Category / Mabel’s Rants

by WetheGeek

Gaming isn’t just for Nerds

“You can’t say you enjoy that videogame! You’ve never played it!”

WELL EXCUUUUUUUUUSE ME PRINCESS!

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been given a weird look or vehemently told an opinion over the fact that I like certain videogames but haven’t actually played them.

The unique thing about videogames is that they are like playable movies. Games like Legend of Zelda, Bendy and the Ink Machine, and Until Dawn have great storylines what are broken up with action and puzzles. Because of the way thay are created, these games can be enjoyed by even if you just watch an automated playthrough. And because we live in the amazing era of The Future, YouTube is full of Let’s Plays of any videogame you want to watch and those who upload the videos also give an extra layer of experience and fun depending on who you watch.

Don’t get me wrong, if I could play the game, I would. My issue is that I lack the necessary finger movement to play these games properly. And before you try to say, “You just need practice!” I have! I spent hours playing Ocarina of Time only to slowly develop a hatred for the game and my lack of gaming skills. I couldn’t look at the game for the longest amount of time even though it is my all time favorite plot of a videogame. I am not willing to do something just because someone told me I wasn’t having the full experience. I may not be able to comment about how the game feels when you play it but I can comment about everything else. It’s like watching a modern movie in black and white. Sure, you may not be able to comment about the color choices but you still experience all the good parts.

So, am I going to support these videogames by buying merch and posting about them on social media even though I haven’t rescued Zelda, hid from Bendy, or accidentally killed Ashley?

You better believe I am.

Rant Over.

-Mabel

#wethegeek #wethegeekmabel #videogames #opinion #merch #support #gamer #playthrough #letsplay

by WetheGeek

Pause the Movie!

What ever happened to the intermission in movies?

There are intermissions for operas, orchestral performances, musicals, and stage productions, they’re often used to change the stage dramatically for the second half. I guess a movie doesn’t have that limitation but consider this:

If you decided to watch older movies like Ben Hur or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, you will often in the middle of the movie get a title card announcing an Intermission so it used to be a thing, why did they remove it?

The first thing I thought of was running time. Ben Hur is a whopping 3 hours and 44 minutes, it would honestly be insane to ask someone to sit that length of time, most operas are that length. Movies now aren’t as long… Right? Well, while looking up the length time of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, I got curious and looked up the running time of Avengers Infinity Wars. Infinity Wars has a run time of 2 hours 40 minutes while Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is 2 hours 25 minutes including the short intermission. Even musicals have that have the same run time as movies have intermissions so length isn’t the issue.

Once I went down that rabbit hole things started confusing me about this no intermission thing. Why shouldn’t movie theaters include them? I often find myself overstimulated by the big screen and have to take a breather to process everything. Wouldn’t that be a perfect time to say “let’s all go to the lobby and get something to eat?” There is literally a 7up commercial that states just that! I’m not a business woman by a long shot but wouldn’t that increase food and drink sales?

The one major thing that I saw while diving down the Wikipedia for intermissions that made movie theaters start doing away with them was the added time.

More run time = less movie options = less money in ticket sales.

The decision is ultimately do you make more money from the tickets or the food? I, personally, would enjoy movies more if I had that intermission but that’s just me.

-Mabel

#wethegeek #wethegeekmabel #movies #intermission #breaks #theaters #letsgodowntothelobby #marketing

by WetheGeek

Rules of the Stage

Tis the season to be jolly!!!

And also apparently tis the season for families to figure out what the Heck their going to do to entertain their in-laws who came 3 weeks early for Christmas. I have recently discovered that there are a quite a few families who go out to different stage productions like opera, musicals, plays, and ballets.

As someone who likes to go to these throughout the year and performs herself, I would like to inform the masses about the proper etiquette to use, not that I think that everyone is ignorant and HAS to be educated on the subject but sometimes it’s nice to be a good audience and give what the performers are sometimes expecting. I remember my first jazz concert and being very confused when was the appropriate time to clap and I know that I can’t be alone on this.

So my Christmas gift to you guys a five part series of Mabel Rants dedicated to helping you become the best audience member you can be during this crazy season and maybe give a little courage to those who are afraid to try out some stage productions because of the unknown.

-Mabel

#wethegeek #wethegeekmabel #ballet #musicals #operas #christmasprep #tistheseason #mabelrants

by WetheGeek

Let’s do a Dance

The first thing that jumps to into my mind quite literally during the holiday season is Ballet.

It is often a Thanksgiving tradition for most families to go see the soaring grace of Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker”. With it’s whimsical story and often colorful backdrops, “The Nutcracker” is the perfect choice for family fun.

Unlike the other artforms that I will be talking about later in this series, ballet is probably the most dangerous classical art with it’s lifts, jumps, and going on pointe so the etiquette is a bit different and more for the protection of the performers then just for tradition sake.

While in the audience:

Like any other performance or important event that requires silence, any noise making devices should be turned off at all times during the performance. The performers don’t mind if people converse amongst each other just do be aware of the people around you.

If, for any reason, you must leave the performance early to do something, please be aware that you typically will not be allowed back in until the intermission which is 15-20 minutes long. This is generally done for the safety of the dancers, since doors can let in unwanted light from the hall or create a sound that could be distracting.

