#Robinson Family Zoom Call

[lambsouvlaki]

For the Hell of It - Date Night

Characters: Jason Todd x fem!oc

Rating and warnings: G, no warnings.

Word count: 1,237

Summary: Dating a vigilante is hard, but worth it. Early on their relationship, she has to face that.

Masterlist

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On an early autumn night they strolled across Robinson park. Actors in Elizabethan costume were prancing around the low concrete stage, doing some warm-up crowd work. Jason���s arm was slung over her shoulder, and her dog Marlow trotted happily alongside them. 

They weren’t great at the actual Dating aspect of dating just yet. It was still early days, and they had sidled into being together by following the same trajectory as their friendship, now with sex. They supported and trusted each other, they were both loyal and committed. They had already had two years to figure all that out. 

Romantic nights out had been planned, postponed, and cancelled. Andy had eaten alone at a restaurant booked for two, not to know until later that Jason was fighting Killer Croc in a cage match. The week after he was blowing up an exotic animal trafficking ring before the major players could flee to south america. 

He was apologetic and self recriminating. She could already see the barbed little seeds of ‘can this even work?’ trying to take root in his mind. 

But she wasn’t a quitter. 

It wasn’t the first time he’d been forced to stand her up. It wasn’t even in the first five, and she’d long since made her peace with it. It just felt more calamitous because now it was called a date. 

It wasn’t a big deal, she decided. If other people could make it work, the partners of firefighters, nurses, other on-call professionals, then Wonder Woman help her, she could too. 

Despite telling herself it wasn’t a big deal and she wasn’t worried, when Friday night swung around: bright, warm, and dry she let out an audible sigh of relief. 

The light was swiftly dying but the park was surprisingly busy. It was the last Shakespeare in the Park of the year, and there were food trucks and little battery-powered candles for sale. Families and couples of all ages milled about looking for good spots. A polite group of children came over and asked if they could pet their dog, to said dog’s eternal happiness. 

“I propose a strategy,” Andy said.

“Hit me.” 

“We split up to look for clues, and by clues I mean the best food trucks. That yellow one has empanadas, and we passed a flag before that said something about paella.”

He nodded seriously. “You take Marlow, I’ll take the backpack, and we’ll meet back here in ten.” 

They broke off like fighter jets zooming away, and roughly ten minutes later they returned with arms full of delicious smelling cardboard boxes. They set up their picnic blanket on the slope some distance from the stage where they had a good view of the whole area. They’d arrived at the perfect time, because the park was filling up. 

They sat on the ground and laid out the spoils of their hunt, just as the show was starting. 

The empanadas were sold out, but they had choripan instead, which Andy picked up for Jason. The paella was with shrimp and mussels, and was absolutely delicious, if a little small. Jason had found Korean fried chicken, and little skewered things called tteokkochi that neither were familiar with but were excited to try. 

It was a confused and messy dinner that they dove into with relish, and some negotiations over final bites. 

Getting the choripan was a strategic move on her part, because Jason was a sucker for anything in the neighbourhood of a hotdog. The fried chicken was the perfect counter, he knew her weaknesses. The tteokkochi turned out to be deep fried rice cakes slathered in sweet and tangy hot sauce, that had them both licking sticky fingers and promising to try them again some time. 

Up on stage a short performance of the play within a play from Midsummer Night’s Dream was finishing up. 

Next up, and the main show for the night, was an abridged version of Much ado Nothing. Jason scrunched up their food packages and lobbed it into the nearby trash can, and Andy got out the thermos of non-alcoholic mulled wine from the backpack for them to share. 

They relaxed together on the slope, leaning back on their hands, with Marlow sitting up next to them on look out. 

Jason glanced away for a moment. 

“Hey, can I borrow your scarf?” he asked. 

“Yeah, sure.” She handed it over without questioning the strange request. 

He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek then wrapped it around his neck so he could pull it up and hide his face.

“I’ll be right back.”

He snuck away through the crowd. 

The play continued, the actors hamming it up appropriately. The night had set in properly now, and large lights beamed down onto the stage leaving the rest of them in darkness. The audience around her laughed at the jokes and gags. 

She leaned against her dog. 

The night was getting cooler.  

Why did it hurt more now than it had when they were just friends?

She’d had no expectation of him then, she supposed. She hadn’t wanted him to be hers.

No. That wasn’t true, she had wanted him badly for some time, but squished it all deep down inside of her. Now it was out, with promises made and claims staked, it was hard to keep that once contained desire on a leash. 

He would give his life for her if the situation demanded it. She knew that, with the same confidence she knew tomorrow would follow today. 

But he would give his life for just about anyone if the situation demanded it. He was never going to change. She wouldn’t want him to.

She looked at the silhouettes of people in the dark around her, an elderly couple on camping chairs to her side, and ahead of her a family with two children who were fast asleep on a blanket. Not very long ago this park was so dangerous people rarely came here during the day. 

She looked at her things around her, and thought about what she would need to do if he didn’t come back tonight. She would take a taxi home and bring his stuff with her, hold onto it for him until he could come to her place to pick it up. It could be in two weeks, it could be tomorrow. 

This was going to be her life, forever. 

She pulled in deep breath and leaned her forehead on Marlow’s neck.

“Okay,” she said to herself. “Okay.” 

About twenty minutes after Jason left, Marlow looked up and to the side. She followed his sight line and she saw Jason returning through the crowd. He dropped something into the trash can with such a casual air it took a few moments for her to recognise it as a disassembled pistol. Nobody else noticed him at all.

He stretched out on the blanket behind her and gently pulled her back against him, his hands around her waist. He returned her scarf, wrapping it loosely around her neck. The knuckles of his right hand were grazed. He drew no attention to it, acting for all the world as though nothing had happened and nothing was ever going to happen. He definitely hadn’t just disarmed whatever dangerous hooligan had been planning to do something terrible. 

She loved this man so much it hurt.

“What’d I miss?” he said in her ear.

“Not much.” She leaned back against him. “But I’m starting to think this Benedick guy doesn’t actually dislike Beatrice after all.” 

He snorted a laugh. They settled in for the long haul.

Next>>

[mercerislandbooks]

50 Years of Island Books: Erica Bauermeister

Erica Bauermeister lives in Port Townsend, Washington, with her husband and 238 wild deer. She's the New York Times bestselling author of many books, including The Scent Keeper, The School of Essential Ingredients, House Lessons: Renovating a Life, Let’s Hear It for the Girls, and her latest, No Two Persons. We've taken great pleasure in watching our community gather to celebrate her books. Lori Robinson welcomed Erica to the blog last May to launch No Two Persons, and today I'm bringing her back to contribute to our walk down Island Books memory lane.

Miriam: It's so nice to have you back here, Erica. Tell me, what are you thinking about when you walk into a bookstore?

Erica: I read once that almost 2,000 new books are published each Tuesday.  It boggles the mind, and it is what I think of each time I walk in a bookstore. I look at the selection of the books, especially the Staff Recommendations.  Are the books just the ones that everybody is talking about? Or can I sense an insightful reader’s mind behind the choices? When I encounter the latter, I know that I will also find the gems, the books I will open and realize that I need in my life, when a minute before I hadn’t even known they existed.

