Lantern7

“Wow! Finally using investigation classes to work!”

Whuh oh. It’s Tony time! Clear the paths!

The boots. Why the boots, Ben?

Coming back to a place and time that is a slightly bigger shitshow than what we got. Proportionally, of course. ETA. I’m too harsh. Now, the last two seasons? Those would apply.

Re: Skull Collection Theory TJ made a big to-do about how players had to fight in Purgatory to enter the final. My theory: if there are x number of spots for the final, then throwing in someone who already went reduces the number of potential competitors (x-1). While power players might feel they’re denied lay-ups in that final mission, they have the possibility of fewer people running alongside them.

I'm thinking Flash is the current weakest Arrowverse show, in the sense that I'm not really invested. I mean, it's still cool, but there's not as much momentum as past seasons, where we had the one asshole ruining lives. Carver is overt sinister, Eva is covert. We've gotten cameos from canon Big Bads (Reverse-Flash, Grodd), but like I said . . . I'm not really invested. Rag Doll's return is welcome, in the sense that he's really fucking creepy, and his canon counterpart was created by one my my fave writers (Gail Simone). Sneaking under a car and cutting the brakes while Joe was driving? Inspired. Looks like Eva is winning, in the sense that Team Flash has lost Joe, and Siri has stepped up heaping pain upon Barry's dumb ass. Last shot was unique, with Barry slowly walking away from the apartment, not zipping away because of Speed Impotence. BTW, how's the Building of Speed Force v2.0 coming along?

NEGATIVES: Atropos killed Behrad by cutting his thread. Zardashian was busy talking with Zari 1.0 in her totem at that time, so she couldn't help. Atropos also wrecks Sara, John and Charlie, but she gets kicked off the ship . . . which probably means she'll land somewhere and screw things retroactively. Oh, and a bunch of working humps got killed because they were in the wrong place (was it specifically Vancouver? Or just in British Columbia?) at the wrong time (working on the final season of Supernatural) POSITIVE: Lita trick-or-treating with her dad. Dressed as Leonard Snart. I think the two words that popped in my head upon seeing that were "MY HEART!" Of course, Mick and Ava screw things up, but at least nobody got killed. Behrad's death felt too telegraphed, at least when Atropos (hey, no red squiggles) happened upon him and Zari while looking for Loom parts. Also sad imagining him and Zari being a sibling act with the totem. Nate? Still a dope. Funny that Zari wakes up in his room, and the first thing she sees is a scooter. Are any other CW shows mentioning Supernatural? Actually, this feel too forced. Sara strikes me as a fan, though I'm guessing she had to binge the series on the Waverider to make up for the years she was presumed dead. Also, actually dead. Dean being her "Hall Pass" also seems legit. I wonder if Ava has something similar. Oh, and Caity finally get the first credit! No disrespect to Brandon, but I found Sara to be a more important character than Ray. At least Ava's heart was in the right place. And she didn't try to bite Mick's head off when he said the c-word. The montage was cute.

Meanwhile, ESPN is running Yankees/Mariners ALDS 1995. 😈😈😈

Apparently, Sara can get her Kirk on. At the risk of looking like a “Stan” for her . . . is there anything she can’t do? I’m ready. This is a mad show for a mad time.

