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the-owl-tree · 6 months

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not to be cringe but do you have any advice for running a character ask blog? Aiming for something kinda lowkey like with Bean (also I love bean. I love to see what she’s up to)

not sure how helpful some of these will be since they're just what i do for my personal projects but for sure!!!

uuuuhhh basic overview stuff

if you're doing an oc blog, chances are it probably won't receive as much attention as a canon character/story blog. just sort of the way things go! if you want to draw some attention, you might want to think about non-ask related stuff you can post (clangen blogs do this with the mini event posts, keeps the world moving!)

even with canon character blogs, giving pieces of character lore, worldbuilding, mini stories can help keep the world more alive. but that's when you got time and if it seems fun, you should just do things if you want to tbh

i keep all my stuff in a doc and add and edit whenever i put new info on the blog to keep things consistent. i just put them in little sections to help me find things (beanie lore, worldbuilding, spirits, etc.) but simple bullet points are easy.

if you're doing an original character and world, i would highly recommend giving your readers some worldbuilding and lore to help them invest themselves. people don't know the boundaries of things and while you can have them ask, a little nudge definitely helps.

for a canon blog, i'd pick a specific time period. it'll save you grief if you know who's alive and who isn't, as well as the grief that comes with trying to figure out what you want to change (if you want to change things that is. i like fucking with canon but it really is up to you and the story you want to tell).

you can improvise it as you go, but i do recommend jotting them down somewhere after the fact so you can keep things consistent. up to you though, i just have a piss poor memory lol

figure out if you want to try and do an overarching story, mini stories, or no stories. you don't have to decide right away and you can even decide after you start the blog and get a vibe of what people are interested in, but sometimes it is good to jot them down if they come to you right away.

you're supposed to have fun if you're not having fun don't do it, take a break from the blog or steer it in the direction you want. no one is paying you (i think) so everything you do you should do because you enjoy doing it.

art for an ask blog (if ur doing art if not skip this)

your main character should be easy to recreate on model and most importantly: fun to draw!!! overly complicated character designs are fun in the beginning but after five or more you're going to start to hate them.

i'd also recommend against doing too many tiny "floating" bits, keeping things attached to a body part or in proximity to a space easy to recreate them will save you grief. i learned this the hard way after i kept forgetting all those damn tiny scars i put on my fallen stars!firestar design. in comparison, beanie's design for the blog has a few scars but the placement makes it so they're easy to recreate and draw.

(how i style my reference sheets. do not be me. do not fall into hubris and add so many damn floaty scars to a character that is the main damn character of your goddamn big ass au blog. fucking icarus move lol)

if you introduce a new character, make an easy quick ref sheet for yourself. it'll save you grief and keep things consistent.

i'd also figure out if you want to do colors or no colors. no coloring means you have more time to put effort into sketches and can just move faster if you're looking for something breezy and easy. but colors look good, they make it easier to tell cats apart and are just much nicer on the eyes. if you also have a bigger cast in mind, you can rely on colors a little more than body shapes to make sure everyone can be told apart

i color my sketch lines different colors for different characters on the beanie blog but there are plenty of other ways to make sure characters are told apart! @/askcinders does distinct shapes and different base colors for different characters and lines distinct markings so you can tell whose who.

backgrounds are...difficult. i'd recommend simplicity over complexity and save big backgrounds for "big moments", but it's up to you if you like them! i would just say go simple since the focus of these blogs are the characters.

theeeeennn speech bubbles or no speech bubbles. i like doing doing speech bubbles within the text because it gives me more control of the order the reader will read the dialogue, how they read it, the emotions i can elicit from it, and more fun with how i can place the dialogue. buuuuuut that does mean spacing them, and spacing dialogue bubbles can be a pain since it takes up room if you forget to sketch their placement in the original sketch (which i do. a lot).

so the other option is art and then dialogue underneath directly in the post. this saves you room, makes art probably a lot easier, and circumvents the issue of difficult to read speech bubbles! i do both but it's up to you, both methods are tried and true.

aaannnndd that's all that comes to mind? really it's just about having fun. as you work at it, chances are you'll probably figure out your own individual work style. best of luck (and i'm very excited to see what you come up with)!!!!!!!

#deer rambles

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hookitall · 1 year

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Ok so when I see a company doing something I immediately "we have that at home" it. I just do. I'm not spending 'a corporation I already don't rate highly made the price tag' money to try something I can do in my own kitchen.

