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Ojibway brothers from Sault Ste. Marie tell tribal stories in new film
A new documentary film from brothers Adam and Zack Khalil tells the stories of the Ojibway tribe in their hometown of Sault Ste. Marie. They use ancient prophecies of the Ojibway to explore modern Anishnaabe culture and its challenges.
Adam Khalil talks with Stateside about his documentary film INAATE/SE/ [it shines a certain way. to a certain place/it flies. falls./].
Listen to the conversation above, or read highlights from the discussion below:
On experimental filmmaking
"One of the things we were really conscience of and set out to do when we made this film, was how to make an inherently Ojibway film. If you think about cinema in terms of a national lens, which is how it's understood in terms of cinema history, there's American cinema, there's Japanese cinema, there's French cinema, et cetera. We were trying to figure out what would an inherently Ojibway form of cinema look like. So, as opposed to like using the kind cliches or tropes of documentary from a sort of colonial vantage point, what would our own authored story look like? That gave us kind of carte blanche to kind of take all these different devices that we liked and not have to stick to fitting into a specific mold. It allowed us a lot of freedom to try to tell our own tribe's story in our own way."
On the Seven Fires Prophecy of the Ojibway that informs the film
"Our tradition is an oral tradition, which means things are allowed to change and adapt. And the Seven Fires Prophecy, as I've been told and have read about it, it kind of predates and predicts contact with Europeans. And I know it, a prophecy happened like 2,000 years ago basically, so we knew what was going to happen before it happened. But, the cool thing about the Seven Fires Prophecy and the oral tradition is that it's allowed to adapt to the times. There's a western conception of history like Walter Benjamin talking about the angel of history – always moving forwards, but looking backwards. It's a very European way of thinking about history. But an Obijway way of thinking about history is that history is a narrative that should be in service of the contemporary people at a contemporary time. It kind of gave us artistic license to play with the story as well. And it was a great structure because of that."
On the audience
"One of the strengths of the film is that we are communicating to many different audiences at the same time using the same film. I know for a fact that Ojibway audiences understand more of the film. Or there are things that kind of coded into the film that maybe a general audience wouldn't get necessarily, but we were also conscience of not wanting to hermetically seal the film and allow it to...have it be approachable."
Support for arts and culture coverage comes in part from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs.
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Death metal isn’t rocket science. It can be full of technical wizardry, complex song structures, frequent tempo changes, and nuanced textural elements, but these are inevitably all grafted to a core conceit that is more AC/DC than Led Zeppelin, more KISS than Yes. There is historically no shortage of evidence of the capability for death metal to reach a full progressive effulgence and be some of the most musically and aurally challenging music offered, but these are elaborations on an idea that touches back beyond the roots even of heavy metal, to the dance music origins of rock ‘n’ roll itself. Death metal is inherently body music, meant to override the senses, beat you stupid, and leave you headbanging, drunk on beer, and drooling.
LIK understands this. Their songs have tempo changes and the production is a bit crisper than one might associate with more straightforward death metal like this: decent instrument separation, a slightly recessed and distant reverb-heavy production for the solos to make them a bit more atmospheric against the in-your-face riffs and rhythms, and vocals that are nasty but not illegible. But, ultimately, the aim of LIK is not something cerebral or ineffable; they want you to bang your fucking head to some riffs, and on this mark, they succeed.
Alex Webster, the legendary bassist of canonical death metal group Cannibal Corpse, has a thought about death metal: They are horror short stories, whether pulpy or cerebral, set to heavy as hell rock and roll. This mission statement underlines the genre in general quite well and also explains the success not just of LIK but also of their peers in groups like Gatecreeper, Under the Church and Necrot in producing old-school death metal that doesn’t feel one-note and lifeless. Demo/cassette-fetishist death metal fans and groups may crave an HM2 and riffs that wouldn’t be out of place on a hardcore record, but LIK are aware that death metal has more dimensions than that. What matters here is not whether the riff is tremolo or straight down-picked, whether there are tomb-like atmospherics or bludgeoning mosh riffs, but whether the end result is psychic override, temporarily replacing your frontal lobe with pure lizard brain headbanging, be it of the slow-and-evil or whiplash sort.
LIK show an understanding of plenty of diverse takes on death metal on Carnage, from Dismember’s elaborate sub-prog death metal suites to Grave’s gross and disturbing D-beat carnage to Cannibal Corpse’s light application of technical riffs in an otherwise straightforward death metal tonality. There’s even some Immolation-style icy atmospherics and a touch of bluesiness to the solos that makes them feel more human and sincere than the robotic and hyper-precise sweep picking solos that seem to plague the worst of tech death. This competency is both their greatest gift and greatest curse, because while Gatecreeper feel like you discovered a golden age old-school death metal record that simply didn’t exist before and Necrot feel like you are legitimately watching a skeletal lich king tear apart trespassers in its evil tomb, consuming guts and bones all, LIK feel like they are playing the hits. When a supergroup like Bloodbath—made up of members of impeccable, unimpeachable lineage in the world of death metal—make a record like this, it’s charming as hell. When LIK do it, it’s frustrating.
It’s hard to imagine anyone who likes death metal not having fun with this record. And, when it comes to proving to outsiders that death metal is less toxic in its masculinity and stupidly aggressive and more steroid-enhanced AC/DC-style beer music, LIK does a great job. There will be a ton of fun parties thrown by metalheads scored to this record, no doubt. It’s just hard to not want a little bit more distinct personality, like their classmates Tomb Mold inject seemingly so effortlessly in their similar old-school compositions. Still, a solid death metal record is better than no death metal at all.
Langdon Hickman is listening to progressive rock and death metal. He currently resides in Virginia with his partner and their two pets.
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I attended the screening tonight for the new John Cusack movie called, “The Raven” at Century 9 Theatres here in San Francisco. The movie put the main actor in a whole new light because so many movie fans are accustomed to see John Cusack in more comedic acting roles. The movie is a thriller and was intense in some scenes. Most the actors in the movie are actually British and did a swell job with a simple American accent.
I give the grade of this movie an: A!
I recommend this movie to people who are more into the works of Edgar Allan Poe. The movie got me clinching. Do remind people that it’s a period piece set in the mid-19th century in Baltimore, Maryland.
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| 0.154006
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A fragment of celestial dust swirls inside each glimmer of human teardrops, releasing a cleansing to the soul and spirit deeply sowed and woven by our Laminin.
What a strange day it was at the beach. Our weather often amazes me, as it can change very quickly and that is exactly what I experienced today.
As the grace of time passes, a momentum of moments turn into days, months, and years of memories
If you had said to me two years ago, “Hey Brian, you’re going to be Executive Producer for a film festival.”
The sweet sounds of nature that fill the summertime air is an orchestra of vibration absorbed by the human spirit
Have you ever had the sort of friend who doesn’t try to impress you with his talents, looks, or ‘bigger than life’ personality
As a ray of light passes through the space of the blinds it illuminates an area in which…
Facing divorce and stymied about how to tell your kids? Wondering how it will affect them?
Actress Elena Varela In VH1 Television Series Chronicling the Daily Fireworks of 5 TV Talk Show Co-Hosts Elena Varela…
Blessed to be born into a free nation with the spirit of a warrior that will sacrifice his life to protect our freedoms of speech…
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Author's Note: Hello everyone! So this is the beginning of the Xaphan Chronicles. They are all pretty much just a collection of random scenarios from a story I failed to put into a decent, chronological storyline. So they are just going to be thrown in here as I think of them haha. I will try to make them sort of chronological, and have a story that adds up to everything, but I can't make any promises haha. It is also probably going to mainly be plotless smut hahaha uhm.. yeah.
Also, the only thing this has in relation to my dream I wrote about and the other Xaphan one shot is the character Xaphan. But that is about it. Xaphan is my favorite OC, so he gets thrown into a lot of my stuff.
I hope you all enjoy! I have a ton of stuff to write and put here, so updates shouldn't be too sparse.
The worst night of my life had just gone down. June 17th, 2011 to be exact. I spent a lovely movie then dinner date with my now ex-boyfriend Darren, only to have him harshly dump me, then leave me at the mall. Ride-less at 9pm.
After walking home, my mood had dropped even more. But the tears I had held at bay, were ready to fall the second I hit the safety of my bedroom. The lack of lights in the house made me aware of my parents being asleep. That only made my mourning in silence time seem a great deal better.
Through my dark kitchen I went to the creaky stairs. My fat sphinx cat Rose, sat at the bottom of the stairs, meowing in protest when I trip on her in my quest to my room.
"Oh Shut up Rose, you were just asking for it, sitting at the bottom of the stairs like that." I spoke to the hairless ball of fat before making my way up the stairs, walking lightly in my attempt to make it to my room unnoticed.
Right as my hand hit the cold brass door handle, my mom opened her bedroom door. I noticed she was wearing curlers and a cleansing face mask. Friday night was Mom's pamper night.
"Honey you're home!" She almost sounded surprised, "How was your date?"
"It was great, dinner was good." I turned the door knob.
"What are some of the juicy details?"
"Mom, I would really like to sleep." I slipped my body into my room.
"Oh come on, just tell me one detail sweetie." Was she hell-bent on embarrassing me in front of a non-existent audience?
"Okay Mom, goodnight now!" I shut the door in front of me, staring at it for a few moments. It was now that I felt very lonely.
I turned to go to my bed, and gasped at what I saw; pressing myself against the shut door. Laid out on my bed was the most gorgeous boy- no man, I had ever seen. But he wasn't any normal guy, oh no. Coming from under him on either side of his body, were a pair of huge, glossy, black, feathered wings. His wings were relaxed, the tips touching the floor. They took up a lot of space. He himself was gorgeous too. He had black hair also, that was very choppy and on the verge of taking over his ice blue mesmerizing eyes. His lips looked soft and full, almost beckoning me to press my lips against them. He made the band T-shirt and wrinkled jeans he was wearing look exquisite.
As I took this in, my sadness went away. A feeling of safety and calmness overcame me. Even though a stranger lay in my bed, just looking at me, taking in the site he was seeing as well. He was first to speak.
"Someone seems to be down and lonely hmm?" His voice was heavenly. I watched as he sat up on the bed.
"Uh, w-who are y-you?" I managed to stammer out.
"I am, or was your Guardian Angel, Fawn. That is, until I fell." I wasn't going to ask what he did to fall from heaven.
"Why, are you uh, here?"
"I noticed you had had a hard time, so I decided to come and comfort you."
"That's sweet, I guess?" I felt that wave of tears return, I wanted to burst out sobbing. I guess my angel sensed this, as he opened his arms and simply said,
Much to my surprise, I quickly gave into his offer of a shoulder to cry on. I climbed on the bed and into his comforting arms. He even smelled amazing. As I sobbed into his chest, he said nothing. I slowly felt his wings protectively wrap around us, giving me a better feel of safety.
After a few minutes of me pouring my sadness out on his shirt, he laid back, gently pulling me onto his chest. I sniffled out my last tear; allowing embarrassment to take over.
"Oh, sorry, I don't know what came over me." I pushed myself up, intending to get off of him. He gently pulled me back down.
"No, don't worry about it. I came here to comfort you."
"Thank you, in that case." I still didn't know his name, "You know my name, why don't I know yours?"
"People don't usually meet their Guardian Angels, let alone know their names. Since you met me, my name is Xaphan." Xaphan smiled at me. That smile brought away any sadness I had waiting for me. I smiled back before resting my head on his firm chest.
Another few minutes of silence pass by us. Looking at Xaphan's wings, their soft appearance tempted me to reach out and touch them. Slowly, I moved my hand from under me, and placed it on the wing I was facing. I felt him flinch under me, but he didn't stop me when I began stroking his wings. They were softer than anything I had ever felt in my life. They felt as though they truly had touch the winds of heaven.
"Fawn." Xaphan saying my name made shivers run through me, I looked to him.
He pressed his lips softly to mine, stealing my breath from me.
I had to remind myself to breath and to kiss back. For a moment I was convinced that I was kissing his wings, Xaphan's lips were surprisingly soft. I sat up so I was straddling him and upon doing this I felt his hands slide up on my hips; he had lifted my shirt to place his hands on my bare skin. I moaned lightly against his mouth, in return I felt him smile, then run his tongue along my lips. I complied, allowing him to explore every inch of my mouth, his tongue went back into his mouth, coaxing me to explore his mouth, and I did.
My shirt was slipped up and over my head by Xaphan's willing hands. It was about this time I gained a hunch as to why he fell. I didn't care though. I was overtaken by how much I wanted his touch. He sat up to get his shirt off, bringing his wings in momentarily so he could get his shirt completely off. Impulsively I slid my hands down his chest, bringing a soft sigh from him.
Once Xaphan had me on my back, and was over me, his hands went to the zipper of my black skinny jeans, he unzipped them slowly, leaning back so he could slid them down my legs. Once my jeans were off, he slid his hands back up my legs, sending a violent shiver through my body.
"Xaphan stop." I moaned. His brow furrowed.
"What's wrong?" He brushed some hair out of my eyes.
"Won't my parents hear us?"
"No, don't worry. I promise you they won't." He slipped my bra straps down my shoulders, then slid his hands under my back and unclasped my bra. I allowed him to take it off my body before I responded.
"You sound so sure."
"Because I am. Just trust me." He took my breast into his mouth, gently flicking my nipple with his tongue. I let out a low moan. He continued to pleasure my chest with his mouth, while he slid his hands down my side, hooking my black lace panties with his fingers, pulling them down slowly. My cheeks burned a deep red. I felt so exposed; no guy had ever seen this much of me, and now I am trusting this angel I just met, with everything? Impulsively my hand slid down and I covered myself in a shy gesture. Xaphan brought his face up from my chest and looked me straight in the eyes with his piercing gaze, his emotions impassive. His lips brushed against mine as he reached down. His large hand encased my wrist and he gently moved my hand away so that I was exposed once again.
Xaphan kissed me again, skimming his lips down my neck then back to my lips again. He let out a sexy chuckle.
"Are we a bit more than shy?" He laid another quick kiss on my lips.
"What? What did I do wrong?" I raised my eyebrows, trying to be confident. My blushing cheeks betrayed me.
"This isn't going to work if I am still wearing pants."
I gasped, and against what I thought was possible my cheeks burned hotter.
"Well, I just wasn't sure if you wanted me to take off your pants... or if you were going to take them off." My face stayed a deep shade of red and my heart began to race. He said nothing more, he just took my wrists in his hands and brought them to his jeans zipper. I took the zipper of his jeans and pulled it down, his hands still over mine. He let go of my hands to slip his jeans off his hips. He wasn't wearing anything under them. I shot a quick glance at his large member before I looked away nervously.
"I can't believe I am taking this from you." He mumbled.
"What, how did you know?"
"For one it's really obvious, and I have been watching over you your whole life, I would know." the soft back of his hand stroked my cheek. "Are you still sure you want this?"
I looked away from his strong eye contact; pondering the options. I had no guarantee that he would stay with me after this, but he wasn't human. I couldn't get pregnant, right? Also if he isn't human, STDs wouldn't affect him . . . right? Deep down I want this. Yes. I nod my head,
"Yes.. yes I am."
Despite how gentle he was, it still stung when Xaphan pushed his full length into me. I tried hard not to show my pain, but Xaphan noticed anyways.
"Shh. It's okay, that pain won't last forever."
He slowed his pace, only quickening when I let out a soft sound of content.
"Oh Xaphan." I sighed, tilting my head back and closing my eyes; reveling in the feeling of him inside me.
"Open your eyes. I want to see your eyes, I want you to see me."
My eyes popped open, and the first thing I saw was his own.
"Good girl." He smiled. One of his hands tangled in my hair, his arm resting on the bed next to me. Somewhere far off I felt his other hand slide down my stomach. I gasped. Now not only was he moving inside me, but his finger was massaging my swollen nub. I dug my fingernails into his back, whimpering his name softly. Euphoria overtook me. As I rode each wave of ecstasy, I could see Xaphan's face contort and I could hear him groaning. The grip he held on my hair tightened, his hand originally massaging me down below was now tightly holding my hip.
Xaphan pulled out of me and collapsed on the bed next to me. My heart swelled when he pulled me into his arms. The embrace slowly voided any impending regret I could be feeling. Instead I felt exhausted. I vaguely remember his soft cotton wings caressing my bare back before I fell into deep sleep.
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| 0.01992
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You can access the distribution details by navigating to My Print Books(POD) > Distribution
"Yusuf creates for us the experienced guide that we all wish we had to reassure us passing through the stormy emotions of youth... it attests to his worldliness and a wisdom well beyond his years."
- Elena Jacobson, CEO, Infinity Advisors.
'Supernova' is a result of when years later from a car accident and completely disappearing from the scenes, Ezra, a former well-known musician, decides to takes his narrative in his own hands from way media had twisted it previously.
Though born as an orphan, Ezra happens to open up a donated present- a guitar and through the help of internet videos, he learns how to play it. He accidentally comes across the Assistant Manager in Universal Music Records. A striking conversation with him leads him to see the potential in Ethan’s words. New York Times hails him as the “next big thing”. Until he realises what can push you up can pull you down with the same force.
In his own words, Ezra explains, “This story is not about how to achieve your dreams, though I did. This story is also not about how love arrives and leaves at unexpected times, even though it did. And again, this story is also not about how life is not a wish-granting factory and there will be a time you’ll be blamed for mistakes you never made, though I indeed was. This story is about everything that takes place in between those lines- the good, the bad and the worst, and that life will keep moving on no matter what, at a pace, you would mostly have little control over.”
'Supernova' is a detailed story of how a person gets more than what he wishes for and loses more than he could bear.
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| 0.040688
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- Museum number
Cast bronze figure of the Roman deity Mars with a crested helmet, holding a ram-headed snake in each hand. The wears a kilt and a short pleated tunic and stands with his arms out to the sides and front. The snakes curl around each forearm then down across the front of the leges and around the calves and ankles. The body of the right-hand snake is broken between the forearm and leg. The snake heads extend below the hands and have raised eyes on top. Mars' head has a straight nose, almond-shaped eyes and a slightly slit mouth. His beard consists of a raised moulding decorated with notches, and his hair is coarsely incised with a moulded fringe around his face. The crest of the helmet comprises a bird (?raven) on a pedestal; the bird's head is missing.
- Production date
Height: 107 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Group of bronze statuettes of gods and goddess
Roman Britain, 3rd century AD
Found in Southbroom, Devizes, Wiltshire
These eight statuettes formed part of a remarkable hoard said to have been found in a pot in the early years of the eighteenth century.
Though the figures depict Roman gods and goddesses, they are markedly native in style. The warrior god Mars is identifiable by his crested helmet, but instead of his usual spear and shield he holds two ram-headed snakes, creatures which feature in Celtic myth. The other figures show the same combination of Roman and native British qualities, and express the complex interaction of cultures in Roman Britain.
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
2016 11 Mar- 25 Sep, Edinburgh, National Museum of Scotland, Celts.
2015-2016 24 Sep-31 Jan, London, BM, G30, 'Celts: Art and Identity'
2004 1 Apr-30 Oct, Woodbridge, Suffolk, Sutton Hoo Visitor Centre, 'Between Myth and Reality'
1998 9 Feb-3 May, India, Mumbai, Sir Caswasjee Jahangir Hall, The Enduring Image
1997 13 Oct-1998 5 Jan, India, New Delhi, National Museum, The Enduring Image
1993 18 Jun-26 Sep, France, Quimper, Abbaye de Daoloas, Rome face aux Barbes
- Acquisition date
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
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| 0.049223
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Derwent Blender Pencil, Colour Blender, Professional Quality, 2301756
About this deal
It can work with coloured pencils as long as you indent the paper and apply your colour by gently building it up, careful not to push it into the outline.
A colourless Blender Pencil for softening lines made with Polycolor pencils, other colour pencils, or pastels. I tried it on three coloured pencil ranges and a graphite pencil range and found that the most effective results were with the wax based coloured pencils, especially the Prismacolor Premier range.We still make our pencils in the place where graphite was discovered in England’s Lake District and we haven’t stopped pushing the boundaries of pencil making since. You can see a slight difference in the before (left) and after (right) images and the pen did smooth the skin out much more than having simply blended with just wax pencils ( Caran Dache Luminance range), but it was minimal to the other trials I did found below. Textured paper grabs pigment far easier than smooth paper and you will not need to apply the colour too heavily if you are using abrasive paper too, but do ensure that you spend time building up your colours until you are ready to undertake the blending process. They blended together far easier and with less effort than the wax-based example before and we would recommend that you use this blender with other oil-based pencils. Gently build up each colour tone so that they can be 'sealed' or blended with the white or the Pink White.
When using with graphite pencils, I found they simply blended all the different grades into one dark, shade - again, probably not really suited to use with graphite pencils in my opinion. The Prismacolor blender may indent the paper slightly, depending how much pressure you apply and it may feel 'scratchy' when using other brands of pencil.The Blender pencil is a soft colourless pencil that allows you to blend two or more colours together to create a new colour. Derwent Blender pens - The Derwent Blender pens are alcohol-based blenders designed for use with coloured and graphite pencils. Whilst it blends colours on the page to create new colours, it also smoothes pencil strokes so individual lines and hard edges appear softer.
Next to the other blenders covered on this page, it does feel quite dry and can produce small amounts of dust on your paper as you blend, but it appears to be more effective than the other pencil blenders. Use it over the top of coloured pencils to add a gloss finish that intensifies colours and enhances your drawing. When applying your pencil strokes, follow the natural shape of the circle which will help to create depth a 3-dimensional appearance.This soft, colourless pencil is made from the binding material used to make the coloured pencil core. Available individually or in a blister containing 2 of each of the blender and burnisher pencils, plus an eraser and sharpener. If you found this article helpful, please share using the tabs on this page (not available on a mobile) Why not bookmark and come back at a later date to see what we have added.
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I believe certain Native American medicine men and shamans who created rock art also understood the power of pictures. Though some pictographs and petroglyphs were created as a form of personal expression, I believe others were made with healing, empowering intentions imbued within them. Some contain significant information like solar and lunar markers I've photographed, which precisely show the change of seasons.
We can't know for certain what rock art means because we are not members of the culture who created it and we can't ask them. In the many years I've photographed pictographs and petroglyphs I've often wondered about its' meaning. I've heard many possible interpretations from Native Americans, archeologists and others. Recently, after doing a guided meditation with Dr. Michael Beckwith, one of my favorite spiritual teachers, I gained some deeper insight about rock art's possible function and why I may feel so compelled to photograph and share it.
The work I do photographing rock art doesn't seem to be happenstance. It's astounding how many doors have opened and coincidences have occurred to facilitate my work. Not to mention the growing number of people, some prominent, who encourage, support and appreciate my efforts.
My urge to photograph, share and protect rock art has been greater than my understanding of why I have such strong instincts to do so. I just know deep in my heart I feel it's my calling, which I follow with a passion, sometimes with great ease and joy and other times like a warrior pressing forward on a mission, working hard, moving around obstacles and gathering allies.
Over time I've grown to feel as if I've partnered with some ancients to ensure certain rock art continues to be seen, particularly at this time on the planet. I've wondered if some Native Americans knew way back when that we'd be faced with this challenging period and wanted to do their part to help through their healing art. Thanks to Michael Beckwith I've gained a deeper understanding of what their ancient rock art creations may be doing for us today.
One afternoon while working on some photos for a 2010 Southwest Rock Art calendar I happened to be listening to Michael being interviewed on the Internet. He led listeners on a guided meditation, directing us to connect with our higher selves and ask about our purpose. Mine was no surprise to me. It was to share my healing images. What followed however was illuminating and inspiring. Words spilled into my head. The information I got said that some rock art contains universal balancing energies that people resonate with when they see certain pictographs and petroglyphs. People carry these vibrations within themselves, which get activated when particular rock art is viewed. The activation of these universal frequencies helps keep balance and harmony on the planet.
That explanation sounded as good if not better than other conjectures I've heard about rock art. If true, perhaps this phenomenon is something akin to the 100th Monkey Syndrome. If enough people align with positive vibrations from rock art might it shift others to experience balance and harmony as well? I suspect certain mandalas, labyrinths and other scared art created round the world at different times contain similar resonant frequencies that also get activated when viewed.
Regarding the global picture, the polarity between the old oil-based paradigm and the new sustainable one will continue to build until 2012. The tensions will continue to build. The new paradigm asks individuals to be responsible for their actions and let go of a victim mentality. However, many on this planet still love the victim-perpetrator game because it affords them an out, an excuse for not being accountable. They will want to hang on to the “blame game” and continue to act out against others, claiming they are justified in doing so because they are “victims.” This game promotes more karma. Ultimately, the souls who wish to continue the old paradigm will finish their cycle of experience on another planet somewhere else in the universe. In the Michael system, these are generally infant, baby and young souls, and possibly some mature souls, who are looking for the “old paradigm” experience. Generally speaking, the older souls who understand the need to change and live a sustainable and responsible paradigm will continue their cycle on the earth to completion.
Welcome to Global Wisdom. My name is Holly Coleman. I founded Global Wisdom with a simple intention: to help people connect to Spirit, Self and Nature.
Connecting to nature has been invaluable to my own inner work and years of spiritual practice. You can’t be connected with your authentic self and not be connected to every thing. Tuning into Mother Nature and all her beauty is essential to staying grounded, present and balanced. By connecting to this energy, whether you find it in a leaf, a ladybug, a kind word, a mountain or the Milky Way, you can reclaim a sense of inner peace. To restore your trust in the universe, you need go no farther than your own backyard.
So often we get caught up in everyday life and lose our way. We get confused and frustrated and forget we are spiritual beings on a spiritual path in a human body. Awakening to your authentic self and aligning with nature reminds you of who you really are, what you care about and your true purpose.
Spend time in Nature, connect to Spirit, to your body and to your true Self. Tune in to the vast wisdom that surrounds you. Think globally, act compassionately and connect locally!
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| 0.063336
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Frédéric Anton. A Michelin-starred chef, a brilliant team
Frédéric Anton, Triple Michelin-starred chef*, counts on a team of talented chefs to deliver an unforgettable dining experience. 'I attach a lot of importance to the service quality, the intimate setting and the extraordinary experience that we have to offer our clients.'
*3 stars awarded for his restaurant Le Pré Catelan
A gustatory dialogue with the Iron Lady
Frédéric Anton draws inspiration from The Eiffel Tower, this prominent heritage site, in his refined cuisine, with graphic compositions energised by 20th century Paris. Femininity, roundness and harmony, so many associated pleasures to surprise taste buds beyond dreams, beyond the imagination.
Le Jules Verne, unique and bold
The experience is dizzying. Enjoy Paris from the Eiffel Tower, 410 feet up in the heavens and feel yourself in the middle of a dream.
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| 0.225715
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For the first one, I did Firasat by Marcell. Messed up a few parts when I was ad-libbing, seriously, it's kinda hard to improvise on this song. Maybe cuz the chord progression is kinda weird. Also messed up the ending chord of the song. But penat la to re-sing that song. :O So I left it as is. XD Hmmm... So yea, enjoy my half nakedness on this one. It's my tidur attire. A pair of shorts. I'll be properly dressed in the upcoming ones with better lighting and set maybe. If I'm rajin that is. Hohohoho!
I dunno how often this will be updated. I'll try me best, Chords are umm I dunno, I think my chord after the G one is wrong but who cares right? :D
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| 0.097377
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So for the holiday season, why not try warming up your lips with dark hues? :)
AHHHH I'm so IN LOVE with this lipstick!!! I just got them today and I just had to try them out.
It's called PHOTO by MAC. Love love love <3
I kept the eyes simple since I used a dark color on the lips. It's always best to
keep your eyes simple if you want dramatic lips and keep the lips simple
if you want dramatic eyes.
[Forgive the unruly eyebrows! I'm in the process of growing them out to have them re-shaped hehe]
What I love about this lipstick is that its dark but not too overpowering.
It has a warm undertone to it which is perfect for my skin tone.
I just love how it warms up my face :)
A dramatic lip is probably my favorite makeup look aside from the smokey eye. It's something different and not a lot of people are brave enough to wear dark lipstick. But makeup is all about having fun and experimenting! So don't be afraid try out new colors whether it be eye shadows or lipsticks. It's a very exhilarating feeling when you discover that the color you were always afraid of fits you after all :)
Stay gorgeous ;)
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Eversines is a young music producer living in Tilburg, the Netherlands.
He always tries to express various feelings, atmospheres, and stories through sound.
Eversines' music draws inspiration from genres such as ambient, funk, and jazz, and then fuses it with strong groove-based dance music, commonly house and techno.
Eversines is currently studying Music Production at the Rockacademy in Tilburg,
a school renowned for having had great music producers in the house and techno scene.
Already having released several EP's on labels like Label Louche, Plastik FM,
VEEE music, Big Flu Recordings, and soon GEM Records, Eversines is an upcoming talent in the international dance scene, and there is more to come, so look out for this guy…
emails go to:
Past Gigs -
12/04 SURREAL - The Tumult, Abcoude
19/05 TRAUM - Graanbeurs Breda
30/05 Natural Wave, Breda
25/07 Klamme Donderdag, Club Up
3/08 FLOAT Festival III Afterparty
Upcoming Gigs -
22/08 Purple Festival, Tilburg
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In Port Chester-Rye UFSD the foundation of music begins in all four elementary schools, where students explore different cultures by singing and movement. In 3rd grade, instrumental music is introduced, where students play the recorder and have the opportunity to play a string instrument. Students can then continue in strings or elect to join the band in the 4th grade.
As students' progress to Middle School and High School, they can elect to continue their instrumental study, sing in the choir, take a world music class, participate in the Port Chester Marching Band, or select IB Music.
All students are encouraged to participate in instrumental music. Music has been shown to increase spatial learning, self-regulation skills and improves how the brain understands human language. In addition, it strengthens auditory development, has shown students increased self-esteem and provides a way for all students to succeed in school.
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.
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AN ALTERNATIVE ARTS MARKETPLACE WHERE KINDNESS IS CURRENCY*
(*MONEY WORKS TOO)
HOW IT WORKS
You can buy art OR perform an act of kindness for art. You can also submit art here if you're an artist who cottons to this cause.
(As of now we only ship to United States addresses.)
ABOUT ARTS OF KINDNESS
It's an arts marketplace designed to foster a new creative economy where the currency is kindness and civility. It's an imaginative hub created in response to a disunited people living in a country formerly known as the United States of America.
It was conceived in 2014 by a then-farmer and lifelong artist who happened to be dreaming awake one night. The idea rang his inner bell. He hatched it grassroots-style on the island he calls home, Martha's Vineyard, and through it met an astonishing woman who would become his wife.
He's now ready to see what magic this country will spin with it.
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So how can you beef it up?
- Ensure you have enough description. This doesn't mean bore your audience, but ensure that the reader gets a good picture of the setting. After all, setting should be a "character" in your manuscript.
- Look for places where you're telling - maybe trying to move the story along too fast, and change your scene to showing.
- Look at pacing - as above, does your writing appear rushed (or too drawn out)? Do you have cliff hangers at the end of each scene?
- Are your characters fully developed? Do you know their innermost worries, their desires, their fears? Knowing your characters will ensure they have thoughts that define them, speak words from their hearts. Spending time understanding your characters will take a good novel to a great novel.
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David Oyelowo got snubbed for his role in Selma. We know that, but not many people realize that he wasn't the only one. Another actor of color who got snubbed by the Academy this year? Oscar Isaac (born Oscar Isaac Hernandez). Isaac gives a remarkable performance in A Most Violent Year as Abel Morales, a hardworking immigrant who went from being an oil truck driver to owning his own fleet.
But I’m not surprised Isaac didn’t receive an Oscar nomination for his role in A Most Violent Year; films portraying people of color in uplifting roles rarely do. David Oyelowo pointed this out during an appearance at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival a few weeks ago. He was discussing how people were up in arms about his and director Ava Duvernay's Oscar snubs (Selma was nominated for Best Picture but neither its actors nor its director made the cut in their respective categories). The British actor held no punches, saying:
"No, look, historically—this is truly my feeling; I felt this before the situation we're talking about and I feel it now—generally speaking, we, as black people, have been celebrated more for when we are subservient, when we are not being leaders or kings or being at the center of our own narrative."
He also spoke about the narrative of white guilt, referencing Kevin Costner's roles in two films that tell that narrative: Black or White and McFarland, USA:
"So you have a very nice white person who holds black people's hands through their own narrative. We don't want to see that pain again, so you don't even go into what that pain was in an authentic way. Both of those things are patronizing to the audience. You can't have people curating culture in this way when we need to see things in order to reform from them."
Black and brown people go to the movies too, but are seldom represented in positions of power or in uplifting narratives. We can’t even be superheroes without motherfuckers getting all bent out shape. A black Storm Trooper? What the fuck, J.J.? The dude made out of fire wasn’t black in the comics. Fuck you, Marvel! Fuck Michael B. Jordan! God forbid, right? Black actors usually play the same roles: servants or villains—and they are rewarded for them. The same can be said about Latino actors, but, unlike black actors, we’re also cast as white characters because of our features.
Sometimes I wonder if the characters are that deep that giving them a Spanish name will ruin the plot.
Sometimes I wonder: Are the white characters played by Latino actors so deep that giving them a Spanish name will ruin the plot? A Most Violent Year throws this notion out the window, proving that a film can work with a Latino actor playing a Latino character. (Even if the Academy doesn't recognize its success.)
