#Sunday Herald Culture Awards

[brian-in-finance]

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David Eustace, from

The Prince Akatoki, London, 2023 / Photo: BJ Stewart / Brian’s Post 3 May 2023

And…

SWG3 Studio Warehouse, Glasgow, 13 July 2017 /from Brian’s Post 29 April 2021

Remember Forget Me Not? 🍸

[the-real-zhora-salome]

It’s an Oscar tradition: a serious political speech pierces the bubble of glamour and self-congratulation. Warring responses ensue. Some proclaim the speech an example of artists at their culture-shifting best; others an egotistical usurpation of an otherwise celebratory night. Then everyone moves on.

Yet I suspect that the impact of Jonathan Glazer’s time-stopping speech at last Sunday’s Academy Awards will be significantly more lasting, with its meaning and import analyzed for many years to come.

Glazer was accepting the award for best international film for The Zone of Interest, which is inspired by the real life of Rudolf Höss, commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The film follows Höss’s idyllic domestic life with his wife and children, which unfolds in a stately home and garden immediately adjacent to the concentration camp. Glazer has described his characters not as monsters but as “non-thinking, bourgeois, aspirational-careerist horrors”, people who manage to turn profound evil into white noise.

Before Sunday’s ceremony, Zone had already been heralded by several deities of the film world. Alfonso Cuarón, the Oscar-winning director of Roma, called it “probably the most important film of this century”. Steven Spielberg declared it “the best Holocaust movie I’ve witnessed since my own” – a reference to Schindler’s List, which swept the Oscars 30 years ago.

But while Schindler List’s triumph represented a moment of profound validation and unity for the mainstream Jewish community, Zone arrives at a very different juncture. Debates are raging about how the Nazi atrocities should be remembered: should the Holocaust be seen exclusively as a Jewish catastrophe, or something more universal, with greater recognition for all the groups targeted for extermination? Was the Holocaust a unique rupture in European history, or a homecoming of earlier colonial genocides, along with a return of the techniques, logics and bogus race theories they developed and deployed? Does “never again” mean never again to anyone, or never again to the Jews, a pledge for which Israel is imagined as a kind of untouchable guarantee?

These wars over universalism, proprietary trauma, exceptionalism and comparison are at the heart of South Africa’s landmark genocide case against Israel at the international court of justice, and they are also ripping through Jewish communities, congregations and families around the world. In one action-packed minute, and in our moment of stifling self-censorship, Glazer fearlessly took clear positions on each of these controversies.

“All our choices were made to reflect and confront us in the present – not to say, ‘Look what they did then’; rather, ‘Look what we do now,’” Glazer said, quickly dispatching with the notion that comparing present-day horrors to Nazi crimes is inherently minimizing or relativizing, and leaving no doubt that his explicit intention was to draw out continuities between the monstrous past and our monstrous present.

And he went further: “We stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people, whether the victims of 7 October in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza.” For Glazer, Israel does not get a pass, nor is it ethical to use intergenerational Jewish trauma from the Holocaust as justification or cover for atrocities committed by the Israeli state today.

Others have made these points before, of course, and many have paid dearly, particularly if they are Palestinian, Arab, or Muslim. Glazer, interestingly, dropped his rhetorical bombs protected by the identity-equivalent of a suit of armor, standing before the glittering crowd as a successful white Jewish man – flanked by two other successful white Jewish men – who had, together, just made a film about the Holocaust. And that phalanx of privilege still didn’t save him from the flood of smears and distortions that misrepresented his words to wrongly claim that he had repudiated his Jewishness, which only served to underline Glazer’s point about those who turn victimhood into a weapon.

Equally significant was what we might think of as the speech’s meta-context: what preceded it and immediately followed. Those who only watched clips online missed this part of the experience, and that’s too bad. Because as soon as Glazer wrapped up his speech – dedicating the award to Aleksandra Bystroń-Kołodziejczyk, a Polish woman who secretly fed Auschwitz prisoners and fought the Nazis as a member of the Polish underground army – out came actors Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. Without so much as a commercial break to allow us to emotionally recover, we were instantly jettisoned into a “Barbenheimer” bit, with Gosling telling Blunt that her film about the invention of a weapon of mass destruction had ridden Barbie’s pink coat tails to box-office success, and Blunt accusing Gosling of painting on his abs.

At first, I feared that this impossible juxtaposition would undercut Glazer’s intervention: how could the mournful and wrenching realities he had just invoked coexist with that kind of California high-school prom energy? Then it hit me: like the fuming defenders of Israel’s “right to defend itself”, the sparkly artifice that encased the speech was also helping to make his point.

