ouch

Jun. 21st, 2025 08:33 pm
esteefee: chibi Rodney kissing John on the head with a little red heart (crankychibijohn)
[personal profile] esteefee
note to self: do not purchase children's bandaids. children's bandaids were invented by an unlicensed sadist. sure, they're cute. but there's a reason kids hate having them removed, and that is: they don't come off! not without taking your skin with them.

boycott children's bandaids. even if they have SpongeBob on them.

horror movies and things

Jun. 20th, 2025 09:38 pm
snickfic: Genevieve lying on the grass, text LOVE (Gen)
[personal profile] snickfic
Masters of Horror: Cigarette Burns. In John Carpenter's episode of the horror anthology series, a guy (Norman Reedus) who finds rare movie prints is hired to find one that may no longer exist after horrific violence broke out on the night it was shown. I love stories about haunted media, and the haunted media parts of this were solid. Unlike Antrum: The Deadliest Movie Ever Made, this mostly resisted the temptation of actually showing us the cursed movie, but the effects as our guy gets closer to finding it are satisfyingly disturbing. It even gets pretty gory towards the end, which I was not expecting.

That said, it's weirdly paced and very talky, and the main character should have been played by someone older, because Norman Reedus with his baby face absolutely cannot sell this role. Also, IMO it really mishandled the reveal spoilers )

--

Sator (2021). A man lives in a cabin in the woods while trying to discover what happened to his mother, who may have been taken by a demon that she and her mother both claimed to hear messages from. This movie doesn't have much dialogue, is very poorly lit, and relies heavily on the viewer being able to recognize and distinguish faces to distinguish what's happening, which I'm pretty bad at, so overall I understood only the broadest strokes of this movie. I think I would really like the movie that I think it was trying to be, a story of an inherited gift/curse and how it affects and has affected different members of the family, but I need a bit more than this movie could give me.

In particular,
spoilery questions )

I will say the spooky woodsy vibes were very good, and despite being objectively pretty slow, I was engaged the whole time. Also, the actress playing the grandma with dementia was fantastic. Loved her.

Overall I don't recommend this one, but if you watch it, I would love to know what you think happens in it.

(no subject)

Jun. 19th, 2025 10:10 pm
olivermoss: (Default)
[personal profile] olivermoss
I've finished Game Changers by Rachel Reid. No, not just the book called Game Changer, tho whole series which is called Game Changers. Getting through the whole series that fast is fine, probably. Anyway, tl:dr whole series review is that the books are of very uneven quality. Some people say to skip book 1, and I can see that. It's a bit more fluffy than some of the other books and some of her later writing is much better. But to me book 4 is just confusingly bad, and that can be skipped easily. The Ilya and Shane books (2 and 6) are fantastic and I also really, really liked 3 and 5.

One thing the writer really excels at is having a distinct feel to her characters. For example, most of them have reasons to be anxious with all the pressures they face, but that manifests in different ways in each character. How it feels to them, if they try to ignore it, how they handle it, etc.

The TV series will be based on book 2, Heated Rivalry, which is about Shane and Ilya. But book 6, Long Game, continues to story of Shane and Ilya and is excellent. It also wraps up the series very well, even though it wasn't the intended ending. The author has scrapped book 7 because it wasn't working, but honestly 6 feels like a great series finale. Maybe 1 or 2 scenes more would have been ideal, but the book pays off a lot of stuff and feels satisfying.

The quality of the writing varies a lot over the series, and also each book has a different dynamic. I am very glad I read it, but I think for anyone reading this series there are going to be books that don't click with as much.

Anyway, the individual books.

Book 1 - Game Changer: When I saw the blurb I was like 'oh, it's this book'. I remember this creating a splash when it came out. In spaces I was in, people were pushing this book hard. No matter what you asked for, people rushed in with this recc. There was a point where I really wanted people to shut up about this book. But, that probably says more about the spaces I was in than the book or the fandom.

It's the coffee shop AU trope, but as original fiction. Read more... )

Book 2 - I already talked about Heated Rivalry here

Book 3 - Tough Guy: This was very interesting as it dipped into the darker side of hockey as a business and also the impact of hockey injuries. major spoilers )

Book 4 - Common Goal: This is about a retiring goalie and a much younger character who is a friend of the couple from the first book. Spoilers )

Book 5 - Role Model: This book is about someone who was caught up in the toxic side of hockey culture. Again, bringing in some real stuff. The MC starts out spiraling because his best friend was accused of sexual assault and he has reason to believe the women. His life had just collapsed in a dozen ways. He gets traded and his new team has an openly gay social media manager who is lively, sweet and loves to bake. I really liked this one and how things developed between them.

