they can warp English and gender by announcing they have special pronouns should be allowed to loudly self-identify so the sensible know who to avoid. But opposition to free speech is reflexive. Some are so confident in their ideology that they must vanquish opposition. It's the only way they can make the world tolerant.

Accuse everyone else of shoplifting to distract from pockets packed with pilfered candy. Those infected with fervor about the righteousness of their causes sure get a lot wrong about biology and the economy. Proclaiming they're on science's side is as unscientific notion as possible. Refusing to accept counterarguments is a delightful self-own that's tough for them to appreciate as they heat their branding irons. Distract from how experiments constantly go against their favor by shrieking that those who possess test tubes are witches.

Carelessly aimed unbearable toxicity seeps far past targets. These aren't the types of cunning military strategists concerned with surgical strikes. Unjust social justice warriors claim to care about the Earth as they hurl sludge. They justify carpet bombing by noting the reduced carbon footprint for those they banish. Ruining the lives of anyone to Pol Pot's right is a pure offset.

Poisoning society was successful regardless of whether that was the goal. Stomping out unmutual opinion holders is not a contained problem. Explaining why the debater is a hater who deserves to be left on an ice floe goes far beyond a casting issue for a streaming Disney bounty hunter adventure. Everything seems enervating because of wariness. Winning on destruction because they can't win on merits should be taken as a bad sign. Of course, de facto Maoists use overpowering government in the same way, so at least they're consistent.

This remains an even worse time for politics than usual. Feeble vegan sharks compensate for weak swimming skills by attacking in quantity. The open-minded announce disagreement means you oppose their existence.

Setting out to make everyone as wretched as they feel is one way to achieve fairness. Thinking all hose in disagreement are the hateful ones is only the most notable irony. Woke vigilantes better hope nobody holds them to their own disgusting standards. Noting their constant violations of respectable opinions and decent behavior would be the only punishment worse than having to live with themselves.

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tshirttrend · 4 years

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I Cant Stay At Home I Work At Lowes We Fight COVID 19

So VERY true Those kids who I Cant Stay At Home I Work At Lowes We Fight COVID 19 . on the street corner. After school cause, they had nowhere to go or abusive parents. Those kids who dressed like Kurt Cobain and Eddy Vedder. Those kids who you knew did drugs from time to time. Those kids who skateboarded. Those kids who listened to heavy metal. Those kids who had long hair and the side shaved on their heads. Etc, Etc, Etc. Our own community lashed out at the disadvantaged and abused so much they created hypocrisy of themselves. I LOATHED my parents and many like them. I still meet people like that today who have kids, and never consider the poor kid who has a shitty life already. So VERY true. Those kids who hung on the street corner after school cause they had nowhere to go or abusive parents.I Cant Stay At Home I Work At Lowes We Fight COVID 19, hoodie, sweater, longsleeve and ladies t-shirt

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Unisex Those kids who dressed like I Cant Stay At Home I Work At Lowes We Fight COVID 19 . and Eddy Vedder. Those kids who you knew did drugs from time to time. Those kids who skateboarded. Those kids who had long hair and the side shaved on their heads. Etc, Etc, Etc. Our own community lashed out at the disadvantaged and abused so much they created hypocrisy of themselves. I LOATHED my parents and many like them. I still meet people like that today who have kids, and never consider the poor kid who has a shitty life already. It sounds like both our families had the wrong attitude about others, but we were rebellious enough to make up our own minds about people. It probably would have been safer to stay in the little group, but then I’d have become like that, judging by appearances alone instead of overall character, and the very notion makes me sick. I felt the same way. And I that it wasn’t just kids of one certain. Type” who ended up being an undesirable company. It was the ones who didn’t have a good sense of humor, a conscience, or a decent attitude. Up until I was 7 or 8, we only had one tv and I was the oldest of four, so I was only able to watch edutainment shows, older shows like Leave it to Beaver, or family sitcoms (I did talk my mom into letting me watch The Muppet Show because it was like Sesame Street, and I think it had a profound effect of my humor and worldview). So the first time a friend told me about Beavis and Butthead, I assumed it was a live-action, black and white show. I was very disappointed when I learned otherwise. You Can See More Product: https://luxuryt-shirt.com/product-category/trending/ Read the full article

