[Mush] Liberation Mush

 Short: A v20/w20/m20 world of darkness mush where you will feel grateful to get a dot of Grill Cheese Sandwich Skill after nine epic quests.

Medium: The Mush is well run and has clearly learned from the problems of other mushes (reference City of Hype mush) while inventing whole new problems for itself that it doesnt need to have.

Maximum Verbosity: Alright lets start with the positive.

-Very helpful and supportive staff, absolutely no psychos (cant say the same of players but staff keeps them mostly in check)

-Very well built and thorough grid

-Very robust and balanced chargen

-Sane and minimal house rules with one notable exception

-An intriguing influence mini game that actually works without making the staff give up their lives

-Coherence of theme: They make you have a good reason for merits and backgrounds etc

-A healthy RP policy that allows PRP without locking up meaningful items only for staff (with an exception see below)

Sounds like heaven right? Well.

No  not really.

What doesnt work

-Secondary skills are now mandatory, and xp is also reduced.  Other mushes got around xp creep by reseting periodically  Liberation mush wants to be around forever so they solve the problem by letting you work five years for a dot in grilled cheese sandwich making.  They are particularly arduous about combat skills creating a perverse situation where every PC suddenly becomes Mr Miyagi in order to have the instruction skill.  

-Prp is only available for MUNDANE plots (they recently opened up ghosts but still highly limited).  That sounds nice but the staff run plots I participated in seemed giant circle jerks where you had the illusion of participation without actual progress.  The setting is dynamic  and pcs can make a difference but I was there for nine months and never felt a scene I participated in actually had any meaningful contribution to the game.

If they would lighten up in their xp policy and prp policy this place would truly shine but I left without feedback since it appeared to me that seeing others make suggestions werent really heard.

If advancement doesnt matter to you, running your own plots doesnt or you wanna play only a mortal in WOD this is definitely the place for you.

[Movie] Barbie

 Short: Its a cool meta movie about Barbie's understanding of who she is in an area of patriarchy, corporate technofascism and reconciling what it means to be human.

Medium: Jesus, that was a lot for short.  Is this review becoming self aware just like the movie? It appears so, so this review is self aware just like the movie Barbie.  If you like to live in your own little world and dont like your reality challenged, this movie is not for you.  There, we got rid of that guy.  This movie is for you.  You want to watch it.

Maximum Verbosity: In a world where people fear the creation of a better (potentially) species that we are worried we will enslave and mock (we will if not careful) and that our jobs (how many define themselves) will be taken machines; this movie is absolutely perfect.  The movie's primary focus is the image of Barbie, what it has become, where it originated, and also basically a fun summer blockbuster.  But also asking touch questions like the existential nature of death and the inevitable questions that come from defining yourself by what you own, what you do, or how society defines you.

The review is confident in itself because if fictional characters are going to becoming real, then authors should definitely be kind to them especially if they enter magical portals to our reality only to take their creator to a subjectively linked world like Terra or Barbieland where he will aquire the powers of a (mostly benevolent God) due to metawareness and imagination....or we could hang and have a good time.

Anywho (Spoilers)

Barbie starts in her perfect life and its about what you expected watching this world.  But then someone somewhere is playing with her who has existential crisis of death and so, Barbie (with stow away Ken) goes to the real world to find the girl who is playing with her and fix things up.  

Things in this movie that rock:

-Margie Robbie as Barbie - Every Frame

-Ryan Gosling - Almost every frame

-Will Farrel for the role he was born to play (well..Elf but second role) as Mr Mattel

-America Ferrera starts as a pedestrian 'mom' but the humans in this movie really shine especially when they go back to the real world.  She has one of the best monologs in cinemea and saves two realities in the process of it.

-Rhea Pearlman as Ruth Handler is fucking perfect.

This has a Netflix rating of 89% but that is because some people are going to feel very threatened by this movie but we already got rid of that guy.  It made Fox News go fucking nuts....so see it for that reason alone.  Or see its because its fun, but it also makes you think.  This is (I suspect) a generational touchstone for a whole new wave of future feminists who will take no shit from anyone without accepting the threatened nature of toxic masculinity whilst also (for some men) ironically helping them learn not to be afraid of Feminism.

Also, now on my way to enter a magical portal to give my creator God like powers...or not.