#Andrew plays Socrates

[renaultphile]

"What is it about?" Phaedrus re-enters the narrative (TC re-read week 5)

At the beginning of this year's re-read, I thought it might be interesting to follow the Phaedrus as if it were a character in the book. Part one is here.

When Laurie finally gets out the Phaedrus again, he is alone, and he has sought out another location to read it, one from 'two operations back' before he knew Andrew. Their last encounter has been fraught to say the least (as we were discussing!)

While he is reading, Andrew creeps up on him and surprises him. The book serves as a test of Laurie's sincerity - Andrew couldn't believe he was really absorbed in the book and thought he was deliberately ignoring him. Laurie passes the test in part - he was genuinely absorbed, but he spends the rest of their conversation wishing Andrew would go away or fall asleep. He has been reading a passage all about mirrors, masks, and imitation, and the effects of being in love:

"He is in love, therefore, but with whom he cannot say; he does not know what has become of him, he cannot tell."

Andrew says by way of apology for being irritable,

"I don't know what's come over me, to make me behave like this."

No wonder Laurie is desperate not to reveal what he has been reading!

At this point I remember one of the key messages of the book and its biggest ironies - Socrates (as written by Plato) says that one shouldn't trust the written word, because one cannot interrogate it.

Andrew is not going to be given the opportunity to interrogate anything because Laurie initially hides the book altogether, then reveals only the most elusive hints at its content. Andrew, however, is a natural at Socratic questioning. He asks what the book is about, and Laurie, groping for something 'safe' to say, opts for rhetoric. Andrew merely remarks that Laurie doesn't seem like the kind of person who would be interested in that subject. Meanwhile, Laurie is trying desperately to be truthful and sincere with Andrew, and failing very badly.

Andrew really won't let up. He asks more about the book, and is not satisfied with Laurie's summary of it. When they move on to the analogy of the Charioteer, Laurie seems to read the book as poetry rather than philosophy. He seems to have fallen in love with the book as a fixed entity, for what it represents. Andrew on the other hand has already had to do some hard thinking and examine his moral choices.

Still none the wiser about the content and Laurie's thoughts on it, Andrew begins to interrogate the book itself and its provenance. He asks Laurie if he will lend it to him, Laurie forestalls him again with a false excuse about the state of it, and Andrew insists that does not matter. For a second time, Laurie ignores the message of the book he is reading. When Andrew says 'you needn't for me,' he is trying to connect on a deeper level, where appearances don't matter, and Laurie is resisting.

Finally, we hear those fateful words out of Andrew's mouth: 'Ralph Ross Lanyon', and another attempt to find out what the book means to him. Laurie over-does his denial of Ralph and Andrew responds by saying 'A lot of people would have just told me to mind my own business.'

In the end, Andrew says he will sleep for a bit and then tells him,

"Just forget about me. You looked so peaceful before I came disturbing you. Now you can get on with your book as if I weren't there."

Finally, Laurie can enjoy his book in peace, undisturbed by the real Andrew.

On one of their regular talks in the kitchen, Laurie attempts a bit of sophistry himself:

A cockroach scuttled into a crack behind the draining-board; he watched Andrew reach for a tin of Keatings and sprinkle the crack with it. "Does life stop being sacred," he asked, "when it gets down to cockroaches?" "Well, the Jains don't think so," said Andrew seriously. "But I never know how they meet the fact that our own bodies destroy millions of micro-organisms every day, without giving us any alternative to it except suicide. One has to draw the line where one sees it oneself." "Is that what you call the inner light?" "If you like, yes."

Andrew argues for individualism, not to impose his views on others, but for the right to make his own moral choices as he sees them. We don't find out if they ever discuss Plato again, but Laurie begins to carry the book around with him in his trouser pocket as he had done previously. We're not done with Plato yet…….not by a long chalk.

[a-rare-jewell]

Part 3

Cats the musical!

Done in order of what I believe to be their ages.

Part 1 ( other parts in reblogs)

[orgyporgy]

Have you ever considered teaching elementary students? I think you're awesome for being an educator.

I forgot to reply to this! Because the answer is long.

The short answer is, no.

Elementary school was never what I wanted, or pictured for myself, because when you are working with kids that age you really do have to parent them in a lot of ways.

Frankly, I wanted this job because I wanted to engage young minds in literary discourse the way I got to when I was in my honors and AP English classes. I like public speaking, I like school, I like working with kids, and I like poetry and literature. It seemed perfect!

Then I got the job, and all my classes were general ed/blended low level courses. The students in my classes hate school in general and English in particular. I learned to adapt - I wouldn’t be having the Socratic seminars or high level creative projects I had envisioned but that was ok, I could still make my content fun and interesting for my student population.

Then Covid happened, and we thoroughly lost the battle against phones/social media. A full two years of learning and socialization has been lost. Kids sit in my class and play on their phones out in the open as if they are sitting at home on their couch. Students are violent, with each other and with staff. Everyone is sick of me talking about it, but almost 100% of my male population are fans of Andrew Tate, and spout his talking points at other (female) students and staff.

I stopped focusing on my content and started focusing almost entirely on classroom management and basic expectations for English. Things like staying in your assigned seat, and capitalizing your own name on papers. Things I had specifically hoped I could avoid by working with older kids.

Then, this year, I was given my first GATE (Honors level) English class. They are high level learners and have almost zero behavioral issues. And I, as their teacher, am failing them. My content is nowhere near their standard of rigor. Their class average since September is a 96%. They ask me questions about reading and writing that I don’t know how to answer, because I haven’t thought about them in 6 years. I finally have the opportunity to engage critically with a student population over literature, the whole reason I wanted this job, and I’m completely blowing it.

So. Maybe I’m just not in the right place anymore.

[hiheyimhuy]

Movies/TV Shows

1 Roman Empire -Season 1 -Theme Funny -Golden Age

-Birthdays -Jayden Kouli Spring -Ian Spear Summer -Rex Woodbury Fall -Taylor Phillips Winter

-Jennie Mayer “Type 1” Insults -Arlene Williams “Type 2” Conversation -Tina Fey “Type 3” It’s Not Funny, But It Is Funny -Alison Kang “Type 4” Fighting

-Annie Bucher -Bayley Lichtenberg -Brenna Harrington -Briana Jackson -Carley Wood -Christine Baker -Ellie Hoekman -Emily Dugan -Emily Ross -Heather Bateman -Heather Stams -Jessie Torlai -Kailyn Pennock -Katie Fischbeck -Katie Theisen -Kirsten Brewer -Kristen Kemper -Kylie Barrett -Kyra Pennington -Lexi n Abby Klinkenberg -Meg Mullen -Meressa Mamon -Mia Torlai -Nicole Silver -Rebecca Nixon -Samantha Holler -Tahlia Carchedi 1/2 -Taylor Green 1/2 -Tessa Acay -Zoey Golden 1/2

-Austin From Gardenscapes -Kevin Hill

-Season 2 -Theme Suffering -50 Years After The Golden Age With New Complicated Rulers/King And Government Officials -Nice People -People Who Likes To Play Games -Hard Living -Ancient Technological Society -Consequences -Crimes -Passion of the Christ Roman Guards -Green River Teachers -Guys from Han Tinh Phan Kim Lien -Rating 100% -Jessica Clarke -Kelley Flanagan -Hannah Ann -Lindsey Allemeier -Julia Newell -Annika Brauer -Catherine Berner -Olivia Carlson -Louisa Dunwiddie -Emma Linde -Savannah Billedo -Danielle Brady -Jackie Robinson -Rachel Keyser -Angela Zhang -Megan Williams -Maia Lee -McKay Njos -Tylar Philpott -Vanessa Chukri -Dan Mitchell -Brett Goldstein -Brendan Welzien -Jackson Zariski -Adam Newton -Toro -Richard Ferguson -Jared -Royals Friends -Josh Brueckner -Katie Betzing -Matt Howard -Abby Howard -Charli D’amelio -Addison Rae -“Too Hot To Handle” IGTV video guys -Jacqueline Miller -Eileen Bruns -Johannes Huebl 2/3 -Matty Carrington -Franky Cammarata -Ben K Bowers -Colton Underwood -RJ King 2/3 -Graham Davis -Willem De Koch -Brian Pruett -Gigi Meyer  -Henry

-Hailey Napier -Blake Napier -Alex Knutson 2/3 -Elle Petschl -Sam Petschl -Anna Lynch -Ana Rae Miller -Brenna Hudson -Madeline Huletz -Claire Kennedy -Connell O’Brien -Max Tychsen -Dylan Inman -Austin Budke -Cameron Sackett -Elliot Knapp -John Mark Lambert -Colby Franklin -Season 3 -Theme Conquering -Depicts The Fall Of The Roman Empire -Combat Tactics -Strategies -In Places That Trigger Fear -“X Ambassadors - Renegades” Feel -Austin Olson -Chris Torlai -Kevin Hall -Matt Mead -Max Liebl -Nathan Lantz -Nathan Rodland -Oak Griffith -Sean Redmond -Stefan Andonian -Tanner Patnode -Travis McGuire -Wes Concepcion -Ben Affleck -Christian Bale -Tom Cruise -Cavill -Simon Pegg -Sam Quinby -Garrett Yrigoyen -Ben Higgins -Peter Weber -Jack Weber -Chris Harrison -Arie Luyendyk -Jason -Blake -Jared Haibon -Chris Soules -Jordan -David -Joe Sessa -Josh Canova -Graham Bennett -Kevin Park -Aaron Park -Julien Isnardon -Armie Hammer -Maurice Laab -Keegan Selby -Tyler Pichette -Season 4 -In Heaven With Henry And Malcolm

-Season 5 -Reunion Live “Maplestory - Ergoth’s Throne” “Maplestory - Orbis Tower” “Maplestory - Ludi PQ” -“Imagine Dragons - To Exist” 2 -“Imagine Dragons - Darkness Lies Above” 3 -“Imagine Dragons - Fear Is In Your Eyes” 3 -“Imagine Dragons - Only Way Across Is Cold Water” 3 -“Alesso - To Live Without Music” 1 -“Alesso - Watery Feels” 1/2 -“Bastille - What Keeps You Awake At Night” 2 -“Bastille - Every Time You Close Your Eyes” 2 -“Benny Blanco - The 4 Amigos” 1 -“The Chainsmokers - Wishing You Can Untouch” 2 -Might Change Title When I Have Time -“Charlie Puth - Day And Night Changes” 2 -“Coldplay - To Make You Wish You Don’t Have A Soul” 2 -“DNCE - The First To Arrive And Last To Leave” 1 -“Linkin Park - Rather Fall Than Surrender” 3 -“Kaskade - Your Voice Is All I Need” 1 -“Lana Del Rey - The “H” Word” 2 -“The Lumineers - A Cold Winter Morning” 2 -“Major Lazer - Gets You Off The Ground” 1 -“Major Lazer - Hard Bed, Soft Together” 1 -“OneRepublic - Rather Whisper Than Say” 1/2 -“Selena Gomez - Hope You Can Make It Back To Me” 3 -“Selena Gomez - I Need To Give You” 3 -“Shawn Mendes - If I Was Your First Lover” 1/2 -“Shawn Mendes - Fulfill Your Wishes” 1/2 -“Taylor Swift - February Missing You” 3 -“Taylor Swift - Waking Up And You’re Not Here” 3 -“Tove Lo - Roses In Water” 1 -“X Ambassadors - Repentance” 2/3 -“X Ambassadors - Remorses” 2/3 -“X Ambassadors - Regrets” 2/3 -“X Ambassadors - In The Woods” 3 -“X Ambassadors - No One To Be Found” 3 -“X Ambassadors - Only Nature Exists Now” 3 -“X Ambassadors - When You’re Lost” 3 -“2AM Club - I Still Remember You” 1

