hypertwink

Aka the third Benoit Blanc mystery plotted and directed by Rian Johnson. Now, each of these movies has a main character who is not Blanc whose fate and/or motivation to solve the mystery is at the heart of the story - Martha in Knives Out and Helen in Glass Onion respectively - and in this case it's Father Jud, played (well and movingly) by Josh O'Connor. In each case, the movie's structure harks back to the classic age of detective mysteries with various twists and turns and a grand denouemonet while also commenting on the here and now in its social satire. If Glass Onion among other things went for the tech bros and the self satisfied "disruptors", Wake up, Dead Man! is very much about the US under the Orange Menace despite his name not mentioned even once. And lo and behold - it even offers hope. And hey, there is even a Star Wars gag. (Just for the record, I still stand by The Last Jedi being the only one of the sequel movies which actually tries to do something new and creative with the franchise. #RianJohnsonwasRight . The gag has nothing to do with that at all, though.)

( Vague spoilers have to offer from their own free will in order for it to mean something )

Current Mood: calm

full_metal_ox posting in

fancake

Fandom: Green Hornet (1966 and 2011 versions), Batman (1966), Al Hirt (musician), Bruce Lee
Pairings/Characters: Gen; Britt Reid | Green Hornet, Kato, Bruce Wayne | Batman, Dick Grayson | Robin, cameo by Beatrix Kiddo | The Bride (Kill Bill), Black Beauty is practically a character, right?
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 3:03
Content Notes: Rapid flickering image shifts; earworm hazard.
Creator Links: (Instagram)

Dorodigital; (YouTube)

Dorodigital
Theme: Amnesty, Crossovers & Fusions, FANCAKE IS FIFTEEN, Fandom Classics, Fanvids, Older Fandoms, Underloved Works

Summary: What started out as an attempt to learn flight of the bumble bee on the trumpet evolved into a fascination with the green hornet theme song. Although the show featured one of my favorite Martial Artist ..Bruce lee..the main attraction for me was the frentic trumpet solo performed by another hero of mine Mr. Al hirt. This song was also used in the motor cycle scene in kill bill. I was delighted to learn that they were making a movie version in 2011 starring Seth Rogen and Jay Chou..Alas there could be only one Bruce lee as well as one Al hirt. However I decided to perform this cover in tribute to Al and Bruce...Enjoy

Reccer's Notes: Two great tastes that taste great together: against a montage of thrilling stunts and snappy dialogue, trumpeter Ricardo Dowridge multiplies himself into an orchestra to celebrate his musical and martial heroes.

Fanwork Links:

Watch on YouTube

One man’s Green Hornet.mpg, by Ricardo Dowridge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8UVF7tkdRw

Current Music: Inherent in the subject.

snickfic

All Systems Red (2017) by Martha Wells. A humanoid cyborg created to do wet work jobs finds itself giving a shit about a human research team it's supposed to be protecting on an alien planet.

I can see why people love Murderbot itself; it's a big old angst bucket desperately trying to pretend it isn't one. I've seen people characterize this type as an iron woobie, and it's fandom catnip.

However, I did not connect with any other part of this novella. It's so damn insubstantial. There are other characters, but they're mostly indistinguishable. There's a strong whiff of claustrophobic found family that made me DNF the one Becky Chambers book I tried, with the same element of "the one character who doesn't buy in without question is treated as an antagonist." There's some worldbuilding, but extremely thinly drawn. The prose is conversational, which can work great in a lot of cases but here just feels like one more missed opportunity to give me anything I might be interested in.

I've read a lot of pro SFF novellas over the years, and I genuinely can't think of one that felt less deserving of its length than this one. You can pack a lot of thoughts and ideas into a novella! But this didn't even try. If it'd been a third of the wordcount, I probably would have liked it pretty well.

I've heard the second and third in the series are the best, and I might try them at some point, but tbh I think I'd have better luck with the show, which at least has real actors to lend some weight and complexity to the characters.

--

The Tainted Cup (2024) and A Drop of Corruption (2025) by Robert Jackson Bennett. The first two books of his Shadow of the Leviathan series, a Sherlock and Holmes riff (or possibly a Nero Wolfe and Archie riff) about an idiosyncratic middle-aged(?) female savant and her long-suffering young gay assistant solving murders in a fantasy world where basically all technology is organic in some way.

