thrillingdetectivetales: Davie and Alan from the play, Kidnapped, kissing on the moors. Both men's faces are obscured. Davie has a hand on Alan's cheek. (Default)
Hi friends! I'm having a really bad brain day so I'm going to tell you all about a new thing (okay maybe a couple of things) I love in the hopes that it lifts my spirits some and brings a little joy to you.

For those of you who don't know, I've played Dungeons & Dragons regularly for about 11 years now, and it's a pastime that remains very dear to my heart. As such, I'm a huge fan of liveplay media and recently got around to checking out Dimension 20, the team over at DROPOUT.TV (previously CollegeHumor? still CollegeHumor but also DROPOUT.TV? something like that) who do liveplay shows and y'all?

They're fucking amazing.

First of all, the cast is a tremendous group of very charismatic and funny people, who all have comedy backgrounds and most of whom came up through UCB. I'll admit that Emily's my favorite—probably because she's the player with the style most similar to my own—but every single one of them is a delight to watch. Secondly, watching Brennan Lee Mulligan run games is like taking a master class in the art of game mastery. He's so good at crafting narratives and servicing plot points while at the same time creating believable and deeply funny characters. He's also got an incredible touch for managing heart wrenching emotional moments with these characters, even when they're built on an entirely silly premise, it's an honest delight to see.

Here's a clip of Emily in action during one of the more absurdist moments of season one of Fantasy High, Dimension 20's "let's explore a D&D high school" story arc:



I'm pretty sure the first season at least of Fantasy High is available on the Dimension 20 Youtube channel along with a bunch of other first episodes, demos, and possibly whole seasons of liveplay shows, if it seems like the sort of thing you might be into.

In addition to the delights of Dimension 20, two of the players—Emily Axford and Brian Murphy—are a married couple who wrote a very funny satirical book on relationships that I just bought and am excited to read and also wrote and star in a very funny sketch comedy show about relationships, wherein they play almost every character. It's very good, if you're interested in sketch comedy and also the inherent ridiculousness of romantic partnerships. I will warn that there are some very potent moments of secondhand embarrassment wherein I had to look away from the screen, but that didn't stop me from binge-watching the entire first season yesterday on Netflix.

Here is the trailer:



Anyway, I hope some of y'all find something interesting here, or have something interesting of your own that you're currently enjoying. If so, feel free to tell me about it—I can't promise I will have heard of it but I will happily flail with you anyway.
thrillingdetectivetales: Davie and Alan from the play, Kidnapped, kissing on the moors. Both men's faces are obscured. Davie has a hand on Alan's cheek. (Cursed - werewolf bird)
Fuck Yeah Friday!


It's Fuck Yeah Friday again, and y'all...I think it's time I publicly admit my inexplicable attraction to Jesse Eisenberg. I don't really understand it myself, but there's something about his squinty milquetoast charm that just works for me.

Anyway, I mention Jesse Eisenberg as ham-fisted and upsetting segue into my FYF today: Wes Craven's Cursed, a 2005 movie about werewolves starring emo!Jesse Eisenberg and Christina Ricci's tiniest eyebrows to date, plus a bunch of people whose faces you'll recognize from other things.



Without giving away too many spoilers, Cursed follows the tale of siblings Ellie and Jimmy Myers, who hit a big mystery animal on a Los Angeles highway at night, run another car off the road, and then witness a woman being brutally torn to shreds by (presumably) the same mystery animal, which gets a couple of good swipes in at them for good measure. As I'm sure you can guess, they immediately start experiencing some alarming and spooky changes.

Ellie, who's a repressed workaholic type introduced to us via a scene that takes great pains to really hammer home her intimacy issues, struggles to make sense of what's happening to her and fights to keep the beast under control while her nerdy kid brother Jimmy is pretty sure from the outset that they're dealing with a Wolf Man situation and decides to put his newfound strength and sex appeal to work for him. Not in a creepy way, thank God, though there are more than a handful of cheesecake moments in the movie throughout. Mostly Jimmy uses his recently developed superpowers to competently flirt with the girl he's had a crush on for the last three years and stick it to the jock who's been bullying him (played by the always delightful Milo Ventimiglia), who coincidentally happens to be said girl's shitty boyfriend.

