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jorjathomas · 4 years ago

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Self-care: solutions within mental health problems

My previous post covered a lot of background behind mental illnesses which was useful to research. My sole purpose of my zine is to communicate joy and ease when a girl is entering what we see as adulthood. When I say adulthood, I mean leaving school and finally having option in your own hands rather than being in a school environment. As this is my common goal for this project, my main aim when researching mental health was positive subjects such as solutions, help and inspiring people which could help a woman feel eased knowing other people may being going through the same worries. For example; a girl is stressed about needing to have a idea for her career and is debating going for university despite not knowing what she want to do, my zine should ease these worries and help her make a decision that is healthier for her mind. My own life experiences should help get this aim across. Below is some research I've done following this goal that can help me decide my content.

Dr Alex George

I wanted to look at some role models in society who I feel have made some changes for mental health. I wanted to look into Dr Alex George to see what he is doing to inflict change and if he could inspire me in any way. Dr Alex George appeared on a love tv series called Love Island in 2018 and a lot of people that come put of this show go down a specific influencer route and if often judged by the media and the public often. However Dr Alex George seems to have used his following platform well by voicing serious matters and continuing with his previous job. Throughout the pandemic, Alex George has still been working on the NHS frontline aswell has an social media influencer. His amazing work has enabled him being offered to take role as a Young Mental Health Ambassador handed by the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.

On the gov website (Feb 2021), Dr. Alex George said:

‘The last year has been unimaginably difficult for all of us, but particularly for young people who have sacrificed so much.

I am honoured to be appointed for this role where I’ll be working closely with government to make mental health an absolute priority and hope to have a positive impact on the lives of young people and their education for good.

Right now young people need a voice in government, and I hope that through this role I can advocate for meaningful change in this area.’

‘At his post as Youth Mental Health Ambassador, Dr. Alex will work to improve the support that young people receive regarding their mental health, as well as aid in the shaping and creation of policies to increase the support for students within the education system. George holds a large social media following, which he will use to demonstrate the support currently available whilst working to bring about changes.’

Above is some of the post he creates on TikTok. I find Alex really inspiring as someone wanting to learn about helping others. Although my work wont do as much, he has inspired me to validify my idea knowing his impact on young people. I am interested to see what he does now he has this role for the UK and I am glad he is using it well and implementing change in the schools where this occurs. I want my work to spread positivity similar to Alex however mine will be on a creative side. As I clearly don't have a medical degree, nor do I know much despite some information from my GCSEs, I wanted use my art skills for the zine to express these messages like Alex. Below I have looked at a few artists that have applied mental health into their artwork both the negative effects and more curable pieces that could help uplift a person.

La Johnson

La’s work symbolises a lot of suffering and I feel like she is trying to convey the loneliness within personal struggles. She's used a lot of reds in her sadder works I am assuming because they are impactful against the black. My favourite images from the two is the one of the right. This is because it is a perfect example of lockdown to me. The idea of wanting to grow and see things is shown through the size of the boy cuddled alone in his room. I enjoy La’s work as she's portrays mental health well but she also creates a lot of impactful illustrations based on specific world events. I like the idea of combining specific topics needed to be spoken about in society into art as I think it is less aggressive than pressuring people through other media forms. Despite being less impactful than an article etc, La Johnson is still spreading awareness of struggles and events happening through her art which is what I aim to do within my magazine.

Mihai Paulet

I found this artist called Mahai Paulet off a UK website called The Perspective Project. This website enables artists to express their art based on the subject of mental health. This was very interesting to scroll through the site and see other peoples perspective on the matter. I like Mahais work and the concept of adding a fantasy-like feel to the work. The contrast between light on dark is very visible in the painting and reminds me of the mind itself. The concept of having both dark and positive thoughts throughout your day and the fine line of balancing the two. It makes me realise that this is very common for everyone and its okay to feel down sometimes however, not letting these thoughts control you and lead you to a deep hole. The right side of the painting portrays this well. I think I have taken some inspiration in this idea of adding unrealistic features into art and want to try and include this fiction and dreamy atmosphere into my work. I am unsure if I will execute this yet as I don't think it matches my message just yet.

Karen Lynch

The final artist I found was Karen Lynch. These pieces are much more uplifting which is my goal for this signature project. These pieces fall into my opinion of Mihai’s work and its aspect of fantasy. I love both of these as it oddly reminds me where I am and not to get so consumed in my thoughts. The contrast between the images makes me think this as we often get caught up in life and all of its problems when actually, we live on a floating rock in space. These collages also remind me of my previous work of escapism in the trend research project. I want to add this aspect of collage into my work as I feel it would add humour and personality into the zine. I love this work and will continue to look into Karen's and other collage artists in order to gain inspiration when creating my magazine.

To conclude, looking at artists alongside my research has defiantly helped me plan my ideas accordingly to what I want my message to be. I am a visual person and I am beginning to see my idea better than at the beginning of the week however, now I need to do some primary research and correlate some data that could help validify my work more. I will begin to interview some females I know and I may ask them to complete a survey to see the results of females in different areas of life. This would help me see if my zine in demand.

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loislaneinvestigatesauthors · 6 years ago

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Chicken Doodle Soup (Don Owens) presents Stick to the Funny Stuff!

I notice your lead female character, 'Oprah Fat-Free' deals with severe depression. Did you do research into how depression works, how the state of mind of a person changes when they are experiencing that? Have you known anyone who was depressed to that point?

QUESTION #1: Good question, even though "STICK To The Funny Stuff" doesn't go in-depth on the subject of depression, but rather, utilizes stick-figure comedienne Oprah Fat-Free as a representative for every human being on the planet, who faces some obstacle serving as hindrance to positive existential progression along this miraculous road called life. But yes, statistics indicate there is a substantial number of depression cases on record. The World Health Organization has reported 300 million people around the world suffer this affliction. Reportedly, 16.2 million U.S. adults have experienced a major depressive episode, with approximately 10 million being severely impaired by their experience. Anxiety disorders are attributed to approximately 50% of all people diagnosed with depression.