This entire post was catalysed by James Hoffmann going to Milan and trying Starbuck's Oleato drinks (olive oil infused). Link: https://youtu.be/XewgO7j6y-E

Which, side note, this feels like the most Italian thing to come out of Italy since Aeneas ate a table and, on that basis, I'm here for it 🇮🇹

I made something like it in my kitchen.

Equipment:

Moka pot (3 cup -130ml/4.4oz- or preference)

Aerolatte wand (I'm sure you could use a whisk if you wanted)

Coffee grinder (mines a cheap-ish vevok chef)

A kettle and stovetop (for the coffee)

Ingredients;

Asda own brand barista style oat milk or your other favourite milk alternative*

Taylors or Harrogate Rich Italian coffee beans

Filippo Berro extra virgin olive oil

Boiled tap water (what do you want from me?)

My three cup moka pot:

I have the Italian tricolour bialetti because I'm just extra like that when it comes to Italian things, and also it was cheaper than the standard one when I bought it. A Moka pot is a Moka pot. Buy the one you like and works for you if you're shopping for one.

If you don't know how to use a Moka pot I follow the method of James Hoffmann's video on it on YouTube. I don't bother with adding a paper filter as I prefer the mouthfeel of a metal filter. Link: https://youtu.be/BfDLoIvb0w4

Coffee:

Taylor's of Harrogate Rich Italian roast beans with the yellow bag and the 4 on the front. Fiver a bag at the supermarket. Really nothing fancy. Any coffee you like, Moka pots prefer darker roasts in general though.

This is advertised as a medium roast (hence the 4/6 number on the front) but it's a lot darker than other medium roast.

Tip: Do buy beans and grind yourself if you can, it's cheaper long term as beans are cheaper than pre-ground and you get a far superior brew that's worth the effort.

Reasoning: I wasn't using anything fancy for a test plus this stuff really shines as a thick heavy medium dark roast without being ashy brewed in a Moka pot as standard.

Oat milk Vs regular, and is barista edition worth it:

In the James Hoffman video where he tries these things he does mention that most of the drinks he tries come as standard with oat milk. Apparently the people at Starbucks think that's the way to go. It makes sense. Adding oil to cows milk is going to taste really fatty and gross.

Do get the barista style oat milk if you can, if you just buy standard oat milk it won't foam as easily and the mouth feel is different unless you're whip it within an inch of its life.

I see no reason you can't use another milk alternative. I'd avoid soya as that would make it sour but almond might add some sweetness to cut the oil. Haven't tried it. Let me know if you do, please.

Coffee grind:

Ground at number 1 setting on my vevok chef hand grinder. If you paid less than £100 for your hand grinder just go as fine as you can or whatever works best for you usually in a Moka pot. Shouldn't be espresso fine, but finer than v20 or AeroPress grind.

Base recipe:

My 'mokuchino' recipe is usually 2:1 barista style oat milk to hot/boiled water whipped up with an Aerolatte wand. Before it's whipped the water and milk usually takes up about 1/3 of my cup, after its foamy about 2/3 of it. Tinker with what you like.

I just added like a quarter of a teaspoon of bog standard Filippo Berro Extra Virgin Olive Oil to that water:milk mix and whipped it into foam.

I pour the Moka coffee on top when it's brewed (all of it, I use a 3 pot because I want more coffee in my coffee- my standard coffee shop order is a 3 shot oat milk cappuccino and that's what I'm recreating here). This is the right recipe for me for a pint mug.

Oil amounts:

The amount of oil in those drink James Hoffman was trying looked like way too much. Olive oil leaves saltiness on the palate which I think is what's counteracting a lot of the bitterness and the sharper sour notes cheap coffee gives you sometimes too. Hence why he was having drinks with a shot of olive oil and I added a quarter of a teaspoon. Your bowels and throat will thank you for cutting the dose; link: https://www.shefinds.com/collections/starbucks-customers-reporting-stomach-issues-olive-oil-infused-coffees/

My drink experience:

So on first drink you don't notice it. It's a smoother but no real taste. Like the difference in mouthfeel between cadburys and galaxy milk chocolate. That makes it a hit in my book.