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newshirtonlines-blog · 4 years

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I Cant Stay At Home I Work At Lowes We Fight COVID 19

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prweigand · 6 years

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This is, undoubtedly, a long read. Though the entire excerpt is well worth it, the first sections regarding the popularity of term limits and the debate on perpetuity were, to me, fascinating. In all honesty, I had never really considered the notion of setting intentional term limits on a foundation. I had generally assumed that foundations would typically want to continue in perpetuity and that those that were unable to dried up out of a mismanagement of funds.

I also hadn’t really considered the perspective of foundational giving having the potential to be disrespectful of donor intent. Conceptually, however, it makes sense. I immediately thought of The Jim Henson Company and the Jim Henson Foundation as organizations that are often pressured to do “what Jim would want,” even as they have continued beyond the death of their namesake. To their credit, the Jim Henson Foundation has focused on supporting new and innovative puppetry theater and film production. Typically, these productions include a wide range of styles, far beyond the “Muppet,” style he was most known for. This focus on a broad style reflects the experimental nature of much of Henson’s work and interests. Though some of his work is now an established part of american culture, they were, at their creation, wildly experimental and innovative. Towards the latter part of his life, Henson was still interested in discovering new techniques and technologies, as well as shining a light on the broader world of puppetry.

This serves as a contrast to some of the reactions to some recent developments by The Jim Henson Company and some of his other intellectual properties. Purists consider the push towards digital puppetry to be antithetical to Henson’s intents in the establishment of The Creature Shop (because there is no longer a physical object being manipulated). Of course, Disney’s attempts at creating new Muppet productions were downright blasphemous. I would personally say these are still very much in line with what Henson was interested in, but that isn’t the point.

With that in mind, and thinking about term limits for foundations in order to more accurately preserve the legacy, I can’t help but wonder what sort of reaction there would be if that approach were taken in the creative world... What if Kermit or The Muppets were unable to be used 30 years after Henson’s death?

The remaining portion of the chapter does provide a nice companionship to the Lenkowsky article, as it provides more detailed examples for the history of philanthropy in the US.

#philanthropy #nonprofits #and also puppets

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jimhenson-themuppetmaster · 7 years

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W.I.L.D. A series referred to as The Environmental Show by the press, but called W.I.L.D. during production, was proposed for The Disney Channel in 1990 with the intentions of educating young people about animals and the environment. Set in a TV station, anchor Ponce D. Lion and iguana cohost Netty would have been two featured main characters.

Jim Henson spoke about the project with People magazine, expressing the notion that “preteens love animals… You can turn that interest into an awareness of problems in the world today.”

Even though this version of the show was never produced, it was in some ways a precursor of The Animal Show. A bear puppet from The Muppets Take Manhattan was to be used in the show which later became Bobo the Bear, who debuted on Muppets Tonight.

The puppet used as Netty would later be reused as in the Dinosaurs episode “Honey, I Miss the Kids” (as an amphibian named Tad). Milton and Ruth from The Song of the Cloud Forest would have been reused in this series.

#jim henson #w.i.l.d.#the muppets #behind the scenes #rainforest #the song of the cloud forest

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junker-town · 4 years

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The perfect team fits for 5 NFL quarterbacks in 2020

Photo by David Banks/Getty Images

We debated the best team fits for quarterbacks like Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston next season.

Teams in need of quarterback help in 2020 will have plenty of options. Not great options, mind you. While high-profile free agents like Drew Brees and Tom Brady aren’t going anywhere, less-tenured vets will be on the move.

Next spring’s likely crop of available passers will slide several experienced NFL starters onto the free market. A handful of others will be available via trade.

So where do those quarterbacks fit best? We’ve got some ideas about where the ones who are set to be free agents could wind up.

