#you had the themes of life and death to work with!!! the underlying commentary on class issues and elitism!!

[onitekka]

occasionally I think about X and Y and get sad over all the wasted potential

#you had the themes of life and death to work with!!! the underlying commentary on class issues and elitism!! #some of the visuals are stunning! fuckin. reflection cave!!! #but. there's a lot of spots where it's clear there was going to be Something. sea spirit's den. #that room in reflection cave that was clearly for diancie. everything to do with zygarde. #and magearna + volcanion. #the whole background theme about legacy!!! and inheritance / cycles #whatever the fuck lysandre and sycamore had going on #mega evolution eternal flower floette there was so much there. #oni's getting personal

[obinya]

Reposting my Ardyn stuff for his birthday.

Here’s most of the Ardyn stuff I have dating back a year+ to the present.

To Die or Not to Die Complete

Did Ardyn see his immortality as a curse?

Did he desire death?

My answer is No. I provide interpretations of his lines and developer interviews. I conclude with my thoughts on Ardyn’s misunderstanding of the Light and Truth (referenced in Magna Insomnia). Perspectives on the Truth (of the True King) include: “You are not alone” , “The Reality of Death-Life”, and “ You are Empty”.

Complete refers to the added page on the Kimya/Ardyn allusion.

I have since had more thoughts on Ardyn’s use of “mottainai”, the “waste” is the lost potential due to Ardyn’s rejection. It’s worse!

Ardyn is Not Saved (Part 1)

The title refers to Terada’s vision of EPA. I have many thoughts about Episode Ardyn and Dawn of the Future. On one hand they are incongruent with Final Fantasy XV, on the other they underline the thrusts of the main story.

Dawn of the Future is not Revelatory, it is Illusory.

This piece covers some observations on the imagery in EPA that work as visual foils with FF15 proper, contrasting Ardyn with Noctis, underlying his villainy— his radical evil. For whatever reason this is ignored.

I conclude again with my thoughts on the Truth of the True King, with an excerpt from Religion and Nothingness (What is Religion?) by Keiji Nishitani. Absolute vs Relative Nothingness::Noctis vs Ardyn.

I’ve since tried working through Kitaro Nishida’s work. The field of bonds, I guess, is like the field of Absolute Nothingness in that contradictory identities are unified there… as is Reality. Removing the contradiction by saying the two are only one or the one are actually two stops short of Reality. The contradiction of many are one and one are many has to remain. I think the image for this is the Night Sky. Nishitani wrote about Overcoming Nihilism by going through it, I visualize Ardyn as stuck in the darkness of the night sky. Like each star is now the one light, one oppressive light, the predicate of King is cruel and cunning and no different from Bahamut - despite the choices of each star... ? Idk. It’s complicated.

But not as complicated as how Dawn of the Future contradicts established FF15 plot while seemingly contradicting FF15 story and themes until you snap out of it— Oracles speak to Messengers not the Crystal given to Lucis. They speak to exchange the Wills of mankind and the Six, necessitating 1.) the existence of both and 2.) a unity. FF15 is the story of the True King not a Prisoner of Fate.

Ardyn Lucis Charlie Complete in 8 Tweets

Commentary of my old Ardyn music video using Charlie Big Potatoes by Skunk Anansie with a bit of Nishida’s Inquiry into the Good and some of my NN Unitary Theory.

Basically, Ardyn’s a hedonist. That’s not good enough.

I still missed actually doing a play-by-play of the scene and shot choice… but I did include a mapping of Axis Memorae! The twitter version has an alternate Turks ending… maybe I’ll upload to YouTube someday…

I see EPA as a 4th wall breaking troll by Ardyn… a bored dream where he tells us what we want to hear… which isn’t what he already told us.

#final fantasy xv #ff15 #final fantasy #square enix #noctis lucis caelum #ardyn #episode ardyn #hbdardyn

[filmhistorymptv1145]

Examine the ways in which films deal with social, political, cultural, and economic issues, both in direct and indirect ways. What is the political impact of cinema on audiences around the world and how do we see it? Should filmmakers directly engage with these kinds of issues or do so subtly? Discuss any of the films we have watched so far from this perspective, and draw upon other examples if necessary.

Social commentary exists in many forms. We read it in books and hear it in music of every genre. It does not discriminate, covering every issue from politics to economics. As film grew into its own medium, it became a new platform for artists to utilize in portraying their visions of the world. Whether they be whimsical and over the top, or down to earth and stunningly realistic, movies grew to become one of the largest entertainment industries. Directors and screenwriters, whether inspired by or displeased with their surroundings, came to use film as a method of sharing their thoughts and emotions. Be it through direct or indirect means, they would criticize politicians and governments to historic and current world events. Certain countries were more limited than others in controlling the content of films, pushing creators to become even more crafty and thoughtful when conveying their opinions on screen.

With the Motion Picture Production Code in full effect in the US, film makers who wanted to touch upon political issues in American society had to do so in a very subtle way. Take Force of Evil, for instance. On the outside, it reads like a classic gangster movie that was commonly seen in the 1940’s. However, it is deeply critical of the money and power-hungry American underbelly of society, digging into the Capitalism that has overtaken the country even in these earlier years. Irony is found in the two main characters, a pair of brothers. Joe is a lawyer who runs dirty deals with gang members, using his education and career to further their unsavory deeds. His brother Leo believes that his own line of work is earnest and respectable, when in reality it is not. Leo runs a ‘bank’ for the small number rackets that exist in New York City, mainly centered around bets that are placed on horse races. Leo strongly feels that he is not as morally corrupted as his brother, despite being in charge of an illegal business.

The mise-an-scene of the film is what really drives home the underlying critique of money and its corrupting force. Joe takes Leo’s former secretary Doris for a walk on Wall Street, taking her through a church cemetery. The church building is completely dwarfed by the towering buildings of Wall Street’s capitalist businesses. The implied message here is that money is the new God, that the hold it has over people is nearly as strong as religion.

For Polonsky, who was put on the blacklist by HUACC for his leftist ideals, this message is as true to him as it gets. In Polonsky’s eyes, people no longer feared God as much as they did losing money in capitalist America. Considering what the entire world had just lost three years prior in World War Two, it is almost insulting to showcase people like Joe and his associates on screen. Money grubbing is not what America wanted its people to think they had fought and died for, just the opposite. Justice and morality is what America wants people to think it stands for, not capitalism and the desire to supersede the people in their lives. Force of Evil is astoundingly subtle and simultaneously gritty, holding true to the film noir standard of the times.

At the end of the film, when Leo is killed by Joe’s nefarious associates, Joe goes to retrieve his brother’s body. Stairwells are used as a metaphor for an internal moral struggle. In a voiceover, Joe laments ‘I just kept going down and down. It felt like I was going to the bottom of the world.’ The decrepit area beneath the bridge is the exact opposite of the organized, shining city above. Finding his brother’s body is Joe’s moral rock bottom, both literally and metaphorically. It is a slap in the face for Joe, stripping away all of the justifications he has held for his less than moral behavior and actions.

Polonsky cuts to Doris as Joe says, ‘He is dead,’ juxtaposing the image of a living woman with the realization that his brother Leo is gone. It is jarring, but it also suggests a dual motivation rising within Joe. Inspired by Doris’ love and Leo’s death, Joe turns to make his way back up the enormous staircase. This finale leaves the viewers with some hope that Joe can possibly redeem himself after his selfish actions, but will it be as quickly as he ran down the stairs towards his brother’s corpse?

One wouldn’t think that in 1950’s America, a bold film would tackle such a hot social issue: equal rights for African Americans. Especially with the Motion Picture Production Code still in full effect. Typically, when reflecting on movies from that decade, our minds are filled with images of romantic melodramas, as well as musicals and other bright, cheery content. The Defiant Ones not only tackled the issue of racism in America, but it also set the standard for the ‘buddy’ films that are commonplace today. Two escaped convicts are chained together at the wrist, one white and one African American. The film goes back and forth between Johnny and Cullen’s escapades whilst on the run, and the officers who have been assigned to track them down and take them back to prison. The tone of the film is established in the first few minutes, when one of the officers refers to Cullen as the n-word. Later on in the movie, when Johnny and Cullen are apprehended by a group of townspeople after attempting to rob their general store, they start stringing up two nooses. Johnny is mortified, looking around at the townsfolk with terror in his eyes. ‘You can’t lynch me, I’m a white man!’ he pleads. The message is clear: lynching is something white people do to black people.

Not only does the movie look at the harsh reality of life for African Americans at the time, but the relationship that develops between Johnny and Cullen is in itself socially and politically charged. Over the course of the movie, the two convicts go from being at odds with one another to developing a close friendship. Not even Johnny’s mistake to trust the woman they holed up with can break their bond. Johnny leaves the woman behind to rescue Cullen from the dangerous swamps. At the film’s end, Cullen is cradling Johnny, who is wounded from a gunshot to the chest. They are collapsed on the grass together, sharing a cigarette while Cullen sings and the police detective approaches to apprehend them.

