#The Fitzpatrick Main Stage

[damiansbioshockblog]

A little analysis I wrote about Cohen

One of the most beloved characters by the fans has always been Sander Cohen, the demented, sadistic, artist originating in Fort Frolic, the eighth level of the first game and he is the main and most recognizable example of homosexuality in the BioShock series. He is confirmed to have had several amorous relationships with multiple men throughout Rapture, including but not limited to four out of five of his disciples. Those four are Martin Finnegan, Hector Rodriguez, Kyle Fitzpatrick, and Silas Cobb. Voice lines and audio diaries paint an interesting picture of what Cohen’s relations with these men looked like to a degree, and it isn’t pretty.

Quotes like: "The things that man had me do…” (Hector Rodriguez)

“I used to love you. I used to think you were a musical genius. You know why? Because you paid my rent, you ancient hack!” (Silas Cobb)

"This one's for the fruit!" (Martin Finnegan when attacking)

"Oh Cohen, you sick fuck, let me out of this!" (Kyle Fitzpatrick)

Show each of these former disciples talking about Cohen in a truly disturbing and manipulative light. Kyle calling him sick, Silas saying the only reason he looked up to or respected Sander was because he was the reason he had his rent paid (illustrating an unhealthy power dynamic), Hector outright admitting that Sander had him do things he was not comfortable with. He seems to be still disturbed by them. 

Sander Cohen used power over these men, whether that power came from a financial aspect or giving them the ability to pursue their passions he manipulated each one for less-than-savory reasons. On the surface the idea is great. He is a perfect villain for the setting. Rapture is a gritty and power-based society where a lot got swept under the rug if you had the power to make it happen. And especially in Fort Frolic where suggestive music, dancing, performance, and outright erotism are commonplace, you’d expect a level of that to be twisted in the main threat of the level based in said area. But if you look at it from a meta-perspective something about it doesn't sit right with me.

It would make sense for a character like Cohen who is so close to the theater to be queer in some way. Homosexuality and the stage go hand-in-hand and have for years and years, from cross-dressing to flashiness that doesn't fit “masculinity” to challenging ideas through the artistic medium so I’m not shocked or against the fact that Sander Cohen is gay, though I have something against the way it’s treated. 

Sander Cohen is the main and only prevalent character in the first game who had many serious examples of sexual manipulation and as laid out, he is one of the only front-and-center characters who is part of the LGBT+ community. That feels like an odd choice to me. I could be overthinking this decision, it could just be an unfortunate mix of characteristics for Cohen that paint Ken Levine’s writing in a bad light but it feels weird to me that the only character whose sexuality is not straight is also the character who most of his crimes and immoral acts involve something sexual.

I’d much appreciate other thoughts, arguments, and points in the replies or re-blogs. Thank you for reading this, it was just a thought that interested me. I do not have anything against BioShock or Ken Levine, I don’t know enough about Levine to claim he is a morally bad person and I’m a massive fan of the BioShock series.

[sabisandslodges0]

Journey into the Heart of the Wild: Extraordinary Safari Escapes

Nestled in the heart of the iconic Sabi Sands Game Reserve, the Jock Safari Lodge stands as a testament to opulent wilderness experiences. With its unparalleled blend of untamed nature and luxurious comforts, this establishment, accessible via sabisandslodges.com, offers an unforgettable journey into the heart of the African bush. The lodge not only provides an opportunity to witness the majestic Big Five but also ensures a holistic and immersive encounter with the wild, all while reveling in exquisite accommodation and impeccable service.

The lodge boasts three distinct lodges, each catering to different preferences while maintaining a consistent standard of luxury. Fitzpatrick’s at Jock, named after the founder's grandfather, offers family-friendly accommodation with warm, welcoming interiors. The Main Jock Lodge exudes old-world charm and boasts elegant suites, while The Private Lodge is an intimate escape that redefines exclusivity.

The Sabi Sands Game Reserve is renowned for its unrivaled wildlife encounters. Jock Safari Lodge takes full advantage of its prime location within this wilderness paradise. Guests can partake in expertly guided safaris, both morning and evening, where they can witness the mesmerizing Big Five – lions, elephants, buffaloes, leopards, and rhinoceros – in their natural habitat. The knowledgeable guides, well-versed in the intricacies of the ecosystem, provide invaluable insights into animal behavior and the delicate balance of this unique environment.

Jock Safari Lodge goes beyond conventional Safari Tours and packages experiences. Bush walks allow guests to delve into the smaller nuances of the wild, from tracking spoor to learning about the flora and fauna that constitute this thriving ecosystem. Photographic safaris cater to both amateur and professional photographers, enabling them to capture the perfect shot with expert guidance. Moreover, the lodge offers a Kids on Safari program, ensuring that younger guests can also connect with nature through engaging and educational activities.

While nature takes center stage, Jock Safari Lodge's commitment to luxury is unwavering. Lavishly appointed suites, each with a private plunge pool and en-suite bathroom, provide a cocoon of comfort after a day of adventure. Indulge in sumptuous spa treatments to rejuvenate both body and soul, and savor delectable culinary offerings that celebrate the rich flavors of South Africa.

Jock Safari Lodge is deeply committed to preserving the fragile ecosystem it calls home. The lodge actively supports various conservation initiatives, contributing to the protection of wildlife and the upliftment of local communities. By choosing Jock Safari Lodge, guests play a vital role in supporting these sustainability efforts, ensuring that future generations can also revel in the beauty of this pristine wilderness.

Through Sabi Sands Lodges Reservations, this extraordinary establishment beckons adventurers, luxury seekers, families, and wildlife enthusiasts to step into a realm where the call of the wild is answered by the embrace of comfort. With its commitment to sustainable tourism and its dedication to providing unparalleled safari experiences, Jock Safari Lodge stands as a testament to the beauty and magnificence of the African bush.

[atlanticcanada]

After 10 years, Muskrat Falls has left 'deep wounds' in Newfoundland and Labrador

It's been exactly 10 years since the government in Newfoundland and Labrador green-lit Muskrat Falls, a hydroelectricity project that plunged the province into financial and political turmoil.

The project is years overdue and its costs have ballooned to $13.4 billion, up from the estimated $7.4 billion, including financing costs, when it was sanctioned.

Muskrat Falls has eaten away at provincial budgets and resources. Its mounting costs prompted a $5.2-billion bailout last year from Ottawa. It flooded Indigenous lands and threatens to contaminate hunting grounds in Labrador. And a public inquiry that began in 2018 concluded the government failed its people in pushing it through.

And the project is still not producing power at full capacity.

"It's really a disgrace of some magnitude," said Dennis Browne, a lawyer who was among a group formed in 2012 to oppose the project. He is also the province's consumer advocate.

"We had everything going for us," Browne said in an interview. "The government, with our oil revenues, were referring to this as our golden age. And then they took those oil revenues, and took our financial wherewithal, and put everything into Muskrat Falls. And it's a failed project."

Muskrat Falls was officially sanctioned on Dec. 17, 2012. It was touted as a way to kick-start a green energy economy for the province.

"This is truly a significant day in the history of Newfoundland and Labrador as we prepare to write the next chapter in our province's future," said then-premier Kathy Dunderdale in the news release issued by the Progressive Conservative government at the time.

Today it's hard to find anyone in the province singing the project's praises. Andrew Furey, the Liberal premier, last year called it "an anchor around the collective souls" of the province.

The project is largely completed, and it includes dams and a powerhouse in Labrador, as well as two main transmission lines: one from Labrador to the island of Newfoundland, and the other from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia.

But the software operating the line from Labrador to Newfoundland, called the Labrador-Island Link, has been plagued with problems and it's not clear when they might be solved.

"There continue to be substantial doubts about both its short- and long-run ability to operate in a fashion that will permit reliance on its availability from a planning perspective," said a Dec. 1 report from Liberty Consulting Group, which was hired by the province's Public Utilities Board to monitor the project's final stages.

Back in 2012, Browne's group, called 2041 Energy Inc., wanted the Muskrat Falls project to be reviewed by the province's utilities board. He said the government opposed the idea, saying the project wouldn't affect domestic electricity rates and was therefore out of the board's jurisdiction.

They were wrong, he said.

In July 2021, Ottawa announced $5.2 billion to help offset the project's costs. Without it, domestic electricity rates in the province would have almost doubled.

Journalist Ashley Fitzpatrick is writing a book about Muskrat Falls, and she covered its development and the public inquiry into its failures for the Telegram newspaper.

