#Michel-René Labelle

[badmovieihave]

Bad movie I have Ilsa:The Tigress of Siberia 1977

[dear-indies]

hello! if its not too much to ask, i was wondering if i could get a list of your favorite diverse fcs? by which i mean : age / body diverse, nonwhite, any gender identity, disabled, etc. i'm thinking about making an rp and i want to make sure i have enough diversity in my suggested fcs before i even start making skeletons!

Gil Birmingham (1953) Comanche.

Angela Bassett (1958) African-American.

Ken Watanabe (1959) Japanese.

Keanu Reeves (1964) Kānaka maoli, Portuguese, English, Scottish, at least 1/16th Chinese, remote Dutch / English.

Michelle Gomez (1966)

Zahn McClarnon (1966) Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux, Sihasapa Lakota Sioux, Polish, Irish, French, German, English.

Gina Torres (1969) Afro Cuban. 

Mädchen Amick (1970)

Aaron Pedersen (1970) Arrernte and Arabana.

Nathaniel Arcand (1971) Plains Cree.

Sandra Oh (1971) Korean.

Idris Elba (1972) Sierra Leonean / Ghanaian.

Deborah Mailman (1972) Bidjara, Ngati Porou Maori, Te Arawa.

Isaiah Mustafa (1974) African-American.

Mahershala Ali (1974) African-American.

Sara Ramirez (1975) Mexican, some Irish - bisexaul and non-binary - she/they.

Adam Rodriguez (1975) Puerto Rican.

David Harbour (1975) - has bipolar disorder.

Maggie Q (1979) Vietnamese / Irish, Polish, French.

Daniella Alonso (1978) Inca Peruvian and Japanese / Puerto Rican.

Danai Gurira (1978) Zimbabwean.

Rutina Wesley (1978) African-American - was dating a woman but hasn't labelled / publicly labelled his sexuality.

Nonso Anozie (1979) Nigerian.

Gong Yoo (1979) Korean.

Daniel Henney (1979) Korean / Irish, English.

Angelica Ross (1980) African-American - trans woman.

Ricky Whittle (1981) Afro-Jamaican / English.

Joe Taslim (1981) Chinese-Indonesian.

Dichen Lachman (1982) Tibetan / German.

Gemma Chan (1982) Hongkonger / Chinese.

Heather White (1983) Mohawk / Nakoda Sioux.

Tiphany Adams (1983) - is paraplegic and a wheelchair user. 

Florence Faivre (1983) Thai / French.

Iko Uwais (1983) Betawi.

Steven Yeun (1983) Korean.

Savannah Welch (1984) - amputee.

Charles Michael Davis (1984) African-American / Filipino.

DeWanda Wise (1984) African-American.

Freida Pinto (1984) Konkani Indian.

Brian Michael Smith (1984) African-American - trans man.

Nathalie Kelley (1985) Argentinian, Peruvian [Quechua, possibly other].

Martin Sensmeier (1985) Tlingit, Koyukon, Eyak, German, Irish.

Clayton Cardenas (1985) Mexican and Filipino.

Rahul Kohli (1985) Punjabi Indian - he/they,

Sinqua Walls (1985) Afro-Jamaican, French, Unspecified Native American, possibly other.

Cooper Andrews (1985) Samoan / Hungarian Jewish.

Jessica Matten (1985) Métis, Saulteaux-Cree, Chinese, British.

Joséphine Jobert (1985) French, Sephardi Jewish, Spanish / Martiniquais, Spanish, possibly Chinese.

Samantha Renke (1986) - has Osteogenesis imperfecta type 3 and is a wheelchair user.

Alba Flores (1986) Romani.

Monica Raymund (1986) Dominican Republic / English, Ashkenazi Jewish - bisexual.

Roberta Colindrez (1986) Mexican - queer.

Wunmi Mosaku (1986) Yoruba Nigerian.

Maika Harper (1986) Inuit.

Da'Vine Joy Randolph (1986) African-American.

Henry Golding (1987) Iban Malaysian / English.

Sen Mitsuji (1987) Japanese / Unspecified Australian. 

Ludi Lin (1987) Chinese. 

Ali Stroker (1987) - is paraplegic and a wheelchair user - bisexual.

Çağlar Ertuğrul (1987) Turkish.

Manny Jacinto (1987) Filipino Chinese.

Michaela Coel (1987) Ghanaian - aromantic.

Naomi Watanabe (1987) Japanese / Taiwanese.

Lewis Tan (1987) Chinese Singaporean / Irish, possibly English.

Jillian Mercado (1988) Afro-Dominican - has spastic muscular dystrophy and is a wheelchair user.

Amiyah Scott (1988) African-American - trans woman.

Nico Tortorella (1988) - genderfluid, non-binary, queer, pansexual and polyamorous - they/them.

Anna Diop (1988) Senegalese.

Raymond Ablack (1989) Indo-Guyanese.

Danielle Brooks (1989) African-American.

Kylie Bunbury (1989) Afro-Guyanese / Swedish, as well as Polish, English, and German.

Shaunette Renée Wilson (1989) Afro-Guyanese.

Jessica Kellgren-Fozard (1989) has has Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome with Marfanoid phenotype causing blindness in one eye and deafness - lesbian.

Laith Ashley (1989) Afro-Dominican - trans man.

Daniel Kaluuya (1989) Ugandan.

Olly Alexander (1990) - non-binary and gay - he/him.

Dev Patel (1990) Gujarati Indian.

Zeeko Zaki (1990) Egyptian.

Kiowa Gordon (1990) Hualapai, English, Scottish, Danish, Manx.

Harvey Guillén (1990) Mexican - queer.

Trevante Rhodes (1990) African-American.

Laura Harrier (1990) African-American / Rusyn, English, German, Swiss-German.

MJ Rodriguez (1991) African-American / Puerto Rican - trans woman.

Tanaya Beatty (1991) Da’naxda’xw / Himalayan.

Melisa Aslı Pamuk (1991) Turkish. 

Nyma Tang (1991) Ethiopian [South Sudanese].

Mena Massoud (1991) Egyptian.

Sonya Hussyn (1991) Pakistani. 

Shamier Anderson (1991) Afro-Jamaican.

Patti Harrison (1991) Vietnamese / White - trans woman.

Medalion Rahimi (1992) Iranian, Mizrahi Jewish - she/they.

RJ Mitte (1992) - has cerebral palsy.

Zión Moreno (1992) Mexican [Spanish and Unspecified Native American].

Jeremy Pope (1992) African-American - gay.

Tommy Martinez (1992) Venezuelan.

John Boyega (1992) Yoruba Nigerian.

Sean Berdy (1993) - is deaf and has bipolar disorder. 

Yalitza Aparicio (1993) Mixtec and Triqui.

Kitty Chicha Amatayakul (1993) Thai.

Sofia Carson (1993) Colombian – including Arab [Syrian-Lebanese, Palestinian], Spanish, possibly English, possibly other.

Ashley Moore (1993) Cherokee, African-American, White.

Jacob Scipio (1993) Indo-Guyanese and English.

Loey Lane (1993) - bisexual - she/they.

Beanie Feldstein (1993) Ashkenazi Jewish - is dating a woman but hasn't labelled / publicly labelled his sexuality.

Chris De'Sean Lee (1994) African-American.

Kofi Siriboe (1994) Ghanaian.

Natasha Liu Bordizzo (1994) Chinese / Italian.

Maddison Jaizani (1995) Iranian.

Ashton Sanders (1995) African-American.

Sophia Taylor Ali (1995) Pakistani. 

Cody Christian (1995) Penobscot, Passamaquoddy / English.

Ricardo Hoyos (1995) Ecuadorian and Peruvian [Quechua, Spanish] / Irish, possibly Scottish and French-Canadian.

Ryan Destiny (1995) ¾ African-American ¼ Irish.

Simone Ashley (1995) Tamil Indian.

Elliot Fletcher (1996) - trans man.

Nine Naphat Siangsomboon (1996) Thai.

Aria Shahghasemi (1996) Iranian.

Odiseas Georgiadis (1996) Ghanaian / Greek.

Tati Gabrielle (1996) African-American / Korean.

Prilly Latuconsina (1996) Moluccan Indonesian / Sundanese Indonesian.

Nicole Maines (1997) - trans woman.

Maris Racal (1997) Bisaya Filipino. 

Aubrey Joseph (1997) African-American.

James Rolleston (1997) Te Whakatōhea, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Porou, Ngāi Tūhoe, and Tainui.

Madeleine Madden (1997) Eastern Arrernte, Kalkadoon, Cadigal.

Sweet Qismina (1997) Malaysian.

Quintessa Swindell (1997) Unspecified Black / Unspecified White - non-binary - he/they.

Amber Midthunder (1997) Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux, Hudeshabina Nakoda Sioux, Sissiton-Wahpeton Oyate Dakota Sioux, Norwegian / Chinese, English.

Bright Vachirawit Chivaaree (1997) Thai.

Kiera Allen (1997) - is paraplegic.

Magnolia Maymuru (1997) Yolngu.

Gideon Adlon (1997) Ashkenazi Jewish / English (converted to Judaism).

George Robinson (1997) - is paraplegic and a wheelchair user.

Chella Man (1998) Hongkonger, Jewish - deaf - trans genderqueer - he/him.

Banita Sandhu (1998) Punjabi Indian.

Omar Ayuso (1998) Moroccan - is dating a man but hasn't labelled / publicly labelled his sexuality.

Forrest Goodluck (1998) Navajo, Hidatsa, Mandan, Tsimshian, 1/8th Japanese, 1/8th Norwegian, some French, English, and German.

Sivan Alyra Rose (1999) Chiricahua Apache, Afro-Puerto Rican, and Creole - genderfluid and pansexual - she/they.

Hunter Schafer (1999) - trans non-binary - she/her.

Erana James (1999) Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, Tainui.

Anna Lambe (2000) Inuit - bisexual.

Auli'i Cravalho (2000) Kānaka maoli, Puerto Rican, Portuguese, Chinese, Irish - bisexual.

Alas / Joshua Magsilong Alvarez (2001) Bisaya Filipino.

Lauren ‘Lolo’ Spencer (?) African-American - has Lou-Gehrig’s disease (ALS) and is a wheelchair user.

Rhiannon Clements (?) - was born with a foreshortened left arm.

Tobi Green Adenowo (?) Nigerian - has Osteogenesis imperfecta type 3 and is a wheelchair user - bisexual. 

Please let me know if you want more suggestions / more specific suggestions! 

All of these have enough resources to be used as faceclaims too!

[daggerzine]

The Simon Provencher interview (by Tom Murphy)

Simon Provencher is perhaps best known for his frenetic and creative guitar work for the post-punk band VICTIME out of Québec. But on March 26, 2021 the musician released his debut EP Mesures via Michel Records. It is six tracks of free jazz collages that bear favorable comparison to the avant-garde compositions of Anthony Braxton as Provencher makes creative and playful use of clarinet, electric guitar, percussion and processing to convey a strong sense of mood and place while making one very aware of aspects of the environment around us we often tune out. In pairing aspects of exploratory jazz and musique concrète, Provencher has given us an album that is both soothing and keeps us grounded in the present. The composer and musician recently answered some questions we presented to him via email about the nature of his music, its inspirations and methods of crafting its elegantly evocative passages.

 Dagger Zine (Tom Murphy): Mesures will probably hit some people's ears as akin to a free jazz or spontaneous composition type of record. How did you approach putting together these songs and experimenting with sound compared with maybe how you do with VICTIME?

Simon Provencher: People wouldn’t be wrong in these assumptions at all. Mesures is a record that was written very quickly. I decided to trust my first instincts for much of the record. With VICTIME, our approach has always been more iterative. By that I mean that we’ll loop “embryonic” parts over and over again, slowly changing elements, morphing the composition until we found ourselves happy with how everything sounded together. I’m still very much into this way of writing, but Mesures was a much more immediate affair.

For me, inspiration almost always comes from timbre, usually through loads of guitar pedals. In this case though, I wanted to see what sounds and textures I could get out of the electric guitar without using any external effects or even amplification. Timbre was still my main concern, but in a more subtle way I guess. I slightly detuned the strings and experimented with resonances, chord shapes, finger placement, fingernails, etc. I also “prepared” the guitar: I jammed objects between the strings and tied sewing thread to the strings (if you pinch the thread with slightly wet fingers and slide them around, you get eerie, reverse-like effects).

Enough about me though, another big change was that this record was made remotely with two new collaborators, Elyze Venne-Deshaies (clarinet) and Olivier Fairfield (percussion). Both of them had “carte blanche” (pardon my french) to do whatever they wanted. I can’t speak much to their personal approach to improvisation, but both of them are seasoned veterans and delivered absolutely amazing performances.