Jameis Winston

Age in 2020: 26

Career stats: 86.5 passer rating, 7.1 adjusted yards per attempt

No quarterback in the league has thrown more interceptions than Winston since 2015. His 4.6 percent touchdown rate, however, is tops among the other five quarterbacks on this list. A boom-or-bust player, he could struggle without a receiving corps anchored by Pro Bowler Mike Evans.

Christian D’Andrea: New Orleans Saints. Teaming with Bruce Arians in 2019 couldn’t stabilize Winston’s volatility, and he’s likely best served as an option QB in a shaky quarterback situation or as a backup behind a veteran starter winding down his career. The Saints present a best-case scenario in this situation: a place where Winston could rehabilitate his value and get some reps with a winning team.

Teddy Bridgewater laid the blueprint for this brand of reclamation project, and Winston could continue it — assuming Bridgewater doesn’t return (see below) and New Orleans still isn’t sold on Taysom Hill as a full-time backup.

James Brady: Los Angeles Chargers. They have one of the most talented teams in the league, but they always underperform. They’re currently in the process of squandering the last year(s) of Philip Rivers’ career, and I don’t see them having a quick rebuild once he decides to hang it up. Winston is exactly the kind of quarterback a team like the Chargers should be interested in: a young player who has only had one shot, and was perhaps given too much too soon. A year behind Rivers would probably do Winston well.

Adam Stites: Dallas Cowboys. Winston needs to be on a team that wants a backup quarterback willing to take chances and push the ball downfield, even if that means turnovers. That’s what makes Dallas an interesting fit, in my mind. The Cowboys have needed Dak Prescott to take more risks in 2019 and they’re getting the best version of him, even if he’s throwing more interceptions than ever. Prescott’s current backup, Cooper Rush, is still a mostly unknown commodity, but he’s a free agent in the offseason and there’s much more evidence that Winston could fill the role of risk taker if Prescott goes down.

Marcus Mariota

Age: 26/27

Career stats: 89.6 rating, 7.7 AY/A

Mariota, taken one pick behind Winston in 2015, was shuffled to the bench only to watch Ryan Tannehill lead Tennessee back into playoff contention in his stead. The former Heisman Trophy winner has struggled with minor injuries throughout his career, but guided the Titans to winning records in three of his four seasons as a full-time starter.

D’Andrea: Buffalo Bills. If you go by adjusted yards per attempt, Mariota is the safest bet on this list. He’s also the only one with a playoff victory on his resume. That experience would be a boon for the Bills, who will still be developing Josh Allen in 2020 but could also use a reliable backup in case:

a) he continues to be the passer who has struggled against the NFL’s more competent defenses (a 56.5 percent completion rate and a 76.6 passer rating through his first 21 career starts), or b) he gets injured, as quarterbacks who run the ball more than seven times per game often do.

Tyrod Taylor helped get the Bills to the postseason in 2017 with the same kind of low-wattage, turnover-averse, dual-threat passing game Mariota’s brought to the table in Tennessee the last two years. Buffalo could bring a higher-ceiling version of that production up north in 2020 while providing an extremely valuable Plan B in case Allen can’t be the quarterback the franchise needs him to be.

Brady: Chicago Bears. I have been blunt in my criticisms of Mitchell Trubisky. If he’s going to be Chicago’s franchise quarterback, something needs to change. I don’t see him improving that much year over year unless the Bears bring in some competition, and I think Mariota would be perfect competition. He’s a threat to Trubisky’s starting job and if he were to win it, Chicago would probably have an easier time letting Mariota try not to lose games with that defense than they do with Trubisky.

Morgan Moriarty: Carolina Panthers. If the Panthers end up keeping Cam Newton, Mariota is an experienced dual-threat who can run the offense if Newton gets hurt again. If the Panthers do end up moving on from Newton while keeping Kyle Allen, then Mariota is a veteran competition for Allen, who is 5-3 as the Panthers’ starter but has struggled lately.

