#and it's so obviously a product of climate change which is really kind of sad because does this mean we're going to gradually

[aurora-daily]

Unraveling the Mystique Behind AURORA

Interview by Casey Eridio for Status Magazine (October 28th, 2019).

Before we spoke with AURORA, we weren’t entirely sure if she’s real. She appears to be this blithesome girl with overgrown braids and war paint around her eyes, which signifies tears and smile wrinkles—an ironic juxtaposition of two seemingly polar emotions. Her music entails a mystical fairy feel; it is as if she came out of a forest and learned to create electronic music. And up to this point, we’re still convinced that’s the case.

Growing up in a small island in Bergen, Norway, Aurora Aksnes was never meant to think like the common folk. When asked about her most vivid childhood memory, the 23-year-old recalls a rainy day in school when her classroom was noisy and she missed her ride home. After the chaos of the day, she plopped down on the couch, still drenched with her raincoat on, and stayed still as today’s dinner was wafting through the air and Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne” plays in the background. “I just sat in the living room for a little while. I just really relaxed and I realized how much music can give—it was a break from life.”

Now, Aurora believes that music is the closest thing she could get to spirituality, and through this, she manifests a sort of mysticism that is truly fascinating. She believes that apple cores contain wishes and dreams about being a stone at the bottom of the ocean. Her music never gives any sign of the modern era; she sees desire as an animalistic instinct in “Animal”, her inner turmoils as diseases in “Infections of a Different Kind”, and the underdogs as a part of her “Queendom”. Matched with the vivid storytelling and natural elements in an otherwise synthetic production, things are never as they seem in the realms of her brain.

“I just sat in the living room for a little while. I just really relaxed and I realized how much music can give—it was a break from life.”

For someone dreaming with her eyes open, she never appears to be out of touch with reality either. With the folktronica and art-pop fusion she introduced to us in 2012, she had explored almost every crevice of human emotion. “At the beginning of my career, my main goal was to write music so people could cry; music to be a friend for people out there who were struggling with emotions,” she explains. And after the release of her records Infections of a Different Kind – Step 1 and A Different Kind of Human – Step 2, Aurora seems to be going deeper, unfurling the secrets of what it means to be human.

While she puts emotions under a microscope, she also zooms out to see the big picture.  “I realized that [music] can be much more,” she expresses. With her emotional intelligence and realization that she could become the voice for the voiceless, Aurora evolved into a more politically-charged artist, singing about toxic masculinity in “River” and the climate crisis in “The Seed”. This sense of clarity and compassion for people and the world obviously stems from growing up surrounded by nature. “You realize that you’re big compared to the bugs, that you’re so small compared to the trees and the mountains,” she observes. With this perspective, she has carried with her a clear understanding and a deep-rooted appreciation of life in all of its different forms.

Of course, not everyone can live on a peaceful island in Norway and become a philosopher basking in nature, but this is what the artist hopes to impart with the world through her music. In the haze of the nine-to-five life, there’s simply no time to stop and think. But the moment you put your headphones on and listen to the musings and ponderings of Aurora, she brings you back to her couch in Bergen, letting the raindrops soak in and taking a break from the bustles of life through music.

As she cooks up two new albums while on tour, Aurora makes time for us to discuss last night’s dream, skydiving, and the role music and nature plays in her life.

First up, tell us about your musical journey. Do you remember the first song you’ve ever written?

When I was a child, I loved to watch people more than I actually wanted to be with people. I like to see what people around me were going through. I was around nine when I wrote my first song in English, and it was about someone being bullied. It was quite a sad song—that’s all I can remember. After I wrote my first song, I just fell in love with it. It made me feel so good that I could create something that was only mine and that helped to use emotion and turn it into something beautiful. I could never stop after I started

“Everything I do becomes better because I can give more to the world when I am good to myself.”

How did you evolve into the AURORA we know now?

Well, it happened really organically. A lot has changed, of course, in my life. My world is a lot bigger now than it used to be. I have all these friends and fans all over the world and they have really taught me how small the world is but also how big it can be. The biggest change that I have discovered is what music can really do. Music can change people all over the world and help them understand emotions better. It’s a very beautiful thing.

Tell us about your creative process in your music.

It’s very different from time to time. Sometimes I have to run to the closest recorder and record my ideas. If I’m on tour, I have to bring my book and write down some ideas. I also like sitting quietly and watching the world go by. I write everything down in my notebook. I write everything that I see around me. I just can’t stop singing, I can’t stop writing. The world is very inspiring.

When I’m home, I have my piano, but obviously the piano is too big to be with me on my back [laughs]. But when I’m home, I usually just sit and play for hours and just improvise, and when something beautiful comes, I just stick with that. It’s very organic and natural and relaxed, the way I write. I just do it when I feel like it. And when I can’t write anything I just do something else like a painting. I try to keep things very natural and to have no pressure.

Speaking of that, you also do visual art and you painted the cover art of your single “Forgotten Love”, is that something you do often? Does art ever affect your music and writing?

It does! It has happened more and more throughout my career. The visual side of music, I have learned that people’s eyes seem to be more developed than people’s ears. I love painting when I write music at the same time, and I love painting the visuals to my song.

You’ve created your own language in the songs “Forgotten Love” and “A Different Kind of Human”, can you tell us the process of creating these? What is the inspiration behind it?

I care a lot about people [laughs]. I think it’s hard for people to talk about their emotions when they don’t know how to express when something is wrong or why or even understand why we are sad. Sometimes it’s hard to understand why we’re not feeling well about things. I wanted to make simple words to explain complicated emotions. So I just wanted to make a language for people to explain their emotions. It also sounds really nice and poetic.

You’ve mentioned that some of your ideas come up when you dream. What is the best dream you could recall?

I love all the dreams I’ve had. I love it when dreams make me do impossible things, like when I go on an adventure or flying—that’s my favorite dream. I did dream, the other day, that I was a stone at the bottom of the sea and I was just watching everything above me. It felt like the dream lasted for a thousand years. As a stone, I was just watching the world go by, for hundreds and thousands of years. When I woke up, I got inspired and realized how much life comes and goes. It’s really fascinating. I love being inspired by dreams. In Infections of a Different Kind, there’s a song that I wrote, almost in a dream, I just woke up in the middle of the night and let it play in my head.

“I just can’t stop singing, I can’t stop writing. The world is very inspiring.”

How did you know that you were a stone?

I just kind of feel it, and everything around me went so quickly when I was a stone. Time went much quicker for me and everything around it because a stone has such a long life. I think I really dreamed that I was a stone because all the life around me moved so fast—I don’t know I just had a feeling that I was a stone. It was really magical, and it was a good dream.

You lived on a small island in Bergen, Norway. How do you think growing up around nature shaped the way you think?

It shaped a lot. I really needed nature my whole childhood. I’ve grown up and thought of how important nature is and how beautiful it is. Everything you need to live is in nature so you learn to respect nature. I’ve often walked around in the forest when I was a child—I was more outside than inside my whole childhood, and I just think that being surrounded by big trees and the big animals and you will get a perspective over things if you realize that you’re big compared to the bugs, that you’re so small compared to the trees and the mountains. There are just so many beautiful things there, and it’s very humbling. I really love nature and I don’t think I would be the same without it.

You’ve shared with NME a guide on being peaceful and happy. How did you come up with these? What was the journey leading up to this realization?

I think the main reason why people find themselves a bit unhappy or stressed every day is that we forget to be kind to ourselves and others. There’s just this pressure to accomplish so much every day. Sometimes a successful day is just surviving it. We don’t need more sometimes. We don’t always have to have a successful day. As long as you survive it, that’s enough.

The world would have more happy people if we are all ready to help the people around us; It would benefit all of us when all people are more happy. It can be hard. When I can’t do things I want to do, I tell myself “it’s okay.” It’s okay to not be successful all the time, as long as you’re good to yourself. And when I’m good to myself, I can be better for the people around me and I can see my fans and hear their stories. Everything I do becomes better because I can give more to the world when I am good to myself. So all my life I’ve been happier when I’m not busy and I’m good to myself.

You pride yourself in being extremely free. What is one thing you’ve always wanted to try?

I’ve always wanted to jump with a parachute. I really want to know what it’s like to fly. I would love to be a bird—that would be the biggest dream. I would love to jump with a parachute just to experience flying for a few minutes. There are a lot of things I would love to try. I’m very hungry for life, and I’m very hungry to try most things that the world has to offer me. I would like to dance more and paint more. I would like to make a theater piece with music. I would like to make the best live show for people. I would like to focus more on the environment. I don’t know; there are a lot of things I want to try and I want to do. It’s very exciting.

Are you a big fan of musical theater?

Yes, I am! I would like to make a live show with a whole story. I would like to make a live show that is more than just a concert. It’s a big dream of mine to connect the two.

Do you have any plans on coming to the Philippines or anywhere in Asia?

Not this year, but I hope that next year I can be in more countries in Asia. I would love to go to wherever my fans are and this year, I’m going to Hong Kong, China, Tokyo, Seoul, and Singapore. I’m going to a few places but I would love to visit more places in Asia. It’s my biggest wish actually to be more in Asia and to meet my fans from all different countries. It’s a very big dream of mine. I could almost promise that next year, I will come to visit.

Written by Casey Eridio Art by Elbert Uba Photos by Morgan Hill Murphy Courtesy of Universal Music

[lakambinimagph]

PSA: Your skin care isn’t enough

      Have you ever searched about skin care routines? Have you ever watched Youtube videos discussing skin care routines of your favorite stars? I bet, even if you never planned to achieve a tedious skin care, most of you reading this already did. The skin care trend has received global attention. From Youtube videos to online shops there is an evident given prime on beauty and skin care products.

      It is interesting to note that the Korean beauty and cosmetic products seem to have invaded —if not the world, I say the Philippines. Well, for reasons like the notion of having white and clear skin is beautiful. I actually have tried some of it, and I can say it is handy and useful. Cost-effective? I’m actually not sure. Obviously, capitalism takes advantage of the craze people give skin care products in this day and age. And again, we consumers gladly patronize it. It is tempting to discuss how capitalism takes advantage of the skin care trend. Like, how pricey each beauty product can get even if they’re just all the same at the end of the day, or even if it does not actually work on your skin type (but you don’t know that until you use the product). So even if it gets pricey as hell, you still buy it. But this article isn’t about that, isn’t it? No.

      What we’re gonna do is dig a little deeper into the role of mass media in molding our confidence and notions of how should we, as women, be beautiful. Even before the Korean beauty trend became the talk of the town, mass media has posited a certain kind of beautiful. In different teleseryes and even in other foreign dramas, a clear line separates the beautiful and ugly —and when I say ugly, it’s either fat, morena, or the one with the face full of acnes. Are you familiar with Betty la Fea? Or the Diary ng Pangit? These are examples of how the media had been putting a line between what is beautiful and ugly. It’s told in a fairytale-like story of an ugly duckling turning into a swan...

The Betty la Fea Effect:

      Originally, “Yo Soy, Betty la Fea,” is a telenovela from Columbia that the Philippines adapted. Bea Alonzo played the role of Betty la Fea here in the Philippines. Big glasses, braces, unclear skin, weird hairstyle and sense of fashion —these basically describe the character of Betty la Fea. Her story pivots when she changes her whole appearance to be accepted by the society she’s in. Well, a lot of TV shows now are like that —somewhere in the beginning the protagonist must be someone with an “unpleasing” appearance, then gets knocked down by others, so she chooses to change or what they call “better” one’s physical appearance and, poof! She’s accepted and loved even more. That’s actually not the case in the real world. Or is it?

      While it may be seen as a great love story, Betty la Fea and her dream guy Armando, it is problematic. At first, it looked like it was going to revolutionize notions of beauty today. It could have been a teleserye saying that beauty is not just seen from the outside, that it is not skin-deep. Unfortunately, it failed to convey that until the end of the teleserye. The sad thing about it is that the teleserye had remakes all over the world.

      One example of this Betty la Fea effect also is the 2014 romantic comedy film, “Diary ng Panget.” Not that it was a really bad film… Somehow this movie, starring Nadine Lustre and James Reid, conveyed the idea “true beauty lies inside.” In the movie, you can see that Cross (Reid), a selfish dude, gets comfortable with Eya (Lustre) even if she has an unacceptable face in terms of beauty standards in society. Eya has all sorts of acne in her face, dark brown skin, unmanageable hair, and is poor. Because of her features, she is often discriminated. Even though comfortability and friendship were seen before Eya’s transformation into the beautiful swan she is, it still ended as predicted. The film still had to end with Eya having a “beautiful” transformation which means no more acnes, nice hair, and great skin complexion. Sadly, the said transformation appeared to be a prerequisite for Eya and Cross to be together at the end of the film. And of course, the discrimination stopped when she became what people would say “beautiful” and worthy enough to be beside Cross. I mean, does one’s worth depend on one’s looks? It’s a no for me, how about you?

What is love?

      If you have watched the 2010 Thai film “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” starring Pimchanok Luevisadpaibul and Mario Maurer, I bet you all had the feels for it. No one could resist the urge to have butterflies flutter in their stomachs as (spoiler alert!) Nam (Luevisadpaibul) and P’Shone (Maurer) found their way to tell each other their true feelings, even if it is in a variety show and through a diary. I must say, the movie is a complete package chick flick. However, let’s look deeper into Nam’s --the protagonist-- character.

      Nam has a long-time crush with P’Shone and did everything she could to get his attention. Nam did all sorts of transformation --throwing away her eyeglasses for a pair of contact lens, getting whiter skin, had braces-- and all the other stuff you can think about physical transformation (except for surgery, of course). It was all for the hope that P’Shone will be hers if she become the beautiful woman she really is. Amazing how she improved and pushed herself to change for the better. What’s the problem there? The problem is that she did not change for herself but for some guy to look at her beautifully. She despised her ‘old, ugly’ self before the transformation. Although it is actually revealed later in the film that P’Shone liked Nam way before her transformation. Yet, Nam gave the viewers of the film, the wrong meaning of how love really works. Indeed, love pushes you to do all sorts of things for the person you love. That’s the wonderful part of love that Nam showed. But, love does not require you to change yourself for others. Love is unconditional after all. Love accepts all flaws and inadequacies of a person.

Annyeong beauty!

      K-dramas have invaded the interest of most Filipinos today due to its accessibility in the Internet. Hence, more people witness how their skin glow and how it doesn’t have a mark of acne or anything. The commercial industry of beauty products and cosmetics has taken advantage of this phenomenon. Commercials and advertisements in the Philippines today brand its products as a way to “achieve that Koreana look.” However, Koreans have a different kind of lifestyle, they have a different climate and a different environment from us Filipinos.