Depression can befall an individual at any stage in his or her life. It can range from moderate to crippling, as there are many forms of depression, as well as multiple catalysts thought to precipitate its onset, such as complex-chemical reactions in the brain and gene vulnerability identification. I myself have been depressed and sought counseling while in the military. My girlfriend, now deceased due to heart failure, suffered from a bipolar disorder and depression was a significant marker highlighting her condition. It's a mental-health issue that has motivated individuals even to suicide. But here's a statistic that I believe offers hope: I read a 2017 study indicating that Christianity at this point is still the world's number one faith. So then, for followers of the faith, God offers hope in the face of this state of impairment.

Of course there are skeptics who ascribe God's existence to fervent imagination, but what about those CERTIFIED physicians, such as Dr. Sean Thomas George, who go on public record as saying hopeless cases were reversed by divine intervention? Who could be more credible sources than esteemed, highly skilled health-technicians, to confirm a miraculous event? By the way, I myself was in three hospitals in two different states, dying, with no explanation whatsoever as to why my body was shutting itself down. Doctors were baffled by my condition. So perplexed was one of my doctors, he mused about publishing my case in a medical journal. I wouldn't be here today - except for the prayers of my family and the church. I'm a living witness to God's healing hand.

Be they physical or mental conditions, God's Word says He is ready to step in to assist us with our afflictions. I was reading a case of a depressed woman who'd been deemed to be in need of receiving shock treatments for her depression! But as a believer, she called on Christ, and He availed Himself to her. No one is saying these condition reversals take place in an instant, necessarily. Although, God is more than capable of on-the-spot healing, as scripture illustrates. But often in the Bible, God took His sweet time (in some instances, decades or CENTURIES) about turning situations around, simply because His timetable supersedes ours. But He tells us in His Word that with His assist, we are more than conquerors through Him that love us (Romans 8:37) and that He is The Lord Who heals us (Exodus 15:26, Psalm 30:2).

Do you think that humor really helps people get through life stuff? Is it a matter of 'laugh or else you'll be crying?'

QUESTION #2: Definitely! I read an article posted online at PsychCentral entitled "9 WAYS THAT HUMOR HEALS" by Therese J. Borchard. She states that "Of all the tools I use to combat depression and negativity, humor is by far the most fun." I agree with her assessment that humor combats fear, comforts, and relaxes you. She also notes that it reduces pain, boosts the immune system, reduces stress and cultivates optimism. And she even mentions one of my favorite scriptures in the Bible, Proverbs 17:22, which states that a merry heart does good like medicine. Actor Robin Williams' movie "Patch Adams", was based on real-life doctor Hunter Campbell, who infused laughter-based therapy into his treatment regimens for his patients. Studies show that laughter is an unimpeachably viable element in the healing process.

That said, I am a humor goon! I love to laugh and I love trying to make others laugh. This is why I chose humor to try to convey God's Good News message to the world. I've seen the dramatic difference God can make in the lives of the willing - and how He replaces tears with the infectious rumble of hearty laughter! And I can tell you, I much prefer laughing to crying, unless they are tears of joy that ensue when you finally get past an agonizing condition or experience, such as the one I had while confined for a few months to hospital beds in Oklahoma and Texas.

How did you come up with Thin Diesel's little motivational messages? What happens when people can't pull themselves up by their own bootstraps anymore?

QUESTION #3: Thin Diesel is a character who comprises part of my personality. If you read my previous bodies of work, you will see that I habitually inject into my projects these bite-sized parcels of humorous, pun-fueled philosophies designed to motivate you to go for broke, to attain the prized goal that defines your purpose, transcending you beyond meat-and-potatoes subsistence, to an actualization mountaintop whose reward is spiritual in scope, where a healthy paycheck is simply a byproduct (because truly money can't buy happiness, otherwise so much of the well-to-do populace wouldn't be as spiritually or emotionally disabled as many among the economically distressed).

I use God's Word, humor and cartoons to remind people that God can get them where He purposes them to be. But even if you take away my humor tools and my illustrations, God is still right there, cheering you on, telling you He'll get you there as you trust in Him! In His word, He says that in OUR weakness lies HIS strength (2 Corinthians 12:9). That faith and trust is what compels you to overcome your troubles. I've seen the change God makes in the lives of the hopeless. It's really quite fascinating.

What do you think is lacking in modern society that leaves so many people vulnerable to depression and anxiety? Some folks have clinical conditions that cause these mental states and need medical treatment, but I'm more talking about people who go through dark moods and life struggles. How do you think we can begin addressing these problems?

QUESTION #4: Don't get me wrong. I believe in the benefits of medicine. One of God's disciples was named Luke - and he was a physician. Certainly our planet offers lavish provision from its vast wilderness-growth credenza, an eclectic array of ingestible products which aid in our mental and physical well being. But just as the Bible says we cannot live by bread alone, neither can we depend solely upon the abilities of modern medical advancement. We are human beings, crafted in the Image of our Creator. The global community we inhabit, unlike yesteryear, is now fraught with ever-evolving technologies, expectations and social philosophies that foster stress, strife and fear. Add to these elements mankind's reluctance to look to Him Who knows us better than anyone.

Our hearts are God-shaped and require constant spiritual nourishment that we don't feed it, instead offering it an unhealthy menu of all things contrary to what God says is good for us. This detrimental diet gives way to those elements which cause our mental/emotional/spiritual health to deteriorate to a milieu where darkness lurks. I know this to be true because, when I used to be depressed a great deal of the time. As they say, the struggle is REAL. And grossly disheartening. But one day I listened to The Heavenly Father when He told me I don't have to be depressed if I defer to Him. I did listen - and now I'm thrilled to say I don't become depressed anymore! Ever! I really don't. That's not to say life is all magical now or anything like that. I have my "MAN, WHY IS THIS HAPPENING MOMENTS???!!!" to be sure. But Christ has taught me that no matter what I think I see or feel or hear, HE is ALWAYS in control of EVERYTHING. If we could all truly get a good grasp of His proclamation in our hearts and minds, things would be so different in so many lives.