Stites: Cleveland Browns. Mariota’s just incompetent enough that a team wouldn’t want to sign him to be the starter, but competent enough that he could push for a starting job anyway if a player ahead of him struggles. That makes me look for a team with an entrenched starter, but one Mariota might be able to supplant at some point. I’ll go with Baker Mayfield, who’s going through a sophomore slump in 2019. Mayfield will still be the starter in 2020, but the Browns could do better at the backup spot than Garrett Gilbert.

Andy Dalton

Age: 32/33

Career stats: 88.0 rating, 6.9 AY/A

Dalton was benched as the Bengals’ starter after an 0-8 start, though he was in the midst of his most productive season as a pro. His 281 passing yards per game were a career high. He’s 68-58-2 as a starter, even after playing eight games from the epicenter of Cincinnati’s failure pile. Although he’s not set to hit free agency, the Bengals will likely part ways with him this offseason.

D’Andrea: Chicago Bears. Dalton proved he’s still capable of big performances, even as his receiving and blocking corps crumble around him. Cincinnati asked him to throw the ball more than 42 times per game this fall (due to all the losing) despite an offensive line that allowed him to be sacked on 7.9 percent of his dropbacks. Chicago’s potent defense just needs someone who can sustain drives and win the time of possession battle. Dalton fits that bill in spades — and without a first-round pick in 2020 thanks to the Khalil Mack trade, he can serve as a bridge to the future until the team can start grooming another, non-Mitchell Trubisky young passer.

Brady: Cleveland Browns. I don’t think Dalton is going to have many suitors as a starter, but he may have a few years left as a solid backup for a lot of teams. My first pick here was the 49ers, because of the chances that Nick Mullens winds up elsewhere, but I think a stabilizing force would be useful in the Browns’ locker room and quarterback room. Baker Mayfield needs someone who can push him and help him both, and Dalton is that guy.

Stites: Los Angeles Chargers. I agree with the notion that not many teams will want Dalton as a starter, but I think one or two might. He’s been a Pro Bowler three times in his career and he’s still just 32. The list of teams likely in the market for a veteran starter is small, but it could (or at least should) include the Chargers. Philip Rivers is struggling in 2019 and it’s spoiling a roster that can be a winner. Dalton could be the bridge starter for a young quarterback drafted as Rivers’ successor.

Teddy Bridgewater

Age: 27/28

Career stats: 88.3 rating, 6.8 AY/A

Bridgewater may have more momentum than any quarterback primed for free agency. Not only did he just turn 27 years old, but his stint as a starter while Drew Brees nursed a thumb injury resulted in a 5-0 record. His 69.7 completion rate, 7.9 AY/A, and 103.7 passer rating in that span would all be career highs by a significant margin.

Brady: Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After they move on from Winston like everyone expects, the Buccaneers will have a hole to fill at quarterback. They’re likely going to approach the 2020 NFL Draft looking to select one, but there are a lot of ways that can go wrong. Perhaps they don’t land the guy they want and force a bad pick, or they get who they want and he’s destroyed as a rookie. It makes more sense for the Buccaneers to go with someone proven like Bridgewater, while they also search for somebody younger. Either Bridgewater will be their answer, or he’ll at least pave the way for a younger quarterback.

D’Andrea: Tampa Bay Buccaneers. My original answer here was the Broncos. It’s extremely unlikely — John Elway isn’t going to roll with another passer shorter than 6’4 after Case Keenum burned him — but I like the idea of Bridgewater turning Courtland Sutton, Phillip Lindsay, and Royce Freeman into the Muppet Babies version of his Michael Thomas, Alvin Kamara, Latavius Murray lineup in New Orleans.

Then I saw James’ pick and everything clicked. Bruce Arians loves a comeback story at quarterback. It’s a big part of why he came out of retirement to take the Tampa job in the first place. Bridgewater would be his next Carson Palmer: a player with a major knee injury in his past who hasn’t been used to his full potential before pairing up with Arians. The Buccaneers make a ton of sense, and I’m officially switching my answer to Tampa Bay.

Moriarty: Chicago Bears. While I do think Mariota would be a good potential fit with the Bears, Bridgewater could be a good fit in Chicago, as well. The Trubisky experiment has gone terribly, but I think Bridgewater could make this offense hum with weapons like Allen Robinson, Tarik Cohen, and Taylor Gabriel around him.

