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1. So now folks from Reddit have jumped over to DW? Let's see we've gotten Tumblr, Twitter, FB, and now Reddit refugees, prior to all of that LJ.
DW is among the few social media platforms that is not designed as an insane marketing platform and not owned by a tech-billionaire, or controlled by Russia's crazy-ass brand of fascist capitalism (LJ) or China's crazy-ass brand of capitalism (TikTok).
2. The new trailer for the Hunger Games Prequel - makes me want to read the Hunger Games Prequel. It looks really good. Whomever go the rights to the Hunger Games - new what they were doing with casting, script and direction.
3. Pop Culture Items whose insane popularity is lost on me...
* LEGO Movies (I find them headache inducing. I've not made it through one. Not helped by the fact that I've been kind of boycotting Lego on principal since it screwed over my cousin in a horrific way. Not that we were even into Lego growing up - we weren't. My niece, who is currently living off the grid as a park ranger at Sequoia National Park at the ripe old age of 19 - never played with Legos.)
* Taylor Swift. (I've listened to her songs, they sound alike. And I'm not sure she has much range in vocalizations - Adele and Lady Gaga, she's not.)
* Colleen Hoover novels. I need to try one at some point. Although I know I've already tried her. (I tried - Slammed back in 2012 and gave up. I got thrown out of the book by the teen/poetry teach romance.) They are abusive new adult contemporary - where the conflict is usually a power imbalance, which works better for me in historical romance novels, but in contemporary romance novels tends to make me itchy. Mainly because in contemporary it borders on statutory rape, rape, domestic violence, misogyny, sexism, etc.
She has over 2 million reviews and ratings in Good Reads.
4. Has anyone see the Barbie Movie? Is it any good? What about Oppenheimer?
5. Twitter was agog a few days back on the casting of Little Mermaid and Snow White. Some nitwit stated the Little Mermaid didn't kill herself, and the Queen in Snow White wasn't forced dance herself to death in red shoes. Apparently some people have not read their fairy tales. Disney kind of watered down the fairy tales. In reality? The actual fairy tales are horror stories or morality/cautionary tales with decidedly unhappy endings. Hans Christian Anderson did not specialize in happily ever after, he kind of went against it. Nor did the Brother's Grim - they were called the Brother's Grim for a reason, those fairy tales are "grim" and at times graphic and horrific.
Into the Woods actually came closest to depicting the world of the Brother's Grim and their fairy tales.
Anyhow, found via DW what the hoopla was all about finally. Rachel Zegler has been cast in Disney's Live Action Snow White. LOL! People are upset. Personally I think people spend too much time on the internet, and need to find something useful to do with themselves other than make racist remarks in "outrage" on social media platforms on the internet.
My niece has the right idea - spend the summer in the mountains, hiking, chasing bears, putting out campfires, and off the grid.
6. Latest audio book, Blood, Sweat & Chrome - the Making of George Miller's Mad Max Fury Road, is surprisingly enough quite good. It goes into George Miller's career as a film maker. I didn't realize that I'd pretty much seen all of his movies. He did Mad Max films, Babe film, Lorenzo's Oil, Happy Feet, Contact, the Witches of Eastwick...so apparently, without quite realizing it, I'm a diehard George Miller fan?
I like Australian film makers. They're interesting. I actually prefer them to American filmmakers. (I've also pretty much seen all of Pete Weir's films along with others, Baz Lurham, Jane Campion..) Sometimes, I think I'm a frustrated Australian. (Although I could do without all the spiders - not that I saw any of them when I visited Australia for a month in the 1990).
Anyhow, I also did not know that Miller trained to be a doctor, trauma surgeon actually, and made money for his first film - doing roadside surgeries along Australia's highways. He got the idea for the Mad Max films from all the car accidents he'd witnessed, or had friends and associates either be victims from or die in. Like I said, the Australian filmmakers are interesting. American filmmakers are usually just spoiled midwestern kids, often Jewish, not always, with videocameras, contacts and film school or actors who decide to take up directing.
Miller butted heads with the studios a lot. And there was a period of time that they wanted to turn Mad Max into a television series (I vaguely remember that being tossed about in the media). And that in turn lead to Fury Road. This story is told by various people, and they have a cast of actors narrating it (not the actual people from the story). It's better than expected. And it once again hammers home the notion that making films is impossible. You think your workplace is tough - try filmmaking.
