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- this is just a blog separate from most of my internet presence, I wanted somewhere fresh and with a chiller, adulter atmosphere
- this will likely remain a fandom-related blog but I'm not deeply fandom involved. I just like a lot of stuff!
- I might subscribe to random people who I like the writing of, or seem interesting and I just like the cut of their jib, or whatever. if you are one of those people and this is not cool you can block/ask me to leave/whatever and I won't mind. I definitely don't need to be followed back!
fomo is the mind killer
Feb. 23rd, 2024 05:41 pmThis is so rambly lol I should be sleeping instead of writing........
Between the trailer for Death Stranding 2 dropping a few weeks ago (it looks amazing) and seeing a ton of buzz around the second part of FF7 remake coming out I am really, definitely wishing I had a PS5 lmao. But that's not happening anytime soon so I'm definitely going to be avoiding a ton of places cause I don't want to be spoiled on FF stuff. Man it's killing me...
I'm super behind on games anyway. I took a good long time to play Like a Dragon Gaiden Forget Name Guy or whatever (everyone has made these jokes but it is a funny name) and I have no regrets cause I played it about as much as you could! without beating Amon I am bad at gaming haha. It was an interesting direction for the series, to make a specifically shorter and tighter game more akin to the original couple of releases, and the story was... good for what it is but I also kinda think it was unnecessary. Letting a character go is just impossible for big franchises, I know, but I wish they'd managed it in this case as such a long time fan. Kazuma's been sorta killed so many times lmao. The (infamous? I guess it hasn't been around long enough for that) ending kind of... used that idea to its advantage at least. Also Shishido is a great character I won't directly spoil things but he was a standout. Really like him.
So now I'm onto Dragon Quest Monsters The Dark Prince and as someone who is going through their #dragonquestpilled era it's a great time. I wish Squeenix would stop relegating these side games to the switch, because it feels like they're... well it's like, confusing. The last main entry, 11, seemed like it finally was getting some legs under it over here, and they sort of waste it by the next few releases being. Well, they're not games for kids, but they absolutely have a family friendly vibe, which to most people means, for kids. But there's kind of another games that dominate the kid's jrpg space, can't remember what it was called. Lmao. The confusion arises from the next main entry, 12, supposedly going to be a more "mature" take on DQ... a game we've literally seen nothing from since it was announced, except that the writer said he was having a hard time doing that.
(This is absurd too like I don't have to go through all the dark events of DQ, just for example from the one I just finished, 5, as a kid your father is murdered right in front of you, and it's pretty brutal! And a lot of people like that the games cover decently serious topics without getting super emo about it. Can't help being Squeenix!)
Since I wrote this part reviews for FF7R-2 have been coming out and I've been strictly avoiding them but goddamn. When even the title of your review is like, yeah this is GOTY no question it's like, god. I'll be treading very carefully around the internet for a while it seems. Well I'll be sure to enjoy it in a year plus!!
At least I can play Infinite Wealth, the other thing I'm kinda dying to play. I've managed to remain relatively unspoiled (and I always stop watching trailers for stuff I'm really excited about) so I haven't seen almost anything of the game for like... a year or whatever, since the initial one pretty much. I just love knowing as little as possible, I want to be surprised by like, gameplay as much as story, you know?
After that, it'll be Unicorn Overlord. And after THAT will be Eiyuden Chronicles. Like goddamn I'm going to be playing new games for half the year at this point, which isn't bad since at least I'm doing my best to not buy stuff I won't have time for or like... "need" to play yeah need I'm a gamer.
Between the trailer for Death Stranding 2 dropping a few weeks ago (it looks amazing) and seeing a ton of buzz around the second part of FF7 remake coming out I am really, definitely wishing I had a PS5 lmao. But that's not happening anytime soon so I'm definitely going to be avoiding a ton of places cause I don't want to be spoiled on FF stuff. Man it's killing me...
I'm super behind on games anyway. I took a good long time to play Like a Dragon Gaiden Forget Name Guy or whatever (everyone has made these jokes but it is a funny name) and I have no regrets cause I played it about as much as you could! without beating Amon I am bad at gaming haha. It was an interesting direction for the series, to make a specifically shorter and tighter game more akin to the original couple of releases, and the story was... good for what it is but I also kinda think it was unnecessary. Letting a character go is just impossible for big franchises, I know, but I wish they'd managed it in this case as such a long time fan. Kazuma's been sorta killed so many times lmao. The (infamous? I guess it hasn't been around long enough for that) ending kind of... used that idea to its advantage at least. Also Shishido is a great character I won't directly spoil things but he was a standout. Really like him.
So now I'm onto Dragon Quest Monsters The Dark Prince and as someone who is going through their #dragonquestpilled era it's a great time. I wish Squeenix would stop relegating these side games to the switch, because it feels like they're... well it's like, confusing. The last main entry, 11, seemed like it finally was getting some legs under it over here, and they sort of waste it by the next few releases being. Well, they're not games for kids, but they absolutely have a family friendly vibe, which to most people means, for kids. But there's kind of another games that dominate the kid's jrpg space, can't remember what it was called. Lmao. The confusion arises from the next main entry, 12, supposedly going to be a more "mature" take on DQ... a game we've literally seen nothing from since it was announced, except that the writer said he was having a hard time doing that.
(This is absurd too like I don't have to go through all the dark events of DQ, just for example from the one I just finished, 5, as a kid your father is murdered right in front of you, and it's pretty brutal! And a lot of people like that the games cover decently serious topics without getting super emo about it. Can't help being Squeenix!)
Since I wrote this part reviews for FF7R-2 have been coming out and I've been strictly avoiding them but goddamn. When even the title of your review is like, yeah this is GOTY no question it's like, god. I'll be treading very carefully around the internet for a while it seems. Well I'll be sure to enjoy it in a year plus!!
At least I can play Infinite Wealth, the other thing I'm kinda dying to play. I've managed to remain relatively unspoiled (and I always stop watching trailers for stuff I'm really excited about) so I haven't seen almost anything of the game for like... a year or whatever, since the initial one pretty much. I just love knowing as little as possible, I want to be surprised by like, gameplay as much as story, you know?
After that, it'll be Unicorn Overlord. And after THAT will be Eiyuden Chronicles. Like goddamn I'm going to be playing new games for half the year at this point, which isn't bad since at least I'm doing my best to not buy stuff I won't have time for or like... "need" to play yeah need I'm a gamer.
Yes I will be messing up the formatting if I don't it's not a real GOTY list. Also last year I said I'd tweak the size of the images to fit here better and I absolutely did not lol. omg why are the images just not working god ok it was my own stupidity it's all good
Same as last time, I drew a little piciture and wrote a little paragraphy for my favorite games I played this year. Nothing's in any particular order outside of the categories, and this is for every game I played this year, not just new releases. (Actually that's a little bit of a lie, I did play a bunch of game jam games but they were so short, I really should've made a little list of my favorites but whatever. Maybe sometime??)
And same as last year I send off my most hated game(s, actually) with a big fuck you. <3
( Read more... )
Same as last time, I drew a little piciture and wrote a little paragraphy for my favorite games I played this year. Nothing's in any particular order outside of the categories, and this is for every game I played this year, not just new releases. (Actually that's a little bit of a lie, I did play a bunch of game jam games but they were so short, I really should've made a little list of my favorites but whatever. Maybe sometime??)
And same as last year I send off my most hated game(s, actually) with a big fuck you. <3
( Read more... )
killer elevators
Nov. 8th, 2023 07:22 pmI can't believe I forgot to post even once in October lol. I feel like the whole month was a wash of anything close to productivity. Or anything at all. It's like a blank. Partially it might be from having a pretty attention hungry foster kitten but boy did it fly by.
So my lazy choice is movie talkin from the last little while.
The Loreley’s Grasp (1973) - Not like a super recommend, but I'm a sucker for an unusual mythological monster being featured (in this case the Lorelei, which I'm familiar with spelled this way but I guess both are correct). Lady is lizard and kills people, with some decent imagery for a schlocky little thing. Spanish movies from this time can be just as if not more wild than Italian ones but they're not as popular.
Deep Red (1975) - Argento does it again!! I'm glad this subgenre has picked up a lot of fans but it seems like a lot of people will like... just see Suspiria and there's a LOT of good stuff just, everywhere. Not that Deep Red is some obscure choice LOL. Classic like, digging through weird family history and a scary house (actually a fucking beautiful art nouveau mansion, the movie is worth it just for that) and great kills. I'll have to watch this one again.
The Uncanny (1977) - (I promise I did not intentionally pick 3 that are 2 years apart) A HIGH recommend. An anthology of cat-themed horror stories where even though the cats are like, killing people they like. Mostly kinda deserve it in one way or another? The second story is my favorite, mostly because the end fucking rules and is exactly what you want, instead of pussying out (I said that to be a cat pun) and trying to be all nice. I have a dream of seeing every killer cat movie and this put me closer in the best way.
