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katy-l-wood · 2 months

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What's your favorite part of disaster research?

Ohohoo. I could go on about this one for HOURS.

But, at it's core: my favorite thing is looking into how and why we tell disaster stories the way we do, both in fiction and non-fiction. As an extension of that, how the fiction and non-fiction aspects intersect. Why do we focus on the elements we do? Why does media coverage of disasters work the way it does? Why do we believe so many myths about disasters like looting and panic behavior and everyone-for-themselves? How can we use fiction to better inform non-fiction, and non-fiction to better inform fiction?

Here's an example of fiction to better inform non-fiction: in Emergency Management, it's a common sentiment that it isn't necessarily the plan you come up with that's useful, it's the act of making that plan. The actual plan you make is probably going to fall apart at some point, because you can never plan perfectly. A plan is fiction. It's fiction heavily based in reality, but it is still imagining scenarios that have not actually happened. But in the act of making it you are going to learn so much about yourself, the people you work with, the place you live, etc. and that knowledge is going to be what saves you.

A perfect example of this is Gander, Canada during 9/11. Gander is a little town that also happens to have the eastern most airport in Newfoundland on the east coast of Canada that can take large passenger jets. In the 90s, as everyone was preparing for Y2K, Gander realized that if we did have a worst-case Y2K, there would be a ton of jets stranded over the Atlantic that would need a place to land immediately, and that meant landing in Gander. So they made a plan. They fictionalized the scenario to figure out what they would need to do to deal with that outcome. But then Y2K didn't amount to much and the plan was thrown away, because they'll never need a plan like that again, right?

Cut to almost two years later when 9/11 occurs and what happens? Air traffic in the US is shut down and suddenly there's tons of jets stranded over the Atlantic with nowhere to go and desperate for a place to land. So what does Gander do? They've thrown out their actual plan for this. But it didn't matter because they'd learned from it, and they remembered what they'd learned. Gander ended up taking in nearly 7,000 refugees from dozens of jets. It nearly doubled their population in just a handful of hours. Everyone in town came together to get these people safe, get them comfortable, and help them figure out what the hell to do next. (There's actually a Broadway musical about it called "Come From Away.")

So how do we make those sorts of plans? How do we develop them to be as helpful as possible in a way that is understandable and digestible so that it can be as effective as possible?

Then, of course, there's non-fiction informing fiction which is a bit more obvious as to how that all works. We've been doing studies since WWII that have told us how people behave in disasters, and it very much does not match the way Hollywood usually portrays it. So why? Why are we so obsessed with these disaster myths? Why are those the core aspects our cultures keep sinking their teeth into?

So. Yeah. :P

That's my favorite aspect of disaster stuff. I may or may not be looking into pursuing a PhD at this point. >.>

#Disaster Media #Disasters in Film #Disaster

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myfandomrealitea · 10 days

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Idk if it can be considered as fandom stuff, but I really want to know:

Why children acting in films isn't discussed as something wrong to do?

Like, if it's important to fight to end child labor, why almost no one bats an eye on it?

I can assure you plenty of people bat an eye at it.

While discussions about things like child labor laws and protections in regards to underage performers may seem drowned out by subjects like the SAAG strikes and the crew-company strikes and rights actions right now, child labor laws and protections for underage performers is still very much a prominent topic in the industry, especially as more and more past-child-actors come forward with their stories.

While we are far from a perfect state regarding the protection of child actors and their obligations and abilities within the industry, we have also seen several improvements and changes. Restrictive changes to how many hours they can work within a certain timeframe, changes to how they are represented and advocated for and changes to conflicts between performing and education are all things we have seen in the last decade.

Backstage.com - Child Actor Laws NNCEE - British Child Performer License Library of Congress Blogs - A History of Child Actor Laws

I don't view children being employed as actors as inherently a "wrong thing to do." However I absolutely and firmly acknowledge that child acting is a fucking minefield of exploitation and expectations. We are absolutely nowhere near a point where we can say that the majority of our activism for child actors has been fulfilled.

Often, expectations for child actors fall victim to the same pressure and demands of the entire Hollywood industry; churning out content as fast as possible on minimum cost. Crews are pushed to work 90 hour weeks, actors are pushed to work 14+ hour shifts, deadlines are made as tight as possible. The issues many child actors face are not necessarily exclusive to underage performers; they are broader issues faced by employees and workers within the industry as a whole.

There are still many groups and individuals campaigning for better protections and quality of treatment and advocacy regarding children in the film and performance industries, however. And like with any cause there are always ways you can support them to help further the cause. I suggest looking up the child performer laws in your area and seeing where you can lend aid.

#myfandomrealitea #sephiroth speaks #fandom #proship #proshipping #reality #not discourse #child labor laws #child actors #actors #performers #film industry #filming #acting #can you imagine a world where all children on TV are dolls or animatronics or CGI

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lesbianboyfriend · 3 months

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can i ask for lesbian book recommendations 🥹🕺

yeassss ofc my love <3

erm and obligatory disclaimer for any who might read that i don’t think “queer” or “lesbian” is a necessarily coherent category of books or adequate descriptor for a novel which is why i’ve also provided the actual genres here (sorted into which ever one i felt best fit) and descriptions. and these books have much more going on than just being about lesbians. however all books are undeniably awesomer with lesbians so yayyyyy

FANTASY:

-the salt grows heavy by cassandra khaw: fantasy horror; murderous mermaid and plague doctor come across a cult of children (could be read as not lesbians bc one character is nonbinary but i choose to read as. lesbians)

-the empress of salt and fortune by nghi vo: political fantasy; monk unravels the tale of exiled empress’ rise to power

-when the the tigers came down the mountain by nghi vo: political fantasy; monk unwinds the tale of a tiger and her scholar lover to prevent other tigers from eating them (stand alone sequel to empress of salt and fortune)

-ship of smoke and steel by django wexler: ya fantasy; girl has to steal a ghost ship to save her sister’s life

-the mermaid, the witch, and the sea by maggie tokuda-hall: ya fantasy; pirate falls in love with one of the ship’s hostages, a girl being sent to an arranged marriage against her will

-tremontaine created by ellen kushner: political fantasy; there’s a lot going on in this one okay just trust me that it’s really good esp if you love political intrigue (this was released serially and is easiest to acquire an electronic version)

-the deep by rivers solomon: fantasy/spec fic; African slave women thrown overboard gave birth to mermaid-esque descendants. one holds these traumatic memories for her whole people and must grapple with that pressure

-wild beauty by anna-marie mclemore: ya magical realism/fantasy; a family of women who can create flowers and whose lovers always tragically vanish fight to keep their land and to unravel the mystery of a strange boy who appeared

-siren queen by nghi vo: historical magical realism/fantasy; girl’s rise to stardom amidst the monsters of hollywood back in the days of the studio system

-gideon the ninth by tamsyn muir: sff; um. how to explain briefly. gideon wants nothing more than to leave the ninth house, but her nemesis harrowhark needs her sword skills to pass the emperors trial and become immortal. sure. (caleb i know you’ve read this just adding for any other viewers yayyy)

HORROR:

-white is for witching by helen oyeyemi: horror fantasy/magical realism; a house with women in its walls calls to miranda silver while the people she leaves behind struggle to make sense of what happened to her

-plain bad heroines by emily a. danforth: historical horror; when filming a movie about the macabre history of a boarding school, its past starts to become the reality for the stars and author of the novel it’s based on

LITFIC:

-girl woman other: contemporary litfic; the intersecting stories of Black british women told in verse

-nightwood: classic literary; i feel like i can’t describe this one well but nora and jenny are obsessed with robin, whose penchant for wandering and inability to commit drives them crazy. toxic dyke drama at its best

-the thirty names of night: lit fic; transmasc syrian american unravels the history of artist laila z who encountered the same rare bird his mother saw right before her death and realizes their pasts are intertwined

-under the udala trees: historical lit fic; coming of age set against the backdrop of civil war in Nigeria, two girls from different ethnic communities fall in love

