I wasn't expecting a Sonic show seemingly based entirely on Lebowski references and The Lonely Island, and I kinda vibe with that

It's also like a show that's made for like...3 people. None of which have paramount plus

Realised that this never posted, but I stand by it:

It's really weird that Rogue One's aesthetic, which was specifically developed for a Star Wars film which had minimal space wizards and was instead about much more subdued characters and murkier moral themes, has now become the aesthetic which gets slathered over all new live-action Star Wars whether it fits or not.

Mando mostly works with that look because while there are some big personalities, they're almost all side characters, while the mains are stoic and reserved except for Grogu. Andor looks downright great, not least as much of it is shot on actual locations and on full sets.

But apply this to Ahsoka and Kenobi, and it rather cuts against the vibe they're going for. Space wizards, with their operatic cosmic conflicts and connection to a mystic energy, tend to want something a bit more heightened (which I think is an under-discussed problem in the PT which is very muted much of the time, and a major strength in the more stylised Empire and TLJ). The colours are muted, the angles mostly flat, and it ends up being at odds with the story being told.

To extend Kenobi some goodwill, lots of the latter seems to have come from the Volume. You keep seeing where the cinematographer wanted to crank a shot of Vader to be sharper and more impactful, but couldn't because the Volume doesn't permit that. Although I do think there are some baffling bits of blocking like in the chase and the first duel, the floaty shaky-cam is a generally poor look and really, Lucasfilm shouldn't lean so hard on the Volume (I mean, seriously guys, look at Monarch. That looks miles better than anything you've done on TV except for Andor.) But point is, they tried and ran into constraints.

Meanwhile Ahsoka seems exceedingly comfortable with both feet in Gordon Willis' metaphorical bucket of cement. The characters' energy levels are tamped way down from Rebels to match the muted presentation, and things often feel low-energy even just within the context of these shows. Even when the show steps into the World Between Worlds, an explicitly supernatural plane (or goes into Ahsoka's coma dream) there's no real change in look. Contrast the way that Empire employs that low shutter speed in the dark cave, while TLJ steps into something surreal complete with voiceover and an impossible CG camera move. In Ahsoka, though, there's little attempt to make the place feel otherworldly beyond how the scenery looks.

And these are largely missing a vital part of Rogue One's look, which is scale. Both Gareth Edwards and cinematographer Greig Fraser are great at portraying large-scale things in interesting ways, and that's something which will tend to get lost with a move to the small screen and the massive use of the Volume, without shots from locations or physical sets to balance it out and make spaces feel more real.

Realised that this never posted, but I stand by it:

It's really weird that Rogue One's aesthetic, which was specifically developed for a Star Wars film which had minimal space wizards and was instead about much more subdued characters and murkier moral themes, has now become the aesthetic which gets slathered over all new live-action Star Wars whether it fits or not.

Mando mostly works with that look because while there are some big personalities, they're almost all side characters, while the mains are stoic and reserved except for Grogu. Andor looks downright great, not least as much of it is shot on actual locations and on full sets.

But apply this to Ahsoka and Kenobi, and it rather cuts against the vibe they're going for. Space wizards, with their operatic cosmic conflicts and connection to a mystic energy, tend to want something a bit more heightened (which I think is an under-discussed problem in the PT which is very muted much of the time, and a major strength in the more stylised Empire and TLJ). The colours are muted, the angles mostly flat, and it ends up being at odds with the story being told.

To extend Kenobi some goodwill, lots of the latter seems to have come from the Volume. You keep seeing where the cinematographer wanted to crank a shot of Vader to be sharper and more impactful, but couldn't because the Volume doesn't permit that. Although I do think there are some baffling bits of blocking like in the chase and the first duel, the floaty shaky-cam is a generally poor look and really, Lucasfilm shouldn't lean so hard on the Volume (I mean, seriously guys, look at Monarch. That looks miles better than anything you've done on TV except for Andor.) But point is, they tried and ran into constraints.

Meanwhile Ahsoka seems exceedingly comfortable with both feet in Gordon Willis' metaphorical bucket of cement. The characters' energy levels are tamped way down from Rebels to match the muted presentation, and things often feel low-energy even just within the context of these shows. Even when the show steps into the World Between Worlds, an explicitly supernatural plane (or goes into Ahsoka's coma dream) there's no real change in look. Contrast the way that Empire employs that low shutter speed in the dark cave, while TLJ steps into something surreal complete with voiceover and an impossible CG camera move. In Ahsoka, though, there's little attempt to make the place feel otherworldly beyond how the scenery looks.

And these are largely missing a vital part of Rogue One's look, which is scale. Both Gareth Edwards and cinematographer Greig Fraser are great at portraying large-scale things in interesting ways, and that's something which will tend to get lost with a move to the small screen and the massive use of the Volume, without shots from locations or physical sets to balance it out and make spaces feel more real.

