I Feel Like a Cult Leader (Batman, Superman, and Like Raccoons I Guess)

   Cliché. It's something I've been thinking about today, like, what does that even mean?, being cliché. Is the dance party end credits sequence at the end of Zootopia cliché? It's been done before, but is it cliché? If so, does that cheapen the rest of the movie? I say nay, though of course, Zootopia can do no wrong in my eyes. There's so much in Zootopia that's already been done before, but I don't think that any of it comes across as cliché, because Zootopia takes everything on its own terms, treats everything like it's absolutely fresh, and it is thus fresh.

   I've got a whole essay written on how that could be, saved on my AlphaSmart, but that's for another time-- it goes off on crazy tangents, and this discussion is already a tangent to what I really want to get to (suffice it to say that, Zootopia is a mainstream offering to a genre that there's an entire fandom structured around, which has been exploring these issues for decades, and along comes this film that, though treading much the same ground, uses its own idiom for everything, which idiom blows my mind.)

   Topic at hand, though... Let's go about this chronologically. I try to attend the temple here once a month at least, and I'm pretty sure I did that this month already now that I think about it, but I can't quite recall; maybe it isn't  that big a deal that I couldn't make it today. I tried to go first thing in the morning (not needing to attend either of my two Tuesday-Thursday classes this morning, which means that my last classes in those two, classes, was on Tuesday;) trued to go first thing but right as I was all prepared and ready to head out the door and everything (but before I was actually out of the door, this time!), I realized that I didn't have my temple recommend on me. Which is kind of important thing to have? I keep it in my wallet, but I never have my wallet on me, and I actually in fact seem to have misplaced it... somewhere around here...

   It's about an hour later. I'd prayed to be able to locate the thing a couple of times, but I still could not. Prayer number three here goes something like, "hey God, why can't I find my recommend? it is thy will I attend the temple today, right?" and God says, "nope, what you should do today is totally go to see Batman v Superman; Dawn of Justice," although he doesn't phrase it like that, but I interpret it that way. And so that's what I did today, was do that.

   I feel like some kind of cult leader, now, not for claiming communication with God, but for the, Dawn of Justice, thing: I'm a prophet of Zootopia, caught with my pants down, and calling for my followers to make up for my own hypocrisy in some way, by saying: it is not my fault, I was tempted into it oh my children, and it is only inspiring me to greater righteousness; you must now balance out my viewing of Batman v Superman with more viewings of Zootopia. (Which you should totally do; ohhh my gooodness is that a great film.)

   I went in with, I don't know, like, what if this is actually good, what if this is better than Zootopia, seeing now that the dance party ending is apparently cliché, among other things, enough to shake some people's enjoyment of the entire film. Like, I don't think it's cliché, of course, but that doesn't stop me from being able to see with perfect clarity anyone's point in thinking that... So I had mixed feelings at first, until I realized, what would Gazelle do? She'd keep on making those new mistakes, she'd keep on making them every day, those new mistakes... If Zootopia is telling me not to be afraid of, going to see a movie that's not Zootopia (not to mention what God says,) then it must be, not turning my back on it, or anything.

   God saying, hey go catch some Dawn of Justice action, though, that's probably just my own interpolation of what he said. I hope that's the case. If it were not, then that would mean that God's got a horrible taste in movies, and I've always liked to think that he's got a really pretty good taste in movies (Czech New Wave and all that). Not that I can't see why audiences liked it-- it's just that, CURSE YOU ABILITY TO SEE BOTH SIDES OF AN ISSUE, I can also totally see why critics didn't. And methinks the critics are winning out.

   Dang it but I didn't want to delve into it, since that's what the rest of the internet is doing as well, and wouldn't you like a nice helping of discussion regarding Zootopia? But I joined the internet in counting down to DKR back in 2012, I can join the internet in talking about DoJ now. Because, cliché ain't cliché if you act oblivious enough, or whatever the heck my point was back at the beginning of this. And there ain't nobody more oblivious tha--, well, actually, I can think of scores of people more oblivious than I am, so, well whatever.

You know what we could use right now? Public domain pics of raccoons.
Oh, here's one now.

   So I'm siding with the critics. Not that it was terrible. I liked it, except the parts where I didn't. Which was... While I was watching it, I thought it was alright, let's put it like that. It just gets easier to hate the longer after you've seen it you are, and, I'm trying desperately not to explode the the rhetoric re: lack of quality up to rather-be-whacked-with-a-sink proportions, here, though that does become increasingly easy as I get more distance on the film. Superman was done right, at least, and Batman was also done right, with guns and brands and branding!, even Wonder Woman was done right (though ??? on whether that would hold up over a whole solo project.) Some of it was great! A lot of it was great! But all of it was directed by Zack Snyder!...

   That man's some kind of genius; I've got no idea how he does it. How do you manage to have not only really jittery nausea-inducing I-can't-tell-what-the-heck-is-going-on camerawork, and the feeling that nothing has any real weight? Look anywhere else captured by a camera, in films, on TV, wherever, and you can see that gravity is a thing. Zack Snyder has the magical ability to turn that off, just by being the one behind the lense.

   Which, Superman and Batman being done right, a whole lot of themes being explored with the DC universe being a whole lot more "ideal"-based of the two major comic book publishers, makes Zack Snyder actually the perfect director for this kind of thing.

   If only his action scenes actually made any sense! Like, not only from A) a directing standpoint, being able to comprehend any of the goings-on on screen, but also from B) a story standpoint, none of the action actually advancing the plot forward, and a lot of it seeming to work against that.

   There's this big long car chase middle-ish in the film, where Batman is driving the Batmobile after a truck carrying Kryptonite, or at least I think that's what's happening because refer back to point A, but he fails and meets face-to-face with the Man of Steel (who thinks Bats is a dangerous vigilante, which, well yeah) and the Dark Knight (being no great fan of Superman either) delivers this completely unjustified (from an emotional standpoint) Dark Knight Returns reference, and, and, I think that was the point of the chase scene, so that it could end in Supes blocking the Batmobile with his body and tell Batman that the Bat persona should be buried, because, we saw at the beginning of the scene how Batman shot one of those blinky obviously-a-tracking-device tracking devices at the truck, and we see him track the device to LexCorp soon after, so it doesn't even make any sense that Batman would be chasing the truck.

   The Batmobile came this close to knocking the tracking device off in the car chase, so you get the sense that he's really working against his own interests there, to engage in a confusing and poorly directed action set piece like that...

   I mentioned earlier, not earlier in this post but in an earlier post, how this movie probably wouldn't be as bad as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was, and, hey I was right, but, TMNT, the greatest sequence of that movie, and one of the greater sequences of cinema in general, is the scene with the truck skidding down the surface of the mountain for, whatever reason it had. This scene was so much unlike any of the other action scenes because you could actually tell what the heck was going on, and the geography between characters, and everything. Really lucid filmmaking-- almost 100% comprised of single-takes, long tracking shots, that kind of thing, so much easier to do in a computer, with the rest of the film being all, cut so quickly you can't register anything, kind of deal. But this scene was great. And I hate to say it, or I would if it weren't really such an amazing scene you guys, but, I think that maybe Dawn of Justice could have stood to be a little more like TMNT. (Except... Doomsday totally looks exactly like a Ninja Turtle, so... TMNT-iness is good in some aspects (really just to be like that one scene,) bad in others.)

And hey here's another one!

   Even films with a style of a lot of quick cuts, it would seem, can have big awesome "oners." There's that the one in the Knightmare, of course, which does what oners do best in drawing attention to itself, though there's one or two of those in this movie that don't draw attention to themselves (and I notice them because I've been watching videos about that exact kind of thing lately, so my attention was drawn to, how unobtrusive the directing was?) Lois Lane is talking to Silas, in the men's room, and he looks up and sees her in the mirror and they're talking and the camera goes from his reflection to her reflection to her real-life face, and, that may not sound very impressive but it was surprisingly competent. And, sexist, borderline transphobic (the dialogue, of course, not the camera work. I mean, it is about Lois being in the men's room, like, what the heck...) Seriously, though, speaking of such issues! Martha Kent at one point tells Lois, "hi," which means that the film totally passes the Bechdel-- no, wait, she's just initiating a conversation about Clark, friiig. Well, film, you got two-thirds of the way there...