2 Killer -Henry Farm Childhood -Tom Cruise -Henry Cavill -Simon Pegg -Kelly Hu -Mila Kunis -Chiaki Kuriyama -Amy Johnston -Connell O’Brien -Yugioh Main Characters -Yugi -Joey -Bakura -Pegasus -Marik -Mai Valentine -Weevil -Rafael -Dartz -Charli D’amelio -Matt Howard -Alessandro Dellisola -Johannes Huebl -Sean O’Pry -Taylor Swift -Shawn Mendes -Girls Non-Killers -“Soft, Tender, Delicate” IGTV video -“Finger 11 - Paralyzer” IGTV video -Excluding Claire Miller -Abby Howard -Armie Hammer -Chace Crawford

3 Witches History on Earth -Malcolm in Heaven -Hocus Pocus -Vietnamese Girls -Trang Nguyen -Nguyen Ha My -Yen Nguyen -Written By Henry And Malcolm

4 Paris by Night in Modern Time -Presidents -Ben Affleck -Leonardo DiCaprio -1/4 Europeans -Brody Jenner -1/4 Asians -Japanese -Chiaki Kuriyama -Substitute -Cheyenne Stacey Powell -Administration -Nia Nguyen -Stephanie Che -The Bachelor Girls -The Bachelorette Girls -Clothes -Elementary And Middle School -Less Normal -High School -Fashion -College -Travel After College -Love

5 Ancient Forests -Josh Brueckner -Katie Betzing -“131 Tall Tree Guys” IGTV video -“Soft, Tender, Delicate” IGTV video -The Bachelor -The Bachelorette

6 Toys

7 Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD) -Inventions -Movable Type Printing (1041-1048 AD) -Gunpowder (1000 AD) -Compass (1100 AD) -Paper Money (11th century) -Arts -Music -Literature -Philosophy -Theme Romance -Marco Polo -Born in Venice -Silk Road -Visited China (1275-1292 AD) -Father and Uncle -Lingchi Torture -TVB Actors/Actresses -Kenneth Lam -Kacie Lo -Chloe Tsang -Clarissa Chan -Jessica Yi -Danny Shin -Joyce Lin -Shin -Alex Landi

8 Ancient Egypt -Theme Revenge, Ruling, Warfare -Pharaoh -Pyramids -Sphinx -Nile River -Farming -Hieroglyphics -New Kingdom (1570-1069 BCE) -Kings Are Called Pharaohs -Golden Age -Wealth -Prosperity -Power -Wars -Burned alive -Thrown into river with crocodiles -Charli/Dixie D’amelio -Addison Rae -“Roosevelt High School” IGTV video -Andrew Mead -Austin Perlatti -Bret Johnson -Carter Rey Johnson -Casey Manso -Christopher Wilson -Clay Barton -Colby Foss -Connor Bennett -Dalton Bond -Derek Pedersen -Hayden Njos -Jake Zylstra -Jared McAboy -Jeff Seid -Jett DiPalma -Jordan Kirkland -Ken Williams -Kevin Brown -Kevin Hall -Kevin Kennedy -Kramer Fairclough -Leo Trotz -Marco Amalfitano -Max Liebl -Michael Leverenz -Mike Suguro -Mitchell Booth -Nathan Lantz -Nathan Rodland -Matt Fisher -Nick Fisher -Nick Watson -Oak Griffith -Ozamataz Buckshank -Pabi Dhaliwal -Pat McGuire -Pierre Groenewald -Roddy Hanson -Ryan Johnson -Scott Andrew -Seth Gunning -Seth Shields -Sheldon Stober -Stephen Bishopp -Tanner Patnode -Taylor Tinney -Wes Concepcion -Zane McCanless -“Soft, Tender, Delicate” IGTV video -“INNA - Amazing” IGTV video -Elizabeth Rodland -Armie Hammer -Chace Crawford -Franky Cammarata -Johannes Huebl -Sean O’Pry -Blake Horstmann -Jan -Joe Sessa and his friends -Matt/Abby Howard -Taylor Dean -Kelley Flanagan -Jessica Clarke -Madison Prewett -Lindsey Allemeier -Katie Betzing -Ben Higgins -Hannah Ann -Ian Spear -Laguna Beach -Lauren -Kristin -Stephen -Talan -Jessica -Taylor -Adam Newton -Sean Lowe -Catherine Giudici -Brianne Schmidt -Connell O’Brien -Tyler Pichette -Hannah Brown -Max Tychsen -Dylan Inman -Tyler Cameron -Taylor Phillips

9 Mesopotamia -Daily Life -Learning To Be A Scribe -Ziggurat -One Of The Seven Wonders -Hanging Gardens -The Fertile Crescent -Invented The Plow -People Of The City-States -Nobles -Priests -Merchants -Scribes -Craftworkers -Free Farmers -Enslaved People -Farmers Who Did Not Own Their Land -Cut One Hand Off -Women’s Legal Status

10 Ancient Greece -Philosophers -Socrates -Plato -Aristotle -Mathematics/Science -Euclid -Archimedes -Eratosthenes -Hippocrates

11 Greek Gods/Goddesses -Athena, Goddess of Wisdom -Parthenon Temple

12 Alexander the Great

13 Medieval Europe (500-1500 AD) -Theme Suffering -Boiling -Baking -Burning -Brazen Bull -Cooking -Stretching Bones -Sleep Deprivation -Quartering -Children’s Crusades -Castles

14 Islam -Muhammad -Arabia -Persia -Pillars -Architecture -Learning -Astronomy -Algebra -Medicine -Mapmakers -1001 Nights Book

15 India In The Middle Centuries -Taj Mahal

16 Central/South America -Theme Coming of Age -Maya -Toltec -Aztec -Tenochtitlan -Teotihuacan -Olmec -Inca -Cotton -Maya Calendar -Maize Corn -Metal -Writing -Soccer -Rituals -Religious Ceremonies

17 Europe (1400-1750 AD) -Peasant Revolts -Wars -Renaissance -Coldplay -Exploration -North/South America -Slavery -Imperialism

18 Industrial Revolution (Late 1700s AD) -England

19 Nations in Conflict (1775-1921 AD) -Revolutions -Independence -Nationalism -Ending Ancient China

20 1900s Conflict -Hitler -Russia -Japan -Westernization -Communism -World War I -World War II -Cold War -Berlin Wall -Technology -Advancements -Independence -Space Race

21 1900s Fun -China -Shanghai -David Kangmeng -South Korea -Fashion -Music -Recreation -France -Coffee -Restaurants -Sex -Hugh Jackman -Germany -Hugh Jackman -Spain -Hugh Jackman -Great Britain -Hugh Jackman

22 United States 1970-1990 -Fraternity -Fun -Matt Damon

23 Adulthood in the United States -The Bachelor -The Bachelorette -City -Country -Jobs -Relationships -Financial Problems -Making It In Hollywood

24 Masculinity -Male To Male Friendships And Siblings -Domination -Dealing With Girls

25 Comedy PBN Part 2 “Spin Off” -Continues After “Paris By Night In Modern Time” -Age Around 30+ -Van Son Cast -Similar To “Adulthood in the United States” And “Virtues of Harmony II” But Different

26 Countryside “Que” In VN -Theme Suffering -Financial Problems -Hard Living -Making It As Singers -Dating Singers -Accidents -Human To Human Crimes -How To Get To The United States

27 Physical Buildings And Transportation -Thailand, Malaysia, And Singapore -Hotels -Motels -Apartments -Bars -Clubs -Supermalls -Supermarkets -Companies -Motorcycles -Taxis -Trains -Airports -Gambling

28 Companies And Corporations -India And The Middle East -Work Time -Play Time

29 Modeling -Brazil, Portugal, And Spain -Amazon Rainforest -Rio De Janeiro -Marcello Alvarez -Jobs -Pay Less -Require Effort -Tired -Time Consuming -High School Drop Out -Saving Money -Criminal Offenses -Competition

30 Hierarchy In Society -Mexico -Poor -Rich -Cartels -Illegal Immigration To The United States -MTV Reality And Game Shows -Cabo San Lucas -Travel To The Caribbean

31 Route To Antarctica -Theme Living With Air Pollution 1990s -Chile -Santiago -San Antonio -Argentina -Buenos Aires -Andes Mountains -Lake Titicaca -Atacama Desert -Tierra Del Fuego -Tip Of South America -Cape Horn -Herding Farm Animals -Biking

32 High School In Vietnam -Movie Length Duration -Fun During School -Hard Times Outside Of School

33 United States Road Trip -Washington -Oregon -California to East Coast -Variety Of Climates -Route 66

34 Girl Pornstars -Hot Girls -Hard Past -Family -Friendships -Relationships -School -Money -On The Street -Need Food -Need House -Need Home -Models -Real -Instagram -Victoria’s Secrets -Pornstars -Feelings -Resentful -Fearful -Anxious -Apprehensive -Insecure -Suspicious -Trust -Travel -Making It In The Porn Industry

35 Guy Pornstars -Straight Guys -Gay/Bi Guys -Henry Pheet -Malcolm -Random Grindr Hookups -Travel -Making It In The Porn Industry Leonardo DiCaprio Robert De Nero John Travolta Tom Cruise Henry Cavill Simon Pegg Christian Bale Hugh Jackman Keanu Reeves Edward Norton Sean Connery Matt Damon Mel Gibson George Clooney Tom Hardy Orlando Bloom Guy Pearce Heath Ledger Robert Redford Paul Newman Scarlett Johansson Rachel McAdams Amanda Bynes Japan -1900s WWI/II -Westernization South Korea -1990s K-POP China -Song Dynasty -Ending Ancient China -1900s Beijing Vietnam -School In United States -Travel -Love -Comedy -Countryside “Que” Thailand, Malaysia, And Singapore -Physical Buildings And Transportation Drama India -The Middle Centuries Taj Mahal -Companies And Corporations The Middle East -Companies And Corporations Europe -Medieval -Renaissance -Exploration -Imperialism Italy -Roman Empire France -1900s Great Britain -Industrial Revolution Mexico -“Hierarchy In Society” Brazil -Modeling Portugal -Modeling Spain -Modeling

[uppastthejelliclemoon]

☕️ movie stars headlining film adaptations of musicals.

i have really mixed feelings about this

Sometimes, they can be done right, and be done INCREDIBLY well:

The 2007 version of “Hairspray” continues to be one of my favorite musical-to-film adaptations. The cast was incredible, the way they played the characters was perfect, and Queen Latifa, Elijah Kelly, and James Marsden still have my favorite songs of the movie, as well as my favorite performances.

- Likewise, “Sweeney Todd”, the 2007 film, was incredibly well done. Johnny Depp was an INCREDIBLE Sweeney, Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen were amazing, and overall, and don’t even get me started on Alan Rickman. It's one of my favorite musical adaptations.

Then you have the in-betweens:

“Into the Woods”, for the most part, was semi-enjoyable. Emily Blunt was a beautiful Baker’s Wife, Chris Pine and Billy Magnussen were hilarious as the two princes, and Christine Baranski, as always, was wonderful. Additionally, though it was a brief scene, Johnny Depp was, again, incredible as the wolf. However, the other performances felt lackluster, and not as impressive, particularly Meryl Streep’s performance as the Witch, in my opinion.

I personally loved Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway in “Les Mis”. Hathaway’s version of “I Dreamed A Dream” made me cry in theaters, and Hugh playing Valjean is everything I could have ever wanted. However, in the same movie, Russell Crowe and Amanda Seyfried left a lot to be desired, especially Crowe’s performance as Javert. (i’m not mentioning any of the stage performers, such as Aaron Tveit or Samantha Banks, because i think their performances were utter perfection)(also, like in Sweeney Todd, Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen were amazing).

“The Prom” is difficult to judge. Ryan Murphy made it so much about the Broadway actors (DeeDee and Barry), that we never really got a chance to know Emma or Alyssa. While I’m not going to judge Jo Ellen Pellman, as I think she did the best with what Ryan Murphy changed, I do wish the movie had stayed true to the stage musical. Ariana DeBose and Jo Ellen Pellman could have done wonders with Alyssa and Emma’s story, but instead, James Corden took front and center once again, and really made Barry feel like the protagonist. 

