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thegayhimbo · 6 months ago

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Stranger Things The First Shadow Review

Synopsis: Following a horrific incident from their previous life in Nevada, the Creel family relocates to Hawkins, Indiana in an attempt to make a fresh start and instill a sense of normalcy in their son, Henry Creel. However, Henry is anything but normal, and harbors a dark secret of his own that scares both himself and his family. When a series of gruesome animal killings takes place, attracting the attention of a group of teenage outcasts and a Doctor with his own agenda, Henry realizes his secret is about to be exposed, and is forced into a reckoning that will change the course of his life, and of Hawkins, forever.........

Observations:

FINALLY!!!!

I've been waiting for MONTHS to see The First Shadow. As far back as January, we got tickets and made plans to travel to London specifically for this. Last Thursday (June 20, 2024), we were able to view it on-stage.

Was it worth it? Short answer: YES.

This is going to be divided into several parts. The first bit will detail my experience at the play, and the remaining parts will contain SPOILER HEAVY analysis of the story, the characters, and plot revelations tied directly to the mythology of the show. There's a lot to speculate on where the Duffer Brothers will take the final season from here.

Part 1: My Experience

In terms of production value, this was top-notch. I loved the set designs, from Hawkins High School, to the classic 50s Diner the characters hang out at, to the gothic Creel House, to the cold white rooms of Hawkins Lab, to the hellish landscape of Upside Down, and so on. The 50s aesthetic works well, and there were multiple shots that conveyed the sense I was watching an episode from the show.

The special effects were spectacular. Huge shout-out to the way they choreographed the mutilation of both animals and humans. It actually looked like bones being snapped and limbs twisted around. There's even a disturbing scene where Hopper and Bob are digging up the carcass of a butchered cat, and the prop they used for it looked realistic (combined with dirt and blood for nauseating effect). The lighting also helped elevate the creepiness of it all.

The music was also great. They had a nice selection of 50s songs, but they also brought back familiar themes from the show. One of my favorite musical cues was the use of Philip Glass's "Window of Appearances" which is heard when Vecna's origins are revealed in "The Massacre at Hawkins Lab" (Season 4, Episode 7). They also use it in the climax of this play:

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The actors brought their A-game, but the two performances that really stood out for me were Isabella Pappas as Joyce and Louis McCartney as Henry Creel. Pappas does a stellar job combining Joyce's world-weary "I'm sick of everyone's bullshit" attitude with the fierceness that makes Joyce stand out as a character. It reminded me a little of Natalia Dyer's performance as Nancy Wheeler, especially with the "take charge" attitude that both of them have.

As for McCartney, he was the show-stealer. I didn't go into this play expecting to feel any sympathy for Vecna, but the emotional depth McCartney brings to his performance elevates the character to a 3-dimensional complex tragic villain, which makes his eventual fall to evil all the more heartbreaking.

The audience I was with was fully immersed. Most of the jokes got a laugh, there were a few screams when jump-scares occurred, and there was a standing ovation at the end when the cast came out to give a bow. Even during intermission, everyone was chatting happily about the play, and I heard nothing but compliments.

My only regret is, due to a scheduling conflict that day, we ended up missing the first 5 minutes, and they wouldn't let us in the theater until the title cards came up. We did see parts of the beginning on a TV screen in the lobby (and one of the patrons was gracious enough to fill us in on what happened), but I wish I'd been in the theater for the beginning. My advice is GET THERE EARLY if you plan to see it. The theater fills quickly, and they may not let you in at certain points.

The only minor nitpick I have about the quality of the play is there were a few moments I had a hard time understanding what certain characters were saying. This was mostly in the scenes with Henry/One/Vecna when he was either screaming or alternating to his demonic voice. I was usually able to figure out what was going on, but I wish the dialogue had been clearer.

Overall, this was a fun experience, and I even brought back memorabilia from it:

Part 2: Characters/Story (MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!)

It's pretty much advertised in the synopsis, but the play takes place in 1959 when Joyce, Hopper, and Bob are in high school during the time the Creel family moves into Hawkins. The story is largely centered on Henry Creel's villain origins as he becomes more unhinged due to the power he possesses. This leads to a series of pet killings in Hawkins that catches the attention of Hopper, who ropes in both Joyce and Bob to investigate and find the culprit. All the while, Joyce is struggling to put on a play at Hawkins High School (i.e. The Dark of the Moon), which coincidentally happens to have Henry/One/Vecna as the main star! :)

These three arcs sound like they shouldn't connect at all, but to the Duffer Brothers credit, they manage to thread them in a way that's believable and engaging. Joyce's exasperated attempts to get The Dark of the Moon off the ground provide some light comedy to what is essentially a grim story, and it was a nice way for the audience to see all the adult characters from the show (i.e. Ted Wheeler, Karen Wheeler, Al Munson, Lonnie Byers, Sue Sinclair, Charles Sinclair, etc) as they were during their teen years.

The investigation of Hopper, Joyce, and Bob into the pet killings hearkens back to the old-fashioned dynamic the Party had in the first season when they were looking into Will's disappearance.

As for Henry/One/Vecna, his arc was well executed and horrifying on so many levels:

The way a young Henry Creel was portrayed in this play was oddly endearing. I mentioned earlier that McCartney brings a lot of emotional depth to the character, and by that, I mean he portrays teenage Henry as awkward, shy, creepy, funny, and even sympathetic at times. He's a kid who doesn't feel comfortable in his own skin, who has a hard time interacting with other people, and has powers that frighten him with the added side-effect of NOT knowing how to control them yet. Victor Creel mentioned to Nancy and Robin in S4 that Henry was a "sensitive child" and it turns out that was meant literally: Lights go on or off (or even explode) whenever Henry's mood fluctuates (making Henry constantly jumpy), he can unknowingly tune into the radio with his powers and mistakes it for voices in his head, he can read the thoughts/moods of other people, he can create illusions (similar to Kali/Eight), and whenever he tries experimenting with his powers, it ends in disaster. In short, he's someone who's terrified of his own shadow, and almost everything in his environment sets him off. At the same time though, there are some relatable qualities to him, such as his love for comics like Captain Midnight (which he eagerly shares with Patty), and there is an internal struggle he deals with for most of the play to genuinely be a good person in spite of the demons (both literal and figurative) that threaten to overwhelm him. He reminds me of Will Byers in some ways, and I am dead sure that parallel between these two characters was intentional on the Duffer Brothers part.

Contrary to what's implied on the show, it turns out Henry had his powers long before he moved to Hawkins. Previously, he lived in Rachel, Nevada until an incident between him and another boy resulted in said boy ending up in a wheelchair. It's ambiguous whether Henry deliberately attacked the boy or if it was an accident (it could have been either one), but it was enough to force his family to move. His parents (particularly his mother) are insistent on pretending everything is normal and that Henry will eventually get better, all the while putting more of an emotional strain on Henry as he tries (and fails) to conform.

We get a little more insight into Henry's parents, and it's not pretty: Victor Creel was already established on the show as a war veteran with severe trauma and PTSD over killing innocents during a raid, and the play depicts him the same way, with the added effect of being so wrapped up with his own issues that he fails to see his own son spiraling. The sad thing is there are scenes indicating he does love Henry (and also defends Henry's relationship with Patty, referring to it as "puppy love") but he isn't able to convey that in a way which makes Henry feel safe.

As for Virginia Creel, I don't know if this was intentional in the narration, but I found her unlikable. Putting aside the unsettling 50s Stepford Wife persona she projected, her treatment of Henry bordered on emotional abuse. She likely didn't intend that, but everything, from her attempts to keep Henry isolated from the one relationship that brings him any happiness, to constantly treating him like a time bomb waiting to go off, to pretending everything is okay when it isn't.........all of this causes whatever mother/son relationship she has with Henry to deteriorate. There's even one nasty scene where she smacks him, though she quickly regrets it when Henry lashes out in anger and forces his mom to witness a vision of herself being covered in spiders when she was locked in the closet by her abusive parents as a child. In some ways, it reminded me a little of the Norma/Norman Bates relationship from the Psycho series (minus the incest subtext) in how unhealthy it is. It was deeply uncomfortable seeing her attempt to force Henry to be something he wasn't just so she could maintain the image that she and her family were perfect. And when she realized she couldn't do that, she finally tried to wash her hands of Henry the moment Dr. Brenner showed up and offered to take Henry into his care ("Lock him up and throw away the key" to paraphrase one of her comments). I get that this is set in the 50s where there's plenty of values dissonance with how parents raised their kids at that time, and there is some context behind why she was scared of her son and his behavior (because there were times Henry wasn't acting okay), but she still handled this situation poorly and contributed to Henry internalizing his trauma and insecurities until they exploded out of him in the worst possible way. It was bad enough that Henry was dealing with something he didn't understand, but she needlessly added on to those problems.

Alice (Henry's sister) is also in the play, but she only appears in a few brief scenes, and sadly doesn't get a lot of characterization beyond being the "cheerful child" in the family. It's implied she knows that something is wrong with her brother, but doesn't look closely at it. Interestingly, they portray her like she's Henry's younger sister, even though the show established that she's supposed to be older (There's a news article in S4 that claims Henry was 12 and Alice was 15 when the Creel murders happened). Other than that, there isn't really much to say about Alice.

