The Blacklist Declassified

🔴 Scribblings and Scuttlebutt Jan-Jun 2017

 
Link: http://wp.me/pDKwi-3S9
This is where I post my thoughts and reblog stuff from other sites I find interesting or topical, mostly topics from Twitter, Tumblr and blogs. This is probably the closest thing on this blog to a “blog.” I also post notes on things not working or behind. Increasingly, that’s been mostly what it is. Lightly edited. Reverse chronological. Comments are open.
– LizzieB90


Go To: ⭕ Earlier Volumes “Scribblings & Scuttlebutt”:

Jul-Dec 2016: http://wp.me/pDKwi-3di
Apr-Jun 2016: http://wp.me/pDKwi-2I3
Jan-Mar 2016: http://wp.me/pDKwi-2hK
Oct-Dec 2015: http://wp.me/pDKwi-1Hz
Jul-Sep 2015: http://wp.me/pDKwi-1gs
Mar-Jun 2015: http://wp.me/pDKwi-Vd

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6/22/2017

Midsummer Solstice Update

There’s info on year-end ratings for Season 4 under News. Season 5 officially begins on Wednesday, October 4, 2017 at 8pm ET in the US. New day and time.

I’ve been consumed with politics, spending much of my time reading and Tweeting as @Auriandra …

I’m still working on the Storybook for Season 4. I’m almost done with the Dembe episode. Then I have to do the finale (the two Mr Kaplan episodes). I have been testing some new photo editing tools.

I chuckle to see how often 🔥 Red Hot Fan Fiction 🔥 is at the top of the most popular list. I need to update the ♤♤♡♡ ratings.

Cape May continues to be the most popular individual script. What Is The Cabal? still gets a lot of hits. There are today things I would add, especially about Russian hacking and “fake news.” (Red: “The truth – I hold it dear.” Me, too.) I added some links about fake news under Deep Deep Background.

I’m reading Naomi Klein’s new book No Is Not Enough, and what she has to say is similar to some points I made in What Is The Cabal? especially in suggesting the permanent “war economy” needs to be supplanted with an earth-friendly peace economy (dream on, kid!). I’m half way through the book and so far, though, she doesn’t say much about whether we maybe entering a post-Enlightenment age. But there are several articles I’ve come across that discuss this.

The Internet Defense League badge in the righthand column has to do with actions planned to defend Internet Neutrality. You can click on the badge to take you to the site to learn what you can do. This has to do with establishing “fast” and “slow” lanes on the Internet in the US. In short, people who put stuff on the Internet would have able to buy fast response times; and this would slow down everyone else. Silicon Valley and “content producers” (from Netflix to the people who produce The Blacklist down to small bloggers like me) are facing off on this against the big cable companies.

Anyway, that’s my update. Happy Summer! ♡ ི•̮͡• ૂ ྀ ♡

 
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4/30/2017

Uh oh…

🐣 Thoughts on Season 5 renewal chances http://wp.me/PDKwi-14T#mythoughts4292017 … #TheBlacklist @NBCBlacklist //➔ just thought of something! –

🐣 There are SIX open slots at the top of #TheBlacklist what if Red, Liz, Cooper, Ressler, Samar, Aram ➔ SIX. Add Kaplan at 9, Hitchin at 13 …

 
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4/28/2017

Special Request:

‼️Please‼️ contribute to this list of ❓Unanswered Questions❓ to be sent to the writers http://wp.me/pDKwi-52V 

Please suggest new questions or corrections in the comments.

 
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4/23/2017
Double Episode: Dembe Zuma & Requiem

With two episodes this week, I will likely have time only to do the Storybook (which I need to do before I can do the Thursday “pre-game” slideshow on Twitter) for one of them. Though there is more “Red” in 4:16 Dembe Zuma, there seems to be more interest (and a higher IMDb rating) for 4:17 Requiem. This episode is also more important to developing the mythos of the show, so I will likely focus on that episode first and finish the Storybook and related things for 4:16 Dembe Zuma over the summer break.

