#aea shows

[madmachaca]

¿Saben de que me da vibras la morra esta de la nueva caricatura de disney? (La que hizo su video de "Spanish is a conquistador language")

De whitexican.

Específicamente de los whitexican que se echaron encima a la comunidad gamer.

Exactamente las misma vibras.

Y ya no voy a hablar de esto. Nomás me acordé.

[cottagecore-moss-king]

Not so Artificial Intelligence Part 2

When Bruce finally managed to get the time to look at the file Danny had added to the bat computer, it was almost patrol, and the rest of the family was filling in to get ready to head out. Even Jason had shown up, but that was probably just because he was bribed by Alfred with leftovers from dinner. Bruce couldn’t really blame him, Alfred’s food was the best in the world, but he does wish that he would show up more often just to hang out with him and his siblings.

Bruce sat in the bat-chair, graciously labeled with a sticker from a recent prank by Stephanie. She had gone around and labeled everything in the bat cave, but added the bat suffix in front. It had taken forever to find most of them, but he allowed some of them to remain. 

Finding the new folder was easy, it was labeled FROM DANNY, and left in the middle of the screen. Clicking it open and sipping his fresh coffee he glanced at the first document. The folder was full of notes, pictures and videos, but all of the previews were white, green, or black. 

Bruce started to read through the document, and chocked on his coffee at the contents.

Hello Batman and family, I hope this reached you before they do. I didn’t bring this up just incase you knew and were supportive, but how you act and how contaminated you are I will assume you do not. There is a Government Law that declares any being that has come into contact with enough or creates ectoplasm as non-sentient and non-sapient, but at the same time malicious {Abbreviated the AEA}. We are to be turned over to the GIW to be experiment upon and exterminated. This is literal torture, and I have gathered as much evidence as me and my friends could without being caught. I beg you, please be careful if you decide to take these people down. From what is on here, I think that Lazarus Water is a form of corrupted ectoplasm. Also, anyone who has died and come back to life no matter what are counted, and anyone with godly blood within them. Please Please, save us. My parents are the leading “scientists” which is bullshit, and they’ve already tied me down once. I can’t go through that again. Please, Amity and the Infinite Realms need help. If you don’t help us, I’m scared we may be forced to go to war, and I don’t think you can win against the godly dead. 

Please, I’m begging you - Danny Fenton {King Phantom}

“You good B?” Nightwing asked strolling over casually. He didn’t know how to answer, how was he supposed to say ‘Oh yeah, just found out that the government calls us non-sentient\sapient, and we are to be experimented and slaughtered. Also if we don’t stop them our worlds probably going to fall and we’re all going to die a painful death.’ That’s a fun conversation to have.

Clearing his throat he finally spoke up. 

“Red Robin, Oracle, I need you to help me sort through these, Nightwing, get the Justice league ready for an emergency meeting, call the Dark too. Look at this.”

“Are we sure it’s real though? It could be a prank,” muttered Oracle, though even she doubted her words.

“Even so, the threat is there and we should certainly look through this, and that means the League needs to know.”

Batman carefully mourned the loss of a peaceful evening, and his coffee, he was going to need to leave that at the cave, he had an image to keep. 

Nightwing wasn’t smiling anymore, Robin looked concerned, and Red Hood was openly gawking at the screen.

“I’ve called the emergency meeting, you three sort these files out, I’m calling up the JLD now. Guess we should warn Constantine to bring a couple extra bottles huh.” His joke fell flat, but Bruce wonders if he should bring some alcohol and coffee with him, image be dammed. 

“Wait a second, godly blood included? They fuckn’ shittin’ on Diana!”

“That’s what your concerned about Todd? Not that the we both fall under these parameters, along with Father and the rest of the collection? I will go fetch Thomas from his chambers, he will need to suit up to follow us to the watchtower.”

“Good idea Damian, tell him to hurry up. Everyone else, in the Zeta Tube, Alfred, you can stay here if you want.” Bruce gathered his laptop and moved the file over, copying and sending it to Tims laptop as well. 

“Thank you master Bruce, I will wait for the younger masters then I will be up shortly. Run along now.” Alfred excused with a bow, but even his face was shadowed in worry and thinly veiled anger. 

“See you in a bit Alf.” Dick replied, inputting directions to the watchtower in and doing a quick headcount. 

With a flash, the dark gloomy cave was replaced by fluorescent lights and the steel infrastructure of the watchtower. Hopping off the platform another flash of light appeared, and Aquaman stepped out. The group filled out as Aquaman politely greeted them. Making their way to the nearest meeting room, Batman and Red Robin began to set things up as the gathered heroes began to sit. 

“Hey Nightwing, what’s with the meeting, you never call for an emergency meeting, Blüd rarely has big threats.” Flash mentioned as he zoomed into the meeting room, last as always, and began to dig into his waffle plate. Where he got waffles from, Bruce didn’t want to know, they weren’t serving waffles in the cafeteria today, or yesterday from leftovers. 

“This isn’t just Blüdhaven, it’s all of the united States.” He worried, checking over one final time to make sure everyone was here. A collection of the main heroes from the Justice League, they’d need to figure out who counted as ecto-contaminated before throwing people around, and Constantine, Zatanna, and Deadman were gathered to represent Justice League Dark. At least he assumed Deadman was there, as a chair was pulled out and labeled for him. At least they wouldn’t have to race to find him, they could tell him just to stay up in the watchtower if things got bad. Finally, Robin and Signal rushed in, signal tiredly rubbing his eyes and his helmet in Agent A’s hands. 