These were great fun. Bennett seems really into both cosmic horror (the "leviathans" of the series are mountain-sized monsters that crawl out of the sea and wreak havoc every wet season) and body horror (more terrible plant-related things happening to bodies than you can shake a stick at). Even when this world is running the way everyone wants, it's still so damn weird (complimentary). Augmentations that turn your skin purple and gray! Immortality treatments that stop aging and cause you to just grow forever, like an iguana! The augurs in the second book who pattern-match to such a degree that they can't handle spoken communication: A++, and they reminded me a bit of parts of Anathem.

Ana Dolabra, the foul-mouthed savant detective is far and away the best part. Her assistant Din Kol, from whose perspective the stories are written, is a real sad sack, both due to circumstances and apparently innate temperament, and sometimes that can be a bit of a drag. I also felt like his renewal of purpose in A Drop of Corruption came way too easily; it almost felt like it happened off screen.

Overall, though, these are just a great time. It sounds like Bennett is on a roll, and I can't wait for the next one.

full_metal_ox posting in

fancake

Fandom: The Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, Oingo Boingo
Pairings/Characters: Gen; background F->M (Emily ->Victor); Jack Skellington, Bonejangles, and the whole Halloween Town and Underworld crews.
Rating: Teen and Up
Length: 4:22
Content Notes: canon-typical death, undeath, decay, dismemberment, creepy-crawlies, monsters, and Body Horror.
Creator Links: (YouTube)

DylanWhitesChannel (formerly ~~weareactualsize~~
Theme: Amnesty, Crossovers & Fusions, FANCAKE IS FIFTEEN, Fandom Classics, Fanvids, Older Fandoms

Summary: Oingo Boingo's "Dead Man's Party" mashed with "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Corpse Bride." All copyrights held by original owners. Happy Halloween.
(HD re-edit from my weareactualsize channel)

Reccer's Notes: Although this repost is dated 27 October 2014, the original on White’s now-defunct previous channel dates from circa 2010. This fusion is a relentless tour-de-force of music synced to visuals synced to lyrics; Danny Elfman’s having scored both movies creates a certain built-in compatibility, and Oingo Boingo’s Halloween anthem makes for an Elfman trifecta.

Fanwork Links:

Watch on YouTube

Dead Man’s Party, by https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndhDaEqjKAc

musesfool

Fascinating read here: Whose League Is It Anyway? on Defector. The comments are mostly worth reading too - I especially liked this one: "One of the reasons that collective bargaining exists is that it channels labor into a well-controlled process of negotiating and grieving within a framework that still respects the legitimacy of capital and is willing to enforce its prerogatives with violence."

I also added both books discussed in the post to my to read list: Every Day Is Sunday: How Jerry Jones, Robert Kraft, and Roger Goodell Turned the NFL into a Cultural & Economic Juggernaut by Ken Belson, and Lords of the Realm (about baseball) by John Helyar.

Also, I don't know who Maggie Nelson is (I am old), but I thought this was a really good piece of criticism of her new book: Maggie Nelson Sputters And Stalls In ‘The Slicks’, which is apparently a (hamhanded and faily) attempt to parallel Taylor Swift with Sylvia Plath. I mean, I'm not going to lie, I enjoy many of TSwift's songs and I'm not a huge fan of Plath's work, but come the fuck on!

Anyway, I continue to find my subscription to Defector worth it, even if I don't read it as often as I'd like.

In other news, I was up early this morning, because the super said he was going to stop by to install my new apartment doorbell (when they put in this app-based front door system, it for some reason caused the bells at the apartment doors to stop working), but he hasn't shown up yet, and I'd be very surprised if he does at all. Oh well, I will try again when I'm off next week. Maybe 3rd time is the charm!

*

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Dancing in the Flames - the Weeknd

feurioo posting in

tv_talk

Assortment of black and white speech bubbles

Welcome to the weekly roundup post! What are you watching this week? What are you excited about?

troyswann

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

snickfic

Dust Bunny (2025). A little girl hires a hit man (Mads Mikkelsen) who lives across the hall to kill a monster under her bed. Or, Roald Dahl meets John Wick.

This is listed as a "horror thriller," which I guess is true in the same sense that the Barbie movie is a "political drama." I would be more inclined to call this a dark fantasy/action movie. It's also rated R, and I legitimately do not know why; this is like a mid-tier PG-13. I kept waiting for things to get gory and justify the rating, and they never did, so I recommend managing your expectations on that front.

