#guest daily film score!!!

[daily-film-score]

𝔻𝕒𝕪 𝟠𝟛

[scotianostra]

Happy 64th Birthday Brian Alexander "B. A." Robertson, born September 12th 1956.

Robertson was born and raised in Glasgow attending the former Allan Glen's School, Glasgow,[and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama. He recorded his first album "Wringing Applause", for Ardent Records in 1973. It enjoyed modest critical acclaim, and a nomination in Down Beat Magazine's year end poll. He made four further albums, but had little commercial success.

During these years, he combined his career as an artist in a writing and production partnership with bassist Herbie Flowers. BA wrote and produced with Herbie, and worked with an eclectic crowd, including Lionel Bart, Joe Brown, Jim Cregan, Ray Cooper, Micky Dolenz, Gillian Gregory, Georg Kajanus, Harry Nilsson, Phil Pickett, Annie Ross, Sandie Shaw, and Chris Spedding.

He made his first television appearance with Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel (1976), played piano on the B side of "Come Up And See Me Make Me Smile".

Before finding fame in his own right B A teamed up with guitarist Terry Britten and wrote over 20 worldwide hits, the pick of them for Cliff Richard, the songs Carrie and Wired for Sound, the latter was nominated Ivor Novello Song of the Year in 1981.

It was around the same time his singing career took off. He enjoyed chart success in Europe, with six hit singles as an artist. The first, "Bang Bang", achieved sales over 1 million, the last Flight 19, in 1982, a #1 in Iceland! This track inspired a ground breaking music video directed by Brian Grant. BA was nominated Ivor Novello Songwriter of the Year 1980, UK Male Vocalist, Daily Mirror Rock & Pop Awards 1980, JVC Scottish Musician of the Year 1982. He recorded with Maggie Bell in 1982, Frida from Abba, 83, and Lulu in 84.

As well as appearing in concert, he also featured on radio and television. Was a frequent guest broadcaster for the BBC, from 1980 to 1985. Hosted his own music series "BA In Music". In 1986 he was commissioned to compose the music for The Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. He has written more than 30 themes, songs, and scores, for film, television and special events. These include "The Other Side of The World" by Chaka Khan for the motion picture "White Nights", music for one of the UK's longest running talk shows "Wogan", and "We Have A Dream" for Scotland's World Cup Football Squad of 1982.

Throughout the 80's and 90's he continued to write and work in the studio with another diverse group, including Sam Brown, Roger Daltrey, Lonnie Donegan, Dave Edmunds, Bernard Edwards, Peter Frampton, Alan Gorrie, John Jarvis, Maz + Kilgore, Joe Sample, Helena Springs, and Andy Taylor (Duran Duran).

He met Genesis guitarist Mike Rutherford in 1985, and began a second long term writing collaboration. He introduced Paul Carrack to the embryo Mike & The Mechanics. As writer and musician, he featured on six of their studio albums. Wrote their first hit single "Silent Running", Billboard's number 1 Rock Song of 1986, and the international success, "The Living Years". This most celebrated of his lyrics written when his father died twelve weeks before the birth of his son.

At the 1990 Grammy Awards, "The Living Years" had four nominations, including Song of the Year. BA was pipped for the statuettes by good friend Arif Mardin and "The Wind Beneath My Wings". In London, at The Ivor Novellos, 'The Living Years' topped 1991 Grammy winner "Another Day in Paradise" for Best Song.

He was invited to set up offices at The Walt Disney Studio, by Michael Eisner, and Jeffrey Katzenburg. BA moved with his family to Los Angeles. He remained a feature on the lot for over three years. Was Creator, and Producer of Grammy nominated, multi-platinum, music video, "Simply Mad About The Mouse". Artists include Harry Connick Jnr., LL Cool J., Billy Joel, and Bobby McFerrin.

1991 saw "Silent Running" and "The Living Years", awarded "MillionAir" status by BMI, for more than one million broadcast performances in the US. "Silent Running" has now reached almost three million plays, and 'The Living Years' over four.

From 1993 through 1995, he put together, "With Your Hand on My Heart" for Patti LaBelle and Michael Crawford. Michael's album had a double Grammy nomination and world wide sales of more than 2 million. Wrote music for "Baywatch", the world's most popular television show and collaborated on a musical with Burt Bacharach.

He continued to work with Mike & The Mechanics, had six songs in the "Beggar On A Beach of Gold" project including the title song, and another six on their, multi-platinum CD, "Hits". He worked as writer, and musical associate to Phil Ramone on the stage production "EFX”, at the MGM Grand Las Vegas. The opening song "Somewhere in Time”, a collaboration with John Barry.

For the past 20 years or so Robertson has lived in Ireland, continually working on various projects he is still in high demand, Over the years, B A has accumulated more than 70 silver, gold, and platinum record awards. He lives with his wife, designer Karen Manners, they have two adult children.

I've chosen this song because it is my favourite Scottish World goal offering, remember, if you are old enough, four years previously, Andy Cameron proclaimed, We're Going to WIN the world Cup, by the time 1982 came B A Robertson knew that it was a dream. Oh I must add, the last World Cup Scotland was in 1998, and the much more realistic song was by Del Amitri, and calle Don't come home too soon, which as always we did, failing to get beyond the first stages yet again

[luminenwalker]

[24-8-2023]

On today's Cyber Hour, we have a special guest, renowned bio-hacker Dr. Panov. Join us as we discuss his latest breakthrough in neural modification that might just redefine the boundaries of human potential. //Acid

It didn't give you any peace, seeing her just led to more paranoia, more watchers, they're always watching you. They know who you are, but who are they? Could be anyone. //RRH

What the hell is a Cybergoth?// FFF It's a goth to the power of three. //Countdown

ACG ACGCC ACCG ACGC AGGCCGG AGCCC ACG ACCC AC ACGC AGGCCGG AGCCC AC AC ACGCC AGGG AGC AGGC AGGCCGG ACCGGG ACCG ACCCT //Ms. Translation

Data day, Day to Day: "Popeye" reboot draws criticism with catchphrase "Me strength be no joke cos I drinks me Coke" is this enough to spinach him off? All the deets from the streets, tonight only on:- //Data Daily

To the guy who's stealing all our voices for his little pet project: Get my good side. //Jackfuck

Data day, Day to Day: Filming begins in Cincin for Science fiction confectionary product placement extravaganza "Do Androids Scheme for Eclectic Peeps" All the deets from the streets, tonight only on:- //Data Daily

Data day, Day to Day: Its 8/24 which means its national Knife Day, in a desperate bid to halt the inevitable bloodbath City Government has sponsored Sushi making, whittling, and bread scoring contests across the city! All the deets from the streets, tonight only on:- //Data Daily

[theblogs2024]

What Do Executive Producers and Directors Do?

The next time you go to a movie, look at the opening credits. How many executive producers and producers do you see? They stand for the offer - the investors who are part of the film and the money it had taken to put it together. Sometimes it's a major crowd. When a film is in the planning stage, the professional producer has obtained the rights to the property, such as a novel or play. The professional producer might have the particular job of acquiring the traders but won't be involved further. Let's assume it's a man, although certainly not always. He might then hire a line producer to cover the daily activity.

In the pre-production stage of the movie, the only team contains the professional producer and the casting director. In a short time, they have to get the costume designer involved. The particular designer makes all the clothes and costumes and designs the fabrics, colors and sizes. Up to now that's the only individual who might be in the running for an Oscar. After that it's time for the director, and when filming begins, the director is the boss. He is liable for how the film should look, the way the actors should perform, and what the audience will get out of the film. Company directors vary widely in their styles. Christopher Guest and Judd Apatow encourage improvisation. Steven Spielberg and James Cameron take control of a project and provide instructions that must be followed to the letter. You already know that Hard woody Allen, Spike Shelter and Tim Burton are both author and producer of their movies. The particular Coen brothers may be director as well as cinematographer. Often, you have produced and another has directed. Some company directors are a one-person film crew, like David Lynch and John Waters. Clint Eastwood is one who's been called an "actor's manufacturer. " He's known for keeping a film on time and within budget. He doesn't demand take after take, and filming finishes at a decent hour every day. Clint Eastwood, Quentin Tarantino, Spike Lee, Tyler Perry, Kenneth Branagh and Woody Allen appear in their own films. They're merely a few of a much bigger list. Others create their own musical scores, such as Clint Eastwood, Brian Lynch and Ruben Carpenter. In the United States, they usually join the Directors Guild of America. Canadians are in the Company directors Guild of North america. In the UK, it's the Company directors Guild of big Britain. Directors can make or break films. Was it uninteresting, moving along gradually? Blame the movie director. Was it tight and engrossing? Credit the director. Who else states you have to be an expert in films? Do you think you're watching the most popular TV shows? Is your chosen guide the perfect one for the book club? What goes into the production of a Television show or movie? We'll talk here about what's new or even vintage. Why not review a favorite movie? Or maybe you'll want to buy the DVD MOVIE to take pleasure from over and over. To know more details visit here: snyder

[f1]

Daniel Ricciardo gets a job offer from Matchbox Twenty after they see him singing one of their hits

Freshly sacked McLaren star Daniel Ricciardo gets a job offer from superstar band Matchbox Twenty after they see him belting out one of their hits  Daniel Ricciardo offered job by Matchbox Twenty after posting car karaoke clip  The Aussie Formula One star has been recently sacked by McLaren  Fans on social media were quick to point out that Ricciardo needs a job By James Cooney For Daily Mail Australia Published: 20:56 EDT, 24 August 2022 | Updated: 20:56 EDT, 24 August 2022 Aussie Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo will leave McLaren a year early after mutually agreeing to terminate his contract at the end of this season - but he may have scored a gig with rock band Matchbox Twenty. The eight-time grand prix winner was on holiday in the US when he filmed himself driving and singing along to one of the American stars' biggest hits. In clip, the 33-year-old Aussie belts out his best version of the band's smash 1997 single '3AM' as he cruises down a freeway. Aussie Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo recorded himself singing along to Matchbox Twenty while on holidays in the US The Aussie star (pictured) has been recently sacked by McLaren and his future plans are still unclear - but he might have a lifeline in the music industry The clip didn't escape the notice of the band, who took to social media to let him know they were impressed. 'If you're ever looking for a side gig outside of @F1 let us know @danielricciardo!' the band wrote on Twitter. Fans were quick to chime in, noting that Ricciardo might be looking for a new line of work in light of his recent sacking. 'He'll definitely need it next year,' wrote one. 'He's actually looking for a main gig now! Hopefully y'all sign him!' joked another. 'As a roadie,' said a third commenter. American rock band Matchbox Twenty (pictured above) saw footage of Ricciardo singing their hit song 3AM and offered him a job The Aussie actually has some experience in the music industry after scoring a guest appearance on a Gang Of Youths album playing drums and backing vocals in 2020. Ricciardo has endured a horror two-season stint with McLaren in which he struggled to find form and was frequently outperformed by his British teammate Lando Norris. The Aussie has struggled for form during his two-season stint, being markedly outperformed by his less experienced team-mate Lando Norris in qualifying and trailing him by 57 points after 13 races this year.   With Ricciardo's departure now confirmed, 21-year-old Formula Two champion Oscar Piastri is expected to take his fellow Australian's place. Ricciardo was under contract until the end of 2023 and only last month insisted he was 'committed to McLaren until the end of next year'.  He could be set for a payout in the region of $24million, taking into account his massive salary and performance bonuses. 'It's been a privilege to be a part of the McLaren Racing family for the last two seasons but following several months of discussions with Zak & Andreas we have decided to terminate my contract with the team early and agree to mutually part ways at the end of this season,' Ricciardo said in an official statement. Ricciardo's midseason break ends this weekend as he suits up for the Belgian Grand Prix - his first race since the news of his split with McLaren broke 'I'll be announcing my own future plans in due course but regardless of what this next chapter brings, I have no regrets and am proud of the effort and work I gave McLaren, especially the win in Monza, last season. 'I've enjoyed working with everyone at McLaren both trackside and back in Woking and will be giving my all on and off track as we enjoy the remainder of the season together. 'I've never been more motivated to compete and be a part of a sport that I love so much and look forward to what comes next.' Advertisement Share or comment on this article: Daniel Ricciardo gets a job offer from Matchbox Twenty after they see him singing one of their hits via Formula One | Mail Online https://www.dailymail.co.uk?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490

[potteresque-ire]

More ask answer about Word of Honour (山河令, WoH) and the so-called “Dangai 101 phenomenon” under the cut ~ with all the M/M relationships shown on screen, does it mean improved acceptance / safety for the c-queer community?