“As some of you know, a person got stuck in the batcomputer a couple months ago. And was only recently released.” Murmurs and imputed questions rose around, and Nightwing promptly ignored them. 

“They left behind a file for us, and we were looking through it and discovered many hidden crimes from the US government. They have taken and labeled a whole species and group of people as non-sentient and non-sapient, and have been experimenting and committing genocide on them.” Again, a chorus of questions and yelling went up, and Nightwing had to take a moment to pause. A glance at Martian Manhunter reviled a stone cold face, quietly waiting for more information. 

“Oh god… what is this?” 

[chewingbatmanlikeasqueakytoy]

Why doesn't the justice league know about Amity Park?

Okay so it's been a bit sonce I watched the show but one of the things in DpxDC is the anti-ecto acts, which I love, but correct me if I'm wrong, I THINK ??? they only show up in reality trip? SO: What if Danny, when using the gauntlet to undo everything, also got rid of the Anti-Ecto acts? but this is babys first time editing reality so he uh Fucks Up A Lil'. As a result when Danny used the reality gauntlet to wipe the AEA from existence he accidentally wiped Amity Park from perception. A big 'nothing matters over here' jedi mind trick, and now no ones looking at Amity. So, the Justice League actually WERE looking into and monitoring the situation in Amity, but when the perception filter closed them off, all of that suddenly went ignored.

This is noticed when someone (Alfred, Dick, Tim, literally anyone) realises theres just. A BIG dusty pile of case files semi abandoned somewhere in the cave when going through a (time period)ly cave cleaning.

They put it down because it's Not Important.

They come back to finish the cleaning the next day and do the exact same thing, but there's nothing to actually distract them this time and it pings as weird. Because why would case files be not important? They are by definition important, because only things flagged as important go into case files.

They try to get someone else to read it, because as long as they don't read the information in the file, they don't put it down.

That person goes to read it, gets a line in and then says something like 'that isn't important' and goes to leave. Person A pushes it and person B ALSO catches on.

Que the Batfam trying to figure out hey, what the fuck actually?

Meanwhile, how is Amity fairing? Canon compliant everything's going alright? Or have knock on effects to No One Look Here started to show?

[yourlocalcorviddad]

Saw this amazing set of pictures by @nope-asdf it Inspired something, sorry for the sadness in advance.😅😭

It wasn't obvious at first. Not everyone aged significantly in high school after all, so other than the occasional twerp insult from Dash, and the lamenting about not having gained any of this dad's height-meanwhile Jazz did, and it worked well with her, so they just assumed he took after their mom-it didn't change much.

By sophomore year his secret was known by his parents after they had finally had a realization about ghosts-and Danny always suspected it was Clockwork but he couldn't prove it-and had even gotten the GIW disbanded and the AEA repealed with new research papers, it had gone well. There were tears, remorse, apologies that still happened years later whenever they remembered they had been attacking their own son, but with that all going on, they still didn't realize.

Then came junior and senior year, still no obvious changes, mental ones sure, he was more calm and mature and his schooling got easier when things were settled with the ghosts better, but that's it.

Then college, community for the pre-req's, botany and pre-law for Sam, various tech and engineering degrees for Tuck, and engineering and astronomy for Danny.

Having 'such a baby face' didn't help in college when they eventually went to university, always carded for drinks, once even not let into a club because they thought it was a fake ID, but he grinned and barred it.

It wasn't until nearly to graduation it was realized.

"Huh, look at these." Tucker showed an old photo album from high school, one of the rare nights the three of them had off all at once.

"What's up, Tuck?" Danny looked up from the blueprint notes he was going over for a design for one of his classes. Looking over the book, he was confused at first, at least until Sam looked as well and gasped. She took out her phone, pulling up the recent picture and placed it next to the one in the album from his birthday sophomore year.

"Danny, you haven't aged." She said solemnly, pointing at the face that looked the exact same.

Hair style and piercings aside, Danny saw it.

He hasn't aged since he settled fully into the ghost powers and everything settled, possibly even since he even first died.

"...'

"...."

"""Fuck.""" The trio said in unison, breaking the silence that had slowly grown awkward and dead filled.

From that chilling realisation, things went into planning mode.

Baby faced and 'aging well' would only last so long, but they made it work. Clothing, makeup, exercise, hair dye, even careful ghost mode letting some of the white hair show, but eventually, Danny couldn't hide it.

As Sam and Tuck grew, aged, went on with their lives, got married eventually, they had kids, grand kids, had good lives and honestly aged well, living longer than most humans, reaching their hundred teens. Danny... Didn't. Sure he worked and made a name for himself as best he could, but when they reached their 90s and Danny still hadn't changed any, there was no denying it.

Eventually he took to seclusion, moving around, doing work here and there, setting up accounts for his patents to go into without suspicions. Sam helped with the paper trail, Tuck set up legal identities for him when he could, but they all knew it wouldn't last forever.

He didn't realize that meant this.

