#rip to this headline writer

[anghraine]

dontstandmedown replied to this post:

re:tags could you share the playwright you're talking about? :0

No problem! For others, the tags in question are this:

#thinking about this partly because the softer & gentler versions of fanfic discourse keep crossing my dash #and partly because i've written like 30 pages about a playwright i adore who was just not very good at 'original fiction' as we'd define it #both his major works are ... glorified rpf in our context but splendid tragedies in his #and the idea of categorizing /anything/ in that era by originality of conception rather than comedy/tragedy/etc would be buckwild

I am always delighted to share the good news of John Webster! If you're not familiar with him, he was an early seventeenth-century English playwright known for being a slow, painstaking, but reliable writer. He did various collaborations with other playwrights (and acknowledges a bunch of his peers in an author's note to The White Devil, including Jonson and Shakespeare) and wrote some middling plays in various genres that could be more or less termed "original fiction," but he's remembered for two brilliant, bloody tragedies.

The basic premises/plots of both of these were essentially ripped from the headlines of the previous century, and Webster makes zero attempt to conceal that fact.

I couldn't shut up about my guy so more under a cut!

The White Devil is based on the actual murder of Vittoria Accoramboni in the late sixteenth century and the characters in the play are generally given the same or similar names as the real life people in the story as known at the time, so there's no attempt to conceal the play's origins (the anti-heroine/villain???[debatable] is named Vittoria Corombona in the play, for instance).

The original production of The White Devil largely failed, which Webster blamed mainly on bad weather and an audience who just didn't get his ~vision and what he was trying to do. It would not be unsurprising for a contemporary audience to struggle with it given that it's a complicated play in which, among other things, Vittoria is put on trial and rhetorically shreds the underlying misogyny of the entire legal process.

The Duchess of Malfi, generally considered a still greater achievement, is based directly on the murder of Giovanna d'Aragona, Duchess of Amalfi by her brothers (it was presumed, likely correctly). Lope de Vega also wrote a play about this tragedy not long before Webster did, though the plays are very different and it's unlikely that Webster would have had the time or linguistic knowledge necessary to read Lope's version. Probably part of the reason for the differences between Lope's and Webster's takes is that Lope had to be careful about the reception by the Catholic Church given that one of the murderers was a cardinal, while obviously an English Protestant like Webster could say whatever he wanted about eeeeevil cardinals.

Webster takes a lot of artistic license, a normal approach at the time to adapting previously-established narratives, but the source material is very recognizable. One of the commendatory verses at the beginning of the play (blurbs in poetic form from other playwrights) is like "I'm sure the real duchess was cool but she couldn't be as cool as Webster's heroine, wow <3". (One of the other commendations is by another fave of mine, John Ford.)

Bosola, the historically mysterious minion of the Duchess's murderous brothers (=Bozolo in the historical narrative) gets an elaborate quasi-redemption arc in the play. And the play is extremely critical of various characters' obsession with and attempts to control the Duchess's sexual behavior (a fixation that is often extremely normalized in early modern British drama, but which comes off really badly here).

Ultimately this obsessiveness leads to her brothers, the Cardinal (=the historical Cardinal Luigi d'Aragona) and Ferdinand (=Carlo d'Aragona) orchestrating her torment and murder in which she emerges with her sanity and integrity intact and dies with dignity. Meanwhile, the Cardinal is exposed as a remorseless villain (he proceeds to murder his mistress with a Bible) and Ferdinand's already-shaky sanity snaps under the realization of what he's done.

Webster's Duchess is often considered the first real female tragic hero in British drama—the tragic is especially significant because tragedy was typically considered a higher art form than comedy and the truly great female characters from that era of drama are often restricted to comedies or secondary roles in tragedy (a marked trend in Shakespeare, for instance). The Duchess in the play is virtuous, strong-willed, witty, and fairly unabashedly sexual in the context of the time, a concept that several hundred years of critics have struggled with. (My favorite OTT complaint is from Martin Sampson, an early 20th century critic who lamented the conspicuous absence of a "strong active man, following righteous things" in Webster's work, to which I say l m a o.)

Anyway, among scholars of early modern British drama, Webster is often considered second only to Shakespeare as a tragedian, on the basis of those two plays. And the modern obsession w/ originality and novelty makes this kind of fascinating, given that his "original" work (in our sense—again, the original vs fanfic dichotomy was not a thing in that cultural context) is sort of meh but his work with pre-existing sources turns them into these staggering dramatic achievements.

#dontstandmedown #respuestas #renaissance blogging #john webster #the white devil #the duchess of malfi #anghraine's meta #ivory tower blogging #gender blogging #long post #i love vittoria and the duchess and also how pissy he is about people complaining about his slow writing #'yeah well that's what mediocre rapid content generators said to EURIPIDES and who do people remember now? THINK ABOUT IT' #okay okay i'll stop with My Guy but. he's pretty cool.

[leupagus]

Really interesting perspective from Jimoh himself — obviously there's a certain amount of expectation that he won't say "I hated this plotline" etc, but hearing some of his thoughts about how the plotline was originally conceived and how he, himself, has been thinking about being a Black footballer in the wake of several racist incidents was helpful. Might be something other folks want to read!

ETA: ohhh my god until it posted I didn't see the thumbnail headline which is... "Toheeb Jimoh on Sam's racism storyline in Ted Lasso season 3" and what even is that, not that the actual headline of "Toheeb Jimoh on Ted Lasso season 3's ripped-from-the-headlines racism storyline" is MUCH BETTER, jesus christ GQ what the fuck. Anyway, Jimoh is very worth listening to even if the writer/headline-maker isn't.

#and at least so far it doesn't seem to be behind a paywall! #ted lasso #sam obisanya #believe mothereffers #plus the fact that Ola is not just sam's dad's name but obisanya's dad's name made me clutch at my heart #god I wish I could see him in the R&J production this summer #BRING IT OVER TO BROADWAY PLS!!!