      They have a colder climate than ours, which is actually good for the skin. They do not have to battle a lot with pollution with their advanced public transportation, compared to the Philippines’. Moreover, their products take thousands of money to purchase for an ordinary minimum-wage worker here in the Philippines. Yet, the beauty industry of the Philippines still strives to package “affordable yet effective” Korean-inspired products. Apparently, we still strive to buy those products.

The truth is…

      These kinds of portrayal from the media frustrates and puts a lot of control into what its audience thinks about their physical appearance too. In the real world, not everyone affords to ‘improve’ their physical appearance the way television shows it. In the real world, most people struggle to live by to even care about their physical appearance. The least thing the media should have been doing is to uplift and inspire its audience to embrace what they have and who they are, from head to toe.

      What I’ve been trying to say in this article is that we must embrace ourselves for who we are. Girl, you don’t have to change your physical appearance to be accepted and loved by people. If they truly want and love you, they will accept all your flaws, all your acnes, and shit. Beauty is not just seen from the outside but what’s really inside you. Truly, it is your preference if you let yourself follow skin care and beauty trends of all sorts, but you have to look good for yourself and not for others. More importantly, remember that no matter how many products you apply to your face, if you don’t truly love yourself first, it doesn’t actually bring much change. Confidence starts from inside you.

Words by Daoden Kate Sarmiento

Graphics by Jannah Lei Junatas

[canaryatlaw]

alright well today was pretty good, all things said. I’m obviously still dealing with some of the fallout from yesterday’s events (or event I suppose) but I’ve been trying not to dwell on it because what’s done is done and there’s not much I can do about it now. It’s just annoying because I really don’t care about no longer actually having the job as I just feel hurt that it happened and I was deemed not good enough, even if I know there were other forces at work here I can’t help but think I must’ve fucked something up and like, that’s really hard to hear when I’d been working my ass off for weeks to do the best I can.....I don’t want to dwell on it though, it won’t help anything and just get me more worked up. anyway, today. I woke up at like 10:30ish (10:32 I believe) and got up to go to the bathroom but also checked my phone because I had a sense I would have a message (I always know) regarding hanging out and I did, I was still kinda sleepy though so I said give me till 11, but then I couldn’t fall back asleep and just ended up playing with kitty for a while before getting up. so I went to meet Jess at the usual place for brunch. I didn’t grab a hat for some reason and it was snowing quite a bit (like the clumps of falling snowflakes were rather large) so my hair ended up being like, wet by the time I got there lol. we don’t usually end up going around this time so for the first time ever we had to actually wait, but it was only like ten minutes and I just increasingly took candy from their bowl and put it in my jacket pocket the longer I stood there 😂 and then we got to sit at a booth where we always are and the waitress was legit just like “the usual?” and we just laughed and said yes, because we have gotten to that point where they know our orders perfectly. so we ate and talked and all that good stuff before going back to my place where we started with a few episodes of Sabrina but then stopped after one was particularly creepy and frankly disturbing (the sleep demon one) so we then marathoned the rest of the episodes of the Korean competition show that created the band that we’re now apparently fans of, and it was at least rather entertaining, I will give it that, and from what I’ve seen there’s more footage of them having to do ridiculous tasks that will also be entertaining so I can be down with that. After surmising that sadly we cannot get taco bell to deliver to us (it’s cold, okay) we ended up going with pasta from a place that also let us get soda because if I didn’t get some caffeine I was gonna pass out on the couch 😂 later of course it did occur to me that I could’ve just used some caffeine gum, but oh well. Once we finished the reality show we watched a few clips of them doing ridiculous tasks that were entertaining before finally getting around to watching last week’s Supergirl being that we are getting a new episode tomorrow that we’re presumably watching so we needed to be caught up. It was.....not great. Honestly they are just going SO HARD on the anti-alien narrative that is a honestly a great parallel to our current political climate but like, it’s getting to the point where it’s somewhat disconcerting to watch because you can tell they’re trying to get you to at least somewhat sympathize with the anti-alien people and like.....for me that’s so far out of bounds for what could be considered okay and I feel like it’s really not helping anything going on in reality right now. It’s not doing anything productive, it’s just kinda stoking the flames and getting people riled up, and I don’t like that, so I’m really not crazy about this season so far and I don’t know if that’s gonna change anytime soon. sigh. after Supergirl Jess headed home and I decided to watch Crazy Ex-Girlfriend that somehow always ends up at the bottom of my recorded list so I’m like, 3 weeks behind on it, and I started on the oldest one. that show is just like....it’s just exactly my life lol and honestly all the lawyer stuff kinda made me sad for the moment but it passed rather quickly. and after that I started getting ready for bed. a few other notes on things throughout the day, it occurred to me that HVFF San Jose is rapidly approaching and I no idea whatsoever what I was going to cosplay, I had been planning on doing a ton of Sara Lance cosplays this year at different cons (like all the outfits she wears) but since Caity’s been not doing as many cons I haven’t wanted to really do them without her there. but, Katie Cassidy is going to be there, and I mean, if Sara is out of the running my next favorite would of course be District Attorney Laurel Lance, because I just like her so much and have apparently become a stan of her in Caity’s absence. so all that to say that I’m doing the white suit look from 7x02. I already have white pants, and I was able to get a white blazer that looks like hers (they had the exact one of the arrow fashion site but it was, you know, $695 so I decided to go with a knock off instead) for pretty cheap, and I figured out the shirt she was wearing under it because she uses it in another scene later on (they’ve repeated a few of her shirts lately) and was able to find one close to that fairly easily, and I already have the wig so it works. I still have to figure out what my cosplay will be for the other day, Jess is rooting for me to dress as a bulletproof coffee mug to harass Brandon which honestly is not a terrible idea, but we’ll see. Alright friends, I think that’s all I got for now. Church in the morning, attending the 10 am and in with the babies for the 11:30. Since they moved the service times again (it’s because they’re trying to accommodate as many people as possible by trying to make the times such that there’s a more even spread of people at each one, but it’s still kind of irritating) I get half an hour less sleep on Sundays, but for now anyway it looks like I’ll have at least a few days to sleep in, so that’s not that big of a deal for now anyway. Should be good, and yeah I’m good to go now. Goodnight my loves. Hope you had an awesome Saturday.

[wineanddinosaur]

VinePair Podcast: Are Hybrid Vines the Future of Wine?

Hybrid, non-Vitis vinifera grapes have been a bit of a taboo subject in the wine world. As climate change threatens the viability of vinifera grapes and a new generation of wine drinkers emerges, might the stigma around hybrid vines be dying down for good?

On this episode of the “VinePair Podcast,” co-hosts Adam Teeter, Joanna Sciarrino, and Zach Geballe explore the future of hybrid wine and discuss how shifting consumer preferences may help these wines succeed on the market.

LISTEN ONLINE

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OR CHECK OUT THE CONVERSATION HERE

Adam Teeter: From VinePair’s New York City headquarters, I’m Adam Teeter.

Joanna Sciarrino: I’m Joanna Sciarrino.

Zach Geballe: And in Seattle, Washington, I’m Zach Geballe.

A: And this is the “VinePair Podcast.” Guys, I did survive. I just want you to know I’m OK. Healthy.

Z: You did better than the Auburn Tigers, I’m sorry to say.

A: Yeah, it was a tough loss. It was really, really interesting to be on a college campus and see what was going on. I’ve taken two Covid PCR tests since I’ve been. I’m negative. The vaccine works, people. Go get the vaccine. I also took a lot of precautions and was only outside. I did not go into any bars.

Z: I was bummed to not get an Instagram photo of the mask, though. I thought maybe you’d have it painted, put some tiger stripes on there.

A: No, no. It was really fun. I was really shocked, though. Well, I guess I’m not shocked. Shocked is a bad word because I shouldn’t be shocked at this point. What do you think I saw all over campus?

J: I know what you’re going to say.

Z: Seltzer?

A: Just seltzer. That’s all anyone was drinking. It’s crazy out there, guys. For college kids and people in their 20s, that’s all anyone was drinking. Seltzer. I was just like, wow.

Z: As I mentioned last week, I went with my wife to a baseball game here in Seattle a few weeks ago. It was astonishing to me, in a sense, how so much of the inventory space that was dedicated to beer in the past has now been switched over to seltzer. That’s what a lot of people in the crowd were drinking. It makes sense, I guess, but it is wild to think about. Maybe on this podcast, we’ll have to come back to the topic of what seltzer has displaced. What would have been light lager is, in so many places now, seltzer. I kind of get it.

J: This is so funny because we have a piece coming up in which Dave Infante explores whether hard seltzer has displaced the college kegger.

A: I think it definitely has. It was just crazy. I definitely saw a lot of White Claw. I just saw seltzer. In all of the package stores, we saw massive seltzer displays. Another thing in Pennsylvania that I thought was really interesting — maybe it’s a thing in other places, too, but I think we forget about it in New York — is that in the gas stations, almost every single one of them had walk-in beer coolers. They had huge signs advertising them. I walked in and thought, “Well, this is boring. It’s just all ABI products. There was nothing else in there, but I needed to experience this massive walk-in beer cooler. It was pretty funny.

Z: I have a seltzer gripe. I still can’t find this Bud Light Seltzer Fall Flannel pack anywhere in Seattle.

J: Save yourself, man.

Z: We were hoping to do it on an episode eventually. It might be winter before I can get it.

A: No Flannel pack for you.

Z: Joanna. You broke into it, didn’t you? Can you give me any info?

J: They all taste like candles.

A: I will say that it was a pretty amazing Instagram post.

J: Yeah. I made my partner, Evan, try them all.

A: He was hilarious.

J: It was really funny.

Z: Was this on condition of him getting to watch football?

J: No!

A: No, it was on condition of Joanna being willing to go back to Canada. She said, “I will only cross the border if you try our great seltzer products.”

J: No, he was happy to do it. He loves seltzer.

A: Does he really? No.

J: He loves hard seltzer. It’s so funny.

A: What’s his brand of choice?

J: I don’t know. I think he likes White Claw.

A: You don’t know what’s in your fridge?

J: I mean, we have a Flannel pack in our fridge right now.

A: That’s amazing. There’s one video I just love where he immediately spits it out.

J: That was a genuine spit take. It was so bad. That was the pumpkin spice one. I hope we all try them together.

A: Oh, I can’t wait.

J: Adam, did you drink a lot of hard seltzer this weekend?

A: No. That’s also what I forgot about tailgating, is how friendly everybody is. We were grossly unprepared. We pulled up. First of all, I’m not sure what people are used to in terms of their tailgating history. But, in the South, on a college campus, you can basically tailgate anywhere. All over campus, there’s tents and people tailgating and hanging out. At Penn State — and I’ve been told this is more of a Northeastern thing because this was actually my first-ever Northeastern tailgating experience — everyone is pushed into lots. You have to pay to park in them. Then, people just open the back of their cars or drop their pickup truck tailgates. They just hang out there. It was just a different experience. I think that’s why the Grove in Oxford, Miss., is so iconic. It is just this beautiful section of campus that people set up tents and tailgates without their cars. That’s the case with a lot of Southern tailgating. It was interesting. We stupidly didn’t have a cooler. As we’re like leaving our hotel, which was really far away, we thought, “I guess we should pick up a 6-pack.” We grabbed a 6-pack before we left of pilsner. Of course, when we got to the campus, we realized, “This is going to get warm really quickly, so we should drink these.” Then, we started walking around, and people just gave you beer. It was really friendly. You just walk up and they’re like, “Hey, do you want a beer?” I will say that was what was pretty awesome, too, how serious the Penn State fans were taking ensuring that Auburn fans were having a good time.

Z: Oh, that is kind of sweet.

A: They all kept asking, “Are you having a good time? Are you enjoying State College? Isn’t it great?” That’s totally different in college footballI, I think. Obviously, each team wants to win. We would never be that nice to Alabama fans.

Z: I was going to say, isn’t this the difference between a conference rival and a team that you play once every 25 years?

A: Yeah, that’s probably true. We’re pretty nice to South Carolina fans. We kind of have to be, because it’s sad for them. It is funny. In the pros, I feel like no pro team’s nice to another pro team’s fans. I remember going to the Eagles game in Philly. We were warned prior to the game to not wear anything that shows we were from Atlanta or we would get a beer dumped on us. We were like, “OK. Cool. We will just not wear anything. We’ll wear normal clothes.” We saw an Eagles fans get in a fight with an Atlanta fan. Like, why? Anyways, I’ve talked for too long. What about the two of you?

J: I drank some great things recently. First, on Friday night, I listened to the latest episode of “Cocktail College” about the Manhattan, which happens to be one of my favorite drinks. I promptly made Abigail Gullo’s Manhattan.

A: Amazing.

J: It’s a perfect Manhattan, which I really enjoy. She uses three different types of bitters. Rye is her spirit of choice here. It was very nice. I also had the Long Drink this weekend.

A: Which one?

J: The classic, from the people who you interviewed, Adam. In the blue can. It was great. I really enjoyed it.

A: It’s like an alcoholic Fresca.

J: Yeah. It really did taste like that. It’s delicious.

A: They’re tasty. Zach?

Z: I have a drink and a story to share with you guys, because it’s not just Adam here who gets to do this. We are in the midst of fresh hop beer season here in the Pacific Northwest.

A: That’s cool. Fun. We don’t get that.

Z: For all the true beer lovers out there, it’s worth traveling to the Pacific Northwest. You see it even more in Seattle because more of the hop fields are in Washington. Every brewery around here has multiple fresh hop beers at this point. It’s just such a cool thing. It’s so seasonal. They pick the hops and, instead of taking them through any kind of preservation technique, they literally ship them right to the breweries. You have to get them in the beer within 48 hours or everything you’re trying to get out of them degrades to the point where it’s almost worthless. It’s wild. It’s a big deal for the breweries. It’s a lot of late nights. The beers are just really fun, and it’s such a cool, seasonal thing. We’ve had nice early fall weather where it’s sunny and a little warm but not too hot. It’s great beer weather. I had a couple of different ones. I had one from Fremont Brewing and one from Reuben’s Brews. They are delicious and something to seek out if you are around here or if you make it out here in late September, early October.

A: Sounds cool. Now, story time.

Z: As we’ve discussed before, I do this subscription wine club with a friend of mine. I was placing orders for October because I have a baby due any day and wanted to get stuff done early so that the wines all arrive and everything is set up. That way, if I’m not able to be a part of the packing and distribution, everything is good to go. I placed my orders 10 or so days ago. I was at my friend’s restaurant yesterday, looking through everything, and I thought, “Huh. One of the wines didn’t show up. That’s weird, because the other wine from this distributor came.” I emailed my sales rep and asked, “Hey, what’s the deal? Did something get mis-delivered or what’s the deal here?” He responds to me — and I still can’t believe this — and was like, “Yeah, we’re out of stock. It said so on the invoice.” I’m like, “OK, but you couldn’t have told me this 10 days ago when I emailed you?” This is obviously a wine buyer in a restaurant or retail setting kind of complaint, but it was so weird to me. It’s still a customer service job. I don’t have to buy wine from this company or from this person. I was so taken aback by the lack of any attempt to communicate this very simple fact. If you’re out of stock, that’s fine. I don’t have a problem with that, but maybe I would have wanted to order something else from you. Instead, we’re going to buy something else from another distributor that’s vaguely similar, to fill our orders. That’s sales you don’t get because you couldn’t take the time to email me. I don’t know. It was very interesting.