Last year, Oscar Isaac played the title role in Inside Llewyn Davis. Although I’m happy he got an opportunity in a critically-acclaimed film, I’m more impressed by J. C. Chandor’s courage to cast a Latino as a lead in a movie about a Latino immigrant in A Most Violent Year.
A Most Violent Year is set in 1981 and centered around the cutthroat heating oil business. When I started the movie, I assumed Isaac was playing an Italian until I heard a character call him Mr. Morales, and I was pleasantly surprised. Call me petty, but it immediately became my favorite movie of the year just because I was able to identify with the character.
People of color go to the movies too and we should be represented in these films as real people instead of these lazy stereotypes of hoods, pimps, villains, etc.
A Most Violent Year tells another side of the Latino-American experience, one that doesn't involve drug-trafficking or gang life. It tells one of hard work and perseverance. Abel Morales spent his entire life trying to shake stereotypes. He built Standard Oil with his bare hands, paid loans on time, tried to expand his business without cutting corners, but everything he worked for is on the verge of falling apart because his trucks keep getting hijacked by armed thugs. On the other hand, his father-in-law was a gangster, and his wife (Jessica Chastain) advises a reluctant Abel to fight fire with fire because the robberies are crippling the business.
The mood of the film plays as much a part as the characters do, something cinematographer Bradford Young accomplished well. It’s dark, and gritty, just like 1980’s New York. Young is also the cinematographer behind Selma, and his lens work in both films is nothing short of astonishing, yet he wasn't nominated for an Oscar for either movie. I'm pretty sure he would disagree with that "no art in Selma" comment.
But the cinematographer is not the only thing A Most Violent Year and Selma have in common. Selma's leading man, David Oyelowo, plays a supporting role in AMVY as Lawrence, an Assistant District Attorney in charge of cleaning up the oil heating industry. Throughout the movie, he and the Guatemalan-born Oscar Isaac cross paths and bump heads. Beyond the people who were part of the films, both movies tackle the American experience in different ways with people of color in starring roles.
Selma told one of the most important stories in American history. The direction, cinematography, and Oyelowo's performance were outstanding. It felt like you right there on the frontlines instead of watching from afar. Being nominated for Best Picture, and not for any of the actor or camera work categories seems almost like a backhanded compliment.
A Most Violent Year is about a man trying to achieve success by doing the right thing, until capitalism forces him to take matters into his own hands. It’s about how America’s economic system slowly kills the working man. For many people of color, that’s our experience living in this country. We worked hard to build this nation, and deserve to be recognized for it. Instead, we're patronized with things like Black and Hispanic History Months and movies that tell our story through white guilt’s perspective.
Hollywood needs to stop being scared to bankroll these kinds of movies. People of color go to the movies too and we should be represented in these films as real people instead of these lazy stereotypes of hoods, pimps, villains, etc. It’s time for Hollywood to come to grips with that. It's time for the Academy to recognize these type of films. It’s like Denzel winning for Training Day instead of for Malcolm X all over again. We are as American as apple pie.
Angel Diaz is a staff writer for Complex Media. Follow him @ADiaz456.
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Ray Johnson, who mystified his friends and correspondents by committing suicide in 1995, liked to make art about people who interested, attracted or bothered him, Jackson Pollock among them. Because of the location -- the house where Pollock and Lee Krasner lived -- the show of just 16 works referring more or less obliquely to Pollock is poignant in a way it might not be in a neutral gallery.
What interested Johnson about Pollock was not the man but the myth: the macho, combative, womanizing, hard-drinking, fast-driving, risk-taking ice-breaker. The work on view, which includes references to many other famous artists, is more about Johnson's own ambivalent relationship to success than it is about Pollock.
The show includes three-dimensional works like a found sculpture of an eagle with pink paint dripped all over it and a small egg timer with references to Pollock's last drive added. But mostly it consists of small drawings and neatly made collages, mostly black and white, composed along gridded lines.
A collage incorporating an ad for a toy figure named Action Jackson, to which Johnson added some comically obscene elements, is a wry comment on the myth of Pollock's bigger-than-life virility. A drawing made with the delicacy of a Japanese classical master that has ''Jackson Pollock's Underwear'' written in the lower left is a puzzle until you realize it really is an abstracted representation of Jockey briefs, with a winsome, round cartoon face lodged in the pouch.
In a collage about Ruth Kligman, Pollock's girlfriend and a passenger on his last ride, appears a neatly lettered message that reads, ''Dear Ruth Szowie, I wore my pink wig today. Ray Johnson.'' What that means is anybody's guess, but it's certain that almost everything in Johnson's art will be found by the studious code breaker to be full of specific meaning.
With heightened intuitions and the ability to translate abstract ideas into visual terms, artists are often expected to make sense out of science. In this vein genetics and DNA have been popular topics for group exhibitions in recent years. As it happens, James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the double-helix structure of DNA 50 years ago, and so the Heckscher Museum is celebrating that anniversary with an expansive group exhibition organized by two guest curators, Lynn Gamwell and Elizabeth Merryman.
Though not without entertainment value, the show does not make a very good case for artists as interpreters of science. The unfocused grab bag of more or less symbolic images in many mediums includes Alexis Rockman's painting of a creepy, prehistoric lagoon; Tom Otterness's bronze cartoon sculpture of a DNA molecule; a field of cellular forms drawn by Alexander Ross; a long piece of knotted monofilament by Tom Friedman; a pattern painting repeating the image of a cobra by Phillip Taaffe; a photograph of hands with finger and palm prints emphasized by Gary Schneider; and much more work of far less aesthetic interest.
All works come with labels explaining precisely how they represent principles of DNA science.
Some artists, like Suzanne Anker, give the impression of knowing a great deal about genetics; others don't seem to know much more than what you'd glean from newspaper headlines. Either way, one feels that the often fanciful artistic element does more to get in the way of understanding the relevant issues -- scientific, sociological, mythological and otherwise -- than to illuminate them.
This is also true of the big, lavishly produced photographic montages by Kevin Clarke featured here in a solo show. Mr. Clarke makes portraits of people by layering sequences of alphabetic DNA symbols and images of objects associated with the subject.
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Actor Mahesh Babu is likely to be seen as a cop in his upcoming movie Dookudu. The movie will be directed by Srinu Vytla under the banner of 14 Reels Entertainment. However, the news of the actor turning a cop is not confirmed yet.
Prakash Raj will also be seen in an important role in this movie. He has replaced Sri Hari, who was the first choice to play the role. This is for the first time Mahesh Babu is acting in a Srinu Vytla directorial film. The movie will hit the floors on September 12.
Actress Samantha is pairing Mahesh Babu in the film. Thaman, who earlier scored music for the movie Kick,is composing music for the film Dookudu. Kona Venkat has written the dialogues and the story has been penned by Gopi Mohan.
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MATERNITY AND BREASTFEEDING CLOTHES FOR MODERN MOMS AND MOMS-TO-BE
MILKY WAY. CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF JOURNEYING WITH FAMILIES.
The kids have grown, and so has the business. Yet in many ways, things have remained the same - their constant presence in the ins and outs of Milky Way
After witnessing Auntie Addy complete her painting titled "Something Beautiful", the kiddies couldn't wait to creat masterpieces of their own.
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Andrew has a keen interest in all aspects of poetry and writes extensively on the subject. His poems are published online and in print.
William Shakespeare and a Summary of 'Sonnet 141'
'Sonnet 141' is addressed to the so-called Dark Lady, the mistress, the subject of Shakespeare's final 28 sonnets of the complete 154 sonnet sequence. The form of this English or Shakespearean sonnet is typical: three quatrains plus an end couplet making fourteen lines in total.
It focuses on the struggle the speaker has between his senses and his heart, between his conscious mind and his feelings.
He knows his lover is not the most beautiful to look at; she hasn't the voice or smell or touch but nonetheless, he's her tormented slave. He dotes on her because he is religiously devoted, a nothing of a man without her. She is the cause of the pain, yet she makes it worthwhile.
'Sonnet 141' is one of several sonnets that explore the theme of 'eye against heart', the rational mind against the emotional core. Earlier sonnets, numbers 26, 46 and 57,130, 137 and 148 deal with the idea of love being blind, slavery and control within a relationship.
The opening lines of sonnet 46 for example:
Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war,
How to divide the conquest of thy sight;
Mine eye my heart thy picture's sight would bar,
My heart mine eye the freedom of that right.
This sonnet is addressed to the 'beauteous and lovely youth' of the first 126 sonnets but the argument is the same - eye and heart are in conflict - the resultant agony is both deeply painful and powerfully compelling.
- 'Sonnet 141' is the open confession of a lover who is put off by his mistress's looks, not convinced by her voice, smell or touch but admits fully to being her slave, her fool who lacks a sense of self, who cannot help himself.
Although no-one knows exactly when the sonnets were written it is thought the years 1592-94, when the plague closed down London's theatres, would have allowed Shakespeare time and space for composing them.
The first publication of Shakespeare's collected sonnets appeared in the quarto volume of 1609, seven years before his death in 1616.
Line By Line Analysis
Lines 1 - 4
In faith I do not love thee with mine eyes,
For they in thee a thousand errors note;
But 'tis my heart that loves what they despise,
Who, in despite of view, is pleased to dote;
This is a frank opening, the first line being a riposte to the end line of sonnet 140 and basically means: In all honesty, my love isn't based on what I see.
The speaker is openly confessing. When he looks at his mistress he sees many faults, that is, she isn't in his opinion very pretty. She has flaws. But this doesn't matter because in the third line he opens up and admits it's what he feels inside that counts.
In the fourth line, he's happy to ignore the faults (pleas'd to dote) to be near his love.
So the truth is out. He doesn't love what he sees but he loves because of what he feels in his heart. Visually she puts him off, she has so many flaws; emotionally she attracts him.
- The importance of the eyes, mentioned in 34 sonnets throughout the whole sonnet sequence by Shakespeare, is notable. In sonnet 137 it appears no less than five times, in connection with love and the heart. The opening two lines:
Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes,
That they behold, and see not what they see?
This emphasis on the connection between eyesight and love was a common belief in Elizabethan times. Some thought that rays of love emanated from the female, entered the male's eyes and went straight to his heart.
Lines 5 - 8
Nor are mine ears with thy tongue's tune delighted,
Nor tender feeling, to base touches prone,
Nor taste, nor smell, desire to be invited
To any sensual feast with thee alone.
The speaker goes on to describe the other 'faults' of his mistress. In line 5, which has an extra syllable, often called a feminine ending because it has no stress, he admits that her voice doesn't please him.
You can imagine the poor mistress by now beginning to frown and get a bit fed up as the speaker goes on and on with his list of flaws.
Take lines 6 and 7 which focus on touch, taste and smell - base touches are those that lack finesse or quality - so the speaker is suggesting that he's not thrilled by these imperfections.
And finally, in line 8 he sums it all up - he wouldn't want to spend time with her one-to-one sensually, which seems a bit odd since they are supposed to be lovers.
Lines 9 - 12
But my five wits nor my five senses can
Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee,
Who leaves unsway'd the likeness of a man,
Thy proud heart's slave and vassal wretch to be.
The five wits in line 9 are common sense, imagination, fantasy, instinct and memory which together with the senses cannot stop him from loving her. Any rational or logical or sensible construct just doesn't work; he's a fool for her love.
So the speaker in lines 11 and 12 is now no longer a real man, he is a facsimile because his foolish heart has taken over, turning him into a slave, under her control (vassal) as a wretch (a miserable or unfortunate person).
Lines 13 and 14
The end couplet concludes with the speaker admitting that the disease (his addiction to her love, my plague) is the only positive thing in their relationship.
And she is the cause of the sin committed by the speaker. It's interesting that he views his love for her as sinful, which relates to Christianity and the idea of penance - punishment for being in love, meted out by the mistress.
All this underlines the idea that this sonnet is a confession, the mistress being the priest, controller of forgiveness and dispenser of pain. There may well be a sexual and lustful element included in the idea of love as sin, traced back to sonnet 129.
What Is The Metre?
'Sonnet 141' has an iambic pentameter beat at its heart, but there are lines that break the steady plod of the iambic to produce different rhythms which add variety for the reader.
A sonnet that was pure iambic pentameter for the whole 14 lines would be a bit monotonous so the poet varied the metrical feet of certain lines. This helps focus on words and phrases, shifts perspective and creates a more challenging syntax.
Let's take a close look:
In faith, / I do / not love / thee with / mine eyes,
For they / in thee / a thous / and err / ors note;
But 'tis / my heart / that loves /what they / despise,
Who in / despite / of view /is pleased / to dote;
Nor are / mine ears / with thy / tongue's tune / delighted,
Nor ten / der feel / ing, to / base touch / es prone,
Nor taste, / nor smell, / desire / to be / invited
To an / y sens / ual feast / with thee / alone:
But my / five wits / nor my / five sens / es can
Dissuade / one fool / ish heart / from serv / ing thee,
Who leaves / unsway'd / the like / ness of / a man,
Thy proud / heart's slave / and vass / al wretch / to be:
Only / my plague / thus far / I count / my gain,
That she / that makes / me sin / awards / me pain.
Just over half the lines here are pure iambic pentameter, with five daDUM beats, first syllable unstressed, second stressed: lines 1 - 4, 8 - 11 and line 14.
- Line 5 - an unusual line, a mix of different feet which breaks the iambic rhythm...note the spondees of mine ears and thy tongue's tune reinforcing the contrast. And eleven syllables means there is an extra beat, so the last foot is technically an amphibrach (daDUMda) with the middle syllable stressed.
- Line 6 - can be scanned as iambic but because of the caesura midway caused by the comma, the stress moves onto base touches.
- Line 7 - has eleven syllables like line 5 but is mostly iambic until that last foot and the three syllables of invited.
- Lines 8 - 11 are all iambic pentameter but note that the word sensual in line 8 has to be treated as a two syllable word to fit into the metrical pattern.
- Line 12 - scanned as a spondee with heart's slave.
- Line 13 - a trochee starts, with stress on the first syllable of Only, the remainder are iambic.
© 2019 Andrew Spacey
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Tenet; a palindrome, which reads the same backwards as forwards, like the design of the desk's heads.
The Cabinet of Memories
A piece with a poetic soul, which holds Giorgetti's history within it, that reminds a precious display case, consisting of 120 compartments, in an alternating balance between the light and dark fin
The meaning of the Japanese character Ensō, "circle", is rooted in Zen Buddhism: enlightenment, infinity, absolute universe.
Rocking seat with birch plywood structure with the possibility of adding a saddle to the seat.
Solid walnut poker box, lid by Roberto Cambi. Inside chips, dice, and cards from the Centotto collection.
Elegance, clean lines and simplicity are the elements that characterize the authenticity of the Norah chair.
The sleeping area overcomes the traditional concept of bedroom in order to become an intimate space wholly dedicated to ourselves.
Characterised by a system of doors in elegant grooved wood with a bold decorative motif, Charlotte is an architecturally-inspired design.
Fluid, light and elusive shapes characterise Amiral mirror, molded in ash wood.
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It has always intrigued me: the trope of a white person travelling abroad to “find themselves.” Turn on the TV, open a magazine, look to your left: there it is. Furthermore, despite being the minority in many of these countries, white people still manage to inject their privilege into every aspect of their experience, all under the guise of “exploring and understanding.” This is called white guilt. The classic Hollywood-spun tale of a group of Caucasians briefly changing their race or cultural practices, but refusing to relinquish any privilege.
Films like Seven Years in Tibet, the Last Samurai, even James Cameron’s Avatar, support the problematic view of the white man as the savior to the savage peoples of the “outside” world. Often in these films, the citizens of the country being visited are portrayed through stereotypes and very little meaningful dialogue with the main character. White mainstream media’s opinion of brown people is so consistently low that when important roles do arise for people of color, they are given to white people with vaguely ethnic features. At this point, any depiction of a brown person by someone who is not a person of color is invalid. In a world where white people are being constantly praised and rewarded for having basic human decency and understanding of culture, we have a lot of work ahead of us.
Until we stop encouraging white mediocrity in our media, we will continue to disenfranchise a growing population of young people of color looking for their place in their own cultures. Few things are more affirming than seeing yourself reflected back in a positive light. Representation and mentorship allow people of color to set our goals high, make mistakes, follow our hearts and to grow and glow, unhindered by expectation.
The brown people of the world do not exist to answer your existential questions. We are not props or costumes. White fragility is not sponsored by the continents of Africa and Asia. So the next time you find yourself presented with an opportunity provided to you by your privilege, wield it with intention. Accurate and positive representation is such an infinitely powerful tool and one that is well within our grasp.
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The novel, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017, can be described as experiential. It is a work of subtle feeling, a meditation on what art is and how it is formed
Ali Smith has dipped her pen into a crucible of leaves. That gargantuan heap of leaves that has just been raked. Autumn, in its varying states of loss and decay, is a season well-suited to montage. Pieces come apart. Structures are undone. Threads loosen. Smith’s book, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017, is being touted as the Brexit novel. That would be too definitive, and her novel is subversive, it takes aim at definition. It’s deliciously autumnal. Working from a palette - magenta, orange, and pink - Smith dips into the fragmentation of a deciduous Empire.
Making prose bound and howl like Smith does isn’t easy, in fact it’s unnatural. Take this line for example, "Crying came out of her like weather". Smith knows about you and your innermost child. She surprises, dishevelling assumptions, "He said it as if a time could be a place", beginning sentences with the meanings upside-down and side-by-side, deviating from formal grammar. All this play with language creates the feeing of being in the winnowed space of a very good poem. A poem that knows it’s a poem, that takes you inside itself, that unhinges you. This is a prose-poem, a leaf-fall. Smith is able to sustain it, even when very fine figurative writing can quickly drain. She knows about how much is just enough. She makes her words hunt and growl.
The novel takes us into different time sequences. Past-past. Present-past. Past-present. Present-present. In fact, you never know which time or space you’re going to land in next, what tense, or in which character’s mind. Whizzing by, chapters and subsections operate like wormholes. The story follows the life of Elisabeth Demand, a junior lecturer in the history of art, and her meetings with Daniel Gluck, a retired neighbour, now confined to a nursing home. These conversations and scenes occur when Elisabeth is 8, 11, 13, 18, and now 32 (in no particular order). Along the way encounter discussions on art, storytelling, and time. Smith approaches abstract theory from a place of sensitivity, and solicits a reinterpretation of themes of identity, temporality, and authenticity. The backdrop is Britain on the verge of Brexit, uncertain and detached, where simple trips to the post office and to the doctor take on absurd proportions; it seems as if the entire world is insane. And we are reminded it is, "It was the worst of times, it was the worst of times."
In Autumn, Smith extracts from naturalism, impressionism, surrealism, modernism, and postmodernism, and blends disparate techniques and modes of representation. She amalgamates aesthetic and conceptual processes from different periods, but through a postmodern brushstroke, utilising pastiche, kitsch, collage, cliché and montage. Often these postmodern tools are used to demonstrate the inherent instability and unreliability of meaning, to indicate the meaningless of meaning, but Smith doesn’t arrive at a void. Instead, she searches for an inexpressible depth of feeling, a centre for love and existence, unable to be expressed elsewhere. "But there are roses, there are still roses."
The novel can be described as experiential. It is a work of subtle feeling, a meditation on what constitutes and governs the imagination, on what art is and how it is formed. But it also searches for what it means to tell stories, to be a storyteller. Should there be restrictions levied on feeling? Should there be limits to the imagination? What is the true role of an adult? Should the imagination practice self-censorship?
If Autumn is read literally, with story and development in mind, there will be disappointment, for the narrative flits around, leaps wildly, goes deep into the inner most parts of fiction and imagination, the places where feelings come from, the shapes that they take. Smith borrows liberally from Dickens, reworking his message, re-layering it. We can feel echoes of Eliot as well as Hardy. This raises questions of plagiarism, re-writing, remoulding, and most importantly about enhancing. It also reflects on the nature of authenticity, who does a text really belong to, what constitutes truth?
Brexit has been described as a failure in imagination. A failure on the part of the British to imagine themselves in a space shared with difference. A time when Britain wants to crawl back into itself, into self-imposed and narrow meanings. To close itself away. To erect walls, the kind which linger in the background of the novel. Ali Smith is at a frontier, and it is in this reimagined place where space and time aren’t quite what we expect them to be, we discover an untranslatable humanism.
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The Vienna Philharmonic is indisputably one of the world’s greatest orchestras. Known for its finesse, elegance and authentic interpretations of Beethoven, Brahms and Mahler, it has remained a centre of musical life in Europe since its first concert in 1842.
The orchestra is currently touring North America and will perform in Toronto on Feb. 27, its only Canadian appearance.
In preparation, CBC Music offers 10 things you may not know about the Vienna Philharmonic.
1. Opera connection.
All members of the Vienna Philharmonic must first be members of the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. They must complete a three-year tenure requirement before applying to enter the Vienna Philharmonic. Once in, players undergo a rigorous three-year probation period.
2. Democracy rules.
The orchestra is and always has been democratically run. A committee of players makes all decisions, big and small, including choosing conductors and hiring players.
3. Where are the women?
Speaking of hiring, you may know that the Philharmonic has a tradition of excluding women from its ranks — and minorities and other performers from outside central Europe, too, for that matter. The history of this is well documented in this article.
Here are some more facts: the Philharmonic was the last major orchestra in the world to admit women. The first woman, harpist Anna Lelkes, wasn’t hired until 1997. She was admitted as an official member after being an associate member for 26 years. Ten years after her hiring, in 2007, the number of women in the orchestra remained at one, again the harpist. Clemens Hellsberg, the orchestra’s chairman, is quoted to have said, “In art, you can’t impose quotas.” Today, eight women are listed among its 136 members.
The reason given for choosing musicians from central Europe is the desire to preserve the homogeneous sound of the orchestra. Presumably, according to the Philharmonic, musicians who have grown up in the tradition will have the music in their blood, thus preserving the unique musical style.
4. Wiener Musikverein.
Since 1870, the orchestra’s home has been the elegant Musikverein. The orchestra performs in the Grosser Saal (Great Hall), also known as the Goldener Saal (Golden Hall), named for its exquisite decoration and golden statues. The hall offers some of the finest acoustics in the world, which is interesting because it was designed by Theophil Hansen before the application of modern acoustical science.
Listen to the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein perform Mahler's Symphony No. 5, first movement:
The Vienna Philharmonic stands out in that it has no resident conductor. Since 1933 the orchestra has only worked with guest conductors, with the goal of engaging every conductor of repute. Therefore the orchestra has been led by some of the most illustrious names in the conducting world, including Hans Richter, Arturo Toscanini, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Hans Knappertsbusch, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel and Daniel Barenboim. Franz Welser-Möst is leading the orchestra on its current tour.
6. Association with the greatest composers.
Many of the most important composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries have been associated with the orchestra, such as Wagner, Verdi, Bruckner, Brahms, Liszt, Strauss and Mahler, all of whom performed with or conducted the orchestra. So many big works were premiered by the orchestra, including Brahms’s second and third symphonies, and Bruckner’s eighth.
Curiously, the orchestra that premiered so many new works in the past now performs few works composed after the mid-20th century. Exceptionally, for their Toronto appearance, the Philharmonic will perform Lied by young German composer Jörg Widmann.
7. Dark Nazi past.
The war years were a troubling period in Austria. In 1938, 15 Jewish musicians were expelled from the orchestra and seven of them were killed by the Nazis. The National Socialist Party also tried to disband the orchestra, but Furtwängler was able to intervene. A large number of musicians joined the Nazi Party. In 1966, the Philharmonic controversially bestowed its highest award, the Honourary Ring, on Baldur von Schirach, the Vienna Gauleiter, or governor, who was convicted of crimes against humanity for deporting 185,000 Austrian Jews.
In an effort to put these nasty events behind them, the Philharmonic recently announced it has asked three historians to investigate and document the orchestra’s Nazi past.
8. New Year’s concerts.
The Vienna Philharmonic’s annual New Year’s concerts are beloved the world over. They consist of the ever-popular waltzes by the Johann Strauss family and their contemporaries and are now enjoyed by more than 60 million television viewers in more than 80 countries.
In his day, Johann Strauss Jr. actually enjoyed a personal connection with the orchestra, conducting a number of his works from the violin. But after his death in 1899, his music fell out of favour with the musicians.
The tradition of the New Year’s concerts also has a coloured past, going back to the war years when Austria was losing its autonomy. The first concert was held on Dec. 31, 1939, and served to fund the National Socialist Party. By reviving this quintessentially Austrian music that it played so well, the concert helped bolster the orchestra's international reputation.
The glory days of the Vienna New Year’s concerts were the 25 years with Willi Boskovsky, from 1955 to 1979.
Listen to the Vienna Philharmonic under Franz Welser-Möst perform Strauss's Blue Danube Waltz from the 2013 New Year's concert:
9. The Viennese “lilt.”
The Austrians play waltzes like no one else. The characteristic lilt is a rhythmic sensation that occurs when the three beats are not played in strict rhythm. Typically the second beat comes early and there is a longer space between the second and third beats, resulting in that typical Viennese lift.
10. Viennese greeting.
What is the first thing you hear when you approach the ticket booth at the Musikverein? “Grüß Gott,” or “God’s Greeting.” This greeting, which sounds quaint in other German-speaking lands, is still typical in Austria and Bavaria, even among non-religious people.
Royal Albert Hall to Musikverein: a gallery of gorgeous concert halls
Watch: Vienna Phil plays Beethoven's fifth with Christian Thielemann
Watch: National Youth Orchestra of Canada plays Koerner Hall
on Feb 25, 2013
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Sometimes, strange things happen when reading a number of different books at the same time. I'm reading Rebecca Tope's The Threlkeld Theory, as well as a book about the Silver Fork novelists, who flourished from the 1820s to the mid 19th century. In Tope's novel she mentions Edward Bulwer-Lytton, one of the main exponents of this literary trope. Such a strange coincidence!
Edward Bulwer-Lytton was a Victorian politician and writer, best known for his contribution to the Silver Fork genre, as well as being the author of one of the first Science Fiction novels The Coming Race.
Strangely, Bulwer-Lytton also gave his name to the literary prize of the same name. The Bulwer-Lytton prize was founded in 1982 and challenges all entrants to compose opening sentences to the worst of all possible novels.The founder of the prize Professor Scott Rice chose the opening sentence of Bulwer-Lytton's novel The Last Days of Pompeii as his best (or worst) example "It was a dark and stormy night"...
"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."
This sentence was, of course, plagiarized repeatedly by Snoopy in the cartoons!
Every year writers are encouraged to enter with their worst possible opening sentence. The 2021 winner, Stu Duval, produced this ghastly effort:
"A lecherous sunrise flaunted itself over a flatulent sea, ripping the obsidian bodice of night asunder with its rapacious fingers of gold, thus exposing her dusky bosom to the dawn’s ogling stare."
Bulwer-Lytton's work was considered to represent "the archetypal example of a florid, melodramatic style of fiction writing".
As I love a spot of Silver Fork writing, I'm now considering which of Bulwer-Lytton's novels to read. Unlike the character in Rebecca Tope's novel, I don't think I'll be reading the complete oeuvre!
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Fashion designer Derek Lam was born in San Francisco, and is 4th generation Chinese American. Growing up the youngest of three children, his parents had a business that imported clothes from Asia.
Additionally, his grandparents ran a garment factory that focused on bridal and wedding […]
The Tommy Hilfiger show was definitely one of the most well attended at the Lincoln Center. Before the show started, there was a lot of activity on the runway with reporters clamoring to get interviews and photographs of the attending celebrities.
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The Top 35 Or So Songs of the 80’s
#09: Lizzy Mercier Descloux - Funky Stuff
The Talking Heads took a similar route: Nervous punks hook up with Brian Eno, learn to groove, and eventually record worldbeat-inspired masterpiece (Remain In Light). Lizzy cut her teeth in the New York no wave scene, but she always had a more cosmopolitan presence than Byrne’s outsider journalism and dramatic monologues. Lizzy also has a more generous spirit: Press Color contains a goofy cover of the Mission Impossible theme, not for any geopolitical or ironic statement but simply because it’s a killer groove. Her masterpiece, Mambo Nassau, is organic, worldly and gleeful, and “Funky Stuff” is a testament to Lizzy’s boundless enthusiasm. In her hands, Kool & The Gang’s limp original is galvanized and transformed into a celebration about loving music, and her joy is positively infectious. “It’s so much fun,” she shouts with such honesty that the sentiment is liberating: Forget social divisions and genre boundaries—celebrate music.
Lizzy Mercier Descloux - Slipped Disc
“Lizzie Mercier Descloux is a cunning naif, an aware waif, an experienced virgin, a tipsy teetotaller and a star in the shoddy, shady niche of obscurism… These songs are the current number ones in Heaven… Mambo Nassau is an album to be cherished, to be over played, left alone and then returned to. It is the tastiest sweet in the shop. It embodies the heavy thudding of a heart in love.”—“Sex with Style” (1981), Sounds magazine via Pitchfork.
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“Stratagem” is the first track on the album. You may remember it from his original EP, Of Scars and Soil or maybe my compilation, Metal From The Dragon Vol. 1; it was the leading track on both. However, both were unmastered versions, unlike this one. The track is a melodic song, but it certainly doesn’t hold back with Thompson’s vocals. His guitar solo is pretty sick too. The lyrics themselves, however, are more uplifting then ever.
The word stratagem came from me looking for synonyms for the word “plan”. The idea came from how God had a plan for Job’s life. The lyrics “a hand unseen, still veiled to me” bring that idea to the front. When hard things happen in our lives, as Christians we have to remember that God works in ways we cannot always perceive. That was true of Job’s situation, and its true of ours. And that is something we have to tell ourselves when we go through the hard times.
“War in the Wind” starts off with guitars and a wailing siren going off in the background. This one, once it gets going, really shows how awesome a musician Thompson is. The drum programming alone is so good, you wouldn’t be able to tell they were…ya know…if I hadn’t pointed that out. The song brings Mortification to mind.
“Anno Domini” was also apart of the Of Scars and Soil EP. So if you’re familiar with it, you know it’s awesome. The track is fast and is full of melody and symphony. A Christian symphony…wonder what you’d call that?
“In Anger’s Midst” was the first song anyone heard that was not apart of the EP. It certainly does not disappoint. The song sounds a lot like Horde or Elgibbor. This track is certainly the black metal-est on the album. Although primarily death metal, Symphony of Heaven does honor the original black and unblack metal bands that came before him.
“The Meditation of My Heart” starts with just an acoustic guitar. The electric guitar plays in the background and the drums are barely audible, but that adds to the beauty of this song. The song is an instrumental and I think that’s for the best.
“Of Scars and Soil” was on the EP and is now the 6th track on the album. The song starts with the guitars building up and keyboards playing the background. The song is about the story of Job and how all he had were the scars and the soil beneath him.
“Come and Rest” has a slow but heavy feel to it. Although it’s slow, it has an unblack metal style to it, mostly with the guitars and vocals. Mid way through the song, it kicks off into that fast heavy stuff we all love. Sounds like Becoming the Archetype a little bit.
“Time Transcending” is the final track on the album. It’s also the longest track on the album. It begins with the sound of rain. Followed by guitars. The instrumentation really comes full circle. The track is long, but it’s certainly awesome. The song sounds a lot like Death Requisite.
Overall, the album is certainly one of the best I’ve heard all year, if not the best. I encourage anyone who loves bands like Death Requisite, Horde, Dimmu Borgir, or Mortification to pick this album up!
For Fans Of: Death Requisite, Horde, Mortification, Becoming the Archetype, Dimmu Borgir
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WOW WOW WOW! Goal reached!
Guys, my Patreon hit the $800 mark! Thank you all so much! Wow! This is big news for a few reasons. First, $800 is the point where Patreon pays my very basic monthly bills. That's rent, basic groceries and studio rent. Of course, it's not quite that simple, but knowing I have that much money coming in every month is a huge relief for someone who does the kind of work I do and doesn't have a regular monthly paycheck to rely on! Secondly, $800 was our next Milestone Goal! Starting next week I'll be doing a regular "Ask Medusa" feature, where I'll draw Medusa answering your questions. I'll be posting more about this in few days, but I think it will be a lot of fun! So again, thank you all so much! Really! I was going to do a little Medusa drawing that I could post along with this, but I got busy working on some Yeld art tonight instead, so here's that. - Jake
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Opera Stories from Wagner
By Florence Akin
Public Domain Books
“Far, far below the ground are gloomy depths,– A mighty cavern, rocky, dark and vast.”
It was as dark as night down in the kingdom of the Nibelungs, except for the light which flared from the smoking torches, or glowed in the coals upon the anvils.
The family of dwarfs were skilled blacksmiths and metal-workers.
From every little niche and corner came the sound of clinking anvils. Before Alberich stole the gold, the Nibelungs often sang as they worked.
They sometimes made pretty ornaments for their wives to wear or toys for their little children.
But now Alberich had made the ring of gold which bound them to do his will.
He had no love in his heart, so he drove and scolded all the time.
He made them work, work, work, both day and night, and all that they made belonged to him.
So Alberich was daily becoming mightier than ever.
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Discover the epitome of European fine furniture with the exquisite Rioja Barstool. Created by esteemed German designers Alexander Grimm and Ronny Eysser from the renowned Lounge Design Group studio, this exceptional piece showcases TON's expertise in crafting furniture of unparalleled elegance. Immerse yourself in a world of culinary refinement as you elevate your kitchen space with the timeless allure of the Rioja Barstool.
