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fearsmagazine · 9 months

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DRACULA, A COMEDY OF TERRORS, performances begin Sept. 4th, on at the New World Stages in NYC.

Drew & Dane Productions presents Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors by Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen in a limited 18-week engagement, September 4 – January 7, at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street). Opening night is September 18. Directed by Gordon Greenberg (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Geffen), Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors features a company of fearless actors including Jordan Boatman (Medea at BAM, The Niceties), Arnie Burton (The 39 Steps, Peter and The Starcatcher), James Daly (Shaw Festival, Stratford Festival, Hulu’s “Letterkenny”), Ellen Harvey (How To Succeed, Present Laughter) and Andrew Keenan-Bolger (Disney’s Newsies, Tuck Everlasting). Tickets are now on sale at Telecharge.com, (212) 239-6200.

(L-R) ARNIE BURTON, JORDAN BOATMAN,, ELLEN HARVEY, ANDREW KEENAN-BOLGER, JAMES DALY. Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors. photo by Maria Baranova

Bram Stoker’s horror classic gets a riotous makeover in this lightning-fast comedic reimagining that celebrates goth, camp, sexuality, and the magic of live theatre. This 90-minute, gender-bending, quick-change romp features a pansexual GenZ Count Dracula in the midst of an existential crisis. When he sets his sights on the brilliant young earth scientist Lucy Westfeldt, he meets his match for the first time – as well as a slew of other colorful characters including vampire hunter Jean Van Helsing, insect connoisseur Percy Renfield and behavioral psychiatrist Wallace Westfeldt, whose British country estate doubles as a free-range mental asylum. With a cast of brilliant quick take comedians, this Dracula will make you scream… with laughter.

(Back, L-R) KAITLYN BOYER, ARNIE BURTON, JAMES DALY, ANDREW KEENAN-BOLGER, SEAN-MICHAEL WILKINSON. (front, l-r) JORDAN BOATMAN, ELLEN HARVEY. Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors. photo by Maria Barano

“In re-reading Dracula, we were surprised and intrigued by the boldness with which Stoker, a closeted gay man in Victorian England, plays with sexuality and gender norms,” says director/co-writer Gordon Greenberg. Co-writer Steve Rosen adds “we wanted to celebrate him and, at the same time, send up his moody, broody melodrama in the spirit of some of our comedic heroes like Charles Ludlam, Monty Python and Mel Brooks.” In regards to the New World Stages production, Greenberg continues, “We are so fortunate to have assembled an extraordinary company of top-notch comedic actors whose fearlessness and hilarity make the whole experience feel like a party. We hope our Dracula gives audiences of all ages the chance to forget about their troubles and just laugh their heads off for a while.”

Playwrights STEVE ROSEN and GORDON GREENBERG. Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors. photo by Maria Baranova

Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors features scenic design by Tijana Bjelajac, costume design by Tristan Raines, lighting design by Rob Denton, original music and sound design by Victoria Deiorio, and wig and hair design by Ashley Rae Callahan. General Management is by Live Wire Theatrical. The company understudies are Kaitlyn Boyer and Sean-Michael Wilkinson. Production management is by Intuitive Production Management, and production stage management is by Morgan Holbrook. Casting is by JZ Casting. Dori Berinstein (The Prom) is Executive Producer.

JAMES DALY. Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors. photo by Maria Baranova

Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors was commissioned and originally produced by Maltz Jupiter Theatre (Andrew Kato, Producing Artistic Director/Chief Executive) in 2019. In 2020, it was adapted as a radio play for The Broadway Podcast Network with an all-star cast including Annaleigh Ashford, Laura Benanti, Alex Brightman, James Monroe Iglehart, Richard Kind, Rob McClure, Ashley Park, Christopher Sieber, and John Stamos. Productions followed at Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany and Segal Centre for Performing Arts in Montreal. A hit with critics and audiences alike, Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors has been praised by the Albany Times Union as “a raucous comedy, done with impeccable adroitness …stuffed with sight gags, wordplay and lightning-fast costume changes,” and described as “a delicious comedic romp” by Berkshire Edge. McGill Daily calls the play “a sexy retelling of the classic 1897 novel that leans into contemporary gender roles with an unprecedented comedic angle. … not to be missed.” BroadwayWorld calls it a “lightning-fast, laugh-out-loud comedy.”

Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors will play a 18-week limited engagement September 4 – January 7, at New World Stages, Stage 5 (340 West 50th Street.) Opening night is September 18. Performances are Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7PM, Friday and Saturday at 8PM, with matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2PM. Tickets are $99 - $119. Premium seating is available. Tickets are now on sale at Telecharge.com, (212) 239-6200. For more information, visit www.DraculaComedy.com.

#theater #comedy #off broadway #dracula #a comedy of terrors #new world stages #gordon greenberg #steve rosen #vampire

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kevinsreviewcatalogue · 10 months

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Review: Seed of Chucky (2004)

Seed of Chucky (2004)

Rated R for strong horror violence/gore, sexual content and language

Score: 2 out of 5

Seed of Chucky is, without a doubt, the most overtly comedic entry in the Child's Play franchise, specifically serving as writer and now director Don Mancini's take on a John Waters movie, right down to casting Waters himself as a sleazy paparazzo. It's a film full of one-liners, broad gags, gory kills that are often played as the punchlines to jokes, and most importantly, sexual humor, particularly in its depiction of its non-binary main character that is admittedly of its time in some ways but also a lot more well-intentioned than its peers, and holds up better than you might think for a movie made in 2004. This was really the point where Mancini being an openly gay man was no longer merely incidental to the series, but started to directly inform its central themes. In a movie as violent and mean-spirited as a slasher movie about killer dolls, this was the one thing it needed to handle tastefully, and it more or less pulled it off, elevating the film in such a manner that, for all its other faults, I couldn't bring myself to really dislike it.

Unfortunately, it's also a movie that I wished I liked more than I did. It's better than Child's Play 3, I'll give it that, but it's also a movie where you can tell that Mancini, who until this point had only written the films, was a first-time director who was still green around the ears in that position, and that he was far more interested in the doll characters than the human ones. The jokes tend to be hit-or-miss and rely too much on either shock value or self-aware meta humor, its satire of Hollywood was incredibly shallow and made me nostalgic for Scream 3, and most of the human cast was completely forgettable and one-note. Everything connected to the dolls, from the animatronic work to the voice acting to the kills, was top-notch, but they were islands of goodness surrounded by a painfully mediocre horror-comedy.

Set six years after Bride of Chucky, our protagonist is a doll named... well, they go by both "Glen" and "Glenda" (a shout-out to an Ed Wood camp classic) throughout the film and variously use male and female pronouns. I'm gonna go ahead and go with "Glen" and "they/them", since a big part of their arc concerns them figuring out their gender identity, and just as I've used gender-neutral pronouns in past reviews for situations where a character's gender identity is a twist (for instance, in movies where the villain's identity isn't revealed until the end), so too will I use them here. Anyway, we start the film with an English comedian using Glen as part of an "edgy" ventriloquist routine, fully aware that they're actually a living doll and abusing them backstage. When Glen, who knows nothing about where they came from except that they're Japanese (or at least have "Made in Japan" stamped on their wrist), sees a sneak preview on TV for the new horror film Chucky Goes Psycho, based on an urban legend surrounding a pair of dolls that was found around the scene of multiple murders, they think that Chucky and Tiffany are their parents, run off from their abusive owner, and hop on a flight to Hollywood to meet them. There, Glen discovers the Chucky and Tiffany animatronics used in the film and, by reading from the mysterious amulet they've always carried around, imbues the souls of Charles Lee Ray and Tiffany Valentine into them. Brought back to life, Chucky and Tiffany seek to claim human bodies, with Tiffany setting her eyes on the real Jennifer Tilly, who's starring in Chucky Goes Psycho, and Chucky setting his on the musician and aspiring filmmaker Redman, who's making a Biblical epic that Tilly wants the lead role in.

More than any prior film in the series, this is one in which the human characters are almost entirely peripheral. Chucky and Tiffany are credited as themselves on the poster, the latter above the actress who voices her, and they get the most screen time and development out of anybody by far, a job that Brad Dourif and Jennifer Tilly proved before that they can do and which they pull off once again here. Specifically, their plot, in addition to the usual quest to become human by transferring their souls into others' bodies, concerns their attempts to mold Glen/Glenda in their respective images. Chucky wants them to be his son, specifically one who's as ruthless a killer as he is, while Tiffany, who's trying not to kill anyone anymore (even if she... occasionally relapses), hopes to make them her perfect daughter. Their arguments over their child's gender identity are a proxy for the divide between them overall as people, building on a thread from Bride of Chucky implying that maybe theirs wasn't the true love it seemed at first glance but a toxic relationship that was never going to end well, especially since they never bothered to ask Glen what they thought about the matter. Glen is the closest thing the film has to a real hero, somebody who doesn't fit into the binary boxes that Chucky and Tiffany, both deeply flawed individuals in their own right, try to force them into, and series newcomer Billy Boyd did a great job keeping up with both Dourif and Tilly at conveying a very unusual character. Whenever the dolls are on screen, the film is on fire.

I found myself wishing the film could've just been entirely about them, because when it came to the humans, it absolutely dragged. As good as Tilly was as the voice of Tiffany, her live-action self here feels far more one-dimensional. We're told that she's a diva who mistreats her staff and sleeps with directors for parts, but this only comes through on screen in a few moments, as otherwise Tilly plays "Jennifer Tilly" as just too ditzy to come off as a real asshole. As for Redman, it's clear that he is not an actor by trade outside of making cameo appearances, as he absolutely flounders when he's asked to actually carry scenes as a sleazy filmmaker parody of himself. Supporting characters like Jennifer's beleaguered assistant Joan and her chauffeur Stan are completely wasted, there simply to pad the body count even when it's indicated (in Joan's case especially) that they were shaping up to be more important characters. There was barely any actual horror, to the point that it detracted from the dolls' menace. The satire of showbiz mostly amounts to cheap jabs at Julia Roberts, Britney Spears, and the casting couch, and barely connects to the main plot with the dolls, even though there was a wealth of ideas the filmmakers could've drawn on connecting Glen's quest to figure out their identity with the manner in which sexual minorities and other societal outcasts have historically gravitated to the arts. This was a movie that could've taken place anywhere, with any set of main human characters, and it wouldn't have changed a single important thing about it, such was how they faded into the background. At least the kills were fun, creative, and bloody, including everything from razor-wire decapitations to people's faces getting melted off with both acid and fire, and the fact that I didn't care about the characters made it easier to just appreciate the special effects work and the quality of the doll animatronics.

The Bottom Line

Seed of Chucky is half of a good movie and half of a very forgettable one, and one that I can only recommend to diehard Chucky fans and fans of queer horror, in both cases for the stuff involving the dolls. It's not the worst Chucky movie, but it's not particularly good either.

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hearmeoutno · 2 years

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Chapter 4: Dear Billy

Yea so Eddie is nowhere in this chapter so to relieve your depression of this episode, here's some Eddie and Mack being besties and just a short chapter full of Eddie figuring out he's likes Steve

________________

(Original dialogue)

"Seriously? A catchphrase?"

"It's now or never Ed, let me have my moment."

They're in position to flee and possibly attack, but no one came to the boat house. They were close once, but just left for some reason? Jocks really are stupid, huh?

After about half an hour they give up and enjoy a meal of canned ravioli together.

"So we're just gonna ignore the little moments between you and mister I Spend Hours On My Hair there?"

Eddie, almost choking, quickly shakes his head trying to be in denial of his feelings.

"What moment? There wasn't a moment? Why would there be a moment?"

Mack let's out a laugh at Eddie being oblivious. He sooo had feelings for Steve!

"Doctor Love isn't my favourite KISS song for nothing Eds. Tell me about it, I can help!"

"You? Help me with the feelings I have for Steve according to you? God you should be a comedian!"

Mack rolls her eyes, wondering if she should tell Eddie about what she saw. I mean, they're already getting hunted down, why keep secrets?

"Steve was kind of staring at you for the whole time he was here. He never laughed at my genius jokes, he just stared at you and blushed when you looked at him! I swear to God do you need some glasses because I would personally craft them for you!"

"Oh shut up, you're talking out your ass."