   Another great thing about Zack Snyder directing is the absolutely random attempts at heightened drama. Like when Thomas and Martha Wayne are killed (which, yes, we get to watch, again, but I guess it kind of makes sense because (though by far from an origin story for Batman) this is this universe's introduction to him-- but seriously, Bruce's parents' deaths, again?) when they're killed, the camera zooms straight up to an EECU of Thomas's mouth as he whispers Martha's name, and, where have I dang seen that before?

   That's dang where! I lol'd. Hear that Zack, turns out your moment of pathos as actually a moment of bathos, how does that make you feel?

   And speaking of smashing snowglobes! The building explodes, everyone dies, and only then does the jar of not-peach-tea hit the ground! Then cut to: a horse rearing in the smoke! Electric guitars scream, and Zack Snyder steps out onto the screen and delivers "the horns." I'm only making one of those three things up!

   I'm, making Ben Affleck cry now, probably. No offense against you, man. You were awesome. No offense even against Zack Snyder; you're rich enough probably, you didn't need the income from my ticket but I bought one anyway.

Just playing to the rule of three, here. B'awwww.

   So, yeah. No. I don't regret going to go see it, not in the least. I just regret investing any money or time in doing so, is all...

Hecks to the Yes!

   I'm so snapping tired right now. Not that I get cranky when I'm tired, but... snapping, that's a thing that people say, right? Like, you know, that's snapping twiggin', or something, you know? Also, twiggin', that's a thing that people say, right? Snapping, snapping, twigs.

   So my insane knot of homework all coming at me at once is over; that's good... I managed to create a greeting card for my computer arts course (and only now writing "greeting card" do I realize that it should totally have been of Chief Bogo, darn it) and finish a minimum three page thing for Pearl of Great Price, and somehow in there went to CBW's pizza and chill thing, where I would not be surprised if I ate more pizza than anyone else. My computer arts class gets out at 7:00, which is when Comic Book Workshop starts, which goes on until 8:00, and the PoGP thing being due at 9:00... with me having had none of it complete at the beginning of the thing. It was truly a mad rush to complete.

   And so I'm exhausted.

   Needing something still to post, I've got this, which I've been sitting on since, Sunday or Monday. Apparently the name of... what state am I in right now? Idaho, right? I'd thought I was in Idaho, but no, surely that must not be the case, because if I really were in Idaho then it would have come to my attention earlier that the state's governor has the coolest name ever, and I would have been already aware that this great (?) state is under the helm of none other than a man by the name of Butch Otter.

   Butch Otter!

Trending shows me what's up.

   ASAP after learning this, I spent a good chunk of time learning how to draw otters (which are the greatest, aren't they?) just so that I could get some art up in here of the sucker. I took a, photo, of the page, instead of scanning it, because I am not trekking out all the way to the Spori just to digitize this image.

Otters build dams, right?
'Cause if they do, ohh the punnage I could get off of that...

   And hey I figured as well I might as well verb on that Facebook post, while I'm at it. I really am itching to go see that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice thing, actually, and, if it looks like I'm promoting a film featuring an Aesop about prejudice over a film I haven't seen yet but 100% appear to be judging beforehand, DELIBERATE SUBTLE IRONY, clearly!

   I still am totally voting for the Quesalupa this November, though.

On, On Trying to Be Normal

   I'm not sure if any of you out there read Andrea's blog. Here it is. There's birds, if you're into that kind of thing. She put up a post a couple of days ago, here, where she talks about trying to fit in and freaking everyone out with her Asperger's and everything; I don't know, but that got me thinking, and I replied to the post with the following:

"I crave to be like everyone else and I almost always try to be normal..." Huh. That's interesting. Not that, but... 

 I've never given it much thought until now, whether I crave to be like everyone else, or try to be normal. I do try not to slouch, which is apparently my natural posture; I do try to breathe through my nose instead of my mouth; I look people in the eye, I think, I can never remember if I did or not after having a conversation which would probably mean that it's hopefully a habit by this point so it came as second nature without having to focus on it; but why are those things? Is it trying to be normal? Is it trying not to come across as spasticus autisticus? But I've never had trouble getting people to like me; I guess I'm just blessed. I just... I've never even had to try. I haven't tried. Do you think that might be the secret, just to be yourself? It's certainly what all the after-school specials taught (remember those?)... And up till now I've always been confused by that, because, no matter what you do, you're still yourself, and, how else would you act? but now maybe I think that it's all about not having to hide anything, what does it even mean to live a lie I don't even know, is there a difference between manners and morals when both come down to interacting with other people, but if they're the same then wouldn't it be a sin to be awkward, but where does awkwardness come from is it from trying to be someone else, or being too much of yourself, and are those even opposites and 

 AAARGH I SHOULD BE DOING HOMEWORK AND STUFF RIGHT NOW DRAT YOU ANDREA!!!

   That's really about it. I'll let that stand on its own. My homework I mention there is done, but I've got three things due tomorrow, and I want an early start in the morning, so I'm clocking out now.

   Once those three things are done, I've got no class on Thursday, it being a final test in Art History 202 that I'm exempt from taking because my grades are good enough already and you get your lowest test score dropped anyway, and Art 101 all that remains is the final test and final which are in the testing center.

   So, yeah, with nothing on Thursday, several major things due tomorrow, and my having been prevented from getting too much of a head start on anything because of the stuff due today, I just sure wish that some of the things tomorrow were due the day after instead...

On The Team (PIAT 4)

I had a very good reason for this photo. Just can't remember it, is all.

   Today's the final Putting It All Together, doing a project on a Book of Mormon topic, with the entire semester's worth of lessons to choose from. There's a great article in the newest issue of the Ensign about Recognizing Satan's Counterfeits, which happens to be the topic that we had this morning (Lesson 17, Exposing the Enemies of Christ,) but that's too perfect and kind of cheap, and we're supposed to at least look like we put any thought or effort into these PIAT assignments.

   Looking over the list of previous lessons we've had in class, this semester's worth of material, I feel really impressed to write today about missionary work. For some reason. I can't even find my study notes I took while doing the required reading, so I'm adrift out here, but this is the one standing out to me.

   This is the lesson that stands out to me, and, how every PIAT must have a quote on the topic from a general authority, there's one talk on the subject that also stands out to me... Saturday, October 1st 2011. Priesthood session. Jeffrey R Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gets up to the lectern, and delivers his address entitled "We Are All Enlisted." He begins with the first vision of Joseph Smith (which we're discussing this week in my other religion class, incidentally,) and the power of Satan coming and trying to halt young Joseph in the prayer that was to lead to the vision. Joseph prays harder and sees God and all that, which is what everyone focuses on, but Elder Holland draws our attention to the tactics of Satan, and calls for missionary work against that.

"...Satan cannot directly take a life. That is one of many things he cannot do. But apparently his effort to stop the work will be reasonably well served if he can just bind the tongue of the faithful. Brethren, if that is the case, I am looking tonight for men young and old who care enough about this battle between good and evil to sign on and speak up. We are at war, and for these next few minutes, I want to be a one-man recruiting station."

   And from there he goes on to talk about missionary work and the whole bit. So, relevant to the discussion-- to "bind the tongue of the faithful" is a bad thing to have happen, and so we need to not have our tongue bound, we gotta wanna serve, which reminds me of D&C 4:3 for some reason, "...if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work."

   There's more to missionary service than proselyting, though. David A Bednar with his idea how electronic communication can be missionary service and all that, even that aside. There were two untrue stereotypes that Elder Broadhead hated: 1, all metal music is devil music, and 2, all missionaries are prost.

