💬 2 🔁 1854 ❤️ 4228 · 5/5 stars, this horror film was art
Most horrifying scenes to me were just the ambient, low-grade terror of that win
"The Id, the Ego and the Superego in the Backrooms:" https://www.tumblr.com/sublimepeachtriumph/820261786362265600/the-id-the-ego-and-the-superego-in-the-backrooms
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
What if William Bell sang out the entries in Carmy’s personal journal (the one with his sketches of Syd inside)? I reckon it might go something like this.
Something I realized while watching @whenmemorydies' amazing edit which captures what Carmy said to Syd when they hugged is that this is the same thing he told her in Season 3 after he locked himself in the walk-in at the end of Season 2 and she saved the night: "You did it." At that point she said, "Yes, with everybody else" because she wanted him to repair his relationship with Richie. Carmy had grown from Season 1 where he punished her for the good review her coca cola braised short ribs garnered and she gauged from his negative reaction that she needed to downplay the review where her own name was never even mentioned. But now he's giving her all the credit for the Michelin stars she dreamed of for their restaurant and made into a reality with her blood, sweat and tears. He's telling her separate from everyone else because the others (like Richie and the Faks) have a tendency to loudly swamp the mood, take credit and demand attention that somehow fails to acknowledge the real star that is Syd.
Carmy has been giving Syd gifts as a grand gesture that expresses his love while not knowing what she wants. Part of what she secretly wants (and is too scared to say out loud because of his Season 1 behavior) is to receive some public recognition for all the work she does, to get even a fraction of the fame he got with no comparable accreditation to her CIA training simply because of his race, gender and nepo connections through Stevie and Michelle. By stepping back officially (but never stepping away because this man can't give her even a couple of inches of personal space), Carmy has intuited Syd's secret desire. The newspaper review with her photo that Syd's Dad proudly waves around is proof that she got what she wanted from Carmy: a chance to be justly acknowledged for her talents in public and loyally supported by him in private.
And in the front of the restaurant they dreamt of and built together, finally Syd can accept the compliment from Carmy without needing to qualify it with self-effacement. She's ready to accept Carmy's devotion---as scary as it feels to be the center of his single-minded intense focus. She's giving him the last chance when he's run through all his prior chances ("Strange Currencies"). That's growth for her too.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
When the narrator is hired into the company, she is one of very few women who have ever worked there. The unspoken expectation at her workplace is that she daily perform several tedious, even disgusting tasks that are not part of her job description just because she is the sole woman in her office. This not only adds to her workload, as she still has to finish her assigned duties, but often delays her getting home. One day, overwhelmed by the prospect of emptying overflowing ashtrays and clearing rancid food from the break room, she tells her male coworkers that she is pregnant and the smells provoke her morning sickness. Thus begins a whole performance of mother-to-be and delightful investigation into the perks of pregnancy (Japan's obsession with Japanese women producing Japanese babies yet providing few incentives to working mothers) without the pitfalls. As the author was the editor of a woman's magazine, the novella reads almost like a self-care for new mothers manual and I love the quiet introspection of the main character as she allows herself to pamper herself. It also begs the question of how little her own body matters until she serves as a receptacle for a (by cultural presumption) privileged male child. Through the performance of being pregnant, she starts taking better care of her own body which is such a fascinating dimension of internalized misogyny to consider.
There's a whole conversation about work and leisure here too and how much of ourselves (especially in Japan's toxic culture of overwork) is depleted by the demands of the workday and what is required in recovering the non-work self. Fans of Sayaka Murata's Convenience Store Woman and Hiroko Oyamada's The Hole and The Factory will enjoy this unconventional heroine. I really, really enjoyed this book.
