#and I want to point out that the different periods do not have global dates. they are more narrow periodic classifications

[pumpking64]

I love reading the tags on the polls, the time period one is just people pointing out different definitions for the chronological framework (also fyi, Viking Age is not part of the medieval period where I’m studying!), and the underrated life poll is people just chanting or info bombing about mostly lichen (and I’m SO here for it!!)

[nkjemisin]

"How easy/hard is it for cities to be born, and what cities do you think will be born next?"

Got this set of questions from a reader, but I can't post the actual ask due to spoilers. I've paraphrased the questions, and here are the answers, sans spoilers. This post is long, so first a cut:

Hi there! I'm afraid I have to answer this privately because of the spoilers in your ask. But since my reply contains info that might be interesting to other readers of my books, I'm going to publicly post a redacted version of my answer, paraphrasing your q without the spoilers. I'll leave your name out of it, unless you prefer otherwise.

Re cities being born -- it's not an "easy/hard" thing, it's a "critical mass" thing. Basically as more and more minds focus on that city and imbue it with their beliefs and imaginings, these become the metaphysical building blocks of city life, which build up and interact. Let's call them, uh, "citimino acids," lol. Many things can disrupt this buildup -- the city's character changing drastically and quickly, natural or societal disasters, a hit TV show a la "Miami Vice" from back in the day. These changes introduce fresh citimino acids, and some of the new ones are incompatible with some of the old ones, so the primordial soup stops churning for a while as the city develops a new character or reputation. But if the soup is allowed to churn up again, for a period that varies per city, then the acids eventually spark into life. At this point, the process changes to something more like human pregnancy, because humans are driving it. The physical city starts to "gestate" a metaphysical self: a mind, free will, whatever you want to call it. (I'll call it a soul.) At this point city avatars start being able to sense the developing meta-city; that's how the Summit knows to send someone when the "due date" draws close. Proto-avatars of that city can sense it, too, as Neek did in the short story/prologue of TCWB.

This process eventually happens in most new cities that develop any kind of distinctive culture. It also happens in old cities that have been through a period of upheaval, like a conquest or a major disaster. Complete destruction of a city (see: Pompeii) would obviously kill its soul. But for cities that only get partially destroyed, the city's soul (and avatar) survives on the sufferance of belief. If a city gets conquered or its population killed by a disaster or something equally horrific, every human being who hears about it is going to have a thought about that city. If enough of those people think, "Well, that's just life in [City], its citizens ought to be used to this kind of thing," then the city retains its character, stays alive, and the avatar lives. (See: Istanbul.) But if enough people think, "Oh no, the [City] that I knew is gone! It's never going to be the same, what a shame, we went there on our honeymoon," then the physical city might be rebuilt, but the city's soul (and avatar) wil die. A new soul might eventually be reborn, but it will be a different soul. Roman Empire-era Rome is very different from the Rome of today. That city has had several avatars down the ages.

Anyway, tl;dr, colonialism is why there's so much city birth happening in the Western Hemisphere. And all the technological and cultural revolutions the world has had in the past few centuries have created other clusters; consider all the new "planned cities" in Africa and Asia, for example. So because of all this global upheaval, the Summit is going to be very busy for a while.

(This is stuff I sketched out a few years back, when I was figuring out how "city magic" worked. I tried not to put too much of it in the books, however. Just because I suffer for my art doesn't mean everybody else has to.)

Off the top of my head, US cities that will definitely (eventually) get born include, in addition to the ones mentioned in the books: Los Angeles (per the original short story), New Orleans again, the Bay Area, and Boston. But feel free to imagine more, because I haven't exactly visited every city in America so my impressions of them are naturally going to be biased.

Outside the US, I honestly don't know enough about other countries to tell. I would guess most of the 10 largest cities in Central and South America, but it won't be in order of size, it'll be in order of culture/renown/public opinion.

Whew, long answer. Hope that answers your questions. And thanks!

[commissionsdarian]

Do you think that modern popular movies are better than older ones or vice versa?

Very good question. Obviously this is personal perspective, but it's important to take into account the development of the quality of media

Older movies are good. What they may lack in visuals, they make up for in storytelling. Toy Story, even if it's a more recent example, showcases this- with it's somewhat questionable 3D animation appearances, what was really focused on were the characters and the story, leading to it's success. Older movies, while still maintaining incredible visuals at times, do excel with their stories and characters

There's also the benefit in that older movies were nearer to the defining of film as a media. The first recorded motion picture was around the 1880s, and so what proceeded was a period of time where film making was an experimental process. This obviously would result in iconic movies, being the first of their kind. This is something I think modern movies struggle with in that they're trying to create something that's memorable, iconic, and is set apart from everything else. But because of how full the film industry is, and how much newer movies want to take inspiration from previous successful works, it's unlikely that they'll be creating something that can be considered different

It's also dependant on the time period and current events. The Golden Age of Cinema is generally defined to be post WW1- 1960s. A lot of great and memorable movies were made in this time, and the time period for cinematography is generally considered to be an aesthetic today, with the Atlantic accents and the soft rose/yellow hues. Given the time period, it's safe to assume the rise in the film industry came as a reaction to devastating global events, the wars, the financial collapses. As with many art forms, film serves as a form of escapism, a way to distract from the world, or on the opposite end, a way to search into and find answers to the world around us. There would've been an excessive focus on the storytelling taking place in order to provide such distracts or deep searches

However, there's also the personal psychological role that plays into this. We, as humans, will always prefer things we view as nostalgic, things that we associate with happier times, things that represent familiarity and security. For many, this nostalgia is present through the media they were exposed to when younger, meaning movies you watched when you were younger are more likely to be preferable. But there's also the whole "I was born in the wrong era" mindset. Younger people who can't feel nostalgic about older movies because they weren't around can still easily prefer older movies. It often comes with the whole aesthetic, rose tinted glasses, yearning for a life that isn't yours. Obviously this mindset is questionable in itself, but it can be pointed to as an explanation for younger people's old preferences

There will always be the fact that older movies have more media presence. Movies such as Stephen King's (and Stanley Kubrick's) "The Shining" has been referenced thousands of times in other medias. You might not have watched the actual movie, but you'll still recognize the creepy twins in blue dresses, the phrase "Red rum" or the visual of a man carrying an axe whilst dragging his foot. Older movies have been referenced so much because they have had the time to have been, but also because they've left a lasting impact

Newer movies can still be good, but it's hard to set yourself out from the crowd. This is seen a lot with animated movies at the moment, that new "Elementals" movie by Disney isn't unique, it's the exact same style they've used time and time again, and will likely have the same message we've been given many times before. There's modern movies that try to bank on popular trends, like the (dreaded) "Emoji Movie" which was practically dated before it even reached cinemas. And then there's the questionable late sequel category, where a new sequel of older movies is attempted to be made. Famously, this hasn't gone down too well with the new Star Wars movies. The new Indiana Jones movie was questionable too. "Blues Brothers 2000" was a massive fail. All of these can be seen as trying to bank on the previous success of their franchises, trying to recreate the origin magic, trying to bank on the older generation's nostalgia or trying to draw in younger audiences. However, their attempts to capture the original magic hardly ever works, because they'll never be the originals. The original movies were the ones that made the name for the franchises, they're the ones that set themselves apart and gained audience approval. Trying to do that again won't be taken well. Especially when the newer storylines for these late sequels don't match, or don't feel like they match, the energy of the original's

So, for all these reasons, I just prefer older movies

[threelittlepigspro]

How I scaled my SEO traffic globally to 20k readers in 6 months without a huge team

Here is a dive into how we exploded one of our site from 1K traffic to 20K global SEO traffic within a period of eight months. This is done without huge overheads: - Using processes to scale SEO traffic in a methodical and documented manner - Utilizing an online offshore team to manage moving parts - White Hat SEO backlinks building These are methods not practiced by most local Singaporean SEO agencies (as far as I know of). This case studies is based off MarcusNeoCom (sold to BeyondAges.Com), one one the port folio sites I owned. It's a dating advice site for men. It started off as a local projected and I made the decision to scale globally, target U.S. and U.K. international traffic. This led to SEO link building systems: figuring out how to methodically execute it at scale, and how to really step by step break down each and every process so that we don't get lost in the process. SEO is a complicated subject; there are so many moving parts. The key here is to be transparent and documented in our process so that clients understand that our digital marketing agency is working hard for you. Each and every link is documented and it goes into helping you and your website traffic and revenue goals.

How Did I get from 1K Traffic to 20K SEO traffic?

SEO is a complicated process, and the way to do it is to break it down into a step-by-step process and segment the different pillars of SEO and hire out the right people on your team to do it right. I couldn't do everything in SEO because that would just be an inefficient use of my time. Hence, I created processes around the four pillars framework: I could hire offshore and get more cost efficiency. You want to segment SEO into four different pillars so that you can have different staff, local and offshore to execute these processes together. 1st: Technical Site Audit, Content Audit, and Keyword Research. 2nd: Customer Research, Content Strategy 3rd: Outreach Handling, Backlink Acquisition Scale 4th: Transparent Link Documentation Analysis. Without this framework, you won't be able to execute SEO in an efficient and documented manner.

Pillar One) Site Audit, Content Audit, Keyword Research

Site audits are making sure your site functions healthily when it comes to Sitemaps, servers, site speed, links, HTTPS hosting issues, UI/UX issues. They keep your website healthy and fully functional. Technical SEO is crucial because there is no point building backlinks and traffic to a site that isn't working properly. This is why technical SEO audits are important. I've managed SEO projects where the site had broken themes and plugins. These will indirectly disrupt your SEO efforts. You want your website to be technically sound before doing any changes or driving traffic to it. Our site grew to over 20K global traffic. The old hosts couldn't handle the increase of traffic, and I had to switch hosts midway to an American international host. The basics, to name a few are: site find-ability/ index-ability checks, URL friendliness, On-Page SEO, and internal linking and backlink audits. SEO tools used can be as simple as Ahrefs Site Audit and Screaming Frog. Secondly, you want to be ranking for the right keywords. It is a no-brainer. This is where keyword research comes in. You take a look at competitors and you can map out keywords to your site's content. You can also take a look at your current keyword rankings from Google Search Console.

Pillar Two) Content Pillars, Customer Research and Architecture

There is HUGEEE misconception when it comes to SEO that all you have to do is publish content and you'll automatically convert SEO traffic into customers. Ultimately, customers searching for your content have hopes, dreams, pain points, they're looking for solutions, and they have their own skepticism when it comes to content on the internet. For example, content audits overlap with SEO principle of auditing if the your content matches the user query (keyword phrase). This is why you have to do customer research and a content audit. Customer research and a content audit helps map out your site's architecture, and how it's going to the built. This may require more content pillars, removal of thin content and rewriting existing content to optimize it for leads, sales and revenue.

Pillar Three) Link Acquisition and Manual Outreach

No matter what SEO agencies or consultants tell you: white hat backlinks are going to move the needle. There is no debate about it. I've spent years finagling around site architecture, on-page SEO, keyword research, keyword density, and all the technical SEO you can think of. The variable that exploded my site from 1K to 20K traffic are white hat backlinks. Link acquisition is the hardest part on SEO because MOST marketers don't break it down into processes. Hence they find link building overwhelming. The key here is to hire an offshore team to execute your campaigns without doing everything on your own. Our team audits every single link that comes through. Our team pays attention to every anchor text and document each and every link. This way it is transparent and you can track progress. Our custom email outreach campaigns for link building is also managed by my offshore team.

Pillar Four) Link Documentation, Analysis and Reporting

Most SEO agencies, SEO consultants, and marketing consultants just send you monthly reports. You don't know the quality of your links, you don't know what's going on behind the links and behind the processes. That is why the fourth pillar is link documentation, analysis, and reporting. You'll want to document every single link built, the cost of content, and each and every task. Hence we are transparent in this process alongside custom reports such as keyword rankings tracked using Google Analytics, Google Search Console and etc.

Ending Words on Project Management and Processes

Through this SEO project management process. There is a possibility for transparent client-agency relationship management, transparent reports, transparent monthly keyword traffic reports and transparent documented link acquisition costs. Through this, it allows both parties to achieve a clear client-agency relationship and a compilation of tasks done for the client. There is a clear and systematic approach to tackle new keywords, content creation month on month and year on year. Lastly, project management offers my SEO team or our agency working for you to attain increased economies of scale in the specialised tasks that each team member performs. In conclusion, SEO is one of the best ways to grow your revenue and traffic. This is complimentary to paid Facebook advertising and funnel building. Google has one of the best platforms in the world, and the more you invest in SEO, the more the website becomes an asset for you and your business. Read the full article

[tombeane-blog]

The End Of Mankind As We Know It - Fadeout And Objectaphilia

(Warning: Contains a male only viewpoint. Your perception of misogyny may vary.)

Earth's population is within a few decades of reaching an irreversible turning point.

In many countries, developed or not, the people are no longer having enough children to replace themselves.

We don't notice this now because increased life spans and other factors temporarily mask the trend. The population is still growing but not for much longer.

(The Fadeout) A total collapse or transformation is going to take place in global economies.

No matter whether a country is a democracy, socialist, a dictatorship, or even communist - it needs growing internal and external markets to survive.

Less people, markets shrink. No matter the ideology or frantic machinations of the government - in order to survive, the dwindling population will force governments to spend less, build less, progress less.

The population decline may not play out the same in different countries and at the same rate. But as one country starts to shrink, it will affect markets with any country in which it shares commerce.

Government handouts and investments shrink, jobs disappear, exports and imports are reduced. The trends gain speed towards the ultimate economic transformation of civilization as we know it.

People today are more and more disinclined to take on the task of having and raising children. Some to save the planet, others maybe because it is too expensive.

As governments flay wildly at the problem using higher taxes for some, tax breaks for others, wage and price controls - this well just accelerate the trend. People will not want to have more kids. Not even the 2.1 required to maintain the current population levels.

Sooner or later economies and governments begin to decay or suddenly collapse. Globally this will happen over a period of 75-200 years.

But no matter how current experts interpret, parse, cherry pick or misinterpret the data, global economies and populations are in for a rough ride for a century or two.

But one specific trend may supercharge the decline because it will balloon the collapse and grow the shrinking. (weird word pairings huh?)

What is it? Yep yep yep, we're talking sex now!

More specifically, Artificially Intelligent Sexual Companions.

