Waching daily Sep 25 2018

- [JAMES] So did you know that the majority of viewers on this channel watch my content

on a smartphone? This is incredible for a few reasons.

First off, YouTube Analytics are detailed enough to tell me not only what type of

device people watch my stuff on, but what country they're from and what the average

gender of my users are. Yeah, it's not perfect but it's really an incredible thing think about.

Second off, let's talk about watching content on a device that can fit in your pocket.

This is something that we all take for granted nowadays, but we

don't really realize how revolutionary this is. I remember back when I was a kid

growing up in Texas during the Bush presidency - the young Bush's

presidency, I was a late 90s kid after all - and going on many a road trip with

my parents to New Orleans. Now, I could have brought some games to play on my

trusty GameBoy Advance, which by the way was an SP, not a Micro like this one that I'm holding, but I was much too

cool for that. Instead I brought some of these: GBA video cartridges.

Does anyone remember these? How you could watch TV shows and movies on your GameBoy Advance?

- [COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER] TV Shows on the go! It's GBA Video!

- [JAMES] Granted, there wasn't much on each of these cartridges. You either had one

movie or a couple TV episodes, but the novelty was still rather awesome, despite

the fact that the video quality on these things wasn't the best, especially compared to those

newfangled portable DVD players. However, it looked decent enough when played on an actual

GameBoy Advance screen. Plus, being on a cartridge meant you didn't have to deal

with some of the not-so flattering aspects of a portable DVD player. Funnily enough, my

parents actually had a portable DVD player at this point, but I think I opted

for these instead for this particular trip mainly because I got way too

annoyed by the DVD skipping whenever we'd hit any sort of small bump in the road.

Nintendo clearly wasn't the only company to realize that there was a

market for selling kids incredibly compressed versions of their favourite TV

shows and movies in a portable format. Remember VideoNow from Tiger? I had a

friend who actually had one of these as a kid, and trust me, as bad as SpongeBob

may look on a blown-up GameBoy Advance screen, at the very least it wasn't in black and white.

So with that long-winded introduction out of the way, let me ask

another question: who remembers Sonic X? I know 4Kids aired it in the US, but my

only memories of actually watching this show as a kid was catching some episodes

on a random TV station while on a trip to Singapore. I remember in particular

catching the episode where Sonic went up against Perfect Chaos and being like "oh,

cool, that's the water monster from that Sonic Adventure game. I kind of want to

play that game again." I'm kind of assuming that was the point.

When it comes to actual GBA video cartridges I had as a kid, I mainly just had Nicktoons

and Pokémon. I didn't know Sonic X was on this format until I was well into my teens

when I went back and actually watched a few episodes. However, today for this video

that I promised to do for my 7000 subscriber special and, oh whoops I'm past

10,000 now, we're taking a look at the first two episodes of Sonic X as shown

on a GameBoy Advance cartridge. Oh boy.

So welcome to Stuff We Play, where today we aren't even technically talking about a

video game, but if that's cool to you why not subscribe? Sonic X for GBA Video.

Of all the Sonic "games" out there, this is the one I get asked to review the most,

next to Sonic '06 of course, but what makes it so special? Well nothing really.

It's the first two episodes of Sonic X, but in a compressed form on a Game Boy Advance cartridge.

Granted, there is SOME interaction. You can fast-forward and

rewind each episode, and there's also a menu you can go through to select each episode

or, you know, to view the credits by themselves, because I know that's what I

always loved the most as a kid. But really. that's it. As far as gameplay goes, my DVD

copy of Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie has more going for it, so I don't think it'd be fair to

review Sonic X for GBA as a game, because it's not. It's essentially just a video

format. So, what we're instead gonna do is go through each of these two episodes in-depth.

I'll give you my thoughts along the way and then, at the end, I'll give you my

thoughts on Sonic X as a whole and ultimately see if going back and

watching it after it not watching it for, well, it's definitely been years, let's see if

my thoughts have changed at all. So now, let's get right into it.

Upon starting up this totally-not-a-game, we're greeted with the American theme

song for Sonic X. Hear that? How he's got to go fast?

That's the magic that memes are made of, kids.

As bit of a nice touch, the intro only plays upon booting up the cartridge, but then does not play

during either of the two episodes. I like that. That's a nice addition.

So the first episode here is the pilot for

the series itself, and according to the back of the box it goes as follows -

- [DILLIN] When the heroic hedgehog smashes into Dr. Eggman's heavily guarded compound to

snatch the 7th Chaos Emerald, Eggman panics and initiates Chaos Control.

Blasted into a confusing new world, Sonic soon becomes the target of a high-speed police squad

that'll stop at nothing to get their man... or their hedgehog!

- [JAMES] Special thanks to Dillin Thomas for reading these synopses, by the way, but with that let's plunge into

our first episode: Chaos Control Freaks.

They say first impressions are everything, and the first actual impression I'm given of Sonic X is... remarkably strong!

It's a dark and ominous night, with Big the Cat off somewhere being lazy.

Meanwhile over that the Dr. Eggman building, trouble is brewing.

Suddenly, Sonic is there and doing what he does best: infiltrating the mad doctor's

lair amid a barrage of attacks from various robots. Suddenly, Sonic gets

sucker punched into the air, but thankfully Tails and Amy Rose are there to

save him through the power of plot convenience. Sonic manages to safely make

it into the lair via a power ring while Tails and Amy have a near-death

experience, only to be saved by Knuckles. As you can already see, one episode in and

they're trying to introduce us to literally every character they can.

Meanwhile at the top at the tower, Dr. Eggman is doing what he does best, as

any good evil genius does: brooding and monologuing.

Also,Cream the Rabbit is kidnapped because... I guess Eggman has a thing for rabbit girls?

This never gets explained. Now would be a good time to bring up an issue I'm

noticing hereL the sound mixing is off. At several points it seems like the music

is quite a bit louder than the characters talking. Just listen to

when Cream is speaking here. - [CREAM] (Almost inaudible speaking.)

- [JAMES] I'm not sure if this is an issue with the GBA video format itself or the WONDERFUL

job that 4Kids always did with its anime dubs, but it's annoying regardless.