[freddiemercurylegendabovelegends]

Today, on November 8th, 1974 - Queen Story!

'Sheer Heart Attack' album released in the UK

- Reached number 2; chart for 42 weeks, achieved Platinum status.

🔸“The album is very varied, we took it to extreme I suppose, but we are very interested in studio techniques and wanted to use what was available. We learnt a lot about technique while we were making the first two albums. Of course there has been some criticism, and the constructive criticism has been very good for us. But to be frank I’m not that keen on the British music press, and they’ve been pretty unfair to us. I feel that up and coming journalists, by the large, put themselves above the artists. They’ve certainly been under a misconception about us. We’ve been called a supermarket hype. But if you see us up on a stage, that’s what we’re all about. We are basically a rock band. All the lights and paraphernalia are only there to enhance what we do. I think we’re good writers – and we want to play good music, no matter how much of a slagging we get. The music is the most important factor. This is our first headline tour, and the buzz has got around, without any support from the media. I suppose they like to find their own bands, and we’ve been too quick for them. You see, when we started out, we wanted to try for the best. The best management, the best record deal, we didn’t want any compromise, and we didn’t want to get ripped-off. So far, it has paid off. In America, we’ve broken the ice already. As you know, we started a tour there last year, supporting Mott The Hoople, but Brian was taken ill and we had to come back. But we had a top thirty album hit there. We’ve undertaken a huge project, but it’s all good fun”

- Freddie Mercury

Extract from interview 11/09/1974 - Melody Maker

Pic: Queen in 1974 photo session for 'Sheer Heart Attack' album

📸 Photographer © Mick Rock (1948-2021)

#freddie mercury #queen band #london #zanzibar #legend #queen #brian may #john deacon #freddiebulsara #roger taylor #1974 #sheerheartattackalbum #mickrock #photosession

[qnewslgbtiqa]

Hannah Gadsby drops lineup of Netflix special Gender Agenda

New Post has been published on https://qnews.com.au/hannah-gadsby-drops-lineup-of-netflix-special-gender-agenda/

Hannah Gadsby drops lineup of Netflix special Gender Agenda

“The last time Netflix brought this many trans people together, it was for a protest. So, progress,” Hannah Gadsby jokes in their new genderqueer comedy special Gender Agenda.

The Australian comedian signed a big deal with Netflix in 2022, after publicly slamming the streaming service for its handling of celebrity transphobe Dave Chappelle.

But at the time, Hannah, who uses they/them pronouns, had a request: that Netflix create a stand-up special featuring genderqueer comics from around the world.

That project is now titled Gender Agenda, and arrives on Netflix on March 5 with Hannah hosting and a lineup of seven performers.

They are Jes Tom, Alok, Asha Ward, Chloe Petts, DeAnne Smith, Krishna Istha and Mx Dahlia Belle.

Jes Tom has written for queer favourite Our Flag Means Death and recently wrapped the Elliot Page-presented one-person stage show Less Lonely.

Alok headlined the NYC Comedy Festival in 2021, and has appeared in Cara Delevigne’s Planet Sex and Netflix’s Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness.

Asha Ward is best known for being Saturday Night Live‘s youngest-ever writer.

Chloe Petts is currently touring standup show If You Can’t Say Anything Nice.

DeAnne Smith featured in Netflix’s Comedians of the World and is a regular on the Australian comedy festival circuit.

Krishna Istha was a writer for Season 4 of Sex Education and is currently working on a trilogy of performance pieces about trans motherhood.

Mx Dahlia Belle founded the Portland Queer Comedy Festival and took on Dave Chappelle in a high-profile open letter in 2021.

Hannah Gadsby explains Netflix stand-up special

Hannah Gadsby told Variety, “There is such a wealth of brilliant genderqueer comics out there, but such a dearth of representation on the major streaming services.

“Meanwhile jokes about trans people are becoming more and more lucrative.

“So it seems only right that at least some of those jokes be told by actual trans people themselves.

“I am beyond thrilled to bring this lineup together, showcasing seven extraordinarily talented comics and to use my platform (and Netflix’s…) to hopefully help catapult them into the spotlight that they deserve.

“They (and I mean ‘they’ in every sense of the word) are some of the funniest, smartest genderqueer comedians from around the globe, and it was an utter delight and true honor to share the stage with them.”

Back home, Hannah’s new solo stand-up show Woof! tours Sydney and Melbourne in March and April.

Lots more on Hannah Gadsby:

‘Amoral algorithm cult’: Hannah Gadsby rips Netflix

Hannah Gadsby signs new deal for more Netflix specials

Hannah Gadsby talks their marriage with ‘spouse lady’ Jenney

For the latest LGBTIQA+ Sister Girl and Brother Boy news, entertainment, community stories in Australia, visit qnews.com.au. Check out our latest magazines or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

#comedy #hannah gadsby #Queer TV

[placeinthisworld]

