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local-pr1nter · 9 months

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The Diamond Brothers 💎

The infamous Diamond brothers, gotta love them.

(mentions of animal passing, a little angsty)

There's a four year age gap between them, which would make Daiya 22 when Mondo was 18. Daiya was only 4 when Mondo was born.

Their living situation isn't implied to be the best - no mention of their father and little talk of their mother.

But onto the general and wholesome headcanons!

Their dynamic is typical sibling behavior- teasing, bullying, yelling, and then acting as if nothing happened and being best buds again.

Before Mondo got big, Daiya would usually rough-house with him, eventually trapping him in a headlock or dangling him by his feet. Now that he's big, Daiya hasn't rough-housed with him in a hot minute - he's a bit intimidated of Mondo's larger structure compared to his.

Before high school, they would both typically play a variety of video games around their city - mostly around arcades. Their favorites were shooters, old-school side scrollers, and DDR. They aren't good by any means, but they still have fun.

Daiya has the highest score between the two of them on "POSSESSION" by Tag Underground (correct me if I'm wrong)

Daiya is a casual theater nerd whilst Mondo is the Theater Kid™. Daiya was the one who got him into that sort of thing once he showed him Grease. It just evolved from there, prompting relentless teasing from Daiya.

They're both really good singers - nothing professional of course, but they're nice to listen to. While Mondo has a smooth, deep voice, Daiya's voice is similar to Leorio Paladiknight from HxH. Idk it just seems fitting. Puberty kicked them in the gut.

They like going to small restaurants around town - the smaller the better. They once found a hidden sushi place and had the best meal they've had in ages.

Speaking of food - Daiya is the designated chef between the two of them. Mondo tried cooking once. Let's just say Daiya will never eat garlic again.

Once Daiya pulled off a heist to steal a live lobster from a sushi place cause he was bored. That became his pet that he spoils for no reason. Big ass tank and everything. Mondo thinks it's the dumbest thing ever.

"Dude female lobsters can live up to fifty years."

"Good she gets everything in my will."

They both adore the fuck out of Chuck. Whenever Chuck isn't following around Mondo, he seeks out the older brother to ask for treats he shouldn't get.

"But he's such a good boy!"

"Those treats are making him fat!"

"Awww good fatso!"

*incoherent scream from Mondo*

But they both adore the fuck out of that dog.

When Chuck passed, Mondo shut down completely. Daiya saved Chuck's collar before retrieving his ashes for Mondo to keep. While continuing to grieve, Mondo would find Daiya and just...hug him. Daiya wouldn't bother to move him so they sometimes fell asleep like that. It definitely helped both of them to cope.

With the gang, their sibling behavior doesn't stop.

They're very competitive and tend to have competitions. Chugging, push-ups, other endurance contests, and of course, racing.

When Daiya was retiring, he planned to keep riding, but only as a way of transportation.

And during their race, Daiya got hit in such a way that his leg was permanently paralyzed. Mondo's never felt so guilty, thinking he almost killed him.

Daiya is just happy it was him and not Mondo. It was all worth it after Mondo took charge of the gang, resulting in his invite to Hopes Peak.

Daiya has never been prouder.

While Mondo is still sensitive about the accident, Daiya does his best to joke about it as a way of coping and to try and comfort Mondo.

They continued to speak on-call as Mondo went through Hopes Peak. Daiya continued to tease him about his friends, either teasing Mondo directly or making off-hand comments.

"So how old is Yasuhiro again?"

"Wha-?"

"He's really cute.."

"What-?! Daiya don't even think about it-!"

"Is he single?"

So on and so forth.

But overall they have that typical sibling dynamic. Lots of teasing and fighting, but at the end of the day they still love each other and wouldn't have any other brothers.

Unless it's Takemichi.

Takemichi is their unofficial younger brother.

#danganronpa #danganronpa v1 trigger happy havoc #mondo oowada #danganronpa headcanons #danganronpa mondo #headcanons #mondo owada #trigger happy havoc #danganronpa fandom #daiya oowada #daiya owada #crazy diamond #diamond #brotherly love #brother #platonic love #platonic #siblings #danganronpa au

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loststarphounix · 2 months

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ooooh

what if Gundham was hit with the Despair Disease? and his disease was the Remembering Disease and remembers everything that happened before, from the world-ending tragedy, to remembering his true beloved (Kazuichi)

Actually, aside from the Despair Disease, that’s actually the concept I had for A Remnant Trace, Nevermore (TW VERY dark themes in the story, please be advised) but I do love the idea of Gundham or Kazuichi having the Despair Disease! This time, lets make it a lot less dark and a bit more sad 😈

line break cause long post

First, Mikan would either need a new disease, getting the common cold so she’s stuck in quarantine with the others, or just not have a disease all together. Either way, with her not getting it, Gundham contracts the Remebering Disease, being one of the first to contract DD. And for funnies, let switch up the sick too - replace Hiyoko with Ibuki and Hajime with Nagito. So those with the disease are: Hiyoko, Akane and Hajime, with Fuyuhiko thrown in cause with not 😂

Hiyoko has same Disease Ibuki had, Akane’s stays the same, Hajime has the Lying Disease and Fuyuhiko has a brand new disease! I’m calling it the Damsel Disease! He feels compelled to be in situations where he’ll always be saved; no matter how dangerous or convoluted to the point it was obviously planned, he must be rescued.

So it’s only Nagito, Sonia, Chiaki, Ibuki, Nekomaru, Kazuichi and Mikan the only healthy ones. Gundham, with the Remembering Disease, happens on Day 2 and he hides it extremely well! Since he’s a theater kid and a goth, of course he has shit tons of makeup and foundation! That pale pallor isn’t completely natural after all. And since his body usually runs colder than the average human (this man is anemic send help), his fever isn’t completely obvious. When he awakes on the Motives Second Day with all their memories of Hope’s Peak, he immediately goes in search of Kazuichi.

He’s so overwhelmed by the memories, that it his Devas an embarrassingly long time to get him back to virtual reality. It doesn’t take him long to come to the obvious conclusion that he won’t be believed and called mentally unstable at best, or believed and cause unnecessary chaos and ensuring Junko’s victory at worse. He has to walk to very fine line, but his need to be close to Kazuichi now that he knows what they meant to each other means he has to play this cool.

Sadly, Gundham can’t really play cool. He almost completely ruins it during breakfast when he automatically seeks and sits at Kazuichi’s table. The mechanic is suspicious and butthurt since the day before they finally came to a head about The Sonia Situation ™️ and Ibuki is trying to cheer him up now that both his bros and big sis are sick. He thought the breeder was coming over to rub the whole situation in his face, but feels shame because he somehow knows the other would never do that. How even knows that, he can’t say but it feels right.

And so the two are just staring at Gundham, wondering what he’s doing siting with them and Gundham is starting to sweat bullets because how can he explain this behavior that’ll sound believable. He’s saved from his massive faux pas when Chiaki and Sonia join them, announcing they’ve decided to become a couple before this disease gets to them. And yeah, it hurts Kazuichi a bit, but he’s genuinely happy for Chiaki. And he apologizes to both Sonia and Gundham, which is met with very little fanfare from the former and acceptance for his apology from the later.

When they split up for the day, Gundham almost steps in it again when he instinctively heads out with Kazuichi. But he covers it by stating that he knew the mechanic was making some sort of communication device and will guard against any nefarious actions. And while he’s a little freaked out about the sudden shift in behavior, Kazuichi tries to shrug it off and reluctantly lets the other follow him around. But he’s super anxious because he thinks he’s going to get killed by the breeder because why else would he start following him around?

Meanwhile, Gundham is fighting inner turmoil: Watching Kazuichi work again brings nostalgic energy flowing through the goth. He remembers the long hours of them just each other’s company - Kazuichi working on some project or another while talking to Gundham about plans for dates or friend outings. It makes him long for the other to smile at him; to excitedly present a mini toy car he made just for his Dark Devas to traverse the realm without their Overlord’s assistance. He wants that intimacy again and he finds himself asking stilted questions.

At first, he tries to make it seem as though he’s ensuring Kazuichi is doing exactly what he told them, to then being curious to the steps and parts. Kazuichi, not really being used to people outside of other mechanics being interested in this kind of stuff, is immediately suspicious again - to the point he blurts out he knows the breeder is going to try and kill him. He immediately feels bad when Gundham looks genuinely distraught over the assumption but doesn’t back down, pointing out how just the other day the goth proclaimed he’d rather die than be Kazuichi’s presence willingly.

Now Gundham is faced with an impossible hurdle: does he confess what he knows and be seen a mad prophet fallen by illness as tragic as Delphi? Not mention being confined and unable to protect those he cares for from this accursed world. Or he says nothing, making the other believe the worst of him and create a bigger rift between him and his Sun?

He is saved once again by the universe, when a sick Fuyuhiko runs past, somehow escaping from the hospital. Kazuichi runs after him, determined to keep his friend from harm and the breeder follows. They find Fuyuhiko trying desperately to climb up the motel stairs in hopes of jumping off the highest floor. At one point, Kazuichi almost had him, but the blond eludes him and makes it to the top and does a running leap into the air. Kazuichi screams, tears streaming down his face and Fuyuhiko is caught by Gundham who was still on the ground.

A sick Fuyuhiko is profusely thanking the breeder as the others come onto the scene. They get the blond off the goth and Sonia and Mikan manhandles him back to the hospital. Fuyuhiko makes an off handed comment about Gundham being much warmer than he thought, but it’s dismissed. Kazuichi waits until, the girls are gone to berate the other boy about doing something so stupid. But he does thank him for saving his sick friend and apologizes for assuming he’d try to kill him. Kazuichi figures that, if he wanted, he could’ve let the yakuza heir die and push Kazuichi over the railing too.

Gundham wonders if fate is being fickle or cruel, but he’ll take it. He uses this as a way to get the mechanic to get to spend with him - which he does after finishing the two way communication devices and making sure it was set up. They both find an easy camaraderie, with Gundham using his memories to his advantage and making the other more comfortable with him. What he didn’t know, though, was that Kazuichi kinda found him attractive already but he was trying to make the attraction focus on Sonia which failed lol. So he’s actually more open to the breeder now that she’s not available and they aren’t playing rivals.

They hang out all day and when the night time announcement comes on, they’re a little surprised that it was that late. When they part for the night, Gundham makes sure Kazuichi enters his hotel room safely before going around and ensuring everyone was accounted for inside before going in.

The next day, better progress. Ibuki is a little down because Mikan is spending more time at the hospital, but it’s only a minor thing. She understands why. Kazuichi is more welcoming to him at breakfast than yesterday and they both stick together after they’re recruited forcibly dragged over to help with their sick friends. At some point, they get separated and Gundham is confronted by one of the others (Hajime maybe) and they corner him and basically tell him they know he’s sick and want in on his obvious plan to murder Kazuichi.

Disgusted, Gundham leave them, but he can’t help now noticed how Kazuichi is still a little weary towards him. Little does he know that after Gundham stormed off, they encounter Kazuichi and basically said the same thing, but added how the other seemed to be recruiting people. Kazuichi thinks it’s bullshit, but he can’t help the space he puts between them afterwards.

Gundham comsiders telling Kazuichi the truth, the he remembers everything, but can’t find the right time to do so. Something always comes up and if he’s honest, he kinda likes being the only one with vital information. He knows their tells and can keep them a lot more safe. Also, a little part of him uses his regained knowledge to win back Kazuichi. It’s immoral he knows, but he doesn’t completely see it as wrong when the mechanic genuinely smiles up at him, or holds his hand for a millisecond when he’s excited, or calls him that ridiculous nickname “Gummy Bear”.

It’s selfish he knows, but he feels entitled to the selfishness. Even though as a Remnant he has done many unspeakable acts, does that mean he doesn’t deserve this little slice of heaven when it presents itself?