A: Yeah, that’s crazy.

J: It’s like ordering something or getting a gift. You’re ordering a bunch of things and you’re unaware that it’s out of stock. You expect that it’s coming, and then it’s not there.

Z: Because this is my background, I think of it in a restaurant setting. If a table of six people all ordered a cocktail or a glass of wine and the server came back with five of the drinks, put them all down, walked away, and never said anything, that sixth person would ask, “Excuse me? What happened here?” If, eventually, they flag the server down and ask, “Hey, what’s the deal?” and the server responds, “Oh yeah, we don’t have that. We ran out of it,” wouldn’t you have offered the customer something else when you figured that out? Why did I have to seek this information out from you? That’s the part that blows my mind. I would have been willing to give you the money for something else. Now, you’ve done nothing. If you’d come to me initially and said, “Hey, we’re out of this. Here are some alternatives. Here’s another wine from that producer or here’s a similar wine.” I don’t know what I would have done in that setting, but what I did in this setting was reach out to one of my other distributors and ask, “Hey, can you get this here by tomorrow, please? I need it to fill my orders.” That’s all done. That’s a sale that this other company doesn’t get.

A: So, we want to talk today about hybrids. You pose an interesting question as we were starting to think about this episode. Not only are we going to see more of them, but are the newer generations of wine drinkers more accepting of them than the older ones? Why don’t you set that up first? I think that’s an interesting part of the question. I think we will see more of them because of climate change. But the acceptance thing is a big deal.

Z: I’ve been thinking about this for the last couple of years. I think so many of the emerging trends we see, whether it’s in natural wine or these styles of wine that have become more popular of late, really don’t exclude the use of hybrid or even non-Vitis vinifera varieties. There’s Concord grapes, Catawba, et cetera, and other things that are native to North America. When I was first getting into wine and learning about wine, almost no time was spent on any of that stuff. I, like many a Jew of my age, drank some Manischewitz when I was a kid. Until recently, that was basically my only experience with non-vinifera wine grapes. I’ve had a number of hybrids because those occupy a slightly different space. You see them used in a few places around the world, in some places in northern Europe, Canada, in the northern U.S., et cetera. I’ve tried some of those wines. The way that those varieties have been denigrated in the past is that they’re too fruit-driven, they’re too “grape-y.” That’s a slightly weird complaint, but whatever. They’re too high in acid. They don’t have a lot of tannin. I think what prompted this thought in me was the question of, “Are these characteristics that we laud in Vitis vinifera really the only things that wine drinkers want now?” In this world now, you’re seeing producers who have a certain kind of cachet blending grape wine and cider, making fruit wines, doing all kinds of stuff that totally would work with hybrids or non-vinifera grapes. So, why is this stigma still here? Is it still here? Is there an opportunity for people, whether they’re in other parts of the country or in the world that aren’t considered great sites for Vitis vinifera, to make wine? As we’ve talked about a number of times on this podcast, for a lot of the places that make, to this date, great wine from Vitis vinifera, it’s not looking great over the next couple of decades. I don’t know how I would feel about my vineyard holdings in parts of California or France. It ain’t been pretty the last few years.

A: I do think that there’s going to be more acceptance. I do think it’s because of natural wine. There is a growing movement of people who just think that is the term for wines that are trendy. There’s a flavor profile that a lot of consumers are enjoying. They may not be the flavor profiles that we like. They might be very mousy, whatever. I think that is the very grape-y, sort of Beaujolais bubblegum style. You’re seeing a lot of wines made like that. I’m seeing a lot of hybrids where they’re also doing carbonic and these really juicy wines that I think a lot of consumers like because they’re fun, easy, and very approachable. I think that is allowing hybrids to exist and people to accept hybrids. Do I think that hybrids will be accepted by the same people that are huge Barolo, Bordeaux, Burgundy drinkers?

J: No.

A: Probably not. But, in the world of natural, I definitely think hybrids will continue to grow.

J: You said younger wine drinkers. I think that also goes for people who are unaware of this stigma around hybrid grapes. They’re not aware of it, so why would they discriminate against a wine that’s made from those grapes?

Z: I think that’s an excellent point, Joanna, because one of the things that we’ve seen in wine more broadly is that, as you bring more regions and varieties into the fold, how is someone who’s not a wine expert going to know that Hondarrabi Zuri is a vinifera variety and Seyval Blanc is a hybrid? No one knows.

A: Seyval Blanc probably sounds, to a lot of consumers, like it’s a vinifera.

Z: Traminette or even Vidal Blanc, which may be a little more widely known because it’s used for dessert wine in Canada a lot. We don’t live in a wine world anymore where people only drink six varieties, thankfully. If you’re the kind of person who is seeking out wine from Georgia, Slovenia, Croatia, or wherever, the name of the variety on the label isn’t going to register with you. If you’re getting, alternatively, a hybrid wine from, say, Wisconsin, Michigan, northern Germany, or something like that, I just don’t see people being too caught up in the idea that this isn’t all Vitis vinifera. If you look at the way many of these hybrids have been developed, they’re 90 to 95 percent vinifera, with just a little bit of some other variety to give them a little more cold resistance, frost resistance, or some other characteristic that is considered desirable. I think the real fascinating thing, too, is the question of, “Are there under development hybrid varieties?” I think there are. Many of them are not yet really named or commercially available. But, are these being developed, not as hybrids were previously for these very cold regions? Obviously, the problem we face going forward is places where access to water, extreme heat, or just very unpredictable weather is a bigger concern. Can hybrids be developed that will thrive in those conditions and might replace the varieties that we now associate with those great regions? I don’t know that in 30 years, the slopes of Barolo will be replanted to some hybrid. But it wouldn’t totally shock me.

A: I had a crazy thought, and it’s probably going to piss some people off. But, as you’ve been talking, I’ve been thinking about this. I want to be clear when I’m using the term natural wine. Since it has no definition, I’m going to define it the way that I define natural wine. I’m not talking about wines that are biodynamic and organic, where the wine still comes out clean and you can taste the varietal and it tastes of the varietal and of the place. I’m talking about the wines that, through infection of the spoilage yeasts, Brettanomyces, or through the mousiness quality, or carbonic maceration. There’s something else that is more powerful in the wine than the essence of the grape.

Z: Right.

A: That movement of wine, a lot of people like. It’s crazy. To make a weird tangent, one of the fastest-growing brands right now in the U.S. is a hard kombucha. Right? That flavor profile and that kombucha thing is very popular right now. JuneShine is the brand.

J: It’s the funk.

A: The funk is the thing. Varietals don’t matter. It’s basically like a red blend. That world of natural wine is the red blend of that wine world. That’s what I’m going to say. Varietals don’t matter. The question is, is this the flavor profile you’re looking for? In that world, Zach, you’re really right. No one’s looking. No one’s asking. I was at a dinner last night before this event that we all went to with a bunch of, like, bartenders who were all into wine. We were at a place that only had natural wine on the list. The people who were serving us wine didn’t even tell us what the varietals were. They just said, “We have a red from Italy that’s super natural and funky, and we have an orange from Spain.” Right. There wasn’t even a description of the regions it’s from. It was like, “This is what we have.” And I think that’s becoming more and more common in my definition of what I think a lot of people think of when they think about what natural wine is. Does it have the funk? Does it have the juicy juice? No one is really that concerned with what grape it was made from, which is fascinating. But, it does make sense. When you do have those things happen to the wine, the varietal characteristics of the wine go away. I know we’ve had this conversation before, Zach, but what does varietally correct mean? I don’t really know. We can talk about that again at some point. I definitely think you want to taste a variety. I can still tell you that it’s Nebbiolo, even if it’s made in different places, it’s still Nebbiolo. I think with some of these wines, they just aren’t. Hybrids are great because if you’re not looking for that. If you’re looking for it as a vehicle to get the other flavors that people actually like, then who cares?

J: I don’t know. I also think it’s kind of interesting because, when I go out and order wine, I just want a wine that’s delicious and tastes good. I care less. I have no wine training or anything like that. I’m still learning a lot about wine, and I just don’t really care about the varietals. I’m not saying it’s because I want the funkiest natural wine you have on your list or anything like that. I just care more about how it tastes. I feel like, if hybrid wines are delicious, then sure, why not?

Z: Yeah. I think one thing that we found — and it’s something kind of echoed in your statement, Joanna — is that there was a period of time when certain grape varieties were considered “noble” and other varieties were, I guess, “ignoble.” This is a phrase I hate, so I’m going to immediately dismiss it. Frankly, though, if you look at the origins of this, there’s a lot of weird, very creepy eugenics-y things. There’s a lot of race theory, let’s put it that way, in this idea about everything, not just in grapes. Grapes were a prominent place for it, though. So much of what we’ve come to learn about different varieties, how they grow, and how they express themselves, is that there might have been a point in time when — through lack of knowledge about viticulture or winemaking — that might have been why certain varieties were prized in one place and less cherished in another. A lot of that stuff is apocryphal, ahistoric, and just doesn’t hold up to modern understandings of wine. This notion that only these few grape varieties or only this one species, Vitis vinifera, is capable of producing great wine is a myth that’s persisted because it gets lazily passed down. It fits well into a textbook or a 30-minute training that someone gets at a restaurant. Everyone in the wine industry, up until recently, was invested in the truth of that myth. Producers that spend a lot of money to plant and grow Vitis vinifera don’t necessarily want someone else to come along and say, “It turns out that I can make equally good wine from this unknown hybrid variety that I grow in a place where the land cost me one hundredth of what it costs you, and the people who buy it like it just as much as your wine.” I don’t know that that is exactly where we’re at, at this point. But, it doesn’t seem impossible to me that that could be true, at least for some meaningful segment of the wine drinking public. I think there’s a lot to be said about getting away from this fetishization of certain varieties over all others. That being said, I will say your point, Adam, is a well-made one, and an important one for people to keep in mind, too. One thing that we have valorized, and I think rightly so, in wine over the last century is the notion that there is some value in wine communicating something about where it’s from in drinking it. That communication can happen through the variety to some extent. Certain varieties are associated with certain places or maybe only grown in certain places. It can be in the mono-varietal nature of certain wines, and it can be in the winemaking and all that. As you described the natural wines you were talking about, Adam, when the thing that people are treasuring in a wine are other things, then I think we are at a perfectly valid expression of wine. It’s just not going to convey those things. It would be good for those who are in that industry and want that style of wine to open themselves up, as some of them are, to this notion of, “Why do we need vinifera in the first place? It’s hard to grow. It’s expensive. Why don’t we make our wines from other types of grapes?” There’s no inherent reason not to, other than that that can’t put varieties that people are familiar with on the label. Since many of them are not really interested in doing that, who cares? You can give it whatever fanciful name you want and put whatever crazy label on it. That’s great. Let’s party.

A: Glou-glou! It is interesting. The cool thing is that whether you’re on the side of, “Screw you, you have biases that are bullshit. I can make a beautiful wine with these grapes, not just this vinifera,” or you’re on the side of, “glou-glou,” it’s super cool that more people are using hybrids. It’s great to be able to now go to places like New Hampshire and Vermont and they have good wineries. That’s awesome. I think having wineries in communities is similar to having breweries. They’re places where people can go and see how wine is made firsthand. They’re also great places to socialize. They’re usually places that support really great cuisine and help build economies. With wine countries, hotels often come with them and there are great restaurants and stuff. If that can happen in other places, and it’s just with hybrids now, that’s freaking awesome. I’m all for it.

Z: I want to add one last point that I think is also kind of cool here. The other thing that has been hard for hybrids and non-vinifera varieties is that, because they have been so looked down upon by fine wine, they largely have not been made for that consumer. Adam, we got some wines a while back from a producer in Wisconsin and the owner who sent us the wine and communicated about it was upfront that a lot of their clientele like sweeter wine. So, they make a lot of sweeter wines. They don’t necessarily do it because that’s the only way to use hybrid grapes, but because the kind of people who are open to drinking those varieties are not typically people who want what we think of as fine wine. Therefore, they may want some sweetness. I don’t think that means that you can’t make great dry wines from these varieties. The more that people open themselves up to the possibility here, that denigration of hybrids and non-vinifera varieties, that “of course, they’re sweet,” is really just a self-fulfilling prophecy. I don’t think there’s any winemaking reason why you can’t ferment those wines dry. It’s just that many of the producers that currently exist are trying to meet a market demand that fine wine doesn’t really speak to very well. People may say “hybrids have to be sweet,” but that doesn’t have to be the case. It just has been the case because that’s who is willing to buy hybrid wines: people who like sweet wines.

A: Team, this was a great conversation. If you’re into some hybrid wines, let us know which ones they are. If you make hybrid wines and you listen to the show, send us some. I’d love to try them. Joanna, Zach, talk to you Friday.

J: Thanks, guys.

Z: Sounds great.

Thanks so much for listening to the “VinePair Podcast.” If you love this show as much as we love making it, please leave us a rating or review on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever it is you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show.

Now for the credits. VinePair is produced and recorded in New York City and Seattle, Washington, by myself and Zach Geballe, who does all the editing and loves to get the credit. Also, I would love to give a special shout-out to my VinePair co-founder, Josh Malin, for helping make all of this possible, and also to Keith Beavers, VinePair’s tastings director, who is additionally a producer on the show. I also want to, of course, thank every other member of the VinePair team, who are instrumental in all of the ideas that go into making the show every week. Thanks so much for listening, and we’ll see you again.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article VinePair Podcast: Are Hybrid Vines the Future of Wine? appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/podcast-hybrid-vines/

[rwaggs81]

2-9

I left this trip open ended, as far as my return flight was concerned.  I didn’t know where I’d be when it was time to come home, and I didn’t know when that would be.  I gave myself 6 weeks total, but understood that it may only be 4 or 5.  I had a sense that the time to leave would come on suddenly, and it turns out that I was correct.  I’ve followed my initial plan to some extent, with a detour or an extended stay at one place or another.  I had originally planned to end up in northern Thailand, and leave from there, but unfortunately, after a month, I think my batteries are worn out.  I’m sure there are amazing things in Chiang Mai, Pai, Chiang Rai etc etc to see and do.  The fact however, is that I’ve reached a point to where I’m forcing it.  My thoughts are not in the here and now, but in the return to home.  I do not believe that changing the flavor of the southeast Asian backdrop is going to add anything to my experience at this point, and whatever I was to take from this particular trip has been taken.

