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writemarcus · 3 years ago

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Gingold Theatrical Group to Present SPEAKERS' CORNER New Play Development Workshops

Featuring: Karma Sutra Chai Tea Latte, Vigil-Aunties, There Goes The Neighborhood, and Howl From Up High.

by Chloe Rabinowitz May. 18, 2022

Gingold Theatrical Group, now in its 17th Season, is continuing its new play development with the Plays-In-Progress AEA-approved Showcases of this year's SPEAKER'S CORNER Writers Group. This season, writers Aeneas Sagar Hemphill, Divya Mangwani, Marcus Scott and Mallory Jane Weiss are developing works in response to prompts from the revolutionary activist humanitarian writings and precepts of George Bernard Shaw. These Actors Equity Association approved 29-hour workshops culminate with a presentation as an opportunity for each playwright to assess where they are with their work and to determine the next steps to be taken. These invitation-only presentations will take place at ART-NY Studios (520 8th Avenue). Space for each final presentation is extremely limited and reservations must be made, so to request the opportunity to attend any of these events please email [email protected] This year's showcases will be:

Howl From Up High

by Mallory Jane Weiss, Directed by Lily Riopelle Thursday May 19th at 6pm Purva Bedi, Tori Ernst, Jacqueline Guillen, Sarah Rose Kearns, Adam Langdon, Collin McConnell; Assistant Director, Margaret Lee

Vigil-Aunties

by Divya Mangwani, Directed by Arpita Mukherjee Friday May 20th at 7pm Anya Banerji, Aadya Bedi, Sayali Niranjan Bramhe, Rahoul Roy, Mahima Saigal, Salma Shaw, and Rita Wolf; Assistant Director, Sara Vishnev

There Goes The Neighborhood

by Marcus Scott, Directed by Dev Bondarin Friday June 3rd at 7pm Phillip Burke, Shavanna Calder, Anthony Goss, Ashley Jossell, Olivia Kinter, Monique Robinson, David Rowen, Cliff Sellers; Stage Manager Elliot J. Cohen.

Karma Sutra Chai Tea Latte

by Aeneas Hemphill, Directed by Arpita Mukherjee, Monday June 6th at 2pm Shawn, Jain, Sean Devare, Salma Shaw, Khyati Sehgal, Mahima Saigal; Stage Manager Elliot J. Cohen

"Among the many programs we've developed over the last 17 years, developing new plays with the intent to produce and publish, has always been the most ambitious dream of all of us at Gingold. While we continue to produce our annual full off-Broadway productions of plays by George Bernard Shaw, we plan to add at least one new play to our schedule to share with our devoted patrons," said David Staller. Named after the corner of London's Hyde Park where George Bernard Shaw and other political speakers have delivered speeches since 1855, GTG's SPEAKERS' CORNER brings together six to ten writers each year who will spend the year exploring a specific Shaw play and writing individual new plays in response to that text and Shaw's forward thinking humanitarian ideals. Speakers' Corner members meet bi-monthly, and GTG will host showings of the works that Speakers' Corner develops at the end of the season. The group's members were identified through an open application process under the guidance of Becker, GTG Artistic Director David Staller, and this season's Speakers' Corner Readers and Advisory Committee: Ilana Becker, Stephen Brown-Fried, Ralph B. Peña, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Sharon Washington, along with Speakers' Corne alumni Hank Kim, and Lorenzo Roberts.

WRITERS:

Aeneas Sagar Hemphill (he/him) is an Indian-American playwright and screenwriter based in NYC and DC. Weaving through many genres, his work builds new worlds to illuminate our own, investigating the ghosts that haunt our lives and communities with passion, pathos, and humor. He was a 2019 Resident Artist with Monson Arts Center and 2017-2018 Playlab fellow at Pipeline Theatre, as well as semi-finalist for the 2019 Princess Grace Award, semi-finalist for the 2019 Mabou Mines Resident Artist Program, and finalist for the 2017 Many Voices Fellowship. His plays include: Black Hollow (Argo Collective, Dreamscape Theatre), The Troll King (Pipeline), Childhood Songs (Monson Arts), The Republic of Janet & Arthur (Amios), The Red Balloon (Noor Theatre), A Stitch Here or There (DarkHorse Dramatists, Slingshot Theatre), A Horse and a Housecat (Slingshot Theatre). MFA Playwriting, Columbia University. Divya Mangwani is a writer and theatre artist from Pune, India, based in New York. She examines the absurdities of the social, political and mythical. Her work focuses on global identity and belonging. Divya was the founder and Artistic Director of Moonbeam Factory Theatre, where she wrote, directed, and produced plays in India, Singapore and Glasgow. In New York, she has developed work with UNICEF, Soho Rep, New York Theatre Workshop, Gingold Theatrical Group, Rattlestick Theatre, Mabou Mines, Hypokrit Theatre, The Flea, Project Y, Pipeline Theatre, Rising Sun, and Governors Island. Divya is a recent fellow of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab and the Gingold Theatrical Group Speakers Corner and was a NYTW 2050 Artistic Fellow, Hypokrit Theatre Tamasha playwright, Project Y Writers Group and Playlab fellow at Pipeline Theatre. Divya has also worked as a journalist and editor at The Times of India, ESPN, Crisis Response Journal, and Daily News & Analysis. Marcus Scott is a dramatist & journalist. Selected work includes Tumbleweed (finalist for the 2017 Bay Area Playwrights Festival; semifinalist for the 2022 Eugene O'Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference, the 2022 Blue Ink Playwriting Award & the 2017 New Dramatists Princess Grace Fellowship Award), Sibling Rivalries (finalist for the 2021 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference; semi-finalist for the 2022 Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival, the 2021 Blue Ink Playwriting Award & the 2021 New Dramatists Princess Grace Fellowship Award) and Cherry Bomb (recipient of the 2017 Drama League First Stage Artist-In-Residence). He was commissioned by Heartbeat Opera to adapt Beethoven's Fidelio (Librettist/Co-writer; The Met Museum; NY Times Critic's Pick). Recently developed at Gingold Theatrical Group (Speaker's Corner), Zoetic Stage (Finstrom Festival Of New Work), Queens Theatre (New American Voices series) and The Road Theatre Company's Under Construction 3 Playwrights Group and Cohort 2 of the Southern Black Playwrights Lab at the Mojoaa Performing Arts Company. Scott is a 2021 NYSAF Founders' Award finalist and a 2021 Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award semi-finalist. His articles appeared in Architectural Digest, Time Out New York, American Theatre Magazine, Playbill, Elle, Out, Essence, The Brooklyn Rail, among others. MFA: GMTWP, NYU Tisch. Mallory Jane Weiss's plays include Big Black Sunhats (The O'Neill National Playwrights Conference 2022; Clubbed Thumb Biennial Commission finalist 2020), Lights Out and Away We Go (Clubbed Thumb reading June 2022), The Page Turners (The O'Neill National Playwrights Conference finalist 2021), Pony Up (Princess Grace Finalist 2019; SPACE on Ryder Farm semi-finalist 2020), Howl From Up High (in development with Gingold Theatrical Group), Evermore Unrest (Red Bull Short New Play Festival 2020), Dave and Julia are stuck in a tree (Playing on Air's James Stevenson Prize 2020), and Losing You, Which Is Enough (workshop readings at The Lark and Cherry Lane Theatre). She is a member of Clubbed Thumb's Early Career Writers' Group (2021-2022), The COOP's Clusterf**k vol. 2 (2021), Gingold Theatrical Group's Speakers Corner, and Fresh Ground Pepper's BRB Retreat (2019). Mallory earned her B.A. from Harvard University and her M.F.A. in playwriting from The New School. She also works as a Senior Writer for Ethena, where she creates harassment-prevention training in the form of short-form articles, graphic novels, audio plays, and more. In addition to Speakers' Corner, GTG's on-going play development also includes PRESS CUTTINGS, which, in recognition of Shaw's career as a theatre critic, supports the development of new plays written by theatre journalists. Press Cuttings has commissioned new plays by Jeremy McCarter, Robert Simonson, and David Cote, and, in June of 2017, presented an AEA workshop of David Cote's Otherland directed by May Adrales. This fall, GTG returned to live, in person performance with the acclaimed revival of Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession starring Robert Cuccioli, David Lee Huynh, Alvin Keith, Nicole King, Raphael Nash Thompson, and Tony® Award winner Karen Ziemba as Mrs. Warren, which recently completed its acclaimed Off-Broadway engagement at Theatre Row, directed by David Staller. Terry Teachout, reviewing Mrs. Warren's Profession in The Wall Street Journal, declared "Mr. Staller, who knows everything there is to know about Shaw, has not only staged the play but edited the text with his accustomed skill. All the more reason, then, to praise David Staller, the artistic director of Project Shaw, a long-running series of semi-staged concert readings of the playwright's 60-odd shows. In addition to Project Shaw, Mr. Staller's Gingold Theatrical Group presented fully staged small-scale off-Broadway versions of Heartbreak House in 2018 and Caesar and Cleopatra in 2019, and now they're doing Mrs. Warren's Profession. The production is completely satisfying... Sprinkled with tart, school-of-Wilde epigrams ('There are no secrets better kept than the secrets everybody guesses') and overflowing with glittering talk, it's a foolproof vehicle for six accomplished actors and a director who, like Mr. Staller, knows better than to let the play become a static chat-fest. Instead, he keeps the actors moving and the pace brisk, and the results are immensely pleasurable." GINGOLD THEATRICAL GROUP creates theater that supports human rights, freedom of speech, and individual liberty using the work of George Bernard Shaw as our guide. All of GTG's programs are inspired by Shaw's humanitarian values. Through full productions, staged readings, new play development, and inner-city educational programs, GTG brings Shavian precepts to audiences and artists across New York, encouraging individuals to breathe Shaw's humanist ideals into their contributions for the future. Shaw created plays to inspire peaceful discussion and activism and that is what GTG aims to accomplish. GTG's past productions include Man and Superman (2012), You Never Can Tell (2013), Major Barbara (2014), Widowers' Houses (2016), Heartbreak House (2018), and Caesar & Cleopatra (2019). Founded in 2006 by David Staller, GTG has carved a permanent niche for the work of George Bernard Shaw within the social and cultural life of New York City, and, through the Project Shaw reading series, made history in 2009 as the first company ever to present performances of every one of Shaw's 65 plays (including full-length works, one-acts and sketches). GTG brings together performers, critics, students, academics and the general public with the opportunity to explore and perform theatrical work inspired by the humanitarian and activist values that Shaw championed. All comedies, these plays boldly exhibit the insight, wit, passion and all-encompassing socio-political focus that distinguished Shaw as one of the most inventive and incisive writers of all time. Through performances, symposiums, new play development, and outreach, as well as through our discussion groups and partnerships with schools including SUNY Stony Brook, Regis, the De La Salle Academy, and The Broome Street Academy, GTG has helped spark a renewed interest in Shaw across the country, and a bold interest in theater as activism. Young people are particularly inspired by Shaw's invocation to challenge the strictures society imposes, to embrace the power of the individual, to make bold personal choices and to take responsibility for these choices. GTG's new play development lab, Speakers' Corner, created to support playwrights inspired by Shaw's ideals, is now in its second cycle. Through monthly prompts and feedback, writers develop work inspired by or in response to a specific Shaw text. Plays developed through Speakers' Corner will be nurtured in workshops and readings with the expectation that GTG will publish or produce them. GTG encourages all people to rejoice in the possibilities of the future. All of GTG's programming is designed to inspire lively discussion and peaceful activism with issues related to human rights, the freedom of speech, and individual liberty. This was the purpose behind all of Shaw's work and why GTG chose him as the guide toward helping create a more tolerant and inclusive world through the exploration of the Arts. For more information about the Workshops or any of Gingold Theatrical Group's projects, please call 212-355-7823, email [email protected], or visit online at www.gingoldgroup.org.

