#because being cringe and weird is such an integral part of childhood

[the-kneesbees]

the problem with society is that middle school girls aren't painting their rooms teal anymore

[nano--raptor]

Taming the Soul - Chapter 1: The Library

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Summary: Bucky can’t sleep, but neither can you. You decide to talk a walk to your favorite spot and make a surprising discovery.

Words: 1320

Warnings: Recovery!Bucky, slight angst, talk of nightmares, cursing, talk of missions, etc. 

A/N: Welcome to the first chapter of my new series! This will probably be slow going, but I will try to update as often as I can. The library in this chapter is inspired by the Yue Library, elements from this library are what I’ve imagined and tried to describe here. Thank you to all who show interest, and for reading, I really hope you enjoy! ❤

* * * *

Bucky first discovered the library one night when he couldn't sleep. He’d tried all the usual tricks: reading, watching tv, exercise, a snack. Nothing worked. He’d finally gone for a walk, and that had actually helped. A little. After that, Bucky started going for walks more regularly around the compound when he couldn’t sleep, trying to tire out his body and mind. Or at least distract it so he could get some goddamn rest. It became something he sort of looked forward to. Sometimes he’d walk around inside, down the hallways, around the track at the gym, sometimes he’d go outside and enjoy the fresh air and stillness that came with the middle of the night.

It was during one of these late night walks that he’d discovered the library. Of course, the compound had a library - Tony spared no expense it seemed - but it was probably due to the fact that he’d never heard anyone talk about it that Bucky was surprised to find that it existed. It was big, more spacious than he’d anticipated, two stories tall with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that served as walls. Lamps were scattered throughout the library, some of which remained on, and moonlight coming in through the huge windows basked the space with a calm glow. Even though it was the middle of the night, Bucky could see that there was a lot of natural-toned wood, which actually made him feel... comfortable? It was a pleasant change from the rest of the concrete surfaces of the compound. Other features of the library were more modern - glass and metal - but Bucky felt an overall sense of calm as he wandered around. It was nice.

He was thankful he’d been able to stay at the compound, after everything that had happened, Steve and the others were determined to help him regain some sense of normalcy. Call it healing or recovery or whatever you want, it was a lot nicer and more calm out here than the tower in New York had been. Being out of the city had been good for Bucky’s mind and his soul.

Bucky saw the way everyone hushed up when he walked by, and he knew they meant well but it made him feel weird. He’d started staying away from the common areas during the day, which is maybe why he could never sleep at night. Exhaustion, nightmares, faded memories that would start to play out in his mind and then stop like a worn out movie. It all kept him awake at night. He would like to integrate back into society, start being social with the rest of the team, seeing as he’d probably have to head out on missions with them eventually. The thought made him cringe. Bucky didn’t really play well with others.

For now, Bucky was glad they more or less left him alone. He knew he had a lot to work through, and it was frustrating, because for the most part he felt alright. He knew what was going on, but there was still a part of his mind that felt out of control, and if he got stuck there, there wasn’t anything he could do to pull himself out. It felt like a trap, and nothing was worse than being a prisoner of your own mind and body.

Bucky found a bench by one of the floor-to-ceiling windows and curled up as best he could in the corner of it, pulling his knees towards his chest. He glared out the window, and then forced himself to take a slow, deep breath, trying to push the dark thoughts from his mind. At least this window had a nice view of the grounds behind the compound. Rolling grass hills and trees. The moonlight spilled over him and as he looked up at it, he thought about all the horrors that the moon had seen people on Earth commit. All the horrors he’d committed. Bucky sighed and leaned his head back against the wall behind him, suddenly feeling tired and small. He let his eyes fall closed, finally drifting off into a dreamless sleep.

* * * * 

You’d tossed and turned for over an hour and finally decided it was time for a change of scenery. You didn’t usually have a hard time sleeping, but it wasn’t foreign to you either. There were often issues that weighed heavy on your mind, and some nights it took intention to relax and fall asleep.

One place you liked to visit at night was the library. You liked it during the day too, but it had a peaceful calm and stillness at night that you loved when sleep eluded you. You loved to curl up on the couches or armchairs, sometimes with a book, sometimes without, and just enjoy the change of scenery. Even the walk down to the library, through the compound, helped to clear your head a bit. The compound was like a different world at night, when everything was quiet and still. Soft darkness falling over everything, a sort of peaceful calm. Especially when nothing too intense was happening around you mission-wise.

You walked into the library, your feet padding quietly over the tile floor. Your favorite spot to sit was on the mezzanine level, close to one of the large windows looking over the grounds. You climbed the grand staircase slowly, taking in the well-designed space. The place alone gave you a sense of calm, every material and design element chosen with intention. Finding your spot amongst the cushions on one of the modern-style sofas, you leaned back and gazed out the window. Your mind drifted away almost as soon as you sat down, eyes roaming over the grounds, the treeline, the sky, watching the stars twinkle above and the moonlight beam down.

It took a while to register the sound that had started floating around, gently caressing your ears. After a few moments you realized it was piano music, and a chill ran through you, despite the calming melody. The library had been silent when you got here, hadn’t it? You’d thought you were alone! Was there someone else here with you? You couldn’t think of anyone else on the compound that could play, but it sounded too clear to be a recording. Who else was awake at this hour? You stopped yourself for a moment at that thought, as it could be anyone on the team really. You all had your own personal demons to deal with and you were sure you weren’t the only one who sometimes had trouble sleeping.

But, who the hell could play piano? That was the real mystery.

You sat and listened for a little while longer, eventually recognizing the melody with a rush of nostalgia. It was a piece your aunt used to play when you were younger, and it drew you back to thoughts of your childhood, sitting on the sofa in awe while her fingers danced across the keys. Moonlight Sonata, a piece by Beethoven. 

Interesting choice, you thought, but you weren’t mad at all, the notes were extremely soothing and calming to you. Finally your curiosity got the better of you and you had to find out who was playing this beautiful music. You rose from the sofa and slowly, silently, made your way over to the mezzanine balcony, where you figured you’d be able to get a peek of the pianist. You didn’t want to startle whoever it was, and you liked both hearing the music and the peace of being alone right now, and not having to spend energy to socialize.

You passed several bookshelves, rounded the corner and approached the railing. The piano came into view and what you saw froze you in your tracks. Your eyes grew wide and you were pretty sure you stopped breathing for a moment. Playing the piano, being the last person you’d ever expect to be moved by music, much less know how to make it, was Bucky.

* * * *

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[hoplessdreamer9796]

BTS 8th Member - Profile

Name: Kim Y/N  Date of Birth: 16/09/1996 Ethnicity: Half Arabic and half Korean Nationality: Is British but after moving to Korea obtained dual citizenship (I don’t know if this is a thing but if it’s not let’s just pretend)

Appearance: > Navy Blue eyes > Dimples > 5″8 > Light golden tan skin > Curves and athletic > Looks Korean due to eye shape and Arabic due to eye colour. Mainly looks Korean but it is obvious she is half.  > Tattoos:  1) “Familia Super Omnia” (”Family Above All” written in Latin on left shoulder blade). 2) Initial and birthdays of her younger brothers on left wrist and older brothers on right wrist (Just her brothers... For now...). “No oppa I don’t love you that much I just often forget your existence.”  3) Matching tattoo with Hanbin of the Neverland stars on right shoulder blade.  4) Matching tattoo with Shinhye of a forget me not flower on their upper thighs.  5) ARMY written on both sides of her index finger because, “Now they can see my love from both angles,” cue Jin face palming.