Not only has Johnny moved past his racist ideals, but one could also say that their positioning at the end of the film is borderline sexual. The way Cullen holds Johnny is almost as if it is in a lover’s embrace. Cullen’s portrayal in the film is especially bold, since he was portrayed to be well-spoken, intelligent and overall good. A far cry from films like Birth of a Nation where African Americans are put in the most negative light possible, portrayed as thieves and rapists while the Ku Klux Klan members are seen as heroic and noble. The Defiant Ones, supported by Sidney Poitier’s phenomenal acting, gave rise to a much more positive role for African American actors to portray on screen. Though the ‘righteous Black man’ did end up becoming a trope in Hollywood for many years, it was still a positive step in the right direction for civil rights.

Outside of the US, films were not constricted by strict standards of morality and content. They were much freer to openly criticize the societal norms and political atmospheres that were in place at the time of their creation. Hiroshima Mon Amour is a French made film that touches on the devastation of the nuclear bomb drops in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While the movie itself seems to be mainly centered around a couple who cannot be together due to extenuating circumstances and their own inner demons, it is also direct commentary on how Japan remembered the bombings, and how different it is from the perspective of the rest of the world.

The first ten minutes of the film are composed of an almost poetry-like sequence of shots of Hiroshima before and after the bombs paired together with the two main character’s voice overs. The characters, a French woman, and a Japanese man, are in bed together in a loving embrace. The opening shot features ash falling onto their naked bodies, which we can infer mimics the death ash that fell onto Hiroshima after the atomic bomb’s detonation. This frame cross fades into nearly the same image of the naked couple, but the ash is gone from their bedroom.

The woman is stating that she knows all about what happened in Hiroshima, from having seen the newsreels that aired after the bombs had been dropped. The man argues that she has no idea what really happened. She states that in the newsreels she viewed, bugs were already crawling up through the debris and dirt on the second day and that flowers were growing all over Hiroshima just a few days after the bomb had been dropped. This voiceover is paired with the footage of a young boy being treated for burns and lesions on his skin, the exact opposite of new life springing forth from the ashes. The obvious pain that the boy is enduring is starkly contrasted to how the French woman describes all the different kinds of flowers that began blooming after the bombs had been dropped.

The Hiroshima that exists in the French woman’s mind is completely different from the Japanese man’s. This speaks to the overall theme of the movie, that collective and individual memories, as well as one’s identity can be corrupted. That the human brain is not a perfect organ and at times, it can even be our worst enemy. The French woman protests that she has seen Hiroshima. She had been to its museums, she knew how it had been over ten-thousand degrees in Peace Square at the time of detonation, and she had seen the films that had been made about the devastation. Her partner states over and over during this intro sequence that, ‘You saw nothing in Hiroshima. Nothing.’ Her experience of the disaster when compared to his is hollow, a clever way of illustrating how two people can think of the same event so differently.

Even if the trend of filmmaking has changed, shifting from film noir and melodrama to the blockbuster and action movies, social commentary still persists throughout the media. As the world around us changes and moves forward (be it for better or worse), so does the real-life content that directors and screenwriters are inspired by. Seeing politically and socially charged movies, whether they are extremely subtle or right up in your face, helps us both cope with world events and immortalize what occurred. As if to say, ‘We were here. We saw what took place. This is how we remember it.’

#abraham polonsky #force of evil #the defiant ones #hiroshima mon amour

[eisforeidolon]

1/2 I remember when you used to do episode summaries/critiques & I have always liked them. Is there any chance you will be doing the last couple of eps? As a Dean fan who doesn't ship destiel who found it unsatisfying it is super frustrating seeing any and all negativity about the finale either be written off as ship wars, or see actual posts which started okay boil down to that in the end. I'd really like to hear your views on it INCLUDING the good. I thought I was prepared for this direction -

2/2 I thought I was prepared for them to kill everyone but the manner they chose to, the vagueness about any time skip, everything vague in an attempt to please more people, the obvious cost of COVID restrictions... all took the heart out of it and just left me feeling empty. Given the history of the show how are we supposed to take heaven as peace at face value for Dean 'my peace is helping people' Winchester? To me Sams life just looked sad -and it didn't celebrate their legacy at all :( 

************************************

The completionist in me really does still want to do it, so it’s possible.  However, the part of me that’s not a glutton for punishment keeps putting it off, because there’s so much about the back half of the season that was infuriating enough secondhand and almost nothing I’m really looking forward to. 

I also find it frustrating to see the vast majority of negative discussion revolving around the same old ship war crap, because my secondhand impression is that while I don’t think the underlying ideas are inherently bad, the execution of them in the episode was largely typical Dabbernatural - big punchy scenes barely strung together to make a coherent narrative and shallow as a flat surface - it all kind of falls apart if you think about it for more than a minute. 

I’m not mad about it in the abstract because I expected Dabb to produce something even worse.  Say a finale that still managed to be all about Jack or his Wayward Sue squad (which is what I suspect any kind of attempt to celebrate the Winchesters’ legacy would have turned into in his hands).  Both the Winchesters’ accepting death now and Dean being content in heaven for me feel completely arbitrary.  If they’d really leaned into that timeskip and made it clear years had passed with no major world ending catastrophes, I think it might have worked.  As it is, Jared can say he thinks it was years, but if you have to rely on actor commentary that just shows it’s not in the text.  Like, Chuck is no longer in power so suddenly the Winchesters have learned to let go, when supposedly them not being able to was what kept thwarting his plans all along?  Even putting aside how ridiculous it is to categorize ToddlerGod!Jack as a categorically awesome replacement, smells like arbitrary authorial fiat to me! 

Then there’s the whole issue where heaven is supposedly just Good Now.  There’s no motivation, no change, and just being able to interact with other souls supposedly makes up for that?  What if the souls you want to interact with don’t want to interact with you, or even if you love them there were fundamental conflicts between you?  That just magically disappears ... somehow?  If it’s something about the atmosphere of heaven that just makes everyone magically content, how is that compatible with the whole theme of fighting for free will?  Again, the word of the episode: arbitrary. 

Although I actually think having Sam’s life being sad was the right choice, even if it does make it a competition as to which Winchester’s end was worse.  If Sam had just gotten over it and moved on, it would have been even more similar to him leaving for college or hooking up with Amelia and just living in happy denial.  I.e. it would be even less different from previous times Dean was out of the picture for a while and feel even more ridiculously This Is The End Because The Show’s Over.  It would also feed even more into validating those that don’t like Sam reading it as Dean having to Learn A Lesson about letting Sam go (again) while Sam is just relieved Dean is not going to come back and make him feel guilty for moving on (again) and I don’t remotely think that’s the actual intent.  Which having some of the dialogue in Dean’s big speech involve tearing himself down to build Sam up while Sam just stands there mute is already doing enough for, thanks.  I also think focusing on Dean’s death and absence to such a degree keeps the narrative on the brother’s relationship together, rather than ultimately turning Dean into a prop for Sam’s story - which would have really bummed me out. 

The saving grace that I think makes it acceptable rather than a complete flop for me is leaning into what made the show go 15 seasons in the first place - J2′s chemistry and acting chops.  Even just having watched clips, I feel like the episode actually let them - and their characters - have moments to really shine for their own sake and it feels like it’s been too long since that was last true.

#anti dabbernatural #spn ending #fandom issues #Anonymous #askboxery

[lysieblu]

When the Camellia Blooms

So I decided to do commentary this time. I usually have a lot to say when wacthing dramas but forget it all quickly.

Mild Spoilers Ahead

I’ve renamed the characters because auto-correct sucks if your first language isn’t Korean.