-everyone in this room will someday be dead: contemporary lit fic; that moment when your ocd lands you a job at the catholic church even though you’re an atheist and also your relationship is falling apart

-stone butch blues: historical lit fic; butch lesbian realizing and grappling with her identity throughout the 40s-70s

-the color purple: classic lit fic; story of two sisters separated in their youth—one is forced into an abusive marriage and falls in love with her husbands mistress, wondering what became of her sister

-oranges are not the only fruit: semi-autobiography with slight fantasy elements; exploring growing up lesbian in a deeply religious pentecostal sect

SCI-FI:

-the weight of the stars: ya sf romance; aspiring astronaut is forced into friendship with a girl who waits on the roof every night for radio signals from her mother in space

-the seep: sci-fi/spec fic; what if aliens invaded and formed a hive mind of everyone and also your girlfriend turned into a baby again. wouldn’t that be fucked up

-the stars are legion: political science fiction; an awakes with no memory amid a group of people calling themself her family who claim she is the only one who can save their world

-not your sidekick: ya sci-fi; superheroes are real and they fucking suck

SHORT STORIES:

-sarahland: contemporary/spec fic short story collection; various stories about people named sarah

#jules.txt #asks #bookshelf

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copperbadge · 2 years

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Sam, I hesitated to call this a new trend without proof, but I think three movies pretty much proves it: the new thing in Hallmark-esque Christmas movies is having them based around reality tv stars' show premises. So far, there's Hilary Farr (of Love It or List It) with an interior-decorating themed movie, and both Bobby Flay and Duff Goldman have cooking-themed movies coming out.

I am filled with that kind of horrified fascination you get upon realizing that you're watching a figurative (not literal) car crash in the making.

And I'm dying to know: what kind of holiday movie does Eddie Rambler reluctantly/excitedly allow himself to be dragged into when he realizes it's the only way to keep the Flay-expy from gaining more influence over the food world?

I wonder if they're all by the same production company. That genre of film, the Hallmark/Lifetime-ish low-budget, made-in-four-weeks type, has to churn out content like crazy and there are only so many ideas in the world. It's entirely possible there's one company that's just...doing all of these because they have a pre-existing relationship with the shows they're drawing from, and it doesn't pull the star away from their life for very long. Filming on a Hallmark number is literally 4-8 weeks tops.

There was a minute there where a lot of the Hallmark films had a famous female vocalist as the lead as a way to pull people in, this might be the next wave of that kind of thing.

It would be deliciously recursive to do a Shivadh novel about a film crew making a Hallmark-type movie in Askazer-Shivadlakia, considering the entire goddamn thing originated as a Hallmark script. There is a short story I'm working on where Michaelis offhandedly mentions that they offer generous incentives for companies filming music videos or advertisements in-country; I'm sure Gregory would be pleased to welcome movie crews in the off-season. You can film cheaply and easily in Fons-Askaz from November to March or so (depending on when Passover falls), it's a gorgeous location, and it stays pretty warm year-round.

Hallmark does non-holiday movies too, so they wouldn't necessarily have to be filming a Christmas movie or one of the handful of Hanukkah movies, although the holiday movies get more attention. They could just be filming a romcom, basically (Kavan Smith, who appears to just love Hallmark movies, has played lead in a number of these, some of which have been a lot of fun). Eddie's a decent actor so I don't think it'd be hard for him to get involved, or even be the one who brought the crew there in the first place -- him or Jerry, given Jerry's connections.

Ahaha. Jerry just shows up in Parliament one day like "In my capacity as vizier, I have brokered a deal to bring Hollywood to our doorstep. It's a nefarious plan, but hear me out..."

#shivadhverse

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anarkissm · 9 months

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ghostface voice: what's your character's favorite horror genre?

JAKE enjoyed the occasional silent horror film. black-and-whites like frankenstein's monster, dracula, the call of cthulu. foreign horror films from asia or europe with small budgets and entertaining or even oscar-worthy scripts. the tastes of an "old soul". been "living under a rock" (i.e. mountainside) for half a decade, so he is not interested in most forms of entertainment media at that point.

CLAUDETTE is not a huge horror movies fan. but she loves science fiction horror (aliens, the thing, jurassic park, h.g. well's the time machine, etc.). doesn't find the appeal in popular horror subgenres like slashers, gore-fests, and paranormal/demonic possessions because the ableism is disheartening. she tends to point out inconsistencies with the blood splatter, the unrealistic plot armor, the complete lack of human self-preservation instincts, because it always breaks the immersion and she eventually falls asleep, bored. but she will cover her eyes or bury her face into the nearest shoulder at the sight of jump scares and the loud, sinister music that usually goes off before a jump scare.

the legion (JOEY and FRANK) will watch anything and everything about horror. half the time, they're talking during the movie or documentary, debates and arguments and jokes. joey's into gory horror, and horror anime; the story is not necessarily important to them, it's the gore, the deaths, the kill count. they find the unrealistic blood splatters very funny, great job, no notes. they enjoy horror parodies like scary movie. in contrast, frank has an informed understanding of symbolism and allegorical narratives in creative works because he spent all of his time in juvie reading books, newspapers, magazines; anything he could. he is a brutal critic and always has shit to say. never rates movies with a full 5-stars because he doesn't believe in perfection. joey and frank argue extensively and loudly during the legion's movie nights; from the perspective of an outsider, it would look hostile. but one of them eventually starts laughing, or they start play-wrestling. they're both just obnoxiously distracting regardless of the horror genre. like, just imagine this video, but it's frank and joey lol.

ADAM was not permitted to watch horror movies or "risque" films by his uncle julian when he was a kid; he did not want adam to be influenced by "hollywood magic" and western propaganda. julian also believed that watching horror movies about demons and evil would invite negativity, or duppies. but adam did watch more films as an adult in college, VHS tapes in the dormatory's common room, outdoor movies set up on the campus quad, and the local theater in kagoshima. adam was a practical man who respected julian's guidance, and he did not feel as if he was missing out on much by gluing his eyes to a TV screen or religiously listening to the radio for the latest trendy song. instead, adam always had his eyes in a book, or even a graphic novel: the handmaid's tale, the man in the high castle, the left hand of darkness, the x-men. to him, the most horrifying stories are the ones where the world is helpless against a much more sinister monster: ideology.

#@mutuals its not strictly a rhetorical question btw i'd love to know if ur muse(s) is a horror fan!! comment or make ur own fun lil post <3 #PARK ，JAKE.#MOREL ，CLAUDETTE.#JOEY.#MORRISON ，FRANK.#FRANCIS ，ADAM.#SCRIPT.

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butmakeitgayblog · 10 months

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I can’t believe I’m saying this but I do kind of understand what Harry Styles was saying about gay sex scenes because sex scenes with men are always so ROUGH 😭 With het and MLM scenes I typically have trouble believing that they actually have any feelings for each other beyond Horny because the whole time I’m just like damn dude are you even trying to make it good for them cause it’s not all about you!!!

And then like you said we get a hard cut to two girls doing nothing more than laying in bed holding the covers over their titties and I feel infinitely more chemistry and love between them than basically any sex scene with a man 😂 Have men in the industry not got the memo that sex doesn’t always have to be getting railed until you can’t walk but rather there are many ways to have sex and it can in fact often be a loving and dare I say cute experience??? If there’s gonna be a sex scene I want it to show something about the characters and their relationship, how they treat and care for each other (or not 😬) not… whatever tf the scene in TLFOAH was. Wasn’t sexy, didn’t contribute anything, super out of place… ugh

Well, respectfully idk about all that. I mean I think there have been sex scenes involving men that are perfectly lovely and loving in their depiction, it's just unfortunate that those don't tend to be the stories Hollywood dork ass loser execs want to portray 😒 they all want rough sex and violence and exploitation

And really I don't even necessarily blame the actors. I mean yes it's their performance, but I assume they're mostly being directed on how to shoot these scenes. I believe most, if not all, sex scenes these days have choreographers that break every movement and touch down beat by beat to try and do away with any variables that could mess up a shot or give opportunities to less savory actors trying to pull shit in scenes that make stuff weird.

