The unrealistic expectations of modern dating

A parent had a casual chat with me and mentioned their adult son who has decided to forego dating as he feels it is "not worth it". This attitude seems to be a recent development in dating dynamics overseas, but to hear that young men here are of a similar mind, it's worrying. If we are trying to encourage breeding among our young couples, perhaps incentivizing already married couples to procreate is too little too late. After all, if young people aren't dating in the first place, nobody's getting married.

Of course, I'm speculating and overgeneralizing here, but it seems that dating, marriage, and babies require more money than people are willing to spend on them, hence the PM's Budget proposal. But we need to examine the problem at the root. PM Wong isn't allocating any budget to encourage dating, the first link in the ball-and-chain of marriage and family, but I doubt throwing money at this problem will solve anything, anyway.

What I think has gone wrong with dating today is not the money per se, but the expectation that young men have been priced out of the dating market. In the past, couples knowingly believed in the romantic fantasies of 'love at first sight' and 'love conquers all', meaning that even if we were broke, the couple would still find something to do without breaking the bank. That was how it was with me and the wife in our early days, especially in the year she had an income, and I was living off my rapidly diminishing savings. Today, dating has transformed into a transaction. No more 'love at first sight', aspiration has mutated into the expectation of 's_x on first date'. There seems to be an understanding that the man will pay for an expensive date, but if he doesn't get to round the bases after that, he feels cheated, having been used for a free meal, drinks and entertainment. Meanwhile the ladies invest in themselves to look their best on the date, hoping to entice their partner to become so smitten by their stunning appearance that wallets gape open, spewing money everywhere. "If a man can spend so much money on me, it must be love", but because of the transactional nature of the date, it's like the more money he spends, the less she feels cheap and the more she feels like a princess when it's time to seal the deal.

Young men, of course, don't earn enough to pay for many extravagant dates, so they don't even bother approaching women, while young women get asked out by older gentlemen who have built up enough resources to lavish their dates with the level of luxury expected. But once the old, rich guy has had (and paid) for their fun, they'll take their business elsewhere. No commitment, no baggage, just the endless thrill of "love 'em and leave 'em". Women are left bewildered and frustrated, being ghosted by the man who demonstrated love by showering them with material blessings the night before, and now they no longer believe that love is forever. Everybody playing this game eventually develops trust issues, it seems. Not exactly a solid foundation to build family on.

If it is true that the dating pool today is messed up by everybody's unrealistic expectations of what the dating ritual is supposed to accomplish, then it's going to take an attitude reset, and not necessarily mo' money, that will get the human population back on track.

The lanes, how I've missed thee

Well, this video was totally unsolicited. George, Bee, and I chaperoned the kids at an introductory course in bowling. Brought back memories of some of my earlier posts in this blog when causing our own chaos at the lanes was all the rage.

I joined in as a participant to make up for a vacancy and learned a couple of tips that benefited my game. Stand on the centre dot to start my walk-up and aim dead straight at the second aiming arrow right from middle. Stay focused and follow-through. That did wonders for keeping my first throws on target, mostly. Still need more work to convert the spares, but that was beyond the objective of today's toe-dip into 10-pin mayhem. Racked up a score just below the averages I used to get back then.

I loved the ball I selected from the public rack, this silver 11-pounder with holes that perfectly matched my grip. It fit so well and handled so easily that it gave me a lot of confidence using it. I wish I could have bought it there and then, but since I'm not bowling regularly any more, it would just have been a frivolous purchase. I didn't notice Bee taking this video of me but, damn, despite maybe a decade or more being out of practice, I still haven't lost much form. Good thing I did convert this spare, else it would have been all flair and no substance.

The elderly chief coach has inspired me to likewise be a bowling coach in my retirement years. Not long now...

Focus on POTUS in MCU's Captain America: Brave New World

MCU's Captain America movies usually have some political statement to make. Brave New World, Cap's 4th outing, draws a parallel between newly elected POTUS, Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) and the real-life current POTUS. Both have done and are still doing morally questionable things, and although much of their misdeeds are public knowledge, they have still been given the mandate to be the country's top decision-maker.

What's different about Ross is that his misdeeds are misguided attempts to keep the country safe by all means necessary, including the use of deadly force resulting in heavy collateral damage -- a callback all the way to the MCU's second movie, The Incredible Hulk. That legacy carries over to his initiation of the Sokovia Accords resulting in the unintended(?) disbanding of the Avengers during the brutal Civil War conflict. By this time, Ross is convinced that regardless of his political success, he would never win back the love of his daughter, Betty (Liv Tyler). As such, he seeks to redeem himself by negotiating a global peace treaty over the fair and equitable distribution of a new element that seems to have more potential than even vibranium. This new element is found in the body of Tiamut, the Celestial that arose in the Indian Ocean, but whose full emergence was prevented by the Eternals in their own movie.

Current real-world POTUS has opposite designs for national self-sufficiency at all cost. 'nuff said.

The mantle of Captain America now falls on Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), formerly Falcon. He bears the shield with a sense of inadequacy, feeling that Steve Roger's boots are too big to fill. Moreover, Wilson does not have any super-soldier enhancement, and clearly cannot match OG Cap's physical prowess and abilities. Wilson does have the advantage of aerial combat and makes use of his natural empathy to deescalate tense situations. Without enhancements, Wilson has his own approach to dealing with powered individuals, preferring to use words over fists, although fights can end a bit anti-climactically for a hero-fest. It's not that he can't use his fists to end a fight -- as he does with Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito) -- but he prefers not to.