Due to its length (sorry!), I’ve divided the answer into 3 parts: 1) Background 2) Excerpts from the op-eds 3) Thoughts This post is PART 2 💛. As usual, please consider the opinions expressed as your local friendly fandomer sharing what they’ve learned, and should, in no ways, be viewed as necessarily true. :)

(TW: homophobic, hateful speech quoted)

The following are three opinion pieces published by state-controlled media re: Dangai and WoH:

O1) Published on 2021/03/04, in Shanghai Observer 上觀新聞

8.6分爆款武俠劇《山河令》背后，是90后愛看的江湖 Behind the 8.6-score Wuxia drama WoH is the Jianghu loved by those born after 1990

[Pie note: the 8.6 score refers to the score WoH got from the popular TV and film review site, Douban]

O2) Published on 2021/03/16, in China Comment 半月談:

國產電視劇掀起「耽改」熱：「腐文化」出圈，青少年入坑 The Rise of Dangai in C-dramas: “Rot Culture” exits Circle, Youth fell into the Ditch

and its related editorial:

「耽改劇」 盛行？警惕對「腐文化」進行無底線炒作和過度消費 Dangai Dramas Prevailing? Be alert to the Uncurbed Hyping and Excessive Consumption of “Rot Culture”

[Pie Note: “Exiting the Circle” (出圈) and “Falling into the Ditch” (入坑) are both fandom vocabularies. “Exiting the circle” refers to something being so famous that it is no longer contained within fandom (the circle) and instead, breaks into public consciousness, mainstream. “Falling into a Ditch” means to fall for a fandom so hard that one cannot crawl their way out it. For example, c-turtles commonly refers to their joining the YiZhan fandoms as ditch falling, followed by being “hammered to the bottom of the ditch” by Gg and Dd’s candies.

“Rot” 腐 refers to the same rot as in fujoshi 腐女 and “rot selling” 賣腐 described in PART 1.]

O3) Published on 2021/04/07, in 光明日報 Enlightenment Daily

耽美作品改编盛行带偏大众审美 Popularity of Dangai Dramas leads the Public’s Aesthetic Astray

To summarise first,

* Article O1 was very light on the characterisation of Danmei—the terms Danmei and Dangai never even appeared in the article. It focused, instead, on WoH’s Wuxia elements, including the beauty of its presentation—much like People Daily’s review of TU focused on the drama’s aesthetics, including its world view. The relationship between Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing was never mentioned, not even garnering a description such as 摯友 (“close friend”) as LWJ and WWX did. The article did point out that the drama was catering to a women audience.

* Article O2a (the opinion piece) and O2b (the editorial) are about Danmei and Dangai, collectively as the subculture they named “Rot Culture” (腐文化). No drama names are mentioned (in reading Chinese news, it’s important to note whether the critiqued target is named or not; the former (點名批評) is considered significantly harsher). The article, as hinted by the word “rot” in its title, leaned heavily towards characterising Danmei and Dangai by the traditional BL characterisation. Article O2a was also the only article out of the four that explicitly addressed  homosexuality. Rather than addressing the queer elements in Danmei/Dangai as queer, however, the article argued the genres could turn their young audience queer.

* Article O3 is also about Danmei and Dangai as the “Rot Culture” subculture, without the naming of any dramas. This article is notable for its association of the genres and the state’s concern with the “feminisation” of Chinese men.

Based on these op-eds, the state is characterising Danmei and Dangai predominantly as characterisation 2 — traditional BL, women’s fantasy. They recognised the psychological need behind the popularity of the genres among their (het) women audience, and the tone, is overall, of understanding and approval:

One of the cores of Dangai is the pursuit of “beauty”. The “double male leads” in Dangai dramas score sufficiently high beauty points to become the party to be defined, to be gazed, to be consumed. It is a counterattack to the male gaze. In addition, such “double male leads” enjoying equal relationship, admiring each other and fighting together shoulder-to-shoulder, also reflects the ideals of women towards relationships.

In the visual world of Dangai, two beautiful men respecting and treasuring each other, progressing together shoulder-to-shoulder, not only fits with women’s ideal model of  relationships, but also also create wide, yet-to-be filled emotional spaces for women’s unstoppable imagination to flex. Such relationships have less considerations of reality and self-interest, and thus appear to be more pure.

However, these opinion pieces have also made clear that the state saw the queer elements surrounding the genre, and its opinion of them is much more … reserved, especially when they cross the fiction / reality line and become the focus of the promotion of the dramas via the actors, who straddle that fiction / reality line.

Due to the lengths of these articles, I’m only translating the notable “chunks” in each of them—the “chunks” that connect the genres with queerness. I’m deliberately keeping these passages as “chunks”—ie, without removing sentences in the middle—to highlight the state’s logic in making the connection.

From O2a: 國產電視劇掀起「耽改」熱：「腐文化」出圈，青少年入坑 The Rise of Dangai in C-dramas: “Rot Culture” exits Circle, Youth fell into the Ditch

“M/M CP”, “Beautiful Men Economy”, topics surrounding this market—today, nobody bets an eye anymore at “selling the rot” being the industrial phenomenon. “Sell the rot” is to sell “rot culture”, with “rot culture” being the subculture for the audience’s imagination, of M/M (ambiguous) love stories for major content.

Such subculture, if confined within its fandoms, may be harmless. However, if it is to be adapted into TV dramas in significant scale, if it is to break through the subculture circles and enter the realm of general public entertainment, then one must take caution of its bad influence, especially to inexperienced youths.

With the established review system for web and TV dramas, production teams often remove the “romantic plot line” between the two male leads in the original Danmei canon and display “brotherhood love” in the TV drama, while “playing edge ball” to provide their audience with room for imagination. In the subsequent promotion and marketing, however, the two male actors may have to “sell the rot” as well.

[Pie note: I’m translating 打擦边球 literally as “playing edge ball” as this is a very commonly used term in discussions of China’s censorship. It means to step as close to the forbidden line as possible without crossing it, to take advantage of loopholes.]

Author of the article “On the Danmei-ization of Chinese Dramas” believes that, in recent years, CPs “selling the rot” , the practice of which is rooted in Danmei culture, have become a hit in the Chinese TV industry. TV dramas with Danmei elements entice their audience to create CPs around the leads of the dramas; they make use of the fervour generated by the discussion topic to achieve high viewership.

In recent years, academics have already expressed concern and investigated the influence of Danmei culture on the youth’s gender awareness, their opinions of marriage etc. For example, the article “Sexual Orientation of Some Youths in Hunan Province and Analysis of their Potential Causes” investigated the sexual orientation of 1,260 youths in the province and discovered that: among males, 2.9% self-identified as homosexuals, 4.9% bi-sexuals, 12.4% unknown; among females, 2.4%, 12.4%, 14.3% respectively. 37.5% of the people knew about Danmei or Doujin (同人; fandom), among which 32.3% indicated they “liked” it. 11.9% indicated that they longed for the homosexual romance in such works.

The author of the article analysed that, students who knew about Danmei or Doujin were more likely to report bisexuality or unknown sexual orientation. This demonstrated the influence of such culture on the sexual orientation of youths.

( Cartoon from O2a, titled “Learning to be “cool” 學酷 )

From O2b:「耽改劇」 盛行？警惕對「腐文化」進行無底線炒作和過度消 Dangai Dramas Prevailing? Be alert to the Uncurbed Hyping and Excessive Consumption of “Rot Culture”

Not to be overlooked is this: the severe reality of “Rot culture” exiting the circle and becoming immensely popular is urgently awaiting the entire society’s alert and attention. Objectively speaking, many Dangai works are not aspiring to positively, proactively guide and display Danmei culture, but only to set up attention-grabbing gimmicks, the purpose of which is solely to “sell the rot”. Not a small number of Dangai’s plots are illogical. Worse, in order to attract attention and satisfy the “taste” of fans, some production companies are forcibly selling “M/M CPs”,  conducting “bound” promotion [Pie note: as in bound by CP pairing] and embarrassing interactions [Pie note: as in, getting the actors to interact in a suggestively romantic way] , “playing the edge ball” [Pie note: as explained above] to generate personalities, consuming “Rot Culture” without a bottom line. These poor marketing tactics not only hurt the interest of Danmei audience, but interfere with the online environment and its order. The indulgence of radical language, moreover, challenges and affects mainstream values. These bad influences must be paid attention to and supervised.

From O3) 耽美作品改编盛行带偏大众审美 Popularity of Dangai Dramas leads the Public’s Aesthetic Astray

In addition to the explosion of the number of Dangai dramas, many dramas that are not originally Dangai are attaching themselves to the Dangai genre, by setting up double male leads, by playing up the suggestive atmosphere between male characters in their plot lay out. Some variety shows make use of the plot setup, the post-editing, the promotion of topics etc, to forcibly pair up their male guests for the purpose of hype and attention. This vulgar custom of “playing edge ball” as a means to tempt, to lead the audience into indulging in fantasies [Pie note: sexual fantasies implied by the idiom 想入非非] have spread from visual media production to the areas of promotion and marketing. Some interviews, magazine photoshots, short video production have also joined the bandwagon of borrowing the popularity of Danmei culture. They use all sorts of sensitive topics to tease and excite the public, tirelessly, happily guiding the fans to overanalyse Dangai dramas and even, the relationship between the actors of Dangai dramas. With the push of such gimmicks, Danmei is reaching the public through multiple channels, gathering popularity and turning into a phenomenon.

