#the audience for this video might just be me but editing it brought me joy

[strawmaguchi]

PJO but it’s almost every time they say ‘boy’ in Monster Factory (aka my internal monologue during the show)

#gotta say we’re starting off with a sweet boy #pjo tv show #pjo #percy jackson #percy jackon and the olympians #my edit #mbmbam #percy jackson and the olympians #monster factory #pjo series #just some certified boy moments #pjo memes #the audience for this video might just be me but editing it brought me joy

[logically-asexual]

okay i'm already procrastinating and i don't plan on sleeping any time soon so here we go.

☆ ✩ my personal ranking for every season 1 Sanders Sides episode. ✩ ☆

i think it's going to be pretty similar to @dukeofonions' but let's see if i find something new to contribute haha. i see you didn't include that one about Patton in the Big Game or whatever, so i'm not including it either xd. also i think i'm going to count Accepting Anxiety as one episode only.

edit: i finished and now i dare you to drink a shot of water every time i say the word spanish or a version of the word comfort and become very well hydrated.

#16 I'm in a Disney Show

(i agree with dukeofonions here) i always forget this episode exists. it was ok in terms of being happy for real life Thomas but as a Sanders Sides episode it didn't do anything. the sides were just giving their opinions but it wasn't very funny or interesting. also i'm bitter because it made me look up the episode he was in and i didn't like it at all. i don't know if i'm too old for those Disney shows now but Thomas was literally the only good part of it, everything else was really dull and boring imo. a waste of time.

however, Logan supporting clickbait is one of the funniest things ever, and i'll never forget it.

#15 Becoming A Cartoon

i didn't hate this episode but it was just .. meh.. you know? several factors contribute to this. one, i couldn't feel much nostalgia for Butch Hartman's shows because i watched them in Spanish, and everything feels really weird when they speak English, i don't like how my old cartoons sound in English. two, it was disappointing to me because we were all desperately waiting for Plot™ and instead they give us this short episode about nothing (oh how the tables have turned now it's the other way around haha). and three, i didn't like the style of the animation :/ their faces and expressions freaked me out, Roman's douchey face still haunts me.

#14 Way Too Adult

here i'm biased because i don't like Patton much, and i didn't back when i watched the series the first time either, so this video was a little disappointingwithout the rest. also it wasn't relatable to me because i am still too young and dependent on my parents haha. but Patton is funny and it's funny to laugh at Thomas' struggling.

#13 The Dark Side of Disney

i've never been a fan of Disney movies. i actually never watched Mulan or the Lion King or Aladdin as a kid, so meh. i liked the ending, though, it was cool to see Virgil have fun and be right for once. it does make me a bit uncomfortable because the way Thomas tries too hard with Virgil's mouth movements and his low voice reminds me of a guy that had made me v uncomfortable not long before watching that video. so an icky feel overall.

#12 A New Year of Lying to Myself

this video was actually kind of fogettable to me. i had a hard time connecting the voices in the song to the characters and idk. i don't love it nor hate it, just .. neutral.

#11 My True Identity

pretty much the same opinion as dukeofonions, again. it's a good introduction and it's good that it was the beginning of it all but on its own it's not very special. i think it's awesome on Thomas to have come up with such a clever idea, like choosing the dad, the teacher and the prince and putting them together and match them with thoughts?? that fit so perfectly?? it really is just very impressive when you think about it, that it was just a random idea he had for a short 5 minute video.

#10 Taking on Anxiety

i liked this video a lot because when i watched it i had recently been a lot on tumblr, and found out through relatable posts that i had anxiety. so watching this video was really fun and it made me happy to feel so seen, specially the intro when Thomas just talks about what it's like to have Anxiety and Virgil is so smug about it.

- ★ -

okay now that those are out of the way things are going to get hard... all the following i love with all my heart so i'm going to rank them based on the smallest things.

#9 Growing Up

once more, Patton isn't my favorite. so that's why i'm putting this here, plus the echo at the end askjhsahg, but i love love this video. i remember we were waiting and oh so ready for the angst of nobody taking Patton seriously. and we received!! i love that though Roman and Logan are antagonists here, they're both so happy about Thomas wanting to have a healthy life. and i just adore the way Logan admits his mistake at the end and asks Patton directly. my heart... also aw.. the nostalgia. i remember none of us knew how to spell Patton's name and were writing it in very funny ways until Thomas and Joan told us lol.

#8 The Mind vs The Heart

when i watched this video the first times i didn't like it much, because i only had eyes for Virgil, but later i came back to it and loved it. so taking that into account i'm putting it here. logicality was the first ship i ever shipped in the show because i saw a gifset on tumblr of Patton screaming "what do you know about love?!" and Logan "apparently more than YOU" and the caption said "MARRIED", and i thought hey yeah... anyway. i love them. they're both my dads since that day.

this video is so so so relatable and i love it. Logan and Patton are so much fun arguing and i love how they compromise at the end and work together. im reconsidering.. i might move it higher? no, fine i'll leave it here.

#7 Making Some Changes

this video was absolutely hilarious. i personally couldn't see it as the Sides still once they were acted by Thomas' friends, i enjoyed it more as that bunch being silly and trying to be the sides but failing in so many ways, while sometimes nailing stuff suddenly. i really don't take this one too seriously as an episode. except Joan!Logan and Valerie!Logan, my beloved... i love how Joan acted as Logan and their voice and that they kept their ace ring on.. there's a reason i had them as my icon for so long. and Valerie looks a bit (a lot) like me with the glasses and dressed in dark colors, plus she spoke Spanish and there's .. no words to describe the joy i felt when seeing/hearing that. wait i'm getting emotional...

#6 My Personality Q&A

when i watched this Virgil was my favorite side and i didn't care much about the rest lol. when i heard his answers i related to him SO much it was scary, and also his voice is so soft and it was all very comforting. it was also when i first starting looking at Logan with more attention, because when he brought up Big Hero 6 and Fall Out Boy and said he didn't sing and would recite it like a poem? it only took a couple seconds but my brain said "me" and never went back.

now this video is a little underwhelming to watch for me, most of the appeal for me was in finding out the answers, and also watching it when we didn't know a lot about the sides. now we know more and want to know more so it's not as fun to me as it was first.

i wish so bad they'd do another one, although i know it would be more difficult with a much bigger audience, i think they can manage and i just need it. the chaos.. the energy.. they all being so savage with each other, learning little random facts about them you didn't expect.. i need it.

- ★ -

oh boy top 5 here we go. the next three are practically a tie. i can't choose.

#5 Alone on Valentines Day

i love Valerie, and the idea of this video was perfect and so perfectly excecuted. every side just giving their crazy opinions on how to woo a random stranger, i laughed SO much. first with Logan speaking simlish out of nowhere? at that point i didn't know practically anything about the sims except that it was some video game and the whiplash of Logan going AYO and the rest killed me. then when Roman whipped out that dialogue in Spanish??? my life was completed. i've never felt more happy than i did in that moment gosh. just the hilarity of Roman's drama, the shock of them speaking Spanish suddenly like that, the absolute JOY of seeing a creator i like speak (may i say) perfect Spanish, the other characters' faces after that.. never been happier.

also the conclusion was so cute. Virgil solving the whole problem without wanting to. i loved it.

#4 Am I Original

i think this video speaks for itself. it was fun to watch them all do the ideas Roman had, plus Logan and Virgil nodding at each other, (i love them so much), plus the angst at the end of Roman's perfectionism, plus Roman's just perfect name. this video has it all.

i think Thomas posted it kind of late at night and i watched it at 7am in the classroom as i waited for my classmates to arrive and the class to start. (i usually was like 40 minutes early to school due to mom’s work). i had to contain my laughter and it wasn’t easy.

#3 Losing My Motivation

i started loving this video after a while, when Logan passed Virgil in the position for my favorite side. but once he did this episode was beautiful. it's so funny and i love Logan and Patton's dynamic so much. and the video also so damn relatable in general. i felt so seen with it because they named all the problems i have when procrastinating, down to Patton's vague explanation of his feelings, it's exactly how i feel every time i want to do stuff. and the plot twist! i can hear the dramatic sound effect and see how they all turn to Logan clearly in my head, and it always makes me smile. plus there's so much Logan angst that can be dug up and overanalized. i love to watch it over and over.

#2 Accepting Anxiety

this video was perfect. everything we wanted. we knew it was coming and it delivered perfectly, better than any fanfic done in the waiting time. the week between the parts was agonizing but in a fun way somehow. i remember precisely when i was watching part 2 in my living room. i screamed. and i cried, a lot. i was feeling terrible at that time in my life and Thomas was such a comforting presence and i can't begin to describe how this episode made me feel.

and later it is always fun to rewatch with all their different reactions to being in Virgil's room, the energy of that was on point. Thomas is such a great actor and the characters where just amazingly performed. plus it gave so much to talk adn think about, the idea of the rooms, lots lots of insight into the characters, foreshadowing, so much. it's just perfect i have nothing else to say.

#1 (for purely emotional reasons, ironically) My Negative Thinking

i think Accepting Anxiety is the best episode of the season objectively but my favorite is My Negative Thinking. because i love Virgil and Logan so much and seeing them argue together was and is great. the comfort.. i can't repeat that word enough throughout this post. it's such a soft video while not being overwhelming with Patton and Roman's outbursts. just quiet (mostly) and clear and with perfectly timed humour.

Logan my beloved.. learning spanish... helping me with my own anxiety.. and their debate was so good. and the fact that they were friends i- i can't. Virgil didn't think Logan liked him and Logan told him explicitly that he did and the casual softness of it i cant even. Logan is happy that he tried.. it's just marvelous. Virgil and Logan as best friends will always be my favorite pair, and their dynamic will always be what i strive for in any relationship i might form, with both sides silently comforting each other within their own limits and realistic perspectives. so nice.

- ★ -

so yeah. that's all. thank you if you read all the way up to here. ♡ ♡ ♡

#sanders sides #thomas sanders #logan sanders #virgil sanders #patton sanders #roman sanders

[annteasocial]

Nagi X Otaku!Fem!Reader

I’M. ALIVE. I managed to squeeze in a bit of time to finally writing this request for a follower. @sparklycupcake56 I’m so sorry this took so fricking long but I do hope you like it ;;. I might open requests for a tiny little bit next week.

Request: Can you please write a fluff scenario of the reader who is a cheerful and sweet as well as a huge fan of anime, manga, and video games and is also a fan of Nagi and she finds out there will be a meet and greet Idolish7 event there and she goes there. As she's waiting in line for Nagi, she's really excited and when it's her turn to go, she and Nagi greet each other and during their greeting, the reader talks about how much she loves anime, manga, and video games and how she's so happy that an idol is an anime fan and also talks about how much Idolish7 and Nagi's music means to her and how awesome Nagi is and then asks for a hug from him.

