#and peter jackson invented romance

[catofadifferentcolor]

Terrible Fic Idea #87: Percy Jackson, but make it MCU

Look, I didn't want to come up with yet another crazy PJO crossover, but here I am. Because instead of just coming up with the lightest, fluffiest, gayest PJO romance possible - which is what I wanted - I had to turn it into an MCU identity reveal fic too.

Or: What if post-ToA Percy Jackson was Peter Parker's caseworker following Aunt May's untimely death?

Just imagine it:

Tony Stark first meets Percy Jackson in the ICU of Metropolitan General the day after Peter and his aunt are caught in a terrible subway accident. May dies on scene. Even with his advanced healing, Peter is badly injured and taken to the nearest hospital - where it quickly becomes apparent he's Enhanced. It takes about 24 hours for the news to make its way to Tony, who immediately storms the hospital with the intention of taking Peter back to his Tower to heal-

-only to be told Peter's not going anywhere by the social worker assigned to the case.

This is remarkable for many reasons, not the least because the social worker is an unassuming, overworked 27-year-old wearing Finding Nemo socks and a faded Save the Oceans t-shirt. That the case worker - Percy Jackson - stands his ground in the face of Iron Man's wrath is even more remarkable, but Tony is forced to admit the kid has a point: he can't just let someone without any obvious connection to a minor walk off with said minor, particularly when that minor is Enhanced.

It takes Tony a couple days to get his ducks in a row, proving that he is not only able and willing to take in Peter, but is the one his aunt wanted to take care of him in the event something happened to her. During that time he has JARVIS research everything he can on Percy (lives in a Central Park penthouse owned by his long-time boyfriend, a successful music producer; volunteers for a NPO started by his best friend dedicated to restoring the wild; brief stint as the youngest ever on the FBI's most wanted, etc), but finds nothing to suggest he's anything other than a social worker trying to do what's best for his charges.

Percy becomes a semi-regular fixture at the Tower. At first it's just business, checking in on how Peter is doing and facilitating the foster care/adoption paperwork. Later it becomes something akin to friendship, with Percy being utterly unimpressed by Tony's fame but remarkably charmed by his inventions and philanthropic efforts. (He also comes to have strong feelings about the Rogues and their actions during the Civil War once he learns of them, helping Tony to see their betrayal for what it is. This alone makes him one of Rhodey and Pepper's favorite people.)

This goes on for quite some time - though I see this as happening post-CACW, we don't jump straight into the Infinity War, with there being several years wherein the Accords are ratified, the Rogues found and tried for their actions in the Civil War, and for the most part allowed to return to the Avengers on a probationary basis - until Thor finally arrives with news of Thanos' impending arrival.

Only Percy happens to be visiting when Thor arrives and the Avengers naturally have questions after Thor addresses him as Prince Perseus.

The truth of Percy's identity comes out in fits and starts (demigod son of Poseidon, saved the world a couple times, ascended to become God of Heroes, Natural Disasters, and Poison as well as Patron God of New York City; has been dating Apollo since he was fourteen; yes, is actually a social worker, albeit one who takes cases across the country to protect demigods and Enhanced), which is not helped by Thor (who can't help but comment on what he knows of Percy's heroics) or Apollo (who shows up after Percy texts an SOS but can't help but talk up his boyfriend either.)

The Infinity War still happens, albeit rather differently than in canon - perhaps Thanos turns out to be a disgruntled child or sibling of Gaia out for revenge, justifying Greek/Roman interference? But the details don't really matter as much as the identity reveal.

And... that's really all I have with regards to plot. But there should be a lot of character moments leading up to the reveal that hint at who Percy really is but which don't form a coherent narrative until the truth is revealed.

Bonuses include:

The softest, fluffiest romance possible for Apollo and Percy, with the pair more or less falling head over heels at first sight at the start of TTC, having their first kiss at the party at the end of the book, and dating throughout the rest of the Titan War. Apollo goes absolutely batshit insane when Percy goes missing at the start of HOO and breaks out of Olympus to crash the Senate meeting at the end of SoN and check on his boyfriend, and eventually gets made mortal for helping too much during the Giant War. The broad strokes of ToA occur with Percy fighting at his now-mortal boyfriend's side, and Percy ascends to godhood when Apollo regains his. There's some tension (Zeus is not happy about his firstborn son's choice of lover, fearing overthrow; Poseidon fears Apollo will end up breaking Percy's heart, but softens after Percy ascends and his chance of becoming a flower diminishes; many CHB campers think Percy's mad for dating a god, etc) but for the most part it should be as fluffy as circumstances allow.

Percy having been really obvious about his background, but in ways that seem reasonable ("How did you meet your boyfriend?" "I was at a really bad party when a friend ended up calling her brother to pick us up early. I fell in love with his car and then with him.") or like jokes ("Those sea turtles really seem to like you." "I like them too." "I guess they're kind of cute." "Excellent conversationalists too.") until the full truth comes out; and

Thor attempting to make up for blowing Percy's cover in dramatic (and hilarious) ways. This should include the gift of at least one native Asgardian water plant ("Dude, have you never heard of invasive species?") and end in a bakery's worth of Asgardian baked goods.

And that's all I have, though given the way this has been living rent-free in my head all week there may be more. As always feel free to adopt this bun, just link back if you do anything with it.

More PJO Ideas | More Terrible Fic Ideas

#plot bunny #fic ideas #percy jackson #percy jackon and the olympians #pjo #marvel cinematic universe #mcu #team iron man #tony stark #peter parker #apollo #percy x apollo #identity reveal #soft romance #crossover #god percy #childhood sweethearts #heros of olympus #hoo #trials of apollo #toa #lester papadopoulos #thor odinson #riodanverse

[thebestofoneshots]

do you mind to tell me your fav book and fav film?

Another super hard question because I’m absolutely terrible at picking just one thing, but imma try.

Book: Peter Pan or The Portrait of Dorian Gray

Peter Pan has been my favorite since forever, the book is a bit darker than all of the films and I find that very appealing too. I know, “it’s a children’s book” but I still think is freaking great.

And there is just something about Dorian’s talks with Lord Henry that just embrace crude hedonism in a crazy most literal way, and the way he talks to Dorian about society, I mean this guy almost invented the corruption arc, and in love it.

Other book recs: Percy Jackson or anything from Rick Riordan, The Midnight Library, The Night Circus, The Martian, Howl’s Moving Castle, The Giver saga, The Magicians, Anne of Green Gables, The Borrowers, The Secret Garden, All the Young Dudes, Cirque du Freak, The Theory of Everything (comfort book), Freaking Romance, Operation True Love, Mystic Prince, Unholly Blood [Last four are webtoons] <- when I say I can’t pick this is literally what I mean.

Favorite Film:

This one is a lot harder because I love movies and I would consider myself a bit of a film nerd, tbh, so again, in no order in particular:

Tick, Tick… Boom! [Jonny’s lyrics just resonate], Peter Pan (2003), Hook, Howl’s Moving Castle, Peter Pan return to Neverland [Jane is me, I am Jane], Brave, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Eragon, Casper, Harry Potter: Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, Cirque du Freak, Robin Hood, Cloud Atlas, CA: Winter Soldier, Thor: Dark World [nobody likes it but Loki kills me in this one], Ex Machina and Arriety.

Side note: I feel like a great way to actually get to know me is to know my favorite tv shows of all time, so I’m also adding those:

Supernatural, Doctor Who, Moon Knight and BBC’s Sherlock

I totally failed at picking just one

#ask lilly #lilly talks #my favs #omg I’ve never gotten this kind of asks and I’m loving them #thanks for asking annon

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this Week #116 (Year 3/Week 12):

  🍿

The Maid by Chilean director Sebastián Silva is my favorite film of the week! A perfectly simple drama about the life of a live-in housekeeper. After 23 years of humble domestic service, aging, still-virgin Raquel is loyal to the large family that employs her, and becomes protective of her job, when they hire a second maid to help her. 10/10

🍿  

Alejandro Jodorowsky’s latest movie, Endless Poetry, is the second part and sequel of his surreal auto-biography, after ‘Dance of Reality’. Visually-rich, excessively avant-garde and inventive as always. 5/10.

🍿 

Pacifiction, my first Polynesian tour de force (actually it’s an international co-production, directed by Catalan provocateur Albert Serra). Picked by ‘Cahiers du Cinéma’ as the Best film for 2022. A moody and very slow-burn, it’s supposedly a political thriller that leisurely rolls on, aimlessly and with great intensity. The story of the French High Commissioner in Tahiti is about colonialism, white privilege and the entitled ruling class, a Graham Greene for the modern age.

Mysterious and intriguing, it reminded me of ‘The Conversation’, my all-time favorite Coppola’s, even though they had nothing in common on the surface. For nearly 3 hours of incredibly-building atmosphere it felt like a unique, transforming film experience. But then - it suddenly cut off and ended! Without any resolution, or conclusion, or even just an acknowledgement. It’s as if the last 10 pages of the script were ripped out before the end-titles. Very disappointing!

It also featured a traditional dancer, Shannah, in one of the best transgender roles I’ve ever seen.

I was planning on following this up with another of Serra’s controversial films, the pornographic ‘Liberté’ (about an orgy in the forest), but Pacifiction’s ending bummed me out so much, so I’ll keep that for another time. So only 5/10.

🍿

The Kid with a Bike, my second by the Belgian Dardenne brothers (after ‘The elephant and the butterfly’). A sad story of a difficult childhood: A 12-year-old boy had been abandoned by his father, and eventually finds some solace with a kind hairdresser. 9/10.

🍿    

5 more from Jean-Pierre Jeunet:

🍿 “Did no one ever wonder how a young waitress afforded such sophisticated decoration for a flat in Montmartre, one of Paris’s most expensive districts?”

Jeunet has just re-cut and released his 2001 comedy‘ The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain’ as a short film which reveals that Amélie was actually a KGB spy.     

🍿 A Very Long Engagement, a toned-down World War 1 fairy tale romance starring Audrey Tautou (and Jodie Foster). Bleak and surrealistic, it reminded me of Peter Jackson’s ‘They shall not grow old’. 9/10.

🍿 As a life-long (53.5 years) vegetarian, I never mustered the courage to watch his uncomfortably meat-heavy, post-apocalyptic Delicatessen, until now. A grotesque, black comedy nightmare, starring the rubber-face Dominique Pinon (who played in all his movies the last 35 years), Modern day Hieronymus Bosch canvas, wilder than Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, as surrealist as Fellini at his ‘The Clowns’ best.

I was planning on seeing also his Delicatessen-related ‘The city of lost children’, but to be honest, his overindulgent style was too much in large dozes, so I’ll keep it for another week.

🍿 Two snails go away, a quirky animated short based on a poem by Jacques Prévert, each line read by another of his many life-long collaborators.

🍿 My favorite of his is still Nonsense (Foutaises - “Things I Like, Things I Hate”) from 1989, one of the greatest shorts in Cinema IMO. [Copy is in French with no English subtitles].

🍿

I was happy to finally find a free copy of Truffaut’s romantic The Last Metro, which I haven’t seen in over 40 years, and which I always recalled as one of his best love triangles. Well, it’s top-tier maybe, but not ‘best’. Catherine Deneuve is at her most magnificence, and the score by Georges Delerue is beautiful too. Very close to ‘Day for night’ thematically, it was the 2nd part of a planned 'Entertainment world’ trilogy. (Photo Above).

🍿  

2 films about reading aloud:

🍿 Las Analfabetas, another wonderful story, my 3rd Chilean movie of the week. This one about an illiterate middle-aged woman who reluctantly learns to read, thanks to the insistence of a young teacher. 8/10.

🍿 The reader, my first (disappointing) film with French actress Miou-Miou. A literary male-gaze, Chinese-box parable about a woman who places an ad in the paper, offering an in-home reading-aloud service. As she comes into their homes, the stories that she reads to them become part of her story, moving in and out of their lives. 2/10.

🍿   

The Cabin is a quiet, meditative little movie about identity, that has no reviews on line! Like Antonioni’s David Locke (in ’The Passanger’), a restless man from Luxembourg is trying to escape his life, and it’s not clear why. But instead of the Sahara desert, he drops off an Arctic cruise at the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, wishing to go further, to the edge of the world. There’s a cabin out in the wilderness he dreams about. But also a 7-year old daughter that he left behind, without any explanations. Enigmatic mystery that does not offer closure. 7/10.

🍿    

Fucking Åmål, what it is like to be a teenager in a small Swedish town in the 1990s. A sweet budding romance between two awkward girls who feel they don’t belong.

"Varför måste vi bo i fucking jävla kuk-Åmål?" (Translation: “Why the hell do we have to live in fucking Åmål?”

🍿  

The Gunfighter, mustachioed Gregory Peck as the notorious Jimmy Ringo, the "fastest gun in the West". Another tight, well-told western with 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Bonus: The gunfighter (2014), with Nick Offerman’s mellifluous voice breaking the Forth Wall - always good for a fun re-watch.

🍿    

Timbuktu, my first award-winning masterpiece from Mauritania, by Malian film director Abderrahmane Sissako. Another harrowing story of terror in the barren Sahara desert. Senseless religious laws imposed by a patriarchal and fanatic group on simple villagers. A heart-breaking tragedy - 10/10.

Here’s the scene of the forbidden football match played with an imaginary ball.

🍿    

After the difficult, depressing ‘Timbuktu’, I had to palate-cleanse into something more hopeful, so what’s better than Chaplin’s first full-feature, the uber-sentimental The Kid (whose name was - surprise! -’John’!). A perennial favorite, a perfect balance between comedy and drama, painfully autobiographical.

🍿    

2 films about Catholic priests "molesting” children:

🍿 Deliver Us from Evil, a sad 2006 Oscar nominated documentary about one California priest who raped dozens of California kids, only to be protected by the monstrous Catholic church, as per their habit for thousands of years. A tedious narrative, well-known for decades, it follows one priest, one bishop and a couple of little girls. It gives the priest and his esteemed defenders a respectable deference, because - ‘religion’. It lets them uses passive-tense euphemisms in every sentence, even when acknowledging guilt: “The wrongs that may have happened”, “to whom I may have offended”, “I was not made aware at that particular time”.... - Utterly disgusting and hard to watch.

🍿 So I “had to” go back and watch Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight again which I saw many times, including last year. It’s a perfect ‘All the cardinal’s men’ story in every way, from every single cast member, to the Howard Shore score, to the way the story unfolds, and the investigation develops, to the emotional balance of each scene. NOT anti-Catholic, for sure. 10/10.

“If kids got raped by clowns as often as they get raped by priests, it would be against the law to take your kids to the circus”.

🍿  

Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed, a sweet Spanish period piece about a 40-something, bald and bespectacled teacher who’s a die-hard Beatles-fan, and who drives to Almeria, hoping to meet John Lennon where they are shooting his 1966 ‘How I won the war’.

I couldn’t sit through Hamesh Patel’s ‘Yesterday’, and I haven’t seen any of the other fictionalized/Inspired-by Beatles Fan Movies, but this had just the right balance of gentleness and melancholy. 7/10.

🍿  

2 more about L.A.:

🍿 How Movies Design Los Angeles (And Which One Got it Right), by Colombian José María Luna is a video essay of the kind I usually dislike, but it grew on me. Inspired by ‘Los Angeles Plays Itself‘ and peppered with quotes from Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs, it postulated that movies have always shown the past as LA's golden years. But it ends by finding in Spike Jonze’s ‘Her’ a positive vision of the city - Nostalgia of the future. 7/10.

It got me itching to re-watch many films I saw ('La la land’, A marriage story’, ‘Singing in the rain’, ‘L.A. Confidential’) and others I haven’t yet (’Boyz in the hood’, 'Babylon’).