   Metal being used for the power of awesome instead of evil is shown above, in this live performance of one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite artists. Acoustic version, though still a metal song; Amaranthe is one of those more genre-bending groups. Which also goes over the second point, in a sense; missionary work can come through non-traditional channels. Elder Holland's talk is about proselytizing, though, which always got my goat, and which is why I was surprised to feel impressed to choose this all as my topic. And I've always wanted to address it, and need to address it here. Elder Holland's address is about proselytizing; all others are, I don't want to say dismissed, but dismissed with a wave of the, you know. "You are 'on the team' and always will be. But we need the rest of you!" A wave of the lip.

   You see it sometimes. Lip service. Usually with talks about single mothers, giving lip service to single fathers; single fathers, giving lip service to single mothers; mothers and fathers with each other, giving lip service to single parents. Well-meaning, and totally justified lest the entire talk get derailed, but... I know Jeffrey R Holland is good with this kind of thing, mental health and all that, so I'm sure he didn't mean it to come across so... well, for me, it just felt like, yeah right, like, it didn't apply to me, because by this point I already knew that I wouldn't be serving a full-time prost mission anyway. Elder Holland mentioned "health reasons or other impediments beyond their control," of "those who have hoped all their lives to serve missions," and it looked like my case didn't even fit easily into that category.

   Maybe if I weren't so liminal it wouldn't have been so, borderline insulting, to me, but I am liminal and my eventual mission was liminal. Though, like apparently you can go on a proselyting mission if you've been diagnosed with Asperger's. just you have to jump through a hoop or two, honk this little horn and balance balls on your nose to do so, or something? Liminality requires paperwork, in a world used to dealing with only the things it's used to dealing with. I'm not sure if I knew that was a possibility at the time, though I ain't bitter. Best two yards of my wife.

   Hey, though, "on the team," what else is there to do? Probably canning or something, we were looking at, using my aunt and uncle's place in Farmington as a base of operations. I explained a lot of this here already, you should reeead it so that I can get onto the PIAT stuff. Which, right, I should do.

    Where was-- "desires to serve God, called to the work," right. We read in the Book of Mormon again and again how those born of God naturally have the desire to spread His word. Alma the Younger used to be an enemy of the church, until he had an Apostle Paul sort of experience, and afterward, he writes in Alma 36:24, "...I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost." Alma labors, brings souls to repentance, while in this life...

   Last week I wrote in my scripture journal, FAMILY HISTORY IS TOTALLY RADICAL, though, during Christ among the Nephites talking about how baptism is an essential ordinance. 3 Nephi 11:33-34, "And whoso believeth in me, and is baptized, the same shall be saved; and they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of God. And whoso believeth not in me, and is not baptized, shall be damned." Everyone needs to be baptised, but not everyone can be-- there's nothing at all about family history work in those verses, but I felt impressed to write about it during my study of them. Not all missionary work is prost, but all missionary work is missionary work.

   In our case, it had to deal with the salvation of those that we can't literally get to, but whose baptisms are in our hands. It's not building the kingdom through canning awesome pears, or anything. It's not grabbing converts while they're still alive and able to do further work on the earth. But I'd still say that's on the team.

   What did Elder Holland mean by being on the team? In my farewell talk at church I mentioned being sure to ask him when I saw him, and, he's the only member of the first presidency I spoke to while there, but it must've slipped my mind for (ha) some reason...

Bad Movies, Good Movies, Better Movies, Best Movies: I'm Forgiving Batman, Making Predictions About Zootopia, and Watching Citizen Kane

   I'd meant to put this in my discussion Thursday of why I couldn't forgive Batman, only there wasn't a place for it at all, without some kind of massive rewrite just to shoehorn it in (potentially through the "last night's CBW" stuff tying into the stuff about timelines and continuity?) I excised it, for the better, knowing I could just post it up sometime later. Here it is:

   I can't bring myself to forgive Batman because the R-rated Deadpool-inspired edit is only one version of the film, with the "normal" one being only PG-13, and the closest theater that even shows R-rated films being 30 miles from here. I can't bring myself to forgive Batman because there is still a PG-13 version, which means that Dawn of Justice will still be shown nearby, at both Fat Cats and Paramount 5, and I can't bring myself to forgive Batman because there is still an R version, and yesterday evening's Comic Book Workshop discussion on morality talked about how the Big Three are still capable of being present in works that are moral, so morally speaking rating doesn't even matter that much.

   Presenting the movie with a Morton's Fork; that's just harsh. It's how I felt, but it's harsh. I can admit that. EDIT, as well, turns out, that's not even accurate, and the R-rated cut is Blu-Ray only, when that comes out, just being the original cut of the film before the MPAA rated it and Warner Bros toned everything down; so, not even inspired by Deadpool but more of an "unrated extended edition" type deal when home distribution comes around. It's almost as though I didn't do any research on something I'd heard in passing, up till just now... Yep, yep, glad I kept that out of the original post...

   I can forgive Batman now.

   However bad critics may find it, at least it can't be worse than the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, right? It might actually be, pretty decent I guess, worth viewing just to see how things get set up for later movies. Critics are saying that the movie takes itself too seriously, and the studio's saying that the critics are taking it too seriously, so wherever the answer lies, seriousness is probably subjective, grim n' gritty but still dudes in bulletproof leotards. Probably worth seeing over Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... but that's not why I can forgive Batman.

   Dawn of Justice made, it is first three days, enough money to recoup its entire ridiculous budget a couple of times over (depending on which budget estimate you pay attention to; I've heard from $200 million to $410 million, and either way it's swept in that much already.) First weekend at the box office, making the amount that Zootopia made in its first weekend, plus $100,000,000 more. There's no fighting against it now, no keeping Zootopia in its #1 spot, which it was lucky to have held onto for so long. We can't fight it, but that's not why I can forgive Batman either.

   Dawn of Justice is no skin off the nose of Zootopia, even in box office tickets (if you're going out to the movies, you're going out to the movies) but especially not in critical reception. Being offended by a worse movie for a better movie's sake is just petty, and childish (though, you know, "worse" just meaning "not as good as;" I haven't seen Dawn of Justice yet, so it might be actually really good, but no matter how good it wouldn't be no Zootopia.) There's (at this point still wishful) speculation already of Zootopia coming down with a tiny golden man or two, come beginning of next year, and not just for best animated picture but best picture of the year, period. Even if it is good Dawn of Justice could hardly be described as Oscar bait, and if it steals any awards Zootopia is also nominated in, best soundtrack most likely, that kind of thing, more power to it. But, hey, that's also not the reason I'm unclenching my metaphorical bowels towards the Crusader of Gotham.

   The reason is this: it's okay to move on. It's okay that there's a new Batman movie out, whatever happened having happened at the premiere of the last one, which was holy crap four years ago. There's another Batman film out that my cousin died before getting to see? That's okay too.

   It'd be alright if Zootopia doesn't win the best picture Oscar next year, or even just the best animated picture Oscar. Though I can totally see it going all the way, especially with its message, especially after the #OscarsSoWhite stuff that went down this year... (2013. 2013 was a great year for African American cinema! Hey, 2013: maybe space that out a bit, release one or two of those the year after next, and there won't need to be calls for this Affirmative Action-style whatever?; Mammal Inclusion Initiative, how does that even work, is it just the hiring practice or what, because they sure aren't handicapping any of the tests (or even thinking about accessibility when designing their restrooms) and dang this is a tangent, I'm just trying to segue into yesterday's Citizen Kane viewing by pointing out that that movie didn't win any Oscars so that's not shameful or anything.)

   But perhaps getting onto Citizen Kane is the real tangent. We're talking about good movies, we're talking about bad movies, so I might as well bring it up anyway. Did watch it yesterday. The people I was with, Andrea and Jimmy, they liked it, though I was afraid they'd find it kind of boring. I don't remember it being all that boring, but this time, hey there you go. But it blew both of their minds, and though the secret of Rosebud was guessed at correctly at one point, apparently it didn't stick and so it still came as a twist.