 Nagi X Otaku!Fem!Reader

      “MUM CAN YOU TURN ON THE TV FOR ME PLEASE?!”

      “(Y/N) don’t shout from your room!” Your mother scolded you, but turned on the TV anyways. You dashed into the living room and threw yourself onto the couch, buzzing with anticipation. Idolish7 had a live talk show streaming tonight and you were absolutely not missing it.

      Bright colours of the rainbow flashed onscreen and you tried to contain your excitement, squeezing one of the pillows next to you.

      “Good evening everyone, we are Idolish7!” The members chorused, causing sounds of delight to rise from the audience lucky enough to watch the show live. You watched as the members all introduced themselves one by one to any new viewers who had stumbled upon them.

      When it came to Nagi’s turn, you sighed happily, starstruck by his beauty and eccentric personality. Nagi was your favourite member ever since the group had been formed. Both of you shared a passion for anime, and his charming way of swooning fans had captured your heart as well.

      “We’re really happy to be here tonight! Thank you for all your love and support!” Riku sang as the fangirls screamed some more. “We also have a special announcement for all of you watching here and at home,” Sogo chimed in.

      You felt your heartbeat rapidly increase, drumming with impatience.

      “This weekend, Idolish7 will be having a Meet and Greet event with all you beautiful guys and ladies~!” Nagi finished the sentence, standing up dramatically and posing.

    You gasped and began to squeal and squeezed the life out of the pillow you were holding, out of sheer excitement and joy. “MUM THERE’S A MEET AND GREET WITH IDOLISH7 ON THE WEEKEND PLEASE CAN I GO?!” You shrieked, causing your mum to sigh in defeat. “You won’t let me hear the end of it if I don’t let you go. Just make sure to finish your homework,” she replied.

      You sprung off the couch to give your mum a big hug then rushed back down the corridor to go finish your homework.