Running a hand over her face, she gives up on trying to convince him. Guess he'll have to deal with it alone.

"It's your loss dude, just wait and see how much he cares for you."

...

(More original dialogue Eddie is just nowhere in this episode I'm sorry)

Mack is being Mack, just practicing stabbing some jock and catching a phrase.

"Eat shit and live, Jason!"

"What kind of catchphrase is that?"

Mack hold a hand to her chest in hurt, how DARE he not get te reference.

"Sleepaway camp? Eddie you are a disappointment to the horror community. Judy was so hot in that movie, definitely deserved her death tho."

"What the fu- she was killed by having a curling iron stuck up her vagina, how did she deserve that!"

"She was a bitch, I mean who calls a girl a 'carpenters dream'? Any who, I need to get back to catchphrase thinking, you go have your little gay crisis about Steve, I won't bother you."

Eddie sits back against a wall, actually taking up Mack's offer of having the crisis thing. It's obvious to anyone who has eyes and a tiny bit of street knowledge to know he was gay, but to be in love with Steve? King of Hawkins? Sure, Steve is a great looking guy, great being an understatement, but he wouldn't like Eddie. Freak Eddie.

"Maybe you're right Mack"

"What that you're a disappointment to the horror community?"

"About the Steve thing Mack! I like Steve, there I said it! Happy now"

Mack throws away the knife and goes to sit next to Eddie, putting her hand on his shoulder for comfort.

"Look Ed, al joking aside, which is a real struggle for my to do, I really am happy. You need something to hold onto right now, and Steve definitely wants to hold onto you. It's obvious he likes you, you just needs to... shoot your shot, he definitely won't."

Eddie looks up at Mack, a slight hint of sadness in his eyes.

"Why wouldn't he? Is he afraid of me or something?"

"He's afraid of his feelings for you I think, maybe he doesn't even know what his sexuality is. And like, he seems like a guy with the least confidence ever. But look at you Ed! Never before has anyone given a dramatic monologue on top of a table on a high school canteen, and yet you did it. You got this man. Show them Eddie the Freak is just a soft good old fashioned lover boy."

Eddie chuckles softly at the Queen reference and thinks about the serious part of what she just said. Maybe he should ask Steve out! And with that newfound confidence, he does have something to look forward too now.

________________________________

You know the deal by now, please let me know what you think about this chapter and give me any feedback or criticism you have. Thanks for reading :)

Missed the other chapters? Here you go :>

Wanna continue reading? Enjoy! :)

#st oc #oc #dustin henderson #strangerthings 4 #stranger things #rewrite #steve harrington × eddie munson #they are so gay omfg #gay #robin buckley #eddie munson #steve harrington

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bisexualamy · 4 years

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I just watched jojo rabbit and I really enjoyed and I really want to know what you thought of it

Hi! Thank you for waiting. Obviously spoilers for the movie for anyone reading.

So I LOVED Jojo Rabbit for a few reasons. I know some people criticized it for being a kind of “goy savior” movie and while I understand that critique, I think it’s a little dishonest to the movie as a whole. Mainly because I really loved how the movie showed how fascism indoctrinates children through Jojo and I think that’s very relevant to the times we’re living in now. With the resurgence of fascism and how the internet is being used to indoctrinate young (mainly) guys into fascism, showing explicitly how it disrupts Jojo’s life, his health, his relationship with his mother, is incredibly relevant and I really liked that.

From that perspective, I see the movie less as a “goy savior” movie and Jojo’s arc more of one about being deprogrammed out of fascism. One key element of being de-radicalized is forming relationships with the groups you victimized. It’s difficult, emotionally draining work. Elsa took that on largely out of a need to survive, but the tone of Jojo being a child with little power softened that trope for me in a way that made me like it.

I also like how the movie wasn’t afraid to go there in terms of Jojo confronting the consequences of his ideology. The scene with the blue butterfly was masterfully done imo, and as much as it broke my heart, I appreciate that the movie made his mother a causality of the war. It hammers home the “if you want to be a fascist, this is what you have to be willing to accept.” The me whole sequences was really beautiful and I couldn’t really get it out of my head.

I know there was also some critique about the campy tone of the movie, but I think that critique really misses the point. Linsday Ellis has a great video about The Producers and how to do you satirize fascism, and I think Taika Waititi really killed it with the campy attitude of this movie. Linsday talks about how fascists can’t re-appropriate imagery from Springtime for Hitler in the way they can with more serious critiques of fascism, because fascists hate being made into fools. Jojo Rabbit refused to give the fascists any dignity while still showing the horrors of fascist warfare. It also weaponizing camp in a way I think is really interesting and really true to the art form.

I also think in some ways, it gave them more runway to show really awful things because the movie had already reached a fever pitch of absurdity by the end. Like, when the Americans are invading and Rosie is just giving the children machine guns and telling them to defend their country. That’s horrific, but it works within the tone of the movie as well. Fascism is an absurd ideology. It’s an obsession with aesthetics to match a horror that eats itself and eats itself. Camp is the perfect vehicle to discuss that, in my opinion.

And despite that, the movie never let you get too comfortable laughing at the fascists. as soon as things got too silly, something horrible happens. Jojo’s mom is killed. Someone is blown up. Elsa is almost captured. I think it’s a great reflection on our current relationship with fascism. Oh, the neo-Nazis are so absurd, haha. That is until they stage a rally and someone gets killed, and everyone is looking at each other wondering how this happened.

It makes perfect sense to me that Waititi has Jewish heritage because this felt like a very Jewishly comedic tone to take. A comedian’s way of dealing with an asshole: fuck your level of self importance, I’m going to dress up like you and make you look like a bumbling dolt. Also, on a more personal level, when every day fascism feels like a fog rolling in from the horizon, having the levity of laughing at the fascists just felt good to me, and even the devastating bits were a wonderful emotional catharsis.

#Anonymous #hailing frequencies open #jojo rabbit #my meta #sometimes i say things people like

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spookyboogie3 · 4 years

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MY FAVORITE AH MOMENTS W/O R*an H*yw**d

Also keep in mind some of these moments i picked Bitch Face r*an may have been present for but this aint about his stupid ass.

The straw bit on Off Topic

Fiona and Trevor’s “Look at us” “Look at us” “Look at us” in TTT

Drunk Jeremy inhaling helium, followed by Jack and Trevor on Off Topic

“Krusty KrAYAYAB!!!” TTT

Jeremy trying to slam his face through a table, followed by Michael doing the same thing

“my god…… the munchdew” “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!” Minecraft: Skyfactory

Actually all of Simple Farmer Geoff from Skyfactory

Whatever those sounds were that Jack was making in the beginning of GTA video

Alfredo screaming as he continues to fall down a steep tube in a GTA race

DESTROYING THEIR OFFICE DEAR LORD

“How did he drown though?” “UNDERWATER, MATT!”

Anytime Fiona starts to RAGE in TTT (bonus if others join in)

The time Gav was the phantom in TTT and he kept dying and being brought back and Jack spitting water and then trying to catch it

Alfredo’s Magoo moments in Minecraft

Geoff laughing in the background of a video hes not in

Lindsay fucking around with Chef Mike on Harecore Minigolf

Lindsay fucking around in general

Gavin and Fiona playing Animal Crossing and laughing at the stupidest shit

The Fish Tempura incident on Wheel of Fortune

Lindsay’s reasoning for why her and Michael should have 4 kids

Geoff’s fucking ad reads (my favorite is 23&Me)

The whole thing during Push the Button where everyone especially Michael gets mad at Fiona because she said the best candy to get while trick or treating was lollipops

Matt’s fucking desk in the corner of the room

Anytime Millie is in a video

Everyone falling off the pink ladder during TTT and dying repeatedly because of it

Alfredo “the two-time champ” Diaz dying very early in YDYD 3

Gavin and Michael fucking up almost every game they play on Play Pals

RAY OR NO and then RAY OR NAY on Off Topic

Reddit Roasts Geoff

Gavin asking if someone could kill 20 cows with their bare hands and the proceeding so say he could rip out a cow’s veins by reaching into its neck

Ify’s narration during Let’s Roll Ave Caesar

The internet losing its shit when Jeremy shaved his head years ago

“We need a knife” Gavin comes back with a hammer

Griffin chain sawing the Off Topic table up

“How do I put the boat in the water??” “Right click you animal”

As of 2020, 8 years of playing Minecraft, certain people still do not know how to play the basics of this fucking game.

Honestly it took over 200 episodes for some of them to figure out how the compass worked. You know after they decided that the sun was setting in the wrong direction. (this was in 2016??)

Flynt coal still is a joke they make

So is Day 2

Whatever happened in that GTA lets play where someone called a mugger or a hit on someone and the game glitched and 50 guys showed up and lined up on the street below from where they were playing

Anytime Gavin gets mugged, it’s an old running gag but it’s a classic

The time a mugger fucking started driving the fire truck away after mugging Gavin with Michael and Jeremy still in the truck thinking the other is driving and it takes them like 2 minutes to realize what happened while Gavin’s yelling “come back”

They got a water jug and immediately started water boarding each other

“It pinged and went dingle”

“Hey Trey-Boi” “Hey Gay-Boi” Immediately realizes what he has said

Jeremy’s website puns

(OLD) Ray jerking off in the corner during a let’s play

(OLD) the world in Minecraft never loading and everyone screaming about as Geoff says its fine for him

Jeremy’s “I AM MONSTER TRUCK”

Jack taking AH to Disney……in Minecraft

On Twitter, Gavin asked about recommendations for a computer mouse and Fiona starts sending him pictures of actual mice.

“Its not ghey, if its on the moon”

Literally anything Fiona does as Po

Jeremy saying the heterosexual flag is boring

UNO THE MOVIE!

Geoff fucking cackling the whole time.

“here’s looking at you kid”

the video was almost 3 hours long

“you know what my favorite color is? blue” “oh really? You know what my favorite hand is? Yours

They all want it to end but no one wants to lose and so they fuck each other and that prolongs the game. Also they put on more rules, so they just keep getting more cards if they don’t have a card to match the previous

Alfredo saying he won’t participate in ghost hunter because he knows what happens to people of color in horror movies

Fiona walking in on Off Topic with a protein shake and Gavin asks if shes drinking milk and she says without missing a beat “ah no that’s cum” and everyone laughed not expecting the answer

(OLD) “SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKER” *falls in hole*

(OLD) Ray and Gav running in a panel dressed as X-Ray and Vav and Ray running the whole way around the room before he got to the stage

Duck taping Jeremy to the wall

(OLD) All of Minecraft Episode 3 Plan G (This was the very first AH video I watch and why I know who they are)

Geoff and Gav creating Achievement City and giving everyone houses just to prank Jack into burning house down with lava.

Ray’s house is a dirt block with no furniture and single torch

Geoff’s giant ass house next to Ray’s tiny house

Jack tries to destroy everything with lava throughout the episode

“lets be honest, I realistically didn’t lose anything”

Michael stealing art from Gav’s house “NOO! I want nice things”

The sign to Michael’s says “Awaiting Approval, Awaiting Approval, Awaiting Approval” he runs into house and say “I’m home”

Ray also steals this sign at some point

Plan G – The failsafe.

“Oh whats this? Is this a button? Whats this? (pushes button) Yeah it was a button”

“Did you push the button?”

“Yeah”

“okay”

“wh-what does it do?”

“uh…”

Cue Achievement City beginning to explode as Michael starts screaming

Rays reaction “NO, MY SHITTY HOUSE JUST GOT EVEN SHITTIER!”

Not something funny but something VERY IMPORTANT. AH admitting that they all fucked up and how shitty their behavior was when dealing with harassment in the fanbase. People were racist, sexist, homophobic, misogynistic, and just downright horrible to a lot of the employees at RT and AH. This came up after Mica Burton left the company and talked about it publicly and how nothing was done about it. Fiona who also experiences these same things, along with Lindsay and other employees, but Fiona took the charge on the Off Topic talking about people can’t continue to get away with that behavior. She got to sound off her feelings to a group of white men who all respected her and LISTENED to what was saying and how she felt. She cried; Geoff cried. They all want to do more, so this doesn’t happen in the future and they’re not tolerating the racist and horrible comments. AH taking a mature moment to talk about how they failed to stop these comments and Geoff was right when he said the company has a long way to go.