I didn’t particularly enjoy his performance, and I do wish Brooks Ashmanskas could have reprised his role as Barry in the film.

One of the saving graces of the movie was, obviously, Andrew Rannels as Trent, but I won’t talk much about him as he is a Broadway actor.

This movie would have been the perfect opportunity to give unemployed Broadway actors a chance, or perhaps even have the OBC reprise their roles, but unfortunately, and quite ironically, the film went from being all about Emma and Alyssa (as it should have been), to making the focus the two Broadway Actors who were literally called narcissists at the beginning of the film.

i’m sorry i have strong feelings about “The Prom”

Then they can be just plain awful:

“Cats” is an obvious thumbs-down for the way it was done. That is a show where almost all the actors should have a strong Broadway background. While some of the major stars had entertaining performances (Jason Derulo, for one, was actually quite a wonderful Tugger in my opinion, and I did love Les Twins as Plato and Socrates), all the others fell flat when compared to Robbie, Steven, and Francesca.(Laurie is the exception. His Misto did end up becoming very endearing). Had they made most of the major cats Broadway actors, I think the movie could have been much more enjoyable, and much more respected, since they wouldn’t have particular cast members making fun of it.

So yes, musical-to-movie adaptations can be done correctly and still feature movie stars, but they can also be done horribly. 

I definitely think it depends on who the actors are, and who the directors are, because that will absolutely play into it.

in conclusion, Tom Hooper should never be allowed to touch another musical again and James Corden should stop being cast in musical-to-film adaptations

[birb-tangleblog]

I know the idea of Adira and Hector breaking Varian out of prison has been appealing to many people. For me, I not only like the idea because so Adira and Hector can show off their knightly skills, but we now know Varian was being used by Andrew in prison. Adira and Hector would also have to convince Varian to leave Andrew and join them. I think they would succeed. It’s an interesting idea to ponder. Like Andrew, they could be allies to Varian when he had none. Any thoughts on this idea?

Hmmm! Honestly, I think it'd be possible to play with character interpretations and motivations so that either of them would want to rescue Varian separately, but both of them having a reason to be working together at that point in the story is challenging to envision for me. 

They're both so focused on their goals, I think he'd have to fit in with them for either to go out of their way. Like, Adira's trying to guide the party to get the sundrop to the DK, and she needs them to trust her; it wouldn't be in her best interest to break out an enemy of the princess and bring him along unless she had a pragmatic reason.

EVEN WITH THAT SAID THO

Hector's kind of unpredictable and has some strange ideas about loyalty, so maybe if he learned about the situation WITH Quirin's son, he'd want to help. And honesly, he might also see potential in Varian as a second generation member of the Brotherhood.

Moon powers AUs are pretty common, and I can also see that synergizing well w/ them working together; if Adira thought he could potentially interact with the moonstone and was needed on the journey, she might insist on bringing him. And Hector ostensibly doesn't believe in the sundrop, but I wonder if he'd be more accepting of a human with powers that come from the moonstone, which he very much knows exists?

ANYWAY, I feel like Adira would be a lot more Socratic in her approach to getting Varian to leave with them- asking questions, challenging him, encouraging him to come to his own conclusions. She'd let Varian (mostly) make his own choice about staying in Corona w/ the Saporians, or coming along with her into unknown territory. Idk if Hector would be that patient and hands-off. Like, just grab the boy, bust out, ask questions later.

Him getting rescued post-SotSD, as opposed to before then but after the midseason, would also be interesting. He has a long time to introspect and make realizations during S2... without that he'd be in a much more volatile, anger-driven place, and probably more irrational and difficult to deal with.

In general, I think he'd be scared of them but awed by their skills, thrilled to learn more about his dad's history, but hurt that he's learning about it second-hand b/c his father didn't trust him enough to share it before. I think both of them might treat him as more of an adult than he rly is at that point- expecting more from him, seeing him as independent and his own person now that his father's gone, and giving him increasing amounts of responsibility.

Among the three of them, I can see there being disagreements about whether or not Quirin is dead- we didn't see this AT ALL in canon, but I love the idea it's something the other Brotherhood would've struggled with in their own way. Varian stubbornly maintaining that he's alive when they want to grieve could lead to fights. Maybe not with Adira, b/c I think she’s pretty restrained, but Hector has a shorter fuse. 

Maybe Varian would even be mad at Adira for not turning up and intervening earlier, since she knew about the rocks and theorized about Raps' power before?

Ofc, that's not to say I don't think all of them wouldn't develop a close bond! If H + A were working together and Varian was allied with them, I can see Varian wanting to be officially initiated into the Brotherhood proper, especially b/c he tends to imitate people he admires. ...There  might be some disagreements over what his oath would be given the... ideology diffs btwn them, but I think Varian would see it as "learn about the sun/moon lore and save the world from the moonstone and black rocks at any cost".

Them working together and Varian staying relevant to the main plot would drastically change the course of S2, but I think I’ve rambled enough here lmao

[arcticdementor]

In Chapter 5 of The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli describes three options for how a conquering power might best treat those it has defeated in war. The first is to ruin them; the second is to rule directly; the third is to create “therein a state of the few which might keep it friendly to you.”

The example Machiavelli gives of the last is the friendly government Sparta established in Athens upon defeating it after 27 years of war in 404 BCE. For the upper caste of an Athenian elite already contemptuous of democracy, the city’s defeat in the Peloponnesian War confirmed that Sparta’s system was preferable. It was a high-spirited military aristocracy ruling over a permanent servant class, the helots, who were periodically slaughtered to condition them to accept their subhuman status. Athenian democracy by contrast gave too much power to the low-born. The pro-Sparta oligarchy used their patrons’ victory to undo the rights of citizens, and settle scores with their domestic rivals, exiling and executing them and confiscating their wealth.

The Athenian government disloyal to Athens’ laws and contemptuous of its traditions was known as the Thirty Tyrants, and understanding its role and function helps explain what is happening in America today.

For my last column I spoke with The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman about an article he wrote more than a decade ago, during the first year of Barack Obama’s presidency. His important piece documents the exact moment when the American elite decided that democracy wasn’t working for them. Blaming the Republican Party for preventing them from running roughshod over the American public, they migrated to the Democratic Party in the hopes of strengthening the relationships that were making them rich.

A trade consultant told Friedman: “The need to compete in a globalized world has forced the meritocracy, the multinational corporate manager, the Eastern financier and the technology entrepreneur to reconsider what the Republican Party has to offer. In principle, they have left the party, leaving behind not a pragmatic coalition but a group of ideological naysayers.”

In the more than 10 years since Friedman’s column was published, the disenchanted elite that the Times columnist identified has further impoverished American workers while enriching themselves. The one-word motto they came to live by was globalism—that is, the freedom to structure commercial relationships and social enterprises without reference to the well-being of the particular society in which they happened to make their livings and raise their children.

Undergirding the globalist enterprise was China’s accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001. For decades, American policymakers and the corporate class said they saw China as a rival, but the elite that Friedman described saw enlightened Chinese autocracy as a friend and even as a model—which was not surprising, given that the Chinese Communist Party became their source of power, wealth, and prestige. Why did they trade with an authoritarian regime and send millions of American manufacturing jobs off to China thereby impoverish working Americans? Because it made them rich. They salved their consciences by telling themselves they had no choice but to deal with China: It was big, productive, and efficient and its rise was inevitable. And besides, the American workers hurt by the deal deserved to be punished—who could defend a class of reactionary and racist ideological naysayers standing in the way of what was best for progress?

…

A decade ago, no one would’ve put NBA superstar LeBron James and Apple CEO Tim Cook in the same family album, but here they are now, linked by their fantastic wealth owing to cheap Chinese manufacturing (Nike sneakers, iPhones, etc.) and a growing Chinese consumer market. The NBA’s $1.5 billion contract with digital service provider Tencent made the Chinese firm the league’s biggest partner outside America. In gratitude, these two-way ambassadors shared the wisdom of the Chinese Communist Party with their ignorant countrymen. After an an NBA executive tweeted in defense of Hong Kong dissidents, social justice activist King LeBron told Americans to watch their tongues. “Even though yes, we do have freedom of speech,” said James, “it can be a lot of negative that comes with it.”

Because of Trump’s pressure on the Americans who benefited extravagantly from the U.S.-China relationship, these strange bedfellows acquired what Marxists call class consciousness—and joined together to fight back, further cementing their relationships with their Chinese patrons. United now, these disparate American institutions lost any sense of circumspection or shame about cashing checks from the Chinese Communist Party, no matter what horrors the CCP visited on the prisoners of its slave labor camps and no matter what threat China’s spy services and the People’s Liberation Army might pose to national security. Think tanks and research institutions like the Atlantic Council, the Center for American Progress, the EastWest Institute, the Carter Center, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and others gorged themselves on Chinese money. The world-famous Brookings Institution had no scruples about publishing a report funded by Chinese telecom company Huawei that praised Huawei technology.

…

But if Donald Trump saw decoupling the United States from China as a way to dismantle the oligarchy that hated him and sent American jobs abroad, he couldn’t follow through on the vision. After correctly identifying the sources of corruption in our elite, the reasons for the impoverishment of the middle classes, and the threats foreign and domestic to our peace, he failed to staff and prepare to win the war he asked Americans to elect him to fight.

And because it was true that China was the source of the China Class’ power, the novel coronavirus coming out of Wuhan became the platform for its coup de grace. So Americans became prey to an anti-democratic elite that used the coronavirus to demoralize them; lay waste to small businesses; leave them vulnerable to rioters who are free to steal, burn, and kill; keep their children from school and the dying from the last embrace of their loved ones; and desecrate American history, culture, and society; and defame the country as systemically racist in order to furnish the predicate for why ordinary Americans in fact deserved the hell that the elite’s private and public sector proxies had already prepared for them.

For nearly a year, American officials have purposefully laid waste to our economy and society for the sole purpose of arrogating more power to themselves while the Chinese economy has gained on America’s. China’s lockdowns had nothing to do with the difference in outcomes. Lockdowns are not public health measures to reduce the spread of a virus. They are political instruments, which is why Democratic Party officials who put their constituents under repeated lengthy lockdowns, like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, are signaling publicly that it is imperative they be allowed to reopen immediately now that Trump is safely gone.

That Democratic officials intentionally destroyed lives and ended thousands of them by sending the ill to infect the elderly in nursing homes is irrelevant to America’s version of the Thirty Tyrants. The job was to boost coronavirus casualties in order to defeat Trump and they succeeded. As with Athens’ anti-democratic faction, America’s best and brightest long ago lost its way. At the head of the Thirty Tyrants was Critias, one of Socrates’ best students, a poet and dramatist. He may have helped save Socrates from the regime’s wrath, and yet the philosopher appears to have regretted that his method, to question everything, fed Critias’ sweeping disdain for tradition. Once in power, Critias turned his nihilism on Athens and destroyed the city.

…

The chief publicist of the post-Cold War order was Francis Fukuyama, who in his 1992 book The End of History argued that with the fall of the Berlin Wall Western liberal democracy represented the final form of government. What Fukuyama got wrong after the fall of the Berlin Wall wasn’t his assessment of the strength of political forms; rather it was the depth of his philosophical model. He believed that with the end of the nearly half-century-long superpower standoff, the historical dialectic pitting conflicting political models against each other had been resolved. In fact, the dialectic just took another turn.

Just after defeating communism in the Soviet Union, America breathed new life into the communist party that survived. And instead of Western democratic principles transforming the CCP, the American establishment acquired a taste for Eastern techno-autocracy. Tech became the anchor of the U.S.-China relationship, with CCP funding driving Silicon Valley startups, thanks largely to the efforts of Dianne Feinstein, who, after Kissinger, became the second-most influential official driving the U.S.-CCP relationship for the next 20 years.