The three main characters (Joyce, Hopper, Bob) have their familiar quirks that will follow them into adulthood: Bob is nerdy, smart, good with technology (which comes in handy in their investigation) and the host of a radio show. Hopper is the disgruntled son of the Chief of Police who's trying to make something of his life. Joyce is high-strung, in a dead-end relationship with Lonnie, and trying to find a balance between optimism and pessimism. In a way, I'm reminded of the Steve/Jonathan/Nancy dynamic we briefly got in the S1 finale, with Joyce having similarities to Nancy, Bob to Jonathan, and Hopper to Steve. This was clearly set up as a love triangle between the 3 of them, and I have to question if the Duffer Brothers deliberately did this to foreshadow what could end up happening between Steve/Jonathan/Nancy in S5. In any case, Joyce, Hopper, and Bob investigate the animal killings when they start to happen, and while they come close to figuring out who it is, they ultimately miss the mark and pin the crime on the wrong person (Poor Victor Creel). Sadly, by that time, it's too late, and both Virginia and Alice Creel are dead.

There is a new character introduced named Patty Newby who plays an important role. She's the adopted sister of Bob and was revealed to have been taken in (or stolen as a child, as Henry later claims) by Bob's father, Principal Newby. Despite his misanthropy and awkward nature, Henry takes an interest in Patty, and the two of them develop genuine affection for one another. When Patty auditions for Joyce's play, Henry helps her with her lines (which leads to both of them getting cast as the main leads), and later feels comfortable enough to share his secret powers with her, including giving her a glamorous vision of starring and singing in a Las Vegas show. Against all odds, I actually found the relationship between Henry and Patty to be cute. Not only did it humanize Henry, but the way it was presented made sense: Both of them are outcasts with deep insecurities that they're trying to work through. Patty feels like an outsider in her family and at school due to her race (which isn't helped by people like Dustin's father making disgustingly bigoted comment towards her during class) and her complicated relationship with her adopted dad, who treats her coldly. Since Henry also feels like an outcast in his family, he's able to empathize with her, and both of them try to encourage the best in one another. In a moment of genuine kindness, Henry helps Patty locate her biological mother (who coincidentally is also a singer), and Patty returns the favor by trying to encourage Henry into believing that he is a good person and that there are positives with his powers.

I know some fans will complain about how Patty was never mentioned on the show even though she's supposed to be adopted siblings with Bob, but I'm not bothered by that. Nothing about her existence contradicts anything on the show, and it was nice to see a redeemable side to Henry that proves he wasn't a complete monster to begin with. The only thing that's harsher in hindsight is that, because Patty and Bob were close growing up, and because of Henry's affection for Patty, it makes what he does to Bob in S2 (i.e. siccing the demodogs on Bob) a lot more vile.

Finally, there's Dr. Brenner himself: If there was ever any doubt that he saw Henry and the other special kids like El as a means to an end, this play erases that. He is at his absolute worst here. Manipulative. Cruel. Determined to push Henry over the edge. Egging Henry into murdering a convicted prisoner, even though Henry fights back against doing that, all so Brenner can test him. Hurling verbal abuse at Henry, and then playing up the "Loving Papa" persona in the same way he would do with El years later. It really says something that he is the most loathsome character in the play, and that he doesn't see Henry as a person so much as a tool.

This was already a given on the show, but I still remember fans who kept making apologies for Brenner's behavior in S4 while insisting he really did care about Henry and the other kids in spite of his abuse of them. 🙄 I always maintained those were garbage apologies, and this play only reinforces that. Even though Henry is ultimately responsible for the choices he makes (regardless of the negative influences in his life), there is an argument to be had that Brenner bears responsibility for destroying whatever remaining goodness Henry had left in him until Henry became the cold, calculating monster with a plethora of rage and a deep hatred for humanity to accompany it.

Part 3: Revelations

For a while now, I've held theories that the powers El, Henry, and the other special kids have had were connected to the Upside Down. These theories were even talked about in my reviews for Stranger Things Six, Stranger Things The Other Side, and Stranger Things Suspicious Minds. I've also speculated on the idea that the Mind Flayer might be its own entity, and that Henry/One/Vecna didn't create it so much as gave it a form when he found those black particles in the Upside Down decades later.

This play confirms those theories: Not only is the Upside Down connected to their powers, but it's revealed in this play that the Mind Flayer acted as a malevolent corrupter to a young Henry, which would later lead to him becoming the monstrous Vecna.

At the beginning of the play, there's a flashback to 1943 where the U.S. military was experimenting with a new technology on the USS Eldridge to create a force field to hide the ship from the Germans during WWII. Interestingly, this bit was based on a real life experiment called "Project Rainbow," and the pamphlet I bought gives more details about it:

In the play, the technology caused the ship to end up in the Upside Down, where most of the crew was slaughtered by Demogorgons. The sole survivor turned out to be Dr. Brenner's father, who came back to the real world with altered blood in his system. He ends up dying, but passed on his secret to his son, kick-starting Brenner's scientific pursuits for the military. In other words: Brenner was aware of the Upside Down long before El banished Vecna to it in 1979.

Fast-forward a few years later. Henry is in Rachel, Nevada, playing in one of the caves with a spyglass when he encounters a rogue scientist who worked under Brenner in Nevada. Brenner had spent years attempting to replicate the experiment on the USS Eldridge in Nevada, and one of his scientists had stolen key technology and fled to the caves. When Henry discovers the technology, it transports both him and the scientist to the Upside Down. The scientist is killed, but Henry gets exposed to a malevolent entity (The Mind Flayer) before he is transported back to this world. Just like with Brenner's father, his blood is altered, and so is his personality. Brenner would later be able to track Henry down due to the spyglass he dropped in the caves after his exposure. In spite of escaping the Upside Down, Henry was now connected to the Mind Flayer, who spends the majority of the play acting as a malicious influence driving Henry to kill, and chipping away at his personality bit-by-bit:

It's not really a spoiler to say Henry is behind the pet killings in Hawkins (since he was shown killing animals on the show), but the difference here is the play makes it ambiguous how much control Henry has over his powers and actions. The Mind Flayer certainly uses Henry as a vessel, but there are moments Henry was shown to be capable of resisting it, indicating there was some manner of agency on Henry's part. In some moments, he chose to drive off the monster, whereas in others (like the deaths of Virginia and Alice Creel), he allowed the monster to work through him.

Like I said, these are theories I've held for a while now, so it felt gratifying to see them validated. While Vecna's monologue to El in 1979 implies that he was always a sociopath with powers who acted on his own accord with no outside influence, it's important to note that Vecna in that scene is an unreliable narrator twisting past events to paint himself a certain way to El. Part of it may be that he doesn't want to admit he was a victim of the Mind Flayer and that he made his own choices (Which is true: He DID have choices and the ability to reject the Mind Flayer, which we see in one scene when the Mind Flayer attacks Patty's father, and Henry intervenes on Patty's behalf to save him). Part of it may be that he's been under the hold of the Mind Flayer for so many years that, by the time El meets him, he's come to believe he and The Mind Flayer are one in the same.

Either way, regardless of what happened, there were a lot of elements stacked against Henry that makes me pity him: The Mind Flayer's influence, Brenner exploiting Henry's powers for his own selfish scientific desires instead of genuinely helping him, his parents trying to force Henry to be normal and shove down his issues instead of taking the time to deal with them..............the only positive thing Henry had going for him was his relationship with Patty. Her determination to see the good in Henry and his powers, and her belief that Henry could rise above the darkness gave some brief salvation for him. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to save him, and the darkness won in the end.

There is a slight change I was okay with: In the show, Henry mentions that he fell into a coma after killing his mother and sister. While that is true to some extent, he actually wakes up a few hours later and flees the house to go find Patty at the school. He encounters Joyce in the basement (after the power gets knocked out) and, in a scene that's both creepy and sad, he acknowledges that Joyce is a good person and warns her that the world will punish her for it while taking away everything she holds dear. There's a dark irony to his words considering he would later be responsible for the disappearance of her son, the death of Bob, and most of the problems Joyce would later deal with on the show.

Following his encounter with Joyce, Henry finds Patty on an elevated stage platform, and begs her to run away with him. She is basically his last hope at this point, and even that is taken away when Brenner manages to track him and Patty down. There's a whole "Good Angel/Bad Devil" exchange that occurs as Patty (the Angel) implores Henry to fight against The Mind Flayer while Brenner (the Devil) snarls that Henry is already a monster and he might as well accept it. All of this cultivates in Henry using his powers on Patty, having finally surrendered to the Mind Flayer's influence, and throwing her from the rafters, almost killing her. Henry passes out after this, and Brenner takes him back to Hawkins Lab, where he will spend the next 20 years as Brenner's prisoner. Patty manages to survive the fall and, thanks to information Henry gave her earlier, she's able to locate her biological mother in Las Vegas and reunite with her. The last act of redemption Henry would ever have.