There's a lot wrong with Cursed, considering that the studio completely revamped the film after Wes Craven finished his cut. So much so that the final product is almost entirely changed from the original movie script. (If you're a big nerd like me, you might enjoy reading the original after you watch the theatrical release—click here for a copy*.) But it's still fun in the vein of so many terrible B-horror films, most of which I love very dearly. A few of the phenomenal practical werewolf effects made it into the final cut, and the CGI that the studio shoehorned actually holds up pretty well fifteen years on, even if it renders both styles of effect disparate by virtue of appearing side-by-side with each other on-screen.

Plus, it gave us a werewolf flipping the bird:



Hard to hate a flick that provides such and absolutely fantastic reaction image, am I right? So that's my entry into the books for today's FYF.

What's making you say, "Fuck yeah!" today, friends?


*Script link courtesy of this post over on The Horror Syndicate, which is also a really good run-down of what went wrong from initial shooting to theatrical release for those who are interested.
thrillingdetectivetales: Davie and Alan from the play, Kidnapped, kissing on the moors. Both men's faces are obscured. Davie has a hand on Alan's cheek. (RDR2 - Arthur with horse)
FUCK YEAH FRIDAY!


Hey everyone! There hasn't been a ton to be excited about these past few weeks, but I want to take a second to introduce you to a thing that's been bringing me joy in this uncertain time:



Red Dead Redemption II is a Western action-adventure game, created by Rockstar Games as a follow-up to the previous Red Dead Redemption, which in turn was created as a "spiritual successor" to the original Red Dead Revolver. I do not own and have never played the first Red Dead Redemption or Red Dead Revolver, but RDR2 (as it's affectionately nicknamed) lured me in by virtue of its stunning graphics and its main protagonist, a taciturn and dry-humored cowboy known for his brusque manner and notorious sour temper: one Arthur Morgan.




Dropping the meat of the verbiage behind a cut because there are some spoilers involved, though I have tried to black them out if they're major. )

Overall the writing in the game is phenomenal and really encapsulates the feeling of a diminishing American frontier through the lens of a band of outlaws who are torn between clinging to the old ways with the last of their strength or adapting as the world evolves around them. If that's not enough for you, it's also one of the few games where the scenery is beautiful enough that I rarely, if ever, fast travel or skip the opportunity to wander about on my horse.


More back here because I couldn't confine myself to just one. )

Anyway, it's an amazing and beautiful game full of delightful characters with a really great balance between shoot-em-up and skill-based missions, and I highly recommend it if you're looking for something to keep yourself occupied for any length of time whatsoever.
thrillingdetectivetales: Davie and Alan from the play, Kidnapped, kissing on the moors. Both men's faces are obscured. Davie has a hand on Alan's cheek. (Default)
Fuck Yeah, Friday!


Hale and well met, internet fellows! I welcome you to the new and improved version of Fuck Yeah Friday!, a weekly celebration of things in the world that are making folks stoked to be alive and a part of it all.

I'm going to continue my tradition of raving about something I love, but I want this to be a more interactive experience so I encourage you to share something you're excited about in the comments! It can be as simple as a word, or you can link to your own FYF! promo post on your own blog, whatever. I just want to share some love and learn about some cool new shit.

My Fuck Yeah Friday! topic this week is: Savannah, Georgia. )


Now tell me what you're excited about! EVERY. LAST. THING!!!
thrillingdetectivetales: Davie and Alan from the play, Kidnapped, kissing on the moors. Both men's faces are obscured. Davie has a hand on Alan's cheek. (M7 - Chisolm in the sun)
For today's Fuck Yeah Friday! I want to talk about two things.

First up: research!

I've always enjoyed learning and discovering. I'm a naturally curious person, which works in my favor more often than not, and over the years I've managed to hone that trait into a deep and abiding love for research. While not all research is created equal—some projects are wildly boring no matter what you do—I will admit to a staunch affection for the process. There's something singularly satisfying about being on the hunt for a specific piece of information and finally managing to track it down. It's one of my favorite feelings and is what inspired me to include research as the opening act on this fine Fuck Yeah Friday!.

(I've tried to adapt this passion for my day job but haven't quite managed to fully integrate it yet, though I live in hope.)

Secondly: a movie!

One of my favorite movies, to be exact, which I watched again last night because I needed to unwind with something that made me ache in just the right way.



That's right, folks, we're talking about Hell or High Water. I put the rest of my delighted raving back here to save space. )

This flick is astonishingly well-written, beautifully directed, and stunningly scored. It's less of a rollicking cowboy adventure story and more a view of a very real and very troubling America through a classic Western lens, so don't expect a feel-good experience, but if you're a fan of the Western by any stretch of the term I honestly can't recommend this film highly enough.