It takes an extraordinary amount of work to create a bookstore that feels as if it was made just for you. This is the special magic of Island Books. The tables at Island Books tempt me to read memoir, history, non-fiction, beach reads and mysteries. I find books in categories I might not otherwise, because I am tempted by  the obvious care in the selections. And I am grateful for the dedicated people who put these books in my life. To have an independent bookstore that is 50 years old and operates at such a high standard is amazing.

Miriam: I feel the same way and will spend the rest of my life marveling at the collective energy of so many minds. I'm so glad you're one of those writers as well as readers! Now, you've done multiple events over the years with Island Books. We hosted you in 2011, 2020 on Zoom at the height of the pandemic, and only a few months ago in May 2023. Do you have any particular memories from those events that stand out in your mind?

Erica: I’ve enjoyed all my visits, but I think my favorite was the most recent. It was an absurdly hot day in May. I completely expected the event to be me and a single bookseller, just sitting there sweating together.  But the welcome was so enthusiastic, and the chairs were full and the air fans were going and you could feel the community in the room. These were booksellers who loved their jobs, and customers who loved books and their bookstore. Readers in the best sense of the word. And you know what struck me at the end? The sheer number of people who bought books and had them personalized to someone else—and the smiles on their faces as they said “it’s a gift."

Miriam: I love that! In your opinion, what separates Island Books from the big bookstores and popular websites?

Erica: I love the serendipity of finding books that I didn’t know existed but which feel as if they were written just for me. Exploring the Staff Recommendations is one way, but my favorite is what I call The Bookseller Game. Rather than thinking about books in genres—literary, mystery, women’s fiction, dystopian, etc—you consider the feel of the books you most like to read. Are they plot or character driven? Do you gravitate toward long and luxurious sentences or short declarative ones? Is setting important? Do you like the puzzle of multiple narrators or the immediacy of a single, first-person narrator? Do you need a burning question at the center (who did it? why did this family fall apart? will the couple fall in love?) or do you relish just living in a different world for a while? 

Then you bring your answers to an indie bookseller and see what they suggest.  For example, the first time I played, I said I was looking for a wicked-smart novel with beautifully written sentences and an unreliable narrator. The bookseller suggested Gone, Girl. I said I didn’t read thrillers (completely forgetting the point of the game). She said “oh, you will now.” She was right, and I read more widely now because of her.

I suppose it’s possible to play this game with an algorithm, but I find algorithms bland and predictable. They know only what you have read, not what you could. The surprises happen at the smaller stores where the booksellers know their inventory. And my favorite part is watching a bookseller's face light up and hearing their enthusiasm. At its core, reading is about human connection, and the booksellers at Island Books are really, really good at it.

Miriam: Thank you. We love the work we do. That look on anyone's face when they're excited about a book is my absolute favorite as well. Readers can never go wrong with Gone Girl. Erica, it's always great to connect with you and we're grateful for your support and love for Island Books over so many years. We love your work and sharing your books with customers.

To our Island Books community: In the next 50 Years of Island Books installment, I’ll be talking to author and store friend Kevin O’Brien. The author of 21 internationally-published thrillers, he won the Spotted Owl Award for Best Pacific Northwest Mystery and served on the board of Seattle 7 Writers. Kevin's latest nail-biter, The Enemy at Home, just hit shelves in August. Check it out in the meantime!

—Miriam

[lucindarobinsonvevo]

you're the only m*therfucker in the city who can handle me

[blazingphantom]

(pre-movie) Wendell and Wild headcanons Sister Helley mum AU

cracks fingers Let's do this! Okay, so Let's be real Sister Helley is fucking badass - Sister Helley was born in 1979 (she's now 43) - Helley's full name is Helley Robinson Clarke - Helley as a young teen/adult was the bad girl. Going out to smoke, drink, gamble. - Her wardrobe was full of leather jackets. (Basically anything 70's/80's punk) - She was a major Afro Punk queen and ROCKED it. - She has her own motorbike called the 'Hellfire' which was the talk of the town (Mostly appalled chit-chatter from old ladies as she zoomed on by) - Her family is catholic- but of course Helley rebelled against her parents. - Was kind of feared in school, mostly due to her brusque and unpredictable nature. (But was very amiable with the first years acting as a big sister and would threaten to beat up bullies) - Despite her rebellious attitude, she finished school and started college soon after. - At the age of 23 that is when she met Buffalo Belzer. She saw him at the local bar (looking cool as can be) and decided to say hi. - "Ya come here often, big man?" - "..Uh.." - Immediately wanted to befriend this very large guy and did so. - She found his yellow eyes very wicked (thinking they were contacts) - The two quickly became companions. - It wasn't until one day Belzer had to abruptly leave a restaurant (during a day out)- and Helley followed. Was when she saw Belzer in his true form. A 6'9 foot demon. He was completely embarrassed. - But Helley reassured him kindly "Well.. this sucks. I'm sorry Helley-" "Hey hey it's alright. I kinda guessed you weren't all human." - Helley flashed him a grin. And Belzer sighed with relief. - Months went on by and the two became very close. Until they became boyfriend and girlfriend - Helley was very self-conscious about her body type and was afraid to reveal herself, when she and BB went to the beach during the summer. - BB was quick to comfort and reassure her. Helley's confidence slowly increased from his compliments and learned to love her curviness. - Helley slowly abandoned her smoking and drinking, always finding it ironic how a literal demon brought out the good in her - A few years later. Helley discovered she was a Hell Maiden- when she had accidently summoned a random demon into the town. And she had to annihilate it. (Needless to say, she was very afraid of her own powers for a while) - Belzer moved into Helley's house, once she got the right amount of money - Helley decided to become a nun and pursue her religion - When BB became her fiancée, the meeting with her parents was very awkward. - 6 years later they got married, it was a private wedding. Not too large, not to small. But it was a perfect day for them.

Buffalo Belzer - Was slightly intimidated when he first met Helley. As she strutted into the bar coming directly for him. - Once tried to flirt with her, only to flush with embarrassment as she flirted back. - Was horrified when he couldn't hold onto his human guise and transformed Infront of her. (Cried a lil bit when she said she wasn't afraid and still wanted to be friends with him) - First time he ever was introduced to a hot tub was with Helley and it was at the local spa, and he enjoyed it so much. - Never really had a fashion sense, but Helley helped him discover it - When he listened to his first Elvis Presley song, he was hooked and was so happy when Helley gifted him Elvis styled sunglasses one Christmas - Like Helley, he was very self-conscious about his body type (especially his gut), but Helley was quick to reassure him, saying she liked 'bigger guys way better'. - Pridefully flaunted his stuff at the beach with Helley who was grinning so joyfully - Their first date was at a pizzeria. (Helley wasn't fond of those fancy restaurants anyways) - Their 2nd date night was at a disco and Belzer enjoyed it way more than he wanted to admit it. - Belzer actually found out he enjoyed belly rubs from Helley. (He had trouble sleeping one night, and Helley rubbed his belly. He fell asleep faster than anyone she knew.) - Was really happy for Helley once she got her job as a nun - Their first kiss was something. Completely amazing. - Their wedding? That too, was magical and he loved every bit of the ceremony. Had trouble holding back tears when Helley showed up in her white gown. - After they settled into their new house. Belzer wasn't the best at decorating the interiors of it. - Almost died when Helley one day said she wanted 2 kids. - "Hey Belzer, how would you feel about having babies?" - "Oh- yeah- sure! Wow.." - Recovering from his initial shock, he happily agreed and hugged her tightly. - They decided to go with 2 options. - The first one failed, due to Helley being infertile. Belzer cradled her head as she sobbed in the bathroom for 3 hours. - The 2nd one failed too. Belzer wasn't really.. a fan. And Helley was a total sweetheart about it, and understood him very well. (If you know, you know) - Months later, found out a ritual they could do. Helley was suspicious, but happily agreed to it. - That night was a full moon, they had to act quickly - Once they completed the spell, they sat in silence. Thinking it didn't work. They were about to get up and leave the living room. - That was until they heard 2 babies crying - The two immediately burst into tears, running over and seeing two purple skinned demon twins laying on the floor. - They picked the babes up and cradled them tenderly. - Helley named the lanky one Wendell - And BB named the stout one Wild -