From O3) 耽美作品改编盛行带偏大众审美 Popularity of Dangai Dramas leads the Public’s Aesthetic Astray

Men with delicate looks, with traditionally feminine (soft and reserved) quality, are often sought after by the rot women (fujoshis). There has been a recent, popular saying in the industry: to find out if a male star is popular or not, find out if there are fans calling him “wife”. Artists with a tough image often do not make it big, but explode in popularity once they switch to a soft beauty style. Netizens have teased “Ten years as a tough man known by none; one day as a beauty known by all”. This take on aesthetics is influencing visual media creation and entertainment production to a certain extent. Watching from a distance, more and more traffic-generating stars look like “cream young men” [Pie note: 奶油小生, from 奶油 “cream” + 小生, “the role of young men in traditional Chinese opera”, is an old-fashioned term traditionally used to describe young, good-looking actors who often presented as pale, mild-mannered, scholarly]. Some entertainment venture capital picks “flower men” as their choice for leads regardless of the TV dramas/films’ subject matter, follows the young (male) idol path. Commercial products and ads extend their offers to “little fresh meat” [Pie note: 小鲜肉 is the nickname for young (male) idols]. Even cosmetics, which have conventionally been thought of as women-only products, are no longer asking only women stars to be their spokespeople. Feminine beauty can exist, but all things shouldn’t be taken to the extreme. As “flower men” overflow on screen, masculine, tough men are reducing in numbers. This may counter the basic rules of art creation, and disrupt the development of diverse social aesthetics.

Any product produced by the mind, in the process of production, is also producing minds that will accept it, consume it. Audience of Dangai include not only adults, but also not-too-mature youths who pursue “Rot Culture” as a fashionable trend. In particular, as the aesthetics of men in the eyes of young women turn even more feminine, such change can indirectly influence the cognition of young men, cause the young men to subconsciously shift their own gender expression closer to the feminine beauty anticipated by women. Most Dangai stories are far removed from reality; some young audience nonetheless mix them up with real life, develop biased understanding such as “only love that doesn’t treat matrimony and reproduction as destinations is true love”. Although Daigai is often made “Danmei-less”, in that the romantic relationship between the two male leads are re-written as brothers and zhiji (confidants), the canon and the Rot Culture behind it still hides large amounts of pornographic, violent content, including biased, unhealthy perspectives on gender, and un-scientific, even wrong biological knowledge. If such content isn’t given restrictions, it will seriously mislead the values and self-fulfilment of the young.

PART 1 PART 2 <-- YOU ARE HERE PART 3

[gladiates]

56 french-language film recs!

I wanted to find some movies I can watch to improve my French, so I looked for films available on Kanopy (which is rly cool--if you live in the US, you can stream some movies for free if your library or school subscribes to it!) All of the following films are on Kanopy, and I imagine you can also find many of them on p*racy sites (totally not endorsing that at all no sir!). I’ve listed each film’s title along with its year and score on IMDB. I only included movies with at least 1,000 IMDB ratings and an average of at least 7/10 so they’re all reasonably acclaimed! I also included a short summary of each from IMDB as well. List below the cut because it’s long!

Cleo From 5 to 7 (1962, 7.9 from ~17.0k votes): Cleo, a singer and hypochondriac, becomes increasingly worried that she might have cancer while awaiting test results from her doctor.

The Rules of the Game (1939, 8.0 from ~26.6k votes): A bourgeois life in France at the onset of World War II, as the rich and their poor servants meet up at a French chateau.

Breathless (1960. 7.8 from ~73.1k votes): A small-time thief steals a car and impulsively murders a motorcycle policeman. Wanted by the authorities, he reunites with a hip American journalism student and attempts to persuade her to run away with him to Italy.

The 400 Blows (1959, 8.1 from 105.1k votes): A young boy, left without attention, delves into a life of petty crime.

Purple Noon (1960, 7.8 from 14.2k votes): Tom Ripley is a talented mimic, moocher, forger and all-around criminal improviser; but there's more to Tom Ripley than even he can guess.

The Return of Martin Guerre (1982, 7.4 from ~4.0k votes): In medieval France, some villagers challenge a man's claim of identity when he (as he says) returns home from some time in the army.

Last Year at Marienbad (1961, 7.8 from ~20.3 votes): In a strange and isolated chateau, a man becomes acquainted with a woman and insists that they have met before.

The Wages of Fear (1953, 8.1 from ~54.5k votes): In a decrepit South American village, four men are hired to transport an urgent nitroglycerine shipment without the equipment that would make it safe.

Tell No One (2006, 7.5 from ~50.7k votes): An accidental discovery near a doctor's estate stirs up some painful memories eight years after his wife's hideous murder, and now, things are bound to take a turn for the unexpected. Does the good doctor know more than he's letting on?

Queen Margot (1994, 7.4 from 16.3k votes): Young Queen Margot finds herself trapped in an arranged marriage amidst a religious war between Catholics and Protestants. She hopes to escape with a new lover, but finds herself imprisoned by her powerful and ruthless family.

Un Flic (1972, 7.1 from ~8.2k votes): After a shaky first heist, a group of thieves plan an even more elaborate and risky second heist.

Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953, 7.5 from ~16.8k votes): Monsieur Hulot comes to a beachside hotel for a vacation and accidentally, but good-naturedly, causes havoc.

La Haine (1995, 8.1 from ~150.0k votes): 24 hours in the lives of three young men in the French suburbs the day after a violent riot.

Alphaville (1965, 7.1 from 22.9k votes): A U.S. secret agent is sent to the distant space city of Alphaville where he must find a missing person and free the city from its tyrannical ruler.

Tomboy (2011, 7.4 from 18.4k votes): A family moves into a new neighborhood, and a 10-year-old named Laure deliberately presents as a boy named Mikhael to the neighborhood children.

Full Moon in Paris (1984, 7.4 from 3.8k votes): Louise, a young woman, who recently finished her studies in arts, is working as a interior decorator trainee. Playing the game of seduction, her life becomes more and more complicated.

Bob the Gambler (1956, 7.7k from 10.8k votes): After losing big, an aging gambler decides to assemble a team to rob a casino.

La Chinoise (1967, 7.1 from ~6.2k votes): A small group of French students are studying Mao, trying to find out their position in the world and how to change the world to a Maoistic community using terrorism.

The Innocents (2016, 7.3 from ~9.6k votes): 1945. Mathilde is a French Red Cross doctor working on a mission to help the French survivors of the German camps. While she works in Poland, she is asked for help by a nun. In her convent, several nuns are pregnant.

Germinal (1993, 7.1 from ~4.7k votes): In mid-nineteenth-century northern France, a coal mining town's workers are exploited by the mine's owner. One day, they decide to go on strike, and the authorities repress them.

BPM (Beats Per Minute) (2017, 7.4 from ~13.4k votes): Members of the advocacy group ACT UP Paris demand action by the government and pharmaceutical companies to combat the AIDS epidemic in the early 1990s.

Touchez Pas Au Grisbi (1954, 7.8 from ~6.7k votes): An aging, world-weary gangster is double-crossed and forced out of retirement when his best friend is kidnapped and their stash of eight stolen gold bars demanded as ransom.

Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels (1975, 7.8 from ~7.4k votes): A lonely widowed housewife does her daily chores, takes care of her apartment where she lives with her teenage son, and turns the occasional trick to make ends meet. However, something happens that changes her safe routine.

Port of Shadows (1938, 7.8 from ~8.2k votes): A military deserter finds love and trouble (and a small dog) in a smoky French port city.

Lumumba (2000, 7.2 from ~1.8k votes): The true story of controversial leader of independent Congo, Patrice Lumumba.

Three Colors: Blue (1993, 7.9 from ~89.6k votes): A woman struggles to find a way to live her life after the death of her husband and child.

The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967, 7.7 from ~8.4k votes): Two sisters leave their small seaside town of Rochefort in search of romance. Hired as carnival singers, one falls for an American musician, while the other must search for her ideal partner.

The Brand New Testament (2015, 7.1 from ~29.8k votes): Did you know that God is alive and lives in Brussels with his daughter?

La Rafle (2010, 7.1 from ~8.2k votes): A faithful retelling of the 1942 "Vel' d'Hiv Roundup" and the events surrounding it.

Diabolique (1955, 8.0 from ~61.4k votes): The wife and mistress of a loathed school principal plan to murder him with what they believe is the perfect alibi.

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006, 7.1 from ~18.5k votes): Secret agent OSS 117 foils Nazis, beds local beauties, and brings peace to the Middle East.

Mon Oncle (1958, 7.8 from ~18.8k votes): Monsieur Hulot visits the technology-driven world of his sister, brother-in-law, and nephew, but he can't quite fit into the surroundings.

A Man Escaped (1956, 8.3 from ~19.1k votes): A captured French Resistance fighter during WWII engineers a daunting escape from a Nazi prison in France.

The Well-Digger's Daughter (2011, 7.0 from ~3.6k votes): In 1930s southern France, a father is torn between his sense of honor and his deep love for his daughter when she gets in trouble with the wealthy son of a shopkeeper.

Weekend (1967, 7.2 from ~13k votes): A surreal tale of a married couple going on a road trip to visit the wife's parents with the intention of killing them for the inheritance.

Claire's Knee (1970, 7.6 from ~9.0k votes): On lakeside summer holiday, a conflicted older man is dared to have a flirt with two beautiful teenage stepsisters despite his betrothal to a diplomat's daughter and the fact that the girls have boyfriends.

Shoot the Piano Player (1960, 7.5 from ~17.5k votes): Charlie is approached by his crook brother Chico, who is chased by two gangsters. Charlie helps him to escape, but he upsets the criminals, so when his brother Fido is kidnapped, Charlie has to take an attitude with tragic consequences.

My Night at Maud's (1969, 7.9 from ~10.8k votes): The rigid principles of a devout Catholic man are challenged during a one-night stay with Maud, a divorced woman with an outsize personality.

Eyes Without a Face (1960, 7.7 from ~27.5k votes): A surgeon causes an accident which leaves his daughter disfigured, and goes to extremes to give her a new face.

Three Colors: Red (1994, 8.1 from ~90.4k votes): A model discovers a retired judge is keen on invading people's privacy.

The Grocer's Son (2007, 7.0 from ~2.3k votes): Antoine moves home to help his mom drive the mobile grocery, when his dad's hospitalized. He brings Claire along, hoping she'll become more than a friend. He drives around Provence's countryside, selling mainly to old people.

Pickpocket (1959, ~7.7 from 19.6k votes): Michel is released from jail after serving a sentence for thievery. His mother dies and he resorts to pickpocketing as a means of surviva

La Collectionneuse (1967, 7.5 from ~6.6k votes): A womanizing art dealer and a painter find the serenity of their Riviera vacation disturbed by a third guest, a vivacious bohemian woman known for her long list of male conquests.

Code Unknown (2000, 7.2 from ~11.9k votes): A young man harasses a homeless woman, another man protests, the police arrest both and the woman has to leave the country. What were their various story-lines leading up to this event?

Children of Paradise (1945, 8.4 from ~18.2k votes): The theatrical life of a beautiful courtesan and the four men who love her.

The Last Metro (1980, 7.4 from ~12.5k votes): In occupied Paris, an actress married to a Jewish theater owner must keep him hidden from the Nazis while doing both of their jobs.

Danton (1983, 7.5 from ~6.4k votes): In 1793, as the Terror begins in France, Georges Danton, a champion-of-the-people, returns to clash against Maximilien Robespierre and his extremist party.