Encounter of the Spooky Kind (1980) - From the Criterion hopping vampire collection--another subsubgenre I always wanted to get into, so I'm at least trying to get through the ones they put together for ease of access. This movie's hilarious; I love comedy martial arts movies and even better, it has a spooooky scary twist because there are jiangshi! And honestly, despite the comedy I think it's a surprisingly threatening spirit. I think it's the sudden, quick movements that are pretty offputting despite sounding like they'd be limited by it. I knew someone from Macau who was scared of jiangshi and I was like that's so sillyyyy but if I was a kid and saw this or the Mr. Vampire movies, I think I would've been scared too.
The Exorcist III (1990) - George C Scott!! I will watch anything with him!!! I was surprised this was good, I've mostly only heard about the second one being bad and so assumed that held true for the rest (and I am the kind of person who believes in the first movies often being best. yeah I will never see Terminator 2 you can't make me) and I was wrong. It maintains a lot of the feeling of the original, but is not a rehash other than like, there is an exorcism. Some really cool deaths too. It's not as perfect as The Exorcist, and there's a few things that I don't love, but like... to even kinda measure up as a sequel to such a highly regarded movie is amazing.
Def by Temptation (1990) - Another from the Criterion 90s Horror collection. I was very scared when the Troma logo came up (even though I've only seen two Toxic Avengers and I didn't hate them I wasn't in the mood for Troma) but it is like, a normal horror...there's some good comedic relief but it's definitely just a horror movie. Sexy vampire lady who is killing dudes (there's sort of an STI-ish allegory that doesn't really work out in the end) she picks up at a nightclub. The all black cast and black director/writer is what sets it apart and there's some cool visuals. You can tell their budget was limited and they used it well.
Witness to Murder (1954) - Starts right off the bat with the crux of the film, like, while credits are appearing: a woman looks out her apartment window and witnesses a murder. I didn't even think about it because it's been too long since I've seen it, but many people point out that this is Rear Window before that came out, with the major difference being that the protagonist being a woman absolutely changes how people treat her. George Sanders plays the really kinda sexy villain with his sexy voice but unfortunately he's a nazi so I couldn't fully love him. I also actually really liked the love interest in this movie, he and the main character make a good couple.
Salomé (1922) paired with Salome’s Last Dance (1988) - Gotta recommend because 1922 attempts to recreate some of Beardsley's art and is a nice stage-like depiction, and then Last Dance is just, I love it. Movies within movies are normal, plays within movies are cool. For something else like this, I'd recc 52's The Golden Coach.
Mr. Vampire III (1987) - More hopping vampire fun! The first Mr. Vampire was alright, it felt like a rehash of Spooky Kind, but not quite as funny, but the second one included a little kid jiangshi and it was like E.T. kid shit (I hate that movie) and I almost decided to just skip the rest. Thankfully I didn't because 3 is a return to form with more slapstick, more martial arts fights, more fun... Taoism (??). There is a little kid jiangshi again and it's a little cutesy but not to an annoying level, and there's also like a sorceress and unkillable warriors and stuff, so the story is more memorable.
The Devil’s Rain (1975) - I went "seventy-five??!!" after looking up the year. I was SURE this was mid-60s based on the acting, direction, and overall dourness. Wow. Well ok this is absolutely not a recommend other than the ending, where a whole congregation of satanists melts for like, 10 minutes. I mostly wanted to bring it up because I think Ernest Borgnine deserves to be revered in the same way as other ugly cute actors are. I'm probably really alone in this but this is my blog hahaha >:). Anyway he summons satan into him like Maya Fey, and he gets goatman prosthetics and I loved it. It's really short too so I recommend it to all other Borgheads, but like, have something to do if you put this on. Have a deep conversation for the first hour.
Dragonwyck (1946) - Sort of a wanna-be Rebecca, but not as good (and Rebecca the movie isn't as good as the book, so I wonder if the book of Dragonwyck is better). The 1840s setting is nice though; you can tell they actually tried to stick to that and did it well, if you wanna look at ~gowns~ it's a good time. Also a good time is pretty much the reason I'd recommend it: Vincent Price is so evil and sexy in this he's like a ojou-sama or a menacing yaoi seme and I love seeing it in real life. I think this would've been improved if the ending was more like Rebecca, though I won't spoil it.
A Bay of Blood (1971) - Reminder to me to watch more Bava. This is awesome, it's pretty much just a murderfest with a sorta? mystery plot? but best of all is the ending, which simply has to be experienced. I was like no way is that going to happen! and then it happened and that is always so fulfilling. There is a cool house in this one too. Sunken fireplace seating... plenty of rooms to have sex and be murdered in...
There was going to be one more but this group already has a few non-recommends, but I watched a movie about a racist horse, and now I wanna see more movies with this (possibly first) horse movie star. Rereading this I talked too much about long dead old men who I think are attractive, but that's probably just where I am in life. Weirder stuff I thought was sexy has been omitted.
So my lazy choice is movie talkin from the last little while.
The Loreley’s Grasp (1973) - Not like a super recommend, but I'm a sucker for an unusual mythological monster being featured (in this case the Lorelei, which I'm familiar with spelled this way but I guess both are correct). Lady is lizard and kills people, with some decent imagery for a schlocky little thing. Spanish movies from this time can be just as if not more wild than Italian ones but they're not as popular.
Deep Red (1975) - Argento does it again!! I'm glad this subgenre has picked up a lot of fans but it seems like a lot of people will like... just see Suspiria and there's a LOT of good stuff just, everywhere. Not that Deep Red is some obscure choice LOL. Classic like, digging through weird family history and a scary house (actually a fucking beautiful art nouveau mansion, the movie is worth it just for that) and great kills. I'll have to watch this one again.
The Uncanny (1977) - (I promise I did not intentionally pick 3 that are 2 years apart) A HIGH recommend. An anthology of cat-themed horror stories where even though the cats are like, killing people they like. Mostly kinda deserve it in one way or another? The second story is my favorite, mostly because the end fucking rules and is exactly what you want, instead of pussying out (I said that to be a cat pun) and trying to be all nice. I have a dream of seeing every killer cat movie and this put me closer in the best way.
Encounter of the Spooky Kind (1980) - From the Criterion hopping vampire collection--another subsubgenre I always wanted to get into, so I'm at least trying to get through the ones they put together for ease of access. This movie's hilarious; I love comedy martial arts movies and even better, it has a spooooky scary twist because there are jiangshi! And honestly, despite the comedy I think it's a surprisingly threatening spirit. I think it's the sudden, quick movements that are pretty offputting despite sounding like they'd be limited by it. I knew someone from Macau who was scared of jiangshi and I was like that's so sillyyyy but if I was a kid and saw this or the Mr. Vampire movies, I think I would've been scared too.
The Exorcist III (1990) - George C Scott!! I will watch anything with him!!! I was surprised this was good, I've mostly only heard about the second one being bad and so assumed that held true for the rest (and I am the kind of person who believes in the first movies often being best. yeah I will never see Terminator 2 you can't make me) and I was wrong. It maintains a lot of the feeling of the original, but is not a rehash other than like, there is an exorcism. Some really cool deaths too. It's not as perfect as The Exorcist, and there's a few things that I don't love, but like... to even kinda measure up as a sequel to such a highly regarded movie is amazing.
Def by Temptation (1990) - Another from the Criterion 90s Horror collection. I was very scared when the Troma logo came up (even though I've only seen two Toxic Avengers and I didn't hate them I wasn't in the mood for Troma) but it is like, a normal horror...there's some good comedic relief but it's definitely just a horror movie. Sexy vampire lady who is killing dudes (there's sort of an STI-ish allegory that doesn't really work out in the end) she picks up at a nightclub. The all black cast and black director/writer is what sets it apart and there's some cool visuals. You can tell their budget was limited and they used it well.
Witness to Murder (1954) - Starts right off the bat with the crux of the film, like, while credits are appearing: a woman looks out her apartment window and witnesses a murder. I didn't even think about it because it's been too long since I've seen it, but many people point out that this is Rear Window before that came out, with the major difference being that the protagonist being a woman absolutely changes how people treat her. George Sanders plays the really kinda sexy villain with his sexy voice but unfortunately he's a nazi so I couldn't fully love him. I also actually really liked the love interest in this movie, he and the main character make a good couple.
Salomé (1922) paired with Salome’s Last Dance (1988) - Gotta recommend because 1922 attempts to recreate some of Beardsley's art and is a nice stage-like depiction, and then Last Dance is just, I love it. Movies within movies are normal, plays within movies are cool. For something else like this, I'd recc 52's The Golden Coach.
Mr. Vampire III (1987) - More hopping vampire fun! The first Mr. Vampire was alright, it felt like a rehash of Spooky Kind, but not quite as funny, but the second one included a little kid jiangshi and it was like E.T. kid shit (I hate that movie) and I almost decided to just skip the rest. Thankfully I didn't because 3 is a return to form with more slapstick, more martial arts fights, more fun... Taoism (??). There is a little kid jiangshi again and it's a little cutesy but not to an annoying level, and there's also like a sorceress and unkillable warriors and stuff, so the story is more memorable.
The Devil’s Rain (1975) - I went "seventy-five??!!" after looking up the year. I was SURE this was mid-60s based on the acting, direction, and overall dourness. Wow. Well ok this is absolutely not a recommend other than the ending, where a whole congregation of satanists melts for like, 10 minutes. I mostly wanted to bring it up because I think Ernest Borgnine deserves to be revered in the same way as other ugly cute actors are. I'm probably really alone in this but this is my blog hahaha >:). Anyway he summons satan into him like Maya Fey, and he gets goatman prosthetics and I loved it. It's really short too so I recommend it to all other Borgheads, but like, have something to do if you put this on. Have a deep conversation for the first hour.