BNW is a straight up comic-book movie. There's enough action and fighting through a varied palatte of threat levels to keep the pace breathless. But because Wilson is already such a good guy from the start, his character arc doesn't have that many legs. By the end, he's gained a little more confidence in himself as Cap's successor, but we already knew that he was worthy. His costume design is also busier than I like, but that's an aesthetic quibble. It was President Ross who kept my attention for this movie. He had the broader character arc with more to redeem himself from and more to seek forgiveness for. His resolution is a bit of wish fulfilment for us in the real world, but it is in taking personal accountability and responsibility for his past missteps that finally brings Ross peace.

Overall, while political enough, I feel that the previous Captain America movies had more emotional depth and higher stakes. BNW tried to create a bit of a besties dynamic in the Sam Wilson-Isiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) pairing, but the Wilson-Bradley friendship doesn't run so deeply that the audience roots for them as we did with Steve-Bucky. The biggest impact of BNW on the greater MCU is the tying up of some loose ends from previous movies while vaguely pointing the way forward with the discovery of a new element to exploit, and a cryptic prophecy delivered in the sole end credits scene. Generally a good movie, but seeing as the supporting character stole the show, it doesn't top any of the previous installments of MCU's Captain America movies, at least for me.

China ascendant? Pt 2

The second trend has been the most spiteful non-violent protest a people has raised against a government policy that could result in an outcome that could be inadvertently wonderful. With the impending US decision to ban Tiktok in the US, hundreds of thousands of American "tiktok refugees" have jumped ship to xiaohongshu, or Red Note. Ostensibly, the Tiktok ban is motivated by national security concerns over China's ease of access to American users' data, so instead of returning to US-based social media apps as expected, users have maliciously migrated to mainland China's own social media platform, voluntarily handing over to China their personal data on a platter. US Gen-Z's (mostly) collective raised middle finger to their own government is unhinged, inspired and hilarious.

The unintended consequence of this overnight mass migration is unprecedented. Ordinary people who have been told to be suspicious of each other by their respective governments are now meeting each other in a common space en masse and discovering that they have more in common than not. These past few days, people from two different gated communities have engaged on friendly terms and are fully experiencing a grand scale cultural exchange driven by genuine curiosity about each other. So far, the general consensus has been that while their governments are creating tension between each other's countries, the people themselves have no issue with one another.

Of course, no one knows how long such cordial exchanges will last. The Internet usually starts out promising friendship and understanding, but human nature will eventually attract trolls and spoilers that will ruin it for everyone. But in the meantime, people are learning each other's languages and cultures... and lifestyles. American users have been shown how their Chinese hosts live -- not in squalor or poverty as the common stereotypes portray but in better circumstances than most Americans. Chinese people's cost of living is comparative low: they own their own houses or rent at much lower rates than their US counterparts, and utilities, groceries and healthcare are enviably affordable compared to what Americans pay for the same. Some American commenters even compared the USA to a third world state in response to such eye-widening revelations.

These events remind me of the fall of the Berlin Wall in '89 which marked the end of the Communist grand social experiment. Pure Communism did not work, and once the people who lived under that regime decided that they didn't have to and shouldn't live under government restrictions and material privations, previously Communist states reshaped their economies to embrace some level of private entrepreneurship, and freedom of expression, while keeping a firm grip on public order and a commitment to providing essential social services. Something similar is happening now in the USA in that it has become almost a total Capitalist state. Every citizen has to foot their own bill for everything that they need, while (simplistically) the profit motive keeps prices high. Inflation is running rampant, and wages have been unable to keep up. The American Dream is now run by an Oligarchy with a disreputable businessman being sworn into its highest office in a couple of days. Could 2025 be the turning point when the American people themselves decide they don't have to and shouldn't continue living under government restrictions and material privation? When pure Communism fell with the Berlin Wall, could pure Capitalism also fall with the great firewall?

It's still early, but I, and I guess many other people too, are hoping that ordinary people inadvertently bridging the communication gap via the banning of a social media app can pave the way to a more peaceful, understanding, and united world moving forward. If not, at least this week has provided a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy outlook over the near future.

China ascendant?

Two trends have pinged for me recently. The first is the massive uptick of players of video games made by Chinese developers corresponding with the equally massive decline of players of American-made games. "Black Myth Wukong" (BMW), based on Chinese mythology featuring the Monkey God as the protagonist captured hundreds of thousand players on the Steam platform compared to American releases which were struggling to get tens of thousands of regular players. Big budget multi-player game, "Concord", even shut down after a few weeks of launch due to lack of player interest. Game Science, the Chinese developer of BMW certainly seems to have made monkeys out of its Western competitors.

Recently (and ironically) another Chinese developer, NetEase Games, has captured much of the gaming market with its release of "Marvel Rivals" making use of American publisher, Marvel's, widely renowned characters like Captain America, Hulk, Thor and a host of other household superheroes with more promised every new season.