…

Nearly every major American industry has a stake in China. From Wall Street—Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley— to hospitality. A Marriott Hotel employee was fired when Chinese officials objected to his liking a tweet about Tibet. They all learned to play by CCP rules.

“It’s so pervasive, it’s better to ask who’s not tied into China,” says former Trump administration official Gen. (Ret.) Robert Spalding.

Unsurprisingly, the once-reliably Republican U.S. Chamber of Commerce was in the forefront of opposition to Trump’s China policies—against not only proposed tariffs but also his call for American companies to start moving critical supply chains elsewhere, even in the wake of a pandemic. The National Defense Industrial Association recently complained of a law forbidding defense contractors from using certain Chinese technologies. “Just about all contractors doing work with the federal government,” said a spokesman for the trade group, “would have to stop.”

…

Apple, Nike, and Coca Cola even lobbied against the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. On Trump’s penultimate day in office, his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the United States has “determined that the People’s Republic of China is committing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, China, targeting Uyghur Muslims and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups.” That makes a number of major American brands that use forced Uyghur labor—including, according to a 2020 Australian study, Nike, Adidas, Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and General Motors—complicit in genocide.

The idea that countries that scorn basic human and democratic rights should not be directly funded by American industry and given privileged access to the fruits of U.S. government-funded research and technology that properly belongs to the American people is hardly a partisan idea—and has, or should have, little to do with Donald Trump. But the historical record will show that the melding of the American and Chinese elites reached its apogee during Trump’s administration, as the president made himself a focal point for the China Class, which had adopted the Democratic Party as its main political vehicle. That’s not to say establishment Republicans are cut out of the pro-China oligarchy—Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell’s shipbuilder billionaire father-in-law James Chao has benefited greatly from his relationship with the CCP, including college classmate Jiang Zemin. Gifts from the Chao family have catapulted McConnell to only a few slots below Feinstein in the list of wealthiest senators.

Riding the media tsunami of Trump hatred, the China Class cemented its power within state institutions and security bureaucracies that have long been Democratic preserves—and whose salary-class inhabitants were eager not to be labeled as “collaborators” with the president they ostensibly served. Accommodation with even the worst and most threatening aspects of the Chinese communist regime, ongoing since the late 1990s, was put on fast-forward. Talk about how Nike made its sneakers in Chinese slave labor camps was no longer fashionable. News that China was stealing American scientific and military secrets, running large spy rings in Silicon Valley and compromising congressmen like Eric Swalwell, paying large retainers to top Ivy League professors in a well-organized program of intellectual theft, or in any way posed a danger to its own people or to its neighbors, let alone to the American way of life, were muted and dismissed as pro-Trump propaganda.

…

There is a good reason why lockdowns—quarantining those who are not sick—had never been previously employed as a public health measure. The leading members of a city, state, or nation do not imprison its own unless they mean to signal that they are imposing collective punishment on the population at large. It had never been used before as a public health measure because it is a widely recognized instrument of political repression.

…

China had cultivated many friends in the American press, which is why the media relays Chinese government statistics with a straight face—for instance that China, four times the size of the United States, has suffered 1/100th the number of COVID-19 fatalities. But the key fact is this: In legitimizing CCP narratives, the media covers not primarily for China but for the American class that draws its power, wealth, and prestige from China. No, Beijing isn’t the bad guy here—it’s a responsible international stakeholder. In fact, we should follow China’s lead. And by March, with Trump’s initial acquiescence, American officials imposed the same repressive measures on Americans used by dictatorial powers throughout history to silence their own people.

Eventually, the pro-China oligarchy would come to see the full range of benefits the lockdowns afforded. Lockdowns made leading oligarchs richer—$85 billion richer in the case of Bezos alone—while impoverishing Trump’s small-business base. In imposing unconstitutional regulations by fiat, city and state authorities normalized autocracy. And not least, lockdowns gave the American establishment a plausible reason to give its chosen candidate the nomination after barely one-third of the delegates had chosen, and then keep him stashed away in his basement for the duration of the Presidential campaign. And yet in a sense, Joe Biden really did represent a return to normalcy in the decadeslong course of U.S.-China relations.

…

What seems clear is that Biden’s inauguration marks the hegemony of an American oligarchy that sees its relationship with China as a shield and sword against their own countrymen. Like Athens’ Thirty Tyrants, they are not simply contemptuous of a political system that recognizes the natural rights of all its citizens that are endowed by our creator; they despise in particular the notion that those they rule have the same rights they do. Witness their newfound respect for the idea that speech should only be free for the enlightened few who know how to use it properly. Like Critias and the pro-Sparta faction, the new American oligarchy believes that democracy’s failures are proof of their own exclusive right to power—and they are happy to rule in partnership with a foreign power that will help them destroy their own countrymen.

What does history teach us about this moment? The bad news is that the Thirty Tyrants exiled notable Athenian democrats and confiscated their property while murdering an estimated 5% of the Athenian population. The good news is that their rule lasted less than a year.

[sisilafami]

2019

Rap:

Sada Baby - Fall Youtubes / Whoop Tape Young Nudy - Faded In The Booth LUCKI - Freewave 3 Playboi Carti - Leaks Compilation Lil Keed - Long Live Mexico PG RA - Blowing Candles YNW Melly - We All Shine Goonew - Back From Hell Xanman - Broken Mo Money & Nuk - Diamonds and Dog Shy Glizzy - Covered N Blood Baby Smoove - Flawless Roddy Ricch - Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial Borleone - Hard to Kill Chief Keef - GloToven Teejayx6 - The Swipe Lessons Polo G - Die A Legend Queen Key - Eat My Pussy Again 70th Street Carlos - Win or Lose HOOK - I love you, Hook Lil Gray - Swipe Jesus Earl Sweatshirt - Feet Of Clay Thouxanbanfauni & UnoTheActivist - For Christ Sake 2 Tree - WE Grown NOW Babyface Ray - MIA Season 2 Sauce Walka - Sauce Ghetto Gospel 2 SOB X RBE - Strictly Only Brothers

HM :

03 Greedo - Netflix & Deal / Meet The Drummers AzChike - Rich & Ratchet Baby Smoove - Purple Heart / Baby BandGang Jizzle P & BandGang Javar - Codefendants Blade Icewood - Diamond Chain BlocBoy JB - I Am Me DaBaby - Baby On Baby Damedot - The Umbrella Damjonboi - Super Saiyan Denzel Curry - ZUU Goonew - Goonwick 2 Gunna - Drip or Drown 2 Flee & StoopidXool - XOOL SUMMER Kelow LaTesha - TSA Keydo Foolfunk - Jeter Lucki - Days B4 III Mach-Hommy - Wap Konn Jòj! MIKE - Tears of Joy Navy Blue - Gangway For Navy NoCap - The Hood Dictionary Quelle Chris - Guns Rio Da Yung Og & RMC Mike - Dumb And Dumb3r Rio Da Yung Og - 2 Faced Roc Marciano -The Prequel Rucci - Tako's Son Sada Baby - Bartier Bounty ShittyBoyz - 3-Peat Veeze - Navy Wavy Young Nudy - Sli'merre

R&B:

Kehlani - While We Wait Summer Walker - Over It Solange - When I Get Home

Contemporary:

Lionel Marchetti - Jeu du monde Toshiya Tsunoda - Extract From Field Recording Archive : Reflection-Revisiting Yvan Etienne - Twist Michael Pisaro - Achilles-Socrates-Diotima (The Poem of Names-No. 2) Eva-Maria Houben - Haiku for 11; Die Himmelsmechanik for Orchestra Apartment House play Messiaen & Linda Catlin Smith Antoine Beuger - ... Of Being Numerous Andrew Lafkas - Two Paths With Active Shadows Under Three Moons And Surveillance Eva-Maria Houben, Ernesto Rodrigues & Guilherme Rodrigues - The Haecceity of Things Sophie Delafontaine - Accord ouvert Klein - Lifetime Jean-Philippe Gross & Stéphane Garin - Dénombrement Speaker Music - Of desire, longing Agostino di Scipio - Works for Strings and Live Electronics Thomas Tilly - A Semiotic Survey Jean-Philippe Gross - Curling Shots - Private Hate Kaija Saariaho - Graal Théâtre, Circle Map, Neiges, Vers toi qui es si loin Jakob Ullmann - Fremde Zeit Addendum 5 Jana Winderen - Pasvikdalen Anne-F Jacques & Ryoko Akama - Without Anne-F Jacques, Ryoko Akama, Takamitsu Ohta - The Magic City Kate Carr - City Of Bridges

Digital Beats:

Cakedog - Doggystyle DJ Nigga Fox - Cartas Na Manga Proc Fiskal - Shleekit Doss Abdu Ali - Fiyah!!! Body Meat - Truck Music Various - PDA compilation vol.1 - And the beat goes on Pat - Love Will Find a Way Home

Nice forms:

Brannten Schnüre - Erinnerungen An Gesichter Vilod - The Clouds Know Tujiko Noriko - Kuro (OST) New World Science - Osmos (Movements) Ben Vince - Don't Give Your Life Lifted - 2 Definitely Miami - Definitely Miami Angel Bat Dawid - The Oracle Visible Cloaks, Yoshio Ojima & Satsuki Shibano - serenitatem Oren Ambarchi - Simian Angel RAP - Export G.S. Schray - First Appearance

Techno /House?:

Topdown Dialectic - Vol. 2 NKISI - 7 Directions Zigtrax - Zigtrax Special Occasion - Ibiza Redux Madteo - Dropped Out Sunshine Dubharp - Dubharp Sa Pa - In a Landscape Hieroglyphic Being - Synth Expressionism-Rhythmic Cubism Tribe Of Colin - Age of Aquarius Kaspi & Stride - Leanings

Pop?:

100 gecs - 1000 gecs Charli XCX - Charli Triad God - Triad Ariana Grande - thank u, next Taylor Swift - Lover Hannah Diamond - Reflections

New Old:

Milano - The Believers Pablo's Eye - Dark Matter Solar X - Xrated TRjj - Music Compilation 12 Dances Ruedi Häusermann - Galerie Randolph Inoyama Land - Commissions 1977-2000 The Hers - Tough Cunt Karl Lindh - Bortom E4's Horrisont Various Artists - Outro Tempo II Electronic and Contemporary Music From Brazil, 1984-1996 F.J. - That's The Way Attilio - Art Takes a Holiday

[innuendostudios]

We’re talking about adventure games again! Or, more accurately, we’re speaking in the context of adventure games about why some genres are hard to define, different ways of thinking about genre, and what genre is even for.

If you'd like to see more work like this, please back me on Patreon! Transcript below the cut.

Hi! Welcome back to Who Shot Guybrush Threepwood? Meditations on the life, death, and rebirth of the adventure game.

Adventure game.

Adventure game.

Ad. Ven. Ture. Game.

What kind of name is that, “adventure game”? It’s an atypical way of categorizing video games, I’ll say that much. We usually give game genres titles like "first-person shooter," "real time strategy," “turn-based role-playing game.” Real nuts-and-bolts kinda stuff. Meanwhile, "adventure" seemingly belongs on a turnstyle of airport paperbacks, in between "mystery" and "romance." When they slap that word on a game box, what is it supposed to communicate to us?

Other one-word genres, I can see how they get their name. A horror game is horrifying, a fighting game earns its title. But how is exploring an empty, suburban house an adventure? Why is exploring a universe not?

When I started this series, I offered up the rough-and-tumble definition of adventure game, “puzzles and plots,” and said maybe we’ll come up with a better definition later. That was… four years ago. Sorry about that. I know it’s a little late, and a lot has changed, but I did promise. So we’re gonna do it.

Today’s question is: What makes an adventure game an adventure game?

This is a tricky sort of question to ask, because, upon asking, we might stumble down the highway to “what makes an adventure novel an adventure novel?”, “what makes a rail shooter not an RPG?”, and that road inevitably terminates with “what even is genre?”, the answer to which is a bit beyond the scope of a YouTube video essay… or, it would be on anyone else’s channel, but this is Innuendo Studios. We’ll take the long road.