Oh Dong-Baek - Dongbaek

Hwang Yong-sik - Smiley

Choi Hyang-mi / Choi Go-eun - Clepto Waitress

No Gyu-tae - Tae or Gyu-tae

Hong Ja-young  - Baseball, baseball dude

Jo Jung-sook, Dongbaek’s mom - Mama bear

Deok-soon, Yong-sik’s mom - Ma dukes

Why is it that society can take anything and make it a reason to put others down. Humans ain't shit. Episode 6 “Girls like me are like the Emperor's New Clothes... Good guys cants see me.” Best quote of the whole drama so far. Clepto waitress, I love her. She was weird and I wasn't sure if she was playing old dude, Tae. But she was and kinda genius at it. Men help create the traps they get caught in. Is Dongbaek really going to die in the end because it really sucks as this sad girl narrative goes. Being an orphan and or single mom does not doom you. The society in which she lived did. She was a fighter and would always win. The fact that she made it so far in life despite believing the bs others were telling her and the shit she was telling herself is worthy of praise. Episode 7 Smart girl to keep a tab of bad behavior. I just wish she had a bit more confidence, petty, and bad bitch in her delivery. This self deprecating behavior is getting old now. But this kind of behavior can't be unlearned in a night. It's so frustrating. This is why I can't be a therapist. Get a grip bitch. (kidding I know how healing works) all you can really do is pour in the positive and hope it flushes out the negative. That's why smiley is good for her but God he's annoying. He may be good and all but he had def benefited from her lack of boundaries. The dead girl at the end is the Clepto waitress. She stole the bracelet from Dongbaek and thus why the dead body is wearing it. Go Gye-tae has something to do with the murders. He is too punk to do them himself. But he knows and is close to the murderer. The timing of the alarm at the aesticians office. Tae saved her  I think it's the handy man. Episode 8 Chief is looking really suspect. Clepto waitress has crossed the line to disrespectful. Is she really risking hurting Dongbaek to get baseball dude? I think extortion always been her MO. Mom was referring to her when she said watch who you trust. I don't think she's the killer but bitch is not innocent. Episode 9 I hate bitches. It's true that for some people who never grew the fuck up... Hate is their love language. Cliques need a common enemy to thrive and they are weak as fuck. It doesn’t help that Dongbaek never puts them in their place. Me and Dongbaek are the same age and had our kid about the same time. I don't think the killer is female. Unless that bitch is Ronda Rousey I would like to believe I can fight off a bitch with chicken wire. Chief is looking suspect as hell. Why is he always throwing Smiley off the track or avoiding the case. He knows something. I am by no means taking baseball guys side, however I do feel that both parents should be given the opportunity to be parents to their kid. It's unfair to not tell him about his child when he clearly wants to be a father. The scar can go both ways. You son can resent you for keeping this from his father. Pil clearly knows what's up. Dongbaek is growing up. In a way, this is a death flag. But I still don't believe it's her. Episode 10 There isn't a cloud in the sky. They are walking around without coats. And you expect me to believe that it's cold enough for snow. I still feel like Joker isn't a female but her mom is looking hella suspect. What if the connection between all the victims is Dongbaek. Maybe they somehow did her wrong and crazy momma bear was protecting her. But I really can't see her climbing out of a window. Plus the fire alarm.   Trust no one. A lot of people have said the "don't be a joke" line. I called it. That ending was more of a death red flag. So the dead lady is Clepto waitress. She probably died because she obviously owes debts. Dude in hair salon was creepy. But that is separate from joker. I know this goofy mug. I've seen it somewhere (Googling it) ah.. yes... Mr Smiley was in Midnight Runners, playing a cop there too if I remember correctly. Episode 11 A bunch of elementary school kids fighting over baseball. Me yelling at my TV: GET EM!!! Let me tell y'all. I would have been on that field lighting shit up, whipping everyone's ass. Little boy go get yo momma so she can get your ass beating. 😡 Chief is acting wonky. He knows something. What's with the mom? She seems so protective... Now? What about her dad? What if Dongbaek's parents are some crazy con artists who are protecting their daughter by killing off people who conned her? They are basically trying to tell her to "get a grip bitch!" Or "don't be a joke." And did you see her grab the belt and wrap around her fist? She knows what the fuck she's doing. (I want her on my team in a fight) Why is Dongbaek not questioning her lucidity? 🤔 Clepto waitress is the childhood friend.?!. 🤨 IT WAS THE FUCKING HANDYMAN!!! I CALLED IT!!! 🥳🙌🏾👏🏾 Yass bitches. I'm fucking brilliant. Hold on... let's not get ahead of ourselves. Episode 12 This shit just became an episode of 24 “Why try to live so hard?” Because if I live up to the narrative people create for me based on some societal BS explanation, they win. They can say, "see I told you all _______ are _______." Fuck your prejudices and stereotypes. The last thing I want to do is prove some asshole right. So many people want her dead they are trying to confuse me. Who the fuck is the joker?? Handy man's dad? Is he even alive? And this lack of boundaries is killing me. Dongbaek needs to put both those men in their place. Baseball needs to know he has no legal rights, period, if his name is not on the birth certificate. It would be the kids decision as to what his relationship with his dad is. She also needs to tell Smiley to get a fucking grip and that dealing with Baseball is part of being with her. These situations can coexist and it's frustrating to think otherwise. Mom dukes needs to chill. Her son has to make his own decisions and fuck-ups and she cannot fault Dongbaek for that. Life is hard, regardless. If it ain't this, it would be something else. Who lives an easy life?? Challenges build character. And I get it some things you can avoid. But they are grown in their 30s, who at this point does not come with baggage? And fuck you for trying to make me cry. I'm at work Episode 13 Is momma bear on drugs? Her behavior isn't totally out of the ordinary but maybe she goes away to trip and comes back. Lawd we all gon die together😮 They are teasing this story line so hard.  IDK who the joker is. I'ma stick to the handy man but everyone in this story is guilty of something and really it's like matching the crime to the person or the person to the crime. Who killed Clepto? Was it her enemies or the joker? What momma bear is up to? Who's the joker? Is the joker and cleptos killer the same person? What's handy mans deal? Out of all of clepto's enemies, I believe the only ones capable of killing her are Mr. Pimp, Jessica because she's desperate, or Momma bear because she's protecting Dongbaek. In which case, her death is separate from the Joker's killings. Episode 14 You think Smiley's mom may be jealous because no one took an interest in her with three kids? Hold... The ... Fucking.... Phone... It's handy man's dad??? Behind  every weak man is a mother (parental figure) who never held him accountable. I'm tired of grown people not acting like they are grown, kiss and have sex already... Damn. Oh so now they were meant to be? And did Momma bear really come for a kidney? Episode 15 There is a such thing as too much motherly love. This lady is fucking delusional. Her son has always been the type to run towards trouble. Does she really think his life would be easier without Dongbaek? Really? Go-tae is cleared. He was guilty but his crime is gambling. Jessica hit clepto with her car but someone delivered the final blow. Was it Momma bear? Or joker? I think Chief is cleared too. He was just operating out of fear. So hold up. Momma bear has been watching over Dongbaek her whole life. If Momma bear is lurking in the shadows of course she would run into someone else lurking in the shadows. Bitch. Episode 16 Laugh cry? Jesus Christ Dongbaek is stupid. A abandoned mall. Really? She's like a white chick in a horror movie. No don't go in there. Run bitch. 😔 Always take the fucking stairs. I can't. If she falls, I quit. Episode 17 They look like the fucking Power Rangers and I AM LIVING for this movement. Ordering me a track suit on payday. He gets it. He fucking gets it. "I know I made you be a mother when you wanted to just be a woman" 🥳 "We'll not only feed him, we'll wipe his ass if we have to" My bitch. 😂😂😂 If this shit ends with Pil going with his father, I quit. People and situations can peacefully coexist. What's with this all or nothing attitude? And this discarding of a previous family or kids. I see it a lot in these dramas and it's disturbing. Episode 18 Pil's in for a rude awakening but it's a lesson that his mom can't protect him from. His dad may have nice things, but he ain't shit. He'll be back. Damn even your kid thinks your weak. Or is he being mean? He did it for his mom. Funny.. he's assuming what she wants. Did she ever say that she couldn't marry Smiley because of him? Did Smiley say it? That Ma Dukes said it and it's unfortunate. He's too young to realize which opinions matter  Society sucks for making a kid feel this way. Fuck that shit. It just hit me. One of the underlying themes of this drama is parenthood,  more so motherhood. Dongbaek lacked boundaries, even with her son. Smiley's mom is delusional about her son and life in general. She relied on him too much, babied him too much. I don't think any woman would not have been good enough in the long run. The guilt of his father dying, she blames herself, a burden she should have never had to bare, and never fully healed. She projecting that onto Dongbaek. Dongbaek's mom is seeking redemption. She did what she thought was best for her kid. Jessica's mom put up with an asshole for the sake of everyone else and probably to maintain her life. She's learning that she doesn't want that for Jessica. That her own insecuries have transferred to her. Taeks mom is selfish as fuck and babied her son, never holding him accountable. Mother's think they know what's right for their kid, but a nice life from the outside doesn't guarantee a nice life from the inside. That nice lawyer could have treated your daughter like a slave. But it all looks nice to the neighbors. People have got to let "perceptions" go. Most of the time people with the "worst" past have the best character. The issue with it all is.. most mother's define themselves by their kids or husbands. Korea does it very literally. Then, when it all goes away; your kid grows up, your husband may die or leave, what's left of you? Who are you? Women are incouraged to be everything for everyone else but nothing for themselves. When we do, we are made to feel guilty or less than for it. Dongbaek needs to be away from him for while. How this is happening sucks but both of them have lessons to learn. If they don't live happily ever after I have wasted my 20 hours of my life. This is utter bullshit. I hope they're fucking with me. Episode 19 This would have played out differently if she had a daughter. This is literally why fuck boys are running amuck these days. Moms who use their sons (sometimes daughters) as substitutes for men and adult relationships. Boundaries. To love your dad so much even though he is a killer is unhealthy. Sik needs psyhological help. It sends the wrong message that you need to or have to take you parents (family members) bs just because they are parents (or family.) In hindsight, a red flag. I don't want Dongbaek to be a match. I don't want her to give her kidney. I don't like the idea of someone younger giving someone older an organ. Once you've passed 50 you have lived your life. The donor should be the same age or older and preferably on their death beds. Especially in Dongbaek's case. What if something goes wrong and Pil looses his mother and grandmother? You going to let that man-child raise him? I would never be okay with taking any organ from my kid. Episode 20 So it was the handy man? I was right bitches. And his dad is covering for him. Wow let it be known that Episode 7 I called it! He was framing his dad and playing everybody. Why didn't he kill Ma tho? Loving people and being kind-hearted is so fucking easy. Why do humans make it so hard?? I know these dramas are fiction but someone somewhere has lived a similar life. Where the fuck would I be if I didn't have an awesome mom and a loving family? Ongson feels like Stars Hollow. Them pants are rather high-waisted. That ended well. It had important lessons that I hoped someone learned from. Good story. Why I suspected the handy man? It's usually the character that can easily go unnoticed. He has access to the whole town, knew everyone and smart enough to cover his tracks. Everyone else was too obvious but the story did a great job of making me doubt my initial suspicion. Bravo. Low key miss clepto waitress. When she wasn't being a extortionist, she was a fun character.