      “And don’t run in the house!”

 ~~~

      The meet and greet with Idolish7 came around quickly and the anticipation and adrenaline had fuelled your motivation to study. You were standing in line to meet Nagi, holding your merchandise of him and smiling giddily to yourself as you waited.

      You could see that there were thousands of other fans bustling around the area, creating a festive rainbow of colour and happy chatter. The line was slowly but surely moving forward, and you could see the bright yellow tent that the staff on site had set up for the 19-year old idol.

      “I hope he likes what I’ve gotten him…” you clutched the gift that you had decided to get him for the Meet and Greet, which was a fairly large limited edition Magical Kokona doll. Hopefully he didn’t already have it, since you saved quite a bit of money to purchase it.

      It was almost your turn and you could already hear Nagi’s loud, spirited voice from outside of the tent. The last girl came out of the tent and the security guard allowed you inside.

      Nagi was sitting behind a table that was quickly piling up with gifts from fans, notably Magikona. You put on a large smile and walked up with your gift ready.

    “Oh! Thank you for coming here to see me today, my beautiful lady!” Nagi greeted you with exuberance, standing up from his chair with a grin. “It’s so nice to meet you Nagi-kun, I’ve been such a huge fan of you ever since I started following Idolish7!” You replied, trying to keep yourself from squealing and fangirling too hard.

      “Wow, you must have been one of our fans for a long time! May I ask your name?” He asked, reaching out to grab your hand. “A-ah…my name is (L/N) (Y/N),” you stammered with a blush. His hand was really warm, and he was giving you the smile of an angel. “I, um, also brought a gift for you today, hopefully you don’t own one of these already, but please accept it!”

      Nagi’s eyes widened as you placed the Magikona doll on the table in front of him, and a wide, silly smile slowly spread across his face. “This is a limited edition Kokona doll! I was going to get one, but they were sold out before I could,” he marvelled, still stunned from your generous gift.

      “I’m so glad you like it! I’m really happy that there is a member of Idolish7 who really likes anime! I’m such a huge otaku myself and I love watching anime and playing video games, so when I found out that you shared the same interests as me, well, you just became my favourite!” You giggled and continued to babble on about your hobbies.

      “Your music means so much to me as well, it really makes my day whenever I hear you sing since you have such a beautiful voice Nagi-kun.”

      “Oh thank you, (Y/N)-chan~!”

      The two of you continued to converse about your love for Magikona, video games and Japanese otaku culture, both of you becoming more passionate about your interests. “Miss, your time’s almost up,” the security guard on the inside of the tent said.

      “Um, before I go, I have a request for you, Nagi-kun,” you started, awkwardly fidgeting with your hands.

    “Yes? What is it?”

      “…May I have a hug?”

      Nagi looked surprised at first, but quickly relaxed. “Of course, it would be my honour to bless such a beautiful young lady like you with a hug!” You breathed a small sigh of relief as Nagi walked from behind the table to where you were standing.

      He happily wrapped his arms around you, spinning you around once before setting you back down. The hug was warm and bright, making you feel fluffy and comfortable on the inside.

      “Thank you so much! I promise that I will always support you and Idolish7!” You called out as the security guard ushered you out of the tent. You would treasure this moment in your heart for the rest of your life.

#idolish7 #rokuya nagi #nagi rokuya #x reader #fluff #scenario #mod ann #request

[katiewattsart]

29/10/19 : TEDDY BOYS. HAUL GIRLS. #1

What are they? 

Teddy Boy: (in the 1950s) a young man of a subculture characterised by a style of dress based on Edwardian fashion (typically with drainpipe trousers, bootlace tie, and hair slicked up in a quiff) and a liking for rock-and-roll music.

Haul Girl: A girl or women who makes a haul video.

The revolution will not be televised. 

The tv shows you what it wants to show you.

Television tells us what the people who run the TV stations want us to know. But social media today sometimes provides an alternative.

Subculture - Under/Beneath 

We are looking today at youth and subcultures… their historicity and their contexts, and where we are with what might be called subcultures and youth cultures today.

GUIDE TO THE CULTS

A genuine piece from the mirror in the 1980s.

Sex Pistols : This is one of the most infamous moments on television. Today it seems tame, but in 1976 this was enough to get the presenter fired.

Like Duchamp's 'ready mades' - manufactured objects which qualified as art because he chose to call them such, the most unremarkable and inappropriate items - a pin, a plastic clothes peg, a television component, a razor blade, a tampon - could be brought within the province of punk (un)fashion...

Dick Hebdige - Subculture: The Meaning of Style

Hebdige’s book has long been consider the authorative text on subculture.

In the book he discusses the ready made aesthetics of punk. Punk was the first reaction to the developing politics of Thatcher and Reagan… here a refusal to take part in business as normal led to music that sounded amateur and fresh… the opposite of the progressive rock that had dominated the mid 1970s and early 80′s. 

Vivienne Westwood

Objects borrowed from the most sordid of contexts found a place in punks' ensembles; lavatory chains were draped in graceful arcs across chests in plastic bin liners. Safety pins were taken out of their domestic 'utility' context and worn as gruesome ornaments through the cheek, ear or lip...fragments of school uniform (white bri-nylon shirts, school ties) were symbolically defiled (the shirts covered in graffiti, or fake blood; the ties left undone) and juxtaposed against leather drains or shocking pink mohair tops.

Jamie Red and others made zines that could be assembled in this same way, collaging and making work that felt it could have been made in the house, and often was.

Subcultures

Subcultures are tribal, bringing people together to form loose relations outside of the mainstream.

Different subcultures:

Even subcultures have subcultures… specific types of goth (steampunk, lolita) rude boys, K Pop sub genres, grunge punk rock etc

Once about a specific youth culture movement based around the disco music of the 1970s, clubbing subculture developed into rave culture in the late 80s and 90s, and has become a mainstream movement in the last few years. 

Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore, Mark Leckey, 1999

“Something as trite and throwaway and exploitative as a jeans manufacturer can be taken by a group of people and made into something totemic, and powerful, and life-affirming.”

Subcultures are about a sense of belonging, often to people who feel excluded or disenfranchised from the mainstream.

Cosplay - form of subculture 

The Joker and Harlequin are both characters who live for misrule, and both of them come from characters in the commedia dell’arte.

Harlequin relates directly to Harley Quinn… the Lord of Misrule was the peasant who was given the task of making sure that Xmas revellers got very drunk and very naughty.

The World Turned Upside Down

These characters link back to the ideas of the carnival, a time when the world was turned upside down. Christmas was initialy this kind of festival. People didn’t know if they would make it through the winter, so they made merry whilst they could. In the carnival Kings become Jokers, Jokers became kings. 

Carnival extracts all individuals from non-carnival life, non-carnival states and because there are no hierarchical positions during carnival, ideologies which manifest the mind of individuals cannot exist.

...And finally in a few relatively rare instances, we find an extreme form of revelry in which the participants play-act at being precisely the opposite of what they really are; men act as women, women as men, kings as beggars, servants as masters, acolytes as bishops. In such situations of true orgy, normal life is played in  all manners of sins such as incest, adultery, transvestitism, sacri- lege, and lese-majeste treated as the order of the day...

Edmund R. Leach, Rethinking Anthropology

In Rabelais and His World (1965), Mikhail Bakhtin likens the carnivalesque to the type of activity that often takes place in the carnivals of popular culture. In the carnival, according to Bakhtin, social hierarchies of everyday life—their etiquettes, and normal structures—are turned on their head.

Court jesters become kings, kings become beggars; opposites are mingled (fact and fantasy, heaven and hell).

Drag Cultures

Much in the same way that Madonna, undeniable icon though she is, in no way invented voguing, neither did the queens on RuPaul’s Drag Race invent the concept of "shade", "realness" or any of the other essential sayings liberally adopted wholesale by the internet. But what the show has done is continually provide a potted queer history. Whether it’s through highlighting ball culture, trans activism, gender fluidity, or queens like the legendary Lady Bunny; or simply by allowing the contestants to talk about their lived experience, the show has put an all too rare slice of gay and trans history in American (and the world’s) living rooms and laptops.

Drag Race has brought a subculture into the mainstream. It has brought secret languages into modern parlay.

From RuPaul raising a pair of opera glasses to say archly, “I can’t wait to see how this pans out”, to season four queen Latrice Royale’s “the shaaaaade of it all”, social media’s gif game has been vastly bolstered by nine seasons of this show. A gif reaction needs to encapsulate maximum emotion, drama, and appearance – and the queens on Drag Race have all three in spades. Tumblr couldn’t create gifs fast enough in the early seasons, and the joy of so many strong characters, and sound-bites, means that there is a reaction for absolutely every occasion. Season 6 winner Bianca Del Rio named one of her world tours after her own much-gif’d catchphrase, “Not today Satan”.

Memes and online culture have helped the show become part of the everyday.

Historically, "sissy" has been used as an insult against feminine-seeming men. Ru-Paul’s Drag Race not only reclaims the word – “now sissy that walk” is the phrase said at the top of each catwalk, usually preceding a demonstration of almost gob-smacking creativity – but shows that adopting a truly feminine character requires massive amounts of charisma and self-confidence. The show is wildly popular with women, not simply because of the incredible looks and transformations served by each queen, but because it is a celebration of feminine mystique in all its forms.

It has helped reclaim a sense of agency in an era of toxic masculinity.

The little show that could has turned into a global behemoth, with tours around the world each year, and an annual convention in Los Angeles. Last year, a second US convention launched in New York, while London hosted the first European edition, DragWorld UK, which saw a number of the show’s queens and RuPaul’s right-hand judge, Michelle Visage, holding court. And as fabulous, glamorous and downright funny as the queens are, the real joy came from seeing the response of teenagers to meeting their idols. RuPaul and Visage are giving hope to lost kids around the world, whatever their gender, ethnic background or sexuality. By sharing their stories, the Drag Race contestants are giving comfort and inspiration to viewers, as well as swathes of entertainment.

The show has brought disenfranchised, often hidden cultures into the open. And given people something that not only entertains, but also empowers.

The difference between Drag Race US and Drag Race UK summed up in one perfect tweet…

With RuPaul’s Drag Race UK finally airing on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, it’s got fans realising just how different the two editions of the show are… International fans were subjected to the colourful world of British slang and swear words, leaving dozens bemused about what exactly the UK queens are actually saying…. But in a viral tweet shared by one of the British queens, it’s managed to capture the crucial difference between the US and UK versions of Drag Race.

Sum Ting Wong shared a screenshot of a Facebook post that so beautifully sums up the two shows:

Pink News JOSH MILTON OCTOBER 8, 2019

Drag is culturally derived, and finds its forms based on local customs. In the UK drag has a relationship to Vaudeville and play, which means it does something different to the american show. It is less about the act of putting on a show, and more about the comedic, slightly catty relations that we have come to associate with saturday evening tv here in the UK.

But that doesn’t mean it is mean in itself… it still brings a subculture to a mainstream audience. Remember, if I talked about this with you in the 1990s, I would face prosecution under Section 28

"shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship".

New Subcultures

‘It's hard not to be struck by the sensation that, emos and metalheads aside, what you might call the 20th-century idea of a youth subculture is now just outmoded. The internet doesn't spawn mass movements, bonded together by a shared taste in music, fashion and ownership of subcultural capital: it spawns brief, microcosmic ones.

In fact, the closest thing to the old model of a subculture I've come across is Helena and the haul girls. Their videos are about conspicuous consumption: a public display of their good taste, carefully assembled with precise attention to detail. When you put it like that they sound remarkably like mods.’

Alexis Petridis 

Marie Antoinette, 2006 (Sofia Copolla) 

#gcop200

[talking-head-productions]

Post Perspective: The Flash Season 4 Finale

WARNING: SPOILERS!

Sometimes, not often enough, I review things on YouTube under this title (Post Perspective). But those videos take a stupidly long time to write notes for, record, and edit. So I’mma do this instead.