So he continues to stay silent, being vigilant while also drawing out the mechanic’s hidden attraction for him. And for a split moment, he lets himself forget what was happening around them. Why he was able to remember….

The announcement blaring throughout the island shocks him as does the knowledge of a double murder occurring seemingly the same time. Ibuki and Hiyoko, both slain in the Titty Typhoon. And Mikan had done it. It comes to light during the trial, that Mikan never meant to kill Ibuki - she had in fact was developing a crush on the musician. But Ibuki overstepped; did something that triggered the nurse’s past trauma and when she came to, Ibuki was dead. Hiyoko had witnessed it, but since she had the Obedience Disease, Mikan easily made her kill herself.

Now they were down three friends and Gundham feels immense guilt because he thinks he could’ve prevented all of this by being honest. And Kazuichi and Sonia assume that their unfortunate situation has finally made the breeder crack under pressure and they try to reassure him. He still keeps his secret to himself, even after the fever is gone he still retains the memories, but only very vivid and specific ones. He still tries to use them to keep them all safe.

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autisticredhood · 2 years

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he is SO dramatic and fruity. peak theater kid behavior right here

akrham knight #7

#thank god hes back i was suffering thru those 2 issues w/o him #arkham knight #my very correct ak!jason era

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swoodthis · 2 months

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im just sayin tho ur out here almost 30 yrs old making fun of kids online for attention + using being aroace as a shield. im aroace too... it's a bitch out here but ur still doing peak mean girl behavior and ur making the rest of us look bad too by using that as an excuse. grow up. stop bullying kids online bc u think their fic is bad. do what the rest of us do and get over it and keep scrolling.

PEAK MEAN GIRL BEHAVIOR WHAT XD

You— I— What?!

Are dramatic readings of things like My Immortal bullying?! Is Mystery Science Theater 3000 or Rifftrax bullying?! DID YOU SEE MY INNER LIFE THAT WAS A NIGHTMARE—

Also who said anything about using being aroace as a shield…? I made a remark about growing up having the Twilight books shoved in my face…?

Wait… so… why are you coming into my messages to tell me I must be terrible if the proper reaction to seeing something you don’t like is to keep scrolling?

I just… dude. What. Why are you…? Idk…

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anarchyassembly-moved · 2 years

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a quick guide to my muses, so you know what they’re good for as far as dynamics go:

eddie munson, well you know who he is. a metalhead and a loyal friend. you can pry his dnd books from his cold, dead hands. thinks the satanic panic shit is awesome. loves listening to and creating music. he has a good ear for music too, considering he memorized metallica’s master of puppets in three fucking weeks. he’s a loyal friend and, while he prefers fleeing to fighting, would go to bat for any of them. good for threads with: drug deals, conversations about ‘nerd’ things, anything to do with music common themes: mockery of catholic beliefs, loyalty among friends, over eccentric behavior, being feared despite never throwing a punch

reefer rick is probably the lowest key drug dealer you’ll ever meet, despite his nickname. he grew up in an average, middle class family and promptly rejected all of it the minute he was able to, falling deep into the world of drugs and rock and roll by the time he was seventeen. he’s a good guy, despite appearing to be a burnout, and works really hard. he’s also extremely loyal, considering he didn’t rat on anyone when he was busted for drugs and went to jail peacefully. good for threads with: drug deals, talks about drugs, the theater he works at, chatter about movies common themes: stoner vibes, laying low, lazy attitudes, friendly big brother vibes

birdie monroe is the best friend you can have, mostly because she doesn’t have many friends to begin with. a twinless twin, birdie lost her sister at a young age and because of that has developed attachment issues - and issues with differentiating the different kinds of love people can both give and receive. she falls in love quick, and often with the worst people. be it straight girls, or boys with a longer list of problems than a kid at christmas, she’s always in deep with someone she shouldn’t be. good for threads with: conversations about emotions, ‘she’s the new girl’, library woes, anything to do with hiking, camping, or animals, and late night swims common themes: soft and sweet, gullible, overshares, a surprisingly wicked sense of humor

oli hale is that guy we all knew in high school, you know the one. rich, popular, getting whatever he wants whenever he wants... you know, the one who peaked in high school and crashed soon after. that’s him. these days, he’s a painter and sometimes a construction worker. he’s totally disowned from his family, but that’s fine by him because he didn’t like them anyway. he only still lives in hawkins out of spite - because its funny to see them pretend not to see him when they bump into each other in public. good for threads with: (borderline, or not) violence, late night gas station runs, ‘theres a random dude sleeping on that park bench and its 4pm’ common themes: bad boy vibes, burn out vibes, likes to pick fights, indifferent to most people, kinda hot but also kind of an asshole

#mun » ooc #to help people choose for things..

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filmzeneration · 2 years

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Minions: The Rise of Gru’ Looks to Illuminate July 4 Box Office With $70 Million Debut

Tiny yellow henchmen will attempt to spark fireworks at the box office over the July 4 weekend.

“Minions: The Rise of Gru,” the fifth installment in Universal and Illumination’s popular “Despicable Me” franchise, is headed for a first-place finish, with the family film expected to bring in $65 million to $75 million from 4,400 North American theaters during the extended holiday period. Though it’s the only new nationwide release, “Minions” will have to fend off holdover titles including Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis,” “Jurassic World: Dominion,” “Top Gun: Maverick” and Pixar’s “Lightyear.”

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The well-reviewed “Minions: The Rise of Gru” looks to test the viability of kid-friendly animated flicks on the big screen. Family audiences are huge drivers in box office revenues and therefore key to the movie theater industry’s revival. But as the box office has attempted to rebound from COVID-19, movies that cater to younger crowds have been a mixed bag in terms of ticket sales. Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” beat forecasts in April, debuting to $72 million over President’s Day weekend, but Disney’s less-embraced “Lightyear” fell short of expectations, launching with $51 million. These days, it can be tricky to predict the movies that’ll entice parents and their kids.

With any luck, “Minions” will score a bigger opening weekend than “Sonic 2” and “Lightyear.” But according to current projections, the newest goofy comedy about mischievous yellow critters is on pace to score the series’ lowest debut since 2010’s “Despicable Me” ignited the franchise with $56 million. After becoming a word-of-mouth hit, the first “Despicable Me” film ended its box office run with a strong $543 million globally. The saga of Gru and the gang reached a high with 2015’s spinoff “Minions,” which opened to $115 million and later crossed the billion-dollar mark. In and around that time, 2013’s “Despicable Me 2” pulled in $84 million in its debut and 2017’s threequel “Despicable Me 3” collected $72.4 million to start. Those films grossed $970 million and $1 billion, respectively. Those receipts indicate that even if “The Rise of Gru” gets off to a slower start compared to its predecessors, the film could keep playing in theaters to sizable crowds throughout the summer.

Pixar veteran Kyle Balda directed “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” which takes place in the 1970s as a young Gru (the baddie-turned-daddy from “Despicable Me,” voiced by Steve Carell) tries to test the waters of supervillain life. It goes awry at first, but Gru eventually finds his crew of scoundrels. C’mon, what did you expect for a guy whose first name is Felonious? Taraji P. Henson, Michelle Yeoh, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Julie Andrews round out the voice cast.

Variety’s Peter Debruge called the film a “delightfully silly sequel,” adding that Illumination delivers “another feel-good dose of bad behavior.” Debruge’s fellow film critics were mixed on “Minions 2,” which holds a 68% on Rotten Tomatoes, though reviews rarely matter for kids’ movies.

“Minions: The Rise of Gru” began its rollout at the international box office over the weekend, generating $3.7 million in Australia. The film opens in 61 additional markets in the coming days. The single-eyed creatures are especially popular overseas, where the first “Minions” spinoff generated a staggering $823 million — 71% of overall ticket sales.

Minions: The Rise Of Gru Review: Illumination’s Big Banana Is Officially Rotten Animated franchises sometimes have rather wild trajectories – especially when you take into account how long it takes to make a movie in a series like Despicable Me. One year’s hot property in family cinema can be another’s abysmal failure, and the time from one point to another depends on where your franchise peaks. Arguably, 2012’s Despicable Me 2 seems to be that summit for Gru and his pals, as the slow monetary descent started with 2015’s Minions and continued with 2017’s Despicable Me 3. If Minions: The Rise of Gru is any indication, just based on the movie alone, then Illumination’s big box office banana is officially rotten.

Shifting into the soulful ‘70s, this second spinoff picture in the franchise sees Kevin, Stuart, and formerly King Bob (Pierre Coffin) firmly buddied up with young super-villain in training Gru (Steve Carell). As the team had assembled at the end of the first film, Minions 2 sees the mini-boss trying to land his dream gig as a member of the supervillain team, the Vicious 6.

Headed by new leader Belle Bottom (Taraji P. Henson), the group laughs off Gru’s application, which naturally sends him on his despicable way. While it’s a natural point to launch this story from, what results is a nearly 90-minute movie that feels longer, more chaotic, and less charming than any other installment in the Despicable Me canon.

The latest Minions installment squanders every opportunity to be a decent movie, and there are plenty. The Minions were one of those cadres of sidekicks that were better off playing second fiddle to a lead like Gru. Yet Minions was still a pretty decent series starter. Just enough characters were added so that Kevin, Stuart, and Bob could expand their schtick, while the movie also maintained another story that could entertain the non-Minion enthralled audiences.

Minions: The Rise of Gru really does try to use that formula to amp up its bigger, louder sequel, but it fails in more ways than one. Apparently three central Minions weren’t enough, as the awkward Otto (Pierre Coffin) is now a fourth Minion with a name and a quest. Audiences are now treated to two separate Minion storylines, on top of the Vicious 6/Gru story that plays out. A lot more characters are expected to be doing things in Minions latest chapter, and they definitely do. But few of the angles can be considered a story worth following.

Perhaps the one and only prospect that would have made sense is the mentorship between Gru and recently ousted Vicious 6 leader Wild Knuckles (Alan Arkin). Showcasing the sweetness that Despicable Me’s protagonist would lose and regain in his own adventures, those moments simply come out looking the best when sifting through everything else Minions: The Rise of Gru has to offer.

Keep in mind, this is a movie that packs its cast with the likes of Lucy Lawless, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, Danny Trejo, Michelle Yeoh, and Dame Julie Andrews. Yet for as talented as this cast is, barely any time is spent with most of those names mentioned, and you’ll probably be disappointed to learn that such a killer roster isn’t given enough time to be recognized in this mess.

This is a movie that wants to be a Despicable Me sequel, but isn’t allowed to be due to the branding power of Minions. Looking at the title itself, Minions: The Rise of Gru calls out its major problem before anyone even sees the movie: not all Minions fans want to see Gru’s story, and vice versa. At least in the Despicable Me trilogy you could expect both would be balanced, with Gru and his daughters maintaining prominence. The same cannot be said with Minions 2, as the result is so scattershot nobody gets what they want.

Now that the Minions have met Gru, you’d think that maybe Despicable Me: The Rise of Gru would have made more sense. After seeing the movie itself, I think that’s exactly what was intended from the beginning, as there’s tons of easter eggs and in-jokes with characters from the main series in the franchise appearing as younger incarnations. Three figures in particular appear throughout Minions: The Rise of Gru, standing out as moments that jab you in your side as if to say, “Remember them?”

Were this to unfold as Gru’s story, there would have been room for Minion mayhem to slide into the background and give everyone a movie that would have felt like an easier fit. That was never going to happen though, as it seems the marketability of the Minions was meant to mash some more bananas at the box office. Succumbing to the hold that these Facebook friendly fiends have, the returns that began to diminish after Despicable Me 2 plummet pretty far and pretty fast here.

