Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

krisis

Krisis has been creating Crushing Krisis since 2000, writing songs since 1996, and reading comics since 1991. He is a Customer Success and Digital Brand Strategy executive, serial organizer, parent, and feminist, among other things. Based in Philly through 2017, he now resides in Wellington, NZ.

RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under Season 2 – Pre-Season “Meet The Queens” Power Rankings

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It’s time, y’all – Drag Race has circled the globe and crossed the equator to make it to my stomping grounds with RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under Season 2, featuring 10 queens from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand! That means it’s time for a new pre-season Power Ranking!

I won’t beat around the bush: anyone who watched Drag Race Down Under Season 1 knows it was a rough spot for the franchise. The queens were delightful (except for the unrepentant racist), but the production quality was wobbly and the elimination order was wonky. A production favorite came back only to be completely ignored and another was carried to the finale despite flatlining in the back half of the competition.

RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under Season 2 - Preseason Promo

Luckily, totally awesome Kiwi queen Kita Mean brought the crown home to our shores (or, more accurately, kept it here, since due to pandemic restrictions in Australia the show was shot in Auckland while NZ was COVID-free). That helped to make up for all of the intended guest stars who were trapped in Australia as well as Ru and Michelle not getting many(/any?) Down Under jokes.

All of that is behind us now. We’re back with another season of Down Under queens starting this weekend (again, shot in NZ!). While we won’t know if this production will be a shit-show or “sweet as,” today we can dig into the cast of 10 amazing drag performers to rank their chances at walking away with a crown.

I’d insert some appropriate Kiwi slang in here, but I’ve been locked in my house for half the time I’ve lived here so I don’t know any.

Now, let’s get to ranking the queens!

My rank is not a comment on their quality as drag artists, but on how far I see them making it on Drag Race based on the trends and tropes of the show as witnessed from over 25 Ru-hosted seasons. These are all outstanding performers, but being a great drag artist doesn’t always translate to doing well on Drag Race.

I have deliberately stayed away from any spoilers about this season, so my ranking is purely off of the vibe I get from queens from their two-minute “Meet The Queens” videos and their social media.

Finally, I’ll disclaim ahead of time that, while I haven’t met any of them or seen them perform, I am obviously going to be biased toward the Kiwi queens. I’ll try not to let it affect my rankings, but let’s face it: this is as close as I’ll ever come to participating in a NZ-vs-AUS rugby rivalry.

If you want to watch RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under Season 2 outside of Australia, New Zealand, and Canada you can sign up for WowPresentsPlus to watch the many worldwide Drag Race franchises for $4.99 a month or $50 a year. (Note that if you’re in the home country of a franchise you will need to use a VPN to “visit” another country to see that content.)

Readers, start your engines! And, may the best (antipodean) drag queen win! [Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under Season 2 – Pre-Season “Meet The Queens” Power Rankings

D&D 5e-Compatible Kickstarter Round-Up: The Midnight Ball, GrymWyrd Tales, & TheoryCraft character journals!

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Image by ScalyDragon from Pixabay

It’s time to don your armor, because I’m back with another weekly review of Dungeons & Dragons and 5e-Compatible projects on Kickstarter – including the very ooky Midnight Ball and GrymWyrd Tales!

I’ve now covered every D&D project on Kickstarter for a whole month. In that time, I’ve figured out some things – including that it’s no fun to scour a campaign page only to discover it’s poorly-planned, badly-edited, unreadable in layout, or even covertly racist – and to then write about it.

I don’t want to punch down on first-time creators or highlight creators whose work I’d never endorse.

Starting with this post, I’m no longer reviewing every new project on Kickstarter each week – only the ones that look interesting to me or that I think are worth recommending!

This week there’s just five new projects, of which I review three below:

Also new on Kickstarter this week are:

For projects with a scope that extends beyond being a single adventure or specific topic like “wands”, I review them based on the 9-point criteria I established in “What makes a good Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition official release or 5e-Compatible supplement?”

Want to catch up on other currently-running campaigns? Here are all of the other 24 campaigns currently-running on Kickstarter, all of which I’ve covered in depth on past posts in this series.