Welcome to Who Shot Guybrush Threepwood? A philosophical interrogation into the meaning of genre in and beyond the gaming idiom, with the adventure game as our guide.

***

The historical perspective reveals only so much, but it is a place to begin.

If you don’t know the story, in 1976, Will Crowther released Colossal Cave Adventure, a text-based story game set in an underground land loosely based on a real Kentucky cave system. The game would describe what was happening in a given location, and players would type simple commands to perform tasks and progress the narrative, usually a verb linked to a noun like a book that writes itself and responds to directives. This was the first of what we’ve come to call “interactive fiction.”

Crowther’s game - often abbreviated, simply, Adventure - inspired a number similar titles, most famously Zork, which was called an “adventure game” for the same reason Rise of the Triad was called a “Doom clone” - because they were more or less mechanically identical to the games they descended from. This is where the genre gets its title.

But the evolution from then to now has been oddly zero-sum, every addition a subtraction. As more and more adventure games came out, the text descriptions were eventually replaced with graphics, still images replaced with animations, the parser replaced with a verb list, and the keyboard itself replaced with a mouse. In the progression of Zork to Mystery House to King’s Quest to Maniac Mansion to Monkey Island, you can see how each link in the chain is a logical progression from the game preceding and into the one that follows. But you end up with a genre that began comprised entirely of words on a screen but that, by the early 90’s, typically possessed but did not, strictly speaking, require language. There is no question wordless experiences like Dropsy and Kairo are direct descendents of Monkey Island and Myst; that they are therefore in the same genre as Wishbringer, despite zero obvious mechanical overlap, is, for a medium that typically names its genres after their mechanics… weird.

(Also, for anyone confused: Nintendo used to delineate games that explored a continuous world from games that leapt across a series of discrete levels by calling the latter “platformers” and the former “adventures,” and an earlier game in that model was the Atari game Adventure, which was, itself, a graphical adaptation of the Crowther original, so what 90’s kids think of when they hear “a game in the style of Adventure” depends on whether they played on computer or console, but that lineage eventually embraced the even fuzzier “action-adventure” and is not what we’re here to discuss.)

So the connection between the genre’s beginnings and its current incarnation is less mechanical than philosophical. Spiritual, even. Something connects this to this, and we’re here to pin down what.

Now, you may be readying to say, “Ian, it’s clear the determinant of what is or isn’t an adventure game is pure association and there is no underlying logic, you don’t need to think this hard about everything,” which, ha ha, you must be new here. I would counter that, as soon as a genre has a name, people will (not entirely on purpose) start placing parameters around what they consider part of that genre. Even if it’s just association, there is some method to which associations matter and which ones don’t. So shush, we’re trying to have a conversation.

***

Another one-word genre named after a philosophical connection to a single game is the roguelike, christened after 1980’s Rogue. And, in 2008, members of the International Roguelike Development Conference in Berlin set about trying to define the genre. (I promise I’m not just going to summarize that one episode of Game Maker’s Toolkit.) Attendees began with a corpus of five games that, despite not yet having an agreed-upon definition, were, unequivocally, roguelikes, an attitude roughly analogous with the Supreme Court’s classification of pornography: “even if I can’t define it, I know it when I see it.” And, from these five games, they attempted to deduce what makes a roguelike a roguelike.

So perhaps we can follow their example. We’ll take a corpus of five games and see what they have in common. How about The Secret of Monkey Island, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, Myst, Beneath a Steel Sky, and Trinity? All five visually and mechanically dissimilar - three third-person and two-dimensional, one first-person and three-dimensional, and one second-person and made of text (no-dimensional?) - yet no one would dispute they’re all adventure games.

Okay! We can see a lot of common features: dialogue trees, inventory, fetch quests. But here’s the rub: to define the genre by the first two would be to leave out Myst, and defining it by the third would leave out Gabriel Knight, and, honestly, any one of these would exclude LOOM, which I think anyone who’s played one would look at and say, “I know an adventure game when I see one.”

For the sake of inclusivity, we could go broad, as I did with my “puzzles and plots,” and, while this does include everything on our list, it also, unavoidably, includes games that provoke the wrong reaction, like Portal - “I know a puzzle-shooter when I see one” - and Inside - “I know a puzzle-platformer when I see one.” Trying to draw a line around everything that is an adventure game while excluding everything that is not is no easy feat.

The best adventure game definitions are written in a kind of legalese; Andrew Plotkin and Clara Fernandez-Vara have both tackled this, I would say, quite well, with a lot of qualifications and a number of additional paragraphs that specify what counts as “unique results” and “object manipulation.” It takes a lot of words! And no disrespect - I can’t have an opinion in less than twenty minutes anymore - but I can’t help thinking we could go about this a different way.

What the Berliners cooked up in 2008 was, instead of a lengthily-worded definition, a list of high- and low-value factors a game may have. The absence of any one was not disqualifying, but the more it could lay claim to the more a game was… Rogue-like. These were features that could exist in any game, in any genre, but when they clustered together the Berliners drew a circle around them and say, “the roguelike is somewhere in here.”

A central idea here is that the borders are porous. If we apply this thinking to the adventure game, we could say that Inside and Portal are not lacking in adventure-ish gameplay; they simply have too low a concentration of it to be recognized as one.

This is genre not as a binary, but as a pattern of behavior.

***

So, to unpack that a little, I’m going to use an allegory, and, before I do, I want you to know: I’m sorry.

In 2014, professor and lecturer Dr. Marianna Ritchey, as a thought experiment demonstrating the socratic method (I’m sorry), hypothesized a conversation between Socrates and Euthyphro (I’m sorry) in which Socrates posed the internet’s second-favorite argument: is a hotdog a sandwich? (I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. We’re doing sandwich discourse.)

Ritchey imagined Socrates asking Euthyphro to define “sandwich,” and sparking the dialectic in which Euthyphro offers up increasingly-specific definitions of “sandwich” and Socrates challenges each one with something non-sandwich that would necessarily fall under that definition: is a hotdog a sandwich? is a taco a sandwich? are three slices of bread a sandwich?

Now, in this scenario, Socrates is - as is his wont - being a bit of a tool. Euthyphro does all the work of coming up with these long, legalistic definitions and, with one, single exception, Socrates sends him back to square one. But Socrates is making a point, (or, rather, Ritchey is): can we really claim to know what a sandwich is, if we can’t explain why it’s a sandwich? Perhaps we should admit the limits of our common sense. Perhaps we should embrace the inherent uncertainty of knowledge.

Or perhaps we could tell Socrates to stop having flame wars and think like a Berliner.

Does “sandwich vs. not-sandwich” have to be a binary? Could we not argue that a sandwich has many qualities, few of them critical, but a plurality of which will increase a thing’s sandwichness? Are there many pathways to sandwichness, a certain Platonic ideal of “sandwich” that can be approximated in a variety of ways? What if the experience of “sandwich” can be evoked so strongly by one factor that some leeway is granted with others? What if many factors are present, but none quite so strongly that it generates the expected sensation? The question then becomes which factors contribute most to that experience, and how much slack can be granted on one axis provided another is rock solid.

A sandwich is not merely an object. It is a set of flavors, textures, sensations, and cultural signifiers. We so often try to define objects by the properties they possess and not by the experience they generate. But a sandwich does not exist solely on the plate, but also in the mouth, and in the mind.

Let us entertain that it’s fair to say a difference between a chip butty and a hotdog is that one feels like a sandwich and one does not.

***

In 2012, the internet was besotted with its fourth favorite argument: “Is Dear Esther a video game? You know, like really, is it, though?” And David Shute, designer of Small Worlds, a micro-exploration platformer (and maaaaaaaaybe adventure game?), countered this question with a blog post: “Are Videogames [sic] Games?”

Shute invoked the philosophical concept of qualia. A quale is a characteristic, an irreducible somethingness that a thing possesses, very hard to put into words but, once experienced, will be instantly recognizable when it is experienced again. Qualia are what allow us to, having seen a car, recognize other cars when we see them and not confuse them with motorcycles, even if we haven’t sat down to write a definition for either. And if we did try to formalize the distinction - say, “a car has four wheels and fully encloses the operator” - our Socrates might pop in to say, “Well then, friend, is this not a car? Is this not a car?” To which Shute - and, by extension, we - might comment that Socrates is, once again, being a buttface.

“If I remove the wheels from a car, then it no longer provides the basic fundamental functionality I’d expect a car to have. But it’s still a car – Its carness requires some qualification, admittedly, but it hasn’t suddenly become something else, and we don’t need to define a new category of objects for ‘things that are just like cars but can’t be driven.’”

What’s special about qualia is that they’re highly subjective and yet shockingly universal. We wouldn’t be able to function if we needed a three paragraph definition just to know what a car is. Get anywhere on Route 128?, forget about it. These arguments over the definition of “game” or “sandwich” ask us to pretend we don’t recognize what we recognize. Socrates’ whole rhetorical strategy is pretending to believe pizza is a sandwich. And anyone who doesn’t care about gatekeeping their hobby will see Dear Esther among other first-person, 3D, computer experiences and know instantly that they fall under the same umbrella. Certainly putative not-game Dear Esther has more in common with yes-game Half-Life 2 than Half-Life 2 has with, for instance, chess.

Shute goes on, “To me, it’s obvious that Dear Esther is a videogame, because it feels like one. [W]hen I play Dear Esther I’m experiencing and inhabiting that world in exactly the same way I experience and inhabit any videogame world – it has an essential videogameness that’s clearly distinct from the way I experience an architectural simulation, or a DVD menu, or a powerpoint slideshow. I might struggle to explain the distinction between them in words, or construct a diagram that neatly places everything in strict categories, but the distinction is nonetheless clear.”

This is the move from plate to mouth. If you’re trying to define the adventure game and you’re talking only about the game’s features and not what it feels like to inhabit that world, you’re not actually talking about genre.

***

So if we want to locate this adventure experience, and we agree that it can, theoretically, appear in any game, we might look for it where it stands out from the background: in an action game. Let’s see if we can find it in Uncharted. It’s a good touchstone because we know the adventure experience is about narrative gameplay, and Uncharted has always been about recreating Indiana Jones as a video game; converting narrative into gameplay.

When attempting such a conversion, a central question designers ask is, “What are my verbs?” Nathan Drake’s gotta do something in these games, so we look to the source material for inspiration. A good video game verb is something simple and repeatable, easy to map to a face button, and Indiana Jones has them in abundance: punch, shoot, run, jump, climb, swing, take cover. All simple and repeatable; you can get a lot of gameplay out of those.

But that’s not all there is to Indiana Jones, is there? There’s also… well, colonialism, but turns out that translates pretty easily! But... Indy rather famously solves ancient riddles. And he cleverly escapes certain death, and has tense conversations with estranged family members, and finds dramatic solutions to unsolvable problems. And none of these are simple and repeatable; in fact, they’re dramatic because they’re unique, and because they’re complex. And Uncharted renders all of these sequences the same way: with a button remap.

When Drake talks to his long-lost brother, or discovers the existence of Libertalia, his jumpy-shooty buttons turn into a completely different set of mechanics for just this sequence, and then go back to being jumpy-shooty. Where, typically, you have a narrative tailored around a certain set of core mechanics, here, the mechanics tailor themselves around a certain narrative experience. And each of these narrative experiences tailors the mechanics differently.

What if we made a whole genre out of that?

Adventure games are the haven for all the misfit bits of drama that don’t convert easily into traditional gameplay. In the old games, you’d never ask “what are my verbs,” because they were at the bottom of the screen. Or, if it was a parser game, your list of possible verbs was as broad as the English language; if a designer wanted to, they could, technically, have every valid action in the game involve its own, unique verb. Rather than specialized, the mechanical space of possibility is broad, the verbs open-ended, even vague, meaning different things in different contexts. The idea is that any dramatic beat can be rendered in gameplay provided you can express it with a simple sentence: push statue, talk to Henry, use sword on rope. Nathan Drake shoots upwards of 2000 people in a single game, but he’s not going to solve 2000 ancient riddles, and he shouldn’t. What makes ancient riddles interesting is you’re not going to come across very many in your life. So maybe the mechanics should be as unique as the event itself. And maybe discovering what this event’s unique mechanics are is part of the gameplay.