Anyways, Dr. Eggman has a Chaos Emerald and plans to use it to get rid of Sonic once

and for all by kil- sorry, by sending him to the Shadow Realm.

Also, Rouge the Bat is there because why not. Sonic arrives to save Cream, but Eggman

threatens to blow him to bits just with the press of a button.

Thankfully, Sonic has a power of overly suggestive retorts on his side! - [SONIC] If you can push it before I can grab it!

- [JAMES] Well, it seems Eggman managed to push it before

he could indeed grab it, and everything explodes. What a way for the series to

end-oh wait we're still going! Sonic is laying in the middle of a busy street

and staring around aimlessly, likely wondering if he's in Hell. Sonic then gets

ambushed by some easily angered cops for being the wrong colour in the wrong

part of town, but manages to escape, though not before beginning on a high-speed

chase down a highway! After making it over a roadblock, the polic take the only

action any reasonable police department would to catch what's essentially a

weird-looking rodent: hire an F1 racing team! Why catch it when we can race it?

This is never explained. Sonic is off pondering about how he managed to end up

in hedgehog hell when suddenly the F1 dude who isn't even important enough to

have been given a name yet shows up. Then, they race and the sequence is something like this.

- ~Can You Feel the Sunshine from the Sonic R Soundtrack Plays~

- [JAMES] Unsurprisingly, Sonic wins and the F1 dude nearly dies.

However, sonic nearly dies as well because he gets vaulted into the air

before falling to a swimming pool, and as we all know: Sonic. Can't. Swim.

Sonic seems to have accepted his fate and is eagerly awaiting the firm embrace

of the Reaper when, suddenly, he gets saved by Chris Thorndyke: a kid with an

annoying voice who unfortunately becomes a regular in this series. This was around

that time when Sega thought that their series about a cartoony blue hedgehog

needed more people and realism in it, though thankfully through the power of

hindsight we all know how that ended up! So the first episode ends on a hopeful

note, with Sonic and Chris meeting and looking towards the future, but honestly

I feel a little mixed. But what will happen next? Well let's jump into the next episode:

Sonic X Episode 2 - Sonic to the Rescue! Would this one be any better or

worse? Well let's see what the back of the box has to say!

- [DILLIN] Sonic learns that his buddies, Cream and Cheese, are being held at atop

secret military base, so Chuck hatches a plan to save them. The mission goes

smoothly - until Sonic finds the base is booby-trapped! Then it's a full throttle

race against time to a startling last-minute surprise!

- [JAMES] That was, once again, the incredible Dillin Thomas reading that. Definitely go check him out y'all!

But anyways, that sounds like quite an adventure, so let's spin dash right into it!

The episode begins with Chris on the phone with his stuck up sounding mother, whom he is

lying to, saying that he found a cat in the swimming pool. She's like "yeah, whatever."

So, it's cool for Sonic to crash at Chris's place. I should mention, by the

way, that Chris's family is loaded. Like, Bill Gates levels of loaded, as is

evident from the mansion, butlers, and multiple swimming pools.

This was obviously a choice made by the creative team behind Sonic X because the majority

of children world round will likely relate to no one better than a posh, spoiled, little brat.

So, Chris finally asks the question on everyone's mind - - [CHRIS] Where and when did you learn to talk, Sonic?

- [JAMES] Sonic replies by just shrugging. Then, Chris's dad calls and

screams at him for a bit before Chris tries to feed Sonic cat food. Because, of course,

you knowm something that walks and speaks like a person eats cat food and not, you know,

food food. Sonic and Chris then watch some TV and we

see a recap of the past episode's events. We are also introduced to Doc Brown, who is

Chris's grandpa. Upon seeing Sonic for the first time, Doc Brown's initial reaction is

to try to inappropriately touch him with a screwdriver.

Suddenly on TV, we see that Creme the Rabbit has once again been kidnapped.

Cream has been taken by the government of this country (America?) to the

mysterious Area 99. They're planning to use her for...something? It's never explained.

Doc Brown and Chris give Sonic and infrared

scope and help him break into the mysterious government base that

apparently everyone knows about. Sonic then locates an air vent and manages to

get in without prompting attack. He does, unfortunately, hurt his ass in the process. - [SONIC] It feels like I have skidmarks on my butt!

- [JAMES] Sonic's stealthily sneaks suspiciously through the secret base as

Cream fears for her life. The base's electrical power then gets shut off... somehow.

Sonic then manages to smash into the lab where Cream is being kept. He busts Cream

and her pet Chao, Cheese, out of their cell and they make a mad dash to escape

the base while getting shot at. Don't worry, though. As this is a 4Kids dub,

the bullets are all non-lethal. Sonic and Cream nearly get shot in the face by what I

can only assume are Nerf balls, but not before all of the guns aimed at them get

destroyed by a swarm of mechanical paper airplanes. Our heros nearly get trapped

again, but thankfully Tails shows up in his plane through the power of deus ex

machina, and rescues them. It is now revealed that it was Tails who was

responsible for cutting the base's power and creating mysterious mechanical paper airplanes.

Afterwards, they all go back to Chris' house and, since he's loaded, they all

decide to crash with him and his senile grandfather.

Tails and Grandpa Doc Brown hit it off together, and Tails then deduces that

they've all been transported by Dr. Eggman to a mysterious faraway world, and

that all of their friends are somewhere here as well. However, it is soon

revealed that Dr. Eggman himself has also been transported to this new world

and that he is plotting to take it over. To Dr. Eggman, it doesn't matter what

world he takes over as long as it's a planet and he's ruling it with an iron fist.

The episode then ends and we cut to credits, which anti-climatically have no

music and just have this still image in the background. So despite its issues, I think

that Sonic X Episode 2 actually ends on a really cool note.

Dr. Eggman is finally PROPERLY here and I'm excited to see what he does in future episodes.

The real question, however, is how did that episode itself, or rather both

these episodes, hold up? Well, I feel mixed on the package overall.