In the modern world, men are more and more treated as 'the problem' and the solution to 'the problem' is to delegitimize and feminize men in order to root out the toxic masculinity. So I ask, "Who wants to stand tall, be masculine, work hard, raise sons to do the same and be stigmatized as toxic for doing so?"

And women have been told since the 70's that, 'A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle'.

So what happens is, more and more young males grow up in a digital fantasy world, never developing social skills. Men who have no interest dating real women, much less build a family.

I don't want to anger you folks (OK I will) by going through 99.9% of human history of male and female roles. I'll just state that a main biological driver for most men is to have their egos stroked and to be provided with sex on demand. So women throughout evolution stroked men's egos and gave them sex in exchange for the safety and security required to nurture and raise their offspring. Nature evolved hormonal attraction. But human society called it love and made it a binding familial proposition to ensure the growth of mankind.

Men came to accept, and really like this arrangement overall and in fact, really loved the woman. Women liked the security and stability it guaranteed and even loved the man.

(Here is a typical Male-female conversation that hasn't changed much over thousands of years) "You numbah one Joe. Small ones hungry. You need get more meat next time. Me love you long time." "Move female. Me watching Monkey's play Coconut Ball. Tell small ones hush. Get meat later. Bring fermented grain."

Family life is great. Spouses are great. Kids are great. Everyone loves it.

But now, all of this is changing before our very eyes.

Guys growing up in the digital world will not develop the skills to woo a real women - even if they want one - which they probably won't. Women more and more choosing a career and providing for her own life without men's support and without kids. Trading a long term relationships for occasional hookups.

(And The Objectaphilia) Just speaking for the guys - what happens when they can get all the ego stroking and sex without any strings attached? Bald, pudgy, un-bathed and unshaven - guys can meander around town, meeting up with their bros - a beer in one hand and the latest Letitia model 17.3.5, a young, beautiful, individually programmed, volupionated gal clinging to their left arm. She's smiling, programmed love in her eyes, obviously enthralled with the man's every word.

"You numbah one Joe. You so handsome. All other men numbah 10. Me love you long time"

And like a car, men can get a new model whenever they want? Smart ones, quiet ones, loud brassy ones that play pool and like football. The list is endless. Want a harem? No problem.

Want a kid that looks just like you? Buy one tailor made. Keep him in the closet when you aren't playing catch in the back yard.

Of course there will be many men who will resist this. But less and less men will want a life lived the old fashioned way. Not enough will want to commit to a real woman and have the 2.1 kids that it will take to stop the coming collapse.

As all this plays out, A.I. will take over almost all jobs, do all the farming, keep all the lights on, provide all the burgers, give us all the entertainment we demand and in general, serve the dwindling population. The fewer and fewer will be well cared for by A.I.

I can not, and will not, speak for women. Will they want an Artificially Intelligent Companion? You gals are gonna have to wrestle with that one.

"You know they ain't thinkin' about no man These women ain't playin' no secrets, no more They playin' a wide open hand" Johnny Winter - Bad Girl Blues

[yourwitchmama]

What To Expect During the Mercury Retrograde 2021

Yes, it is that time again, the infamous Mercury retrograde. Yet, the unusual paths we take and the unexpected twists in life are important to pay attention to, since they give awareness to necessary karmic lessons. It is important to understand that we need these periods in order to maintain balance in our lives. The Mercury retrogrades are known for bringing experiences of leaving one state to enter a new one, and in 2021, this retrograde will be bringing us great change. This retrograde will help us adjust to the great change and volatility in the societal system that will come from Saturn and Jupiter beginning a new cycle together, while Saturn additionally forms three square aspects with Uranus. Although Mercury retrograde has been demonized by many, it is in fact a natural phase of dissolution, purification, and regeneration that is essential to the function of Mercury. Part of Mercury’s role is to destabilize dynamics in order to loosen control and bring about a turning point in narrative and meaning. While in retrograde, Mercury transitions from being visible into an invisible phase during which it comes closest to earth in orbit, intensifying its impact on our lives. The backward motion of Mercury calls upon us to reflect upon ourselves as human beings. This the time to shed what is no longer needed, be that people, an unhealthy lifestyle, a job or house change, etc.

Think of the Death Major Arcana tarot card. It isn’t about physical death, but metaphorical death and change. The phrase “no mud, no louts” comes into play when Mercury is in retrograde, meaning that without the hard times and endings, there can be no birth and opportunity. This hope and positivity will be needed during the fundamental restructuring of societal systems that will take place in 2021. Mercury usually goes through three retrograde phases each year in the same element, and during 2021, Mercury will be retrograde in the air signs of Aquarius, Gemini, and Libra. 

So, how is Mercury affected by air signs? Mercury has an affinity with the element of air, as it shares qualities with this element such as mobility, flexibility, and versatility. This means, changing our use of technology and reformulating the way we gather ideas and communicate information so that we stay current with the major changes across global society. Censoring and shadowbanning will be an issue, but without this retrograde, we wouldn’t see the problem, thus we will let it go unnoticed. No mud, no lotus. Since the air element accelerates movement, there will be rapidly developing trends and collective movements we will need to adjust to and understand. We will also need to become more effective in applying critical thinking skills toward the information we receive from external sources, and so we can utilize the periods of Mercury retrograde for realizing what needs to change in our thinking and problem solving. You need to understand who funds the information sources you are looking at, and you need to do your own research and critical thinking on every single aspect of information, or you may be following something blindly based on emotion, especially during the Mercury retrograde.

 Mercury being retrograde in each of the air signs is especially significant due to 2021 being the beginning of a new era of Jupiter and Saturn uniting in only air signs that will last until 2159. Wow, that’s a long time. Well, sometimes great change in human evolution and understanding needs time… As part of the transition, we will experience three exact square aspects between Saturn in Aquarius with Uranus in Taurus that will correspond with upheaval in societal structures as we adapt to an old era passing away. Things will not be returning to the way they were before 2020, and so we will need to develop stabilizing forms while the world around us goes through radical change. We may think things will “go back to normal” but astrology and current world events tell us that we will not have anything close to “normal”.

The first two exact square aspects between Saturn and Uranus on February 17 and June 14 will occur while Mercury is retrograde in Aquarius and Gemini, and so our experience of Mercury retrograde in 2021 will be pivotal in how we reorient our perception and mindset to align with the fundamental reshaping of global systems that will be taking place in correspondence. Globally, things are going to get… interesting to say the least. With numerous wars being started as we speak, and the United States being flooded with military, we are going to be in for a bumpy ride as WW3 starts looking more and more possible. You can tell something is going on if you look up, there are a lot of UFOS flying around. Check out MUFON for UFO picture submissions. I am putting this gently, but I need to tell you the truth of what is happening, or I feel like a bad sugar coating astrologer. Scared? Don’t be. This needs to happen if we want to evolve into a higher and more open minded dimension. Accept what is happening, work with it, and make it so that you will prosper and tell your children, and your children’s children what you have gone through to make their world a better place. So, how are the signs affected? 

🌎Earth Signs: ♉️ ♍️ ♑️ Sorry, earth signs, things are going to be rocky for you. There is a lack of common ground between air and earth signs. Earth signs are prone to routines that bring stability and grounding, while air signs are much more about movement and changing perspectives. The three Mercury retrograde periods will bring critical information regarding major changes you need to make with your work, schedules, and finances that will require openness to being more flexible and versatile. You won’t be able to stay in your comfort zone of the way things have been in the past. 

🔥Fire Signs: ♌️ ♈️ ♐️ Fire signs share an active quality with the element of air that is comfortable with an acceleration of events, which will be helpful in moving with the sweeping changes across society. You will need to be open to changing your mind and listening to new perspectives with Mercury retrograde in air signs. It will be important to seek out different information sources and people who think differently from you so you can gather a wider perspective on events in your decision making. Don’t rely on one person or one source or one social media platform. Look at ALL sources and make up YOUR mind instead of someone making up your mind for you. Being open to new viewpoints will also lead to important developments in your relationships and expanding your community.

🌊Water Signs: ♋️ ♏️ ♓️ While water and air signs are similar in being open to new ideas and influences, the tendency of water signs for being receptive and slowing things down will need to be adapted to the more active and accelerated quality of the air element. You will need to find outlets for processing your feelings and making space to explore how your inner world is being impacted by the great changes happening in external events. Yet you will also need to take a more active role in decision making so that you are not being too passive amidst the larger shifts in society taking place.

🌬Air Signs: ♊️ ♎️ ♒️ These changes are not going to be as hard for you to handle than the other signs, since you can go wherever the wind takes you. 

🗓 Dates for Mercury Retrograde 2021: January 15: Mercury enters retrograde shadow zone (11°01’ – 26°29’ Aquarius) January 23: Mercury at maximum elongation (begins to slow down) January 30: Mercury stations retrograde at 26°29’ Aquarius February 8: Mercury conjunct the sun at 20°01’ Aquarius (closest to Earth) February 20: Mercury stations direct at 11°01’ Aquarius March 6: Mercury at maximum elongation (begins to speed up) March 12: Mercury leaves retrograde shadow zone May 14: Mercury enters retrograde shadow zone (16°07’ – 24°43’ Gemini) May 17: Mercury at maximum elongation (begins to slow down) May 29: Mercury stations retrograde at 24°43’ Gemini June 10: Mercury conjunct the sun at 20°21’ Gemini (closest to Earth) June 22: Mercury stations direct at 16°07’ Gemini July 5: Mercury at maximum elongation (begins to speed up) July 7: Mercury leaves retrograde shadow zone September 6: Mercury enters retrograde shadow zone (10°07’ – 25°28’ Libra) September 13: Mercury at maximum elongation (begins to slow down) September 26: Mercury stations retrograde at 25°28’ Libra  October 9: Mercury conjunct the sun at 16º35′ Libra (closest to Earth) October 18: Mercury stations direct at 10°07’ Libra October 25: Mercury at maximum elongation (begins to speed up) November 2: Mercury leaves retrograde shadow zone

[imaginariaextraordinaire]

No matter what happens in the last episode, Twenty Five Twenty One is going to be right up there in the list of best television shows of all time from anywhere in the world because of how beautifully writer Kwon Do Eun has written the relationship between Ko Yu Rim and Na Hee Do. It is e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. and the tournament in Madrid is perfection.

Bona's reaction to being told that Hee Do doesn't want to meet Yu Rim; Kim Tae Ri channelling every fierce female goddess ever when Hee Do watches Yu Rim compete from the sidelines; the unmasking of the helmets and that conversation while hugging — if that isn't trule love, there is nothing good in the world.

After the Madrid segment though, episode 15 was underwhelming. Twenty Five Twenty One has been perfection for 14 and a half episodes, so I suppose we should cut them some slack. But there's no denying that post-Madrid, the episode lacks rhythm and emotional depth (this is despite bringing in one of the ultimate global tragedies, 9/11).

I love the idea of showing the breakdown of a relationship by tracking how the same thing — being late for or missing dates — can take on different proportions and evoke different reactions in both parties, but the execution was not as elegant as the idea. It became a little monotonous and sentimental. This may also be because I for one feel a lot more invested in Yi Jin and Hee Do's relationship when they were friends than I do for them as lovers. (Also, I know it isn't really fair to compare but Kim Tae Ri and Nam Joo Hyuk don't have half the chemistry that Kim Tae Ri has with Bona.)

There's a part of me that feels that the whole romantic relationship with Yi Jin was only written so that Kwon could give us the scenes between Hee Do and her mother, where Jae Kyung points out to Hee Do that she has different standards for her mother and her boyfriend.

"It's unacceptable for your mom, but it's ok for your boyfriend?"

Because it's true. We have different standards for women, and we have way different standards for working women, and waaaay different standards for working mothers.

One of the things I've really appreciated in Twenty Five Twenty One is the way it's shown the media. Kwon doesn't forgive the media its mistakes. We see unscrupulous journalists who try to manipulate people, invasive paparazzi who hound celebrities, and news reports that completely fabricate 'news'. At the same time though, there are people like Jae Kyung, Jung Hyuk, Yi Jin and the guy handling the New York bureau, who do real journalism and these are the people who get prominence (rather than bad journalists). You see the actual labour, passion and idealism that goes into the actual work. You see the toll that it has on them — sacrificing family life, nightmares, sleepless nights, half-eaten meals, crushed hopes.

The way the media is shown in Twenty Five Twenty One is a reminder of what the media is supposed to do, a reminder of why it's called a pillar of democracy, and what it takes to live up to that job description.

That said, I want to know in which planet a junior reporter from the local news section gets sent to a whole different country, to cover a terrorist attack? Also, which network in which time period could afford to put said reporter in a foreign country for months? Lest we forget, this is a network in a country that has barely dragged itself out of a massive economic crisis. Literally nothing about Yi Jin going to New York made sense in a realistic sense and if the rest of Twenty Five Twenty One didn't feel so viscerally credible, maybe I wouldn't have cared about this leap of logic. But to me, it was deeply jarring.

[mimicofmodes]

I want to share a post I wrote on AskHistorians this morning. The question asked was:

What dimensions of time and geography do you recommend for someone looking to become some form of fashion historian?

As most of you probably already know: each individual decade within a given century can be so very different (e.g. 1810 vs 1880) in terms of fashion. And then each year within a decade is different (e.g. sleeves of 1890s women's wear) and on top... each country has a variation on what trends may have existed (e.g. Poland vs Chicago, 1920).

Yet, I've heard some folks say they are a Victorian fashion expert (1837 to 1901, across the whole British Empire). That's an enormous bracket of time and range of global space. Not that I don't believe them but at least for me, that's a huge wealth of information to retain.

As a hobby historian, who has a bunch of interests (e.g. Elizabethan & Regency men's wear, many assorted eras of women's wear). I'm looking for a way to get better at specifics and be more focused.

What amount of time do you suggest as most manageable for someone to focus on? Should one pick a single country? A single gender? One year or ten? Is an entire dynasty manageable?

I said:

For the most part, I think that when you hear someone call themselves a fashion historian, what they mean is that they have expertise in the "international", urban, elite/affluent styles that do actually have a large degree of stability across borders from the eighteenth century on, not coincidentally the period in which the fashion magazine was developed. A fashionable woman in Warsaw in 1920 would actually be wearing something quite similar to a fashionable woman in Chicago in the same year, both likely going to a department store which strove to provide the newest fashions, and I don't think many if any people could reliably pinpoint the location of any given studio photograph based on variations in fashionable dress. The plates shown in Przegląd Mody and Kobieta w Świecie i w domu look just like ones that could have run in The Ladies' Home Journal or The Delineator in the same period.