One simplistic factor for the popularity of non-American video entertainment is that foreign developers are not hamstrung by activists insisting that diversity, equity, inclusion, or DEI, has to feature in popular entertainment so as to not exclude people who do not conform to mainstream stereotypes. Now, although I believe that DEI is a noble agenda, the numbers are telling us that people who qualify as DEI do not represent the market that buys and plays video games. The vast majority of gamers tend to be vanilla mainstream people who like their game characters to be identifiably mainstream with few but very clear distinctions that help us tell one character apart from another. For example a clear male-female dichotomy with males exhibiting a more angular body shape, and females with softer, rounder curves. Easy. There's no need to delve into any character's sexuality or preferences which is of little relevance to a game in which people are shooting each other for fun. Besides, if I were to be shooting at your character who is exhibiting identifiable DEI characteristics, wouldn't my intentions be even more actively discriminatory?

Anyway, insisting on a DEI agenda in video games is ultimately self-defeating from a marketing standpoint. People who identify as DEI, are identifying themselves apart from the mainstream. It makes little sense to push non-mainstreamers into the mainstream. It's confusing for everybody. DEI individuals pride themselves on embodying very unique characteristics that distinguish them from everyone else. Distilling character types from such a wide range of unique qualities creates character designs that at best only partially represent a person, so a DEI person is unlikely to see themself fully reflected therein. But the stereotypical male-female body shape is a silhouette that anybody, DEI or not can see themself in as it is the lowest possible common denominator. So there is little to gain from fragmenting the market and chasing after the smallest demographic that may not even exist. And then be shocked and outraged when games that target the widest possible audience do so much better at attracting players.

But depending on the game, character design may not even be a key issue for a game's success or failure. I'm not playing "Rivals", I'm playing "Path of Exile II" developed by NZ-based Grinding Gear Games. POE2 is an isometric ARPG in which my avatar is relatively tiny in comparison to the playing field and is constantly lost in explosions, fog, and other environmental effects. My current character is a female witch (player classes have no gender options), but her body shape is not of any prime concern as the idea is to layer her up in protective armour so it really doesn't matter what she looks like. As long as she can kill things fast, keep a forward progression, and find gear upgrades, that's all I care about. Is the game fun to play? Yes. That's it.

So, now the Chinese know how to make video games fun and pleasing to play, are targeting the people who actually play games and are doing well as a result. In contrast, corporate America has bogged down American games with unnecessary encumbrances, pulling down the fun factor in their greedy and misguided attempt to appeal to every potential niche customer, but pleasing essentially no one. American gamers are rejecting such games and have no qualms jumping ship to Chinese games that actually offer them what they want. Ironically, the capitalists have forgotten that in a free market the customer is king.

This one has gone on for much longer than I intended. I'll cover the second trend in my next post. Stay tuned!

Sleep paralysis demon

This face belongs to my newly-acquired sleep paralysis demon. One night I had a dream that made me annoyed and angry. I don't remember the details, but I remember the emotions I was feeling when I suddenly woke up. Sir, you are sleeping on my chest and stomach. Your chubbiness is compressing my insides, making breathing difficult while limiting my range of movement which I like to enjoy, even when asleep.

That was a couple of weeks ago, so why am I posting this report now? Because since then, I have been waking up to this face at all strange hours of the night as since he's done it once, he feels entitled to do so repeatedly. No more. Your new career has been terrifying and short-lived. You threw up on my carpet and my mattress, so now you are summarily banned from my room. In revenge, he's taken to jump scaring me awake with the Song of his People, loudly lamenting the injustice of revoking his privileges for no good reason. Excuse me, sir?

SU-METAL wins Metal Awards' Female Metal Singer of 2024

 

This news is days late, but I was waiting for a video I could make a link to. Suzuka Nakamoto a.k.a. SU-METAL is Metal Awards' Female Metal Singer of 2024 after winning a year-long ballot by a landslide. The video cites the openness of the Metal community, becoming more inclusive of new, innovative variations within the genre, and how BABYMETAL's blend of heavy metal and idol-pop has opened up to the world a new way to appreciate Metal music. Agree and agree.

SU-METAL has forged an over a decade's long bond with a growing fanbase who really love her and BABYMETAL so much that they care enough to actually vote. Consider that the total number of votes cast for Female Singer at nearly 100,000 is double that for Male Singer at 50,000. Voting matters. When I cast my vote last year, SU already had a commanding lead over her rivals, so I knew that this fanbase was unparalleled among other female-fronted metal bands. Give her more chocolate to keep her (and MOA and MOMO) working hard and happy at making great musical productions for us all!

Certified roadworthy

Today was all about getting M2 ready for 2025. I'd originally planned to get everything done over the next few days, but because of good timing and a convergence of locations, M2 is physically roadworthy for another season of zipping around town.

Although a little premature, we went to the dealer for periodic servicing. Here's where I learned something new about car tyres:

It's upside down, but the last two of the digits encircled by this oval shape tell of the year of manufacture: 2021. The preceding "20" means it was manufactured in the 20th week of 2021. The mech told me this so that if I ever need to get an after-market replacement, I can insist on purchasing new stock instead of old.

In the afternoon, we went to our bi-annual LTA inspection which we had to pass. That's the other reason for today's servicing -- to get everything pre-inspection ready. Among other things, brakes, emissions, drift, and alignment were all parts of the test, and we got a clean bill of health which will last another two years.