 D: Some people might think of any kind of music declared experimental is a barrier to its acceptance but your album seems to me very accessible as a form of pure expression. Do you have a sense of why your songs seem so open and, as one reviewer put it, welcoming?

 S: I don’t quite know actually. I do agree that the songs have a certain softness to them that was certainly somewhat intentional. When I did the initial guitar parts, I did set out to make something conventionally “beautiful”, or at least “not harsh”. I don’t really have the vocabulary to describe what happened there, but the resonances, repetitions and patterns definitely implied a soft mood from the get go.

I guess this foundation inspired Elyze and Olivier to also play with softer tones, to approach the music with warmth and subtlety in mind. They really “got” the vibe of the music without me ever telling them anything about my intentions. A “shift” of some kind happened when the clarinet parts were added to the drums and guitars. I felt like the mood of the pieces almost completely changed (in a positive way, of course). I think there’s something to the linearity of Elyze and Olivier’s playing, in contrast with the repetitive, hypnotic guitars that gives the music a sense of wandering aimlessness which I really love.

On the audio engineering side, I did intentionally mix the songs with a certain softness in mind. We added some warm tape saturation to some of the sounds and carved out a lot of higher frequencies. On the songs with feedback and noise, Simon Labelle, who mastered the record, made it so that when the clarinets get louder, the high-frequency content ducks out of the way a little bit. This nifty little trick does help out a lot with making the noisy songs more warm and inviting too.

 D: Listening through the album I found it resonated with the albums of Anthony Braxton and Ornette Coleman. The former of which never considered his music part of jazz though he is often associated with that form of music and the latter who expanded the range, dynamics and tonal choices of jazz. Were you inspired by in any way by those forms of abstract yet emotionally expressive music? How might you describe its impact on what you've done?

S: I totally was! I discovered Anthony Braxton through Québec jazz guitar great René Lussier. I’ve been a fan of Le Trésor de la Langue for a while and I got into his back catalog last year: his collaborations with Fred Frith, EAI stuff and more, some of which was released on “Les Disques Victo”. “Victo” stands for Victoriaville, a small city between Quebec and Montreal, where there’s a great contemporary music festival named FIMAV. Shamefully, I haven’t actually been to FIMAV yet, but I’ve loved finding recordings of some amazing concerts, a favourite being Anthony Braxton and Derek Bailey’s 1987 Moment Précieux. I was amazed to find out about this rich local history of musical experimentation and improvisation. This record was very much inspired by the whole FIMAV sound.

Coleman is another great point of reference. His records and those of his collaborators, Don Cherry being another big one, all are major inspirations. As a guitar player, I especially got into James “Blood” Ulmer’s career. I really admire his approach to guitar and the immediacy and expressiveness of his music.

 I’m probably paraphrasing it all wrong, but Don Cherry said of Ornette Coleman’s “harmolodic” approach that instead of improvising from chords, like in bebop, you’d start with melodies and improvise to create new forms, harmonies, rhythms to try and reach a certain “brilliance” as he calls it. You’d try to make the music transcend. In harmolodic theory, melody, rhythm and harmony are treated as equals, no solos, no lead and accompaniment dichotomy, no strict timing, scale or tonality.

This is both quite simple but also quite hard to actually grasp in a musical setting, and I’m far from mastering any of it, nor is it necessarily something I strive for, but it is an inspiring way to conceive improvised music for sure.

 D: The first half of the album you make great use of what sounds like atonal melodies yet they perfectly convey the mood and lend a sense of texture. What informed employing those sounds in the songwriting?

S: I’ve always written music without much regard for tonality, key, etc. My musical background is still very much anchored in No Wave and noise music, where skronky chords and weird, unstable melodies are the norm rather than the exception. When playing, I really don’t think much about it, I follow what sounds good to me in the moment.

Looking back on the recorded music though, I feel like there is a lot of nuance to be found in atonality and imperfection. Detuned chords ringing out have such complex and interesting decaying resonances, you can almost hear the frequencies battling each other. These interactions between notes and lines that fall just short of resolving are part of the magic and intrigue of abstract music. In the case of Mesures, I think there’s something special with how some of the atonal, out of tune textures and weird synths clash beautifully with the in-tune clarinet parts, making either one “pop out” depending on where you focus your attention.

 D: The second half or at least the second three songs on the album use processed drones and what some might call noise underneath or in the background, although very much a presence in the mix, of the clarinets? What do you feel this almost contrast in sounds conveyed that say a more conventional arrangement might not?

The second half of the record is basically a rearrangement of the first three songs. There’s four clarinet parts in there! On the first side, they fade in and out of focus, but on side B, everything is there all at once.

This is basically the result of me simply “soloing” the clarinet takes in my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation, the software used to arrange and mix the music). When I heard the four clarinets at once, I really fell in love with the sound.

 So I knew I wanted this to be the focal point of the rearrangement, and I knew I wanted to add something. I just happened to be working with feedback that week, so it kind of fell in place. Feedback manipulation was a technical interest first, I had gotten a new guitar pedal called a Feedback Looper, which sends some of your output signal back into the input of a series of pedals. This creates self-oscillating and rich, detailed noises that are somewhat interactive and malleable. By turning some knobs and flicking some switches on ordinary guitar pedals, you end up with an infinite amount of possible glitches and shrieking high frequency tones.

I don’t know if my ears got accustomed to it or what, but I’ve come to really enjoy the sound of this process. I also really love the tactile aspect of it, it feels kind of like an unpredictable modular synthesizer. When I had recorded the feedback improvisation, which I did in one single take, I thought this sparse, harsh rearrangement was a nice contrast with the more warm, conventional first three songs. At that point, the record felt complete.

 D: The final three songs also remind me of Philip Glass in his soundtrack work wherein he mixes the playful and flowing with the dissonant. How would you say these sounds complement each other in your own music?

S: Especially on this release, while there are a lot of sounds that are contrasting with each other, I also feel like there is a sense of shared directionality. The song Et quart is a good example of this. The high feedback notes start out in almost complete opposition to the meandering low clarinet lines, but, as the song progresses, the sounds somehow seem to merge with each other and they end up flowing in the same direction for the song’s climax.

 D: What are some other artists operating now that you find interesting and/or inspirational and resonant with what you're doing?

There’s way too many to name them all, but I’ll try! I think there’s a very interesting local-ish scene around me. I admire the work of N NAO, either her solo releases or her collaborations with Joni Void. Sarah Pagé does mind-bending music with harp and effects; I’ve had the pleasure of catching her live in Ottawa just before the pandemic started last year. Kara-Lys Coverdale is also a major inspiration, so is Kee Avil, whose live show and guitar playing blew me away.

I also need to shout out my friend (and bandmate) Mathieu A. Seulement, whose end-year list allowed me to catch up on a lot of fantastic new music, including, but not limited to Ana Roxane’s Because of a Flower, Jasmine Guffond’s Microphone Permission, Caterina Barbieri’s Ecstatic Computation and, last but not least, Holly Herndon’s magnificent Proto.

  **the three Simon photos were taken by Charlotte Savoie

www.simonprovencher.bandcamp.com 

[blendend]

124 Years ago, On April 20th 1896 Is there someone, here in Paris or in Baku, who can tell us how Lyska Kostio de Warkoffska, born 124 years ago, came to the metropolis on the Seine? What made her or her parents leave the wealthy city on the Caspian Sea? Lyska did not appear again until the winter of 1914, on the boards of the stage. She entered the limelight with a revue at Paris' Theatre Michel, alongside Louise Balthy and René Bussy. But suddenly the mobilization, the Great War breaks out, her daughter is born in 1919, and then, in the mid-30s, she enters the world of Haute Couture. Her labels name is Kostio de War. Her collections show ingenuity and love for Caucasian folklore. She combines her knitted or crocheted models with unusual components, which makes her stand out from other collections.

This is how she created tight-fitting evening dresses, made of golden or silver yarns. Depending on cut and material, these models radiated the glittering grace of a mermaid or the glowing bravery of a Joan of Arc. The German invasion of Paris made her flee to the Riviera, where she and other couturiers like Heim and Worth brought her collections to the woman. In 1940 she also married in Cannes and as soon as Paris was liberated, she returned immediately. There she created her models until the early 1950s and then disappeared out of the world's view. What remains are a handful of photos and the one or other piece of garment in a museum showcase.

Il y a 124 ans, Le 20 avril 1896 Y a-t-il quelqu'un, ici à Paris à Bakou ou ailleurs, qui puisse nous dire comment Lyska Kostio de Warkoffska, née il y a 124 ans, est venue dans la métropole au bord de la Seine ? Qu'est-ce qui l'a incitée, elle ou ses parents, à quitter cette ville et son port prospère en face de la mer Caspienne ? Lyska n'est réapparue que durant l'hiver 1914, sur les planches d'une scène. Elle entre sous les projecteurs avec une revue au Théâtre parisien Michel, aux côtés de Louise Balthy et de René Bussy. Mais soudain la mobilisation, la Grande Guerre éclate et sa fille naît en 1919. Soudain, au milieu des années 30, elle entre dans le monde de la Haute Couture. Le nom de sa maison est Kostio de War. Ses collections font preuve d'ingéniosité et d'amour pour le folklore caucasien. Elle combine ses modèles en tricot ou en crochet avec des éléments inhabituels, ce qui la distingue des autres collections.

C'est ainsi qu'elle crée des robes de soirée ajustées, faites de fils d'or ou d'argent. Selon la coupe et la matière, ces modèles rayonnaient la grâce étincelante d'une sirène ou la bravoure rayonnante d'une Jeanne d'Arc. L'invasion allemande de Paris la fait fuir vers la Côte d'Azur, où elle et d'autres couturiers comme Heim et Worth apportent ses collections aux femmes. En 1940, elle se marie également à Cannes et dès que Paris est libéré, elle y retourne immédiatement. Elle y crée ses modèles jusqu'aux années 50, puis disparaît du monde. Il ne reste plus qu'une poignée de photos et l'un ou l'autre habit dans une vitrine de musée.

[oppaiokudasai]

Horror Film Review: Happy Birthday To Me (dir by J. Lee Thompson)

Horror Film Review: Happy Birthday To Me (dir by J. Lee Thompson)

“John will never eat shish kebab again!” announces the poster for the 1981 Canadian slasher film, Happy Birthday To Me.   Happy Birthday To Me is famous for three things.  One of those things is the poster above, which was apparently so controversial that it actually led to the film being banned in some countries.  That said, it’s a brilliant poster, one that probably belongs in the Film Poster…

[skygemspeaks]

Do you have any book recs? (And/or where you suggest buying books?)

Okay okay, sorry friend, I’ve been busy at a con these past few days so I haven’t had the chance to sit down and answer this. Anyways, before I start, there are a couple of book recs in my Book Recs tag that you can check out, and This Post has some of my favourite lgbt+ books you can check out.

As for where I buy books, sorry I don’t think my answer will be helpful outside of Canada. I usually just by from Chapters/Indigo/Coles (there’s this huge one in Eaton Centre that I frequent so often I’m pretty sure all the staff recognizes me by now lmao). Also, I don’t know think they exist outside of Toronto, but BMV books sells new and used books for super super cheap, so I go there a lot too. I deadass bought a Narnia compilation from them even though I already have one because the cover was gorgeous, and they were selling it for $2.

Anyways, my top three books/series that I absolutely want everyone to read:

Earth Girl, Earth Star, Earth Flight by Janet Edwards- One of my favourite series of all time. Set in a future where humanity has discovered portal technology and has colonies on other planets, the main character Jarra is “Handicapped”. She was one of the minority who were born with an immune system that can not survive on other planets, and so she’s stuck on Earth, along with the rest of the “apes/neans/throwbacks.” A feisty history enthusiast who has a lot of internalized bitterness about the ableism she’s faced throughout her life, she decides to infiltrate a one-year university pre-history course of off-world students that is held on Earth. She crafts a new background for herself, tricking them into accepting her as one of their own so that in the end, she can reveal everything and yell out all her anger. But what is she to do when she actually finds herself genuinely liking her new classmates?

This series has so much diversity (2 supporting gay characters, at least 2 bi/pan characters, several poc main characters, an entire culture where polyamory is the norm), and it really takes a deep look into discrimination and how racism can tear civilization apart. It’s about an oppressed people finally being able to speak out and fight for their rights. It’s about Jarra learning to love herself and come to terms with everything she’s been through, and ultimately finding the family she’s always craved

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera - In this world, Death-Cast calls you at midnight on the day you are going to die. When two boys at the peak of their youth end up receiving the call one night, fate brings them together through the Last Friend app. They’re as different as different can be, but somehow they make it work. In the single day they have together, they form a bond that most people can’t achieve in their entire lives.