“Genocide becomes ambient to their lives”: that is how Glazer has described the atmosphere he attempted to capture in his film, in which his characters attend to their daily dramas – sleepless kids, a hard-to-please mother, casual infidelities – in the shadow of smokestacks belching out human remains. It’s not that these people don’t know that an industrial-scale killing machine whirs just beyond their garden wall. They have simply learned to lead contented lives with ambient genocide.

It is this that feels most contemporary, most of this terrible moment, about Glazer’s staggering film. More than five months into the daily slaughter in Gaza, and with Israel brazenly ignoring the orders of the international court of justice, and western governments gently scolding Israel while shipping it more arms, genocide is becoming ambient once more – at least for those of us fortunate enough to live on the safe sides of the many walls that carve up our world. We face the risk of it grinding on, becoming the soundtrack of modern life. Not even the main event.

Glazer has repeatedly stressed that his film’s subject is not the Holocaust, with its well-known horrors and historical particularities, but something more enduring and pervasive: the human capacity to live with holocausts and other atrocities, to make peace with them, draw benefit from them.

When the film premiered last May, before Hamas’s 7 October attack and before Israel’s unending assault on Gaza, this was a thought experiment that could be contemplated with a degree of intellectual distance. The audience members at the Cannes film festival who gave The Zone of Interest a rapturous six-minute standing ovation likely felt safe toying with Glazer’s challenge. Perhaps some looked out at the azure Mediterranean and considered how they had themselves gotten comfortable with, even uninterested in, news of boats packed with desperate people being left to drown just down the coast. Or maybe they thought about the private jets they had taken to France, and the way flight emissions are entangled in the disappearance of food sources for impoverished people far away, or the extinction of species, or the potential disappearance of entire nations.

Glazer wanted his film to provoke these kinds of uneasy thoughts. He has said that he saw “the darkening world around us, and I had a feeling I had to do something about our similarities to the perpetrators rather than the victims.” He wanted to remind us that annihilation is never as far away as we might think.

But by the time Zone made it into theatres in December, Glazer’s subtle challenge for audiences to contemplate their inner Hösses cut a lot closer to the bone. Most artists try desperately to tap into the zeitgeist, but Zone, whose theatrical release has been muted given the initial response, may well have suffered from something rare in the history of cinema: a surplus of relevance, an oversupply of up-to-the-minuteness.

One of the film’s most memorable scenes comes when a package filled with clothing and lingerie stolen from the camp’s prisoners arrives at the Höss home. The commandant’s wife, Hedwig (played almost too convincingly by Sandra Hüller), decrees that everyone, including the servants, can choose one item. She keeps a fur coat for herself, even trying on the lipstick she finds in a pocket.

It is the intimacy of the entanglements with the dead that are so chilling. And I have no idea how anyone can watch that scene and not think of the Israeli soldiers who have filmed themselves rifling through the lingerie of Palestinians whose homes they are occupying in Gaza, or boasting of stealing shoes and jewelry for their fiances and girlfriends, or taking group selfies with Gaza’s rubble as the backdrop. (One such photo went viral after the writer Benjamin Kunkel added the caption “The Zone of Pinterest”.)

There are so many such echoes that, today, Glazer’s masterpiece feels more like a documentary than a metaphor. It’s almost as if, by filming Zone in the style of a reality show, with hidden cameras throughout the house and garden (Glazer has referred to it as “Big Brother in the Nazi House”), the movie anticipated the first live-streamed genocide, the version filmed by its perpetrators.

Zone offers an extreme portrait of a family whose placid and pretty life flows directly from the machinery devouring human life next door. This is most emphatically not a portrait of people in denial: they know what is happening on the other side of the wall, and even the kids play with scavenged human teeth. The concentration camp and the family home are not separate entities; they are conjoined. The wall of the family’s garden – creating an enclosed space for the children to play, and shade for the pool – is the same wall that, on the other side, encloses the camp.

Everyone I know who has seen the film can think of little but Gaza. To say this is not to claim a one-to-one equation or comparison with Auschwitz. No two genocides are identical: Gaza is not a factory deliberately designed for mass murder, nor are we close to the scale of the Nazi death toll. But the whole reason the postwar edifice of international humanitarian law was erected was so that we would have the tools to collectively identify patterns before history repeats at scale. And some of the patterns – the wall, the ghetto, the mass killing, the repeatedly stated eliminationist intent, the mass starvation, the pillaging, the joyful dehumanization, and the deliberate humiliation – are repeating.

