#man i have so many fantastic memories archived on this blog
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My DEPRESSION BEATING, fandom obsessing, shit-tastic FANTASTIC year in review!
TL;DR: I’m fixing my mental health and figuring out WHO THE FUCK I AM one fandom filled day at a time! Thank you to everyone who’s been there for me along the way. xoxo
what’s up HEATHENS.
stating the goddamn obvious here, it’s been a HELLUVA YEAR. One emotional rollercoaster after another but we’re ALMOST DONE. I know things aren’t gonna magically get better the second it flips to 00:01 on January first, but I’m excited to put this year behind me, and (SHOCKINGLY) a bit sad to see it go.
It was a year where the whole world completely stopped, we realized what is really important, what is really worth fighting for, and took a GODDAMN SECOND to just breathe.
For me personally, the year (which I’m counting off from November 1st) started out UNBELIEVABLY SHIT. I had just been kicked out of the country I called home for the last four years (thank you Brexit), I had ZERO job prospects, my depression was the WORST it had ever been, and I just didn’t want to get out of bed in the morning. And in the beginning, the pandemic felt like salt in the wound, an extra kick in the teeth to my early twenties that had already “failed to launch.”
But I tried to embrace the madness, really take advantage of the world (that I always thought moved to fast) properly slowing down, and take time to try and become myself again. I wanted to figure out what I loved and try and become a bit more like the person I was before my depression got so bad.
I often say I became that Manic Trash Planet Lady™ you see in sci-fi adventure films; a bit zany to say the least, with a million ideas and a very eclectic fashion sense, but embracing the insanity as it comes...
*cough cough* audrey, get to the goddamn point!
Right. lol. THE POINT IS!
I’m not 100% “healed”, I’m not sure if I think depression is a “oh look you’re officially cured! hooray!” type of disease, but this year I let myself ENJOY SHIT for the first time in god knows how long. I still don’t know “wHaT i WaNt To dO WiTh mY LiFe”, but I’ve got a better idea and I’m heading in (what feels like) the right direction. And most of all, I can look back and say I am better than where I was a year ago.
So I wanted to say T H A N K Y O U to the mad lads on this website that introduced me to the fandoms, shows, movies, fics... THE SHIT that made me happy this year and were there to be one (BIG) piece in my healing journey.
AND SO, with out further rambling ADO! Here are the highlights of the year marked by my ridiculous hyper-fixations and OBSESSIONS. Thanks for putting up with me ya fiends, xoxox
November 2019
The Arcana (Visual Novel)
I had just gotten home and I was in a LOOOOOOW place. Randomly decided to download this app when it came up and it proceeded to ruin my life (and my bank account...) for pretty much the rest of the year. It was exactly what I needed to get me through a tough time and I was thoroughly, horse-blinders-up-to-the-rest-of-the-world, OBSESSED. These gorgeous magical fiends ruined me and all I could say was thank you.
Joined the fandom: November 2019
Obsession peaked: Late November
Obsession faded: December 2019; I started a new job AND my bank statement came in and I realized I had accidentally spent over SIXTY BUCKS on this stupid app. No ragrets, but I definitely started to phase out at that point.
Fandom friends: Velma, (@lanavxds on insta) miss you girlie xx
Fanfics you NEED to read: ‘Second Mistake’ by DeathBelle on AO3, because DAAAAAYUM SON.
Favourite moments: Basically the whole of the Julian arc. That gangly himbo OWNED my ass for a month.
December 2019
Hazbin Hotel (TV Series)
Y’ALL okay here me out. Am I proud of this one? No. Is the show crass as hell? OOOOOOOOHHHH YEAH. Did my angsty ass love it at the end of last year? DAMN STRAIGHT IT DID. Goes without saying, but this is NOT FOR EVERYBODY, but it definitely helped me along the way to becoming more comfortable with myself and being open about being the massive geek that I always was, and watching things I enjoy regardless of what people say about it.
Joined the fandom: December 2019
Obsession peaked: Shortly there after.
Fandom friends: None. Dipped one toe in fandom discourse and then promptly YEETED the fuck outta there.
Obsession faded: January 2019. Still curious to see the full series if A24 actually ever does produce the whole thing, but I have def moved away from it.
Fanfics you NEED to read: Haven’t read any. Maybe I’m a pussy baby piece-o-shit, but I DID NOT want to go down that rabbit hole, NO MA’AM.
Favourite moments:
Discovering the Hunicast podcast. These guys are a riot and Ashley is a flustered GEM. Even if you don’t watch the show, go watch an episode of these fucking LADS just dicking about and your day will get better.
Watching the first episode with my partner and watching him realize his girlfriend is a total freak.
January 2020
Lore Olympus (Webtoon Comic)
*Officially* discovered this one thanksgiving weekend in 2019, but my Arcana phase was still raging pretty strong at that point so I didn’t really get in to it until later. EVERYBODY AND THEIR MOTHER NEEDS TO READ IT. It has everything and handles the reality sexual assault and it’s aftermath EXTREMELY well.
Joined the fandom: Late November 2019
Obsession peaked: January 2020
Fandom friends: KELLEY. MA GIRL XOXOXO
Obsession faded: June-ish 2020. I’m like 10 chapters behind now, but I still love this story so much.
Fanfics you NEED to read: SO MANY ON MY ‘MARKED FOR LATER’ LIST AAAAAH. I have to get to that... NEW YEARS RESOLUTION lol
Favourite moments: Having a drunk conversation on New Years Eve in 2019 with one of my oldest friends from high school about how much she loved it too. Helped me see how popular fandom and fandoms, are especially after feeling like I needed to hide my enthusiasm through high school and uni. (THAT WAS A MISTAKE BUT I’LL GET THERE IN A MINUTE).
February 2020
Versailles (TV Series)
SO FUCKING GAY Y’ALL. Oh my god everyone in this show is so gay. Even when they’re not they still are a little bit. AND BEST OF ALL!! it’s very historically accurate (except for the demon satanic nonsense in season 3, what was that???)
Joined the fandom: February 2020
Obsession peaked: Like??? The SECOND I finished episode one.
Fandom friends: none... WHERE ARE ALL OF YOU???
Obsession faded: March 2020. It was a fast and passionate love affair, what can I say?
Fanfics you NEED to read: IF YOU HAVE RECS, GIVE ‘EM TO MEEEEE.
Favourite moments:
Showing the first episode to a friend of mine and the *ungodly GASP* that came out of her throat was... PRICELESS.
The ENTIRE throuple(???) relationship between the Chevalier, Philipe, and Palatine. PLATONIC/ ROMANTIC LOVE G O A L S.
March 2020
Yuri!!! On Ice (TV Series)
*deep breath* ...y’all knew this one was coming.
Was I ready for this show to ruin my fucking life? No.
Am I so glad it happened??? FUCK YEAH.
NEVER IN MY LIFE have I fallen off the deep end so quickly with a fandom. HOLY SHIT. This blog didn’t have much of an “identity” before, but I you said that this is a Yuri On Ice blog now I wouldn’t even be mad (nor could I really defend myself to the contrary... bc??? like??? just go LOOK at my archive). Craziest thing is I watched the first two episodes like?? a solid TWO YEARS ago, but I didn’t continue watching because I was just not in the right head space for all the love and silliness and positivity.
I could do a whole separate post about how much this show and how this fandom has changed my life (DON’T TEMPT ME I JUST MIGHT). But I’ll stick with the highlights for now ;)
Joined the fandom: March 2020
Obsession peaked: Has it peaked?? Went straight up and it still going lol
Fandom friends: Sandra, my mentor, my queen @aeriamamaduck, my fandom ride-or-die. Thank you for taking this internet bby under your wing. RACHEL @idancewiththefairies I TRAPPED YOU HERE. MUAHAHAHA xxx
Obsession faded: ON GOING. CAN’T STOP, WON’T STOP.
Fanfics you NEED to read: jfc, SO MANY.
‘Until My Feet Bleed and My Heart Aches’ and ‘Of Bright Stars and Burning Hearts’ by Reiya @kazliin -- Rivals AU companion pieces. Longest fics I’ve ever read and JESUS CHRIST these two fucking SENT ME. Most popular YOI fics on AO3 for a REASON.
‘Tell Me Where Your Love Lies’ by @aeriamamaduck -- Royalty AU, trope-breaking ABO. Ah sweet, TMWYLL, how you’ve killed me over and over again. This BEAUTIFUL wip has SUCH amazing world-building idk where to start (Congrats on passing 50,000 hits!) EVERYONE GO READ IT.
‘Blackbird’ by sixpences -- WWII/Coldwar Spy Fic. I don’t have enough words to describe how amazing this is. It’s elevated to a higher plane beyond fanfic. Just go read it. Thank me later.
‘Zanka’ by rinsled05 @dreaming-fireflies -- The geisha fic that ruined me. *deep breath* AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH *gasp* I’m fine. lol I sooooo not ready for this fic. Holy hell, Aoyagi had my heart in his hands from the first chapter. “’Please’ [...] ‘Don’t give me hope.’“ FUUUUCK.
‘Echoes’ by Reiya @kazliin -- Future fic. First fic I cried at... BOI. I was NOT ready for this. Shouldn’t be surprised given the author, but MAN. “‘A love like that, a love like what they had together, it never leaves completely.’ Yuri spoke again, eyes still staring out onto the ice, lost in memory. ‘There are always echoes.’” JUST FUCK ME UP.
Favourite moments: Oh good lord, where do I begin??
Having two (count ‘em TWO) main characters with mental health issues (Yuuri and his anxiety and Victor with burn out and depression) and NOT MAKING IT THE ONLY ASPECT OF THEIR PERSONALITY. CLAPS FOR KUBO AND YAMAMOTO!!
Everything about Yurio (ESPECIALLY HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH YUUKO AND HIS GRANDPA), that tsundere motherfucker is too pure for this world.
THE KISS. THE PROPOSAL. MY HEART WASN’T READY. AAAAAH!!
This fandom *properly* introducing me to smut on AO3...
Thinking I was going to get Rachel to like the show... NOT being prepared for her to fall off the deep end and START LIKING REAL SKATING TOO!!
Staying up waaaaaay too late waaaaaay too often to plan out plot points for TMWYLL with Sandra. Love ya dearie.
The warm fuzzy feeling I get every time I think about Victor and Yuuri.
April 2020
Bungou Stray Dogs (TV Series)
I had a hunch I was gonna like this show considering ALL of the characters are based off of famous classic authors from around the world... what I was NOT prepared for was just HOW MUCH I was going to love it. HOLY SHIT. The art style? Love it. The plot?? Bonkers, but so fun. THE VOICE CAST??? AMAZING. Highly recommend to anyone who wants to get in to anime, great place to start.
Joined the fandom: April 2020
Obsession peaked: Probably this summer? But we have DEF plateaued in a VERY high place.
Fandom friends: FIJI. MA BOIIIII @lil-1nsane
Obsession faded: Hasn’t. Hope it doesn’t
Fanfics you NEED to read: So so so many. The smut in this fandom is *chef’s kiss*, but here are a few...
‘He Works Hard For the Money’ by CataclysmicEvent @cataclysmicevent2019 -- Sugar Daddy AU. FUCK MAN. I was not expecting to like this one, but bloody hell. This fic grabbed me by the throat and WOULD NOT let me go. Praying for chapter 16! But the author is working on another STELLAR fic so I’m okay for now.
‘Everything or Nothing’ by CataclysmicEvent @cataclysmicevent2019 -- University AU. FUCK THIS FIC. Started reading it as I was waiting for HWHFTM to update and BOI, this fic ROCKS. The alternating POV fits so well with the enemies/idiots-to-lovers vibe. Solid 10 outta 10.
‘The City Where Wind Blows’ by @raven-rein -- Cancer Death fic. *pained shriek* AAAAAAGUUUUUUUHHHH *gasp* aaaaaaAAAAAAHHHHHHHH, FUUUCCCCCCCCCKKKK MEEEEE. THIS FIC. Only the second fic I’ve ever cried to but I BAWLED MY GODDAMN EYES OUT. FUUUUUUUCK. I was not ready, never would have been ready. This is so tremendously well done, it killed me so beautifully,
‘Haunted by Hatred’ by DeathBelle -- Canon compliant Soukoku. It is a CRIME that DeathBelle doesn’t have more BSD fics on her page, but this one is still brilliant.
Favourite moments:
THE CHUUYA-DAZAI MAFIA REUNION TEAM UP WHEN THEY FIGHT LOVECRAFT. Ooof. BOI. We love it.
The first three episodes. Soooo many break neck plot twists.
Every insane hypothetical conversation with Fiji.
Every time Atsushi or Tanizaki is on screen bc I LOVE THESE LIL BEANS.
June 2020
Trash Taste (Podcast)
Goddamn I love these chaotic lads so much.
As I became more and more comfortable with myself and my love for anime I stumbled upon these three goons, -- Joey, Connor, and Garnt, -- best known for there SUPER successful (mostly) anime YouTube channels. Even if you don’t watch anime, WATCH/LISTEN TO THIS PODCAST. The focus is mostly on their lives and the overall expat/immigrant experience, with a bit of anecdotal anime references sprinkled in.
This show is both wholesome and heathenous in equal measure, and after having lived abroad for a significant portion of my (admittedly still quite short) life, it was such a breath of fresh air to hear people talk so openly about how living outside your home country is both wonderful and terrifying. They’re wonderfully candid about the fact that even if you love a place dearly, no where is perfect, and you WILL hate somethings about your new home even if the majority of the experience is fantastic. I cannot rate this show highly enough.
