Time Turner, A Harry Potter Tee

1/29/2014

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This Time Turner shirt and After All This Time are the best Harry Potter shirts I've seen. There are eight movies that make up that series, so there are many, many great scenes; it would be hard to pick favorites. But that one-word response from Snape, "Always," is the only HP shirt I own. It was the first one that I absolutely needed to have, so I might say that's the moment that means the most, the one that will endure always. Now, if I were to buy another, it would definitely be Time Turner.

The previous two movies were cute, funny, sometimes creepy, and full of wonder, but The Prisoner of Azkaban was when it started getting serious, like maybe some characters I'm attached to won't make it out of this series alive kind of serious, and this little magical item dried the tears that were about to fall. It felt more of a significant movie than the first two, which I absolutely adored, and the young actors started growing into their roles and getting better at the whole acting thing. It's also the one where Snape physically protects Harry, Ron, and Hermione, so we're back to Snape, always my favorite character. It may be because I had seen The Sorcerer's Stone before I read it and Alan Rickman was just so entertaining in the role, but I never doubted the character for a second.

Well, anyway... Ooh, it glows in the dark. This shirt is available for the next 13 hours for $11 and comes in military green, charcoal, and dark chocolate. For some reason the youth sizes have a silver option, but no green. Hmm.


UPDATE
Time Turner is now only available for $20 in Hyperlixir's Teepublic store.

The Blacklist
Red
Season 1 Knife Design

1/27/2014

This has to be both the shortest and longest it's ever taken me to design a knife. One morning I woke up very early because of a particularly freaky dream and couldn't fall back asleep. I was about to start actually counting sheep (a sign that I'm desperate) when The Blacklist popped into my head. It was Halloween and I'd been watching this favorite new show for less than two weeks, after having put it off, and thinking about James Spader's incredibly powerful performance non-stop. Suddenly, in those dark hours of the morning I started wondering what a knife representing the show would look like.

I haven't done a lot of TV series knives (only Fringe, Almost Human, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) because it takes quite a while to come up with something. I need to know more about them, and I have to get the details right. But with The Blacklist, something so new I shouldn't have had any ideas, I immediately thought of one with a split blade and tentatively named it "Duality" for Reddington's duplicitous nature of playing all sides and for his life before and after, the father and the criminal, the gentle and vulnerable alongside the cold and calculating. Maybe I really woke up so that I could create this.

I designed the shape of the knife after watching just six episodes, but I needed more than that. With the seventh, "Frederick Barnes," a man that Red could identify with because he was prepared to "burn the world down" to save someone he loved, I was able to add the quote I had been waiting for: "Every cause has more than one effect." That is Red in the simplest of terms. Something terrible was done to him and he will stop at nothing to remedy that. Those little conversations with Elizabeth reveal so much about the core of his character in sympathizing with those driven to extremes. This wisdom of experience permeates the most rewarding moments.

A few minutes later in this episode, the remnants of Red's past haunted an empty home. That gave me the height chart and took my breath away in one of the most subtly devastating scenes in any series. It was a privilege to watch Spader work, dropping the wall he'd put around this character. Previously, Red's loss had been hinted at with things like his abhorence of those who would hurt children, a picture stolen from a madman's album, and a parable of a man who lost everything and went out of his mind told with barely restrained animal rage. This episode gave us a better, bitter view into this tortured soul.

Then "General Ludd" gave me the ViCAP number, which was a piece of the puzzle Red received in "Wujing" and the last piece I needed for the knife. I knew the number was going to be important, because the writers know where this story is going. But I never imagined it was the kind of important that would take Red by surprise, a look of recognition coming across his face.

It took me quite a while longer to figure out what should be on the handle. The name changed to "Red" since it was all about the main character. The quotes followed suit: words that he didn't say replaced with those that he did. Still, I toyed with renaming it to "Smooth Criminal" for a little while. Red is certainly smooth, but rather than emphasize the criminal part of him, a necessity borne of his devastation it seems, I wanted to try depicting that devastation that made him. It's more about the man and his pain than what he became. Therefore, the name "Red" remains.