   I believe that the more people who watch that movie the better, because not only is it pretty great, it's also, you know, not that great, just a movie you guys, and if we all saw it we could get over our obsession with it as a culture, with it no longer occupying such a snooty elite high horse because guess what everyone's seen it.

   We'd been going to watch Casablanca as well, but Jimmy was movie'd out, and so, next time I guess.

   Alright, I'm done.

   Also, how Thursday's post starts with "Today wasn't that great:" I'd been going to end it restating that, but then saying "But that's alright." Only I couldn't find how to fit that in either.

Interesting Times

“Our Earth is degenerate in these later days; there are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end; bribery and corruption are common; children no longer obey their parents; every man wants to write a book and the end of the world is evidently approaching.”

 --Assyrian clay tablet dating 2800 BC.*

   Times are certainly interesting. I've felt weird all day, especially after finding out that my gentleman crush is gay right on back, and thus the relationship becomes either the straightest or the gayest thing in the world, the most moral or immoral, and for the opposite reasons that we usually conceive of relationships being one or the other. I could go on for hours why that's the case, but I'll allow you to figure it out for yourself...

   Congratulations, man. We just broke ethics. Like, all of ethics. It's dead now. And you're still hopelessly out of my league...

...

"Time is passing by/ I still want you/ Crime is on the rise/ I still want you/ Climate change and debt/ I still want you/ Nuclear distress/ I still want you/ The Earth is heating up/ I still want you/ Hurricanes and floods/ I still want you/ Even more than I did before"

--Brandon Flowers.

   This goes through my head, over and over, as I think about this subject, "interesting times," "signs that the world is speedily coming to an end." Even more than I did before, I still want you; while (and I flashback to, a dream from my childhood perhaps) what it would mean, to get what I want, gets greyer and greyer...

...

"May you live in interesting times."

--Ancient Chinese curse.**

   Is it a curse to live in interesting times? Not at all, I don't think. For me at least. And in fact, the opposite, though I live in confusion. I nearly asked, I almost said, take away from me this confusion, but then I realized-- this is how I thrive. I was placed in this time for a reason. A grey world is the healthiest for me. I could never live in a world all black or all white; the only life for me is the good life, though one with monsters in it.

   Though always I struggle to answer, if this is the case, does this make me one of those; does this make me a monster.

My Love Life's a Pretty Bumped-Up Thing (Plus, Apollo A'Cappella, Plus Zootropolis Watch)

   There's a girl I've had a crush on from a distance for about a year now, but could never find on Facebook or Twitter or anything even when I tried to track down her friends to get to her, and othersuch creepy stalky behavior. Finally today, searching for only her last name to see if I could at least locate any family members, I found the reason why I could never find her! Sometime within the time I learned of her existence and started mad crushing, and when I started trying to track her down, she became a he, and he doesn't have a girl's name anymore...

   Every woman I've even loved has turned out to be either hopelessly out of my league, or a lesbian. And, scratch the "either" there-- it's, both, actually. Both hopelessly out of my league, and a lesbian. Every woman I've loved. All of them. Both of those things. But now this fellow, though yeah still out of my league, the other thing is certainly totally technically bucking the trend, which is interesting? I always knew I never had a chance with you anyway, predicting that you'd fall in line with the mathematical certitude of the rest of the luck I've had, and though that's mostly basically the case though this time in an unusual form, now that I've found you at least now I know you still exist...?

   Holding, though, that all my love interests have had that constant of homosexuality and classiness, I'm totally intrigued by the possibility that could salvage everything, the possibility that that propositional constant still remains true in spite of the other stuff, and, though my lady-interest is indeed a gentleman-interest, might be a gay one of those...

   That's kosher, right? I'mma pretty sure it's kosher...

   Meanwhile, with what we've got and what we can do, the dating scene here in Rexburg kind of sucks, because all the gals here are not only amazing but available. It's just so horrible for me...

   So, yeah, today was fantastic! I went to go see Zootopia again; I had lunch at Winger's Roadhouse Grill afterward which was ohhh my goodness; tonight's Apollo A'Cappella performance at Skizzy's blew my mind, and hey guess what I've been asked to design their logo (Apollo's, not Skizzy's, of course.)

   Skizzy's is a great place. It's so super chill, and hip, and friendly, and... just great. The gig was standing room only, out of necessity because the venue was a room with a stage and no chairs; the, foyery place, that was super cushy, like one of those botiquesque cafes, there were couches there to relax on.

The vision:
Skizzy's is the place to chill and make memories with new and old friends.
Kick back, relax, and be yourself.
Everyone is welcome here. Love one another. If not, get the bump out.

   Having pre-purchased my ticket online, not only did I get a dollar discount for the event but I also received complimentary popcorn. For the third time today. Popcorn at the movies; popcorn at Winger's; popcorn here. It was a great place to reflect on the series of events that had brought me to that moment.

   The series of events that caused me to catch Zootopia again, and the longer, more complex, and more unknowable life events that caused me to be interested in seeing it in the first place, all leading up to the first popcorn; the advertisement on the door of Winger's telling of signature burgers $9.99 for a limited time only, and how I'd eaten there previously in between some of my first Zootopia viewings on the 4th, leading to my second popcorn (Winger's has popcorn the way that 5 Guys' has peanuts and Mexican restaurants have salsa and tortilla chips); and now the series of events that led me to coming to Skizzy's today in the first place, all having to do with knowing one of the guys in Apollo.

   First day of Comic Book Workshop, I just happened to pass by the room on my way from my last class of the day, and just happened to team up to create a comic book with someone who wouldn't be able to do that. I got picked up by another team, who just happened to hear my plight and be there, becoming co-writer with Jimmy, who's a first tenor in Apollo A'Cappella, which was performing at a venue that has discounts and free popcorn for preorder of tickets. Complimentary popcorn number three.

   It's Jimmy's last semester here before he goes on a mission, but he's fantastic, and Apollo's fantastic, and you should like them on Facebook.

   I'm going over to his place tomorrow sometime (alongside a few others) to watch Citizen Kane with him; he's never seen it before, so I'm excited for him.

   I'm not angry at Batman anymore, though the number of people in line to go see Dawn of Justice was nigh-reminiscent to clowns piling out of a tiny car. It's a joke of a movie, but let people see it, and feel sorry for them. Their viewings don't negate the ticket sales of all the people who went to go see Zootopia instead today, which was still a lot.

ZOOTROPOLIS WATCH
   Eh hey, it's out today!

Why I Can't Bring Myself to Forgive Batman

   Today wasn't that great. Garry Shandling is dead. I had to do laundry. I bought a ticket to tonight's performance of Peter and the Starcatcher, then realized that it started during the time where I was slotted to be representing the Animation Workshop at the Workshop Showcase, and so had to give my ticket away. And Bats and Supes are taking themselves way too seriously, and I can't bring myself to forgive them for it, as irrational as I know it is to be so personally invested with my apathy toward the film when everyone else is hyped about it. So it's like a few months back, when The Force Awakens came out, only The Force Awakens is actually a good movie, and it wasn't competing with Zootopia.

   Went to help out with the booth to shill for the Showcase, around noon. I made a challenge to myself to grab the whole stack of flyers and hand each one off to passers-by. Jimmy's a master at shoving flyers into people's hands-- he did all the heavy lifting, and all the feather lifting too, when we were distributing the flyers at the booth advertising Fandomonium[!], Alaire and I being more introverted than Jimmy when it came to that and Jimmy getting all the placements (though, as rad as I think Jung was, I think that the whole introversion/extroversion thing is a crock.) Workshop Showcase being tonight at 7:00, Jimmy meanwhile handing out flyers for an Apollo A Cappella gig tomorrow night, I had to carry the weight for advertising the Showcase, and I became proficient at handing out flyers by the end of it. Sure there are folks who refuse the flyers, but that's okay; like, seriously, their refusal of your flyer is already the worst thing that could happen, so it's like, well, that happened, oh well? One man said he wouldn't make it to the Workshop because he'd been going to see Batman v Superman tonight.