The area was quiet, the full moon shining over the stones, the funeral long since over. Danny had stood in the back, coat and hat hiding his face, watching as the twin coffin was lowered into the ground.

Sam had passed first, peacefully in her sleep, Tucker walking to find her the next morning, already gone but face at peace. They both waited a few days in case a ghost formed, but there wasn't one. Tucker set their death wishes in motion, and what Danny didn't realize till later, set up things for him too, made sure he was safe for a few more decades, set up 'grandchild' accounts and everything, the kids and grandchildren knew of him, knew him.

"Just promise me you'll keep an eye on them, and yourself. And Sam says don't forget to water her plants on schedule." Tuck had recorded his will reading, and left a letter with the stuff for Danny. No one judged him breaking down in tears, all of them grieving their own ways and understood.

But that had been days ago. The two set to rest, no ghosts formed, and yes he'd checked the zone, long since knowing how to open portals, checked all the records, they weren't there.

Sam and Tucker were gone, moved on just like his parents, and Jazz.

And Danny was alone.

[posttexasstressdisorder]

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Friday, May 16

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SCOTUS: Trump violated Venezuelan migrants’ rights with attempted removals

The Supreme Court in a 7-2 ruling Friday said the Trump administration violated the due process rights of Venezuelan migrants in its rushed effort to remove them from the U.S. last month using the Alien Enemies Act (AEA), a 1798 wartime law.

Through its order, the Supreme Court extended its pause on AEA removals from the Northern District of Texas. However, the court did not determine whether the Trump administration can ultimately carry out removals using the AEA. It asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to determine whether President Donald Trump’s use of the AEA was legal and how much notice is due to those targeted by the act.

In other SCOTUS news

Trump is asking SCOTUS to lift a block on mass layoffs in the government. Last week, a federal court ordered the administration to cease workforce cuts. 

Congressional agency rebuffs Trump bid to expand power grab

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) unsuccessfully attempted to install its own officials at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a key legislative watchdog. A GAO spokesperson told Democracy Docket that the office is part of the legislative branch, and that as a result, it rebuffed DOGE’s advance.

How to find out what DOGE knows about you

DOGE is going from one federal agency to another attempting to collect and centralize vast amounts of personal information on millions of people in the U.S., including social security numbers, medical and banking records and more.

Under the Privacy Act, citizens have the right to request to know what personal information may be held by federal agencies. And since the Trump administration is funding DOGE as if it were a federal agency, people should be able to make Privacy Act requests to it, too. Here's how.

Louisiana sued over vague proof-of-citizenship voting law 

Voting rights groups sued Louisiana over a new law that forces voters to show proof of citizenship without saying what counts as proof. The plaintiffs call the law a “solution in search of a phantom threat.”

Sen. Chris Van Hollen: This is a “dangerous moment” for all of our civil rights

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) joined Marc to discuss his trip to El Salvador to see Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Trump administration's attacks on the rule of law and why all of our civil rights are at risk.

"They want to set the stage for depriving people of their constitutional rights,” Van Hollen said. “And that is why this is such a dangerous moment...because if we strip [Abrego Garcia] of his right to due process, it opens everybody up to the same vulnerability." 

This is a daily newsletter that provides a quick and easy rundown of the voting and democracy news of the day. If you were forwarded this email, you can subscribe to our newsletters here. 

Democracy Docket, LLC 

250 Massachusetts Avenue, Suite 400

Washington, D.C., 20009

[mariacallous]

If Chief Justice John Roberts thinks he’s protecting the legitimacy of the judiciary, he has a funny way of showing it.

Less than a month ago, he rebuked the Trump administration for attacking Judge James Boasberg, who blocked the deportation of migrants under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA).

“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose,” he scolded.

Then on Monday, the chief justice cut the legs out from under Judge Boasberg in an unsigned order (drafted in Roberts’s signature, affable style) gutting the AEA case. Worse, by heading off an impending confrontation between the Trump administration and the trial court, the Court implicitly blessed the president’s strategy of defiance.

Put simply, the Court once again told the Justice Department that it is fine to ignore a trial judge’s order, and even an appeals court order, because, when push comes to shove, SCOTUS will make Trump’s problems go away.

Rewarding the indefensible

On March 14, Trump secretly signed a proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act, a Revolutionary War-era statute that allows the president to deport members of an invading army.

Seeking to define reality by executive fiat, he declared that the street gang Tren de Aragua is coterminous with the Venezuelan government and that the US is under invasion by TdA. And so, by the transitive property, we are at war with the state of Venezuela and can summarily deport anyone the president declares to be a TdA “soldier.”

The proclamation only goes into effect when released. But in preparation, the government began snatching up people it claimed were in TdA, often based on something as innocuous as wearing a Chicago Bulls hat or having a “Jumpman” tattoo, and shipped them to Harlingen, Texas. With rumors swirling that the AEA invocation was impending, immigration activists raced into federal court in DC.

On March 15, three things happened almost simultaneously: First, the government officially released the proclamation. Second, Judge Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order blocking the deportation of migrants under the AEA. And third, the government loaded up three planes of men and shipped them to CECOT, a notoriously dangerous prison in El Salvador.

This open defiance of the court’s order led to contempt proceedings, with the government insisting that it could not possibly explain anything about how the planes wound up in the air because of the state secrets privilege — even as Secretary of State Marco Rubio reposted a tweet by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele featuring a music video of the prisoners deplaning and being thrown into a dungeon .