Orpheus (1950, 8.0 from ~10.5k votes): A poet in love with Death follows his unhappy wife into the underworld.

Lacombe, Lucien (1974, 7.7 from ~6.5k votes): In 1944, an 18-year old boy from small-town France, collaborates with the Nazi-regime and subsequently falls in love with a Jewish gir

L'Atalante (1934, 7.8 from ~14.4k votes): Newly married couple Juliette and a ship captain Jean struggle through marriage as they travel on the L'atalante along with the captain's first mate Le père Jules and a cabin boy.

Le Million (1931, 7.4 from ~3.1k votes): An impoverished painter and his rival engage in a race across Paris to recover a jacket concealing a winning lottery ticket.

La bête humaine (1938, 7.6 from ~6.8k votes): In this classic adaptation of Emile Zola's novel, a tortured train engineer falls in love with a troubled married woman who has helped her husband commit a murder.

Black Girl (1966, 7.4 from ~3.5k votes): A black girl from Senegal becomes a servant in France.

Out 1 (1971, 7.8 from ~1.1k votes): Following the May 1968 civil unrest in France, a deaf-mute and a con artist simultaneously stumble upon the remnants of a secret society.

Les Misérables, Part 1 (1934, 8.2 from ~1.5k votes): The lives of numerous people over the course of 20 years in 19th century France, weaved together by the story of an ex-convict named Jean Valjean on the run from an obsessive police inspector, who pursues him for only a minor offense.

Beau Travail (1999, 7.4 from ~8.5k votes): This film focuses on an ex-Foreign Legion officer as he recalls his once glorious life, leading troops in Djibouti.

[jamieroxxartist]

✔ Mark Your Calendars: Monday Aug 16, on 🎨#JamieRoxx’s Pop Roxx Radio 🎙️#TalkShow and #Podcast with Featured Guest:

#TaraViolet, #Cinematographer (Eye Without A Face | #Horror, #Thriller)

☎ Lines will be open (347) 850.8598 Call in with your Questions and Comments Live on the Air.

● Click here for Guest Details and to Set a Reminder: http://tobtr.com/11978653

​Pop Art Painter Jamie Roxx (www.JamieRoxx.us) welcomes Tara Violet, Cinematographer (Eye Without a Face | Horror, Thriller) to the Show!

● Web: eyewithoutaface.com ● IG: @eyewithoutaface21 ● FB: @eyewithoutafacefilm ● TW: @Eyewithoutafac8

Director Ramin Niami‘s Eye Without a Face, a modern twist on Rear Window, comes to digital this August from Gravitas Ventures.

Henry, an agoraphobic and anxious young man living in Los Angeles, hacks into the webcams of various selected young women who inhabit the city. He watches over them in their daily lives, seeing himself as their guardian angel. When his new charming roommate Eric, a Youtuber and struggling actor pushes him to get out into the real world, he unknowingly puts Henry in danger. And as Henry starts to suspect one of the women he watches, Laura, of being a killer, everything starts to spiral out of control. Featuring stunning cinematography by Tara Violet Niami, and a mesmerizing score by Charlie Clouser, Eye Without A Face is written and directed by Ramin Niami, director of the acclaimed films Somewhere in the City, Babe’s & Rickey’s Inn and Shirin in Love. Starring hot young actors Dakota Shapiro (“The Affair”), Luke Cook (“Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”, “Katy Keene”), and Vlada Verevko (“Beauty and the Beast”)

● Media Inquiries: October Coast www.octobercoastpr.com

[qvid-pro-qvo]

Coul you do Emily Prentiss x reader with the prompts : I noticed / and : Call me if you need anything

Please? And thank you, I really love what you write❤️

thank you, friend! <3 emily prentiss x gender neutral reader.

word count: 1827

rating: e for everyone, because halloween isn’t just for those who wanna get spooked (this is pure fluff, but descriptions of anxiety). 

You would think, with the things you see and hear on a daily basis, you’d be okay with horror flicks. That they wouldn’t get to the root of you, spook you to your core. But the fact is that you’re a wimp, and when push comes to shove you’d rather watch something happy any day of the week.

But, of course, that’s not the occasion. It’s Halloween. It’s meant to be scary, meant to be spooky, and so arriving at Garcia’s means prepping yourself for close to the worst night of your life.

You’re the first to arrive, incredibly early almost on purpose (after asking, of course). A movie won’t start with just one of the invited guests over, and you’re kind of hoping you can make a breakaway before the opening sequence. But Garcia’s pulling something baked out of the oven, and the smell is divine.

“I made popcorn, and we ordered pizza, and I’ve got some M&Ms to pour in to the popcorn so that they melt and become a huge chocolatey mess,” Penelope croons at you as you come in, and she’s so excited you can’t help but be, too. The worry about being scared fades away. You end up helping her pipe on some white frosting, and soon your creations rise up from the proverbial dead. Sugar cookie mummies. It’s incredible. It’s hilarious. It ends up with icing on your nose and smiles on your faces, and when Derek and Reid arrive it’s almost like the party already happened.

“You have frosting in your hair,” Derek laughs, reaching up to brush it out, and you can’t help but grin.

“Maybe I’m becoming a mummy, too.”

But unfortunately, all that joy fades away when you realize that the movie is going to start sooner rather than later. After all, JJ arrives with Emily, and the two of them signal the end of the welcoming party.

Emily Prentiss. The bravest of them all, and the team member you’ve had a raging crush on for… about as long as you’ve known her. She looks stunning, tonight, but with your hands wringing and her eyes on you as they do, you can’t help but wonder what she’s thinking about.

Your mood starts to dour, just a little, and as it does you notice Emily shooting you looks across Garcia’s kitchen, brow furrowed. It happens a few times – she grins at something someone else has said, turns to you with that brilliant smile, and it falters. Just a little. It makes your heart race. She has to be judging you, she has to be – she can smell fear a mile away, and you’re radiating it, and not the good kind that comes with a good jump scare, but the kind that lingers.

Fuck horror movies. That’s the lesson, you suppose.

You don’t want to admit your fears. Not here. Not in front of the bravest group of people you’ve ever met. Not in front of Em. So, you keep quiet, almost silent, until the migration towards the couch happens.

“I need to, uh, use the bathroom,” you quickly stammer out. A moment alone might help with the way your throat closes up. It’s with that you vanish around the corner to where Garcia’s toilet is, and the door closes softly. You can hear their giggles and laughter even through the shut door, Penelope’s voice echoing around you, and stare at yourself in the mirror.

“Pull yourself together,” you say. It’s firmer than you thought you could manage. As you look into your own eyes, you can see what they see, surely. Someone just on this side of scared.

“Fuck,” is the last word, and with a couple of deep breaths in and out you open the bathroom door.

Only to run into Emily Prentiss herself.

“Sorry!” you blurt. “Uh. Didn’t realize I was hogging it. Didn’t think anyone noticed I slipped away.”

Emily just smiles, and it’s so warm. In the lights that Garcia has hung around her bedroom, her hair looks a myriad of colors, all fading to that deep black. She’s fantastic, and incredible, and you know it’s your nerves that’s got you like this. Usually you can maintain decorum. But she doesn’t seem to mind.

She’s smiling after all.

“I noticed,” she says, at first with that same smile, but her voice is soft enough that no one on the other side of the wall overhears. Your mouth goes dry at that, and you chuckle, but she’s not laughing. She’s just looking, her brow furrowing a bit as she glances towards where the others are and then back at you. “Are you all right? I just… came to check up on you. You seem…”

“Yeah,” you quickly say. “Just, uh. I…”

And that’s when it all comes crumbling down. Your eyes flick towards where the rest of the team is laughing, sitting, chatting, and you’re simply here, trying not to think about how to make a break for it as soon as possible.

“Oh.”

At first you think you imagine it, the softness of Emily’s voice. But when your eyes flick back over to her, your lower lip bitten to shreds, she’s simply offering a smile, and her hand reaches up to squeeze your shoulder. “Not a horror buff?”

It’s so kind. It’s so gentle. You almost want to melt into it, but your dignity, or what little you have left, keeps you in check. You just nod, and she twists her lips a little, glancing back towards where the laughter is coming again. Derek, this time.

“No, it’s… it’s not my favorite,” you admit, but quickly stammer out an explanation. “I’m okay! Really, j-just, uh. Making it. I’ll be fine, once the movie starts.”

That’s not true. Not true at all, in fact, you can hear the film score start up and already you’re trembling. But you try to put on a brave face, and because it’s Emily Prentiss, your friend, your teammate, she sees right through it.

“Do you want to stay? You don’t have to, if you don’t want to.”  

That makes you pause. Your spiral into embarrassment halts, and now it’s your turn to furrow your brow.

“What?”

She just gives you another smile, this one almost secretive. She leans forward, too, and your hands start shaking again. For a different reason. “Well, between you and me, horror’s not my scene, either. And so, I was thinking, if you wanted to be each other’s alibi…”

A million things swim through your brain. That can’t be true, first of all. She’s Emily Prentiss. How can horror not be right up her alley? The adrenaline, that kind of thing. So if that’s the case, then she’s bluffing. Lying even. But why? Plus, didn’t she go see that thing with Reid and Garcia the other night? Why would she pretend not to like horror when it’s so obvious that she –

She just keeps looking at you. Smiles, and…

Oh.

Because she’s your friend. Because she cares for you. She gives you a way out. She smiles and laughs and looks to you all night because she’s concerned.

She’s doing it for you. And your little crush, your little thing you push aside during cases and debriefs and moments alone, it comes at you full force.

Your heart warms, and your hands stop shaking, and you look at Emily Prentiss like the lifeline she is. Your breath comes out all at once, too, a sigh of relief, and when you nod, she nods, too.

“Perfect. Just follow my lead, yeah?”

You find yourself following, a little in a daze. It’s like a whirlwind, what just happened, your thoughts and her actions, and when you turn the corner the others are already fixated on the film.

“Sorry, guys,” Emily says with a soft groan. Her hand lifts up to cover her stomach, and she rubs it, almost like it’s an instinctive reaction. “I think something I ate didn’t agree with me.”

JJ and Derek’s eyes immediately shoot up, but Garcia and Reid are enraptured with what’s taking place.

“Are you okay?” Derek asks.

“Do you need a ride? I can take you home,” JJ follows up. She’s basically halfway to standing when you step in, surprising yourself by the steadiness in your voice.

“No, I’ve got her. You guys stay and watch the movie.”

“Are you sure?” Emily asks, turning to look at you, and you just smile at her, concerned and trying not to look so gleeful about being concerned.

“Yeah, Em. I’ve got you.” Your hand reaches to rub at her back, and together the two of you make your way towards the door, with various solutions to Emily’s ailment being shouted at you guys from those who’re seated.

“Call me if you need anything from my car!” JJ shouts out, and that’s the last thing you hear. Soon the door is closed and the noise from behind you fades with a click.

Immediately Emily lifts herself up. You feel… exhilarated, more adrenaline than a scare could ever give you, and Emily lets out a soft chuckle.

“I should be an actor, right?” she asks, nudging you with her elbow, and you don’t even realize how close you’re still standing to her until her touch presses into your stomach. You don’t move away, though, and your hand is still on her back.

She doesn’t pull away either.