🍿 And because of the clips with limo-driver Paul Giamatti, I tried on the sentimental Saving Mr. Banks, not usually my thing. The Disney entertainment machine working full-time to create the myth of Uncle Walt the deity, but the fictional daughter-father bonds worked on me. So 5/10.

🍿  

Another random pick from the list of films with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, The Dog Who Wouldn't Be Quiet is a recent, strange film from Argentina. It tells of a random series of weird events in the life of some guy, from having his neighbors complain about his dog, to a meteor that poison the air above 4 feet. The guy soldiered on stoically through obstacles and hardships, but I didn’t get the point of the movie - 3/10.

🍿    

Re-watch: The Tin Drum, the German adaptation of Günter Grass’s masterpiece. The Danzig trilogy won him the Nobel for literature, and this film won the Oscar in 1980. German history of the 20th century told in Magical Realistic style. I liked the book better.

🍿  

'Chunky’, a terrific compilation of great dance moves from vintage movies, by awesome editor YouTuber ‘Trampsta’. More editing goodness by him on his channel.

🍿  

Whats Buzzin Buzzard, a 1943 Tex Avery MGM cartoon about two turkey vultures, that deals with the then current food shortage.

🍿  

2 films I couldn’t finish:

🍿 After watching the guy from ‘Great Art Explained’ channel talks about Georges Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, I thought I’ll try Ferris Bueller's Day Off. But I didn’t get to the scene where they visit the Art Institute in Chicago and see the artwork, as I had to bail after 20 minutes, I guess I’m just too old.

🍿 I also did try on a whim the new lightweight Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game, but it seemed like an irritating first film student effort where the only appeal is the main character’s GINORMOUS mustache. Not among the worst films I’ve ever seen, but I had to turn it off after 11 minutes.

🍿  

Throw-back to the "Art project”: 

Disney Adora.

Adora as The kid.

🍿

(My complete movie list is here)

#movies

[decadentpostnachos-evil-twin]

I've got something to say, Amazon.

The following photos are from an article published by Vanity Fair.

Honestly, I can see her as Galadriel, but why the fuck is she wearing the Feanorian star on her armour?

Also "Commander of the Northern armies" who?

This is Prince Durin IV

He existed and the character design is not too bad. Okay.

Princess Disa. Where is the beard? It's explicitly stated, that female Dwarves also had beards. Oh, and she doesn't exist in Tolkien lore. Wow.

For anyone who didn't notice because he looks like the guy you accidentely ran into at the grocery store this is an elf.

His name is Arondir, he's Silvan, he never existed in Tolkiens universe. Yeah. Immortal, etheral being that does not look entirely human and can be told apart from menkind by the biggest idiot walking upon earth...by the ears I guess.

Elrond. I don't know what to say...Half-Elf, they said. I'm sorry, but he doesn't even look 1/8 elven to me. But neither does Arondir, so...

"Elrond and Galadriel reunited in the Kingdom of Lindon" (I hope I got that right...)

What am I supposed to say? Looks like Daenerys' cousin and some dude. They don't look like they're descendants of the House of Finwë and I'm going to cry.

This is Halbrand. He's new. Say hi to Halbrand who also didn't exist before. Vanity Fair made it seem like he's gonna be important, and I am scared.

Oh, this? The tragic, forbidden elven-human romance between Arondir and his girlfriend Bronwin (Amazon also invented her...)

Sooo, conclusion:

Amazon just went bibiti bobiti boo on Tolkiens legendarium and recycled the whole thing. My heart hurts, I'm gonna pass out one of these days.

It feels like they just bought all of the books, ripped them apart page by page and then letter by letter and just...tried to puzzle them together again, and failed.

I saw the trailer, and it looks pretty the whole set and all, but I couldn't watch this and see what they did to Tolkien's legendarium. I couldn't. I'd go mad.

When I heard of this series, I was actually looking forward to it, but as soon as the first photos were leaked? I lost all hope. I honestly fear that they are going to pull a Percy Jackson on Tolkien.

Cue Celebrimor struggling to lift the forging hammer bc of his advanced age

I know that this is not nice, but what the hell did they do to him? I mean, why cast a 52 year old man for the role of an elf that is (in comparison) more of a young adult?

I'm not going to comment on the costumes..You can practically see the lack of love and thought put into them...

I'm happy they left Glorfindel alone (hopefully) and mad about what they did to Finrod.

And now I'm going to watch the Peter Jackson movies all over again...

#rings of power #tolkien #lord of the rings #amazon #amazon rings of power #tolkien legendarium #tolkien lore

[chrancecriber]

Radio NET Bulgaria (November 16, 2022)

23:58 EVERETTE HARP - Wait 4 U 23:54 PIECES OF A DREAM - In Too Deep 23:50 DEAN JAMES - Planet Smooth 23:46 COOL SPRING JAZZ QUARTET - Angels We Have Heard On High 23:43 JS FLOYD - Sunrise 23:38 LIN ROUNTREE - Release 23:35 BENNETT B - Above The Clouds 23:30 ROB SABADO - Spice Of Life 23:26 BOB BALDWIN - Unthinkable 23:22 DEAN GRECH - What Do You Want This Year For Christmas 23:18 TOM BRAXTON - The J Factor 23:13 PETER WHITE - Our Dance 23:09 BONEY JAMES - Fortuneteller 23:05 BK JACKSON - Feelin' Saxy 23:00 EUGE GROOVE - Gimme 6 22:58 STAN CROWN - Not Invented Love (Original Mix) 22:56 SPOR - Pacifica (Acoustic Version) 22:50 TONY IGY - Astronomia (Chillout Mix) 22:47 ASKERY - With You 22:41 SIMON LE GREC - Decisions (Delor Mix) 22:36 ASTRID SURYANTO - Distant Bar (Original Mix) 22:33 SOUND BEHAVIOUR - Arena 22:28 D-PULSE - Velocity Of Love (Original) 22:24 SKYE - Feel Good Inc 22:19 SINOPTIK MUSIC - Black Islands 22:15 SOTY - Circle (Original Mix) 22:11 SIMON G - Crazy (Original Mix) 22:08 TRACEY THORN - Night Time (Original Mix) 22:01 TRENTEMOLLER - Miss You (Lulu Rouge Feat. Asger Baden Remix) 21:55 TRANZLIFT - Heaven's Shore (Magdelayna's Chilled Remake) 21:50 SMOOTH DELUXE - Dream Of Insomnia 21:46 TOKYO COUNTERPOINT - To The Sky (Lemongrass Free Bird Remix) 21:43 HIATUS & SHURA - Fortune's Fool 21:38 HESS IS MORE - Yes Boss 21:33 HEIKO - Miles Away 21:28 CAFE DEL MAR - Mandalay (Beautiful) 21:22 GREEN POINT ORCHESTRA - Miriam Dub 21:18 YORK, ASHENI - Iceflowers (Original Mix) 21:13 CHAKRA - I Am (Vox Mix) 21:08 REY SALINERO - Total Delight 21:03 CHICANE, TRACY ACKERMAN - No Ordinary Morning (Original Mix) 20:56 VITODITO, SARA POLLINO - The Song I Promised You (Chillout Mix) 20:53 CHICANE, KATE WALSH - Playing Fields (Original Mix) 20:50 MOTIF, LENA BELGART - Halo (Original Mix) 20:44 BEN GOLD, SENADEE - Today (Chilled Datt Remix) 20:40 POCHILL - Constanta 78 20:36 PIXALEND - Maritime Sadness 20:31 PETE MURRAY - So Beautiful (Acoustic Version) 20:28 VITO FOGNINI, CARI - True To Myself (Original Mix) 20:22 VLAD ZHUKOV - Nothing (W&D Chill Out Vocal Mix) 20:17 TITIYO - Come Along (Naid Remix) 20:11 RED - Pieces 20:05 PREMASARA COUNCIL - Sensual Ecstasy 20:00 PAUL ADAM - Backwards (Original Mix) 19:55 NUAGE, N4M3 - Sunday Morning (Original Mix) 19:52 MODJO - Lady (Acoustic Version) 19:49 CLAES ROSEN, NATALIE PERIS - Stay (Original Mix) 19:44 GABRIELA MENDEZ FUENTE - Romance in Ibiza (Orchester Lite Edit) 19:38 20SABANCI - As Faces Fade (Domenico Cascarino & Luca Lombardi Chill Out Remix) 19:34 PAROV STELAR - You Got Me There 19:30 HARD GREY, HOUSE REPUBLIC - Music Sounds Better With You (Eat More Cake Remix) 19:26 GUSHI, RAFFUNK - Travel (Lemongrass Couch Remix) 19:24 HARDWELL, COLLIN McLOUGHLIN - Call Me A Spaceman (Unplugged Version) 19:20 OCEAN DRIVE, DJ ORISKA - Without You (Acoustic Version) 19:16 COSMIC GATE, EMMA HEWITT - Be Your Sound (Live Acoustic Version) 19:12 NOMOSK - Don't Hold Back (Soty & Seven24 Chillout Remix) 19:08 CUEBRICK - Safe (C-Systems Alternative Mix) 19:02 NO HORIZONS, SHEEMA - Summer Son 18:57 NITIN SAWHNEY - Breathing Light 18:54 NIK LLOYD - Number 1 (Acoustic Cover) 18:45 RED BUDDHA, LINDA WONG ENSEMBLE - Stone Buddha 18:40 REUNITED - Sing It Back (Shazz Man Chill Mix) 18:34 RAYAN MYERS - Pleasant Calmness (Original Mix) 18:29 POLISHED CHROME - Secret Of Sound (Album Version) 18:24 RICHARD MARX - Right Here Waiting 18:20 RUSSELL SIMINS - Comfortable Place 18:17 RUTH ANN - Beautiful 18:13 DJ CHART, DOBA, PRINCESS LARISSA - Danger Games 18:07 BRAVE - The Muse (Chill Out Mix) 18:04 DISCO FRIES, NIKO THE KID - The Light (Acoustic Version) 18:01 DEEP'N PURE, RADBOY - R We Ever Gonna Be (Original Mix) 17:57 MAX MILLION - Do You Believe (Original Mix) 17:53 ZAZA, JORGE NAVA - Broken (Chill Mix) 17:50 ZARA TAYLOR, SNATT & VIX - No Angel (Zetandel Chill Out Mix) 17:46 JIMMY ROQSTA, THALYA HILL - Endless Summer Dance (El Gambrero Remix) 17:40 ATB - Remember That Day 17:36 FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE - Seven Devils 17:30 TENISHIA, KIRSTY HAWKSHAW - Falling (Original Mix) 17:25 YIRUMA - River Flows In You (N-Drew Fate Remix) 17:21 YIRUMA, RUVIN - River Flows In You 17:16 LEO ROJAS - Friendship 17:12 KENNY G - My Heart Will Go On 17:08 IIO - Rapture (Lametta Made 2 Chill Remix) 17:04 RADIO KILLER - Lonely Heart (Kenny Hayes Nitelite Mix) 17:00 OXYGENE - The Ocean (Goldtripp Remix) 16:58 MEKIEL REUBEN - Zoraida (A Feel for Hope) 16:54 CAROL ALBERT - Love Again 16:50 2UNES - Rock Steady 16:46 MICHAEL MCDONALD - This Christmas 16:42 DARRYL WILLIAMS - Now or Never (feat. Jonathan Fritzen) 16:38 JOHN NOVELLO - Shuffle the Deck 16:33 RON OTIS - That Feels Good 16:29 JAZZ IN PINK - Roll Out 16:24 NORTH 2UNES WOODALL - 102 Degree 16:21 TOM SCOTT - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas 16:17 FUNKTASTIC PLAYERS - Glad I Met You Tonight 16:13 RICK HABANA - White Sand 16:08 LOWELL HOPPER - Unconditional 16:04 JOHN E. LAWRENCE - Take Em by Storm 16:00 CHILLAXING JAZZ KOLLEKTION - Send My Love 15:58 PETER WHITE - Lovely Day 15:53 KEITH SLATTERY - It'll Be Alright feat. Everette Harp 15:49 KENNEY POLSON - Innocence 15:45 JUSTIN YOUNG - Sleight Ride 15:41 VINCENT IOIA - All Day Music 15:37 EDGARDO CINTRON - Together Again 15:32 CHUCK LOEB - John Leslie (For Wes Montgomery) 15:28 DANIEL CHIA - Life's a Beach 15:24 WILL DONATO - Will Power 15:21 K.VIO, TIM TONIC - Little Snow Flake, Little White Coat 15:17 BRYAN LUBECK - Smoocha 15:13 BONEY JAMES - Drumline 15:09 BK JACKSON - Sounds Of Love 15:04 EUGE GROOVE - Push It Forward 15:00 DREAMING IN COLOUR - Back in the Day (feat. Michael Scherer) 14:59 DARRIUS JAMAR - Back To Love 14:55 DOMINIC CAMARDELLA - I Long 4U 14:51 LES SABLER - Keep Pushin' 14:48 HARPER, GUS AND GOMEZ - Christmas Dream 14:44 SAM BASSMAN JENKINS - Northbound 14:40 SEAN U - Sunburst 14:36 U - NAM 14:31 BIRDS OF A FEATHER - See You Soon 14:27 ADAM HAWLEY - I Don't Mind (Feat. Euge Groove) 14:23 MORGAN JAMES - White Christmas 14:18 DERRICK HARVIN - New Found Love 14:12 BOBBY WELLS - Bella's Pier 14:08 DANNY LERMAN - Snoopy's Dance 14:04 ANDRE DELANO - When Jadon Smiles 14:00 ERIC MARIENTHAL - 21 Ocean Front 13:57 JEREMY HECTOR - I'll Remember 13:53 DAVE BRADSHAW JR. - West Coast Jammin' 13:49 PETER WHITE - How Does It Feel 13:44 RONNY JORDAN - Silent Night 13:41 BEN TANKARD - Like the Dew 13:36 FREDDIE FOX - Sensual 13:32 ANDREY CHMUT - Song For A Friend (feat. U 13:28 GARY MEGGS - Having A Good Day 13:23 DEMETRIUS NABORS - Overjoyed (feat. Doobie Powell) 13:21 SYLVIA BENNETT - Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! 13:17 BRYAN LUBECK - Vineyard Romance 13:13 BONEY JAMES - A Little Attitude 13:09 BK JACKSON - Wait For You 13:04 EUGE GROOVE - Religify 13:00 GABRIEL MARK HASSELBACH - Chill@Will (Raincoast Mix) 12:58 NATE WHITE - Kupenda 12:53 STEVE WATSON - Playtime 12:48 DANA FIELDS - O Holy Night 12:44 RONALD BOO HINKSON - How Can I (Smooth Instrumental) 12:40 ALTHEA RENE - Rock with You 12:35 CHRIS GODBER - Soul Searchin 12:31 FRANK SUTTON - Its Gonna Be A Lovely Day 12:22 SMOOTH SOUL HOLIDAY - Oh Come All Ye Faithful 12:17 UNDER THE LAKE - Diego Nuevo 12:13 CHRIS 'BIG DOG' DAVIS - You Just Smile 12:09 PHILLIP DOC MARTIN - After the Rain 12:04 BILLYRAY SHEPPARD - On My Way Now 12:00 KIRK WHALUM - Desperately 11:57 ROCCO VENTRELLA - Where is The Love 11:54 MAYSA - Joy To The World 11:47 PETER WHITE - Ramon's Revenge 11:43 DAVID PETROSYAN - Dancing with My Soul 11:38 CHASE HUNA - Can't Take My Eyes Off You 11:35 LOUIE FITZGERALD - Keepin' the Groove On 11:29 GEREY JOHNSON - Missing You 11:24 DR. SAXLOVE - Little Drummer Boy 11:19 GERRY SMOOTH - Shifting Gears 11:13 BRYAN LUBECK - Nothing Can Come Between Us 11:09 BONEY JAMES - The Moment 11:05 BK JACKSON - Before I Let Go 11:00 EUGE GROOVE - A Summer's Nights Dream 10:57 EARL KLUGH - I'm Ready For Your Love 10:53 MARQUEAL JORDAN - Come Ride with Me 10:50 CHRISTMAS CAROLS - Christmas Bells 10:47 MARC ANTOINE - Groovy Sunday 10:42 GINO ROSARIA - Pool Party 10:38 GARY MEEK - Midnight Sky 10:33 HIROSHIMA - Brighter Days 10:29 JAKOB MAGNUSSON - Caption This 10:25 DANIEL D. - Let It Snow 10:20 JAREZ - Mr. Sexy Saxy 10:16 KEN POWE - Wish You Were Here 10:12 YULARA - Bridges To Shambhala 10:07 EJAZZ ARTISTRY - Need You Now 10:00 JEFFERY SMITH - Smooth Jazz Soul 09:56 DONALD HAYES - Anytime Anyplace 09:52 DWIGHT SIRLS - In Black & White 09:45 NATHAN WOODWARD - O, Holy Night 09:40 PETER WHITE - Mission 2 Mars 09:35 CHASE HUNA - Into the Sun 09:30 BUTCH, RHONDA COLEMAN - Bean's Groove 09:26 JULIAN VAUGHN - Waiting For You 09:22 GEREY JOHNSON - Like We Used Too 09:19 TON SMITH - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (feat. Preston Smith and Oliver Scott) 09:15 DON VINO - Worried (Feat. Tye Platinum) 09:11 SKINNY HIGHTOWER - Force 09:08 BRYAN LUBECK - Top Down 09:04 BONEY JAMES - Hand In Hand 09:00 BK JACKSON - Believe That 08:54 EUGE GROOVE - Knocki Knocki Who's There 08:50 JACK JEZZRO - Happy Holiday 08:45 MICHAEL ROSS - On the Beach with You 08:40 TIM BOWMAN - Rapture 08:37 SHAWN RAIFORD - Magic Man 08:32 SPECIAL EFX - Deep as the Night 08:27 EARNEST WALKER JR - Bourbon Chill 08:23 BRADLEY LEIGHTON - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town 08:17 MICHAEL MANSON - Sundance 08:13 ILYA SEROV - Heat (feat. DAVE KOZ) 08:09 A & MARK R. HARRIS - Westside Memoirs (feat. Ignacio Nunez & Dean Rickard) 08:03 DARREN RAHN - Give 'n' Take 08:00 SPONTANEOUS GROOVIN' COMBUSTION - Guaruja 07:57 AVENUE BLUE - That's the Way of the World (feat. Jeff Golub) 07:53 PEET PROJECT - Heavy Rain 07:49 GARY METZ - Cruisin' 07:45 SHIN GIWON CHRISTMAS CAROL COLLECTION - Winter Wonderland 07:41 ACOUSTIC ALCHEMY - The Crossing 07:37 BRETTINA - New Day 07:32 PETER WHITE - Reunion 07:28 CHASE HUNA - Mirage 07:23 BUTCH, RHONDA COLEMAN - Train 07:21 JONATHAN BUTLER - Deck The Halls 07:17 GEREY JOHNSON - Silk Dress 07:12 DON VINO - They Were Here (Feat. Vicky Sampson) 07:08 CHRISTIAN DE MESONES, DEBORA GALAN - Sweetnight 07:04 BRYAN LUBECK - Noon Groove 07:00 BONEY JAMES - Futuresoul 06:57 BK JACKSON - Find Your Way 06:51 EUGE GROOVE - Faithful Central 06:47 PEGGY DUQUESNEL - Christmas Is Here 06:42 JAY ROWE, MARION MEADOWS - The Reunion 06:37 CHAZZY GREEN - It's Time to Play 06:33 GARY PALMER - Misunderstanding 06:29 JEFF LORBER FUSION - Mind Reader 06:25 EVAN CARYDAKIS - Will I See You Again 06:22 ART MORRIS - Silent Night 06:17 J. WHITE - Keep Shining 06:13 PAUL TAYLOR - Countdown 06:08 POP'N BOSSA - It Will Rain 06:04 MARION MEADOWS - On the Uptown 06:00 CAL HARRIS JR. - The Touch 05:55 LISA ADDEO - What Cha' Know About That 05:51 JOE MCBRIDE, THE TEXAS RHYTHM CLUB - Oi Gata 05:46 MARK ETHEREDGE - For Your Love (Feat. Chuck Loeb) 05:42 YOLANDA RABUN - Wishing You a Very Merry Christmas 05:38 ERIC DARIUS - Broke Down 05:35 PAUL TUVMAN - Here Comes the Sun 05:31 JEANETTE HARRIS - 12 57 (feat. Marcus Anderson) 05:27 MARCIN NOWAKOWSKI - Give And Take 05:24 DAVE KOZ - Summertime in NYC 05:20 AARON BING - White Christmas 05:16 JODY MAYFIELD - Sunshine and Rain (feat. Heidi McLaughlin) 05:12 AL DEGREGORIS - Tranquility 05:08 PETER WHITE - Mister Magic 05:04 ROB TARDIK - Let's Get Together 05:00 QUINTIN GERARD W. - Candlelight Flight with Me 04:57 EUGE GROOVE - Another Sad Love Song 04:52 JOY RIDE - Bisso Baba 04:49 VANN BURCHFIELD - Being With You 04:45 SHAKATAK - Blue Christmas 04:41 WALTER BEASLEY - Barack's Groove 04:36 WARREN HILL - La Dolce Vita 04:32 DAVID BENOIT - Long Journey Home 04:27 JOYCE COOLING - Mm 04:23 DANCING FANTASY - Bon Voyage 04:21 JAMES BOWMAN III - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas 04:17 WILL SUMNER - Pier Groove 04:12 DIRK K - Blu Sky 04:08 BRAD ALEXANDER - Sunrise on I15 04:03 KIM WATERS - Easy Going 04:00 BRIAN SIMPSON - Whisper To Me 03:59 PAOLO RUSTICHELLI - My Geisha 03:54 PATRICK YANDALL - You're Never Alone 03:50 THREESTYLE - Vision (feat. Magdalena Chovancova & Robert Fertl) 03:44 KIM SCOTT - Butterfly 03:39 JEFF KASHIWA - You're The One 03:35 ANDRE CAVOR - Without a Doubt 03:31 ZOLBERT - Something 03:26 RAGAN WHITESIDE - Call Me (vocal) 03:22 TONY SAUNDERS - My Real Love 03:18 R.L. WALKER - Only Have Eyes 03:13 ROBERTO VAZQUEZ - Between Two Worlds 03:09 GERALD ALBRIGHT - Where Did We Go Wrong 03:04 PETER WHITE - Pedro Blanco 03:00 WAYMAN TISDALE - If You Want Me to Stay (feat. Kirk Whalum) 03:00 ANDY SNITZER - September '79 02:55 LAWSON ROLLINS - Quest 02:51 ROBERTO RESTUCCIA - Arrival 02:47 ENNY - What's Love Got to Do with It (feat. Marcus Anderson & Matt Cusson) 02:42 TERENCE YOUNG - Love Ballad 02:38 JACKIEM JOYNER - Addicted 02:33 RICK BRAUN - Far Away Places 02:29 ROBERT CHRISTA - Goblins' World 02:25 MARCUS ANDERSON - A Brighter Smile 02:20 PATRICK BRADLEY - Song of May (feat. Darren Rahn) 02:17 DREW DAVIDSEN - InnerSpace 02:12 JACOB WEBB - My Feelings 02:08 JOEL THIBAULT - Summer Vibes 02:04 CHRISTOPHE GOZE - Bossa Roma 02:00 BLAKE AARON - Drive 01:58 THE SMOOTH JAZZ ALLEY - Smooth Jazz Alley 01:54 JAMES LLOYD - Play It Forward 01:50 DR. DAVE, THE HOUSECALL BAND - Almost Trinidad (Revisited Version) 01:45 JAZMIN GHENT - Work Wit' It 01:42 DARRON COOKIE - Pressure Point 01:37 JEFF RYAN - Blue Wave 01:33 RONNY SMITH - Forever Friends 01:27 EVERETT B WALTERS - It's Yo Time 01:23 FRANK MCCOMB - Just Ride (For George Duke) 01:17 JAZZ FUNK SOUL - Fall Departs 01:13 MEZZOFORTE - High Season 01:09 GERALD ALBRIGHT - The Gospel 01:04 PETER WHITE - Kinda Sweet 01:00 CINDY BRADLEY - The Little Things 00:58 GREGG KARUKAS - Your Sweet Smile 00:52 NELSON RANGELL - Like No Tomorrow 00:48 MARK JAIMES - Midnight Rendezvous 00:44 CHRIS STANDRING - Have Your Cake And Eat It 00:39 JIM ADKINS - Passing Through 00:34 GREG MANNING - Bahia 00:30 DANIEL DOMENGE - Patchwork 00:26 BRIAN BROMBERG - Never Give Up 00:21 NAJEE - Isla Hermosa 00:17 ALEXANDER ZONJIC - Motor City Sway 00:13 DEE BROWN - Surrender 00:09 RICHARD ELLIOT - Living Inside Myself 00:04 REZA KHAN - Imaginary Road 00:00 DEON YATES - The Night