Basic Information:  > Born in England moved to Korea when 11 years old.  > IQ of 162 and has an eidetic memory but terrible at remembering birthdays. > Can memorise choreography after seeing it once.  > Is a main singer of BTS, like Jungkook, and is Hoseok’s second dancer in command.  > Graduated high school after the first grade at age 16 (international age). > Was on the track and swimming team during high school and middle school. Could not attend practices as she had to work so much but the coaches still allowed her to be on the team as she was advantageous in competitions. She has always been first in every swim and track meet she competed in. > Was not able to go to university at first as her family couldn’t afford it. But when BTS and her company was stable and doing well she was able to get a physics degree from Seoul National University (mainly online classes due to schedule, they normally don’t allow this but they decided they wanted her to attend the school due to her IQ and status. She attended classes when she could and did exams at the school) Got her degree in one year.  > Speaks 7 languages: English, Korean, Arabic, Chinese (both Mandarin and Cantonese) Thai, Japanese. (Learnt Chinese, Thai and Japanese in order to connect with fans better.) > Can play the piano, guitar, can beatbox, can play drums and also the violin but doesn’t like playing the violin (will be explained later). > CEO of Jeonsa Corporation which is comprised of Almira’s (a restaurant franchise where her mother created all the recipes) and Jeonsa cosmetics.  > Became world’s youngest self-made billionaire at the age of 21 in 2017 (In this AU Kylie Jenner became billionaire at 22 and was the world’s fastest self-made billionaire).  > Terrible with feelings in general. > Is okay at showing affection with people but as soon as the conversation starts to get deep and emotional, she spazzes out.  > Drinks way too much alcohol and loves clubbing. > Only likes casual flings as she’s too busy and doesn’t want to commit. (For now...) > Even though she has more than enough money she won’t leave BTS as she loves what she does.  > At first didn’t want to join BTS (will be explained later). > Very charming and charismatic, flirts with anything that breathes.  > Hates her birthday. > Buys way too many cars and drives too fast.  > Owns a lot of real estate. > Terrified of bugs mainly spiders (will be explained later).  > Swears way too much and it triggers Jin.  Family:  Grandmother (biological fathers side) - Kim Soojin (17/07/1953) - Unemployed Grandfather (biological fathers side) - Kim Woosuk (23/08/1952) - Unemployed  They both allowed Y/N, Adriel and Adonis to live with them on days when their mother would work nights. Y/N mainly looker after them as they weren’t able to find much work in their old age. Some of the most precious people in Y/N’s life. Grandfather (Stepfathers side) - Kim Wonshik (30/06/1955) - CEO of Hanam Hospital (I made it up)  He thinks of his son’s stepchildren as his own grandchildren. He loves them very much. Whenever his grandchildren are free, he likes playing golf with them. Y/N at first was nervous that he wouldn’t accept her and her siblings as they were not fully Korean and poor. But she was surprised how much he loved and accepted them so easily. Mother - Kim Almira (21/03/1974) - Head chef at one of the branches of Almira’s in Seoul. She has not been able to be a part of her Children’s lives as she would have liked because when she was not working at the restaurant she was working somewhere else or sleeping. She often feels guilty at how much of her childhood Y/N has missed out. It also makes her feel grateful for having such amazing children. She often blames herself for Y/n being so emotionally closed off but it’s as if her daughter knows when she’s feeling like this and will take her mother shopping in Milan and Paris. A life that she didn’t even think was possible. Or even just spend the day helping her cook. And she thanks the stars for giving her 7 amazing children. Stepfather - Kim Haeil (24/07/1973) - Cardiothoracic Surgeon who met Almira at the restaurant. He quickly became mesmerised with the foreign beauty with the light hazel eyes. He often found himself stopping by Almira’s more and more often. Having little dates in the gardens halfway between the hospital and the restaurant. They fell in love quickly; He grew to love her kids that he saw when he went to the restaurant to visit Almira. He became protective over them especially Y/N who’s eyes looked far too old to belong to a teenager, seeing how much their family struggled he wanted to marry Almira a few months after they started dating and help them, he cared for them greatly. Y/N told her Mother that she didn’t want him to pay off their debt out of pity. They were working so hard what was the point if someone did it for them. She didn’t need someone to take care of them. In reality she was worried he would be like Insu. Y/N had no problem with Haeil, you hadn’t seen your mother so happy for years and you didn’t object to their relationship, however you didn’t need someone’s charity, which back then due to your pride was what you thought of it as. You also reminded your Mother that she had only known this man for a few months and asked her to get to know him better before considering marriage. Your mother although saddened by your inability to take the easy way accepted your decision. They waited until you had paid off all of your family’s debt before he had taken her back to their special garden and proposed to her there. It’s easier to call Haeil Dad than Insu. You love him very much at first it was weird having a father figure that actually cared and you never really got used to having a protective father who loved you so much. Biological Father - Kim Insu (13/03/1971) - Unemployed. Abusive to Y/N and Almira. When he would try to hurt her little brother’s Y/N would never let him. He never hurt her older brother as he claimed that his son never did anything wrong. Elijah probably hated him the most because of this, if he tried to protect his sister his father would just hurt her more. He felt powerless as he was not able to protect his younger siblings. As Almira was at work most of the time Y/N got the worst of his treatment. The only thing he cares about is money, women, alcohol and gambling. In England around Y/N had just turned 11 he got a divorce and left them, much to everyone’s relief. However, after you had started making a lot of money after debut and when the restaurant started doing well, he showed up in your life again. Your grandmother was so happy. He threatened to tell his parents the truth about what he did unless you paid him. The thought of your grandparents knowing what kind of a monster their son was sickened you so you struck a deal, he stays away from the rest of you family and spends two hours a week with your grandparents in order to get paid ₩250,000,000 every week. He accepted and now your grandparents are happy to be in their son’s life with you protecting them from the real him the best you can.   Stepbrother - Kim Jaejoon (23/07/1991) - General Surgeon. He met Y/N at the hospital when he went to visit his father and Y/N was dropping off food for her future stepfather that her mother had sent. He had recognised her from how his father’s at the time girlfriend had described her. Her blue eyes standing out in the sea of ordinary brown. He introduced himself to her and told her he was her mother’s boyfriend’s son (cringing inwardly at how awkwardly he said that). Y/N had just smirked in amusement at his awkward state trying to hold back her laugh and introduced herself. The more he talked to you the more he realised how smart you were. You could easily keep up with him when he talked about his job. He also met his future brothers that day when the two family’s got dinner together. It was surprisingly easy for the two families to integrate. He quickly grew protective of his future younger siblings. He wished that Y/N hadn’t been so stubborn and had let their parents gotten married in order to make things easier but understood that it was something she had to do and his sister is the most stubborn person he knows. He is very protective over his sister and often lectures her on her drinking and clubbing antics. He nags at her so much it’s ridiculous, fuck when he saw her first tattoo, he threw a fit it was hilarious. He can’t see her as anything other than that wide eyed teenager with sad blue eyes, she’s gotten to good at hiding that look. >Sister in Law - Jeon Haeun (12/08/1992) - Vascular Surgeon  >Niece - Kim Seoyeon (29/01/2018) - N/A  >Nephew - Kim Youngsoo (31/05/2019) - N/A  Full blooded Brother - Kim Elijah (17/03/1993) - Cardiothoracic Surgeon. He is very grateful to Y/N as she is the one that practically had to force him to go to university for medicine. He didn’t want to leave his family and he also knew that their family wasn’t financially able to send him there. Y/N told him that they’ll manage but he still refused. But when you told him that when he becomes a doctor and starts earning money he can provide for their family; he was determined to do this. He said that he would get part time jobs and send money, but you told your mother and him that you’d take care of everything and for him to focus on school. You had to cut back on a lot of thing but were able to get him into a student dormitory, a small and cheap one but that's all you could do, a food budget and a bus pass. He was very grateful and guilty. He was determined to succeed and help their family. But it turns out that you managed to do that before him. Years later he found out that after you graduated high school at 15 you had been offered a full scholarship to Seoul National University for medicine but you had declined as you had to help your mother provide for your family and pay off your debts. He was especially angry since he also went to Seoul National University (like all of your brothers who went to university) and felt like he robbed you of the opportunity. He got into a huge argument with you when he found out. After the fight you two drank and reminisced about the few good childhood memories you had. He babies you a lot and is very overprotective of you. Stepbrother - Kim Taejoon (27/04/1993) - Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon. He’s the kind of brother to randomly stop by your office and force you to lunch with him. He’s the cliché overprotective brother, glares at any boy that looks in her direction and hates basically everything she wear unless they’re baggy. A part of him hates Y/N’s noncommittal attitude to relationships because well that’s his sister and well eww but the other part of him is glad. Glad that his sister will never allow herself to get emotionally hurt but it also saddens him that she won’t ever open herself up to love. He coddles her a lot always texting if she’s had dinner and checking on her when on tour. As much as you complain when he coddles you love it. Full blooded Brother - Kim Adriel (18/02/1997) - Footballer plays for Liverpool, (I have no clue I legit searched premier league football clubs and picked the first one) is the youngest Korean ever football player to make it into the premier league (Don’t know). Lives in England most of the time. You are the most precious person in the world to him. He is a lot more intuitive that his twin brother and was able to find out sooner than Adonis about their financial situation. After finding out he started waking up earlier to make his grandparent’s breakfast to let you sleep a bit more. At first you protested but the thought of even an extra hour of sleep sounded heavenly. He felt so guilty about how he acted before he knew and so when he found out he sobbed in your arms apologising. And your heart broke you always wanted to shield him from that. When he moved back to England, he was very anxious at the thought of living far from you. He texts you every single day, needing at least some form of communication to stop him from worrying about you.  Full blooded Brother - Kim Adonis (18/02/1997) - Youtuber and is living in England. He moved back there when he was 16 in 2013. His channel had 500,000 subscribers but was not making any money. He played games online with different youtubers and became close with them. They explained how they make a living off of YouTube and he became excited at the thought of pursuing this career. While it was a risk especially with his family’s financial situation at the time, he knew he had to do it. While his entire family was against it, especially Adriel, you convinced your mother to let him go and used all the money you saved for a rainy day to buy him a phone and a plane ticket on the condition that he attends online high school. He lived with a family friend until he could start supporting himself. As of now has amassed seventeen million subscribers. He visits Korea whenever he can, if you’re there, to see you. He’s regretful about how much pressure he put on you in order to achieve his dreams but whenever you tell him how proud you are with that glint in your blue eyes he knows that you mean it. Adrien and Adonis are fraternal twins. When they were young, they were very close. However, when Adonis wanted to move to England to further his YouTube career, Adriel was vehemently against it. Not because he didn’t love his brother and of course he’d miss him but because of the fact that Adonis wanted to make their situation even harder than it already was. That he wanted to make his sister work harder than she already did on something he wasn’t even sure would work. Due to this difference of opinions Adrien and Adonis grew apart and when Adonis went to England, they didn’t contact each other unless you made them. However, after Adrien moved to England they began to reconnect and slowly but surely their relationship began to heal. Much to your relief. The twins are the most attached to you as you are both a mother figure and sister to them. There is an unspoken rivalry and tension between them and Jungkook as they all get jealous and territorial over you. Stepbrother - Kim Hanuel (25/06/1997) - Studying Law at Seoul National University. He graduated high school a year early, then attended university for a year before enlisting in the military as soon as he could. He wanted to get it over with so he could focus on his future without it looming over his head. He finished his university degree in two years with a bachelor’s in law. He graduated at age 22 (International age) which was the same age as most people who were graduating however he had the advantage of having completed his military service. He is the younger brother Y/N sees the most as he lives in Seoul. You have sacrificed a lot for your family and would do anything for them.

