Hick-Hop on a Musical Monday

A co-worker brought a musical sub-genre that crosses rock, hip-hop, and country with an off-roading, beer-swilling, American back-country aesthetic here at Shades of Gray. After she showed us a few videos, she said we were watching and listening to "hick-hop." 

One example of "hick-hop" comes to us from Gangstergrass, fronted by Rench. (I think the video for this one is especially good, with some small clever touches [easter-eggs?] here and there.)

Here's a sample of "hick-hop" from a favorite performer of my coworker, Brantley Gilbert.... 

In anticipation of the new "Cinderella" film...

... we're going to bring you some black-and-white adaptations of that famous fairy tale (along with commentary). You may also treat these posts as a public service if you don't have access to Amazon Prime (where the new "Cinderella" will premiere on September 3), or if you want to be able to say you've seen "Cinderella", but don't want to sit through 90+ minutes of sap.

First up, we have TerryToon's adaptation of "Cinderella" from 1933. Drop down to the end of post and click to watch it. Although you can also read our thoughts on it first... and then maybe you can leave some thoughts of your own in the comments section below this post!

Cinderella (1933)

Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors

Director: Frank Moser

Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A hedonistic king throws a party while his stern queen is out of town. Cinderella's ugly stepsisters are invited while she has to stay at home... but she ends up at the festivities anyway.

 

To say this is a loose adaptation of the familiar "Cinderella" story is an understatement. It begins in familiar territory and then transforms into something completely different. The creators seem to kinda-sorta remember what they were doing every now and then--a "Cinderella" adaptation--but only momentarily.

After opening with one of most annoying songs you're likely to encounter, but very much on track to be a standard "Cinderella" tale, it then it goes spinning off in bizarre directions. Cinderella is almost a minor character in her own story, with most of the focus being on the lecherous king, his dippy son, and the drunken bash the king throws. Some of the expected elements show up, but they are strange and surreal distortions of what we'd typically expect. 

Are you in the mood for something weird? Sit back and enjoy this wild ride, along with a king on his tricycle, a prince on his wooden horse, and Cinderella in her magic carriage.

The Avengers: Room Without a View

Room Without a View (1965)
Starring: Patrick Macnee, Diana Rigg, Philip Latham, and Paul Whitson-Jones
Director: Roy Ward Baker
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

One scientist who vanished returns home, out of his mind. Seven others remain missing. Top government investigators John Steed (Mcnee) and Emma Peel (Rigg) discover the common link is that they all stayed at the Chessman Hotel. Can Steed and Peel identify the sinister forces that have taken up residence at the Chessman before they themselves fall victim to them?

"Room With a View" has lots of great things about it. The mystery of how top scientists are vanishing from a London hotel is one that grows more compelling as the show unfolds--and the apparent solution seems outright nightmarish when it first begins to come to light. The twists that are introduced here are also nicely done. Steed  gets to be the center of some really funny bits as he goes undercover as a food critic to curry favor with the equal parts flamboyant, publicity-hungry, and shady owner of the Chessman (Wutson-Jones). Even Wokesters will find things to enjoy about this episode, such the fate of a sexist government bureaucrat, and the Chinese wife of an abducted scientist being scarcastic about cultural and racial stereotypes.

The scenes involving an imprisoned Mrs. Peel as the episode heads toward its climax are also extremely well done... and ones I can't comment upon without ruining the plot. Suffice to say, you're going to find them compelling.

What is less compelling is the episode's villain, the corpulent owner of the Chessman Hotel who has dreams of building a hospitality empire. He's as evil and petty as any Avengers villain we've come across so far in the series, but there's a disconnected stiffness about the actor portraying him--particularly in the scenes he shares with Patrick Macnee--that saps some of the life from what is an otherwise fast-moving, well-mounted episode helmed by the great Roy Ward Baker.

D20 Cat People

The basics of the Cat People can be found in this post (in which they were revealed to be stalking Shades of Gray favorite Milla Jovovich). This post expands on some of that information while providing rules for creating Cat People player characters in d20 System games.

   The material in this post was inspired by the classic films "Cat People" (1942) and "Curse of the Cat People (1944), and the not-so-classic "Cat People" (1982).

D20 CAT PEOPLE

All text in this post from this point forward is released under the Open Game License. It may be produced in accordance with the terms described in the license. Copyright 2021 Steve Miller.)

Who are the Cat People?

They are whatever fits best into the GM's campaign (or as determined by these tables), but, in general, they are an ancient species of beings that are closely related to Humans and who have lived among us since before the dawn of recorded history. They appear Human generally, but they are often able to change into either the form of a great cat and/or a humanoid form with feline characteristics. If they are to be used as player characters, they should not all be hostile toward humanity... although it's possible that a player character with Cat People blood may not know of his or her true nature initially.