Stites: New Orleans Saints. Drew Brees isn’t going to be around forever. Hell, he might not even be around next year. New Orleans went 5-0 during his stint as the starter in 2019 and he looked really great once he shook off the rust in the first couple games. At some point, the Saints need someone to take over for Brees, who turns 41 in January. Why let Bridgewater walk, when he’s perfect for the job? If that means forcing Brees out, that’s a rough decision to make — but hey, the end has to come eventually.

Ryan Tannehill

Age: 32

Career stats: 87.8 rating, 6.8 AY/A

Tannehill’s been exactly what head coach Mike Vrabel needed to keep his name out of firing rumors toward the end of 2019. The former Dolphin has been an A+ insurance policy for the Titans, engineering wins in three of his first four starts and guiding Tennessee to a rousing come-from-behind win over the Chiefs in Week 10. Tannehill’s been markedly better in Nashville than he was in Miami, but he’ll have to prove that can last over the back end of the 2019 season.

D’Andrea: Tennessee Titans. Tennessee is all but done with Mariota, but the club has no method to pick up a reliable young franchise quarterback next spring. The Titans’ inevitable 9-7 finish will have them picking somewhere in the late teens, and while they could move up and draft a player from the second tier of first-round QB prospects, they’ll need a veteran presence to hold things down. Tannehill’s proven he can deliver big wins with the Titans, and that continuity could be a big boost en route to 2020’s 9-7 campaign.

Brady: Tennessee Titans. Like Christian said, other than the players on this list, the Titans don’t have many options. They’re not bad enough to land a top pick, and they don’t want to spend a bunch of draft capital to move up and get one. Tannehill is playing well for Tennessee right now, and another offseason with the team should put it in a decent position for the next year or two.

Stites: Tennessee Titans. For the sake of argument, I’d love to come up with another scenario, but how in the world could Tennessee let Tannehill walk? Unless a Kyle Allen-esque tailspin is coming soon, Tannehill’s having a career year and leading the Titans to wins. It doesn’t necessarily mean he’s the quarterback of the future, but the Titans would be hard pressed to find a player on the free agency market or the draft who can outperform Tannehill’s last month’s worth of production.

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memecucker · 7 years

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dislike, but like the kind of dislike where you still admire something for its beauty despite the irritation: the occasional thing you do where you post like an entire wikipedia article or copypasta a giant post thread into its own thread

Old Dogs

(film)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Old Dogs

Theatrical release poster

Directed by

Walt Becker

Produced byAndrew Panay

Robert L. Levy

Peter Abrams

Written by

David Diamond

David Weissman

Starring

John Travolta

Robin Williams

Kelly Preston

Seth Green

Ella Bleu Travolta

Lori Loughlin

Matt Dillon

Music by

John Debney

Cinematography

Jeffrey L. Kimball

Edited byTom Lewis

Ryan Folsey

Production

company

Walt Disney Pictures

Tapestry Films

Distributed by

Walt Disney StudiosMotion Pictures

Release date

November 25, 2009

Running time88 minutes

CountryUnited States

LanguageEnglish

Budget$35 million

Box office$96.8 million

[1]

Old Dogs is a 2009 American ensemble comedy film directed by Wild Hogs's Walt Becker and starring John Travolta and Robin Williams with an ensemble supporting cast played by Kelly Preston, Matt Dillon, Justin Long, Seth Green, Rita Wilson, Dax Shepard, Lori Loughlin, and Bernie Mac. It was released in theaters on November 25, 2009 and was released on DVD March 9, 2010.

The movie is dedicated to both Bernie Mac (who died in August 2008 and had his final acting role in the film) and Jett Travolta (John Travolta's son who died in January 2009). The film grossed $96.7 million worldwide on a $35 million budget.[1]

Canadian rocker Bryan Adams wrote the theme song for the film, "You've Been a Friend to Me".

