#also no you saw stock markets boom which is not middle class

[perplexed-penguin]

What plan? He only has concepts of a plan.

[sheirukitriesfandom]

Drinks in the Summerset Isles —Some Headcanons 

Something I've been working on for a while now. As the title suggests, these are some HCs about drinks (types, when they're served, by whom, etc.) in the Summerset Isles. This is loosely based on ESO era Summerset but many of these HCs can be understood regardless.

Water

Water is the most basic staple drink in the Summerset Isles. 

Despite the warm climate, the clouds stalled by Summerset's Eton Nir mountain provide the islands with a decent amount of rainfall. Rivers and springs are also an important source of freshwater.

The most famous spring in the Summerset Isles is located in Cloudrest; its water is said to have curative properties and attracts pilgrims from all over the Isles. The welkynar also use it in their rituals. 

Although many cities in the Summerset Isles possess sewer systems, the water from rivers and lakes is still often polluted with muck and the poorest of the poor living in the cities' underbellies use it for pretty much everything from doing the laundry to washing to—well, you get it.

Desalination is a hot research topic at the College of Sapiarchs, but so far, it  has only been achieved on a very small scale using distillation or Maormer tongues, which many sailors carry as an emergency item. 

The houses of the rich have their own private wells and in case of the very rich, there are even systems (typically manually, mechanically or magically powered pumps) that allow for running water. 

The common folk have to content themselves with public wells and cisterns, although the water from the latter is not always safe to drink. Many of the Isles' inhabitants know this and will switch to a different affordable staple.

Wine

Another common staple drink in the Summerset Isles is wine. 

Although Summerset's most famous wines are sweet, heavy reds with a strong fruity flavour, it should be noted that the staple wines contain much less alcohol than their famed counterparts, because they stem from second and third pressings. 

Wine is available to anyone, although poor folk have to content themselves with watered down swill or even wine-vinegar mixtures. 

Rich altmer, on the other hand, have access to fine vintages that can be centuries old. Over the centuries, the altmer have perfected wine preservation, using both alchemical means and magic and collecting wine is a popular hobby among the Summerset Isles' rich and noble. 

Rosé, orange and white wines are less common than their red brethren, but especially on hot summer days, they enjoy immense popularity and are often mixed with iced water.

Hot mulled wine is a favourite during storm season, and many a sailor gets their fill at the harbourside inns, though it's also served in non-port cities, albeit to a lesser extent.

Fruit wines, as well as cider, are not commonly produced in the Summerset Isles, however, they are a popular import.

Beer

Beer, as well as ale, are often scoffed at as a "drink for humans" and were, for the longest time, not produced in the Isles at all. Only a few taverns in the busy port towns actually served it. With the opening of Summerset to outsiders, a few ambitious entrepreneurs saw an opportunity and opened the first Summerset Isles brewery in the busy port town of Vukhel Guard. Soon, others would follow. 

Beer is becoming more popular in the Isles among newcomers and the native population alike and the local variety, "Eagle's Tears", is even shipped internationally due to Dominion soldiers wanting their share.

Coffee 

Coffee isn't cultivated in the Isles. Before the war, the beans were a favourite Hammerfell import among scholars because coffee was said to stimulate the mind. Summerset coffee was typically heavily sweetened; the strong aroma of Taneth Coffee was too much for the average altmeri palate. With the war, coffee imports have practically ceased and coffee consumption is frowned upon. 

Teas & Infusions

The tea plant isn't native to the Summerset Isles and so far, any cultivation attempts have failed. The native Summerset teas are herbal infusions and typically only drunk for medicinal purposes. 

However, true teas are popular among the rich and middle-class alike and there's a booming tea trade with Elsweyr, especially since Rooibos cultivation has been successful in Northern Elsweyr, opening an alternative to the war-stalled trade with Hammerfell and an additional alternative to the true teas of Southern Elsweyr.

Since the Establishment of the Dominion, there's been a growing black market for teas and plant infusions from Valenwood. 

Juices

Despite the difficulty of preservation, freshly pressed juices are a popular drink in the Isles. In fact, no Altmeri breakfast is complete without some freshly squeezed juice.

The climate sets the perfect conditions for growing all kinds of fruit: oranges, peaches, lemons, grapes, figs—the list goes on and on.

Rich altmer will almost always have a variety of fruit trees in their gardens whereas lower and middle-class altmer buy their juice-fruits of choice at their local markets. 

Many cities plant fruit carrying trees along the streets or in parks because they look beautiful when in bloom.

Once the trees carry fruits, people are encouraged to pluck their share before the fruits fall and stain the ground, allowing even the poorest of the poor some access to fruits and juice.

Spirits & Liquors

Although many altmer consider drunkenness improper and disgusting, the Summerset Isles are home to some of the best "hard" alcohol there is. 

The altmer have a long history of distilling fruit brandy/spirits—though perhaps the most common spirit is pomace brandy in any and all variations—and have mastered the art of creating sweet fruit liquors, especially from wine (Thinking of something like the Croatian Teran liquor). 

A common "stock alcohol" used as the basis for infused alcohol is brandy or, especially on Auridon, Korn (strong spirit made from grain).

Herbal spirits and liquors are less common, but they're a customary digestif and denying them once they've been served is an insult to the host. Best to declare one's abstinence beforehand.

Still, if you want to indulge in "hard" alcohol (anything containing a distilled alcohol), best find a local with a stash because taverns are ordered to limit the servings per person.

[praphit]

IT Chapter 2: maybe he’s simply stupid

Party People! That killer clown... is BACK!

No, not that killer clown (although one could argue Ronald's body count is vastly higher).

THAT clown!

Good ol Pennywise.

The last time that we saw Pennywise he had just gotten his ass beat by a bunch of kids. Not a good look for any certified tough person; especially if it's a tough person who's supposed to be a villain!

He can't show his face around the villain bars or parties no more - he's a laughing stock! It wasn't just any group of kids he was defeated by, it was a group of kids who embrace the fact that they're losers ("The Losers Club"). That's pretty bad when a group of people accept their deprecatory labels to the point that they form not a support group, but a social club. Imagine if you were made fun of for having stinky feet, and you decided to join "The Stanky Feet Club". That's the level of debasement we're talking about. Pennywise got beat up by self-proclaimed losers.

You can't be considered a villain or a monster if you go down like that. You can't call the Justice League for Pennywise; they ain't coming! They MIGHT send Robin, MAYBE. I'm not sure the cops would even waste their time. I think that if they got a call about Pennywise, they'd just see if they could gather a gang of kids from a nearby middle school to oppose him.

Pennywise had to redeem himself.

So, in Chapter 2 - TWENTY SEVEN YEARS LATER, he decides to go after those same loser kids as adults. 27 years! Seems like a long time to plot one's revenge - you know, maybe he's simply stupid.

Yes, a long time, but here we are. He starts off his scheme for revenge on the Losers Club by eating gay people.

Yep.

Now, I'm not saying that Pennywise is homophobic or anything (the town he's in called Derry def is tho - my goodness!), but maybe you don't START your plan of evil with the LGBTQ community. You know?? - not a good look. I'm sure Thanos, when he's out there snapping away worlds, had a PR person whispering in his ear.

"Look, Thanny baby! You know I love ya! But, let's be sure (on this tour of destruction) NOT to hit up the minority planets first; don't worry we'll get to them. But, let's snap away a couple of predominantly white planets in the beginning."

It's bad for approval rating. I mean, the white supremacists ratings would hit an all time high, but... no one REALLY wants that look.

But, Pennywise stamps down possible homophobia on his resume, and grabs the attention of... the Old Spice guy. Or known in this universe as MIKE.

His Old Spice days are over! He's going for the neighborhood crazy guy look now.

Mike is the token black dude in The Losers Club. Mike has been living in an attic for 27 years ever since "the losers" made a promise that if Pennywise ever came back, they'd all come back too, to stop him for good.

Mike gives all of the losers a call one by one to convince them to come back and honor their promise.

People let me just say, if you're traumatized in a certain area, the normal thing to do is to leave that area and never go back.

I remember, back when I was in middle school, seeing one of my teachers outside of school at a market (weird in an of itself). But, it was raining hard, and her makeup was running big time. Now, people, I did not realize at the time the powers of makeup. I knew it could enhance one's appearance. I did not know it could give one a whole new face. This rainy day I saw my teacher's face melt off as she was walking towards me in the market to say "hello" Freaked me the bleep out!  People I’m sorry, but I’m just telling you my truth from the perspective of a child at the time.

It was like - with makeup she looked like Halle Berry

And as the makeup washed off - she looked like Morgan Freeman

I don't think y'all understand.

With makeup - 

 (well, not QUITE like that, but pretty much. I didn't do well in that class. I was distracted for some reason.)

Without makeup - 

That drastic!

I ran away from that monster (or woman, I guess - people, I'm just saying that I can't PROVE she's NOT a "monster" who ripped off her face). Point is I have no interest of going to that part of town ever again. Trauma runs deep.

These losers now adults have sweet lives (well, most of them). Why go back to face a killer clown?

BUT, Mike does his thing and they all band back together!

Like the Avengers:

They have a The leader - James McAvoy The jokester - Bill Hader The tall, sexy guy - though he used to be the fat kid

 (see that - bullying has it's uses. He’s getting all of the money and women now! Had he not been bullied he may have be destroyed by that other clown).

The hypochondriac (there's one on ever super team right?)

The scared of everything guy (... well, they are "the losers")

The sexy chick - Jessica Chastain

And the black dude - Mr. Spice

BOOM! BACK!

They track down Pennywise - he's out there doing his thing: eating kids and gay people... and shapeshifting into old ladies (like seen in the trailer).

He might have to stamp down "pervert" on his resume as well. Cuz not only is he shapeshifting into old ladies, but he's getting naked before chasing people too. This is some plan he's executing!

Pennywise's powers are amped up in this chapter, though maybe too much. Annnnnnd here's where the big flaws begin for me. I know, party people... I was looking forward to this movie too I loved chapter one), but...

Big Flaw #1 - Unexplained rules

I'm not sure of the rules of Pennywise's powers. I can't tell what's real or not, due to all of the hallucinations and whether or not people can be hurt in the sitches - I don't feel like it's consistent. There are plenty of times when he has his prey, and they slip through his fingers somehow. Why does he keep letting them escape? Or are his powers not as great as advertised? If it's all in their heads, are they ever in any real danger? Idk. Look, with Jigsaw, we didn't need an explanation for how an senior citizen riddled with cancer is making all of these elaborate traps, purchasing materials for these traps, and cleaning up the horrifyingly bloody evidence again and again. 

BUT, we knew what Jigsaw was all about. We knew the extent of his "powers" - that's all I'm saying! Plus, Pennywise sets someone free to go after The Losers (which the plot def did not need), but how that whole thing plays out (concerning Pennywise's abilities) makes no sense.

Big Flaw #2 - bad storytelling

Pennywise's origin is kinda explained in this chapter. I say "kinda" cuz we as the audience experience the telling of that story vicariously through someone on some type of acid trip. Like any good drug trip, who the hell knows what was going on?? So, they screwed up the origin, they never explain his powers well enough, the whole thing with The Losers coming back and listening to crazy ass Mike (who's been tripping on acid and living in an attic for 27 years) as he leads them in a quest to kill the clown MAKES NO SENSE. I'm not even going to get into said "quest" - also makes no sense. And then the ending... wow, stupifying.

Big Flaw #3 - CGI

It's not that it's bad, it just isn't scary. It's the opposite of scary. It's down right goofy at times. Like a spook house created for the whole family. Perfect example is in the triler I mentioned, when Jessica Chastain is being chased by the naked old lady. The way that they do the cg there... If I were Jessica Chastain in that moment, I wouldn't have been scared. I would have been like "Really dude? *heavy sigh* Pennywise, can we talk about what's going on with you? And why the bleep are you naked anyway?! You know they're gonna stamp "pervert" on your resume. None of this is scary. And you're just going to let me escape! You big dummy!"

Seriously, maybe he's simply stupid.

I mean look at him.

Maybe that's scary, because that's the face he makes before he eats you, but it's also the drooling face I've seen people make when met with basic math problems.

It's not all bad! The acting is really good! And I was never bored in this 3 hour long movie (which is impressive), but all of those flaws equal a GRADE ----  D

Poor Pennywise.... what will his legacy be? Pervert, homophobe, possibly plain stupid person, who chose to dress like a clown. Got his ass beat by a group of kids... THEN that same group of kids come back as adults and beat his ass again. And the way he's defeated... it's so humiliating (and confusing - let's not forget the poor writing), but yikes... No "monster" to my memory has ever been defeated in such a way; I actually felt bad for him.

They had better not make a Chapter 3.

At the end of the movie, crazy ass Mike is packing his bag and about to leave the attic. I was thinking to myself "That dude is unstable." Wherever he's going, he's going to engage in some crazy behavior.They COULD make another chapter out of THAT. Mike starts dressing up like a clown and eating kids. Make that movie!

But, no more Pennywise please! He set scary clowns back ten years with this movie.

[en--dear]

“You have to think big at the beginning—that’s the problem for most people.��� I’m sitting with Thomas Sacchi on a warm Friday evening in the bar of the Houdini Cinema, Zürich. Propped next to a large window on the mezzanine level, we have an elevated vantage point as the Badenerstrasse strip stirs below. “When we first approached local authorities,” he continued, “our proposal was to build a new piece of city—to bring together work, living and culture.” Sacchi is on the board of the Kalkbreite Co-operative, where the Houdini is located, and was the project manager during the creation and construction of what has become Zürich’s emblematic co-operative housing development. He also rents an apartment in the mixed-use complex, completed just west of the city centre in August 2014.

Kalkbreite is unique in many ways. Owned by the City of Zürich and earmarked for potential development as far back as 1978, the awkward triangular plot, which is the size of a full city block, is flanked on one side by a sunken train line and remains a functioning tram depot. Thanks to a clever design scheme by Müller Sigrist Architekten that integrates the nine-metre high depot hall and curved track into the building’s supporting frame, the site now boasts 97 affordable housing units for approximately 250 people, 5,000 square metres of retail space, offices and ateliers, as well as a publicly accessible raised plaza. More striking than the architecture, though, is the economics. The project was initiated by a grassroots collective of ten people and developed in line with an independent non-profit model that rejects speculation in favour of sustainability.

Switzerland has a long history of co-operatives. As Andreas Hofer, one of the original leaders of the co-operative housing movement, later explained to me in his office at the seminal Kraftwerk1 development, “co-operatives are in some way part of the national myth.” The country’s two major supermarket chains, for example, were founded, and continue to operate, as co-operatives, with a combined membership exceeding half the Swiss population. An early 20th-century product of the broader European labour movement, co-operatives in Switzerland soon began to provide non-market rental housing to their working-class members. In the process, they acquired large land holdings at cut-price rates on what were then the peripheries of growing cities.

In 2007, Zürich celebrated the centenary of non-profit housing construction, with the inauguration of the Mehr als Wohnen (‘more than living’) project. But today’s co-operative renaissance has its roots in a more turbulent era. Despite its image as a rich and antiseptic city of bankers, Zürich in the 1980s and 1990s underwent a period of explosive change. The Züri brännt (‘Zürich is burning’) youth riots of 1980 birthed a rebellious countercultural movement, which eventually collided with a permissive drug scene that by 1986 had become a magnet for dealers and users across Europe. The decision, in 1992, to end an ill-fated experiment with an open-air drug market at the Platzspitz ‘Needle Park’, coincided with a citywide financial crisis triggered by the collapse of an overheated real estate bubble.

These social and economic upheavals were intertwined. As Zürich transformed in the 1980s from an industrial to financial centre, investors converted homes into offices, fuelling a housing shortage. The ensuing property frenzy led prices and rents to skyrocket. Apartments were often left empty, with their owners focused on profiting from a quick resale. Hofer arrived to study architecture during the ‘hot summer’ of 1982 and remembers that affordability was already a contentious issue: “It was impossible to live in the city.” A squatting scene that had emerged around cultural spaces quickly evolved into a broader movement. “It was not a radical left-wing thing. Because the problems were so pressing—even for the middle class—there was a spirit of solidarity. If one house was destroyed, we moved collectively to the next. Even in the richest areas, quiet occupations were tolerated.”

In part because of the drug epidemic—and the violence, crime and rampant prostitution that came with it—families were fleeing the city. But the high cost and limited availability of housing was even more alarming. By 1992, Zürich’s population had shrunk to its lowest level since 1945. Graduating in 1987, Hofer recalls that he and his friends felt personally confronted. “As professionals, we thought: what are we doing? Are we going to work with the speculators to destroy our city?” The group of young architects, geographers and planners formed the Konzeptgruppe Städtebau in 1988 to explore alternative urban development strategies. Three years later, they founded the International Network for Urban Research and Action (INURA), and visited cities like Berlin and Amsterdam that had begun to experiment with the legalisation of squats.