Do you have an upcoming 5e-Compatible Kickstarter project? I’d be happy to check out your sample pages, give you comments on your planned campaign page, or highlight your project in a future post. Just leave me a comment below or reach out to me @CrushingComics on Twitter. [Read more…] about D&D 5e-Compatible Kickstarter Round-Up: The Midnight Ball, GrymWyrd Tales, & TheoryCraft character journals!

Music Monday: “Feeling So” – Shea Coulée

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I am a sucker for any song that uses layers of instrumental riffs to emphasize an insistent, galloping, every-quarter-note rhythm, and Shea Coulée’s “Feeling So” does that in the best possible way.

Every time I listened to “Feeling So,” the first thought that pops into my head is “wow, this is like an update of ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ by Tears For Fears.” Every single time I think it is a new thought, and I am impressed with myself for noticing the reference, and then after a minute I think, “Hold on, surely this has occurred to me before…”

I think the the thing the two songs have in common is how they layer different instruments with slightly differing rhythms to achieve the net effect of emphasizing every beat. In “Rule The World,” it’s the way the insistent bassline marries to the back-and-forth step of the synth, later topped with the peal of of guitar picking from the intro.

“Feeling So” is built the same way. It has an opening synth riff that continues burbling in the background like a melodic fountain. It has the same driving gallop of bass. And, it has that same step-and-repeat of passing synth chords.

The difference is how “Feeling So” later breaks that that rhythm. When the staccato chords of the pre-chorus interrupt the bassline it feels like a change in temperature – as if we’re on the verge of a shock. But, the song eases us back into the familiar gallop with the reintroduction of the bubbling synth in the background of the next section.

I think it’s the continuous rhythm, break, and return that has encoded this song into my brain so deeply, tempering my neural pathways with every repeat of the cycle.

Also that it really does song like an update of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” with a hint of the sunny disposition of Madonna’s “Cherish” – and that’s a sonic lineage that I cannot resist.

Drag Race France Season 1 Episode 5 – Popstars & Night of 1,000 Mylène Farmers: Review & Power Ranking

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Welcome to my review and power rankings of the fifth episode of Drag Race France Season 1 – Popstars, the Drag Race France girl group challenge accompanied by a “Night of 1000 Mylène Farmers” runway celebrating one of France’s biggest pop stars.

Often, the biggest challenges of a pop music theme on Drag Race aren’t for the queens but for production. It’s not easy to effectively parody pop music without seeming too silly, and harder still to fabricate a credible pop song on demand for a reality show.

The American Drag Race franchise often absolves itself of this duty altogether by repurposing RuPaul songs for its many musical challenges. Ru produces a slew of charming dance music, but it doesn’t often line up with trends in pop.

I feel as though the success of “Break Up (Bye Bye)” for Drag Race UK in 2019 finally shook up this habit, showing that producing real, current pop music for the show could pay off in increased attention in other media. That worked in part because the UK has a voracious music market that celebrates TV pop stars more than America does, but it didn’t hurt that the song was damn good.

Since then, Drag Race has stepped up its musical game for its so-called “girl group” challenges – and, I’d say the two versions of “Boom Boom” on this episode are near the top of that staircase. This song songs exactly like the sort of high-tempo disco-influenced pop delivered by European girl groups (and even some K-pop).

Not only was the song good, but Drag Race France completely avoided the trope of having any artist singled out for her intense struggle as a newfound singer/songwriter and dancing queen. Even though Paloma did poorly in the challenge, at no point did the edit lean into a “I can’t sing at all” self-confidence spiral or a “I think I can sing, but I can’t” fit of delusion. While the queens had different levels of success in the challenge, none of them were an abject failure. The same is true for the “Night of 1000 Mylène Farmers” runway.

The strong performance from the queens this episode exposed that this season’s single weakness may be in its mercurial judging. We are now at the point of the season where all six of the queens are well-round professionals with an eye for detail. Yet, the judges are still finding minor – and often invisible – elements about them to critique. Nicky Doll seems to be giving the most practical and even-handed advice, but her companions Daphné Bürki and Kiddy Smile often seem to be critiquing a different competition entirely.