As it cools to drinkable you really taste the fresh mown grassy-ness of the olive oil. It's weirdly nice. It leaves just a bit of itself on the top of your palette and sits there after the coffee is down your throat.

It also draws out hitherto undiscovered sweetness in a dark roast coffee, and even a little acidity. Not a lot. Just enough to cut through the oily texture so you don't feel greasy. Like it's more of a light to medium roast than dark medium roast. But it keeps the rich full bodied mouth feel and chocolatey taste of a medium-dark roast. Much more milk choc than dark though. There's also a touch of citrus that is definitely from the oil, like the back of the throat feel of the smell of fresh mown grass.

As it cools further you get more oiliness and it really rounds out the bitter sharpness of the coffee that you get from cheap darker roasts as they cool down. Not bad oiliness. It's a 'i just ate an olive before this sip of coffee' oiliness. And even more acidity that you can taste now you don't have the usual mouthful of ash. It leaves the slight sourness in your mouth that tickles as it dissipates. It's a green sourness though, and it's oddly pleasant. I can feel the oil on my lips though. Just a bit. And it is definitely not unpleasant.

If you let it go cold (room temp) you get a lot of acidity. I mean a lot. More like tea than coffee and also a salty aftertaste which weirdly doesn't make me want another drink though. It is not bitter at all. It's full bodied from the texture of the oil, acidic, bright and sweet.

An hour later: yeah, don't drink it cold. It tastes like I'm starting with a sore throat or I've shouted too loud. An astringent taste in the back of my throat. I'm not thirsty even though the saltiness lasted like 20 mins.

Conclusion:

I think this is how you get all the benefits of dark coffee with the brigness of light coffee. Even stone cold it's not unpleasant. I would drink it down at just lukewarm though so you don't get the salty aftertaste and harsh feeling in your throat. It's a very springlike flavour, fresh grass, birds singing, sun bright in the sky kind of coffee.

Honestly, I wouldn't do it to every cup but with your morning brew. Add it. It'll set you up for a pleasant drink as you look out the window and enjoy the early morning signs that spring is in the air, very cheaply, and that tiny bit of olive oil might just help your digestion a bit especially if you're a little sluggish in the morning (not medical advice, YMMV etc).

Is this whole thing utterly ridiculous and so Italian it bleeds red white and green to the bouncy strains of Inno di Mameli? Absolutely🤌

But I see the logic.

Let me see if I can walk you through how I think the development of the idea went.

We all know that generally Starbucks coffee hasn't been so much roasted as cremated and tastes accordingly. That's not a value judgement. It's just a statement of fact. I like medium/dark roast coffees. The Taylors Rich Italian beans i used here are my daily coffee at home. If I had a Starbucks, Caffe Nero, and a Costa in front of me I'd hit Caffe Nero for my fix. I like dark roasts.

That's what I'm getting at here. But Starbucks tastes like ash and the shattered hopes of a plant that tried really really hard and still flunked out of taste school (to me). And if it tastes like that to me, whose palette for coffee is about as refined as a sledgehammer, there is no way Weird Coffee People™️ would be caught dead drinking it with ANY other option on the table (including carrying their own beans and an AeroPress with them).

So we have a company that is famous for the kind of coffee you can use as paint stripper, who temper that with enough sugar to give a horse diabetes (please don't test this, it's a metaphor not an idea), trying to do something to draw in more footfall.

Like, let's be real here. A 16oz Starbucks cappuccino is like 93% sugar and milk by volume. It's a coffee milkshake designed to be so sweet you can't taste the coffee.

We also know that fat in milk and salt both temper sourness and bitterness of over or under extracted coffee. Which means the skill level required to pull an espresso shot that you're going to add a slightly salty fatty thing to before you drown it in sugar and more fat goes to zero. Perfect for a chain store.

So...

Bitter cheap coffee burned to a crisp before it ever reaches the cup, plus sugar, plus more sugar, probably over and/or under extracted, plus oat milk, plus olive oil equals- a very nice drink that anyone who drinks Starbucks is going to think is a revelation.

The olive oil is doing 90% of the heavy lifting of the coffee flavour in a cup you add it to.

How to make burned robusta taste like a light-medium specialty coffee? Add olive oil and oat milk.

Now I've tried it, I have to say. Italy has had coffee for a good few centuries and olive oil for millenia at this point.