How did you decide to tell these characters' stories through a zine-like graphic novel? I mean, this could have been a standup routine, or a novella if you expanded the story. What attracted you to the graphic novel format?

QUESTION #5: Funny you should ask. I HAVE performed Christian standup comedy on TV and radio. And I do have a Christian-humor novel that will be coming out soon, entitled THE DIARY OF BRAN FRANK. But ever since I was a child growing up in Chicago, I've always had an affinity for drawing. I began making animated cartoons with my movie camera and projector starting at age 12. I even won an 8th-grade science fair and was sent to the district science fair with my entry, an animated film about energy production. It was a positively absurd premise, featuring a caveman clubbing a dinosaur into submission, to harness its strength for various chores before the advent of the wheel. In retrospect, I surmise I only won first place because the adjudicators were smitten with the enterprising spirit of a 14-year old, who'd manufactured an animated cartoon for the occasion.

In any event, history shows that cartoons are an extremely popular vehicle employed to convey any kind of story for any occasion. That includes stories that are spiritual in scope.

How do people tend to respond to your work? Do you have any interesting stories from people who came to hear you or who read your previous books?

QUESTION #6: Much to my delight, people seem to love what I do. I would never brag on myself because people who boast tend not to be as good as they think they are. But I'm getting great reviews on amazon.com instead of complaints. Yippee!!!!!! I love doing book signings as author/cartoonist cHicKEn dOOdLE sOuP. Okay, here are a few of may favorite instances concerning my work:

1) I wrote of book of Christian cartoons called MYLES A HEDD, under the pseudonym, The Man From A.N.K.L.E. What was so cool about that book is that my Indianapolis-based author representative liked it so much, she called me in Southern California to ask me if I would write a book with her! I was so incredibly honored!

2) Many years ago, prolific writer/producer/director/ author/Stephen J. Cannell really liked MYLES A HEDD, and consented to write a blurb for me to insert into one of my books that was to be forthcoming! What a pleasure to be complimented in such a manner by the now-deceased, Emmy-winning Hollywood luminary who'd created so many memorable TV series such as 21 JUMP STREET, THE A-TEAM, THE ROCKFORD FILES, THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO and too many more to name here. Also, Movie-TV-star Rob Schneider (DEUCE BIGELOW, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE) and "Mad Mike" of MTV's popular series, PIMP MY RIDE have offered me support. Mad Mike even wrote a review and did a video promotion for my last book, LOVE STEENX.

3). A woman recently read my current book, cHicKEn dOOdLE sOuP pREsEntS...STICK TO THE FUNNY STUFF!!! When she arrived at the final page, she told me how much she loved it...while shedding tears! Actual tears! I was touched beyond measure! That kind of reception is an author's dream and I will never ever forget that. Because I really was wondering if people would get it. They do and I thank God I can use laughter to point the way to Him. God bless you one and all. And hey, don't forget to go for your dreams like I am - as I STICK TO THE FUNNY STUFF!!!

Stick to the Funny Stuff can be ordered here from Iceberg Tony’s Used Denture Discounts.

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odinknows · 7 years ago

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Know Your Meme Goes to New York Comic Con

The west side of 8th Avenue in midtown is a strange place in New York City. On an island where every plot, lot and its sublot has been claimed or filled, Hudson Yards, Manhattan’s soon-to-be latest neighborhood, is an urban ghost town, a surreal snapshot of a newly developed district in Simcity. But this weekend, Hudson Yards was flooded by hundreds of thousands of pop culture fans of all ages: teens, adults, kids chaperoned by their moms and pops, moms and pops chaperoned by their kids. New York Comic Con (NYCC). It’s the biggest nerd convention on the East Coast.

Thursday, 10:00 a.m. Matt, Adam and I met up by Penn Station on 34th Street and 8th Avenue. This was the first NYCC for all of us. Having had a daily commute in the area for a few years, I’ve certainly heard and seen the hubbub NYCC brings to the city every year, but as soon as we joined the first wave of attendees and entered the main venue, we were immediately struck by the sheer volume and size of the gathering.

Jacob K. Javits Center is a massive complex designed much like an international airport. Yet, with thousands of attendees moving in droves at all times, the 1.8 million square feet arena felt like, as Matt put it, a “geek mall” filled to its max capacity. And it’s true. Unlike its west coast counterpart, San Diego Comic-Con, NYCC has always been a for-profit event organized by ReedPOP, with a reported annual revenue of $50 million. At that level of rainmaking, it has grown into such a high-profile industry event that not even Hollywood’s most wanted A-list celebrities can decline to attend, not even George Clooney.

Once we made our way through the security checkpoint, we were greeted by Bandai Namco promoters offering wearable printouts of Luffy’s straw hat and calling on a few volunteers to participate in a lottery game for their mobile game One Piece Thousand Storm.

After a brief moment of complete distraction by fancy pop-up booths, neat gadgets and professional cosplayers all around us, we headed over to our first panel event of the day, Geek Journalism in the 21st Century, hosted by Ryan Britt of Inverse Magazine and joined by writers Caseen Gaines, Emily Asher-Perrin, Jill Pantozzi, Krutika Mallikarjuna and Mike Cecchini. Reflecting the popular consensus that’s been running for years on the Internet, much of the discussion centered around the future of fandom and challenges entertainment critics face as Hollywood’s reboot frenzy persists, a trend that hasn’t sloed down since Disney’s acquisition of Marvel Comics in 2009. While the panelists acknowledged that reboots can bridge the gap between generations, especially for the millennial audience, and serves the industry well with its guaranteed profit, they all seemed to agree that some of these classics have been rebooted at the expense of legacies that the original works left behind.