Similarly, saying that one has expertise in Victorian fashion is not a claim to an unbelievably massive amount of information, mostly because it is a reference to this time period in the West, rather than a statement that someone understands, say, British and Indian clothing in 1850 but not French or American. Is it problematic that English speakers frequently use terms like "Victorian" and "Edwardian" to mean a time period divorced from the political context that gives it the name? Yes, but ... that's English-speakers for you. People who say they are Victorian fashion experts are saying that they understand the nuances of fashionable Western dress in most of the nineteenth century, which are effectively the same in London, Paris, New York, Madrid, Berlin, Warsaw ...

Your question is unanswerable. You should focus on what you're interested in - I can assure you, that's what the people claiming expertise in Victorian fashion have done! You don't need to be more focused if you have varied interests. And from a scholarly perspective, it's much more important to drill down and truly understand a topic than to be able to date any dress you come across, even though the latter is a lot flashier and more immediately impressive. Then, as you read books and articles that take a slightly wider timespan or conceptual span than your focus area, you may find the latter bleeding out and becoming wider. For instance, your interest in Regency menswear might take you to an article like Elisabeth Gernerd's "Pulled Tight and Gleaming: The Stocking's Position within Eighteenth-Century Masculinity" in Textile History or Hannah Carson's Stella Blum Grant Report, "Idle Hands and Empty Pockets: Postures of Leisure", in Dress, which might take you in a few new directions. As someone who's gone from a fixation on just dating and construction to, well, where I am now, I think you will feel more fulfilled if you delve into scholarship in the areas you're already into on a hobbyist level.

(I also offered to give them more recs privately, because we can't publicly talk about piracy on the sub, but for you lovely people I can point out that LibGen has EVERY ISSUE of Dress, Costume, and Textile History and you can find so many interesting articles there.)

[jxxvvxxkcrack]

Lee Jae Wook Vlive 21 June 2021

Stats

Total vlive viewers: 35675 Total likes: 2072339 Length: 1 hr 01 minute T-shirt: Unlock your life by Pars Co. https://www.parspars.com/product/unlock-your-life-rainbow-white-short-t-shirt/

He's on a diet now.

He threatened to turn off the Vlive a few times because of all the people who said they were not studying for their exams to watch it :P

He's growing out his hair now for the next project.

He had to ban requests for him to say fans' names in the middle since too many requests were pouring in for him to say their name. Don’t blame them lol.

Talking with fans

What is your next project? You should see articles about it soon Will you do more vlogs? It's difficult to do vlogs in the pandemic period since you need to wear a mask everywhere. What do you do in your free time? I eat a lot, sleep a lot, and exercise a lot. Can you donate your Jordan shoes to me? No I can't, and then launched into some anecdote about something about high school, which is unsubbed. When will you hold a fan meeting? Probably after the pandemic. "You're watching me at hagwon (cram school)? I will scold you!" And he did lol it was so cute. What do you do when you first wake up? A hot water shower, and then..? [unsubbed] Do you like overseas fans? Of course I do, I love my overseas fans. I'll come for you after the pandemic is over. Current favourite song: Recently, ‘Lost’ by Maroon 5 was released. It's the best. Will you do an online fan-sign event? That would be interesting! What's your MBTI? I haven't done it yet! Please do the MBTI! OK I will definitely do it! Can you do a bear heart? What's a bear heart? There's so much I don't know. Teleport vs being able to tell the future? This is an interesting question. I would choose to teleport. I live in the Gangnam area, and the traffic there is so bad! So I would choose 'Teleport'. (I didn't know he lived in Gangnam). Do you have a driver's license? Of course I do. Shoe size: 285mm Can you speak English? No, I can barely speak Korean well :P

-but in the middle he did say "Say hi to global fan" LOL-

Your favourite late night snack? Fried chicken, jokbal, and bossam. I spend a lot of money on food :P Would you date someone 7 years younger? 7 years younger? It's not a bad idea. I’m thankful (that someone 7 years younger likes me.) Would you date someone 7 years older? (laughs) It's a funny question. Why haven't you been seen anywhere in public? I don't go to many places, only to the gym and back to my home. Favourite snack: Goguma (sweet potato). It's sad, right? (Implying he's on a diet.) And then he randomly said he's tall but doesn't have good proportions (possibly someone asking why he exercises so much :P)

Do you like cats and dogs? I love them. I have a friend who has a shiba-inu called Chadol. It was so cute I went to his house every day to see his dog. You should eat more: You may not like me then! D: I'm studying Korean, study with me? I'm also trying to get better at Korean. Shall we do it together? (so flirty) Did you remove the mole on your neck? No, I didn't remove it. I won't remove it. What's your handphone wallpaper? It's a white wall with an orange stripe, somewhat Rothko-esque. He said he took it at his house's parking lot, and "It's pretty, isn't it?" Which celebrity friends do you have? (Playfully) 비밀 Do you like mint chocolate? I love mint chocolate. My friend told me not to declare this, and said that saying that I like it is a matter of life or death :P People say it tastes like toothpaste but it tastes nice to me! What colors do you like? Blue. Blue and dark colors. Isn't long hair uncomfortable? It is, but I will cut it one day. Your long hair looks cool: (Teasingly) I'm going to cut it soon~ Do you get along well with your elder sister?  Yes, I really like my relationship with her. Which of your characters is most like you? Lee Jang Woo from When The Weather Is Fine. (Is he that good in his studies? Lol. And then he said something about a unicorn, which I do recall seeing in the drama, I think he used "___ unicorn" to brag about himself to his younger sister :P) Jjajangmyeon vs bibimbap? This is really hard. Do I get to have soup with bibimbap? Favourite perfume: Can I say the brand? I guess it doesn't matter. Slow Dance by Byredo. It's my favourite perfume. Today's TMI: I woke up early and went to the gym. Do you ride your bike often? About 3 times a week? Oppa because of you I'm going to Chung Ang University: So you'll be my junior huh. (laughs) Oppa, can you close your left eye and point to your right cheek? (he obediently follows the prompt.. he’s really an actor lol) "You!! I almost fell for it! Gosh, my mum will pass out if she sees this." He revealed a two string bracelet on his left hand while adjusting the camera. Favourite dessert: Croffle? Croffle. I really like croffle. Current body wash: I'm using a body wash by Lush (only he says it as Lush-ee, which is just adorable.) Can you speak Japanese? I love animes but Japanese is so hard. I will study hard! When will you do a rap? I may try it one day. (I wonder if he knows about that old rap video floating around lol.) Dimples vs. Eyes: Eyes? I think he might be talking about his forehead wrinkles instead of eyes actually, so the translation is wrong. What animes do you like? He didn't answer, but said there are many animes on Netflix that he watches. Eating chimaek while watching the world cup? Eating chicken and beer sounds good but, my agency probably wouldn't like it. Can you say a line of Baek Kyung since it's been a long time? (playfully) I won't do it~ Iced americano vs. hot coffee: Iced americano. He said 'eoljuga', which roughly means 'I’ll drink iced Americano even if I freeze to death'. :P What app do you use most often? Naver? I have many things I need to look up :P Which of your parents do you resemble? Sometimes my mum, but sometimes my dad. Do you like kalguksu (knife cut noodle soup)? Yes, I love kalguksu and sujebi. Favourite ice cream flavour: Mint chocolate. (Bursts into laughter) Who do you like better - your mum or your dad: Omma. You thought I wouldn't answer, didn't you. (He has thanked only his sister and his mum in an award ceremony before lol. Poor Jaewookie appa) Oppa I'll date you: I'll reject your offer. (bursts into laughter again). Are you at the agency now? Nope. Please name the fanclub: This is hard. It (the fanclub) should go on forever, shouldn't it? Send an email to the agency. 5 year old Jaewookie vs 5 copies of Jaewook?: Of course 5 copies of Jaewook. One to exercise, one to work, one to stay at home and eat.. Do you dip or pour sauce for tangsuyuk? But, why would you pour water on fried food? I'll say dip. Jjajang vs. jjampong: That's hard! When working, jjajang. When resting, jjambong. *Nods sagely to himself* (Although he instinctively said 'jjampong' first). When moving house, jjajang. What message from fans cheered you up the most? It was this letter I got. It said "you make us happy when you're working hard, but don't work too hard." It cheered me up a lot. Soju vs. beer: Soju Cider (Sprite/lemonade) vs cola: Cola Do you eat pineapple on pizza? I think it tastes nice! Hawaiian pizzas. I also really like pineapple. Fall or spring? Fall. I really like spring too, but there are too many bugs. Small but definite happiness? (He understood the abbreviation immediately, which is sooo different from when the Running Man cast are introduced to any new lingo lol) When I bike, I don't drink any water. I have a routine; after biking, I run for about 6km, then I drink water. That water at the midpoint mark is so delicious. Oppa I like you, please scold me: Why would I scold you. I would compliment you :P Good job. Favourite boy group: BTS. They're so cool (safe answer!) Ramen vs. kimbap? Don't you eat them together? How tall are you? 187cm tall. Which variety show would you like to appear on he most? "I have never been on a variety show yet. Have you seen Kokkomu? When I watched Kokkomu I cried a lot. My tears came out like diamonds." lol. In reference to an earlier question. No idea what Kokkomu is. https://newsbeezer.com/koreaeng/kokkomu-which-was-just-popular-is-controversial-due-to-the-copying-of-the-youtube-channel/ Possibly this? Beef or pork? Pork How long have you been tall? I've always been tall. Then he gives a cheeky wink! Oppa can you go on on Knowing Bros? I'll have a hard time talking in banmal in front of all the sunbaenim. I'll do more Vlive in the future. *compromise* lol. Oppa kajimayo: If I don't leave, the staff can't leave work either :P Can you fill an hour (of Vlive?): Shall we fill an hour? Do you want to be in a play or musical? Of course I do. Plays require the best form of acting. What's the first thing you want to do when the pandemic is over? I want to go to a pork belly bbq place and eat comfortably without a mask. What's the worst part about acting? Every moment is hard. It's not an easy job. Why do you always wear 2 T-shirts? I like T-shirts but, but my sweat changes their color. I don't like that, so. Favourite overseas country? Filming Alhambra was my first time overseas. I didn't even take many photos. I want to send you T-shirts: Don't, don't! while vigorously shaking his head. (worried that his fans will spend money) What is your life movie? I really love Robin Williams. It's not my life movie, but I love the Dead Poets' Society. Did you really go to Alhambra? Back then, my role was really small, so I didn't really know what was going on, but (I did go to the palace? is what it sounds like.) Would you rather be 3m tall or have a 400mm shoe size? Wouldn't it be better to be tall? (what’s the point of having big feet?) Oppa don't go to the army: I have to go someday.. I still have a lot of time, and will work hard When will be our wedding? Am I getting married? (laughs) Pepsi or Coca cola: I like any cola. I'll go to the army for you: Andwae it will be hard! Although apparently it's not as hard as it used to be. Are your family members all as tall as you? Yes my family members are all tall too. What do you do on your free days? I'm a freelancer so I don't have free days.  How do you keep your skin looking so young? Lancome (he's now promoting Lancome). I came here right after a Lancome event. I really like Lancome. Tell me about your bracelet: I'll ask my stylist later :P When you come to Pohang I'll guide you!: I love gwamegi! (half-dried Pacific saury) Do you like to cook? I really like to cook. I love it so much even when people tell me not to cook, I will still cook. Oppa come to my school!: Which school is that? Tell me. Although I probably won't be able to read it. (cheeky smile). I'm really mean now, aren’t I. Favourite side dish? I like them all. Mokpo: Dodosolsollalasol was filmed in Mokpo. I ate aehobak jjigae (zucchini stew) there and it was amazing. Do Vlive at home? I'll figure out how to do it! I'll learn everything today. You use black and white hearts a lot on IG, what does it mean? It's the color of my tee. Just kidding, I just choose a color of heart that goes best with the photo. How much can you drink? Should I bluff? If I'm bluffing, when I drink alone at home, about 3 bottles? Just kidding, I get drunk after about 1.5 bottles (of soju). Favourite sports: Skiing, swimming, bowling. Was it hard to use a dialect in the Battle of Jangsari? Using a dialect was really hard. Can you do an IG live? I'm scared to do live - you can't make a mistake when all of you are watching. I have to be careful. Why aren't you seen in public? I answered that earlier, you are late. LOL. Your best dish? Western food? Something like risotto? Plans to film a movie? I want to but I should get offered first. Joking. Lol. I was told off for being late (the commenter above): Haha sorry.

Best fan questions/comments:

Live as a hamster or a ham forever?

Your pimples are so cute (mistranslation, she meant 'dimples'): "I have 4 dimples."

Don't smile, you'll give me a heart attack: I'm also having a heart attack seeing so many fans. I like it (that there are many fans on the vlive) but it's also scary. So cute.

Are you a microwave? You melted my heart: You're all so witty, jjinjjaru..

I'll make money. You just cook: You're so funny..

[popwasabi]

“End of Evangelion” and the tempting nature of oblivion

(TW: Suicide, Self-harm, Pain, Depression, Mental Health, Death)

“End of Evangelion” is a perplexing movie to say the least.

Not that the original classic anime “Neon Genesis Evangelion” series ends on exactly the most conclusive note itself, but “End” takes everything that transpired in the series and literally destroys it.

The films ends with Earth experiencing the long foreshadowed Third Impact and all of the planet returning to the primordial “soup,” as fans call it, with its main protagonist Shinji Ikari and comrade Asuka Langley Soryu as the only remaining humans left. A pseudo, twisted rebeginning of Adam and Eve’s Genesis.

The film is fairly divisive among the fans to say the least. Some fans consider it a masterpiece for its nihilistic tone and mind-bending illustrations of body horror and others despised it for being too dark and confusing with no clear explanation of anything that happened in the film’s events. Hell, even the movie’s fans have a difficult time explaining what exactly happens in the narrative.

I was somewhat in the middle with it after I watched it the first time not super long ago. It was certainly abstract, and I like plenty of stories that don’t make it easy for me to understand. The animation is definitely the franchise’s best and I enjoyed the character moments between Shinji, Asuka, and Misato. But it was also, as stated before, dreadfully confusing and still to this day hard to makes heads or tails out of with its plot.