I think swifties in a very weird and gross way want joe to have been an absolute ass and emotionally abusive because then they’ll feel that all of Taylor’s friends behaving like that and even Taylor behaving in a very petty and just overtly mean way right after the breakup announcement would be justified. They believe that Taylor isn’t truly fully petty like that so she can’t possibly be doing that just because there just has to be a huge reason for everybody’s behaviour at the time cuz otherwise it makes her look immature. I also think because Taylor presented this image of him being so perfect that now fans that formed a very evident attachment to him feel betrayed so he has to have been horrible and awful all along. I truly don’t understand the she became voiceless part because honestly I know we don’t know alot right now but the info before us makes me feel like sometimes she’s pissed that she was forced to slightly face her morals head on in part because of him. on a side note I honestly don’t believe he’s some poor victim and I know that he might’ve been crappy to her and she might’ve been an ass but right now I just find it weird and icky that so what you’re presenting to us is that he couldn’t handle your fame and after the breakup you’re choosing to literally name your album after a group chat he had so it’s like you’ve kind of sentenced him to being in the headlines perpetually whenever the name of your album is mentioned and it’s like this isn’t just her discussing her feelings in a song which I don’t know others might not feel this way and it’s perfectly fine but like the song stuff sure can make the situation difficult for the other person slightly but I feel like that’s alright ya know you knew she’s a songwriter when you started dating her but this is the actual name of her album. Like she might put a spin on it and now she’s made that title her own which is perfecting fine but you can’t convince that miss marketing queen wasn’t aware that this wouldn’t happen especially because the way she and her friends have acted after the break up really fuelled the feud narrative. This part isn’t a huge offence on her part and I understand isn’t a big deal but it’s just icky to me

yuuuup i agree!!! i feel like joe and taylor had their issues but fully intended to make things work. but life happens, people change. i feel like ive seen a shift in taylor’s personality over the past few years. the thing i liked about joe/ taylor were how private they were, like we didn’t hear every single thought or action they did like we are seeing now. it felt like taylor had her own life and i was so content with that. we obviously don’t know anything more than what *taylor* has written about them in her music. joe doesn’t really say shit about her (and yeah ik that article went around about how he was feeling slighted by the album announcement but like be so fr anyone could have made that statement up- i feel slighted FOR him for gods sake) and he’s been pretty respectful of her their entire relationship publicly at least. he’s always known she’s a storyteller and writer so im sure it wasn’t exactly shocking information to hear about her writing about him, but yeah i do have to say after being so close and private with someone for years and then having them release an entire album less than a year after the breakup, filled with vague LDR rip off song titles that reference you in the slightest bit, therefore triggering millions of Defensive swiffers to openly bully and harass you online for…..ending a relationship you probably were grieving over too- just so fucking petty.

like sure we’re used to hear how taylor feels about her exes/ past relationships, but this was when she was still vague about what songs were about who, and we had at least 2+ years between the. breakups to learn about it. it feels like she rushed to put together another album to just shit on joe specifically…..like it just feels so wrong. imo.

i was sent this reddit thread and it actually made me think A Lot about how taylor works

#answered #anonymous #like i’m not even a joe stan ive never seen a single thing that man has been in but good god yall are acting like he’s re villain???? #for breaking up with her????????? #possibly?????? like we don’t even know yall just want to hate a man #if we’re gonna hate on an ex can we PLEASE go back to john mayer????????????? he is so much more deserving of it

[ncisfranchise-source]

At one point, we thought that Mark Harmon‘s final episode of NCIS would also be the show’s. But he left four episodes into Season 19, and the CBS drama continues to thrive. In fact, it’s now in its 21st season, and the franchise—which also consists of Hawai’i, Sydney, and the already-ended Los Angeles and New Orleans—reaches its 1,000th episode with NCIS‘ April 15 installment. So it feels like, to us, a Season 22 pickup is inevitable because this show can just keep going.

“I’m hoping so as well,” series star Brian Dietzen (who has played Dr. Jimmy Palmer since Season 1) tells TV Insider. “I think that no one ever wants to count their chickens, but I think that the show has been doing really well. And why stop at 1,000? I feel like we’re halfway there. We want a clean, even 2,000. We’ll just keep it rolling.”

Hey, the series maintained its viewership even after moving to Monday nights at 9/8c for Season 19 (after previously airing Tuesdays at 8/7c).

“I was shocked. I thought that was an institution that would never move,” admits Dietzen. “But I’m really happy that since the move, our fans—I shouldn’t be surprised, but I still am—followed us and said, no, we’re going to keep watching this thing and make sure that this is still—I think it was this last year, we were the most viewed scripted show on television, still even opposite Monday Night Football. I think we all understand how blessed we are on that set.”

He also attributes the show’s success to the characters. “It’s a collaboration between our writers and our actors and how we’ve crafted these characters. Since Don Bellisario created this 21 years ago, the most important thing to him was, I need these characters to all look and sound different from one another,” he explains. “Because of that, our show has never been a show that’s ripped from the headlines. Really, the cases are ripped from the characters. So if you get to know who these characters are, you’ll know right away, oh, this is a case about kidnapping a young girl or something like that; Gibbs is going to have a certain way that he’s going to feel about that because we know his history, and so is Torres [Wilmer Valderrama], and this is going to hit them hard. This person lost their wife. Well, you know how Vance [Rocky Carroll] is going to react to that. You know how Jimmy Palmer’s going to react to that.”

Here’s hoping the team continues to grab their gear for seasons to come.

#ncis #interview

[lo-diehards]

Law & Order "Freedom Of Expression" -- Welcome Aboard Reid Scott, The Premiere Episode Itself? An Epic Miss

Spoiler alert, if you haven't seen the 23rd (reboot 3rd) season premiere of Law & Order, do not read anything other than the title if you don't want to be spoiled; otherwise on with the review.

"Freedom of Expression" (writers: Pamela Wechsler (teleplay), Rick Eid, & creator Dick Wolf / directed by: Alexander Hall) leaves a lot to be desired in this 23rd season opener of the Mothership series. The Law & Order franchise's staple since it's inception is taking the stories from current events (AKA episodes being "ripped from the headlines"), however this premiere takes that way too far, even by mother ship standards. I'm going to get into that in a later moment but first, there is some good, or at least it is in my opinion. Click below to read my full review and analysis.

That good is Senior Detective Vincent Reilly, who is portrayed by Reid Scott of Veep fame. It appears that Reilly may have a dark side and just as dark history with NYPD, coming off as literally very trigger happy as early as the opening teaser in the episode. He literally threatened to shoot a suspect who was wielding a knife - which Shaw (Mehcad Brooks) managed to disarm from the suspect, Reilly not being a fan of the way Shaw handled it - and Reilly subsequently shoots and kills another suspect near the episode's end. This is something I'm sure the series will explore later on in the upcoming fourth episode of the season, but this puts an asterisk next to this detective's name.