��We tried to decide whether the time was ripe not only to demonstrate, but also to promote a project,” Hofer says. The crisis of 1992 had coincided with heated debates around new planning laws, which in Zürich were updated on a 20-year cycle. Sensing an opportunity, Hofer, the artist Martin Blum, and anarchist author P.M. (Hans Widmer) printed 700 copies of a small book called Kraftwerk1—Projekt für das Sulzer Escher Wyss Areal, which contained a proposal for a self-organised, sustainable living-and-working complex to be built on a former industrial site. “We didn’t have money, we didn’t have land, we didn’t have anything,” Hofer explains. “But nobody wanted to invest in Zurich. So naturally, there was a big discussion about the future of the city. In a way, we were an answer.”

Encouraged by the reaction, the newly formed association organised the KraftWerkSommer festival in 1994. More than 60 events took place in a disused former factory, including concerts and parties, but also discussions and planning sessions focused on the project and a new vision for the city. Hofer laughs: “At the end we were completely bankrupt.” But the cultural program served its purpose—the Kraftwerk1 building and housing co-operative was formed the following year. “We contacted landowners and developers and because of the crisis it was not absurd for them to talk to us.” When a planned office development fell through, the new investor was open to ideas; “They were so desperate that they saw us as their last chance.”

Completed in 2001, the Kraftwerk1 development was not the first to experiment with collective approaches. But by taking advantage of existing co-operative frameworks and partnering with leading architects, it revived and opened up a stagnant sector, and became an important model for how to finance groundbreaking projects on former industrial sites. Sixteen years later, the basic approach is now well established. At Kalkbreite, members pay a refundable fee of 1,000 CHF ($1,300), providing the start-up capital. Residents then purchase an equity ‘share’ in the form of a 26,000 CHF ($34,000) deposit (also refundable). Rents are set per square metre by amortising the cost of the land lease plus construction loan over a 62-year period. If interest rates drop, so do rents, which are currently 20 percent below market levels. In theory, once the loan is paid off rents will only have to cover ongoing maintenance and operations.

The co-operative model has even greater appeal because, unlike Australia, Switzerland is a nation of renters. In Zürich, only nine percent of the population owns their home, in a city where the median house price exceeds 1.5 million CHF ($2 million). Long-term tenancy is an attractive prospect due to the security and stability offered by a system of open-ended leases, limited power to evict, and rent controls over the lifetime of a lease. But this also creates an uneven playing field, where remaining in the same apartment for a number of years equates to a greater and greater discount on the going market rate. The other factor is supply. The Zürich housing sector has been under strain since the late 1990s, when the city and economy began to rebound. Sustained high demand is reflected in incredibly low vacancy rates.

In a referendum held in November 2011, on the back of a decade of rising rents, three quarters of the population voted in favour of a ballot measure mandating that affordable, non-profit apartments make up one third of the city’s total rental stock by the year 2050. It was perhaps this event, more than any other, which has set the scene for an upswing in co-operative-driven construction in recent years. By Zürich standards, the target is not overly ambitious. Around 27 percent of rental apartments already operate on a non-profit basis, with 20 percent managed by co-operatives and the remainder by the municipality itself. The biggest challenge is the city’s continuing building boom. As the overall residential stock expands, non-profit construction is locked in a race to outpace private development.

Kalkbreite was one of a handful of projects featured in the exhibition Together! The New Architecture of the Collective, which opened in June at the Vitra Design Museum. It appeared alongside related developments in Germany, Japan, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, South Korea and the United States. When I asked Andreas Ruby, one of the exhibition’s curators, why he thought the projects were largely clustered in central Europe and east Asia, he was blunt: “Because the United States, United Kingdom and Australia are obsessed with home ownership. Europe is much more a renter’s market, so people are more open to non-ownership-based housing models. It is telling that the only project we have from the Anglo-Saxon world is for homeless people.”

When I put the question of exportability to Hofer, he was more optimistic. “Co-operatives can be a stabilising element in any real estate market. You can approach it as a pure financial system, where future profits are collectivised, and everyone gains from falling rents.” Then came the caveat. “But you cannot export it 1:1. People visit from all over the world and see a development that has worked, where rents are cheap and people are happy. But it has to be adapted to fit the local context.” And what about the turmoil that engulfed the city three decades ago? “The housing market is inherently conservative and influenced by strong political lobbies. So a financial crisis, a social crisis—these can trigger a crucial moment of reflection. It is possible to change the system through reason, but humans often need a deep crisis to get reasonable.”

This article originally appeared in Issue 8 of Assemble Papers, ‘Metropolis.’ A big thanks to Alexis Kalagas for introducing us to the co-operative housing initiative across Zürich. All photography in this piece is by Ciro Miguel. You can read more about the Kalkbreite co-operative on their website (German only), or join the urban revolution with INURA.

[aprilfmp]

Case Study: Erté and the Many Influences of Art Deco

Section 1: Introduction

Art Deco (short for Arts Décoratifs) is one of the most well known movements of the 20th Century. Starting in France in the early 20’s and peaking in the mid 30’s, this design style made a big impact on industries from fashion to carpentry on a global scale and has lasting influences that you can still see today, 100 years later.

The decade that founded this art movement, the 1920’s, was surrounded with disaster and death and yet it has become one of the most remembered styles of early the 20th century.

In this case study, I am going to research the social, historical and cultural context surrounding the Art Deco movement, analysing why they affected the style and how they implemented themselves into it. I am also going to be looking at a popular artist of the movement, Erté and how these influences can bee seen in his own work.

Section 2: The Great War

Before the second World War, people referred to WW1 as the Great War because of its big-scale impact that affected the whole world. Although the war came to an end on 11 November 1918, the lasting affects it had on people would stick around for years to come.

20 million people died and around 21 million people wounded, millions of whom were left with mental health issues such as shell shock, now known as PTSD. This left millions of people grieving over the loved ones they had lost.

The economy was an increasing issue people had to face during and after the war. Hyperinflation was introduced and began to rapidly affect the economy, especially in Germany. By 1923, a single turnip or potato would cost ‘trillions of German marks.’ Things were bad in America too with around 60% of civilians living under the poverty line, most of whom were black Americans, immigrants and people working in agriculture.

This was all the more reason for people to want to metaphorically draw a line in the sand and start anew in the decade of the 20’s. It was their chance of escapism, to move forward with their lives and get back what they missed out on for the last four years.

This affected the movement by introducing the idea of adding luxury and decadence into a piece of clothing or a space to distract from the misery of the past few years.

Section 3: Technology and Business

One of the biggest achievements of the decade was its technological advances. Electricity, radios and cars were being normalised in common households and entertainment such as music and movies became a more dominant part of people’s lives.

These new developments allowed for new job opportunities and busines ventures. Corporations started opening plants in European countries near vast resources such as palm oil and cocoa beans, creating cheap mass production of goods and easily making high profits.  

The economy was booming. ‘The nation’s total wealth more than doubled between 1920 and 1929’ which meant people were becoming richer, meaning they spent more money. Consumption was becoming a part of middle-class people’s lives.

This idealism leaked into the Art Deco movement as people craved the look of wealth with new and exciting futuristic inventions such as radios around their house.

Section 4:  The Women’s Rights Movement

During the early 1910’s, the Suffrage movement was becoming increasingly popular and in 1918, the ‘Representation of the People Act’ was passed in the UK, allowing all women over the age of 30 with a ‘property qualification’ the right to vote. America followed quickly with their ‘19th amendment’ act passing through congress in 1919.

This milestone allowed more of a balance between men and women for the first time. This shift appeared in fashion and culture with women sporting shorter and more revealing skirts and hairstyles, wearing bold makeup looks and dancing and drinking in public.

This affected the art industry as women were allowed to explore more opportunities for work, many women were now capable of selling their own pieces and making a name for themselves. A prime example of this is French designer Tamara de Lempicka who is most well known for her Art Deco portraits that captures the glamor and scandal of the movement.

Section 5: Egyptian Culture

In November of 1922, the tomb of King Tutankhamun was discovered in a place called the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. He was found fully intact, and his coffin was made out of solid gold.

This historical find allowed people to see what ancient Egyptian culture looked like, giving designers the freedom to incorporate these exotic motifs and colours into their own designs.   Because of the royal and exotic themes that came from ancient Egypt, jewel toned colours such as teals and purples stared appearing in designs. Metallics like gold and silver also rose in popularity because of their connotations of wealth and royalty.

In big cities like New York and London, imagery of serpents, scarabs and cats could be found on fabrics and furniture, allowing the exotic aesthetic to be easily implemented into homes and wardrobes.

Section 6: Erté

Erté is One of the most influential designers from the decade and is, what I think, one of the strongest examples of the influence of Egyptian culture on Art Deco.

During the movement he explored many areas of the art industry, starting with a contract with Harper’s Bazar in 1915 and going onto jewellery, fashion and designing both costume and sets for films and plays.  

His 1926 design called ‘The Nile’ is one of his most apparent obvious influences of Egyptian culture, as well as a 1927 front cover design for Harper’s Bazar in which featured a pharaoh and an exotic colour pallet of orange, blue and green.

(Erté 1927 Harper's Bazaar cover, Egyptian, Art Deco)

Section 8: The Great Depression

Unfortunately, what goes up must come down, which is what happened in October of 1929. Labelled as the world’s ‘worst economic downturn in history’, the stock market crash lasted for almost 10 years causing mass unemployment and a staggering drop in production rates.

This meant the Art Deco movement was put on hold, leading to a decline in popularity and putting the movement into a second phase. Expensive and luxurious materials such as silver and crystal were replaced with cheaper and more available resources such as plastic and chrome.

Although the movement took a hit during the recession, it still remained a popular style of choice for the 30’s. Lasting all the way up to the second half of the decade where it saw its last looks before dying out when the world was preparing to go to war for the second time.

Section 9: Conclusion

Looking at all of the events surrounding this movement, it is clear to see just how important context is in influencing and altering a design style. From looking at all the facts and the bigger picture, I would say the most important influences on Art Deco were WW1 and the Tutankhamun discovery. This is because both events highly influenced designers to have an underlying theme of luxury and lavishness to all their pieces. This theme is what I believe to be the most dominant and important theme of the movement as a whole and is what most people remember it for and will continue to do so for a long time.

Bibliography

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Keener, K., 2020. Art Lesson: The history of Art Deco. [online] Art Critique. Available at: <https://www.art-critique.com/en/2020/02/art-deco-art-lesson/> [Accessed 4 April 2021].

Bbc.co.uk. 2018. How did WW1 change the world?. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/45966335> [Accessed 4 April 2021].

Amadeo, K., 2020. How World War I Changed America's Economy. [online] The Balance. Available at: <https://www.thebalance.com/world-war-i-4173886#citation-30> [Accessed 4 April 2021].

Post-World War I Recovery: Crash Course European History #36. 2020. [video] YouTube: CrashCourse.

BBC Bitesize. n.d. Economic problems in the 1920s - CCEA - GCSE History Revision - CCEA - BBC Bitesize. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zp77pbk/revision/2> [Accessed 4 April 2021].

Clevelandhs.org. n.d. 1920s technology. [online] Available at: <http://www.clevelandhs.org/ourpages/webdesign4/dane/science.html#:~:text=1920s%20technology,Ford's%20automobile%20industry%20were%20invented.> [Accessed 8 April 2021].

HISTORY. n.d. Entrance to King Tut’s tomb discovered. [online] Available at: <https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/entrance-to-king-tuts-tomb-discovered#:~:text=British%20archaeologist%20Howard%20Carter%20and,of%20the%20Kings%20in%20Egypt.&text=On%20November%2026%2C%201922%2C%20Carter,tomb%2C%20finding%20them%20miraculously%20intact.> [Accessed 4 April 2021].

Parliament.uk. n.d. Thevote. [online] Available at: <https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/overview/thevote/#:~:text=Representation%20of%20the%20People%20Act,of%20women%20in%20the%20UK.> [Accessed 8 April 2021].

Ourdocuments.gov. n.d. Our Documents - 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women's Right to Vote (1920). [online] Available at: <https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=63> [Accessed 8 April 2021].

Christies. 2020. Flawless, timeless glamour — The art of Tamara de Lempicka. [online] Available at: <https://www.christies.com/features/Tamara-de-Lempicka-collecting-guide-10269-1.aspx> [Accessed 8 April 2021].

ericlindsay. 2012. Erte the Father of Art Deco. [online] Available at: <https://ericlindsay.wordpress.com/erte-the-father-of-art-deco/> [Accessed 8 April 2021].

HISTORY. 2009. Great Depression History. [online] Available at: <https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/great-depression-history> [Accessed 8 April 2021].

Art122.edublogs.org. 2016. Art Deco during The Great Depression – Graphic Design Survey. [online] Available at: <https://art122.edublogs.org/2016/04/04/art-deco-during-the-great-depression/> [Accessed 8 April 2021].

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This case study has helped me understand the context surrounding the Art Deco movement which will aid me in my project as I now know the purpose of the movement, helping me to create purposeful outcomes.

[orbemnews]