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It's clean lines and understated design make it a perfect choice for both modern and traditional interiors. Whether it graces a kitchen counter, a home bar, or a café, this TON barstool adds an air of sophistication and refinement to any space. Embrace its versatility and unlock endless possibilities for creating a stylish and inviting ambience.
* Actual colours and design may vary slightly due to different screen settings, the lighting on the photoshoot and other factors.
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It hurts to write this article, but legendary stuntman and martial artist Steven Lambert has passed away aged 69.
If you’ve ever seen any action film from the 80’s and 90’s, you would have seen Lambert’s work. He was a notable villain in 1994’s Timecop, where he had a memorable rooftop showdown with Van Damme and he was a vicious serial killer in the James Woods film Cop.
Mr. Lambert was a renowned martial artist and stunt performer who had won multiple awards for his outstanding work in both fields. He was also a published writer who released a biography a short time ago about his childhood in New York to his time in Hollywood as a performer and highly-respected stunt co-ordinator.
His film work consists of such bonafide classics as Revenge of the Ninja, American Ninja, Cop, Remo: The Adventure Begins, Relentless II, John Carpenter’s Vampires, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Total Recall and dozens of other blockbusters.
My introduction to his enormous screen presence was when he portrayed serial killer Bobby Franco in the vastly underrated 1988 thriller Cop. Mr. Lambert was extremely menacing as the villain and his performance stayed with me long after the film was over.
Over the years, thanks to social media, I got the chance to correspond with him. It’s not often that your childhood heroes end up being as cool and awesome as you hope, and Mr. Lambert was more than brilliant. He took time to answer questions and always dished out great anecdotes about his work. Such a gentlemen. And a tragic loss to the world.
My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.
Bless you, Steven. Thank you for all the joy you brought. RIP.
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A great idea, murdered by the direction
What we had here was an idea that was sabotaged by the way it was presented. This film has some good ideas, but in the end, the "found footage" nature of the work killed off any of the great things it could have done. The found footage nature of the film hurts in several ways. First, it forces the camera to be justified by making the viewpoint character be a camera junkie. That one works reasonably OK, because it's actually part of the plot that he uses the camera as a means of distancing himself from others. The problem comes from the fact that the film needs to switch perspectives away from the viewpoint character. So they have to shoehorn another video blogger character in the story, who exists for no purpose other than to be another camera to switch perspectives with. It's really forced and obvious. The next found footage problem is that the direction just doesn't help a lot of the scenes. During the big climatic fight at the end, the camera switches to various scenes from nearby cameras, CCTV footage, and random other POVs. This not only highlights the artificiality of the work, it also means that we're not getting good closeups of the actors delivering performances in many cases. The direction just doesn't work like an action scene should, and it feels very clumsy overall. Yes, I know it's a found footage movie, but that's my point: it hurts the other stuff the film is supposed to do. The third problem is that a lot of scenes are really contrived just to allow the viewpoint character to talk. Things that would normally be conveyed by an actor acting and so forth are conveyed via monologues into cameras. This is far less effective of a storytelling mechanism, hence the problem. They work OK, but it could have been so much more if it were traditionally directed. This film really shouldn't have been a found footage movie. It rarely helps the film. You don't get good scares or tension, and you don't feel like you're really part of the action. It doesn't feel more real or anything. It's all of the negatives of found footage without any of the positives.
A great idea, made crappy by the
After the Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield, I guess "Found Footage" was the new hotness in film. It let directors use crappy angles and shaky-cam to hide bad action or acting. But unlike Blair Witch or Cloverfield, which actually kind of tried to use the cameras in a somewhat realistic way, Chronicle does it very lazily. For example, Cloverfield is consistently shot from a handheld, eye-level perspective, because that's how a cameraman would use a camcorder. It's limited to one specific "videotape" because, well, it's "found footage" - this is the videotape that was found. It also implemented flashbacks by incorporating "taped over" scenes very well to cement the use of this trope. In Cloverfield, the director knew both the advantages and limitations of "found footage" and used them very well. In Chronicle, they have no reason for incorporating "found footage", realized there were limitations, and then made sloppy excuses for when the "found footage" wouldn't be capable of showing a particular scene. The director wanted to have all the advantages, but none of the disadvantages, of the trope, which renders it pointless and therefore annoying. One of the kids is just so obsessed with videotaping absolutely everything we get "found footage" of him walking through the halls on a normal day at school, him answering the door, etc. Yup, there's your explanation. We have all these normal, everyday scenes you find in normal films because this kid just wants to film every second of his life. And when he gets his psychic powers, he uses his powers to keep the camera nearby and videotape everything as well. And to get camera angles that would be on a normal movie shot as well, but now it's "found footage"... uh, yay? So yeah, the usage of this trope adds absolutely nothing at all to this film. It neither limits our viewpoint for a real purpose - in Cloverfield, for example, deliberately hiding the action keeps the tension up and maintains the mystery/fear of the monster. We cannot know what the characters don't know. Characters may see what we didn't see on camera, so we experience tension only through the characters' own fear. In Chronicle? Nope. Nor does it do anything different (you get city-spanning shots, high aerial shots, stuff like that... because psychic powers! found footage!) It serves no purpose other than making some of the camerawork shaky and deliberately low-quality. Now, for the plot: it could have been pretty interesting. A bunch of teens get psychic powers. One of them is bullied at school and abused at home, so guess what happens? It's an interesting moral question. It's acted fairly well. Overall the plot and the writing is decent, with an interesting premise, let down by deliberately poor camerawork and a poor excuse for using that trope.
Best superhero film ever
This movie is.....oh man, this movie. This is without a doubt my favorite superhero film of all time, and this is coming from a guy who isn't really a fan of found footage movies. It feels so darn REAL. I was completely convinced that these could be real people, and that someone could have pieced together all this footage. The acting is superb. There was no moment I thought someone was over or underacting. These characters felt like people I would meet in school (that means alot coming from someone who is actually still in school) and their emotional states and thoughts just leap right off the screen. The character development is great and totally natural, and as a result of how incredibly real it feels, it expertly plays with your emotions. The movie made me laugh and crack a huge grin only to later almost bring me to the point of tears (I've never cried at a movie.) The only other movie that's done that is Toy Story 3, which is loved by pretty much everyone. Move over Batman, Man of Steel, and The Amazing Spider-Man: THIS film should be the shining example of how to do realism in superhero films. I know I'm gushing here, but it's truly amazing how much I felt for these characters, even the villain. In fact, this is the only film where I wanted to walk up to the villain, put my arm around him and say "It'll be ok." He's not even really a villain. One of the things the film is best at is avoiding superhero film tropes, and as a result, it doesn't feel like a superhero film, but just a story and a dang good one at that. Not that it's perfect. Some things about the nature of the powers are left pretty vague. It's intentional and makes sense considering that they (and therefore we) SHOULDN'T understand everything, but you may be left wanting more answers. There are also some spots (first flight) where the effects get noticeably shoddier, and there are some places where it's obvious they just threw up a pretty background on the green screen, but it didn't bother me because I was so invested. As someone who's seen many, many superhero films, this is the best to me "and I think that says something." I'd recommend it not just to superhero fans, but fans of great films in general. Don't be intimidated by the format, it works really freaking well. Some advice? Buy the Director's Cut! We get even more time seeing the characters develop.
I do not use that word inflationary. I don't think I used it in months, but that movie was awesome. It was was the best I saw this year, and this includes Iron Sky. Still, I liked it more than the latter, even though I probably couldn't watch it as often as the Nazi parody. It... touched me. There had been times I wanted to jump into the screen and punch the lights out of several characters, or comfort them. Regular movies don't do that for me, neither do emotional ones. So, yeah. I really liked it, I recognized the allusions to Tetsuo and Anakin the moment they happened, hell I was about to scream "Kaneda" when Andrew addressed Matt during his rampage. Chronicle did well. I will buy it.
When I saw the trailer, I thought it'd be a nice movie. When I actually went to see it (*coughsnuckincough*), I was just blown away. I've been spoiled to other movies. This was honestly the best movie I'd seen a while. As I am a fan of TV Tropes (and have been long enough that I should be majorly traumatized), I saw many of the situations in the movie coming, but still felt heartbroken when they happened. To make it even better, it seems my friends all saw it too, and loved it just as much. One in particular wants to write fanfiction about it, and she's never actually /done/ that (to my knowledge). This wanting to write fanfics of it was just boosted (for both of us) when we realized that there seemed to be /none/ up that we could find. I was glad to look a few days after noticing that and seeing that people had already started to add fics on. I have to mention that I have yet to meet someone who didn't like the movie.
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Use your old and vintage drawers to make something interesting for your home. We can help you with these creative and cute diy ideas. Enjoy…
1. You can use old drawer to make a mirror.
2. Hang them on the wall and use them as shelves.
3. Make wall art with old drawers.
4. You can use old drawer to make a beautiful bed for your puppy.
5. Hang the drawer with old belt.
6. Use different kinds of drawers to make chic and vintage drawers chest.
7. Very cute shelves.
8. You can use it as a jewelry hanger.
9. Make your underwear visible and hang it on the wall.
10. Cute shelf for your jewelry.
11. You can make playful place for your cats out of drawers.
12. Make rolling drawers under your bed.
13. Use drawers as shelves in the kitchen.
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I stare down at my Freudian Slippers. Sigmund's cartoonish eyes meet mine while his tongue lolls out from under his white beard. At this moment, I am avoiding my husband's repeated inquiries.
"How do you feel?"
"Any goals? Comments?"
"How are you?"
He is asking me these questions because it was the first day of my last semester at BYU-Idaho. I graduate in 14 weeks.
So I stare at my slippers, wriggling my toes and enjoying my nonsensical balter, because I don't fancy an existential crisis with my morning tea.
Neil Gaiman talks about the surreality of creating for a living. His wife, Amanda Palmer, coined the term "Imposter Syndrome." Symptoms include believing two men would knock on your door, tell you creating wasn't a real job, and make you get a desk job. That has always sounded like some kind of Harrison Bergeron-esque dystopian circumstance until I remembered I've been spending four years trying to earn the right to tell people I'm a designer.
I have spent most of those years questioning and critiquing my work. Nothing was good enough, someone was better, I pushed myself harder, self-destructively wouldn't accept mistakes and was wildly disappointed when they happened. But it had never occurred to me that I didn't belong in this world.
"BABE. I GOT IT. I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING." my binder flew up into the air as I jumped out of my chair to get Burke's attention. I grabbed his face with both of my hands and stared intently.
"Dada. Existentialism. It's so obvious."
"College students. Oh, this is awesome, I'm on it, this'll be poignant."
"I'd understand your excitement a lot better if you told me your entire train of thought." he reminded me to back up.
"Okay, okay, so I wanna do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, right? Well, I figured out how I'm going to make it relatable. I flipping love absurdist theatre, oh my gosh."
"Still unclear, babe."
"I'm going to cast Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as college students! It's perfect! 'Cuz we're all having an existential crisis!!"
I spent October perfectly placing and timing sound effects for Jane Eyre, rehearsing my directing scene from R&GareDead, and prepping for NaNoWriMo. I was still optimistic-- a dizzy dreamer, really. Between the amount of storms/ atmospheric disturbances and music I ended up writing for the Jane Eyre, I really shouldn't have had to question if I was an artist. But I kept looking over my shoulder. I was eying the door, just waiting for the suits who were going to drag me out of the theatre.
It's a common habit of mine to analyze my life like a piece of literature. I'm usually aware of foreshadowing or thematic motifs. I learned a lot about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. As well as existentialism and Dada.
My existential crisis hit just before Tech Week.
"This still life looks like a 50-ft pomegranate on a snowy mountain. I guess it's a metaphor now."
"None of this is working. I've been staring at piano keys for hours and I can't nail anything down. I'm just not cut-out for this."
"Does my class just not get absurdist theatre or am I delusional in believing my scene makes sense?"
"I feel like my faculty isn't invested in me, like they've lost hope in my future, I'm not promising enough."
"Does anyone in this department even respect me?"
"Have I done anything important here? Will anyone remember me?"
"Is anything I've produced even art? Is it even good? It doesn't have to be great, just tell me if it's good."
"I don't think I can do this. I don't think I belong here. I'm kidding myself."
"I have a useless degree!!"
I spent most of November on the floor in a crumpled heap. I tried to drown out the screeching car crash of my head and heart colliding with copious amounts of Netflix. I wrote a scant 3,000 words for NaNoWriMo. And I watched my enthusiasm for Jane Eyre implode, dissolve and dissipate. I was overly critical of every sound-- every time something was heard from the speakers, I'd flinch as if I'd personally smacked everyone in the audience. I was convinced everything was terrible and my mentor, director and faculty were putting up with me because it was just one more month and then they'd be rid of me. Nothing my husband said to me made a difference. Opening night came and I hid in a corner for a week. I feebly tried to deposit hope in an quickly decreasing bank of ambitions and dreams.
I was so very close to giving up.
I was graduating anyways, the journey was over, and I could give up after this. It's not a disappointment if no one believed in it, right?
"Laura! I have a weird proposition for you..."
"Haha, okay, sure. What's up?"
"Remember when I asked you if you'd take my graduation photos? Could you take them this week?"
"Totally! Where do you want to go?"
"That's where it gets weird."
Let's talk about Modern Art for a hot second. It's a fantastic paradox where you can tell people what you've done is art and some punk teenager will say it's not art and a doctorate in art history will say it's the pinnacle of art and they're all right. It's infuriating when you're trying to take it down and impenetrable when you're building it up.
Now, Dada is this anti-art movement, perhaps you've heard the term avant-garde. Basically, a bunch of cynics got together and said "ARGH I'M ANGRY ABOUT WORLD WAR I" and then did stuff that's art but it's also not art!(?).
(Please don't describe it that way to your professors.)
It's also associated into stuff like absurdist theatre, existentialism, destructive performance art, and it was my redemption because it meant that my struggle was important, artistic, and glorious.
Taking inspiration from Pete Townshend, I decided the only way to win back solid footing in my creating field was to destroy it.
I was going to immolate my degree.
Not just burn it-- I was going to kill it and offer it as a sacrifice to my existential crisis.
"So, I wan wondering if you'd come out to the dunes and take some pictures while I burn this thing."
"Yeah! That sounds so cool! Let's do it!"
So here it is, my offering:
This is a compilation of everything I'd ever done during my time at this school. Resume, CV list, business cards, programs, pictures, portfolio pieces, scripts, plays I wrote, EVERYTHING. It's all represented.
And then I burned it.
I used LIGHTER FLUID. LIGHTER FLUID. I made sure that sucker BURNED.
Because the smoke had to get to heaven. Or hell. It had to get to wherever my crisis existed. It had to reach each doubt and suffocate it.
Wow, that sounds just... so... pretentious? Artistic? Hyperbolic? Extensive? Excessive?
I learned something very powerful that day. I was educated enough to know about Dada and that what I was doing had a long-standing tradition and heritage and meant something on several levels. And because I had made an informed decision for this art project, I was an artist.
I watched my work burn and I learned it was okay to let it.
December 13, 2016
I graduate in three days.
Wednesday, I'll be baking. Presumably all day.
Thursday, I'm going to present my Jane Eyre project in front of a panel of faculty members and pack up my apartment.
Friday, I'm going to walk on a stage and get a fake diploma and have dinner with my family and then I will be done.
I have earned my degree: a Bachelor's in Technical Theatre and Design.
I have earned my right to make my art. Wildly, imperviously, powerfully.
I have earned the right to struggle.
No one can take that away from me.
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When I first started these podcasts, one of the people I knew that I wanted to talk to was Meg Schedel. She works at the University of New York at Stony Brook. But she's also one of the people that was part of the New York crew that I had gotten to know over the years. And I had actually worked with her at Cycling '74 for awhile.
She always brought an amazing energy and enthusiasm to everything that she's done. She's also very active in the audio and visual world. So it's kind of interesting to talk to somebody that plays in both sides of that media game. I wanted to spend a little time talking to her, find out how she integrates the two pieces, how she works with different kinds of technology and how she sees herself fitting in the audio media world.
Darwin: All right, Meg, it's good to have you on the podcast today. I'd like to dive right into your musical life. From reading your CV and the information that you have on the web (on Schedel.net), it's a pretty impressive body of work. You do a lot of performance work, you do a lot of composition and one of the things I noticed is that you kind of get a sense of a person who has a background in the classical paradigm. You self-identify as a composer. You play an instrument that has a long history of use in classical music. But your use of these classical devices really kind of belies the actual work that you do. You're heavily involved in electronic music development. Your use of the cello is electrified, and it's software extended, you use the K-Bow and you really redefine the instrument in a lot of ways. How did you manage that transition?
Margaret: I wouldn't even call it a transition. My father's a computer programmer and I took piano lessons from about the age of six because I had small motor control problems. And then when I was in sixth grade, my parents bought an Apple computer and my father read about this magical thing called MIDI and bought me a keyboard and a MIDI interface for Christmas, I think, or my birthday. And I just never looked back. So I actually have an undergraduate degree in computer music, so it's been a part of me for almost as long as I've been doing music.
Darwin: So then what caused you to choose cello as the instrument?
Margaret: My piano teacher ironically thought that I should develop my ear. And when I started cello I was just like, "What? I can change the sound after I've started it and I can do all this stuff?" And to me when I found the computer, it was like "Wait, I can take this sound and do even more stuff to it?" So I think I've always had a fascination with timbre and it was just getting the tools.
Darwin: Sure. Now it's kind of interesting that your father's being a computer programmer had some influence on you, because I find that a lot of times people that work in the media arts - or in sort of experimental music - have a lot of trouble explaining to their parents what it is that they do for a living. I mean, they're always most happy when you're able to say something like "I'm a teacher" - because that they can wrap their heads around, because it makes more sense to them.
Margaret: Well, they're much happier now that I'm a professor. And it's kind of horrifying because my Mom was an elementary school teacher and my father was a computer programmer and I spend most of my days teaching computers now. So it makes a little bit of sense to them and they, they come to my performances and they sort of, they mostly get what I do. Maybe not why, but they understand what's going on.
Darwin: That's great. So you're currently a professor at Stony Brook, right? And what classes are you teaching there?
Margaret: That is correct. So I have a dual appointment. I'm half in the music department and half in this consortium for Digital Art, Culture and Technology. So when I applied for the job, it was pretty much "Wait, you went to conservatories and you got good grades and you got into good schools, but you do this really weird stuff..."" So I actually do teach traditional theory and history and then half of the time I'm doing digital media courses.
So I actually developed a course called Sound Design because we didn't have any courses that people that didn't know how to read music could take. And I felt like that was something important, especially at a state school where we're serving some populations that didn't have those opportunities. So it's been a really popular class and I'm really proud of it.
Darwin: That's really interesting because I teach in a in an Art department and it's very similar. I teach a class called Sonic Arts. They want people to get involved in sound design, but there's not that history of music, the music "process". So you have to explain what octaves are and what a scale might be - hoping people can get it because they have a history with listening to music. But a lot of times it's really sad because, within public education, there's very little access to music at this point.
Margaret: Yeah. My friend from like second grade on Margaret Ann Schaffer is teaching high school band at our old high school, and it's one of the few places that still has a really active music program. Like, she even teaches theory.
Darwin: Well, good luck to her because, well, I have kids, they're in school right now, and band is something that they get to do once every two weeks - which is really depressing.
Margaret: It's not band.
Darwin: Right. It's not band if that's all that you get out of it. Right. So what kinds of things do you, in teaching sound design, the Sonic Wonderland to people who might not have that background with music? What are the things that you find you really have to plug into in some detail that you otherwise might not?
Margaret: I have this certificate in deep listening which just means sort of actually paying deep attention to the sound itself. So a lot of them get sort of seduced by the surface and then I'm just like "No, you need to listen beyond that." And it's really amazing to me cause some people that have like a little bit of musical training will come in and they'll be all good. Then we hit a certain point and the kids that never had musical training but actually listened to me go further. So it's all about getting them to trust their ears and really know how to listen.
Darwin: The deep listening thing is the thing Pauline Oliveros does, right? Can you explain a little bit? Cause I've heard of it, but I can't say I know a lot about it and I should know more.
Margaret: So it's a Sonic meditation practice where... I can describe the retreats that we went on. You wake up in the morning and you're not allowed to speak in words. You can make sounds. So at breakfast you can go "Ooh" if you need some milk. But the idea is to sort of stop thinking in words. There's some Tai-Chi and movement exercises, then we do a listening meditation. So you sit and just listen. And I had tried meditating for a long time cause I'm kind of a spazz (if you know me). I thought it would be good for me and I wasn't able to - I just got super in my own head and it didn't work. Deep listening works for me because it's all about just sitting there and listening and trying not to identify the sound so you're not like "Oh, that was a squirrel, that's a plane." But just accepting the sounds, even if it's your own voice in your head saying "What am I doing? What's going on?"
She calls it the monkey. you just listened to the monkey and before I'd been trying to shut the monkey up. Now if you just sort of pay attention to the monkey, eventually the monkey dies away. So I teach a Deep Listening class to freshmen and I always try to incorporate some of that into the Sonic Art classes that I run just to get them into the habit of accepting the whole sound like environment.
Darwin: That's really interesting because I too am a spazz and I too have tried meditation and it is also not worked particularly well - mainly because I end up with some frustration about not actually accomplishing anything while I meditating (which is the point, I know). But it actually seems like having there be a purpose of saying "I'm listening" that actually would make meditation a lot easier for someone like me to be able to approach. Now, how do you find that that actually affects like the process that you have in your own compositional work?
Margaret: So it was actually Mara Hellmuth, my teacher at University of Cincinnati, where I got my doctorate, who went on one of these retreats and just was like, "Oh my God, this changed my life!" My musical vocabulary has just been expanded by this. And it's fun besides like, it's this beautiful mountain in New Mexico and you just camp and it's just great. so Pauline came to a workshop in art and technology that I was a part of at The Kitchen, and we did some of her Sonic Meditations. Then she improvised on the accordion, an exact sort of microcosm of this sonic meditation. So that experience - plus my teacher saying how it changed her life - made me want to go. I don't know whether I can say anything concrete about what it's done other than in ridiculously broad terms such as "opening me" and "broadening me". But I don't think I would be the composer I am today if not for that experience.
Darwin: Your composing technique, are you sort of a traditionalist? Do you like scratch everything out on paper? Do you tend to more use improvisational techniques? What's sort of the process that you go through in doing compositional work?
Margaret: Every piece for me is really different. I definitely like to write for a specific person. So recently I had a violin student who had taken my computer music class. She's an amazing violinist. She won the concerto competition here.
At Stony Brook, you need to have some 20th century repertoire. And she was just like, "I'm not comfortable with 20th century music. I would want to study it for five years before I even tried to perform this stuff. Love taking your class, love those kinds of sounds. So do you think you could write me a piece that I would feel comfortable playing that would have electronics?" And I just came up with this idea to write this sort of Bach Partita inspired work using a recursive stretching idea. So I love what happens when you sort of push effects to their maximum and you'd get these glitches and warbles and bubbles.
And so I thought it'd be really cool if you could stretch a sound, but keep stretching the stretch sound for as long as you want - instead of just doubling the length of your note. It'll keep going for as long as you will let it.
So it's three movements. Each of the movements sort of has a different pitch point at which below that stretching takes place. And then, so the first movement actually has two lines and at any point you can jump down to the notes that will start the new pedal point if it's getting too glitchy for you. And it was really amazing to me because I like Bach, I didn't put any bowings or notations in cause I really wanted that sort of idea. And it was the first piece I've ever had where like just sight reading it, she got it.
And then we had to work a bit on the electronics and how to control them. But just working in another idiom was very interesting to me. So that was very prescribed. Listen to the Bach, write music!
Other times I'll do improvisation in a composing duo, which people really don't understand, called Kite•String with Sarah O'Halloran. And a lot of times we'll just improvise. She's also done deep listening retreats, and part of the deep listening retreat is also trying to listen in your dreams. So we'll start from a dreamscape, and then try to add sounds to that.
Darwin: That's very interesting. So there's another case though that is influential. Now I'm speaking of electronics in the way that the bleeding edge of electronics can provide some interesting results. You've worked with a lot of different technology over the years, amd you've been involved in a lot of different kinds of tech. How do you make the decision of what to use when?
Margaret: Wow. that's a really hard question. I mean, how do I decide? Like to me it's more about how I decide to learn a technology, right? Because once I learned it, I know what it can do. It's easy to make the decisions, but to decide what to learn...
Darwin: ...when to take on something new...
Margaret: Yeah. Well, it's getting frustrating as I get older because I'm not as fast as I used to be and I have all these students that are just like, "Oh, I'm just going to try this stuff." And I'm like, "I remember when I just was like that." Now I wonder - do I have the time? Will it impact my efficacy on something else?
Darwin: Well I'm really curious about extending that part of the conversation though, because one of the things that I sometimes worry about - and I see it with students and I see it with people trying to learn Max, or whatever that I'm trying to do. The "quick jump in, do something fantastic and then move to the next shiny object" really prevents people from getting real depth into any of the tools. But on the other hand, some of the variety of tools that come along are so impressive - or are such incredibly shiny objects - that it's really hard to ignore them. And trying to figure out a balance there seems pretty difficult as well.
Margaret: I mean, to give a really perfectly concrete example, I consider myself pretty expert in Max/MSP and Jitter-ish. If someone else gives me the visuals, I can manipulate them. I'm not so good with it as sort of an array storage device. But other people are brilliant at doing that. But I can hack in visual land, and I'm, I'm pretty good with Ableton Live and I do not feel at all competent in Max for Live yet.
Darwin: Oh sure, sure. 'Cuz there's just enough different constructs in there...
Margaret: Different constructs. And I want to be able to understand it fully, rather than just knowing if I do this it's fine.
Darwin: Right. That's a real interesting point. And I think that's a difficulty a lot of people deal with, especially when it's easier to take on a technology that's completely unlike everything - just because you don't have these preconceived notions of how they should work.
Margaret: That's why I love working with video! I don't have 10 teachers in my head saying ... yeah.
Darwin: Well, I was gonna ask: how do you balance the two pursuits to the different paradigms that come between working on visuals and working with music? I mean, they do seem to be different disciplines in a very serious way.
Margaret: I guess for me, because I always get raw footage from other people, it just becomes like a sample that I can manipulate. So I don't think of them as very different at all. I have a little bit of synesthesia and... I'm good. Like I can arrange furniture, but I can't make furniture. I'm very good at putting things together, but not actually designing them myself. So I actually feel a big connection between the two.
Darwin: So who are some of the people that you've collaborated with on video work?
Margaret: Yeah. One of the big people is Nick Fox-Gieg. And my collaborations with him have been really interesting because we'll take turns being 'the boss'. So, collaboration when two people are working together, you're incredibly equal and you should just make your decisions and it doesn't work. Somebody needs to be in charge. So we actually rotate who's in charge. Some days I will be like, "I need this kind of visuals and no, Nick, can we make her look even crazier?" And other times he'll be in charge and he'll be like, "Hey, can you make that sound? Just, you know, can you deepen it?" And so we've had a really, really good working relationship for almost 20 years now.
Darwin: wow. That's incredible. You know, that reminds me - I do work with a dance company, and I work really closely with the choreographer - and that's a lot of times how that interaction works. Especially on things that are gonna impact both what I'm doing with visuals and what she's going to do with the choreography. We do that collaboration on the music, and there is sort of this back and forth of who's going to make the decisions. Sometimes it's really useful to be the decision maker. Sometimes it's really useful to be the decision receiver and that's a very interesting way to think of it.
Margaret: Something you might like: when we were living in the same city, we actually had a duo called In Strange Paradox where he was getting into doing live visuals using a Wacom tablet. We did these improvised sets where I was in charge of generating some sound and I had the K-Bow. The K-Bow was effecting his images as he was drawing and his Wacom pen was influencing the sound as I was playing. So you not only had to play or draw, you had to be aware of what you were doing to the other medium, and also react to what the other person was doing to you.
Darwin: I was gonna say that's awesome. But my kids have been filling my head with the word awesome, so I have to find a different word. That's incredible! I'd say that kind of feedback seems to be a part of the kind of live art work or the live performance work that I see so often. They have these built in feedback mechanisms. Do you find yourself gravitating towards those?
Margaret: Yeah, for sure. Come on - I don't know why I'm obsessed with sort of trying to create these linkages, either between people or between people and computers. But I just like it. It might be because I have problems making connections with people in real life. We don't talk about interpersonal problems though, so let's keep that to ourselves.
Darwin: One other thing that I know that you're really active in is being at the forefront about talking about women's inclusion in media art, in music production, in music development - those kinds of things. I think you're involved in several organizations that are, that have that as kind of a specific desire to influence the community.
Margaret: Well I was involved with at least one: The Women's Audio Mission, back in San Francisco. I'm also on the very edges of this code liberation project that my friend Phoenix Perry started. But I'm not really interested so much in organizations that are for women. I want to just make sure there are women in places where they will be seen.
Darwin: You want to get women involved in the organizations. That makes a lot of sense. What are the barriers that you find that kind of prevent that from happening?
Margaret: I grew up in a town - we were right near Bell Labs and there were a lot of female engineers around this place in New Jersey. So I never actually experienced any kind of sexism that 'women can't do math' or anything. I went to Goucher College, which four years before I got there had become coed; and I had a second year math class where I was the only woman and I was just like, "This is weird!"
I have that undergrad degree in computer music. I would sometimes be the only woman in my computer music classes. And I had a composition teacher who would actually make fun of the men in... it was a group composition class and he would make fun of the men in the class because I was doing better than they were.
And he would be like, "This is ridiculous! This woman is doing better than you." And I was like, "What? I'm three years in?" I was going to Peabody at the same time I was going to Goucher (because I finished everything at Goucher) and I got invited to help out with this wheelchair dance piece that we presented at a ICMC in Banff, Canada. And I was involved with the programming, sound design, everything. But there were 10 men from Peabody that also went to this conference and they got grilled about how the piece worked. We had these wireless sensors; it was really ahead of its time. We were working with the Hopkins Physics Lab, and no one asked me a damn thing. Well, they asked me who I was there with and who my husband was and I was 20 at the time, so it was sort of a shock to me - because I never had identified even myself as female, or what I was doing as particularly male. It was jarring to say the least to sort of be confronted with my own gender.
Darwin: Do you think that that attitude has changed much in the intervening years?
Margaret: I don't run into that many people who are like me and aren't thinking of themselves in terms of gender. Like we have such a gendered society. I had crazy, ridiculous over-protective parents who would only let me watch one hour of public television a week. So I wasn't exposed to stuff. And I think, I don't want to raise my kid like that if I have one. But I do think that a lot of media and society sort of pressures kids one way or the other - to the point that if you ask a student his or her gender before a math test, the women's scores drop.
So it's this subtle thing. There are a lot of people studying it, particularly in the sciences and STEM fields cause they want to have more women. And it's very funny to me because I have two cousins who are engineers and another who's a pilot. These are all female. So I think both sides of my family have these strong women who don't care. but all of us are, "Why aren't there more? This is weird." And they've actually done studies, and the main thing that they find is that if you see other people who are like yourself (if you see a woman doing something) you're more likely to think you can do it. So that's pretty much why I'm just like: "Hey, put a woman on it."
Darwin: That's interesting because one of the things that, as you were talking, I was wondering if you thought that... that some of this push, whether it's through STEM or whatever, where we have to get women to do better at math - if that doesn't ghettoize women who already do math. But I do see where where having people visibly in that environment makes a huge difference.
Margaret: I mean, I'm not even advocating for 50, 50 balanced programs; but, I know that I've had some opportunities presented to me just because I'm a woman - but I take them and I run with them. I've gotten to the point of saying, "Now, do you want me just because I have a vagina? Because I also have seven friends who could do this, who also have vaginas." People say, "Oh, there are more people?" I'm like, "Yes, I have a whole binder full of them!" And I literally have a list of a hundred emails for when people are like, "I couldn't think of anybody."" I'm like, here you go. I send the list with like "They're a composer, they're a researcher, they're a performer. This is what they've done." And I will send it out.
Like, you think there's not a woman - here you go. And I really kind of want to get now into doing that for minorities as well. It is a little bit annoying. You're the token woman or you're the token minority, but you being there could change the course of someone in the audience's life.
Darwin: I think that's a great point because I think that so often those kinds of influences are not the ones that cause people to come rushing up after a performance or after a speaking engagement. They don't come up and say, "You changed my life!", you know?
Do you think there's any other things that need to change in order to make electronic music or media art or interactive video become a better environment, or environment that that is more easily seen as not gendered?
Margaret: I'm hoping maybe these MOOCs, these distributed classes where you can take it in the shelter of your own home are gonna be useful. So it's really funny: my Kindle is sitting right here, the Virginia Woolf picture is up and she's... You know, back in the day it was very hard to become a painter or a musician because you needed to intern with somebody and she was like, all you need to become a writer is to have a pen and some paper and a room of your own. And I'm thinking that the computer is starting to become that room of one's own. Just trying to put tools out there so that you can experiment in your home and get some confidence before going out into the world.
Darwin: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, because there's a screen between the class and yourself. It means that you can be whoever you are, and that makes a lot of sense. So when I think about you, I tend to think of you as one of the "New York People", right? But it maybe some of it is because every time I run in into you, and Luke Dubois's there and Todd Reynolds is there and you know, all my New York people.
Margaret: Awesome. Reynold went to Stony Brook.
Darwin: Did he really? Yeah, I didn't know that at all.
Margaret: We're going to have it out for like an alumni concert hopefully in November if the dates work out.