Joined the fandom: June 5th 2020, loved it from the first episode.
Obsession peaked: July maybe? I was RELIGIOUS about watching the episodes as soon as they came out. Still watch every week, but less “on time.”
Fandom friends: None :( but I have tricked my partner in to listening several times :)
Obsession faded: It’s dimmed from where it was, but still going strong.
Fanfics you NEED to read: NONE. NEVER PLAN TO. Hard and fast rule, I don’t read fics about real people. Characters played by real people, even that’s a maybe for me. But real-real people? FUCK NO.
(some of my) Favourite moments:
Any time Garnt and Connor get into a big-brain-monkey-brain argument and Joey is just LOSING his GODDAMN MIND in the corner.
Bringing a retired Japanese porn star in the show for an honest conversation about consensual sex work and showing people can have more than one career in life.
Everything about the, ‘Are Online Friends Real Friends?’ episode. GO WATCH IT, it’s brilliant.
Garnt making “chotto-THE-FUCKING-matte” an expression
August 2020
Great Pretender (TV Series)
Spent most of the summer marinating in my BSD and YOI bubbles, until THIS BAD BOI came up on my Netflix recommendations. HOOOO BOI. This is some Anime Of The Year shit right here. Has a pretty original concept (Catch Me If You Can by way of Oceans 11-ish) but generally starts out like most other shounen (sans the super powers). AND THEN EPISODE FIVE HAPPENS. Not gonna spoil it but they TOOK THAT SHIT UP A NOTCH. Brilliant, even with a bit of an insane ending. GO WATCH THIS ONE.
Joined the fandom: August 2020
Obsession peaked: Pretty much as soon as I started watching it.
Fandom friends: What’s up Fiji ;) @lil-1nsane
Obsession faded: Naturally faded, but so glad I watched
Fanfics you NEED to read: None so far! Little scared about this one, heard mixed reviews, but maybe someday.
Favourite moments:
Edamame’s “madness arc” at the end of season 2. HOOOO BOY.
Laurent getting fucking WRECKED when Edamame punches him mid way through season 2, kills me every time.
Introducing my partner to anime with this show.
October 2020
Attack on Titan (TV Series)
RETURN OF THE KING. lol
In my quest to find an anime that I can watch with my partner, I turned on season 1 of this bad boi. Holy hell I forgot how much I loved this show, NO WONDER everyone lost their goddamn minds when this show first aired. I NEED to catch up before all the season four spoilers come to get me...
Joined the fandom: Winter 2016
Obsession peaked: Basically as soon as I started watching it.
Fandom friends: None yet, but I know you’re out there...
Obsession faded: 2017, JUST BEFORE SEASON TWO... I should have stuck around longer I know, but it’s slowly coming back. Reeeeeally need to catch up on seasons two, three, and four.
Fanfics you NEED to read: GIVE ME YOUR RECS HEATHENS.
Favourite moments:
Watching my partner FREAK OUT about Eren’s “death.”
EVERYTHING ABOUT POTATO GORL! lol
Getting in a conversation with a die hard fan after I hadn’t watched it in three years and saying... “Who’s that blond bitch that cries all the time?”/ “Armin?”/ “THAT’S THE ONE!”
November 2020... kind of.
Figure Skating (Sport)
Okay this one is a bit hard to explain.
I have been a DIE HARD figure skating for A LOOOOOONG time. My grandmother got me a hat from the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City and I remember watching even then. But I first became consciously aware of different skaters, my faves, etc. from about 2010. I vividly remember watching Plushenko skating in 2014 while on a school trip to Hawaii, and my friends laughing at me as I yelled at the TV.
But I didn’t TRULY get involved in the fandom side of it until this year. I had all this knowledge bottled up, but didn’t have any skating friends to talk to... UNTIL NOW. Super ironic that this happened in a year with almost NO skating, but I’ll take what I can get ;) Also did I stay up until FOUR-GODDAMN-THIRTY IN THE MORNING a few nights ago to stream Japanese Nationals on my phone??? YOU BET I DID.
Joined the fandom: Three times; 2002, 2010, and 2020.
Obsession peaked: 2014? 2018? Idk it peaks any time someone does something amazing.
Fandom friends: Rachel, my girl @idancewiththefairies, WHY DIDN’T I INTRODUCE YOU TO THIS SOONER???
Obsession faded: Hasn’t. Won’t. lol
Fanfics you NEED to read: NOPE. NONE. NOT GONNA HAPPEN. No fanfics about real people. Never gonna change that.
(some of my) Favourite moments:
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir doing THAT routine at the 2018 Olympics.
Rachel sheepishly admitting to me that Shoma may have replaced Yuzu as her favourite, and me being SO DAMN PROUD of her for growing and developing her own skating opinions apart from me.
Yuzu’s 2012 ‘Romeo and Juliet’ routine and Worlds. THE RAW FUCKING POWER OF THAT SKATE.
Plushenko, cheeky bastard, changing his 2014 Team Event routine AS IT WAS HAPPENING.
The worlds friendliest rivalry between Yuzu and Nathan.
Any thing the Shibutani’s do, and all they do to break up the stereotype that all of Ice Dancing has to be rOmAnTiC and SeNsUaL to be good.
Watching my early faves become coaches and the D R A M A.
Honorable Mentions:
Coco (Film): I watched this the weekend I came home and I owe this movie a lot. It is so sweet an heartwarming, and it a roundabout way it brought me back to Tumblr (needed somewhere to vent my feelings considering I watched the movie a solid THREE YEARS after it came out, Tumblr seemed like the place to go lol). Watched in again in 2020 and it’s just as amazing.
Jekyll and Hyde (All media): Loved this book from the first time I read it in my first year of uni. But in December 2019, my fandom understanding reached its PEAK. The musical?? The comic?? YOOOOOO.
Dear Evan Hansen (Musical): I have BARELY engaged in fandom discourse, but the MUSIC. She fucking SLAPS.
Sirius the Jaeger (TV Series): This show is such an underrated gem. It literally has so much; "dead” family drama? Eclectic international group of monster hunters? Cowboys and vampires?? Yes, yes, and YES. And the main character has the same Japanese voice actor as Atsushi from BSD!
Studio Ghilbi (Films): My love affair with Ghibli goes back to when I was about 5 and BEGGED my mom to take me to the library so we could rent Kiki’s Delivery Service on DVD. But that love has been FULLY rejuvenated this year when I went to the Ghibli Film Festival in New York City (ironically in the last week in February). If you haven’t seen them, go watch From Up On Poppy Hill, Whisper of the Heart, and The Wind Rises. Spoilers, you’re probably gonna cry.
If you’ve made it this far, THANK YOU FOR READING!
And thank you to all the amazing people that made my 2020 not so horrible. Good riddance 2020, don’t let the door hit you on the way out!
#2020#mental health#appreciation post#figure skating#studio ghibli#coco#attack on titan#great pretender#bungou stray dogs#trash taste#versailles tv#yuri!!! on ice#the arcana game#hazbin hotel#anime#fandom
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A Recap on the Buzzards
Now that we officially know the Buzzards are the heads of F.O.W.L. as @astrodances speculated, I think it’s time we review their actions from the show so far (and of course I have to add my own commentary afterwards).
“Woo-oo!”
Episode notes:
Bentley Buzzard informs Scrooge business is expanding in the Spoonerville and St. Canard markets.
Bentley informs Scrooge they are cutting funding to “unnecessary departments,” including Historical Research, Experimental Tech, and Deep Sea Exploration.
Scrooge, devoid of all enthusiasm, sarcastically replies, “Fantastic...”
DG notes:
In one of the earliest scenes in the show, we see Scrooge isn’t making the financial decisions in his own company. The Buzzards were cutting funding from departments for things he once cared about, and he raised no objections. Once he got his family back though, he also regained his enthusiasm for adventure and life in general, and those departments became necessary again. Within a few hours of meeting his great-nephews, he decided to take them on a deep sea exploration adventure, and I’m sure the Buzzards didn’t like that at all. They would have had to come up with a new strategy to maintain control of his company since his grief as a bereaved parent wasn’t enough anymore.
“The Great Dime Chase!”
Episode notes:
They call an unscheduled meeting with Scrooge shortly after his nephews move back in.
Bradford informs Scrooge that, as he knows, revenues are down in several international markets. He lists four of them and says, “We feel that...” before Gyro bursts in.
After Gyro’s spiel, Bradford asks him how he plans to ensure Li’l Bulb won’t achieve sentience and turn evil like all his other inventions.
Li’l Bulb shakes his fist and runs a finger under his “throat,” to threaten Bradford. Bradford asks what it’s doing and Gyro says, “Waving. It likes you.”
Bradford shares a glance with each of his colleagues and then denies Gyro’s request for funding.
Scrooge tells Louie his board are the only people cheaper than he is, and he trusts them completely to make good financial decisions.
Bradford interrupts Scrooge and says they are calling the meeting “to discuss cutting your unnecessary spending here at the... money bin.”
The first cut they propose is on Scrooge’s $15,000,000 he’s spending on magical defense, to which Scrooge replies, “Do you have any idea how many vengeance curses I have on my head?!”
Bradford asks Scrooge how he can justify spending $5,000 on a velvet pillow for a dime.
Scrooge calls them “ya penny-pinching Buzzards!”
Scrooge says if they can find him 3,000 gallons of silver polish for cheaper, he’d love to hear about it. Bradford replies by saying this is getting them nowhere, and if Scrooge refuses to make cuts, they’ll be forced to fire bin employees to save money.
Bradford says the obvious first choice is the archivist. Scrooge argues Quackfaster has kept his archives secure and orderly for 50 years. Bradford says, “Fine, Quackfaster stays.”
Bradford then says Gyro is “definitely unnecessary.” Scrooge argues Gyro is one of the most brilliant minds of their time.
Scrooge sarcastically says if they’re going to fire all the employees, why not shut the whole bin down? And Bradford points out he does have a perfectly good office downtown before asking:
Scrooge tells the Buzzards if they fire his crazy employees, they’ll definitely seek revenge. Bradford asks for a vote: “All those in favor of keeping the bin and everyone in it far away from our offices?” The other two reply, “Aye.”
DG notes:
Isn’t it interesting that once Scrooge’s nephews moved back in, the Buzzards held an unscheduled meeting to try and get him to cut funding to his defenses and/or fire Quackfaster and Gyro? And possibly even shut down the money bin?
I’m sure the Buzzards knew exactly what they were doing in asking Scrooge to cut funding on magical defense. They knew there was something dangerous he was keeping locked up on an island somewhere. They also likely knew he had vengeance curses on his head and they wanted him defenseless.
When they questioned him about the velvet pillow under the dime, it’s possible they were fishing for information about his dime, which we now know is more than just sentimental.
Then they tried to get him to fire Quackfaster, who keeps Scrooge’s records... even any existing records of the Spear of Selene. They probably figured since Scrooge’s family was back in his life, the event that drove them apart was bound to come up again, and if you’re familiar with this blog or @alliterative-albatross’, you’ll know we have reason to believe the Buzzards have something to hide when it comes to the incident. We believe they may have threatened Gyro to sabotage the rocket (and Gyro would have pretended to go along with their plans to buy himself time, but not actually plant real bombs on the rocket).
After they failed to convince Scrooge to fire Quackfaster, they tried to get Scrooge to fire Gyro, who built the Spear of Selene and would definitely have information to spill to the nephews if they came asking.
Then they tried to get the whole bin shut down, and deep inside Scrooge’s archives at the bin is the shrine he built in Della’s memory to process his grief in his own way.
Fortunately, with Scrooge’s family back in his life, we see a drastic change from the bored, depressed, broken, and submissive man he appeared to be in the pilot episode. With his family back, he has the strength to fight back against how the Buzzards want to run things. He said he trusted them completely to make good financial decisions - a sign they’ve had him under their thumb for years - but this was his first meeting post-reunion, and he’s not the doormat they’re used to anymore.
“Jaw$!”
Episode notes:
The Buzzards called to say Scrooge’s adventures were causing costly damages to Duckburg.
They also had Beakley pass along the message that they had set up a television interview for Scrooge with Roxanne Featherly to help boost his character.
DG notes:
Either they really did want Scrooge’s reputation to get a boost because that’d be good for the company and therefore good for them if they could regain control, or they knew Scrooge would make a fool of himself and they hoped he’d come to the conclusion again that he needed to listen to them.
“The Last Crash of the Sunchaser!”
Episode notes:
In Scrooge’s flashback of the events following Della’s disappearance, we see the Buzzards telling Scrooge his spending on the search for Della has far exceeded its budget and every other area of spending in the company. This is followed by a clip of his own private funds from the money bin draining drastically.
We see another clip of the bin draining again, followed by a clip of two of the Buzzards dragging a frantic Scrooge away from the control panel and out the door while the other stands in the background.
DG notes:
I’m willing to bet the Buzzards - while they had possibly hoped to get Scrooge killed with this rocket - found Della’s disappearance just as useful, if not more. If Scrooge had died on the rocket, that could have led to an investigation of what went wrong mechanically. But with Della lost in a cosmic storm, and with Scrooge believing she stole her own present for a test run (rather than knowing she discovered the conspiracy and was confident she could bust it on her own), the whole thing could look like a tragic accident... no one to blame but Della herself. And with Scrooge a broken and grieving man, he was easily manipulated.