But, as with more than a few movies I have revisited this year, 2020 helped me contextualize one aspect I think the story is concretely trying to get across.

(We’ll save discussion of “Rebuild” for another day...)

At my lowest points not long ago, I had this frequent vision that would crawl across my mind.

I imagined being up in the clouds on a beautiful sunny day, but I wasn’t floating or flying. I was plummeting, falling like a bird without wings at a speed that would definitely kill me once I got to the ground. But I never imagined actually hitting the Earth like a meat-bagged, human sized asteroid. I only ever imagined the falling part. The wind reaching a terminal velocity and the air rushing past my body and you know what look I had on my face?

Happiness.

I was confused a bit by why I kept imagining this moribund fall into oblivion over and over again. I wasn’t suicidal, though I certainly have had thoughts of self-harm plenty of times before and general detachment from life. But why the fuck was I so happy? I’m about to die after all!

What I have come to realize in recent years, as I’ve developed a better understanding of my mental health and what makes me tick, it wasn’t that I wanted to die so much as I wanted the freedom that comes moments before it. The feeling of finally letting go and letting fate/gravity do the rest.

Years of my life failing at various aspects of societal expectations and career obligations from not being able to get the girls I wanted to date so badly, relationships ending poorly, not quite applying myself the way I should’ve in college, and working a plethora of unfulfilling jobs since graduation made me yearn for that release. Just that feeling of saying “fuck it all” and giving in to the void.

I wanted to stop feeling out of control. The way the world is structured often feels like you are on a wild, rapid river flowing in one very stark direction but you desperately want to go the other way. You keep fighting and fighting it and realize after a while you are just swimming in place, you tire out and either float where the river wants you to go or you drown. I wanted neither of those things, I just wanted control and unfortunately part of life is accepting that a very large percentage of it is beyond your power to alter.

2020 made this feeling starkly apparent once again as we were hit with a once in a lifetime global pandemic that has killed 2.21 million people and counting. As common people struggle to find ways to handle the loss of loved ones and the fallout from economic instability those tasked with protecting us have more or less ignored the cries of needy. Hell, they’re fucking miffed that we would even have the audacity to ask for $2000 of our own fucking tax dollars to put a band-aid on the situation. Combine this with an extremely volatile two-party system and late stage capitalism, we are about as out of control as ever in terms of how much we actually can course correct our destinies in a period like this.

It is why so many irony-pilled millennials and gen z-ers are posting dank memes about meteors colliding with the earth over the course of the year. We’ve lived through two recessions, two forever wars, and now a pandemic in our lifetimes while paying off our crippling debt with slave wages and yet boomers still wonder why we are near universally depressed as a generation.

(Seriously, everybody needs a fucking therapist right now...and also to dismantle the fucking system that’s making us depressed!)

This is what I feel is the real heart of “End of Evangelion.” The movie is a lot of things, obviously, but, after the events of this year and looking back on the more depressing parts of my life, I feel this film is about the tempting nature of oblivion. Giving up when things are clearly beyond your control so you can get that sweet but twisted, fleeting sense of freedom from it all.

Director Hideaki Anno didn’t feel too entirely different about the state of life when he made this series and certainly by the time he made “End” he was in a very dark place.

So, quick history lesson, “Neon Genesis Evangelion” debuted in 1994 and quickly became a classic among fans of anime and the giant mech vs monster genre. Critics loved it for its exploration of mental health and depression and of course plenty enjoyed the hell out of it for its giant monster/robot escapism as well. Fast forward to the conclusion of the series, critics and fans especially are far more polarized. I won’t try to explain exactly what happens in the ending and frankly I don’t think anyone can, but that confusion led to quite a bit of outcry by the fans.

Hideaki Anno, the series’ director, received tons of hate mail and death threats following the series conclusion. The fans hated how abstract it was, how it had an undecisive ending and chose to dive into the mind of Shinji instead of conclusively describing the events of the Third Impact with plenty going as far as to say he had “ruined” his own series for them. This made him unfortunately quite depressed himself over the ending he felt creatively fairly content with.

(I think it should be clear who Shinji is mostly likely a stand-in for in this anime...)

The fan reaction was toxic to say the least and all too familiar for many creatives who didn’t adequately satisfy the insatiable vapid needs of their fandom. Anno did not take this well to put it lightly. A man who was known as a delinquent in high school and expelled from the Osaka University of Arts much earlier in his life, and dealt plenty with his own bouts of depression, Anno had plenty of his own demons to sort out and quite clearly wanted to explore that mental state in “Neon Genesis Evangelion.”

I’ll be honest and say that I myself was not fond of the ending either when I watched it the first time as a freshman in college, and even went as far as to describe it as everything that was wrong with anime to friends in the years that followed for a while. I felt it was confusing and “fake deep,” existential for no reason other than because it just wanted to and people were “dumb” if they liked it.

When I rewatched it again as a much older adult when it came on Netflix last year, I found it much more fascinating and interesting. A sort of abstract introspective into the mind of a troubled teenager, who I had written off many years prior as a “whiny baby.” Though I wouldn’t say I completely understand it still, I get it much more now and I think it has a lot to say about depression and mental health.

Unfortunately, most fans did not have that reaction back then and as a result Anno made his true conclusion “End of Evangelion” as a response to that negativity.

(You’re welcome, nerds.)

As mentioned before, “End of Evangelion” is an extremely nihilistic film that seems to one up each dark moment as you traverse its spiraling narrative. It’s a film where things never get better. If you go into it blind expecting that big last minute heroic save the day moment, it’s always teased and never comes. Things just end very badly for everyone. Nobody gets a “happy ending.”

While the ending to the original series is strange for sure, it does end on a light note that can be interpreted in a number of different ways but ultimately positive. With the way fans reacted to it Anno decided to write a big “fuck you” to them by, in many ways, smashing his toys so no one could play with them again. He even went as far as to splice in the actual hate mail he received into the movie to quite clearly show to the audience, as their favorite characters met their grissly ends, that this was their fault.

(“Gee, I wonder what that was all about.” ~ a fan walking out of the theater back in 1997.)

In a way though, Anno created something strangely beautiful from that reaction. “End of Evangelion” is about giving up in some ways and accepting our inevitable doom. There are no easy answers, no workable solutions to achieve a happy ending because sometimes in life there isn’t one. Despite last ditch efforts by Misato, Shinji, and the crew of NERV the world still ends through the Third Impact. But tonally it’s not quite pessimistic; it’s actually positive, in a very twisted sense of course.

Set to the song “Komm Susser Tod” by ARIANNE, the film’s apocalypse can almost be described as a celebration. With people “popping” and turning into the primordial soup they all largely have smiles on their faces as they kind of get what they want whether it’s a desire to reunite with loved ones, to be with people they have crushes on, or happiness that they have sought for so long in the embrace of others. Everyone’s depressed! But now they are happy because it’s finally all over, they don’t have to give a shit anymore.

As the planet lights up like a Christmas tree, there are images of suicide and death that rapidly cross the screen in the form of the Angel’s final transformation but again, nobody is truly sad about it. They all have some kind of twisted smile or joy that they get from it. It’s a shocking film, if you’re not already prepared for what’s going to happen, and provocative to say the least.

(Can’t decide if I recommend watching this high or not...)

I had no idea what any of it meant at the time when I watched it several years ago (I watched it well after I had seen the original series), and to be fair there are many ways fans have interpreted what exactly took place in the film and have debated endlessly on its meaning for decades now. But at least in my interpretation, after everything we’ve been through this year, “End of Evangelion” to me is about the sweet release of not giving a fuck anymore.

Whether it’s about Anno feeling that way about his own life or the expectations of his fans or both, the film quite clearly doesn’t care about what people may or may not have wanted for Shinji and the NGE characters and is perfectly fine with the way it all comes “tumbling down.”

(He just wants to be with his boyfriend, guys.)

This past July 4th, city fireworks shows were prohibited in my area because they wanted to limit mass gatherings due to COVID but this didn’t stop people from buying plenty of their own to fire off. In what amounted to a collective “fuck you” to everything and 2020, beginning pretty much exactly at dusk people started firing off their at home lightshows like they were mortar gunners in World War I and did not let up until well past midnight. The entire Southern California night sky was lit up not to unlike the thousands of crosses that filled the screen during the Third Impact of “End of Evangelion” and though it could certainly be interpreted as a moment of people patriotically going “Yea, America!” that night, my head canon was much different. It felt like tens of thousands of people across the region just saying “Fuck it” into the night sky at everything; COVID, our horrendous government, police violence, pending World Wars, environmental disaster, and our collective impending doom from it all.

As these fireworks hit their zenith around 9pm I broke out my phone and started playing “Komm Susser Tod” from the movie and it felt perfect. Everyone just wanted to feel that freedom in the moment, that freedom of not giving a damn anymore. To be removed from expectations, from control, from hatred, from pain and it was kind of beautiful in a sick way.

And that’s what “End of Evangelion” feels like to me now; kind of beautiful in a sick way.

(Not saying the LA skyline looked like this exactly but it felt like it haha...)

There are still many ways to interpret Hideaki Anno’s cult classic, and it’s part of its charm but I think the take away fans should have is definitely not that suicide is ok but that we get it. We understand why people have those feelings and why it feels freeing to desire the void and oblivion. It’s a pity that the series most toxic fans didn’t get that clue through the original finale but Anno, not a person who likes  being shoved around, clearly created perhaps the most twistedly beautiful “fuck you” to that in anime history.

As we enter 2021 all I can say is it’s ok to feel like this, it’s ok to desire freedom from the relentless gloom and doom of the world and people’s prying expectations of what they think you “should” be. No one blames you. At the end of the day, we’re all just trying to survive the apocalypse we have zero control over, so the least we can do is be a bit nicer and considerate of one another. 

At least it’ll make the Third Impact more pleasant whenever it eventually comes...

Happy New Year, everyone! 

Congratulations on surviving 2020! Have fun in 2021...

[lostmoonbunny]

Greetings from a Panini World

Yes, I did call this a "panini". I'm hesitant to use the word "pandemic" as I feel many of us have a knee jerk reaction to hide from everything once hearing or seeing that word. However that's the current stat of events. The year? 2021 Where I am located its very much so post quarantine and society has attempted to "return to normal" but its impossible. Between the anti- maskers, anti-vaxxers, and everything else it truly is impossible. "What do you mean?" you ask, well allow me to take you on a journey of a human that has gone through this "history in the making" and share what its been like since January 2020 to September 2021 from the eyes of someone that lived it. -I will preface this with saying, there will be gaps, I have trouble with object permanence, concept of time, and I have memory issues due to past concussions so bear with me as we stumble through the memories of my experiences.

So here we go... Let's travel back to January 2020.

2020..Ahhh the big year of "Clear vision".. HA! No, not today. What I remember was being concerned about this horrible virus but didn't think it would make its way to where I lived.. ( I would be unsurprisingly corrected shortly after this.) I worked, had my birthday, and it was quickly February. The virus was quickly spreading and making its way downtown walking fast faces past.. oops..sorry I got sidetracked, it was making its way down throughout the nation. We celebrated my partner's birthday, and soon after the month was over. February always flies by. March...ahh March, this is where everything started changing for me. Many states were shutting down around us fairly quickly too. ( I have opinions about how the US should've shut down sooner, but we're not here for politics...but yes it should've happened sooner.) My partner, younger brother and I made a last minute trip to the next state for a day trip. Which was fun don't get me wrong but the places we went to shut down for the state's quarantine the next day. My state would follow barely a week later. I was furloughed. That..that was an experience. All of us received the same message as it was a group message. It stated that we were all effectively unemployed ( so we could apply for benefits if we chose to) and that if and when we reopen that they hoped we could come back. I immediately messaged my boss and the boss that messaged us all and double checked learning that I was on the "short list" for rehires. That made me fee a bit better but I was still sad. My partner was considered "an Essential worker" so they worked through the entire lockdown. I swear Animal Crossing New Horizons is one of the only things that got me through that.. from this all the days blended together till June. Not don't get me wrong, plenty of things happened on a personal growth side that was beneficial like I started going to therapy, got even closer to my cousin that lives on the west coast, I played with my cats and dogs more, I caught up on sleep, all sorts of things but the way it had to happen sucked. Also in this time period, my favorite uncle contracts the virus and is put in the ICU on a ventilator. I don't remember how long he was in there but he made it. He is now healthy and survived the virus. So lets fast forward to June. My place of work reopened under specific guidelines. Now I don't know if I've ever mentioned this but I live in the southeast. The southeast, in summer is AWFUL. Its hot, its humid, and then if it DOES rain that humidity just goes up and it gets worse. To give you an idea while the temperature might say its 84 degrees F but the real feel might be 95F. I don't know why they don't just say 95F but that's how it is the southeast... So imagine if you will mid June, being reopened with special rules, masks required for everyone 5 years old and older, and no buildings but restrooms open to the public. The amount of rude, hateful, uncaring people almost made me lose my complete faith in humanity, and its not very high to begin with. Also for context, I work in retail. I feel that says enough there. These rules extend till the end of the year and into part of 2021. While all of this is happening the US is having their presidential elections and everyone has crawled out of the woodwork that you had hoped would stay there. At this point I'm hoping for the best because we really need a paradigm shift in society. We need to truly need to change as a society and in many way, catch up to the rest of the world. I finally gave in a got to tiktok and realize that it is very much a time devourer. I've realized that I feel as if the term "Cassflux" fits how I feel about my gender best, and fully accepted my journey on the path of being a witch.

Lets move in to October, October I ( and my partner) travel to Texas (cautiously) for my cousin's socially distant wedding and our anniversary. That was amazing and the slight escape from reality was truly needed. On our way back we made a stop in NOLA and it was a fun visit, but I realized my baby witch self hadn't veiled or warded myself nearly enough and it got all of "spidey senses" all out of wack. knowing now what I should've done, I do want to go back. The rest of the year went by both incredibly slow and yet in a flash. The US elected a new president, I was working as hard a possible to avoid the virus as much as possible and my partner had gotten a new job with a different company that was making them more happy. So this brings us to 2021. This is the year that I feel that I am truly coming into my own despite living in the middle of a global Panda Express. January brings my turning a landmark age and celebrating it with a new hair style, new outlook on life, progress made in therapy, more self acceptance, and just overall more happiness. The world is still the same, better, but also worse. The vaccine is being produced, distributed, and made accessible. February brings another birthday with my partner's birthday. March rolls around and we jokingly celebrate our work's closing a year prior and then continue to work. The vaccine is made available to retail and food workers so I go and get the first round of the "Dolly Parton" vaccine with my co workers. (If you were wondering its Moderna) We go and receive the second dose later at the correct time. April and May kind of blend together for me because that the ramp up for the busy season at work. June & July are busy but everything is moving forwards. I finally take a step more into the current era of technology and upgrade my phone and computer. ( After several years of going back and forth of not wanting current gen tech or not, because that stuff be expensive!) I reconnect with an old friend and we have a much healthier friendship.