Minions: The Rise of Gru was never going to win this franchise any new fans; but this may be the first entry to actively annoy loyal ones. Animated franchises tend to be critic-proof, as all the parents are hoping for with something like Minions: The Rise of Gru is something to entertain their children. But it appears that the well of ideas has finally run dry, as some jokes can only last so long, and the gibberish laden, PG-nudity filled antics of these yellow cretins can only entertain for so long.

While his name is in the title, Gru feels like an afterthought in his own saga, despite being the one character whose plot has the most laughs. That running total, the last I checked, was three. Outside of that, Minions: The Rise of Gru is a slog that tests the borders of franchise fatigue, bawdy family humor, and above all else, patience.

Whether you're looking for a movie focused on the Minions, or a story that centers itself around Gru, you’re going to get neither here. A tug of war of competing stories and “characters” is what winds up on the screen with Minions: The Rise of Gru. The resulting casualties are prime needle drops, a stellar cast that could have shone brighter, and a franchise that could see its next installment crushed before it has a chance to begin. Then again, these are the Minions; and they find a way of surviving when you least expect it.

#Minions: The Rise of Gru

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edwardbonnets · 2 years

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ed & stede + being dramatic ass theater kids

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route22ny · 3 years

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With Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations spiking around the country, dreams of a summer like those many us had in mind just a short time ago have faded.

The fully vaccinated have been told to resume wearing masks indoors. Companies and institutions are leveling vaccine mandates. And some municipalities are requiring people to show proof of vaccination to get into restaurants, bars, and gyms.

Confusion abounds about what is safe to do. (For the unvaccinated, there’s no confusion about what’s most important to do: Get immunized.)

To try to cut through the fog, STAT contacted three dozen epidemiologists, immunologists, and other infectious disease experts around the country to see how they are navigating the risk of Covid in these uncertain times. Twenty-eight responded.

STAT didn’t ask these experts to explain how they would advise others. Rather, we asked them to answer 10 questions — saying yes, no or only if masked — about their own willingness to engage in various activities, assuming they were vaccinated.

Their answers suggest that, with the highly transmissible Delta variant spreading, caution prevails. Those who know viruses best aren’t buying many movie tickets, and most aren’t eating indoors in restaurants.

But in other ways, responses diverged. And at least one expert suggested that geography really does matter when it comes to his own comfort level. Naor Bar-Zeev, a statistical epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, declined to respond to all but one of the questions, saying answers are highly dependent on the circumstances of a place.

“In a place where most people are unvaccinated, or otherwise at high risk, and where there is active transmission, I should act more conservatively and with greater caution, even though I am protected from disease,” he said. “In a place where most people are vaccinated, and there is low transmission, one can be more permissive.”

Let’s unpack their answers.

Of the questions, only one earned a unanimous response: “Would you send your unvaccinated child to school without a mask?”

“Lord, no,” Paul Offit, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, replied. “NO!!! As a parent and a pediatrician, that is a terrible idea,” wrote Andrew Pavia, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Utah.

None of 27 people who answered this question expressed a willingness to send an unvaccinated child to school without a mask. Carlos del Rio, a professor of epidemiology and global health at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, said he’d withdraw an unvaccinated child from a school if it didn’t have a mask mandate.

Children under the age of 12 cannot yet be vaccinated as none of the vaccines has been authorized for use in this age group.

The other school-related question — “Would you send your vaccinated teen to school without a mask?” — drew almost as fervent a response, with 24 of 26 saying no.

Ellen Foxman, an immunologist at Yale University, was one of the exceptions. “Yes, if the high school had a high vaccination rate/low Covid transmission rate and my family had no high-risk personal contacts,” she wrote. “If the school required all students and staff to be vaccinated, I would have no problem whatsoever with no masks.”

Pavia gave a nuanced answer for his support for masks for vaccinated teens. “If the vaccinated kids don’t mask, the unvaccinated are unlikely to mask and there is a risk of bullying. Masks for all is much more likely to work,” he wrote.

Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, said he not only wouldn’t allow a vaccinated teen to go to school without a mask, he’d demand the teen wear an N-95 respirator. Cloth face coverings aren’t enough to combat Delta, he insisted.

Shane Crotty, an immunologist at La Jolla Institute of Immunology, said he’d send teenagers to school with masks, but would be okay with them taking them off around friends outside of school or during an outdoor lunch break.

When the experts were asked whether they would eat indoors at a restaurant, responses were slightly more mixed. More than half of respondents said no, but six said they would, or would in off-peak hours, and three more said they would do it but would wear a mask when they weren’t eating.

Saad Omer, director of Yale’s Institute for Global Health, said he would eat indoors in a restaurant that required customers to show proof of vaccination. “I generally feel safe indoors in a restaurant as long as underlying community transmission is low and I’m eating with other vaccinated people,” wrote John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital. “However, I always prioritize eating outside where possible.”

That approach no longer seems viable to Syra Madad, senior director for the special pathogens program in the NYC Health + Hospitals network. “More than 95% of Americans live in areas of high or substantial community transmission so it’s no longer a matter of ‘Yes, I’ll eat indoors if I’m in an area of low community transmission,’” she wrote.

It seems like we’re over DIY hair — or so the answers to the question of whether the experts would go to a hairdresser or a barber shop would suggest.

All but four respondents said they would go to a hair salon or barber at this point even if they didn’t know the vaccination status of other clients. And even one of the four more cautious respondents allowed that she might consider it. “No, but if we are all far apart and there are few people I might with a mask,” said Krutika Kuppalli, an infectious disease physician at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Most people who said yes did so with the caveat that they’d wear a mask. Jesse Goodman, a professor of medicine at Georgetown University, said he would go only if he and everyone else in the place was masked. Akiko Iwasaki, a Yale University immunologist, said she would try to reduce the frequency of visits. But Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the division of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, was in favor of professional hair care in general.

“I know how careful my hairdresser has been,” Marrazzo wrote. “She also needs financial support; my hair also needs it.”

Would the experts go to the theater to see a film? Seventeen said no.

“Non-essential,” said Shweta Bansal, whose Georgetown University laboratory studies how social behavior affects infectious disease transmission.

Florian Krammer, an immunologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in Manhattan, believes most people who are fully vaccinated are well protected at this point. He would go to see a movie wearing a mask.

Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, has a different view on Covid risks than some of the other people STAT polled. He (and others) believe Covid is going to become endemic — we’re going to have to learn to live with it. For fully vaccinated people, Adalja said, the risks even from contracting Covid are pretty low.

“That fact makes me comfortable as a fully vaccinated individual without underlying health problems to resume my pre-pandemic life because I am risk-tolerant and I know that if I am to get a breakthrough infection it is likely to be mild,” he said. Adalja said yes to all but two of STAT’s questions; he would not send an unvaccinated child to school without a mask and would not currently give a second dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

William Hanage, an epidemiologist in Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said he’d happily skip going to the movies, but his wife enjoys going. So he would go, wearing a mask.

There was almost an even split among the experts to the question of whether they would attend a large outdoor concert or sporting event, with a slight edge going to the “yes” side. Most of the 15 people said they’d do it if masked.

Robert Wachter, the chair of the University of California, San Francisco’s department of medicine, said he’d don a mask “if shouting people [were] at very close range.” Jason Salemi, an epidemiologist at the University of South Florida, said he “would not attend a large outdoor concert right now,” stressing the amount of Covid transmission in his state at the moment.

Move a mass gathering indoors and the answers shift. In response to the question of whether they would go to an indoor wedding or other religious service — one where they did not know the vaccination status of the other attendees — more of the experts said no.

Saskia Popescu, an infectious disease specialist and assistant professor in George Mason University’s biodefense program, for instance, would go to an outdoor concert or sporting event, masked. Even with a mask, she would not attend an indoor wedding or religious ceremony.

Emergency physician Uché Blackstock, founder and CEO of the consulting firm Advancing Health Equity, said she’d forgo indoor and outdoor large gatherings at this point.

We asked two questions about travel: “Would you travel to a part of the United States experiencing a surge in Covid cases?” and “Would you go on a non-essential international trip?” Surprisingly, there was slightly more willingness in the group to travel internationally than to domestic Covid hot spots.

In response to the former, Peter Hotez was succinct. “I’m living it,” said the Hotez, co-director of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development, based in Houston-swamped Covid-19.

Del Rio, who lives in Atlanta, goes frequently to Miami to visit his son and his son’s family. “I am very careful when I travel,” he said. Since the pandemic began he has twice visited his mother in Mexico, “but at this point I am not going. May go later in the year,” he wrote.

Carl Bergstrom, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Washington, said he wouldn’t travel abroad now. Not because of Covid directly, but because he might get stuck somewhere if travel restrictions were instituted. Hanage and his family vacationed on Cape Cod this year instead of taking a planned trip to Iceland, for the same reason.

Nahid Bhadelia, director of Boston University’s Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases Policy & Research, said she would not travel to an American Covid hot zone if she could avoid it, but would travel internationally, if her destination had a high vaccination rate and a low transmission rate.

Angela Rasmussen, a coronavirus virologist at the University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization, said she would travel to a location in the U.S. having an upswing in Covid transmission, but would do it using precautions. As for international travel, “depends where, but masked,” she said.

Our final question was for the physicians in the group was this: “Would you recommend that patients who received the one-dose J&J vaccine get another dose of vaccine?”

Crotty, the immunologist at La Jolla Institute of Immunology, said yes; he tweeted recently about his support for giving J&J recipients an extra dose of vaccine to cope with the Delta variant. “I have had physicians emailing me thanks about my [Twitter] threads on this,” he said.

Megan Ranney, an emergency physician at Lifespan Health System in Providence, R.I., said she’s waiting for guidance from the Food and Drug Administration. “But in the meantime, I certainly wouldn’t judge anyone who does get another dose.”

And Helen Keipp Talbot, a vaccine researcher at Vanderbilt University, pleaded the Fifth. Talbot is a member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advises the CDC on vaccination policy. “No comment,” was her reply.

***

About the Author: Helen Branswell

Senior Writer, Infectious Disease

Helen covers issues broadly related to infectious diseases, including outbreaks, preparedness, research, and vaccine development.

@HelenBranswell

***

source: https://www.statnews.com/2021/08/17/whats-safe-to-do-during-summers-covid-surge-stat-asked-public-health-experts-about-their-own-plans/

#life during covid #infectious diseases #vax up #coronavirus pandemic #covid-19

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ask-the-jazz-age-trio · 3 years

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which one of you is the cuddliest and who sleeps in the middle 👀💕

(Mod Lore: Ah! Yes! My heart! I love this!)

When Lithuania sat between the two at the theater to watch a horror movie. He knew America would be clingibg to him the entire night, he certainly didn’t mind, far from it really. What he didn’t plan for was Romano doing much the same thing. Both men cried and clung to him as the movie went on, and he found himself soothing and rubbing both their backs to keep them calm. He tried not to be too obvious, as both men would be too prideful to admit they were scared, which admittedly Lithuania found endearing.

Romano hadn’t been cuddled to Lithuania the whole movie like America, However it was a distinct moment, the first betrayal where Romano reached and grabbed Lithuania’s hand. Lithuania pretended not to notice at first, but after some time began to move his thumb reassuringly across Romano’s hand. Romano only peaked at him, but didn’t pull away.

The three left the theater putting on strong faces, America bragging and Romano acting like it didn’t phase him. Once everyone got home and changed for bed, that was when things changed for both of their behavior. Lithuania already knew to meet America in his room after a scary movie, he liked having the comfort, though tonight there was a twist.

Lithuania stood at the edge of the bed, ready to turn off the light on the night table when Romano entered. He held an extra pillow in his hands and wore stripped pajamas fitting for the era, his expression looked pouty yet determined.