And that's where my bitching and complaining comes in! Lol because now they have no excuse. There's no excuse for the bullshit that gets peddled and is so obviously made salacious on purpose rather than loving.

Like this scene for example.

It could have actually been worth a damn. A sex scene could have worked here, if they had not been thinking "hmmm ho how can we make this as sexy as possible so whoever's boyfriend that's being made to watch this with will get their dick hard", and actually used it as a vehicle for the plot and for character development. I would've been completely for it. If they had slowed down and taken a few beats to show him being sweet with her, show him lovingly kissing her, maybe a few smiles or intense looks while they slowly undressed each other, moments where he stops just to look into her eyes and build that connection. Have the rhythm of the sex be slow and sweet, as though he's giving her tenderness and caring that she hadn't had before - that she's so obviously been searching for in all her pain and trauma and abandonment. That would've been amazing! BECAUSE THEN! You jump forward to the beach scene only a few moments later, and you see that veneer crack. You see the beginnings of his ugliness and his abuse start to emerge.

How much more impactful would that have been?

That stark contrast. That immediate shift that would've felt like the rug was yanked right out from under the viewer and Alice both.

To move between these scenes of seeing her falling into him, thinking '*sigh* Finally. Finally, here's someone who cares about me. Here's someone who will be soft with me. Here's someone who will protect me, help me heal, give me the love that's been stolen from me over and over again in my life. Here's my safety.'

And then... you see him change.

That would've totally been so effective and speak to the characters and the blossoming of their relationship, and how someone can be so blinded by emotions that they don't see the danger signs right in front of them. It would've built such a more solid foundation for why Alice would make excuses and exceptions for him and his behavior, because we'd know that she'd already have this love story written in her head fROM THE SEX SCENE

But no.

Nope.

Uh uh.

Gratuitous boinking always wins and I just

#anon #TLFOAH

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pynkhues · 8 months

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why do you think when theres been the recent live action adaptations of classic media, theres always a woman of colour paired with a white man? how to train your dragon, percy jackson, little mermaid, etc etc etc all follow this trend. obviously some exceptions but it seems like woman of color + white man lead/love interest is what hollywood execs have decided en masse. im not against diverse casting im just very curious why it always seems to be that specific formula is now the norm?

Yeah, it's an interesting trend in casting, isn't it? Not a bad one, necessarily - I love seeing more diverse casts for any and all projects - but I do think there's something to be said about how Hollywood views the interchangability of women's (and especially girls') experiences that erases the complexity of intersectional identities.

I was actually thinking about it a bit recently as I was getting excited watching the sneak peek for the new season of AMC's Interview with the Vampire, because that is one of the few shows that has cast a traditionally white character with a white love interest with a man of colour. Jacob Anderson is perfect as Louis, but he's also perfect because of the amount of work the writers put into adapting the story to make his race central to Louis' character's identity, his internal and external conflicts, and his relationships with others.

It really put into stark contrast for me how infrequently women characters get that same treatment. They might be recast with WOC - Hermione in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child for instance, or like you said, Ariel in The Little Mermaid, but their race becomes incidental instead of something that should be crucial to the adaptation of the story.

Because it's not just Interview with the Vampire that did it - Jason Momoa's casting in Aquaman absolutely utilised his Polynesian heritage to inform both character and story, and while I don't think it did a very good job of it, I do think the first season of Bridgerton was conscious of Simon's race moreso than it was Queen Charlotte's and Lady Danbury's, or even Kate, Mary and Edwina's in s2 (I do think they tried to fix this in the Queen Charlotte prequel to mixed results, but I do appreciate that they at least tried not to handwave it away).

I do think genre and audience demographic plays a role in this too. I don't think that it's a coincidence that we see this uptick in diverse casting with content aimed at children or young women, and I especially don't think it's a coincidence that a lot of these stories are fantasy or at least fantastical. Both I think offer writers an excuse to minimise racial identity in favour of fantastical ones - they can argue Hermione being a 'Mudblood' or Ariel being a mermaid is much more important 'in-universe' than either character being Black, and when that doesn't work, there's always the 'escapism' argument to fall back on.

Girls and women want fluff, they want escapism, they don't want stories of racism or racial trauma, which sure! Y'know! Often a lot of women don't! But race is more than that, it's culture and context and history, and to minimise it fails the character and as trends over the last decade have shown, usually results in failing the actress playing her. If you're not putting the effort into understanding how race informs this new imagining of the character, you're probably not putting the effort into understanding the position you're about to put the actress in either. Kelly Marie Tran in Star Wars or Candice Patton in The Flash both spring to mind in that sense (and god, as someone who's watched both, they're so talented and did the best with what they got, but man, they weren't given much).

It diminishes the nuance of womanhood, but that's kind of the point too, right? Hollywood's never understood the intersectionality that sits at the heart of every woman's identity, and the different aspects of her character and her resonances that builds her up or breaks her down, which is a part of why I think women characters, especially characters who are still girls, are seen as easy ways to create avenues to diversity in Hollywood.

After all, creating entry points for diverse casting for usually one (1) actress in existing IP allows studios to tick boxes and pat themselves on the back and say they're investing in diversity without actually investing in diverse stories or making space for diverse storytellers.

(I actually have a rant forever in the back of my mouth about how they're doing this to women's stories in general. After all, all these girlboss reboots of traditionally male franchises like Ghostbusters and Oceans 8, aren't telling women's stories, they're just putting lipstick on a man's).

But yes. I guess where I'm going with this particular point is that if you were to ask me point blank if I think that Hollywood wants to diversify, I'd actually say yeah, that I think they do. The problem is that no one wants to be out of the job or lose power, screen time, or representation, and given Hollywood is foundationally white, wealthy and patriarchal, those stories are always going to be repackaged in ways that centres white masculinity as something aspirational, heroic or crucial to a story, which leaves everyone else to shift roles or focus to prop them up.

Of course, in turn this does feed into the whole trend of pairing WOC and white men specifically, which is what you're actually asking, haha. And look! I do think interracial relationships in film have come a really long way in the last decade, but also still think they have a long way to go and in particular are a long way away from being able to have a non-white love interest. This by default means that if Hermione and Ariel and Iris are Black, Ron and Prince Eric and The Flash will be white, and I don't think the reverse is as 'acceptable' to studios due to the fact that the nature of both systemic and social racism means that white men are threatened by MOC dating white women, which further informs the way these relationships end up being drawn on screen.

(On a related note, there have been a few studies into interacial relationships recently, and they all tend to find that there's enormous social stigma for white women dating outside their race, particularly compared to white men dating outside of theirs, which this study links to white supremacy and incel culture.)

I think shifting beauty standards for women does contribute too, as well as - - y'know. Capitalism. After all, the avenues for merchandising particularly with childrens content (like, gosh, I love to see all the Black Ariel merch that's come out when I'm in the toy aisles shopping for my nephews, but it's also pretty impossible to deny that Disney saw a market there that they could cash-in on), and I do think all of that together probably paints a picture that can be boiled down to Hollywood execs seeing casting of MOC in these sorts of roles as limiting audience, and casting WOC as broadening it.

All of this isn't to say that I don't support these recastings - I do, very much so, but I do wish female characters were treated with more nuance in these contexts, and I especially wish we could get more diverse original stories as well as these recastings.

#film asks #kinda #fun fact: one of the actresses i work with at my theatre company was the understudy for hermione in the cursed child #she's very lovely and very talented and it's always a delight to get to see her perform #she's v good at improv which is like 80% of what working with kids as an actress is haha #welcome to my ama

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mollmom · 2 years

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Hey! I’m fairly new to the fandom, and within the past couple of weeks saw my first J2 post and was reeled in haha. I had no idea about any of this (and am still learning a lot of course) but it felt so crazy that right away I was like damn okay I can actually see this being true lol.