The Buzzards would have known all they had to do was occasionally tell Scrooge he was spending far too much to look for Della when it was hopeless, knowing he wouldn’t listen to them, and only when Scrooge was “nearly bankrupt,” as Beakley said he was, would the Buzzards swoop in and put a stop to Scrooge’s search efforts, making them look like the heroes who saved his company and pulled him back from the brink of the abyss. From then on they had his trust and cooperation... until he reunited with his nephews.
“Last Christmas!”
Episode notes:
The Buzzards attended Scrooge’s first annual McDuck Enterprises Christmas Party in the 1960s.
Duckworth pushes present-day Scrooge toward the Buzzards to talk business. Scrooge asks them if they are enjoying the party and they huddle up to discuss the question for a moment before answering him in unison, “No.”
Bradford tells Scrooge with the economic downturn, having a Christmas that is both holly and jolly isn’t fiscally responsible.
DG notes:
Calling a holly jolly Christmas fiscally irresponsible should have convinced more fans of their evilness.
That aside, let’s look at the timeline a bit. This party took place after the events of the flashbacks in “The Confidential Casefiles of Agent 22!” Beakley was at the party, so she and Scrooge were already friends, so Scrooge had already worked as a freelance operative on a S.H.U.S.H. mission where they thwarted the F.O.W.L. agent, Black Heron.
When present-day Scrooge arrives at this Christmas party in the past, we find out it was the first one for McDuck Enterprises because he’d just started his company. The Buzzards, who have since been revealed as the heads of F.O.W.L., have been stationed in his company since it began because he was already an enemy of F.O.W.L.
“The 87 Cent Solution!”
Episode notes:
They attended Scrooge’s staged funeral.
DG notes:
How much d’you wanna bet the whole time they were thinking, my gosh, the things we have to put up with to play the long game...
“The Richest Duck in the World!”
Episode notes:
The Buzzards called a meeting after Louie spent $100,000,000 on an ottoman. Brandford asked him how exactly the ottoman benefits the company.
Bradford tells Louie McDuck Enterprises is a business, not a bank account, and the money has to come from somewhere. Louie tells him to figure it out, since that’s what he pays him to do.
Bradford brings up the money spent on magical defense that he tried to have Scrooge cut in Season 1. He says it’s spent on a dark, mysterious island. Louie, not knowing what’s on the island, tells him to cut that. Bradford pulls a device with a single red button right out of his suit jacket and presses it, releasing the Bombie.
While on the island and trying to escape the Bombie, Louie calls Bradford and tells him to cut the funding to the McDuck satellite system immediately and drop them all on his location. Bradford asks him if he’s sure he knows what he’s doing, and he tells him he does. Bradford drops the satellites on the island and they explode.
At the end of the episode, we find out the McDuck satellite system was a series of defense satellites, and once they went down, Lunaris was ready to invade.
DG notes:
Scrooge may have known all the ins and outs of McDuck Enterprises, but Louie did not. Scrooge knew that 15 million on magical defense was important and he knew why. Bradford probably also knew exactly what he was doing when he suggested cutting the funding to magical defense again, even though this time he didn’t bring up how much the company was spending on it and, if he had, Louie would have realized the 15 million wouldn’t have made up for the 100 million he just spent. It wasn’t about making up for the money he’d lost at all. They just wanted to get rid of Louie and get control of the company again, whether it was through becoming the heads of McDuck Enterprises themselves, or manipulating a grieving Scrooge again.
They also would have known those satellites were defense satellites, and while they’re evil, they’re not out to destroy the whole world (as Bradford later said in the finale, “...without the world, who would we larceny against?”). Bradford asked Louie if he knew what he was doing and while Louie said he did, of course he didn’t. (“The ducks almost cost us the world today...”)
“Moonvasion!”
Episode notes:
We find out the defense satellites were also useful for communication.
At the end of the episode, it is revealed the Buzzards are the head of F.O.W.L., and Bradford gives the following speech:
“This has gone too far. The ducks almost cost us the world today, and without the world, who would we larceny against? The pieces are finally in place. Time to come out of the shadows, take control, and end Clan McDuck. If the McDuck family wants an adventure... we’ll give them their last.”
DG notes:
While I was certain the Buzzards were evil (we even had that IDW comic panel that proved they were trying to get rid of Scrooge), it still feels unreal that their evilness has been revealed in the show. #BlametheBuzzards2019 is officially valid.
There’s a lot to unpack and unravel when it comes to enemy spies being planted in Scrooge’s company from the beginning. Our new little conspiracy theorist Huey will have his hands full.
And while Season 1 showed the parallels between Della and Dewey (their personalities, confidence, and love of adventure), and Season 2 showed the parallels between Della and Louie (seeing the angles and stressing out when their plans don’t go the way they thought), Season 3 will almost certainly show parallels between Della and Huey. And if Della did take the rocket because she tripped the wire while investigating a conspiracy, that would definitely parallel Huey’s search for answers. Seeing Huey try to bust a conspiracy on his own could be quite triggering for Della. She may try to stop him before he gets hurt.
I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what the Buzzards have been up to and how the family will find out about it all.
#ducktales buzzards#ducktales 2017#ducktales season 1#ducktales seaon 2#blamethebuzzards2019#ducktales speculation#blame the buzzards 2019#ducktales season 3#ducktales#ducktales spear of selene#ducktales f.o.w.l.
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Episode 15: Boss B!tches
Sources:
Elleanor Eldridge
Smithsonian Library Blog
Memoirs of Elleanor Eldridge (Smithsonian Libraries)
Women Extra and Ordinary: Elleanor Eldridge
Documenting the American South
Rhode Island Historical Society
Stages of Freedom
Further Learning: Stages of Freedom on Zora Neale Hurston
Madam CJ Walker
National Women’s History Museum
Philanthropy Round Table
Guinness Book of World Records
History Channel
Preserving Black History
Mary Ellen Pleasant
New York Times
CNBC
Black Past
Black Economics
Biography
Attributions: Katy Kirby, Live a-humble, Cash Register, San Francisco bound
Click below for a transcript of the episode!
Archival Audio: I can make my own living just as well as he can make his. He ought to be glad I'm working. Just because he can't stand competition he wants me to quit. My work isn't important enough. I'm only a woman but he, the man, is boss. He'd like me to be a slave to the house. Look at this mess.
Haley: Starting a business now is increasingly just slowly getting harder and harder because… and I'm doing this because I want to start an Etsy, because money and graduating in a pandemic sucks. Like Etsy has ridiculous fee prices.
Lexi: Yes.
Haley: Like just uploading a picture is like twenty cents and I realize this for like all these other accounts there are just so many different fees. But then when I was talking to like my dad and the older generation family members, they’re like “start a business, have an idea, and like create something” and I’m like do you guys not understand how difficult that is? Like I don’t–
Lexi: Well you need money to make ideas.
Alana: Yeah.
Lexi: I have plenty of business-worthy ideas and I always like sit at the dinner table and joke that someone should give me like X. amount of dollars because I've researched how much my new idea is going to cost but no one ever takes me seriously and they're like “what is this your thirty fifth business idea this year” but like… compostable dog toys? Fantastic idea.
Haley: Oh, I love that idea.
Lexi: All it would take me is a grand to get that off the ground so if anyone wants to invest. But guess what? I don't have a grand.
Haley: Well I’m using my savings account for this.
Lexi: Oof.
Haley: I have invested like a grand or so and I’ve taken way longer– I've been thinking about this like for the whole pandemic like since May. And with moving that was kind of like a shit show obviously like school comes first, but I'm at the point where now I'm just like making stuff and I have to do another order for shipping like candle materials? It's a hundred dollars for shipping. Yeah. I like making stuff. I’m a crafty bitch.
[INTRO MUSIC]
Alana: Hello and welcome to the Lady History; the good, the bad, and the ugly ladies you missed in history class. In the Zoom meeting today as always is Lexi. Lexi, which of your business ideas do you think is the most sustainable?
Lexi: My most sustainable business idea is to 3d print dog toys out of corn. That if the dog buries them in the yard or destroys them and you need to get rid of them, they are compostable. Because one of the biggest struggles about being a pet owner is that, at least for my bird a lot of the toys are very made of natural materials and so I don't feel bad throwing out the broken pieces, but dog toys are made of not good stuff.
Alana: And it's the other constant in my life, Haley. Haley, what would you do with a million dollars?
Haley: I would have a dog. Dogs don't cost a million dollars, but like…
Lexi: You could spoil a dog.
Haley: Yeah.
Alana: And I'm Alana and I can't eat the rich because pig isn't kosher.
Lexi: In terms of women starting businesses, I was thinking if Lady History doesn't work out, if we never make real money our business plan can be–
Alana: How dare you, we have made six dollars.
Lexi: Okay. But like, if we need real money and all museums stop existing because of the rona we can open a bake shop called Sprinklebear McPuss-n-Boots’ Bakery.
Haley: I love it. I'm down. You know that's like always been my dream is to have a bakery but part of the bakery…
Lexi: I believe there's a place near me I think you would really like. You probably couldn't eat anything there– well maybe you could eat like the savory stuff. But it's called Sweet Memories and the first floor is a tiny little restaurant that serves soup and gourmet grilled cheese and has baked goods but the upstairs is a little craft store where they sell locally made, handmade stuff and that is kind of how I envision Sprinklebear McPuss-n-Boots’ Bakery.
Haley: So that's exactly what I wanted. I wanted to be a chef growing up and I would, that's how I like bake all my cookies and everything, all egg substitutes. I just hate it when people try to make like restaurants so freakin elaborate, like where they have– and I'm not talking diners, diners are perfection like the gross greasy diner? Give that to me.
Lexi: Mm. That’s the good stuff
Haley: I don't want to go to a cafe where like the list of crap you can get is longer than like my shoe size… I have small feet. Okay fine, I have very small feet so like let me rephrase that.
Lexi: Longer than Robert’s shoe size.
Alana, laughing: Ayyyyy.
Haley: Ayyyy.
Lexi: That was a dick joke. I’m sorry.
Haley: Longer than my wand. My bakery has to have a good menu that's like very limited. So again, soups. I love soups and sandwiches, like you have your grilled cheese–
Lexi: I mean it’s literally gourmet grilled cheese and like three kinds of soups.
Haley: Like you always have like the tomato, you always have broccoli cheddar, and you always have chili and like one seasonal.
Lexi: I had a pumpkin wild mushroom seasonal soup that was to die for.
Haley: Amazing, that sounds so great. And then for the bakery stuff, it's stuff that like you can eat right there– like a croissant would be excellent. Cookies would be excellent, but also just like you could special order like a pie or cake.
Lexi: Yes!
Haley: And then one part of it is like a library type situation. Not necessarily bookstore, but just like all my books. I have over two hundred books of course I could spare a few books. So you could sit there, read, do a chit chat.
Alana: It's like those books at Gelman that are like you can't take them out but you can read them there. On reserve or whatever it’s called.
Haley: Yes. And then lastly, have stuff like packaged because like hostess gifts. I am the queen of bringing a hostess gift. There have been moments where I forgot it and that's why I've made up with it of just being really elaborate. So if like you need a serving dish for the cookies you're going to buy from my place? Of course I have some ivory porcelain cooking dish– like serving dishes. You want like a Haley inspired Dutch oven? you damn Skippy you're gonna have it in three colors.
Lexi: So I guess the final verdict is Sprinklebear McPuss-n-Boots Bake Shop will be an egg-free, small menu, gift shop, library, eatery experience.
Haley: Absolutely.
Lexi: For my business woman I am covering yet another lady from the Women Extra and Ordinary project that I did with the Smithsonian Libraries. I feel like this is going to get real old real fast, how many of these women I'm covering, but you know what I already did the research. So today I'm gonna talk about Elleanor Eldridge, who lived in Rhode Island and was born approximately in March 1785. Her father, Robin Eldridge, was a formerly enslaved person who fought in the American Revolution in exchange for his freedom. Her mother, Hannah Prophet, was a Native American who died when Elleanor was ten years old. Elleanor was one of nine siblings. After her mother's death, an aunt suggested Elleanor never get married, and Elleanor began working as a servant. While working, Elleanor became skilled in weaving, spinning, paper and soap making, wallpapering, cheesemaking and dairy working. And to keep her living costs down, she exchanged housework for boarding so that she wouldn't have to pay rent. And through her skills and smart planning, she was able to expand her money making ventures, performing various tasks to earn money. Elleanor was naturally gifted as a businesswoman, and when she succeeded in saving up a large sum of money she began investing in property, which is a pretty good business move. She was also able to take out a mortgage to further her investments. And this was an extremely unique position for a woman of color living in Rhode Island at the time that she lived. So she took advantage of her own savvy and did something really unique and awesome. She built a home on the property she bought with a space that she could rent out. So like think modern duplex but this is the early 1800s and your landlord living next door is a badass businesswoman. So I wouldn't mind her as my landlord. But Elleanor's aunt was right to advise Elleanor to never get married because at the time women could not own property in their own name if they were married. So married women could only hold property in shared ownership with their husbands or after their husband's death, so Elleanor was smart to not get married because it would have meant that her husband would control the property that she had acquired through their own hard work, so by staying single she kept her business interests in her own name which is really good. When Elleanor fell ill in her forties, she went to stay with her family to recover from her sickness. And after becoming well, she had to travel to assist another ill relative who was suffering from cholera. And because many people in her hometown thought she was gone for a really long time, they believed that she died, and a disagreement surrounding the loan that she taken out– the mortgage– led to Elleanor having her property holdings wrongfully taken from her. And she decided to take legal action in 1837. She became the first Black woman in America to plead her case in court and despite overwhelming evidence–
Alana: I look pretty good for a dead bitch.
