#Lifeboat Productions

[ginge1962]

Ian Gibson's last published work - Lifeboat Hardcover Edition from '77 Productions through a Kickstarter campaign.

Beautiful artwork throughout.

[robertreich]

The Silent Revolution in American Economics

I don't think you're expecting what I'm about to say, because I have never seen anything like this in fifty years in politics.

For decades I've been sounding an alarm about how our economy has become increasingly rigged for the rich. I've watched it get worse under both Republicans and Democrats, but what President Biden has done in his first term gives me hope I haven't felt in years. It’s a complete sea change.

Here are three key areas where Biden is fundamentally reshaping our economy to make it better for working people.

#1 Trade and industrial policy

Biden is breaking with decades of reliance on free-trade deals and free-market philosophies. He’s instead focusing on domestic policies designed to revive American manufacturing and fortify our own supply chains.

Take three of his signature pieces of legislation so far — the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS Act, and his infrastructure package. This flood of government investment has brought about a new wave in American manufacturing.

Unlike Trump, who just levied tariffs on Chinese imports and used it as a campaign slogan, Biden is actually investing in America’s manufacturing capacity so we don’t have to rely on China in the first place.

He’s turning the tide against deals made by previous administrations, both Democratic and Republican, that helped Wall Street but ended up costing American jobs and lowering American wages.

#2 Monopoly power

Biden is the first president in living memory to take on big monopolies.

Giant firms have come to dominate almost every industry. Four beef packers now control over 80 percent of the market, domestic air travel is dominated by four airlines, and most Americans have no real choice of internet providers.

In a monopolized economy, corporate profits rise, consumers pay higher prices, and workers’ wages shrink.

But under the Biden, the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department have become the most aggressive monopoly fighters in more than a half century. They’re going after Amazon and Google, Ticketmaster and Live Nation, JetBlue and Spirit, and a wide range of other giant corporations.  

#3 Labor

Biden is also the most pro-union president I’ve ever seen.

A big reason for the surge in workers organizing and striking for higher wages is the pro-labor course Biden is charting.

The Reagan years blew in a typhoon of union busting across America. Corporations routinely sunk unions and fired workers who attempted to form them. They offshored production or moved to so-called “right-to-work” states that enacted laws making it hard to form unions.

Even though Democratic presidents promised labor law reforms that would strengthen unions, they didn’t follow through. But under Joe Biden, organized labor has received a vital lifeboat. Unionizing has been protected and encouraged. Biden is even the first sitting president to walk a picket line.

Biden’s National Labor Relations Board is stemming the tide of unfair labor practices, requiring companies to bargain with their employees, speeding the period between union petitions and elections, and making it harder to fire workers for organizing.

Americans have every reason to be outraged at how decades of policies that prioritized corporations over people have thrown our economy off-keel.

But these three waves of change — a worker-centered trade and industrial policy, strong anti-monopoly enforcement, and moves to strengthen labor unions — are navigating towards a more equitable economy.

It’s a sea change that’s long overdue.

[happy-hermit]

HIII I’m back with another little thing for the Desert Alien Scar au :) This is Xisuma and Scar’s first meeting — X rescues a young Scar from his dying planet. Hope you like it!!!

( @stiffyck )

=============================

The planet below him was dying, barely visible beneath the storm of sand and lightning. Xisuma stood alone in the viewing dock of his ship, a lone mourner at a quiet funeral. All the inhabitants had already evacuated, the emergency rocket's energy signatures gone from his radar. It was an empty world, and still Xisuma stood and waited.

Planets died all the time. Knowing that didn’t make it any easier to watch.

The monitor on his right beeped and trilled as it kept on with the readings, an alert popping up detailing the severity of the most recent earthquake. A separate window was tracking the storms. At the bottom was a rough estimate of how long it would be until the end. Only a few hours, now.

Xisuma fidgeted with the fabric of his gloves, flexing his hands as he stared out the window. There was nothing he could do but be a witness. Even he couldn’t save a planet.

A shrill tone from the monitor pulled him abruptly out of his musings, and his head snapped towards it, eyes narrowing slightly behind his helmet. A red light was blinking in the corner, small and steady. Xisuma’s heart tripped over itself and quickened, legs already carrying him towards the screen for a better look, hands outstretched to type commands.

A distress signal, coming from an empty planet on the brink of destruction. There was a large chance that it was just a malfunction, a product of the machinery short-circuiting in the chaos. It wouldn’t be the first time.

But something was telling him that wasn’t right.

His fingers flew across the keyboard as his eyes flickered across the screen. An image of the planet below popped up, spinning and zooming in until the location of the distress signal was displayed, a single red dot blinking in and out. With a flick of his hand, the coordinates copied itself onto the monitor on his wrist. Already halfway out the door, he opened communications.

“I’m taking the LifeBoat,” he said without preamble, cutting off chatter from the rest of the crew. “We received a distress signal, I’m going down to check it out.”

