Yeah I don't have enough contact with them to know if they've been forced to do that yet but their attitude towards people who work in service jobs is fucking abhorrent. At my mums 40th, my aunt drank too much and went on a horrible rant about the people working at the restaurant and how "disgusting" she found the wait staff in particular. They have nothing but contempt for anyone who works or doesn't have as much money as they do. That includes my mother and our family.

So the idea of them being forced to join the workforce and get real 9 to 5 jobs would be fucking amazing. My cousin used to go to fast food joints and Treat the staff like absolute shit with her friends and laugh at them for, you know, doing their jobs. She's an absolute fucking ghoul but of the dumbest kind.

Well that was intended as an exaggerated joke about how dumb and bougie they are, I didn't think anyone would take that seriously honestly - but Ffor real - I'm not in line because my mother chose to emancipate herself and specifically asked to be disinherited. She's no longer part of the line and doesn't want to be. For the record, I agree with her decision. They are truly horrible people.

My mum's Dad's side are very old English rich people. Not "in line for the throne" or "aristocracy" rich but they have a large house, a coat of arms, a horse, fox hunting meetings and so on. They're obsessed with their historic position as a family and their current position in "society". I would class them as bougie snobs who aren't as rich as they want people to think, aren't as significant as they themselves think (like my cousin legitimately thinks that her last name and their instagram with 2,000 followers makes her "a celebrity" for instance even though no one has ever heard of the family outside of her circles) and who basically spend their entire lives obsessing over things they think make them look a certain way.

If you want Dm me and I'll send you the coat of arms and other details if you're curious about it. I'd rather not openly dox myself publicly but I don't mind sharing it with people. I don't have a lot to do with them (and never have), they abused my mother and treated my aunt like she was heaven sent.

Yep, exactly what I would say and what I've always been told by the bougie side of my family. Thats also why there's a big market price gap between $400 and $1000+ you always see a jump from around 300 and something to over a grand on nearly every wine list.

Also I'm not kidding about Lidl wines by the way, they're genuinely fantastic wines with a huge following among the wine community. Worth tracking down if you like wine.

Feels very weird to talk about my moms bougie family and their interests on chapo, even if it is about how fucking stupid and shallow they are.

I didn't know they applied this to women too. My brother makes fun of me because apparently my index finger makes me more likely to be a homosexual according to this infographic he sent me - https://hexbear.net/pictrs/image/B5EnFLvHH6.jpg

Yeah I nearly mentioned that aspect as well - but again, it's a specific reason that you know about that "supposedly" "justifies" the cost.

Whereas here it's literally going to be a standard "snob trap" wine.

I actually know about wine, despite being from a poor family, because my mom came from a "well to do" English family and one thing I have been taught by every wine person I've ever spoken to is that the "stunt priced wines" as they called them, (basically any wine that's priced above $5,000 and on a restaurant wine menu regularly) is there for people who don't know anything about wine but they have the money to pretend they do. John Legend and Chrissy Teigan seem definite wine snob poseurs. (Also I've never heard of a wine recc that doesn't make the price of the bottle clear, so I don't actually believe this story).

Any wines that are actually worth that kind of money you know about because either it's a limited harvest, or there's a specific flavour to the grapes that season, or similar reasons. The price is still Goddamn ridiculous but there are usually stupid bougie reasons.

And as proof that this wine stuff is nonsense, my grandfathers wine collection is insured for close to £350k. He has wines he acquired during the second war (I really wonder about who he was buying French wine from during 1942 but that's beside the point except giving you some idea of my grandfathers moral compass) and wines he inherited from his great grandfather... And the wine he drinks for enjoyment in private is a £15 bottle from Lidl

Anyone wondering, no I am not in line for any inheretence as I am still related to my father who is "common" and thus I am not included in anything with that side of the family. I guess I have dirty genes.