Dragonwyck (1946) - Sort of a wanna-be Rebecca, but not as good (and Rebecca the movie isn't as good as the book, so I wonder if the book of Dragonwyck is better). The 1840s setting is nice though; you can tell they actually tried to stick to that and did it well, if you wanna look at ~gowns~ it's a good time. Also a good time is pretty much the reason I'd recommend it: Vincent Price is so evil and sexy in this he's like a ojou-sama or a menacing yaoi seme and I love seeing it in real life. I think this would've been improved if the ending was more like Rebecca, though I won't spoil it.
A Bay of Blood (1971) - Reminder to me to watch more Bava. This is awesome, it's pretty much just a murderfest with a sorta? mystery plot? but best of all is the ending, which simply has to be experienced. I was like no way is that going to happen! and then it happened and that is always so fulfilling. There is a cool house in this one too. Sunken fireplace seating... plenty of rooms to have sex and be murdered in...
There was going to be one more but this group already has a few non-recommends, but I watched a movie about a racist horse, and now I wanna see more movies with this (possibly first) horse movie star. Rereading this I talked too much about long dead old men who I think are attractive, but that's probably just where I am in life. Weirder stuff I thought was sexy has been omitted.
Criterion put out a collection of Poe-based/inspired movies by Corman in like, July? and I was like haha of course I'll have plenty of time to watch surely this will go through fall and then they were like, nah, end of September actually. So I watched them all in a pretty short period of time and they are all pretty sick. (Also the weekend before this realization I watched Creepshow 3, so they honestly saved me from even more self-destructive tubi tendencies.) Could I have found and watched them some other way on my own time, rather than doing so many so close together? Sure but this was fun! There will be a lot of talking about Vincent Price he is in every one of these movies except one (he is my husband now).
House of Usher (1960) - Blond and shaved lip Vincent Price jumpscare! I can live without him having a mustache, but the slicked back platinum blond hair is truly weirdass and does not suit him. Some interesting cinematography but nothing like what eventually happens in these movies so it's a little bland in comparison. An ok telling of the story. I'd recommend the silent 1928 version over this, it has some very cool impressionistic aspects and the story might be better without dialog in some regard.
The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) - Torture devices! torture devices! torture devices! You gotta love the Spanish Inquisition. The flashback sequences are used really well in this one, I love how they look like silent film throwbacks with the base colors with black and white over them. I'm a big fan of like, inherited and generational evil, especially when there is no escape, and Vincent Price's character is being manipulated too... but also he goes crazy and decides to murder people, and he might not be entirely wrong to. He's so good at playing these haunted, sensitive sadboys in great old costumes. His character gets called overwrought in more than one of these movies.
The Premature Burial (1962) - The one without Price. There's so much setup in how this guy creates this tomb in which you could not be buried alive in, with all kinds of escape mechanisms and ways to call for help, but it doesn't get used very much in the end (which I suppose is the ironic twist). But the actual twist is pretty cool, and the atmosphere is really good in this. More straight gothy and with less of the psychedelic touches a lot of these other movies have. Probably a good one if you wanted to have a moody autumn/winter watch.
Tales of Terror (1962) - I have a hunch this one would not be very popular, but I like it quite a bit. It's an anthology of three stories. The first, Morella, is a cool ghostly story. Short but impactful. The second, The Black Cat, is like half that, half Cask of Amontillado and has Peter Lorre and is more like dark comedy and is so much fun. Price and Lorre have great chemistry (they worked together on another one of these) and make goofy wine tasting jokes you'd expect out of like, the 2010s. The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar has Basil Rathbone in it as an evil asshole hypnotist, and while it's probably my least favorite of the three it's cool how he like, blackmails the wife of Price's character by holding him in soulless limbo. It's a fun idea, and I really want his little carousel of hypnotism.
The Haunted Palace (1963) - Really dig this one, though funnily it's way more of a Lovecraft story with a Poe-like coat of gothic paint, and that works shockingly well. I'm not much of a Lovecraft fan (says this guy who thought Dagon was pretty excellent) but I guess I should qualify that 1. I've never read any to completion and 2. I just don't really like a lot of the collective ideas around it. Elder unknowable gods don't freak me out, I'm tired of people being like woah tentacles!! I'm combining it with steampunk!! (I also don't like steampunk). But. I do like fish people and other weird freaks, and cursed areas and such, so there's certainly elements I enjoy. This is all the elements I enjoy, with a smattering of things like fish people and the Necronomicon shows up. Price is a warlock who's enticing young ladies to his clutches, and the villagers burn him, so he curses them. 100 years later his ancestor shows up (also Price) and moves into his scary palace to fix it up for sale. While he's there his warlock ancestor frequently possesses him, keeping him from leaving even though his wife really wants to and he wants to. Cool stuff happens, and the ending is my kind of ending. :) Leaving it at that. Big fan.
The Raven (1963) - Another one I'm guessing isn't popular. But none of this is in the poem!!! yeah, and that's what makes it great and bizarre. This is just a total comedy fantasy, with Peter Lorre back as a jerk wizard who's turned into a raven, baby Jack Nicholson as his son?? which was so weird??, Price as a very nice wizard, and Boris Karloff as a mean wizard. I love the aesthetics of this one, it kind of hits how I like wizardly stuff portrayed and the wizard dual at the end is so much fun. It's a little slow paced, but that's like the comedy of its era, and I feel like Lorre improv-ed a lot and he's very funny. He was such a great actor.
The Masque of Red Death (1964) - Ooh, it's artsy. I actually wondered if it was at all inspired by Seventh Seal, but Cormain says it wasn't, so I'll take his word for it. It's definitely not on THAT level, but it is really good in many aspects, probably most of all the visuals. The transitions through the colored rooms, the dream sequences, the masquerade and finale; it feels like they were actively reaching for artistic ideals in this one above the others. Price as a super evil landowner who lets plague destroy villages while offering protection and entertainment for his rich friends... only for him to plan to sacrifice them to his friend, Satan. The minor dings for this one are like, the plot points around the village girl he abducts and her lover and father he tries to like, recruit into being guards or something...? I like that the girl kind of actually maybe is ensnared by him somewhat, but it didn't feel like a natural corruption and her lover + father are more distractions to end the story with like, an ounce of hope, I guess. I totally forgot there is also a dwarf love story that also felt kinda pointless and is comprised of like 2 scenes. I wish the plot had kind of focused down on the village girl, her rival sexy evil lady, and evil Vincent Price in a sorta love triangle. Maybe a bizarre one hahaha. Anyway watch this, watch Seventh Seal.
The Tomb of Ligeia (1964) - I am simple. If you put an evil cat in a movie I will enjoy it. Filmed partially in some cool ruins in actual England, Price is an ahead of his time... er... guy who likes history (he has a wax cast of an Egyptian bust because he doesn't think stealing artifacts and calling it archaeology is cool) whose wife dies and she's like. :) Nah. And a cat jumps on her grave and I'm pretty sure steals her soul, as the stories go. Price's character shuns society, to the point that other people living nearby assumed he was dead! But though an accident, a young lady finds herself thrown into his life and falls in love with him. Reading a bit about this one I guess they were all a little unhappy Price was cast because they thought he was too old to be the love interest but you know, as a bit of a fan of the May-December romance I dug it a lot. Younger person pulling the older out of their misery is a good trope! The young lady was played by Elizabeth Shepherd, who definitely didn't have a massive career but I want to give due, as she played the current love interest Rowena as well as the evil not dead one, Ligeia, and gave them totally different auras. Ligeia essentially hypnotized Price's character when she died, and is now controlling him at night, and trying to scare/probably kill Rowena if she can. She's all like "I'll never die" and "I'll always be your wife" and it's pretty cool stuff. Good ending.
I'd recommend pretty much any of these, it was well worth watching them all, personally. They all nail this very plush, luscious gothic extravagance I don't think that many movies do without getting too grimy and angsty, or go the other direction and get more violent and spectacular. And knowing that these were all budget films makes it so painful to think about how other movies must waste for often subpar results. I'm always surprised by what makes it onto lists of like, non-jumpscare, atmospheric horror lists because it's rarely stuff like this (whining about how many people will hardly watch movies from before like the year 2000 let alone from the 60s or earlier) but these will certainly suit any kind of squeamish, cowardly movie fan. (Unless they're scared of being buried alive then skip I guess it's a VERY recurrent theme and features in so many of these, even if the original stories/poems didn't include it.)
House of Usher (1960) - Blond and shaved lip Vincent Price jumpscare! I can live without him having a mustache, but the slicked back platinum blond hair is truly weirdass and does not suit him. Some interesting cinematography but nothing like what eventually happens in these movies so it's a little bland in comparison. An ok telling of the story. I'd recommend the silent 1928 version over this, it has some very cool impressionistic aspects and the story might be better without dialog in some regard.