When You’re a Small Business, E-Commerce Is Tougher Than It Looks A chair sits in the middle of Holiday Market, a specialty grocer near Detroit, and if customers are lucky, they’ll find Tom Violante Sr. sitting in it. The 91-year-old founder still comes to work most days — and he knows where everything is in its 60,000 square feet. “He asks everyone if they found what they wanted,” said his son, Tom Violante Jr., who operates the store with his sister and brother-in-law. “If they haven’t, he’ll tell them which aisle it is in, how many steps it takes to get there, and where it’s located, knee, head or belly high.” That’s the type of customer service the store, in Royal Oak, Mich., is known for. So, when Tom Violante Jr. began considering offering online grocery shopping, he wanted to provide that same level of care. He didn’t expect the service to be a huge revenue generator, but he saw the future coming, as online brands such as Chewy and Winc wooed his customers away. In 2019, he assembled a team to build an online platform that could handle the store’s 60,000 items. He was glad he had when the pandemic hit. “When we first started, we were so busy people couldn’t get a pickup slot for a week, but we wanted to get it to within two days,” he said. “Now we’re at same-day pickup.” On a ledger of pandemic winners and losers, Holiday Market is in the positive column thanks to online shopping, which helped push the store’s overall revenue up 20 percent in 2020 compared with 2019. In fact, e-commerce is what prevented a catastrophic year for U.S. retailing. Instead of ending in a deep trough of red, online shopping pushed overall retail sales up nearly 3.5 percent, to $5.6 trillion, compared with the previous year, according to the research firm eMarketer. E-commerce alone grew by 33.6 percent in 2020. But Holiday Market’s success is an outlier for small merchants — the boom mostly helped big business. Ten large retailers accounted for 68 percent of all U.S. e-commerce sales last year — and Amazon alone represented more than half of all online sales. Big e-commerce businesses also absorbed nearly 60 percent of all warehouse space available last year, according to real estate analysts at CoStar Group. “The big just got bigger,” said Andrew Lipsman, principal analyst with eMarketer. For small businesses, he said, the benefit was wildly uneven. There were winner sectors, such as grocery, health and fitness, and direct-to-consumer brands, but apparel boutiques and other specialty retailers — especially those without existing e-commerce platforms — struggled. “The pandemic accelerated the growth of online commerce,” said Loren Padelford, vice president of Shopify, the e-commerce platform that predominantly serves independent retailers. “It woke a lot of people up to the idea that if you have to close your physical door, you need to have a digital door.” Shopify, a Canadian company, helps customers build online shops quickly — and many businesses turned to it for help when shutdown orders forced them to close. Shopify’s revenue grew by nearly 90 percent last year, and it now serves 1.7 million merchants globally. Rooshy Roy started her online beauty business, Aavrani, using Shopify; she never even considered opening a physical store. “We realized we could build a company that was all about culture and ingredients, and that selling direct to consumers could make it possible,” she said. Ms. Roy, a first-generation Indian-American, grew up making hair masks and other beauty products with her mother and grandmother, but she never felt proud of her heritage or her formulations until she met her business partner, Justin Silver, in business school. Together they’ve raised nearly $3 million from investors and introduced the first iteration of Aavrani in 2018. The response was lukewarm, so they pulled back and rebranded. Last summer they relaunched the New York City-based company with new packaging and a new plan for connecting to customers. The company primarily uses digital ads to generate sales, but Ms. Roy has also been using Instagram, TikTok and Clubhouse to connect directly with shoppers. She has developed a following on those platforms, she said, because she doesn’t post just about the products. She posts about what matters to her: the struggles of building a business, her upbringing, even confusion about what she is “supposed to look like” as the owner of a beauty brand. Updated  March 6, 2021, 6:57 p.m. ET “This is so different from the last version of the brand,” Ms. Roy said. “It’s less transactional, more authentic to who I am. It has really contributed to our growth.” In 2020, the company recorded $1 million in sales, Ms. Roy said. This year, she anticipates $6 million. But for brick-and-mortar stores considering e-commerce, success isn’t always as easy as posting a website and watching orders flow in. Even at Holiday Market, there were significant logistical challenges — like where to store all those online orders and keep them cool. Mr. Violante had to gut one of the prep kitchens to make room for new freezers and refrigerators dedicated to storage. In addition, he has to pay employees to shop the order, organize items and bring them to the curb. “It’s very expensive to have an online shopping program,” Mr. Violante said. Online shopping accounts for about 8 percent of all sales at the store, and there are 15 employees and one manager dedicated to the service. But Mr. Violante’s vision isn’t to be the best online grocer; he wants to be the place customers come for a great experience and use online ordering as an amenity. “If everything is delivered, how are you going to sit down and spark up a conversation with people?” he asked. “Losing that truly frightens me. So, we’ll be more like a food hall you see in the big cities, a place where there are common areas and community where people can talk to each other.” The cost and logistics of enacting an e-commerce strategy convinced Rachel Lutz not to open digital doors for her three Detroit clothing boutiques, the Peacock Room, Frida and Yama. “E-commerce websites are not a magical solution for saving small retail,” she said. For one, Ms. Lutz couldn’t find a good way to manage inventory across two sales channels. She carries a number of unique and specialty items, and she worried than an online customer could buy an item just as someone picked it up off a store shelf. And stocking separate inventories for online and in-store was too expensive. She also didn’t want to use her retail spaces as shipping and logistics centers when the cost of renting them is so much higher than warehouse space. In the end, she realized being a community-centered business was the most important thing. “I might be less efficient, but I have a more special and unique business and that’s what draws people to our store,” Ms. Lutz said. She hasn’t completely turned her back on e-commerce, though. Ms. Lutz used Facebook Live — a tool she was already familiar with — to create a home-shopping show. Several times a week she goes on camera and talks about the products in her store and the people who make them. She numbers the items and people post “sold” in the comments when they want to buy something. “Customers have started calling it ‘the Show,’” Ms. Lutz said. “I knew we had crossed from e-commerce to infotainment when I heard customers were watching it on their big-screen TVs.” Amina Daniels, the owner of Live Cycle Delight fitness studio in Detroit, is putting on her own show. She wishes she could just point a camera at one of her yoga or spinning instructors and start running Instagram Live, but she knows she needs high production values if she wants her customers to maintain their memberships. So Ms. Daniels built a mini production studio inside her spin room, investing thousands in microphones, lights and a film crew to produce on-demand video classes. But no matter how much she invests in her digital platform, it’s hard to go up against Peloton, which is well capitalized and has entire teams producing its digital classes. Last fiscal year, that company saw its sales surge 100 percent even as Live Cycle Delight’s revenue fell 80 percent. “Our competition changed,” Ms. Daniels said. “We’re not just competing with the gym down the street. Titans like Peloton and SoulCycle, they are true beneficiaries of this pandemic. We are working twice as hard to compete with those titans and with celebrity trainers.” About 30 customers left Live Cycle Delight for Peloton, Ms. Daniels said, but she found support in other ways. With the movement to support Black-owned businesses, people donated to her, and there was healthy demand for the studio’s branded merchandise, such as Pilates balls, T-shirts and booty bands, the stretchy bands that add resistance to a workout. These goods have proved so popular that Ms. Daniels struggles to keep them in stock on her website. Between the products, outdoor classes in the summer and memberships, she has been able to keep the three-year-old business open. The shift to e-commerce hasn’t been perfect, she said, but it’s been worth it. She reminds herself why she started the studio: to make fitness more accessible and inclusive. “Peloton is just one kind of experience,” she said. “We’re still here providing clients with an option to join us on the quest of better.” Source link Orbem News #Business #ECommerce #Small #Tougher #youre

[dipulb3]

Wealthy homeowners are getting richer, while first-time buyers struggle

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/wealthy-homeowners-are-getting-richer-while-first-time-buyers-struggle/

Wealthy homeowners are getting richer, while first-time buyers struggle

A similar divide is happening in the housing market. People who already owned high-end property before the pandemic are seeing their wealth grow as the luxury end of the market booms. Meanwhile, being able to afford a new home is getting further out of reach for those looking to buy in the low- and middle-tiers of the market.

Homeowners with mortgages gained an average of $17,000 in equity in the third quarter of 2020 over the year before, the biggest equity gain since 2014, according to CoreLogic.

Home prices across the board have risen as demand has soared. The pandemic-induced recession brought mortgage rates down to record lows, just as many people sought to relocate to homes offering more space for remote work. That demand, combined with a shortage of supply of available homes on the market, has helped push the median home price in the US to $310,800, according to the National Association of Realtors. That’s 14.6% higher than a year ago, according to NAR’s most recent numbers.

Rising home prices and record low inventory have made it even more difficult for would be first-time buyers, who are also hindered by ongoing economic uncertainty and tightening lending standards.

“Housing affordability, which had greatly benefited from falling mortgage rates, is now being challenged due to record-high home prices,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “That could place strain on some potential consumers, particularly first-time buyers.”

Housing affordability was already a problem

The homeownership divide had already been growing since 2007, when the Great Recession hit, according to research from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Research Institute for Housing America.

The study found that wealth among US households became increasingly unequal between 2007 and 2016. The bottoming out of home prices in 2012 and a decline in the homeownership rate through 2015 ate away at household net worth. Median real household net worth dropped from $140,000 in 2007 to $97,000 in 2016, or 30% lower than it was before the financial crisis.

The report said that while real household net worth improved between 2016 and 2019 due to rising home prices and homeownership rates, as well as the stock market’s steady climb, those gains are likely to be offset by the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Middle-class households did not fully recover from the financial crisis, and the poor saw their net worth turn negative and stay negative,” said John C. Weicher, director for the Center for Housing and Financial Markets at the Hudson Institute, who conducted the study.

“Meanwhile, the rich recovered faster and their share of wealth increased,” he said. “The result is a less-equal America, and many families that fell behind have reasons to worry as they cope with the pandemic and move closer to retirement.”

Home prices rising faster than incomes

One big problem is that the cost of a home is still rising at a pace that is no match for meager increases in income.

Home prices are increasing faster than wages in 53 of the nation’s 100 largest cities, according to Point2, a real estate data company. There were 15 cities last year where mortgages alone took up more than 30% of homeowners’ income, up from 13 cities where that was the case in 2010.

Homebuyers in the most unaffordable cities would need to earn up to $43,567 more per year to avoid being cost burdened, according to Point2, which noted that this comes at a time when many Americans may have seen household income disappear due to job losses.

Meanwhile as entry-level home buyers are being shut out, those who can afford it are buying larger or more expensive homes.

While there were 22% fewer homes sold under $100,000 in November compared with the year before, largely because of lack of inventory, the number of high-cost homes sold has skyrocketed, according to NAR. Closings for homes between $750,000 and $1 million were up 85% in November compared with the year before, and homes sold over $1 million were up 88%.

Increasing the racial divide in net worth

This rift in homeownership hits especially hard for the Black and Hispanic families who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

“There is robust home price appreciation and that builds wealth for those who own a home,” said Laurie Goodman, vice president at the Urban Institute and co-director of its Housing Finance Policy Center. “But the Black and Hispanic homeownership rates were a lot lower than Whites to begin with.”

Prior to the pandemic, the White homeownership rate was about 72%, while the Hispanic rate was 48% and the Black rate was 42%, according to the 2019 American Community Survey from the US Census. The pandemic is likely to make this gap even wider for people of color, she said.

“As credit has tightened as a result of the pandemic, you increasingly squeeze out Black and Hispanic borrowers who tend to have a higher debt-to-income ratio and lower credit scores,” said Goodman.

Homeownership is one of the most direct ways to build generational wealth, she said, and while the average Black or Hispanic homeowner has much less wealth than their White peers, a greater portion of their wealth is home equity.

Goodman said the median wealth of a Black homeowner is $113,000 and their home equity is $67,000, and for a Hispanic homeowner the median total wealth is $165,000 of which home equity is $95,000. Meanwhile, the median wealth of a White homeowner is $300,000, of which $130,000 is home equity, according to the Urban Institute’s research based on data from the Survey of Consumer Finance.

“For Black homeowners, way over 50% of their wealth is in their home,” she said.

[perfectirishgifts]

How Vanterra Capital’s Accelerator Fund Is Helping Early Stage Purpose-Driven Companies Scale And Grow

New Post has been published on https://perfectirishgifts.com/how-vanterra-capitals-accelerator-fund-is-helping-early-stage-purpose-driven-companies-scale-and-grow/

How Vanterra Capital’s Accelerator Fund Is Helping Early Stage Purpose-Driven Companies Scale And Grow

Naadam, a sustainable and ethical apparel company

Vanterra Capital’s Accelerator Fund (VAF) is a leading fund dedicated to helping mission-driven consumer companies scale and drive meaningful change with a particular focus on what they call ESY Investing (better for the Environment, better for Society, and better for��You), a method that goes a step beyond ESG investing.

The fund, focused on venture-stage investments in the consumer, health & wellness, and technology space, sets itself apart from others by way of its active ownership in portfolio brands: aside from finding talented visionaries that are capitalizing on the current transformation shift in the marketplace, Vanterra makes it a priority to continuously build an ecosystem (which includes capital, resources, strategy and mentorship) around its entrepreneurs, even after onboarding them, that allows them to take actionable steps to transform great ideas into businesses that make meaningful impact.

I caught up with Shad Azimi, Managing Partner and Founder of Vanterra Capital to find out more.

Afdhel Aziz: Hi Shad, welcome! Please tell us a little about Vanterra Capital’s Accelerator Fund and why you decided to set it up?

Shad Azimi: With our private equity heritage, we have been investing in lower middle market businesses for over a decade. Several years ago, we started seeing the tremendous disruption being created by nimble, earlier stage companies in the consumer space. This was also being supported by the data we were seeing from our own portfolio companies suggesting that early stage startups were scaling quicker than ever and taking market share from larger incumbents.  The rapidly changing consumer landscape has allowed venture funded businesses to scale from zero to $100m in revenue in 3 or 4 years. This is not something that was possible 15-20 years ago.  The digital revolution has been fueled mainly by technology allowing brands to engage directly with their customers and the ability to use data to better understand their customer, improved logistics and infrastructure, and the social media boom and shift towards efficient marketing spend to these new channels.

Another major trend we saw was the increased interest in social impact investing.  In the past, there was a connotation that socially conscious companies were essentially charities with limited market demand and were not expected to make money.  This is not true anymore. I think consumer’s nowadays, particularly millennials, demand it.  And as conscientious investors ourselves, it was important to us as well.

Hence, we launched Vanterra’s Accelerator Fund to specifically focus on utilizing the firm’s unique capabilities to help earlier stage mission-driven consumer companies scale and drive meaningful change and impact. We believe this platform is filling a gap in the venture landscape, which is predominantly operated by “spray and pray” investors that do not necessarily add enough value post-investment. Through the Vanterra Accelerator Fund, we felt that we could bring our private equity playbook to the venture space.  

Shad Azimi, Managing Partner and Founder of Vanterra Capital

Aziz: Thanks for sharing that Shad. Please tell us about your unique ‘ESY’ Investing strategy?

Azimi: Our goal is to build an ecosystem around entrepreneurs that allows them to take actionable steps in order to transform great ideas into businesses that make a meaningful impact on this planet.   

Broadly speaking, VAF is focused on early stage consumer and consumer tech. Within those two verticals, there are two themes that excite us.  

The first theme is what we call the ESY category, or companies that build brands and sell products that are “Better for the Environment, Better for Society, & Better for You”.  We believe companies should bring products and services to consumers that are bettering their lives, making them healthier, and doing so in an environmentally sustainable manner while giving back to the communities that have helped them along the way. Research shows that sustainability is a critical factor in purchasing decisions for more than 55% of Gen-Z and Millennials compared to only 30% for Baby Boomers.  As these younger generations mature into the most important consumer demographic, brands will need to cater to their value systems around sustainability, or risk losing market share. 

The second theme that excites us revolves around companies that are capitalizing on the digital revolution. We love digitally native brands, and ultimately seek great products that we believe can succeed by scaling through an omni-channel strategy. Brands, now more than ever, can build strong relationships directly with their customers, gauge exactly what they want, and deliver to them. 

US consumers will spend $710bn on e-commerce in 2020, representing an increase of 18% year-over-year. While growth has sharply accelerated in 2020 due to COVID, e-commerce is expected to continue growing to $860bn in total sales by 2022, representing a 15.5% market share of total retail sales. E-commerce is only going to grow and younger consumers expect a strong digital presence. 

This is still a relatively new asset class.  Many people assume that social impact investing is very black and white; social impact investors evaluate a company and determine whether it’s doing good or not.  But we believe it’s more of an ongoing process. Even after we make an investment, we have to constantly iterate with the company to continue to ensure they are finding ways to be better.  We are constantly evolving and improving our model of doing this.  

Cleancult – green cleaning business that provides coconut-based cleaning products

Aziz: What are some of the companies in your portfolio that illustrate this approach?

Azimi: All of the companies in our VAF portfolio are omni-channel brands with a strong digital strategy. Our ESY angle is also a consistent theme as well: 

Naadam: One of our companies that I am very proud of is Naadam, a sustainable and ethical apparel company. Naadam goes straight to the source of the world’s best cashmere, Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, and works directly with herders to bring high-quality, sustainable cashmere clothing at prices that are fair for them and their customers. It’s a company that we backed early on and have continued to support it.  I personally sit on the board and have been actively involved.  It’s been a tremendous business success, but just as important, it’s been an embodiment of our investment thesis. What is especially unique about Naadam is that social impact is present in every single aspect of their business. Founded in 2013, Naadam has been committed to transparency, ethical practices, cultural preservation and environmental sustainability. The company even has a Social and Environmental Impact Report to formally outline its commitments and framework on people, product, planet and progress through 2025.  

Cleancult is a green cleaning business that provides coconut-based cleaning products like hand soap, dish soap, multipurpose cleaners, and detergents without toxic ingredients like sodium lauryl sulfate. Not only is Cleancult’s aim to be the “cleanest cleaners on the planet”, the business also has a plastic-free product design in which initial products are sold in glass bottles and subscription refills are delivered in in paper-based milk-cartons, which eliminate single use plastic packaging that most of the competitors in the industry still rely on. 

Paravel provides “trav-leisure” products such as bags and luggage. Their “negative nylon products” are Oeko-Tex certified and made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic water bottles. Their wheeled luggage line is also the first ever carbon-neutral suitcase and features a recycled polycarbonate shell, recycled zippers, a lining made from upcycled plastic water bottles, and a recycled, aircraft grade aluminum handle. Paravel’s ecocraft canvas bags are made from upcycled materials.

Biohm is a transformative gut health company that provides probiotics supplements backed by real science. BIOHM’s products can help break down digestive plaque and improve nutrient absorption. The Company also sells “gut health” test kits that can provide you unparalleled insight into your personal gut profile; one of their registered nutritionists can create a customized eating plan based on your results.

Hu Products provides “better for you” vegan and dairy-free dark chocolate snacking products and grain-free crackers with zero refined sugar, cane sugar, palm oil, or emulsifiers. Hu Products has done extremely well during COVID due to many household’s pantry-stocking and looking for “better for you” alternatives. 

Hu Products provides “better for you” vegan and dairy-free dark chocolate snacking products and … [] grain-free crackers.

Aziz: Have you seen data that shows mission-driven companies managed to withstand COVID’s effects better? 

Azimi: The consumer market has undergone a paradigm shift driven by trends that involve rising e‐commerce (D2C) adoption and changing consumer preferences for sustainable, healthier, and higher quality products and services. This shift has only been accelerated by COVID‐19 and our ESY, ‘better for the environment, better for society, and better for you’, thesis resonates with consumers and prospective companies now more than ever before.  

To date, all of the companies in our portfolio have exceeded even our pre-COVID budgets. We think the reason for this is that we have focused on companies that have a unique value proposition, are primarily e‐commerce based, and are nimble with low fixed costs.  Most importantly, we believe that our portfolio companies are building community. One of the most important aspects in consumer businesses is building customer engagement and loyalty; that stickiness leads to recurring customers and high lifetime value (LTV).