“It’s probably a blank, X,” said a crew member, voice solemn. “Are you sure?”

Xisuma clenched his jaw. “I’m going.”

He closed communications with a firm click of a button, the door to the departure bay sliding open before him. With practiced motions, Xisuma climbed into the cockpit of the LifeBoat, a smaller vessel designed for quick landings and takeoffs. Used for riskier rescues.

“LifeBoat 1, departing,” Xisuma said, opening comms again.

“…Cleared, Captain,” a voice responded. “Be careful. Come back alive.”

“Haven’t had an issue yet, my friend,” Xisuma responded, flicking a few switches and adjusting the controls. “I’ll be back in time for dinner.”

“I’ll hold you to it, sir.”

With a few loud clicking noises and a fair bit of shaking, the LifeBoat separated from the main ship. Coordinates displayed on the navigation system, Xisuma took the controls.

———————————————————

The landing would not win any awards for smoothness, but he had at least managed not to die on impact. It would likely take off again, according to diagnostics, though exiting through the storm would prove to be a challenge. A challenge for future him, though.

The evacuation center rose tall above him as he trudged through the sand and wind, all the escape rockets missing from their ports. Something in his stomach twisted slightly. It looked more haunted than anything had the right to be.

The door creaked horribly on its hinges as he pulled on it, grains of sand grinding in the mechanism and jamming it up. He opened it just enough to slip in, and the sudden absence of wind and sound made his fast heartbeat all the more apparent. He wiped at his helmet visor with gloved hands, brushing off the sand and dust blocking his vision as he walked further into the building. It was a huge space, empty and echoing. Every footstep bounced back at him louder.

Across the large room, something shuffled quietly. Xisuma froze, head swiveling. He heard it again.

“Hello?” he called tentatively, making his way closer.

A shadow in the corner — moved. Tucked into itself. The howling of the wind battered against the walls. On a nearby desk, a light was blinking. The distress signal.

“I’m here to help,” Xisuma continued, making his way closer. “I got your signal.”

The light of his helmet fell upon the figure, and Xisuma stopped short.

It was a child.

Not particularly young, but not yet reaching adulthood. His scales were still a lighter color, indicating that they were still soft, and his tail was curled in front of him protectively, shoulders hunched and knees bent. He was staring up at him with wide green eyes, chest rising and falling rapidly. Xisuma felt his heart squeeze painfully.

“It’s alright,” he said, palms raised in a calming gesture. “I’m going to get you out of here. Are you hurt?”

The kid didn’t respond, still staring at him with those same terrified eyes, lost to his own panic. He was shaking. So was the ground.

Xisuma knelt down, swallowing hard when the kid pressed himself harder into the corner, curling even further over his stomach. There was a scan on the screen inside his helmet, telling him that the air was barely breathable. The kid was scared. Xisuma took the helmet off.

“You sent a distress signal,” he said, urgent and gentle. The child blinked, and Xisuma let his voice soften even further. “I’m here to help.”

There was the slightest bit of hope in those wide eyes, and Xisuma wanted to see it grow, possibly more than anything in the universe.

“Let me help,” he said, begged, and then he waited.

The kid’s breathing stuttered, and slowly he uncurled from his hunched position, revealing what he’d been trying to hide. In his lap was a small creature, with large ears and narrowed eyes and three pairs of legs.

“Can she come?” The kid asked, in a voice young and wavering.

He was hugging her to his chest like she was the last thing he had in the world. She probably was.

“Of course,” Xisuma said, steadfastly ignoring the slight lump in his throat. Not very professional of him, but he couldn’t find it within himself to care. “Let’s all get out of here, yeah?”

The planet was breaking apart around them, crumbling and cracking and raging.

Xisuma put his hand out, and in the bravest act that he had ever witnessed, the kid took it.

[lenniedoesthings]

hii! this is my studyblr where I'm trying to be more productive and study more. I've only been lurking before but I’m going to be committed this school year (and hopefully in future)! currently looking for studyblrs to follow!

#lenniedoesthings for original posts

About me °

♤ Lennie (she/her)

♤ Chinese

♤ dark/chaotic academia

♤ 3rd year in Scotland

♤ enfj-t

Study °

♤ English (fluent), Chinese (native), French (A2)

♤ I love to draw and write, coding is my passion. Playing with python is what you'll usually find me doing in cafés.

♤ currently doing 100 days of productivity!

Goals °

♤ prolong my duolingo streak

♤ workout at least 3 times a week

♤ be consistent with my debate work

More about me °

♤ favorite books are If We Were Villans, The da Vinci Code, the stranger on the lifeboat, Daughter of Fortune

♤ absolute morning person and coffee addict

♤ english over humanities over science

♤ favorite musicians are cigarettes after sex, fuji kaze, lana del rey, hozier (these change all the time)

Studyblrs to follow °

@cards-of-rose (best study tips and cute pink aesthetic), @cuddiecore (her posts always make me feel motivated), @a-fox-studies (blue aestheic study diaries), @olderacademic (best seasonal study posts ever), @frenchiepal (like study with me but better), @student-by-day (motivating studyblog content), @studentbyday (has the best study diary)

Anyways, I hope we motivate each other on here. All pics are mine.