Along with there being absolutely no practical reason to watch anything via GBA Video anymore,

Sonic X itself is just a very flawed show. I just don't care for many of the new X-exclusive

characters such as Chris, and as with many anime series such as this, I

remember there being a lot of filler episodes.

However, it did have its high points.

There are some great moments throughout the rest of the

series, especially once Shadow the Hedgehog it brought into the mix.

But then we got to the final season of the show ,where it pretty much becomes Sonic

except Star Trek and kind of messes itself all over since, after Sonic Adventure 2, they decided not to

adapt Sonic Heroes or really any of the other Sonic games such as the Sonic Advance Series.

I know this is going to make some people mad, and I know a lot of

people have memories with this show, and it's certainly not as bad as something like, say,

Sonic Underground, but if you really want to watch a Sonic cartoon,

you're better off watching Sonic Boom or even going back and watching the

Sonic SatAM cartoon from the 90s, which is still great by the way.

Maybe I'll look at that at some point. So I guess with that polarizing conclusion out of the way,

let me know your Sonic the Hedgehog memories, whether they be with games, TV shows, or otherwise,

down to comment section below, and while are at it, subscribe to Stuff We Play

for more great content like this, or even back us on Patreon, because every

dollar and from Patreon does go back into the channel itself. So that thank you

very much for watching, stay classy, and... I guess, I don't know, maybe it's time I

finally look at Sonic the Hedgehog for Leapster.

For more infomation >> Sonic X And GBA Video Were Weird - Duration: 13:52.

-------------------------------------------

Sarah Sanders refuses to rule out Trump ending Mueller investigation - Duration: 3:19.

For more infomation >> Sarah Sanders refuses to rule out Trump ending Mueller investigation - Duration: 3:19.

-------------------------------------------

Nobody Wins: Contrapoints, The Aesthetic, and Negative Representation - Duration: 28:05.

so, natalie wynn of the youtube channel contrapoints released a video called The Aesthetic, and

i have... feelings.

which shouldn't come as a surprise, seeing as natalie has a long history at this point

of provoking, uh, "feelings" in her audience.

and i'll just lay my cards out right now: i like The Aesthetic, and i'm a pretty big

fan of natalie's work in general.

i even have a shirt, so, yeah, i'm biased.

but it's also clear that plenty of people who like the contrapoints

oeuvre just as much as, if not more than, me didn't

just dislike this video, but felt actively wounded and, in some cases, betrayed by it.

and that... sucks. and i'm conflicted.

because i don't like to see people hurt by media,

and i don't like to see people in a position like natalie's, as someone who is a rare beacon

of representation and optimism for a marginalized community,

apparently playing fast and loose with the expectations they know their audience has.

but, again... i like The Aesthetic, and my natural inclination is to defend the

things i like when i think they come up against unfair criticism.

and, yeah... i do think some of this criticism is unfair, which, under the circumstances,

will come across as glib, reductive, elitist, and tone-policing no matter what i do.

but i just want to say it explicitly, for posterity:

my intention is not to belittle or invalidate anyone who has mixed or negative feelings

about this video.

i'm not interested in saying that anybody who didn't like it, or who was harmed by it,

or who decried it based on its potential to do harm, is wrong or bad or not entitled to

their take.

this is just me trying to work through my own conflicts, and yeah, it's a reaction,

but i'm not judging the people i am reacting to.

we can all agree that this video is problematic, but i'm wondering... what do we gain, critically,

by ending the conversation there? if something is "problematic," doesn't that

imply a problem in need of solving?

so, okay.

here's my question: when does criticism become art?

i've been asking myself this a lot lately.

some prominent leftie youtubers have expressed dissatisfaction with the "youtube formula"

as it were, and have started experimenting with the form.

on one side you've got lindsay ellis, whose trilogy of videos about the hobbit films takes

its textual criticism as an invitation to explore the ramifications of nostalgia on

fandom, on economics, and even international politics.

over time it morphs from a fairly standard talking-head video essay into something of

a road film about a person flying halfway across the world in search of some kind of

personal truth.

and then on the other side, you have hbomberguy birthing himself out of a full-size canvas

print of loss.jpg. yes.

YES. wow.

both of these toe the line between criticism and art.

lyndsay's endeavor is certainly the more... socially acceptable of the two,

but neither video is an altogether objective presentation of evidence in support of an

argument -i mean, there's a lot of that, obviously,

these are still fundamentally argumentative video essays.

but the argument is inextricable from the expression -the facts here, such as they are,

are only important to us insofar as they relate to the narrative they've been tied to, whether

that be personal, political, or esoteric.

so, that in mind... it must needs be remarked that we do not judge criticism by the same

standards as we do art.

hbomb's third serious lore analysis, in my opinion, is a scattered and difficult to follow

bit of criticism, something he'd be chided for in a journalism class.

but, as a video about hypocrisy and fractured identities, that same scatterbrained assembly

actually helps the point he's trying to make.

so, as pure criticism, it fails... but, as art, it succeeds.

now, there's a whole epistemological debate to be had here about the boundaries of the

categories i just carted out for the sake of my argument, but we're not going to go

into that because i don't want to.

youtube, i think we can all agree, is a strange intermediary medium that we don't tend to

approach the same way we do television or film.

even as someone who respects the creative capacity of someone like hbomberguy, generally

i go into his videos expecting criticism, arguments, a point.

there are many expressive, artistic elements in his videos, but i tend to see these as

the flavor that makes his brand of argument special.

i wouldn't call most of his stuff art, and i'd hesitate to call most things on youtube

art.

now, i don't think it's controversial to say that there is art on youtube, but it isn't

"youtube art," so to speak.

a short film hosted on youtube is taking advantage of the platform, but it isn't of or for the

platform.

it isn't what people think of when they think of youtube, and the flipside of that is, in

my very limited realm of experience at least, there's an opinion that what a person thinks

of when they think of youtube is anathema to "art," that "art" and youtube are mutually

exclusive.

that's nonsense.

people have said that about every new medium and they have always been wrong.

but this does beg a question- what does "youtube art" look like?

and this gets us to contrapoints. and yeah, i know, i'm sorry, i know how that

sounds.

just... go with it.

alright. if you haven't seen The Aesthetic, here's the gist: it's a Socratic dialectic

(helpfully conveyed by the statue of Socrates on the tv here) about the importance of aesthetic

womanhood in the public discourse by and about transgender women.