The next thing was to get the new ERP 2.0 On Board Unit (OBU) installed. Coincidentally, I could get it done at the test centre itself. I actually planned to get it done tomorrow at an authorised agent I'm familiar with, but since I could get it done today, why not? One odd thing is that I should have been notified of my 2-month free installation window period, but that notification never came. It was only because of curiosity that I checked a couple of days ago and discovered I was eligible. Had I missed this window, the cost would have been mine to bear, and that would not have been nice. 

Anyway, now I have a GPS-looking device permanently glued to my windscreen, and that's just the touchscreen display. I turned off the annoying huge-ass digital clock display, preferring this mostly blank screen. With this thing installed, M2's movements are constantly and persistently tracked by overhead satellites, effectively wrecking his potential as a getaway car. The touchscreen will now give me real-time traffic updates based on my location, kind'a like Waze, but since the sats are tracking every vehicle on the road the info is spot-on accurate.

What remains is to get the necessary documentation done: renew insurance and road tax. Since the systems are all online, that will be easily done. Tomorrow. Correction: Done.

Going with the 'Flow'

The first time I watched this trailer, I was instantly hooked. But being a more arthouse project, the film got a very limited run. Glad I got a ticket to today's screening at The Projector -- and the very first time I took advantage of the senior citizens' price.

'Flow' is a beautiful piece of storytelling. There isn't much of a plot but a journey as we, the audience, literally follow the flow of wherever the story takes us. In a world seemingly left behind by the human population, our protagonist, the black cat, lives a relatively comfortable life in an abandoned house probably once occupied by a sculptor with a cat obsession. For some reason -- which isn't important since cats don't ever ask 'why' -- the world is flooded in a deluge that drowns all but the tallest of peaks. The cat is able to swim to a boat cast adrift, only to find it is already occupied by a capybara. Thus begins the tale of a boat that eventually collects an odd assortment of stranded animals: a materialistic lemur, a golden retriever, and a heron secretary bird injured while protecting the cat from hostiles.

The animation is smooth, and while it betrays computer graphics, the style looks like every cel is painstakingly painted. Each animal behaves like it should, and anthropomorphizing is very limited to how the capybara, heron, and to some extent, the cat quickly figure out how to steer the boat using the rudder. Through the journey, we are treated to scenes of bravery, compassion, heroism, generosity and of course, conflict, as this microcosmic Noah's Ark learns to trust one another and eventually care for each other.

What I also love about this movie is that there is no human dialogue at all. Each animal makes its own sounds, but meaning is communicated through tone and body language The artists must have studied the movements of each animal carefully, and faithfully reproduced them convincingly on screen. As I'm watching them, I'm also thinking about my animals at home. Would they be able to survive as ably if their human owners unexpectedly disappeared?

There's an obsession over mirrors and reflections as a recurring theme. Clearly, the movie is an allegory about unity in diversity, and how different talents complement each other when contributing to the greater good. The goldie gains the cat's trust by mirroring its movements, so there is a strong statement that's being made about what we can accomplish together as we navigate the chaos and uncertainty of living in our reality.

But I also detect an undercurrent of caution against selfishness too. The boat picks up a pack of dogs stranded in rising waters, but almost immediately they cause problems for the original crew. Although not outright hostile, there is a conflict over ownership of the things the lemur has brought on board. They also eat all the fish the cat had worked hard to catch. And when their help is really needed to save a life, they bail. While it was a moral obligation to save their lives, there really was no time to set boundaries and conditions before taking them on board.

Overall, this movie is more of an experience than anything else. It moves from one situation to the next. Some are breathtakingly gorgeous, others are tense and ominous. Like the current that keeps the boat moving forward, so too do we go with the flow.

Bekhauf: High energy inspiration by Bloodywood ft BABYMETAL (Pt 2)

Bekhauf official MV has dropped. It's not an anime series but an animation featuring the vocalists of Bloodywood and BABYMETAL in an action-packed battle against deities from both Hindu and Japanese pantheons. The narrative runs parallel to BABYMETAL's Karate: forced to fight, the protagonists hold their own against fearful opponents, they suffer a setback, they focus on rescuing one another before combining forces to finally win. Interestingly, the stakes are not exactly life and death but for the respect of the antagonists. In this sense, adversity is a test of resilience and being able to count on each other in a fight to the end. 'Bekhauf', according to the subtitles means 'fearless', but it's more like being undaunted, not reckless.

Musically, the track is a (head)banger. It's full of high energy and a driving beat, great for a cardio workout or an on-the-road playlist. It doesn't have a catchy hook -- that is, I've watched the video a couple of times now but if there's an earworm in there, I haven't got it yet. On the whole, it's great to listen to, but offers little to crowd participation, though this is only my first impression. While the end credits list KOBAMETAL as the Producer, this track sounds more like a Bloodywood piece than a BABYMETAL one. That's not a bad thing. I like the diversity in the metal, pop, rap, electronica combination, the encouraging storyline of the video, and I got to listen to Bloodywood for the first time.

Bekhauf: High energy inspiration by Bloodywood ft BABYMETAL

The ladies of BABYMETAL have turned in yet another collab, this time with Indian metal band, Bloodywood. As of now, the full audio track is available on Bloodywood's channel. Anxiously awaiting the full MV drop which, going by past experience, should be by about midnight tonight.