Beyond our own portfolio, there is broader evidence that suggests mission-driven companies have been able to not only withstand COVID’s impacts but have actually accelerated growth meaningfully through COVID. According to Morningstar, in the first quarter of 2020, US Sustainable Equity Index Funds performed more than 100bps better than the conventional S&P 500 Benchmark. Bain & Company research also shows that over the past 16 years a STOXX index of global ESG leaders have outperformed STOXX Global 1800 Index by around 37%. 

Why does ESY work in a time of COVID?  Scientific findings suggest that COVID is a zoonotic disease that made the jump from animal to human, most likely in a wet market. Environmental destruction has brought us closer to animals and exposed us to more potential disease and outbreak. In fact, a 2015 study on Vector Borne and Zoonotic diseases by EcoHealth Alliance found that land use changes, such as urban expansion and deforestation, is the single most significant driver of many of the zoonotic outbreaks that have occurred since 1940.

The hardest hit are the people in greatest need, living in worst conditions. It is every stakeholder’s responsibility to improve society and the lives of everyone in the supply chain to improve their daily living conditions.

There is also direct correlation between COVID fatalities with other health issues such as heart disease, diabetes, lung function, and general immune deficiencies. Individuals that make healthier choices through diet and exercise are better equipped to fight off diseases like COVID.

We think COVID’s impact on ESY and mission driven companies is not just something that is short-lived but will be long lasting in the minds of customers and companies. 

Biohm is a transformative gut health company that provides probiotics supplements backed by real … [] science.

Aziz: Finally, what advice would you give to founders who are looking to build mission driven companies?

Azimi: First, I would say that perfection is the enemy of progress. Your product or idea may not be perfect out of the gate and usually it never is. However, it’s important to make ongoing incremental improvements that make your brand and product fully in-line with your corporate values and the expectations of your consumers. Looking back, you will realize that the small steps you took have compounded into something truly impactful and went a long way in shaping both your brand and final product. 

Second, I would say is to be clear and authentic about your product or service, about what value you will provide and about your sustainability practices or other messaging that is communicated to customers. 

Consumers today are highly informed and can sniff out when products are overpromising and under-delivering. This is very true when it comes to sustainability where many companies are guilty of greenwashing their products or packaging. This needs to come from an authentic place. It is better not to say anything at all than try and make a big inauthentic marketing leap around your messaging.

I would also recommend that founders prioritize finding the right capital partner whose values are aligned, instead of trying to maximize short term valuations.   

Finally, I would say that if you want to make a sustainable positive impact with your company, then your business model needs to be sustainable and viable itself.  Your company needs to be built to scale profitably and conscientiously.

From CMO Network in Perfectirishgifts

[the-master-cylinder]

The rise of Empire as a low budget producer with their “Beyond Infinity” video line resembles the start-up of AIP during the drive-in boom of the late ’50s, when a definite market existed for a certain product: films for the teenage audience, the wilder and more outrageous the better. The drive-ins “made” American-International Pictures, and like AIP, the VCR spurred Empire and other companies to produce films for a new market. But-having seen most of Empire’s Beyond Infinity offerings to date-one thing is obvious: unlike AIP, Empire lacks the creative genius of a low-budget auteur like Roger Corman. Imagination is not necessarily related to a film’s budget; low-budget films could be original, entertaining, and thought-provoking. But, Beyond Infinity’s releases thus far have proved to be inane, routine, and boring.

The Empire films follow a standard pattern: an exploitative, campy title; garish ad art; scripts which slavishly follow tried-and true formulas; varying amounts of nudity, gore effects, and juvenile humor. Of course, these traits apply equally well to the offerings of Empire’s competitors, particularly Troma Pictures, although Beyond Infinity product has a California pastel plasticity as opposed to Troma’s sleazy New York sheen. The fact that there is little of real interest to be found in any Beyond Infinity film certainly contributed to the commercial downfall of Empire and its video arm. Though the films themselves may not be completely devoid of entertainment value, most of the creativity seems to have gone into dreaming up the exploitable titles.

Dave DeCoteau, director of several projects released by Empire’s “Beyond Infinity” video label, pegged the fall of Band’s Empire to “the market place. It’s changed,” said DeCoteau. “There was a time that horror and fantasy fans saw just about anything that was made available on video. These days, quality prevails among genre movies, including films that are squarely made for direct-to-video release. You have to make the best movie you can and spend the money to do it right. If someone tries to pawn off a piece of shit, they’re shown the door.”

Reflecting on his three picture stint at Empire, DeCoteau said, “Charlie Band’s company was the young filmmaker’s first stop after college. There was a lot of experimentation as young people learned to work with low budgets. As a result, Empire wound up with a lot of product that was not all that wonderful. The company has been called the Sausage Factory of the Cinema. But you can’t keep making sausages, one after the other, sometimes a steak falls off the conveyor belt. Sometimes that steak is a picture like Stuart Gordon’s RE-ANIMATOR. There’s also a lot of sausages. Creepozoids is one of those sausages … but I’m learning.”

DeCoteau tied Empire’s loss of revenue to an aborted video output deal with New World Pictures, announced in August 1987, as the event which triggered Empire’s collapse. Over a two-year period, New World Video was to release five Empire titles, including Prison (1987), Cellar Dweller (1988), Buy & Cell (1988), Pulse Pounders (1988), and APPARATUS. “Empire made four of the pictures back to back,” said DeCoteau. “But because of the 1987 stock market crash, the deal between Empire and New World seemed to change; New World refused to pick up all of the Empire films as quickly as planned. They eventually released two of the films: PRISON, which had a limited theatrical run, and also CELLAR DWELLER, but the others are still being worked on.” Empire was purchased last May by Epic Pictures, a European financial consortium supervised by Eduard Sarlui, owner of Transworld Entertainment. “Basically, Empire and Transworld are owned by the same company,” said DeCoteau of the Epic umbrella. “Epic Pictures is finishing all the movies that Charlie [Band] started, which is a good dozen … ARENA, CATACOMBS, DOWN UNDER, SPELLCASTER, ROBOJOX.

DeCoteau, trained as a production assistant on films as diverse as ANGEL and Ken Russell’s CRIMES OF PASSION, made his debut as a producer-director with Empire on DREAMANIAC (1986), released on the company’s Wizard video label, distributed by Vestron. “I started pre-producing it as a picture called SUCCUBUS,” said DeCoteau. “Helen Robinson, who wrote the script knew the head of creative development at Empire Pictures, Debra Dion. Helen mentioned to Debi that she’d like to write a movie for Empire. Debi asked for a sample of her work and Helen gave her the SUCCUBUS script.” Empire, impressed with Robinson’s work, offered to purchase the screenplay; Robinson declined, insisting that De Coteau already owned it.

“Empire reacted by wanting to get involved in the production,” said DeCoteau. “Only four days before we were scheduled to start principal photography, I met Charlie Band, president of Empire Pictures.” Band not only doubled the movie’s original budget to $60,000, but vowed to reimburse DeCoteau for his personal investment “upon completion of principal photography.”

Wrapped in 15 days, the $70,000 movie was filmed in the abandoned studio of Hustler photographer Suze Randall. The film a blend of critters, slime and skin reunited DeCoteau with Kim McKamy, who made her film debut in DREAMANIAC. “Ironically,” remembers the director, “Kim refused to do any nudity. She was very shy and an all around sweet person.” McKamy later transformed herself into X-rated starlet Ashlyn Gere (aka Kim Patton), whose films-SORORITY SEX KITTENS, BUSH PILOTS, LAID IN HEAVEN—were about as demure as their titles.

“During a screening of the dailies,” recalls DeCoteau, “Charlie Band looked at me and held up ten fingers. I asked what it meant and he said, ‘Ten picture deal.’ I nearly fell out of my chair. We went upstairs, he drew up a contract and opened a $100 bottle of Dom Perignon champagne and we drank it out of Dixie cups. The next day, the cover of Daily Variety read in big bold letters, ‘CHV 10 PIC PACK DEAL WITH EMPIRE.’ [Cinema Home Video partner] John Schouweiler and I went crazy. I was only 25 years-old!

“Whenever Charles had big picture deals, I would be the slave to the market and make the smaller horror, erotic, high concept T&A movies…whatever was hot. I rarely did an ‘A’ movie for him, but I was constantly working.”

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DeCoteau’s subsequent project for Empire was CREEPOZOIDS, produced as a Beyond Infinity release for $169,000. “We wanted to do our own version of ALIENS,” said DeCoteau. “So we put together a picture called MUTANT SPAWN 2000 and I was developing a picture called CREEPOZOIDS, which was actually a hybrid of GREMLINS and GHOULIES. We just flip flopped the titles, referring to the ALIENS rip-off as CREEPOZOIDS.”

“I first met David when he worked as a caterer on a short film called THE CAYTONSVILLE ELEVEN,” says Linnea Quigley. “I was excited to work with him. There’s no huge ‘I’m a director’ ego. He’s not into himself. He’s a good businessman and he talks about stuff besides movies. He even had vegetarian food for me every day, and warm Sparklett’s water for my lusty shower scene in CREEPOZOIDS.”

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DeCoteau not only directed, but also functioned as the movie’s co producer and co writer. In spite of its diminutive budget, CREEPOZOIDS was theatrically released on a double-bill with SLAVE GIRLS FROM BEYOND INFINITY. The twin bill was released by Urban Classics, the theatrical arm of Empire’s Beyond Infinity video line. CREEPOZOIDS made the transition to video a few months later in January ’88, selling 15,000 tapes for Empire, according to DeCoteau.

DeCoteau’s next film for Empire, THE IMP, was limited to a shooting schedule of two weeks. Budgeted at $190,000, with ten per cent in above the line costs for DeCoteau’s expenses as director and co-producer, locations were selected outside of Los Angeles to conserve funds. “Los Angeles is the most expensive city in the world to make a movie,” said DeCoteau, “because of the permits, location costs, and everything like that. It’s hard to rent a basic middle-class tract house in the Valley for less than a grand a day. You have to go to places like San Marcos two hours south of Los Angeles–and you can get those same locations for $100 or $200. We found all of the cooperation there we really wanted.”

A moral (“be careful what you wish for, you may get it”) is extrapolated from the film’s title character, a mean-spirited genie. Since DeCoteau was not budgeted for elaborate special effects, he settled for a cable operated puppet to play the imp, preferring Grimm’s Fairy Tale simplicity to a “realistic” interpretation. Nevertheless, the movie proved to be so ambitious that the production exceeded its budget; extra expenses came out of DeCoteau’s own pocket.

“If we went over budget, our salaries were on the line,” said DeCoteau of Empire’s modus operandi. “So I walked away from THE IMP with very little money because I ended up spending some of my own salary on pick-up shots and things like that. Charlie (Band) isn’t the type to write you a check if you go over budget; you decide on a budget, you shake his hand, and either bring it in on budget or you don’t work anymore. I didn’t make much on that film, but such is life.”

In the film. Michelle Bauer, acquitted herself not only as a B-movie sex kitten but as a thoroughly credible actress and sterling comedienne. “David has a keen sense for people,” says Bauer. “There’s a side of him which is completely understanding. He’s more relaxed than most directors, and likes to have fun. When he was under pressure, it didn’t seem to affect the cast. He kept it under control. We were having fun as friends. It never seemed like we were working at all.”

Nevertheless, production of SORORITY BABES shot during evenings in a San Diego mall and adjacent bowling alley-was sometimes grueling. “There were personal conflicts among, some of the cast,” recalls Stevens. “The late Robin Rochelle Stille drank way too much on the set, and was always beating the crap out of Linnea in their fight scenes. Poor Linnea was constantly applying muscle rub to her many livid bruises. And she had to deal with the teenage angst of young co-star Andras Jones in the room next door. He even dumped his mattress over the hotel balcony, irrationally screaming, ‘I’m in my sexual prime!’ Andras went on to become a rather famous folk singer.”

Stevens experienced her own trauma, “dealing with another actress who clearly felt threatened by me and spared no punches while shooting our fight scenes. She pushed me down so hard, I dislocated my knee, which I had to pop back into place myself.” DeCoteau recounts, “It wasn’t pretty. She had to take four days off, but was a trouper…did her job without complaint.”

Flying furniture and torn ligaments notwithstanding, the set was infused with a party panache. “It’s the only film I’ve directed where I was continuously drunk,” chuckles DeCoteau, “— many people were! It had an open bar that we put to good use.”

“It’s one of my favorite films,” says Quigley, “because I played a tough girl and kept my clothes on. It’s fun to be mean.”

Charlie’s father, Albert Band, head of production at Empire, startled DeCoteau by insisting that nudity, playfully performed for slapstick scenes, “must” be trimmed from the director’s cut of the movie. DeCoteau, realizing nudity is a commercial exponent of the exploitation formula, appealed to Charles Band. Band inquired about the running time that was assembled for the movie’s rough cut. “I told him we were well under 80 minutes,” said DeCoteau, “When I shoot a picture, rarely does the final footage pass the 80-minute length. So they can’t do much editing because a feature-length film shouldn’t run that short. As a result, Charlie told me to put the nude scenes back in.”

Band retitled the picture SORORITY BABES IN THE SLIMEBALL BOWL-A-RAMA (according to DeCoteau, Band had wanted to make it BITCHIN’ SORORITY BABES … ) and released it theatrically through Urban Classics on a double bill with GALACTIC GIGOLO (originally titled CLUB EARTH), directed by Gorman Bechard.

Like DeCoteau, Bechard was another Band discovery whose independently financed feature PSYCHOS IN LOVE was picked up by Empire for release. Unlike DeCoteau, Bechard had nothing good to say about his stint at Band’s company. “I know what it’s like to be raped, “said Bechard about producing and directing two other features for Empire.

For his next feature, PSYCHOS IN LOVE, a black comedy (a “working woman” addresses the camera with “I guess I thought me being both a manicurist and a psychotic killer would, well, turn a guy off”), Bechard chose to ally himself with Empire.

“They offered me what I thought at the time was a good advance for PSYCHOS IN LOVE,” said Bechard. “I didn’t know better. And they offered me a four-picture deal with it, as an enticement to give them PSYCHOS IN LOVE. When you’re an independent filmmaker, finding the money is the worst thing in the world, and here I was able to do four pictures and pretty much have control. Charlie Band gave me tons of wonderful promises, saying, “Well, you can come up here, assist in the editing …,’ and all these other lines of bullshit. Being basically a fellow who wanted this very badly, I believed everything he said.”

CLUB EARTH, the first of Bechard’s four-picture deal with Empire, was an omen of the discord and mistrust that would sour the relationship. Bechard conceived the movie as a social satire involving an intergalactic tourist. Empire preferred to push CLUB EARTH as GALACTIC GIGOLO, and re-edited Bechard’s original cut into their concept of a more exploitable product.

“When I gave them PSYCHOS IN LOVE, I had it in writing that they wouldn’t change it at all,” said Bechard. “If I had not done that, they probably would have raped that film and it would have never been a film that I’m proud of. I am proud of PSYCHOS IN LOVE. But I think GALACTIC GIGOLO was sodomized by Charlie Band. We filmed it as a non-animated adult cartoon. That was my concept. We used the brightest colors … I mean, every different set looked like a color cartoon frame from the Sunday paper. In [color] timing the film, [Empire] took out all of the colors and left it really flat and ugly. Their editing and pacing is nothing short of pathetic; they left out some wonderfully funny stuff, and they left in all of the shit. Their motto is ‘when in doubt, cut to a pair of tits.’ I found out that CLUB EARTH was retitled GALACTIC GIGOLO through a brochure from Empire’s Urban Classics; they never had the decency to tell me they were changing the name of my movie.”

Bechard’s next film for Empire, a black comedy titled TEENAGE SLASHER SLUTS, was presold by the company in foreign markets as Assault of the Killer Bimbos (1988). “They found the word ‘sluts’ to be offensive,” said Bechard of Empire’s logic behind the title change. “And then they go and propose two other movies with the word ‘sluts’ in the title!” Empire eventually completed Bechard’s movie under the title HACK ‘EM HIGH, turning over the ASSAULT OF THE KILLER BIMBOS title to DeCoteau.

“That title presold so well, at [1987’s] American Film Market, it actually scored better than the movies in Empire’s bigger budgeted, non-Infinity division,” said DeCoteau. “Gorman Bechard completed the movie and set up a screening for Empire. It turned out to be a disappointment. Let’s just say that Gorman’s movie did not justify all of the enthusiasm. ASSAULT OF THE KILLER BIMBOS had to be brilliant, or close to it, considering the enormous presales money that was attracted from its title.”

Bechard said he deserves some of the credit for the title’s fabulous presales at the AFM, having instigated an eye-catching spread on the film in People magazine which featured Ruth Collins and Debi Thibeault, the actresses in his version. Bechard laid the blame for Empire’s dissatisfaction with the final film to the manner in which Band ran his company.