Absolutely fucking heartbreaking. I cried so much with this book, especially in the last 50 or so pages. You really learn to love not only the two main characters, Rufus and Matteo, but their friends and loved ones as well. You read through so many different perspectives throughout this book, and they all seem so far removed from each other that it’s fascinating seeing how they all slowly tie in together as the story draws to a close.

A few notes on this one - YES the title is 100% true and they do both die at the end, YES Matteo and Rufus are both lgbt+ (Rufus is bi, but Matteo’s sexuality is never labelled, so he could be gay or he could be bi/pan/demi/etc)

The Novice, The Inquisition, The Battlemage by Taran Matharu - Fletcher is an orphan who finds out he has the ability to summon demons from the Ether. Forced to flee his hometown for a crime he didn’t commit, Fletcher and his demon, Ignatius, eventually end up in his country’s capital of Corcillum. In a country at war with the savage orcs they share their southern border with, every summoner is badly needed on the front lines to keep their country safe. So when Fletcher is discovered by an officer of the king’s army, he is offered a place at Vocans Academy, a school where he will trained to harness his powers and become a battlemage.

Love this series to bits and pieces! The characters are lovely, the relationship between Fletcher and his adoptive father makes my heart go all mushy, and the worldbuilding is rich and vibrant!

And now some other books that are all also super fantastic but I don’t have the time to put summaries and thoughts on them I’m so sorry, but I’ve included the goodreads links!

A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Court of Mist and Fury, A Court of Wings and Ruin, A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J Maas

Airman by Eoin Colfer

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

East by Edith Pattou

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Flame in the Mist by Renée Ahdieh

Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay

Timekeeper by Tara Sim

The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf

This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Wolf Brother, Spirit Walker, Soul Eater, Outcast, Oath Breaker, Ghost Hunter by Michelle Paver

[dear-indies]

Hi there!! Do you have any suggestions for a female with resources that appear like she could be a first lady or another "refined" public figure? Thanks!

Dane Judi Dench (1934)

Dame Helen Mirren (1945)

Susanna Thompson (1958)

Angela Bassett (1958) African-American.

Kristin Scott Thomas (1960)

Michelle Yeoh (1962) Hokkien and Cantonese Chinese.

Jennifer Beals (1963) African-American / Irish.

Marisa Tomei (1964)

Viola Davis (1965) African-American.

Anna Chancellor (1965)

Miranda Otto (1967)

Michelle Gomez (1966)

Robin Wright (1966)

Melora Hardin (1967)

Maria Bello (1967) - doesn't want to label her sexuality.

Lucy Liu (1968) Chinese.

Natascha McElhone (1969)

Gina Torres (1969) Afro Cuban.

Mädchen Amick (1970)

Renée Elise Goldsberry (1971) African-American.

Sarah Rafferty (1972)

Marisol Nichols (1973) Ashkenazi Jewish / Mexican [Spanish and Unspecified Indigenous].

Kim Seo-hyung (1973) Korean.

Dominique Jackson (1975) Afro-Tobagonian - trans.

Angela Rockwood (1975) German and Thai - has quadriplegia.

Lana Parrilla (1977) Puerto Rican / Sicilian-Italian.

Rachel McAdams (1978)

Rosamund Pike (1979)

Sveng Socheata (1979) Cambodian.

Maggie Q (1979) Vietnamese / Irish, Polish, French.

Sarah Shahi (1980) Iranian.

Angelica Ross (1980) African-American - trans.

Nur Fettahoğlu (1980) Turkish.

Caterina Scorsone (1981)

Bethany Joy Lenz (1981)

Julie Gonzalo (1981) Argentinian.

Constance Wu (1982) Taiwanese.

Sophia Bush (1982)

Natalie Dormer (1982)

Ruth Wilson (1982)

Gemma Chan (1982) Chinese.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw (1983) Black South African / English.

Katie McGrath (1983)

Aja Naomi King (1985) African-American.

Nathalie Kelley (1985) Argentinian, Peruvian [Quechua, possibly other].

Italia Ricci (1986)

Trace Lysette (1987) - trans.

Anna Diop (1988) Senegalese.

Amiyah Scott (1988) African-American - trans.

Claire Holt (1988)

Deniz Baysal (1991) Turkish.

Dilraba Dilmurat (1992) Uyghur.

Zión Moreno (1992) Mexican - trans.

Jodie Comer (1993)

Elizabeth Gillies (1993)

Greta Onieogou (1991) Nigerian / Russian.

İlayda Alişan (1996) Turkish.

Here ya go, they all have resources at time of posting!

[jonathangroffcentral]

Mindhunter’s Jonathan Groff on Spring Awakening Giggle Fits, His Hamilton Dream Role, Lea Michele the Goat & More

Jonathan Groff is known and loved by Broadway enthusiasts for his Tony-nominated performances in Spring Awakening and Hamilton. Now, even more fans are getting on board with Groffsauce as he leads the ultra-addicting Netflix series Mindhunter. Watch as he chats about branching out on the Netflix hit, laughing uncontrollably throughout his career, crying watching Frozen on stage and more on this week's Show People with Paul Wontorek.

Here are some must-read highlights:

ON MINDHUNTER DIRECTOR DAVID FINCHER “I had auditioned for The Social Network. I was doing Hamilton, and my agent sent me the script. It said ‘David Fincher,’ and I said, ‘Yes’ to auditioning before even reading it. When I did, I found that the scenes read almost like a play. They’re incredibly psychological, and they play out over such a long period of time. I was so intrigued by the density of the material. I put myself on tape, and the next day they asked me, ‘Can you fly to L.A. on your day off from Hamilton?’ So I did. I went to the audition and just sat with him and talked about the project, what his goals were, what he wanted to explore. And then it was on. The crazy thing about David Fincher is that he can do everybody’s job better than everybody else, including acting. I’ll be like, ‘Can you say that line again? ‘Cause the way you said it is how I want to say it.’”

ON HIS UNCONTROLLABLE LAUGHING PROBLEM “I would have these insane laughing fits. Holt McCallany, who plays Bill Tench—we’re so opposite. It’s like The Odd Couple. While we were filming, I remember watching him get into the car one day, and I just lost it. I couldn’t stop laughing. It became this sort of running thing. Weeks later, we’re in this scene, talking about something serious, and again, I had to run laps around the set because I couldn’t stop laughing. It’s my Achilles heel. It started on Spring Awakening. I think it was performance 303. I remember the performance number because John Gallagher and I broke. Something inside of us broke, and it’s never been fixed again. He came in for the scene before ‘Touch Me.’ He slid in with his crazy hair. It wasn’t anything we said. We just looked at each other and started hysterically laughing. But we started the scene. I pulled the mic out and [wobbley voice] ‘Where...I go...when I go there…’ Ever since that moment, it’s this thing that happens to me. I also find acting so absurd. ‘Cause we’re just in costumes playing pretend.”

ON GRILLING MARC KUDISCH ON MILLIE “I was grilling him the whole time we shot Mindhunter together on Thoroughly Modern Millie stuff. He’s such an amazing actor, and he’s so good in the show. I remember one time that I went to go see Millie, they were doing the speed test scene. She was sitting..Sutton Foster…The royal ‘She,’ and she was writing in her pad. Kudisch crossed over to stage right, and she sort of scurried over next to him and showed him a notepad. I remember it so vividly. He had this smile, and I remember thinking, ‘I think she wrote something inappropriate on that pad. I don’t think that they’re acting right now.’ I had to ask him about it while we shot Mindhunter. So I did. And he was like, ‘I don’t remember.’” ON HIS LACK OF SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE “I think social media is great. It’s useful in so many ways, but I think in order for it to be effective for any particular person, you also have to be really into it. You can’t really half-ass it. I don’t like being on my phone. It’s just not my thing. I don’t think it would be effective simply because it’s not something that gets my heartrate going. No one has ever pressured me into using it. I think if Facebook came out when I was in high school, I probably would be on all social media. It just was never a part of my everyday situation. I delete my texts and emails after I respond to them so that I can remember to get back to everyone. To then have to respond to all kinds of social media interactions just makes me feel tired.”

ON COMING OUT “When I came out, it was actually through Broadway.com—thank you, Broadway.com, for outing me. I came out like a month after I left Spring Awakening. I was 23. I had a personal revelation. I went travelling by myself. I realized I wanted to be open about who I was, and my whole life changed. I came out with my friends and family. But then there was no opportunity to come out publicly, but then I was at the march on Washington. I was dating Gavin Creel at the time. He changed my life in so many ways, that being one of them. I was in love, and we were in D.C., and it just made sense. A reporter from Broadway.com asked me: ‘Are you gay?’ She asked me, and I kind of took a moment. And she said, ‘Oh my god! I don’t want to make you feel weird. Forget I said that.’ I was just looking around at the crowd and at Gavin who was just like speaking into a megaphone. I felt so wrong to just be standing there. I always knew that I would come out. To me, love is more important than career. And so I walked over to her again, and I said, ‘Hey, I know you wanted to ask me a question. I’m sorry to walk over here again after you just asked me that. But yeah, I’m gay.’ And she was like, ‘On the record?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’” ON THE FEAR OF BEING TYPECAST AS G-A-Y “Looking came along, and it’s one thing to be a gay actor. It’s another thing to be gay on screen. Am I stamping a giant G-A-Y across my forehead? Maybe I’ll forever be typecast as a gay person. That was my insecurity in going for that project. But I put that insecurity aside after seeing our director Andrew Haigh’s movie Weekend. It blew my mind, so I thought, ‘Let me put away that dumb insecurity about being labelled as a certain thing forever.’ I just believed in the project. And then Mindhunter came along. It’s as much a surprise to me as anything else. It’s also a reflection of being an actor in 2017. Even 10 years ago, coming out was a different thing. Hopefully, it’s a reflection that everybody’s catching up with the times. It’s such a silly notion that your sexuality in your real life would determine your intimacy and chemistry with people on a set or on a stage.”

ON FINDING ROMANCE "I don't really have a type. I've dated all different types, all different ages. What I'm looking for is that thing when you sit down with someone, and you can't stop talking to each other. When all of a sudden, hours have gone by. I have that with close friends. Like, 'Oh my god! We've been sitting here for four hours?' That's what I'm looking for. It's one of those things that's either there or it's not. But I don't have a physical type."  

ON WHY HE CAN'T SPOIL FROZEN 2 "We started recording Frozen 2 the week of the stage musical's opening in Denver, actually. I am not at liberty to say anything about it. If I, in this moment, revealed the plot of Frozen 2 to you, I would implode. Blood à la Milly Bobbie Brown in Stranger Things would just start pouring out of my nose." ON WATCHING FROZEN ONSTAGE "Jelani Alladin made me cry when I saw it in Denver. Even just like thinking about it makes me want to cry. They wrote so much new material, so he knows more about Kristoff than I do because they wrote so much for the character. The whole story and the relationship between he and Anna is so filled out in this beautiful way. He has this moment in the second act with this beautiful song that just like made me cry. He was incredible. And Caissie Levy. At the intermission, after she sang 'Let It Go,' I felt like I was lit on fire." ON HIS REAL HAMILTON DREAM ROLE "Every day, I'm texting Tommy Kail about playing Angelica. I feel like Hamilton is such a groundbreaking show. Why not just like really take it to the next level, and just make Angelica Schuyler a white... man? [Laughs] I'm just obsessed with Renée Elise Goldsberry. I actually don't want to be myself as Angelica. I want to be Renée as Angelica, which makes it even more complicated." ON THE STATUS OF LEA MICHELE (THE GOAT) “Dead. Lea Michele the goat has passed.”

Watch the full episode of Show People with Paul Wontorek below!

SEE VIDEO HERE.

Interview is edited and condensed for clarity.

(Photos by Caitlin McNaney) - (Illustration by Ryan Casey)

Nov 29, 2017

[stepsandstaircases]

Welcome to Poetry Friday, the visual edition!  Do you recognize the photographed pieces above? 

My exploration of grief began with the words that became the title of this poem, which led me to the familiar monopoly game piece.  I thought about incorporating one of the tokens in my poem (wheelbarrow), but decided to cut the stanza out.   

Grief is a house on a cul-de-sac

“Close your eyes and be still, now.  I’m going to give you a memory of a rainbow.” Lois Lowry, The Giver

*****

There is no monopoly

on sorrow.

Its properties are diverse.