Romano stepped up to the side of the bed where Lithuania was and pulled up the blankets, he looked America in the eyes “move over” as he climbed in, “I’m not doing this because I’m scared or anything, that movie wasn’t scary at all! You got that?” Romano curled up next to America on the right side, asserting himself as little spoon, “It’s just a one night thing, so don’t get any stupid ideas”

America blinked surprised as he was moved over to the far side of the bed, “Right, you want to feel safe with the hero of course!” He grinned and brought a hand to his chin to try looking cool.

Romano growled at him “I just said don’t get stupid ideas!” He would never admit it, but the movie struck a cord with him, hitting him right in the abandonment issues. He didn’t say anything, just laid down. He really just didn’t want to sleep alone.

America smiled “I’m glad I don’t have to sleep alone, after some of those plot twists...” he said it and shook his head, “I’m gonna be clinging to you guys for weeks, so you better not pull any of what happened in that movie, k?”

Romano huffed, but added as if he wasn’t the one struggling with that very idea, “It’s just a movie, we’re not going anywhere, don’t be such a kid.”

America sighed, “great, it would really suck if you guys did leave like that. I mean, I know you’re both still just here for work, but I mean if you betrayed my trust like that, it would suck...”

Lithuania watched America intrigued, Romano he wasn’t sure was catching it, but America was having one of those few moments where he could read the room.

Lithuania looked at America, with a question of if America wanted him to stay, after all, perhaps he didn’t care who slept with him as long as someone was there, right? The thought saddened him, but he tried not to show it, but a voice in the back of his mind reminded him maybe he really wasn’t needed here.

America looked back at Lithuania and for a moment there was silence before he laughed, “it looks like Romano stole your spot, mind sharing tonight?”

Lithuania felt a sense of relief as he chuckled, “I wouldn’t mind that, not one bit Mr. America.” He turned the light off then crawled into bed, squishing Romano in the middle.

Romano’s face flushed as red as a tomato as both nations on either side of him cuddled up to him, wrapping securely around him grinning.

“Good night, sleep tight, and don’t let the bed bugs bite” America said it softer than his usual speaking voice.

“saldžių sapnų, labanakt” Lithuania said sleepily already passing out as he unconsciously nuzzled into Romano.

Romano felt a warmth wash over him as his heart fluttered, he pulled the blankets up to his face more, “yeah, uh... night” before he and America both joined Lithuania in the land of dreams.

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ducktracy · 4 years

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181. the case of the stuttering pig (1937)

disclaimer: this review contains antisemitic content, stereotypes, and imagery. i in no way endorse any of this, but it’s just as important to bring awareness to these depictions rather than shove them under the rug. please, PLEASE let me know if i make any mistakes or say something offensive, i want to take responsibility for my actions and use this as an opportunity to educate myself. any outside commentary is more than welcome. thank you for your patience and understanding.

release date: october 30th, 1937

series: looney tunes

director: frank tashlin

starring: mel blanc (porky, the guy in the third row), billy bletcher (lawyer goodwill), sara berner (petunia)

just in time for the halloween season, we explore one of tashlin’s best directorial efforts to date. the case of the stuttering pig (its title derived from the case of the stuttering bishop, a warner bros. film released only 4 months prior) is the first of many warner bros. cartoons to take a jab at the ever popular dr. jekyll and mr. hyde. here, porky and his family (4 brothers and petunia, who serves as his sister rather than a love interest) are terrorized by the nefarious lawyer goodwill, the family lawyer who turns himself into a mr. hyde facsimile, hoping to kill the family in order to snag some inheritance money.

frank tashlin’s cinematography is in peak form as the cartoon opens to a ghastly exposition--william tell’s “the storm” rages alongside a furious storm. intricate camera angles include an upshot on a giant old house, trees whipping in the wind against the flashing lightning, and a close up of the window shudders snapping against the exterior. the snaps of the window shudders soon melt into the droning tick of a clock inside, an upshot exposing dynamic, drawn out shadows against the walls. tashlin handles the contrast between values exceptionally well. backgrounds are crisp, clear, and pronounced.

cue a vertical pan of porky’s siblings (patrick, peter, percy, portus, and petunia) all lined up against the wall in a row of chairs. each appear apprehensive, obviously on edge. not porky, though. porky’s at the very end of the row, looking on with a hilariously blank smile plastered on his face.

suddenly, a knock at the door interrupts the silence. cue the famous tashlin jump cut: we only see volney white’s animation of porky jumping out of his seat, but the next shot reveals all of the siblings hanging from a chandelier, with porky trepidatiously inquiring “who-who-who-who-who-who’s theh-the-the-the-the-there...?” you can still feel mel’s attempts to distinguish his own unique porky stutter from the authentic stutter provided by joe dougherty--this delivery is more dougherty-esque than some of his others.

billy bletcher’s syrupy sweet vocals ring out from behind the door, the disembodied voice introducing himself as lawyer goodwill. the decision not to showcase who’s behind the door is a smart one. suspense is absolutely rife all throughout the cartoon, and the beginning is no exception. with a peppy “okey deh-eh-eh-deh-do... oh-oh-okey deh-deh... okay!”, porky is followed by his siblings as he happily allows this mysterious lawyer goodwill inside. the suddenly calm, almost wholesome atmosphere inside, reassured by the self-proclaimed friendly presence of lawyer goodwill is disrupted as soon as the door opens, wind howling and blowing the entire family down the hallway as goodwill fights his way inside, his face (and head, for that matter) completely concealed by his hat and collar. tashlin plays on this as goodwill removes his hat, a mere nub placed where his neck should be as a waterfall of rain pours out from the hat. nevertheless, goodwill reveals himself, a portly yet good-natured looking fellow as he tells the children it’s time to attend to “business”.

lawyer goodwill gathers the kids around to discuss the matter of their late uncle solomon (a pig caricature of oliver hardy, just one of a handful) and his will. the animation is slightly blurred and jittery from the double exposure effects of the shadows--animation historian mark kausler has this to say (transcribed from his excellent commentary that i’m partially parroting):

“they used to hand crank the cameras here. this was before electric drive animation cameras--that’s why the shadows are so flickery, because they had to back the film up and then re-expose it to get the transparency of the shadow.”

uncle solomon’s will states that his heirs will inherit his money. however, if something were to happen to them, then lawyer goodwill gets the cash instead. goodwill exits the house, reassuring that nothing will happen to the kids... “...i hope!”

there’s a gorgeous, moody upshot of the porch as goodwill lumbers down the steps. volney white is at the hand of this scene, easy to spot thanks to his telltale speed: goodwill practically glides across the screen as he heads towards offscreen, only to whip back and put a hand over his hear, nefariously straining to hear if he’s being followed. volney’s pose and expression are as strong as ever--i made a reel of his animation awhile ago if you’d like to check it out!

bob bentley takes over to animate goodwill’s transformation into the monster--his animation is very meticulous and well crafted. a good way to spot him is to see if characters have thicker eyebrows in some scenes than others. goodwill swaps clothes in favor of a hat and cape almost effortlessly, gliding across the screen like butter. the flow isn’t interrupted, not even by the overlay of tables decorated with test tubes, skulls, etc.

all of goodwill’s potential queries on how to transform into a hideous beast are answered with a bottle of “jekyll and hide juice” (starting at only $9.99! call now and get another FREE at no cost to you! it’s a steal, folks!) nestled conveniently on his shelf of various poisons. he pours the concoction into a cocktail, acting like a regular bartender as he shows off by pouring the mixture from glass to glass. tashlin’s timing, both behaviorally and comically, are succinct as goodwill finally downs the mixture. he grips the table, taking heaving breaths, staring at the audience, until... nothing. he heaves a dubious shrug.

instead, goodwill opts to use a milkshake mixer (a relatively new invention whose novelty value would have scored much bigger laughs then than it does today, but still remains amusing at the very least) to mix his concoction, downing it once more.

bob bentley’s animation of the monster is nothing short of gorgeous. well defined, well crafted, and dimensional. however, it does encapsulate antisemitic stereotypes and caricatures, from the big nose to clawed hands and pointy ears, as well as the desire for money. as skillful as the animation is, and as solid as the cartoon is, these are problems that still need to be addressed. understand that when i’m praising the animation, i’m focusing on the techniques themselves and the technicalities behind it, not the content that’s being animated itself. (thank you anon for taking the time to educate me! it’s much appreciated.)

billy bletcher snarls in his trademark deep voice, even quipping “you wouldn’t think i was lawyer goodwill now, would you?” he talks directly to the audience, getting right close in their face, jabbing his spindly finger and bulbous nose. he even goes as far as to berate his public by screeching “you bunch of softies! YEAH, YOU IN THE THIRD ROW! ya BIG SOFTIE!” the fourth wall breaking is nothing short of genius. just IMAGINE seeing this in a dark, packed movie theater! the effect would be phenomenal! (especially if you were the guy in the third row! i’m sure all of the third-row-sitting patrons felt quite satisfied at these showings.) the monster vows to dispose of the family, sneering at our inability to help save our heroes.

said heroes are contentedly socializing in the living room, peppy porky talking about how safe and sound they are in their own little house. so, of course, that serves as the cue for a gnarly hand to grab the light switch and kill the lights. i love the detail of the shadow creeping along the wall before you even see the hand itself--little decisions like that go such a long way.

the lights go out, and all we hear is the pluck of an electric slide guitar. the lights come on, and one of porky’s alliteratively named siblings is gone, with an x cleverly marked in his place. the ritual occurs four times, with porky remarking each of the names of his fallen siblings (”peh-peh-patrick!” “eh-peh-peh-peh-eh-peter!” “eh-peh-peh-eh-peh-percy!” “puh-portus!”). the lights go out once more, and x’s mark where porky and petunia were just sitting prior. definitely an artsy and interesting way to convey the kidnappings--even more so when we see porky and petunia trepidatiously popping their heads out from behind the armchair after the camera trucks in on their deserted spot.

volney white animates the close up of petunia clutching to porky, stuttering (from fear, that is) “g-g-gee, p-p-porky, i’m scared!” her voice here is provided by sara berner as opposed to berneice hansell, who voiced her in her last appearance in porky’s romance. ironically, hansell would take over for petunia again after bob clampett adopted (and subsequently redesigned) her character. you can hear the evolution of her voice here.

porky reassures her that they’ll find the brothers as we cue a clever pan from inside to outside the house, spotlighting the basement. the backgrounds are so gorgeous and moody! we find the pigs tied up in stocks, with the monster sneering about how he’ll do away with all the pigs once he nabs porky and petunia. once more, our ever-aware villain resorts to heckling the poor sap in the third row: “and if that guy in the third row comes up, I’LL FIX HIM TOO! you big CREAMPUFF!” again--this is exceedingly entertaining to watch 83 years later on a laptop screen, but imagine what a riot this would be in theaters! frank tashlin understood that the audience was paying to watch his cartoons, and he knew how to make it worth their time. the cartoons catered to the audience rather than the studio executives always make for the best ones--tex avery was especially keen of this, as we’ll soon explore.

back to porky and petunia, both cautiously traipsing down the hallway as porky calls the names of his fallen brothers, both straining to hear any signs of life. while the poses aren’t nearly pushed to the same extremes as they would be in tashlin’s second directorial stint from 1943-1946, they’re still quite nice and accentuated just enough. certainly stronger than the poses present in the other directors’ cartoons. seeing as tashlin was a newspaper cartoonist, his illustrative, comic look translates well into his own cartoons. it’s almost as if his comic art has leapt right off the page, but also meshes well enough with the animation to have a good sense of motion to it. it’s the best of both worlds.