The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) - Torture devices! torture devices! torture devices! You gotta love the Spanish Inquisition. The flashback sequences are used really well in this one, I love how they look like silent film throwbacks with the base colors with black and white over them. I'm a big fan of like, inherited and generational evil, especially when there is no escape, and Vincent Price's character is being manipulated too... but also he goes crazy and decides to murder people, and he might not be entirely wrong to. He's so good at playing these haunted, sensitive sadboys in great old costumes. His character gets called overwrought in more than one of these movies.
The Premature Burial (1962) - The one without Price. There's so much setup in how this guy creates this tomb in which you could not be buried alive in, with all kinds of escape mechanisms and ways to call for help, but it doesn't get used very much in the end (which I suppose is the ironic twist). But the actual twist is pretty cool, and the atmosphere is really good in this. More straight gothy and with less of the psychedelic touches a lot of these other movies have. Probably a good one if you wanted to have a moody autumn/winter watch.
Tales of Terror (1962) - I have a hunch this one would not be very popular, but I like it quite a bit. It's an anthology of three stories. The first, Morella, is a cool ghostly story. Short but impactful. The second, The Black Cat, is like half that, half Cask of Amontillado and has Peter Lorre and is more like dark comedy and is so much fun. Price and Lorre have great chemistry (they worked together on another one of these) and make goofy wine tasting jokes you'd expect out of like, the 2010s. The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar has Basil Rathbone in it as an evil asshole hypnotist, and while it's probably my least favorite of the three it's cool how he like, blackmails the wife of Price's character by holding him in soulless limbo. It's a fun idea, and I really want his little carousel of hypnotism.
The Haunted Palace (1963) - Really dig this one, though funnily it's way more of a Lovecraft story with a Poe-like coat of gothic paint, and that works shockingly well. I'm not much of a Lovecraft fan (says this guy who thought Dagon was pretty excellent) but I guess I should qualify that 1. I've never read any to completion and 2. I just don't really like a lot of the collective ideas around it. Elder unknowable gods don't freak me out, I'm tired of people being like woah tentacles!! I'm combining it with steampunk!! (I also don't like steampunk). But. I do like fish people and other weird freaks, and cursed areas and such, so there's certainly elements I enjoy. This is all the elements I enjoy, with a smattering of things like fish people and the Necronomicon shows up. Price is a warlock who's enticing young ladies to his clutches, and the villagers burn him, so he curses them. 100 years later his ancestor shows up (also Price) and moves into his scary palace to fix it up for sale. While he's there his warlock ancestor frequently possesses him, keeping him from leaving even though his wife really wants to and he wants to. Cool stuff happens, and the ending is my kind of ending. :) Leaving it at that. Big fan.
The Raven (1963) - Another one I'm guessing isn't popular. But none of this is in the poem!!! yeah, and that's what makes it great and bizarre. This is just a total comedy fantasy, with Peter Lorre back as a jerk wizard who's turned into a raven, baby Jack Nicholson as his son?? which was so weird??, Price as a very nice wizard, and Boris Karloff as a mean wizard. I love the aesthetics of this one, it kind of hits how I like wizardly stuff portrayed and the wizard dual at the end is so much fun. It's a little slow paced, but that's like the comedy of its era, and I feel like Lorre improv-ed a lot and he's very funny. He was such a great actor.
The Masque of Red Death (1964) - Ooh, it's artsy. I actually wondered if it was at all inspired by Seventh Seal, but Cormain says it wasn't, so I'll take his word for it. It's definitely not on THAT level, but it is really good in many aspects, probably most of all the visuals. The transitions through the colored rooms, the dream sequences, the masquerade and finale; it feels like they were actively reaching for artistic ideals in this one above the others. Price as a super evil landowner who lets plague destroy villages while offering protection and entertainment for his rich friends... only for him to plan to sacrifice them to his friend, Satan. The minor dings for this one are like, the plot points around the village girl he abducts and her lover and father he tries to like, recruit into being guards or something...? I like that the girl kind of actually maybe is ensnared by him somewhat, but it didn't feel like a natural corruption and her lover + father are more distractions to end the story with like, an ounce of hope, I guess. I totally forgot there is also a dwarf love story that also felt kinda pointless and is comprised of like 2 scenes. I wish the plot had kind of focused down on the village girl, her rival sexy evil lady, and evil Vincent Price in a sorta love triangle. Maybe a bizarre one hahaha. Anyway watch this, watch Seventh Seal.
The Tomb of Ligeia (1964) - I am simple. If you put an evil cat in a movie I will enjoy it. Filmed partially in some cool ruins in actual England, Price is an ahead of his time... er... guy who likes history (he has a wax cast of an Egyptian bust because he doesn't think stealing artifacts and calling it archaeology is cool) whose wife dies and she's like. :) Nah. And a cat jumps on her grave and I'm pretty sure steals her soul, as the stories go. Price's character shuns society, to the point that other people living nearby assumed he was dead! But though an accident, a young lady finds herself thrown into his life and falls in love with him. Reading a bit about this one I guess they were all a little unhappy Price was cast because they thought he was too old to be the love interest but you know, as a bit of a fan of the May-December romance I dug it a lot. Younger person pulling the older out of their misery is a good trope! The young lady was played by Elizabeth Shepherd, who definitely didn't have a massive career but I want to give due, as she played the current love interest Rowena as well as the evil not dead one, Ligeia, and gave them totally different auras. Ligeia essentially hypnotized Price's character when she died, and is now controlling him at night, and trying to scare/probably kill Rowena if she can. She's all like "I'll never die" and "I'll always be your wife" and it's pretty cool stuff. Good ending.
I'd recommend pretty much any of these, it was well worth watching them all, personally. They all nail this very plush, luscious gothic extravagance I don't think that many movies do without getting too grimy and angsty, or go the other direction and get more violent and spectacular. And knowing that these were all budget films makes it so painful to think about how other movies must waste for often subpar results. I'm always surprised by what makes it onto lists of like, non-jumpscare, atmospheric horror lists because it's rarely stuff like this (whining about how many people will hardly watch movies from before like the year 2000 let alone from the 60s or earlier) but these will certainly suit any kind of squeamish, cowardly movie fan. (Unless they're scared of being buried alive then skip I guess it's a VERY recurrent theme and features in so many of these, even if the original stories/poems didn't include it.)
In preparation for this post I tried to use an old (not THAT old) bottle of tacky glue and it was gunky so I opened it and like, the whole of it was full of The Stuff and so obviously I played with it and then realized how dumb it was because I couldn't just throw it in the trash so I had to like, shove it back into the container and my hands smelled really weird and gluey and still do after multiple washes. Not recommended. It was like I bought slime off a guy selling them out of his jacket.
The last time I wrote one of these I didn't expect to do another tbh but it actually helped me organize my brain about what I'm working on so like, I'm doing it again.
Done:
Book nook: I finished this! I'm happy enough with it, for my first total diy model thing I think it's decent. I'm not a perfectionist or anything.
Pre-printed DIY model I mentioned in last post: I bought one and made it. Then I bought another but I'm saving it for the next time I'm craving model making. It's fun to take slow. But really I want to make my own things cause no kits like this align with the kind of stuff I like the most.
Felting: Did a felting kit, made a tanuki!!!! Cute!!!! I don't think I'm going to add felting to my common activities but I had a good time and will probably get another kit someday.
Ornament kit: A weird thing I found while getting other crafting supplies, I was overcome by sparkling things and uh... I thought it was more like sewing beads, which I've sort of become interested in, but it was more like, put beads onto a pin and stab it into this foam form. Unexpectedly entertaining, and very quick. Would do this again.
Cat clown: I bought a cute old pattern for a cat clown doll and finally actually made it, and it only took like, 3 sessions of a few hours of work. As much as I hate to admit it, machine sewing is fast. Who invented this thing?? It's crazy!! I haven't used the machine much, and never on something with an (eventual) 3D form, so it was an accomplishment. Plus it came out super cute. (Short story related to this: I went out to buy eyelet trim for the clown neck frill thing, and the fabric counter lady small talked, "what are you getting this for?" and when I said a clown doll, she like, stopped smiling and didn't talk for the rest of the interaction. I don't think she's a fan.)
Ongoing:
Stepstones: It's funny I was just starting this when I wrote in June, because now I've done like, 20 LOL. Concrete is still scary to work with, but it's pretty fun and surprisingly quick. Mosaic-lite-esque, though I still want to get into actual mosaic too; that's a little more involved. I want to make these until I run out of my big bag of cement, which hopefully will correspond to the weather getting colder and I can start staying out in the garage and revert back to doing stained glass.
Crossstich: This one is killing me. Overall I like it, but it's taken me so, so long to do like, a 15"x15" piece. The book I have has pretty complicated designs where every image has a million colors, but I think the biggest issue (not real issue) is that I have a lot of hobbies and this requires more dedication than I thought. Maybe the real issue is that I shouldn't feel frustrated it's taking so long when there's no time limit?
Pompoms: This might be a little more done than ongoing, but I got a cool book on making patterned pompoms and it's really fun and opened my brain to the possibilities of pompomery. However I don't know anything to actually do with them other than look at them like so: :). I'd like to kinda figure out a Thing to do with them.