   Batman v Superman. Sure, people are probably going to see it, but it's like people who read The Oatmeal, or people who are voting for Captain Sock Puppet: it's always some great mythological Other, not anybody you know. Not even in a corner are these things being done, they're just... being done by strangers. But this man was going to go see it. And I found myself, angry. At Batman. And I realized that, at least for now, I can't bring myself to forgive him.

   I can't bring myself to forgive Batman because his movie's going to compete with Zootopia, and probably win. I can't bring myself to forgive Batman because his movie's (last I checked) at 33% on Rotten Tomatoes, but it will still make hundreds of millions of dollars, though with a $400,000,000 budget, it's probably still going to flop. Before that, though, even though it's going to be a disaster it will be number 1 at the box office, possibly breaking box office records for May openings, in further ways that they've been broken this month already. Though I can hardly believe in Zootopia as a noumenon, I still want it to beat out every other film this weekend, preserve the continuity from its opening, continue at number one in the box office domestically and internationally for at least one more week.

   Continuity, that's it. It's about continuity. That's why I can't bring myself to forgive this movie. Adam never got to see Dark Knight Rises. He died in June 2012; DKR came out the next month. Batman once again on the big screen, in live action, breaks the continuity, like eating the chocolate muffin after having starved myself for a week when he died. The present had been tied to the past up till now. Even though the existence of Adam as a noumenon is by this point surreal, as surreal as the existence of Zootopia itself as a noumenon.

   One of the last films that Adam went to go see, possibly the very last but I'm not sure, was Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and I can never watch it the same again, the scene in the garage at the end when Cobalt tries to throw himself off the ledge and take the nuclear football with him, his body twisted and broken on the ground, but having survived the fall. That part's tough. I'm sure there are those who can't watch DKR the same again after what happened, or watch it the same in the first place, seeing as how it happened at the premiere and so it wouldn't really be seeing the same way "again." I've never had a problem with watching it, but, would this new Batman disrupt that continuity as well, for those people, trample over those memories, four years old but still precious?

   Dawn of Justice officially is released tomorrow; in practice it premiered tonight; last night I finally got around to Rogue Nation... It's so much like Spectre; Spectre's so much like it; Adam's brother Michael went to go see Spectre when it opened, on the very first day I think, the premiere...

   I had a countdown on this blog for DKR when this blog first started; I had a countdown on this blog for Zootopia throughout last year up till the beginning of this month; Zootopia is compulsively rewatchable, in the vein of many recent films, mentioning specifically among others, the Lego Movie... which is getting its own big-screen Batman spinoff. And now they're coming head-to-head, Batman and Zootopia. But it's not Batman's fault.

   Things fit together in such complex ways. I suppose that I'd have a lot more mixed feelings if Dawn of Justice actually looked any good.

   Ask me about my Dark Knight/Zootopia crossover some time...

Most Certainly No Makovsky Here

   Today was the last day of Comic Book Workshop for the semester, like how yesterday was the same thing for Animation Workshop, except that also involved pizza for free and the CBW is having its pizza day next week, and paid for by donations. So, yeah, I guess there is still one last week of CBW for the semester.

   To send us off, this week we discussed the notion of morality, in the industry and the medium. How do we create and/or consume comics that are a force for good in the world? And what does that even mean? How can we tell whether a work is moral or immoral?

1. The kneejerk "big three," sex, violence, and language, of course, but does the willingness of a work to depict immorality make that work itself immoral? The Bible's got all three, in spades, and that book is, is the Bible, so... could that really be it? Orson Scott Card wrote that there are three ways that evil can be depicted: 
1. depicted, or whatever the word was, which is a good thing (ignoring the problem makes it worse,) 
2. endorsed, or whatever, which is a neutral thing (villains can talk about how great it is to be evil and we can despise them for it, or the hero can do the same which is beyond the pale,) and
3. whatever the third one was, glorified or something, which would be a bad thing. I brought my notebook this evening, but neglected to bring any writing instrument.
2. John Gardner's theory, from his book-length essay "On Moral Fiction," breaks down every story, based on its outlook and ultimate message, into three possible outcomes, of which only one is moral. A work can either tell lies or tell the truth, about the world, and it breaks down as follows:
1. life is easy (lie! immoral!); or
2. life is hard, and thus not worth living (lie! immoral!);
3. life is hard but it's worth living (truth! only moral option!).
3. Joseph Campbell also had ideas about morality, and how good stories are for our lives, and how a "moral" story is one that helps one advance in one's life journey. But I don't even come close to remember the exact wording, because this is Joseph Campbell's writing we're talking about here, and I didn't have a pencil like I said...
1. I think there was something about navels in there, though. And... a river? or ribbon? of... cream? Does that make any sense?
2. Dang though but it was poetical.

   So that's that.

   Pic absolutely unrelated:

"The Dancing Crane" by Aleksandr Makovsky, oil on canvas, 1897.

Most Certainly No Mickey Here

   Today was the last day of animation workshop for the semester.

   Madeleine ordered two pizzas, and we (the three of us who were there) watched Sinbad, which, sure, tanked Dreamworks' traditional animation program, but it's still animated. And it wasn't as terrible as any of remembered it being. Eris's animation is friggin' awesome. Everyone else's is friggin' passable. We managed to get through both pizzas.

   Also. There was also this evening, at 6:00 (with the workshop being at 7:00,) a meeting to plan the first ever workshop showcase, which is being held Thursday. Animation Workshop's got 10 minutes; Comic Book Workshop's got 10 minutes.

   That's all I have to report. You can use the time saved from this post to read through a EULA.

Green n' Stuff

   I've been noticing this one really weird shade hue?, of green, popping up a lot lately. Like, all over the place. I looked it up on Wikipedia just now, to find out its name, and turns out the color that's been cropping up everywhere is called... "green."

   ...thought I was onto something there...

   Alright, figure I'd make the post short today, that way you can spend less time here and more time, like, getting through Tolstoy, or Balzac, or Proust, or whomever it is you read it would take a while to get through. Seriously I was in the library today, and it was full of books. Like, entire shelves full of 'em. There's a lot of stuff in the world, and, my gift to you is to tell you, go and use the time you're not spending reading this blog, doing other things. Maybe you can spend the extra time today learning German, or Python, or something.

   But it turns out that this guy played the role of "Guard Wolf" in Zootopia?

   Friggin' Zach King...

Zootopia Stuff: Bearbear Magic User, Etc

   Parodies in Zootopia are kind of weird, and I could go on this whole long thing about... apparently in this world only the Disney-equivalent company comes out with films, or at least only Disney-equivalent films exist, through whatever studio produced?

   Aside from films, there's the native Zoo-niverse brands, with no human counterpart (as far as I can tell... I would love to see what the heck Bearbear Magic User corresponds to, if it's not unique... if it isn't it's probably something really obvious and I'm gonna be so embarrassed...)

   The brands that do have 1-to-1 human counterparts, Zoogle and Zuber and Targoat, those are not only parodies featured in the movie but, actual Disney advertising partners... which means that not only is Zoogle Photos a bland name product, it's also product placement. It's, both.

   Which is all like, whaaaaaat? In a good way, of course. It's really bad. And sick. In the, good, meaning of those words...

Zootopia Stuff: Calendar Theory

   Zootopia takes place entirely, based on the calendars in the background throughout the film, seemingly within one month, one beginning with a weekend, and one possessing 30 days so we know Assistant Mayor Bellwether's desk calendar is off (and not even flipped open to an Aries month, so I've got no idea what's up with that?)

   If it's not May like her little sheep flip calendar says (though, May, wasn't that Bellwether's first name? that could be it?) if it's not May we can at least pinpoint it thus: the film takes place sometime after Wrangled, Pig Hero 6, Wreck-It Rhino, and the first Floatzen movie have come out, but before Floatzen II, Meowna, or Giraffic have been released. The most recent film in our world, Big Hero 6, released 7 November 2014, so it definitely takes place some time after that.