Meantime, I'm posting the YouTube trailer link which is very anime inspired. The catch phrase is "fear is a choice (but the choice is mine)". This concept and the music sound more serious than dance poppy. The track is mostly metal featuring a lot of male harsh vocals amidst a driving, relentless heavy rhythm with what sounds like SU's clean vocals seemlessly blending in to smoothen the tone, backed with MOA and MOMO's harmonies. The ladies' voices are rather electronically processed, perhaps for an ethereal effect, contrasting the grounded and growly male voices. The bridge features a clear traditional stringed instrument, though with the electronic effect it's hard to tell which one. Drums out, SU gets a beautifully rendered verse to herself. This is one high energy song meant to inspire and encourage, like "Leave It All Behind" but with less didactic lyrics. Well, less didactic English lyrics, anyway.

Have to tune in again later to match the visuals to the audio for a better picture of what this collab is all about. I don't know what "Bekhauf" means, and for now I don't want to find out. Could this song be the intro to a new anime series? The trailer suggests a story that could be epic.

Katsu craving

Had a katsu craving, but didn't feel like going to the usual place and wanted to try somewhere else. Wandered around Takashimaya's basement food offerings and found this place, Kimukatsu. Just what I was looking for.

A healthy chunk of breaded pork, crispy on the outside, tender inside. I like that when I order the garlic option (original, cheese, and garlic being the top sellers according to the counter guy) it isn't shy on the garlic. I also like that the sauces come in dipping saucers, and not slathered on top so I get to control how much or little flavour I want in every bite. Left is teriyaki, right is shoyu, if I'm not mistaken.

What's unique is the rice that comes individually portioned. It's a nice touch to have a staple that isn't dished out of a generic pot but rather is specially cooked just for you. Please don't make the mistake of eating the rice directly from the wooden steamer and make a mess. Take the extra step to scoop it out into the empty bowl provided, like a civilized person. Thank you.

Honestly, I initially thought the pork may not have been enough for the amount of rice served, but taking polite bites and alternating the meat with the shredded cabbage and pickles, the whole set proved just right. I wish they'd also provided a napkin to deal with cabbage whiplash, but there was a box of facial tissues fully on display on the counter, and not difficult to reach for, at least from where I was sitting.

Finally, the matcha was more robust than I expected. More like a proper beverage than a tea. Maybe it's because when ordering I said 'matcha' instead of 'green tea'. Would that have made a difference? Anyway, it was a satisfying finisher to lunch.

Nice to have a second option to the usual, with comparable quality for a marginally lower price too.

Agatha All Along: Con All Along

Episode 7 from last week was so impactful that the two remaining episodes released concurrently today on Halloween struggled to match. They were still good and answered a few remaining questions, regardless.

Episode 8 brings us full circle minus the witches that died on the way. Death isn't playing around. Dead is dead. But she is a professional doing her job, so there are no theatrics with her... well... Firm, but patient she allows Alice to rue how short-lived her curse-liberated life has been before asking, "Are you ready?". Rio/Death has also one of the most meta moments early in the episode when she uses her knife to slash the scene like it was a stage backdrop -- which it is -- and disappears into the rift.

As in the Wizard of Oz, Billy's shoes get them home, or at least to the site of the last trial. Agatha recognizes it as her basement, though it seems she is joking at the time. The final trial, though supposed to be for the green witch, is for everybody to pass individually. Jenn, High Priestess "unable or unwilling to use her power", pieces together who had put the binding spell on her (it was Agatha All Along) and frees herself. Having made a deal with Rio, Agatha helps Billy Maximoff get what he's missing even though it is specifically what Rio does not want for Billy to have. Agatha's busy betraying everyone left and right at this point. She passes her trial on a technicality, but what she is missing she does not get back.

The 3 surviving coven members finally return home. Back in William Kaplan's room, Billy realizes how alike he and Wanda are. The Witches' road and Coven Harkness' journey on it was entirely made up based on the items and knick knacks that decorate William Kaplan's room. Billy Maximoff has created a Wandavision-like hex bubble in Agatha's (or rather Ralph Boehner's) basement  through which the coven traveled. If not for Billy's imagination, the Road doesn't exist at all -- and Agatha has known it all along!

Which brings us to the finale. I was wrong about Agatha being secretly good. She's a very horrid person, perhaps due to her mother and original coven being dead set on killing her way back in the 18th century. Ever since then, she's lived with a persecution complex, surviving on preemptive strikes on any coven she discovers. Rio asks Agatha why she lets people believe she sacrificed her son for the Darkhold, to which she replies that the truth is much worse.

While it is not clear how Agatha and Rio became so close, Rio allowed Agatha's son, Nicholas, 6+ years of life although he was supposed to die at childbirth. The Ballad of the Witches' Road was cobbled together by Nicholas and Agatha while they celebrated their bond and their journey together 'down the wind-y road' which was Nicholas' original lyric. The Ballad spread as Nicholas performed it in public places to make money. After Death finally came for Nicholas, Agatha took the opportunity to use the song that once was about the love between mother and child, turning it into a con in which she traded the lives of entire covens for their power. This story doesn't explain the Darkhold, but it does show that Agatha betrayed the innocence, purity and beauty of her son's memory just to feed her addiction to power. The one good thing that came of her life corrupted into a scam.