Lexi: Despite overwhelming evidence, including three male witnesses, a corrupt sheriff testified against her and his testimony was enough for the judge to rule against her. And after spending years working and growing her business, Elleanor lost everything. But Elleanor did not give up. A strong-willed woman, she pursued a settlement out of court which allowed her to repurchase her property, but she was still short on funds to pay the fee that she needed to pay to recover the property. So she had a big brain plan, like the big brain businesswoman she was, to help her cause. Elleanor, who was illiterate, enlisted the help of a ghostwriter; abolitionist Frances Harriet Whipple Green, and Green transcribed Elleanor's life story into a memoir, and the sales of the memoir helped Elleanor repurchase her lost property. And you can read the book by accessing a digital scan on the Smithsonian library website if you are so inclined to read it. The terminology is a little dated and it's a little hard to read if you speak modern English, but if you're curious for a firsthand account… Because even though it was physically written by Francis, it was told by Elleanor, so it's a really unique story. And the book is in the public domain but if you're so inclined that you're just like this is really cool you can actually purchase a physical copy and have it if you would like to. Elleanor’s memoirs include this quote which I really think sums up her whole situation quite well so I'm just going to read it in her words– “No MAN would have been treated so; and if A WHITE WOMAN had been the subject of such wrongs, the whole town—nay, the whole country, would have been indignant; and the actors would have been held up to the contempt they deserve! Newspaper editors would have copied, and commented on it, till every spirit of honor, of justice and of chivalry, would have been roused.” So I think that says a lot about the situation that she was in and how she felt about it and how precarious the whole thing was the fact that if it had happened to a guy, or even to a white woman, it would have not gone down the same way it did. So at the time of her death, Elleanor had recovered most of what she lost and regained most of her property and money, and her story is regarded by scholars today as an important unique account of the story of a Black woman in early America pursuing her own career. In a time when many Black stories were lost, Elleanor's was saved and today she can continue to tell her story through her book. When not close for COVID-19, the Rhode Island Historical Society has a walking tour. It’s about Elleanor and other Black Rhode Islanders from early America, so it stops at a couple locations in the city to share their stories. And the Historical Society also presents a one woman reenactment of Elleanor's trial called “No Man Ever Would Have Been Treated So: The Trials of Elleanor Eldridge” which can be booked as an educational event for groups and clubs. It's pretty cool. And the actress who does it seems really cool so Google it. One of the links actually in the tumblr sources that I am sharing is a video where the actress talks about her experience and a couple other things related to womanhood, so if you're curious about that kind of stuff go watch it.
Alana: I hate that you’ve now done two Rhode Island ladies, and I've been to Rhode Island and telling me about all these cool things to do in Rhode Island and I didn't do any of them because I was like eleven and–
Lexi: You'll go to Rhode Island again.
Alana: Lady History field trip to go see that play.
Lexi: Hey, maybe she could do the play and then we could do a live episode about other famous Rhode Island ladies.
Haley: That would be fantastic.
Alana: Manifest it. Say it on the pod, make it happen.
Lexi: Live show at the Rhode Island Historical Society about Rhode Island ladies.
[Archival Audio of a hymnal]
Haley: My fabulous gal today is Madam CJ Walker, or, by Guinness Book of World Records, the first female self made millionaire in America. And before we get to that point, this history book starts at her childhood. Born on a plantation in Delta, Louisiana, Sarah Breedlove was one of six children to Owen and Minerva Anderson Breedlove. I love the name Minerva. Owen and Minerva Anderson Breedlove, “former slaves-turned sharecroppers.” And that was a quote, and I don’t like that that’s how it’s phrased. Like “former slaves-turned sharecroppers” is exactly what happened, my problem is like in the sentence I kept reading it it's like “oh but they’re sharecroppers now” not like–
Lexi: It's like still bad.
Haley: Yeah it's still bad and this is because–
Alana: It's not even bad to less bad, it's bad the different bad.
Haley: Yeah. It hits differently. And this is all post Civil War. I even put in my notes like this quote is weird. Unfortunately, her parents died when she was seven and Madam CJ moved in with her sister who worked in the cotton fields. And at age fourteen she married Moses McWilliams, and this is partly to get away from her abusive brother in law.Because already we're off to a rocky start if like your footnote is to get away from an abusive person. Maybe there was love. I couldn't find much about Moses. Again, life was just not on Madam CJ’s side, and her husband died in 1887. And she had to raise their two year old daughter Leila, known as A’Leila. She moved to St Louis with the hope of a better life and not just like living in poverty getting out of that poverty situation because… like yeah absolutely. She wanted– and she was very adamant on making a better life for herself and her daughter and knowing that she could do it as a woman, not just like having that widow title slapped on her. Because we know– even now still, if you’re a widow that's kind of like your identity, your personality. It's like “oh… your partner died.” And kind of the same with men like raising children and that's not what we want. So in St Louis, her four brothers were barbers and she worked both as a laundress and a cook. She also joined the African Methodist Episcopal Church where she met Black men and women who were both educated and successful. And this is kind of like an inspirational moment for her. This was a pivotal moment that she, in my research, just kept going back to. She went through a bit more of a life struggle with a failed marriage and just more financial ups and downs which would make anyone physically and mentally strained. However, in 1904, she began using African American businesswoman Annie Turbo Malone’s “The Great Wonderful Hair Grower” because she was starting to see like scalp problems where… concluded into like hair loss, and I’ll explain more of that because I had to do some more research myself. She also joined Malone's team of Black women sales agents, and this is where she starts to become one of those successful independent people she'd previously admired. And I believe this is around the time Leila actually went to like university, so that was a big yay. I also would like to pause, like I said, to do some research about hair care products because all hair is different. And these products especially that Madam CJ later invents were for Black women who lost their hair to scalp disorders or most likely a form of alopecia, like relatively common and Madam CJ had it too. That is not to say that hair loss just comes in scalp disorders, like I get hair loss when I use certain rubber bands because I have really thick coily hair that will break off at the end. Apparently my hair type is prone to like stress falling out. After some time in the business field, and I believe this was just like about a year, she moved to Denver where she married quote “ad man” Charles Joseph Walker. Hence the new name of Madam CJ Walker. and this is important in the business sense of her life because she started out with a dollar twenty five, and yes this was way way back ago, but in the sense of building like a business that was launching her career to be a self made millionaire that's a little bit of dough. And she was able to launch “Madam Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower” which her husband, the ad man, helped advertise and getting like mail order business started because remember, we did not have the lovely internet. So that was a huge chunk of the business to get like revenue, get the word out there and such. And she knew that there was a market here, because one she was in that market and she just previously worked in that market so she could easily tap into it. And as a Black woman, she knew how to essentially not only market, but just be like “here's how you use it.” So unfortunately this marriage ended in a divorce, and she later moved to Indianapolis. And in 1910, she built a factory for her company, now named Walker Manufacturing Company. And this transformation made it possible for her to become an advocate for Black women especially in the economic independence realm, with Walker Manufacturing Company she could branch out and do a lot more. And she opened up a training program called the Walker System, and basically this huge network of licensed sales agents blossomed. And this led back into her core ideals of giving back and being very generous because she believed that she had generous opportunities given to her, so now she needed to give back. And she remembered what it was like to be that person on the poverty line being inspired by these wealthy, educated, successful people. She ended up employing forty thousand Black women and men in the United States, Central America, and the Caribbean. I couldn't find out if this was specifically one part of her business or like the whole network or other endeavors because she also had a cosmetics branch called the National Negro Cosmetics Manufactuers Association that she also started. Regardless, forty thousand people worked many different spans of land is a lot. And her worth in all senses of the word just kept growing and growing. Financially, in the last year of her life she reached that one million dollar mark with her sales exceeding five hundred thousand dollars and some reports saying that at her death, the value of her remaining estate was more like six hundred thousand, which is about eight million today. Just like, what Alana asked, what would I do with a million and maybe a house… like now thinking of it. Because one of her things she spent her money on was a mansion named Villa Lewaro which was a five point five acre plot in Irvington, New York. And I think I might have to do like a drive by field trip. I know where Irvington, New York is and by looking up the street name when I was like googling all this, I think I know exactly where it is. This was also for Madam CJ to be closer to her daughter at this point. And at the end of this like all, happy and sad, Madam CJ continued her avid philanthropy until her death from kidney failure by bequeathing two thirds of her net profits to charities and thousands of dollars to different schools and individuals. There is a Netflix special that’s out. I have not watched it yet. I thought it was still in production. Lexi was the kind beautiful soul to send me an email. Lexi, have you watched it and can you give us a review?
Lexi: I watched it. Since I didn't dive as deep into research on her as you did, I'm not sure how accurate it is because there were you know little stories you didn't cover… Because this is like it's not just one movie it's like a multi part series, so I guess my curiosity maybe after you watch it you can tell us how accurate it was. But from an entertainment standpoint it was really good.
Haley: This is going to be like once I'm done with like writing my thesis and everything–
Lexi: Treat yo self.
Haley: –and be like this is amazing.
Lexi: Yeah, it was like… In terms of entertainment value it was a really amazing woman focused story which I appreciate.
Haley: I've seen the previews, I knew it was coming out and I really thought I was still in production or was like postponed because La Rona. Those looked fabulous.
[Archival Audio of a song about San Francisco]
Alana: So I initially found out about my lady from Drunk History, which is classic me. It’s one of my favorite shows. I have said on this podcast before that I was devastated when it was canceled. I'm still devastated. I don't think I'll ever be over that loss in my life. But then in researching this lady I found out that very little of the Drunk History story is accurate and so that broke my heart. And I'm glad I followed up with some research and wasn't just like using Drunk History as a source because I don't think that's a good idea. Okay, so, Mary Ellen Pleasant was born no one really knows when so I can't tell you her star sign, but in 1814ish. One of my sources said August 19, 1814, which would make her a Leo and I definitely can see her as a fire sign. She wrote three autobiographies, and every single one gives a different birth date and even year. And also no one even really knows where she was born it's possible she was born free in Philadelphia or into slavery in Georgia, who knows? Only Mary Ellen, and she's dead. She spent her early life in Nantucket, Massachusetts where she was indentured to a family of abolitionists. Insert lady doing equations meme. The… I… What? I don't understand how abolitionists owned slaves. Like Alexander Hamilton owned slaves. What's his name? His lover? I haven’t watched Hamilton in so long.
Lexi: Oh, John Laurens.
Alana: Also owned slaves.
Lexi: Yes. But they were like “slavery bad, but we own slaves.”
Alana: I forgot where I was. Oh, I was at my insert lady doing equations meme because abolitionists who own people make me confused. Eventually she was married to a man named James Henry Smith who was either white or biracial or mixed race. And he was an abolitionist as well but also a plantation owner. That's one of those things that I am a big ole question mark. So the two of them as a couple gave a lot of money to the abolitionist movement because they had a lot of money from owning a plantation that I think meant they also owned people, which I am so confused. But James Smith died in the early 1840s and left her a lot of money, some of which she invested and some of which she kept giving away to the cause. The cause of abolition. She got remarried to John Pleasant and they moved to San Francisco to avoid slavers, so formerly a local lady for Haley, even though she doesn’t live in San Francisco anymore. I'm not sure what happened to him. He is never mentioned again besides she moved with him to San Francisco. Mary Ellen became business partners with a man named Thomas Bell. It's possible they were romantically involved but Mary Ellen like found a wife for him, so I don't think so. But anyway they amassed thirty million dollars.
Haley: Throuple?
Alana: Throuple, maybe, I don’t know. Together they amassed thirty million dollars in back then money which is almost a billion dollars today. In the 1890 census, she listed her profession as capitalist which is like so on the nose and I love it. She owned laundries and restaurants and dairies and all these other things. She even owned a Wells Fargo. And she hired Black people, especially Black people who had escaped slavery, to work in them, which gave them opportunities that they probably wouldn't have had otherwise. And this is where she gets the nickname– she starts to get the nickname the Mother of Civil Rights in California. She was a light skinned Black woman, so she could have been white passing, and she did until a census taken after she had gotten kind of successful and amassed all this wealth, she wrote in that she was Black instead of white. She also, furthering her title of Mother of Civil Rights in California, she sued a cable car company for not allowing Black people on at all, setting the stage for Rosa Parks to be even allowed on the bus in the first place to refuse to give up her seat. She won several other lawsuits regarding racial discrimination in the 1860s and 70s and she starts getting notorious among white people. Obviously, because powerful Black women make white people uncomfortable. That’s just a fact. And so many people started calling her Mammy Pleasant which she hated so much because they were like using it derogatorily. Apparently a pastor in Sacramento wrote her a letter addressed to Mammy Pleasant asking for something and she wrote back to him on the same piece of paper because she didn't want to waste her own on him. Big Dick Energy.
Haley: That’s a power move. That’s a power move right there. That’s like saying “best regards” on an email.