   Star Trunk is in theaters, though, which problematizes things a bit, because in our world Star Trek: Into Darkness was already well on DVD by November 2014 and Star Trek Beyond gets released 22 July 2016. The next 30-day month beginning with a weekend after that is April 2017 (Zootopian calendars thus beginning on Monday under this theory,) or September 2017 with the first day being Sunday as usual, but Beyond's going to be well out on DVD by either of those points, and after that Moana's going to be out and so it has to be between that...

   Here's what I think, though. I think that Star Trunk isn't a Star Trek thing at all, rather Star Wars. And specifically, Episode 7, which, although out on DVD the first of April, is still playing in several local cinemas in real life, and I don't think it's too much a stretch to say that maybe (especially with 3D showings, one of which Paramount 5 has) it'll still be playing throughout next month. April, 2016. 30 days, first two days Friday and Saturday. Excellent.

   Indeed, looking at the original concept art-- it's not May, and I had it right. What the heck happened?

  Still just a theory, though; concept art is just concept art. I can think of one thing that would offer up a definite confirmation. There's a glimpse of a newspaper much closer up in the movie, which Judy uses to wrap up a dozen carrots, probably with a date on top which would pin down the exact timeframe of the film. (Looking very, very closely at the newsprint on the poster, it's a bunch of Lorem Ipsum, which was disappointing.) The newspaper wrapping goes by too fast to read anything on the paper without pausing-- pawsing!--, though, and we can't pause-- paws!--, because so far we can only see it in theaters... theaters! Legally, at least.

   Though how wild would it be to watch the "Duke of Bootleg" scene on a bootleg DVD? That'd be, pretty strange, right? It'd be, like, double meta, maybe even triple if, what the heck DVD is that in the upper lefthand corner?, looks like some kind of, Zootopia parody of, itself...

   I'm gonna, go get a drink of water, and lie down for a bit...

Pro Portfolio Tips and Some Filmmaking Behind-the-Scenes. Also Fries.

   Had that interview today. Auxiliary Services' graphic design department here look for new fresh designers, because people keep on graduating and so they want people who'll be able to stay around for a while, which is why they harvest from starting-level classes. We'll see how I did... (hey, though, one thing I know I did well with, I had that big test yesterday, and I'm pretty darn sure I got a 100% on it.) 

   The interview, it was basically a portfolio review-- I learned a lot on how those look, which is good, because there's that BFA thing eventually and it's never too early to start prepping for that. Some protips I learned from the review:

• I didn't have that many designs that utilized typography- I tried to put a few in, but I just don't have that many. Typography is muy importante- graphic design is called "graphic design," but 99%, fundamentally, it means typography.
• When showing your portfolio, "why is king," so explain why you did what you did, especially the process of everything-- knowing the process, the story behind the piece, opens your eyes to it in a new way (Which I have heard before.)
• My design style is highly reminiscent of printmaking. I should take a printmaking course. Because it'd be awesome and apparently I'd be good at it. (Printmaking class has two prerequisites, and I am taking both next semester, so I'll be able to take it within two semesters, so hey.)
• Post up on Behance a bunch (Behance is this website Adobe does where you can share your Photoshop/Illustrator/whatever project.) Knowing you're going to make your designs public give you that extra push to make them extra good and not embarrassing.
• By the advanced period of achieving a graphic design degree, basically everyone in the program with you has a job on campus designing at one place or another.
• Use each piece in your portfolio to show: hey, I know how to establish visual hierarchy, and all that.
• Value is also something to keep an eye on. Like, the screenshot of your web design in your portfolio, you could stand to push the value up in here, dark against dark in these sidebars over here is a little hard to read.

   Well, thank you. Fixed!

• It's good to start in web design so early, though, because if you're used only to designing on a page and then you get into web design, there's just so much space you don't know what to do with.

   That's good stuff. Even if I don't get a, callback or whatever, that was really instructive information, so the experience was 100% worth it.

   So anyway, meanwhile. Today, our apartment got taken over by a student film crew (though, I don't think any of them are actually film students) shooting a short film.

Reviewing the footage at the end of the shoot. Also fries.

   There's spray stuff that comes in a can, which you can mist the air with and create a really smoky foggy atmospheric effect that looks pretty cool. And apparently that is a thing that people do? I've always thought it was a good idea, ever since seeing that live student production of Les Miserables that got really smoky during the barricade sequence in Act II and looked super dramatic and diffused the light in a cool way. I'm not the only one who thought that that's really awesome, apparently, and not only do people do that to their films, but there's a whole industry revolving around putting that effect into spray cans.

   So, yeah, there was sooo much smoke(-type stuff.) Which still hasn't entirely dissipated.

Why Was Never a Question in the First Place

   I'm mostly compiling my portfolio right now, for tomorrow's interview for that job. I don't really have time to post much, but here, have a portfolio piece of mine to make it up to you:

   Honestly have no idea how impressive my portfolio is, whether it's any good or not... I hope to add a lot more stuff to it within the next one or two years, to have a robust impressive portfolio, in time to submit an application to upgrade the degree I'm seeking from a Bachelor of Arts degree to a Bachelor of Fine Arts... a portfolio is required for that, of course, and, well, I continue to work on it.

   If that single piece still wasn't enough of a post, I've also got this:

   and if you were interested in that, you can read more in the article on Engadget's website here: http://www.engadget.com/2016/03/04/fur-technology-makes-zootopias-bunnies-believable/

   Just super cool stuff.

Intimations on the Concept of Canonical Explorations of the Wider Zoo-niverse

   I've got a test in the morning, and though I feel like 99% prepared for it, well, 99% was the score I got on last test, when I felt 100% prepared, which would mean that I don't have time to crunch numbers right now, I thought I was studying. Right. So I'll just make this post brief, fleshing it out more fully with previously written Zootopia-based-writing-marathon material. It concerns the idea of, not even just a sequel, man, but further spin-offs as well- it's already been called the Zoo-niverse. If all the reptiles and birds are on some other continent, there could potentially be entirely non-Zootopia related adventures set in the same world...

   Everyone loved Frozen, except for, like, a lot of people. Fewer people dislike Zootopia, and, actually, heck, even those negative reviews said the movie was great for adults as long as you didn't let your kids think about the message too hard (more or less, is what it was.) Frozen being a bona fide cultural phenomenon, but appealing most to preteen and teenage girls, delving into the stats behind the ratings on IMDB, that's shaping up to be the case with Zootopia as well. It scores the best in the demographic of females under the age of 18. More likely to give it a full score of 10 of 10 than any other demographic, by a margin of I don't have time to crunch numbers right now, I thought I was studying.

   They're making a sequel to that, somewhere down the pipes, and that one doesn't even have a 99% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes or an IMDB star rating tied with Citizen Kane. (It hardly feels real to me. It doesn't even feel fake, or surreal. It just feels... nonexistent. The whole movie. It's like I'm writing about some fever dream, is how it feels. Is this how it feels when dreams come true?)

   But I'm not that interested in the idea of a sequel. Oh, it'd be great, I'm sure. Like I said, the world building's expansive enough for it. I think that it's expansive enough even for spinoff television series, though, which would be far more exciting, or has the potential to be. It's totally going to be traditionally animated instead of done in a computer, for one, because there's no CG television series based off a movie with as impressive visuals as the original film and dang were the visuals in Zootopia impressive.

   Well, there was the How to Train Your Dragon television series. I've got no idea how they did that.

   So, yeah, it could be CG. But there's something about the alternative that I find appealing. The art styles of the graphically bolder tie-in books were all completely charming, and I think that maybe they could ape something like that (much harder to goof it up, for one.) So it's going to be hand-drawn, or at least Flash animated, in sort of a flat and stylized but still very smooth style, like some of that art is, and, and, as long as we're dreaming, the creative team on it are going to put thought and care into each episode, and it's going to be as good as or even better than Steven Universe or Adventure Time or Friendship is Magic.