Meanwhile the government appealed the case on the merits and got roundly slapped down by the DC Circuit in a 2-1 ruling which excoriated the administration for deporting human beings without any process at all based on the preposterous fiction that the country is under alien invasion. But the lone judge who sided with the administration was Judge Justin Walker, a Trump appointee who often tees up very silly arguments to allow the Supreme Court’s right-wingers to reach their preferred outcome.

And true to form, Walker delivered, with a dissent that tried to make sense of the government’s ham-fisted argument that, if the deportees were to be accorded any process at all, that had to come in the form of a petition for habeas corpus filed where the men were detained.

Sure, habeas claims are explicitly demands for release, and these plaintiffs are asking to be repatriated to US custody in America. But Walker massaged this by saying that the plaintiffs’ claims “sound in habeas” — despite sounding nothing like habeas — and thus must be dismissed in DC for lack of jurisdiction.

And that was good enough for the Supreme Court’s conservatives, minus Justice Barrett, who were only too happy to cover their tiny, four-page junk opinion with Walker’s reedy “sounds.”

“AEA detainees must receive notice after the date of this order that they are subject to removal under the Act,” they mewled, as if they were simply substituting one form of relief for another. “The notice must be afforded within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief in the proper venue before such removal occurs.”

In reality, the majority was making new law on the shadow docket without the benefit of any briefing at all. Indeed, temporary restraining orders are definitionally unappealable — or at least, they were until the Trump administration started constantly appealing them. So much for Chief Justice Roberts’s dedication to “the normal appellate review process.”

Justice Sotomayor’s scathing dissent calls out the majority for waving away the import of its decision. The reality is that habeas petitions must meet a very high standard to succeed, even if a detainee has access to a lawyer and wherewithal to file one. That was certainly not the case here, where detainees were moved to Texas and only told hours before being loaded onto flights that they were being deported to a Salvadoran gulag.

And that is no accident. As Justice Sotomayor noted, “Far from acting ‘fairly’ as to the controversy in District Court, the Government has largely ignored its obligations to the rule of law.”

The Trump administration did everything it could to hustle those men out of the country without allowing them to challenge their deportation. And then they both deceived and defied Judge Boasberg — all while Trump and the White House called for his impeachment.

“That a majority of this Court now rewards the Government for its behavior with discretionary equitable relief is indefensible,” Justice Sotomayor wrote incredulously.

Jumping on grenades

The Supreme Court’s ruling gestures at due process for people caught in an inhumane deportation machine, while effectively removing the only convenient avenue for relief. It’s also a bright green light for the Trump administration to continue giving the middle finger to courts, safe in the knowledge that their pals at One First Street will bail them out.

Here, the government spirited these people to Texas with no ability to reach loved ones or lawyers to contest deportations and then defied a court order not to deport them. And once caught, attempted to hide its defiance of the court by invoking the state secrets privilege.

In fact, defiance of judicial orders has been the government’s position in virtually every case since Trump’s personal lawyers took over the Justice Department.

There’s Kilmar Albergo Garcia, the Maryland electrician who convinced an immigration judge in 2019 to issue an order that he should not be deported to El Salvador, where he faced danger of being murdered by the MS-13 gang. He was nonetheless deported to El Salvador on one of the flights at issue in the AEA case, in what the government concedes was an “error.”

When a Maryland judge ordered the government to get Garcia back by midnight on Monday, the Supreme Court swept in with an administrative stay, heading off the possibility that the administration would find itself in open defiance of a trial court’s order. As of this writing, the Supreme Court has not ruled whether the government has an obligation to get someone back after mistakenly casting him into a dangerous dungeon.

Then there’s Dr. Rasha Alawieh, who was deported to her native Lebanon despite an order from a judge in Boston barring it. The government submitted an affidavit saying the agents who hustled the doctor onto a plane didn’t know about the order.

There are the countless impoundment cases where the administration has simply ignored orders from federal judges to release funds allocated by Congress, mumbling nonsense about refusing to disburse the money for “other” reasons. And in every case where the appeals court refused to stay a deadline for compliance — that is, a date for the trial judge to hold the government in contempt if they refused to comply — the Supreme Court has intervened.

For instance, Judge Amir Ali in DC ordered the government to disburse $2 billion in foreign aid funds for services already rendered by midnight on February 26. The chief justice issued another administrative stay, meaning that the government was allowed to continue withholding the money, through March 5. After the deadline for compliance had passed, the three liberal justices (plus Roberts and Barrett) ended the stay while harrumphing that “the District Court should clarify what obligations the Government must fulfill to ensure compliance with the temporary restraining order, with due regard for the feasibility of any compliance timelines.”

And when Judge Myong Joun in Massachusetts ordered the Department of Education to give states grant money for teacher training, a five-justice majority jumped in to ensure that the government didn’t have to comply.

In short, whenever there’s a danger that the Trump administration might face real consequences for defying a court order, the conservative majority leaps on the grenade to make sure it never happens.

Judicial appeasement

It’s possible that Chief Justice Roberts believes he is protecting the judiciary by forestalling the day when the Trump administration tells a federal judge “no.” Maybe he fears that the third branch won’t survive a head-on confrontation with a deranged demagogue and his millions of armed followers. Or it could be that he’s just weak.

