#quick hits

and esmee should comment team gayoza ftw 😘

also, sharing these memes (thank @hachenege)

i love when good things happen to good people!

this was her absolute best side guest for real!

Sinners

I enjoyed this a lot. Despite all its genre trappings and supernatural twists, the characters at the heart of the story are what makes it work – even before the vampires show up, I was already invested in Sinners as a period drama. And even when things take a turn, all of the movie’s best moments are built upon its characters: Stack’s tragic death, the multiple dramatic standoffs as the baddies try to trick their way inside the building, Smoke’s hands shaking as he tries to roll a cigarette on his own for the first time in years.

That being said, I did love Sinners’ take on vampires. When the trio sings their first song outside the juke joint, I asked my partner, “Did that couple already know how to play these instruments, or does becoming a vampire just make you innately know how to play bluegrass?”

Little did I know!

Even if you put aside the metaphor of American whiteness assimilating other cultures into itself, the vampire hivemind is just a cool idea. I mean, the Irish vampire jam, their eyes glowing like coals in the dark as they riverdance? That’s good stuff.

v cool of the twins to wear these color coded hats until their character traits were established, thank u Ryan

Didi

Wow, I’ve never felt so catered to by a specific era of nostalgia – hearing someone say “that’s so wet” absolutely shook me to my core. Is this what boomers feel like all the time?

What makes this movie work for me, though, is that outside of its 2009 time capsule trappings and AIM notification sounds, it manages to land emotional beats that feel like the real teenage experience – moments like Didi’s sister helping him out after the party despite him being a shit to her, or Didi desperately needing to talk to somebody but rejecting his mom’s attempts anyway both resonated with my lived experience in ways I wasn’t expecting.

Dust Bunny

You know, I feel like I put “feature length Bryan Fuller film” on a pedestal for so long, I didn’t think about the fact that a movie actually gives you less time to languish in a particular setting than a TV series does. Smartly, though, Fuller chose a premise here that can more or less be satisfactorily explored within the runtime of a movie, so it doesn’t feel like it’s playing against his strengths. If anything, to be honest, Dust Bunny feels a little long – we spend an appropriate amount of time building the titular Dust Bunny up, but it then sticks around just long enough to lose its luster and mystery as we watch it kill off characters for nearly twenty minutes.

Still, if you like Fuller’s aesthetic, it’s got the goods. While the exterior shots were hit and miss, the hotel interiors and colors are all gorgeous. The cast of characters are classic Fuller fun too – Mads and Irora Aurora’s rapport is cute, I love how in Dust Bunny’s universe the FBI is comprised exclusively of dark-skinned black hotties, and Sigourney Weaver really makes the most of her role here and goes full scenery-chewing sociopath.

Hoppers

At one point, while the premise of the movie is being explained to her, Mabel excitedly exclaims “Guys, this is like Avatar!”

Hoppers: like Avatar, but for cowards who can’t admit that violence is justified when it’s against colonizers.

—

I tried out the prologue for the new Voltage game. It’s technically a period piece, which is mildly interesting, and it’s prohibition-era, which under different circumstances would probably intrigue me more. Except that there’s already The Blind Griffin, and while it’s very short and has no female love interests, I enjoyed it tremendously the three or so times I played it through. Plus, the heroine of TBG is just fantastic. 

Anyway, the new game. Only the first few routes have made their appearance, but the prologue handily introduces all the many, many (many!) love interests. A little clumsily, but at least it’s super clear on what’s going on. There are about seven or eight male love interests, and one woman. 

This is the story of a brash and outgoing girl of indeterminate age (if I had to guess I’d say no older than twenty) whose overprotective mother was worried about her hard-partying ways. So she sent her to live with her stern uncle. In Chicago. Which is clearly the best place in which to protect a young girl from the seedier aspects of life, such a good place that they even named a musical after it. 

The MC is full of vim, and is meant to be quite clever and qualified. She doesn’t super sell it, though. It takes her the entire prologue to figure out what was immediately obvious to me as a reader, which is that her temperance campaigner uncle is secretly running a speakeasy under his shop. But anyway, she’s a lively and strong-willed girl, and that has its appeal. Runs a little close to “feisty” for my tastes but it’s hard to tell from such a short sample. 

Verdict: I don’t know if I’ll get into it. Then again, it’s definitely better than L&L and I read almost a dozen episodes of that before I gave up. The background art is beautiful. The sprites are nice also, a style much more favorable I think than L&L’s had. It also remains to be seen whether there’s an overarching story to the different routes. Bottom line is, Astoria is still the best. If you can’t get more of that, fanfic is the only way to go. 

the timing is exactly that 🤭

that's the thing. there are tiktoks all over twitter with alexia and kika, alexia and her ex, even alexia and fucking lotte wubben moy. there was no need for violeta to comment except to get attention. they know exactly what they are doing, and it's pathetic 🙄

so misa and vicky were commenting more on that than anything else.

vicky joined la masia when she was 15 years old back in 2022 and had time of adaptation before making the first team. if you are comparing that to what the state of the team is in 2026 and signing an inexperienced 18 yo player as as direct replacement to salma, then you are too stupid to argue with. 🙄

yeah it is what it is. we just have to hope for the best and then try to adjust before it's too late. our best hope is that we play well in the heat and the major knockout rounds happen when the weather is better!

seriously. he is inexperienced and in way over his head. it's ridiculous.

-Aitana is in Mexico for the World Cup commentary

-Alexia will vacation in USA and Mexico because she also has to do work there

-Patri and Jana are in the Philippines

-Vicky, Adri and Aïcha are vacationing together

-Esmee and Kika are in Portugal

that's an accurate summary so far, but this is a LONG summer off and it's just started.

like a fine 🍷