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Mar. 21st, 2019 09:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Things I enjoyed tonight:
Glass of wine -- Malbec with a touch of Vin Rose.
Vegan Paeolo Home Made Chocolate Chip Cookie by Stylish -- weirdly enough delicious
My soap opera -- which has heated up and is rather good at the moment
The latest Un-Canny X-men Comic...
2. It's raining, and they've overheated my apartment again. So I'm hot. Also wanted to do laundry this evening, but alas, the universe had other ideas. So will do it Saturday. There are days that I'd give anything for my own washer and dryer. I really miss those days...long ago and far away.
Oh well, this is better than what I had before. At least I didn't have to lug it down three flights of crooked steps and five blocks to a laundramat, only to discover no machines are available. Lugging it to the basement and back is nothing by comparison. Will do it on Saturday.
3. Boom Comics Buffy the Vampire Slayer #3
So for a bit there, I wondered if they decided to make Angel a big vampire bat with a soul that destroyed vampires? Why? Because remember that scene where she first meets Angel in the series? Well, here she meets the big gruesome vampire bat that destroys all things without a soul. She decides it's her Pegasus.
While mildly amusing, this is also slightly...eye-rollingly stupid. And fanficcy.
In addition, Cordelia doesn't quite work in this version. For one thing she seems to acknowledge that weird shit happens in Sunnydale, then helps Spike try to stop the vampire bat, when Buffy shows up with Giles, and Willow and Xander in tow to fight it off -- and fights off Dru...Cordy decides Buffy will end up killing everyone and wants nothing to with them. Which, no, doesn't quite work.
Some characters work, some don't -- similar to most fanfic actually. I'm reading along and then I'm thrust out of the story. Spike, Giles, Buffy, Xander and for the most part Willow seem to work -- but Cordelia and Dru and Ayanka are a bit off, somehow. Not sure about Harmony -- she disappeared at some point. Not that a lot of what she said made any sense.
That brings me to the other problem I had with the issue -- I felt like I skipped over a chapter or two. Giles calls Willow to get charm -- this happens off page. Buffy wonders how Giles even got Willow's number. So am I. When did Giles and Willow become buddies?
We also have Cordy who seems to have a pre-existing relationship with Spike, that's far past their encounter in the last issue...so did I miss an issue? No, apparently not.
And Dru is off -- almost unrecognizable. This too is a bit jarring.
Brings up the problem I have with television to comic adaptations or novels to comics adaptations...or comics to film adaptations (although that's often not as bad)...the characters often feel off somehow. And the writers do weird things in the new media that couldn't happen in the previous media, which is all fine and good, but it's also jarring.
That said? The art is still really good. And Spike looks like well Spike. I'm sort of glad the vampire bat thing isn't meant to be Angel, although that would be mildly amusing if it were the case -- you'd have had to have been on the Angel's Soul Board back in the day to understand why.
4. The Brexit Referendum May Hinge on Something that Happened in 1604 -- sigh, just when we thought Brexit couldn't get any crazier or convoluted, it does.
I can't decide sometimes whose government is nuttier the Brits or ours, right now, I think the Brits are winning. But just wait...we thought the same thing back in 2016, look how that turned out.
According to the news this morning, the Doofus is fighting with Senator McCain (yes McCain is dead, glad you noticed. No he's not come back to fight...the Doofus is fighting a dead man who has long since moved elsewhere.) But on the bright side, he appears to have given up on the Wall, at least momentarily -- I'm guessing the national emergency caused by the massive mid-west floods may have had something to do with it.
Other than that -- I've been avoiding the news to preserve my sanity. So say we all, right?
5. Disney Acquired 20th Century Fox - The Deal Has Gone Through.
(After we saw a bunch of trailers at Captain Marvel Screening)
Movie Buddy : Let's see Disney has Captain Marvel, Avengers End-Game, Frozen 2, Toy Story 4, Star Wars 9, and upcoming Spiderman and all this year? Wow.
Me: You forgot Dark Phoenix.
Movie Buddy: That's 20th Century Fox
Me: Not anymore...
They forgot the Buffy, Angel, and Firefly properties.
Hmmm.......
To win approval from antitrust regulators around the world, Disney had to agree to modest concessions.