It can be hard to understand the nuance of Drag Race judging in a different language. Imagine trying to understand Michelle Visage’s pop culture references and promiscuity jokes in translation! Would we still understand that there is a layer of motherly warmth beneath her bitchy exterior if we were relying only on subtitles?

That’s the question I have about Daphné Bürki and Kiddy Smile. Daphné has given incisive critiques, but sometimes it feels as though she is expecting fashion modeling instead of drag. And, it is hard to tell if Kiddy Smile is naturally laconic or if he is holding back to make up for the extreme conflict of interest of La Grande Dame being his own drag daughter.

The inconsistent judging would be dragging this season down more if there wasn’t such a clear divide in the field of queens between the Top 3 and everyone else that has been evident since week one. Elips’ deep run into the competition might be the only true surprise of the season if things continue to play out as they have, which somewhat forgives the judges since the outcome will be the same regardless of what they say.

If you want to watch Drag Race France you can sign up for WowPresentsPlus to watch the many worldwide Drag Race franchises for $4.99 a month or $50 a year. (Note that if you’re in the US you will need to use a VPN to “visit” another country to see the US Franchise.)

Now it’s time to rank the queens, dissect their performances, and discuss their runways! This results in a shuffle of the top three from last week’s Episode 4 power rankings, as well as a continued joust for 4th place.

Lecteurs, start your engines. Et, que la meilleure Drag Queen gagne!

[Read more…] about Drag Race France Season 1 Episode 5 – Popstars & Night of 1,000 Mylène Farmers: Review & Power Ranking

RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 7, Episode 11 – Drag Race Gives Back Variety Extravaganza recap & power ranking!

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Welcome to my recap of the eleventh episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 7 – Drag Race Gives Back Variety Extravaganza, a talent show where everything is on the line since the pair of winners will get three Legendary Legend stars each!

I’ve been struggling with how to recap this episode for you for two different reasons – because of how it shook up the power rankings of the season due to its multiple-stars twist and because of the nature of “talent” on Drag Race.

After thinking about it for a while and reviewing my extended power ranking math from last week, I’ve come to realize that the only way to produce a satisfying ending was to award 3 stars to the winners.

I know that’s a radical proposal. I’ll explain more about it below. First, I want to talk about talent.

If you want, you can skip my pair of essays on stars and talent to get to how I’d rank the queens on their talents and rate their chances in the twin final Lip Sync tournaments:

As a reminder, here’s where 10 weeks of Power Ranking left the queens standing headed into this episode. Note that my power rankings are not necessarily based on how they performed in each episode, but where I thought they would place based on their performances and the teaser for the next challenge:

  1. Jinkx Monsoon – 4 Stars from 5 Wins, 2 Block (1.4 Avg. Rank, #1 Pre-Season Rank, 4-8 wins predicted)
  2. Trinity The Tuck – 3 stars from 4 Wins, 1 Block (3.3 Avg. Rank, #3 Pre-Season Rank, 2-6 wins predicted)
  3. Jaida Essence Hall – 3 stars from 2 Wins + 1 Bonus, 1 Block (3.9 Avg. Rank, #6 Pre-Season Rank, 1-3 wins predicted)
  4. Monét X Change – 2 stars from 2 Wins, 1 Block (4 Avg. Rank, #4 Pre-Season Rank, 2-7 wins predicted)
  5. Shea Coulée – 1 star from 1 Win, 1 Block (4.4 Avg Rank, #2 Pre-Season Rank, 3-6 wins predicted)
  6. The Vivienne – 2 stars from 3 Wins, 1 Block (5.7 Avg. Rank ,#7 Pre-Season Rank, 0-3 wins predicted)
  7. Yvie Oddly – 2 stars from 1 Win + 1 Bonus, 1 Block (6.3 Avg. Rank, #8 Pre-Season Rank, 0-3 wins predicted)
  8. Raja – 2 stars from 2 Wins, 1 Block (7.1 Avg. Rank, #5 Pre-Season Rank, 1-3 wins predicted)

Readers, start your engines! And, may the best drag queen… win!

[Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 7, Episode 11 – Drag Race Gives Back Variety Extravaganza recap & power ranking!