In my analysis of this entire series, I never asked one very crucial question. If this story mirrored The Wizard of Oz so closely, who is the Wizard of Oz? The con artist. The trickster. The one with no power, but made use of the power of others to get his way. It is Agatha All Along.

Music box

A little souvenir from our staff bonding exercise today. We crafted our own music box diorama from a selection of figurines brought over by the vendor, Okdodoo, a local startup. My first attempt is messy with the use of too much glue. The residue is obvious in the shiny flecks on the display surface. I had my eye on a larger, more realistic looking tree, but was seconds too slow to grab it off the parts table. Hence this more stylized tree which I'll take as a metaphor for why we can't have nice things. Regardless, I'm pleased with the overall composition which avoids excessive symmetry, and things arranged along a straight line. The music is, of course, a couple of bars from the "My Neighbor Totoro" theme. The tone is pleasant, soothing even, and worth the wind-up, at least while the novelty still lasts.

A shout-out to the two partners of Okdodoo who are 'live' demonstrations of taking the path less traveled by foregoing their corporate careers to pursue a creative passion. Each item is hand-crafted by the two of them. They didn't detail their process, but it's clear they're fully committed to their craft and motivated by a love for what they do. Given today's activity theme of the future of work, these two gentlemen clearly embody some of the many traits that we would like to see in our kids as we prepare them for their futures.

Agatha All Along Ep 7: it's about time

As the season is winding down, the revelations are coming thick and fast. The trial is for Lilia, the coven's seer. My guess about the road under the Witches' Road proved correct. Lilia and Jen, having been hurled into the bog, get sucked under and deposited in an underground passage. The route to this trial, though, takes place within the fractured and improperly sequenced timeline of Lilia's centuries' old existence.

The creativity of this episode in telling the story through a disordered jumble of scenes -- that gives the audience a taste of the disorientating kind of life Lilia has lived -- and still making them all make sense to the overall narrative so far is amazing. When all the pieces fall into place for both Lilia and us, her sporadic and incongruous outbursts throughout the season turn out to be spot-on premonitions and warnings acquired from the future, but are too fragmented and devoid of context to be useful. This is exactly Lilia's gift and curse, and the reason she has chosen to neglect her power. Just because she can see the future does not give her any ability to alter it, so what's the point when all she sees is Death?

Lilia's trial helps her understand her true purpose, finally giving the lion the courage to face her visions and see them through to the end. When seen in their totality, her visions are not really as bad as when she just catches glimpses of incomprehensible bits and pieces which are scary because without proper context they seem so random, hopeless, and futile. This key realization gives her the means to literally turn the tables on the Salem's Seven with some apparent finality, and not a moment too soon. For Lilia, herself, it's bittersweet that the end of her trial gives her a new beginning too.

Also, it seems to me that each episode, like in Wandavision, moves our characters through time. In AAA, the movement is backwards through history. Episode 7 puts us in a medieval setting, but the costumes are based on contemporary Hollywood depictions of fairy tale witches. Agatha is the classical Wicked Witch of the West, which is the persona she projects in front of people. Billy is Disney's Maleficent (I admit I don't yet see the symbolism, though he does brag about having the cheekbones for it, referencing Angelina Jolie who played the role). Jen is dressed as the Disney version of Snow White's evil stepmom in disguise as the hooded fruit vendor bearing a poisoned apple as a reference to Jen being a shyster hawking toxic products prior to the Road. Lilia is dressed as the classical Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, who although takes offence at the cultural stereotyping heroically plays out the role for real by the end of the episode. While Agatha already knows who Rio is, Rio's true identity is revealed in this episode too, although among the rest of the coven only Lilia gets to see it.

What's the scene, drama queen?

Continuing with the witchy vibe from the last few posts, we get a storm in a stirring ladle from 'Wicked' star, Cynthia Erivo, who is upset over a fan edit of the movie's promotional poster. In homage to the 'live' Broadway poster of the musical, the fan casts the shadow of the hat's brim over Erivo's eyes to create a more photorealistic version of the same.

Erivo takes exception to her soulful eyes being "erase[d]", and by extension, the erasure of her entire being. Seriously? It's a movie poster, not a personal boudior portrait. The character being portrayed in the poster is Elpheba, supported by her best friend, Glinda (played by Ariana Grande). The Broadway poster sets an important scene focusing on the relationship between the two characters. There is the sense of closeness, of course, but also confidentiality, conspiracy, and with just a hint of a smile (and with obscured eyes), a sinister plot being hatched. Less is more.

What exactly is happening in the OG movie poster? With Erivo's face in full view, choosing "to look down the barrel of the camera to you, the viewer..." those eyes, beautiful as they are, "communicate" nothing of the relationship, or the scene the two characters are in. In fact, it looks like Elpheba is not even paying attention to what Glinda is whispering in confidence to her, and by looking straight at the audience, it's like Elpheba can't wait to spill the tea for us. Besides, Elpheba is not a fourth-wall breaking character like Deadpool or She-Hulk are (unless she is in the movie?), so if Erivo is promoting anything in the movie poster, it's not the movie, but herself -- especially since she is so perturbed by a fan edit that she takes so personally.

When you're in a movie poster, you are not you. It's distastefully unprofessional for a performer to put themselves above the production they're in. Get over yourself.

Agatha All Along Ep 6: Heeere's Billy!