Papier mache: I'm almost done with my sarcophagus trash can, it's really stupid and I love it. Drew a lot of very tiny hieroglyphics. I just need to decide if I seal it (the paint I used for everything that's black has this bad trait where it kinda like, has dust on the top after drying and so it will slightly smudge if modge podged over, and I used a LOT of black) and glue on the hinges.
Sewing clothes psycho style: Overcome with the knowledge that eventually I will be cold, I decided to make a padded house jacket for the winter, cause I hate wearing regular hoodies and stuff for whatever reason. Everything's cut, I just need to sew it together and then I'm going to hand quilt it. I can tell I'll regret quilting while it's hot out but I'm like, totally preparing for winter here. Squirrel style.
Future ideaing:
Various little painting projects. Kitbash my eva horse, finally < do this one. Make something papier mache that's more like, unique and 3D (a traditional bobblehead?). Little basket weave kit I found. Omg will I ever emboss anything. Junk journal. Dog costume book lol. Make some of the other clothes I bought patterns for, duh. Quilt, though doing the jacket will at least quench that desire for a little while I think. Repair wool blanket.
The last time I wrote one of these I didn't expect to do another tbh but it actually helped me organize my brain about what I'm working on so like, I'm doing it again.
Done:
Book nook: I finished this! I'm happy enough with it, for my first total diy model thing I think it's decent. I'm not a perfectionist or anything.
Pre-printed DIY model I mentioned in last post: I bought one and made it. Then I bought another but I'm saving it for the next time I'm craving model making. It's fun to take slow. But really I want to make my own things cause no kits like this align with the kind of stuff I like the most.
Felting: Did a felting kit, made a tanuki!!!! Cute!!!! I don't think I'm going to add felting to my common activities but I had a good time and will probably get another kit someday.
Ornament kit: A weird thing I found while getting other crafting supplies, I was overcome by sparkling things and uh... I thought it was more like sewing beads, which I've sort of become interested in, but it was more like, put beads onto a pin and stab it into this foam form. Unexpectedly entertaining, and very quick. Would do this again.
Cat clown: I bought a cute old pattern for a cat clown doll and finally actually made it, and it only took like, 3 sessions of a few hours of work. As much as I hate to admit it, machine sewing is fast. Who invented this thing?? It's crazy!! I haven't used the machine much, and never on something with an (eventual) 3D form, so it was an accomplishment. Plus it came out super cute. (Short story related to this: I went out to buy eyelet trim for the clown neck frill thing, and the fabric counter lady small talked, "what are you getting this for?" and when I said a clown doll, she like, stopped smiling and didn't talk for the rest of the interaction. I don't think she's a fan.)
Ongoing:
Stepstones: It's funny I was just starting this when I wrote in June, because now I've done like, 20 LOL. Concrete is still scary to work with, but it's pretty fun and surprisingly quick. Mosaic-lite-esque, though I still want to get into actual mosaic too; that's a little more involved. I want to make these until I run out of my big bag of cement, which hopefully will correspond to the weather getting colder and I can start staying out in the garage and revert back to doing stained glass.
Crossstich: This one is killing me. Overall I like it, but it's taken me so, so long to do like, a 15"x15" piece. The book I have has pretty complicated designs where every image has a million colors, but I think the biggest issue (not real issue) is that I have a lot of hobbies and this requires more dedication than I thought. Maybe the real issue is that I shouldn't feel frustrated it's taking so long when there's no time limit?
Pompoms: This might be a little more done than ongoing, but I got a cool book on making patterned pompoms and it's really fun and opened my brain to the possibilities of pompomery. However I don't know anything to actually do with them other than look at them like so: :). I'd like to kinda figure out a Thing to do with them.
Papier mache: I'm almost done with my sarcophagus trash can, it's really stupid and I love it. Drew a lot of very tiny hieroglyphics. I just need to decide if I seal it (the paint I used for everything that's black has this bad trait where it kinda like, has dust on the top after drying and so it will slightly smudge if modge podged over, and I used a LOT of black) and glue on the hinges.
Sewing clothes psycho style: Overcome with the knowledge that eventually I will be cold, I decided to make a padded house jacket for the winter, cause I hate wearing regular hoodies and stuff for whatever reason. Everything's cut, I just need to sew it together and then I'm going to hand quilt it. I can tell I'll regret quilting while it's hot out but I'm like, totally preparing for winter here. Squirrel style.
Future ideaing:
Various little painting projects. Kitbash my eva horse, finally < do this one. Make something papier mache that's more like, unique and 3D (a traditional bobblehead?). Little basket weave kit I found. Omg will I ever emboss anything. Junk journal. Dog costume book lol. Make some of the other clothes I bought patterns for, duh. Quilt, though doing the jacket will at least quench that desire for a little while I think. Repair wool blanket.
I had to make my own suikoden icon :(
Aug. 11th, 2023 11:33 pmI wish there was like, a repository for old style LJ avatars, because there was such a specific artistry to them in their day that's hard to replicate, and even if you can find them now a ton are claimed by the curse of the photobucket watermark. :( such a bummer.
I eneded up making my own by iffily coloring in a panel from the Suikoden 5 gag comic, which is SO good. Eventually I want to make one for Suiko 3, but same problem finding any as above, so I’ll be coloring the manga again I suppose. Also I don't have room (I wish we got a few more freebie slots but it's ok.....)
I wanted to write my thoughts after finishing Suikoden 5 but it’s taken… forever. I have this problem where I get too editorial, then I can tell that I am and it annoys me so I’m trapped in a loop. I WANT to talk about ships and stuff but the story is also important to me so it's hard. After so much time picking and pecking this became something of a frankenstein post and stupidly long so I’m going to put a lot of it behind a cut after all.
First off obligatory: 5 is a HUGE improvement from 4. To avoid being too negative I won't get into it, but that game truly was missing the Suikoden Spark. They knew they messed up and 5 obviously tried to recreate what worked from the other games to mostly good results. The hours of setup make the story weighty and the huge betrayal is devastating no matter how much you expect it. It’s the first time the main character is dashed from such a lofty position to having 3 people on your side, and anyone not trying to kill you is trying to exploit you. (I almost wish there was more of that but the game is long enough, I did 100 hours easily.) The build to your full army is nicely paced and there’s a good amount of twists in there. It’s not that most subtle story but I think it’s totally fine to not get too complicated. Keep it simple and do it well and other aspects like characters and gameplay will prop up anything else.
Anyway that’s boring I wanna talk about all the characters I like, with 108 there’s a lot of choices.
( Read more... )
I eneded up making my own by iffily coloring in a panel from the Suikoden 5 gag comic, which is SO good. Eventually I want to make one for Suiko 3, but same problem finding any as above, so I’ll be coloring the manga again I suppose. Also I don't have room (I wish we got a few more freebie slots but it's ok.....)
I wanted to write my thoughts after finishing Suikoden 5 but it’s taken… forever. I have this problem where I get too editorial, then I can tell that I am and it annoys me so I’m trapped in a loop. I WANT to talk about ships and stuff but the story is also important to me so it's hard. After so much time picking and pecking this became something of a frankenstein post and stupidly long so I’m going to put a lot of it behind a cut after all.
First off obligatory: 5 is a HUGE improvement from 4. To avoid being too negative I won't get into it, but that game truly was missing the Suikoden Spark. They knew they messed up and 5 obviously tried to recreate what worked from the other games to mostly good results. The hours of setup make the story weighty and the huge betrayal is devastating no matter how much you expect it. It’s the first time the main character is dashed from such a lofty position to having 3 people on your side, and anyone not trying to kill you is trying to exploit you. (I almost wish there was more of that but the game is long enough, I did 100 hours easily.) The build to your full army is nicely paced and there’s a good amount of twists in there. It’s not that most subtle story but I think it’s totally fine to not get too complicated. Keep it simple and do it well and other aspects like characters and gameplay will prop up anything else.
Anyway that’s boring I wanna talk about all the characters I like, with 108 there’s a lot of choices.
( Read more... )
Man I'm tired, and with no one to blame but myself. Usually I have a break between foster kittens but I got some new ones back to back and so I still have to stay up late to feed them... then on top of it yesterday I was hit with the Planet Zoo Mania and just one more exhibit edit-ed myself awake until 2. Today I am swearing to not do that, I already wore out my PZ brain, not to mention my regular brain.
It's already FF16 time, huh?? It's weird lol. My only hope is that I won't get spoiled for too much, because no PS5, boo hoo hoo (I'm ok with this). I managed to avoid FF15 so I'm coming in with a good record, I guess. Come to think of it, for a FF fan I've never gotten a (mainstream, non re-release) FF game at launch LOL. I'm glad people seem to like it, but I'm already tired of the "I don't play those stupid FF games because they're boring, but THIS one is action so it's the best one" like... yeah I get it people who like turn based and story driven games already know this. We're already in the minority when it comes to pretty much every other popular game around, so please accept more gracefully.
In my opinion, there's nothing better than story and turn bases this is a terrible transition into talking about Suikoden V, which I'm just about finished with and have pretty much loved. Despite trying to like it 4 really was disappointing, but they pulled it together for this one. It doesn't top 3 or 2 but 5 comes right on their heels. One of the biggest problems is that recruitment is too damn hard; thankfully I've accepted heavy guide use in Suikoden.
