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cocteaustars · 5 months

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I feel like I know her, but sometimes my arms bend back.

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editfandom · 2 months

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Laura Palmer - Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, 1992

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mydarlingclementiine · 2 months

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through the darkness of future past

the magician longs to see.

one chants out between two worlds

fire walk with me.

happy twin peaks day! 🌲 ☾⋆｡𖦹 °✩

#twin peaks #film #movies #david lynch #laura palmer #sheryl lee #fire walk with me #90s #90s icons #tv show #tv shows #dale cooper #agent cooper #donna hayward #lara flynn boyle

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bacchusmademedoit · 2 years

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#laura palmer #beautiful #aesthetic #cinema #movies #david lynch #fire walk with me #twin peaks #90s icons #90s fashion #90s vibes #cinematography

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chaoticdesertdweller · 2 years

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#feels like it #twin peaks fire walk with me #david lynch #sheryl lee #laura palmer #90s icons #90s aesthetic #90s #life #relatable #mental health #dissociation

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thatgeekwiththeclipons · 3 months

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Happy 78th Birthday to Honorary Academy Award Winning filmmaker David Lynch! ^__^

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rassilon-imprimatur · 1 year

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The "Missing Piece" of the Fire Walk With Me convenience store scene is my favorite "supernatural" sequence in all of Twin Peaks. I adore how it’s spliced and edited in the actual film, it’s so scary (robbed of logic, devoid of sense, spilling into the FBI office and interrupting David Bowie's ramblings, a sensory nightmare of TV static), but the full deleted scene is so rich, a real treasure trove of so much of The Return (specifically Part 8), where so many of those ideas were forming. And just like everything Lynch, it’s always just short of being straightforward or literal, especially compared to the full scripted scene.

The Black Lodge spirits reflect and discuss, so much as they can with each other, the state of their current existence, transformed from electric currents in the air to "animal life" garmonbozia carnivores.

In the script, it’s apparent they are more blatantly talking about (what would later be specified to be) the Trinity Test. "The light of new discoveries." “Why not be composed of materials and combinations of atoms?” "This was no accident."

(Notice also, the Man from Another Place is credited as Mike. This is before Cooper and Sheriff Truman met Phillip Gerard, before Mike “saw the face of God” and tried to reform his ways and act against BOB, before severing his arm and forming the Arm as we know it. This is Mike as pure evil, Mike is the Man from Another Place).

(“Mike IS the Man.”)

It’s also more clear in the script (”clear” is a term I use loosely, lmao) what exactly is meant by the Man From Another Place/Mike’s formica table bit, as the filmed version renders the Woodsmen (and their responses) silent.

The focus on formica is lesser. These creatures, both brand new (”descended” from the Trinity test) and ancient (“Any everything will proceed cyclically.”/“Is it future? Or is it past?”) embrace images of modernity, images of mass production, totems and icons of post-war American industry. But green is the major focus. “Green, the color green. Our world.”

Just like the later scenes of the convenience store in The Return, the place is merely a perceptual manifestation of the thick, dark, haunted, green forestry of nature. The “dark woods” of Romanticism and sinister folklore, now bordered and interwoven with cities, towns, and endless electrical wires.

“With chrome. Any everything will proceed cyclically.” What is future. What is past.

Mrs. Tremond’s line in response to the discussion about the Trinity test in the script being cut from the filmed version is interesting, because if anything her “Actually I Dunno, Maybe We Can Work With This? Being Animal Life” response seems... in tune with what we know about her and her grandson?

In Fire Walk With Me, the pair appear to be disgusted or distraught by the garmonbozia harvesting of BOB and Mike (and as we know, Mike comes to agree with them, even as he still hungers for it). They help Laura, are benevolent to her, try to give her a way out in the only (uncomfortably scary) ways that they can. And as we know from Twin Peaks itself, by the time of Donna’s encounter, Mrs. Tremond was actively fasting from “creamed corn.”

Mike once referred to BOB as his “familiar.” This moment, BOB declaring “I DO WHAT I WANT, I HAVE THE POWER!” is a moment of Mike faltering in his own trust in controlling BOB’s evil.

“Find the middle place.” The waiting room. The Red Room. The momentum roars and begins, in proper, its path to Laura.

“Fell a victim” in response to BOB’s prideful growl of his power. “He has murdered someone. He will murder again.”