#Radio NET Bulgaria #Smooth Jazz #Chillout #Lounge #Downtempo #Ambient #Trance #2022 #November 2022

[elcorhamletlive]

absolutely wild that even one person on this earth has ever shipped anything other than sam and frodo, ever

#in adition to elvish tolkien invented friendship love and etcetera #and peter jackson invented romance

[msotherworldly]

Characters Arcs

When writing a story, whether it be a novel or an epic film, it’s important to have subplots. While all stories should have, in addition to the main plot, something called a “B Plot,” C plots, D plots, and E plots should play a role too. Smaller plots wouldn’t change the entirety of the plot if removed...but when included, they can enhance the main plot, deepening it, and providing a greater meaning to the overall story.

While it isn’t always the case, the B Plot is often the “romance” of a story. While the hero is trying to defeat the bad guy, he develops a friendship or rivalry with a companion, before ultimately falling in love. Of course, romantic or platonic, the best sub plots explore the characters in relation to one another.

These character arcs - the changes to not only the characters themselves, but the evolution of their connection to others - give readers a reason to root for not only your hero, but the whole cast.

The film which exemplifies this point well is the first Lord of the Rings. While the groundwork for these characters, and their relationships, are laid in the book, I will be focusing on the movie version. When adapting Tolkien’s story, Peter Jackson knew the characters had to be more than names on a page. In order to foster a connection between the audience and each member of the fellowship, bonds were strengthened, or even invented, between the various members.

Merry and Pippin & Boromir

The bond between Merry and Pippin is solid in the books, but little is known about Boromir - beyond knowing he’s Denethor’s son, and a future steward of Gondor who attempts to steal the ring from Frodo, there is little else. In the books, he is a tragic figure and a lesson in how destructive the craving for power can be.

In the films, though, he becomes a friend to Merry and Pippin. He teaches them how to fight, and laughs when the two hobbits doggy pile him. It’s only one scene, but it gives us a relationship. When Boromir is later overwhelmed by orcs, it isn’t as punishment for his actions - instead, he redeems himself. He races to the defense of Merry and Pippin, giving his life for them. His death is that much more tragic because of his connection with the two. When they see him fall, he isn’t just their companion - he’s a good friend, who once laughed with them and ultimately died for them.

Aragorn & Boromir

Boromir also has a connection with Aragorn. The sub plot between the pair, which focuses on Aragorn’s mistrust in Gondor and Boromir’s belief in Gondor, is set up before the Merry and Pippin arc, beginning when Boromir drops the fragments of Isildur’s sword to the ground. His comment that these shards are no more than the remains of a broken sword underscores his lack of faith in Gondor needing a king - a point of tension between him, and the man who could be king if he cared to. 

Boromir is an idealist, seeing the best in Gondor and loving it to an almost blind degree. Aragorn, by contrast, seems to care more for the elves than his “own” people. He leads the party towards Lothlorion, home of the elves, but makes a point of avoiding Gondor. He seems to hate Gondor, connecting it with the failure of his ancestor, Isildur; like Aragorn’s antecedent, Gondor is weak. When Aragorn refers to Gondor, he calls it “your city,” to Boromir, rather than theirs.

Following the capture of Merry and Pippin, and the seeming conclusion of their arc, Aragorn swoops in to fight off Boromir’s assailants. Though Aragorn wins, Boromir is fatally wounded. He dies, but not before regarding Aragorn with the respect he would to a king. Aragorn, in turn, seems to have hope for Gondor, promising to do what he can for their people. 

This arc enhances Aragorn’s own character arc in accepting not only Gondor, but his role as it’s king. Boromir is a metaphor and embodiment of Gondor, and Aragorn’s feelings towards him are actually the feelings Aragorn has towards Gondor itself. His relationship with Boromir allows him to verbalize his inner conflict about his homeland, and who he is. In the end, he accepts Boromir as his fellow - along with accepting the city as his. 

He hasn’t accepted his role as king yet, but Boromir’s relationship with him has set him in the right direction.

Gimli & Legolas

Though the relationship between Gimli and Legolas has little effect on the main plot, it adds both humour and character development to the story. Initially, being a dwarf and an elf, the pair are resentful towards one another. Gimli more or less joins the fellowship to one up Legolas, and the two aren’t above making snide remarks towards one another. 

After Gimli’s own experience in Lothlorion, though, when the dwarf realizes that elves can be both kind and beautiful, the dwarf is able to soften towards his companion. Their enmity transitions into a rivalry - they aren’t friends, but they make battles fun by beginning a competition where they try to kill more orcs than the other. As they fight in more battles together, and swap kill numbers at the end of each fight, they develop an actual friendship (in the extended edition of the third film, they even end up drinking together). Their relationship is light hearted, but it adds depth to the story, and makes the audience want to root for the pair.

Both characters are enjoyable on their own, but together they are that much easier to love.

Frodo & Sam

In the books, Sam is Frodo’s gardener and servant. In the movies, he is Frodo’s best friend. While there is still a master and servant relationship between the two, with Sam addressing his friend as “Mr. Frodo,” the term comes to feel more habitual than formal. At the start of the film, the hobbits share drinks. Frodo pushes Sam into his crush, Rosie, and gives Sam assurance when he’s fretting over the competition he has for her affections. 

When Sam eavesdrops on the conversation between Frodo and Gandalf, the wizard decides Sam will pay for his listening in by accompanying Frodo to Bree. On their journey, Sam panics at one point when he thinks he’s lost Frodo. He explains that Gandalf made him promise he wouldn’t “lose” Frodo. 

Even when he’s no longer obligated to follow, Sam insists on joining the fellowship. Elrond notes there is no separating them, secret meeting or not. Later, towards the end of the story, Sam tries to comfort Frodo, citing his promise to look after his master. When the fellowship splits, Sam chases after Frodo. Frodo can go alone, but Sam is coming with him. He repeats the line that is the crux of his bond: he made a promise to Gandalf not to lose Frodo, and he’s going to keep it.

Sam stays with Frodo to the end, even coming back after being sent away at best (and betrayed at worst) by his master in the final movie. While their bond is implicit, the repeated promise, and the ups and downs their relationship takes, adds another layer to the story. Destroying the ring is challenging - not only because of it’s effect on Frodo’s health, but because of how it tests his friendship with someone who proves to be more loyal than most. 