Now I wonder how Eiyuden Chronicle will be in that respect; I can see them having no missable characters because modern gamers might not tolerate missable content very well (thinking of all the people who have choice paralysis in Persona) but to please the older Suikoden players maybe there will be...? And what about stuff like timed choices or (infamous scene in Suikoden 2) having to play the game when you think you can't? Thinking about it now I might wait to play it until someone's written a guide hahah. God when the fuck is the suikoden 1 and 2 remaster coming out it's officially not spring anymore konami still sucking squad!!!!
Anyway, I better finish Suikoden 5 because I'm getting weird like, I need to finish a game now or I'm gonna die feeling. Too many things running parallel for too long, and all started at about the same time, with this and Okamiden and Zanki Zero all going. And then Rain Code's coming out in about a week... damn.
At least I'm doing ok in other stuff. I finished watching all the Godzillas (note to write about this and defend anime trilogy with all my might) and am now watching 'zilla-adjacent movies which are mostly terrible so far. How are people rating Mysterions above the anime movie. Or Varan honestly that shit sucked. Godzilla fans are so lamebrained. T__T I need to watch more movies but the Suikoden 5 draw is too real. I'm actually almost done with my book nook. I've made 3 stepping stones and have found that concrete is actually pretty fun to mess with. I have literally too many crafts right now but whatever it's all good. I need to finish my current book so I can move on to library stuff (and I don't like it much). I wish I had a million hours in a day~
It's already FF16 time, huh?? It's weird lol. My only hope is that I won't get spoiled for too much, because no PS5, boo hoo hoo (I'm ok with this). I managed to avoid FF15 so I'm coming in with a good record, I guess. Come to think of it, for a FF fan I've never gotten a (mainstream, non re-release) FF game at launch LOL. I'm glad people seem to like it, but I'm already tired of the "I don't play those stupid FF games because they're boring, but THIS one is action so it's the best one" like... yeah I get it people who like turn based and story driven games already know this. We're already in the minority when it comes to pretty much every other popular game around, so please accept more gracefully.
In my opinion, there's nothing better than story and turn bases this is a terrible transition into talking about Suikoden V, which I'm just about finished with and have pretty much loved. Despite trying to like it 4 really was disappointing, but they pulled it together for this one. It doesn't top 3 or 2 but 5 comes right on their heels. One of the biggest problems is that recruitment is too damn hard; thankfully I've accepted heavy guide use in Suikoden.
Now I wonder how Eiyuden Chronicle will be in that respect; I can see them having no missable characters because modern gamers might not tolerate missable content very well (thinking of all the people who have choice paralysis in Persona) but to please the older Suikoden players maybe there will be...? And what about stuff like timed choices or (infamous scene in Suikoden 2) having to play the game when you think you can't? Thinking about it now I might wait to play it until someone's written a guide hahah. God when the fuck is the suikoden 1 and 2 remaster coming out it's officially not spring anymore konami still sucking squad!!!!
Anyway, I better finish Suikoden 5 because I'm getting weird like, I need to finish a game now or I'm gonna die feeling. Too many things running parallel for too long, and all started at about the same time, with this and Okamiden and Zanki Zero all going. And then Rain Code's coming out in about a week... damn.
At least I'm doing ok in other stuff. I finished watching all the Godzillas (note to write about this and defend anime trilogy with all my might) and am now watching 'zilla-adjacent movies which are mostly terrible so far. How are people rating Mysterions above the anime movie. Or Varan honestly that shit sucked. Godzilla fans are so lamebrained. T__T I need to watch more movies but the Suikoden 5 draw is too real. I'm actually almost done with my book nook. I've made 3 stepping stones and have found that concrete is actually pretty fun to mess with. I have literally too many crafts right now but whatever it's all good. I need to finish my current book so I can move on to library stuff (and I don't like it much). I wish I had a million hours in a day~
craft diary 1/?
Jun. 8th, 2023 01:18 amI don't think I can really do a craft diary because there would be 10 zillion entries but maybe if I did one once in a while it would be nice since I have so many things I want to do right now and maybe it's good for like, a record?
Initially I was thinking this would be disappointing to write about but thinking about it, I've actually managed to keep one project going for... more than half a year now, another for several months, and some new stuff that seems do-able.
My crossstitch is taking literally forever but I'm glad I didn't give up on it. It really is the ultimate zone out activity, and once my current batch of foster kittens is gone (might still be 2 weeks... maybe only a week and a half because the one that was way behind seems to be picking up) I think the season might be mostly over so I can go back to doing it more like, daily. Since the book I'm using is making monthly themed carousel horses I would like to keep going because a lot of them are really cute but also like, this one has taken SO long I should probably pick favorites. Imagining taking 12 years to finish the whole thing is turning me into a skeleton before I need to go to bed lmao
Book nook confidence wavered for a week or two, but the break wasn't bad because I feel re-inspired to finish it. I think part of it was just like, looking at white shapes of foamcore is so boring and just was like, god is this gonna look like trash or what?? but now that most everything is painted and I started adding details, I like it a lot more. It helped to loosen my mental image of what it was meant to be, and now even though it's a bit annoying to add more little things I'm like, cutting plastic for little windows and things. I need to finish this one so I can justify buying a little pre-printed model I saw at a store over the weekend...... I want it.... doing it yourself is so much harder HAHA.
Making stepping stones is like the new hot fun thing for me... in my head lol. Working with cement is both easier and scarier than I thought it would be, like yeah I don't want chemical burns or silicone lungs but also I hate safety gear it's so boring. I wanna touch the concrete!! This weekend I'll at least do one, I've been collecting rocks and shells and stuff that I have lying around that aren't my super cool ones... or maybe I'll use the stained glass scrap pieces I've been cutting and make it more mosaic-like? There's too many possibilities. And though it is different, it also REALLY makes me want to do mosaic. I'm worried I'll get too into it and go into crazy mode and just make like 10 mosaic-d flowerpots and then be like ok. :3 what next.
also I really wanna do pebble mosaic but it's pretty different and rocks are too expensive :'( :'( I also need to remember that I want to do papier mache and have all the supplies so I have to do it before I find some other fucking. thing. I bought a book on carving carousel horses, my brain is just an evil craft hole
Initially I was thinking this would be disappointing to write about but thinking about it, I've actually managed to keep one project going for... more than half a year now, another for several months, and some new stuff that seems do-able.
My crossstitch is taking literally forever but I'm glad I didn't give up on it. It really is the ultimate zone out activity, and once my current batch of foster kittens is gone (might still be 2 weeks... maybe only a week and a half because the one that was way behind seems to be picking up) I think the season might be mostly over so I can go back to doing it more like, daily. Since the book I'm using is making monthly themed carousel horses I would like to keep going because a lot of them are really cute but also like, this one has taken SO long I should probably pick favorites. Imagining taking 12 years to finish the whole thing is turning me into a skeleton before I need to go to bed lmao
Book nook confidence wavered for a week or two, but the break wasn't bad because I feel re-inspired to finish it. I think part of it was just like, looking at white shapes of foamcore is so boring and just was like, god is this gonna look like trash or what?? but now that most everything is painted and I started adding details, I like it a lot more. It helped to loosen my mental image of what it was meant to be, and now even though it's a bit annoying to add more little things I'm like, cutting plastic for little windows and things. I need to finish this one so I can justify buying a little pre-printed model I saw at a store over the weekend...... I want it.... doing it yourself is so much harder HAHA.
Making stepping stones is like the new hot fun thing for me... in my head lol. Working with cement is both easier and scarier than I thought it would be, like yeah I don't want chemical burns or silicone lungs but also I hate safety gear it's so boring. I wanna touch the concrete!! This weekend I'll at least do one, I've been collecting rocks and shells and stuff that I have lying around that aren't my super cool ones... or maybe I'll use the stained glass scrap pieces I've been cutting and make it more mosaic-like? There's too many possibilities. And though it is different, it also REALLY makes me want to do mosaic. I'm worried I'll get too into it and go into crazy mode and just make like 10 mosaic-d flowerpots and then be like ok. :3 what next.
also I really wanna do pebble mosaic but it's pretty different and rocks are too expensive :'( :'( I also need to remember that I want to do papier mache and have all the supplies so I have to do it before I find some other fucking. thing. I bought a book on carving carousel horses, my brain is just an evil craft hole
Man, not only did I not post in April (month go by too fast) my single post in March was really early lmao. oops. I keep meaning to but it's always like the last thing on my mental list, and then it's 1 am and I have to go to bed. (I'm trying to not tumblrize and actually tag normally and just post a post without a cut lol it's scary lol)
At any rate I wanted to write something about finishing Tender Loving Care, the PC game that is mostly the butt of jokes but honestly I think is pretty sick and great.
I'm a fan of reassessing weird games that get bad reputations in the General Gaming Community, though I guess it's always worth something that this game doesn't have that bad of a like... general score, if you look at user reviews people who actually play it tend to think it's ok, and most of the issues are fair enough to bring up. And practically speaking the people who say "it's not much of a game" are not super wrong. So it's not hugely dire, no matter how much it seems to be. It's just like, shitty word of mouth usually inspired by popular youtubey people or whatever, but then people parrot what they say, which is so fucking stupid to me lol.