These revelations help give context to the mythology of the show. They explain what motivated Dr. Brenner for so many years. They explain the Mind Flayer was well aware of this world, and that Brenner was aware of the Upside Down long before El opened the gate in 1983. They explain Henry already had troubling aspects to begin with, and that his encounter with the Upside Down and the Mind Flayer only amplified those problems. They explain how and why Henry became disillusioned, nihilistic, and angry over the next 2 decades, and how he would project that onto his enemies once he became Vecna. They explain why Henry/One/Vecna takes an interest in certain characters on the show, from El (whose upbringing and struggles are similar to what Henry went through as a child) to Will (who shares similar traits with him as an outcast and a nerd) to even Billy (with both of them projecting their rage onto the world), and went as far as to target them. And, most importantly, it explains how Henry and other special kids like Kali and El got their powers.

This does raise interesting questions that I hope S5 will explore more of:

Since Will was kidnapped and taken to the Upside Down in S1, does this mean his blood type has been altered as well due to his exposure to the Mind Flayer? Does he now possess some kind of power similar to El that we haven't seen yet but might be unveiled in the last season?

And what about the Upside Down freezing in time in 1983? Considering the Upside Down remained consistent as a hellish environment (even after El banished Vecna to it in 1979), this gives the impression that what happened there was an anomaly. I still maintain Will's disappearance had something to do with the altered environment, and I have provided theories for it in my review of Stranger Things The Other Side, but it's still a question that remains unanswered by this play.

And then there's Patty: She does survive, and last we see of Patty is her reuniting with her biological mom, but it's also mentioned she disappeared and that Bob (her adopted brother) misses her and plays songs over his radio podcast in her memory. Did Bob ever find Patty following this, or did he die before that could happen? Does she even remember Bob or Henry, or did the fall (which injured her badly enough that she now walks with a cane) cause her retrograde amnesia? Is it possible S5 might bring her back, and she could have some role in reaching out to Henry/One/Vecna? Is she still alive at this point?

So many questions that I'm hoping S5 provides answers for.

Part 4: Themes

It's no coincidence that the play Joyce produces for the school holds parallels to the tragedy of Henry and Patty's relationship. The Dark of the Moon is a ballad about a "witch boy" named John who falls in love with a human girl named Barbara Allen. He is given a human form on the condition that she remains true to him. Through a series of tragic events (including the death of their child at the hands of religiously-crazed townsfolk), Barbara ends up betraying John, causing him to lose his humanity and become a part of the fog from the place he came from.

If we're drawing direct parallels, it's pretty obvious Henry is John, the "witch boy" embedded with special powers who falls for the human girl, Barbara/Patty. The difference is that the "humanity" of Henry is more metaphorical than literal: He attempts to not give into the monstrous influence of the Mind Flayer, and Patty recognizes this and is determined to help him through the love she gives him. However, the key difference is Patty isn't the one who betrays Henry. If anything, she remains a loyal friend and confidant to Henry (even AFTER Brenner tells her that Henry killed his mother and sister) and desperately tries to convey to Henry that she believes in him and that he can fight off The Mind Flayer. Unfortunately, that proves insufficient, and it's Henry who inflicts the final betrayal on Patty, destroying their relationship, and causing Henry to become prisoner of Dr. Brenner at Hawkins Lab. He is the "witch boy" who returned to where he came from.

It should be noted that the ballad this play is based on contains these final lyrics:

They laid poor Barbra by the old church gate,

With the wild, wild rose growin' nigh her,

And witch boy roamed the mountain high,

'Til mountain fog became him.

And then one morn, before the dawn,

The fog rolled down that mountain,

It came to rest nigh Barbara's rose,

and watered there a briar.

The rose and briar climbed the old church gate,

'Til they could grow no higher,

And there they tied in a true love's knot,

The rose wrapped 'round the briar.

And so a witch and human gal,

Had conquered death eternal,

And 'neath the darkness of the moon,

Their love's entwined forever.

Could this be foreshadowing that, as evil as Henry/One/Vecna has become, there is still a chance at redemption for him through Patty? That whatever love he held for her could bring back Henry's humanity and allow him to overcome the Mind Flayer one last time? They did a similar thing with Billy Hargrove in S3 (with the platonic love he had for his mother), and since love is one of the key forces that's been shown to repel the Mind Flayer, it could work again in Henry's favor if he chooses to take it.

However, a lot of this is tied to whether Henry is capable of remorse or empathy at this point, and considering what we've seen on the show, it's a safe bet to say whatever humanity he had left in him is now gone. I'm doubtful that even if Patty shows up in S5, it'll be enough to redeem Henry. There are some things you can't come back from, and regardless of the negative influences he was dealing with, Henry still had choices, and he chose to hurt others.

In a way, Henry's story reminds me of Coriolanus Snow's arc in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: Despite the relationship he has with Lucy Gray Baird, it wasn't enough to cancel out his negative personality traits (narcissism, entitlement, etc) and whatever love he may have had for her isn't enough to redeem him, or prevent him from becoming the tyrant we all know and loathe by the events of The Hunger Games.

Another theme present was the exploration of the adult characters and how the personality traits they had as teens continue well into adulthood. It's been speculated before by various groups of people that, internally, there's a certain point where you stop growing mentally and remain the same age, and that definitely seems to be the case here with some characters. The problem is that while these qualities might have been excusable when they were teenagers, they become less appealing as time goes on:

Ted Wheeler, for example, is depicted in the play as a dumb jock who's clueless most of the time. Fast-forward to the 80s, and he's now an apathetic father who still remains clueless. Not only is this not cute anymore, it's frustrating to his wife and those around him.

Karen Wheeler is depicted in her teens as interested in her youth and beauty and dating Ted BECAUSE he's a hot jock. By the time she's an adult, she's still into that (though she does make more of an effort to be emotionally available to her kids unlike Ted) and her desire for youth and a passionate relationship almost leads her to sleeping with Billy despite the inappropriate age difference between the two. 🤮

Jim Hopper is a younger man with a fractured relationship with his abusive father, and a lot of his motivation is rooted in trying to stick it to his dad and prove that he isn't the loser his father thinks he is. It's why he takes an interest in the animal killings around Hawkins and conducts an investigation similar to how police would do it. It's also why he joins the Vietnam War later (as he would later tell Enzo/Dmitri in S4). Even later becoming the Chief of Police on the show likely has its roots in this. Years later, long after his dad is likely dead, he's still trying to prove him wrong.

Lonnie Byers is depicted as a douchebag, even as a teen, who isn't really interested in making something of his life, who's coasting off other people, and really doesn't have any desire to improve himself. Come Season 1, and is it any surprised he's a deadbeat dad who's divorced from Joyce and still making shitty decisions down the line?

Same goes for Al Munson: The play depicts him as an improv actor who's deeply self-centered, who isn't as good as he thinks he is, and is someone who just annoys everyone around him with his antics. Anyone who's read Flight of Icarus knows he doesn't get any better as an adult, and it has completely wrecked his relationship with his brother Wayne and his son Eddie.

And then there's Dustin's father: "Asshole" is the best term I can use to describe him. He's very belittling and not well-liked (even among his peers), and it doesn't surprise me that Mrs. Henderson (who's also shown to be a cat-lover as a teenager) would eventually split with him and raised Dustin on her own.

There are a few positives though: Both Charles and Sue Sinclair come out of the play as decent people, and Sue is shown to be a loyal friend to Joyce, helping Joyce to get her play organized. I can see why they ended up together, and I maintain both Lucas and Erica are lucky to have them as parents.

The overall point is, like with Henry (who also never really grew up, and is now an angry kid trapped in the body of a 30-something adult), there is a theme that change is a process you have to work on. All of these characters (including Henry) have their own flaws they have to work through, and it is a choice about whether you put in the hard work of overcoming those flaws, or you surrender to them and let them dictate your life and stilt your growth. It's always an uphill battle, and it's never easy, but when the alternative is hurting the people around you, I would argue it's worth the effort for their sake.

Final Thoughts:

While there is some leeway between how events in the play can be interpreted, there is one tiny retcon that was hard to ignore: Henry's age. In the show, it's specifically mentioned in the newspaper article that Nancy and Robin look up that Henry was 12 when Virginia and Alice Creel were killed. However, this play retcons his age to being 14 years old. My guess is this was likely done so that Henry would be a freshman, and therefore able to attend Hawkins High School with Joyce, Hopper, Bob, and the other characters. While I don't mind this retcon for story purposes, it still sticks out like a sore thumb, and I wish the Duffer Brothers would take better care with details like that, especially after what happened in S4 with Will's birthday being forgotten.

There is a pamphlet for 10€ that they sell at the Phoenix Theater that gives more information about the play, its cast, and the central ideas behind the story. You can even see it in the picture above with the other memorabilia I collected (next to the t-shirts I bought). If you're going to see the play, I highly recommend purchasing it. It's worth the money.

Overall, this was a well-written play that I'm willing to accept as canon. I hope the events in this play are referenced in S5, and have a role in how the show's story unfolds. I highly recommend getting a ticket for anyone who is a Stranger Things fan! :)

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turnaboutfix · 2 years ago

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Good evening pals it's time for more "things I like about the Ace Attorney Anime despite the budget being less than what I have in my piggy bank". Tonight is one of my favorite adaption decisions from "Farewell, My Turnabout" (obvious Spoilers for that case, you have been warned).