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Talking with Kim Stanley Robinson about "The High Sierra"

This month, the great Kim Stanley Robinson published “The High Sierra,” an odd combination of memoir, natural history, mountaineering guidebook, and environmental manifesto. At one point, Robinson told me it would be his last book. Thankfully, he changed his mind, but I can see why he’d think of this as a career capstone.

https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/kim-stanley-robinson/the-high-sierra/9780316306812/

I’m both an ardent admirer of Stan’s work and an old friend of his, so I was delighted to get the chance to interview him for Fatherly magazine, as a feature in their Outside issue:

https://www.fatherly.com/entertainment/kim-stanley-robinson-cory-doctorow-climate-crisis

Given the magazine’s parenting focus, much of our interview was concerned with going outdoors with children. Stan says that conversations with kids about wilderness and the climate shoouruld start with a personal connection: “50% of the DNA inside your body is not human DNA. You yourself are a forest. You are an amazing collaboration between literally millions of individuals and thousands of species.”

He says that this sense of connection is the key to environmental advocacy, that nurturing the idea that the wild places are you, and you are part of them, is how we bring these issues into focus for kids.

But he also has a lot of practical advice for bringing kids to the wild places��— especially his beloved Sierras. He is part of the minimalist camping movement, venturing out with supplies weighing in at 10% of his own body-weight on his back (no tents — just a tarp and a groundpad!). This lightness makes moving and scrambling through the high country much easier, including for kids.

He counsels buddying up, bringing another family or several families, so you — and your kids — have some playmates when you make camp. He says that even the most screen-loving kids will, if left to their own in the wild country — start to make up games, take themselves on explorations, and deepen that connection.

Stan thinks that connection can create hope, by which he means resolve. As he depicts in his 2020 novel Ministry for the Future, there are paths through the climate emergency: difficult and fraught ones, but there to be sure. Those of us in wealthy places will be the last ones swept up by the worst crises and we have a moral duty to use that extra time to fight for a sustainable future.

As he says, “Whatever can be done must be done — and the sooner the better.”

Robinson’s own life was transformed by wilderness. He describes his boyhood in “a white bread, scrubbed-of-all-traces-of-personality town” in Orange County, where swimming 20 yards out into the ocean transformed his life into adventure, as “Mother Nature tried to kill me.” Years later, as an undergrad, he took LSD with a couple friends and hiked into the Sierras “and never came down.”

He counsels parents to bring their kids on these hiking campouts, not car camping (“the worst of both worlds,” where you do what you did at home, but badly, “in a little tenement of people in other cars nearby”). Bring your kids to the mountains for four days, so they end it thinking, “Damn, I could have used more.”

Being outside is a big part of Stan’s approach to life. He told me that for 16 years, he’s worked under a tarp in his backyard, rain or shine: “There’s a lot of people who know it’s fun to be outdoors because they’re carpenters and they’re outdoors all the time, and they like it. Farmers too. But writers, not so much.”

He’s right. A couple years ago, we hung a hammock under the eaves of our house in Burbank and I have barely left it since. I have a shade umbrella and a power cable, and mosquito spray for the bug-months. My Zoom colleagues love it, but they’ve insisted that I stop rocking on calls, because they get seasick.”

Stan quotes Leopold: “What’s good is what’s good for the land.’ It’s a deep moral orientation — like a compass north…It becomes a rubric you can follow all over the place.”

If you’d like to read my interview with Stan, it’s here:

https://www.fatherly.com/entertainment/kim-stanley-robinson-cory-doctorow-climate-crisis

and my review of The High Sierra is here:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/25/the-wild-places/#sierra-people

Image: Gage Skidmore https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kim_Stanley_Robinson_(37361170295).jpg

CC BY-SA 2.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

[Image ID: A photo of Kim Stanley Robinson at a conference, speaking into a microphone.]

[swanlake1998]

Article: Moving Over: A Powerhouse of Black Dance Is Retiring (Mostly)

Date: September 2, 2021

By: Charmaine Patricia Warren

Joan Myers Brown, the founder of Philadanco, is stepping back if not quite away from her duties. She still goes to the office every day.

Rushing to our Zoom interview from an in-person audition at the Philadanco studios, Joan Myers Brown opened the conversation by making me laugh. She asked for a reminder of what we were doing and then said, “What an honor, you want to talk about me — only thing I usually talk about is Philadanco.”

Myers Brown is the keeper of all things Black dance, and Philadanco (or, the Philadelphia Dance Company) is the troupe she founded in 1970. Now, after more than 50 years, she’s “moving over,” as she calls it, stepping back but not quite stepping away from the daily work of running the company.

At 89 (she turns 90 on Christmas Day), she is full of energy, and her memory is impeccable. Given the floor, she will share her love of dance, especially Black dance, for which she has been a champion and an institution builder.

True to her Philadelphia roots, in 1960 she founded the Philadelphia School of Dance Arts, for African American children; then Philadanco in 1970; in 1988, the International Conference of Black Dance Companies; and then in 1991, the International Association of Blacks in Dance (I.A.B.D.), which supports the Black dance community through gatherings, presentations, education and career guidance.

Of course, none of this existed when Myers Brown started studying ballet at 7 with Essie Marie Dorsey, whose school catered to Black children. (Dorsey, who passed for Spanish, had studied ballet with whites.) At 17, in the segregated 1940s, Myers Brown got the bug to become a ballerina from a white teacher, Virginia Lingenfelder, and was the first and only Black student in Lingenfelder’s ballet club.

Later, she studied at the Ballet Guild, where she was again the only Black student, and was spotted there by the British choreographer Antony Tudor, who invited her to take his class. “He was coming from England, so he didn’t have that American prejudice stuff,” Myers Brown said. “He taught me like I was the same as the others and not like an intruder.”

She never became a professional ballerina. “Other than Janet Collins, Blacks were not hired at that time,” she said, referring to the first African American prima ballerina with the Metropolitan Opera. But because of Tudor, Myers Brown performed in a community production of Michel Fokine’s “Les Sylphides” with the Ballet Guild and the Philadelphia Orchestra. At 19, Tudor encouraged her to move to New York; instead, she commuted to study with the dancer and anthropologist Katherine Dunham. “I would’ve been afraid to go to New York and live alone,” Myers Brown said.

She became a successful revue dancer and seized every opportunity to take class on her travels. “I read every book on ballet and dance, and then I chose to teach because I didn’t get the opportunities I wanted,” she said. “That’s when I started my school and tried to teach what I remembered.”

The Black dance community reveres her, and the world has been noticing. She was the subject of a 2011 book, “Joan Myers Brown and the Audacious Hope of the Black Ballerina,” by Brenda Dixon Gottschild. And in 2012, President Obama presented her with the National Medal of the Arts.