My original idea was for a pattern of bubbles, because Red's daughter was playing with them. It wouldn't have worked at all. Too colorful, too cheerful. That can work for the impact of contrast, as in the scene the idea came from, Red smiling at the memory of his daughter and then being shaken by it, the experience of loss written across his face. It wouldn't have the same kind of impact here, so I went with something simpler. The color red is, of course, both for Reddington's nickname and the wreckage he's left in his wake, especially recently in "The Good Samaritan." And the black "smoke" is for the mystery that surrounds him.

The three "accents" (don't know what else to call them) between the spine and the blade were the original idea I had to represent the last age seen on Red's daughter's height chart, but I thought that was too abstract, so I decided on using the actual chart. I think age 2 had a star by it, but now I'm not sure anymore. I saw it the first time on a big TV. Now I'm always looking at it on my iPad. I can never get the exact moment or get it clear enough. I'll remove that if I find out otherwise. Please excuse the wobbliness of the quote spiral. Unfortunately, my drawing apps have basic geometric forms only, no spirals. Ooh, I would LOVE a little Spirograph function. Rewatching "The Good Samaritan" right now while finishing up, trying to get the spiral right enough without messing up the words. This is the episode with Red's killing spree, scored by "The Man Comes Around." Fantastic moments.

Alrighty, if you got through all that, congratulations! No, you didn't win a prize. I don't have anything to give. But you do have my thanks. And just in case you were wondering, I don't make real weapons. The only time I ever shaped a piece of metal was in 8th grade woodshop as part of a pencil/pad holder to hang by the phone, which I still have, by the way. My goal in life is to make my own knives, though, even if it's just to decorate my room.

If you'd like to see the original drawing or any others I've done, please visit ShinyDangerousThings.

This Will Be My First Blacklist Poster

1/24/2014

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The Blacklist Season 1 Poster

The Blacklist Season 1 Poster

It would seem foolish for any criminal worth their salt to turn themselves into the FBI, but then again, Reddington isnt just any criminal. Even in The Blacklist Poster you can see hes more than just a criminal, hes got an intricate plan that everyone else is just a part of. Get this 11 x 17 inch poster and show that youre a serious fan of The Backlist and James Spaders enthralling character. The poster comes in a hard plastic sleeve with a hook so its ready to hang.



I'm going to need an influx of cash soon. There are a bunch of Blacklist things I want, and The Blacklist Season 1 Poster from NBCUniversalStore.com is my favorite. I need to find space on my wall. Now I wish I didn't have book shelves. Maybe one of them can go downstairs at some point. If we only had the room down there. I don't think I want to hang a poster in a frame above my bed. I'm a bit afraid of it falling on my head in the middle of the night. And all the space on my walls is taken up with 5 Fringe posters, 1 Snape from Harry Potter poster, 1 Joker from The Dark Knight poster, and 1 Monsters Inc poster. So I can't get rid of any of those. Wait a sec. What am I saying? I have a space on the wall behind my door and another on both the front and back of my door. They're near the floor, but so what? Yay, I found room! Now I just need to find money.

The Blacklist
The Cyprus Agency
Season 1, Episode 13 Preview Clip ~ The Next Target

1/23/2014


They don't locate kids for adoption. They steal them.
—Red

Even without the memory of Red's daughter from "Frederick Barnes" in this promo, I would have thought of her as soon as he said that line. This blew my mind immediately after the end of "The Alchemist," which posed another question: Is Red's child or the person who abducted her on The Alchemist's list?

Shaun Vs. the Entire Cornetto Trilogy

1/23/2014

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Always when I'm least able to afford to buy things, the best shirts become available. Both of these are great shirts. I would choose the Three Flavours Crest, though. It has the best of all three of my favorite movies...except for the fences. Why no garden fences?! But it's available in three different colors: red for Shaun of the Dead, blue for Hot Fuzz, and green for The World's End. I hope this one is available on the artist's site at some point. It's certainly going on my wish list. Until then, it will be in wallpaper rotation on my desktop. These shirts are up for only another 12 hours, so don't wait unless you also have no money and must rely on faith that these will be so popular the internet will demand they be brought back one day or that they will be sold on other t-shirt sites, like RiptApparel.

