#instead of paying a person with a BFA | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

hologramcowboy · 3 years ago

Note

Gen comes from a very rich family, she’s never needed Jared’s money. It’s also not Jared who gets her all of her business connections but Charlie Capen who has been working with Gen for years.

Gen has her own career outside of Jared. I know a lot of tinhatters and wife antis like to paint her as a failed actress, but she was actually pretty successful before retiring to be home with her children. Not counting Supernatural, a role she got herself and didn’t force her husband to have written for her like Danneel did, Gen worked consistently up until she started having children. Which is how you can tell she actually retired because of her children, unlike Danneel who used motherhood to cover up the fact that no one wanted to hire her. She preformed in four theater productions, appeared in at least one movie per year from 2004-2007, was the lead in Wildfire which ran for 4 seasons (2005-2008) and had a small cult following, was a recurring character on abc’s Flashforward (2009, it only ran for one season, but it did win an Emmy), and her final project was being a lead in the movie Hated (2012) which won several awards at various film festivals. And while she might not be the strongest actress (I personally like her acting, something about it evokes 1960s, slightly campy starlet), she did care enough about her craft to go to school for acting (graduated from NYU Tisch School of Arts with a BA in English and a BFA in Drama). She did an interview with Entertainment Weekly back in 2020 about reprising Ruby for the final season, and she talked about preparing to to return by reading her old scripts from season 4, looking at her old acting notes and prepping with Jared before filming. She did more work to appear on one episode than Jensen did to create the prequel. And while her role on Walker was technically because of Jared, Anna Fricke was the one who proposed the idea and Gen was very open about how she got the role the moment it was announced she was cast. No pretending she got the role on her own merit like Danneel did with that whole Sister Jo/Anael travesty.

Instead of sitting around spending Jared’s money like tinhats want her to (I’m serious, I’ve had the misfortune of seeing a few posts and they’re all lamenting why can’t she just be a good beard like Danneel and just quietly spend her husbands money. Lot to unpack there) she wanted a little bit of independence and to contribute to the household. So she started blogging because it meant that she could still be at home with her children while working. Jared doesn’t pay for her ads or her magazine interviews because that’s not how business works. Charlie Capen helps manage Gen’s blog and gets her these ad deals, writers for Towwn and helps her with networking. She’s not coasting by on Jared’s name, she just working and shares Jared’s last name because they’re married. Has Jared promoted her? Of course, he’s her husband and wants to support her. He’s also promoted his sister’s books, yet no one labels his sister a leech. In fact Gen’s instagram didn’t even have her last name for the first few years, she changed it when the trend of usernames ended and most influencers just started going by their legal names.

Gen might have a nanny to help with the kids, but almost every mom would if they could afford it. Raising children really does take a village. And it’s clear that both Jared and Gen spend a ton of time with their children and as a family unit despite having a nanny or two. Unlike Danneel, who hasn’t shied away from how much she dumps her children on the nanny even during a pandemic and sent them to school prior to vaccines because they just couldn’t deal with them anymore. Imagine living in a huge mansion, your only job being a stay at home mom, having a nanny take care of your children most of the time, the resources to hire private tutors for your children so that they can stay safe and you don’t have to play school teacher, and still saying “hmm, I’m seeing too much of my children. Better send them off to school so that I don’t have to deal with them for the hour a day I pretend to be a hands on mother.”

The long and short of it is, Danneel wishes that she was half the woman that Gen is. Gen is her own person who happens to be married to a very famous man, a man that she loves and supports at every turn.

"The long and short of it is, Danneel wishes that she was half the woman that Gen is. Gen is her own person who happens to be married to a very famous man, a man that she loves and supports at every turn."

This post was a joy to read for me because it beautifully explained everything I would have wanted to communicate about Gen but couldn't really put into words. Thank you, Anon! 💕

#Gen appreciation #anti Danneel #Genevieve Padalecki appreciation

73 notes · View notes

esperanta-dragon · 4 years ago

Photo

I feel like there is a need to write down why so many people hate Sylvanas so much, me included. Maybe you can’t stand her too OR you love her and you don’t understand why the hell people can hate such an amazing character. Here is why. And I will try to write this down logically as possible. No “hur dur I hate her because she is a bitch!”. No, I will put down all things so you can understand. And one sad disclaimer... it’s not the character’s fault.