[deanky]

#Riddlerpost

Cringe this may be btu I will make it anyways OK? In discorp I said I coudl make a whole post about random specific thigns I would want in my ideal interpretation of the Riddler and I’m a man of my word sometimes so I am going to do it. Including both major things and icnredibly dumb minor details. Putting this under cut because I seriously did not realize how long this would get LOL

His original name WAS Edward Nashton and he changed it to Nygma both because of da riddle love and to distance himself from horrible family which he does have, and I think it specifically should be spelled Nygma because he would value the extra .2 seconds it would take for someone to notice that being a pun. However even if it makes it more obvious when said in conjunction with last name he actually does NOT hate being called Eddie specifically. He loves it because it makes it so there’s 2 different ways to do the enigma thing.

He had pretty awful childhood, like realistically awful. Horrible parents bad marriage etc his mom treated him better than his dad but the difference became more narrow over time probably. :( He did not to well in school, he hoped that doing somethign really well would help & entered contest thing. I think he did cheat and feels like he deserved further horrible family thigns due to it but did not he was only a lad! 

 hated school. Did not go to college. Intelligent but not emotionally... he DOES have OCD and it is like compulsive to turn eveyrhting into funny puzzles and games and of course riddles, but it doesn’t stop him from doing ones on purpose of course, and he does like to tell really dumb jokes liek all the ones in the 60s show (BTW he should always and forever do the funny Frank Gorshin laugh). And he is fully autistic. He is so autistic. Believe this. Believe me. He gets along with other villains his like constant compulsive insertion of riddles into things that don’t or shouldn’t have them can cause strife but like everyone in Batman is TWISTED they get it they’re a jolly group terrorizing the town together. United Underworld baby. U.U. should be in every piece of Batman media BTW, unrelated.

The important thign though is! He is a tragic guy deep down he has a sad story behind him all but he is silly. Whatever the ‘present’ is like aroudn the time any actual Batman comics happen, he should be silly. All these thigns should not stop him from being silly. He is egotistical for sure but not USUALLY to the point of like, being Arkham levels of rude. But it can happen. He mostly just like... He does his FUNNYCRIMES to prove himself as being smart, but there usually isn’t even all that malice involved unless it’s like, the one BTAS episode he really wants to get revenge on a specific person. IdealRiddler not as suave as BTAS Riddler though. he most resembles him in that one scene where all the girls are like ‘ahhh so smart bro’ and he’s like “well heh guess you say that to all the geniuses!”

