mr. mistoffelees on his way to go save old deuteronomy

4 Pro Tips For Powder Skiing: Mastering the Art of Riding Fresh Snow

Powder skiing offers an exhilarating adventure for snow enthusiasts seeking the ultimate thrill on the slopes. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced skier, mastering the art of riding fresh powder can take your skills to the next level. Here are four pro tips to help you conquer the mountains and make the most of your powder skiing experience:

Choose the Right Equipment: The key to successful powder skiing begins with selecting the appropriate gear. Opt for wider skis with a rockered design to help you stay afloat in deep snow. Additionally, adjustable ski bindings and sturdy boots with adequate ankle support are essential for navigating challenging terrain. Investing in high-quality equipment tailored to powder skiing can significantly enhance your performance and overall enjoyment on the slopes.

Master Technique: Powder skiing requires a unique set of skills to navigate through soft, fluffy snow effectively. Focus on maintaining a balanced stance with your weight centered over your skis to maximize control and stability. Keep your turns smooth and fluid, allowing your skis to carve effortlessly through the powder. Practice maintaining a consistent rhythm and tempo, adjusting your speed as needed to adapt to changing snow conditions. Remember to use your poles for added balance and leverage when maneuvering through deeper snow.

Read the Terrain: Understanding the terrain is crucial for safe and enjoyable powder skiing. Take time to assess the slope's angle, contours, and potential hazards before making your descent. Look for natural features such as ridges, trees, and rocks that can provide additional stability and opportunities for creative lines. Be mindful of hidden obstacles beneath the snow's surface, such as stumps or branches, and plan your route accordingly. As you gain experience, experiment with different lines and approaches to find the most rewarding paths down the mountain.

Embrace the Experience: Powder skiing offers a unique opportunity to connect with nature and immerse yourself in the beauty of the mountains. Take time to savor the moment and appreciate the pristine surroundings as you glide effortlessly through the snow. Don't be afraid to challenge yourself and step outside your comfort zone – the sense of accomplishment that comes from conquering new terrain is truly unparalleled. Above all, remember to have fun and enjoy the thrill of riding fresh powder with friends and fellow enthusiasts.

By incorporating these pro tips into your powder skiing repertoire, you can elevate your skills and confidence on the slopes while unlocking new levels of excitement and adventure. Whether you're carving through untouched powder or tackling steep chutes, mastering the art of powder skiing is an experience like no other. So gear up, hit the slopes, and prepare to embark on an unforgettable journey through winter's wonderland.

About White Grizzly: White Grizzly is one of the oldest cat-skiing operations in the world, offering authentic mountain experiences since 1998. Nestled in the breathtaking landscapes of Nelson, BC, our passionate team of backcountry enthusiasts is dedicated to providing guests with unforgettable adventures in the heart of the Canadian Rockies. With a focus on safety, professionalism, and personalized service, we invite you to join us for an epic powder skiing experience that will leave you craving more

Nestled in the heart of British Columbia's majestic mountains, Revelstoke is a paradise for skiing and snowboarding enthusiasts. From epic powder runs to breathtaking alpine vistas, Revelstoke offers an unforgettable winter experience. And if you're seeking the ultimate adventure, don't miss out on cat skiing Revelstoke with White Grizzly, one of the premier cat-skiing operations in the world.

1. Revelstoke's Legendary Powder Playground

Revelstoke is renowned for its abundant snowfall, earning its place as a mecca for powder hounds worldwide. Whether you're carving through pristine powder fields or tackling challenging terrain, Revelstoke's legendary snow conditions guarantee an exhilarating ride for skiers and snowboarders of all levels.

2. Cat Skiing Revelstoke: A Backcountry Adventure Like No Other

For the ultimate off-piste experience, venture into Revelstoke's backcountry with cat skiing Revelstoke. White Grizzly's expert guides will lead you to untouched powder stashes, where you can carve your own tracks through the wilderness. It's an adrenaline-fueled adventure that promises unforgettable moments and breathtaking views.

3. Exploring Revelstoke Mountain Resort

Revelstoke Mountain Resort offers endless opportunities for skiing and snowboarding enthusiasts. With North America's longest vertical descent, skiers and snowboarders can enjoy a variety of terrain, from groomed runs to steep chutes and gladed tree runs. Plus, Revelstoke's modern amenities and cozy mountain village create the perfect après-ski atmosphere.

4. Embracing Revelstoke's Alpine Beauty

Beyond the slopes, Revelstoke boasts stunning alpine scenery that's worth exploring. Take a scenic helicopter tour to witness panoramic views of snow-capped peaks, or embark on a snowshoeing adventure to discover hidden winter wonders. Revelstoke's natural beauty is sure to leave you in awe.

5. White Grizzly: Your Gateway to Revelstoke's Backcountry

White Grizzly is your trusted partner for cat skiing Revelstoke adventures. Since its establishment in 1998, White Grizzly has established itself as a pioneer in the field of cat-skiing, boasting a rich history and extensive experience in providing unparalleled mountain adventures. Their commitment to safety and guest experience ensures that every cat skiing excursion is a memorable and exhilarating experience.

Experience the Magic of Revelstoke

Whether you're seeking adrenaline-pumping descents or serene moments in nature, Revelstoke offers something for everyone. With cat skiing Revelstoke adventures led by White Grizzly, you'll discover the true essence of winter in the Canadian Rockies.

Don't miss out on the opportunity to explore Revelstoke's winter wonderland. Book your cat skiing Revelstoke adventure with White Grizzly today and embark on a journey you'll never forget.

Book Your Cat Skiing Revelstoke Adventure with White Grizzly

Yknow what. Drawing their stage costumes is fun

A Comprehensive List of Cats Bootlegs on Youtube

Hey y’all, so yesterday someone was saying how they wish they had been informed of Cats Moscow being up on youtube. After seeing this, it occurred to me that many people might not know of several boots that are on youtube, so I thought I’d make this list with links to each show to help some people out. Please note that this is not EVERY boot on youtube, just the ones I’ve come across, so there might be more that I missed. Fyi, this list does not include high school productions or amateur productions. Also please note that I myself did not upload any of these lol, I just found them, many of them have been online for several years.

Cats Vienna 1989/1990

Cats Paris 1990

Cats Zurich 1991/1992 Part 1 | Cats Zurich 1991/1992 Part 2 |

Cats Zurich 1991/1992 Part 2/1? (these are the missing bits from part 2, ending bit of Growltiger/Gus, start of Skimble) | Cats Zurich 1991/1992 Part 3 

Zurich IS a complete boot, it’s just cut up weirdly because it seems the vhs was glitching at some points while be recorded. There’s moments where the video lags and jumps around (end of pekes and pollicles and start of Jellicle ball jumps a lot, but everything is there), nothing major is missing other than the Growltiger fight scene. Also, EPIC PLATORICOPAT MOMENTS DURING BUSTOPHER JONES, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Cats Buenos Aires 1993

Cats Budapest 2001 Act 1 | Cats Budapest 2001 Act 2 (Warning: strobe lights are used quite a lot during some of Grizabella’s entrances).

I should also mention that Budapest is a non-replica, so the costuming and characters are pretty different. Special guests appear in Act 2, I think they are original cast members from when the show first opened in Hungary. However, the special guests are not in costume when they come on stage, which might be bothersome to people but I just thought it was funny.

Cats Madrid 2004 Part 1 | Cats Madrid 2004 Part 2 (Warning: THIS IS NOT THE COMPLETE MADRID BOOT! The channel didn’t upload all of it, part 2 stops about halfway through Skimbleshanks.)

Cats Moscow 2005 Act 1 | Cats Moscow 2005 Act 2 (I know this was the one people already discussed, but just in case people didn’t see the original post, I wanted to put it here).

Cats Moscow 2005 (This is a separate recording with zooms, the previous recording, the one above this one, is filmed showing the full stage with some minor zooms to showcase the main action).

Cats Boston 2007 Act 1 | Cats Boston 2007 Act 2 (This is the US Tour 5, Troika production).

Cats UK Tour 2013 Act 1 | Cats UK Tour 2013 Act 2

Cats Broadway Mega Edit | This is a fanmade bootleg of the original Broadway production of Cats done by @rumplteazer​​! Made using available footage, audio, and pictures of the original Broadway run. An actual Broadway bootleg doesn’t seem to exist as far as anyone knows (except for that professional taping the NYPL is holding hostage), so this is the next best thing if you want to see the original Broadway production of Cats!

Even though everybody knows about it already, I might as well link the playlist for the 2016 Broadway Revival too, since I’m already this far lol. Hopefully this list was helpful to someone. Feel free to add more if y’all know of any others, I’ll probably update this if I find more boots on youtube.

Edit: Cats Zurich, Madrid, and the Broadway fan edit have been added! There’s also a list of places to watch Cats here, which was based off of this post here, they include Cats St. Louis, as well as the 1998 film and the 2019 movie. I didn’t know people had already made lists when I originally put this together, so I’m trying to give credit where credit is due. 

FEATURE: Why You Never Get Sick of Seeing Char Aznable Ruin Garma’s Life

  Today marks infamous Gundam villain and completely-innocent-man Char Aznable's birthday. What better way to celebrate than showcasing the Red Comet's love for good-natured betrayal? While Char might currently hold the title of anime’s most prolific back-stabbers, one classic case of betrayal continues to stay fresh in fans 'minds: the tragic tale of Garma Zabi. It's time to take a trip down memory lane.

  Even Pretty Hair Won't Save You From Sweet, Sweet Revenge

  During Mobile Suit Gundam’s original broadcast, little was known of Char or his backstory. Char’s initial appeal was undoubtedly his indisputable combination of fearlessness and mystery. Unlike all the other Zeon goons, Char wore a mask for undisclosed reasons, further adding to his allure. Besides a chance encounter with Sayla in Episode 2, everything and everyone about Char and his relations was totally up for interpretation. Until Gundam’s fifth episode aired on May 5th, 1979. Suddenly, Char had a friend and ally. His name was Garma, and he had nothing to blame except the misfortune of his birth.

  Char and Garma return to a hero's welcome

  “Re-Entry to Earth” begins a series of events that both lead to Gundam’s first major arc involving Char requesting the Zabi family's aid, Zeon’s most powerful asset. Up to this point, everything had been a game of cat and mouse between Char and White Base — an obvious fight between good and “evil.” However, the introduction of Garma signals the series pivoting from one-and-done episodic conflicts. Garma is not just a bad guy, but a bad guy with an implied backstory related to Char! And yet, something seems off. Char isn’t just playing dirty against obvious good guys or lasers now. He’s playing the political game.