To start, the art in the anime is often pretty funky and off model, but I wanted to highlight this frame when Phoenix is talking to Matt Engarde in the detention center with his reflection in the shot. It is genuinely well drawn and downright horrifying. Actually, the whole episode has pretty good draftsmen working on the character animation, considering.

I could honestly leave it as is, but this next scene is what I want to talk about the most. (I have to leave some stuff out because of the 30 image limit--I took like 50 screencaps of this scene in total lol--so bare with me.) Phoenix steps out of the Detention center to see a certain prosecutor waiting for him.

The following conversation takes place in the Criminal Affairs Department in the game, but in the anime, it takes place in Edgeworth's office! (RIP Eddy's Bratworth outfit which is just a 2D image on that wall lmao--again, there are some well drawn stuff but this is just silly.) Another note: the text is from the sub with the localized English names, and it's a bit different from the dub.

This shot lingers for a bit, and you hear traffic outside before the following happens. The rest is under the cut.

Brilliant, incredible, amazing, showstopping, spectacular, never the same... you get the idea haha. I love it very much.

#ace attorney #ace attorney anime #phoenix wright #miles edgeworth #edgeworth #again--watch the sub if you wanna check it out #I see you peeps who said you like the dub #you are valid #but I think the dub is unwatchable #and I have friends who work at funimation I'm sorry but I still love u fine peeps #I also see you peeps who refuse to watch the anime #I also see you and you are also valid #may was well tag this #wrightworth #narumitsu #because the last four screencaps will be especially appreciated by those who ship them #that exchange is not in the game lmao

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2e2ezine · 1 year ago

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👁️ OPEN UP 👁️

Preorders for 2 Everything 2 Everywhere: An EEAAO Zine are NOW OPEN! Featuring art, writing, and merch from 36 contributors, this 80+ page fanzine will rock your universe.

🛒 2e2ezine.bigcartel.com ⏰ August 25 - September 25, 11:59pm EST

More information about bundles and stretch goals below!

˗ˏˋ BUNDLE INFORMATION ´ˎ˗

🪨 JUST BE A ROCK ($20)

This is sure to prove that things do matter. This digital bundle includes: - A PDF copy of the zine - A "The Making-Of" book PDF - 18 digital stickers

🦝 SOME THINGS ($27)

Get ready to jump across the multiverse! This zine bundle includes: - An A4 perfect bound physical zine - A PDF zine - All digital merch ("The Making-Of" PDF + stickers) ‼️ Eligible for the 50 orders stretch goal ‼️

🥯 MOST THINGS ($45)

Take a bite of this bagel. This flats bundle includes: - 2 die-cut stickers - 2 postcards (4x6″) - 2 sticker sheets (4x6″) - 3 prints (A5) - A physical zine - A PDF zine + all digital merch ‼️ Eligible for the 50 and 75 orders stretch goals ‼️

👁️ EVERYTHING ($60)

Everywhere, all at once. This full bundle includes: - A wooden charm - A magnet - 3 die-cut stickers - 2 postcards (4x6″) - 2 sticker sheets (4x6″) - 3 prints (A5) - A physical zine - A PDF zine + all digital merch ‼️ Eligible for ALL stretch goals ‼️

˗ˏˋ STRETCH GOALS ‼️ ´ˎ˗

We have 3 spectacular stretch goals we hope to unlock by reaching the following milestones: - 50 orders unlock a bonus postcard - 75 orders unlock an acrylic charm - 100 orders upgrades a die-cut sticker to an enamel pin

*This is a non-profit, charity zine! All profits raised (beyond production and shipping fees) will be equally split and donated to Red Canary Song, Asian Mental Health Collective, and Send Chinatown Love. Read about each charitable organization HERE!

#everything everywhere all at once #eeaao #zine #zines #fanzines #fanzine #charity zine #film zine #fandom zine #film #films #zine-scene #zinefeed #zine promo #zine preorders #zine pre orders #zine sales

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weaselandfriends · 3 months ago

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Have you thought about opening a Patreon? I would pay a lot of money if it meant getting your stories more regularly...

My prose sucks, yours is spectacular. How do I get better at it? I try reading a lot, but I'm starting to conclude there's only so much you can pick up via absorption without some kind of formal instruction.

1. I'm not especially interested in opening a Patreon, and here's why. First, I work a reliable full time job that isn't too demanding on me, so I'm already financially stable. My following right now likely isn't large enough to sustain me full time, so I wouldn't be able to use Patreon as a primary income source anyway. Even if my following was larger, though, it would be a gamble to quit my job and sustain myself solely on fan donations. Ultimately, it would probably be more stressful for me than my current situation, and I could see my writing quality suffer under the pressure of needing to constantly output material on a monthly basis. On top of that, I'm not sure if sustaining myself on Patreon would actually increase the regularity of my stories. Unlike seemingly most authors (go look at Alexander Wales' Tumblr for an example), I'm not an "ideas guy." I don't get a lot of story ideas. The ideas I do get I nurture for years, slowly adding details to them until they're ready to write. Cockatiel x Chameleon was an idea I got in 2015 (published 2022). Modern Cannibals was an idea I got in 2012 (published 2017). When I am actually writing a story, I'm usually able to consistently output content, even with my job. The limiting factor for me isn't my available time in the day, but my brain. I appreciate the sentiment, though! One of my favorite comments, which I received on Cockatiel x Chameleon, went something like "You should be on humanity's payroll."

2. My prose sucked too. When I was a teen, I would write stories and my classmates would laugh at how badly written they were. In college, I couldn't even get my friends or family to read my stories. (I once described one of my stories to my grandmother and she said, "Well that doesn't sound any good at all.") At age 18, I decided to start reading classic literature. Only classic literature, at a rate of 50 pages a day, every day. I read all kinds, from all sorts of time periods and countries. I read everything from Homer to David Foster Wallace. And while I read, I wrote. I wrote badly. In college I wrote novels that pretty shamelessly imitated the prose styles of Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy. By the time I started writing Fargo (which is a story where I think my prose was still improving), I had written nine complete novels and had read somewhere between 200 and 300 works of classic literature. I didn't have any formal training, at least in terms of writing fiction. I was an English/Geography dual major, and from my English classes I learned how to close read a text, and in general I learned how to write an academic essay. In my final year of college I took an MFA-styled creative writing workshop, but by then I was pretty much beyond what it could teach me and I don't feel like I learned much of anything from it.

Other than reading and writing, I started editing. One of my later pre-Bavitz novels I finished, then went back and edited assiduously. I took a 100,000 word rough draft and over 14 editing passes pared it down to 70,000 words. That was massive for improving my prose, as it forced me to engage with my story on a word-by-word level. Every single word fell under my scrutiny and thus I had to grapple with how valuable, how good that word was. What I learned from that experience was massive for improving my prose going forward.

I think it's entirely possible for someone to improve their prose just through the basics of reading, writing, and editing. Julirites, the author of Fargo fanfic London, has massively improved her prose over the course of the story. It didn't even take her nine failed novels to do it, either. Be willing to experiment. Be willing to fail. Don't be afraid of someone laughing at you for writing purple prose. Imitate authors you like, that's the first step toward developing your own unique style.

#writing #bavitz

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casual-video-transcripts · 1 year ago

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youtube

“INTERVIEW - Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam & Garrett Hedlund” by SensCritique

Transcript by @ casual-video-transcripts is under the cut

[0:00] Charlie Hannam: Kamikaze!

[0:01] (Ben Affleck laughing and Charlie Hunnam chuckling followed by a clap from Ben)

[0:02] Oscar Isaac: Woof woof!

(Garrett Hedlund giggling)

[0:03] Oscar: Are we trained animals?

[0:05] (Translating On-Screen Text to English: Triple Frontier)

[0:06] (On-Screen Text: Ben Affleck)

[0:07] (On-Screen Text: Charlie Hunnam)

[0:08] (On-Screen Text: Oscar Isaac)

[0:09] (On-Screen Text: Garrett Hedlund)

[0:10] Charlie: Hello SensCritique!

[0:11] Garrett and Oscar: Hello SensCritique!

[0:13] Ben: Bonjour SensCritique.

[0:14] That's French.

[0:15] Charlie: There you go! Wha-cha-cha!

[0:18] (Translating On-Screen Text to English: CAN YOU SUMMARIZE THE FILM?)

[0:20] (Translating On-Screen Text to English: IN ONE SENTENCE)

[0:22] Oscar: See, the thing is one sentence can be veeeeery long...

[0:24] Garrett: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[0:25] Oscar: So you can put commas!

[0:26] Garrett: Just commas.

[0:27] Ben: A group of ex-Special Forces soldiers...

[0:30] Oscar: come together to... carry out a heist in South America against a narcos traficante.

[0:39] Ben: Turns out, it wasn't that hard.

Charlie: Right?

[0:40] (Ben and Charlie laugh)

[0:41] (Translating On-Screen Text to English: HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED WITH THE PROJECT?)

[0:45] Ben: It was a combination of genres: it was strong, compelling, pure action heist story, but so was also a morality tale, and sort of-kinda a parable about military intervention.

