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teh-kittykat · 3 months

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Tron: The Animated Series (1986-1989)

What do you mean you haven't seen Tron: The Animated Series? It was my favorite cartoon when I was a kid!

So this all started as an exercise in how to explain why Sam inexplicably had merch for a 2010 movie in his 1989 house. In-universe there would have probably been toys using the 1982 aesthetic since that was what the video game used (and Sam DOES have an 82 Tron figure in his house!) but why the Grid stuff?

Enter THE CARTOON.

It was the 1980s everybody who was everybody made cartoons to sell toys. Encom made home gaming consoles by this point, and they would have had peripherals like Nintendo did. They had licensed characters like Nintendo did. You see where I am going.

Encom wants to sell Encom Gaming Power Gauntlets. Kevin wants to introduce kids to the ideas about the Digital Frontier since he's a futurist and knows kids will be mentally flexible enough to digest the new zeitgeist if it's fun and animated!

Production of the cartoon ran from Kevin's official retirement as CEO until his disappearance. Three official seasons with a fourth in production. Season three's airing was cut short due to the furor surrounding Kevin's going missing, but the "lost" final episodes of S3 were restored when the DVDs were eventually released for an anniversary collection.

The cartoon was also successful in syndication through the 1990s and early 2000s since it successfully anticipated the Educational/Informative movement-- Tron: The Animated Series actually does teach kids some of the basics of computer science around the silly adventure stuff. Think Captain Planet meets Captain N the Game Master for the overall tone of the series. It's not realistic, but you get the general concepts and issues.

The cartoon's popularity among millennials keeps Tron alive in pop culture to the present day. The IP remains a perennial revenue stream for Encom, and every so often they'll throw the fanbase something to keep the money going. (This is an ordeal to the program himself, since he has to deal with hackers sent by groups named after him on the reg.)

What's it about?

Young video game enthusiast Jethro "Jet" Keene lands himself the after school internship of a lifetime getting to work at Encom in a special new program for teenagers with attitude run by Kevin Flynn (voiced by himself).

However, it's not all fun and video game testing with the sweet new Encom Power Gauntlet. Thanks to some cartoon physics hijinks, Jet finds himself transported into the Grid, the Boss's new experimental computer system!

Jet gets to work with Clu (they hired a voice-alike for him) and Tron (ditto) to find a way back home to the real world, solving problems and learning how to code along the way... and that was the pilot episode.

Because this is a cartoon for children, Jet is naturally the regular User of the Grid instead of Flynn, though Flynn makes occasional appearances to dispense Yoda-like wisdom and is revered by all the programs inside the system as the Creator.

There are also no lasers or anything like that-- Jet does a silly toku-like thing with the power gauntlet to commute into the system.

Clu is more likable than in real life. He's mostly benevolent, trying to make a more perfect system but the show's writers actually picked up on the idea that making a perfect system is kind of an impossible lift and made it central to his character development. He's a little obsessed with copying the User world, and there's an arc in S3 where a lot of the conflict revolves around why can't programs be programs about it.

Tron's not a mayhem goblin, which is a crime. He's portrayed as a little bit Optimus Prime, since Jet's the primary mayhem source, and Fighting for the Users is otherwise his defining personality trait. He gets a surprisingly deep fate/free will arc in S2, since naturally several episodes revolve around attempts to reprogram him since he's the Champion and all. Afterward, he's a bit more chill.

Jet's storyline parallel's Kevin's real-life one a little bit-- a lot of the episodes focused on him as a character revolve around him trying to balance his double life.The cartoon also does not mention the time dilation jetlag. Jet, unlike Kevin, does learn how to ask for help, especially as S3 decides to diversify a little more and adds a girl intern, Paige.

S3 in general has a lot of emphasis on diversity and tolerance of others and their differences. The ISO-Basic tensions were running high in the real Grid. It was on Kevin's mind a lot. He was also starting to make thinks on introducing the ISOs to the rest of the world at the time.

Like Reboot in the 1990s, Tron has a lot of episodes devoted to video games and playing games on the Game Grid is a frequent trope. (Hardcore Tron partisans accuse Reboot of stealing this.) Unlike in Reboot, there's no derezzing the losers if the User wins. Games are sometimes the entire plot and sometimes an obstacle or diversion from solving an episode's actual problem.

Since the Grid is open in Tron, there is a recurring cast of villains in the form of viruses and hackers from other systems in addition to technical problems that have to be solved through coding and computer science know-how.

The fourth season didn't get much past a few animatics for the S4 pilot, but what was there got a release for the fancy anniversary collections as special features. Design docs indicate that some new characters were about to be introduced-- Jalen and Radia. Kevin Flynn disappeared while voice actors were being cast for these roles.

NGL I am extremely mad this wasn't a real cartoon.

#writing tag!#glowstick rave nonsense hours #mountains of pi #tron #tronblr #let's goooooo #troncharov #tron: tas

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twistedtummies2 · 2 months

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Gathering of the Greatest Gumshoes - Number 26

Welcome to A Gathering of the Greatest Gumshoes! During this month-long event, I’ll be counting my Top 31 Favorite Fictional Detectives, from movies, television, literature, video games, and more!

SLEUTH-OF-THE-DAY’S QUOTE: “Truth brings closure.”

Number 26 is…Gil Grissom, from CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Perhaps it’s just me, but it feels like a lot of modern mystery shows today tend to veer more towards “crime drama” than your more classic “detective story.” These are shows that feature a more or less ensemble cast, rather than focusing primarily on a single chief investigator. Oh, there may be one or two characters more important than the rest, but at the end of the day, it’s less about one man or woman putting the pieces together, and more a group of people who all have different jobs, working together to stitch the greater puzzle into one solid whole. They try to focus more on “real” detective work (and I use the quotation marks because, even then, there’s usually some romanticization involved), rather than the old-fashioned ideal of the singular sleuth.

I’m not saying this as a complaint, by the way; there are many great shows that have come out of this, and lasted for long periods of time, because something about this formula is as appealing as any other. One of the most popular and long-running examples – as well as one of the first I remember seeing a lot growing up (perhaps more than was healthy, given the nightmares I remember occasionally having) – is “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.” The series, as its title implies, focuses on the adventures (if that’s an appropriate choice of word for them) of the CSI operatives of the Las Vegas Police Department. The show had a revolving door of cast members over the course of fifteen seasons (and, fittingly, fifteen years). While many characters came and went, for the first eight-and-a-half seasons of the program, if there was a main character to be found, it was this one: team leader Gil Grissom, played by William Petersen.

My biggest problem with CSI, to be honest, has always been its characters: with only a few exceptions, a lot of the members in the cast I just don’t feel were very interesting. I remember their faces, but I can’t tell you much when it comes to a lot of their personalities, and some characters I probably wouldn’t even remember by name if you asked me. I say all this because this was NOT the case for Gil Grissom: he is genuinely a really interesting, fun, unique character, and probably one of the best leads any crime series of this nature has ever had.

Grissom is a certified genius, who is known for being highly intellectual, and slightly eccentric. He’s fascinated by insects, being a passionate entomologist, but also has many other interests: history, literature, theatre, and art, among others. He speaks in a frequently poetic fashion, making references to various bits of trivia and offering moments of philosophical wisdom here and there. Ironically, he’s not that well-versed in a lot of pop culture references, despite all this. (I can relate.) Throughout the show, Petersen creates a wonderful character that is both detached and sensitive at the same time. On the one hand, Grissom isn’t made of stone; he can be irritated or unsettled by things around him, and he does sympathize with people and feel sorrow about situations beyond his control. He’s even got a spiritual side to his personality. However, he’s also a very logical and practical person: he’s a scientist, before all else, and believes in hard facts and evidence above all. He also doesn’t have many social graces, and will do bizarre and seemingly deranged things for the sake of proving a theory or testing a hypothesis. In short, he’s a bit like a modern day Sherlock Holmes…except maybe a bit less rude.