“Oscar-worthy performance,” you tease back, and she just throws her head back with her laughter, shaking her head and tucking some hair behind her ear. “Thanks for getting me out of there,” you add, and when she looks at you again, her brown eyes are soft, warm.

“Of course. Halloween isn’t just about horror flicks and getting scared. No one should have a bad Halloween night if they don’t want to.” For a moment you think you’re imagining it, the warmth, but then her arm reaches to link with yours as you make your way to the staircase.

“What is Halloween night about?” you ask her, on your way.

“I mean, horror is a part of it,” she admits. Her voice doesn’t get dreamy, but the sound of it reminds you of the way that spices and pumpkin smell. “But. Fall weather. The way that the leaves look on the trees. Getting cozy with… with someone you care about, and… I don’t know. Eating candy enough for two.”

She looks at you when she says getting cozy, and you almost trip over your feet.

Be brave, you tell yourself, and when you clear your through your voice is the brightest it’s been all night.

“Well. Maybe together we could… get cozy? And eat enough candy for four.”

The moon is high above the two of you as you leave the building, your laughter echoing on Garcia’s street. You don’t know where she’s planning to go after tonight, but for that moment, you hope it’s anywhere with you.

[daily-film-score]

𝔻𝕒𝕪 𝟟𝟜

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday Brian Alexander “B. A.” Robertson, born September 12th 1956. Robertson was born and raised in Glasgow attending the former Allan Glen’s School, Glasgow,[and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama. He recorded his first album “Wringing Applause”, for Ardent Records in 1973. It enjoyed modest critical acclaim, and a nomination in Down Beat Magazine’s year end poll. He made four further albums, but had little commercial success.

During these years, he combined his career as an artist in a writing and production partnership with bassist Herbie Flowers. BA wrote and produced with Herbie, and worked with an eclectic crowd, including Lionel Bart, Joe Brown, Jim Cregan, Ray Cooper, Micky Dolenz, Gillian Gregory, Georg Kajanus, Harry Nilsson, Phil Pickett, Annie Ross, Sandie Shaw, and Chris Spedding.

He made his first television appearance with Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel (1976), played piano on the B side of “Come Up And See Me Make Me Smile”. Before finding fame in his own right B A teamed up with guitarist Terry Britten and wrote over 20 worldwide hits, the pick of them for Cliff Richard, the songs Carrie and Wired for Sound, the latter was nominated Ivor Novello Song of the Year in 1981.

It was around the same time his singing career took off. He enjoyed chart success in Europe, with six hit singles as an artist. The first, “Bang Bang”, achieved sales over 1 million, the last Flight 19, in 1982, a #1 in Iceland! This track inspired a ground breaking music video directed by Brian Grant. BA was nominated Ivor Novello Songwriter of the Year 1980, UK Male Vocalist, Daily Mirror Rock & Pop Awards 1980, JVC Scottish Musician of the Year 1982. He recorded with Maggie Bell in 1982, Frida from Abba, 83, and Lulu in 84.

As well as appearing in concert, he also featured on radio and television. Was a frequent guest broadcaster for the BBC, from 1980 to 1985. Hosted his own music series “BA In Music”. In 1986 he was commissioned to compose the music for The Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. He has written more than 30 themes, songs, and scores, for film, television and special events. These include “The Other Side of The World” by Chaka Khan for the motion picture “White Nights”, music for one of the UK’s longest running talk shows “Wogan”, and “We Have A Dream” for Scotland’s World Cup Football Squad of 1982.

Throughout the 80’s and 90’s he continued to write and work in the studio with another diverse group, including Sam Brown, Roger Daltrey, Lonnie Donegan, Dave Edmunds, Bernard Edwards, Peter Frampton, Alan Gorrie, John Jarvis, Maz + Kilgore, Joe Sample, Helena Springs, and Andy Taylor (Duran Duran).

He met Genesis guitarist Mike Rutherford in 1985, and began a second long term writing collaboration. He introduced Paul Carrack to the embryo Mike & The Mechanics. As writer and musician, he featured on six of their studio albums. Wrote their first hit single “Silent Running”, Billboard’s  number 1 Rock Song of 1986, and the international success, “The Living Years”. This most celebrated of his lyrics written when his father died twelve weeks before the birth of his son.

At the 1990 Grammy Awards, “The Living Years” had four nominations, including Song of the Year. BA was pipped for the statuettes by good friend Arif Mardin and “The Wind Beneath My Wings”. In London, at The Ivor Novellos, ‘The Living Years’ topped 1991 Grammy winner “Another Day in Paradise” for Best Song. He was invited to set up offices at The Walt Disney Studio, by Michael Eisner, and Jeffrey Katzenburg. BA moved with his family to Los Angeles.

He remained a feature on the lot for over three years. Was Creator, and Producer of Grammy nominated, multi-platinum, music video, “Simply Mad About The Mouse”. Artists include Harry Connick Jnr., LL Cool J., Billy Joel, and Bobby McFerrin.

1991 saw “Silent Running” and “The Living Years”, awarded “MillionAir” status by BMI, for more than one million broadcast performances in the US. “Silent Running” has now reached almost three million plays, and 'The Living Years’ over four.

From 1993 through 1995, he put together, “With Your Hand on My Heart” for Patti LaBelle and Michael Crawford. Michael’s album had a double Grammy nomination and world wide sales of more than 2 million. Wrote music for “Baywatch”, the world’s most popular television show and collaborated on a musical with Burt Bacharach, for me it shows his class.

He continued to work with Mike & The Mechanics, had six songs in the “Beggar On A Beach of Gold” project including the title song, and another six on their, multi-platinum CD, “Hits”. He worked as writer, and musical associate to Phil Ramone on the stage production “EFX¬î, at the MGM Grand Las Vegas. The opening song "Somewhere in Time , a collaboration with John Barry.

For the past 20 years or so Robertson has lived in Ireland, continually working on various projects he is still in high demand, Over the years, B A has accumulated more than 70 silver, gold, and platinum record awards. He lives with his wife, designer Karen Manners, they have two adult children.

I’ve chosen this track to remind people that the regardless of what else in the news the war in Ukraine continues. This is a previously unreleased live version of Silent Running, recorded at Gilded Balloon, Brian penned the words, Paul Carrick and him did the music. This version was released in July with all proceeds going to Mail Force Ukraine Appeal charity.

The story behind the release is an Edinburgh granny, Lori Hailes heard the track on a long car journey, her partener knew Robertson and the words of the song:struck a chord with Lorri, particularly the lyrics about keeping guns and ammunition close at hand, and the haunting chorus “Can you hear me?” Lori insisted i that he call the singer/songwriter immediately to ask if he would allow the song to be released as a fundraiser for Ukrainian people, for the children and refugees.  BA agreed, a partnership with Mail Force – Ukraine Appeal charity ensued.

I think you’ll agree the words suit the situation very well. 

 Silent Running

Take the children and yourself And hide out in the cellar By now the fighting will be close at hand Don't believe the church and state And everything they tell you Believe in me, I'm with the high command Can you hear me, can you hear me running? Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you? Can you hear me, can you hear me running? Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you? There's a gun and ammunition Just inside the doorway Use it only in emergency Better you should pray to God The Father and the Spirit Will guide you and protect from up here Can you hear me, can you hear me running? Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you? Can you hear me, can you hear me running? Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you? Swear allegiance to the flag Whatever flag they offer Never hint at what you really feel Teach the children quietly For some day sons and daughters Will rise up and fight while we stood still Can you hear me, can you hear me running? Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you? Can you hear me, can you hear me running? Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you? Can you hear me, can you hear me running? Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you? Can you hear me running (can you hear me calling you?) (Can you hear me) hear me calling you? (Can you hear me running) hear me running babe? (Can you hear me running) hear me running? Calling you, calling you

[papermoonloveslucy]

LUCY SHUNS AUDITIONS

July 21, 1950

[In the below article, reprinted verbatim, Johnson writes using a lot of imagery and insider jargon.  This sort of article was common in trade papers like Variety, but seems odd in a daily newspaper.]

Hollywood—(NEA) Lucille Ball slipped me the lowdown on her failure to pin to the canvas the dumb chick role in “Born Yesterday” and make it holler uncle. (1)

She’s got a touch of Francis the mule in her when it comes to auditions. (2)

Instead of scrimmaging for the role with Evelyn Keyes, Judy Holliday, Marie Wilson, Shelly Winters and Jan Sterling, (3) Lucille went bolting the other way. 

The “let’s-see-if-you’re-it” boys pleaded and cajoled. 

But Miss Anti-Auditions wasn’t having any of the competition, thank you. 

“I figure if they want you, they want you,” Lucille plainspoke it. If you’ve got to read and test for it, to heck with it.’

She isn’t chronicled in Hollywood history, but once, badgered by her RKO bosses, Lucille went tripping over to David O. Selznick’s office for a whack at the Scarlett O’Hara role in “Gone With the Wind.” 

That’s what curdled her in the first place. 

“It was awful,’’ Lucille shudders. I was shaking all over when I hit Selznick’s office. My knees gave way. I did the whole audition in scrubwoman position. Selznick laughs and says thanks a lot. (4)

Judy Holliday landed the junkman’s doll role and Lucille grabbed a railroad ticket for a personal appearance tour with hubby Desi Arnaz. She strutted to Latin rhythms, swung a glittering purse in a manner dear to runaway girls and wisecracked for the customers. (5)

MIMICS OSCAR WINNER 

At the last moment she nixed a dancing and singing routine. The star with the forest-fire hair shrugged: 

“I decided it would be silly to compete with Grable.” (6)

A lot of movie queens laid in fresh supplies of smelling salts, ice beanies and copies of “Release From Nervous Tension” when word got around that Lucille was about to whoop it up on the six-a-day circuit. (7)

She’s a blister-raiser from way back and the air was shrill with ouches about a year ago when she whipped up an impression of an Academy Award winner. 

But the girls can go back to worrying about other things—like shrinking from larger-than-life to television screen size. 

Lucille didn’t let any “furriners” see the routine. 

“It's for Hollywood only," she said. “I should take radio-active material on the road?” 

Her Oscar-grabber routine is strictly for unreal anyhow, she says. and no blood relation to Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Ingrid Bergman or any other Screen Duse. (8) She insisted:

“She's any movie star, even me. This character has to go up on that stage and act surprised. She’s only been rehearsing what she's going say flor eight weeks. So she says, ‘Ye gads, me?  But I’m so unprepared. Really, I didn’t dream...” Lucille is generally is as unflinching about the movie queen business as Pearl White was about onrushing trains. (9)

But her knees executed some wobbles that aren’t in Arthur Murray’s rhumba dance book when she checked into her first vaudeville dressing room. (10)

“Those stages—they’re so big.” she gasped. “Hey, I’d hate to get caught in the middle of one of those stages without bread and water.” 

Lucille didn’t take any chances with out-of-town press interviews, either. “I once did a personal appearance tour with Maureen O'Hara and had to show up at a press party,” she grinned. (11)

My sinus - I just die from it - was acting up. The reporter next to me didn’t understand my puffed eyes and cold sores. He called Maureen a lady in his story. But he referred to me as a whisky tenor with red-runny eyes.” 