Meanwhile the series' previous asterisk, Detective Frank Cosgrove (Jeffrey Donovan, who departed during the start of the season's production in November due to creative differences) got a brief mention in the worst way to describe a characters exit. "He got jammed up for being too honest," and it "being a bad time to have an opinion," which is the exchange Shaw and Reilly had about Cosgrove in the squad room. Really? Seriously? THIS is how you have the characters discuss another one's exit? And opinion about what? Knowing Frank Cosgrove, it probably an opinion that was personal to him that should have no reflection on how he should have performed his duty as a police officer. Meanwhile, breaking the 4th wall here, if you will, this could be a hint to how Jeffrey Donovan's random exit came to be... he may have wanted a say on where he wanted something to go and was told that he could go. Honestly, if there wasn't going to be a serious effort in trying to give this character a decent/proper exit, I would have rather they cut it out of the episode like they did with Anthony Anderson's exit back in season 22.

As for Reid Scott? He's meshing good on screen with Mehcad Brooks. They have a pretty chill chemistry going here. The best thing? Scott isn't having to force a Bronx accent like Jeffrey Donovan did for Cosgrove. It feels great to see his lines come out with his natural tone. The entire L&O reboot cast is top notch, the problems continue to lie with the storylines themselves... something that clearly people at Wolf Entertainment and NBC don't seem to care about with this reboot.

Now that is the bad of this entire premiere episode. It's a dud of a story in it's entirety. It's filled with political talking points, mixed with current events that are occurring both domestically and foreign. I felt more like I was watching an op-ed on Nightly News as opposed to a basic Law & Order episode. The cherry of the episode is the still ongoing Israel/Hamas/Palestine conflict that is the base of the entire episode. You can still be against what's going on in the Middle East while championing for Israel, Palestine, and/or Judaism. Innocent life is innocent life, period. But that is not what this discussion is about, this is about the Law & Order episode that reinforces divisiveness. Dixon (Camryn Manheim) yelling about "Israel's war crimes," Price (Hugh Dancy) insisting Maroun (Odelya Halevi) was/should be affected by what's going on overseas and her not wanting to weigh in on it but instead on the defendant being the face of the Left. And to top is all off, "Hang 'Em High" Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) ], who is barely showcased, is still pushing to make deals on high profile cases? It just all felt off and I can't put it into words.

In summary, I basically give the mothership a barely solid D. It's the 23rd season's premiere, 3rd of the reboot. Rarely do shows get opportunities such as this! This opener should have been an opportunity to showcase our current characters, potentially bringing in an old one and of course our newest arrival in Reilly (Scott). It needed to be about more than just a "compelling case" (that is not very compelling at all). Ripping the headlines is one thing but this episode didn't do any kind of deviation, it was direct. Other than Reilly's two moments with suspects, where was the suspense? The energy? The continuity from the past? The guest stars? The magic?

This reboot is stuck in a boring weekly repetitive creative cycle that revolves around telling the stories with political undertones and stereotypes that the original series was never in, even when it was in the rocky 16-18th seasons when the writing staff was mostly Los Angeles based. I would say I hope the writers/executive producers make a change, but that's basically a waste, as they have yet to do it since this reboot started. And the fact that creator Dick Wolf co-wrote this piece of merda and let it go to air? Just says how he feels about the reboot too.

This episode is not Law & Order... I don't know what show it is. CNN Tonight? Hannity? Newsmax Live? Do better Law & Order. Do better. Be better.

See also: The Daily Beast - It Might Be Time for the ‘Law & Order’ Franchise to Retire

#law & order #dick wolf #hugh dancy #mehcad brooks #reid scott #camryn manheim #sam waterston #rick eid #odelya halevi #nbc

[onlydylanobrien]

‘Maximum Truth’ Director David Stassen Teams Up With Dylan O’Brien and Ike Barinholtz to Take on Political Grifters

After cutting his teeth on 'The Mindy Project,' Barinholtz's life-long friend directs his first feature.

In Maximum Truth, Stassen’s feature directorial debut, Barinholtz plays an attorney and “political consultant” named Rick Klingman. He’s Saul Goodman if Saul Goodman was completely ineffective, and together with his trusty sidekick, Simon Tarnum (Dylan O’Brien), they’re the Wet Bandits of political grifting. Beth Grant’s wealthy character, Mary Jo Nackserson, hires Klingman to dig up dirt on a Democratic Congressional candidate (Max Minghella), and with Simon in tow, the pair continually make fools of themselves as they grasp at straws.

For Stassen, his political mockumentary rips directly from headlines and chyrons, commenting on the many real-life political grifters who lead with allegations, fundraise off of those allegations and then constantly move the goalposts when it comes time to produce any evidence at a publicized event they’ve engineered.

“As Ike calls it, we’re in the ‘Age of the Grifter.’ We just wanted to shine a light on this world of political bad actors, people acting in bad faith and people who will say anything for money, fame and the television camera,” Stassen tells The Hollywood Reporter.

Stassen needed the perfect accomplice to complement Barinholtz’s Klingman, and so the partners went out to O’Brien, who also doesn’t shy away from politics. He instantly understood the world being parodied and committed in no time, creating a showier take on Simon Tarnum than the more reserved iteration on the page. O’Brien has always had a knack for comedy, but he’s elevated himself in recent years thanks to Curb Your Enthusiasm, Not Okay and The Other Two.

“Dylan, just out of the gate, brought a bigger energy. He was a counterbalance to Ike in a great way,” Stassen says. “In the scene where he’s showing off his punching speed to camera, Dylan just started doing that in the moment, and we ended up getting three takes of it because we thought it was so funny. So that was all him, and he definitely did surprise me.”

