Okay, I didn't plan on doing this. But I am realizing that I never saw a single post in the CG/LWG tags that makes any parallels or comparisons, so here I go.
As many who follow Conformitygate are aware, The Duffers' most recent project for Netflix, The Boroughs, is heavily Conformitygate-coded. To the point it's unavoidable at times. But, I never saw anyone make any comparisons between ST and Something Very Bad is Going to Happen, their show that released in March. And while the parallels maybe not be as intense as The Boroughs ones are, boy are they still there! I will try to list all of the ones I noticed here, so buckle in.
I am calling "Foxgate" lmao
In SVBIGTH, the "activity" that the father and sons bond over is fox hunting. There is actually quite a lot of dialogue and imagery surrounding foxes throughout this show:
I won't show the image that comes after since it is gruesome, but the fox they hear screaming, it gets it's foot caught in a trap they set. Except it escapes by literally biting its own foot off, leaving only the fox's foot behind in the trap.
In the S5 Ep. Shock Jock, we get this interesting line from Henry:
He refers to Max as "the fox" and says he caught it finally. Interesting dialogue, especially considering to my knowledge, this is the only time Henry has ever referred to her as that codename/nickname.
The rest of the list is below the cut:
2. Camcorder Footage
During a scene in SVBIGTH, the main character, Rachel, is gifted an old camcorder because it was going to be thrown away. She then gives it as a gift to her Fiancee's nephew because he wanted a camera. We then get quite a few scenes where they are framed as if being in the lens of the camcorder itself, both currently being filmed & played back as old footage:
And what is Stranger Things known for by now? Doing this in various seasons:
These are just a couple of the various examples from both shows. Also, a good portion of episode 4 of SVBIGTH alone is heavily stylized with this framing.
3. Camera work motif as a parallel/reference
As we know, a huge part of the Stranger Things story is that the Upside Down exists. And sometimes, to represent the switching from Hawkins to the Upside Down version, they will literally rotate the frame to make it go "upside down". This is used in SVBIGTH, but in the opposite formatting!!
This scene in the woods in Ep 3 of SVBIGTH starts the view of the trees upside down:
And then rotates until the frame lands right-side up:
They even have a scene (which confused me as to where it was starting off at first) that does this, focusing on basement stairs in their cabin.
In ST S2 Ep 9, we have this iconic shot that literally starts it all by doing this:
doing a full 360 rotation, going from Hawkins, rotating upside down, back to facing right-side up, but ending up in the Upside down instead.
4. Possession and the living dead
In episode 6 of SVBIGTH, Rachel and her fiancee have separate bachelor/ette parties. He goes off hunting, she has a girls night sleepover-styled party. During her party, Rachel uses a Ouji board as a ritual to contact one of her ancestors who is now dead that supposedly survived the curse her bloodline was plagued with to seek answers.
In Rachel's first ritual her supposed ancestor's spirit spells this out with decoration letters once she is called upon:
Hm, Zombie Boy, anyone?
Anyway, then, during Rachel's 2nd attempt, her soon-to-be sister-in-law, Portia, supposedly gets possessed by Rachel's ancestor, because she starts acting aggressively out of character and says weird things.
Then the lights flicker:
And she is herself once again.
Now who gets possessed in Stranger Things? Will obviously, by the Mindflayer or Henry(?), so I won't even bother inserting clips to show the parallel lol. He doesn't act himself, being consumed by the possession.
This leads to #5, the last example, as they are connected to #4 and the lights:
5. Flickering lights
The flickering of the lights that occur in this scene are something I want to point out because it feels like a parallel to ST as well. What we know as "flickergate", there is a ton of flickering light imagery in ST throughout the show entirely. Starting all the way back in Ep 1 of S1.
Which is an interesting choice to make in the show because we originally have no idea what causes it. We later find out it has to do with the Upside Down.
But what I find interesting is comparing how it is used in ST to how it's used in SVBIGTH, because when Portia is possessed and the ghost is about to leave her body is when the lights begin to flicker. And it absolutely reminds me of Stranger Things basically implies the same thing. Electrical surges occurring as one crosses from one plane or dimension to the other.
I will leave it there. I hope whoever read this found it interesting. I'd love to discuss more in the replies if anyone has any other examples that I missed or wants to talk about the ones I showed more!
