What if 2020 is just the universe's extra time in the ball pit?

[rogueslayer452]

++ Sarah Z, one of my favorite video essayists, recently uploaded a video recounting and discussing the disaster that was Dashcon, the first and last Tumblr-based convention that happened back in 2014. Most will probably only know it from the infamous ball pit meme that circulated about, but there's a lot more that goes into it than just that. I already know most of what was mentioned, but seeing it all laid out in full detail of the event (before, during, and the aftermath), it's really more depressing than it is funny. This obviously wasn't the first or the last poorly planned convention to exist, but speaking as someone who was aware of this while it was going down it's just an interesting look at what went wrong and why this did, ultimately, change the way fandom on Tumblr operated. Because Sarah does briefly go into that, which I have to agree that the atmosphere did fundamentally change, whether it was from the convention itself or the way people reacted to the convention, it definitely made the harmless fun aspects of certain fandoms a little less fun. But that's a discussion for a whole other time.

Overall, while there have been people who covered this topic before I really liked Sarah's take on it, not only with a lot of research but also since others have unfortunately ended up, inadvertently or no, making fun of the young people who attended the convention, which is uncalled for. We can acknowledge the horrible dumpster fire that Dashcon was without turning to mock the teenagers who went. Which I find happens a lot whenever something deemed "cringey" happens and people want to feel better about themselves by mocking young people, usually teenage girls. So I'm happy that Sarah didn't do that and addressed the issue.

++ I don't particularly care for award shows, since we all know it's just a popularity contest anyway and the things that rightfully deserve to be recognized often are snubbed. With that being said, that doesn't mean that I'm not happy whenever something I like is nominated. With the Emmys recently announcing their nominations, I'm glad that The Mandalorian has been nominated multiple times (however the lack of recognition for Pedro Pascal is just blasphemous, imho), and I'm happy that Euphoria got some love as well, most notably Zendaya for best lead actress, because she absolutely deserves it.

Comments

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's always the same thing year after year, and it gets tiring. I feel like award shows should be celebrating the successes of things that don't often get recognition, but there's definitely a lot of intention exclusion that occurs. For example, particular genre shows and movies never get recognized during these events, such as science fiction and horror, and if they do it's often mislabeled as being a "drama" rather than the genre they actually are.

As much as I don't care about award shows, I do think it's fundamentally unfair to a lot of artists, actors, and creators overall who get snubbed when they rightfully deserve more recognition for their work. There are smaller award shows that are dedicated to specifically celebrate independent films, which is good, but I think on a bigger scale there needs much improvement in Hollywood and the industry overall.

[tabaqui]

Yup. I feel the same.
I mean, i know i'm partial, but Jensen Ackles in Supernatural has deserved to get at least one award for his performance on that show.

And I can think of a half-dozen really good sci-fi that should have at least been nominated.
Frustrating stuff.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

It looks like he has won at least five awards for being on SPN. Not an Emmy, but definitely awards nonetheless.

I'm still bitter that BSG never won anything. Although it did win a Peabody Award, which is quite a prestigious award, so I'm not complaining about that. But it at least deserved some kind of Emmy nod, y'know? But it's true though, there's a lot of scifi that is so good that deserves nominations, yet they all get dismissed and snubbed. Ugh.

I guess we could argue that Game of Thrones did break that mold for being the first genre show (fantasy) to be nominated and win awards, but that show was less fantasy and more political drama so idk if that really counts, imho.

[tabaqui]

Meh.
I am NOT a GoT fan, so i...shrug, heh.

And yeah, he's won 'People's Choice' and 'Teen Choice' awards, stuff like that. Nice, but...not the kind of thing that really puts you up there in the 'serious actor' category. The Emmy's that Show got nominated for were all for sound, and they've never won.

Ah, well.