Jain

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/25/sip-happens-at-dozo/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56162

Let’s revisit December 2o23 for a moment, when I first experienced Dozo: an exceptionally cool underground sushi spot in Dayton that features a pre-fixe tasting menu and sake/wine pairings. After that incredible initial visit, I went about six or seven more times after that. Every time was the bomb dot com.

Today I’m here to tell you about a special event they held last week, called “Sip Happens: Sake Edition.” It was a sake tasting event in partnership with SakeOne, a sake company out of Oregon that not only brews their own craft sake, but has been importing fine sake from Japan since 1992.

It was twenty bucks for a ticket, which got you a 2oz pour of each of the four selected sakes for the evening. When buying your ticket online, you had the choice to add on two different sushi rolls, each for seven dollars. I opted for one of each roll to accompany my sake samplings.

For the most part, the only time I ever have sake is when I’m dining at Dozo and do their sake pairing. I always enjoy getting to try new sakes, so I was really excited to try some new ones at the event and also learn all about them.

When I was seated at my corner bar seat (my favorite seat, really), there was this welcome card:

On the back was a list of the sakes we were going to be trying, as well as the options to purchase another tasting of it or purchase the full bottle to take home:

I didn’t realize until I saw the card that the first sampling was going to be of my favorite sake! I absolutely love the Awa Yuki and it’s one of the first sake I ever tried, and it helped me realize I do really enjoy sake. So I was looking forward to that one even though I had in fact tried it before.

Here was my pours of the Awa Yuki and the Naginata:

For the Awa Yuki, it’s a sparkling sake and I tend to enjoy sparkling sakes and wines more than still. The Awa Yuki is slightly sweet, very light, and has just the right amount of bubbles. I’ve always thought it tastes kind of marshmallowy or vanilla-esque, and apparently both of those are actual tasting notes of it! I feel accomplished. It’s very mellow and I love the pretty blue bottle it comes in. It’s actually about half the size of a regular 750ml sake bottle, which is why the to-go bottle you can purchase is only twelve bucks. It’s also lower in alcohol content than a lot of sakes, at 5.5%. Here’s some extra details on it.

When I was talking to the SakeOne representative, Jack, he was happy to hear Awa Yuki is my long-standing favorite sake.

Then he began telling me all the details of the Naginata. Something that really fascinated me was that the rice used for the Naginata was grown in Arkansas and is actually a super high quality sake rice called yamada nishiki. It is considered the “king” of sake rice, and SakeOne’s goal with the Naginata is “to craft the best sake brewed outside of Japan, period.” If that’s their goal, using the king of sake rice is certainly a good place to start!

The Naginata smelled like crisp apple, and when I tasted it I ended up getting a melon-y flavor. I didn’t know if that was “correct” so I waited until Jack mentioned the tasting notes of it, and I was on the mark again, much to my delight. It was slightly dry but not overly so, honestly very light and fruity. I really enjoyed it.

You may have noticed that this particular sake is considerably more expensive than the other offerings. Not only was there only 1000 bottles produced, but it is 100% handcrafted, and the brewmaster is involved in every step of the process from washing the rice to bottling. It comes in an elegant, simple bottle with an embossed logo. True Sake says on their website that this is a “world-class sake that should not be missed by any sake enthusiasts.”

While I was enjoying these two pours, my sushi was brought out to me:

These rolls were much bigger than I anticipated, each coming with eight pretty large pieces. It was only seven dollars for each so I was pleasantly surprised at the portion. These rolls were extremely tasty, and the salmon was so fresh and tender that I ended up asking the chef about it. He said the salmon was from Canada, and was cold smoked. I think he also mentioned something about a brown sugar marinade, but yeah definitely super yummy. So glad I got to try both rolls.

I got my next two pours:

When the Yuki Tora Nigori was being poured, I got to see the beautiful, frosted glass bottle with the coolest tiger decal on it, which is fitting because its name means “snow tiger.” This sake is cloudy from natural rice sediment, and is more creamy and silkier than other sakes. The snow tiger was certainly packed full of flavor, it was complex and layered and truly unique, with flavors of roasted grain and toasted cereal, but also some slight sweetness. It honestly reminds me of horchata with its warm spice and creaminess. I loved this one! Here’s some extra details on it. Plus I love that you can buy it in a little 200ml can, so cute.

