Post a controversial opinion

xp yes i would certainly part ways with the TBI on the need to teach children to 'thrive in a work environment'.

using a laser pointer to play with a cat is such a cruel prank.

they seem to enjoy it quite a bit

It’s a fine line between this is fun and this is torture.

an active cat is a happy cat, i don’t know if they grieve not having tangible prey

I mean, sure they might enjoy the thrill of the hunt, but they will never get the satisfaction of catching that red dot. They just running after it and get increasingly frustrated. At least when they chase after a fly they have a small chance of catching it.

all I can say is that my cats are extremely enthusiastic about this, and they don't hide it when they are unhappy about something

they do not show any signs of frustration, in fact, the thing they seem to like the most about it is endlessly running back and forth at top speed, they will specifically bring a toy to me for the sake of getting to run around a bunch chasing it

I don't know, the total confusion in my cat's eyes when the dot just suddenly disappears (because he jumped on it and it's on now on his back or whatever) was just too much for me.

When he plays with a tangible toy that I dangle in front of him for a while but which he eventually catches he just seems so happy when he finally has it.

the funniest is when I put on live birdwatching cams on YouTube for my cat, she gets so absorbed it’s like she’s watching a prestige drama or a sports game

i love putting on cat tv

I thought windows were cat TV.

Why must I be like that
Why must i

communicating with non-humans is hard but i reckon it's good to try

i love putting on cat tv

― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Friday, 16 September 2022 18:24 (thirty-eight minutes ago) link

Cat TV is a wonderful source for nature field recording ambiance, and the constant foreground bird wing fluttering is kind of ASMR

using a laser pointer to play with a cat is such a cruel prank.

― silverfish, Friday, September 16, 2022 1:43 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

My cat understands it won't catch the light, doesn't care and is just in it for the fun chase

I can't put on cat tv because my cats will actively assault my tv

it might just depend on the particular cat, but mine live for the rush of chasing stuff at full tilt, and don't seem at all confused about it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWeh4A600E0

and then one fine morning--

I mean, sure they might enjoy the thrill of the hunt, but they will never get the satisfaction of catching that red dot. They just running after it and get increasingly frustrated. At least when they chase after a fly they have a small chance of catching it.

what if, giant bong rip, the satisfaction that humans, i mean, cats, are after is really just the thrill of a hunt which can never be fulfilled

it's the journey not the destination, it's the wild hunt not the red dot

Having is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as wanting. It is not logical but often true.

-david avocado wolfe

all that said, i've had cats that absolutely love the laser toy and cats that seem indifferent to annoyed. each one of those little busters is a lil universe in itself, with different play preferences

or perhaps Christopher Cross idk

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D15kQwcWwAIgxD5?format=jpg&name=large

Tuffy knows the difference between play and hunting. When he chases a red dot or silver ball, he pursues it until he gets bored, at which point he lies down and ignores it. When he pounces on a cicada or a mouse which then escapes or is taken away, he searches for it and cries.

I don't think it's controversial to say that Tuffy is a great name for a cat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5W2oRxYTGg

The genre of horror (mostly in movies) has become overabundant to a degree that is almost as annoying as the glut of superhero / nerd IP franchise stuff. I know it's October, but I feel like I've read reviews of at least three current movies that "re-imagine" the slasher film or, worse, "bring it back to its basics"—and that's just one micro-genre.

ftr, I do not hate horror as a genre (though, yes, I only like it rarely), and I do not have any thoughts or feelings about horror fans, many of whom seem v chill esp compared to MCU/SW/fantasy stans. But I feel like horror's dominance in cinema gets a pass because it genuinely has an impressive legacy, but at this point it is nearly as culpable in building a culture of endless regurgitation as Disney.

There is probably something significant about how popular the genre is in our fallen era, but I can't think of any angle on that idea that isn't boneheadedly obvious, though contrary to the spirit of the thread, I would be open to hearing yours if you think you've got a novel one.

horror has spread beyond the genre, too. there is casual body horror in almost everything. house of the dragon, for example, is not a horror show per se but at least once per episode you will endure something that is completely fucked up

to me, the allure of horror is how difficult it is to get right, and how hilarious the results sometimes are when you try and fail. Like, if someone tries to make a hilarious comedy and fails (ie Super Troopers 2), the end result is being bored and annoyed and leaving early. trying to create a serious drama sometimes results in hilarity when it fails (The Room), but rarely do things go THAT wrong.

and yeah, there's bad horror that isn't entertaining, just dull, but there seems to be more room for hilarious bad results (i.e. Troll 2). also, sometimes I just like to watch the attempt at being scary, as most horror films utterly fail at their goals entirely, whereas even bad comedies can often induce a few chuckles.