Outside of AH each member has more to them than just all of the comedy and laughs and dumb shit they do

Geoff helped found Roosterteeth and Achievement Hunter. He has a beautiful daughter in Millie who is awesome in her own right. He’s a recovering alcoholic. Currently doing F**k Face podcasts. Was in the fucking army. Takes accountability for every mistake he makes.

Jack also helped start Achievement Hunter. He does so much work for charity. His twitter is full of things to help people go vote. He’s like the dad to AH, especially Fiona. He’s happily married to his wife Caiti.

Michael was an electrician and has a lot of handy man experience. He made a few videos online about him raging at games and that got the attention of RT. He’s currently married to Lindsay who he met because of RT. They have two kids together.

Gavin is an expert at high speed filmmaking and know how use and edit footage from a slow-motion camera. He has worked on actual films. One of the creators of the Slow Mo Guys. Worked his ass off to get to work for RT. Currently dating model and cosplayer Meg Turney

Lindsay flips between being the mom of the group and a complete chaos queen and we all love her for it. She started as an editor for the RT podcast and then AH stuff. She is an incredible voice actor, most known for Ruby Rose (RWBY), Space Kid (Camp Camp), Hilda (Xray & Vav) just to name a few. She also has a degree in finance

Jeremy started as a fan who made videos on the community page. He took over Ray’s place after Ray left to do Twitch full time. He is a self-published author and a skilled rapper and singer. He’s currently married to his wife, Kat.

Matt also started as a fan making videos on the community page. He actually interacted and made stuff for the guys in really early Minecraft episodes. Seriously this guy is like king of Minecraft. He has a degree in electrical engineering. He also has pretty decent singing voice.

Trevor is THE BOSS. Has a degree in aero-space engineering and is getting paid to babysit AH. Currently dating Barbara Dunkelman, RTs queen of puns.

Alfredo worked at IGN before RT and is a well-known streamer. He is the best when it comes to first person shooter games. He and Trevor look so similar.

Fiona. Po. Her majesty. Host of This Just Internet. A Twitch streamer. Baby of the bunch. Grew up in Europe. Her and Gav act like a pair of siblings. She has stated and showed time and time again she will fight for people to have safe spaces for anyone who needs them.

Ify, our new guy. He is wonderful and I want to stay forever. He’s a comedian, a writer, and an actor. Co hosts F-ing Around with Fiona. Has his own film podcast, Who Shot Ya? I look forward to more content with him in it, cause everything he’s been in so far has been great.

Were all hurting but well make it through this

We have all these wonderful moments and a lot more that I didn’t list and this incredible team of personalities with their own accomplishments and achievements. Not to mention old team members who were also great additions and the entire crew behind the scenes editing and making videos look the best that they can.

Here’s to Achievement Hunter and to this community. We need to be here for each other in times like these.

@theonyxranger gave me the idea for this based on their own post they made about the fans giving their favorite moments without bitch face and there were just too many. Oop.

#Achievement Hunter #Jack Pattillo #Gavin Free #geoff ramsey #michael jones #lindsay jones #alfredo diaz #trevor collins #fiona nova #jeremy dooley #matt bragg #ify nwadiwe #roosterteeth #yes im calling him bitch face now

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mwolf0epsilon · 4 years

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Story about something crashing on little Sammy parents farm. Maybe the government comes and forces them out for a while to collect it?👽

Warning for disturbing imagery and dead animals!

Summary: Joey Drew Studio is snowed in, so while everyone tries to keep warm for the night they end up reminiscing about the oddest things they had ever experienced. Sammy ends up recalling a rather bizarre event from his childhood.

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[[MORE]]

"I'm sorry to impose so much Mrs. Harrison. I trust Abigail will behave, she's a little angel I assure you." Sammy fidgeted with the phone chord nervously as he listened to his elderly neighbor. "Yes, yes thank you... Oh certainly! Let her on so I can wish her a good night..."

Susie watched as the tired look on the music director's face melted away to welcome a gentler smile. She could sort of hear a child's voice on the line (his little sister that he'd mentioned a few times). It was quite endearing to see Sammy with such a calm and content expression instead of the usual grumpy scrawl that scared half the band into submission.

"Good night Abby, be good to Mrs. Harrison." The call was coming to a close. "I love you too."

Susie smiled at him and nodded, taking her turn to call home now that he was finished.

"Wally is heating up soup in the break room. The stove's thankfully working." She called after him as she dialed the number.

"Everyone camping out there?" He asked as he looked back at the voice actress.

"Everyone but Joey, that devil of a man actually has an insulated office... The rest of us are sleeping by the stove." She sighed "Thankfully Norman and Grant thought ahead and brought a few blankets to stay warm."

Clever thinking and also a necessity, as Grant's office was very drafty, and Norman's booth got cold from the pipework frosting over a bit (since the music department had been a repurposed bathroom) in cold weather. Mr. Cohen also knew the likelyhood of Joey having paid the heating bill. Slim to none.

"Great... Just what I wanted, to sleep in a stuffy room full of people and the smell of that rancid soup..." A soup he'd enjoyed at first (due to it reminding him of his father's cauliflower soup which had little bits of bacon in it), but which had lost its luster on the third week of being asked to take a few cans home. Abby hated the stuff so he'd had to eat it himself. "Don't you just love getting snowed in?"

"Only when I was a child. The snow usually meant no classes." Susie finished dialing and waited for her mother to answer.

He left her alone to go back into the break room where Wally and Norman were passing around bowls of soup. Grant greeted him with a blanket, which he graciously took. The damn studio was absolutely freezing in November. The freak snowstorm hadn't helped.

Honestly he'd loved the look of a snowy New York when he'd first moved here with his father. It had looked beautiful and new, almost magical, unlike the ranch he'd grown up in until he was 11. Looking back now, he missed the expanse of snowy fields instead of the cold streets. He also missed watching a few of the animals play in the snow.

Getting stuck in the studio made him a little nostalgic.

"Here ya go Sammy!" Wally passed him a bowl of soup, which he nearly dropped in surprise, and grinned "It ain't my ma's beef stew and it definitely lacks a spoon since we don't got that many of those to begin with, but at least it'll keep you warm from the inside!"

"I, yes at least that." He sniffed it and grimaced. Pork grease and chunky bits that definitely were less bacon and more cartilage. "You ever wonder how they made this slop?"

"I'd rather not think about it. It's like hot dogs ya know... The less you know about it, the better they are!" The janitor shrugged and went to sit on one of the chairs closer to the stove. Everyone was very much huddled close by, swaddled in shared blankets, rubbing their hands together to keep them warm, or drinking soup.

Norman nodded at the music director once he sat down to join the group. Not too long after Susie was sitting beside him, and he offered to share his blanket with her.

"So, what do we do now?" Wally asked as he looked around. The issue would be sorted in the morning but it was still only a quarter to eleven and no one was particularly keen on sleeping just yet.

"I'll tell ya what we could do!" Shawn called out from his spot, voice slightly muffled by his big red scarf. "I say we pass t'time by indulging in the ye old grand art that is story tellin'!"

"Story telling? What, like a sleepover?" Jack questioned. Sammy found it amusing that he'd swaddled himself in his blanket in a way that pressed his hair tight against his skull, to the point where it looked like a makeshift scarf and ear mitts. "Like when we were little kids?"

"Well we're all sleepin' here t'night aren't we? And ya don't need t'be wee little ankle biters t'go tellin' stories." Shawn huffed "Besides, what better way t'know yer co-workers than share some harrowin' tales? I sure got a few that'll intrigue you folks I'm sure."

"Is it about potatoes?" One of the art department workers asked, only to get a slap on the back of the head and an elbow to the ribs.

"Very funny, that muppet over there's a real comedian coddin like that..." The Irishman rolled his eyes. "Right, you folk ever hear 'bout the legend o'the banshee?"

Everyone gave him a peculiar look, which Shawn took as permission to carry on.

"The tale varies some dependin' on t'person who tells ya. But the way me ma told it to me was somethin' like this: The banshee is a sweet singin' virgin, pretty as a button, a real feek." He tapped his chin thoughtfully as he recalled his mother's words. "Sometimes she has long black hair, other times it's a bright red like fire. Always pale... But don't be thinkin' she's just some little lady, oh no. The banshee is a spirit, one that heralds death in the family. Her ghastly cries precede the death o'loved ones and fill ya with a mighty chill o'dread... And I saw one when I was just a wee lad."

"Ya saw... A ghost?" Lacie wrinkled her nose. "And ya sure it wasn't some regular girl you just saw?"

"Couldn't o'been. She was right outside the window Lacie. And me room was on the second floor..." Shawn shook his head "And I knew it had to o'been a banshee. She looked just like me cousin, who died o'the shakes a few months prior. My pa always did say she might come back as the household haunt, she wasn't ready t'leave just yet."

"So, that's it? You saw some apparitions at your window and think it was some folklore horror?" Sammy rolled his eyes.

"Yep. An' then in the morning me grandpa was dead. Dreadful song she went and had t'sing. I was just 5 too! T'damn beour coulda gone bother me brother instead... He was t'one that used to scare us wee lads with these tales o'ghosts n' ghoulies..."

Well, that wasn't a very nice story. And it likely had a reasonable explanation behind it too. Just a small child frightened by tales and likely still coming to terms with losing a cousin.

"Oh, that's nothin'!" Wally grinned. "Ghost stories aren't anythin' compared to what I found in a ditch when I was 8!"

"Oh yeah? Then enlighten us, oh scare Meister!" Shawn barked back, glaring slightly. "What coulda been worse than a banshee?"

"How about a maneater?" The janitor offered.

Shawn fell quiet and others began to whisper among each other at the claim, before Norman began to hush everyone.

"Go on then... Yous can't just say that an' not tell us."

"Oh man, it was the dang scariest thing I'd seen as a kid!" Wally grinned. "Us tykes from Brooklyn? We didn't grow up with monster stories and such. Our mas and pas told us about kidnappers and murderers instead, cuzz those are like, real dangers you know?"

He took a sip from his cooling bowl of soup, before clearing his throat.

"But you know what kids are like. They like adventure and don't really listen too much cuzz, you only believe it when you see it!" He carried on. "Me? I was with a couple a pals exploring this old ditch that had some neat stuff people used to throw in there. Busted watches, trinkets, sometimes a lost wallet with a little bit of cash in it...Well that day there wasn't just goodies."

Sammy sipped his own soup and felt Susie's arm brush up against his as she got on the edge of her seat. She was excited to hear wherever Wally's story was going.

"Local news had like, been going on about this one loon that had run off from the big house or somethin'. Some big mug who was a pervert or whatever. Adult stuff we kids didn't care for." Wally looked around as he spoke. "Only he wasn't no pervert, just really messed in the head. A cannibal. A cannibal that liked eating little tots. You know, stories like Little Johnny went pokin' around where he shouldn't and now there was no Little Johnny no more? Yeah that nearly was us."

"You found the guy in the ditch?" Sammy guessed.

"Nope! Found my neighbor, Sally, partially eaten and all kinds o' messed up." Wally replied "I figured we were in trouble so we ran like our butts were on fire and screamed the whole way back. Coppers caught the fucker and his picture on the paper still gives me nightmares. If we'd found him instead, we woulda ended up like Sally!"

Everyone looked extremely disturbed at the thought of a couple of 8 year olds finding another child's partially eaten corpse.

"Shite... No wonder yer such a mog. Brooklyn's fucked up!" Shawn winced.

"Hey!" Wally pouted.

"Also your story was misleading. You didn't actually encounter the "maneater"." Sammy pointed out. "That's not how you should advertise a tale you twit."

"Would ya rather I have found the creep that did it?"

"No, next time just don't make it sound like an actual encounter when it's an anecdote about another outcome entirely."

"Don't go bein' an ass Lawrence." Norman called out. "I thought the story was good. Messed up, but good... Granted it don't top what I experienced when I was still in the cradle."

"Oh, this ought to be good." The blond smirked. "Word of mouth?"

"My Nanna never told no lie. Yous won't find a more honest lady." Norman smirked back.

At this point everyone had finished their soup and was practically laying or leaning against one another for warmth. It helped that the story telling atmosphere had all but made everyone forget about the cold.

Norman being so tall and obscuring the stove ever so slightly, cast strange shadows on the wall.