No no no no no no NOOOOOOOOO

When you watch This Week In Baseball as an adult, or if you hear "Jet Set" (the opening theme) or "Gathering Crowds" (the closing), where do you go? For me: Sundays, 1 p.m. I forget if it broadcast on WPIX (the Yankees' home channel) or WOR/WWOR (broadcasting the Mets). I got into baseball in 1983. The episodes FS1 showed today were from '82 and '83. When the Mets were shown tuning a sweet double play in the '82 episode, I kept pausing to see who was involved. Thanks to the Internet, the pitcher was Jesse Orosco (the year before he went to the All-Star Game for the first time), and it went from Bob Bailor (2B; not 100 percent positive because I couldn't make out the number) to Ron Gardenhire (SS) to Dave Kingman. And then there was another: Ellis Valentine (shipped out after the season) nailing a guy at third (Hubie Brooks, a fan favorite and part of the package to get Gary Carter). I had a blast. Only remotely painful segment was a profile on Bill Buckner of the Dodgers in 1983. There was a bit on his fielding, which . . . ouch. Damn. Owwwwwwwwwww. The Eighties were a far different time. Lack of information gathering (including no cable for me until I moved out of Brooklyn) meant I had to rely on the folksy Mel Allen to show me what was doing around the majors. Oh, and ESPN/Sports Classic used to air TWIB in the early mornings, adding the standings at the time the episode was broadcast. I'm thinking if this bullshit lasts longer, Fox Sports, ESPN or MLB might make a deep dive into the archives and air Home Run Derby. ETA: I think it was WPIX. And funny that I mentioned Gary, because one of the last scenes of one set of closing credits was back when he was in Montreal, jumping on Dennis Martinez after his perfect game. ETA2: I'm going to bed. Just thought I'd add the bit with Rick Dempsey messing around on a tarp during a rain delay. He had a big ball for a belly and a Robin Yount jersey. This happened in Milwaukee. Dempsey was with the Orioles. Try to get away with that today. And the real Yount didn't seem to mind too much. ETA3: I swear, I’m going to bed. Just had to mention that Bob Welch got a segment in the ‘83 episode for pitching a 1-0 shutout and driving in the only run of the game with a homer. The next time that happened: Noah Syndergaard, last year. 🤓🤓⚾️

We enter the second half of the story, indicated by the new set of credits. After that, we have Gharncia's Very Bad Day. The youngest Gang-Star spills wine on an asshole's expensive white suit, gets attacked by a shark (the stand Clash), gets his tongue ripped out, and after Giorno fixes the damage, he's forced to lie by another Stand, Talking Head. About the only good thing to happen is that he winds up cutting the asshole in white, and then he kicks the shit out of him, with Mista and Abacchio joining in. It's not a Torture Dance, but you take what you can get. Anyone here got a strong opinion over Fugo quitting the group? From what I understand, the mangaka felt that his Stand (Purple Haze) was too powerful, and that led to him not joining Bucciarati's quest to foil his boss. Yeah, Giorno brought that up this week. Side effect of King Crimson's destruction of time? Did Giorno botch the healing? Remember, Gold Experience is not like Crazy Diamond. It can heal, but it's not automatic, and Giorno needs material to work with. Speaking of which, great job with the emergency tracheotomy on Gharancia. Here are the new credits, and here are the English lyrics of the full song. You can stop at the end of the chorus and add "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah!!!!" Some guy did a "lyrics based on the images" thing. I'm not sharing that due to spoilers, but you would love the first line, as a hand is being kissed: "Kiiiiiiira is sexually aroused right now."

This week: John ties right-wing media to a semi, and then travels on some bumpy roads. This is The Neverending Story, but with bullshit instead of fantasy. Uggggh. Right wingers talk bullshit, president parrots right wingers, people listening to them takes their words with no grains of salt, right wing media reports it. Gotta love John going the televangelist route and trying to blow real hard. “RIGHT WING MEDIA! (blowing hard at camera) AH BLOW ON YOU!!! Did that work? No? Everything’s still a fucking nightmare? Well, it was worth a shot. What did I have to lose?” I also like how John said the televangelist had the four weakest hype men.

I have Facebook. When I look at a video, there are others queued up under it. While watching a video, I saw a headline along these lines: “John Oliver Goes After [Female Name], She Destroys Him.” The source? OAN. I didn’t click that. I just wanted to share because there’s a tiny chance John might respond to that. If he’s not on another quixotic quest to make the world a better place through the oddest ways possible, he might clap back at her. ETA: It popped up again: “COMEDIAN IOHN OLIVER ATTACKS LIZ WHEELER. SHE DESTROYS HIM.” If you guys say so. 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

Here's the Toonami promo.

I'm not clicking that link, so I have to ask: how much does Russell fluff himself in the video? I can just imagine . . . "You know, Mark Burnett hisself wanted me on this season. I ain't lyin'! He had nineteen champions on that cast, and he wanted to bring me on board. Russell Hantz, the greatest player that never got to rightfully win the game. Mr. Burnett called me, told me that I could raise all sorts of hell with those fools. Hide machetes, burn supplies, shit in the rice . . . you name it, I woulda done it. But then they found that dumbass Ben guy. You know, the fool what done dance when playin' idols. No dignity, man. But hey, good riddance. I know how it woulda ended . . . me. At the Reunion. Cryin' like the punk that I am."