Creating Cat People Characters
Cat People characters are generated in the same fashion as Humans in your preferred d20 System variant, with the following changes:
   Racial Bonus: When created, Cat People characters gain ability bonuses of +2 Dexterity and +2 Charisma. They are naturally agile and can project an aura of friendliness (or the opposite) when they want to.

    Starting Feats: Cat People characters must choose Blood of the Cat People (see "New Feats and Talents", below). Additionally, the character must choose one of the following as the second feat: Acrobatics,  Alertness, Athletic, Agile, Blind Fight, Confident, Deceptive, Favored of Bast, Jump, or Run.

   Special Ability: Cat People have the inborn ability to shape change from their human form into either the shape of a panther, or a humanoid with feline features. They must learn how to use this ability, however. Mastering their shapeshifting abilities is represented by a talent tree, Cat People Forms. (See below.)

NEW FEATS AND TALENTS

The following feats and talents are unique to the Cat People.

FEATS

Cat People characters have access to the Cat People group of feats through the started feat Blood of the Cat People. They may select  one of these feats in place of feats and bonus feats gained from classes and level advancement.

Existing Feats

The following feats from the base rulebook are part of the Cat People group. In addition to the new feats listed below, they may also select feats from the following list: Acrobatics,  Alertness, Athletic, Agile, Blind Fight, Confident, Deceptive, Improved Initiative, Jump, Lucky, and Run.

New Feats

The following new feats are part of the Cat People group.

Blood of the Cat People [Starting Feat Only]

You are one of the Cat People. Whether or not you are aware of your true nature and heritage, the blood of an ancient race blessed by the goddess Bast herself, runs through your veins.

   Benefit: The character has an affinity for felines and gains a +4 bonus to any skill rolls involving felines.

   Special: The character gains access to feats of the Cat People feat group. These feats may be selected whenever the character would gain feats through level advancements or class bonuses, and may be chosen in place of feats prescribed in class descriptions. The character must still meet any prerequisites to qualify for the feat.

Danger Sense [General, Cat People]
You have an uncanny ability for sensing trouble just before it strikes.
   Benefit: The character gains a +2 bonus to all Sense Motive and Spot skill checks.

Favored of Bast [Cat People]
The patron of the Cat People has looked favorably upon you, and she has granted you a special talent.

   Prerequisite: Blood of the Cat People feat

   Benefit: Gain a +4 bonus to all d20 rolls made in an effort to help, defend, or advocate for otherwise defenseless beings. The character also gains a +2 bonus to Sense Motive and Spot checks.

Feline Affinity [Cat People]

You have a particular way with cats of all kinds.

   Prerequisite: Blood of the Cat People feat

   Benefit: By taking a full round action and making a successful Charisma check (DC12), the character turns felines with Intelligence scores of 1-3 friendly towards him and neutral toward allied characters. He can influence a number felines equal to his Charisma bonus. The creatures remain calmed for the duration of the encounter with them, or until they are attacked by the character or his allies. Targeted felines must be within 30 feet of the character, and they must be able to see him under normal visibility conditions.
   Special: When selecting this feat, you gain a +4 bonus to Handle Animal skill checks involving felines.

Lucky [Cat People]
You lead a charmed life.
   Prerequisite: One attribute above 12
   Benefit: Once per game session, you may declare a single attack roll, skill check, or saving throw that faled to be a success. The success is never a critical.
Special: This feat can be replaced with "The Reports of My Death..." under the right circumstances. See "The Reports of My Death..." for more details.

Shadow Meld [Fast Hero, Cat People]
You can use even the slightest shadow to "hide in plain sight."
   Prerequisite: Hide 6 ranks, Move Silently 6 ranks
   Benefit: When in an area that features at least some shadow, the character gains a +8 bonus to Hide skill checks.

"The Reports of My Death..." [Cat People]
You were dead... but you got better!
   Benefit: If the character dies (reduced below -10 hit points, disintegrated, blown to tiny bits, lost and drowned at sea, eaten by rabid weasels--any death, no matter how mundane or terrible), this feat allows them to instantly return from the dead. The character reappears somewhere out of harm's way, with 1/4 of his or her hit points and a semi-plausible explanation of how he or she survived (the GM or player may invent something).
   The feat can only be used once. After the character has miraculously (perhaps literally) escaped death, the feat must be replaced by one of the following (with all prerequisites needing to be met): Attentive, Cautious, Dodge, Lucky, Never Say Die
   Special: There is no benefit from this feat until the character dies. If the character possesses the Lucky feat, the character can replace it with this feat after he or she is killed, essentially getting a two-for-one on rising from the dead.
If the character replaces this feat with Lucky, the cycle can repeat itself.