Unknown, Dyer's textile pattern book
mid 19th century
Part of RISD Museum (Rhode Island School of Design)
Woodcut on paper; Cotton plain weave, resist printed
30.8 x 23.5 x 2.5 cm (12 1/8 x 9 1/4 x 1 inches)
It had its moments, and I enjoyed it. But there was a kind of improbability to it--she's a teenage au pair who has never left her island home and arrives in the US to work for a white family with four young daughters yet the work never seems to tire or annoy her nor do the young kids challenge her authority; she is supremely unconcerned about money or consumer goods or her future prospects and is sexually attracted to every white American she meets while making no effort to rein in her bitterness and anger or tone down her complaints about everything. Her employer takes pains to make much of her despite her never performing an attitude of grateful recipient. In fact, no one ever manages to tell her anything she doesn't care to hear as if American social stratification ceases to apply to her specifically. She observes black Americans only in a moment where they are the waiters and she is seated among the served alongside her white employer but she (and the author) seemingly have no interest in the interaction between a West Indian girl and black men. Or how about any of the other multitude of ethnicities in American cities? She gravitates immediately toward an Irish girl and a succession of upper middle class, white lovers who unfailingly embrace her overtures. Lucy, in trying to be edgy and offer some social critique, just came off as a prickly pick-me, unwilling to examine her own internalized misogynoir too closely.
The novella's premise just struck me as implausible and the inner monologue did not align with the age of the protagonist. She's too young to be this old and knowing without any of the foibles of a teenager.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Watching the first Tom holland Spider-Man for the first time since it was in theaters and I’m convinced that superhero movies are a psyop to make us accept the surveillance state loll
Watching the 2nd tom holland Spider-Man movie I have not seen infinity war or endgame and I’m too lazy to watch them so I’m going in with no context besides the fact that Tony stark is dead thank god they could never make me like you Tony stark!
I fear I may be too woke / traumatized for these movies bc I’m just sitting here concerned that every adult in Peter’s life (besides aunt may and his teacher) are insanely emotionally manipulative and constantly make Peter feel like he’s the problem for not being responsible?
Like what do you mean you’re dragging a 16 year old out of school, putting him in mortal danger every day of his life and then convincing him he should be more grateful for it because you gave a working class kid military grade technology he’s never seen in his life!!
Also what do you mean Tony stark could just say the word and drone strike people I know marvel films are military propaganda but Jfc
I like tomdaya I have a soft parasocial spot for them which is the main reason started this Spider-Man watch but marvel movies make you remember that celebrities are used to push the ruling class’s ideas and worldview onto everyone! My sociology brain never stops!
Oh Adorno and Horkheimer we are really in it now loll!
Still watching 2nd tom holland Spider-Man bc my wifi is terrible and loading every 5 minutes lolol but I hate how they keep trying to turn Peter into every other marvel hero? I don’t want iron man or captain america they have lil 6 movies each lolol I just want Spider-Man he doesn’t need all this insane fancy stuff lolll
I just don’t know why we don’t get to see them together and it gets dragged out. They’re a classic comic book couple, Reed and Sue are together (of course they had a baby that villains want so that might be a big reason).
Remember who we’re dealing with here and how they plot outline stuff years ahead.
SM:BND literally lifts a bunch of Sydcarmy plot stuff right out of The Bear and applies it here.
Peter is the superhero NYC loves and is homegrown. He doesn’t have to worry financially because Tony gave him money (whatever with that plot convenience).
But his old life is gone now and he’s trying to move on but he’s stuck.
MJ and Ted are at MIT and furthering their careers. MJ even helps Peter solve a science problem, indicating she’s his equal or might be better at science than him. But also, Peter hasn’t been able to pursue his education he’s been pulled off by Tony (Chef David, it works for me) into exploits that made him famous.
Peter’s been hanging out with all the famous chefs instead of living his life.
Now Peter is achingly lonely without his “friends” but one friend in particular is MJ who he’s written love letters to.
They even put Jon Bernthal in it as grumpy older brother/father figure Frank (not dead this time, but in a very forced cameo, IMO).
Peter throws himself back into being NYC’a favorite superhero but his stress and anxiety (probably exposure to alien stuff) is causing his DNA to change and making him out of control and emotionally volatile.
He goes to a party where MJ is at and watches her all night and she knows he’s looking and watches him back. She feels things for him but she doesn’t have the shared past with him now. He has to start over with her again and do things the right way.
Peter needs to grow up and mature and stop clinging to the past.
Enter Jean Grey, who gets all these emotional moments with Peter and shared past stuff about losing loved ones (not in the same ways by a mile but the screenwriters don’t care). She has red hair and is white like the rabid racist fans always wanted MJ to be in the films.
They also have Jean posses MJ to fake kiss Peter (Jean is literally a god-awful person in this film but I bet there’s a truckload of Peter/Jean fics after this which…begs the question).