Part of the way through Grissom’s tenure, it was revealed that he was starting to go deaf, which signaled a change in his character. While he eventually got surgery to save his hearing, this paved the way for the character’s departure about halfway through Season 9. Later lead investigators would enter the series: first came Laurence Fishburne as Ray Langston, who had probably one of the most wild departures from the series to his credit. Following him was Ted Danson as D.B. Russell, who to HIS credit got an episode with an “Alice in Wonderland” theme. (For me, that’s always a plus.) Neither were bad characters – all three leads were the most memorable ones in the show, for me – but I never felt as attached to them as I did Grissom, possibly at least partially because they just weren’t around for as long as he was. For me, whenever I think of this show, I always think of Petersen as Gil Grissom before anybody else.

Tomorrow, the countdown continues with Number 25!

CLUE: “How did people survive before there were pattern-recognizing sparse representation algorithms?”

#list #countdown #best #favorites #top 31 fictional detectives #gathering of the greatest gumshoes #number 26 #mystery #crime drama #csi #tv #television #gil grissom #william petersen

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https-hunter · 11 months

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In honor of pride month, here’s my research paper on representation within bob’s burgers. I wrote this for my history of animation class last year

Bob’s Burgers: A Powerhouse of Representation in Adult Animation

The hit Fox animated comedy, Bob’s Burgers, revolves around restaurateur Bob Belcher, his family, and the burger establishment that they run together. The family consists of titular cook Bob, eccentric wife Linda, awkward and hormonal 13-year-old Tina, boisterous 11-year-old Gene, and mischievous 9-year-old Louise. The show premiers on Sunday nights as part of Fox’s Animation Domination (AniDom) lineup, alongside The Simpsons, The Great North, Family Guy, and previously American Dad! and The Cleveland Show. The show started out with the edgy humor like that of most adult animated sitcoms, but that vibe was ultimately dropped in favor of a more healthy and realistic family dynamic. What sets this show apart from most programs in adult animation is its diversity and the representation of marginalized groups, particularly the LGBTQIA+ community.

It is no secret that representation matters in entertainment. Seeing a character with the same skin tone, sexuality, or gender identity gives the viewer the liberating and euphoric feeling of being seen. In her book entitled “Queer Representation, Visibility, and Race in American Film and Television”, author Melanie Kohnen, when discussing the concept of the closet and LGBT characters, writes “the closet can never fully screen queerness from view; a specter of queer acts and identities always remains, even in those spaces that appear to be fully saturated with heteronormativity”. By saying this, Kohnen insists that the closet can never hide the fact that a character is queer, even when surrounded by straight characters and ideals. However, sometimes, it is important for a character to come out of said closet to give queer fans that sensation of feeling visible and seen.

The start of Bob’s Burgers and its incorporation of representation began all the way back in the show’s first season. The show’s sixth episode, “Sheesh! Cab, Bob?”, revolved around Tina’s birthday party and Bob’s struggle to make extra money to pay for the party. He ends up taking up a job as a taxi driver during the night shift, where he drives and befriends numerous transgender sex workers and drunkenly invites them to the birthday party. They show up, much to the surprise of the rest of the family, but they end up saving the episode when Tina is upset that her crush, the son of Bob’s nemesis, is not allowed to attend the party. They remind her that Bob worked very hard for the party and that he cares deeply for her, which improves Tina’s mood. The episode has since been criticized as being problematic due to the use of the term “transvestite” as opposed to “transgender” when referring to the women. Their designs (seen below) can also be viewed as transphobic, particularly due to their highlighted masculine features. In addition, these characters are voiced by cisgender men, although most of them never returned to voice the characters again. However, people have to keep in mind that the episode came out in 2011, four years before the nationwide legalization of same sex marriage in the United States. The country has changed since the episode premiered, and although living as a trans individual is not easy, awareness has been spread and people are learning. Although the episode is on the problematic side, the creators listened to the criticism from fans and did not repeat their mistake, but rather improved upon them, pushing forward to become the representation powerhouse it is today.

(IMDb, 2022)

Among the openly transgender characters that appeared in the first season of the show, only one of them went on to have several appearances: Marshmallow. She is a 23-year-old transgender woman of color that frequents the titular restaurant and appears to be good friends with Bob. She is a fan favorite, known for being her true, authentic self, and has been described by Bob as someone who “comes and goes as she pleases. She answers to no one. And she's truly free.” However, even after the show improved its portrayal of trans individuals, Marshmallow still had room for improvement. In 2020, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, while people were pushing for recasting Black characters played by white actors, Marshmallow came into the spotlight (Comic Book Resources, 2020). Ever since season one, she has been voiced by David Herman, a white cisgender man who voices other characters on the show. Due to this, the character has not had a speaking role in a few years, despite being one of the most iconic characters to come out of the show. However, Marshmallow had a special moment for the transgender community in the credits sequence of the Bob’s Burgers Movie (2022), when she danced in a dress comprised of the colors of the transgender flag (seen below). Marshmallow is an icon to the trans community and has been the driving force that turned Bob’s Burgers into the transgender ally fans know it to be now.

Twitter (2022)

When it comes to representation in entertainment, the Belcher family, themselves, are at the forefront of the fight. In the season four Thanksgiving episode, “Turkey in a Can”, Bob is heavily implied to be bisexual. The plot of the episode revolves around the Thanksgiving turkey ending up in the toilet each night the week of the holiday. After several visits to the grocery store to purchase a newer, fresher turkey, the deli clerk begins to suspect that Bob is romantically interested in him, and turns him down. Bob responds by saying “I'm straight. I mean, I'm mostly straight. And I'm married. But if I wasn't… who am I kidding, you're out of my league." (Digital Spy, 2021). This is not an isolated incident, as Bob has occasionally expressed finding other men attractive and even discussing his “type”. Bisexual male representation is so few and far between, so having positive and casual representation, in the titular character, no less, is refreshing to see in television.

However, Bob is not the only queer member of the Belcher family, as his eldest teenage daughter, Tina, is canonically polyamorous. In the season three episode, “Two for Tina”, Tina gets caught in a love triangle between two boys, Josh and Jimmy Jr. When the two have a dance battle to settle who gets to date Tina, she suggests that they attempt a relationship in which she can be with both boys, suggesting that they “put the ‘try’ in ‘triangle’”. In the season nine premiere, Tina, after being called boy crazy due to falling for several boys in a single day, accepts this about herself and sings a musical number in which she dances with just about every boy she has had feelings for up to that point in the show’s run. What is so intriguing about the representation of Tina’s polyamory is that no one in the show sees this as unnatural or a negative trait; everyone just accepts it as a part of who Tina is. Tina can also be interpreted as transgender, since she was originally a boy named Daniel in the show’s concept art and initial pilot, and is voiced by male actor Dan Mintz.

Although Bob and Tina are the only confirmed members of the Belcher family to be part of the LGBTQ+ community, the other family members are also implied to be somewhere on the queer spectrum. The only Belcher son, Gene, is heavily suggested to be genderfluid, or as many fans have suggested, Gene-derfluid. He has often referred to himself as a girl and has even claimed to have a vagina. He has often dressed in drag, and in an episode where Bob asks him why he was wearing a dress, Gene passionately responds “I’m just a girl with a dream who got tired of hearing the word ‘no’!” Many fans under the transgender umbrella relate the Gene’s character and have made compilations of his implied identity, one such video being titled “Gene being a closeted trans girl for 21 minutes: Bob’s Burgers” (Youtube, 2022). No one in the family represses or stifles Gene, but instead, they encourage him to be his true self.

To top off the Belcher children trio is Louise, the youngest and most chaotic member of the family, and the nonbinary coded character of the bunch. Louise is often one to reject typical gender expectations of a nine-year-old, such as liking sleepovers, stickers, and fairy princesses in favor of knives, anime plushies, and threats. In the season twelve premiere, aired in 2021, Louise and Tina share a moment in which the younger sister asks the elder why she doesn’t like traditionally feminine things and if she is being a girl correctly. Now, Louise could simply be a tomboy and not interested in girly things, but questioning if one is being their gender properly is not a thought that typically crosses cisgender children’s minds. Whether intentional or not, all of the Belcher children come across as queer, or freely themselves, in some way, shape, or form.