Darwin: Oh, that's cool. So what about that kind of environment seems to you to activate the leading edge of art and music? And, and the combination of the two?
Margaret: I moved from Cincinnati to San Francisco - and I think it was really important for me to be in San Francisco because my doctorate had kind of beaten me down a bit. I had some professors at Cincinnati who did not believe that what I did was music. I did this giant opera that I thought was my thesis, and I got told because it was so collaborative that they couldn't figure out what my part was in it. So it couldn't be my thesis. And I'm just like, "I sold out three nights at the Contemporary Art Center. I got profiled by Apple, I worked for two years bringing a team together. I dictated the form of everything and let people go and do things on their own."
Like I had eight channels of audio that were controlled by a motion sensor. And I didn't want to write those eight tracks myself. I wanted each one to have a really distinct voice. But I told people, these are the kinds of samples that I want to have. This is when it's day. This is when it's night. This is how crazy they should sound.
And so I got eight very, very distinct soundtracks, but the faculty could not wrap their heads around the fact that that was me composing. It was like Xenakis - "I'll put the structure in and then the stochastic cloud particles will fill in the details..."
So San Francisco was really important for me because everyone there was so accepting and positive. But I'm glad that I moved back to New York where they're like, "Oh, I saw that you did that a month ago. What have you done since?""
Darwin: It's an incredible push, isn't it?
Margaret: Snd I'm somewhat grateful, but I did not go to school in New York either. And then I was sort of able to come back and be formed and be new and competent.
Darwin: Do you think that there's a sense that in the New York performing environment that it preferences people that go away for awhile and then come back in - so that you're not the person I see at the corner store and now I see you performing and...
Margaret: Luke and Todd have been there forever. So I think it's hard to be the person that goes there for your doctorate only and then stay. But if you were there sort of from the beginning...
Darwin: Right. For the long run. So speaking of what's new this month, is there anything that you've seen lately that you find particularly exciting?
Margaret: I mean it's not music, but I went to see the James Turrell exhibit at the Guggenheim and it blew my mind and made me hear a sound and I was just like, "I want to put sound in there." And I'm really, really excited about the the MoMA show on Sound Art, and I'm going to get a backstage tour because, oddly, my husband who works with x-rays is doing some thing for MoMA and they're grateful and they're like, "Whenever you want a backstage tour, let us know." And I was like, I want a backstage tour once the Sound Art show comes up. So very excited about that. And yeah, it should be good.
Darwin: Excellent. Meg, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. Are there any last words you want to toss out there?
Margaret: No, it would always be like something cheesy, like, "Do what you love!"
Darwin: Well, okay, we'll use that as a tagline then. Thank you very much and have a great day.
Copyright 2013-2019 by Darwin Grosse. All right reserved.
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The seeds for Wizardarium were sewn in a dungeon I had to come up with because my players found a map in Tegel Manor (a classic Judges Guild module). I drew up a map and peopled it with some odd things. At one point a player-- I think it was +John Da Silva Pola that gets the blame-- said, "Did you make this? It's kinda cool." +Jez Gordon was actually there too, but I'd be surprised if either of them remembers it.
Mmm. Precious attention. I must get more.
From that dungeon, a monster which was basically just a re-skinned Spectator (beholder) guarding a vault, would hold onto my imagination. I played it as polite (it was lawful) and at some point decided to bring that archetype back. There was also a talking skull that kinda got reincarnated into Wizardarium as well.
Anyhoo, things really got underway when Goodman Games ran its mystery dungeon contest. I redrew portions of +Doug Kovacs's map. See the original mystery map here. I ended up drawing the below map:
|Forgive the jaggedness, this was drawn too large and compiled from 3 scans
You might notice that I re-incarnated the spectator as a similar monster. It further mutated later. All the basic areas that ended up in the final product are here, but in really different positions. I also didn't change their contents that much. The shape-change panel, the talking skulls room, the vault and the time-travel device are all in there. Doug's eye monster is what inspired me to bring the spectator back, and the pendant at the feet of his monster became the time fobber. The thing he drew in 2 became the monolith and then I had to people it with apemen because monolith.
I wrote up the whole thing and broke the contest rules (willfully, so great was my bravaddo) by writing too much and sent it in. I of course didn't win, but I was well into letting my players at it at that point and someone said it was fun.
Yesssss! Attention. It makes me thrive!
Well, the logical next step for someone that bases their fragile ego on the opinions of others is to publish it themself. Which I eventually did. Here is the next map mutation on the way to that goal:
|Sorry for the little dots, this would take hours to clean up in photoshop.
So after a while I sent it off to get the old Goodman approval (while sweating because I had no idea how similar my eye monster was to the eye monsters in the module that actually won the contest) to publish it as a 3rd party and the rest is history.
I decided to price it at $1.95 because that is the price I used to pay for Spawn comics as a kid. Thanks to the price (and sales prices), I've managed to stay in the top ten of the DCC category (on the RPGnow version of the site) for a whole year. I hope people feel like even that small price was worth it.
Why charge at all? Because of some advice the Joker gave in The Dark Knight. Meh, you gotta have a rule from somewhere I guess.
The Future- ur- ur...My next product will also be one that started when I had to draw a map (that's the 3rd one for those of you counting). In the case of the upcoming Shmelerak's Tomb, I was trying to draw a map to match an old Jennell Jaquays dungeon. The one in the magazine I found it in was horrible, and the text was also a mess, but I was determined to figure it out. Even as I drew it, I started to change details to suit my tastes and then I was just like, I might as well remake this whole thing. So it's quite the homage dungeon this time around. Hardcore Jaquays fans will see her influence on it, but it's definitely to my sensibilities and design. Still, I guess the point of this whole post is if you try to adapt something or start from a point shown by someone else, you can surprise yourself with how creative you get.
Want to give feedback? Share this on g+ and give me a tag (+claytonian JP) (if you want to keep it private, share with only me).
If you spot a typo or don't have g+, you can just email me. Claytonian at the gmails.
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“The Prince” (2021) is a captivating drama that takes viewers into the intriguing world of royalty, where power, privilege, and personal struggles collide. Set in a modern kingdom, the series unravels the complex dynamics within the royal family, offering a tantalizing glimpse into their lives behind closed doors. With a backdrop of opulent palaces, political intrigues, and scandals, “The Prince” weaves a tale of love, betrayal, and the high stakes of maintaining a royal legacy. Prepare to be immersed in a world of secrets, ambition, and the relentless pursuit of power as the characters navigate the challenges of their positions while trying to protect their personal lives from public scrutiny. Get ready for a gripping and addictive journey that exposes the delicate balance between duty and desire in the lives of those born into extraordinary circumstances.
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“The Prince” was released to audiences last July 29, 2021.
Cast and Director
- Gary Janetti takes on the role of Prince George of Cambridge, bringing the young prince to life with his portrayal.
- Orlando Bloom embodies Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, capturing both his charm and complex journey.
- Condola Rashad portrays Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, skillfully showcasing her grace and resilience.
- Lucy Punch steps into the role of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, capturing her poise and regal presence.
- Alan Cumming plays Owen, a character with a unique connection to the royal family. Frances de la Tour embodies the iconic figure of Queen Elizabeth II, adding depth and gravitas to the portrayal.
- Iwan Rheon portrays Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, capturing his sense of duty and responsibility.
- Sophie Turner takes on the role of Princess Charlotte of Cambridge, adding youthful energy and charm to the character.
- Dan Stevens portrays both Charles, Prince of Wales, and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, showcasing the complexities of these influential figures.
- Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, though without dialogue, is present in the series, adding an intriguing layer to the narrative.
Together, this talented ensemble cast brings the characters of “The Prince” to life, immersing viewers in their captivating world of royalty, relationships, and the pursuit of identity.
Gary Janetti is a multi-talented writer, producer, and creator known for his contributions to the entertainment industry. With his creative vision, Janetti brought “The Prince” (2021) to life, showcasing his unique storytelling abilities. Before his work on “The Prince,” Janetti gained recognition for his work as a writer and producer on popular television shows, including “Family Guy” and “Will & Grace.” He is also celebrated for his comedic talents and has garnered a significant following on social media platforms for his satirical and humorous posts. Janetti’s wit and creativity shine through in his creation of “The Prince,” offering a fresh and irreverent take on the world of royalty.
In “The Prince” (2021), the spotlight is on Prince George, an eight-year-old whose mischievous nature and unique perspective create a series of humorous and challenging situations for both his family and the British monarchy. With a playful and witty approach, the show explores the dynamics within the royal household, showcasing the struggles and joys that come with being a young prince growing up in the public eye. As George navigates his daily life, his antics, and unconventional behavior provide a fresh and entertaining take on the royal family, offering viewers a lighthearted glimpse into the world of royalty through the eyes of a spirited young prince.
“The Prince” (2021). According to your information, the filming of the series took place in Mobile, Alabama, specifically in and around The Battle House Hotel and the adjoining RSA Battle House Tower. These locations served as the backdrop for the production, adding a unique charm and ambiance to the storytelling.
“The Prince” (2021) is a delightful and satirical series that offers a fresh take on the world of royalty. With its witty writing and clever humor, the show presents a whimsical portrayal of the British monarchy through the misadventures of a mischievous eight-year-old Prince George. Led by the creative genius of Gary Janetti, the series successfully blends satire and comedy, delivering a hilarious and irreverent look into the lives of the royal family.
One of the highlights of “The Prince” is its sharp and playful dialogue. The witty exchanges and clever one-liners keep the audience entertained throughout, offering a constant stream of laughs. Gary Janetti’s writing showcases his talent for crafting comedic situations that cleverly parody the royal family, creating moments of comedic gold that leave viewers chuckling.
How many episodes are there in “The Prince” (2021)?
“The Prince” (2021) consists of multiple episodes, but the exact number may vary depending on the season and production. It is recommended to refer to the specific season or episode guide to find the accurate number of episodes.
Is “The Prince” (2021) based on real events?
While “The Prince” (2021) draws inspiration from the British royal family and their public image, it is a fictional series that uses satire and comedy to create fictionalized versions of the royal characters. It is not based on real events or specific incidents involving the royal family.
What is the tone of “The Prince” (2021)?
“The Prince” (2021) adopts a playful and satirical tone. It offers a comedic and irreverent portrayal of the British royal family, presenting humorous situations and satirical commentary on various aspects of royalty.
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Best Coast is an American rock duo formed in Los Angeles, California in 2009. The band consists of songwriter, guitarist and vocalist Bethany Cosentino and guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Bobb Bruno. Cosentino, a former child actress, began writing music as a teenager and was formerly a member of the experimentalist drone group Pocahaunted. After a brief tenure at college in New York City, Cosentino returned to the West Coast and began recording lo-fi demos with Bruno, whom she met in the Los Angeles music scene.
After a string of 7-inch and cassette-only singles, the band signed to Mexican Summer, who issued the band’s debut, Crazy for You, in 2010. Crazy for You became an unexpected commercial success following Internet buzz surrounding the duo. Lewis Pesacov of Fool’s Gold and Foreign Born -produced, engineered and mixed the album. Best Coast added a touring drummer, Ali Koehler of Vivian Girls, and spent much of 2011 on the road for festival appearances and tour dates. Best Coast’s sophomore effort, The Only Place, was released in 2012 and featured a cleaner sound than their previous releases. In 2013, the duo released an EP, Fade Away, and their third studio album, California Nights, was released on May 4, 2015.
California Nights is the third studio album by American indie rock duo Best Coast, released on May 1, 2015 by Harvest Records.It was produced by Wally Gagel, who also produced the duo’s 2013 EP Fade Away.
The band announced the album along with tour dates and the release of a “dreamlike” video directed by Adam Harding for the title track, which also served as the lead single.[On the band’s official website, singer-songwriter Bethany Cosentino described the band’s approach to the making of the album, stating: “In LA, there’s a real darkness that you don’t see unless you know where to look. That’s a theme we very consciously decided to explore and play with when making this record. We related to the idea that things may look or sound fun and upbeat, but they may not actually always be that way.
Feeling OK—-Underneath the guitar fuzz, there is a remarkable brightness to be found in the music delivered by Best Coast. Perhaps it is all in the voice…but the musical mood delivers the sunny relaxed West Coast feel as well. This music helps me to fight the Daylight Savings doldrums and look forward to warm beachy days filled with warmth….beer and fun….wonderful.
Fine Without You—-Beginning with a nice fuzzy sound, the sun and the fun permeates the sound despite it all. Bethany has such a pleasant and throwback tone to her voice. You will find it hard sometimes to realize this album was recorded in modern times and not during the beach craze of the 50’s and 60’s. This is exactly what you need on a cold and wintry day.
Heaven Sent—-A warm and huge guitar sound begins the track…the drums kick in and the song is off t a Ramones speed track. The entire feel of the song is so consistent with the rest of the release….despite the songs contents, the sound is always bright and sun drenched. Making me want to bop along in a convertible on a California freeway. Wonderful!
In My Eyes—-Again, fuzzy guitars enter with a remarkable melody playing underneath the sometimes noisy delivery. The guitar lines are bright and shiny…while the underlying bass line makes everything a bit layered in sound. The tambourine and the voice come together to make a fresh and bright sound. I truly love this band…the ability to make you feel good despite tales of lost love and hurt is remarkable.
So Unaware—-A darker sound begins this track but gives way to the lighter feel like the rest of the record. Bethany sing….”it’s always dark by 5 p.m.” Boy, can I relate. The drums on this track are huge…the guitars sharp and crisp….while the bass line gives you that underlying feel that all is not well. What a magical combination this band has built.
When Will I Change—-This song has such a familiar melody line, but I struggle to place it. The vocal is fantastic…with slight overlays and a little echo makes it sound huge. I can feel the urge to be-bop around the room with joy and happiness. I relate to the lyrics….as one who seems stuck in one place…..but the song is not a downer. Despite some intense lyrics…the sound remains sunny and bright.
Jealousy—-This entire release makes me want to listen to Josie Cotton! This track, fairly well known and have had some air play is a bit more sedate and layered in sound. The content is not happy….but somehow you feel happy…with all the ‘sha-la la’s’ going on in the background. How can you not love this?
California Nights—-Swirling in a dark atmospheric way at the onset, the vocals are pushed to the back of the mix and sound a bit processed. Giving me a feel of classic ‘shoe-gaze’ music of the 90’s the pace of this track is slow and drawn out. This is a masterpiece of a song….I love the references to the nights in California….making me want to move TODAY! This is wonderfully constructed…and delivers a feel different than anything thus far on the record.
Fading Fast—-Returning to a brighter feel hat has a slight rock=a-billy feel to it, the vocal enters and the slight voice overlays makes her voice sound so much larger. I wonder how all of this plays live? I love the throwback feel to the song…making me want to bask in the sun and swim in the ocean without a care about cold…bills…love or life. That is why music matters!
Run Through My Head—-Deep in sound and bass driven right from the onset, the sharp tuned guitars enter to brighten things up a bit…but underneath of it all, the bass carries a feeling all of its own. The chorus is contagious and catchy…..the bright guitars never hiding the deeper feel of the song. A nice mix of feelings….I love the brilliance of this band.
Sleep Won’t Ever Come—-With a remarkably familiar melody running through the track as soon as it begins, this is so sedate and sunny. The voice is pure perfection…..you catch every word….reminding you this is not happy joyous music…but you can’t help but feel happy. This is a remarkable achievement.
Wasted Time—-Ending the release with a layered and melancholy track, the hum that runs through the underbelly of the song leaves you a bit wanting and sad. The deep sound of the song is intense…the almost acoustic guitar leads you on a different path than the majority of the record….but it leaves a wonderful taste in my mouth…it makes me sit back and think.
**** out of 5
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A bridal set featuring lab diamonds is a beautiful symbol of your love, destined to become even more precious with time. Have you thought about opting for the complete set, including both the engagement ring and its matching wedding band at wholesale price?
Didn't find what you are looking for? Order a jewelry piece by individual design. Just write your request in the form below.
A lab diamond bridal set is a captivating ensemble of two or more rings designed to symbolize the unbreakable bond and commitment shared between a couple. Traditionally, a bridal set primarily consists of an engagement ring and a matching wedding band. The meticulous design of these sets ensures that the rings complement each other harmoniously, creating a unified and seamless representation of the couple's journey into marriage.
The engagement ring, often the focal point of the set, serves as a poignant symbol of the promise and commitment to marry. It typically features a dazzling gemstone, commonly a diamond, chosen to reflect the unique essence of the couple's love. The lab-created diamond bridal set, crafted to align perfectly with the engagement ring, is exchanged during the marriage ceremony, symbolizing the union and the beginning of a shared life journey.
In some instances, a lab-grown diamond wedding set may also include a third ring, often referred to as an anniversary or eternity band. This additional ring represents the ongoing commitment and enduring love that evolves over time within the marriage. Together, these rings form a cohesive narrative, illustrating the past, present, and future of the couple's life together.
Versatility becomes a guiding principle in the world of lab-grown diamond bridal sets. The engagement rings, adorned with a center lab-grown diamond, seamlessly complement the wedding bands, creating a cohesive and stylish union. Whether paired with a classic solitaire setting or an intricately designed halo, these sets offer a spectrum of choices to suit individual preferences.
Lab-grown diamond bridal sets effortlessly harmonize with various metal options, from the timeless elegance of platinum to the warm glow of rose gold. The adaptability of these sets ensures that they complement a range of styles, allowing brides to express their unique personalities through their choice of bridal jewelry.
The advantages of choosing lab-grown diamond bridal sets extend beyond aesthetics. Ethical considerations play a pivotal role as these diamonds are cultivated in a controlled and sustainable manner, eliminating concerns related to conflict mining. This conscientious approach resonates with couples who value not only the beauty of their jewelry but also the ethical implications of their choices.
Lab Diamond Bridal Sets at Wholesale Prices
Choosing a bridal set is a deeply personal and meaningful decision, as it encapsulates the essence of a couple's love story in a tangible and everlasting form. Whether adorned with diamonds, other precious gemstones, or intricate designs, a lab-created diamond bridal set stands as a cherished and timeless symbol of the commitment two individuals make to build a life together.
At Labrilliante, you can choose online a set of rings wholesale. If you can't find anything suitable in our collection, order a set with a unique design. No one else will have such rings and it will be an exceptional gift.
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By k4gura. Flooring. At Wednesday, May 16th 2018, 09:08:17 AM.
There was a time when bare concrete floors stayed well hidden beneath carpets, parquet flooring and tiles, when it was inconceivable to leave them exposed and the very idea that they could look good like that was not even taken into consideration. Now we know better than to dismiss it and concrete floors are actually trendy in modern and contemporary interior design. We’ve learned to embrace their raw and pure beauty and to complement them with comfortable furniture, textured accent rugs and warm wood elements. Let’s see how some architects and designers chose to integrate concrete floors into their projects.
In stead of rummaging through your living room in search of comfort, you could be lounging carelessly in your highly functional living room where there’s a place for everything and everything is in its place. These living room design ideas guide you through the design maze and help you figure out what actually makes you want to LIVE in the living room.
A similar strategy was used by Isern Associats for this house in Sant Pol de Mar, Spain. However, the contrast between the polished concrete floors and the wood-clad walls is quite subtle. In a way, that means there’s not a lot of warmth given out by the wood yet the texture is still there. A great design strategy for minimalist and Nordic-inspired decors.
This labor especially really nice when compete it against white. Arrange purple color upholster with pillows also couch covers. If you had one purple object of furniture arrange the style with an ottoman and also pillow covers. And for lighting you could make some extraordinary purple color styles with some LED lighting that will create a living area look totally up to date.
Instead of purple decorating that sometimes can seem like olden era purple lighting have a enlightened atmosphere. Evade an ultra‐violet just go for a more warmer purple hue. A ′diversity′ of purple timbre are looking their process into enlightened your livelihood area. Important reason is if it's a vibrant tint or muted even bright. Emotional color that`s utilized purple could easily bring positive vitality in fashionable ways and for bigger area such as wall we suggest using more grayish purple.
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The Grinch who stole Christmas is actually a grump -- or more specially, Grumpy Cat.
In the upcoming Lifetime movie "Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever," a 12-year-old girl wishes for a friend and finds Grumpy Cat (voiced by "Parks and Recreation" grumpy human Aubrey Plaza) in a pet store. She soon discovers they can communicate with each other for better or worse. Fortunately, even with Grumpy's bad cat-titude, the finicky feline may still manage to tap the holiday spirit.
This isn't the first time Grumpy Cat frowned around the Christmas tree. Last year, Grumpy Cat joined other cat celebrities like Colonel Meow, Oskar the Blind Cat, Nala Cat, and Hamilton the Hipster Cat to make a cool Christmas music video.
But this is Grumpy's first full-length movie with dialogue, action and even a Michael Bay-inspired explosion. The movie promises to be sappy -- hello, Lifetime -- and full of heart. Hopefully, devoid of furballs.
"Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever" will debut on Lifetime at 8 p.m. ET on November 29 in the US and on December 4 in the UK. The DVD and the music soundtrack are already available for pre-order through Amazon.
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The LGBTQ+ community:
Everyone is equal. The acronym stands for ‘Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer’, and describes people who don’t identify as heterosexual and their supporters.
How they supported the cause:
Christopher Bailey made his final show for Burberry a vibrant homage to the LGBTQ+ community. The designer reinvented the British house’s signature tartan with a rainbow twist and added it to the label’s classic caps, bags and other outerwear pieces. Just before the February 17 show in London, Burberry announced they would be making donations to three charities, The Albert Kennedy Trust, The Trevor Project and ILGA, which are all dedicated to spreading awareness and acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community.
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Sean started his career at a very young age, one of six children; his first appearance was in the film "A Voyage Round My Father" sharing a scene with Sir Laurence Olivier when he was just five years old. His next big break came when he was ten. His agent put him up for a lead role in the long running BBC children's series "Grange Hill". He got the part and played Tegs for four years.
Sean's next acting roles were Simon Leighton in the drama series "Dodgem", Jason in "Growing Pains and appearances in "The Secret Garden" and "Waterlands" with Jeremy Irons. In 1993 he joined the cast of the British soap "Eastenders" playing Aiden Brosnan, a young Irish footballer. In 1994, Sean left Eastenders and took a starring role in the BBC drama series Dangerfield playing Marty Dangerfield.
He then pursued a music career and released three albums, Sean Maguire in 1994, Spirit in 1996 and Sean Maguire Greatest Hits in 1998. During that time he had eight hit singles and did four UK tours.
In 1997, he returned to acting playing Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet", Hal in the Joe Orton comedy "Loot" and Darren in the UK tour of "Funny about Love" with Stephanie Beacham.
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Jan 28, 2018 · miller wrote what plays did arthur miller write it that way for a reason. arthur plays written by miller miller music analysis essay …. favourite answer. the kellers’ backyard. miller wrote the play as an allegory best buy help 123 for mccarthyism, when the us what plays did arthur miller write government ostracized people ….arthur miller scholarship essay format copypasta though it was his greates play he has ever wrote.you probably mean arthur miller, a playwright whose work included “the crucible” and “death of a salesman.” watson and glaser critical thinking who wrote the business plan for app screenplay jul 26, 2003 · arthur miller’s latest play, resurrection blues, is a satire on the ways that media hype, with official lies, helps to sustain the sample lab write up rule of corrupt government. miller later claimed that it was the only play he took directly from real events — a half-truth in the light of creative writing worksheets for grade 6 the thinly veiled what plays did arthur miller write portrait of his relationship radiology business plan with marilyn monroe in after the fall or heidi specker photo essay the shadows of the mccarthy communism hearings that can be seen in the crucible. feb 11, 2005 · arthur miller, one of essay what is internet the great american playwrights, whose work exposed the flaws in the fabric of the american dream, died thursday night at his home in roxbury, live person assignment conn. someone told him to. inspired by his parents . death of a salesman, by arthur miller. 1 answer. miller denies any intentional similarity between the play’s character …. arthur miller’s play death of a salesman addresses loss of identity and a man’s inability to accept change within himself and society. the author what plays did arthur miller write made no bones about the fact that he did draw his inspiration from the great. the crucible.
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Last night, PAO performed a new iteration of our work at Movement Research. The performance was a works-in-progress showing that featured 3 other choreographers and was moderated by performing artist, teacher, and choreographer, Margaret Paek.
As part of her moderation process, Paek asked viewers to take a minute to reflect on each piece and respond using a pen and piece of paper. She then allowed a minute of time for kinesthetic reflections to take place in which anyone could come to the stage and perform an image they remembered, or riff off of the movement they had seen. Below I have posted images of some of the written responses as well as a video of the kinesthetic responses.
I was particularly struck by this last image, in which a viewer bluntly (and appropriately) questions:
“What is up with the white girl US [abr. upstage] left? Why is there a (black?) man’s voice talking about Vietnam while a bunch of non-black [people] all too young to have even been born at the time of Vietnam are on stage?”
This comment, paired with another response about how the piece reminded a viewer of the timely #StopKONY campaign on Facebook, has caused me to reflect on questions of racial representation on stage (and in the media) particularly as it relates to the representation of political activism, social change, and “doing good.”
Chris Blattman, a political scientist at Yale, best summarizes my initial response to the KONY2012 Campaign Video. He writes:
“There’s also something inherently misleading, naive, maybe even dangerous, about the idea of rescuing children or saving of Africa. […] It hints uncomfortably of the White Man’s Burden. Worse, sometimes it does more than hint. The savior attitude is pervasive in advocacy, and it inevitably shapes programming. Usually misconceived programming” (qtd. from Visible Children blog).
Mainly, what is the role of visual racial representation in social change campaigns, how does the problematic of an outside community trying to "fix" intracommunity conflicts assert itself, and personally, where do the noisemakers of the Asian American community fit into the larger activist narrative (portrayed as racially dichotomous)?
My initial response to the comments made about racial representation within PAO's performance was empathetic. I contextualize it within the greater politic of which bodies are represented on stage: [non/white, dis/abled, thin/fat, fe/male]. Check out also this Racialicious blog post on Asian American representation on Broadway (I recently met Peter Kim at an Asian American Arts Alliance meeting).
My secondary response is that my work aims to investigate how communities inherit trauma psychologically, physically, and culturally across these articulated borders. My tertiary response is that the work also aims to build a foundation for empathy--of the kinesthetic nature--for audiences as well as ignite rumination and discussions such as this.
It means there is still more work ahead. Which is a good thing.
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Hamlet has come to see his mother, Queen Gertrude, and ends up stabbing Lord Polonius, which ultimately leads to his death. Lord Polonius’ final words include “O, I am slain!” Even though this provides a slight amount of comic relief to the reader, it has a reverse effect on Ophelia’s mental state. Her father’s death seems to be the potent punch in this fight because she officially goes mad after this final event. This is apparent in Scene IV Act I, when Laertes has come back to visit his sister and check on her well being. He is disappointed to see that Ophelia is displaying irrational behavior when she begins to sing “They bore him barefac’d on the bier; Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny; And on his grave rains many a tear.” She is so mentally ill that she must be locked in a padded room during the day.
The narrator assumes forgetting her lover will make the pain better and is angry at her heart for not allowing her to forget him. She wants to forget him as soon as possible “Haste! Lest while you’re lagging” (7), once again using an exclamation point to indicate anger and hurry, wanting the pain to end. The narrator is angry at herself for not being able to forget him and letting him get to her. Dickinson may have used this poem to express her feelings about an unrequited love interest and the pain that comes with it.
In fact, it gets every character further away from happiness. ‘The combination of restlessness and resentment puts them on the path to the tragedy at the end of the book.” (Wulick 113). Gatsby tries to use his money and get Daisy and that fails. He ended up dying because of an affair that Tom was having. Daisy is unhappy in her marriage to Tom because he is not committed to her.
For example, in Macbeth’s case, him being engulfed in greed leads to him wanting more, but is, unfortunately, slain and killed for trying to do so. On the other hand, Mary only betrays and murders her husband to get revenge on him for trying to leave her which leads to her feeling regret for what she does. Furthermore, Doodle’s brother decides to leave Doodle to die in the rain because he is a disappointment which ultimately leads to Doodle’s brother to feel guilt and sorrow. Overall, because they decided to betray others around them, these three main characters were faced with the effects of their actions on people around them and ultimately
This caused Medea to be vengeful and go out on a rampage. Not only did this hurt Jason, but it also hurt the Corinthian king,his daughter and many more. Medea felt justified in her homicidal acts because she had given up so much to be with Jason. Medea’s nurse explained how the main character abandoned her life for a man she believed she loved, “Sometimes she turns to look away, to call out for her father, her country and home: all abandoned and betrayed for a man who now abandons her, betrays her honor and her love. She has learned the hard way what it is to be an exile to had given up everything” ( lines 29-36.)
On his journey to get away from whom he thought were his parents, Oedipus kills a group of men. Oedipus is blind to the fact that one of the men was King Laius, who he will later learn was his father. Although the very poor and cruel decisions that Oedipus and Jocasta make ultimately lead them to their fate, they were blind to the extent of most of their decisions. Once Oedipus and Jocasta learn that they are mother and son, they are both mortified. Jocasta commits suicide because she is so ashamed of her decisions.
First, In my last Duchess the Duke killed his wife because there was not any communication and she was not faithful to the Duke. The Duke kills his wife because she showed a lot of affection to other men “Just this or that disgusts me” (Browning 38). Even Though he didn’t know who the men were he thought she was still having an affair with the men. Since he didn’t trust her, he thought he needed it stop what was happening by killing his wife “There she stands as if alive” (Browning 46-47). In the story Browning uses dramatic monologue with his communication by his breach of talking to
This simple confrontation between mother and son along with the death of Polonius makes this scene detrimental in not only the play but also the character development. The line from Gertrude shows the “black and grainèd spots” within her as sins that will forever be a part of her. Once Laertes finds out about his father 's death and improper beareal he grows angry with Hamlet and wishes to kill him. The death of Laertes’ father was not the only thing he blamed Hamlet for but also the death Ophelia his sister. While Hamlet is on his way to England he finds a letter that is to be given to the king of England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that says to have Hamlet executed.
In a flash the rolls switch and the wife becomes insensitive more like the husband in The Death of a Hired Man. The husband becomes in tuned and is shown in a new light of concern much like the wife in The Death of a Hired Man. Frustrated at his ignorance, She tries to leave the house; he begs her to stay, for once, and share her grief with him to give him a chance. He doesn’t understand what it is he has done to offend her or why she should grieve outwardly so long. She
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The Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck
Ruthie is Tom Joad's twelve-year-old sister, and she is both "grime-faced and wild" and "a little serious in her young-ladiness" (10.46). She can be a trouble-maker too, starting fights when she can't get what she wants. She's like that little girl who's starved for attention, and who only knows how to get what she wants by kicking and screaming and coercing people. She gets Winfield into trouble all the time, and she pretends to be tougher than she is.
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As a nod to the March for Science, here’s a prototype I made of my favorite science thing from the past year: TRAPPIST-1 planets completing their orbital periods around a dwarf star.
The orbital cycles range from 1.5 days to about 20 days, and the distances to their star are much closer than they are in our solar system.
In order to get the precision I wanted from NASA's data as well as the effect I wanted from the graphic design, I ended up starting in CAD software (Rhino 3D) and moving through photoshop, illustrator, and sketch before I got to rigging in Principle App.
Gathering the Data
Since the discovery of the TRAPPIST-1 System was announced, a variety of illustrative diagrams about each planet's radius, orbital period, and distance to Star have been published by NASA / JPL. With a bit of conversion, these diagrams provided enough data I needed to get the planets and their orbits drafted out in Rhino to scale. Unfortunately Rhino doesn't currently have the capability to measure in lightyears, but it's all about ratios.
Drafting to Scale
After establishing a center, offsetting circles to illustrate the orbits was a quick task. The only assumptions I made were from the original position of the planets relative to one another, so I used an underlay of the "Orbital Separation" graph to take an educated guess.
Before getting started with the linework, I wanted the background to look galactic. More illustrative than scientifically accurate perhaps, but it adds a good texture. I compiled a couple images together to get to this result, and then adjusted levels / curves / brightness to tone it down.
Bringing in the Orbit Paths
After importing the linework from Rhino to Illustrator as a .dwg, it's time to start formatting. For the orbit paths, the stroke is a bit thicker with a gradient so when they are rotating in the prototype, the movement is a bit more dramatic.
From Dots to Planets
Referring to the NASA illustration for tones, I used a collection of watercolor textures to bring the planets to life. The original circle paths from the drawing were used as boundaries to create clipping masks. To give the impression of spherical geometry, I overlayed a gradient mask on each circle so that their illuminated hemisphere shined a bit brighter.
The Dwarf Star
Whoops! I don't actually have any data behind the size of the dwarf star. But for the effect I want in the visualization, I want more of a glow radiating from the center, from a bright right to a reddish-orange.
Illustrator to Sketch
I only import geometry to Principle by way of Sketch because the images come in a lot sharper. When I brought in the original geometry into Sketch, a lot of my clipping masks and gradients didn't translate between platforms. I ended up duplicating the Illustrator file and rasterizing the layers-- Not ideal, but it helped make a much simpler layer list. To make things easier in Principle, I order and name layers in Sketch first so I know that once I export I can focus my time on rigging.
The interaction concept of the prototype is simple– by dragging a slider, the the planets start to rotate around the star, with the main driver being the furthest planet creating a full 360 degree orbit. In order to determine the rate of orbits, I first defined a full 360 orbit on Planet 7 to match the furthest extent of the slider.
