Bees for president.

Up til about the last 10 years it was widely understood that if you licensed a song to be used in a film or a video game or a television show that that song would be in that film or video game or television show in perpetuity.

Then, about a decade ago, things started changing. I don't know the exact point in time it changed, but the first time i became aware of it was around 2017 or '18 when some video game, i think it was Grand Theft Auto IV, got a big patch that did exactly one thing and that was remove a bunch of songs that had been in the game because the licensing expired.

And I remember being angered by that but going "oh well, that's video games, right?"

But then a couple years later when Netflix got the rights to Neon Genesis Evangelion and not only put out a new dub but took "Fly Me to the Moon" out of the show, even on the above ultra-fancy collector's Blu-ray set, which included the old dub.

And then recently i was watching From the Earth to the Moon, a HBO miniseries about the Apollo program that I've watched many many times in my life. It was one of my favorites as a kid, and i saw that it was on HBO Max. The thing that made me wanna watch was that it was remastered in 4K. Up til a couple years ago the only version available had been on DVD and I was, you know, really excited because I'm a bit of a cinephile (as you all may have gathered from my, uh, everything) and it's something I'm very familiar with.

Now as you might expect from a docudrama about the Apollo program, there's a lot of 50s, 60s, and early 70s music in it. Episode 5, "Spider", opens with a montage of space age art set to the theme song for Fireball XL-5.

So I'm watching this episode, which mind you, is one of my absolute favorites both as a space nerd and a machine fucker. (When you are done reading this post, please take the time to watch this clip that was formative to me as a robot girl.) So I'm on my nostalgia trip and i get yanked the fuck out because the song playing is not the right one.

It's still the theme song to Fireball XL-5, but its a cover, clearly recorded much later than the original, and it's really fucking jarring. Because the original is the exact sort of kitschy, early-60s space-age stuff that is being montaged in this opening scene.

And the really nutso thing is, I can't find anything about this anywhere. It's not that I'm crazy or that it isn't happening, its that it's just...gone. They do that now.

This is not normal.

It is not normal for companies (because this is 100% corporate pissing contests) to be able to retroactively change pieces of art because they don't want to lend their "intellectual property" to it anymore.

after like 2 mins gameplay Harry just turned around looking scandalised and was like "Ohgod... It's me, Kim. *I'm* Grandpa Piss!"

he refused to elaborate even after I savescummed and exhausted all dialogue options

I live in Seattle. And in Seattle we have America’s largest physical media store, Scarecrow Video. They are a non-profit that has pretty much any film or tv show you can imagine. Like, everything. So much so that one of our local cinemas does a program with them called “Unstreamable” where they show a film from Scarecrow’a archive that you can’t access anywhere online. It’s a bit overwhelming to go to their store, which is two levels of every program under the sun.

ANYWAY, I bring this up because they recently started a Rent-by-Mail program. It’s pretty similar to what Netflix used to do. You can rent up to six titles (barring their super rare stuff and pornos) and they will ship it to you, then you return it in the included pre-paid envelope.

Why does this rock? Sure, you still have to pay money, BUT you are supporting a non-profit that is dedicated to preserving media instead of some corporation looking for endless profit. They can also expand your palette with their vast selection. And if you have a favorite piece of media, you never have to worry about it disappearing! All their stuff is there in perpetuity.

So this is all to say, now that Scarecrow has expanded their reach beyond the Greater Seattle Area, I implore you to check them out. If you don’t want to rent right now, the could always use donations to keep them afloat.

You can check out their catalogue HERE!

I've lived in the Seattle area for just about my entire life. Over the decades, I've seen this region change and shift and grow—sometimes in good ways, other times in very bad ways. The area I grew up in is nearly unrecognizable. All of the places I used to go as a child and teenager have been bulldozed and built over. My childhood home and the adjacent grove were torn down years ago and replaced with condos.

But Scarecrow is still there. Through all the changes and the bullshit, Scarecrow is still there, just like they have been for years. I've gone to Scarecrow looking for everything from anime to sci-fi movies to a 1980s Czech stop-motion adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, and they have always had it on their shelves, no matter how old or obscure it is. This place is truly amazing, and they're one of the last bastions of physical media I know of.

The one we all laugh at for looking silly and awkward and dated because the fight choreography is terrible and the man in the rubber costume clearly can't see through his mask.

And yes, it is those things. But by that point in the episode I was so enraptured and distraught by the premise of the story that I genuinely wasn't seeing the meme.

Through voiceover Kirk reminds himself, and us, that despite its appearance, the Gorn is also a starship captain-- a being just as clever as Kirk, and just as desperate to save its crew. They're being forced to fight to the death with sticks and rocks, and the loser's ship and crew will be blown up.

"You would build a mosque. Can I help?"

I had a dream the other week about these people fighting back against an assault from another world. Most of them weren’t experienced fighters, but average people who banded together (although Gimli was there because dreams).

This particular woman’s job was to throw a javelin through a dimensional portal, tethering the two worlds together and allowing the defenders to control where the fight happened. They later built a statue of her. In her day-to-day life, I think she owned a fabric shop.

Prints available through Inprnt!

If your vote didn't matter they wouldn't try so hard to make it harder to vote in red states. Voting in red states can turn them into swing states like Georgia, Ohio, and Arizona. And voting in blue states can keep them from becoming swing states.

California used to be Red. Texas was Blue long ago. Florida was once a swing state. Obama took Indiana but it's gone redder since. Ten years ago Arizona and Georgia going blue was unthinkable.

Things change and we can make them change.

And that's before getting into more local elections. Turning cities blue, the state legislature.

Red states have flipped blue in recent years at those levels too.

I live in Seattle. And in Seattle we have America’s largest physical media store, Scarecrow Video. They are a non-profit that has pretty much any film or tv show you can imagine. Like, everything. So much so that one of our local cinemas does a program with them called “Unstreamable” where they show a film from Scarecrow’a archive that you can’t access anywhere online. It’s a bit overwhelming to go to their store, which is two levels of every program under the sun.

ANYWAY, I bring this up because they recently started a Rent-by-Mail program. It’s pretty similar to what Netflix used to do. You can rent up to six titles (barring their super rare stuff and pornos) and they will ship it to you, then you return it in the included pre-paid envelope.

Why does this rock? Sure, you still have to pay money, BUT you are supporting a non-profit that is dedicated to preserving media instead of some corporation looking for endless profit. They can also expand your palette with their vast selection. And if you have a favorite piece of media, you never have to worry about it disappearing! All their stuff is there in perpetuity.

So this is all to say, now that Scarecrow has expanded their reach beyond the Greater Seattle Area, I implore you to check them out. If you don’t want to rent right now, the could always use donations to keep them afloat.

You can check out their catalogue HERE!

I've lived in the Seattle area for just about my entire life. Over the decades, I've seen this region change and shift and grow—sometimes in good ways, other times in very bad ways. The area I grew up in is nearly unrecognizable. All of the places I used to go as a child and teenager have been bulldozed and built over. My childhood home and the adjacent grove were torn down years ago and replaced with condos.

But Scarecrow is still there. Through all the changes and the bullshit, Scarecrow is still there, just like they have been for years. I've gone to Scarecrow looking for everything from anime to sci-fi movies to a 1980s Czech stop-motion adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, and they have always had it on their shelves, no matter how old or obscure it is. This place is truly amazing, and they're one of the last bastions of physical media I know of.