while porky is unaware, petunia is yanked off screen by a hand protruding from a trick wall panel. suddenly, the villain himself tinkers behind porky, mimicking his movements. porky even manages to grab a hold of his gangly hand, assuming it’s petunia, going so far as to look him straight in the eyes and shush him. the volney white animated villain looks strikingly different than that of bob bentley’s--volney’s is exceedingly more streamlined and design driven, especially around the eyes. he’s not nearly as hairy, grotesque, or dimensional. not that that’s a bad thing! in fact, i love when animators are able to make their styles so distinguishable from the other animators. not only is it fun, it makes identifying animation much easier.

when porky finally realizes that he’s being stalked by the monster, he does the signature volney white eye take and runs for the hills, er, stairs. tashlin’s speed dominates as porky scales flights of stairs at lightning speeds--it’s dizzying to even watch! eventually, porky jumps right into the arms of the monster, clinging to him (thinking it’s petunia) as he describes what he just saw: “i eh-seh-saw the most teh-teh-teh-eh--awful leh-leh-lookin’ man, all beh-beh-big and beh-beh-eh-bleh-black... beh-beh-BIG teeth...” all the while, porky is grabbing onto the villain’s nose and clinging to him like a baby. the animation is positively hilarious, especially when porky recognizes who he’s being cradled by, actually connecting nose to snout as he lets out a scream and barrels down the staircase once more, the same footage from before just in reverse. a wonderful scene with great dialogue and hilarious animation. bob clampett would borrow this in his own jeepers creepers just two years later, with a ghost in place of the monster.

porky locks himself in the basement, discovering his siblings tied up in stocks (”leh-leh-land sakes alive!”), his attempts to free them interrupted by the sound of the villain knocking the door down. interestingly enough, after we pan to the monster infiltrating the premises, the next shot is the entire family huddled in a corner, indicating that porky did manage to free them after all. the technique is reminiscent of the cartoon’s beginning, where we see only porky jump out of his seat before showing all of the siblings hiding in the chandelier.

just as it looks like the pig family is bacon, a random chair from offscreen is lobbed at the monster, sending him tumbling right into the stocks. the family is just as perplexed as the viewer, asking in unison “who DID that?”

“ME!” mel blanc’s gruff, more natural voice rings out from behind the screen. the locked up monster ogles at the audience, pointing a gangly finger as he snarls “who are YOU?” mel’s tough guy new yoik accent snarls back “I’M DA GUY IN DA THOID ROW, YA BIG SOURPUSS!” iris out on a deflated, dejected villain--just IMAGINE witnessing this in real time in the theaters!

this cartoon is one of the reasons why frank tashlin is one of my favorite directors of all time. it’s got all of the tashlin essentiasl. the effects animation by A.C. gamer at the beginning is lovely, doing a wonderful job of establishing such an eerie mood. the raging, wild storm juxtaposes perfectly with the unsettlingly still atmosphere inside the house. lawyer goodwill makes an excellent villain, topped off with billy bletcher’s vocals and bob bentley’s skilled animation. the constant fourth wall breaking with him... need i say more? it’s such a great way to involve the audience with the picture and really suck in their attention, especially that ending. the animation is excellent, the backgrounds are gorgeous, it’s absolutely rife with atmosphere. this is tashlin’s best effort thus far and one of his best efforts overall.

however, the antisemitic stereotypes and caricatures should be accounted for. while i do say you should watch this one to get an idea of frank tashlin’s mastery as a director, tread with caution and discretion. i absolutely don’t endorse these concepts. so, if you do want to watch it, you can go to HBOmax or click this link, just be advised.

#lt #looney tunes #the case of the stuttering pig #reviews #tashlin #long post #antisemitism tw

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batfamblog · 3 years

Note

duke the type of bitch to procrastinate till the last minute but still write 500+ words over the required word count. in theater he only does monologs from jasons fave plays cuz he loves to practice with jason (they get into the habit of exchanging lines from plays when they meet up on patrol, even if they're fighting on opposing sides). my sis is a hamlet and great gatsby nerd and yknow what? so is duke.

hes 10/10 on timed/in class essays but the second you give him enough time to plan hes like ??? wHat is paragraph organization and how does it relate??. emotional support friend from english. took ap lit AND english ibsl in senior year. the type of bitch where if you tell him you couldnt do the reading last night hell stand up and give a whole speech qbout the readings and his thoughts and takeaways. hes got opinions on everhthing and leads class discussions. his takes are Always right qnd everyone knows that.

hes in the improv club and 75% of his improv is fantasy amd the other 25% is about how much he hates math but believes its necessary (but not so much in the way they teach in high school). makes white people jokes with damian about the rest of the fam. strong opinions on the education system! once he gets going he Gets Going.

SCHOOL NERD DUKE IS AKDJSJSJ I LOVE IT

he’s the epitome of yes i am good at School. bc i actually enjoy going

also yes yes ye syeedyysysyw english nerds rise like. reading is peak and he knows it!!!!! jason sees this in him and just enables the behavior and honestly the more he reads and strays from typical reader behavior the more he falls into theatre kid and with the improv club he’s like halfway there already sjdjdjdjd

AND I DEF STAND BY THAT LAST ONE in a family so full of white people who are all all kinds of weird i can def imagine duke pulling damian over at a function and being like “did u see tim just. bring over that horrifying jello dish” and damian is like “yeah i’m not touching that mess”

#omg how to u get ur asks to be so long akdjjsjdd #anon ur MIND #ask :)#anon

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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13 Best Blumhouse Horror Movies Ranked

https://ift.tt/3pr9EwE

Has any single person had a greater impact on horror this century than Jason Blum? The one-time Miramax executive struck out on his own in the 2000s when he founded Blumhouse Productions, a company where he remains the CEO. And in the ensuing years, Blum’s production label would define, and redefine again, the trends of horror movies and thrillers.

Operating on the philosophy that a horror film with a micro-budget will almost always turn a profit, Blum frequently allows directors broad freedom to make what they want within the genre, and in the process has kept multiplexes perpetually spooky. In 2009 Blumhouse helped reinvent the found footage horror aesthetic, and in the 2010s, the modern phenomenon of talent-focused horror gems began with Blumhouse’s gambles.

Working with filmmakers like James Wan, Scott Derrickson, Ethan Hawke, and Jordan Peele, Blumhouse Productions’ title card is now a promise of something different, if still eminently commercial and entertaining. It even paved the way for the controversial modern discourse around “elevated” horror, with Peele’s Get Out being the first chiller to win an Oscar for screenwriting since The Silence of the Lambs.

So with a new Blumhouse horror movie in theaters this Friday the 13th, we thought it a good time to count down the 13 best Blumhouse efforts that paid off with a bloody good time.

13. Hush

At the bottom of our top 13 is this taut thriller from Mike Flanagan, director The Haunting of series and Doctor Sleep fame. Flanagan and his co-writer and star (and also wife), Kate Siegel, wanted to make a horror movie with little to no dialogue. So they came up with this concept of a deaf-mute woman (Siegel) in a remote house, who is stalked by a killer with a crossbow. Hush is at its peak in the first 20 minutes as the masked man (10 Cloverfield Lane’s John Gallagher Jr.) realizes his quarry can’t actually hear him and begins to play games.

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The pair’s relationship with sound makes an interesting dynamic in this tense home invasion movie, though the cat and mouse chase does grow somewhat repetitive and generic as the film progresses. Still, a fine performance from Siegel and an indication of what Flanagan could do on a small budget make this very much worth checking out. – Rosie Fletcher

12. Happy Death Day

The Groundhog Day formula where an odious person is doomed to relive the same day countless times has proven remarkably flexible. And Happy Death Day is no exception with its horror-comedy blend of Punxsutawney hijinks and ‘80s slasher movie clichés. Starring a ridiculously game Jessica Rothe as Tree, the sorority girl who is constantly waking up with the hangover from hell, Happy Death Day follows the typical “Queen Bee” slasher archetype, and forces her to relive the same horror movie again and again. Until she can figure out who her masked killer is, and maybe how to be a better person, she’s condemned to die in increasingly preposterous ways. Worse still, she must also wake up in a dormitory afterward.

It’s derivative in a million different ways, but delightful in many more thanks to a cheeky atmosphere from director Christopher Landon and a very savvy, self-aware script by Scott Lobdell. Most of all though, it benefits from Rothe’s comedic talents on full display, as she backflips between initial verbal bitchiness and constant physical comedy. She even manages to find a little pathos, one stab wound at a time. – David Crow

11. The Visit

The Sixth Sense may remain M. Night Shyamalan’s masterpiece, but it was an oft-referenced moment from a different film that became key to Blumhouse pulling him back from the brink of irrelevance.

Having made four objectively terrible movies in a row, including the notoriously bad wind-smeller The Happening, Shyamalan seemingly decided to use what he’d learned from a very effective part of 2002’s Signs, where Joaquin Phoenix reacts to a tense home movie of an alien sighting, and took the next logical step: What if the director put together 90 minutes of unsettling home movie moments just like that?

Your mileage may vary with the handheld, mockumentary style of The Visit, but it’s hard to argue that this brisk, low-budget tale of two young siblings staying with some very, very odd grandparents they’ve never met before could play out more wildly than it does here. And Shyamalan certainly doesn’t pull many punches when it comes to putting those poor kids in peril during the film’s climax. – Kirsten Howard

10. Creep

No, not the one set on the subway, this Creep, directed by Patrick Brice, written by Brice and Mark Duplass, and also starring them both in a tense two-hander, is an altogether more unsettling affair. Brice plays Aaron, a videographer who answers an ad posted by Josef (Duplass), the latter saying he’s dying and wants a video diary made to leave to his son. But Josef’s behavior is weird – exactly how weird is too weird is the challenge faced by Aaron.

At just 77 mins long, this is a compact, unusual, often funny movie which picks at male relationships in the modern day, and how far kindness and politeness can override instinct. Duplass and Brice are incredibly natural in a film that’s extremely unusual, steeped in unease but not really like a traditional horror, with laughter and tension relief keeping you on your toes throughout. There’s a sequel which is good too, though if you can watch the first without spoilers it delivers a particular kind of dread that’s hard to replicate. – RF

9. Upgrade

A couple of decades ago, there were plenty of films around like Upgrade. You didn’t even have to move for fun sci-fi action movies, really! But the glory days of never having to wait for the next Equilibrium, Gattaca, Cypher, or even Jet Li’s The One are long behind us. It’s pretty tough to get a slick little concept movie made when you’re expected to compete with huge action tentpoles at the box office—unless you’re Leigh Whannell, one of Blumhouse’s integral puzzle pieces.

Whannell paid his dues at the production house for 15 years as both a writer and helmer before unleashing his sophomore directorial effort, Upgrade. The film, which follows ludicrously named technophobe Grey Trace after he loses his beloved wife in a violent mugging, sees a paralyzed hero get implanted with a chatty chip that allows him to regain the use of his whole body. Soon Trace become virtually superhuman—imagine an internal K.I.T.T.—but all is not as it seems.

It shouldn’t be as delightful as it is. Admittedly, the whole thing isn’t too far removed from an elevated episode of The Outer Limits. But if you miss old school sci-fi nonsense and feel nostalgic for a time when smart sci-fi projects didn’t end up as eight drawn out episodes on a major streaming service instead, Upgrade really scratches an itch.

Of course now might be a bad time to mention that an Upgrade TV series is in the works… – KH

8. Halloween

In resurrecting one of horror’s most enduring—yet stubbornly uneven—franchises, director David Gordon Green (working with screenwriters Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley) made the smartest move he could: He stripped away the ridiculously convoluted and nonsensical mythology the franchise had built up over decades. Instead he simply made a direct sequel to Carpenter’s 1978 masterpiece.