 
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4/13/2017

Music and Photos to 🔥Red Hot🔥 James Spader Pics

Wow! I found that after adding music buttons to the Season 4 scripts, I could easily add them to the gallery of hot (some very (18+ yo) hot) JS photos. So I picked some of my favorites. There are a dozen or so options of songs to play as you drool over the photos. I also added 20 new photos and re-edited a half dozen more.
 
Photo Editing Apps I Rely On

I just discovered a new (free) iPad Photoshop app called Photoshop Fix that I really like. Understand that most (80%) of the screenshots from the show are dark and need adjustments. When I brighten them, pixelization is an issue. With PS Fix and my iPencil, I can be much more precise with smoothing.

Also, when only certain portions of a photo are dark, I use Snapseed to brighten (or sometimes darken) just the area needing adjustment. Snapseed also has a function for adding “structure” to all or part of a photo. This is especially useful for adding dimension to washed-out photos and making males’ faces look more “rugged.” For instance, I used to have a lot of trouble with Ressler photos because his “ginger” features tended to appear flat. Now I can adjust for that.

Facetune is something I use infrequently to brighten eyes or even adjust face shape. I use this with great discretion but sometimes James can look a little too jowly or Megan a little too square-jawed. Previously, I would have passed on such pics, but sometimes just a little tweak is all it needs.

The main two apps I use, though, are Apple’s native iOS Photos and Big Blue Clip’s open-ended Collage Maker. Beyond collages, it is great for sharpening, smoothing (the best!) and other general editing. It, too, works great with iPencil.

Pixelmator is good for erasing things or filling in areas. It will erase titles or fill in hair, for instance.

I actually tested 60+ photo editing apps in 2015. These are the ones I use most.

Obviously, not all photos are salvageable and sometimes I do what I can and post them anyway.

 
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4/7/2017

New Stuff

I hope you like these ‼️New‼️features and enhancements, including:

⭕ The Song Videos have been totally redone and are up-to-date.
⭕ Search Assistance and the Clickable Tag Index have been redone.
⭕ Songs have their own Clickable Tag Index of song titles and artist names.
⭕ Twitter Moments (Collections of Tweets) have been created for many episodes
  (including all of Season 4)
⭕ Season 4 Scripts have new buttons to play each song where it appears in the script.
⭕ IMDb episode ratings have been added to the “♤♤ All Scripts” list.

I will continue to add to and refine these and other enhancements.

⋙ If you have trouble, please leave a comment at the bottom of Scribblings and Scuttlebutt, or Notify me on Twitter: @BlacklistDCd
 
*Note: Twitter “Moments” are collections of Tweets. I’m now using them for the Episode Tweets I send out on Twitter the afternoon before each new show (and in the countdowns I do leading up to each premiere).

“Moments” contains all the Tweets for an episode. These are up-to-date for Season 4. In addition I did them for:

⭕ 1:1 The Pilot Part A and Part B
⭕ 2:8 The Decembrist, Part A, Part B, and Part C
⭕ 3:19 Cape May Part A and Part B

There are multiple parts because there is a limit of 100 Tweets per “Moment.” They read like a comic book of each episode ➔ but with photos.

New stuff cross-posted in “Clues”
 
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3/26/2017

I can’t believe …

… I forgot to switch two of the slideshows in the Pilot from private to public‼️ Dumb. It must have been like that since like last summer. Facepalm.

Anyway, they work now. In the meantime, trying to get them to work, I separated the Pilot into its own post, thinking it was the file length that was the problem. Apparently the problem is the number of videos in a file, not the length. This summer I will break them all out like the other seasons which will improve the indexing. I didn’t have the tools I have now to edit the Scripts for Seasons 1 & 2, so for now there remain more errors than in Season 3 and 4. Also, I did start out doing the Scripts just for myself so …

I’ve been working hard on two other things: Music and Indexing, both of which I totally reorganized. They’re still in progress, so I haven’t announced them yet, but you should notice changes, hopefully good ones!

I’m planning a Twitter countdown of episodes as usual for Season 4 to date. I’m not sure when I’ll start as I haven’t decided whether to go over weekends.

My son leaves for an airbase outside Mosul tomorrow. Totally unrelated, except I’m glad I have something I love to do to keep my mind from inventing imaginary calamities. He’s been overseas before but not in a war zone. He’s a paramedic.