And finally, the Hakutsuru Plum Wine. While it’s not a sake, it’s made by a sake brand, in fact it’s the same one that makes the Awa Yuki, so I had high hopes for this wine. I gave it a sniff and it smelled pleasantly sweet and rather almondy. This wine was seriously out of this world, with a beautifully sweet plum taste, it was the perfect finisher to this tasting experience. Jack told me that it’s especially delicious because it’s actual fermented plum puree, like it isn’t fake or artificial at all. The specific plums are called “ume,” and it’s very popular in Japan to have the plum wine mixed with soda water on the rocks, or for it to be used in plum wine highballs. Here’s some extra details on it.

All four sakes were fantastic, and I hope the next time I’m in Portland I get a chance to check out SakeOne’s Tasting Room. I’m so glad I got to have some delicious, fresh sushi from Dozo while savoring these sakes, and if Tender Mercy decides to do another one of these events in the future, you already know I’m going.

Which sake sounds the best to you? Do you prefer chilled sake like me, or do you like it hot? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day! And be sure to check out SakeOne, Tender Mercy, and Dozo on Instagram!

-AMS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/25/sip-happens-at-dozo/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56162

Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/24/briefly-venice/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56195

For our 25th anniversary, Krissy and I were planning to go to Iceland and spend a week or so there, getting to know the country. Then the pandemic happened and we ended up spending the anniversary at home. Fine, we would just reschedule Iceland for our 30th anniversary. But then I was invited to do a convention in Iceland last year, and we tacked on an extra five days after the convention to do all the things we planned for our 25th anniversary. This left our 30th anniversary suddenly unscheduled.

Fortunately, I had a backup: I had always wanted to visit Venice, not just for Venice itself, but also, goofily, for the fact there is a Church of the Scalzi there, and a Scalzi Bridge, and, heck, why not, even a Scalzi restaurant. Honestly, how could I not go? Krissy indulged me, and on the week of our anniversary, off we went.

We spent a full week in Venice, which appeared to surprise the people there when we mentioned the fact to them. Apparently Venice is usually a couple-days stop at most, tourists grimly marching themselves from the Doge’s palace to the obligatory gondola ride to wherever else they went before they were hustled back onto a bus or cruise ship and sent off to whatever the next destination was. The fact we were in town for a whole week impressed the locals. They seemed to appreciate that we wanted to take in the city at a leisurely pace.

Which is what we did! We did have two days where we had a private guide to give us a walking tour of the city (including stops at the aforementioned Doge’s palace, St. Mark’s basilica and the Scalzi church) and to take us over to Murano to watch glass being blown. And of course we rode in a gondola, because, hey, we were in fact tourists, and not afraid to do touristy things. But most of the days there we woke up late, wandered around the city and maybe took in a museum or church, and then ate at a bunch of restaurants and hung out in a bunch of bars, mostly on the water, and watched the city go by in various boats. Venice, as it turns out, is a lovely city to just be in. Krissy and I mostly did a lot of not much, and it was pretty great.

Mind you, Venice is one of the most overtouristed cities in the world, and as a visitor you can certainly feel that, especially on the weekends, in the space between the Rialto Bridge and the Piazza San Marco. It’s Disneyland-level crowded there. I can’t complain overmuch about that fact without being a full-blown hypocrite, but we did understand that our role in town was to drop a lot of money into the local economy in order to balance out our presence. We were happy to do that, and, you know, to be respectful of the people who were helping to give us a delightful vacation. By and large the Venetians were perfectly nice, did not seem to dislike us merely for being Americans, and in any event we got out of town before Jeff Bezos could show up and make everyone genuinely angry. No one blamed us for Jeff Bezos, either.

One of the things I personally genuinely enjoyed about Venice was just how utterly unlike anywhere in the United States. Yes, I know there are places in the US where they have canals; heck, the Venice in California was once meant to have them all over the place. But it’s not only about the canals. It’s about the fact that no matter what street you’re going down, what bridge you’re crossing or what side canal you’re looking down into, parts of everything you’re looking at have been there longer than the US has been a country, and none of it accommodates anything that the US would require. There are no cars in Venice, no Vespas, not even any bikes. If you’re going anywhere, you’re walking or going by boat. It’s very weird to have no road noise anywhere. You don’t realize how much you get used that noise, even in a rural area like the one I live in, until you go some place without it. I mean, there are boats with engines. The sounds of internal combustion are not entirely gone. But it’s dramatically reduced.