  After several failed attempts to capture White Base, Char offers Garma a chance to claim Amuro’s Gundam for himself under a strategic guise. Garma naturally takes the bait, depicted as selfish and vain in ways Char’s charisma can control. While both are hungry for clout and power, Char ultimately emerges the victor by guiding Garma’s forces directly into White Base’s line of fire. Garma crashes to his death in a fiery blaze, only barely putting together the pieces when it’s too late. This is when Char reveals his true intent: to destroy the Zabi family from the inside out. This classic betrayal isn’t just about Garma, but as Char announcing himself as a whole new class of anime villain with unprecedented nuance.

  Innovating the meaning of "friendly fire" since 1979

  Variations on a Theme

  While Garma’s death sets off a chain of increasingly escalating events in Mobile Suit Gundam’s Universal Century timeline, this is specifically an early series watershed. And, of course, it’s also a huge meme. Theatrical screenings of 2016’s Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: December Sky film included a short animated PSA depicting Char and Garma on their cellphones reminding guests to mind theater etiquette. The two tease each other with catchphrases from Mobile Suit Gundam’s tenth episode, “Garma’s Fate.” The phrase “Hattana, Char!” or “you betrayed me, Char!” has become relentlessly parodied in everything from merchandise and boxed cookies to official parody manga like Mobile Suit Gundam-san. Garma’s classic quote has now become shorthand for Char (or anyone else) unexpectedly screwing someone over.

  Local man ruins everything (Source: Gundam 0079: The War for Earth, Screenshots taken by Blake Planty)

  Perhaps the strangest depiction of Garma’s betrayal is the 1996 FMV game Gundam 0079: The War for Earth. While exclusively released in Japan, this title used American actors and roughly adapted the first ten episodes of Mobile Suit Gundam. The title included many English-language firsts for this franchise entry specifically — including a delightfully hammy rendition of Garma’s famous last words: “Char, you craven traitor!” whereas the Japanese-dub preserves the classic line. Other versions of Garma’s final blazing moments of glory include the long-running strategy game series Gihren’s Greed. The 1998 title and its sequels depict a more mature Garma attempting to pacify Zeon if the player manages to have him survive Char’s sabotage. The 2001 Playstation 2 game Mobile Suit Gundam: Journey to Jaburo provides one of the first accurate depictions of Garma dubbed in English, this time translating the famous line as: "Char, this time you double-crossed me!" While these variations on canon never change the essential arc of Char’s first major betrayal, they nonetheless suggest a long-lasting fascination with a one-note character. With each revisit to classic Gundam, inevitably something new is always added.

  Garma after Char gives him the bad news (Source: Mobile Suit Gundam: Journey to Jaburo, screenshot by Blake Planty)

  Getting Back to Basics

  Garma’s popularity could possibly be attributed to how unexpected Char’s betrayal was at the time, especially for a pioneering series like Gundam. Garma’s always been a plot device, albeit one that got a surprising amount of development (five whole episodes!) before his demise. It wasn’t until classic Gundam character designer Yoshikazu Yasuhiko began serializing Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin in 2001 that Garma finally got his narrative due. In this adaptation of the original series, a new arc was added about Char's previously mentioned academy days. Unlike the previous iterations of Char’s epic betrayal, this re-telling serves double-duty in developing Garma and Char’s shared megalomaniac tendencies. Char encourages a notably docile Garma to start a student uprising and in the process, plants all the right manipulative seeds to make his master plan work years later. It’s mind games all the way down.

  Garma speaks to Char after the Battle of Loum

  In an interview regarding his performance as Garma in The Origin’s OVA adaptation, voice actor Tetsuya Kakihara commented, “If I ended up portraying Garma as that epitome of a ‘spoiled kid,’ he'd end up a truly saccharine character.” Kakihara added that, had he played Garma without “a bit of mischievousness” Garma wouldn’t believably buy into Char’s plans nor “come together” as a character with a strong sense of pride. The Origin’s depiction of Garma would have to match up to Shuichi Ikeda’s reprising his original role as Char with the audience very well knowing how it all ends. In other words — portraying Garma as two-dimensional and vain as he was in 1979 simply won't do when everyone knows the beats. The Origin isn't exactly coy about this, either. After Garma happily introduces himself to Char as his new roommate, the scene immediately cuts to an explosion on a battlefield as Char laughs. Best. Friends. Forever.

  Mood 

  Mobile Suit Gundam is a story that never gets old. No matter how many times it’s told, it’s always exciting to see how classic material gets reimagined over the years. While Garma’s betrayal might’ve been shocking the first time, it’s now just another part of the ebb and flow of Gundam lore. Yet, there’s excitement every time you know it’s coming — the same way audiences still anticipate Darth Vader telling Luke he’s his father. When "the moment" happens, it's all the sweeter for being the culmination of something bigger than itself. It’s not just a win for Char, but a win for Gundam’s talent for making nearly 41 years of twists feel as fresh as ever.

  Who are your favorite Gundam besties? Let us know in the comments below!

      Blake P. is a weekly columnist for Crunchyroll Features. How come Casval and Char are never in the same room together? His twitter is @_dispossessed. His bylines include Fanbyte, VRV, Unwinnable, and more.

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

CATS 2019 vs CATS 1998 RANT (Sorry not sorry)

(This is my opinion and youre allowed to disagree or love the remake bc live your life)

So I watched the Cats remake and I HATE IT OOOOMGGG 😂 Tbf Im heavily comparing it to the 1998 play which may or may not be unfair BUT WOW

totally misrepresents most the characters, ruins the "story", has HIGH KEY problematic parts(fat jokes? really??! IN 2019??!!), AND its fucking boring.

How do you have all that fancy cgi and manage to make the cats look, move, and act LESS like actual cats than the stage play did. WHY GO THAT ROUTE IF YOU WERENT PREPARED TO COMMIT

For all the hype of "horniness" it wasnt sexy? Everyone just jerkin about and presenting the "sex" like a brick to the face or with awkward insecurity. Like we all been there but I think we can agree its NOT SEXY? (Skimbleshanks you get a pass)

The delicate impossible languidly of the dancers in the stage play occasionally and casually groping on each other...? THAT'S sexy.

And just ALL the subtley of the story is gone. Not that the original had much story, but it was told mysteriously and paced for IMPACT. Also there were ways to make more of a plot without RUINING THE BEST PARTS

Mistoffelees what have they done to you?! First the movie just reveals who he is right of the bat, which ok fine, whatever. It was damn magical in the stage play the way you have no idea until his big scene. But whatever.

BUT THEN THEY MAKE HIM A WIMP?! FUCK OFFF! The best part about his character was that, despite appearances, he WASNT a wimp. That he has this bitch boy personality but also KNOWS HE'S GREAT

That he's someone you notice the whole show and seems undeservedly self-important and cocky but then TURNS IT OUT and saves the day bc SURPRISE he's MAGIC!! And his entire smug attitude leading up makes 100% sense

and seeing him glowing at being recognized and getting to show off and also his affection and silliness, where earlier in the plot comes off more like sucking up, is revealed to be genuine and heartfelt.

that he's been said to be an adolescent cat is adorable! Makes his cocky, try-hard, yet loving and eager character that much more relatable and true to how young people are a bit messy due to still figuring themselves out

and just the whole idea that he's small and clever and downplays his true powers to appear unassuming while at the same time being fully aware of what he's capable of - is such a nod to him being a magician and the illusions required for the "tricks"

ABSOLUTELY MOVED BY WHAT A BEAUTIFUL COMPLEX CHARACTER HE IS

Remake took that and said NOPE now he's a wet noodle with no confidence and the other cats basically have to beg him to save the day

In the original he COULDNT WAIT to save the day. He was ready to jump in for his moment anytime and does in fact jump the gun a few times, resulting in cringe for him, and when he finally lands it the SATISFACTION of it all is contagious.

Remake decided that they were gonna tell the same cliche story they always do oh boo hoo insecure character gets to save the day bc people believe in him and look he's the love interest now bc we want to make sure everyone knows main characters are always hetero and are required to fall in love and the nerd always gets the girl (no shade to anyone who enjoys that narrative, it's valid, but it's not the ONLY narrative and Im TIRED)

Personally offended they made Mistoffelees main character and love interest. Mistoffelees is a wild card chaotic side character HOW DARE THEY ROB HIM

Munkustrap should have been the love interest?! He's clearly the "main character" or "leader" of the Cats musical?? And there was no big fight scene between Munkustrap and Macavity?! Im just.... how do you see a story, see the two biggest climaxes of the show, and totally remove one and turn the other one into a soggy paper towel

IF NOTHING ELSE the Cats remake should have been an epic fight between Munkustrap and Macavity, and Mistoffelees razzle dazzling in the end with a spectacular display of magic. YOU COULD MAKE EVEYTHING ELSE TERRIBLE and those two scenes would save the whole movie. How... how was that missed?

Alright, Ok, Im done. I think that's the most of what I was horrified by. And there are some pretty great critics out there about the heinous crimes committed against other characters which I agree with

If you love the broadway musical Cats and havent seen the remake yet, well.... remember when they made an Avatar the Last Airbender movie? Yeah. It's like that.

Apparently the sets were all real and not cgi so that's impressive tho ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

THE END may my soul know peace

I'm bored off my ass, so here's what going on in my life as of Sunday, September 27, 2020 at 11:44 pm.

- Still working from "home." (Grandparents' house, but close enough 🤷🏻‍♀️).

- work finally picked back up, I had been working one to two days (3-6 hours) a week due to cancellations and whatever else. I managed to get 20 hours this week.

- Herman, my cat has been less than helpful. Nothing like being tethered to your laptop by your headset and your cat decides to start clawing the furniture and you cannot reach him. I'm pretty sure they call monitors that still have to listen to us are getting a great kick of me yelling at my cat between phone calls. "Stop licking the floor you weirdo!" must be a favorite by now. I'm still waiting for him to loudly MEOW right into the microphone as I'm doing a survey.