At the 30th Golden Raspberry Awards ceremony, Old Dogs was nominated in four categories: Worst Picture, Worst Actor for John Travolta, Worst Supporting Actress for Kelly Preston and Worst Director for Walt Becker.

Contents

[

hide

]

1Plot

2Cast

3Reception

4References

5External links

2.1Primary

2.2Minor

2.3Muppet performers

3.1Critical response

3.2Box office

Plot

Dan Rayburn (Robin Williams) and Charlie Reed (John Travolta) are best friends and co-owners of a successful sports marketing firm. Seven years prior, Dan, recently divorced, married Vicki (Kelly Preston) after being whisked away by Charlie for a tropical vacation. The marriage, however, is short lived. Seven years later, Vicki resurfaces to tell Dan that their short marriage resulted in something he never suspected: twins Zach (Conner Rayburn) and Emily (Ella Bleu Travolta).

Vicki, facing jail time for her work as an environmental activist, asks Dan to take care of the kids while she does her time. Thinking this might be his chance to get back with Vicki, Dan agrees, but only if Charlie will help him since neither have any experience taking care of kids. At the same time, the two must finalize a huge marketing deal with a Japanese company; something they've always dreamed of, but will take all of their talents to clinch.

Because Dan's condo does not allow children, he has to board with Charlie. Whilst this is happening, Charlie and Dan are close to securing the biggest account in the history of their careers with the Japanese corporation. Charlie and Dan's attempts to take care of the kids are well-intentioned, but very misguided. On a trip with the kids to an overnight camp, a hard-nosed camp instructor (Matt Dillon) becomes convinced that Dan and Charlie are homosexual partners. The trip ends with a bang after Dan accidentally sets a beloved statue of the camp's founder on fire.

The kids then proceed to spill and replace Charlie and Dan's prescriptions, mixing them up in the process. Dan then must play a game of golf with the Japanese executives while experiencing extreme side effects and Charlie tries to woo Amanda (Lori Loughlin) with a face frozen by the pills.

Desperate to help Dan communicate with the children despite his inexperience with children, Charlie recruits his friend Jimmy Lunchbox (Bernie Mac), a flamboyant children's entertainer, who is famous around the world. Jimmy comes by and straps Dan and Charlie in motion control puppet suits so Charlie can help Dan make all the right moves with his daughter while having a tea party. The suits malfunction, but Dan speaks from the heart, winning over Emily but his speech makes Jimmy emotional. Everything is great with Vicki as she returns home upon having served time in jail. However, the guys have sealed their Japanese deal, sending junior associate Craig (Seth Green) to Tokyo. When Craig goes missing after arriving there, Charlie and Dan must fly to Tokyo themselves to work. Dan must leave the kids and Vicki despite his (and their) desire to be a family.

Once in Tokyo, Dan realizes that what he really wants is to be a good father. He leaves the meeting without sealing the deal, rushing with Charlie to Vermont for the kids' birthday party. They aren't able to get into the Burlington Zoo in time and are forced to break in with the help of Craig. However, they mistakenly wind up in the gorilla enclosure. Though Dan and Charlie escape, Craig is captured by the gorilla (which takes a strong liking to him).

Dan then pays a birthday party performer hired by Vicki to use his jet pack and suit, flies into the ceremony and wins his kids back over. When the jet pack stops working in mid-air, he is taken to an ambulance on a stretcher. One year later, Dan and Vicki are together, Charlie has married Amanda, and Craig has become like a new "uncle" to the kids.

Cast

Primary

John Travolta as Charlie "Chuck" Reed

Robin Williams as Daniel "Dan" Rayburn

Kelly Preston as Vicki Greer

Seth Green as Craig White

Lori Loughlin as Amanda

Ella Bleu Travolta as Emily Greer

Conner Rayburn as Zachary "Zach" Greer

Minor

Sab Shimono as Yoshiro Nishamura (as Saburo Shimono)

Dax Shepard as Child Proofer Gary (uncredited)

Luis Guzmán as Child Proofer Nick (uncredited)