At this point the cultural identity of Italy, especially from the outside, is that if you poured out Scipio's helmet it would be the source for three mythical rivers of coffee, olive oil and tomato sauce.

This combination was inevitable. It feels like something that should have been drunk by Da Vinci, Puccini and Luis XVI because someone imported an Italian thing to Versailles and just said it was French; coughoperacough.

I have an image of an Italian telling me (with Italian hands) that of course it works, it's how nonna used to make.

Which begs the question: what took so bloody long? 🤌

#coffee #moka pot #olive oil #dreamwidth crosspost #jokes about italy are made with all love and affection #james hoffmann #Starbucks

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bookofchaos · 2 years

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Week 1 Evaluation of working on Sacred Liminality the comic

This week I overwhelmed myself.

First it started off with excitement!

That snowballed into anxiety.

I let myself get ahead of myself.

I have a lot to learn when it comes to using a digital canvas as a medium. There's even more to learn when it comes to creating comics.

I attempted my first colored piece via cell shading. It's so cool, y'all. But I'm soooooooooooooooooooooo bad at it.

I forgot I needed to use different layers and ended up messing up the piece.

I am still proud of it. It's more than I've ever done! And I definitely learned that I *need* to remember layers are a thing.

I also have so much to remember when it comes to social media.

I have a software I'm using to help me try to keep all of my organization in order... but even so, I'm still having a hell of a time.

Part of this is due to my failing to acknowledge that I require time to set all of this up.

I got plenty done. Two character sketches, one kinda rendered, and a comic strip with 5 panels. Plus, add on setting up and editing multiple different social media platforms to look kinda similar. (Koji, Tumblr, Twitter, Reddit, Imgur, and ComicFury). I even attempted to set up a website. By then, I was way to overwhelmed to get past setting up a basic domain name.

What I've learned is I need to scale back, and I think I'm going to push back the release date. I can put out bad art. That's fine with me. Actually that's one of my goals. Put out bad art. Just put out, honestly. Haha (I'm a sex novel character *wink wink*).

As I revaluate, I think I want to set it up so I have a month to get pages started and inked. This will give me time to also actually practice and learn how to cell shade properly. I also want to do a bit more re-working on the comic page I have. I may post it with this just as a reference for myself of where I started.

I also want time to work on other pieces so I can give my brain a break from working on the comic page. I want to be able to look at it with some freshness before posting. This distance will - hopefully - allow me to critique my art, make changes, and ultimately make it better in the end.

Other things that came up - I'm an anxious bean. I'm horribly scared of what other will think of my work. Like on one hand, I want important people I look up to see it and be like 'Hey, you're a badass,' but I don't want to put out my art because jeezus christ some asshole is gonna say something mean and I'm going to be a bawling sack of tears. (And my run on sentences are strong with this one).

Then there's the lingering issue of feeling like a failure because I am not keeping to my initial time tables I set for myself. Even now I want to cry because it's like 'Fuck, I use to be able to do this.'

Mind you, for reference since many of you know nothing about my life, I am currently thirty. I haven't produced art at a regular rate since high school back in 2008-2011. Because of life, I let my art go. My art is kinda like a time capsule in that way. It still reflects the knowledge my brain and body has of drawing and coloring of a high school student.

While that doesn't bother me because art is just something I can get better at, it does suck when I remember creating as if it was breathing. I would walk into a class, sit down, and doodle or sketch or continue on a project. And it wasn't like I didn't have worries back then. I just could push them to the side. Art would take over, and I'd create.

Now I have to shovel through more of my brain shit before I can start. the process is a bit more stiff. I have to work at doing art... and I know that will change as I progress... but damn man, I'm shaming myself for not having the skills and progress of my 17 year old self.

I've been through worst. This won't stop me of course. I am just in the midst of finding that internal kindness that will help me.

Journaling has always helped. That is part of why I built it into my process. First views and ya know interacting with a creator... All that marketing jazz. But also, like, I kind hope it humanizes me. Maybe someone else will see it and say they've experienced similar. It's always nice to not feel alone.

Creating can be lonely, especially people just starting out on their own. I know I feel alone sometimes. Thankfully, I am strong enough to lean on myself. Haha

I don't really have any special way of ending this other than simple promo stoofs.