Through this relationship, I have defined that Planet 7's 20 day orbital period results in a 360 degree rotation. Planet 6 completes an orbit in 12.35 days. With a bit of algebra I can determine that Planet 6 will have rotated 583 degrees by the time Planet 7 has rotated 360. Applying this logic to the rest of the planets, the model is complete.
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Just yesterday I was tuning a piano in someone's home and he is currently working from home. All of his children are home during the day with him during this current COVID situation. He mentioned he would really appreciate the option to quiet his acoustic piano.
His kids are playing the piano more frequently and also very enthusiastically and he sometimes just needs some peace and quiet. The kids don't like playing their digital piano, so I told him about another option, called a piano silencer. It can be added to ANY acoustic piano. It gives you the option of flipping a switch and playing the piano with headphones.
You still get the touch of an acoustic piano but with all the features of a digital.
Here's how the piano silencer works
An example of another QRS Silencer System on a Grand Piano
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By Melissa Parke, Founder of Black Teaching Artists Lab, LLC (BTAL)
This essay series is a reflection of my personal experiences, thoughts, and opinions, as well as the shared experiences of my peers. My goal for this series is to not only shed light on issues surrounding race and identity in alternative creative spaces, but to also spark a conversation with individuals of varying viewpoints—so that we may learn, grow, and understand one another as members of a community.
Terms to Know 1
Alternative Creative Spaces*: mostly white-dominated spaces, where creatives veer from the mainstream and find community amongst individuals who share similar interests, either in-person or online
BIPOC: stands for “Black, Indigenous, and people of color,”
Black: a socially constructed racial grouping, largely ascribed by visual cues of dark pigmentation
Dominant Culture: the established language, religion, values, rituals, and social customs on which a society or social entity is built; this type of culture has the most power, is widespread, and is highly influential within a social entity—such as an organization—in which multiple cultures are present. An organization’s dominant culture is heavily influenced by the leadership and management standards and preferences of those at the top of the hierarchy.
Microaggression: the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership. There is a growing body of research that suggests the accumulated impact of these stressors affect long-term health and can contribute to higher rates of mortality and depression.
Stereotype: a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing
Tokenism: the practice of doing something (such as hiring a person who belongs to a minority group) only to prevent criticism and give the appearance that people are being treated fairly
In this article, I will be exploring Blackness in alternative creative spaces. Individuals who are Black, and especially artists who are Black, often experience feelings of discrimination and a sense of discomfort, when entering alternative creative spaces. What’s more, they can find themselves rejected by a community of people who share a common interest, leading the Black individual to feel a sense of confusion about their own self-identity.
Alternative creative spaces are sectors of the creative world, where people who share common interests can come together, in order to collaborate and discuss their love for specific creative genres. Oftentimes, these spaces provide an unconscious sense of comfort, understanding, and connectedness for their members—giving individuals the freedom to be themselves through specific art forms. Examples of alternative creative spaces can include gaming, anime, cosplay, and the rock communities. Oftentimes, but not always, these spaces are white-dominant.
The battle for self-identity exists for many individuals who are black, but it is especially difficult for black artists. Artists who are black will often find themselves being referred to as “a black artist,” first and foremost—an identifier that suggests an artist whose work is a reflection of their blackness, rather than an individual who is creating art. This phenomenon is amplified in white-dominated, alternative creative spaces.
As Bronx-based teaching artist (TA) Jay Howard states:
“Sometimes I question my experiences in philosophy and artistry, as a Black TA. How much of my craft is grounded in my identity? How much is my identity grounded by my craft? I don’t want my Black identity to be seen as dominant (in white spaces) but also don’t want it to be minimized or generalized (in white spaces).”
Black teaching artists, in particular, have trouble navigating white-dominated creative and educational spaces. Less than 10 percent of all K-12 educators identify as “Black/African American,” and teaching artists who identify as Black make up an even smaller percentage of those educators2. The silent majority expectation for black educators to serve as individual representations of their entire race, as well as the demands that come with showing up for students, especially students of color, in order to teach an artistic craft, can be emotionally exhausting for black teaching artists.
Creating a safe space for black teaching artists—a space where these individuals can simply exist as artists, without the added fear of being judged or evaluated, because of the color of their skin—is essential. As Howard adds:
”Carving out creative spaces, where my identity and experiences can just be is essential to maintaining growth in the TA field. You want to feel supported in any community you are part of.”
One might assume that alternative creative spaces would be ready, open, and willing to accept anyone and everyone who enters into the space. But this is not the case. Many black individuals who enter these spaces often deal with discrimination and microaggressions that cut much deeper than typical interactions in everyday life.
Many people who are black struggle with confidently expressing their individual interests, especially if those interests challenge commonly held black stereotypes. This stems from an internal fear that these individuals will be or will be perceived as acting outside of their race. Plus, once a black individual has the confidence to enter into an alternative space—for example alternative rock, anime, gaming, or cosplay clubs or shows—they run the risk of being either rejected or being cast as a Token. These internal struggles can often make Black individuals feel as if they are holding the weight of the world on their shoulders.
Despite the racial tension that is encountered in these creative communities, black artists continue to enjoy many alternative creative outlets, oftentimes creating their own spaces in the process. Take for example, Jade Stevenson, also known as Jadeisland on social media(pictured above), who explores the intersection of Blackness and the Kawaii culture through her writing. Another popular community is anime. Many male anime characters assume the role of the underdog, rising above adversity. This theme resonates with and attracts many Black creatives, especially Black male creatives, to the anime space. As Hip-Hop artist Akai Solo states:
“The first manga I bought was ‘Naruto, Volume 4,’ and it’s still in my house. He was like my Superman. I resonate with this type of storytelling, because these characters come from humble beginnings, which many Black youth can relate to. Anime is another platform of ‘what if,’ an alternative lens to see what life could be.”
Being in an alternative creative space often leads to overwhelming feelings of awareness of one’s own Blackness. This can be a triggering or uncomfortable experience for individuals who are Black, especially if they haven’t experienced such an encounter before. In response to the lack of Black spaces within these creative communities, Afro-centered spaces, such as Afropunk and Afrofuturism Fest, have been created. But the creation of these spaces alone does not fix the internal struggles that still persist for black artists and creatives.
Fortunately, difficult conversations are now happening around race, culture, and identity. And examining these alternative creative spaces and the experiences of black individuals within these niche spaces can offer us a better understanding as to why there has been such a push back within seemingly “open” communities. For art is a defining symbol of our humanity; it does not belong to anyone and should be enjoyed by everyone.
To further spark these discussions, I will explore several different alternative creative spaces throughout the next installments of this series. I will also be highlighting an artist’s experience within each space along the way. Stay tuned and follow us on Instagram @blackteachingartistlab for updates!
1 These definitions come from several resources including The Provider’s Council. Race, Equity, and Inclusion Glossary
2 Institute of Education Sciences. Characteristics of Public and Private Elementary and Secondary School Teachers in the United States: Results from the 2017-18 National Teacher and Principal Survey. National Center for Education Statistics. PDF file. Accessed February 2021. https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2020/2020142.pdf.
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She's responsible for some of the coolest art in Melbourne Central and ELLA, now watch as Kate Pullen becomes our first featured artist in 'Drawn Together'. Keep an eye out on our Insta to find out how it works!
Let’s start with something important: favourite colour?
All of the blues!
You’re all about typography - what’s your favourite word to draw? Why?
This is an impossible question to answer! It's too hard! Instead I'll say that I love uppercase Gs because so often I love script styles with lots of flourishes and boy does an uppercase G deliver!
Who are some of your favourite artists?
There are many, many, many. Just a tiny snippet: Mike Perry, Erik Marinovich, Jessica Hische, Timba Smits, Jess Cruickshank, Karan Singh, Justine McAllister, George Rose.
Pre-iso, what’s a typical day for you?
The day usually starts with getting my butt kicked at the gym, or taking my dog Vinnie for a walk. Then I alternate between admin and emails, snacking, drawing (usually on my iPad Pro), snacking, brainstorming future projects, and snacking.
How do you get your creative juices flowing?
I find that I need to be feeling good as a human to make sure those juices get going; my body is temperamental and demanding and will produce ideas only once it's been watered, fed, and nurtured. I'm joking, but also not. This is v true. Without proper food, good sleep, exercise, chats with other humans, time with my dog and time to reflect, I've got no hope. On top of that, it's all the usual stuff - music, TV, movies, fashion, redecorating my house, going for walks, oh and the shower. Ideas always seem to come to me in the shower.
What are some of your fave pieces you’ve created?
This is another toughie, because all the artists I know are pretty critical beings (of their own work). But over the last twelve months I have lettered and illustrated a book, and painted three murals that are definitely up there: one in the rural Victorian town of Charlton, one for Australia's first urban art festival Can't Do Tomorrow, and one in a stairwell at Melbourne Central. They're up there because I'm proud of the end result, but also because each posed some pretty big challenges for me and with only moderate drama I made it through!
Do you have any tips for people who want to improve their drawing skills during iso?
If you're feeling OK and have some motivation, then now is a great time to slow down and draw things you've wanted to but have never had the time to explore. That might be lettering or portraits, still-life drawing or animation. Take advantage of things like Skillshare (which are offering two months of their premium service for free) and learn, and explore, and refine. And these do not have to end up on social media. They don't have to be for anyone else but you.
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The bands type of unquenchable passion and iron-willed dedication went into the making of ?The Human Romance?. This is DARKEST HOUR, Version 2.0, which is certainly an upgrade on many levels. `We were able to step back and take something established and re-polish it in a way where we could present it as something new,` Schleibaum explained. `It still got the classic vibe, but the music is a little bit more easily digestible, I mean, it’s not like John [Henry] is singing all the time. The music is a bit more ethereal yet still aggressive as hell. Vinyl Bonustrack!
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Bask in the charm of yesteryear with the "Berries and Blooms Vintage Art Print," a delightful homage to the classic botanical illustrations that once graced the pages of ancient herbals. This print features a lush array of wild berries and delicate flowers, their intricate details rendered in soft, timeless hues that evoke a sense of nostalgia and natural beauty.
The art print captures the essence of a bygone era, with each berry and petal lovingly depicted against a background that whispers tales of old-world gardens and forgotten meadows. It's an invitation to a serene retreat, a piece that carries the soul of the past into the contemporary home.
Available in a variety of sizes, this print can adorn your space on fine art paper or richly textured canvas, offering a touch of elegance and vintage flair. Opt for a classic frame from our selection of genuine timber finishes to fully evoke the print's historical charm and create a focal point that is both enchanting and timeless.
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Ninety-six year ago today, something remarkable happened. It was the year 1914, and Europe was gripped by the horrors of World War I. On the frozen fields of France, ground troops from both sides were lifted from their misery by an event which has since become famous, the Christmas truce -- "a seried of widespread, unofficial ceasefires that took place along the Western Front .... During the week leading up to Christmas, parties of German and British soldiers began to exchange seasonal greetings and songs between their trenches. On occasion, the tension was reduced to the point that individuals would walk across to talk to their opposite numbers bearing gifts. On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, many soldiers from both sides -- as well as, to a lesser degree, from French units -- independently ventured into no man's land, where they mingled, exchanging food and souvenirs. As well as joint burial ceremonies, several meetings ended in carol-singing, or games of soccer. The truce is seen as a symbolic moment of peace and humanity amidst one of the most violent events of modern history."
Nearly a century later, the events of that time linger with me. I first learned of them in the form of a song -- I invite you to listen Christmas In The Trenches. John McCutcheon's 1984 ballad tells the story of the truce from the perspective of a fictional British soldier. It is a lovely and poignant song, in both music and lyrics .... I cannot listen to it without tears coming to my eyes.
The truce was portrayed in a 2005 film, Joyeux Noel, moving in its own way. As often happens, the screenplay takes a few liberties with characters for dramatic effect, but the underlying message remains.
Clearly, a holiday truce between enemies who happen to share a common religion is more likely than a truce between foes who do not. Nevertheless, this writer chooses to find hope for humankind, when, as the result of realizing that the "enemy" is a person with dreams, fears and needs like everyone else, an individual soldier realizes with searing illumination,
"The question haunted every heart that lived that wondrous night,
'Whose family have I fixed within my sights?'"
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By Nathaniel R
One of our favorite directors has a new film going wide today. Unfortunately number 13 proves unlucky for the great Ang Lee as Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, a military drama about the way we use soldiers as propaganda pawns or blank slates to project upon, is hard to watch. Let us pray for a swift death to Hollywood's current unfathomable interest in the high frame rate technique. (The technique is ugly, expensive but looks cheap, and doesn't look like cinema -- that's lose lose lose or three strikes you're out. So what's the appeal Hollywood?)
Nevertheless Ang Lee has given us so many riches over his 24 year feature film career that we ought to appreciate his filmography this weekend.
How many of his pictures have you seen?
All the posters are after the jump...
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Monday, September 7, 2009
REVIEW: World's Greatest Dad...
I love independent film.
However, seeing independent films, especially in my neck of the woods (a.k.a. West Michigan) is damn near impossible. It's like trying to find a sane person at a Glenn Beck show or taping. It's THAT hard here.
That said, since I was graced with an XBOX 360, things have changed. They not only have Netflix Watch Instantly (which itself is worth 3 billion dollars), but they also have On Demand films, such as The Girlfriend Experience, The Burning Plain, and now World's Greatest Dad. WGD is a film that I've been meaning to hunt down since it burst out of Sundance, and with my 360, I got the chance to do that. Boy was it worth the wait.
World's Greatest Dad is a story about a man,Lance Clayton, who has learned to settle. He dreamed of being a rich and famous writer, but has only managed to make it as a high school poetry teacher. His only son Kyle (Daryl Sabara) is an insufferable jackass who won’t give his father the time of day. He is dating Claire (Alexie Gilmore), the school’s adorable art teacher, but she doesn’t want to get serious.
Then, in the wake of a freak accident, Lance suffers the worst tragedy and in turn, the greatest opportunity of his life. He is suddenly faced with the possibility of all the fame, fortune and popularity he ever dreamed of, if he can only live with the knowledge of how he got there.
First things first, one must understand, this film is dark. It's about as bright as what your local emo kid must see when he's locked himself in his closet with a tape full of The Cure and a video of the Suicide Girls.
The film takes a normal subject, a father who has a detatched son, who also happens to teach at his school, and turns it into one of the most bleak and truly scathing comments on obnoxious celebrity worship, and just how ridiculous teens can be. It's brilliantly cynical, and is similar to works of say Todd Solondz or Alexander Payne, both of whom have had their names close to this film when discussed by the viewers.
However, it's not all dark, especially when you look at the performance of Robin Williams, who is the true star of this piece. He tries so hard to not only be loved by his son, but by his wannabe girlfriend, that when you see the look on his face when he is shot down by both of them, you really can't help but feel for him. There is one scene in particular, when his son commits his last act, that when he discovers what has happened, the film goes silent, which just heightens the emotion shown on his face to an almost melodramatic degree. It's such a strong performance, that surely will, or at least should, be in the running for an Academy Award. There is so much heart in this performance, in a rather heartless fair, that it really makes this one of the most interesting films I've seen all year.
The film is also stunning to look at. Horacio Marquinez paints such a stunning cinematic painting with his realistic, if contrast heavy cinematography, which lets the true painter, Bobcat Goldthwait, paint a lush portrait of a middle aged man leaving childhood behind. This film is a bleak and ballsy, and so is the film making.
Also, the use of music is rather great here. Ranging from Queen to Bruce Hornsby, the films soundtrack fits in perfectly with the film as a whole. It's a subtle mix, but in a film that is chock full of emotion both on and off screen, it really lets the film breathe.
The biggest surprise of this film, at least for me, is just how deep the themes within this film go. More than a film about auto-erotic asphyxiation, the film covers themes ranging from the modern day high school experience, middle age, growing up, and celebrity worship, especially in times of death. We follow Lance, a man who is middle aged, who is faced with this horrible tragedy, and is forced to grow up and move on from his childish ways. Also, we take a look at just how obsessed people get with someone when he or she dies, especially as a teen. None of these students new our leads son, yet once he dies, they act with a really desturbing sense of entitlement. This is the most biting taste of satire I've seen this year, but while it's a fantastic movie, it does have some flaws.
The biggest flaw with this film comes in the performance of Daryl Sabara, who plays our leads son, Kyle. He's such a son-of-a-bitch, that when he dies, the person you feel for is his father. It's an easy performance to recognize, at least through experiences in my life, but it's not one to get emotionally behind. It's also a bit to cartoonish, and while it may work for this satirical film, it didn't really gel for me. The other primary flaw is that the film does lag for a little bit. It is quite funny, but it does lag near the middle, into the final act.
That said, this film is a must see, and don't be shocked if you see this end up on not only mine, but many top 10 lists.
WORLD'S GREATEST DAD - 8.5/10
Go see something good!
Your number one spot for a daily dose of movie information. From reviews to top 10's to random news and notes, it's all here at I Are Movies.
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The American who changed the sound of British rock’n’roll. This unprecedented anthology draws upon both signature hits and some spectacular misses, along with unheard rarities from the producer’s personal archive.
Until now, Ace’s acclaimed Producer series has more or less focused on the legends of the American music business. This latest instalment is no different, save for the arena. “Making Time: A Shel Talmy Production” celebrates the activities of a soft-spoken, myopic Chicagoan who walked right into the British music industry and, in his own low-key manner, turned it upside-down.
A contemporary of Phil Spector, Shel Talmy trained as an engineer in Hollywood, but when on holiday in the UK in 1962, he brazenly announced his availability as producer to Dick Rowe at Decca Records. Early hits with the Bachelors led to a reputation for handling the new wave of beat and mod outfits that erupted in the wake of the Beatles. British 1960s pop was guided by many different figures, yet amongst the production-line hitmakers like Mickie Most, or men associated with a particular act, such as George Martin, there were few like Talmy that had a reputation for a particular and identifiable sound, outside of perhaps Joe Meek. Based upon his supervision of the early Kinks and Who alone, Talmy firmly upped the ante within the polite environs of the UK charts.
Despite the forthright style with which he made his name, Talmy rose to the top of his chosen profession based on a proven ability to deliver with any number of acts, be they lightweight folk-pop, hip jazz-R&B or bone-crunching rock’n’roll. The roll-call of artists he worked with is remarkable not just for its divergence, but for the fact it is populated with so much that has retrospectively gained influence. His involvement might have only been early on when their potential was not yet fully realised (David Bowie, Roy Harper) or it constituted the stewardship of an established artist during a particular phase (Easybeats, Manfred Mann).
With a couple of exceptions, “Making Time: A Shel Talmy Production” focuses squarely on the man’s golden era, 1964 to 1970. His biggest acts, the Kinks and the Who, are represented by ‘Tired Of Waiting For You’ and ‘Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere’, both discs of some importance in their early catalogue. It would be impossible to fully delineate Talmy’s workload once he hit his stride. His prolific schedule at the time invariably meant a proportion of discs fell by the wayside, only to have subsequently become cherished items to 60s pop fans. As heard here, they range from future stars such as Bowie and Lemmy (with the Rockin’ Vickers) to cult faves the Untamed, Oliver Norman, First Gear and Mickey Finn, along with the acts on Talmy’s own Planet Records, including pop-art avatars the Creation. Shel’s girls are represented by the collectable Perpetual Langley and Goldie & the Gingerbreads, while his work with Lee Hazlewood and the Pentangle demonstrates the breadth of his abilities. Finally, along with the freakbeat classic ‘Bald Headed Woman’, Trini Lopez’s witty ‘Sinner Not A Saint’ is included as an example of the producer’s songwriting prowess.
As a compiler, this has been one of the most satisfying collections I have assembled for Ace, thanks to unprecedented access to Talmy’s personal vaults, which yielded master tapes for many obscurities, as well as a pair of significant unissued alternate versions from Bowie and the Easybeats. Some of my earliest pop music memories are Shel Talmy productions, so to be able to spend quality time with the man himself and rummage through the backroads of such an illustrious career has been pure pleasure. I hope it shows.
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Jojo and Mei Mei have been very 'busy' in their room this morning. I can see Mei Mei running up and down looking for papers...I passed her a few sheet of 'recycled paper' but she said her big sister want her to get something 'nice and special'. The little one ask for a few pieces colored paper and run into their room again. Hmm...what 'funny' things are they up to this time? So, I took a peek into the room... and I found a very messy room with paper scraps, scissors and pens...and these...
These little paper dresses are everywhere in the room.
They are so cute.
I totally love the ones made by the pages from the old yellow page.
Jojo learns this at school and it so adorable and
I must agree it's a perfect dress for Mother's Day!
So, I asked Jojo to show me the tutorial.
It's not easy at all...no wonder they spent the whole morning with it.
Start with a square piece of paper
fold into half for twice.
Open up the fold and you will have 3 crease line marks.
fold the outer crease line in ward to the center crease line
Then fold a 'z' crease
This will be the front of the dress
Now, pull the corner at the end
and pressed firmly
Do the same for the other side
Fold down the top corner into 'collar' like this
and press to make a crease mark.
We just need the crease, open it up again
and turn to the 'back' of the dress
Pull down from the center you will have a nice triangle shape like this
This is the neckline.
Now, fold in the 'sleeve' like this
at the same time make a crease to form the 'skirt'.
This could be hard to understand.
I hope the pictures are helpful.
Do the same for both side
Now, fold out the sleeves in triangle shape
This is what you will have
And turn it over, this is your cute little paper dress.
And these are some of my favorite
Now, if you still looking for 'the best' Mother's Day Gift...
Here a tip...
'The best' Mother's Day gift is 'made' by love,
and it could be just a piece of paper.
Happy Mother's Day!
PC * Mei Mei * Jojo
This project is featured in
Linking this post with
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Jeph Loeb comments that the audition reel was literally the first time Iain and Elizabeth acted together. Maurissa comments that it proves why they’re perfect for the parts, because they were instantly FitzSimmons. The audition scene eventually formed the core of the scene at the bottom of the ocean in the season one finale. Their performance was what made them realize they needed to put the scene in the series.
I swear to god if I see someone.. ANYONE shipping Greg and Pearl I’m gonna do an instablock
I am sorry, but after THIS i can’t even THINK about it without getting a sensation of trowing up, without feeling a soft betrayal… yeah, you can ship it if you want to… but I just… I can’t, I can’t feel comfortable with it, I can’t stand it.
You can like it if you want to, you’re free to… but I’m free to hate it and look for my comfort, and my comfort is far away from… that.
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Our latest exclusive interview is with Oslo, Norway based DJ/Producer WNDR, who just released his new house inspired pop single “Can We”. At just 27 years of age WNDR has already put in a decade of work and gained a rep for himself in the club scene of his hometown, landed Top 10 tracks in Ireland and toured heavily in Europe.
With that sort of track record, it’s only right that we connect with WNDR to discuss the “Can We” single, find out how he compares the club scene in Norway to that of other European locales, and much more. After reading our Q&A with WNDR, be sure to connect with him on social media and check out some more music from his catalog, including his debut hit single “Medicine”.
Congratulations on the release of your new single "Can We"; it's the perfect spring time, dance floor song. What inspired you to create it and who provided the vocals on the track?
Thank you! Lately I've been having fun with just releasing a bunch of music, and not thinking to much about it. Being in a creative zone and making what I like has been the main focus. I think the vocal is from a vocal pack I had laying around actually.
As a touring DJ and producer, would you say that the club scene in Norway is a lot different than that of different cities around Europe? If so, how?
Yeah, I would say its a bit different from some countries I've been to. Its more about playing pop tracks people can sing to rather then a sound or a vibe. I feel like It's harder to challenge the crowd in Norway.
Is "Can We" a part of an upcoming EP or album we can expect later this year?
No, I haven't started with thinking about a EP yet.
But if the people wants a EP I wouldn't mind making it!
What do you do to unwind and relax when you aren't producing or DJ'ing?
Now a days I chill with my 4 month old girl, when I don't work.
As a music creator who has accomplished so much already at the age of 27, what would you say has been your biggest accomplishment thus far musically?
My biggest accomplishment would be my debut single "Medicine" landing over 4 mill plays. It got me in a position to do alot of fun stuff and meet alot of talented people due to the signing I did with my publishing company.
Following that last question, what are some of your goals musically for the remainder of 2019?
I mainly want to meet new musicians, and get a lot of placements with other incredible musicians. For me it's most important to just give it your all and make some great music for people to listen to.
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Country Kitchen Wall Decor Ideas - Have you ever chosen a shade you really loved, painted your walls, place the furniture and photos back yet something was missing? An accent wall can provide you that extra pizazz which may still be missing.
Choosing the correct accent color could be a bit of a challenge, but the remarkable outcomes will undoubtedly be worth the work. The word accent means; prominence is created by emphasis or stresses something. Those are the items you want to do together with your shade that is additional. Typically accent colors are contrasting color, colors like yellow in a space using lots of white and black. Darker or more extreme colours are often used by people. If your walls are currently dark it is possible to go with lighter shades.
This will give a cohesive look to you yet create some slack in the wall color. The issue arises, which wall would you want to put contrasting color on? Rule of thumb it's walls which are somewhat individual however grabs your consideration. Walls that work work well have beds or fire-places to them, or walls that are the first observed when you enter the room.
When you are thinking about incorporating an accent shade begin looking around the areas you go in your daily li Fe. It's going to amaze you how often you find contrasting shades used in the layout. This technique is used by professional buildings extensively, particularly if it's a a building that is a more recent. As you are looking for distinctive techniques to use this method, in your home, be certain to carry your digicam and take photos of that which you find.
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Squarepusher / Hackney Empire
Stuart Gadd takes us on a journey as Squarepusher stirkes back
It's surprising how tactile Squatepusher's live electonica show is. And how intimate also, though spectacular.
You walk through the Empire's beautiful art deco front. Then, after Laurel Halo has unleashed womb like sub bass and chiming, tick ticking electronica into this Victorian theatre's coliseum like interior, it's Squarepusher. Before he arrives however it's just his set up and bass frequencies growling through your body. Then he's on, wearing a headset / visor which suggests Star Trek's Jordi LaForge yet in Robocop. This contraption seeming to have the power of directing a spectacularily shifting light show behind him which consists of tesselated LED, he lets loose jagged but clear rips of digital electronica which tear through the crowd, twinkling clear notes rising above.
The tracks are less melodic than being sound art, abstract sometimes but astral, with a tough core of broken back beats. Although there are shards of melody and counter melody being more about a crystal clarity of components.
Riding high with flighty sounds on a mutant drum n bass groove which is a nice reminder of the black community in a venue which has been entertaining it since the Windrush. During a breakneck syncopated climax the crowd head nod and body rock, the relatively intimate setting aiding music already about the fast sharing of digitally encoded information, lights 'n' all.
The simple yet complex openness of a performance which at times has an almost avant jazz, abstract expressionist brilliance is perhaps best illustrated during the encores, when he straps on his bass. Playing this like a guitar, he produces a linked chain of notes which sound an alternative national anthem, or Hendrix put through an oscillator and doing teletext, as someone says.
What could he see through that visor? Maybe four, possibly five *****'s?
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Brittany Runs a Marathon
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum
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Seeing how the original TV show is rather goofy and outdated, giving it the "sci-fi blockbuster" treatment actually wasn't a bad idea. Sadly, the movie's execution of this idea falls flat on its face despite the talented cast thanks to a terrible script with stilted line deliveries at times, horrible CGI and bad direction. I'm sure this movie was relatively decent at the time and I do feel that it was trying to be a good movie but by the looks of it, the Netflix reimagining is what the fans of the '60s show should be looking for if they want "darker and edgier" Lost in Space.
Twister has groundbreaking special effects, some of which still hold up, great sound design (except when you hear the tornado "roaring" like a tiger, despite reality being unrealistic so it's not that far-fetched) and is packed with visceral thrills. Unfortunately, this disaster feature has little merit beyond witnessing the awesome power of tornadoes with a generic plot, one-dimensional characters, crappy script and uneven pacing, making this a blockbuster you should only see for tornado action, not for profundity.
Preferring to rehash elements of the first film rather than do something new like the last movie with a premise that could've worked on paper but lacking in execution, The Karate Kid Part III is a weak entry in the series. That being said, it does have some genuinely entertaining over-the-top performances from the villains, the chemistry between the two leads is still there and John G. Avildsen still did a good job directing the terrible script. But that's just it, the script is still terrible. I find it hard to believe that after Daniel had to fight FOR HIS LIFE in the previous installment, he's still getting tossed around by bullies who resort to some surprisingly shady things, other than because Robert Mark Kamen wanted to cut and paste the first film's script into the third one's, which meant ding dong, Daniel's character development is gone. Well, I'm sure this was still a better Karate Kid movie than the Next one...that 'n' is capitalized for a reason.
Another underrated gem from Blue Sky Studios, Epic is a beautifully animated fantasy adventure with thrilling action sequences, great voice acting and a refreshingly dark tone compared to the more comedic outings of the animation company's past making it a solid, if noticeably derivative, outing for the whole family.
Cheesy to a fault and unsure just how much of it is intentional "so bad, it's good". Surf Ninjas is a stupid family movie with unimpressive action sequences and a corny script that you can't help but laugh at it. Seriously, I just can't bring myself to give this movie a smaller star rating and it gets 2 stars out of generosity.
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By Maureen Jenkins, Special to CNN
(CNN) - Think Paris, and the Eiffel Tower, the Champs-Élysées and haute couture come to mind. But the City of Light also is rich in African-American history. Keeping this history alive are tour companies that share it, up close and personal, with visitors to France.
From legendary entertainer Josephine Baker to internationally acclaimed artist Henry Ossawa Tanner to World War I's ragtime-and-jazz-playing "Harlem Hellfighters," Paris has embraced African-American culture like few other places. Because of that legendary embrace - one that black folks in the States had heard about since the 1800s - Paris loomed large in their imaginations. To many who didn't always feel welcome in their native country, the city sounded like a place where they could emotionally exhale.
"It's always been about freedom for us," says Marcus Bruce, the Benjamin E. Mays Professor of Religious Studies at Bates College and author of "Henry Ossawa Tanner: A Spiritual Biography."
Legendary Harlem-born author James Baldwin, who left for Paris in 1948, said "African-Americans discover in Paris the terms by which they can define themselves. It's the freedom to work beyond the assumptions of what we can and can't do as African-Americans. It's a different rhythm and pace. We can imagine ourselves in new ways in that space."FULL STORY
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The content below is entirely editable.
A founder of Tatsunoko Productions.
1932-1977. Born in Kyoto, Yoshida grew up in the war years, and found work in 1945 as an illustrator for newspapers including the Kyoto Shinbun. He subsequently moved into manga creation, and was one of the early innovators who realized the cross-promotional possibilities of television, founding the Tatsunoko studio in 1962 with his brothers Kenji and Toyohiro (aka Ippei Kuri). His output included Space Ace, Hutch the Honeybee, and the Time Bokan series, although Tatsunoko is probably best known in the west for Battle of the Planets and Speed Racer.
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Cedric’s work is awesomely grotesque. This Belgian illustrator reflects an opaque palette that acknowledges the morbidity inherent in the human experience, while still employing enough colors to keep you happy. He seems to have given shape to emotion or pain, as misshapen triangles exude and descend. His website is a mix of illustrations, poetry, and remixed electronic tracks, which feed into one another and create this multilingual communication stream. He appears to be entirely lost in his creative thoughts, and well, we applaud the shit out of that. Too often is cretivity buffered by cumbersome things like logic and time, pfff! Cedric De Smedt will surely be someone we stay tuned in to, as he shows no signs of subsiding; while sight, rhythms, and sound are at once his expression, and our means of understanding him.
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Today's sad news is the kind of thing that unsteadies us, unwitting passengers as we are in something like the opposite of Fitzgerald's boat that was so famously "borne ceaselessly into the past." We're hurtling, helpless, into the future, yet further from the ever-receding, once-familiar shore.
Senator Edward Moore Kennedy was a paragon of no virtues but the civic ones, and I've always been essentially immune to the fabled Kennedy charm. Nonetheless, he and his extended family helped shape the last half-century or more of our American life, and for a while they did so with a lot of panache.
Here's an example, albeit a latish one: The first Mrs. Senator Kennedy, Joan, for whom I've always had a sneaking fondness, sandwiched between another sometime political matron, Mrs. Senator Warner, and her sister-in-law, Princess Lee.
The Kennedy ladies all trailed in the wake of Rose and Jackie O, and Joan had the disadvantage of being neither a born-Kennedy, nor a Bouvier, nor, like Ethel, a Martyr's Widow. She was, therefore always, comparatively, B-list. Still, she did the best with what she had, and when she'd had enough, threw it all in for life outside the charmed circle. She's had a hard row to hoe since, but here she is in memory's eye, poised, like her family, between Hollywood and royalty (well, semi-, at least), and seemingly carefree.
Today, nothing seems quite so simple, really; wasn't ever, I suppose, however much we liked to think so. I've quoted it before, but Shakespeare always says it best - "Golden lads and girls all must /As chimney sweepers come to dust." And just so we cover all the cliché-bases: good night, sweet prince...
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Watch The Magnificent Scoundrels
The Magnificent Scoundrels is a 1991 Hong Kong comedy film directed by Lee Lik-chi and starring Stephen Chow, Wu Ma, and Tien Niu. It tells the story of two con artists, Chan Fuk-sing (Stephen Chow) and Yau Yat-chuen (Wu Ma), who team up to swindle rich people out of their money. Along the way, they encounter a beautiful but scheming woman named Ching (Tien Niu), who wants to steal their latest score for herself.