- one of my great aunts (in her 90s) passed away. She had been declining for a while for a while. Not to be Debbie Downer, but her husband and one of her sisters don't seem far behind. (Maybe a few years at best 🤷🏻‍♀️). It's weird, in a a way, to see people you saw as the grown-ups, those who knew how to handle everything and knew what was what - get OLD. It puts a certain perspective on where you and those closest to you are in life. One day, everyone you looked up to, everyone you looked to for advice, will be gone. (Not literally, there will technically be experts the same age and younger, but hopefully you get my meaning there).

- We had been cleaning out my great grandma's house. (She's still around, just old, nearly blind, dementia and in facility.) Still have a metric fuckton to go through. So. Many. Photos and cards and clothes and pens and buttons and porn and scarves and coat hangers and obituaries and notes in phone books from 1997...

- No, you didn't need to do the double take on that list. I said porn. Nothing like finding your great grandpa's VHS porn stash. I loved how he had his porn in the living room TV cabinet, but had the box of home movies (birthdays, beach trips and Christmas under the bed.) My Pa was a WWII vet who died in 2005.

- Been trying to finally organize Christmas photos from at least 1995 on up into albums. I have earlier, but with the amount of photos I have and the types of photo albums I have the 1995 ones were just a good place to start.

- Wasn't exactly sure what year some of the Christmas photos were taken, so I figured out some tricks to use when trying to date photos. Just so we are clear, this is for actual paper photos. I mean I guess this could work for digital photos too, but with this I was working with the actual paper photos like from the 35mm film that we used to use way back in the day. Also I have a large extended family.

1.) Babies. My older cousins had their babies between 1996 and 2003. I was looking to see which of my younger cousins were in the photos. One baby? 1996 or 1997. Two babies? 1998, 1999 or 2000, etc. 2.) Outfits / Pick one person, and pull out all of the photos of that one person in that particular outfit. Then look at a photo where they are in a group and pick another person, repeat. Soon you'll have a stack from that particular day. 3.) Presents can help date a photo. You aren't going to get the 1999 Christmas Barbie in 1997.

- Been binge watching Haven on Tubi TV. I watched it on Syfy when it originally came on back in 2010, but I didn't really keep up with it back then and I wasn't sure what was going on with the show entirely and I'm pretty sure I never finished it. While I moved into the house I'm in now in 2008, 2010 feels so long ago that it feels like I should have watched the show when I was in my last place I lived in (2006-2008).

- that last bit where it feels like it should have been longer ago than it was, is probably due to some like inadvertent furniture arranging. I've gotten newer couches over the years and I've also kind of moved from my living room to my like office area over the years. Basically, I sort of inherited a large iMac desktop and the only place it would go is in my living room or my old TV was. Then I got rid of cable and just started using my Roku. Because I had the Roku I was using it in my office, as that's where my flat screen TV was now. In a way (slightly), it's almost like I "moved", so it just feels different now than back in 2010? Does that make a lick of sense, I know what I mean, but I'm not sure how to word it exactly. Lol

- I honestly, can barely remember what it was like having to choose what I watch based on what's currently on TV, at this very moment. Bless streaming TV.

- This is random, but I don't even remember what month I started binge watching Time Trax to keep me entertained during the pandemic, but it feels so, SO long ago.

- A cousin had her third son this past Thursday. Had no clue she was expecting. Neither did anyone else at my great aunt's funeral. FYI she and baby did not come. We found out from her aunt. Many, many people did not come, which of course is understandable.

- Shit. I still need to write someone a thank you card for the birthday gift they actually took time to make me. My birthday was in August. 🤦🏻‍♀️

- Been cutting up really old gel pens and using them to make inkblot art. When I say old, I mean like from 2001 to 2003ish. Using a embroidery? needle to get the ink out and smear on the paper. if you're wondering why I've kept gel pens, from nearly 20 years that don't work ... Because hoarder. Actually I've just had them so long and that I've just gotten used to them being around and normally don't even think about them.

- Can masks still be a thing after the pandemic? I don't mean a required thing, but like we should be able to wear masks in public if we have the flu, just don't feel like doing makeup or whatever. I want to be able to voluntarily wear a mask and not get flack for it. Make it like a fashion accessory. Just so we're clear, this is coming from a person who wears glasses and can't see shit with her mask on.

-claimed (won for 75¢) a couch slipcover on Geek. I have absolutely no idea how to properly put it on the couch and my grandparents house, but my cat has claimed The wanted fabric as a bed. So, I'm calling it a win. I also claimed a pet bed through the limited quantity deal, I didn't think my cat would pay any attention to it, but he actually loves it. Epic win. Oh, and I b also claimed a cat tree. I did have to leave the little cat house off of the top of it as it was WAAAAAY too small for my cat.

SPOILER-filled Review of CATS 2019

(or the beginnings of a review...this one was written in the aftermath of the first viewing...I have now seen it twice, and there are plenty more thoughts and some changed opinions I've not got down yet...perhaps I never will...we shall see.) 

Well. This year's Jellicle Ball was certainly something else. Something else entirely. One of those dreams when you just want to wake the next morning and forget everything that happened, except the wonderful moments. (The moooooments of happiness...) So, when that film was good, it was amazing. When it was bad, I was sinking down into the depths of my chair with embarrassment. The bad bits didn't ruin the entire film for me, but it did make me less inclined to invite friends to it. If they don't "get" the show, I don't think they will "get" the movie version. Let's get the negatives out of the way first: 1. Jennyanydots. I thought Taylor Swift would be the worst part of the film, but Rebel Wilson beat her by quite a bit. Apart from Munkustrap and the cute mice, "The Old Gumbie Cat" was one long cringe-fest. Rebel robbed Jenny of any semblance of dignity, and pretty much did the same in every scene she was in. Her stupid jokes and comments were not funny.  2. Rum Tum Tugger. He wasn't exactly bad. It's more that he made little to no impression whatsoever. His song was rather boring (though I did like some of the new instrumentation - once it got going; the beginning was awkward sounding). Throughout the rest of the film, he didn't do very much at all - though to be fair, it will probably take multiple viewings and close observations to notice what any of the characters are doing in the background, just like with the 1998 film. 3. Judi Dench's singing. I adore Judi Dench, and she made a great motherly figure. I especially loved her interactions with Victoria and Munkustrap. But it was painful hearing her attempt the songs. Clearly they were out of her reach vocally, and I don't understand why she didn't just speak everything. If Rex Harrison can get away with it in My Fair Lady, Judi Dench should be able to get away with it in CATS. Sigh. Some Neutrals: 1. The "Macavity and Growltiger Taking Jellicles Prisoner" sideplot. It was so awkward, but I...think I liked it? Not sure how I feel on this one yet. I do wish Munkustrap and Macavity had still had their epic showdown, but Macavity was more of a trickster in this version, not so much a physical confrontation guy. I do like how Skimble, Gus, Jenny, and Bustopher worked together to make Growltiger walk the plank. 2. Macavity, specifically the song. I thought I would hate this scene because of Taylor Swift, but I don't think I did. Still not crazy about her voice, but I liked when the other "Macavity Queens" joined in, and the "hypnotising with catnip" was kind of cool. I loved how everyone was trying to help Misto and Victoria sneak away.  3. The Live Singing. Tom Hooper is obsessed with everyone singing live on set. That's all well and good, but I prefer the more "polished" studio sound when it comes to films. Just a personal preference. And the Positives (in no certain order): 1. Munkustrap! This one was a no-brainer. I love Munkustrap and Robbie Fairchild was a great casting choice. I did think his interactions with Victoria were awkward at times. Was he a fatherly figure, or in love with her? Couldn't tell. (Was this some sort of Lord Melbourne/Queen Victoria reference?) Certainly by the end he had taken on the role of "proud dad who totally ships Mistoria." But anyway, he was so sweet and always trying to take care of others. He even (if I remember correctly) protected Jenny’s singing mice, which she was planning to eat. O.O I also enjoyed all his solos - and the fact that he even got a few extra ones. 2. Mistoffelees. I thought it was an interesting change to have him struggling with confidence issues and still trying to perfect his magical abilities. His immediate and obvious besottedness with Victoria was adorable. He was just adorable all round. I do wish his song hadn't had so many of the awkward pauses in it during his multiple attempts to bring Old D back, but it was still enjoyable. The way he magically made all the musical instruments float up to the ceiling and play the accompaniment?? So cool! 3. Victoria. She was simply lovely. I do wish she had had more dance solos. I thought the bit she danced with Munkustrap just before the Invitation was awkward. Certainly no replacement for the usual Victoria opening dance. I thought her singing was lovely; you could tell she wasn't fully comfortable with it, but that worked well for the state of uncertainty she was in as a character. All her interactions with Grizabella were perfect.  4. Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer. I thought their song and scene would be my favorite. Well, it ended up being my second-favorite because of what's coming next on the list. But I have no complaints about them whatsoever. Irish Teazer and Cockney Jerrie? Yes, please! Original London version of the song? Yesssss. Doing Macavity's dirty work but then pleading, "It was just a bit of fun!"? Totally them. 5. SKIMBLESHANKS. This, by far, was my favorite scene in the entire film. The dancing, the set, the costume (hey, the trousers and hat worked for him!), and (the most unexpected) Steve McRae's voice! I had no idea he could sing that well! He sounds so much like the original London Skimble! Overall: I enjoyed it. The cringey bits were very cringey, but I'd still watch it multiple times. But it's not the one I'd use to introduce friends to CATS or try to change someone's mind on the show. I will buy the DVD when it comes out, and it will be one of those I watch/dance along with by myself when no one's around to complain.

12 ‘Unpopular’ Viddy Game Opinions

I’ve seen this topic floating around a lot, but didn’t think I had enough ‘unpopular but maybe not’ opinions about games to make a post. Turns out I do! So if you see this and I say something blasphemous, remember it’s just my opinion and my personal experiences with the games I list. Hope you enjoy or hey, maybe even agree with some of this!

Note: Can’t stress enough. This is just me. Also, spoilers under the cut!

12. The opening of Kingdom Hearts II isn’t as terrible as everyone says

Okay, so it’s not brilliant, but at the same time, I don’t think it’s the worst. For those not in the know, KH2′s opening is a basically a massive slog where you play as a character you don’t know or care about with seemingly no real link to the events of the previous game. The general consensus is that there’s some interesting stuff in here, but it’s buried among endless dialogue that really doesn’t mean much. And they’re right, but I really think there’s some great stuff here that people tend to gloss over. The music and the motif of Twilight Town is atmospheric, there’s some genuinely intriguing plot elements that are woven into Roxas’ story and believe it or not, the stuff that happens here is intrinsic to the rest of the game. So yeah, it drags on a little, but I don’t think KH2 would be miles better without this opening.