NEW TALENT TREES

The talents on the "Cat People Forms" tree represent the mastery the Cat People may develop over their shape changing abilities. The talents on the "Chosen of Bast" tree are gained by Cat People who have been tasked to be her agents on Earth--and they may eventually gain completely immortality.

Cat People Forms

The Cat People are born with the ability to change between a human form, a feline animal form, and a humanoid hybrid feline/human form. Changing between forms is a conscience effort and one that takes practice, physical strength, and mental focus to do. 

   Clothing and equipment does not transform with the character. It may be dropped or torn during a transformation.

   If one of the Cat People falls unconcious or goes to sleep while either in the animal or hybrid form, he or she reverts to his or her human body within 1d4 hours.

   Unlike lycanthropes, if one of the Cat People is killed in animal or hybrid form, he or she does not revert to their human body. 

   Great Cat Form: As a full round action, and with a successful Willpower check (DC11), the character may switch to or from human to animal form--specifically, the form of a panther. If the check fails, the character may attempt to transform again the following round.

   When in animal form, the character gains all the abilities, attributes and qualities of a panther (one of the Great Cats, click here for rules details) with the following adjustments: The character retains his or her base saving throw modifiers (unless the animal form provides better ones), class abilities, and benefits and bonuses gained from feats and talents. The character also retains his or her hit points (unless the basic animal form provides better hit points), as well as his or her Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma attribute scores. Some class abilities, feats, and talents are not usable in animal form; common sense should easily allow GMs and players to determine what those are.

   With the GM's permission, the character's cat form may appear different than a panther==and may even conform stat-wise to one of the other great cats--but it remains the same for each transformation once specified.

   Prerequisite: Blood of the Cat People feat

   House Cat Form: As a full round action, and with a successful Willpower check (DC11), the character may switch to or from human to animal form--specifically the form of a black house cat. If the check fails, the character may attempt to transform again the following round.

   When in animal form, the character gains all the abilities, attributes and qualities of a small feline, typically referred to as a "house cat" (click here for rules details), with the following adjustments: The character retains his or her base saving throw modifiers, class abilities, and benefits and bonuses gained from feats and talents (unless the animal form provides better ones). The character also retains his or her hit points, as well as his or her Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma attribute scores. Some class abilities, feats, and talents are not usable in animal form; common sense should easily allow GMs and players to determine what those are.

   With the GM's permission, the character's house cat form may appear differently than described, but it remains the same for each transformation once a look has been settled upon.

   Prerequisite: Blood of the Cat People feat

   Hybrid Form: As a full round action, and with a successful Willpower check (DC15), the character may switch to or from human to a hybrid human/animal form that is humanoid with feline characteristics. If the check fails, the character may attempt to transform again the following round.

   While in hybrid form, the character retains all his or her base attribute scores, saving throw modifiers, class abilities, and benefits and bonuses gained from feats and talents. The hybrid from grants the following advantages, all of which stack with any other similar bonuses: +2 to Strength attribute; +4 to Dexterity attribute; Lowlight Vision; Natural Weapon--Bite attack, +4 melee, damage 1d4+3; +4 skill ranks to Balance, Climb, Jump, Listen, Move Silently, and Spot.

   Prerequisite: Great Form talent

Chosen By Bast
You have felt the touch of Bast upon you and you have been blessed with near-immortality.
   Unaging: The character remain the age at which this talent is selected talent. The character can still be aged by extraordinary, magical or supernatural effects, but . Further, you no longer need food or drink to survive, although you still feel hunger and thirst.

   Prerequisite: Favored of Bast feat
   Immunity: Select a type of damage from the following list. You are immune to all damage of that type. Acid, Cold, Electricity, Fire, Piercing, Poison/Venom, Magic.
   This talent can be selected more than once. Each time it is chosen, a different immunity must be specified.
   Prerequisite: Unaging talent.

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If you enjoyed this post, you can find many more like it at the NUELOW Games blog. If you REALLY enjoyed this post, please consider buying one or more of the actual game booklets written, co-written or otherwise produced and published by your kind host, Steve Miller. It will encourage him to make more!

Don't litter or the Mask Man will get you!

Mask Man (2021)

Starring: AJ Ashok

Director: AJ Ashok

Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A litter bug (Ashok) has a bizarre and life-altering encounter.

While I was annoyed by the self-important Mask Nazis roaming around forcing their obsession with face masks on the rest of us over the past year-and-a-half, I was REALLY pissed off by those damn masks were strewn in parking lots and on sidewalks everywhere. because the pigs who had worn them were too lazy to dispose of them properly in a trash can. I hope that the Mask Nazis and their filthy habits are well behind us now.