So when did the idea for Maximum Truth begin to form?

It formed really fast sometime during Covid. Ike and I are pretty political. He’s even more politically minded than I am, and as he calls it, we’re in the “Age of the Grifter.” And grifting is just a great movie trope. You get great characters out of that idea, but we didn’t want to be preachy. We just wanted to shine a light on this world of political bad actors, people acting in bad faith and people who will say anything for money, fame and the television camera. It’s nothing new. Mark Twain wrote about politicians 150 years ago, but with the addition of social media, it’s more ever-present now. They’re just being caught in their lies more, and yet, they’re still somehow getting away with it. So doing it as a mockumentary just felt like a really fun way to capture this person [Rick Klingman] who thinks he’s the hero of his story. He doesn’t mind bringing a camera with him everywhere he goes, so you get to see him trip over himself repeatedly.

If somebody told you and Ike at age 16 that both of your feature directorial debuts would revolve around politics, would that have surprised you? [Writer’s Note: Barinholtz directed The Oath in 2018, with Stassen as producer.]

In a way, no, because we were interested in politics even in high school. At one point, we thought we might move to D.C. and do politics. And coming from Chicago, it’s such a politically minded place. There were stories of corruption and dirty aldermans and kickbacks, and it probably has something to do with the DNA of Maximum Truth. So, in a way, it’s not surprising, but I might have been more surprised if you told me that at the age of 30 or 32, versus the age of 16. In our early thirties, we were more into comedies and action comedies, but the ideas that sparked and that we wrote really fast happened to be politically based.

As you touched on moments ago, there are Rick Klingman-types on TV every day, and they lead with allegations and gloss over any evidence for such claims. And then they’ll fundraise off it all. Rick says something similar in the movie, but they know that if they repeat the lie enough times, a number of people will start to believe it. So you must’ve had no shortage of inspiration for people who basically shoot first and barely ask questions later.

Yeah, one of our producers, Patrick Rizzotti, is convinced that Maximum Truth should be a TV show, because, to your point, the ideas could just go on and on. Rick and Simon [Dylan O’Brien], or even Rick alone, could be a 500-episode show. There’s never-ending ideas of Rick being hired by the whaling industry, the oil lobby, whatever. Anybody could hire Rick, and he would say yes to anyone offering him a modicum of money and some clout. One of my “favorite” characters right now is the congressman from Queens [George Santos]. He’s quite the character, and he keeps on catching himself in lies. So Rick might run his campaign in 2024 for reelection.

Once you decided on the mockumentary approach, did shooting in the vein of Arrested Development, The Office and Review just become inevitable?

Yeah, after we wrote it and I was in prep to direct it, I watched This Is Spinal Tap for the 50th time, and that movie is incredible. It’s a comedy that still holds up 40 years later, and so that was another inspiration in all the ones you mentioned. I was really insistent that it feel like a documentary. I wanted the actors to be able to say their lines, naturally. I didn’t want them to have to say it word for word. I wanted the camera to feel like it was just catching the beginning or the ending of a moment. But you’re right; it was inevitable. I wanted it to feel like if you had never seen anything Ike was in and you didn’t watch The Maze Runner or Teen Wolf, you might not know that Ike and Dylan are actors. I wanted this to feel like it could be a real political documentary.

Dylan O’Brien told me that you shot this in 12 days. Was that the final number?

That was the final number, yeah. Well, there was one day where we shot the talking-head pieces of Ike, separately. So that would be the 13th day.

What was the process of bringing Dylan on board? Did you have to woo him like an NBA free agent? 

I thought we were gonna have to, but we just sent his agent the script. And then Dylan read it really fast and said that he was in. It was that simple. We had a Zoom with him, and he’s a pretty passionate person. He understood the subtext of what we were talking about, even though it’s a very silly comedy. So he got it and he was in immediately. It was just a matter of squeezing it in between a couple other things he was doing. But no, I didn’t have Benny the Bull waiting for him at O’Hare Airport, like the Chicago Bulls used to do for free agents. We didn’t buy him a Hummer like Shaq might have done. It just worked out. 

The industry made a push for him to be an action guy, but his comedic chops have reached a whole new level in recent years (Curb Your Enthusiasm, Not Okay, The Other Two). Did they impress you as well? 

Yeah, they did, and not because I didn’t think he was funny already. When you meet him and you talk to him, you’re like, “This is a very cool and funny guy.” It’s just that we had been picturing Simon on the page as someone who was a little stiffer, a little more reserved and just bubbling over with insecurity. He was kind of robotic to mask how insecure and faux masculine he is, but Dylan, just out of the gate, brought a bigger energy. He was a counterbalance to Ike in a great way, and I love the bigger character. It was a much better take on Simon than how I had originally pictured the character, but yeah, it was surprising. In the scene where he’s showing off his punching speed to camera, Dylan just started doing that in the moment, and we ended up getting three takes of it because we thought it was so funny. Every take would end when he and Ike would just burst out laughing because they couldn’t hold it in anymore. So that was all him, and he definitely did surprise me.

How guerilla did the filmmaking get? Did you ever have to play fast and loose?

No, it was all above board, but your question makes me think we did a good job of making it feel like it was documentary style. To what I said earlier, I wanted it to feel like Rick didn’t tell the hotel that the cameras were in there, or that he was sneaking the cameras into the restaurant. So, if anyone’s asking, we had permits.

Producing an independent film is no easy feat, so who are the unsung heroes of Maximum Truth? Who was instrumental in getting it to the finish line?

QC Entertainment’s Sean McKittrick, Ray Mansfield and Ted Hamm. They did The Oath with Ike, and so we knew them through that. They read the script and immediately said, “Yes, we’re in. We’re financing it.” Patrick Rizzotti was the boots-on-the-ground producer, and Keith Dunkerley, my DP and A-camera operator, helped me execute my vision and pushed me. He didn’t let a director with very little camera knowledge run the show, so he was very helpful.