[lovehaswonangelnumbers]

New Post has been published on https://lovehaswonangelnumbers.org/the-great-planetary-cycles-of-2020-and-your-personal-well-being/

The Great Planetary Cycles of 2020 and Your Personal Well-being

The Great Planetary Cycles of 2020 and Your Personal Well-being

By Tina Mews 

During January until December 2020 we will experience the very rare triple conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto. This not only marks the beginning of three new cycles but also their endings. On January 12, 2020 Saturn and Pluto will make their exact conjunction in Capricorn, while Jupiter and Pluto will meet three times during April and November in the ambitious and conservative sign of the Mountain Goat. However, Jupiter and Saturn will move into innovative Aquarius before they make their conjunction on December 21st 2020, the time of our summer solstice. These are extraordinary celestial developments, indicating  nothing less than the ending of an entire era, before we then make the shift into a new epoch. We can expect that the ‘symbolism of endings’ will strongly influence and colour the events of 2020.

The archetype of Capricorn and Saturn, its ruling planet,  have  a lot to do with consequences and reaping the rewards of earlier actions and decisions. Saturn and Pluto have been travelling with the karmic South Node in Capricorn for most of this year, accentuating unresolved themes and issues from the past, may it be on a personal or collective level. We have been witnessing a global increase in abuse of power going hand in hand with harsh regulations, authoritative rule making and laws that diminish our personal freedom.  From a different perspective we know that these are attempts by current power structures to compensate for and counteract growing fears, unease and anxiety in the collective, such as the fear of a looming economic and ecological collapse. Debt burdened major corporations, governments, banks, and other economic institutions could fall apart signifying the death of the old established political-economic power structure. Not to mention the current climate emergency that threatens our survival!

In the past, the 37- year Saturn-Pluto cycle had a lot to do with conflicts of power and the unfolding and imposition of collective & impulsive control mechanisms. According to Richard Tarnas, the positive potential of Saturn-Pluto is inextricably intertwined with confronting its negative manifestations. We are asked….” to generate great courage in the face of darkness, danger, and death; sustained effort and determination, intense focus and discipline; moral discernment and wisdom born from experience and suffering.” Pluto’s transformative energies affect everybody. That is why each of us has to review, reflect, make contact with our ‘personal underworld’ and do our best by clearing and purging our negatively conditioned patterns of victimhood and disempowerment. By facing our fears, taking responsibility and freeing our unlived potential we gain access to our own strength, will power and self-mastery.

On a psycho-emotional level, we have been confronted with our own shadow areas. Saturn-Pluto in Capricorn are both energies that have difficulties with letting go. So, holding on too long is a problem that can lead to toxic conditions. Another negative affect could come from blockages in biological processes and hardening of tissues, especially in the areas where these planets transit our personal charts. Which old structures must go? How can we best take individual responsibility and confront shadow areas that need clearing so that renewal can take place? Saturn and Pluto are both related to depression. We might have to go through a depressive period. We might have to withdraw for a while and reconnect with Soul, reflect, purge and simplify our lives strengthening our core with a focus on what really matters. This again involves courage and discernment. The Saturn-Pluto journey is not for the faint hearted! It requires determination and the will to take on great challenges.

Here are some Australian Bush Essences who can assist with the process of purging and courage:

Saturn-Pluto Transits issues and essences

Mint Bush for moving through spiritual initiation

Bottlebrush for letting go of the past

Waratah for power, strength and courage

Dog Rose of the Wild Forces for fear of losing control

Pink Mulla Mulla for releasing deep seated wounding

Sunshine Wattle for depression, hardship

Southern Cross for healing victim consciousness

Billy Goat Plum & Fringed Violet for healing sexual abuse

After December 3, 2019, Jupiter will join Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn, creating what is known as the “Capricorn Stellium.” Jupiter will conjoin with Pluto exactly on April 5th, June 30th and November 13th to start a new 13-year Jupiter-Pluto cycle. Two strong energies meet, with one wanting to go to the heights (Jupiter) while the other draws to the depth (Pluto). The god of the underworld meets with the god of the heavens. Ideas join with the depth of the soul. This combination signifies the strength that underlies our beliefs and how they can ‘move mountains’. On the negative, Jupiter/Pluto stands for extreme over-estimations of what is truly possible, leading to bankruptcy and break-downs. The last time Jupiter and Pluto met was in December 2007 in Sagittarius, before the start of the Global Financial Crisis. The danger with Jupiter-Pluto aspects as they relate to politics is that they tend to correlate with either great successes, or conversely, extreme downfalls. When triggered by these energies, we have to remember that “bigger is not necessarily better!” We have to remember to keep one foot on the ground while aiming for meaningful goals. Jupiter is the planet of expansion, betterment and opportunity, so this is a time to expand horizons in earthly, material matters, and to go beyond what is already familiar and invest in something important for the future. The problem is that we could get too obsessed with an idea and lose connection with reality. In which area(s) do you like to grow? What does ‘success’ mean to you and your life? Which are the values that can survive change and challenges because they derive from the depth of your soul?

On a psycho-emotional and physical level , Jupiter/Pluto relates to over-inflation of any condition, such as abnormal growth. People who have a bi-polar condition often show a very powerful Jupiter side and go through times of extreme highs and lows.  The negative Jupiter leads to grandiosity and excesses, especially when in combination with Pluto.

Here are some Australian Bush Flower Essences that can assist with the process of connecting with Soul and keeping a balanced mind set. Jupiter in Capricorn brings also opportunities for  gaining wisdom and self-mastery.

Bush Fuchsia for balance and focus Gymea Lily for leadership issues, arrogance

Hibbertia for fanatism & mental superiority;  healing head & heart imbalance and connecting with inner wisdom

Boronia for repetitive stressful thoughts

Sundew for being unrealistically optimistic

Kangaroo Paw for taking unnecessary risks, gambling

Freshwater Mangrove for healthy questioning of beliefs; clearing culturally conditioned prejudice

THE 20-year Jupiter-Saturn cycle

represents the process of defining and pursuing our most important goals and intentions. Conjunctions correlate with times of endings & crisis, followed by a time of renewed creativity. Conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn recur in the same element every 20 years for about two centuries. The current ‘Grand Conjunctions’ as they are called,  began to occur in earth signs in 1802.The last conjunction in the earth element eventuated in 2000 at 23 deg Taurus correlating with a period  of heightened consumerism and accelerated exploitation of the Earth’s resources. The next conjunction will be at 0 deg Aquarius on December 21st 2020 symbolising a major shift in consciousness. Grand Conjunctions in the air element historically correspond with rapid social progress, significant intellectual development, and new concepts entering human consciousness. We are moving now into the virtual age; we are leaving the materialistic age behind and enter an epoch where ideas, concept, networking and communication play the leading role. This shift has already been mirrored by the values of the Millennials, the generation born between the years 1982 and 2000. (The 1st grand conjunction in air  took place 1980 in Libra!) Millennials like their gadgets, a flexible work environment, are good at team work and care for the environment.

We are now in the final stage of the ‘Taurus’ cycle, which marks the ‘seed’ period in preparation for the new cycle. This is the final ‘tidying up’ phase , where old structures (Saturn) and beliefs (Jupiter) are released. Jupiter will move into Capricorn on December 3 where it comes under the rulership of Saturn. This is perfect timing for getting serious about cutting back where we have gone too far out and focusing on the essentials, gaining mastery in areas we truly believe in.