 
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3/15/2017

Did you know…?

The collection of flags in the right hand column is of the countries where people live who have actually visited the BlacklistDCd.com site!

My husband and I cross-referenced the list that WordPress provides of hits by IP address to give stats by country. We used this to look up the emojis for each country’s flag and voilá! There were about 180 countries. There are likely a few more by now, as we did this about a year ago.

The Blacklist is truly an international phenom! I hope TPTB realize this when it comes to making renewal decisions.

And Thanks Again, Everyone!

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3/14/2017

New Music Format

I’ve been working on a new format for The Blacklist music on this site. It avoids the loading problems you may have experienced with the earlier files by linking to the lyrics and YouTube videos at the end of each script. The advantage here is that the lyrics and videos are together and, of course, the YouTube videos are free. It will look like this: (Try it; it works!)(Hopefully …) Use your back button to return.

🅾️ Season Four (in progress)

⭕ 4:15 The Apothecary

♫ My Girl by The Mamas and The Papas

♫ No Salt on Her Tail by The Mamas and The Papas

♫ All Along The Watchtower by Bob Dylan

 
I’ll post once I have half of Season 4 ready and then work backwards to complete Season 4, then Season 3, as far as I can get by April 1.

 
Another new music feature is that I have begun including audio buttons [ a square miniaturized version of the video ] of the YouTube videos in the scripts where the songs occur. Click the small square button twice to play an audio-only version of the song.

 
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3/10/2017

“All Scripts” Updated

This is the “Grand Central Station” of the script posts, so I was nervous about touching it, but it seems to be working pretty well.

I allowed for linking to some of the specific scripts in the Season One Easy-Scripts file. This will also allow me to plug in complete versions of the scripts when I get around to doing them (likely this summer).

I also added some additional cross-navigation here and in Easy-Scripts.

 
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3/6/2017

I made changes to the headers of all the Easy-Search files. I hope I didn’t mess anything up as these are used a lot.

I also updated the Site Search and Index. All episodes are now in the tag list at the top, including topic searches (e.g. “Quack quack bitch” or “Rubber Ducky” – lol). There are still a few terms that come up null, too many to go through manually. I had not updated this for Season 4 because I was getting error messages, but it turns out they were from the browser not the database manager (WordPress).

 
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2/26/2017
“Lizzington Forever”?

CarterMatt asked the question: “What do you think needs to be done to secure The Blacklist season 5 renewal? Share in the comments below!” http://bit.ly/2m1fVRM (2/26)

My response:

“I have a blog where I list and rate “M”ature Lizzington fan fiction. There’s been a huge increase in hits to this list in the last 3 weeks. A year ago I ran a poll asking what “ships” people wanted. Lizzington won with 72% – it’s even higher in other countries. 701 people responded to the poll. Just FYI.

“Personally, I still want to know a lot more about Katarina and Red’s relationship. Liz knows from her mother’s journal that Katarina really loved Red. Did Red ever really know?”

Twitter link: CarterMatt asked what’s needed to ensure #TheBlacklist Season 5 … @JonBokenkamp @johneisendrath @DaveMetzger… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/836135852342456320
 
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2/9/2017
The Blacklist Redemption

For the record, I will not be doing scripts or other updates for the spin-off. I started doing this blog because of my love of James Spader, so it’s that simple. Plus, I need the breaks to catch up on other things in my life. This is not to say I won’t watch the show and report on things that affect both shows. I did very much much enjoy Edi Gathegi (sp?) as Solomon.

There are other things I love about The Blacklist – the historical, political & scientific depth of it in particular. From what little I’ve read about the new show, it will be more “relatable.” To me that sounds like they may want to “dumb it down” to get good ratings. To which I go: “meh.” I guess I’m one of those “elites” who loves erudition and obscure references.

P.S. I updated the 🔥Red Hot🔥 Fan Fiction from both Archive of Our Own and fan fiction.net. That is, I added stories, though I haven’t rated the new ones yet. Over the March break, I will do this. I also plan the revamp the Music files if I can figure out why the YouTube videos stopped embedding.