Your blog seemed like one of the most knowledgable and your answers are always very kind and you explain things really well, so I figured this might be a safe space to ask this because I don’t think I’ve seen much on it!

I’ve seen the timelines of things that happened in the past, and read the “speak the truth” blog that looks like it ended in 2013 or so. Of course a lot has gone down from then to now, but I guess I was wondering is there anything that points you to feel like they’re still together today? I’ll readily agree that their marriages don’t look happy (Jared’s wife’s post are big time cringe), but I feel like I don’t necessarily see a lot of those intimate touches or slips or anything from recent cons as I’ve seen scrolling through old ones.

And if they are together, what do you think keeps them from coming out? And I’m not asking from a standpoint of just society’s perceptions impacting careers because I intimately understand how that can unfortunately change things (especially with how different the world was when they first met), but do you think that it’s just gone too far for them to get out? Or do you think they’re worried of how it might impact the perception of the Supernatural series? Or do you think they’re just waiting for the right time?

Hey there! Welcome to the craziness that is Supernatural and J2! It’s a unique experience and it can be a roller coaster!

I’m glad you took the time to read “Speak the Truth”, it has a lot of tinhat history and is a good jumping off point for the J2 tinhat story.

To answer your questions, yes, I absolutely think they are together still. Last con’s main panel (Torcon) really had a lot of clues if you know what to look for, ie: why did Jensen’s shirt “fall off”? Protective Jensen was also out in full force as Jared was feeling emotional. Also, if you start following their patterns, there are blocks of time where neither of the boys are seen at all. These are times you can pretty much assume they are together. You may not know it then, but inevitably some fan posts a pic of of one or the other and you can sus out where they are. Of course most fans don’t pay much attention.

As for them coming out, I think there are many pieces to the puzzle of why they aren’t out. Some have to do with TPTB at CW way back when, when they couldn’t be together in the open bc they played brothers. SPN is also very popular in countries where LBGTQ + community is unfortunately illegal. This would definitely effect distribution, etc. Hollywood is also not the greatest for the LQTB+ community (although they think they are). Many people are still not out and HW has a bad track record in regards to bearding. Then you have the marriages and kids to consider, the lies they have to tell, etc. Also, a lot of fans just think they are hetero and have a visceral reaction to anyone saying they aren’t. Frankly, that’s a lot to face for anyone, and they may never come out. Only time will tell. I hope that someday they will be able to overcome all the obstacles and be free to show their true selves.

In the meantime all we can do is support them and their careers and if they do come out let them know we love them ❤️.

Thanks so much for liking my blog! I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus, but I’m back! Thank you for your question!

#mollmom answers #j2tinhat

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milkwithginseng · 2 years

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Young Bond: Shoot to Kill by Steve Cole Review

For a challenge this year I decided to read a new Ian Fleming James Bond book, and a non-Fleming Bond book every month. Last month’s non-Fleming offering was Shoot to Kill which I thought I’d write a review of:

Despite growing up with the Young Bond series penned by Charlie Higson I had aged out of it by the time this book came around in 2014. I can’t recall when I found out that there was a second Young Bond series so this time I’m going without any knowledge and crucially without any sentimental attachment to them.

Anecdotally I’ve never seen any of the Cole books in the wild which doesn’t augur well, except at the mecca of books, the Foyles Bookshop at Charing Cross Road, which is where I picked up my paperback copy of Shoot to Kill.

I was both fascinated and trepidatious about Cole’s Young Bond series because on the one hand, I was really interested to see how he continued what Higson started and how he wrote James during his time at Fettes. I enjoyed his first Doctor Who novel, The Feast of the Drowned, but apart from that I’ve not been too enthused with his work, I get the impression he’s a very workmanlike author which is not necessarily a bad thing but he not only has to live up to Fleming but also Higson in my book.

On the whole, I think Cole does achieve the impossible, Shoot to Kill is a competently written continuation of Higson’s series with marvellous action in an inspired setting, Hollywood in the Golden Age of Film is such a great fit for James Bond. Doubly so for this prequel series which carries on the rumination on James’ future. In a meta sense, the silver screen is where James Bond eventually ends up.

Cole to his further credit confounded my expectations from the very first page, I had assumed that we’d get straight to Fettes but James has to spend a few weeks at Dartington Hall, an experimental new school in Totnes before he makes his way north of the border.

It’s an effective rug pull for the seasoned Bond readers and allows Cole to play in the gaps in James Bond’s timeline while also carving out something new and revealing something about the transitory nature of James’ life.

But knowing from the start that we’ll likely never see these characters again does hamper the ability to fully embrace them. They do grow on you, there is an endearing quality about them and I like that there is more of an ensemble feel to this adventure. Hugo Grande is easily the most likeable of the newly-introduced characters, and a better representation of a person with dwarfism than No Time to Die. However, I don’t think they are quite as distinctive as they could be.

It would’ve been hard for anyone to top the previous Bond girl Roan Power but Bouddica “Boody” Pryce does feel like a downgrade. Some attempt is made to flesh her out, with her engineering streak that gives Bond an iconic weapon but she fills the typically prickly girl that Bond has to deal with that fails to mark her out as something more.

Where Shoot to Kill falls down in the plotting. James along with his classmates happening to fall upon a snuff film is intriguing but unlike SilverFin where there is a gradual ramping up of stakes as the story goes on Shoot to Kill has a decently solid, if a little slow opening but then it completely sags in the middle only for it to do a full 180 and go full throttle in the final third. It’s only in that final third where the villain of the piece I felt truly became worthy of Fleming.

What Cole lacks is what Raymond Benson coined as ‘the Fleming sweep’ the little hooks at the end of a chapter that urge you to read the next and on and on. Something that Higson was similarly able to master.

It also relies a little too much on coincidence, there’s an awful lot of James happening to overhear things at just the right time. However, the one occasion where it does work is the one time he gets caught eavesdropping by a newspaper reporter of Asian heritage which is a nice subversion of Dr No.

To first get to America James has to board a Zeppelin. I love how the book takes advantage of a phenomenon that wouldn’t be possible if the story was set even only a couple of years later in the decade.

The Young Bond series has never been glamorous in the way that Fleming’s novels often are so it’s welcome that this series finally indulges in the splendour of the USA. And this is in a sense the first time James canonically has his first taste of luxury and the book captures the childlike naivety of the wonder of America that I certainly had at that age, that it was like Britain but bigger and more ostentatious.

And the glamour is effectively juxtaposed with the sleaze, something that I think Shoot to Kill does better than Diamonds Are Forever, which the former is clearly inspired by, the penultimate showdown having definite ‘Spectreville’ vibes.

It’s a similar story with the goriness which if anything is something more prominent in Higson’s stories than Fleming’s. Rather than shying away from it the goriness is still here with the villain getting a fittingly gruesome death but on more than one occasion the gore is simply described prosaically as “gory”, Cole’s writing again lacks the sharpness that Fleming and Higson employed.

It took me a little while to acclimatise to how Cole writes James as opposed to Higson, it’s only when James gets a charmingly cheeky, toying with his friend did I realise that Cole is writing him with Roger Moore in mind. Which makes a lot of sense, Higson very much a child of Connery and Cole being a couple of decades younger must’ve grown up with Moore.

There are some more cute references, James walking past a concert hall playing a ‘distinctive and jazzy’ number ‘with a mid-tempo beat, brasses and strings and needling steel guitars’ and an ominous swagger’ nod to the iconic Bond theme while still being quite subtle. Then there’s the obligatory Hoagy Carmichael reference that actually factors into the plot later on which I think works less well. Then come the final page we get something of a sequel hook concerning Andrew Bond and if this is going where this is going then I’m not looking forward, to put it mildly.

Overall, Shoot to Kill is a mostly competent debut for Cole’s series, filled with decent action but one that lacks the finesse of its predecessors that ultimately left me feeling a little lukewarm.