Here's the trailer, if Chris Pine in a questionable mustache as depicted above wasn't enough to entice you alone:



As always, I welcome you to flail about the above or share something that's making you go, "Fuck yeah!" today in the comments~
thrillingdetectivetales: Davie and Alan from the play, Kidnapped, kissing on the moors. Both men's faces are obscured. Davie has a hand on Alan's cheek. (BoB - Guarnere - :D jump wings)
I very nearly forgot about this today, so forgive me if my post isn't as robust as a Fuck Yeah Friday! might usually be.

Anyway, today I want to talk about bees. Specifically, a few species in the genus Trigona, which is the largest genus of stingless bees. Of the eighty species that comprise Trigona, many of them consume meat in addition to flower nectar and pollen, but only four of them—Trigona crassipes, Trigona necrophaga, Trigona hypogea robustior, and Trigona hypogea hypogea, according to Wikipedia—are colloquially known as "vulture bees." Wikipedia being what it is, I would have to do considerably more research before I felt comfortable calling all of these species out as the vulture bee (or even as bonafide species at all) but I found a very cool paper on Trigona hypogea that confirms and details their feeding process and diet which largely consists of, you guessed it: dead animals!

That's right, y'all! These bees are mainly carnivorous. Not to be confused with wasps, who also eat meat but are, by and large, assholes—though I am reluctantly coming to regard them with a certain amount of grudging respect as I fall deeper into the bee-based entomology hole that is my life. It is the tragedy of my life that I don't have a close-up photograph of these metal bastards to share with you, but I'm going to tell you about their eating habits in explicit detail instead to make up for it.

Trigona hypogea process the flesh they consume in the same way that other Apidae process pollen, breaking it down with a mandibular/salivary secretion and storing it internally until they can get it back to the hive, regurgitate it, and stash it in capped cells for later use. While most species of bee possess a "pollen basket"—a flat patch surrounded by hairs which hold pollen granules in place—on their rear legs, Trigona hypogea instead have five sharp teeth on their mandibles that allow them to rend flesh. Yes, you read that right: these bees have teeth!

As in most social beehives made up of species other than honey bees, Trigona hypogea store just enough honey to ensure the survival of the hive, which means that, unfortunately, there will be no harvesting of meat honey. And yes, believe it or not, there's a chance that you would actually be able to consume meat honey if enough of it existed not to doom the hive to a premature and terrible death! When bees make honey, they combine dehydrated flower nectar with a cocktail of bee-specific enzymes that render it essentially immune to decay.

Raw honey lasts forever, and is antimicrobial enough to be used for wound care in a pinch. I'm not a doctor or any kind of medical professional, but there are plenty of papers out there on honey being used to treat MRSA and staph infections if you'd like to get into the nitty gritty o-chem details, and I have personally used it to treat minor cuts to great effect. (No scabbing or scarring! Very wild experience.) You should absolutely not replace modern antibacterial creams, gels, or other products recommended by trained healthcare professionals with honey, and under no circumstances should you use the honey you get in the bear-shaped bottle at the grocery store for anything other than sweetening your tea or tossing directly into the garbage because it's the worst.

All of which to say: the chances are that meat honey would be likewise safe from bacterial contamination and therefore edible, although I can't imagine that it would taste great. ....I still kind of want to try it, though.

Anyway, bees are incredible creatures and their evolutionary variation and biological diversity even within their taxonomic set of family traits is absolutely fascinating. You will likely see more bee profiles from me in the future, but for now take comfort in the knowledge that the vulture bee is out there at this very moment, scouring the tropics of the North American continent for its next ghastly meal.

For those of you who want to know more about bees, or at least to look at cool bee photos, I've also stumbled onto a couple of really excellent taxonomic collective websites this week that are worth perusing:

Anthophila - an online repository of bee diversity

and

York University's bee genera image bank


ETA: In my endeavors to dig up a series of entomologist-quality bee species identification cards for myself, I ran across a very excellent free PDF of general bee ID cards for anyone who's interested in being able to spot these beauties at a distance while out for casual walks and really freak your family out in the process. You can find the cards here!

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thrillingdetectivetales: Davie and Alan from the play, Kidnapped, kissing on the moors. Both men's faces are obscured. Davie has a hand on Alan's cheek. (Default)
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