I met Myers Brown, or Aunt Joan as she is known to those close to her, when we were both instructors at Howard University in the early 1990s. Like me, those who’ve walked alongside her know that she is a powerful force, a leader who has set the tone for Black dance organizations to follow. And though Myers Brown is stepping back from her role at Philadanco, make no mistake: She still goes to the office, and is very involved.

When talking to Myers Brown, you bring your best because her presence demands it. She is always dressed to the nines, but her elegance is balanced by her lack of pretension and her quick, sometimes sharp, tongue.

“You didn’t ask me any questions,” she said near the end of our talk. I did, but they flowed organically because Aunt Joan made it so easy. 

Below are edited excerpts from our conversation.

Charmaine Patricia Warren: So, what made you decide it was time to step away?

Joan Myers Brown: Guess, just guess! I’ll be 90 years old. I have four dance companies, two dance schools and six grandkids. I’ve been working 15-hour days for 50 years, plus my school will be 60. I’ve given enough of my life to this, but I don’t own it.

Charmaine Patricia Warren: What do you mean you don’t own it?

Joan Myers Brown: Founder’s syndrome. After a while, the founder don’t mean anything because the company and organization have outgrown them.

Charmaine Patricia Warren: How are you feeling about moving over, as you call it?

Joan Myers Brown: I’ve settled on moving over, and I appointed Kim Bears-Bailey as artistic director. Now I have to let her know it’s OK to do what she thinks and let her make mistakes. But I need a managing director, someone who is committed to moving something other than their own aesthetic forward.

Charmaine Patricia Warren: Kim was first at Philadanco, in 1981, as a dancer. Did she make an impression on you back then?

Joan Myers Brown: She did. She was one of those girls that I don’t think ballet companies would have liked. You know how they do us when we are Black and we just don’t look the part. She wanted it, and was willing to put forth the work, and I said, “Why don’t you audition for Ailey?” She said, “Everything I need is here.”

Charmaine Patricia Warren: Was there a search for an artistic director?

Joan Myers Brown: Not artistic, managing. I’ve had three white girls come into my organization with all the qualifications, but there was a sensitivity chip about Blackness missing. They have to think differently about how they treat Black people and know what we need. When I was looking for a development director, I hired a company of three ladies.

Charmaine Patricia Warren: Are they Black?

Joan Myers Brown: No. White. I had to school them.

Charmaine Patricia Warren: Does Kim run the school also?

Joan Myers Brown: Well, the school is not part of the company. The first 10 years the company was housed in the school, but when we purchased the building, we reversed the roles. The school pays rent to the company. I kept the school for profit so I would be guaranteed an income as a single parent.

You know, the String Theory School wants to build a new location, a charter school, and call it the Joan Myers Brown School of the Arts.

Charmaine Patricia Warren: Wait, they’re naming a school after you?

Joan Myers Brown: Yes, and they want me to develop a curriculum, so I put Ali [Willingham, artistic director of Danco3] there because he teaches the way I like people to teach — know the craft, break down the movement, demand growth and not show off. Our youth are caught up in getting the applause and not learning the craft, so when I find the ones that really want to learn, they have someplace for classes and performing opportunities.

Charmaine Patricia Warren: The Black Lives Matter movement isn’t new to you, is it?

Joan Myers Brown: I experienced that in 1962, 1988 and 1995. Every time white folks in charge throw money out there and say, “Y’all got to help Black people,” they help us, but when the money’s gone, they’re gone. Have you noticed how every ad in Dance Magazine has a Black person? It’s like they are saying, “Look, I got one!”

Charmaine Patricia Warren: Did you envision I.A.B.D. conferences as a home base for the Black dance community?

Joan Myers Brown: You know, the first few conferences we were a mess, but we were happy to be together. Cleo [Parker Robinson] is from Denver; Jeraldyne [Blunden] was Dayton; Lula [Washington], Los Angeles; and Ann [Williams], from Dallas. And each time we learned something about our own organizations, about others doing the same thing, and how we can help each other. Mikki Shepard pulled us together, and people said we set the plate for DanceUSA. I was on the board of DanceUSA then. I said, “I got to get away from here and start my own thing because this ain’t helping Black people at all.” 

The younger members want to ignore the things we learned, and their opinions are valid, but I say experience teaches you something. I.A.B.D. was a gathering to bring us together and share stuff, now it’s a full-fledged service organization.

Charmaine Patricia Warren: Do you miss the early gatherings?

Joan Myers Brown: It wasn’t like, “Girl, you got to come,” but more like, “let’s be together.” And when Jeraldyne died, we were a mess. Debbie [Blunden-Diggs] is stepping up to the plate now.

Charmaine Patricia Warren: The Philadanco family is huge, isn’t it?

Joan Myers Brown: We have a saying: You “gon” — without the “e” — but you’ll be back. A girl from my summer program told her mom, “I want to go back to Philadelphia because they give the training I need.” And her mother said, “I used to be in Philadanco 25 years ago, I’m going back with you.” She moved back, and I put her in charge of my minis.

I’ll give you another example: My first company was football players. I had no big boys in the school, saw them playing at my old high school and asked them to be in a show. They were more interested in the girls at first and refused to wear tights. I couldn’t pay them, but the Negro Trade Union Leadership Council was paying Black boys to learn trades. I told them to go in the morning, learn the trade, get that check, and then come for class at night, and they caught the bug. One of the boys owns a company and does my renovations now.

Everybody can’t teach or choreograph; I encourage all of my dancers to have a second career so that when you stop dancing you can do something else.

Charmaine Patricia Warren: What do you wish for?

Joan Myers Brown: Well, I’m wishing that people would understand that I need to shore up this organization. So, if I drop dead, the organization won’t be saying, “Aunt Joan ain’t here, what are we going to do?” I want them to say, “Do this, and take care of that.”

Charmaine Patricia Warren: You always have a Plan B, so what is it?

Joan Myers Brown: I like living alone. I like being single. I had three husbands, I’m fine. My Plan B is to do nothing, but I realized that people pay me to talk so I might do some more of that.

Charmaine Patricia Warren: Did I forget anything?

Joan Myers Brown: No. Well, yes, I do what I do because it needs to be done. And I believe in helping people that need help, and if they don’t pay back, it’s OK. The last thing I can say is that being Black in America is being Black in America, and it ain’t easy.

[mrmrswales]

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have sent their staff to work for the Government in the middle of the pandemic. The royal staff exodus was not publicised and the incredible gesture was only revealed by a royal expert this week. This comes as Kate and William continued to work to find ways to bring the country together during lockdown.

Viewers have noticed the incredible "raw and intimate" interviews that the royal couple have been giving in recent weeks.

ITV's Chris Ship noted: "Some of William and Kate's staff have actually gone to work for the Government at the moment.

"They are helping with the coronavirus crisis because there is a lot of work going on in Government.

"So they are actually a few members of staff down at the moment."

Lizzie Robinson echoed this, adding: "They are. The fact we are not going out and about and doing the things we would normally do for royal engagements, things are obviously very different.

"They want to be in step with what is happening and reacting to it."

This follows the news that Kate and William are carrying out their media appearances "on their own".

According to The HeirPod, both the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have managed without their royal press officers during lockdown.

This has prompted a new approach to royal engagements, showing a more "raw side" to the couple.