While Linda is not coded or canonically queer like the rest of her family, she still plays an important role in representation within the show. She is voiced by John Roberts, a gay man, so her voice in and of itself adds a queer flair to the show. Furthermore, part of the appeal of Linda’s character is how accepting she is of her family, their many, many quirks and all. If anything, Linda is a little too supportive and goes to great lengths to show those she cares about that she has their back. The Belcher family is perhaps the most LGBTQIA+ friendly family on television, despite their show not revolving around this aspect.

Part of the beauty of representation in Bob’s Burgers is how casual it is, particularly in its minor characters. Other than Marshmallow, there are several side characters who are confirmed to be queer. A notable example is Nat Kinkle, a limousine driver and family friend to the Belchers. She is known for her eccentric personality and enthusiasm for lizards, but also the fact that she is a lesbian. In one of her appearances on the show, Nat casually mentions her ex-girlfriend, which no one questions and the episode carries on. A funny, albeit odd case of representation can be found in the raccoons Linda watches in the alley. She dubbed one the raccoon king and accordingly named him Little King Trash Mouth, claiming that he is gay and has a husband named Gary. While other shows either have no representation or make being queer the only aspect of a character, Bob’s Burgers has nearly perfected the craft of LGBTQIA+ representation in portraying it casually.

When it comes to adult animation, Bob’s Burgers goes above and beyond compared to its television counterparts. For example, Family Guy, which airs immediately after Bob’s Burgers on AniDom, is notorious for being one of the most offensive shows on television, often making unfunny jokes at the expense of others. Some of these jokes include bashes on the LGBTQIA+ community, and while it is lightening up on these jokes in the modern day, the show has not made any attempts to right its wrongs.

Bob’s Burgers circles back to several points discussed in our class as we learned about the history of animation. Firstly, the show was directly mentioned when we studied international animation, due to the fact that Bento Box Entertainment, the American studio that makes Bob’s Burgers, outsources its animation to studios in South Korea. The use of LGBTQIA+ visibility in Bob’s Burgers, like with Marshmallow, ties into the lesson on representation in animation, particularly the portion including the voice of Apu in fellow AniDom program, The Simpsons. Both characters and studios have since had their white voice actors removed from the roles in favor of listening to criticism from fans. Bob’s Burgers relates to the history of animation because of its significance as an example of how to get representation right and to own up to one’s mistakes.

Bob’s Burgers has one of the best cases of queer representation in adult animation. Most of the main cast are queer, themselves, whether in canon or through subtext, and has mastered the art of casual and organic displays of queerness. The show does an excellent job in representing the transgender community and owns up to the errors showcased in earlier episodes so that it can move on and become a better program. Every show, particularly other adult animated ones, should take a page from Bob’s Burgers’ book and learn to properly represent marginalized groups in a healthy and positive way.

Works Cited

Flint, Emma, “Bob's Burgers — Bob Belcher is actually bisexual (and always has been)”, 2021

https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a37724151/bobs-burgers-bob-belcher-bisexual-lgbtq/

IMDb, 2022

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1854660/

Kohnen, Melanie, Queer Representation, Visibility, and Race in American Film and Television, 2015.

https://docplayer.net/57154947-Queer-representation-visibility-and-race-in-american-film-and-television.html

Me0my, “Gene being a closeted trans girl for 21 minutes: Bob's Burgers”,, 2022

https://youtu.be/yot6MUwwxbE

Murphy, Z, In-Depth Analysis | The Unexpected Queerness of ‘Bob’s Burgers’: Why the Show is an Animated Ally

https://www.hollywoodinsider.com/bobs-burgers-queerness/

Piipstachio, Twitter, 2022

https://twitter.com/piipstachio/status/1542167300081864704

Ridlehoover, John, “Bob's Burgers Will Recast Show's Black Transgender Character, Marshmallow”, 2020

https://www.cbr.com/bobs-burgers-recast-black-transgender-character-marshmallow/

#I fr rambled about how queer this show is for a grade #I think I got an A?#so enjoy silly burger ppl #bob's burgers #bob belcher #linda belcher #tina belcher #gene belcher #louise belcher #marshmallow bob's burgers #pride month #writing #pride

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anhed-nia · 6 months

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BLOGTOBER 10/12/2023: RINGU, GOJIRA

I rewatched both of these movies in preparation for an event that my org hosted at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival. The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies has a lecture at the fest every year, and this time I got someone really great to accompany their Japanese programming. Actually, you can read the original paper that my speaker Sigmund Shen based his talk on, and I highly recommend it!:

He has something very compelling to say about how RINGU and GOJIRA (among other things) reflect the ongoing struggle to expose suppressed national histories, which inflict shame and trauma on a populace who are unable to fully process events that have been protected by censorship and taboo. Because this is a speed run season of Blogtober, I'll leave the analysis to Professor Shen--you won't be disappointed!

The film festival featured a slate of Japanese fare to coincide with a new documentary called THE J-HORROR VIRUS by Sarah Appleton and Jasper Sharp. When they were asked "Why now?" about this investigation into a mode of production that was extremely hot in the early aughts, and which has seen virtually no new growth in recent years, the answer seemed to be that only this much hindsight has clarified what it all meant--and they're right. The doc is really interesting and surprising, even to someone like me who remembers how hard J-horror hit the American festival circuit back when. The founding filmmakers share insights and inspiration that I never would have guessed at, but I have to say that my favorite part was the interview with Rie Ino'o who played Sadako in RINGU and RING 2. Despite her silent and basically faceless performance, she infused her character with a vivid personality that made Hideo Nakata insist that she return for the second film, and you can really see what made her so irreplaceable. I think I'm in love with her now. Anyway, see THE J-HORROR VIRUS if you can, it's really good.

#blogtober #2023 #horror #j-horror #science fiction #gojira #godzilla #horror documentary #hideo nakata #ishiro honda #the brooklyn horror film festival #the miskatonic institute of horror studies

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ipromiseimawriter · 6 months

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From your WIP list, I'd love to hear more about destiel theatre bitches AU, it sounds so fun!

:')))) firstly, thank you again for tagging me; and second, oh bOY here we go (it's an honor tyty)

so I've got less for this rn but I feel like I'm always kinda chipping at it lately. it's insanely self-indulgent (i did my degrees in theatre and simply think the inner dynamics of a theatre program are so funny), and i could not help but immediately latch onto the idea of Dean as a tech theatre professor who heads the scene shop (aka where they build sets and do all that jazz) (a job that in this AU, Bobby used to do, before taking a step back and (almost) retiring). (he probably also loves to act a lil <3)

figuring out where Castiel went was a little trickier, but then it occurred to me to try him on as like -- a directing (and likely also theatre history?) professor. someone who's downright good at taking charge of a situation, knows and cares about the Lore, and he absolutely would have the most batshit taste in plays. time to get these crazy Kansas kids to do some absurdism. he's new to the department (a recommendation from dear friend Meg, an acting professor) and is gonna be a shitstarter <333

from my immensely unhelpful notes doc:

The premise is just gonna be like - a really fucking chaotic school year. I just love mess. Dean and Cas are gonna get put in charge of shit together and it’s gonna be a mess, they’re gonna be best friends and fall in love and be SO STUPID ABOUT IT. agonizing. clown town usa.

in a more concise way: i imagined that they get paired up to work on their first production of the season together and it's just. a madhouse. naturally bc they're them, they end up getting on like a house on fire while also playing in the space of we both kinda need to have control that's p familiar to their dynamic. lots of push and pull. shenanigans, even. best friends but Watch Out. teacher4teacher AU with sexual tension to the nth degree.

so many of the supporting characters get to round out the faculty and staff (Charlie in particular here is a favorite, as one of Dean's tech theatre compatriots) (along with Sam who starts on the outside but is a fervent supporter), and even the students. Jack, Claire, and Kevin, among a few others are definitely witnesses to this chaos. yes they are taking bets on it

also Chuck is the dean (lol) of their little corner of school, and his whole secret life as Carver Edlund will definitely have a role to play in this somewhere that I am trying to finalize.

also writing this out really helped encourage the process, thank you ahhhhhh <3

#zahnie #ask #supernatural #destiel theatre AU #elliot rambles

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gacmediadaily · 3 months

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Dan Merchant is a veteran writer, producer, director best known for SyFy’s Z Nation and his documentary feature Lord, Save Us From Your Followers. His latest series Going Home is produced in association with Sony AFFIRM Originals for Great American Pure Flix.