Movies

Best Modern Horror Movies

By Don Kaye

Movies

Halloween: A Legacy Unmasked

By David Crow

The result was easily the best Halloween movie since the original itself, bringing the characters and the story into the present while reverting Michael Myers back to the enigmatic, unstoppable, unknowable force that was so terrifying in the first film. Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, and Andi Matichak as three generations of Strode women bring healthy feminine empowerment to the proceedings while the intense violence and uneasy psychological underpinnings give this Halloween a resonance that has been lacking for so long. – Don Kaye

7. Split

As the movie that suggested M. Night Shyamalan’s renaissance was real, Split is still a surprising box office win for the eclectic filmmaker. With a grizzly premise about a man suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly known as split personality) kidnapping teen girls to hold in a zoo, this could be the stuff of ‘70s grindhouse sleaze. While there is a touch of that to Split, more critically the movie acts as a buoyant showcase for James McAvoy at his most unbound.

Playing a character with 24 different personalities, a shaved and beefy McAvoy is visibly giddy bouncing between multiple alters that include a deceptively sweet little boy, an OCD fashion designer, and a bestial final form. The commitment he shows to each also becomes its own special effect, causing you to swear his physical shape is changing with his expressions.

Similarly, scenes with theater legend Betty Buckley as his psychiatrist also rivet with the energy of a stage play, and suggest a sincere sympathy for mental illness. A rarity in horror. Nevertheless, the movie still comes down to his alters’ obsessions with their kidnapped prize (Anya Taylor-Joy), a young woman who hides demons of her own. When these true selves finally cross paths in a genuinely tense finale, Split is maniacally thrilling. – DC

6. Sinister

An unsettling entry in the horror subgenre of writers who destroy their families, Sinister marked director/co-writer Scott Derrickson’s (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) return to horror after he detoured with an ill-fated remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. Thus Derrickson and co-writer C. Robert Cargill concocted a unique, if somewhat scattershot, mythology about a pagan deity that murders entire families in the ghastliest ways imaginable.

Movies

M. Night Shyamalan Movies Ranked

By John Saavedra

Movies

Best Horror Movies on Netflix: Scariest Films to Stream

By David Crow and 2 others

True crime writer Ethan Hawke discovers the extent of those murders in a box of 8mm films left in the attic of his new home (where the last killings took place), and it’s the unspooling of those films—along with long sequences of Hawke moving through the shadows and silence of the house—that provide Sinister with its sickening core and palpable dread. Derrickson sustains the film’s foreboding mood for the entire running time, making the movie an authentically frightening experience. – DK

5. Oculus

The film that brought much of the world’s attention to Mike Flanagan, Oculus turned out to be a preview for the horror filmmaker’s interests. It also remains a truly unnerving ghost story. Not since the days of Dead of Night has a film so successfully made you scared of looking in a mirror.

Officially titled the Lasser Glass, the mirror in question is the apparent supernatural cause of hundreds of deaths, including the parents of Kaylie Russell (Karen Gillan) and her brother Tim (Brenton Thwaites). When they were children, their mother starved and mutilated herself before their father killed her. But now as an adult, Kaylie is convinced she can prove the antique glass is the true culprit, and she’ll document its evil power before destroying it. But the funny thing about evil mirrors is they have ways of protecting themselves, and wreaking havoc on a sense of time, place, and certainly self-image.

The Haunting of Bly Manor: Mike Flanagan Discusses Standout Eighth Episode

By Alec Bojalad

The Haunting of Bly Manor: The Poignant Tale of Hannah Grose

By Louisa Mellor

With the movie’s near masterful blending of events occurring 11 years ago and in the present, Flanagan revealed a knack for dreamlike structure, and stories about the past damning the future. These are ideas he’s gone on to explore in richer detail with The Haunting of Hill House and Doctor Sleep, but Flanagan’s ability to juxtapose childhood trauma with a nightmarish present was never more potent, or tragic, than in Oculus’ refracted gaze. – DC

4. Paranormal Activity

It may take some mental gymnastics, but if you can take a step back and ignore all the sequels that followed in the wake of this surprise 2009 blockbuster, then you’d remember Paranormal Activity is a stone cold classic. It is also the movie that put Blumhouse on the map. Already mostly finished when Jason Blum saw a DVD screener of Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity, this $15,000-budgeted terror is arguably the most evocative use of found footage in all of horror.

While Peli is obviously influenced by 1999’s The Blair Witch Project, that earlier movie is as famous for its shaky disorientation as it is its scares. By contrast what occurs in Paranormal Activity is excruciatingly clear. Seriously, the camera barely moves! Instead we’re asked to sit back and watch in near slow motion as an unwise couple (Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat) meddle with forces that were better off left undisturbed.

Movies

How Jason Blum Changed Horror Movies

By Rosie Fletcher

Movies

The Best Horror Movies to Stream

By Alec Bojalad and 1 other

It begins when Micah brings a home video camera into their house to track apparent ghosts in the dark; it ends in a demonic rush of violence. Everything in between is tracked by a disinterested lens, which usually sits statically in a corner or on a tripod, capturing the tedium of everyday life in its everyday natural lighting. Only occasionally does the horned shadow on the wall manifest. But then Paranormal Activity is chilling in its isolation. – DC

3. Insidious

As the fourth feature film directed by Australian filmmaker James Wan, Insidious follows a couple named Josh and Renai Lambert (Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne), whose son inexplicably falls into a coma and becomes a vessel for malevolent entities from a dimension called the Further. The family enlists a psychic named Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) in a battle involving astral projection and demonic possession.

Following an era of horror films that were more torture porn or police procedural (including Wan’s own Saw), Insidious was a return to the kind of horror filmmaking that was dependent on atmosphere, suspense, and what you don’t see lurking in the shadows. And Wan seemed to imbue that creepiness around the edges of every shot. Using actual adult characters and developing them (as opposed to the hipster teens that infested nearly every horror movie for at least 10 years previously) also set the film apart as a serious attempt at a genre that had been too often exploited in a tossed-off fashion.

Movies

Universal Monsters: The Invisible Man Shows Life After Dark Universe Death

By David Crow

Movies

Blumhouse Horror Movies Update: Halloween Kills, Insidious 5 and More

By Don Kaye

The world-building of Insidious left the door open for sequels, of course, and while the three produced so far have had their moments, none has matched the sheer invention and terrifying fun of the original. – DK

2. The Invisible Man

Leigh Whannell’s reimagining of the classic Universal Monster, the Invisible Man, was as much of a surprise when it hit screens earlier this year as the titular villain himself. As a smart social commentary on domestic abuse and gaslighting, while also being enormously effective as a straight up horror, this was a highly fresh take on an old standard.

At the core was the terrific performance of Elisabeth Moss as Cecilia, a woman stuck with her controlling boyfriend Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) in their high-tech, high security fortress of a home. When Cece finally manages to escape and Adrian appears to take his own life, she hopes her ordeal can finally be over. But in fact it’s just beginning.

Movies

How Leigh Whannell Made The Invisible Man Scary Again

By Rosie Fletcher

Movies

How The Invisible Man Channels the Original Tale

By Don Kaye

Playing on the true horror of not being believed, Whannell’s Invisible Man is as harrowing at times as it is thrilling. Yes, there are some extraordinarily shocking set pieces – the restaurant scene of course stands out – but it’s the increasing desperation of Cece, whose world is falling apart at the manipulative hands of a man who won’t let her go, which stays with you.

The Invisible Man is a thrilling horror, for sure, with a feel good ending (if you want to read it that way…), but it’s something altogether more exciting than that too: a fresh, relevant take on a classic, expertly directed and boasting star power delivered on a moderate budget, which flexes exactly what horror can do. – RF

1. Get Out

More impressive than any awards it won, Jordan Peele’s Get Out encapsulates the essential draw of horror: through entertaining “scares,” it unmasks truths folks might find too horrifying or uncomfortable to acknowledge. In the case of Get Out, it is the despair of Blackness and Black bodies still being commodified by a predatory American culture.

Wearing influences like Rosemary’s Baby and Stepford Wives on his sleeve, Peele pulls from classic horror conventions for his directorial debut, but gives them a startling 21st century sheen. His movie’s insidious conspiracy is neither an obvious coven of witches or the openly racist heavies of a period piece. Rather Peele sets his story about a Black man (Daniel Kaluuya) coming to meet his white girlfriend’s parents in a liberal conclave of wealthy suburbia. Written during the final days of the Obama years, Peele casts these parents (Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener) as genial and welcoming, shielding cries of racism behind fashionable political correctness.

Yet once Peele moves past that trendy veneer, he finds a potent allegory in which the ghosts of slavery are still alive and well, even in Upstate New York. Peele also packs anxieties about interracial relationships, culture clash, and childhood trauma into a film that is nevertheless gregariously funny. Ultimately though, its final effect is triggering in the best way. Get Out offers an opportunity to confront real dread, one uneasy laugh, and then sudden jump scare, at a time. – DC

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maelaola · 4 years

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Away and Under the Weather: Part 3

