#also i need to move emily emory back in

[emperorofthedark]

Espiritu Estate, home of Alexander Goth.

[thelastspeecher]

In the Reverse Portal I feel like Emmet and Emory are being unfair to Stan. I guess they would feel nervous about meeting their father for the first time, but it's not like he got tired of being a dad and ran off. He was trapped, unable to return home. I just wonder why they're giving him the cold shoulder for so long, and no making any effort to get to know their father. Did Angie tell them about Stan while Stan was still trapped in the portal? Did she tell them stories about their father?

Well, for Emily (Emily is trans; her birth name is Emory and she doesn’t transition until about a year after Stan gets back) and Emmett, it’s...it’s really rough, dealing with Stan’s return.  All of this came outta nowhere.  Emmett was doing his homework, with Angie helping him, when his Uncle Ford showed up with some weird smelly strange guy that his ma immediately recognizes and hugs and then she starts crying.  And Emmett is really sensitive, fragile, and easily spooked.  The first time he sees Stan, Stan looks legitimately scary to him.  Emily and Emmett watch their older sisters and ma freak out over this complete stranger and get told that he’s their dad.  He looks a lot more ragged than the pictures their ma has of their dad.  I can’t stress enough that Emily and Emmett are effectively watching a stranger move into their home.

And there’s a difference between knowing something and accepting it.  Emmett knows that his dad couldn’t help being gone.  He knows that he shouldn’t blame Stan.  But he’s a sad, scared kid, who grew up without a dad and watched his ma carry a sadness for his entire life.  He feels like he has to blame someone, and it should be Stan, bc Stan wasn’t there for all the rough times.  Is he being unfair?  Yes.  But he has a right to be unfair, and Stan doesn’t hold that against Emmett.  I go a bit more in depth as to Emmett’s emotions re: Stan, and his reconciliation with Stan, in this ficlet.

Emily is mostly just along for the ride.  She’s very overprotective of Emmett, and does whatever she can to support her twin.  Once Emmett starts getting along better with Stan, Emily stops being cold, too.  That being said, she doesn’t feel comfortable calling Stan “Dad” until after she comes out as trans.  I explain that particular scene here.

Of course Angie told them about Stan.  She especially told Emmett stories about Stan, bc Emmett is the only child of hers who doesn’t have an aptitude for science, and that made him feel left out.  Angie told him that his dad wasn’t a big science person, either.  Emily and Emmett asked for stories about their dad, particularly when they were younger.  Angie painted a picture of this wonderful man who worked for their Grammie and Grampie Gucket and swept her off her feet.  Danny and Daisy also tell their siblings stories about Stan.  They were really young when he went through the portal, so their memories are a big vague, but they remember him as this awesome person who loved and cherished them to bits, who gave them piggyback rides and played games with them and called them adorable pet names.  

Emily and Emmett are pretty shocked, tbh, when they find out that the person in their ma and older sisters’ stories is this weird guy in their living room, who clearly needs a shower.

[truemedian]

The New Model Media Star Is Famous Only to You

The Media EquationWith short videos and paid newsletters, everyone from superstars to half-forgotten former athletes and even journalists can, as one tech figure put it, “monetize individuality.”

Recent videos by, from left, Gwen Jorgensen, Leonard Marshall and Terry Francona available on Cameo, a service that allows fans to buy personalized messages.Credit...CameoPublished May 24, 2020Updated May 25, 2020, 3:43 a.m. ETBack in March, I was trying to persuade my dad to stop taking the subway to work in Manhattan and join me upstate. So I paid $75 to Leonard Marshall, a retired New York Giants defensive lineman we both loved in the 1980s, to send the message.“I put a few guys in the hospital, Bob,” he told my father solemnly. “I need you to play defense in these crazy times.”It worked, and my father hasn’t been to Times Square since.I had reached Mr. Marshall through Cameo, a service that allows you to buy short videos from minor celebrities. I also used Cameo to purchase a pep talk from an Olympic triathlete for my daughter ($15), an ingratiating monologue for my new boss from a former Boston Red Sox manager ($100) and a failed Twitter joke delivered by the action star Chuck Norris ($229.99).Cameo is blowing up in this strange season because “every celebrity is really a gig economy worker,” says Steven Galanis, the company’s chief executive. They’re stuck at home, bored and sometimes hard up for cash as performances, productions and sporting events dry up. The company’s weekly bookings have grown to 70,000 from about 9,000 in early January, it says, and Mr. Galanis said he anticipated bringing in more than $100 million in bookings this year, of which the company keeps 25 percent. The company expects to sell its millionth video this week.Cameo is, on its face, a service that allows housebound idiots to blow money on silly shout-outs. Seen another way, however, it’s a new model media company, sitting at the intersection of a set of powerful trends that are accelerating in the present crisis. There’s the rise of simple, digital direct payments, which are replacing advertising as the major source of media revenue. There’s the growing power of talent, trickling down from superstars to half-forgotten former athletes and even working journalists. And there’s the old promise of the earlier internet that you could make a living if you just had “1,000 true fans" — a promise that advertising-based businesses from blogs to YouTube channels failed to deliver.In fact, in this new economy, some people may be able to make a living off just 100 true fans, as Li Jin, a former partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, argued recently. Ms. Jin calls this new landscape the “passion economy.” She argues that apps like Uber and DoorDash are built to erase the differences between individual drivers or food delivery people. But similar tools, she says, can be used to “monetize individuality.”Many of these trends are well developed in China, but here in the United States the passion economy covers everyone from the small merchants using Shopify to the drawing instructors of the education platform Udemy.In the mainstream heart of the media business, both artists and writers are moving quickly to find new business models as huge swaths of the media business have been wounded or shut down by the coronavirus pandemic. At Patreon, the first and broadest of the big services connecting writers and performers to audiences, the co-founder Jack Conte said he was delighted recently to see one of his favorite bands, Of Montreal, release music on the platform.“Traditional music coming to Patreon is a watershed moment,” he said.In the news business, journalists are carving out new paths on Substack, a newsletter service. Its most successful individual voices — like the China expert Bill Bishop and the liberal political writer Judd Legum — are earning well into six figures annually for sending regular newsletters to subscribers, though no individual has crossed the million-dollar mark, the company said.For some writers, Substack is a way to get their work out of the shadow of an institution. Emily Atkin felt that need intensely when a climate forum she organized last year for presidential candidates, while she was a writer for The New Republic, collapsed amid a scandal over an unrelated column about Mayor Pete Buttigieg that appeared in that publication.Image