So, too, are the ways that genocide becomes ambient, the way those of us a little further away from the walls can block the images, and tune out the cries, and just … carry on. That’s why the Academy made Glazer’s point for him when it hard-cut to Barbenheimer – itself a trivialization of mass slaughter – without missing a beat. Atrocity is once again becoming ambient. (One might see the entire Oscar spectacle as a kind of live-action extension of The Zone of Interest, a sort of Denialism on Ice.)

What do we do to interrupt the momentum of trivialization and normalization? That is the question so many of us are struggling with right now. My students ask me. I ask my friends and comrades. So many are offering their responses with relentless protests, civil disobedience, “uncommitted” votes, event interruptions, aid convoys to Gaza, fundraising for refugees, works of radical art. But it’s not enough.

And as genocide fades further into the background of our culture, some people grow too desperate for any of these efforts. Watching the Oscars on Sunday, where Glazer was alone among the parade of wealthy and powerful speakers across the podium to so much as mention Gaza, I remembered that exactly two weeks had passed since Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old member of the US air force, self-immolated outside the Israeli embassy in Washington.

I don’t want anyone else to deploy that horrifying protest tactic; there has already been far too much death. But we should spend some time sitting with the statement that Bushnell left, words I have come to view as a haunting, contemporary coda to Glazer’s film:

“Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow south? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.”

[blsm-m]

Are Karl Urban and Keith Urban related? These Hollywood stars have a lot more in common than just their last name. The obvious difference between the two is their careers in the glamorous city. Karl Urban is Film and TV roles Keith Urban is Award-winning Country Music Artist. But do the two Urbans share DNA? Let's take a closer look. Keith Urban attends the 2024 Met Gala celebrating 'Sleeping Beauty: Fashion's Reawakening' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 6, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Dia Dipaspil/Getty Images) Carl and Keith share more than just an urban name Carl, 52, and Keith, 56, happen to share the same hometown, on New Zealand's North Island. The Boys star is from the capital city of Wellington, located at the southern tip of the island, while Keith is from Whangarei, located in the far north of the island. The couple also have two children together, though they're not related. Keith, who married Nicole Kidman in 2006, has two daughters with the Australian actress, Sunday Rose, 15, and Faith, 13. Karl has two sons. From his marriage to Natalie WihongiHunter, 23, and Indiana, 18. Unfortunately, Carl and Natalie divorced in 2014 after 10 years of marriage. Despite all these commonalities, Carl and Keith are not actually related in any way. This may just be a series of coincidences for two famous people with the name "K." Two big differences between Carl and Keith If you're a fan of country singer Keith, you'll know that he's a well-known Australian star. He emigrated from New Zealand He was just two years old at the time. Another reason the two are not related is because Keith's real last name is spelled "Urbahn" differently. Keith has never spoken about why he changed the spelling of his name, but Some people speculate This was done to make the pronunciation easier to remember. Karl Urban attended the Netflix Family Summer and Los Angeles Premiere of the film The Sea Beast at the Autry Museum of the American West on July 9, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo: Fraser Harrison/Getty Images) Karl Urban is an only child Keith has a brother named Shane Urban, but Carl does not have any siblings. Karl's parents were German immigrants living in New Zealand, and his mother worked for a film rental company, which is what inspired him to become an actor. In interviews, he fondly recounted going to screenings as a child. "I was fascinated not only by these films but also by the culture of the crew and the way they interacted," he said. He told the New Zealand Herald in 2010. "I was hooked." Thankfully, everything turned out fine for him as it is now. 59 credits on IMDb page He also stars in the Amazon Prime original series "The Boys," whose fourth season premiered on June 13.

[jamojmoje-blog]

Sunday Herald - 1 Apr 2018

[contemplatingoutlander]

Caitriona Balfe at the Sunday Herald Culture Awards, 07.13.17

Cait looks pretty with bangs! (Or fringe @foldingstars295 😉)

[davidtennantontwitter]

Sunday Herald Culture Awards 2017 announced tonight: David Tennant nominated for Best TV Actor Award

https://davidtennantontwitter.blogspot.com/2017/07/sunday-herald-culture-awards-2017.html

[david-tennant-news]

David Tennant Among Nominees for Sunday Harald's Culture Awards

AWARDS: #DavidTennant Among Nominees for @heraldscotland's Culture Awards

The Sunday Harald announced the shortlist for its 2017 Culture Awards and David Tennant is among the big names.

This is the second year of “Scottish Oscars”, the Sunday Harald Culture Awards highlights the talent of artists and cultural events in Scotland. The awards will recognise the best of Scottish actors, artists, as well as culture.

