tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post8116114176573487325..comments2024-03-27T23:28:20.274-04:00Comments on Face to Face: Maskless Pixie Dream Girl, coaxing wary sad sack out of his corona quarantine cocoonagnostichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-25997023775104905672021-06-01T19:42:17.460-04:002021-06-01T19:42:17.460-04:00So many young babes with totally naked faces insid...So many young babes with totally naked faces inside the supermarket just now, especially the ones in gym / fitness clothes. This sucker is OVER.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-77978497646364907572021-05-21T18:16:01.435-04:002021-05-21T18:16:01.435-04:00Disc was made in USA, too. Much appreciated, when ...Disc was made in USA, too. Much appreciated, when more and more newly pressed CDs (whether new releases or re-releases of old albums) have "Disc made in Mexico" on the back. Better quality, and better quality control.<br /><br />Naturally the sound quality is light-years beyond what you're used to from streaming it (and remember that almost all radio is streaming these days, not playing a physical copy).agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-48469083500747216482021-05-21T18:10:24.182-04:002021-05-21T18:10:24.182-04:00At Target for Olivia Rodrigo's new CD, several...At Target for Olivia Rodrigo's new CD, several people were maskless. Some workers, too.<br /><br />That's libtard central, and supposedly implementing a more restrictive policy than Walmart -- but actual enforcement was nihil. In fact their sign outside said masks are only "strongly recommended" for those who are not "fully vaccinated". Lots of qualifiers there.<br /><br />Not only was there no civil war among the Target shoppers, some of the workers said hello and were helpful, whether or not they were wearing masks. It's over.<br /><br />Second time in 6 months I've gone to Target to pick up a new album on launch day (earlier, it was for Plastic Hearts by Miley Cyrus). What is the world coming to?<br /><br />I never go there otherwise, but Target has the exclusives with recorded music, and has it available on shelves on the release date. So you can just waltz in, pick it up, and start listening to it right away. No pre-ordering, no online forms to fill out, no waiting to ship-to-store or deliver to home.<br /><br />And this one was only $12 -- when was the last time a new album by the biggest artist of the year was only 12 bucks?<br /><br />Physical media lasts forever. No renting, no subscriptions, no services or platforms that could cease existing in a few years. Way better image quality on their glossy booklets (and fold-out poster in this case), compared to a little jpeg thumbnail on your phone screen.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-52313247633451429542021-05-19T05:33:51.980-04:002021-05-19T05:33:51.980-04:00The dam has broken. Went back to a thrift store wh...The dam has broken. Went back to a thrift store where I was harassed by 2 workers to wear a mask, maybe a month ago.<br /><br />Now, one of them was still there, but said nothing.<br /><br />And there were multiple others unmasked at the same time, which had never happened before. Somali teenage guy, half of a group of Mennonite or Amish women, and a super cute high school girl a few lanes over during checkout, psyched to see a random hot guy also unmasked.<br /><br />Again, imagine you're a girl without a mask, and you don't see many guys doing the same. Lady-boner-killer. How can a girl be upstaging the so-called men? Sad.<br /><br />Then at the supermarket, there were 2 other guys unmasked during my trip, again a rarity. Both high-T, naturally.<br /><br />Now that the momentum is building, I can't wait to troll some more maskers IRL this weekend, when the streets and sidewalks will be packed with witnesses.<br /><br />The point is not so much to get revenge on the extreme lamewads and libtards (although that too), but to make an example out of them in front of everyone else, so the silent majority will see it's OK to ditch the failed policies of masking, social distancing, etc.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-60660976054159630512021-05-16T21:09:24.621-04:002021-05-16T21:09:24.621-04:00Nerdy wordplay potential for their names. His name...Nerdy wordplay potential for their names. His name is Grenouille ("frog" in French), but goes by Gren. His parents are Francophiles, and don't mind how unusual the meaning is, they liked the sound of it, and the shortened form of Gren -- which is very WASP-y sounding.<br /><br />When she first asks his name, he says Gren, and she responds how pleasantly novel that name is. He seizes the chance for self-deprecating humor, and explains that it's short for Grenouille -- frog, in French. Some parents, y'know?<br /><br />Her name is Amira ("princess" in Arabic). She doesn't have to be identifiably MENA herself, maybe her parents are multi-culti, boho, hippie types, and went to Arabic for their child's name.