Miller asked his friends - are all movies this hard to make, or is this just me? (He was talking about his first film Mad Max). And they all told him, yup, it's really hard to make a movie and it never gets any easier.
The Congueror, Geena Davis, Bryan Cranston, and Viola Davis all got that across.
I told a co-worker that I enjoy listening to these - for two reasons, one, the narrators are great, and two, it makes me appreciate my own workplace and job far more. Anything that does that - is worth my time. I'm grateful I have my job. Not everyone does. I was bluntly reminded of that - last year, when someone who'd left the agency ages ago, came back, and this year when NG got fired.
I dumped Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube - couldn't follow it. Reading some romance novel or rather two - not sure which to pick yet. I might go with the Cinderella meets the Fae one by Elisa Kova. It's better written. The one I'm reading on the subway is a bit flowery and too descriptive - so my attention wanders. I need minimalism in my prose at the moment. I blame all those contracts, tech specs, etc that I'm reviewing, editing, reading and analyzing at work. Also working on editing my book.
7. Regarding Horror movies and television shows? I rarely watch them. Unless, I decide they aren't scary and won't keep me awake at night. Horror novels on the other hand - I do read and enjoy.
If I'm going to watch a Horror film or television series, it's usually:
* about ghosts, because I find ghosts interesting.
* vampire slayer or vampire soap opera (like Dark Shadows, with a romance element - see Vamp Diaries, Buffy, Angel - with emphasis on romance, not horror)
* witches (also find interesting - but not if it's too heavy on the demonic worship, I've little tolerance for Judeo-Christian mythos)
* psychological horror - mind games or puzzles
* zombies (depends, I don't like the trope - but I'll watch if it is amusing or has interesting characters - also I have a weakness for virus tropes)
I tend to stay away from:
* body horror (me and David Croenberg are unmixy things)
* alien invasions (it doesn't scare me, I just find it dumb - saw too many of them in the 1970s, when it was hugely popular)
* Monsters (depending)
* Spiders (can't watch)
* Human turns into Monster graphically (see body horror)
* Gross out/slaughterhouse horror
* Cannibalism
* Torture Porn
* Serial Killers (it doesn't scare me, I just got bored of the trope)
That said, I've read a lot of books, and seen a lot of horror films and television series. So, there's clearly a part of me who likes it? I mean one of my favorite cartoons growing up was Scooby Doo, Where Are You?
I've still not seen the entirety of the film Alien. I've seen Aliens (twice), but it's the only one I've sat through. I actually saw it in the theater - it was a great horror movie. JAWS also is a very enjoyable horror movie.
What makes a good horror film? Characters. You have to care about the characters, enjoy them, be entertained by them, and certain characters have to survive, also the ones who die - should die in a way that is earned, propels plot, character and narrative.
JAWS is an excellent horror film - due to the boat ride with the three leads, who had at various points been in conflict. They go out to get the shark, and tell stories. The focus is on them, the shark is the menace lurking outside.
Aliens is excellent because the focus is on Ripley, the kid, and the others with her. Not on the Aliens. The Aliens are the menace. And there are great scenes with Ripley and the others, that we don't see the Aliens.
The horror films that are boring or gratuitous are those that focus too much on torture, the characters are pawns, and you don't care about anyone.
It's just a slaughterfest or torture fest. There's no investment. Might as well be watching a snuff film. Or it's preachy. Or boring with lots of gore. If the filmmaker gets too graphic, too into jump scares, too philosophical - the story is lost. Character, then plot, then horror. In that order. And the plot and horror should come from the characters and have a direct affect on their emotional arc. Where is the character in the story.
Some Writers/Directors who can do horror well?
Steven Spielberg was good at it. Steven King equally good, along with Dean Koontz, Peter Straub, Shirley Jackson, Octavia Butler, Toni Morrison. Jane Campion. Peter Wier. George Miller. James Cameron. Kevin Williamson. Mike Flanagan.
I think its hard to pull off.
Favorite horror television series?