David Tennant is nominated in Best Actor (Screen) TV…

[hellozxxy]

回顾一下淹没拍摄时期的詹

[dawncrutchfield]

Caitriona Balfe & Fred Macaulay at the Sunday Herald Culture Awards

[bbclesmis]

David Oyelowo says Les Miserables is a story for today

The real tragedy of Victor Hugo's 1862 post-French Revolution novel, Les Miserables, is that the story of injustice and unrest seems ever more relevant. In 2018, while filming was underway on the BBC's miniseries adaptation, British-American actor David Oyelowo (Spooks), who plays sadistic Inspector Javert opposite Dominic West as Jean Valjean and Lily Collins as Fantine Thibault, recalls that the streets of Paris erupted with Yellow Vests protests against economic inequity.

Now, with the six-part series due to air next month on the ABC (Saturday, July 4 at 8.30pm and currently available on iview), Oyelowo is confined to his Los Angeles home, and not just by the pandemic. When he spoke with The Sunday Age/The Sun Herald, curfews in response to the Black Lives Matter protests across America had been lowered to 5pm. Five miles from his house, he said, military tanks were rolling down the streets.

"I wish Les Miserables wasn't as timely as it is, but here we are, and that's exactly why I wanted to do this show," Oyelowo says. "If a period television show is just a chocolate-box piece of entertainment, I'm not interested. History is reflective of the now and Les Miserables, unfortunately, will never be irrelevant, considering how insistent we seem to be on subjugating people and marginalising them – economically, racially and along gender lines as well."

Although reluctant to call himself a method actor, Oyelowo declined to joke along on set with "prankster" West, and found the conditions in freezing rural Belgium where early scenes were shot helped with character immersion. He hopes viewers will gain a deeper understanding of Javert than the archetypal villain of the musical version.

"Javert's the antagonist, but he really believes, from a moral perspective, that he's doing the right thing. His job is to keep order. In his mind, he was doing something incredibly noble and heroic."

Oyelowo is "not so naive" as to have been surprised at controversy surrounding the decision to cast, for the first time, a black actor as in the role. His 2001 award-winning performance as King Henry VI with the Royal Shakespeare Company had also bothered pedants. He calls such reactions "selective outrage", and explains that what has been termed the "colour blind casting" of Javert isn't merely creative license.

"We have whitewashed history. There were black people, and not just subservient black and brown people, in France at that time. The Count of Monte Cristo is based on a black French general. There's a book called The Black Count. All people would have to do is read a little bit to realise that they've been sold a bill of goods in terms of how black and brown people participated in European life back then.

"I'm constantly trying to debunk revisionist history because partly how black and brown people have been subjugated is to tell lies about their history and their contribution to the great things that we as human beings have accomplished. If you buy into the narrative that black people, back in the day, were only slaves, you're able to buy into the notion that, as a white person, you're superior."

Interestingly, no one seemed much to mind that the French peasants in the miniseries speak Cockney and that iconic scenes play out on London streets.

"We did a far weirder thing than me playing Javert by transposing Paris onto London life. People think, ‘As long as I'm represented, as long as I'm satisfied'. Prejudice is born out of ignorance, but that surely is where we all celebrate and embrace education. So if a byproduct of me playing that role is people's ignorance being eroded then I'll take that as a side dish to entertaining them."

https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/david-oyelowo-says-les-miserables-is-a-story-for-today-20200603-p54z60.html

[brian-in-finance]

The Prince Akatoki, London, 2023 bjstewartphoto

SWG3 Studio Warehouse, Glasgow, 2017 from Brian’s 29 April 2021 post

Remember the earlier pics of Tait with David?

[ourdallasvideofestthings]

