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Because it got buried in the drama, here's my latest video, a book review of Vertical Run, which is both weird in a fun way and weird in an awful trigger warning way. And since this is the first page of a new thread, quick introduction (you don't have to put me on the master list or nothing), I make videos for a channel called Pop Arena, which doesn't really have a unified theme, but I guess I review more books than most. My bread and butter is a very slow book-by-book review of 1990s YA surprisedark warhorror series Animorphs, though I do plenty of misc stuff on the side. Some notable examples included a look at Neil Gaiman's Sandman though the eyes of history, a riffing on a trilogy of goofy children's werewolf books and I'm part way through an episode-by-episode guide to The Secret World of Alex Mack. I don't really stick to any one idea. Some other channels I'd recommend: -Super Bunnyhop: Video game reviews and editorials. -Errant Signal: Video game editorials that pissed so many people off he had to move comments to Reddit. -GoingRampant An up-and-comer I think, she reviews media from a feminist perspective with a fine amount of detail. Basically, if you still feel FeministFrequency is too broad in her approach, I'd check GoingRampant out.
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Jan 14, 2015 06:33
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My newest Animorphs video is up, this one marking the return on the Helmacrons, villains with such little dignity the Power Rangers wouldn't take them seriously.
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Feb 4, 2015 06:09
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INH5 posted:You know, if the updated reprints had gotten this far, this would probably have been the single most difficult book for Scholastic to deal with. First off, because hardly anyone uses disposable film cameras anymore, and if they changed it to a camera phone or digital camera, there's the question of why the kid didn't upload the picture to his Facebook page or whatever either immediately or (if the phone/camera couldn't directly upload stuff) as soon as he got home. So the entire premise just can't work without explicitly 90s technology. Even The Warning could theoretically have been made to work with heavy rewriting, and they could have replaced the crash-a-plane-into-a-skyscraper scene in the Weakness with something different, but I can't see any way to make this book work. Maybe they would have just thrown up their hands and skipped this book. Not that it would have been much of a loss. Really, as the reprints went on, these issues would have just built up and compounded each other till the point of being completely unmanageable. The main problem with the reprints was that while they attempted to update the slang, pop culture and technology from 1996 to 2011, they actually did very little to update the context of the series. When Animorphs originally came out, we were in our first post-Cold War decade, the economy was doing well, we had a cool Democratic president who played the saxophone, computers and the internet were starting to be cool and mainstream, Americans were, typically, feeling pretty good about themselves and the world around them. Plenty of exceptions, of course, the 90s wasn't a bed of roses, but there was certainly more trust in government and society back then compared to 2011. That's why the alien invasion in the series works so well, it's a cancer hiding at the heart of a Lego Movie "everything is awesome" culture. (Incidentally, responding to the 90s was the reason we got The X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Rob Liefeld and the general grimdark aesthetic, for better or for worse.) An Animorphs story post-9/11, post-Bush-administration, post-Iraq-war, post-recession just can't work the same way, people don't have the same level of trust for a secret alien invasion to pray upon. No amount of changing VCRs to DVD players is going to reflect that. The reprints changed the wallpaper to something more modern, but the actual stories were still made for 90s readers. The reprints would have needed a serious rewrite from the ground up to actual be politically and culturally relevant. An honest-to-god reboot, or maybe a sequel series, would have been a more manageable plan, and maybe would have grabbed more young readers and not tanked in the sale so much.
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Feb 5, 2015 06:01
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Threw up a quick review of Redwall by Brian Jacques, the medieval-light-fantasy-but-with-rodents book where mice are white people and rats are the Huns.
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Feb 22, 2015 21:37
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Ha, wow, I didn't look any further in the series when I made the review, had no idea it got that bad. Kind of want to read and review the rest of the series just to see how lovely it gets.
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Feb 22, 2015 22:07
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Brows Held High talks Boyhood. This review took twelve year to Oh shut the gently caress up.
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Feb 28, 2015 16:40
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When it comes to pre-AVGN "classic" review stuff, my gold standard has always been Matt's writing on the ol' X-Entertainment. His stuff was (and still is, I guess) this pleasant mix of corny "kids joke book" humor, childlike enthusiasm and a supernatural ability to find obscure 80s toys, merchandise, video and even food (he was doing Brad Tries long for Brad, just in written form and usually with pictures of He-Man action figures). I still occasionally read his breakdowns of old Macy's Day Parades. His site was also THE place to find video of old 80s commercials pre-Youtube. Matt's got a new site called Dinosaur Dracula. It's not quite as fun, there's less of a sense of "look at this treasure I found!" and more "here's a video on Youtube," but it's still enjoyable. He also does the rare video review, mostly around Halloween. The guy's pretty much perfected the awkward pause.
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Mar 9, 2015 21:02
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My newest requested review is up on "Who is Bugs Potter?" by Gordon Korman, a book whose main protagonist is completely blind to everyone's feelings and get's everything he wants without consequence. I hate you, Bugs Potter.