As mentioned, we stayed in Venice for a week, which I think is probably the right amount of time to be in the city. We didn’t see everything it had to offer, but then we weren’t trying to; if and when we go back there will still be new things to explore. But I did get to check off visiting the Scalzi Bridge, Church and restaurant, and the last of these was where Krissy and I had our actual 30th anniversary dinner. It’s was pretty good. I did not get a discount because of my last name. Alas. Here’s picture of the interior of the Church of the Scalzi:

Slightly more ornate than the one in Bradford, Ohio, I admit. But in defense of the one in Ohio, it’s much easier to dust.

Would I recommend Venice to others? Definitely. Spend more than a couple of days. Be respectful. Spend a decent amount of money. Have an Aperol Spritz. If you’re from the US, enjoy the fact there is nothing like it in the American experience. Maybe avoid the Rialto Bridge on the weekend. And there you have it: an excellent Venetian vacation. I hope you’ll enjoy yours as much as we enjoyed ours.

— JS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/24/briefly-venice/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56195

Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/23/back-in-the-day-and-here-and-now/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56163

My friend George sent me this picture of me and Krissy — which I had been literally trying to find for years! — where she and I were at the wedding of my friend Clete. I was a groomsman, which is why I’m dressed up; Krissy is dressed up because, you know, wedding, you’re supposed to look nice. I seem to remember the wedding taking place in 1995, although I might be off by a year; either way, this is us, roughly 30 years ago.

And here we are now!

30 years is a lot of time and also, not nearly enough time with someone if you love them a lot. Fortunately for us we get to keep going. Not gonna lie, though, I miss my hair. Krissy’s still looks spectacular, of course. That’ll have to be enough for the both of us.

Also, hello, we’re back in the United States now. Venice was lovely. I’ll post some more pictures of it soon.

— JS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/23/back-in-the-day-and-here-and-now/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56163

Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/20/were-seeing-art/

And it’s giving us a lot to think about.

Venice continues to be lovely and also at this moment rather warm and sweaty. After a morning of seeing art we’ve retreated back to the air conditioning of our hotel room. We’ll go back out again when we’re not so darn sticky.

— JS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/20/were-seeing-art/

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/19/the-big-idea-auston-habershaw/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56136

There’s magic to be found everywhere you look, even in a mall! At least, such is the case in author Auston Habershaw’s newest novel, If Wishes Were Retail. Come along in his Big Idea to see how this idea initially set up shop in his brain.

AUSTON HABERSHAW:

When I graduated from college, I had a really clear idea of what I wanted to do with my life: I wanted to be a novelist. I’d already written a novel during college (I will never inflict it upon anyone, I promise) and I figured, if I worked hard and focused on my goals, I’d be a professional author making a comfortable salary by the time I was 25. 

I’ll pause here for your peals of laughter. 

…

Done yet? No?

…(checks watch)…

Okay, okay—the point here is that I needed to get a job in order to pursue my dreams. For that period of time (my early-mid twenties), the idea was to get a job that wouldn’t occupy much of my attention so that I could focus the balance of my efforts towards writing. That’s how I wound up doing a lot of odd jobs and minimum wage gigs. I was a coffee barista, a restaurant server, a lifeguard, a swim instructor, a theme park performer (I dressed as a pirate), an SAT tutor, a hotel bellhop, and so on and so forth. I spent most of my time broke and barely able to pay rent and in the evenings I bashed my head against a keyboard until words came out and I published exactly nothing. I was exhausted, usually hungry, but still chasing that dream. 

And that, right there, is where If Wishes Were Retail comes from. Everybody’s got a dream, right? And the world just gets in the way, you know? Money, opportunity, luck, health, family—the list of obstacles to “making it” are endless, or so it seems. Enter the genie.