I don’t think he’d ever really intentionally kill anyone. He’s like - he’s not ineffective at the thigns he does but he’s not an incredibly harmful villain. That said he can put together whole insane mastermind plots but they probably won’t be things he really puts into effect a lot because he doesn’t really want or need to. He’s definitely like When is a Door-type Riddler in my head, he doesn’t know where it all went wrong he just wants to have fun and do incredibly silly crimes and it scares him so bad to see everyone else actually killing people even if the Joker was probably already doing it forever

And BTW he is fully gay he is fully homosexual and in a relationship with the Penguin. But this is important - he is completely chaste. He definitely needs to be incredibly gay that’s an integral part of his character. To me. And he does have 1 billion different increasingly silly and flashy Riddler suits like Jim Carrey style you know it and loves funny campy silyl stuff and he definitely has a huge collection of big novelty objects used in ads and like carnivals and stuff. And he is like 5′3 at most. BTW. He is short. He needs to be short OK? He needs ot be an incredibly small man. *Looking at you pleadingly as I say this*

He used to have long hair when he was young but by the time he actually is da Riddler it;s short and he is balding. he tries to hide it under his hat but you can tell you can always tell. He is not like fully shaved bald and tattooed or anything like that, but he is balding. Sometimes he has a mustache I think the only Riddler that’s had a mustache was when he was briefly portrayed by John Astin for part of Batman 1966. But I like to imagine him with a mustache. I think it works and BTW I’m insane.

Like, every single job that he’s been portrayed as having before is something he’d gone through before being da riddler, he’s worked at a carnival he’s worked on video games he’s done it all. He definitely collected all the carnival stuff. I think specifically though aside from probably having bad boss like in BTAS his V.G. work went unappreciated because it was all like, incredibly obscure thigns on ZX Spectrum or FMV games or somehting and he didn’t get to contribute that much to them because he always ended up coming up with extremely ambitious plans for developign them that would be like impossible for a game at the time. He would definitely run a really weird looking web page with all the little weird easter eggs he put into stuff showcased. OK. That’s all I can think of right now. I might add more. But for now I’m just going to smile sweetly

[sinditia]

Scoobynatural 13x16

I felt indifferent upon hearing the plan of a Scoobynatural episode.  I was neither “this is fucked up, SPN has lost it” nor “this is the coolest idea ever, I’m excited!”, more like “eh, might as well. Why not, right?”

(I watched the livestream of the episode at Paley which wasn’t that great AV quality-wise.  The bulk of this writing was done between that and the official airing but I’m posting this right after having properly watched it and making slight adjustments)

I was pleasantly surprised that Castiel was in it.  I honestly didn’t expect it.  Last time they did a novelty episode like “Fan Fiction”, they excluded Cas and I thought they would do the same thing here.  If I’m being harsh about it, Castiel’s presence in the episode wasn’t super crucial, I thought.  I mean, it’s a filler episode, usually those things are brothers-exclusive, which from my perspective, is neither a good nor a bad thing, it’s just a thing that happens. For the sake of the plot’s progression, I didn’t think Cas being there was entirely necessary.  But having said that, I enjoyed the episode about 200% more because he was.  I am a heavy-duty Cas-fan after all.

I thought they did a pretty good job with this.  The MOTW was pretty good.  It served its purpose and wasn’t too much of a stretch in order to achieve a Scooby Doo crossover.  At first glance, the animated versions of Team Free Will looked weird to me because I thought they tried to put too much detail into their features (maybe to make them more recognizable as the characters we know and love) and they looked out of place next to the Scooby Gang.  But you quickly get used to it and it didn’t take away from the viewing experience.  

I loved the dynamic between Sam and Dean here. It was very classic brothers and felt very natural, not at all like certain episodes that must not be named. It’s awesome seeing Dean have fun and this entire episode is SUPERFUN, I almost forgot that they’re supposed to be doing other stuff. I love all that meta shit. “There are no words in this newspaper Dean!” “The (book) that’s not painted in the background!”.   At the end when Dean cleared his throat went “Scooby Dooby Doo!”, man, Jensen pulled that off so well.  And Cas looked so fucking embarrassed for him, it was hilarous!

I was very surprised that they milked the shit out of the Dean-Daphne thing.  Before anyone watched the episode, people were wary about the idea of Dean, a 40-year-old dude, hitting on Daphne, supposedly a 16-year-old girl.  I figured it was a childhood crush, kinda like with Dean and Gunner Lawless.  I expected Dean to, I dunno, get flustered, maybe flirt a little, crash and burn spectacularly, then move on.  I didn’t think he would hound her like in the episode. I was a little disappointed about that. It was kinda cringe-y but it seems like the writers didn’t really think about Daphne as a character that has an age, if you know what I mean.  It was a bit weird when Velma was hitting on Sam.  Seeing the Scooby gang acting explicitly flirtatious is a bit jarring to be honest.  

I really liked that the whole concept of the episode was Team Free Will trying to keep the integrity and innocence of the Scooby Gang.  I wanted this episode to have a good balance of Supernatural and Scooby Doo.  I didn’t want it to simply be a Supernatural episode but they just happen to be animated and featured the Scooby Gang (or the other way around).  These are both well-established TV shows and despite it airing on the CW as part of a Supernatural episode, I felt like it would do Scooby Doo a dirty if they used it simply as a plot device for laughs.  But they didn’t do that.  They went full Scooby and I respected that.  I LOVED when they did the running montage with the Scooby Doo theme, that was EPIC.

[gamerszone2019-blog]

Erica Review - Grab The Popcorn

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/erica-review-grab-the-popcorn/

Erica Review - Grab The Popcorn

Erica never lets you feel at ease for long. In one scene, a character teaches Erica how to play a song on the piano–you’re encouraged to memorize the cute little melody and try to perform the correct timing. But just when you start playing along, somebody suddenly starts coughing up blood everywhere, it’s messy and gross, everyone starts screaming, and the vibe is killed. In Erica you have to treasure those sweet breaks before they’re swiftly swiped from your hands and replaced with a solid helping of worry, stress, and a side of confusion.

A fully filmed playable thriller in which the titular character is on a mission to help solve a murder case that she has strange family ties to, Erica utilizes some subtle yet effective film-inspired techniques–like match on action and screen wipes triggered by touchpad interactions–to tell its enigmatic tale. To progress each scene, you choose dialogue options and make various adventure game-like actions. The game bounces back and forth in time between Erica’s childhood with her father to the mess that is modern-day life, in which she has to move to a strange hospital her late parents helped create for her own safety.

Erica, played by real-life actor Holly Earl, is a relatable, if malleable, protagonist. Earl regularly looks like she’s bewildered or uncomfortable, exactly how you feel as a viewer in most of the situations. She seems thoughtful and patient, but other than that there isn’t too much of a set personality for her. You decide through your in-game choices if she’s more passive or aggressive or unhelpful during the case, and because of the high stakes murder circumstances, switching her attitude and approach never feels abrupt nor out of character. Even if you spend most of the game being rude, you can be friendly to someone and it doesn’t feel weird. Your reactions, and in turn Erica’s, are likely to change frequently during a playthrough every time new information pops up, objectives change, and new, incredibly peculiar characters enter the picture.