"There's been no closure on this for the public," Fitzpatrick said in an interview. "And there were some really deep wounds. There was a real loss of trust that's that's happened over the course of the project. And I don't know that there's a full appreciation of that with the people who are in power today."

A blistering report released in March of 2020 as part of a public inquiry into the project's staggering costs and delays concluded the provincial government failed Newfoundlanders and Labradorians by deciding Muskrat Falls would go ahead, no matter what. Executives at Nalcor, the Crown energy corporation that oversaw the project, exploited that by withholding key information about rising and costs and risks, the report said.

Fitzpatrick said anyone wanting to launch big energy projects now will have to win over a suspicious and untrusting public. "The public here have been through basically a traumatic experience," she said.

Government officials asked the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary to review the report for criminal activity. Fitzpatrick said there's been no update on that investigation. The force said in an email Friday that it was unable to comment by press time.

Former premier Danny Williams was among Muskrat Falls' first and loudest champions, though he retired two years before it was sanctioned. Alex Marland, a political science professor at Memorial University, said he's struck by how Muskrat Falls changed residents' opinions of Williams. Williams was not available for comment.

"I don't think I can impress just how much Danny Williams was seen by many as an absolute saviour of Newfoundland," Marland said in an interview. "But what has become potentially a legacy project for him has turned into a big albatross. It's a complete flip in terms of public perception."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 17, 2022.

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/ExL4BcV

[larryland]

REVIEW: "Coming Back Like a Song!" at the Berkshire Theatre Group

REVIEW: “Coming Back Like a Song!” at the Berkshire Theatre Group

[mariacallous]

Conservatives have made their demands known to Kevin McCarthy as he rounds up votes for speaker. Now centrists are next in line.

The unexpectedly small majority McCarthy will be working with next year as he seeks the top gavel has undoubtedly bolstered the leverage of his right flank. But the House Freedom Caucus’ vocal criticism is drowning out clear signals from some members of his more moderate wing: They say McCarthy should know that any deal with rebellious conservatives could face resistance from centrists who see themselves as the GOP’s “majority makers.”

“Kevin’s not stupid,” said Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio), who leads the centrist Republican Governance Group. “He’s trying to add to his numbers, not destroy his base. And so I count on his political acumen to know what’s acceptable to the rank and file inside the conference.”

Whether centrists are willing to withhold their speakership votes from McCarthy on Jan. 3, as some conservatives have indicated, remains to be seen. But it’s not just the more moderate Joyce-led group eyeing ways to have extra influence next year. Even as Washington’s attention after the midterm turns to the Freedom Caucus, members of the Main Street Caucus and the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus are talking among themselves about it.

Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), the Problem Solvers’ co-chiefs, met for dinner last week and talked about possible rules changes to help ensure their roughly 50 members next year are more unified, and therefore more powerful, on the floor next year. Among them: guidelines to endorse only bills that are bipartisan when introduced.

“We just want to make the group more accountable... I mean, the whole point of our group is to stick together on the floor when we endorse bills,” Fitzpatrick said, adding that their ability to coalesce could be “important” given the tight margin.

Other factions in the House are already looking to form alliances with the centrist group. Fitzpatrick said he’s been hearing from Freedom Caucus members who want to find common ground with the moderate wing next year, as well as from Democratic senators who are looking for GOP allies in the lower chamber as they weigh their legislative priorities.

Republicans in the Main Street Caucus met last week as they grow their own ranks ahead of next year. Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who co-leads the group, said they were nearing 90 members, adding that after years of the Freedom Caucus throwing its weight around: “It’s time we flex our muscles.”

The first real test of the power of the House GOP’s different wings — and McCarthy’s support from them — will be the chamber-wide vote for speaker on Jan. 3. Virtually every Republican group is already looking to exhibit its leverage in a threadbare majority that gives McCarthy a cushion expected to be no larger than five votes. And in some cases, the GOP factions’ priorities will clash.

McCarthy’s speakership bid looked on shaky ground last week after 31 GOP members voted for his hardline conservative challenger in a closed-door conference election and five more put down write-in names. Not all of those Republicans are expected to oppose him come January, but it served as a warning to the GOP leader.

To many rank-and-file members, it was also an opportunity.

Since that secret ballot race, a trickle of lawmakers have publicly announced their plans to vote against the California Republican. Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a long-time “no” vote, and Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) have stated emphatically they won’t support McCarthy for speaker; first-term Reps. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) and Bob Good (R-Va.) have strongly signaled that they are likely to oppose him.

“The stages of grief include denial, so there will be some denial, and then there will be the stage of bargaining. And that’s where we’ll probably be next,” said Biggs, who challenged McCarthy for the nomination.

While several House races remain uncalled, McCarthy likely couldn’t afford to lose all four of those votes on the floor — which means he either has to twist arms, make concessions or both to line up the support he needs come January.

And there’s a big question mark when it comes to how far he’ll go to attain his dreams of the speakership. Some say McCarthy would stand his ground and refuse any hard-line bargains, but there’s rampant speculation that his desperation to win the floor vote could drive him to acquiesce to deals that would be difficult for future GOP leaders to pull back.

Still, other Republicans shrugged off the maneuvering as a necessary exercise, saying they’d continue helping him reach 218. Even if McCarthy does make an unpopular concession, rank-and-file Republicans could still vote it down on the floor, these allies argue.

“We’re not going to be voting for any crazy policies, so he can make all the commitments he wants,” said one House Republican, granted anonymity to speak candidly.

McCarthy’s already avoided one landmine, squashing talk from the Freedom Caucus about making it easier to depose a speaker. Instead, he got the conference to agree that a motion to vacate the chair — how conservatives pushed out then-Speaker John Boehner — would require the support of a majority of House Republicans.

But January’s high-stakes vote will be tougher, with McCarthy needing a majority of votes among all House members, not just his own conference. With just a few votes to spare, he’ll likely have to borrow tactics from previous leaders, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi: Convincing his defectors to vote “present” or not show up at all.

Even some Democrats are plotting how to get in on the action.

A group of centrist Democrats has been privately discussing ways to play in the speaker race if it can mean winning concessions of their own, including potential leeway on rule changes and committee structures, according to a half-dozen people familiar with the conversations.

One Democrat familiar with the conversations described the idea as more of a “back-up” plan in case McCarthy can’t reach the votes on his own, rather than an active push to interfere with the race. Still, some Democrats have discussed what they could get in exchange for cooperating with the GOP leader — or even floating their own moderate speaker candidate if McCarthy loses too much ground.

Furthermore, they’ve discussed working with their Republican centrist counterparts.

The pro-McCarthy Bacon told POLITICO that Democrats had reached out to him after NBC reported that he was open to working with them if Republicans couldn’t unite behind a candidate. (Bacon said the report mischaracterized his remarks and predicted McCarthy will get to 218 votes.)

Bacon declined to describe his response to the outreach, while acknowledging that “we’re talking,” but the “ball is in the other guy’s court.”

The idea of Democrats working with centrist Republicans to try to elect a speaker has sparked warnings from the GOP conference’s right flank, including those backing McCarthy.

“We have a very slim majority, and so this is why it’s so important for us to stay unified … because we cannot open the door to the Democrats peeling off several of our Republicans and working together to choose a speaker,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who’s become a key Freedom Caucus ally for the GOP leader.

McCarthy has also privately and publicly dismissed that he would solicit Democratic votes for speaker.

“We’re the majority as Republicans and we’ll get there as Republicans,” McCarthy told reporters after the Tuesday leadership elections.

[coll2mitts]

#28 Hairspray (2007)

Welcome to Hairspray, where a well-intentioned, woke, white teenage girl singlehandedly ends segregation in 1960s Baltimore.

Y’know, after watching Cry-Baby, I wasn’t super keen on revisiting Hairspray, but I figured it deserved a fair shot.  I hadn’t seen the original since I was in high school, so I booted up HBO Max and settled in for a long night of old-timey dance moves and racial inequality.  Guys... the 1988 version of Hairspray is flippin’ great.

The cast is just to die for.  Ricki Lake, who I only knew as a talk show host in my childhood, is a great Tracy Turnblad.  My favorite devious sea witch Divine is her mother, and Jerry Stiller is her father.  Goddamn Debbie Harry and Sunny Bono are her rival’s parents, and Amber Von Tussle is motherfucking Colleen Fitzpatrick.  As someone who has a vested interest in all famous Colleens, I was stoked to see that Hairspray was Vitamin C’s first acting gig.