We don’t like to talk about death in America. Oh sure, we’re fine with death in our entertainment so long as we don’t have to talk about it. We sit entranced as our favorite TV doctors valiantly battle the ultimate foe with Hail Mary surgical procedures and impassioned cries of “Get me 10cc’s of morphine. Stat!” Every existential threat is met with aggressive, decisive action rather than contemplation for as every TV viewer knows there is no greater shame for the TV doctor than to lose a patient (especially one portrayed by a featured guest star).

That was my conclusion, anyway. Now, my family didn’t do any better when it came to acknowledging death. We didn’t talk about it, even when people died. I grew up going to church and I’d heard talk of heaven but the “Auntie Marge is in a better place now” party line was contradicted by the sad faces and somber mood at her funeral. Puzzling. But at the age of 8, television provided valuable illumination when PBS aired Monty Python’s “Dead Parrot” sketch: I soon understood Auntie Marge was “no more, has ceased to be, expired and gone to see her maker.” She was, indeed, an “ex-aunt.” Eavesdropping on Michael Palin and John Cleese as they debated death was oddly reassuring and, on quiet nights, I still catch myself “pining for the Fjords.”

Fast forward to present day, I now have the pleasure of talking about death at work every day. The conversations are startling, refreshing and deeply meaningful. I should explain I’m not a grief counselor or a mortician, I’m the creator/showrunner of the tender drama Going Home which follows hospice nurse Charley Copeland (Northern Exposure’s Cynthia Geary) as she walks her clients “home” to their final reward.

Now in our second season on Great American Pure Flix, Going Home may be the only medical drama in TV history NOT trying to save the patient and that is a surprisingly beautiful thing. At Going Home we talk about death a lot – and not just on screen. We talk about death in the writer’s room, at the table read, after the rehearsals, between takes, at the grip truck, in the make-up room – it seems everybody has a story to share, obviously. We’ve all lost loved ones.

And while it may sound counterintuitive, Going Home’s hospice stories give life. These stories of hope, grace and compassion are deeply rooted in our shared human experience which is, I think, why they’ve connected so profoundly with our audience. I feel humbled to be telling these kinds of stories, the ones that remind us that we are all the same. I once interviewed SNL legend and former U.S. senator Al Franken for a documentary and he told me: “I like to make entertainment that rewards the audience for understanding how human beings operate.” A worthy goal, right?

After watching season five of Fargo, I think Noah Hawley would give an “amen” to that. Have you seen the finale? Damn! Spoiler alert: the closing thirty minutes is among the most impactful faith-based content I’ve ever seen. Deeply moving. Hawley earns it too, building all season to this inspiring, scandalous act of “turn the other cheek” forgiveness. The beauty is simply stunning, but that’s what stories of redemption do. Thanks Noah, well done.

Now, I wish there was a better label than “faith-based.” It’s not very nuanced, which is a shame because it’s been a terrific season for faith-based entertainment; from the box office bonanza of Jim Caviezel’s Sound of Freedom to Dallas Jenkins’ The Chosen debuting their fourth season of the first-ever television series about the life of Jesus IN THEATERS (and THEN going to streaming and THEN to broadcast because, well, give the people what they want) and, finally, Amazon Studios has just announced a bold partnership with Jon Erwin’s The Wonder Project to create “universal stories of love, triumph and spirituality.”

So, what does Amazon know? Amazon knows everything! They have dimensional consumer-based analytics and those analytics have affirmed what some of us storytellers already knew: there is a huge audience hungry for stories of love, forgiveness, reconciliation… and even death. These stories of hope put life into the world and remind us of who we are to be and, please remember, at the end of the story, love defeats hate. I know it’s true, I just watched it on a television show.

#pure flix #going home

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austerlitzborodinoleipzig · 25 days

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Favorite 2023/2024 Programs Pairs SP

Pairs event at Worlds was so fucking good even without the Russians. (You'll only see me saying this for pairs. This is the only discipline where Russians were legitimately above the rest). But this season did prove that the field can actually manage without them.

Have to say tho that most the programs aren't really good and we're desperately in need of some good Choreo which is too rare at this point (Cheng Peng save me!).

So here's list if my favourite programs from this season. Rankings are to be taken with a grain of salt.

Honorable mentions go to

Ghilardi/Ambrosini (The Ecstasy of Gold). Choreo did not left an imprint but I love the music choice the costumes and the general vibe. G/A had some great packaging this season.

Ariano Kent/Laliberté Laurent (500 miles). You just can't keep the Canadians away from Sadboi music and this baby pairs came out with the weepy ballad variant of 500 miles. It's an experience for sure.

7th - Yuna Nagaoka/Sumitada Moriguchi - Can’t Take My Eyes of You, by John Lloyd Young, choreo by Cathy Reed

Fun. Charming. Nice to watch. Nothing special but this is one of those feel good programs. The fact that YunaSumi for their first season together have better packaging than RikuRyu is nothing short of tragic.

6th - Anastasia Golubeva/Hektor Giotopoulos-Moore - Architect of the Mind, by Kerry Muzzey, choreo by Jonathan Guerreiro

Recycled from last year. I love the baby Australians so much and this routine show why. Ability to follow the relentless pace of the music. A sense of drama. Good unisson and well matched lines. I especially love the step sequence where their bodies unfurl to the swirls of the music a bit like an accordion. It scratches an itch. Love Nastya's lines and love Hektor's commitment to the performance.

5th - Minerva Fabienne Hase/Nikita Volodin - Stay, by Rihanna, choreo by Paul Bolle and Mark Pillay

Not the most original thing and Virtue/Moir did it better. But Hase/Volodin are not Tessa and Scott, nor do they need to be. It could be a bit bland and tbh if the team were only slightly less talented it would be.

But instead we have a nice, light, romantic program. It goes perfectly well with Minerva's softness. Volodin is very solid but non existent as a performer and that's ok ! They only have to move prettily to the music and it works for them.

4th - Ellie Kam/Danny O’Shea - East of Eden, choreo by Drew Meekins

What good skating skills does to a motherfucker !!!

Even with the tech shortcomings (that throw jump is not even close to ready), when I saw them live in Angers this seasons they blew everyone put of the water with this SP. Skating skills are so rare among pairs skaters and it's so good to see them being rewarded by the judges for it. The sheer ice coverage the breath the ease of their skating is wonderful to see live. And East of Eden, overused as it is, is a perfect match for their brand. The music is suitably intense. Definitely one of the highlights of the season.

3rd - Cheng Peng/Lei Wang - The Storm Driven Sea, by Christopher Tin, choreo by Lori Nichols

Definitely the best choreo of the bunch, gets bumped from first place because Peng/Wang are a new pair and it shows. We sadly did not get the performance that short program deserved. The drama the position, the intensity... Unmatched.

Deanna Stellato-Dudek/Maxime Deschamps - Oxygen, by Cirque du Soleil choreo by Julie Marcotte

I HATED the music at the start of the season. The loud breathing triggered my misophonia and the vocals were grating.

I love it ! It's unlike anything else in the current pairs' field. Cirque du Soleil doesn't get more Québécois than that. The step sequence is fun. The lift rocks.