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Mar 10, 2015 02:43
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Infamous Sphere posted:New episode! (It's been a long time coming but I've been rather busy with a new course of study.) I reviewed the Wachowskis' first film, Bound! After seeing Bound, I had this image in my head of the Wachowskis watching Neil Jordan's Mona Lisa and going "this story is totally being told from the wrong perspective." Good video. 
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Mar 15, 2015 16:44
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A short video on "Croyd" by Ian Wallace, a forgotten sci-fi yarn about a half-god time travelling space James Bond who's mind gets put into a woman's body in the middle of fighting space hippies. It's not nearly as fun as it sounds.
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Mar 18, 2015 21:19
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Omnicrom posted:I do as well. I really like Spoony's wrestling videos, it's often fun to hear a dedicated fan with a vast wealth of knowledge absolutely lay into the current incarnation of a property You would probably like the writings of Brandon Stroud. He's pretty funny, super knowledgeable, insanely passionate and has the added experience of partly running his own independent wrestling league.
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Mar 21, 2015 15:43
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I wouldn't count him out entirely, Todd does seem to be running out of Halloween-themed OHWs.
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Mar 23, 2015 16:11
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I too am shocked THESE guys never heard of The Rothrock, but watching a bunch of guys become fans in real time was pretty neat.
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Mar 24, 2015 00:49
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Confused Matthew wouldn't get under my skin so much if he hadn't made multiple claims of being objective in his reviews. It usually boils down to something like "2001: A Space Odyssey is a bad movie because OBJECTIVELY it doesn't mean anything" and I hate him for it.
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Mar 29, 2015 20:11
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Every April 1st, GoingRampant gives a serious feminist analysis of a horrible b-movie, and this year, it's 1999's The Last Man on Planet Earth. If you don't know about this movie, HOLY poo poo.
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Apr 1, 2015 16:33
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The next Animorphs review is up. #43 The Test, the one where Tobias' torturer Taylor returns. It's kind of boring, to be honest.
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Apr 5, 2015 23:40
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From personal experience, people rarely request things they think are bad. I think the only time it's happened for SFDebris was with Howard the Duck and Battlefield Earth, and it's never happened to me. 99% of the time, these people are looking to get their positive views on a work vindicated.
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Apr 7, 2015 20:04
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I watched the Brawl. It was short, had a lot of cool people in it and seemingly concluded this AVGN Vs. NC fake feud, but it wasn't very good. I watched Kickassia. I had never seen a project of this scale, and was very interested in what a full-length Channel Awesome movie would look like, but it wasn't very good. I watched Suburban Knights. I figured, eh, they probably learned a lot from Kickassia and this one will be a lot better, and hey, Lupa's in this one, but it wasn't very good. I watched To Boldly Flee. AAAAAAAAAAUGH, but hey, Oancitizen, JO and CR are in this, I like them, but it. Wasn't. Very. Good.
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Apr 11, 2015 04:46
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Newest episode of Breaking Spines is out, this time covering the erotic horror novel "The Hunger" by Whitley Strieber, starring a pansexual vampire-but-not-really (SCIENCE VAMPIRES!) submitting herself of medical experiments. It's not bad. The author was abducted by aliens and was later played by Christopher Walken!
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Apr 13, 2015 22:46
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Cubey posted:Well he had 4 Patreon supporters request songs, maybe that's one of the three left. If the inclusion of Blue (Da Ba Dee) is any indication, the other three are probably going to be Macarena, What's Up and I'm Too Sexy.
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Apr 16, 2015 04:19
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FirstAidKite posted:So hey, did someone seriously give SFDebris $1300 to watch 52 episodes of an anime that just looks boring and forgettable, cause drat that's a lotta cash It really seems like the anime fans have the most cash to burn. I got someone who has requested the first third of YuYu Hakusho with promise of the rest of the series later. I don't charge nearly as much as SFDebris, but I've received over $500 so far, and if he goes through with the entire show, it adds up to $2240. Not that I'm complaining, mind you...
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Apr 20, 2015 01:03
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Deja View is about unauthorized foreign remakes/ripoffs/cash-ins of popular Western films. It is not about legit American remakes of foreign films.
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Apr 22, 2015 01:01
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"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" by U2. Could have been worse, but dang it, if I had been born a few days earlier, I'd be rocking some Bob "Shakedown" Seger right now.
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Apr 24, 2015 04:49
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Infamous Sphere posted:New episode - the first of a four part series on the not particularly well known but secretly influential Dirk Bogarde (you might know him from whenever the Cinema Snob mentions The Night Porter. Which he might have only done once as far as I know.) I am very much on board for this. I find the stories of closeted actors interesting and can never keep track of them all. Case in point, had no idea Raymond Burr was gay until his picture popped up in the video. I might have the track down The Singer Not the Song. *gunshot* GAY!