Here are some Australian Bush Flower Essences that can assist with embracing the new Air age (Aquarius) and transforming materialistic attachments (Taurus)

Bauhinia for breaking old patterns, reluctance to change; for healing ‘techno fear’

Mulla Mulla for sensitivity to electro-magnetic radiation

Silver Princess for finding a new direction and grounding one’s goals

Bush Iris for healing materialism and awakening of spirituality

Yellow Cowslip Orchid for an open and inquisitive mind

Sydney Rose for realising that we are all One

Tina Mews

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[postmodernmulticoloredcloak]

If you need a lock… you have to get a key

Let me start this with a tiny self-celebration - well, it was almost an accident, but accidents don’t just happen accidentally, right? Long story short, if you’ve kept track on my pre-finale spec, you might have seen a statement of mine, namely that Crowley’s role in the finale would be key to the resolution of the story told in the season and, on a meta level, to understanding the season. My usage of the word “key” was almost accidental - I meant it as “crucial element”. I was right. Crowley’s role was crucial both in the story and on the level of understanding the narrative. But I was right in a way that escaped my own understanding at the time, because Andrew Dabb is a smart fucker and in hindsight I could have seen it coming, because of course the story would go in that direction, because it’s Supernatural and that’s how this incredible show works.

Crowley was literally a key. His life became the key that locked the passage between the two realities that Jack’s imminent birth had caused to open. Keys, locks, open, close.

But it’s more than that. The entire season was about keys and locks. Crowley’s death was extremely fitting because he was the one that sabotaged the spell that was supposed to lock Lucifer back into the cage, but instead he played his own game of lock and key with Lucifer and failed, until he chose to turn his own life in the key that allowed Mary to shove Lucifer into the alternate reality. Mary, the metaphorical continuation of Amara, whose narrative was all about key and lock, was clearly going to play a crucial part in the game of key and lock in this season. It’s not a coincidence 12x21 ended with her locking her sons into the bunker together with Ketch, and 12x22 was all about Dean unlocking the bunker and unlocking his mother’s real self from the depths of her mind.

It’s all about keys and locks (and doors/doorways, and let me just drop the word ‘closet’ here. Just because. You know.).

This season, in fact, is a spectacular continuation of the theme of keys and locks that runs along the entire show. I get emotional when I think about the extreme consistency of this show, how the more it goes on the more it plays with itself and mirrors and twists everything that came before. Season 12 was difficult to read while it was going on - and that was on purpose, like 12x12, the manifesto of the narrative techniques of the season, told us - but now that we can see the entire puzzle, everything is clicking in into place.

There are many ways to look at the season, of course, and with this post I want to suggest the interpretative key (lol) of the “key and lock” theme. It is one of the big, underlying themes of the show - we have talked about it a lot during the Carver era. The Mark of Cain, key and lock to Amara’s imprisonment. The key to Oz, symbol of the way Charlie’s narrative paralleled Dean’s narrative of light and darkness. The tablets and the spells to lock hell and heaven… down to the little things like the key that locked the shapeshifter Olivia and Bobby left to the Winchesters, and, oh, so many others, from the Werther box that kept Nadya’s codex inside to Dean and Charlie unlocking the door that separated them from the vampires to get out of the video game in Pac-Man Fever. There are so many examples of doors and boxes and barriers to keep things/people outside or inside (and even passageways between dimensions, like in Safe House - where Dean goes into a different dimension and sees Bobby, reminds you of something?).

But, of course, Carver didn’t invent the theme. Season 7 was about finding a key to lock the Leviathan back after season 6 had Cas and Crowley searching for the key to unlock purgatory… Season 5 culminated with finding the key to lock Lucifer and Michael into the cage (and it’s not a coincidence Crowley is involved with ALL of those plot points!). Season 4 was about the seals to unlock Lucifer from the cage… See a pattern? Season 6, in the most meta episode possible, even contained a meta commentary of that theme, in the humorous form of the famous line “if there is a key, there must also be a lock”. Humor in Supernatural usually conveys the important stuff, after all.

But the theme of keys and locks didn’t start with the seals to start the apocalypse, either. And maybe the biggest element in the earliest season in this sense is - guess what - the Colt. The return of the Colt in the season of the return of Mary Winchester is not a coincidence… The Colt, in fact, served as the key to unlock the Hell Gate from which - guess whom - John Winchester came out and helped his sons defeat Azazel. No need to explain how Mary fits right in the pattern, right?

And Crowley - our character that is always involved with keys and locks, like the rings of the horsemen, opening purgatory, participating in the spell to lock the Leviathan back, being a crucial character in the tablets/let’s close hell forever/etc storyline - was introduced… through his connection with the Colt. His story and the Colt’s have long been intertwined. No wonder that he becomes the key now, in a sort of virtual closing of the circle that started with the opening of the Hell Gate (that allowed the demons that organized the apocalypse to get out) with the Colt, and ended (of course the story isn’t finished, but the metaphorical circle has closed) with Mary shoving Lucifer into the alternate reality. John came out of hell to save the brothers from Azazel, Mary went into the other dimension to save the brothers from Lucifer. The Colt was the key then, Crowley has been the key now.

Of course, I haven’t mentioned the other side of the key-and-lock thing in 12x23, because if Crowley’s life is the key that locks the passage across dimensions, Jack the nephilim is the key that opened the passage in the first place. The son of Lucifer, it’s no wonder he fits in the narrative that was about Lucifer before we even knew why Azazel opened that Hell Gate (or did anything else, starting from Mary’s deal and all) for… of course, we don’t know yet how he’ll fit in the narrative, other than - possibly accidentally, just as a non-controlled consequence of his power - tearing open that passage between dimensions for now. But he fits in it, just like all the yellow eyes, nursery etc imagery collocates him in a spiral of mirrors that starts with the very start of the show. Jack is going to be key and lock - we just have to take out our popcorn and see what exactly he’s going to open and close.

Kudos to the show for its incredible continuity and consistency in themes and parallels. I love it so much.

P.s. Speaking of Crowley and unlocking things, Crowley had Dean smash a closet door once, remember? Okay, I’ll stop here. Well, I titled this piece “If you need a lock… you have to get a key”, and I could finish it by adding, “if you need to unlock something instead… you can use a grenade launcher”. Marghe out.

#my spn thoughts #spn meta #crowley #spn 12x23 #key and lock #locks and keys #...and more i suck at tagging #spn

[ramrodd]

For Fox News, AOC’s latest unforgivable sin is her refusal to pay poverty wages.

COMMENTARY:

This is proof that you have to take a stupid test to work at FOX. I always thought Britt Hume was all baritone and no brains, unlike Rush Limpdick, who is both baritone and the brains of a hard-wired Fascist. This is a display of a particular quality of the GOP Deep State is the process of Anythng In, Garbage Out.

I read an interview of Davis Victor Hansen that illustrates how the Fascist sophistry of the MAGA hat element of the GOP Deep State. I can't remember if he said he met Ayn Rand at any time, but he's a clone of her system of thought. Among other things, he emphasizes that he is totally dependent on empirical data and I have no doubt he can prove it. I happen to admire his characterization of the beginning of the Second World War as a series of border skirmishes. I see what he means and it's instructive, especially in light of the current ideological struggle being waged over border control. Hansen is a Forever Trumpster in the 2nd Coming of The Messiah wing of the GOP Deep State. He is absolutely at the top of his several fields and, for the Evangelicals, teaches Greek and Latin. Politically, he is what Ayn Rand would have been like if she had been born William F. Buckley, Jr. and produced and hosted Firing Line.

His ideological anchor in Rand's system of thought as a political agenda is his claim that he is totally dependent upon emperical data. This is basically a variation on Rand's theme of Reason as the basis for personal freedom as a person. There is an underlying appeal to Aristotle in this connection. Rand's conceit was that her Passion, as an expression of her Sense of Life, was completely subordinate to Reason in all things. That's what Hanson is saying: that the only conclusion empirical evidence can attain are his conclusions on the same basis.

The thing is, there is no epistemology in either his nor Rand's system of thought. They both adhere to Hume's theory of perception and the nature of the personal reality and both propose an outcome based on the capacity to determine existential necessity by controlling the narrative to reflect the desired result even in contravention to process theology. The phrase that FOX News bots trot out: "Perception is Reality" is the operational reality of Ayn Rand and Victor David Hanson.

Hanson wants to compare Donald Duck Ass to Churchill during that period of border skirmishes: Hanson is a hard-core crypto-Nazi of the True Believer wing of the GOP Deep State. He's a wannabe Holocaust denier and Hitler apologist and apostle and Churchill is as close to venerating Hitler as possible with out actually getting tattooed with SS Death's Heads. He is so far over the edge, he makes George Lincoln Rockwell and Steve Bananon seem absolutely presbyterian.  He is exaclty the sort of historian John Keegan mocks in "A History of War": Hanson nearly salivates as he gets caught up in his own fanaticism. It's remarkable

Hume allows Hanson a great deal of wiggle room once you get into the Shadow between empirical data and The Idea which is moral confusion of The Reality Hanson is trying to sell to the masses as part of the agenda associated with Roger Stone, Steve Hanson and the friends of the Russian Kleptocracy that sent the tanks to crush democracy that Yeltsin faced down and hacked the 2016 election. Empirical data is a moving target, same as Reason is for Ayn Rand, who actually reverses the meaning of Reason and Passion, or employs them without attribution as synonyms in the fllow of her commentary.