FUN FACT: According to Wikipedia (which is never wrong), Graduation (Friends Forever) charts on iTunes at the end of every school year.  Colleen is also the VP of music at Nickelodeon, so she’s doing just fine.

Anyway, the original Hairspray is campy, edgy and hilarious.  If I were Miss Soft Crab 1945, I too would bring it up every chance I got.  The story really boils down to two horny teenage girls trying to claw their way to the top, but the charm of Tracy is she’s trying to pull everyone else up with her.  The way they handle segregation and racial inequality is over-the-top ridiculous, but somehow more realistic than its updated counterpart (put a pin in this).  I mean, a racist white woman shoved a bomb in her hair to own the libs and it gloriously explodes on her head.  I haven’t seen the musical adaptation of Hairspray, so my opinions of how true it is to its source material won’t be explored here, but the 2007 movie adaptation, to me, left a lot to be desired.

Hairspray might be the most popular in a recent trend of non-musical movies being adapted for Broadway.  I remember back in the 90s when Beauty and the Beast hit the stage - it was so successful Disney now has the movie-to-Broadway pipeline on speed dial.  But now we’re getting a shitload of movies with no musical elements being fast tracked to Broadway, like Kinky Boots, Bend it Like Beckham, Mean Girls, Beetlejuice, Heathers, Waitress, Legally Blonde, fucking Groundhog Day with music written by Tim Minchin, just, so goddamn many of them.  I love musicals, but to say I didn’t want to see The Heathers threaten Veronica in 3-part harmony would be an understatement, so I’m immediately skeptical to the quality of this content and hesitant to consume it.  Unfortunately for me, Hairspray is one of the few who had their *corny* musical adaptation also committed to film, and it is a neutered, earnest, high school choir translation of the original and it made my teeth hurt.

The two positives I’ll give the remake are the sets/costumes are great, and the cast serve their roles well, although I will never be OK with someone wearing a fat suit as a costume.  The songs are... fine.  Again, this era of music is not my favorite, so I’m never going to get excited over “It Takes Two” or “I Can Hear the Bells”.  It’s just the tone is so different from the original, and by the end of the movie I was exhausted and very glad it was over.  Writing about it now has required several breaks and side-tangents and I can’t even get to the fucking synopsis of the movie... ugh let’s just do this.

Tracy Turnblad is a “pleasantly plump” teenage girl living in 1960s Baltimore whose sunny disposition makes her oblivious to the reality of murky situation she is living in.  We’re quickly introduced to her obsession, “The Corny Collins Show”, which features a number of far-out teens that love to dance, including multi-year winner of Miss Teenage Hairspray and miss Pitch Perfect herself Amber Von Tussel.  Her mother, Velma, played by Michelle Pfeiffer, is the station manager at WYZT, and uses her power to keep Amber featured front and center.  

After a girl on the show gets knocked up, an audition is held to replace her.  While Tracy’s mother Edna, regrettably played by John Travolta in a fat suit, is afraid that Tracy’s weight will prevent her from landing the gig, her father, puzzlingly played by like a 60-something Christopher Walken, is generally supportive.  True to Edna’s feeling, Tracy is fat shamed by Amber and Velma and doesn’t make the cut.

After getting detention for skipping class for an audition that didn’t pan out, Tracy makes friends with a bunch of black students who are all excellent dancers.  Turns out her new friend Seaweed is the son of Motormouth Maybelle, the sometimes-host of "The Corny Collins Show”, played by Queen Latifah.  Velma, in addition to being a massive bitch, also segregates the station’s black talent from the main show, only to be featured one night a month on “Negro Day”.  While Tracy is boogying down, Link, Amber’s boyfriend and one of the stars of TCCS, peeps at her ass and tells her if she shook her rump in front of Corny at the Hop, he’d have no choice but to put her on the show.

In the original movie, Tracy Turnblad fucks.  She moves in on Link and devours him whole, with no mind given to her size.  She is a kind of bratty, confident young teenager that isn’t afraid to reach out and grab what she wants.  Tracy in the 2007 version is the most innocent cinnamon roll that has ever been baked.  Link gives her one compliment and she drifts into fantasies of marrying him.  Part of me is annoyed by this, but the other part of me appreciates misguided optimism played as humor.

At the Corny Collins hop, Tracy steals borrows Seaweed’s dance move and lands a place on TCCS council.  After declaring she wants every day to be Negro Day, the head of the station declares he wants that “chubby communist girl” off the show.  Corny, played by a dreamy James Marsden, sticks his neck out for Tracy and furthermore, says the show should be integrated.  As Tracy’s popularity skyrockets, the station shows more leeway to her size and her look, but to maintain some semblance of control, Velma works to completely edge out Negro Day.

Meanwhile, Link is clued into how fun it is in detention, and him, Tracy, and Penny all dance their way to Motormouth Maybelle’s record store for a potluck.  When Seaweed introduces his new white friends to his mother, Penny delivers my favorite line of the whole movie, “I’m very pleased and scared to be here.”  Amber rats out Tracy’s activities to her mother, and Edna arrives to Motormouth’s with the intention of dragging Tracy home until she realizes that black people are OK because they eat brisket.

After Edna shoves a bunch of food in her face, the gang finds out that Negro Day on “The Corny Collins Show” has been cancelled.  Tracy has the great idea to protest the television station, and all the black people are like, “Why didn’t we think of that?”  Link decides to bow out of the march because there’ll be talent agents at the Miss Hairspray Pageant, and he doesn’t want to give up his big shot at fame and glory to fight for a entire race of people’s basic rights.

The next day, Tracy and her mom are the only white people in a sea of black people to march to the station.  Queen Latifah sings a very earnest song about the resilience of her community, because this is the Serious Portion TM of the musical.  Tracy assaults a police officer without giving any mind to what it would do for all the black people she’s marching with, and runs away to let them handle the consequences.  The movie doesn’t show any police brutality because Reasons, and a bunch of protestors are arrested and immediately bailed out by Tracy’s Dad.  Tracy eventually ends up back at Motormouth Maybelle’s record shop so she can hide there without considering how dangerous it would be for Motormouth to harbor a fugitive of the law.  

The next day is the Miss Teen Hairspray competition broadcast at WYZT, and with Tracy being wanted by the police, they have to sneak her into the station.  She bum-rushes the set to sing a song with a now-enlightened Link about not stopping progress, while also inviting Motormouth Maybelle’s daughter, Little Inez, on stage to dance.  Everybody calls-in to vote for her because the only racist people in Baltimore run the television station, and Little Inez is crowned Miss Teen Hairspray.  Amber is like fine with it even though her mom isn’t, and everyone dances and sings to celebrate that “The Corny Collins” show is now integrated!  Meanwhile, I’m left wondering why Amanda Bynes was forced to wear a dress that she can’t move her legs in, even though they knew she would participate in the show’s closing dance number.  The end.

Oh, and there’s also a whole B plot where Velma tries to fuck Tracy’s dad and Tracy’s mom finds out and gets upset for like 30 seconds.  This is immediately resolved by a song and dance number among a bunch of laundry.

This movie is fine and competent or whatever, but for some reason it just rubs me the entirely wrong way.  Tracy constantly says that the 1960s are changing for people who are different, implying that an overweight white teen also knows what it’s like to be discriminated against in the same way black people are.  The movie does roll its eyes at some of her most tone-deaf “I’m an overenthusiastic ally” moments, like “I wish every day was Negro Day!” and “This is afro-tastic!”, but it also goes out of its way to talk about how much Tracy has helped the black community.  Like, by doing what?  Being fat and on TV?  That being said, she does use her privilege to feature black dancers on a major television broadcast, so by the end of the movie she becomes the person everyone says she is.  Also, I’m a dumb, overweight, white, middle-aged woman, so I’m not the right person to get all indignant about a well-intentioned feel-good Broadway musical.

Final thoughts: If you love bright colors, cheese, and sincere, glossy reflections of the 1960s civil rights movement written by a bunch of white dudes, this movie is for you.

[anadvanceddegreeinquiet]

What, Me Pandemic? A Boho Crowd Stakes Its Claim (and Claims Its $48 Steaks)

Fricasse Dubois, 21, lamented the decision to pull her latest concrete poem from The Codswalloped Pisspot as she passed one of the whimsical “Maine-ducks-in-flight” mailboxes that serve as newspaper bins for the red-hot downtown rag. But her friend and intern, Banshee Fitzgerald, 33, had made a good point: The Pisspot had been flirting with questionable taste for months now. 