"Now, this happened a few months after I was born. My Nanna was lookin' after me while my mama and memaw was helpin' my pops and pepaw out in the cotton fields. My brother and sister wasn't that much older either, not yet ready to go pickin', so they was in their room playin' together." He leaned back in his chair, a content smile on his face "Nanna was just preparin' lunch while I was layin' in this big ol' basket full o' pillows and blankets, just sleepin' away like babies do. She turned 'round to chop up some carrots when she had this weird feelin' all of a sudden."

Sammy put an arm around Susie as he listened. Norman was a pretty good story teller. Had this voice that just pulled you in. He could almost imagine a little chubby baby in a basket while an old lady prepared food in the kitchen.

"Nanna Polk always had a feel for when things were no good all of a sudden. She'd known when Poppop weren't doing well in the head, and she knew how to pop a shot into a big gator when it got too close to the house. She wasn't afraid o'nothin'." Norman carried on. "But she was afraid. She was afraid when the blade o'her knife caught the reflection o'this big brute pullin' my basket out the window."

Sammy winces and Susie tightened her grip on his arm. The others were quite aghast as well, at the thought of an innocent little babe getting snatched away by some stranger.

"Nanna didn't scream. She didn't wanna scare my siblings you see... Instead she tiptoed towards the backdoor, knife in hand, and kept outta sight o'the man that was tryin' to take me away." Norman hummed as he thought back on what Nanna had told him. "You know, they often tell ya 'bout southern hospitality. If yous is friendly and respectful, yous always got a friend. They don't tell yous about Louisiana ladies like my sweet Nanna tho... They is forged of iron and grief. Strong and protective o'their youngins... She knew what that man wanted from me, an' she wasn't bout to let it happen."

"What did she do?" Wally asked, bitting his knuckles as he put his legs up to his chest.

"Put the knife through his back. She pushed him so he wouldn't go an' fall on me, oh 'course, and that basket well about saved my life cuzz it was damn well padded and didn't so much as wake me when it hit the ground."

"Holy shit..."

"Now, that might sound a little extreme to yous, but I trust Nanna's judgement." Norman began once he noticed the horrified looks on his coworker's faces. "That man woulda taken me somewhere no one could'a gotten me from, an' she wasn't 'bout to lose anyone else to them creeps. Nanna was smart, and Nanna was hard workin'. She buried the bastard where he fell, an' planted a tree t'remember it too. I got to put a swing on it when it grew big enough to support the weight."

"Where were they going to take you?" Sammy finally asked, once he realized no one would do so. "The man?"

"Hm, well I don't know exactly. But she did say it was where my Poppop grew up, so I know it wasn't a good place." Norman frowned. "They did bad things to him, made him messed up in the head an' dangerous. Nanna saved me from endin' up the same way... Don't care if it wasn't the right way t'do it, them folks don't deserve no pity if they go stealin' babies from their cribs t'do god only knows what."

"Well... For what is worth, we're glad your nanna saved you Norman. You're a gem." Susie smiled which got the much larger man to chuckle.

"How's that for a story then? Anyone steppin' up to top it off?"

No one seemed to have anything that quite matched the energy of this... What should he call it? Cultist kidnapping story? It certainly sounded that the man was some underground cultist if he was taking babies to indoctrinate, or whatever...

The blond watched, saw no one step up to the challenge, and then remembered.

"Well, it may not be as bad as getting snatched away. But I do recall a rather peculiar set of events from before I moved to New York with my father." He began, the band members snorting and whispering among themselves that it was probably something stupid. He glared their way before looking at Norman who gestured for him to go on.

"Floor's all yours Sammy."

"Right." He thought back, way back when he was 10. Just a year prior to his mother's death. It was all a little foggy but the more he concentrated on what his father had told him about that night, the less his explanation made sense once correlated with his own memories. "I didn't exactly grow up in the city. Not until I was 11 that is... I actually lived in a cattle ranch for a while."

"That explains why you call us sheep." Johnny laughed.

"No, I call you sheep because your job is to follow me, you damn goat." Sammy snarled back at the interrupting organist.

"Ouch." Jack winced.

"Either way, as a child living with a father who raised cattle for a living, one can expect that I was often tasked to help with a few of the animals. Mainly cleaning the pens and, if I was particularly lucky, shearing the sheep." The sheep, he confesses, had been his favourite. They were dumb and cute. "My father usually dealt with the larger animals. When this event occured, he'd just bought a big healthy heifer. His ornery old bull had covered our best breeding cow but she'd not been having calves."

"Was she called Bessie?" Wally grinned.

"The name of the cow isn't of importance!" Sammy rolled his eyes. "It was Felicity by the way."

"My mistake."

"Either way, my father was a breeder, so his breeding female not producing offsprings was a big deal. I was a kid so I wasn't particularly interested if Felicity had issues, I just liked watching her when she had little calves. They were the cutest thing right after the baby lambs." Sammy carried on "The new heifer, Clarabelle, arrived that day and immediately the bull was put to working. My father thought That'd be the end of his problems... An easy fix. Except it wasn't..."

"She sterile?" Norman asked.

"Oh I wish that had been it. I was 10, had seen animals in plenty of states from sickness or wild animal attacks. But never had I seen a cow turned inside out, other than in a damn butcher's..." Sammy shuddered. He could still remember it... Going outside to get the eggs like his father had asked, and just finding this massive dead heifer with no skin on her body. His mother had said he'd screamed like the devil himself had been before him.

"Oh god..." Susie gagged slightly. "That couldn't have been nice..."

"It wasn't. I was freaked out and my father was furious. Clarabelle had been an expensive purchase. And she wasn't the only casualty." Sammy shook his head. "The pen was wrecked, the bull was in better state but no less dead, and poor Felicity must have run into whatever butchered them both because she had a massive wound on her hind. Every animal was spooked out of their minds and even our sheepdog wouldn't come out of the house. Peed himself when we tried coaxing him."

"Did ya find what did it?" Shawn asked.

"No, we couldn't find anything that explained it." Sammy carried on. "No tracks, no trails of blood, nothing. The pen was just ruined, like it had been splintered apart, and Clarabelle looked to have just... I don't know how to explain it. Pop? Like a balloon?"

"I figure your father wasn't too keen on going' about business after that?"

"He wanted compensation, but you can't exactly put the blame on anything if you can't even find a cause." The music director sighed "We eventually just decided to call it quits on figuring out what the hell happened and went on with our lives. But then things just got... Weird."

Strange lights at night, bizarre noises, and horrific night terrors. Sammy's father had lost his patience when he'd found their dog's remains and called the authorities.

"We were all on edge, unsure what was going on at the ranch, and losing animals every night. My father called the cops, saying someone must be playing some seriously messed up joke to terrorize us. He'd made a lot of enemies with his attitude over the years, so I wouldn't have been surprised..." He trailed of, beginning to feel goosebumps as he recalled the final night of these strange occurances. "And then one night I saw something strange out of my window. Stranger than anything else."

Everyone was eager for the conclusion, he could tell. Taking a deep breath, he recounted what he'd been a witness to.

"I wasn't sleeping well, no one was, but I just couldn't settle in bed that night. It felt too warm in my room so I got up to open a window." His 10 year old self had always struggled with the latch on his window, but not that night. That night it opened without a fuss. "I saw... A figure. Out in the fields. Cast in weird green light that I couldn't put a source to. They were tall, and I couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman, but I assumed man because there wasn't a hair on its head... I just stared, and it looked to be staring back. Next thing I know, I'm outside in my pajamas, staring up at this pitch black figure... Taller, imposing, faceless. No eyes, no nose, no mouth... And yet it felt like it was glaring hatefully at me. Frustrated, angry... It pointed at the woods and I don't... I don't know what it wanted and I was just a scared kid."

He gulped heavily as he recalled how oppressive everything had felt.

"Again I blacked out, but this time awoke inside to my mother fanning me. My dad was yelling at the cops and it was morning." Sammy frowns "Yelling at them to get that damn thing off his property, and to fuck right off since they were so useless at their damn job."

A soft amen from a member of the writer's department. Followed by a chuckle from another one.

"My throat was raw, and when I tried to ask what happened, my mom told me they'd found me outside at the edge of the woods, screaming until my voice went. Screaming about wanting out of the woods. Screaming about wanting to go home... Screaming that nothing here was good to eat and that I was going to die... I don't recall doing it, and my father said I'd probably had a nightmare of some kind. A fever dream even, since mom had been trying to cool me down for a good reason." He bit his lip "It's odd, I'd just fallen ill overnight and everything was fuzzy... I asked why the cops were here, and my father said when he'd gone to get me he'd spotted a weather balloon of some kind in the woods. The cops were there to take it away."

Everyone stared, confused and trying to figure out how these events connected. He gave them a shrug.

"I have no idea what was going on, so don't ask. I was 10, animals were dying weirdly, and I got so sick all of a sudden that I started sleep walking and hallucinating demonic figures. No one ever said anything about the weather balloon in the local paper either, so I don't even know what to think of that." He leaned against Susie "It was weird, but it stopped. Still that thing kept appearing in my nightmares for a while... It faded with time but it bothered me while it was still fresh in my mind."

"Sounds like aliens." Wally pips up.

"No such thing." Bertrum laughed at the suggestion. "Just a bunch of vandalism, fallen governament property, animal attacks, and a child's overactive imagination."

"No, I'm serious! Stuff like that happens in farms all the time! Stuff no one can explain..."

"Wally, there's tons o' things none can explain in this world already." Norman pointed out. "I'm not sure what sorta thing Sammy might o' stumbled upon as a kid... But little green men don't sound plausible."

"Oh come on, ain't it obvious? Cows gettin' killed, the strange damages? The fallen thing in the woods? The spooky figure? The one person who no one would believe being chosen to see the alien? Then the cops just swoopin' in and covering it up? Happened just the same to my uncle Paul!"

"What I saw wasn't little or green. Don't make it another one of your outlandish tall tales." Sammy grinned, enjoying how much Wally was puffing up.

"Bite your tongue! It ain't a tall tale!"

"Sure it's not."

"Boys don't fight... Because I've got one heck of a story that'll make Norman's and Sammy's feel like child's play!" Susie cut in, with a devilish grin of her own.

And so the night carried on, with more stories to be shared. All the while Sammy laughed and listened, content with the situation.

Although... He did still wonder what he'd seen out in the field. Surely it couldn't have been extraterrestrial.

Hm... Yes, surely not. Just a bad dream and some sick prank. Had to have been.