For writers like Emily Atkin, formerly of The New Republic, Substack is a way to get their work out of the shadow of an institution.Credit...Rozette RagoNow, said Ms. Atkin, who writes a confrontational climate newsletter called Heated, she’s “shockingly hopeful.”“I don’t have any layoffs happening at my newsletter, so I’m doing better than most of the news industry,” she said.Ms. Atkin, who is 11th on Substack’s ranking of paid newsletters and was more willing than Mr. Bishop or Mr. Legum to talk in detail about the business, said she was on track to gross $175,000 this year from more than 2,500 subscribers. Out of that, she’ll pay for health care, a research assistant and a 10 percent fee to Substack, among other costs.For others, Substack is a way to carry on with work they’re passionate about when a job goes away, as Lindsay Gibbs found when the liberal news site ThinkProgress shut down last year and took her beat on sexism in sports with it.Now, she has more than 1,000 subscribers to Power Plays, paying as much as $72 a year.Both of them started with $20,000 advances from the platform.“The audience connecting directly with you and paying directly is a revolutionary change to the business model,” Substack’s chief executive, Chris Best, told me.It’s hard to imagine even the most successful writers, like Mr. Bishop and Ms. Atkin, posing a major threat to the titans of media anytime soon, especially as a few big institutions — whether in news or streaming video — dominate each market. But the two writers’ path to success points to the reality that the biggest threat to those institutions may come from their talented employees. Updated May 20, 2020 How can I protect myself while flying? If air travel is unavoidable, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself. Most important: Wash your hands often, and stop touching your face. If possible, choose a window seat. A study from Emory University found that during flu season, the safest place to sit on a plane is by a window, as people sitting in window seats had less contact with potentially sick people. Disinfect hard surfaces. When you get to your seat and your hands are clean, use disinfecting wipes to clean the hard surfaces at your seat like the head and arm rest, the seatbelt buckle, the remote, screen, seat back pocket and the tray table. If the seat is hard and nonporous or leather or pleather, you can wipe that down, too. (Using wipes on upholstered seats could lead to a wet seat and spreading of germs rather than killing them.) What are the symptoms of coronavirus? Common symptoms include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are less common. The C.D.C. has also added chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache and a new loss of the sense of taste or smell as symptoms to look out for. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days. How many people have lost their jobs due to coronavirus in the U.S.? Over 38 million people have filed for unemployment since March. One in five who were working in February reported losing a job or being furloughed in March or the beginning of April, data from a Federal Reserve survey released on May 14 showed, and that pain was highly concentrated among low earners. Fully 39 percent of former workers living in a household earning $40,000 or less lost work, compared with 13 percent in those making more than $100,000, a Fed official said. Is ‘Covid toe’ a symptom of the disease? There is an uptick in people reporting symptoms of chilblains, which are painful red or purple lesions that typically appear in the winter on fingers or toes. The lesions are emerging as yet another symptom of infection with the new coronavirus. Chilblains are caused by inflammation in small blood vessels in reaction to cold or damp conditions, but they are usually common in the coldest winter months. Federal health officials do not include toe lesions in the list of coronavirus symptoms, but some dermatologists are pushing for a change, saying so-called Covid toe should be sufficient grounds for testing. Can I go to the park? Yes, but make sure you keep six feet of distance between you and people who don’t live in your home. Even if you just hang out in a park, rather than go for a jog or a walk, getting some fresh air, and hopefully sunshine, is a good idea. How do I take my temperature? Taking one’s temperature to look for signs of fever is not as easy as it sounds, as “normal” temperature numbers can vary, but generally, keep an eye out for a temperature of 100.5 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. If you don’t have a thermometer (they can be pricey these days), there are other ways to figure out if you have a fever, or are at risk of Covid-19 complications. Should I wear a mask? The C.D.C. has recommended that all Americans wear cloth masks if they go out in public. This is a shift in federal guidance reflecting new concerns that the coronavirus is being spread by infected people who have no symptoms. Until now, the C.D.C., like the W.H.O., has advised that ordinary people don’t need to wear masks unless they are sick and coughing. Part of the reason was to preserve medical-grade masks for health care workers who desperately need them at a time when they are in continuously short supply. Masks don’t replace hand washing and social distancing. What should I do if I feel sick? If you’ve been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or difficulty breathing, call a doctor. They should give you advice on whether you should be tested, how to get tested, and how to seek medical treatment without potentially infecting or exposing others. How do I get tested? If you’re sick and you think you’ve been exposed to the new coronavirus, the C.D.C. recommends that you call your healthcare provider and explain your symptoms and fears. They will decide if you need to be tested. Keep in mind that there’s a chance — because of a lack of testing kits or because you’re asymptomatic, for instance — you won’t be able to get tested. How can I help? Charity Navigator, which evaluates charities using a numbers-based system, has a running list of nonprofits working in communities affected by the outbreak. You can give blood through the American Red Cross, and World Central Kitchen has stepped in to distribute meals in major cities. That dynamic was on display in a confrontation between Barstool Sports and the hosts of its hit podcast, “Call Her Daddy,” as my colleague Taylor Lorenz reported last week. Media company stars, with big social media followings and more and more ways to make money, are less and less willing to act like employees. (“The ‘Call Her Daddy’ girls would be making over half a million dollars a year with me,” Mr. Galanis of Cameo said. “High Pitch Erik from ‘The Howard Stern Show’ is making low six figures.”)Substack represents a radically different alternative, in which the “media company” is a service and the journalists are in charge. It’s what one of the pioneers of the modern newsletter business, the tech analyst Ben Thompson, describes as a “faceless” publisher. And you can imagine it or its competitors offering more services, from insurance to marketing to editing, reversing the dynamic of the old top-down media company and producing something more like a talent agency, where the individual journalist is the star and the boss, and the editor is merely on call.ImageThe popularity of “Tiger King,” starring Lauren and Jeff Lowe, left, led Cameo to sign up Kelci Saffery, right, who had a lesser role in the documentary.Credit...CameoThe new passion-economy media companies are converging in some ways. The ones like Patreon and Substack, which operate primarily in the background, are now looking at careful ways to bundle their offerings, their executives said. Medium, which allows you to subscribe to its full bundle of writers, is looking for ways to foster more intimate connections between individuals and their followers, its founder, Ev Williams, said. Cameo, which has a front page in its app and website but is mostly selling one-off shout-outs, is shifting toward a model that is more like subscribing to a celebrity: For a price, you’ll be able to send direct messages that appear in a priority inbox.“We think messages back and forth is where the puck is going with Cameo,” Mr. Galanis said.Is this good news? The rise of these new companies could further shake our faltering institutions, splinter our fragmented media and cement celebrity culture. Or they could pay for a new wave of powerful independent voices and offer steady work for people doing valuable work — like journalists covering narrow, important bits of the world — who don’t have another source of income. Like the whole collision of the internet and media, it will doubtless be some of both.In Silicon Valley, where the East Coast institutions of journalism are often seen as another set of hostile gatekeepers to be disrupted, leading figures are cheering a possible challenger. Mr. Best, the Substack chief, told me that the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, whose firm has invested in the company, said he hoped it would “do to big media companies what venture capital did to big tech companies” — that is, peel off their biggest stars with the promise of money and freedom and create new kinds of news companies.One of the things I find most heartening in these unequal times, though, is the creation of some new space for a middle class of journalists and entertainers — the idea that you can make a living, if not a killing, by working hard for a limited audience. Even people who play a modest role in a cultural phenomenon can get some of the take, which was what happened with the Netflix documentary “Tiger King.”When the documentary hit big in March, Cameo signed up 10 of its ragtag cast of, mostly, amateur zookeepers. That came just in time for Kelci Saffery, best known on the show for returning to work soon after losing a hand to a tiger. Mr. Saffery now lives in California, and lost his job at a furniture warehouse when the pandemic hit. To his shock, he has earned about $17,000, as well as a measure of recognition, even as the requests are slowing down.“Every day I’m at least getting one, and for me that still means that one person every day is thinking, ‘Hey, this would be cool,’ and to me that’s significant,” he said. As for the money, “that could send one of my children to college.” Read More Read the full article