UPDATE:
THREE FLAVOURS CREST can be found at Arinesart's RedBubble store.
LEGO SHAUN can be found at Brinkerhoff's RedBubble store.
Both shirts start at $25.52.

The Blacklist
The Good Samaritan
Season 1, Episode 11 ~ Red Sees Red

1/20/2014

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"If you had come to me, I could have helped you. We could have avoided all of this. But now we can't."
—Red to Newton

So much to say, so much to GIF, so little time. I wanted to do a photoset last week of when Red was staring at Luli's coffin, tears in his eyes, and thinking about the people involved in his kidnapping, her death - the people he killed.

The Blacklist
30 Day Challenge, Part 6
Season 1 GIFs and Thoughts

1/15/2014

Red with shotgun, saving Ressler gifRed killing Anslo gif

All right, I really have to finish this. I didn't make the deadline of this Monday, when The Blacklist returned after a long winter break. My weekends, normally reserved for relaxing and having fun, were too full of things I had to do. Actually, they're supposed to be reserved, but there's always something.

The Blacklist
Don't Wait, Just Watch
Season 1 First Half Thoughts

1/14/2014

My brother doesn't know I have a blog, several actually. In writing this, trying to convince him to start The Blacklist, I hope it doesn't sound like I've thought about my words too carefully and make him curious, but I have to say something. I want to be just compelling enough. It is so hard to get him to watch anything new these past few years. He wants nothing to do with a show unless it has a good ending. (Fringe has been over for a year and he still hasn't started it!)

In the mean time, he misses performances that shouldn't be missed, we can't talk about anything, and we have to be spoiler-free for forever and a day. Except for The Walking Dead. That's one we actually got him to watch. Still, he saves them up for weeks and we have to speak in whispers. He also makes fun of everyone who watches something he doesn't. He's not interested in what he's not interested in, and it's nearly impossible to convince him otherwise.

Anyway, this is what I want to say ...

"Spader is astoundingly brilliant, mesmerizing, amusing, heartbreaking, and somehow even better than on Boston Legal, and he's already nominated for a Golden Globe. The show has a deep, continuing storyline, more than simple case-of-the-week. Like Fringe, it's a perfect episodic-serial hybrid with a mystery at its core. It became one of my favorite shows ever during Spader's speech in the fourth episode, "The Stewmaker." If you ever wanted to preview the show to see what it's like, start with that. It was renewed for a full second season just before the fall finale aired. Those ten episodes were undoubtedly some of the best ever. It is more than worth watching. It'll be forever on my PC if you ever do, and it's already on next year's Christmas list."

No. That surely won't be enough. He'd rather watch an episode of one of his favorite comedies for the hundredth time instead of trying something new. I mean, I love Friends dearly, too, but I can't imagine being without The Blacklist now. But what I actually write will have to be a shortened version of that to fit on a Post-it attached to the DVDs I recorded. Maybe more like...

"I know you never want to watch anything new, but put The Blacklist on your To Eventually Watch list. Spader will undoubtedly win awards for his consistently spectacular performance. The story is great, and by just the fourth episode, it was one of my all-time favorites. By the tenth episode, it had already been renewed for a full second season."

Well, that's too long for a note. How about...

"Watch. This was a favorite by the fourth episode. James Spader is even better than I remembered from Boston Legal. Like John Noble on Fringe (another show he never gave a chance), he plays a complicated character flawlessly."

But it will probably be...

"Spader couldn't be more perfect. The show couldn't be more engaging. It's already been renewed for season 2."

Yeah, that should fit. I had to keep the renewal thing in there, because he doesn't want to start anything that will get cancelled quickly and be left without a resolution. The problem with that is he intentionally bypasses great shows, intending to watch them if they work out well, but that means he never actually watches them, because there's always something else and not enough time. Everything just stacks up. I don't believe this will have any effect, but at least I'll have tried.