Maggie Rulli told the podcast that the video calls have allowed Kate and Prince William to have more intimate moments with members of the public as royal officials have not been involved.

Podcast host and royal insider Omid Scobie said: "You have been on royal engagements, you know how orchestrated these events are."

He added: "So there is something really refreshing about the organic nature of these Zoom calls. They don't seem to run to an exact time frame.

"Sometimes royal engagements are planned down to the very second but Kate's call with the midwives and the new mums ran on as long as it needed to."

[wearejapanese]

A new online historical exhibition hosted by J-Sei aims to shake up the notion of who the Issei were by exploring queer Japanese Americans prior to 1945.

Stan Yogi and Amy Sueyoshi, co-curators of the exhibit, discussed their efforts in an exhibit opening hosted via Zoom by J-Sei, a multi-generational Japanese American organization based in Emeryville, Calif.

Yogi, a co-chair of Los Angeles-based Okaeri: A Nikkei LGBTQ Gathering, said he conceived the idea in 2018, in hopes of creating an exhibit for Okaeri to host in 2020. With no formal funding, however, he was unable to hold the exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum, where the conference would have been held. A year later, Yogi’s long-time acquittance Jill Shiraki, program director at J-Sei, informed him of a potential California Humanities grant and an opportunity to work on a smaller and more focused project at the Northern California venue.

The gay Sansei curator added that he had an “emotional and almost kind of spiritual” motivation to organize the project.

“About four years ago, Okaeri organized a potluck for gay men over 40 who identify as Japanese Americans, and I participated in that. And we were lamenting that most of us didn’t know other gay men who are Japanese American, but we also lamented that we never knew any Nisei, let alone Issei, who identified as gay or lesbian, or queer in today’s language,” Yogi said.

Research from several scholars on Japanese American history and literature contributed to the exhibit. Yogi first tapped Sueyoshi, San Francisco State University’s dean of the College of Ethnic Studies, to co-curate the exhibit. Together, they compiled research from Sueyoshi’s own work, as well as that of Tina Takemoto, Andrew Leong, and Greg Robinson to find instances of Japanese Americans who might have been considered queer in their time.

The coronavirus pandemic canceled Yogi and Sueyoshi’s plans to hold the physical exhibit in Emeryvillle, causing the organizers to move to an online format last June.

The five-section exhibit is organized in a mix of chronological order and themes, outlining early examples of gender non-conformity and homo-social relationships among early Japanese immigrants to changing attitudes against same-sex sexuality in the 20th century, and what is known of gay inmates during the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.

“One of the arguments we make is that, in fact, same-sex sexuality, as well as what they call gender impersonation back then, was quite prevalent and also accepted to some degree in the Japanese immigrant community,” Sueyoshi said. “It’s not to say that same-sex sexuality and gender impersonation were embraced and totally lauded — that’s not what we’re seeing necessarily — but it was actually common in the Japanese American press and it wasn’t necessarily written about pejoratively.”

Yogi said homophobia grew more prevalent as Issei were encouraged to assimilate into American society by settling down in heterosexual relationships and create families.

“So there was like this conscious shift in the community’s attitudes, so that was both enlightening to me, and — also, to be frank — a little angering,” he said.

Kei Matsuda, a J-Sei board member, expressed his excitement over the exhibit.

“Growing up in Japan in the 1960s and 70s, it was not easy for me to find my place in the society as a gay person. I looked and largely failed to find historical figures that I could uphold as my role models,” he said. “Times have changed. I’m happy that today’s young LGBTQ persons have access to an exhibit like this, and perhaps feel less isolated and less unsure of their self worth.”

Seen and Unseen will be available online through February 2021 at https://seenandunseen.net. For more information on J-Sei, including related programs to the exhibit, visit https://j-sei.org.

In addition to the virtual exhibit, J-Sei will host a series of free online programs via Zoom. Amy Sueyoshi will present “Queer Compulsions: Love, Sex and Scandal in Turn of the Century Japanese America” Nov. 8 at 4 p.m. Andrew Leong, assistant professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley, will present “We Were Here and Queer Before the Issei” Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. Queer filmmaker Tina Takemoto will speak on her films on queer Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II in “Queer Cinematic Visions of Nikkei History” Dec. 1.

[firesfelt]

hiya ! ya girl pace is back with another of her questionable creations. i should be around to get writing & reply to messages today as things are looking nice and quiet for me today, but i just wanna get some info up on my gals before i get goin’ ! so without any further ado, here’s gwennie !

( antonia thomas, 28, cis woman, she/her ) GWENDOLINE JEFFERSON was seen listening to LET THE RAIN BY SARA BAREILLES on their way to MIDWIFE. GWEN is known to be NURTURING & STUBBORN.

➜ born and raised in huntsville, gwen’s never been able to call anywhere else home -- and if you ask her, she never will. whether she wants to see the great, big world is a different question, but she proudly claims herself to be a realist. she just doesn’t think seeing greater things is an option for her. 

➜ the first few years of gwen’s life were full of change ( and a lot of the time, sadness ) as her mother sadly passed away a few days after giving birth to her, leaving gwen’s father, michael, alone to raise gwen and her two older brothers without any warning. the following four years were filled with michael trying his damn best ( and succeeding for the most part ) but gwen’s life took another tragic turn when her father, too, passed away after being involved in a car accident. gwen and her two brothers were then taken in by their aunt and uncle, who went on to raise them. 

➜ in terms of demeanour, and the overall vibe she gives off, i’m very much thinking of jill from it’s a sin as a reference ? nurturing, kind, and that friend who looks after everybody ---- whether it’s good for her or not. but she’s far more stubborn and no-nonsense, which comes in handy at work. 

➜ gwen’s always been a caring soul, and wanted to be a nurse from as long as she could remember. however, the more she looked into it, and the more she thought on it, she knows that there was no good reason her mother should’ve passed away when she did, and gwen wanted to make a difference. she wanted women and their babies to be safer than she and her own mother were, to look after them and make them feel secure at the scariest moment of their lives. 

➜ as i said, she’s very caring, and has a great bedside manner, but when it comes down to it, she can really put her foot down and give the tough love that is sometimes needed. she takes zero shit. 

➜ in her personal life, she’s always chasing contentedness. with a job like her’s, it can be hard to focus on much else, so it becomes very easy for her to fake a grin and pull up a mask when needed --- which, sadly, is often. there’s always something going wrong in her life, whether it’s a broken boiler or being shat on by a bird before work, and it makes her day-to-day a little chaotic. the problem is, she’ll never admit defeat. she’ll never ask for help, never let her guard down, never agree that maybe she needs a break, or a lie down, or to let someone cook her dinner for once, instead of depending on whatever’s quick and available after a long shift. 

➜ i feel like she’s always having to rearrange things with friends, and her time management is pretty poor, making her quite difficult to catch up with. i think that’s an interesting point of conflict, y’know ? gwen constantly rearranging things, flaking on plans, forgetting to meet with someone, all that stuff ? it makes romance hard, of course, and i feel like that’d be a good lil’ plot for gwen ? both of them trying really hard to make something work, as they’re really into eachother, but working wild shifts and being so busy/unorganised making it really hard ? maybe even something that does,,,, sort of never really work out ? also might keep her brothers vague other than what i already have in mind and submit wcs for ‘em ? OOH, and a roommate would be good for her !! 