<br /><br />She wouldn't have to explain her name's meaning, since that would make the allusion too on-the-nose. "Ohhhh, duhhhhh, a frog and a princess...."<br /><br />Just hearing that the protag was named Frog is enough to point the audience's mind in the right direction, and they'll figure it out, even if they don't know for sure what Amira means. He's a frog, she's the princess.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-88490621491547815662021-05-16T20:53:55.354-04:002021-05-16T20:53:55.354-04:00Soundtrack must have "Learning to Fly" b...Soundtrack must have "Learning to Fly" by Tom Petty on it somewhere. Maybe after she kisses him for the first time, which should not have any music as it's happening -- all the focus on just them two.<br /><br />But once it starts to sink in and catalyze things inside him, then those jangly chords start a-strummin', as we take in a cute little montage of the new things he's found the confidence to do, after being woken up from his slumber by a kiss from a princess.<br /><br />...real shades of the Frog Prince, or Beauty and the Beast, given how inhuman and insectoid the human visage looks with these ugly angular devices clamped onto the entire lower half.<br /><br />Oh! Quick joke -- it starts in the summer, and since he's still wearing the mask, he's developing a tan-line across the middle of his face. Early on, while he's chatting with the MPDG, his mask slips a bit (typical), exposing his tan-line.<br /><br />She notices, chuckles, and gives him a little zing about how, "See, now I know why you're *really* wearing that thing -- to create a tantalizing tan-line..."<br /><br />He feels silly and nervous, but still reassured by her laughter. It's all the more motivation to stop wearing it.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-37311170533203758152021-05-16T20:36:51.083-04:002021-05-16T20:36:51.083-04:00It does need some more dramatic tension, so do the...It does need some more dramatic tension, so do the standard "new girl arrives and makes MPDG vie for protag's attention" thing.<br /><br />End of act 2, he spies her at a coffee shop or bookstore or someplace he, and everyone else, had been uncomfortable lounging around during the hysteria. Now he's there, showing his progress.<br /><br />And some other woman is there, also showing her willingness to leave the cocoon partially, but she's wearing the mask. She needs less prodding than the protag did, since she's already lounging indoors at a coffee shop. So protag only needs to give her a gentle neg to make her come out all the way.<br /><br />They go on their own set of adventures, exploring places they haven't been to in so long, re-discovering them together. Shared recovery, after implicitly shared trauma.<br /><br />MPDG hears about this from him during an act 3 visit, gets a bit jealous, and suddenly starts expressing concern about is it so wise to lounge around indoors for so long. Sure the mask can come off, but to hang out for hours indoors, maybe it's too soon, we need to understand the science better, etc.<br /><br />Obviously just rationalizing her desire for him to not drift away from her and connect with a new woman.<br /><br />He instantly sees through this, jokingly calls her on her jealousy, "Since when have you been worrying about that?" and so on.<br /><br />While he's absent from the scene, she talks to herself or maybe confides in a co-worker, about how if this guy slips away from her, it'll feel like the whole project has been for nothing -- and she herself will slide back into an isolation chamber after such a rejection.<br /><br />But then a customer who's more like her shows up at some point, not wearing a mask, they joke and flirt about the whole end-of-restrictions climate, connect, and implied they start dating. She gets to fix the protag, and (although we don't see and dwell on it) find someone of her own.<br /><br />He keeps the new woman, who in turn starts to joke with others about not needing to wear masks anymore, who in their turn do so to others, and so on and so forth -- in a POSITIVE contagion effect. Each newly liberated person helps to boost the confidence of several others to set themselves free and improve themselves.<br /><br />Yep, another "Awwww, cute!" kind of ending -- but needed in this context. Especially if we're going the route of putting the MPDG through semi-rejection hell, and making the audience half-hate the protag for doing that to her, after all she's done for him unsolicited. Have to temper that and end things on a really gooey note.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-10667834212252351812021-05-16T13:11:55.833-04:002021-05-16T13:11:55.833-04:00One thing I've noticed is the same small group...One thing I've noticed is the same small group of people all walking their dogs without a leash in the morning. These people are used to having the run of public spaces(due to cocooning), and resent a more outgoing zeitgeist, where they can't behave with such disregard.Curtisnoreply@blogger.com