The bond Frodo has with Sam is also integral to the plot. After all, if it weren’t for Sam, Frodo would have been killed. With such a role, Sam needed to be more than a dedicated servant. He needed to be a loyal friend, capable of being tested and still willing to fight for their friendship.

In Conclusion

The set up of these sub plots allows the rest of the movies to be deeper too. While it goes without saying that establishing a connection between Frodo and Sam would improve their shared story arc, other sub plots are revived. 

The connection Boromir shares with Merry and Pippin, for example, becomes integral to Pippin’s own arc. With Merry removed from his side, Pippin is then influenced by none other than Boromir, when guilt over his death pushes Pippin to pledge himself to the service of Boromir’s father, Denethor. 

Gimli and Legolas go on to have journeys together, and start another body count contest in the third film (where an elephant “still only counts as one” when Legolas dispatches it).

New sub plots are also introduced, such as the bitterness between Faramir and Denethor, but most of the plots are established in the first movie. The relationships between characters make the story matter, and carry it through; the groundwork laid by these bonds even sparks new storylines. Even after his death, Boromir’s relationship with Pippin influences his actions. 

#writing inspiration #writing advice #writing #lotr movies #lord of the rings #lotr #character arcs #sub plots #writing tips #writing blog #writing community #book blogger #book blog #hobbits #fantasy books #book plotting #authors #writers #writers of tumblr #writers life #tolkien

[lightsonparkave]

HAPPY TWO-YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO LIGHTS ON PARK AVE! 🎂🎉 In celebration of LoPA’s birthday (August 22, to be exact), all of the prompts from the previous year are up for grabs.

Round 24 will end on August 31, 11:59 PM ET (what time is that for me?).

As always, you’re free to jump in whenever you’d like during the round, a wide variety of work types is accepted, and there are no minimum work requirements. Unfinished works and works for other fandom events are allowed. You can find more information about Lights on Park Ave and the participation guidelines here.

Here are all 149 prompts. Go crazy and have fun! 🎈

ROUND 13: TIME

A quote about being infinite in the present moment from The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“Vellichor,” the the strange wistfulness of used bookstores

“How long is forever?” dialogue from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

“Time” - Hans Zimmer (Inception OST)

A quote and gifset from Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival (2016) about the nonlinear structure of time

Agnès Varda’s portraits when she was 20, 36, and 80 years old

A John Irving quote about what time does to the people who matter to us

Ten traveling back to see Rose on New Year’s Day in 2005 before he dies and reincarnates in Doctor Who

Future inventions in 2015 as seen in Robert Zemeckis’s Back to the Future Part II (1989)

A quote about what time does for wounds

ROUND 14: LIMINALITY

A photoset of various liminal spaces

Illustration of a black cat in front of a red-lit house with the caption, “They say no one is living here—but the lights come on, once every year”

A photoset of Victorian-era spirit photography, an art form that attempted to capture the ghost of a deceased loved one

Information on the famous Mojave phone booth, a lone telephone booth in the middle of the desert that received calls from all over the world

Rosemary Ellen Guiley’s The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits Third Edition’s definition of “witching hour”

Illustration of a ghost train on an abandoned trestle bridge in the Pacific Northwest

A quote by Isabel Allende about spirits coming out at night in the library

Gifset of the spirit world in Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (2001)

Illustration of a neon roadside sign of a motel that only appears at night by a long-forgotten highway

“Pacific Coast Highway” - Kavinsky

A gifset quote from The Twilight Zone (1959)

Scenery from Twin Peaks season 1 (1990)

A quote about something shifting into a strange, new place inside of a person from Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

ROUND 15: LOSS

A quote about being lost and found by someone special by Sue Zhao

A photo of the Mildred, wrecked off Gurnard’s Head, Cornwall in 1912

A quote about ephemerality and the beauty of it from Troy (2004)

Two paintings of people visiting ruins by Caspar David Friedrich

A quote about desire and loss by Lara Mimosa Montes

A photo of an overgrown, abandoned conservatory

A passage about what disappears and what remains in ruins from Suicide by Édouard Levé

Dialogue about gratitude for people who aren’t meant to stay in your life but shape who you are from BoJack Horseman

A scene from Fleabag where the Priest chooses God over Fleabag and gently tells Fleabag that her love for him will pass before they part ways

A prayer to St. Anthony, patron saint of lost things, people, and souls

Oscar Wilde’s tomb in Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, covered in lipstick kisses from admirers

Photos of a cemetery statue in Austria, wrapped in branches and dead leaves, holding a single flower

ROUND 16: DEVOTION/SERVICE

A gifset of Kevin on the phone, telling Chiron he’ll cook food for him from Barry Jenkin’s Moonlight (2016)

Buttercup’s monologue to Westley about how she would do anything for him from The Princess Bride by William Goldman

Gifs of Merlin saying that he was born to serve Arthur from BBC’s Merlin

An excerpt about giving all of oneself to someone despite what it costs from House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

A gifset of various times Jaime and Brienne demonstrate their loyalty to and love for each other in Game of Thrones

A gifset of all the different ways Cliff is there for Rick in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

A gifset of Nadia deciding to be by Alan’s side no matter what in Russian Doll

“Devotion” - Ocean Vuong

A gifset of Bond comforting a traumatized Vesper in the shower in Casino Royale (2006)

A gifset of Sookhee refusing to leave Hideko, saying her job is to look after her in Park Chanwook’s The Handmaiden (2016)

ROUND 17: DREAMS

A dreamscape gifset and quote about repressed thoughts in dreams and the Internet from Satoshi Kon’s Paprika (2006)

A gifset of Mitsuha and Taki finally meeting in their own bodies in a dream from Shinkai Makoto’s Kimi no Na wa (Your Name) (2016)

A quote by Tinker Bell telling Peter Pan where he can find her and where she’ll always love him in Steven Spielberg’s Hook (1991)

The scene where Keating tells his students that poetry, beauty, romance, and love give life meaning in Peter Weir’s Dead Poets Society (1989)

An animated illustration of a storefront called “Hauntings” with a flickering “99¢ dreams” neon sign

Various dreamscape scenes and a quote about ideas being the most resilient parasite from Christopher Nolan’s Inception (2010)

A quote about how all living beings must dream to survive reality from The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

A comic about people we love taking turns to visit us in dreams every night

Lovers and Sleeping Couple, two drawings by Egon Schiele

A quote about belief in a better world by Robert Frobisher to his lover, Rufus Sixsmith, in Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

A quote about the feeling of falling in love lingering when you wake up from a dream in Alexis Dos Santos’s Unmade Beds (2009)

A photo of subway graffiti by an unknown author insisting that they’ll never give up making the world a better place to live in

ROUND 18: PHYSICAL TOUCH

A scene about how to return a stolen kiss from Daniel Ribeiro’s The Way He Looks (2014)

A line about kissing someone the way a flower opens from “I Know Someone” by Mary Oliver

A gifset focusing on showing affection and care through hands from Park Chanwook’s The Handmaiden (2016)

A passage about two people leaving invisible marks on each other through the accumulation of touches over the years from A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood

Two conversations about never being touched before and only being touched by one person from Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight (2016)

Going from yearning to touch someone but stopping oneself to being allowed to touch them from Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy

Moving art of two bodies made of stars and the cosmos embracing

A quote about maintaining sanity by touching someone but being separated despite proximity from The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

A line about proving that one still exists and is real through touch from On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Different touches between Villanelle and Eve expressing violence, threat, sexual tension, comfort, and companionship in Killing Eve

A juxtaposition of two scenes from Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love (2000) of Su Li-zhen rejecting and accepting Chow Mo-wan’s hand

A compilation of marble sculptures by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Syd (Chris Evans) trailing kisses down London’s back in London (2005)

ROUND 19: IMMORTALITY

James Baldwin talking about how art helps you discover that people before you have experienced the same thing as you and you are not alone

Dr. Brand saying that love transcends time and space in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (2014)

Nadia and Alan meeting for the first time as they’re about to die and relive the same day again in Russian Doll

The loneliness of losing everyone by having a long life as expressed by Ten in Doctor Who

The doomed eternal time loop romance of Simon and Alisha from Misfits

A quote by Edvard Munch about becoming eternal through the flowers that grow from his body after death

Nagai Kei recalling the traffic accident that killed him and triggered his immortality, making him one of the rare persecuted humans to possess the power, in Ajin

A collection of moments from Jay Russell’s Tuck Everlasting (2002)

A quote by Mary Wollstonecraft hoping for something that lasts inside the heart

Various scenes with Jack Harkness from Doctor Who

Aya telling Asou-kun to live on and live forever as she nears the end of her life in 1 Litre of Tears

An excerpt about the immortalization of the self through love from “Love of the Wolf” in Hélène Cixous’s Stigmata

A collection of scenes from the Black Mirror episode “San Junipero”

Naoko telling Toru to always remember her and remember that she existed in Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Dom explaining to Ariadne that he uses the PASIV to dream as it’s the only way that he can be with his wife and children in Christopher Nolan’s Inception (2010)

ROUND 20: POETRY

“I’m Going Back to Minnesota Where Sadness Makes Sense” - Danez Smith

A line about wanting to forget how much you loved someone and then actually forgetting from Bluets by Maggie Nelson

“Perhaps the World Ends Here” - Joy Harjo

“In Time” - W. S. Merwin

“By Small and Small: Midnight to Four A.M.” - Jack Gilbert

“Magdalene: The Addict” - Marie Howe

“Wild Geese” - Mary Oliver

“Morphology 2″ - CJ Scruton

“20″ from Moscow in the Plague Year by Marina Tsvetaeva

“To Hold” - Li-Young Lee

ROUND 21: LONGING

“I Loved You Before I Was Born” - Li-Young Lee

A poem about longing for someone through worlds by Izumi Shikibu

A gifset of Marianne and Héloïse falling in love from Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

“Make Me Feel” - Janelle Monáe

A quote about living in longing being better than realizing that longing from 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

“I Want You” - Mitski

Orpheus and Eurydice in Hades - Friedrich Heinrich Füger

Long definition of the word “saudade”

Definition of the word “hiraeth”

“Something About Us” - Daft Punk

Two lines about burning quietly from the poem “The Pillowcase” by Annelyse Gelman

A conversation about wanting each other after decades of separation from Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory (2019)

A Hanahaki disease mood board

“Shrike” - Hozier

Two lines about wanting someone to return from Herakles by Euripides

“Love of My Life” - Queen

“Eyes, Nose, Lips” - Taeyang

A screenshot of Kathy and Tommy holding onto each other desperately from Mark Romanek’s Never Let Me Go (2010) and a quote from Kazuo Ishiguro’s eponymous novel

ROUND 22: YOUTH

“Perfect Places” - Lorde

A piece about realizing you’ll never be this young again, but it’s the first time you’re this old by Kalyn Roseanne Livernois

A conversation between Neil and Mr. Keating about Neil feeling trapped and unable to live the life he wants because of his father from Peter Weir’s Dead Poets Society (1989)

An excerpt about being too young to know how to love properly from Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor” - Arctic Monkeys

Elio’s father telling Elio not to try to rid himself of his sorrow and pain—and with that joy—which he feels so strongly because he’s so young from Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman

A quote about how everything feels final to young people because they’re experiencing it for the first time from Middlemarch by George Eliot

Lara Jean telling Peter that she had to make it seem like she liked him to deal with her love letter fiasco in Susan Johnson’s To All the Boys I Loved Before (2018)

Rue and Jules dancing together and partying it up in Euphoria

“Le Plongeoir” by Laurent Roch

A quote about being pushed into adulthood and not being ready from Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

A photo of a roller rink illuminated by pink and purple lights

Pastel photo series of Coney Island by Mijoo Kim and Minjin Kang

“Hips Don’t Lie” - Shakira feat. Wyclef Jean

“Young Dumb & Broke” - Khalid

Different moments accompanied by the letter to Mr. Vernon at the end of detention from John Hughes’s The Breakfast Club (1985)

Various scenes and a quote about growing up and realizing life isn’t like a fairy tale from Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Stills of the young lesbian couple in love from the music video of “You Know” - Jaurim

Lines by Effy about her emotional and mental struggles from Skins

Nathan chiding the group for not taking advantage of their superpowers as young offenders from Misfits

ROUND 23: HEDONISM

A passage about giving into passion and losing control from The Secret History by Donna Tartt

“Thot Shit” - Megan Thee Stallion

An aesthetic photoset of the Greek god Dionysus

A quote about living for ecstasy rather than balance from From a Journal of Love by Anaïs Nin

A photo of an anonymous person in nothing but a silk robe and lingerie

A photo of Donatella Versace lounging in a chair, surrounded by shirtless, muscular men sunbathing around her in Capri, Italy in 1994

An aesthetic photoset based on The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

The music video for “Heartless” by The Weeknd

A plea for summer to never end from Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman

“Plastic Love” - Mariya Takeuchi

A gifset from the music video of “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd, a continuation of the “Heartless” music video

“XS” - Rina Sawayama

A gifset from the music video of “Body” by Mino

Photos of people dancing at the legendary Studio 54

Photos and a description of the party scene at Studio 54

Chris Evans and Evan Rachel Wood hooking up in a car in the “Gucci Guilty Black” commercial

#stevetony #steve/tony #superhusbands #stony #stevetony prompts #stony prompts #lightsonparkave #round 24

[elfdragon12]

Let's rate some orcs

Because I love orcs and have a number of Feelings about them and they tend to be portrayed wildly different across franchises. These are going to be franchises I'm more familiar with. Hopefully, we can find some orcs that will rank high.

My ratings will take into consideration visual appeal and variety. How big of an OOF factor is readily apparent will be taken into acount.

Anime (in general): 0/10

I'm just giving a blanket statement for the vast majority of orcs in anime. They tend to have super generic designs, very copy-paste, and... Like... They seem to be mostly used for terrible porn because... Apparently there are never any female orcs. It's gross. (These creators are COWARDS! Give me a big, green, beefy orc girlfriend! She can be my waifu!)

Kemono Michi: 3/10

Still the boring and basic anime orc design and I definitely don't care for those little horns, but their personalities aren't terrible. Also, more orc wrestling, please! (Side-note, there's a webcomic called Daughter of the Lilies and the orcs in that comic have horned eyebrow ridges that I think work very well for the design! It's been a while since I've checked up on it, but I really enjoyed what I have read.)

Neverwinter Nights: 5/10

I actually think the in-game sprites are pretty cute?? Not too much to say other than that. (If I was ranking half-orcs though, Daelan Red Tiger would be a 10/10, would definitely smooch. Xanos is fairly smoochable too, but one would probably have a slap slap kiss kiss romance with him.) The NWN games were based on D&D 3rd edition so orcs don't tend to be more than a basic bad guy.

Rankin-Bass's Return of the King: 6/10

While having a general look to them, it's not just a copy-paste orc horde and I appreciate that. Also, I don't know if you've heard Where There's a Whip, There's a Way, but these orcs know how to belt out a pretty good marching tune! I didn't remember it being that good when I watched it as a kid! However, these are also the same designs used for goblins in their take on the Hobbit, so... Who knows?? Kinda reflects how goblins and orcs are basically interchangeable in the actual book. Oops!

Bright: 3/10

This movie gave me a lot of Feelings and one of the only good ones is that I like the way the orcs look. However, I've given them such a low rating because the writing and world-building surrounding them is just Not Good. (Maybe, if you're going to heavily code your orcs as Black people and then use themes of racism and stereotyping, maybe give more than one of the 5 orcs not implicitly tied to the gangbanger lifestyle more than 3 seconds of screentime?! As I said, this movie gave me Feelings.)

Peter Jackson LotR: 4/10

A good variety of looks in these orcs with a unifying theme. Not a whole lot of personality to them besides EVIL though. (And, well, we can't forget that it was LotR pioneered the modern image for orcs--Tolkien didn't invent them--and just how he described them in a letter to someone else. Man definitely wasn't perfect.)