August....hecking August.. We are short staffed at work, busy as heck! My partner is also hecking busy by being called in for almost every problem. The world is deffo changing. The US is in a state of nah nah a boo boo with vaccinating vs not, virus outbreaks having an uptick, universities starting back, Texas deciding that the government gets a say in a woman's reproductive rights... sorry I'll try to not get political. My ( like many others) using tiktok as a means of escape from this reality.. I'm so beyond mentally exhausted by everything that I just want to be somewhere that I can breathe a bit more easy... Its deffo not the southeastern US. September: I. am. exhausted. Working a bunch. Dealing with people doubting the virus, the usual Karens and Richards, counting down my days to vacation. My partner is beyond exhaustion. They've worked more in the past six weeks that they have in two years. The 20th year of 9/11 comes and goes. Not to sound like a country song, but remembering where I was at the moment the planes hit is something that has stuck with me...despite my concussions. I was in my English class and its was between classes and they had the tvs on. So many parents were coming and calling their kids out the school got to the point they weren't going to let kids leave.. ( if the parents complained enough they did.. I was a poorer kid in a more affluent school) My parents weren't going to take me out of school so I finished the day out in a state of confusion, not understanding the gravitas of what was going on, and not understanding was the emotions I was feeling watching the crashes were. I don't claim to even comprehend the emotions of this date to people who lost loved ones in the crashes, or in the oncoming days of the country going to war, I just know how it felt as a child to see something so major happening. I feel its like the kids now living through this panic at the disco. [[If you read this and you lost someone due to either of these horrific events please know that I in no way am invalidating or belittling your feelings or experiences. I merely am trying to describe all of how I feel throughout 2020- roughly current day 2021 and these are the things I was thinking and feeling on this particular day.]]

The days start to blend again as I attempt to countdown the days till my short vacation. Once that starts I get to finally relax as does my partner. The amount of sleep my partner has gotten is incredible and they deserve it dang it! This brings us to today, The last day of September 2021. This are changing at work and I'm not wholly sure of how I feel but I know it will be an interesting discussion for me to have with my therapist coming up. That's all I've got for now.. Hopefully I'll pop back in sooner to give more perspective on what its like living through all of this chaos. Just keep moving forward.

[back-and-totheleft]

"Hollywood rabble rouser"

Late one night in the summer of 2008, I found what turned out to be a stockbroker’s iPhone in the back of a NYC taxi. Turning it on in order to contact the owner, I noticed that amongst the stock watch apps and currency converters was an icon of Gordon Gekko, the corrupt market raider immortalized by Michael Douglas in Wall Street, Oliver Stone’s 1987 tale of insider trading and corporate excess. Intrigued, I hit Gekko’s pixilated face (it felt good) and a website flashed up with an entire transcription of his infamous “Greed is good” speech — one of Hollywood’s most iconic parables to the pursuit of unrestrained greed. Whoever owned the phone found those words as important as checking Facebook or texting his girlfriend. Gekko was his hero, his daily inspiration.

Watching back Wall Street a few weeks later as news of the Lehman Brothers collapse and global recession spread, it struck me that a whole generation of financiers must have grown up, like Charlie Sheen’s character Bud Fox, yearning to be Gekko. He was the business equivalent of a rapper wanting to become Tony Montana, another Stone creation. And some of these brokers, as we’ve all since discovered, were willing to trade money that didn’t exist in pursuit of pin stripe suits, corner offices, penthouses, boats, women, and stacks of cash. Perhaps the perks made the 22-year prison stretch Gekko received at the end of the film seem like a viable risk. Or they deliberately chose to ignore his downfall.

Inspired by financial fiends like Bernie Madoff, Stone decided to spring Gekko out of prison for Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps. Set in 2008, he is a reformed character that tries, and fails, to warn business leaders of the impending credit crunch. Many fans are understandably nervous about Douglas reprising his Oscar winning role, especially since his hair gel and brick phone have long been put into storage. Stone, who only agreed to direct the film because he felt that current financial climate lent itself to a sequel, understandably feels that it’s time for bankers to grow up. As the director of Natural Born Killers, JFK and Platoon he’s used to Marmite reactions. But, after giving Dubya an easy ride in W, will Gordon 2.0 be one step too far? Is the world ready for goody Gekko two shoes? Or will traders across Wall Street be deleting their “Greed is good” iPhone bookmarks forever? As they say on the stock market floor, let the bull charge.

Tim Noakes: When you were 18 your father got you to work on a financial exchange in France. Was that your inspiration for Wall Street?

Oliver Stone: No, it was a great summer job actually, because it was very exotic. My father was always into the stock market, into numbers. He loved that world in New York and I grew up on the fringes of it but I wasn’t particularly attuned to it. So it was a chance to see it first hand but I didn’t do very well as a trader. In those days you’d run from the phone booth in the back to the floor. It was cocoa and sugar. It was violent and busy. They used to elbow each other to get into the inner circle, like matadors. It was a real crush. I elbowed my way through it and got up to be assistant buyer, which was very complicated because you had to make the orders for everything right. You couldn’t screw up. A lot of money’s involved. So then I thought I should be one of the cocoa buyers. I was a little too ambitious for my own good.

Your father died before you made Wall Street. What do you think he would have made of it?

I think he would have appreciated that I had done a business movie. We always talked about it. He loved movies and he took me to them. We discussed them afterwards, which was an invaluable experience, and he would say that there weren’t many business movies. And there weren’t. There was not a specific genre. Hollywood was not into the business movie concept. It’s hard. I can understand why. It’s all financial talk, it’s not interesting to most people and it lacks those human emotions. Money is an interesting subject, however, for America. That’s why I addressed it in 1987. I thought, ‘Americans love money’, and what lengths they will go to get it is what that movie is about. Especially coming off Platoon, which is a different kind of movie. I was trying to prove that I could do something domestic with ‘Wall Street’.

The original was very much of its era.

It was the era of “Greed is good” and Reagan. With Wall Street 2, I’m obviously more mature, I’ve done more films, I have more confidence, I hope. I’m trying something a little bit deeper in the relationship field. There’s no Darryl Hannah in the movie. There’s a real English girl this time (Carey Mulligan). She anchors strongly the emotions of the film, because she is damaged. She’s the daughter of Gordon Gekko, if you can imagine what that can be like.

Michael Douglas once said that your style of directing is like taking people into the trenches. What did he mean by that?

He makes it sound like I dress him up in uniform and have a military hierarchy. Every single actor that I’ve worked with, and there’s obviously dozens now, you’d have to talk to every single one of them to get their perception. I would say some would disagree. Maybe Michael, because he hasn’t been in the military, would regard it as a military experience. I didn’t think of it that way. I think of a movie as an organisation that has to work at a very fluid pace involving a large amount of people who have to move quickly over a landscape. Call that what you will. It could be an adventure party or a military organisation. It’s really a satellite business. You form, you group, you rehearse, you shoot, you separate. It’s very nomadic. In that chemistry you bring together so many conflicting types of people who have different kinds of egos. It’s quite a mix. At the end of the day, if you look back at the — what is it? 19, 20 films — that I’ve directed, it’s just a mix of styles. Sometimes it really works with people. It clicks. I think Michael did great work on both films, so I’m very pleased with his result. My style might not have been good for him, but it works for other people. Some people, like Shia LaBeouf and Josh Brolin, were digging it. They loved the way I worked because it was intense and to the point and relatively fast.

Do you see yourself as a hard taskmaster or a disciplinarian?

No, I’m not a disciplinarian. I’m disciplined with myself and I think I try to lead by example not by imposition of my will. I try to lead by example. That’s just to say that people know that I’m trying to get this thing done. My approach is that we’re all in this together. The idea is king. We all serve that king. It is not a democracy, it is a constitutional monarchy, so to speak, with strong legislative power in the House of Lords. No, but the idea is king. I repeat that. Not the director. The idea. I serve the idea.

How do you balance the logistics with trying to create a piece of art?

Oh boy, if I didn’t tell you I wasn’t humbled so many times, you would not believe it. It’s a very humbling experience to make a movie, because you’re at the mercy of the elements. Of the winds and the weather as well as conditions that can go wrong — disease, sickness, bad tempers. All sorts of stuff can happen. Given that nature, to pull off a movie is extremely difficult. The editing room is another humiliation. All your mistakes are thrown back in your face. No matter how many good choices you make, and making a movie involves thousands of choices, you’re constantly having to question yourself again. I find it a very difficult position. I don’t think I enjoy it. I think I’m more experienced at it but I don’t think I completely enjoy it. I think sometimes it’s so painful you want to scream bloody murder and run somewhere.

What’s the cut-off point? How do you stop?

How do you stop? A famous director once said that every film is abandoned, never finished.

So you just let it go?

Some people won’t but I do let it go. I’m not looking for perfection. I don’t believe in it. I believe that a film is many things to many people and it changes over time. I think you have to feel good about it and about what you did. It hangs together and it’s going to be a story that can move an audience. It’s so difficult to pull off quickly. It takes time.

The world’s moved on since Wall Street. Were you apprehensive about creating a sequel to such a well-loved film?

Apprehensions? No. I’d have had more apprehensions if I’d had to do it in 1990, I think. Twenty-three years is a long time to call it a sequel. I think of it more as a bookend.

Don’t you think that’s laying you open for even more criticism? Look at what George Lucas did with Star Wars..

We’re not going back into that period. The beauty of this thing is that there’s a new period upon us, which is quite different, technically. It’s a different kind of Wall Street. The landscape has changed. It’s no longer 1987. It’s really a computer game now. The money has accelerated at a square root that is beyond belief from millions to billions. Hedge funds invest 30–40 billion dollars. Even to have one billion dollars is an enormous amount of money. When you hear these guys say, “Oh, it’s just a billion dollar hedge fund” it’s unbelievable arrogance. The heights are dizzying, and the losses are dizzying. It’s just unbelievable what happened. By all accounts it was a near-fatal heart-attack.

Were you planning on revisiting Wall Street is the crisis hadn’t happened?

No, that was the catalyst for it. It wasn’t the only reason. It was a wonderful idea for a script, that Gekko would be a different type of person. That he would start from the outside. He didn’t have power or connections anymore. Time had passed. He was dated.

Is Michael Douglas in danger of becoming a pastiche of what made Gordon Gekko good?

I feared that. That’s why we approached it in a wholly different way. Michael is playing it twenty-two years older, he’s coming out of prison. Michael has changed in that interim. He was a charming rogue, certainly, in the Eighties. You saw a lot of that in his subsequent performances. You saw a lot of Gekko in later films, so I think it was smart to move away from that pastiche, as you call it, because it would have been boring after a while. There are flashes of the old Gekko, which I love, but it’s not like the charming reptile, so to speak. It’s a different man now. I’m not saying that he’s a wholly reformed figure looking for a martyrhood, but what’s interesting about him is what he’s going to do, and how he’s going to play the game to get back. He has suffered extensively in prison, his family has fallen apart, his oldest son has committed suicide. It’s very tough on him.

How did you persuade Michael to get back on board?

Frankly, I didn’t convince anybody. I passed on the script in 2006. It wasn’t important for me to make it. I felt, what was the need to make this movie if it was going to glorify the pigs on Wall Street? They were really making money and it was ugly. There was a spate of books too like The Wolf of Wall Street, which was a big hit and they are going to make a movie out of that. There was kind of a surfeit and there was sickliness to it all. I got turned off by it. I passed, and I moved on with my life, and I did W and World Trade Centre and stuff like that. Then there was this crash and the crash changed the equation I think, I hope.

Do you think the original message of Wall Street failed because young traders ended up idolising Gordon Gekko?

That’s a very good question. Frankly, I wondered at times. The original Wall Street came about because of my experiences on Scarface. I was living in New York and I was hanging out with the dealers and the mob. That whole scene in Miami was a very shocking thing in 1982–3. Wall Street, was like Scarface north. I was suddenly seeing people my age, in their twenties, making millions of dollars, so easily, so quickly. Moving inordinate amounts of money. Also, snorting and drinking. The partying scene had really kicked in big time in the 80s. It was all new to me, so that’s how that was born. Then it went to excess. But I was very clear that Gekko was the antagonist in the movie, but as you say a lot of young people caught on to him. I do think, and perhaps I’m retrograde, that although he was not feted at the time the anchor of the movie is Charlie Sheen.

But no-one wanted to be Bud Fox.

Well that’s the movies. They want to be heroes. They want to make money. I did meet a lot of people in their 40s that said, “When I saw your movie I was studying this-or-that at this-or-that school, I was going to do history or medicine or law but then I saw the movie and I moved to Wall Street for that reason.” The the kicker was that some of them were multi-millionaires, one of them was a billionaire, and they had moved to Wall Street because of the movie. I said, “Oh boy, I wish I had a royalty on that.” These guys are really rich.

I find that quite worrying.

I gave birth to some rich people. But some of them did good. Some of them created something. That was the whole point of the original. Not to shit on Wall Street but to basically say, ‘Look, this is an engine of capitalism’. This can work. My father always felt that Wall Street was a good thing. It creates companies, it finances new companies, creates research and development, and it does. It still does, by the way, it’s not forgotten but it’s been buried in the greater picture of making bigger profits and more greed, but it’s still there. Wall Street is a good thing. It was a good thing and it can be a good thing.

Throughout your career critics have said you shouldn’t glamourise the people you put on the big screen. Do you like to provoke that reaction?

No, I like to make bigger-than-life characters but ‘World Trade Centre’ is about two very ordinary men who were real heroes. On Bush I guess you could say I supped with the devil and brought out all the reasons I thought why people voted for the guy. There is this fundamental thing which Americans like in him, and I was trying to root that out and how he became President.

You were criticised for making Bush too likeable.