Lucille’s brain cells work on direct current and she’s not one to make with the figure eights when a straight glide to home base would get her there quicker. 

They still laugh about her exit line to Louis B. Mayer. (12) Mayer always referred to her as a thoroughbred and sometimes compared her to his famous horses. "Yes, and like your other nags, I'm leaving your stable," Lucille said when she decided to bow out of her contract. 

She has high hopes for her new picture “The Fuller Brush Man.” Not that she enjoyed it: (13)

“Honey, this ones that I don t enjoy turn out be the best ones.  This one put me in the hospital. My feet are still bandaged up. I’m a mess. No more physical-type pictures for me.”

#   #   #    FOOTNOTES FROM THE FUTURE

(1) The 1946 Broadway hit comedy Born Yesterday by Garsin Kanin was bought by Columbia Pictures. Things got complicated when its stage star, Judy Holliday, swore she would not do the film version. Columbia used this as fuel for publicity about who would win the role.  Naturally, Lucille Ball was considered a top contender.  As the article states, she was not eager, however, to prove her worth to the ‘let’s-see-if-you’re-it’ boys (aka producers).  There was talk of Lucille performing the play in London, or summer stock, but her film contracts would not allow her time off for a stage run. 

(2) Mules are supposedly notoriously stubborn animals - just like Lucy. Francis the Talking Mule was the star of seven popular Universal-International film comedies. The character originated in the 1946 novel Francis by David Stern III, adapting his own script for the first entry, simply titled Francis.  On “I Love Lucy” Fred Mertz sometimes called Ethel “Francis” to indicate she was being stubborn about something. 

(3) These were some of the Hollywood stars looking to play the part of Billie Dawn in the film Born Yesterday. Evelyn Keyes (1916 – 2008) was best known for playing Sue Ellen, Scarlett O’Hara’s kid sister, in Gone With The Wind (1939).  Judy Holliday (1921-65), changed her mind about playing the role she originated on Broadway, but by then the casting net was cast, and she was just another performer on the short list. She eventually got the role, which defined her career. Marie Wilson (1916-72) was a zany comedic actress in the style of Gracie Burns. She was widely known as the star of radio and TV’s “My Friend Irma”. Shelley Winters (1920-2006) would be nominated for an Oscar the year after this article. She was adept at playing drama and comedy, and had a long-lasting career in Hollywood.  She appeared on “Here’s Lucy” in 1968; Critics raved about her Jan Sterling’s portrayal of Billie Dawn in the Chicago touring company of Born Yesterday and Columbia brought her out to the West Coast to test for the film. At one point, she was actually announced to play the part but the role ultimately went to Holliday.

(4) Lucille Ball did indeed read (not screen test) for the role of Scarlet O’Hara, just like nearly all of the women in Hollywood in 1938. Ball told the story several times on television, each time with varying details, but probably most completely on “Bob Hope’s Unrehearsed Antics of The Stars” (1984).

(5) This is a vivid description of the “Cuban Pete / Sally Sweet” portion of Lucy and Desi’s nightclub act to convince sponsors to buy them as a couple. 

(6) Betty Grable (1916-73) was considered one of the most famous pin-up girls in history. In addition to her million dollar gams (legs), she could sing, dance, and act, too. She guest starred with her then-husband Harry James on “Lucy Wins A Racehorse”, an installment of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” aired on February 3, 1958.

(7) “Release from Nervous Tension” was an actual best-selling book by Dr. David Harold Fink, published in 1950. Vaudeville and Burlesque shows were often known as the ‘six-a-day circuit’ because sometimes there would be as many as six performances of the same act in a day.  Naturally, this did not apply to Lucy and Desi, who were big film and radio stars at the time. 

(8)  These were some of Hollywood’s top-line dramatic actors. Bette Davis (1908-89) had won two Oscars, and was nominated for several others during her long career. She was supposed to guest-star on “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” in “The Celebrity Next Door” in 1957 but dropped out after a horse-riding accident, leaving the role to Tallulah Bankhead; Olivia de Havilland (1916-2020) had also won two Oscars, the second the year this article was published. She was best remembered for playing Melanie Wilkes in Gone With The Wind (1939); Ingrid Bergman (1915-82) was a Swedish-born actress, who, by career’s end, had scored three Academy Awards.  When Johnson talks about “any other screen Duse” he is referring to Eleonor Duse (1858-1924), an Italian-born stage actress known for her grand, dramatic style.  

(9) Pearl White (1889-1938) was best known as the silent film actress who was tied to the railroad tracks in “The Perils of Pauline” (1914).  

(10) Arthur Murray (1895-1991) was a ballroom dancer and businessman best known for the chain of dancing schools that bear his name. Murray was often a punchline on “I Love Lucy,” especially when the subject of dancing came up. The Rhumba was a Latin dance that took America by storm in the late 1940s and 1950. Desi Arnaz often called his orchestra a ‘rhumba band.’ 

(11) Maureen O’Hara (1920-2015) and Lucille Ball had starred in Dance, Girl, Dance in 1940. As a result, the two went on a promotional tour that took them to several US cities, including the nation’s capitol. 

(12) Louis B. Meyer (1884-1957), along with Samuel Goldwyn and Marcus Loew of Metro Pictures, had formed a new motion picture company called Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1918. Over the next 25 years, MGM was "the Tiffany of the studios," producing more films and movie stars than any other studio in the world. Mayer became the highest-paid man in America, and one of the country's most successful horse breeders. Both he and MGM reached their peaks at the end of World War II, and Mayer was forced out in 1951, just a year after this article was written. 

(13) Erskine Johnson gets the title wrong. Lucille had madeThe Fuller Brush Girl, a sequel to The Fuller Brush Man (1948).  The film was released in mid-September 1950. 

[sciencespies]

How the Pandemic Changed Scientific Exploration

https://sciencespies.com/nature/how-the-pandemic-changed-scientific-exploration/

How the Pandemic Changed Scientific Exploration

Smithsonian Voices National Museum of Natural History

How the Pandemic Changed Scientific Exploration

March 11th, 2021, 6:00AM / BY

Emily Leclerc

Sylvester Musembi Musyoka, a Kenyan colleague and field crew leader, recording a large mammal fossil bone during a virtual field project to collect fossils in Kenyan excavation sites that were in danger of being damaged by severe weather. (Nzioki Mativo/Smithsonian)

When the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic one year ago, it brought much of the world to a halt. Countries closed their borders, international flights stopped and people worldwide were told to stay home as much as possible. But not even a global pandemic could stop scientific advancement. Scientists near and far quickly adapted their research and fieldwork projects to follow the new health guidelines and keep everyone involved safe. Here is how seven of the National Museum of Natural History’s scientists continued to discover the secrets of the natural world safely during the pandemic.

Tuning in to past volcanic eruptions

The 1944 eruption of Mt. Vesuvius was its most recent. It is still considered an active volcano. (US National Archives)

In the early afternoon of March 22, 1944, Italy’s Mount Vesuvius erupted. Ash blanketed the surrounding area and lava flows decimated several nearby villages.

Ben Andrews, a geologist and director of the Global Volcanism Program, has been studying past ash plumes to improve forecasting and mitigation efforts for future volcanic eruptions. Unable to conduct fieldwork in person, Andrews and Allie Coonin, an intern at the museum and a student at Brown University, used digitized 35mm film footage collected by the U.S. Navy to study Mt. Vesuvius’ 1944 ash plume instead. The footage helped them make some of the first ever measurements of 3D air entrainment into a volcanic ash plume. These measurements will help Andrews determine whether future ash plumes will rise into the atmosphere, where they can disrupt air traffic and cause planes to crash, or collapse into flows of hot gas and volcanic matter that destroy everything in their path.

Phone a fossil excavation

A 615,000-year-old molar tooth from a fossilized pig, Kolpochoerus majus, found at an excavation site in Kenya. The tooth is dated around the time that the species went extinct. (Nzioki Mativo/Smithsonian)

Rick Potts, a paleoanthropologist and the director of the Smithsonian’s Human Origins Program, has been leading expeditions to Kenya for 36 years in hopes of further unraveling the story of how humans evolved. But when the pandemic hit, traveling to Kenya became impossible.

The travel ban was problematic because two of his excavation sites were in danger of being damaged by heavy rains. So, in August of 2020, Potts lead a virtual field project to collect fossils and stone artifacts that were at risk. Luckily, the team found that the fossil sites were in good condition. For seven days, Potts helped guide his Kenyan colleagues from afar through phone and video as they collected fossils that will help him and other scientists better understand our origins story.

This week’s Zoom guests are 2,000-year-old birds

When there isn’t a pandemic, Helen James excavates bird fossils on Mokapu Peninsula on Oahu to learn more about the evolution of island avian biodiversity. (United States Marine Corps)

Last year, when Helen James — a research zoologist and curator of birds at the museum — clicked into a Zoom call with her collaborators at the Bishop Museum in Hawaii, she wasn’t looking to chat about the events of the day or listen to a presentation. She was looking for bird bones.

James has been excavating fossilized birds in Hawaii to better understand the evolution of island avian biodiversity. The pandemic meant that James could not travel to Hawaii herself but the fossils still needed to be collected. The site where she collects fossils is being eroded by wind, rain and the sea. As the site erodes, bones are exposed and could be damaged by the elements if left in place. Luckily, her collaborators in Hawaii were able to make trips to the site for the fossils. They would then hold up every bone they had found over Zoom for James to look at. She preliminarily identified all of the collected fossils and will wait to further investigate the bones until it is safe to travel again.

A cherry for your thoughts on internet DNA

The Prunus genus contains many economically important species, but very little has been done to understand how these species are related. (Pixabay)

There are hundreds of millions of DNA samples stored in online repositories. And yet, in experiments, DNA stored online is usually considered secondary to samples collected in the field — until now.

Richard Hodel, a Peter Buck Fellow in the museum’s botany department, was planning to collect tissue samples from plants in the genus Prunus — which includes cherries, peaches, apricots and almonds — when his plans were curtailed by COVID-19. Needing an alternative way to study the evolutionary relationships between Prunus species, Hodel turned to online DNA repositories. Leveraging hundreds of millions of digital DNA sequences, Hodel made an evolutionary tree showing how major groups within Prunus are related. While DNA samples collected directly from the source will always be important, the pandemic reinforced the value of online repositories.

Finding fossils with Google Earth

Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin is famous for its beautiful badlands and its abundance of fossils. Paleobotanist Scott Wing identified this area as potentially having fossils using satellite images. (Scott Wing)

When COVID-19 shut down most of the country in March of 2020, Scott Wing, a paleobotanist with the museum, turned to Google Earth to keep himself sane while being stuck at home. For weeks, Wing scoured satellite images of Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin looking for places that might have plant fossils. Finding scores of possible spots and wondering if he was right, Wing got approval from the Smithsonian’s COVID Safety Team to make the 35-hour drive from Washington D.C. to Wyoming and see for himself. After a month camped out in the badlands, Wing realized that more than half of the sites he’d identified with satellite images had fossils. Because of this, he is using Google Earth to plan his next field season.