WHY WE STARTED TO LOVE HER

Sylvanas showed up in Warcraft III as a Ranger General of Quel’thalas. She was protecting her country for quite some time when Arthas attacked Eversong Woods in order to get to Sunwell and resurrect Kel’Thuzad as a lich. Sylvanas paid with her life and her soul to protect her people and her country. She was made banshee and was forced to do things against her will and serve the Scourge she hated. But she was still plotting her revenge, didn’t give up until the moment came and she took the chance. She reclaimed her body back and almost killed Arthas, and took over Lordaeron City. Then she took over the undead slowly freeing from the Lich King’s grasp and gave them a place where to stay, becoming their Queen. And since then, she was planning to kill the Lich King for good.

That’s why we loved her (I never did, I will explain that later why). She really kicked his ass. She slapped the Scourge in the face. She never gave up and was doing everything to achieve her goals, her revenge. There are not so many such strong female characters, so resolute. She was not good but also not evil, she was shady, she was not the boring good guy. So why the hell people hate her? She is perfect! Let’s go to what happened during and after WotLK... Because here it starts.

WRATH OF THE LICH KING

As I said, many people adore Sylvanas since Warcraft III. But they don’t understand the character is not the same. She was never good, she was an anti-hero, that’s the fact (the Ebon Blade are also anti-heroes and they are not bad, they just do necessary things to keep the Scourge in check). She was doing everything to take revenge on Arthas. And everything means that she had no problems walking over corpses of her allies. Causalities because of my fault? Pfft! No matter as long as the piece of trash sitting on the Frozen Throne will get what he deserves!

This was pretty much visible after Wrathgate when Varimathras and Putress tried to take over Undercity and Alliance and the Horde saw what she is doing inside the city. Still fine, it was in character, she was doing EVERYTHING to take revenge on Arthas. Everything. That’s why she existed, why she kept going. Even back then, I didn’t hate her. She was still a very well-written character. This is what a character in her position would do.

But once everything was done, the Lich King was taken care of, she realized there is no point in her existence. She saw the Lich King was not destroyed. They only replaced him. So she threw herself from the Icecrown Citadel and fell on saronite spikes, the only thing that could definitely kill her.

And she ended up in a dark place. And the pain she felt was not like anything she felt before. It was the most horrible, the most inconsolable place. But val’kyras came down to her and sacrificed for her to get her back. Now we know what happened as we progress in the Shadowlands but... let’s say this was the beginning of the end for a good character Sylvanas once was. This was a start of cliché, inconsistency, and a great example that good characters should be allowed to go and leave so they can be remembered as a good characters.

WHAT CHANGED

Look, I came to WoW really late. I was playing on WotLK free servers as I could not afford to pay for official servers. But I knew the story in WotLK and I was still pretty ok with Sylvanas. I don’t remember hating her this much. She was well written.

It was Cataclysm Firelands patch when I finally could come to official servers. And Sylvanas was already doing pretty shady and disgusting stuff. I played Forsaken starting quest line so I know. Raising undead like the Lich King did? No problem for her. She even said she is like Arthas but she is working for the Horde (she never cared for them anyway, it was just more beneficial for her). What happened in Gilneas was not alright. Who gases the whole zone and making it inhabitable? Alright, let’s say Horde was expanding and Gilneas was next to Lordaeron. Alright. But back then, I finally dove deep into lore and I’ve noticed many people are really devoted to Sylvanas. It seemed almost like a cult. And every time I asked people, why they love this psyhopathic banshee, they were like: “She is my Queen! I love her, I would die for her! She is cool, she is taking care of us, she has a good heart!”

Something was amiss here... I couldn’t understand this. I couldn’t see what they saw. I saw a shady, ruthless and careless psychopath who is using her loyal subjects to save herself from something. And many people believed it even in BfA. Me and my friend had to show them excerpts from short stories where she say that “once they were arrows in her quiver, now they are bulwark against the darkness”. They couldn’t believe they loved Queen would not love them back!

But hey, still, I wanted to understand why people love her. I would understand if it would be still Warcraft III or WotLK, that’s fine. But Cata? Legion? BfA? Shadowlands?

So I started reading all books, short stories where she was. Articles about her. I tried to catch the glimpse of why people loved her: the majority told me she is still good and has a good heart and she is an amazing person. But I didn’t see it. Maybe I am stupid and I don’t understand, I am missing something... So I kept studying, trying to see anything good in her, I was failing. I saw a character falling more down into a pit full of anger and hate. Her loyalists said she was an amazing creature, loving, caring.

And the more I was told by people that she is caring and she has a good heart, the more I was getting disgusted and angry because the more I was reading about her and the more her loyalists told me, the more I saw what Sylvanas is: inconsistent character.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH SYLVANAS

In one book she was written like this. In another book, she was written like that. In one quest it was like this, then it was like that. In one expansion she behaved this way, in the next expansion, it was that way. She was doing more and more twisted things and her loyalists kept telling me she has a good heart. My frustration was growing to the point I could not stand her. It felt like I’ve met the person I knew was torturing her friends but when I met them, they told me with bruises on their faces and definitely mentally abused that she is amazing and it’s not her fault, she is just misunderstood and I should love her too.