Charlie [Band] never read the script,” said Bechard. “I had the script approved by David Ross, who used to be in Empire’s development department, and by Debra Dion, who is now Charlie’s wife. I have a written letter from David Ross which says, ‘Yeh, we like the script. Just make a couple of little changes here and there.’ Basically, we agreed that it was good. Afterwards, I started filming and almost two or three weeks after we wrapped, Charlie calls me up and said he finally read the script. He said he didn’t like it. I don’t know how you run a company and allow someone to use your money to make a film without ever having read the script. That, to me, is not really the way to do business but, again, Empire is not the way to do business. When it became HACK EM HIGH, I said, ‘Wait a minute, there’s no hacking and there’s no high school.’ Of course, they came up with some new scenes that we had to reshoot which were along the lines of the usual Empire quality.”

While Empire fobbed off Bechard’s film as HACK ‘EM HIGH to foreign buyers at Milan’s Mifed Film Market, ASSAULT OF THE KILLER BIMBOS, scheduled for imminent release and eagerly awaited by distributors, existed as nothing more than a concept. Empire frantically searched for an existing script that would qualify as an adaptation of their most exploitable title.

Charles Band gave up WIZARD VIDEO after he ended his deal with VESTRON. WIZARD was distributed by LIGHTENING which was owned by VESTRON and when he left that deal and went over to NEW WORLD VIDEO which then he only released one movie with them, he started a new label called URBAN CLASSICS which he would handle the physical distribution eternally. He wouldn’t do a label deal and the first released was SLAVEGIRLS and that was doing pretty well and CREEPZOIDS was doing pretty well. And they were doing okay and then they started to make these movies back in Connecticut and they were making them cheaper in Connecticut than they were here in LA. They even had a guy out in New York, Tim Kincaid, who was making movies and those weren’t that bad. But there was a guy in Connecticut named Gorman Bechard who I guess was not only producing, writing, and directing, he was the cameraman and he did lights. And he was making these 35mm movies for only $30,000. Charlie was going wow, I got this great deal. And I was saying, Charlie if you want to give me $30,000 I’ll give you $30,000 but it’s going to look like $30,000. But give me $75,000 – $90,000 and you’ll get better movies. But anyway. Gorman did his first movie and what happened was this major snafu with ASSAULT OF THE KILLER BIMBOS. It was pre-sold with huge amounts of numbers and the URBAN CLASSICS films were presented to foreign buyers as pictures made between $1-2 million. He was showing these films to people overseas after he made them to the movie here and I brought in another director, Anita Rosenberg, who at the time didn’t think she knew what she was doing. But it ended up being the best of the URBAN CLASSICS movies. – Director Dave DeCoteau on the start of URBAN CLASSICS

A serviceable script, described by DeCoteau as a “generic but cute girls-on-the run” adventure, was considered from screenwriter Anita Rosenberg, who had previously written MODERN GIRLS for Atlantic Pictures. DeCoteau postponed his preparation of Beyond Infinity’s SPACE SLUTS IN THE SLAMMER to direct the movie. Rosenberg, however, demanded complete autonomy.

Anita Rosenberg

According to DeCoteau, “Rosenberg told Empire, ‘Sure, I’ll sell you the script for 100 grand.’ I said, ‘What do you mean, 100 grand? We pay five grand per script!’ She said, “I’ll sell it to you for five grand if you let me direct it.’ I said, “What other films have you done?’ She said, ‘Nothing, though I have done a short film.’ Empire looked at her short film, thought it was adequate enough, and agreed to let Rosenberg direct it.” DeCoteau was hired as producer for “double the usual budget and triple his customary salary.

Though he was reimbursed for services rendered on GALACTIC GIGOLO and HACK ‘EM HIGH, Bechard claims he was shortchanged on the proceeds from PSYCHOS IN LOVE. “We were promised wonderful percentages of the gross, not of the net, on the film,” said Bechard. “I made sure they couldn’t pull any accounting tricks. But they did pull a great accounting trick; they just never bothered reporting to us. We were supposed to be getting quarterly statements and checks. We never got anything. My letters to Charlie Band, complaining about this situation, and the shabby treatment of my films, were ignored.”

A forthcoming documentary by Kathy Milani, B-MOVIE, traces the production of HACK ‘EM HIGH from the film’s preproduction phase to Band’s phone call alerting Bechard of Empire’s resistance to his adaptation of “a script that Band, up to that point, had not read.” Bechard promises B-MOVIE will enlighten prospective filmmakers to the hazards of low-budget filmmaking. (Milani is currently seeking completion funds and or grants.)

Meanwhile, Bechard is also exorcising his frustrations with Empire through a manual titled “Assault of the Independent Filmmaker;” as the book’s author, Bechard vowed to “paint a no holds-barred picture of the making of each of my films, from the detailed budgets to the whole filming process, to dealing with not-always reputable distributors and investors. Filmmaking is, unfortunately, the sleaziest business in the world, and it bothers me that I can’t picture myself doing anything else.”

When Empire hit the financial skids last year, some theatrical projects like GHOULIES II and CELLAR DWELLER went straight to home video while others were shelved as incomplete. For a company that in the past boasted production agendas cluttered with a dozen titles pegged as either in production “or” in preparation,” in 1988 Empire launched only one-Dave DeCoteau’s Dr. Alien (1989) (I Was a Teenage Sex Mutant), started on a budget of $400.000. The company folded before production was finished.

But Band opened up shop again late last year, calling his new operation the Bandcompany, like Empire specializing in international sales, with a video line dubbed Phantom Home Video, and a production arm called Full Moon Productions. Band’s first announced project was Edgar Allan Poe’s THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM, to be directed by Stuart Gordon. “He’s back into making pictures,” said DeCoteau. “He won’t be making as many and they won’t be as cheap.”

When Band jumped ship from Empire, his deal to sell the company gave him ownership of a trio of productions, according to DeCoteau. Band used the films, including DeCoteau’s I WAS A TEENAGE SEX MUTANT, THE INTRUDER (formerly NIGHT CREW), and JUNGLE HEAT (formerly PIRANHA WOMEN) to form his new company and subsequently negotiated a contract with Paramount Home Video for their release. I WAS A TEENAGE SEX MUTANT, now retitled DR. ALIEN!, was scheduled to be released in November.

Interview with Dave DeCoteau

Looking back on the beginning of your career, how would you appraise Dreamaniac? Dave DeCoteau: Dreamaniac was an experiment; it was my little film school project, wrapped up in ten days. It was like learning how to do it, and learning how do it quickly, because I only had ten days to learn a career’s worth of information and make a decent movie. It was made on a $60,000 budget.

The ending of Dreamaniac-with the abrupt disclosure of a succubus as a mental patient-seems like a postproduction afterthought. Who was responsible for the cop-out compromise? Dave DeCoteau: Me. I decided to go with kind of a triple-twist ending, just for the hell of it, since the film had nothing else to offer.

Your films have gotten even more exposure on cable TV, what with broadcasts on USA, Pay-Per-View… Dave DeCoteau: But, you know, Creepozoids and Sorority Babes In The Slimeball Bowl A-Rama did better, during their original release, in foreign territories than domestically. We were well received in Britain. Creepozoids was number seven on the Top Ten Selling-Rental charts during the month of its release; The Untouchables was number eight! Sorority Babes, released in the United Kingdom as The Imp, did almost as good business as Creepozoids.

What’s the background of Sorority Babes In The Slimeball Bowl-A-Rama, your most unique movie? Dave DeCoteau: Charlie (Band) wanted, a “little genie” movie to be called The Imp. I came in the next day, and read off five story lines. The fifth one was a joke, never intended to be taken seriously, about a little genie that was squished inside a bowling trophy back in the 50s and unleashed upon some sorority babes and fraternity initiates on Hell Night. Charlie liked that concept more than any of the other ones, and we decided to go with it.

There’s a frantic chase scene, near the conclusion of Sorority Babes, without music on the soundtrack. Was this intentional or an accidental omission? Dave DeCoteau: The music channel of the entire Reel Seven did not make it to the one inch video master. When you do a final mix on a picture, you mix sound on three stripes-the dialogue, the music, and a (sound) effects track. You do the video mastering by taking your film, and your three channels of sound, and putting them onto broadcast-quality one-inch video tape for half-inch duplication. When they transferred the entire show, they accidentally forgot to drop the music channel from Reel Seven; they only transferred two channels, the dialogue and effects. The music’s omission marred the film. Fifteen or twenty-thousand copies of the tape went out without the musical channel on Reel Seven, which is the climax of the film and (originally) had an incredible musical score. I was very upset because Empire, at the time, did not let me quality control the one-inch masters. First-time viewers of Sorority Babes may prefer to hum their own theme.

Tell me where did you come up with the title SORORITY BABES IN THE SLIME BOWL-O-RAMA? Dave DeCoteau: I didn’t come up with the title. It was shot as THE IMP and Charlie Band came up with the title. He had a little I fun to watch. The experience was a lot of fun, Making movies is never really been that much fun. The two best days of making a movie is the day you get the financing and the rap party. And everything between is a pain in the fucking ass. You always have to compromise, you can’t do exactly what you want to do. Because the budgets are so low the schedules are tight and you can’t always get the actors you want and you get the actor, you could only use him for a couple days and you can’t use him for any overtime. The process is real tough. And I think PUPPETMASTER III as being my best film in most people’s eyes but just had a horrendous time making that film.

Which of your pre-Doctor Alien (1989) films is your favorite? Dave DeCoteau: I have to admit I have this bizarre affection for Creepozoids, I don’t know what it is, but when I was making that film I really took it deadly serious and expected it to be a lot better than it was. The reviews have been horrible, but-God!-every time I show it to somebody, they kind of, like, smile. It’s actually a serious attempt, whereas all the other films we’ve been doing seem to be a little campy or silly.

Didn’t Creepozoids get positive reviews in Europe? Dave DeCoteau: Excellent reviews! The United Kingdom is asking for a sequel and they’re ready to cut a check to finance it. Unfortunately, I don’t have the sequel rights to that film, so I probably won’t do it.

You made some of your past films for under $200,000. What was the budget on Doctor Alien? Dave DeCoteau: About $400,000. It’s a home video, a damn good example of direct-to-video product. I love it. It’s a very entertain. ing film for me, and everyone seems to enjoy it. The only problem about not releasing it theatrically is that it is a comedy, and comedies work very well with large audiences. I’m going to screen it for the Science Fiction Academy here, and for a few other people.

Why did you choose a more mainstream celebrity-Judy Landers-for Doctor Alien and Ghost Writer? Dave DeCoteau: When we were casting for the Doctor Alien role of Ms. Xenobia, we wanted to go with a Mary Woronov type. Well, we auditioned hundreds of Mary Woronov, Barbara Steele and Caroline Munroe types, and we realized it just didn’t work the way it was written… it wasn’t funny. So I said, “Let’s bring Judy in for a hoot.” I just wanted to meet the girl. She came in with the scenes memorized and gave us a reading, and we were falling on the floor laughing our heads off. She played it so wonderful, and so funny, that she was perfect for the part.

With the exception of your first film, Dreamaniac, your movies have avoided the “sex begets violence” syndrome. Did you consciously reject this routine premise? Dave DeCoteau: Yeah… women are not victims in my films. A female victim in my films is very, very rare. Women are the aggressors in my movies, they’re the ones who save the day. Look at Linnea Quigley in Sorority Babes: she never showed a nipple and she kicked ass, and she saved the day…

The History of Empire Films Part Five The rise of Empire as a low budget producer with their “Beyond Infinity” video line resembles the start-up of AIP during the drive-in boom of the late '50s, when a definite market existed for a certain product: films for the teenage audience, the wilder and more outrageous the better.

[agentlereckoning]

What I think about Alison Roman

Any Gen-Z’er with a Twitter account has probably seen the latest Gen-Z Icon Controversy, i.e. the one involving Alison Roman. In case you’re not caught up on its details,  the tl;dr is that The New Consumer (which appears to be a one-white-man show of an online publication steered by a former Vox and Business Insider employee named Dan Frommer) published an interview with Alison last Thursday — an interview where Alison, when asked about the difference between “consumption and pollution” (as if there even is a material difference), said:

“I think that’s why I really enjoy what I do. Because you’re making something, but it goes away.

Like the idea that when Marie Kondo decided to capitalize on her fame and make stuff that you can buy, that is completely antithetical to everything she’s ever taught you… I’m like, damn, bitch, you fucking just sold out immediately! Someone’s like ‘you should make stuff,’ and she’s like, ‘okay, slap my name on it, I don’t give a shit!’

....

Like, what Chrissy Teigen has done is so crazy to me. She had a successful cookbook. And then it was like: Boom, line at Target. Boom, now she has an Instagram page that has over a million followers where it’s just, like, people running a content farm for her. That horrifies me and it’s not something that I ever want to do. I don’t aspire to that. But like, who’s laughing now? Because she’s making a ton of fucking money.”

This is the quote that most people who’ve followed this drama have latched onto, and I’ll come back to discussing it in a moment. I’m really not sure why the interview was published at all, other than for a publicity or financial boost during these times, because I don’t think anything worth hearing was uttered by either the interviewer or interviewee. Moments in the interview seemed either tone-deaf or trivial to the point where I wondered why they were included at all. Early on, for example, Alison laments that she hasn’t been making enough money during this pandemic. (She does not live in want of money.) Later she half-jokingly complains that her public persona has been reduced to “anchovy girl”, ostensibly because she often uses them in her cooking. (She does, and often proudly owns that fact, which makes this complaint pretty uninteresting.) But the point of this interview was meant to be, I think, a rumination on how Alison would turn her belief that she “isn’t like the other girls” into practice.

It’s a common thing to desire, I think — this ingenuity balanced with relatability, and I think seeking this balance is what propels so many people my age. Few things are more embarrassing to us than unoriginality, than being a carbon copy of someone else, yet few things are scarier than social rejection. We don’t want to like the same things as everybody else, but we want at least some people to like the things that we like. I think it’s what drives certain subcultures to exist in the first place, the way that subsections of people can congregate around something or someone, reveling in each other’s presence but also in knowing that they are, in fact, just a subsection of the greater population. 

This mentality is, admittedly, sort of what drove me to like Alison Roman in the first place. For background: the first time I cooked a recipe of hers happened unwittingly; in December 2018, I saw the recipe for the salted chocolate chip shortbread cookies that became known as #TheCookies (Alison’s virality can be encapsulated by the fact that all of her most famous recipes have been hashtagged, e.g., #TheStew, #TheStew2, #ShallotPasta or #ThePasta), but I made them without knowing that Alison was the person behind the recipe. The cookies were good (though I think any recipe with over two sticks of butter and a pound of dark chocolate is bound to be good.) At some point about a year later, I watched a YouTube video published by NYT Cooking where she made her white bean-harissa-kale stew, and I thought she was funny and really pretty and, like me (I think), had a fastidious yet chaotic energy that I always thought made me awkward but made her seem endearing. Alison’s recipes taste good, they come together really easily, and you don’t need special equipment or a lot of kitchen space to execute them. It’s why I’ve committed at least three of them to memory, just by virtue of making them so often. I liked her recipes so much that, for over three months, one of my Instagram handles was inspired by one. But I also liked her, or wanted to be like her, or some combination fo both. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to be her friend, or that I didn’t aspire to her lifestyle of Rachel Comey clothes, glistening brass hoop earrings that cost 1/4 of my rent, regular trips to downtown Brooklyn or Park Slope farmers’ markets or small butcher shops where the purveyors all knew her name, an always-perfect red gel manicure, the capacity to eat and drink luxuriously and seemingly endlessly and to have the money for a yoga studio membership to help her stay slim anyways. 

Of course all of those things are signifiers of social class more than anything else. But in oligarchical, consumerist societies, what is expensive and what is good become two overlapped Venn diagram circles, and I have not yet reached a level of enlightenment to be able to fully tease the two apart. And while I would never drop $425 on a jumpsuit, no matter how pretty I think it is, I could crisp up some chickpeas, stir in vegetable stock and coconut milk, and wilt in some greens, and act like my shit was together. I liked Alison because when I first started liking her, she hadn’t yet risen to the astronomical level of digital fame that she enjoys now, and by making her recipes, some part of me believed that I would be inducted into a small group of her fans who, by serving up her dishes, telegraphed good taste.