#Eps Writes:#Bendy and the Ink Machine #BATIM

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harmcomforts · 4 years

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this rlly took me all damn day so i know like 90% of people are asleep but here’s my SPOOKY THREAD PLOTTING/STARTER CALL. i have some new spooky muses and some of my usual ones, plus canons and ones with new verses i’d love to try out. i also have a list of verses to give us some ideas/options. like this and i’ll come to you!

characters available for threads

dahlia dread, 23, witch, mia goth fc / witch who sells goods to those who ask and raises the dead for a hefty price, occasionally. generally a lot nicer than she looks.

desmond gouley, 33, straight, adam driver fc / lives on and helps to maintain a graveyard. a spooky guy looking for his soulmate in life.

edgar huang, age unknown, straight, lewis tan fc / a vampire who was once cruel who was experimented on by humans and developed an aversion to feeding on them.

carolyn newman, 23 forever, bi, alice englert fc / ghost from the 1950s, nurse, killed by a male patient and now she haunts the hospital and occasionally murders evil men.

heather hamilton, 19, bi, sarah michelle gellar fc / fights for control over her body with the demon that also inhabits her. is usually pretty chill, but the demon is pretty murderous and/or h*rny. (character is only played in 90s verse and with gifs of sarah from btvs)

atlas james, age unknown, straight, tommy martinez fc / cult member/recruiter, seeking out a soulmate to join him in the children of james, will assist in murdering a bf or two to do so.

allison ‘allie’ flynn, 18-38, lesbian, kiersey clemons/tessa thompson fc / inspired by richie tozier - can be played in a verse where she and her friends are currently dealing with the demon in their town or 20 years later when they come back to deal with it for good. dumbass gay but in the closet comedian.

holden pritchett, 32, straight, robert pattinson fc / half-demon conman preacher. there’s a lot to it, he knows. spends his time moving around the bible belt robbing people of their money.

characters with au verses

minty thornwood, lili reinhart fc / not your usual final girl, mostly because she orchestrated the whole thing herself. can be played in the midst of her plan to basically murder a bunch of her friends (probably with a partner) or after the fact in college.

gael espinoza, david castañeda fc / ghost hunter who... kinda doesn’t believe in ghosts, will take your money to figure out what it actually is but what if he’s wrong for once?

canon characters

billy loomis, 18, lesbian, olivia cooke fc / scream universe canon character, set during scream. charming and beautiful, but harbouring some dark tendencies.

kirby reed, 18, bi, kathryn newton fc / scream universe canon character, set prior to scream 4. spunky, sarcastic, secret horror movie buff with a tendency to speed.

sidney prescott, 19, bi, kaylee bryant fc / scream universe canon character, set during scream 2. university student trying to escape her past and start fresh.

carrie white, 19, bi, eliza scanlen fc / telekinetic teenager currently on the run after murdering a whole bunch of her classmates and her awful religious fanatic mother.

available verses

from dusk till dawn: from criminals to culebas to the underworld, the expanse of texas and mexico is sprawling with danger. careful not to make yourself into someone’s dinner. (set in the television show universe, pre s1 to post s3.)

woodsboro: woodsboro is a small town in the state of california known for the two brutal massacres both referred to as the ‘woodsboro massacre’ and the ‘second woodsboro massacre’ respectively. (this verse unless stated otherwise includes the content of all four scream films.

until dawn: set in the universe of the game or inspired by it. more tba.

camp grizzly: a once familiar and friendly camp changes locations one summer and finds themselves victim to a crazed killer stalking the woods, looking to murder the young camp counsellors in a vendetta for things done to them long ago. (can be supernatural or otherwise. threat/monster can also change.)

zombie apocalypse: depends on verse, can take inspiration from multiple pieces of media. other apocalypse verses also available.

halfway, oregon: what used to be a bustling small town seems to have been slowly losing its population since the seventies… whether by choice or other dubious means. people leave big, empty houses and buildings that the more brave of the teens in town explore. the only problem is, they also have a habit of finding weird places they’ve never seen before where strange things happen and that they can never seem to find after the fact. not to mention the unusually large population of goats across town that sometimes seem to know something the townsfolk don’t.

#indie rp #indie horror rp #indie lesbian rp

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mw-moriearty · 4 years

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Superman III is an Anti-Capitalist Parable and Way Ahead of its Time

No seriously. Here’s the skinny.

Superman III came out in ‘83 and was directed by Richard Lester, who also directed the markedly inferior theatrical cut of Superman II three years earlier. Lester had a very different approach to the Superman series than his predecessor, Richard Donner: he insisted, ostensibly at the studio’s urging, on taking the series in a more camp comedy direction rather than the Old Hollywood epic movie tone Donner brought to the table. It makes sense, then, that audiences would push back against the goofier, lower-stakes tone of III. They were used to the (comparatively) operatic tone of the original Superman and, to a lesser extent, its sequel.

Superman III was a financial success, but it was negatively received by audiences and by critics, a negative reception that helped send the follow-ups Supergirl and Superman IV: A Quest for Peace to the bottom of the trash heap (not that they needed much help).

But, unlike those two installments, Superman III, when watched today with an unbiased eye, holds up much better than its reputation would suggest. The emphasized comedic undertones don’t stand out so much in this era of light, bantery Marvel films.

And, what’s more, Superman III is probably one of the most plainly anti-capitalist superhero movies of all time. Its maybe not “woke,” but its pretty damn close.

At the core of the film, and perhaps its most controversial element, is the comic relief character played by comedian Richard Pryor. Pryor’s character in Superman III may not be the most nuanced character of color in film, but he is also certainly not the Jar Jar Binks minstrel clown some make him out to be. What he is, is a naturally-gifted computer programmer so brilliant that he is able to hack into a government weather-controlling satellite while completely blitzed and effortlessly design a supercomputer so sophisticated it gains self-awareness. It is obvious the only reason that he lives on unemployment and can’t keep a job rather than being the next Bill Gates and giving the millionaire villain orders is the deep institutional racism upon which capitalism is founded.

The film is well aware of this racism, highlighting it in ways both big and small. Pryor is blackmailed into serving the rich white Trump-esque antagonist, played by Robert Vaughn, after being forced by his ridiculously small paycheck to commit embezzlement (the only victim of which being Vaughn himself, who is so dripping with surplus wealth that he has an artificial ski slope on the roof of his skyscraper). Their first interaction is full of condescending microaggressions on Vaughn’s part, such as cringe-inducingly calling Pryor “my man” in a manner that brings to mind the dad in Get Out.

When Pryor travels to Smallville, Kansas later in the film, he is visibly aghast at how eerily lily-white the whole place is, particularly staring in horror at a trio of porcelain-tinted mannequins in a store window. I’m sure his discomfort would be echoed by many black men taking their first step in rural southern America. Later, to infiltrate one of the businesses that he plans to hack in the small town, Pryor wears one of the awful suits worn by the aforementioned dummies and puts on an affected “white voice” to earn the trust of the drunken redneck that watches the place at night, a fitting commentary on how black men and women are expected to homogenize and “act white” to be above suspicion in white America.

And what happens when Pryor convinces Vaughn to give him the resources to construct his incredible supercomputer? Why, Vaughn and his sister appropriate it for themselves and put its unique capabilities to nefarious ends, shutting Pryor out of any control of his baby and leaving him out in the cold.

Pryor is much more than a victim through all of this, however. I already mentioned how he took the initiative to bolster his paltry computer programmer’s paycheck by using a clever scheme to embezzle from his greedy millionaire boss. He also doesn’t let said boss kick him around, either. Though his circumstances leave him with little choice but to be a cohort in Vaughn’s schemes, when push comes to shove, he stands up for himself. He refuses to allow Vaughn’s order for complete control of the oil tankers to be irreversible, he fights for his fair cut of the loot when Vaughn starts profiting off of his brilliance, and in the end he stands by Superman against his bourgeoisie bosses. He even saves Superman’s life on multiple occasions, using both his computer smarts and eventually a fire ax to come to the big guy’s rescue.

Given that Pryor has at least as much screen time as Supes throughout the picture, one is left wondering, who’s the real hero here? Why, its the guy running around in the frilly pink tablecloth, of course!

And Pryor’s not the only example of a downtrodden minority not being allowed to live to their full potential in a white supremacist patriarchal capitalist society. Perhaps the most interesting character in the film is the villain’s girlfriend, who is initially presented as a vapid, gold-digging bimbo until we learn that this is all an act on her part and she actually is a computer-wise, philosophy-reading secret genius herself. She only plays the part of the brainless trophy girl because life has left her few other options. It is a very fun subversion of the typical villain-moll dynamic, and it is a shame we don’t get more of this character, though she like Pryor is ultimately disturbed by Vaughn’s increasingly villainous actions and bails on him in the end.

But lets talk about Vaughn’s villain, and how he’s emblematic of the film’s ideas on rich white privilege as a whole. This is a guy who is so used to getting everything he wants that he sics a freaking hurricane on Colombia just because the country is competing with him in the coffee export industry. If that ain’t capitalism at its finest. He even repeats the tired adage “it is not enough that I succeed, others must fail,” misattributing it to Genghis Khan like an idiot. I mean seriously, who does this sound like?

This is the guy who gives us probably the most immortal line from the whole movie.

And that’s only the tip of the white entitlement iceberg. There’s also the running joke of the old white couple who win the Daily Planet’s vacation lottery and get sent off to Colombia, where we are treated to the wife saying things like, “look dear, a native wedding!” Cut to the most conventional looking church wedding ever. After this parody of cultural voyeurism, we have the couple later threatening to SUE Daily Planet Editor-in-Chief Perry White because A HURRICANE RUINED THEIR VACATION. What a couple of Karens.

The whole film is about the struggle between the working class and the rich. I’ll paraphrase one of the Smallville locals who, after seeing the chaos caused by the gasoline shortage brought about by Vaughn’s forced oil monopoly, says “I don’t know what’s going on, but I guarantee you, someone’s getting rich off of it. Someone’s always getting rich off of it.”

Oh yeah, and Superman is in this movie too a little. There’s a plot wherein Vaughn tries to synthesize an artificial kryptonite in an effort to kill Superman and prevent him from foiling his dastardly deeds. But, this being a kryptonite forged in the capitalist machine, its a lazy, half-assed copy that doesn’t even work right (leading to the above line).

That doesn’t mean that the kryptonite has no effect, though. Indeed, the symptoms of this knockoff kryptonite are fascinatingly similar to the effects of living under the crushing wheels of the capitalist regime.

We actually see Superman, through this physical manifestation of the exertion of capitalist oppression, deteriorate into a selfish, depressed, bitter shadow of his usual self. As this happens, the colors of his costume subtly grown more dark, drab, and dingy. Superman becomes concerned only with doing what is best for himself without regard to anyone else, giving up the whole “saving people” thing and even letting himself be coerced by the moll into ripping a giant hole into an oil tanker in exchange for a little nookie (the subsequent disturbing image of a massive oil spill creeping across the surface of the ocean is maybe the film showing its hand a little bit). Many socialist and anarchist thinkers have raised the thought that this exact selfish mindset is the natural effect of being socialized in a capitalist society.

Let’s be clear, this isn’t just “evil Superman”. This is Superman so crushed by self-loathing and the futility of his actions that at the lowest point in his decline we see him looking like this:

Indeed, this sad, alcoholic Superman very deliberately mirrors another character in the film: the aforementioned drunken yokel, who is also the former star quarterback of Clark Kent’s high school graduating class. This is a character who found, after graduating, that his celebrity status in school translated to nothing in the adult world, leaving him woefully unprepared for a real life where he is a functional nobody. Cue binge-drinking and pining for the glory days.

This all culminates in the movie’s most iconic scene, wherein Superman crash-lands in a junkyard and splits into two separate individuals: the above Superdick, and plain old Clark Kent. They then proceed to beat the shit out of each other.

Obviously, we aren’t meant to read this scene as literal; it isn’t actually, physically happening. It is a clever visualization of the internal struggle between the character’s two halves: Clark and Superman.

In fact, this very conflict is the heart of Superman’s story throughout the picture. This is examined in the form of Clark’s re-kindled relationship with childhood sweetheart Lana Lang. After the always tragic will-they-won’t-they of Superman and Lois, Clark and Lana’s romance is refreshingly positive and healthy. The obvious reason for this is that, unlike Lois, Lana isn’t just interested in the Superman persona. She loves Clark for Clark. He can be himself around her. Indeed, any romantic incursions between Superman in costume and Lana are portrayed as downright toxic, as in the unsettlingly realistic scene where Superman, first beginning to feel the effects of the faux kryptonite, makes several forceful, sexually aggressive advances on Lana in her own home. The obvious fear and discomfort on Lana’s face during this scene is incredibly telling. She isn’t interested in an inhumanly privileged, aggressive thug in spandex. She likes Clark Kent, the regular guy.

So it is no accident that in this climactic junkyard scene, Clark comes to represent the character’s “good side” and Superman the “bad”. Because this is not simply a struggle between Superman’s good and bad halves, it is a struggle between Clark Kent, the spectacularly unspectacular working man, and Superman, the ridiculously naturally privileged enforcer of statist status quo. Proletariat vs. bourgeoisie. And Clark Kent, the proletariat revolutionary fighting his way out of the bourgeois Superdick’s corruption, wins.

Not that Superman then becomes a perfect champion of the working class for the rest of the film. He does defeat Vaughnald Trump and blow up the evil computer, but he also remains something of a parody of typical movie “white savior” figures. This is mostly clearly shown in the denouement where Superman, obviously thinking he is providing some great act of charity, drops Richard Pryor’s character off at a dirty coal pit far from his home and recommends him for an entry-level computer job there. Pryor understandably decides he’d rather not slave in a coal mine in the middle of nowhere for the rest of his life, and chooses instead to walk the nine miles to the nearest bus station. There is also the final scene where Superman (who in evil mode had straightened the Leaning Tower of Pisa earlier in the film in an extreme act of pettiness) returns to Italy and “fixes” the tower, smiling and waving in smug self-satisfaction at the locals below, oblivious to the poor souvenir salesman who has just finished making his setting up his new display of now-straight replica towers.

tl;dr, I think that Superman III deserves reevaluation not as the moment where the Superman franchise began its descent into crappery, but instead as a flawed but biting satire on privilege and capitalist corruption in America.

