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Watched The Batman.

Did not like.

It was certainly unconventional. Needs an hour chopped off.  There is just so much exposition happening, it somehow makes Batman seem like a ‘Good Listener’ boyfriend, instead of the violent maniac that he’s supposed to be coming off as. Police bad! Let’s just go ahead and spend 3hrs focused on the police mob as a living ocean. Like, it’s poignant, I guess? But it’s also 3hrs of poignancy that never seems to get to its point. Which maybe was the point?  Giaccino’s score is well crafted but also seems kinda one-note? Well, four notes, actually. But all based around a Nirvana track that they play twice.

Point being, it was not a fun experience despite the Internet insistence that it was a game changer.

Domee Shi’s turn in the chair at Pixar is really good. The characters are great and the animation is great, and I cried through half of it, which is exactly what I want from a Pixar.

It’s zany, and wacky and knocks scene after scene out of the park.

I might like it better than Incredibles or Monsters.

And the soundtrack is dope.

Gonna watch it again a couple more times.

So I was a little weirded out by my podcast feed recently. Everyone reporting on the Russian invasion of Ukraine mentions that Zelenskyy (Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, the current President of Ukraine) is a popular comedian who had a runaway hit show that was some kind of mashup of Veep/ParksnRec/theOffice for Ukrainian politics, which he promptly founded a political party named after said show and became president of Ukraine in a bizarre mirror of the show.

They mention it.

And then they move on. Immediately.

Occasionally one of them will try to explain a bit from the show and it inevitably sounds like a political journalist describing a forgein joke: utterly devoid of any humor whatsoever.

And really, it isnt The Important Thing, so I'm not super hacked off about it...

But...

I went to see what's up.

1. What's going on? (with the podcasts)
2. The show.

1. What's going on? With the podcasts:

The show is in Russian (Zelenskyy's first language) and there is no official English dub. A bunch of the jokes are about how bad he is at fluently speaking formal Ukrainian and involve Russian/Ukrainian homonyms and rhymes.  Usually dirty ones. The subtitles that exist are... pretty bad/nonexistent. So... if you don't speak Russian & have at least some familiarity in Ukrainian yourself, it's pretty hard to describe what's actually happening on screen, let alone trying to throw in your own takes on the dirty jokes, so I can see why it doesn't make for compelling audiodrama that the legal department will sign off on.

I don't speak or read either Russian or Ukrainian, which has made things difficult.

That said.

2. The show:

Is pretty fucking great! Zelenskyy co-produces and is undeniably having the time of his life. It's very well executed situational comedy even if you can't understand the dialog at all. The props are fantastic. Zelenskyy's face is fantastic. The writing is tight. The camera department is having WAY too much fun.  The sets are unreal for a first season show. Everything always calls back when it should. I never knew I wanted a president with THAT look on his face 'til I saw Zelenskyy doin' it with his face. It's Mr. Bean, the best political bits of the Pythons and SNL, and Parks n Rec all rolled up into a funny, fast package...

...that we're all supposed to believe was a total accident and not calculated at all. While he makes joke after joke about Lukashenko and Putin. It's more than a liiiiiiiittle wagthedogish.

There's a strong element of The Good Place in that, at least so far it fancies itself a "teaching show" in that it regularly features flashbacks to Zelenskyy's history-teacher-character giving "what really happened in Ukraine's history" lectures to his students that the show lavishes with screentime. Like Newsroom with more relevance.

But also a bunch of Russian/Ukrainian Beverly Hillbillies inetween lectures.

Its at the All4 for most of the world, and YouTube (sorta not sure??) in the US.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ-3YwVQV0M

I really especially don't understand what to do with the poster frames on these.

I think... The channel want Russians to stop shooting at Ukrainians, not for us to not watch the video they haven't taken down. But definitely willing to be corrected on that and stop watching.

Protip for the YouTube version: when the valient wonderful attempt at English subtitles ends, switch to Russian, then use YouTube's AutoTranslate (not AutoGenerate!) to get to a... usable English [or your language/locale of choice] approximation(ish?) of what's being said.

I'm at S01E8

EDIT: And it’s back on Netflix!

Bringing Grogu back wasn’t half as bad as having him n Luke do ‘recovered-memories’ hypnosis therapy. Absolutely zero of Luke’s dialog sounds like it is coming from an irritating kid who just killed his father (other than perhaps his left field question about Yoda’s vernacular), but instead sounds like he’s been possessed by Mace Windu and has decided that his trouble was he wasn’t pious enough. I can’t imagine Han & Leia could stand to be around him for more than 30 seconds at a time.

Is it weird that they’re building the hut which will be the birthplace of Kyle Ren?

No don’t look at that it’s totally normal

Facebook and twitter have never made me feel included whatsoever. I hear people talk about the little drug high they get off of likes/views, and like, I'm jealous - cause who doesn't enjoy a little high? - but I have absolutely no reference for what it feels like. Being on Facebook and twitter has felt like an exact reflection of my RL interactions with strangers : being ignored cause I'm not that interesting or talented and haven't ever slotted myself into a community where I DO something other than hang around aaaand don't immediately implode/sabatage myself because I'm afraid of it.

(Not fishing here, Ya'll arent strangers, and I'm fine)

@Tom you’re right they’ve definitely won and you have to use Messenger in some form or another as well as Marketplace if you were ever interested in buying stuff from strangers again since they destroyed craigslist.  Although recently when I tried to set up a new account I discovered I’d been hard banned from ever signing up again (no idea why, it doesn’t say, and I never got an email about it. Was never banned before I quit, so, weird) so I use Caitlyn’s when I have to.

Also, @Teague, lovin' the voices and the pacing and soundboards.  Don't let Maul destroy your voice tho!

Got started on AO3, and once I was hooked I needed a way to get keep intaking in the car.  These are fantastic!

Hahhahahhahahaha

Very cool! So many times writers respond to the How-can-I-write-a-book-too question with "Just write",  which is good advice for procrastination but isn't very interesting (to be fair, it isn't an interesting question to ask, usually). This is MUCH more thorough and interesting than "Just write".

Followup: once you're finished outlining, did you proceed to write through the outline in a linear or non-linear fashion for those ten-minute sprints?

Also: link?

Why... is it black on black? Wouldn't it be easier to reshoot?

**nods**