I love that Episode 6 is a complete break from the pattern that began on the Road, and was starting to get repetitive. It's clear that Teen is Billy, Wanda's kid. And now we get some answers about how that came to be. The clues were there all along.

Half the episode is spent on connecting the dots of Teen's backstory which in itself is a lot of fun as we see fragments of the puzzle fall into place, explaining how a life conceived in a delusional woman's fever dream could possibly manifest itself in corporeal form, along with his true motivation for walking the Road. The other half is a complete re-shoot of Episode 1, but from Teen's perspective rather than Agatha's. It's hilarious as we get to see how her neighbours would have interacted with someone whom they would have rightfully considered delusional for the past three years. It's nice that they treated her kindly all that time while she behaved like a complete lunatic in their midst.

Although it's Agatha's show, this episode is almost entirely Billy's vehicle. Agatha survives her attempted drowning in the bog -- which seems to be her forte -- so she gets to be the sole audience to hear Billy's sigil-uncensored self-reveal. I'm not clear how she knows, but with Billy seemingly having killed off Jen and Lilia in the previous episode, Agatha senses a kindred witch-killing spirit in him. As the two surviving members of the coven that started this journey proceed further down the Road looking for the next trial, their relationship dynamic is now more unwilling master-apprentice, less owner-goldie. In the meantime, Rio's whereabouts are unknown and no one's looking for her anyway.

How will Coven Harkness pass the next trial if it's meant for Lilia or Rio? Could a resurrection be in store for Lilia if it's hers? Will we return to formula and the Oz motifs in the next and subsequent episodes? Only a week to find out.

Wait. I just realized that Billy has replaced Agatha as Dorothy. Like Dorothy who recognizes that her travelling companions on the Yellow Brick Road are people she knows and met in real life, so too has Billy/William Kaplan encountered the members of Coven Harkness before their journey on the Witches' Road. The Oz theme is still driving the story, but it's taken an unexpected detour. Awesome!

Agatha All Along Ep 5: you can't go home again

Consider me thrown. This episode has upset many of my expectations. First, we're no longer on a merry jaunt through the creepy woods. This episode is really leaning a lot more into the 80's horror vibe. The reintroduction of the pursuers, the Salem's Seven, puts them directly in contact with Agatha's coven, who manages to get away this time. We also get a backstory about the Seven's origins, as told by Lilia and Rio. It's interesting that Agatha, herself, neither confirms nor denies the story. After all, she was there when it happened, and was also probably responsible for how it turned out -- but she says nothing other than "mercy is overrated". Hmm...

The trial begins with the coven dressed like teenagers having a sleepover Cabin in the Woods style. They are comfortably dressed for bed but are made to commune with the dead instead. Surprisingly, this trial is Agatha's. Instead of it being the climactic trial like I expected, Agatha's trial takes place at the mid-point of the season. Again, the parent-child relationship is at the heart of trauma. The ghost that manifests is Agatha's own mother with whom she has had a very different relationship from Lorna and Alice Wu's of the last episode. It seems that Agatha had no love from her mother since birth. Instead of protection, Agatha's mom wants to punish her daughter and tells the coven to continue on the Road without Agatha.

In the tussle over Agatha's fate, history repeats itself and once again, Agatha gains power at the expense of a coven member. I'm not sure if Agatha passed her trial, but she certainly got what she wanted out of it. Her response, though, doesn't look like she was happy with the price she paid. Agatha is a complicated woman. I speculate that Agatha would rather everyone believe the worst of her, than pointlessly defend herself for her mistakes.

While Teen usually takes Agatha's side in arguments, this act of betrayal disillusions him. When Agatha spitefully tells Teen how much he and his mother are alike, she has clearly accepted that he is not her son. Her trial confirms what Rio told her in the previous episode, so Agatha's hopes are finally dashed. Having eliminated one possibility, Agatha suspects another witch who could be Teen's mom, Could he really be Wanda's?

We don't find out immediately as Teen lashes out with a power we never knew he had: mind-controlling the remaining coven to toss Agatha into the bog that threatened to drown Sharon Davis in Episode 2. He also uses telekenisis to toss the coven (sans Rio -- where is she?) into the bog too. These are Wanda's powers, though not her colour. It's a jaw-dropping moment as Teen stands alone, magical sparks crackling from his fingers, and wearing what looks like Wanda's headpiece, with Billie Eilish's "You Should See Me in a Crown" playing in the background.

If Agatha is Dorothy's parallel, in a way, she did go home to her mom, but found no welcome there.

I wonder if next episode, the journey takes us literally "down the Road" -- as in down underground -- since that's the direction the coven has taken, thanks to Teen.

Agatha All Along Ep 4

I have to be honest and ask if this series needs to be 9 episodes long. While it kicked off with an intriguing premise, and gathered a quirky, dysfunctional coven of mediocre witch people, we seem to be repeating a formula for each character's trial. Episode 3 was a scavenger hunt of common household items. This episode involved nothing more than singing a song. While it was a competent performance with the occasional dramatic moment, that was it. Trial complete and let's move on.

In performing the song, Alice discovers that her mother composed it as an expression of love for her daughter. It also functioned as a spell of protection over Alice, saving her from the fire that killed her mother. So, the tin-man finds her heart when before she was empty of belief, and had numbed her emotions (except anger) having never got over the loss of Mommy. It's a redemption arc, neatly summed up in the title of this episode.