Alana: Yeah. Jumping back in time a little bit, in 1859 the abolitionist John Brown led a raid on Harpers Ferry. This is a pretty famous event, he got caught and he was hanged and they found a note in his pocket that basically said here's what I gave you thirty thousand dollars to do– regards to the raid– and it signed, but there's a case of mistaken identity, so no one actually knows who did it. Except, on her deathbed, Mary Ellen confessed to it being her. She pulled the whole “tell Cersei. I want her to know it was me.” And her gravestone reads “friend of John Brown” because she was. After Thomas Bell died, his widow sued Mary Ellen and she lost almost everything. So there was some falling out there that's something happened. It's also possible she studied voodoo like the actual voodoo like the Haitian voodoo, not like the garbage touristy shit, from Marie Laveau herself, who I’m hoping maybe we’ll cover at some point. I think Marie Laveau was really cool. But that's one of those things that like she said and can't really be corroborated even against Mary Ellen’s own stories. I think it's possible that that's just like something she said to scare the white people even further. There's a park in San Francisco named after her. Haley did you ever go?
Haley: I feel like I do, in the sense I know the plot of land, or like general area. Is it in Golden Gate? Because Golden Gate Park has like a bunch of little pockets.
Alana: No, it's on the corner– it's on the corners of some streets. Anyway there's a park in San Francisco and she haunts it and she has been known to–
Haley: I wish I’d known that. I really… I would have gone.
Alana: I know. Yeah, she throws eucalyptus nuts at people, supposedly. I think that’s cool. That’s what I would do. And she used her position to make a better life for herself and better the lives of others and used her capabilities… And she had… She was such a smart woman, and so capable, and so manipulative but in a good way. She knew what people were thinking and could use that to her advantage, and not just to her own advantage, to the advantage of the people in her community who she really helped. And the best quote from her is “I'd rather be a corpse than a coward” and that's what makes me think she is a fire sign.
Lexi: You can find this podcast on Twitter and Instagram at LadyHistoryPod. Our show notes and a transcript of this episode will be on ladyhistorypod dot tumblr dot com. If you like the show, leave us a review, or tell your friends, and if you don't like the show, keep it to yourself.
Alana: Our logo is by Alexia Ibarra you can find her on Twitter and Instagram at LexiBDraws. Our theme music is by me, GarageBand, and Amelia Earhart. Lexi is doing the editing. You will not see us, and we will not see you, but you will hear us, next time, on Lady History.
[OUTRO MUSIC]
Haley: Next week on Lady History, we’re diving into some misconceptions. Retelling the stories that should have been told the first time.
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Looking back at my art from the 2010s. I went through and picked 1 piece I drew/wrote from each year that I felt either showed off my best art, my most iconic art, my best improvement, or was simply a personal favorite of mine.
There were a lot of possible choices and it was kind of difficult to narrow it down to 1 per year, since each piece tends to encapsulate so much more than just a single moment per year. Especially with stuff like Motherly Scootaloo or Aria’s Archives encapsulating so much history in a single picture. But under the Read More are my choices at the end of the decade:
1.) My Old Drawn Blog # 53
Man, the years before MLP existed were really weird for me. I knew I liked drawing and telling stories, but I had no consistent direction on what I wanted to do with my art. I was still jumping between different comics and ideas, and in 2010 I was going through some of the worst depression I’d ever felt in my entire life. I hadn’t even had the experience of being kicked out of the first place I tried to move out of home to yet. It was wild.
As for the ‘joke’ that seems ‘so obvious’ in this post, I had a running gag back then of the face the Flower makes, known as the ‘screaming window’ face. I drew it whenever I needed to draw something screaming in pain or fear for maximum comedic effect. Maybe I’ll bring it back some day lol
2.) Silent Ponyville
I couldn’t NOT put Silent Ponyville on this list. I was gonna have both 1 and 2 as different spots, but I wrote them both in the same year. That seems insane to me now?? Like WOW, I just WROTE those fics and then they became fandom-wide phenomenons. To the point where even in 2019 I’m still getting people drawing fanart of it, or people telling me “Yeah, I got into Fanfiction because I read Silent Ponyville”.
I don’t know if I’ll ever make a creative piece as universally known in a fandom as Silent Ponyville again, but I sure would love to make an original piece of art that is as beloved as Silent Ponyville one day, if not more so. It’s a testament to the fact that if I put my mind to it, I can create a really amazing horror experience, and I know I do plan to do so again some day.
3.) Pirate Dash x Dead Rainbow Dash
Who doesn’t love shipping wars that get large numbers of people involved? This is probably the second most involved in the ‘community’ I got, though it was certainly the better experience of the two. And it was all just for silly fun at the end of the day.
And funnily enough I never ACTUALLY shipped these two, I just thought the reactions from the creators seeing them be shipped was hilarious, so it just kind of grew from there. It was all fun and games at the end of the day, and made for a good memory, and a pretty dang ambitiously drawn pic for the time!
4.) If Twilight Wasn’t a Princess
2013 was surprisingly sparse as far as ambitious projects or art pieces go. I was in full swing with Motherly Scootaloo, and nothing really ‘amazing’ happened in 2013 for the blog. Which was surprising. But Season 4 of MLP DID happen! And it started with the Princesses going missing, and authority over Equestria being transferred to Twilight as the next closest Princess around. And with Cadance ruling the Crystal Empire, I thought, who did that leave to rule if Twilight HADN’T been able to temporarily take the role?
And judging by the length of the comments section on DA, a lot of people found the idea hilarious as well lol. Blue Blood NEVER showed up again for the entire run of the show, and it’s a shame because there was a lot of hilarious joke potential they could’ve done with him. But ya know, the show is what it is is, and this joke still makes me laugh.
5.) My Time
My first original music video, with a song I had commissioned and everything! While it wasn’t my first video involving music and MLP, it was the first time everything was mine in one way or another. I wish I could write music, but the ambitiously talented AllLevelsAtOnce and Queen Mickey the Sass Master made this project well worth the time and effort put into making it!
And of course, it encapsulates the kind of futures I wish the CMC had acquired, with Sweetie Belle finally achieving her foreshadowed talent of singing. Apple Bloom built the stage, and Scootaloo likely would’ve ended up the choreographer if not for her baby. Sadly we shall only ever have fanon for that.
6.) Demonloo
Love or hate the wedding arc of Motherly Scootaloo, this will always be one of, if not my top, favorite panel from the entire arc. Scootaloo looks just so appropriately menacing, and the effects placed on her are glorious. And then of course, I love the little twist of “That’s not just an audience visual effect, she actually looked that way in the comic” rofl
Motherly Scootaloo was a trip that got weird with my inclusion of magic and magical beings from the show, so much so to the point that if I were to ever remake the whole thing one day, a LOT of that would be toned down. Probably to the point Chronus wouldn’t exist. But hey, things are the way they are, but I will forever love the art of this arc.
7.) A Motherly Scootaloo Christmas
If there ever was a picture that basically summarized the entirety of Motherly Scootaloo, it was this picture. Pretty much ever major character of the stories over the years was in the picture (minus Starlight) and showing their relations to everyone pretty much. I remember this picture basically killing me when I was drawing it, but was really proud at the time of how it came out. Of course, I could see how to improve it now, but I’m not gonna lol
It’s still crazy to me how many years Motherly went on for, and how much time and effort was put into it. But I’m still glad I did all of it over those years. It taught me so much about art, and about myself, and in the end, taught me the skills I needed to make art a true career for myself. And I’ll always love it for that. And introducing me to the best friends I’ve ever had, of course.
8.) Twilight-Midnight is PISSED
Look. I recognize the Aero crossover had some convoluted issues with it, but god DAMN if I didn’t enjoy drawing that fight scene! I GENUINELY loved every panel of it! I can only hope that in the future the fight scenes I draw will be just as fun to draw as these were. And as visually impressive!
That’s ultimately why this won my pic over say, the time-glitch arc with her Mom. The explosions, the action lines, the visual foreshortening, I’ve never seen such visual improvements in a single update from me quite like I have these entire scenes. When I push myself to be amazing, I can pull off some fantastic art, and I need to do it more!
9.) A StarTrix Christmas
2018 had a LOT of really good choices. Like. Too many choices. So many art pieces I was super proud of, so many pieces that showed growth as an artist, was a personal favorite, that people loved... So in the end, I went with the piece from the end of the year that is still a piece I hold up as truly a cultivation of how much effort I can put in to a picture.
Also it’s Christmas related. I LOVE Christmas. Never enough Christmas.
And as much as I hate FriendLight Glimmer, I still ADORE StarTrix content. It’s the good food for me, one of the rare things that the later era of G4 got right for me. And since I can make them be however I want in fanon, making them a GOOD loving couple was top priority for me, and I just adore them together. I truly do. And this picture is beautiful because of the love I put into it.
10.) Fate of the Lost Princess
I couldn’t NOT put Fate of the Lost Princess on this list. It’s too important to me, means too much to me, and shows my growth as an artist the most. And of the pages of Fate of the Lost Princess I have done so far, the piece of Tina and Noah on a bus stands out the most for me because, I ACTUALLY managed to make it look and feel like they were on a bus! I was so worried about this page and I spent so long working on making it look right, and in the end, I succeeded in a way I never thought I could!
It feels good to end the decade on my original webcomic, showing just how much I’ve grown as an artist. Going from a successful fanartist, to a successful original artist, that still does fanart on the side, but I’ve grown into my own person now.
I’ve lost track of how many times I tried to start an original comic, only to stop working on it and let it fade into obscurity. Fate of the Lost Princess is the most effort and work I’ve put into an original comic before, and I’m so proud of myself for not only getting as far as I have, but proud of how much effort I plan to put into it in the future, and how much effort I’ll put into the comics beyond Fate of the Lost Princess.
It represents everything that is me from the last 10 years, and I hope it’ll be the fantastic start of the 2010s I want it to be. And I couldn’t have picked something to be more proud of to wrap this decade up with.
#Personal Art#Looking back at the decade#Art of the 2010s#Silent Ponyville#Motherly Scootaloo#Tumblrpon#Friendship is Magic#StarTrix#Fate of the Lost Princess
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Kenny Omega at DDT (Part 1)
Kenny first went to over to Japan to wrestle for DDT in the summer of 2008. He was there for just over a month and it was on this tour that he met and wrestled Kota Ibushi for the first time.
In late 2007/early 2008 Kenny Omega was starting to break out into the American independents, having regained his passion for wrestling after a pretty bleak experience in WWE developmental. Now he was finally venturing out of Winnipeg again he had his sights set firmly back on Japan.
He made a video of him doing a DDT style match, the company saw it and wanted to bring him over. This is also when he cut this promo on Ibushi. (It is both cringey and totally adorable in classic Kenny Omega style.)
In interviews Kenny has mentioned that he came to Japan determined to give 100% effort. The way he saw it the tour was only a one off unless he could be so good that DDT would have to bring him over again. But although Kenny describes his ambition in quite aggressive terms; after going through the blogs of the DDT staff and fans of the period the overwhelming picture is of a promotion and its fan base falling head over heels in love with him.
The day before Kenny’s arrival, Sanshiro Takagi, the president of DDT wrote this on his blog:
“August 4 Kenny Omega who is participating in DDT from beer garden wrestling has pointed out a mistake about the previous report.
"You wrote my special skill was "Kamehameha", which is a mistake, that is "Hadouken " That isn’t right. I think that the rest is largely in line."
It is said that. We are sorry for your inconvenience, but we appreciate your patience as we will revise your recognition.
hm….
Is it not the same thing as the Dragon Ball strike? He is something like the American version of Ibushi.”
Reputation as a pedantic geek rightfully established, Kenny arrives on the 31st and Takagi, Kenny and Michael Nakazawa go to eat together. Check out that cute little ninja turtle shirt.
“Kenny Omega arrived Japan today and we had dinner together. I was worried how crazy he is but basically he’s okay except mentioning he wants to wrestle at Yoshinoya (beef bowl restaurant).
Anyway I was relieved and took some pictures for this blog but suddenly he was trying to throw Michael Nakazawa by German Suplex. I managed to stop it somehow but I understand why he’s claiming he’s off-ring champ.
Oh, but I think I shouldn’t have stopped it because it’s Michael Nakazawa (LOL)
Also he knew FU☆CK will have a show at DDT Dojo on 8/3, and asked me if he could see it. I really think he has so many things in common with Ibushi.
I’m so happy to have him this time!” (translation from m-drop)
The match with Ibushi was not actually Kenny’s first match in Japan. The beer garden shows started up on the 4th and Kenny had a tag match that first night teaming with Ken Ohka against a masked wrestler ‘HERO!’ and a second, time traveling HERO! (welcome to DDT). Kenny’s team loses but the audience is impressed with his athleticism and Takagi with his ability to adapt to the comedy match style. Kenny serves at the stalls among the rest of the DDT roster.
(source)
On the 6th of August, the 3rd night of the beer garden shows is when Kenny and Ibushi have their first match. It’s fantastic and you can watch it on DDT universe here. (Or other places online if you are willing to search a little.)
The Shin-Kiba 1st Ring where the match and all the beer garden matches were, holds about 290 people according to Wikipedia but apparently way more than that showed up to try and get in for Ibushi Produce Night. (One blogger estimates 600) So the place was packed.
The match is 2/3 falls with the extra stipulation that one of the falls must take place outside of the ring and one inside. This suited the whole ‘Kenny Omega - Canada’s king of the streets’ gimmick he was doing. (I think maybe purely for the benefit of DDT?) Apparently, he regretted this later as everyone who booked him of the back of this wanted him to do scary outside matches. You live and learn I guess.