"I'm sorry you people are too poor to relate to my hilarious story where I didn't notice I was spending thousands of dollars. Excuse me while I now talk down to you all. "

Oh shit I forgot to add this - I'm thinking of making a post about the discord in a day or so when I'm more used to my meds and most importantly I will have my laptop (instead of just a phone and a tablet) to type on, just to see what the interest is and hopefully get something properly organised for the second half of February at the least. I'll let you know when I make the post and if you have any ideas for it let me know. My current idea is a discord that's open 24/7 for when people need it, with a weekly or twice weekly group meeting where people make the effort to attend for 30mins - 1hr every week.

Sorry for clogging your thread.

I'm sorry I can't be of more help, I feel particularly useless just offering the usual "I'm here if you need me" but I genuinely mean it. I'm around pretty much 24/7 currently.

Sorry I'm fucking rambling, I've put it behind a spoiler section so I don't take up the whole thread talking about myself - it's because I'm on insane fucking pain meds that make me over share and never shut the hell up when they kick in. I'm trying to say that I genuinely relate strongly to your situation like, I know how it feels to watch what little you thought you had just slide out of view, and having absolutely no control over anything as the tension increases all around you. I genuinely mean that I'm here if you need anything at all.

Do you want me to find you the link to the anarchist bed network in case you need to get away from your parents for a few days? They have beds all over America and Europe and when I was homeless it was literally my best friend. I can definitely find the current link for you, if you think you might need it. Let me know.

I'm sorry this is all over the place, it's because of my medication (it's why I've been avoiding commenting on here and have just been lurking), just if there's anything at all you need, or anything I can do or anything you might need help or advice with - do not hesitate to contact me. I've been where you are and I know how awful it is.

Hey, I've been in a similar pit of poverty and despair and while my situation has kind of improved, I'm still too poor to do anything (and currently too sick) and I really strongly related to pretty much all of this. I know how it feels to wonder what comes next when the other shoe finally drops. The weird tension that gets to the point where you want the next awful thing to just hurry the fuck up and happen already because you're sick of the fever pitch in your brain.

I really don't know how to help but I never realised anyone else on here would have similar issues to me. Please hit me up if you need anything. I've spent a lot of time in my life in psych wards and grippy socks jail.

Honestly I really want to start a weekly discord psych group session with other members for people with problems that aren't going to go away after a couple of posts.

He was actually an amazing poet. I love some of his work. Also I've wanted this comm forever, I'm so glad we finally have it.

Edit - I meant the allowing poetry thing. Sorry heavy painkillers, I fucked up what I meant.

Oh yeah, I'm not saying you're wrong about Texas Chainsaw not having much influence on Halloween. Remember Carpenter had already made a student film ("Captain Voyeur" I think it was called?) about a man following a college student home and stabbing her to death. So clearly he was already thinking about these themes as early as 1969/1970. However I think it's clear that the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a big influence on the wave of slashers that followed in Halloween's wake.

The Hills Have Eyes definitely owes more to TCM than Halloween ever did, and that whole subgenre of "hillbilly horror" is basically all because of TCM. However I would say that so many films of the slasher boom attempted (and failed) to marry the simple structure of Halloween (what Ebert used to call "the dead teenager formula") to the tone of TCM, you know that unclean, voyeuristic, "wrong" tone that the film has? For me that's the main influence of TCM on the slasher genre.

I'd also argue TCM proved there was an audience for well made, horrifying cinema that crossed lines

He wasn't ruthless enough to keep his position during the power struggle that followed when Lenin got sick.

Then when Stalin took over, Trotsky decided it would be a great idea to suddenly find his backbone and aggressively push for "continuing world revolution" That would inevitably lead to the dismantling of the current Soviet state as it was at that moment. No one else wanted this. So Trotsky then got mad and began openly criticising Stalin for the lack of democracy in the Communist Party under his rule and his failure to have what Trotsky viewed as a viable economic plan for the future of the USSR. Remarkably Trotsky was tolerated as a nuisance for a hit before they finally got sick of him and exiled his annoying self after a drawn out propaganda campaign against him where he lost his important titles and jobs one by one.

Read "Red Rosa" - it's my go to resource when I'm feeling frustrated with the state of the left. Trotsky seems a bad choice when you're frustrated because by his very nature he was bloody infuriating.