Whatever the reason, this strategy of allowing the government to flout trial judges’ orders on the assumption that a higher court will bail him out is only making the problem worse. Just yesterday, Lawfare reported that the government is reaching out to government contractors to find out whether they are represented by the law firms targeted in Trump’s executive orders — something which has been explicitly prohibited by three federal judges.

Feeding this beast will not keep it quiet, and it certainly won’t protect the judiciary. As lawyer David Lurie wrote in these pages last week, “John Roberts created a monster. It's about to eat him.”

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Allison Gill at Mueller, She Wrote:

There’s a lot going on in the case of detainees being flown to El Salvador using Trump’s Alien Enemies Act (AEA) proclamation. Ten days ago, after hearing that Trump had invoked the AEA, five Venezuelans being deported without due process asked for an emergency hearing for a temporary restraining order (TRO). Judge Boasberg caught the case and came in for an emergency hearing because planes were already taking off with deportees subject to the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act. During that hearing, the judge asked Trump’s DoJ about the planes, and they responded that they didn’t have any information. With that, Judge Boasberg adjourned the court for 38 minutes to give the DoJ time to get the flight details. When DoJ returned, they still didn’t have any information on the flights. By the end of the hearing, Judge Boasberg expanded the “class” of plaintiffs from the five Venezuelans represented by the ACLU, to ALL people being deported under the proclamation (Venezuelan members of Tren de Aragua (TdA) being deported under the Alien Enemies Act.) After expanding the class, the judge ordered all planes to return to the United States. Within hours, it became clear that the Trump administration had defied Boasberg’s order. Several propaganda videos were released on social media and shared by right wing influencers. Some photos shared by Trump and Rubio, showed tail numbers on planes that could be easily tracked using public flight trackers. Despite this information being easily available to the public, the Trump administration has been refusing to give the information to the judge in his quest to determine whether the Trump administration had violated his court order. [...] They try to justify it using affidavits signed by Marco Rubio, Pam Bondi, and Kristi Noem, who attempt to justify the state secrets privilege by saying that this case hinges on sensitive negotiations with foreign countries (again, many of which were blasted out on Twitter by Bukele and Rubio themselves.)

The Trump Administration has invoked “state secrets privilege” in the J.G.G. v. Trump case that deals with the Alien Enemies Act.

[itschesshire]

Recent AEA stuff cuz it’s been a minute since I’ve posted on here! I’ve gotten more stuff of Maverick Carey (I have more artwork of one of the main antagonists than I do the main protagonist lmao)

Anyway! There’s also the very first piece showing off CheckMate :)!

[broadwaydivastournament]

Broadway Divas Tournament: Round 2A

Laura Linney (1964) "LAURA LINNEY (Diana) Broadway credits include My Name is Lucy Barton (Tony nom. dir. Richard Eyre): The Little Foxes (Tony nom.) Time Stands Still (Tony nom.) and Sight Unseen (Tony nom.) all directed by Daniel Sullivan at MTC. Other credits include Les Liaisons Dangereauses, The Crucible (Tony nom.), Uncle Vanya, Hedda Gabler, Honour, Holiday, The Seagull, Beggars in the House of Plenty, Six Degrees of Separation. Television credits: "Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City," "Ozark" (SAG, Emmy nom), "The Big C" (Emmy, Golden Globe Awards), "John Adams" (SAG, Golden Globe, Emmy Awards), "Frasier" (Emmy Award), "Wild Iris" (Emmy Award), "The Laramie Project," "Tales of the City" trilogy. Film: Falling, The Dinner, Nocturnal Animals, Sully, Sympathy for Delicious, Morning, The Details, The Savages (Oscar nom), Kinsey (Oscar nom), You Can Count on Me (Oscar nom), The Other Man, City of Your Final Destination, The Squid and the Whale, Jindabyne, Love Actually, Mystic River, The Nanny Diaries, Breach, Man of the Year, The Hottest State, Driving Lessons, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, P.S., The Life of David Gale, The Mothman Prophecies, Maze, The House of Mirth, The Truman Show, Absolute Power, Primal Fear, Congo, Lorenzo's Oil, Dave. Training: The Julliard School, Brown University. Member: AEA, SAG." - Playbill bio from Summer, 1976, June 2023.

Audra McDonald (1970) "AUDRA MCDONALD (Suzanne Alexander) is honored to take part in Adrienne Kennedy's historic and long overdue Broadway debut. A board member of Covenant House International and co-founder of Black Theatre United, McDonald is a singer, actor, and activist who lives in New York with her amazing husband and children." - Playbill bio from Ohio State Murders, December 2022.

NEW PROPAGANDA AND MEDIA UNDER CUT: ALL POLLS HERE

"Do you ever think Laura Linney reads her playbill bio and cries? Does she dream of the day when she too will hold a Tony Award aloft in triumph, or has she resigned herself to being one of four actresses with the biggest fail rate and will one day hold the record outright? (Given that Estelle Parsons is in her nineties, Dana Ivey is in her eighties, and Jan Maxwell, my beloved, is dead?) Anyway, the point of this isn't to rub salt in the wound. Love you, Laura Linney."