So, tomorrow at 5 pm or so, I will board a plane and fly home.  Flying home is weird, as with flying back over the international date line, I will leave here at 5 pm, and return at just after 6 pm of the same day, regardless of the 16 hour travel time.  I expect that to thoroughly throw me for a loop.

I want to thank everybody for the support and amusement you’ve provided me through social media during this trip.  There is lots of advice to be had in travel books that the proper way to do this is to disconnect yourself from all of that.  Certainly our parents and grandparents who trekked the “hippy roads” through this part of the world in the 60s would not have been able to do more than send a letter here and there.  I think that there is probably value to this advice, and I think that it would probably work well for many...but at this point, I believe this to be out of my comfort zone in any practical sense.

I’m having an interesting time reflecting on this trip.  As soon as I made the decision and booked the return ticket, I became oddly sleepy, like my mind has let down a guard that it had created.  One thing that has been weighing on my mind was how I was going to find the materials in a foreign city to prepare my bicycle for the return trip.  I went out earlier, blindly, to see about that.  I found packing tape in one small market which was a hardware store of sorts, and in another market that mostly sold Buddha figurines (and apparently shipped them), I haggled my way into a length of bubble wrap.  Based on my research, this should suffice.

People are going to ask me a lot of questions when I get back.  (How was it?  What did you do?  Did the locals speak English?  Did you feel safe?  Would you go back?)  These are going to be harder to answer than it seems.  It was great, and it was lonely, and it was sad, and it was exciting and it was scary sometimes.  It’s a month of time.  At home, you seldom have a month of time which can be defined with one emotion or impression.  I made some amazing friends I’ll never see again, and some that I may.  I served as an ambassador for America in the Trump era to young Europeans and Australians who’s impression of us right now is largely based on this constant news cycle.  I even served as an Ambassador FOR Trump, in a couple of cases, oddly enough.  Not for the man himself, but for the reasons he was a predictable outcome.

I saw stifling poverty, uncommon industriousness, lives of sadness, historical sites of even greater sadness.  I saw the indelible mark that the policies of Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford left on this part of the world, and yet was still treated gently and with kindness by the locals almost universally.  I felt hot and uncomfortable 90% of the time due to the hot and very humid climate mixed with my propensity to sweat from the head.  I often felt embarrassingly unpresentable in the face of people who seemed completely unaffected by the climate.  I felt very lonely a lot of the time.  It is admittedly this that probably took the charge out of my batteries ultimately, but it is not this alone...

The truth is that I do not resonate particularly well with the current cultures in this part of the world.  I am not repulsed by them.  I am not scared of them.  I love people everywhere.  I love the food, obviously (though I’ll probably take some time off).  But I think that perhaps the volume of tourism here, overwhelmingly at the hands of young Europeans of various backgrounds, Australians and Kiwis, has left too deep of a mark at this point.  To the hyper aware personality, such as myself, it starts to create a feeling of inauthenticity.  (I do understand that the areas travelers commonly get pulled into are not representative of any country as a whole, but, especially when one is by themself and not a seasoned traveler, traveling too far outside these zones becomes uncomfortable for other reasons...language barrier coming right to mind. ) These are historically conservative Buddhist (and in some cases Hindu before that) countries.  Was there really a history of happy ending massages and fake name brand products being sold everywhere before our influx?  Everything here is commerce for the sake of commerce, and foreigners such as myself jump right in.  I met a Swedish fellow who was legitimately upset when a Tuk Tuk driver wanted $3 for a ride that maybe should’ve cost $2.  Another girl thought it entirely out of line to pay $4 for a perfectly good pair of flip flops.  I’m positive that I paid more than I could’ve otherwise for a good many things because I just can’t find it in myself to look into the face of the lady who spends her day walking around peddling sunglasses that I need this one dollar we’re arguing over more than she does.

The other truth is that, compared to the U.S., these countries are extremely autocratic.  I cannot escape the sense that a simple mistake could land me in the hands of an authority who doesn’t speak my language, doesn’t care if I want to talk to my lawyer but does want $1000 from me to clear it up.  Or worse, end up somehow like the backpackers in Siem Reap who may not face trial for 6 months for being overly sexual at a private party (the official story, anyway).  If I take anything away from this trip, it is going to be an extremely enhanced appreciation for living in a country which is more free than most (with some very notable exceptions).  I will probably have less tolerance in myself for bitching over small things after seeing how hard life can actually be for people....how hard work can be...how little one could make...how deep corruption can sink its teeth.

I had also hoped that somehow getting away from everything could help with some closure or insight about having lost my mom to cancer this year.  It is actually what sparked the trip.  I’m honestly not sure I can yet report on the effectiveness of this.  She would’ve wanted me to do this, since I’d been talking about it forever, so I do take some comfort in that.  I’m not sure, however, that there is any magic bullet to heal that wound, and that time rules the day, ultimately.  Many outcomes of this I will not realize until later.

I am sad that I’m leaving at this point, but I don’t have any thought that I will end up regretting it.  I have a pretty good imagination, and I think I can envision the places I missed based on the places I’ve been.  I find myself wanting a road trip to Utah or something at this point more than another Thai, Cambodian or Vietnamese destination, and that’s okay.  That speaks more about me than it does about here, in my opinion.  A month is a long time to be away.  I am beginning to feel unproductive and like I’m spending money and time just to spend them.  I can’t honestly see how all of these 20 something gap year kids do this for 6 months to a year without feeling like they’re just spinning their wheels at some point, but to each their own.  I look forward to more traveling in my future, but I think I have a pretty good sense now of my personal expiration date on any given trip.  Your results may vary.

Mostly, I want everyone to know that I’ve missed you all very much, and I’m happy to be coming back to the place I count as home.

[glittergummicandypeach]

Rejecting parents’ religion: parenting advice from Care and Feeding.

Care and Feeding is Slate’s parenting advice column. Have a question for Care and Feeding? Submit it here or post it in the Slate Parenting Facebook group.

Dear Care and Feeding,

All my life I have raised my child Christian, and now as she moves on to college and has a boyfriend, I’ve got it out of her that they are atheists. It devastates me, but I also know it is up to her to get her salvation.

The above statements are what I know my parents feel. I am the atheist child.

What do I do to help my parents feel less crushed? I know they only want me to accept God again, but I just don’t believe. I understand their faith, I just don’t want them to continue to feel hurt by seeing me.

As I move on to hopefully marry someone who agrees with me on my views, I feel they will continue to be devastated. And, will cry tears of agony instead of joy if they attend my wedding.

I know my views could change, but I seriously just want to hear what I can do to lower their agony.

—Child Turned Away

Dear CTA,

You are a kind and gentle person. I’m actually very touched by the concern you express for your parents’ feelings. It indicates they are not being total D-bags to you about the situation, which is great, but also complicated: When parents are being total D-bags about your loss of faith (which may not be a loss for you), it’s a lot easier to tell them to pound sand and move on with your life. When parents just seem fragile and sad about it, a lot of protectiveness and misplaced guilt can kick in. Fragility and sadness can also be very effective tools of control. Don’t feel like you have to apologize, equivocate, or take on the burden of their sadness.

You’re no longer a child. You’re their child, but none of us get any guarantees about our children, I can assure you. I’m a generic Protestant who is pretty into it without being an evangelical, so my lovely and mega-progressive shit-stirring Catholic mom is only mildly disappointed I’m on the JV squad of God and not playing varsity, and my lovely atheist dad is mostly bemused, as he really did lay out a great case for Only the Sweet Release of the Cosmic Void Awaits Us All (frequently a very comforting thought in its own right). They’re fine. I have no idea if my children will turn out to want or seek or find faith. I believe in God and that one day the circle will be unbroken, but today I cried for (checks watch) almost 45 minutes about John Prine dying, so it’s certainly not a magic balm that eases all lives and has the power to protect us from the fear of death. Religion can be a real motherfucker, as history past and present shows us.

My answer is that I want you to try to first release this weighty sense of obligation for their feelings that so clearly presses on you. You have nothing to be sorry for. You didn’t burn down their garage. They have experienced a form of loss and that’s for them to work through. But you do feel a sense of obligation to lighten their load, and I want to acknowledge that and offer some words of help.

Don’t dangle any “well, who knows what the future holds?” carrots in front of them. If a burning bush speaks to you, you can handle that when it comes. Expectation management is one of the true keys of human existence.

You are a person with values. Some of those values probably came from your parents. You can thank them for those values, if they have helped you become the good person you clearly are, without needing to buy into the belief system that provided them to your parents in the first place. You can talk to them about your own values. You do not have to be the Best Atheist in the World Who Cares About All Living Things and Climate Change and Systemic Inequality Every Single Damn Day; you can just be yourself. You’re the same kid they had last year. A good person.

You can also, down the road, absolutely say, “If you are gonna cry tears of agony at my wedding, don’t come.” That’s nonsense. If they try to win you back to Christ with teary phone calls in the more immediate future, you can say, “Let’s talk in a few days when you’re calmer.”

Just be yourself, all of yourself, be gentle but firm, maintain boundaries when necessary, and love them the best you can. That’s all anyone can do. I also encourage you to be aware of your own sense of loss, if you ever do perceive it as such, and to seek help from secular counselors if you need to process it. That doesn’t have to mean “I miss believing in God”; it can mean “I am sad that my natural progression as a human who lives in the world has affected my most foundational relationships and need to mourn that.” I’m glad you have found meaning and happiness in your life, and I wish you all the joy in the world.

Dear Care and Feeding,

I have a 4-year-old son who hums loudly while eating food he really enjoys. My husband thinks this is inappropriate behavior at the table and is a problem to be corrected. I see absolutely nothing wrong with it and assume he will grow out of it. He’s a completely normal delightful/crazy-making 4-year-old.

I don’t want my husband wasting quality time with his son harping about something that doesn’t really matter. Am I wrong on this?

—Loves a Pleasant Tune

Dear LaPT,

Oh, what a deliciously small problem, thank you so much for this. Honestly, at 4, I think your husband is right that it’s time to phase out loud vocalizations during dinner. (If your son has any markers for any developmental issues other than joyous food humming, and it turns out to be a verbal stim, I would probe that first, and I would be more inclined to let him enjoy his humming.) In the absence of such a reason, it’s not going to go over great at school, it’s clearly annoying the heck out of your husband, and I enjoy tremendous numbers of things I cannot do in front of other people at a sit-down dinner. It does not have an impact on my human flourishing, I assure you.

I don’t think “please do not hum at the table” is “wasting quality time.” It’s just parenting. He’s not going to look back on his life and say, “If only the two weeks it spent me to get my kid not to sound like a bumblebee when we had stroganoff for dinner could have been spent tossin’ the old pigskin around.” This will be over quickly, and you will barely remember it. If your husband is the only aggravated party, obviously you can expect him to be the “no humming” point person on this. You do not have to chime in, but I would encourage you not to actively undermine him in his quest, which is always a mistake for nonabusive familial situations.

See, too, if there’s a way he can take this musical impulse and do something a little less disruptive with it. I don’t mean “get him a harmonica,” but he might enjoy learning to sing. Exchange the behavior for a more productive one, if possible.

Congratulations on being an excellent cook! If your husband is the excellent cook, please pass on my compliments.

• If you missed Thursday’s Care and Feeding column, read it here.

• Discuss this column in the Slate Parenting Facebook group!

Dear Care and Feeding,

Just like everyone these days, I fear COVID-19. I’m staying at home, going to the store only when necessary, etc. My boyfriend is a police officer, and although I know he is very cautious, I’m worried about him unintentionally infecting me due to him having to work and human interaction. I have an autoimmune disorder and have repeatedly told him these concerns, yet he still comes over daily. He knows it’s serious but at the same time thinks it’s completely overblown. I’ve been clear that I do not agree. He’s taking it personally which floors me. I’m at a complete loss on how to handle this at this point.

—Losing It in Longview

Dear LIiL,

I need clarity on one point: Have you told him directly that he needs to stop coming to your house? Because if you have, as opposed to just telling him you’re worried and concerned about your autoimmune condition and the possibility of exposure, then he is in direct violation of your personal autonomy and you need to a) break up with him and b) carefully, as he clearly does not respect a “no.”

If you haven’t said, “I need you to stop coming over until things are under control,” then you need to say it now, today, and if his response is that you might as well just break up, that’s his choice. If he continues to violate your wishes, see the above paragraph. Our essential workers are essential, but so is your health.

I am not a dating columnist, but you came to me and here I am. I do not like this situation for you.

Is It OK to Go to the Zoo During the Coronavirus Pandemic?

Dan Kois, Jamilah Lemieux, and Elizabeth Newcamp host this week’s episode of Slate’s parenting podcast, Mom and Dad Are Fighting.

Dear Care and Feeding,

I’m not doing well. Are other parents doing well? I feel like the only person drowning when I see Instagram posts of learning-and-chore charts. I have to “work from home” with two small kids, and there just aren’t enough hours in the day. We do our best to do the remote learning we’re given, but some days it’s “let’s read a few books and then watch educational shows on Netflix.”

—I Feel Like a Schlub

Dear IFLaS,

We live in strange times, as did all previous generations at one point or another (Joni Mitchell spent weeks in a polio ward with essentially zero contact with her parents when she was 9 and still wrote “The Last Time I Saw Richard” eventually). You’re doing fine. Instagram is a lie. Be kind to yourself, do your best, and remember that every other kid is going to eventually return to school in a slightly more feral state and will need to catch up on things. The teachers know this. It’s just reality. You do not have to be a superstar; you just need to get through this. I also feel like I’m dropping the ball constantly, and I’m supposed to be a professional.

We’re in this together. Most kids have two months of essentially no education every summer, and yet they manage to grow and flourish and learn. One year where every kid gets double summer is not going to amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Younger kids, like yours, are going to barely remember this.

I let my kids watch part of Thor: Ragnarok yesterday. We’re all just making it through the day. My friends who are teachers are struggling just like everyone else. I think you’re great.

— Nicole

More Advice From Slate

My loving, kind boyfriend of five years has spent the last 10 months in prison. He was off to a great start in his profession when a friend snitched and he got in trouble for possession with intent to distribute an illegal drug (that is legal one state over). He is now getting out of jail in his early 30s with more than $180,000 in student loan debt, a felony conviction, and is losing his professional license. We have stayed together during this ordeal, and luckily my family and friends are very supportive. I love him dearly and can’t wait for him to be home, but as his release date gets closer, I am starting to have a return of some of the anxiety symptoms I began having after his arrest. I work full time in a field I am very passionate about and could eventually be employed by the government. I am worried about how his record will affect me in the long term. I also sometimes feel that I am being a real idiot for staying with him due to his poor decisions. However, I am crazy about him, and we have so much fun together all the time. Any advice?

Get more Care and Feeding

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This content was originally published here.