Peter protects MJ (from Jean and Frank, btw) but has to save Jean from herself.
Very disturbed Jean is saved when Peter takes a bullet for her (2 young women about to get cacked by Frank in this film) and walks away.
Peter and MJ have a moment where she finds a love letter and confronts Peter about why he let her see it and if he knew this how dare he keep it from her and not at least let her choose to do what she wants with that.
(Which, it’s convoluted because a Peter let a wizard steal her memories to begin with, but, whatever at this point.)
Peter admits that he loves her and she’s the most important person to him.
They have now had their Goodbye cliffhanger.
Peter shows up to have a coffee date with Ned (not MJ, eyeroll) and Ned somehow remembers their elaborate handshake and his name, his memories have returned.
It shows MJ thinking about Peter and smiling to herself.
Syd and Carmy were original characters. The show took place in less than 2 years and is very tightly written and layered and specific to these characters and their relationship.
But you can see, despite the Sydcarmy haters, they know it’s popular and has a great deal of influence because it’s being copied.
This is one example. Carame is another. Both have a white male lead and potential Black female love interest.
But the copies treat the storyline as dangling the romance but not really significantly building the female character as of equal importance to the male character like The Bear did.
The Bear doesn’t exist without Sydney Adamu. You cannot subtract her from the narrative and have the growth of all the other key characters.
You cannot say the same thing for these copies. They’re not the same but they are definitely copying it.
I don't want to be too negative on the project cause I respect so many of the people associated with it--Liza, Mark Ruffalo, Trammel Tillman, Destin Cretton. But I was disappointed at the lack of the core element that makes the Spiderman franchise compelling, when compared to its predecessors: the MJ-Ned-Peter friendship. That core element got reduced to barely a scene or two.
Zendaya's MJ is my favorite interpretation of MJ in all iterations of the franchise. She reads Baldwin, Sylvia Plath, Nabokov; she corrects her own history teacher about slaves building the Washington Monument. She has a dark, dry wit and notices things. She puts rude people in their place whether they are a high school student or Dr Strange. She's nerdy without craving popularity in the cliched way. There's something so believable about her as a high school student. She crushed on Peter Parker first before knowing he was Spiderman which makes her more endearing and "she falls first (he falls harder)" is one of my favorite tropes. There was loads of potential here to mine this lore for Peter now having to face a version of what MJ did in the first movie when he was dating the popular girl. MJ as college student with new ambitions and frustrations would be another layer of her character. But in this movie, she has no personality, we learn next to nothing new about her and she has been relegated to a generic non-superhero girlfriend/damsel in distress. That's not consistent with the character of Zendaya's MJ at all.
Sony's Marvel seems to be following the downward spiral Disney went on by listening to some marketing moron who advises them to use one franchise to hard launch another (done so egregiously with Mandalorian where--in later seasons, Mando was reduced to a side character in his own series). Was there an incipient critique of the government holding people without their will in facilities that the studio was too nervous to commit to fully? Cause earlier films had a coherence in their targets: the small business shafted by the big ones that get no-bid government contracts, the pysops of the mainstream media cycle that provides the spectacle distracting people from what is really happening, the limits and responsibility of prisoner rehabilitation/criminalization versus treatment of mental illness. Maybe the Department of Damage Control is a stand-in for the camps expanding now and RFK's comments about putting people with autism in camps or, excuse me, "wellness farms." At some point there may have been a suggestion of the other camps that are not notional but the film seemed to shy away from that by centering an obviously white character played by Sadie Sink with her own less than innocent abilities. Muddying thereby whatever critique there may have been.
No one came to watch the Punisher and Jean Grey in a Spiderman movie. We came for the jokes and camaraderie that leaps off the screen (and is readily present in the press interviews of Jacob Batalon, Zendaya and Tom Holland). Sony is perfectly willing to use them (and Zendaya's glamour) to promote the film but it was a real bait and switch. From the trailer, I thought we'd see Peter and MJ reconnecting and Ned figuring things out with plenty of jokes. Instead we got so many repetitive angsty scenes of Sadie Sink that brought bad flashbacks of the unwatchable final season of Stranger Things. The best part of the whole movie was when MJ and Ned hang out with Spider Man and quiz him about where he goes to the bathroom. I wanted a whole movie of them just chatting with each other and catching up. American films need to take notes about 'ma,' the Japanese concept of quiet interludes letting an audience breathe that Studio Ghibli has mastered. Nonstop action is dumb and passe.