"It's too mean to title this poll Biggest Tony Winner vs. Biggest Tony Loser but it's pretty damn accurate, and given the overwhelming whiteness of award shows overall, it's damn satisfying that the Black woman is the one with a record-breaking Tonys on her shelf and the white blonde woman is not (no matter how talented she is). Audra McDonald, my beloved, you're going to sweep this entire tournament."

[ashleywool]

Something like butterflies: the grief nobody wants to talk about

There have been many unique flavors of grief washing over me this past week.

The most unexpected one is the grief that comes with knowing that no matter what I do or where I go, even if I leave the business entirely and never see the inside of another theater…my life is never going to be the same as it was before.

I’ve done a lot of shows in my day, and there is always a deep sense of grief when they close—even when I know the closing date when the rehearsals begin. But the grief was different. The grief was rooted in the banality-yet-relief-yet-restlessness of everything going “back to normal.” In my community theatre days, I would close a show on Sunday, and then wake up at 4am on Monday to go sling espresso at Starbucks, flipping through Backstage (yes, the paper version) on my breaks. On my days off, I’d park (sometimes illegally) by the nearest Metro-North station and make the familiar trek to Grand Central, then to Ripley-Grier or Pearl or Nola (RIP) or the old AEA offices where non-members weren’t allowed to use the bathrooms (today’s kids will never understand) and scurry between holding rooms where my name was on the non-union list for three different EPAs.

In later years, when I had my Equity card and the ability to use the temperamental online signup portal to secure an appointment, I would drive down so I could warm up in the car and search for free (or cheaply metered) parking…and then put my name on two different alternate lists while I waited for my appointment time. The last time I did that was May 2023—mere weeks before we knew for sure that Ohio was going to Broadway.

I don’t need to do that anymore. “In fact,” my agent said, “we’d strongly prefer that you didn’t. You originated a principal role on Broadway. You’re on a different level now.”

Of all the feelings that come with that statement—you’re on a different level now—I never would have expected grief to be one of them. It's not that I actively miss those things, per se. It's just weird to know that the version of me who did those things is gone.

Something like butterflies.

When I was a kid, my sister and I had a little bug house, and we would carefully capture bugs, observe them for a while, and then set them free. One time, we supplied the bug house with milkweed and a climbing stick and captured a monarch caterpillar—and the next thing we knew, it was hanging from the climbing stick as a chrysalis. After a few impatient weeks of eager checking, cracks finally appeared in the cocoon. We gently removed the stick from the bug house, placed it in the sun, and watched in awe as our butterfly hatched.

If you’ve ever seen a butterfly emerging from a cocoon, you know how awkward and vulnerable it is after it wrenches its new body and new unused modes of transportation out of the sack of goo that dissolved and then completely transformed its previous body. How must it feel? It's gotta be heckin' weird to unfurl those wet, wrinkled wings, realizing you can flap them, and eventually, when they are dry, realizing—holy poop, I can fly.

I don’t want to overly anthropomorphize a creature whose emotional capacity or long-term memory I can only guess at, but I would imagine that when a butterfly hatches from its cocoon, it probably doesn't miss being a caterpillar. By the same token, I doubt that butterflies look down disdainfully on the caterpillars whose time hasn't quite come yet, or whose time might never come. Perhaps they don’t even have an awareness that they were once caterpillars, or that they are now butterflies—they can’t even see their wings.

But what if they do know? What if they do remember? What if the butterfly remembers its caterpillar life, and recognizes its caterpillar friends, and tries to do all the things it used to do as a caterpillar, and then realizes that it’s never going to be able to relate to the other caterpillars the same way it did when it was one? I wonder if that feels lonely. Or if the butterfly is surprised that it feels lonely.

Unlike the butterfly, I don’t have an instinctual, automatic timeline for my life cycle that tells me when to mate, when to migrate, and when to die. Anything could happen next. I might book another Broadway show before the year is out, or I might not book anything else for years. I might get a different job in the industry, or I might get hired at a bakery as the night baker that nobody ever sees, or I might take my cats and go live in a little cottage off the grid, or I might get hit by a truck (which, come to think of it, does happen to butterflies too).

But no matter what I do or where I go, I’m never not going to be “Ashley Wool, one of Broadway’s original Faces of Autism™ in How to Dance in Ohio” again.

The caterpillar I was before this show came into my life no longer exists, no matter how hard I might try to fit back into the same caterpillar spaces. Like the last time I stayed over at my dad’s house and slept in the built-in twin bed that I claimed for myself at the age of three—before we’d even bought the house—situated romantically under a sloped ceiling that I once covered with stick-on glow-in-the-dark stars. I still love that bed; as long as my dad is alive and owns the house, it will still be there for me to sleep in if I need to. But I don’t quite fit in there anymore.

Of course, as an autistic person, I’m no stranger to not fitting in. But, like most people, I am a stranger to the unexpected grief that accompanies the realization of your wildest dreams. Our society is obsessed with celebrities, and the concept of becoming successful and well-known for doing what we love…and yet, when anyone who has ever been in the public eye doing exactly that, living what we think is our dream, dares to say “actually, this kind of sucks sometimes” we scoff at them.