1st - Annika Hocke/Robert Kunkel - I Love Rock and Roll, by Joan Jett, choreo by Luca Lanotte

Speaking of rock... Best short of the season hands down. Gorgeous lifts with hard and creative dismount? Check! Massive throw jump? Check! Big twist? Check! Great step sequence with loads of attitude? Check! Music that will make the audience loose it? You bet! Performance levels? Unmatched!

Of fucking course they judges hated it and they were robbed blind at worlds.

#figure skating #hocke kunkel #stellato dudek deschamps #peng wang #kam o'shea #golubeva giotopoulos moore #hase volodin #nagaoka moriguchi #i'm still not over hocke kunkel's scores tbh truly the most robbed skaters of the event

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myjunkisyuzuruhanyu · 1 year

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Do you think Yuzuru's free skate choreographies for 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 seasons were beautiful? I always think David Wilson could do better. Also, because Parisian Walkways brought high PCS scores for Yuzuru, I blame the free skate choreographies more. But, I am not an expert for figure skating. So, I wanted to ask someone who knows more.

I am not an expert on figure skating either, but I observe this sport and its scoring for quite some time...

Actually his Notre Dame de Paris free skate of 2012-2013 is my least favorite competitive Yuzu program with Romeo and Juliet 2.0 of 2013-2014 a close 2nd...so though I don't think the programs are essentially bad, I just don't think they were the best choices for Yuzu. For Romeo and Juliet 2.0 I think it's also partly that his Romeo and Juliet 1.0 was so iconic, that a repetition of the same theme though not in its entirety seemed not the best option to me,but I know that Yuzu himself wanted to skate Romeo and Juliet again and also that he had ideas for the concept of the program 2.0, so David Wilson is not the sole one responsible for the choice. Again emphasizing that it's not a bad program at all, just that I think other choices might have been better. Notre Dame de Paris never clicked as much with me so I haven't rewatched it much. Btw back at that time I wasn't as attached to Yuzu's career as after the Olympics 2014, so maybe that's also playing a part on why it's not my favorites.

David Wilson - just like with any choreographer - did fabulous programs and not as good ones and imo David Wilson didn't seem to be the choreographer that fitted Yuzu's competitive skating best. I also think because the David Wilson programs did not click as much as other programs by different choreographers Yuzu never did another competitive program with David Wilson again. David Wilson however has created some very good exhibitions for Yuzu, actually those David Wilson exhibitions are among my favorites - Notte Stellata and Haru Yo Koi. As those programs were choreographed much later I think David Wilson may not have understood Yuzu's skating back in 2012-2013 as much as he did later. Yuzu was just starting to skate at TCC and maybe language barrier may also have played a part to not turn Notre Dame de Paris and Romeo and Juliet 2.0 into masterpieces. BUT this is also just my opinion, so it's also probably a matter of how you view Yuzu's skating and what you prefer if you think of Notre Dame de Paris and Romeo and Juliet 2.0 as fitting.

As for the PCS I don't think the choreographies are at fault for the PCS and I don't think they were "problematic" in the sense of too low. PCS at that time were a lot lower in general compared to after 2015. Judges did not hit the "excellent" button as often as they do now. Back in the day a PCS score of 85+ for the free skate was very high whereas today something over 90 for the very top skaters is normal. If you look at the PCS scores of those years the only one constantly having more PCS and in the low 90+ range was Patrick Chan, who was a master in skating skills and who had a higher reputation than Yuzu at that point. BUT Yuzu's PCS were among the highest in the field. So I don't think his PCS were bad at that time. Parisienne Walkways may have had an impact on the PCS of the free skate but maybe not in the way you might think.

Parisienne Walkways is a masterpiece that gave Yuzu plenty of world records and not many programs can compare to that at all, so it was hard to produce the same success with the free skate. BUT also you have to see that Yuzu did Parisienne Walkways perfectly and cleanly over time and a couple of times and his PCS increased over the time too. Neither Notre Dame de Paris nor Romeo and Juliet 2.0 ever reached that level of perfection in competition (a perfect FS in competition is in general harder to get bc of more elements, but also Yuzu did have some trouble with the free skate as he was struggling with exhaustion due to his asthma a lot more back when). And no matter if rules or not judges tend to judge clean programs with more PCS than those with mistakes. It's not how it should be, but that's how it often is. (You can see that especially in the steady rise of Nathan's PCS scores over his career)

#figure skating #yuzuru hanyu #replies #parisienne walkways #notre dame de paris #romeo and juliet 2.0

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seventeendeer · 1 year

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I still haven't gotten into rain world, I played it for an hour or so but it was a bit too slow paced to really grab me at the time. I really wanted to like it but I haven't touched it since. can you convince me?

I will convince you AND anyone else reading this who might be interested in rain world !! >:3c or at least try to lol

quick summary for anyone unfamiliar: Rain World is an indie sidescroller where you play as a little animal trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. the player characters, 'slugcats', must eat enough food during the short dry seasons to be able to hibernate through the deadly torrential rain seasons - without getting eaten by bigger animals. as you venture deeper into the game, you learn more about the long-gone civilization whose ruins you're now traversing.

reasons to play Rain World and stick with it despite the frankly harrowing difficulty:

the atmosphere! the nature-is-reclaiming-but-boy-is-it-harsh atmosphere is my personal favorite part of the game. the world only becomes stranger the further you delve into the game. old ruins, old worlds, old religions, old mistakes, old ghosts ... all in a world that feels lush and new and alive despite.

music is used sparingly, but it's gorgeous when it's there, especially during cutscenes

speaking of which, the cutscenes are essentially beautiful digitally painted slideshows. again, full of atmosphere and feeling

the game itself has a deliberately coarse, almost brutalist look, which I think fits the vibe extremely well. unusually for these types of games, all character animation is generated in real time, with each part of a character's body being affected by physics. this creates some very fluid, realistic animation and some ... frankly very janky gameplay, that nonetheless feels very satisfying when you get the hang of it. the learning curve is steep, but once you get really good at movement, you can zoom around the map at much-higher speed!

it may not look like it on the surface, but this game got crazy good AI. it's more or less a fully functioning, procedurally generated ecosystem. every individual enemy lives its own life, including off-screen. each type of enemy has its own unique personality (members of sapient species even have unique personalities generated for each individual!), and almost every being in the game is programmed to try to feed and find shelter before the rain returns, just like the player. the vast majority of beings in the game also develop a relationship to the player that changes depending on how you behave around them - you can actually tame enemy animals and make friends with sapient species! or you can kill enough of a species to destabilize the ecosystem, causing invasive species to appear, among other things. the AI is super intricate and complex, and I highly recommend looking up how it works, just so you can fully understand what you're experiencing in-game. a lot of things that seem random are decidedly not. it's deeply fascinating!!

while it's light on story and there's very little dialogue, what is there is strange, abstract and very poignant. it's a "glass half full" type of story at best, but the almost ... tender(?) way the bleak story is handled really made it stick with me personally. I highly recommend seeing the story through, if nothing else by watching someone else's playthrough. it goes some truly mysterious places that I at least in no way predicted.

as much as I personally love this game, I do also have to disclaim that it's not ... perfect. it's a niche game (I think?) for a reason. the fans love it for the same reasons critics hate it - it's hard, it's weird, it consciously refuses to conform to a lot of the traditional principles of what makes a "good game", and its near-total lack of in-game tutorials makes it almost hostile to new players. it frequently leaps back and forth between "hard, but worth it" and "I will give you 2 dollars if you climb that telephone pole 47 times!" type difficulty, and all you can really do to combat it is to pick and choose which challenges are enjoyable to you and which to leave alone.

I personally gave up on the hard mode campaign completely because I wasn't having fun - the standard campaign was already difficult for me. I also looked up a lot of the lore that is technically available in-game because I found the way to obtain it to be a boring grind at my current skill level.