[0:57] Charlie: Between the cast and the script, and me being excited for J.C. as a filmmaker, it was a no brainer for me. He was looking at a friend of mine, Garrett Hedlund.

[1:04] Garrett: And he had no idea about that, and got really excited about that. And then I got excited about that. And then Oscar called and said -

[1:10] Oscar: Got excited too.

[1:11] (Garrett laughs)

[1:12] Garrett: And he got excited too!

[1:13] Oscar: And then you guys said that -

[1:15] Garrett: And then I got excited because he was excited and you know -

[1:19] (Translating On-Screen Text to English: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FILM?)

[1:21] (Translating On-Screen Text to English: WITH YOUR CO-STAR/NEIGHBOR)

[1:22] Garrett and Oscar: Inside Llewyn Davis!

[1:23] (Translating On-Screen Text to English: (they both play/star in it))

[1:24] (Garrett and Oscar are in a giggling fit)

[1:27] Charlie: I like The Town a lot, there was Argo, Gone Baby Gone. You know...

[1:31] Ben: There we go.

[1:32] Charlie: Really really really...

[1:33] Ben: Oh wow.

Charlie: Spectacular stuff!

[1:34] Oscar: He's an iconic guy.

[1:36] Garrett: And he's says that! He's got that! He's Llewyn!

[1:38] Oscar: Yeah, yeah.

[1:39] Garrett: And that's iconic.

[1:40] Ben: And I like Charlie as a person.

[1:42] Charlie: Yeah (and then laughs)

[1:43] Ben: So... Hard to pick a favorite!

[1:45] (Charlie laughs and then Ben laughs after)

[1:47] Charlie: I'm not gonna help ya. Come on!

[1:49] (Ben leans towards the camera and continues laughing)

[1:50] Charlie: We're all waiting!

[1:52] Ben: I would say...

[1:54] (Take a shot of water every time Ben and Charlie laugh LOL)

[1:55] Ben: Did I tell you I watched The [Lost] City of Z.

[1:57] Charlie: Oh no you didn't!

[1:58] Ben: Yes, it was quite good! After I haven't seen it initially, and then when I got to know him - I've seen Sons of Anarchy, it's great. That's the thing everybody knows! And I've seen the King Arthur movie too! He's a first class actor.

[2:09] (Translating On-Screen Text to English: WHAT IS YOUR NEXT PROJECT?)

[2:11] (Translating On-Screen Text to English: WE WANT THE EXCLUSIVE)

[2:12] Ben: Wow, that's a tall order.

[2:13] Charlie: (chuckles) Yes, it is!

[2:15[ (Ben chuckles)

Charlie: You don't ask for much, do ya?

[2:16] Garrett: Ed Harris did the adaptation of a book called The Ploughman with myself and Robert Duvall. It's a two-hander, like a 70s deputy outlaw kind of thing.

[2:26] Charlie: I just did a thing - a movie with Justin Kurzel. The next thing that comes out is a film about Ned Kelly. This is the first time on camera that I'm talking about it, and that's all you get.

[2:37] Ben: I did a movie, it doesn't have a title, but with the Gavin O'Connor who is the director, he's the director of The Accountant. Yeah, that'll be out late summer, early fall time.

[2:45] Oscar: I'm also doing a small sort of sci-fi movie. It's called Star Wars Episode 9.

[2:51] Garrett: It's kinda - It's a smaller budget kinda thing.

[2:53] Oscar: Yeah.

[2:54] Garrett: It's very hard in cinema: you know, if it's not a very big budget thing, you know it's a small budget thing. The... the... Space Wars.

[3:02] Oscar: Space Fights?

[3:03] Garrett: Space Fights.

[3:04] Oscar: (chuckles) Yeah.

End of Transcript

YouTube Channel: SensCritique

Video Description:

Le plus beau cast de toutes les interviews SensCritique. Pour la sortie de "Triple Frontière", le nouveau film de J.C Chandor, aujourd'hui sur Netflix, nous avons eu la chance de rencontrer Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam et Garrett Hedlund !

La fiche SensCritique du film : http://bit.ly/2HwvcEG

Disclaimer: None of the videos I transcribe belong to me. They belong to the content creators and the crew behind the videos. Please keep in mind that my transcripts may not be 100% as I am not a professional. I'm just someone who wants to provide video transcripts for people like me to understand and enjoy these videos.

For this video, I focused on the speakers while translating some of the on-screen text from French to English. I used the French captions in the video as a guide for the timestamps. I did also use Google translate for some of the French captions, so I apologize if some are incorrect. For the rest of the transcript I just followed whatever came out of the guys' mouths.

If there are any corrections you would like me to make, let me know in the comment section of the post.

If you like this video or any other videos from SensCritique, please support them by watching their videos on their YouTube channel and/or through other means by them. Also, if you want to support the film, it's on Netflix and apparently the sequel is in the works with Charlie as a main producer. Also, if you'd like, check out the filmography of the cast like Charlie Hunnam, Ben Affleck, Garrett Hedlund, Oscar Isaac, and Pedro Pascal (who's not in this interview but is in Triple Frontier interviews).

Personal Notes: So I got distracted while editing the mera video transcript and found myself back into the Triple Frontier fandom. I haven't been here since 2019 so it's been a hot minute. I transcribed this video because there is a section in the middle that is so funny to me that I almost had to hold my breath transcribing it. Rewatching these interviews really shows the golden retriever personality of Garrett that I didn't fully notice until like a few month ago when I got distracted back into the Triple Frontier and Garrett fandom. The video is funny because it literally cuts Garrett off because he got excited that Charlie was excited and Oscar was excited and -

Anyways, I don't know when I'll finish the mera video I have been working on. I think it's been maybe half a year. When I finally finish it, I'll probably schedule a series of reblogged posts that'll hint to it. In the meantime, I think I did transcribe a Triple Frontier-related video that has Pedro in it so keep an eye on that among other videos.

That's all for now. I'll catch you all in the next post. See ya!

#Youtube #triple frontier #ben affleck #oscar isaac #charlie hunnam #garrett hedlund #casual video transcripts #tom davis #santiago garcia #william miller #benjamin miller #tom redfly davis #santiago pope garcia #william ironhead miller #benny miller #ben miller

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dickinson-devotee · 3 months ago

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IRON MAIDEN ANNOUNCE 'RUN FOR YOUR LIVES' WORLD TOUR 2025/26!

The Run For Your Lives World Tour will kick off on May 27th next year in Budapest followed by 27 stadium, festival & arena shows around Europe. The tour marks 50 years since Steve Harris formed the band in late 1975 and to celebrate this Maiden fans are promised a very special set list, spanning the nine studio albums from ‘Iron Maiden’ to ‘Fear Of The Dark’, with their most spectacular and elaborate show ever!

MAY 2025

27 Budapest, HUNGARY - Budapest Aréna *

31 Prague, CZECH REPUBLIC - Letnany Airport *

JUNE 2025

01 Bratislava, SLOVAKIA - TIPOS Arena *

05 Trondheim, NORWAY - Trondheim Rocks (Festival)

07 Stavanger, NORWAY - SR-Bank Arena *

09 Copenhagen, DENMARK - Royal Arena *

12 Stockholm, SWEDEN - 3Arena *

13 Stockholm, SWEDEN - 3Arena *

16 Helsinki, FINLAND - Olympic Stadium *

21 Birmingham, ENGLAND - Utilita Arena ^

22 Manchester, ENGLAND - Co-op Live ^

25 Dublin, IRELAND - Malahide Castle *^

28 London, ENGLAND - London Stadium *^

30 Glasgow, SCOTLAND - OVO Hydro ^

JULY 2025

03 Belfort, FRANCE - Eurockéennes Festival

05 Madrid, SPAIN - Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano **

06 Lisbon, PORTUGAL - MEO Arena **

09 Zurich, SWITZERLAND - Hallenstadion **

11 Gelsenkirchen, GERMANY - Veltins-Arena **

13 Padova, ITALY - Stadio Euganeo **

15 Bremen, GERMANY - Bürgerweide **

17 Vienna, AUSTRIA - Ernst Happel Stadium **

19 Paris, FRANCE - Paris La Défense Arena **

23 Arnhem, NETHERLANDS - GelreDome **

25 Frankfurt, GERMANY - Deutsche Bank Park **

26 Stuttgart, GERMANY - Cannstatter Wasen **

29 Berlin, GERMANY - Waldbühne **

AUGUST 2025

02 Warsaw - POLAND - PGE Narodowy **

Special Guests for the first half of the tour, including the London & Dublin outdoor shows (but not the UK arenas), will be American rockers Halestorm. The second half of the tour sees Sweden’s Avatar as guests. And, finally, British metal band, The Raven Age, will open all UK & Ireland shows.

*Halestorm | ^The Raven Age | **Avatar

Fan Club Presales begin Monday 23rd September – details here.

Tickets go on general sale next week – check the tour dates page for times and dates.

Says Bruce Dickinson, “Next year is a very special one for IRON MAIDEN and we’re going to be giving our fans a once-in-a-lifetime live experience. This is a tour that’s gonna put a smile on your face and a cheer in your throat. If you’ve seen us before, then get ready to take that experience to a whole new level. If you’ve never seen us before, then what the hell have you been waiting for? Now’s your chance to find out what you’ve been missing! IRON MAIDEN’s definitely gonna get ya!”