#Twin Peaks #Fire Walk With Me #Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me #Twin Peaks The Return #Laura Palmer #The Black Lodge #BOB #BOB the Killer #The Man From Another Place #Mrs. Tremond #Mrs. Chalfont #David Lynch #Robert Engels

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fatecolossal · 1 year

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Laura's mirrors

In the final 15m of TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME, we twice are provided mirrored doubles of Laura: 1) BOB, in a chilling sequence; and 2) Ronette, a bit more indirectly, in successive mirror shots of Laura & her applying lipstick.

Successive-shot mirror symbolism, somewhat similar to that used with Laura & Ronette, also appears earlier in the film: Laura numbing herself with cocaine (on a reflective surface) is paralleled with a mirrored shot of Sarah & drugged milk that follows immediately subsequently.

There is a second instance of near-successive-shot mirror Sarah-Laura parallelism, but in this instance there is a brief shot of Laura in her room separating the two. Still, the shots seem intentionally paired; in each case, Laura/Sarah is reacting to the reality of living under the same roof with Leland. (Smaller details—cleansing, smoking, perfumes, the owl lamp, Laura's reflected hair(piece), the backside of Leland's head—potentially add layers of symbolism, depending on how one views Lynch's arguably meticulous attention to such minor elements.)

The other notable instance of mirroring in FWWM doesn't actually use a mirror: dreaming-Laura sees something of a mirror image of herself reflected in the picture given to her by Mrs. Tremond. (It's arguably of a piece with Diane seeing her double outside the motel in P18 of The Return.)

The mirrored lipstick-application of Laura & Ronette in FWWM is redolent of the opening moment of the pilot: Josie applying lipstick in a mirror.

(A case can even be made for successive-shot mirroring here, since the establishing shot immediately preceding the opening Josie-lipstick scene shows ducks floating on the reflective surface of a lake...)

The most famous instances of mirroring in the original series, of course, remain the two iconic BOB-reveal shots [uh, SPOILER, I guess]: Leland as the killer, BOB, and—in a mirroring bookend for the series—Coop as the new BOB, in the original series' final sequence.

There are, of course, many other memorable scenes of mirroring in TP, some of which I have inserted below. The real question in all of this, of course, is what significance, if any, we should attribute to these mirrorings and the manner in which they're composed, a huge topic beyond the scope of this post. It's always interesting, though, to see what else Lynch (or whatever original series director) frames in the shot with the mirroring, such as the flower picture in the Dougie shot below, the wild animals in the TP:TR Sarah shot below, or the cat figurine in the other shot below of the BOB-Leland reveal...

#twin peaks #david lynch #mark frost #cinematography #fire walk with me #laura palmer

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steampunkforever · 5 months

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One of the big parts of writing on film for me is the push and pull between objectivity and personal taste. For me personally it's easy enough to mainly write structural analysis of good films or gush over a bad film that's good while still being able to objectively speak to its quality. Personal enjoyment does not necessarily equal quality, however a film critic's writing also serves as an endorsement of a sort on whether to watch a film or not. Good thing I'm a tumblr blog you follow that filmposts about movies and am not paid to be a film critic.

Some time ago I went to see a Godard film with one of my best friends. I personally loved the movie for as French as it might've been, but my friend came away from the movie with the fact that "it's a very good film, but I didn't necessarily like it." On seeing the 1983 erotic vampire movie The Hunger, I felt much the same.

The Hunger is a very good movie. Just like Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with me, it deals with supernatural forces and brief appearances by David Bowie. Just like Blade, its opening sequence is one of the best blends of Vampires and goths to hit the silver screen. And just like Shaun of the Dead never saying Zombie out loud, The Hunger never actually mentions vampires.

This is a beautiful film from the director of Top Gun tackling some of the more subtle horrors of vampirism, chief among them being the selfishness of loving those who cannot share in your eternal youth. David Bowie is there sometimes, and so is Bauhaus (albeit trapped in a cage) but for the most part this is a film dominated by the vibes. Flowey curtains billowing in the wind. Doves taking off from marbles floors. Blade-Runner style lighting and film grain. This film is equally vampires and vibes.