Sharing coral larvae is caring

When corals spawn, they release massive amounts of sperm and eggs into the water to create as many larvae as possible. (Zachary Foltz/SMS)

Coral larvae spend their first days to weeks swimming near the surface of the water trying not to be eaten. They then sink to the bottom of the ocean where they settle onto a surface to develop into an adult coral. Understanding the process of how coral larvae settle down is important for learning how the larvae become reef-building colonies.

Typically, Smithsonian Marine Station (SMS) scientists travel to Carrie Bow Cay Research Station in Belize to collect coral larvae for experiments aimed at understanding coral settlement. But when COVID-19 struck, it looked like they wouldn’t be able to continue with their experiments. Luckily, the Florida Aquarium, Biscayne National Park, SECORE International and the University of Miami pitched in and gave SMS larvae that they had collected. Their generosity allowed SMS to continue learning why coral larvae decide to settle where they do, an important step in developing more effective coral reef restoration projects.

Gardeners lend a helping hand

Malaise traps, like this one at the United States Botanic Garden, are being used to study insect biodiversity in urban areas. (Nicholas Silverson)

Before the pandemic, Nicholas Silverson, a museum specialist in the museum’s entomology department, would collect weekly samples from their malaise trap, a structure which passively collects insects moving though the Regional Garden at the United States Botanic Garden at the base of Capitol Hill.

Silverson says that field ecologists have been calling 2020 the year of missing data because of COVID-19’s impact on projects, like the trap, that rely on the in-person collection of data. Due to staff restrictions, Silverson and his team — Scott Miller and colleagues at the Barcode of Life Database — could not access the museum and Garden, but were able to rely on the Garden’s skeleton crew to maintain the trap and successfully collect weekly samples.

The data collected contributes to ongoing regional and urban biodiversity surveys that will help scientists around the world learn how insect populations move and live in those environments. With the help of the gardeners, this year’s data will be complete and able to show a more comprehensive picture of insect biodiversity in Washington, D.C. and the region.

Related Stories: Six Videos that Put the Pandemic in Context ‘One Health’ Could Prevent the Next Coronavirus Outbreak Get to Know the Scientist Studying Ancient Pathogens at the Smithsonian

Emily Leclerc is an intern in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s Office of Communications and Public Affairs. Her writing has appeared in Boston University News Service, Wahpeton Daily News and Dana-Farber’s Insight Blog, among others. Emily recently graduated from Boston University with an MS in journalism. She also holds a BA in biology from Roanoke College in Virginia. You can find her at https://emilyleclercportfolio.weebly.com/.

More From This Author »

#Nature

[creatingdocumentaryperformance]

Syllabus: Creating Documentary Performance

Course Title: Performance Composition: Creating Documentary Performance PERF-UT 201 (4 points)

Course Description The term documentary theatre is often used interchangeably with verbatim theatre. Theatre scholar Carol Martin would advise us to beware and keep tabs on Documentary Theatre, a slippery little devil which claims to present the truth. Yet, in truth, the world of Documentary Theatre (and Art) seems to be expanding. New works of live Documentary Art challenge the documentary form by loosening the grip of journalistic objectivity and responsibility. Documentary performance now takes on a variety of forms which we will examine in this course.

This course will begin with ways of observing a range of performances (live, filmed, quotidian, and archival). We will then integrate this heightened awareness into an hybridized archival call-and-response. We will have daily in-class creation workshops designed to respond to research and performance materials. Through this process students will learn to integrate research questions and aesthetic performance elements. Participants will engage in documentary writing techniques, performance techniques such as vocal duplication and movement vocabularies, creation of composition scores, and docu-fantasia (a methodology pioneered by Guy Maddin in his film “My Winnipeg” combining personal history, civic tragedy, and mystical hypothesizing), among others. The result of these searches will be cumulative. At the end of this course, students will have created several short-form documentaries.

Participants in this course will come from various performance backgrounds: some (like me) will be based in theatre practice, others will be more comfortable writing, composing music or movement, directing, acting, or filmmaking. This course is designed for much of the creation of our projects to take place in the classroom itself with students sharing their skills with one another as they learn new skills together. 

Course Objectives

to become familiar with the field of documentary performance

to develop and deepen investigative research skills

to learn to create performances from disparate elements (learn processes of meaning-making)

to generate “speculative” material from “factual” remains

to move archival materials from the page to the stage (or lens/screen as the case may be) 

Requirements

You need a notebook or loose paper. We will do writing exercises that will be edited and presented during class. It will not be possible to participate fully in movement/writing work on a laptop.

You will need scissors and a glue stick.

Please see the class schedule below. Please come to class having completed the listed requirements (read, watched, and prepared performance elements) and come prepared to share your findings and contribute to discussions, workshops, and rehearsals.

There will be four assignments due during the course: a) construction paper photo journalism Using lessons on image composition from Molly Bang’s “Picture This,” recreate one image from one of the documentaries or images we viewed during weeks 1-4 (or an image of your choice). Write a brief but vivid description of the scene you hope to capture. Upload both the original and your version of the image as well as the description. This image is due on February 21, 2021. b) 360 degree video (maximum 5-minutes long) Create a three-minute long 360 degree video of your own living space (use Ackerman’s video for inspiration). Research the history of your living space (What is the history of that land? When was the building constructed? Who owned it? Who lived there?) and then write a two-minute monologue from the point of view of someone you image to be a previous tenant. This is the basis of the performance. You may choose to incorporate other performance elements created in the course thus far (movement vocabularies, musical elements, etc.). The video should be submitted via email on week 5, a 500 word summary of building history including sources is due on week 6, and the final performance is due on March 21, 2021. c) Documentary Étude (maximum 10-minutes long) Seek out your own musical archive (this might be something personal, something you amassed yourself or something you discover out in the world) and using strategies developed in class (ex. haikus, nightstand writings, movement vocabularies) and other techniques learned from docs we’ve seen (vocal re-enactments, karaoke, performance re-creation, etc.) create a live documentary étude to the song or recording of your choice. This étude should include research into the song and, based on that research, some theories we have discussed in class that help analyze your findings. The way you structure this presentation is entirely up to you. Due April 26-May 3, 2021 (exact date to be decided upon by in consultation between students and instructor). d) performance review The final assignment for this class is a 1000-1200 word review of another classmate’s documentary performance. The point of this assignment is to constructively critique a colleague’s work while integrating the texts and theories we have discussed during the course. This is to be submitted to the instructor via email on or before the final day of class (May 10, 2020).

Attendance in this class is critical. Much work takes place in-class and this cannot necessarily be made-up through subsequent assignments. More than three unexcused absences will result in a failing grade. Absences must be excused in advance, please make your request via email. Likewise three unexcused latenesses will count as one absence. Assignments are due on the date specified unless a change is discussed in advance with the instructor. 

Class Schedule

Week One: February 1, 2021

Introduction to Documentary Theatre

A short documentary performance: Devotional Space

Course Introduction, Expectations, and Agreements

Week Two: February 8, 2021 Truth, Objectivity, and the Truth of Fiction

Read, Carol Martin, “Bodies of Evidence” and Walter Benjamin “The Task of the Translator” 

Watch, Lynn Sachs, “Your Day Is My Night” https://vimeo.com/58024122  and “Your Day Is My Night” (live performance) https://vimeo.com/191185422

Week Three: Thursday February 18, 2021 Objects That Talk

Read, Roland Barthes “Studium” pg. 23-28, “Punctum” pg. 38-47 in Camera Lucida, Ariella Azoulay “The Spectator Is Called to Take Part,” and Molly Bang “Picture This: How Pictures Work”

Watch, Yuval Hamieri “I Think This is the Closest to How The Footage Looked” https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000004383825/i-think-this-is-the-closest-to-how-the-footage-looked.html and Vaginal Davis “This Is Not A Dream” https://youtu.be/A03i57f53E4

Week Four: February 22, 2021 Interpellation and Composition

Read, Joshua Whitehead “On Ekphrasis and Emphasis” and Louis Althusser “Ideology and State Apparatuses” pg. 162-177

Watch, Kirsten Johnson “Cameraperson” https://stream.nyu.edu/media/Cameraperson+-+DML+Film+DC04692/1_6j3rpjc7

DUE February 21, 2021: Construction Paper Photo Journalism Assignment

Week Five: March 1, 2021 Memory and Repetition

Read, Diana Taylor “The Archive and The Repertoire” pg. 16-30 and Richard Schechner “Restoration of Behavior” pg. 35-55

Watch, Caveh Zahedi “The Show About The Show"

PREPARE AND UPLOAD before class: 360 video

Week Six: March 8, 2021 Docufantasia: Speculation, Narrative, and History

Guest Speaker: Farihah Zaiman

No readings this week.

Watch, Farihah Zaiman “Nobody Loves Me”, Guy Maddin “My Winnipeg” https://stream.nyu.edu/media/t/1_3fuaywbk/157165221, and Chantal Ackerman “La Chambre” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AGakyb3eBU

BRING TO CLASS: Write, a few notes on building/land history

Week Seven: March 15, 2021 No Class

Feedback sessions on Building History text/monologue available during class and office hours

Week Eight: March 22, 2021 Presentation Day

Guest Speaker: Alison S.M. Kobayashi

Watch, Alison S.M. Kobayashi Showcase, please be sure to watch “From Alex to Alex” and “Music Is Magic” 

DUE March 21st: 360 videos & monologues assignment (uploaded to shared site)

Week Nine: March 29, 2021 Psychodrama and the Politics of Space

Suggested Read: Ngugi wa Thiong’o, “Enactments of Power: The Politics of Performance Space”

Watch: William Greaves, “In The Company of Men” https://stream.nyu.edu/media/In%20the%20Company%20of%20Men%20(William%20Greaves%2C%201969)./1_13usuirk

Week Ten: April 5, 2021 Creating a Performance Plan

Read: Barbara Browning “The Gift” (read Part One available in NYU e-books) and Doris Humphrey “Check List” pg. 159-166

Watch (we will watch segments of this in class): Okwui Okpokwasili “Bronx Gothic” available on NYU Kanopy

Week Eleven: April 12, 2021 Listening as Research

Read, Martin Daughtry “Acoustic Palimpsests”; (suggested but not assigned Alexandra T. Vazquez “Listening in Detail”)

Listen, Reply All (podcast) “The Case of the Missing Hit” https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/o2h8bx

Week Twelve: April 19, 2021 No Class

Week 13: April 26, 2021 Documentary Étude

Read, Jacob Wren “The DJ Who Knew Too Much” and “Every Song I’ve Ever Written”

Re-watch, Alison S.M. Kobayashi “Music Is Magic”

Students workshop elements of their final performance

Create final performance schedule

Week 14: May 3, 2021 Final Presentations

Week 15: May 10, 2021 To Be Announced

Additional Performance Links

Choosing performances to share with you was both a joy and an agony. There were many great works that didn’t make it onto the syllabus proper. I wanted to share some of those with you here in case you wanted see more work. You are more than welcome to come to office hours to discuss any works you may have seen (on this list or in your own searchings). Additional performance viewing is not a requirement of this class and is meant solely for your enjoyment.