First there was the ironic opera libretto by Steve Bannon, which cast Leo “KIDS” Fitzpatrick as a Muslim refugee in a Copenhagen no-go zone. Then there was the edgy faux-memoir from Terry Richardson, modeled on O.J. Simpson’s unpublished “If I Did It,” and accompanied by a portfolio of Juergen Teller ass-Xeroxes.

But now, the Pisspot hype was growing, and Dubois realized that she might miss the proverbial boat. Interest in the nascent publishing venture was at fever pitch; a SPAC had been formed by laid-off Gagosian and Perrotin directors eager to stage a hostile takeover of the irregularly published ‘zine. 

And a dash of infamy certainly helped—the paper’s co-editor, Stizzy Fugger, had just launched a Tumblr in which she tallied the number of people she had inadvertently infected with Covid-19, updated in real-time (12,617 at press time, if you’re keeping score, more than the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally).

Anyone who has witnessed a “Pisspot drop” in the Dimes Square neighborhood of Manhattan knows to expect pandemonium. But nothing could have prepared this reporter for the foamy-mouthed jubilee and ecstatic violence of the occasion. 

It was 11am on a Tuesday, and the editors appeared at the corner of Seward Park, bearing several cardboard boxes of the paper. They were trailed by the usual suspects: Pimple-necked sadcore rappers, sex-positive Zoom therapists, former Artforum critic’s pickers who now run content for Chipotle, and middle-aged men who really shouldn’t skateboard.  

It’s a truism that an issue of Pisspot isn’t really read so much as it is imbibed, absorbed via the osmosis of social media’s orgiastic frenzy. In fact, the Times had a great deal of difficulty locating anyone who had physically held a copy of the paper in their smooth, unlined hands; many preferred to experience it as a series of fuzzy, thumbnail-sized images posted ironically on MySpace. 

“People used to say they read Playboy for the ads,” said Kit Murano, a fish-eyed, forty-something member of a downtown-based Adderall (™) street team. “Pisspot doesn’t have ads. And no one who knows anything would be caught, like, just sitting there and flipping through the thing. It’s an attitude. It’s an essence. It’s a lifestyle.”

Okay, sure—but what about the actual content actually published in each issue? Imagine an early iteration of Vice cross-pollinated with Tiger Beat, and then add a splash of sexual-harassment-era Paris Review. It’s a bit silly, and a bit loose. Bret Easton Ellis contributes a crossword puzzle in which every answer is just another reason why millennials suck. A party report—‘Reamed & Furred’—diligently transcribes the coke-addled bon mots of the same group of six people all eating at the same restaurant every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening. 

If there’s an ethos gluing all of this together, it’s a passing-of-the-torch from an older bohemian guard to a younger demographic, with their laissez-faire attitudes about sex, drugs, and global pandemics. “It’s, like, we can all still party together, and age isn’t really ‘a thing’,” explains Murano, leaning out the window of a Mini Cooper wrapped in shiny SunGen Pharma adverts.

The entire scene revolves around the lopsided triangle known as “Dimes Square,” which borrows its moniker from the culinary hotspot Dimes. (The name derives from Cockney rhyming slang for ‘elongated pinky nail.’). Every New York story is also, of course, a story about real estate. In this case, that means the Connecticut country houses that this cohort has Airbnbed out while remaining to weather the storm in lower Manhattan. 

Parts of this scene are “white, but probably ambisexual-adjacent; they’re members of the creative class, but they possess enough self-hatred to seem authentic,” says Dash Johnson, a Dimes Square hanger-on who many suspect of running the Steak-Umms social media accounts. “Most of them used to work for galleries, or websites, or Garage magazine, but when those jobs dried up, they woke up one morning and said: Fuck it. Let’s stop pretending. Let’s just tweet.”

One essential element of any good scene is a gossip column to keep track—and to keep score. ArtWet’s “Wet Ass Pigment” plays that role for the Dimes Square cognoscenti. It’s a bleeding-edge social diary written by an anonymous, Gossip Girl-style correspondent who communicates solely via Signal, using a vocal transformer. 

“I was sick of trying to break into this world,” they said. “I was sick of meeting Anthony Haden-Guest at a dinner, for the 387th time, and having him introduce himself all over again, like we hadn’t both thrown up in the same toilet less than three days before. Fuck gatekeepers. I built my own gate, and then I started keeping it.” 

It was a Wet Ass Pigment column, in fact, which broke the season’s buzziest news: semi-disgraced first son Hunter Biden had bought an octoplex apartment directly above Dimes, where he’ll be staying as he prepares for a September solo exhibition that will open concurrently across Andrew Kreps, 56 Henry, Shoot the Lobster, and a pop-up space for Recess CBD seltzer. Unlike the gentle, “meditative” paintings that Biden had been making in recovery, the new work is brash and rudely vulgar—the product of an unexpected friendship Biden had struck up with Bjarne Melgaard and Jordan Wolfson. 

Meanwhile, the group’s literary face remains 29-year-old Katarina Klaus, whose razor-sharp prose skewers her surroundings with the acidic wit of a young Evelyn Waugh. “I’ll be honest, I fucking hate writing,” Klaus admitted, blowing her nose into a Telfar bag. “I’m both super motivated and super lazy. Sometimes I’ll just copy-paste random chunks of Speedboat into a column and no one will even notice.”

So what’s next for this ragtag crew? “Dimes Square will probably be over by the time this fucking article comes out,” Klaus laments. “You’re going to have, like, some TikTok influencer house on the corner of Canal and Essex, and all the coke will have fentanyl in it again because idiots from New Jersey just have no nose. You know what? I’m regretting this already. This is all off the record.”

Meanwhile, Klaus is already rethinking her involvement in Pisspot. With a current print run of 250 copies, the instantly iconic newspaper suddenly seems a bit too exposed. She’s in discussions with a new, unnamed venture that would distribute articles and essays in a serialized format, via fortunes randomly inserted into cookies at various Chinese restaurants within a three-block radius of the Square. “It’s all about ephemerality,” she says, sucking on a DMT vape she brought back from Mexico City. “It’s all about staying relevant.”

This article was lovingly rewritten from the original by Scott Indrisek.

CORRECTION: The above edition of this story mistakenly cites Kit Murano’s age as “forty-something,” based on our reporter’s visual guesstimation. She is actually 19.   

CORRECTION: ‘Dimes’ is in fact Cockney prison rhyming slang for the expression, “a bent knob is straight twice a day.”

CORRECTION: An earlier online version of this story mistakenly identified The Codswalloped Pisspot as The Duct-Taped Shitberg.

CORRECTION: An earlier, subscribers-only post of this story mislabeled the gossip blog Wet Ass Pigment as being a Spotify podcast called Wank ‘n Pose.

CORRECTION: Jordan Wolfson died in 2014. 

CORRECTION: An earlier Google Doc of this story referenced a non-existent ‘hardcore maternity diary’ by Chloe Sevigny, which most likely did not appear in issue 4 of the Codtaped Shitpot. 

CORRECTION: A version of this story that was sent to hapless print subscribers in Texas and Connecticut wrongly identified the geographic boundaries of “Dimes Square” as being East 45th Street, Central Park West, Freeman’s Alley, and Bedford Avenue.

[sohannabarberaesque]

Postcards from Snagglepuss: Obviously, Dennis FitzPatrick and Burton Holmes never had it this easy

It's about a month now, shall we say, before our next Great Road Trip Fun-In, so to speak, gets underway, with Huckleberry Hound as much as yours truly involved in much of the planning, the itinerary even ... particularly where it all begins at the Wall Drug Store (of all places, as in Free Ice Water and 5¢ coffee besides) and continues eastward with some Interesting Detours as aren't exactly the Santa Fe Railroad's Indian Detours to the New Mexico and Arizona Pueblos back in the day en route to no less than the next Major Character Convocation, as in the Moxie Festival in mid-July out Lisbon, Maine way. And especially when you have in mind a number of interesting highlights heading into the crossing of Lake Michigan via high-speed carferry, the better to avoid the Bedlam and Confusion out Chicago way, and save considerable mileage.