Edit 1-20-2018: I never tried, because it would be a waste of breath. The only new show he's started in the last five years or so is Stranger Things and he became obsessed. Unfortunately, if it runs for a few more years, he'll suddenly get sick of that like everything else, even if the performances, writing, and story direction are still high quality. He doesn't want the journey so much as to be assured the ending is good before he spends time on it. What is the point of that? I would never want to know how something turns out before it begins. That would ruin the experience. I want that sense of mystery, that feeling that I've been somewhere, the anticipation of things to come, to celebrate the ups and deeply feel the downs. The Blacklist will never lose my attention, and even if the end is the worst thing ever, I will not regret the journey.

Despicable Training

1/13/2014

Photobucket Pictures, Images and Photos

Enough with the great t-shirts already. Do you people think money grows on me? Wait, that's trees. Anyway, I'm not made of the stuff. And this one has adorable minions cosplaying as their favorite Star Wars characters! At least that's how I picture the story going in my head. I think someone might be a litle too careless to be wielding a lightsaber. But they're just so darn cute you can't be mad at them, and they're available today at TeeFury starting at $11.

UPDATE:
Despicable Training can now be found in DJKopet's RedBubble store.

The Blacklist
30 Day Challenge, Part 5
Season 1 GIFs and Thoughts

1/13/2014

After this, I have only five more days to write, even though I should have been done by today, the day The Blacklist finally returns. I loved this challenge, but it was impossible to keep up with. I could have had I not decided to make GIFs for quite a few of these and had I noticed that it started a week earlier. Next time I say I'm doing a 30-day challenge, for the love of EVERYTHING, please help me see the crazy before it overwhelms me. So anyway...

The Blacklist
30 Day Challenge, Part 4
Season 1 GIFs and Thoughts

1/08/2014

Still catching up on this challenge. I got far behind because of Christmas and I didn't even know it existed until more than a week after it started. Even though I'm addicted to The Blacklist and other shows, I was away from Tumblr for too long. I just let my queue take over.

*As usual, all screencaps belong to NBC.

Day #16: If you had to choose between being a member of Team Red or being a part of the Federal Agency, what would you choose?

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I already made these gifs for an earlier post. Time saved. Woohoo!

Both are dangerous jobs, so I'd rather be on the team that has more fun, more cash...and more hugs. ;) It's also the one that has Red, one of the most compelling characters ever on TV. He's dangerous and unpredictable, you say? All the better. Gotta keep me on my toes. Team Red all the way. (Edit 1/18/18: But Team Fed has Aram. He's adorable and sweet. Hard choice, all these seasons later, now that I know him.)

Day #17: Share your favorite couple on The Blacklist and why?

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I have to say Red and Liz, but as a partnership with a lot of questions on Liz's side and unexplained and intense feelings on Red's side. I'm still not convinced (by the Tumblr community) that they aren't related. My favorite idea beyond a father-daughter relationship, though, has always been that he saved her as a child, maybe from her real father, or he accidentally put her in harm's way and felt obligated to protect her; all of which were simultaneous ideas I had during their first meeting and Red smiled at Liz with this mix of joy and pain. Anyway, I'm repeating myself, because I didn't know this question had been posed before I answered it in another post.

Day #18: Who do you believe is the biggest Bad Ass on the Series?

I saw someone else say "everyone" and I agreed. All are different bad asses in their own ways. Red took a beating from Anslo and could have died from what the worst doctor in the world injected into him. He has also survived the criminal world for more than two decades after something terrible happened to him and he had to abandon his life. Liz went cuckoo bananas in the pilot and unexpectedly stabbed Red in the neck. In "Anslo Garrick" she took charge and grew as an agent. Ressler can handle himself in a fight...unless he's attacked from behind in an elevator. Hey, you can't win them all, and I wouldn't want anyone to be unrealistically infallible. I know nothing more of Meera Malik as a person than she's good at torture. I would want to keep a safe distance from her. Cooper didn't flinch when Anslo threatened everyone. Didn't even seem to care that Luli died and certainly didn't care that it hurt Red. Very cold. I could even say Tom. Don't know what he's doing, but he's messing with Red's future. That's a dangerous position to be in. And last, but certainly far from least, Dembe. He has an intimidating presence, but needed very few words to make us care about him. We weren't prepared to lose Red's closest friend and we were ready for a riot.