#007 fest #team00 #james bond #ian fleming #young bond #shoot to kill #steve cole #charlie higson #book!bond #book review

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sophia-sol · 2 years

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Siren Queen, by Nghi Vo

HECK YEAH!!! Nghi Vo's novella duology was everything I could have ever wanted they were so perfect, and then her more recent retelling of The Great Gatsby I just felt disappointed by. But Siren Queen has Vo back on her A game!

This book is set in pre-code hollywood, following a young queer Chinese-American woman who falls in love with the movies and will do anything to be a successful actor -- except play the stereotypical Asian roles. The world is full of dangerous magic, on top of the more mundane dangers of being a vulnerable outsider under the control of the power-hungry men who run the studios, but she's determined to find her way.

I love the role of magic in this story, that it feels real and threatening and ever present but also always slippery and a little out of reach of understanding. The reader never really grasps all the rules of magic in this world, but not in the irritating way where it just feels like the author is being sloppy, but instead in a way where it feels numinous and believable, always just around the corner.

I also love the various intertwining lives of the other women in the novel, because of course our protagonist is not the only one around. They each have their own ways of making a way to live in the world, and sometimes those ways are in conflict with our protagonist's, but none of them are necessarily wrong for it. They each just have different priorities. But the protagonist loves women so much, and the book loves women so much, and there are so many great characters! (there are also some great male characters too, for the record; I love the part of the storyline involving Harry particularly!)

The protagonist's relationship with her sister, her sexual and romantic partners, her roommate, the older woman who helps her get access to a studio head for her chance as an actor, on and on. They're all great. But of the women in the protagonist's life, I particularly love Greta; she fascinates me, and I love the strength of the bond between Greta and the protagonist, even though Greta is straight. I love when books depict those kinds of complicated relationships that are beyond the bounds of what's normally considered friendship, but also doesn't follow the expected patterns of a partner-level relationship.

(In case you're wondering why I'm writing around the protagonist's name: yes, names are complicated in this book. Love that for a narrative, hate that for me trying to write a review :P)

But overall what I love most about the book is the Vibes. Idk sometimes authors are just good at creating a Vibe with their words and Vo does this!

In conclusion I loved every minute of reading this book and I can't wait for whatever Vo puts out next. (which appears to be another Singing Hills novella due out later this year and I CANNOT WAIT)

#book thoughts #siren queen #nghi vo

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unnursvanablog · 2 years

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Hocus Pocus 2 / movie review

In an time of endless remakes and sequels, because Hollywood doesn't seem to have the energy or courage to come up with anything new and interesting. Everything is just about making money and therefore milking all the nostalgia and other things people already like until nothing is left. Hocus Pocus 2 isn't a film I feel we needed, but is a film that's okay to have.

We often run into the same problem with so many of these sequels of older films that have become classics in one way or another, or even just these remakes of them, is that it seems like there was no passion put into the work, because it's just for profit. The story lacks all the heart and the vibes within the story, or the atmosphere there does not work in a same way.

It often seems like the people who made these sequel, or the remake just didn't understand what people liked about the original movie in the first places what it was about it that made the characters, quotes, and more live on decades after the movie came out. And the stories we gat suffer from that and becomes a bit empty.

But Hocus Pocus 2, thankfully, doesn't fall into that trap. While I feel like we should let classic be classics and just spend the money to come up with something new and original, but if we put Hollywood's shameless profiteering aside for a moment, Hocus Pocus 2 isn't a bad movie in any way.

While I don't feel like Hocus Pocus 2 necessarily adds too much to the first movie, but it is as playful, funny and camp as first movie, and I really think that's enough. This sequel never felt like it was trying too hard. And nothing about this actually detracts from the previous film.

I felt like whoever made this sequel both understood and respected Hocus Pocus for what it is; campy, a bit exaggerated, and a comedy disguised as a horror film. And the new film works with very similar vibes. They achieve this campy element that I think Hollywood has lost a little because it sometimes takes itself a little too seriously and solemnly.

The film manages to have its own originality, while putting in a lot of care into bringing the Sanderson sisters into this new world we live in, while still being the witches we knew and loved. It was great to see the actors again in these roles. Nothing seemed tired or too changed. It all felt very seamless.

And as a result, the atmosphere and the vibes that the first film carries was able to shine through so well in this sequel. Because it's the campness and the whimsical nature of it what makes Hocus Pocus the movie it is and keeps people watching it again and again, as well as the characters. The new characters worked really well within that framework and had a good dynamic with the older characters.

It felt like an old fashioned disney movie that didn't take itself too seriously and was just meant to be fun for the whole family. And although it may not be quite as quote-worthy as the previous film, or maybe live as long in the hearts of people, I still feel that it has delivered on what it wanted to do and even bring in new fans to the Hocus Pocus story.

In fact, I think the end of the story manages to highlight these sisterly bonds that I really feel are the core of the story, both with the new characters we got to know in Hocus Pocus 2 and also with the sisters themselves. Which I thought had a nice message and buildup to it, it didn't come out of thin air or forces but done with a lot of sincerity that it actually made me tear up a little. And the ending was open enough for more, yet it was a definite closure as well.

#hocus pocus #hocus pocus 2 #Movie Reviews #movie review

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redsoapbox · 4 months

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A Matter of Life and Death

David Niven and Kim Stanley.

Kevin McGrath pays tribute to a classic of British cinema – Kim Hunter and David Niven’s A Matter of Life and Death.

If you happen to believe in love at first sight, then Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s romantic fantasy A Matter of Life and Death is a film that you should move heaven and earth to try and see. In fact, the star-crossed protagonists of this wonderfully innovative movie actually fall in love before they’ve even clapped eyes on each other. The film opens with a terrific ‘meet cute’ (a term which dates back to the classic Hollywood screwball comedies of the 1930’s, and which describes an imaginative plot device for bringing a screen couple together for the first time with the intention of sparking an unlikely romance), when Peter Carter (David Niven), flying his burnt-out Bomber back from an air raid over Germany, has his May-Day call answered by June (Kim Hunter), a young American radio operator stationed at a nearby aerodrome. Carter, accepting of the fact that he is facing certain death, is less concerned with relaying his co-ordinates to June than he is in sharing his last moment on earth with a kindred spirit. That’s a meet-cute without too much of a future. Or so it seems.

As the blazing Lancaster tumbles from the sky, Pressburger has a minute or two to reveal to the audience everything it needs to know about the doomed airman, from his family relationships to his life’s ambitions and, of course, whether or not he has the character and courage to face up to imminent death. What follows is a screenwriting tour de force, as Carter clues us into his past: “Age 27, religion Church Of England, politics Conservative by instinct, Labour by experience”. Powell cuts to a shot of a dead crewman and back to Carter, who, a promising young poet himself in peacetime, is cheerfully reciting the works of Andrew Marvell and invoking the spirit of Plato, Aristotle and Jesus, before poignantly signing off with “I’ve known dozens of girls, I’ve been in love with some of them, but an American girl whom I’ve never seen and never shall see will hear my last words”.

This being a Powell and Pressburger film, however, means that death may not necessarily spell the end of Peter Carter’s life. In fact, it may just be the real beginning of it, and the audience had better be ready to suspend disbelief as Squadron Leader Carter cheats death, surviving his crash-landing into the sea with barely a scratch upon his person. Carter’s explanation, relayed to a mystified June (not to mention the audience), is a rather incredible one; he has been visited by Conductor 71, an eccentric French nobleman eternally tasked with collecting the deceased and ferrying them back to heaven who, in a frank and rather ill-tempered admission, has confessed to losing track of the dead airman in an “absurd English Fog”.

All’s well that ends well you might be forgiven for thinking, except for the fact that the Conductor, having been dispatched from heaven with a flea in his ear, has now returned to reclaim Carter and convey him to his rightful place in the afterlife. Carter refuses to accompany him, insisting that falling in love with June in the time granted him by heaven’s bureaucratic oversight means that they should now be allowed to live out their days together, requesting that he be allowed to battle for his right to live in a celestial court. The missing airman, meanwhile, is the cause of chaos up above, as heaven minus one deceased Englishman, cannot balance its books. If this flight of fancy sounds a little too rich for the blood, you can rest assured that there is a conventional explanation for Carter’s miraculous story, one which is firmly rooted in science and the reality of war.