That’s my two cents.

#superman #superman 3 #richard donner #richard lester #christoper reeve #capitalism #blm #fuck capitalism #Donald Trump #richard pryor #movie review #blog post #white privilege #socialism #anarchy #my two cents #tldr

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anhed-nia · 5 years

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BLOGTOBER 10/13/2019: PETEY WHEATSTRAW, THE DEVIL’S SON-IN-LAW

This outrageous satanic fantasy might not be the most obvious introduction one could make to the filmography of Rudy Ray Moore, but I’m glad it was mine. Moore is most famous for his rapping action hero Dolemite, and for a mode of production so homemade that it makes PINK FLAMINGOS look like BEN HUR. To reduce Moore’s kitschy movies to nothing but camp and circumstance is unfair, though--not only because of the sheer faith and effort that it takes to make something from literally nothing, but because of his wild imagination. Moore is not only honored as the godfather of rap for his distinctive dialog delivery, but he willfully blended genres in a kitchen sink narrative approach that few filmmakers would ever attempt. He is deservedly famous for his signature brew of blaxploitation, comedy and kung-fu, and with PETEY WHEATSTRAW, he adds horror and fantasy to the mix.

Moore plays Petey Wheatstraw, a figure of mysterious origins who was born a smart-talking six year old boy on the night of an epic hurricane. As a young man, he studies under a mystical kung fu master, up until he pursues his chosen path as a comedian. Rudy Ray Moore’s background in standup comedy somehow forms the basis for Petey’s wild adventure, in which his rivalry with mob-connected funnymen Leroy and Skillet leads him to make a deal with the devil. Satan gives Petey his magical pimp cane to help him defeat his enemies, and in exchange, Petey promises to give Satan a grandson--by marrying his hideously ugly daughter. How will he get out of his infernal pact? You’ll have to see it to believe it.

I really hate to get into too much detail about the trajectory of this astounding movie, which becomes even weirder and more elaborate than what I’ve described so far. I don’t want to spoil any surprises, but also, I don’t want to completely reduce it to a bunch of chaotic lunacy. As is often the case, Moore plays a character who is sort of an antihero, sort of a kung fu master, and sort of a superhero. Petey Wheatstraw somehow trumps Dolemite by gaining supernatural abilities, and as Moore typically mixes the facts of black american life into his outrageous stories, Petey inevitably addresses these grim realities with his magic cane. Accompanied by a driving song called “Ghetto Street U.S.A.” credited to Nat Dove and the Devils, Petey roves the streets seeking out poor families and spontaneously granting their wishes. The sequence is peppered with humor, but this doesn’t stop it from rising to a legitimate emotional peak. Its closing slow motion image, of an exuberant Petey Wheatstraw making it literally rain cash on the streets of LA, is as sublime and moving as anything in more intellectual fare like GANJA & HESS. Ultimately, it isn’t Rudy Ray Moore’s weirdness, but his sincerity that makes him so special, and PETEY WHEATSTRAW has exactly that.

#rudy ray moore #petey wheatstraw #the devil's son-in-law #horror #fantasy #comedy #kung fu #satan #blogtober #blaxploitation #cliff roquemore

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vladfromparis-blog · 5 years

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Wow I can not resist translating this French article on Timothée, I feared the worst with the title but .....please read it ! “ “Timothée Chalamet: new genius or actor totally overpriced?”

https://mcetv.fr/mon-mag-culture

- Timothée Chalamet is on everyone's lips since "Call Me By Your Name". But the machine would not race a little too fast?

- A name of our home’ very French name ). A square jaw. A “minois” (pretty kitty face) cut to the bill. And an early career that foreshadows the best. In a good big year, Timothée Chalamet has established itself as one of the great hopes of cinema. closevolume_off Capable, alone, to move the “minettes” (youg girls) to see works rather arty kind. This is because the young man has not yet signed big franchises. Or strong commercial popcorn movies. Is it enough to make him a rising star? Or the "Chalamania" (we have just invented the term, leave Google quiet) would it be transient? In other words, the French-American would not make too much noise for nothing? As always, your faithful servant tries a fair and objective statement (well, a little).

- TIMOTHEE CHALAMET AND THE PHENOMENON CALL ME BY YOUR NAME The first time the general public saw the beautiful brown in a theater, it was probably in front of the sublime Interstellar. He then camped the son of the hero, erased. To the extent that the legend says that during the projection of the film in preview, the interpreter would have shed a tear. Emotions? Yes and no. The actor especially expected to have a much more important role! It is true that the film signed Christopher Nolan, we will remember a bluffing scenario. A Matthew McConaughey at the culmination of his talent. A music steeped in sadness. But not really the face of Timothée Chalamet, just sketched. It will be necessary to wait for the month of February 2018 (in France, at least) so that the artist is identified by a doubled. At first thanks to his performance in Lady Bird. If, this time again, he only plays a role rather than a second, the actor pats us in the eye. Magnetic and different, he plays Kyle, the popular and jaded bad boy of almost everything. A perso sure of him, inverted reflection of a certain Elio. Or the protagonist of Call Me By Your Name, who really reveals Timothée Chalamet.

-TIMOTHEE CHALAMET, SQUEEZED IN THE ROLE OF THE TEEN LIKE OTHERS : Elio is a teenager like the others, in phase of discovery with his sexuality. At once fearful and sure of himself, erudite, his diaphanous complexion scotches us to our seats. It is that in this film, the twenty-year-old (yes, we know, he is barely fourteen years old) dares everything. To roll a “galoche” ( french kiss) with full mouth to his partner, Armie Hammer? Done. Simulate a handjob in a peach? No problemo. Put your head in a used (alleged) boxer ? Easy for him ! As moving as it is daring, Elio propels Chalamet into the big leagues. So that a (deserved) rain of nominations for the biggest competitions of the 7th art will follow. The professionals talked ... More recently, you could see the comedian in My Beautiful Boy. Where he camped Nick, a teenager pampered by his father, but struggling with alcohol and drugs. A complicated partition, as the theme of addiction has been treated many times in the cinema ... But once again, the French-American is doing just right. Subtle, never too much, we take a liking to this drunk teenager, constantly drunk and / or drugged, unable to not lie to those who love him. There are a lot of Elio and Kyle in Nick. And this is perhaps the only real criticism that can be issued at the moment. In a sense, the actor knows how to take risks. And at the same time, stays in a certain comfort zone, with rather indie films where he plays "normal" teenagers. Not that we would like to see her little loops in a horror movie or Avengers but ... after all, why not?

-TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET, A GOOD CUSTOMER WITH THE SENSE OF STYLE Finally, if we talk about little Tim, it's because his style and his way of being are not left out. Like it or not, today, being an actor is not just about making movies. If some opt for discretion - and it's their right - others play the ball game promotion thoroughly. This is the case of the young man, excellent client. Who, on the set of Everyday in 2018, had impressed the gallery by speaking entirely in French. Before amusing him by revealing that his sister considered Louis Garrel as his "Zac Efron". Oops! And when it's not joking in interviews that he attracts the spotlights, it's for his ole ole outfits on the red carpets. Regarded as a fashion icon, many Tumblr tables were already able to find his outfits from Call Me By Your Name. Timothée Chalamet persists and signs his hype actor status with even more daring outfits. For example, at the London Film Festival last October. Rather than a dark James Bond tuxedo like his colleagues, the ephebe unashamedly comes out of Alexander McQueen's colorful flower costume. Not necessarily the cup of tea of the author of these lines, even if she willingly recognizes the cojones of the actor! In the same vein, for the last edition of the Golden Globes, Chalamet is squaring a very queer harness signed Louis Vuitton. An accessory with slightly SM accents. Who give back, the air of nothing - and no bad word - a big blow to our old macho and narrow Hollywood.

Mélissa Chevreuil

PERFECT ANALYSIS !

#timothée chalamet #timothee chalamet #the french dispatch movie #dune #dune 2020 #cmbyn movie #beautiful boy movie

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whatisthiswitchcraft · 5 years

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books I read in 2018! (not including rereads, favorites are bolded!)

Shortcomings - Adrian Tomine

Skim - Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

Tina’s Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary - Keshni Kashyap

Turning Japanese: A Graphic Memoir - Marinaomi

Killing and Dying - Adrian Tomine

Take What You Can Carry - Kevin C. Pyle

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue - Mackenzi Lee

Riotous Flesh: Women, Physiology, and the Solitary Vice in Nineteenth-Century America - April R. Haynes

Finder: Voice - Carla Speed McNeil

Witches Abroad - Terry Pratchett

Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri

The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas

We Are Never Meeting In Real Life - Samantha Irby

Priestdaddy - Patricia Lockwood

What We Lose - Zinzi Clemmons

What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours - Helen Oyeyemi

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Ship of the Dead - Rick Riordan

Strange Practice - Vivian Shaw

The Best We Could Do - Thi Bui

Kindred: A Graphic Novel - Octavia Butler, Damian Duffy, John Jennings

Will Do Magic for Small Change - Andrea Hairston

Pachinko - Min Jin Lee

Her Body and Other Parties - Carmen Maria Machado

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - John Berendt

Salt Houses - Hala Alyan

March: Book One - John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell

March: Book Two - John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell

March: Book Three - John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell

Sing, Unburied, Sing - Jesmyn Ward

The Power - Naomi Alderman

Darkroom: A Memoir in Black and White - Lila Quintero Weaver

Blood Justice: The Lynching of Mack Charles Parker - Howard Smead

Warriors Don’t Cry - Melba Pattillo Beals

Moonshot: The Indigenous Comics Collection - ed. Hope Nicholson

Monstress: Awakening - Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

Boundless - Jillian Tamaki

The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South - Michael W. Twitty

Speak: The Graphic Novel - Laurie Halse Anderson and Emily Carroll

A Raisin in the Sun - Lorraine Hansberry

Surpassing Certainty: What My Twenties Taught Me - Janet Mock

Bingo Love - Tee Franklin, Jenn St-Onge, Joy San

Vietnamerica - G.B. Tran

Incognegro: A Graphic Mystery - Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece

Arab in America - Toufic El Rassi

Diary of a Reluctant Dreamer: Undocumented Vignettes from a Pre-American Life - Alberto Ledesma

Tell the Wolves I’m Home - Carol Rifka Brunt

The Immortalists - Chloe Benjamin

The Argonauts - Maggie Nelson

Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng

The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley - Malcolm X and Alex Haley

All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes - Maya Angelou

The Fire Next Time - James Baldwin

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body - Roxane Gay

Deer Woman: An Anthology - ed. Elizabeth LaPensée and Weshoyot Alvitre

Bloods: Black Veterans of the Vietnam War - Wallace Terry

The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror - [Daniel] Mallory Ortberg

It’s All Absolutely Fine: Life Is Complicated So I’ve Drawn It Instead - Ruby Elliot

The Book of Unknown Americans - Cristina Henríquez

Through the Woods - Emily Carroll

The World Only Spins Forward: The Ascent of Angels in America - Isaac Butler and Dan Kois

Tributaries - Laura Da’

On the Bus With Rosa Parks - Rita Dove

Full-Metal Indigiqueer - Joshua Whitehead

Whereas: Poems - Layli Long Soldier

Not Your Villain - C.B. Lee

My Body is a Book of Rules - Elissa Washuta

Mis(h)adra - Iasmin Omar Ata

All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages - ed. Saundra Mitchell

This is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare - Gabourey Sidibe

Crazy Brave - Joy Harjo

Harriet the Spy - Louise Fitzhugh

The Lesser Blessed - Richard Van Camp

A Burst of Light: and Other Essays - Audre Lorde

The Mysterious Benedict Society - Trenton Lee Stewart

My Brother’s Husband, Vol. I - Gengoroh Tagame

When You Reach Me - Rebecca Stead

The Wicked and the Divine: Imperial Phase (Part 1) - Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie

Honor Girl - Maggie Thrash

The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

The Prince and the Dressmaker - Jen Wang

Leah on the Offbeat - Becky Albertalli

The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the Best Burger in Los Angeles) - Amy Spalding