The best word we have for these moments is “puzzle.”

Adventure games aren’t named after their core mechanics because, by design, adventure games don’t have core mechanics. Puzzles have mechanics, learning them is the game, and they can be whatever you can imagine. Which is not to say they will be; many games over-rely on inventory and jumping peg puzzles. Even in a near-infinite space of possibility, there are paths of least resistance. But many adventure games have neither, and many are built around single mechanics that don’t appear in any other games.

An adventure game puzzle isn’t simply a thing you do to be rewarded with more plot, it is an answer to the game’s repeated question: what happens next? It was literally the prompt in many versions of Colossal Cave. How did The Stranger find the linking book that took them to Channelwood? How did Robert Cath defuse the bomb on the Orient Express? How did Manny Calavera find the florist in the sewers of El Marrow? It is story told through gameplay, and gameplay built for telling stories.

So I would amend my prior definition, “adventure games are about puzzles and plots,” to “adventure games are about puzzles as plots.”

Beyond that, if you want to know what understand the adventure game experience, you may just have to play one (I suggest Full Throttle).

***

Rick Altman argues we too often define genres by their building blocks, and not what gets built out of them. If you want to write science fiction, you have many components to work with: spaceships, time travel, nanomachines. You can make sci-fi out of that. But what if you take the component parts of science fiction and build… a breakup story? Or a tragicomic war novel? Is it still sci-fi? Let me put it to you this way: if somebody asks you to recommend some science fiction to them, and you say "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," how likely are they to say, "yes, this is exactly what I was asking for"?

Blade Runner is what happens when you use science fiction to build film noir. Dark City is what happens when you use film noir to build science fiction. So what defines a genre, the bricks, or the blueprint? Any meaningful discussion should account for both.

Adventure games are mechanically agnostic, all blueprint. You can build one out of almost anything. We took the long road because the ways we’re used to thinking about genre were insufficient.

***

So: from a few steps back, the adventure game isn’t even that weird. Game genres are usually named after their mechanics, and a small handful are left in the cold by that convention. This would have been a much shorter conversation if not for the fact that video games run on a completely different set of rules from every other medium that has genres.

...but do they, though?

What actually is genre for?

Well, Samuel R. Delany - yes! yes, I’m still talking about this guy - describes genre not as a list of ingredients but a recipe. Imagine for me that you’ve just read the following four words: “the horizon does flips.” If this is just a, for lack of a better word, “normal” story - not genre fiction - that’s gotta be some kind of metaphor, maybe for the protagonist feeling dizzy, or when the drugs start to hit. Whatever it is, it can’t be literal; the earth and sky do not change places in naturalistic fiction.

But they can in fantasy. Certainly stranger things have happened. And they can in science fiction, but by a different set of rules: now there’s a “why.” It’s gotta be something to do with gravity or the warping of space; even if the story doesn’t explain it, it has to convince you, within a certain suspension of disbelief, that such a thing is happening in our universe. Whatever it is, it’s not magic.

These four words can mean many things. Genre informs you which of the many possible interpretations is the correct one. (For what it’s worth, they’re Barenaked Ladies lyrics about being in a car crash.) The label “science fiction” isn’t there to tell you whether a story has rayguns, it’s there so you know which mechanism of interpretation you should employ.

Genre not what’s in the book. It’s how you read the book.

The opening chapters of a mystery novel may be, by the standards of any other genre, excruciatingly dull. A lot of descriptions of scenery and a dozen characters introducing themselves. But, because you know it’s a mystery, these first pages are suffused with portent, even dread, because you know someone’s probably gonna die. And some of these mundane details are just that, but some of them are clues as to who committed a crime that hasn’t even happened yet. You are alert where you would otherwise be bored. And you know to watch for clues, because you know you’re reading a mystery. Those are the genre’s mechanics.

Genre dictates the attention to be paid.

Words, sounds, and images don’t mean things on their own. They have to be interpreted. If part of genre is the audience’s experience, it’s an experience that audience co-creates, and it needs clues as to how. I’ve said before that all communication is collaborative. Here’s what results from that: all art is interactive.

Video games are not unique in this regard, they are simply at the far end of a spectrum. But if the purpose of genre is to calibrate the audience into creating the correct experience, perhaps it makes sense that the most interactive medium would name its genres after what the player is doing.

So the label “adventure game” is, to the best of its ability, doing the same thing as “adventure novel,” and as “first-person shooter,” if, perhaps, a bit inelegantly. There may be better ways to straddle all these lines, but the shorthand reference to an old text game gets the job done.

So that’s the end of our journey. I really hope we can do this again, and preferably not in another four years, but we’ll see how thing shake out. Regardless, I’m glad you were with me, and I’ll see you in the next one. It’s been an adventure.

[antho-logy]

Parquet Courts live at The Croxton 31/1/19 Sprinting down High St towards the Croxton, I begin to mentally kick myself for missing out on the start of ‘The Goon Sax’ set. They had been my favourite band for months, and I ached to see them just as much as the headliner. I would have liked to physically kick myself, however I knew that doing so could lead to me tripping over, given the impressive pace I was demonstrating to both myself and the surely-bewildered onlookers. I soon find myself lining up to get in, regretfully being forced to listen to the all-too-muffled angsty tune-age of the opening act being filtered through various walls and an overpopulated smokers’ refuge. Finally - after rummaging through my bag and frantically flipping through my wallet, trying to recover my near-expired learners’ permit as per the request of the seccy - I was inside. As soon as I step foot inside the sizable bandroom, I instantly get that sort of understated jolt of an adrenaline-esque high one gets upon making it to an anticipated show. The post-punky, jagged guitar leads of a song surprisingly unfamiliar to me are hopefully an indication of the band’s soon-to-be-released new material. Other highlights from my brief experience with the set include ‘Strange Light’, the band’s take on a love-lost ballad for which the drummer swaps out her sticks in favour of a microphone, and ‘Make Time 4 Love’, arguably the band’s most popular single, here played at a higher tempo than the studio recording, which has become the song’s standard stage rendition. ‘Parquet Courts’ take the stage shortly thereafter, and waste no time launching into the mid-tempo angular slog that is ‘Total Football’s introduction, before jetting lightspeed into the ferocious pace that drives the remainder of the song, and concluding with co-frontman Andrew Savage snidely snarling “and fuck Tom Brady!”. I don’t know who Tom Brady is, but I was definitely thinking “Yeah, fuck that guy”. I’m sure that in between the aforementioned intro and conclusion, A. Savage was preaching some witty socio-political commentary, but it didn’t really matter, as the audience was too busy being happily thrashed by the finely-tuned punky rhythm-section to really stop and listen to anything coming from Andrew, save for the rocket fuel that is his aggressive rapid-fire delivery throughout the song. ‘Total Football’ is followed by ‘Dust’, a fairly standard piece of post-punk that concludes with washy noise. The audience, having been given a chance to catch their breath, are soon railed by the four-punch combo that kicks off ‘Almost Had to Start a Fight’. Battered and bruised by the song’s unbelievably combative first act, the crowd then has no choice but to try and keep up with ‘In and Out of Patience’; the faster yet somehow more passive latter act to ‘AHTSAF’. After the set’s early barrage of speed and noise, the next few numbers allow me to make a leisurely stroll over to the bar for another pint of the cheap and nasty. After taking a few sips and feeling somewhat refreshed (and pissed), I passive-aggressively shove my way back to the spot in the crowd I had previously been stationed. After some brief banter with the crowd, in which he refers to my new home as ‘Melbs-vegas’, the introductory chords to ‘Master of my Craft’ rear their ugly heads - giving me a small window to whisper “holy fuck” - before catapulting into battle with the anti-capitalist commentary and lightning-fast rhythm section. Towards the song’s finale, and with the all the satisfaction of a runaway sneeze, I begin to utter an anticipated lyric to no reply, as I had jumped the gun by a bar or two. Then, seconds later, Austin Brown and the audience shout in unison “Socrates died in the fucking gutter!”. Filled with an all-too-real sense of disappointment and self-loathing, I wished a similar fate would swiftly greet me. The tail-end of the set had a few standouts, from my introduction to the bands’ music in the catchy punk rock of ‘Borrowed Time’ and charming recount ‘Berlin Got Blurry’. The latter kicks off with a twisted spaghetti-western-esque guitar lead, priming the ears of the crowd and inviting them to listen to A. Savage’s all too relatable poetry, featuring kebabs and rollie-stained yellow fingers. If you were stood outside the Croxton Bandroom on Jan 31st, you’d be forgiven for thinking the Stones were in town, because of the manic greeting Parquet Courts were met with as they took the stage, the consistent “woo”s and “yew”s throughought the duration of the set, to the shameless begging for one more song that deep down they knew wasn’t coming. In a time when the world and rock music are both seemingly in dire straits, it’s pretty cool that a band with intellectual lyricism, frequently abrasive music and a vicious live show seem to have got people’s attention and resonated with them. For any aspiring musicians out there with half a brain and something to say, the ball is in your court(s).

[expatimes]