Somehow, every new character you meet is more suspicious than the last. Everyone talks to you like they just poisoned the food you’re eating. There’s a sequence in the courtyard where you can choose a girl to hang out with and get to know better, and right after you pick a possible pal to spend the afternoon with, the head of the hospital says, “Just remember that some of the girls here… Uh… They can be quite manipulative,” and just walks away. The guy is nowhere to be found after that, and you’re left sitting there wondering why would he say that–and before you know it, you’re overthinking every interaction because you don’t know which person he was insinuating was going to manipulate you. All of the secrets, ulterior motives, and Erica’s own faulty memory cause for some very intriguing “Trust nobody, not even yourself” gameplay.

Perpetual disorientation is the central feeling of Erica, and it’s what keeps you searching for the truth no matter how many crooked obstacles stand in your way. The plot is ever-changing and chaotic; you’re attempting to solve a crime by talking to a plethora of weirdos in an unfamiliar, creepy place while having stifling flashbacks of your messed-up childhood. There’s so many forces clashing and intense situations going on that you find yourself yearning to make sense of even the smallest mystery just to feel grounded. There was a time where Erica was being gaslit by a character and I ended up shaking my fist and yelling “She’s not crazy, you’re just lying!” at my TV–but even though that character annoyed me I kept listening to them in case they accidentally dropped a small hint to steer me in the right direction, and they did. Erica is a striking example of a whodunit that’s heightened by its enthralling characters, shady occult science, and recollections of previous trauma.

From the overall murder case to smaller questions like what kind of hospital you’re staying at, there are a number of mysteries weaving together concurrently throughout Erica. It’s easy to miss context that’s vital to understanding the full picture. You might get an answer to a question that’s been burning in your mind for the last half hour, but that answer could be a truth that presents new pathways to choose from or a lie that leads you astray. That mystery management is exciting and makes every experience with the game its own curious, isolated thriller molded by whatever answers and stories you care about at the time.

You can use either a DualShock 4 controller or a companion phone app to play Erica; the latter is smooth and seamless for the most part, while the former is bogged down by a clunky implementation of touchpad controls and is the far less preferable option. As you move through the narrative, you alternate between selecting which areas to explore, choosing dialogue options like “contempt” or “desperation,” and performing no-stakes everyday actions like cleaning the fog from a mirror or turning on the sink. Potential actions are shown as silhouettes on-screen, and there’s also a mock trajectory of where to swipe your hand on your phone if you’re using the app. The inputs are all done by small, comfortable hand swipes, not extending to the full horizontal or vertical reach of the screen.

Most actions are intuitive, and you feel like you know where to swipe and what you can do before the game even tells you. There’s a moment where you and a detective walk up to an empty reception desk that has a bell sitting on it, for example. I lit up when I saw it and I started tapping on the screen a bunch–Erica didn’t hesitate to mimic my actions in her world and ding away, so much so that the detective swatted her hand off of it because he got annoyed. The straightforward motions make navigating trouble-free, and being able to quickly deduce what moves you can make adds a connection to the moment-to-moment gameplay. It keeps your focus on the important things, like figuring out what the heck is going on in the story.

Choices and quick-time events happen every 30 seconds or so, which may sound overwhelming, but it isn’t so in practice. Most of the time, they aren’t high pressure actions; they’re a chain of a few choices, and those chunks are separated by longer cutscenes every so often. They do eventually get mundane and feel unnecessary, especially if you choose to use the DualShock 4, though. The game is controlled entirely with touch, and while the swipes are supposed to be a convenience for your hands, it’s difficult to perform them on the small DualShock touchpad without your fingers slipping off or hitting the joysticks. There were also a few occasions where the companion app was slightly unresponsive, which is something that can have game-changing consequences if it happens at a critical moment. It takes a second to get back into the game’s rhythm after there’s a blip in the controls. They’re small things, but those shortcomings pull you out of what is otherwise a really engrossing experience.

In general, the filmic elements are integrated so carefully that it’s a genuine and mostly calculated mix of two mediums. Erica is in the middle of game and movie, and a lot of small mechanics add up to show that. For example, the character Erica is an artist, and there’s a scene fairly early on where you can flip through the pages of her artbook. Looking through a character’s personal items is a common feature in interactive adventure games, but the detail that went into shooting the natural angles of each flip makes it an even more intimate way of gaining insight into who the character is. Outside of the footage itself, all of the trophy pop-ups are paused until you complete the game, which goes a long way to keep you from getting distracted. It’s a small, fitting touch for a game that values story so much.

Perpetual disorientation is the central feeling of Erica, and it’s what keeps you searching for the truth no matter how many crooked obstacles stand in your way.

There are also some sneaking situations that are made better by the film aspect. There are always conversations happening behind closed doors, and because you have so many questions that you need answered, sometimes you have to be a weirdo and eavesdrop on people. If you peek out for too long or open the door too fast, they’ll see you, stop their conversation, and share an awkward glance with you. Because it’s footage of actual peoples’ facial expressions, it makes you cringe a little more–and that is one of the most high-tension fail states I can imagine.

The whole time, the game marinates you in a constant anxious energy that fuels a curiosity for the dodgy, mysterious world that you’re influencing. Some scenes you’re just holding a book or a photo and staring at it for details, but since it’s paired with an insidious sting it transforms what would be a normal occasion into bitter dread. There are flashbacks, dreams, and abnormal things happening frequently; oftentimes you’re forced to decide on the one secret you want to uncover the most and drop the others. Should you pick up the phone that’s been ringing in the lobby or check out that weird ghost thing in the hallway? There are some decisions that are straight-up difficult–high-stakes ones where, in the bottom of your heart, you don’t know what the right thing to do is, but you know you have to do something. Those times will have you wishing that this game was just a movie, but Erica is more than that.

Erica has a strong, fleshed-out narrative full of twists and turns that each bring their own unique piece to the story. Its cryptic tone is carried through the audio, visuals, and writing; it never lets you relax. Sometimes weird controls jolt you out, but there is an abundance of enticing threads to follow, and it’s a treat to be able to mold your own adventure out of it. Using a combination of crisp cinematography and FMV-specific game mechanics, Erica never fails to hook you into its haunting, mysterious world.

Source : Gamesport

[tylerbiard]

Still in Edmonton

So it’s Spring in Edmonton.  The weather is warmer, the snow is melting, and everything looks ugly.  You know, the melt is dislodging the garbage and gravel that was embedded into the snow, creating a muddy mess, and where it isn’t a muddy mess, everything is simply brown and dry.  The grass truly is not greener here until May.  Still, there’s something about this season that makes it synonymous with change, and with change comes reflection.

I had to do this assignment in one of my classes this semester on “material culture.”  Basically, I needed to figure out a material aspect that represented my culture and then present.  I was gonna be cliche and just pick my camera or something along those lines, but I decided to be innovative and pick something that literally both represents me and my background.  So I went with the perogy, an Eastern European dumpling. 

