So Panam. I love her. She’s honestly great. Great character, great design. It’s such a shame you can’t romance her as the female body, female voice V. Actually sucks. BUT as I’ve played through her quests, I’ve developed a nice little story in my head about her and my V…
They are BESTIES. Absolute chaotic besties. Like straight up, “this is my new best friend” vibes. V wants to blow some shit up? Call Panam with a job (when she isn’t busy!)
V def flirted with her when they first met but Panam was like “uhhh….sorry no?”
V: UNDERSTANDABLE, HAVE A NICE DAY.
V shrugged it off, but they just continued on as normal. Did not take them long before they found a common interest.
These two are the epitome of “share the same brain cell.” Judy has never met Panam but V talks about her a LOT. And it kinda irks her sometimes. Like “damn what is so good about this Panam woman? She better not be interested in her….”
(Neither of them are interested in each other but the “flirty/fuck you” way they talk to each other could fool anyone).
And then Judy meets Panam and she’s like “yep nvm that makes sense they are literally the same brand of idiot.”
There remains nothing more frustrating than a conservative who criticizes Trump and the Republicans who enable him, yet doesn’t recognize his own part in enabling the Republican Party’s long-term embrace of racism and corrupt class warfare. “Pure” conservatives who are so appalled by Trump’s crass racism willfully ignore the history of Republican Party race-baiting to win elections they would otherwise lose if they simply ran on conservative economic principles. Apparently it was fine for Ronald Reagan to announce his candidacy for President within miles of one of the most horrific race killings of the Civil Rights Era, but Donald Trump explicitly endorsing racism is a bridge too far. It was fine for Reagan to attack “welfare queens” in a lightly coded race-based plow to enrage bigoted whites, but Donald Trump talking about “good people on both sides” when one of those sides is composed of Nazi white supremacists is beyond the pale. It was fine for both Bushes to embrace financial deregulation that benefit corporation donors at the expense of common people, and for Reagan and GWB to pursue reckless tax cuts designed to boost the wealth of obscenely rich donors in a corrupt bargain against the interests of the middle class, while empowering corrupt cabinet officials to regulate the industries they previously ran– but when Donald Trump crudely plays the corruption game for all to see, that’s a step too far. It was fine for Republicans to dismiss Anita Hill as a crazy woman determined to bring down an upstanding conservative nominated for the Supreme Court, but when two dozen women accuse Donald Trump of the same kind of sexual harassment or worse– that’s unacceptable. Conservatives like Michael Gerson who claim Donald Trump has somehow corrupted the Republican Party, or that the Republican Party has somehow allowed itself to be corrupted after being historically pristine are kidding themselves. All Donald Trump has done is reveal the truth about the GOP: Since Goldwater, it’s been on a march to defend and enhance White Privilege, particularly the White Privilege of the obscenely rich. There’s nothing different about today’s toadying, reprehensible GOP– Its racism and corruption aren’t different in kind, only in degree. Donald Trump’s GOP is the destination the conservative movement has been heading in since 1964. It took fifty two years to get here, but here we are.
I honestly don’t understand how producers find it so difficult to hire outstanding female directors when so many are visible directing excellent television– a sad commentary on the willingness of the Hollywood establishment to change its ways. Every show on cable, streaming, and network TV during this, “the modern golden age of television”, has multiple female directors– many of whom can’t get hired for film projects, but any of whom would do work as good or better than the less qualified and experienced male indie directors who get shots at major franchises. It’s a stark example of pure sexism. And it’s gone on long enough.
This is why Republicans should be terrified. @AOC understands a basic political reality that the House Republicans haven’t managed to grasp over two decades:
“Whatever sport, you have some folks who are defenders. You have some folks whose job is to go past the norm and go past that middle line to bring the ball to the end. And I think that we can work in tandem — we don’t have to all have the same position on everything in order to be a party,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
This chart is clear evidence not only that there’s no constituency for a socially liberal economic conservative like Schultz– but the traditional social/economic conservative represented by the Tea Party/Freedom Caucus is also a nearly negligible minority of voters: 25%. There are almost twice as many social/economic liberals as conservatives– meaning liberals only have to claim 20% of non-ideologically consistent “independents” to win election, while conservatives somehow need to grab almost 100% of that group to do the same. This is why six of the last Republicans elected president did so without winning the popular vote. Because conservative policies aren’t popular. America isn’t a center-right country, it isn’t even a center-left country; it’s a left-wing country with a drift to center.
Reminder for Aaron: the American Revolution was fought by young people– Alexander Hamilton was 19 in 1776– the Constitution was written by young people– James Madison was 36– and the Civil Rights movement was led by young people– MLK was 35 when he led the Montgomery boycott in 1955. None of these young people comported themselves.
Our only hope as a nation for rational discourse between opposing political philosophies lies in the hands of Fox News– a frightening prospect, but if the Murdochs will quit supporting frauds and hysterics like Hannity and Carlson and throw their backing to reporters like Wallace, they can maintain their conservative principles while slowly unwinding some of the tremendous harm they’ve done to the political conversation over the last thirty years.
I mean, it seems pretty obvious when you put it like that, right?
But how many families, when an introvert sibling or child makes an effort to socialize, snarkily say, “So, you’ve decided to join us”?
Or when someone does something they’ve had trouble doing, say, “Why can’t you do that all the time?” (Happened to me, too often.)
Or any sentence containing the word “finally”.