 *

A double bind,

misfortune

casts a bittersweet shadow.

 *

There is no “pass go”—

no $200 salary to collect

as you round a corner.

 *

No trade

replaces

the loss.

 *

It is always

there

 *

a memory with many tokens.

Copyright   2017 Lisa Coughlin

The stanza I ended up cutting was:

Grief is carried in the heart:

(a heavy load

                in a wheelbarrow).

I left the wheelbarrow token in my photographs, though, as it brings to mind the stanza I cut and symbolizes how grief can feel.

Thank you for sharing your unique takes on the prompts I shared.  If you didn’t see it mentioned in Mary Lee’s poetry post last week, I encourage you to check out Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s Project 1,2,3.  Amy’s creative work has long inspired me and lifted my spirits.  After her passing, Amy’s daughter, Paris, continued Project 1,2,3.  Amy’s visual poem When Life Gives You Lemon Drops can be found here.

***** You can find more poems elsewhere (nod to The Giver -- I just read this book for the first time, and felt it connected to the subject of grief).

*Mary Lee Hahn shares a Pomegranate haiku 

*Brenda Davis Harsham’s poem celebrates the Super Moon and an art print her daughter loves, Moonlit Kitty 

*Tabatha Yeatts shares poems from The White Cliffs by Alice Duer Miller

*Kathryn Apel shares the gifts she received from Linda in the Poetry Swap exchange

*Sally Murphy shares an Aussie Christmas song

*Michelle Kogan offers her take on the lemons into lemonade prompt, as well as a lovely lemon illustration and a lemon poem by Pablo Neruda   

*Linda Kulp Trout joins Mary Lee in writing a haiku for healing on Christmas cards

*Laura Purdie Salas creates a lai and poemsketch for Jellyfish Dance 

*Laura Shovan turns to George Harrison for comfort and asks you to share who your favorite Beatle is, and what music helps you when you’re feeling down

*Renée LaTulippe debuts a new blog look and features poems by Matt Goodfellow, from his debut collection Carry Me Away

*Diane Mayr celebrates Christina Georgina Rossetti by sharing a seasonal sonnet  

*On Random Noodling (another blog of Diane’s), for extra credit, Mayr responds to the lemon prompt, inspired by the image of a label for Progressive brand lemons--from scratch, her Lemon Pie poem

*Linda Baie responds to the prompt with an original poem and visual, inviting you to look at a bouncing ball in a new way

*Catherine Flynn writes about Milkweed 

*Alan J. Wright discusses line breaks before sharing a poem, The Life of Leon, based on a childhood memory

*Linda Mitchell responds to the prompt “When Life Gives You Lemons” and hopes for energy from her fellow poetry friends

* Heidi Mordhorst’s Yellows poem was inspired by a painting through a SPARK collaboration

*Ruth shares a sonnet by Shakespeare 

*Jama Rattigan offers up a book review and giveaway of An Artist’s Night Before Christmas by Joan C. Waites

*Matt Forrest Esenwine shares a poem he wrote about something small and another one about an unlikely hero by Michelle Heidenrich Barnes--both from her poetry anthology, The Best of Today’s Little Ditty, 2016   

*April Halprin Wayland recommends a book in which poetry plays a role: Train I Ride by Paul Mosier--stop on over for a review, author interview and autographed copy giveaway

*Penny Parker Klostermann collaborates with her great nephew, Liam, who shares his sense of humor in his interpretation...you have to see what Liam draws in response to Penny’s poem, Santa’s Claus-it

*Donna JT Smith has a lemon haiku and talks about her gift from Michelle that her cat discovered, too

*Irene Latham woke up to snow this morning and is filled with glee!  She shares two new snow books, some pictures of today’s freshly fallen snow, and some lines she wrote about snow in the past

*Liz Garton Scanlon talks with her poetry sister, Sara Lewis Holmes, about the musical aspects of her new book The Wolf Hour, and offers you a chance to win a copy

*Kay McGriff participates in #haikuforhealing with Known 

*Little Willow shares lyrics from the song Unwind by Guy Garvey  

*Amy Ludwig VanDerwater whips up a recipe poem for joy and shares a snapshot from a running list she keeps of things that make her happy

*Jone Rush MacCulloch has an interview with Michelle H. Barnes 

*And another #haikuforhealing using lemons by Jone Rosh MacCulloch

*Bookseedstudio looks at coincidences and thinks of childhood star poems via the lens of recently reading a new novel

*Margaret Simon made swirls of pink and created 1, 2, 3 poems and a collective poem

*Ymatruz shares her take on when life gives you lemons

*Julie Larios shares the poem Mrs. Moon by Roger McGough

*Joy answers the question “What happens when a dog goes to Hogwarts?” with a poem and a sketch

*Tara shares A Picture of the House at Beit Jala by Ghassan Zaqtan

*Molly Hogan writes about ladybugs/ladybirds

*Carol Varsalona created a digital offering inspired by autumn

Friday is nearly over--I think that’s everyone!  Thank you for your patience with a different platform this week.

[jt--z]

5 interview subjects

KARL LAGERFELD

• He was one of the most acclaimed fashion designers in the world, known for his bold designs and constant reinvention. Hailed in Vogue as “unparalleled interpreter of the mood of the movement”

• In the early 1980’s he did the impossible of bringing what was perceived to be a near dead brand back to life – Chanel – with a revamped ready-to-wear fashion line

• “He inspired the idea of life inside fashion. He lived fashion with his persona” – Alessandro Michele, Creative Director of Gucci

• “I design like I breathe, you don’t ask to breathe, it just happens” – Karl

• “Photography is part of my life. It completes the circle between my artistic and professional restlessness” – Karl

• “I love to be creative all the time. If not I would be bored and boredom is a crime” – Karl

• While he excelled at capturing others, he was also a master of self portraits. He photographed, pained and few countless portraits of his own iconic look

https://www.biography.com/fashion-designer/karl-lagerfeld

https://www.karl.com/au/subhome/the-real-karl_section

YAYOI KUSAMA’S infinity mirrors

- Yayoi Kusama created the “Infinity Mirror Room – Phalli’s Field” in 1965 using mirrors, transforming the intense repetition of her earlier paintings and works on paper into a perceptual experience. More than 20 distinct Infinity Mirror Rooms were created with each offering the change to step into an illusion of infinite space. The rooms also provide an opportunity to examine the artists central themes such as the celebration of life and its aftermath.

https://hirshhorn.si.edu/kusama/infinity-rooms/

René Magritte

- He was a Belgian surrealist artist who is best known for his witty and thought provoking images with his use of simple graphics. By placing mundane objects such as bowler hats, pipes and rocks in unusual contexts, Magritte evokes themes of mystery and challenges the assumptions of the human perception.

- “The Lost Jockey” “The Menaced Assassin”

- His work is proved to be a primary influence on pop artists such as Andy Warhol. https://www.biography.com/artist/rene-magritte?li_source=LI&li_medium=bio-mid-article&li_pl=208&li_tr=bio-mid-article

SALVADOR DALI

- Spanish artists and Surrealist icon

- Melting clock, The Persistence of Memory

- “Don’t bother about being modern. Unfortunately it is the one thing that, whatever you do, you cannot avoid” – Salvador Dali

- His work employed a classical technique which was influenced by Renaissance artists that contradicted with the “unreal dream” space that he created with strange hallucinatory characters. He created a reality from his dreams and subconscious thoughts.

- Before researching about Dali, I knew little information about him though I really did like his work “The Persistence of Memory”. However after I learned more about his way of thought and his special relationship with dreams I found him to be a very intriguing artist. I think I will look more into his works in the future and maybe as inspiration for my own works

https://www.biography.com/artist/salvador-dali

Cai Guo Qiang’s Sky Ladder / explosives (gunpowder)?

About artist (Cai Guo Qiang):

- History of gunpowder, one of China’s most significant contributions to the world “they were actually looking for an elixir to make themselves immortal”

- “Colours kind of distracted me” “Black is more pure and spiritual, very emotional, but also dangerous” – Cai

- His large scale explosion events and firework shows on the global stage garnered international attention

- Invited to serve Chinese government as director of visual and special effects for opening and closing ceremonies of 2008 summer olympics in Beijing

- Uses fireworks as an art form

- “My work is like a dialogue between me and unseen powers, like alchemy” - Cai

Sky ladder:

• 1650 foot tall ladder, held aloft by a giant balloon and rigged with explosives

• 2 decade long process

• Taken place at Huiyu Island Harbour, Quanzhou, Fujian in June 15, 2015 at 4.49am, approx 2 min and 30 sec

• Project dedicated to his 100 year old grandmother – whom fell ill when she was 98

• He first imagined a ladder of fire as a child and pursued the idea for 21 years

• “Sky ladder is tender and touches my heart deeply: it caries affection for my hometown, my relatives and my friends” “In contrast to my other attempts…the ladder rose toward the morning sun, carrying hope. For me, this not only means a return but also the start of a new journey”

• “I want to make a ladder to connect the Earth to the universe” said Cai in 1994

• “This is the ladder in my heart, maybe this is a ladder that reaches into infinity yet close at the same time, and is always communicating with the universe”

• His grandma too ill to attend in person, she had to watch via cell phone, dying a month later

• Cai attempts to commune with the unseen world, a parting gift

• A huge white balloon filled with helium ascended into the sky with a 500 meter long ladder coated with quick burning fuses. Gold fireworks ignited.

• Using a media that has extreme damaging effects to create and express art

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/cai-guo-qiang-sky-ladder-netflix-652061

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2015/08/sky-ladder-cai-guo-qiang/

http://influencefilmclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Sky-Ladder-Discussion-Guide.pdf

[lemoulinduboisset]

Silence ! On tourne...

Silence! We turn...

Saviez-vous que notre région a souvent attiré bon nombre de réalisateurs pour tourner, en décor naturel, une partie ou l’intégralité d'un film ? Je peux vous dire que Cahors a été notamment utilisé comme lieu de tournage de films tels que “Un amour de sorcière” de René Manzor avec Jean Reno et Vanessa Paradis, ou “Jeanne d’Arc” de Luc Besson avec Milla Jovovich. L’actrice Juliette Binoche a tourné une fois dans le Lot. C’était pour le film “Alice et Martin” d’André Téchiné (1998), avec Mathieu Amalric et Roshdy Zem. Plus proche du Moulin du Boisset et précisément dans notre petite commune de Saint-Denis-Lès-Martel, des scènes d’un superbe film, ont été tournées. En effet en 2003, Jean Becker a filmé, aux alentours de la gare, des passages de son “Effroyables jardins” avec un casting de rêve composé de Jacques Villeret, André Dussolier, Thierry Lhermitte , Benoit Magimel, Isabelle Candelier, Suzanne Flon... Synopsis : Lucien, un adolescent de quatorze ans, ne comprend pas pourquoi son père, un instituteur sérieux et respecté, se ridiculise, à ses yeux, dans un numéro de clown amateur. Un jour, André, le meilleur ami de son père, lui dévoile l'origine de cette vocation...

La scène ci-dessus a été prise sur le pont routier reliant Saint-Denis-Lès-Martel à Vayrac et enjambant la voie de chemin de fer. Pour l’occasion l’asphalte a été entièrement recouvert de terre battue pour correspondre à la chaussée durant la 2ème guerre mondiale. Le convoi allemand quant à lui emprunte la direction d’Aurillac. Plus tard dans le film, une des maisons sur la gauche sera également utilisée pour une scène. En guise de souvenir de ce tournage, un décor en carton-pâte, le poste d’aiguillage, est exposé à la gare du train touristique de Martel. Sans compter quelques habitants qui ont participés en tant que figurant et qui m’ont raconté quelques anecdotes fort sympathiques.

Vous pourrez visualiser la bande annonce ici : https://youtu.be/ovx-3dZ7hV0

Autre film, autre village, non loin du Moulin du Boisset, Loubressac. Il a été le lieu de tournage en 1972 d’un film beaucoup plus léger. “Quelques Messieurs trop tranquilles” de Georges Lautner, et qui regroupe des monstres sacrés du cinéma français comme Michel Galabru, Jean Lefebvre, André Pousse, Miou-Miou...

Synopsis : Les habitants de Loubressac voient d'un mauvais œil l'installation chez eux d'une bande de hippies. Un meurtre est commis, on accuse les nouveaux venus. Quelques citoyens décident nonobstant de mener une enquête...

De nombreuses scènes et notamment la fusillade finale ont été tournées dans le village de Loubressac qui n’a pas vraiment changé depuis. On aperçoit également dans le film le château de Belcastel surplombant la Dordogne, et des images d’Autoire. A noter que depuis Loubressac et Autoire ont été labellisés parmi les “Plus Beaux Villages de France”.