The reason I chose it was two-fold: it represents my ethnic background on one side and it also represents my home.  The Parkland region of the Canadian Prairies, roughly corresponding with the Yellowhead corridor, from Edmonton to Winnipeg, is home to a huge Ukrainian diaspora.  When the Canadian West opened up in the late 19th century, Ukrainians were among the earliest settlers to the untamed flatlands, and were pivotal in converting the land into arable farmland.  They were chosen due to the similar climate of Eastern Europe and the Canadian Prairies.  Most Ukrainian immigrants stayed in rural areas, like the Edna-Star Colony, and did not migrate into the cities until after World War II.  As a result of this diaspora, Edmonton has the nickname “Edmonchuk” (-chuk is a common suffix to Ukrainian last names) and as the diaspora integrated and mingled with wider Canadian society, certain aspects of Ukrainian culture were annexed into the wider culture here.  This was largely in the form of food, especially perogies, which is a popular dish here, regardless of ethnic background.  But even things like pysanka and the presence of Ukrainian Orthodox churches on the landscapes show the influence of Slavic culture in the Parkland.  So, in choosing perogies as my “material culture,” I wasn’t speaking merely about my heritage, I was also speaking directly to the place I inhabit and its own culture.  Someone born in Edmonton, but of an Belgian or Bengal or Brazilian background could’ve chosen perogies too and it would’ve been accurate.

I actually thought, knowing the strong Ukrainian slant here, that maybe someone else in my class was also going to use perogies as their “material culture” example.  But no one else did. The whole perogy thing kind of reaffirmed how embedded in this place I am, to an extent that few people seem to be.  Maybe that’s arrogant.  I mean, there are other tokens of Parkland culture out there, and Ukrainians weren’t even the only people settling the West in the 1890s and 1900s.  Hell, the other half of my family didn’t even arrive in Canada until after World War II!  To be fair, with regards to the “material culture” assignment, there were other people in my class that could’ve been just as embedded into the psyche of this place, but their examples were more broad.  Like coffee was a common example of “material culture” that a few people used, but that’s more of a wider Western thing, and someone doing the same assignment in Toulouse or Tuscaloosa could’ve said the same thing.

When I look at the people around me, I often find it hard to come across people who are as embedded in Edmonton and Alberta psychologically as I am.  I really feel like I am of Edmonton, for better or worse.  A lot of people, especially since the mid-2000s boom, are relatively recent to Edmonton.  People from across Canada have been coming in droves for the “Alberta Advantage” and cities like Edmonton have ramped up the intake of foreign immigrants.  It feels like everyone here is more tied to somewhere else. In a lot of ways, this demographic change-up is great.  Objectively, Edmonton is a far more progressive, vibrant, diverse, and all around simply a better place than it was in 2003. 

At the same time, though, it’s kind of alienating being surrounded by people who are out to make a quick buck off of oil, and funnel money back east or overseas, without a care for what this place actually is.  There’s a transiency to Alberta, which is felt most acutely during boomtimes.  It happened in the ‘80s, it happened in the mid-’00s, and again in the early ‘10s.  It’s tapered off somewhat over the past few years as oil prices dropped, but there is still a large amount of people here who aren’t really connected to this place the way that multi-generational Edmontonians are. To be totally fair, I know people who’ve come here from near and far and absolutely love Edmonton and are interested in knowing what it’s about, but they seem less common. I’m probably complaining about nothing; like I said Edmonton is objectively better off now and I objectively like the way things are improving. 

But feelings are never objective.  It’s weird how you can be nostalgic about eras that, when you look back critically, you can be like, “yeah, no, I’ve definitely got it better now.”  I feel that way with Edmonton a lot of times.  The sleepy, parochial, depressed Bill Smith-era city I grew up in was unequivocally a shitty one, riddled with a small town mentality that made anyone remotely progressive cringe.  And yet, I somehow miss it occasionally.  For years, I lamented how dead downtown was, and now that the stunning new arena is built, with spillover development well underway, I can’t help but think just how much of a scene downtown is now.  It’s, like, too popular now, or something.  I’ve been thinking of going to spots that remind me of the Edmonton of yore and photographing them.  I sorta already did one photo like that, here.

Yet on the flip side, I am routinely forced to contend with just how far behind Edmonton feels in terms of urban planning compared to every other major Canadian city, even smaller ones like Winnipeg, Quebec City, and Halifax.  I’m confronted with signs on Jasper Ave that, as a pedestrian, tell me to cross the street on the other side of the road.  Like, what the hell.  It’s Jasper Ave, not Saddleback Road.  Even when there’s progress, it’s half-assed.  New LRT?  Great!  Forgetting we dodged a bullet with underground LRT downtown and deciding to build above ground a la Calgary?  Dumb!  Deciding West Jasper Ave needs to stop being a stroad?  Fabulous!  Forgetting to bother with benches and trash cans and the like?  Fail!  Committing to more cycling infra but cheaping out with sharrows?  Why bother?  You’d think being the liberal bubble of the province, Edmonton would be open to more sustainable forms of planning.  Realistically, I think a large part of the issue stems from just how far Edmonton fell behind by circa 2006, after being stagnant for a generation, and so there’s still much catch up to do.

Basically, I am nostalgic about the stagnant Edmonton of yesteryear while still complaining about lack of progress.  Makes sense, right?  I want more people from a myriad of places to come here and expose this place to new ideas but dislike that they will never know the Bill Smith Edmonton I grew up with.  I’m basically an old man barking at the clouds and can’t be satisfied.

At least not here.  I feel stuck here.  I know Edmonton’s really not a bad place and there’s a lot of momentum here, but I’m just so disengaged with the place that the only thing holding me here is the people.  Perhaps that’s part of the issue.  I didn’t move around much in childhood, which further cements me in this Parkland metropolis.  While many of my friends have family scattered around the country, from where their families first settled in Canada (or the US), almost all of my family is here, in Central Alberta.  Both sides of the family came straight here from Europe.  So I don’t have some distant aunt in Montreal or a cousin in Moncton, which, again, entrenches me in this place.  Also, unlike first-gen friends of mine, who have some ties back to the old country, I don’t really have connections across the Atlantic.  What ties there were pretty much evaporated with the passing of my grandfather.  Thus, I am very much “Canadian” (not to say first-gens can’t also be unequivocally Canadian, but that I have no alternative), but also very Albertan and Edmontonian.  At least in some ways.  I suppose I’m more of an Albertan-by-birth than an Albertan-by-choice; a lot of the values here don’t align with my own.  I was thinking of this recently within the context of my Canada project, and maybe there’s something there about wider Canadian culture and values resonating with me in a way that Alberta doesn’t.

I probably just need to get out of here, even temporarily.  Being in university distracts me a bit from the limitations of Edmonton as a place for me, but it only goes so far.  It’s hard to leave, though.  I’m very embedded in this place and most of my connections are here.  It’s hard to give that up.  Maybe I’ll move to Toronto or Halifax eventually, or maybe I’ll do that term abroad in Holland.  I’m locked into Edmonton for another year, though.  I’ve heard on multiple occasions that moving away from Edmonton, after having grown up here, presents an opportunity to really appreciate Edmonton and it makes for a more enjoyable place upon returning.  Or I could just be like “bye bitch.”  Or maybe I’ll stay put, settle down, and come to terms with being of Edmonton.  But it hasn’t happened in the many years I’ve felt this longing to leave, so I’m skeptical. 