BART CHAT 1/8/19

Hi all Sorry this is a day late, I have been working on a unique film project this week that has been so wonderful but has taken all my time and energy, I will tell you all about this great project in another episode of Bart Chat. I want to talk to you about the Best of Fests starting this Thursday night where we have 22 film festivals in the North Texas area showing a program each. It will be amazing and wonderful but first I have to give you some bad news. The great cultural critic of the Dallas Morning news Chris Vognar was laid off yesterday. As we in the DFW area know Chris is a great writer, with a deep understanding about film, His insights are enlightening and thoughtful.  He taught for us at UT Arlington and did a great job. He is a mench and a friend, but on a larger level this is a sad day for the arts in our fair city, just as our film festivals get together and show us how much of a film city we are the Dallas Morning has exactly NO film critics, none. There was a time where there were 3, but those were different days. Look film (and television) are the art-forms that more people experience than any other.  In the plethora of award show is there anything that tops the Oscars? Films define our culture, they show us the best sides of us (Won’t You Be my Neighbor) and show us our worst fears, (any horror film)  Film critics help us with the consumer choices but also put these art works into perspective, help us think about what we are about to see and have seen.  To nurture art/film culture you need makers, exhibitors and critics each fueling each other. With Vognar’s departure we are losing that third legs, and this cannot be held up by freelancers from time to time. Back in the day when there was competition, having good arts converge was important. In my opinion, when since  morning news bought out the Dallas Times Herald, they have had a moral responsibility to serve the city, and this is one of the ways I think they can and should serve the city. The DMN is not the only institution that has not supported cinema coverage in a profound way, The Dallas Museum of Art is one of the few major city museums that does NOT have a full time film curator. Back to the Best of Fest When I thought about what we would show, I knew I had to show something from a Dallas Filmmaker and something that made a strong political point, so I went with The Big Buy, a doc about how Tom Delay used gerrymandering to change congress. While this was bad at the time it has paved the way for where we are now. This will be on Sunday night 6 pm at the Cinépolis (Victory Park, Dallas). Directors Mark Birnbaum and Jim Schermbeck will be there for a Q&A and we will have a panel discussion afterwards, we are also showing Mosca a short by Lizette Barrera.  Three stars cinema is showing The Last Laugh that we co presented a few years ago about comedy and the Holocaust. Back to Bad News This week we lost one our greatest filmmakers. Ken Harrison. Ken is probably most well knows for his version of Horton Foote's plays 1918 and on Valentine’s Day.  He also made some great shorts and documentaries including Jackalope that we showed in Frame of Mind and at the VideoFest.  Ken also directed some of the best episodes of the TV show Wishbone. He will be missed. Back to Best of Fests The opening night film Tejano will be at the Texas Theatre on Thursday, at 7 on Friday come meet us all at a red carpet at the Alamo in the Cedars at 5:30. I also recommend Bur Circle from Waco’s Chris Hanson, 1950: The Nationalist Uprising, and Steps Sat. night Abducted in Plain Sight and The Human Element both on Friday night So instead of telling you to go see other films go see Best of Fests, they are all winners! have a great week

Bart Weiss Artistic Director Dallas VideoFest

[nwbeerguide]

In a few days Victoria Beer Week returns, showcasing nearly 20 events.

image courtesy Victoria Beer Society and Victoria Beer Week

Press Release

Victoria Beer Week kicks off Friday, April 1st. The 8th annual festival celebrating Victoria’s craft beer culture returns after a two-year hiatus, featuring a mix of 18 events over 9 days, including some favourite events from past years, a full curriculum of Beer School classes, and some exciting new twists. The week opens with Lift Off! on Friday, April 1st — a special night showcasing 21 brand new beers — and finishes with Touchdown on April 9th, a new event that features music, games, brewery awards, and the final results of VBW’s inaugural Gnome Quest (details below). 

Both Lift Off! and Touchdown will take place at VBW’s new flagship location: the Powerhouse (2110 Store St). Other new events include Dubbel Down at the Victoria Public Market, an event that focuses on Belgian-style beers and inspired cuisine; Pint Sized Stories, a craft beer improv night by Paper Street Theatre and Wes Borg; and Barrels & Casks, a special event merging the worlds of cask conditioned and barrel-aged beers. 

Food and beer lovers can get their fill at Taco the Town; the Brewmasters Dinner, hosted by Driftwood Brewery and the Rock Bay Market; and Beer + Pizza night hosted by Herald Street Brew Works in partnership with Vagabond Pies. 

For folks looking to learn more about their favourite beverage, VBW offers a Beer School Program: 

● Homebrewing Workshop - Saturday, April 2, 11am - 5pm at the Moon Under Water ● Blind Justice: David vs Goliath - Sunday, April 3, 2:30pm - 4pm at Vessel Liquor’s classroom ● Intro to Brewing Ingredients - Tuesday, April 5, 5:30pm - 7:30pm at Île Sauvage Brewing ● Beer + Coffee - Wednesday, April 6, 5:30pm - 7pm at Discovery Coffee Roastery ● Virtual Beer & Cheese Pairing - Thursday, April 7, 7pm - 8:30pm via Zoom ● Hop-lessly Devoted - Thursday, April 7, 7:30pm - 9pm at Vancouver Island Brewing ● Greg Evans Memorial Walk - Saturday, April 9th, 11am & 2pm at Swans Brewpub 

What’s Gnome Quest?? 