Day #19: What would you change about the show so far?

Meera, Aram, and Donald png

Only little things, such as more screen time for Meera, Ressler, and Aram. I want to know more about them, but first I want to get through Red and Liz's story. Their relationship is the beating heart of the show. We need to know how it began. I don't want the writers to rush anything to get to the other characters. If it's going to be a number of seasons before we are given concrete answers (something I don't think will happen) then, yes, please sprinkle in more secondary character development when there is room. So far the most important elements have been there, so I wouldn't change anything about the first episodes.

Day #20: Share your favorite quote from The Blacklist.

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"A farmer comes home one day to find that everything that gives meaning to his life is gone. Crops are burned, animals slaughtered, bodies and broken pieces of his life strewn about. Everything that he loved taken from him...his children.

One can only imagine the pit of despair, the hours of Job-like lamentations, the burden of existence. He makes a promise to himself in those dark hours. A life's work erupts from his knotted mind.

Years go by. His suffering becomes complicated. One day he stops. The farmer, who is no longer a farmer, sees the wreckage that he's left in his wake.

It is now he who burns.
It is he who slaughters.
And he knows in his heart he must pay."
—Red to Stanley Cornish

This is the most important moment for me, the one that catapulted The Blacklist from a cool, fun, interesting show into one of the best shows in my life. The way James Spader delivered the speech, with barely restrained rage, told me all I needed to know about his character, that this was a man who was not just a husband and father who abandoned his family, not just a jaded, immoral criminal, not just a traitor because the price was right, but a man who had been hurt terribly and who had hurt in retaliation. A character I could not just like, but one I could love completely, with all his faults and bad deeds, because he is not a monster. He is human, stripped to the bone and broken. Spader could not be more essential in this role. There was no better choice.

The Blacklist
30 Day Challenge, Part 3
Season 1 GIFs and Thoughts

1/06/2014

Day #11: Who was your favorite Blacklist criminal and why?

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Anslo Garrick was the most important to the story and revealing more of Red's character. But my favorite had to be The Stewmaker. The episode cemented my love for the show. He was so creepy and gave us our first glimpse into what drives Red. And that speech was as great a moment of television as when Gus Fring killed his own man in Breaking Bad's "Boxcutter." Not sure why I thought of that specific moment, since Fring (guess how many times I have typed his name as "Fringe") was silent and cold as ice while Red's words were filled with rage and pain. I think it was staring-into-your-soul quality of each character. Brilliant moments, both. Intriguing, stunning, and mesmerizing.

Day #12: Name your favorite supporting character.

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You know what's frustrating? Taking the time to learn how to make cinemagraphs with GIMP, because the program I normally use, Photoscape, doesn't have layer masking. Yet, Photoscape makes much better quality GIFs. Then of course it has to be large or it doesn't show well, because the video wasn't all that great to begin with. Blerg!

Ressler. I don't understand people complaining about him being hard on Keen. She made rookie mistakes and he was right to call her on them, seeing as he was the one with experience in the field. But I didn't really have the opportunity to care for him since all the focus was on Liz and Red. That is until he was injured in "Anslo Garrick," an outstanding episode in a season full of excellence. And I was impressed and delighted to see Red being selfless and risking his own life to save Ressler.

Day #13: If you were able to meet one member of the cast, who would you choose?