Thursday, 12:15 a.m. Tara Strong is a celebrity of her own class. As the familiar voice behind Bubbles of The Powerpuff Girls, Twilight Sparkle of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and a number of other characters in video games, it is little surprising that she commands one of the most diverse and devoted fan bases. The seating in the conference room had already filled up by the time we arrived. Taking in the spotlight, Strong opened up the panel by talking about her latest voice work in the forthcoming film My Little Pony: The Movie, at times playfully breaking into the voice of Twilight Sparkle, and offered quite a few insights on how to get one’s foot in the door of a career in voice acting. In a way, Tara Strong is the archetype of a celebrity whose fame probably wouldn’t have been the same without the power of internet fandom. For decades, most voice actors lived behind-the-scene of films, TV shows and video games (unless you were already a famous actor), until people on the Internet began putting faces to their names in all corners of fan forums.

Thursday, 3:00 p.m. We assembled on the main exhibition floor, a gigantic open showroom where hundreds of vendors were offering all sorts of geek treasures and merchandises. The density of the crowd was more than any of us could bear for too long, although it was on the show floor where we spotted some of the most impressive cosplays at Comic Con. Aside from an army of Rick Sanchez, there were a number of other usual suspects in attendance: Deadpool, Princess Leia. Sailor Moon. Dv. A. Super Mario Bros.

Cosplay is a magical way for people to socialize. In 1939, Los Angeles sci-fi fan couple Forrest J. Ackerman and Myrtle R. Douglas showed up at The First World Science Fiction Convention in New York in futuristiccostumes, little knowing they had invented the world’s first prototype of a “fan costume,” which would eventually become known as cosplay in the coming decades. At this year’s NYCC, swarms of cosplayers, many of whom are Con-goers, but also event promoters and journalists, roamed the show floor, greeting each others in passing. Who they were didn’t really matter. It was all about what they were.

This isn’t to say that everyone is on equal footing at Comic Con. After all, it was the familiar faces from the big-screen that drew the fans out in hundreds of thousands. Throughout the day, we could hear intermittent bursts of applause from the live stage and autographing booths all around. And just from a glance at the guest list, one could gather which stars came to make an official appearance and which stars came to seize their day.

Friday, 11:00 a.m. Midtown Manhattan felt livelier than ever, with long lines wrapped around every venue on the way to Javits Center and the day’s construction work in full swing. Most workers seemed barely distracted by the seemingly endless stream of Rick Sanchez, Captain Kirks and Power Rangers pouring out of the 7 train subway exit, except for a few who would take occasional snapshots with their phones. I asked one of the men in hard hat if he has ever seen a crowd like this in Hudson Yards before. He said this is the most people he has seen in six months of working in the neighborhood. I asked him which character he has seen the most thus far. “Hello Kittys,” he said. “Lots of Hello Kittys.” Funnily enough, we didn’t catch any glimpse of Hello Kitty cosplays.

In stark contrast to the construction workers, the tension was running high among the New York Police Department officers, as they tried to keep the crowd in motion outside the convention center. Mix a couple hundreds of RPG and FPS cosplayers sporting all sorts of weapon replicas into an estimated crowd of 200,000 people, you’ve got yourself a long day at work.

We started our second day off with our own agendas. Matt attended the Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams panel, which explored the storylines of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and The Man in the High Castle, and how art can combat bigotry through representation and diversity. As Matt put it, imagining the worse case scenario for America was “a real nice cup of coffee at 10:15 in the morning.” Adam went to the Hey Arnold panel event, where the creators and voice cast of the show came together to talk about the upcoming animated feature film Hey Arnold!: Jungle Movie and reminisce about the early years of the show when the voice actors themselves were kids. I headed straight to the Artist Alley, where more than 100 artists and independent vendors have set up shop to showcase their works, ranging from hand-drawn illustrations and comic zines to custom figurines and wearable merchandises.

Just one floor level below the festivities, next to the autographing booths, there was something very different going on. As much of a geek mall NYCC felt like, the vibe in the conference rooms stood out from the rest of the convention as scholarly and inquisitive. For an event of such massive scale, there were quite a few panel discussions that opened the doors to constructive discourses on identity politics and pop culture: The Wonder Women Behind LGBTQ Characters in Comics, Super Asian America, How to Respectfully Draw POC and LGBTQIA Characters, Gender Identity Through Art, the list went on. TL;DR, they were woke AF. And unlike the discussions that all too often devolve into mudslinging on the internet, everyone listened and waited for their turns to speak. With things in order, the discussions made leaps in the short span of an hour, something that we don’t see every day.

Had the late French cultural theorist Jean Baudrillard still been alive, he would have taken great pleasure in tearing NYCC apart, just as he had done with the Pompidou Centre in Paris and Disneyland. To be fair, Comic Con is a hypermarket of industrialized pop culture, where the boundaries of fiction and reality blurs with every transaction. Nevertheless, despite its glossy artifice and Disneyland-like deceit, NYCC does ultimately serve its purpose as a public forum where the creators and consumers can critique and workshop the status quo in today’s pop culture. Say what you will about the mall culture in America, but there’s nothing like the good old-fashioned consumerism that brings people together in this country, regardless of age, gender and color.

Round Table Discussion

This conversation was audio-recorded, transcribed and edited for clarity at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on October 5th and 6th, 2017.

First Impressions of NYCC

Adam: We’re all really exhausted, just from the sheer amount of people and fandoms and cosplays and comic book booths and panels. It was pretty crazy.

Brad: Luckily, we got our badges sorted out beforehand.

Matt: It seemed like a real nightmare this morning getting into the place. It’s a lot like Disneyland with the lines and the check-ins and the bags–

Adam: Also, let’s clarify that the Javits Center is like a fancy airport, better than the actual airports in New York City. It was basically like going on a flight through fandom, I guess?

Adam: It’s like the movie The Terminal, but for fandoms.

Matt: It’s like a play land for people who like very specific things. The more specific the thing, the better.

Thoughts on Panel Events

Adam: One thing from Geek Journalism in the 21st Century that was interesting to all of us as “meme journalists” was to hear the perspectives of other people in the pop culture journalism industry, even if we all hears stuff we were a little bit familiar with, in terms of how to break into it.