New in 2022, Victoria Beer Week’s Gnome Quest is a fun, city-wide scavenger hunt that encourages folks to seek out gnome statues in locations throughout the city. Once you find a gnome, scan the QR code to add that gnome to your dashboard and collect points through VBW’s Gnome Quest app. At VBW events, check in at brewery tables to collect more points. Each time a player finds a gnome or checks in at a brewery, they will be entered to win a pair of VIP tickets to the finale event, Touchdown, where the player with the most points will be declared winner of VBW’s first Gnome Quest. Clues to gnome locations will be released daily on instagram @vicbeerweek starting on Monday, March 28th. 

#VBW2022 Schedule at a Glance * Prices below do not include GST and ticket service fees

1. Lift Off! 

The Powerhouse 

Friday, April 1st - 7:30pm | $40 

2. Beer School: Homebrewing Workshop Moon Under Water 

Saturday, April 2nd - 11am | $25 

3. Barrels & Casks 

Victoria Public Market 

Saturday, April 2nd - 7:30pm | $50 

4. Beer School: Blind Justice - David vs. Goliath Vessel Liquor Classroom 

Sunday, April 3rd - 2:30pm | $35 

5. Brewmasters Dinner 

Driftwood Brewery 

Sunday, April 3rd - 5:30pm | $75 

6. Beer + Pizza - SOLD OUT 

Herald Street Brew Works 

Monday, April 4 - 5:30pm & 8pm | $40 

7. Craft Beer Cocktail Competition LURE Restaurant + Bar 

Monday, April 4 - 5:30pm & 8:00pm | $40

8. Beer School: Intro to Brewing Ingredients Île Sauvage Brewing 

Tuesday, April 5 - 5:30pm | $25 

9. Taco the Town 

The Powerhouse 

Tuesday, April 5 - 6pm | $40 

10. Beer School: Beer + Coffee 

Discovery Coffee Roastery 

Wednesday, April 6 - 5:30pm | $20 

11. Pint Sized Stories 

Victoria Events Centre 

Wednesday, April 6 - 7pm | $45 

13. Beer School: Virtual Beer & Cheese Pairing 

Thursday, April 7 - 7pm | $60 

14. Pucker Up 

Garrick’s Head Pub & Churchill Pub 

Thursday, April 7 - 7:00pm | $30 

15. Beer School: Hop-lessly Devoted Vancouver Island Brewing 

Thursday, April 7 - 7:30pm | $20 

16. Ultimate Craft Beer Quiz 

Fernwood Inn 

Thursday, April 7 - 7:30pm | $15 

17. Dubbel Down 

Victoria Public Market 

Friday, April 8 - 7:30pm | $20 

18. Beer School: Greg Evans Memorial Walk

Swans Pub 

Saturday, April 9 - 11am & 2pm | $25 

19. Touchdown 

The Powerhouse 

Sat, April 9 - 5:30pm | GA $40, VIP $65 

Full schedule details are available at VictoriaBeerSociety.com

Tickets Available at: Victoriabeersociety.com 

Twitter: @VicBeerWeek • Instagram: @vicbeerweek • Facebook: @vicbeerweek • Hashtag: #VicBeerWeek

from Northwest Beer Guide - News - The Northwest Beer Guide https://bit.ly/3IEnm7R

[thenorthernblock]

The Northern Block X Nowhere Exhibition

The Northern Block were invited to attend the ‘Nowhere’ exhibition held at Custom Lane inEdinburgh. The exhibition was created by Blueroom Collection, who are Edinburgh based andspecials in graphic design, design education and their associated creative practises. The show featured popular type families by The Northern Block, including Typold, Stolzl Display, Loew and collaborative type family Ovink by Sofie Beier. It featured experimental visualcommunication in typography experiential design usingthese typefaces and were showcased ina range of media, including editorial work, digital prints and vinyl installations. We had Kateinterview Creative Director of Blueroom Collective, Chris Hughes to find out more:

What was the concept behind the ‘Nowhere’ exhibition?

All our work has a political angle. We felt the ‘Citizens of Nowhere’ ideology, and Brexit in general, was something that was worth exploring and commenting upon.

How did you first come across The Northern Block?

As a collective with a minimalist approach, we want our projects to have a certain kind of visual cohesion. So using fonts from a single foundry seemed like a good idea. I’d seen a nice project that used Hapna Mono, and Typold had just been released, and we picked up on these via social media. 

What was it about The Northern Block that made you to reach out to us?

We liked your modernist approach to type design, and your geographical location.

Why did you specifically choose the following typefaces; Typold, Stolzl Display, Scriber, Loew and Ovink?