Sidenote: I think it's fine to just read the Shane and Ilya books, but Role Model does leads into the last book in some interesting ways. A chunk of both books overlap timewise and the MC from this book is on Ilya's team. I really enjoying getting the additional perspective on things.

Book 6 - Long Game - Time to see how Shane and Ilya are doing. Shane and Ilya are such great characters. They are really in a different and have been stuck watching other couples come out and able to love openly and get married and by truthful to their friends. Lots of amazing call backs to the first book and building on things that happened in it. Read more... )

(no subject)

Jun. 19th, 2025 06:04 pm
olivermoss: (Default)
[personal profile] olivermoss
* I have my Leyfarers Chapter 7 Finale tomorrow. I am interested to see how things go. Between that session and the start of Chapter 8 we will be switching from the 2012 D&D ruleset to the current one. We'll be able to change characters or even reroll at our current levels. I am not changing much, because 2012 rangers were so weak that a lot of people refused to play them. I've been looking forward to this for a while.

The finale will involve a reality-distortion that will account for all the changes that will happen. My Dwarf is losing his stone sense which is going to be very weird for him.

I spent all this time trying to learn one ruleset and now I need to relearn things and set up all new reference materials for myself.

* I really want to be posting interesting Pride related pics, but I haven't found much this year. It's been a weird June. Some of the events I did last year don't seem to be happening this year. Maybe I should go early tomorrow and poke around Laurelhurst Park. I know it's not much, but when shit gets tough people tend to thank me for my posts, shows them not everything is dark. But I just haven't come across a rainbow yarn bombing yet!

Movies I DNF

Jun. 19th, 2025 03:33 pm
snickfic: b/w still of Grace Le Domas in her wedding dress (Grace Ready or Not)
[personal profile] snickfic
It's been a minute since I did one of these!

V/H/S/2 (2013). Too much gross, way too many zombies. The zombie helmetcam segment is supposed to be a classic, but a) gross, and b) HOW ARE WE SPLICING IN A WHOLE OTHER SOURCE OF FOOTAGE INTO THE HELMETCAM FOOTAGE. I will allow cutting in found footage but I refuse to accept editing in entirely other sources. I watched the Kill Count for the segments I missed and was not even a little sorry I skipped them. I like found footage, I like anthology movies, but I think I'm done with this franchise.

Resurrection (2022). Rebecca Hall plays a mother who (thinks she?) spots her past abuser/rapist at a conference and completely loses her mind over it. Hall is so good at psychological tension, TOO good in this case. I could not handle it, especially combined with the abuse dynamic. Apparently the movie got even weirder after I stopped, complete with on-screen pseudo-mpreg? IDK, psychological realism combined with plot surrealism is not my jam.

Psycho Goreman (2021). Two kids discover an ancient evil emperor of the universe and get him to do tricks for them. I think in order to like this movie I needed to be a huge fan of a certain kind of cheesy 80s fantasy movie, and alas I am not. Also the kids are really obnoxious, especially the sister.

The House October Built (2011). A camera crew goes on the road to film haunted houses people have set up for Halloween. This opens with the most excruciating "one (1) woman and a bunch of annoying men bicker" found footage scene I have seen in a long time. I lasted less than five minutes. Why is there always one woman max in found footage movies? Why is there basically NO found footage with majority women? Found footage is so cheap to make, why aren't there bunches of these movies by and about women? (Recs welcome.)

Stopmotion (2024). A repressed woman becomes increasingly obsessive about completing her mother's stop-motion film. This was slow and tedious, and I am so tired of movies about quiet, introverted characters inevitably becoming obsessed, deranged, and losing their entire grip on reality. And again with the surrealism, ugh.

Left for Dead (2007). A horror-western about a woman looking to kill a wanted outlaw, with the blurb "Saw meets the spaghetti western." When I bought this for $4 at Goodwill, I want to stress that I did not expect it to be good, but it may be the actual worst movie I have ever watched in my life. Somehow this movie has a wikipedia page, where we learn it was filmed in twelve days. There is copious slow-mo. Every single change of camera angle is preceded by a freeze frame. It is impossible to articulate how painful every second of this movie is, and I strongly recommend you hunt it down just to experience a couple of minutes of it for yourself.