The aesthetic here goes extremely hard. Their apartment building is an absolutely incredible art nouveau confection. We visit other locales with similarly heightened decor, but honestly nothing is nearly as visually stunning, which I think is fine, because the apartment building is the heart of the movie.

The acting here is all extremely good. In addition to Mikkelsen and the child actress, who is fantastic, we also have Sigourney Weaver, David Dastmalchian, and someone I didn't know named Sheila Atim who is delightful.

This is fun ride and great time. I spent most of the movie having absolutely no idea where it would go next. If any of this piques your interest, I definitely recommend it.

--

Wicked: For Good (2025). First, props, the subtitling is clever. Anyway, this is the second half of the story of a good witch and a bad witch fighting/collaborating with the machine while pining for each other and also some guy who's just kind of there.

Honestly, "just kind of there" describes a lot of this movie. It doesn't really expand on any of the political motivation from the first movie, so I had trouble remembering exactly WHY the wizard and his henchwoman have decided to demonize the animals and by extension their defender Elphaba. Fiyero the awkward third wheel, whom I actually found quite charming in the first movie, got almost nothing to do here. No animal character got any kind of significant development; the closest we got was one of the flying monkeys, who didn't even get any lines for plot reasons. There's a subplot involving Elphaba's disabled sister becoming increasingly more unhinged and embittered by her romantic disappointment and probably ableist society at large, but then, you know, she dies from a house falling on her, so that's the end of that. There's a Big Reveal about Elphaba's parentage that literally everyone saw coming, but which Elphaba herself doesn't even get to find out about or react to. There are barely even any big musical set pieces and basically no dance choreography at all. The only song that made a real impression on me was Elphaba's big heel turn song No Good Deed, and I hear from the theater folks that it was kind of weaksauce compared to the live musical version.

All that said, this is the Elphaba and Glinda show, and they're great, honestly. Ariana Grande's comic timing is impeccable. The pining truly is spectacular; there's an amazing scene towards the end that must be seen to be believed. The shippers feasted.

selenak

In which we get a crossover between a Werner Herzog movie and a Robert Altmann one.

( Manousos or the Wrath of God… )

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: on the train

cimorene

That week of ultimately unhelpful jobseeker course three weeks ago not only wrecked my energy for cleaning, any projects, and my daily stretching and exercise routines, it also left me with too little energy (focus? Even with methylphenidate!) to update my pet photos or interior design blogs on Tumblr. Or to shop for holiday presents for my parents and sister.

I have enough energy to spend that time on the computer, but just not to focus on what to post/buy. 😭 I am planning to try again today. Wish me luck.

pedanther posting in

fancake

Fandom: Tangled
Pairings/Characters: Flynn Rider/Rapunzel
Rating: General Audiencees
Length: 714
Creator Links:

lalaietha
Theme: Amnesty, Old Fandoms, Comfortfic

Summary:
"You know," Eugene's voice comes from the side of the tower, "I am really out of practice in climbing up sheer rock-faced walls and across rickety shingles. D'you think I should start a workout regimen again? I mean, I'd kind of let it slide because these are skills commonly associated with thievery and I'm all reformed, but - "

Reccer's Notes:
In which Rapunzel is feeling overwhelmed by her first birthday celebration that involves more than one person and a chameleon, and Flynn offers sympathy and helpful(?) advice.

Short and sweet, and seemed appropriate for Fancake's birthday.

Fanwork Links: The Next Birthday on AO3

musesfool

My brain, as the meme says, was soup yesterday - I was so wiped out by Tuesday's everything. I logged off and took a nap and even so I slept hard last night. So I think I made the right choice not to go back into the city for the farewell to the CEO event tonight. I already have to go into the office on Tuesday for our holiday party, which part of me would like to avoid as it is now a big huge thing that I, thankfully, did not have to manage. It sounds like the party committee is as crazy as ever, and Assistant J keeps asking me things and I'm like, you're going to have to talk to $SomeoneElse about that. Like, it's nice that he wants to inform me, but also I would like him to take some initiative and fix things or at least suggest solutions. Anyway, we'll see how it goes. I did coordinate the Sesa, so hopefully that goes off without a hitch - only 20 people this time, but some of them haven't done it before, so that should be good.