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior Movie Preview 12/6/2019  - PLAYMOBIL: THE MOVIE!

You may have noticed by now that I didn’t have a Box Office Preview over at The Beat today, but that’s only because there wasn’t much I had to say about the sole new wide release, PLAYMOBIL: THE MOVIE (STXfilms) which is clearly trying to capitalize on the success Warner Bros. Animation has had with its LEGO movies. Playmobil is a pretty known brand, and this one features the voice of Daniel Radcliffe as secret agent Rex Dasher, as well as the voices of Anya Taylor-Joy and Jim Gaffigan. The movie looks fun for sure, and it is the only release this weekend, although the weekend after Thanksgiving is notorious for bombs, and STX dumped this here into 2,300 theaters after moving something else.  STX’s UglyDolls movie earlier in the year also bombed with just $20 million and with a much bigger push, so I’m not sure I can see this making more than $6 million this weekend either. It won’t help that some theater chains are only charging $5 for ALL tickets… we’ll see if that helps or hurts.

Also, Focus Features will expand Todd Haynes’ Dark Waters nationwide, though I’m not sure into how many theaters, plus Amazon Music will push Alma Har’el’s Honey Boy, starring Shia Labeouf, into significantly more theaters this weekend. The former seems like a better than the latter, since Honey Boy – which is great, mind you – averaged just $2,101 theaters in 186 theaters this past weekend.  Even if it expands to 500 theaters or more, I can’t see it making more than a million this weekend. Dark Waters did better in about half as many theaters, so it’ll be interesting to see how wide Focus will take it. Either movie will only need to make about $2.2 million or more this weekend to get into the top 10, but Haynes’ film starring Mark Ruffalo will really have to be VERY wide (2,000 theaters or more) to stand a chance.