Justine, who passes as cisgender, criticizes Tabby, a black-block communist catgirl

"actually i'm an anarcho-syndicalist" for her perceived lack of femininity and her

disinterest in attempting to pass.

so, for the uninitiated, a dialectic is a philosophical argument in the form of two

fictional characters having a debate -and yes, like all academic terms, dialectic conveniently

only has the one definition, which is why absolutely no one will show up in the comments

to "well, actually" me.

dialectic is often deployed as a way of implying objectivity -but, of course, it's just as

subjective as any argument, and the conclusion of a dialectic often tells us a lot about

the author. and the contention around The Aesthetic seems to be the result of a... shall

we say, ill-defined conclusion.

we don't like Justine, we don't like how she treats Tabby, we don't like that Tabby barely

gets to defend herself, and we don't like that the video seems to fail at adequately

criticizing Justine's transphobic, harmful rhetoric.

we want Justine to admit she's wrong, or for Tabby to finally be allowed to smash something...

we want some kind of catharsis and release, but instead, it just ends with them saying

"i guess nobody wins," and we cut to a sex joke.

it is, put charitably, ambiguous in its messaging, which makes us wonder what the author's intended

message was.

a major hangup in this conversation is, are the opinions expressed in this video the opinions

held by the characters, or are they the opinions held by natalie wynn? more specifically, is

the oft-reiterated statement "gender isn't who you are, it's what you do" natalie's personal

conclusion, the socratic truth she's trying to convey?

and this is where that ambiguity really fucks us, because a whole hell of a lot of people

give a shit what natalie has to say, and when we're not really sure what she's saying, we

start jumping to conclusions. for non-passing or nonbinary trans people, maybe this feels

like a revocation of identity from someone they admire; for passing trans people, maybe

this is a confirmation that non-passing and nonbinary trans people hurt the cause; and

for bigoted-ass cisgender people, maybe this is an endorsement of their campaign to spread

their very bad opinions on every image board from here to 4chan.

fittingly enough... nobody wins.

except, i guess, the cis people, because... i mean, they always win, don't they?

now, natalie has spoken about a lot of this stuff before.

these questions have been litigated constantly, sometimes very explicitly, in previous videos,

and she's expressed on twitter some skepticism about the idea that a twenty-something kid

assigned male at birth can just call themselves a woman without "becoming" a woman.

but it seems like this is more a feeling than a hard and fast opinion, and while i don't

share her skepticism, i also don't think she should avoid trying to explore that feeling

in her work.

let's take it as read that The Aesthetic doesn't really succeed as dialectic, and that natalie

herself doesn't provide much clarity on the subject.

so, why don't we take an... admittedly difficult step back from all that, and look at The Aesthetic

not as dialectic, but as art.

first of all, if it's art, we shouldn't even be having this conversation about intentionality

-at least not yet.

the "word-of-god" debate exhausts me because it's almost always the least interesting aspect

of any text.

"but what was the author's intention?" who cares? the author is dead.

let's look at the thing and see what it has to say for itself.

now, obviously the beliefs of the author are relevant, and since we all agree that everything

is political, then art must necessarily reflect the politics of the artist.

but the message intended isn't always the message received -rarely so, in fact.

so let's just set all that aside and look at the text.

so, we start with a new character, Tracy Mounts, who is an homage to Divine, the drag queen

whose performances in several John Waters films natalie has referenced previously.

"kill everyone now, condone first degree murder, advocate cannibalism, eat shit!" "filth are

my politics?" and this isn't even subtle, i mean, like... there's a poster for pink

flamingos right between tabby and justine.

now, i haven't seen pink flamingos, but i know it by its reputation as a vulgar, bizarre,

offensive film that is ultimately a celebration of the freakish (a moral that natalie echoes

in a previous video).

John Waters is known for being an articulate and personable guy who is unapologetic about

the way his art offends the delicate sensibilities of mainstream movie audiences.

in a recent interview, waters said of the subject matter he's drawn to:

"I'm most fascinated by subjects I don't really understand, that there's no easy answer to,

that I'll never understand.

and I'm always drawn to subject matter like that and I like to bring my audience along

with me, to be a little surprised by it and made nervous by it.

i never understood why people say "i like feel good books."

I already feel good!

I don't need a book to make me feel good.

I like to be troubled.

I like to go into a world that troubles me and amazes me, that I can't understand.

and then, after reading a book, think maybe i understand that world a little better."

so, in just the first minute of The Aesthetic, we're already signaled that this isn't going

to be a delicate experience, and that its content is going to be evocative in ways we

probably won't be happy with.

there's a lot in this framework that suggests some of the philosophical problems on the

author's mind.

tracy describes herself as "a lady who used to be a man dressed as a man dressed as a

lady", which is already complicated enough without taking into account that "tracy mounts"

is a character created and played by natalie wynn, thus making her a lady who used to be

a man dressed as a lady who used to be a man dressed as a man dressed as a lady.

identity! what the fuck is it? tracy is here to talk about quote unquote

color praxis, "colors! what the fuck are they?" which we're led into by youtuber Dan Olson

delivering a fifteen second monologue about color schemes.