The film begins with Chan and Yau in the midst of a scam, pretending to be construction workers in need of money to finish a project. They con a wealthy businessman out of a large sum of money and celebrate their success. However, their joy is short-lived, as they soon find themselves being hunted by the businessman's thugs. In their haste to escape, Chan and Yau accidentally run into a woman named Ching, who is being pursued by the same thugs. Together, they manage to escape and Chan and Yau reveal their true profession to Ching.
Ching is intrigued by the idea of becoming a con artist herself and convinces Chan and Yau to teach her their tricks. The trio embark on a series of cons, using their various skills to swindle wealthy businessmen out of their money. However, as they become more successful, tensions begin to build between Ching and Chan, who are both vying for Yau's affections.
The Magnificent Scoundrels is a classic Stephen Chow comedy, full of slapstick humor and clever wordplay. Chow's performance as Chan is both hilarious and endearing, as he tries to balance his desire for money with his growing feelings for Ching. Wu Ma is equally funny as Yau, providing a stabilizing influence to Chan's wild schemes. Tien Niu is also excellent as Ching, portraying a character who is both cunning and vulnerable.
The film is also notable for its production values. The sets and costumes are lavish and the cinematography is excellent, capturing the bustling streets of Hong Kong in all their glory. The music is also a highlight, featuring catchy tunes that add to the film's overall sense of fun.
One of the film's strengths is its pacing. The story moves at a brisk pace, with each con more elaborate and outrageous than the last. The film also manages to balance its comedic elements with a genuine sense of tension, as Chan and Yau's schemes become more dangerous and their enemies more determined.
Another strength of the film is its emphasis on character development. Chan, Yau, and Ching are all well-rounded characters, with their own motivations and desires. As the story progresses, we see them grow and change, becoming more complex and nuanced. This adds an extra layer of depth to the film, making it more than just a simple comedy.
Overall, The Magnificent Scoundrels is a classic Hong Kong comedy that showcases the talents of its talented cast and crew. It's a fast-paced, funny, and engaging film that is sure to delight audiences of all ages. Whether you're a fan of Stephen Chow or just looking for a fun night at the movies, The Magnificent Scoundrels is definitely worth checking out.
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She sat on bench on the train trestle waiting for the eight am train to arrive and take her to her new home. Her Godfather sat on one side her, Godmother on the other. Why couldn't she just stay with them? The question seemed to echo through her head. In its wake, another question repeated as well, where's Jason? Jason Sullivan had been her best friend since they were in grade school. It wasn't like Jason not to be there for her, especially at something like this. A vague bit of worry for his well-being assed itself to her already twisting stomach.
The sound of the approaching train woke her from her thoughts. "It looks like that time Noels." Her Godfather, Fire chief Julio Marquez stood as the train came up. Without warning her icy façade fell, washed away by her tears. The warm loving hugs from her extended family were too short. The noise of the train was too loud. She didn't hear her name being called.
"I love you Uncle Julio, I love you Aunt Maria. I'll come you visit I promise." Noelle spoke tearfully as she started to pick up her bag. Straightening looked down the platform and saw him. His muscles rippled under the tight Chicago fire department tee shirt. It was Jason. He had made it, after all!
"NOELIE!" His deep husky voice called out her name. The aching in her heart doubled now that he was here. Within seconds his 6'5" 225 pound frame had her locked in a bear hug. "I love you Noelie."
"Jason." Noelle wrapped her arms tight around his neck. "I don't want to go." The older they got the more drawn to each other they were. Jason was 19 and Noelle was 17.
His words came out in a warm, comforting breath on her cold neck. "One year honey and you can come back. One year and mom said you can move in with us. She's working on your room already."
The conductor made a last call for the train. Her sobbing was contained as he sat her down. He carried her bags to the conductor who was waiting to help her.
"Noelie." Jason jumped on the train even thought it was just seconds from leaving. Ignoring the conductor's frown, he reached for her. "I'm in love with you." Jason took her in his arms and kissed her. Noelle found her body reacting to the realization of the fact she was in love with him. The low burning in her abdomen grew stronger as the train began to move. "Call me when you get there, I love you Noels. I'm waiting for you no one else."
He jumped from the moving train and she stood watching as she was being carried farther and farther away from Jason, from everything that has been her life. Finally, realizing that she was still standing frozen in the aisle, Noelle made her way to her seat. She looked out the window, not really focusing on the passing scenery. Her whole being was alternately in pain and then went numb as her mind moved from one event to another. So much has happened in such a short time, it had become almost overwhelming as she took it in. The noises of the train car poked at her pain even more and she sought to escape her thoughts by noticing her surroundings.
The family in front of her had a little boy who played peek a boo with her for a while. He was a cute little thing, big brown eyes and light blonde hair, his smile was bright even if he was missing his front tooth. After a good hour of their play the little boy rubbed his eyes and looked at Noelle. "Night night" the sweet voice mumbled as his mother smiled with appreciation to Noelle.
Trying to avoid the happy family, her gaze drifted to the front of a car. There was also a couple in the front of the car were newlyweds it was obvious the man was still in his particle tux and the woman's hair was in a elegant style with faint reminders of their exit, the two were lost in themselves not aware of the rest of the world around them. Watching the two made her heart ache even more. She could just imagine what it would have been like if her dad was alive and she didn't have to leave. The millions of kisses she could have shared with Jason. The memories of his prom and the hundreds of camping trips they would go on together or with her father, the sporting events, but what she would miss the most was the long cross country runs that her and Jason would go on together.
It was hard leaving her child hood home. Her memories, the neighbors that she grew to love, her friends at school, and the track team. Her past washed over her like a massive wave of sorrow. Most of all she would miss her extended family at the firehouse. Her god parents, Helen who was Jason's mother and a surrogate mother of sorts to Noelle, Danny, and Savannah Sullivan Jason's little brother and sister. An, of course the true love of her life, Jason. Hidden tears burned inside as she focused on the rhythmic sound of the train. Click Clack Click Clack. Before she new it Noelle was asleep exhausted from the emotional rollercoaster she'd been riding.
She wasn't aware how much time has passed, but suddenly she was jerked awake. With no time to react, Noelle was thrown from her seat as the train's breaks slid across the iron tracks blending with the thunderous sound of another oncoming train. Something was terribly wrong. Opening her mouth to scream, her whole world suddenly became a blur of sound and movement as she felt herself being thrown through the air. The rhythmic sound that once lulled her to sleep was replaced by the sound of screams, explosions, and twisting metal. Just when she thought it would never end, everything went silent and still.
Noelle felt a burning pain in her lower abdomen. Blood flowed from her forehead into her eyes. She blinked trying to clear her vision. She was confused at everything as the pain over took her. Was she awake or dreaming? Surely a dream couldn't be this painful. A blurred image appeared before her. "Help me." She moaned, her lips unwillingly responding to the sluggish commands of her brain.
"What is your name?" The image demanded of her. She licked her dry lips and managed to whimper. "Noelle."
"Noelle? Are you related to Gray Larsson?" The image asked.
"He's my Grandfather." She said in painful cry.
The image sneered. "Good bye Noelle, tell Mommy and Daddy Hello." Mommy? Daddy? Was she dying? Why was the person leaving? Or maybe he'd never really even been there. These questions floated through her brain, as everything went dark.
The icy rain pelted down on the wreckage, droplets of water working their way through the twisted metal and falling on her face, causing her to wake up. Noelle strained her senses trying determine what was happening around her. The smell of smoke and diesel fuel filled her nose and mouth. Licking her dry, cracked lips, she noticed the metallic taste of blood on her tongue. Beyond the falling rain, the faint sound of voices reached her ears and hope soared inside her. As she heared the sounds of the voices and footsteps above her, she cautiously attempted to move, aware of the pieced of wreckage precariously balanced above her. Her body ached and she tried to speak. A hand resting on a piece of metal above her. It was large, tan and rugged. Struggling, she worked her arm free and reached for the hand. Reaching, stretching, the tips of her once finely manicured fingers managed to lie on his knuckles.
"SURVIVOR! WE HAVE A SURVIVOR!" His voice was husky and loud as he held her hand. "Hold on Miss we're coming."
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Music has played an important part of every human culture, both past and present. And his influence is profound on subsequent western art music. It can be used to educate, edify, inspire, and unite. While listening to music the brain releases dopamine, which improves influence music brain book memory and relieves pain. Recent research shows that music can help in many aspects of influence music brain book the brain, including pain reduction, stress relief, memory, and brain injuries.
( and now, advances in neuroscience enable researchers to quantitatively measure just how music affects the brain. Negative effects of music on the brain include a reduced ability to concentrate and memorize information. Classical music for brain power.
Every fan knows the tremendous effects of music and the power it. , has found in researching music' s effects on the brain. Later on, we’ ll continue with a breakdown of what several types of music ( ranging from classical to jazz and rock music) do to your brain when listening to them and how you can use that to your advantage. Classical music is one such music genre that has the ability to create a positive aura around influence music brain book you.
The effects of classical music on the brain can be perceived well when you listen to its melody and get absorbed in it completely. Practical techniques for applying neuroscience and behavior research to attract new customers. Research on the effects of music during exercise has been done for years.
A solid answer to everything is not necessary. Studies show that music can trigger the brain to release chemicals that distract the body from pain. Parents can build on these natural instincts by learning how music can impact child development, improve social skills, and benefit children of all ages.
“ music is well- known to connect deeply with adolescents and to influence identity development, perhaps more than any other. Singing, listening and playing music together help people connect. Barry goldstein, a recording artist who has studied the vibrational effects of music for more than 25 years, says influence music brain book music has a profound impact on the brain. Science has been able to establish that musical rhythms stimulate different areas of the brain. The kind of music they choose to play depends on the kind of. People sing together, dance together, in every culture, and one influence music brain book can imagine them doing so, around the first fires, a hundred thousand years ago.
People may also experience agitation or other negative emotions when they listen to. Brain imaging studies have shown that " happy" music. The music helped him. The influence of music on society can be clearly seen from modern history.
Effects of music on the mind you may not have heard of. Music is read differently in the brain than nonmusical tones and is connected to many different areas of the brain. How does music affect the brain? Perhaps most fascinatingly, he pins down the origin of pleasure in music as a consequence of a series of tonal deviations that.
The influence music brain book influence of music on your creativity based on “ the mozart effect” book. Effects of music on the brain. This paper provides a. There is no scientific evidence showing that any book does " influence" the brain. All the best classical music ever on halidon music youtube channel.
After composing the hypothesis, some researc. The very best of. “ music can help you draw closer to your heavenly father. Influence music' s effect on mood and physical processes. Many parents, teachers, scholars, and businesses are interested in learning more about the influence of music on the development of children. Enjoying music has positive effects on language- influence music brain book related memory.
Brainfluence [ roger dooley, mark ashby] on amazon. Or enjoy going to live concerts, music is having an active influence influence music brain book on your brain. Increases concentration levels, improves memory. It affects all of us, but in very influence music brain book personal, unique ways, " said burdette. Exploring the impact of music on brain function. Understanding how music and the mind interact, and how to fine- tune your music consumption influence music brain book for maximum impact, can have an effect on the way you feel.
Through music we can learn much about our human origins and the human brain. We have provided you some interesting facts about this effect. Brainfluence explains how to practically apply neuroscience and behavior technology and behavior research to better market to consumers by understanding their decision patterns.
Music and the brain: the benefits of. Music has a influence music brain book direct influence on your mood. ” let’ s look at some of the ways music can aid in.
Focuses on how the brain processes music and language, focusing on what the similarities and. The effect of music on the human body and mind dawn kent. A valuable resource into the study of the relationship of the human brain and music. People around the world respond to music in a universal way. Blurry concepts influence music brain book influence one to focus, but postulated clarity influences arrogance.
The relationship between music and reading in beginning readers. Similarly the music has a deep effect on human health and brain. Music helped thomas jefferson write the declaration of independence. Often, people will challenge the idea that music can lead to an enhancement of higher brain functioning. Levitin in his book this is your brain on music.
From birth, parents instinctively use music to calm and soothe children, to express love and joy, and to engage and interact. It can even seem that that' s our brain' s primary concern when it comes to music. There is also an association between musical creativity and psychopathology. The power of music' to affect the brain science all but influence music brain book confirms that humans are hard- wired to respond to music. That' s one of the things jonathan burdette, m.
These are the main positive effects of the influence of music: it strengthens learning and memory. * free* shipping on qualifying offers. Anthony influence music brain book storr, in his excellent book music influence music brain book and the mind, stresses that in all societies, a primary function of music is collective and communal, to bring and bind people together. " - south wales argus " if music is the voice of the culture, influence music brain book than levitin is both its talmudic scholar and scientist.
( there is no " influence music brain book our brain" ). Music' s influence on cognitive development abstract many people have disputed that music affect' s brain development. How does music affect your brain? For now, let’ s ask ourselves how influence music brain book lively the music we. However, music can, by its tempo, influence music brain book beat, intensity, and lyrics, dull your spiritual sensitivity.
This happens because listening to music can drown out our brain’ s cries of fatigue. Music can be found in every culture all around the world. Some details need to be worked out in order to address the question accurately. When he could not figure out the right wording for a certain part, he would play his violin to help him. However, it has been demonstrated, through.
For instance, high pitch,. ” as you completed each sentence, did you find yourself singing the melody? Book stores, restaurants and influence music brain book shopping malls often keep some music playing in the background. Unlike visual media, music is a powerful social force that also taps into an individual’ s personal identity, memories influence music brain book and mood.
What happens to your brain under the influence of music. Levitin ( isbn: from amazon' s book store. In 1911, an american researcher, leonard ayres, found that cyclists pedaled faster while listening to music than they did in silence. While slow music produced a greater relaxation effect post- exercise, it seems that any kind of music influence music brain book can help the physical recovery process ( scott christ, " 20 surprising, science- backed health benefits of music, " usa today, decem). " music is primal. A tool for arousing emotions and feelings, music is far.
This scarce antiquarian book influence music brain book is a facsimile reprint of the original. 7 ways music affects the body: here' s how science says sound moves us. Beyond shaw and rauscher’ s first study, several others have further examined music’ s influence on the brain. Music is a common phenomenon that crosses all borders of nationality, race, and culture. Music is a potential method of therapy and a means of accessing and stimulating specific cerebral circuits. Studies also suggest that someday music.
10 magical effects music has on the mind effects of music include improving verbal iq, aiding in heart disease treatment, evoking colours in the mind influence music brain book and influence music brain book even helping you see happy influence music brain book faces all around. This is your brain on music is a gem. It contains a language with influence music brain book which to write about music. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks.
Buy this is your brain on music: understanding a human obsession main by daniel j. Musician and author daniel j. The music helps in the growth of plants and thereby increases their production. J in student lifestyle.
In music, the brain, and ecstasy: how music captures our imagination, influence music brain book composer robert jourdain examines music’ s unusual emotive power through little- known facts and physiological phenomena and historical anecdotes. Music has become such a big part of our lives, that researchers can' t help but want to study how music affects people, especially children. A psychology of music: the influence of music on behavior [ charles m diserens, harry fine] on amazon. But once seized by the media, it was eventually transformed, like gossip, into a looser, less influence music brain book sound claim: that listening to mozart can make one smarter. In fact, research from the university of florida influence music brain book suggests that musical rhythms offer more brain activation than any other known stimulus.
In the book the power of music, elena mannes says, “ influence music brain book scientists have found that music stimulates more parts of the brain than any other human function. ” ― criss jami, salomé: in every inch in every mile.
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Of course if that happens I'm guessing the audiences who see the film will quickly bust them out of prison because they will know that the trio are truly great artists.
I know I'd make the effort to release them since the film they have made is a truly magical experience.
It is impossible to describe what exactly the film is. A feeble attempt would to liken it to watching some ones dream, Roger Ballen wakes up and we are treated to various acts or dreams that are based on his photography. They are twisted and nightmarish...and amazing.
And please don't worry whatever I say won't ruin what the film is because the visuals are so powerful they lessen any words used to describe them.
Calder and Haney have made a glorious little confection.Its a visceral little treat that scratches and claws its way into your subconscious where it curls up and creates a nest for itself. For the two days that followed seeing the film I kept going back to it in my head-usually at the odd random moment where it popped up and had me audibly saying "that was messed up". The murmuring resulted in odd looks when I was doing it while looking at Edward Hicks Peaceable Kingdom at the Brooklyn Museum.
I absolutely love this film. The five minutes the film runs is not enough- or maybe it is since I don't know what effect the film would have on its audience if it ran longer. We all might be trucked away.
More likely we would all fall under the thrall of director Emma Calder Ged Haney and end up clamoring for their next film...then again if you see THEATRE OF APPARITIONS that's exactly what is going to happen.
You must see this film.
The film World Premieres at Edinbugh on June 23 as part of ‘The McLaren Award: New British Animation 2’. For tickets and more information go here.
The film's release coincides with the publication of Roger Ballen’s new book A Theatre of Apparitions on September 29th by Thames & Hudson
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Mei is the friend and former roommate of Hope Shlottman.
During her time at New York University, Mei befriended Hope Shlottman, who became her roommate. During their friendship Shlottman came in contact with a man. When Mei asked about him she only said that he is amazing and nothing else. This gave Mei the feeling that Shlottman was afraid that Mei would steal him from her. One day, Mei was told by Shlottman that she would leave their apartment, allowing Mei to sell her stuff for rent. Mei sold all her stuff for 98 dollars, with the exception of a box.
A New Roommate
In a way to find a new roommate after Hope Shlottman left, Mei started searching Craigslist. Here she got in contact with Raj, an art student working on an experimental time lapse film of a year in his life. Around a month after Shlottman left, Mei, while listening to music, was surprised when Jessica Jones opened their door, claiming that it was already open.
In their apartment, Jones got annoyed by Raj filming them while Mei told her that she found him on Craigslist and thanked Shlottman for her sudden need of a new roommate. Mei told Jones that she would all of Shlottman's belongings, in a way to pay their rent. Raj intervened by saying they still had one box of stuff left in his closet before Mei told him to go get it. As Raj left the room, Mei told Jones that Shlottman is probably with an "amazing" guy she met but never discussed with her parents. Mei saw Shlottman meeting a guy as the reason she moved out and told Jones that the case was closed.
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Disillusionment is a theme with profound resonance in the current political, social and cultural climate. This project was conceived by artists Marina Gutierrez and robin holder as they compared artworks -- two wedding gowns revealing counter narratives of disenchantment. The themes in these works had particular resonance to the current state of our society experiencing conflict, anger, confusion, turmoil and tension.
They invited 24 accomplished artists, all women, to create a work that references DISILLUSIONMENT, whether personal, global, cultural, or political addressing issues of deception, falseness, unfaithfulness, betrayal with reference to wearing, inhabiting, being veiled, draped, revealed, exposed or wrapped in disillusion.
The artwork that emerged from this unusually diverse group of artists ranges from ‘me too’ narratives, to hurricane reflections, political annotations, racial and ethnic inequity, and historical texts. The media and methods used are varied and eclectic, including welded woven steel, found assemblage, paper collage, sewn materials and ephemeral body casts. Taller Boricua graciously agreed to host the first presentation of this extraordinary exhibition.
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More Lies About Jerzy
. . .this flexibile reality of his. . .it's seductive. Which makes it a little dangerous
-- Arthur Bausley, a journalist on the trail of the title character's true history
You're a soldier of truth, a missionary. But Jerzy is a writer, and fiction is a business of lies
-- Witold, who knows the man since childhood and is more tolerant of the liberties he may have taken with the truth.
l-r: Daniel London, Jared Harris, Gretchen Egolf (Photo: Carol Rosegg)
What is the line between artistic license and fabrication? When does a writer's use of another person's experience and words cross the line from inspiration and help to appropriation? Why do any of us reinvent events in our lives?
To explore and connect these issues, Davey Holmes has written an entertaining drama about a Polish émigré writer named Jerzy Lesnewski (Jared Harris). He couldn't have chosen a better central character than this thinly disguised version of Jerzy Kosinski, the Polish émigré writer and celebrity.
Kosinski was an enigmatic, larger-than-life personality. Upon emigrating to the U.S. in the late fifties he immediately published two nonfiction books (using a pseudonym). But it was The Painted Bird, a harrowing account of a Jewish boy's survival in Poland during World War II, that turned him into a cult figure. It was tagged as a novel but the author, a somewhat shameless self-promoter encouraged assumptions that it was based on his wartime autobiography.
Though he turned out a respectable body of other works, including the 1969 National Book Award-winning Steps and Being There (made into a movie) Kosinski was his own best story. He became famous for being Jerzy -- jet setter, polo player, television talk show guest, occasional actor (he played Lenin's sidekick Zinoviev in the film Reds).
Besides claiming to be the boy in The Painted Boy, Kosinski was not averse to spreading stories about his dark side which included prowling the sex clubs. But his active pursuit of celebrity opened a Pandora's box of secrets he would rather have kept under wraps. First, a newspaper interview revealed that the facts in the The Painted Bird were indeed fiction. Second, an erstwhile editorial assistant came forward claiming that what Kosinski considered minor help was in fact unacknowledged collaboration.
What makes More Lies About Jerzy more than an easily recognizable biodrama, is that it borrows not just incidents from the real Jerzy's life but follows his pattern of not bothering to stick too closely to autobiographical dates and details. Everything is compressed into a single year, 1972. Some of the characters are forged from real people and events in Kosinski's life, but never exactly; others are inventions.
The playwright's Kosinski-like blending of fact and fiction is evident in the leading player's name -- the first part the same as the role model's, the surname sounding enough like Kosinski to feel like the real thing. The title puts the audience on notice that the play they will see may be the truth or "more lies." Whether linked closely or loosely to reality, the key characters bring us a little closer to understanding our own occasional need to edit our histories.
Jared Harris, who has previously played celebrities such as Andy Warhol and John Lennon on the big and little screen, steps into Jerzy's flamboyant and troubled personality as smoothly as he dons the 1972 style flared pants and garish print shirts. With Darko Tresnjak, himself an East European emigré, to direct him, the English born Harris has mastered the accent (I could detect only one brief slip at the preview performance I attended).
The ten-member cast, several taking on multiple roles, perform splendidly. Lizbeth MacKay is persuasive as Isabel Parris, a rich patron of the arts. She is Jerzy's faithful older friend and very occasional lover, and has her own reason (one of the less credible plot developments) for not questioning his writing methods and what in his writing might be delusion.
Gretchen Egolf is excellent as Georgia Fischer, the young woman who becomes his lover. Like Jerzy she is not quite what she at first seems. Her efforts to win his full trust make for some touching interaction, as when she states "It's hard to be with someone who won't let you in" and he responds "So how do we do this? How do I let you in?" Her reactions to her newpaper colleague, Arthur Bausley (Daniel London) and to Jerzy's use of her personal diary.
are full of finely controlled emotion.
As for the unsympathetic Bausley (modelled after the Village Voice writer who was eventually discredited),
Daniel London invests him with just the right mix of nerdy self righteousness, ambition and pentup sexual passion.
Among the multiple role players, Gary Wilmes stands out as a designer who also grew up in Poland (a disguised Roman Polanski whose story was thought by many to be the one Kosinski "borrowed" for The Painted Bird).
Young Portia Reiners shows presence in her New York debut, as a troubling ghost child seen only by Jerzy. The little girl holds the key to why Jerzy who cannot trust anyone, not even himself, with the certain truths. Unfortunately, she also embodies one of the playwright's more gimmicky devices.
Mr. Tresnjak who has proved himself capable of expertly and interestingly staging a variety of play genres, once again proves his mettle in moving his actors seamlessly from scene to scene. He expertly guides the actors through the often overlapping dialogue and never allows the
frequent monologues to become static -- except for end. Coming as it does as a result of the assaults on his reputation, Jerzy's final act is counter to the personality of both the fictional and real man. Brought to us in the monologue format, it also falls flat and is out of synch with an otherwise compelling theater piece.
Derek McLane makes good use of the Vineyard's wide stage, with a sort of rear passageway to allow the actors to navigate between the main settings: Isabel's apartment. . . Jerzy's apartment. . . a space which, with a few prop changes, alternates between the Brooklyn apartment of a man (sensitively portrayed by Boris McGiver) who has his own version of Jerzy's childhood and the Authors Guild hearings of a charge that one of Jerzy's assistants co-wrote The Vantage Point (Holmes' name for The Painted Bird).
Take a close look at that set. You'll see that the walls and posts are covered with Polish words. An elegant and subtle way of underscoring of the fact that More Lies About Jerzy is less about the colorful literary celebrity than it is about
words: how they are put together. . . their real and hidden meaning. . .their effect on other people. . .and the way we manipulate them to make painful and unpleasant emotions more bearable.
If More Lies About Jerzy has stirred your interest in reading or re-reading The Painted Bird, it's still widely read and available in our bookstore:
The Painted Bird
|MORE LIES ABOUT JERZY
By Davey Holmes
Directed by Darko Tresnjak
Cast: Jared Harris, Lizbeth Mackay, Gretchen Egolf, Daniel London, Boris McGiver, Betty Miller, Portia Reiners, Martin Shakar, Adam Stein, Gary Wilmes
Set Design: Derek McLane
Lighting Design: Frances Aaronson
Costume Design: Linda Cho
Sound Design: Laura Grace Brown
Running time: 2 hours and 25 minutes, including one intermission
Vineyard Theatre, 108 E. 15th St. ((Park Av S./Irving Place), 353-0303
1/05/01-2/11/01; opening 1/21-- Tues-Sat 8 pm, Sundays at 3 and 7 pm -- $45.
Reviewed by Elyse Sommer
based on 1/18 performance
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The difficulty is that the really good music, whether of the East or of the West, cannot be analyzed.
The basic function of popular music is to create an environment for courting, lovemaking, and doing the dishes. It’s useful because it addresses the heart in the midst of all these activities, and it will always be useful in this very important way.
People used to say my music was too difficult or too obscure, and I never set out to be difficult or obscure. I just set out to write what I felt as honestly as I could, and I am delighted when other people feel a part of themselves in the music.
My music will go on forever. Maybe it’s a fool say that, but when me know facts me can say facts. My music will go on forever.
My body is damaged from music in two ways. I have a red irritation in my stomach. It’s psychosomatic, caused by all the anger and the screaming. I have scoliosis, where the curvature of your spine is bent, and the weight of my guitar has made it worse. I’m always in pain, and that adds to the anger in our music.
It is far easier to play a thing quickly than slowly; some notes may then be dropped without being observed. But is this genuine music?