The Flash has been decently good for its entire run. I can’t say I’ve ever been super blown away by The Flash, unlike Legends of Tomorrow (Army of Thawnes, Beebo vs Mallus, and more). But of the finales, I think this might be my favorite.

The Flash has tended to have a bit of a problem where it’s penultimate episodes are not surpassed by the finale. In season 1, Flash Arrow and Firestorm all took on Thawne in episode 22. In Episode 23, they... have conversations with Thawne. There’s also a bit of time travel and a wormhole at the end, but much of that episode was about making the audience cry over Barry’s mom. 6.5/10 

In Season 2 episode 22, they fight Zoom’s army, Black Siren, and Zoom himself. Wally learns about Barry, and then Zoom murdered Henry! Episode 23 comes around... and they have a race in a giant loop-de-loop. The ending with Flashpoint had me excited for season 3, and Zoom becoming Black Flash was cool, but the episode was otherwise a huge “meh”. Especially since we’d just had an episode about Barry letting go of his trauma but now he decides, “screw it, I’m gonna save my mom”. 6/10, tops.

Season 3 was better. Episode 22 was awesome with Past!Snart, King Shark, and Team Flash’s apparent failure at the end. However, episode 23 was also awesome, with the reveal of H.R.’s sacrifice, then Black Flash’s appearance, then the incredible 3 vs 1 speedster battle, and finally the take-down of Savitar. All amazing. The very end is what brought it down, since there was no way they’d let Wally stay as Central City’s main speedster for... any length of time. So their try for an emotional “and now I mus go” scene with Barry fell flat. 7/10.

This season... I think breaks the curse by having episode 23 be a bit better than episode 22. The Flashtime use and Caitlyn’s new backstory kept me interested, and that hallway scene was fantastic beyond measure, but overall the episode felt like filler. The finale didn’t even acknowledge it in their recap. The finale itself, however...

Let’s start with the bad.

There were a few moments that took be out of my immersion- mostly having to do with Ralph, and how his powers were utilized/visualized. I love Ralph as a character, he’s fun and I really hope he sticks around. But his stretchy-ness just did not suit the seriousness of this episode. When he and Bary combo’ed it up, the sight of Ralph’s girly-scream-making face just made me laugh when I should’ve been cheering. The same with him turning into a cape during their escape, and his voice coming out of DeVoe’s mouth once Ralph took back control. Changing those moments would’ve helped out a lot. The first and thrid example I’m not sure how, but that escape would’ve been 10 times better if Ralph had stretched his legs to run alongside Barry like Plastic Man in the comics and cartoons (I know, I know, he’s Elongated Man, but come on).

The other thing that upset we was... they just killed DeVoe. Erasing his consciousness is the same thing as killing him. Barry had been telling Ralph all season that heroes don’t kill. And what’s his solution in the finale? “Ralph, overwrite DeVoe’s mind like some kind of virus. Just erase him.” No hesitation, no real discussion, no one really protests. It’s not OOC, but it does feel like a sudden switch that could’ve easily been avoided. Just have it be that someone else suggested it first, Barry protests, but then Marlize throws support behind it by saying that DeVoe, the man she married and loved, is dead already. All that’s left is a monster that deserves to be erased. Then have Ralph complete his character arc by being all, “I can do this, Rookie, I can be the hero!” And Barry accepts it then. Boom, perfect.

Okay, enough bad. Time for the awesome.

First, that opening with Captain Singh. So cool, purple sky and we get to see the perspective the average person has on these world-ending events. Very nice. (Question, did everyone with pacemakers die because of Kilg%re’s powers?)

After that, the iconic image of Barry in the Thinking Cap, I love it. I love Cecile’s temporary powers being used in such a smart way. I love how quickly the episode gets into the action.

That scene with Cisco and Harry had me legit tearing up, which is a big deal because usually only Steven Universe can get me to do that. Tom is such a great actor.

Ralph’s re-appearance had me fist-pumping pretty hard, just because we got to see him at least one more time. I was hoping the other metas would come back, too, but sadly no.

That bait and switch with Good!DeVoe was well done. I was expecting them to actually follow it through, especially after last season’s attempt to reform Savitar, but they totally subverted me. Well done.

I cannot express my sheer joy at seeing the Matrix Revolutions style fight between the DeVoe avatars and our heroes. apart from things mentioned above, those scenes were simply spectacular.

I also really like what was happening in the real world, seeing the growing desperation and their fear of when, not if, DeVoe would find them. (why were Barry and Ralph so sweaty and oiled inside his mind?)

And when DeVoe did find them, seeing papa bear Joe almost shoot the bastard was great. Seeing the bastard toss Joe aside and almost murder Cecile while she’s about to give birth was... just plain horrifying. But in the best way.

That moment where Barry stood up with lightning in his eyes felt very triumphant, if a bit off. Usually at that moment he would charge into battle and kick major ass, but there was no ass to be kicked.

There’s a bit of a lull after that, in which DeVoe becomes basically an AI for a few minutes. I’m hoping one of 2 things will come of that in later seasons: one, DeVoe uploaded a copy of himself to the internet before gloating to Team Flash, much like what Ultron did in his movie; or two, Marlize ripped out the hard drive and kept it, with plans to use DeVoe’s intelligence to further her goals in the future. If she did, she will likely lose control of him. Either way, DeVoe could then become a recurring villain, one with significantly less of a threat level.

That satellite scene has some BS going on with how all the debris comes down in a small area, causes very little destruction, and kills no one that we can see. Not at all accurate. Also, why didn’t Cisco just breach the whole satellite to someplace lest populated? Say, the vampire dimension? Good riddance to that place. Sigh. They never make proper use of Vibe’s powers.

But that supersonic punch scene was like two scoops of cookie dough flavor in a waffle cone with chocolate chips and syrup on top. Mmmh. Go Nora!

Speaking of, that ending party was fun before she arrived, but once she did things got... Bitchin’? (Troll-lol-lol-lol-lol...)

So excited for next season, expect a post on that at some point, too.

TL;DR: Flash season 4 finale was amazing because of DeVoe, Raplh, Matrix fights, Falcone Punches, and Nora. There were a few problems, but it was overall the best Flash finale yet. 8.7/10!

#the flash #arrowverse #the cw #the thinker #i'm thinking #nora west allen #ralph dibny

[whenyouworkatamuseum]

Museum Dance Off 5: The Last Dance

This is your official notice to start planning your Museum Dance Off 5: The Last Dance videos! 

As you might have surmised from the title of this year’s edition, this is the last planned Museum Dance Off competition. I am *amazed* at how much energy the museum community has put into this competition the last 5 years, and it’s a truly astounding journey to have taken. Everyone one of those videos has brought me pure joy. However, after Museum Dance Off 4, I received some really vitriolic attacks. I mean, I know the internet can be full of jabronis, but I liked that our corner of it was free from the trolls. Well, the trolls found us. They scared me. They took the joy right out of it. I actually didn’t plan to do another Dance Off because of this. (That’s all I’m going to say about it / please don’t ask.) 

But you guys, wow, you guys will not let Dance Off go! Some of you have already filmed your entries for this year! You email me every day asking when the deadlines will be! 

So, I decided to throw one last blast and go out on top. To have something for for 5 years on the internet is an amazing feat in and of itself, so let’s end this on a high note. Life today is different than it was five years ago. Jobs are different, families are different, everything in the world is different. MDO is a major time and financial commitment and the current model isn’t sustainable with current responsibilities and commitments. Depending on what happens over the course of this competition, our little judge’s committee is  considering new formats for next year that will still highlight our community, and still keep you dancing, but it will be a different animal than what we’ve done the last 5 years. 

Anyway. If you’ve ever wanted to enter, this is the time to do it. 

THE IMPORTANT STUFF: 

Entries must be submitted by 11:59 pm (EDT) on Monday March 26th, 2018.  (see below for more info on submitting your video).  Voting will begin on April Monday, April 16th. (More details on that later.)  

Like Museum Dance Off 4, the match-ups will be by Region, and regions will compete in different rounds until a Regional Champion is declared. The winners of the Regional rounds will go on to compete in the final Thunderdome Round.

Since this is an *International* Dance Off, we hope that these regional rounds will put people on more even footing in terms of time zones. Plus, each region will have a Champion Museum! It won’t eliminate time zone differences, but it should help greatly reduce the night and day peak voting differentials up until the Thunderdome Round.

In previous years, the bulk of our entries (about 80%) have come from the US and Canada, so we are dividing those into Eastern and Western Divisions (see below for definitions).  The Eastern and Western Division winners will compete against each other to become the Regional winner, who advances to the Thunderdome Round.

After the entry deadline, when we know how many museums we have and from where, we will announce the final voting schedule and notify the museums about when they will be up.

Same as last year, the Regions are:

United States (Eastern Division - States & Territories East of the Mississippi River. Western Division - States & Territories West of the Mississippi River)

Canada (Eastern Division - Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island. Western Division - Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, & All Territories)

UK/Western Europe

Asia

Australia, New Zealand & Oceania

Eastern Europe*

South America*

Africa*

Antarctica*

One winner from each of these regions will enter the Thunderdome finale!

*We’ve never had an entries from these regions before, but we’re really hoping this might be the year we do! If no one enters from these regions, they will be dropped. If only one museum enters in a division, it will be grouped into the division with the closest time zone. 

Entries are due by 11:59 pm (EDT) on Monday March 26th, 2018. Submit your entry here: http://bit.ly/MDO5EntryForm. 

Voting begins on Monday, April 16, 2018 at 8:00 am EDT.

Here are your general guidelines for submitting a video, and an FAQ for submitters/voters.

General Guidelines For Submitting A Museum Dance Off Video

Entries are due by 11:59 pm (EDT) on Monday March 26th, 2018. No exceptions!

Voting will begin on Voting will begin on Monday, April 16th. at 8:00 am EDT.

Any organization in the GLAM (Gallery, Library, Archive, Museum) family is welcome to enter. if your organization cares for artifacts and objects of scientific, cultural, historic or artistic value and importance, and you deal with the crap we complain about on this blog every day, you’re qualified to enter.

Entries should be no less than 2 minutes and no longer than 5 minutes.

Museum Dance Off is an inclusive event, so please select a soundtrack/song that does not contain gender, ethnic, religious or sexual/sexual identity slurs. We may reject entries if the songs contain offensive language. But we realize that can be somewhat subjective, so if you’re not sure, just email us and we’ll discuss it.

Staff, volunteers, docents, interns, family, friends and visitors are welcome to participate. Follow your organization’s internal policies for recording the public, or any person under the age of 18.

Museums who entered any previous Museum Dance Off are eligible to enter Museum Dance Off 5.

Upload your submission to YouTube or Vimeo. If those platforms are blocked in your country, please email us to work something out.

To enter, complete the Museum Dance Off 5 Entry Form at http://bit.ly/MDO5EntryForm. 

Community partnerships and collaborations to produce your video are welcome and encouraged, but you cannot hire a professional video production company to produce a video for you.

Museums that are part of a campus, cultural collective, system, or in the same city, state or province, may collaborate and submit one video to represent multiple museums.

FAQ

What is Museum Dance Off 5: The Last Dance?

It’s the fifth and final annual international dance off competition featuring the the upstanding professionals from museums, galleries, libraries and archives around the world showing off their best dance moves. Take a look here to see some of the AMAZING submissions from the Original Museum Dance Off 1,  Museum Dance Off 2: Electric Boogaloo,  Museum Dance Off 3: Tokyo Drift, and Museum Dance Off 4: A New Hope!  And watch the trailers for MDO2, MDO3, and MDO4! 

How Does Museum Dance Off 5 work?

You pick a song, and convince your interns, colleagues, volunteers, docents, friends, family and maybe even your visitors to dance to it. Somebody videotapes it, uploads it, submits the link and then we all vote online for our favorites. This year, museums will compete by Region, and the Regional winners will go to an international finale, The Thunderdome, to determine the overall Champion.  

Why should my museum enter Museum Dance Off?

Because it’s fun. Museums are fun. Dancing is fun. Dancing in a museum: instant super mega-fun.

It’s also a chance to show your guests a different side of their favorite museum, and rally your community to vote for you. From an internal perspective, it’s a chance for staff to take a break from the routine and do something fun, creative and different. From a PR perspective, it’s a chance to engage audiences all over the world. In the last three years, several museums received local, national, and international media coverage online, via television and radio, and in print.