Blink Twice (2024). Two women get themselves invited to a CEO's party island, and then they start losing parts of their memory. Or so I hear; I didn't even get as far as the island invite because the social embarassment squick hit me so hard. Then I looked up spoilers and discovered that the answer to all the mysteries in the trailer is RAPE because this is a RAPE island where the CEO and all his friends are RAPISTS. Did I mention this is a movie about RAPE? (And also about a drug with truly remarkable capabilities in selective memory suppression.)

Gothic (1986). Percy Bysshe Shelley, his wife Mary, Lord Byron, and a couple of others party at Byron's house with a lot of laudanum, and stuff happens. This is by Ken Russell, who did Lair of the White Worm, but that movie is a romp and this is... a series of events which may or may not exist within the same narrative? They're not even interesting events. It's like unsexy erotica, interpersonal drama, someone maybe hallucinates a monster, more unsexy erotica. Timothy Spall wears a corset at one point. With half an hour left I turned it off and read about Mary Shelley on wikipedia instead, which was a much more enjoyable use of my time.

Movie roundup!

Jun. 15th, 2025 08:52 pm
snickfic: Meg Cas kiss closeup (Meg Cas)
[personal profile] snickfic
Sinners (2025). Twin brothers return from organized crime in Chicago to open an all-Black juke joint in their hometown in Mississipi with their cousin Sammie playing the blues as entertainment, and then vampires.

I held off reviewing this after I saw it the first time because I wanted to process and see it again, and honestly after seeing a second time I don't know what I can possibly add to what's already been said. This is an absolutely gorgeous movie, amazing music, all the acting is great, all the relationships are compelling. Director Ryan Coogler has packed so many interesting historical angles and so many themes that it's a challenge to unpack them all, but a fun challenge. I am especially compelled by all the depictions of religion, Christan and otherwise, and how that intersects with the spiritual power of music as depicted in the film.

Some bits I particularly liked:
- The Chinese immigrants running stores in the Mississippi delta
- The difficult and heart-breaking situation of Hailee Steinfeld's character, who is one-eight Black
- How much Ryan Coogler loves cunnilingus
- Stack's hand tremors, presumably from WWI nerve gas
- How incredibly shippy the MBJ twins are. "You're the best part of me" and "I'm nothing without you." !!!
- The fact that it's set in 1932 and the Depression isn't mentioned even once, presumably because these people's lives were already scraped to the bone. (This movie has got to be Coogler's response to O Brother Where Art Thou, right? Also set in Mississippi during the depression, also full of diagetic music, also featuring the Klan, there's even a scene here driving along the road passing a chain gang. The Black blues player in that movie could BE Sammie Moore from Sinners; even the timeline would line up okay.)

Anyway, this movie is incredible. You absolutely should see it.

--

Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes (2021). German psychedelic horror(?) film. The official one-line blurb is something like "A couple visit the rundown castle they've inherited and become trapped in the reality that only exists within its walls," which sounds very cosmic horror, and I guess maybe it's not NOT that? But boy is it a lot of other things too. There might be reincarnating gods? At one point spoiler ) and then there's another hour of movie.

It's very low-budget and definitely not what I came for, but it's a trip. Comps might be Triangle if it gave up on trying to make sense or, from a different angle, A Bucket of Blood (1959). If this sounds like your jam, it's worth giving a try.

--

Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025). A young woman visiting the grand opening of Not The Space Needle in the 60s has a premonition of disaster and saves the lives of everyone there; decades later, her granddaughter starts have recurring nightmares of that night and realizes that death is coming for her and all her family members who should never have been born.

This is my first FD movie, which I saw solely on the logic that it was free (or "free," because I have a Regal subscription) and I needed something fun and cheesy. And this was indeed that! All the characters were reasonably likeable, and some of the deaths were quite inventive. This movie makes a LOT of hay out of body piercings, and the entire sequence with the MRI machine was inspired. I also really enjoyed everything with the long opening sequence in the 60s and found the young woman very charming. That was probably my favorite part of the movie, actually.

I would not say this was a good movie. For one thing, I have become That Horror Fan, because I found a lot of the CGI pretty annoying and kept wishing for some practical effects for the deaths. I also was entirely unpersuaded by the poor man's version of Laurie Strode and family from Halloween 2018. The generational trauma was all tell, no show, and even the plot logistics with the grandma didn't make a lot of sense given other information we have.

Still, yeah, a cheesy fun time.

