there are no good puns for “april”

[a_flyleaf]

There’s a small handful of things I’ve wanted to write about since my last post, but none of those thoughts have come together into a coherent standalone ramble just yet. March kinda passed in a blur, but some media highlights:

• Jack Stauber. Holy shit, Jack Stauber!!! Was introduced by a friend and this was the first video I watched, which among other recent uploads made for one hell of an impression. He makes these trippy VHS animations using (and often combining) surreal claymation, live action, MS Paint-looking animation, and some of the most bizarre music I’ve heard in a while. Consider it a “creator chose not to warn” experience. If that sounds up your alley, dive the heck in. Pick a video, any video; there’s no continuity.
  • Also, not everything is chaotic glitchiness! He’s got some full-length songs too, several of which are used in <1-minute videos. Of the calmer songs, “Today Today” is hands down my favorite. But if you want to spend a good few minutes wondering what the fuck you just watched, consider “Lima Bean Man” and (volume warning) “Shattered Molars”. For a dubiously-healthy tonal mix, also check out his series for Adult Swim, Shop!
• On a more mainstream note, the new Mary Poppins was whimsical and I’m sure it satisfied the nostalgic yearnings of people who grew up with the original. Personally I couldn’t unsee/hear the chimney sweep guy as “wow, that’s Lin Manuel-Miranda Hamiltonmusical!”, the 2d sequence just made me sad Disney’s not making fully 2d movies anymore, and I will forever be annoyed on Travers’ (the original Mary Poppins author) behalf courtesy Saving Mr. Banks. But anyway.
• *Also saw Captain Marvel, which did its job as a superhero power fantasy But With A Woman. If I think back on it too long I start poking more and more writing holes in it, but it was fun while it lasted and Carol and her “best friend” were in lesbians fight me on this.
• BUT. FINALLY SOME GOOD FUCKING MARVEL courtesy Into the Spiderverse, and yes I jumped on the bandwagon real late with this one but W O W. WISH I’D SEEN THAT IN THEATERS. It really felt like a high-budget passion project from start to finish and I would LOVE to see more movies with experimental cgi animation like this!!

In other news, I’ve finally succumbed to using markdown to write posts. Prior to this I’ve been using HTML in a word doc Because I Can^TM; links were fun to code, as you can imagine. Still, that whole Jekyll/GitHub thing uses markdown for the main content, and while I have no problem reading HTML it is less of a pain in the ass pulling up the guide + the recommended WYSIWYG editor.

Oh, and as for why I’m talking code again, and the main reason I finally logged into Dreamwidth in the first place? Personal! website! is now! a thing!!! \o/ And it only took like five hours of hyperfocus! Granted, I don’t quite know what to use it for, but I’m gonna put that off give it a day or two. If it still looks Acceptable with fresh eyes, I’ll finally get that sucker on Github for easier updating.

…Not coincidentally, I am also facing a minor crisis to the tune of “do I keep my Professional Art Portfolio completely separate from my Internet Shenanigans or say fuck it and unite it all under the banner of a-flyleaf,” so that’s been fun. It is a bridge that needs to be crossed sooner than later. BUT FOR NOW that sure is a thing that finally got coded! There’s a marginally more interesting preview to the left; click for fullsize. Images from Duolingo’s amazing April Fool’s offer and the webcomic Morally Grey.

…I feel like thre was supposed to be some kind of concluding paragraph to this but it got lost in the midst of coding shenanigans. Whoops.

*EDIT 7/30/19: Oh hey, clearing out some old notes and found the post-watch thoughts! Here ya go.

• exposition heavy, could chop out ~30m; got good once earth landing
• cheesy dialogue sometimes, other times genuine (nice chat w/ fury)
• idk shit about marvel but this was a neat setup
• no I am not watching the 3hr ensemble for more marvel but this was p alright
• seriously I did like it but I’m at a loss for specifics?? hm
• anyway marvel (company) is a coward and can stop saying “best friend.” they’re gay. thanks for coming to my ted talk
• music was sorta shoehorned imo? it made sense in jukebox scene but otherwise that and some humor felt out of place

(some rottentomatoes skimming later)

• actually how DID the blood transfusion thing even work. that seems incredibly stupid considering she could’ve just fuckin died
• the “powers out of control from emotion” thing is so CLICHE and I get they were sorta trying to go against it with the guy being wrong in the end (plus that x men movie seems to play it straight), but like. Meh. in any case for god’s sake let her be gay
• the kid’s dialogue was so. Stilted. lord
• I ENJOYED THE MOVIE IT’S BRAIN POPCORN but critically yeah I’m picking more holes
• are th. are the shapeshifters like. diaspora?? anyway they should’ve been nonhuman
• SO MANY ONE-LINERS wrt jokes but mostly Badass Moments(TM)(C)(R). seems in-character for Fury but idk about the rest

Mar-Vell, They’re Lesbians.

nicer things courtesy dreamwidth reading:

• the fury/carol interactions were nice in general! really liked the “everyone calls me fury” bit turned foreshadowing
• was actually caught off-guard by the skrull reveal ngl
• NO ROMO! NO SEXUALIZATION!! THANK GOD also seeing gifsets of this by wonder woman really nails it home (no offense I’m sure that movie’s alright too) like. Yes. sure whatever had obligatory weird tentacle monster (kinda) and character tied up but none of it was Sexual(TM) and that is Very! Refreshing!!
• stumbled upon some headcanon-exchanging that explained lack of depth as “trauma? no. Punch Things” which is valid but this review is good
• ALSO COMMENTS “e.g. a scene between a mother and her little girl where she's going off to war to maybe die, that was played in a mostly funny way; I laughed at the time and then looking back on it later, it's like - yeah, okay, that needed to be serious, not undercut by humor).”
• https://trobadora.dreamwidth.org/1041739.html also wasn’t trying to be all angsty necessarily and that’s cool
• AND YET
• “I think Captain Marvel has the same issue, that there was a much more nuanced and interesting movie inherent in the plot setup for this one, but digging into those nuances and contradictions would have prevented it from being the simplistic good vs. evil story they wanted to tell. I actually wanted the other movie, but that's clearly not where they planned to go with it. I enjoyed the movie a lot while I was watching it, but I think this issue bothers me more the more that I think about it, because it ended up not just glossing over but basically steamrolling the nuance out of the movie in the interests of delivering two hours of popcorny fun, to the point where the characterizations for Carol and her Kree teammates at the beginning of the movie vs. the end of the movie don't make sense to me. It's like ... I don't know how I'd go about writing them because you have to either ditch some of their canonical characterization or just start over with them as OCs.”
• OH YEAH THIS. THIS WAS JARRING