When Britney Spears sang, "if there's nothing missing in my life, then why do these tears come at night?" we didn't want a real answer. Even 23 years later, after watching the trauma of her conservatorship play out on a worldwide stage and then voraciously devouring her memoir, many of us still say, "yeah, but so what? She's so lucky. She's a star."

Did I sign up for this? Yes, I did. Did I cognitively understand that with success also comes a great influx of people who desperately want to see me fail, or want others to believe that I’ve failed, or find some excuse to discredit my success even if it means inventing one? Also yes. But knowing it and living it are two different things.

I am deeply, gushingly, eternally grateful to everything and everyone that How to Dance in Ohio brought to my life. For as long as I live, I will projectile vomit my gratitude and love for this production and the people attached to it all over the place. Most of all, I will never stop fighting for an industry in which productions and work environments like ours are the rule, and not the once-in-a-generation exception.

But I ask as humbly as I can to please be gentle with me as I figure out how to navigate a future that will forever be shaped by an experience and an identity that only six other people in the history of the world can truly relate to.

All of us are building the planes as we fly them through a dismal, anti-artist late-stage capitalism hellscape over thousands of people who still can’t quite believe that we exist—or don't want us to exist.

We are grateful. But also neurotic. And nervous, excited and anxious. But also alive.

But also butterflies.

[six-costume-refs]

Why do North American actors have to have the costume but not the same hairstyle?

Well, the same costume design can be fit to different actors’ bodies without any design change. Actors’ natural hair will always have a lot more variance. The same hairstyles can’t be altered to different hair as easily, the hair colors that are flattering or look natural on one person won’t look the same way on another, etc etc. It just introduces far more questions about what should/shouldn’t be standardized than costumes do. And actors have broad diversity in hair color/texture/type, which stands to be erased by standardizing hairstyles/wig design in a way that body diversity can’t be erased by costumes.

Differences in costumes are also going to be more noticeable than differences in wigs/hair design, on average. Think about Laura Dawn Pyatt vs Ellie Jane Grant’s Boleyn costume - that difference is noticeable even to someone who has only ever seen marketing for the show. Meanwhile on Broadway Hailee Kaleem Wright and Kristina Leopold have very different wig designs for Aragon, but that’s not going to be noticeable to the average audience member (+ each design feels natural and flattering on them)

Ultimately it just comes to the core intent of that costume rule: not wanting understudies to be treated as “lesser than” any of the principals. Historically, shows haven't always treated their understudies equally, sometimes giving them noticeably significantly lower quality costumes or not even giving them costumes of their own (instead having them share with principals or other understudies). The whole intent of that rule is to require that shows can’t take those shortcuts and instead treat their understudies fairly. In Six’s alt costume system, the alts do get very cool costumes so fair treatment isn’t really the concern, but it’s still a general rule that has to be fairly applied equally across all Broadway shows.

But ultimately that concept of fair treatment doesn’t really apply to wig design. Historically (and even now) many shows have standardized wigs, in style/color/texture. But most of the time that intent hasn’t been about fairness; it’s been about making the differences in appearance between principal and understudy as subtle as possible so that the audience won’t realize an understudy is performing. As Broadway is learning to embrace both their understudies + more diversity in race/ethnicity/appearance more broadly, there’s less focus on making understudies conform to a standardized look (and wigs as a big part of this). Hamilton is really a gold standard example of this: they’ve embraced giving all their principals and understudies wigs that generally match their natural color/texture and even some individualized styles and design. North American Six is also slowly learning to do this, with the newer Cleves and Parr looks and Leandra Ellis-Gaston’s Boleyn braids. Ultimately most of these shows are still following some general guidelines on shape/style for different roles, but ultimately there’s still focus being put on giving each actor a wig that’s individually suited to them even within those guidelines.

Note: all of this is AEA rules (US) and rule specifics only apply to certain tiers of productions.

[selphieetheirys]

shadowbringers drabble ft. aea (@tenalac) “Correct me if I am wrong, but I seem to recall only inviting Selphie. I very much remember making that distinction, but then again, I suppose I am hardly surprised you would be inclined to be so rude as to show up uninvited and unannounced. Suppose better you than that white-haired dolt fawning over her.”

Aea stood there wordlessly, hands gripped into fists as she watched the man who spoke such disdainful words towards her walked up - looking at her as he might a pesky bug waiting to be stomped.

“Well then, dare I ask what possessed you to come wandering in?” Emet-Selch drawled, “Did you abandon Selphie then? Assume she will find some way to save the day as she always does, while you come and… what? Teach me a lesson? Why am I not surprised in the slightest.”

“Shut. Up.” Despite her best efforts to remain as cool-headed, to maintain her ever present collected, cold logical demeanor - the presence of the man before her ignited a deep hidden fury within her that Aea felt had been missing for much too long, “I'm not here for you. I'm here because Selphie ran off after YOU messed with her head. After you scared her, made her think she was going to hurt all of us. I'm here to knock the sense back into her. So get out of my way.”

For a split second, the lazy and disinterested gaze of Emet-Selch disappeared, replaced with shock before hiding it behind a sneer, “Is that so? Is that what you think? Well you're wrong. I merely stated the facts - the reality of her dire circumstances, and offered her the chance of a sweet and pleasant undoing by my hands. It is a fact. It is a reality. She cannot bear the burdens she has been given, and so I shall take them from her as my gift to her.”