Promo Stoofs Ahead

Hey, I'm writing/drawing/promoting a comic. This will be my personal little experiment using my newest deck of cards. Being a bit high, I was illuminated with such a fantastical idea which I am now bestowing (or cursing) upon the internet. I have no idea at the time of writing this what the plot will be, who will be the main characters, nor what words shall be spoken. Accompanying each tarot inspired panel shall also be optional written pieces connecting each panel via delicately chosen (or incredibly rushed) words for thine eyes to feast upon. Come along and enjoy the chaos as we both discover the next panel together.

As of now the comic won't be dropping until Dec 21st, 2022 or in pagan terms - Yule! I'm hoping to gift - possibly curse - the world with my art (and myself with a well created comic). Anything I release before then will be of course promotional in nature.

(Wheel of the year reference below for anyone new to pagan holidays. Stevie Storck Artist.)

I do have other social media. Check my link tree out as I also will be posting on YouTube concerning connecting spirituality and art.

I really do appreciate you stopping by!

Have a lovely day.

Keep creatin'!

#witchcraft #paganism #chaos witch #chaos witchcraft #diary #dungeons & dragons #tarot #spirituality #wheel of the year #yule #comic #my comic #my artwork #comics

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the-judge-of-bones · 3 years

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Reapertale AU and base differences

Sans --> Reaper/Espresso

- First things first, Reaper or as much of the multiverse knows him as ‘Espresso’ because when the fuck isn’t this cynic showing up late with a cup of Starbucks. The answer is never, But regardless, Reaper is a full on God, Specifically the god of violent death (Papyrus, his brother is the god of merciful death). He is the one who handles the death’s of people who refuse to move on whether it because they died suddenly, Unjustly or believe it wasn’t ‘their time yet’. He will still reap them with impunity because he failed only once, Hesitated to reap someone and has managed to cause a terrible problem for everyone as a result.

- He has a hard time understanding ‘life’ and used to think that the goddess of life in her distant absence was a selfish, Sadistic god, Watching as her magic brought a baby back to life at the same time he ended the mother’s. He wondered at the time if she knew that her magic of life was so powerful that it made those gifted with it cry. His view on life held true with believing that magic despite hers being so soft and gentle, It let people life only to suffer and to eventually die...it seemed odd to him because often all he ever got to see was suffering. The dead, the dying and the begging of souls who didn’t want to move on.

- That was until he met her, He finds it ironic that it was death who was first to find life, She showed him a side to things that he hadn’t seen before. Whether it be the soft chirping of birds contrasted with the cawing of crows, She gave him a noticeable shift in his puns from the dark to the more positive side of things since he found he enjoyed hearing her laugh. Even so, He had a hard time understanding why mortals would go so far as to risk entering his and his brother’s realm, The underworld. To ‘rescue’ their deceased loved ones. Often to meet their own fates down there until she gave him the example of ‘what if she disappeared, what if she was taken away’

- Reaper gets angry and frustrated with emotions he doesn’t understand (Usually positive ones), he can’t stand thinking these ‘illogical’ emotions. He can’t afford to be illogical like a mortal, to think he’d give something up. Possibly anything up to get her back if he had to since he’s never had anyone to lose before? it scared him. His favorite flower is the white lily which was given to him by toriel (Although he accidentally wilted the first one) and she made him a stained glass version after that. As it’s a flower traditionally used by mortals to honor the death, He’s asked her occasionally for more flowers on the occasion so he has a small collection of stained glass flowers that he’ll pull out to look at. Toriels are the most special but he likes to collect other glass objects from various timelines because they don’t wilt.

- He experienced his first true gentle rainfall with toriel, His only other experience had been harsh rains and stormy seas so to feel the gentle plips of water on his skull, Well he’s basically fallen in love with the rainy weather ever since.

- While both he and his brother run the underworld together, His brother does a lot of the majority because he’s just better at it, He’s kinder and keeps things going while sans has always been better at judging the weight of the souls and whether they suffer in torment or move to possible rebirth in elysium one day. Also he has a dog, A three headed skeletal blaster dog who’s technically named ‘spot’ who helps keeps souls from leaving the underworld and living people from entering it.