➜ speaking of her brothers, they’re all very close. the two of them are closer to eachother than they are to her, but she’s always pinned that on ‘brothers having a stronger bond than brothers and sisters’ and the fact they’re quite close in age, and gwen’s a few years behind. while their upbringing could’ve driven them apart, it only brought them closer together. their aunt and uncle went on to have three children of their own a few years after welcoming gwen and co. into their home, so the house was always busy, and there was always someone around to chat to. her aunt and uncle remain an important part of her life, too, and she’s very grateful for them. when she can ( which isn’t as often as any of them would like, nor as often as she plans to ) she still goes over on sundays for family dinner. 

➜ she’s never been a woman of religion, but she has a lot of faith in things like healing crystals, and relies a lot on her spirituality for comfort. for a medial woman, too, she’s not opposed to more holistic methods of healing, either; she just accepts that different things work for different people.

➜ again, i have such bad timing, as i’m very aware i’ve got a work zoom thing soon and am on a time limit as a type this lmao, but i really want to get it up --- it might end up being a bit vaguer than emika’s intro ( but tbh, i haven’t read that since posting it so it could entirely be nonsense ) 

➜ fun fact: when i was brainstorming gwen, her fc was actually nicolette robinson. but nic’s resources are pretty limited ( i should know, i made them ! ) and i’m,,, lazy and busy and definitely plan on making gifs of her in more things but Not Right Now, so went with my sweet gal antonia, who i also love ! 

➜ for the future, gwen just wants to feel sort of,,, free ? she’s a bit too tied up and burdened at the moment, and probably has some stuff to work through. i’d love for someone to open her eyes to all the possibilities of life, and that her lil goals are achievable and it’s not a bad thing to want,,, more ? she’s not like emika in that she can switch off from work when she’s not in it, and doesn’t work any more than she needs to ( well, maybe she’ll extend her shift sometimes if a lady’s thiiiiiis close to having her baby as gwen’s supposed to clock off and leave her, but all the gals on the ward do that ) but because of the shift work, it really turns her life upside down and sometimes she needs encouragement that there is so much MORE outside of the hospital. 

➜ i’ll be on discord in a bit to plot and chat, so if you wanna plot with gwennie or anything, i’m happy for y’all to message me ! and i’ll get to my other messages then too !! 

[nathan-livingston-hnd1c]

Environmental Portrait Evaluation

9th December 2020

What was the project theme and what did you think of it?

The theme for our second brief for folio one was Environmental Portarit and i was looking forward to start working on the project because i already had a clear idea about who i wanted to shoot and the environment in which he often surrounds himself in. 

I chose to shoot my stepdad in his newly build Motorbike Shed working on maintaining his black coloured Triumph Streetfighter Motorcycle, I wanted to include close ups of him working on the bike along with a portrait of my stepdad within the shed. 

The environment itself also has a strong source of artifical lighting which i tought would be ideal for my final images.

What part of the project did you enjoy the most/found most interesting? (making the photographs, Optimising images? Printing?)

What i enjoyed the most was the Shooting process with my stepdad in the shed, i originally planned to shoot him working on his motorbike but he plans to remove the alloy wheels from his Ford Fiesta and spray paint them so i made alternitaves to shoot the spray paint process step by step. 

What new techniques have you experienced?

throughout the project i experienced new ways of composing my shots within my chosen environment. 

i also experiemented with different ways of optimising my final photographs using both Adobe Lightroom and Bridge.

I was also introduced to Flipsnack which is a free editorial site used to create layouts for brocures, catalogs and magazines, this is what was used to create the Zine layout of our final four images.

What technique would you like to develop further?

I have noticed that other students have chosen to present their four final images onto an A3 or A4 canvas so in i would like to develop my techniques in placing my images onto a canvas as part of my image presentation and in preperation for my final print outs.

I created canvas layouts quite a lot for NQ folio 1 last year but due to the Covid 19 situation and our first national lockdown took place back in march this year i was unable to print anything so i have became a bit rusty on the process of making one.

What photographers did you reaserch throughout the project?

As part of my reaserch on historical photographers i looked at Oscar Mazorallis photographs of Glasgow and the people who worked within the heavy industry of the City during the 20th Century. 

I also discovered a new historical documentary photographer called Margaret Bourne White she was an american photographer who became known as the first to depict the sovet industry during the union’s five year plan. 

The work that i was particularly drawn to was Margret’s 1950s portraits of Black miners within the Robinson deep Gold Mine in south africa. 

For my contempoary reaserch i looked at industrial based photography and automotive photography on pintrest but i could not find the names of any photgraphers who shot the images that i was inspired by. 

How have they influenced your photographs?

I feel like a lot of the stuff i looked at on pintrest as part of my contempoary reasech has influenced my final images the most in terms of the enviroment itself. 

I also feel that the subjects that were in the photographs i looked at for my reaserch are also very similar to the person i chose to shoot for my final environmental images which was my Stepdad, they all work within very industrial based environments. 

My stepdad is an experienced lorry driver of large storage containers so he operates heavy machines on a daily bases. 

What do you feel is the most sucessful part of your project and why?

The most sucsessful part was the shoot itself i had to wait quite a bit before i could get round to making my final images due to my stepdad working full time.

i felt that the shoot was very structured in terms of my idea and the process itself, i shot a step by step process of spray painting an alloy wheel with acrylic spray paint. 

I photographed my stepdad cleaning and sanding down the unimproved alloy wheel and then applying up to three coating of silver acrylic spary paint. 

Because the spray paint had a strong odor the shoot took quite a while to complete because myself and my stepdad had to leave the shed everytime he applied another coat of paint onto the wheel rim.

Overall i think that the shoot was very sucsessful.

Did you encounter any problems in your project?

while i was carriying out the risk assesment and the location i encountered a lot of risks within my chosen environment, there was a lack of space for my to set up my photography equipment for the day of shooting so i came to a decision that i may have to remove alot of the stuff from the shed. However on the day of the shoot the motorbike that i originally planned to shoot my stepdad working on was moved to the back of the shed to make room for the wheel to be painted. 

I was having trouble deciding which lens to use shoot. I originally borrowed a set of 55 - 250mm zoom lens from the college but realised that if i went ahead with the shoot using this set of lens then the shots would be far too tight into the subject and i would have to shoot from outside in order to get more of the environment in frame.

I swapped the 55 - 250mm lens for a set of Sigma 17 - 50mm lens which turned out to be a much better choice of lens for the final shoot.

How did you learn from them and how did you effect your final images?

Using the Sigma lens for my final shots made a huge difference in how much i was able to get in frame. 

I was able to shoot my subject in full length and create a much greater sense of the environment itself. 

What would you do differently given the chance to complete the project again?

A couple of days after my final shoot for the brief i was given feedback by my tutor and he suggested that it may have been worth including shots of my stepdad working with in the shed but shot form the outside showing the exterior of the shed so that there is a more of a sense of the Environment.

I think would also borrow a camera from the college as well as a set of lens, i currently own a Canon EOS 30D semi professional camera and i find that when i take images using this type of camera it does not give you the best image quality so i would consider borrowing a newer camera such as an EOS 6D.

Discuss any technical issues with your final images? (focus, sharpness, detail, exposure, highlight/shadow)

Due to the lighting in the environment i had to constantly adjust my ISO settings which resulted in a series of noisy images.

Some of my images where my stepdad is seen applying the paint ended up being out of focus. 