The world needs a sequel to Bottoms with Ayo and Marshawn please, please, please (the others too but I am prioritizing the funniest ones in the original)
I finished Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo. A simple, well-crafted tale of what it's like to be a ordinary woman in Korea and, really, the whole world. This Be The Verse was rattling around my head all through the final third. Worth your time.
Got to appreciate a novel that cites the evidence through footnotes of actual studies published in peer review journals. The portrait of the modern Korean Everywoman and the pernicious effect of patriarchal misogyny that pervades each stage of her life is deeply informed by historical sociology. W.H. Auden's poem about "The Unknown Citizen" took all the statistics that measure a life and come up short. Here, Cho Nam-joo takes all the scholarly evidence about Korean women's lives and fleshes out the interiority of a woman facing a barrage of social and economic pressures through her life. I was also reminded of the series I loved, Undercover Miss Hong, set in the same period and several of the details that series contained (the parents' fried chicken shop bought around the Korean economic crash of 1997 and its struggles) now make more sense with this book which mentions how Korean families adapted to mass layoffs by investing in franchises.
Not sure if I'll watch the film adaption as they seem to have given it a cinematic happy bow at the end.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
I know some folks aren’t into analysing subtext, which is fair enough. But it’s established that The Bear uses subtext and hidden messages to convey meaning. The legerdemain of it all is officially part of the show’s communication. The Bear’s episodes are also fairly short and are not many in number which means every frame, every bit of writing has a purpose (or multiple purposes). There’s not really time for filler (we can argue about the “bad trades” D*sney made - as noted by @freedelusionshere - with excessive Cl@ire and Fak scenes later lol).
You can still watch The Bear without looking at its subtext. It’s been written, shot, costumed and recorded in such a way that it’s perfectly possible to do that and still enjoy the show (a remarkable filmmaking feat imo). But I love deep analysis and am personally wired for it, so all the subtext is very satisfying for me as a viewer.
Expecting subtext is how I approach watching every episode and it’s in questioning why a bit of dialogue has been used or why a shot was set up a certain way etc, that the show’s subtext becomes clearer to me. Others might have different approaches for their watches (if you do, please share! I’m always keen to learn how others approach their analyses!).
So with that context, I reckon 5x08’s flower chat between Richie and The Bear’s florist is actually another juicy, subtextual treasure chest! Because why else would Storer spend precious minutes of the final episode of his show talking about flowers?Let’s get into it, shall we…
Divine light
I wrote here about the code lighting for love used in 5x08. That lighting is directly referenced by Richie and the florist to reinforce its purpose in the episode.
Recall the below scene in 5x08 where Richie and the florist are talking arrangements for The Bear’s dining room. The florist tells Richie that the selling point of delicate baby’s breath flowers’ is their airiness. Richie replies:
Yeah, they let the light pass through them.
Which is exactly what is happening in each of these shots of romantically-linked couples in 5x08:
The light is passing through Jess and Richie, through Nat and Pete, and through Syd and Carmy as they find and see each other anew, through the lens of deep love and care.
I also don’t think it’s a surprise that the show has Richie and the florist talking about baby’s breath to make this point, as these flowers are also meant to symbolise everlasting love. And truly, the selling point of The Bear to its fandom, particularly to Sydcarmies, has been its incredible heart, its ability to show that there is light that resides in all of us and crucially, how deep love allows you to see that light in others (you know...the kind of deep love that allows you to see the "You are considerate. You...You allow yourself to feel things, right? You allow yourself to care. You are a natural leader and teacher. And you're doing all this stuff for every right fucking reason. And- And I get it. This is a great opportunity, right? And its for a lot of fucking money and you can hire whoever the fuck you want, right? But this place, right now, this is starting to gel. It is starting to feel alive, right? And you have seven people in this building who will jump in front of a fucking train for you right now. And I'm gonna do everything I can to set you up for success but any chance of any kind of good in this building, it started when you walked in. And any possibility of it surviving? It’s with you." of it all).
Sigh.