I mean, everybody’s thought about it, right? If you could get 3 wishes, what would they be? We ask ourselves that, over and over, because just about no one is content with the state of their lives. There’s always some mountaintop we have yet to reach, and the only way we feel we’ll ever get there is, essentially, an act of God. A lottery ticket. A mysterious stranger, offering us a deal for our soul. A genie in a lamp. Rare, mythical things; unheard of strokes of fortune. We all recognize that is never going to happen to us. The world just doesn’t work that way. 

But what if it did? Say we have a genie and he’s just there, you know? In public, doing his thing. Anyone can just walk up and make a wish. Now, of course, the genie has goals of his own and dreams he’d like to see realized, so he’s charging money for wishes. Cash. Walk up to him with a stack of twenties and plonk it down and BAM, you could have the life you’ve always wanted. What would you wish for? How much would you spend?

When preparing to write this book, I asked people I met those two questions. I would say “what if you could make a wish, but it cost money? What’s the wish? What would you pay?” This was a fascinating experiment. First off, a lot of people wouldn’t wish at all. They assumed the genie was malevolent and they wouldn’t get what they paid for. Second, people would make outrageously powerful wishes (World peace! A cure for all cancers! My own private moon!) and then offer some piddling sum, like ten bucks or something. “What’s it matter,” they’d say. “It doesn’t require any effort on the part of the genie! What does he care?” Everyone agreed, though, that the money—having to pay for a wish—sort of ruined the “magic” of it all. Money got in the way of their dreams. 

I wanna repeat that last bit: money got in the way of their dreams. Ya THINK? Could, possibly, money and the way our economic system works interfere with people’s ability to achieve happiness and satisfaction in their lives? NO, SURELY NOT. Everyone, we live in capitalism, the fairest and most beautiful-est system ever, where the only thing that stands between you and complete material and spiritual satisfaction is hard work! Just work hard, and everything will work out! I have been informed by my lawyers that this is entirely 100% accurate with no loopholes or conditions whatsoever. 

Hang on, someone is handing me a note…

…oh.

Oh no.

And, not only, does our capitalist system make it difficult to achieve our dreams, it also just so happens that we, fallible mortal creatures that we are, are incorrect about what we want! We wish for stupid, selfish things! We seek self-destructive ends! So, like, even assuming you manage to run the gauntlet of 21st century late-stage capitalism to somehow, maybe hack your way to the top of the artisanal bagel shop market only to realize you hate it and are miserable anyway. And that, friends, is a super-common problem that not even a genie can fix! How’s the genie supposed to know that you would hate being a fashion mogul? And even if he knew, would you listen to him if he told you?

I wrote this book to reflect upon the ways in which our grind-mentality, sleep-when-you’re-dead, coffee-is-for-closers culture has led us astray. Our society has created essentially infinite obstacles in an unending labyrinth that we have been told leads to happiness and fulfillment and we expend such massive amounts of energy seeking these things only to miss sight of all the things we could have that are right in front of us. It’s tragic sometimes, but it’s also funny and absurd and just, like, life you know? What are you gonna do, not be human?

Anyway, I wrote a book about this. It’s funny and it has a genie in a failing mall seen from the point of view of a teenager with big dreams, just like I was. Just like maybe you were or even are. Here’s hoping it’s exactly what you want and exactly what you’re willing to pay. 

---

If Wishes Were Retail: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Powell’s

Author socials: Website|Bluesky|Facebook

Read an excerpt.

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/19/the-big-idea-auston-habershaw/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56136

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/18/the-big-idea-aimee-ogden/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56109

Coming back to ideas with fresh eyes is always a good idea. For author Aimee Ogden, it was eight years before she revisited the story that would come to be her newest novella, Starstruck. Check out her Big Idea to see how she made this story shine.

AIMEE OGDEN:
Ten years ago, I had the Big Idea that would become Starstruck: a world where each falling star held a soul that would animate whatever plant or animal it fell on. What would happen if those stars stopped falling? And what about when something got a soul that was never supposed to have one?

I wrote a book I loved about that idea—a fantasy for YA readers—and queried it with around a hundred different agents. And I got an equivalently hundred-adjacent number of rejections. C’est la vie écrivaine; I cried, presumably ate a cookie or two about it, and buried it in my trunk of failed stories, never to be seen again.