Going Deeper; if you were asked to complete a project using this technique what would you do? What new ideas would you have? This may be explained as a visual, a drawing, sketch, photograph ... you decide how you present this section

I would like to shoot someone within an industrial based working Environment it would be a family member who runs a soft furnishings factory in the Parkhead district of Glasgow i already know a lot about the factory and its surroundings because i used to work in it during my school holidays. 

[leviathangourmet]

Last week the Trump administration announced that it would make efforts to ensure Critical Race Theory is not used in diversity programs in the federal government. This came after reports emerged of “training sessions” in which white government employees were basically told they were inherently racist and made to confess and apologize for their privilege. Such sessions have also become popular in the corporate world and in our schools; they are operated by very successful companies trading on white guilt.

One thing that is amazing about Critical Race Theory is that it has absolutely no basis in science. There is no data anywhere to suggest that it has ever made anyone less racist, or that it has ever reduced incidents of racism. Rather it is all based on feelings, lived truth, and not so subtle calls for racial reparations, if not flat out revenge. So how has Critical Race Theory come to dominate corporate and governmental anti-racism efforts?

Prior to the emergence of Critical Race Theory in the late 1980s, our culture labored under the notion that the problems of racism were getting better, and fast. After all, if you were 50 years old in 1980, you had been born while people who were slaves still lived, been an adult during segregation, seen the Civil Rights movement and landed in a place that seemed vastly more equal than any of that. Few if any people in the ’80s would have said racism didn’t exist, but the progress was palpable and undeniable.

In 1986, “The Cosby Show” was the most popular show on television, but more than that, the Huxstables, the family at the core of the show, were the absolute model of a successful American family. They were a black, two-professional-parent household living comfortably in a middle class, multicultural Brooklyn neighborhood in which everyone seemed to get along. If this black family being a lodestar American family didn’t signal a shift away from racism then what would?

Just three years later in 1989 another smash hit would break through in American entertainment. Film director Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing” was set in the same multicultural Brooklyn as “The Cosby Show,” but now it was a simmering cauldron of racial tension lying just beneath the surface. The movie introduced us to another key element of Critical Race Theory, “the microaggression.” After all, the “racist act” that sets the plot in motion towards its final moments of riots and police killing a black man was that Sal’s Pizza didn’t have any pictures of black entertainers on the wall, only Italians.

In a seminal scene, we see close up after close up of Brooklynites of various races hurling racial epithets. The message is clear; we were still essentially a racist society. Yes, we had learned to be more polite, less overt. We had gone from Archie Bunker feeling comfortable being openly racist in the 1970s to such open sentiments being a fireable offense in the sense of society. Cases like Jimmy the Greek, the CBS football analyst, and baseball executive Branch Rickey saw powerful men cancelled, though we did not have that term yet. In regard to Rickey, it was especially remarkable given that he had been the Brooklyn Dodger executive who brought Jackie Robinson to the bigs, integrating America’s national pastime.

It took several decades for Critical Race Theory, which even has roots dating back from the 1960s, to become the dominant mode of talking and thinking about racism in the American academy and media. It began in the academy, and by the late 1990s had moved into the nonprofit art world, where as a theater artist and producer I saw its grip on discourse become firmer year after year. By the 2010s it had moved to social media where memes about privilege abounded and Critical Race Theory bounded into the mainstream mostly on the back of college educated white progressives who emerged as by far the most progressive cohort of Americans, eclipsing any groups of color.

A big reason for the success of Critical Race Theory over the past few decades has been an unwillingness of Americans, especially non-black Americans to confront it. Most Americans roll their eyes at concepts like “white fragility” but it really wasn’t worth arguing about, much like the trans issue, people felt it didn’t really effect them so why not just leave it alone rather than the kicking the hornets’ nest of race in America. But also like with the trans issue, that attitude started to change once the issue impacted people’s lives, once their daughters were losing track meets to boys and toddlers were being indoctrinated.

So too with Critical Race Theory, as long as it was the provenance of willing white participants who found solace in confessing their racism, nobody cared. But when you show up at work and your job depends making such a confession, things get considerably less comfortable. When these unproven and un-provable ideas are being shoved down you kids’ throats and activist teachers want you to leave the room while they Zoom these ideas to your progeny, things have gone too far.

The Trump administration is right to tackle the cancer that is Critical Race Theory head on. It has the potential to tear the nation apart, if it hasn’t already. There is no more time to be silent in the face of this racist ideology. It must be stamped out of public life and we must return to the goal of a truly equal society for every American.

[lucindarobinsonvevo]

Neighbours Ep. 8894 (2022)

[jaysmitherz408]

Bay Area peaceful protests call for justice after the death of Army solider Vanessa Guillén.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) — Amid mounting national outcry over the death of Texas U.S. Army specialist Vanessa Guillén, peaceful protests around the Bay Area have taken place calling for justice after remains found near Fort Hood were positively identified as Guillén. 

From San Francisco to San Jose, Bay Area communities have come together to mourn the death of Guillén by building vigils and holding peaceful protests. 

In San Jose, one local mother brought together her Latino community in an effort to give a voice to spread awareness of sexual assault and show support for Guillén’s family as they mourn the death of their daughter.

A crowd of nearly 100 people gathered Sunday at the Santa Clara County Courthouse in downtown San Jose calling for justice in the death Guillén, who last seen April 22 outside her barracks in a parking lot inside Fort Hood.

According to family members, Guillén told them she was sexually harassed and was hesitant to approach her commanders fearing retaliation if she were to speak out.

“I have a daughter around her age and I would hope someone would do this for me too,” Julie Bravo said. 

In San Francisco, members of the community also took to the streets Sunday calling for justice.

On Monday, the second suspect in the death of Guillén, Cecily Anne Aguilar made her initial appearance in Federal Court via zoom meeting.

According to court documents, Aguilar allegedly helped 20-year-old U.S. Army specialists Aaron Robinson in disposing of Guillén’s body.

As authorities closed in on Robinson, he committed suicide after authorities say he admitted to Aguilar of killing a female soldier at Fort Hood by striking her in the head with a hammer.

Organizers from Sunday’s peaceful protest in San Jose tell KRON4 they wanted to make sure there was a voice of support for the Latino and military community as the investigation of Guillén’s death continues.

Guillén was a first-generation American citizen with Mexican roots.

“I wanted to make a voice for my community,” Bravo said.

“I just wanted everyone come out and support the cause. Brown lives matter too.”

[weimpossiblyangrycollectort-blog]

Paint by numbers india

We Got This Covered Motion pictures GAMING Television COMIC BOOKS Surveys Highlighted Recordings OfferRemark Protection Policy Cookie Policy HOME/MOVIES The Amityville Murders Review By Matt Donato 5 days back As frightfulness fans (may or may not) know, you can't respect the unfolding of another year without another direct-to-VOD Amityville repulsiveness story. Did you see the one around an Amityville dollhouse? Amityville theater? Amityville mantle clock (titled Amityville: It's About Time, I poo you not). Hungry establishment movie producers have long woven their individual strings into Long Island's spooky history, however Daniel Farrands' The Amityville Murders eyes an arrival to "factuality." Based on the genuine story of Ronnie DeFeo, this is the wrongdoing that begun everything. Express gratitude toward Paimon. An Amityville motion picture that is at last dependent on genuine occasions. Too terrible it's exhaustingly second rate compared to most ordinance or non-group Amityville flicks – a timid drag that takes from Paranormal Activity around each unfavorable corner.