"analogous color schemes use the main color plus one or more adjacent colors, while complementary

color schemes use any two colors directly opposite on the color wheel."

it happens so fast you might not even realize it happened, and it maybe seems like a nonsequitor.

but it's so specific- we're talking about color schemes in a design, the main highlight

being the difference between an analogous color scheme and a complementary color scheme.

later, we get this particularly telling digression about the shadow illusion- "same wavelengths,

different colors."

to my mind, this is a clarification of how we are to approach these bizarre fragmentary

identities -not as wholly distinct, but as different wavelengths of the same color, as

it were. and this isn't, by itself, a terribly revelatory inclusion -the very nature of natalie's

one-woman-many-characters dialectical style basically makes it impossible for the audience

to forget that these are fragments of natalie wynn.

what is revelatory, i think, is the focus on analogous versus complementary. if we look

at the wide roster of contrapoints characters, who talks to whom isn't just a strategic argumentative

decision, but a stylistic or, if you will, an aesthetic one.

sometimes these dialectics are complementary, and sometimes they are analogous. and it's

notable, i think, that when we are told about the difference between analogous and complementary

color schemes, the image itself is black and white.

just file that thought in the back of your head for now.

tracy poses a question, "what matters more, the way things are, or the way things look?"

before taking us to an "instructional video," IE an episode of The Freedom Report where

Tabby threatens Abigail Cockbane for misgendering her.

this is another short segment that, nominally, sets up the context for justine's criticisms

of tabby later on.

but when asked whether misgendering someone ought to be illegal, abigail has this to say:

"liberation from the oppressive institution of gender begins with freedom of speech."

i want to take a second to just analyze that statement.

abigail's goal is liberation from the oppressive institution of gender, which she insists begins

with freedom of speech.

a freedom she then exercises as a way of delineating and categorizing tabby's gender, and to insist

that pronouns refer exclusively to chromosomal sex -exercises which, undeniably, reinforce

the oppressive institution of gender.

i think abigail absolutely recognizes the logical inconsistency here, and she cares

less about that than... well, this whole speech feels canned, like a rehearsed talking point

she has on the ready for these situations.

the only moment she seems invested in what she's saying is, at the end, when she hands

it off to tabby with a pronounced misgender, and a vicious smile.

this isn't a good-faith argument, this is a trap, and it's one that tabby falls for.

"that's a human rights violation! i'll smash your fucking face."

abigail, instead of being surprised by the outburst or worried for her safety, immediately

launches into another diatribe about transgender ideology being a smoke screen for male violence.

she relishes delivering this speech, because she knows that she's already won the war of

optics.

we then cut back to tracy mounts, who says, "gender's just like a color.

some people see yellow, some people see blue.

it's all a matter of opinion.

or is it? it's not."

this is the first real indication of the confrontational in-your-face-ness we ought to expect based

on the John Waters connection, with tracy immediately undermining the suggestion that

gender might be subjective.

now, i could go through the rest of the video at this level of detail, but we're only three

minutes in and i've got shit to do.

so, go watch the video for yourself if you haven't already, and when you come back i'm

going to throw out a few observations that i think are significant.

ya back?

okay. first, let's briefly touch on the mise-en-scene, which is a pretentious college-degree-signalling

way of saying "all the stuff you see with your eyes."

we got the aforementioned pink flamingos poster -notice that divine's gun is aimed at tabby-

above which is a poster of the painted breakdown frames from another contrapoints video, Tiffany

Tumbles.

hm, that probably won't come up again.

with tabby there's chairman mao partially covered by what looks like a picture of the

golden one, and with justine there's oscar wilde.

contradictions! satire! mise-en-scene! okay, so the debate begins with justine laying

out the boundaries of the idea that "womanhood" as a socially constructed role is an exclusively

aesthetic phenomena, and that one cannot be a woman if they are not performing womanhood.

she calls it verisimilitude, a term i don't hear much outside of film criticism, so its

use here is, i think, intentionally dehumanizing.

honestly there's a lot that justine says in this video that is... woof. you watched it,

you know.

we get an interesting aside in the middle where justine brings up the debate "between

blaire white and that youtuber with the pink wig... what was her name?"

referring to a livestream natalie appeared on early in her youtube career which marked

a pretty big turning point for her public persona.

justine says that, while natalie may have won logically, for all intents and purposes

she lost the debate because she looked, according to justine, embarrassing and awkward.

as harsh as this is, it's hard not to see her point.

in the 2016 presidential debates, a lot of people -myself included- felt that hillary

clinton wiped the floor with trump, but a whole heck of a lot of people thought otherwise,

and they thought that because trump always looked in control, he just said things instead

of ever defending a position, which is rhetorically suicidal but optically powerful.

after receiving a long series of insults and judgments from justine, tabby starts to stick

up for herself, and we get this exchange: "all your devices just try to turn me into

you.

well, that's not what aesthetics is.

aesthetics is the expression of an inner truth, and i'll only ever be a second rate justine,

but i can be a first rate tabby."

"well kids, this week we learned a valuable lesson about the importance of being yourself."

"shut up!" this eventually devolves into a rapid fire

debate about the practical applications of gender identity that ends with this: "who

do you think benefits, and who do you think gets hurt, when you go out in the world and

represent trans women as masculine and violent?" "who do you think benefits when they trot

you out to be meek and feminine and acquiescent?"

"I guess we can't win, can we?

Wanna just chill out and watch youtube videos?" the supposed youtube video they watch is fascinating,

it's caitlyn jenner threatening ben shapiro, or whoever this dweeb is, repeated at lower

and lower framerates, intercut with right-wing trans woman blair white talking about damage

control.

then we get clips of the hindenburg crash, some bigoted youtube comments, and flashes

of the word "plague."

so, "plague" still puzzles me, and it's kind of the only thing i'm not really sure about

yet? it makes me think of the clip at the end of lindsay ellis's RENT video, of a gay

activist admonishing others in the queer community for their infighting and inability to garner

support in the wider public "Plague!

We're in the middle of a fucking plague!

And you behave like this!"

i don't know if this was intentional, but it fits and it's the best i got.

this montage mirrors the freedom report clip from earlier

"cut that out now" "that's a human rights violation"

"or you'll go home in an ambulance" "i'll smash your fucking face"

we then return to justine and tabby, then we return to tracy, and then it's over.

after the patreon credits, though, we see three things -a chess board, tabby hissing,

and then a kitchen with a bottle of svedka. and now we're getting intertextual.

obviously, all of natalie's videos are in conversation with one another.

in this case, we're led to one of tabby's early appearances, called 'the left,' which

is another dialectic between tabby and justine.

it's very similar to the aesthetic, it even ends on a similar note, with basically the

same joke.

"I think it's stalemate."