11. I loved Breath of the Wild’s final boss

One of the problems I see talked about with Breath of the Wild is that the boss fights are fairly mediocre, especially the very last one, Dark Beast Ganon. And I couldn’t disagree more. I think every boss in the game is wonderfully crafted, intense, challenging and great for testing you on what you’ve learned throughout the game by encouraging you to make creative use of your slate powers and the flurry rush technique. And while Mr. Pig Man at the end here is sort of easy and short, it serves as a brilliantly epic finale to damn near perfect game. While the difficulty is mostly gone after the mammoth fight with Calamity Ganon, it’s still just as intense as you frantically fire off arrows into the massive beast in front of you. Plus, the design of this thing is one of the best looking monsters in the game, so I really don’t understand the dislike for this ending.

10. I really like Crash of the Titans

Okay, so maybe childhood nostalgia has something to do with this pick, but every Crash fan I’m aware of seems to hate this game. But I don’t really know where the hate comes from! I played the PS2 version of this and I thought it was a genuinely fun 3D platformer with a variety of locations, good visuals, well-designed boss battles and even a vague story you can sort of follow! The game’s main gameplay feature is also brilliantly integrated, as using Aku Aku to possess various monsters throughout the game keeps everything interesting. One thing I will say though, that tiger dude you have to fight about halfway through is the most annoying thing I’ve ever had to endure in a game.

9. Life Is Strange: Before the Storm is BAD

I loved Life Is Strange when it first dropped, so I was beyond excited when they announced a prequel from Chloe’s perspective. But I really think they dropped the ball and they dropped it hard. But everyone else seems to adore this game! For me, this wasn’t a touch on the original. For a start, they dropped out one of the main mechanics of the first game, the time travel, which they then replaced with a much less interesting ‘Backtalk’ feature, which was then only used about twice throughout the game. Instead of interesting, developed characters reacting to genuinely dangerous or heartfelt situations, it felt to me like a bunch of one-dimensional teenagers who are edgy for the sake of being edgy. Chloe spends the majority of the game being a dick to her mother and bunking off class to spend time with Rachel, who she has literally known for like a day and their sudden relationship drops out of nowhere. Not that I didn’t enjoy the emotional moments of their relationship, it just didn’t feel like it stemmed from anywhere, unlike Max and Chloe from the first game. And the game’s attempts at villains were also rubbish compared to the first, with Damien (random scary knife guy who doesn’t really tie into the plot that much) and Eliot (who doesn’t appear for the whole game and suddenly goes full incel on Chloe when she breaks into Rachel’s house). Yeah I think you can tell I had some problems with this one.

8. Dishonored: Death of the Outsider was also a hot mess

I LOVE the Dishonored series. The first game and its DLCs are amazing, the second game was arguably even better. And then this happened. In this one, you play as Billie Lurk, a character I love, and Daud comes back, a character I also love. But both of them are incredibly badly written and it doesn’t feel like there’s any development to them or even much reason for them to do what they’re doing. This entry took the mystery surrounding the Outsider and basically did a big poo on it, giving us the revelation that he was apparently HUMAN this whole time. I think that was the nail in the coffin that made me sort of think this was a bit rubbish. While the combat and side missions were as brilliant as ever, the level designs felt less creative than other entries in the series and lacked variety or colour, all the side characters were entirely forgettable and to wrap it all up, they killed Daud offscreen. Out of nowhere, they just killed him, mentioned it offhand in a cutscene and that was that. If you like this game, fair enough, but it kind of baffles me that more people don’t see this in the game.

7. Mario Galaxy 2 is good. It’s just sort of good

Some people cite this as being one of the best 3D platformers of all time, and that’s fair enough, but I just kind of see this one as ‘good’. Sure, it has a good, satisfying control scheme for the most part, the level design is creative and the bosses and puzzles are pretty standard for a Mario title, but still enjoyable. However, sometimes, the floaty physics and weird knockback effect from jumping into walls led to quite a lot of unfair deaths, especially if I’d been punished for messing up already by losing a life, only to then immediately be punished again by falling into the void. Plus, I found Yoshi near impossible to control at some points with the motion controls. So yeah, this one is genuinely enjoyable, but I don’t think I’d personally put it with the best of all time.

6. I LOVE Dragon Quest IX TO DEATH

This is a game in a legendary franchise that consistently almost always see ranked at the very bottom of the pile in the series. But I really don’t understand how or why. Okay so your protagonist and party are basically silent and don’t have a lot of character, but I don’t see this as a reason to totally write off the game! The side characters, villains and story are all amazing and well-developed, the world is huge, colourful and interesting, the monsters are brilliantly creative and Dragon Quest’s signature lame sense of humour is gratefully carried through the whole game. The music is always brilliant and atmospheric and the bosses are just as memorable as each character you meet. What was everyone’s problem?? This is genuinely one of the best RPGs I’ve ever played and if you haven’t had a chance to pick it up, it is so, so worth it.

5. Sonic Adventure is a broken mess

So before I kick this one off, I’m not someone who hates Sonic and I’m not here to slate the whole franchise, but considering this game is often considered to be one of the best in the series, I thought it was definitely worth addressing. When I first played this, I literally couldn’t believe this was made in 1998, AFTER Mario 64 and yet it’s so broken! The physics and control scheme are totally wonky and hard to control, the unending amount of glitches make a fair amount of the stages almost unplayable, the voice acting and facial animation is cringey and oddly broken and yet, this was all on the Dreamcast. The most powerful console of the time. And I don’t think I even need to mention how boring some of the later stages get, with Big the Cat’s fishing section being the main offender. I can’t vouch for Adventure 2 as I haven’t had a chance to play yet, but I really hope it isn’t like this.

4. Dragon Age Origins is the best Dragon Age

Dragon Age has always been a popular RPG series, but I think it properly shot to fame once Inquisition dropped in 2014. And don’t get me wrong, I liked Inquisition! The world was colourful and expansive and the characters were fairly memorable, but I still think the best experience you can get is in the series’ first entry, Origins. While it’s pretty easy to see that it’s slightly dated considering it’s ten years old now, the best characters and story in the series I think is here. Each companion you recruit is varied and developed and the story wraps up brilliantly in the end with each companion and army you meet playing a different role in the final battle. Plus, I kind of can’t forgive Inquisition for making Leliana lose her sense of humour and making her kinda boring.

3. Oblivion is better than Skyrim

Okay so I’m not sure exactly how unpopular this is, but I just thought Oblivion was miles better than Skyrim ended up being. Just to clear it up, I still love Skyrim and I thought it built on the series’ combat system and variety of enemies really well and still provided an enjoyable experience. But Oblivion feels like more of an adventure you feel at home in. The story is dense and full of twists and turns. The soundtrack has some of the most atmospheric music I’ve ever heard, the world is full of bright colours, each city is vastly different and has its own lore and I found some of this to be absent from Skyrim. I’d go into more detail, but I think the simple fact is that Oblivion had so much more I liked than Skyrim.

2. I don’t think The Witcher III is all that amazing (in some regards)

This by no means says that I don’t like the game, because I do, but I think it has more flaws than people let on. Now, don’t get me wrong, a lot of the stuff people praise about this game is true, the quests are in-depth and masterfully crafted, the characters, especially Geralt, are extremely memorable. In fact, Geralt is one of my favourite game protagonists. But most of the problems I had were in terms of the gameplay. The combat, while fast-paced and satisfying, can sometimes feel a little finicky, so a lot of precision is needed. However, I felt that the world itself didn’t particularly interest me and the music is often ambient but outside of combat, isn’t anything special. Mostly though, the leveling system I found to be a bit wonky. I did absolutely everything I could in the first area of the game; all the side quests, treasure hunts, killed a whole bunch of monsters etc. And then I arrive in the second area and find I’m too underleveled to do literally anything. The majority of the quests have too high a level cap, a lot of the monsters kill me very quickly. And because the bulk of EXP farming is in the quests, I’m sort of stuck in an endless loop of constantly not being strong enough to do anything. On top of that, all my equipment keeps breaking and I’m finding that repair kits are extremely few and far between and that makes me even WEAKER. It’s something I’m gonna need to persevere with I think, but hey, this is just my experience with it.

1. Ocarina of Time, as amazing as it is, may have overstayed its welcome as best game of all time

I reckon this might be the most controversial, so it’s number 1. Let me preface this by saying I really like Ocarina and I agree that it was innovative for the RPG genre at the time. There’s a hell of a lot in this game that we have to thank for the games we have today. But considering how far the gaming industry has come since then and the sheer amount of high quality games we’ve been getting year after year, is still fair to call this the best game ever? When more recent games have taken what Ocarina started and built upon it? Games like Breath of the Wild, Horizon Zero Dawn, Red Dead Redemption II, God of War all gave us expansive, beautiful worlds and a story you can really get stuck into. And all the time, more and more games of this caliber are coming out. So yes, of course Ocarina of Time deserves a place in the hall of fame, it was revolutionary and still holds up really well today! I just can’t help but think there have been plenty of games since then, as flawed as some of them may be, that have improved upon the formula tenfold since Ocarina’s release.

Thanks for reading if you got this far! Just to reiterate, these are all just my opinions and my experiences with the games I mentioned, so pls don’t attack me. Got any viddy game opinions you think are sort of not popular? Drop them down below if you feel like it!

So I’m doing some math (I’m terrible at it) but nonetheless, I did some thinking and then some subtraction and realized that it was in about 1998 that my family got a computer with Microsoft Windows installed along with a dial-up internet connection. And so this is technically my 20th anniversary of reading fanfic and being a part of internet fandom. I figured I should celebrate it a bit. 

I don’t remember the exact date or time or whatever, I can barely add or subtract, so June seems like a good in the middle of the year kind of time to recollect and think about what I’ve been doing with my life. Think about why I read so much, why I reblog things, why I am the way I am. 