Yet I wasn't thrilled. Maybe the pacing went too nightmarish, a blue-washed sapphic fever dream. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood, as this film was much different than the sort of camp it was advertised to me as. Maybe I should just be objective here: this was a stellar film that fully mastered the eroticism of the vampire, frankly an icon of cinema, but I just didn't really like it on my first viewing. And that's ok as long as you still watch this one on my recommendation.

#The Hunger #film #filmposting #vampires #david bowie

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orlaite · 4 months

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top 5 male and female performances from things you've watched this year

Female:

Sheryl Lee as Laura Palmer, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. How her career didn't blow up after FWWM I'll never understand. She's AMAZING, my #1 Scream Queen❤️

Margarete Schön as Kriemhild of Burgund, Die Nibelungen. Her transformation from Siegfried to Kriemhild's Revenge... People were killed (literally)!

Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, Sunset Boulevard. She's an icon, she's a legend, and she is the moment. Now come awn now!

Maria Falconetti as Jeanne D'Arc, The Passion of Joan of Arc. The immense pathos this movie has which is in large part due to Falconetti's mesmerizing performance.

Olivia de Havilland as Catherine Sloper, The Heiress. Another amazing transformation performance.

Male:

Al Pacino as Michael Corleone, The Godfather part II. Make fun of me for being A plebian who only watched the Godfather movies this year all you want, I have the 4K steelbooks. And they sent me on a Pakino binge my letterboxd stats will never recover from.

Peter O'Toole as T.E Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia. Need I say more.

John Travolta as Jack Terry, Blow Out. The movie that made me realize Travolta is a great fucking actor when he has the right project and director.

Tony Curtis as Joe/Josephine, Some Like It Hot. I was very impressed by how not only funny and realized but also very distinctive each of his three "roles" were (Joe/Josephine/Shell Oil Jr.).

Jack Lemmon as C.C Baxter, The Apartment. Just the sweetest guy. Lemmon balances charm, witty self-deprecation, and tenderness so well.

#asks

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80s-movie-tournament · 4 months

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5, 14, and 17 for the ask?

I already answered 5, so I'm going to skip ahead!

14. A movie made better by the ending

Dead Poets Society has such an iconic, bittersweet ending that I just have to go with it. The boys standing on desks lives rent-free in my head 24/7 and I couldn't imagine it ending any other way.

17. A movie you never get tired of talking about

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. It did really poorly when it came out because it lacks that sense of comfort that the series does, but as a prequel following the life of Laura before her death, I think it does exactly what it needs to do. It is dark and gripping and ugly and raw and honestly kind of painful to watch but it reminds the viewer that we had gotten to experience Twin Peaks through a kind of veil before, through the eyes of other characters, but never through those of Laura herself, the true heart of the story.

I'm also going to add on 12. A performance you think is underrated--

because that goes to Sheryl Lee (who plays Laura). I can't believe how underutilized she's been outside of Lynch films. She's got such a distinctive voice and her performance broke my heart.

Thanks!

#asks

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brookston · 8 months

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Holidays 8.28

Holidays

Bow Tie Day

Crackers Over the Keyboard Day

Criminal Appreciation Day

Crumbs Between the Keys Day

Dream Day Quest and Jubilee

828 Day

Emerati Women’s Day (UAE)

Emmett Till Day

End of the Fairy Tale Day

Giving Black Day (a.k.a. Give 828)

Gone-ta-Pott Day [every 28th]

Green Shirt Guy Day

I Have a Dream Day

International Read Comics in Public Day

Manifest 828 Day

Mariamoba (Republic of Georgia)

National Bow Tie Day

National Grandparents Day (Mexico)

National Over It Day

National Power Rangers Day

National Thoughtful Day

Nativity of Nephthys (Egyptian Goddess of Love)

Race Your Mouse Around the Icons Day

Radio Commercial Day

Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day

Russian Germans Day (Germany)

Scientific American Day

Significant Historical Events Day

Tan Suit Day

Watermelon Day (French Republic)

World Day of Turners Syndrome

Food & Drink Celebrations

National Cheese Sacrifice Day

National Cherry Turnover Day

National Red Wine Day

Stuffed Green Bell Peppers Day

Subway Sandwich Day

4th & Last Monday in August

Araw ng mga Bayani (National Heroes’ Day; Philippines) [Last Monday]

August/Summer Bank Holiday (UK) [Last Monday]