D&D: 4/10 (however, I will rate Wildemount orcs at a 10/10)

These orcs have... Been through a lot and have really changed over the years. (Language describing half-orcs in 2e is Yikes.) They only took the -2 Intelligence modifier away only as recently as Eberron and Wildemount strips away the explicit connection to Gruumsh and giving orcs more personal agency. Wildemount really does step it up! I do think the art for orcs in more the more recent 5e sourcebooks look a lot better and I think the official Nolzur orc minis do look pretty good.

Warhammer: 6/10

There's a ton of lore and I don't really know a whole lot of it. However, I do have some fondness for the orkz. Oh, they're so dumb, but that's also why their powers work--because they don't know any better. There is a certain audaciousness to them I rather like. As for their visuals, there's a lot of variety in these orkz. While they're not so smoochable, they are fun to look at.

World of Warcraft in-game: 5/10

Pretty sure WoW really kicked off the switch from pig-faced orcs to big, beefy, green people and I absolutely don't begrudge that. In the game itself, I can't say much. The difference between male and female orcs is really sad though. Maybe I want to see more female orcs that look like they could bench me with a single arm rather that "sexy woman with an hourglass shape, but green and a weird haircut".

And, because I feel like the vibe is different enough, here's a separate rating for~

World of Warcraft, movie/cinematics: 8/10

They really said "monster lovers, we got you" then Rihanna-winked. Very smoochable. We also get to see orcs across a moral spectrum, which is very nice. The difference between male and female orcs isn't quite as bad as the games as male orcs don't look so cartoonishly brutish and female orcs look bulkier. (Draka looks very nice.)

#orcs #In which I show just how thirsty I am for orcs #Rating the more well-known orcs and even including a comic recommendation

[phantomofthepairofdice]

Double Features 2: Splatter, Splicer, Slander, Slasher

Considering the fact that we’re locked down and most folks aren’t going out much, why not settle in on a weekend with double feature. As part of a series of articles, I’ve decided to suggest some titles that would make for an interesting pair. It’s a time commitment like binging a few episodes of a TV show, and hopefully these double features are linked in interesting enough ways that it has a similar sense of cohesion. They also can be watched on separate occasions, but the lesser the distance between them, the more the similarities show. Do it however you want, really. I’m merely a guy on the internet, and that qualifies me for absolutely nothing! Enjoy at your own risk.

This template is back! I wanted to suggest a few more double features, but this time keep them in a specific genre: horror. I love horror movies, and I realized that I hadn’t really given them their due on this here blog, so I wanted to remedy that by showing a lot of love across a lot of different movies. I’ve put together some international movies, some classics, some that are silly, some that are serious, and even a bonus suggestion hidden in one of these blurbs. So without any more ramble in the preamble, here are four new suggested double features.

Note: The pairs are listed in the order I think best serves them being seen.

Hausu & Evil Dead II:

Hausu aka House (not to be confused with 1985 American horror film of the same name) has sort of transcended cult movie status to become a staple of off-center horror-comedy. Directed by recently deceased Nobuhiko Obayashi, the film shows his roots in advertisements with every shot designed for maximum effect, a (still) cutting edge approach in the edit, and a joyous, playful approach to special effects. It’s a gauzy and dreamy romp about a group of schoolgirls who head to the countryside on vacation. While staying at one of their aunts’ house, the supernatural hauntings begin, and heads start to roll (as well as bite people on the butt). It’s the type of movie where the main cast of characters are named Gorgeous, Kung Fu, Melody, Prof, Mac, Sweet, and Fantasy and they each have corresponding character traits. I was lucky enough to catch this at a rep screening at the Museum of Fine Arts a few years ago (further proof that this has gone beyond the cult curio status), and this is absolutely a movie that benefits from having a crowd cheer and laugh along - but it’s fairly easy to find and still has lots of pleasures to be enjoyed on solo watch. I’m pretty much willing to guarantee that if you enjoy it on first watch, you’ll want to share it with others. Now, where does one start when talking about Evil Dead II? Sam Raimi is rightfully as well known for his start in the hair-brained splatter genre fare as he is for his genre-defining Spider-man films. The influence of the Evil Dead movies is nearly unquantifiable, apparent in the work of directors like Edgar Wright, Peter Jackson, Quentin Tarantino, and the Korean New Wave filmmakers like Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook. There’s a reason that the second film of his Evil Dead odyssey is the one that people hold in highest esteem, though. There is an overwhelming gleeful creativity, anything goes, Looney Tunes approach to it that makes the blood geysers, laughing moose heads, and chainsaw hands extend beyond gore and shock into pleasure. It’s been noted over and over by critics and Raimi himself that the Three Stooges are probably the biggest influence on the film, and by golly, it shows. Evil Dead II and Hausu are pure in a way that few other movies can be. Both of these movies are an absolute delight of knowing camp, innovative special effects, and a general attitude of excitement from the filmmakers permeating through every frame. They’re a total blast and, in my mind, stand as the standard-bearers for horror-comedy and haunted house movies.

Total Runtime: 88 minutes + 84 minutes = 172 minutes aka 2 hours and 52 minutes

The Thing (1982) & The Fly (1986):

Feel free to roll your eyes as I explain the plots of two very famous movies. The Thing is John Carpenter’s body horror reimagining of Howard Hawks’ The Thing from Another World and the story that was adapted from, “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell Jr. The film is centered around a group of men in an arctic outpost who welcome in a cosmic force of shape-shifting annihilation. What ensues is a terrifically scary, nihilistic, paranoid attempt to find who isn’t who they say they are before everyone is replaced with the alien’s version of them. The film is a masterpiece of tone in no small part due to Dean Cundey’s photography and Ennio Morricone’s uncharacteristically restrained score. The real showstopper here, though, is the creature effects designed by Rob Bottin with an assist from Stan Winston – two titans of their industry. There may not be a more mind-blowing practical effects sequence in all of movies than Norris’ defibrillation – which I won’t dare spoil for anyone who hasn’t seen it. The story is so much about human nature and behaviors, that it’s good news that the cast is all top-notch – anchored by Kurt Russell, Keith David, and Wilford Brimley. While The Thing is shocking and certainly not for anyone opposed to viscera, David Cronenberg’s The Fly is the best example of a movie not to watch while eating. Quite frankly, it’s got some of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen on film. Chris Walas and Stephen Dupuis’ makeup effects are shocking, but the terror is amplified because this builds such a strong foundation of romance in its opening stretch between Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis in what might be their career-best work. The story is simple: a scientist creates a teleportation device that he tries out himself, but unknowingly does so with a fly in the chamber with him. When he reatomizes on the other end, his DNA has been integrated with the fly. Slowly his body begins to deteriorate, and he transforms into a human-fly hybrid. While this is first and foremost a science-fiction horror film, it’s truly one of the most potent love stories at its center. The tragedy is that the love, like the flesh, is mutated and disintegrated by the hubris of Goldblum’s Seth Brundle. Here are two remakes that – clutch your pearls – outdo the original. They both serve as great examples of what a great artist can bring by reinterpreting the source material to tell their version of that story. The critical respect for Carpenter and Cronenberg is undeniable now, but both of these movies make the case that there are real artists working with allegory and stunning craft in less respected genre fare. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to transpose the thematic weight of the then-new AIDS crisis onto both films, but they both have a hefty anti-authority streak running through them in a time where American Exceptionalism was at an all-time high. If you want to get a real roll going, fire up the ’78 Invasion of the Body Snatchers first to get a triple dose of auteur remakes that reflect the social anxieties of the time and chart from generalized anxiety to individualistic dread to romantic fatalism.

Total Runtime: 109 minutes + 96 minutes = 205 minutes aka 3 hours and 25 minutes

Theatre of Blood & The Abominable Dr. Phibes

That old Klingon proverb that Khan tells Kirk about revenge being a dish best served cold is challenged by these two Vincent Price tales of the macabre. They posit that revenge is best served in extremely convoluted and thematically appropriate predecessors to the Saw franchise. Where Saw trades in shock and extremity, though, these classic horror tales offer an air of panache and self-satisfied literacy. In Theatre of Blood, Price plays a disgraced and thought-dead stage actor who gets revenge on the critics who gave him negative reviews with Shakespeare-themed murder. There’s good fun in seeing how inventive the vengeful killings are (and in some cases how far the writers bend over backwards to explain and make sense of them). It’s a little rumpled and ragged in moments, but Price is, of course, a tremendous pleasure to see in action as he chews through the Shakespeare monologues. Imagine the Queen’s corgis with a chainsaw and you’re on track. Phibes came first and, frankly, is the better of the two. The story is about a musician who seeks to kill the doctors who he believes were responsible for his wife’s death during a botched surgery. The elaborate angle he takes here is to inflict the ten plagues from the Old Testament. I hesitate to use a word that will probably make me come across as an over-eager schmuck, but it really feels best described as phantasmagorical. It’s got this bright, art deco, pop art sensibility to it that’s intoxicating. It also has a terrifically dark sense of drollery - it knows that you can see the strings on the bat as it flies toward the camera. Aesthetically, it feels adjacent to the ’66 Batman show. The music is great and the indelible image of his tinker toy robot band, The Clockwork Wizards, is a personal obsession of mine. Both Theatre of Blood and The Abominable Dr. Phibes feature great supporting turns from Diana Rigg and Joseph Cotton, respectively. Settle in for a devilishly good time and enjoy one of cinema’s greatest vicarious pleasures: getting back at those of criticized or hurt you.

Total Runtime: 104 minutes + 94 minutes = 198 minutes aka 3 hours and 18 minutes

Blood and Black Lace  & The Bird with the Crystal Plumage

The final pairing comes from beyond American borders and, to some, beyond the borders of good taste. Mario Bava and Dario Argento are likely the two biggest names in Italian horror, and that’s for very good reason. Bava, who started as a cinematographer, has made loads of movies (even the film which gave Ozzy Osbourne and crew the name their band name) that have tremendous visuals and terrific sense of mood. Argento, probably most famous now for Suspiria, emerged onto the Italian film scene a handful of years later and picked up that baton from Bava to crystallize the dreamy logic puzzles cloaked in hyper-saturated colors. These two films are regarded as quintessential in the giallo genre – named for the yellow covers of the pulp crime fictions that inspired them. As someone who loves the flair that can be applied to make a slasher film stand out amongst their formulaic brethren, I found that the giallo made for a smooth transition into international horror. Blood and Black Lace is a murder mystery that’s as tawdry and titillating as its title suggests. Set in an insular world of a fashion house in Rome, models are being murdered. The plot feels like a necessity in order to create a delivery system for the stunning set pieces that revolve around a secret diary. Bava puts sex right next to violence and cranks up the saturation to create something thrillingly lurid. Six years later, Argento made his first film which has often been credited for popularizing the giallo genre and already is playing around with some of his pet themes like voyeurism and reinterpretation. Built around an early set piece (that stacks up as one of the best in thrillers) in which a man is trapped but witnesses a murder, the film sees said man trying to find the piece of evidence that will make the traumatic killing make sense. Like Bava, it blends sex and violence with tons of flair, including a score by the aforementioned Ennio Morricone. The film is absolutely on a continuum between Hitchcock and De Palma. If you’re looking for a pair of exciting horror/thrillers, or even an entry point to foreign genre cinema, this is an accessible and enjoyable place to start.

88 minutes + 96 minutes = 184 minutes aka 3 hours and 4 minutes

Well, there you have it. Eight movies, and hours of entertainment curated by some guy with no real qualifications. If you’re interested in some more suggestions (in horror and other genres), stay tuned for the next entry in this Double Features series. And if you’re looking for a way to watch these movies, I highly recommend the app/website JustWatch where you can search a title and see where it’s available for streaming or rental. Happy viewing.

Thanks for reading.

#evil dead #evil dead 2 #hausu #hausu 1977 #the thing #the fly #theatre of blood #dr phibes #blood and black lace #bird with the crystal plumage #double feature

[hiheyimhuy]

Movies/TV Shows

1 Roman Empire -Season 1 -Theme Funny -Golden Age

-Birthdays -Jayden Kouli Spring -Ian Spear Summer -Rex Woodbury Fall -Taylor Phillips Winter

-Jennie Mayer “Type 1” Insults -Arlene Williams “Type 2” Conversation -Tina Fey “Type 3” It’s Not Funny, But It Is Funny -Alison Kang “Type 4” Fighting

-Annie Bucher -Bayley Lichtenberg -Brenna Harrington -Briana Jackson -Carley Wood -Christine Baker -Ellie Hoekman -Emily Dugan -Emily Ross -Heather Bateman -Heather Stams -Jessie Torlai -Kailyn Pennock -Katie Fischbeck -Katie Theisen -Kirsten Brewer -Kristen Kemper -Kylie Barrett -Kyra Pennington -Lexi n Abby Klinkenberg -Meg Mullen -Meressa Mamon -Mia Torlai -Nicole Silver -Rebecca Nixon -Samantha Holler -Tahlia Carchedi 1/2 -Taylor Green 1/2 -Tessa Acay -Zoey Golden 1/2

-Austin From Gardenscapes -Kevin Hill

-Season 2 -Theme Suffering -50 Years After The Golden Age With New Complicated Rulers/King And Government Officials -Nice People -People Who Likes To Play Games -Hard Living -Ancient Technological Society -Consequences -Crimes -Passion of the Christ Roman Guards -Green River Teachers -Guys from Han Tinh Phan Kim Lien -Rating 100% -Jessica Clarke -Kelley Flanagan -Hannah Ann -Lindsey Allemeier -Julia Newell -Annika Brauer -Catherine Berner -Olivia Carlson -Louisa Dunwiddie -Emma Linde -Savannah Billedo -Danielle Brady -Jackie Robinson -Rachel Keyser -Angela Zhang -Megan Williams -Maia Lee -McKay Njos -Tylar Philpott -Vanessa Chukri -Dan Mitchell -Brett Goldstein -Brendan Welzien -Jackson Zariski -Adam Newton -Toro -Richard Ferguson -Jared -Royals Friends -Josh Brueckner -Katie Betzing -Matt Howard -Abby Howard -Charli D’amelio -Addison Rae -“Too Hot To Handle” IGTV video guys -Jacqueline Miller -Eileen Bruns -Johannes Huebl 2/3 -Matty Carrington -Franky Cammarata -Ben K Bowers -Colton Underwood -RJ King 2/3 -Graham Davis -Willem De Koch -Brian Pruett -Gigi Meyer  -Henry

-Hailey Napier -Blake Napier -Alex Knutson 2/3 -Elle Petschl -Sam Petschl -Anna Lynch -Ana Rae Miller -Brenna Hudson -Madeline Huletz -Claire Kennedy -Connell O’Brien -Max Tychsen -Dylan Inman -Austin Budke -Cameron Sackett -Elliot Knapp -John Mark Lambert -Colby Franklin -Season 3 -Theme Conquering -Depicts The Fall Of The Roman Empire -Combat Tactics -Strategies -In Places That Trigger Fear -“X Ambassadors - Renegades” Feel -Austin Olson -Chris Torlai -Kevin Hall -Matt Mead -Max Liebl -Nathan Lantz -Nathan Rodland -Oak Griffith -Sean Redmond -Stefan Andonian -Tanner Patnode -Travis McGuire -Wes Concepcion -Ben Affleck -Christian Bale -Tom Cruise -Cavill -Simon Pegg -Sam Quinby -Garrett Yrigoyen -Ben Higgins -Peter Weber -Jack Weber -Chris Harrison -Arie Luyendyk -Jason -Blake -Jared Haibon -Chris Soules -Jordan -David -Joe Sessa -Josh Canova -Graham Bennett -Kevin Park -Aaron Park -Julien Isnardon -Armie Hammer -Maurice Laab -Keegan Selby -Tyler Pichette -Season 4 -In Heaven With Henry And Malcolm