When she killed Liam Greymane, loyalists were like: “I have no clue why Genn hates her so much! That stupid dog should die!” Yeah right, somebody kills your son and destroys your home, you have no reason to be angry, it’s ok.

She burns down Teldrassil and they said: “Why Tyrande wants to kill her? I hope Sylvanas kills her first!” Sure, somebody burns down a city with thousands of innocent people, it’s fine, let them go, no hard feelings. And sometimes these people are able to justify her actions with: “But this is fantasy! There is different morale than in real world!” Please, guys, never ever write a story. Never touch it. You will end up like Steve Danuser making characters to behave like idiots and without emotions. Stay away. Please. Do world the favor.

I was trying really hard. Trying to figure out what kind of character she is. Find a pattern. Because you can write a chaotic character and still find a pattern and it can be still a consistent character. But Sylvanas? I felt more and more that not even Blizzard knows what to do with her, how to write her... she felt more and more inconsistent and out of place with every expansion. And you know what? That happens to characters which are kept in the story longer than they should. If character losts a meaning of their existence, there are only two options: you either let them go or you have to find them a new meaning. And in case of Sylvanas, the second option led to a narrative disaster.

We were told by Blizzard: “Don’t worry! Everything falls in place! It makes sense what she does!” But after the Sanctum of Domination finale? It was a big fat lie...

Before I come to the cinematic, let me tell you what made me hate her beyond every possible measure: her fandom.

HITLER HAD A GOOD HEART!

In Legion, she was doing shady stuff. But in BfA? She became a Hitler. She burned down Teldrassil because... IDK she snapped and wanted to show one elven archer that you can kill hope? And what kind of catapults she had has reach 20 km? What kind of catapults can burn down incredibly big tree SOAKED in water with thick bark. Was that azerite or... no, I am not gonna get angry. And I won’t even start with the b*shit Blizzard pulled: “Look, just because Sylvanas is right in front of Teldrassil doesn’t mean it was her who burned it down!” They had to lie to us to look that they can create a better story than what it actually is.

She destroyed Undercity so Forsaken lost their home. Is this how you take care of your subjects if you are loving and caring? I think not.

And with her actions, millions of souls from the whole cosmos are going right into the Maw for eternal suffering. And why? Because she was scared. Because instead of thinking about herself and trying to change, she rather schemed with the god of death... who was responsible for her misery. And even teamed with Kel’Thuzad, who was reason of her fate in the first place! And yet, after all this, after mass genocide, destroying souls, millions, maybe billions of souls are suffering because of her... and you can still tell me there is still good in her and she deserves redemption arch... And with love say: “She got us into this, she will get us out of this <3 ^_^” So somebody is making everybody suffer and some people are like “Ooooh it’s fine, I support her! I bet she will realize what she is doing and she will save us!” Would you say the same about Hitler? That he was misunderstood, he was trying to fix something that’s why he murdered millions of people? I am just asking what kind of people her loyalists are in real life.

I have a question... would you still love her if she was a man? Or decomposing undead? Or if she wouldn’t be sexy elf at all? If she would be ugly? I think we all know the answer (disclaimer, beautiful people are not always kind and nice, what a surprise). I bet she would be already killed or hated by majority of the community at least two expansions back. Why Garrosh had to stand trial for war crimes and Sylvanas doesn’t? To be honest, I never liked Garrosh, I hated him, but I never hated him as much I hate Sylvanas. He was at least consistent to his very last moment. But I am fed up by the fact that everybody keeps excusing what she does just because she is a sexy elf. This is not character I can respect. How can you say about such character that she is cool when you know she is commiting genocide? Let’s replace her with ugly elf and let’s see how many of you will still love her.

If you love her because she is a crazy homicidal maniac and you want her to do evil stuff, go ahead, nothing wrong with you, it’s fine. You love her because you think that she has a good heart and she is sending millions of souls into hell because she wants to help us? Take your pills and think twice before going on date with a manipulative person who will use you, beat you but will tell you they love you so much while cheating on you. Thanks.

If you are lying to yourself that she is good and has a good heart because you are afraid you wouldn’t like her anymore as a bad guy, then you love illusion you made around her, not the character itself. And you should seriously think if you really love the character if you need to change it that much in your mind to keep loving her.

GRAND FINALE

“If they are gonna give her redemption arch, I am gonna puke.” Many people told me, they would not. They are not gonna do it. She is beyond redemption, she is antagonist, period. Guess what, they did. The cheapest way possible.