How is the competition structured?

This year, Museums will compete against others in regions before advancing to a final Thunderdome Round to determine the winner.  That means instead of only 2 museums entering the Thunderdome, one winner from each Region will have a chance in the final round. Winners are determined by online voting.

What do we win?

Winner gets a trophy and bragging rights. There is glory, but no fortune. There will also be Judge’s Choice Awards in categories to be announced later.

My museum doesn’t have a lot of AV or filming equipment. Can we partner with another museum in our community who does have that stuff?Absolutely! Community collaborations are welcome and very highly encouraged. You could also consider partnering with a local school, college, or cultural organization to produce a video. But, you can also create something amazing with just a camera phone and open source editing software. A big production budget and fancy equipment is not a requirement for entry.

What does it cost to enter?

Nothing. This is a labor of love. There are no fees to enter or vote.

How will I know when my museum is up for voting?

When you enter, you will designate a contact person for your museum. We will email that person the schedule one week in advance of the voting during Round 1, and send ongoing updates throughout the competition.

What is no other museums from my region enter?

If there are no other entries in your division, you will be grouped into the Region that has the most similar time zone. We will contact you if that’s the case.

How do we let people know to vote for us?

Reach out to your visitors and use social media to spread the word. Your loyal, loving visitors will vote for you if you ask. This is a competition about making a great video, but it’s also about rallying your supporters, promoting your contribution to your community, and celebrating your awesome collection and staff.  Social Media promotion can make-or-break your chance at winning the round so make sure to make the most of it.

The official hashtag for Museum Dance Off 5 is #MDO5

Links to voting will be posted on the WYWAAM tumbler, Facebook, and Twitter every morning at 8am EDT.

How do I vote?

Visit http://whenyouworkatamuseum.com each weekday starting April 16 at 8am EDT and view that day’s videos. Please note that there is no voting on weekends.

Vote for your favorite video.

Encourage your friends to vote on Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook or whatever the kids are into these days using #MDO5

Winners will be announced the next morning along with a new round of videos to vote on!

What are the voting rules?

Anyone can vote, from anywhere in the world.

Voting for each pair will be open for 24 hours. All start and end times will be synced to the US Eastern Time Zone, because that’s where most of the Museum Dance Off organizers are based.

You can vote as many times as you wish. (We tried limiting it to one vote per person per day, and it’s simply not something we can enforce with our limited tech capabilities.)

Museums and individuals are allowed to encourage people to vote for their video by facebooking, tweeting, tumblring, emailing, etc. You don’t have to wait for your museum’s turn on deck; it’s fine to promote it early.

In event of a tie, voting will be opened for a special 2-hour window the next day to allow for a final voting push.

Does WYWAAM own my video?

Nope! It’s all yours. WYWAAM may take clips or screencaps for publicity and promotion, but the museum who created it retails all rights to it.

I am a reporter/journalist and I would like to talk to you more about Museum Dance Off.

Great! Email Maggie G. @ whenyouworkatamuseum at gmail dot com with the details and someone will get back to you.

My company would like to sponsor Museum Dance Off. How would that work?

We have several sponsorship options! Email Maggie G. @ whenyouworkatamuseum at gmail dot com.  

I have another question not answered here.

Email whenyouworkatamuseum at gmail dot com with your questions and someone will get back to you. We really, really hate Facebook messenger so please avoid using that, if possible. 

#museum dance off #museum dance off 5 #mdo5 #dance off #museums #f

[nightmareonfilmstreet]

Five So-Bad-They're-Good Horror Movies to Cure Your Post-Halloween Depression

New Post has been published on https://nofspodcast.com/five-bad-theyre-good-horror-movies-cure-post-halloween-depression/

Five So-Bad-They're-Good Horror Movies to Cure Your Post-Halloween Depression

It’s that time of year again, folks. Yes, that irrepressible sadness achieved by horror fans once Halloween comes to a close and all of the spooky fun has been had. Parties attended, candy collected, and now it’s time to go back to your boring, non-spooky existence.

Or is it?

Plenty of websites will give you lists of the best movies out there guaranteed to shock and horrify you. This list will not give you any of those. The following is a list of five horror films that might incite a different reaction in you. This list contains the best of the worst, the most unintentionally hilarious ‘horror’ films ever put to the silver screen. There’s always been something fascinating about movies that set out to scare and end up creating joy in their sheer ineptitude, and for some reason horror seems to be a genre full of these types of movies.

Bear in mind, however, that everyone’s taste is subjective, and what might be considered irredeemably awful to one moviegoer is god-tier cinema to another. None of the movies on this list are meant to offend anybody who likes them, and in fact, I encourage you to seek them out. Sometimes a good, old fashioned spooky laugh can be just what you need to cure the post-Halloween blues.

  5. The Wicker Man (2006)

A remake of what was once called “the Citizen Kane of horror films” is already a tough one to get right. No matter how much heart and soul you put into your final product, fans of the original are always going to come at you with their grievances with your remake. Despite this, sometimes you get a remake that not only seems to have been made by people who didn’t care about the original, but seems to have no regard for movies as a concept.

The Wicker Man is based on the 1976 film of the same name, which is most notable for having starred Christopher Lee, who often cited the part as his favorite of all of the roles he’d played. The original is beloved by critics and horror fans everywhere, coming in as number one on quite a few ‘best of’ horror lists. For those who love 70s British horror, its must-see.

It’s intriguing, then, that the remake has somewhat overshadowed the original due to its infamy. It’s hard to pin down exactly what makes this movie so enjoyably terrible. Maybe it’s the fact that Nicolas Cage seems to be constantly shouting; Maybe it’s the weird obsession that the movie seems to have with bees and honey; Maybe it’s the weird matriarchal cult that comes across just a tad bit sexist in hindsight. Whatever the reason, The Wicker Man remains a classic of so-bad-it’s-good horror.

Choice Quote: “How’d it get burned? HOW’D IT GET BURNED?”

  4. Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966)

Most who know about this movie know about it due to it’s being spotlighted in 1993 on Mystery Science Theater 3000. However, even without the commentary from the crew of the satellite of love, this movie is still one kicker of a beautifully bad movie.

What do you get when you combine a barely-experienced crew and actors, endless scenes of characters aimlessly driving around, polygamist Satanic cult members, and random insert scenes that have little-to-nothing to do with the plot? Well, you get Manos: The Hands of Fate, a 1966 minimal-budget horror film about a family on a vacation who encounter a cult. That’s really about all there is to it. The editing is poor, the acting is wooden. At one point a random pair of teenagers making out in a car and being caught by a police officer interrupts the plot, as if to say to the audience, “We realize there’s not much else interesting happening here, so here’s some eye candy while you wait for something to actually happen.”

According to Wikipedia, the whole thing started when director, producer, and star Harold P. Warren made a bet with a friend that it would be easy to make a horror movie. From that, we got Manos. Oh, and there are a few random scenes where the wives of the movie’s villain The Master get into catfights, seemingly for no reason other than the director wanted to show some women fighting. Take that as you will.

Choice Quote: “Enough! Enough of this stupid bickering! The child must die! If you persist in this foolishness, your usefulness will come to an end!”

  3. Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959)

Ed Wood is an interesting director for many reason. For more information about what an enigma that man was, check out Tim Burton’s 1994 biopic. But Wood’s 1959 science fiction-horror feature Plan 9 From Outer Space was cited by Seinfeld as one of the worst movies ever made, and continues to amuse to this day. In a deceptively simple plot, this early feature of the zombie genre (pre-Night of the Living Dead, even!) follows an alien invasion in which the alien’s main goal seems to be the reanimation of dead bodies. Thus, the deceased rise from their graves to pursue the living, referred to not as zombies, but as ‘ghouls’ by the characters.

One notable feature of the film is the fact that frequent collaborator and friend of Ed Wood, Bela Lugosi, has a part in the film. However, halfway through production, Lugosi tragically died, and in the meanwhile Wood brought in a stand-in to hold Lugosi’s place for the scenes with him that they hadn’t shot yet. This results in Lugosi’s stand-in (Tom Mason, by name) attempting to hide the fact that he was not, in fact, Bela Lugosi, by wearing a rather ridiculous-looking Dracula cape and holding it over half of his face. It’s as silly as it sounds.

In addition, the movie features some truly hilarious special effects, including a shot of a UFO flying over California that’s very obviously a paper plate, and a plot that seems to combine The Day the Earth Stood Still and White Zombie into one hilarious package.

Choice Quote: “And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future.”

  2. Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2010)

Birdemic is inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, but upon an initial viewing, the parallels fall flat when compared to the movie’s many technical faults. The atrocious CGI is overshadowed only by the wooden acting and the flat plot. The film follows a software salesman and his Victoria’s Secret model girlfriend who suddenly find their town under attack by killer birds that, get this… spit acid and explode into flames when they touch the ground.

If this doesn’t sound good enough for you, just look at those birds. No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. They don’t remotely blend with the background at all. It looks more like they’ve been merely copy-pasted into the frame than animated whatsoever. One has to watch them in motion to truly appreciate how awkward they move. It’s very obvious that they’ve not been rendered properly, and instead of the fluid motion traditionally associated with computer-generated effects, the bird’s wings flap jerkily, and spin around in a strange 360 degree motion. The movie has been compared to good-bad predecessors such as Plan 9 because of it’s strange and awkward tone, and in fact has been called “the best worst film [of] 2010.”

Choice Quote: “And many have died from starvation, due to the difficulty of finding enough food, such as seals.”

  1. Troll 2 (1990)

You’ve seen the clip on YouTube. A young man in glasses stares, horrified, while a fly crawls leisurely across his face. “They’re eating her…” he intones, ominously, “and then they’re going to eat me. Oh my GOOOOOOOOD!” But Troll 2 is more than just one viral video of bad acting. Dig a little deeper, and you’ll find yourself what I believe to be the best bad horror movie there is.

There’s a lot to dissect here. First of all, the name Troll 2 is misleading. The movie is not actually related in any way to the 1986 fantasy film Troll. The movie was actually an unrelated Italian film called Goblins, but when it was released in America, the studio thought it better to attach the film to a previously released property. Most of the conflict on the set came from most of the crew being Italian and not having a very firm grasp of the English language, and that includes the screenwriter, whose clunky dialogue is a staple of this film’s notoriety. According to many of the American actors in this movie, they offered many times to try to make the dialogue sound more natural and a little less like it’d just gotten run through Google Translate, but the director, Claudio Fragasso, shot that one down.

This movie contains many things, but nowhere among those things are any trolls. Yes, you heard me correctly. The movie called Troll 2 contains no actual trolls. The creatures seen above are referred to as goblins throughout the whole thing. The town they live in is even called Nilbog. (No prizes to those among you who can tell in two seconds what ‘Nilbog’ spells backwards. Seems these goblins learned their disguise tactics from Son of Dracula.)

And that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of this mess of a film, which also contains an erotic corn on the cob-eating scene. Yes, really. It must be seen to be believed.

  And that concludes the list! Hopefully those of you out there who like a more low-key Halloween got to enjoy some classics of the horror genre, but as a connoisseur of cult cinema, I felt as though it was necessary to spotlight some more unconventional Halloween favorites. So pop one or more of these into your DVD slot or look them up on Netflix, and be prepared to laugh. You might even forget that it’s November.

#birdemic #classic horror #cult cinema #cult films #ed wood #good bad movies #horror #horror-comedy #horrorfiend #horrorpodcast #manos the hands of fate #new horror #nicolas cage #nofs podcast #plan 9 from outer space #so bad it's good #the wicker man #troll #troll 2