We also learn that each trial represents an element that will kill the aspirants on the Road should they fail. The previous episode threatened them with drowning, while this one would have offered them to the flames. So far, both causes of death are common means employed to execute witches.

Perhaps the depiction of Alice's trial had to be shortened for scenes of the coven members starting to respect each other and begin the process of bonding over past trauma. But I feel that Sharon "Mrs Hart" Davis deserved better than a simple burial, which while mostly respectful was unceremonious. To also have her immediately and dramatically replaced by Rio Vidal (which was not unexpected) did her dirty. I suspect we're not quite done with Sharon yet, though. She's had too much build up to not return in perhaps a different form later.

As for Agatha, Rio more or less confirms our suspicions of her intentions towards the members of her current coven. As for Agatha's seemingly maternal behaviour towards Teen, Rio seems sincere in informing Agatha that Teen isn't Agatha's. But Rio also looks to be carefully curating these information drops, so if she inadvertently lets a proverbial cat out of the bag, it was perhaps no accident.

Overall, I found this episode exposition heavy while going through the motions of yet another trial. A show loses its fun factor when it repeats formula and becomes predictable Here's hoping that Episode 5 will do something crazy, or at least different, to throw my expectations for a refreshing loop..

Agatha All Along Ep 3 -- character notes

'Agatha' episode 3 scatters a lot of little clues about the company on the Road. Other than introducing the first trial on the Road, the Wizard of Oz theme takes a backseat. Good choice, as now we can follow each character's backstory without needing to forcibly connect them with their Oz doubles (oh, really?).

Let's start with Agatha. She becomes very unlikable as her cowardice and selfishness amp up in this episode. She is either lying about having walked the Road before, and she's just winging it, or judging by her behaviour on this current journey, she might have survived the last one at the expense of her travelling companions back then. While she has no inclination to face the dangers of the trial, she unexpectedly becomes very protective of Teen when he offers himself as her replacement. Could there be some maternal instinct kicking in? Possibly. Jen recounts a rumour that Agatha had sacrificed her child for the Book of the Damned (the Darkhold?), and if that were true, she doesn't seem willing to repeat the experience. The glimpse she has into her past suggests how horrified she is about what she did, but it's too early to say. Terrible friend though she is, she is a terrific coach, giving Jen a heartfelt pep-talk that snaps her out of a panic attack, allowing her to complete her crucial task.

Teen, the Gen-Z representative comes in clutch navigating the trial which is set in a modern yuppie house. Making use of the kitchen sink as a makeshift cauldron, Jen the Potions witch needs to bring her brew to a boil fast. Teen immediately comes up with a 21st Century solution. In fact, early in the episode, Teen figures out that the trials are meant to be faced without witchy magic but with practical magic, emphasis on the "craft" in "witchcraft". This realization opens up for us a glimpse into the witchy codenames for what are otherwise ordinary household ingredients like "eye of newt" referring to mustard seed, and "gut of a eusocial insect", meaning honey. We also learn that none of Agatha's coven can hear Teen's backstory either. It's been censored by a sigil that keeps his secrets secret from the witching community.

It is Jen's expertise that is under trial in this episode. It is up to her to remember the ingredients of the potion needed to save the lives of their coven. A vision of her past shows how terrified she is of a mysterious Victorian-looking man who calls her "an inconvenient woman", appears to have abused her and possibly stolen her power. When Jen freaks out, being unable to remember the last ingredient of the potion, Agatha reminds her that knowledge IS power. Jen the fraud, the scarecrow, finds her brains and completes the potion, ending the first trial. Jen is the first to name-drop, Mephisto, who is widely speculated to make his MCU debut in this series, but it could be just as well be a fan service red herring.

We get only a fragment of Lilia's past in her vision. Giving off a Renaissance horror vibe, her vision hints that her trauma has to do with survivor's guilt. "They're all dead", Lilia says in Italian when she returns to reality. If Lilia is the Lion, she may have stayed quiet and hidden while she watched some horrific event happen to the people around her. As such, her trial may have to do with confronting her act of cowardice. We'll see in subsequent episodes.

Similarly with Alice, her vision is fragmentary. It speaks of a generational curse, and hints at Alice's abandonment issues. She tells Teen that her mother "wasn't well", and in her vision, her mother drinks out of a suspicious-looking vial immediately after declaring that she was "next". Perhaps the heart Alice the Tin-man is looking for has to do with forgiveness for her mother.

'Mrs Hart'. The whole of this episode, she has been responding as a normal, non-magical person would, having been dragged unwittingly on a magical journey. She constantly reminds us that she is "Sha-ron" which is the identity badge she carries around with her throughout the episode. She is endearingly hilarious with her lines and behaviour. Her character is built up a lot, so what happens to her at the end is unexpectedly heart-wrenching. With Agatha simply responding "Who's Sharon?" to close the episode, I suspect that the human "Sharon" identity will take on a new magical form, which would be crucial at the trial of the Green Witch. Or if Rio Vidal is actually meant for this task, it's important for Sharon to be separated from this group so that she can transform into the Good Witch whose role is yet to be filled.

No sign of Rio or the Salem's Seven, but I believe their absence gives us a chance to understand the underlying motivations of our main characters before pursuit begins again.