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'm new to this...fandom? If that's what it's called for ACNL. I've had the game for about a year and have just learned some tips and tricks that made me want to restart from scratch. So I looked up some blogs on tumblr, restarted, and want to get this down right so I don't have to restart again X.xÂ
I also love to see everyones amazing work, so I'm hoping to get some inspiration :)Â
It has to be said that I'm overall a pretty shameless cyclist. In the early days I could blame it wholly on my blissful, youthful ignorance. However, now that I've wholly embraced the casual oddness that is cycling; becoming a gravel grindr', stretchy-pants and the mutual stat-bukkake that is Strava, I'm pretty devoid of excuses.
To add this, I'm constantly aware that everything I share on my massively influential and hard hitting blog is under the scathing scrutiny of my peers, the general public and my potential future employers, all keen to exploit my photographic prowess.
And to make things even worse, now that I'm a grown up who's semi ok with social situations involving other people in stretchy-pants, I have to appear outwardly normal and adhere to strict unwritten rules that define the aesthetics of our beloved sport.
So what the fuck possessed me to build, let alone try and race the above ghetto-cross travesty?
As a soulless capitalist pig, I bought the ALAN a couple years ago with the intent to sell off some of the heinously mismatched components to make moolah to build more ugly bikes. I did pretty well off of it and started my terrible addiction to buying enormous piles of bike-tat.
An enormous pile of bike-tat.Â
The frame is in pretty shitty condition generally and had sat in my shed since then. There's a massive gouge out of the driveside chainstay, the (Italian, eugh.) bottom-bracket shell was in pretty bad shape and the headset cups had clearly wiggled about for years and one can now hand-press the cups in.
The frame is however quite nice. After a cursory email to ALAN, I discovered the frame was very likely a 'for race only' model supplied to the team in the mid nineties. As such, it's really very light and a quite lovely ride.
But suffering from a condition that allows me only to ride ugly or ironic bikes, my 'what-is-that-behind-that-shelf-in-my-dank-shed' build has brought the bike down to a suitable level of un-suitableness.
Highlights include scuffed crabon flat bars, the ugliest and most ridiculously oversized quill stem ever* and really nice 6500 hubs laced to admittedly quite worn Open-Pro's. Which aren't even mine.
So pulling up to the line at last weeks John Muir Wintercross, I was visibly nervous and embarrassed by my dorky mountain bike helmet and ugly bike.
There's very little point in writing a full break-down of the race, as I lasted two laps before remounting at the barriers opposite the finish line where my appalling** single bolt seat post promptly esploded, leaving me with the option of public amateur castration or DNF'ing.
I chose the later, banking on the successes of not falling off at the start line, staying almost a full minute ahead of Matthew on my second lap, despite his fancy crabon crossing cycle and hoping to palm off my failure as a conceptual art piece titled 'The Gentrification of Cyclocross and the Counter-Culture of Remounting.'
None of this worked and the median of post race abuse was more evenly balanced between me and Matthew than usual.
Despite these publicly shaming events, making an appearance at any cycling event in central belt Scotland out of the question, I've slightly fallen for the bike.
Public shame.
I'm quite proud to admit that this is my first ever foray into the world of single speed douche-baggy-ness and I'm perhaps a little sold. The simplicity is nice and all, but what's got me a little hooked is being able to tell everyone I ride a single speed.
We all know cyclocross has nothing to do with enjoying yourself. Nobody likes lathering them selves in chamois cream yet having a crack full of grass and cow shit to keep things slick for you. Nobody likes cleaning filthy, broken bikes. And nobody really likes hanging around in freezing, muddy fields, riding in small circles and feeling sick.
No, cyclocross is about egotistical posing, as thinly veiled as one of your French girls as poetic-suffering for the sake of the sport. And I'm totally ok with that.
Single-speed riding is about as productive as one could be if poetic-suffering is your goal. Not only do you have the physical suffering to bank on, but the tirade of abuse and questions from your peers about your gear deficiency will only add to your overwhelmingly enlarged ego.
And when cycling really is about posing in stretchy-pants, you couldn't do better.
So what does this mean for the ALAN? It'll likely stay in this guise for a short while before it's inevitably stolen from the mean streets of the west end of Edinburgh. Until then, I'll secretly enjoy riding it and try my best not to become that SS guy.***
* Trying to make a quill stem laterally stiff truly is the ultimate test in futility. Like pissing into hurricane.
** Completely my own fault.Â
*** How do you tell someone rides a single-speed? Don't worry, they'll let you know.Â
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