This is it. My final and, in my opinion, WORST illness-related experience abroad. It actually involves a few different illnesses and was spread out over at least a month. It was painful, exhausting, and just bizarre. Enjoy! #1 It started with the flu... It started with the flu. Nothing special, just the flu. When you live in another country AND work with children, you're going to get sick now and then. It was around this time of year (April) in 2007. I don't even remember how bad a flu it was. I probably had a fever, some body aches and a runny nose. That's usually what I get. I taught lessons through it (as usual) and it was over. I didn't need to go to the doctor until later. The flu ended but the crap in my lungs never really went away. After a week or two of wheezing and coughing, I went to get checked out. At the hospital, I was shown around by my own English-speaking nurse to see two specialists and got an x-ray of my lungs. It cost less than US$50. (I miss Korea.) I had acute bronchitis. The flu had slightly inflamed my bronchial tubes and there was a little infection. They gave me antibiotics, pain pills, something for the mucus, and anti-inflammatory medicine. Getting treated in Korea by western medicine is different than at home. Korean hospitals also treated people using eastern medicine and I took advantage of that more after this experience. Eastern medicine is about treating the delicate balance that exists in your body and allowing your body to function at its peak potential. Western medicine works more like a band aid. You're hurt here; fix here. Western medicine in Korea takes this metaphor even further. Sick? In pain? Appendages double in size? Okay! What can we do to patch you up and get you back to work? On top of that, we really do blindly trust doctors a lot. Which is fine for the complicated stuff. But in Korea, you barely even know what medicine you're taking. They give me the list but there's a lot on there and it's hard to tell the pills apart. They prepare all the pills for you and separate them by dose in these long strips of vacuum sealed plastic baggies. Swallow the cocktail and get back to work. No need to wait for the effects to kick in. I can tell you that I took my first baggie on a Wednesday night or Thursday morning. I remember that because by Friday I was calling the nurse and taking the only sick leave I ever took in 3 years in Korea. I felt a little off on Thursday. Not sick, just off. So it took me (and my head teacher/neighbor who was walking home with me) completely by surprise when I randomly puked on the street Thursday night. I barely made it to the storm drain let alone even thinking about trying to find a toilet. Living abroad, I've had my share of food poisonings so the idea that my body was rejecting something was not foreign to me. But there was no food. It was like a hangover without the bliss of being an idiot the night before. Since it wasn't food, I assumed pills and called the nurse. I stopped taking all of them since I didn't know which was which in my poison cocktail. I didn't feel any better the next day as I started to have stomach problems come out the other end. Great. And remember how I couldn't have sick days? That was especially true my first year when our numbers were already small and there were teachers fleeing the country in the middle of the night every other week. Fortunately, though, through some luck--and a lot of pity from my head teacher and principal who watched me try to teach my 4pm-7pm elementary class from a chair when I wasn't running to the bathroom--my head teacher had her second three-hour slot free and taught my 7pm-10pm middle school class. So I went home and proceeded to have my worst weekend ever. I was supposed to be at a wedding. Instead, every three hours (like clockwork!) I crawled the three feet from my bed to the bathroom and then tried crawl back, dragging what was left of my tattered stomach on the floor. Eventually that was too much and I brought a pillow and blanket into the bathroom to sleep on the floor in between sessions. I didn't leave the house until Sunday afternoon. I limped across the street to get some saltines and electrolytes with some hope that I would be better before Monday. And, surprisingly, I was. My stomach was convinced everything was out that it didn't like and it stopped trying to kill me. On Monday, I was exhausted, soar, and really cranky but I was mobile enough to go down the hill to my work. I settled in my chair to be a white-faced, native speaker in front of 15 Korean kids for 6 hours. The kids were extra nice and the next few days went fine. Although, it still amazes me that the kids never viewed this behavior as strange. I could not stand most of the time and could barely speak but I was still there. Even now in Hong Kong, I often teach while wearing a doctor's mask when I have a cough or runny nose, and I have some kids come to EVERY class in a mask. Sick? Wrap it, cover it up, take a pill. But do it at work. In this case though, the pills were the problem. I talked to my mom on Skype later and she told me that it was probably the anti-inflammatory medicine. She used to work for a doctor and patients often called and complained of stomach problems when the doctor prescribed anti-inflammatory medicine. So that was it. The weekend was more than enough to learn my lesson. The body is connected, beware of pills, listen to your mother, work somewhere with sick days, bla, bla, bla... Teacher, finishee?? Anio. I got better and started to regale my friends with gross stories of the worst weekend ever. Around midweek, I decided that I was better enough to not cancel my rafting trip for the coming weekend. It was rafting in Korea, after all, which is only slightly more intense than floating down a lazy-river. It was mostly an excuse to drink somewhere else and also to watch a traditional Korean mask performance. Rafting was scheduled for Sunday so we watched the mask dance on Saturday. It was in a very cool theatre-in-the-round, and--despite not understanding a word they were saying--it was really funny! There was an ajumma character which is always a riot and at one point a guy pretended to cut off the fake bull's penis. It was an outdoor theater, and it was really hot, so most people sat in the shaded section. About 30 of us came on the trip and showed up late so a few of us sat in the sun so we could watch from the front row. It was really bright when I first stared down at my feet so I just thought I was seeing things. They felt a little strange and warm, but so did the rest of me. And I was wearing larger flip-flops so I wasn't uncomfortable. I felt a little stupid but I turned to my friend and said it anyway, "Do my feet look bigger to you?" I'm not sure if she could see or if she was just a little worried about the question I just asked but we needed a closer look. We walked around the edge of the seating and went outside to where it was shaded and we could see better. And there they were: cankles. I grew cankles in an afternoon! There was a weird fluster next as three of my friends and I tried to figure out what to do for a case of instant-fat-feet. I lay down on the ground and elevated them, someone put a cold water bottle on them, but mostly we just poked them a lot as if we were suddenly going to able to diagnose the problem. I freaked out for a while as they seemed to get bigger in the heat. Fortunately, they grew to certain size and stopped. They didn't hurt and I could walk. I didn't go to a doctor because I was where I usually was when stuff like this happens: in a village in a foreign country. The play ended and after some shopping we all got on the buses to go back to the place we were staying. A few more people got to see my exciting new development. Most of the theories tossed around that day had to do with the bus going up and down the hills and something with altitude. I kept them elevated and took some allergy pills or something. I even went rafting the next day. (Seriously, easy rafting.) I just kept showing people my fat feet hoping someone could tell me what was happening to me. Monday I went to work, fat feet and all. I got a kick out of freaking out the kids with my cankles. (It actually freaked out the other teachers and staff more.) They were still there a week later when my parents arrived in Korea. I'm sure it was a great sight for my mother, who hadn't seen me in nine months. Because that's what you want to see when your oldest child is all alone for the first time and on the other side of the world. That she's becoming deformed. My dad made me sleep in his special airplane socks that are supposed to give you even circulation and they started to really go down. Mom cleaned my apartment which was not in an acceptable state (is it ever?). I took my first real vacation since I arrived in Korea and relaxed in Jeju-do. It took some time but they went back to normal and I was all better. Finally, we sat down together with the Internet and tried to figure out why my feet blew up. (Mom is an experienced hiker and didn't buy the 'altitude' theory.) And there, at the bottom of the list, on some medical website under possible causes for swollen feet it said, "...may be caused by anti-inflammatory medicine." So that was it. I got the flu which gave me bronchitis that led to the worst weekend of my life followed by one of the weirdest. The lesson for all this is very simple and not at all original: Stuff happens. I did what I was supposed to. I was sick so I went to the doctor. Usually that's the end. Take the pills, drink some liquids, all better. Only this time the pills poisoned me, my stomach tried to kill me, and my feet doubled in size. The good experience that came out of this was that the next time I was sick, I was really willing to try acupuncture and Korean traditional medicine. Also, I try not to suck down pills like candy. My feet are big enough already. Unfortunately, I know this is not the end. Despite Hong Kong being more western than Korea and having more resources than Buenos Aires, I know it will happen again. You get sick, you fall down; drink your fluids, pick yourself up. It's just different when you don't speak the language.

**********

Again, this is old content I wrote about nearly 10 years ago for another blog (http://laurabusan.blogspot.com/). It’s time I start writing again and bringing everything together.

#cultureshock korea teachingabroad funnyillness

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dunkerliciousness · 5 years

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Review: Toy Story 4, male authority, female empowerment & consent

***SPOILERS AHEAD***

After taking a spontaneous trip to the Johnson City AMC theater, something I rarely do because of the theater’s previously lackluster atmosphere, I discovered two things: The JC theater now features comfortable reclining chairs within the theaters, which was a pleasant surprise, and “Toy Story 4” may be one of the few “fourths” in a series to match the energy of its three other predecessors.

I stepped into the theater completely unaware of what to expect with low expectations for the fourth sequel of a series I have adored since my toddler years. I didn’t want to disappoint myself, a feeling we’ve all felt when watching the sequels to other childhood favorites, namely “Ice Age” and “Cars.”

I was delightfully surprised to see the plot take a different direction with Woody’s character. For the most part, I thought the plot of “Toy Story” would eventually fall flat in this fourth sequel. In a sense, the fourth movie combines the thematic aspects of the other three movies. Perhaps to some that seems repetitive and a cop out to inventing a new plot thread, but while we see a few familiar archetypes, we really get to see the peak of Woody’s inner dilemmas: Isolation, fear of being unwanted, waywardness, feeling he has no clear purpose, so in other words, depression.

These feelings manifest themselves through Woody’s actions and drives the plot. While his inner turmoil is finally expressed and resolved, there are other problematic qualities Woody possesses that nobody addresses with him.

Lately, Disney-Pixar has worked to include more progressive media representation by writing in empowered female characters, women of authority, queer couples (one of which two moms make a cameo in the first few scenes). In the last decade, Disney-Pixar has presented messages to kids that underlines socially important concepts. For “Frozen,” it was the sacred bond of sisterhood. For “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” it was a warning against toxic relationships and the empowerment of female autonomy.

“Toy Story 4” presents issues of Woody’s male authority, particularly in his blatant disregard for female authority and his insistence on talking over his female peers. These two flaws Woody embodies consistently reappears throughout the plot but never gets addressed.

If Disney-Pixar intends to create a positive message with female empowerment at its core, which this film clearly and proudly does throughout, there seems to be a missing link between female empowerment and male accountability. Without both, the film means to say Woody’s behavior is acceptable.

Though Woody has been the main star of the “Toy Story” series and a pivotal point for each plot, Woody’s character has been nothing but admirable in his sense of loyalty and his clear path of morality. Here, in the fourth sequel, Woody’s character has to overcome the issues he’s been facing since the first film. None of the characters address his override of authority against his female peers, all of who are leaders in their own right, and their experience clearly outranks Woody’s ignorance and naivety.

Though, I won’t just focus on the sins of man. In spirit of true feminism, I will uncover the double standard against men’s consent. One of the major external challenges of the plot was Gabby Gabby’s intention to forcibly steal Woody’s voice box to finally receive her choice child’s love and affection. Woody manages to avoid this from happening, but towards the climax of the film, Woody realizes he’s out of options. He loses his friend’s support and finds himself cornered in a dark room with four larger ventriloquist dummies blocking his path as Gabby Gabby manipulates Woody based on his insecurities to coerce Woody to consent in giving up his voice box.

Gabby Gabby’s plan is successful, but doing in so, reveals a much darker theme to the “Toy Story” series. Consent has become a major hot topic, not only in sexual interactions but in everyday relationships among people. Respect to a person’s autonomy and the autonomy of their bodies has been another human rights issue. In this film, Gabby Gabby physically takes something from within Woody, though it never gets addressed as a violation of Woody’s security.

Instead, the film provides the obvious plot justice when Gabby Gabby does not gain the affection of a child. She is immediately discarded, despite being physically “complete,” which further proves that changing one’s self for another person is not a pure form of love; physical insecurities should be challenged with bold self-love; and stealing something from another does not promise joy. None of these statements are made, but instead Gabby Gabby’s finds a happy ending. Woody does not receive his voice box back, does not criticize Gabby Gabby for her actions, nor does he explain the important of the above themes preferred when confronted with these issues. Again, no character is being held accountable for their actions.

In essence, while “Toy Story 4” impressed me with its design and caliber to stay ahead of audience expectations, by ignoring these social factors of gender equality and gender violence, Disney-Pixar falls short of delivering the important messages within this film. Not much can be done now, but in future, I should hope Disney-Pixar lives up to the pinnacle of equal representation and social cognizance it markets itself to be.

#female empowerment #male authority consent toy story 4 disney pixar review film

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shadow-light19 · 6 years

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Pure and Innocent: Chapter 1

Summary: A couple of weeks after the events of Cult Camp, David decides to write Daniel a letter. Daniel decides to reply, originally with the intention of coming back to camp to try to sacrifice the kids again but after being pen pals with David for several days wonders why he wanted to save them in the first place. None of them are pure enough to join Zemoog's paradise. But David is.

Notes: I love David. He's my favorite. I also love angst. I see a lot of fan art on Tumblr of David drinking Kool-Aid and wanted to write a story where he was the one who poisoned instead of the kids.

Next Chapter: https://shadow-light19.tumblr.com/post/174293668667/pure-and-innocent-chapter-2

David sat down at his desk. He had already put the campers to bed, checked the grounds, got the preparation for tomorrow’s breakfast down, planned out the activity for the next day, prepared said activity, and checked on the campers to make sure they were still in bed. He pulled out a sheet of paper and a pencil and got to writing.

Dear Daniel,

Are you feeling better? Everyone here misses you. I’m sorry that your time here at Camp Campbell was so short. Maybe when you’re feeling better you can return and give it another go. Are you eating well? I know you care a lot about nutrition. Have you had any visitors? If I can get the chance, I’ll try to stop by in person. Feel better and hope to hear from you soon!

Your Fellow Co-Counselor,

David Redwood

David looked it over for any spelling mistakes and then placed it in an envelope. He placed it by the door to give to the Quartermaster in the morning.

Daniel glared at the officer that entered the room. He was still pissed that he had been tricked by the most oblivious man in the world into poisoning himself and getting caught by the police.

“Mail for you.”

What? Who would write me a letter?

He took it and read the front.

David wrote me a letter?

He frowned. Daniel opened the letter and read the inside.

Hmm, maybe I could use this to my advantage.

“Officer, could I get some stuff to write a letter?”

The officer grabbed him a piece of paper, pencil, and envelope and placed it on his table tray.

“Thank you.”

Dear David,

I am doing much better, thank you. I would love to be able to come back but I am not sure if I’ll be able to. I have not had any visitors and it is very boring here. If you would like to visit me, I would love that. I hope to hear from you soon as well. What have you been up to at camp?