Matt: I think that’s one of the things you see at a thing like Comic Con. You see all these people that like a very big “work,” whether that’s an anime, movie, or video game, and they really want to be a part of it. I think that that’s true in that a lot of the people here also want to be creators. They want to either be writing about this stuff or create this stuff. A lot of the panels we saw today, like the Tara Strong panel, there were a lot of people there asking her how to break into voice acting. I got to the Tara Strong panel assuming people would be asking her specifically about My Little Pony stuff, Powerpuff Girls stuff. I didn’t expect so many people would be asking her how to break into this thing. There’s a lot of people here looking into that, and that definitely carried over into the Geek Journalism panel.

Brad: There was kind of a workshop layer to it, and that’s as good as Q&As can get.

Adam: Matt, you went to Michael Rooker’s panel. Did you find your experience similar there? Were people asking him about acting or was there more a “people geeking out” vibe to it?

Matt: There was more geeking out, but it was also in a bigger room. Tara Strong Spotlight and Geek Journalism were held in very small, conference-like rooms, but Rooker’s panel was held in the special events section, a giant auditorium. The way that it started was he was on a panel with an author who wrote Guts, Frank Darabont. They were discussing Rooker’s career. As the panel was going, Rooker became more and more restless answering this guy’s questions, and all of a sudden, he was like, “We have 38 minutes left!” then ran offstage and started running through the crowd, being like, “Who has a question? You have a question? What’s your question?” And people would be like, “Uh, what’s your favorite scene in Guardians of the Galaxy?" and he’d be like “Any one that I’m in!” Just stuff like that. It was very much like he was there to let people experience him. He was such a personality, you couldn’t even get a word in. There were maybe one or two questions about how he got his start in acting and he was just like “I had nothing else to do.”

Adam: So he wasn’t trying to be workshop with the audience. He was trying to be a celebrity.

Brad: That is really endearing, especially considering he has been a longtime character actor whose fame suddenly blew up only as of recently.

Matt: He’s like the breakout character of Guardians of the Galaxy, for sure. He is kind of building up a cult-following, like Bruce Campbell. Your parents might not know his name, but you know the face. Fans of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies and fans of The Walking Dead will love him. And he’s a great actor. It’s about time he’s gotten that recognition.

Brad: I think that also reflects as how fandom works on the internet. Even in the context of memes, there has always been a tendency to put the spotlight on people in the backdrop instead of up and center.

Adam: Like the Left Shark.

Brad: Definitely.

Thoughts on Fan Interactions

Matt: I think that the appeal of conventions like this one is that its a celebration of the specificity of these things. Like, everyone loves Star Wars but not everyone loves TC-14 or R5D4, things that have fans but have like, one line in the movies. Still, fans will watch these things so many times that they end up having to focus on different elements to get new appreciation.

Adam: And that spoke to a conversation Brad and I had with Ryan Britt of the Geek Journalism panel about memes, and he immediately jumped to talking about Prequel Memes, which I think are exactly the type of hyper-specific, fandom-driven things you were talking about before. You pick out this one moment of the films and if you keep repeating it, it becomes a joke. I mean, at this point, it’s like almost 60% of the script is a meme.

Matt: Prequel memes in general changed the way I saw the Star Wars prequels. The fans are so attuned to finding one word that’s delivered in the strangest way and it becomes a meme. That’s very similar to the type of specificity you’ll see here. You’ll see things now, like Simpsons shitposting, where it’s like the more obscure thing you can put into a new context, the more successful that meme will be. That’s true for cosplay too. Like, if you can make something super specific and make it super well, your thing and blow it out, that’s where you’ll have the biggest Comic Con success.

Thoughts on Cosplay at NYCC

Adam: By the way, our Rick Sanchez cosplay count is 12.

Matt: But to be fair, you have to have a high IQ to like Rick Sanchez cosplay… [laughter]

Brad: Rick Sanchez has to be the most frequently seen cosplay, right?

Matt: There’s a lot of Deadpools.

Brad: Oh yeah, that’s true. Deadpool has to be the unofficial mascot of cons. There’s that YouTube guy, D Piddy, who goes to like, every single Con.

Matt: I think Deadpool is like the unofficial spokesperson of adult geeks. Like, “This isn’t your granddaddy’s superhero. He swears.” You know, this stuff started out as just being for kids, basically, but there’s a lot of that sort of “adulting” going on in fandoms and superhero movies right now.

Brad: It’s not surprising you see a lot of Deadpool after the movie. I’ve gotten so used to seeing D. Piddy doing wacky antics. I completely forgot that there was a movie after Deadpool had already become a convention staple.

Matt: And we saw that Deadpope, that was pretty awesome.

On NYCC and Consumerism

Adam: Matt, you were talking about a point earlier at lunch about how this place is very much like a Disneyland, and in the same way Disneyland is a land of wonder, it is also like, an orgy of capitalism.

Matt: When I was going through all the aisles and booths, I started realizing that we were basically at the geek mall. All the stuff that you want and care about in pop culture is here at your disposal. The things you knew you wanted, didn’t know you wanted, all here. It exists in the center of this Venn diagram between consumerism and emotional investment. People want to express their enjoyment of these things but outside of here they only have designated areas to express these things, like the movie theater or online. Comic Con gives people a chance to celebrate that, hence the cosplay. But there’s also this element of this engagement being sold to these people. There’s an element of exploitation here. It’s like the people here can become the billboards for these giant corporations like Disney and Marvel.

Adam: And you were saying before how you used to collect things but the realization eventually dawned on you how you were being kind of a pawn in this larger machine.