Kant's Catagorical Imperative, in particular, the a priori synthetic, is the corrective to Humes. He agrees that personal reality can be contingent but that existential necessity is inviolate. This is the point of Moby Dick: Victor Davis Hanson believes he can shred existential necessity by the sheer force of his will, only to end up an ornament on the side of Leviathan. Victor Davis Hanson is the Captain Ahab of right wing classical and historical studies.

One of the things he leaves out of his run up to WWII is that the French politicians violated existential necessity employing virtually the same philosophy on national defence as Duck Ass Don in terms of the front end costs of the Maginot Line. The Maginot Line was an unfinished national security project that was left unfinished to avoid the costs of completing it to the coast, including in front of th Ardennes in Belgium. The Maginot Line was never tested in combat because the Germans just ran around the part that had been perceived as sufficiently defended by natural obstacles of terrain that informed the narrative that kept taxes low until Hitler occupied Paris.

That's something Hanson is careful to leave out. Hanson is correct about how the snowball of Hitler's little border skirmishes turned into an avalanche of unparalled devastation, because Hitler was  on a roll when he got to Belgium and there are those who believe that his generals could have beached the line, but the strategic scheme of the French and the British assumed that the line would be breached, but that it could be contained as a salient and reduced in the fullness of time and fullness of time was not in Hitler's favor.

And Donald Duck Ass is surrounded by people who encourage him to think just like those French politcians, including Victor Davis Hanson and the USDA Prime STUPID of the FOX News Team, with the sole exception of Juan Williams. Like Ben Stein, Victor Davis Hanson may be at the absolute apex of their fields, but they are right-wing megaphones for systemic Everything In, Garbage Out

#transformingamericafirst

[chorusfm]

Alkaline Trio – Is This Thing Cursed?

This first impression was originally posted as a live blog for supporters in our forums on August 29th, 2018. I’ve decided to make it free to all users of the website. First impressions are meant to be quick, fun, initial impressions on an album or release as I listen to it for the first time. It’s a running commentary written while listening to an album — not a review. More like a diary of thoughts. This post has been lightly edited for structure and flow. I figured with the album coming out on Friday this was really the last time I had to try and get some early thoughts down on this album for everyone before you’ll be able to hear it. Hell, there’s always the chance this leaks while I’m typing this up. Then everyone can join in with me. At a high-level, this album works for me more than any of their albums have since Crimson. I’ve liked the stuff that followed, but it never really captured that same magic as their earlier work. I would find myself listening to them for a few weeks (with the exception of This Addiction, which never really grabbed me), but after that, when I wanted an Alkaline Trio fix, I’d go back to Crimson or something before it. That’s just how it played out for me. I can’t predict with certainty that this is going to be an album I come back to in the future, but there’s something about it that hits me just right and gives me that feeling. There’s an energy here, a feeling of immediacy that they touched on with My Shame is True, but feels much more rolled into a “classic” Alkaline Trio-sounding album. This urgency to the songs is really resonating with me at the moment. There’s some stuff I don’t love, and I’ll touch on that as I go through the album, but the good definitely outweighs the bad. As always, I reserve the right to change my mind in the future, this isn’t really a review as much as it is just me listening to the album, writing some thoughts down, and speaking off the cuff about what I like, don’t like, and the over all impression the album gives me. Feel free to jump in either nor or later with questions or anything you’d like to know more on, I can always expand and offer more thoughts and such. Is This Thing Cursed? 2:28pmThe album begins with three songs you all have probably heard by now. Which always makes something like this a little funny, because we’re waiting like 15 minutes until we get to some new material. So, I’m going to be brief on the first three for that reason. The main thing about this song is that I think it’s a really great opener for the album. Not only does it give you a feel for where the album as a whole is going, similar sounds/melodies/pacing, I think that it sets up the theme of the album (duh, it’s the title track) in a way that sets the mood for where we go from there. Blackbird 2:33pmWhen I first heard this song I was like “holy shit, yes, Alk3 are back,” and I really liked the energy it brought. It kinda reminded me of a more modern “Private Eye.” It made me remember that I loved this band in the early 2000s, and a little sad that I hadn’t spent as much time with them in the past 10 years as I maybe should had, or wanted to. With that said, I’ve now decided I think this isn’t one of my favorite songs on the album. I don’t dislike it, it’s just that we’re blessed with better. What this does do for those that have heard the album is give a good indication on the production style. The album has this raw feel, it gets a little muddy sometimes, but, to my ears, I like how it sounds. I think this is what a lot of people want a “rock” album to sound like in 2018. You hear the guitars. Vocals are turned up. It’s compressed, but in a familiar way, and there’s not a whole lot of extraneous stuff going on. Demon and Division 2:37pmThis is one of my favorites from the album. That melody excites me. I love that it walks between this little mid-tempo place and a killer chorus. It’s really right in line with the kinda music I want from this band. It’s dark and yet secretly really catchy. That’s the thing with Alkaline Trio, they go to some dark places, but they have to walk it in a way where it doesn’t feel so over the top that you roll your eyes. When they do that well, it’s what elevates them above all the copy-cats. The lyrics and how either of the two singers emotes is such a key ingredient to this band. Little Help 2:42pmThis is my least favorite song on the album. It reminds me of something that could have been on the previous album, with a fast punk-rock sort of sound. Throwback to the 80s and dive bars. But, if I had to cut one song, it would be this one. It doesn’t feel like it fits in with the rest of the album. It feels out of place to me on subsequent listens. I think that’s because I know what I’d consider “better” songs are coming. But, it may also be that the repeated refrain, “does anyone know where I can go get high?” — while catchy and very Social Distortion sounding — doesn’t do much for me. Dan sounds good though. I like Matt’s background vocals too. I like that the band lets both of them shine on this album. They’re used together in enough of the songs that for the first time I actually have trouble hearing/remembering/picking out who is singing what. It’s not as “here’s Dan’s song, and here’s Matt’s song” as it has been in the past. I like that. It leads to a really cohesive album in that regard. I Can’t Believe 2:46pmThat little rolling guitar and drum intro is just classic Trio to me. It reminds me of the first time I heard From Here to Infirmary, and it felt familiar, but in a new unique way. “I can’t believe, anything that you’re saying to me, I just can’t see how you ever dreamed this was for the best…” 2:50pm “I just don’t see how the fuck you could ever thing that I’d agree.” Heh. Some good Matt being Matt lyrics on this one. Earlier, after one listen to this album, I said that it felt like a pop-punk album for 30 year olds. To me that’s from something like this next stretch of songs. There’s an underlying pop-punk/rock sound to the music, but it’s got a clear bend away from what we’ve seen Sum 41, Blink, and Green Day do with their past few albums. “Nothing to see here, move along … nobody to hear your black swan song.” Sweet Vampires 2:59pmThis has become one of my stand-out favorites on the album. I could see it becoming one of my favorites in the band’s discography with time as well. To me, this is what I’ve wanted the band to play with more since Crimson. I wouldn’t call it an experimental song, but I would say that it gets to do more than a lot of the others. It opens with a nice little guitar riff. And the opening melody gets stuck in my head in the same way something like “This Could Be Love” becomes so damn hummable. “I was the live fast, car crash, Mulholland Drive, open the flood gates, this love hate(?) is making me cry, the tears feel the tug of the blood from your wrists that night. If we should live forever, like sweet vampires … ” 3:02pmThe bridge is great. Really love the use of vocals and the lyrics are pure spite. 3:05pm”If we should live forever, like sweet vampires/we could reign together, our own empire/now we should try to sever all our past ties.” I can picture this being sung by a lot of people in complete seriousness, and I kinda love it. That’s what I’m talking about when I talk about the Alkaline Trio melodrama, and the ability to use what some could call silly lyrics — we’re talking about vampires here — but when they wrap it in a catchy package and sing with sincerity, it works even when it probably shouldn’t. And that’s the definitive Alkaline Trio to me. Pale Blue Ribbon 3:06pmGreat gym song. Fast and a toe tapping ditty. Dan at the front again. 3:07pm”We’re supposed to bleed sometimes, we’ll make these scars together.” 3:08pmThis one goes by fast. Barely two minutes. Goodbye Fire Island 3:07pmI can’t hear this song and not think about the Fyre Festival. 3:08pmAnother song that gives me Good Mourning/Crimson vibes. Where they come in strong with the guitars, then pull back, just a little, to calmly deliver the lines. 3:10pm”Dowse my house in gasoline, strike a match and walk a…wayyyyy…yeah.” I love the little “hey yah” part in the chorus. Great chorus. “Ocean filled with plastic bottles … heyyyyyy yah … and tidal waves will wash us all away. Wash us all awayyyyyyy.” 3:11pm”Feed me pills and happy meals.” 3:12pmGood song is good. Stay 3:16pmThis is a slower, confessional, song. But, it’s also become one of my favorites. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it at first, but it grew on me more than almost any other. The main theme of the song makes me think of a few things in my personal life that I’m … well … I’m glad it doesn’t resonate on that level right now, that’s for sure. “We could never break up, so I’ll love you to death, the man I’ve become was so comfortably dumb.” 3:18pm”Let’s take another day to call it quits and walk away, let’s find some other time to break down.” 3:19pm(PSA: Leave bad and toxic relationships. Heh.) Heart Attacks 3:22pmSince the album leaked in the middle of this (man, what a weird prediction to have come true), I’m gonna speed through the next couple before I head to the gym, then I’ll come back and we can talk more about the album after people have spun it once or twice. This track reminds me of From Here to Infirmary. Worn So Thin 3:23pm I think this should have replaced “Little Help” earlier in the track listing. I think it works a whole lot better and fits the same vibe that that song was going for. Throw Me to the Lions 3:24pmThe kind of song that Alkaline Trio seems to be able to write in their sleep. They’ve done songs like this before. They’ve done a few better, quite a lot worse. Matt’s lyrics shine. Krystalline 3:26pmI think this is the best song on the record. I’ve fallen more for it every time I hear it. I think anyone that’s ever been in any kind of relationship can smile at this one. “Kissed away our memories, fucked away the pain, went out for some coffee, and then we did it all again.” 3:29pmThe track ends and we get some fun little noises to close out the album. There’s just something so simple about the song, and the relatable lyrics, that close off the album so perfectly. A perfectly relatable, sing-a-long-able, song. Can’t really ask for much more than that. 3:31pmAlkaline Trio are a band that I’ve always really liked, but never considered a “favorite.” They were a band I loved to listen to, really enjoyed their first batch of albums, but they never hit me in the same way as they did other fans. After Crimson I considered myself even more of just a casual fan. However, I have to say, I really like this album. It’s brought me back in and reminded me why I used to spend so many nights air-guitaring to “Stupid Kid.” Now that the album is out there, and will be in stores on Friday, I’m curious to read thoughts from other people. I wanna know what everyone thinks works and doesn’t work, favorite songs, and all that. 3:32pmI recommend giving this one at least 2-3 spins. It was that third spin for me, while on the treadmill, that everything clicked just right. That’s when I went from liking it to elevating it up with some of their best. --- Please consider supporting us so we can keep bringing you stories like this one. ◎ https://chorus.fm/review/first-impressions/alkaline-trio-is-this-thing-cursed-2/