Towards the end of the Second World War, The Archers, Powell and Pressburger’s production company, had been commissioned by The Ministry of Information to make a film that would improve relations between Britain and America. Instead, however, of turning in a standard propaganda movie, with a conventional plot showing both sides standing shoulder to shoulder in a heroic battle against marauding Nazi’s, the idiosyncratic pairing authored this Anglo-American love story with a supernatural twist which threatened to endanger the countries’ “special relationship” before it had even begun.

Screenwriter Pressburger had previously scripted a two-world’s fantasy for 1931 short I’d Rather Have Cod-Liver Oil, directed by Max Ophuls, and he returned to that ostentatious device for A Matter of Life and Death. In fact, it wasn’t a particularly original idea; Fritz Lang had made Der Müde Tod (1921) and Liliom (1934) and there had been three very recent examples of the genre with the box office smashes Here Comes Mr Jordan (1941), Heaven Can Wait, (1943) and A Guy Named Joe (1944), later remade by Stephen Spielberg as Always in 1989. And 1946, of course, was also the year that Frank Capra was shooting It’s a Wonderful Life, perhaps the best-known and best-loved celestial fantasy in cinema history. Interestingly, both films are prefaced with an explanatory, otherworldly voiceover that attempts to set out man’s place in the universe in the wake of an unimaginably horrific world war.

For the role of Poet/Pilot Peter Carter, The Archers cast David Niven, a star who had made a name for himself in Hollywood before war broke out in a series of studio swashbucklers such as The Charge Of The Light Brigade, (1936) and The Prisoner Of Zenda (1937), before embarking on a search of the USA to find an all-American girl to play opposite the erudite hero. Luckily, their compatriot Alfred Hitchcock had just the girl in mind – Kim Hunter was Ingrid Bergman’s stand-in for Spellbound (1945), which Hitchcock was just wrapping up for David O. Selznick. For the crucial role of Carter’s heavenly advocate, Dr. Frank Reeves, Powell cast Archers stalwart Roger Livesey, fresh from starring alongside Wendy Hiller in another magnificently quirky Powell and Pressburger production, I Know Where I’m Going (1945). Livesey’s gregarious performance is one of the film’s great joys, while there is a sublime turn from Marius Goring, who’d already worked for The Archers on their 1939 thriller The Spy in Black. Goring had, at first, held out for the part of Carter, before edging out Peter Ustinov for the flamboyant role of the Conductor. The excellent supporting actor Kathleen Byron also came on board as a heavenly Civil Servant with a kind heart.

As well as being brilliantly acted and sharply scripted (the scene where a crew of American flyers check in to heaven and immediately go in search of the nearest vending machine would have inspired a wry grin on either side of the Atlantic), A Matter of Life and Death looks magisterial too. Pressburger confounded Powell’s expectations by deciding to shoot earth in colour and heaven in black and white, thereby reversing the template of The Wizard of Oz. Future Oscar winning Cinematographer Jack Cardiff made his main feature debut here, largely on the grounds that he was one of a select few fully trained in the use of Technicolor film, while the sets, especially the celestial amphitheatre and the giant 106 step escalator (the film is still known in the states as Stairway to Heaven ), supremely designed by master craftsman Alfred Junge, brought Pressburger’s vision of the hereafter to life. Powell, too, was having fun with his box of tricks, using extended freeze frames and point of view shots from behind a giant eyelid to add to the film’s experimental atmosphere.

Chosen as the first Royal Command Film Performance after the Second World War had ended, the picture met with a mixed critical reception. It was variously dismissed as “trivial” or “hokum” and one leading critic sourly labelled it a “barren fantasy”, although the British Film Institute’s Monthly Film Bulletin called it a “bold and imaginative tour de force”. It was not until the mid-sixties, and the rise of the auteur theory of filmmaking, that Powell and Pressburger properly received the critical praise that was their due.

Between 1943 and 1948, Powell and Pressburger made a half-dozen films that clearly rank among the best movies of all time – The Life and Death Of Colonel Blimp (1943), A Canterbury Tale (1944), I Know Where I’m Going (1945), Black Narcissus (1947), The Red Shoes (1948) and, of course, the magnificent A Matter of Life And Death. All are unique works, but A Matter of Life and Death is, perhaps, the most enthralling film in the P&P oeuvre – fusing a uniquely imaginative and moving love story with an intellectual examination of complex Anglo-American relations going back to the American War of Independence. It’s a bravura piece of film-making, completely breathtaking in its ambition and execution.

This review first appeared in Wales Arts Review in December 2017.

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denimbex1986 · 11 months

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'Christopher Nolan's 2023 movie Oppenheimer has a high budget, and here is how much it cost to make and what it needs to make at the box office. The director has had an incredibly successful career in Hollywood over the last 25 years that has seen him become one of the few filmmakers whose name alone draws interest from general audiences. This is thanks to commercial hits like the Dark Knight trilogy or wildly successful original sci-fi movies in Inception and Interstellar. Christopher Nolan's box office appeal has allowed him to continue making high-budget movies, regardless of if they fall under the action, sci-fi, war, or biopic genres.

The latter is where Oppenheimer comes into play. The movie is the second to be directed by Christopher Nolan to earn an R-rating, while it is his longest movie to date with a 3-hour runtime. Both of these factors are not necessarily great signs for a movie's box office, but Nolan has a better reputation to deliver box office hits. Much has been made about the Oppenheimer vs Barbie box office battle that takes place since both release in theaters on the same day, which only adds to the pressures associated with the biopic thriller. The confirmation of Oppenheimer's budget makes its path to success more clear.

Universal Confirmed Oppenheimer's Budget Is $100 Million

Ahead of the movie's theatrical release, Universal confirmed Oppenheimer's budget is $100 million, which is quite moderate by most blockbusters' standards. The studio made the cost official after a Christopher Nolan interview with Variety noted that the budget was actually $180 million. This came as a result of the script being 180 pages long to support the 3-hour runtime. The mistakenly reported $180 million to make Oppenheimer was later clarified by Universal as a misquote from Christopher Nolan and was a much higher figure than what was originally reported.

The Oppenheimer budget puts Christopher Nolan's blockbuster in rare territory for R-rated movies. However, the high cost is nothing new for the director. He is used to making movies with massive budgets. How much Oppenheimer cost to make means it has is one of the lowest for modern Christopher Nolan movies. It falls well behind Batman Begins ($150M), Interstellar ($165M), The Dark Knight ($185M), Tenet ($200M), and The Dark Knight Rises ($250M). Oppenheimer's budget put it on par with Nolan's other war-story movie, Dunkirk ($100M).

Oppenheimer Needs To Make At Least $200M At The Box Office To Succeed

Oppenheimer's box office prospects are quite favorable thanks to this budget. It is commonly said that a Hollywood movie needs to make roughly two or three times its budget at the box office to become a success. If Oppenheimer cost $100M to make, that means that the movie needs to make at least $200M to just break even most likely. A 2.5 multiplier would put its needed worldwide haul at $250M while making three times the budget would force the Oppenheimer box office to make $300M globally.

Christopher Nolan should benefit from his R-rated Oppenheimer has great legs at the box office to reach these results. It is projected to make between $40M-$50M domestically in its opening weekend, which would be a good start for the R-rated movie knowing the cost of the production. Considering even Tenet made $360M during the pandemic and Nolan's six other most recent releases made over $500M worldwide, the Oppenheimer budget and likely box office performance should allow the movie to succeed.'