Highlights including the World's Only Corn Palace, in Mitchell, South Dakota ... the SPAM Museum in Austin, Minnesota ... the Winona Steamboat Days festival ... some time in the company of one Crazy Claws in Wisconsin Dells, of all the kitschy tourist traps out there ... which, no doubt, requires plenty of scouring through as much the Rand-McNally Road Atlas, the Old Reliable in matters of road trip planning, as the likes of Roadside America, compendium of compendiums for the kitschy and the tacky of roadside Americana ... and even with one Peter Potamus flying over in his Magic Zeppelin while many of us are in tour buses and what-not, including the Hair Bear Bunch in that legendary Invisible Motorcycle.

Speaking of such, I gave them a call on their mobile advising them of the road trip's imminence, and just hoping throughout that the Invisible Motorcycle may be up to the task, only to get some fresh and fascinating news from Hair Bear: They were able to pick up a decent-running Volkswagen Campervan, replete with the original air-cooled engine and a serious rebuild from the Speed Buggy crew of Mark, Debbie, Tink even ... and let's just hope there that the Hair Bears, with their Campervan, don't get dumber looks than seems to be the rule with Scooby-Doo's crew in The Mystery Machine. (As Hair Bear explained the decision, "we felt that having an Invisible Motorcycle on such a long run might get to be rather tiring on the legs after so many experiences on same ... and besides, wouldn't a VW Campervan be a worthwhile change for once?!")

Somehow, it doesn't seem the same without the Half-Dog, Half-Cat Half-Track from the Fender Bender 500 days; we could easily have staged a few stage shows for the one-horse towns along the way otherwise too dependent on satellite TV with too many choices and too few worthwhile programmes to watch anyway, especially when The Bungle Brothers could have performed. Or even offered up an Amateur Talent Hour in such bastions of cultural backwardness at risk of summertime ennui made worse by bad TV.

But when you research the old Rand-McNally to the point of reducing such to being dogeared and all, you try to put it out of your memory. (Oh ... did I mention as a likely stop on the way the World's Largest Six-Pack of Beer in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, Photo Opportunity in the vein of the star-crossed Duffy's Dozen and all, not to mention the Wisconsin Roadside Tavern Experience, replete with electronic darts games, heated up pizza and sandwiches, and just that air of tackiness which seems to be made worse when it's mostly the same local colour almost every night, even to the point of imagining the possibility of the Cattanooga Cats, say, playing such a bar?)

(BTW, the contacts reminding all continue.)

[anomiezine-blog]

What Is Wrong with Democracy

In memory of Alan MacSimoin

“For two decades the supporters of Bolshevism have been hammering it into the masses that dictatorship is a vital necessity for the defence of the so-called proletarian interests against the assaults of counter-revolution and for paving the way for Socialism. They have not advanced the cause of Socialism by this propaganda, but have merely smoothed the way for Fascism in Italy, Germany and Austria by causing millions of people to forget that dictatorship, the most extreme form of tyranny, can never lead to social liberation. In Russia, the so-called dictatorship of the proletariat has not led to Socialism, but to the domination of a new bureaucracy over the proletariat and the whole people. …”

Rudolf Rocker

The nativist strains of populism currently strangling the world today have been heralded as no more than a throwback to the 1930’s. However, like in the 1930’s, the markets love a pro-business autocrat as he rides roughshod over the planet. It remains to be seen whether he starts a World War but, before that should happen, let’s look at the alternatives anarchism offers, before the mutually assured destruction of democratically elected bullies visits us again.

Anarchism is not always pacifist, but it is less aggressive than ideologies built around a messianic leader. It is also less gun-ready than most democracies, where the will of preservation of wealth (of both the political class, and their sponsors) leads to repression, curtailment or suspension of civil liberties, as well as the violent impoverishment of all but a select few. What is incredibly duplicitous about democracy, is the veneer of respectability the offices of the judiciary (institutions professing justice) and the legislature (institutions professing the ‘will of the people’) lend the executive. The Castle upon a hill, so to speak. Even to question its legitimacy is to question the very essence of ‘justice, humanity and the values of mankind’.

The judiciary doles out exorbitant punishments for those guilty of crimes borne out of necessity or dictated by a life of poverty certain citizens are borne into (larceny, drug dealing and drunk & disorderly conduct). However, for securities fraud or insider trading, as evidenced by the bankers, property developers and sundry before the last recession, the punishments did not fit the crime (Seán Fitzpatrick, chairman of Anglo Irish Bank, was acquitted of all charges brought against him and was allowed to keep a €22m pension after defrauding the State of millions). Capitalism could not exist without the state, which enforces property rights, and democracy is the most streamlined perversion of a capitalist state.

Democracy also isn’t as free as its champions claim, nor does it perpetuate itself. Democracies have supported autocrats (in the Middle-East, say) until they have outlasted their use, before being ousted by democracies military-industrial complex. Democracies entrench privilege in much the same way monarchies did during the age of exploration. They are a cosseted virtue for the rich, nominally just for their citizens, and entirely rapacious of lesser citizens. It is a more effective means of control, as subjects believe their autonomy (“I have a vote”).

Anarchism takes the notion of inherited power, evidenced by both democracies ruling élite, and monarchy’s regal court, and aims to subvert it by diffusing it throughout a society, on a voluntary, cooperative basis. Voluntary, as coercion is against its cause and would lead to tyranny of the few believers over an agnostic many (think Soviet-era Russia), and cooperative as anarchy, as any system, requires a majority of people living under it, to work to further its means. However, the cooperation under anarchism aims at sharing power, not amassing it.

There is a terrific irony in democrats piling the failures of democratic governance to curb neoliberal greed and capitalistic excess on those same neoliberal capitalists. Democracy is nurtured by capital, its offices oiled by dollars and its politicians weaned on the whiff of money. And it has always been this way, Adam Smith wrote that “Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.”

‘Democracy’ in the 21st century doesn’t even resemble the democracy that Smith was fearing. The capitalists can cheat and steal under democracy simply because capital is king, not the body politic. We, as products of participatory democracy are enthralled by the vague promises that a better day will come, even after being simultaneously abused by a system that holds us in contempt and exploited by those whose interests in keeping the illusion of democracy alive are very real. We are victims of the age of democracy and yet, we feel we owe it a debt of gratitude.

However, before we lose the run of ourselves, let us not despair. Anarchism offers simple solutions. Now I will focus on what anarchism brings to the table, that we all may sleep more peacefully. The main strength of anarchism for the 21stCentury is this: Anarchism is anti-authoritarian. This means not only will it fight against the Trumps, Dutertes and Xinpings of the world to make the world safer, more environmentally-friendly and less hierarchical but, it will set the stage for true freedom for all people. The great thing about anarchism is its endless malleability. There are as many theories of anarchism, as there are thinkers but, I think Bookchin summarized it correctly. Anarchism is “a confederation of decentralized municipalities; an unwavering opposition to statism; a belief in direct democracy; and a vision of a libertarian communist society”.

[seacafes]

disney channel is going downhill: a rant.

    Growing up in the early 2000s, I feel as though as a child, I witnessed the peak of Disney Channel entertainment. Hannah Montana, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, and That’s So Raven were just a few of the wonderfully relatable and entertaining shows I watched as a kid.  The shows that Disney channel used to play tackled feminism, racism, body positivity, and had very diverse casts. The Disney Channel of the early 2000s sent some very positive messages to its young viewers long before we were old enough to understand how much we needed them. While a few newer kids shows may have some positive lessons or anecdotes in their episodes, the older shows seemed to more actively seek out opportunities to enlighten young audiences about what it means to be strong, well-rounded, and confident, no matter what their situation may be.

    Back then, we had “That’s So Raven”, that not only featured a black female lead who was as bold as she was hilarious, was also unafraid to tackle issues like body shaming and racism in ways that felt natural. Raven taught us that people come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, and that we’re all beautiful. This shows in Season 2 Episode 8 of the show, released in April 2004, where Raven is excited over a vision of herself modeling her own clothes for a fashion show, until the magazine that sponsors it photoshops someone else's body over hers. Her body has been altered, and she appears much thinner than she really is. She is upset that her own body was not used, and also that the head of the agency only believes that there is only one look for all models. The fashion show director didn’t want Raven to model because she thought she was “plus size.”, and that apparently wasn’t good enough. In the end Raven  stands up for herself and proves that it’s what’s on the inside that really counts, not the outside.