They start inside the ring for a bit but soon go outside.
Both score an outside fall and then head back into the ring. The camera man loses them in the crowd halfway through and has to scramble back through the food stalls to reach them again.
More facts about this match:
-This was Kota’s actually the second match of the night. He fought Gota Ihashi – (this is the same guy he tries to propose to in that crossdressing date skit.) in a boxing-type match earlier.
-While Kenny and Kota were fighting outside, Nakazawa and Dino went into the ring and performed a strip tease for the people who hadn’t bothered to leave their seats. (Again: Welcome to DDT)
(source)
- In 2017 Kenny ranked jumping off the bleachers through Ibushi as one of the 3 most painful bumps of his career. (The other two were from his second match with Ibushi in 2012)
Ouch.
Back in the ring Kota wins; beginning his streak over Kenny which remains unbroken to this day. Kenny lays on the mat beaten.
Kota gets up and calls for the mic. He thanks everyone and motions to the guys to help Kenny stand.
Kenny is holding it together up until this point. But then Ibushi claps and says thank you and the crowd starts chanting for him and the poor guy is so overwhelmed he just starts full on crying.
Kota cuts a promo to the crowd along the lines of: “Thank you very much for today. I feel a bad because I hit my head, so I will finish. The end.” Both of them start staggering out. Kenny crumples on the way out of the ring still crying. Kota hugs him again and then leans on him to stand up. He’s kind of wowed by the strength of Kenny’s emotional reaction I think.
He hugs and pats him some more and eventually they make it out of the ring. Kota goes through the curtain and Kenny follows, after a final applause from the crowd.
The DDT fans love the match and they love Kenny omega.
Post-match comments from http://www.m-drop.com/archives/228
Sanshiro Takagi: “It was the most craziest match I’ve ever seen. Every move in and out of the ring was totally amazing. Although Kenny lost the match, I believe he gets lots of applause and attention from Japanese fans in just one night. I was so thrilled to watch the match. I will wrestle against Kenny on Sunday with “Street fight-anywhere fall” match for my Extreme Championship as ex.King of out-of-the-ring match. I promise to retain the belt. Everybody, get ready!”
Kota Ibushi: “Kenny Omega is an AWESOME wrestler! Power, speed, craziness, intelligence – everything is perfect. He is really a nice guy! He is the real Pro-wrestler. I couldn’t keep up with him during the match actually. Also I felt something common between us. It’s like “Yes! That’s it!!” He was great not only out of the ring but in the ring. I lost my memory after Michinoku Driver and then I noticed I was in the ring – now I’m pretty sure Michinoku Driver on the road is very dangerous! Also I noticed fans were crazy as well. I’m so glad Pres. Takagi told me it was legendary match. I love Kenny Omega! He’s great!”
Kenny Omega: “To be honest with you, I was a little bit nervous before the match as this is the one against Kota Ibushi. But I am so glad that we had a great match tonight. Ibushi is an awesome wrestler as I thought. And I feel we understood each other from the bottom of our heart after this great match and we are now best friends. I want to team up with him and wrestle together!”
#Kenny Omega#kota ibushi#golden lovers#ddt#dramatic dream team#hopefully everything is sourced#i'm gonna do a part 2 about the rest of his 2008 tour#it will probably be a while though#i love kenny omega#he's great#golden lovers research tag
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Sorry, the shop is closed.
It’s time to hang up the hat and close up shop, I’m afraid. This blog is now archived.
People abandon and archive blogs all the time without leaving any kind of explanation or farewell message and personally, I hate that and I don’t want to be that person, so here, have mine!
I’ve had a good run here, I really have. Not all of it was smooth, but I have more good memories than bad. I don’t think I’ll ever stop loving this muse. It’s the oddest feeling, really, to set aside someone who was under my skin for so long. There’s so much I would share, if only I could put it into words. I could probably still meta all day about Urahara Kisuke; he’s such a fascinating character. (And I still lurk on the Bleach Discord group so you may see me popping up occasionally to do just that.) But I’ve come to a place where I take more joy in merely being a fan, and watching others have a go at it. And if you would like recommendations on other Urahara blogs to follow, I would suggest asking @kiraahachi, because they all seem to find her, hue hue hue.
It’s been such a journey, launching into roleplay two years ago with Kisuke as my first muse. Everything was new and terrifying. Was I doing it right? I kept asking myself this question. I’m sure I never stopped second-guessing for the first year, wondering if my portrayal was good enough, worrying that it was too much like someone else’s... what even was I worrying about? Roleplay is supposed to be fun. But here’s the thing: I got to a point, about 6-9 months ago, where it was more work than enjoyment. To me, playing Urahara requires being witty, and after awhile, I felt like I’d come to my wit’s end... literally. I’m just not that clever. Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of my body of work here, which is why I’m archiving this blog and not deleting it. But coming up with new replies that satisfied my own stringent requirements was getting exhausting even to contemplate. And when that happens, it’s time to hang it up and let others with some fresh energy get in the game.
I am grateful that I got to spend the last year and change developing and deepening a fantastic ship with @flashkitty. There was never a better Yoruichi to my Kisuke. These two have such a long and rich history together, and there’s so much to explore in their past, present, and future. We did it all, from childhood through the Academy, young adulthood, days as captains, exile, war, and finally -- a baby on the way. And there would still be more that we could press into, but we both found our attention drifting elsewhere. Once the series ended, I think we were both missing the infusion of fresh inspiration from new material. And now that she’s archived her blog, I’ll be missing my better half.
Are you still reading? Because I want to thank every single one of my followers. I can’t believe there are over a thousand of you. I never deserved that! I’m just floored that I gained such a following here, and I know I’ll never again have a roleplay blog with this many followers. It’s hard to walk away from that. If there is one thing I regret about archiving this blog, it will be the ability to reach this number of people with informative PSAs and positivity posts. Anyway, there are some folks I feel like I’d really be remiss if I didn’t give them some kind of a shout-out. Sadly, some of y’all aren’t even here anymore but I gotta tag ya anyway. In no particular order, and bear in mind this is by no means an exhaustive list so please don’t feel bad if you don’t see your blog mentioned: @candice-thunderkitty, @sakanxde, @reapersofknowledge, @kurosakiichigochouhonnnin, @xyuuken, @cxrbstomp, @hallowdolls (wtf I look away and you change your URL again), @nyota-sungura, @blackcuttingmoon, @lightconsumesall, @akon-just-akon, @perfectionisdespair, @despairforme, @zetsumei-shuuto, @izuru-ru, @sadisticperfection, @adelha-mathilde, @halfofxerxes, @deus-ex-machiina, @mckaytriarchy, @ichimaru-gin, @dissecept. Goooood times, you guys. Bri, Avi, I have no way to tag you guys but I would not have developed my muse with such depth without you. Einar, you’ve been missed. And last but not least, @saranel, @tessaisuggestions, my fellow UraYoru shippers, you guys have been so much inspiration to my roleplay here, you have no idea.
Is anyone still reading? You guys really have nothing better to do, do you? Anyway, if you are, I have one more person to thank for everything this blog has been, and that is the muse himself. I’ve never gushed over him, I’ve never been one of those that declares my undying love for my muse in my tags or in OOC posts, but man. I am. going. to. miss him. I think, if I had to find a way to summarize my relationship with Urahara Kisuke over these past 2+ years, there’s a song that characterizes this journey more perfectly and eloquently than I ever could. So. I’m going to leave you with this.
I Know Him So Well
Is anyone still reading? Show’s over. Go home. But if you ever really want to still talk to me, I’m on Discord occasionally. Bananarama#0981
#[[ Sayonara#I can't believe I'm trolling Soi Fon with this even in a farewell message#guess there'll always be a little Kisuke in me ]]
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Sensor Sweep: Windy City Pulp Show, King Arthur, Star Wars Target Audience, Model T in Combat
Conventions (DMR Books): The 19th annual Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention took place this past weekend in Lombard, IL. It was a three-day affair, but unfortunately I was only able to attend for part of the day on Saturday. Five hours may seem like a good amount of time, but it wasn’t nearly enough to take in all the event had to offer.
Doug Ellis and Deb Fulton were gracious enough to share some of their table space with me so I could peddle DMR releases.
Anthologies (Tip the Wink): This nineteen story anthology is edited by one of Baen’s best, Hank Davis. Though the book is pretty new, the stories range from as early as the Thirties all the way to now. So I think it qualifies as a Friday Forgotten Book for it’s contents. For the most part, this is the kind of science fiction I grew up on and still love.
Fiction (Old Style Tales): Doyle’s final great horror story is truly a worthy swan song – a tale who’s science fiction maintains a level of effective awe in spite of having been categorically disproven by aviators a mere decade after being written. And indeed the tale is science fiction, fitting snuggly on a shelf between the speculative horror of H. G. Wells which preceded it and the cosmic terror of H. P. Lovecraft which succeeded it.e cosmic terror of H. P. Lovecraft which succeeded it.
Myth (Men of the West): Of all these Latin chroniclers by far the most important was Geoffrey of Monmouth, Bishop of St. Asaph, who finished his “History of the Britons” about 1147. Geoffrey, as has been said, is not a real historian, but something much more interesting. He introduced to the world the story of King Arthur, which at once became the source and centre of hundreds of French romances, in verse or prose, and of poetry down to Tennyson and William Morris. To Geoffrey, or to later English chroniclers who had read Geoffrey, Shakespeare owed the stories of his plays, “Cymbeline” and “King Lear”.
Authors (DMR Books): James Branch Cabell, who was born on April 14, 1879–just over one hundred forty years ago–has slipped into genteel literary obscurity. An author once praised and befriended by the likes of Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis, JBC had his entire fantasy epic, known as “The Biography of the Life of Manuel,” printed in a uniform hardcover eighteen-volume set at the height of his popularity in the 1920s and early ’30s. He was, by far, the preeminent American literary fantasist of that era. And yet, he is barely known outside hardcore literary fantasy circles now.
Cinema (Rough Edges): I didn’t mean to write about two Raoul Walsh movies in a row, but that’s the way it’s worked out after last week’s post on DESPERATE JOURNEY. COLORADO TERRITORY is a Western remake from 1949 of the Humphrey Bogart classic HIGH SIERRA, also directed by Walsh eight years earlier in 1941. Both are based on the novel HIGH SIERRA by W.R. Burnett. In COLORADO TERRITORY, Joel McCrea plays outlaw Wes McQueen, in prison for robbing banks and trains, who is broken out so he can take part in a payroll heist from a train in Colorado.
Popular Culture (Jon Mollison): Long time genre fans expect to see the usual Boomer perspectives. Naturally, his version of the story of science fiction begins and ends with the era of the Boomers. To be fair, he is a film guy making a film about film people, so it’s no surprise that his documentary would ignore the foundational stories of the genre. It does start with HG Wells, but then skips straight past four decades of science fiction to land on rubber monster B-movies. The usual Big Pub diversity hires get trotted out to offer Narrative Approved talking points about how the genre has matured under the careful guidance of perverts like Arthur C. Clarke without a mention of giants like Howard and Burroughs and Lovecraft and Merritt and the rest of the True Golden Age writers.
Star Wars (Kairos): Two cultural observations that have repeatedly been made on this blog are that Star Wars has been weaponized against its original fans and that decadent Westerners are perverting normal pious sentiment by investing it in corporate pop culture products.
Now a viral video has surfaced that documents the unholy confluence of both phenomena. Watch only if you haven’t eaten recently.
Cinema (Mystery File): I’ve spoken often and highly of Fredric Brown;s classic mystery novel of strip-clubs and theology, The Screaming Mimi (Dutton, 1949) and recently betook myself to watching both film versions of it, side-by-side and back-to-back, through the miracle of VCRm watching a chunk of one, then the other, than back again…
Pulps (John C. Wright): So what, exactly, makes the weird tales and fantastic stories of that day and age so “problematic”?
The use of lazy racial stereotypes, did you say? This generation has just as many or worse ones, merely with the polarities reversed. See the last decade of Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who and Marvel comics franchises, for examples.
The portrayal of women as weak damsels in distress? I will happily compare any number of Martian princesses or pirate queens from the pulp era to the teen bimbos routinely chopped up in the torture porn flicks of this generation, and let the matter of malign portrayals of women speak for itself.
Fiction (Nerds on Earth): Howard Andrew Jones (who we’ve interviewed not once, but twice!) strikes that balance masterfully in For the Killing of Kings, the first book of an expected series. The book drops the reader right at the moment when a scandal in the Allied Realms begins. This controversy involves the legendary weapon of the most famous commander of the vaunted Altenerai Corps, N’lahr. Jones doesn’t even let two pages pass before the reader is invited into the discovery that something is wrong with this magic-infused sword, and it is that problem that carries the book’s action from start to finish.
History (Black Gate): Enter the Western Frontier Force, a hastily assembled group of men from all parts of the empire that included two of the war’s many innovations. The first was the Light Car Patrol, made up of Model T Fords that had been stripped of all excess weight (even the hood and doors) so they could run over soft sand. Many came equipped with a machine gun. Heavier and slower were the armored cars, built on the large Rolls Royce chassis and sporting a turret and machine gun.
Westerns (Tainted Archive): Geographically and historically the concept of “The West” is very loosely defined, when associated with the literary and film genre of the western. With the possible exception of the Eastern Seaboard almost every part of the USA had been called “The West” at some stage in the country’s history.