This ask meme was written by @mabel-but-slytherin​ and I decided, I’ll just answer the whole damn thing. I’m sure absolutely no one is interested in this info but I don’t give a fuck. 20 goddamn years of my life in fandom, do you seriously think I give a fuck anymore? I don’t care about you or your eyes. I officially left the give a fuck building a long ass time ago.

If you have seen a fandom ask meme about being a lurker (which I was for a good ten years) or about reading fanfic instead of just writing fanfic, send it my way and I’ll answer it too. I have stories.

1. What was your first fic and could you stand to reread it today?

It was Thursday Night Routine and it’s readable but I find it a bit repetitive and out of character. Although, with Glee, how was I supposed to know who these people would become, lol. ;A;

2. What’s your most recent fic and how far do you think you’ve come?

My most recent was Vesper Lynde for the Spy fandom and I think I’ve grown as a writer but my characterization is still clumsy and my comedy isn’t as sharp. I think I was funnier before. I also have issues getting to the sex scene that I never had before. It drives me batty.

3. In your opinion, what’s your best fic?

The thoroughly depressing and out of nowhere for me fic, Ozma. That night was a eureka moment, it was bliss writing that fic. It flowed. I probably got the closest to american gothic and poetry with that fic--which is my usual goal when I do creative writing off the internet. 

4. In your opinion and without looking at any numbers, what’s your most popular fic?

So much of what I wrote was done anonymously before AO3 and Tumblr so it’s hard for me to say but I’m gonna guess Everybody’s Pickin’ Up on that Feline Beat because the cat!boi thing really slapped. Like people loooooved the cat!boi thing in 2010. 

5. Is there any fic that makes you super happy to reread and remember you wrote that?

Third is the One With the Treasure Chest. It has some issues but I still can’t believe I wrote it, like that was my third fanfic ever and it was a muppet babies’ orgy. I have no idea how I did it, :D

6. Is there any fic that makes you super embarrassed to reread and remember you wrote that?

Not really? I’m not embarrassed by what I write (I can’t be, I write weird shit), but I don’t necessarily want people to come up to me in real life and start describing my fic to me. Like I don’t want my realities to intersect. That’s what I’m really sure would embarrass me. 

7. What’s the fic you most want to continue (unfinished or no)?

I’m not gonna finish it, like it’s not happening, but I kind of wish I had finished Look What You Made Me Do. I still noodle a about Sarah Plain and Tall Klaine story. I did a lot of research into Gilded era hair and fashions.

8. What’s the oldest (longest since last update) fic you most want to continue (unfinished or no)?

Probably the epically awful and creepy Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make me a Match where Sandy and Karofsky kidnap and assault Kurt. I was fascinated by how absolutely horrific Sandy Ryerson was as a character. He’s the worst. I’m not doing a sequel though. I’m not.

9. Have you ever written for a fandom without watching/reading/playing the source material?

Read? Yes. Written? No. I don’t think I’m the best at characterization but I do feel a need for a basic grasp on it before I start writing anything. 

10. Have you ever written for a fandom without reading other fanfic for it?

I wrote Vesper Lynde before I read any of the fic which was probably a good thing because there are some really good fics out there that already cover the subject I did (and did it better). But I’m glad I wrote it anyway because I have so many feelings about Rayna and Susan.

11. Have you ever written a fic for a concept you know someone else has done before? How did it impact your writing process or feelings after posting?

I honestly don’t know so I’m going to say no. I have seen these stories after I wrote what I wrote and have thought, Oh I should have done that or why didn’t I think of that?, but I have never seen a fic beforehand and thought that I could do it better or different enough. I wrote fic in order to fill a gap of weird skullfuckery that was missing before I showed up. 

12. Have you ever written a fic and decided never to publish it? Why?

Yes. It was bad, I wrote myself into a corner and had no interest in fixing it. The writing felt dull and flat. If I post an unfinished work, I do it because I think the writing has merit. 

13. What’s the biggest change between your style when you started in fandom and today?

I write more original work now, I write poetry mostly nowadays. And fanfic I do write has been smaller vignette pieces, has had way less sex in it and minimal wacky shenanigans. I kind of want to go back to wacky shenanigans honestly.

14. What’s the biggest change in your taste between when you started in fandom and today?

I’m riding a girl swing this year so I’m way more interested in stories that involve cunnilingus and strap-ons, boob devotionals and short fingernails. I sort of got into that in the middle of my Glee career (the Golden Age) before swinging back to boys and their balls (the Modern Age). In this new Age, I’m back to ladies. 

15. Have you ever purposefully written one fandom/fic idea over another because you knew it’d be more popular?

I think I tried to do that once but then I failed because my niche is being an off-beat weird motherfucker, not popular. I thought that I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman would go awf but instead it fizzled. So I stuck with dickpunching.

16. Have you ever stopped writing a fic/for a fandom because it wasn’t receiving enough attention?

No. I didn’t really get a lot of attention outside my circle anyway.

17. In your opinion, what’s your most overrated fic?

I guess the Cat!Kurt fic? I think it’s a good story, I just think that I wrote some that were better.

18. What’s your most underrated fic?

And if the world runs out of lovers, my Blaine/Finn fic. I had a lot of fun with that one and I think I got some really funny lines in. 

19. If you had to pick one fic/scene/chapter of your work to describe your entire portfolio to a stranger, which would you pick?

I would say, They’re Both Just Full of Feelings, OK? which is a story were Puck and Mercedes get very drunk, complain about their homosexual tendencies and then motorboat each others tiddies. I feel like that about covers the gist of my aesthetic.

20. Have/Would you ever rewrite a fic? If yes, would you take the original down?

I am doing a slow ass sloow rewrite of As Needed, just some clean up of tense issues and little nudges here and there of some of the wording. And I will take down the original when I do that. It needs better grammar, it does.

21. If someone starts kudosing and commenting your fics in a spree and has a few works of their own, would you go look through theirs?

Yes. I love spying and I love other people’s bookmarks. I keep mine private because I’m a hypocrite and I don’t know how to make them public en masse. I am not doing that individually.

22. Has there ever been anyone who’s made you freak out because they read your work and followed/favorited/reviewed?

No, but I freak out at every follow/favorite/review regardless. There are people who I love love love but they aren’t in the fandoms I write in so I never expect to have an insane fangirl moment like that.

23. What’s the nicest review you’ve ever gotten?

When I wrote Ozma, someone on the kinkmeme said that it read like a contemporary short story and I was flattered!

24. What’s the meanest review you’ve ever gotten? Do you think the reviewer intended it?

25. What constructive criticism, however well-meaning, always makes you feel bad when you see it in a review?

Gosh, that’s tough. I’m gonna go with criticisms that question your intent? Like when someone goes, “Did you mean to say this or that?” but not because it makes me feel bad but more because it makes me feel like I didn’t get my point across clearly enough that the reader could make their own conclusions about what was happening. I am very much of the author is dead style and part of that is leaving enough there to satisfy the reader without giving it all away.

26. What aspect of your writing do you most enjoy to see praised?

My humor. I like it when people find me funny. I don’t feel like my humor makes sense a lot of the time. Also, when people say that they re-read my stories. That’s always a heart warmer.

27. If you could only ever write crossovers or single-fandom fics ever again, which would you pick?

I prefer single-fandom fics as a writer. Crossovers get messy for me, too many locations to choose from.

28. if you could only ever write for a single crossover or a single fandom again, which would you pick?

Schitt’s Creek. David/Patrick 4eva!

29. Does the division of your writing across fandoms line up with your reading? What’s the biggest discrepancy?

Absolutely not, LMAO! I have done way more reading than writing in any fandom. My participation is a pebble on a mountainside.

30. Do you continue to write for a fandom after you’ve moved on or do you focus solely on the new one?

I wrote Glee fic (and I am still working on As Needed) after I had moved on from the show but a lot of us did. My attention span allows me to multifandom.

31. Who’s the one character you’ve just never managed to get perfectly right?

Susan Cooper. She’s an enigma.

32. Who’s the one character who shines without you even trying?

Puck, I feel like I wrote a very solid Puck.

33. Is there any particular character whose scenes always wind up being longer/more frequent than you expected? Does the quality hold up?

I would guess Brittany but I don’t think the quality holds up. I liked writing Brittany but I don’t think I captured her essence.

34. Was there any fic that you wrote that really surprised you in the fandom reaction? Was it just by the numbers or did they take it an entirely different way?

I get a lot of requests for a sequel to Sex Bomb even to this day and it surprises me.

35. Have you ever written a ship into a fic without meaning to?

No, I was ready to write anyone with anyone in any fic. I love it.

36. Have you ever sincerely written a ship you do not support into a fic?

Don’t support? Well, I don’t support Kurt/Karofsky but I write non-con fic so...

37. Have you ever purposefully bashed a character/ship in a fic?

I would only in an in-character sense, like the character would be against that pairing because of the show dramatics. At least, that was always my intent.

38. Have you ever purposefully written something you know your readers would find uncomfortable/would not enjoy? If yes, why?

Because that’s how the glee_anon meme worked sometimes LOL. Sometimes, you gotta have the anal worm lay the eggs.

39. Do you consider yourself to have a readership?

Not anymore lol, if I ever did. I don’t write enough.

40. Do you feel like you put out enough content?

I peaked with the Muppet Babies’ orgy, that was my third fic. Everything else was gravy.

41. If you cross-post your fics on multiple sites, do you have a favorite? Are there certain fics you would only post on certain site?

I want all my fics on AO3 largely because I think livejournal is gonna die soon and tumblr is unsearchable and lacks a forum function. 

42. How many views has your most popular fic gotten?

(Based on AO3): Ozma at 28672 Hits

43. Your least popular?

(Based on AO3): There’s a Lobster Involved at 38 Hits

44. Do you follow/favorite/kudos/comment/review more stories than you have received?

Oh gosh, I never thought of it that way but I hope I at least kudos more than I’ve received! I don’t have that many bookmarks and I don’t review and I rarely comment (I’m more like to DM you) but I do leave kudos a lot.

45. If you had to call yourself an author of a single genre (besides fanfic) what label would you give yourself?

With my original works: poetry. With my fanfic works: absurdism

46. Do you consider yourself a diverse author?

Yeah, I think I covered a wide range of topics and styles along with a lot of different characters. I had humor, drama, horror, angst, slice of life, porn, I covered a lot of ground.

47. If someone you know in real life who isn’t involved in fandoms asked to read your work, would you let them? If yes, what would you recommend they read first?