LIMITED RELEASES

There are a LOT more limited releases this week, as we get into the month where studios try to get all of their “awards-worthy” movie theaters for enough time to be eligible for that year’s Oscars.

Amazon is releasing the historical drama THE AERONAUTS (Amazon), reuniting Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne from the latter’s Oscar-winning The Theory of Everything. This time, she plays balloon pilot Amelia Wren and he plays scientist James Glaisher who go on an adventure to take a balloon higher than ever before so he can do weather-related scientific experiments. Sounds pretty exciting, huh? Actually, it isn’t bad, directed by Tom Harper, whose previous movie Wild Rosecame out earlier this year. This is a perfectly fine historic drama with lots of exciting shots up in the air since most of it takes place in the balloon as the two try to survive against the odds. This is definitely a movie I’d check out a second time but it will also be on Amazon Prime in a couple weeks in case you miss it in theaters or it’s not playing near you.

Fortunately, there are also a number of semi-cool genre films this week, some better than others.

Opening at the Metrograph in New York and L.A.s’ newest Alamo Drafthouse and the Frida Cinema is IN FABRIC (A24), the horror film from Peter Strickland (The Duke of Burgundy), who will be at the Metrograph for most of the weekend to do QnAs and introduce the movie. It stars Marianne Jean-Baptiste as a lonely woman who starts dating again and is coerced into buying a red gown at a London department store which might be cursed with an unstoppable evil force.  It’s another fantastically original film from Strickland that will probably be lumped into the current wave of “elevated horror” that so many filmmakers hate being lumped into, but it’s also good to know that it’s actually a movie in two halves (kind of like Trey Edward Schults’ Waves), as Ms. Jean-Baptiste only features in the first half and then the second half is another person who encounters the dress. And boy, that department store is one freaky place with Game of Thrones’ Gwendoline Christie as what could only be described as a creepy mannequin come to life. In Fabric will be On Demand starting Tuesday, December 10. My latest interview with Strickland will be up later today over at The Beat.

There’s also Jessica Hausner’s sci-fi film LITTLE JOE (Magnolia), starring Emily Beecham as a single mother scientist who is working on developing a new species of plant at a company that will offer therapeutic qualities if fed properly and spoken to. As the plant grows, she realizes that it’s also creating different emotions in those that encounter it. The movie also stars Ben Whishaw, Kerry Fox asnd Kit Connor and will open at the Quad Cinema in New York, as well as in Philadelphia and other cities this Friday.

DANIEL ISN’T REAL (Samuel Goldwyn) is the new film from Adam Egypt Mortimer, starring Miles Robbins (Halloween) as Luke, a college Freshman who had an “imaginary friend” named Daniel as a kid who his mother (Mary Stuart Masterson!) forced him to lock up. As Luke starts dealing with a world away from his mother, Daniel returns, this time in the form of Patrick Schwarzenegger, who has deadly intentions for Luke and those around him, including a wild artist named Cassie (played by Sasha Lane). It opens in select cities.

Jennifer Reeder’s teen thriller KNIVES AND SKIN (IFC Midnight), which premiered at this year’s Berlin and played at Tribeca is an attempt to create a modern-day River’s Edge based around the disappearance of a teenager named Carolyn Harper. It stars Marika Engelhardt, Audrey Francis and Tim Hopper and will open in select cities and On Demand.

James Frey’s controversial 2003 novel A MILLION LITTLE PIECES, which was once sold as a “memoir” but then, like the work of JT Leroy, turned out to be more fiction than fact, except that this was learned about Frey’s novel after it was made a part of Oprah Winfrey’s prestigious Book Club. Anyway, Frey’s novel has been adapted to the screen by the husband-wife team of Sam and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, as the latter plays a young man dealing with his addiction. Haven’t had a chance to watch the movie, but it should be interesting going by the Johnsons’ previous together.

Getting a one-week Oscar-qualifying run is Céline Sciamma’s critically-praised drama PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE (NEON), which has been playing a number of festivals since Cannes. It’s about a painter who travels to a remote island, commissioned to paint a widow still in grieving for her dead husband, but without her knowing.

Also opening at the Metrograph is Luke Lorentzen’s Midnight Family (1091), a film set in Mexico City where there aren’t nearly enough ambulances for the city’s population of nine million residents. The Ochoa family runs one of the city’s privately-owned ambulance services, taking nightly calls while trying to beat rival EMT crews to the scene.

I’ve heard good things about Naomi Watts’ performance in Alistair Banks Griffin’s thriller The Wolf Hour (Brainstorm Media) set in New York City in 1977 where a citywide blackout is causing fires, looting and the Son of Sam murders are plaguing the city. Watts’ June shuts herself inside her grandmother’s South Bronx apartment but someone keeps ringing her doorbell as visitors keep showing up to make her even more paranoid and fearful. The movie also stars Jennifer Hele, Emory Cohen and Kelvin Harrison Jr. (who co-starred with Watts in the excellent film Luce earlier this year.)

Pantelion Films will release En Brazos de un Asesino (Pantelion) this Friday. Directed by Matias Moltrasio, it stars (and is co-written by) Cuban-born actor William Levy (who appeared as himself in Girls Trip!) playing Victor, the “world’s most handsome man” (not too much ego there, Señor Levy!) who is also a cold-blooded assassin, killing for money. When he goes to collect from a drug lord, he encounters the beautiful Sarai (Alicia Sanz) who has been held captive for years and uses  Victor’s arrival as a chance to escape. This actually sounds kind of fun, even though Pantelion rarely screens their movies for critics sadly.