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Beauty and Sadnessis an understated, delicate story It begins with the sad memories of Oki Toshio, an eminent writer and then, gradually but fiercely, reveals how those long ago events have done damage to the lives of many All is revealed in an uncomplicated style, and without overt judgement from the author He lets the story speak for itself Oki longs for a meeting with Ueno Otoko now famous too, an artist the woman whose youth he ruined, and to whom the past echoes with obligations left undone She has a young acolyte and lover, Sakami Keiko, who devises a devious revenge the result is biblical.Otoko is a painter in the classical Japanese tradition, a style that is beautiful, simple and yet sophisticated Kawabata paints this story with the same sparse brush There is just enough information to convey exactly what is meant, and yet there is much blank space for the reader to fill in with their own thoughts.The selfishness of Oki is shocking He had behaved horribly, and then he writes a book about it, It was the tragic love story of a very young girl and a man himself still young but with a wife and child only the beauty of it had been heightened, to the point that it was unmarred by any moral questioning.And there s Fumiko, Oki s wife, who wanted his love, to be in this book, shares the guilt, Because you can t write about someone you don t love, someone you don t even hate All the time I m typing I keep wondering why I didn t let you go You re talking nonsense again I m serious Holding on to you was a crime I ll probably regret it the rest of my life The book makes him famous, but it seems as though it is a book better left unwritten Or is it The book is deeply loved, does makes Oki famous This implicates his readers in the sin, by enjoying its fruits And novels within novels it turns around and accuses us too.Keiko, sweet avenging angel She acts on Otoko s behalf Everyone in this story seems to want to contain the past, holding it as a perfect item of sorrow, or beauty Keiko shatters that precious notion and all is completed.There are many lyrical descriptions inBeauty and Sadness, and if it were a painting, its dominant tone would be green It is yamato e than impressionist, but there s that too If there is such a thing as the Japanese mind, it is glimpsed at here in Kawabata s words. The Successful Writer Oki Has Reached Middle Age And Is Filled With Regrets He Returns To Kyoto To Find Otoko, A Young Woman With Whom He Had A Terrible Affair Many Years Before, And Discovers That She Is Now A Painter, Living With A Younger Woman As Her Lover Otoko Has Continued To Love Oki And Has Never Forgotten Him, But His Return Unsettles Not Only Her But Also Her Young Lover This Is A Work Of Strange Beauty, With A Tender Touch Of Nostalgia And A Heartbreaking Sensitivity To Those Things Lost Forever This quiet, haunting novel puts an intriguing twist on the love triangle narrative.Oki Toshio is a well known middle aged writer When he was in his early 30s, he had an affair with an innocent teenager, Otoko, got her pregnant he was married at the time and essentially ruined her life He then dealt with the experience in a novel, which remains his most popular work Now he s curious about seeing Otoko again She s a famous yet reclusive artist, still beautiful, and living in Kyoto with her young female lover and prot g , Keiko Keiko, it turns out, wants to avenge Otoko s humiliation by getting back at Oki.What s fascinating isn t the slightly melodramatic plot no surprise it was adapted twice for film but the gentle way Kawabata unfolds the plot and character histories, like petals gradually opening on a flower.You re never really sure who s still in love with whom, and who s jealous of whom But that s okay The characters seem typically Japanese, polite on the outside and often filled with unspoken yearnings and passions on the inside The exception is Oki s wife, who has put up with a lot and now speaks her mind This is a short novel, but the prose needs to be savoured slowly It s very sensual, at times erotic without being sexual, if that makes sense Pay particular attention to the sights and sounds The book begins with the arrival of a new year and Oki wanting to hear the ringing of the temple bells There s a vivid sense of place, particularly in the country sections.One atmospheric scene is set at a rock garden, and another features the lovely imagining of what life was like in an area centuries earlier These details all feel authentic in a book that has three artists at its centre Needless to say, the book delivers on the promise of that title There s lots of beauty, plenty of sadness This was the first novel I ve read by Nobel laureate Kawabata, but it won t be the last. If we rid ourselves of every cultural artifact that blended love and hate together in equal measure, we would be be left with very little that is worth remembering Love without hate is optimistic and hate without love is depressing but to have both That is an accurate portrayal of ourselves, and after countless millennia we still crave the tales that delve unflinchingly into that bright and terrible line between the two But is it really a line What causes one to cross it, and for how long And do we really travel from one realm to another, the euphoric uplift and the bitter agony, via clean and complete transitions Is it all that simple By those rules, this book should have never existed, one detailing the relationship between a young girl and a man twice her age The repercussions stretch on for than twenty years, as the man and his family live off the fruit of that story of illicit love, and the girl grows into a woman who wins the love of a girl hellbent on revenge for these past wrongs And through the man s dangerously blind romanticism, and the woman s traumatized solitude, they still believe in their love for each other Blindness and trauma The poison is bubbling to the surface everywhere the characters look, and yet they carry on as if there is nothing to be worried about The man sees only his reflection in the women around him, and the girl twists this image into a hook to drag him down The woman unconsciously builds a shrine to the pain and sorrow of the past, and the son ignores the warning signs at every turn And for what Love The love in this story is a wound, easily made and nigh impossible to heal, and the pleasure of it writhes in bed with the agony Is it really worth it Look around you I d say the world thinks so. The acrylics are laid on a wooden table with monochromatic perfection A blank canvass waits to be explored Water droplets glisten as they leave the auburn bristles of the brush A flurry of horizontal strokes awakens the sordid paleness A dash of vertical Prussian blue collides with wavy ochre Vermillion over emerald Sienna peeping through the cobalt notes The brushes fall and fingers reign the dyed paper The fingers run wild, flooding the whiteness like an angry rainbow across the empty sky The sanctity of the easel lost to the festering colours The tinted viscosity blurs the didactic depiction normalizing irrationality between the artist and the portrait Consuming art Consuming love.Basho writes The temple bell stops But the sound keeps coming out of the flowers.Isn t the consciousness of love like these temple bells Long after its physicality ends, the essence lingers through budding emotions within the delicate sounds of the past How is it to experience a love so abstract that death seems a friendly stranger Ueno Otoko, loving a man who stole her childhood, delineates the purity of an overwhelming emotion love and not clemency Otoko lost her baby during a painful childbirth a tearful goodbye with only the memory of her child s pristine black hair Otoko was 16, when she overdosed on sleeping pills after her baby s death a bid to escape the encumbering deficient love As a solitary blossom among the sea of stones, Otoko bloomed amid the darkness of a distorted love perplexed at her long survival The colours in her portraits were tales of Otoko s poignant heart the brush strokes searched her child s faceShe had no idea of the face and form of her baby, only a vision in her heart She knew very well that the child in her Ascension of an Infant would not look like her dead baby, and she had no wish to paint a realistic portrait What she wanted was to express her sense of loss, her grief and affection for someone she had never seen She had cherished that desire so long that the image of the dead infant had become a symbol of yearning to her She thought of it whenever she felt sad Also the picture was to symbolize herself surviving all these years, as well as the beauty and sadness of her love for Oki In a Girl of Sixteen, Oki immortalized the woman he considered his only passionate love A woman who at a tender age of 15 lost her virginity to a much married man in his 30s Kawabata delineates Oki as a man lost in egocentric love even though ridden by guilt of blemishing Otoko s youth, Oki pursued the forbidden tenderness as though the inherent madness of it all kept him aliveIt was the tragic love story of a very young girl and a man himself still young but with a wife and child only the beauty of it had been heightened, to the point that it was unmarred by any moral questioning The stillness of his memories kept Otoko alive through his writings and the ringing of New Year s bells in Kyoto with each passing yearWhat were memories What was the past that he remembered so clearly..he could not escape the pain of having spoiled her life, possible of having robbed her of every chance for happiness.the vividness of the memories mean that she was separated separated from him From flaunting his affairs to Fumiko to consciously leaving his wife out of the memoirs for an untainted tale of intricate passionate love and earning his generous royalties from the book Oki is an outright amoral man Kawabata gives a picture of a reckless man imparting ugliness through beautiful sentiments In the autumn of his life how could he hope for forgiveness from a woman who lived his aberrant repercussions Keiko on the other hand is a misguided passionate lover One could say her love for Otoko was mere teenage infatuation, but her determination in seeking revenge from Oki throws a different light on Keiko s commitment to Otoko Kawabata underplays homosexuality limiting Keiko s relationship with her teacher Otoko only to the idea of revenge It may be due to Otoko resisting of letting go her past ghosts spinning a web of jealousy for Keiko Or Kawabata hesitated in exploring a lesbian love due to cultural restraintsOtoko still loved Oki, her baby, and her mother, but could these loves have gone unchanged from the time when they were a tangible reality to her Could not something of these very loves have been subtly transformed into self love Of course she would not be aware of it She had been parted from her baby and her mother by death, and from Oki by a final separation, and these three still lived within her Yet Otoko alone gave them this life Her image of Oki flowed along with her through time, and perhaps her memories of their love affair had been dyed by the color of her love for herself, had even been transformed It had never occurred to her that bygone memories are merely phantoms and apparitions Perhaps it was to be expected that a woman who had lived alone for two decades without love or marriage should indulge herself in memories of a sad love, and that her indulgence should take on the color of self love Keiko Otoko s prot g e and a jealous lover avenged Otoko s melancholy through the malicious play of her physical splendor consuming Taichiro in her seduction Fumiko whose love was loyal and simple towards Oki, yet appallingly as she prospered in Otoko s printed exhibition Otoko who still loved Oki, her mother and her baby and never let go of her 16 yr old from her soul, the very reason of her being hesitant in sketching Keiko somehow seem to be her teenage apparition And, Oki who could never distinguish nostalgic remorse from factual remorse Akin to the moss covered roof at the restaurant that never had the chance to dry out because being weighed down by the huge tree, all of Kawabata s characters were stuck in time buried under the obscurity of memories and prejudicesTime passed But time flows in many streams Like a river, an inner stream of time will flow rapidly at some place and sluggishly at others or perhaps even strand hopelessly stagnant Cosmic time is the same for everyone, but human time differs with each person Time flows in the same was for all human beings, every human being flows through time in a different way Issa writes Cherry blossoms in evening Ah well, today also belongs to the past.Love is narcissistic, deviant, vengeful, powerful and yet somehow beautiful It breathes life into one s solitude only to revel in the silence of emptiness, Happiness is transient and it is in sadness that tranquil loveliness bloom like a white lotus on fire Beauty encompasses sadness through a spate of sorrows and death the fleeting exquisiteness of cherry blossom that eventually meets the earthly grave. Sia l acqua che il tempo non fluiscono mai indietroUn uomo, Toshio Oki, decide di incontrare dopo moltissimi anni Otoko, la donna con cui ebbe una relazione passionale, ardente, difficile e dolorosa tanto da annientarla L uomo prova ancora per lei un affetto e il ricordo lo aiuta a mantenere vivo il pensiero di quella fanciulla cos bella che gli si concesse senza nessuna remora E Otoko Dopo essere passata attraverso tanto dolore che cosa prova Lo ama ancora, non rinnega nulla di quel rapporto, non potrebbe amare, come non ha fatto, nessun altro uomo e vive in quel ricordo che riempie la sua vita Questo libro una treccia Tre fili insieme all inizio, poi il filo di Oki si interseca a quello di Otoko, che scivola su quello Keiko, una giovinetta sua allieva, infida, terribile, perfida Oki, Otoko, Keiko Oki, Otoko, Keiko Mi stupisce sempre la compostezza giapponese, sia negli ambienti che nei gesti e nelle parole, rituali lenti e misurati che fanno da contrasto a passioni smodate, violente come una macchia di rosso su una tela bianca di Otoko E forse una reazione a tutto quell ordine Kawabata ci lascia volontariamente all oscuro di cosa abbia provato Otoko dopo l incontro con Oki, la sensazione di ritrovarsi di fronte l a della sua vita, seppure cos doloroso per lei E qui che il pensiero trova spazio e che avanza.Una lettura interessante per un autore da approfondire. 24 13 3 2019 Utsukushisa to kanashimi to Beauty and Sadness, Yasunari KawabataBeauty and Sadness Japanese Utsukushisa to kanashimi to is a 1964 novel by Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata My own copy of this book Published January 30th 1996 by Vintage, Paperback, 206 pages.Opening on the train to Kyoto, the narrative, in characteristic Kawabata fashion, subtly brings up issues of tradition and modernity as it explores writer Oki Toshio s reunion with a young lover from his past, Otoko Ueno, who is now a famous artist and recluse Ueno is now living with her prot g e and a jealous lover, Keiko Sakami, and the unfolding relationships between Oki, Otoko, and Keiko form the plot of the novel Keiko states several times that she will avenge Otoko for Oki s abandonment, and the story coalesces into a climactic ending 2016 1899 1972 A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within usFrank Kafka Beauty and Sadness is much than a mere contrivance to attract potential readers, this magic narration, shrouded in magnificent contradiction, has the power to shock right from the beginning with the indwelling lyricism emanating from its title Beauty and Sadness Opposing concepts fused and confused in a blur of balmy ocher and passionate red, in the inevitable passage of time and the timelessness of the frozen moment, in the unconditional love and the implacable revenge, in the required brushstroke of fiction to capture a perpetual reality in a canvas This is not a journey for everyone, only for those who willfully choose the forking path of love, for those who struggle against treacherous jealousy with an obstinacy that does not yield to continuum disillusionment, for those who can find in themselves enough insight to bask in that strange scent of mixed roses and cinder, for those daring enough to dance to the rhythm of the beat and the beating heart of the beauty and sadness.Otoko and Oki s affair, whose love set fire to their existence and changed not only their lives but also the ones of the yet unborn, becomes the center of the story Theirs was a brief but intense relationship, Otoko was only fifteen, Oki was a married man in his mid thirties with a newborn son When Otoko s illicit baby dies in childbirth and Oki abandons her, she tries to commit suicide but Oki s brief return brings her back to life Twenty years pass and Oki has become a celebrity thanks to his most famous novel based on his affair with Otoko, a book that immortalized their love forever, a moving work of art that made of Otoko an eternal young girl of fifteen.Otoko has arisen as a battered survivor She is now a recognized painter in the Japanese tradition who has finally found peace in the company of her female pupil and whimsical lover Keiko But Otoko s love for Oki has never run dry A fateful encounter between Otoko and Oki reopens unhealed wounds from the past and triggers a chain of events which none of them could have ever predicted, blurring the thin line between love and hate, compassion and revenge.How do we chop through the frozen sea of others How can we prevent the past coming forward, how can we avoid the past reviving again and meeting us in its complete strangeness A building sense of doom contracts and expands fluidly attuned to the poetic melancholy of the Japanese landscapes, where ancient temples, traditional ceremonies and snow covered and eerie mounts serve as a nest for the development of this classic tragedy of memorable love, loss, madness and revenge wrapped up in the stillness and delicate contemplation that such profound feelings require Lyric passages about the anthem of human connectedness and their mismatched selves are brought up to life with Kawabata s careful choice of words Beauty and Sadness is one of those rare but not impossible love stories which can t be erased like one does with discarded tea leaves at the bottom of a cup or like a forgotten picture buried deep at the back of a neglected drawer This is a hymn to beauty which will remain embedded in the most recondite part of any sensitive, pulsating soul The essence of existence becomes a feeble and restrained throb accompanying those who allow themselves to be dragged by the flowing stream of this perturbing story.In an exotic Japan, where tradition and the disturbing presence of unfulfilled desire, meditation and yearning, colorful art and greyish death are inexorably melted, the tearing loss and the stand still moment will reincarnate into scarred flesh, invoking cold Beauty and piercing Sadness as a chant for passionate love, regardless of the powerful inner currents which presage the insurmountable tragedy.Someone, somewhere once askedIs love worth itI would answer that yes, it is.
- 144 pages
- 美しさと哀しみと [Utsukushisa to kanashimi to]
- Yasunari Kawabata
- 14 August 2019 Yasunari Kawabata
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|Written by Agnes Cadieux|
|Wednesday, 14 March 2012 00:00|
Cuban exiles, bordellos, and money gone missing. It's what you'll find within the pages of The Consummata. Begun in the late 60s by Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Mickey Spillane and finished after his death in 2006 by his friend Max Allan Collins (Road to Perdition), the novel is as hard-boiled as they get. Complete with a tongue-in-cheek main character and a handful of tough-as-nails acquaintances, it is a tale most mystery fans will enjoy. Spillane was best known for his Mike Hammer novels and, in 1967, decided to move away from that series to an all-new cast of characters.
We first met Morgan the Raider, an ex-military operative wrongfully framed for a $40 million heist, in The Delta Factor. Now he is back and running for his life but not before he detours to help a group of struggling Cuban exiles retrieve $75,000 stolen by one of their own. The money they lost isn't much, not much by Morgan's standards anyway, but it's everything to the Cubans - and the case isn't a hard sell considering Pedro Navarro and his family risked life and deportation to rescue Morgan from capture.
It was supposed to be a simple mission, but, as the body count rises and suspicions grow, it seems there is more to this underground world of lust and secrets than Morgan first thought. Now, the man who stole the money is no longer running but turning the gun on Morgan, and the only way Morgan can lure the thief into the open is lure him to the only woman who will cater his twisted desires: "The Consummata." Problem is, nobody know where she is. Or if she even exists.
I'll be honest. I don't read crime or mystery novels. It's not my thing. The first concern I have is the lack of emotional intimacy in the characters. These are 'who done it?' novels with an emphasis on the story rather than the characters within it. Secondly, I am an escapist and tend to get dumb reader syndrome when I settle into a novel. Figuring things out is not my forte. Lucky for me, the novel drops enough clues to make me think I know what's going on, just to veer off in the opposite direction and make me reconsider my deductive reasoning skills.
The story itself was entertaining. I enjoyed the sass of the secondary characters and the bordello setting. It was different and kept me from going on autopilot when it came to descriptions. The thing that threw me, though (and this applies to all genres), was the emphasis of the title. The second 'Morgan the Raider' novel was called The Consummata and boasted a beautifully illustrated front cover designed by legendary cover artist Robert McGinnis, yet the main plot hardly had anything to do with this mysterious woman. She only came into the forefront at the end of the novel, and, to me, there wasn't enough mention of her throughout the pages to dedicate the title to her.
All in all, it was an entertaining read. The wisecracks and sass were well placed and the language flowed easily and cleanly. For hard case crime readers, this novel would be an excellent addition to their collection and an intriguing puzzle to unravel.
Tags: books, mickey spillane would be a great name for a noir detective, review, seventy five thoursand dollars is no laughing matter, the cosummata, whats in a title
Honest reviews are always very welcoming because, let's face it, we never really know if someone is really reviewing something online or not. It will be interesting to see how well this book does. It sounds like there was a lot of thought that went into it but, like you, there are a lot of people who need to see a little soul from within the characters.
Book reviews of childhood devices provide the best details about a book that we might be considering purchasing so it is always good to read them carefully.
I love it
The author keeps increasing tension up to the last pages of the book. Señor Morgan finally reveals itself and the mindset of the killer can be fully grasped. The gripping mystery-thriller reads with the lightning speed, but doesn’t let you escape form the illusory world of sex, whores, murders and Cuban cigars.
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I originally designed the Bad Eggs
around Easter of 2006. I did a set of four in black with embroidered designs. At the time, I thought subversive Easter eggs (traditionally-colored eggs with non-traditional imagery) would be hilarious, and I got my chance to make some when they were accepted for the Anticraft book
Look at that squirting arterial blood! I can't tell you how much I love that decapitated bunny. It warms my heart. I couldn't be happier about how it turned out. The white-on-white embroidery outlining his leg doesn't photograph well, but it looks good in person. His tail is a bunch of floss loops making a 3-D puff.
Ahhhh ... a cute chick with a taste for eyes. Chirp! The eyes filling the basket are made with a tiny sequin and a black seed bead ... and embroidered eyelashes. I do realize that if a chick was digging the eyeballs out of peoples' heads and collecting them in a basket that they wouldn't still have eyelashes, but I think that makes it all the more creepy. :) It totally oogs me out that the chick is holding an eye by the optic nerve.
The other two eggs in the Bad Eggs set are based on the original designs. One is embroidered with 360° flames and the other has evil eyes on each side in alternating warm and cool colors.
Certainly, you could make non-snarky Easter eggs with the pattern ... but why would you? ;)
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How do you find names for your mocs because I can’t find any good ones.
Name generators, friends, taking the inspiration and plugging it into google translate. Mostly what I use.
One strategy that I use sometimes is altering the name of a character or person who has something to do with the character I’m creating. Ticheli, the name of a famous band composer, became Ticeli, for a Toa of Soncs I made. Similarly, Boromir, from Lord of the Rings, became Borom, a Skrall general.
I’ve translated English words that describe the moc into Maori, then combined several of those Maori words together to create a name. For example, a moc I made called Karhapa Teo, was a combination of several Maori words such as the words for giant, beast, ice, etc.
Mostly come up with them in my head. Sometimes I use other languages (Obcasus from latin), my own language (Taival from finnish) or play around with a word or a name (Gail from Abigail).
There was even one time I got a name from a car’s license plate.
I’ve tried it before but it doesn’t work for shadow characters.
Making sort of franken-names out of pre-existing BIONICLE names is a good way to make up a name. Alternatively, you can use a maori translator.
the best method for creating new and original names for your MOCs is simple; Look at the most common baby names in the United States and randomly select one for your character.
It will make it super unique.
Usually I just make things up… although there are certain tricks you can use to get the right sound.
For instance, anything that ends in a guttural sound like ax, ox, ak, ahk, az, or oz will sound like a G1 villain(Chirox, Pridak, Vultraz). Similarly, it can be observed that most Toa names end on an open vowel (Gali, Vakama, Kongu).
Another really easy thing to do is derive your name from a maori word. You could even say it adds a bit of ‘hidden’ meaning, albeit also raising the chances of other people unknowingly choosing the exact same name as you.
most of the time i just go into google translate, type whatever random words associated with the character and translate them in japanese, sometimes it makes something that sounds cool
Ghosty ma dude is just like me, except I usualky translate things to german, maori, or I just grab something from the viking culture
i used what ever group of letters that pop in my head.
I think of a letter and build up syllables from there. I use syllables that sound close to English. For example, Drakenn, Vartaa, Felrui, etc. I also use Maori words.
Maori words for shadow, fear etc. don’t sound like good names to me.
My head or biblical influences are usually what I use
My personal process:
- Option 1: Think of the character you want to create and play around with various syllables in your head before even touching your collection of parts.
- Option 2: If you have a prebuilt MoC that is mostly comprised of a number of official sets, take some of the syllables you like from their names, and haphazardly slap them together until you’re finally satisfied with the finished product.
- Option 3: Similar to Option 2, except for the fact that you break the names down into a collective pool of letters, limit yourself to using repeating letters only once, and rearrange them to your liking as if you were forming an anagram. Also works with setless characters as well.
- Option 4: Take a step back, analyze your concept, and repeat Options 2 and 3 after searching up their mythological equivalents or inspirational character sources.
- Option 5: Pick a fairly generic name or term you like and simply use it.
- Option 6: Translate said word into a different language, use a thesaurus to potentially find a better one, or both.
- Option 7: Take a bunch of names or terms that sound similar/possess the same syllables and lazily overlap them onto one another.
I take 2 or 3 letters and I make them sonda cool using other letters.
Look at word searches and find letters mixed together
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Q.1 What has the experience of writing and publishing 4 poetry books been for you? How has your Author journey been so far?
I started writing when I was young, and my writings often reflected my obiter dictums. To any well-educated individual, writing should and will come naturally. Writing is an essential component of the human personality, it is conditioned and groomed over ages and years. I love to write. What you write is often what you observe, perceive, discern and interject. To write is to express yourself, to metamorphose yourself from the conditioned taciturnity, and to transmogrify gutsily. To write is to dare, intrepidly, and be determined. Apart from being a poet, I am also an adept translator, transliterator, editor and compiler. I translate texts and verses from various canonical poetry along with the interpretation of the “Pre-Text” in History and “Con-Text” in contemporary times.
The journey so far has been congenially gratifying, the experience has been enriching and vitaminizing. This concept has been brilliantly put forth by the great author Mr. Salman Rushdie, and I will paraphrase him – “Books choose their authors, the act of creation is not entirely a rational and conscious one”. Writing keeps your literary senses subconsciously honed and refined, it gives you a purpose. You attain a new cognizance, new postulation, new perspicacity, new perception, new insight and it distills your attitude in general to life and life elements.
Q.2 When and how did you become interested in writing poetries? Tell us a bit about your books.
Since my adolescent years, I developed a profound and maniac passion for reading trans-continental literature. Narrowing it down over the years and comprehensing that no one can attain complete knowledge in the limited life span we have as human beings, I narrowed it down to Poetry. Since then, composing Poetry has been both my recreation and diversion from this insane chaotic world we live in. So much so, my perception & outlook has adapted over it. I find explicit words in arbitrary observations which most people will attribute to inexplicit randomness.
My first book is titled “A Quatrain of Moods” – it is a collection of quatrains drafted by myself. These quatrains represent the various human moods and desires, be it ecstatic or tragic. My second book is titled “Bebakhshid” – which translates as “Excuse Me” in Persian. It is a collection of translated verses from prominent and acclaimed Persian authors, poets, polymaths, Qalandars and nomads who spearheaded the Persian Literature and Poetic Movement, trailblazing it into a major reckoning force in World Literature and Poetry as a whole. If English and Irish poetry has a succulent sweeping glacial charm to it, the Persian poetry has the distinct mystical aura blustering through them. My third book is titled “La Siesta” – and it is a compendium of translated poems from the Iberian Peninsula, covering the Spanish, Portuguese, Castilian, Galician and Catalan poetry. Again, the Iberian Peninsula has traditionally been ruled by distinct Christian and Islamic empires, and it is sheer literatim beauty to see the poetical forms getting integrated and amalgamated within each other through the last 1000 years in Iberian history.
Q.3 What are the challenges you faced while writing poetry books and how did you overcome them? From where do you get the ideas and inspiration for writing?
The major challenge I faced when writing was the general discouragement and apathy from all near and dear corners. A “person” wants you to succeed/fail, to accomplish your goals in life. Replace the person with “people”, and you invoke a tribal lunacy and a societal force de majeure which collectively prevents you to conclude your goals. Criticism came when there was no critical base for it. Disapproval came when you never even asked for approval. The “people” judged you without any base of judgement. Reflecting back, those
days were very cliché and chimerical. Many times, I wanted to stop, the society wanted me to stop, their invisible zomboid arms pulling me back into the orthodox and traditionalist folds of the universe. A verse I read once somewhere was instrumental in overcoming the constricted and confined dimension in my life. To paraphrase the great Welsh poet and author, Dylan Thomas – “Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of the day, Rage Rage against the dying of the light”. Designing and designating a book is an intricate process. It sounds very fundamental and effortless but is seldom so. Your book conveys your concept, your substance and abstraction. The title of the book conveys your disposition, preconception, forethought, and intent. I took my intellectualizing time and chose the titles of my books from the assorted and variegated ideas that came subconsciously on reasoning and ratiocinating. The inspiration to write and publish Poetry came from none other than my Father, who proudly declared that I would never be able to compose random poems into something significant and expressive. I took up the challenge and have never looked back since. Today, am the author of 4 non-pedagogical books and several others under publication.
Q.4 When choosing a book marketer, what factors are most important to you? Any 3 practices that according to you are a must while marketing a book.
As a first time writer/poet, you have spent almost a year perfecting the literature which you deem will propel you among the radiating stars in the “Akaash-Ganga” galaxy. There is a Shakespeare inside you, and it is wanting to be detected, to be apparent. Gradually, the galaxical bubble will rupture in some insignificant “quiet bang”, and you will understand that the literary pioneering eras have changed. Now you have about 20000 fellow human beings on any average day clawing alongside you to their intellectual moment of fame, each ready to pluck your eyes out of your socket by any means available. Once the petrifying chills are over, you select a publisher who will publish and market your literary piece of magnificence, and the survival of your work is totally dependent on the reputation, proficiency and slickness of the publishing team. As such, the factors most important are your comfort factor with the publishing team, their dedication and resourcefulness, their outreach and digital media presence, their marketing strategies and Public Relations. You have to find and walk your path with the least amount of pebbles duressing your feet. It is important for both you and your publisher to envision and foresee the short-term and long-term strategic plans. You develop this insight and crawl forward day by day, one elbow at a time. Equally important is the allocation of resources, in this case – primarily money, to sustain your writing career.
Q.5. What apart from reading and writing poetries interests you? How can your learnings from European Literature and Mandarin Poetry be seen in your work?
Apart from reading and writing, I am passionate about dietary sustenance and subsistence, Dipsomania and Biophilia. I don’t eat for abject desideratum, but rather enjoy the gastronomic enchant. My eating habits and choices are varied as such. I also keep a refined and distilled taste for everything refined and distilled. I am often surprised by the profound richness of Literature in all major continents, be it from any historical era and century, even when fine writing and reading skills were not fully developed. Humans have throughout the centuries evolved and conceptualised observations, extrapolating them in scriptures, bards and lyrics. Another thing that surprised me was the distinct styles of Poetry followed over different kingdoms and empires trans-continentally – from the way the poems & verses are rhymed, aligned, meticulously concised, often sending
sub-toned and cryptographic gists to future generations. It is like the authors of the verses had foresight and fore-ordainment, and did knew that their future generations are going to read their creation and analyse them critically. Equally astounding is how punctiliously and thoroughly the various translators of these verses and poems have put their souls and lives in the translations, selflessly to promote cultural and historical unification and integration.
Q.6 Which are the top 3 books you would highly recommend, and what’s your most favorite genre?
The three of my favourite books are:
- The Shahnameh: The Book of Kings By Abolqasem Firdowsi.
- 1001 Arabian Nights – Translated By Sir Richard Francis Burton.
- All works of Edgar Allan Poe.
I would highly recommend the readers to read these books, these are masterpieces of literature from their respective eras. My favourite genres are Poetry, Magic Realism, Paranormal, Mythology and Philosophy.
Q.7 We’d like to hear from you about your latest book, “A Quatrain of Moods.” Will there be any other genre books in the future besides poetry?
My book “A Quatrain of Moods” is an observation and pronouncement of human psychology and behavior, in response to tender sentiments and discordant destiny. Each quatrain listed in the book conveys a subtle story in itself, the circumstances leading to which are often suppressed and insinuated. The interpretation of these diegeses will be based on the readers’ attitude and orientation. Different individuals will interpret these lines differently.
For some narratives, the plot directed the characters, and for others, the characters ushered in the plot. The plot and characters in conjunction complete the narrative. I am writing another volume in Poetry, titled “Dead Man’s Heart”. It is an anthology of verses symbolizing grief and heartbreak, and the lines will resonate with majority of the readers. The readers will contemplate and rewind in the memories and dreams they once nurtured. For some, it brought tremendous joys, but for some, those memories haunts them to this day and
becomes nightmare of silent nights. Progress is slow and sluggish owing to my busy schedule as a Doctor and the responsibilities that comes with it, but again, one elbow at a time. I will reach there, I emphasize on the “will”.
Q.8 How long does it take you to complete a book?
I write in complete solitude and withdrawal, and frequently people interpret my peculiar behavior as being misanthropic and reclusive. One aspect to understand here is that there is a misconception that writing or composing can be done anytime, anywhere. To write and compose, you need the writer’s temperament and frame of mind, and it is the sine qua non. It is a complex thing to describe succulently in words. For a brief period of time, your subconscious individuality and psyche get altered, and your pneuma is diffused into the
characters you are trying to develop. You blend with them, and they create the narrative which your hand pens down subliminally. For this reason, I prefer writing at odd times and at odd places. It takes almost 5-6 months of dedicated time to finish a project, before the typesetting commences. I usually write in the deadbeat hours, late at night through the early mornings, when I am undisturbed and placid. My submerged mind keeps making climacteric observations all through the commotions by the day, and the panorama of the silent night develops those implicit annotations the mind has made, extrapolating them in words. The
words combine to form sentences. The sentences get rearranged to rhyme versified. The verses together form a narrative.
Q.9 Who are your target readers and why should they read your books?
My target reader is a person who loves the “book”, irrespective of being authorial or critical. The ideal reader comes from diverse socio-economic-political background, nationality and faith. I have got warm and sultry reviews from strangers and friends alike, both nationally and internationally. In their expressed cordial words, my raison d’etre is complete.
As to why they should read my books – words have great power in them, if you know the subtle art of conveying and delivering “those” priceless memories back. Those bygone and buried memories re-surfacing for a fleeting moment, those reminiscences by the lamenting and carousing heart are little treasures in the unseen journey of life, we live for those moments.
Q.10 What do you consider your greatest strength as a writer?
Being an author/writer comes with a certain level of challenge. The challenge to write more and expressively, to stick to your dedicated cognitive deadlines. This stimulates a certain level of self-discipline in your personality. When you improve the quality of your life, your overall quality improves as well. You make an impact around your environment. When people who don’t know me on a personal level come to know that am an author of several published books, they are genuinely surprised and acknowledge the fact with a sudden warm smile. In that tiny fraction of time, I see their own dreams and desires flashing in their eyes,
resolving to be completed. Without a word exchanged, the message is conveyed. That is the beauty of human emotions.
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How do you make a puppet step by step?
Make a Puppet
- Step 1: Find Materials. Begin by finding your materials.
- Step 2: Create a Template and Cut Out Your Foam.
- Step 3: Stitch the Skin/ Add the Nose.
- Step 4: Finish Up the Face Parts.
- Step 5: Time for Hair.
- Step 6: Begin the Body.
- Step 7: Hands.
- Step 8: Finish Up.
What do you call a puppet box?
A marionette (/ˌmærɪəˈnɛt/; French: marionnette, [ma. ʁjɔ. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed to an audience by using a vertical or horizontal control bar in different forms of theatres or entertainment venues.
How can I make my home feel like a movie theater?
Tips to Make Your Living Room More Like a Theater
- Paint it Dark. Get the theater vibe by painting your room with dark colors, like burgundy or navy blue.
- Move the Furniture.
- Install Dimming Lights.
- Add New Lighting.
- Hang Light-Blocking Drapes.
- Build a Riser.
How do you make a theater?
If you’re thinking about building a home theater, let HGTV walk you through the steps.
- Step 1: Choose a Location.
- Step 2: Frame and Insulate.
- Step 3: Pre-Wire Surround Sound.
- Step 4: Pre-Wire a Video Projector.
- Step 5: Pre-Wire Lighting.
- Step 6: Install Drywall and Sound Barriers.
- Step 7: Set Up Video and Sound Systems.
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Performance by Franka Marlene Foth
26 Jan 24,
Franka Marlene Foth is a choreographer, performance curator and dancer. Hailing from Berlin she also works as a creative director focusing on fulfilling the intricacies of dance and performance as a primary art form.
FMKF is an artist collective led by Franka Marlene Foth, it stands for versatility, artistic exchange, the advancement of dance in contemporary arts and dancing for the sake of it. FMKF embodies the exceptional synergies of mutual and shared mindsets that kinetically absorb the process of collaboration.
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She's so lucky, she's a star; But she cry, cry, cries in her lonely heart, thinking; If there's nothing missing in my life. Then why do these tears come at night?How true is that sentance of what happened in her life?? (Profound isn't it....?) If you haven't heard the song and want to hear it and watch the music video click HERE. This was one of my favorite songs many years ago...and I still enjoy it today!
After contemplating that song, I started thinking what about all those songs about America. What do other countries hear when songs about America play? For instance, the Rodney Atkins song It's American, where the chorus is...
It's a high school prom, it's a Springsteen song, It's a ride in a Chevorolet. It's a man on the moon and fireflies in June; kids selling lemonade. It's cities and farms, it's open arms, one nation under God. It's America.What do you think they sing, in say, Australia? Do they remove America and say Australia instead? Do they not play the song at all? Or do Australians sing along that they are proud to be an American? LOL?
If you are from out of the country, what do you hear?
Have you ever thought about odd questions like that?This has occupied my mind many times while listening to the radio and my Ipod! Oh, if you haven't heard the Rodney Atkins song, It's America check out the song and music video HERE.
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Elevate Your Space with IU Wooden Bedside Table
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Blending seamlessly between classic and contemporary styles, the IU Table adapts effortlessly to any bedroom setting. Its versatile design complements various decor themes, making it an ideal addition to both traditional and modern spaces.
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The IU Table ingeniously conceals practicality within its design, featuring a discreet drawer beneath the tabletop. This spacious compartment offers clever storage, keeping your essentials organized yet accessible, maintaining a clutter-free environment.
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Positioned by your bedside, the IU Table serves as a functional surface for your nightly needs. Whether holding a favorite book, a soft lamp glow, or a cup of tea, it blends functionality with style.
The IU Table’s compact size makes it a versatile choice, fitting harmoniously in various spaces. Its unobtrusive presence infuses sophistication without overpowering the room’s aesthetics.
Elevate with Elegance
In summary, the IU Wooden Bedside Table embodies timeless elegance and practical utility. A testament to meticulous craftsmanship and thoughtful design, it seamlessly merges artistry and functionality. Elevate your space with the IU Table, where sophistication effortlessly meets day-to-day practicality, creating an atmosphere of refined living.
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so i've seen one or two of his images on the internet a few times, but today i say a book at Barnes & Nobles about all the work of Emory Douglas, famous poster artist from the 60's who chronicled the revolution from the perspective of the Panthers especially, but of all oppressed communities. he is an amazing amazing artist. his use of collage, bright colors, and text add to the subversion of it. i think many people forget that the Panthers were as much against classism as they were against racism. "the pig" was not a synonym for white people, it was the upper class, the imperialists, capitalists, racists, and anyone who supported the oppression of any group of people. these posters have so much to them.
i wish you could see the text on the smaller ones, but if you google his name, you can go the websites i got them from and enlarge them.
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When thinking about prequels, the Hobbit series obviously nestles comfortably in our mind. Three movies in The Hobbit series, are obviously splendid pieces of filmmaking. One thing that people can do when making prequels is to learn from the mistakes done by the originals. However, it doesn’t guarantee that prequels will be flaw-free. They may introduce new storyline and characters that ruin the whole thing, such as Jar Jar in the Star Wars: Phantom Menace. But, one disadvantage of making prequels is how restrictive they can be. They need to follow a set of rules that will culminate to the original film.
In this case, the audience know what to expect and the feeling of tension is often somewhat diminished; because no matter what happen; we know that a character will live, will die or will turn to the Dark Side. The Hobbit is about an innocent pacifist from quiet village; who is thrown to a world of danger and horror. His adventure throughout the three movies is epic; but LOTR fans know that the prequels lack a sense of grandeur. There’s no simple concept where the Men and Elves of the Middle Earth stand their ground against the mighty hordes of Orcs and Uruk-Hai.
It seems like a journey that he will never able to survive, because he is totally out of his element. The whole story hinges on a single person. We watch Bilbo’s plight and hopelessness; although his struggle doesn’t seem to be as painful and traumatic as Frodo’s in the original trilogy. We know that he will survive somehow, but it still seems like throwing a 6-year old in the front row of the bloody assault of Omaha Beach. The three prequels show how the character develops. Although Bilbo doesn’t turn into a tough, sword-wielding warrior; we could see his significantly increased confidence and maturity.
Some movies don’t really stick to the known storyline in the books they are based on, so we still wonder whether Bilbo will really survive. We could be sitting in a darkened movie theatre, as Bilbo, Gandalf and a party of dwarves wander around the jungle, looking a bit afraid, while sweat pricking their brow. Then out of the darkness, a monster, burst out and a fight ensues. The huge dragon, Smaug, is powerful and potent; while he lurks under a gigantic pile of gold coins and gems. Many people may think that the prequels are not as good as the original trilogy, but they would still enthralled at what they see on the screen. The final result may be known, but we don’t know what will happen in the next 5 minutes. Bilbo and Gandalf would survive, but we don’t know whether one of those likable dwarves will be decapitated and have their heads shoved on orcish broadswords. Just like the original, characters in the Hobbit trilogy are entertaining as those in the original LOTR trilogy. For this reason alone, The Hobbit Trilogy is a worthy prequel to the original.
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Life as a fish, a big fish. Swimming around, looking up at the world through blurry eyes. All you see is food, or money that people toss on your head. The occasional photographer falling into the water to take pictures of you. Probably the best highlight of your day. These gold fish stay outside all the time, like a mangy old dog, far too big for a common gold fish bowl.