This idea of “good taste” is a complicated and racially charged one. Alison is white; she lives in one of the whitest neighborhoods in Brooklyn (maybe even all of New York City); her recipes cater to a decidedly young, white audience. I think another reason why her dishes hold so much Gen-Z appeal, beyond their simplicity and deliciousness, is because they sit at the perfect intersection of healthy-but-not-too-healthy and international-but-not-too-international. Her chickpea stew, for example, borrows from South and Southeast Asian cooking flavors, but you wouldn’t need to step foot into an ethnic grocery store or, god forbid, leave Trader Joe’s, to get the ingredients for it. The shallot pasta recipe calls for an entire tin of anchovies, and you get to feel cool and edgy putting a somewhat polarizing food into a sauce that white people will still, ultimately, visually register as “tomato sauce and pasta” and digest easily. All of the recipes in her cookbook, Nothing Fancy (which I received as a gift!), are like this. She doesn’t push the envelope into more foreign territory, probably because she doesn’t have the culinary experience for it (which is totally fine — I never expected her to be an expert in anything except white people food), and probably also because if she did push the envelope any further, her book, with its tie-dyed pages and saturated, pop-art aerial shots, wouldn’t have been as marketable. 

That’s what’s unfortunate — that white people and white-domineered food publications have been the arbiters of culinary taste in the U.S. for centuries. I’m thinking about Julia Child, about bananas foster being flambéed tableside and served under a silver domed dish cover, about the omnipresent red-and-white-checked Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, about Guy Fieri and Eric Ripert and Ina Garten and the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen. I’m thinking about how white women have long been the societally accepted public face of domestic labor when it was often Black women who actually did that labor. It’s Mother’s Day today, and I’m thinking about how, in middle school, I’d sometimes conceal my packed lunch of my favorite dishes my mom made — glass noodles stir-fried with bok choy, cloud ear mushrooms, carrots, and thinly sliced and marinated pork; fish braised in a chili-spiced broth — so that my white friends wouldn’t be grossed out, and so that I wouldn’t have to do the labor of explaining what my food was. 

And I’m thinking of that now-notorious Alison Roman quote. To be fair, Marie Kondo and Chrissy Teigen do have large consumer and media empires, which have become profitable and which require huge teams of people to sustain. Both of them probably do have large amounts of money at their disposals. What’s weird to me is that Alison accuses both Marie and Chrissy of “selling out” because they each branded their own lines of purchasable home goods, yet Alison herself said in that very same interview that she had also done that very thing. It’s just that Chrissy’s line is sold at Target, while Alison’s, according to her, is a “capsule collection. It’s limited edition, a few tools that I designed that are based on tools that I use that aren’t in production anywhere — vintage spoons and very specific things that are one-offs that I found at antique markets that they have made for me.” I suppose it’s not “selling out” if it caters to the pétite bourgeoisie. I don’t know if Alison is explicitly racist, since I don’t know if she called out two women of color simply because they are women of color, or if she genuinely just so happened to select two of them. But that she feels like she has the license to define things as “selling out” based on who the “selling-out” behavior caters to reeks of white entitlement. 

There’s also an air of superiority with which she describes how she would market her product line:

That would have to be done in such a specific way under very intense standards. And I would not ever want to put anything out into the world that I wouldn’t be so excited to use myself.

She says this right before talking about Marie Kondo and Chrissy Teigen, accusing them of being lackadaisical and unthoughtful (”okay, slap my name on it! I don’t give a shit!”; “people running a content farm for her”) when she likely has no idea what the inner workings of either of their business models are. To be sure, it could very well be true that Marie and Chrissy have handed off these aspects of their brands to other people. But for Alison to assume that they have, and that her own business management style would, by default, be better because she would retain control, is egotistical. 

Alison ends the interview by proclaiming that her ultimate goal is to be different from her contemporaries. She says, 

To me, the only way that I can continue to differentiate myself from the pod of people that write recipes, or cookbooks or whatever, is by doing a different thing. And so I have to figure out what that is. And I think that I haven’t ultimately nailed that. And I’m in the process of figuring it out right now.

I expect that her path to “differentiation” will contain riffs on the same iterations of preserved lemons, anchovies, canned beans, and fresh herbs that she’s always relied on. I expect people will still think she’s cool, because that’s easy to achieve when her recipes and aesthetic are a series of easy-to-swallow-pills,  when she tells the cameraman not to cut the footage of her accidentally over-baking her galette, and when being a white creative and working among mostly white colleagues means that she’ll get a lot of latitude. I expect she’ll continue to sell out, which is completely fine, so long as she’ll be candid with herself and actually call it selling out. 

And I want to learn recipes from a chef who looks like me, and I want that chef to be “marketable” enough to achieve Alison’s level of fame. I want people of color to get to decide what recipes deserve their own hashtag. I want Alison Roman to be emotionally okay, because Twitter backlash can be vicious. And I kinda want to buy Marie Kondo’s drawer organizers now. 

[semiramis-audron]

Dream life

Sometimes you have a dream that is so vivid and so long that it feels like you lived through a whole part of your life. But when you wake up, it’s gone. You know that you dreamt and that there were important things happening. But you are left with a pale and blurry afterimage, with the unpleasant knowledge that it was there and you have no way of recalling that dream.

"... I hope your flight home wont get delayed as well, honey. I miss you." she huffed through the phone, conjuring a smile on my face. "I really don't think there are thaaat many people trying to smuggle syringes onto planes, usually they're smart enough to hide drugs without things that the metal detector could pick up, right?... " ... and sometimes you have a rich idiot flying first class who didn't think twice about bringing his questionable material in the carry on luggage. "Honey, I know how you don't like it if things don't work out as planned, you don't have to hide it." True, but usually Darleen wasn't as miffed about it as she sounded now. Hopefully that annoying quirk of mine didn't rub off on her. "It's okay, really, I got here a bit late, is all. I'll sleep now, try to ignore the jetlag and in two days I'll be home." First a shower though, the long flight had left the back of my shirt all clammy. I had already gotten rid of it, and was busy getting out of my socks by now. "And then we have a whole month to ourselves. I can't wait!" even the smile in her voice was audible through the headset. Her eyes always sparkled when she smiled, it made me miss her even more. "I promise I wont leave the house again then, or at least not without you, okay?" she laughed a bit dirty and I imagined her shaking her head at me. "You're stupid and silly, husband. I sent you an E-mail with the contacts of the rental service your car is at. Be good and get some rest now, I got a lot of stuff to prepare still for when you come home. Pick something small and black and sexy, you know." "Thanks luv, have a good night." "Love you, lovebug." "Love you too, sunshine..." she hung up and I sighed.

Since a few months she had started helping out with my business trips and it was such a huge help. And made me feel even worse whenever I left her home alone. Not that she'd be bored or locked up, she had plenty of hobbies to occupy herself with, and her own job was quite demanding too. Articles and predictions for the various business magazines, that had saved our stocks a few times already. Taking that econometrics course was the best idea I had in my life... at least the best in my social life... She was pleasantly surprised that I hadn’t tried to flirt with her, so she had started to flirt with me to find out whether I was gay or just shy,  she thought I was cute when she found out it was the later. I was also there to pick up business stuff, not girls, but there was no reason to say no to her, really. I wasn’t going to find a girlfriend on my own any time soon and if she decided I was a good catch, why convince her otherwise? She was smart and also attractive, which according to everyone who saw us together was... less likely than winning the lottery. Which is pretty rude, because there were a lot of both smart and attractive women in my informatics course. Then again, intelligence and humour ARE attractive to me, so I might be blurring the line between physical and mental attractiveness... But Darleen, she knew she was attractive, still chose me, and was so modest. She was the nicest and kindest and most charitable person I ever met. Always offering her help, laughing at my jokes, never pressuring me into anything and just... hanging out at my place or letting me code at hers. And holding my hand at those very exhausting dinner parties and business soirées, drawing attention to herself when she noticed me getting overwhelmed. And the attention was like sunshine and water to the flower of her beauty, she blossomed and I was enjoying my time there much more, watching her being happy. It gave her such a glow. I always felt like I wasn’t good enough for her, she liked the stage light and I preferred working behind the scenes. But she assured me, we were perfect for each other, our somewhat different personalities complimenting each other. Opposites attract and such. It was her who gently nudged me to pose the question when I was worried she’d say no. Our wedding was beautiful, I cried when I saw her. She looked like a goddess in that white and golden dream of a dress. And so far our marriage was perfect, nothing like those clichés you’d expect. We didn’t have kids yet, but we still had a lot of time for that. We both had our jobs and loved each other possibly even more than before. Even worse so, that she took the time to arrange my business trips for me, with her own career booming. She had an impeccable sense of style and luxury, always knew the best places to book, for my somewhat anxious ass.

My toes greatly enjoyed the warmth of the heated bathroom floor in this hotel. Everything was spotless, even between the tiles. The air freshener was a small mister attached to the heating system. Sprinkling salt-water onto a hot stone. It smelled like actual ocean, instead of a chemical perfume breeze. My nose rejoiced... The mood lighting and warmth of the shower made me drowsier than I expected with a local time of 3 pm. I really needed that month off to get my biological clock in order again. Thanks jetlag..  Stumbling out in the most comfy bathrobe, and just sitting down to wait out a dizzy spell, I discovered that the bed was a soft, warm fluffy cloud. I was out like a light...

Naturally I woke up in the middle of the night, firing up the laptop and working for a few hours, until the breakfast buffet was open. Afterwards, since the air was still pleasantly cool before the midday heat, I dropped my laptop in my messenger bag and decided to head for the city. People ignored me, I was just another pasty faced British tourist. I checked out the rental service Darleen had picked out for me. It was easy to find, since they were also the main taxi service in the area, so their advertisement was all over the place. She even had booked a car already, just like I liked it. Nothing pompous or fancy, with a good grip on the streets, and easy for me to feel comfortable in, what with the different side the wheel was on here. I would come back there later to get the car, if I even needed to, the conference centre was only about two hours to walk from the hotel, according to google and the nights here supposedly were pleasant, I could easily walk there and after the expo closed, walk down and marvel at the night sky... For now I seemed just fine without the car, strolling down the boulevard and trying to get some sun on my limey skin and a little souvenir for my lovely darling. I made a point out of never coming home empty handed.

They had beautiful summer dresses in the windows of some shops, also bleached white straw heads with fake hibiscus blossoms on them, but Darleen didn't like it when I brought her clothes home as gifts. She usually didn't like the flowy style I tended to pick. She did like swimsuits and beach wear but again, our styles deviated, so that was not an option either. We should definitely come here for vacation though. She loved trying on different, form fitting outfits for hours. And while I was not a fan of shopping for myself, I sure do loved watching her enjoying herself... Luckily for me she did like to accessorise her dresses with jewellery. So that coral reef- styled golden necklace with a blue topaz in the gold smith' shop window would hopefully be a good gift, especially with the matching earrings they offered me for a top deal. Such tiny and delicate things, weighing almost nothing and yet so valuable. Sometimes it was saddening, that I didn't have the kind of style that went well with accessories and bling... They went into the messenger bag too, and I spent the next hour in a little café with a fruit smoothy in the shade.

The heat was getting to me, but the expo was only a short walk from where I was now, so still enough time to marvel at the local knick knacks before heading into the air conditioned building and checking out the competition and new gadgets on the market. My presentation didn't start until 8 and distracting myself by trying out VR headsets to strap your phone in and the newest augmented reality funsies helped to keep me from worrying too much. Naturally the prestigious plans of many internet and phone providers, especially in the mobile branch were advertised with great effort. The age of faster, better, bigger was definitely what they aimed for, and I was part of it. You spent the first three years of your career building and improving and fine-tuning apps and coding to make electronic transactions and advertising available to the broad public. Comfortable and save with the click of a button, social networking to link thousands of developers and establishing a broad connection for easy micro transactions. And then you spend the next five years trying to code ways to battle the incredible amount of fraudulent transactions, misuse, ad subscription traps and letterbox companies. Collecting and sighting data to weed out problematic third party providers and as soon as you do, they come back under five new names. Like a digital hydra of pop-up ads. It was an exhausting field of work, especially if your company was among the leading three to have created and worked on those issues. Our booth was swarmed, both by competitors, affiliates and of course delegates from companies interested to work with us in the future.

There were set dates I had to be at the booth for important meet and greets and I believe I handled those well, having switched into a more formal business attire and smiling professional, even if my bracelet told me to move from coffee to water because my pulse was through the roof... I managed to get some air in between, take a deep breath and check out the booths of other companies as well. People didn't know my face, they recognised the logo on and the name on my conference ID. I made regular detours to our booth to drop off the various promotional gift and VIP bags. I did love the lanyards and the pens, lanyards were just...  they had a certain fascination to them... I couldn’t explain it. Playing with the closing mechanism was calming... And the pens were very useful since I kept losing mine or breaking off the little clip when fidgetting with it in skype calls... So I could never have enough of those. It seemed wrong to buy them just because I couldn't be bothered to keep proper track of them...

I broke two behind the podium at my presentation, but my voice didn't waver. I had rehearsed it and prepared for deviations and questions that might throw me out of the loop. I knew what I was talking about 100%, that wasn't the problem. But my heart was beating in my throat. This conference room was huge. Almost a theatre. And live streamed online. If I had gotten any tan from my brief stroll outside today, it went unnoticed, my hands were ice cold and my face probable pale as a sheet, but well, I was always pale. When I was done answering questions on the stage and only had the 3 or 4 people come up to me, my legs were a bit wobbly. Soon it would be over. There was the obligatory shaking hands and being offered more business cards, while the rest of the audience flooded out of the hall already. I smiled, I listened, I explained. Took a sip from my waterbottle, contemplated some answers to slow my voice and politely rejected an invitation to a local sushi bar to wind down with some other CEOs. I just wanted to get back to my hotelroom and hear my wife and then drop dead.

Our representatives at the booth didn't mind me hanging around there while I called the rental service to ask if they could send someone to pick me up. My wife had paid the car in advance they told me, they didn't have any limo service available at such a short notice. She had made sure to instruct them that I was to be given this car and none else, and that i preferred to drive it myself. She was right. I usually did not enjoy being chauffeured around like a pompous billionaire. And I saw no sense in driving a sports car, since I wasn't a speed devil. Or a Maybach, since I didn't want the car for attention. Just driving from A to B. A comfy, save car was all I ever wanted. But I was exhausted from socialising and the climate was poison for my cold blooded British sensitivities. Not to mention that my jetlag still told me it was long past my bedtime. I'd be a hazard on the street like this. They refused to send a taxi because Darleen had been quite clear with her instructions and made it sound like she had threatened them with a non-fulfilment lawsuit if I were to be given any other car. Which, frankly I doubted, because I had never seen here in a state that was more than mildly annoyed. But they agreed to send one of their drivers to pick me up with my designated car. Which was all I asked for really. I was warned that I probably needed to wait a bit since he was new in town and didn't know the best routes yet. It gave me time to tie the gift bags together with lanyards and lug them to the parking lot. Where, surprisingly enough, the young man was waiting already.

He greeted me with a smile, when he saw that I was roughly his age. Even told me he had expected some old, wrinkly bald guy, not someone he'd have a beer and a game of Mario Kart with. I felt flattered and relaxed. If there was something that made me more uncomfortable than socialising with people, it was socialising with people who treated me like a raw, golden egg. Businesspeople were chummy sometimes which was okay, if it wasn't too unprofessional. But people whose services I paid for often ended up being weirdly respectful, almost terrified of me. I guess it made sense, there were some higher ups in my contact list with a rather short and moody temper, who had never delivered pizza or worked in customer service themselves. I would be rather save than sorry before escalation a customer as well... My driver was chill though, I gave him fifty bugs in advance to help me load my goodies into the trunk and not tell anyone about me curling up in the backseat in a fetal position to get some sleep on the way to the hotel. He laughed and slapped my shoulder, handed me the emergency blanket from the expired first aid kit (there was a second up to date one too, thankfully) and then turned to a radio station playing smooth tunes to lull me in. He promised to drive slow, so my pretty head wouldn't get bumped by the road too much. That made me feel flattered too, but in a weird way... He was really nice, I made a mental note to leave an awesome review on yelp for their company and maybe find a way to get him some extra credit or hook him up with someone from our resident office, if he wanted to change job. But my body sensed the chance to boot down and I slept like a baby the moment he switched the backseat light off.