#Gingold Theatrical Group #GTG #Speakers' Corner #Mallory Jane Weiss #Divya Mangwani #Aeneas Hemphill #Arpita Mukherjee #Lily Riopelle #Dev Bondarin #Marcus Scott #MarcusScott #WriteMarcus #Write Marcus

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yunatheintrovert · 4 years ago

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shot through the heart (and you’re to blame) | Chapter 2 [Russell Adler/Female Bell!Reader Soulmate AU]

I hear the drums echoing tonight

But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation She's coming in, 12:30 flight-

“Change of plans?” you guessed, pulling your headset down to rest at your neck. You could still faintly hear the familiar sound of Toto’s Africa coming from your Walkman’s headset. It took something for you to set down your Walkman.

And upon seeing the expression on Lazar’s face, you knew it was one of those times.

After all, it was either that or someone had just broke the news to him that hamburgers were not on the menu in the outpost. Either one was important.

Hamburgers were not breakfast food. But at this point, you’d take whatever the hell you could get.

“Sandstorm forecasted to move in before the scheduled exfil.” Lazar explained as he leaned against the wall next to you, “Time frame’s been moved closer.”

“How soon?” you asked, already bracing yourself for whatever the hell Hudson and Adler had decided on.

"Zero six hundred hours."

“No shit?” you sighed. The one lesson you learned in Cuba was that the devil was in the details. There had been a rush to get there. Limited intel, high risk. It was a mess from the start.

You did not want another Cuba.

“And that’s not even the start of it,” Lazar said agitatedly, “We’re not just parachuting in, we’re doing a damn HALO jump.”

“Well,” you said with a sigh, “I’ll try to convince the cook to make hamburgers for the two of us while you’re gone.” Lazar had past HALO experience. Although, he never did quite like parachuting after Cuba.

“Nice joke, Bell. We’re all going.”

“...I’m cleared for this mission?” That surprised you for more than one reason. Aside from being an agent the CIA had barely spared, you were also not cleared for a goddamned HALO jump.

No formal training.

...Well, there was Vietnam, specifically those “memories”. You could easily recall the vivid memory of falling through the heavy fog over Laos during one of the MACV-SOG operations you were in on with Adler.

But that didn’t count for a goddamn thing.

This didn’t make any sense whatsoever.

That’s all you could think about as you stood from your seat quickly and secured your Walkman at your waist as you pulled your headset back to rest at your ears.

“Good luck with Doc, Bell,” Lazar said, already knowing what you had in mind.

You said a quick thanks to him before making your way through the halls of the command wing of the outpost.

After all, you sure as hell were going to need it.

I bless the rains down in Africa Gonna take some time to do the things we never had (ooh, ooh)

It hadn’t taken much time to find the man in question. After all, outpost Libreville was a modestly-sized outpost located near the borders of Angola in Gabon. The airstrip built and improved over time made it ideal for special forces operations and those of the clandestine nature.

You had found him in the once empty corner office that belonged to an officer on leave. The small space of the corner office allowed smoke to curl and cloud around the room. Despite that, you easily noticed the schematics of the satellite and reports on the predictions of the timing of the satellite's crash scattered on the desk.

“Need something, Bell?”

“Sir,” you said tensely before bracing yourself and adding, “The HALO jump...I’m not cleared for it.”

“I cleared you for it. We’re CIA, not military,” Adler said before adding, “You’re having second doubts.”

“I’ve never done a HALO jump in my life, sir,” you explained, “My...memories of Vietnam didn’t count for anything.”

“Now, that’s just bullshit.”

“What are you talking about-”

“The feedback you gave on that HALO operation over Laos. No untrained person would have been able to replicate that kind of detail,” Adler took a drag of his cigarette before adding, “The scripts, Bell. I gave you the outline, you filled in the details.”

“With all due respect, sir,” you said tensely with a bit too much emphasis on the honorific to really be respectful, “That doesn’t mean a single damn thing when I don’t remember any of that.”

“Bell,” you felt yourself stiffen under his gaze. He was always wearing those sunglasses and you could never tell his emotions or who he was even looking at times, “I pulled a hell of a lot of strings to get you back here. I trust you won’t disappoint me and the team.”

You fought to stifle your shock.

Russell “it was never personal” Adler, the very man who put a round in your chest point-blank, was the one to request your reassignment to the team?

And of course there was that damnable feeling that lingered in your chest.

Everything about you was linked back to this team. It was your anchor in this new life of yours. And it felt...good to be back…

And as much as you wanted to deny it because really it was just such a damnable foolish feeling-

“I...I won’t let you down, sir.”

-you couldn’t help but feel relieved that Adler wanted you back.

And really wasn’t that just pathetic?

You felt the stinging sensation in your palm as nails pressed into your gloved palms. The sudden tightness in your chest made for a sudden urge to just get out of that small corner office.

It was the smoke, you told yourself. It lingered heavily in the cramped space. Of course, it would cause your chest to tighten.

Despite the sudden, desperate urge to just leave, you remained rooted to the spot at the front of Adler’s desk.

“If the main chute fails to deploy and affects the reserve chute, how am I supposed to react in time?”

“Do whatever it takes to get it open,” Adler simply answered before adding, “If that doesn’t work...well I would say aim for the bushes. But we’re going to be in the fucking desert. Aim for a sand dune and pray it’s quick.”

“Good advice,” was all you could quietly say.

...sometimes it still felt as if he wanted you to die.

“Anything else, kid?”

You took a breath. If you were going to die...well-

“About my Walkman…”

You were going to go out the way you wanted.

Lazar must have known your little conversation with Adler in his corner office wouldn’t take that long as he was standing in the nearby corridor with a rather grave look.

“Come on,” he had simply said, “I need backup in the cafeteria. Apparently it’s Chili Tuesday…”

Food was the last thing on your mind.

So honestly you hadn’t paid much attention to that little bit of information.

Although, you had bothered to switch out your mixtape which had long since stopped playing with the only other cassette you had on your person. You vaguely trading with one of the soldiers on the military transport you flew in on to get a new cassette tape. You could only bring a limited amount of items with you and you didn't want to risk breaking any of your priority cassette tapes. And you needed a song that you hadn't listened to before...even if it wasn't what you normally lent towards.

Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and filet gumbo 'Cause tonight i'm gonna meet ma cher amio PIck guitar, fill fruit jar and be gayo-

Of course, it just happened to be about food.

Trying to stop yourself from muttering about how your Walkman had to be cursed, you had just nodded and followed him down the corridors to the cafeteria. It was a fairly-sized open space with the usual setup.

Although, strangely there weren’t many soldiers there. It was almost time for meal service.

“Still on for the mission?” Lazar asked as the two of you sat yourselves down on the same table Sims had situated himself at.

“Yeah," you admitted before adding, "I swear he’s trying to kill me.” Although, you didn't really want to think about that. It was out of your control at this point.

“Well, you are Adler’s protégé,” Sims casually commented, looking up from his plate of...food? “I heard lions throw their cubs off cliffs to make them strong or shit like that. Maybe Adler’s doing the same to you.”

“I’m not his-” you cut yourself off. There was something more important you noticed, “Wait how did you get that?”

It was baked beans. Perfectly normal and cooked beans.

Nothing remarkable but it was normal, the standard canned kind.

“Heard about Chili Tuesday, specifically this one. Apparently, they’re serving 20-year old rations to us due to a supply shortage. They’re quite stingy-”

“How did you get it, Sims?” Lazar interjected.

“I have my ways of procurement.” And as you heard the exchange prices Sims listed, your jaw dropped.

You already had to pay for all those mixtapes and cassettes you bought on a weekly basis. You weren’t going to spend that much on some cans of beans at an outpost in the middle of nowhere.

Yet as you saw the churning red mass somehow called chili put on the cafeteria pans, you felt your stomach roll.

The idea of eating that before a HALO jump in the next few hours-

“Where are you going?” Sims asked as you stood from your seat abruptly.

“I have a mixtape to make.” you said, hurriedly excusing yourself. You’d rather have hunger pains than eat that before jumping off a C-13 Hercules at 30,000 ft in the air.

Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and filet gumbo-

Nope, you thought fervently as you pressed pause on your Walkman. You did not want to be thinking about food right now.

Although, truly what you told Sims wasn’t quite a lie.

If you were going to go HALO jumping with no conscious experiences whatsoever, you were going to at least die trying with your Walkman.

All you had to now was make a whole new mixtape in the three hours you had remaining.

#Russell Adler #Russell Adler x Bell #Russell Adler/Bell #Female Bell #Fem!Bell #Female Bell!Reader #fanfiction #cod cold war fanfiction #fic: shot through the heart (and you're to blame)#soulmate au #soulmate songs/music au

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tarnished-butsogrand · 3 years ago

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rini rini rini! who is your favourite srk co star and why? Also,,, aami tomake bhalobasi💘

SONALI!

I think no one can beat Kajol! She's such an amazing actress and moreover, they share such a special bond: no one can beat their chemistry.

Even when she's not in the movie, she'll make a cameo appearance, I mean, someone find me a friend like that please. And it just translates to the screen so, so well.

Just look at the way they look at each other! 🥺🥺🥺😭😭😭❤️❤️❤️❤️

Hands down, it's Kajol!

What about you, who's your fave? 👀

Also, amio tomake khubbbbb bhalobasi! 😘❤️ You have to teach me how to say that in Marathi though. 👀

#i know you probably don't want to be reminded: but i hope studying's going well #love you loadssss ❤️❤️❤️#sonali ✨

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jeanjauthor · 4 years ago

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The ‘dreaded swimsuit season’ is coming up, and that means people are going to be obsessing about food and exercise and losing calories. First of all, I’m not a medical professional nor a nutritionist nor a physical therapist etc, so definitely consult with the appropriate personnel...but I cannot stress strongly enough, you must consult with non-fatphobic medical personnel.