    The channel also had a similar episode on Season 2 Episode 34 of the show the Suite Life of Zack and Cody, released in March 2007, where London and Maddie get insulted by Francesca (one of London's rich friends) while trying on clothes for a fashion show that they would both be participating in and then, after taking what she said and looking at themselves in a mirror that distorts their images (which can be seen as a reference to body dysmorphic disorder), both London and Maddie decide that they need to handle their weight issues before participating in a fashion show. London vows to lose weight and Maddie decides she must eat more to avoid being underweight. After London starves herself to the point of dizziness, while doing continuous laps around the hotel lobby, and Maddie has eaten several fast food burgers in a single day, the two prepare for the show, though as a result of their extreme methods, they both mess up their chance on stage. Afterwards, they discover that even London’s “perfect friend” Francesca has been stuffing her bra. This causes the two girls to agree that they are perfect the way they are, because nobody's perfect, saying, ‘What were we thinking? We were starving and stuffing ourselves, and we didn’t even need to do it. We should just be happy with the way we look. Next time one of your snarky friends makes a comment, let’s remind ourselves that we are perfect just the way we are.”

    Along with tackling physical issues, Disney Channel had shows and movies with strong leading roles played by women like Kim Possible and Wendy Woo from "Wendy Woo Homecoming Warrior" that taught us that girls can be tough and powerful too. Lizzie McGuire was so feminist that "subtle" isn't even an appropriate adjective. The show regularly dealt with the pressures of gender stereotypes, while exploring exactly what it meant to be a young woman exploring her identity.. It had Alex Russo from Wizards of Waverly Place, a character full of confidence, smarts, and wit, who constantly surpassed the low expectations that society had set for her in the show. Her deep exploration of her identity could get pretty inspiring. Kim Possible taught some important feminist life lessons by teaching young women that it's totally cool to be a sassy overachiever, and you don’t have to be a man to be a hero.

    All of these shows show that even though things might not be so good right now, everything will be okay in the end. They taught us how to react in certain situations, and how to handle the really hard ones. I still think back to episodes from my childhood when I find myself in a situation similar to one that I saw in one of my beloved shows, and because of them, I know what to do to make everything okay, or at least easier.

    In the early 2000s, it felt as though disney were ahead of their time. Many people like to claim, and I agree, that 2010 was when everything began to go downhill. In Season 1 Episode 7 of the show Shake it Up released in December 2010, the two main character’s Rocky and CeCe attend a party, where they are serving food to the supermodel guests. While serving, a supermodel approaches them and says, “You are adorable! I could just eat you guys up. You know- if I ate.” And goes on to laugh with her entourage. Former Disney Star Demi Lovato, who had left her own show “Sonny With A Chance” to deal with her own struggles with an eating disorder, tweeted about the joke, “I find it really funny how a company can lose one of their actresses from the pressures of an eating disorder and yet still make joke about that very disease,” Demi noted at the time, referencing her own very public battle with the disease. She also asked, “What are we promoting here? #notfunnyATALL.” This episode was a sad thing to see, seeing as in the past, we had Raven Baxter, London Tipton, and Maddie Fitzpatrick teaching us that jokes like that were not okay. That same year, in Season 1 Episode 9 of So Random!, more eating disorder jokes were said. In one of the sketches, a girl has her boyfriend meeting her family for the first time. She tells them, “Angus only eats one full meal a week ask him why” to which Angus replies, “My agents always on me about looking my best. She says to me “Ang-y, if you eat too many carbs, you won’t get the jobs. And I said “I knooow”.” But that’s not all! In an episode of Dog with a Blog (which, yes, is about a talking dog who runs a blog), the mother says, “I've been bitten, scratched, mauled, and puked on. And only one of those was self inflicted." implying that she made herself throw up, making light of the eating disorder, bulimia. If you didn’t think it could get worse- you’re in for a surprise! In an episode of the show Jessie, a character in a Zebra costume can be seen running away from a zebra. The zebra ends up catching him, and one of the kids witnessing the attack calmly states, “dressed like that, you were asking for it.” Why was that comment needed on a children’s show, Disney? What message are you trying to portray there? That if you dress a certain way, you’re “asking for it”? I don’t think so.

    Nowadays, the shows are filled with fake jokes and contrived situations that no one can believe or relate to. The kids in the shows wear tons of makeup and layers upon layers of fancy clothes. Miley Stewart only wore lots of makeup when she was performing as Hannah Montana. Even Sharpay Evans of East High had all the glitz and glam, but she wasn't over the top with makeup and her clothes.Why are the kids in shows like "Liv and Maddie" and "Jessie" dressing like adults and acting like they have real world adult problems; it seems like they've just skipped over their innocent childhood years.

    Along with continuously being problematic and lacking real lessons for the audience to learn, current Disney Channel shows also lack substance. Every show is the same! Looking at the shows now, the actors & actresses look more materialistic and over the top. The channel now has unrealistic storylines, where as the shows in the 2000’s had real-life storylines that were more relatable to us. Even the character’s themselves now lack substance, and with most show’s you can easily point out the stereotypical “smart kid”, “dumb kid”, “popular kid”, etc.

    Luckily, Disney has attempted to redeem themselves with show’s such as Girl Meets World, a remake of the infamous Boy Meets World, which tackles similar issues to the ones seen in older Disney shows that we all know and love. That show got cancelled after only a few seasons though, unfortunately, but Disney then released the show Andi Mack, which is about a girl named Andi who on her 13th birthday discovers that her sister is actually her mother who had her when she was young.  One of the main characters also recently came out as gay, and I hope that this trend will continue on with more Disney Channel shows in the future. But, I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

    Like the great Hannah Montana once said, Everybody makes mistakes, everybody has those days, everybody knows what I’m talking about, everybody gets that way. Nobody’s perfect, and I wish Disney Channel would remember that, instead of shoving show’s about a dog who runs a blog down children’s throats. Not to mention how they let a horribly problematic YouTuber influencing the youth of today with his wildly inappropriate content on to one of their shows, but that’s a whole other rant for another day.

[larryland]

REVIEW: "The Skin of Our Teeth" at the Berkshire Theatre Group

REVIEW: “The Skin of Our Teeth” at the Berkshire Theatre Group

[livesets-dj-mixes-edm-podcasts]

Download Alan Fitzpatrick - We Are The Brave Radio 165 for free now!

Artist: Alan Fitzpatrick Show: Alan Fitzpatrick – We Are The Brave Radio 165 Quality: 320 Kbps 48000 Khz Genre: Techno Source: RSS

Discover more Alan Fitzpatrick live sets & radioshows HERE | Listen or download more We Are The Brave Radio episodes HERE

Alan Fitzpatrick – We Are The Brave Radio 165 Tracklist

THERE can be no doubting Alan Fitzpatrick’s position as one of the most influential electronic artists of the moment. Pumped up by yet another series of head-turning productions over the previous twelve months, the Englishman’s profile continues to transition rapidly from the techno underground towards the electronic music main stage, attracting significant attention from BBC Radio 1, Mixmag and Resident Advisor and elevating Fitzpatrick to the position of global headliner. A status supported by the release of Fitzpatrick’s critically acclaimed Fabric 87 mix compilation in the first half of 2016 and continued with the monumental impact of new label We Are The Brave and first single ‘We Do What We Want’, that received such widespread support that it inspired snapchats from school kids and was even heard played at KFC. Tune in to Alan Fitzpatrick – We Are The Brave Radio 165 now!

Weekly Podcast

Guest mix from Jonas Kopp, no track list available.

The podcast Alan Fitzpatrick – We Are The Brave Radio is embedded on this page from an open RSS feed. All files, descriptions, artwork and other metadata from the RSS-feed is the property of the podcast owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by EDMliveset.com.

Follow us on: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit & VK

[edmlivesets4u-blog]

Listen or download Alan Fitzpatrick - We Are The Brave Radio 165 for free now!

Artist: Alan Fitzpatrick Show: Alan Fitzpatrick – We Are The Brave Radio 165 Quality: 320 Kbps 48000 Khz Genre: Techno Source: RSS

Discover more Alan Fitzpatrick live sets & radioshows HERE | Listen or download more We Are The Brave Radio episodes HERE

Alan Fitzpatrick – We Are The Brave Radio 165 Tracklist

THERE can be no doubting Alan Fitzpatrick’s position as one of the most influential electronic artists of the moment. Pumped up by yet another series of head-turning productions over the previous twelve months, the Englishman’s profile continues to transition rapidly from the techno underground towards the electronic music main stage, attracting significant attention from BBC Radio 1, Mixmag and Resident Advisor and elevating Fitzpatrick to the position of global headliner. A status supported by the release of Fitzpatrick’s critically acclaimed Fabric 87 mix compilation in the first half of 2016 and continued with the monumental impact of new label We Are The Brave and first single ‘We Do What We Want’, that received such widespread support that it inspired snapchats from school kids and was even heard played at KFC. Tune in to Alan Fitzpatrick – We Are The Brave Radio 165 now!