[newyorktheater]

(l-r) Tony Shalhoub and Katrina Lenk in The Band’s Visit

Jitney

Sweeney Todd

Michelle Wilson and Johanna Day

For all the Broadway box office records set in 2017, the year in New York theater felt tentative, in transition, as if both theater artists and audiences were trying to figure out how to deal with the changed, and charged, political landscape. Some shows offered the escapist route, like Hello, Dolly with Bette Midler or SpongeBob SquarePants; these crowd pleasers generally didn’t please me enough to include in my top ten. Other shows went in the opposite direction, offering some form of social or political engagement. With one exception (see below), the less satisfying of these dealt directly with politics or political activism in the narrow sense (The Parisian Woman or Michael Moore’s The Terms of My Surrender) or previewed a political apocalypse (1984.) Many of my favorites of 2017 paint a realistic picture of people fighting against a sense of hopelessness; but in telling their stories, the shows paradoxically provide us with a sense of hope – and sometimes a blueprint for action. Theater at its best can function as both a place of refuge and a resource.

The choices below are personal favorites; the ranking is somewhat arbitrary.

  1. The Band’s Visit

  The plot of this delicate adaptation of an indie Israeli film by Eran Kolirin hardly seems the stuff of Broadway musicals: An Egyptian police band gets lost on its way to performing at an Arab cultural center in Israel, and winds up spending a single night in an isolated desert town; one of the best songs is “Welcome to Nowhere.” But this show, which transferred this year from Off-Broadway, hits the spot thanks to David Yazbek’s exquisite Middle Eastern score and delicious lyrics, a spot-on cast led by the incomparable Tony Shalhoub and Katrina Lenk, and a book by Itamar Moses that’s both doleful and droll. We fall in love with the characters, almost all of whom harbor an underlying sadness.

  2. Jitney

  “Jitney” was the last play to make it to Broadway from August Wilson’s celebrated 10-play American Century cycle, 11 years after his death. In Wilson’s 1979 play, which takes place in 1977 in a gypsy cab station in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, we get to know the drivers, their passengers, and their family members. Some feel trapped; some, defeated. But each has a story to tell, and a full life of faults and wisdom and talents that Wilson presents with humor and empathy.  The production directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, presented ensemble acting at its best.

    3.  Sweeney Todd

The Tooting Arts Club’s production of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s glorious murderous musical began in 2014 in Harrington’s, one of London’s oldest working pie shops, and made the trans-Atlantic voyage intact, setting up in an impressively detailed replica of Harrington’s constructed at Barrow Street theater. I hesitate to include this Sweeney Todd in my top ten of 2017, because I loved the original cast, but made the mistake of seeing it a second time, with its current replacement cast, and didn’t love it anywhere near as much. Still, you can’t take away my memory of the first eight-member cast, especially Jeremy Secomb as Sweeney Todd, Sibohan McArthy as Mrs. Lovett and Matt Doyle as Anthony Hope, as they performed atop the tables inches from the audience, or sat alongside us on the benches

  4. Burning Doors

“Burning Doors” was Belarus Free Theatre’s latest arresting play about state-sponsored injustice, and the art of resisting it. A troupe banned in their home country, but continuing to perform there underground, Belarus Free Theatre mixes activism and artistry in a way that frankly puts to shame most American theater’s efforts at doing the same. As with their previous work, “Burning Doors” told real stories, naming names – this time including the story of the activism and repression of the Russian activist performance artists Pussy Riot, re-enacted by a prominent member of Pussy Riot, Maria Alyokhina — presented with inventive and athletic theatricality.

  5. Indecent

A behind-the-scenes look at an all-Jewish, lesbian-themed drama at the dawn of the 20th century that led to a criminal prosecution, Indecent is both a fascinating history lesson written by Pulitzer-winning Paul Vogel, and a cleverly staged entertainment directed by Rebecca Taichman.

This was in my top 10 last year as well, when it debuted Off-Broadway. It transferred to Broadway in April of this year – marking Vogel’s Broadway debut – but lasted only four months. I suspect this haunting play will live on.

6. Sweat

Like Grapes of Wrath, Lynn Nottage’s “Sweat” offers a devastating look at social and economic breakdown, told not with rants or statistics, but through a riveting tale about good people in a bad situation. The characters in “Sweat” hang out in a bar in Reading, Pennsylvania, which 2010 U.S. Census data identified as the poorest city in America.

Everything clicked for me in the Public Theater production of this play in 2016, and I listed it in the top 10 of 2016. As with Indecent, its transfer to Broadway in the Spring apparently didn’t click with the theater-buying public; it closed after some three months, even though it had won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

It’s worth noting that Nottage, who spent much time doing research in Reading, continues her presence in that city, developing a site-specific installation in  the abandoned Reading Railroad Station, entitled “Out/Let,” to engage the diverse and divided communities of the city in dialogue,

  7. Latin History for Morons

The ushers are wearing “Ghetto Scholar” sweatshirts in Studio 54, where for his sixth solo show John Leguizamo stands in front of a blackboard and lectures on the history, politics, culture and demographics of the 70 million Latinos in the United States. But Leguizamo is too much of an anarchic comic spirit, master mimic and candid memoirist to be merely erudite. “Latin History for Morons” exists on three planes – fascinating nuggets of actual history mixed with political commentary, eclectic comic shtick, and a funny, tender story of the performer’s efforts to connect with his family. “Latin History for Morons” suggests a potentially new and exciting direction in Leguizamo’s theatrical work.

8. A Doll’s House, Part 2

Laurie Metcal, Jayne Houdyshell, Condola Rashad, Chris Cooper in A Doll’s House, Part 2

A quartet of fine performances help elevated this play by Lucas Hnath to something more than just a sequel to Ibsen’s drama: Laurie Metcalf was the fifteenth actress since 1889 to portray Nora Helmer on Broadway, who slams the door on her husband and three children. But she was the first Nora to knock on that door 15 years later. The play is clever, and surprisingly amusing, but it is also thought-provoking: The characters’ conversations amount to a spirited and intriguing debate about the institution of marriage. Would it be a stretch to argue that, opening six months before the birth of the #metoo movement, the depiction of the unequal, unfair relationship between the sexes wound up being prescient?

9. K-Pop

Katie Lee Hill, Deborah Kim, Sun Hye Park, Julia Abueva, Cathy Ang, Susannah Kim

K-Pop was wildly (and loudly) entertaining, offering the audience a pretend-tour of a Korean pop music factory, which included mini-concerts at the beginning and the end, and energetic performances throughout, by credible and incredibly talented Korean pop stars, though wholly created (a la The Monkees) just for this show. If the dramatic scenes in K-Pop could have been better, I pick the show for my top 10 to represent the increasing number and variety of immersive theater, which has from a trend into a genre, which continues to innovate.