It is already deep in the process of selling Fox’s 22 regional sports channels, a move required by the Justice Department. The Yankees teamed with Amazon this month, for instance, to buy the YES Network, which serves the New York metropolitan area, for roughly $3.5 billion. To appease European regulators, Disney agreed to divest a stake in A+E Networks, which include the History channel. (Disney will retain 50 percent ownership of the division in the United States; Hearst owns the other half.)
The final sticking points came from Brazil and Mexico. Regulators in those countries are forcing Disney to sell Fox Sports, a competitor to ESPN that holds extensive rights to televise soccer matches. Brazil’s antitrust regulator, Cade, said in a statement that operating both channels would give Disney too much control of the sports TV market in the country. Mexico’s telecommunications regulator, IFT, held a similar view and added stipulations about Disney’s ownership of the National Geographic and Nat Geo Wild channels.
I actually know why this is -- Ronald Regan and his cronies took a huge bite out of the Anti-Trust Act in the early 1980s. Which is why everyone coming of age in the 80s and beyond has had 0 job security and been a victim of mergers and acquisitions.
So if you lose your job because of a merger -- it's the Republicans fault. OR your cable bill sky-rockets? It's the Republicans fault. Although to be fair to the Republicans, the Clinton Administration aided it along
Go When Antitrust Helped and Why it Doesn't Now - Washington Post
"Three presidents, starting with Ronald Reagan and ending with Bill Clinton, supported the innovation that in 1982 abandoned efforts to change the structure of highly concentrated industries. For nearly a century, successive administrations had invoked the law's prohibition against monopoly or any attempt to form one. Now enforcement was being dropped with no fanfare. Why was the experiment undertaken? And what were the consequences of this dramatic shift in a policy that had endured since the enactment of the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890?
Anyhow..
We now know what Ryan is up to, don't we? Fox News and Fox Searchlight still exist.
Interesting article, but not a pleasant one. Doesn't present humanity in the best of lights or any of these men for that matter.
Glass of wine -- Malbec with a touch of Vin Rose.
Vegan Paeolo Home Made Chocolate Chip Cookie by Stylish -- weirdly enough delicious
My soap opera -- which has heated up and is rather good at the moment
The latest Un-Canny X-men Comic...
2. It's raining, and they've overheated my apartment again. So I'm hot. Also wanted to do laundry this evening, but alas, the universe had other ideas. So will do it Saturday. There are days that I'd give anything for my own washer and dryer. I really miss those days...long ago and far away.
Oh well, this is better than what I had before. At least I didn't have to lug it down three flights of crooked steps and five blocks to a laundramat, only to discover no machines are available. Lugging it to the basement and back is nothing by comparison. Will do it on Saturday.
3. Boom Comics Buffy the Vampire Slayer #3
So for a bit there, I wondered if they decided to make Angel a big vampire bat with a soul that destroyed vampires? Why? Because remember that scene where she first meets Angel in the series? Well, here she meets the big gruesome vampire bat that destroys all things without a soul. She decides it's her Pegasus.
While mildly amusing, this is also slightly...eye-rollingly stupid. And fanficcy.
In addition, Cordelia doesn't quite work in this version. For one thing she seems to acknowledge that weird shit happens in Sunnydale, then helps Spike try to stop the vampire bat, when Buffy shows up with Giles, and Willow and Xander in tow to fight it off -- and fights off Dru...Cordy decides Buffy will end up killing everyone and wants nothing to with them. Which, no, doesn't quite work.
Some characters work, some don't -- similar to most fanfic actually. I'm reading along and then I'm thrust out of the story. Spike, Giles, Buffy, Xander and for the most part Willow seem to work -- but Cordelia and Dru and Ayanka are a bit off, somehow. Not sure about Harmony -- she disappeared at some point. Not that a lot of what she said made any sense.
That brings me to the other problem I had with the issue -- I felt like I skipped over a chapter or two. Giles calls Willow to get charm -- this happens off page. Buffy wonders how Giles even got Willow's number. So am I. When did Giles and Willow become buddies?
We also have Cordy who seems to have a pre-existing relationship with Spike, that's far past their encounter in the last issue...so did I miss an issue? No, apparently not.
And Dru is off -- almost unrecognizable. This too is a bit jarring.
Brings up the problem I have with television to comic adaptations or novels to comics adaptations...or comics to film adaptations (although that's often not as bad)...the characters often feel off somehow. And the writers do weird things in the new media that couldn't happen in the previous media, which is all fine and good, but it's also jarring.