I don't know what happened, it was probably a really weird and unconnected dream. Even though I thought I was awake for a moment at least. It was like several things happened at once, and my head just processed them too slow. I thought I was woken by one incredibly loud bang, like a blast - at the same time... pressure on my ears and intense silence but also a high frequency tone whistling unnervingly. My body was pressed deep into the seats, maybe we had bumped into something, but the force felt unreal... especially my upper body, my head, pushed back, I was being smacked right in the face, breaking my nose and jerking my head, like my brain being smashed against the back of my skull---

The dream stopped and I woke up, sorta, my legs were heavy and tired and I couldn't breeze, there was stuff all around me and it was hot everywhere, I choked on air and the smell off iron and burned rubber and then choked on liquid stuff in my throat and nose. I couldn't see, and I couldn't get up. I could move my arms but my legs didn't obey me. I think it was loud around me, but it sounded like someone was covering my ears with their hands. There was biting, cutting wind near my face sucking more heat in my direction from the other side and the urge to move away from there. My eyes were burning and watering too much too see, and I wasn't sure which way was up or down, it seemed to change all the time. I tried to crawl towards the cold. My legs barely helped propping me up, at least I wasn't hurt. The car door was open and I pulled myself closer to it, letting my weight drag me out, hands grasping for hold in the grass beneath, trying to pull my legs out. I felt a jostle and a sudden tug of gravity and then more blows to my side and front and back and my head spin and then the movement stopped but my head still spun and my face was in dusty muddy ground that tasted of iron and then I continued to sleep and the dream stopped...

[benzyonart]

Original Arogos

Arogos is my first DnD character that I had. He is by far my favorite character to play as far as DnD goes. My friends characters Xanth and Danric however are not quite as fond of him as I am. Arogos literally met those two because he was trying to steal the amulet that Danric [who is a ghost] was tied to. After that he was dragged into basically a war. He met who he considers friends though he will never consciously tell them that. Theres Danric, Xanth, Claw, Smoke [deceased], Pen, and Hagenborn.

I would love to write a whole list of his adventures but honestly I can’t remember it all. His original campaign lasted almost 2 years and a lot happened in that time. I do have his backstory written which I will place below and below that I will write down some of the more notable things from his adventures that I remember, but to the back story.

Before the age of 5 Arogos has no memories whether they were repressed or he just doesn't remember. His first memory he can recall is when he ran into a stable to sleep in one of the stalls. The master of the stables found him and was less than pleased to have a weird elf sleeping in his stalls, as the world is rather racist to elves but given what was going on, that wasn’t a major thing in the campaign. The guy told him he could “Take an arrow or go”. Arogos pleaded with him and the guy agreed to keep him there as long as he worked for him. He then started calling him Arrow-go.

When he was about 6 he found a silver on the ground and this is the first time he believes he ever saw money. A street kid walked up and saw his silver. She explained the concept of money to Arogos and told him “if you have money you can do anything. Everyone respects you and does what you say. You would never have to sleep in a barn again and get ordered around.” This started Arogos’s mentality that money is everything. With his silver he got a room at an inn and slept in a bed for the first time. At this point he started stealing to get more money and try and get other goods.

The kid who showed him the ways of money was a human named Lola. The two soon became friends and thieving buddies.

When he was age 10 he got his first ear piercing. When the ring was put in, he had the two ends, that were open to get through his ear, “welded” together so unless it was ripped off, no one would be able to take it from him. Throughout the next 20 years he continues getting more piercings until he has the ones he has now.

At age 15 Arogos and Lola tried to steal from one of the richer households. They got seen and during the escape Lola was shot down from the rooftops. The two had already agreed before they started if the other was caught then they would keep on running so he did. He never saw her again but he knew what had most likely happened.

When Arogos turns 17 he officially left the stable after the owner got sick of his shit and kicked him out. He shortly after got his tattoo and started just living off the streets alone.

When Arogos is 40 he tried to pickpocket a middle class looking fellow but failedand got caught. The guards threw him in jail. Later that day the person he pick pocketed came to visit him. The man was curious and started chatting with Arogos. When Arogos refused to talk back the man just told him about his life until Arogos warmed up. He introduced himself as Todd and a human. He started visiting every few days, every week for sure. At age 55 Arogos was released from jail. Todd found him and they still met up after that though Arogos didn't drag him into his thieving and made it a point more or less to keep him out of it.

He watched Todd grow old every time they met and when Arogos was 92 Todd died of old age. He had never met the man's wife or kids and wondered if Todd ever told them about him. He figured that they moved away after Todd died.

After the funeral Arogos went to the near by inn to eat and mope. At that point in time he met the barkeeper who was starting to buy the things Arogos stole instead of working with the thieves guild.

Arogos for the most part had started to avoid people. Not only because of the racism but he didn't want anyone to die on him anymore. He tried not to make friends or joining groups like the thieves guild.

At age 95 he had the metal on his chest placed. He spent the rest of his days up until meeting the party valuing the company of himself and objects instead of people. He tried entertaining himself and not giving a damn what anyone thought of him. This lead into him finding random and strange things fun.

At age 123 he mets the party and his life just gets crazy from there. He is taken into a guild called “the Sons of Prophecy” even though he didn’t really want to join it, he more or less got roped in and didn’t complain.

I don’t quite remember the original reason for the party going to the capital of the country they live in I think it was on the way to the guild but I remember they went to a bar during the prohibition. They got a job from a bartender to take care of some guys in the sewer. It ended with Arogos discovering Alchemy fire [an explosive liquid fire] and the party accidentally blowing up the entire sewer system of the city. Needless to say, they were very much arrested after that.

After they were in jail for a short amount of time, they were thrown in a dungeon like area that normally means certain death. Well the creature that was supposed to be there and kill them wasn’t there so they just explored the area more or less. Arogos found a chest that he couldnt get open so instead of giving up he stabbed it. Well it had explosives in it and he knocked himself out, nearly dying while the others were looking at a statue and didn’t even know what he was doing until ‘boom’.

After that whole bit, they made their way to the guild that Arogos had never been before but the other members had [because I joined a session late]. The party was then told to catch this rogue that was causing trouble in the town. Xanth had the great idea of pretending to be rich and got hella drunk trying to lure them out. Arogos was in the crowd looking around when he was pickpocketed by the thief. They chased him down, Arogos managed to accidentally get shot by one of the characters in the shoulder, ripped out the arrow and climbed a 4 story building after the thief. After chasing him across the roof tops, falling from said roof tops, and by sear luck someone else in the party catching him. It turned out the thief was a member of the guild who was sent to pose as the thief they needed to catch and thus started Arogos’s hatred/rivalry with Claw who he very soon later considered a mentor. Who later introduced them to Smoke and the rest of the guild.

To spark note the rest:

----Arogos and crew went to get a golden apple, Arogos threw what might as well have been considered a grenade into a tree and was almost drown on accident by Xanth. He later threw a book at Xanth knocking him out and stuck a worm up his nose

----There was one point when Arogos got blasted with a fire trapped door

----They went to a town that got infested with Zombies. Arogos was attacked by one, saw that it had gold teeth, cut its head off, climbed on a roof, cut the jaw off, took the teeth and tossed the rest of the head just to get the gold.

----Arogos tried to sell to an official thieves seller person and got marked by the thieves guild. He later spent the night sleeping on a roof. Later the party was with an Arogos that seemed slightly off, well it turned out that that was a doopleganger trying to kill the prince and Arogos was kidnapped by the thieves guild who was saved by Claw who broke his hand because Arogos was smack talking him while he was saving his ass.

----At one point in this area the party went into docs futuristic lab. Since arogos couldnt read any of the signs he asked Danric to read what was under the big red button. “Do not Press.” Danric said. “Press?” arogos responded pressing the button and basically destroyed the multiverse [Start of Arogos 2 in another campaign]

----Later Arogos had to do a favor for the thieves guild to get out of it though he didnt tell the party right away. During this he got bit by a mimic and got a future seeing crystal.

----Later they went to the Penny worth lottery to get a lot of money for their town that was getting sort of destroyed by orcs and the like [I think] they went around disqualifying other contestants for breaking the rules. At this time Arogos also met elves that looked like him for the first time ever in his life.

----After getting a bunch of money the party when shopping and got a bunch of stuff. Arogos got himself the best horse money could by and named him Beans. He also got himself a hook blade [assassins creed style] and custom made a cross bow to shoot explosive crossbow bolts.

----After that they went to the thieves town [this is where they got the crystal] and went to the thieves guild. There they met Marz, the thieve guild leader who is a major prick in the sense that he’s really strong and easily bored so he does some not so good stuff that I wont list

----After leaving the thieves guild I think we went to Norstag because Claw had ditched us when their emergency stuff went off [Norstag is Claws home] we got there and fought a legendary like beast and met a kid that doesn’t speak who Arogos called Skunk later after he got a white strip of hair. On the way back they encounter this demon god guy who played evil games. If you died, you had to stay there. Smoke ended up taking all the punishment and dying while since Danric wasn’t alive he was messing with the stock market and doing great though it was just a pass time while he waited.

----It was a sad time. It was at this time Arogos’s trinket became a box of buttons of all his friends who died. [I rolled at d20 and true to his luck Arogos got a 2]

----There is something I’m missing but I know we did go to Saful [Arogos’s kind [Morkal Elves] originate there] They spend time converting the locals from their ‘god king’ to Danrics god, found the cave of wonders and got a few magic items from it. [Magic carpet, fancy magic map]

----After Arogos blew up the temple, Danric converted all the people with the help of another angel, and Xanth killed the god kings healer, they killed the god king and freed the people.

----In Saful Arogos got rather close to Bejen who was later secretly killed by her uncle and temporarily destroyed Arogos’s map that he loved dearly when they returned to the guild.

----After this they defended the town while Arogos was going to the goddess tree because Pen was having his soul burned. He made it to the tree, saved the lady there from the assholes [he met this lady before in the campaign] and she was restored her powers from her god. Pen was brought there and the party went to the country of lust to get the other golden apple for Pen.

----They met a hag who took a fancy to Arogos [much to his disgust as DnD hags are supposed to look terrible and what not] they managed to get the apple and save pen.

----After that they recruited Danric’s grandpa [king of the moon elves], two dwarf clans, and a good few monks to fight with them to save the country form the orcs that had been invading since like the start

----After that there was the huge battle the capitol. For a while Arogos got stuck with two monks named Catty and Bratty [like undertale] for a while and he hated it. He also got a singularity from Doc and set it off clearing out a good amount of the other army.

----One of the last things that happened was how Arogos temporarily died. When they were up on a great wall surrounding the capital everyone was was staring in shock at someone else who came onto the battle field. Arogos felt a tap on his shoulder and when he turned around he was stabbed in the gut by a Saful guy with the god king who was out for revenge. The blade was laced with poison and Arogos was shoved towards the wall edge that was well over a hundred feet high. He managed to grab Claw’s arm as he feel, trying to catch himself but Claw ended up falling as well. Claw’s monk friend managed to grab Claw who was grabbing Arogos so he wouldnt fall. The monk lifted them up and then whipped them down the side of the wall. Claw tried to slow them down with his magic gauntlet that helps him move farther through the air and moves Arogos [who cant move at this point because of poison] on top so he would take the force of the fall. Well Danric who after awful got angel wings himself tried to fly after them but wasn’t fast enough. The monk ran down the wall much faster and right before they hit the ground, he grabbed Claw out from under Arogos saving him but making arogos go splat. Arogos did have a regeneration rock on him though so he was shortly back with everyone

----He later shot the monk with one of his exploding bolts that had gorilla glue on the end as he was dodging everyones attacks. After that he and the party ran into the chaos plain that one of the big bads ran into to stop him and thats where we have ended the campaign so far.

More on Arogos here

[patriciawherrin]

2017 is the year of the wealthy

2017 was a great year to be rich! Did anyone take advantage of this? Majority of the people (Such as myself) probably said: “If I could be rich, I would’ve have taken advantage.” The stock market was good for investors this year. The S&P 500 index risen 20% this year, the Don Jones Average is up 25%, and more index stock has increased by more than the average 7%. This is great for those with money in the stock market, but the majority of people don’t invest. What does this mean for the people who haven’t invested in stocks? Well, it means the rich have gotten richer this year. This also means that more people are taking out installment loans in Canada for personal use. Yeah, I told you it was a good year to be rich. This, however, is just the tip of the iceberg. For Americans, the new tax plan will only benefit the very wealthy and harm the low and middle-class citizens of America.  According to the article below, the top 1% will be getting $50,000 back in taxes compared to 2017. Scary isn’t it? That money could really help out someone who needs food or shelter, sadly, it’s going into the pockets of the very wealthy.

2017 was a great year to be rich

It’s never a bad year to be rich, exactly. But 2017 turned out to be a particularly good one.

Rich people are doing so well these days that their spending on luxury goods isn’t even keeping up.

Luxury spending rose 5% globally in 2017, the management consulting firm Bain & Company found. But that is a fraction of the 40% rise in net worth that people in America’s top-tenth of income earners saw between 2013 and 2016, according to the Federal Reserve.

“We used to see that the growth of luxury was closely correlated with the stock market,” said Milton Pedraza, chief executive officer of the Luxury Institute, a consulting firm for high-end brands. “The stock market and real estate have gone up so much that nobody wants to spend all that money. It’s impossible.”

The big increase in wealth has exacerbated a long-evolving financial split between those at the very top and those at the bottom, even as the robust economy has lifted many working people with jobs and higher wages. Here are some examples.

A market on a tear

The S&P 500 Index has risen 20% since the beginning of the year and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 25%, fattening portfolios and boosting dividends. To a certain extent, the benefits are shared throughownership of 401(k) accounts.

But only about half of Americans participate in an employer-sponsored retirement fund, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts, and a much smaller 18.7% of Americans own stock directly. In both cases, market participation is skewed toward those with higher incomes, which means that the wealthy disproportionately benefit from Wall Street’s boom.

Related: Most Americans aren’t benefiting from the stock market boom

Rising home prices aid the relatively wealthy

Home pricesreached all-time highs, according to the Case-Shiller home price index. That’s especially the case in hot markets like Seattle and San Francisco, where many working people are already unable to afford ownership.

Although homeownership is a source of middle class wealth, homeowners generally tend to be higher-income. According to the Census Bureau, 78.4% of families making more than the median income own homes, compared to 49.5% of those making less.

Profits are spiking, but wages still lackluster

After-tax corporate profits set new records in 2017, reaching $1.86 trillion in the third quarter.

At the same time, the share of the gross domestic product that goes toward wages remained near a recession-era low. That means workers are taking home less of the economic pie. To be sure, there were signs this year that wages are growing for people on the bottom of the pay scale. But over the past ten years they’ve grown faster for people at the top.

Meanwhile, mega mergers proceeded apace in 2017, furthering the trend of corporate consolidation that economists say allows monopolies to squeeze excess profits out of consumers. Some worry that the proposed union between CVS (CVS) and insurance giant Aetna(AET) could give the pair too much power to steer customers toward their own offerings, for example, and that chemical company Bayer’s (BAYRY) acquisition of Monsanto (MON) could raise seed prices.

Fewer rules help the rich

The repeal of many Obama-era regulations by the Trump administration and congressional Republicans has been applauded by businesses, which say they will operate more efficiently and save money. It remains to be seen how much of such savings will flow down to workers and how much will go to investors.

In one of the more high-profile rollbacks in 2017, the administration overturned the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s rule against forcing consumers into arbitration proceedings. That was a win for financial companies, makingit more difficult for people who’ve been wronged to seek redress.

The Justice Department decided in June to back away from a measure that expanded the number of workers eligible for overtime pay, likely reducing the amount of money companies need to spend on wages.

“These are all ways that are just allowing the top to garner higher incomes, and to push the costs on to the public,” said Heather Boushey, director of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a left-leaning think tank.

A tax bill for the wealthy

While the just-passed Republican tax plan cuts taxes for most lower- and middle-income people, it is particularly generous to people with high incomes and big bank accounts.

The Tax Policy Center estimates that a new 20% tax deduction for pass-through income, a doubling of the estate tax exemption, lower ordinary income tax rates, and a more generous alternative minimum tax will send 65.3% of the bill’s individual benefits to people in the top 20% of the income spectrum, with the top 1% getting a $50,000 tax cut on average in 2018. As the years go on, the value of tax breaks shifts further toward the top.

thumbnail courtesy of money.cnn.com

How does this make you feel? Does this motivate you to improve your career to stay ahead of the economy? If so, the majority of Americans and Canadians do not feel the same way. Often people are very content with their salary and chose not to change their lifestyle. This way of thinking and the new tax bill will only hurt these people. Unfortentalty, that is most people. How will the economy adapt when the low and middle class shrinks even more? No one has an answer.  I have three solutions, but none of them are going to work for everyone.

Move out of America. I know this may seem crazy for some, but American has the largest wealth gap in the world. Moving to countries like Sweden, Canada, or France can help because there are fewer people in poverty. If you are unwilling to move out of America, consider moving to a state that has a low cost of living.

Became rich. This is much easier said than done, but if you manage to become a millionaire, you would only become richer because of the new tax bill. If you can’t beat them, join them. This option is by far the riskiest as you might fail and be even poorer than before.