It turned out that out of sight did not mean out of mind. Starstruck haunted me (the book itself embodied, occasionally, in the person of a friend who also cared about it a lot), until two years ago, I exhumed the story’s corpse, and I was happy to find it still had good bones. They just needed to be arranged into a different order; and there was a fair bit of carrion flesh to strip away, too, to pare it down to a novella.

I still had a magical world of falling stars. I still had the same main characters: an abandoned human child, a gentle fox, her pragmatic radish wife, and a rock with delusions of destiny. Even the climactic moment stayed almost unchanged from the original version, except for the paring back of some elements that had proved extraneous to the story.

But the original version was YA, and the story had centered around the human boy. I hadn’t read widely enough yet to expand my conception of what a lead character could or should be. Coming back to it, I knew right away that I only wanted to write about a middle-aged radish. A magical middle-aged radish with a soul, and her enormous love, and her silent, squashed-aside regrets, and her utter inability to cope with a chunk of granite that told her it had a name and a birthday and a favorite color.

If I’d been paying more attention, I probably should have known where the story’s emotional heart lay the first time around—in the original version, the final scenes take place from the radish perspective. Even before I understood this was her story, I must have sensed that the needed closure could only come from her.

Or maybe I couldn’t have known yet. Eight years is a big gap to develop and change as a writer, and to accrue emotional baggage besides. Without that time, and without the double regret of failing with and then abandoning Starstruck, it couldn’t have been the same book. And as pleased as I was with it the first time around, it’s better now for its chance for maturation, and I have more room in my well-used, middle-aged heart with which to love it. Maybe you do, too. How do you feel about radishes?

---

Starstruck: Publisher website

Author Socials: Website|Bluesky

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/18/the-big-idea-aimee-ogden/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56109

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/17/the-big-idea-john-wiswell-2/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56098

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. Author John Wiswell tells us of a tale that usually ends in revenge and violence, but imagines a world where our hero chooses kindness instead. Follow along in the Big Idea for his newest novel, Wearing The Lion, and see where empathy takes us.

JOHN WISWELL:

You deserve better than revenge.

I know, you want to catch your father’s murderer and duel them to the death, but then you’ll leave the scene feeling hollow and unfulfilled. Or worse, the pursuit will corrupt you into becoming the kind of person you hated. And there’s a great likelihood that your quickness to action will make you hurt the wrong person, and then you’re inspiring revenge in others. Think better of it now, because I will throw the book across the room if you kill the villain’s entire crew but spare the villain at the last minute because otherwise you’ll be “just like him.”

So we know there are problems with revenge. But what are the alternatives?

It’s something I’ve been exploring for my entire life. It’s tough to begin thinking about because our narratives of justice overflow with blood. We’re taught to seek culturally fetishized violence. We’re promised that reprisal will give us catharsis and justice. Mythology is rich with these narratives. Every king has made enemies who would like to get back at him. And the gods? They never drop a grudge. 

Mythology is the richest place to explore this theme. Myths tell us what we think about ourselves, which is why every generation wants to remix them, ear cocked for the sound of truth. What does it do to the traditional revenge narrative if the hero refuses to hurt anyone? No cracking goons’ skulls. No blowing up a dragon’s lair. Instead, we’d follow someone who was hurt and carried that hurt in his heart, but because of that, didn’t want to see more suffering in the world. Perhaps his entire journey toward “revenge” would actually be about finding the right thing to do.

Heracles (“Hercules” to the Romans) is such an interesting character from this point of view. His was never a revenge story. The gods drove him mad and made him slay his children, and for that he set out on the twelve labors in order to gain forgiveness. All that hydra-chopping and lion-punching was about being sorry. The modern eye jumps to thinking he shouldn’t be sorry, but vengeful toward the gods.

As it is, few Heracles retellings ever reflect on him slaying his family at all. He’s too busy doing epic stuff to be bothered with mourning. It’s like if Spider-Man never thought about Uncle Ben again.

That sort of violation would change you for the rest of your life. Doing violence with your hands ever again could be nauseating. You might do literally anything to avoid hurting others, especially if your labors were carried out to get justice for your children. When the gods said to kill that invincible lion, you could technically do it. You’d have Zeus’s strength. But that same strength would give you an opportunity to find another way through the labor. And in feeling like a monster yourself, you might find yourself relating to outcast creatures. You might find kinship with the invincible lion, and the hydra, and the titans. They might know what it’s like to feel wrong.