NO.

48. Does anyone you know from outside of fandom know you write fanfic? Are they involved in the same fandom too?

Yes, they know and they were also Glee fans but not necessarily fanfic readers. Just how much they know will remain a mystery between us because they won’t tell me and I won’t ask them to tell me. I don’t need that knowledge and I don’t want it.

49. Has anyone in your life ever read your fanfic just because you wrote it?

NOT THAT I KNOW OF AND I DON’T WANT THEM TO TELL ME IF THEY DID. KEEP IT TO YOURSELF.

50. Has writing fanfic had a significant impact on your life? Would you say it’s entirely positive?

I have an absolutely incredible circle of friends that I would not have had without fandom. So many people that I know out of fandom don’t spend as much time on the internet, they aren’t as easy to reach as my internet friends. You guys give me your time and your energy and that means so much to me. It really does. 

I wouldn’t say my time in fandom has been 100% positive. There are always downfalls to being in a large group. I have had my moments of internet drama, on anon trolling, and bad feelings. But my friends make it all worth it. You guys are the best.

TUGGOFFOLEES FANS YALL HAVE GOT TO LOOK AT THIS MAN’S TIKTOK HE IS DOING THE LORD’S WORK

Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls

Unreal City, under the brown fog of a winter dawn. Earth hath not anything to show more fair. Dirty old river, must you keep rolling, flowing on into the night. London – the lifeblood of the country and the vampire that sucks it back up.

Among other teenage favourites such as George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four and the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles, the Eyewitness Guide to London was a library staple. Before the age of seventeen I never made the trip on the route of the Flying Scotsman down to King’s Cross; in fact, bar a school coach trip to Dover en route to France, I’d never been further south than Matlock. But there I was, lying on my bed, fitting Monopoly streets into the A to Z, memorising the names of the boroughs and their railway stations. I was doing what probably thousands if not millions of ‘provincial’ Britons had done before me, embarking on a love-hate relationship with a city I’d never seen.

I finally made the journey on a school trip in 1998. The A-level art students headed off to the National Gallery; I visited UCL with a friend, had a slice of overpriced pizza for lunch in Leicester Square, then reconvened with the English lit students to see Othello at the National. It was sticky hot, and I felt disappointed for most of the time. It was almost worse to come to London for one day, and not get to do or see any of the things on my list, than never go at all. The schedule was so overdetermined I had no time to gawp at the tube posters or read the blue plaques, no time to catch myself realising I’d jumped through the rabbit hole into Wonderland.  But then, post-play, we had to cross Waterloo Bridge. The skyline shimmered into focus, St Paul’s ghostly with floodlight, the river lapping against the Embankment. I’ll be back, I said to myself, and a blood-rush flushed me all over. London isn’t a city of instant epiphanies. You don’t see it and die; it can be ugly and gawky, ill-assembled and unphotogenic. But there are always clicks; joints snapping into place; gear shifts. That moment on the bridge was one such: like a photographic print gradually darkening in the developing fluid, London was emerging.

Listen carefully to the opening of ‘West End Girls’ and this is exactly what you hear: London flickering into life, beginning to glitter through the fog. It’s morning, and someone walks into the light from the Paddington concourse. Their heels take to the wet pavement, and their heart beats faster as they scour the street for a taxi. The pulse begins to assert itself, and then the synth string chords – those chords – dark, cool and grand, clean and sleek as a black cab. And a pause, ever so slight, before the new arrival decides to walk; to take in the rush on foot, buoyed airily by the Pet Shop Boys’ smooth minimalism, slinking through the crowds. It’s all there in the video, as a rapid montage of random faces gives way to Neil and Chris, who take to their heels in a vaporous, ghostly Soho, like sombre night-watchmen coming off shift. ‘West End Girls’ is the sound of London settling into focus. Eight million people waking up to the distant rumble of tubes and screech of buses; eight million people rubbing their eyes as the greatest synth bassline in eighties pop music rings out from their clock radios. 

It must have been quite an awakening, back then in 1985. It seemed to arrive fully-formed; not just a song, but an aesthetic (though the original Bobby Orlando version from the previous year proves how crucial Stephen Hague was in realising the song’s latent atmospheres). This was not the barroom and dog-track London of Ian Dury, nor was it the hazy, romanticised cityscape of The Kinks. Tennant and Lowe are, of course, northerners, and thus outsiders, though they don’t so much crash the party as float spectrally in a corner with a martini and a raised eyebrow. When the Boys first broke into the charts, much was made of Tennant’s former career at Smash Hits, the foremost evidence cited for his apparently ‘ironic’ take on pop. But I’ve often thought that the beautiful balance they strike between the knowing and the credulous is the product of northern eyes surveying southern landscapes. They are detached, perhaps even sceptical at times; but there’s also that Eyewitness Guide in the bedroom, a city learned and loved, an excitement at having gone through the portals at King’s Cross and slipped into the anonymity of the throng. Despite Tennant having said on more than one occasion that ‘West End Girls’ was inspired by The Waste Land – ‘too many shadows, whispering voices’ is a true summary of Eliot’s fractured epic indeed – the song is too stimulated by what’s going on around it to be either a lament for the lost or a prophecy of doom. It does sound dangerous – there’s something dark and doleful in that bass – but it’s the kind of danger that makes you feel alive and adrenalized. It’s determined to keep its cool, determined not to spend its money all at once; but despite this caution, it’s still the sound of two northerners who will never quite fail to wonder at their adopted home.

It’s a dichotomy embodied by the Boys themselves: arty, askance Tennant, asking questions and pondering significances, and hedonistic Lowe (you can take the lad out of Blackpool!), disappearing into the massed bodies of the rave or shopping incognito at the record exchanges (check out the 1989 B-side, ‘One of the crowd’, Chris’s very own credo). It’s why their songs at their finest have such cross-cultural appeal; the Guardianista manifesto of ‘Che Guevara and Debussy to a disco beat’ (‘Left to my own devices’) can coexist quite happily with the football terrace reworking of gay utopianism (their definitive cover of ‘Go West’, which was taken on in earnest by Arsenal supporters). It’s what makes them so English, yes (another epithet interviewers and critics find impossible to avoid), but more than that, it’s what makes them so London, and more specifically Northern and London. In no other city in the world do you get quite so many disparate people rubbing shoulders in the crush; underfunded social housing and potholes on one side of the street, while the opposite side gleams with stucco and swept pavements. This is the world the Boys both celebrate and lament, and often with an emphasis on the relationship between regionalism and metropolitanism. It’s mourned in ‘King’s Cross’ (the station from which Geordies spill out into the city like foaming brown ale from a broken bottle), and especially ‘The Theatre’, which again makes specific reference to  expats from beyond the Watford Gap (‘Boys and girls come to roost / From Northern parts and Scottish towns / Will we catch your eye?’) But then there’s the funny B-side ‘Sexy Northerner’, about a guy who takes the capital by the scruff and recasts it in his own image. London is always up for grabs, and the Boys will be there as the daybreak traffic hits, on through lunch at the office, then dinner, pub, club, and into the demimonde of the dead hours. You always wanted a lover, I only wanted a job. You wait till later, till later tonight…

You see, London is all about almost unlikely juxtapositions, and the Pet Shop Boys pull off some of the unlikeliest. The astonishing ‘Dreaming of the Queen’ (perhaps the most moving song they have ever written) is the most surreal. It’s an elegy for the AIDS dead (‘there are no more lovers left alive’) sung by ‘Lady Di’, whose own marriage is failing; the ‘Queen’ of the title is both the monarch Neil visualizes in his dream, chastising him for being in the nude, and, perhaps, the patron saint of all ‘queens’ everywhere who are traumatized by the epidemic. It’s timely – on release in 1993, all these events were highly topical – and timeless, commenting on the ways in which our subconscious finds its own warped logic to deal with the crushing events of history. And then that heartbreaking line, ‘Yes, it’s true / Look, it’s happened to me and you’ (a rejoinder to an earlier AIDS lament, ‘It couldn’t happen here’). London is a place in which ‘big’ history is made all around us, in which we constantly rub up against grand monuments and memorials; it’s also a place that can find space for the ‘me and you’. At its best, Tennant and Lowe’s songwriting focuses through both of these lenses. Remember ‘Shopping’, seemingly a deadpanned celebration of the personal benefits of the credit boom, but actually a broadside against Thatcher’s privatisations? No eighties band was better at defining the emptiness of consumerist luxury than the Pet Shop Boys, and I’m not just talking about the immortal ‘I’ve got the brains, you’ve got the looks, let’s make lots of money’. Stick on the original version of ‘I want a dog’, and marvel at the boredom of desire; the blank-eyed intonation of ‘oh, you can get lonely’; the killer couplet ‘Don’t want a cat / Scratching its claws all over my habitat’, expressing withering disdain for any mog that ruins Terence Conran’s finest.

In ‘West End Girls’, of course, there are cats and dogs, paws and claws. The greyhounds of Walthamstow (east end boys) and the Persian princesses of Kensington (the girls of the title). Another great juxtaposition, and one that makes London sexy in a constantly surprising way. All sorts of mythologies catch each other’s eyes on the escalators. The Kray brothers lock stares with Charlotte Rampling; there’s a frisson of sexual danger, a possibility of pugilism. But London has to brook its own contradictions in order to survive. It surfs breezily above them, just as the track itself is both shiny and seamy, dark and light. The song is all tensions: African and European (the jazzy trumpet and rich gospel backing vocalist knocking against Tennant’s high white plaint), passive and active, dispassionate and yet full of deep, deep yearning; yet it’s miraculous how these coexist with such effortless panache. These are the frictions of all great British pop, but seldom do they ever sound so exotic and lush. The Pet Shop Boys really did change the game; this is a London both real and imagined, both as good as the real thing and somehow even better. It’s not surprising that it was number one all over the world, including America, and no accident that it even featured prominently in the Olympic shebang last year.

You see, for all the expert satire, it’s easy to forget that the Pet Shop Boys are still actually in love with London, and that its allure will never pall. ‘We’ve got no future, we’ve got no past’, intones Neil in the last verse. In London, you can be someone different every day, ventriloquizing the people around you, learning to walk to their gait; only the present, and your presence matter. Just to be there at all; to be swimming in the tide. East End boys will always chase West End girls, and perhaps vice versa. Northerners and foreigners will always be both repelled and fascinated by the Unreal City. As long as London exists, so will ‘West End Girls’; so will a thousand teenagers from elsewhere dreaming in their bedrooms about ‘running down, underground, to a dive bar in a West End town’. As T.S. Eliot would have it, we shore these fragments against our ruin. Or else, we save ourselves with the power of a synth bass, a crunchy snare and the ecstasy of urban romance.