A scoff escaped her lips- very nearly a full on laugh at his soliloquy before narrowing her eyes into a razor sharp glare, “You say it so nicely, you could almost convince someone you actually like her, instead of hating her. But I know better, you're just using he-”

“Don’t you dare to presume my feelings for her. Hate her? I hate what she is, the reminder of my own failings. But hate her? No. Never-” he paused, looking at Aea smugly - the corner of his lips turned up into a sneering smirk, “Why, your very existence is proof of how much I love her. For how could I have ever tried to bring back my beloved without her erstwhile friend, her most…faithful bosom companion?”

An unfamiliar feeling rose up inside her - genuine confusion and the inability to understand what he was speaking of, which only served to further ignite her tempest of anger. Anger, at least, she could understand still. 

“What are you talking about? If you have something to say, say it. Quit messing around.”

But Emet-Selch only sighed, full of disdain as he offered up a dismissive wave, “Stay alive, and perhaps you shall find out. Go on, go and find Selphie. She's here, wallowing as you idly chatter with me - should you not be with her in the final moments before this wretched half-existence draws to a close? It is the least you can do, after all.”

And before she could retort back in anger - he was gone, back into the blackened void that all Ascians retreated into.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

from carl swanson (seymour understudy, performed july 21)

Yesterday I made my Guthrie Debut as Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors! The day was such a blur and such a Joy!! So many people to thank!! Thank you to the wonderful cast that lifted me up and pushed/pulled me in the right direction! Thank you to the Crew and Staff at the Guthrie for making my backstage experience so easy and smooth! Couldn’t have done it without you! And last but no least thank you to all the Family and Friends who were able to come out and see the show! Having a little cheer section there meant a lot and I felt so loved from all of you! ❤️ I’m feeling so blessed today… and also so tired! 😴 Thank you everyone! @guthrietheater • #actorlife #understudy #understudylife #theatre #mntheatre #guthrie #twincitiestheatre #actorsequity #aea #equityactor

[nigelgodrichproducer]

Thom playing acoustic mic'ed with a CMV-563 super close to the neck.

The photo of Robert Stillman sitting down shows a rack with a Prism Masalec MEA-2 Mastering EQ, what could be a GML 8200, a Bricasti M7, two Pultec EQP-1As, a Manley Vari-Mu, possible two UREI LA-4s and an LA-2A. Seems like this might be at Abbey Road but not sure.

The pic of Jonny shows his Super Reverb mic'ed up with a 67 and an AEA R92 on the same speaker. Unclear which mics are on the drum kit except what looks like an AKG D12 on the kick.

[ahearthoficeandstone]

I wish to briefly discuss religion in this world, so I will.

Vakar

I've spoken briefly on Vakar's religous state before. Despite the gods being dead they still fervently worship the sun god for the day he returns. So much so that they've lead more than a few religious crusades over it, but they have gotten more lax about it. To an extent.

Aea

As Aea is an empire the religion of the country varies from place to place, they make no move to convert or eliminate any religions for the most part. Usually the territories bordering Vakar worship the sun god, not as heavily of course. In other territories the religion is more local, with people paying respects to whatever higher being is in the area while not necessarily worshipping them.

Aea the kingdom does not worship any god per se, though that depends if you consider Oblivion more god than concept. The nation being built on a Field of Oblivion has made it so they have developed many rituals surrounding Oblivion. Where most around the world fears Oblivion, it is another fixture in their lives. After all, Oblivion is the only thing that seems to last.

Mea-a

Many of the people of Mea-a revere the land itself. The way they see it, the goddess of the earth has passed, and what remains and grows are her children. They have frequent contact with local nature spirits and fae, so it's not organized as far as religions go. But it is typically believed that aspect of the natural world is connected, and as those blessed to live within the dead goddesses heart they are more closely connected to one another.

Iora

Iora as a nation holds no love for the old gods, instead they look towards the sea. The main source that keeps their economy running, which is both beautiful yet terrifying and deadly. So they look towards the leviathans, elemental serpents that are the embodiment of the seas and oceans. The leviathans have blessed them in the past, and continue to do so, and for that they are thankful.

H'afeara

I wouldn't necessarily consider H'afeara to be religious, spiritual yes but not religious. You must respect the spirits that make the mountains home if you wish to survive on it, you should be grateful when they help you but do not worship them. To many there is nothing to gain from this except inflating a spirits ego and to show weakness. Of course, the common folk who live further from the core of civilization tend to hold more love for their local spirits and fae. The closer to the capitol the less they care for such things nowadays, which has proved to be troublesome at times.

The MCs mother was never a fan of her husband's insistence to bring back old traditions that had to do with such matters. But hey, it gives nobles more occasions to party and keeps the more powerful mountain inhabitants more content. There's only so many times you can piss of the fae of the winter courts before they just decide to kick your ass afterall.

[curatorsday]

Friday, December 8, 2023

The Silver Dart (1908-09), the fourth aerodrome designed by the Aerial Experiment Association, was originally built to carry two men. In the same seat. After AEA member Lt. Thomas Selfridge’s death in an airplane crash as a passenger with Orville Wright as pilot, Alexander Graham Bell essentially forbid his organization’s machines from carrying two people. The photo above shows Glenn Curtiss and Doug McCurdy in the Silver Dart.