[radiopure]

Interview: Telephone Explosion / Morning Trip

We are now broadcasting on n10.as radio each month. Watch our instagram for show times.

Telephone Explosion records has been releasing high quality music since 2007. Starting off with a focus on local garage rock, the label has expanded in the years since to include new music and reissues, spanning ambient, post punk, folk, and hard-to-categorize music of all kinds.

The label is an expression of the collective taste of founders Jon Schouten and Steve Sidoli, and Jon stopped by to deliver us a special guest mix of music he’s listening to, and to talk about the label’s history, and their new venture with imprint Morning Trip.

Telephone Explosion Bandcamp Telephone Explosion Instagram Telephone Explosion site Morning Trip Bandcamp

So the label started as a garage rock label, and I feel kind of a kinship to you because you have pivoted into a more open-format and outsider music label rather than sticking to the sound you started with. Yeah, I mean I feel it's what you're into at a time. I think the label is this physical record, documenting our movement through music as enthusiasts. And like even though it started, like you said, as a garage rock label and it was really genre-focused, that's the world we were in, that's the music all of our friends were playing, and that's the music that we were playing. I don't know if it was too much of one thing or something, but we grew out of it. We just wanted to be able to do anything we felt like, without being limited to a genre. We're at a point now where I feel good that we can do anything. Our next record is a free-jazz record, and that's our first jazz record.

I remember when you did the Steve Roach reissue — actually it was the Bruce Haack that started it. It surprised me and made me pay closer attention to the label. How did you get to that place? Yeah, I mean we were just fans of Bruce Haack. Bruce started the whole reissue side of the business for us. We did Electric Lucifer 2 which was our first ever reissue, and it's a bit of a weird one to start with because it wasn't Electric Lucifer 1, but that's the album that we gravitated to, and we got in touch with Ted who passed a few weeks ago, unfortunately. We didn't even know if there was a market for reissues, which, sitting here today [laughs] it's such a funny thing to think. That started it. I think we did a couple-a-year for a few years. But that led into us doing four albums by him. We just did Preservation Tapes which is an archival projects that we did last year. And then getting into Steve Roach, again it was just we discovered that album and had a conversation with him that was going on probably about a year, and trying to figure out how to do it. Eventually it just came together. But I mean Structures From Silence, again, it's just such a pivotal album for me. When I discovered it, I was like "this is insane, this music is so deep."

Tell us about some of the choices in the mix. Well I mean, I'm going to obviously highlight the Laraaji & Lyghte track Celestial Realms, because that's one half of the first release of the new imprint that we're doing which is called Morning Trip with a friend of ours Dave Nardi. It's a new imprint that we launched this year that we'd been working on for the last half year, and it's dedicated to experimental and ambient reissues. So Celestial Realms is a pretty obscure cassette-only release from I think '85 that Laraaji did with Lyghte who is a guitar player and his name's Jonathan Goldman. It's two tracks that are 23-minutes-ish apiece. It's kind of based in Laraaji's tonal palette, which is zither and bells, and Lyghte is playing guitar over top of it. You can't even tell it's guitar for the most part; it's just this beautiful ambient voyage that is perfect for background music. Perfect if you just really want to zone out and pay attention and get into an expansive piece. Yeah it's it's it's a fun listen, it's a trip, you know? It's a morning trip.

Yeah, let's talk about Morning Trip, how how did it come about and why did you want to do an imprint? Yeah I mean we wanted to do another imprint just because of capacity issues for Steve and I. Steve works full time, I'm freelance, and I work on this more. But still it's a lot of work to put out records. And we wanted to be doing more, so it just made sense to find the right person to do an imprint with, a separate imprint. We're facilitating Dave's vision and helping him with it, but it's purely you know curated by Dave. So yeah, we want to do more, we want to do something different and grow, and Dave has impeccable taste that's very much in line with where we're going.

How do you divide the labour up in a reissue imprint, between having the vision and executing? Yea, it's very collaborative. Dave presents ideas and we talk about it and we look at the details of it because obviously the reissue climate is like kind of insane right now. You know you'll stumble upon people, you'll find them, you'll e-mail them, communicate with them one way or another, and they'll be maybe paranoid that you found them, and they've left music for one reason or another, and maybe it brings up something in their past where they don't necessarily want to revisit that. And then there's other people that were maybe a bit more successful when they were doing music, and the music industry has changed so much that they're extremely unrealistic in terms of the finances of repressing you know 500 or 1,000 albums. So it's just kind of unpredictable.

Yeah I find it interesting, owning a label in 2019 seems as challenging as ever. Having been around for a little while, is it more challenging than ever, or are there just new modes of behaving? For us it always feels new because we're always pushing into new territory and trying to grow. We don't really know, I mean the label started as like a cassette-only label 10 years ago, we weren't really participating in the proper music industry, and it still feels like we're learning as we go. Every year feels like there's more successes and there's more challenges, and they're different. They change with the times. And everyone's always afraid of this vinyl boom coming to an end, and it always feels like it's kind of on the horizon but it never is. So there's a little bit of fear involved I guess.

So if you were starting from scratch in 2019, would you do cassettes again? Would you do digital? I think we would be kind of where we are today. I think offering a physical product is still really, really important. It gives people something to connect with, and I connect with it personally. It supports artists on the road, and it helps us diversify your revenue streams. You're not going to make pretty much any money [laughs] off of Spotify. I feel like everybody knows that. But Spotify, for us, and kind of the digital realm, we treat it more like marketing. It's marketing that kind of pays us vs. us to paying into it. Like if somebody sees a review or their friend posts something cool on Instagram and then they go to check it out, the first place they're gonna go to is Spotify and if it's not there then they're gonna go "OK, next."

Alright, give me another favourite moment from the mix. I'm going to go with Terry Riley and Don Cherry - Descending Moonshine Dervishes. I'm a huge Terry Riley fan, and this isn't a real album, this is a bootleg live session, I think it's from '75, There's a couple versions of it kicking around. When I heard this it just floored me. There's no other way to say it. It's classic Terry Riley, crazy arpeggiate-y micro-tonal organ riffage with this beautiful Don Cherry trumpet over top. And to me it's the perfect combination of two people coming together for a project. I'm kind of sad that maybe it wasn't released properly or whatever, but I also like the fact that it's kind of obscure and live and very of-the-time that these guys just got together, probably didn't rehearse, and jammed it out live and recorded it, and I'm just happy that exists.

[legendary]

Constructing a Dystopian World

A Conversation with The Thinning Director Michael Gallagher

A Conversation with The Thinning Director Michael Gallagher

The Thinning is a new YouTube Red Original Movie from Legendary Digital Studios starring Logan Paul, Peyton List, Lia Marie Johnson, Calum Worthy and Ryan Newman. Set in a future where population control is dictated by a high school aptitude test, two students must take down the system before it takes them first. We had the chance to sit down with Michael Gallagher, director of The Thinning, to talk about how he went about creating an original dystopian world from the ground up, what it was like working with Logan Paul, and what real world elements inspired the film’s design. See what he had to say below.

Q: Legendary has a history of putting an emphasis on “world building” and The Thinning very much follows that trend. Talk about what it was like creating an entirely original dystopian world from the ground up for this. Did you pull inspiration from any other dystopian/sci-fi/young adult geared stories or worlds to help you create this one?

MG: The movie is set in a sort of not-too-distant future / bizarro version of America— an authoritarian government runs all schools like prisons. The failed students are sentenced to death and passing students are thrown lavish parties. Designing the high security school was key. We have a fictional task force called the Department of Population Control— DPC for short. Showing a high school run by militarized guards forcing students into a scary TSA-style search really helped warn the audience that this is a new America. I was heavily inspired by paranoid thrillers of the 60’s and 70’s like The Parallax View and 3 Days on the Condor. I love movies following an innocent thrown into a conspiracy plot and having to prove that nothing is as it seems or they will lose their life in the process. I am also a huge fan of the social satires of John Carpenter, who is such a master at exploring current issues in a sci-fi setting and making them edge-of-your-seat, entertaining thrill-rides.

Q: The Thinning feels timely and relevant in so many ways, even aside from any political themes. The film feels like it resonates with young people and their anxiety about school and getting into college and test-taking in particular, especially as there’s more and more focus put on learning differences and test-taking abilities. What was it like satirizing this in a way that hadn’t been done before?

MG: School always felt like it had life-or-death stakes to me. Kids are trained from literally pre-school, that they have to do well on tests, get good grades, and get accepted into the best college or your life will be a complete failure. And most of the emphasis is put on the weekly/monthly results as opposed to actually learning and retaining information. And the fact that colleges are becoming so expensive that students are taking out massive loans that they are stuck paying long after school is over. So really students are becoming imprisoned in debt by following the system. I don’t want to discourage teens from going to college, but I do think it’s important to not just follow what everyone else is doing and find your own path.

Q: Talk a little bit about finding and shooting in the high school location – that was a real school right? It looks so futuristic and cold in a way that feels like it should have been made up just for this film.

MG: We found this real, public high school called Diamond Ranch out in Pomona, California designed by Thom Mayne. I never thought we’d find a school that already looks like a high tech prison. All we had to do was add motorized metal shutters to create the lockdown effect, a few metal detectors, guards, and we were good to go! 

Q: The officers in the film definitely have some twisted Stormtrooper vibes to them and go a long way in creating the tension of the world. What was the process in designing their look?

MG: I was heavily influenced by riot police imagery, particularly in other countries like the Taiwan— we used the same ballistic face masks that they use. I think using real items in a new way can be an efficient means to stay grounded and keep costs down while building a new universe. I love the tactical feel of Sicario and how brutal the police imagery felt. But I realized that the feeling of a tough and punishing task force was achieved by just watching these soldiers waiting for something to happen. This led me to take time early on in the film and show the DPC Guards watching the students, waiting for someone to get out of line. The threat of violence is often more terrifying than showing acts of violence.

Q: : It’s not easy to make a scene of kids taking a test particularly exciting, but the film succeeds in making those sequences perhaps the most tense of any in the film. How do you go about constructing that tension in the cinematography, visual and sound design, and editing?

MG: I was so lucky to be surrounded by an incredibly talented team. Our Composer, Brandon Campbell, did a phenomenal job scoring this movie. His music creates so much heart-pounding tension. Our camera team— Greg Cotten, Director of Photography, and Arjun Prakash, Gaffer, really nailed the lighting and atmosphere of the testing sequences— we wanted an eerie blue-green glow from the tablets as the main source of light on the students faces to give them a sickly look as they nervously punch in answers. But the biggest props go to Brian Ufberg, Editor, who really built an amazing pace for the testing sequences. It was their combination of talents that made those scenes so cinematic and tense.

Q: Logan Paul is obviously a big talent but this was one of his first ventures into dramatic acting. What was that like working with him to bring Blake to life?

MG: Logan Paul is an enormous talent. He came into audition for the movie, as this role was worlds different from the type of persona he normally portrays online, and he just nailed it. I was honestly amazed at how controlled and dedicated he was to creating this character from the ground up. When he walked out of the audition room, we all knew Logan was our Blake Redding. And throughout rehearsals and production, Logan was so focused and incredibly fun to work with. He has an infectious energy and kindness that rubs off on everyone. I really can’t wait to work with him again...

Q: The film feels oddly relevant with some aspects of our current political climate. When you were developing this, were there any real-world headlines you were pulling from as inspiration or is it mostly a coincidence that the film has turned out to be a sort of satire of our current political landscape?

MG: Our running joke is that The Thinning is a vision of “post Trump” America— and that if we do a sequel it will just be a documentary. The film was meant to feel more dystopian than I think it actually does because of the recent political promises of restoring “law & order” back to America. The only person who I hope doesn’t watch this movie is President Trump. I’m afraid it might give him some ideas…  

Q: The film hints at the larger world beyond Texas and the US in the creepy video before the little kids take their test. Can you tell us what life is like in any other countries with the way they handle the need to cull the population? Any possibility of exploring other parts of the world going forward?

MG: We originally expanded on the bigger population questions in our screenplay. Because the story is so centralized to America, we felt it might be confusing to have so few mentions of other regions. The idea is that every country can choose how they will meet their quota of eliminating 5% of their population annually. Some countries would have mandatory birth control, others would eliminate 5% of the elderly— you can see how it can quickly raise so many questions. If we were to continue the story, I hope to explain that the thinning is a controversial law that some US states are attempting to replace with other solutions— which explains the Governor’s charge to run a pro-thinning platform and make it a federal law.

Q: Talk a little bit about the film’s color palette and how it changes throughout the story. I noticed early on how gray the school was before all hell breaks loose and a lot of reds and blacks obviously work their way in once the breakout begins. How did you go about mapping that out?

MG: In the script, we had a clear idea of using the red light as a sort of mood setter— to show that this world we know is being disrupted and our heroes are in immediate danger. There is a major power shift at that moment in the script so it’s nice to visually convey this to the audience with a dramatic change in color palette. Our production designer, Alec Contestabile, was really terrific in helping determine the colors and moods of various locations— we landed on cool metallic blues for the school and dry yellows for the desert to really create that desolate sand-swept Texas vibe.

Q: Without spoiling anything, the film ends with a big surprise that still leaves many things open-ended. Can you give us any hints at what’s to come next?

MG: Honestly, I am just following the political news as closely as possible to get ideas. I feel like any continuation of The Thinning will have to be more comedic since real life is basically devolving into a long, sad, episode of VEEP. But in all seriousness, any sequel would follow our characters further down the rabbit hole and show how deep the corruption goes within the government. And we will definitely add more fuel to some of the love triangles because if there is anything I love more than crazy politicians, it’s love triangles.

The Thinning is currently streaming on YouTube Red and is NOW available to rent or purchase on iTunes, Google Play, and Amazon. Storyboard art by Amy Umezu

[20qs20somethings]

John Paul, 25

1. Can you use three to five words to describe our generation? Hopeful, Connected, Hard-Working, Resilient, Contrarian 

2. Talk about a person or an experience that has helped shape you into the person you are today? So when I was a sophomore in high school, I had a teacher named Doc Freeman who we called Doc because he had a PhD, but he was teaching in this high school in Oklahoma. He would do these essay contests that he would force us do so he would sit us down and have us write personal anecdotes, essays, poems, and he would submit them to these national, international contests. So before him, I had never even considered that I was a writer or that I could even make words into something that people would read, but I started winning these contests because of him. 

Probably the most defining moment for me in high school was probably the morning I found out I won this national essay contest. I came to school and he had this smart board where if someone ever won anything, he would put up this slide with a bunch of stars on it that said “reach for the stars!” or something and it would have someone’s name that won something. I didn’t know that I had won this essay contest, he turns the screen on, I’m sitting there and it says “John Paul Brammer” on this screen that I had won this huge essay contest. 