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Apr 26, 2015 04:45
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 Brows Held High PLEASE!
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Apr 27, 2015 16:39
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Did a video on a 2009 indie fantasy film called Ink. More a string of thoughts than a typical review, the film falls on that line of "much, much better than most films of its budget, but still kind of crap."
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May 4, 2015 23:50
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Beefstew posted:Also, saying that gore is crucial to Mortal Kombat's appeal is inherently wrong, and there's an entire generation of kids who grew up with Super Nintendos that can attest to that. Really? Cause it was the main reason I wanted to play it as a youngin'.
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May 7, 2015 04:12
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Hey, we were talking about Joss Whedon a little while ago. GoingRampant finally has a new Buffy video up. I Robot, You Jane.
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May 9, 2015 05:32
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Just put up two back-to-back episodes of Breaking Spines covering the same book. First, I looked at the supposed classic Gothic romance "The Time of the Hunter's Moon" by Victoria Holt. Then, I looked at the Reader's Digest Condensed Book version of the supposed classic Gothic romance "The Time of the Hunter's Moon" by Victoria Holt.
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May 12, 2015 08:17
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The game doesn't seem all the interesting in itself, but it's cool that Ross pulled off some game preservation for this video.
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May 20, 2015 00:06
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So I'll be reviewing all three volumes of the original Trigun manga. The first one is up, and while the story and characters are pretty fun, they're let down by some "dynamic" artwork. Also, I have a Patreon now!
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May 21, 2015 04:34
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Infamous Sphere posted:New episode, new Dirk bogarde film! I talk about the consequences of letting an Evil Gay Servant into your house, and in some senses, answer the question "Why don't they just fire him?" Well, adding that to the To Watch list.
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May 26, 2015 17:24
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My newest Animorphs video is up, it's the one where Cassie gets lost in Australia and meets noble savage aboriginals, which would be lovely enough in a period piece, but this book takes place in effin' 1999.
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Jun 1, 2015 09:15
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Infamous Sphere posted:Hey Poparena - are you American by any chance (you sound a little more American than Canadian to me but my accent divining skills aren't foolproof.) I was just wondering if you'd heard of the children's author Tony Abbott. I recently became aware of him, and was amused because our exceedingly crap PM is called Tony Abbott, and this guy, the author of SECRETS OF DROON, sounds way more entertaining. Is he well-known in the states? I'm American, yeah. I've certainly heard of Tony Abbott and The Secrets of Droons, but have never read any of it myself. Can't speak for it's popularity or sales, I was just past its demographic when it was being published, but I do remember it coming up a few times during some "if you love Harry Potter, you'll love this" conversations (don't care for Harry Potter).
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Jun 14, 2015 07:02
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It's... it's as beautiful as I imagined it! 
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Jun 15, 2015 22:07
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A handful of smaller videos to share. First, I return to The Secret World of Alex Mack after a ten-month break with Annie Bails, where Annie meets Sherman Hemsley and Alex gives the show a 15 rating in the UK by climbing into a washing machine. Then, a short Breaking Spines, it's "The Hollow Man" by Dan Simmons. A telepath goes on roadtrip across America, discovers America is pretty much the worst. This is the shortest one of these I've done to date to keep spoilers to a minimum, but I do recommend the book. And since we were talking about abridged videos a while ago, Youtuber ghastly did one for the Animorphs television series, and invited me to do some voice work for the final episode.
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Jun 16, 2015 17:18
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Arcsquad12 posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpMS1qLkHFM At least there's actual gameplay footage in this one.
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Jun 28, 2015 22:42
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Speaking of people tangentially effected by Angry Joe, Errant Signal put up a new video on the indie game Sunset. Twice. The first time he put it up, he included a couple of seconds of a Let's Play of the game by Bro Team Pill, the same assclown who threw a DMCA notice at Angry Joe for associating him with Gamergate. The Sunset video wasn't up a half hour before BTP made a threat of DMCA notices on Twitter, which he claimed afterwards was just a joke, but considering BTP's behavior with Joe, Errant Signal still took down the video and reedited it. Sometimes the internet feels like one long Tristram Shandy novel.
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Jun 29, 2015 08:45
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Someone requested I do a video on the second Silent Hill film. So naturally, I did a forty-four minute video on the entire fifteen-year history of the series, tried to trash a Silent Hill fan channel and then took the idea of canon to task. You should be careful what you ask of me.
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Jul 9, 2015 08:39
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I'm of a mind that, if Achmed the Dead Terrorist was introduced earlier, like say 2002 or 2003, and if he was just a one-and-done character, I could let it slide, emotions were riding high and I could see why people would be drawn to it. That he showed up in 2007, that he's still Dunham's most popular character, that he had an animated movie come out last year, that's all pretty distressing.
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Jul 13, 2015 19:22
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