Manager Rod Smallwood adds, “50 years of Maiden and I have seen 46 of them! With well over 100 million albums sold and almost 2500 shows in 64 countries and counting, to countless millions of fans, we are all still loving every second and consider every tour a new challenge to bring something different and exciting to our fans. And for this very special one we’re pulling out all the stops!

"We will cover classics and fan favourites from the first nine albums, from IRON MAIDEN to FEAR OF THE DARK, many of which we haven’t played in years and many we will likely never play again in the future. We have already been hard at work for months putting together an even more spectacular and elaborate new show which will bring the songs to life more than we have ever been able to do before. This is going to be a huge couple of years for IRON MAIDEN, and Eddie of course, and we are very excited about what we have up our sleeves for you fans throughout the whole of our 50th year. I promise you are all going to be very happy indeed!”

On Saturday June 28th the band will perform at the London Stadium, home of West Ham Football Club – the team that band founder Steve Harris has supported throughout his life, and with whom IRON MAIDEN have a long and storied history.

This concert in front of over 60,000 fans, will be the first time that IRON MAIDEN have performed on the club’s hallowed turf. A true homecoming show – with Steve Harris, Dave Murray, Adrian Smith & Nicko McBrain all born in the surrounding area – it will also be the biggest UK venue the band have ever headlined outside of their festival appearances.

Steve Harris says, “My love of football and my support of West Ham is no secret, and I know many of our fans around the world have shared that with me too. So we’re all very excited to be playing at the London Stadium as part of the RUN FOR YOUR LIVES tour. We can’t wait to see you all there!”

#iron maiden #bruce dickinson #steve harris #dave murray #adrian smith #nicko mcbrain #janick gers #run for your lives world tour #cries in American 😭

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mybeingthere · 11 months ago

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Described as a ‘Virtuoso of the potter’s wheel’ by Peter Timms, Art Critic for the Melbourne Age John Stroomer is a master potter who is internationally recognized for his work with Crystalline Glazes. His forms are classical, balanced, simple, full bodied and reflect his mastery of both the potter’s wheel and crystalline process.

“I have been making for almost 50 years, employing 23 potters during the 80s/90s supplying wheel thrown domestic stoneware to major retailers, direct selling companies and homeware stores Australia-wide.

The recession of 1981, a devastating factory fire in 1988 followed by the 1990 recession and subsequent fluctuating market forces eventually led to a change in personal philosophy/direction. They were all pivotal in leading me to where and who I am today.

The exacting nature, temperature control, balance and understanding of materials and glaze technologies demanded by the Crystaline process reflect John’s mastery of his craft over many years. Each pot is fired at over 1,300 Degrees Celsius for at least 18 hours. Once peak temperature has been reached, the kiln is rapidly cooled to pre-determined temperatures, at which point the crystals begin to be formed. As crystal formation requires slow cooling, the temperature is held and slowly reduced/managed with a crystal growth period of an additional six hours.

Crystals can take on a myriad of shapes and are three dimensional in nature. In direct sunlight or strong light, spectacular effects can be created by the refraction of light bouncing off the crystals, giving each pot a true three dimensional appearance.

Metallic oxides and combinations of various materials are used to produce a wide range of colours, ranging from dark browns, to cobalt blues and coral greens, amongst many others.

The end result are a range of pots that are exquisite.

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mostlysignssomeportents · 2 years ago

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Kate Beaton's "Ducks"

It’s been more than a decade since I began thrilling to Kate Beaton’s spectacular, hilarious snark-history webcomic “Hark! A Vagrant,” pioneering work that mixed deceptively simple lines, superb facial expressions, and devastating historical humor:

https://memex.craphound.com/2012/03/23/hark-a-vagrant-the-book/

Beaton developed Hark! into a more explicit political allegory, managing the near-impossible trick of being trenchant and topical while still being explosively funny. Her second Hark! collection, Step Aside, Pops, remains essential reading, if only for her brilliant “straw feminists”:

https://memex.craphound.com/2015/09/15/step-aside-pops-a-new-hark-a-vagrant-collection-that-delights-and-dazzles/

Beaton is nothing if not versatile. In 2015, she published The Princess and the Pony, a picture book that I read to my own daughter — and which inspired me to write my own first picture book, Poesy the Monster-Slayer:

https://memex.craphound.com/2015/08/07/the-princess-and-the-pony-from-kate-hark-a-vagrant-beaton/

Beaton, then, has a long history of crossing genres in her graphic novels, so the fact that she published a memoir in graphic novel form is no surprise. But that memoir, Ducks: Two Years In the Oil Sands, still marks a departure for her, trading explosive laughs for subtle, keen observations about labor, climate and gender:

https://drawnandquarterly.com/books/ducks/

In 2005, Beaton was a newly minted art-school grad facing a crushing load of student debt, a debt she would never be able to manage in the crumbling, post-boom economy of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Like so many Maritimers, she left the home that meant everything for her to travel to Alberta, where the tar sands oil boom promised unmatched riches for anyone willing to take them.

Beaton’s memoir describes the following four years, as she works her way into a series of oil industry jobs in isolated company towns where men outnumber women 50:1 and where whole communities marinate in a literally toxic brew of carcinogens, misogyny, economic desperation and environmental degradation.

The story that follows is — naturally — wrenching, but it is also subtle and ambivalent. Beaton finds camaraderie with — and empathy for — the people she works alongside, even amidst unimaginable, grinding workplace harassment that manifests in both obvious and glancing ways.

Early reviews of Ducks rightly praised it for this subtlety and ambivalence. This is a book that makes no easy characterizations, and while it has villains — a content warning, the book depicts multiple sexual assaults — it carefully apportions blame in the mix of individual failings and a brutal system.

This is as true for the environmental tale as it is for the labor story: the tar sands are the world’s filthiest oil, an energy source that is only viable when oil prices peak, because extracting and refining that oil is so energy-intensive. The slow, implacable, irreversible impact that burning Canadian oil has on our shared planet is diffuse and takes place over long timescales, making it hard to measure and attribute.

But the impact of the tar sands on the bodies and minds of the workers in the oil patch, on the First Nations whose land is stolen and despoiled in service to oil, and on the politics of Canada are far more immediate. Beaton paints all this in with the subtlest of brushstrokes, a thousand delicate cuts that leave the reader bleeding in sympathy by the time the tale is told.

Beaton’s memoir is a political and social triumph, a subtle knife that cuts at our carefully cultivated blind-spots about industry, labor, energy, gender, and the climate. But it’s also — and not incidentally — a narrative and artistic triumph.

In other words, Beaton’s not just telling an important story, she’s also telling a fantastically engrossing story — a page-turner, filled with human drama, delicious tension, likable and complex characters, all the elements of a first-rate tale.

Likewise, Beaton’s art is perfectly on point. Hark!’s secret weapon was always Beaton’s gift for drawing deceptively simple human faces whose facial expressions were indescribably, superbly perfect, conveying irreducible mixtures of emotion and sentiment. If anything, Ducks does this even better. I think you could remix this book so that it’s just a series of facial expressions and you’d still convey all the major emotional beats of the story.

Graphic memoirs have emerged as a potent and important genre in this century. And women have led that genre, starting with books like Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home (2006):

https://cbldf.org/banned-challenged-comics/case-study-fun-home/

But also the increasingly autobiographical work of Lynda Barry, culminating in her 2008 One! Hundred! Demons!:

https://drawnandquarterly.com/books/one-hundred-demons/

(which should really be read alongside her masterwork on creativity, 2019’s Making Comics):

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/11/05/lynda-barrys-making-comics-is-one-of-the-best-most-practical-books-ever-written-about-creativity/

In 2014, we got Cece Bell’s wonderful El Deafo:

https://memex.craphound.com/2014/11/25/el-deafo-moving-fresh-ya-comic-book-memoir-about-growing-up-deaf/

Which was part of the lineage that includes the work of Lucy Knisley, especially later volumes like 2020’s Stepping Stones:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/09/enhanced-rock-weathering/#knisley

Along with Jen Wang’s 2019 Stargazing:

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/09/25/stargazing-jen-wangs-semi-autobiographical-graphic-novel-for-young-readers-is-a-complex-tale-of-identity-talent-and-loyalty/

2019 was actually a bumper-crop year for stupendous graphic memoirs by women, rounded out by Ebony Flowers’s Hot Comb:

https://drawnandquarterly.com/books/hot-comb/

And don’t forget 2017’s dazzling My Favorite Thing is Monsters, by Emil Ferris:

https://memex.craphound.com/2017/06/20/my-favorite-thing-is-monsters-a-haunting-diary-of-a-young-girl-as-a-dazzling-graphic-novel/

This rapidly expanding, enthralling canon is one of the most exciting literary trends of this century, and Ducks stands with the best of it.

[Image ID: The cover of the Drawn & Quarterly edition of Kate Beaton's 'Ducks.']