There’s also this other thing with Edmonton that is kind of special.  Because of how stagnant things were here through the ‘90s and into the 2000s, Edmonton did fall behind, as previously mentioned.  But from that, there is a lot of potential here to inflict change.  It’s in part the whole big fish in a small pond thing, but it also has to do with how much of the city feels like a blank canvas, and through those things, how much easier it is to have a positive impact on Edmonton’s future in a way you can’t in Toronto.  Edmonton is far less established as a place, so being here, especially now, not only can you put in the tokens that will churn out progress, you can also watch it happen before your eyes.  I’ve witnessed a lot of progressive change happen to Edmonton in my lifetime and it really makes you feel apart of the process and makes you appreciate all that has gone in to make Edmonton better.  You wouldn’t get that if you fucked off to Montreal or even Vancouver.  Still, the progress, although palpable, does take time.  It took 6 or 7 years before the City finally started upgrading the streetscape of the Quarters after the initial Area Structure Plan came out in ‘08 or ‘09.  Essentially, I don’t want to be 70 before Edmonton gets to the point where it’s the kind of place I am happy with.  Some days, I just wanna go somewhere where that stuff is already in place.  Sure, it’s the easy route (in a way), but it makes sense in a way to not waste your life hoping your hometown will finally change to fit your definition of better.

All I know is that I’m still here.  For now.  Actually those t-shirts are really resonating with me right now and I should probably get one.  They sum up my mood with this oil-drunk Parkland metropolis I call home.  So how’s that for Springtime reflection?

[caveartfair]

18 Artists Share the Books That Inspire Them

Some artists wear their literary loves on their sleeves. Take Frances Stark, who, for this year’s Whitney Biennial, filled a room with enormous, painterly reproductions of the first chapter of Censorship Now!, an irreverent essay collection by Ian F. Svenonius. Likewise, Icelandic art star Ragnar Kjartansson is such a fan of Halldór Laxness’s World Light that he not only plowed through the multi-part epic, he translated it into an almost 21-hour, four-channel video.  

But more often than not, we have no idea what artists are reading, no idea what books have shaped their life and work. And so, we asked 18 of our favorites to help compile an eclectic, artsy summer reading list, which includes everything from nature guides to Toni Morrison, Playboy, and a history of psychedelics.

Before we begin, I can’t resist interjecting my own beach-ready recommendation: Alissa Nutting’s Made for Love, out in early July, a smart-and-perverted tale of deranged tech geniuses and dolphin romance.

Ivana Bašić

The Eye, by Vladimir Nabokov

“This extraordinary book is based around post-existence and the malleable nature of reality,” says Bašić (whose own reality-bending kinetic sculptures can be found at Marlborough Contemporary in New York through June 24th). “The main character commits suicide at the very beginning, in one of the most profound and visceral scenes I’ve ever read. Yet instead of nothingness, he encounters a world constructed from his own imperfect memories. He is a disembodied gaze: The Eye. The world he creates becomes as convincing as the one he lived in, destabilizing the idea of the origin of reality. The character exists outside of a body in what he describes as a state of ‘absorption.’ A tireless, unblinking eye that observes—watching oneself, and others—is an eerie vision of today’s world…written 87 years ago.”

Ridley Howard

A Field Guide To Getting Lost, by Rebecca Solnit

“I was always the kid on school trips that got lost, and I took pleasure in it,” says the painter, whose travel-inspired work was recently on view at Marinaro Gallery in New York. “I’ve always been a daydreamer; it seems harder to do those things now. Solnit’s book is really about introspection and loss, but also about wandering, drift, the mythology of place, old country music, and the color blue. I think a lot of artists will relate.”

Betty Tompkins

Lives of the Artists, by Calvin Tomkins

Post-To-Neo: The Art World of the 1980s, by Calvin Tomkins

Seeing Out Loud, by Jerry Saltz

Seeing Out Louder, by Jerry Saltz

The Generosity of Women, by Courtney Eldridge

The Family Fang, by Kevin Wilson

Tompkins—a fearless painter of all things sex-positive—likes to read about the art world itself. “When I was an undergraduate in the 1960s, I read an article about Robert Rauschenberg by Calvin Tomkins in the New Yorker,” she says. That kicked off a fondness for Tomkins that led her to a series of books that she revisits every summer, beginning with Lives of the Artists and Post-To-Neo: The Art World of the 1980s.

“I was, and still am, impressed by critics—like Jerry Saltz today—who write for mass media,” Tompkins explains. “They talk to an audience who may not be art-wise, and they make art make sense.” Her recommendations include two volumes by Saltz: Seeing Out Loud, and Seeing Out Louder. “Those get tough competition from my two favorite novels about art: Courtney Eldridge’s The Generosity of Women, and Kevin Wilson’s The Family Fang.”

Roger White

October: The Story of the Russian Revolution, by China Miéville

The writer and painter suggests a searing historical survey he’s currently reading. “It’s billed as a layperson’s introduction to the birth of communism in the epochal year of 1917, but it’s a lot more than that,” he says. “Miéville, known for his extravagantly weird science fiction and fantasy, is a virtuosic storyteller; here he conjures a society convulsing on the verge of total transformation while staying squarely within the lines of the historical record. Reading this blow-by-blow account of revolution now, when political life is stranger than any fiction, is galvanizing.”

Sean Landers

Dracula, by Bram Stoker

The painter was drawn to “the firsthand diary narrative written within the novel by the fictional character Jonathan Harker,” he says. “I liked the idea of a fictional character writing within a larger fictional context. It gave me the idea to write as a fictional character, Chris Hamson, in my early written artwork Art, Life and God (1990).  My character Hamson’s penchant for writing in a flowery, Gothic, 19th-century style of English was me paying homage to Bram Stoker.”

Joel Mesler

Playboy

The painter and gallerist (who recently set up shop in the Hamptons) has fond memories of his childhood reading material. “When I was around nine, my father kept most current issues of Playboy in a magazine rack by his side of the bed,” he recalls. “When the coast would seem clear I would frantically look through them, knowing my time would always be cut short. Other than the Playboys, the only other ‘reading material’ was a medical journal of some sort called, I think, Blood and Guts. This was my shield, my go-to deflection when either my father would come home or my mother would walk into the room. I would often just lay there on the floor reading Blood and Guts, waiting for my mother to walk into the room, just to drive home the point that this was the book of choice, not the Playboy.

“So by way of lies, this book and all of its detailed illustrations have forever scarred me and created a mountain of medical phobias I still suffer from to this day. I cringe at the sound of my stomach rumbling. I hate hearing people chew their food.  I’ve been known to pass out at the sight of blood. I blame Blood and Guts forever for this, as I am sure that if I had been able to comfortably peruse my father’s Playboys, I would be normal today.”

Shara Hughes

A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle

“I wanted to be really cool and say something artsy or more interesting, but I keep coming back to something that was in Oprah’s Book Club,” says Hughes, whose paintings are currently on view at New York’s Rachel Uffner Gallery, as well as in the Whitney Biennial. “I read this book while I was alone for a summer, making work in a tiny Danish town called Vejby Strand. The paintings I was making were based on a tragic event I had been working with for a long time; they were driven by my mind trying to keep this tragedy alive. A New Earth was a huge influence because it taught me to chill out—that nothing in your mind actually exists. It’s a pretty heavy book—with study guides and many, many spin-offs—but the message is always the same, just applied in different ways. It continues to be something I think about often.”