Beniamino Barrese’s doc The Disappearance of My Mother (Kino Lorber) follows model-turned-activist Benedetta Barzini, a muse to Warhold, Dali and others in the 60s, who now in her ‘70s just wants to get as far away from the camera as possible, only allowing her son Beniamino to film this deliberate journey into obscurity.

This week’s film from Bollywood is Ashutosh Gowariker’s Panipat (Reliance Entertainment), a film set in 1761 as the Maratha Empire has reached its height and the Commander-in-Chief of the Hindostan army, Sadashiv Rao Bhau (Arjun Kpoor) has to fight  off the invading forces of Afghanistan king Ahmad Shah Abdali (Sanjay Dutt) leading up to the Third Battle of Panipat.

Other movies out this week and mainly on VOD that I don’t have time to write more about include:

Code 8 (Vertical) Grand Isle (Screen Media) Beyond the Law (Cinedigm) A New Christmas (Cinedigm)

This week also sees a couple re-releases including the excellent doc APOLLO 11returning to IMAX theaters and the Anime Promaregetting a “redux” release into theaters on Sunday, December 8 (the subtitled version), and then on Tuesday (English dub) and Weds (English dub in 4DX).

LOCAL FESTIVALS

Not really a festival but not exactly repertory either, Film at Lincoln Center will debut a new one-week series called Veredas: A Generation of Brazilian Filmmakers, running from Friday through December 11, which features a lot of work from this year and a few years back from Brazilian filmmakers, many which haven’t really been giving much U.S. distribution.

STREAMING AND CABLE

On Thursday, Netflix is debuting its new sci-fi thriller series V-Wars, based on the books by Jonathan Maberry, starring Ian Somerhalder (Lost, Vampire Diaries) as Dr. Luther Swann, a geneticist who is trying to put a stop to a virus that’s creating mutations across the planet. You can read my interview with Somerhalder over at The Beat.

Also, Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story will hit the streaming network on Friday with its fantastic performances by Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, Laura Dern and Alan Alda. This is a must-see... in case you don’t ever planned on getting married... or divorced.

The third season of Amazon Prime’s Emmy-winning The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel will also debut on Thursday, while HBO will release the season finale of Silicon Valley on Saturday, making it the next HBO series to end this year after Game of Thrones and Veep, giving people even less reason to subscribe. You can watch the Seth Rogen-Charlize Theron comedy Long Shot on HBO this Saturday so there’s that.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

This week’s Noah Baumbach in Residence offerings are his 2013 film Frances Ha, starring Greta Gerwig, and then Gerwig’s own movie Lady Bird. Both are already sold out. This week’s Late Nites at Metrograph  is a good one, Fritz Lang’s 1953 movie The Big Heat, while Playtime: Family Matinees  will show Henry Selick’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). The Academy’s monthly series continues on Friday night with Kryzysztof Kieslowki’s 1991 film The Double Life of Veronique with a conversation and “musical discussion” with the filmmaker and Oscar-nominated composer Nicholas Brickell, who also scored the recent Netflix film The King.

FILM FORUM (NYC):

Just one week after many people will have seen Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman on Netflix, Film Forum is putting a spotlight on the Oscar-winning filmmaker’s documentary work with “Scorsese Non-Fiction,” running from Friday through December 17, including some of the filmmaker’s better-known work like The Last Waltz (1978) and the Rolling Stones movie Shine a Light through some of his lesser-known documentary work.s If you really want to spend some time with Scorsese than maybe check out 1995’s A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Movies, which runs longer thanThe Irishmanat just under 3 hours! Scorsese’s 1974 short doc ItalianAmericanis also playing quite a number of times with 2001’s The Neighborhood. Personally, I’m kind of interested in seeing his 2011 doc George Harrison: Living in the Material World (also about 3 hours long), because it was recently the anniversary of Harrison’s tragic death. (The Film Forum will also use this as an opportunity to play some of Scorsese’s non-doc work like Taxi Driver, Mean Streets, Baby Dol land more.) This weekend’s “Film Forum Jr.” is the 1956 musical The King and I, starring Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner… that’s a good one!

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

The Weds “Afternoon Classics” matinee is Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter (1955), starring Robert Ludlum, while Friday’s “Freaky Fridays” offering is Stanley Kubrick’s horror classic The Shining (1980). The Weds and Thursday double feature is On Dangerous Ground(1951) and Jacques Tourneur’s Nightfall  (1956), and then this weekend’s “Kiddee Matinee” is Joe Dante’s Gremlins. Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs screens Friday at midnight, while Saturday’s midnight offering is 1983’s Lone Wolf McQuad, starring Chuck Norris and David Carradine. The Monday Matinee is Curtis Hanson’s L.A. Confidential, and then Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut will screen Tuesday and Wednesday night.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

Friday will be a special Brian De Palma double feature of Sisters (1973) and Blow Out (1981), while Saturday will be a screening of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia (1999).Sunday are two MORE double features, an afternoon pre-CodeJoans Crawford/Blondell double feature of Our Blushing Brides (1930) and Footlight Parade (1033) and then in the evening is a TERRY GILLIAM NIGHTS OF KNIGHTS double feature of Monty Python and the Holy Grail(1975) and Jabberwocky (1977).  The Aero will be showing the excellent Varda by Agnès for the next week or so, which is all the repertory you’ll need!