-Season 5 -Reunion Live “Maplestory - Ergoth’s Throne” “Maplestory - Orbis Tower” “Maplestory - Ludi PQ” -“Imagine Dragons - To Exist” 2 -“Imagine Dragons - Darkness Lies Above” 3 -“Imagine Dragons - Fear Is In Your Eyes” 3 -“Imagine Dragons - Only Way Across Is Cold Water” 3 -“Alesso - To Live Without Music” 1 -“Alesso - Watery Feels” 1/2 -“Bastille - What Keeps You Awake At Night” 2 -“Bastille - Every Time You Close Your Eyes” 2 -“Benny Blanco - The 4 Amigos” 1 -“The Chainsmokers - Wishing You Can Untouch” 2 -Might Change Title When I Have Time -“Charlie Puth - Day And Night Changes” 2 -“Coldplay - To Make You Wish You Don’t Have A Soul” 2 -“DNCE - The First To Arrive And Last To Leave” 1 -“Linkin Park - Rather Fall Than Surrender” 3 -“Kaskade - Your Voice Is All I Need” 1 -“Lana Del Rey - The “H” Word” 2 -“The Lumineers - A Cold Winter Morning” 2 -“Major Lazer - Gets You Off The Ground” 1 -“Major Lazer - Hard Bed, Soft Together” 1 -“OneRepublic - Rather Whisper Than Say” 1/2 -“Selena Gomez - Hope You Can Make It Back To Me” 3 -“Selena Gomez - I Need To Give You” 3 -“Shawn Mendes - If I Was Your First Lover” 1/2 -“Shawn Mendes - Fulfill Your Wishes” 1/2 -“Taylor Swift - February Missing You” 3 -“Taylor Swift - Waking Up And You’re Not Here” 3 -“Tove Lo - Roses In Water” 1 -“X Ambassadors - Repentance” 2/3 -“X Ambassadors - Remorses” 2/3 -“X Ambassadors - Regrets” 2/3 -“X Ambassadors - In The Woods” 3 -“X Ambassadors - No One To Be Found” 3 -“X Ambassadors - Only Nature Exists Now” 3 -“X Ambassadors - When You’re Lost” 3 -“2AM Club - I Still Remember You” 1

2 Killer -Henry Farm Childhood -Tom Cruise -Henry Cavill -Simon Pegg -Kelly Hu -Mila Kunis -Chiaki Kuriyama -Amy Johnston -Connell O’Brien -Yugioh Main Characters -Yugi -Joey -Bakura -Pegasus -Marik -Mai Valentine -Weevil -Rafael -Dartz -Charli D’amelio -Matt Howard -Alessandro Dellisola -Johannes Huebl -Sean O’Pry -Taylor Swift -Shawn Mendes -Girls Non-Killers -“Soft, Tender, Delicate” IGTV video -“Finger 11 - Paralyzer” IGTV video -Excluding Claire Miller -Abby Howard -Armie Hammer -Chace Crawford

3 Witches History on Earth -Malcolm in Heaven -Hocus Pocus -Vietnamese Girls -Trang Nguyen -Nguyen Ha My -Yen Nguyen -Written By Henry And Malcolm

4 Paris by Night in Modern Time -Presidents -Ben Affleck -Leonardo DiCaprio -1/4 Europeans -Brody Jenner -1/4 Asians -Japanese -Chiaki Kuriyama -Substitute -Cheyenne Stacey Powell -Administration -Nia Nguyen -Stephanie Che -The Bachelor Girls -The Bachelorette Girls -Clothes -Elementary And Middle School -Less Normal -High School -Fashion -College -Travel After College -Love

5 Ancient Forests -Josh Brueckner -Katie Betzing -“131 Tall Tree Guys” IGTV video -“Soft, Tender, Delicate” IGTV video -The Bachelor -The Bachelorette

6 Toys

7 Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD) -Inventions -Movable Type Printing (1041-1048 AD) -Gunpowder (1000 AD) -Compass (1100 AD) -Paper Money (11th century) -Arts -Music -Literature -Philosophy -Theme Romance -Marco Polo -Born in Venice -Silk Road -Visited China (1275-1292 AD) -Father and Uncle -Lingchi Torture -TVB Actors/Actresses -Kenneth Lam -Kacie Lo -Chloe Tsang -Clarissa Chan -Jessica Yi -Danny Shin -Joyce Lin -Shin -Alex Landi

8 Ancient Egypt -Theme Revenge, Ruling, Warfare -Pharaoh -Pyramids -Sphinx -Nile River -Farming -Hieroglyphics -New Kingdom (1570-1069 BCE) -Kings Are Called Pharaohs -Golden Age -Wealth -Prosperity -Power -Wars -Burned alive -Thrown into river with crocodiles -Charli/Dixie D’amelio -Addison Rae -“Roosevelt High School” IGTV video -Andrew Mead -Austin Perlatti -Bret Johnson -Carter Rey Johnson -Casey Manso -Christopher Wilson -Clay Barton -Colby Foss -Connor Bennett -Dalton Bond -Derek Pedersen -Hayden Njos -Jake Zylstra -Jared McAboy -Jeff Seid -Jett DiPalma -Jordan Kirkland -Ken Williams -Kevin Brown -Kevin Hall -Kevin Kennedy -Kramer Fairclough -Leo Trotz -Marco Amalfitano -Max Liebl -Michael Leverenz -Mike Suguro -Mitchell Booth -Nathan Lantz -Nathan Rodland -Matt Fisher -Nick Fisher -Nick Watson -Oak Griffith -Ozamataz Buckshank -Pabi Dhaliwal -Pat McGuire -Pierre Groenewald -Roddy Hanson -Ryan Johnson -Scott Andrew -Seth Gunning -Seth Shields -Sheldon Stober -Stephen Bishopp -Tanner Patnode -Taylor Tinney -Wes Concepcion -Zane McCanless -“Soft, Tender, Delicate” IGTV video -“INNA - Amazing” IGTV video -Elizabeth Rodland -Armie Hammer -Chace Crawford -Franky Cammarata -Johannes Huebl -Sean O’Pry -Blake Horstmann -Jan -Joe Sessa and his friends -Matt/Abby Howard -Taylor Dean -Kelley Flanagan -Jessica Clarke -Madison Prewett -Lindsey Allemeier -Katie Betzing -Ben Higgins -Hannah Ann -Ian Spear -Laguna Beach -Lauren -Kristin -Stephen -Talan -Jessica -Taylor -Adam Newton -Sean Lowe -Catherine Giudici -Brianne Schmidt -Connell O’Brien -Tyler Pichette -Hannah Brown -Max Tychsen -Dylan Inman -Tyler Cameron -Taylor Phillips

9 Mesopotamia -Daily Life -Learning To Be A Scribe -Ziggurat -One Of The Seven Wonders -Hanging Gardens -The Fertile Crescent -Invented The Plow -People Of The City-States -Nobles -Priests -Merchants -Scribes -Craftworkers -Free Farmers -Enslaved People -Farmers Who Did Not Own Their Land -Cut One Hand Off -Women’s Legal Status

10 Ancient Greece -Philosophers -Socrates -Plato -Aristotle -Mathematics/Science -Euclid -Archimedes -Eratosthenes -Hippocrates

11 Greek Gods/Goddesses -Athena, Goddess of Wisdom -Parthenon Temple

12 Alexander the Great

13 Medieval Europe (500-1500 AD) -Theme Suffering -Boiling -Baking -Burning -Brazen Bull -Cooking -Stretching Bones -Sleep Deprivation -Quartering -Children’s Crusades -Castles

14 Islam -Muhammad -Arabia -Persia -Pillars -Architecture -Learning -Astronomy -Algebra -Medicine -Mapmakers -1001 Nights Book

15 India In The Middle Centuries -Taj Mahal

16 Central/South America -Theme Coming of Age -Maya -Toltec -Aztec -Tenochtitlan -Teotihuacan -Olmec -Inca -Cotton -Maya Calendar -Maize Corn -Metal -Writing -Soccer -Rituals -Religious Ceremonies

17 Europe (1400-1750 AD) -Peasant Revolts -Wars -Renaissance -Coldplay -Exploration -North/South America -Slavery -Imperialism

18 Industrial Revolution (Late 1700s AD) -England

19 Nations in Conflict (1775-1921 AD) -Revolutions -Independence -Nationalism -Ending Ancient China

20 1900s Conflict -Hitler -Russia -Japan -Westernization -Communism -World War I -World War II -Cold War -Berlin Wall -Technology -Advancements -Independence -Space Race

21 1900s Fun -China -Shanghai -David Kangmeng -South Korea -Fashion -Music -Recreation -France -Coffee -Restaurants -Sex -Hugh Jackman -Germany -Hugh Jackman -Spain -Hugh Jackman -Great Britain -Hugh Jackman

22 United States 1970-1990 -Fraternity -Fun -Matt Damon

23 Adulthood in the United States -The Bachelor -The Bachelorette -City -Country -Jobs -Relationships -Financial Problems -Making It In Hollywood

24 Masculinity -Male To Male Friendships And Siblings -Domination -Dealing With Girls

25 Comedy PBN Part 2 “Spin Off” -Continues After “Paris By Night In Modern Time” -Age Around 30+ -Van Son Cast -Similar To “Adulthood in the United States” And “Virtues of Harmony II” But Different

26 Countryside “Que” In VN -Theme Suffering -Financial Problems -Hard Living -Making It As Singers -Dating Singers -Accidents -Human To Human Crimes -How To Get To The United States

27 Physical Buildings And Transportation -Thailand, Malaysia, And Singapore -Hotels -Motels -Apartments -Bars -Clubs -Supermalls -Supermarkets -Companies -Motorcycles -Taxis -Trains -Airports -Gambling

28 Companies And Corporations -India And The Middle East -Work Time -Play Time

29 Modeling -Brazil, Portugal, And Spain -Amazon Rainforest -Rio De Janeiro -Marcello Alvarez -Jobs -Pay Less -Require Effort -Tired -Time Consuming -High School Drop Out -Saving Money -Criminal Offenses -Competition

30 Hierarchy In Society -Mexico -Poor -Rich -Cartels -Illegal Immigration To The United States -MTV Reality And Game Shows -Cabo San Lucas -Travel To The Caribbean

31 Route To Antarctica -Theme Living With Air Pollution 1990s -Chile -Santiago -San Antonio -Argentina -Buenos Aires -Andes Mountains -Lake Titicaca -Atacama Desert -Tierra Del Fuego -Tip Of South America -Cape Horn -Herding Farm Animals -Biking

32 High School In Vietnam -Movie Length Duration -Fun During School -Hard Times Outside Of School

33 United States Road Trip -Washington -Oregon -California to East Coast -Variety Of Climates -Route 66

34 Girl Pornstars -Hot Girls -Hard Past -Family -Friendships -Relationships -School -Money -On The Street -Need Food -Need House -Need Home -Models -Real -Instagram -Victoria’s Secrets -Pornstars -Feelings -Resentful -Fearful -Anxious -Apprehensive -Insecure -Suspicious -Trust -Travel -Making It In The Porn Industry

35 Guy Pornstars -Straight Guys -Gay/Bi Guys -Henry Pheet -Malcolm -Random Grindr Hookups -Travel -Making It In The Porn Industry Leonardo DiCaprio Robert De Nero John Travolta Tom Cruise Henry Cavill Simon Pegg Christian Bale Hugh Jackman Keanu Reeves Edward Norton Sean Connery Matt Damon Mel Gibson George Clooney Tom Hardy Orlando Bloom Guy Pearce Heath Ledger Robert Redford Paul Newman Scarlett Johansson Rachel McAdams Amanda Bynes Japan -1900s WWI/II -Westernization South Korea -1990s K-POP China -Song Dynasty -Ending Ancient China -1900s Beijing Vietnam -School In United States -Travel -Love -Comedy -Countryside “Que” Thailand, Malaysia, And Singapore -Physical Buildings And Transportation Drama India -The Middle Centuries Taj Mahal -Companies And Corporations The Middle East -Companies And Corporations Europe -Medieval -Renaissance -Exploration -Imperialism Italy -Roman Empire France -1900s Great Britain -Industrial Revolution Mexico -“Hierarchy In Society” Brazil -Modeling Portugal -Modeling Spain -Modeling

[helloworlddemo1122-yahoopar-blog]

Summer Film Preview: 27 of the Most Anticipated Movies of the Season!

Among ET's 90 top picks for summer are our 27 most anticipated films of the season.

Every summer, there is no shortage of new films to blow audiences away at theaters -- and blow away records at the box office. This summer, things are looking especially massive. Blockbuster season kicks off in a huge way with the highly anticipated back-to-back releases of Deadpool 2and Solo: A Star Wars Story, ushering in an onslaught of franchise films with new installments of Jurassic World, Marvel's Ant-Man, Mission: Impossible and The Purge.

Not everything is a sequel, though. Of the originals is the eagerly awaited adaptation of Crazy Rich Asians, marking the first time a major studio has produced an all-Asian-led film since The Joy Luck Club; Spike Lee's latest, BlacKkKlansman; and -- because it wouldn't be summer without one -- a shark attack flick, The Meg, starring Jason Statham.

But no matter what you’re looking forward to, there's plenty to choose from among these 27 sure-to-be hit films.

Deadpool 2 (Out Now)

The Deadpool sequel is bigger, louder and packed with more violence and superpeople, dick jokes and fourth wall-breaking meta-ness than the original X-Men-adjacent movie. And while that all sounds like a recipe for a bloated case of sequelitis, Ryan Reynolds and co. not only pull it off, but top the first.

Directed by: David Leitch | Written by: Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick and Ryan Reynolds Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Julian Dennison, Zazie Beetz, Rob Delaney, Leslie Uggams

Solo: A Star Wars Story (May 25)

Forget everything you think you know about the legendary smuggler and prepare for the unexpected. That's the best advice we can give you about Star Wars' latest anthology installment, which, sure, features the Kessel Run and Han Solo and Chewbacca's origin story, then blasts off for so much more.

Directed by: Ron Howard | Written by: Jonathan Kasdan and Lawrence Kasdan Starring: Alden Ehrenreich, Donald Glover, Woody Harrelson, Thandie Newton, Emilia Clarke

American Animals (June 1)

The Orchard / MoviePass Ventures

According to the minds behind American Animals, while most movies are based on a true story, this one is a true story, about four college students who plan "one of the most audacious art heists in U.S. history." It also marks the first appearance on this list by the true star of the summer movie season: Ann Dowd.

Directed by: Bart Layton | Written by: Bart Layton Starring: Evan Peters, Barry Keoghan, Blake Jenner, Jared Abrahamson, Ann Dowd

Hereditary (June 8)

A24

Following its screening at Sundance earlier this year, Hereditary was hailed as the scariest horror movie in years -- if not of all time. As for what actually transpires in the film, well, that is best left vague. Brace yourself for hypnotically unnerving tongue pops and flashbacks to Toni Collette's iconic turn in The Sixth Sense.

Directed by: Ari Aster | Written by: Ari Aster Starring: Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, Ann Dowd

Ocean's 8 (June 8)

This year's Met Gala might as well have been early promo for Ocean's 8, which centers on another heist-happy Ocean, Debbie, who assembles a team of women to help rob a fictional Met Gala. (If you do some simple math, it seems Anne Hathaway's mark is one of the eight, too.) Unfortunately, Rihanna will likely not be dressed as a sexy pope.