I'll reply properly after I'm done with physio but in brief while I have a few minutes -

One
death of the author applies here. I don't think his statement on NOTLD is wrong. Whether Romero or Russo intended any allegorical significance to the casting of Duane Jones, I don't think it can be argued that the ending - an innocent black man, whom the audience has identified as a hero throughout the film, is without warning gunned down by an armed militia, the aftermath of which is shown only in grainy stills, recalling newspaper photographs of real crime scenes - would have carried a lot of weight in the civil rights era and especially so in the aftermath of MLKs assassination (which I know happened during post production but I'm not arguing what Romero's intention was). I also don't think Romero could have been as unaware as he claims he was when it comes to Duane Jones and the power behind making such a casting choice in that era. Especially given Judith O'Dea claiming that Romero altered the script for Duane Jones (which I know he denied)

Two
Re: TCM and its influence on slasher. Again I think death of an author applies. I also don't think the essay specifies TCM is specific influence on Halloween but on the larger slasher genre as a whole which imo is inarguable. I'd also say Black Christmas is more of a touchstone for Halloween (which Carpenter had seen) than Tobe's effort but I think TCM had a massive impact on the subgenre itself, just in terms of tone and set-up. And honestly, the similarities between Halloween and TCM are striking enough that I don't think it's too much of a stretch - a modern twist on urban legends (TCM taking on the exaggerated and twisted true crime tales that rose up around Ed Gein and similar, Halloween interpretating the local urban myth about that abandoned house on the street in every town in the world), a specific realistic tone, a shocking lack of Gore despite the reputation of both (which in both is down entirely to tone and implication) and of course an anonymous, masked killer stalking a group of naive young teenagers. Both have strong feminist interpretations and both are from directors who approached the material in a new and unique way for exploitation cinema at the time. I think enough similarities exist that you can argue some kind of influence, even if just on the level of "TCM proved their was an audience for a new take on horror...".

Three
I agree with you on the Italian section. Seems obvious the author was mostly unfamiliar outside of the standard giallo canon and the obvious italio-extreme titles.

Sorry if this is all over the place, I wrote it during a break from physio very quickly. I'll reply properly when I'm done.

Thanks, I may take you up on that. I'm kinda bored here most of the time and there's literally one other person on my ward who only wakes up to watch soaps and eat and sleeps the rest of the time and I don't have the energy to get up and do anything except lie here and read/post/watch trash tv (I literally have to ask for help getting out of this damn bed half the time). So genuinely thank you.

Also yeah it was bloody painful and I was stuck in a cave for like an hour and a half after. Not the best time to break your ribs, rock isn't a forgiving substance. And of course my hiccups didn't stop, so I was wincing every 30 seconds or so.

You might be right. Dave is usually such a "IDGAF" guy though, it just seems odd he gave in so easily.

Yeah, I'm posting via vpn from a hospital bed. I'm here til March, I'm waiting on a kidney operation and its been pushed back twice so far but I'm not well enough to go home because if anything happens, I may not have very long for them to react. I'm now also waiting on a vaccine dose because I'm pretty much done for if I catch it. So it's a lot of boredom and waiting around at the moment.

My worst hiccup experience was the time I had them for a week straight and I kept waking myself up hiccuping. Or the time I hiccupped crawling through a very small gap whilst caving with a youth group and I broke three ribs when my chest expanded to hiccup and was constrained by the solid rock. Im pretty much used to it though. It's embarrassing when you're in public and in a lift or queuing and you're stuck making abrupt squeaking noises and everyone keeps turning around to look at you.

Yeah it seems weird for Dave to give in like that. I agree with your OP that he got pressure from somewhere. Especially given that the network they're on was sold to Spotify that same week. Doesn't seem like a coincidence.

You're probably right actually. I should be grateful she's at least trying and probably knows how frustrated I am here.

I get its a minor inconvenience and I feel whiney as hell for complaining but when the only help you're being offered is a plastic straw and a glass of water as a solution for something that doesn't bother you, while you spend afternoons burying your head into a pillow trying to make the pain stop, it gets a bit grating after a week.

https://reddit.com/r/TheDollop/comments/kszvjx/dave_and_gareths_discussion_at_the_end_of_lucy/

Dave talks about it here.