To summarize: Tender Loving Care is an FMV erotic suspense/drama. It's the story of a husband and wife who experienced a tragedy, leaving the wife in a depressive stupor in denial of the truth and the husband more or less going untreated as he supports her. Their psychiatrist suggests a live-in nurse to try and ease the wife back into reality. And then. The troubles begin.
There's just not that many games like this. It's pretty similar to movies of this ilk, but feels fresh because it's a game! You might say hey, why wasn't this just a movie? well, there is some interactivity. The game starts with you meeting their psychiatrist after the events of the game have occurred, and you're looking back on it. There's basically stages: you watch an FMV video, you answer questions, you explore the home for extra FMV events or other information, you answer more questions, and it starts again. The "quiz" answers will change the ending you get, but it's not straightforward like a VN with a clear path, because there's hundreds of possible questions and you won't get all of them in one playthrough. They're presented as a psychological test: some of them will be what you think about what's happening in the game in a very subjective way, some of them will be about your general opinions, some of them will be what you think about erotic art, etc. etc. I'm not going to say it's accurate or particularly meaningful, but every chapter you can go into the menu and look at a psychological profile of yourself and it was fun to see it be fairly accurate (at least, from my perspective.)
Of course, this only works if you actually try to answer the questions according to your actual feelings, and aren't fucking around. I would never want to play this game with another person, let alone stream it, because sometimes it honestly does ask awkward or embarrassing questions, especially about sexual topics like your feelings on voyeurism, or like this one time I got some very interesting cartoon animal images I had to answer questions about lmao. I get why people react with derision but the game was clearly designed to be played by one person, alone. (This is a problem I have with people jokingly playing Seaman too; yeah of course it's going to be dumb if you say you're a gigolo and tell him to fuck off every time you speak to him. You get back what you put in.)
It's cool to play a game as a weird observer like this. I like how despite your answers influencing the endings, you can't actually DO anything, in the same way you might watch people heading for a trainwreck during a movie or show. You're passive, but in a way, not. Every character in the house has a diary you can read to try and get more information to answer your questions more accurately, and sometimes the game will pull the rug out from under you on purpose. Honestly, I love this. I love that this game can essentially trick you because you have no ability to change your answers based on previous information. It's gone and all you can do is kick yourself for being judgemental in one direction or another.
Because these twisted up relationships are REALLY a trainwreck. If anyone reads and wants to play this, I don't want to spoil it because the motivations and actions of these characters will make you go "nooooo" and you're powerless to change any of it. Kinda great when you're peeking in from the future; everything is already written. I got a frankly amazing ending out of several possible, but none of them are good (though weirdly, one is like 20 minutes long and probably feels the most "complete" and satisfactory), which feels right considering the genre and how the game starts.
There's maybe one or two things I wish were different (for example they probably expected the player to be a cishet guy who would be conflicted when presented with boobies), but not... really. Overall the story's pretty dramatic, but it has its moments of humor (there's a radio you can inspect that has a Dr. Ruth-like call in show with funny relationship stories). The acting is a bit 90s FMV, but overall I thought everyone did a decent job. The story as laid out is pretty nuanced if you get into it and I think is probably the most adult thing because everyone has shitty actions they're doing for reasons they think they are right. It's not cool on the internet to say yeah, that sucked but I understand why it happened, and I pity all the characters in this situation.
The only other bad thing is that I think they put out a very similar game called Point of View (which is similarly difficult to search for) and I can't find it wait I think I found it. It is now hours later since I wrote the majority of this and I am sleepy so idk if there's a good way to end this but just. Try shit even if popular cool people say it sucks. If you want. I'm not your mom it's just my suggestion.
Also games like this walked so IMMORTALITY could run. That one doesn't need champions though lol.
At any rate I wanted to write something about finishing Tender Loving Care, the PC game that is mostly the butt of jokes but honestly I think is pretty sick and great.
I'm a fan of reassessing weird games that get bad reputations in the General Gaming Community, though I guess it's always worth something that this game doesn't have that bad of a like... general score, if you look at user reviews people who actually play it tend to think it's ok, and most of the issues are fair enough to bring up. And practically speaking the people who say "it's not much of a game" are not super wrong. So it's not hugely dire, no matter how much it seems to be. It's just like, shitty word of mouth usually inspired by popular youtubey people or whatever, but then people parrot what they say, which is so fucking stupid to me lol.
To summarize: Tender Loving Care is an FMV erotic suspense/drama. It's the story of a husband and wife who experienced a tragedy, leaving the wife in a depressive stupor in denial of the truth and the husband more or less going untreated as he supports her. Their psychiatrist suggests a live-in nurse to try and ease the wife back into reality. And then. The troubles begin.
There's just not that many games like this. It's pretty similar to movies of this ilk, but feels fresh because it's a game! You might say hey, why wasn't this just a movie? well, there is some interactivity. The game starts with you meeting their psychiatrist after the events of the game have occurred, and you're looking back on it. There's basically stages: you watch an FMV video, you answer questions, you explore the home for extra FMV events or other information, you answer more questions, and it starts again. The "quiz" answers will change the ending you get, but it's not straightforward like a VN with a clear path, because there's hundreds of possible questions and you won't get all of them in one playthrough. They're presented as a psychological test: some of them will be what you think about what's happening in the game in a very subjective way, some of them will be about your general opinions, some of them will be what you think about erotic art, etc. etc. I'm not going to say it's accurate or particularly meaningful, but every chapter you can go into the menu and look at a psychological profile of yourself and it was fun to see it be fairly accurate (at least, from my perspective.)
Of course, this only works if you actually try to answer the questions according to your actual feelings, and aren't fucking around. I would never want to play this game with another person, let alone stream it, because sometimes it honestly does ask awkward or embarrassing questions, especially about sexual topics like your feelings on voyeurism, or like this one time I got some very interesting cartoon animal images I had to answer questions about lmao. I get why people react with derision but the game was clearly designed to be played by one person, alone. (This is a problem I have with people jokingly playing Seaman too; yeah of course it's going to be dumb if you say you're a gigolo and tell him to fuck off every time you speak to him. You get back what you put in.)
It's cool to play a game as a weird observer like this. I like how despite your answers influencing the endings, you can't actually DO anything, in the same way you might watch people heading for a trainwreck during a movie or show. You're passive, but in a way, not. Every character in the house has a diary you can read to try and get more information to answer your questions more accurately, and sometimes the game will pull the rug out from under you on purpose. Honestly, I love this. I love that this game can essentially trick you because you have no ability to change your answers based on previous information. It's gone and all you can do is kick yourself for being judgemental in one direction or another.
Because these twisted up relationships are REALLY a trainwreck. If anyone reads and wants to play this, I don't want to spoil it because the motivations and actions of these characters will make you go "nooooo" and you're powerless to change any of it. Kinda great when you're peeking in from the future; everything is already written. I got a frankly amazing ending out of several possible, but none of them are good (though weirdly, one is like 20 minutes long and probably feels the most "complete" and satisfactory), which feels right considering the genre and how the game starts.
There's maybe one or two things I wish were different (for example they probably expected the player to be a cishet guy who would be conflicted when presented with boobies), but not... really. Overall the story's pretty dramatic, but it has its moments of humor (there's a radio you can inspect that has a Dr. Ruth-like call in show with funny relationship stories). The acting is a bit 90s FMV, but overall I thought everyone did a decent job. The story as laid out is pretty nuanced if you get into it and I think is probably the most adult thing because everyone has shitty actions they're doing for reasons they think they are right. It's not cool on the internet to say yeah, that sucked but I understand why it happened, and I pity all the characters in this situation.
The only other bad thing is that I think they put out a very similar game called Point of View (which is similarly difficult to search for) and I can't find it wait I think I found it. It is now hours later since I wrote the majority of this and I am sleepy so idk if there's a good way to end this but just. Try shit even if popular cool people say it sucks. If you want. I'm not your mom it's just my suggestion.
Also games like this walked so IMMORTALITY could run. That one doesn't need champions though lol.
Since a lot of new stuff about FFXVI has been released I am inevitably opinionated but I feel better about it than I have before so hopefully the fanwank is..... you know less lmao.
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I am posting
Feb. 20th, 2023 11:39 pmIt's been a while but I've been busy... *busy on the computer. Keeping myself busy? and honestly I feel kinda productive, I've signed up (sorta) for two art things and just like, did them within a few days, liek some kind of anti-procrastination squad member. Then I got stuck on something harder but I'm still working on it, but it's a nice feeling because winter usually has me useless for months and I've actually felt pretty good recently. I feel like I'm slowing down but I don't wanna so I think I'm going to start on something longer term... we'll see how that goes. It's so hard cry cry.
books n movies and such update:
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books n movies and such update:
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I've been tracking my personal game of the years for over 5 years now, crazy. I've tweaked stuff along the way, but this is pretty much what I did last year, which is like, I drew a little picture to commemorate the games (I didn't think about this I think the image insert should work ok right haha) that I liked the most. And then I slam my personal shittest game <3.
This listing is every game I played this year, not just games that came out this year... cause who does that. That'd be wild huh. They're in no particular order, just categories.