Whenever Rick and Simon would get a dumb idea or a so-called break in the case, the composer would come in with a music cue that perfectly captured the moronic energy of these two guys.

Jeff Cardoni is another good [unsung hero] to mention. He was just the composer on White House Plumbers. He’s a friend and he did this truly as a favor. I think he lost money on Maximum Truth overall, but he wrote so many cues and added so much to the story.

To bring things back to Maximum Truth, can the truth still prevail at a time when so many powerful people are trying to make it scarce?

I’m always hopeful. I’m a cynical comedy writer, but also an optimist. It ain’t easy!

#dylan o'brien #maximum truth #maximum truth press

[shadowravenswing]

Late Night Thoughts of Someone Who Over thinks

No one really reads my blogs here in Tumblr. Sometime I think Tumblr is all but a forgotten social media platform with cringy takes and a lot of upheaval. The more I go through life, the more I want to share my thoughts with people in a retrospective manner rather than ‘here’s my hot take now debate’. Not that it doesn’t matter when it comes to correcting just not something I am looking at here in my writing this blog post. Many of my thoughts are just that- thoughts coming from someone who doesn’t fully understand the world. Doesn’t understand the cruelties that I have grown into. I have found myself in my early twenties afraid of the actions other people may have on my life and individual freedoms that a younger, naive self would have balked at the thought of someone restricting what I did in life.

A younger me had stories to tell that the old me want to tell freely. In away, reconnect with someone who was swallowed up long ago from long ago.

With the news headlines causing more dread, I often wish I could come back to that time when the world’s thoughts had no affect on my mind. When my worries boiled down to what stories I would come up with on the playground or what book I would read that week. Such sweet innocent times they were.

Now I’m worrying about paying rent, trying to make sure I don’t get pregnant without risk of not being able to chose to keep it, working myself to the ground, and so on that is adult life. Even my ambition to be a writer has been galvanized as this business to make money, turning into how can I make more sales rather than can I make a good story. I’m sure it’s been this way before but I have noticed it recently on tik tok and other places. Amazon becoming a giant in selling books because that’s how indie and self publish authors can do business. Don’t get me started on the publishing companies and the recent Harper-Collins strike. Capitalism exploits people and it sucks that we are stuck in a cycle that we, as consumers, cannot stop.

Those who are in charge of us seemed to be constantly on fire. I am a firm advocate for women’s choice, worker’s rights or anything that has to do with furthering a human right to live and to be seen as a person and not an object. Scrolling through media, mostly tik tok, has me exhausted most times due to people spitting their hot takes or stating inaccuracies that are not true or not backed up with proper evidence. Partial stories are presented as fact or someone reads one line of a headline article and instantly think they have the entire story. I watched this take place on the house floor with bill after bill about huge misinformations being presented. Those elected not caring about the people whom elected them. I’m taking about average people, the you and me people and not the people the fill their pockets with doner money or bail them out. There’s a lot of frustration and outcry that fall onto deaf ears that turn the cheek. Some use religion to justify how right or wrong an action is l, no matter the hypocrisy of their words. While others use the words of what others have said of those powerful enough to stake their claim on other’s lives. Sometimes hiding their true colors out of sight.

The point I think I’m getting at is when did imagination and hope turn into cruel reality? When did stories of adventure, love and reinvention turn into a competition of how we can get on top of a list that is unfair. When did we live in a society that was ripped out of a dystopian novel? How do we go in life knowing many of the systems in our lives are unfair even thought we grew up with promise that fairness existed. When did we start seeing these divisions among ourselves? Was it when we reached adulthood? Was it when the world around us, the world that was promised, disintegrated in front of our eyes? When did we start to see the flames?

This may be the ranting of a mad woman but these are the questions that I’ve stayed awake asking myself. When did our innocents of the world disappeared? Was it ever really there?

As a writer, a pagan, a woman, and an over thinker, I ponder these and many more. My head is full these days that the dark corners of this platform maybe a safe heaven for such mindless thoughts.

#writersofinstagram #witchesofinstagram #livinglife #writing #philosophy #politics #thoughts #late night #imagine #wishing #whyyyy #life is strange #Spotify

[go-learn-esperanto]

soo, do you have any crimeboys superhero au recommendations?

Not counting the classics TommyInnit's Unbeatable Method of Avoiding Sudden Death and TommyInnit's Clinic For Supervillains I'll add:

One More Step Out of the Pit Fluff!!!! It has less angst than the other two by a long shot. It isn't all happy and sunshines of course. It takes a but of time for Tommy to get used to his situation. There's also Tubbo destroying the city. That was a thing that happened.

Summary:

It had been Tommy and Tubbo for practically forever. They clawed their way out of hell together. They discovered their superpowers together. They started working for the Superhero Guild together before even coming of age. Tommy probably owed Tubbo his life ten times over. So, when the three supervillains he'd been assigned to bring in managed to take Tubbo hostage, well, there was really only one thing to do.

He knew, of course, he was signing himself up for torture and death by offering that trade, but that was okay.

It'd have to be okay.

New Deceit's an Old Design First of all: Fuck this fic. Just fuck this one. I can't say anything but aahhh just. I hope you like feeling utter despair.

Summary:

Wilbur sighed. This kid would be the death of him. “Wednesday,” he said definitively. “If it doesn’t get better by Wednesday, I’ll call a doctor.” That was when he got paid, so maybe it wouldn’t be as bad. They’d just have to be a bit careful about spending money for the rest of the month. “Deal?”

“Fine,” Tommy agreed, though it didn’t look as if he liked it. “Deal.”