Fatphobia kills people of all bodyweights, and this blog does not support fatphobia, especially medical fatphobia.

Now, with that said...if you want to be healthy, there are plenty of non-fatphobic things you can do about it. And the biggest things you need to know about how to go about it are: understanding your metabolism, understanding how muscles can affect your metabolism, and understanding how diet (foods, not fatphobia industry) can affect your metabolism.

Given all the fat-shaming bullshit thrown about in the so-called “Health Industry,” it sounds counterintuitive, but you actually need to eat more in order to lose weight. You need to teach your body that it’s not in starvation mode anymore, that it has plenty of calories and nutrients...and just start moving more. Not necessarily exercising more, but moving more.

2,000-2,500 calories a day is the range for a “normal” body-weight-and-size person. However, the more exercise you do, the more muscles you have, or simply the bigger a person you are (the more cells you have), the more calories you need. Unless you’re seriously short & skinny, a 1,500 calorie meal is a starvation meal, and that will put your body into “OMFG SAVE ALL THE CALORIES AS FAT!!” mode.

Literally, a toddler’s caloric needs are 1,100, and they range from 20-35 pounds. You’re several times that much. This doesn’t mean that if you weigh 175 pounds that you need to eat at least 5 times as many calories, however! In truth, you only need about double that, because a toddler’s metabolism is geared toward growing, whereas an adult’s metabolism is geared toward maintaining.

The best way to understand this is to realize your metabolism can be divided into 4 categories.

Your Resting Metabolic Rate is simply the amount of calories needed to keep you breathing, your blood pumping, your organs functioning. That’s 60%-75% of your caloric intake. You have your Thermic Effect of Food, which is another 10%, literally the energy it takes to chew and swallow and digest food & drinks, and then to excrete the leftover bathroom waste. The remaining two types of calorie burning are Non-Exercise Activity Thermogensis, and Activity Thermogenesis. Of those lattermost two, your body actually burns more of the Non-Exercise calories than the Active Exercise calories...and it is designed to burn more when simply moving.

Literally, just moving a bit more than you usually do in a typical day will burn calories effectively. Move around the house on every commercial break, stand up and sit down more often, change your position more frequently, raise and lower your arms, gently swing or kick your legs...just move more. When they say 30 minutes of (gentle) exercise a day, this is exactly what they are talking about. You don’t need weights, you don’t need machinery, you don’t need a gym membership. Just move. It’ll be a gradual process, but so long as you’re eating foods with plenty of fiber as well as other food types, you’ll feel full and won’t feel starved.

Now, if you want to burn calories even faster through vigorous exercise, you can do that, too...but again you need to use your metabolism. Make sure you’re not starving, because your body will go into a panic attack thinking you’re not only starving but are being chased by bears and will need plenty of fat to survive while you’re unable to gather food, etc because zomg you’re being chased by bears!!1! (Truly, the metabolism is a primitive/primal minded thing based upon hundreds of thousands of years of hunter-gatherer lifestyles, and does not comprehend modern life at all.)

And then, what do you do to burn more calories? You build muscles. Muscles burn a lot of calories. Not just through using said muscles in excercise, but muscles will burn through calories even while simply resting. The more muscles you have, the more calories your body will burn.

How do you build muscles? Well, there are two types of muscles, which while it sounds cannibalistic, we’ll call white meat and dark meat, because it’s the easiest mnemonic to remember. White meat (think breast meat on a chicken) is designed for strong but brief actions...and men have more white meat muscles than females, though obviously they have both kinds. That brief sprint towards a prey animal, the thrust of a spear into its body, aaaand done.

Dark meat muscles are meant for lower-strength repetitive actions. Walking around reaching up or stooping down or digging while gathering plants, with no need to rush and plenty of opportunities to rest. Chasing after young children. Weaving baskets, scraping and tanning hides into furs and leathers, cooking...these are tasks that require little to moderate amounts of strength, but most important, repeated movements. Women tend to have more dark meat muscles than men, though obviously they have both kinds.

(The reasons why wild ducks, partridges, grouse, etc, all have dark meat breast muscles is because they use those muscles to fly long distances. Chickens evolved from jungle-floor hunt-and-peck birds that mostly flew only short distances to get away from predators by flying up to the nearest tree branches, so they literally just needed a burst of strong energy over a short period of time, hence white meat muscles.)

Which type is better? Both, ideally, because they are useful in a variety of different ways. Which is better for burning calories? Ideally both, but it doesn’t really matter. All you need to do is build muscles.

As for how to do that...you know how you feel when you exercise until you are sore? That’s what you need to do. This is where weights and machines and treadmills do come in handy, but still aren’t necessary, since you can lift and lower objects around your home, and get exercise bands or surgical tubing for resistance training, and go for longer walks, etc.

The object is to (gently!) push your body to the point where your muscles are sore. You can do this by lifting weights for a few repetitions near your limit (use a spotter & practice safe lifting skills!!), which is a white meat muscle activity, or you can use lesser weights or resistance machinery (surgical tubing counts), but just do it more, which is dark meat muscle activity.

You can also do the “step down” method of weight training or resistance training, by starting near your limit, going until your muscles burn, then resting a few minutes while gently shaking out, massaging, or relaxing the muscles in question to help move the lactic acid out of your muscle tissues, along with hydrating. Then you “step down” the amount of weight (say by 20%-30%) and doing another set of reps (repetition movements) until again it’s a struggle, then another few minutes of rest, hydration, etc, before stepping down again, doing some reps...and then again when it’s at the lightest you can for as long as you can, then rest that muscle group.

Regardless of which way you weight/resistance train, take a full 48 hours off. Or as close to 48 as you manage--weight train 3 times a week, and then take up to 72 hours (three days) off so your body can fully recover. You can still exercise, but do not use weights or resistance machinery/rubber bands, etc.

Let your muscles use that 48 hours to heal, and eat more protein sources to help your body build more muscle strength, along with a variety of nutrients to get the right kinds of micronutrients. Again, I must emphasize: Do not starve your body. It will go into fat-storage mode and will only barely repair your muscles, nevermind build them bigger.

The goal is to build more muscle tissue. if you are hungrier than usual, eat more. Your body will tell you what it needs if you listen, and there are plenty of charts out there with “if you are craving X,Y, or Z, then try eating healthier foods A,B,C, D, E, or F!” and they’re actually not inaccurate...but it is okay to have the “less healthy” foods in moderation, same as in everything you eat.

But seriously, up your protein intake, which is what your body needs to build bigger muscles. The average (again, your needs may be more) person needs about 4 ounces (115 grams) of protein per meal, so you can shoot for more than that. And get your proteins from a variety of sources. Humans can manufacture a good number of amino acids (the building blocks of proteins), but we cannot synthesize 9 of them, the “9 essential amino acids.”

These 9 essential amino acids are: histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine. Foods that contain all nine essential acids are called complete proteins. These include eggs, fish, beef, pork, poultry, and whole sources of soy (tofu, edamame, tempeh, and miso).

While plant proteins have lower essential amino acid contents when compared to animal proteins, they will also have different ratios of the various amio acids compared to most animal-based proteins. This is something that vegetarians and vegans need to keep in mind.

Some plant-based foods can be combined together to complement and/or supplement. “Rice & beans” is one such combination. Basically, you combine a grain (in this case rice) with a pulse (legumes, like beans, or peas, etc). Here in America, in Mexican restaurants, a serving of refried beans and Spanish rice (seasoned with tomatoes & spices) is often automatically included as a side for most dishes. This provides a great deal of carbohydrates, but it also provides a more or less “complete protein” set of those essential amino acids.

Corn, beans, and squash plants do the same thing, providing a complete protein when combined together, as well as plenty of carbs. These three plant types are the “Three Sisters” of indigenous North Americans. They are best when planted together, the corn providing a trellis for the beans to grow upon, the squashes spreading out across the field to smother competing weeds, and together they feed people reasonably well.

However, they are still more carb-heavy than protein-heavy, which means vegetarians need to rely upon other sources such as nuts, plus eggs, dairy, and/or fish (if pisco-lacto-ovarian vegetarians). Vegans in particular need to be extra careful. Yes, peanuts have a lot of proteins compared to their carbs, same with almonds, etc, so definitely add nuts to your diets! But just be aware that you’re going to need to be a lot more conscious of your protein types & sources--and make sure to get a variety of sources--if you’re trying to build muscles while on a vegetarian or especially on a vegan diet. A purely plant-based diet will not have nearly as balanced a set of amino acids as what animal-inclusive diets can contain.

If you’re lacto-ovarian, this is made easier because milk, cheese, and eggs are wonderful foods with a lot of nutritional value. If you eat fish as well, even better, full proteins in fish as well as in egg whites, etc...but that brings me to another caveat, because you should probably eat the egg yolks as well as the egg whites.

Do not skip out on fats. Unless you have a genuine doctor-ordered medical reason, do not cut all fats out of your diet. Your brain needs fats in order to function. And just as with amino acids in various protein sources, there are different types of fats as well that our bodies need in different amounts for different reasons. This isn’t to say you should chow down on the equivalent of a full stick of butter (1/2 cup, 65 grams) with each meal (unless you’re camping outdoors in winter in the far north or a mountain, because then you need fat in your diet for your body to literally burn to help keep you warm).

It’s just that you don’t want to go completely fat free...because if you do, your metabolism will go into panic mode in its primitive/primal-minded way, “ZOMG IT’S LATE WINTER/EARLY SPRING AND NOTHING HAS ANY FATS IN IT WE’RE ALL GONNA STAAAAAARRRVEEE!!” Your metabolism will start turning carbs and even proteins into fats in an effort to ensure your brain (along with other vital organs) will have enough fats to keep functioning. So go ahead and put some butter on your toast. Even better, put some nutbutter on your toast, since sunflower butter, peanut butter, almond butter, all those things have proteins and fats as well as carbs.

Also, your body actually does need cholesterol to function, but only in smaller amounts than you’d think. HOWEVER, if it doesn’t get enough of the right types of cholesterol through diet, your body will make its own cholesterol, and will make more than you need, out of carbohydrates. (Yeah, this one was a shocker to me when I learned about it, and the answer blew my mind. Seriously, our body will make up to 10x as much cholesterol as we need if we don’t eat it, so it’s best if we do eat it.)

So how much does an average person need to consume of these critical cholesterols that it absolutely needs? ...About 1-2 egg yolks a day (or comparable alternative sources; vegans, do some research on alternatives, or just accept that your body may try to overproduce certain cholesterols if it’s feeling nutrition-starved). Seriously. Just that much is enough. (Again, your needs may vary based on your body size, metabolic rate, and/or environment.)