Weekly Podcast

Guest mix from Jonas Kopp, no track list available.

The podcast Alan Fitzpatrick – We Are The Brave Radio is embedded on this page from an open RSS feed. All files, descriptions, artwork and other metadata from the RSS-feed is the property of the podcast owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by EDMliveset.com.

Follow us on: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit & VK

[fredenglish]

Feature Friday: Heather McEntarfer and Cornelius FitzPatrick

For this week’s Feature Friday, I had the opportunity to talk with Professors Heather McEntarfer and Cornelius FitzPatrick. On Thursday, April 29, 2021, they were in the spotlight in the English Department’s Creative Writing Faculty Reading Series, for the final reading of three this semester featuring professors reading their work virtually.  It allowed students and faculty to encounter literature outside the classroom in an informal setting, to learn about their professors’ and colleagues’ writing styles, to find out what they are working on, and to ask them questions.  

Professor FitzPatrick went to Columbia University for his undergraduate degree and then attended Colorado State University to earn his MFA. On campus, Professor FitzPatrick typically teaches Introduction to Creative Writing and an Intermediate Fiction Writing Workshop. For the first time this fall, he will be teaching Screenwriting. Outside of Fredonia, he has received a Fiction Fellowship from the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center and an Emerging Writers Fellowship from A Public Space. His work has appeared in A Public Space; he is currently working on a collection of stories and a novel.

Professor McEntarfer earned her bachelor’s degree in Integrated Language Arts at Hiram College. After graduating, she earned her MFA in Creative Nonfiction at the University of Pittsburgh and herPhD in English Education at the University of Buffalo. Professor McEntarfer is now the English Education Coordinator for Fredonia English. She teaches a combination of English Education and writing courses including Adolescent Literature, Texts and Contexts, Methods and Seminar for English Education, and Intermediate Creative Nonfiction. Outside of Fredonia, she has had her work appear in Permafrost, The New Yinzer, and Trillium literary journals as well as in PittMed, Pitt Magazine, and Jill Magazine. 

Professor McEntarfer decided to read to the students and faculty a creative nonfiction personal essay in progress that is set during the time of the pandemic. She had mentioned during the reading that she mostly has been focusing on academic writing for the past couple of years, and is starting to get back into essay writing. I asked Professor McEntarfer how she got interested in writing nonfiction and if she focuses exclusively on this type of writing. She replied, “I have loved writing since I was a little kid. When I was in 3rd grade, I wanted to be Laura Ingalls Wilder, and I always was writing fictional stories as a kid. When I was in college in Ohio I was a writing minor and I had a professor who was into creative nonfiction. Creative nonfiction is still the lesser known genre in some ways, like poetry and fiction are the main stage; that was even more true then. She introduced it to me when I had been writing poetry, and I kind of felt like ‘oh, I can say everything I want to say here,’ and I can’t do that in my poetry. I just loved it once I got into it. I pretty much only write nonfiction now.”

When I asked Professor FitzPatrick if he writes only fictional stories, he replied, “I do write only fiction. Sometimes I read another author, a fiction writer, writing about books, and I think, ‘gosh, I’d like to do that sometime,’ but I just write fiction. I’m engaged to a brilliant poet. Reading her work is exhilarating and also shows me that my mind doesn’t quite work like that. I encourage people to work in multiple genres, of course. I imagine it’s hard to find the time. Maybe I watched too much television as a kid; those narrative grooves are just in there.” I then asked how he got interested in writing fictional stories. He responded, “I write fiction because I’ve always read fiction. My parents are reading constantly, so I suppose I should blame them, but reading fiction, spending time with an author’s mind like that--it was joyful. It made the world, inner and outer, bigger. I still feel that way. I guess an answer that may be a little more practical, though, is that I started writing fiction seriously in college. More specifically, I didn’t dedicate myself to it until senior year. Before that, my school had all these core requirements, plus I’d been taking Chinese classes because I thought I wanted to be a journalist. A few years at the school paper showed me that I wasn’t really interested in journalism, and then I finished my Chinese classes over the summer after junior year, and senior year all I took were writing classes. It would still be a year or two, maybe more, until I had anything resembling decent writing habits, but that was the start of it--taking all those writing classes senior year. I don’t know if that will be useful to students.” 

As theirs was the last creative writing faculty reading of the semester, I asked both Professor McEntarfer and Professor FitzPatrick what they were hoping the students and faculty got out of their faculty reading. Professor McEntarfer stated, “I know that I have enjoyed and gone to the other readings, and it is nice to get to know my colleagues as writers. It has also been nice to get a sense of the faculty members’ style of writing. I knew who wrote fiction and who wrote poetry in the past; however, I never got a sense of their writing style so it has been nice to listen to that. I think it is a more informal place for the students to get to know and hear a range of approaches to writing.” Professor FitzPatrick replied, “This year has been hard on all of us. My conversations about fiction and poetry with my students have really pulled me through. I hope the reading can be more of that. Teaching creative writing can sometimes feel a bit one-way, at least in terms of sharing work--I get to read so much student work in a semester--I guess it’s only fair that they get to hear something of mine.”

This has been the first year that the creative writing faculty readings have happened in the English Department. So far, they have been a success. But  should they continue? Should the department make them an every semester event? Professor FitzPatrick answered, “I do hope the faculty readings continue. I don’t know that anyone needs to hear me read every semester, but hopefully someone will read every semester. It’s all part of the writing community we’re trying to build, trying to maintain.” Professor McEntarfer added, “I think it is a great way for students to see their professors are writers and for us to get to know each other outside the classroom setting--I think it is an awesome opportunity.”

Katherine Yudin, May 7, 2021

[dailynewswebsite]

Fantasy Football Week 7 Rankings: Russell Wilson vs. Kyler Murray highlights matchups to prep for

The Guardian

Ryan Fitzpatrick is main the happiest march to obsolescence in NFL historical past

The Dolphins quarterback is preserving the starter’s spot heat for Tua Tagovailoa in Miami. However like a lot of his profession, he’s doing so with fashion and skillWhen Miami Dolphins rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa made his NFL debut through the remaining drive of Sunday’s 24-Zero annihilation of the New York Jets, nobody appeared happier than the person he’ll at some point exchange, Ryan Fitzpatrick. The 37-year-old led the sparse house crowd in an ovation with a smile so massive it nearly outdid his magnificent beard. And why not? Fitzpatrick is aware of that is his group solely briefly. He accepts and embraces it. However within the meantime, he’s balling. Fitzpatrick is seventh within the league in QBR and will stay in that territory after tossing three touchdowns towards the Jets. (He additionally threw two interceptions, certainly one of which was the 0-6 Jets’ few highlights of the season.) His 70% completion charge is the best of his profession and he’s helming a scrappy group coming off back-to-back blowout wins. The Dolphins are a pleasure to observe nowadays with a lot of the enjoyment rooted in Fitzpatrick. After Miami topped Jacksonville in Week 3’s bonanza of facial hair quarterbacks, Fitzpatrick was elated. “I really feel just like the luckiest man on this planet typically, attending to go outdoors and play soccer with my mates,” he informed reporters. Fitzpatrick has a refreshing happy-to-be-here side to his profession however he’s additionally sensible, robust and helpful sufficient to be an ideal cease hole for any franchise. Simply ask the Rams, Bengals, Invoice, Titans, Texans, Jets, Bucs and now Dolphins. Fitzpatrick won’t ever be the tallest or quickest in a quarterback room, however nobody will prime his willpower. Fitzpatrick’s journey was detailed by Yahoo this this summer season, a journey that concerned battling to win beginning quarterback job at Highland Excessive in Gilbert, Arizona, then transferring up the depth chart at Harvard, earlier than consistently having to reprove his price to a litany of NFL franchises. Some quarterbacks are branded as starters, some as backups. Fitzpatrick is in his personal distinctive class the place he so generally emerges because the starter that you just lose monitor of whether or not or not it was by design.Fitzpatrick is a wonderment not due to his stronger-than-you-think arm, his escapability, and even his endless beard. It’s his self-awareness. It’s his skill to know that he’s a placeholder but take the sector like he owns the group. It’s his skill to encourage his teammates. “Fitz is only a healthful particular person. The way in which he’s out on the sector is identical means he’s off the sector,” Tagovailoa informed ESPN this week. “I don’t suppose there’s actually a definite change in who he’s. I imply, what you see out there’s actually who Fitz is. He’s a coach. He’s a mentor on and off the sector. However he’s additionally a really, very family-oriented particular person. Very loving. Very caring for guys. And he’s humorous, too. He’s actually humorous.”It’s uncertain that Aaron Rodgers will likely be leaping for pleasure when Jordan Love takes the sector nor would most quarterbacks once they can see their current turn into their previous within the flesh. However Fitzpatrick is a unique breed. His pleasure for Tagovailoa’s entrance illuminated his objective as each a bridge and a mentor. Like Patrick Mahomes with Alex Smith, Tagovailoa entered the NFL in an idyllic state of affairs. In Fitzpatrick, he acquired a mentor that not solely leads by instance however who genuinely needs the child to succeed. It’s one factor to look at how a lot time a teammate places into movie research, it’s one other when that teammate additionally cares about you as a human and needs to information you thru the whole thorny panorama that’s the NFL. That’s Fitz. Each every so often, it seems like Fitzpatrick is destined to be the man underneath middle. However the baton will likely be handed off, and probably quickly. Till then, Fitzpatrick will hold partaking in a quarterback arc that’s charmed and uniquely his. Stat of the weekThe Patriots are underneath .500 this late within the season for the primary time since 2002. For many groups a 2-Three file wouldn’t be trigger for panic. It would even be trigger for celebration when you reside within the NFC East. However this season has been a serious pivot for the Patriots who had a reserved seat within the playoffs for the final 20 years. The Pats had been sloppy on each side of the ball in a 18-12 house loss to the Broncos. Cam Newton, now recovered from Covid-19, was sacked 4 instances and had no offensive weaponry or safety. There may be the apparent excuse of little to no follow time given the ability’s Covid-19 closure over a lot of the previous two weeks. However in contrast to the Titans, who overcame the identical hurdles and crushed the Payments final Thursday, the Pats don’t look like a group with a lot depth or overwhelming expertise at this level. MVP of the week> THAT’S ROYALTY!