If someone makes a step, a small step, in a direction you want to encourage, encourage it. Don’t complain about how it’s not enough. Don’t bring up previous stuff. Encourage it.
Because I swear to fucking god there is nothing more soul-killing, more motivation-crushing, than struggling to succeed and finding out that success and failure are both punished.
I get kind of choked up for a number of reasons with this story. I’ve met Stan several times. It’s always been emotional.
The first time was in a panel at SDCC. It was on lgbtq characters in mainstream comics. I was fairly new to the topic. It was going well, and then Perry Moore, a wonderful writer who also produced the Narnia films, crashed the panel unexpectedly. And he brought Stan Lee with him. It turns out that they were working together to produce a film version of Perry’s novel, that featured a gay superhero.
We all made room, hey, it’s Stan Lee, and they announced their project. During the panel, I was too intimidated to even really LOOK at Stan. It was too surreal.
Now it gets weird.
According to Perry, Stan asked him, “Who is the best writer on the panel?” and Perry was a fan of my work, and he said it was me. So Stan came over and talked to me, out of everyone there. I was pretty stammer-y, it was just too weird.
And here’s the weird thing, what he said to me really did change my life.
Now, keep in mind, Stan was being STAN LEE during the panel, the whole EXCELSIOR! thing, you know. Great fun to watch, but it’s definitely part of his mystique.
So he came up to me, and was smiling, being STAN LEE, and asked, “So, what do you do?”
And I had no idea Perry had already recommended me, so I blushed and stammered a bit and said, “Oh, I’m just a writer.” For the life of me, I couldn’t even remember to tell him I had written for Marvel for a bit.
And this odd thing happened. The STAN LEE character dropped away and he looked me dead in the eyes, VERY SERIOUSLY, and said, “Don’t EVER say you’re ‘just’ a writer.”
Then ten seconds later, the smile is back up, and he’s back to being Life of The Party Stan.
I was just befuddled. It totally shocked me, it was like getting a lecture from your principal. I had definitely suffered some from “what am I even DOING here with all these talented people” syndrome. Many, many creators I know struggle with this all the time, and I’m definitely one of them.
But after a minute, it hit me, he wasn’t scolding me, he was giving me quite possibly the best advice I had ever gotten, in the simplest, most direct way. He was saying, don’t minimize what you do, don’t apologize for choosing this career. I believe he was saying stand up straight and say it with pride. God knows, a LOT of people would love to write Deadpool or Wonder Woman, and may never get the chance. Stand up and be grateful, but also stand up and be proud of being a writer.
That changed everything for me. Until that point, I had really struggled with telling people what I did for a living. I would say, “Oh, it’s just comics,” or would avoid the subject entirely. Brian Bendis and Jeff Loeb and others had sat me down and tried to tell me that it was not endearing, it was bit insulting to the readers, but I didn’t get it. I didn’t understand that it was borderline rude, until Stan Lee told me in one sentence with the full weight of his personality and absolutely zero nonsense.
It’s not about losing humility, it’s simply about being proud of what you do, and not diminishing the readers who like my stuff. It’s about standing by your work and trying to do it in a way that seems worthwhile.
I never forgot it, it’s rare that I don’t think about it at least once a day.
So, here’s the thing about Stan Lee. Yes, he’s in his advanced years. Yes, you can complain about things he’s done or said, I’m sure, and I know not everyone is a fan.
But the guy who co-created Spider-man knew me for precisely fifteen seconds and knew to give me the advice that changed everything forever for me, with no clutter, or filler, in a way that I took to heart unlike everyone who had tried to tell me before. It’s like that M. Bison scene in the Street Fighter movie…to me, it was one of the defining moments of my life. To Stan, it was Tuesday.
But I’m glad I was there, that Tuesday (I think it was a Saturday, to be honest). He said a total of two sentences to me. But they were two sentences I needed to hear.
So I pretty much am in awe of the guy and always will be.
My dad was a WWII G.I. who benefited from this form of corporate social conscience. He worked for a small family owned business that was ruthlessly competitive with other companies– but compassionate and responsible when it came to its own workers. When my dad became seriously ill and spent six months in a VA hospital, his company continued to pay half his salary to the family and kept his job open for his return. The company didn’t have to do it; there were no family leave laws requiring it. It was simply the right thing to do for an employee who contributed to the company’s success. Doing the right thing for moral reasons used to be considered good business. The Reagan Revolution, with its “greed is good” amorality and its disdain for workers’ rights, crushed that spirit. If America ever wants to be a model economic miracle again, we need businessmen who recognize that the best way to compete is to play as a team. You don’t starve your linesmen to feed the coach.
chuck tingle, two time hugo award nominee and author of such erotica classics as ‘space raptor butt invasion’, ‘i’m gay for my living billionaire jet plane’, ‘bigfoot pirates haunt my balls’, and ‘there’s a bitcoin in my butt and he’s handsome’ just published a short story about the importance of consent and how it’s okay to have a loving relationship without sex if you want to???
that’s lovely on its own but it’s also called ‘not pounded in the butt by anything and that’s okay’, which is my favourite book title ever
“In fact, during the audition with Chris Evans, the script says, “Spidey flips into scene,” and Tom goes, “Oh, should I do that?” Evans is like, [sarcastically] “Oh, yeah. Yeah, you just flip into the scene kid. No, you just walk in.” He does it. A standing flip, jump, flip, land. Even Chris Evans was like, “What…what happened?” - Kevin Feige, producer and President of Marvel
You hire Spider-Man and you fucking got Spider-Man.