So. Put it all together, and you have: 1. Eat a variety of foods in sufficient quantities and qualities (fats and proteins included) to ensure your body stays healthy; 2. exercise just enough to push your muscles into feeling sore; 3. Rest 48 hours while eating a bit more protein to help your body repair and build bigger muscles; 4. Lather-rinse-repeat... and you’ll eventually get bigger muscles that burn more calories simply by existing, as well as whenever you use them to move just a bit more than you normally would.

Dark meat muscles burn more calories when at rest because they’re designed that way, because they’re small effort but frequent use with multiple short rests, lots of blood flowing through them, and thus are more metabolically “charged” than white meat muscles. However, white meat muscles tend to be the largest muscles, and thus while not designed to burn calories as efficiently while at rest compared to dark meat muscles...they actually end up burning about the same through sheer volume.

Work on improving your muscles, move a bit more every day, eat more conscientously but not through the heavily warped fearmongering lens of the Diet Industry’s blather and/or tactics, and you will be healthy enough to go to the beach and enjoy it. Not because you’ll have lost weight, but because you will be healthier. (Fun fact: muscles are denser and heavier than fat, so you could literally lose inches while gaining pounds from your body burning the fat with its now increased muscle mass.)

And yes, you can weigh 260 pounds and still be healthier than someone who weighs 160.

In other words, if you have a body, and you go to the beach with it, you now have a beach body.

You’ll just be less likely to get out of breath while swimming or building sand castles or playing volleyball or whatever if you’ve upped your exercise levels between now and then.

Also: CONTINUE TO WEAR A MASK IN PUBLIC.

Get one that matches your swimwear, or makes you feel silly & fun. Even if everyone started wearing their masks (not going to happen, but one can dream), it will to take us all of 2021 to quell the pandemic...and because people won’t be wearing their masks, keep wearing that mask. Yes, even if you have had all your shots. Because people aren’t wearing masks, the virus is able to spread, and when it spreads, there’s always a chance it will mutate, and cause new strains of infections...which it already has. So wear your damn mask.

#discussion of diet & exercise #death to the bullshit diet industry #nutrition is important to understand but doesn't have to be synonymous with the pejorative word diet #again I'm not a pro at this but I have studied nutrition exercise and metabolism on and off for decades

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searchenginepost · 1 year ago

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randommomentsdevida · 4 years ago

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My attending has been driving me crazy. I don’t even.

He’s this old Indian man, and like. He’s so old, he doesn’t know what ROSC is.

Anyway, so I’m running the service by myself. I have no resident to help with notes and I’m writing like 12 notes a day, fielding pages, gathering information, and doing all the consults.

One of the days, this pt came from another hospital and primary team here does not ever get records. I don’t know why. Supposedly this pt was diagnosed with MAC at the other hospital from a bronch, but had never been started on treatment. It took me 30 minutes to even be able to find who to page at the other hospital. Like, I tried to call the hospital to have them page him for me, but the person who wrote the note spelled the doc’s name wrong. I ended up calling the pulm fellowship’s coordinator and having her page him for me. Like.

And then the next day, I had to deal with trying to find more HIV meds for another pt because he was running out and the hospital didn’t have it on formulary so I didn’t have time to call that other doc for more information for the other case. To top it off, the reason the guy was running out of meds was because the last time ID saw him (MY CURRENT ATTENDING), and intern wrote the WRONG DOSE AND MY ATTENDING NEVER FIXED IT in the note.

My attending was mad that I didn’t have the information about the MAC case. Well, why don’t you fucking help me then?

Or you know, maybe not have rounds go until after 5pm and lasting minimum of 3 hours so I have more time to do things?? OR FUCKING GOING OFF CHATTING WITH RANDOM PEOPLE DURING ROUNDS AND LEAVING ME STANDING THERE FOR 30 MINUTES WASTING MY LIFE???

Then he has the gall to ask if I read. Bitch, I’d read if you give me time to read. (ALSO I”M STILL STUDYING FOR BOARDS HOPING THEY DON”T CANCEL IT AGAIN ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME)

And he’s all mad one day because I didn’t know cardio started amio on a pt at noon. Sorry, they didn’t ask me, an infectious disease fellow, for permission to use amio. And that was, you know, AN HOUR AGO.

This, after he told me the wrong dosage for isavuconazole and a very confused pharmacist calling me. Like. I don’t. WHAT the SHIT.

WHY DON’T YOU TAKE SOME RESPONSOBILITY FOR YOUR ERRORS???

And maybe if I didn’t have to present a pt 3x in a day because you can’t retain anything, things would go faster? JUST MAyYBEEee?

I’m so mad and frustrated. I can’t even.

And the first day I was on, he makes me prepare a presentation for grand rounds THE NEXT DAY. THERE ARE LITERALLY FELLOWS WHO HAVE NOT BEEN ON SERVICE FOR THE PAST 2 WEEKS WHO CAN MAKE THIS FUCKING LECTURE FUCK YOU

So I impulsively bought this

#fellowship is seeming less and less and less worth it #I literally am so pissed #and frustrated

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thestrangefurret · 4 years ago

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"Well I've never seen a carnivorous bunny as colorful you before." Trei says teasingly from the tree branch he rests on, looking down at the Lopunny. The Zorophox stands up on the branch. "And I'm just a bastard child so I'm not a purebred Zoroark. And being open about myself, that may not the whole truth."

Trei jumps down next to the Lopunny, fiddling with something as he walks a few feet away. "If I didn't talk to anyone who do think would be asked? The snake? Heh, if it was up to her what do you think she would say? She would go on about my curse and the awful things I've done. How I shouldn't be trusted or can be considered an honest Pokemon. Honestly, she probably would tell you some of the... uglier things I've done."

Trei walks up to Amios handing the Lopunny's sleeve back to him. A small fabric patch of a snapdragon. "If I can actually be honest you I'd rather be, literally anywhere than this little hell hole. But there's an annoying bi-"

Trei cuts himself off as the sound of wings and the shaking of leaves comes from above the two. Trei's eyes turn a deep violent of emerald as his brow furrows deeply. His voice drops as let's out a growl. "Fucking Arceus damn it. Sorry but it looks like a little shit wants to talk to me."

( @amorous-murder )

#tw cursing #trei zorophox #Amios lopunny #ask answered

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luckyspike · 5 years ago

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Eleventh Hour Admission - A Good Omens fanfiction

Hey guys remember when I talked about writing a hospital AU

i did it but no one is a doctor they’re all nurses

title refers to literally getting an admission during the eleventh hour of your shift, possibly a fate worse than death

CW: hospitals, medical procedures, automobile accidents, the joint commission

this will never be continued (probably) or posted to AO3, so enjoy it

Ari Fell liked it his job. That wasn’t sarcasm. He really, truly liked his job: he liked helping other people, he liked watching the sickest of the sick get well again and, when he couldn’t do that, he liked being there for them, trying to help them peacefully and painlessly move on. He liked meeting the families of his patients, he liked getting to know his patients when they could talk, and he liked that every day was a new day, something different and unknown and rife with opportunity to learn something new, or to help someone.

He liked his job, but he didn’t like 6am admissions.

Which, he had a feeling, was precisely why his ASCOM phone was going off at 5:55am. The caller ID informed him that it was Gabriel, the charge for tonight. He winced and the other nurse working the east pod with him tonight, Tracy, nodded sympathetically. He picked up the phone, and answered the call.

“Ari!” Yes. Yes, that was Gabriel. By the sound of it, he was in the cafeteria, likely having coffee with the other charges during their morning “bed meeting”. Ari had long since suspected that “bed meeting” was an excuse to get coffee and kvetch for the last hour of their shift, but he’d never really had the opportunity to find out, after he’d refused the offered charge position last year.

“Gabe.” He stared gloomily at the empty room before him. It had been empty all night, after he’d packed the last patient off to IMC to make room for a possible admit. He had known it was too good to be true, known with a sort of icy certainty that a quiet night would never last, and soon enough there would be some kind of admit rolling up. He’d hoped it wouldn’t be an hour before shift change but, well …

Maybe it would be an intubated pneumonia. Sedated, even. That would be nice.

“Got an ED trainwreck coming up. You heard them call that level 1 trauma, yeah?”

His heart dropped into his stomach, which dropped all the way to his Danskos. “Yes.”

“MVA, lady was flying and ran off the road into the orchard. Hit like three of the apple trees, Bee told me. Anyway, she’s a hot mess. I told them they could call report and bring her up any time.”

“I’ll need to stock the room -”

Gabriel ignored him. “I’d love to help get her settled but we’re gonna be in bed meeting until 6:30 and then I have to do the board for day shift, but I’m sure you and Tracy’ll have it in hand. Holler if you need anything!” The line went dead.

“What do you need?” Tracy asked, already half out of the pod, aimed toward the supply room. The supply room, Ari knew, where the housekeeper usually hung around this time of the morning, surreptitiously drinking instant-brew coffee behind the Pyxis.

Ari sighed. “A whole set-up. I don’t have report yet, but it’s a trauma. Probably need suction and the whole nine yards.” The ASCOM chirped again. “That’ll be report.”

“I’ll get some culture bottles and extra red tops as well.” He nodded to her as she vanished around the corner, and picked up the phone. “Ari Fell, ICU 4 East.”

“Ari!” He might have groaned. “It’s AJ!”

“Great. You’re calling report, I assume?”

“Well, yeah, but also I was just thinking I’m off for two days after this, and I don’t have any plans after my shift, was thinking about kegs and eggs at the place across the street. Care to join?”

“Somehow,” Ari said with rather more chill to his tone than usual, “I think I’ll be getting off my shift late.”

AJ laughed. “Oh, yeah. I’m bringing up the hot mess express.”

“Oh, boy.” He half-sighed, half-groaned. “I’m ready.”

“Right, patient’s still a Jane Doe but ID in her purse said Eve Smith, 22 years old, just waiting on family to confirm. Chaplain called her parents but no answer yet. Anyway, adult female, unrestrained driver in car-versus-tree MVA, GCS of 3 at the scene, flown here, went into SVT on the way but we’ve got her on amio now at 0.5mg/hr, pan-scan showed a left-sided pneumo -”

He rattled on, Ari jotting down notes as AJ moved through the systems. At least there was that: report from AJ was, usually, good, although he did like to linger on the gory details a little longer than necessary sometimes. If he was going to get a 6am admit, at least he’d have a good report to hand off to the next shift when he inevitably presented them with this hot disaster.

Tracy was back from the supply room, a suspicious damp spot on her scrub top. The navy blue shade hid the color of the spot, but if Ari had to guess, it would be the color of Svanka instant coffee. “Enough?” she asked, holding up two bags of supplies and a handful of lab tubes. He cupped a hand over the phone.

“Two straight poles and an IV pole,” he whispered. “And an EVD hookup for the monitor.”

“Gotcha.”