Bernie Mac as Jimmy Lunchbox

Matt Dillon as Troop Leader Barry

Rita Wilson as Jenna

Justin Long as Troop Leader Adam (uncredited)

Ann-Margret as Martha

Laura Allen as Kelly

Amy Sedaris as Condo Woman

Kevin W. Yamada as Riku

Bradley Steven Perry as Soccer Kid

Dylan Sprayberry as Soccer Kid

Paulo Costanzo as Zoo Maintenance (uncredited)

DeRay Davis as Zoo Security Guard (uncredited)

Paul Thornton as Restaurant Patron (uncredited)

Residente as Tattoo Artist

Muppet performers

The following have performed the puppets in Jimmy Lunchbox's show and are credited as "Muppet":

Bruce Connelly

Josh Cohen

Joe Kovacs

John Kennedy

Edward Noel MacNeal

Matt Vogel

Four of the puppets identified in Jimmy Lunchbox's show are Bozark the Elephant from Animal Jam, Beak the Bird and YesNo from the proposed series Muppetmobile, and Scales the Dragon from the pilot to Little Mermaid's Island.

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 5%, based on 108 reviews, with an average rating of 2.3/10. The site's consensus reads, "Its cast tries hard, but Old Dogs is a predictable, nearly witless attempt at physical comedy and moral uplift that misses the mark on both counts."[2] The film was ranked number three on their list of the ten most moldy films of 2009.[3] At Metacritic, Old Dogs received an aggregated rating of 19 out of 100, based on 22 reviews, indicating "overwhelming dislike."[4]

Film critic Roger Ebert gave Old Dogs a rating of one star out of a possible four.[5] Ebert opened his review commenting, "'Old Dogs' is stupefying dimwitted. What were John Travolta and Robin Williams thinking of? Apparently their agents weren't perceptive enough to smell the screenplay in its advanced state of decomposition".[5]

The Salt Lake Tribune gave Old Dogs a rating of zero stars out of a possible four, and criticized the film for "hammy acting and sledgehammer editing".[6] Film critic Roger Moore of The Orlando Sentinel gave Old Dogs a rating of one and a half stars out of a possible four.[7] "Trashing Old Dogs is a bit like kicking a puppy. But here goes. The new comedy from some of the folks who brought us Wild Hogs is badly written and broadly acted, shamelessly manipulative and not above stopping by the toilet for a laugh or two," wrote Moore.[7]

Bill Goodykoontz of The Star Press gave the film a critical review, and commented, "Old Dogs, which stars Robin Williams and John Travolta as a couple of aging bachelors who suddenly have twins thrust upon them, delivers everything you’d expect. Which is: not much."[8] He concluded his review with, "Let’s hope Williams, Travolta and the rest got a fabulous payday for Old Dogs. Because otherwise, you know, woof."[8] In a review for The Arizona Republic, Goodykoontz gave the film a rating of one and a half stars out of a possible five.[9]

Writing for the San Jose Mercury News in an analysis of movies that were released around Thanksgiving, Randy Myers placed Old Dogs below "The Scraps: Leftovers that should be immediately placed in Fido's bowl."[10] Myers commented, "We have a winner in the Thanksgiving movie turkey contest."[10] Dennis Harvey of Variety wrote, "Too bad this shrilly tuned comedy doesn't demand more than clock-punching effort from everyone involved."[11] Tim Robey of The Telegraph savaged the film, saying, "Old Dogs is so singularly dreadful it halts time, folds space and plays havoc with the very notion of the self."[12] He added to the review, "Being a film critic is a wonderful job, but there are weeks when the bad film delirium strikes and we’d all be better off in straitjackets. A colleague opined to me the other day that this might be the deadliest run of releases in his 20-year history on the job, and I can completely see that." He also said, "You'd have to hate your family to take them to this!" He gave the film zero stars.