 
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1/30/2017
More Updates

Thanks to there being no new episode last Thursday, I was able to update “Interrogations” (interviews, with excerpts), “Vulnerabilities” (reviews and other articles), and “News” about the show. “News” http://wp.me/PDKwi-14T includes things like ratings, guest stars, features about actors unrelated to the show (like Megan’s baby, and renewal status. I include my site stats occasionally. Lots of charts.

I wish I had more interviews from the  Boston Legal  period. I’ll work on this.

I don’t include recaps under “Vulnerabilities” but there is a list of sites doing recaps under “Black Sites.” My favorite site for these is Entertainment Weekly (so much so I link to them in every script). I also avoid promo articles and spoiler sites. I used to read these, but it spoiled the show for me.

Special Request: I am always looking for photos for 🔥Red Hot Spader Pics 🔥 Please contact me in comment below, or better yet, notify or DM me at @BlacklistDCd on Twitter.

 
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1/26/2017

Update of Updates …

I separated out the List of Blacklisters into its own post and updated the list.

I also updated the site Index. I think the time-out issues I was having is an issue with Safari and not with WordPress. Fingers crossed. It still needs work, but the episode list should work, the link to the new Blacklisters list should work, and of course it is topic-indexed (alpha index) through season three.

 
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1/7/2017

“Red Hot Fan Fiction” is way behind

The series doesn’t seem to be going in a Lizzington direction. Though I love the Lizzington fan fiction, I also love all that we’ve learned about Katarina, Red, Kirk and theoretical other lovers of Katarina. I do plan to catch up on my rec list of Lizzington fan fiction (my week’s hospitalization in December made updating it impossible), I’m also hoping a new “Katington” fandom will emerge. (Maybe it’s there already and I just haven’t had time to look. I watched Outlander over the break and loved Lotte Vermeek as Geillis Duncan. I hope she returns to TBL again and again. The scene with Katarina and Red on the floor in Cape May slayed me! By the way, that script is by far the most popular script on this blog – with TWICE as many views as the next highest.)

The Cold War shaped the world we live in. Right now, the post-Cold War order appears in flux, with the election of Trump and his pro-Russian proclivities. These next few years will be very dangerous and very, very interesting. Maybe it is time for the 1945 and 1990s arrangements of nations to soften. What a fun time to be a writer of TBL! I am so, so jealous.

Since I haven’t had time to participate in the conversations on Twitter, I don’t know what others think but it’s pretty clear that Red does not believe that Katarina was truly in love with him – though she wrote that she was. Red appears to have forsaken any other deep relationships. She was the love of his life. His key focus is on his devotion to her daughter Liz, that “one precious piece of herself” she left behind, and now, also to Liz’s daughter Agnes. I personally wouldn’t mind a more sexualized relationship, but I think the limitations of network tv likely proscribe this. Also, I do not want TBL to move to cable with only 12 or so shows a year. Nope. I’ll love what the show gives us, and let my (dirty) imagination do the rest.

Well, here’s to a happy and prosperous New Year to Blacklist Lovers near and far.

My affections ♡♤♡
LizzieB90

 
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Below: Held over from last year:

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12/2/2016

So What Happened to the Music?

Last summer, it suddenly became more difficult to embed YouTube videos in my music files – at least the number that I was trying to embed. You likely noticed that I do embed the videos for the main songs, along with the lyrics, at the end of the “full” scripts (as opposed to the “Easy-Search” scripts.

My plan is to redo the music section entirely to link to the songs in the full script files. The downside is it will take longer for the program to take you to the link. The upside is I can provide all the song names and links and which episode they’re in in one file making it easier to scroll through or search.

I also ran into a problem the large Index file. It seems to be balking at the large number of index terms. My plan for that is to break it into separate smaller files, like pulling the list of Blacklisters into a separate file.

This will take time though. Now that the US election is over (‼️‼️‼️) I’ll hopefully be able to keep up and get to these two tasks during the spring hiatus. Right now I’m working on the Storybook, which is my favorite thing to do.

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11/6/2016

I am behind on everything. The election has torn my family apart. I know this is not unusual. My son is being deployed to Iraq in February. During the hiatus, I hope to catch up.