   Holy crap, I just made a mental connection between Twilight Sparkle's becoming a princess when she used to be a realistic role model, and the arguments of those two critics who didn't like the movie, how imperfect an allegory animal species prejudice is, how saying e.g. sloths are slow would seem to undermine the moral message of the movie. There's, such a connection there, between those modes of criticism.

   With "just" making that connection meaning, back on Friday when I wrote that. Right now, though, I thought I was studying.

Living in Wild Times

   I went to bed 1:00 last night. I woke up at 8:00 today, for my 8:00 class. Made it there before any lesson-ing started, but not early enough to be able to be counted present. I've got class 7:45 tomorrow, in  a building far further away on campus... I think I'll make this quick.

   Madeleine (the one who, runs Animation Workshop) got into Animation Workshop about 15 minutes late, on a day where people actually showed up which they never do. I think it was this girl touring campus, interested in animation, who'd dragged along her whole family, or something like that... Without a teacher there, I just, took charge of everything, temporarily, going over Frank and Ollie's 12 Principles of Animation. Which we hadn't even officially finished covering in normal class, we still needed to do solidity and appeal, but I just ran through all of them (which isn't that tough when you've got a copy of The Illusion of Life on the table in front of you... nevertheless.)

   Even when Madeleine finally walked in a little over halfway through the 12 principles, she sat down and listened and occasionally commented, but, just like, a normal person being taught, and was apparently blown away. Or at least impressed enough that, see apparently she's not hosting the workshop next semester, but is sending me the required paperwork to become, myself, manager of the workshop.

   Well.

   Or, co-manager, if there's someone else to manage with me. Either way, we'll see where that takes us. Also seeing where it takes us: I'm, looking into, a job opening on campus, a graphic design job with application extended to all the graphic design students, who were in graphic design class, today. About, graphic design.

   Okay, so! Wild Times. Depending on how canonical you view tie-in spin-off books to be, finally getting my hands on a copy of Stinky Cheese Files it would appear that Wild Times is still a thing. As much was mentioned in the Official Zootopia Handbook, but this is confirmation of that, and in an environment where we get to see the tension that continues to underlie its existence. It gets mentioned a few times, even visited once or twice (it's apparently a favorite haunt of Duke Weaselton's,) and so we can definitely get a feel of the character of the place. Even in this iteration, it feels very much like the same place-- although by no means restricted to preds only anymore, of course, the release it offers to animals is still kind of, morally ambiguous...

   See, the first thing that happens in The Stinky Cheese Files, the very first thing, is a teenage driver being taken into the ZPD after wrapping his car around a tree, as a direct result of having gone to Wild Times. There's apparently this new wind tunnel attraction there, see, and it's inspiring any mammal who goes into it (and who likes getting their face to be blown into,) to lean out of the car window the next time they go out for a drive...

   Direct thematic confrontation. It's just marvelous.

Bias, Hypocrisy and Mixed Messages in Zootopia: An Exploration Through Canonical and Deuterocanonical World Elements

   Well, first off, let me start with Vi Hart's annual rant on why pi sucks and is overrated. Even on this, the roundest of pi days.

   It's settled. If I ever open up a pizzeria, I'm going to call it the Tau, and all the pizza it serves is going to be double-decker, two pie stacked on top of each other...

   Zootopia. The negative reviews. I've read, all two of them. And they've got good points, which is terrible, and I guess is why I haven't responded to the objections raised till now (though a lot of what I've got to say below in regards to that, I'd originally written for the one-week retrospective on Friday-- which, being basically a dump of every thought I've had on the matter, spiraled ridiculously out of control, so I trimmed it down a lot, and there's a lot more where this came from. (In other words, I won't be short on blog post material any time soon...))

   Most of the criticism (I think, yeah, 100%) boils down to how problematic it is to have jokes about wolves liking to howl and sloths being slow and yaks being nudists, all in a movie with a lesson against prejudice and bias (oh, those yaks, always so naked all the time...!) Also, Gazelle is sexy, and that's just weird. Ignoring that second point, and focusing on the criticism of some apparent mixed moral message of the film: some have accused this brand of criticism as completely missing the point, reading meaning into things where there is no meaning meant-- which yeah is decently fair, but  I think this is an interesting and ("crunchy" is a really good adjective) crunchy enough case to tackle on its own merits, treating the argument with the validity it does have.

   I mentioned before, in the second of the Fridge Logic posts, regarding the theme of truth to self-identity, and whether it's possible to take that too far (the answer, of course, being yes-- which, makes the theme all the crunchier (see?), introducing grey areas into the mere act of living out your life. It's a perennial favorite furry theme, even on a higher meta-level, because it ties into the idea of the acceptability of being "furry" in the fuuuuurst place.)

   So. Self-identity, self-expression? Self-...location, let's call it. Skunk Pride Parades are mentioned a couple of times throughout the tie-in books, some case that Nick and Judy have to peacekeep at when they first become partners. The film ending instead with the delightful gag reveal of the mysterious speed demon, however, any mention of Skunk Pride appears to have been excised from the movie. Which points straight to our faces, a very interesting question: does the notion of Skunk Pride add to the message, or detract from it?

   First off: is there even a message in this world? Lessons can be applied to our world, parallels between their life experiences and ours, of course, but there's no "moral" intrinsic to the canon, so, maybe not. It's not like they turn straight to the camera at the end and... "we all have limitations, we all make mistakes, which means, hey, glass half full, we all have a lot in common," right.

   But then... that makes part of the moral of the film about how life is more messy than a slogan on a bumper sticker. Like how Rosebud being 75-YEAR-OLD-SPOILER at the end of Citizen Kane is still ultimately worthless knowledge, because of how Jerry himself concludes it to be just a missing piece in a jigsaw puzzle, and even such an important significant word can't explain a man's life. Skunk Pride is totally a thing that would happen in a furry world, but it has no real-world analogy. It's just, a thing. Like the stereotypes that are reinforced or broken throughout the film, they're all just, things. Sloths are slow. Skunks are smelly. Rabbits breed, lots. Camels have goshdarn humps! They're all just, things. Neither positive or negative. Just things.

   Still, the idea of prejudice... pre-judice, judging something prior to having all the applicable facts... is a major theme, and could never be knocked out of the window entirely (I tried to "smurf" the word "defenestrate" once, and it didn't go over so well.) There are still stereotypes. There is still bias. Bunnies are cute-- positive stereotype, but how condescending! (Judy's cuteness was something of a cloying factor to, well this probably says a lot, but, the same reviewer who thought that sexy anthro animals was weird.) If you're a flabby doughnut-loving cop, and acknowledge the fact, are you still a stereotype? even if you yourself sometimes stereotype others? even if there's more to you than your own stereotypes? even if the stuff "more to you" is just an obsession with said sexy anthro Gazelle? These are great questions.

   Stereotyping is not necessarily bias, though that matter does come in a lot. Foxes are sly and mischievous-- negative stereotype, and prevalent. There's a whole goshdarn brand in this world named Fox Away! And nobody has a problem with it. It's just, casually in there, like this is the Deep American South in the mid-20th century and we're, lynching watermelon or something just so casually blatantly racist like that. Foxes aren't to be trusted, it's a stereotype everyone already believes in, even Bonnie, usually the one to call Stu out on his speciesism.

   There's no need to expose any foxes to Midnicampum holicithias, make everyone fear those, because they already do...

   Getting back to the overall idea of identity management. The Art of Zootopia book really is as glorious as it is gorgeous... although they really honed the film thematically down to the sharpest edge of what it is and isn't, there's a lot going on in the realms unexplored by the final product (what I wouldn't give to get my hands on the scripts or even specs for some of the early drafts of the story...) At one point, not long after learning the real-world statistic how prey really do outnumber predators 10-to-1, the development team ran with this idea to the extreme that preds were a minority, untrusted and kept in check with tracking collars. Which is delicious to think about, and I could do a whole post on the thematic underlay of that, and whether that's justified, whether it adds or detracts like the Skunk Pride stuff would or wouldn't, but for now I'm just going to tie that back into self-location.