La Bande annonce est ici : https://youtu.be/JeYh_fCE11M

Did you know that our region has often attracted a large number of directors to shoot part or all of a film in a natural setting?

I can tell you that Cahors has been used as a location for films such as René Manzor's "Un amour de sorcière" with Jean Reno and Vanessa Paradis, or Luc Besson's "Jeanne d'Arc" with Milla Jovovovich. The actress Juliette Binoche shot once in the Lot. It was for the film "Alice and Martin" by André Téchiné (1998), with Mathieu Amalric and Roshdy Zem.

Closer to the Moulin du Boisset and precisely in our small town of Saint-Denis-Lès-Martel, scenes from a superb film were shot. In 2003, Jean Becker filmed, around the station, passages from his "Effroyables Jardins" with a dream cast composed of Jacques Villeret, André Dussolier, Thierry Lhermitte, Benoit Magimel, Isabelle Candelier, Suzanne Flon...

Synopsis: Lucien, a fourteen-year-old teenager, does not understand why his father, a serious and respected teacher, makes a fool of himself in his eyes in an amateur clown act. One day, André, his father's best friend, revealed to him the origin of this vocation...

The above scene was taken on the road bridge linking Saint-Denis-Lès-Martel to Vayrac and spanning the railway track. For the occasion the asphalt was entirely covered with beaten earth to correspond to the roadway during the 2nd World War. The German convoy is heading towards Aurillac. Later in the film, one of the houses on the left will also be used for a scene. As a souvenir of this shooting, a cardboard paste decor, the signal box, is displayed at the Martel tourist train station. Not to mention some residents who participated as extras and told me some very nice anecdotes.

You can see the trailer here : https://youtu.be/ovx-3dZ7hV0

Another film, another village, not far from the Moulin du Boisset, Loubressac. It was the location of the 1972 shooting of a much lighter film. "Quelques Messieurs trop tranquilles" by Georges Lautner, and which includes sacred monsters of French cinema such as Michel Galabru, Jean Lefebvre, André Pousse, Miou-Miou...

Synopsis: The inhabitants of Loubressac take a negative view of the installation of a bunch of hippies in their homes. A murder is committed, the newcomers are accused. Some citizens decide notwithstanding to conduct an investigation...

Many scenes and in particular the final shooting were shot in the village of Loubressac which has not really changed since. We also see in the film the castle of Belcastel overlooking the Dordogne, and images of Autoire. It should be noted that since Loubressac and Autoire have been labelled among the "Most Beautiful Villages in France".

The trailer is here : https://youtu.be/JeYh_fCE11M

[lifeofaliterarynerd]

We Need Diverse Books: Black History Month Edition                                          *Books by black authors and/or have black protagonists

How It Went Down - Kekla Magoon //  When sixteen-year-old Tariq Johnson dies from two gunshot wounds, his community is thrown into an uproar. Tariq was black. The shooter, Jack Franklin, is white. In the aftermath of Tariq's death, everyone has something to say, but no two accounts of the events line up. Day by day, new twists further obscure the truth. Tariq's friends, family, and community struggle to make sense of the tragedy, and to cope with the hole left behind when a life is cut short. 

X - Ilyasah Shabazz & Kekla Magoon //  Cowritten by Malcolm X’s daughter, this riveting and revealing novel follows the formative years of the man whose words and actions shook the world. X follows Malcolm from his childhood to his imprisonment for theft at age twenty, when he found the faith that would lead him to forge a new path and command a voice that still resonates today.

The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas // Sixteen-year-old Starr lives in two worlds: the poor neighbourhood where she was born and raised and her posh high school in the suburbs. The uneasy balance between them is shattered when Starr is the only witness to the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend, Khalil, by a police officer. Now what Starr says could destroy her community. It could also get her killed.  

The Women of Brewster Place - Gloria Naylor //  We follow the stories of seven women living in Brewster Place, a bleak inner-city sanctuary, creating a powerful, moving portrait of the strengths, struggles, and hopes of black women in America. Vulnerable and resilient, openhanded and open-hearted, these women forge their lives in a place that in turn threatens and protects—a common prison and a shared home. 

Piecing Me Together - Renée Watson //  Jade believes she must get out of her neighborhood if she’s ever going to succeed. Her mother says she has to take every opportunity. She has. She accepted a scholarship to a mostly-white private school and even Saturday morning test prep opportunities. But some opportunities feel more demeaning than helpful. Like an invitation to join Women to Women, a mentorship program for “at-risk” girls. Except really, it’s for black girls. From “bad” neighborhoods. 

Shadowshaper - Daniel José Older //  Sierra Santiago was looking forward to a fun summer of making art, hanging out with her friends, and skating around Brooklyn. But then a weird zombie guy crashes the first party of the season. Sierra's near-comatose abuelo begins to say "No importa" over and over. And when the graffiti murals in Bed-Stuy start to weep.... Well, something stranger than the usual New York mayhem is going on.

The Rock and The River - Kekla Magoon //  Set in 1968 Chicago, Thirteen -year-old Sam realizes it's not easy being the son of known civil rights activist Roland Childs. Especially when his older (and best friend), Stick, begins to drift away from him for no apparent reason. And then it happens: Sam finds something that changes everything forever. Sam has always had faith in his father, but when he finds literature about the Black Panthers under Stick's bed, he's not sure who to believe: his father or his best friend. Suddenly, nothing feels certain anymore. 

Monster - Walter Dean Myers //    Sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon is on trial for murder. A Harlem drugstore owner was shot and killed in his store, and the word is that Steve served as the lookout. Guilty or innocent, Steve becomes a pawn in the hands of "the system," cluttered with cynical authority figures and unscrupulous inmates, who will turn in anyone to shorten their own sentences. For the first time, Steve is forced to think about who he is as he faces prison, where he may spend all the tomorrows of his life. 

This Side of Home - Renée Watson //  Identical twins Nikki and Maya have been on the same page for everything—friends, school, boys and starting off their adult lives at a historically African-American college. But as their neighborhood goes from rough-and-tumble to up-and-coming, suddenly filled with pretty coffee shops and boutiques, Nikki is thrilled while Maya feels like their home is slipping away. Suddenly, the sisters who had always shared everything must confront their dissenting feelings on the importance of their ethnic and cultural identities and, in the process, learn to separate themselves from the long shadow of their identity as twins. 

Brown Girl Dreaming - Jacqueline Woodson //  Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world.  

Promise of Shadows - Justine Ireland //  Zephyr Mourning has never been very good at being a Harpy. She’d rather watch reality TV than learn forty-seven ways to kill a man, and she pretty much sucks at wielding magic. Zephyr was ready for a future pretending to be a normal human instead of a half-god assassin. But all that changes when her sister is murdered—and she uses a forbidden dark power to save herself from the same fate. 

Fake ID - Lamara Giles //   My name isn’t really Nick Pearson. I shouldn’t tell you where I’m from or why my family moved to Stepton, Virginia. I shouldn’t tell you who I really am, or my hair, eye, and skin color. And I definitely shouldn’t tell you about my friend Eli Cruz and the major conspiracy he was about to uncover when he died—right after I moved to town. About how I had to choose between solving his murder with his hot sister, Reya, and “staying low-key” like the Program has taught me. About how moving to Stepon changed my life forever. But I’m going to 

Endangered - Lamar Giles //  The one secret she cares about keeping—her identity—is about to be exposed. Unless Lauren "Panda" Daniels—an anonymous photoblogger who specializes in busting classmates and teachers in compromising positions—plays along with her blackmailer's little game of Dare or . . . Dare. But when the game turns deadly, Panda doesn't know what to do. And she may need to step out of the shadows to save herself . . . and everyone else on the Admirer's hit list. 

Don’t Fail Me Now - Una LaMarche //  Michelle and Leah only have one thing in common: Buck Devereaux, the biological father who abandoned them when they were little. After news trickles back to them that Buck is dying, they make the uneasy decision to drive across country to his hospice in California. Leah hopes for closure; Michelle just wants to give him a piece of her mind. Five people in a failing, old station wagon, living off free samples at food courts across America, and the most pressing question on Michelle’s mind is: Who will break down first--herself or the car? 

Flygirl - Sherri L Smith //  Ida Mae Jones dreams of flight. Her daddy was a pilot and being black didn't stop him from fulfilling his dreams. But her daddy's gone now, and being a woman, and being black, are two strikes against her. When America enters the war with Germany and Japan, the Army creates the WASP, the Women Airforce Service Pilots - and Ida suddenly sees a way to fly as well as do something significant to help her brother stationed in the Pacific. But even the WASP won't accept her as a black woman, forcing Ida Mae to make a difficult choice of "passing," of pretending to be white to be accepted into the program. Hiding one's racial heritage, denying one's family, denying one's self is a heavy burden. And while Ida Mae chases her dream, she must also decide who it is she really wants to be. 

Mare’s War - Tanita S Davis //  Meet Mare, a World War II veteran and a grandmother like no other. She was once a willful teenager who escaped her less than perfect life in the deep South and lied about her age to join the African American Battalion of the Women's Army Corps. Now she is driving her granddaughters—two willful teenagers in their own rite—on a cross-country road trip. The girls are initially skeptical of Mare's flippy wigs and stilletos, but they soon find themselves entranced by the story she has to tell, and readers will be too. 

Not Otherwise Specified - Hannah Mockowitz //  Etta is tired of dealing with all of the labels and categories that seem so important to everyone else in her small Nebraska hometown. Everywhere she turns, someone feels she's too fringe for the fringe. Not gay enough for the Dykes, her ex-clique, thanks to a recent relationship with a boy; not tiny and white enough for ballet, her first passion; and not sick enough to look anorexic (partially thanks to recovery). Etta doesn’t fit anywhere— until she meets Bianca, the straight, white, Christian, and seriously sick girl in Etta’s therapy group. Both girls are auditioning for Brentwood, a prestigious New York theater academy that is so not Nebraska. Bianca seems like Etta’s salvation, but how can Etta be saved by a girl who needs saving herself? 

Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler //  When unattended environmental and economic crises lead to social chaos, not even gated communities are safe. In a night of fire and death Lauren Olamina, a minister's young daughter, loses her family and home and ventures out into the unprotected American landscape. But what begins as a flight for survival soon leads to something much more: a startling vision of human destiny... and the birth of a new faith. 

The Sun is Also a Star-Nicola Yoon //  Follow Natasha, a girl who believes in science and facts, as she meets Daniel, a dutiful son and dreamer, as they spend a single day together in New York - and try to stop Natasha’s family from being deported to Jamacia.

Everything, Everything - Nicola Yoon //  My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla. But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. His name is Olly. Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster 

Pointe - Brandy Colbert //  Theo is better now. She's eating again, dating guys who are almost appropriate, and well on her way to becoming an elite ballet dancer. But when her oldest friend, Donovan, returns home after spending four long years with his kidnapper, Theo starts reliving memories about his abduction—and his abductor. Donovan isn't talking about what happened, and even though Theo knows she didn't do anything wrong, telling the truth would put everything she's been living for at risk. But keeping quiet might be worse. 

The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl - Issa Rae //  Being an introvert in a world that glorifies cool isn’t easy. But  Rae covers everything from cybersexing in the early days of the Internet to deflecting unsolicited comments on weight gain, from navigating the perils of eating out alone and public displays of affection to learning to accept yourself—natural hair and all.

Tiny Pretty Things - Dhonielle Clayton & Sona Charaipotra //  Gigi, Bette, and June, three top students at an exclusive Manhattan ballet school, have seen their fair share of drama. Free-spirited new girl Gigi just wants to dance—but the very act might kill her. Privileged New Yorker Bette's desire to escape the shadow of her ballet star sister brings out a dangerous edge in her. And perfectionist June needs to land a lead role this year or her controlling mother will put an end to her dancing dreams forever. When every dancer is both friend and foe, the girls will sacrifice, manipulate, and backstab to be the best of the best. 

Liar-Justine Larbalestier //  Micah will freely admit that she’s a compulsive liar, but that may be the one honest thing she’ll ever tell you. Over the years she’s duped her classmates, her teachers, and even her parents, and she’s always managed to stay one step ahead of her lies. That is, until her boyfriend dies under brutal circumstances and her dishonesty begins to catch up with her. But is it possible to tell the truth when lying comes as naturally as breathing? 

Hidden Figures - Margot Lee Shatterly //  Before John Glenn orbited the earth or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as “human computers” used pencils, slide rules, and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. This book brings to life the stories of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden, four African-American women who lived through the Civil Rights era, the Space Race, the Cold War, and the movement for gender equality, and whose work forever changed the face of NASA and the country. 