The Best Cat Skiing in British Columbia - White Grizzly

Are you ready to experience the ultimate powder paradise in the heart of British Columbia? Look no further than cat skiing in BC, where pristine powder, breathtaking scenery, and unforgettable adventures await. In this article, we'll delve into the world of cat skiing and reveal why British Columbia is renowned for offering some of the best cat skiing experiences on the planet.

Discovering the Thrill of Cat Skiing BC

Cat skiing in British Columbia is a dream come true for powder hounds and adventure seekers alike. With vast expanses of untouched terrain, epic snowfall, and expertly guided tours, cat skiing BC promises an exhilarating escape into the backcountry wilderness. Whether you're carving through open bowls, gliding through gladed forests, or tackling steep chutes, every run is an adrenaline-fueled adventure in BC's winter wonderland.

Why Choose Cat Skiing in British Columbia?

British Columbia boasts an enviable reputation as one of the world's premier destinations for cat skiing, and it's easy to see why. With its abundant snowfall, diverse terrain, and stunning mountain landscapes, BC offers an unparalleled playground for cat skiing enthusiasts. From the rugged peaks of the Selkirk and Purcell Mountains to the pristine forests of the Monashees and Cariboos, BC's backcountry terrain is as diverse as it is breathtaking.

White Grizzly: The Pinnacle of Cat Skiing Excellence

At White Grizzly, we're proud to be at the forefront of cat skiing excellence in British Columbia. With a history dating back to 1998, we pride ourselves on offering genuine mountain adventures as one of the pioneering cat-skiing operations globally. Nestled in the heart of the Selkirk Mountains near Nelson, BC, White Grizzly offers access to some of the most spectacular terrain in the province, with over 18,000 acres of skiable terrain and an average annual snowfall of over 12 meters.

Experience the White Grizzly Difference

What sets White Grizzly apart is our unwavering commitment to safety, service, and guest satisfaction. Our team of experienced guides are dedicated to providing a safe and unforgettable cat skiing experience for guests of all skill levels. With state-of-the-art snowcats, expertly groomed runs, and personalized service, we ensure that every moment spent with us is nothing short of extraordinary.

Join Us for the Ultimate Cat Skiing Adventure

Whether you're a seasoned powder hound or new to the world of backcountry skiing, White Grizzly welcomes you to join us for the ultimate cat skiing adventure in British Columbia. With our passion for the mountains, commitment to excellence, and dedication to creating unforgettable memories, we guarantee an experience you'll never forget.

Jupiter’s Legacy: Leslie Bibb and the History of Lady Liberty

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article is presented by:

Leslie Bibb successfully made the transition from modeling to acting, making her television debut 25 years ago in the TV series Pacific Blue and on the big screen a year later in Howard Stern’s Private Parts. Since then she’s appeared in more than two dozen movies and a wide variety of TV shows, including the main cast of The Big Easy, Popular, Line of Fire, Crossing Jordan, GCB, Salem Rogers: Model of the Year 1998 and the forthcoming Home Movie The Princess Bride.

Fans of the superhero genre will undoubtedly recognize her as reporter Christine Everhart in Iron Man (2008) and Iron Man 2 (2010). Now she gets to don the superhero costume to fight evil as Grace Sampson/Lady Liberty in Netflix’s Jupiter’s Legacy, and in the following exclusive interview she details her road to discover who Grace is as a person and the experience of shooting the series.

VITAL STATISTICS

NAME: Grace Kennedy Sampson

ALTER EGO: Lady Liberty

POWERS AND ABILITIES: Super strength, speed, and sight; power of flight; some level of invulnerability; knows when people are lying.

NEED TO KNOW: Wife of Sheldon Sampson, mother to Brandon and Chloe, and founding member of The Union. She’s the glue that holds the Sampson family together.

What’s it like to wear a superhero costume?

When I put it on, I was, like, “This is pretty badass.” Listen, I felt that maybe I’d missed that window to be a superhero, so to get to do it …  well, I feel really lucky and excited. And to be able to do it on this level, because Netflix really wanted to do it right, is amazing. What attracted you to the show?

I like just getting to kick ass and all that, because it’s fun. But there has to be a story to it, otherwise who gives a shit and who’s going to come back if there’s not something that pulls you in to it? I remember when I read the first couple of scripts thinking, “Hmm, I’ve never read this sort of take on a superhero show.” I mean, there was the family dynamic—it felt Shakespearean a little bit and it felt like a family drama. And then there was the aspect of all of us in the beginning of the story, in the 1920s, where it felt like Mad Men meets Justice League or something. 

How did you find Grace?

My mom passed away unexpectedly a couple of years ago, and I remember being struck with how I saw her change; how fearful she got as she got older.

Was it fear of her own mortality?

Fear of mortality, how she changed ideals—I just watched her change drastically, and she was so different. To watch that change was heartbreaking and confusing and scary. Because I saw fear, I saw perhaps regret, I saw all of these things. I got the show right after she passed away and what struck me about it were these characters, especially The Union. You see them when they’re bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in their 20s and so idealistic. And then, when they’re older it is such a difference and you don’t usually get that perspective.  

It reminds me of what Coppola did with The Godfather and The Godfather Part II with the flashbacks. I’d never really seen a TV show do it, let alone a superhero show, but you get to see them change and how cool to create that moment where it starts to change. 

One of my first big jobs I got was this movie called The Spouse and I had a picture of Natalie Portman that I cut out of Vanity Fair or something, and there was a quote with it that said, “Be the fearless girl your mother warned you about.” That quote always stuck with me, and when I got this part, it really resonated with me, because Grace, as you’re seeing her in the present day, has forgotten the fearless girl she was. 

On this show, I really love that they created this character who, in 1929, works in a male-dominated world when women weren’t working; they were getting married and having kids. But she was the captain of a wrestling team. She didn’t have time for relationships. She was very career driven at a time when that wasn’t common for women. And she was a truth seeker, and vibrant and alive and didn’t take shit from anybody. 

Did you tap into that fear?

What I incorporated, probably subconsciously, was the moxie she had when she was younger. Her fearlessness in a world that was very male-dominated. This is especially true for the first season, where it’s so important to show the idealism they once had.  

I always said my mom was like a cat on a hot tin roof; she always landed on her feet. Grace is that way, too. Even if she’s scared, she’s going to talk her way out of it or find a way out of it. She’s going to figure it out.  And looking at my mom led me to Grace’s beginnings. Also inspiring were people like Katharine Hepburn, Rosalind Russell, and Amelia Earhart. 

I always have a lot of photos of my friends around, so wherever I go, I feel like I have family and friends with me. My trailer always has loads of pictures of them, but also incorporated are characters and people like Amelia, Kathy Hepburn… everyone laughed that I had Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones up there. I just find it inspiring to see all of them around you and they give me those things I thought was important to set up in the first season. Again, the idealism of where they started.

Is this a world you’d been very familiar with?

Comic books are not my world and I didn’t appreciate them, because I didn’t realize the artistry, storytelling and depth that go into comics. Now watching people talk about comics, I get very excited. For normal folk like myself, if somebody just said, “Oh, it’s like Game of Thrones or Boardwalk Empire,” you see that it’s all the same character breakdowns and it’s the same drama happening in these little worlds. 

As always, the script is the thing.

The most important thing!

How would you say Grace evolves? 

What you see with Grace, especially in the present day, is a woman who has the weight of the world on her shoulders, which is becoming more difficult, because her husband is digging his heels in and there’s no bend to him. But the world isn’t the same as it used to be. We’re bringing knives to a fight where people have drones. As a result, there’s a ripping at the seams and, at the end, her not toeing the company line, not standing in a unified front with her husband. 

At the end of the day, they’re a married couple, and they’re a married couple who work together and live together. After a pandemic, everybody understands how hard it is to be with somebody 24/7, you know what I mean? It’s like, this is what this woman and this man have been dealing with. 

Which represents quite the change.

By the end, she’s finding her voice and asking herself, “Where’s the fearless girl I used to be? What have I given up for this that maybe I don’t agree with anymore?” The set of rules that worked in 1929, just don’t work anymore and she experiences an awakening. 

And it’s fascinating to see them questioning the beliefs they’ve always held, which is yet another reflection of where we’ve been in recent years. 

That’s the beauty of comic books. It’s like Captain America coming in and saving the day or Lady Liberty coming in and taking the robbers away, making the world safe and it’ll be okay. But what we’re realizing is that you can be the strongest person in the world and be so weak when it comes to your children. You can be the smartest person in the world, but you can’t figure out love. Nobody is infallible. We all have an Achilles heel and none of us have the answer. Yet we think that we do. We think we know the right way. And there’s something interesting in that gray area with the show. 

Any particular highlights for you of the filming?

The thing about the show is that it’s constantly morphing and reinventing itself. I want people to stick with it, because when we get to the island where they get their powers, it will be impossible for you to not think it’s the coolest shit you’ve ever seen. I just remember when we were filming it, it was weird, because the weather was really crazy. We were supposed to be on a little island. Puerto Rico had just been struck by a hurricane, so we lost that location. 

Then we were going to shoot on an island in Toronto, but we ran over because of other things, so we couldn’t do that. So we had to make an island out of Toronto—our production designer was amazing. Anyway, we were filming one day and it was 60 degrees, gorgeous, sunny. We were, like, “It’s great that we’re going to be here.” And literally the next day there was a snowstorm. Our director, Mark Jobst, said, “We’re using it. This is what the island would do.” It was almost like suddenly art was imitating life. 

When we were at a beach and we’d just landed, a rainstorm came in and then there was all this mud, so it was crazy. But the six of us truly felt so bonded during this whole experience that it just enhanced the chemistry. I know that we all felt like we’d been through a war together in this filming, because of the environment. It was just so out there. 

So for an audience unfamiliar with the Jupiter’s Legacy comic, what do you think the power of the show will be for them?