Shop with Confidence (Fine Art America Return Policy)
Our return policy is very simple:
If you're not happy with a purchase that you made on FineArtAmerica.com, for any reason, you can return it to us within 30 days of the order date. As soon as it arrives, we'll issue a full refund for the entire purchase price. Please note - Fine Art America does not reimburse the outgoing or return shipping charges unless the return is due to a defect in quality.
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In this section you will be able to find informations about Jeff's past and present theater projects, I've also included a very well written personal review of "Bye, Bye Birdie" from earlier this year, the review is written by a fan from Ohio, who was fortunate enough to see Jeff in the play, to read more reviews please see the What people say page., you can also see what awards Jeff has won for some of his roles on the Awards page So enjoy this, and thank you Lynn, for this wonderful review.
"I get what may be my greatest fulfillment from performing live. That's when I get to use my talent" (Jeff Trachta, Soap Opera Magazine, Novemebr 27. 1997)
This is a list of some of the plays Jeff Trachta has starred in since his debut in 1981.
When Jeff was studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Pasedena, he made his debut, and from that play he was discovered by an agent.
Regional Theatre before 1990
1981: "Grease" (Danny Zuko) LA
198?: "Media Messiah"
198?: "Bleacher Bums"
Theatre from 1990 -
Dec. 12. - Dec 30. 1990: "Cinderella" (Prince Charming), Pantages Theatre in LA, with Bobbie Eakes
July 1991: "Love Letters" (Andy), West Coast Production, with Bobbie Eakes
1991: "Little Shop of Horrors" (mad dentist), Burt Reynolds Jupiter Theatre
1994: "Agency" (one-man show, portraying more than 2 dozen characters), Coast Playhouse, West Hollywood. Reviews here
January 2nd - April 7th 1996: "Grease" (Danny Zuko), Broadway, Eugene O'Neill Theatre. NY. Tommy Tune & Barry Weissler production.
November - December 1997: "Three Guys Naked From The Waist & Down" (Kenny Brewster), Tamarind Theatre, LA. Reviews here
July 8th - July 19th 1998:"Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" (Joseph), Art Park, Lewiston, New York.
"Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat"
May 11th - May 23rd 1999: "Bye, Bye Birdie" (Conrad Birdie), Cleveland, Ohio. Reviews here
"Bye, Bye Birdie"
June 15th - June 25th 1999: "Bye, Bye Birdie" (Conrad Birdie), Pittsburgh, Pennesylvania. Reviews here
August 1999: "Cinderella" (Prince Charming), Frauenthal Theatre, Cherry County Playhouse, Muskegon, MI
"BYE, BYE, BIRDIE"
Review of "Bye Bye Birdie" (BY LYNN)
The crowd quiets down as the orchestra begins to play the opening music..Around twenty girls run out on stage and start singing. They hold up a big picture of Jeff, which has been cut into nine pieces. The girls leave the stage and Rose and Albert come out. The time is 1959 and Rose and Albert are in the office of Almaelou Music in New York. Albert announces that Conrad Birdie had been drafted into the army. Rose tells Albert that she is leaving since he had not asked her to marry him yet. They perform a song about how Albert could have been an English teacher. Albert promises Rose that he will marry her and become an English teacher after he gets Conrad to do one last performance so no one will forget him while he is in the army. Rose tells him the write a song called "One Last Kiss." As Albert gets to work on the song, Rose tries to get through to Sweet Apple, Ohio, but all the phone lines are busy. Albert wants to know what is going on. Rose tells Albert that they will pick one of Conrad's fans and that fan will get a kiss form him on TV after he sings the song. They finish the scene and leave the stage.Around fifty kids come out on stage and perform a song. The kids of Sweet Apple are tying up the lines because Kim MacAfee just got pinned but Hugo Peabody. Finally Rose gets through to Kim and informs her that she has been picked to receive a kiss from Conrad Birdie before he goes into the army.The scenery is set up to look like a train station. The whole town of Sweet Apple is there to see Conrad. One girl is very unhappy that Conrad is going into the army and Albert comes out on stage to cheer her up by singing "Put On A Happy Face." Albert cheers her up just in time. Rose comes out and meets up with Albert's mother, Mae (played by the fabulous Rue McClanahan). Of course, Albert takes his mother's side and doesn't tell her that he wantsto drop the music business. A girl comes out on stage screaming that Conrad Birdie is coming. All the girls scream and Jeff walks out on stage. He's in black jeans, a shiny top and a black jacket that has a row of sequins on each sleeve. The reporters ask Conrad questions. Unfortunately, Conrad doesn't get a chance to answer any of them, since Albert and Rose keep cutting him off. They perform a song and the group heads to the town court house. Kim and a couple of girls stay behind as does Kim's boyfriend Hugo. She reassures him that she loves only him, sings "One Boy" and heads for the court house. Hugo talks to Rose, who has a nasty idea and wants to stop the kiss from happening so she can get back at Albert.Everyone gathers at the court house. The mayor presents Conrad with a key to the city. Conrad takes the microphone and starts to sing, moving his hipsform side to side. The mayor's wife faints and the crowd laughs. Conrad goes into the song "Honestly Sincere." Everyone on stage gets into it and by the time the song is over everyone has fainted.The next day we see the MacAfee family in their home complaining about Conrad, Rose and Albert. Conrad comes down the stairs in black biker boots and a leopard print robe. He opens a can of beer or soda (I couldn't tell from where I was) which sprays all over the stage, drinks it down, hands the can to Mrs. MacAfee and tells the family to call him down for lunch and goes back upstairs. On his way he calls Mr. MacAfee "fats." Albert cheers the family up by telling them that they are going to be on the Ed Sullivan show. They go into a song praising Ed Sullivan which gets the crowd laughing again.
In the next scene, everyone is at the television studio. Conrad comes out in an army outfit that has gold and green sequins on it. He starts to sing "One Last Kiss." The MacAfee family keeps cutting in, especially the father, which cracks everyone up. The song ends and Conrad tells Kim to brace herself for the kiss just as Rose brings Hugo out on stage. Hugo intervenes, yells at Conrad and punches him out on live TV. The audience gasps. Kim screams at Hugo and Rose yells at Albert while Conrad is still out cold. To save themselves, Albert starts a song as the people of Sweet Apple help Conrad up, who is still feeling the effects of Hugo's punch. When the song is done, the lights come on and there is a short intermission.
Act Two begins in the MacAfee home where Rose and Kim are singing about how they were fools to be in love with Albert and Hugo. Rose decides to leave and Kim decides to follow her. Downstairs, Conrad is telling Albert that he is fine while he keeps an ice pack on the left side of his face. Albert tells his mother to take Conrad upstairs. As they leave Rose comes out and tells Albert that she is leaving. Albert tells her to go, while his mother listens from the stairs. When Rose leaves, Albert realizes he made a mistake and starts to go after her only to be stopped by Mae. They get into an argument and Mae (who is playing her guilt trip) tells him to go find Rose, then to come back and pull her head out of the oven. Albert tells her he is sorry as Conrad comes downstairs. He's dressed in black jeans, a white T-shirt and a black leather jacket. Quite a few whistles ring out from the crowd. Conrad tells Albert that he's going out. He says he is tense. Albert tells his mother to do something. Mae asks Conrad if he has ever considered being with an older woman and starts to come on to him. The audience is laughing as Conrad just stared at Mae. He finally turns to the crowd and says he hopes that he never gets that tense, which really gets the audience going. Albert tells him to stay put and leaves with his mother. Conrad gets a can of beer from the refrigerator and starts to sing "I Got A Lot Of Living To Do." As he leaves Kim comes down and finishes the song and takes off after Conrad. Outside Conrad and Kim discuss where to go and have some fun. Kin suggests the Ice House, which happens to be the make out place for the kids of Sweet Apple. The audience groans, knowing that something bad is going to happen. The kids of Sweet Apple come out on stage and they finish the song with Kim and Conrad. Back at the MacAfee house, the family discovers that Kim and Conrad are together and go into a song about how kids are so different now than they were when they were kids. The family goes off to find Kim and Conrad.
In another part of town, Rose is at a bar dancing and singing when Albert calls. He sings her a romantic song over the phone, but Rose doesn't fall for it. She goes in the back of the bar, where a group of Shriner's are holding their meeting. Rose distracts them and they go into this crazy dance. The crowd is whistling and laughing. Rose realizes she had gotten more than she bargained for and manages to get away. She goes out the back and meets up with Hugo. He asks her to go in the bar and get him some alcohol, but Rose refuses. The shriner's come out, see Rose and grab her, carrying her off stage.
Albert is looking for Rose with his mother and finally tells her he is giving up the music business. Mae can't believe it and starts to pull another guilt trip, but Albert doesn't fall for it and tells his mother to leave him alone.Out in front of the MacAfee house, all the parents of the Sweet Apple kids gather together. They can't find the kids. Hugo shows up drunk (on milk). They finish their song about kids as Rose comes on stage. Albert sees her and and tells her he is sorry. Rose accepts the apology and lets it slip that Kim and Conrad are at the Ice House. Mr. MacAfee almost faints and they head for the Ice House. The audience goes crazy, knowing that Kim and Conrad are in big trouble. At the Ice House, Conrad lights a cigarette, take a hit and hands it to Kim. She takes a hit and starts to cough. Conrad gives her a sensuous look. Kim tries to make small talk as Conrad moves in for a kiss. Kim avoids him and stands up, moving away from Conrad. He sits on the steps of the Ice House and Kim hands the cigarette back to him. She continues to talk about everything and anything as Conrad takes another hit off the cigarette. He stand up, drops the cigarette and steps on it, putting it out. He moves over to Kim and tries to kiss her again. Kim moves away but Conrad follows. He finally catches Kim, but the some of Kim's friends come in. They grab Conrad and tell him that they are going to run away and live wild and free. Conrad tells them to rethink it. They say no and sing "I Got A Lot Of Living To Do" again as a couple of the girls pull Conrad down on the stage and hover over him.
Suddenly, the parents of Sweet Apple come in. Mr. MacAfee tells the police that are with him to arrest Conrad. Kim runs to her father and tell him what happened. Mr. MacAfee asks Conrad what he has to say now and Conrad responds 'Thank God you're here.' The audience is laughing up a storm by now. The parents take their kids home as the cops haul Conrad off to jail. Albert tells Rose to meet him tomorrow so they can get married. She agrees and Albert runs after Conrad. Rose is thrilled that she is finally going to be Mrs. Albert Peterson, but her happiness is short lived. Mae comes out and the start to argue. They do a song, each one stating that Albert belongs to her. As the song ends, Mae gives up and leaves.
The next day Albert is at the train station. He checks to make sure no one is around and tells Conrad that the coast is clear. Conrad comes out in disguise. The crowd looses it. Conrad comes out in his biker boots, a big black hat with a veil, a black trench coat and blue dress. He's also carrying a black purse. Conrad tells Albert that he will stick with him after he comes out of the army. Mae comes out on stage. Conrad quickly pulls the veil back down over his face. Mae thinks that it's Rose. The people of Sweet Apple come to the train station looking for Conrad. Albert is able to get Conrad on the train, as well as his mother. Mrs. MacAfee tells the town that Hugo proposed to Kim and she accepted. Everyone is happy and leave the station, forgetting all about Conrad. As the train starts to leave, Conrad and Mae yell for Albert to get on the train, but Albert just stands there and waves good bye. Rose comes out with the suitcases and discovers that Albert made sure they missed the train so they could get married in Sweet Apple. Albert sings a song for Rose and the show ends with them kissing in the shadow of a moon.
The audience claps and doesn't stop. The curtain is raised as the cast comes back out. When Jeff appears (he's back in the outfit he had on when he first came out on the stage) the crowd claps louder and whistles. Jeff and Rue McClanahan get the most applause. The curtain comes down and the show is finally over.It was quite an experience. I never thought of Jeff playing Conrad Birdie, but now I can. It is definitely worth seeing.
©1999 Pernille Jorgensen
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Nam Woo-hyun is the main vocalist of the 6-member boy group INFINITE.
The group INFINITE Nam Woo-hyun successfully completed the musical "Jack the Ripper" in Seoul.
Nam Woo-hyun wrapped up his two-month musical "Jack the Ripper" in Seoul after a performance at the KEPCO Art Center in Seocho-gu, Seoul at 7 p.m. on the 4th.
In "Jack the Ripper," Nam Woo-hyun played the role of Daniel, a surgeon who has a strong sense of righteousness but makes a dangerous deal with the murderer Jack for his beloved woman.
Nam Woo-hyun, who received favorable reviews with more than 200% synchronization with Daniel, proved his irreplaceable character digestibility by drawing three-dimensional emotional lines such as the agony and complex psychological changes Daniel experienced while intertwining with Jack with delicate acting.
Nam Woo-hyun, who has clearly proved the potential of a "trustworthy" musical actor, will continue to meet with audiences in Iksan, Daegu, Busan, and Seongnam with "Jack the Ripper."
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Two thoughts occurred while watching the Broadway revival of Terrence McNally's Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, which opens Thursday night at the Broadhurst Theatre (booking to Aug. 25). Why couldn't this have opened a few weeks ago and been eligible for the Tony Awards? It would have been a strong contender for Best Revival of a Play, and its two stars, Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon, likely contenders for Best Actor/Actress in a Play.
FRANKIE AND JOHNNY IN THE CLAIR DE LUNE Broadway Reviews
The new Broadway production of Terrence McNally's Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, starring Audra McDonald andMichael Shannon, directed by Arin Arbus, is officially open. In this new Broadway production, Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon, two of the most acclaimed actors of their generation, will bring the bruised dreamers of Terrence McNally's classic romance to new life. Director Arin Arbus, in her Broadway debut, directs this portrait of a lonely waitress and a short order cook whose first date turns into a one-night stand - and maybe more.
Let's see what the critics had to say!
‘Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune’: Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon’s Chemistry Burns Up Broadway
Ms. Arbus, making a strong Broadway debut after a decade of critical success Off Broadway, seems to have realized that the comedy is crucial, not only because her stars trail tragic associations from most of their previous roles but also because the play can teeter on the edge of bathos. Her strategy of dryness and detail and specificity - leaving the poetry to Natasha Katz's lighting - pays off.
BWW Review: Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon Make Rapturous Music in Terrence McNally's FRANKIE AND JOHNNY IN THE CLAIR DE LUNE
Director Arin Arbus' production, which handily deals with the 1987 piece's moments that might cause uneasiness with contemporary audiences, floats lovingly across the Broadhurst stage as co-stars Audra McDonald and Michael Shannonskillfully explore the delicate details of the many ways we may choose to expose ourselves to one another.
Director Arin Arbus skillfully moves her performers around the stage (grungily built by Riccardo Hernandez and adroitly lit by Natasha Katz) and into and out of their convincingly un-stylish clothing (designed by Emily Rebholz), with no attempt to glam up the crummy Hell's Kitchen studio locale. This is the sort of piece where direction ought to be invisible, just clearing space for the actors to breathe and fill the air, and Arbus does fine work. McDonald's Frankie is perhaps more vulnerable and jittery than the script calls for at times but shows inner strength and fire when needed. It's a pleasure to see Shannon luxuriate in a role that plays to his goofy, boyish side. Together, they forge a bond that's deeply moving, a prickly, organic tapestry of comic fluster, flashes of raw hurt, and pulsing erotic heat.
When Johnny refuses to leave Frankie's apartment, even after she threatens to call the police, the creepiness factor is hard to avoid, especially since Shannon has used his lanky frame and craggy face to convey menace so successfully in the past. But for more than two hours, these highly gifted actors-directed by Arin Arbus, and beautifully lit by Natasha Katz-keep a sensitive focus on the gawky humanity of their characters, holding steady through the ups and downs of McNally's emotional ride. They connect, and they draw us in.
‘Frankie And Johnny In The Clair De Lune’ Broadway Review: Audra McDonald, Michael Shannon And New Hope
When Terrence McNally's Frankie and Johnny In The Clair de Lune premiered Off Broadway in 1987, critics saw a sidelong glance at the AIDS crisis and the toll it took on intimacy. Nothing in the text has been changed for the affecting new production opening tonight on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre starring a powerful, ideally matched duo in Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon, and so those references to sexual terror remain.
Review: 'Frankie and Johnny' on Broadway is a beautiful balance between Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon
But with a lot of help from McDonald and a deceptively expressionistic set from Riccardo Hernandez, the director Arin Arbus effectively operates on the levels of the then and the now. In the best moments of the piece, you think about the different terms of relationships in the 1980s and also how so much and yet so little has changed.
Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon both bare their bodies and their feelings as Frankie, a guarded waitress, and Johnny, a pushy cook in the same greasy spoon, whose one-night stand could lead to more. So exposed are they that the revival that opened Thursday should be rated X-hilarating.
‘Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune’ Broadway Review: Audra McDonald Sizzles With Michael Shannon
McNally's hopeful and heartfelt dramedy still carries a message for audiences who have grown perhaps even more jaded about love than those of three decades ago. Sex is easy, and intimacy is hard. And cynicism, while always just within reach, doesn't hold a candle to the untrustworthy but undeniable power of sincerity.
Terrence McNally's 1987 two-character play observes a pair of mismatched middle-aged misfits who are stunned to discover-in the light (clair) of the Manhattan moon (lune)-that the future they've both long given up on might just be found in the other's imperfect arms. Mismatched characters, yes; played here by the mismatched but equally brilliant Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune positively soars.
In 1987, the play's sub-textual message was a no-brainer. Everyone knew then that playing at sex was playing with fire, and McNally had no reason to spell it out. But because there's no need-to-know subtext to a modern-day production like this one, there's always the danger that the story of Frankie and Johnny might seem shallow because nothing more than a love story is at stake. Nothing more, perhaps, than a love story, but my, how those lovers can love.
It's easy to see why Terrence McNally's 1987 romantic two-hander is being presented on Broadway less than 20 years after its last incarnation. Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, about one very long night in which two lonely souls debate whether or not to take a chance on love, is a veritable feast for actors. And in the new revival directed by Arin Arbus, Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon wolf it down with gusto.
Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon breathe fresh air into Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune: EW review
Shannon, who spends almost every moment of the play either naked or in scant cotton boxers, brings kinetic physical energy to the role - a man so bursting with life that he might actually repel outerwear. He's overbearing and utterly charming, often at the same time. McDonald, resolutely stripped of glamor in her worn bathrobe and scrunchie, brings a sort of earthy dignity to a woman who would rather keep her heart behind bars than expose it to hurt again.
Unsurprisingly, the real treat of this Frankie & Johnny - and perhaps any well-cast Frankie & Johnny - is watching the lively interplay of its two excellent performers. It's a showcase for actors, and there's a sweet, off-kilter, earthy chemistry between the down-to-earth McDonald and the hepped-up Shannon. Though Frankie is often nervous when she speaks, McDonald has a way of half-smiling or half-frowning while she listens that gives the sense of a deep, unarticulated inner life. And Shannon - who spends most of the play in boxer shorts, looking gloriously normal-bodied for a big-time actor - smartly leans into Johnny's oddball qualities and his bursts of childlike enthusiasm.
As one would expect given their impressive bodies of work, McDonald and Shannon deliver superb performances that combine hyper comedy with underlying vulnerability. However, the revival is misconceived physically, with a lighting grid stationed far too low below the actors and a flimsy exterior backdrop, which affects the extent to which the audience is drawn into the play.
This may go toward explaining why this impeccably performed production of McNally's sweet, sad, and funny play, crisply staged by Arin Arbus, can feel nevertheless a bit sodden. For all the virtuosity on display, I'm not sure that we ever truly believe the characters, believe that these people are as lonely, and as needy, as the script requires them to be.
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Bodies is a multimedia project that looks at bodies beyond flesh and bone. The project explores how and where bodies sit, how they feel, what makes them hurt, what makes them love, what makes them ‘bodies’, how this change occurs, which bodies matter and why. The idea is to spark conversation about bodies through creative works- bodies’ anthology, commissioned essays, visual exhibitions, and Jalada conversations through podcasts.
Jalada Africa is a pan-African writer’s collective that began during a writer’s workshop in 2013. Jalada has since published the most translated short story in the history of African literature, “The Upright Revolution,” by Ngugi wa Thion’go. The collective has also hosted its’ inaugural Jalada Mobile and Literary Arts Festival, a journey across 12 cities, 5 countries and 4,500 kilometers.
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The Digital Art meme now includes what was formerly the Abstract Photo meme.
Geometric Friday hosted by LorikArt
Click on the links above to view posts by other artists/photographers or to participate yourself.
Update on 12/2/14 - PHOTO HEART CONNECTION: At the end of each month we are to choose one image that has a connection for each of us. I am choosing this image for the month of November.
As I become older (I will turn 70 next year) I love taking photos of old, even decaying, things and trying to make them into something beautiful. Perhaps I feel some connection with these rotting buildings or automobiles. They are growing old and deteriorating, just like I am. Some of them will be able to be saved, but many will crumble into complete ruin. I have no children to carry on my legacy, but perhaps, someday, someone may run across one of my photos and feel some connection to me, even when I am long gone.
SEE MY RANT ON FANTASY/AVATAR/SECOND LIFE ART
BELOW MY IMAGES.
See hundreds of my photos and art images on my Flickr pages.
MY RANT ON FANTASY/AVATAR/SECOND LIFE/VIRTUAL WORLD ART
(Please note that my rant has nothing to do with the Digital Art, Geometric Friday, or Photo heart Connection memes.)
I joined Flickr about 6 months ago. One of my favorite things to do is scroll through other artists/photographers' photostreams to see what they are creating and to be inspired by the work of other artists.
I have found thousand of stunningly beautiful and/or creative photographs and art work from around the world.
But, one trend I dislike is fantasy/avatar art.
Almost every female figure is scantily clad (if at all), has huge eyes, flawless complexion and hair, and lips so puffy they look like pillows. The figures look rather plastic, as if they began as Barbie or Ken dolls and have been distorted into something worse.
However, the “puffiest” part of the female anatomy is their boobs, which are either about to pop out of their clothing or have already escaped. These avatar women don’t have large breasts, not size Ds or DDs. Most are enormous, perhaps Ms or ZZs. If these women were real, they would have to wear back braces and I guess they’d have to put on some clothes to hide the braces. Even with braces, they would constantly be breaking their noses when falling forward. Some fantasy figures have wings, but surely they could never achieve lift off. And if their breasts don’t knock them over, their torturous 7-inch stilettos might.
What surprises me, is that much of this stuff is created by women. Haven’t they heard of the feminist movement? Many of the women of my generation had to work hard to be taken seriously, to not be thought of as mere sex objects, to have men look at our eyes instead of our chests, and to be accepted as equals in the workplace. In forty years, we still haven't achieved equal pay.
I don’t understand the point of creating such exaggerated features. Are they trying to turn on men? (I showed some to my husband and he said they were a turn-off, not a turn-on.) Do the artists want to be the women they create? Are their own lives so dismal that they have to create a fantasy world?
And then there are the male characters these artists create, which are equally objectionable. Most of their faces look like women with stubble. They are soft and way too perfect, almost pretty. They are supposed to be strong, virile men, but most look rather feminine. Those with bare chests (about 99.99% are bare-chested) often look like they have boobs rather than muscles. But, there are some who look downright evil.
Except for exaggerated body parts, many of these figures are done with very bad proportions. For example legs that are way too short for the torso and too far apart, arms that have elbows at chest level rather than waist level. The crotches on paints are way too low. Now, I know everyone is built differently, but some just look downright distorted.
On many, men's heads are way too small for their pumped-up-on-digital-steroid bodies. I wonder if that is a conscious or unconscious way of showing what the artists think of men. It reminds me of how women used to be portrayed as air heads.
I don’t say all such art is like what I have described. Some are tasteful without exaggerated features.
I know they are supposed to be “fantasy” so we have to suspend belief when looking at them, but I still dislike them. I even find them somewhat creepy. I do, admit, though, that some make me laugh at how ridiculous they are, so maybe there is a redeeming social value in that.
Maybe avatar art bothers me because I don’t understand the appeal. I don’t like rap music, but I can understand why it would appeal to certain people. When I see a film, I prefer not to be scared out of my wits, but I understand there is a certain thrill in horror films that appeals to some.
I’m not turned off by the nudity. I’m fine with artistic nudes in art, photography, and film. I'm not turned off by the sexual content. I'm turned off by the exaggeration that seems to imply any women without enormous breasts and puffy lips or a man without good looks and huge muscles cannot be sexually or romantically appealing.
I'm sure many of the artists spend a lot of time creating their art, and some are very skilled, but the appeal of the exaggerated fantasy/avatar figures is beyond me. And don't get me started on avatar zombies or vampires.
What do you think?
Here are some links to see for yourself. (I'm not sure if you can view these if you are not a Flickr member.} I was going to link to some particularly exaggerated images, but I didn't want to pick on specific artists, so these links are to groups that post this type of image. All are not objectionable to me, but there are enough that are, that I've come to dislike the entire genre.
As I said, some are quite skillfully done and are probably excellent examples of the genre, but the genre, well, you can decide for yourself.
There are many more. This is just a sampling. And there are many that are only open to members, so you can imagine the nudity and sexual content that must be on those.
I'm not sure how people create these, but in comments many refer to programs that they use, that seem to provide various elements such as face shapes, facial features, other body parts, clothing jewelry, tattoos, etc. Once they have the basic figures, I assume each can be customized.
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Bore Through My Skull
The bloody instruments, washed clean.
A shinny new hole in my head.
I feel better with this piece removed from my skull.
I’m not missing anything.
They won’t know the difference;
Once the new plate is put in place.
Looking in the mirror at the brain that was once hidden.
The stitches are clean,
the brain will heal,
the hole will be covered.
The burdens removed.
It was nothing medications would fix.
It was a hardware problem,
not the software.
Now I wish to reboot my soul.
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stupid boy missing the floor. those days. when I windmilled myself on the ground. windmilled my arms, my body. a perfect dance floor. I smiled. then frown. a flare of sadness. destroying my inner peace. an ache to the heart. so literal. but yet, figurative. memories was there. constantly stabbing you with intense emotions. hitting by a virtual jackhammer. I yearn for return. I will. this is a place I miss. everything. this room, in particular. decisions with reasons. and never regret with your decisions. we will meet again. I believe. just don't be forgetful. and remember me. path may be crossed as we draw our future in the unforeseen. allow me to miss here and everything. but I shouldn't be ever missed.
she was my type of taste that suits me so well. i always walk all the way to the national stadium just to see her. i dreamt about her every day. her cool appearance, long hair and dreamy eyes. best in visual during sports in the national stadium. time to man up. as i approach her, with a smile, saying the magic word, "hi". feeling kinda creepy, totally not a time for my ultimate pick up lines. so i introduced myself and i said, "wanna hang?". she was kind, which adds one more attribute to my checklist. i knew that she's a tourist from our conversation. i felt so blind, not knowing that she's actually a russian spending her gap year in malaysia. of course she said yes to my "wanna hang?". i decided to plan out something like a two days trip for her. with my skill in social, i think i got this date out for sure. but
"you never know"
she's a riddler and rhymer. a complicated mastermind. to be exact. she gave me a riddle to guess which …
bunch of homosapiens. fear from murders, crime and terrorism. a game seems like the hunter and the hunted. not hunted by criminal, murderer nor terrorist. but by words. bunch of homosapiens with the ability to kill. pushing air out through the mouth using the lips. so deathly. so easy. so easy to understand. we can't be deaf by choice. but we can be mute by choice. just like a stab. stabbing in front. or stabbing behind the back. doesn't even matter in my stand. the world is already at war. an underlying war with words. the impact is showing. depression. suicides. regret. homosapiens can be so vulnerable. killed in the midst of fear. kill me dear homosapiens. and congratulations. you killed yourself. with words. regret. trauma. don't kill me dear homosapiens. because "no offense" is not the savior of everything.
"the talkative was now mute"
"death is mute"
"killing your own kind"
"words that kill"
he's in love with your light. blinded by the light and hurt by your light.
he gained false hope by the shining light. went for the bulb. and suicide.
she think she has nothing to do with her light. unintended. and never meant to attract with her light.
she never knew.
there was a switch
to close the light.
to stop the false hope.
to prevent a broken heart.
to stop unintended love story.
"or you never wanted it to end, nor start?"
maybe she didn't love the start nor the end, only the middle.
maybe he love her everything, but in vain.
when tried turns tired
he will close the switch himself.
and live again.
"to stop giving false hopes and prolong rejection"
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of the finest calibre
Every element of Zephyr has been meticulously thought out to create an air of prestige and an ambience of sophistication. From the mood lighting, expertly crafted joinery and timber-grained floors to the impeccably appointed kitchens and bathrooms, the apartments achieve a wonderfully inviting feel.
Have it all
Expansive living spaces, interiors to impress and generous, landscaped alfresco areas elevate Zephyr beyond the expected. The design team has created ambient environments in which to relax and unwind or entertain your guests, both indoors and out. Gourmet kitchens are a perfect fusion of form and function, created as focal points around which to congregate.
Interiors come in a selection of two elegant colour palettes, influencing select accents throughout the residences. The darker scheme is moodier with more contrast and charcoal and natural tones for a rich, dramatic effect. The result is a wonderfully sophisticated ambience that exudes urban chic and sets the scene for entertaining.
The lighter scheme is influenced by Zephyr’s coastal setting, with warm, sandy tones and pale accents reflecting the local landscape. This palette is fresh, bright and timeless, creating the perfect neutral backdrop to suit any taste and decor.
Wrapped in luxe
Richly detailed and finely crafted, Zephyr bathrooms are a revelation. Exuding modern minimalism, these streamlined spaces are beautifully finished and designed to make a stylish statement. Underlit vanity recesses feature shell-shaped tiles in a nod to their coastal environment, shower walls have a beautiful marble grain and chrome hardware adds a thoroughly modern edge.
* Mandatory fields
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vieve fell into the small space created by the junction of the bed and the corner. she did this in the dead of night without making a single sound, so that the scene unfolded with the emotional intensity of a silent film.
intuiting that something was wrong, i removed my sleeping mask to discover the cat patiently stuck in a hole with her end up in the air like titanic.
because this wouldn't be excitement enough, while she was down the hole, her fur became electrically charged, so that when i extracted her, the sparks traveled between us and i briefly (gloriously!) looked like the emperor from return of the jedi, torturing the smallest ewok that ever was.
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I realize my sample size is basically two, but what is it about Japanese writers and cats?
If you’re a fan of Haruki Murakami, then you know his interest in cats. They are such a strong presence in his novel The Wind-up Bird that they cast something of a shadow on the rest of his writing. Do all his books feature a cat? No?
The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide, translated by Eric Selland, features a couple, writers both, who encounter a mysterious cat. All three characters would be right at home in a Murakami novel.
Which is my sample size of two authors with something of a thing for cats. I’m curious about cats and Japanese culture. Just how much do felines figure in to modern Japan? The human characters in The Guest Cat, like some in Murakami’s novels, are obsessed, taken in by the cat in ways that go beyond what most of us would consider normal.
I should say that my partner C.J. and I recently got a cat, our first cat as a couple, my first cat period. We have one cat and two dogs, so we are not “cat people” nor are we “dog people”. We’re not “pet parents” either. Neither of us consider our animals to be “fur babies.” They are pets, not children. We genuinely love them, but they will not be taking care of us in our old age.
The cat is not a fur baby in The Guest Cat by any means. It’s not even the couple’s cat. It belongs to a neighbor. It just basically walks into their house one day, makes itself at home for a few hours, then moves on. The next day, the cat comes back at just about the same time. Soon a routine is established, the couple becomes attached to the cat who seems to be attached to them, but where did it come from? what is the cat’s story?
Everything in The Guest Cat is temporary. The cat does not belong to the couple; it comes and goes as it wants. The house the couple lives in, in what must be a very expensive area of Tokyo as it’s described as very leafy with lots of gardens, is not their house. It’s the former guest cottage area where they are allowed to stay by a much older, largely absent land-lady who is happy to have someone watching over the main house. The couple is between major points in their own lives, not quite successful enough at their young age to have a more permanent home.
It’s all very up in the air, which may be why they become so attached to the cat. The cat, though he is not theirs, is part of the neighborhood, known about the area, much more so than his owners are. He’s a charming enough cat, but nothing special. It’s that he comes into their lives unexpectedly and at just the right moment that makes him important.
By this point, you may be asking yourself “the question.” The answer is yes, he does. But don’t let this put you off reading The Guest Cat if it sounds like something you’d enjoy. I really liked it, myself.
While there is a link in my mind, with this cat and The Wind-up Bird, I found the cat to be reminiscent of the dog in M.F.K. Fisher’s wonderful novella The Boss Dog. The boss dog is an unclaimed canine who roams the streets of pre-war Paris, going from cafe to cafe like he owns the place. The Guest Cat acts this way in his up-scale Tokyo neighborhood. I imagine he has relationships with quite a few local households that we don’t know about.
8 thoughts on “The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide”
This old post, and more importantly its photos, will not answer your questions but will add one to your sample.
The link did not post here. I’ll see if I can find it anyway.
I believe it is there if you put the mouse over it. If not:
I’ve been wanting to read this one! Your blog looks different.
I did a pretty thorough remodel a few months ago. And I set the header image to shuffle between a bunch of different images. That way it looks different to me every time I stop by. 🙂
Don’t forget Natsume Soseki’s cat-narrated trilogy, I am a Cat: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080483265X?ie=UTF8&tag=bookmooch-20&linkCode=bn1
Looks like fun. Thanks for the recommendation.
What’s “the question”?
Yes all Murakami’s novels feature a cat / cats in some way.
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