Directed by: Gary Ross | Written by: Gary Ross and Olivia Milch Starring: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Awkwafina, Helena Bonham Carter, Rihanna

Won't You Be My Neighbor? (June 8)

Focus Features

If you were a child in the '60s -- or '70s, '80s, '90s, the aughts, really, if you were a child ever -- then Won't You Be My Neighbor? will be a nostalgic return to your younger years, a look at the long-running and formative TV series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and the man behind it, the late Fred Rogers.

Directed by: Morgan Neville

Hearts Beat Loud (June 8)

Gunpowder & Sky

This gem of an indie is for anyone who has ever wished Nick Offerman could be your best friend, your dad or both: Kiersey Clemons plays Offerman's daughter and reluctant bandmate as they navigate fame and family in Hearts Beat Louder. Sprinkle in a queer romance and an earworm-y soundtrack, and what more could you ask for?

Directed by: Brett Haley | Written by: Brett Haley and Marc Basch Starring: Nick Offerman, Kiersey Clemons, Ted Danson, Toni Collette, Sasha Lane, Blythe Danner

Hotel Artemis (June 8)

Global Road Entertainment

Read this logline: "Set in riot-torn, near-future Los Angeles, Hotel Artemis is a high-octane action-thriller starring Jodie Foster as The Nurse, who runs a secret, members-only hospital for criminals." Now re-read that sentence over and over and over until you go insane and this becomes your most anticipated movie of the year.

Directed by: Drew Pearce | Written by: Drew Pearce Starring: Jodie Foster, Dave Bautista, Sofia Boutella, Zachary Quinto, Sterling K. Brown, Jeff Goldblum

Incredibles 2 (June 15)

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

It has been well over a decade since the original Incredibles arrived in theaters and, even now, under the looming threat of superhero saturation, that first film remains one of the best superhero movies period. Finally, Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl, Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack are back, with Frozone and, of course, Edna.

Directed by: Brad Bird | Written by: Brad Bird Starring: Holly Hunter, Craig T. Nelson, Samuel L. Jackson, Catherine Keener, Sophia Bush

Tag (June 15)

Warner Bros. Pictures

This is a movie about tag -- as in, the game in which you tag someone and they are then "it." Specifically, Tag is about a group of childhood buddies who have been playing tag one month out of the year, every year, for 30 years. If you are wondering, Where do they come up with this?!, it was a Wall Street Journal article.

Directed by: Jeff Tomsic | Written by: Rob McKittrick and Mark Steilen Starring: Jeremy Renner, Ed Helms, Jake Johnson, Jon Hamm, Hannibal Buress, Isla Fisher, Leslie Bibb

Damsel (June 22)

Magnolia Pictures

If you hear that Robert Pattinson is starring in a Western, you probably have a notion of what that film is. Damsel is not the movie you're imagining, guaranteed -- unless, of course, you pictured a screwball comedy about a pioneer who voyages west with a drunkard and a miniature horse named Butterscotch.

Directed by: David Zellner and Nathan Zellner | Written by: David Zellner and Nathan Zellner Starring: Robert Pattinson, Mia Wasikowska, David Zellner

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (June 22)

In the colossally successful Jurassic World, the dinosaurs destroyed the park, as dinosaurs are wont to do, and now Isla Nublar is threatening to destroy the dinosaurs. Thus, Claire and Owen are enlisted to help save the dinosaurs from a second extinction -- and that's only the beginning of this adventure.

Directed by: J.A. Bayona | Written by: Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jeff Goldblum, James Cromwell, Justice Smith

Under the Silver Lake (June 22)

A24

Something about those hot summer nights must make us itch for a mystery, because this is yet another noir-y flick arriving in cineplexes, albeit a very modern take on the genre. Andrew Garfield plays a stoner Angelino who begins sleuthing when his dream girl disappears in the middle of the night without a trace.

Directed by: David Robert Mitchell | Written by: David Robert Mitchell Starring: Andrew Garfield, Riley Keough, Topher Grace, Jimmi Simpson

The First Purge (July 4)

Universal Pictures

There's something almost comforting about knowing that every (sometimes every other) Independence Day brings a new installment in the ongoing Purge franchise. Who knew a nutty little murder flick could have so much steam? This one goes back to the beginning and the invention of a government-sponsored killing spree.

Directed by: Gerard McMurray | Written by: James DeMonaco Starring: Lex Scott Davis, Y'lan Noel, Luna Lauren Velez, Joivan Wade, Marisa Tomei

Ant-Man and the Wasp (July 6)

Consider the Ant-Man sequel a respite for those still reeling over the ending of Infinity War, a plucky comedic romp about heroes who shrink, supersize and now fly, too, which probably won't leave you frantically wiping away tears as the theater lights come on. Also, Michelle Pfeiffer plays a superhero!

Directed by: Peyton Reed | Written by: Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari and Paul Rudd Starring: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Hannah John-Kamen, Michael Peña

Sorry to Bother You (July 6)

Annapurna Pictures

There is original, and then there is Sorry to Bother You. If a stranger, more out-there film has ever been made, I haven't seen it. I've never seen anything like this, a satiric tale about a telemarketer who uses his "white voice" to get ahead that feels at once painstakingly plotted and completely free-associated.

Directed by: Boots Riley | Written by: Boots Riley Starring: Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler, Steven Yeun, Armie Hammer

Whitney (July 6)

Whitney is not the first documentary to turn the lens on Whitney Houston in the years since her 2012 death, but it is the first to be endorsed by her estate, featuring interviews with loved ones of Houston who had never spoken publicly before and bombshell revelations that made news ahead of Whitney's official release.

Directed by: Kevin Macdonald

Eighth Grade (July 13)

A24

You know how adults always say, "I'm so happy I didn't grow up when there was social media." Watch this Sundance drama, comedian Bo Burnham's directorial debut, and feel that tenfold, alternately a cringey and heartwarming look at what it means to be coming into your own -- yes, with YouTube and Twitter.

Directed by: Bo Burnham | Written by: Bo Burnham Starring: Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (July 20)

Is Meryl Streep's character still alive for the Mamma Mia! sequel? Supposedly. We do know that we will see a younger version of Donna (played by Lily James) as the ABBA singalong jumps back in time to show the Dynamos' origin story, while in the present, Donna's daughter is pregnant with a baby of her own.

Directed by: Ol Parker | Written by: Ol Parker Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Meryl Streep, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Lily James, Colin Firth, Cher

Mission: Impossible - Fallout (July 27)

Paramount Pictures

After successfully completing five other supposedly impossible missions, whatever Ethan Hunt is tasked with in Fallout should be considered mission: pretty difficult but manageable. Still, Tom Cruise continues to up the ante in insane and preposterous ways, like jumping out of a plane at 25,000 feet, for one.

Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie | Written by: Christopher McQuarrie Starring: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Alec Baldwin, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Henry Cavill, Angela Bassett

Christopher Robin (Aug. 3)

If you enjoyed last year's period drama Goodbye Christopher Robin, about the real boy who inspired the creation of Winnie the Pooh, then you are sure to enjoy this, too, Disney's less historical, more fantastical tale about grown-up Christopher Robin and how Pooh and the rest of the Hundred Acre Wood gang help him rediscover his imagination.

Directed by: Marc Forster | Written by: Alex Ross Perry Starring: Ewan McGregor, Hayley Atwell, Jim Cummings, Chris O'Dowd, Brad Garrett, Toby Jones

The Spy Who Dumped Me (Aug. 3)

I would pay money to watch Kate McKinnon read the phone book. Thankfully, she gets much more to do in this action-comedy, in which Mila Kunis plays the unwitting woman dumped by a spy. McKinnon plays her bestie, and the two quickly find themselves in over their heads trying to stop a terrorist group and save the world.

Directed by: Susanna Fogel | Written by: David Iserson and Susanna Fogel Starring: Mila Kunis, Kate McKinnon, Sam Heughan, Gillian Anderson, Justin Theroux

BlacKkKlansman (Aug. 10)

Focus Features

Spike Lee is back with his latest joint, the so-crazy-it-must-be-true saga of Ron Stallworth, the first black police officer in Colorado Springs, and his undercover operation to infiltrate a local Ku Klux Klan chapter, which was so successful that he eventually became its head.

Directed by: Spike Lee | Written by: Spike Lee, David Rabinowitz, Charlie Wachtel, Kevin Willmott Starring: John David Washington, Adam Driver, Topher Grace, Laura Harrier

The Meg (Aug. 10)

Warner Bros. Pictures

No summer is complete without a silly shark attack movie, and for the summer of 2018, The Meg fits that bill and then some. First of all, the shark in question is a megalodon, which basically just means a REALLY BIG F**KING SHARK, and hopefully Jason Statham will punch it at some point, right?

Directed by: Jon Turteltaub | Written by: Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber Starring: Jason Statham, Ruby Rose, Rainn Wilson, Bingbing Li, Cliff Curtis, Masi Oka

Crazy Rich Asians (Aug. 17)

Based on the bestselling novel by Kevin Kwan, Crazy Rich Asians is about a Chinese American professor who travels to Singapore to meet her boyfriend's family and discovers they are -- you guessed it -- crazy rich! Hijinks ensue. This is also the first Hollywood movie with a majority Asian cast in 25 years, i.e., crazy overdue.

Directed by: Jon M. Chu | Written by: Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim Starring: Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Awkwafina, Gemma Chan, Michelle Yeoh, Ken Jeong

To All the Boys I've Loved Before (Aug. 17)

Netflix

Here's one YA fans have been waiting for. Based on the bestselling novel by Jenny Han, the title refers to letters our heroine, Lara Jean Covey, writes to her past crushes, love letters they are never meant to see -- but do, after they're accidentally mailed out. You don't need to head to the cinema to swoon over this one; it's streaming on Netflix.

Directed by: Susan Johnson | Written by: Sofia Alvarez Starring: Lana Condor, Noah Centineo, Janel Parrish, Emilija Baranac, Israel Broussard, John Corbett

The Happytime Murders (Aug. 17)

Nothing says summertime like puppets snorting ecstasy and soliciting sex. The Happytime Murders -- no lie, from the same director as The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island -- is about police partners, one felt and one Melissa McCarthy, investigating who is shooting the stuffing out of puppets.

Directed by: Brian Henson | Written by: Todd Berger Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Elizabeth Banks, Maya Rudolph, Joel McHale

MORE SUMMER PREVIEW:

Summer TV Preview: 26 of the Best New and Returning Series to Watch!

Summer Music Preview: 17 Albums We Can’t Wait to Hear

Summer Theater Preview: 11 Must-See Broadway and Off-Broadway Shows

Summer Book Preview: 9 Beach Reads by Bill Clinton, Emily Giffin, Lauren Weisberger and More!

#_uuid:f0508f89-4289-323f-92f6-941e821681f7 #_revsp:new_provider_with_logo_342 #_lmsid:a0VK0000001yfWcMAI

[takaraphoenix]

My Relationship with Teen Wolf

“It’s complicated” doesn’t even begin to cover it.

I discovered the show when it was roughly a three months wait until season 3 would start.

I binge-watched all there was - the first two seasons. And then I, right away, watched it again because it was that good. And then I literally watched it for a third time in a row.

I just completely fell in love with it. Sterek fast became my OTP, I loved the fandom because it was a warm, beautiful place filled with the most amazing headcanons.

I even liked the canon straight couples. Jackson and Lydia were just so beautifully perfect. And Scott and Allison were probably the best example of “soulmates” - because literally nothing else would ever justify the shit they went through for each other.

Even the smaller roles like Danny and the Sheriff and the Coach were just so cool.

I loved it. I loved everything about it. And I was so ready for season 3.

I mean, Derek had Boyd, Erica and Isaac now. Jackson was now finally a wolf and could join the pack. The pack was growning.

Everything went downhill starting with season 3. Now, season 3 in itself wasn’t bad, but it was definitely the start of “bad”.

Writing Jackson, Erica and Boyd out just like that was displeasing at first - it became a bigger issue the more the show went on.

What is the key-element of why season 3 started to be bad however is the True Alpha crap they came up with.

Part of what I enjoyed about the show was the fact that Scott was just this average teen wolf, a little bumbling and awkward but with a good heart. He didn’t have to be the leader. I expect an Alpha to be a leader, a fatherly figure, someone older. Not an awkward newbie wolf who literally learned how to control his wolfiness from a human boy.

That they had to force not just “Scott is main character. Scott needs to be Alpha”, but also “Oh shit, we made it so you gotta kill to become Alpha but Scott is main character, so Scott can’t kill. Hurry up, writers, invent a creative way for him to still become Alpha”.

It’s a load of horse-crap is what it is.

The show would have worked so much better if they had cut that crap. Kept Derek around - as the Alpha - and allowed Scott to slowly learn what it even means to be a werewolf and to then, through character development, become Derek’s second-in-command.

Now. They wrote all those characters out of the show, but they started establishing the twins as potential new pack-mates. And okay. They slowly started to become... interesting characters, the more we learned about them.

And then they were written out of the show too. And that was when it became a real problem with this show.

They want a pack. But they keep writing any character who has the potential of becoming pack out ASAP.

The whole... Isaac/Allison romance, I am still wondering where they pulled that from. Like? She literally tried to kill you an literally all your friends before and she’s basically the big love of your new Alpha? What is wrong with you, Isaac? Do you need therapy? Oh, right, you do. Yeah.

Setting it up that Danny knew all along what was going on just to write him out too.

Killing off Allison. Writing Isaac out of the show.

Basically. We had the “Alpha”, his human best friend, a banshee, a kitsune and a coyote. In a fucking show called Teen Wolf. I mean. Yeah, they kept true to the name and stuck with only ONE Teen Wolf. Because who wants to see an actual pack in a show about werewolves? Oh. Right. Everyone.

Season 4 was just bad. It was lame, it was weird and it had zero pay-off when Peter was suddenly the bad guy again. I had been a hundred percent sure that Gerard was behind this and that this was the reason they kept him alive.

Gerard, other reason for why it became bad. How did no one make sure to kill him? And then, when it’s revealed that he’s alive and basically dying slowly which is cruel, no one finishes him off either. You can not argue the “The good guys don’t kill” thing because keeping him alive while he is slowly dying from the black goo is so much worse than just a mercy-kill. And if you’re setting your good guys up to be cruel assholes who torture their enemies like that... you don’t get to play the “He has True Alpha potential because he’s such a goodie-two-shoes” card. And I am terrified to see what he does in season 6.

Kira was a cool addition, mainly. She... didn’t really get much personality development beyond the point of Scott’s New Love-Interest, but the mere concept of her was cool.

I dislike Malia and will always hate how they shoehorned her in. “Hey, look! Another living Hale! And it’s Peter’s daughter! Wow!”. That she spent basically a decade in the forest as a wild animal but they just pretend that it’s possible to re-introduce her not just into society but high school - whereas she is completely lacking all middle school and half of elementary school education, honestly, can she even read and write? Because she shouldn’t be able to. Even if she learned that ten years ago, she’d have forgotten simply by growing up as a wild animal in the forest. Granted, her behavior is at the very least well-written and animalistic, but that just makes me question the weirdness of Stiles going “Oh, she’s basically a wild animal. Let’s start dating”. Right. Away. If they had taken the time to, you know, re-introduce her to society properly and learn things and her and Stiles falling for each other along the way, okay sure. But this “We just met. Let’s have sex in the basement of the asylum” thing was so weird and so forced.

Season 5 might just be one of the - if not THE - worst thing I’ve ever witnessed on television. If something has that crappy level of quality, I normally turn it off and stop watching.

But the masochistic part of me kept whispering how much I loved season 1 and 2 and that 3 wasn’t so bad and, sure, since season 3 it’s been declining, but they did so well in the first two seasons, maybe they’ll turn it around again.