Writing for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Carrie Rickey gave the film a rating of two and a half stars out of four.[13] Rickey commented of the multiple cameos in the film, "A child of 5 can see that these brief appearances serve to pad a gauze-thin script."[13] The review concluded, "Old Dogs may not be good. But the sight of pesky penguins pecking Travolta and Green in the embrace of an unlikely partner makes it just good enough."[13] Pete Hammond of Boxoffice gave the film 3/5 stars, and concluded, "Old Dogs may not reach the box office heights of Wild Hogs but its fun family friendly attitude should guarantee a healthy holiday haul."[14]

Box office

In its first day, Old Dogs opened in fifth place, with a take of $3.1 million.[15][16] It was beat out in first-day box office results by New Moon, The Blind Side, 2012, and Ninja Assassin.[15][16] The film came in fourth in its second day with $4.1 million, for a two-day pickup of $7.2 million.[17] The film remained in fourth place for its third day, with a box office take of $6.8 million.[18] Overall, the film grossed $96,753,696 worldwide on a budget of $35,000,000.[19]

The movie was also a moderate success on DVD, gaining more than $20,000,000 (20 million dollars) domestically during its first two months of release.[20]

References

^ Jump up to:a b "Old Dogs (2009) Box Office Mojo". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2010-08-09.

Jump up^ "Old Dogs (2009)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 2010-01-17.

Jump up^ "ROTTEN TOMATOES: 11th Annual Golden Tomato Awards: Moldy". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 2010-01-17.

Jump up^ "Old Dogs". CBS Interactive Inc. Metacritic. 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-25.

^ Jump up to:a b Ebert, Roger (November 24, 2009). "Old Dogs". RogerEbert.com. Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2009-11-25.

Jump up^ The Salt Lake Tribune staff (November 24, 2009). "5-minute movie reviews: 'Old Dogs,' 'Ninja Assassin'". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 2009-11-24.

^ Jump up to:a b Moore, Roger (November 23, 2009). "Movie Review: Old Dogs, no new tricks". Movies with Roger Moore. Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved 2009-11-24.

^ Jump up to:a b Goodykoontz, Bill (November 23, 2009). "REVIEW" 'Old Dogs' could use new tricks". The Star Press. Retrieved 2009-11-24.[dead link]

Jump up^ Goodykoontz, Bill (November 24, 2009). "'Old Dogs'". The Arizona Republic. Retrieved 2009-11-24.

^ Jump up to:a b Myers, Randy (November 24, 2009). "Thanksgiving Movie Guide: From the main courses to the doggie scraps". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved 2009-11-24.

Jump up^ Harvey, Dennis (November 24, 2009). "Old Dogs". Variety. Retrieved 2009-11-24.

Jump up^ "Old Dogs, review". The Daily Telegraph. London. 2010-03-18.

^ Jump up to:a b c Rickey, Carrie (November 24, 2009). "Old Dogs". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 2009-11-24.

Jump up^ Hammond, Pete (2009-11-25). "Old Dogs Movie Review". Boxoffice. www.boxoffice.com. Retrieved 2009-11-28.

^ Jump up to:a b DiOrio, Carl (November 26, 2009). ""Moon" begins long weekend atop box office". The Hollywood Reporter. Reuters. Retrieved 2009-11-27.

^ Jump up to:a b Ellwood, Gregory (November 26, 2009). "Box Office: 'New Moon's' $14.3 million dominates 'Ninja' and 'Old Dogs'". HitFlix. HitFix Inc. Retrieved 2009-11-27.

Jump up^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (November 27, 2009). "Football player elbows vampires on Turkey day". Variety. Reed. Retrieved 2009-11-28.

Jump up^ Briody, Tim (November 28, 2009). "Black Friday Box Office Analysis". Box Office Prophets. Box Office Prophets, a division of One Of Us, Inc. Retrieved 2009-11-28.

Jump up^ "Old Dogs (2009) Box Office". The-Numbers. Retrieved 2010-01-23.

Jump up^ "Old Dogs - DVD Sales". The-Numbers. Retrieved 19 November 2011.

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to:

Old Dogs (film)

Official website

Old Dogs on Internet Movie Database

Old Dogs at AllMovie

Old Dogs at Box Office Mojo

Old Dogs at Metacritic

Old Dogs at Rotten Tomatoes

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