> > 94-yard TD run for @KingHenry_2 > >

: Watch HOUvsTEN on CBS pic.twitter.com/44iVQKCwVR> > — Tennessee Titans (@Titans) October 18, 2020Derrick Henry, RB, Tennessee Titans. All hail King Henry who placed on a clinic in Tennessee’s scintillating 42-36 additional time win towards the Texans. When JJ Watt strip-sacked Ryan Tannehill, a turnover that resulted in a landing and Houston taking the lead, it appeared like a serious momentum shift. However Henry answered with a jaw-dropping-how-does-a-man-that-big-have-those-jets 94 yard landing. Henry was additionally instrumental in additional time, barreling upfield on a 53-yard display screen after which scoring the game-winner on a direct snap. Henry ended with 212 dashing yards and have become the primary participant in NFL historical past with 200-yard video games in three consecutive seasons. May he be probably the most harmful rusher since Adrian Peterson in his prime? Video of the week> Aaron Rodgers took a tough hit ultimately zone, then he instantly obtained up and hit them with a “double pump.” Absolute savage

pic.twitter.com/fjDOyKSnrz> > — FOX Sports activities: NFL (@NFLonFOX) October 18, 2020 Aaron Jones ran in a one-yard landing within the first quarter for Inexperienced Bay but it surely was the opposite Aaron who actually felt the second. Sure, Aaron Rodgers carried out the Hingle McCringleberry extreme celebration sketch, a fictional soccer participant made well-known from Key and Peele. Quote of the week“We’re one of the best protection on this league” – Bears inside linebacker Danny Trevathan.It’s laborious to argue with Trevathan after the Bears’ protection turned in one other dominating, opportunistic defensive efficiency, topping Carolina 23-16. They had been flat out stifling as the sport progressed, particularly the run stuffers. As Kevin Fishbain of the Athletic factors out the Bears allowed Panthers rusher Mike Davis to gather 40 yards on eight carries. However after that they held him to 12 yards on 10 carries. The Bears now sit at a really wholesome 5-1 and the protection saving the offense appears to be a theme for Chicago this season – and nearly all of their seasons. Elsewhere across the league– The arrival of Tom Brady put a whole lot of deal with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offense however their protection is among the finest within the league. They made Rodgers look unusual, whereas they harassed him all afternoon because the Bucs inflicted the Inexperienced Bay Packers’ first lack of the season. Certainly, the Bucs protection was so dominant that Rodgers was pulled within the fourth-quarter to guard him from additional punishment.– After accidents to the Jags’ first 4 kickers this season, they reached deep into the pile and pulled out … somebody who had by no means tried a subject aim at any stage. Jon Brown was a soccer participant at Louisville earlier than transferring to Kentucky to play soccer the place he grew to become a kickoff specialist. However even with out the expertise, Brown drilled his first-ever try like a seasoned vet, although he did miss a 32-yarder later in Jacksonville’s 34-16 loss to the Lions.– Steelers-Browns didn’t fairly reside as much as its Sport of the Week billing. Pittsburgh clobbered Cleveland 38-7, once more showcasing their elite wideout scouting with James Washington becoming a member of Chase Claypool as a pressure. The Steelers protection, aided by a key Minkah Fitzpatrick interception, regarded much more stout than final week. Steelers-Ravens in Week eight must be on everybody’s calendars.– Interim Texans head coach Romeo Crennel had the controversial teaching transfer of the week. The Texans scored with 1:50 left and took a seven-point lead. As an alternative of kicking it to place Houston up eight, Crennel rolled the cube and tried to go for a win with a two-point conversion.– The NFL woke to nice information in Sunday, when zero Covid-19 checks got here again optimistic.– Presumptive No1 total choose Trevor Lawrence carried out his newest masterpiece Saturday, his ridiculous arm and determination making guiding Clemson to an historic 73-7 rout of Georgia Tech. Already up 52-7 on the half, Lawrence left the sport after one second-half sequence with 5 touchdowns, 405 yards, and all quarterback-deficient NFL groups salivating.– Vikings followers, how are you feeling about Kirk Cousins’ $66m assured contract extension? Yikes. He threw three touchdowns in Minnesota’s loss to the Atlanta Falcons … and in addition three interceptions. “The truth is that if the tempo I’m on when it comes to the interceptions, if that had been to proceed, I received’t end the season,” Cousins stated. He’s proper.

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Fowler, Koepka & Mickelson chasing leader Todd at WGC-St Jude

Todd already has wins in Mexico and Bermuda this season, though they took space in 2019

-12 B Todd (US); -11 Byeong-hun An (Kor); -10 R Fowler (US); -9 B Koepka (US); -8 J Thomas (US) Selected others: -7 P Mickelson (US), M Fitzpatrick (Eng); -6 S Lowry (Ire), T Lewis (Eng); -5 D Johnson (US); -2 G McDowell (NI); -1 B DeChambeau (US); 2 T Fleetwood (Eng), R McIlroy (NI); 5 J Rahm (Spa)

Brendon Todd will decide a one-stroke lead into the last round of the WGC-St Jude Invitational – but lots of important person names are chasing the American.

Todd, seeking his third PGA Tour title this season, is on 12 beneath after a 69.

South Korea’s Byeong-hun An is 2d after four birdies in his last six holes in a round of 66 in Memphis.

Rickie Fowler is yet any other shot support whereas defending champion Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas and Phil Mickelson are all within five strokes of the lead.

Todd, who led by two on the midway stage, opened with a birdie and made a bogey on the fifth sooner than a birdie on the eighth thanks to a 22-foot putt.

However he struggled on the support nine with three bogeys and three birdies and faces a final day the place lots of important person names will study about to hunt him down.

Koepka, who has been off produce since golf restarted, is in competitors to support his title after a 68 to lie on nine beneath.

Fowler shot a 69 whereas Thomas and Mickelson carded 66s in what’s the last match sooner than the year’s first main, the rescheduled US PGA Championship.

England’s Matt Fitzpatrick is, recognize Mickelson, five late and Open champion Shane Lowry of Eire is on six beneath – as is Englishman Tom Lewis after a sizzling 61.

World #1 Jon Rahm and Northern Eire’s Rory McIlroy are both languishing outside the head 50 after respective rounds of 71 and 73.

McIlroy lies two over, four shots late his compatriot Graeme McDowell.

Grace out of US PGA after checking out particular for coronavirus

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