#Oppenheimer #Christopher Nolan #Universal #Interstellar #Inception #Barbie #Batman Begins #Tenet #The Dark Knight Rises #The Dark Knight #Dunkirk

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autisticandroids · 3 years

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anyway this is kind of a sweeping generalization which i don't know if i'm comfortable making because i have watched a lot of crap scifi in my time, but not enough to make huge sweeping generalizations about the genre, however, i am going to do that anyway. ok like i've been thinking about like. Meta Episodes. as a genre.

the non-spn ones i'm thinking of are, to be clear, voyager "worst case scenario" and "muse," xfiles "hollywood ad," sg-1 "wormhole x-treme" and "200," and lucifer "¡diablo!" (although i'm not sure it's necessarily appropriate to include lucifer because lucifer is so dependent on spn for its, well. everything). i'm also tempted to include legends of tomorrow, but i don't think they really have meta episodes so much as a general background radiation of meta jokes spread across many episodes. also i'm not sure if legends has quite the same kind of specific "our lives specifically have been turned into a story" type stuff that i'm looking for. and also i have the same reservations about legends as i do about lucifer.

anyway, i would classify the spn meta episodes as "hollywood babylon," "ghostfacers," "the french mistake," and "fan fiction." and i would classify the spn meta storylines as the s4-5 chuck stuff (this includes later references to the books such as "season seven, time for a wedding!" and "clip show"), the metatron stuff, the s11 chuck stuff, and the s14-15 chuck stuff.

(i think you could make an argument that "clip show" can stand on its own as a meta episode, that "fan fiction" should be folded into the s4-5 chuck stuff, and that the s11 chuck stuff shouldn't be considered meta except for "don't call me shurley," making "don't call me shurley" a standalone meta episode, (and "don't call me shurley" isn't even that meta except in the context of s5 and s15, you could discount s11 entirely if you so chose), but these are judgement calls. i don't think my argument falls apart if they're classified differently, it's just helpful to have distinctions so i don't have to list every goddamn episode in s15 that mentions meta topics as a meta episode. also i think you could call "changing channels" a meta episode, because it's About TV and About Them Being In A TV Show, but it doesn't really fit the specific thread i'm pulling on, which is our main characters' lives which they are already living being turned into a story external to them, so i'm not including it. ditto with "monster movie" and probably some others. maybe even "it's a terrible life." these episodes would fall into the same category as btvs "once more with feeling" or futurama "reincarnation" as episodes which lean on the fourth wall and get meta about the medium and storytelling but aren't explicitly about stories about the main characters. casting the net even wider, you could even call "tall tales" meta, in the same way as xfiles "bad blood" (which it is based on) or fringe "brown betty," since it's about narratives told by the characters and adapted into a story. but again not what i'm looking for.)

anyway generally these episodes have something in common: they're about stories intentionally created based on the "real life" of our main characters. "hollywood ad," "wormhole x-treme," "200," and "¡diablo!" are all explicitly about hollywood productions based on the lives of the main characters of the shows. "worst case scenario" is about a holodeck simulation of possible events involving the voyager crew created by a member of the voyager crew, and "muse" is about an alien civilization taking logs recorded by the voyager crew and broadcast into space, and turning them into a set of religious doctrines, as well as greek-style plays. (it's also clearly a love-letter to galaxy quest, since it came out only six months later, and is essentially a version of galaxy quest not played for comedy).

(of all these episodes, "worst case scenario" is imo the most unique, and i would recommend giving it a watch even if you're not a trekkie or a voy fan. it does something very different with the "meta" premise than other meta episodes, which is interesting because it's also the earliest to air of the ones that i've listed. "muse," as i've said, is copying galaxy quest, and all the others are copying "hollywood ad," which is also probably kind of copying galaxy quest, especially since it aired around the same time as "muse." but "worst case scenario" has its own thing going on. it does something really unique with the meta premise, it turns the main characters of the show into a writers' room and debates over who has ownership of a text, as well as the usual debate over the ethics of turning real people into fictional characters. it's also i think the only meta episode from any show that presents a coherent discourse on not just fandom but fanfiction specifically. even the musical from the spn episode literally entitled "fan fiction" is primarily an adaptation, not taking the story in a new direction except in a few throwaway lines, while "worst case scenario" is literally about an imagining of the story of voyager where things went in a different direction.)

and the early meta stuff in spn is also like that. "hollywood babylon," "ghostfacers," and the s4-5 chuck stuff follow that approximate pattern ("hollywood babylon" is even a very explicit copy of "hollywood ad" in terms of plot, setting, etc). the film in "hollywood babylon" isn't based on the winchesters' lives, per se, but it is based on the supernatural world which they inhabit. "ghostfacers" is about them literally being in a reality tv show which is again based on the supernatural world. and the s4-5 chuck stuff could almost be considered a reverse galaxy quest, with religious doctrine being turned into a pop-culture cult phenomenon instead of the other way 'round. like in all of these cases, the winchesters' lives are something that exist independent of a narrative, and then they are observed by an outsider, and then the outsiders turn these observations of real life into a narrative. but it never casts aspersions on the legitimacy and reality of the winchesters' actual lives. (interestingly, "fan fiction" is also very much this trope. it might actually be the closest spn gets to having a "hollywood ad" of its own, since it's an actual adaptation of the winchesters' lives, which we get to see and comment on.)

the first time this pattern is broken is in "swan song," when chuck disappears. which like, hints, very slightly, that he might have been more than a prophet. like he might have had more agency in the story than a passive observer. and obviously this is confirmed retroactively in "don't call me shurley," but at the time it was just a very slight implication. it was a hint. but it wasn't confirmed or anything and you could say based on textual evidence that it wasn't true.

the first time it's really broken is actually in "the french mistake." like "the french mistake" actually has something really unique going on, because the tv show supernatural that they end up in? that's not a tv show that someone made based on sam and dean's lives. it's just a tv show that independently exists, unrelated to their lives, which happens to be about them. in another universe, sam and dean are just fictional characters. which kind of casts aspersions on their reality in the main universe as well. if they can come into existence literally as fictional characters in another world, what are they in this world. like, the characters played by jared padalecki and jensen ackles in the universe of "the french mistake" aren't adaptations of sam and dean winchester: they are literally that universe's equivalent of sam and dean winchester. and that doesn't seem like a big difference. certainly "the french mistake" doesn't acknowledge it as one, the story beats in "the french mistake" follow the general pattern" of a "hollywood ad" clone, and the characters don't really question their own reality. but i think it's huge, actually, and we should pay more attention to it. "the french mistake" is unique.

#spn

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machinegunbun · 3 years

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Did we ever get the freaky colson fic? Asking for a friend

Yenno what? I’ve been practically starving yall so i think you earned it. Ask (for a friend) and you shall receive. Buckle up kiddos, this ones a doozy.

TW?: Like? everything. everything is a problem here lmao. Just weird. H/A stands for haunted attraction, i had one in mind but it felt disrespectful to mention.

I present to you... The Freaky Fic ™

~*~*~

You knew this interviewer had a history of asking personal questions, which meant when you came on you were completely expecting to be asked something or other in regards to you and Colsons sex life, but asking about the freakiest sex you’ve ever had still felt a little forward. You weren’t thirty minutes into what would be an hour-and-forty-three-minute podcast and he was already pulling out what you originally thought to the big guns. Your eyes met Colsons as you silently tried to decide whether or not you should avoid the question.

“I already know what it would be, I'm just not sure we should say.”

“It’s that bad?” The interviewer asks

“Well, it’s more that everyone is gonna say its white people shit. Cause it is.” You took a moment to think about the statement “It wasn’t incest though! Obviously. Just a little weird.”

“What was it?” Colson asked, mind reeling through your personal kama sutra for anything that would stand out as the freakiest. Colson and you were definitely not vanilla, but that was the problem, wasn’t it? When you’ve done so much weird stuff, it’s hard to rank which would be the weirdest.

“The [H/a].” You say, watching as a flash of recognition falls over his face

“Seriously? That’s the worst thing you could think of? Cause I can think of, like, five worse than that, just off the top of my head.”

“I mean, it’s definitely not the freakiest, but it’s a good story without it being super embarrassing or personal.” Colson nods in agreement, mumbling a small “Right”

“Yeah, go ahead. You can tell it.” He says, turning to face you in his spinny chair.