When to Clap:

Clap when a scene ends, when the show ends, and when a performer takes a bow. Should you clap for each performer? You should! They have spent hours making sure that this performance is perfect and even some dance more then two parts which means costume changes and that is not easy. If you couldn’t possibly clap for the length of the curtain call, save your claps for the important role characters (e.g. Clara, The Nutcracker, Suger Plum Fairy, etc…)

It takes years of practice, discipline, and dedication for Ballerinas and Ballerinos to do the leaps, turns, and lifts that we, the audience, get to enjoy. When a dancer performs a lift or does multiple turns in a row, begin to clap to show the appreciation to their dedication.

Ballet is a unique art experience that combines the beauty of sound with the power of the human body. It is something that everyone should try to watch at least once. Even I, who cannot for the life of me understand why standing on your tip toes is considered “graceful”, am always left floored by these performances.

-Mabel

P.S.

I am certainly not the authority on this and if a dancer would like to comment more on this I would appreciate it!

Photo credit: @gracekoznarek

#wethegeek #wethegeekmabel #mabelrants #christmastraditions #thenutcracker #ballet #balletdancers #christmas #graceful

by WetheGeek

Is Nudity Nessessary?

unpopularopinioneWow! I love this movie! What amazing acting! What a beautiful plot! What incredible editing! This really is-and that’s a naked person…”

Why do films have nudity in them? Why do they think this is necessary? How does it add to the plot?

There are normally two schools of thought:
One:
The human body is beautiful and when put into shapes, like in dancing or a scene or a pose, making it a medium for art.
Two:
Yes, the human body is beautiful but that beauty should be reserved for your significant other. Seeing a naked body only encourages crude thoughts and shouldn’t be allowed in society.

The idea of beauty in the human body can be seen the best when looking back on Ancient Greece when their sculptures began to sculpt their gods using what we now call “The Golden Ratio”. When creating their perfect gods, the Greeks suddenly turned the human body from imperfect to perfect and soon hundreds of these statues popped up and continued into the Roman Empire.
From there, the knowledge of the Golden Ratio took over, notibally in the great ages of Baroque and Classical, and the human body was made a vocal point and was praised through mainstream arts in not only Classical art styles but also in the abstract and other Modern art styles

Now, I’m not the happiest person when it comes to nudity, I prefer everyone to be fully clothed thank you, but I do understand there is a thing called “Necessary Nudity” in media.

What is Necessary Nudity? It is one of two things:

1. Historically accurate (e.g. the ancient Olympics)
2. A character is in a spot that nudity is a reality (e.g. a brothel)

Sex scenes DO NOT COUNT as necessary nudity. I have yet to see a movie where a sex scene (nude or otherwise) has added to the plot. If you’re going to show that characters love each other, show the little lovey dovey moments, just because they had sex doesn’t mean they love each other.

I may be in the minority here but I’m completely fine with that. I will take a movie with less nudity and more plot any day.

Rant done.
-Mabel

by WetheGeek

Death…

I remember the first time I watched Littlefoot’s mother die.
To give you an idea of how old I was: I remember thinking “So she’s going to take a nap and let Littlefoot go to the Great Valley?” and then hearing my brother whisper, “She’s dead… Right?”
One of the most frustrating moments of my first year as a teacher was being stuck in the middle of a very stressful argument about whether the 5 year olds could sing that a character was dead. It was the main teacher’s opinion that we could not because it sparked a lot of weird conversations within the classroom. Being a musician, I didn’t want to change the traditional song because it didn’t make any sense in context. In the end, it boils down to how willing are you to talk about death with the children and the teacher didn’t want to have to deal with it. Movies like “The Land Before Time” can be the opener on what happens when death comes and coping with it. This may be a bit much for children in the minds of most but it is important to talk about death, especially since it is a fact of life.

“Death does not discriminate between the sinners and the saints. It takes and it takes and it takes and we keep on living anyway.” ~Aaron Burr

-Mabel

by WetheGeek

True Love

Oh, the magic of True love and Love at First sight!
From a very young age, the power of true loved danced straight into the arms of my mind just like Aurora did into Prince Philip’s. However, very much like Aurora’s reaction to Prince Philip, my little mind was always confused by the concept of true love or love at first sight. I would always wonder about what came after the “happily ever after” in my stories.
It wasn’t until Middle School when I came across a short story that ended in “and they lived happily ever after more or less.” I don’t even remember the story but the concept of “more or less” has stayed with me for a long time.
The more I grow older, the more I begin to realize the importance of “more or less” on this society. Growing up, Disney and Princesses were what we wanted to be when we grew up: beautiful, lovely voices, and find our true love in a miraculous way. Unfortunately, this is further from the truth when it comes to reality as we soon discover as we grow into the bitter adults.
Now, don’t get me wrong, there is always room for a feel good story about true love, sometimes we need an escape from the harsh reality of the world. But, just like constantly eating sweets, it doesn’t do the mind well to be fed these stories all the time. You may not know it, but visual and audio are the best way to receive information and if you repeat it over and over again, the fantasy that is before you will turn into a unreachable goal that will only disappoint you in the future.
Give yourself a fictional reality check. And I don’t mean those popular stories that take previous fairy tales and remolds their “happily ever after” to a “BUT DID THEY?!” story, they interrupt the flow of the original story and usually aren’t that good. For every Cinderella (love at first sight) story, find yourself a Mrs. Pigglewiggle (old lady correcting bad behavior) story.
Rant Done.

-Mabel