At this time in my life I had never had any sort of attention, I wasn’t one to win anything or be the kid who got congratulations in school announcements and it made me feel so special and correct, it felt right. I think about that moment all the time as sort of the moment that catapulted me into this kind of work and the person I wanted to be.

3. Selfies: Thoughts? I’m into them, I don’t know why people hate them so much. Listen, we’re all gonna die, self edify.

4. Who or what is your biggest motivator in life? I feel these huge gaps of things that I’m supposed to do, and I don’t know what they are, I just know I have to build them and not building them makes me feel anxious. Having those gaps present makes me feel uncomfortable and the discomfort I feel forces me to make things and build things. So I would say discomfort is a huge motivator also, my family obviously, I think about my abuela a lot. 

5. Do you believe in love? It depends on what you mean. There’s romantic love, self love, friendly love, unhealthy love. I don’t know where I stand on it. I believe in being close to people and I believe that really amazing things can happen out of that closeness, affection, and mutual respect that you feel for another human being. So yeah, of course it’s real. I think people tend to romanticize it and that people tend to have an idea of it that isn’t helpful or true at the end of the day. 

6. Do you volunteer? Why? I do sometimes. It feels kind of obligatory, I think that in this system if you’re afforded a certain level of comfort you kind of recognize that that comes at the expense of somebody’s discomfort. So the least you can do is try to mitigate that as best you can within the framework of this hugely problematic system we live in. 

7. Fill in the blank: “Happiness is _______” When you figure out who you are and you just be that.

8. What are your thoughts on race? I think that race is a fiction that informs reality and that when we talk about the realities of race, the things that have come up around it, the structures that people have built using it as the fulcrum to create oppression, to create disparities and experiences to create these unpleasant, brutal realities. We can’t divorce that from the fact that at the end of the day is not rooted in any sort of inherent, biogenetic thing. But we can’t use that to dismiss the realities either. 

So when I think of race, I think of an ideology, I think of something that is built, a structure that was created to benefit a handful of people that was created by people who at that time had power and authority. I think it is still benefitting those people today even though the people who consciously created that are long gone, we have a lot of unconscious benefactors. 

We also have people who consciously contribute to it, we have people who unknowingly collaborate with it and collude with this hierarchy. I think that navigating race is to navigate the system, to navigate that thing that a lot of us aren’t aware of and a lot of us aren’t conscious of and we all sort of continue to contribute and collaborate with. You can still be a person of color and contribute to white supremacy by internalized self hatred or colorism. It’s something you have to think about, it’s something you have to learn the roots of and it’s something you have to figure the mechanics out if you want to be a better person and dismantle white supremacy and these ideas that keep people hating themselves and keep people underneath someone else. 

9. Do you think you’re represented in things you consume in media? (TV, Movies, Books, etc.) No, I’m not. I’m queer, I’m latino, I’m indigenous. That’s not something I’m gonna see pop up a lot. I think it’s getting better and I think more people are beginning to understand why representation matters both in the positive and negative context. 

We saw it in the election when nazi’s everywhere were suddenly showing up and people were like, “oh my god the nazi’s are back on the main stage.” So there are people who understand why that’s bad but don’t understand why having underrepresented people in a book or TV show is necessary. So representation really goes hand in hand and sort of informs the global or national cultural consciousness. It informs how you see another person, what stories get told, who you empathize with. So no, I don’t see myself there, but I’m glad to in a minor way, fulfill that and maybe create things that people see themselves in. 

10. Who or what brings you the greatest joy in your life? Freedom when I do the thing I was afraid to do. When I overcome that self sabotage that I’ve been taught like, “Oh I shouldn't wear that because people are gonna say something.” or “I shouldn’t write or say something because people are gonna be mad about it.” When I embrace that instinct of “This is who I am” and I affirm it by indulging it, that’s what brings me happiness. 

11. Do you think the American Dream is still alive? No, I don’t think it was ever alive, I think it’s been a fiction. I think it’s never been accessible for everyone. I think it’s something that was very much constructed for a certain group of people to give them something to aspire to because they think they could attain it, and therefore make them more productive and also exclude a huge amount of other people. I think it was created to benefit the very tippity top and once in awhile, they let someone into that tippity top to make you feel like it’s still there to make you feel like it’s still happening. 

12. How did you feel after November 8th? I felt very similar to the morning that I woke up and figured out about Pulse. I didn’t sleep the night Donald Trump won, I couldn’t go to bed, I was very restless. Not because of that one isolated incident even but because we’re living in a climate. He, Brexit, all the other things that are going on in the world are informing a global mood and I realize, “Okay, this is the chapter of the history book that I’m inhabiting.” So I felt a lot of tragedy, a lot of sadness, I felt that things are gonna be hard, that storm clouds are gathering or they’re here. But in times like that I kick it into gear and think you gotta get to work, you gotta speak, you gotta write, you gotta do everything you can. I felt oddly motivated as if a big why had finally been answered and I understood that this is the character I am in this specific chapter of the book and I know what to do. 

13. What are your thoughts on marriage? I don’t want it. I like companionship, I like the idea that one day I’m gonna find someone who I can tolerate, who tolerates me enough. I think it’s built on it. I think there’s the passion, the love, and the intense emotions. But then there’s the mutual respect and then there’s the thing that doesn’t go away even when you stop feeling sexual with that person. You just develop this rapport or whatever, and that sounds nice like having a team member, a co-conspirator. But as far as marriage is concerned, I don’t see it for me and I don’t get the hype. 

14. Do you think there's a certain pressure to live a certain life online? I think it’s a manifestation of something human beings have always felt which is the need to impress other human beings and make them think, “I have something you don’t.” or “I’m something in your mind that I like.” We’re all just trying to create versions of us that we like better than our current versions and the way we go about that is convincing other people or convincing ourselves of these falsehoods, these things that aren’t real. 

I don’t feel particularly under that illusion for example, I know that what I’m doing on Twitter isn’t groundbreaking and it isn’t making people think that I’m some sort of funny, witty, awesome, amazing person. I am that regardless of that anyone noticing, hearing, seeing, or validating it. Once you figure out this validation shit is not worth it, you’re free, you can do whatever. I’m totally cognizant that I’m wasting so much time on Twitter and that I’m not doing something completely needed and that I’m not this famous or hugely celebrated or widely viewed human being, I don’t need it for that. I think once you recognize that and divorce yourself from that, you can start having fun, which is what I’m doing. 

15. What do you want out of this life? I don’t really know and I think my answer is going to change every single day and I’m going to embrace that. I’m just gonna do what I feel like doing in any specific moment and hope that culminates into a life well spent. It’s working now, I feel happier now than I’ve ever been in my life and I think it’s because I’ve figured out that I’m an unreliable narrator of my narrative. I shouldn’t try to structure who or what I want to be. What I have is this day and this moment and I should just do that thing. 

16. What are qualities that you value? Genuineness, a willingness to laugh at yourself, an ability to swallow your pride, humility, understanding, a willingness to put your flaws out there, introspection, people who know how to straddle that line between being forgiving and being a pushover, people who can take off the airs and be themselves. 

17. What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned so far? That other people don’t get to make the rules. No one knows what they’re doing, you know what you’re doing. When people try to tell you how to be or what to do you should just do yourself. Figure out who you are and if other people aren’t having it, you’re not having them. Stop playing by other people’s rulebooks so often. 

18. What’s the hardest lesson you’ve had to learn? I think it’s that there is genuinely a deep unfairness that sort of permeates and when it happens, it happens. Sometimes the justice isn’t there, sometimes the happiness isn’t there and the good silver lining doesn’t exist. It doesn’t reward you for being a good person all the time, it doesn’t look at unfairness and injustice and say this isn’t right. We live in a deeply unfair world that was shaped by a lot of awful, terrible things and I think that until you recognize that, you can’t really navigate it. 

19. What are you scared of? I’m really scared of not doing the things that I set out to do. I feel in a weird sense, a cosmic mission, and I think we all have one. We’re given this flicker of light that we have to nurture, keep alive, and feed everyday. You have to do a good job at feeding it and making sure no one snuffs it out. I’m really afraid that I will get jaded, give up, and say nothing in this life is worth it, there’s nothing good or there’s nothing worth saving or creating here because it’s all fake, temporary, or that it’ll go away. 

But I am very cognizant that we all have something very special in us, that we all have something that makes life worth living, and that I have to nurture and make sure it stays alive, so that’s what I’m afraid of, letting that go out. 

20. What is the best piece of advice you want to leave the world with? Life is a fiesta, do whatever you want with it. It’s yours, it’s in your hands. You should go out there and live it as hard as you can, be creative. 

[swipestream]

Pathfinder Playtest Review, Part 4

This is part 4 of my review of the Pathfinder Playtest from Paizo. You can see part 1 here, part 2 here, and part 3 here. In this part of the review, I’ll finish up my comments in this series with Game Mastering through Appendices.

If you’re interested in reading along with me during the review, you can pick up the free PDF of the playtest rulebook at Paizo’s site:

Game Mastering

The section starts off with six bullet points to give overall guidance to the GM. I think the guidance misses the mark a bit, but it’s a good start. Unfortunately, the advice given out in that brief segment makes it appear as if the bulk of the work for the world, characters, events, and storytelling land firmly on the GM’s shoulders. This is, to some extent, true. However, I feel that this was a grand opportunity to let the GM know that they are not the driver in the storytelling effort, but a participant with the players in the storytelling. The advice given is solid, but the tone here sets the stage for making new GMs think they are in charge. Any veteran GM will certainly tell you that this is not the case once the players start rolling with their own ideas.

Starting a Session

The segment that covers how to start a session is fantastic! I hope to see this expanded a bit in the final book, but this is a wonderful set of advice. I even learned a few new tips and tricks in this area. Well done, Paizo!

Adjudicating the Rules

This area gives great advice about not looking up specific rules and gives guidance on how to “wing it” when necessary. This is something every “core” rulebook for every RPG should have.

Sharing Responsibilities

This section is given in a brief sidebar. I have a problem with this because quite a few readers of RPGs will skim those areas thinking they are not important. This is a perception thing because if it were important, it would be in the main text, right? I think the six bullet points I mentioned above could be combined with this sidebar to create a new approach to collaborative gaming that excels at great fun and excellent storytelling. Merging these two concepts, I think, would lead to a more powerful statement.

Modes of Play

Just as a refresher, modes are split up into encounter, exploration, and downtime.

The encounter section is too brief. This is the most technical part of the game, and this can lead to it being the hardest to adjudicate properly because of the number of rules, feats, spells, skills, powers, items, monsters, and characters involved. I know. I know. Many books (and articles!) have been dedicated to this very topic, and I don’t expect Paizo to replicate what’s already been covered. However, I think a deeper dive into encounters would be best.

The exploration and downtime modes are covered very well. These two sections are lengthy and solidly give the GM the right information to execute what is a new concept for Pathfinder. The guidance and tips found within these two sections will make running them go very smoothly for an experienced or fresh GM.

Now that I’ve read the entire “Modes of Play” section, I think I figured out what is bothering me with the encounter section beyond its brevity. The encounter section was written for experienced GMs. The exploration and downtime sections were written in a manner that targets new GMs. I feel that Paizo needs to take a fresh look at the encounter section and rewrite it (and expand it) as if they were attempting to teach a brand new GM (as in, brand new to RPGs, not just Pathfinder) how to run an encounter. If they revisit and expand the encounter section with this in mind, I feel it would be a much stronger contribution to the GM section of the book.

Difficulty Classes

I’m going to be brief here. These three pages are well thought out, clear, and give some great examples on how to come up with target numbers on the fly or apply adjustments where necessary. Paizo’s team did an excellent job on this section.

Rewards

I’ve been looking forward to hitting this section ever since I learned that each level requires an even 1,000 XP to obtain instead of an upward-climbing slope of more experience points for the next level than the current one.

Unfortunately for me, the “kill a monster” XP is listed in the supplemental bestiary, which I haven’t taken the time to flip through the PDF yet. I guess that’ll be next on my list of reading (but not reviewing). On the flip side, the XP awards for minor, moderate, and major accomplishments are laid out as 10, 30, and 80, respectively. Even though they call it “group XP” it’s not divided between all the characters. If the group accomplishes a moderate goal, then all the PCs involved gain 30 XP.

There’s a sidebar for “Story-Based Leveling” that is in this section that calls for the GM to decide if and when the characters level up. This puts a sour taste in my mouth. It’s a personal opinion here, but I really don’t like these approaches at all. The players should see the steady gain of XP for their characters (even if they don’t level yet), so there is a sense of accomplishment in that area. Having the GM suddenly decree, “You go up a level.” feels too much like the GM is controlling things. Of course, this could just be me and my experiences with GMs wanting to have too much control. Your mileage may vary in this area.

Environment

There are several pages dedicated to terrain, climate, and hazards. While the lists aren’t complete (I’m assuming they will be more comprehensive in the final, larger book), what is listed there and how the various environmental conditions impact the game are well stated. I like what I see as a set of building blocks toward more content.

The hazards section is very well done. A hazard is the generic term for traps, pits, dangers, and magical effects that can harm or impede the PCs. There are ways to find, trigger, disable, destroy, and/or dispel various hazards depending on their nature. The playtest book came with a sample of three hazards. I had kind of hoped for a few more, but I’m assuming they didn’t want the playtest book to bloat up too much. I’m looking forward to seeing what the final product (and the various expansion books and adventures) have along these lines.

Treasure

The loot! We’re finally at the gold and shiny and magic and wonderful stuff portion of the book. Yeah, I’m a little excited here because I’m interested in seeing how things change up in this section, if at all.

This section opens up with the usual text explaining what they’re going to be talking about, teaching some keywords, and generally laying out the approach to treasure.

After this comes all sorts of tables outlining (almost proscribing) what treasure different level parties should (must?) receive for a fair and equitable game to be run. The fact that the treasure allotment is so heavily proscribed makes me extraordinarily sad.

No more random treasure.

Yeah. You read that right. There are no more dice rolls involved in generating treasure with Pathfinder. This breaks my heart, to be honest. As a GM, I always loved rolling up treasure because it would spark new ideas, thoughts, plot arcs, and cool stuff in my brain. Yeah, if I happened to roll up a majorly disruptive magic item for a low-level group, I’d probably shift things around a bit (or re-roll). However, randomly creating magic items for folks to find is gone. I’ll be over here in the corner shedding a tear for days gone by.

Okay. I’ve had my cry. I’m mostly better now. Looking at the new approach at handing out treasure is fair and balanced. It will assist new GMs from overloading their group with disruptive items while keeping the party well-equipped for future challenges. This is super helpful for new GMs, and I can appreciate this approach at handing out goods. I just wish they’d kept gems, jewelry, and/or artwork as a form of gaining wealth because those can, once again, inspire stories and side plots, not just a gain of wealth. Now, the party will just gain some gold from the hoard and move on.