Art (Drawesome Challenge #71- Pride!)

Jun. 14th, 2025 12:31 pm
goss: Paint Brushes (Paint Brushes)
[personal profile] goss
Title: Jim
Artist: [personal profile] goss
Fandom: Our Flag Means Death
Character: Jim Jimenez
Rating: G
Content Notes: For [community profile] drawesome Challenge #71 - Pride!. Digital drawing of Jim, an awesome non-binary character on Our Flag Means Death, using the non-binary flag colours yellow, white, purple and black. I was also inspired by the ceaseless fluidity and flow of the wide open ocean. :)

Preview:
Jim Jimenez

Click here for entire artwork )

Books Again

Jun. 13th, 2025 01:15 pm
olivermoss: (Default)
[personal profile] olivermoss
Because I had a big cleaning day, I finally finished the audiobook I was on.

* Blood Trail by Tanya Huff - Choices were made by the author. Spoilers )

* Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid - This is actually the second book in a series called Game Changers. I'd heard that it can be read as a standalone so I did, but then I found out that book 6 in the series continues their story. To understand book 6, you need to have read 2, 3 and 5 so... yeah, take stand-alone claims with a grain of salt. I expect that the show will include some of the plot of 6. Also, I want to be able to look at Heated Rivalry tags and fan spaces, and those will likely have talk of the pairing's full story. So yeah, should have stuck to my 'read series in order' policy.

You know how romantasy and some other romance books have such a rep for being just smut, and then when people try them they get confused that it is mostly plot? This is the opposite situation. How the hell are they going to adapt this? Most of the character arc progression happen during the sex scenes. Also, Ilya has trouble expressing himself in English so he mostly expresses himself, or tries to, by touch. There's not a ton of dialogue. I doubled checked like five times that this is the right book. Adapting this is going to have some challenges. That's part of why I suspect that the series will include material from other books like book 6.

The book was fantastic, and I'd never have touched this sub-genre if it wasn't for the upcoming show. Spoilers )

Y'all

Jun. 12th, 2025 10:23 am
olivermoss: (Default)
[personal profile] olivermoss


Took a minute, but we are finally getting Spaceballs 2: The Search For More Money

shoes!

Jun. 12th, 2025 12:42 am
esteefee: Foreground of Rodney's dirty white sock on the table as he rubs his foot with John's disgusted expression in the background, with caption 'You can't choose your partner in this dance.' (cantchoose)
[personal profile] esteefee
I only own 3 pairs of shoes: my slippers, my daily sneaks, and my dress shoes. it's time for some new sneaks!

but don't come at me with shoes that curl upward at the toes unless they're a) cowboy boots; or b) khussas. and while we're at it, when are they going to bring back those sneakers with the big ass toe box? those were so comfy and fun.

shoes, people! so important.

Boooks

Jun. 11th, 2025 05:40 pm
olivermoss: (Default)
[personal profile] olivermoss
* Salt Magic, Skin Magic by Lee Welch - It was cute! I did not guess where it was going, but once it got there it made a lot of sense. And then thinking back on other details from the book, that all clicked. There are a few moments where I wasn't sure which POV that bit was in, but that's okay.

* I am soft-DNFing Per Sanguem by Ashlyn Drewek. I do want to get back to it, but I am drowning in books and series I am trying to finish and also want to be more on top of my bookclub reads. Part of why I've put it down is that some bits read like editorial notes were left in? (I don't think they are ChatGPT prompts, tho authors putting books with their prompts hanging out has been going around.)

Overly Complicated Gorge Trip: Bingen

Jun. 11th, 2025 01:25 pm
olivermoss: (Default)
[personal profile] olivermoss
I was taking the bus over to Bingen when I saw the words 'Report Paranormal Sightings Here' out of the window. I immediately started tracking where it was in relation to where I was staying, and as luck would have it the bus loop back around and my stop was just two blocks up the slope from it.







There is a laptop on the table to type in your reports there. Also love the sign with info on the reports and the... everything.

I've never heard of the Klickitat Ape Cat and I'd be 0% surprised if they made it up themselves to add some extra flavor to the area, but I don't care. I believe in the Klickitat Ape Cat.

The place is an outdoors store, which is basically a convenience store with goods meant for people hiking or climbing in the area. They carry trail food, pack soap, etc. Theirs was also a paranormal center and pot shop. Perfect, 10/10, no notes. My 'if I win the lottery' dream has long been to open an outdoors store, but I never considered adding paranormal center into my business plan. Their actual reality outshines my dream plans.