Your friend,

Daniel Jones

Daniel sealed the envelope and gave the letter to the officer. With any luck, David may be his second chance at purifying the campers.

A couple days had passed with the two writing each other letters every day. David told Daniel everything. They had talked about the arrival of Nikki and Neil, the death of Larry the hamster, the rebellion and resultant burns and more. The longer Daniel wrote to David, the less he wanted to purify the kids.

These children are demons! I don’t understand how David is even alive with all the stuff he’s written me. Maybe I can talk it over with him when he arrives tonight to visit.

He looked over some of the previous letters he had received from David.

It was an accident but it still hurts to know I hit him. The wounds are healing though so that is great. I am looking forward to being able to carry things again. I already forgot that I can’t lift anything and accidentally re-opened the wounds on my hands when Gwen asked me to help her bring out some tables for board games. I guess I’ll need to get more bandages from-

-escape attempt. It was so embarrassing having to have Sal come out again to the camp. This is the third ticket I’ve gotten from the Sleepy Peak police because of the campers. I just wish they could put this energy into the camp activities. I left the bus to the Quartermaster and the bruises healed really fast! I have a couple marks from the tires running over my arm but for the most part, everything else is healed. The good thing though is that Max learned how to cooperate with-

-realize that being run over by a skateboard could hurt so badly! I get that I was the villain in the game but my eye is still swollen from Nerris’s dice and Dolph got some paint in it as well when he threw a paint can at me. I didn’t realize role-playing games were so violent! Everyone had so much fun though and I didn’t want to ruin it for them so I-

It filled Daniel with burning rage. He took several breaths to calm himself down. David had promised that after work, he would come to visit Daniel in the hospital which should be any minute now. Daniel fingered the plastic tip he had broken off of a plastic fork. He had been running it against a sharp end of his gurney and it now resembled a pick. After today, he hoped to be able to pick his cuffs. Daniel looked up as David entered the room.

“Daniel! So good to see you!”

He gave him a hug. Daniel smiled.

“It’s a delight to see you as well, David. How have you been? The campers hurt you again?”

David shrugged.

“I’ve been well, thanks. I got hurt today but it was an honest accident.”

Daniel frowned. He looked at the scars on David’s hands and felt himself bristle.

Behavior Correction Camp.

His mind instantly recognized the event David told him of.

“What did the demons do this time?”

David frowned.

“Just because they aren’t always the best behaved, doesn’t mean they are demons. They are all good kids at heart. They just have trouble acting on it.”

Daniel refrained from rolling his eyes.

Do not give in to negative emotions.

“We had archery today and the campers had a hard time with aiming.”

Daniel’s eyes went wide.

“Wait, you gave them arrows?”

David sighed.

“You sound like Gwen. Yeah, I should’ve started them off with rubber arrows.”

Daniel frowned as David looked upset.

“They broke the window of the Mess Hall, dented my car, ripped several of the tents, damaged part of the theater stage, and clipped my side.”

David lifted his shirt. Daniel noticed the shallow but long cut was bandaged and no longer bleeding.

“It seems like they did more than just have a hard time with aiming. It sounds like they did it on purpose.”

David thought about it.

“Well, Max and Nikki probably did it on purpose. Nerf probably did too. The others ended up not caring once a few arrows caused some damage and it seemed like fun.”

Daniel took a deep breath.

Do not give into the negative emotions!

“That sounds a lot like it was done intentionally, David. I don’t understand why you put up with the demons.”

David gave him a stern stare.

“Please stop calling them demons, Daniel. I understand that you weren’t around long enough to get to know them but they really are good kids at heart. I just know that with enough encouragement, motivation, and love, they can all do wonderful things and reach their fullest potential.”

Daniel regarded David.

Even after all the pain those children have wrought upon him, David treats them with nothing but kindness. It’s almost like he is completely… pure…

Daniel’s eyes widened.

He is pure! Even after all this time here on earth, he has rarely been contaminated by the negative energy, unlike other adults.

“Besides, the campers seem to be enjoying camp! I just want to see them smile. If going through a little trouble allows them to have fun, then I don’t mind! They mean a lot to me so I do whatever I can to ensure that the memories they make at Camp Campbell will last a lifetime.”

What a pure, innocent individual. He’s too pure for this world. The longer he stays here, the more likely it will be for him to become tainted. No, he must be saved.

“David.”

David smiled.

“Yes, Daniel?”

“I don’t think I will be continuing my position at Camp Campbell but I would like to ask if I can visit. I have a family matter that came up so I will be unable to work.”

David gasped.

“Oh, my goodness! Are they okay? Do you need any help? I can give you a ride if you need it or whatever else may come to mind.”

Daniel smiled.

“Oh, no but I appreciate your concern. You are too kind, David.”

David put an arm on Daniel’s shoulder.

“If you ever need any help, Daniel, just give me a call.”

The two chatted for another hour before David bid him goodnight. Daniel watched him leave with a wave and then turned his attention to his handmade lockpick. He was breaking out tonight.

David couldn’t wait to go to bed. He was exhausted. Parents’ Day was a disaster. He found out that Max’s parents were neglectful, Campbell was arrested, and now he and Gwen were the owners of the camp. He looked out the window of the Mess Hall. Thankfully, the parents liked the counselors and had no qualms with them continuing to run the camp.

Huh? What’s that coming up to the archway?

David could see a shadowy figure approaching the entrance of the campground.

“Hey, Gwen. Can you watch the kids for a second by yourself?”

He didn’t wait for the reply as he opened the door and walked towards the figure.

“David! I’m glad to see you!”

The figure stepped into the light.

“Daniel?”

David ran forward and threw his arms around him.

“I didn’t know you were released from the hospital?”

Daniel returned the hug.

“I didn’t say anything because I wasn’t sure if I would be released early or not. I just wanted to stop by for the night and then head out in the morning.”

David stepped back and guided Daniel towards the Mess Hall.

“Have you had dinner yet? Everyone is finishing up right now so if you would like something to eat I could get it for you.”

Daniel linked an arm around David’s.

“I would love some, thanks!”

David pushed the doors open.

“Look who came to visit!”

Everyone’s jaws dropped.

“You let the fucking cultist in?” Max seethed. He stood on top of the table.

“God, David! You’re so fucking stupid! Why the hell would you bring him back after he almost killed everyone last time.”

David recoiled at the venom in Max’s voice.

“W-What are you talking about? He didn’t try to kill anyone last time he was here.”

The other campers started yelling at him.

David was flustered as he tried to calm the kids down. He could feel the burn of tears rising to his eyes.

I don’t know what’s wrong! Why is everyone so upset? I don’t know why they’re so mad at me? I don’t know what to do!

“Quiet!”

David looked at Daniel. The campers instantly shut up.

Daniel was taking deep breaths to calm himself down. He grinned widely and walked passed their tables.

“David didn’t know I was coming but even then, I will NOT tolerate this behavior. You are all done eating so clean up and go to your tents. Now.”

The campers, unsettled by Daniel’s unusual behavior quietly did as told. Only Max, Nikki, and Neil remained.

“You can’t tell us what to do! You’re not even a counselor here anymore.”

Daniel walked forward until he was face-to-face with Max.

“Max. I asked you to do something and I expect you to do it. I told you politely but if you test me any further I will show you what Zemoog’s laws instruct me to do when dealing with obstacles.”

Max stepped back. Fear flashed across his face for a moment before it became a glare again.

“I don’t know why your back but I will figure it out and I will make you regret it.” Daniel cracked his neck and grinned.

“Oh, Max. I’m not staying. I am only spending the night and then I will leave in the morning. I hope to be gone before you all have even woken up.”

Daniel backed away.

“David, don’t worry about the hostility, I told you before I came to visit you! Now let’s go eat together and you can tell me how your day was.”

Daniel pushed him into the kitchen.

David sighed and pressed his eyes hard with his fingers. “I’m sorry I’m not very cheerful today. You deserve a better welcome than the one you got. It’s just… today was stressful.”

Daniel frowned and pulled up a folded chair that was propped on the wall. He sat David down on it and served himself some food. He got a plate for David as well.

“Take a deep breath, David. Don’t let the negativity poison you. Why was today stressful?”

David felt better after taking a breath.

“Today was Parent’s Day. I invited the parents of all the campers to come see how their kids were enjoying camp but I forgot that this camp is a mix-mash of many camps. The owner offered so many different camps to get parents to fund it and so not everything in their pamphlets was accurate. The parents were annoyed for a bit but the day worked out. When we were performing the camps that the parents signed them up for, I didn’t know what Max’s camp was and found out that his parents didn’t even sign him up for one. They just wanted him out of their lives. There is no contact information either so neither Gwen nor I could get a hold of them. I never knew Max’s folks were so cold so instead of pretending like everything was fine, we treated him to dinner. Campbell got arrested because of that and now Gwen and I are in charge of the camp.”

David started to sniffle.

“I j-just don’t know what to d-do.”

Daniel patted David’s back.

“David, you are the kindest adult I have ever met. You radiate the purity of a child. I do not want to see that purity tainted by the lies and deceit of others around you.”

Daniel tilted David’s head up to face him.

“I would like you to go to your cabin and wait for me. I’m gonna make you a drink and then we can do a ritual my religion does in order to free ourselves from all of the toxic negativity in our bodies.”

David sniffed and nodded. He stood up, hugged Daniel again and walked over to his cabin.

Daniel watched David walk out of the Mess Hall. He turned to the suitcase he had brought with him and pulled out his packet of Kool-Aid. He quickly made it in a bowl and poured it into a cup. Then he took out a little bottle and poured the contents in. He dropped the bottle on the ground. Daniel made sure that his sacrificial knife was hidden completely before leaving the building. He noted that no one was outside before he made his way to David’s cabin.

“Here, David.” He closed the door behind him.

“I hope this makes you feel better.”

David gave him a weak smile and took the cup in his hand. Daniel pulled out his suitcase as David slowly sipped the drink.

“I wanted to thank you for your kindness, David.”

Daniel held out a white bandanna.

“You always wear that yellow bandanna so I got you this white one to wear as well.”

David set the half-empty cup down on the desk.

“I really appreciate this, Daniel! You’re so nice! I’m glad we’re friends!”

David took off his yellow camp shirt and tied the white bandanna around his neck.

“What do you think?”

Daniel looked at him.

Even though he isn’t completely wearing white, it is enough for the ritual to be completed successfully.

“I think it looks wonderful on you, David.”

Daniel gestured to the cup.

“If you want to finish your drink really quick, I can ask my Lord for his blessing on you and free you from this negative-rich environment.”

David smiled at Daniel and downed the rest of the cup.

“You really cheered me up today, Daniel. It’s nice to be around such a positive person.”

Daniel smiled.

“If you could lay down on your bed and then close your eyes, I’ll ask my Lord for his blessing upon you. Then you’ll never have to worry again.”

David closed his eyes and laid down on his bed, one arm lying by his side and his other hand on his chest.

Daniel turned the light off in the cabin. David jumped at the sudden darkness.

“Don’t worry! It’s part of the ritual.”

Daniel unsheathed the knife and approached David’s vulnerable form.

“Oh, great Lord and protector of all. I ask for thine blessing on this pure man, David. Save him from the cruelty and strife wrought upon him by the energies that encompass him. “

He held the knife out in his palms. It glinted in the moonlight. He grasped the handle in his hand and raised it above David’s stomach.

“Holy and Reverent Zemoog, protector of the innocent. Take this innocent into your loving embrace and welcome him in the paradise that eludes him as a mortal.”

He brought the knife down.

“Nooooo!”

#cc david #cc max #cc daniel #cc gwen #cc nikki #cc neil #camp camp #camp camp fanfiction

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