Authors (John C. Wright): Gene Wolfe passed at his Peoria home from cardiovascular disease on April 14, 2019 at the age of 87.
This man is one of two authors who I was able to read with undiminished pleasure as a child, youth, man and master.
I met him only briefly at science fiction conventions, and was truly impressed by his courtesy and kindness. We shared a love of GK Chesterton. I never told him how I cherished his work, and how important his writings were to me.
Authors (Rich Horton): Gene Wolfe died yesterday, April 14, 2019 (Palm Sunday!) His loss strikes me hard, as hard as the death last year of Ursula K. Le Guin. Some while I ago I wrote that Gene Wolfe was the best writer the SF field has ever produced. Keeping in mind that comparisons of the very best writers are pointless — each is brilliant in their own way — I’d say that now I’d add Le Guin and John Crowley and make a trinity of great SF writers, but the point stands — Wolfe’s work was tremendous, deep, moving, intellectually and emotionally involving, ambiguous in the best of ways, such that rereading him is ever rewarding, always resolving previous questions while opening up new ones.
Cartoons (Wasteland and Sky): One small loss of the modern age I’ve always been interested in is the death of the Saturday morning cartoon.
For over half a century they have lingered in the memories of just about everyone alive in the western world as part of some long ago age that will never return. But nobody talks about them beyond nostalgic musings. The problem with that is they require a deeper look than that. I don’t think it’s clear exactly why they do not exist anymore, and it is important why they do not.
Fiction (Tip the Wink): It’s the stories, not the book, that are forgotten here. From the publisher’s website:
“Known best for his work on Popular Publications’ The Spider, pulp scribe Norvell Page proved he was no slouch when it came to penning gangster and G-man epics! This book collects all eleven stories Page wrote for “Ace G-Man Stories” between 1936 and 1939, which are reprinted here for the first time!”
RPG (Modiphius): Horrors of the Hyborian Age is the definitive guide to the monstrous creatures inhabiting the dark tombs, ruined cities, forgotten grottos, dense jungles, and sinister forests of Conan’s world. This collection of beasts, monsters, undead, weird races, and mutants are ready to pit their savagery against the swords and bravery of the heroes of the Hyborian Age.
Drawn from the pages of Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories, this roster also includes creatures and alien horrors from H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, to which Howard inextricably bound his Hyborian Age. Other entries are original, chosen carefully to reflect the tone and dangers of Conan’s world.
Sensor Sweep: Windy City Pulp Show, King Arthur, Star Wars Target Audience, Model T in Combat published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames
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Attending Best Abstract Artists Today Can Be A Disaster If You Forget These 20 Rules | best abstract artists today
Attending Best Abstract Artists Today Can Be A Disaster If You Forget These 20 Rules | best abstract artists today – best abstract artists today
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Is The I.T. Sector Going To Drive Real Estate Growth In Toronto?
TorontoRealtyBlog
Have you ever been to San Francisco?
I have. In 1989 when I was 9-years-old.
We had a house in Park City, Utah growing up, and used to take road trips every summer. In 1989, we went through Nevada, and down the coast of California. Reno, Nevada was merely a rest-stop for us, and we ended up in San Francisco for a few nights.
My dad had been there in the summer of 1969, and told me that one of the things that stuck out the most in his memory was “The Human Jukebox.” San Francisco is home to a slew of street performers and buskers, and he told me there was one guy who had a cardboard box, painted like a jukebox, and you could put in $2, and pick a song, and he’d stick one of many instruments out through the makeshift door, and play the song.
I didn’t make anything of it at the time, but low and behold, on the very first night, down by Fisherman’s Wharf, there was that same street vendor; The Human Jukebox, still busking for dollars, after two decades.
Hang on, let me see if my mother can dig up a photo…
…ah, here:
Thanks to Mom, and the readily-available Fleming Family Photo Archive, plus her impressive knowledge of how to work a scanner and crop a JPG at 70-years-old!
I suppose in 2018, the Human Jukebox seems pretty lame. Today’s kids would ask, “Where do I plug in my USB?” I suppose the jokes are endless, and I probably sound like an old man for even trying.
But in 1989, the fact that this guy was still there, on the same street corner, with the same gimmick, and probably with more-or-less the same booth, was absolutely mind-blowing to my father, who had been right there, twenty years earlier.
Not much had changed in twenty years, it seemed. And that was the theme as we toured around, and my Dad pointed out some of the same restaurants he had been to in the late-60’s, or some of the places he got into trouble when he was a young 20-something.
The lack of change was astonishing. So I was told.
And since then, San Francisco and the surrounding area has done nothing but change.
That’s what I’m being told now.
A client of mine works in tech, and he started going out to San Francisco about six years ago for business. This was when we first met, and he bought his downtown Toronto condo. Over the last six years, he’s told me at least two or three times how “Toronto could end up just like San Francisco,” if the city would get “behind” technology, as he explained.
Now I will admit, this is not my field, or my area of expertise.
But I listened to his theories, just as I listen to the Manhattanites joke about our “cheap” downtown real estate, or the London-Englanders talk about how Toronto is a “cute city” and is a version of London from the 1960’s.
While I can accurately claim that I was downloading MP3’s on Napster, which is now merely a name studied in text books about the technology boom in the late-1990’s, the only thing I know about emerging tech is what I hear from my clients.
And over the last few years, the conversation about Toronto being “the next tech hub” has started to get louder.
But first let me show you what happened to real estate prices in San Francisco, as the tech boom went full throttle.
It’s tough to say exactly when the tech-boom started, and when Silicon Valley became the place to be. I might say it was 1995, when giants like Amazon got their start. That’s also the first time I ever used the internet.
The median home price in San Francisco in 1995 was $225,000:
Yes, I know, I’d rather look at the average, but over a long enough time period, and with enough data, they’re somewhat comparable.
This is the only chart I could find that went back into the 1990’s, and actually into the 70’s which is kind of cool.
But that’s a bit far back for most of us. Yeah, I missed out on being a 70���s baby by eight months…
Now if you want to see where prices are today, then here’s an April, 2018 update:
That’s $1,610,000.
And looking back at the $225,000 median from 1995, that would also represent a 706% increase in value in that time.
How does this compare to Toronto?
The average home price in Toronto in 1995 was $203,150.
The average home price for the entire year 2017, was $822,681. But if we want to compare to San Francisco as per the chart above, which looked at the average in April, then we’d be looking at a slightly lower number of $804,584.
That’s a 296% increase in value. Not bad!
But not the 706% increase that San Francisco had.
The market bears out there are probably shaking their heads already, thinking, “He’s going to shine a positive light on Toronto by comparing it to San Francisco?” But as I said, I’m just looking at one particular theory out there, from a client who lives part-time in San Francisco, who’s been telling me to make this comparison for years.
And here’s the article he sent me in the summer that spawned this blog post:
“San Francisco Home Prices Grew The Fastest Ever In The First Half Of 2018 As The Tech Boom Shows No Signs Of Slowing”
From the article:
The average price of a house bought in San Francisco rose by $205,000 in the first half of 2018, the largest six-month increase in history, according to MLS data compiled by local real estate agency Paragon.
The average house in the city limits now costs $1.62 million. Condo prices also rose by $71,000, which is a significantly slower pace of change than in past years, but still comes in at a startling $1.21 million.
This is a direct outgrowth of the current tech boom in Silicon Valley, which shows no signs of slowing down.
It’s worth recalling that a lot of people in Silicon Valley were bracing for a slowdown in 2015. Venture investors like Bill Gurley were predicting that long-running start-ups would have to raise rounds at lower valuations because their last rounds came with restrictive conditions for future investors but they weren’t ready to go public yet. Start-ups cracked down on expenses. Apple’s share price actually dropped during the year, as investors grew concerned about slowing iPhone sales and the prospect of a general downturn. The next year, Silicon Valley stalwarts Intel and Cisco both laid off several thousand employees apiece.
Indeed, housing prices in SF actually slowed their growth in 2015 and 2016, before starting to rocket up again last year.
Toronto is not going to be the next Silicon Valley.
But I have to think that Toronto turned a major corner when Google (or Alphabet) announced that Sidewalk Labs would be coming to Toronto’s waterfront.
I remember back when Blackberry was the biggest name in Canada, and it seemed that Waterloo, Ontario would be Canada’s hub for innovation, technology, and all things intelligent in the future. But it seems as though Toronto is slowly developing as the front-runner for Canada’s tech-hub, and it could end up being one of the largest hubs in the world.
On Saturday, the Huffington Post published an article that basically stole all my thunder:
“Toronto’s Tech Boom Will Keep Real Estate Frenzy Going: Forecast”
I have a lengthy queue of blog ideas; some are written as soon the idea is logged, and some languish on paper for weeks or months. Well, the Huffington Post basically wrote the story for me! Read it if you have time, it’s fantastic.
The article notes that between 2012 and 2017, Toronto added 82,000 jobs in the tech industry, which was more than any other city in all of North America, according to CB Richard Ellis.
CBRE provided this graphic as well to show how Toronto has moved up the ladder among tech giants:
As I’ve said, tech is not my field, and I don’t follow the industry much. I’m not a gadget-head, I don’t care for the latest/newest/brightest consumer products, and half the jobs people are doing out there right now, I haven’t even heard of.
But I read the headlines.
And everywhere you look, it’s tech.
When it’s not tech, it’s sort-of tech.
Like this, which was in the news on Tuesday:
“Spaces Plans Its Largest Co-Working Sites In Toronto, Vancouver”
Spaces is a co-working environment that provides on-the-spot, or short-term desks, offices, conference rooms, and meeting spaces for entrepreneurs, small business owners, or anybody that needs the space, but can’t afford it, or can’t make use of it, full-time. It’s like Uber for office buildings.
Some will argue that the presence of Spaces in Toronto’s downtown core will eliminate the need for large office buildings, but I disagree. I think Spaces and other co-work environments like them will supplement office buildings, not replace them. If anything, Spaces is necessitated by the city’s inability to build commercial space fast enough.
Commercial real estate, for what it’s worth, is booming in Toronto.
“Investors Lift Canadian Commercial Real Estate To New Heights”
Commercial transactions in Canada last year smashed the previous record by 38%.
Toronto accounted for a third of all transactions in Canada.
The pension funds, investment trusts, and huge private money wouldn’t be buying Toronto’s office towers if they didn’t think the city would be running low on space in the future.
And all the while, the people who work in tech, will have to live somewhere.
My client from San Fran has been telling me this for years. He’s the single-most bullish person I have ever met when it comes to Toronto real estate, and he only owns his primary residence, so he’s not some over-extended investor cheerleading the market out of blind will.
That’s only one voice, but I can’t deny all the other chatter.
Time will tell.
In the meantime, perhaps we can jump into the ongoing debate over whether or not Sidewalk Labs is going to allow Google to take over our souls?
True story. Google it…
The post Is The I.T. Sector Going To Drive Real Estate Growth In Toronto? appeared first on Toronto Realty Blog.
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do all 100 questions
I’m so pissed I started this and got through 25 ish questions and then closed the tab so here we go again
6 of the songs you listen to most?
Praying, Ke$ha
Eraser, Ed Sheeran
Play That Song, Train
Here, Alessia Cara
We Didn’t Start the Fire, Bon Jovi
Something Just Like This, Chainsmokers and Coldplay
If you could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be?
TBH I don’t know
Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 23, give me line 17.
“He infused them with Stormlight, Lashing them to a point behind the king.”
What do you think about most?
Figuring out who I am and what I want
What does your latest text message from someone else say?
“I think I cab sleeo NoeThank u for the kittiesThey wer v niceIlyyyyy ❤❤❤❤❤”
(spelling errors left intact)
Do you sleep with or without clothes on?
depends on the day
What’s your strangest talent?
My ability to be very awkward
Girls… (finish the sentence); Boys… (finish the sentence)
Both are great?
Ever had a poem or song written about you?
Yes! several actually!
When is the last time you played the air guitar?
....not in my memory
Do you have any strange phobias?
nah, not that I can think of
Ever stuck a foreign object up your nose?
Absolutely
What’s your religion?
Atheist/Agnostic
If you are outside, what are you most likely doing?
Reading/Biking/Hiking/just chilling
Do you prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it?
both but generally behind
Simple but extremely complex. Favorite band?
.....whichever one of those in Q1 counts as a band?
What was the last lie you told?
Something decently sized and sorta important but overall unimportant
Do you believe in karma?
Yes
What does your URL mean?
I was 15 and really liked the Stormlight Archives
What is your greatest weakness; your greatest strength?
Greatest weakness is probably the fact that I assume everything is directed at me and I have trouble telling people when things bother me (lmao closely interacted), and my greatest strength is my ability to befriend some really weird people
Who is your celebrity crush?
N/A
Have you ever gone skinny dipping?
Yes! several times
How do you vent your anger?
I write
Do you have a collection of anything?
Yes!
Do you prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online?
depends on the person and topic
Are you happy with the person you’ve become?
Mostly? I’ve got a long way to go till I’m the person I want to be tho
What’s a sound you hate; sound you love?
I cannot stand the sound of people eating, some peoples voices are truly fantastic though.
What’s your biggest “what if”?
What if my dad had known earlier?
Do you believe in ghosts? How about aliens?
Maybe? Absolutely
Stick your right arm out; what do you touch first? Do the same with your left arm.