“Okay, so, I’m very superstitious and, like, paranoid right? I mean, I literally will not sleep in a room that has a mirror facing me. It doesn’t even have to be facing me, it could be facing the wall opposite me, but it has to be covered. I don’t even really trust it when it’s covered, honestly, I prefer it to be face down to the floor. Because mirrors are supposed to be portals to the after life, or whatever, and I remember hearing that if one is facing you while you sleep it’s easier for ghosts to manipulate you. It’s not that I necessarily believe that, or that I think if I slept with a mirror facing me that I’d die or something, but that I respect it. However, I think when places are advertised as haunted they usually aren’t. I mean you see these youtubers go to these places and film all these videos and it’s just- That’s not how hauntings usually are. Ghosts have an ability, to an extent, to manipulate your emotion. Have you ever heard of someone suddenly being overwhelmed by an emotion because they believe a loved one is near? It’s more like that, it’s very spiritual. Being haunted, coming from someone who ghosts seem to love, is nine times out of ten nothing like what Hollywood portrays it to be. It’s not to say that I think every one of these youtubers is lying, I think some of them definitely are, or that they were scared and when you’re scared it’s easy to blow little noises out of the water, but mostly I think it has to do with the places themself.”

Your story was cut off by the interviewer asking a question,

“Hold on, you aren’t about to make a joke about freaky also meaning spooky, right?” The interviewer asks

“I mean, you could totally make that joke, but it’s definitely a little kinky. I’m just giving some background.”

“Okay, continue.”

“Where was I? Oh, yes. I think when you go somewhere that is advertised as haunted they are selling you an experience. If you went to the [H/a] and nothing happened, some people would be disappointed by that and would want their money back, right?”

“Absolutely.”

“I think some of these places have audio recordings and mechanised doors, things that they can use to manipulate every room and give you a good scare. This is all theory, by the way, so don’t sue us.”

“You really think it's more plausible that they have a whole control room to scare people and that none of the workers have ever squealed than believe that these places are just… haunted?” The interviewer asked

“I don’t know. Maybe, if they only allowed people with a certain seniority and made them sign an NDA? And if the ones who control it get to give their coworkers a little scare so they come online and say they’ve had their own experiences? Yeah, I think it makes sense, and it's making them money, so why would they stop?”

“Okay, I guess.” He nodded along, entertaining the idea

“But, I also believe that if you talk to ghosts or call on them they will show up, so it’s kinda” you made a scale motion with your hands before continuing.

“Anyway, I went on board with this in mind. We were in our room, cuddled up on the bed and-” you took a moment to recall that night “I don’t remember if we were waiting for something to happen, or if it already had and we were waiting for something else. Anyway, we must’ve gotten bored, because we started making out.”

The crappy old hotel sheets shifted under you as your lips met Colsons, his warm hand reaching over to rest on your lower back. The kiss quickly became heated, your mouths smashing into one another, his tongue swiping across your bottom lip while his hand pulled you closer, your own reaching down to rub his growing bulge.

A short, fast knock came from the wall, breaking both the kiss and the silence.

“Oh, do you like that?” You ask, continuing to massage him through his loose sweatpants. Colson originally thought you had been referring to him, but quickly caught onto the fact that you were addressing the ‘ghost’.

“Hm, what about this?” You continued, kissing your way down his body, pulling his pants down when you got to them and sliding his tip between your lips. A barely audible creak erupted from the room beside you, the bathroom sink had turned on, a small stream of water pouring aimlessly down into the sink.

“Does that make you wet?” You ask, sucking one of his balls into your mouth as you stroke him. Colson found the whole act to be a bit odd, but you seemed to be enjoying yourself, so he let you continue. As fucked up as it was, the idea of a third party watching as the two of you were doing your thing was really getting you going. It wouldn’t have been a big deal to some, other than the fact that the supposed third party was a ghost.

“Do you like watching us fuck?” You slid your mouth down the length of his prick, hollowing out your cheeks before coming back up to continue “Tell me what you want me to do to him next.” You offer up, glancing up at Colson who looked equal parts freaked out and turned on.

“You’re crazy. God that’s hot.” He said, throwing his head back while you let out a small laugh. A book slides from the coffee table across the room, falling to the floor and landing on its spine, flipping open to a random page. You weren’t entirely sure what that implied, but the only thing that came to mind was him fucking you on that table. You took a moment to ponder it before deciding if you tried it would break and that you didn’t wanna bother paying the place for a new one.

You began kissing your way back up his body instead, admiring his tattoos as you go. Your lips landed back on his, reaching down to slide the tip of his prick through your folds, gathering your arousal. Stopping the kiss for a moment, you opened your mouth to take a breath. Colson took this opportunity to spit in your mouth, connecting your lips again soon after.

“Think the ghost liked that?” He said, reaching down to grab his hard dick from your hand, teasing your hole. You shrugged, leaning back into the kiss, moving your hips along with his movements.

After a minute or two of teasing, you swore you felt the bed begin to shake. It started off slow and small, almost as if Colson was shaking under you and it was transferring to the bed, before slowly building to a much more noticeable rumble.

“Oh, I think it wants us to shake the bed.” You say, a smirk playing on your lips, a gasp falling past them as you felt colson slip inside you. You happily obliged, the sound of skin slapping against skin filled the room. You didn’t realise how badly you needed this, you couldn’t help the moans slipping past your lips as you fucked each other as hard as you could manage, trying your best to make sure the bed shook. You were looking down at Colson when suddenly his face disappeared, replaced by impenetrable darkness.

“What the fuck.” The interviewer mentioned, more amused than judgemental “I can't believe you’re telling me this. I can’t believe this isn’t the freakiest shit you’ve ever done.”

“Well, the ghost thing was kind of a joke. I mean, it happened, but it was more about the fact that someone was obviously watching us, or the concept of that.”

“Right, right. You guys like an audience, I see.”

“While it was dark though, I swear I felt a hand slide up the side of my thigh, I know it wasn’t Colsons cause I could-” You cut yourself off “I’m not gonna say how, but I felt both of his hands on me.”

“Oh shit, forreal? You never told me that part.” Colson said, you gave a small nod in his direction before continuing.

“But then the lights came back on.”

The lights had only been off for about a minute, small sounds of things moving barely audible over the sounds you two had been making, Colson flipping you over in the dark, pounding away at your hips. When they flicked back on, the room was messy, your eyes scanned the room, falling on the complimentary ouija that sat on the table first. It had fallen out of its box, the lid on the floor next to it. Next, you realized the closet had slid open, it had one of those bendy doors that made it so when you slid it open it bent out towards you, they were called bifold closet doors, if you remembered correctly.

It was slid halfway open to reveal the empty closet behind it, the only thing adorning the shelf being a couple lone close hangers. As you watched, one looked as if it were smacked off and fell to the floor.

“It wasn’t hot anymore at that point. I didn’t see anything, I think it was my paranoia-- remember when you were a little kid laying in bed and you were like, there is a person crouching beside my bed right now and if I look over the edge at them they will have no more incentive not to kill me?” A silent understanding “It was like that, I don't know how but I know what they look like and I was fully convinced that person was crouching next to us on the bed and if I looked over there I would see him. Because the bed was on the wall, and it’s a big bed, a queen I believe, and colson and I are laying with our head at the foot of it, there was plenty of room to the side of us cause we weren’t exactly in the middle. “Wait, you said that you believed the hauntings were mechanical, so do you think this was a ghost, or a worker?”

“I think it may have been the lady at the front desk, because when we came out she asked us if we were having a good day. I don't know. I don’t think I’ve ever been turned off so fast, I mean at first the idea of a ghost or a worker watching us have sex was hot, but the thought of that… thing being there with us-- That wasn’t hot. We just, kinda, silently put our clothes on and walked out to the lobby. We went back later and got our stuff and checked out early. All I know is it was a dumb fucking idea.”

The day after the interview was released twitter was filled with variations of “If Mgk and his girlfriend wanted an audience they could’ve just asked me.”

Guess you should’ve expected that one.

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