“Anyway,” AJ was saying, “she’s got a Foley, so you don’t have to worry about that, and, ah … Hm. Multiple lacerations and abrasions spread out all over, but no pressure wounds or anything otherwise. Right. Anything else you need?”

“Ah …” He looked at the report sheet, the notes about infusions and lines and testing left un-done, and shrugged. “You’re coming up with her, right?”

“Oh, yeah. It’ll be a miracle if she doesn’t crump on the way up. I’ll probably be bagging her when we get there.”

He grimaced. “Wonderful. I’ll have RT ready. Otherwise, uh … no, I think I should be alright. Whenever you’re ready, we’ve got the room stocked.”

“Okay.” A little distantly, as if he’d moved away from the receiver somewhat, he heard AJ call, “Hey, you ready Erica? Time to move!” And then, back into the phone. “See you in ten.”

Ari ended the call, placed a quick SOS to respiratory for a vent delivery, and tossed the ASCOM onto the desk. One last chance to check his other patient - a post-op heart cath they’d sent for access site observation overnight before planned discharge in the morning - and then he headed into the empty room, fussing around with the lines and waiting. The vent was there, already pre-programmed with the settings, blue screen glowing in the dark room as it waited. Tracy returned with the required equipment, and rolled a pole across the room, around the end of the bed, toward Ari.

“Disaster?”

“Complete train wreck.”

She patted his shoulder. “My two are primped and propped and ready for seven. I can help all you like, dear.” She was always nice like that, calling him ‘dear’. He supposed it made sense, given that Tracy was old enough to be his mother, but he had noticed she never used the term for anybody else. He’d never asked her about it, though, mostly because he was sort of afraid that if he pointed it out, she would stop.

“I think we just wait, now.”

“Fresh meat coming?” The gruff voice of the custodian drew their attention to the doorway. “I’m off duty at 6:30, so if you think I’ll be coming in here to clean up whatever mess you and those hideous interns make -”

“I’m sure your relief will have it well in-hand, Mr. S.” Tracy fluttered her eyelashes, and leaned across the bedside table, the front of her V-neck scrub top gaping open just enough to draw the housekeeper’s eyes. “You know, I was thinking of getting breakfast and coffee at The Pantry across the street after shift … been craving their waffles.” It was a statement, but it hung open like a question. Mr. S blushed a little.

“I … I’m a little hungry myself. Could go for a nice thick pat of scrapple.” He cleared his throat. At the far corner of the ICU, Ari heard the elevator - the direct-from-the-ED elevator - ding open, and the distant sound of alarms suffused through the early-morning bustle of the unit.

“Think they might have two seats at the breakfast bar?”

“Maybe.” He smiled a little, and then remembered himself and glowered. “If an educated woman’ll deign to eat with me, that is.”

“Mm, I think I might be able to bring myself to slum it this morning.” She waved a hand. “Here she comes, move over, there’s a love.”

And come she did, in a wail of alarms and machines and, Ari was both relieved and exasperated to see, AJ, who had, as long as Ari had known him, struggled with the concept of ‘reserved’. “Heyo, told you so!” AJ was, as promised, bagging the patient, his arm snaked between various lines and tubes, the critically-ill human attached to them almost so covered as to be invisible. “Ari.”

Ari looked at the lines, horrified, and then to AJ. “What happened?”

“Huh? Oh. She came back from radiology like this. Didn’t have time to untangle everything.”

“Nothing’s even labeled!” He waved his hands at the mess. “You’ve got fluids and pressors and is that blood? What’s going where?”

“Ah. All in the subclavian, I’d imagine.” The redhead added, with scathing sarcasm, “Pretty sure I didn’t hook anything up to the EVD. Got a slide board?”

Tracy had, and she and Ari tucked it under the unconscious young woman as AJ and Erica rolled her to the side. “Hang on, let me check her back while she’s there.” There were abrasions, and lacerations, too many to count or list as part of a specific area, and then, between her shoulder blades, was an apple blossom. He plucked it off. “Really, you couldn’t clean that off?”

“Had bigger fish to fry. You done?” AJ raised an eyebrow at him, visible of the rims of his dark-tinted glasses, and Ari nodded. AJ and Erica let the woman down. “On three -” She was light enough, and with four of them they had her slid into the ICU bed in one smooth motion, still piled with a tangled mess of lines and tubes.

“You really had to bring this mess up,” Ari griped, trying to decide where to start first. His eyes widened. “You left the EVD lying under her pillow!”

“It’s clamped!” AJ replied with an exasperated groan, gratefully flicking on the vent and plugging it into the ET tube.

Erica rolled her eyes. “You done here? I’ve got to get back to the department.”

“Be right behind you,” AJ said, waving the other nurse off. “I’m gonna help whiny here get organized.” He pulled the EVD from under the pillow, carefully threading the buritrol back through the other lines until the tubing lay neatly over the rest of the tangled mess. Carefully, he hung it on the straight pole, leveled it, and opened the clamp. Pink-tinged spinal fluid started to drip out. “Come on, hand me the cable, I’ll even hook it up for you.”

“How charitable,” Ari grumbled, tossing the cable behind the headboard and bouncing it off AJ’s shoulder. “Bastard.”

“Now, boys,” Tracy admonished from the foot of the bed, where she was busying herself with untangling the Foley and the SCDs*. “Let’s not argue.”

[* Are SCDs really that important in a fragile immediately post-trauma patient, you may ask. To which the answer is: only if the Joint Commission is there.]

“Oh, we’re just having a good time.” AJ was tracing the IV tubing containing the fluids down through the sheets. “Alright, so this is going to the peripheral, just untangle this -”

“You know,” Ari said, as he fiddled with the monitor and the arterial line, trying to check for level in spite of the level being, as always, conspicuously absent. “I’m sure you have patients back down in the department. You don’t have to help. I was just giving you a hard time.” He ended up seizing a length of blood pressure cuff tubing and eyeballing the line between the transducer and the phlebostatic axis.

“Well, what if I want to?” He snorted. “My only other patient down there is a kid with a head lac, and he’s on ice until the LET kicks in and we can do staples anyway. Which will be, fortunately, after shift change. He looks like a screamer.” He smirked at Ari, and passed the IV pump with all of the various central line tubing across the bed to him. “Never let it be said I’m not occasionally nice.”

“You’re not.”

“Hey.”

At the foot of the bed, Tracy shook her head, tapping in the vital signs as she did. “Did anyone page the fellow to let them know she’s arrived?”

“Not yet,” they replied, in unison. And then exchanged a look, very briefly, before Ari looked away to busy himself with setting the monitor alarm parameters and AJ became absorbed in scribbling labels for the IV tubing.

“I’ll do it, then.”

It was quiet for a minute while they worked, but after a time, Ari realized the white sheet atop the woman was clear, the lines were meticulously untangled and laid properly, with messily-written but legible labels. It would have done the Joint Commission proud.

“Think she still needed cultures,” AJ muttered, grabbing the bottles off of the counter. “Where do you keep the tourniquets up here?”

“Here.” He set to checking orders, with the black-clad invader from the ED pulled the first set of cultures on the first stick. Ari frowned, impressed. “Nice one.”

“Eh, you get good at ‘em when you have to get a line in anything.”

“Seriously,” Ari said, more quietly now, noting that for the most part, all of the ED orders had been cleaned up, taken care of, and signed off before the patient had arrived, “you can go. Really, I’m grateful, but I can handle it and you don’t have to -”

“I know. But this is really selfish for me.” He tore the tip of the index finger off the fresh pair of gloves he’d donned, the better to palpate a vein in the opposite arm, where the splint would allow. “Don’t wanna eat breakfast alone.”

Ari stared at him for a minute. Blinked. “Seriously?”

“Well, yeah,” AJ replied, tone flippant. “I think it counts as alcoholism if you drink alone too much. Have to keep up the facade of being a normal, healthy, functional adult.” He winked at Ari over the rim of his glasses. “You know how it goes, choir-boy.”

“I -” he glanced into the hallway, where Tracy and Mr. S were chatting. Mr. S had clocked out - was it past 6:30 already? And Tracy had her ASCOM in hand, although by the looks of it she hadn’t yet called. If she waited much longer, the fellow wouldn’t arrive with new orders until after shift change. He could have laughed. What an angel. “Yeah. Yeah, I do. You want to get a pitcher?”

Aj laughed, although he was watching intently as the second bottle filled. “You know, I have two days off coming up - what the hell? Let’s do it.”

#good omens #good omens fanfiction #good omens fanfic #human au #crowley #aziraphale #hospital au #i did it i did the thing #i wish i didn't enjoy fanfiction so much

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writemarcus · 3 years ago

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SPEAKERS' CORNER New Play Development Plays-In-Progress 29-Hour Equity Workshops to Continue

Coming Up: Karma Sutra Chai Tea Latte by Aeneas Hemphill, Directed by Arpita Mukherjee; and There Goes The Neighborhood by Marcus Scott, Directed by Dev Bondarin.

by Chloe Rabinowitz May. 31, 2022

Gingold Theatrical Group, now in its 17th Season, is continuing its new play development with the Plays-In-Progress AEA-approved Showcases of this year's SPEAKER'S CORNER Writers Group. This season, writers Aeneas Sagar Hemphill, Divya Mangwani, Marcus Scott and Mallory Jane Weiss are developing works in response to prompts from the revolutionary activist humanitarian writings and precepts of George Bernard Shaw. These Actors Equity Association approved 29-hour workshops culminate with a presentation as an opportunity for each playwright to assess where they are with their work and to determine the next steps to be taken. These invitation-only presentations will take place at ART-NY Studios (520 8th Avenue). Space for each final presentation is extremely limited and reservations must be made, so to request the opportunity to attend any of these events email [email protected]. This year's final two showcases will be:

There Goes The Neighborhood

by Marcus Scott, Directed by Dev Bondarin Friday June 3rd at 7pm Phillip Burke, Savanna Calder, Broderick Clavery, Anthony Godd, Ashley Jossell, Olivia Kinter, Monique Robinson, Cliff Sellers Stage Manager: Elliot J. Cohen.