   At one point, over the many-storied course of deciding Nick's role in the story, he operated this amusement park called Wild Times. Although its own appearances and role in the story had their ups and downs as well, what remained consistent was its role in the world of Zootopia: Wild Times was for CHOMPERS ONLY, like the sign says-- in other words, it was a predator-specific theme park, where preds could be themselves, hang up their collars and vent their predatory nature in a world 90% prey.

   This is the most direct conflict we've seen of the two ideals, at least to me. The best head-on collision of the dark side of self-location and the light. You can tell if a conflict is good, if it leaves you feeling directly conflicted, and I'm conflicted, because I can't tell which side represents which. On the one hand, it's an exercise of release and freedom in a world that treats preds as second-class citizens and forces them to be something they're not. On the other, well, frankly it's shudder-inducing to think what sort of activities such an amusement park could offer, to be indulged or over-indulged in, that can genuinely provide such an escape from such a world. Is such a valve safe? Is any valve safe? If a behavior is proscribed so strongly, even a negative behavior, if it ever does reveal itself it's generally going to be in far stronger a form than what would have happened had the behavior never been repressed at all...

   The sheer existence of the conflict means that there won't be easy answers to this; I can imagine arguments for and against, either side, and... funny thing, the distillation of those arguments seem to come from two opposite ideals, both alike in dignity, both rooted in Jungian, cognitive function, stuff. In Meyers-Briggsian terms, the entire conflict is one between the Judging attitudes, Thinking and Feeling; in Scott McCloud's terms, it's a conflict between the Formalist and Iconoclast schools. It's slipping rapidly away from me, sorry about that, back on focus.

   Just from that, the ease of, slippage, though, we can readily see (I think) how perfectly the collision is set up to slip: this conflict, self-location, identity management, is this idea at the root of furrydom, in both meanings of the word-- anthropomorphism of animals, and fanship of that-- and (particularly with that first definition) it resonates up the branches of Zootopia, which causes that film to have a vibration even greater against the word's second definition, even if we couldn't articulate why.

   Coming back to the questions raised that the critics found problematic: "anyone can be anything," but "a leopard can't change his spots," cancelling each other out: I don't think that ever was the message in the first place, that the outward message trumps the hidden underbelly. I don't think it was even intended to. I can't speak as a writer of the film, or anything, but from my perspective: yes, they do seem to contradict. But, yes, they say that right in the movie. And they don't seem to contradict, they do, on profound levels, but all coming back to that central conflict, at the root of the tree. Foxes can't grow up to be elephants! Should they stop trying? I don't know.

   And that's, I guess, the beauty of it.

   Well, I guess it's, about time to wrap it up... if anyone out there has any additional thoughts, I would be glad to hear them.

Fandomonium!: Animal Farm

   Fandomonium[!] yesterday, I'd been going to write about this in the post but it's just an unwieldy tangent. Which is more of a postscript anyway. All takes place, at the end and afterward.

   I was the last in line, for the cosplay contest queue up to the stage, which gave me so many more photo ops when I didn't have to stay in character... maybe I should have gone as Peter Parker? Like the swordwielder said to me as a group of us sat outside the Little Theater waiting to get in before Fandomonium[!] officially began, "good costume, bad character choice." Seeing as how I only had black duct tape, the Gorilla stuff, (ZOOTOPIA FRIDGE LOGIC: forget humans, heck, there aren't any primates in the world of Zootopia!), yeah it would have been easier to just cut a spider out of that, than just having the S over this '90s era, Dark Age of Comic Books-style black void like I did (not having any decent yellow markers.))

   I was the last in line, and the dude in front of me, the guy who'd cosplayed as Big Brother. Just wearing a suit, with a printout of this big long riddle taped to it explaining his plan and asking, "Sympathy for the Devil"-style, if you could guess his identity. Which was, Big Brother. Totally Big Brother.

   (Apparently I, wearing a suit as well, got mixed up with him on (at least) one occasion ("I thought you were over there..."))

Here he's reading out the riddle for everyone.
Also, watching you through the screen. Right now.

   And... backstory, here, on what went down before Fandomonium started, before I continue on about the end: being part of the Comic Book Workshop, helping set up beforehand, except not setting up at all because there was nothing for me to set up, I was asked to leave. So I did, and went back to the apartment, and, everything coming out for the better, that Art of Zootopia book I'd pre-ordered had arrived for me, which I wouldn't even had known for three and a half, maybe four more hours had I stuck around from setup to end. It wasn't slotted to arrive till tomorrow, but it came yesterday, and I do believe it understands my darkest fears and wildest dreams even more than bread does.

   So I saw an opportunity. I grabbed the mail package, unopened, my clipboard (working on, designs for Intro to Graphic Design class,) and shoved my bookbag full to bursting of my obsessive collection of other Zootopia merchandise, taking that all back to the MC Little Theater, Fandomonium[!]'s venue. (There was a Harry Potter booth being set up, why the heck not?) Only I'm not entirely certain what it takes to get a booth, especially one at the last minute, and, that probably not being possible, well I just abandoned my hopes and dreams, and I settled. I settled hard.

   But I still had the Art of Zootopia book with me, so (in between coming up with sick new designs for a poster advertising a fictional Saul Bass exhibit at the SFMOMA) I unboxed her, and smelled her new smell, and flipped her open, and squeed over her. If only there were someone around to gush about this to...

   Backstory over.

   There were, at the con, a couple of lady-furries who, I don't think arrived together, but saw each other's fake tails, became besties, and hung out from then on. Is the story that it looked like, just their body language looking from a distance, the way they talked with each other near the beginning when they both got in, and how that rapport evolved over time? Maybe they already knew each other, I don't know, but there aren't many opportunities around BYU-I (or, like, anywhere else for that matter) to let any freak fur fly, so... I don't know, that was the narrative I'd assumed, and never thought to question it up till this point...

   Looking through my meticulous documentation of the event, they first meet sometime between 3:35:44 and 3:37:54, and are never seen separate after that (except where the edge of the photo or something in the foreground cuts one or the other off, but, you know.) So I had it right. Thank you, meticulous documentation of the event!

Pictured: the moment of meeting.
Also Mica in the background, who. although not a cosplayer or public figure, is currently borrowing my Squirrel Girl TPB. So I guess it's okay to have them randomly in the photo?

   And so, after the con was over, they continued to chill, outside of the doors of the Little Theater, and chatting with, Big Brother of all people. I could hang nearby. I could bring over my Art of Zootopia book, to someone who'd appreciate it. I could gush. Though one of them hasn't seen it yet...

   I flitted in and out, oscillating between continuing my design homework and using the water fountain nearby to where they were hanging out. I eventually resettled down to the area of the MC Crossroads next to the stairs to continue my idea sketches, and at the nearby area outside the food court I had one of them take the photo of me as Clark Kent. Such a costume is not very assistive to selfies, and I needed documentation of what I looked like too. And then I had to go. I'd been planning on going up to Idaho Falls at 5:00 to shop at Hastings again, it was so great the first time.

   My ride was sick, though, so, standing outside of the apartments and texting her and wondering if they were still back at the Crossroads where I'd left them last, who should be walking right on by but, those guys. Being unsure whether it would be weirder to join them again or not to, I made the choice that was the most interesting, and we ambled around, loitering at random intervals and hopping over low stone walls (just as amazing as it sounds, with a big fluffy tail that stretches all the way to the ground. Oh yes I've got photos. Of course I've got photos.)

   I didn't catch anyone's names, though I do know where everyone lives since there was this big long meander-and-chat wandering all around until 5:45 (with the event having gotten out at 4:00,) when we went our separate ways to our respective apartments which it turns out are all pretty close to one anothers'. Except for Big Brother's. He was also part of the group.

   Which I am calling, Animal Farm. Because of course.

The crowd I run with now, Ma.