You can fault that, but he was re-elected. I didn’t like him. I was very clear — I empathised. Empathy means I walked in his shoes, or tried to. As opposed to sympathised. I don’t agree with anything he said. Anything. I think he was a disaster. It was a nightmare eight years.

Do you think you were too soft?

No. I wish I’d done it a year earlier and it would have been more timely. He was out of favour when it came out, because of the economy, but frankly the movie was about the national security state which concerned me more.

Why are you drawn to these anti-heroes?

They don’t do me any good. Nixon, too.

I see a lot of similarities between Tony Montana and Gordon Gekko. In Scarface, Tony says “You need people like me to point the finger at and say, ‘That’s the bad guy’”. Do you think film critics see you in that light?

I think you’re right. I think film critics have me as a punch ball. It’s an easy target, I guess. I’ve been misidentified with the characters, but I think over time you see that there’s a whole assortment of different characters. But I agree, I think that’s true and I think that’s hurt me. It’s hurt my career as well as some of the political statements I’ve made and positions I’ve taken in documentaries I’ve made. They’ve hurt me too and they’ve given me a profile that’s not necessarily me, it’s just a profile. Absolutely.

There’s been huge furor recently that you’re reported to be attempting to humanise Hitler, Stalin and Mao Zedong.

I think it’s out of context. I did use the word ‘scapegoat’ and I think that was an unfortunate word, but frankly it’s a very interesting history that we’re putting together. We’re using the facts that we have, that are known but have been forgotten. There’s no question that Hitler had a big hand up the ladder. He didn’t come out of nowhere. He is a Frankenstein, he is a monster and I have no sympathy for him, but he was created by a Dr Frankenstein. That Dr Frankenstein is a very interesting mixture and you have to study cause and effect to understand history, otherwise you don’t learn anything from it. It’s my fault because I’m interested in the world, and I’m willing to go out there. I’m not trying to provoke, I’m trying to look for the truth. I’m trying to shine a light. For Christ’s sake, I feel like we’ve become so politically correct that you can’t do shit anymore. You’re not supposed to turn around.

Do you feel like you sometimes exploit sensitive subjects too much? More than some people can take?

Well, that’s why I like the English. They’re much more out there and they’re willing to explore subjects that the Americans are not. Having been to war, having seen the devastation America visited onto Vietnam, I cannot just be another typical American and live in isolation. My taxes are going as we speak to blowing up people in Afghanistan. I don’t feel good about that.

Back to Wall Street. Gekko says “Every dream has its price”, what’s the biggest price you’ve paid to get to where you are?

I’d have to talk to my psychotherapist, who I haven’t seen in ages. I suppose the price is that you do have long absences from home and normal quotidian values, at times. Your children grow up and you have to readapt to the fact that you haven’t been the attentive father. That’s a big issue, but I have been as attentive as I can be in taking care of them. Still, there’s gaps there. Divorces have happened. Those things.

I see Wall Street as epitomising the ruthlessness of the Eighties. During that era did you find yourself being a slave to the success that you had earned?

Yeah, I suppose everybody can become a mental slave to the need to produce. Remember, I was on a roll in the sense that I had to get financing for very complicated movies. I felt like I had a mission. To get JFK made in that era was very tough, still. You need heat. To make that movie after The Doors you need to keep rolling. In a sense I worked very fast, and hard, but I knew that I could get things done. Nixon was sort of the end of the line. I was making movies all those years. Platoon was impossible to get made. So was Salvador. Every single fucking one. ‘The Doors’. They were always problems. There were always tremendous issues. You asked what the price is? The price was to keep going fast, before they change their mind. The idea was ‘Wrap it up, get another one done’. These are tough subject matters. With ‘Nixon’ I’d done eleven or ten, I was exhausted. Frankly, I needed to take a break.

What kept you moving on? Obviously the pressures that you’re talking about manifested in different ways. You had your drug problems earlier on, but how did it manifest when the financing started to crumble down? Did you resort to those kind of vices?

I think there’s other factors. There was a lot of living. A lot of pain. Children. Divorces. This and that. But I think I have been very successful. I got movies made that wouldn’t have been done in the normal radar. They were not on the scope.

In Wall Street 2 Shia LeBeouf says, “No matter how much money you make, you’ll never be rich”. With all your success, do you empathise with that sentiment?

Of course I do. I don’t think money is the solution to happiness. Life is complicated, but certainly money can have the opposite effect. It can make you unsatisfied with life, and make life harder for you. There are two effects of it. One is that it leaves you unsatisfied, you always want more, as we see from these billionaires. Two, it leaves you falsely content and over-satisfied.

And you’re not either?

I don’t feel that way, no. I feel like I’m one trade away from disaster.

The new film is called Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps. What gets you off to sleep?

What gets me off to sleep? Sonata. Medication. I’m just joking. The best solution for sleep is having lived a full day and tried hard to live life fully. That makes you feel the reward of sleep.

-Tim Noakes, "The Hollywood rabble rouser sets his sights on a new generation of Wall Street wolves," Medium, Mar 3 2010 [x]

[wickedlyqueer]

Holy Poly

Ever since @gliyerabaa became obsessed with the Glinda/Fiyero/Elphaba ship it suddenly reminded me I wrote a poly fic years ago where essentially the Charmed Circle lived together and most of them were dating each other.

I never finished or published it, because I’m first and foremost a gelphie ho. to a point it felt wrong to be calling it a poly fic, bc I just wanted to focus on the gelphie dynamic.

Anyway, because I promised Rae (and I’m sure they’d love to see some gliyeraba content they didn’t write themself) this was the intro chapter of the modern AU, fresh out of college, poly chapter I wrote like 3 years ago.

Save the trees!

Perhaps every accidental cluster of people had a short period of grace. Although gracious was probably not the best word to describe the weirdly formed, yet close-knit circle. Exuberant. Loud. Queer. Those were better words. A loving found family that could not been torn apart even if fate wanted it to.

Neither was their time together short-lived. At least, not if it was up to Glinda. After most of them had graduated last summer, the crushing college debt and the terrifying world that was job hunting in a broken economic system made the decision on cohabitation all the easier.

On the outskirts of Shiz they had found their home: a small house with just enough room for the six of them to not suffocate. It was nothing fancy, but none of them would want it any other way. 

“Elphie’s not here?”

Glinda had entered the living room where the boys were spread lazily across their two mismatched couches bought at a garage sale.

“Nope, left quite a while ago,” Boq replied.

“Aren’t they at their usual train station spot harassing people?” 

“Language, Crope,” from the kitchen came Fiyero’s rich voice. “Spreading awareness about global warming isn’t the same as harassing.”

“Fine. It’s annoying people then.”

“Not everyone finds that awareness crap annoying,” Tibbett said, throwing a casual glance at Glinda. “I believe someone went weak at the knees for that.”

She felt a blush creeping up; not for the comment he made, but for the comment that was about to come. It had turned into an inside joke in their circle, and she had learned from experience that the less she objected the more humiliation she was spared.

“Is it?” Crope wiggled his eyebrows. “The way I heard, she complimented Elphie on their dedication to the cause for painting their entire visage green.”

The trio threw a fist in the air and shouted in unison, “Save the trees!” without their attention leaving the screen. 

“I hate every single one of you.” 

“You can’t deny that’s how it went, Glin,” Fiyero commented. “Have you tried texting by the way?”

“I think their phone died,” she checked one more time for any messages, but still no response from Elphaba. “Remind me to ambush them again for getting a decent phone.”

“At least they lost that brick phone.”

Crope snorted. “Yeah, right. Lost.”

Tibbett gave him a wicked smile. “No fun in being a tattletale, babe.”

Whatever they were grinning about it was Crope and Tibbett, and Glinda prefered to stay ignorant on the subject. She headed towards the kitchen where Fiyero was cooking dinner. A towel hanging over his shoulder and his beautiful long black hair stuffed in a loose bun so no strains could spoil the food.

“Smells good, Yero.” She wrapped her arms around his belly, and stretched out completely on her tiptoes and almost managed to put her chin on his shoulder. “If only I could see if it looks as equally good.”

Fiyero laughed heartily and sank through his knees so Glinda could see better. “How about now?”

She smiled. “So far this meal is Glinda-approved.”

“That’s all I need.”

A cheer came from Boq from the living room having beaten the other two at the game. 

“I think I’m going to check the train station,” Glinda said as she let go off Fiyero; the pose was growing uncomfortable for the both of them. Their height difference was ridiculous. How she had ended up with two partners so much taller than her was beyond her.

“Oh, you know what you should do? Call Nessa. Maybe she can contact Elphie through their sibling telepathy.”

“I think that only works when they have something to bicker about,” Glinda said, but dialed the number anyway. “Goes straight to voicemail.”

“Why do those two even have phones?” Fiyero muttered. 

“Okay, so train station and then I’ll drop by Nessa’s dorm to check on her too. Any other places Elphie might be?”

Four voices spoke as one. “The library.”

“Should’ve figured that one out myself.”

“Glin, you do know Elphie’s like a cat, right? They always find their way back home eventually.”

“I know, but I feel like going outside for a bit. I’ll see you tonight.”

“Sure thing. Oh, and Glinda?”

She turned around. “Hm?”

He took her hand and planted a chaste kiss on her fingertips. “Can I just say you look absolutely wonderful today?”

She beamed. “You’re too charming for your own good Fiyero.” 

“It’s why he has so many partners,” Crope called from the couch, apparently eavesdropping on the conversation. There was zero privacy in this house. “Too handsome too. Who could say no to that gorgeous face?”

“Not us,” added Tibbett. “And don’t forget that he’s a flirt without realizing it. It just comes natural to him and it’s adorable.”

Fiyero had the advantage that his dark skin hid most of his blush, but knowing him since high school, Glinda knew what a flustered Fiyero looked like. 

“I just got a lot of love to share, I guess,” he smiled shyly. “Let me know when you find Elphaba, okay? Dinner will be ready around seven.” 

--

Elphaba wasn’t at the library and neither were they at the train station. All Glinda found there were old memories. She could see the young, nervous girl fresh from the Pertha Hills standing on the platform. Fiyero’s steady hand on her shoulder to ease her worries. Had four years really passed so quickly?

She traced her footsteps from the past. Her gaze wandering over the square in front of the train station like it did then. The only thing that was missing, was a green person storming towards her. From that moment on she was captivated by Elphaba, although the first few months she had let her socialite behavior overrule.

“You could’ve disclosed in our online correspondence that you’re green!” 

She had whined once she had found out the Green-Tree-From-Shiz-Station was her roommate. Elphaba had pointed at the five enormous trunks brought into their room by an upperclassman.

“Only if you had disclosed you would bring your entire house with you.”

Glinda had thought the roommate matching system had completely failed her. No way had she the highest match with a snarky, social-reclusive green person! It had taken her some time to realize they were ridiculously similar, just coming from different angles.

Her path down memory lane continued when she entered Shiz campus. It only had been two months ago since she graduated, but it already felt foreign being here. As if she no longer fitted. A group of giggling first year students passed her. Glinda recognized her own innocence in them back at that age. Feeling as if you’re on top of the world only because you have yet to learn what that world entailed.

Unconsciously she had walked to Crage Hall. She admired the building when a busted up blue van pulled over. It was Elphaba’s. They all jokingly referred to it as the Abduction Truck, because that’s how sketchy it looked. 

Elphaba got out and moved over to the back of the truck. The only reason Elphaba had bought that van was to drive Nessa around. Normally they were a very dedicated public transport advocate, and although Elphaba would deny it, Glinda knew they’d bend their own morals to please Nessa.

Glinda walked towards the car and Elphaba looked surprised. “Hey, what are you doing here?”

“Looking for you actually.”

“Oh?” 

Elphaba opened the backdoors to reveal a Nessa waiting impatiently to be led out. “You do take your time don’t you, Elphaba? The air conditioner was already turned off and in this heated garbage tin can of yours I could’ve already suffocated. Hello Glinda.”

“Hey Nessa.”

Elphaba lifted the ramp from the truck. “And yet you still live. The Unnamed God must have favorites after all.”

Nessa rolled her eyes. “Just open a window next time, please?”

“Yes, your majesty.” Elphaba vastened the ramp and Nessa rode her wheelchair to the pavement.

Elphaba shoved the ramp back inside and closed the door. Glinda walked towards them and was met with a strong smell. She sniffed Elphaba’s shirt and got worried. “Why do you smell like chlorine? Were you near water?”

Elphaba gestured to Nessa. “Had to drive this kid to Red Sand.”

“Your half year check-up! I completely forgot.” One of the reasons why Elphaba had bought the van was so Nessa could study at Shiz. Every six months they had to drive all the way to Red Sand where Nessa had to do exercises in a swimming pool. That’s what Glinda understood of it at least. “How was it?”

“Still pretty paralyzed,” Nessa supplied dryly.

“Doctor Kazhki said your legs were looking healthy.”

“As healthy as they can be paralyzed, yes.”

Glinda tugged at Elphaba’s hand before the argument could escalate. “Hey, you vanished without a single message.”

Elphaba frowned. “No I didn’t, I sent you a text and—ah,” they had gotten their phone out. “Must’ve died before it was sent.”

“No way!” Glinda feigned surprise. “Tomorrow we’re gonna get you a new phone and I won’t hear any of your usual excuses.”

“Can you do your flirting somewhere that isn’t in front of me?” Nessarose disrupted them. “I’m going inside.”

She wheeled away.

“Thanks for the ride, Fabala. Oh no problem, Nessie.” 

Nessa turned around and stuck out her tongue. “If you can converse with yourself, what do you need me for?” 

“Ungrateful brat.”

It was their way of saying goodbye. Being an only child Glinda still had no idea how sibling relationships worked. Especially those of the Thropps.

“Go kiss your girlfriend.” Nessarose waved without looking behind and went into the building. 

Elphaba turned around and smirked. They wrapped their arms around Glinda’s waist. “Well you heard her.”

Glinda raised her eyebrows teasingly. “Since when do you take orders from your sister, hm?”

“Wow. You ruined the moment.” But they smiled and kissed her forehead. “I’m sorry I didn’t notify you.”

“All is forgiven. You’re here now.”

It was a beautiful afternoon and without another word between them they had agreed to walk around campus. Glinda curled into Elphaba’s arm. She had done it so many times before it was like second nature. She had loved strolling around campus with Elphaba, back when they were still at Shiz. Near the Suicide Canal they settled down in the grass and soaked up the nice autumn sun while it was still warm.