The Color Purple - Alice Walker //  Taking place mostly in rural Georgia, the story focuses on the life of women of color in the southern United States in the 1930s, addressing numerous issues including their exceedingly low position in American social culture. The novel has been the frequent target of censors and appears on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2000-2009 at number seventeen because of the sometimes explicit content, particularly in terms of violence. 

Sister Citizen- Melissa Harris Perry //  Not a traditional political science work concerned with office-seeking, voting, or ideology, Sister Citizen instead explores how African American women understand themselves as citizens and what they expect from political organizing. Harris-Perry shows that the shared struggle to preserve an authentic self and secure recognition as a citizen links together black women in America, from the anonymous survivors of Hurricane Katrina to the former First Lady of the United States. 

The Blossoming Universe of Violet Diamond - Brenda Woods //  Violet is a smart, funny, brown-eyed, brown-haired girl in a family of blonds. Her mom is white, and her dad, who died before she was born, was black. She attends a mostly white school where she sometimes feels like a brown leaf on a pile of snow. She’s tired of people asking if she’s adopted. Now that Violet’s eleven, she decides it’s time to learn about her African American heritage. And despite getting off to a rocky start trying to reclaim her dad’s side of the family, she can feel her confidence growing as the puzzle pieces of her life finally start coming together. 

The Summer of Chasing Mermaids - Sarah Ockler //  The youngest of six talented sisters, Elyse d'Abreau was destined for stardom - until a boating accident took everything from her. Now, the most beautiful singer in Tobago can't sing. She can't even speak. Seeking quiet solitude, Elyse accepts a friend's invitation to Atargatis Cove. Named for the mythical first mermaid, the Oregon seaside town is everything Elyse's home in the Caribbean isn't: an ocean too cold for swimming, parties too tame for singing, and people too polite to pry - except for one.

Black Boy White School - Brian F Walker  //  Anthony “Ant” Jones has never been outside his rough East Cleveland neighborhood when he’s given a scholarship to Belton Academy, an elite prep school in Maine.But at Belton things are far from perfect. Everyone calls him “Tony,” assumes he’s from Brooklyn, expects him to play basketball, and yet acts shocked when he fights back. As Anthony tries to adapt to a world that will never fully accept him, he’s in for a rude awakening: Home is becoming a place where he no longer belongs.

[haitilegends]

CAROLE '' MAWOULE '' DÉMESMIN Carole Demesmin défend les valeurs de la culture traditionnelle du pays qui l’a vue naître : Haïti. A travers l’art, la musique et la peinture en tête, elle se bat ardemment pour transmettre la culture traditionnelle d’Haïti à la nouvelle génération. Elle travaille d’ailleurs énormément avec les jeunes afin que se valorise davantage la culture locale fortement ancrée dans les traditions africaines teintées par endroits de couleur caribéenne. Née à Léogâne, Carole passe pourtant une bonne partie de son enfance à Port-au-Prince. Adolescente, elle embarque pour les Etats-Unis pour poursuivre ses études secondaires à Boston. C’est durant cette même période qu’elle entame sa carrière de chanteuse, au sein du groupe « Haïti Culturelle ». Elle entame ainsi une longue carrière artistique qui se poursuit jusqu’aujourd’hui. Quelques années plus tard, elle commence à enseigner la culture haïtienne, la danse, les chansons du répertoire folklorique haïtiens aux jeunes enfants de Boston. En 1976, épaulée par le grand pianiste haïtien Gerdes Fleurant, Carole intègre une des écoles de musique les plus renommées de Boston : le « Berkeley College Of Music ». Elle y a d’ailleurs acquis d’autres aptitudes artistiques durant ses études. Infatigable, Carole entreprend également des études en peinture -sa première passion- au réputé « Massachusetts College of Art ». Dans la foulée, elle collabore avec le poète compositeur Jean-Claude Martineau et sort son premier album intitulé Carole Mawoule. Les textes et musiques de ce album écrit par Martineau l’a définitivement mise en orbite. L’hommage rendu, en 1978, à la grande vocaliste des années 1930, Lumanne Casimir, a popularisé Carole auprès d’un public de tous âges, tant en Haïti que dans les communautés Haïtiennes d’outre-mer. Des contemporains de Lumane Casimir y avaient vu un hommage doublement mérité vu, selon eux, le rapprochement étonnant du timbre de voix des deux chanteuses pourtant séparées de trois générations. Toujours encadrée par la plume de Jean-Claude Martineau, Carole sort son deuxième album, Minrara, en 1983. Encensé par la critique, le projet est récompensé et remporte d’ailleurs le prix de l’album de l’année dans la communauté haïtienne aux Etats-Unis et en Haïti. Cet album lui permet de partir en tournée -notamment aux États-Unis et en Europe- et de rappeler à son public l’importance de l’influence des principes hérités des rites africains en Haïti. En chantant particulièrement en créole, Carole Demesmin entend développer le sentiment de conscience nationale par rapport à la langue, tout en célébrant la culture traditionnelle haïtienne et son histoire. Parallèlement à la musique, elle entame un long voyage spirituel. Durant treize ans, guidée par le Ati Daagbo Max Beauvoir, elle suit une formation qui l’amène à comprendre et maîtriser les traditions spirituelles héritées d’Afrique. A la fin de cette initiation Vodou, elle accédé au rang de Manbo (prêtresse) -en 1984. Plus tard, elle suivra également une formation de sage-femme. En 1987 sort son troisième opus, Lawouze, enregistré pendant la période de son initiation Vodou. Supportée par ses amis musiciens et poètes dont, René Philoctète, Paula Clermont Pean, Tiga, Ronald Derenoncourt,Henry Celestin. Andre Azemar, Jean Michel Clermont, Ralph Boncy, Claude Marcelin, Raoul Denis Jr, Mushi et Joel Widmaer, Robert Denis, cet album marque un virage vers des sonorités et des paroles ancrées dans la culture traditionnelle haïtienne. Une nouvelle fois, une énorme tournée s’en était suivi sur des scènes d’Amérique du Nord et d’Europe. A côté de ses concerts de chants, elle organise des évènements, tels que le « Festival Anacaona a Leogane » ou encore le « Tom Tom Fest a Jeremie ». En collaboration avec feu Jean-Claude Garoute, dit Tiga, Dr Symphar Bontemps, elle a été l’instigatrice du Mouvement Drapeau Culturel National dont l’objectif est de promouvoir l’enseignement de l’histoire d’Haïti et ses authentiques valeurs culturelles aux jeunes de tous les départements géographiques du pays. Elle s’investit également aux Etats-Unis, où des ateliers de réflexions ont été mis en place en vue d’encourager les enfants d’origines haïtiennes à se rapprocher de leur culture -notamment dans les universités de Floride et du Vermont. Elle met également sur pied des cours destinés aux haïtiens désirant se reconnecter avec leur culture et le Vodou de leurs pères. Le 20 avril 1990, elle est présente à` New York sur le Pont de Brooklyn pour manifester avec plus de 100.000 compatriotes haïtiens et sur la scène du Brooklyn Collège avec le génial chanteur et compositeur Ansy et Yole Derose dans leur grand spectacle « FDA ou anraje », une manifestation culturelle contre le gouvernement américain, et plus particulièrement contre la FDA – Food and Drink Administration- qui avait interdit à tous les haïtiens de donner leur sang. Motif ? Les haïtiens sont, plus que tout autre peuple, porteurs de la maladie du Sida. Et à ce titre, les laisser donner leur sang représente un énorme risque sanitaire. Ce rassemblement est le plus important recensé depuis l’enterrement de Martin Luther King en 1968. Il réunit les haïtiens vivant aux Etats-Unis, mais aussi beaucoup d’afro-américains –notamment le révérend Jesse Jackson- et d’autres sympathisants venus marquer leur soutien au peuple haïtien. Après d’autres manifestations à travers le pays, Washington reviendra sur sa décision d’interdire aux haïtiens de donner leur sang à la fin de l’année 1990. En 1999, Carole préside une série de conférences sur la culture haïtienne destinées aux haïtiens vivants aux États-Unis et aux afro-américains. Cette même année, elle revient à la musique et sort son quatrième album, "Carole Bel Congo", qu’elle produit avec le grand compositeur et arrangeur Pierre Rigeau Chery. Mais son combat ne s’arrête pas à la chanson. En effet, poussée par son désir de prouver son amour pour sa communauté, elle décide de mettre ses talents spirituels et médicinaux au service de jeunes handicapés en Floride. L’année 2001 a marqué un tournant important dans la vie de Carole. Pour marquer ses vingt-deux ans de carrière, elle a réuni sur la scène du grand Hôtel Fontaine Bleu de Miami Beach, tous les artistes qui l’ont soutenue depuis le début sa carrière. C’était l’occasion pour elle de présenter le troisième drapeau culturel haïtien en Floride. Les années qui suivent ramènent Carole à son combat de toujours : la sauvegarde de la culture traditionnelle haïtienne. Elle met en place des séminaires destinés aux haïtiens-américains désireux de découvrir ou redécouvrir leurs racines culturelles. Mais l’évènement marquant, c’est surtout la création de l’organisation sans but lucratif supporté par un groupe d'artistes basés à New York : Michael Brudent, Gina Samson, Maryse Edouard, Dominique Volcy, Mario Baptiste, Ulrick Jean-Pierre, Michael Grahm, Ricles Garcia, Patricia Brintel, Paula Pean, Jean Claude Martineau, Jean Marie Eliscard, Joseph Moise, Darly Raphael, Pierre Richard Lespes, Roland Magloire, Dorcely III, Josselyn Joseph, Jerry Georges, Jean Guillot, Annel Stephan Nogaisse, Yvon Nicolas. La United Haitan Artists (UHA) propose l’éducation et le partage des racines de la culture folklorique haïtienne à travers le monde. Elle organise également des conférences et des séminaires, ainsi que des concerts permettant à des artistes haïtiens de démontrer toute l’étendue de leur talent en dehors de leurs frontières. Fort logiquement, elle crée son label, The Rainbow Of Yawe, dont le but est encore et toujours d’offrir une meilleure exposition médiatique aux artistes issus de son pays natal. Carole, jamais fatiguée, continue, par l’art, de promouvoir à tout prix ses racines culturelles. Elle expose des toiles de l’époque précolombienne au Musée Martin Luther King à New York. Pour la première fois, elle s’essaye en tant que comédienne dans le film Life outside of Pearl faisant la promotion du « lifestyle » haïtien aux Etats-Unis. Avec son association U.H.A, elle crée les Zepi Mayi Award, qui récompensent les pionniers et tous ceux qui combattent pour la mise en valeur de la culture et de la musique haïtienne. En 2009, elle redouble d’efforts ! A Chicago tout d’abord, où elle crée un comité avec différentes organisations pour soutenir le projet humanitaire de rouvrir l’hôpital de Sainte-Croix dans sa ville natale Leogane. Ensuite, elle demande au gouvernement de reconnaître deux dates très importantes pour le peuple haïtien : le 14 août, jour où ses ancêtres ont fait le serment de « Vivre libres ou de mourir » ; le 5 décembre, jour traditionnellement dédié à Christophe Colomb et qui devrait en fait l’être pour les Tainos, Arrawaks et les Caraïbes qui furent massacrés par les espagnols. Toujours en Haïti, elle encourage la création de constructions sociales qui doivent changer l’image traditionnelle du ghetto, tout en veillant à une meilleure qualité de vie, en termes de style de vie, d’éducation et de soins de santé. Cette même année, presque anecdotique, Carole fête déjà ses trente ans de carrière musicale lors d’un événement où elle en profite encore pour rendre hommage à son peuple. Le 22 novembre 2009, la « Haitian Artists Assembly of Massachusetts », en collaboration avec des officiels de la ville de Boston, lui rend le plus grand hommage pour ses 30 ans de lutte et d'engagement sur la scène culturelle défendant le nom d’Haïti. Une trentaine de trophées lui ont été décernés ainsi qu’un certificat signé du maire consacrant la date du 22 Novembre comme le « jour de Carole Demesmin ». Le 12 janvier 2010, la vie de Carole bascule. En effet, son île est terriblement frappée par un séisme ayant dévasté les vies et les biens de plusieurs centaines de milliers de ses compatriotes. L’immense médiatisation de cette tragédie ainsi que les mouvements d’aide arrivant de tous les secteurs venus de l’extérieur n’ont pas empêché Carole de s’investir corps et âme pour un autre combat. Elle convainc des grands groupes financiers d’investir en Haïti afin de reconstruire le pays et d’en faire un pays attractif pour les touristes. Lors d’une tournée européenne l’année suivante, elle contacte différents organismes ainsi que des gens issus de la diaspora haïtienne pour les convaincre d’investir en Haïti. Jusqu’à aujourd’hui, Carole Démesmin aura consacré sa vie à la défense de la culture de son pays et aura travaillé ardemment à la sauvegarde des valeurs traditionnelles haïtiennes. Elle est d’ailleurs impliquée dans diverses associations. Par exemple « Ti Moun Lakay », qui s’implique dans la création de centres pour jeunes en vue de reconstruire un espoir culturel dans chaque grande ville en utilisant l’art moderne comme outil d’éducation et en utilisant des chansons africaines, la danse haïtienne et les proverbes Vodou comme thème principal pour reconnecter les jeunes à la culture haïtienne. Le Mouvement Écologique National (MEN). Supportée par un groupe d'agronomes dont l’ingénieur agronome Joseph Felix, ce mouvement était dédié à la défense de l’environnement via les étudiants universitaires et les fermiers dans une collaboration nationale avec les agents du ministère de l’agriculture haïtien. Des suggestions de festivités devaient être organisées chaque mois de mai par le ministère de la Culture avec les étudiants qui pour l’occasion réunissaient des arbres à fruits pour leurs écoles afin de les utiliser pour faire refleurir leur région. Enfin, Carole est évidemment toujours active dans l’éducation permanente à travers le « Kole Zepol Pou N Sove Kilti Lakay », qui fut créé pour promouvoir la nouvelle vague de musique traditionnelle « RACIN » en encourageant les jeunes musiciens à s’inspirer du répertoire Vodou pour créer un style de musique unique, influencé par la riche variété des sonorités africaines laissées par leurs ancêtres et la promouvoir au sein de la diaspora haïtienne à travers le monde. SOURCE:http://africultures.com/ #HUGO #CAROLEDÉMESMIN