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

The Terrence Malick retrospective continues with a preview screening of Malick’s latest A Hidden Life with actor Valerie Pachner (who I met last night and she’s wonderful!) appearing to give an introduction. Friday is the “Brad Pitt version” of Voyage of Time and The Tree of Life: Extended Cut, while Saturday is Malick’s Song to Song and Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey as well as To the Wonder. In other words, all of Malick’s most recent films with multiple screenings through the weekend including Knight of Cups on Sunday. On Monday night you can see Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas as part of “Martin Scorsese: Four Tales over Four Decades.”

ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE BROOKLYN (NYC)

Next week’s “Terror Tuesday” is Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula from 1993, sadly already sold out, then “Weird Wednesday” is something called Blue Vengeance from 1989. Also next Wednesday is this month’s “Out of Tune” musical, Adam Sandler’s animated Eight Crazy Nights from 2002.

MOMA  (NYC):

Modern Matinees: Iris Barry’s History of Film continues this week with a few more screenings from the 1920s including Walt Disney’s early film Plane Crazy from 1928, plus Robert Wiene’s classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari on Friday afternoon. Vision Statement: Early Directorial Works finishes on Thursday afternoon with Bong Joon-ho’s first film Barking Dogs Never Bite from 2000. (Plus there will be a screening of Parasite with director Bong in attendance, so who knows? Maybe he’ll pop in to say a few words after this one, too.)

IFC CENTER (NYC)

Waverly Midnights: Spy Games will screen Brian de Palma’s Mission: Impossible while Late Night Favorites: Autumn 2019 is David Lynch’s Eraserhead. The IFC Center also begins its annual theatrical run of Frank Capra’s 1946 holiday classic It’s a Wonderful Life, playing three times a day with Donna Reed’s daughter Mary Owen introducing a bunch of the screenings.

ROXY CINEMA (NYC)

Continuing the Roxy’s “Nicholas Cage-athon” with David Lynch’s 1990 film Wild at Heart, co-starring Laura Dern,

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART  (LA):

This Friday night’s midnight movie is Penelope Spheeris’ 1985 movie The Boys Next Door.

Next week, we’re back to normal with three or four wide releases including Jumanji: The Next Level, Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell and the horror film Black Christmas. Plus the Box Office Preview will be back at The Beat!

[catherinegwarren]

Perusing Peru with Pancreatitis

Hello friends,

In case you do not know I am back in the United States, specifically in my hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. Unfortunately my time as a Young Adult Volunteer in Peru came to an end when I developed pancreatitis due to a gallstone blocking my pancreatic duct whilst still in Lima. Fortunately for me, my case of acute pancreatitis was very mild. After reading about my illness and talking to gastroenterologists here in Atlanta I realized that some people with pancreatitis can be hospitalized for 3-6 weeks. I am thankful that I was able to have access to wonderful medical care in Lima and that my hospital stay there was a little over one week.

The weekend before being admitted to the hospital I met some wonderful new friends at an intercambio (language exchange) at the National Museum of Archaelogy, Anthropology, and History of Peru. It was such a delight to learn some Peruvian history from people my own age. They had all of the fun annecdotes that you learn in history class when you're in high school. 

My last month or so in Peru was riddled with personal problems. For example, the loss of my Peruvian phone or the crashing of my laptop seemed like the biggest problems that I could face. And I did face them! I was able to recover my phone and navigate the process of getting a new hard drive installed all in Spanish thanks to the advice of friends and perseverance. But then my body decided to not cooperate with me and I ended up in the hospital one Wednesday, and then two Wednesdays later I was headed home to the U.S.

I must say that I am very very very grateful for not only my doctor, nurses, nurse techs, lab techs etc in Peru, but for my emotional support system. Each day while in the hospital either Jenny (my site coordinator) or her husband Jed (PCUSA mission co-worker) or a lot of the time both of them managed to come visit me and make sure that I knew exactly what was going on. Though my Spanish was good I definitely did not have all of the medical vocabulary that I needed to understand each and every thing that the doctors or nurses were saying.  They were both a wonderful presence to have in my hospital room. They would either get me to laugh or laugh at my jokes. Also both Jenny and Jed made sure my parents were in the know through the whole process.

A lot of people I talk to these days always ask me about hospitals in Peru. Here’s where I was in Lima. It was a wonderful place to be sick even though being sick is no fun! When I was feeling better I started walking “laps” around my floor. This picture was taken by Jenny :)  

My friends from CEDEMUNEP Ada and Narda would come to see me and talk with me and make sure that I was being seen too. Our executive director, Cecilia, and her husband brought me flowers and visited with me. Even my friend Rosita who I’d met through my work with CEDEMUNEP stopped by to visit me on her way to class. Also my friend Karin from the Red came to visit me with Jenny one afternoon.

My host mom came by and brought me fresh clothes- actually, my host mom was the true MVP and did so much laundry for me while I was in the hospital which made packing to go back to the U.S. so much easier. My host mom’s niece came to visit me a couple of times and kept me company. Other PCUSA co-workers Sara and Rusty came to visit and brought me magazines.

Here are the flowers that my boss brought me! Aren't they beautiful?! Also here is a picture of my coworker Narda visiting me! 

I also had several visits from fellow church members, Robin and Gerda, and our lay minister Penny came to check on me. Robin and Gerda made sure I had more than enough books to read and even some wordsearches to do. Penny, our lay minister, even emailed my mom and dad to let them know what my hospital was like which truly put them at ease.