I also kept thinking today was Friday and then being sad because it's not. I mentioned it to my boss who was like, "it can be Friday! take tomorrow off!" but I still have too much stuff to finish because as of next Friday I am off until January 5th.

Maybe someday I'll have something interesting to say here again, but for now, I don't. I am not very happy about what is happening with the Mets this hot stove season, but ugh. At least the Knicks are kinda good?

I did watch the Supergirl teaser trailer, and I'm excited to see what they do with it, but also it makes me feel like they aren't going to ever give us Kon, now. Or they'll use his animated!YJ personality instead of his much more fun comics personality. Sigh.

*

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Blush - Dessa

yourlibrarian posting in

tv_talk

A Bloomberg News article discussing how sports acquisition will be the big driver to streaming services listed the biggest months for signups during 2025 to Apple+. The top 4 were all connected to MLB games leading with Dodgers vs. Yankees (May) 722K. The top series program was 'The Morning Show' with 524K. Slow Horses didn't make the Top 10 list, but then the data stopped in September, and its new season premiere was in October.

It's clear that Slow Horses is hugely popular as a streaming show. But apparently Morning Show is as well but isn't discussed nearly as much. Its writing is also very strong, it has a large cast, and some big names in the mix. Having just seen its 4th season, I can say it is also not slowing down in any way. If anything, the personal stakes for all the characters just keep going up.

To me, the most riveting episode was 4.8 The Parent Trap. The juxtaposition of Alex and Cory's polar opposites in parenting certainly made suggestions about how and why they turned out as they did, but it also connected to how the finale resolved the season. ( Spoilers )

runpunkrun posting in

fancake

Photograph of a grinning Shiba Inu dog wearing a pink party hat with a 15 on it. Text: Happy Birthday, Fancake. On this day in history, jerakeen made the very first post to this comm. Happy birthday to us!

To celebrate fancake's fifteen years of operation, we're taking a two-pronged approach, with thanks to full_metal_ox for suggesting the second prong:

post recs to the comm for fanworks published in 2010 for amnesty (if all else fails, theme: old fandoms should probably cover you, but consider also theme: favorite fanworks, theme: fandom classics, and theme: underloved fanworks)
comment on this post with what you were into when you were fifteen—or what you were into fifteen years ago—what you're into today, and how your tastes have changed—or not!—over the years, or share your thoughts in your own journal and leave us a link here in the comments
a secret third thing???

Happy birthday, Fancake! Thank you for making this comm a community. 🎂

glitteryv posting in

recthething

Every Thursday, we have a community post, just like this one, where you can drop a rec or five in the comments.

This works great if you only have one rec and don't want to make a whole post for it, or if you don't have a DW account, or if you're shy. ;)

(But don't forget: you can deffo make posts of your own seven days a week. ;D!)

So what cool fanart/podfics/fancrafts/fanvids/other kinds of fanworks have we discovered this week? Drop it in the comments below. Anon comment is enabled.

BTW, AI fanworks are not eligible for reccing at recthething. If you aware that a fanwork is AI-generated, please do not rec it here

selenak

Yes, about a year after it was released in the English speaking world, The Return finally made it to German cinemas, thus still arriving before Christopher Nolan's big budget take on the Odyssey next year. Like many another person, I assume sight unseen that Nolan's take will be pretty much the opposite, given that The Return focuses exclusively on, well, the story of the suitors harrassing Penelope and Telemachus and Odysseuys' return to Ithaca with ensueing consequences, has thrown out the Gods and any other magical elements entirely from the story and takes place solely on Ithaca within a few days with a small ensemble of characters. (Incidentally, the "Penelope and Telemachus on Ithaca/ The Homecoming" part of the story actually is the main tale of the Homeric epic, which reliably surprises everyone who reads it. The adventures with Sirens, Cyclops and Sea Monsters part is contained in the middle where Odysseus (not the most reliable narrator under the best of circumstances) is narrating it to his hosts and a relatively short portion of the story.) All this being said, having now watched it, I would call The Return a good movie with some stellar performances by our leads - Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes uniting their actory prowess for the third time - , but that it fails in one important regard as an adaptation of the Odyssey, and no, it's not because there are no Gods and other supernatural beings around. But again: as a film, it is great and immensely watchable.