Rain World is difficult and not in a balanced, fair way, like Dark Souls or Hollow Knight. it will fuck you over at the drop of a hat, for no reason, with no way to recover. it will render the last two hours of gameplay moot if you screw up in the last five minutes. it is not always, strictly speaking, a "well-designed game."

but it is a beautiful game, an immersive game, brimming with emotion right under the steely surface, and if you enjoy simply being in the world and you want to learn more about it, I highly recommend sticking with it in whatever capacity is fun for you.

and then look up all the lore you missed by being a rational person + watch some video essays on youtube about how that insane AI works because understanding what's going under the hood of this game is going to make the slow-paced parts SO much more exciting

everyone who likes fucked up animal stories and getting their shit dismantled by RNG ad nauseum go play rain world right NOW it's FANTASTIC and I LOVE IT SO MUCHH IT'S SO SPECIAL DESPITE THE. THE ALL THAT. THE PAIN

#asktheherd #deertalksrw

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streussal · 3 months

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nine people i'd like to get to know better <3

Tagged by: @hearthouses and @ladyculebras

Last Song: "Don't Swallow the Cap" by The National

Favorite Color: I love blue-green colours like teal. Also brick red. Also various purples.

Last Book: "Heartless" by Dia Reeves. I really enjoyed it, but felt it was sort of rushed in parts. Could have used another 100 pages to allow it to breath more.

Last Movie: "Santa Camp", a documentary about a professional Santa organization and attempts to increase diversity among Santas. Follows three new attendees - a black Santa, a trans Santa, and a disabled Santa with spina bifida. Pretty interesting. (I saw it January 3rd. So after Christmas! But 18 days ago because I haven't been watching movies this month I guess.)

Last TV Show: Currently watching the 2nd season of "The Newsreader" (one episode left). It's about a nightly news program in late 1980s Australia. The leads are Anna Torv (Fringe, Mindhunter) and Sam Reid (Lestat). Excellent series. I find all the questions of news as a public service providing information vs news as entertainment (or at least needing to be engaging enough to maintain viewership) very interesting.

Sweet/Spicy/Savory: Savoury. Sweet is also good. (If it's a question of sweet vs salty it's definitely sweet)

Relationship Status: Single

Last Thing I Googled: I was googling "aqua" and "teal" for the colours question because I mix them up

Current Obsession: "Interview with the Vampire" tv series. Which you can probably tell from my blog. I'd say since the first episode aired but I knew I was going to be obsessed since the first trailer for season 1 came out. Obsessed enough to keep checking a bunch of the show tags on tumblr even with them regularly giving me psychic damage <3

Looking Forward To: Season two of IWTV. Also going to my friend's place in a few days.

tagging @jeaniefranklins, @queenofattolia, @firstaudrina, @cypresssunns, @skywalkery, @blueiight, @lynnenne, @misterandry, & @jiggit (and anyone else who feels like it! just say I tagged you)

#memes

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macaroni-rascal · 5 months

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Part 3: La Danse, also known as The Death of Me

Idk if there's much point to going through each individual free because the issues in ice dance are above all systemic and we've already discussed them at length. That said, I think LaLa are the closest to a full package team, but even at their best, they're still at 90% of where they need to be to truly break through. They rebounded massively in the free but I think the injury early on in the season knocked their whole periodization schedule out of whack. I still prefer their overall material to anything else we saw here, but I can acknowledge that Zak in particular was off. Still, I want to be taken on an emotional journey by a program and they gave me that in spades.

Nicollage at least won the puffiest shirt competition among the Canadian men. I love them but he was so clearly struggling to keep up with her, and she was quite literally pushing him at times the way the female partner is sometimes dragged by the male one, just in reverse. I wish they'd just come up with a concept where they simply allow her to be the dominant partner. The traditional lead/follow dynamic is generally useful for social dancing with strangers but it's conveniently grounded in sexism, and what's the point of it in choreographed, practiced programs? V/M were great at letting Tessa lead once in a while (just look at their Finnstep), and that played a part in why they were so successful. The switchup in the jr pattern is a step in the right direction and it's time for the seniors to be a bit more vers as well. This FD for them feels like an afterthought, like their coaches don't know what to give them, the concept is tired and outdated, and so are the costumes. All of their FDs are starting to blend into one another. They're very smooth together and very connected, I just wish they were doing steamier material, seen as how they're the only couple in ice dance that looks like they're hot for each other. He's sooo shaky and you could see the fatigue get the better of him in the second half. With the placements from Worlds staying the same, I don't know if there's enough in it for them anymore. They need a fresh approach to the free, the RDs they've generally been great with. Her abs are +5, as always.

The Rocky I won't even dignify with an analysis because none really went into creating it, all I'll say is that Lewis is fabulous and he deserves the world, just not at this cost.

My feelings and affections about the Wuthering Heights haven't changed, I'll just admit that they've improved it since Skate Canada. It has some fantastic lifts but other than that I think it would've been way more suitable for a younger team. They just don't have the performative mettle to pitch it correctly tonally. The opening is very 80s ice dance and Paul's mullet doesn't help. It doesn't come together in terms of vocabulary of movement, it feels like they threw in each and every idea they had, so it flip-flops from retro to contemporary and back again throughout. I still despise the pink satin shirt, they need to rethink it if they want to capture the inherent inequality between the characters. They also looked shaky and tired in the second half, the flights must've been grueling. Their spin was the worst one here. Musically it has potential, though, I'd just bring in a fresh set of eyes to streamline and unify the choreographic choices. The hydroblade is cool, I just wish they weren't such awkward actors. Idk, there's something very Millennially twee about them, like they're a decade or so behind the curve.

G/F's free was my favorite here, despite it being in certain ways the most generic and predictable of the bunch. What I find appealing is the sincerity of their approach to the sport and they seem aware of their limitations and are working to correct them, unlike some other teams (ahem). For example, Charlene's posture isn't natural, but she's trying. The costuming is understated and classy, which is why I don't understand how they ended up with that goofy RD. I really like the music cut, you can't tell it's from four different movies. They're the best skaters, but their glaring lack of It factor kills them. The combo lift is based, and so are the spin positions. They're so tender and fold into each other effortlessly. They were the only team that maintained its energy throughout. I would've had them further ahead of P2, but I'll take it after the international embarrassment that was the NHK judging.

I have to say, whoever dug up that video of Evan doing the same opening pose with Emily ~15 years ago is a hero, because that tidbit epitomizes the thing that bothers me most about this program, which is that this whole concept is something a 19-year-old would think is cool. You know, when they first leave for university and they're listening to Pink Floyd for the first time, experimenting with drugs, discovering all these artists, but then they start reading about Dali being a N*zi and his internalized homophobia and the shit he pulled in his life and the whole disillusionment stage kicks in? That's where this program falls apart for me - at the lack of thought and depth. Their only saving grace is that their upper bodies move more smoothly than the other teams', but that's reversely proportional to their skating ability. Their patterns across the ice are choppy and sloppy, and their speed and glide are far inferior to their competitors. But what puts me off the most is that this is such a cynical approach to ice dance, and that's my issue with the Rocky as well - these teams aren't here to create something of value in the world, they're here for the accolades, the medals and the money, there's no deeper pursuit to any of it, and it seems like they'd rather die than give you a window into their souls. Maybe there's nothing there, we can't know. But at the end of the day, the rules are structured to prop up a team like this, so it's a "don't hate the player, hate the game" situation. Ultimately no other team has stepped up to claim the top spot a la P/C in 2015, so of course it'll go to the longest-tenured team. I just wish I could watch a competition and not yell "look how they've massacred my sport!" at the end of it. There's no emotion to this or the Rocky, it's all tricks and gimmicks, smoke and mirrors, thoughts and prayers. It feels like forever ago when the likes of V/M, P/C and H/D were duking it out, but it was a mere 5 years ago. How we got from there to here just isn't mathing. They feel fully comfortable putting just anything out there and then shamelessly relying on politics to get them where they want to go, which a slap in the face for the fans. Count me the fuck out.