Haunting of Hill House, Bly Manor, Lock & Key (S1), Vampire Diaries, Angel the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Orphan Black, Being Human (UK), Misfits (UK), Jekyll (UK - Stephen Moffat), Doctor Who (yes, yes, I know some people don't think it is horror)...Twilight Zone, Outer Limits...
Films? The Shining (Stanley Kubrick's version), JAWS, Haunting of Hill House (dir. Robert Wise), Andromeda Strain (dir. Robert Wise),
Tremors, Aliens (James Cameron), Terminator series (James Cameron), The Others, The Sixth Sense,
Films that still haunt and scared me silly?
The Skeleton Key, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween,
DW is among the few social media platforms that is not designed as an insane marketing platform and not owned by a tech-billionaire, or controlled by Russia's crazy-ass brand of fascist capitalism (LJ) or China's crazy-ass brand of capitalism (TikTok).
2. The new trailer for the Hunger Games Prequel - makes me want to read the Hunger Games Prequel. It looks really good. Whomever go the rights to the Hunger Games - new what they were doing with casting, script and direction.
3. Pop Culture Items whose insane popularity is lost on me...
* LEGO Movies (I find them headache inducing. I've not made it through one. Not helped by the fact that I've been kind of boycotting Lego on principal since it screwed over my cousin in a horrific way. Not that we were even into Lego growing up - we weren't. My niece, who is currently living off the grid as a park ranger at Sequoia National Park at the ripe old age of 19 - never played with Legos.)
* Taylor Swift. (I've listened to her songs, they sound alike. And I'm not sure she has much range in vocalizations - Adele and Lady Gaga, she's not.)
* Colleen Hoover novels. I need to try one at some point. Although I know I've already tried her. (I tried - Slammed back in 2012 and gave up. I got thrown out of the book by the teen/poetry teach romance.) They are abusive new adult contemporary - where the conflict is usually a power imbalance, which works better for me in historical romance novels, but in contemporary romance novels tends to make me itchy. Mainly because in contemporary it borders on statutory rape, rape, domestic violence, misogyny, sexism, etc.
She has over 2 million reviews and ratings in Good Reads.
4. Has anyone see the Barbie Movie? Is it any good? What about Oppenheimer?
5. Twitter was agog a few days back on the casting of Little Mermaid and Snow White. Some nitwit stated the Little Mermaid didn't kill herself, and the Queen in Snow White wasn't forced dance herself to death in red shoes. Apparently some people have not read their fairy tales. Disney kind of watered down the fairy tales. In reality? The actual fairy tales are horror stories or morality/cautionary tales with decidedly unhappy endings. Hans Christian Anderson did not specialize in happily ever after, he kind of went against it. Nor did the Brother's Grim - they were called the Brother's Grim for a reason, those fairy tales are "grim" and at times graphic and horrific.
Into the Woods actually came closest to depicting the world of the Brother's Grim and their fairy tales.
Anyhow, found via DW what the hoopla was all about finally. Rachel Zegler has been cast in Disney's Live Action Snow White. LOL! People are upset. Personally I think people spend too much time on the internet, and need to find something useful to do with themselves other than make racist remarks in "outrage" on social media platforms on the internet.
My niece has the right idea - spend the summer in the mountains, hiking, chasing bears, putting out campfires, and off the grid.
6. Latest audio book, Blood, Sweat & Chrome - the Making of George Miller's Mad Max Fury Road, is surprisingly enough quite good. It goes into George Miller's career as a film maker. I didn't realize that I'd pretty much seen all of his movies. He did Mad Max films, Babe film, Lorenzo's Oil, Happy Feet, Contact, the Witches of Eastwick...so apparently, without quite realizing it, I'm a diehard George Miller fan?
I like Australian film makers. They're interesting. I actually prefer them to American filmmakers. (I've also pretty much seen all of Pete Weir's films along with others, Baz Lurham, Jane Campion..) Sometimes, I think I'm a frustrated Australian. (Although I could do without all the spiders - not that I saw any of them when I visited Australia for a month in the 1990).
Anyhow, I also did not know that Miller trained to be a doctor, trauma surgeon actually, and made money for his first film - doing roadside surgeries along Australia's highways. He got the idea for the Mad Max films from all the car accidents he'd witnessed, or had friends and associates either be victims from or die in. Like I said, the Australian filmmakers are interesting. American filmmakers are usually just spoiled midwestern kids, often Jewish, not always, with videocameras, contacts and film school or actors who decide to take up directing.