That became the heart of Wearing the Lion, my retelling of the Heracles myth. It changes the entire nature of his great labors. If you won’t hurt anyone—and if your power can’t solve your problems—then you have to adapt.

There is a long tradition in masculinity whereby those of us who have been hurt want to hurt others. It’s a lesson we learn before we can speak, treated as immutable nature. As I grew up, these narratives went from entertaining to exhausting. It hurts to see someone use their few resources on things other than supporting survivors, on sheltering people, healing and feeding them. There’s something about losing enough in your life (and helping others through their darkest times) that reveals how paltry retribution is. Survivors deserve better.

Yep! I accidentally wrote about the crisis of masculinity. I swear it wasn’t on purpose. 

But it was important to me to write about someone wrestling with these principles and looking for a better response to loss. The harm cannot be fixed. This sort of loss is not something you just “heal” from. It’s the sort of vacuum that makes revenge appealing, because in uncertainty, norms call to us. When Heracles rejects revenge and instead goes on the labors to understand what is really happening in the heavens, he starts to sound truer to me.

In his struggle, he questions if anyone can understand what he’s feeling. He thinks he doesn’t fit in with the world anymore. That he doesn’t belong around people. Who understands feeling that lost? Monsters.

Yes, his first new friends are a giant lion and extremely opinionated hydra. The creatures his labors send him towards know what it’s like to not fit in. They know what it’s like to not have answers. Grief isn’t something you can get tough enough to ignore. Heracles’s struggle with his culpability, and his quest to figure out which god is behind all of this, requires more than strength. It requires sides of the character I fell in love with while writing.

When Heracles is set against monsters while starving for peace, there’s the potential for a different kind of family. A found family of the creatures that civilization would never let near itself. Rather than skinning the Nemean Lion, Heracles winds up carrying it everywhere on its shoulders, because it demands snuggles. It’s ferocious about snuggles. Heracles bonding with these creatures, learning how to give support and feel worthy of it himself, are things I didn’t know I needed to write.

---

Wearing The Lion: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Powell’s Books|Oblong Books

Author Socials: Website|Bluesky|Instagram|Substack

Read an excerpt.

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/17/the-big-idea-john-wiswell-2/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56098

Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/16/first-dateaverssary-2025/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56070

32 years ago today, Krissy and I went on our first date. Today, our most recent date included a gondola ride, because if you’re a tourist in Venice and you don’t have a gondola ride, they will probably kick you out of the city. We didn’t want that. Gondola ride it was.

And how was the gondola ride? It was lovely, and it’s also an attraction that leans heavily on the novelty of Venice’s canals. I mean, basically, we were cruising past people’s houses for 30 minutes. If we did that in a golf cart in a Florida retirement community, no one would think it was special. But on water in nifty boat, pushed along by a dude with an oar? Magical.

Of course, the most important thing was who I was with. As long as I’m with Krissy, gondola or golf cart, the date is going to be magical. I like her a lot. Even after 32 years, it doesn’t get old.

— JS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/16/first-dateaverssary-2025/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56070

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/14/no-kings/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56053

Today was the day of nation-wide protests, the rally of the No Kings movement. It was also my first time going to a protest, like, at all. Though I’m disappointed I’ve never been to one before, I figured there was no better time to start than now. And I was joined by over a hundred people in front of the Troy courthouse to show that Miami County isn’t all red, and some of us actually do oppose fascism.

I was nervous to go to a protest, and that fear is what has been holding me back from going to any for literal years. But I convinced myself it would be fine since it was Troy and I doubted there’d be any flashbangs or rubber bullets happening. As expected, everything turned out completely fine. It was a totally peaceful protest, and only lasted an hour. It was organized well, concise, and full of a feeling of community.

It was so amazing to see older folks and younger people alike coming together, and I saw a friend there who gave me a sign, so I was thankful for that. It was such a great feeling to look around and see everyone coming together for the same cause, to speak up against the tyranny and tell the world (or at least Miami County) “this is not okay.”