How to be Black - Baratunde Thurston

Bury What We Cannot Take - Kirstin Chen

No Reservations: Around the World on an Empty Stomach - Anthony Bourdain

Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook - Anthony Bourdain

Our Dead Behind Us - Audre Lorde

The Wicked and the Divine: Imperial Phase (Part 2) - Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie

The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell: Tales of a 6'4, African American, Heterosexual, Cisgender, Left-Leaning, Asthmatic, Black and Proud Blerd, Mama's Boy, Dad, and Stand-Up Comedian - W. Kamau Bell

There There - Tommy Orange

Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl - Andrea Lawlor

Jonny Appleseed - Joshua Whitehead

Just the Funny Parts: ... And a Few Hard Truths About Sneaking Into the Hollywood Boys’ Club - Nell Scovell

Perma Red - Debra Magpie Earling

Toil and Trouble - Mairghread Scott

Kissing God Goodbye - June Jordan

Wade in the Water - Tracy K. Smith

Reincarnation Blues - Michael Poore

Nepantla: An Anthology [Queer Poets of Color] - ed. Christopher Soto

Not Here: Poems - Hieu Minh Nguyen

Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession - Alice Bolin

Trail of Lightning - Rebecca Roanhorse

Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir - Kai Cheng Thom

Taproot: A Story about a Gardener and a Ghost - Keezy Young

The Witch Boy - Molly Knox Ostertag

The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson

Don’t Call Us Dead - Danez Smith

Bright Dead Things - Ada Limon

The Poet X - Elizabeth Acevedo

Citizen Illegal - Jose Olivarez

American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin - Terrance Hayes

for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf - Ntozake Shange

The Carrying - Ada Limon

Mercury: An Intimate Biography of Freddie Mercury - Lesley-Ann Jones

Unclaimed Baggage - Jen Doll

A River of Stars - Vanessa Hua

We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson

Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik

Barbie Chang - Victoria Chang

Corazon - Yesika Salgado

Chemistry - Weike Wang

Number One Chinese Restaurant - Lillian Li

Lucy and Linh - Alice Pung

My Favorite Thing is Monsters - Emil Ferris

The Plant Messiah: Adventures in Search of the World's Rarest Species - Carlos Magdalena

The Incendiaries - R.O. Kwon

Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home - Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Dumplin’ - Julie Murphy

How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? - N.K. Jemisin

My Sister, the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite

Unapologetic: a Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements - Charlene Carruthers

#books #2018 #year in books #my lists

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jaggedwolf · 5 years

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2018 LGBTQ Recs

The usual yearly list of stuff with lgbtq stuff I’ve consumed this year that I thought were a fun time. Probably will be dominated by queer women because uh, I’m the one writing this list, man. Last year’s list is here. Any media with content warnings usually has said warnings listed wherever it’s linked, or wherever you’d get it.

Games/Interactive Fiction

Heaven Will Be Mine - Made by the creators of We Know The Devil, HWBM is a visual novel about three terrible girls piloting mechas and fighting each other for the fate of space - while occasionally making out with each other. IDK even how to describe how awesomely specific the atmosphere of it is, but it’s such a good spiritual successor to WKTD. If WKTD was about desire that you were certain was an impossibility for you, a forever unsure longing for something out of reach, HWBM’s about having this thing you know you have no right to, power that feels unearned - but you have it anyway, so what are you going to do with it?

Butterfly Soup - Look, it’s literally self-described as a “visual novel about gay asian girls playing baseball and falling in love” do I have to actually say more words about this than that, I guess I can. I adore all four main girls, it gave me the gay high school coming of age stuff I’m always down for + sportsball team feels + two pairings I’m Invested in. I am looking forward to that 2019 sequel so much.

Hustle Cat - Dating sim where you are an employee at a cat cafe and can date one of the other employees but there’s magic things happening you’re trying to figure out??? A very cute game, you can pick your character’s pronouns and one of six protag designs, there are 4 male love interests and 2 female ones so you can knock yourself out with the pairings your heart desires. Would cat again.

Kindred Spirits - Yuna is a high school student used to eating lunch alone on the roof...and one day she’s joined by two female ghosts that are a couple, and want her help with matchmaking a bunch of potential couples they’ve spotted around their all girls’ school, since she’s the only one who can see the ghosts. Super entertaining, and whole host of pairs to get invested in.

TV Shows

One Mississippi - It kicks off with Tig (played by, yep, that stand-up comedian Tig Notaro) returning to her hometown in Mississippi after her mother’s death, dealing with her stepfather and brother as they all settle mom’s affairs. It’s darkly humorous little show with a surprising amount of heart. It also had a surprise!duet of a song from Fun Home that like, messed me up a little in a good way. Still sad it got cancelled after season 2.

Comedy Specials

Nanette - It’s a tour de force of talking about comedy, about Gadsby’s specific experience growing up where she did as who she is but also about the general experience of misogyny and homophobia. There’s a part in the middle where she reveals the darker truth behind a funny story she shared at the beginning that still takes my breath away whenever I think about it. The exploration of that instinctual minimization of experiences of bigotry (hahaha aren’t they stupid) which fundamentally, covers up the very real possibility of violence lurking around those stories. You’re funny, until you’re a threat.

Rape Jokes - idk what to say here, man, it’s a really clever and somehow funny standup special about sexual assault and the culture surrounding it.

Happy To Be Here - It feels a little like a fault of mine that this is the first Tig Notaro special I’ve actually watched/listened to, considering the ones that launched her to fame. But this is such a happy, funny time of a special, with Notaro talking about family life and her new kitten, all with her usual dry take on things. Way way lighter than the previous two specials in this list.

Movies

The Miseducation of Cameron Post - I had my doubts going into this adaptation. My favorite part of the book was certainly the first half, as much as I loved the whole, and knowing the movie would focus on the latter half’s conversion therapy plot put me off. I’m happy to say I was very wrong. The movie’s focus gives it a purpose it wouldn’t otherwise, there’s good usage of contextualizing flashbacks, and it communicates so well that precise horror of the slow erosion of one’s self. Cameron, Adam and Jane can take the piss out of the camp as much as they want, but being there still takes something from them.

Love, Simon - I watched this in theatres twice. For the record, I usually watch like, 5 movies in theatres a year if I’m not being dragged by family to them, so, uh, I really enjoyed this movie, even the ~mystery~ of which guy Simon was emailing, and him jumping to conclusions every time. Simon looks So Done and Tired in 90% of his scenes and honestly if that’s not the one truth about being closeted in high school what is.

Books

Of Fire and Stars - F/F fantasy YA romance, combined with arranged marriages that have to be snuck around and secret magic powers. There’s a subplot about one of the girls learning to ride a horse, is the level of fantasy tropes we’re at here. A quick, fun read.

Queer America: A GLBT History of the 20th century - Read this for my gay and lesbian history class and liked it as the quick reader it was - lots of pointers to other sources, and like you’d want from any good history book, covers lots of different of viewpoints LGBTQ folks have had about lots of issues without ever doing the bullshit “All gay people thought X at this time period” claims. Intra-community arguing, always been a thing.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Spoilers, but the gay romance subplot in this novel uh, doesn’t end happily, but like, I really like Sammy Clay as a character, and the depiction of his life as a gay man writing superhero comics from the 40s well into the lavender scare and the congress hearings about comics promoting bad behaviour (read: gay) to impressional kids.

Podcasts

The Strange Case of Starship Iris - Uh, my new fandom obsession, in case that isn’t patently obvious. Tropey space opera podcast with a small disaster spaceship crew, and a clearly telegraphed f/f endgame that constantly delights me. Queer characters, purple aliens, found family feels, what else could I want from a space opera canon? (The answer is more episodes...please...)

The Penumbra Podcast - There are two main storylines, a sci-fi noir one and a fantasy one. I only listen to the sci-fi noir one but I love it, and the protagonist, angsty PI Juno Steel who suffers so well and also happens to be bi as hell. I also really like the Season 1 one-off episode The Coyote of the Painted Plains, or f/f Robin Hood fun-times. [I started listening to it and the other podcast listed below in 2017, but 2017 iteration of this list did not have a podcast section, because I was a fool]

Queer As Fact: Queer history podcast where every episode is the delightful experience of listening to a bunch of Australian history nerds talk about some cool queer person or object while being really smart and delightful. Apparently they sometimes record while sitting in a literal blanket fort and this makes me rank this podcast even higher in my heart.

#not on the list: critical role now has two canonically not-straight PCs and i love it but i feel like it doesn't quite fit on this list #then again one year i recced supergirl #so who knows #it's just a lot longer of a time commitment #recs #long post

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podcake · 6 years

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Podcasts & Genre: Comedy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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orbemnews · 3 years