Miller butted heads with the studios a lot. And there was a period of time that they wanted to turn Mad Max into a television series (I vaguely remember that being tossed about in the media). And that in turn lead to Fury Road. This story is told by various people, and they have a cast of actors narrating it (not the actual people from the story). It's better than expected. And it once again hammers home the notion that making films is impossible. You think your workplace is tough - try filmmaking.
Miller asked his friends - are all movies this hard to make, or is this just me? (He was talking about his first film Mad Max). And they all told him, yup, it's really hard to make a movie and it never gets any easier.
The Congueror, Geena Davis, Bryan Cranston, and Viola Davis all got that across.
I told a co-worker that I enjoy listening to these - for two reasons, one, the narrators are great, and two, it makes me appreciate my own workplace and job far more. Anything that does that - is worth my time. I'm grateful I have my job. Not everyone does. I was bluntly reminded of that - last year, when someone who'd left the agency ages ago, came back, and this year when NG got fired.
I dumped Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube - couldn't follow it. Reading some romance novel or rather two - not sure which to pick yet. I might go with the Cinderella meets the Fae one by Elisa Kova. It's better written. The one I'm reading on the subway is a bit flowery and too descriptive - so my attention wanders. I need minimalism in my prose at the moment. I blame all those contracts, tech specs, etc that I'm reviewing, editing, reading and analyzing at work. Also working on editing my book.
7. Regarding Horror movies and television shows? I rarely watch them. Unless, I decide they aren't scary and won't keep me awake at night. Horror novels on the other hand - I do read and enjoy.
If I'm going to watch a Horror film or television series, it's usually:
* about ghosts, because I find ghosts interesting.
* vampire slayer or vampire soap opera (like Dark Shadows, with a romance element - see Vamp Diaries, Buffy, Angel - with emphasis on romance, not horror)
* witches (also find interesting - but not if it's too heavy on the demonic worship, I've little tolerance for Judeo-Christian mythos)
* psychological horror - mind games or puzzles
* zombies (depends, I don't like the trope - but I'll watch if it is amusing or has interesting characters - also I have a weakness for virus tropes)
I tend to stay away from:
* body horror (me and David Croenberg are unmixy things)
* alien invasions (it doesn't scare me, I just find it dumb - saw too many of them in the 1970s, when it was hugely popular)
* Monsters (depending)
* Spiders (can't watch)
* Human turns into Monster graphically (see body horror)
* Gross out/slaughterhouse horror
* Cannibalism
* Torture Porn
* Serial Killers (it doesn't scare me, I just got bored of the trope)
That said, I've read a lot of books, and seen a lot of horror films and television series. So, there's clearly a part of me who likes it? I mean one of my favorite cartoons growing up was Scooby Doo, Where Are You?
I've still not seen the entirety of the film Alien. I've seen Aliens (twice), but it's the only one I've sat through. I actually saw it in the theater - it was a great horror movie. JAWS also is a very enjoyable horror movie.
What makes a good horror film? Characters. You have to care about the characters, enjoy them, be entertained by them, and certain characters have to survive, also the ones who die - should die in a way that is earned, propels plot, character and narrative.
JAWS is an excellent horror film - due to the boat ride with the three leads, who had at various points been in conflict. They go out to get the shark, and tell stories. The focus is on them, the shark is the menace lurking outside.
Aliens is excellent because the focus is on Ripley, the kid, and the others with her. Not on the Aliens. The Aliens are the menace. And there are great scenes with Ripley and the others, that we don't see the Aliens.
The horror films that are boring or gratuitous are those that focus too much on torture, the characters are pawns, and you don't care about anyone.
It's just a slaughterfest or torture fest. There's no investment. Might as well be watching a snuff film. Or it's preachy. Or boring with lots of gore. If the filmmaker gets too graphic, too into jump scares, too philosophical - the story is lost. Character, then plot, then horror. In that order. And the plot and horror should come from the characters and have a direct affect on their emotional arc. Where is the character in the story.
Some Writers/Directors who can do horror well?