- Reaper has a ‘death touch’ and this means in the exception of anti-voids or blank spaces (Error/Alter, Ink, Nightmare, etc-), He can’t touch living things or they will die. As a result, He has Haphephobia or the fear of touch/touching people because he’s so unused to being touched/touching (Other gods can touch him without harm/other beings in anti-voids or blank spaces) and it tends to make him jump despite desperately craving it. He’ll eventually get better at controlling his deathly touch and general death aura but he doesn’t want to cause any ‘accidents’

#May only death do us a happy farewell (Reapertale AU ~ Sans)#//i may edit this later to add all of the other gods featured in reapertale #//but who knows #//we'll see how ambitious i am tomorrow #//edit: now that i've written all this info up #//i won't edit this post but if i do add the other beans #//they'll be on a separate post

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lebrookestore · 3 years

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Thank You and Presents?

Welcome to this semi-chaotic, passive aggressive post. I spent a good hour on this, so you mfs better read.

I've decided to combine these two posts, considering they go hand in hand, so bear with me.

I've been here for a month, and I've made so many new friends, read some amazing fics, and actually made friends with some of my writing inspirations themselves, which I cant even begin to comprehend so I won't try.

I've released four fics, two were shorter, but the ones I'm really proud of- Little Princess and Poison and Petals-i still can't believe I sat my ass down and started writing. This year has been a shit one, but never would I have thought I would start writing fanfiction. Let alone the long ass fics I write please.

So hitting 100 followers is even more of a foreign concept, but thank you so much! I'm bewildered that people actually ready my shit and the fact some want to be tagged in stuff, and the fact it's only been a month? What is reality-

And some of y'all see my shit posts and deal with me- to that I say God bless you and your patience. You have to be some sort of heavenly being amen.

Honestly, some of y'all actually helped me through a lot of shit, and some even encouraged me with my first fic, which was the start of these shenanigans( whether this was a good idea or not, we shall never know)

Basically, thank you so much, it means a lot to me, it really makes my day when I see w new follow, or a reblog, or someone liking my shit posts about simping (I am sorry my dude) .

Now, since the year is ending, thank god, I've decided to give my moots presents, since I've seen a lot of people do this (originality went ✨yeet✨) and it's also like a thank you and appreciation message of sorts. Also because I'm nice.

Let the chaos begin:

@alicanta77 my first moot, and literally one of my biggest inspirations fir writing, she was with me when I was writing Poison and Petals, and encouraged me with everytime I hit a roadblock, or was feeling tired with it. She's such a talented writer, and her series are very well thought out. They deserve so much more love, because the effort, the plot, everything is immaculate, and felix, babe, I love you to death.

@danishmiilk my second moot on this hellhole and I hate you but I love you so I guess pemdas cancels that out. She is an amazing writer, her fics too deserve more attention. I honestly don't know what I would do without this bitch, we run the culture cafe together, and I'm such a dumbass at coding, but she does it(even if she does forget to add the https, but we won't talk about that okay) and she matches my chaotic energy perfectly. She's definitely not annoying (I wrote that with a straight face my dude, be proud), and I would do anything for her so yeah ily bye

@astroboy-lele furOU THE 40 YEAR OLD MAN ON FACEBOOK- I'm sorry, not really, oh well. Another underrated writer, her fics are really good too, and she was the one who encouraged me to start the net, and gave me the idea of a dark cafe aesthetic. She helped me with a lot of shit there too, and is a really good listener.

@orange-nimon-cross I scared as fuck of yunha, but I also love her. Shes honest and blunt af and I love that about her. She always gives me honest, actually helpful feedback a d if probably the first person I'd go to for said feedback. She deserves way more credit for her writing, its amazing, and her poetry? They're beautiful and deep and ineish I could write like that.

@rouiyan MISS REE ANOTHER WRITING INSPO AND A GREAT FRIEND honestly I met her and we just vibed tbh. She too helped me with my first fic by encouraging me, and I love her to death too. Very happy ahes back from hiatus, all my fists of love for you babe!

@yvezs mila I have no fucking clue what your posts mean half the time, but I love you anyways okay, you already know so I'm not gonna bother writing a long ass para, I'll annoy you later

@heartyyjeno ALESHA! honestly, she's so sweet, and her asks literally brighten up my day. Her writing is also amazing and just ugh, I love you and get very happy everytime I see you.

@moonbeamsung HANNAH BBY YOU'RE SO CUTE I LOVE YOU SO MUCH OMG you're the sweetest bean ever and your writing is the bomb.com. I hope we can get closer, because you never fail to make me feel better, or brighten up my day with a message or an ask.