[impatient14]

EMP Theory is Alive and Thriving

I want to preface this post with this: I am in no way trying to offend or upset the people who do not believe in EMP. This show can be read in so many ways, even by the people who agree on most things. I respect everyone’s opinion. This is just mine! 

So, with that said, I want to go through some things I noticed in The Six Thatchers that (to me) are Extended Mind Palace smoking guns. Let it be said that I have only watched the episode twice so there is definitely going to be more to add to this list. 

1.) The story about death in Sumara. It was mentioned multiple times, by multiple characters. Almost like they were all given the same script. And you may be like, well, yeah, they are actors in a show, but writers do not give actors the same brain. But it is like Sherlock, Mycroft, and Norbury all share a brain. They all bring up the story without any of the characters speaking to each other about the story first. Sherlock’s dialogue is a voice over, which is not time stamped. It is possible that Mycroft and Norbury brought up the story and then Sherlock used it in his monologue to the audience, but why did Mycroft and Norbury both think of the story? Because they share a brain. Sherlock’s brain.

2.)  As @tjlcisthenewsexy pointed out, the sharks, CAM, water, and the death story are also very telling. This post/thread sums it up far better than I could.

3.) Intuition, Premonition- these words were used to describe Sherlock’s feelings about The Six Thatchers case. Premonition is defined as a strong feeling that something is about to happen, especially something unpleasant. Sherlock is anticipating his death, and his intuition is telling him that Mary is involved. Its almost as if she is responsible for his murder in the first place…

4.) The odd transitions and reality breaks. The water imagery over Sherock’s face and in the background of certain scenes, Mycroft and his office busting just as the MT busts were doing throughout the episode, the overlay of a cracked bust on the side of Sherlock’s face. There is an argument for production style here, but its all so very over the top. Much more so than ususal for BBC’s Sherlock. Its almost like they want you to question what you are seeing…

5.) The Damn Skull. In case you can’t tell. Its glowing, almost like an x-ray. Like, an x-ray of someone who is currently laying in a hospital bed. Its fucking glowing guys. Adding onto the fact that it was blue in HLV, something is seriously wrong here.

6.) Mary and John sleeping on opposite sides of the bed from where they slept at the beginning of HLV.

7.) AJ doesn’t care about killing people enough to slit the throat of one of the Thatcher bust owners (unless it was really Mary who killed her), but doesnt shoot Sherlock when Sherlock tells him he is Mary’s friend and he will protect her. Um. Okay.

8.) Sherlock Holmes. His first and last name was said multiple times, by multiple people. Almost as if the entire world is centered around him. We hear his full name multiple times in his confrontation with AJ at the pool. “Who are you? Sherlock Holmes. Who is Sherlock Holmes? Not a policeman.” (This is a reference to ACD or canon Sherlock Holmes who is always described as “Not a policeman or vigilante, just a logical man with an eye for detective work.”) AJ’s “Goodbye Sherlock Holmes” is haunting me too, and not just because of the cheesy line. Where else have we heard someone say, “Goodbye Mr. Holmes”? (Honest question, I know its significant…help! EDIT TO ADD: A couple people have pointed out that this is what Irene texts Sherlock in ASiB. I do remember this, but it isn’t what I had in mind. I feel like I can hear someone say it…like in a threatening way the way AJ does…any takers?)

9.) “Sherlock the dragon slayer.” Mary says this to Sherlock after she gives him what looks like a wickedly smug smile. First of all, how the hell does Mary know Sherlock sees himself this way. When he and Mycroft had this conversation, she was in the middle of passing out in John’s arms. Unless she knows Sherlock sees himself this way because the conversation with Mycroft took place in Sherlock’s mind, just as this ones does. 

10.)”My Darling.” Mary begins her letter to John in the most old fashioned, cheesy way. Its not the way Mary Morstan talks…but it is the Mrs. John Watson talks- from TAB. “I don’t mind you going, my darling, I mind you leaving me behind.”

11.) Mary’s disguise on the plane was a joy to watch, but it reminded me of someone else. Sherlock. Sherlock loves disguises and theatrics. The vicar from ASiB and the french waiter from TEH spring to mind. 

12.) The number 6. Six months of bristly kisses. 6 months until SHerlock was to die in exile. 6 years that AJ was held in captivity. 6 Thatcher busts. A metaphorical 666 carved into the baby’s head. Highlighted 6 before giving us this:

The number 6 is important to Sherlock, but why?

13.) John’s blog. There should be multiple blog posts for us to read and yet, there aren’t. Its not that Joe is no longer available, bc they’ve told us he has a project for this series…why stop updating the blog? Because there have been no more cases and John is too busy sleeping by Sherlock’s hospital bed. oH, and The six Thatchers? Already a case Sherlock solved. Years ago.

14.) Scene in Georgia. The ambassador says, “I’ve got something they’d love if I could just get out of here” (Paraphrasing). The man asks what and the ambassador replies, “Amo.” She has love. Just like Sherlock has love and has figured it out and if he could just get the hell out of that coma, out of the damn hospital bed, he could give it to John- and John would love him in return.

15.) The two lengthy rapid deductions Sherlock makes are about Mary.

16.) The white papers of doom. There are three of them. Mary to Sherlock (drugged), Exx to John (temptation), and Molly to Sherlock from John (emotional distress). There was a white note of doom in TAB too. Miss me?

17.) John’s cheating story line. It fits in with TAB (see below), but I think its more complicated than just that. We get him texting someone Hey and them replying with the same.Then we get the night time text messages. They seem to be written between people who are at the beginning stages of their relationship, but are still intimate in some way. The Its been too long and Miss you implies they’ve spent time together, but the Night Owl? implies they don’t know each other very well. So, taken alone, this could definitely be from the bus woman. John then breaks it off with his This isn’t a good idea. I’m not free. Things wont end well. It was fun getting to know you a little. I’m sorry. Then the bus stop girl is waiting for him at the bus stop and he smiles at her and then looks guilty- the same look he had when he decided to keep the paper instead of throwing it away. This is what we see. HOWEVER there is more there. First, when John opens the paper to text Exx for the first time he does so horizontally, however, the image they show us has the number broken vertically, as if the paper were folded vertically and Exx isn’t broken up.

Then we’ve got Sherlock saying he deletes all messages from John that begin with the word “Hi”, then we see John text someone (E xx) with the word “Hey.” .The paper that the woman (E) gave John was already in her hand when she was sitting on the bus, she was fiddling with it when they made flirty eye-contact. She then wrote something on it before giving it to him, but the presence of the paper beforehand is suspicious. Almost as if she was planning to hand that exact paper to John anyway, before they even flirted. We’ve also got Sherlock telling John and Lestrade, very specifically, to take the bus home from the crime scene. Sherlock set John up. Why? Because that is the part he needs him to play. He needs John to feel guilty while Mary piles on the manipulative hero-worship and then dies in his arms. All of the text messages themselves are off. Almost like they are in code or written to different people. As if it is Sherlock writing for LiR, while channeling himself as well. 

18.) TAB. Basically the existence of TAB is the biggest smoking gun of all. Within that episode, Mofftiss established multiple things. 1.) Sherlock sometimes goes through lengthy mind palace scenarios (with the aid of drugs) to work out a case and we, as the viewer, could be subject to watching them. 2.) A bride fakes her own death with a big splat of blood and drama, then returns to kill her husband- who was cheating on her. 3.)Sherlock made a promise to someone about keeping their spouse safe, and that promise was broken. Lady Carmichael- “You promised! You promised you’d keep him safe!” John- “You made a vow!” Let it be said that Lady C was playing Sherlock there and that she wanted her husband dead all al- OH WAIT. Actually, we never get confirmation that it was Lady C that set up the whole thing. Sherlock makes that deduction, but then Moriarty shows up and ruins the reveal. Either way, its the same story line. Sherlock makes a promise to keep someone safe and fails. 4.) we have the text messages that Sherlock sends John and Mary at the end. Mary’s reads: The Curtain Rises.The Last Act.Its Not Over. John’s is just literal directions as to where to go. He didn’t tell Mary where to meet him. There could be an argument that this would imply that Mary was already in on some sort of plan to fake her death, but the exact same phrasing was used in TAB. 

19.) Mary’s video. A posthumous message that parallels Moriarty’s in many, many ways, which includes the phrase, Save John Watson. Where have we seen the phrase Save John Watson before? It was the answer to part of the skip code in TEH. John or James, indeed.

20.) “You’ve been having a reoccurring dream.” I feel like this might be an actual scene, just placed out of order. This scene might be from after Sherlock wakes up. He explains to her what he went through in his MP and she (as any therapist would do) interprets it as a dream. A reoccurring dream. That’s exactly what TAB and TST is. Its the same dream told differently. He goes to Ella after he has awoken and recovered and asks for her help in figuring out what to do with the emotions he has decided to acknowledge. (EDIT: This may actually be EMP too…read this.)

I think 20 is a good number to stop at. Im sure there will be more in the future. Please feel free to add on at your leisure. 

The most important thing to realize here is that Mary is the villain and Sherlock is figuring out how to best her, protect John, and stay alive at the same time AkA- The Final Problem. 

Tags:

@monikakrasnorada @isitandwonder @tjlcisthenewsexy @ebaeschnbliah @yan-yae @gosherlocked @the-7-percent-solution @longsnowsmoon5 @tendergingergirl @may-shepard @loveismyrevolution

#sherlock #emp #tst #tjlc #johnlock

[aurelliocheek]

Spitlings on Stadia

Developing our debut title – from prototype to online multiplayer.

Hey, hello! We’re celebrating the ­release of our first game Spitlings releasing on Stadia – let me take you on a brief journey to tell you all about how we got here.

But first – let me introduce ourselves: We’re Massive Miniteam, a small indie game company in Cologne. Together with Robert Schneider (code), Michael Koloch (creative director) and Tim Schroeder (code), I founded the company in late 2017. We’ve been surviving on a lot of contract work in AR/VR and app development for business clients while working on prototypes and pitching publishers. We started out in a small room we rented from TH ­Cologne at the Cologne Game Lab and then moved into the newly formed Cologne Game Haus (CGH) across from gamescom – together with a dozen other small game studios. The CGH was a great place to start out from, as it provided us with a lot of contacts and resources to pool from. It enabled us to arrive where we are today: in 2019 we were able to grow to 9 team members. We’re proud to say we’ve outgrown the space available to us and have moved into our own new offices at the start of 2020. ­Incidentally, we moved one day after having to turn our submission build over to the QA department at HandyGames. It was pretty chaotic.

When starting Massive Miniteam, we wanted to gain financial stability as soon as possible. This is why we took on a lot of contract work to establish an income. Luckily, our experience in AR, VR and app development coupled with a lot of networking and some lucky contacts provided us with a financial base to rely on and hire more people.

Frantic pace and close calls – Spitlings is best played with friends you’re not afraid to scream at (lovingly)!

Origin of Spitlings Spitlings started as a student game from our creative director Michael – he took inspiration from the minimalism of classic arcade games (specifically Pang) and made his own version of it: One screen, one stick and two buttons, single player and/or local co-op. The gameplay is hard to describe in words but immediately understood in videos and GIFs: You need to pop all the bouncy bubbles on the screen. To do this, you can spit up and down with your Spitling. Spitting down lets you jump, so you can gain some height, but watch out: you have limited spit! Gotta slurp it back up from the ground… yikes! When a bubble pops, it spawns two smaller bubbles – the rest is physics, special blocks and chaos. As is common with student games, Spitlings was buried in Michael’s prototype folder.

Three programmers, two artists, a producer, a project manager and a creative director put behind bars for criminal use of puns.

Enter the woes of game development: In May 2018, we were working on a different game which we had state funding for, but due to various complications it went nowhere fast and we were frustrated and a little lost about what to do. We decided to organize a pitch session where everyone at the company pitched the others, Michael dug out his old prototype and we thought “well this looks like something we could finish in three months” (Spoiler: We didn’t.) We split up into small groups and hacked away on various prototypes. This procedure is also why we call ourselves Massive Miniteam: development on a prototype (should) start with just two or three people and only after the first stretch is it brought to the rest of the team to help out.