Matt: Yeah, at a certain point, you realize you’re spending so much money on books you read like one time, and you’re just like, well, what am I doing with this comic book collection? Like, I’m not gonna make money off this in the future. The comic book industry was ravaged by overprinting. The reason comic books aren’t worth any money is because everyone threw them out. There’s so much supply and no demand. Now we’re existing in a space where superheroes and science fiction are the biggest American export. Entertainment is America’s biggest export, and superheroes and Star Wars are the top of that heap. Right now, to participate in these things is really to engage with America’s biggest global machine. It’s a weird thing, because the flip side of that is very pure: people love these things. I’m one of them! I love Star Wars and Star Trek, and people want to go and, as I witnessed today, argue over whether the Millennium Falcon would beat the Starship Enterprise in a fight. This is a conversation people want to have! There’s nothing wrong with that, but it does exist in a weird space.

Adam: Someone brought up in the panel how fandoms crop up around certain things basically on the strength of the characters. On the one hand, the general idea of a Comic Con is to create a place where perhaps social outcasts can geek out about their fandoms and find themselves in pop culture where they might not necessarily see themselves in their daily lives outside of that. There’s something really empowering about that, but at the same time, it is sort of playing into the great industrial machine. You can look at it both ways. It’s sort of cynical and cool at the same time.

Matt: There are some cool aspects. I think a big part about this convention and cosplay in general is feeling like you want to participate in this thing, in the same way, say, a Patriots fan wants to put on a Tom Brady jersey and paint their face. Someone wants to dress like Spider-man to express they like Spider-man. It’s basically the same thing. It’s not like the Patriots are a small Mom-and-Pop business. They’re a huge sports franchise!

Adam: That makes me think that the reason so-called “sports cosplay,” if you will, is more socially accepted, and part of what makes Comic Con so special, is that when you walk around the convention, there’s a really supportive and wholesome vibe, which is really awesome. Maybe because NYCC is so big, it doesn’t leave any room to be cliquey, which may be the case in some smaller Cons. If you have a niche fandom, you may not interact with like-minded people IRL every day. To come to a place like this is an opportunity to engage with some people like you.

Matt: I think what’s really weird about that is that this place is so pure and feels very welcoming to all different types of people, which is so different from the type of fandom that exists on the internet. It’s a total 180!

Brad: I agree that is the most refreshing thing, in comparison to other smaller-scale conventions I’ve attended. Like you said, the size of this place kind of renders cultural elitism almost impossible. There’s something nice about not having to be on, say, the same frequency, but everyone is on the same bandwidth, more or less.

On Inclusiveness at NYCC

Adam: This brings up an interesting point. Matt, you recently wrote a bit on Simpsons shitposting and how the phenomenon exemplifies the way geek fandom is portrayed in pop culture. Do you think the preconceived ideas about NYCC has shaped your expectations of what this event would be?

Matt: I always have a hard time with fandoms because of the toxic online culture of it, and it can really put a sour taste in your mouth. I don’t know why we have to be so mean about a cartoon! But when we came here and started talking to people and engaging with people it was a lot calmer and nicer than I expected. You’re dealing with a lot of personalities with things like this, and granted we went to small panels, but… I had a good time.

Adam: Mark Hamill was here, and there were some big names here that if we wanted to meet them, that would’ve been our entire day. We saw the line for his autograph signing and it looked at least two hours long.

Matt: Mark Hamill is like the perfect model supporting fandom as a base. After Star Wars, Mark Hamill wasn’t a huge movie star. It wasn’t until Batman: The Animated Series that he really started taking off as a voice actor. Through that, he built this fanbase that grew at conventions like this and carried him to where he is now. A lot of people and studios today recognize that you can maintain a good base and evangelize for your thing if you’re good to them. Michael Rooker is taking advantage of that right now by blowing it out and saying “I am the guy fans want to be around,” so people will cast him because they know he’ll promote the film.

Via Knowyourmeme

The post Know Your Meme Goes to New York Comic Con appeared first on Odin Knows.

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swipestream · 7 years ago

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Short Reviews – Joe Carson’s Weapon, by James R. Adams

Joe Carson’s Weapon appeared in the Spring 1945 issue of Planet Stories. It can be read here at Archive.org

Joe Carson’s Weapon may be about the most PoMo thing I’ve read in Planet Stories.

A kid writes into his favorite sci-fi pulp magazine and a pair of Martians whose orders are to take over the earth take the kid’s letter at face value.

While it definitely wasn’t my thing, there were some pretty good laughs to be had on this one. The best part, perhaps, is the nearly page length “letter” to the editor that Joe Carson sends in, which absolutely captures the very essence of the most egregiously banal letters that ended up being printed in the pulps. The adventure itself is practically proto-Aqua Teen Hunger Force with the Martians being completely daft and incompetent while complimenting one another on their superior intellects or saying deliciously comic self-congratulatory stuff like “Yes, we are truly martyrs. My only regret is, I have but nine tentacles to give for my species.” (Try not reading that in Oglethorpe the Plutonian’s voice.)

As a perfect lead-in to next week’s Retro-Fandom Friday, I’m including the entirety of Carson’s “Letter” (oh, my God, Adams nails how some of these letter writers write), but it might behoove you to check out the whole story:

Ye Humble Ed:

Once again the keeper has negligently left my door unlatched and I slyly crawl from my cage, drawn by one, irrevocable purpose. Glancing hither and yon, to make sure I am unobserved, I dash to the fence and clear it with a prodigious leap that carries me half way to the corner drug-store.

Snatching a tricycle from a gawking kid, I push his face in the mud and pedal furiously the remaining distance to the store. Leaping off, I rush in and batter my way through the screaming throng, shouting imprecations at all who stand in my way.

Panting with exhaustion, I at last reach my goal and clutch it to my breast. The crowd surges forward and frantic hands grab at my prize.

“It’s mine! All mine!” I shout in their faces. “No one can take it from me!”