( Tell me, Muse, about a PTSD ridden war veteran and an island under occupation )

Current Mood: pensive
Current Location: Munich

devilc

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

snickfic posting in

recthething

There's a bunch of amazing stuff in the FIAB! I've made a couple of recs posts for fics I've loved so far.

My gifts (Red Sonja, Kyle Murchison Booth stories)

Horror fic recs (Cthulhu Mythos, House of Leaves, Original Work)

snickfic

The Sorcerer and the Shadow, Cthulhu Mythos, Original Miskatonic Student/Original Sorcerer, 3k. Nathaniel Palfrey seeks a sorcerer's aid. Ambrose Corbin is more than happy to oblige. A twisty, nasty little horror story, full of layers. Really captures that menace Lovecraft's villains have while also being a literal gay seduction story. You love to see it. :')

HousesuoH, House of Leaves, 7k. Pre-canon horror fic about a contractor who agrees to do a renovation project on the house and really, really regrets it. This author has correctly identified the missing quarter-inch as the best/worst part of the whole book and has expanded on it. What a fun little horror story.

Yggdrasil Station: A 1-day Wormhole Hopper's guide!, Original Work, gen, 2.6k. Join interstellar travel blogger 1DAYWORMHOLEHOPPER as she guides you through the unique attractions of the one-time backwater Yggdrasil station! A delightfully terrible little story/blog/transcript of a cheerful vlogger trying out the gourmet dining experience of a meal prepared from a bodymodded human tree. Must be read to be believed. The author absolutely nails the voice of this particular genre of media.

cimorene

I was just getting really annoyed thinking about how it is not hard at all to wind your own center-pull yarn cake, so why can't mass-produced yarn balls pull from the center? (They can - there are some brands that do - but most of them don't work very well.) I got annoyed enough to just try a websearch for my question and found this forum discussion:

This is a very basic question, but

"...do you prefer pulling yarn from the inside of a skein or the outside? And why? I usually pull from the inside, but the other day I decided to try the outside for a swatch. I have been used to “untwisting” yarn as I knit, but this time it was ridiculous. I ended up winding the skein into a ball from the inside before trying again. (I have a ball winder, but don’t usually use it for hand knitting projects.) [...]"

[Responder B]: "You're correct, it all has to do with the twist of your yarn. Most commercial yarns are meant to be pulled from the inside, but there are so many yarns out there, that is not a rule set in stone. You obviously added more twist when you tried using your yarn from the outside. A yarn butler would help that problem because it allow the skein to roll off the skein rather than it unrolling and slipping off the end which adds a twist. Some low twist yarns or singles yarn you have to be very careful with otherwise you will completely untwist it and it will pull apart while working. Yarn bowls can be helpful with controlling twist as well."

Oh, what. Oh, UGH, that's so annoying! That makes sense, I guess. It just annoys me.

Pulling from the center seems more convenient in every respect to me, so why would you design it deliberately the other way? Obviously this isn't self-evident and there must be a lot of people who think it makes more sense or is more convenient to pull from the outside. I hate when my strong preferences are outliers like this because everything is working against me.

what the hell is a 'yarn butler'? What an annoying term. I could google it but I didn't.

I know about yarn bowls and I always found the concept a little annoying too, because I carry my knitting around in a bag and the bowl is hard, larger than my bag usually, and also frequently breakable. I typically put the skein in my knitting bag and that usually prevents it from rolling all over the place, although obviously it doesn't have the little loop to catch the working yarn and so isn't as effective as the yarn bowl concept.

Wake up, Dead Man! (Film Review)

Green Hornet; Al Hirt; Bruce Lee; Batman (1966): One man’s Green Hornet.mpg, by Ricardo Dowridge.

Books: Murderbot, Shadow of the Leviathan

The Nightmare Before Christmas; Corpse Bride: Dead Man’s Party, by Dylan White

"You can hug it out, or you can pick up a bat."

Speak Up Saturday

Thrifting

movies: Wicked 2, Dust Bunny

Pluribus 1.07

I'm not even sure if pathetic is the word...

Tangled: The Next Birthday by lalaietha

we could share a flashlight

The Morning Show S4 Review

Fancake is FIFTEEN

Community Recs Post!

The Return (Film Review)

Yuletide

Fic in a Box recs!

fic recs: horror from FIAB

Sandnes skeins are definitely designed to pull from the outside and it's inconvenient!

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