This will probably look VERY broken not on fullsized browser. I didn't think about changing the size of my pics from last time when the blog fit it a little better... next year I'll tweak it haha. Oh well. idk what I did to make it have 3 cuts or how to fix it so please ignore that thanks
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This listing is every game I played this year, not just games that came out this year... cause who does that. That'd be wild huh. They're in no particular order, just categories.
This will probably look VERY broken not on fullsized browser. I didn't think about changing the size of my pics from last time when the blog fit it a little better... next year I'll tweak it haha. Oh well. idk what I did to make it have 3 cuts or how to fix it so please ignore that thanks
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new year new whatever lmao
Jan. 3rd, 2023 06:00 pmI hope everyone had a good round of holidays and a good start to the fresh year!! I enjoyed reading everyone's entries anyway, I was pretty busy (ok that's a lie I was just nowhere near a computer as is my right) and took the week off and stuff, which was good...
r.l. wanking:
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otherwise though, I had a good time. My sister being around for a while always means we'll do fun stuff, so we did crafts, watched movies, played games, which is all you can ask for in a little monkey life!! I will highlight some of these things now.
Bayonetta 3: We've always played these together so I had to wait a bit (not as long as we'll have to wait for that storybook one) but damn, I really loved this game. I've seen people criticize it which... of course is fine but I literally don't understand a lot of the complaints. People have issues with the story which is like, ok yeah we're all tired of the multiverse but this game was in production for a long time so it probably seemed a little more novel in planning. and I won't hold that against anything 100%, maybe it was multiverse but at least it wasn't meta. but also do people honestly care about the story of Bayonetta... I could not tell you what the other two games were about. It's spectacle, it's a cool ass witch lady summoning hair monsters, it's a goofy sexy game. And in this one she has monster forms so I have no complaints whatsoever. I will talk about this more later...
As far as movies, I wanted to finish out some halloweenies that were going to be leaving criterion soon, and man, I'm so glad we did. We also watched a lot of giallo, my beloved.
Wolfen: I don't know why there aren't more werewolf movies (honestly I know I'm missing a few of the big ones like Ginger Snaps and actually never saw American etc all the way through) because there's like, as much potential as anything else but damn, this one was really good. Just like a cool werewolf sorta police procedural with really cool visuals (my sister and I were talking about mirrored blinds all week) and actual wolf werewolves, my favorite kind. I'm going to draw fanart of this. This is a poor description it's a really cool movie I swear.
The Hidden: this movie should be a CLASSIC tbh. I don't want to give away what happens even though it's actually spoiled very early on, because it's badass and the description given that's like, ~something~ is turning people into ferrari driving maniacs is all you want to know. Also it has a good boy FBI/regularish type detective dynamic. Great movie for squib fans. The ending is perfect too. It's like, one of those movies where yes, when you see what's going on you'll probably figure out a lot of what's going to happen but it's VERY satisfying when it does. And successfully tells a very fun story in an hour and a half... (a very good contrast in multiple ways because we watched Glass Onion after this and boy did I not care for it at all I will be nice)
I'm not going to talk about it but to prove I'm not like some kind of filme jerk we also watched league of super pets and I laughed way more than expected (I watched for guinea pigs), honestly was a very good time. By far the best movie I watched this year that was from this year (I think that was 4 movies in total but that's pretty good for me tbh)
Soon I'll probably do my end of the year game roundup that I have done on various other abandoned blogs, and idk, maybe I'd think about a movie one too... or maybe just an overall things I liked from last year, but I don't know about that. We'll see.
And I don't really do real resolutions but here's some thoughts for the coming year, I guess:
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r.l. wanking:
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otherwise though, I had a good time. My sister being around for a while always means we'll do fun stuff, so we did crafts, watched movies, played games, which is all you can ask for in a little monkey life!! I will highlight some of these things now.
Bayonetta 3: We've always played these together so I had to wait a bit (not as long as we'll have to wait for that storybook one) but damn, I really loved this game. I've seen people criticize it which... of course is fine but I literally don't understand a lot of the complaints. People have issues with the story which is like, ok yeah we're all tired of the multiverse but this game was in production for a long time so it probably seemed a little more novel in planning. and I won't hold that against anything 100%, maybe it was multiverse but at least it wasn't meta. but also do people honestly care about the story of Bayonetta... I could not tell you what the other two games were about. It's spectacle, it's a cool ass witch lady summoning hair monsters, it's a goofy sexy game. And in this one she has monster forms so I have no complaints whatsoever. I will talk about this more later...
As far as movies, I wanted to finish out some halloweenies that were going to be leaving criterion soon, and man, I'm so glad we did. We also watched a lot of giallo, my beloved.
Wolfen: I don't know why there aren't more werewolf movies (honestly I know I'm missing a few of the big ones like Ginger Snaps and actually never saw American etc all the way through) because there's like, as much potential as anything else but damn, this one was really good. Just like a cool werewolf sorta police procedural with really cool visuals (my sister and I were talking about mirrored blinds all week) and actual wolf werewolves, my favorite kind. I'm going to draw fanart of this. This is a poor description it's a really cool movie I swear.
The Hidden: this movie should be a CLASSIC tbh. I don't want to give away what happens even though it's actually spoiled very early on, because it's badass and the description given that's like, ~something~ is turning people into ferrari driving maniacs is all you want to know. Also it has a good boy FBI/regularish type detective dynamic. Great movie for squib fans. The ending is perfect too. It's like, one of those movies where yes, when you see what's going on you'll probably figure out a lot of what's going to happen but it's VERY satisfying when it does. And successfully tells a very fun story in an hour and a half... (a very good contrast in multiple ways because we watched Glass Onion after this and boy did I not care for it at all I will be nice)
I'm not going to talk about it but to prove I'm not like some kind of filme jerk we also watched league of super pets and I laughed way more than expected (I watched for guinea pigs), honestly was a very good time. By far the best movie I watched this year that was from this year (I think that was 4 movies in total but that's pretty good for me tbh)
Soon I'll probably do my end of the year game roundup that I have done on various other abandoned blogs, and idk, maybe I'd think about a movie one too... or maybe just an overall things I liked from last year, but I don't know about that. We'll see.
And I don't really do real resolutions but here's some thoughts for the coming year, I guess:
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upcoming phoenix thoughts
Dec. 1st, 2022 11:59 pmI meant to post a daily december thing but as you do, I was thinking about the Phoenix adaptation that's going to be on d+ and realized... they picked a fucking really weird one. I assume they're going to rewrite QUITE a lot of it but I kinda want to summarize the chapter they chose and just... why this one lmao. Also I really like phoenix and want to ruminate on it some more.
Obviously spoilers if anyone wants to read phoenix/see this movie, also the first half of this chapter is like, biblical style incest so, dldr.
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Obviously spoilers if anyone wants to read phoenix/see this movie, also the first half of this chapter is like, biblical style incest so, dldr.
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as promised, I changed my icons
Nov. 29th, 2022 09:14 pmI went on a very minor icon search but man, the art REALLY has been lost. I know it's just my idiot nostalgia goggles but these days we finally have the tools to make tiny text everywhere, it's much easier to make gifs, we have all kinds of resources for art, and they're just like... boring. Thankfully I realized I had a saved treasure trove of old school icons and while I'm missing some stuff it's better than nothing.
anyway, that's alright. It's all good.
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anyway, that's alright. It's all good.
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promised land non-dream diary entry
Nov. 15th, 2022 12:28 am(I was very tickled by my folder of old LJ icons that I found so I was like hehehe I'm gonna use these things but they are like 80% jokey and I should change them. Maybe? idk who cares)
Anyway it's fun to watch the internet melt down a little. as bad as I feel for like, artists and stuff who use twitts to make a living, I also think like... humanity probably doesn't need a social media like this. governments use a private platform to announce policies on the same site lonely people catalog the food they ate that day. When the internet was more fractured, I think people had healthier brains, and maybe it's time to step back to that again until something much, much better than what we have can be used. I've seen a lot of people say how sad this idea is (and while I agree everyone flocking to discord is TOO fractured, mostly because discord is a terrible place to have conversations), but I had like, so, so many friends in tiny like, roleplay groups who found each other through common interest and disposition, and it was good. You had to actually know and accept people who were slightly different than you.
Aside from that I went a little movie crazy last month and wanted to highlight a few that I thought ruled. Lots of horror because spooky szn!!!
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Anyway it's fun to watch the internet melt down a little. as bad as I feel for like, artists and stuff who use twitts to make a living, I also think like... humanity probably doesn't need a social media like this. governments use a private platform to announce policies on the same site lonely people catalog the food they ate that day. When the internet was more fractured, I think people had healthier brains, and maybe it's time to step back to that again until something much, much better than what we have can be used. I've seen a lot of people say how sad this idea is (and while I agree everyone flocking to discord is TOO fractured, mostly because discord is a terrible place to have conversations), but I had like, so, so many friends in tiny like, roleplay groups who found each other through common interest and disposition, and it was good. You had to actually know and accept people who were slightly different than you.
Aside from that I went a little movie crazy last month and wanted to highlight a few that I thought ruled. Lots of horror because spooky szn!!!
( Read more... )