Galloping madly from the store I race swiftly across yards and up alleys, quickly losing the howling mob in the distance. Squatting under a street-lamp, I sneak a triumphant look at the treasure. What is it? Yep, you guessed it—Galactic Adventures!1

But—shades of Major Mars!—what is that horrible monstrosity on the cover? A BEM, no less…an abominable, wretched BEM. Why, oh why, can’t we have at least one different cover painting? Wesley is no good. Get Marlini or Sidney to do the covers. I don’t mind a BEM now and then, but a steady diet of them soon palls on the palate. (Heh heh.) All joking aside, your covers are terrific.2

Now we come to the task of rating the stories. Only one stands out in my mind as being of excellent quality. I refer to Arthur M. Ron’s super-epic, The Infinite Finite. The other stories paled into insignificance in comparison to this classic. More power to Ron! Percival’s Puissant Pulverizer and Nothing is Something follow Ron’s story in that order. The rest are not worth mentioning.3

The interior illustrations are somewhat better than the cover, although, for the most part, they are inaccurate and do not follow the themes of the stories. Ye gods! Can’t your artists read? So much for the art, which wasn’t so much.4

Say! What does that jerk, The Amphibious Android, mean by calling me a “mere child”? His assertion that I’m but a youth of fifteen is a good way off the beam. I’ve been reading Galactic Adventures for the past eight years and I was nine years old when I picked up my first copy, so figure it out for yourself. A jug of sour zeni to him. May fire burst out in his s. f. collection and utterly destroy it. No! I retract that. That’s too horrible a fate, even to visit upon The Amphibious Android. Let him wallow in his ignorance. I, The Super Intellect, will smile down on him and forgive him his sins.5

That’s an interesting letter from Charlie Lane. The Miserable Mutant has propounded an amazing theory that has set me to wondering. Perhaps G. A. can induce one of its authors to work this theory into a story. I’m reserving my four wooden nickels right now for the tale, if it is written. I’ll even suggest a title—Those Who Are Froze In The Cosmos. How’s that? Well, I didn’t like it either.6

Once again I tear my hair and roar: GIVE US TRIMMED EDGES!7 Ye Ed must know by now that the majority of fandom is in favor of trimmed edges. As it is, one comes suddenly to the most interesting part of a story, at the very bottom of a page and spends several moments feverishly attempting to gain a hold on the ragged edge and go on to the next passage. By the time he has accomplished this, he is a raving lunatic, a martyr to trimmed edges. I am not a crusader, as is The Misled Biped, but I insist on seeing justice done.

As a whole, this is a fair issue. I might even call it good, if it were not for the artwork and stories. Ron’s epic will live forever in my mind, although its ending was rather weak and it could have developed into a more powerful tale by having the Slads all die in the Inferno.8

I enter my plea for longer stories. A long novel by M. S. Jensen would be appreciated. His last, Dr. Higbaum’s Strange Manifestation, was a gem. On the other hand, short stories are not without merit and good old G. A. wouldn’t be the same without them. I believe the story policy had best remain as is.

Give Higgins a rest. His yarns are rapidly degenerating into hack, with only four out of the last five meeting with this reader’s approval. I don’t like to be finicky, but it seems like he isn’t contributing his best material to G. A.

Well, this missive is growing to huge proportions and I would like to see it in print, so I’d better sign off.

Oh, yeh, almost forgot to comment on the departments. They are all good, with The Reader’s Opinion being the most interesting.9 Ye Ed’s ruminations come in for a close second. Do not change the departments in any way, although the quiz and the Strange Phenomena feature could be discontinued, without any great loss.

Before I close, I wish to make a revelation which will rock the world. Yes, Ed, I have a secret weapon! Nothing can stand against this terrible invention and, with it, I could even destroy Earth, with Mars and Pluto thrown in for good measure. Beware, Ed, lest you arouse my ire and cause me, in my wrath, to unleash this vast force upon helpless, trusting mankind.

Having read G. A. from cover to cover, I crawl back into my cage, drooling with delight. Prying up a loose stone in the center of the floor, I tenderly deposit the mag among the other issues of my golden hoard. Replacing the stone, I sigh contentedly and manipulate my lower lip with two fingers to indicate complete satisfaction. See you next issue!

Joe Carson

The Super Intellect

1. It was not uncommon for letters to begin with flash fiction (often sci-fi-themed) accounts of acquiring the latest issue, ranging from “So, I plunked my two dimes down at the newsstand…” to full-overblown stuff along the lines of the above. Adams really nails how bad many of these are.

2. Covers and quality of the covers were a frequent topic of discussion in Vizigraph. I do think that a lot of writers had justifiable complaints against several of Planet’s early-mid 40s artists, Parkhurst in particular, who, while he did do some good work now and then, had some pretty lousy compositions. Additionally, there was always the debate on whether the girls were too scandalous or not scandalous enough, or the fan who’d quip about the need to hide the front cover… not because of the dame but because of how embarrassingly bad they though Parkhurst’s cover was. Though it was clear that most of his iconic pieces were all based off the same handful of reference photos, Allen Anderson’s run was much better quality and much better received than Parkhurst’s.

3. Obvious joke titles aside, this could be word-for-word cropped from a real letter.

4. More frequent complaints about the interior illos. By the late 40s, the art was jibing with the stories a bit better, there was often a strange contradiction of tone when you’d get a hardboiled SF Noir story paired with Doolin’s illustrations of Flash Gordon silly hats and underwear on the outside.

5. SF Fandom has always been terrible, and letter cols were filled with this kind of stuff…

6. …which often had context lost as they referred to stories and letters from previous issues.

7. A big deal.

8. This and the next paragraphs are fairly characteristic of the unhelpfully contradictory feedback usually included in reader letters.

9. Oddly enough, Planet did get several letters saying that the Letters section was the only part worth reading. Imagine only reading a pulp zine for the yahoos writing in to complain about things! Part of the ostentatiousness of the letters, however, was almost certainly the result of the quarterly competition in which letter writers could vote on their favorite letters, with the top three vote-getters getting a shot at original pieces of interior art-work.

Short Reviews – Joe Carson’s Weapon, by James R. Adams published first on http://ift.tt/2zdiasi

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josephsfng · 7 years ago

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The Naked Truth Now Exposed!

“YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY PERSON CONCERNED ABOUT THE 5 FAT AND PREGNANT CHILDBIRTH DEFECTS?”