International Day of Cyber Attack Ceasefire [Last Monday]

Liberation Day (Hong Kong) [Last Monday]

Motorist Consideration Monday [Monday of Be Kind to Humankind Week]

Notting Hill Carnival (UK) [Last Monday & day before]

Social Justice Day (Antarctica) [4th Monday]

Independence Days

Holy Empire of Reunion (Declared; 1997) [unrecognized]

Luana (Declared; 2019) [unrecognized]

Moldova (from USSR; 1991)

Ohio Empire (Declared; 2008) [unrecognized]

Feast Days

Alexander of Constantinople (Christian; Saint)

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Abkhazia)

Augustine of Hippo (Christian; Saint) [brewers] *

Ayyankali Jayanti (Kerala, India)

Constant Troyon (Artology)

Edmund Arrowsmith (Christian; Saint)

Edward Burne-Jones (Artology)

Feast of the Mother of God (Georgia, Macedonia, Serbia)

Festival for Luna (Ancient Rome)

Festival for Sol (Ancient Rome)

Festival of the Neon Revolution

First Onam (Rice Harvest Festival; Kerala, India)

Frank Gorshin Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Hermes of Rome (Christian; Saint)

Julian (Christian; Saint)

Junipero Serra (Christian; Saint)

Marimba (Virgin’s Assumption; Georgia)

Mariotte (Positivist; Saint)

Media Aestas III (Pagan)

More Rum Day (Pastafarian)

Moses the Black (Christian; Saint)

Uncle Norton the Elephant (Muppetism)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Sensho (先勝 Japan) [Good luck in the morning, bad luck in the afternoon.]

Umu Limnu (Evil Day; Babylonian Calendar; 40 of 60)

Premieres

Animal Crackers (Film; 1930)

Cain's Jawbone, by E. Powys Mathers (Novel/Puzzle; 1934)

Come Clean, by Puddle of Mudd (Album; 2001)

The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas (Novel; 1844)

Do the Evolution, by Pearl Jam (Animated Music Video; 1998)

54 (Film; 1998)

Flying Leathernecks (Film; 1951)

Gallipoli (Film; 1981)

Get Rich Quick Porky (WB LT Cartoon; 1937)

Honeymoon in Vegas (Film; 1992)

I Have a Dream, by Martin Luther King Jr. (Speech; 1963)

Let’s Get It On, by Marvin Gaye (Album; 1973)

Lohengrin, by Richard Wagner (Opera; 1850)

Mary of Scotland (Film; 1936)

Mickey’s Follies (Disney Cartoon; 1929)

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (TV Series; 1993)

Narcos (TV Series; 2015)

The New Mutants (Film; 2020)

Perri (Disney Film; 1957)

Personal, 19th Jack Reacher book, by Lee Child (Novel; 2014)

Phineas and Verb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe (Animated Film; 2020)

Private Lessons (Film; 1981)

Q. Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, by Devo (Album; 1978)

Rope (Film; 1948)

Smile, by Katy Perry (Album; 2020)

Song of the Thin Man (Film; 1947)

Studio 54 (Film; 1998)

Tease for Two (WB LT Cartoon; 1965)

Travelling Without Moving, by Jamiroquai (Album; 1996)

The Truth About Mother Goose (Disney Cartoon; 1957)

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (Film; 1992)

Victoria (TV Series; 2016)

Walk This Way by Aerosmith (Song; 1975)

Yankee Doodle Bugs (WB LT Cartoon; 1954)

Today’s Name Days

Adelinde, Aline, Augustin (Austria)

Augustin, Tin (Croatia)

Augustýn (Czech Republic)

Augustinus (Denmark)

August, Gustav, Kustas, Kustav, Kusti, Kusto (Estonia)

Tauno (Finland)

Augustin, Elouan (France)

Adelinde, Aline, Augustin, Vivian (Germany)

Damon (Greece)

Ágoston (Hungary)

Agostino, Ermete (Italy)

Auguste, Guste, Ranna (Latvia)

Augustinas, Patricija, Steigvilė, Tarvilas (Lithuania)

Artur, August (Norway)

Adelina, Aleksander, Aleksy, Augustyn, Patrycja, Sobiesław, Stronisław (Poland)

Augustín (Slovakia)

Agustín (Spain)

Fatima, Leila (Sweden)