Glinda leaned into Elphaba and smiled. “This brings back memories.” 

“Curled up in my arms after one of our many picnics at the Suicide Canal? Whatever gave you that idea?” Elphaba teased.

Glinda nudged them playfully. “Sentimentality, I suppose. My entire walk I’ve been seeing myself through a looking glass.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, like at the train station I remembered–” Glinda stopped dead in her tracks. How could she have let that one slip!

Elphaba let out a roaring laugh. “Are you referring to our ‘meet-cute’?”

Her entire face had turned bright red. “It wasn’t cute, I’m still embarrassed by it.” 

“Aw, don’t be. It was actually refreshing from all the usual green freak insults.”

“How? I thought you were going for a metaphor to reflect a greener planet! I didn’t even consider a green person existing. How is that less offensive?”

“True, but then you became so flustered when I looked at you funny. I’ll never forget how you threw a fist in the air and yelled ‘save the trees!’ to show your support.”

Glinda buried her face into her hands. “Oh god.”

Elphaba laughed. “It was cute” and put their face closer. “You’re cute.”

“You’re making it worse,” Glinda’s words sounded muffled through her hands.

They planted a comforting kiss in her hair. “We still ended up like this, so it couldn’t have been all that bad, right?”

“I suppose,” her embarrassment fading, Glinda let herself fall back on Elphaba’s shoulder. “I thought I’d never see you again after that. Big surprise waited ahead of me. God, I thought you were a senior or something. No other freshman I know functioned that entire first week, and there you were, already trying to make the world a better place.” 

She felt Elphaba smile. “I was such a determined little fuck back then. I didn’t even sign up. I got off the train and saw the group of volunteers and basically pestered them until they gave me a jacket and some flyers to hand out.”

“And they haven’t gotten rid of you since.”

“Nope. I’m the best thing that happened to them.”

Glinda paused, weighing her words before saying, “And to me.”

“Damn, you are sentimental today,” Elphaba noted. 

Glinda took Elphaba’s chin and slowly lowered it until their eyes were leveled. Just before their lips touched she whispered, “You’re ruining the moment.”

“Now we’re even,” Elphaba murmured, smiling into the kiss.

--

A/N: to be clear of all the dynamics (bc they are very entangled and a bit of a mess): - Glinda is asexual and through high school became very dependable on Fiyero (as he was the first person she ever came out too). Dependable to a point they couldn’t imagine their lives separately. So it falls more in a QPR relationship, where their platonic bond is unbreakable. - Elphaba is non-binary, bi and aromantic. Their relationship with Glinda is definitely the most couple-y, and can be classified as a “typical” romantic relationship. They also connected with Fiyero instantly and fell for his charms. - Fiyero is very poly because this boy’s got a lot of love to share! He’s also aro (which might seem contradictory, but it’s something I’ve seen a lot of overlap with, funnily enough!) and so his relationship are very platonic/sexual based. he has that sort of relationship with Elphaba, Crope&Tibbett and one or two other people outside the charmed circle. - Tibbet’s genderfluid and good with any pronouns and will raid Glinda’s closet on any occasion. In an open relationship with Crope and they obviously communicate incredibly well with this. - Crope’s just very gay.  - Boq is a trans guy and aro/ace. He’s the only not in a typical “relationship” and definitely isn’t looking for that either, but he can’t live without his chosen family. Together with Fiyero, they’re basically the “dads” of the group and keeps everyone in check. 

If anyone wants to run with these dynamics; you have my blessing! I won’t be continuing this story but if it inspired you feel free to build on it!

[paths-of-my-childhood-candid]

Lover Conquers All

By: Mark Sutherland for Music Week Date: November 4th 2019 issue (published online on December 13th 2019)

She’s the world’s biggest pop star, but despite her global success, Taylor Swift is also the music industry’s greatest advocate for artists’ and songwriters’ rights. And, with a ground-breaking new record deal and a bold new album, Lover, she’s not about to stop now. Music Week meets her to talk music and business...

Around this time of year, the Taylor Swift anniversaries come at you thick and fast. Nine years since her third album, Speak Now, every note of which was written entirely by Swift, hit the shelves. Five years since she released her mould-breaking pop album, 1989, and went from the world’s biggest country star to the world’s biggest pop star overnight. Two years since her Reputation record saw her become the only musician to post four successive million-plus debut sales weeks in the United States. And so on.

But today, Swift’s mind is drawn further back, to the 13th anniversary of her debut, self-titled record, and the days when her album releases weren’t automatically accompanied by mountains of hype and enough think-pieces to sink a battleship. Her journal entries from the time - helpfully reprinted as part of the deluxe editions of her new album, Lover - reveal her as an excited, optimistic teenager, but also one with a grasp of marketing strategies and label politics way beyond her years, even if she was reluctant to actually take credit for her ideas.

“It always was and it always will be an interesting dance being a young woman in the music industry,” she smiles ruefully. “We don’t have a lot of female executives, we’re working on getting more female engineers and producers but, while we are such a drastic gender minority, it’s interesting to try and figure out how to be.”

And, of course, when Swift started out she was, as she points out, “an actual kid”.

“I was planning the release of my first album when I was 15 years old,” she reminisces. “And I was a fully gangly 15, I reminded everyone of their niece! I was in this industry in Nashville and country music, where I was making album marketing calls, but I never wanted to stand up and say, ‘Yeah, that promotions plan you just complimented my label on, I thought of that! Me and my Mom thought of that!’

“When you’re a new artist you wonder how much space you can take up and, as a woman, you wonder how much space you can take up pretty much your whole period of growing up,” she continues. “For me, growing up and knowing that I was an adult was realising that I was allowed to take up space from a marketing perspective, from a business perspective, from an opinionated perspective. And that feels a lot better than constantly trying to wonder if I’m allowed to be here.”

In the intervening years, Taylor Swift has released six further, brilliant albums, growing from country starlet to all-conquering pop behemoth along the way. She takes up “more space”, as she would put it, than any other musician on the planet: a sales and now - having belatedly embraced the format with Lover - streaming phenomenon; a powerhouse stadium performer; an award-garlanded songwriter for herself and others; and a social media giant with a combined 278 million followers across Instagram, Twitter and Facebook (which would make the Taylor Nation the fourth most populous one on earth, after China, India and the US).

But her influence on music and the music industry doesn’t end there. Because, over the years, Swift has also become a leading advocate for artists’ and songwriters’ rights, in a digital landscape that doesn’t always have such matters as a priority.

In 2015, she stood up to Apple Music over its plans to not pay artist royalties during subscribers’ three-month free trials (Apple backed down immediately). She pulled her entire catalogue from Spotify in 2014 in protest that its free tier was devaluing music, sending Daniel Ek scrambling to justify his business model. When she returned in 2017, it was a crucial fillip for the streaming service’s IPO plans.

More recently, her ground-breaking new record deal with Republic Records contained clauses not only guaranteeing her ownership of her future masters, but also ensuring Universal Music will share the spoils of its Spotify shares with its artists, without any payments counting against unrecouped balances. And when her long-time former label boss Scott Borchetta sold Big Machine to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings, taking Swift’s first six albums with him, the star publicly called out what she saw as her “worst-case scenario” and stressed: “You deserve to own the art you make”. She may yet re-record her old songs in protest.

In short, Swift has, for a long time now, been unafraid to use her voice on industry matters, whether they pertain to her own stellar career or the thousands of other artists out there struggling to make a living.

All of which makes Swift not just the greatest star of our age, but perhaps the most important to the future development of the industry as a more artist-centric, songwriter-friendly business. Hers is still the life of the pop phenomenon - she spent today in Los Angeles doing promotion and photoshoots (or, in her words, “having people put make-up on me”) as Lover continues to build on huge critical acclaim and even huger initial sales. But now, she’s kicking back with her cats - one of whom seems determined to disrupt Music Week’s interview by “stampeding” through at every opportunity - and ready to talk business.

And for Swift, business is good. The impact of her joining streaming, and the decline of traditional album sales, may have prevented her from posting a fifth successive one million-plus sales debut, but Lover still sold more US copies (867,000) in its first week than any record since her own Reputation. It’s sold 117,513 copies to date in the UK, according to the Official Charts Company.

Even better, while Reputation - a record forged in the white heat of a social media snakestorm over her on-going feud with Kanye West - was plenty of show and rather less grow, Lover continues to reveal hidden depths. Reputation struck a sometimes curious contrast between the unrepentant warrior Swift she was showing to the outside world and the love story with British actor Joe Aiwyn that was quietly developing behind closed doors, but Lover is the sort of versatile, cohesive album that the streaming age was supposed to kill off.

It contains more than its fair share of pop bangers (You Need To Calm Down, Me!), but also some gorgeously-crafted acoustic tracks (Lover, Cornelia Street), some pithy political commentary (The Man, Miss America & The Heartbreak Prince) and the sort of musical diversions (Paper Rings’ irresistible rockabilly stomp, the childlike oddity of It’s Nice To Have A Friend) that no other pop superstar would have the sheer musical chops to attempt, let alone pull off.

“Taylor’s creative instincts as an artist and songwriter are brilliant,” says Monte Lipman, founder and CEO of Swift’s US label, Republic. “Our partnership represents a strategic alliance built on mutual respect, trust, and complete transparency. Her vision is extraordinary as she sets the tone for every campaign and initiative.”

No wonder David Joseph, chairman/CEO of her long-time UK label Virgin EMI’s parent company Universal Music UK, is thrilled with how things are going.

“Love Story was a fitting first single release for Taylor here - she’s loved the UK from day one and has engaged so much with her fans and teams,” says Joseph. “She really respects and values what’s going on here creatively. To see her go from playing the Students’ Union at King’s College to Wembley Stadium has been extraordinary. Taylor is an artist constantly striving for perfection, and with Lover - from my personal point of view, her most accomplished work to date adore working with her and whilst it’s been more than 10 years this still feels like the start.”

And today, Swift is keen to concentrate on the present and future. She has a starring role in Cats coming up (and a new song on the soundtrack, Beautiful Ghosts, co-written with Andrew Lloyd Webber) and, after a spectacularly intimate Paris launch show in September, festival dates and her own LoverFest to plan (UK shows will be revealed soon). Time, then, to tell the cats to calm down and sit down with Music Week to talk streaming, contracts and why she’s “obsessed” with the music industry...

Unlike with Reputation, most of the discussion around Lover seems to have been focused on the music... Absolutely! One of the ideas I had about this record, and something I’ve implemented into my life in the last couple of years is that I don’t like distractions. And, for a while, it felt like my life had to come with distractions from the music, whether it was tabloid fascination with my personal life or my friendships or what I was wearing. I realised in the last couple of years that, if I don’t give a window into distraction, people can’t try to look in and see something other than the music. I love that, if you really pour yourself into the idea that an album is still important and try really hard to make something that is worth people’s attention span, time and energy, that can still come across. Because we are living in an industry right now where everyone’s rushing towards taking us into a singles industry and, in some cases, it has become that. But there are still some cases where clearly the album is important to people.

Does it matter that some new artists won’t get to make albums the way you always have? It’s interesting. Five years ago I wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal and said, maybe in the next five years, we would see artists releasing music the way that they want to. I thought that each artist would start to curate what is important to them, not just from an artistic standpoint but from a marketing standpoint. It’s really interesting to see different release plans, if you look at what Drake did and then what Beyoncé does, incredible artists who have really curated what it is to drop music in their own way. We all do it differently, which is cool. As long as people dropping just singles want to be doing that, then I’m fine with it, but if it feels like a big general wave that’s being pressured by people in power, their teams or their labels, that’s not cool. But I do really hope that in the future artists have more of a say over strategy. We’re not just supposed to make art and then hand it to a team that masterminds it.

Were you worried about putting an album on streaming on release day for the first time? Well, there are ways that streaming services could really promote the [whole] album in a more incentivised way. We could have album charts on streaming. The industry follows where they can get prizes. So you have a singles chart on streaming services which is great but, if you split things up into genre charts for example, that would really incentivise people. It’s important that we keep trying to strive to make the experience better for users but also make it more interesting for artists to keep wanting to achieve. But I really did love the experience of putting the album on streaming. I loved the immediacy, I loved that people who maybe weren’t a huge diehard fan were curious and saying, ‘I wonder what this is like’ and listening to it and deciding that they liked it.

You’d resisted streaming for a long time. Have you changed your mind about the format now? I always knew that I would enjoy the aspects of streaming that make [your music] so immediately available to so many people. That’s the part of it that I unequivocally always felt really sad I was missing out on. There wasn’t ever a day when I woke up and I was like, ‘Oh, I’m really glad that multitudes of people don’t have access to my music!’ So I always knew that streaming was an incredible mechanism and model for the future but I still don’t think we have the royalties and compensation system worked out. That’s between the labels and their artists and I realised that me, to use a gross word, ‘leveraging’ what I can bring to cut a better deal for the artists at my record label was really important for me.

How big a factor were things like that in you signing to Republic/Universal? That’s important to me because that means they’re adopting some of my ideas. If they take me on as an artist that means they really thought it through. Because with me, come opinions about how we can better our industry. I’m one of the only people in the artist realm who can be loud about it. People who are on their fifth, sixth or seventh album, we’re the only ones who can speak out, because new artists and producers and writers need to work. They need to be endearing and likeable and available to their labels and streaming services at all times. It’s up to the artists who have been around for a second to say, ‘Hey guys, the producers and the writers and the artists are the ones who are making music what it is’. And we’re in a great place in music right now thanks to them. They should be going to their mailbox and feeling like they’ve got a pension plan, rather than feeling like, ‘Oh yay, I can pay half my rent this month after this No.1 song’.

Did you have more creative freedom making Lover than on your previous albums? In my previous situation, there were creative constraints, issues that we had over the years. I’ve always given 100% to projects, I always over-delivered, thinking that that generosity would be returned to me. But I ended up finding that generosity in a new situation with a new label that understands that I deserve to own what I make. That meant so much to me because it was given over to me so freely. When someone just looks at you and says ‘Yes, you deserve what you want’, after a decade or more of being told, ‘I’m not sure you deserve what you want’ - there’s a freedom that comes with that. It’s like when people find ‘the one’ they’re like, ‘It was easy, I just knew and I felt free’. All of a sudden you’re being told you’re worth exactly, no, more than what you thought you were worth. And that made me feel I could make an album that was exactly what I wanted to make. There’s an eclectic side to Lover, a confessional side, it varies from acoustic to really poppy pop, but that’s what I like to do. And, while you would never make something artistic based on something so unromantic as a contract, it was more than that. It was a group of people saying, ‘We believe in what you’re making, go make what you want to make and you deserve to own it too’.