[film-classics]

Tallulah Bankhead - The Wild Child

Tallulah Brockman Bankhead (born in Huntsville, Alabama on January 31, 1902) was an American actress, primarily of the stage, but has also appeared in several prominent films, including an award-winning performance in Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944). Known as "The Wild Child," her penchant for living life on her own terms, defying societal conventions and hard partying sometimes preceded her talent.

Bankhead was a member of the Bankhead and Brockman family, a prominent Alabama Democratic political family with Irish roots. Her grandfather and her uncle were U.S. senators, and her father was Speaker of the House of Representatives. She was mostly raised in the family estate named "Sunset" in Jasper, Alabama.

Discovering at an early age that theatrics gained her the attention she desired, she wanted to be a performer. Thus, at 15, she submitted her photo to Picture Play, which was conducting a contest, and was awarded a trip to New York plus a movie part based on their photographs. She soon realized her place was on stage rather than screen. After several years in Broadway, Bankhead moved to London, where she found fame and critical acclaim in the West End.

In 1931, under contract to Paramount Pictures she returned to the U.S. and played in a series of roles as a femme fatale in films in films like George Cukor's Tarnished Lady (1931).

Going back to Broadway, Bankhead worked steadily in a series of plays, including brilliant portrayals of Regina Giddens in Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes (1939) and Sabina in Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth (1942). Because of her continued success, she was able to command 10 percent of the gross of the play and was billed larger than any other actor in the cast. She also continued to appear in a handful of films, TV shows, and radio shows. Though Tallulah Bankhead's career slowed in the mid-1950s, she never faded from the public eye.

A long time smoker, she died in Manhattan at age 66 due to pleural double pneumonia.

Legacy:

Won the Variety Award for Best Actress of the Year twice: The Little Foxes (1939) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1942)

Won the New York Drama Critics Award for Best Actress in a Production for The Skin of Our Teeth (1942)

Won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress for Lifeboat (1944)

Nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for Midgie Purvis (1961)

Has had a cocktail at the Rivoli Bar in the Ritz London called "The Tallulah," which is served in Christian Louboutin stiletto

Is the first white woman to be featured on the cover of Ebony magazine

Is one of the very few film actresses and the only stage actress to have a cover on both Time and Life

Honored as one of the 10 most remarkable women in London in 1928

Served as inspiration for the character Margo Channing in All About Eve (1950) and Cruella De Vil in Walt Disney Pictures' One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)

Is one of the original inductees in the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1972

Inducted in the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1981

Is the main character of Looped, a Broadway play by New York writer Matthew Lombardo, which premiered in 2007

Has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6141 Hollywood Blvd for motion picture

[aristotlecoyote]

i'm sorry you aren't able to pay for watcher's new service. it was a tough decision for me too - i'm unemployed right now and had to look at my savings and decide to skip on buying a few things - but in the end i chose to support them. there are fans sharing accounts and gifting subs. some people in the fandom want to help with solutions but you can't hear them over everyone blaming watcher for suddenly being in the 1% somehow?? (they're not) this is still in beta mode so we all need to take a breath and see what they announce after seeing the feedback. but watcher didn't ruin the economy and make it so hard for people to get welfare and help - you need to contact some government officials for that - not shane's wife

You are fundimentally missing the point. And why are you feeding a problem when they have clearly show they dont respect their fans with their silence, and their employees and spouses snide comments.

The watcher hate train that you think is clouding my thoughts simply isnt. I look at other fans to see if i my perception is more then just automatic frustration. And its not. I think alot. I get heated when i feel theres injustice. But i think through every single thing in this situation for flaws in my own logic because i know people like you will say i am blowing out of proportion. dont patronize me with those arguements.

Yeah governement stuff isnt their fault but they know where the world is. Or atleast they should and they are choosing to bleeding their fans dry. I never said they were the 1% but they are rich. Being rich doesnt automatically put you in the 1 percent but it does give you a leg up to being safe.

I took a breath. I took a whole breath today and lived my life on an extremely small trip on a train. To get free samples from an event with a discounted ticket. I bought a single nice thing that i wanted and for the first time in three days i didnt think about this shit show.

I wanted to support them but seeing as they dont care that they are making

1. A bad decision that everyone except people like you can see

2. Using a base platform that is notoriously unfriendly to creators

3. Didnt respect their fans enough to do market research and give us a finished product or a timeline for things moving forward

4. Act like they are drowning while they are on a yacht. And show that yacht to the people they kicked out of a lifeboat. Then blame us for needing to get a slightly smaller yacht. (This is an analogy)

Its not the same.

3 shows i like is not worth. 6 dollars.