10.Antigone in Ferguson and Oedipus El Rey

I save these two for last, but in some ways, they are the most exciting of the theater I saw in 2017. Both productions adapted Greek tragedies written by Sophocles 2,500 years old in ways that make them more timely and relevant than almost anything else on any stage anywhere.

Oedipus El Rey was Luis Alfaro’s modern adaptation of Oedipus Rex, set in the Chicano barrio of South Central Los Angeles. It was an intense, visceral production, brutal and direct, but also graphically sensuous and oddly tender. It made a startling connection between how the Ancient Greeks viewed their fate and many Latinos view their future.

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“Antigone in Ferguson” was performed by stars of the HBO TV series “The Wire,” backed by a gospel chorus made up of residents and activists from Ferguson, Missouri, some of whom knew Michael Brown, the teenager killed by a police officer in 2014. The production was an adaptation written and produced by Bryan Doerries, the artistic director of Theater of War Productions, a theater company he launched eight years ago to use plays to help speciic audiences grapple with trauma. Originally presented in Ferguson, “Antigone in Ferguson” was presented for one night only  in basketball court in the shadow of the Howard public housing projects in Brownsville, Brooklyn, to an audience touched by violence. The conversation afterward was vibrant, intelligent and moving. It gave me a new understanding of the tragedy – and of theater.

  Top 10 New York Theater in 2017 To Be Grateful For For all the Broadway box office records set in 2017, the year in New York theater felt tentative, in transition, as if both theater artists and audiences were trying to figure out how to deal with the changed, and charged, political landscape.

[summerphonic-essays]

El Laberinto Del Fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth) Analysis

Films can be a wonderful visual tool when it comes to history. El Laberinto Del Fauno is set in post-civil war Spain and gives us an idea of what was to be expected of that time. Its primary plot is that of a merciless army official, Vidal. The story begins when Vidal’s pregnant wife, Carmen, and her daughter, Ofelia, go to live with him because he wants his son to be born on the base. You witness the  struggles between the guerillas and the army men and how that affects Ofelia as the main character, who tends to withdraw from her unfortunate reality by way of fairy-tale books and personal adventures. It may be a stereotype, but many little girls would love to be a princess in a kingdom far away, and the film plays on that. We follow Ofelia as her books come to life and she goes on a quest, full of many horrors in their own right, so she may return to her realm as a princess. El Laberinto Del Fauno is a fantasy-horror film that highlights the true horrors of Spanish History by utilizing escapism and childlike idealism.

The story is set in 1944 Spain, five years post the end of the Spanish CIvil War and the victory of Franco and the nationalists. Now, WWII is in progress and the Falangist Spanish army is working to maintain control by hunting down any of the people remaining from the civil wars opposition. Captain Vidal believed that this was the only way to secure the future of  Spain. This is evident when he states: “Yo estoy aquí porque quiero que mi hijo nazca en una España limpia y nueva. Porque esta gente parte de una idea equivocada, que somos todos iguales. Pero hay una gran diferencia: que la guerra terminó y ganamos nosotros. Y si para que nos enteremos todos, hay que matar a esos hijos de puta, pues lo matamos y ya está. Todos estamos aquí por gusto. Por gusto.” Ofelia is not a fan of the move to the base so she goes off on her own often to read and explore. When she stumbles upon a Labyrinth in the woods she is immediately intrigued, although she is warned against entrance and both her mother and the Captain believe she is misbehaving by visiting it. One day in the labyrinth, she meets a Faun who tells her she is Princess Moana of the underworld and that they are awaiting her return. The rest of the film follows her as she is subject to worldly troubles, but in actuality is on this quest for something more ideal, like eternal life.

A quite obvious theme of El Laberinto Del Toro is Death and Immortality. There are references from the very beginning narration to death and they continue throughout the film. However, death is really mentioned in relation to Immortality, at least when it comes to the main characters. Captain Vidal wants to be immortalized through his army work. A specific symbol of this theme is Vidal’s watch. When his father died he smashed the watch so that Vidal would know the exact time he died, thus immortalizing his time of death, until Vidal fixes the watch because he wants to do the same thing for his son. Fantasy is a recurring theme throughout the film that symbolizes a way to escape pain, but most of Ofelias fairy-tales have dark undertones. For example, during one scene Carmen asks Ofelia to tell her little brother one of her fairy-tales so he’ll stop kicking. She tells a story of a magic rose on the top of a mountain that held the promise of immortality. Because its thorns were poison-filled, nobody dared to try to reach the top. They all spoke of the pain and suffering, but never of the eternal life to be had if they succeeded.

Death was a theme that could easily be established during the time period chosen for the film. Being that the film was set in post-civil war Spain, death was an overwhelming reality. They had to face the death of the republic, the death of the many people who fought for the republic, and the impending death of guerillas and anyone left with those ideals. The major political change from the former republic government to the Franco dictatorship impacted all the people of Spain. In the film, this is shown through activities of the soldiers at the army base. Five years after the end of the war, the soldiers are still fighting those left from the opposition. The captain is portrayed as ruthless and sadistic, while the rest of his men are portrayed as absentmindedly obedient to him and the regime. Many people lived in fear during these years, because World War II commenced with the end of the civil war and although Franco was not directly involved, he considered Hitler and Mussolini to be his friends and of like interests. However, the people of the opposition, as shown in the film, were people who would die for what they believed in. They heard of the Normandy landings and other events occurring that were not in Franco’s favor and they took that opportunity to strike.  They believed that even if they barely had a shot, it was still worthwhile to take it and make some form of an impact than to do nothing at all. There is a subplot revolving around Mercedes, the base’s main nurse, and her involvement with the guerrillas because of her brother. She is going behind the backs of all the army men to bring medicine to the guerillas and care for them, and even when her actions are discovered by Vidal and they attempt to torture her, she outsmarts them. The flaw in their plan of action was that they underestimated her because she was a woman. She escaped death, as many of the characters strived to do, and some tried to do eternally.

El Laberinto Del Fauno is a film set in the middle of realistic war and many critics consider it to be one of the greatest fantasy films of all time due to how Toro depicts and illustrates the story. To this day it is one of the most well-known and popular of Guillermo Del Toro’s works. On Metacritic.com, the film has overwhelming and completely positive reviews. No critic scored it lower than an 80. Joe Morgenstern with Wall Street Journal (United States) scored the film 100 and affirmed: “The result of the intricate interplay is a fairy tale for adults that is violent, sometimes shocking, yet utterly engrossing. And eerily instructive; it deepens our emotional understanding of fascism, and of rigid ideologies dire consequences.” This quote commends how Toro integrated to very opposite worlds so seamlessly. It is agreed upon that this is the true element of horror in the film, how inseparable the two worlds are, that's what makes it so scary even for adults, the films target audience. This may be a fairy tale, but it's a dark twisted one and Toro plays off the raw nature of the stories themselves, they aren’t glamorized. It’s a film that causes viewers to ask questions, a motivation for rewatch, which other critics have highlighted. Is it a political film disguised as a fairy tale, or a commentary that fascism is a horrible fairy tale brought to life? (A.O. SCOTT, NY Times)

The main theme of the film isn't necessarily unique, but the way it is shown is incredibly innovative, and that's what makes the film a masterpiece. I enjoyed it wholeheartedly. Immortality is a topic of many films nowadays, superhero films come to mind as an example, but Toro gave a new name to a popular theme. El Laberinto Del Fauno is unlike any other films of it’s kind, it stands out. I agree with how the theme is presented because it works complimentarily with the history of Francoism. In my history classes, we’ve discussed Franco many times, but this film shed a completely different light on what I’ve read in books and seen in powerpoints. It was real, which is kind of counterintuitive for a fantasy film, but it is. I’ve seen enough films to note how Toro used the tools at his disposal to present adult metaphors underlying even the childlike scenes. Consider the “Pale Man” scene. Pale Man is the creature who faun warns to Ofelia to be careful of during her quest because “...it’s not human.” When we break down the details of this scene we notice multiple things. For one, it is no coincidence that this “pale man” is the symbol of a lack of humanity. He feeds on children which is comparable to the hungry authoritarians preying on the innocent for fun and personal gain. Additionally, as far as the setting, the banquet is symbolic of the time as well. The film itself blatantly shows the process of rationing, “one voucher per family” Vidal insists. This indicates that people in general, and specifically children, were very hungry in 1944. The banquet would have been the ultimate temptation for any child. Every choice Toro made was explicit and it’s quite extraordinary to analyze.

I would recommend this film for many different reasons. As a film buff and a sucker for art, I’d recommend this film for its outstanding cinematography and seamless utility of animatronics, CGI, and actors to create the fictional Labyrinth world. I’d recommend it for those fascinated by history because of how it presents a harsh topic in a haunting way. I’d recommend it to anyone who just wants a good watch that’ll stick with them, and I’d recommend it to people interested in watching influential films of different genres. Overall, El Laberinto Del Fauno serves an enticing story on many fronts, meshing fantasy and horror, and the real and the imaginary in a very memorable way.