You’re obviously not happy about what’s happened at Big Machine since you left. But will the attention mean artists don’t find themselves in this situation in the future? I hope so. That’s the only reason that I speak out about things. The fans don’t understand these things, the public isn’t being made aware. This generation has so much information available to them so I thought it was important that the fans knew what I was going through, because I knew it was going to affect every aspect of my life and I wanted them to be the first to know. And in and amongst that group, I know there are people that want to make music some day. It involves every new artist that is reading that and going, ‘Wait, that’s what I’m signing?’ They don’t have to sign stuff that’s unfair to them. If you don’t ask the right questions and you sit in front of the wrong desk in front of the wrong person, they can take everything from you.

Songwriters are in dispute with Spotify in the US over its decision to appeal the Copyright Board decision to boost songwriting royalties. Do writers need more respect? Absolutely. In terms of the power structure, the songwriters, the producers, the engineers, the people who are breathing magic into our industry, need to be listened to. They’re not being greedy. This is legitimately an industry where people are having trouble paying their bills and they’re the most talented people we have. This isn’t them sitting in their mansions going, ‘I wish this mansion was bigger and I would like a yacht please’. This is actually people who are going to work every single day. I got into writing when I was in Nashville and it was very much like what I read about the Brill Building. You would write every day, whether you were inspired or not, and in the process I met artists and writers. Somebody would walk in and someone would say, ‘Oh, he’s still getting mailbox money from that Faith Hill cut a couple of years ago, he’s set’. That’s not a thing anymore. Mailbox money is a thing of the past and we need to remember that these are the people that create the heartbeat that we’re all dancing to or crying to.

You were clearly aware of music industry machinations from a young age... Reading back on the journal entries, I forgot how obsessed I was with the industry as a teenager. I was so fascinated by how it works and how it was changing. Every part of it was interesting to me. I had drawn the stages for most of my tours a year before I went on them. That really was fun for me as a teenager! A lot of people who start out very young in music, either don’t have a say or don’t have the will to do the business side of it, but weirdly that was so much fun for me to try and learn. I had a lot of energy when I was 16!

Are you doing similar drawings for next year’s LoverFest? Definitely. And that’s why it’s still fun for me to take on a challenge like, ‘Oh, let’s just plan our own festival’. Let’s create a bill of artists and try and make it as fun as possible for the fans. I’m so intrigued by what that’s going to be like.

Finally, when we last did an interview in 2015, you said in five years’ time you wanted to be “finding complexity in happiness”. How has that worked out? That’s exactly what’s happened with this album! I think a lot of writers have the fear of stability, emotional health and happiness. Our whole careers, people make jokes about how, ‘Just wait until you meet someone nice, you’ll run out of stuff to write about’. I was talking to [Cats director] Tom Hooper about this because he said one thing his mother taught him was, ‘Don’t ever let people tell you that you can’t make art if you’re happy’. I thought that was so amazing. He’s a creator in a completely different medium but he has been subjected to that same joke over and over again that we must be miserable to create. Lover is important to me in so many ways, but it’s so imperative for me as a human being that songwriting is not tied to my own personal misery. It’s good to know that, it really is!

[forever-tourism-pvt-ltd]

Ever Wondered Why You Need A 100 days visit Visa Dubai, UAE? Before Applying make sure to whom the visa is for, Rules and regulations, Types of UAE visas.

Dubai is a city that literally has the world at its fingertips. It has culture, technology, business, dining options and shopping all in one place! In keeping with its progressive attitude towards the development of infrastructure, Dubai offers visa-free travel for several nationalities including those from the United States, Australia and Europe. This makes it an extremely desirable location for those wishing to study abroad or make a short trip to do some sightseeing! Dubai brings you closer to your world. It has been named one of the most visited cities in the world, and for good reason: something new and exciting is continually taking place. Whether you're visiting for business or pleasure Dubai offers a variety of Dubai visas that make the process smoother; we'll guide you through how to get them and what is required of you when obtaining them! Dubai, United Arab Emirates – has been called a wonderland for tourists and boasted as the absolute best tourist destination. It’s easy to see why – Dubai has recently welcomed approximately 20 million visitors each year! However, one of the most frequently asked questions is - how do I get a UAE visa to enter Dubai? , What are types of Dubai visa? What the new Dubai 100 days visa? How to obtain 100 Days Dubai visa? Well this article will provide you with simple steps on how to apply for a Dubai Visa online quickly and easily and all about 100 Days Dubai visit visa online quickly and easily!

100 Days Dubai Tourist visa

100-days Dubai Tourist Visa: This is perfect for those planning a vacation in Dubai or the UAE who want some downtime to kick back and catch up with loved ones. Dubai is a wonderful place because its Arabic architecture combines with ultra-modern design you don't see much in other places today. Its stunning view is a joy to behold, which makes it incredibly attractive as one of the most exciting cities to visit in the Middle East. Dubai also happens to be an incredibly safe city, with 0% crime rate - because there's nothing TO steal or mug or what have you! Making it practically impossible to get into any dangerous situations you might have imagined at some point beforehand while not completely precluding that something bad might happen anyway. Just because you are traveling to have fun doesn't mean you should let down your guard. While some people assume it's easier to travel with their guard down, this winds up placing too much emphasis on one's identity and possessions, leading to someone becoming the victim of theft or some other crime while they go about having fun in a new location. This is where our Dubai visa specialist comes into play. If you need help contacting government officials for important papers, our professional will ensure that these tasks are done easily without all of the stress that comes along with dealing with local bureaucrats!

100 Days Dubai visa is 90 days already, as per the UAE immigration announcement that states 30 days Dubai visa holders and Dubai 90-day visa holders will automatically get the grace period for 10 days without any penalty. It's truly great to know if you're planning to go on vacation to the UAE that it may be beneficial for you to do some extra research about which type of 100 day tourist visa (and if necessary, for how long) will benefit your specific needs. In order to know if you'll need a visit visa for Dubai, it's important to make sure you've retrieved from your calendar when exactly you plan on going. We understand that it's our job at [company name] to provide helpful information such as the best kind of visa needed for your travel habits and how long it might be valid for. We will also let you know that a visit visa granted in Dubai is actually one that can last up to 100 days! Forever Tourism is a leading Dubai-based tourism company. We strive to serve our clients with regards to Dubai visa services. If you are looking for a good writer specializing in visa structure, we could also help your global customers get their tourist visa for Dubai. We recognize the challenges our clients face when applying for a tourist visa for Dubai and staying up to date with the current global strategies and regulations that govern immigration laws, including visas and residence rights. This is because we take into consideration traditional immigration issues including worldwide conditions that impact movements of people and the business need and the competitive advantages to companies in sectors such as consumer brands and retail. Forever Tourism is a name that you can trust when it comes to getting a Dubai visa. We'll serve as a reliable guide to navigating the application process and help you avoid any inconvenient mishaps along the way so you can have an amazing time in Dubai!

All About Dubai visa

Travelling is a blast, but getting to your chosen destination can sometimes be a bit of a hassle. Fortunately, going to Dubai is quite easy and super fun! The best part about a trip to Dubai is that it requires little planning once you know that you're going there. And aside from planning out your flight, hotel accommodations and activities, you also have to make sure you get your visa in order to get into the country. Being the popular tourist hub it apparently is, obtaining your Dubai visa for Dubai was made significantly easier because online applications were made available recently. These days, however, not all tourists are accessing the website where they can apply for their UAE visas for Dubai … so we'll help take some of the mystery out of this formerly confusing process … just read on! Visiting Dubai as a traveler can be a bit daunting at first, especially with an impending language barrier and unfamiliar laws but don't worry – Forever Tourism, one of the best travel agency of Dubai, UAE have released guides that explain how to get a UAE tourist visa or 100 days Dubai Tourist visa!

Documents required for 100 days Dubai visit visa:

·         Applicants’ colored scanned copy of  Documents :

·         Passport required (Bio Page and Last page )

·         Minimum of 6 months of validity of passport required

·         Latest passport size photograph (white background)

Guarantor’s Document:

Relative or a friend who is currently based in Dubai for work or as resident in UAE can be called as a Guarantor

·         Scanned colored passport copy

·         Scanned resident visa copy with minimum 3months validity

·         Scanned Emirates I.D copy

Additional Documents for Visitors with NO Guarantor in UAE

·         Confirmed Hotel booking

·         Confirmed Return ticket booking

·         Tour itinerary copy

Dubai visa and Dubai visa Category

There are lots of different types of visas available for people who wish to visit the United Arab Emirates. We'll evaluate each type so that you can decide which one is most appropriate for your trip.

Duration of Stay

Visa Validity from the  date of issue

Visa Type

Extendable

Entry

Business meetings/  en-route journey stopover

96 Hours

58 days

Visit

No

Single

Business Visits

14 Days

58 days

Tourist

No

Single

Business Visits

30 Days

58 days

Tourist

10 Days

Single

Vacation, Business  training

90 Days

58 days

Long Term Visit –  Single Entry Tourist

10 Days

Single

Meetings/Seminars/Exhibitions

180 Days Multiple Visa

58 days

Visit

No

Multiple

Business Personnel,  Students

Multi-Entry Short Term  Visa- 30 Days

58 days

Multi-Entry Short-Term  Visa

No

Multiple

Tourists, Business  Meetings

Multi-Entry Short Term  Visa- 90 Days

58 days

Long Term Visit  Multiple Entry

No

Multiple

Tourists, Business  Meetings, Exhibitions

 How to apply 100 days Dubai visa online?

The smartest way to get a visa in Dubai is by applying through Forever Tourism. Why? Because it's easy, takes only 5 minutes to apply online, and you don't have to spend any extra time looking for the right paperwork. We will even help you gather all of the required documents because at the end of the day your documents are our documents too, so we care about getting them submitted properly! just share the required documents via email or WhatsApp Dubaivisa@forevertourism.com/00971526422120.

Cost for Dubai Visa

The cost of a Dubai visa depends on the type of visa applied for and the duration of the visa. Different types of visas have different prices.

For more information kindly contact via email or WhatsApp Dubaivisa@forevertourism.com/00971526422120. 

Website:https://www.forevertourism.com/100-days-visa-in-dubai/

[techtomorrowland]

A Hello

First off, I had war flashbacks during the entire creation process of this account. Tumblr is a nebulous corner of the internet, one that I wanted to leave behind with every other mortifying thing I did as a teenager.

Yet here we are.

This time there will be no fandom-posting or anon ask games. No, I’m an adult doing serious work now here on tumblr dot com.

This blog, made specifically for a communications course on the future of media, exists in irony. I know my professor knows what he’s doing when he makes “create and maintain a tumblr blog for the semester” an assignment. I believe he thinks this is funny. I also agree with him if he does.

Enough. My name is Sarah, I’m 23, and I am a Master’s student in the Newhouse School at Syracuse University (newhouse.syr.edu, for those inclined). There are precautionary tales warning people of plainly sharing the information I just gave on the internet. It seems everyone is scared of what might happen online, the dangers of internet’s many unknowns. My most formative years have been spent online. I’m not scared of the people on the internet. I’m scared of the corporations that increasingly gain more control of our habits and information, and then exploiting us for a profit. It’s not a complete unknown. Corporations show us jargon-filled warnings openly saying that they’ll be tracking our online moves and using that data for their own reasons. This is a completely different can of worms.

No professor wants to hear that a student is taking their class to fulfill some sort of degree requirement set by the university. My professor (hello specifically to you, Sean, if you’re reading this) is lucky. I’m not taking this class to fulfill a degree requirement. I’m in this class because the school would not let me take the online social media night class that I wanted to take.  I love media, I think it’s fascinating, I want to see what happens next. Hearing stories about the early days of the internet is so exciting for me. Technology is so vast and manifests itself in an incredible number of ways, to the point that it is almost unimaginable to me what is in store for the future of tech. I’m hoping this class helps me to actualize where we’re heading in the fields of media and technology. I hope that it gives me a foundation that allows me to stay well-involved in these fields as they progress. And, as always, I’m hoping for some new networking opportunities.

I’m from Tennessee, I did my undergraduate studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville where I majored in journalism and electronic media and minored in Arab studies. For awhile I was certain I wanted to go into international journalism and report abroad or on foreign news. I even studied abroad in the Czech Republic and took a course specifically on how to be a foreign correspondent. I connected with journalists at the Reuters bureau in Prague, as well as journalists from the BBC, CNN, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Back in the states, I was a producer, writer, editor, etc for several campus television shows. It was fun and our equipment was so out of date. I put lower-thirds in our shows in real-time using a Chyron machine. Spending any time in the digital news center studio at Newhouse is streets ahead of what we had at UTK, and what most real newsrooms have. In the spring of 2020, I interned for Knoxville’s number one television station, WBIR Channel 10 News. It was a blast. And then the pandemic happened, which shifted my internship into a completely remote workflow. I went from jumping in station cars with reporters to check out a quarry blast to sitting in my parent’s house and writing the latest COVID-19 updates. I then graduated college via a slideshow set up on my laptop in my parent’s living room. It’s definitely a period of time that won’t be forgotten. Not long after graduation, I made the decision to move 800 miles away, in the middle of a pandemic, to start grad school. This was not a “oh no this global disaster has made it so that I don’t know what I want to do with my life,” situation. I had known since my first day of undergrad that I wanted to go to graduate school. I had done campus tours and gotten into every grad program I applied to, albeit moments before the pandemic’s onset. Going to grad school was part of my plans, whether a virus was around or not. I’m someone who sets longterm goals and works hard to stick to them. That’s why I’m here now. 

Throughout all of that, content creation was at the back of my mind. I love to edit video and create graphic designs and curate a social media presence. Because of those passions, my musician friends have designated me as their brand manager and let me handle their social media, promotions, and shows. I want to focus on social media and how it’s changing. I think it has a lot of power, but I also think that there are more advanced forms of social media coming. 

This is much longer than what was assigned, but I do like to talk. I’m looking forward to learning and predicting parts of the media future.