So far I'd stayed at a perfectly maintained mid-century sprawl and a semi-basement that felt like an obscure form of punishment. And the third and final place is...





Bougie Capsule Hotel. Or you consider it like a hostel, but hostels typically operate under special rules and have exceptions to the rules hotels and inns have to follow. This had none of that stuff, so I tended to not think of it as more capsule vibes.





Way more my speed. I stayed where because my train was super early and this was right by the station and I've always wanted to stay here for a night. I thought an upscale capsule/hostel seemed amusing. I had a great time. Jury is out if I'd do it again because the bunk area is pretty packed. Things went well, but it's a risk. One couple there had a crock pot and was making a spicy bean soup and also had the door propped open to keep the smell down, but that meant the bunk area was fully open to passersby. I wasn't stressed by it because the smell did dissipate and I kept my bag with me, but it's easy to see how easily one overly entitled person can wreck everyone's stay in the bunk area. Super glad I checked that place off my list.

There are normal rooms and even private cabins with hammocks. Also, a general hammock area:


White Salmon didn't go well, Bingen was amazing. Bingen delivered.

Then my return train was actually on time and I got back to Portland.
olivermoss: (Default)
[personal profile] olivermoss
I decided to be in the Gorge for a few days, explore, stay at a place that I could work from. This did not turn out to be a great plan. The historic hotel I stayed in looked cute and had WFH areas inside and out, but my room was terrible. There is no way it was one of the original rooms. This was a converted space with no charm, 6 overhead lights controlled by 4 light switches spread around the room, the desk area was cramped, the window didn't open and the panes were covered in a thick plastic for privacy. Since it's a very sloped area, my room in the back was partially underground. It also smelled like dog. I woke up my first morning there and was like 'wtf, what am I doing? Maybe I should grab a bus back to Portland'.

On my Welches trip I stayed in a tiny converted space that was way smaller and worse than every other room there, but I'd also chosen that room and paid a lower rate. I did no such thing here, this was a regular booking. So I have no idea what why I got put in that space.

But, I'd paid for it so I stayed and made the best of it. The weather was nice, the air clear and I was in the Gorge.

View stepping out of the hotel:



View from park:



I wound up going back to Hood River for a bit the day I changed to my final hotel:



(no subject)

Jun. 9th, 2025 01:54 am
olivermoss: (Default)
[personal profile] olivermoss
I spent the hot summer evening as one does, watching Twilight in an alley projected against a bar





(I've still never read the books and only watched one of the films very recently. But, it sounded hilarious. They've got a Twilight drag event next. I'm debating going. The organizers and attendees were wonderful, but doing too many of these events as someone who isn't a fan feels odd. I got asked what 'team' I am and was confused for a moment.)

OCs

Jun. 8th, 2025 06:09 pm
esteefee: Sun burst with caption Fair Trade san francisco, CA (fair_trade)
[personal profile] esteefee
I just had an interesting question from a reader, who asked what actor or famous male I was thinking of when I was visualizing my OC. I don't! I mean, I do visualize people, but they are people of my own invention (I believe). I don't think they are real people, just features I come up with.

How about any writers out there? Do you choose actors or people you know? Or do you make up your OCs in your mind palace?
olivermoss: (Default)
[personal profile] olivermoss
I finished up the trilogy while I was away. My main take-away is that the plot:pages ratio is wild.

No plot spoilers, but some plot structure talk )


Ending spoilers under the other type of cut
I had trouble vibing with the way the story resolved because Alina spent way more time homesick for the Little Palace or even the army tents than where they grew up. Them not feeling like they ever had a home was a recurring theme and even a plot point. Them going back and making it a home is a lovely idea, but it's kinda sad to me that they are mostly isolated from the other survivors and just have staff that think they are loony tunes.

Also, happy or tragic I wanted more resolution for poor Nicolai, who could only really be understood by Alina or maybe Mal. Even just as friends, I wish they where still in each other's lives and not just rare visits.

In certain ways the ending was beautiful and bittersweet, but I never got the impression that that's what Alina would want from anything in the previous pages of the series. Protect the kids and get away from positions of power? Sure, but actually run the orphanage herself? Have all the other adults, besides Mal, profoundly mis-understand her? I'm glad they are together and the place is under their control, but...idk maybe I'll feel differently if I read more of the books in the series or re-read them later.
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