Steven Spielberg was good at it. Steven King equally good, along with Dean Koontz, Peter Straub, Shirley Jackson, Octavia Butler, Toni Morrison. Jane Campion. Peter Wier. George Miller. James Cameron. Kevin Williamson. Mike Flanagan.
I think its hard to pull off.
Favorite horror television series?
Haunting of Hill House, Bly Manor, Lock & Key (S1), Vampire Diaries, Angel the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Orphan Black, Being Human (UK), Misfits (UK), Jekyll (UK - Stephen Moffat), Doctor Who (yes, yes, I know some people don't think it is horror)...Twilight Zone, Outer Limits...
Films? The Shining (Stanley Kubrick's version), JAWS, Haunting of Hill House (dir. Robert Wise), Andromeda Strain (dir. Robert Wise),
Tremors, Aliens (James Cameron), Terminator series (James Cameron), The Others, The Sixth Sense,
Films that still haunt and scared me silly?
The Skeleton Key, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween,
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Oh interesting. I've heard of her but never read anything, but I would also find that more tolerable in a historical context.
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The quote on the cover of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel, It Ends With Us, claims, “Every person with a heartbeat should read this book.” It was the sixth best-selling book of 2021, BookTok is going nuts over it and USA Today called it “the kind of book that gets handed down.” Its much-anticipated sequel, It Starts with Us, is set to be released next month.
The novel centers on the relationship between Lily and Ryle, a young newlywed couple who live in Boston. Lily is a successful entrepreneur, and Ryle is a gifted neurosurgeon. Both had traumatic childhoods: Lily grew up witnessing her father physically and sexually abuse her mother and was eventually victimized by him herself; when Ryle was 6 years old, he accidentally shot and killed his beloved older brother with a gun that should never have been accessible. Both halves of the couple are, understandably, haunted by their pasts.
Early in their marriage, Ryle begins to physically abuse Lily. Hoover offers a compelling perspective on how the violation and blurring of boundaries over time creates a dynamic in which victims lose the ability to see their situations clearly. Readers who ask, “Why would she stay with him?” may find some insight in this book.
It's an odd trope. It pre-exists Hoover by about fifty or sixty years? Rosemary Rodgers kind of created it, along with other writers in the 1960s and 70s, in their contemporary novels. Judith McNaught was rather infamous for it. And I saw a lot of it coming up again in the early 00s, kind of a reaction to the romances that didn't go down that road, and had nice people in them.
I have read a few of this trope - I don't recommend. I found them disturbing and unsettling.
Also, more horror story than romance. But it is a popular romantic trope.
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I've been hearing mixed reviews on Barbie. I do really want it see it and I don't really pay attention to the reviews anyway, especially when it is something I'm excited about. I sometimes check it out later to see they match what I thought. I'm hoping to get to see it next weekend.
It is so weird that people are just realizing that the Disney movies are softened. Also, I think they were called the Brothers Grimm because that was their last name, but it did suit them considering the nature of their stories, many which I've heard they twisted from word of mouth tales and made even darker, due to being them very religious and misogynistic.
Disney seems to not care about the backlash and they just leave the actors to deal with the hate. Not surprising.
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The Brothers Grimm - most likely did emphasize the bits that they liked or related to. Folklorists and collectors of stories do that. I did. I just always thought it ironically amusing that their name, Grimm fit the tales, Grimm. LOL!
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DW is among the few social media platforms that is not designed as an insane marketing platform and not owned by a tech-billionaire, or controlled by Russia's crazy-ass brand of fascist capitalism (LJ) or China's crazy-ass brand of capitalism (TikTok).*
This is fascinating information! We're (the mods) in the midst of trying to decide what to do with Seasonal Spuffy, which has dwindled considerably, and we're being told not to stick with LJ and/or DW because all the action is elsewhere. I need to share this info....
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Twitter? Musk. Bluesky? the guy who created Twitter and sold it to Musk and is still beta testing. Instagram (not a writing site - a picture site). Reddit...a lot of fans use it. I follow X-men fans on it, but it's painful. Quora...sigh. Mastodone...possible, it has private groups, but you have to subscribe to each one - which is more work that I want to do. Ao3 - isn't a discussion site, so much as an archive - and it has issues galore.
honestly, I miss LJ in its heyday, also Voy, and Yahoo newsgroups.
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