Wait. Donald Trump won’t be the president forever you know. Eventually, he will be out of the office and someone else will take his place. Wait for the next election in three years to vote for a candidate that you want.

There you have it. An article that not only asked a question but actually provided answers that you chose from. Let Loan Away know if you going to chose one of these options. If not, let us know your plan. If you know someone who may benefit from this article, feel free to share this with them.

The post 2017 is the year of the wealthy appeared first on Loan Away.

2017 is the year of the wealthy published first on https://helloloanaway.tumblr.com

[darrylhchapell]

2017 is the year of the wealthy

2017 was a great year to be rich! Did anyone take advantage of this? Majority of the people (Such as myself) probably said: “If I could be rich, I would’ve have taken advantage.” The stock market was good for investors this year. The S&P 500 index risen 20% this year, the Don Jones Average is up 25%, and more index stock has increased by more than the average 7%. This is great for those with money in the stock market, but the majority of people don’t invest. What does this mean for the people who haven’t invested in stocks? Well, it means the rich have gotten richer this year. This also means that more people are taking out installment loans in Canada for personal use. Yeah, I told you it was a good year to be rich. This, however, is just the tip of the iceberg. For Americans, the new tax plan will only benefit the very wealthy and harm the low and middle-class citizens of America.  According to the article below, the top 1% will be getting $50,000 back in taxes compared to 2017. Scary isn’t it? That money could really help out someone who needs food or shelter, sadly, it’s going into the pockets of the very wealthy.

  2017 was a great year to be rich

It’s never a bad year to be rich, exactly. But 2017 turned out to be a particularly good one.

Rich people are doing so well these days that their spending on luxury goods isn’t even keeping up.

Luxury spending rose 5% globally in 2017, the management consulting firm Bain & Company found. But that is a fraction of the 40% rise in net worth that people in America’s top-tenth of income earners saw between 2013 and 2016, according to the Federal Reserve.

“We used to see that the growth of luxury was closely correlated with the stock market,” said Milton Pedraza, chief executive officer of the Luxury Institute, a consulting firm for high-end brands. “The stock market and real estate have gone up so much that nobody wants to spend all that money. It’s impossible.”

The big increase in wealth has exacerbated a long-evolving financial split between those at the very top and those at the bottom, even as the robust economy has lifted many working people with jobs and higher wages. Here are some examples.

A market on a tear

The S&P 500 Index has risen 20% since the beginning of the year and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 25%, fattening portfolios and boosting dividends. To a certain extent, the benefits are shared through ownership of 401(k) accounts.

But only about half of Americans participate in an employer-sponsored retirement fund, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts, and a much smaller 18.7% of Americans own stock directly. In both cases, market participation is skewed toward those with higher incomes, which means that the wealthy disproportionately benefit from Wall Street’s boom.

Related: Most Americans aren’t benefiting from the stock market boom

Rising home prices aid the relatively wealthy

Home prices reached all-time highs, according to the Case-Shiller home price index. That’s especially the case in hot markets like Seattle and San Francisco, where many working people are already unable to afford ownership.

Although homeownership is a source of middle class wealth, homeowners generally tend to be higher-income. According to the Census Bureau, 78.4% of families making more than the median income own homes, compared to 49.5% of those making less.

Profits are spiking, but wages still lackluster

After-tax corporate profits set new records in 2017, reaching $1.86 trillion in the third quarter.

At the same time, the share of the gross domestic product that goes toward wages remained near a recession-era low. That means workers are taking home less of the economic pie. To be sure, there were signs this year that wages are growing for people on the bottom of the pay scale. But over the past ten years they’ve grown faster for people at the top.

Meanwhile, mega mergers proceeded apace in 2017, furthering the trend of corporate consolidation that economists say allows monopolies to squeeze excess profits out of consumers. Some worry that the proposed union between CVS (CVS) and insurance giant Aetna(AET) could give the pair too much power to steer customers toward their own offerings, for example, and that chemical company Bayer’s (BAYRY) acquisition of Monsanto (MON) could raise seed prices.

Fewer rules help the rich

The repeal of many Obama-era regulations by the Trump administration and congressional Republicans has been applauded by businesses, which say they will operate more efficiently and save money. It remains to be seen how much of such savings will flow down to workers and how much will go to investors.

In one of the more high-profile rollbacks in 2017, the administration overturned the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s rule against forcing consumers into arbitration proceedings. That was a win for financial companies, making it more difficult for people who’ve been wronged to seek redress.

The Justice Department decided in June to back away from a measure that expanded the number of workers eligible for overtime pay, likely reducing the amount of money companies need to spend on wages.

“These are all ways that are just allowing the top to garner higher incomes, and to push the costs on to the public,” said Heather Boushey, director of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a left-leaning think tank.

A tax bill for the wealthy

While the just-passed Republican tax plan cuts taxes for most lower- and middle-income people, it is particularly generous to people with high incomes and big bank accounts.

The Tax Policy Center estimates that a new 20% tax deduction for pass-through income, a doubling of the estate tax exemption, lower ordinary income tax rates, and a more generous alternative minimum tax will send 65.3% of the bill’s individual benefits to people in the top 20% of the income spectrum, with the top 1% getting a $50,000 tax cut on average in 2018. As the years go on, the value of tax breaks shifts further toward the top.

thumbnail courtesy of money.cnn.com

  How does this make you feel? Does this motivate you to improve your career to stay ahead of the economy? If so, the majority of Americans and Canadians do not feel the same way. Often people are very content with their salary and chose not to change their lifestyle. This way of thinking and the new tax bill will only hurt these people. Unfortentalty, that is most people. How will the economy adapt when the low and middle class shrinks even more? No one has an answer.  I have three solutions, but none of them are going to work for everyone.

Move out of America. I know this may seem crazy for some, but American has the largest wealth gap in the world. Moving to countries like Sweden, Canada, or France can help because there are fewer people in poverty. If you are unwilling to move out of America, consider moving to a state that has a low cost of living.

Became rich. This is much easier said than done, but if you manage to become a millionaire, you would only become richer because of the new tax bill. If you can’t beat them, join them. This option is by far the riskiest as you might fail and be even poorer than before.

Wait. Donald Trump won’t be the president forever you know. Eventually, he will be out of the office and someone else will take his place. Wait for the next election in three years to vote for a candidate that you want.

  There you have it. An article that not only asked a question but actually provided answers that you chose from. Let Loan Away know if you going to chose one of these options. If not, let us know your plan. If you know someone who may benefit from this article, feel free to share this with them.

The post 2017 is the year of the wealthy appeared first on Loan Away.

2017 is the year of the wealthy published first on https://loanawayblog.wordpress.com

[loanawaycanada-blog]

2017 is the year of the wealthy

2017 was a great year to be rich! Did anyone take advantage of this? Majority of the people (Such as myself) probably said: “If I could be rich, I would’ve have taken advantage.” The stock market was good for investors this year. The S&P 500 index risen 20% this year, the Don Jones Average is up 25%, and more index stock has increased by more than the average 7%. This is great for those with money in the stock market, but the majority of people don’t invest. What does this mean for the people who haven’t invested in stocks? Well, it means the rich have gotten richer this year. This also means that more people are taking out installment loans in Canada for personal use. Yeah, I told you it was a good year to be rich. This, however, is just the tip of the iceberg. For Americans, the new tax plan will only benefit the very wealthy and harm the low and middle-class citizens of America.  According to the article below, the top 1% will be getting $50,000 back in taxes compared to 2017. Scary isn’t it? That money could really help out someone who needs food or shelter, sadly, it’s going into the pockets of the very wealthy.

  2017 was a great year to be rich

It’s never a bad year to be rich, exactly. But 2017 turned out to be a particularly good one.

Rich people are doing so well these days that their spending on luxury goods isn’t even keeping up.

Luxury spending rose 5% globally in 2017, the management consulting firm Bain & Company found. But that is a fraction of the 40% rise in net worth that people in America’s top-tenth of income earners saw between 2013 and 2016, according to the Federal Reserve.

“We used to see that the growth of luxury was closely correlated with the stock market,” said Milton Pedraza, chief executive officer of the Luxury Institute, a consulting firm for high-end brands. “The stock market and real estate have gone up so much that nobody wants to spend all that money. It’s impossible.”

The big increase in wealth has exacerbated a long-evolving financial split between those at the very top and those at the bottom, even as the robust economy has lifted many working people with jobs and higher wages. Here are some examples.

A market on a tear

The S&P 500 Index has risen 20% since the beginning of the year and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 25%, fattening portfolios and boosting dividends. To a certain extent, the benefits are shared through ownership of 401(k) accounts.

But only about half of Americans participate in an employer-sponsored retirement fund, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts, and a much smaller 18.7% of Americans own stock directly. In both cases, market participation is skewed toward those with higher incomes, which means that the wealthy disproportionately benefit from Wall Street’s boom.

Related: Most Americans aren’t benefiting from the stock market boom

Rising home prices aid the relatively wealthy

Home prices reached all-time highs, according to the Case-Shiller home price index. That’s especially the case in hot markets like Seattle and San Francisco, where many working people are already unable to afford ownership.

Although homeownership is a source of middle class wealth, homeowners generally tend to be higher-income. According to the Census Bureau, 78.4% of families making more than the median income own homes, compared to 49.5% of those making less.

Profits are spiking, but wages still lackluster

After-tax corporate profits set new records in 2017, reaching $1.86 trillion in the third quarter.

At the same time, the share of the gross domestic product that goes toward wages remained near a recession-era low. That means workers are taking home less of the economic pie. To be sure, there were signs this year that wages are growing for people on the bottom of the pay scale. But over the past ten years they’ve grown faster for people at the top.

Meanwhile, mega mergers proceeded apace in 2017, furthering the trend of corporate consolidation that economists say allows monopolies to squeeze excess profits out of consumers. Some worry that the proposed union between CVS (CVS) and insurance giant Aetna(AET) could give the pair too much power to steer customers toward their own offerings, for example, and that chemical company Bayer’s (BAYRY) acquisition of Monsanto (MON) could raise seed prices.

Fewer rules help the rich

The repeal of many Obama-era regulations by the Trump administration and congressional Republicans has been applauded by businesses, which say they will operate more efficiently and save money. It remains to be seen how much of such savings will flow down to workers and how much will go to investors.

In one of the more high-profile rollbacks in 2017, the administration overturned the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s rule against forcing consumers into arbitration proceedings. That was a win for financial companies, making it more difficult for people who’ve been wronged to seek redress.

The Justice Department decided in June to back away from a measure that expanded the number of workers eligible for overtime pay, likely reducing the amount of money companies need to spend on wages.

“These are all ways that are just allowing the top to garner higher incomes, and to push the costs on to the public,” said Heather Boushey, director of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a left-leaning think tank.

A tax bill for the wealthy

While the just-passed Republican tax plan cuts taxes for most lower- and middle-income people, it is particularly generous to people with high incomes and big bank accounts.

The Tax Policy Center estimates that a new 20% tax deduction for pass-through income, a doubling of the estate tax exemption, lower ordinary income tax rates, and a more generous alternative minimum tax will send 65.3% of the bill’s individual benefits to people in the top 20% of the income spectrum, with the top 1% getting a $50,000 tax cut on average in 2018. As the years go on, the value of tax breaks shifts further toward the top.

thumbnail courtesy of money.cnn.com

  How does this make you feel? Does this motivate you to improve your career to stay ahead of the economy? If so, the majority of Americans and Canadians do not feel the same way. Often people are very content with their salary and chose not to change their lifestyle. This way of thinking and the new tax bill will only hurt these people. Unfortentalty, that is most people. How will the economy adapt when the low and middle class shrinks even more? No one has an answer.  I have three solutions, but none of them are going to work for everyone.

Move out of America. I know this may seem crazy for some, but American has the largest wealth gap in the world. Moving to countries like Sweden, Canada, or France can help because there are fewer people in poverty. If you are unwilling to move out of America, consider moving to a state that has a low cost of living.

Became rich. This is much easier said than done, but if you manage to become a millionaire, you would only become richer because of the new tax bill. If you can’t beat them, join them. This option is by far the riskiest as you might fail and be even poorer than before.

Wait. Donald Trump won’t be the president forever you know. Eventually, he will be out of the office and someone else will take his place. Wait for the next election in three years to vote for a candidate that you want.

  There you have it. An article that not only asked a question but actually provided answers that you chose from. Let Loan Away know if you going to chose one of these options. If not, let us know your plan. If you know someone who may benefit from this article, feel free to share this with them.

The post 2017 is the year of the wealthy appeared first on Loan Away.

[djtrumpnetwork-blog]

President Trump: With tax reform we can make it morning in America again

Today is the anniversary of former president Ronald Reagan signing into law the Tax Reform Act of 1986. The act was the second major law he signed to reform the tax code for the American people. Republicans and Democrats came together to cut taxes for hardworking families in 1981, and again in 1986 to simplify the tax code, so that everyone could get a fair shake. The rest, as they say, is history. The economy boomed, launching into one of the largest peacetime economic expansions in history. Dormant small businesses and factories sprung back to life. The famed American Worker produced at unprecedented levels. The median family income rose. And more American products than ever before reached foreign shores, stamped with those four beautiful words: “Made in the USA.” The 1980s also saw extraordinary ideas transformed into reality by American inventors and entrepreneurs. Many of those creations dramatically improved our quality of life. Others connected us like never before and put an entire universe of information at our fingertips. Still others, like the space shuttle after its first launch in 1981, stretched the bounds of what we thought was possible for humankind. It was a time of extraordinary optimism — it was truly “Morning in America,” an economic miracle for the middle-class. A lot has changed since then, especially when it comes to taxes. While our economic competitors slashed their taxes in hopes of replicating America’s success, our leaders remained complacent or, in some cases, reversed course. We are now among the highest taxed nations in the developed world. Our tax code and laws have nearly tripled in length since the 1986 reforms. They now span 2,650 pages, with another 70,000 pages of forms, instructions, court decisions, and other guidance. We have watched our leaders allow other countries to erode our competitive edge, take our jobs, and drain our wealth. And, for the first time in our history, Americans have feared that their children will not grow up to be better off financially than they are. That era of economic surrender is now over. In the nine months since I took office as president, we have removed intrusive, job-killing regulations at a record pace. We are leaving lopsided international deals that hurt America like the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Paris Climate Accord. We have unleashed American energy by ending the war on coal and approving major projects like the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines. And earlier this month, I signed an executive order to take important steps to free our people from the grip of Obamacare. And now, unemployment is at a 16-year low. Wages are rising. Manufacturing confidence is higher than it has ever been. The stock market is soaring to record levels. And GDP growth climbed to more than 3% in the second quarter. The optimism has returned — the sun is once again rising over America. But our economy cannot take off like it should unless we transform our outdated, complex and burdensome tax code, and that is exactly what we are proposing to do. Revising our tax code is not just a policy discussion — it is a moral one, because we are not talking about the government's money – we are talking about your money, your hard work. According to the Tax Foundation, taxes cost Americans more out-of-pocket than housing, clothing, and food — combined. Somehow, this has become “normal” in the Land of the Free, but it should not be. American families should not have to send more money to the government than they spend on building a better life for themselves and their children. You are the ones who carry this nation on your back, and it is time for you to get the relief that you deserve. That is why we are taking action to dramatically reduce the burden that the sprawling federal tax code has become on our citizens. Our plan will transform the tax code so that it is once again simple, fair and easy to understand. We want you to spend your valuable time pursuing your dreams, not trapped in a tax compliance nightmare. We will cut taxes for hardworking, middle-class families. We will double the standard deduction, which means the first $24,000 of a family’s income will be tax-free. We will also expand the child tax credit. And we will lower rates so that families will keep more of their hard-earned money. We will also restore our competitive edge so we can create better jobs and higher wages for American workers. Our plan will provide tax relief to businesses of all sizes, and deliver our small and medium-sized businesses the lowest top rate in more than 80 years. Finally, we will bring back trillions of dollars in American wealth currently parked overseas. Today’s tax system foolishly penalizes companies that bring foreign profits back to the United States. Our plan encourages companies to bring this money home, where it can be invested in American companies, American jobs and American workers. If Congress comes together to enact this commonsense plan, the Council of Economic Advisers estimates that it will raise the annual income of a typical, hardworking American household by an average of around $4,000. Just imagine the possibilities. We have the benefit of hindsight as we look back at the three decades since our country’s last major tax reform. We can see what worked and what did not. And most importantly, we can apply the lessons learned to the challenges of today. The tax cuts and reforms of the 1980s show that when we empower the American people to pursue their dreams, they will not only achieve greatness and create prosperity beyond imagination, they will build an entirely new world. It is time to ignite America’s middle class miracle once again.

Donald Trump Network

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