On Tumblr Confession Blogs

I'm very picky about Tumblr confession blogs. They have to have specific requirements. The subject can't be too broad (like, say, Disney). It can't be confined to one setting and has to mean something personally. This is why I have only contributed to confession blogs on two subjects: Lupin III and Red Dwarf. 

Lupin III is a long-running anime franchise with many different TV series and interpretations of the characters. It is an adventure series that has numerous settings, has inspired moments of my life, and has consistently good art direction, great characters and is inspired in some episodes by the real world. I have had many different ideas about which opinions to give.

Red Dwarf ran for 32 years, has a good cast of characters, has a good theme song, makes fun of celebrity and politics, and has inspired some strong opinions from me.

But the thing is, I'm not the exact sort of person who would submit opinions to a confession blog on Tumblr. I'm 31 years old, half-British and jobless. This sort of blog is usually run by American twenty-somethings in college, usually female-presenting or assigned female at birth, who have a lot of time on their hands, and forget about these blogs they run as soon as they graduate and get jobs, which means you have to think quickly but carefully about what you want to say and dive in there as soon as possible.

Part of the enjoyment was that I didn't provide pictures for them. The people running the blogs had to find appropriate ones themselves.

How I Made 'We Don't Talk About Rohan'

 The idea started as just a personal animatic for myself. When Russia invaded Ukraine, I saw a post from a good friend saying "Anything you want to do, do it now." So at that moment I published the animatic to Vimeo. Then someone following my Vimeo account liked the video, so I decided to animate it.

The process took most of the year, and I finally finished it in September 2022, a day after Episode 97 of 'Lupin III Part 2' started streaming on HiDive. It was an exhaustic process, mainly because of the detail in the characters' clothes. By the end I felt like Jefferson Smith after the filibuster. It was a lot of work for a film that was just over a minute long.

The film was inspired by Episode 89 of Lupin III Part 2, and also on a personal experience I had with listening to music, in particular the final aria of 'The Valkyrie'.

Julian Assange is not your martyr, and the leftwing press knows it

 The liberal press is right to not see Julian Assange as a martyr for press freedom, as explained in this Vox article.

https://www.vox.com/2016/9/15/12929262/wikileaks-hillary-clinton-julian-assange-hate

Guardian writer Duncan Campbell has even called his acquittal a "cruel folly".

You're Wrong About Maurice Chevalier

 The other day I heard a rumor that during WWII, 1930s crooner Maurice Chevalier was a Vichy collaborator. This sounded dubious to me. Maybe he was a reluctant Nazi like Willy Fritsch. I have read many stories of artists who were popular with the Nazis but refused to disclose their politics. I found the truth about Chevalier here. His wife was Jewish, and he was blackmailed into performing for the sake of her and her family.

https://holocaustmusic.ort.org/resistance-and-exile/french-resistance/maurice-chevalier/

This is not to say that all people are good, but often the truth gets lost in gossip and rumor.

"So it's nine years."

 On this day nine years ago, I watched the film 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' for the first time, and it has inspired me in so many ways. Although the film is violent and at sometimes disturbing, it's also funny, visually striking and can be beautiful and even poignant.

Since I watched the film I have traveled on my own, got on the news twice, climbed three mountains in one day for charity, took part in a panel discussion at the University of Kent and appreciated Pirates of the Caribbean, of all things, in a way I never had before. This is what it means to be a fangirl. 

Thecanary.co are drama queens

 The most liberal news source in the world is a collective of drama queens. It's hard to trust a news source that uses all caps in its headlines.

Not only that, but they are hypocrites. For every moment they call a journalist out on hypocrisy, they do the same thing. They criticise Guardian columnist John Harris for insulting Jeremy Corbyn while he's Labour leader, but what have they done that's so innocent? Accuse Joe Biden of "anti-fascist cosplay" and call him an authoritarian. Is Joe Glenton still on the team? He must have been responsible for the latter headline. At least we know some people won't be stressed after this November's electiom.