—

Or: Wilbur is sick, Tommy is stressed, and they can't run from the past forever. Crime boys-centric superpowers AU in which I take 'Crime boys' too literally.

Hush Now (You Were Lost but Now You’re Found) - Welcome to conflicting feelings about Dream and Wilbur really said "I'm a possessive bitch" and he means it.

Summary:

Red Chaos was the name the world had bestowed upon him, and Dream had laughed as he dragged Tommy down against his chest in a rough sprawl back against the couch, squeezing him tight after their first official mission together.

Tommy had done good and Dream had been proud.

-

Siren shifts, a look Tommy can’t be bothered to understand flashing briefly before his shoulders roll into a shrug.

“You saved my life.”

I know, Tommy thinks, lips drawing back in an ugly grimace. It ruined mine.

-

The morning paper lies discarded on the couch beside him with black bold headlines:

RED CHAOS: HERO OR VILLAIN?

No Cause for Concern - You know, Tommy really has the smartest of ideas. Working for the Heroes that very much want to catch him for bein a Vigilante? Really big man behaviour. Of course it doesn't go bad at all. Wilbur is a bit conflicted about vigilantes but he'll come around. :)

Summary:

So maybe applying for a job at the heroes' base of operations when he could be arrested any moment for being an illegal vigilante wasn't Tommy's smartest move. But he gets to work with his idols — Ghostbur, the Blade, and Philza Minecraft, Angel of Death himself, just to name a few — how could he turn down that opportunity, honestly?

And keeping his two identities separate can't be that difficult, really. It'll all be a piece of cake.

---

or, tommyinnit just wanted to pay the rent and save people at the same time. things can't go his way for just once, can they?

Why Little Songbird (What’s Happened To Your Wings?) - Not finished (RIP) but pretty fun with what it has. Tommy working at a coffee shop? What a surprise /s Philza was the one to find him first which is peculiar, however Wilbur is still the one to truly break the ice and to annoy Tommy as a civilian. ^^

Summary:

One of those obligatory Superhero AUs every DSMP fanfic writer must attempt at least once.

It’s been about two months since Tommy’s world collapsed around him, and now he’s dragging The Angel of Death up the stairs of his apartment building, because the idiot got stabbed and then passed out in the alleyway next to his house. And he would rather not have to walk by a rotting corpse every time he has to take out the trash. So he attempts first aid, has an odd, brief conversation, stumbles through an awful day at work, and then attempts to continue living his “normal” “civilian life” without anymore unwelcome interruptions.

This unwelcome interruption calls himself Wilbur, and Wilbur has a very punchable face. Tommy tells him this, very helpfully, the first time they meet. Then semi-regularly after that.

#ask #fanfiction #mcyt #dream smp #long post #fic rec #I spent so much time looking for links and stuff because I forget to bookmark fics and it's a pain to find them again #also Tumblr's search function is trash #super hero au #I think New Deceit's an Old Design traumatized me

[smacksmash]

Fox's 'Alert' Makes the Business of Missing Persons Cases Personal for Scott Caan and Dania Ramirez's Protagonists

The goal was to write 'would make for just the most urgent, heart-pounding case that we can think of and the ones that would have the highest stakes,' said EP John Eisendrath.

Fox's latest crime drama, Alert, follows Nikki Parker (Dania Ramirez) as she joins the LAPD's Missing Persons Unit. But as if her life won't be emotional or complicated enough given the nature of such work and the conflicting feelings around law enforcement today, she ends up partnered with her ex-husband Devon (Scott Caan). And the two are not only working through just a drastic change in their relationship, but also still struggling with the fact that their son is one of the city's missing persons.

Is it a conflict of interest for them to work together, let alone work in such a high stakes environment? Maybe, but that's the least of the LAPD's problems.

"When you first meet us, having our son be missing for that long has connected us in ways that you can't connect with anyone else. And I think we have a very authentic way of wanting to deal with the cases because of it, we have a very authentic way of how we relate to each other because of it, [and] we also have a daughter that we co-parent," Ramirez revealed during a press conference for the forthcoming series.

Throughout the season, of course, their relationship will grow and evolve as they work alongside each other and are tested not only by differences in their work styles, but also by feeling personally connected to so many of the cases.

"Co-parenting together and then having to deal with the loss of their child, I think, opens up a lot of moments for connection between both of us, but also allows us to really feel like we're there for one another. I love that part of the show, as well, because we meet each other with love and understanding," Ramirez continued.

Showrunner John Eisendrath confirmed that many of the cases of the week that the show explores were specifically selected and crafted in the writers' room to relate to what Nikki and Devon are going through. Some of those cases are solely from the writers' minds, but others are "ripped from the headlines," in a way. 

The second episode, for example, he said, features a story about the "scourge and overuse" of fentanyl and puts a character in a situation where she has to confront what she would do if she was in the same room as the person who killed her son. That case, he said, comes from reality in the sense of how prevalent fentanyl abuse has become. The writers wanted to tap into something the audience was already "thinking about, talking about, and, as parents, worried about for their kids."

The goal, Eisendrath said, was to find write "would make for just the most urgent, heart-pounding case that we can think of and the ones that would have the highest stakes."

Each episode also has a multi-layered mystery element as detectives in the Missing Persons Unit may be looking for people who don't always want to be found. So, there is the mystery of where the person is, of course, but also how and why they disappeared.

#scott caan #dania ramirez #alert #the article has the wrong character names

[the-francakes]

3 + 5 + 16 for the new year ask game :) )

3. Do you anticipate writing for a new fandom this year? Which one?

Probably not, but never say never. I think if anything, I might venture a bit into Marauders territory, which feels like a whole new fandom lol.