Agustin, August, Augusta, Augustina, Austen, Austin, Austina, Austyn, Gus, Gustava, Gustavo (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 240 of 2024; 125 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 1 of week 35 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Coll (Hazel) [Day 21 of 28]

Chinese: Month 7 (Geng-Shen), Day 13 (Wu-Wu)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 11 Elul 5783

Islamic: 11 Safar 1445

J Cal: 30 Hasa; Nineday [30 of 30]

Julian: 15 August 2023

Moon: 92%: Waxing Gibbous

Positivist: 16 Gutenberg (9th Month) [Mariotte]

Runic Half Month: Rad (Motion) [Day 1 of 15]

Season: Summer (Day 68 of 94)

Zodiac: Virgo (Day 7 of 32)

Calendar Changes

Rad (Motion) [Half-Month 17 of 24; Runic Half-Months] (thru 9.9)

#calendar #Holidays

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editfandom · 2 months

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Laura Palmer - Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, 1992

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schlock-luster-video · 1 year

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Happy birthday, cult film icon Sheryl Lee! Here's some art inspired by Twin Peaks, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and Wild at Heart to celebrate!

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meat-wentz · 2 years

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i saw your post about gerard/costumes and just wanted to say it made me emotional and stuff kthxbye. i was wondering if you were comfortable elaborating on some of the costume parties you went to? they sound so cool and i wanna know what theme warranted a machine gun cheerleader.

omg!!!! ty and also i’d love to go over some of the most iconic ones, most of them are already in that post, but i’ll go over them in more depth:

the extra party: theme was extra af, this was a bday party for me entirely because i wanted to dress as a glitter cowboy. backless champagne strappy mini dress, layered with rhinestone gold mesh bra and rhinestone choker, gold cowboy hat with a tiara, pink velvet heels. there was a lot of fur and a lot of wigs at this party. had a gold glitter banner that said “happy bday cunt” which is still one of my favorite things i’ve ever custom ordered.

trashy lingerie party against capitalism: commonly known as lingerie party 1. exactly what it sounds like. at my friend’s parent’s house. the only chaser was one (1) purple gatorade that was already spiked and soy sauce. there was a lot of hooking up and a 6 person orgy in my friend’s parent’s bed. it was a legendary party but also a total shit show. pretty standard bra, panties, garter belt, thigh highs and heels. followed by lingerie party 2: the squeakquel, impromptu lingerie party, the red white and blue lingerie party, and the “dress to get screwed” party (very fun i had a belt around my throat that we used as a leash for multiple guests).

a very greasy homecoming: greaser/50’s inspired party complete with a rockabilly band that played on the porch, everyone had leather jackets and greased hair and switchblade combs. i wore a gunne sax pink strapless dress complete with tulle skirt and ruffled sweetheart neckline black flats and a leather jacket.

neonoir ((party)): a decadent neon night complete with all blue, pink, and red lighting and an insane playlist. i went full hotline miami in a letterman jacket, pig mask and baseball bat. there was a full sized glow in the dark skeleton in the bathroom (a recurring guest, his name is skelly, also married to the other recurring guest, a graffitied full sized mannequin without arms or a head named manny).

historical drag party: i don’t know what i even went as it was so long ago but i do remember that my friend came as edgar allen hoe and looked so like edgar allen poe that i nearly died. they had a raven and everything. i don’t even remember anyone else’s costumes.

different ways to die party: my 20th birthday and my favorite theme, probably the most poppin off party i’ve ever hosted. i painted bruises around my neck. my friend made me a miami vice werewolf cake. various costumes included: shark attack, struck by lightning, gunshots, slit throats, generally bloody and bashed. was a fuckin banger of a party, very cathartic.

the lcd soundsystem funeral party: a going away party for a friend. everyone wore black suits with skinny ties. i wore a black dress. we listened to lcd soundsystem all night. gradually dissolved until i almost walked face first into someone lighting hairspray on fire for fun. end of an era party.

alien pajama party: like it says. i still carry around a little alien toy in my jacket pocket because it’s lived in there since this party.