#pluralistic #kate beaton #hark a vagrant #tar sands #oil sands #big oil #carbon #climate emergency #memoir #books #graphic novels #alberta #fort mac #fort macmurray #misogyny #boomtowns #gift guide #drawn and quarterly #reviews

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usafphantom2 · 1 year ago

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Of course the Sabre was the most important Cold War aircraft, here’s why

Hush KitSeptember 27, 2022

The Cold War took a brief rest between the early 1990s and the 2010s, but serious tension between the largest former Soviet nation and the West has now returned. At the forefront of the original Cold War was air power, and this fearful age sired a multitude of incredible and often long-lived warplanes. In the second of a series of articles written by pilots and subject experts, we consider the question of which Cold War military aircraft was the most important. Let us turn start to Peter E Davies case for the F-86 Sabre.

In 1954 the massive Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, later to host Red Flag and other spectacular USAF training activities and projects, was already an exciting place for new pilots. It hosted the F-86 Sabre, the world’s premier fighter at the time and one which became a seminal influence on most subsequent fighter designs. Sabre pilots had roundly defeated communist MiG-15s over North Korea, and many of those wartime pilots (including seventeen aces) were now instructors at Nellis. For new trainees the chance to join that exclusive fraternity was compelling. The Sabre’s reputation as the West’s first true jet dogfighter was well established. Before technology took over the combat cockpit it was also the last fighter in the tradition of the Spitfire and Mustang in which the pilot had full manual control. During the Cold War the Sabre and its pilots kept alive the dogfighting tradition at a time when caution and cost-cutting in training programs actually prevented many trainee pilots from indulging in realistic air combat manoeuvres. That continuity paved the route for a later generation of versatile air-fighters including the F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon. Conventional late-1950s wisdom advocated aerial combat with large aircraft firing missiles from long distances.

The Sabre’s outstanding combat record was founded in its design’s many technical advances at a time when most designers were still simply adding jet engines to WW II-style airframes. In 1943 North American Aviation (NAA), decided to avoid direct competition with Lockheed’s straight-winged F-80 Shooting Star, the USAF’s first successful jet fighter. The company initiated a new German-inspired wing in 1945, swept at 35 degrees. It was a bold step as the few previous swept-wing designs had exhibited instability problems. Large, automatic wing slats and hydraulically boosted ailerons were the innovative NAA solution, giving superb transonic handling. A unique blown plastic cockpit canopy gave all-round vision unequalled in fighters until the advent of the F-15 Eagle. NAA developed manufacturing techniques for a thin wing with machined-plate, double layer skins. The F-86E version introduced the now-universal powered, ‘all-flying’ tailplane.

Sabres retained gun armament, either the standard six .50 calibre machine gun fit or (in later Sabres) 20mm cannon. Guns disappeared from many other Cold War fighters in favour of missiles, but the Vietnam war showed that to be a mistake. However, the Sabre also pioneered the use of air-to-air missiles in the radar-equipped, all weather, rocket firing F-86D version (added in 1949). It included an early afterburner and a complex Hughes E-4 fire-control system. It became the most prolific Sabre variant with over 2,500 manufactured, pioneering radar-based interception in many air forces of the Cold War era.

Early jet engines of the time were often unreliable, but NAA designers chose the best available option, the Allison J35 in the F-86 prototype which first flew on October 1, 1947 and achieved supersonic flight in a shallow dive the following year as the first service-capable fighter to achieve that speed safely. The engine was replaced by the General Electric J47, also selected for the B-47 Stratojet bomber. It became an outstanding powerplant in Korean combat and effectively proved that jet fighters could be as effective and reliable as their prop-driven predecessors – and a lot faster. Cold War fighter designers throughout the world benefited from that bonus.

When the Korean War began in June, 1950 the small Allied air forces in South Korea relied on WW II propeller-driven aircraft and early, straight-winged F-80 and F-84 jets. None matched the Soviet MiG-15, a broadly similar swept-wing jet to the Sabre. F-86As were urgently deployed to counter this unanticipated threat. Despite the MiG-15’s altitude advantage and its pilots’ proximity to their home bases the outnumbered, but better-trained Sabre pilots soon regained air superiority. It was a scenario to be repeated in many respects in Vietnam over a decade later.

The Sabre’s success and influence are demonstrated by its unusually widespread use. Overall production ran to almost 9,000 aircraft, with licence production in Canada, Japan, Italy and Australia. No fewer than 35 air forces used Sabres, making it the most numerous Western Cold War jet fighter and giving many of those users entry to the jet age. It equipped many NATO nations, including Great Britain, to face the growing Soviet threat following the Berlin crisis in 1949. Some continued in service, and occasional combat until the mid-1980s.The US Navy’s used F-86 derivatives, culminating in the very capable, long-range FJ-4B fighter-bomber. They equipped 22 USN and USMC squadrons up to 1962. In US Navy training sessions a well-flown F-86 regularly beat F-4 Phantom and F-8 Crusader pilots in dogfighting practices.

An F-86 pilot allegedly achieved supersonic flight shortly before Chuck Yeager’s official sound barrier-smashing flight in 1947, but it was the success rate of twelve-to-one against MiG-15s (later to be scaled down to a still creditable 4:1) that lent the Sabre an almost legendary status and reminded future fighter designers that manoeuvrability, ease of operation and gunfighting capability were still relevant in the supersonic era. While some might champion aircraft like the Hawker Hunter, F-4 Phantom or MiG-21 as the most influential Cold War fighters there is no doubt that the F-86’s wide range of ground-breaking achievements in design and worldwide service easily give it that accolade.

Peter E Davies. September 2022, Peter Davies is based in Bristol and has written or co-written 16 books on modern American combat aircraft, including four previous Osprey titles and the standard reference work on US Navy and Marine Corps Phantom II operations, Gray Ghosts.

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msclaritea · 9 months ago

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Box Office: ‘Civil War’ Starts Off With Impressive $2.9M in Thursday Previews

Alex Garland's controversial movie about the political divide in America easily scored the best preview number ever for A24.

BY PAMELA MCCLINTOCK

APRIL 12, 2024 9:18A

Alex Garland‘s dystopian action movie Civil War has started off its North American box office run with an impressive $2.9 million, a record for indie studio and distributor A24.

The $50 million movie about a divided America is a big swing for A24 as it tries to produce bigger movies, and is its most expensive production to date.

Civil War is tracking to open north of $20 million, although one leading tracking service has a slightly lower range of $19 million to $20 million. As with the preview number, that would be record for A24, beating the $13.6 million opening of A24’s horror pic Hereditary in 2018.

A24 and writer-director Garland held the movie’s world premiere last month at the South by Southwest Film and TV Festival, an ideal venue since many of the attendees are younger adults, the film’s target demo.

Set in the near-future, the story follows a wartime photojournalist (Kirsten Dunst) and her colleagues as they make their way across a hostile and divided United States of America that has been torn apart under the authoritarian rule of a three-term president (Nick Offerman). Yet the film shys away from red state/blue state divisions, and the politics behind the conflict are generally left unexplained, other than to say that one of the president’s first first actions was to disband the FBI in an apparent nod to former President Donald Trump, who has called to “defund” the Bureau.

Civil War‘s timing surely isn’t a coincidence as it hits cinemas amid a contentious election year in which President Biden and former President Trump are once again the leading candidates for their respective parties as Trump seeks to return to the White House

At a SXSW panel following the film’s premiere, Garland said it made sense to release Civil War now, although it’s not as if there is anything new about the contentious political discourse gripping the country.

“I think all of the topics in in [Civil War] have been a part of a huge public debate for years and years. These debates have been growing and growing in volume and awareness, but none of that is secret or unknown to almost anybody,” Garland said. “I thought that everybody understands these terms and, at that point, I just felt compelled to write about it.”

Cailee Spaeny, Jesse Plemons and Wagner Moura also star.

2012–2013: Founding and early years

A24 was founded on August 20, 2012, by film veterans Daniel Katz, David Fenkel, and John Hodges. Katz formerly led the film finance group at Guggenheim Partners, Fenkel was the president, co-founder and partner at Oscilloscope, and Hodges served as "Head of Production and Development" at Big Beach. The name "A24" was inspired by the Italian A24 motorway Katz was driving on when he decided to found the company.

Guggenheim Partners provided the seed money for A24. The company was started to share "movies from a distinctive point of view". In October 2012, Nicolette Aizenberg joined as head of publicity from 42West where she was senior publicity executive.

The company began its distribution of films in 2013. The company's first theatrical release was Roman Coppola's A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, which had a limited theatrical release. Other 2013 theatrical releases included Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring, Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers, James Ponsoldt's The Spectacular Now, and Sally Potter's Ginger & Rosa.

In September 2013, A24 entered a $40 million deal with DirecTV Cinema, where DirecTV Cinema would offer day-and-date releases 30 days prior to a theatrical release by A24; Enemy was the first film to be distributed under the deal. That same year, A24 entered a deal with Amazon Prime, where A24-distributed films would be available on Amazon Instant Video after becoming available on Blu-ray and DVD.

2014–2017: Television and later productions

In May 2015, A24 announced that it would start a television division and began producing the USA Network series Playing House, as well as working to develop a television series that would later become Comrade Detective, produced by Channing Tatum. The company also announced that they would also finance and develop pilots.