Michael S. Smith, the Obamas' 'decorator in chief', reflects on 8 years at the White House Written by Oscar Holland, CNNThere aren't many interior design jobs in which a decorator is prohibited from visiting the property before starting work. But then again, there aren't many residences like the White House.So, when Michael S. Smith -- President Barack Obama's self-described "decorator in chief" -- arrived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington on Inauguration Day 2009, he knew he had to hit the ground running."You're given all sorts of research material ... you have photos and diagrams, but you don't really know what's going on in the rooms until you show up," he recalled in a phone interview, adding: "One thing I didn't anticipate -- and most people don't, if they've never been upstairs -- is how unbelievably tall the rooms are."Smith renovated, redecorated and reimagined America's most famous home over the course of the next eight years. Now, in his comprehensive new book "Designing History: The Extraordinary Art & Style of the Obama White House," the interiors expert reveals how he did it, whether selecting mahogany chairs for the State Dining Room or commissioning a handmade carpet for the master bedroom.The White House's master bedroom complete with a late 18th century desk and bookcase, and a high-post bed from the early 19th century. Credit: Michael MundyWritten alongside journalist Margaret Russell, the book provides a detailed history of the White House's layout and contents. Smith and his team found reminders of past Presidents at every turn, such as the service wings constructed at Thomas Jefferson's behest, the installation of running water during Andrew Jackson's term, James Monroe's French-inspired stylings and James Buchanan's penchant for Victorian Rococo Revival furniture.As such, the challenge was partly about reconciling the building's heritage with the progressive tastes of a first family that -- as Michelle Obama noted in the book's foreword -- included "two little girls who preferred Crate & Barrel over antique credenzas and a grandmother who bristled a bit at any whiff of pomp."The interior designer is, however, quick to defer credit to his most famous clients."Being so incredibly interested in history in general, I think they were unbelievably respectful of what existed before," he said of the Obamas, adding: "They were so thoughtful and so appreciative of the fact that this wasn't their house, it was the country's house -- America's house."Family needsUpon his arrival, Smith's most immediate task was to redecorate the living quarters, with an emphasis on helping the Obamas' children settle in.While the White House had, he said, been left in "extraordinarily good shape" by the Bushes, the 18th-century building was ill-equipped to meet the needs of a young family. With Sasha and Malia ages 7 and 10, respectively, when the family moved in, the Obamas' arrival marked the first time in decades that small children had lived in the residence.President Barack Obama and Michael S. Smith pictured at the White House in 2015. Credit: Pete Souza/Barack Obama LibrarySome of the changes were relatively practical, like improved lighting that "literally made it possible for the girls to do their homework," Smith said. But transforming their bedrooms into fun, colorful and age-appropriate spaces required a more radical approach.Here, he combined vibrant colored wallpaper and bold, oversize leaf-patterned carpets with down-to-earth decorative flourishes -- accessories from Anthropologie and playful chandeliers made of bottle caps and other found objects."To try to contextualize it and keep it somehow tethered to the White House was really more challenging," he added. "That was about taking furniture that was newly made, but really emulated classic American shapes."At the other end of the spectrum lay the Oval Office, a room so iconic and historic that even the slightest alteration can attract ire -- as Smith discovered when his revamped design was described by Arianna Huffington as the "Audacity of Taupe" (a play on Obama's memoir "The Audacity of Hope") upon its unveiling in 2010.Inside the redecorated Oval Office, which was unveiled in 2010. Credit: Michael MundyWith its walnut coffee table and light brown velvet sofas, the room's neutral tones were seen by some critics as cautious, boring even. But Smith received greater plaudits for his choice of ornaments, which included Native American pottery and a rug embroidered with quotes from five celebrated Americans, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln. And he still stands by the choices he made in America's highest office."Someone said that Bush's (Oval Office) looked like the kind of room you'd have tea in, and that it was very genteel, but that Obama's looked like a place you'd have a quick espresso and get down to work," Smith said. "And that pleased me to no end, because that was very much my intent."The country was facing a very, very serious financial crisis," he added. "I knew that (Obama) was an incredibly Socratic thinker, and would work really late into the night, so this room ... was really a working office."Contemporary touchesOne might expect the White House decorator to have access to a rich selection of old furnishings, but until the turn of the 20th century, decorative objects and items of tableware were often auctioned or sold off at the end of any given administration. So, while there is a secretive warehouse containing a cache of usable presidential furniture, it's not, Smith said, as bountiful as some have speculated."There's this lore ... that it's this crazy treasure trove," he said. "But anything really wonderful is already in the building."Though he did borrow items from the warehouse, Smith instead focused on acquiring contemporary pieces from outside, injecting a sense of modernity into the historic setting."My big initiative, which Mrs. Obama was very enthusiastic about and signed off, was this idea of bringing more 20th century, postwar art into the collection," he said, "because the most recent (artwork on display) when the Obamas moved in was from 1943."A painting by Sean Scully, on loan from the National Gallery of Art, pictured in the family sitting room. Credit: Michael MundyAfter meeting with museums and curators, Smith secured loans from across the spectrum of America's modern art tradition, incorporating the minimalism of Robert Mangold, the abstraction of Mark Rothko and a work of pop art by Ed Ruscha. Paintings by Edward Hopper were famously displayed in the Oval Office, and as the first African American family to reside in the White House, the Obamas also expressed a preference for the work of pioneering Black artists like Jacob Lawrence, Alma Thomas and Glen Ligon, whose lithographs hung in the Billiard Room."The idea was to make up for lost time," Smith said. "You basically had 75 years of American art history and cultural history to bring the building up to (speed with)."This is not to say that the house's rich collection of historic portraiture and European masterpieces were tossed aside, but -- as the former first lady wrote in her foreword -- old artworks needed to brought back to life."A little recessed lighting here, a dimmer there," she wrote. "And, like that, the Monet painting hanging outside my bedroom door and the Degas sculpture in our dining room became newly vibrant, newly alive."Changing of the guardEffusive in his praise for President Obama, Smith described his former employer as having "the precision and the focus of an architect." And while the first couple possessed plenty of opinions on interior design (Barack has "never liked decorative plates," the decorator revealed), they trusted him to execute their vision -- all while keeping one eye on the needs of future occupants."Everything was always met with this question of, 'How will this be for the next family?'" Smith recalled. A painting by Jules Olitski, "Jean Harlow's Night, Black and Blue," pictured on the left in the third-floor corridor. Credit: Michael MundyQuite what that next family -- namely the Trumps -- make of his work remains to be seen. Despite maintaining a "cordial relationship" with the White House's current decorator Tham Kannalikham, Smith admitted to knowing "very, very little" about what has taken place since the keys were handed over in 2017.There are signs that the Trumps may have more traditional tastes than their predecessors. Architectural Record magazine in February reported seeing a draft executive order calling for all new and upgraded federal buildings to be constructed in a "classical architectural style," while a new tennis pavilion being overseen by the first lady is being built to a neoclassical design.In any case, the artworks borrowed by the Obama administration have already been returned to the institutions they belong to. And much of the contemporary furniture (which was largely purchased out of pocket by the Obamas, and thus could be taken to their next house) now serves as "the nucleus" of the family's new Washington property, said Smith, who also helped decorate the family's post-administration home. Regardless of what has transpired within the White House's walls, the designer seems at peace with the transience of a role in which decisions can be later overturned as easily as they were made. Related video: Photographer Pete Souza on capturing unguarded moments with Obama "Always knowing that it is not a permanent situation makes you hyperaware of enjoying being in the space," he reflected.And while Smith said he would be "surprised" to get a call from former Vice President and 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden should there be a change of administration at the upcoming election, he doesn't rule out a return to the White House, if asked -- by a President of any political persuasion. "It would depend," he said diplomatically, "on the President more than the party.""Designing History: The Extraordinary Art & Style of the Obama White House," published by Rizzoli, is available now. #lifestyle Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=12947&feed_id=12626

[burn-the-white-flag]

Quarantine Day 7

July 4th - Saturday.

Happy fourth! I heard some fireworks today even though I couldn't see any from looking out the window. I was pretty tired all of today and I slept an abnormal amount (like 12 hours and I'm still kind of tired right now). Overall I had an okay day. I'm not very happy about how tired I am, Bella is kind of mad at me, and I'm not looking forward to how hot the next two days are going to be.

I'm still trying to follow the 14 day quarantine workout regimen I wrote about earlier; today was a rest day so all I had to do were easy stretches. My parents gave me too much food for lunch and then really yummy home-made sticky rice with Chinese sausage for dinner.

I played Civ with a high school friend for a couple hours. We hadn't talked in a while but it was surprisingly hard to catch up while playing Civ because we found ourselves concentrating too hard on the game. I didn't play too well, in part because I lost some really valuable real estate to Russia and because we were playing with some new expansions that I knew nothing about. Now I realize why the game has always looked slightly different for PotatoMcWhiskey.

I finally read the last dialogue in The Last Days of Socrates , which was pretty lengthy compared to the three dialogues that came beforehand. This collection of dialogues was written by Plato, one of Socrates's pupils, and recounts Socrates's trial by the Athenian public, condemnation as a bad moral influence on the youth and then execution by poison. I've been reading the book with Andrew as an informal two-person book club. It's been very interesting to read about Socrates's point of view because he spends a lot of time defending arguments that are clearly wrong to a present-day reader. It's fascinating to see how he argues about things like the immortality of the soul without knowing evolution, particle physics, modern neuroscience, that the Earth revolves around the Sun, and so on.

I don't have much more to report for today, mainly because I slept so much of the day away. I think I'm going to go watch some more of the anime that Grant recommended, brush my teeth and then go to sleep. Maybe I will also eat a snack because I am feeling kind of snack-y... <3

[joshuajacksonlyblog]

Bitcoin Magazine’s Week in Review: Gradual Improvements

Script, the smart-contract programming language for Bitcoin, has gotten an upgrade. Developers are addressing challenges on the network through local Socratic Seminars. A Bavarian entrepreneur is promoting Bitcoin through a multisport race. And the curious case of the Asian mafia behind the PlusToken racket.

Scams

The PlusToken Scam

This week, we looked into the case of PlusToken, a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme that reportedly spread across Asia promising mouthwatering returns to investors monthly.

The PlusToken scam was rather reminiscent of some of the most popular scams in the cryptocurrency space. But what has made it stand out is its sheer scale, which saw it swindle over 3 million investors in Asia. The PLUS token itself was worth a reported $17 billion in valuation, and investors were milked out of about $3 billion in cryptocurrency.

Authorities were able to pick up several scam operators, but the ring leader as well as a large percentage of the funds are reportedly still at large. 

Technical

Miniscript: Bitcoin Programming Made Easy

For so long, developers have had to work on Bitcoin smart contracts through Script, a programming language used to encode different conditions that define how bitcoin can be spent. This concept is not without its flaws. Script has been known to be rather difficult to use. Human errors are easy to commit, and these could lead to catastrophic outcomes. 

Enter: the revolutionists. 

Over the past year, Andrew Poelstra, Sanket Kanjalkar and Pieter Wuille have been working on a simpler means of developing smart contracts with Bitcoin. Their new programming language, dubbed “Miniscript,” strips down the former standard to its bare essentials.

Speaking about the new language, Poelsra, the research director at Blockstream, admitted that in a sense, Miniscript is a tad more limiting than Script. However, he touted the applicability of the language, claiming that “it can do everything that people actually use script for.”

Investing

Bitcoin Has a Positive Influence on Government Policy

A new research paper asserts that the existence of digital assets like bitcoin affects the fiscal and regulatory policy of the government in a healthy way. Titled “How Do Private Currencies Affect Government Policy?,” the report was co-authored by professors Max Raskin (New York University), Fahad Saleh (McGill University) and David Yermack (NYU Stern School of Business).

The paper postulates that the existence of private digital currencies could potentially help improve the welfare of people. It provides a rather nuanced definition of what “private digital currencies” actually are. 

The researchers also touted bitcoin as an asset that could significantly affect economies with high volatilities and corrupt governments that have little interest in the welfare of people. It also revealed that bitcoin would continue to see increasing demand as economic crises continue to rock nations. 

Banking Institutions Still Refuse to Play Ball

While cryptocurrency continues to grow and garner global adoption, the traditional banking industry still won’t touch it with a 10-foot pole.

Several reports have alluded to crypto investors and businesses being denied access to bank accounts all around the world. This week, we looked at how Bitcoin community members have had to withstand restrictive behavior from their banks for trading cryptocurrency. Some have been barred from trading, while others have had services withheld while using popular payment services like Venmo and PayPal.

The importance of banking services to the blockchain industry (especially to cryptocurrency businesses) can’t be overstated. However, given that a lot of these banks seem to either be restricting accounts affiliated with crypto or imposing additional regulations on them, several questions (including whether alternatives exist or how this divide can be bridged) are now being asked. 

Community

Socratic Seminars Prove to Be a Great Way of Learning About Bitcoin 

As Bitcoin gets increasingly popular, we see many people looking to become more knowledgeable about the asset. That’s why Bitcoin meetups have been so popular ever since the advent of the technology. But even within the world of Bitcoin meetups, the Socratic Seminar method stands out from the pack. 

Now reaching its 100th edition, the Socratic Seminar has become a mainstay within the crypto industry. It was introduced by SF Bitcoin Devs and has now reached many major markets, including Boston and Los Angeles, with Chicago and Austin also set to have these types of meetups in the near future as well.

The Socratic Seminar fosters collective knowledge and cooperation through constructive, nuanced arguments. The aim is to enhance collective understanding, thus enabling more people to participate in discussions and apply their knowledge. Such a form of meetups is always welcome, and it has become a mainstay in the Bitcoin space. 

The Satoshi Freeathlon: Promoting Decentralization Through Sports

Cryptocurrency promotion has been accomplished in several ways, from actual giveaways to live events. Organizers have shown that there isn’t much of a limit to what you can do to get the word out there about crypto. 

Now, Bavarian Bitcoin entrepreneur Vitus Zeller is taking on a bold new initiative to promote the crypto asset through a triathlon. Spanning four days (August 24 to 28, 2019), the Satoshi Freeathlon will feature seven participants from three different nations; they will take on a 222-mile (357-kilometer) challenge, which starts in Zug, Switzerland, and concludes in Munich, Germany. The purpose is to help improve public awareness around not just Bitcoin, but decentralization in general — especially as it relates to money and power structures in the world.