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That would have to be James Spader. While the whole cast is great, I would love to tell him how incredible he is, because he seems too nice and humble to recognize his ability to rip our hearts to shreds, then delicately stitch them back together, only to do it all over again with just a look, a tear, a shuddering breath. That's not a trick. The camera and the audience aren't doing most of the work. Of course, nothing intelligible would come out of my mouth. Maybe, just maybe, I would be able to say, "Hi. You're swell... Shit. What the fuck did I just say?" Yeah, that sounds more like me. Completely embarrassing. But the rest of it is embarrassing, too, so maybe I shouldn't open my mouth at all.

Day #14: Share a song that reminds you of the series.

There have been so many. I had to buy Radical Face's album "Ghost," because I think of The Blacklist every time Pandora plays me "Welcome Home," which is quite a lot. There were such emotional moments in "General Ludd" and the show in general. But I'm assuming this means one that hasn't been in the show. There have been a few I can't think of right now. ~Oh, wait! The first song that reminded me of the show was Bastille's "Overjoyed" because of the lyrics "Oh, I feel overjoyed when you listen to my words." I always picture Red and Liz talking.

Edit: And now as I'm looking through my notes, I see I wrote down songs when they reminded me of The Blacklist so I could make a playlist. Guess I have more than one. In no particular order...

Bastille ~ Weight of Living, Pt. I: "There's an albatross around your neck. All the things you've said and the things you've done, can you carry it with no regrets? Can you stand the person you've become?" // This made me think of Red. He certainly has regrets, and I don't know if he can really stand the person he's become. He pretends and wears that mask of a criminal so well, but he didn't ask for it...as far as I know.

Mumford & Sons ~ Hopeless Wanderer: "Left a clouded mind and a heavy heart. But I was sure we could see a new start." // Even when not every lyric lines up with a character or show, which they often do not since they weren't specifically made for it, I still find words that fit perfectly. "Clouded mind" reminds me of the knotted mind part of Red's speech in The Stewmaker, and "heavy heart" just reminds me of Red in general. Also, the title describes his never in one place too long lifestyle.

Ellie Goulding ~ Dead in the Water: "If I was not myself and you were someone else, I'd say so much to you. And I would tell the truth, 'cause I can hardly breathe." // Just wow. Those opening lines seem made for Red. He's so evasive when it comes to the truth about Liz.

Greg Laswell ~ Comes and Goes (in Waves): "This one's for the lonely, the one's that seek and find, only to be let down time after time." // Seeking and finding, being let down, being torn down - lyrics like this will always remind me of this terrific show.

Mumford & Sons ~ Hold on to What You Believe: "Hold on to what you believe in the light, when the darkness has robbed you of all your sight." // Red has held onto the memory of his former life through two decades of darkness. This song I've been listening to for quite a while has taken on a new meaning.

The Oh Hello's ~ Hello My Old Heart: "Every day I add another stone to the walls I've built around you to keep you safe." // And again I think of Red, but instead the walls are slowly coming down.

Lifehouse ~ Broken: "I'm falling apart, barely breathing. With a broken heart that's still beating." // Mandy Patinkin's final episode of Criminal Minds used this song brilliantly, and now it also brings to mind The Blacklist. I picture Red in the minutes and hours after whatever happened to him, and then the turning of the months into years.

The Cinema ~ The Wolf: "I played the wolf and left it to the sheep to figure out." // Very little correlation between this song and the show, but that phrase just keeps bringing me back to thinking of Red and Liz, though I am not yet a shipper. Need more definite relationship information before that will happen. I love the pair of them no matter what happens.

Day #15: Do you think Raymond Reddington can be trusted, why?

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I can't know what's going on in his head, but I know his heart, his weakness, his strength. They're all the same: Elizabeth, the child he lost, his friends. Even if he is a liar and a traitor and a murderer, he will risk his own life to protect others. I don't know what he's specifically after, and I don't know why Liz is key, but he cares about her. He can be dangerous, selfish, arrogant and cold, but it's what he became to survive. And who doesn't share these traits at some point or another? Who wouldn't be that in the right situation? I would trust him implicitly to be there for me if he were a friend, but I would never trust that he was telling the truth. It's just who he is.