The Wooster Group, “Rumstick Road”: https://vimeo.com/88116889 

Nature Theatre of Oklahoma, “The Life and Times of Kristin Worrall, Episode 8”: https://vimeo.com/145414310 

Caveh Zahedi, “The Show About The Show": https://www.bricartsmedia.org/tv-shows-videos/show-about-show

Walis Johnson, “Jessy’s House of Styles”: https://vimeo.com/193445572

Nadia Ross “What Happened To The Seeker?”, Part one: https://vimeo.com/147670008 , Part two: https://vimeo.com/148387633 

Wellness 

Your health and safety are a priority at NYU. If you experience any health or mental health issues during this course, we encourage you to utilize the support services of the 24/7 NYU Wellness Exchange 212-443-9999. Also, all students who may require an academic accommodation due to a qualified disability, physical or mental, please register with the Moses Center 212-998-4980. Please let your instructor know if you need help connecting to these resources.

[letterboxd]

Ghibli Goes Digital.

We celebrate the explosion in Studio Ghibli activity on Letterboxd with Michael Leader and Jake Cunningham from the Ghibliotheque podcast.

LISTEN NOW: David Jenkins (Little White Lies), Tasha Robinson (Polygon) and Adam Kempenaar (Filmspotting) nominate their most magical Studio Ghibli moments in this new episode of The Letterboxd Show.

For all the ways that the coronavirus pandemic has dramatically altered the film industry, one coincidence that’s worked out extremely well for Studio Ghibli fans old and new is the roll-out of 21 of the famed studio’s films on streaming services.

It started in February for Netflix subscribers outside Japan and North America. Then in late May, HBO Max launched in the US with the Ghibli films as part of its offering. Finally, Canada got its turn with twenty titles available on Netflix right now, and The Wind Rises coming on August 1. For film lovers sheltering in place, the timing is as soothing as a nap on a Totoro’s belly; as wondrous as a Takahata sunset.

株式会社スタジオジブリ (Studio Ghibli) was founded in 1985 by directors Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki, and producer Toshio Suzuki, upon the success of Miyazaki-san’s 1984 feature, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Huge acclaim, an Academy Award, and growing fandom followed, but the studio has long shied away from making its catalog available for digital consumption, preferring the films to occupy a larger canvas.

And then, all of a sudden, Suzuki-san announced the digital streaming plan—starting with the whole catalog being made available to own (via download) last December. “We’ve listened to our fans,” Suzuki-san said at the time. “In this day and age, there are various great ways a film can reach audiences.” This turn of events has been a very big deal—both for long-time fans and Ghibli newbies—and we’ve run the numbers to prove it:

The above chart shows the daily number of entries logged on Letterboxd for each of the Ghibli films, and clearly depicts the February, March, April and late May spikes as groups of titles were released to the two aforementioned streaming platforms (and mini spikes coinciding with weekend watches).

The Ghibli films included in the streaming deals stretch over four decades of the studio’s output, and include big-hitters like the Oscar-winning Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle and the whole-family favorite My Neighbor Totoro. All of those films appear in the Official Letterboxd Top 250; Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service also made it onto a list of Letterboxd members’ top twenty favorite comfort films in a recent survey.

To get a sense of what this all means, we went to Letterboxd members Jake Cunningham and Michael Leader, hosts of Ghibliotheque, a podcast dedicated to the studio’s filmography, about the Netflix deal (“none of us could quite believe it when it happened”) and the clues Ghibli films offer us for how to have adventures inside our own homes.

Earlier in the pandemic, when we were all figuring out how to stay home, you hosted a joyous My Neighbor Totoro watch-along. What is it about the fuzzy, mythical creatures that feels so helpful right now? Michael Leader: In some ways, the world’s mum is in hospital right now. We’re all working from home. There’s the bit halfway through the film where the dad is trying to get on with his work in the study, and [his daughter] Mei is coming up and putting little flowers on his desk. That’s what everyone is doing right now, is trying to get on with their work whilst their kids are milling about, full of imagination and adventures.

With Totoro, I go back to a guest we had on the show, Helen McCarthy, who wrote the book about Miyazaki. And she described Totoro as something like “kindness and acceptance made furry”, and that’s really what it is. The idea of this creature being there for you, coming out of the surroundings that you live in, allowing you to not only come into a new space that you’re maybe scared of going into, but also dealing with tricky situations that you’re in.

You’re both deeply embedded in the London film scene, but the dynamic of your Ghibliotheque podcast is that Michael is the long-time Ghibliophile, while Jake is the novice. How did that come about? Jake Cunningham: Michael and I actually work together, and it came up that I hadn’t seen any of the films and then it happened to come up that Michael was one of the UK experts of these films and was having a go at me for never having watched any. This was the perfect opportunity to work on something with each other, and my ignorance has finally paid off, because all I need to do is watch the film and then I get this amazing history lesson.

Jake Cunningham with his ‘Only Yesterday’ poster, and with Michael Leader at the Ghibli Museum.

ML: It was really fun for me, because by that point—this is nearly two years ago now—I’d been writing about Ghibli on and off for almost a decade. There aren’t really many outlets to write about anime, Ghibli and animation in particular, in the monthly film magazines. Jake is the novice we can take through the library and invite people to join us on that journey. We have listeners who are so engaged, sending us comments every week. They had no idea how deep the rabbit hole goes.

That’s something that was personally for me quite important about the show. We want to show that this is one of the few studios that has ten five-star films. They had this amazing streak from the late 80s through the 2000s, just innovating on every film at the highest level, with multiple voices working in their own different worlds. We’ve really managed to show this whole world and invite people into it.

What did you make of the Netlix flex, and the subsequent explosion in Letterboxd activity around Ghibli films? JC: The graph is amazing! I was expecting a boost but not so big. They must be very happy with how well the deal has done for them. I think it’s a good place for Ghibli for sure. I want so many other people to be in the position that I was in two years ago. It is a whole world of pleasure to delve into for audiences.

I did think it was so funny that they spent fifteen years going “We’re never going to be streaming, this is never going to happen, stop asking us”, and then out of nowhere the announcement that they’re going to be online in two weeks! I think none of us could quite believe it when it happened, but what it’s meant is people are going back to the start of the podcast and listening along, because they can finally watch the films that they hadn’t seen before.

And it’s so exciting that people might watch Totoro, or Spirited Away, or Howl’s Moving Castle, these bigger tentpole releases, and that’s going to change their algorithm and they’re going to get presented with Isao Takahata’s My Neighbors the Yamadas or Tomomi Mochizuki’s Ocean Waves. The under-appreciated Ghiblis are suddenly going to get dragged out again.

ML: I’m really excited about it. It’s an interesting thing: it shines a light on what I think is more of a fandom problem, where something becomes rarified or scarce or special to a certain subculture, and that becomes part of its appeal. Sort of ‘Oh, Miyazaki doesn’t believe in streaming, he will never sell out’, and going on about how Netflix somehow cheapens it—but really they are completely accessible films that should be available in a mass market.

Also, and this is something we wanted to tease out in the podcast, they are business savvy. They’re not crazy geniuses who live in wooden shacks in the middle of nowhere. They’re a real company that needs to keep the lights on. There are so many ways to speculate on what this deal means. I think on the one hand they were happy because in the Japanese market they sell enough merchandise, they have a real home entertainment churn going, that they never really needed to do an international release.

There’s a really good book just out by Steve Alpert, who was their first international division lead. He was hired in the 90s to sort out their penetration into western Europe and America. Before the 90s, there were a couple of home entertainment releases and small theatrical runs, but they suddenly saw the business benefits in going global. In some ways I’m very happy for it because it’s a business deal that makes these films more available. They’ll always be special because they’re great films.

JC: The films streaming is extremely exciting, but something that’s gone under the radar a bit is that all of the music is now on Spotify. There are some of Ghibli’s shorts that you can only watch in the museum in Japan, but the scores for those films are now on Spotify, and everything is there. After having the melodies of some of these stuck in my head for months and months, you can finally actually go and deal with the earworm once and for all.

Is it possible for you to sum up for us the thematic essence of Ghibli films, and make a case for why Letterboxd members should introduce their children to the catalog? For me, in the context of the pandemic, it’s the corn on the window-sill in My Neighbor Totoro: the idea of presence despite distance; connection through gesture; the significance of nature. JC: It’s a lot to do with leaving things in an ambiguous space. Having kids watch things where there’s not a binary answer to everything. The studio moved away from the earlier films where a villain is a villain. In Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle, it’s less clear what a ‘bad person’ is and what a ‘good person’ is. I think it’s important that kids are gonna see that. Even with something like Kiki’s Delivery Service, on the surface it’s one of their simpler films. Kiki goes on an amazing journey and she meets amazing people, and at the end, she learns about who she is and what she can do. I think in a Western kids’ film that would be the end note. But there’s that note at the end of the film where she says that she still feels sad, and she still feels homesick, but that’s okay and that’s part of being alive.

ML: I think Miyazaki’s real magic touch across his films is that he’s able to really look at the world through children’s eyes. I’m not the first person to say that. It tends to be one of the first things that people say about him. The magical things about My Neighbor Totoro are when they’re just walking through the house, cleaning the house, cooking together. And for Kiki, when she gets her own [apartment], sweeps up and cooks herself pancakes. It is just as much about the magic of the everyday, about the world that you can see around you, within the four walls of the home.

JC: Now that you say that, I’m thinking about Ponyo, a key scene where the storm is hitting, and Sosuke and Ponyo and Sosuke’s mum just hunker down in their house and they have a generator going and they make instant ramen noodles, and the mum slips in little bits of ham. They also have some honey tea. Even though he’s a fantasy filmmaker, and he makes grand statements about geopolitical situations, these are the sequences now which will play most poignantly to people.

ML: Ghibli offers escapism, right now.

We got a glimpse of the next Ghibli film, Gorō Miyazaki’s fully-CG Aya and the Witch (see picture below), via the online version of the recent Annecy International Animated Film Festival. What are your thoughts? JC: Regarding the new images, I’m not as petrified as some fans have been. On the podcast I’ve mounted my defence for Gorō’s Tales From Earthsea, which is very much the black sheep of the family, and I don’t think I’d be doing him justice after that if I didn’t stand in his corner on this one as well. Until we see the style in motion, I think it’s unfair to judge, but it certainly is… different.

Jake, are you now a true Ghibliophile, or are you still just following along with what Michael’s got you into? JC: I would say I am now. I could definitely bore people in conversations with production stories! A lot of people will, I’m sure, have seen a lot of the films, but doing the podcast is the only thing that would have made me watch all of them.

Michael, how proud are you of this achievement? ML: Turning Jake into a new Ghibiliofile is really something. When we went to Japan in November last year—we managed to find change down the back of the sofa, and take the team out and visit the museum, visit Studio Ponoc, who are the spin-off studio founded by veterans from Ghibli—the thing that made me most proud was seeing how excited the rest of the team were. I think just out of shot of Jake’s webcam is a poster of Only Yesterday that he bought in Japan. It’s the only thing he wanted to find, was an original 1991 poster of that. There’s a picture of Jake just absolutely beaming with this poster.

Related content

Our Letterboxd Show Ghibli Magic Moments episode, with Tasha Robinson, David Jenkins and Adam Kempenaar.

Little White Lies editor David Jenkins’ Letterboxd review of My Neighbor Totoro.

The Official Letterboxd Top 250

Letterboxd members’ favorite comfort films.