We like geometric sans serifs, but were really bored with Avenir, Gotham and Montserrat, so Typold and Loew felt fresh.Stolzl Display was ideal for the vinyl cutting due to its great angles, and Ovink had some nice curves in the ends and a loose, soft feel. We were also looking for a font that could be broken up into separate pieces with an industrial feel, and still retain some legibility, and Scriber worked perfectly. We drew up a shortlist and those won out. Everyone in the group has different things they want to work with in terms of typefaces.These fonts felt robust.

All four of these typefaces are very different to the other, how do they fit the theme of the exhibition?

We have found that once you choose the font to fit the concept, the connection to the theme naturally emerges during the execution.

How did you incorporate these typefaces into the exhibition?

We each took a different typeface and developed those into the work, using the font’s best attributes to push the concept. Scriber’s stencil cuts were ideal for being broken up into discrete pieces, Typold’s Swiss attributes made it perfect for working exclusively in lowercase, and the softness in Ovink worked for the more minimal copy pieces.Stolzl was perfect for the vinyl lettering, and the M was our favourite glyph. Loew is just a great powerful design, great for single glyphs and editorial work. We used the space in Custom lane to assign work in each font a certain location.

(ps  FYI Scriber was used on '34.8%' by Rumana Sayed. 34.8% is the percentage of women in the UK who have attained boardroom level in the private sector, and Rumana wanted a way to show how the statistic reflected a broken aspect of the system).

The opening night had a brilliant turn out. How did you feel with the overall outcome of the exhibition and how it was received?

We exhibited in Berlin in May, but unfortunately not all of us could get to that show. It was a success though, and contributed to us winning the Designer Award at the Sunday Herald Scottish Culture Awards, so our profile had been raised considerably.  Edinburgh has a sizeable design community and designers love looking at type.The venue helped as well - Leith is the centre for the creative community in Edinburgh. The work was shortlisted at the Creative Edinburgh Awards.

How was the feedback overall from those who visited the exhibition?

We had a great response, and the most common feedback was about what can be done with just type and no colour, and how connected everything was visually.

Why do you think that is?

Nobody else is doing it in quite this way, it isn’t as easy as it looks. 

Do you have any other plans to use The Northern Block typefaces in the future?

Our new project includes designing a broadsheet newspaper - so we need a decent serif for the body copy and will be looking at Northern Block for that.

Do you have anymore exhibitions coming up in the future?

We've just moved into a new studio which has its own event space, so we'll be running our own shows, including an opening event probably in early May. We are also planning to make the space available to other visual artists for talks, exhibitions and networking events.

We were delighted with the overall outcome of the exhibition and to have our work featured in such a creative way. It was great to see such a big turnout of the opening night and seeing so many of you appreciating our typefaces as much as our designers have enjoyed creating them. We would like to thank Blueroom Collective for the opportunity to display our work in such an interesting way.

To view the exhibition, please click here.

[dweemeister]

@loveless422 replied to your link: Oscars Won't Televise All Awards Live, Adds...

Your thought?

Plenty of them (if you have any thoughts yourself, I’d love to hear them). Look out loveless and my followers, it’s...

MY THOUGHTS ON THE RECENT OSCAR CHANGES: 

First, among the many reasons why I care about the Oscars is because it is the Academy’s (AMPAS) most important fundraiser of the year. On a daily basis, AMPAS preserves movies (short- and feature-length; narrative, documentary, and experimental; from anywhere and in any language) and educates professionals and students in the art of cinema. Those are worthy goals that need to be cherished and protected. OTOH, I care about the Oscars because I love film history. And though the Academy Awards are a flawed way to discover what the best films are, they are a starting point for budding film buffs and give us a glimpse of what a certain portion of people liked at a given moment in time. But as to yesterday’s changes..........

I have no problem moving up the ceremony to the second Sunday in February in 2020. It shortens the time I get to see all the nominees and messes up my annual 31 Days of Oscar marathon queueing on this blog, but those are small potatoes. The Grammys and CBS don’t like it? I don’t care.

Placing some of the lesser-heralded awards (probably sound awards and short films) into the commercial breaks to cap the ceremony at 3 hours is disrespectful to those nominees and to those branches - who I can’t believe would have approved those changes. A film is more ruined with godawful sound editing and sound mixing than it is bad acting.

The short films? Most of the people who are nominated in those categories are not multimillionaires - they’re typically just scraping by and their films have NO room for error. The non-Americans who get nominated for their short films? They’re probably being funded by who knows how many sources including their government.

The Academy Awards is the one time of the year where we acknowledge that it’s not just director, actors, and writers who make up a film. Those categories are important and represent the increasing democratization of cinema. They’re there for a reason; those nominees poured themselves into their work just as much as anybody else in that room and deserve their time in the spotlight. And anyone who says the Oscars are too long because they hand out too many awards should also use the same logic for the Super Bowl - which is 3.5+ hours long and feels interminable because there’s too much football, apparently.