Kristen and Emily, my fellow Peru volunteers, also kept up with me via phone or Facebook during my time in the hospital and on my way home. Friends in Atlanta and friends from around the U.S. and the world also kept me upbeat and entertained from many miles away. This was very helpful when I was feeling lonely, which only truly happened once during my time in the hospital. It was also wonderful to return to Atlanta with cards, messages, and emails from all of my different communities: my university, my church, the YAV community, my fellow Presbyterian Women board members.

Kristen, myself, and Emily having an afternoon at the beach on our retreat in Lima a month before I ended up in the hospital. 

A picture of my cousin, my sister and myself at Easter dinner. My cousin has since moved to LA so I was thankful to get to see her before she moved away.

Me with some friends that went to UGA. My friend Laura graduated from med school this year (I may or may have not texted her for a diagnosis in March) and I was able to attend her graduation party a week or two after getting my gallbladder removed at Emory Hospital in Atlanta. 

Sydney, Alex, and Julia came to visit me in Peru the day I got out of the hospital. We were all planning to go to Machu PIchu together and their flight got in late on Friday night and they left on a bus at 6 am the next day so we missed each other completely! But they took me along with them! Here we are in the desert near Huacachina. 

Coming back to the U.S., while being the optimal choice in terms of recovering from being sick and then being able to have surgery with the support of my family, was not easy. I did not get to say goodbye to everyone that I worked with or that I met during my time in Peru. And even saying goodbye to those I could say goodbye to was sooo hard! But Jenny has assured me that Peru and my friends will be there when I get the chance to come back, so I can’t wait to get back!

The top view is leaving Lima and the bottom photograph is when I knew I was home! After living in a desert for so long, I was happy to see all of that green!

So I would like to close this post by saying gracias to those of my friends and family in Peru for being there for me throughout my whole time there. Muchas gracias a mi amig@s y mi familiares. Voy a volver.

Me and my host mom and Mama Luz (my host mom’s mom). My host mom let me take a small walk with her to the park at the end of our street on my last day in Peru and we took this selfie. Mama Luz and I loved to keep each other company. She would sing me songs and tell me stories about growing up on a hacienda (ranch) in Trujillo Some of my favorite ladies in Lima! I hope to see them in the near future! 

[thelastspeecher]

⚡️big sis au

⚡️ - demigod

So, in the sort of superhero version of the Big Sis AU, Angie’s a superhero and Stan finds out after Emily manifests powers.  I flipped the situation here a bit, and now the non-powered parent has to deal with two superpowered children, rather than one.  Also, I sort of drew upon the show, with its whole ‘love god’ thing, by having a god be basically just like a normal supernatural thing with powers, only amped up.  If…that sentence makes sense.  I think it does.  Anyways, here, have two demigod children and a hapless human parent.

Send me an emoji and I’ll write you a ficlet!

               “Come on, honey-bun, let me takeyer temperature,” Angie wheedled.  Mollyshook her head, keeping her mouth closed. Angie sighed and pinched Molly’s nose shut.  After a few seconds, Molly’s mouth poppedopen.  Angie stuck the thermometer inimmediately.  Molly pouted.  “Sweetling, I ain’t ever seen ya get sick ‘fore. I need to keep track of ya,” Angie said soothingly.  

               “But the baby-” Molly started.

               “Emory’s ‘bout six monthsold.  We don’t need to be usin’ quarantinemethods no more,” Angie replied.  Shepulled Molly’s blanket up and tucked it in snugly around her stepdaughter.  “The only reason I ain’t back to work yet is ‘causeI had the baby blues, and yer dad is bein’ stubborn ‘bout me takin’ a couplemore weeks off.”  Angie took thethermometer out of Molly’s mouth.  “Hmm.  Yep, hon, you’ve got a fever.”  She kissed Molly’s forehead.  “I’ll go make some soup fer ya, okay?  If ya need me, just holler.”  

               “Mmkay,” Molly mumbled.  Angie exited the room, leaving the door openhalfway so that she could hear if Molly called. She walked into the living room, where Emory was in the playpen.  

               “Hey there, handsome man,” Angiecooed, picking him up.  She nuzzled Emory’snose.  “How’s my champion crawler, huh?”  Emory giggled.  Still holding her son, Angie moved theplaypen so that it would be visible from the kitchen.  She was about to set Emory down in theplaypen again when she heard a loud crash.

               That sounded like it came from Molly’s room.  Angie nestled Emory snuggly against her chestand set off.  Molly’s so sick she can barely get out of bed.  What could have made that noise?  She walked into Molly’s room.  Her stepdaughter was sitting up, rubbing hernose.

               “Sorry, Mom,” Mollymumbled.  “I sneeze loud.”

               “Snee- that was a sneeze?” Angiesaid.  Molly nodded.  Angie looked around.  “It sounded like something broke or-”  She froze. There was a hole in the drywall, directly across from the head of Molly’sbed.  “That wasn’t there before.”  She looked at Molly.  “Molly, what happened?”

               “I told you.  I sneezed.”

               “You sneezed, and there’ssuddenly a hole in the wall?” Angiedemanded.  Emory chortled and grabbed ahandful of Angie’s hair.

               “…Don’t know what to tell you,”Molly said after a moment.  “Uh, exceptthat you’re floating.”

               “I’m what?”  Angie looked down.  Sure enough, her feet were hovering a fewinches above the floor.  Angiepaled.  “Goodness.  What in the world is goin’ on?”

               “Em, cut it out,” Molly saidblearily.  Angie frowned.