I dont want Sara rubin's fucking help. I am saying she is showing the reality. That these people dont care. Its a common fact of todays world that very few youtubers actually care. That you giving them 6 dollars for a thing that has never worked in the long term unless years of effort and research is put into it. And you are on unemployment? I dont know.

You are the ones that dont see the reality.

But like i said in my post. I respect that humans can do whatever they want. I just think you should think and ask questions and when you dont get clear answers. Wonder why.

All of this mess is something you need to watch before you jump.

I simply chose to step away from the cliff because i saw sharks in the water.

EDIT: some parts in this feel unfinished. I am tired and working on very little sleep because of how my brain has chosen to process this situation. I wont update this post with corrections unless someone can give me a hard reason to.

[milf--adjacent]

alright then! infodump about a movie that you want to tell people about!!

Uh.... Hitchcock's surprisingly controversial film Lifeboat (1944) is an excellent example of a limited set. The characters are confined to the lifeboat for the duration of the film, and careful propbuilding and cinematography makes us believe they are actually on the ocean when the set used for the production was actually about the size of the average above-ground pool. The film's controversy comes from portaying the nazi who boards the lifeboat as intelligent and manipulative instead of just being a violent, mustache-twirling brute. The film's characters represent the interwar dealings with Nazis by various nations and political inclinations. Only one man aboard outright refuses to work with/protect a nazi, but the others decide to hear him out and take him in because "it's a violation of human rights to let him drown" and all that. For the flaws it has, it's a surprisingly progressive piece of cinema, thanks in large part to Canada Lee's refusal to portray his character as the "yes'sir, no'sir" servile stereotype written in the original script.

[j-nipper-95]

Six Sentence Sunday

Yes, 2023 is drawing to a close. Yes, I have been lurking for (I think) months at this point. Yes, I have been writing. Thank you so much to everyone who has been tagging me in recent weeks/months, I'm so sorry I haven't been interacting as much with you all as I have in the past. In the last few months I just haven't had the social battery to do much more than just lurk in comments sections, and sometimes not even that (autistic burnout is not fun, can confirm, 0/10, do not recommend).

But I'm back, and here's hoping 2024 is a good year, and one that's productive where writing is concerned! 2023 was a pretty good year for me; I published my first fic (which was also the first bit of writing I've properly published anywhere!), and I sent off my first query for ASR! To a proper literary agent! Like ... WHAT?! I still can't believe it!

As for the end of this year, let's get one last hurrah in for the year of 2023 with the final WIPsday of the year. Chapter 11 of Trails is coming, it just needs to be edited. Here's an unedited snippet of the chaos you have to look forward to.

“When I tell you to, run like fuck,” Fiona tells us, clicking the hammer back on her revolver.  “How many more rounds have you got?” Penny asks. “Enough to take down half the idiots aboard this ship.” Fiona takes up a position on one side of the hatch, her finger on the trigger guard. As she moves I hear the tell tale clink of a box of rounds, and see the outline of it in her trouser pocket for the first time. “Fiona,” I caution. “Maybe we should try to do this quietly.” “No chance of that, boyo. I’m killing as many of these fuckers as I can before we go overboard.” “Fiona,” I try again, but she isn’t listening. “The lifeboat is on the right side,” Penny whispers to us, eyeing Fiona out of the corner of her eye. We’ll lower you into it, Baz, then follow.” I guess I don’t have much of a say in this, as Snow is literally the only reason I’m still standing right now. I nod, and Penny creeps up the stairs behind Fiona, who does so about as well as a bull in a china shop. She storms out onto the deck and I’m actually surprised by how long it takes for bullets to start flying. There’s a solid fifteen seconds or so, which allows Bunce to make it up the stairs and gesture for us to follow, before an alarm is raised and Fiona does what she does best: cause chaos.

This hiatus with Trails wasn't planned, but work and general holiday madness got in the way of the tentative schedule my beta's and I had. New Year, fresh start, once more into the fray, as they say. I hope you can join us for this fics future shenanigans.

Tagging for the new year: @artsyunderstudy @aristocratic-otter @bazzybelle @blackberrysummerblog @bookish-bogwitch @cattocavo @chen-chen-chen-again-chen @cosmicalart @cutestkilla @dragoneggos @erzbethluna @ebbpettier @fatalfangirl @frjsti @henreyettah @hushed-chorus @ic3-que3n @ileadacharmedlife @ivelovedhimthroughworse @krisrix @larkral @letraspal @martsonmars @nightimedreamersworld @orange-peony @prettylightsbigcity @palimpsessed @phoxphyre @raenestee @shrekgogurt @skeedelvee @stardustasincocaine @subparselkie @that-disabled-princess @theearlgreymage @wellbelesbian @you-remind-me-of-the-babe 

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

What’s your story? It’s all in the telling. Stories are compasses and architecture; we navigate by them, we build our sanctuaries and our prisons out of them, and to be without a story is to be lost in the vastness of a world that spreads in all directions like arctic tundra or sea ice. To love someone is to put yourself in their place, we say, which is to put yourself in their story, or figure out how to tell yourself their story.