Bruce Campbell's titties are amongst Sam Raimi's greatest contribution to society

You guys ever think about how tentacles and tentacle-esque thingys poppin' into orifices is kinda a james gunn auteur thing or has no one else seen Slither and Super?

Todd Haynes could direct Zodiac but David Fincher could never direct Velvet Goldmine.

I can't say that I "ship" MacDennis because to that implies that I want them to be together and I don't. I don't think that would be good for anyone.

I do, however, absolutely see how they are engaged in a horrific psychosexual codependent relationship that will only end went one of them dies.

IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA ☘ ↳ S11E08 “Charlie Catches a Leprechaun”

timmy c as Dylan's a huge miscast BUT

I mean, wholly selfishly, the big hearthrob actor of our time being bob dylan for two hours is gonna be great for my dating life as 'guy who gives bob dylan vibes'. That's about all I got to say.

Two queens maximalising their joint slay.

You ever not leave the house one day and just spontaneously cosplay as bob dylan?

Rian Johnson described his vision for The Last Jedi as a 'funky weirdo samurai movie', and that's just such a perfect way to describe its wonderful idiosyncraticities and how they manage to make it still feel Star Wars-ey (to me anyway lol).

What a movie.

John Darnielle was the one 50 year old white american actor not in Oppenheimer and that's why it shouldn't win best picture.

It's very funny they're called Efap seeing that their content is inherently masturatory

Stopping to stare at the thumbnail for a 12-hour The Phantom Menace analysis before I click past it, and feeling the need to reiterate that the longest truly worthwhile video I ever saw on a single film was Folding Ideas' Fifty Shades of Grey video (which, besides addressing the script and film craft, also went extensively into the fanfiction origins of the stories and the knock-on effects thereof, and analysed some bts stuff for good measure) which is still only a little over one hour.

I mean, just what the fuck is that. I could pretty much watch all the Star Wars films I like in that time. Not to mention all of Andor S1, or read most Star Wars books.

And that's why it's so good

eye of darkness is like. what if your best friend’s identity in death was stronger than yours is in life. what if a memory was more quantifiable than a man of flesh and blood. what if the only person who remembers you as you were before because she never learned what you’ve been through was a million miles away. what if there was an invisible wall between you that nothing can pass but your voice, yet you can’t hear her speak back. what if you couldn’t hear the force anymore but you heard his voice and it brought you home to him, but he is gone. what if you came back and there was no me but a man in the shape of me. what if you were orpheus that brought eurydice back for good but the man she knew has been washed away. is that still coming home? what if a mirror of what you could have been from a hundred years ago stood before you and looked right through you though he has no eyes, but perhaps he has something much more terrifying than that. how do you stitch together a wound in the shape of a man who has lost everything he thought he once was and everyone who knew what made him this way was dead? how do you come together again when you are all the past, and he is nothing but a shadow haunting the image of the man you remember? how do you reconcile finding strength in the way things used to be with the man who can never be that way again? is it still him? does the man you remember is the man that you found?

And that's why it's so good

eye of darkness is like. what if your best friend’s identity in death was stronger than yours is in life. what if a memory was more quantifiable than a man of flesh and blood. what if the only person who remembers you as you were before because she never learned what you’ve been through was a million miles away. what if there was an invisible wall between you that nothing can pass but your voice, yet you can’t hear her speak back. what if you couldn’t hear the force anymore but you heard his voice and it brought you home to him, but he is gone. what if you came back and there was no me but a man in the shape of me. what if you were orpheus that brought eurydice back for good but the man she knew has been washed away. is that still coming home? what if a mirror of what you could have been from a hundred years ago stood before you and looked right through you though he has no eyes, but perhaps he has something much more terrifying than that. how do you stitch together a wound in the shape of a man who has lost everything he thought he once was and everyone who knew what made him this way was dead? how do you come together again when you are all the past, and he is nothing but a shadow haunting the image of the man you remember? how do you reconcile finding strength in the way things used to be with the man who can never be that way again? is it still him? does the man you remember is the man that you found?

What is this about the tumblr staff wanting to sell art data to midjourney?

An ex-colleague of mine mentioned yesterday that there may be contacts between Automattic and midjourney in that direction, but nothing is public yet and I don't have any more info. They probably won't have anything specific to share either, since they left the company weeks ago too. That being said:

I have no reason to doubt my ex-coworker word, they are a trustworthy person.

Tumblr's CEO has been absurdly enthusiastic (comically, even) about AI, and is a big fan of LLMs and 'AI' companies.

A deal with midjourney could solve tumblr financial issues (not the same company, but openAi is paying up to 5 million/year to news companies to use their content as training data... tumblr generates several orders of magnitude more content than any newspaper or any media company and it only would need a 20 to 30 million per year deal to be profitable)

So I don't have any extra info yet, but I'm keeping my ears open.