               “It ain’t yer hair he’s pullin’.  I can handle him.”

               “He’s doing the floating thing though,I think.”

               “Yer baby brother is makin’ mefloat,” Angie said flatly.  Mollyshrugged.

               “Probably.  I did that to Dad when I was little.”

               “You- sweetie, are ya feelin’all right?”

               “I’m sick.”

               “True.”  Angie looked at her stepdaughter,concerned.  “I s’pose fevers can makefolks delirious, but if yer gettin’ that bad I might have to take ya to thehospital.”

               “I’m not delirious,” Mollyprotested.  She coughed.  “Just sick.” The front door opened.

               “Hey, thought I’d come home for mylunch break and check in with you guys!” Stan called.  Emory let go of Angie’s hair.

               “Da!” Emory screeched.  Stan chuckled.  A few moments later, he appeared in thedoorway to Molly’s room.  He squinted atAngie.

               “You’re…taller than usual.”

               “Da!” Emory shouted again.  With a yelp, Angie abruptly stopped floating,her feet landing firmly on the floor. Stan blinked.

               “Uh…”

               “Em made Mom float,” Mollymumbled.  

               “I really doubt that, hon,”Angie said.  “He’s just a baby.  I think it’s more likely there’s some weirdsupernatural thing we’ll have to ask Ford to check out.”  Stan rubbed the back of his neck.

               “Uh, I mean, you could.  But I already know what the weirdsupernatural thing is,” Stan said.

               “You do?” Angie asked.

               “Yeah.  It’s me.” Stan shrugged.  “The floatingstuff, that happens with children of minor weather gods.”  Angie stared at him.

               “Minor…what?”

               “He said minor weather gods,”Molly grumbled.  “Can you leave,please?  I wanna sleep.”

               “Oh, okay, darlin’.  Sure,” Angie said.  She walked out of Molly’s room.  Stan closed the door and took Emory fromAngie.  Emory promptly grabbed a chunk ofStan’s hair.

               “You all right, babe?” Stanasked quietly.  Angie shook herhead.  “Yeah, I probably shoulda told yousooner, but, uh, I dunno, it never really came up.”

               “I’m a bit concerned, darlin’.  I don’t- I don’t think I believe you,” Angiesaid softly.

               “You might change your mind thefirst time Emory floods the nursery,” Stan said.  Angie’s head drooped.  

               “Floods…the nursery.”

               “Yeah.  But if we install some warding spells, we canprobably keep the damage to a minimum,” Stan said.  He put an arm around Angie’s shoulders andbegan to guide her into the living room. She took a seat on the couch, her face expressionless and numb.  “Uh…do you- do you want a drink or-”  Angie shook her head.

               “No, I’m still breastfeedin’.  And I don’t want to deal with havin’ todispose of tainted breastmilk.”  She puther head in her hands.  “Stanley, yer a…a‘minor weather god’?”

               “Yeah.  Nothing big. Can’t even mess with the weather in a large area.  I max out at about the size of a state,” Stansaid.  Angie groaned.  “Seriously, it’s nothing to be worried aboutor whatever.  I don’t even have aformally assigned job.  Aside from thegeneral rule of not messing with mortals. Or siring children with mortals. But no one follows that anyways.” Angie groaned again.  “Look, it’snot like the kids are that destructive. They can do some air and water manipulation, and Molly’s made tinytornadoes before, but it’s not really that bad.”

               “Good Lord,” Angie muttered.  She squeezed her eyes shut.  “This ain’t- Stanley, my entire view of theworld has been shaken.  My fiancé is a god. I- I’m a good Catholic woman. This don’t make sense to me.”

               “Yeah,” Stan said, taking a seatnext to her.  “I’m a god.  Not the big one, witha capital G and everything.  I mean, ‘god’is a strong word, anyways.  More like a…super-powerfulnature spirit.”  Angie nodded slowly.

               “I can handle a nature spirit.”

               “Good,” Stan said.  Emory babbled happily.  “I wasgonna tell you.  But then I knocked youup, and I didn’t wanna stress you.  Andthen you got postpartum and I didn’t wanna make things worse.”

               “The not makin’ things worseship has sailed, darlin’,” Angie said, smiling weakly at Stan.

               “Figured.”

               “I’m goin’ to need some time tocope with the realization that my children are half-god.”

               “The proper term is-”

               “-demigod, I know,” Angiesupplied.  She raised an eyebrow.  “Is ‘half-god’ not the polite term?”

               “Uh, no, not really.  It’s pretty much a derogatory word.”

               “I’ll be sure to avoid sayin’that, then.”  Angie grabbed one of Emory’sfeet and wiggled it.  “I’d hate to berude ‘bout my own kidlets.”  There was aloud crash.  “Sounds like yer daughtersneezed again.”

               “…After work I’ll stop by thestore and get stuff to fix the wall,” Stan said.  Angie held out her arms.

               “I’ll take my lil demigod babyback now,” Angie said.  Stan handed Emoryover.  Angie snuggled her son.  “I s’pose it makes sense though.”

               “What makes sense?”

               “Well, traditionally, gods ‘reknown fer sowin’ their wild oats.”  Angiegrinned at Stan.  “That’s what ya didwith me, ain’t it?”

               “Nah.  More like…I settled down to farm the wild oats,”Stan said slowly.  Angie shook her head,hiding a smile.  “I just killed themetaphor, didn’t I?”

               “Ya most certainly did.  Leave the farmin’ metaphors to the folks whoknow ‘bout farmin’.”