That said? The art is still really good. And Spike looks like well Spike. I'm sort of glad the vampire bat thing isn't meant to be Angel, although that would be mildly amusing if it were the case -- you'd have had to have been on the Angel's Soul Board back in the day to understand why.
4. The Brexit Referendum May Hinge on Something that Happened in 1604 -- sigh, just when we thought Brexit couldn't get any crazier or convoluted, it does.
I can't decide sometimes whose government is nuttier the Brits or ours, right now, I think the Brits are winning. But just wait...we thought the same thing back in 2016, look how that turned out.
According to the news this morning, the Doofus is fighting with Senator McCain (yes McCain is dead, glad you noticed. No he's not come back to fight...the Doofus is fighting a dead man who has long since moved elsewhere.) But on the bright side, he appears to have given up on the Wall, at least momentarily -- I'm guessing the national emergency caused by the massive mid-west floods may have had something to do with it.
Other than that -- I've been avoiding the news to preserve my sanity. So say we all, right?
5. Disney Acquired 20th Century Fox - The Deal Has Gone Through.
(After we saw a bunch of trailers at Captain Marvel Screening)
Movie Buddy : Let's see Disney has Captain Marvel, Avengers End-Game, Frozen 2, Toy Story 4, Star Wars 9, and upcoming Spiderman and all this year? Wow.
Me: You forgot Dark Phoenix.
Movie Buddy: That's 20th Century Fox
Me: Not anymore...
Disney now owns most of Rupert Murdoch’s former empire, including the 20th Century Fox movie and television studio, which includes the “X-Men,” “Avatar” and “Simpsons” franchises; Blue Sky, the “Ice Age” animation studio that is based in Connecticut; the National Geographic and FX cable networks; most of the streaming service Hulu; and Star, a fast-growing television-service provider in India.
They forgot the Buffy, Angel, and Firefly properties.
Hmmm.......
To win approval from antitrust regulators around the world, Disney had to agree to modest concessions.
It is already deep in the process of selling Fox’s 22 regional sports channels, a move required by the Justice Department. The Yankees teamed with Amazon this month, for instance, to buy the YES Network, which serves the New York metropolitan area, for roughly $3.5 billion. To appease European regulators, Disney agreed to divest a stake in A+E Networks, which include the History channel. (Disney will retain 50 percent ownership of the division in the United States; Hearst owns the other half.)
The final sticking points came from Brazil and Mexico. Regulators in those countries are forcing Disney to sell Fox Sports, a competitor to ESPN that holds extensive rights to televise soccer matches. Brazil’s antitrust regulator, Cade, said in a statement that operating both channels would give Disney too much control of the sports TV market in the country. Mexico’s telecommunications regulator, IFT, held a similar view and added stipulations about Disney’s ownership of the National Geographic and Nat Geo Wild channels.
I actually know why this is -- Ronald Regan and his cronies took a huge bite out of the Anti-Trust Act in the early 1980s. Which is why everyone coming of age in the 80s and beyond has had 0 job security and been a victim of mergers and acquisitions.
So if you lose your job because of a merger -- it's the Republicans fault. OR your cable bill sky-rockets? It's the Republicans fault. Although to be fair to the Republicans, the Clinton Administration aided it along
Go When Antitrust Helped and Why it Doesn't Now - Washington Post
"Three presidents, starting with Ronald Reagan and ending with Bill Clinton, supported the innovation that in 1982 abandoned efforts to change the structure of highly concentrated industries. For nearly a century, successive administrations had invoked the law's prohibition against monopoly or any attempt to form one. Now enforcement was being dropped with no fanfare. Why was the experiment undertaken? And what were the consequences of this dramatic shift in a policy that had endured since the enactment of the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890?
Anyhow..
Paul D. Ryan, the former Republican congressman from Wisconsin who served as speaker of the House from October 2015 to January 2019, joined the Fox board on Tuesday. Other board members include Mr. Murdoch and Roland A. Hernandez, a former chief executive of Telemundo. Mr. Murdoch’s oldest son, Lachlan, serves as the new company’s chief executive.
We now know what Ryan is up to, don't we? Fox News and Fox Searchlight still exist.
Interesting article, but not a pleasant one. Doesn't present humanity in the best of lights or any of these men for that matter.
no subject
Date: 2019-03-22 03:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-22 12:29 pm (UTC)Yep, I know it'll get worse before it gets better -- we haven't hit rock bottom yet. So I've prepared myself -- mainly by ignoring the news as much as possible.