When I first came across AJ Ashok's short silent horror film "Mask Man", I hoped that he'd made a film about some supernatural terror would haunt a Mask Nazi who was also a pig and just threw their disposable masks on the ground instead of in the trash. Alas, it is not my revenge fantasy brought to the screen, but it is an interesting little anti-littering film. (Even if I come to the conclusion that Ashok must live in a strange place... or do adults really carry snack-sized bags of crisps and juice boxes with them while out for a stroll?)

Click below to enjoy Ashok's moody little film. And remember: Don't litter.

Musical Monday with Panic! at the Disco

We're starting this first work-week of July with a stylish video (and a great song from Panic! at the Disco's 2014 album "Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die") that presents a warning about smoking/vaping, relationships, and loss.

Happy birthday to the United States of America!

Vera Ellen is letting freedom ring!

And Vera Miles is bringing the booms!

It's a Vera Special Fourth of July Celebration!

Something a little different...

Today, we got the laziest, most pathetic scam e-mail we've ever received at Shades of Gray. In fact, it's so bad that we felt it should be placed here and preserved for posterity. (Click on the image for a larger, more legible version.)

The email address from which it originated has already been reported for phishing, but you should feel free to call the phone number if you are really bored (and have a blocked caller ID).

The Avengers Dossier, Page Thirteen

Many actors familiar to fans of action films or spy dramas of the 1960 and 1970s could be found as guest-stars on "The Avengers". Here's another look at one of those.

JULIAN GLOVER

In "Two's a Crowd", Julian Glover is one of several handlers for a Soviet assassin so elusive it's as if he's made of smoke.

Born in 1935, and trained as a classical actress, Julian Glover made his professional debut in 1953. He has spent the past seven decades dividing his work between the stage, film, and television work. His sharp facial features, talent for doing voices and accents, and an ability to project an icy coldness made him ideal to play refined villains, haughty academics, and aristocratic military men and police officers.

Beginning in the early 1960s and continuing on into the 1980s, Glover was a familiar face to British television viewers, making frequent guest appearances and playing recurring or starring roles on a range of television series, such as "Doctor Who" (on which he played three different characters over the years), "Spy Trap" (in which he co-starred during the 1972 season), and "The Avengers" (where he played four different characters, in 1965, 1967, 1968, and 1969 respectively. During the 1980s and 1990s, he became known to American television viewers with appearances on shows like "Remington Steele". During the 2000s, he had a recurring role on the HBO fantasy series "Game of Thrones".

 

Glover has the distinction of being the only actor who's appeared as a villain in a "Star Wars" movie ("The Empire Strikes Back"), a James Bond movie ("For Your Eyes Only") and an Indiana Jones movie ("Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade"). He's stated that a great unfulfilled ambition of his career was to play the time time-traveling alien Doctor Who, but there may be time for that yet: Glover is still a working actor who maintains a busy stage and film schedule.

'Forgotten Sweeties' should be visted

Forgotten Sweeties (1927)
Starring: Charley Chase, Anita Garvin, Shirley Palmer, Mitchell Lewis, and James Finlayson
Director: James Parrott
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

When an absent-minded office worker (Chase) and former lover (Palmer) end up living across the hall from each other, neither his wife (Garvin) nor the ex-lover's husband (Lewis) are happy about it.

"Forgotten Sweeties" is a comedy of errors where coincidences morph into misunderstandings that are piled onto mistakes until our hapless hero is about to lose his marriage if he's not murdered first. Like many Chase films, it's structured in such a way that the gags and situations feed naturally into each other, with their being a sort-of realism to the film that is not found in many silent comedies. Even better, the main character of the film is another one of Chase's Nice Guy heroes who is very literally just trying to get through the day and not looking for any trouble. You can actually feel sympathy for this guy, especially since there is almost nothing he could have done differently that would have not put him in the situations he ends up in.

This is one of those short films that will be ruined if I talk too much about what happens in it. However, I can assure you if you enjoy sit-coms and like silent comedies, you'll find plenty to entertain yourself here. Anita Garvin also gets to play a more sympathetic character than usual, so that's a nice change of pace.

Not every bit in "Forgotten Sweeties" works--and I suspect that part of that may be due to a social context that has been muted by the passage of time, but others are just a little too silly and drag on just a little too long--but the good outweighs that bad. The running gag with James Finlayson and a cat during the second half of the film is one of the highlights here.

"Forgotten Sweeties" is one of a handful of Charley Chase shorts included in the "Silent Comedy Classics" collection, all of which were digitized from the collection of film preservationist John Carpenter. It's a great DVD... at a price that's a steal. It's more than worth the price, I think.