The post Bitcoin Magazine’s Week in Review: Gradual Improvements appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

from Cryptocracken Tumblr https://ift.tt/2KRiAZM via IFTTT

[taswhapstuff]

Andrew Marr’s History of the World - SHEN

Ep.1 - SURVIVAL

Starting with the earliest beginnings of humankind in Africa around 70,000 years ago, Homo sapiens were driven by familiar basic needs – food, water, and shelter. This led to the migration out of Africa that many tribes followed animal migration paths to spread out over thousands of years; however, they perished. So how can you and I still live today? Scientists have concluded that only one tribe lasted long enough outside Africa. Almost all of us alive today is related to one woman in this tribe who was a survivor because there is a tiny genetic mutation in most of the people alive today. After this important journey, her tribe kept on moving and modern humans later spread out the rest of the planet.

Later, humans began to spread out across Europe and coexisted with Neanderthals, competing for the same scarce resources. But the Neanderthals had been driven to extinction around 30,000 years ago. Some theories suggest that our ancestors pushed them out of their hunting areas, or they hunted them for foods. Now, no more competitive neighbor, but the Earth's temperatures started to decrease around 20,000 years ago. Once again, they had to adapt so they invented the sewing needle made out of bone, allowing them to shape and stitch clothing. As a result, they could withstand the harsh winters better and track animals further. Humans are armed with language, organizational skills, and sewing skills; therefore, they were increasingly inventive and wanted to leave a record of their existence since their basic needs are fulfilled. There is evidence of human handprints and paintings at the caves in the south of France, Argentina, and Australia.

To sustain progress, humans found new ways to feed the expanding population. Around 16,000 years ago when the weather was warmer, one of the tribes that lived at the Fertile Crescent started to plan ahead and take more control over the food supply by selecting the best seeds and planting crops, marking a beginning of Agriculture Revolution. However, archeologists have found evidence that farming was a harder life than hunting and gathering. The average height decreased since they did not run around for hunting. Repetitive labor in the fields and the sugary diet of oatmeal introduced arthritis and tooth decay.

With a great food surplus, humans started to care about their living conditions. In Turkey, archaeological remains of the earliest towns show that 3,000 years after the farming revolution, whitewash had been used to coat the walls, heated bowls made out of clay are used to cook meat, and people sophisticated religious rituals to honor the dead people. Farming life in towns also brought new danger that people and livestock living close together, which created the perfect conditions for disease, such as influenza, to spread. But the humans still survived and its population still increased. Farmers who built up a surplus of goods began to trade. Merchants, craftsmen, and priests emerged and society became divided by rich and poor. Landlords, religious leaders, and kings emerged from the farming revolution as well.

Natural disasters are also dangerous to humans.  For example, the Minoan civilization was plagued by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that they could not do anything to control that. In fact, many ancient societies around the world practiced human sacrifice in an attempt to appease the gods. In China, people developed a vast network of channels to control the floods. Unlike Chinese and Minoan civilization, the Nile of Egypt had a vast fertile floodplain and its flood patterns were predictable, which brought life to the land. So it allowed architecture, religion, and law to develop in society, which made Egypt become the ancient world's greatest civilization.

The Chinese recorded a vast network of channels.

A remarkable invention, writing, could record trading events and improve communication. Writing is widely available in every social class. It also allowed the Egyptians to codify the law and create a judicial system, which would help establish a stronger framework for social order. New ideas, knowledge, and beliefs could spread faster, sustaining the development of humankind.

An old woman recorded about her sadness as she had raised her children but they did not take care of her.

Humans have shown their great ability to survival under many harsh conditions such as climate change, natural disasters, deadly diseases, and competitive enemies. They slowly developed new ways of life once they successfully adapted to new environments, leading to the rise of the Agriculture Revolution and the world's greatest civilizations.

Ep. 2 - AGE OF EMPIRE

Before watching the second episode of History of the World, it reminded me of one of the best games that I have ever played in my childhood, Age of Empires. I only played the second and third version of this historical real-time strategy game; however, the first one is the true version which focuses on events in Andrew Marr's video. He tells the story of the first empires which laid the foundations for the modern world by conquering lands. However, humans also witnessed their development and progress through culture and politics. More and more thinkers such as Buddha, Confucius, and Socrates who proposed new ideas about how to rule more wisely and have a better life.

In the first minutes of the video, it explains that the ruthless conquerors were driven by new territories, slaves, and wealth. In order to achieve these, they came with brutality in their reign. For example, archaeologists have found the evidence of the Assyrian slaughter which was the mass graves and paintings recorded on the ancient walls. However, there was one king who became known through his tolerance, Cyrus the Great, by listening and showing respect to other cultures and religions. For example, he spared the life of a wise prisoner and appointed him as his adviser. He also set the slaves in Jerusalem free and paid for the rebuilding of their temples. As a result, he created an enduring empire with progress and prosperity while the Assyrian empire declined rapidly.

Cyrus the Great spared the life of a wise prisoner.

In the Middle East, the Phoenicians living on the western edges of the Assyrian empire developed the alphabet for trade and communication in the Mediterranean. As the trade was flourishing, the Libyans used their rich natural deposits of gold and silver to develop a standardized currency which was also minted in Greece.

In Athens, the Greeks were developing the world's first democracy that people overthrew tyrannical ruler and established a public assembly. Under this new system, all male citizens had equal political rights, freedom of speech, and the opportunity to participate directly in the political arena. Furthermore, this also allowed them to make the decisions by which they lived and actively serve in the institutions that governed them; therefore, they directly controlled all parts of the political process. 

Although this system survived for only two centuries, it was one of the most enduring contributions to the modern world.

A young military commander who also left one of the greatest legacies for ancient Greek and non-Greek cultures was Alexander the Great. He led his army on his campaigns of conquest that he founded many Greek towns in North Africa and Asia. Because of that, Greek became the common language across these areas, which resulted in a new Hellenistic civilization. Additionally, he combined different cultures together in order to consolidate his empire. For example, he mingled Macedonian, Greek, and, Persian customs. So he was fascinated by the people he conquered, which is similar to Cyrus the Great.

Map of Alexander’s empire.

In this age, some individuals began to emerge who proposed new ideas about life. One of them was Siddhartha Gautama who started to think about the meaning of human existence. He later reached enlightenment through meditating and traveled through northern India to teach his followers. His philosophy was passed down from generation to generation by monks, laying great foundations to Buddhism. This religion later spread to China but before that, Confucius traveled and taught his followers to honor traditions such as respecting families and elders. Another thinker who left the greatest legacy for ancient Greece was Socrates. He was a critic of how the rulers ruled and of how the people lived that he accused the political leaders in Athens of corruption. In the time of political instability in Greece, this was a dangerous topic and the city leaders considered him as a threat to their young democracy. Finally, he was arrested and the sentence was death but Western societies were built on based on his ideas and principles.

This episode basically showed how the empires rose and their influences on the world at that age. Also, there were great individuals among those empires who left great legacies for the world.

Ep. 3 - THE WORD AND THE SWORD

In the third episode "The Word and the Sword", the themes are about the spiritual revolutions happened between 300 B.C and 700 A.D, which was an age of the spread of the biggest religions such as Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam and how they challenged the power of the emperors.

At the beginning of the video, two emperors from China and India had a similarity that they both used cruelty and terror to rise their empires; however, Ying Zheng remained with violence in the way he ruled while Ashoka regretted and decided to rule more softly.

Ying Zheng, also known as Qin Shi Huang, conquered all the rival states in China. Over a million people were slaughtered and forced to build the Great Wall. Moreover, he ordered to burn the books and kill the scholars of Confucianism in order to consolidate his power. However, he also brought the prosperity that new roads, canals, and waterways were constructed.

Burning of the Books and Burying of the Scholars.

Similar to China, the Marine Empire was forged by conquests and slaughters, which led by Ashoka. But he was different from Qin Shi Huang's cruelty that he later renounced violence, embraced Buddhism, and established new rules. For example, he abolished the slave trade and established schools and hospitals for the poor. According to ancient accounts, Ashoka carved the edicts in stone which are seen as the first International Declaration of Human Rights over 2000 years ago. He sent Buddhist missionaries across other lands. As a result, there are over a billion Buddhists across the world today.

Ashoka - a great emperor who abandoned the path of violence to spread the noble message of love and peace.

In Egypt, as the empire was on the brink of collapse, Cleopatra formed a political alliance with Julius Caesar who intended to marry her and move the capital of the Roman Empire to Egypt. But political elites in Rome disagreed and murdered him, which resulted in years of civil war and the battle later spread to Egypt.

Cleopatra and Julius Caesar

After ending the civil wars, the Roman Empire started to rise but its emperors were challenged by a new religion, Christianity. Paul the Apostle convinced thousands of people that Jesus had come to save them. His martyrdom encouraged others to die for their beliefs. Therefore, the courage of Christian martyrs would threaten the emperors of Rome because the worship of Christianity was against the prosperity of the Roman Empire. 

Men and women listen to Paul's teachings of Jesus Christ.

At the Colosseum, a young woman later known as Saint Perpetua was executed for refusing to deny her Christian faith. The promise of heaven attracted more and more people so Christianity had spread across the empire within a hundred years after her death. Finally, Constantine the Great converted to Christianity. In Arabia, Muhammad and his followers took over Mecca and spread Islam. Like Christian martyrs, Islamic warriors were promised to enter heaven when they died for their faith so Islam expanded faster than any religion in history within more than 100 years after Muhammad's death.

Saint Perpetua guided the young Gladiator’s sword to her throat. She was ready to die for her Christian faith.

Not only the religions affected the civilizations, but also the power of nature. The Nazca believe the gods were in nature so they made human sacrifices to appease them. Experts suggest that this brutal ritual was practiced for the gods to guarantee fertility and regeneration and to protect them from natural disasters. Ironically, the Nazca civilization declined because of environmental changes. Evidence suggests that the Nazca people cut down trees to make room for crops as the population grew while these trees played an important role in the ecosystem of this landscape. As a result, it led to drought and crop failure.

The Nazca people carved these huge images into the landscape in the 5th and 6th centuries.

These ancient Peruvians tightened their heads until they became elongated as a mark of status.

In short, this episode mostly focused on the religions of the ancient world such as Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam which later spread more widely and attracted more followers. They either combined with the power, like how Ashoka embraced Buddhism to rule better or challenged the power of the emperors. 

[readyallthecanons]

3, 7, 9!

Gonna answer this all with Andrew because why not? And thank you for asking!

3. What kind of video games they would play? Any specific titles?

Tactical role playing games, definitely. But he also kinda enjoys shooting games. He likes Overwatch thanks to Barney and thinks the concept is cool.

7. What kind of animals would they like as a pet? What names would they give their pets if they got any? If they already have pet’s what are their names? 

He does have a pet: two red-eared slider turtles named Plato and Aristotle. He used to have a third one named Socrates but it died of poisoning (lmao see what I did there?). It ate something it wasn’t supposed to. When he became a year-round camper, he brought the turtles with him. Now, they live happily in an aquarium in the Athena cabin…yes, Andrew brought the aquarium.   

9. How do they write? Do they write in cursive? How do they dot their i’s and j’s? Do they have specific ways that they write certain letters?

Andrew’s handwriting isn’t that bad. Like you can understand it but it’s…small. Like the letters are kinda close together and the words are kinda leaning. His 1, I (i) and l (L) look the same. It starts out pretty neat but can get pretty un-discernable after some time (like when he’s been writing a long time).

[podcastpalace]

Maguire is a must for England - but does Dele deserve to play? by The Game Podcast ....

This week, it's The Game Podcast Book Club! Grant Wahl from Sports Illustrated joins us to discuss his new book Football 2.0: How The World's Best Play The Modern Game. And Brazil-based journalist Andrew Downie tells us about Doctor Socrates: Footballer, Philosopher, Legend, which is out now in paper back.

Gab Marcotti also reflects on England's victory in Holland with Henry Winter and Stewart Robson, including debate on Southgate's back 3 and some regrettable scenes in Amsterdam.