Karma Sutra Chai Tea Latte

by Aeneas Hemphill, Directed by Arpita Mukherjee Sunday, June 5th at 5pm Rajesh Bose, Shawn Jain, Mahima Saigal, Salma Shaw, Khyati Sehgal, Imran Sheikh Assistant Director: Sarah Vishnev Stage Manager: Elliot J. Cohen

This season's two previous showcases, Vigil-Aunties by Divya Mangwani, directed by Arpita Mukherjee, and Howl From Up High by Mallory Jane Weiss, directed by Lily Riopelle, were held in May. "Among the many programs we've developed over the last 17 years, developing new plays with the intent to produce and publish, has always been the most ambitious dream of all of us at Gingold. While we continue to produce our annual full Off-Broadway productions of plays by George Bernard Shaw, we plan to add at least one new play to our schedule to share with our devoted patrons," said David Staller. Named after the corner of London's Hyde Park where George Bernard Shaw and other political speakers have delivered speeches since 1855, GTG's SPEAKERS' CORNER brings together six to ten writers each year who will spend the year exploring a specific Shaw play and writing individual new plays in response to that text and Shaw's forward thinking humanitarian ideals. Speakers' Corner members meet bi-monthly, and GTG will host showings of the works that Speakers' Corner develops at the end of the season. The group's members were identified through an open application process under the guidance of Becker, GTG Artistic Director David Staller, and this season's Speakers' Corner Readers and Advisory Committee: Ilana Becker, Stephen Brown-Fried, Ralph B. Peña, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Sharon Washington, along with Speakers' Corner alumni Hank Kim, and Lorenzo Roberts.

WRITERS:

Aeneas Sagar Hemphill (he/him) is an Indian-American playwright and screenwriter based in NYC and DC. Weaving through many genres, his work builds new worlds to illuminate our own, investigating the ghosts that haunt our lives and communities with passion, pathos, and humor. He was a 2019 Resident Artist with Monson Arts Center and 2017-2018 Playlab fellow at Pipeline Theatre, as well as semi-finalist for the 2019 Princess Grace Award, semi-finalist for the 2019 Mabou Mines Resident Artist Program, and finalist for the 2017 Many Voices Fellowship. His plays include: Black Hollow (Argo Collective, Dreamscape Theatre), The Troll King (Pipeline), Childhood Songs (Monson Arts), The Republic of Janet & Arthur (Amios), The Red Balloon (Noor Theatre), A Stitch Here or There (DarkHorse Dramatists, Slingshot Theatre), A Horse and a Housecat (Slingshot Theatre). MFA Playwriting, Columbia University. Marcus Scott is a dramatist & journalist. Selected work includes Tumbleweed (finalist for the 2017 Bay Area Playwrights Festival; semifinalist for the 2022 Eugene O'Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference, the 2022 Blue Ink Playwriting Award & the 2017 New Dramatists Princess Grace Fellowship Award), Sibling Rivalries (finalist for the 2021 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference; semi-finalist for the 2022 Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival, the 2021 Blue Ink Playwriting Award & the 2021 New Dramatists Princess Grace Fellowship Award) and Cherry Bomb (recipient of the 2017 Drama League First Stage Artist-In-Residence). He was commissioned by Heartbeat Opera to adapt Beethoven's Fidelio (Librettist/Co-writer; The Met Museum; NY Times Critic's Pick). Recently developed at Gingold Theatrical Group (Speaker's Corner), Zoetic Stage (Finstrom Festival Of New Work), Queens Theatre (New American Voices series) and The Road Theatre Company's Under Construction 3 Playwrights Group and Cohort 2 of the Southern Black Playwrights Lab at the Mojoaa Performing Arts Company. Scott is a 2021 NYSAF Founders' Award finalist and a 2021 Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award semi-finalist. His articles appeared in Architectural Digest, Time Out New York, American Theatre Magazine, Playbill, Elle, Out, Essence, The Brooklyn Rail, among others. MFA: GMTWP, NYU Tisch. In addition to Speakers' Corner, GTG's on-going play development also includes PRESS CUTTINGS, which, in recognition of Shaw's career as a theatre critic, supports the development of new plays written by theatre journalists. Press Cuttings has commissioned new plays by Jeremy McCarter, Robert Simonson, and David Cote, and, in June of 2017, presented an AEA workshop of David Cote's Otherland directed by May Adrales. This fall, GTG returned to live, in person performance with the acclaimed revival of Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession starring Robert Cuccioli, David Lee Huynh, Alvin Keith, Nicole King, Raphael Nash Thompson, and Tony® Award winner Karen Ziemba as Mrs. Warren, which recently completed its acclaimed Off-Broadway engagement at Theatre Row, directed by David Staller. Terry Teachout, reviewing Mrs. Warren's Profession in The Wall Street Journal, declared "Mr. Staller, who knows everything there is to know about Shaw, has not only staged the play but edited the text with his accustomed skill. All the more reason, then, to praise David Staller, the artistic director of Project Shaw, a long-running series of semi-staged concert readings of the playwright's 60-odd shows. In addition to Project Shaw, Mr. Staller's Gingold Theatrical Group presented fully staged small-scale off-Broadway versions of Heartbreak House in 2018 and Caesar and Cleopatra in 2019, and now they're doing Mrs. Warren's Profession. The production is completely satisfying... Sprinkled with tart, school-of-Wilde epigrams ('There are no secrets better kept than the secrets everybody guesses') and overflowing with glittering talk, it's a foolproof vehicle for six accomplished actors and a director who, like Mr. Staller, knows better than to let the play become a static chat-fest. Instead, he keeps the actors moving and the pace brisk, and the results are immensely pleasurable." GINGOLD THEATRICAL GROUP creates theater that supports human rights, freedom of speech, and individual liberty using the work of George Bernard Shaw as our guide. All of GTG's programs are inspired by Shaw's humanitarian values. Through full productions, staged readings, new play development, and inner-city educational programs, GTG brings Shavian precepts to audiences and artists across New York, encouraging individuals to breathe Shaw's humanist ideals into their contributions for the future. Shaw created plays to inspire peaceful discussion and activism and that is what GTG aims to accomplish. GTG's past productions include Man and Superman (2012), You Never Can Tell (2013), Major Barbara (2014), Widowers' Houses (2016), Heartbreak House (2018), and Caesar & Cleopatra (2019). Founded in 2006 by David Staller, GTG has carved a permanent niche for the work of George Bernard Shaw within the social and cultural life of New York City, and, through the Project Shaw reading series, made history in 2009 as the first company ever to present performances of every one of Shaw's 65 plays (including full-length works, one-acts and sketches). GTG brings together performers, critics, students, academics and the general public with the opportunity to explore and perform theatrical work inspired by the humanitarian and activist values that Shaw championed. All comedies, these plays boldly exhibit the insight, wit, passion and all-encompassing socio-political focus that distinguished Shaw as one of the most inventive and incisive writers of all time. Through performances, symposiums, new play development, and outreach, as well as through our discussion groups and partnerships with schools including SUNY Stony Brook, Regis, the De La Salle Academy, and The Broome Street Academy, GTG has helped spark a renewed interest in Shaw across the country, and a bold interest in theater as activism. Young people are particularly inspired by Shaw's invocation to challenge the strictures society imposes, to embrace the power of the individual, to make bold personal choices and to take responsibility for these choices. GTG's new play development lab, Speakers' Corner, created to support playwrights inspired by Shaw's ideals, is now in its second cycle. Through monthly prompts and feedback, writers develop work inspired by or in response to a specific Shaw text. Plays developed through Speakers' Corner will be nurtured in workshops and readings with the expectation that GTG will publish or produce them. GTG encourages all people to rejoice in the possibilities of the future. All of GTG's programming is designed to inspire lively discussion and peaceful activism with issues related to human rights, the freedom of speech, and individual liberty. This was the purpose behind all of Shaw's work and why GTG chose him as the guide toward helping create a more tolerant and inclusive world through the exploration of the Arts. For more information about the Workshops or any of Gingold Theatrical Group's projects, please call 212-355-7823, email [email protected], or visit online at www.gingoldgroup.org.

#Gingold Theatrical Group #george bernard shaw #Marcus Scott #MarcusScott #WriteMarcus #Write Marcus #Dev Bondarin

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randomnotesnet · 4 years ago

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Reflections of My Life XIII

A Sun Like a Gun, Let’s Have Some Fun at the Blue Bayou

The changing of sunlight to moonlight, reflections of my life, oh, how they fill my eyes.

Feel I'm dying, I'm changing, arranging everything around me.

I don't want to die, just take. I’m back to my own home.

— The Marmalade, November 14 1969, March 1970 – YouTube

[T]he way it is, anything can happen anytime. Exactly.

That's why I want you to take especially good care […] We'll see you at the airport unless those damn Commies shoot the plane down.

Yeah. Auf Wiedersehen … for God's sake, Phyllis, we've got to find that idiot. Her parents are arriving tomorrow.

They come to me with all their little problems. I’d rather be in hell with my back broken.

— “One, Two, Three” – USA, 1961

Goodbye, Joe, he gotta go, me oh my oh … he gotta go, pole the pirogue down the Bayou. His Yvonne, the sweetest one, me oh my oh … son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the Bayou!

Thibodaux, Fontaineaux, the place is buzzin' Kinfolk come to see Yvonne by the dozen. Dressed in style they go hog wild, me oh my oh … son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the Bayou!

For tonight I'm a gonna see my ma cher ami-o … settle down far from town, get him a pirogue. And he'll catch all the fish in the Bayou, son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the Bayou!

— Jambalaya (On the Bayou) – Hank Williams, 1952

Composition

[Hank] Williams began writing the song while listening to the Cajuns talk about food on the Hadacol Caravan bus. With a melody based on the Cajun song "Grand Texas", some sources, including AllMusic, claim that the song was co-written by Williams and Moon Mullican, with Williams credited as sole author and Mullican receiving ongoing royalties.

Williams' biographer Colin Escott speculates that it is likely Mullican wrote at least some of the song and Hank's music publisher Fred Rose paid him surreptitiously so that he wouldn't have to split the publishing with Moon's label King Records.

Williams' song resembles "Grand Texas" in melody only. "Grand Texas" is a song about a lost love, a woman who left the singer to go with another man to "Big Texas"; "Jambalaya", while maintaining a Cajun theme, is about life, parties and stereotypical food of Cajun cuisine. The narrator leaves to pole a pirogue down the shallow water of the bayou, to attend a party with his girlfriend Yvonne and her family. At the feast they have Cajun cuisine, notably Jambalaya, crawfish pie and filé gumbo, and drink liquor from fruit jars. Yvonne is his "ma cher amio", which is Cajun French for "my good friend" or more likely to mean "my girlfriend”. Technically in Cajun culture "ma cher amio" means my dear, which refers to Yvonne in this song.

Cover versions

Moon Mullican, who likely co-wrote the song without credit because he was contracted to a different label, recorded his version for King Records on July 9, 1952. […]

John Fogerty hit #16 in 1973 under the name of the Blue Ridge Rangers.

The Carpenters featured the song, in an uptempo pop version with country flourishes, on their 1973 album Now & Then. Their version was released as a single outside the United States in 1974 and sold well in the UK (peaking at number 12 in the charts) and Japan.

In 2016, a version recorded by The Plainsmen was used as the opening theme for Tig Notaro's show One Mississippi.

In 2020, Little Big Town collaborated with Trombone Shorty, releasing a version of the song together.