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", mediaId: "1c23121b-6a7f-48bc-a21a-1c03021b2c78" }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

It’s really this epic, Shakespearean family story. It’s about human beings and power struggles. Plus, I think we’re all kind of our own superheroes right now. Our doctors and nurses on the frontline are superheroes. Families who are losing their jobs and pivoting are superheroes. We’re not going through a Great Depression, but that’s where our show starts and with the idea of having to reinvent yourself when the world gets turned upside down. So I hope the human story of it translates, because that’s really what we wanted people to see:  these human beings and what they’re going through. And it just happens to be that their day job is that they wear capes and save the world, but they’re going through the same things that we all are. 

The post Jupiter’s Legacy: Leslie Bibb and the History of Lady Liberty appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3tYQ1hc

1. BELGIUM

Blanche - “City Lights” 4th place

And so it ends... it only took me TWO MONTHS good lord.

I’m not going to beat around the bush here. The choice to put Blanche at the top of this ranking was easy. There hasn’t been a contestant in a WHILE whose journey I’ve been THIS invested in. (the last time was Tinkara in 2014; ESC rewarding her with a spot in the finale on my BIRTHDAY was the best bday gift I ever received ;__;).

I suppose there *IS* the universal (and not entirely unfounded) criticism that Blanche played a lesser version of the Aminata game and... I don’t remember if i’ve mentioned it before, but I really fucking love Aminata? Even a “watered-down Love Injected” is EASILY the best entry of the year for me, #SorryNotSorry. (though she’s more like Lisa Miskovsky i m o)

There are several things which attract me to Blanche. The Staging, for instance. Sure, it *could* have been better. Did It need to be better? Nah. We were always getting this top four, in that particular order, so it’s fine. The backdrop and lighting were spot on and provided the dynamism it needed. It also features my personal favourite visual effect: Floortile Sorcery:

Mesmerising

I also really love Blanche as a hume. I have a soft spot for the Bèta Introverted Band Geek type of contestant because they feel so disarmingly out-of-place (cf.: Salvador and JOWST, but also past contestants like Tinkara Kovac, Jónsi or Aud Wilken). Blanche shines not in spite her inate lack of star power but because of it. She’s relatable and real. She remains *herself* and in doing so, endeared an entire continent. In other words, she is everything Salvador fans claim Salvador is.

So, about ~That Journey~ or as I would like to call it:

The PASSION OF THE BLANCHE

Blanche is often compared to a wallflower, a lamb, a deer-in-the-headlights, bland, dead-eyed, emotionless and sombre. I would agree had I not rewatched.

On rewatch it became clear to me that Blance was, in fact, arguably the most passionate out of everyone, albeit not within the usual meaning of “intense emotion”, but in the ancient Biblical sense of “experiencing an extensive period of intense suffering”. <3

Naturally, this upset the Value Seeker part of the community who were DEMANDING a Fierceness Injection, but lol I mean Blanche isn’t Aminata and she never will be, deal? She is an introverted, camera-shy schoolgoer who spent most of her interview time looking at her feet  or tripping over the English Language (btw: best Frenglish ever? Yes, defo) If she had tried to pull off “fierce” she’d have failed and flopped and been OUT in the semifinal.

Instead, the Belgian delegation did the most clever thing they ever could have done. They profiled Blanche as vulnerable, desperate, afraid to lose her lover and it worked. The Key change at the end is sublime, symbolizing the BREAK OUT from her icy shell, as she feels her romance slipping through her fingers. Do we *know* the panic, the desperation, the guilt which sets in when such a thing happens? Blance portrayed that perfectly and I was feeling it. So, I’m not bothered that she looks “terrified”; It’s part of her act, you ghouls. Do you think THIS is the face of a scarity-cat shrew?

What I see is a focused young woman who knows precisely what she’s doing. (although the hand gestures are still awks lol but you can’t have everything)

But the Martyrdom of Blanche Christ wasn’t just self-inflicted. She also pulled us, the diehards (you’re still reading about Eurovision in JULY. don’t deny it.) into the ordeal from the second “City Lights” was revealed, which is an extraordinary feat.

You see, there has been a distinct pattern among the Fourth Placers ever since 2013. They always, ALWAYS start out as universally beloved top contenders for their modernized, edgy, too-good-for-Eurovision songs. Then, they have underwhelming rehearsals in which their ratings plummet only to get it together and finish in the top four anyway. Blanche’s journey is precisely that, except she took it to dizzying extremes.

From the moment of the song reveal, the netizen fan community (myself included) took a huge interest in her. No surprise, considering the song is the best (like, it was the fave among pretty much ALL of her fellow competitors. slayage <3), her voice is exceptional and she’s from Top Tier Eurovision Nation Belgium (lmfao @ this being a statement I can type w/o any irony. Well I’d never!).

Naturally, as is bound to happen with pre-show faves, she was the locus of many netizen meltdowns over the course of the pre-show.

From #BadVoiceGate to #WhiteDressGate, #EmptyStagingGate and #ScaredLambGate, Blanche unwittingly fed our collective anxiety and paranoia, taking us for an emotional rollercoaster ride. The Blanche Experience was like watching a psychological drama unfold before our very eyes, with setback after setback after setback gutpunching us towards Bergendahlland until our Heroine, FINALLY, prevailed against all odds and finished in the top anyway. I don’t know about you, but for me, it was a catharsis. Everyone else’s journey pales in comparison to this epic saga of personal growth, intimacy and downright good music. 

In short,

FENK YOO EVRIWAN AL EUV YOORUP MERCI

Decade Rank: 17/324

lol even with that she’s still my lowest ranked #1 for the decade. oh well.

and that concludes my ranking!!!! (just in time because I’m embarking on a three week vacay on Wednesday). I hope you enjoyed it and see you next season for more EUROVISION!! (I may still post from time to time but that will likely be RTV or lit-related)

THE EUROVISION 2017 RANKING:

-ADORE- 1. Belgium (17/324) 2. Belarus (22/324) 3. Macedonia (28/324) 4. Norway (29/324) 5. Lithuania (43/324) 6. Hungary (47/324) -LOVE- 7. Moldova (55/324) 8. Italy (61/324) 9. the Netherlands (63/324) 10. United Kingdom (67/324) 11. Finland (68/324) 12. Estonia (71/324) 13. Azerbaijan (84/324) 14. Latvia (87/324) 15. Israel (93/324)

-LIKE- 16. Bulgaria (100/324) 17. Portugal (105/324) 18. Croatia (115/324) 19. Austria (119/324) 20. France (138/324) 21. Poland (154/324) 22. Armenia (158/324) 23. Romania (164/324)

-OKAY- 24. Iceland (174/324) 25. Ukraine (190/324) 26. San Marino (203/324) 27. Albania (217/324) 28. Denmark (228/324) 29. Spain (237/324) 30. Cyprus (240/324) -DISLIKE- 31. Germany (258/324) 32. Montenegro (263/324) 33. Sweden (270/324) 34. Serbia (275/324) 35. Australia (280/324) 36. Switzerland (286/324) 37. Czech Republic (288/324) 38. Malta (291/324) -HATE- 39. Georgia (301/324) 40. Greece (303/324) 41. Slovenia (307/324) 42. Ireland (312/324)

THE BORISBUBBLES HALL OF ESC FAVES:

1972: the Netherlands (Sandra & Andres - “Als het om de liefde gaat”) 1973: United Kingdom (Cliff Richard - “Power to all our friends”) 1974: Sweden (ABBA - “Waterloo”) 1975: Germany (Joy Fleming - “Ein Lied kann eine Brücke sein”) 1976: Luxembourg (Jürgen Marcus - “Chansons pour ceux qui s’aiment”) 1977: Belgium (Dream Express - “A Million in 1-2-3″) 1978: Israel - (Izhar Cohen & Alfabeta - “A Ba Ni Bi” 1979: Germany (Dschinghis Khan - “Dschinghis Khan”) 1980: Luxembourg (Sofie & Magaly - “Papa Pingouïn”) 1981: Belgium (Emly Starr - “Samson”) 1982: Germany (Nicole - “Ein Bißchen Frieden”) 1983: Israel (Ofra Haza - “Chai”) 1984: Ireland (Linda Martin - “Terminal 3″) 1985: Finland (Sonja Lumme - “Eläköön Elämä”) 1986: Belgium (Sandra Kim - “J’aime la vie”) 1987: Belgium (Liliane Saint-Pierre - “Soldiers of love”) 1988: Switzerland (Céline Dion - “Ne partez pas sans moi”) 1989: Turkey (Pan - “Bana Bana”) 1990: Yugoslavia (Tajci - “Hajde, da ludujemo”) 1991: Sweden (Carola - “Fångad av en stormvind”) 1992: Denmark (Lotte Nilson & Kenny Lübke - “Alt det som ingen ser”) 1993: the Netherlands (Ruth Jacott - “Vrede”) 1994: Germany (MeKaDo - “Wir geben ‘ne Party”) 1995: Cyprus (Alexandros Panayi - “Sti fotia”) 1996: Croatia (Maja Blagdan - “Sveta Ljubav”) 1997: Poland (Anne-Marie Jopek - “Ale jestem”) 1998: the Netherlands (Edsilia Rombley - “Hemel en aarde”) 1999: Croatia (Doris Dragovic - “Marija Magdalena”) 2000: Latvia (Brainstorm - “My star”) 2001: France (Natasha St. Pier - “Je n’ai que mon âme”) 2002: Spain (Rosa - “Europe’s living a celebration”) 2003: Germany (Lou - Let’s get happy”) 2004: Albania (Anjeza Shahini - “Image of you”) 2005: Romania (Luminita Anghel & Sistem - “Let me try”) 2006: Iceland (Silvia Night - “Congratulations”) 2007: Georgia (Sopho - Visionary Dream”) 2008: Iceland (Euroband - “This is my life”) 2009: Iceland (Yohanna - “Is it true?”) 2010: Albania (Juliana Pasha - “It’s all about you”) 2011: Germany (Lena - “Taken by a stranger”) 2012: Sweden (Loreen - “Euphoria”) 2013: Greece (Koza Mostra ft. Agathonas Iakovidis - “Alcohol is free”) 2014: Slovenia (Tinkara Kovac - “Round and round”) 2015: Latvia (Aminata - “Love Injected”) 2016: Armenia (Iveta Mukuchyan - “LoveWave”) 2017: Belgium (Blanche - “City Lights”)