"No it's not- my queen is wide open."

"I love you."

"what?"

i'm also thinking of tiffany tumbles, another video exploring the question of permissible

feminine expression, and this is where some of that color theory seems to come in.

near as i can tell, 'the aesthetic' and 'the left' are analogous -similar shades that meld

together consistently.

meanwhile, 'the aesthetic' and 'tiffany tumbles' are complementary, opposing colors that stand

out from each other, but create a clear image through contrast.

so, how do we bring all of this together?

'the aesthetic' obviously has some harsh subjects on its mind.

as a trans person who's only been out a year, a lot of what justine says i say to myself,

at least on my bad days.

i think that's true for most trans people.

watching this video was painful, frightening, it kind of fed my demons a bit, y'know? but

that's precisely why i like it.

a lot of youtubers, myself included, pick a topic that shows some kind of problem and

then solve it, or anyway pretend to solve it.

'the aesthetic' doesn't do that.

see, when i go through this process of tearing myself down in this way, i never "resolve"

it, there's no catharsis.

i just feel like shit for a while until i forget to feel like shit.

no bones about it, this video is deeply problematic, and it is for that reason we ought to examine

it critically- because it is deliberately showing us a problem, showing us something

harmful, embarrassing, and true about ourselves that we don't like to admit.

"we don't say it out loud, but we all know it, and we all think it."

what does it mean that we feel so uncomfortable witnessing this debate, especially as trans

people? doesn't it kind of shore up justine's argument that other people hold the validity

of your gender in their hands, when we feel our own validity threatened by a youtube video?

but 'the aesthetic' is also reminding us that it does not exist out of context.

i think the "plague" montage is meant to show where this whole charade of disagreement is

heading, a parade of fractured, segmented identities unable to communicate or empathize

with each other "and i feel like, on my end, i'm always damage controlling."

this compounds when we consider the intertextual elements, that we can't take this one conversation

on its own.

neither a self nor a community is built by one road, one dialogue -it's a complex weave

of analogous and complementary elements.

you can't take just one color and expect to get the whole picture.

you need the analogues and the complements, together, to approach a totality of self,

to stave off self-destruction by way of fragmentation.

you need this whole picture because the hungry people on the outside? they don't see the

differences from one color and the next.

all they see is black and white.

the last point i want to make addresses a separate criticism.

some insist that, by not taking a side, natalie has taken the wrong side, and they point to

reddit threads that show cis bigots being validated in all their bigoted nonsense, comments

on the video from disappointed and wounded fans. and like... yeah, you know, that is

an issue.

like i said at the top of this video, that sucks, and i hate it.

as much as i like this video, even with my wildly debatable interpretation, i do think

it could have done just a bit more to reassure natalie's audience.

and i say that specifically because natalie has become a flashpoint of the transgender

community, and she knows it.

no one elected her, she didn't ask for the position, but people hang on her every word

now -kind of myself included.

her dysphoria video is one of the things that helped me come out and start transition.

whether she likes it or not, she has a responsibility to her audience.

but, all that said... aren't we kind of missing the forest for the trees here?

like, yeah, 'the aesthetic' has great potential to do harm, arguably it already has.

some folks have said they wished cis people weren't allowed to watch this video, and yeah,

i kind of agree with that, but we don't live in that world.

and this ammunition we're worried that natalie has given to the bigots... you really think

they wouldn't have found something else, somewhere else, to justify doing or saying the awful

shit they already wanted to? we're focusing so much on the negative impact of this thing,

and yeah, it's real, it's worth talking about, but in stopping there, in stopping at saying

that it's problematic and therefore shouldn't exist, aren't we doing exactly the thing that

justine does to tabby? we're essentially saying that the only permissible expression in the

trans community is that which is optically advantageous.

it has to make trans, nonbinary, questioning, and allied people feel good about themselves,

while simultaneously not feeding the trolls. it's got to be unambiguously self-affirming

of trans people, or unambiguously critical of nontrans people, unless you're critical

of the bad ones that we all agree are bad, like blaire white.

in short: it can't be problematic. and the painful reality of art is, it's all problematic.

there's a bit in an episode of the podcast behind the bastards where host robert evans

talks about the anti-nazi hollywood films that were accidentally pro-nazi.

"when we think of nazi propaganda, we think of triumph of the will.

when germans thought of effective nazi propaganda they thought of gary fucking cooper.

the nazis also loved mr smith goes to washington.

they looked at it and saw, well, here's a movie about how shitty democracy is, and one

guy with a vision has to come in and fix this corrupt town.

a lot of it is not even that there's direct collaboration going on, it's just that the

way movies work as entertainment really wound up reinforcing nazi beliefs."

"is the matrix a fascist film?"

"kinda, right?

a little bit." "if you want to view it that way..."

"if the matrix had come out in 1936, I think the germans would have loved it."

i think about this a lot when critical debates turn towards the question of what messages

the wrong audience will take from something.

lindsay ellis actually has an excellent video about this, link in the description, and the

fact is, barring some truly inspired bit of mel brooksian satire, it is impossible to

avoid giving ammunition to the people who want to hurt you.

every time you open your mouth, put pen to paper, every time you walk out your door,

you are making mistakes, you are contradicting yourself, you are undermining the causes you

claim to care about in ways microscopic and macroscopic in turns.

and yeah, you can mitigate the damage by being aware of it, and i think natalie is still

figuring out how to do that.

just two years ago she was mumbling over grainy camcorder footage; now, she's one of the very

few youtubers making something that approaches "youtube art," art that could only exist on

youtube. and she's doing it as a trans woman who is still very early in her transition!

it's fine to be critical, but we have to be willing to give someone the benefit of the

doubt because when all we can focus on is the harms produced by a work, we inherently

devalue the good.

we devalue the right and desire of a transgender artist to depict her own pain in a way that

isn't safe or kind or helpful or easy to digest. we might as well be insisting that what you

want to say is less important than what we want the world to hear. and look, you don't

have to like The Aesthetic, or any of Natalie's work, or any work at all.

you don't have to like how it affects your friends, or how it gives ammunition to your

enemies.

but we ought to at least recognize that the endeavor itself is justified and valid, and

that the text is still worth rigorous examination.

wow, thank you for watching this video that is longer than the video it's talking about.

i wasn't gonna do all my normal shilling at the end of this one, but at this rate there's

no way the video that was supposed to come out in september is going to come out in time,

so i'm just going to take this opportunity to shout out the september names.

special thanks to: austin mccauley, amy mims, richard daly, and anarcho duck.

these are my ten dollar a month patrons over at patreon.com/ltas. for as little as a dollar

a month you get access to, among many other things, a thirty minute video essay! in case

you haven't read enough of my stupid words.

i also have a podcast, the trans questioning podcast, where i talk about being transgender.

recently i had youtuber may leitz of nyx fears, and that was a fun little conversation, you

should go check it out.

links to all the music and sources and everything else in the description, and that's all the

things.

thank you for watching, good bye.