LaLa were so amazing in the free, I love them so much. Agreed on all things, they easily had the best pair of programs at the GPF, that free dance makes me cry. I hope Zak can take some time between now and Nationals to rest, he did seem a little off. They always have a stellar Nats though, so I'm less worried about them.

You nailed it with the Canadanes. Imagine her with a technically proficient partner. Or, imagine if Nik didn't have knee issues. Le sigh. I don't get this free dance for them, I've watched it 3-4 times now and I cannot tell you a single moment from it. It's all-in-all quite forgettable, and that's a shame.

I don't even know what or who 'Rocky' is, so I'd be lost if you mentioned it anyway.

I agree with all parts of what you said about Gilles and Poirier but I am just going to rant about their spin for a moment: WHY oh WHY does Piper curl in on that first position? She is a skater known for her lack of posture, and instead of having her put her arm up and out to lengthen and open up her shoulders, they have her look like she's holding a giant beach ball. It infuriates me to NO end. Carol Lane, text me, we can fix this.

I won't lie, I just skipped the Italians and Chock and Bates. The former is too boring for words and the latter is too frustrating for words. You are correct on all things though, and I agree with all you said.

Nationalses here we come!

#konner talks skating #fashionista nonny

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twistedtummies2 · 4 months

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Year of the Bat - Opening & Rules

On November 10th, 2022 – not but twenty days before what would have been his 67th birthday – Kevin Conroy passed away. The following year, on August 24th – only a few months ago, as of typing this – Arleen Sorkin also departed from this life. Most recently, Richard Moll left us, on October 26th, 2023. They were neither the first nor the last of the noteworthy cast members of the same great show who have been lost to the ravages of time. That great show, of course, was “Batman: The Animated Series,” which celebrated its thirtieth anniversary in 2022. The Animated Series is widely regarded as one of the best and most definitive depictions of the Dark Knight and his universe ever created. It not only adapted many of the classic comic book characters splendidly, into a format that adults and children could enjoy in equal measure, but in some cases even improved on ideas, concepts, stories, and characters from those comics. It was a series that took its target audience seriously, and was darker and more mentally and emotionally challenging than many other superhero programs that came before. It is generally considered to be one of the most influential animated shows of all time, and for good reason. In light of the recent losses, I have decided that the start of this new year will be dedicated to this wonderful show. So, all through this month, I’m going to count down my Top 31 Favorite Episodes of “Batman: The Animated Series!” Now, the only rule for this list is that I’ll only be counting episodes from this show. So other series that came after it, set in the same universe – such as “Superman: The Animated Series” or “Justice League” – will not be included here. I also won’t be including any movies set in continuity with this universe, such as “Mask of the Phantasm” or “Sub-Zero.” With that said, I WILL be counting episodes from “The New Batman Adventures,” since that is essentially just Season 4 of the show. And for all two of you who even know or care, I also won’t be including “Gotham Girls,” because that’s a whole other beast itself. This isn’t a rule, but simply a reminder: my opinions will probably differ vastly from a lot of other people’s. Some episodes that might make it onto other people’s lists won’t be here, not because they aren’t good episodes, but simply because this is entirely based on opinion and favoritism. For example, SPOILER ALERT, “Robin’s Reckoning” and “I Am the Night” – both widely considered among the best episodes of the show – are not to be found here. I like both episodes, make no mistake, but they simply aren’t among those I think of first when I think of this series. As I’ve stated on numerous occasions, there’s a difference between “favorite” and “best.” With that said…Kevin, Arleen, Richard…this will be for you. I welcome you all to a little event I’ve decided to call…Year of the Bat! Tomorrow, I shall present a list of Honorable Mentions: Twelve Terrific Episodes that ALMOST made the cut, but not quite. After that, the countdown will begin in earnest. I hope you all enjoy!

#list #countdown #year of the bat #new year's special #top 31 btas episodes #batman: the animated series #btas #opening and rules #batman #dc #animation #tv

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jules-has-notes · 8 months

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2013 Napa Valley A Cappella Extravaganza — VoicePlay live performances

In January 2013, VoicePlay were the professional headliners to a roster of collegiate and high school a cappella groups at the 8th annual Napa Valley A Cappella Extravaganza. The event is a yearly fundraiser for Napa High School's choral program, hosted by their Vocal Music Workshop a cappella ensemble. These audience-view videos give a taste of the live concert experience.

As indicated by the "Hello!" screen, this song is often their opening number for live shows. It's a great, energetic introduction to their playful sound, but doesn't get too far into the shenanigans that might startle the uninitiated.

Details:

title: Don't Stop Me Now

original performers: Queen

written by: Freddie Mercury

arranged by: VoicePlay

My favorite bits:

the slow build that gently eases you into things

Their choreography's not elaborate, but they do it well, and it allows for a bit of individuality to shine through.

the breakdown section culminating with ♫ "Any tiiii-IIIIME" ♫

the driving triplets in the ♫ "No one can stop me" ♫ section

Earl's soaring riffs

That big finish!

Trivia:

This song was the closing section of VoicePlay's Queen in 5 Minutes medley almost six years later.

youtube

As much as mainstream pop culture might turn up its collective noses at boy bands when they're at their height of popularity among tween girls, there's no denying that a lot of beloved oldies have their origins there. And no wonder. Pop music is darn catchy and fun by design. VoicePlay makes these selections even moreso with their antics.

Details:

title: boy band medley

original songs / performers: "ABC" by The Jackson 5; [0:50] "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" by The Beatles; [1:30] "My Girl" by The Temptations; [2:18] "Sherry" by The Four Seasons; [3:16] "YMCA" by The Village People; [3:50] "You Got It (The Right Stuff)" by New Kids on the Block; [4:12] "I Want It That Way" by Backstreet Boys; [4:52] "Bye Bye Bye" by *NSYNC; [5:23] "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction

written by: "ABC" by Berry Gordy, Freddie Perren, Alphonzo Mizell, & Deke Richards; "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" by John Lennon & Paul McCartney; "My Girl" by Smokey Robinson & Ronald White; "Sherry" by Bob Gaudio; "YMCA" by Jacques Morali & Victor Willis; "You Got It (The Right Stuff)" by Maurice Starr; "I Want It That Way" by Andreas Carlsson & Max Martin; "Bye Bye Bye" by Kristian Lundin, Jake Schulze, & Andreas Carlsson; "What Makes You Beautiful" by Savan Kotecha, Rami Yacoub, & Carl Falk

arranged by: VoicePlay

My favorite bits:

thirty-something Earl being able to recreate the sound of preteen Michael Jackson, holy heck

the way the choreography gets more complex as they move through the eras of music

making hand gestures to signify members of the Village People during YMCA

"I hate you guys." :(

the ♫ "wah-wah-wah-wah" ♫ harmonies transitioning from NKOTB to BSB

hamming up their roles in the "Boy Band 101" section

🎉 Party poppers!!! 🎉 (Which they got in trouble for a year later.)

Trivia:

Having this medley in their repertoire may have given them an advantage when "Bye Bye Bye" was chosen as the battle song for their first episode of The Sing-Off.

Tony was, in fact, the first one from this configuration of VoicePlay to leave. Not to go solo, though. He wanted to be home with his family and focus on growing PattyCake.

The guys updated this medley and filmed a full music video for it as the result of a Patreon poll in 2019.

youtube

What happens when you take a country music classic, kick up the tempo a bit, and infuse your performance with an air of competition between bandmates? You get this, a favorite among VoicePlay fans.