If I ever run this version of Pathfinder, I’ll most likely break out my 2nd edition AD&D treasure generators (or the first Pathfinder versions) and run with those. They’re more fun than hand-picking treasure, to be honest.

After the list o’ treasure tables ends, the book delves into materials, which is one of the best write-ups of “non-normal” materials I’ve ever seen. Excellent job here. Obviously, the list isn’t complete, but I expect it to expand in the final version.

While flipping through the treasure section, I hit the sections for snares (crafting, detecting, triggering, etc.) and I was baffled here. I’m not sure why these were listed here under treasure, instead of above with the hazards. Did the wrong pages get dropped into the layout in the wrong place?

After snares, comes the alchemical items. This is a cool section. I highly encourage everyone to check this part out. There are oodles of examples, tons of ideas, and great information about how they play in the game. Loud applause for you here, Paizo.

Runes come next, and this is the part of enhancing weapons and armor with special powers. I love how weapons and armor must now be etched with cool-looking runes to become super special. This adds flavor to the world and storytelling options (as well as some neat intimidate/perception uses when someone wearing a well-etched suit of armor walks in the door) to the whole feel of the game.

Last come the details of the various magic items that don’t fall into “weapons and armor.” This comprises the bulk of the treasure section, and I’m not going to detail each item or neat thing. I do want to say that I really want to play an archer (preferably with the elven ancestry) with an Oathbow.

Appendices

This is probably going to be my shortest write-up of any of the sections in the book. The appendices simply are: traits and glossary.

The traits are all of the capitalized keywords (such as Strike) used within the book. The glossary is a good collection of phrases, terms, and things found within the book that may not be readily known to every player.

Final Thoughts

I think the most telling part of “is this a promising product” would be to answer the question, “Would J.T. play this game?”

The answer is, “Yes.”

This is a good foundational book for what promises to be a pretty cool system. There are some rough edges (as there are with any playtest document), but I figure Paizo is wise enough to listen to the feedback sent to them (and hopefully this series of articles) to improve the game.

There is another question looming, however. That question is, “Would J.T. play this version instead of the original Pathfinder?”

The answer is, “No.”

There are a few reasons for this.

The first is that I’m already heavily invested with knowledge, money, habits, and familiarity in the first version of Pathfinder. I have too much “edition inertia” going on to abandon Pathfinder 1.0 for Pathfinder 2.0. If the shift were more subtle between the two, I could see picking it up. However, everything will require major conversions to get from 1.0 to 2.0.

The second is that I’m extremely concerned with the lack of random treasure. Yeah. It’s that big of a deal. I feel it’s a departure too far from the “source material” that was created way back in the 1970s. I don’t like that one bit.

The third is that I don’t see anything drastically improving the game that much. There are tons of incremental improvements and quite a few major changes in the playtest document, but none of them really blew my socks off. There are some new concepts and ideas in here that I think I could shift back into a Pathfinder 1.0 game, but that now leaves me with Pathfinder 1.0 and some house rules (which I already have).

Final question is, “If J.T. were completely new to RPGs and presented with both versions, which one would he pick?”

I’d probably go with the playtest version, to be honest. It’s a better game, and my prejudices built up from playing RPGs for decades (and my Pathfinder edition inertia) would not be a factor in choosing which game to go with.

I know. I know. I’m giving a mixed message here, but there are different angles to look at things.

Paizo put out a solid effort here. I’m impressed with the amount of thought, care, effort, and experience that went into developing this game. They’ve certainly evolved the game. There are some high points in the evolution and some low points as well. I think the high drastically outweighs the low.

I’m very much looking forward to the final version of the game. I’ll take a look at it then and reevaluate things at that time to determine if my stance on moving forward to the new version will change.

Thanks to the Gnome Stew readers out there that stuck with me through these very long articles!

Pathfinder Playtest Review, Part 4 published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

[kayawagner]

Pathfinder Playtest Review, Part 4

This is part 4 of my review of the Pathfinder Playtest from Paizo. You can see part 1 here, part 2 here, and part 3 here. In this part of the review, I’ll finish up my comments in this series with Game Mastering through Appendices.

If you’re interested in reading along with me during the review, you can pick up the free PDF of the playtest rulebook at Paizo’s site:

Game Mastering

The section starts off with six bullet points to give overall guidance to the GM. I think the guidance misses the mark a bit, but it’s a good start. Unfortunately, the advice given out in that brief segment makes it appear as if the bulk of the work for the world, characters, events, and storytelling land firmly on the GM’s shoulders. This is, to some extent, true. However, I feel that this was a grand opportunity to let the GM know that they are not the driver in the storytelling effort, but a participant with the players in the storytelling. The advice given is solid, but the tone here sets the stage for making new GMs think they are in charge. Any veteran GM will certainly tell you that this is not the case once the players start rolling with their own ideas.

Starting a Session

The segment that covers how to start a session is fantastic! I hope to see this expanded a bit in the final book, but this is a wonderful set of advice. I even learned a few new tips and tricks in this area. Well done, Paizo!

Adjudicating the Rules

This area gives great advice about not looking up specific rules and gives guidance on how to “wing it” when necessary. This is something every “core” rulebook for every RPG should have.

Sharing Responsibilities

This section is given in a brief sidebar. I have a problem with this because quite a few readers of RPGs will skim those areas thinking they are not important. This is a perception thing because if it were important, it would be in the main text, right? I think the six bullet points I mentioned above could be combined with this sidebar to create a new approach to collaborative gaming that excels at great fun and excellent storytelling. Merging these two concepts, I think, would lead to a more powerful statement.

Modes of Play

Just as a refresher, modes are split up into encounter, exploration, and downtime.

The encounter section is too brief. This is the most technical part of the game, and this can lead to it being the hardest to adjudicate properly because of the number of rules, feats, spells, skills, powers, items, monsters, and characters involved. I know. I know. Many books (and articles!) have been dedicated to this very topic, and I don’t expect Paizo to replicate what’s already been covered. However, I think a deeper dive into encounters would be best.

The exploration and downtime modes are covered very well. These two sections are lengthy and solidly give the GM the right information to execute what is a new concept for Pathfinder. The guidance and tips found within these two sections will make running them go very smoothly for an experienced or fresh GM.

Now that I’ve read the entire “Modes of Play” section, I think I figured out what is bothering me with the encounter section beyond its brevity. The encounter section was written for experienced GMs. The exploration and downtime sections were written in a manner that targets new GMs. I feel that Paizo needs to take a fresh look at the encounter section and rewrite it (and expand it) as if they were attempting to teach a brand new GM (as in, brand new to RPGs, not just Pathfinder) how to run an encounter. If they revisit and expand the encounter section with this in mind, I feel it would be a much stronger contribution to the GM section of the book.

Difficulty Classes

I’m going to be brief here. These three pages are well thought out, clear, and give some great examples on how to come up with target numbers on the fly or apply adjustments where necessary. Paizo’s team did an excellent job on this section.

Rewards

I’ve been looking forward to hitting this section ever since I learned that each level requires an even 1,000 XP to obtain instead of an upward-climbing slope of more experience points for the next level than the current one.

Unfortunately for me, the “kill a monster” XP is listed in the supplemental bestiary, which I haven’t taken the time to flip through the PDF yet. I guess that’ll be next on my list of reading (but not reviewing). On the flip side, the XP awards for minor, moderate, and major accomplishments are laid out as 10, 30, and 80, respectively. Even though they call it “group XP” it’s not divided between all the characters. If the group accomplishes a moderate goal, then all the PCs involved gain 30 XP.

There’s a sidebar for “Story-Based Leveling” that is in this section that calls for the GM to decide if and when the characters level up. This puts a sour taste in my mouth. It’s a personal opinion here, but I really don’t like these approaches at all. The players should see the steady gain of XP for their characters (even if they don’t level yet), so there is a sense of accomplishment in that area. Having the GM suddenly decree, “You go up a level.” feels too much like the GM is controlling things. Of course, this could just be me and my experiences with GMs wanting to have too much control. Your mileage may vary in this area.

Environment

There are several pages dedicated to terrain, climate, and hazards. While the lists aren’t complete (I’m assuming they will be more comprehensive in the final, larger book), what is listed there and how the various environmental conditions impact the game are well stated. I like what I see as a set of building blocks toward more content.

The hazards section is very well done. A hazard is the generic term for traps, pits, dangers, and magical effects that can harm or impede the PCs. There are ways to find, trigger, disable, destroy, and/or dispel various hazards depending on their nature. The playtest book came with a sample of three hazards. I had kind of hoped for a few more, but I’m assuming they didn’t want the playtest book to bloat up too much. I’m looking forward to seeing what the final product (and the various expansion books and adventures) have along these lines.

Treasure

The loot! We’re finally at the gold and shiny and magic and wonderful stuff portion of the book. Yeah, I’m a little excited here because I’m interested in seeing how things change up in this section, if at all.

This section opens up with the usual text explaining what they’re going to be talking about, teaching some keywords, and generally laying out the approach to treasure.

After this comes all sorts of tables outlining (almost proscribing) what treasure different level parties should (must?) receive for a fair and equitable game to be run. The fact that the treasure allotment is so heavily proscribed makes me extraordinarily sad.

No more random treasure.

Yeah. You read that right. There are no more dice rolls involved in generating treasure with Pathfinder. This breaks my heart, to be honest. As a GM, I always loved rolling up treasure because it would spark new ideas, thoughts, plot arcs, and cool stuff in my brain. Yeah, if I happened to roll up a majorly disruptive magic item for a low-level group, I’d probably shift things around a bit (or re-roll). However, randomly creating magic items for folks to find is gone. I’ll be over here in the corner shedding a tear for days gone by.

Okay. I’ve had my cry. I’m mostly better now. Looking at the new approach at handing out treasure is fair and balanced. It will assist new GMs from overloading their group with disruptive items while keeping the party well-equipped for future challenges. This is super helpful for new GMs, and I can appreciate this approach at handing out goods. I just wish they’d kept gems, jewelry, and/or artwork as a form of gaining wealth because those can, once again, inspire stories and side plots, not just a gain of wealth. Now, the party will just gain some gold from the hoard and move on.

If I ever run this version of Pathfinder, I’ll most likely break out my 2nd edition AD&D treasure generators (or the first Pathfinder versions) and run with those. They’re more fun than hand-picking treasure, to be honest.

After the list o’ treasure tables ends, the book delves into materials, which is one of the best write-ups of “non-normal” materials I’ve ever seen. Excellent job here. Obviously, the list isn’t complete, but I expect it to expand in the final version.

While flipping through the treasure section, I hit the sections for snares (crafting, detecting, triggering, etc.) and I was baffled here. I’m not sure why these were listed here under treasure, instead of above with the hazards. Did the wrong pages get dropped into the layout in the wrong place?

After snares, comes the alchemical items. This is a cool section. I highly encourage everyone to check this part out. There are oodles of examples, tons of ideas, and great information about how they play in the game. Loud applause for you here, Paizo.

Runes come next, and this is the part of enhancing weapons and armor with special powers. I love how weapons and armor must now be etched with cool-looking runes to become super special. This adds flavor to the world and storytelling options (as well as some neat intimidate/perception uses when someone wearing a well-etched suit of armor walks in the door) to the whole feel of the game.

Last come the details of the various magic items that don’t fall into “weapons and armor.” This comprises the bulk of the treasure section, and I’m not going to detail each item or neat thing. I do want to say that I really want to play an archer (preferably with the elven ancestry) with an Oathbow.

Appendices

This is probably going to be my shortest write-up of any of the sections in the book. The appendices simply are: traits and glossary.

The traits are all of the capitalized keywords (such as Strike) used within the book. The glossary is a good collection of phrases, terms, and things found within the book that may not be readily known to every player.

Final Thoughts

I think the most telling part of “is this a promising product” would be to answer the question, “Would J.T. play this game?”

The answer is, “Yes.”

This is a good foundational book for what promises to be a pretty cool system. There are some rough edges (as there are with any playtest document), but I figure Paizo is wise enough to listen to the feedback sent to them (and hopefully this series of articles) to improve the game.

There is another question looming, however. That question is, “Would J.T. play this version instead of the original Pathfinder?”

The answer is, “No.”

There are a few reasons for this.

The first is that I’m already heavily invested with knowledge, money, habits, and familiarity in the first version of Pathfinder. I have too much “edition inertia” going on to abandon Pathfinder 1.0 for Pathfinder 2.0. If the shift were more subtle between the two, I could see picking it up. However, everything will require major conversions to get from 1.0 to 2.0.

The second is that I’m extremely concerned with the lack of random treasure. Yeah. It’s that big of a deal. I feel it’s a departure too far from the “source material” that was created way back in the 1970s. I don’t like that one bit.

The third is that I don’t see anything drastically improving the game that much. There are tons of incremental improvements and quite a few major changes in the playtest document, but none of them really blew my socks off. There are some new concepts and ideas in here that I think I could shift back into a Pathfinder 1.0 game, but that now leaves me with Pathfinder 1.0 and some house rules (which I already have).

Final question is, “If J.T. were completely new to RPGs and presented with both versions, which one would he pick?”

I’d probably go with the playtest version, to be honest. It’s a better game, and my prejudices built up from playing RPGs for decades (and my Pathfinder edition inertia) would not be a factor in choosing which game to go with.

I know. I know. I’m giving a mixed message here, but there are different angles to look at things.

Paizo put out a solid effort here. I’m impressed with the amount of thought, care, effort, and experience that went into developing this game. They’ve certainly evolved the game. There are some high points in the evolution and some low points as well. I think the high drastically outweighs the low.

I’m very much looking forward to the final version of the game. I’ll take a look at it then and reevaluate things at that time to determine if my stance on moving forward to the new version will change.

Thanks to the Gnome Stew readers out there that stuck with me through these very long articles!

Pathfinder Playtest Review, Part 4 published first on https://supergalaxyrom.tumblr.com

[yasbxxgie]

More than 20 years before “Get Out” transformed widespread anxieties about racism into a riveting horror-comedy, Rusty Cundieff’s “Tales From the Hood” got the ball rolling. Taking a tip from “Tales From the Crypt,” the 1995 horror anthology tackled the issues that terrorized black communities in America, from racist police officers to gang violence and the KKK. With those themes still very much a part of the national conversation, “Tales From the Hood” is finally receiving a long-overdue sequel. With Spike Lee again attached as a producer, “Tales From the Hood 2” premieres this month at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal ahead of its direct-to-DVD release later this year.

For those who missed out on the original: Cundieff, whose 1993 hip-hop mockumentary “Fear of a Black Hat” was a breakout Sundance hit, used a framing device that stretches back to the E.C. Comics days. Creepy funeral home director Mr. Simms (Clarence Williams III) welcomes a group of gun-wielding gang members into his abode for a series of grim stories that merge real societal issues with B-movie scares: a Civil Right activist murdered by the cops comes back from the grave for revenge; a household wrecked by domestic violence becomes an outrageous monster-in-the-closet dilemma; a white supremacist running for public office faces the ultimate reckoning when dolls endowed with spirits of a former slave plantation come to life, and so on.