For more infomation >> Nobody Wins: Contrapoints, The Aesthetic, and Negative Representation - Duration: 28:05.

-------------------------------------------

WATCH LIVE! Will Smith Bungee Jumps Out Of A Helicopter - View 4 - Duration: 1:54:48.

For more infomation >> WATCH LIVE! Will Smith Bungee Jumps Out Of A Helicopter - View 4 - Duration: 1:54:48.

-------------------------------------------

kuroshitsuji Anime Husbandos 8/ Black Butler Kuroshitsuji Husband - Duration: 3:33.

For more infomation >> kuroshitsuji Anime Husbandos 8/ Black Butler Kuroshitsuji Husband - Duration: 3:33.

-------------------------------------------

WATCH LIVE! Will Smith Bungee Jumps Out Of A Helicopter - Duration: 1:54:47.

For more infomation >> WATCH LIVE! Will Smith Bungee Jumps Out Of A Helicopter - Duration: 1:54:47.

-------------------------------------------

"Who is America?! A Response to Michael Anton's Constitution Day Lecture" - Duration: 1:17:43.

For more infomation >> "Who is America?! A Response to Michael Anton's Constitution Day Lecture" - Duration: 1:17:43.

-------------------------------------------

Why You Should Subscribe to Financial Potion's YouTube Channel - Duration: 0:31.

Why should you subscribe to our channel? Every Friday at 5 p.m. Arizona time

you're going to learn more about video production marketing and business tips

to help you be more successful. We provide reviews on products we love with

links in the description to easily purchase them. We appreciate your support

and promised to stay engaging. So please subscribe to our channel and click on

the bell to get notified when a new video is uploaded. We look forward to

seeing your comments!

For more infomation >> Why You Should Subscribe to Financial Potion's YouTube Channel - Duration: 0:31.

-------------------------------------------

Beyonce's former drummer EXPOSES HER 'using extreme witchcraft' *MUST SEE* (German) - Duration: 20:33.

For more infomation >> Beyonce's former drummer EXPOSES HER 'using extreme witchcraft' *MUST SEE* (German) - Duration: 20:33.

-------------------------------------------

Microwave Corn On The Cob - Duration: 5:37.

On this video I'm gonna show you how to cook corn in your microwave. Plus I'm

going to show you how to roast that corn right on your kitchen counter.

Hi Folks welcome to Kitchen Tips Online, the YouTube channel where you will find

new and innovative ways to do things in the kitchen. And if this is your first

time here, well I invite you to have a look around check out some of our other

videos, like this one. I bet you didn't know that one of the best ways to cook

baked potatoes is in the microwave. Anyhow after you check out some of our

other videos, if you decide to subscribe, just remember to ring the bell so that

YouTube will send you notifications when we post new videos.

Now those folks who are regular subscribers can probably tell that I've

been fighting a cold. My voice is a little bit different. But the good news is I'm

on the mend. I don't know if you know this but corn

is the number one crop grown in the United States. But a farmer in the United

States can only plant corn once a year. And when they harvest it, they must get

it to market. And so that means that you are likely at harvest time, to find corn

on sale. And I'm going to show you how to take advantage of those sale prices, and

buy a bunch of extra corn and freeze it. And for those folks who are Toby fans,

I'm gonna show you later in this video what he looked like when he was a pup.

Now freezing corn on the cob is easy. All you need to do is inspect the ears, and

if you find any that has any damage or looks like it's kind of getting ripe,

those are the ones that you want to eat first. The other ones you want to freeze.

And really the only thing you need to do is cut off the silk on the top of the

corn, then you just stack them on the shelf in your freezer, you don't need to

wrap them up in plastic wrap or put them in a ziplock bag.

Then when it's time to cook corn you don't have to thaw it out. All

you have to do is add one to two minutes more to the cooking time cooking time.

For one ear the time will vary based on the power of your microwave and the size of the

corn. But my microwave is pretty powerful, it's 1,100 watts.

So I only need 4 minutes. When you remove the corn from the microwave, make

sure that you use an oven mitt because this corn is extremely hot. One of the

great things about cooking corn in a microwave, is that you do not have to

remove the husk in advance. Also when you do pull the husk off, almost all of those

little silk strings come off with it. Check this out. We need to find the end

of the ear and cut off about half an inch. Then all we have to do is grab the

top of the corn by the silk and squeeze it. If you have trouble sliding the corn

out, it's an indication that it's not fully cooked. let's check the temperature

of this dude, it's 187 degrees,

that's definitely fully cooked. Now let me show you how to bump up the flavor of

this corn by roasting it right on the kitchen counter. We're gonna use a

propane handheld torch that you see on your screen on the right hand side.

Notice that it uses the exact same type of fuel propane that you use in your gas

grill. With the corn resting on a fireproof wire rack, we'll go ahead

light up the torch and move it back and forth gently. Rotate the corn and roast

it right here on the kitchen counter. We use this torch for everything, from

roasting hot dogs indoors, caramelizing ribs, and creme brulee. You can get one

down at Home Depot, or Lowe's, but if you want to get one online, we have them

available on our Amazon Affiliate Store And we'll put a link to the store in the

video description, thanks ♥ Well there you go folks, now you

know how to make roasted corn on the cob in your kitchen, in about 5 minutes.