[jonathanryder-blog]

↳  Character Development

“None of us can make it through this life without suffering some kind of pain. Having lived through my fair share I can tell you the most difficult to endure is loneliness. He was right. Life is a game, and one that we must play. No matter how careful we are there is simply no way to go through this life unscathed, but fortunately for us, it’s a game we don’t have to play alone.”

BASIC INFORMATION

Full Name: Jonathan Elliot Ryder

Nickname(s): Jon, Jonah, Ryder (mostly by work colleagues), Miracle Worker

Pronunciation:  J-oh-n-ah-th-ah-n  Eh-l-ee-uh-t  Rye-d-uh-r

Titles: Doctor, Surgeon

Age: 36

Date of Birth: February 20th 1983

Hometown: Goldwater

Current Location: Goldwater

Ethnicity: American

Nationality: Anglo-American

Gender: Male

Pronouns: Him/He/His

Orientation: Bisexual/Biromantic

Occupation: ER Doctor/Trauma Surgeon/Field Surgeon/First Aider

Living Arrangements: Can be found here

Financial Status: Upper-Middle Class

Accent: A hybrid between a neutral American and English accent, the latter hints very strongly from influences his father gave him growing up so his voice ends up making him sound more foreign than he actually is. He’s adopted a neutral tone mostly for work related reasons -- so people can understand him better.

Religion: Agnostic

Occupation: ER Doctor & Trauma Surgeon

MUTATION

Physiology: Human

Species: Homo Sapiens Superior / Mutant

Strength: Average

Stamina: Above Average

Speed: Average

Dexterity: Fine-tuned motor control particularly of his hands, able to perform unique movements without his hands shaking making him an incredibly good surgeon when wielding a scalpel.

Reflexes: Relatively quick but still average.

Power: Biokinesis / Healing / Restoration { More on this here }

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

Face Claim: Tom Hiddleston

Hair Colour: Dark blonde

Eye Colour: Gunmetal / Silvery blue

Height: 6 ft 2 / 188cm

Weight: 79 kg / 174 lbs.

Build: Slender but athletic & toned.

Somatype: Between ectomorphic and mesomorphic

Posture: Straight unless tired, then tends to slouch when sat.

Tattoos: N/A

Piercings: N/A

Dominant Side: Right

Blood Type: O - universal donor.

Distinguishing Marks: Several smaller scars littered across his hands from injuries prior to gaining his abilities, faint scar lines dotted across his torso from large injuries he tried to heal on others and ended up marking his own body instead. The most prominent is on the side of his neck typically covered by shirt collars and one on his temple from where he slipped and fell out of a tree he was climbing when he was a child.

Clothing Style: Really depends on the day sometimes this, or this but it’s nearly always some kind of combo of a jacket/blazer + top/shirt + jeans/trousers. Often he can be seen wearing glasses although these simply have plain glass in the lenses as he doesn’t actually specifically need them anymore now that his ability has developed. { More on this here }

Accessories: Always wears a wrist watch given to him as a gift by Ophelia.

Facial Hair: Typically is clean shaven but when he does have a beard tends to look along the lines of this.

Usual Expression: Occasionally distant, sometimes appears to be lost in thought but mostly just friendly.

Distinguishing Characteristics:  Several smaller scars littered across his hands from injuries prior to gaining his abilities, faint scar lines dotted across his torso from large injuries he tried to heal on others and ended up marking his own body instead. The most prominent ones are one on the side of his neck typically covered by shirt collars, one on his temple from where he slipped and fell out of a tree he was climbing and another one on the lower angle of his jaw from where he slipped on the docks and fell hitting his chin on the wooden planks when he was a child.

PSYCHOLOGY

IQ: 122

Languages: English, French, Italian and can speak bits of the following: Afrikaans, Zulu, Setswana, Arabic. 

Vocabulary: Articulate & thoughtful.

Memory: Rather good but nothing exceptional.

Temperament: Calm, level-headed.

Learning Style: Kinesthetic & Visual

Emotional Stability: Relatively stable, he doesn’t exactly give himself the time to talk about how he feels preferring to focus on other people because he deems their needs as far more important in comparison to his own. He uses his work to cope with things and will throw himself into work to the point of overworking himself to try and forget about things that are bothering him. Overall he’s pretty stable but if someone hits a nerve then they might just get to see he’s not quite as stable as he likes to appear on the outside.

Sociability: Jonathan is somewhere in the middle of this spectrum, he enjoys people’s company but he also needs some time to himself just to relax.

HEALTH

Physical Ailments: Growing up Jonathan suffered from short-sightedness, this was fixed by glasses and contacts and continud into his adult life. When his abilities manifested however, this restored his vision to near perfect levels but due to having spent his entire life wearing glasses he couldn’t simply stop. So now to avoid suspicion from people who knew him as a child he wears a pair of glasses with plain glass lenses and no curvature.

Neurological Conditions: Headaches often triggered stress or fatigue.

Allergies: N/A

Sleeping Habits: Generally his sleep schedule is a mess, especially when he gets night shifts ‘til the early hours of the morning. On those days he comes back and will sleep during the morning-afternoon and be up mid-late afternoon before trying to go to sleep correctly at 11/12pm that night.

Eating Habits: He’s a big fan of a medium cooked steak, seafood is one of his favourites and he has always loved crab, lobster, prawns and fish. Besides this he loves baked goods - a thing that has been the case ever since he was small.

Exercise Habits: He isn’t a total exercise freak but he enjoys going on long walks with Jas listening to music depending on his mood, otherwise he’s big on going for runs. Wherever his feet take him he’ll go, and depending on the day will depend how much he pushes himself. He tries to go out for at least an hour a day if he can.

Body Temperature: Warm but not too hot.

Addictions: Work.

Drug Use: None.

Alcohol Use: Mostly for pleasure, or social occasions. He enjoys the taste and company he tends to keep but other times he just enjoys it as a stress reliever but very rarely drinks enough to get drunk (difficult anyway due to his fast metabolism). 

PERSONALITY

Label: The Helper

Positive Traits: Dependable, intelligent, level-headed, knowledgeable, charming, polite, steadfast, affectionate, sensitive, dutiful, sympathetic.

Negative Traits: Perfectionist, solitary, stubborn, reserved, self-depreciating, excessively humble, unwilling to take the spotlight.

Fears: People learning about what he can do, being persecuted for it, others being hurt for what he is.

Hobbies: Reading, sodoku, cooking, walking (Jas), running, listening to music, fishing, sleeping, playing chess, crosswords, watching TV, watching movies.

FAVOURITES

Weather: Snow, but not snowing. He likes days where the snow has settled and the sun is out causing it to glisten in the light. Besides this he loves rain, storms with thunder and lightning.

Colour: Blue, greys, white, blacks

Music: Jazz, Soul, Classical, Ballroom, Blues along with the odd bit of Indie thrown in

Movies: Hannibal, The Godfather, The Shawshank Redemption

Sport: Running, Tennis Skiing

Beverage: Single malt Speyburn Scotch

Food: Medium/Rare steak with a béarnaise sauce

Animal: Dogs

FAMILY

Andrew Kenneth Ryder → 68 Years Old → Jeremy Irons → Alive

Michelle René Ryder → 63 Years Old → Rene Russo → Alive

Children: N/A

Pet(s): Can be found here.

Family’s Financial Status: Upperclass

RELATIONSHIPS

Orientation: Bisexual, biromantic.

Relationship Status: Single

Current Love Interests: TBD

Former/Ongoing Love Interests: Ophelia Thorne

EXTRA

Zodiac Sign: Pisces.

MBTI: ISFJ-A

Enneagram: The Perfectionist - Type 1

Temperament: Phlegmatic

Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw

Moral Alignment: Neutral good

Primary Vice: Wrath potentially?

Primary Virtue: Diligence or Humility

Element: Water

Likes: Roaming & travelling the world. Old architecture. Cathedrals. Long dinners by candlelight. Quiet. Chestnuts. Sunset. Stars. Night. Water of any kind but particularly the ocean. Fishing. Exploring. Long walks. A good log fire and the smell and sound of burning wood. Coffee, tea, hot chocolate, whiskey. The warmth of sunlight. The sound of rain. Piano soundtracks. France, Italy, London -- most European cities. Humour. Nature. Dislikes: Open shoes, Headaches. Loneliness. Dirty fingernails. Mould. Noise. Bullying. Racism. Bigoted individuals. Animal cruelty. Inequality. Spicy foods. Horror films. Liars. Politics. Slackers. Heavy traffic. Air pollution. Crowds. Feeling embarassed. Pushiness. Smoking. Overcooked food. Gawdy colours. 

Tropes: A God Am I/God Complex, Actual Pacifist, Adorkable, Apologises a Lot, Beware the Nice Ones, Big Secret, Bi The Way, Break the Cutie, Broken Ace, Character Tics, Cultured Badass, Doesn't Like Guns, Everyone Has Standards, Geek Physique, Gentleman and a Scholar, Good Is Not Soft, Good Thing You Can Heal, Hates Small Talk, Heroic Neutral, Heroic Sacrifice, Hot Scientist, Loss of Identity, Nice to the Waiter, Omnidisciplinary Scientist, Papa Wolf, Sharp-Dressed Man, Stepford Smiler, Tranquil Fury

[reseau-actu]

Ancien élève de l’École polytechnique et directeur de recherche au CNRS, le grand sociologue Philippe d'Iribarne analyse les freins psychologiques et les blocages culturels qui, selon lui, conduisent les Français s’exprimant dans l’espace public à l’autocensure et au déni sur certains aspects de l’islam.

Philippe d’Iribarne vient de publier un ouvrage remarqué, Islamophobie. Intoxication idéologique (Albin Michel, 2019, 233 p., 19 €).

Il n’est sans doute pas de sujet plus clivant dans la France d’aujourd’hui que ce qui touche à l’islam et au monde musulman. Il n’est quasiment pas de semaine sans que la polémique ne renaisse à son propos: la tenue islamique, du burkini dans les piscines aux mères voilées accompagnant les sorties scolaires, vue par certains comme un symbole féministe de liberté en dépit de la place que lui donnent les pays musulmans les plus attachés à l’enfermement des femmes ; les agressions contre des juifs ponctuées de «Allah akbar», dont on voit nier qu’elles aient un rapport avec une forme d’antisémitisme.

D’autres thèmes surgissent de façon plus épisodique, telles, récemment, les manifestations des supporteurs de l’équipe de football d’Algérie, que tout le monde auraient trouvées insupportables si les supporteurs du PSG ou de l’OM étaient en cause, mais où tout un courant d’opinion n’a voulu voir qu’un épisode festif. Les accusations fusent en tous sens, portées par des labels vengeurs, entre islamogauchisme et islamophobie. Ce n’est manifestement pas du même islam que parlent ceux qui s’affrontent. C’est que, à son propos, des imaginaires très contrastés, porteurs de repères tout aussi contrastés, sont à l’œuvre. Face à l’islam, la gauche paraît particulièrement à la peine quand il s’agit de reconnaître l’existence de faits problématiques. Mais la droite elle aussi a du mal à se situer.