— Jambalaya (On the Bayou) – Wikipedia

“Son of a Gun” – Symbolism in Antonioni

1 – ‘Blow-Up’: The Importance and Influence of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Stylish, Thought-Provoking Mystery

Since MGM released the film without the Production Code’s blessing, due to several straightforwardly filmed sex scenes and open representations of the sixties’ decadence, Antonioni’s film utterly undermined the authority of the long-upheld code that finally had to make way for the more nuanced and understanding MPAA rating system. In this way, “Blow-Up” played a vital role in the liberation of the Anglo-American cinema, freeing artists from the puritan chains that belonged to a locked chest in the basement of history.

Simultaneously, the influence that this picture wielded was astonishing, as “Blow-Up” inspired future generations of filmmakers and artists with its untraditional storytelling, captivating, hallucinating visuals and its deep, thought-provoking attempt at disclosing and exploring the perceptive nature of reality and the often baffling relationship of truth and perception.

[…]

The celebrated American pianist Herbie Hancock provided the diegetic score overflowing with some great jazz material, making “Blow-Up” the first in a series of acclaimed film soundtracks that the composer recorded. The aforementioned Hemmings had wonderful support from fellow actresses and actors […] the film was edited […] with unavoidable assistance from Antonioni, who always claimed it was the editing room where he first developed the ideas for what his movies were actually about.

“Believe in me, Peter,” Antonioni told his skeptical actor Peter Bowles, who was agitated when Antonioni cut his speech out of the film. “I am not God, but I am Antonioni.” It’s a good thing the filmmaker reassured his crew of his human essence, since all who worked with him couldn’t help but notice they were in the presence of someone far from ordinary.

This article is enriched by the addition of a very rare scan of Antonioni, Guerra and Bond’s script of “Blow-Up” from Simon and Schuster’s 1971 ‘Blow-Up: A Film’ (Modern Film Scripts), a book that has been out-of-print for decades and only exists in the few available copies still left […] the readers of C&B now have a unique chance to examine it carefully, and we urge all of you to do so.

A monumentally important screenplay. Screenwriter must-read:

Michelangelo Antonioni, Tonino Guerra & Edward Bond’s screenplay for Blow-Up, Simon and Schuster, 1967.

NOTE: For educational and research purposes only. The DVD/Blu-ray of the film is available from the Criterion Collection and other online retailers. Absolutely our highest recommendation.

[…]

Interview with Michelangelo Antonioni in Rome, July 29, 1969 by Charles Thomas Samuels. Courtesy of zakka.dk.

The living room of Antonioni’s apartment, where this interview took place, reflects intellectual restlessness rather than a desire for comfort. Except for a plush couch, the room is sparely furnished, yet everywhere there are books, records, a wild array of bric-a-brac.

[…]

Progressively during your career, you seem to efface the precise moment of cutting and to avoid obvious transitions, almost as if you wish to keep the spectator from relaxing. In view of the fact that your later films tell slow, deliberate stories, aren’t you trying to achieve briskness in the way you cut?

If so, it is instinctive. I don’t do anything deliberately.

That’s not true. You told Rex Reed that all your films were made with your stomach, except “Blow-Up”, which was made with your head.

In “Blow-Up” I used my head instinctively!

Checkmate. When you were interviewed by Bianco e Nero in 1958 you said that modern directors had eliminated the “problem of the bicycle.”

What could I have meant by that?

< … >

I supposed you to mean sociological motivation for the character’s behavior, and you certainly concentrate on the power of personality, of self rather than society. However, even though your characters aren’t caused by society, they are embedded in a specific social context, which is what gives your films their extraordinary richness. Therefore, I think that 1958 statement indicates what is really a false distinction.

You know what I would like to do: make a film with actors standing in empty space so that the spectator would have to imagine the background of the characters. Till now I have never shot a scene without taking account of what stands behind the actors because the relationship between people and their surroundings is of prime importance. I mean simply to say that I want my characters to suggest the background in themselves, even when it is not visible. I want them to be so powerfully realized that we cannot imagine them apart from their physical and social context even when we see them in empty space.

Because of your telling eye for detail, you do relate your characters to their background. In fact, as one goes through your films, he sees you relying less and less on dialogue and more and more on the physical environment to establish your characters.

Yes. The heroine’s neurosis sprayed out against the backdrop.

What did you mean in the Cannes manifesto that accompanied “L’avventura” when you said that man is burdened on the threshold of space by feelings entirely unsuited to his needs?

I meant exactly what I said: that we are saddled with a culture that hasn’t advanced as far as science. Scientific man is already on the moon, and yet we are still living with the moral concepts of Homer. Hence this upset, this disequilibrium that makes weaker people anxious and apprehensive, that makes it so difficult for them to adapt to the mechanism of modern life.

That much I understand, but I’m puzzled about some implications. Do you mean to imply that the old moral baggage must be thrown away? If so, is that possible? Can man conceive of a new morality?

Why go on using that word I loathe! We live in a society that compels us to go on using these concepts, and we no longer know what they mean. In the future – not soon, perhaps by the twenty-fifth century – these concepts will have lost their relevance. I can never understand how we have been able to follow these worn-out tracks, which have been laid down by panic in the face of nature. When man becomes reconciled to nature, when space becomes his true background, these words and concepts will have lost their meaning, and we will no longer have to use them. The hero moves against a backdrop of casual violence in “Zabriskie Point”.

< … >

[…]

What is the function of the neon sign in “Blow-Up” that can’t be understood since it isn’t a word?

I didn’t want people to be able to read that sign; whether it advertised one product or another was of no importance. I placed it there because I needed a source of light in the night scenes. Furthermore, I liked having the sign near the park. It is there for an obvious reason: to break up the romantic atmosphere.

Are you disturbed by critics who want to go beyond that level of explanation?

No, because, […] good Lord, the meaning of reality, living as we do enclosed in ourselves, isn’t always clear to us. We could discuss for hours […] a filmed episode or object. […] I never ask explanations from what I see in real life, but with a film I ask the director. But the director is only a man. Very often I cannot give an explanation because I see only images, and images are what I transfer to the screen. Very often these images have no explanation, no raison d’etre beyond themselves.

A moment ago you said you read criticism rarely. Are there no critics who seem important to you?

[…] I don’t like those which are too free with praise because their reasons seem wrong and that annoys me. Critics who attack me do so for such contradictory reasons that they confuse me, and I am afraid that if I am influenced by one, I will sin according to the standards of the other.

I’d like to get back to “Blow-Up”. In the so-called orgy sequence one sees two men in the background behind the models. Why?

There is no reason for it. They are two cameramen whom I did not notice and so forgot to cut.

It seems to me that a statement you make in the introduction to the Italian edition of your screenplays has a particular relevance to “Blow-Up”:

“We know that under the image revealed there is another which is truer to reality and under this image still another and yet again still another under this last one, right down to the true image of that reality, absolute, mysterious, which no one will ever see or perhaps right down to the decomposition of any image, of any reality.”

I would say that this applies more to the finale of “Eclipse” than to “Blow-Up”, but it applies to “Blow-Up” as well. In the final scene of “Eclipse”, I was trying for a sort of decomposition of things.

< … >

You are quoted as saying that the two main components of your technique are the camera and the actors.

I never said such a thing. Where did you read it?

I forget.

People are always misquoting me.

Like Rex Reed?

He made that whole interview up. I’ve never said what you report. I’ve always said that the actor is only an element of the image, rarely the most important. The actor is important with his dialogue, with the landscape, with a gesture – but the actor in himself is nothing. The search for reality in a photographed image provides the central plot for “Blow-Up”.

< … >

Indeed, your films are vulnerable on this ground. For example, why do you use so many foreign actors […] like Richard Harris, who, in my opinion, is so inexpressive?

You must be a painter who takes a canvas and does what he likes with it.

We are more like painters in past centuries who were ordered to paint frescoes to specific measurements. Among the people in the fresco may be a bishop, the prince’s wife, etc. The fresco isn’t bad simply because the painter used for models people from the court of the prince who ordered and paid for it.

At the moment I made “Red Desert” the Italian actor I wanted wasn’t free […] Harris wasn’t right – but not because he was foreign. Still, I chose him, and the mistake is mine […] But I must repeat, when we find ourselves up against practical obstacles that can’t be overcome, we must go forward. You either make the film as you can or don’t make it at all.

Let’s talk about the camera now. How much independence do you give your cameraman? That is to say, does [he] impose his style on the film he shoots?

No. I have always imposed my wishes on the cameraman. Moreover, I have always picked them at the outset of their careers and, to a certain extent, have formed them myself.

— ‘Blow-Up’: The Importance and Influence of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Stylish, Thought-Provoking Mystery • Cinephilia & Beyond

2 – The Ronan O’Casey Letter – Roger Ebert

Los Angeles, CA 90046 February 10, 1999

Dear Mr. Ebert,

[…] I thought you might enjoy knowing the behind-the-scenes story of how the film was made (or not made, in fact).

[…]

The producer was Carlo Ponti, and he had been supervising another production which delayed his arrival in London. When he got there, he was furious.

“Basta, Michelangelo, finito, we are done!”

Shooting stopped and the crew went back to Italy. Antonioni took the bits and pieces of the film that had been shot and wove them together in a film since hailed for its "mystery" and "enigma." Of course it was mysterious; it was never finished!

It is entirely possible that Antonioni could have filmed his entire screenplay and still cut and edited it the same way. Incomplete as it was, it reflects Antonioni's penchant for toying with illusion and reality. At the time, though, it sure felt that he had put one over on his audiences and critics, who raved about the movie. With one exception — Der Spiegel. A reporter from the magazine interviewed me for an article they called “The Dead Man Speaks”. He kept saying, “But this movie makes no sense — no narrative thread, no plot line!” No Teutonic realism. Totally illogical.

By the way, here is another interesting bit of gossip for you about the movie […] Years later I bumped in to Carlo Ponti in Cinecitta, and he told me wryly that when all of the 200-some prints were returned, every one was a few feet shorter than it ought to have been […] every print […] had been neatly trimmed by the projectionist. So all the males who were being turned on by that quick glimpse of alleged nudity were seeing it only in their imaginations.

I was thrilled to be offered a part in this film […] Antonioni was a great director and you are probably right about the greatness of “Blow-Up” …

— Corpse from “Blow-Up” speaks! The Ronan O’Casey Letter | Roger Ebert | Roger Ebert

Ronan O'Casey (18 August 1922 – 12 April 2012) was a Canadian actor and producer.

< … >

[…]

O'Casey's comedy talents brought him his best known role, as “Jeff Rogers”, Canadian son-in-law of “Peggy Mount”, in the TV sitcom “The Larkins” (1958–64). He was host of ITV's charades gameshow “Don't Say a Word” (1963) […] In 1966 he was cast as Vanessa Redgrave's lover, the "blow-up" of Antonioni's “Blow-Up”.