21st holy communion: double bday party/christening a new party house. wore a veil and a slip dress. ate vodka gummy bears from a giant bowl. insanely packed party, lots of randos (due to house location). notable for chairs breaking, the biggest after party slumber party, biggest hangover clean up crew, no sleep till brooklyn, and a friend voluntarily getting shot in the ass with a blow dart in the driveway.

hedonist party: roman/greek gods and goddesses party. i was mercury and had wings on my sandals and a little white tennis outfit i thought it was cute. lots of wine.

a very twin peaks party: we drank coffee and ate pie and had baguettes with butter and brie, dressed up and watched a bunch of twin peaks all day. this is actually different than when i was laura palmer (boy meets christmas 90’s television party), i was bobby briggs for this party it was a big gender moment for me.

old hollywood spooktacular: not a very successful theme i was primarily the only person dressed to occasion everyone else was just gothy. 19th bday. i have spoken about this before but my crush didn’t show up so i spent most of this party openly crying in front of all my guests and someone had gifted me a vibrating cock ring as a joke and i tied my hair up with it on vibrate while sobbing my little heart out. very iconic moment for me. it’s my party and i’ll cry if i want to swag.

internet royalty party: me and a couple friends were tumblr famous at this point in time so we had an internet royalty party to gas up our shitty little egos. took a shot every time someone walked through the door, ended up plastered in the first ten minutes, apparently i held a class on how to smoke cigarettes outside, had to be carried to the car.

sticker and glitter party: lmao we were washing out the glitter from our hair for months. i got a temporary glitter tat on my chest that didn’t completely go away for like 3 weeks and i had to go to class with it. the carpet never recovered.

80s christmas goth night: i went as an 80s goth marie antoinette with fishnets, velvet shorts, full black lace bustle train, velvet corset, and shoulder padded black blazer with white face makeup, pink cheeks, bottom eyeliner straight out to the edge of my face, and little black lips like a doll, piled all my hair up and had chains hanging from it. i gave a friend a lap dance to santa baby.

and finally: nye and halloween parties were kind of our fucking thing, the two biggest nights of the year. so machine gun cheerleader actually started out as an assassination nation costume but no one had seen the movie yet (it had come out the month before) so i changed it around to machine gun cheerleader. i have also been nurse 3d (at an event we call: shitshow halloween, literally so bad for every person there for entirely separate reasons), hellboy (my best costume to date), the attic bride from haunted mansion complete with a glowing beating red heart in my dress, jennifer check, most recently joan of arc which was an under appreciated costume imo. nye typically has a theme of extravagance but the only all out theme we’ve ever done was new year’s feve which was a disco party because my roommate and i had just watched saturday night fever and really vibed.

notable mentions: 2012 end of the world rapture party, big hair, various drag parties, hell, bad trip, murder mystery, the annual lotr marathon (we have to start at like noon), goth princess, century icons, end of the semester zombie party, scene kid karaoke, oh god i feel like there’s more but alas my memory hath failed me after close to 8 years of parties.

THIS WAS REALLY FUN THANK YOU ANON I JUST TOOK A CRAZY WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE.

#anon #long post #mentions:#tw alcohol #tw substance abuse #tw gore

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sloshed-cinema · 8 months

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Fantasy A Gets a Mattress (2022)

Always. Be. Posting. In his endless hustle to become rap king of Seattle (move aside, Sir Mix-A-Lot and Macklemore), days for Fantasy A are filled with posting flyers for his gigs and filming music videos. So long as the bus connections are timely, that is. Or at least that’s the dream. Reality isn’t quite so simple as he’s booted out of his group home by his cult leader narcissist tier landlord, leaving him without so much as a reliable place to sleep. To make matters worse his videographer Asia is starting to think about reigniting her own music career with the help of the cousin she claims to have gotten her start with in the industry years before. This woman, Lil Rude Puss, enjoys success in her career, or at least is idolized by the others in Fantasy A’s circle. The movie jumps between the antics and fortunes of several of these crews, interweaving Fantasy A’s quest for a mattress with Ramon’s endless exploitative hustles and Asia’s aspirations. This is a Seattle gone mad, where basketballs can reverse out of the hoop during Ramon’s game of HORSE with his long-term rival and everyone’s conception of branding is simply sticking images of their face everywhere, be it in a group home or alcohol education course. Convincing someone to follow along in a batshit scheme is as simple as just telling them to do it. Does Fantasy A attain the fame that he wants? Well, it’ll be a long hustle yet to earn that recognition. But everyone in Seattle knows his face, and he does get his mattress. Hell, someone even helps him get it up Capitol Hill over the Lakeview Blvd flyover. Once they finish making a U-turn, at least.