A wall (complete with Ace flag), and my water Bottle
Smell the air. What do you smell?
Surprisingly nothing?
What’s the worst place you have ever been to?
It depends a lot on the definition of worst TBH? cause like...worst for my mental health is probably high school?
Choose: East Coast or West Coast?
East. all the way
Most attractive singer of your opposite gender?
I don’t know if there is anyone with an opposite gender to me? I mean how do you invert Nonbinary?
To you, what is the meaning of life?
42
Define Art.
Something that makes someone happy/feel things
Do you believe in luck?
In small amounts
What’s the weather like right now?
Cloudy and humid as fuck (if it would storm at any point that would be fucking fantastic)
What time is it?
2:20 am
Do you drive? If so, have you ever crashed?
Yes and no!
What was the last book you read?
I’m in the middle of Way of Kings
Do you like the smell of gasoline?
Somewhat actually?
Do you have any nicknames?
Harpe diem, Ralph, that nickname my mom gave me that I’m not telling y’all.
What was the last film you saw?
The Matrix
What’s the worst injury you’ve ever had?
definitely a tie between breaking a chip off my foot and cutting a gash in my thigh that (at the time) was like half the length of my thigh (please note I didn’t get medical assistance for this and instead just applied a lot of bandaids)
Have you ever caught a butterfly?
Yes!
Do you have any obsessions right now?
The TV show leverage and Cosmere are a few!
What’s your sexual orientation?
Ace!
Ever had a rumour spread about you?
Maybe? not in a bad way tho
Do you believe in magic?
Small magics
Do you tend to hold grudges against people who have done you wrong?
That depends a Lot on what they’ve done
What is your astrological sign?
Cancer
Do you save money or spend it?
Save, definitely save
What’s the last thing you purchased?
Tomatoes
Love or lust?
Love
In a relationship?
Nope
How many relationships have you had?
3
Can you touch your nose with your tongue?
Nah
Where were you yesterday?
Generally near my school, more specifically I did a lot of walking and visited the farmers market
Is there anything pink within 10 feet of you?
yeah, my roommate loves pink
Are you wearing socks right now?
Nope
What’s your favourite animal?
Dragons!
What is your secret weapon to get someone to like you?
Being myself? idk?
Where is your best friend?
They’re all a little scattered, within a mile of me, this city, another state, two other cities in my state
Give me your top 5 favourite blogs on Tumblr.
Oh shoot I’m bad at this idk, it’s 2:30 in the morning don’t ask me to make decisions
What is your heritage?
All of those Scandinavian countries? yes
What were you doing last night at 12AM?
something on my computer
What do you think is Satan’s last name?
something that starts with LeC-
Be honest. Ever gotten yourself off?
I’m ignoring this one cause I don’t wanna
Are you the kind of friend you would want to have as a friend?
I hope so
You are walking down the street on your way to work. There is a dog drowning in the canal on the side of the street. Your boss has told you if you are late one more time you get fired. What do you do?
Call my boss as I fish the dog out and run to work
You are at the doctor’s office and she has just informed you that you have approximately one month to live. a) Do you tell anyone/everyone you are going to die? b) What do you do with your remaining days? c) Would you be afraid?
I definitely tell people
I don’t know what I’d do honestly, cry a lot probably?
definitely
You can only have one of these things; trust or love.
Trust
What’s a song that always makes you happy when you hear it?
Yellow Submarine
What are the last four digits in your cell phone number?
Why do you want this information?
In your opinion, what makes a great relationship?
Trust and communication
How can I win your heart?
Be kind, listen, don’t ask for more than you can give, enjoy things I enjoy
Can insanity bring on more creativity?
Yeah I suppose so
What is the single best decision you have made in your life so far?
Switching high schools to the one I graduated from
What size shoes do you wear?
8 or 11
What would you want to be written on your tombstone?
Fuck man I don’t know
What is your favourite word?
I don’t really have one?
Give me the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word; heart.
Muscle
What is a saying you say a lot?
“We’re just going to ignore me doing that stupid ass thing that I just did”
What’s the last song you listened to?
Eraser, Ed Sheeran
Basic question; what’s your favourite colour/colours?
Blue/Green
What is your current desktop picture?
This stock photo of an ocean
If you could press a button and make anyone in the world instantaneously explode, who would it be?
How big is the blast radius?
What would be a question you’d be afraid to tell the truth on?
here’s the thing, I would say but then people would ask and I don’t wanna answer it so nah
One night you wake up because you heard a noise. You turn on the light to find that you are surrounded by MUMMIES. The mummies aren’t really doing anything, they’re just standing around your bed. What do you do?
My heart rate would spike and then I’d probably just....leave
You accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow you with the super-power of your choice! What is that power?
Invisibility
You can re-live any point of time in your life. The time-span can only be a half-hour, though. What half-hour of your past would you like to experience again?
A time when I was 12 or so and I could just hike on the eno with my dad and cookout
You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be?
As shitty as some points of my life have been I would keep them because they’ve shaped who I am and my understanding of myself
You have the opportunity to sleep with the music-celebrity of your choice. Who would it be?
No one
You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where are you gonna go?
To a mountain range
Do you have any relatives in jail?
ummmmmm
I don’t actually know how they’re related to me but my great aunt’s grandchildren’s boyfriend maybe??? is/was in jail????
Have you ever thrown up in the car?
yes. it fucken sucked
Ever been on a plane?
Yeah! I enjoy it!
If the whole world were listening to you right now, what would you say?
can we all collectively take one deep breath and then think this through? Okay thanks, now exactly what is the issue with everyone?
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Sensor Sweep: Hall of the Giant King, Henry Kuttner, William Stout, Alex Nino
RPG (Grodog): Thinking through the mega-dungeons I’m familiar with, the stand out qualities that I love to play through, and the mega-dungeons that bring that to the table are: Best Environments to Explore and Map: Castle El Raja Key, Maure Castle, Caverns of Thracia, Foolsgrave. Most-Fun Encounters: Castle Greyhawk, Foolsgrave, Rich Franks’ mega-dungeon. Most-Fun Puzzles, Enigmas, and Centerpiece Encounters: Castle Greyhawk, Maure Castle, WG5, ASE1/2-3, Undermountain.
Science Fiction (Alexandra Rowland): I was groomed and abused by Scott Lynch and Elizabeth Bear for several years. For a long time, I never wanted to talk about this in public. I didn’t want anybody to know about this. I only began rethinking yesterday and I was still considering what to do about it, but… …Apparently I don’t have that luxury anymore.
Art (Modiphius): The Art of Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of features a selection of some of the most incredible art associated with the classic barbarian hero ever assembled into one set of covers. With one of the most successful gaming Kickstarter campaigns of all time, Conan set out to be the definitive treatment of Conan in games: central to that was recruiting a stellar lineup of artists for covers and interior illustrations. The Art of Conan presents a variety of art drawn from the incredible core rulebook and the expansive line of sourcebooks and supplements, organized by book, allowing players and fans of amazing sword-and-sorcery art to enjoy this fantastic art on its own.
New Release (DMR Books): Cahena is a historical novel (with fantasy elements) dealing with the brave and beautiful warrior queen who reigned over the Berbers in the seventh century. The Cahena, as she was known, was believed to be a sorceress and prophetess. She led an army forty thousand strong, wielding javelins and scimitars, in a valiant struggle against the Mohammedan invaders who were fresh from their conquest of Carthage. Rich in historical detail and dramatic action, this is a story to rival the great war epics of all time.
Publishing (Amatopia): There’s been talk on social media by Big Prominent Authors who’ve been paid a lot of money to write stuff about how hard it is to stay prolific in these totally unprecedented and difficult times. These writers–whose only job is to write–can’t seem to squeeze in a page or two amidst the chaos. It’s emotionally taxing do perform their job, you see. It’s so hard because evil bad people who may or may not be orange keep them from focusing. What a bunch of weenies.
Genre (Pulprev): Today when people think of science fiction and fantasy, chances are, they think of two separate genres. Science fiction, the genre of starships and computers and technology. Fantasy, the genre of knights and dragons and castles. Two distinct genres, and never the twain shall meet. The meeting of the two, science fantasy, was the exception, the red-headed stepchild, never part of the mainstream. This wasn’t always the case.
Art (Heavy Metal): William Stout has had a long and eventful career as an illustrator and production designer—you can read all about it in the biography on his official website. His work has run in numerous publications, including Heavy Metal. And then there was Masters of the Universe. The 1987 movie seemed like a good idea, given the popularity of the toys, but the Cannon Films production, starring Dolph Lundgren as He-Man and Frank Langella as Skeletor, was a flop.
Paleontology (Phys.org): Lions were once far more widespread than they are now, with several subspecies of lions dividing the world between them. They were found in much of Europe and Asia including the Middle East, in Africa, North America and maybe South America. Previously, the cave lion Panthera leo spelaea was found across much of Eurasia and as far as Alaska and Canada. But cave lions died out 13 000 years ago, perhaps partly due to humans, although paleontologists suspect that climate change played a major role. The American lion P. leo atrox suffered the same fate.
T.V. (Kairos): Loyal readers know that a key mission of this blog is shedding light on Hollywood’s hatred of their audience. Much as A Bridge Too Far proves Pigman’s Caine-Hackman hypothesis, the1998 movie Pleasantville epitomizes Hollywood Death Cultism. YouTuber Devon Stack, who reviews movies with a keen eye for both literary criticism and propaganda, explains this superficially innocent film’s subversive depths. “As much as the baby boomers fought to overturn and rebel against and eventually destroy the American culture that existed before them, one thing that I have always found interesting is how much the same champions of counterculture that sadistically dismembered their heritage and mocked every tradition their parents have gifted them, but at the same time romanticize this same culture they worked so hard to undo.”
Science Fiction (Adventures Fantastic): “Trog” appeared in the June 1944 issue of Astounding. It has never been reprinted. The story is set in 1956. Civilization has been collapsing for four years. The general consensus is that humanity has a collective, mass consciousness that has tired of civilization. It takes over people at random and causes them to destroy things. Supply lines have been disrupted. Food is scarce. Things that break cannot be replaced. People destroy things. Those that do are called trogs, short for troglodytes.
Book Review (Marzaat): In the summer of 1565 on the parched ground of Malta, the future of Western Civilization was decided. Would the Moslems continue their expansion into the Mediterranean, preying on European ships and taking Christian slaves as far away as England? Or could they be held back? It was an epic struggle, an astounding tale of resolve and leadership, of disunity in command and disunity among allies.
Tolkien (Notion Club Papers): Tolkien and The Silmarillion by Clyde Kilby. Lion Publishing, Berkhamsted, Kent, UK. 1977 pp 89. (US edition, 1976.) This is a hardly-known, slim, minor, but fascinating contribution to the writings about Tolkien. Its centre is an account of the summer of 1966 which the author spent meeting with the seventy-four year old Tolkien a few times per week, ostensibly to provide him with informed and enthusiastic secretarial assistance to get The Silmarillion ready for publication.
Pulp Magazines (Black Gate): This third installment of the Weird Tales deep read covers the eleven stories in the October 1934 issue, including the first Jirel of Joiry story by C. L. Moore. Her flame didn’t burn as long in the Unique Magazine as the Lovecraft-Howard-Smith trinity’s did, but it did burn as brightly. Moore had sixteen stories in Weird Tales between 1933-1939, twelve in an incredible burst of creativity in the years 1934-1936.
Travel (Last Stand on Zombie Island): Outside of Moscow, reportedly on the location of one of the principal stavkas of the 1941 defense of the city from the German invasion, now stands the so-called Main Cathedral of Russian Armed Forces. Built by popular subscription (with lots of help from the military and government) the immense Eastern Orthodox church is a living, breathing memory to the Russian (not Soviet) effort against Hitler in the Great Patriotic War.
Art (DMR Books): The result was The Fantasy Worlds of Alex Nino, which came out in 1975, just a few short years after Alex began doing work for American comics. The publisher was Christopher Enterprises, a somewhat shadowy company about which I’ve been able to discover little. They emerged on the scene in 1975, put out portfolios by Nino and Michael Kaluta, then followed that with a Bernie Wrightson portfolio in 1976. Also in 1976, Christopher Enterprises published several awesome posters by Wrightson and Stephen Hickman.
Weird Tales (Tellers of Weird Tales): I first wrote about Earl Peirce, Jr., on May 17, 2017. I misidentified him then as Earl Monroe Pierce, Jr., based on his age and his residency in Washington, D.C., where Peirce/Pierce is known to have lived. A month later, an anonymous commenter let me know that I had the wrong person and provided a link to an online discussion about the right one. I removed what I had written and promised an update and correction. By then it was too late: my mistake was memorialized in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDb) and you can still find it there today. I pride myself on doing good work.
Old Science Fiction (M Porcius): Here at MPorcius Fiction Log we are beating the heat and staying off the streets by reading old issues of Thrilling Wonder Stories at the internet archive. In our last episode we read three stories by Leigh Brackett; those tales of rough men trying to master their environments and find or create a place where they belonged–and the women who loved them–were later reprinted in Brackett collections and theme anthologies. Today we read three stories by Henry Kuttner that have not been quite so widely reprinted–you might call them “deep cuts.”
RPG (R’lyeh Reviews): 1978: G3 Hall of the Giant King. 1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary.
Sensor Sweep: Hall of the Giant King, Henry Kuttner, William Stout, Alex Nino published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/
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