Derek Fordjour

Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison

“This novel demonstrates the immense power of exceptional prose,” says Fordjour, whose immersive exhibition “Parade” opens at the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling in New York this July. “To call this book a page-turner would be a severe understatement. In addition to living with the characters so intimately, I marveled at Morrison’s thinking, her innate ability to transmit culture, to weave supernatural phenomena and the natural world seamlessly, and to captivate with language. I have never read a final page so slowly.  The novel does what only a novel can do: transport, transcend and transform.”

Haroon Mirza

The script for Einstein on the Beach, by Robert Wilson and Philip Glass, based on the poems of Christopher Knowles

“Einstein on the Beach changed my understanding of art,” says Mirza, whose own work blends sculpture, installation, and sound. “For me it is a true gesamtkunstwerk at a grand scale, and allowed me to see how various forms of production and representation can be synthesised through collaboration. It led me to believe that true creativity can only come from two or more minds. Robert Wilson came across the work of 13-year-old Christopher Knowles. His poems and paintings, sometimes compared to concrete poetry, become the abstract narrative for the epic opera to emerge through the collaboration between Wilson and Philip Glass. I find it encouraging that people with very different situations can coalesce and focus their efforts to realise something that would individually be unimaginable.”  

Mirza’s Aestival Infinato (Solar Symphony 11), on view at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park through July 2nd, represents its own unique form of collaboration: The piece is integrated into an existing James Turrell “Skyspace.”

Sara Cwynar

Mythologies, by Roland Barthes

The conceptual photographer and video artist celebrates this iconic look at “how the most seemingly benign products of our popular culture are actually filled with meaning and power,” a notion that’s perfectly in keeping with her own practice. Barthes’s work, she says, shows “how kitsch has a class-based motivation. He breaks down how the bourgeoisie present their ideologies as ‘natural’ in order to mask hierarchies of power, and this happens through the everyday images and objects of pop culture: travel guides, cooking photography, movie stars.”

Of all the everyday things dissected in Mythologies, Cwynar’s favorite passage concerns plastics: “It is a ‘shaped’ substance: whatever its final state, plastic keeps a flocculent appearance, something opaque, creamy and curdled, something powerless ever to achieve the triumphant smoothness of Nature.…Its noise is its undoing, as are its colours, for it seems capable of retaining only the most chemical-looking ones. Of yellow, red and green, it keeps only the aggressive quality, and uses them as mere names, being able to display only concepts of colour.”

Samuel Jablon

A Simple Country Girl, by Taylor Mead

“When I read this book of poems, I thought Mead completely captured New York City with all of its disgustingly glamorous faults,” says Jablon, who is both a poet and a painter who works with words. When Mead died in 2013, Jablon made a painting in his honor, spelling out verses—like “I burned my candle at both ends I shall not last the night but what a fucking life”—using glass, mirror, and gold tiles.

Diana Al-Hadid

Don’t Think Of An Elephant, by George Lakoff

Metaphors We Live By, by George Lakoff

Don’t Think of an Elephant, by George Lakoff

The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil, by George Saunders

The artist’s work often deals with massive architectural forms or riffs on classical sculpture. She recommends a few books that might help you parse our current reality. “I recently returned to George Lakoff’s Don’t Think Of An Elephant,” she says. “The first book I read of his was in grad school—Metaphors We Live By—and it shook my world. Completely reshaped my little brain. Don’t Think of an Elephant was written during the time of George W. Bush, but Lakoff has also written essays on why Trump was elected.” For a fictional take on politics in America, Al-Hadid also suggests The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil, a novella by George Saunders.

Joshua Citarella

Into the Universe of Technical Images, by Vilem Flusser

“This 1985 book has been a huge influence,” says Citarella, whose photography and sculpture often deals with technology, data, and the future. “I think it’s the best introduction for understanding images today. Before Photoshop and the internet, Flusser prophetically described how technology is going to reshape society. It feels like it was written yesterday. The first English translation was only made available in 2011, so it is still relatively under-referenced compared to other voices of the era. Last year I curated a show at Carroll / Fletcher in London—‘Dense Mesh’—based on several passages from the book.”

B. Ingrid Olson

Book of Mutter, by Kate Zambreno

The artist—whose highly personal, mixed-media assemblages are currently on view in “Fond Illusions” at Galerie Perrotin in New York—suggests this “especially raw, multifaceted portrait of loss.”

“Zambreno weaves together fragments of art history and biography (including pieces of Roland Barthes, Louise Bourgeois, Henry Darger) and her own episodic memories of her mother,” Olson says. “The structure of her writing reads at the pace of thinking, of the quick connections between one thought to another: Sometimes the text is full and clear, and other times it is an amalgam of scattered images, or simply a list of words.”

Trudy Benson

True Hallucinations, by Terence McKenna

“It’s a psychedelic adventure set in the Amazon, complete with aliens and miniature people,” explains Benson, whose work can be seen through July 28th at New York’s Lyles & King. “There are botanical and anthropological tangents, where mysticism and science blur together. A magical summer journey!”

Gretchen Scherer

We Have Always Lived In The Castle, by Shirley Jackson

“In the summer of 2015, I received an email from David Armacost asking me to be in a three-person show with himself and Katrina Fimmel,” Scherer says. “The gallery was called Evening Hours, a small artist-run space on the lower level of an East Village apartment building. Elspeth Walker, a writer and curator, also a member of the space, suggested we call the show We Have Always Lived in the Castle, after the novel by Shirley Jackson. I had never read the book, so Elspeth sent a short passage for us to read.

“The passage described a book nailed to a tree, meant to ward off evil spirits. I had a painting in process at the time of an old house, with a big tree in the foreground. Inspired by the passage, I decided to paint a book nailed to the tree. Katrina made a very large, washy and bright painting of figures in a forest. David made a large flower arrangement that was nailed to the wall, sort of the inverse of the book nailed to the tree.

“That summer, I read We Have Always Lived In The Castle in full. It was very different from what I had imagined—like entering a parallel universe. The feeling of the book and the show are forever linked in my mind; from time to time I think of it and can very quickly enter that world we created.”

Marilyn Minter

The Complete Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales, by Hans Christian Andersen

“I got a copy of these tales when I was a kid,” says the painter, whose lush subjects have their own larger-than-life, occasionally sinister magic. “I loved the illustrations, and tried to copy them all the time: witches thrown in barrels, covered with nails and rolled down a hill. Not like today’s fairy tales, I suspect.”

TM Davy

Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman

Dionysiaca, by Nonnus

Tree Finder, by May Theilgaard Watts

“I return most summers to Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, the Kalamos & Karpos myth in Nonnus’s Dionysiaca, and other poetry that will wake me back into the transmutational mysteries of being under our sun,” says the painter, whose recent work has explored natural landscapes (and horses). “But perhaps nothing has been more directly enlivening toward nature’s variations than the ‘dichotomous keys’ of May Theilgaard Watts. Her Tree Finder is an easy path of observational questions toward identifying East Coast trees by the shape and character of their leaves and branches. Small enough to take on hikes, it helped tune my novice naturalist eye to a living play of forms.”

—Scott Indrisek

from Artsy News