In recent years, Seattle is much changed, from waterfront-altering projects like the demolition of the Alaskan Way Viaduct to smaller, more personal losses of old haunts and shops dotted around a town being torn down for new projects. The city is gentrifying in many parts, whether the people living in these neighborhoods like it or not. In a sense, this is a time capsule of the late 2010s into the early pandemic years. But there’s something about its microbudget DIY ethos that pushes it even farther back into the energy of a Seattle of the 90s or 80s underground heyday. One need simply spray paint a name on the wall in order to make it a place of business, be it a nightclub or a dojo (sorry, Ramojo), and there’s none of the bland gloss that is creeping in throughout town. It’s also a fantasy Seattle created from a patchwork of locations that make the city feel unique. Sometimes you can trace the route of Fantasy A’s journeys even without the trail of sweat he’s told to follow at one point. But other times it jumps about, more seeking visual similarity than trueness to location: our hero teleports from the concrete posts painted with koi in the C-ID to the freeway underpass near Green Lake (not pictured: the drivers whipping off I-5 seemingly intent on murdering any pedestrian on that stretch of Ravenna Blvd). Between this film and Paper Tigers, Smith Tower rises as the symbol of Seattle rather than the typical icon of the Space Needle, shifting the focus south into overlooked and underserved communities.

Overall, this is absurdist comedy, something in the company of a John Waters camp piece or Lonely Island joint with a dash of Gregg Araki and perhaps a smidge of that David Lynch zest. Filth is everywhere, the camera lingering on sweat, blood, or meatball sub goo. It’s chaotic and constantly moving forward. But sometimes proceedings transition into light surrealism in the edit or aesthetic, the camera pushing in on the mouth of Ramon’s adversary like it’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, or Scabby’s microphone bathed in a greenish hue of fantastical possibility. Perhaps there’s a bit of Neil Breen in there too. Fantasy A does astrally project at one point, after all. The movie is patently bonkers with characters uttering non sequiturs at every turn, and figures enter and disappear without rhyme or reason. Entire plot lines are dropped without warning. Almost the entire film was dubbed over in ADR—hell, it worked for the Italian studio system for decades—with some hilariously overcranked performances: several characters sound ripped from either the English dub of an anime or some sort of computer program. But as is the case with subversive, counterculture comedy, there is an edge. It’s important to note that the film is never overtly angry or sad, at least not in a straight-faced way; what’s more important is the implication. Landlords or property managers are sinister figures, egotistical and capricious. On paper they’re goofy and impotent, their eviction notices ridiculous on every level, but they still hold that power over our protagonists without recourse. Facing homelessness, Fantasy A gets a glimpse of the crisis gripping many in the city as accounted by a woman who speaks of streets drinking the blood of those who die needlessly. It’s hilariously off-the-wall and comes out of nowhere, but does acknowledge a crisis much of the public and local government are content to sweep under the rug and ignore. And getting ahead on the music scene is pretty much impossible. Fantasy A has to work “for the exposure” for the controlling club owner Scabby, and even Lil Rude Puss’ clout can’t get more than four people to show up for the big fundraiser concert. She has to ask Fantasy A to help her make change for bus fare. It’s frustrated at the hustle, but never mopey. The image of Lil Rude Puss walking across the street to the bus shelter opposite the club is both hilarious and melancholy in a weird way. It’s locked down in a wide shot and goes on for way too long as she walks away and sits down, small in frame. But as she sits there in her almost fluorescent white suit, alone except for a homeless individual sleeping on the other bench, it’s also a little sad in the gulf between the hope and reality. But the dream can stay alive if you just keep hustling. I would take a bullet for Fantasy A.

THE RULES

SIP

Fantasy A is named.

Someone smiles uncomfortably in front of their own image on a poster.

A Lil Rude Puss poster appears somewhere.

Late bus dramaaaaaa

BIG DRINK

Double exposure of any sort.

The Smith Tower appears in any context.

You just have to in order to cope, it's fair. High art is hard to handle head-on.

#drinking games #fantasy a gets a mattress #comedy #drama #satire #fantasy a #noah zoltan sofian #david norman lewis #seattle on celluloid

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