In January 2016, Sasha Lloyd joined the company to handle all film, television distribution and business development in the international marketplace. The company, with cooperation from Bank of America, J.P. Morgan & Co. and SunTrust Banks, also raised its line of credit from $50 million to $125 million a month later to build upon its operations. In April, the company acquired all foreign rights to Swiss Army Man, distributing the film in all territories, and partnering with distributors who previously acquired rights to the film, a first for the company. In June, the company, along with Oscilloscope and distributor Honora, joined BitTorrent Now to distribute the work of their portfolio across the ad-supported service.

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Not much time is shown in this universe. All the audience knows is that Evelyn works at a pizza shop. She is shown wearing a ridiculous costume and waving around a sign.

"A24 and writer-director Garland held the movie’s world premiere last month at the South by Southwest Film and TV Festival, an ideal venue since many of the attendees are younger adults, the film’s target demo..."

Penske Media Corporation (PMC /ˈpɛnski/) is an American mass media, publishing, and information services company based in Los Angeles and New York City. It publishes more than 20 digital and print brands, including Variety, Rolling Stone, Women's Wear Daily, Deadline Hollywood, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Boy Genius Report, Robb Report, Artforum, ARTNews, and others. PMC's Chairman and CEO since founding is Jay Penske.

President Trump awards Medal of Freedom to Roger Penske | Fox News Video

In addition to media publications, Penske Media Corporation owns the Life Is Beautiful Music & Art Festival and is a 50 percent stakeholder in South by Southwest. It is also the owner of Dick Clark Productions which includes the award shows Golden Globe Awards, American Music Awards, Streamy Awards, Academy of Country Music Awards, and the Billboard Music Awards.

Jay Penske--NACSCAR Heir ARRESTED...and It's A Pisser

@aeltri I'm a bit fuzzy on the details. What was that you told us, recently, about Pizza and Hotdogs?

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yuespropagandablog · 1 month ago

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Hello esteemed mutual. If you are reading this, then that means my propaganda is working. But you might still have questions, so I am here to answer them. This one is a bit different from others, since it's about a genre and I will just give some recommendations without getting too deep into it. If you want more information, tell me and, well, then expect another Captain America meme.

What is a farming sim?

As the name suggests, it's a simulation game where you farm. Yes, that's it. It sounds like nothing, which is exactly why people were sceptical when Harvest Moon first came out, *Holster voice* but it's all about the gratifications, bro. The gratifications.

It's a satisfying gameplay loop where you make your little farm thrive. Common elements of farmings sims are farming (wow!), loving animals, caring for the land, getting to know citizens of a little town, fishing, gathering materials through foraging or mining, attending festivals in town, and marrying someone to have kids with.

The idea is that you can basically do what you want. Many farming sims have quests/a questline, and some function as tutorials, whereas others truly try to tell a cohesive story. It's all about taking the time. You can try to be the most profitable farmer as possible, or you can just vibe. I also like that many of these games have a lot of hours of gameplay, so you can really go into it, and it often makes the price more appealing (although the latter still depends on the price, cause some farming sims are €5, others €50).

What are your favourite farming sims?

Stardew Valley

This one is often seen as a God tier standard farming sim, following the footsteps of (and dethroning) Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons. I have an entire propaganda post about it here. You are not immune to Stardew Valley propaganda.

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Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town

Yet another classic "you move to Olive Town to become a farmer, carrying on your grandpa's legacy" game. For some reason, people actually seem to dislike Olive Town, as in, I have heard people say it misses something. And it's true that this doesn't have the most memorable story (after all, I can't remember it while writing this!), I liked it a lot. It was a satisfying gameplay loop. This installment of the series also put more focus on the processing of (artisan) goods, which might not be everyone's vibe, but I vibed with it.

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Fae Farm

The big selling point of Fae Farm is the magic. There are fairies here with fairy crops, potions, wings and what not. The story isn't groundbreaking, but the thing I love the most about this game is the gameplay itself. It's very polished and it has some quality of life features that I honestly wish more games would implement. The decorating and customisation in this game also works really, really well and also, the game looks stunning.

The social aspect of this game is, unfortunately, the absolute worst I have ever seen in a farming game. It's honestly remarkable how they managed to get so many things right, and yet fuck this up in such a spectacular way. But in some way, the fact that the characters were as uninteresting as a wet newspaper gave me more time to do other things, since I didn't see the need to socialise. Also, don't buy the DLC, it isn't worth it.

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Ooblets

Ooblets is a combination of a farming sim and a critter collection game. You farm crops and forage for stuff in order to catch Ooblets. But Ooblets are also grown on your farm, so yay, more farming! There's also a story in the background, but again, the point is that you need to grow your farm and unlock stuff in order to get more and more Ooblets. This game doesn't really have a livestock element (unless you count the Ooblets), and the social aspect is just dece. It also has no combat and mining, which is something people prefer. Instead of fighting, you have dance battles!

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Eastward: Octopia!

This one is a difficult one to recommend, even though I loved it, because it's a DLC! The base game Eastward is not a farming sim! Eastward is an RPG where John and Sam have to uncover the secrets of the world and fight baddies and explore dungeons, yada, yada, you get the drill. Eastward: Octopia! is a completely separate mode that can be accessed from the game's menu, and yeah, it's a farming sim. It takes place in a parallel universe where John and Sam start a new life as farmers in Octopia, and together with other Eastward NPCs, they decided to rebuild the town.

It's honestly good DLC, especially since it's only €5 or something. In fact, I spent more hours in Octopia than in the base game, and the DLC is way more up my alley. But you NEED to have bought the base game, obviously, which raises the price, and even though it takes place in a parallel universe, a lot of joy comes from seeing the Eastward characters in this new setting. And somewhere mid-game, it does actually connect to the story of the base game. But gameplay wise, it is a solid farming sim for €5, even though in late-game it turns into a sleeping simulator. But it's still nice, it's simple, and I never had a farming sim stop me in the evening to have dinner with my kid.

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Are there also games that aren't technically farming sims but have similar elements AND allow you to grow crops at one point?

Yes, and if you like farming sims, you'll probably like these too. Behold, games that aren't technically farming sims but have similar elements AND allow you to grow crops at one point:

Potion Permit

Instead of a farmer, you're an chemist moving to a quaint town called Moonbury. It's up to you to cure illnesses, using handcrafted potions. The townsfolk don't trust you, though, after an incident with the previous chemist. This game focuses more on the foraging: you got to gather ingedients for your potions. This did lead to a lot of grinding and during the foraging, you will encounter overworld enemies. But there's still some planting, and other elements like the social aspect, the fishing and working your way up are part of this game.

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My Time at Portia

I mistakenly thought this was a farming sim when I bought it, but in my defense, look at the trailer: they're leaning hard on the farming, whereas that is a small part of the game. You're not a farmer, you're a builder! You inherit your pa's old workplace in Portia and decide to move there. It has all the traits from a farming sim, except for the fact that you build stuff instead of farm. And honestly, it's really satisfying, because the stuff you built for quests has a direct impact on the environment.

Oh yeah, quests. Probably the biggest difference between this and traditional farming sims (apart from the building) is that this game has a LONG, LONG cohesive storyline. As in, 100+ hours of story long. It beat Persona 3 and 4 in hours. And that story also puts focus on combat. The Portia world has overworld enemies and hazardous dungeons that you need to clear. That might disqualify it from being "cosy" but damnit, I loved this game.

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My Time at Sandrock

The sequel to My Time at Sandrock. Honestly, everything that I've said about Portia applies here as well. Sandrock is newer, so it looks better, is more polished and has better quality of life elements. You don't need to have played Portia to play Sandrock, so if you only want to play one, I recommend Sandrock, but the Sandrock storyline runs parallel to Portia's, so it's fun as a Portia-fan to see it unravel as an addition to Portia's story.

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And do Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Cozy Grove and Spiritfarer count? I don't think so. The basics of these games are still so different from this genre, but hey, a lot of people who like farming sims also like these.

What are farming sims you would like to play?

Oh, multiple. There are a lot of them coming out and there have been a lot of new ones. Honestly, there is almost a farming sim fatigue, but there are great ideas on the market: prehistoric farming sims, vampiric farming sims, farming sims with witches or other magic, farming sims with dinosaurs, farming sims that take place underwater and have merfolk, farming sims in the sky, farming sims that focus more on building up the town... etc.

... Are there farming sims you didn't like?

Yea, lol. Sprout Valley, Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life and Harvest Moon. Sprout Valley was too repetitive and grindy, which is saying something, since the genre is supposed to have a repetitive loop and you need to grind, but this was just... bad. SoS: AWL is a nostalgia bait and I never played the original one, so I have been stuck on it for over a year, because this game bored me to no end. Same goes for Harvest Moon, which, yea, respect your elders and all that, but man, it is indeed old and I noticed.

Cattails is a game that isn't technically a farming sim but it has similar elements AND it allows you to grow crops at one point. It was just fine. Nothing to write home about, so I also think you can skip it.

Are there German characters in any of these games?

The better question is if Germany even exists in those games.

#so you're interested in #mod #Youtube

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