Which means that a place is a story, and stories are geography, and empathy is first of all an act of imagination, a storyteller’s art, and then a way of traveling from here to there. What is it like to be the old man silenced by a stroke, the young man facing the executioner, the woman walking across the border, the child on the rollercoaster, the person you’ve only read about or the one next to you in bed?

We tell ourselves stories in order to live, or to justify taking lives, even our own, by violence or by numbness and the failure to live, tell ourselves stories that save us and stories that are the quicksand in which we thrash and the well in which we drown, stories of justification, of accursedness, of luck and star-crossed love, or versions clad in the cynicism that is at times a very elegant garment. Sometimes the story collapses, and it demands that we recognize we’ve been lost, or terrible, or ridiculous, or just stuck; sometimes change arrives like an ambulance or a supply drop. Not a few stories are sinking ships, and many of us go down with these ships even when the lifeboats are bobbing all around us.

In The Thousand and One Nights, known in English as The Arabian Nights, Scheharazade tells stories in order to keep the sultan in suspense from night to night so he will not kill her. The premise of the vast thicket of stories is that the sultan caught his queen in the embrace of a slave and decided to sleep with a virgin every night and slay her every morning so that he could not be cuckolded again. Scheherazade volunteered to try to end the massacre and did so by telling him stories that carried over from one night to the next for nights that stretched into years.

She spun stories around him that kept him in a cocoon of anticipation from which he eventually emerged a less murderous man. In the course of all this telling she bore three sons and delivered a labyrinth of stories within stories, stories of desire and deception and magic, of tranformation and testing, stories in which the action in one freezes as another storyteller opens his mouth, pregnant stories, stories to stop death.

Do you tell your story or does it tell you? Often, too often, stories saddle us, ride us, whip us onward, tell us what to do, and we do it without questioning. The task of learning to be free requires learning to hear them, to question them, to pause and hear silence, to name them and then to become the storyteller. Those ex-virgins who died were inside the sultan’s story; Scheharazade, like a working-class hero, seized control of the means of production, and talked her way out.

--The Faraway Nearby (2012)

[Rebecca Solnit]

[kiki-de-la-petite-flaque]

Alfred Hitchcock appears in a cameo as before and after models in an advertisement for a fictional weight loss product in Lifeboat.

[roguerevieweradl]

Heathers Review (Pelican Productions) - 12/09/2024

Stepping into Heathers, I knew we were in for a wild ride, but I wasn’t prepared for the sheer power and presence of this cast. 

Tayla Prime as Heather Chandler was an absolute force of nature. She dominated the stage with so much authority that I found myself genuinely intimidated from the audience! I wouldn’t dare cross her Chandler—if I were in Westerberg High, I’d be running for the hills. It was a performance that oozed confidence and power, embodying the iconic ‘mythic b****’ perfectly.

Teagan Garvey as JD had some great moments, especially in the beginning where he played up JD’s charm to a T. His descent into madness was compelling, with Garvey really showcasing the complexity of the role. There were a few moments where his vocals fell a little flat, but overall, he was stellar and brought a lot to the table.

Then there’s Samantha Keough as Veronica—wow. I have never been so in awe of a voice. She didn’t just deliver; she owned the character, adding her unique vocal flair rather than just doing a by-the-numbers version of Veronica. I’d go so far as to say she’s one of the best Veronicas I’ve seen in Adelaide!

Caitlin Laventure as Heather Duke was a standout for me. Talk about a triple threat—the dancing, the singing, the acting, all flawlessly executed. I honestly can’t believe she isn’t already a staple in the professional scene. It was hard to keep my eyes off her whenever she was on stage.

Lily Horton-Stewarts Heather McNamara was another highlight. "Lifeboat" was a real emotional journey, and she took the audience right along with her. I could feel her anxiety bubbling under the surface, and when it broke, it was powerful. A beautifully crafted performance.

And then, Darcie Yelland as Martha—my heart. She brought so much warmth and life to Martha that you just wanted to give her a hug. By the time "Kindergarten Boyfriend" hit, I was a complete mess. It’s a challenging role to pull off, but Yelland absolutely nailed it.

I have to mention my favorite duo of the night: Zach Bartlett and Freddie Windle as Kurt and Ram. These two bounced off each other perfectly, delivering the humor and energy the roles require. They’re an iconic duo, and I truly hope to see them working together in the future!

Hannah Brown as Ms. Fleming brought so much life to the ditzy teacher role. You could really sense how much she cared about her News Crew… which made for a lot of laughs. I thoroughly enjoyed watching her performance!

The song of the night had to be ‘My Dead Gay Son’. The dads, Leo Sage and Hanno de Klerk, absolutely nailed it! The audience couldn’t stop clapping, and we just wanted more. Well done to both actors for a standout performance.