In just six weeks, Michael and Robert banged out the co-op level editor, most of the gameplay features and a considerable amount of polish. Without a doubt, the ­level editor was the most important feature early on. It allowed us to quickly hop bet­ween playing the game and editing – We might change something around, move a few blocks and then, at the press of one button, jump back into the game to test out the changes. This allows for an extremely quick iteration cycle and enabled us to polish the levels to a tee. It was also ­extremely weird and funny to create levels in co-op together with other players! Creating levels was so fast, I challenged our intern at the time to create a hundred levels in a day in a ­design brainstorming exercise – and he did it! Of course, at such a pace you throw away most of what you create, but a few ideas coming out of it even made it into the final game!

The style of Spitlings was heavily inspired by 90s Nickelodeon Cartoons. Our creative director is a huge fan and both the arcade gameplay as well as the slightly disgusting implications of spitting fit really well into the mold of our inspirations like Ren & Stimpy, Invader Zim or Spongebob. When deciding on the art style, we knew that we had to work with shapes and flat colors because of two reasons: Firstly, we didn’t have the time or budget to do a lot of 2D sprites and animations, so most of the artwork leans heavily into graphic design, flat shapes and lots of colors. Our creative director Michael has years of experience as a freelance graphic designer so he took to it and created a unique look for Spitlings that underscores the bouncyness of the bubbles and the squishy feel of all the surfaces.

Secondly, the strict rules concerning the visuals allowed us to clearly position every tile of the game in one of three alignments: friend, foe and neutral. The simplicity works really well to communicate what is happening on screen as well – once you have four players playing together and popping bubbles at the same time, it helps to have a very clear color scheme to rely on.

Celebrating the INDIE PRIZE from devcom – this is when we decided to turn Spitlings into a full game!

After six weeks of prototyping, we exhibited Spitlings at devcom 2018 and had such a great time with the players – and there were even some publishers voicing their interest to publish right there on the show floor! It was already a blast for us anyway – and then on top of that we were lucky enough to win both the devcom ­Audience and Jury Award! Right afterwards at gamescom we met with a lot of publishers and got more positive feedback than we had hoped for – that’s when we knew we had something on our hands.

Development uncertainty So, at this point we knew we wanted to develop Spitlings, and we wanted to release on all consoles. We were fortunate to secure dev kits for all major consoles early enough to not run into any porting problems later on. One very big plus was being able to take the game on our switch test kit and let publishers play while pitching them. After a lot of meetings at gamescom, several publishers voiced their interest, but after mountains of emails none came through.

After a few months of working more contracts for clients, we had not yet secured any deal with a publisher. Self-publishing was staring us in the face and it didn’t look too promising. Every indie studio knows how hard it is to gain attention for a debut title – doubly so for a local co-op game!

Our biggest problem with Spitling has always been that it does not look like much at first glance. The joy of the game can’t be communicated with a still frame. Screenshots do nothing for the game, GIFs and videos are better but still leave a lot of people cold – we have to get people playing to get them interested. Once you start playing, the juicy game feel, the simple mechanics and the infinitely replayable levels will make it hard for you to let go of the controller.

Luckily, we met HandyGames at Ludicious in February 2019. They immediately saw the appeal of the game and voiced their interest in partnering up. All in all it took just two months for negotiating and signing the publishing contract with them. Suddenly, things started to move really quickly! This gave us a lot of security financially – on the one hand because Handy­Games financed the rest of development, but also because we knew they had the experience to put our game in front of as many players as possible. Plus, they’re really nice people.

A photo from our visit to HandyGames in Giebelstadt. We made our team shirts easily recognizable so you can find us at the next event you go to!

Speaking of experience, they told us right away that we wouldn’t be able to finish the game by May and instead set up a deadline for September. And of course they were right. As is common with games, we created the first 80 percent of the game in a few months – and then the second 80 percent took us over a year to finish. But to be fair, this was also due to the extended vision for the game the partnership allowed us to execute. We had always felt that the world of Spitlings could be fleshed out with a story mode and proper cutscenes, but we didn’t know how to find the time and budget to create them. Now we were all in. Our small game suddenly didn’t seem so small anymore. In hindsight, we would probably not spend six months working on a fully fledged comic for the cutscenes, including programming a camera system to navigate the panels, but hey – we’re very proud of it!

Getting on Stadia After successfully delivering the first milestones, HandyGames brought us the news about possibly launching on Stadia. We were elated! For our debut game to release on the new platform was a huge deal, so we were super motivated to work on it. However, we couldn’t talk about it. None of us had worked in AAA before, so it was totally new for us to have to keep something so big a secret for such a long time. Not being able to talk to anyone about the fact that we’re developing for Stadia was quite stressful!

But apart from this, developing for ­Stadia also meant we had to tackle the big monkey on our backs: online multiplayer. Everyone knows that local co-op titles have a very hard time gaining attention on the market, let alone selling many units. Yet programming a working online multiplayer is a huge effort, especially for a physics based game like Spitlings with a lot of projectiles and constantly changing environment, including collisions. And in our game, where everyone has to restart a level if someone touches a bubble, every frame counts! Constantly losing to the ping is no fun at all! Therefore, we had to rewrite the whole architecture of the game, including rewriting the whole physics system. Alongside our contract work, this took us several additional months to accomplish, but I’m happy to say we managed it well.

The first merchandise we made was just square stickers – simple and cheap, but quite effective!

Release Window When we first started on Spitlings, we deliberately set our goals really low: Three months development, push it out the door quickly. We always knew that there was more to the game than that, but we just didn’t think we’d have the time to fully develop it. So we’re happy about the fact that our publisher allowed us to turn Spitlings into the game we always wanted it to be. We created a whole world and story for the game, including over a hundred little creatures jumping through a world map and 200+ handcrafted levels. We made a 16 page comic and were able to pay our composer Juan (from Ludopium/Vectronom) to produce a fully-fledged original soundtrack for the game with 13 banging tracks! We’ve far exceeded what we set out to do with our first game and so the whole team is proud of the results.

At the moment, we’re extremely focused on the release on Stadia. There’s a lot of features on the platform that we still have to integrate into Spitlings and turn it into a really interesting game for streamers… As I type these words, we’re also moving into a new office, so you could say there’s a lot going on right now.

Until then, we’re looking forward to seeing people all over the world get their hands on Spitlings and discover that it’s the perfect game to have a quick round with friends because it’s so easy to pick up, but hard to put down. Or as we like to say: Once you spit – you never quit.

Milan Pingel Creative Producer

Milan is one of four founding members of Massive ­Miniteam. As is common in small teams, he wears many hats at work but focuses on Narrative, UX, Interaction Design and structuring the processes for the company. Milan got his Master of Arts at Cologne Game Lab.

The post Spitlings on Stadia appeared first on Making Games.

Spitlings on Stadia published first on https://leolarsonblog.tumblr.com/

[crowcawcus-blog]

Interview with Rob Crow, circa 2012

Crow says you need to be “a real music nerd” to appreciate Devfits: Devo in the style of the Misfits and vice-versa. When I hear he's playing a benefit for UCSD's Ché Café, I jump at the chance to witness this spectacle.

After scuttling about like any good roadie, setting up his equipment, Crow steps into a corner and wrestles on a suit constructed of duct tape, a creepy skin-toned mask, and thick geeky glasses while a film clip of his five-year-old son instructs the audience to buy lots of merch and tell everyone how well the show went, "even when it sucks."

He bursts out onto stage and takes hold of the mic, which is hopelessly tangled around its stand. After belting out his first lines, he brandished the offending machinery and commands, “Please undo this thing from here.” I grab it and unravel it awkwardly, nearly spearing him in the process. He nevertheless tells me, “Thank you very much,” and forges on.

I'm charmed by his manners, but moments later my opinion shifts when he charges his way through the audience, trailing the mic wire behind him heedlessly. Me and two other spectators barely squirm our way out of a firm trussing-up, and I twist my shoulder in the process.

Yet his performance is hauntingly beautiful, especially his rendition of the Misfits song “Hatebreeders.” (Devfits (Rob Crow) @ The Che Cafe on 01.07.12) The herd of UCSD students seems mostly bemused. Near the end of the set Crow tells us that he’s “been coming to the Ché since way before you were all born, and that's not hyperbole."

Crow steps back into the corner and removes the duct tape suit. I watch him chat with a few fans, and after they help him pack up and he's at liberty, I approach. He greets me with a handshake and another thank-you for detangling his mic. His sweet demeanor makes it easy to screw up the courage to ask if he'd consider an interview.

"Sure!" he agrees. "You know I do 'em all the time, for my podcast. Can it wait a few minutes, though?"

I assure him I'm not going to interrogate him tonight, that I meant to schedule for another time. He looks relieved, pulls some rolled-up t-shirts out of his bag and spreads them out on the merch table, scribbling in Sharpie that they’re available for at least a $10 donation to the Ché. Again I am impressed by his gentility.

I email to ask if I might pick his brain at his "Super Amazing Happy Funtime Night" at Bar Eleven. The poster for the event intrigues me; someone pasted his torso onto a horse's body. He looks natural as a centaur. "Sure!" comes the scarily succinct reply again. I hope the whole interview won't go this way of brevity.

I sip a Monkey Paw Sweet Georgia Brown Ale while he painstakingly plots the trajectory of his projector. Then he upends a bag of 99-cent store toys: 20-piece puzzles, bubble wands, foam airplanes, barrels o' monkeys, and paint-by-numbers on all the bartops and booths. I grab bubbles. Then, again, he retreats to the corner and pulls on... a gorilla suit. Only then does he visibly relax, stationing himself in between the turntable and the bar. The smirking bartender, Justin Bess, hands Crow a beer. I start with what I hope is an innocuous question: why the gorilla suit? 

“’cause I hate thinking about what to wear,” he states matter-of-factly. I blink, at a loss. He adds that often he wears it around the house and forgets to remove it between home and the recording studio.

He downs a draught, then pauses and looks at his cell phone. “My Words are piling up,” he laughs, showing the screen with a long list of Words With Friends requests.

He busies himself in switching vinyl – so far I've heard King Crimson, Metamatics, Nomeansno, The Locust, Dead Ghosts, Electric Light Orchestra, and Neil Young. Does he remember the first album he bought?

"The soundtrack to Over the Edge, a phenomenal movie," he answers immediately. "It's the truest movie about the seventies I've ever seen. Cameron Crowe called it the greatest soundtrack ever. And I spent a lot of money on The Ramones and Cheap Trick."

A glance at the stream of videos on one screen informs me that "Your Masonic friend thinks very highly of you! You should be proud!"

"Where do you find this shit?" slips out of my mouth before I think about it. He chuckles: "I delve."

I inquire as to when he realized his voice is such a beautiful instrument.

“When I was a kid, I always thought I was gonna be a guitar player. The first band I was in [Heavy Vegetable], we didn’t know who would sing, so we’d take turns. I remember we’d go into the bathroom, which we thought would have an awesome reverb effect – which it didn’t -- and sing into this machine, and there was this giant boa constrictor living in the bathtub –"

I can’t help but interrupt. A boa constrictor?

“Yup," he affirms without elaboration, and rattles on: "And I’m standing over the toilet, all wrapped in this snake, with a drink in one hand and a mike in the other, trying to sing this dumb song – everyone liked it. And I thought, ‘Oh, okay.’”

He notes, in fact, that he likes his singing voice but despises his speaking voice as “super-annoying.” I respond that his speaking voice is very pleasing and radio-friendly on his podcast.

“That’s super-edited,” he replies. I shoot him a doubtful look. “Well, I’m being hyperbolic,” he admits.

A Western saloon-fight with dogs as cowboys starts up on the screen, and I remember that Crow said in an interview with popmatters.com (Contrary Opinions) that he does not like dogs.