La gauche s’affirme passionnément attachée à la liberté et à l’égalité. Or, les pays musulmans témoignent jour après jour du fait que l’islam fait mauvais ménage avec l’une et l’autre

La gauche s’affirme passionnément attachée à la liberté et à l’égalité. Or, les pays musulmans témoignent jour après jour du fait que l’islam fait mauvais ménage avec l’une et l’autre. La liberté de conscience y est malmenée: aucun ne reconnaît le droit pour un musulman de se convertir à une autre religion.

Aucun n’accepte pleinement dans la loi l’égalité entre hommes et femmes. Même la Tunisie, en pointe dans ce domaine au sein du monde musulman, jusqu’à autoriser depuis peu une musulmane à épouser un non-musulman, n’a pas osé à ce jour (quoique ce projet ne soit pas abandonné) mettre un terme aux inégalités en matière d’héritage. Cela serait une transgression majeure tant le Coran est explicite en la matière: «Voici ce qu’Allah vous enjoint au sujet de vos enfants: au fils, une part équivalente à celle de deux filles.» (Coran, IV, 11).

On pourrait donc s’attendre à ce que la gauche dénonce massivement cette hostilité aux valeurs de la République. C’est bien ce que fait une partie d’entre elle, que l’on peut qualifier de républicaine. Mais la majorité d’une gauche dite antiraciste dénonce plutôt ceux qui jettent sur le monde musulman un regard empreint de réalisme. C’est que toute une conception de ce que c’est qu’être de gauche, d’avoir une identité de gauche, est à l’œuvre.

La gauche se veut l’héritière de la Révolution française, ennemie de l’Ancien Régime, avec ses privilèges, les mille distinctions qui structuraient la vie sociale entre nobles et roturiers, maîtres et serviteurs, chrétiens et juifs, aînés et cadets, enfants légitimes et naturels. Son rapport au monde est aussi nourri de la mémoire d’innombrables luttes menées contre toutes les formes d’oppression exercées par un segment de la société sur un autre, l’esclavage, l’exploitation des travailleurs, la Shoah. Il s’agit donc pour elle d’œuvrer à l’avènement d’une société de citoyens que rien ne distingue, dans une vision de la nation exclusivement politique, refusant tout attachement, volontiers qualifié d’ethnique, à un héritage singulier.

Il convient, pour beaucoup à gauche, d’effacer toutes les distinctions traditionnelles, progressivement vouées aux poubelles de l’histoire

Dans cette perspective, seuls ceux qui diffèrent par leurs options politiques, progressistes et conservateurs, méritent d’être distingués. Il convient, pour beaucoup à gauche, d’effacer toutes les distinctions traditionnelles, progressivement vouées aux poubelles de l’histoire, jusqu’à celles qui ont longtemps paru aussi naturelles que la distinction entre hommes et femmes. Toute idée de retour en arrière, séparant les citoyens en catégories traitées inégalement, suscite l’indignation, comme quand il a été question de déchoir de la nationalité française les seuls terroristes binationaux.

» LIRE AUSSI - Philippe d’Iribarne: «Contre l’islam politique, les Français attendent plus que des incantations»

On a affaire à une vision de l’homme qui entend transcender les contingences de ce bas monde, ainsi que l’exprime Tocqueville, pour qui la Révolution française «a opéré, par rapport à ce monde, précisément de la même manière que la révolution religieuse agissant en vue de l’autre ; elle a considéré le citoyen d’une façon abstraite, en dehors de toutes les sociétés particulières, de même que la religion considère l’homme en général, indépendamment du pays et du temps». Comment dès lors constater et analyser ce qui singularise l’islam, entre les difficultés d’une démocratie pluraliste à prospérer dans les pays musulmans, le statut qui y est réservé aux minorités religieuses, le terrorisme mené au nom d’Allah, ou, dans notre pays, les mouvements qualifiés de «partition» ou de «sécession» par les derniers présidents de la République?

Reste la construction d’un mythe dont l’objet, affirme Lévi-Strauss, «est de fournir un modèle logique pour résoudre une contradiction (tâche irréalisable si la contradiction est réelle)». Un islam imaginaire, «religion de paix», protégé par une sorte de muraille de Chine de ce qu’enseigne l’observation, est présenté comme le «vrai islam». Tout ce qui questionne l’image d’Épinal ainsi construite est réputé n’avoir «rien à voir avec l’islam» ou du moins relever de simples «dérives».

Si celles-ci concernent l’ensemble des pays musulmans, ce qui suggère qu’elles ont un caractère structurel, il s’agit, est-il affirmé, d’un pur concours de circonstances. Les musulmans qui sombrent dans le terrorisme ont des problèmes psychiatriques ou sont victimes de sociétés qui les rejettent. Alors que la colonisation française du Maghreb est déclarée «crime contre l’humanité», la colonisation musulmane de l’Espagne est présentée comme éminemment civilisatrice, facteur de culture et de paix. Une option minimale permet de reconnaître l’existence d’aspects sombres de l’islam, tel le fait de réserver aux femmes un statut inférieur, mais à condition de déclarer que toutes les religions font de même.

Ce que les sociétés occidentales rejettent massivement n’est nullement l’islam comme foi mais un ordre social islamique, ennemi de leurs valeurs cardinales de liberté et d’égalité

Et puis, comme la meilleure défense est l’attaque, ce sont ceux qui prêtent attention aux aspects problématiques de l’islam qui sont dénoncés, déclarés islamophobes, accusés d’être aveuglés par une hostilité viscérale envers l’islam en soi et les musulmans en tant que tels. Là encore, le discours ne veut rien connaître des faits.

Une observation attentive montre que ce que les sociétés occidentales rejettent massivement n’est nullement l’islam comme foi mais un ordre social islamique, ennemi de leurs valeurs cardinales de liberté et d’égalité. Loin d’être hostiles de manière indiscriminée aux musulmans, elles réservent un bon accueil à ceux qui cherchent à s’y intégrer. Mais, dans une vision de gauche, le simple fait de scruter sans a priori la réalité du monde musulman fait scandale, car cela risque de conduire à «stigmatiser» un groupe particulier de citoyens.

Face à cette construction idéologique, la droite s’unirait-elle pour construire un discours de vérité? Il n’en est rien. Certes, opérer des distinctions entre les citoyens ne la choque pas. Sa vision de l’égalité reste largement celle d’Aristote: traiter de manière égale ce qui est semblable et de manière inégale ce qui diffère. Prêter attention aux spécificités du monde de l’islam s’impose donc. Mais elle est engluée elle aussi dans des imaginaires qui diffèrent, pour reprendre la distinction classique de René Rémond, entre les trois droites.

Pour la droite légitimiste, attachée à l’héritage de la France de toujours, l’islam est un corps étranger, à considérer en bloc ; les musulmans doivent s’assimiler jusqu’à respecter scrupuleusement les us et coutumes de leur nouvelle patrie et l’idéal serait qu’ils disparaissent en changeant de religion. La droite bonapartiste croit à la toute-puissance de l’État et considère qu’il va de soi que si celui-ci se montre suffisamment ferme, les musulmans se comporteront en bons citoyens tout en pratiquant dans le privé une religion qui a, en soi, trop peu d’importance pour mériter qu’on s’y intéresse. Pour la droite orléaniste, les musulmans forment une collection d’individus indépendants dont chacun a le droit d’agir à sa guise, et il n’y a pas lieu de prêter attention à l’emprise collective d’un islam social et politique.

Héritage des Lumières

La confusion qui en résulte sur la question de l’islam est d’autant plus grande que des visions très diverses peuvent coexister au sein d’une même famille politique, surtout quand ses racines sont «en même temps» à droite et à gauche. Cette confusion s’ajoute à d’autres facteurs qui rendent difficile d’aborder avec quelque objectivité ce qui touche à l’islam. Toutes sensibilités politiques confondues, les pouvoirs publics veulent éviter, en prêtant le flanc à l’accusation de «maltraiter l’islam», de mettre en danger leurs relations avec les pays du Golfe. Notre justice, attentive aux libertés individuelles quand l’action de l’État les menace, ne s’y intéresse guère quand la pression sociale prend des formes suffisamment subtiles pour ne pas tomber d’évidence sous le coup de la loi: l’ostracisme, la crainte d’être mal jugé, le chantage affectif.

Comment, dans ces conditions faire preuve de réalisme à l’égard des héritiers du monde musulman présents sur notre sol et agir avec intelligence pour permettre leur bonne intégration dans le monde occidental? Il est temps, pour les Français de tout bord, de se rappeler qu’ils ont en partage l’héritage des Lumières et de chercher à se retrouver autour de son idéal de lucidité dans des débats attentifs aux réalités du monde.

[affairesasuivre]

L’inattendu et flamboyant retour de Lone Sloane 

Ce début d'année nous apporte une incroyable surprise : Druillet, que l'on croyait perdu pour la bande dessinée, définitivement retiré dans les landes perdues de la peinture et des "beaux" arts, revient donner une suite à Délirius, une série qu'il a créée il y a exactement 40 ans pour Pilote sur un scénario de jacques Lob. Elle s'achève aujourd'hui avec l'aide de Benjamin Legrand.

On compare souvent le travail de Philippe Druillet à l’opéra. On a raison : il y a chez lui du grandiose, du mythique, du symbolique, du cryptique. On assiste à un spectacle inouï qui vous extrait du monde intelligible, si bien qu’il est parfois nécessaire de se référer au livret pour comprendre ce que l’on a vécu.

Druillet, c’est un style, une véritable ambition artistique qui a libéré la bande dessinée de sa gangue enfantine, de l’aventure utilitaire et mesquine qui nécessite un début, une fin, un héros sans peur et sans reproche. Il nous emmene dans une aventure baroque qui a impulsé toute une lignée. Bilal, même Baudoin, Blutch ou Sfar viennent de là...

Inutile de rappeler le rôle qu’a joué dans l’histoire de la bande dessinée cette rencontre stylistique improbable entre l’univers foisonnant de l’auteur de comics Jack Kirby et l’abstraction lyrique du peintre Georges Mathieu.

Druillet paraît d’abord chez Losfeld en 1966, Losfeld l’éditeur d’Histoire d’O, des Surréalistes et de Clovis Trouille, mais surtout de Barbarella, ce marqueur de la bande dessinée moderne.

René Goscinny, dénicheur de talents originaux, l’alpague, quoiqu’un peu effrayé, pour l’amener chez Pilote où ses pages ont marqué une génération autant que celles de Jean Giraud, de Gotlib ou de Reiser.

Enfin, il y a l’aventure de Métal Hurlant dont il est l’un des fondateurs et dont le titre lui va aussi bien que les nombreuses bagouses que Druillet, géant perpétuellement habillé de noir, trimballe à ses doigts.

Si l’homme est flamboyant, son travail ne l’est pas moins. Druillet qui, enfant, a croisé le peintre surréaliste Salvador Dali à Figueras a sans doute compris que la folie était une composante essentielle de la création. Délirius qu’il créa en 1972 dans Pilote, avec Jacques Lob au scénario rappelle ce vocable qui invoque l’abandon de tous les sens

Bon scénariste, Lob a su poser l’univers de Druillet pour en faire un solide péplum spatio-temporel pétri de western. Malheureusement, l’histoire ne s’acheva pas car Druillet s’engouffra dans l’aventure absorbante des Humanoïdes Associés, tandis que Jacques Lob décéda prématurément en 1992. Les œuvres de Druillet elles-mêmes, menacées de déclassement en raison de la cécité de ses éditeurs, faillirent disparaître plus d’une fois de la librairie.

Mais finalement, grâce au rachat du catalogue d’Albin Michel, Jacques Glénat, véritable passionné que l’on a voulu trop vite faire passer pour un éditeur mercantile, ressort l’intégrale du travail de Druillet sous son label Drugstore. Avec au passage cette surprise : une suite et fin donnée à Délirius par Benjamin Legrand et Philippe Druillet 40 ans après l’impulsion initiale.

Druillet y est comme à son habitude impérial, bien soutenu par une histoire qui accompagne ses fulgurances. Une bonne introduction au travail d’un dessinateur qui n’a pas d’équivalent dans l’espace francophone.

(par Didier Pasamonik (L’Agence BD))