Farrands transports watchers to the three-week time frame where Ronald "Butch" DeFeo Jr. (John Robinson) winds up controlled by voices (as indicated by tribute), dividers himself from the real world, and in the end kills his family on November thirteenth, 1974. Welcome to 112 Ocean Avenue before the Lutz faction moved in and rapidly pull out. Mother Louise (Diane Franklin), girl Dawn (Chelsea Ricketts), nobody's prepared for Butch's last demonstration. But you, the watcher.

Innumerable films have endure "dependent on obvious wrongdoing" structures with acquired – limited – endings. This isn't Farrands' ruin. Rather, accuse photograph impossible green screen digitization that erects the DeFeo's "High Hopes" property with an incomplete offensiveness. Accuse shadowy "apparitions" bombed by low-spending activity. Accuse more consideration paid to Louise's home-prepared Italian suppers ("You call this marinara!") than ghastliness groupings conversant in reactionary shouts. Accuse docudrama reenactment acting and cringey "Demonstrate some appreciation in my family unit" diversions. Did I notice how often the house exists as pixelation, not a genuine house?

New Poster For The Amityville Murders Teases A Haunting True Story 1 of 2 PrevNext Snap TO ZOOM How about we begin with awfulness components, on the grounds that Amityville: Toby's Revenge covers up not Farrands' repurposing of Blumhouse's most storied establishment. You'll remember every one of the hits. Paranormal Activity's "sleep time covers pull!" Paranormal Activity 2's "every one of the drawers pop open!" Paranormal Activity: Ghost Dimension's darkened blueprint! I've been wrenching out audits sufficiently long to comprehend and acknowledge how film will unavoidably acquire from existing titles, however The Amityville Murders hits upon zero singularity through structure or encircling or personalization of said "impacts." It's everything just obtained shocks spewed with Hallmark Channel stuffiness.

Ronnie Sr. salivates at the opportunity to show Butch's "ill bred" companions an exercise, or pummels his family without kindness, and even trusts in Butch that his child's originally fizzled gunfire endeavor is the proudest he's at any point been (no projectiles, trigger pulled). Louise can generally be discovered supper preparing or getting some information about polenta formulas – they even call the "sauce" – however these subtleties add nothing to Butch and Dawn's continuous paranormal "examination."

[jeffersonhairpie]

i request the joker doing something harmless but annoying and batman completely losing it over it and chasing him around like a couple of children. this is my kink

Yes I know it is your kink. It is a kink I would be hard pressed to shame you for. 

“What’s he doing?”

“I cannot see. Your elbow is in my sightline.”

“I told you that wasn’t a great vantage point.”

“It’s only failing is that you have invaded it. Move, Drake.”

“Ah, ah, ah! Codenames only in the field.”

Damian audibly grinds his teeth in frustration. “Very well, Red Robin.”

“Thank you Robin.” Tim replies, just as smugly as he is able. 

They’re stationed in the upper boughs of a tree overlooking the wide lawn in Robinson Park, looking down the lay of the land towards the greenhouses. For once, Poison Ivy isn’t the reason they’ve been called out here. 

Bruce is in his night uniform, a clearly marked silhouette against a grass backdrop that looks midnight blue in the perpetual twilight of the big city. A few feet away, The Joker is a riot of colour as always, obviously shaking with laughter even at this distance. 

Luckily, they don’t have to rely on sight alone. Tim is on binoculars and audio while Damian manages the infra red goggles and keeps the rest of the family abreast of developments. Not that any of them really know what’s going on here. Bruce had announced that he would be meeting the clown in a public place not much more than an hour ago and everyone has had to rush to get into position for when the evening inevitably goes south. Tim’s pretty sure that he and Damian were only chosen to run point because they were the closest to hand. 

“What are they saying?” Damian hisses. 

Tim strains his ears to try to make out what The Joker’s saying. The high end mics Bruce invests in are great for enclosed spaces but in the open they mostly just pick up wind. He shakes his head. “Not sure. Bruce keeps telling him to stop, but that could be in relation to anything.”

“Strange. The Joker has been very quiet recently. I cannot think father would have much cause to ask for him to cease activities.”

Tim doesn’t call the kid out on codenames again, instead zooming in as far as he can with his binoculars. 

Every time Bruce starts to talk, a slight popping noise cuts through the winds, followed by the desperate gasps of The Joker trying to catch his breath around his giggles. Tim looks around for the source of the popping noise, doubting that it’s the mic - all Bat equipment is too perfectly calibrated for that.  

It’s gotta be The Joker. It takes him a few tries to see it, by which point he’s completely stopped paying attention to what anyone’s saying, but eventually Tim matches the popping sound to a flick of the clown’s lips that precedes each one’s arrival through the comm system by a split second. 

“Oh my God.” Tim hisses. 

Damian looks up sharply. “What?”

“Have you ever seen Shrek Two?”

Damian blinks. “I fail to see how that’s relevant.”

“But have you seen it?”

“Of course.”

“You know that bit at the begining, in the coach ride, where Donkey keeps making that noise and Shrek wants to kick his head in.”

“Yes...”

“Guess what The Joker’s doing.”

Damian turns his attention back to the scene before them and his eyes go wide in alarm. Tim follows his line of sight and sees that Bruce has lost his last shred of patience and has started after The Joker in a very undignified footrace. 

A strangled cry of frustration bubbles through Tim’s earpiece, followed by a high shriek of laughter that you don’t need a mic to hear. He lets go of the binoculars slowly, so that they hang heavy around his neck and his hands are free to join his face in slack jawed disbelief. “How long must he have been at that to piss Batman off like that?”

“No idea.” Damian says, his voice thick with wonder. “But I think I know how to persuade father to get me a pet budgie.”

“Codenames!”

“Oh fuck you, Red Robin.”

[non-athletesunite]

Discussion 7: Chapters 7 & 9

Chapter seven struck a chord with me because as a little girl I watched every (and I mean every) baseball game with my uncle who has since passed away. It’s the only sport I love with all my heart because he loved it. Someone that we spoke about very often was Jack Robinson (or as my Tio would affectionately call him- “El Monstro Jackie... Jackie, the beast in other words.)  This chapter demonstrates the results that came with the racial integration in professional major league baseball. And while chapter 7 as a whole was my favorite chapter in this assignment my favorite section has to be the following short excerpt: “But this is not enough. It is up to every Negro to aid himself and his entire group. If it’s freedom from discrimination that we desire, then we should cast away all types of discrimination from our programs.” It’s my favorite because it felt like a turning point as I read it. It, in a sense, clicked the zoom-out button and allowed the reader to, yet again, realize that this book is about way more than sports. But rather, the heartbeat of this book is the strive for freedom and inclusivity of the African American players. 

And now for my personal reactions. I personally was very impressed and to an extent inspired by chapter 9. This is because in our society there is always a cause that the youth feel passionately about and we all shamelessly take the streets to protest for what we believe in. However, 1948 was a much different time period, especially for African Americans and other POC. The student-led protest to be allowed to play despite being denied due to having an African American on the team showed much more than just integration. It displayed that a team is a family and that family extends past color and race. As well as the fact that a person’s athletic ability is not limited by race or color. The best and most serotonin boosting part of this protest was that the students were not willing to compromise their African American teammate. they refused to play if he has to be taken out or benched.