In the same interview he says he dislikes the Beatles, confessing that “It’s also just really fun to tell people that you hate the Beatles and watch them flip out.” I wonder, therefore, if he’s merely being "hyperbolic" to be provocative. I mean, who doesn’t like dogs unless mauled when young? Does he really hate dogs?

“Ummm, nah," he says vaguely, distracted by a stubborn wrapper on a velvet paint-by-numbers set. "Well, it just depends,” he hems.

He seems disinclined to explain what makes a dog odious or not, so I switch gears. On the cover of his newest solo album, He Thinks He’s People, one of his signature illustrations shows a stick-figure in the doghouse under a starry sky with two feeding bowls labeled “calzones” and “Speedway Stout.” Is Speedway Stout his favorite local brew? “Pretty much. But it’s not something I could drink twenty of in a night.”

I ask, does he get his calzones from Etna’s?

“Noooo, no Etna’s,” he intones firmly. “Luigi’s. Not Pizzeria Luigi’s, who does have the best pizza in San Diego, but Luigi’s At the Beach, in Mission Beach… I’m from New Jersey; I know my calzones. Every year my family and Pushead’s meet to go there.” My eyebrows shoot up, and he pauses to gauge my reaction. “You know who that is?”

I nod. Pushead is a fixture in the heavy metal and punk scene. I best know him for his grotesquely gorgeous Metallica album art which features skulls, twisted body parts, and lots of fire and ooze and gore, beautifully rendered, a stark contract to Crow’s signature stick-figure art.

I mention off-hand that the San Diego Reader called his cover art 'crass.' His eyes flash and his heretofore soft voice increases an octave. “You know, I’ve never NOT been misquoted in those two magazines [the Reader and the San Diego City Beat]."

The white stick figure upon a black background is Pinback’s little unassuming avatar. After a show at the Belly Up I had watched Crow dutifully draw dozens of the unique pictures on tickets, stolen set-lists, and whatever else fans brought up to him. I ask him now, why a stick figure?

“Early in Pinback’s career, we wanted to do everything ourselves,” including album art. He pauses, meditatively, then surges on: “I feel the stick figure represents the Everyman, with all its foibles or alienation or loneliness… it means a lot to me in its sameness. It’s zeroing in on the darkest parts of mortality."

I in no way expected such a profound, introspective reply, and before I feel I’ve grasped it, he continues: “I think art’s pure escapism. It shouldn’t be the purpose of art to really express joy. I mean, through art one should know what true happiness is; but once you know the real states – this whole life-deathy thing we’re in – it becomes this mobius strip…” He trails off and laughs shortly.

“I’ve been in a mid-life crisis since I was 18… manaically depressed. I don’t want to call it a perpetual e-motion-al machine, because that’s just horrible –“ I stop him to demur, because I love wordplay. He shakes his head and continues:

“But to not be able to enjoy the best parts of life because it’s all worthless… worthless!... there’s no hindsight in death – even wasting your time feeling shitty about it is just a waste of the time you have left but you STILL don’t feel great – it’s endless feedback.”

I think of the song “Scalped” from his album. Crow’s plaintive, prophetic voice cants, “I suggest you don’t waste your time... /Don’t kneel to the alter.” When I first read this line, I thought “alter” as opposed to “altar” was merely a [sic] in his handwritten lyrics, but now I think he punned on purpose, implying one shouldn’t live in a constant off/on, binary state. When happy, be happy: don’t dwell upon sadness, or impending mortality. And conversely, if sad, then address it and embrace it, as Crow does with his music.

Then again, maybe he’s just a weak speller. But given his penchant for Words With Friends, that’s improbable.

Does he mind that his solo album wrapper boasts a sticker declaring it "The new album by one-half of Pinback!"? He blinks; it's news to him.

"Does it?... No, I don't mind. What I DO mind is when they call me the Pinback 'Frontman.' It's 100% a collaboration." [with Zach Smith] I ask if he attended Torrey Pines with Smith.

"Errrrr, I got kicked out of all the schools in Oceanside," he states somberly.

Crow's buddy Tony Gidlund, who has listened to my questions with half-lidded and somewhat suspicious eyes, mutters something to Crow, who notes they might not make it. I look at him quizzically. “In-N-Out," Crow explains. "We always try to hit it before they close.” I ask him what he gets, because every late-night fast-food aficionado I know ritualizes what they order, especially after a solid drinking bout of the sort he put in tonight. “Grilled cheese with onions” is the reply.

“Are you vegetarian?” I venture. “Yup! I used to be vegan, but I couldn’t keep it up – It’s awesome, though. I recommend it.”

“But I love eggs,” I frown, “and besides, the chickens GIVE us the eggs, don’t they?"

He looks thoughtfully at his beer and says, “You’re very close to a Woody Allen monologue right now.”

He seems wont to self-effacing mannerisms. His 2007 solo album Living Well features a song called “I Hate You, Rob Crow." He flips off his own reflection in a recent video, “Sophistructure” (a perfect slice of his hypnotic mesh of visual and sonic). And he introduces his podcast, "Rob Crow's Incongruous Show," by styling himself "San Diego's Foremost Overrated Indie-rock Manchild!"

Meaning to explore this theme of self-flagellation, I instead blurt that I think he’s brilliant. Incredulous, he leans over asks me to repeat myself, then utters a short ironic bark of disbelief. “What?! Look at me! I’m in a monkey suit playing with dinosaurs!”

When I mention this to my pub-mate on the right, she nods sagely and says, “He doesn’t revel in himself. He’s an artist but not... pretentious. He’s a creative genius. I mean—“ she breaks off and gestures at one of the screens, currently occupied by a band of skeletal warriors from Jason and the Argonauts who, eerily, are shimmying to the death metal music in perfect time.

As he's packing up, he mentions that today was technically his one day off. "I should've spent it with my mother," he says, mostly to himself. I ask him how his wife feels about his late-night solo projects, and he says that as long as her vampire shows have recorded correctly, she is content.

I ask him if he liked having the last name ‘Crow’ growing up. “No, I didn’t enjoy it especially.” I tell him I really like crows, and instead of giving me the odd look most normal folks do, he says, “The other day there were 43 crows in my yard.” He counted them? “Yup. But when I went to get the camera and they flew away.” Typical Crow behavior.

[djrelentless]

“What A Difference A Year Makes...Things I Learned In 2011″

December 19, 2011 at 6:30am

It's been an interesting year. 2011 has definitely had some high points balanced by their lows. I have been extremely blessed with opportunities. I've been crowned twice this year, but only one of those titles seems to mean anything. I finished a year's run of my own variety show. In that year's time, I offered Church Street an alternative in entertainment. I brought in guest from out of town and some hidden talents that have been in Toronto all along. I accomplished one of my long term goals by releasing an album on iTunes. I ended a few relationships while hopefully securing some life long friends along the way. I learned to hold my tongue and when to speak up. I traveled back to my birth place and learned that I made the right decision to leave. I learned that patience does pay off. And most of all, I learned what type of man I have grown into.

First, I'd like to thank all of the people who did not see my vision as a drag performer or as a DJ. In the long run, you did me a favor. You opened the door and let me run free. Thank you again. You inspired me to work harder and seek other avenues to pursue my dreams. I am a very loyal person and it is hard for me to let go. So, when someone slams a door in my face it really motivates me. Like a good chess game, I concentrate heavily on my next move.

Back in August for my birthday, I did something that I thought I would never have the opportunity to do. I recorded my first live album. "An Intimate Evening With Jade Elektra"at Statlers would not have been possible without Michael James MacDonell, Donavon LeNabat, Jamie Bird, Jennifer Walls, Ryan G. Hinds & Marcy Rogers. It was a great evening and I truly felt that something magical happened that night. I proved to myself that I could still do a live show. After years of struggling to be heard in New York City, it has been great to actually have the opportunities that have presented themselves in Toronto.

With the help of Vjuan Allure, DJ Fierce Tease, Chip Chop Gonzales and Brian Finch, I posted a video for my song, "H-I-Vogue" on YouTube. All which would not have been possible without the art of my husband, John Allan.  And speaking of my husband andBrian Finch...my YouTube show, JADED would not have been possible. The many hours of filming and editing that went into creating was one of my most rewarding efforts since I have been in Toronto.

Also this year, I signed with Weapon Of The Revolution Management. My chance meeting with Cee Swagger proved to have been heaven sent. She has not only been a driving force behind helping me get my name out there, but she has also been a good friend. I look forward to working with her in 2012 to continue the brand that is Jade Elektra and DJ Relentless.

Two people who have helped me continue branding myself are Brian Finch ofPositiveLite.com and  Corey Wesley of UrbanFlrt.com. By giving me the platform to write about the things that I love and music in general, they have let me expand my horizons as a writer and also has been a good friends as well.

I'd also like to take this time to thank Michael Ramawad and Paras Prashad at Crews & Tangos. It's been a rough year at times but so far they have stuck by me when others have not. I can only hope that they are pleased in their decision to give me a chance to create and entertain.

As for the relationships that have changed, evolved or ended, I learned more than ever that communication is key. Make sure that everyone is on the same page so that when it comes time in the script for everyone to do their part they are aware and ready. I learned to focus on what I would like to happen and not what I don't. I learned that not everyone has the same work ethic as I do. I learned that the New York City pace that has been a part of my life for 17 years might be intimidating or too much for others who have not experienced it. But I never ask of anyone what I would not ask of myself. For those who have tried to get over on me or used me, I feel sorry for you. Anyone who truly knows me knows that if you needed something and I was able to provide it, I would gladly give it to you if asked. You didn't have to lie or try to cheat me out of my talent or services for a few dollars.

There are those who can only see as far as their hands can reach. And there are those who see way beyond the world around them. I always try to be the latter. I try to only speak of what I know and listen so I can learn what I don't. And although I get frustrated with small visions, I have learned that I should not try to lead folks where they don't want to go. Everyone has their own journey...so, let them go where they need to go to get their own lessons.

Unfortunately one of my goals was to donate my "H-I-Vogue" track to an organization as a fundraiser this year. I would have never believed that goal would not be fulfilled. Apparently, either the organizations turned out to be more talk than action or they felt that my direct and uncompromising approach in my lyrics were to stigmatizing to be associated with their brand or group. Others simply just dragged their feet or turned out not to be a non-profit organization to begin with. So, I have decided that I will work on releasing the track myself and donate the money to an organization of my choosing. It was very disheartening to get a message from one organization that they wanted me to change my lyrics. In a way, I sort of felt that it was almost racial because I wrote a bitch track that would speak to the urban gay youth. How dare they tell me how to speak to my own people. The message and language used was never intended for a mainstream audience (if they understood it and got, great!). And it has always been my belief that the candy-coated messages that most gay organizations send out are lost in the shuffle of our short attention spanned youth. I must thank Verlia Stephens again for having the courage to debut the song on her radio show onWorld AIDS Day last year on December 1, 2010. And I most definitely have to thank Bill ofPride Showcase at Q.Nation FM for including the track this year on World AIDS Day. And thank you to all who shared and posted the video on facebook and other sites. I don't have the platform that some have to speak from, but I will do my best to get the message out there!

I was also blessed this year to have been in the presence of historical people. Becoming friends with Michelle DuBarry, Bryan Greenwood, James Pawley, Robert Constanzo,Karl Xtravaganza and  John Rait allowed me to learn about the history of Toronto andNew York City. Through talking with them or reading their posts I have been able to piece together a patchwork of timelines in both cities. I always appreciate learning from people who were there. Amazing stories and important history which should be keep alive and passed on.

And lastly but not least....I have to speak about the man who has stood by me through thick and thin this year. The man who has witnessed my tears and joys. The man who I know has my back one hundred percent. The one and only, John Richard Allan. I don't think that anyone has taken the time to really get to know me like my husband has. And whether we are rushing out to a performance for Jade or just laying around watching cartoons, I am comforted when I feel his hand holding mine. So, when I feel like the world is beating up on me or folks just don't get what I am trying to do or say, I know that I am loved. I have someone who is waiting for with open arms and ready to listen. I love this man more than I could ever tell him. I must have done something really good to deserve such a wonderful human being. Thank you, my love.