Details:

title: Elvira

original performers: The Oak Ridge Boys

written by: Dallas Frazier

arranged by: Geoff Castellucci

My favorite bits:

the opening harmonies from the trio

Eli nudging Earl to take the lead, resulting in Geoff going to pout next to Layne

Layne pointedly staying out of whatever's happening, but still keeping an eye on things

everyone's feigned surprise for the "Earl can sing low, too" gag, especially Geoff giving his best dramatic chipmunk

Earl's breath control on that long note and the ensuing huff to refill his lungs

Geoff's wide stance and shoulder wiggle to prepare for his high notes

those lush ending chords

Trivia:

Home Free liked this version of the song so much that they asked Geoff to help create an arrangement for them to record with The Oak Ridge Boys.

youtube

You'd think a cappella fans might be sick of this song, given how frequently it was used on Glee. But, as usual, VoicePlay bring their own talented twists to this classic rock song and make it something fresh. This recording is missing the first verse, but it still has most of the best parts.

Details:

title: Don't Stop Believing

original songs / performers: "Don't Stop Believin'"; [0:54] "Open Arms"; and [1:02] "Any Way You Want It" by Journey; [0:46] "Oh Sherrie" by Steve Perry

written by: all songs written by Steve Perry in collaboration – "Don't Stop Believin'" with Jonathan Cain & Neal Schon; "Oh Sherrie" with Randy Goodrum, Craig Krampf, & Bill Cuomo; "Open Arms" with Jonathan Cain; "Any Way You Want It" with Neal Schon

arranged by: Layne Stein & Geoff Castellucci

My favorite bits:

the gradual layering in the polyphony section, using other Journey / Steve Perry songs to fit inside the rhythmic gaps…

…culminating in that huge chord (Are we sure there are only five of them?)

their use of silence during the unison section

the camera panning around to take in the well-deserved standing ovation

Trivia:

VoicePlay filmed a full video for "Don't Stop Believin'" a few years later when they were the featured guests at Camp A Cappella 2016.

They later did a full version of "Any Way You Want It" as part of the second round of their Partwork series.

For a couple years, Eli also sang with a Journey cover band called Raised On Radio in between VoicePlay gigs.

#VoicePlay #a cappella #live performance #Napa Valley A Cappella Festival #concerts #music #video #long post

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brainlesstechnerd · 8 months

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Introduction: As a high school student in the 21st century, there's no denying the importance of computer science in today's world. Whether you're a seasoned programmer or just dipping your toes into the world of coding, the power of computer science is undeniable. In this blog, I'll share my journey as a 12th-grader venturing into the fascinating realms of C, C++, and Python, and how this journey has not only improved my computer science profile but also shaped my outlook on technology and problem-solving.

Chapter 1: The Foundations - Learning C

Learning C:

C, often referred to as the "mother of all programming languages," is where my journey began. Its simplicity and efficiency make it an excellent choice for beginners. As a high school student with limited programming experience, I decided to start with the basics.

Challenges and Triumphs:

Learning C came with its fair share of challenges, but it was incredibly rewarding. I tackled problems like understanding pointers and memory management, and I quickly realized that the core concepts of C would lay a strong foundation for my future endeavors in computer science.

Chapter 2: Building on the Basics - C++

Transition to C++:

With C under my belt, I transitioned to C++. C++ builds upon the concepts of C while introducing the object-oriented programming paradigm. It was a natural progression, and I found myself enjoying the flexibility and power it offered.

Projects and Applications:

I started working on small projects and applications in C++. From simple text-based games to data structures and algorithms implementations, C++ opened up a world of possibilities. It was during this phase that I began to see how the knowledge of programming languages could translate into tangible solutions.

Chapter 3: Python - The Versatile Language

Exploring Python:

Python is often praised for its simplicity and readability. As I delved into Python, I realized why it's a favorite among developers for a wide range of applications, from web development to machine learning.

Python in Real-Life Projects:

Python allowed me to take on real-life projects with ease. I built web applications using frameworks like Flask and Django, and I even dabbled in data analysis and machine learning. The versatility of Python broadened my horizons and showed me the real-world applications of computer science.

Chapter 4: A Glimpse into the Future

Continual Learning:

As I prepare to graduate high school and venture into higher education, my journey with C, C++, and Python has instilled in me the importance of continual learning. The field of computer science is dynamic, and staying up-to-date with the latest technologies and trends is crucial.

Networking and Collaboration:

I've also come to appreciate the significance of networking and collaboration in the computer science community. Joining online forums, participating in coding challenges, and collaborating on open-source projects have enriched my learning experience.

Conclusion: Embracing the World of Computer Science

My journey as a 12th-grader exploring C, C++, and Python has been an enlightening experience. These languages have not only improved my computer science profile but have also given me a broader perspective on problem-solving and technology. As I step into the future, I'm excited to see where this journey will take me, and I'm ready to embrace the ever-evolving world of computer science.

If you're a fellow student or someone curious about programming, I encourage you to take the plunge and start your own journey. With determination and a willingness to learn, the world of computer science is yours to explore and conquer.

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kylesvariouslistsandstuff · 8 months

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Physical media lovers rejoice...

This week, we got some rather bombshell news from Disney's home entertainment division...

First up is PREY, the Dan Trachtenberg-directed PREDATOR film, getting a 4K and Blu-ray in October. That's *big*. PREY was one of the movies that Disney sent straight to streaming last year, among many other fellow 20th Century Studios titles like THE PRINCESS and ROSALINE. PREY had actually had actually tested very well before release, and many were puzzled as to why it never got a theatrical release... and why it seemingly had no future as a title outside of Hulu.

Even some recent theatrical 20th Century/Searchlight titles - confusingly - never made it to disc, like BARBARIAN - a surprise favorite of mine last year - and SEE HOW THEY RUN. The former was also thought to be a Hulu-only exclusive, but great test results bumped it to theatrical. And thankfully so, that was a movie - what with its one or two hard-left turns - worth experiencing in a theater. I certainly hope those movies come to 4K/Blu-ray very, very soon.

But even better... More physical media of streaming-exclusive stuff! Disney is now putting three Disney+ shows on physical media, on 4K and Blu-ray. WANDAVISION, LOKI's first season, and THE MANDALORIAN's two seasons... Obvious that they'd go with the MCU shows and the STAR WARS content, but it's a start... And it was strongly implied for quite some time that Disney+ was going to be the *only* place where you could watch the Marvel shows...

Well, demand can be quite a persuasive thing to these companies... Being loud works!

I don't know if this will lead to any other shows or movies getting the disc treatment. Disney heads had sort of implied that they'd put a greater emphasis on physical media releases in North America (meanwhile, pulling the plug on physical media releases in Australia, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 being the final title) post-Chapek... But I can easily see this being applied to popular stuff and not everything that's been released.

My hope is that all those 20th Century films eventually make it to disc, along with the Disney+ original movies and shows. HOWARD, in particular, is at the top of my wish list. Especially the ones they inexplicably removed, too, like CRATER. No work should be erased and unavailable to see. Like, ever. When something's made and released, and I don't care how good or bad it is, it's the public's from there on out. It should always be available, especially in a post-Disney Vault world.

It's funny because Disney themselves, back when the home media division was called "Walt Disney Home Video", released a truck-TON of various live-action movies on video and DVD over the years...

In the early 1980s, 90% of what was available on video from Disney was live-action stuff, due to the company's hesitance to release the majority of the animated features on video. So you had almost all the live-action movies, from well-known films like MARY POPPINS and THE LOVE BUG to things like... THE NORTH AVENUE IRREGULARS, SNOWBALL EXPRESS, GUS, etc. By the late 1980s, several other films made it to video, such as 2-parter movies that were aired on Disney's anthology program... Ever hear of SMOKE? BLACK ARROW? MY DOG, THE THIEF? Even some of the first-ever Disney Channel movies saw video releases back then, such as TIGER TOWN and GONE ARE THE DAYES.

Disney was even pretty good with putting a lot of these on DVD in the 2000s, although some didn't make it past videocassettes. And I have to say, when Disney+ launched, I was quite astounded at how many titles they had on there... Outside of greed and corporations being dinguses, I see no reason for the stuff not to be on there. I get licensing/rights stuff concerning catalogue 20th Century titles... But Disney-made titles? C'moooon...

So, this news gives me a spot of hope regarding physical media and the availability of certain films/shows.

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