They did not turn it around.

Season 5 was just... really, really, really awful.

The over-loaded plotlines that kept getting entangled.

The fucking awful new characters. Like. Liam was always and will always be only Scott 2.0, a very, very cheap rip-off of their own main character - and who even does that? But in season 5, he was just awful. That he threw his temper-tantrums and turned his back on Scott and was just generally a pain in the ass.

Allison 2.0 was even worse though. I legit do not bother remembering the name of Liam’s girlfriend, because she is so flat and... unlikeable. Her only reason for being in this was to create the tension between Scott and Liam.

And Liam’s best friend made them feel like “Oh boy, we cut out the jock and his lovable gay best friend. Let’s replace Jackson and Danny with those two!”. Honestly, they really gave up trying to come up with individual, interesting characters.

And casting showed that too. At least Liam’s best friend is black. But literally everyone else they cast after season 3 was two things - white and brunette. This show started out with such an individual, diverse cast - black male Boyd, blonde female Erica, blonde male Isaac, redheaded female Lydia, polynesian male Danny. And now they basically just cast dark-haired whites and the guys even all look the same. This Theo-guy and that... other... wolf... guy... thing... I honestly don’t remember but the guy who had something with Liam’s best friend, they basically looked the same to me.

The decline in character development and design, as well as the decline in story-telling was only topped off by the dreadfulness.

This show used to be bright. And funny.

As in: It took place during the day too. There used to be colors. In season 5, in many episodes, I could barely tell what was going on because it mainly took place during the night and in total darkness.

And I didn’t laugh once in season 5. Absolutely nothing was funny. It didn’t help that comic relief guy Stiles got kicked in the balls by the writers when they decided they also needed tension between Scott and Stiles.

No, fuck you, you don’t.

The friendship between Scott and Stiles has been the backbone of this show since the very first scene of the first episode. And now you decide that Scott should be stupid, shallow and trustful enough to trust Theo instead of Stiles? Really? That... That’s so OoC. Those are your characters, don’t write them OoC.

The fact that Derek and Peter too became characters who just... disappeared for long periods of time was just ridiculous too. It’s like this show is deliberately trying to sabotage itself and to remove good characters.

Lydia, Stiles and Scott are essentially the only characters left from the... bigger ones. Derek, Peter, Isaac, Boyd, Erica, Jackson, Allison, Aiden, Ethan, Kira, Danny.

Instead we get to keep Malia around who, sure, ist still the best of those new additions. Liam. Liam’s girlfriend. Liam’s best friend. Fucking Theo gets to stay?

And Parrish, who... honestly just gives me the creeps because the dude is old enough to have been to war and to now work at a police station as a deputy, which I really hope for the sake of the safety of the people does require some years of training before you get handed a gun and a badge too, but thinks it’s in any way or shape appropriate to date a high school student? Like, sure, it may be legal but that doesn’t mean you have to do that. Especially not if you’re a police deputy. And I don’t care if that sounds like a hypocrite thing to say because I ship Sterek and that might be the same age-difference. I ship Sterek in fanfiction and fanarts. If fans go ahead and ship Lydia and Parrish sure, cool. Everything goes in the fandom. Not everything should go in canon, because there should be some kind of... moral... behind decisions made. Do not romantize adults dating teens.

So. Yeah.

If they hadn’t announced that season 6 is the final season, I would have turned my back after how bad season 5 was. But... cue in the voice in my head that’s still whispering how much I loved season 1 and 2. And this is the grand finale. It’ll be over after this. Just 20 more episodes, I can watch that. And then it’ll be finally over and they can’t ruin it any more.

The grand finale airs in four days. So I’ll be rewatching the first five seasons now and then I will start watching the final season. I’m terrified of it.

And am I the only one who felt like many decisions made were just made to snuff out Sterek? I mean. Stiles who didn’t have any romantic plotline before, all of a sudden having sex with basically a random stranger in a basement and Derek literally fucking the enemy while he’s half-bleeding to death, but let’s just hurry up and make sure they have female love interests...?

#Teen Wolf #Time to rewatch #Please be good #I beg you #Sterek #I really miss my Sterek #TV Rants #Fandom Rants #Phoe Rewatching Teen Wolf #part 1

[ntrending]

The real-world Mount Doom just erupted (again)

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/the-real-world-mount-doom-just-erupted-again/

The real-world Mount Doom just erupted (again)

Ey, that’s a spicy Stromboli! (Pixabay/)

On Wednesday afternoon, videos of an ashy blast went viral when the volcano Stromboli erupted, killing one hiker. But the seismic belch isn’t a surprising event: After all, the hyperactive volcano has been in a near-ceaseless state of activity for the better part of 2,000 years, regularly spewing debris from its spot in an island chain near the end of Italy and the start of Sicily. Rather, it’s all the fantastical details surrounding this iconic cone that make it truly noteworthy:

<p>In Jules Verne’s <em>Journey to the Center of the Earth,</em> the fictional Professor Lidenbrock, his nephew Axel, and a guide named Hans begin their adventure by descending into Iceland’s Snæfellsjökull volcano. But their story only comes full circle (get it?) when they’re ejected from the bowels of the Earth through an eruption of Stromboli.</p>

<p>The volcano may feature in another prominent literary work: J.R.R. Tolkein’s <em>The Lord of the Rings</em>. Apparently, fans (and at least one scholar) think the real-life volcano is the inspiration for Mount Doom (aliases: Orodruin and Amon Amarth), a volcano in Mordor controlled by Sauron. Director Peter Jackson didn’t take the hint. In the film adaptation, two of New Zealand’s active volcanoes, Mount Ngauruhoe and Mount Ruapehu, stand in for Doom instead.</p>

<p>Every interesting food item has a contested origin story. But whether it was invented in 1950 in Pennsylvania or 1954 in Spokane, both supposed creators of the stromboli—the cheesy Italian turnover—credit their inspiration to <em><a href=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1cWuVFEtsU”>Stromboli</a>,</em> a film about a woman (played by Ingrid Bergman) taken to live on the barren volcanic island after World War II. What this tragic interment camp romance has to do with pre-folded pizza remains unclear.</p>

<p>And speaking of film: The evil puppet-maker in Disney’s 1940 film <em>Pinnochio</em> is named Stromboli. In the original 1883 book by Carlo Collodi, this character had been named Mangiafuoco.</p>

But if we’re talking strictly scientifically, Stromboli’s greatest legacy is certainly the “Strombolian Eruption.” See, the thing about this volcano is that it doesn’t usually have lava flows. Instead, it explodes, projecting volcanic bombs (that’s a technical term!) into the air. The material emerges in a glowing, viscous state, but it hardens into solid rock before it hits the ground. These molten forms can be grouped into different shapes, including ribbon bombs, which look like a tangle of strings; spindle bombs, which look like almonds; breadcrust bombs, which crack on the surface like a fresh loaf; and cow pie bombs that look like… well, you know.

Of course, these bombs are dangerous to anyone nearby—one of them struck the hiker who died on Wednesday. But they’re also one reason the Sicilian volcano’s name has spread far and wide. As far away as Antarctica, Mount Erebus produces “Strombolian” eruptions every now and then.

Written By Eleanor Cummins

#Science

[seniorbrief]

13 Halloween Movies that Will Scare You Senseless

Culture

Damon BeresAug 07

From slashers to seances, we’ve rounded up the best Halloween movies for a scary night in.

House of 1000 Corpses (2003)

via amazon.com

On our best Halloween movies list because: It’s a shocking gorefest set on Halloween: Possibly stomach-turning, but definitely fit for mature audiences looking for a thrill to match the occasion.

Critics say: “[Director Rob] Zombie, pillaging from every low-budget freak-out he can, proves that he at least has a lurid touch for shock theatrics. Blood spatters on the floor like a Jackson Pollock.”—Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly.

Buy now

Sleepy Hollow (1999)

via amazon.com

On our best Halloween movies list because: There’s hardly a better fit for a creepy night in than director Tim Burton, and his take on the Washington Irving short story is ghoulish, intriguing fun.

Critics say: “Gorgeous filmmaking that brims over with fun-house thrills and ravishing romance… Heads roll, bodies pile up, and the horseman—played in flashback by a megaweird Christopher Walken—rises from the dead.”—Peter Travers, Rolling Stone. 

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Halloween (1978)

via amazon.com

On our best Halloween movies list because: Halloween all but invented an entire subgenre of slasher horror movies, those that take place on All Hallows’ Eve.

Critics say: “There isn’t another post-1970 release that comes close to it in terms of scaring the living hell out of a viewer.”—James Berardinelli, Reelviews. Check out these things you probably never knew about Halloween the holiday.

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The Changeling (1980)

via amazon.com

On our best Halloween movies list because: With a vengeful ghost, a haunted house, and the approval of Martin Scorsese, what more could you want?

Critics say: “This is a scare movie with taste.”—Roger Ebert.

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Original Source -> 13 Halloween Movies that Will Scare You Senseless

source https://www.seniorbrief.com/13-halloween-movies-that-will-scare-you-senseless/

#seniorbrief #seniors

[bladedbalatablog-blog]

How Golfing Saved my Life

I first picked up a

golf club

the year after my mom died.

And it saved my life.

I grew up in a magical, if not entirely backwards, period known as the 1980s. In addition to my miraculous survival through an era when seat belts were practically optional, organic hadn’t been invented yet, and parents only had the wisdom that their parents had passed down to them, my childhood was spent in a very small town. The year I was born, it’s population was just over six hundred people. And so, my beginning was spent as the oldest child of a barely-making-ends-meet working class family of five, in a three-bedroom house that stood next to a filbert orchard in Dundee, Oregon.

In that town, whose only municipal buildings were a single post office and an elementary school, my parents, for fear my brain would rot or my soul lost to the devil, forbade me many things. Mind you, I was allowed to do some things. Like ride my bike in the street completely unsupervised, without even owning a helmet. But there are two things that have stood out over my thirty-six years as being the most important. So of course now, besides my wife and kids, they’re the two things that have meant the most to me in the world.

I was five years old when I asked my father what the bag full of chrome sticks was hanging in the rafters of our garage.

“They’re golf clubs,” he told me.

“Can I see them?” I asked.

“Golf is for rich, old people. I only have those so I can play when my boss asks me to. It’s not for you. Don’t ask again,” he told me.

That was it. For the rest of my developmental years that’s what I believed. And anyone who played golf fit right into that stereotype for me. Golf was for rich people. Old people. And not me. If you weren’t those things, rich or old, then you weren’t doing it right. And golf wasn’t for you either.

That is, save a single instance in high school, when I was sixteen years old, and the girl I worshiped most had a poster of Tiger Woods hanging on the back of her door.

“Who’s that?” I asked.

“Tiger Woods,” she smiled. She was always smiling. Like she knew something I didn’t know. It drove me crazy.

“I don’t know who that is.”

“You will.” Maybe she really did know things.

Secondly, I wasn’t allowed to listen to music.

Not the music I wanted to, anyway.

Around the same time that my dad was telling me that golf wasn’t for me, my mom was telling me how dangerous music was. And was subsequently only allowed to listen to Bible stories on the record player and mom’s gospel music. But, she thought, even gospel could get a little racy sometimes.

It wasn’t until I was quite a bit older, riding the bus to the next town over for middle school, that I finally heard genuinely artistic music through the awful clock-radio speakers of my blessed bus driver’s radio.

I very clearly remember hearing Peter Gabriel for the first time. Eric Clapton for the first time. And remember my heart absolutely stopping any time Michael Jackson came on.

I admitted to her one day that I didn’t want to spend any more time learning to play the clarinet. They had bought it for me to play in the school band after I had specifically asked for a saxophone. So I could be like Kenny G. “It’s the same thing, just cheaper,” they told me. Every male trumpet player in the 6th grade disagreed.

I told my mom that I would rather spend my time learning to play the electric guitar.

“Electric guitars are the devil’s music,” she informed me. She added later that it was the high squealing solo parts that made the devil especially happy, which made me sad because those made me happy too.

That was the first time in my life I remember thinking that my parents were wrong about something. And refused to believe something they had told me. It took me nearly ten years from that moment, after thousands of attempts, from multiple angles, with every last bit of angst and determination a boy could muster to finally wear my mother down.

She bought me my first guitar when I was sixteen. I went to music college in New York City when I was eighteen. And was playing professionally by the time I was twenty-one.

She never got to see it.

I still loved my parents, then. I love them even more now. It’s just that my father was, and I think to some degree continues to be, filled with the kind of wisdom a person gets filled with growing up in the late 50s as the youngest son of a WWII chaplain and his British war-bride. His great rebellions consisted of going to see a movie after they told him movies were evil. And running off to live with his sister after high school, who herself was married to a pastor. What I’m saying is that his story isn’t a life lived out in The Hunger Games or The Catcher in the Rye. It was a life built with rules and boundaries and precision, and measured only by how steady one could be.

I want to be steady now, too. For my family.

But my story happened differently.

Mom got sick when I was fifteen and was gone by the time I was twenty. And when my world ended, collapsed, meaning ceased to exist, I just wanted something to fight against.

I needed it. A new battle. Something I could win. Because you can’t punch cancer.

And I was already well on my way musically.

What I needed was something new to fight. Something to pour the passions and fires and war from my life’s destruction into. Lest I destroy myself. Or someone I loved. Or both.

I remembered then the poster on the back of the door, and felt romance and passion.

I remembered my father telling me no. Rebellion.

I remembered what it took to get good at guitar. How my fingers bled on the frets. Fire.

My next door neighbor, a man named John, was one of the angels in my young life. He found out I wanted to play golf, was himself left-handed, and gave me my first clubs. He set them on our doorstep, bound together in a carboard box, for me to find. In those months after my mom’s death, being happy was such a foreign feeling to me that I cried when I saw them.

They were rough in my beginner hands.

MacGregor blades with hard, cord, black and green grips. You know the ones. They’re the ones your neighbor probably gave you when you first started playing.

My maiden voyage out was nine holes at the OSU home course with my best friend. I couldn’t hit a 7 iron more than a hundred yards and we barely finished. The skin on my hands, red and raw, pealed off in quarter sized blisters.

“When can we go again?”

The only words I could speak. I was in awe.

There’s never a good time to lose your parents. There’s never a good time to lose anyone. But spending high school watching her go. And then facing the idea of my twenties, trying to become the person I was meant to be, by myself? Alone? That I would never hear her calming voice again?

There’s no other word for it. I was scared.

But also, something new was forming. After buying a set of baseball gloves to cover both my hands so that I could still play guitar the next day, I wanted something beautiful. Maybe more than I had ever wanted anything before. I wanted to flush a 7 iron again. I wanted to learn how to hit the ball farther and straighter than anyone else could. And I wanted to hear my name called by the starter and walk out onto the course with nothing but me and the ball for hours and hours.

You can’t compare some things. Being a father or a good husband isn’t compatible or comparable to golf. Those things have separate categories.

But golf is perfect to me.

That’s what I’m trying to say.

For however long I’m out on the course, it’s perfect. Golf is my heaven.

When I first started out, the oldest, and hence cheapest, balls in the used ball bin were the old balata balls. Soft cover balls that, if you hit it with the leading edge of your club, left a scar that never went away. Cut it right to the core.

Some scars never fade. We can accept that.

But you can still finish the hole if you can find new reasons to go on. New joys and passions. New games to play. New courses. New playing partners.

A long time ago I was a very broken boy. Maybe I was broken from the start. But I’m still here and playing. And I couldn’t be happier.

That’s what I’m going to write about here.

My name is Nathan Christensen, and I am an old bladed balata.

And maybe that’s great, because maybe you are too.

#Golf #Golfing #GolfStory #Greens #BladedBalata #GolfBalls #Mother