@radiorenjun angie my fellow simp and hard stan letS GO- I know she's not always online, but she's always there when I need to simp, or when I need help with important descisions (what pic I should chose fir my lockcreen, for example) she's always there to simp for ten with me and our convos are questionable (she's seen my dark dark gallery man. If that's not friendship idk what it) . If you do want to summon her though, I suggest typing renjun or ten in a message, all caps.

@channoticedmeuwu kai. *heavy sigh* this bitch is honestly one of the best people, like she deals with ny shit posts, replIES TO THEM and even deals with my excessive simping like damn what angel are you (the fallen one, jK-) she also likes simping with me, even called for help once(it failed, but it's the thought that counts. She even tried helping me when my laptop fucked me over, which, surprise, it still is, but we barely even knew each other at the time?? How amazing is that?? But bitch stay the fuck away from taeyong thanks hyuck is the waiting.

@loonacitys I MET YOU TWO DAYS AGO BUT I ALREADY LOVE YOU WE LIVE I'M THE SAME DAMN CITY BYE OMG and she matches my crack head humour *cough* tHe gRoUp *cough* so yes another amazing hooman bean.

@sweetlyjaem she SIMPED WITH ME AMEN-

@ppangjae literally one of my biggest inspos for writing, I read seven letters and was inspired to pick up little princess again after it was sitting dying in a dark corner of google Docs for three days. Alex is so sweet, she didn't mind my chaotic awkward ass, and dealt with the long ass asks and the dozen of messages I sent her.

@kdongyoung ro is so sweet and chaotic I love it. Her edits are *chefs kiss* and she made my beautiful header which I will flex everytime I get the chance. We've not talked that much, but I still love you okay.

Moots I wanna know better-@jungwooisms @du0tine @moonttaeil @fruityutas @ooyoungs

I LOVE YOU ALL AND THANK YOU BYE

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wittypenguin · 5 years

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The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

This is a broken film which was supposed to be the amazing follow-up to Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane. People who saw the rough version of 2½ hours thought it was a much better film than Citizen Kane in every way possibles with the final scene being a sad but incredible moment in movie-making history, and a scene which Mr Welles never equalled in his career. That version will never be seen. This post is as uneven as the film, but I can’t blame Studio Executives for that.

Brilliant. Simply brilliant.

George Minafer (played by Tim Holt) is a first class shit head of an asshole. He treats everyone so badly I’m surprised he came back from College with all of his limbs.

Eugene: [0:42:00] I'm not sure George is wrong about automobiles. With all their speed forward they may be a step backward in civilization. May be that they won't add to the beauty of the world or the life of the men's souls, I'm not sure. But automobiles have come and almost all outwards things will be different because of what they bring. They're going to alter war and they're going to alter peace. And I think men's minds are going to be changed in subtle ways because of automobiles. And it may be that George is right. May be that in ten to twenty years from now that if we can see the inward change in men by that time, I shouldn't be able to defend the gasoline engine but agree with George - that automobiles had no business to be invented.

Set in the very earliest of days of the horseless carriage’s development, this is so very prescient.

After 30 minutes of film setting the circumstances of the world in place, we arrive at George’s Life Changing Event: the death of his father, Wilbur Minafer, who we’ve only heard speak two sentences, I believe (he had more, but they were cut, much to the consternation of a thus-uncredited Don Dillaway, probably).

Right around the sixty minute mark, however, things get pretty compressed. Isabel Amberson Minafer and George are off to travel the world and never return, go to Paris, then Isabel’s health fails, they do return to town, and then she dies. All in about 10 minutes. That’s a lot of material in so little screen time, and most of it is delivered by people who explain what they saw happen, not us actually seeing it ourselves.

There are a couple of huge jumps in the time-line which are each covered with about 10 seconds of film and perhaps 20 words of dialogue. Stuff like ‘gosh, isn’t it sad that Billy fell down the well?’ are fine to set up an episode of Lassie, but when you use something akin to that in order to replace five years or more of character development, the viewer certainly feels cheated. Well, I did, anyway.

Then, at 1:22:00, we see George praying at his mother’s bed, and the VO says he has his comeuppance. Right there, at 1:23:30, this should be the end.

George Minafer gets hit by an automobile — the infernal thing he said he despised. He now has no income to support his Aunt at all.

And — Goddamn — the final scene is the purplest thing you’ve ever seen.