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March 12, 2020: The Night the City Sighed to Sleep March began with an ominous drumbeat. A packed cruise ship with a coronavirus outbreak was left floating for days off the coast of California. South by Southwest was canceled. The N.B.A. suspended its season. And then, on March 12, Broadway shut down, and with it every large gathering in New York City. By the time the grates came down, it was not much of a surprise. The city that never sleeps was grinding to a halt. But it was impossible to imagine what was to come. The staggering death toll. The vast job losses. The isolation. The endlessness. That evening, a group of Broadway bigwigs — theater owners and producers, mostly — gathered to drown their sorrows at Sardi’s, the industry hangout famous for its celebrity caricatures. They noshed, they drank, they commiserated, and they hugged. Several of them wound up infected with the virus, although there were so many meetings, and so few masks at that point, who knows how they got it. They posted signs on their theaters saying they expected to be back four weeks later. Now it’s been 52. Do you remember your final nights out? We gathered scenes from around the city as the curtains closed. MICHAEL PAULSON Fondue Fountains, Buckets of Bouquets and Fresh Dolce The dressing rooms at the Brooks Atkinson Theater were filled with flowers. The ruby chocolate fondue fountain was booked for the after-party. Brittney Mack’s mother and her brother and her best girlfriends had all flown into town, not about to miss the moment when the 30-something Chicagoan made her long-awaited Broadway debut as a 16th-century English queen. But it was not to be. Ninety minutes before the scheduled opening of “Six,” an eagerly anticipated new musical about the wives of King Henry VIII, Broadway shut down. “I got to the theater early, and there were gifts from all over — buckets and buckets of plants, and cookies, and so much love, and I was like, ‘Hell, yes,’” Mack recalled. “And then the assistant stage manager came in and said the show is canceled, and I just said, ‘How dare you!’” “It was very, very overwhelming, and all of a sudden I felt incredibly alone. And then I was like, ‘But my dress! And the earrings!’ So many perspectives hit me, and I realized this happened to our entire industry, and I thought, ‘What the hell are we all going to do?’” What most of the “Six” family did was to gather. Mack went out for drinks with her friends at Harlem Public, near her apartment. Meanwhile, the show’s producer, Kevin McCollum, fresh off canceling an 800-person opening night party at Tao Downtown, hosted about 100 members of the show’s inner circle at the Glass House Tavern, a few doors down from the theater. “Looking back, it was ridiculous that we did that, but we didn’t know what we didn’t know, so we had a buffet of crudités, and a host of droplets, I’m sure,” he said. “We were in shock. There were people crying. We were giving it our best stiff upper lip, for the British, but we were emotionally devastated.” George Stiles, an English composer, was among many British friends of the show who had flown over for the opening. Stiles was once in a band with the father of Toby Marlow, who wrote “Six” with Lucy Moss, and had become a mentor and then a co-producer. “Never before has something that I’ve been involved with felt so poised to go off with a crack,” Stiles said of “Six” — quite a statement given that he wrote songs for the stage musical adaptation of “Mary Poppins.” “I was anticipating the euphoria of the crowd, and the fun of the red carpet-y nonsense, and the everyone wanting to be the last one to sit down.” Instead, he and his husband and Marlow’s father licked their wounds at Marseille. What was on the menu? “The sheer awfulness of being this close to a wonderful Broadway run.” Stiles has since put his “suitably regal” gold and black Dolce & Gabbana outfit “into very careful mothballs,” anticipating that there will yet be an opening night to celebrate. “We are very gung-ho,” he said, “and hopeful, fingers crossed, that it wont be too many months away.” PAULSON “We Love You, New York! Don’t Touch Your Face!” Only about half of the people who bought tickets to the March 12 show at Mercury Lounge had turned up, but there were still throngs of people drinking, talking and grooving to the band. Debbie Harry of the band Blondie was there, and so was the music producer Hal Willner. He would die less than a month later from Covid-19. Onstage, Michael C. Hall, the star of “Dexter” and lead singer of the glam rock band Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum, belted and wailed into the microphone. The staff members at Mercury Lounge knew they were watching their last live concert for a while; what “a while” meant, they had no idea. Bands had been canceling their appearances at an increasing rate, and on a call earlier that day, the owners had asked the staff members if they were still comfortable working, said Maggie Wrigley, a club manager. The line was silent for a moment, before one employee spoke up to say that no, it was no longer comfortable. Others piped up to agree: They felt exposed and vulnerable to the virus at work. Because the late show had already canceled, the owners decided that the club would shut down that night after the early show. At about 9:30 p.m. — painfully early for a Thursday night on the city’s club scene — the audience was asked to leave. “We love you, New York! Don’t touch your face!” Hall yelled at the end of his set. Alex Beaulieu, the club’s production manager, sanitized the microphones and packed the drum kit, amps and cables for longer term storage. “We locked the door and sat at the bar and had a drink,” Wrigley said of the club’s staff, “and we just kind of looked at each other, with no idea what was going to happen.” JULIA JACOBS A Swan Song, Cut Short For Sheena Wagstaff, chairman of modern and contemporary art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the spring of 2020 was destined to be bittersweet. The Met Breuer, the museum’s experimental satellite space, was going to close, three years ahead of schedule. But its final show was one she’d spent years preparing: “Gerhard Richter: Painting After All,” a survey of the stern and skeptical German artist, filling two floors of the landmark building and including loans from 30 different collections. The exhibition, intended by the now 89-year-old artist to be his last major show, opened March 4. It had the makings of a blockbuster, and it ought to have introduced New York to four paintings called “Birkenau” (2014): streaked, abraded abstractions that obscure imagery of the titular death camp. On March 12, the show’s ninth day, Wagstaff realized it had to close. At first the gravity of the crisis wasn’t fully clear. “I had every anticipation that it was going to reopen in May at the very latest,” Wagstaff said recently. But soon she realized that “Birkenau” — a culmination of Richter’s 60-year engagement with German history and the ethics of representation — would not find an audience. “Beyond a kind of personal huge disappointment, it was that the artist, so aware of his own mortality, was denied the possibility of actually making a mini-manifesto to the world. Alongside that was the curtailment of the Breuer. What we ended up with was this implosion.” Richter never saw the show. A few days before it came down, Wagstaff stood alone with “Birkenau”: paintings about the possibility of perceiving history that, now, no one could perceive at all. “It was a kind of haunting experience,” she said. “They became almost anthropomorphic. They’re sitting there on the walls, and there’s nothing, there’s no one to witness them. The paintings are witnessing something, and that witnessing cannot be conveyed any further.” By autumn, the Met had ceded occupancy of the Breuer to the Frick Collection. Most of Richter’s paintings had been crated up and shipped back to their lenders. Yet “Birkenau,” which belongs to the artist, stayed in New York. Wagstaff brought these most challenging works into the Met’s main building, introducing into the lavish Lehman Collection these four speechless acts of remembrance and horror. “It was a trace of the show. The viewing conditions weren’t perfect,” Wagstaff conceded. “We had really limited attendance; we still do. But people stayed in that room for a really long time. For those who came to see it, it was a revelation.” JASON FARAGO One Final Set By March 15, Broadway theaters and concert halls were empty, but in the dim light of the Comedy Cellar, audience members sat shoulder to shoulder sipping drinks and watching stand-up comedy. Masks were not required. The comedian Carmen Lynch was hesitant about showing up that night: Her boyfriend was heading out of the city to stay with his family in Connecticut, and she planned to join him — it seemed like it was time to hunker down. But, Lynch said, she knew that the days of doing multiple shows in a single night were ending, and she wanted to make as much money as possible before the inevitable shutdown. She exchanged texts with fellow comedians to feel out who was still performing. “I thought, ‘I’m not doing anything illegal. I’ll just do this one show and then leave,’” Lynch recalled. So her boyfriend took her suitcase to Connecticut while she stayed to perform — one set at 7:45 p.m. another at 8:30. Before each comedian would walk onstage to tell jokes in front of the club’s famous exposed brick wall and stained glass, they would reach into a bucket to take a microphone that had been recently cleaned. Just before Lynch went on, the comedian Lynne Koplitz took the stage, removed the sanitized microphone from the stand and theatrically wiped it down with a white cloth another time, saying, “I’ve wanted to do this for years!” When Lynch finished her second set, she didn’t linger. She called an Uber and felt relieved when the driver accepted her request for an hour-and-a-half drive to Connecticut, not knowing how long she’d be gone (until summer) or what the city would be like when she returned (eerily empty, store windows boarded up). She drove away, and in retrospect, she remembers it like a scene in a disaster movie. “It’s like you’re in the car,” she said, “and you turn around and there’s an explosion behind you.” JACOBS Source link Orbem News #City #March #night #Sighed #Sleep

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impressivepress · 3 years

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The Great Dictator

Ironically, one of the most beloved men in history was born within four days of one of the most despised—and that the demon, Adolf Hitler, so strongly resembled the clown, Charles Chaplin.

Some claim that Hitler deliberately chose his mustache toresemble Chaplin’s, who had enjoyed thelove and respect of audiences around theworld. Contemporary journalists and car-toonists delighted in pointing out the simi-larity in appearance between the two men.A song about Hitler, published in Britain in1938, asked the question, “Who is this Man? (Who Looks like Charlie Chaplin).”

How could Chaplin, who had reached theapogee of his popularity and influence,avoid the role that fate seemingly had thrust upon him? In many ways, the creation of “The Great Dictator” (1940) was virtually inevitable. Over a decade after the rest of the film industry had accepted talking pictures, the great-est star of the silent-film era began his first full-dialogue film. His subject was Adolf Hitler and his theme, the dangerous rise of European fascism. Despite death threats once his project was announced, Chaplin forged ahead with his satire. In his 1964 auto-biography, Chaplin admitted, “Had I known the actual horrors of the German concentration camps, I couldnot have made “The Great Dictator;” I could not have made fun of the homicidal insanity of the Nazis.

”The Great Dictator is a tale of two worlds: the palace,where dictator Adenoid Hynkel rules, and the ghetto,where a Jewish barber struggles to make a living andsurvive. The comedic device of the film is the resem-blance between the Dictator and the Barber, who islater mistaken for the Dictator. The theme of the sto-ry, at its basic level, is the struggle between goodand evil, reflected in the balance between the twoworlds.

The film begins with this title: “This is a story of a pe-riod between two World Wars—an interim in whichInsanity cut loose, Liberty took a nose dive, andHumanity was kicked around somewhat.” It is fol-lowed by a prologue, set in World War I, in which theJewish Barber fights as a patriotic, although ineffec-tive, Tomanian soldier. This sequence, reminiscentof Chaplin’s World War I comedy “ShoulderArms” (1918), contains elements of nightmarish vio-lence as well as humor, a combination that occursoften in the film. The Barber must fire the enormousBig Bertha gun, is pursued by a defective gun shell,loses a hand grenade in his uniform, accidentallymarches with the enemy, and later finds himself up-side down in an airplane. The prologue reminds theaudience of the malevolence of machines, the horrorof war, and the senselessness of destruction. Withinthis framework, the stories of the Barber and Hynkelin their two moral universes, represented by the good“People of the Ghetto” and the evil “People of thePalace” are regularly intercut. The film concludeswith an epilogue set after the start of the war inEurope, soon to be called World War II. It shows theBarber, mistaken for Hynkel, forced to address amassed rally. The final speech, however, is not givenby the Barber character but by Chaplin himself, whopleads for peace, tolerance, and understanding.

The greatest moment of Chaplin’s satire on Hitlerand the rise of dictators is the scene in which Hynkelperforms a dance with a globe of the world. This sce-ne, which stands with the very best set pieces ofChaplin’s silent films, requires no words to convey itsmessage. Accompanied by the delicate, dreamy prel-ude to Act I of Wagner’s “Lohengrin” (Hitler’s favorite Wagnerian opera), Hynkel performs a graceful, se-ductive ballet with a balloon globe, a wonderful sym-bol of his maniacal dream of possessing the world forhis pleasure. Yet when he believes he has it withinhis grasp, the bubble literally bursts. This is Chaplin’ssymbolic comment on the futility of the dictator’s aspirations and reflects his optimistic belief that dicta-tors will never succeed.

Probably the most famous sequence of “The GreatDictator” is the five-minute speech that concludesthe film. Here Chaplin drops his comic mask andspeaks directly to the world, conveying his view thatpeople must rise up against dictators and unite inpeace. The most enduring aspects of the finalspeech are its aspirational quality and tone and itsunderlying faith in humanity. Chaplin sketches ahopeful future in broad strokes and leaves the imple-mentation of his vision to others, despite the fact that the more unsavory aspects of human nature mayprevent mankind ever reaching his promised utopia.Although some may find Chaplin’s message cliché,and even frustrating, one cannot help but be movedby the prescience of his words and the appeal of hispowerful indictment of all who seek to take powerunto themselves to the detriment of everyone else.The final speech of “The Great Dictator” remains rel-evant and valuable in the twenty-first century andlikely will remain so as long as conflict corrupts hu-man interaction and despots endure.

With the exception of “Gone With the Wind” (1939),no other film of the period was met with such antici-pation as “The Great Dictator.” The contemporarypress was generally favorable toward the film follow-ing the world premiere in New York City at two Broadway theaters—the Capitol Theatre and Astor Theatre—simultaneously on October 15, 1940. Alt-hough Bosley Crowther, film critic for the ”New YorkTimes,” thought the film too long and somewhat rep-etitious, he nevertheless wrote a very strong reviewnoting it to be “…a truly superb accomplishment by atruly great artist—and, from one point of view, per-haps the most significant film ever produced.”

“The Great Dictator” cost $1,403,526 making it oneof Chaplin’s most expensive films. It was an enor-mous gamble, as the film did not have the interna-tional distribution his silent films had enjoyed. Thefilm was banned throughout occupied Europe, inparts of South America, and in the Irish Free State.Nevertheless, “The Great Dictator” becameChaplin’s most profitable film up to that time earning $5 million dollars worldwide in its original release.

Despite being firmly fixed in the time in which it wasmade, “The Great Dictator” continues to have tre-mendous impact and hold on audiences. The filmwas reissued by United Artists in 1958, the year it was first seen in Germany and Italy, and was first shown in Spain in 1976. Critical opinion of the film, particularly of the final speech, has risen greatly inthe estimation of critics, historians, and audiencessince that time. In 1989, the centenary of Chaplin’s birth, “The Great Dictator” opened the Moscow Inter-national Film Festival, the first vintage film so hon-ored. In 2002, “The Great Dictator” was hailed as amasterpiece, closing the Berlin Film Festival only afew hundred yards from where Hitler committed sui-cide in his bunker.

Adolf Hitler was disturbed when he heard Chaplinwas at work on “The Great Dictator,” and there isevidence that Hitler actually saw the film. Accordingto an agent who fled Germany after working in thefilm division of the Nazi Ministry of Culture, Nazi au-thorities procured a print and Hitler screened the filmone evening in solitude. The following evening heagain watched the film all by himself. That is all theagent could tell Chaplin. In relaying the anecdote,Chaplin said, “I’d give anything to know what hethought of it.” Whatever Hitler thought of Chaplin’s“The Great Dictator,” the film survives as cinema’s supreme satire and one of Chaplin’s most importantand enduring works.

Essay by Jeffrey Vance, adapted from his book Chaplin:Genius of the Cinema (New York: Harry N. Abrams,2003). Jeffrey Vance is a film historian, archivist, and au-thor of the books Douglas Fairbanks, Chaplin: Genius ofthe Cinema, Harold Lloyd: Master Comedian, and Buster Keaton Remembered (with Eleanor Keaton). He is widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost authorities of Charles Chaplin.The views expressed in these essays are those of the author and do notnecessarily represent the views of the Library of Congress.

#film #essay #Charlie Chaplin #adolf hitler #library of congress

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