“Tales From the Hood” brought a representational angle to horror that was in short supply, and the movie made nearly twice its production budget when it was released.

For the next several years, Cundieff struggled to get a sequel off the ground. Eventually, he turned to directing television, where his credits include “Chappelle’s Show,” “The Wanda Sykes Show,” and “Black Jesus.” On “Tales From the Hood 2,” Cundieff shares a directing credit with original co-writer Darin Scott. Plot details are under wraps, but enough time had passed that Cundieff had to recast Mr. Simms, since Williams III retired from acting years ago. (Keith David now plays the role.)

Cundieff spoke to IndieWire by phone about his ongoing efforts to resurrect “Tales From the Hood,” and how the recent interest in black horror driven by the success of “Get Out” helped the sequel finally get made.

When did you decide that “Tales From the Hood” could use a sequel?

We wanted to make a sequel since the first one. We just were not able to get it done. We finally ended up in a position where we could get a sequel made. But it’s been something I wanted to see happen for a long time. My relationship with the first one has been interesting. Over the years, it keeps growing its audience. People keep finding it, which is very cool. It’s also been kind of sad to see a lot of the main issues we dealt with in the first one become so relevant again — not that they’ve stopped being relevant, but it seems like right at this moment they’ve even more relevant.

How has the climate for a film like this changed since the first one?

There are a lot of issues that are still out there. Police brutality, dealing with sexual politics. One of the things that happened with the first one is that I’ve had people who were once gang members come up to me and say they stopped being gang members because of “Tales From the Hood,” which is an awesome thing to have happen. The “Crazy K.” segment made them rethink what they were doing.

What’s the reasoning there? Afraid that Mr. Simms will drag them to hell?

I think it’s more the sense that black-on-black crime was doing the job of the white supremacists for them. That resonated for a lot of people.

What was your feeling about the role of black cinema in the film industry when you made the first film? Movies like “Boyz n the Hood” and “Menace II Society” dealt with issues like gang violence, but as straight drama. “Tales From the Hood” stood out because you were working within the confines of the horror genre.

I thought those films that were coming out during that period, which were popular, had a service. They had a community they were talking to, stories you hadn’t seen before in the way they were told. So I thought they were extraordinarily valuable.

What we wanted to do with “Tales From the Hood,” and what we continue to do with it, is to deal with problems in the African-American community and showing how the scariest things that happen to you are the human things that happen to you. We wanted to use the supernatural as a redemptive element as opposed to the thing that you’re running away from. It’s the thing you’re cheering for. That’s what creates the entertainment value. You’re really happy to see things happen to people because they really deserve whatever comeuppance that they get. I don’t know that we set out to necessarily do something opposite from what “Menace” or “Boyz” was doing. I think it was just something that was inherent to the genre of horror films that we could take advantage of.

What was your reaction when you saw “Get Out”? Much of the attention around the film reflects the way you were using horror tropes in “Tales.”

Obviously, I thought “Get Out” was amazing. I’ve heard a lot of people say that “Tales” was doing what “Get Out” did first. In some ways, you could say that we were, but I do think there’s a difference. “Get Out” is one film from beginning to end, so there are more opportunities for nuance and character development. We hit things hard in “Tales From the Hood” because it’s an anthology. I couldn’t be more thrilled that “Get Out” happened and look forward to the opportunities that come for a lot of filmmakers to do stories that are like that, playing around with the genre a little bit more. I also think “Get Out” opened the door for us to do “Tales From the Hood 2.”

You felt there was more interest?

I don’t know what the conversations were on the studio side, but I do know that when “Get Out” came out and did the numbers that it did, a lot of people started to approach me and my writing partner Darin Scott, saying, “Oh, you’re doing ‘Tales From the Hood 2’ now, right?” I was like, yeah, we’ve been trying to do that for about 20 years.

What sort of hurdles did you face when you first tried to get a sequel off the ground?

One, the movie went from being distributed by Savoy Pictures to being a Universal property. [Universal purchased Savoy in 2006.] We finally got a nice Blu-ray transfer. That was difficult because Universal lost all the prints. To be quite honest, I don’t think Universal saw the value of the property. They had it for years and years. We approached them a few times. No one seemed all that interested in it. I don’t think they realized the audience that was out there for it. I’m not even sure they realize the audience that’s out there for it right now. Now we’re doing it with Universal 1440 [one of the studio’s home entertainment labels], and they’re releasing it as a Blu-ray. I don’t know, outside of some screenings Darin and I set, that this movie will be shown in a theater.

Did you ever try to recover the rights?

We looked at that, but from a financial standpoint, we couldn’t make it work. We had a few different moving parts. We tried to get Spike’s involvement back. That was a little difficult. I’m just glad we got it to this point. It was very frustrating for quite a while.

How much does the sequel pull from material you’ve considered over the years?

We came up with a lot of new material. In some ways, we go over the same ground, but in other ways not really. I do think this one does some things that are subtler than the first one. We definitely still have some scares and really big, over-the-top moments. But there are a few quieter stories as well. It was interesting to go back and deal with it again. I’m sure if we’d done it 10 or 20 years ago, it would’ve been a different movie because of our growth as filmmakers.

Did you ever try to talk Clarence Williams III out of retirement?

Absolutely! I begged Clarence. I think he felt like he just wasn’t up to it. He gave us his blessing to move forward. It’s something I know he wanted to do years ago. He’d have different ideas about what the devil should be doing. Every now and then, I’d run into him and he’d say, “I think the devil should be in the Bahamas!” Okay. So I tried to get Clarence back. We owe him the hugest debt, because he really created a character. When people talk about “Tales From the Hood,” the two things that most often come up are the dolls and Clarence Williams III. We didn’t even realize how great he was going to be when we cast him.

The gap between the first movie and the sequel leaves me wondering about the eras you didn’t have the opportunity to comment on. You missed out on the Bush and Obama presidencies. “Get Out” tapped into this unconscious liberal white racism. What was your feeling about the nature of conversations about African American identity — and race in America as a whole — while Obama was president?

Someone tweeted to me a week and a half ago that I was on a podcast with Neil Brennan, who’d worked with Chappelle, prior to Obama being elected. They were saying, “Rusty predicted Donald Trump.” I was like, “I did?” I went back and listened to the audio. Basically, what I was saying was that if Obama got elected, there would be a significant pendulum shift hard to the right and it’s going to be ugly. That’s exactly what has happened. I forgot I’d said that, but it makes sense. I’m always telling people about my pendulum theory of life, which is that anytime something happens on one side, it’s going to swing to the other side. It always happens. You hope that one day the pendulum will swing to the center so people will get over some things.

I wasn’t terribly surprised when the reaction to Obama’s presidency became what it was. I think a lot of people — especially some of my wife’s friends — were like, “Well, there we go. We’ve done it! We’ve slayed that dragon!” No. That dragon’s coming back, and he’s just going to be angrier. That’s all.

What’s next for you?

I’m hoping we can start “Black Jesus” Season 4 soon. Last year, I was the showrunner for “Black Jesus” Season 3 and it’s been caught up in the pipeline because of the TimeWarner/AT&T merger. Now that it appears to be settled, I’m hoping we can start on Season 4. We’re also talking to Spike about doing some other stuff. I’m hoping to get “Fear of a Black Hat” a new lease on life in some format.

Generally speaking, how do you feel about the climate for African-American filmmaking today?

The climate now for black filmmakers and storytellers is really exciting. What you’ve seen is that the corporate community has discovered they can make money doing these stories, so it’s obviously opened up a lot of different avenues for people to share experiences. I’m hoping that it continues. Look back at the ’90s. You had the period of the Hughes brothers and Matty Rich, Spike, Robert Townsend. Then it kind of petered off, and now we’re back into another phase.

Previous to all that, of course, there was blaxploitation, and then that died off. I don’t know how long it’ll go this time, but at the moment, it’s a very exciting time to see so many voices that you haven’t normally heard in the African-American community — and, hopefully, in other underserved communities as well: women, Asian, Hispanic and Latino voices. I think all those communities have stories that can be engaging to audiences beyond their insular communities. I think that’s happening with black projects. I look forward to seeing what else is coming and how long it lasts.

When “Fear of a Black Hat” came out, the New York Times profiled you and also ran an actual glossary of hip-hop terms used in the film. Today, it reads tone deaf — the internet would’ve gone wild. How do you feel about dealing with perceptions of your work beyond the African-American community and the way that has changed?

Wow. I don’t remember that article. That’s really funny. It would be laughed at today. But during the period when that came out, I guess for that audience — by which I mean, people paying for the New York Times — it was probably appropriate. A lot of those readers probably didn’t know that lingo at the time. I would guess now they probably would. It’s interesting to see how quickly phrases and terminology, particularly from the African-American community, meanders its way into general discourse.

People are saying things you wouldn’t expect them to say. How quickly those things become dated. You can’t even keep up with them anymore. It’s a real fast turnover. Trying to keep something to yourself now is almost impossible because of social media and all the different outlets you can watch something on now — on YouTube, Instagram, etc. Everyone involved in the culture of social media sees it, then it’s quickly co-opted by advertisers and Madison Avenue. Then the people who first started saying it are going, “Well, I’m not saying, ‘That shit’s so on fleek’ anymore because it’s so over now. The words just traverse through all strata of cultures and ages so quickly that they become punchlines for a white person on a sitcom.

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What Are Some Major Environmental World Views In A War-Torn World?

In the world today, we have a variety of environmental perspectives that differ vastly. People around the world disagree on the severity of different environmental problems, even though everything is extremely obvious. The disagreements are related to individual principles and ethics regarding the environment, along with individual roles within society. Thus, how people believe the world works and what they see as their role in society is inter-connected. These world views must give us a sense of purpose and meaning. There is much data for analysis and unfortunately people will arrive at very different conclusions due to differing assumptions and values, or maybe some are even coerced in to doing things, or at the very least forced indirectly. Some of these different conclusions regarding environmental world views are “human-centered” or “anthropocentric”. These world views center around human being needs and desires of people. Other views are “life-centric” and “earth-centric”. These biocentric views focus on the entire biosphere and different species within our planet.

Unfortunately, most world views today and in the history of our time have been human-centered which should not be a shock because people lose sight of morality in the face of Darwinism (not possible). We really cannot blame people for the shape that our planet is in since ultimately our society does not have any trust for one another. People cannot be blamed for trying to survive and protect their flocks. This is why the “Planetary Management” worldview can be seen deeply rooted within our society. This view sees humans as being separate from nature and is arrogant and short-sighted enough to believe that we can manage nature to always take care of our increasing needs and desires. But, we must always keep in mind that these people may simply have more pressing issues at hand -- like staying alive. Proponents of this view are comfortable in believing this fallacy because of the advance of technology. These people think that science will save the day no matter what and that the planet has infinite resources, anyways. Rather than acknowledging that we live on nature’s terms or at least together, these people see management of the earth’s resources as a necessity solely for our survival and value the potential for economic development more than the sanctity for life. 

The “Stewardship” environmental worldview believes that humans have an ethical responsibility to be proper caretakers of our planet. This view believes that the earth’s resources will probably never run out and that, however, they shouldn't be wasted. This worldview, also focuses on encouraging environmentally beneficial forms of economic growth and discouraging environmentally harmful ones. How well we support the earth’s eco-systems should not only benefit us, but also the rest of the planet.

The “Environmental Wisdom” world view is quite different and possibly the most in line with our understanding of God, in my opinion. This is because it believes that humans live within nature and that we are totally dependent on it, and that nature exists for not only humans but many different kinds of species (still one family though, like my dog). This view also realizes the fact that resources on planet earth are finite and therefore must never be wasted. When thinking about economic growth, society must encourage sustainable enterprises and eschew supporting earth degrading ventures. We must go out of our way to prepare for the future, together. The problem of having limited resources is a product of our own mistrust for one another. This is what happens when humans follow the law of Darwinism, or survival of the fittest. This is obviously not a viable standard for human behavior. Darwinism is compatible with other species that are more primitive than us. For whatever reason — nature — the circle of life depends on Darwinism when regarding these other species. And, they were equipped with the necessary tools. Safety valves, so to say. Humans do not need Darwinism to survive. Humans need humans to survive. Our success as a whole is dependent on figuring out how nature sustains itself and enforcing these guidelines, together, for all of us.

I favor earth-centered world views because humans and all different types of life are inter-connected parts of the earth’s eco-system. Thus, it is very simple. We are living not on our own property but on someone else’s property. We have no say in how things work on planet earth. That is already predetermined by nature. Thus, it is in our own self-interest not to behave in ways that destroy the overall system. From this point of view, the earth-centered worldview is more practical than the human-centered worldview. People with earth-centered world views feel that humans are not in control of the world and that our economies and other systems are dependent on earth’s life support systems. This view is a holistic one. All of earth’s inhabitants are interconnected and interdependent. It is earth’s natural capital which keeps us and all of the other species alive. This view also realizes that not allowing for the depletion and degradation of this natural capital is the best way for promoting a sustainable society. The earth, does not need us to manage it in order for it to survive and thrive. This is contrary to our need, however, for the earth in order for us to survive.

There is much evidence and agreement that humans have been in the process of degrading our own life supporting system at a disturbing rate, and that inevitably, this behavior will most likely encroach upon human existence and promulgate the extinction of up to half of our world’s species. One of the major problems that we must contend with today is the lack of environmental education that we have in our society. We live in an environmentally illiterate world and people are ignorant about how our planet works. Addressing this issue starts with understanding three important tenets which form the basis of environmental literacy. First of all, we must understand that natural capital, or earth’s natural resources, are very vital because they provide all species with the ability to live. In our case, our economies are completely dependent upon earth’s resources. Second, we must recognize that our ecological footprints are impactful and that they are growing rapidly. The sad and elusive truth is that our ecological footprints already exceed the planet’s estimated capacity. Third, we must take seriously the scariest of all facts — that ecological and climate change tipping points are irreversible and that we should never even get close to crossing those lines due to the serious consequences that await us and the future of human kind.

The earth’s status quo and the world views of humans must be compatible in the future. We are not owners of this planet, but mere stewards. This is not our property. We must approach our developing world not in a way where we consider ourselves to be in charge of it, and subsequently working against it, but in a wiser way, where we learn to work with the earth, on earth’s terms. Unfortunately, again, this cannot be accomplished in a Darwinistic world where society fosters a false sense of necessity for consumption and competition. Instead, we must focus on valuing cooperation and moderation. However, this cannot be achieved until basic human rights and liberties are safeguarded equally, and for all. Until we have human citizenship, there will be no peace. Unfortunately, achieving this will always be an impossibility so long as we have the existence of force. 

Can we come together please?