Agnes Moorehead [above] and Tim Holt [below] in The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) — — — —

See, originally, the thing was a good 50 minutes longer, but Mr Welles left the film in the hands of his editor, Robert Wise, while he zoomed off to the next project, shooting his ⅔ of a portmanteau documentary film in Brazil called It’s All True, which was to be his 3rd film as stipulated in his contract for RKO. When the studio looked at The Magnificent Ambersons in its rough working length of 50% more than they bargained for, they told Mr Wise to get cutting. So, Mr Wise consulted with Mr Welles just before he left the country, making those few cuts he knew about. The deal was that the studio would pack a Moviola (a film viewer thing used for editing purposes that looks like part of one of the old ‘watch a movie inside a wooden box!’ things at penny arcades and so on), a working print of the film in its extant form, and some editing people, onto a ship or an æroplane to Mr Welles in Brazil. That didn’t happen, because by this point the US had entered WWII and it was nearly impossible for either Mr Wise or an editing assistant (a ‘cutter,’ in cinema parlance) to fly to Mr Welles, or vice versa, owing to travel rationing. A telephone line was set up specifically to aid in consulting with the director (this was 80 years ago, after all), but the story goes that the studio supervisor told to liaise with Mr Welles avoided answering the phone when it rang, specifically to avoid the input, plus a series of written communiques were crumpled up and thrown away without even being read. So, Mr Wise, in consultation with the studio as well as star Joseph Cotten, were forced to start guessing as to how to proceed. He cut a bunch of stuff, then shot some quick coverage to paper over the gaps in the story. The end result is that Mr Welles didn’t speak to Mr Wise for decades, was angry at his long-time friend Mr Cotton for a bit, and this episode probably cemented in the director his life-long distrust of Studio Big-Wigs as nothing but a bunch of meddling bean counters who wouldn’t know a good movie if they got their dicks caught in the sprocket holes of it.

I like to think that last sentence would have made him laugh.

The performances of everyone are incredible. Tim Holt shows that he’s not just the western star which he was known as at the time; he’s capable of nuanced and sophisticated characters as well. Agnes Moorehead, as Geiorge’s Aunt Fanny Minafer, is an example of how an actor can make bold, large choices and be entirely believable in a film setting; her ‘mad scene’ is riveting. This film really is the story of these two characters, and how they cope with a changing landscape of financial challenge and circumstances. =Had the film not been gutted, we would have been able to see more of them, and that is the greatest loss to my mind.

On its original release, the film was shown on at least one occasion as a second feature on a double bill with Mexican Spitfire Sees a Ghost (1942). The second feature. Brother!

Sadly, a reconstruction of the film as it was intended isn’t possible in the way other films of his have been — eg: Touch of Evil — because the footage excised was either destroyed or thrown away.

[left to right] Richard Bennett, Agnes Moorehead, Tim Holt, and Ray Collins in The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) — — — —

To add insult to injury, the Brazilian ‘good will’ documentary aimed at welcoming the South American neighbour into the arms of the US & Allied forces, It’s All True, was never completed: only about ⅓ of its footage survived (probably 200,000ft of Technicolor® nitrate was tossed into the Pacific in the 1960s or ‘70s, and there was much more than that originally), and the stuff that has survived was mostly repurposed in the DesiLu Productions stock film library. So there’s two films in a row that didn’t happen correctly, the second of which didn’t happen at all. There’s a documentary about It’s All True available and it’s worth your attention, as the last ⅓ or so is a reconstruction of the story of 4 guys who sailed on a raft thousands of kilometres to lobby the Brazilian government for basic rights to be extended to people in the outer reaches of the country. It’s only got some sound effects and music, but unlike ‘silent films,’ there are no inter-titles for dialogue. Mr Welles essentially invented a whole new filmmaking technique.

[left to right] Tim Holt and Agnes Moorehead in The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) — — — —

The films of Mr Welles are basically a list of ‘things which didn’t get made at all,’ punctuated by ‘things which weren’t finished’ and ‘things which others messed around with.’ Thankfully there’s a few works which he made and have his vision properly realized. Those are cherished.

Watching the first hour of this film is the last sort… and then it becomes someone else’s picture. Alas.

★★★★☆

#The Magnificent Ambersons #orson welles #Criterion Collection #masterpieces ruined #review #film #cinema

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