The ensemble deserves massive credit as well. The choreography and vocals were tight and well-constructed, with each piece fitting together like a perfectly synchronized puzzle. You could just feel the joy radiating off the entire cast, which gave the performance an extra spark of magic.

As for the set design, it was nothing short of spectacular. I loved the concept—especially how the brick wall split apart, and the two-story levels made the stage feel dynamic and immersive. I found myself wondering how long it took to build because it was just so beautifully crafted.

The lighting was also brilliantly executed. I loved how they played within the scheme. My favorite moment had to be during the bomb sequence, where the stage transformed into what looked like a disco ball for just a moment, symbolizing the explosion—it was an inventive and effective choice.

Sound was mostly on point. While there were a few minor issues with mics not being turned on in time or some effects coming in late, the sound mix overall was fantastic. Missing a couple of lines didn’t take away from how well everything sounded.

Big shoutout to the creative team. You’ve put on an amazing rendition of Heathers, and I’m excited to see what you all work on next. Overall, this cast for Heathers knocked it out of the park. From powerhouse performances to stellar ensemble work, this show was a treat from start to finish.

[vonlipvig]

I started playing Not For Broadcast, a game that manages to both be a worrying dystopia where human rights can and will be violated, AND a wonderful utopia where the rich actually face consequences… As someone from the UK I feel I am looking at both a brighter and darker future for my country and I don’t know how I feel about that! It is also (as someone who grew up during the era) very nostalgic. These adverts, this title sequence, I feel as if I have seen these before… a small me is dispassionately watching this shitty bullying play at school… at home she turns on top of the pops to see this exact music video… I had to go on the IMDB page for some of these actors to work out where I’ve seen them before.

I have just got up to the first day of lockdown, in what I am pretty sure is an unconscious electric shock dream. I’m enjoying myself a lot so far though my god it’s stressful having a job and a family to support. I think my wife is leaving me and taking our daughter with her, WHICH IS A BIT MUCH CONSIDERING I PLAYED HOOKIE FROM WORK FOR THE SAKE OF OUR RELATIONSHIP! And I’m SORRY you didn’t get to go on holiday daughter but we’re in CRUSHING DEBT! I TREAT OUR SON WITH COMPASSION BECAUSE HE’S THE ONLY ONE WHO ASKED ME TO DO SOMETHING I CAN ACTUALLY GIVE! I’M NOT RISKING OUR NECKS FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR BROTHERS TRUST FUND! AND I CAN’T MAGIC US UP MONEY BECAUSE I’M TERRIBLE AT MY JOB!!! I’M TRYING VERY HARD FAMILY!!! *sob*

Anyway I’m having fun, and getting to know the characters! I think Jeremy is my favourite at the moment. I can appreciate a character desperately struggling for both command and a sense of dignity on a sinking ship. If you look to your right you’ll see Megan has constructed herself a lifeboat and is doing just fine. She’s definitely going to be eating your lunch in a few years Jeremy… ah well!

YIPPEEEE WE GOT ANOTHER ONE, FOLKS! 📺

i will reserve most of my plot-specific comments for obvious reasons, but yeah, i do really love the angle they took with advance being a pretty popular progressive party (like, i would have voted for them, i'm fairly sure most of us would have voted for them). it definitely makes what's going to happen a lot more interesting and less black and white...

OOH the lockdown, one of my fave broadcasts, no doubt! it was, as you can guess, very much a product of the 2020 lockdown and the inability of getting together to film, and to me one of the best examples of art that used the situation to their advantage, i'm really so fond of it ♡ and also YEAH IT'S INSANE. i can't wait for you to discover all the insane secrets and possibilities within it...

again, shutting the fuck up regarding all your family choices here, but 👀 very amused, very amused, keep going!

and yeah, jeremy is such an amazing character. my fave's megan, but everyone in this game is so stellar, it's just fantastic.

[notabritishduck]

One time I had a dream where my theater class was doing a production of heathers, and I wanted to be jd, but I got cast as Heather mcnamara, and I couldn't figure out how to sing lifeboat and it was the only song I was allowed to sing

[the-irrelevant-trumpeter]

okay 1 person wants the essay and that is enough for me.

so obviously all of the goes wrong productions are ensemble pieces. but i firmly believe that if you had to assign a main character to each goes wrong production, annie twilloil would be the main character of the play that goes wrong. why? because her story follows the basic outline of the hero's journey template. it's a simplified version, as this is a comedy show, and the development of characters is not a priority. but the framework is there, and that's what i'll go through with you today.