And if you want to see more videos like this, well I recommend you subscribe. And

for you Toby fans, he's coming up next. Thanks for watching ☺

Hey Toby what are you doing? Come here buddy. This is Toby right after I brought him

home the first time he was ever away from his mom, dad, brothers and

sisters. I didn't want to overwhelm him, so I put him on a kitchen floor and went

to the other side and sat down. I knew he had to make the decision to come over to

me, and he did. Come on Toby ♥

For more infomation >> Microwave Corn On The Cob - Duration: 5:37.

-------------------------------------------

王菲 - 紅豆《海洋生物博物館》【歌詞 Lyrics】繁體／简体 - Duration: 4:31.

For more infomation >> 王菲 - 紅豆《海洋生物博物館》【歌詞 Lyrics】繁體／简体 - Duration: 4:31.

-------------------------------------------

Melodic Contour Taylor Swift - Duration: 5:28.

There's one melodic contour Taylor Swift uses over and over in her songs.

Of course, she uses a bunch of others, too.

What is melodic contour?

Well, it's just the shape of your melody.

But since Taylor Swift is so prolific in her writing, it's a great place to start and analyze

some of these contours.

Dive in and I'm going to show you what she does and you can use some of these strategies

in your writing, too.

Hi, I'm Heather Greenslade with Singer Songwriting School.

For the best tips on songwriting, subscribe to this channel.

Hit the bell so that you never miss a new upload every Tuesday.

If you ever get stuck writing the melodic lines for your songs, keep watching.

By the end of this video, you will know all about the melodic contour Taylor Swift uses

most often and three others.

I've used these melodic contours and many others all throughout my writing and now you

can, too.

Just throw that tool into you songwriting kit and keep on writing.

Taylor Swift is very well known for her one-note melodies.

It's actually part of the key to her success.

Not only does the simplicity of her melody allow people to really engage in the lyrics,

but it makes it so easy to just jump in and sing along.

It would be really easy to assume that a one-note melody would be boring and people wouldn't

want to listen, but you cannot deny the popularity of these songs.

Check out the chorus of "Look What You Made Me Do."

Ooh, look what you made me do.

Look what you made me do.

Look what you just made me do.

Look what you just made me- Yep, just pretty much just one note.

Why does it work?

Well, one of the reasons is that the melody of the preceding section is so different.

Check out the pre-chorus leading up to that part I just played.

I got smarter, I got harder, in the nick of time.

Honey, I rose up from the dead.

I do it all the time.

This part's only two notes, but they're spaced really far apart.

(vocalizing) Then it goes to (vocalizing), sort of a speaking voice.

The instrumentation behind it is so different.

It just works.

She's varied the sections enough that, yeah, I don't mind singing the same note over and

over the whole chorus.

I'm loving it.

Taylor's song "Are We Out of the Woods?" has a one-note melody all through the chorus,

too.

Are we out of the woods yet?

Are we out of the woods yet?

Are we out of the woods yet?

Are we out of the- One of the things that makes this one work

is that background vocal riff.

Listen again.

Are we out of the woods yet?

Are we out of the woods yet?

Are we out of the woods yet?

Are we out of the- Can you hear the texture that creates?

Also, just like in "Look What You Made Me Do," she's got another section with a very

different melodic shape.

In the bridge, she's jumping from one note up to another note and it's actually a jump

of a fifth, just like it was in the other song.

Check this out.

Remember when you hit the brakes too soon?

Twenty stitches in a hospital room.

When you started crying, baby, I did too.

But when the sun came up, I was looking at you.

We've got two shapes so far, the one-note melody, and then we've got this jumping back

and forth between notes that are pretty far-spaced.

But what's happening in the verses of these songs?

Let's look at the verse of the first song we looked at, "Look What You Made Me Do."

Her melody is step-wise.

She's not jumping anywhere, she's just going one note to the note right next to it, and

she's going note, same note, up, up, and then back down to the note where she started.

I don't like your perfect crime, how you laugh when you lie.

You said the gun was mine.

Then she repeats that pretty much exactly a few times.

Now let's check out "Are We Out of the Woods."

Again, she's got a step-wise melody.

(vocalizing) It's note, down, same, down, up, same, down, up, same, up, down, down.

That's what I'm thinking of when I listen to these contours.

Are we staying the same?

Are we going down?

Going up?

Just check this out.

Looking at it now, it all seems so simple.

Then she repeats basically the same shape, just a little bit lower in the scale.

Take a listen.

We were lying on your couch.

I remember.

Taking the same melodic contour and shifting it to a different range in your scale is a

really common and pretty great technique.

Do you already notice the melodic contours in songs or is this a new technique for you?

Let me know in the comments below.

To learn more about melodic contour in various popular songs, check out this video here.

Now you know what melodic contour is and a little bit about how Taylor Swift, in particular,

uses it in her songs.

Now it's time for you to jump in.

If you like this video, please let me know by liking it below so I know to make more

like it.

Share it with any songwriters you think might find it helpful.

If you found it helpful, comment "helpful" below.

Make sure to go to www.SingerSongwritingSchool.com to check out all the resources we have there.

Happy writing!

For more infomation >> Melodic Contour Taylor Swift - Duration: 5:28.

-------------------------------------------

Shoutout To Dasnd Vid! - Duration: 1:18.

Go subscribe to this dude right here get him to either

3,500 subscribers or

Possibly get him to even 4k subscribers

I would really appreciate that if you would get him to that range

and if you guys I'm gonna shout out, please make sure to comment to

make sure to LIKE drop a like on this video and comment down below if you guys want a shout out and then I will

Do it, but it will take a little while

But I will still get to your shoutout just be patient

So if you guys want a shout out, please make sure to drop like on this video

comment down below on this video make sure to subscribe to

him this channel right here and

also subscribe to my channel if you guys want a shout out and

Comment down below when don't if you subscribe to me and you subscribe to this guy right here

So don't forget to stay active and turn up on some occasions, so yeah, I will see you guys in the next video

Goodbye, everyone