It's a bit of a weird era for me right now in that I've seen three horror movies I've loved in the theatre in two weeks, which I don't think has happened in forever in recent memory. Mostly because horror, as it always has, goes through phases that get tiring real quick. in the early 2000s, it was torture porn (which, like nu-metal, has very few quality entries). then around 2010 - recently, it was Catholic guilt demon possession horror, which started out quite well with Paranormal Activity and similar films, then became exercises in jump scare randomness only.

now, it seems like the gonzo video nasty styled horror of the 80s seems to be making a mainstream comeback, and so far, I'm here for it, but I'm sure it's going to start getting diluted really fast as well.

part of making horror work is letting the film go to work on you, and not trying to anticipate what's coming, but that's paradoxical to heads like me who seem to enjoy trying to map out where it's going, then actively rooting against that outcome because I'm hoping the film is smarter than me.

I had two jump scares work on me for the first time in ages when I saw Smile last night, and I realized why they hadn't worked for so many years is because I have seen enough of the movies to basically know when they're coming, as the beats are predictable, so I anticipate them. last night's worked on me because the movie tricked me by using a cliched moment of where someone is listening to a recording on headphones and hears a mysterious voice very low on the recording, so they turn up the volume, and instead of following it to its logical conclusion, the character was interrupted by a hallucination that jumped out at her. so I was distracted enough that I was finally baited into it. Likewise, the film tried to put us at ease by suggesting they weren't going to offer these types of jump scares, by telegraphing a moment that seemed ripe for it (the cliched "I'm going to close the refrigerator and the audience, but not the character, will see someone who wasn't there before standing behind it", but nobody was actually there!).

horror has spread beyond the genre, too. there is casual body horror in almost everything. house of the dragon, for example, is not a horror show per se but at least once per episode you will endure something that is completely fucked up

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, October 5, 2022 1:43 PM (fifty-three minutes ago)

ah that's interesting Karl. I was trying to include something broad about "violence" on screen, but couldn't make it cohere into a point. But yeah I started watching The Boys and two bodies were graphically exploded in the first few episodes (also slogged through the first two seasons of Westworld recently). I'm not sure I would entirely "blame" horror for these developments, but I could see some kind of feedback loop / stake-raising going on, where horror acts to shift the line of what is disturbing on screen.

thanks for your post, Neanderthal. obviously I'm not enough of a fan to really respond, but I appreciate hearing your thoughts as a longtime genre watcher

in the early 2000s, it was torture porn

Don't forget the endless glut of 'found footage' - refreshing in the Blair Witch Project, and a failure in nearly every imitator

oof yeah, that one too. it worked well in Paranormal Activity, but then unfortunately locked that series into a formula that got more and more diminishing returns.

The genre of horror (mostly in movies) has become overabundant to a degree that is almost as annoying as the glut of superhero / nerd IP franchise stuff.

I don't really get a chance to watch movies all that often, but I just wanted to note that, speaking of superhero/nerd IP, horror comics are huge right now.

oh that's super interesting, I don't pay attention to comics like I used to. Are you talking like the big publishers? Mainstream but not Marvel/DC (e.g., Dark Horse, I guess)? Manga? Are these original titles, or revives/Walking Dead spin-offs?

Lots of original titles from publishers like Image, Boom, and Vault. DC has a horror imprint (DC Horror).

I don't know if it's exactly a glut yet, but I would definitely characterize it as a bit of a renaissance for a few years and that often pre-sages a glut.

xp

the conventional wisdom is that horror as a genre is especially subject to waves and troughs of popularity, e.g. the 30s Universal monster boom, the 50s SF horror boom, the Hammer-led Gothic boom of the 60s, the gigantic Exorcist/Stephen King boom of the 70s, and so on ... the surf's up now for sure

honestly not enough horror movies come out per year

looking in my regal app history i see that i’ve seen 1-2 horror movies per month since july but it felt like a dead zone before that

I'm kinda glad we're past the "hey let's remake a Japanese horror classic with an American cast" era, not because those movies were bad, but because invariably then large audiences never saw the original Japanese versions and would just go to the Americanized version. a la The Ring vs Ringu, Ju-On vs The Grudge

and idk, i think horror is so much broader than the mcu or whatever, i don’t think there’s a limit to personal, thoughtful twists on it. a better comparison would be heavy metal

YOU SUFFER

the movie

actually that would rule, 2-second horror

horror as a genre is especially subject to waves and troughs of popularity

the folk horror resurgence is especially welcome to me right now, I hope it doesn't get stuck in a rut

i feel like the only time in my life when horror wasn't as popular was the 90s?

about right. that was really the dead era of horror to me, where the gritty fun of 80s horror gave way to more sanitized, overproduced middling crap, and the worst entries of long-standing franchises, etc.

a friend invited me over to watch Phantoms in the 90s as our horror hangout and I fell the fuck asleep. we don't talk any more.

(not because of the film, that's a coincidence)

horror has spread beyond the genre, too. there is casual body horror in almost everything. house of the dragon, for example, is not a horror show per se but at least once per episode you will endure something that is completely fucked up

― Karl Malone

for me it's like, how do you make a movie that's _not_ horror? i don't know, maybe for some people it's different, but the amount of completely fucked up shit i've had to deal with on a regular basis since, well, 2016, and knowing that i'm far from alone in that. what do you want to call it? burnout? empathy fatigue? what movies do they show in the cinemas in Hell?