I’m glad I went. Sometimes it can feel like it doesn’t make a difference if you’re there or not, or that nothing will change just because of some protests, but it’s better than doing nothing. Silence is complicity, and I don’t want to be compicit. Silence only helps the oppressor. So even if my voice is only one of a million, at least I know it’s in there somewhere.

Make sure you use yours, too. We’re in this together.

-AMS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/14/no-kings/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56053

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/12/why-licensed-music-works-so-well-in-megamind/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56041

If you know me, you know one thing I complain about a lot (and probably more than any sane person should) is the use of licensed music in animated movies. I especially hate the use of licensed music in Illumination studio movies. Though, I can recognize that I am biased because I hate Illumination as a whole and dislike 93.3% of their movies (I did the math).

There is one movie, though, in which I find the licensed music to not only be tolerable, but enjoyable. Megamind is the only movie where licensed music is absolutely essential throughout the film, and integral to the very character of Megamind himself.

Megamind is a flashy, theatrical villain who is in it for the love of the game. He lives for the showmanship and flamboyant performances that are the fights between him and Metro Man. As he says in the final fight of the movie, the difference between a villain and a supervillain is presentation. And you can see this ideal of his throughout the film.

In the first interaction with Roxanne Ritchi, where she has been kidnapped and is in Megamind’s evil lair, he unveils all these supervillain-esque devices to her in hopes to come across as a threatening villain. There’s alligators, spikes, a disc blade sort of thing, a mini gun, even a flamethrower. She is impressed by none of it, of course, and his confidence deflates as she mocks him. She also asks where they get all their blinky dials and Tesla coils, to which Minion responds that they come from an outlet store in Romania.

As we can see from this exchange, Megamind goes out of his way to aesthetically meet the requirements of being a villain. So much so that he even buys fake equipment from overseas to look professional. Essentially, he has props. Because he’s a theater kid!

Megamind is obsessed with the pageantry of heroes and villains. We can see this in the exchanges he has with Metro Man and their “witty” banter about microwave warranties. He loves it so much that when he is training Hal to be a superhero, he specifically tries to teach him how to have that same back-and-forth like Metro Man did with him. Even during their first fight, Megamind says “Now it’s time for some witty back-and-forth banter!”

Right before this fight, Megamind accuses Hal of being “unprofessional” and that Metro Man would’ve never kept him waiting, because he was a pro. Hal isn’t “professional” enough for Megamind, and when Hal catches him after their fight and says he’s going to kill him, Megamind says “that isn’t how you play the game.” Proof that Megamind sees this all as a big stage play. It’s a game to him, and one he loves and takes great care in making sure all of the details and specifics are just right and fit his ideal narrative perfectly.

In this same vein, Megamind is obsessed with perfecting his outfit, the Black Mamba, for his first fight with Hal. He wants his costume to look good for his big battle. For what is a good show without the costuming department? In the beginning of the movie, he intentionally points out that he’s wearing custom baby seal leather boots just to prove to everyone he is the bad guy. Look how evil he is, see how dastardly Megamind is. He’s obsessed with painting this picture of himself that presents himself as heinous and diabolical.

Which is exactly why all of the licensed music in this movie fits Megamind perfectly. More often than not, he is the one actually playing the music out loud. When he takes over Metro City, he tells Minion to “hit it” and plays “Highway to Hell” on a big boom box that Minion carries around. He proceeds to dance to it, and makes his smoke show entrance to city hall while it plays. For his final fight with Hal, he plays “Welcome to the Jungle” out loud and creates a huge smoke and light show with his Brain Bots. This is the part where he proclaims “presentation!” is the key to super villain. At the end of the movie, he plays “Bad” on an even bigger boom box and him and Roxanne dance to it.

The point here is that his music choices are intentional. The songs are tools that serve his purpose of painting himself as an iconic, nefarious villain. The licensed music isn’t just thrown in, it’s part of the world and a part of Megamind himself. It is intentional. And it works.

God, I love Megamind.

Do you like Megamind? Do you hate licensed music as much as I do, or am I just obsessed with something niche? Should I talk about why Despicable Me is the only good Illumination movie? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day!

-AMS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/12/why-licensed-music-works-so-well-in-megamind/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56041