(disclaimer that this is mostly just a joke, so don't take this too seriously. i am also not a literary expert, so if anything here isn't correct, don't yell at me. feel free to explain anything to me nicely though.)

i am using christopher vogler's 12-step outline as my basis for this, as it is a more modern adaptation of the original 17-step outline, which suits this show better. not every single one of the steps is fulfilled properly, because as i said, annie's character arc isn't exactly a priority in the show, but also because this is usually an outline that portrays a fantasy hero going on a quest to achieve a huge feat and save the world. as this is quite different to anything in tptgw, it's never going to quite fit. as i said, this is all just for fun and is not meant to be perfect.

anyway, without more blabber, here is my interpretation of annie twilloil's story arc through the lens of the hero's journey.

the ordinary world

we are introduced to the hero's regular world. annie's ordinary world is the behind-the-scenes stage manager work. this is where she is comfortable, and she is not yet facing any challenges.

the call to adventure

the hero is called to action in some sort of way. this is obviously when sandra is knocked out and they need someone to fill in for florence. annie is asked to leave her state of normalcy and enter the unknown world (aka go on stage and act).

refusal of the call

the hero may refuse the call at first, which means they either need to be convinced or forced into taking action. annie, at first, is very reluctant to play florence. this means that she is thrust into action against her will.

meeting the mentor

the hero meets the figure who takes the role of the story's mentor. this stage is a little tricky, as there isn't any single character who stands out to me as annie's mentor. the mentor in this case could be all of the other members of cornley, as they are her "guides" through the unknown world. a more abstract mentor could be her script, as it acts like her lifeboat and literally guides her through the show.

crossing the first threshold

the point of no return, the hero finally leaves the ordinary world and enters the unknown world. annie is pushed onstage as florence, thus quite literally making her cross from backstage (ordinary world) to onstage (unknown world).

tests, allies and enemies

the hero faces obstacles, gains allies and faces enemies. while she doesn't really have any allies or enemies to deal with, annie certainly has to go through a lot of tests. this is all of the stuff that "goes wrong" — problems with lines, issues with the set, getting caught in a loop, all the general shenanigans we see in the show. this section is traditionally the longest in the story, which fits with this show, as the whole point is that there's lots of challenges to overcome.

approach to the inmost cave

the inmost cave represents a large challenge that has been looming on the horizon, and in this stage, the hero prepares for this. this is one of the stages that doesn't really apply to annie's arc, as unlike the classic hero, she isn't particularly on a quest to do something, and therefore isn't aware that she's about to face a challenge. if you wanted to make something into this stage, it'd probably be the intermission — she commits herself to playing florence and prepares herself for the rest of the show.

ordeal

this is where the hero faces their biggest challenge yet, which may be their greatest fear or their deadliest foe. for a while, i thought this was probably when annie gets knocked out (because that seems like a pretty big challenge and probably her lowest point) but she doesn't really overcome a challenge here (except for... regaining her consciousness?). it's not particularly something she has to face herself (the other characters are the ones who have to deal with it). instead, i've decided that the best candidate for annie's ordeal is when she drops her script and has to try to act alone. up to this point, she's been gaining confidence, but now she's faced with her worst fear — she doesn't know what to say anymore. she's left vulnerable. this is a challenge she actually has to face herself, and she struggles through without a script until finally she acquires another copy.

reward (seizing the sword)

the hero receives a reward as a result of their overcoming of the ordeal. this is another stage that isn't super clear, because in comedy shows, characters don't really get rewarded. in fact, most of the comedy in this show revolves around the characters suffering at the hands of their incompetence. so annie doesn't particularly receive any reward for facing the ordeal. however, i do think there's a slight element of this, as her efforts assure her that she can handle being an actor, and even being off-script. it renews her faith in herself — something that will assist her during the climax.

the road back

this is when the hero tries to return to the ordinary world — or in annie's case, this is where they attempt to simply finish the play. but the road back isn't necessarily easy, and there are more challenges (like how she is knocked out). this leads up to the final confrontation with the antagonist before the hero returns, and is the preparation for the final battle — the climax of the show.

resurrection

this is the final climax, with the hero's final and biggest challenge. it's the hero's final exam, where we see whether they learned anything from the ordeal. we see that the hero has changed from the beginning of the story — they complete their transformation that has been building since the very beginning. for annie, this is obviously her final fight with sandra, who is really the antagonist in annie's story. we see that her confidence has grown, and her experiences with the ordeal have given her enough faith in her own abilities to fight sandra for the role, even abandoning her script. and in the end, she triumphs — she ends up on stage with sandra tied up behind her.

return with the elixir

the hero returns to their ordinary world with some sort of prize (the elixir). despite having come to the end of their adventure, they have been fundamentally changed as a person. this is mostly unseen in tptgw, but we can assume it happens post-canon. annie returns to being a stage manager (for now. we know she becomes an actor for peter pan goes wrong, but i would assume that for the rest of the in-universe performances of murder at haversham manor, she continues being a stage manager). she returns to her "ordinary world" changed — she has grown as a person, faced dangers, and has become a "master of two realms". the "elixir" she brings with her is as metaphorical as her reward after the ordeal was, but she's gained new skills and confidence, and discovered that she has a taste for acting.

if you got down this far, i admire your patience and dedication. if you have anything you want to add, argue, or comment, feel free. once again, this is just some fun and is not meant to be taken seriously. thank you for reading!

[courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme]

The Lady Vanishes (1938, Alfred Hitchcock)

27/01/2024

The Lady Vanishes is a 1938 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

The story is based on the novel The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White.

A remake was made in 1979 entitled The Lady Vanishes, directed by Anthony Page, with Angela Lansbury in the role of Miss Froy.

A train is running from the Balkans towards London when an avalanche stops it in a remote village. In the hotel where they are forced to stay overnight, they meet some English citizens: Iris Henderson, the young heiress of a rich jam producer, returning from a holiday with two friends and headed to London to get married to a nobleman; Miss Froy, amiable old lady in a tweed suit, housekeeper and music teacher for six years in that country and about to return to her homeland; Caldicott and Charters, cricket fans, very upset about the forced interruption of their trip which risks making them miss the final phase of a test match in Manchester; Gilbert, a musician with a passion for folklore who records folk songs with a little too much noise, resulting in a lively confrontation with Iris; a couple of lovers whose greatest concern is not to be recognized.

Miss Froy tries to escape into the woods, after leaving a coded message contained in the musical notes of a melody that Gilbert must learn by heart and take to the British Foreign Office in case she fails to save herself.

As promised Iris and Gilbert go to the Foreign Office in Whitehall to report the coded message.

The expiration of the contract that Gainsboroug (subsidiary of Gaumont-British) had taken over from Gaumont and Hitchcock had to complete the second film (the first was Young and Innocent) foreseen by the agreement with Edward Black.

In May 1936 Frank had proposed to Gainsboroug to buy the rights to White's novel, he had worked on the screenplay together with Sidney Gilliat but Roy William Neill, the director who had been entrust with the direction, din not complete the film.

The role of the lovable old spy was entrusted to Dame May Whutty, who would later be cast in a minor role in Suspicion.

In the role of the rich young bourgeois the director used Margaret Lockwood, under contract to the production company; in the role of the penniless musician Hitchcock would have liked Robert Donat, the protagonist of The 39 Steps, who had to give it up for health reasons; Michael Redgrave was the chosen, already famous as a young theater actor in John Gielgud's company, here at his first film test: the director liked him for his detached and casula style.

In the fundamental interview given by Alfred Hitchcock to François Truffaut, published for the first time in 1966, the director said about this film of his: "It was shot in 1938 in the small studio in Islington, on a thirty meter platform and with a wagon on top."

In addition to all his dearest themes (the incredibleity of the truth and the game of appearances, spies, travel, the relationship between a couple and love, humor) there is a strong political connotation, influenced by international current affairs: 1938 is the year of the Munich Agreement, evoked by the white handkerchief waved by the lawyer, an unpleasant neutralist who, regardless of his lover and the other Englishmen, hands himself over to the spies and gets himself killed. Finally, the main enemy of the film, Doctor Hart, alludes to Germany both his surname and in his origin ( in that same year Czechoslovakia also begins to "disappear", with the annexation of the Sudetenland to Germany, a prologue of what will happen in the following year). Hitchcock declares anti-Nazi sentiments expressed on other occasions in his films (The Man Who Knew Too Much, The 39 Steps, Secret Agent, Foreign Correspondent, Saboteur, Lifeboat, Notorious).

[usafphantom2]

To help the men that flew the A-12 and later the SR 71 they were all sent through grueling, survival school that prepared them for the worst the worst, of course would be interrogation by the Russians, North Koreans or Chinese.

SR- 71 pilots and RSOs also had to pass the water survival school. Because it was highly likely that they may have to bail out over the Ocean, this did happen when the last SR 71 crashed on April 20, 1989, over the South China Sea. The crew ejected with no problem, and their water safety course came in handy. During the survival school, they learned how to Parasail and then get into a life raft. They would practice in old pressure suits that had holes in them. They had to use two float devices to keep themselves from drowning.

David Peters, an SR 71 pilot, was telling a funny story about a water survival school at Homestead, Florida. His lightweight and lack of control caused him to land on an unsuspecting man in a lifeboat. RSO Ed’s weight was about 245 without the suit. I (Dave) was about 175. It took quite a production to get him airborne. But it went well once they did. Then I went up with no problem until they had me cut loose. I was coming down where all the rest of the class was in their one-person life rafts. There was one guy, and it was like a bore sighting a rifle; he was right between my feet, and everything I tried to do didn’t change anything. So here. Comes this crazy person in a space suit under a parachute straight at him. He has this weird look on his face and is trying to paddle with his hands. Crash, I hit feet first right on the edge of his raft, and everything went flying. It worked out, though, because he helped me get in my raft, much to the chagrin of the instructors, and then got in his. We laughed, and I said I am buying the beers! Thanks David Peters

@Habubrats71 via X