Quote:

“Prevention of childhood obesity needs to begin before a woman ever gets pregnant.”

Dr. Pamela Salesberry .Ph. D, RN, FAAN

(She is an Associate Dean for Community Outreach and Engagement Professor Interim Director of the Centre for HOPES Center for Health Outcomes, Policy, and Evaluation Studies]

elieve me there is somewhat a clear and present day if you choose to ignore this. Therefore be forewarned that there is one common sense we must dictate to, not only to all wise dieters but to pregnant mothers especially if you are fearful or ignorant of your maternity health or weight. Similarly, you must fear or not disregard any other basic needs. Flouting your weight and health at the pregnancy stage, whether it’s regarding your daily habits or a medical condition you have, does not make any sense. True? The chances that you will definitely seek help today, tomorrow, or at the maternity ward is great.

Isn’t it logical that when you are hungry you eat, but before you are hungry you normally plan how to get food? It should be the same with your health. When you just got pregnant, you will see a doctor, but before you have pregnancy complications when overweight, you should plan on how to be well and strong for yourself. And also the baby long before the due date. Alright?

BEFORE YOU RUSH INTO THINGS, it is wise to make a pit stop here, to ponder over the words in this paragraph below. Don’t you think so?

OVERVIEW

With all intent and purpose, I will try and handle the really heavy complicated and complex stuff of weight gain and pregnancy with the following. Agree?

The first and foremost shocking ailment is the danger of the child contracting epilepsy. Believe me another disease is the chance of incurring infant's brain injury. Don’t be shelled shocked it could also perpetuate further obesity in the baby. Surprisingly, there may be a general birth defects suffered by the new born baby. Finally there is high chance of attracting the disease called microsomal. How’s that for starter? Good? Now, let's get to work, starting right from the first disorder! Alright?

1. EPILEPSY

You may have your doubts but I do agree with the truth of Dr Neda's statement. "Just how much a child's risk of epilepsy is linked with how obese the mother was early in her pregnancy,” Plus, it’s confirmed in the findings led by Neda Razaz of the Karolinska Institute. ACTUALLY EPILEPSY IN THE BABY is a brain disorder whose causes remain poorly understood. The survey-based study did not delve into the causes of the apparently higher risk of epilepsy, which may include genetic and environmental factors. Get the picture?

Having said and done, let’s explore further on the next sickness. Shall we?

2. INFANT'S BRAIN INJURY

Don’t be unduly worried when you read this. Alright? Believe me researchers speculated that being overweight or obese during pregnancy could lead to a higher risk of brain injury in infants, or that obesity-induced inflammation could affect neurodevelopment. To say the least.

By the way, do you see where we’re heading so far? I hope you do. Honestly. Let’s dig deeper in!

3. PERPETUATE FURTHER OBESITY IN THE BABY

No matter how you cut and dice the unvarnished truth still remains that the obese mother is bound to eat more which in turn gives more generously nutrients and is transmitted to the foetus. Being used to such constant and abundant feedings this would make the baby be dependent to more and frequent feedings. Yes indeed? You bet!

And here's where it gets even more interesting. Don’t believe? Just read on you must agree with me!

4. BIRTH DEFECTS

Let’s not mince words or attempt to yet the fact remains that babies born to obese women have an increased risk of having birth defects, such as heart defects and neural tube defects. Plus there may be the problems with diagnostic tests—having too much body fat can make it difficult to see certain problems with the baby’s anatomy on an ultrasound exam. Checking the baby’s heart rate during labour also may be more difficult if you are obese.

Without a shadow of doubt, I would not hold my breath for the next pregnancy problem when overweight. Serious! No jokes!

5. MACROSOMIAL

Let me set the records straight! Without doubt, the obese mother in this pregnancy condition, the baby in the womb is larger than normal. This can increase the risk of the baby being injured during birth. For example, the baby’s shoulder can become stuck during delivery. Microsomal also increases the risk of caesarean delivery. You don’t need to have a Ph. D to grasp this ailment!

________________________________________

“When you just got pregnant, you see a doctor, but before you have pregnancy complications when overweight, you should plan on how be well and strong for yourself and the baby long before the due date.”

___________________________________

By the way, without sounding like a broken record allow me to summarize the article in a shiny nutshell for you. Yes?

SUMMARY

So to sum up what I have just said about the critical childbirth complications when you are obese and pregnant, I highly recommend you to read slowly and carefully. Won’t you? If you still remember the ailment is that there is the danger of the child contracting epilepsy or seizure attack syndrome. As said earlier another disease is the chance of incurring baby’s brain damage. Don’t forget it does propagate further obesity in the baby. Be reminded there is this general birth flaws suffered by the new born baby. Lest we forget there is a high chance of getting the disease called microsomal! Easy to understand and commit to memory?

To complete the full circle of this article, a few comments is in order in this last paragraph. Agree or not?

CONCLUSION

In many ways, the end of this article is just the beginning; the beginning of a brand new way of living for you and your new born. When you do things differently, giving up those parts of your life that have been self-defeating for those which are self-affirming, your weight, your baby, and your life will change dramatically. You acquire self-discipline and strength. You gain a new perspective. You enjoy the positive results of accepting and liking yourself and your child. And you find new meaning to your life and hope for your future.

May be your have wanted to lose weight for a very long time, and you must admit that never before have you had a better shot at doing it until your pregnancy. I haven't given you a magic diet. I haven't told you that you can get skinny in before, during and after your child birth. In fact I haven't promised you a metabolic miracle. But what I can promise you here and now that if you watch your weight every time, you will be a happier mother with a healthy child. Period!

End of article

With My Sincere Thanks to You

Yours Truly

JosephSFNg

CTM Joseph Ng

Weight Loss Coach & Adviser

Oct 2017

If you like this e-zine and more, please click on to my blog: www.josephsfng.blogspot.com. You can even email me personally at [email protected]. I am only too happy to advise you on your weight loss, slimming, dieting and obesity problems. Ok? Thanks again.

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