Another question, and perhaps @aradia22 could answer: is it customary to point out pictures while responding to a profile? I think the most I've done in that area is see the woman posing in another country, and then I playfully lament about not getting out of North America. Also, I don't want to come off as paying THAT much attention to the pictures. @Bastet: you're right. It does come off trite and/or cheesy. "I'm looking for someone special. Guy with one arm, framed me for murder. Have you seen him?"

I need to go to bed, so here’s my question: was it ever explained why the Hired! short was split into two parts? It’s not bugging me, but I had to go YouTube for the second part, complete with the old man swatting at imaginary elves. I’m trying to get the gumption to watch Mr. B. Natural again. That was a horror show. Joel: “You know, I bet Oscar Wilde only wished he were that gay.”

Realizations: This Season = Monty Python and the Holy Grail Jay = the innocent-looking rabbit CT = the knight whose head just came off thanks to the bunny And the messed-up thing? I don’t think there are Grenades in Total Madness, let alone the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. And I guess Teege = the wizard Tim? 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Well, that was fun. It's a shame I can't see this "live"; usually, I'm coming off watching the DVR of The Challenge, so I'll have to DVR this while I'm doing that. Stuff We Learned: Apparently, vampires are capable of having ghosts. Is this taken from the Buffy franchise, only you get a putz vampire instead of one that's pure evil? What else . . . Babadooks exist, so do necromancers and zombies, and it's possible to temporarily change a vampire's complexion if you run their mist through an air purifier. Thanks, Nando! Oh, and Colin might not be THE WORST, but he is probably the worst. Does that make sense? And Gizmo is still the whipping boy of the house. At least he has another life option, what with the slaying of homicidal vampires. Gotta love how Topher just nonchalantly lets two of them into the house. And even after death, Topher was a giant pain in the ass. One question: if you have a sweatshop full of zombies, can you call it a "sweatshop" if they don't actually sweat?

I need to find out how long it takes Erik to churn out his “recap.” Apparently, he can go from concept to finished product pretty quickly. This week, he goes past the love-in and zeroes in on Jeremy. BTW, if you go to an IG page and click a picture, you’re prompted to log in. Super annoying. But if you open the pic in a new tab, then there’s no problem.

Another general question: should I just respond to profiles that mention current events? I've started responding again, and I think some profiles are like cars that get abandoned during a disaster. I should probably update my own. "Just looking for that special someone. Willing to go as slow as a tortoise thanks to the pandemic." I hope that didn't sound like I was trivializing COVID-19 and the misery it has caused. At this point, I'd like to meet someone new, even if interaction mostly takes place online. I'd even look into Zoom or Skype, and I wouldn't have thought of two-way audio/visual communication like that in the past.

Paranoia Agent thread is up.

*sigh* The worst part about watching CT get bounced this early is that you don't know if he'll come back, or if things settle down to a degree where The Challenge can be safely filmed. I know, it's a morbid thought, but he's the first veteran to get sent packing, and he had no one to blame but himself. I don't really have an opinion on Jay. I see him as one of an endless array of man candy that gets cast on Survivor, almost certain to frolic through the dreams of Jeff Probst. But he earned that second Skull. CT did everything short of blocking the entrance of the cell with a truck, but he gassed out trying to get through Jay's barricade. Of course, I don't have to like how things panned out. CT volunteered for Purgatory after winning the mission, as he saw Jay as a lay-up. In a better world, Rogan would have been sent to finally prove his worth. Or maybe Johnny would have been the one to get voted into Purgatory. I hope Wes is happy, and that the open-mouth kiss he got from Johnny was worth it. Those two working together is just unnatural as fuck. There was other stuff, but that's all I really remember. The result of the Purgatory might make would-be heroes not jump out of Tribunal to get the slam dunk.

Today, Toonami announced that Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma will be replaced by Paranoia Agent. That was an anime that aired in early 2004 in Japan, and wound up airing on Adult Swim in mid-2005. To say that Paranoia Agent is a bit weird is putting things mildly. I mean, it's not that bizarre by anime standards, but it managed to tick off a lot of boxes in its thirteen-episode run. Basically, most of the action centers on the victims of Lil' Slugger (Shōnen Bat; translates to "Bat Boy"), a young boy on inline skates wielding a metal baseball bat with an odd bend. And things just jump off from there. If you haven't seen it? It's a trip. If you have seen it? Rediscover a quirky anime series, complete with opening credits music that is hard to get out of your head.