5. Which WIP is first on your list to complete this year? Will you post a snippet?

Beyond the one I'm publishing as I go, I would love to write the Beauty & the Beast story that has been outlined and reoutlined. I just haven't gotten going on it because it always feels like something is not clicking right. its a dramione and I think the beast bit is an interesting twist I haven't seen yet in fandom. here's a snippet of it tho! its unedited so shhh about any missing commas lol

Hermione still thinks the paper is full of half-truths and pathetic writers, but she also still reads it religiously.  Just in case. 

“Blimey, would you look at that?” Ron swears under his breath and shows her the front page.  Today the paper is no longer just in case. 

The front headline is bold and black, but she doesn’t need to read it to know the building pictured.  She’d know that drive anywhere. Long and gravel through misty grounds.  The black gate keeps things in as much as it keeps things out.  Or it used to because, in the picture, the Malfoy Manor is now just a pile of smoldering wreckage. 

“What happened?” She leans in over his shoulder and tries to read the paper. 

“Someone torched it,” he summarizes.  It’s too simple, but that’s all the paper says. A fire started sometime around two in the morning.  There’s speculation about a past enemy possibly being the culprit, but there’s no evidence it was even a magical fire.  Nothing to be alarmed about.  

Hermione tries to ignore the huge red flag burning in the photo. It looks like more than just a fire.  The pile of rubble is massive and still smoking.  The wood beams aren’t cinders but look ripped into pieces.  The cement bricks aren’t standings and burned but crumbled and smashed.  

“Just a fire?” she asks, unable to look away from the photo. She can’t accept the Malfoy Manor wouldn’t have wards to protect it from disaster, especially non-magical. 

“Yup.” 

She swallows and tries to let his answer cement in her mind.  There’s no need for speculation, for panic.  “That’s horrible. Was anyone hurt?”

“Nah, no one’s lived there in ages,” Ron says as he digs into his meal, turning to another page in the paper like the conversation is over. At least, it should be over.

16. Do you have that one fanfic that you wrote a ton for, ages ago, but never posted? Will this be the year, come hell or high water, that it WILL get finished and posted?

I only started writing this year again, so nothing is really hiding in my folders. I did write on FF.net over 10 years ago, almost 15 actually, and never finished a few long fics, but I don't think I will restart those. I can barely read them without wanting to just hit the delete button and erase them from the internet lol.

thanks for the asks! ask game here

[beebascloset]

Had a dream where George Lucas and Green Day were part of the WGA and I got a notification from someone's Snapchat story saying "Rip George Lucas" and I was like "Guess who just died?" to someone else but when I Googled his name the first thing I saw was a news headline that said something like "George Lucas joins the Writer's Guild" or something and his Wikipedia didn't even pop up because apparently if you protest against the guild your Wikipedia page disappears from search results

#beebadream #wga #writers guild strike #george lucas

[mariacallous]

You know how the saying goes: if at first you don’t succeed then sulk like a toddler, baselessly claim that an election was stolen from you, then try, try again. After lots of will-he-won’t-he it now seems almost certain that Donald Trump will run for president in 2024. Last Thursday, Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s 2016 campaign lead, said that we can expect Trump to announce his candidacy soon and rumours have been flying ever since. Over the past few days, Trump advisers have been dropping hints to the media that the former president will run and Trump himself has been teasing a comeback at events across the country. On Monday, shares of the company that will take Trump’s social media venture public rallied in anticipation of the idea that the guy who reportedly drinks 12 Diet Cokes a day, likes to flush White House documents down the toilet and is mired in multiple lawsuits, might become the most powerful man in the world again.

So when will Trump make this cursed announcement? Probably as soon as I file this column, knowing my luck. And I’m not the only one nervous about Trump’s timing. A number of Republicans reportedly spent Monday frantically calling up Trump and begging him not to announce his candidacy until after Tuesday’s midterm elections. The worry among some Republicans is that Trump’s news would overshadow the midterms and send Democratic voters scrambling to the polls. Trump, in an unusual display of self-restraint, has suggested that we should all mark our calendars for 15 November when he’ll make a “very big” announcement from Mar-a-Lago. “We want nothing to detract from the importance of tomorrow,” he added, as he made an announcement he knew was guaranteed to make headlines and steal at least some attention from the midterms.

I know it’s grim to think we might all have to suffer through two years of Trump-the-candidate (and that’s not even figuring in the fact that he might win), but there is a silver lining to this horror show. Namely, there’s a decent chance that Trump throwing his hat into the ring will divide the Republican party and, if we’re lucky, cause them to eat their own. Right now, you see, the top unofficial 2024 Republican contender is Florida governor Ron DeSantis, whom Trump is extremely annoyed with. Trump helped DeSantis go from relative obscurity to rightwing darling when he endorsed him back in 2018. Since then, however, DeSantis hasn’t been kissing the ring enough. He’s gone from a protege to a potential threat – one that Trump is very keen on neutralising. We know that Trump is serious about taking down DeSantis because he’s reached for strategy No 1 in his “How to Be a Political Genius” handbook: come up with a devastating nickname for your opponent. On Saturday Trump unveiled his new moniker for the Florida governor: “Ron DeSanctimonious”. Not bad, but it feels a little try-hard. Probably because it is, in fact, extremely try-hard. According to the New York Times: “Mr Trump has been privately testing derisive nicknames for Mr DeSantis with his friends and advisers, including the put-down he used on Saturday.” I know that we should all be worried about the death of democracy and all that but I just love the idea of Trump convening a little writers’ room where everyone workshops nicknames for his nemeses.

Speaking of strategies, the Democrats, I reckon, ought to be weaponising Trump’s insecurities as best they can. Democrats should be getting operatives to call up Trump and say: “Hey, did you hear what DeSanctimonious said about you?” Then they should be calling DeSantis up and saying: “Hey, did you hear what Trump said about you?” Then they should sit back and watch as two of the most popular – and most awful – Republicans tear each other apart. Forget Nixon’s “madman theory”: behold Mahdawi’s “middle-school politics theory”.