I see you and commend you, writers’ room!
But the subtextual insights from the florist aren’t done yet! She also tells us that baby’s breath are perfect for The Bear/The Bear because,
You don't want a crowded... [...] You don’t want anything taking away from that beautiful food you put here.
On the dialogue's surface, the florist is clearly talking about the floral arrangements not taking away from the food served at The Bear. But subtextually, we, as the audience, have been fed many things in the course of The Bear, including healthy serves of romance, sex and love. And its in relation to these things that the florist gives us more insights; specifically she helps us understand what Chris Storer and the other writers may have been intending for how romance, sex and love are portrayed in this story.
Choosing to depict romantic relationships where the light ultimately shines through the couples, where each person sees - and is seen by - their partner, where they are accepted in their wholeness unconditionally - as beautiful, ugly, messy, joyful and scared as each of them can be - is as close to the divine that many of us will ever come to experience in this life. So why would you crowd that with anything else (like Claire or Francine-shaped subplots, for example)?
It really felt like this subtext was telling us that at least part of the reason why Chris Storer decided to set 7/8 episodes of S5 across one day was cos that framework made it very easy to cut the chaff from the show and focus on the real food: the relationships that the creators and the fandom actually give a fuck about, the most important of which is Sydcarmy.
Explicit Sydcarmy endgame (or lack thereof)
So what does the flower chat have to tell us about that most important relationship? A lot actually.
After discussing baby's breath, Richie goes onto ask the florist about chrysanthemums.
The florist then tells Richie that he can call chrysanthemums "mum" for short. In fact, what she says is,
You can just say "mum".
This is important because "mum" is short form for this type of flower. Its also used to mean "silence" as in "keep mum" or "mum's the word".
If these flowers are being used to subtextually convey meaning to the audience about romance, sex and love, the florist here is telling Chris Storer's director-avatar (as has been theorised by @currymanganese and @thoughtfulchaos773 here and here) to say mum - say nothing.
In fact she even goes so far as to tell him that overt romance of the kind that might be seen when you include two lips (ie. the body parts you need for an onscreen romantic kiss - a kiss that many Sydcarmies were devo didn’t happen in S5) in your show isn't a bad idea. Of course, she spells "two lips" differently to those of us looking at subtext:
You know, the tulips aren't bad either, but the mums...
She then tells Richie, its the mums that hold up:
Mums...And they hold up well too.
Subtextually what this means is that keeping silent - keeping mum - on whether romantic Sydcarmy is endgame is a strategic move by Storer. One - rightly or wrongly - he feels will give this show longevity and allow it to hold up over the years. I can't predict the future but I do know that this show - which uses subtext as part of its communication in the same way it uses lighting, costuming, dialogue and acting - has made it VERY obvious via subtext that Sydcarmy was always intended to be endgame. And so, as @turbulenthandholding has said repeatedly on here, how can this be anything other than what it is?
I should also note that right after the florist-Richie scene, we get a whole sequence of shots of Richie and Jess discussing an engagement at the The Bear, including Richie looking for a wedding box and Carmy seemingly down on one knee offering Syd a ring two Michelin stars as hers and hers alone. @sublimepeachtriumph has written meta about how these scenes have been set up as a proposal from Carmy to Syd here. So more romance, sex and love is undoubtedly on the cards for these two.
I will say, if anything, Chris Storer saying mum has made this brilliant, brilliant show infinitely rewatchable (imho) and if that isn't indicative of a television show holding up well, I don't know what is.
Love this floral tribute and decoding of the floriography. Floriography involved secret meanings associated with flowers that dates from the Victorian era which hypocritically enforced standards of sexless high class virtue at a time when that very class was bankrolled by horrendous colonial violence run rampant. It seems quite apt to bring floral codes back into use in our current corporate media hellscape to covertly embrace Sydcarmy lore.
Also delighted at your decoding that mums equal "keeping mum" which goes well with reclusive Chris and the mums (chrysanthemum), the wordplay this show excels at!
I always learn something new whenever you post @sublimepeachtriumph and I love you for it!!!
Had no idea about floriography. Of course the suppressed English came up with this lmao. If ever a group of folks had to work on escaping a prison of their own design 😩😂 This brings a whole new layer to Richie and his “elegance” lmao