O'Casey also appeared on stage, in plays such as “Forever April” at the Nottingham Playhouse, in which he co-starred with Kenneth Connor in 1966. and Eugene O'Neill's “Desire Under the Elms” at London's Embassy Theatre in 1955.

As literary head of the production company Commonwealth United, O'Casey was an associate producer on Terry Southern's “The Magic Christian” (1969) with Ringo Starr, Peter Sellers and a soundtrack by Badfinger.

— Ronan O'Casey – Wikipedia

3 – Notes on Some Limits of Technicolor: The Antonioni Case

Murray Pomerance, December 30 2009

Given the often shocking, but always overwhelming quality of the Technicolor prints of “The Red Desert”, with those boldly orange and purple factory conduits and that black marsh, one must wonder what might have been made of the Antonioni-Ponti films in such a superior technical process.

The green, green, green park in “Blow-Up” with its mysterious turquoise neon sign, the magnificent artifice of modernity in “Zabriskie Point”, the indigo and ochre of Saharan African in “The Passenger”.

Now, for reasons distant from the filmmaker and his rich imagination, the question of what Technicolor might have done with these films will apparently never be answered.

— Notes on Some Limits of Technicolor: The Antonioni Case – Murray Pomerance, December 30 2009

We’re running out of money and patience with being underfunded. If you find Cinephilia & Beyond useful and inspiring, please consider making a […] donation. Your generosity preserves film knowledge for future generations.

— ‘Blow-Up’: The Importance and Influence of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Stylish, Thought-Provoking Mystery • Cinephilia & Beyond

# 103

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searchenginepost · 1 year ago

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afishtrap · 8 years ago

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During the 19th century two Polynesians, Mamae of Mangaia and Rewi Rangi-amio from Aotearoa New Zealand, proudly narrated short accounts about their respective ancestors: 'Īkoke, a warrior leader of the Ngāti Vara, and Taketake of Tūhoe. These narratives focused upon the ancestors' displays of genitals at critical junctures in battle. In this paper the stories provide reference points by which we can better understand ancient Polynesian perceptions of the relationship between sex and war as practised by the chiefly classes. These particular incidents draw attention to the existence of other references in Eastern Polynesia, notably in Aotearoa, to displays, or misleading displays, of male and female chiefly genitalia in the context of aggressive acts. Taken together, these various references from islands as far apart as Aotearoa, Mangaia and Hawai'i show how in Polynesia chiefly genitals were able to manifest the potency of leaders. While principally examined in the particular context of Eastern Polynesia, these stories of genital displays are also discussed in relation to themes concerning aggression and power as played out in the ambivalent relations between men and women. The paper begins with Mamae's unpublished narrative about his ancestor, 'Īkoke, and then locates this story in the history and ethnography of Mangaia and other islands. The second half recounts the published versions of Taketake's feat before widening the discussion to consider other stories about male and female chiefly displays of genitals in Aotearoa.

Michael Reilly. "Sex and War in Ancient Polynesia." The Journal of the Polynesian Society. Volume 110, No. 1, p 31-58.

'Īkoke first appears in the historical record at the subsequent battle of 'Arerā; this was the “great battle” referred to by Mamae which confirmed his ancestor's warrior status. 'Arerā was an important conflict in which Mautara and his sons faced a numerically stronger opposing force, comprising mostly Ngāriki as well as a smaller number of Tepei. Mautara, in his capacity as Ngāriki's priest, had chosen the field of battle. The combined army of Ngāriki and Tepei arrived first and had already arranged themselves in ranks (possibly as many as eight) in conformity with usual Mangaian battle tactics before the smaller Ngāti Vara force came in sight. At that point, the Ngāriki and Tepei performed a war dance. Mautara, who commanded his men but did not participate in the fighting, warned and exhorted his sons and their followers. Gill and Mamae ascribe two statements to Mautara which may have been uttered at this juncture. According to Gill (1984:166), he warned that “‘If we fail, we shall certainly be cooked and eaten’”. According to Mamae (Reilly n.d.), he encouraged his three sons with these words, “Kākaro tika e a'u Ariki me ta'uri tei runga i te a'i kikau” (Be careful, oh my ariki [a form of address to an elder son], in case the coconut leaves fall upon the fire). Both remarks highlight his concerns about the enemy's numerical superiority; the second one warned his sons not to unnecessarily waste their warriors' lives (represented as coconut leaves) in the fire of fighting. Immediately after this the Ngāti Vara charged at the enemy's centre and cut their army in two, parts of which appear to have fairly soon retired from the battle in some confusion, leaving the others to continue a hard fought contest (see Gill 1984:166-67). The Ngāti Vara's tactic, an unusual manoeuvre, had negated the enemy's superiority of numbers and gained the day for Mautara and his three sons. Te Uanuku now became the dominant chiefly leader, or mangaia, on the island while Raumea and 'Īkoke presumably acted as his warrior supporters.

Mautara's non-combatant directorial role, his metaphorical injunctions and the Ngāti Vara battle formation have parallels in other Polynesian islands. When the ruling chief of Hawai'i, Alapa'i-nui, attempted to carry war to the island of Oahu his forces were defeated by the local warriors led by their six year old ruler, Ka-naha-o-ka-lani, who “directed his forces by the voice alone, from the shoulders of his attendant” (Kamakau 1992:71). Metaphorically laden exhortations, such as those used by Mautara, were also employed by the Hawaiian chief, Ka'iana, when speaking to his men before battle (see Kamakau 1991:15, cf. 1992:153-54).

The Ngāti Vara formation used at Arerā was most likely a form of wedge, a well-recognised tactic elsewhere in Polynesia. In New Zealand it was apparently only used in desperate situations when a company of warriors was trying to quickly break through the opposing outer ranks and reach the enemy's main position. In such formations, the leading warriors occupied the posts of honour at the point of the wedge and the two positions in the second row (Vayda 1960:16). This may have been where Mautara's sons fought. The use of wedge formations was also recorded in Hawaiian battles such as that of Ka-pu-lei on the island of Molokai (Kamakau 1992:70).

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Despite being opposed by another numerically superior force, including a significant number of Ngāriki leaders and other seasoned warriors, Mautara's hurriedly assembled force achieved a decisive victory. They were helped by the timely intervention of some of the opposing leaders, notably from the Ngāriki ivi, who presumably could not contemplate attacking the embodiment of their own tribal spiritual being, Mōtoro. The Tongaiti's pi'a atua (spirit medium), Pārae, also helped Mautara by telling him of the conspiracy, 4 and later by signalling to him to move the Ngāti Vara to a more advantageous battle site. The conspirators then attacked their erstwhile colleagues from the rear. Many of the latter were slain and those who survived were captured, with Te Uanuku's assassin being tortured to death by Mautara as some compensation for the murder of his first born.With this victory Mautara assumed political power and sagely ruled the island through a series of strategic alliances for a number of years. 'Īkoke played a prominent part in this period of his father's reign, marrying a number of the wives of his slain opponents (Gill 1984:212). Mamae (n.d.) listed six wives in his genealogies (including Raumea's messenger, Kārua), highlighting the extent of 'Īkoke's privileged position and explaining why his descendants were to become so prominent in the subsequent history of Ngāti Vara.

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The story of Īkoke suggests that before these duels between leading warriors, Mangaian battles involved what might be characterised as forms of psychological sparring, perhaps analogous to boxing opponents' pre-fight verbal jousting. The intention in both is undoubtedly to undermine the enemy's resolution and morale, so important an element in achieving victory (e.g., Keegan 1978:301-2). The first tactic involved both 'Īkoke and 'Āmai yelling their war cries at each other. This sort of yelling (probably using tribally specific cries, see below) may have been a common tactic. For example, the Mangaian war dance, the reru tāki, 6 which preceded fighting (as at Arerā) ended with “a wild prolonged yell” (Gill 1984:46).

On another occasion, the formidable mangaia, Ngāuta, prior to attacking his enemies whom he had come upon sleeping in a cave, raised “a terrible war-shout” before falling upon them, no doubt, adding to the awakened sleepers' confusion and terror (Gill 1984:85).As part of Mana'une's adoption into Ngāti Vara, Mautara accompanied his kinsman towards the tribe's waiting warriors (including his sons) “shouting to them with all his might” whereupon a mock fight began (Gill 1984:196). A Mangaian death custom provides further information on preliminary battle practices. Immediately after someone's death a messenger, or manu (bird), would go to the boundary of another district and give “the war-shout peculiar to these people” before indicating who had died (Gill 1876:268). Subsequently, the young men of the dead person's district would go and fight a mock battle with the young warriors from this other district in what was called “‘e teina no te puruki’” or, “‘a younger brother of war’” (Gill 1876:269). This involved both sides arraying themselves “as if for battle”, performing the war dance, then rushing at each other, “clashing their spears and wooden swords, as though in right earnest”, in order to defeat the “malignant spirits” (probably tuārangi) which had contributed to the death (Gill 1876:268). All these examples suggest that the fierce hand-to-hand combat of battles such as Tuāopapa were preceded by the use of tribal battle cries and fierce war dances intended to enhance one side's morale and to undermine the opponent's before the fighting was actually joined.

The most dramatic preliminary gesture was undoubtedly 'Īkoke's flaunting of his penis in front of the first rank of his enemies, where the most experienced warriors stood. 'Īkoke's posturing suggests strongly that his penis was erect; hence his call to 'Āmai and the other warriors to attempt to stab it. As the example of Taketake will show, among New Zealand Māori erect penes were considered favourable signs and closely associated with warriors and fighting (e.g., Reilly 1995:33). If 'Īkoke's confident display was able to weaken the resolve of the opposing front line, then the battle might be won before it had started. This was probably a common assumption because some fights did end with very little loss of life when one of the opposing parties fled the battlefield. For example, at Arerā the combined army of Ngāriki and Tepei carefully arranged their lines below the island's interior hills (Gill 1984:167), one benefit of which would be to permit a rapid retreat into its hidden refuges. At Pukuōto'i, the few food gatherers who survived had fled at the outset of the brief contest to the shelter of the surrounding rocks (Gill 1984:197).

'Īkoke's dramatic actions in undoing his loincloth highlights the place of provocative gestures in these preliminary verbal jousts. A similar gesture is mentioned in S.M. Kamakau's history of Kamehameha's seizure of Hawai'i when Kaha'i, distraught at the death of his elder brother, Kane-koa, laid aside his loin cloth and travelled “to challenge Kamehameha as a warrior” (Kamakau 1992:124). Kaha'i's dramatic act was intended, however, to arouse Kamehameha's pity (presumably at the sight of his naked elder kinsman) and to obtain his assistance in revenging the death of Kane-koa who, along with Kaha'i, had cared for Kamehameha when he was a child. Such actions and their accompanying forms of challenging language are not altogether surprising within a wider Polynesian culture distinguished for its oral arts, including the use of dramatic gesture and rhetoric.

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