If you still think this is all boring, maybe you’re watching the Oscars with the wrong people! I can always explain things to you folks if you ever have any questions about the Academy Awards!

But the big snafu is that damned Best Popular Film award to be instituted two ceremonies from now (it’s not too late to take it back!). Variety is reporting that this came about in a post-Oscars meeting in March in which ABC told AMPAS that it was facing irrelevance and should make some damn changes. The top of that list was the Best Popular Film award (so, for me, this is mostly ABC’s fault) - some apologists are saying the AMPAS has done this before because, at the first ceremony, they handed out a Best Picture (Wings) and a Best Unique and Artistic Production (Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans) Oscar. That example is not analogous!

I honestly think that the declining ratings for the Oscars is more reflective of cord-cutting more than anything else. All TV ratings are down and are more fragmented than ever - even live awards shows and sports championships, all of these once considered untouchable, are all down ratings-wise. AMPAS needs to find a way to maximize total audience delivery (not just traditional TV, but streaming and livefeeds). The Academy Museum opens in 2019, so hopefully in the coming years AMPAS will be less dependent on revenue from the Oscar telecast.

I think political polarization and the popularity of the films nominated for the major awards are secondary reasons. Regarding the popularity of the films, it does not help that the major studios are no longer interested in making mid-budget, mature comedies and dramas anymore (the mid-budget movie is endangered in Hollywood). It does not help that the major studios are no longer interested in making epic films that do not require tons of CGI or a tie-in to an existing commercial property anymore. The Academy cannot fix this problem alone. It is up to the major studios, producers, and movie theater chains and owners (who are among the most responsible in segregating “popular” movies from the “indies” and creating the cinematic culture we have now). Otherwise, I think the Academy has done an amazing job not bending to popular pressure and dishing out its biggest honors to the most popular films in the last few decades. It’s more than I can say for the Emmys and ESPECIALLY the Grammys.

ABC is owned by Disney and Disney - by purchasing Lucasfilm, Marvel, Pixar, and very soon 20th Century Fox - is no longer interested in anything that isn’t a blockbuster/franchise movie/tentpole. They have dominated the box office over the last several years. Maybe they’re just pissed the DCEU won an Oscar (Best Makeup & Hairstyling for Suicide Squad... ick) before the MCU did. Disney buying itself Oscars? Yup. ABC is not interested in movies or movie history and anything AMPAS has to do on a daily basis (film preservation, educating people in cinema). Viewership and money is the driving force.

This “Best Popular Film” thing is already covered by the People’s Choice Awards and MTV. AMPAS undermines the pedigree of an Oscar with this category’s creation. This award is insulting not only to the films we would expect to be nominated or contend for Best Picture, but to the films nominated for Best Popular Film itself (a movie can be nominated for both, however). It’s a consolation prize on top of the money already grossed - essentially saying that those certain films could never be nominated for Best Picture on their own artistic merits. No, I don’t think Black Panther or Infinity War or Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom are worthy of a Best Picture nomination. But there’s nothing wrong about not getting nominated or only garnering a Costume Design nomination. People should view the Oscars as a raucous, slightly tipsy party that gives out gifts rather than a definitive, high-stakes night that rewrites cinematic history in just a few hours.

Am I right MCU/Star Wars/F&F/DCEU/Disney animation fans that these movies don’t need Oscar nominations for you to love them more? Because if the answer is “yes”, then you know that “Best Popular Film” is exceptionally condescending to these movies you love. This will only make it harder for your beloved films to be nominated for Best Picture and other major categories if they deserve them.

To the Academy (@theacademy):

Hey, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences? I am so happy you have been gradually diversifying your ranks to include more women, non-white, and non-American members. I know these last few years have been tumultuous, but you don’t need these changes. You’re overreacting to the possibility that you might not nominate Black Panther for Best Picture (which I would not nominate for that category in any case, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world). Whatever will be, will be. You can’t change what your current body of members thinks or will vote for, and that’s okay. Stop panicking. Stop bending to ABC’s pressure - they don’t know any better. Keep engaging in film preservation and education that few other organizations do as well as you do. I can’t wait to see your museum next year, and I hope it’s a success!

Seriously, this Best Popular Film thing is stupid.

[davidtennantontwitter]

Sunday Herald Culture Awards 2017 announced today. David Tennant nominated as best TV actor

http://davidtennantontwitter.blogspot.com/2017/06/sunday-herald-culture-awards-2017.html