Blizzard kept telling us everything will make sense in the end, why she did all these things. But it did not. And it only confirmed my greatest fear: Sylvanas is an inconsistent character since Cataclysm.

Sylvanas was afraid to go to the Maw. So she got an amazing idea. Let’s free the god of death, the malevolent creature trapped there because for sure he is suffering just like me, and injustice was done to him. He is the reason of my suffering because he made Helm of Domination and Frostmourne, that’s why I was killed and I am like this? I am sure he is a good guy, in the end, let’s remake reality so there is no life and death! That guy must be pretty ok. Oh wait his job is to torture souls? No, I don’t believe he is bad.

So when Jailer gets all he wanted, ofc he say that he will remake all reality and everybody will serve. And Sylvanas realizes: “Oh my, he is just like the Lich King! I didn’t want this! I will never serve!” Even she served him for the past few expansions. And suddenly she sees he is a bad guy. Suddenly.

And then, Jailer gives her half of her soul back... So... this is the explanation? She was doing all this because she was not whole? Is this an excuse for genocide? Now we will all feel sorry for her? Tell her it’s ok, you were not yourself?

I am saying this all the years and I will say it again: the Ebon Blade are order full of those with a fate like Sylvanas. The whole order. Multiple characters suffered under the Lich King like her, lost themselves, were made to kill their friends, their families. And they, too, took revenge on him. But instead of going crazy and trying to hurt everybody because they were hurt, they tried to help and protect people. Maybe they are missing part of their souls too. But are they running around, burning innocents, committing genocide? No. So please, the is no excuse, she was aware of what she was doing. I am not buying this and for sure this won’t make me feel sorry for her. It was her choice. You can be depressed and hurt into the very core and still decide not to be homicidal maniac.

Another annoying thing is, Blizzard kept telling us she is a master strategist and she is highly inteligent. Would a highly inteligent person try to help somebody responsible for her suffering? Being ok with them? There was not shown how come she is ok with the Jailer! Look I thought she is smart but after the cinematic, she does not look like that.

What was her plan anyway? Did she believe such creature won’t betray her, he won’t dump her? I was hoping he will dump her and kill her. That would be the only ending fitting for the character. I didn’t want another Kerrigan, I didn’t want redemption arch for her... I was hoping I will finally like her as a villain. Now I can’t... there is no way I will like her ever again because Blizzard probably can’t do just evil characters. There always must be something behind, some explanation why they are like this. “I was good this whole time!” And I am tired of this... Suddenly I like Garrosh because he was an asshole but he was consistent. He had a good ending. He “died” like a boss.

THEY SHOULD HAVE LET HER DIE

And I mean it. If they would let her go after WotLK, it would be a good ending for her. Tragic end for the tragic character. She fulfilled her purpose and she would be remembered as a good consistent character. But she is making a lot of money, many people love her (not anymore, even people who liked her hate her now and her fanbase is getting smaller) so Blizzard decided they have to milk her as much as possible.

I think everything good should come to an end. “You would either die as a hero or live long enough to become a villain.” In this case “You would either die as a good character or live long enough to become inconsistent and annoying character.” And it happened.

Remember how people were angry how Thrall is getting a lot of attention in Cata? Haha, good old times. How about Sylvanas in 3 expansion cinematics (and some side cinematics like Reckoning, etc) and 2 expansions fully focusing on her (and some other expansions where she is a lot too). How about the 15th figure in a row. And 4th Blizzcon art. And I can keep going.

Metzen had favorite characters... but they were never overused as much as Sylvanas. Vol’jin was warchief for 1 expansion where he did nothing and then he died so she could take lead in story. So many characters are forgotten, pushed down so she can be on the spotlight. And I am sick of it. This is not single player, this is MMORPG. The world feels ridiculously small thanks to this, we have more characters than Sylvanas + 5 characters they keep using and recycling all the time.

And keep using Sylvanas and putting her into the spotlight all the time did not help. You can start hating character you liked before just because you have enough of them and you want to see other characters. This world has a big potential. So many characters are unused because of Sylvanas. Because the lead narrative designer loves her so much that he had to make her the main character of WoW and doesn’t care there is a whole world to take care of. And he does the worst job possible. Because he tried to make her complicated and complex and in the end he was just trying to make it look like that but it didn’t work out. It was just inconsistent. It didn’t fall in place.

Her plot armor is so laughable and it’s the most annoying thing about Sylvanas. How characters around her are so stupid and dumb so they can let her do such stuff (hello Horde in BfA). The whole universe and Blizzard especially is protecting Sylvanas of any harm. How can you like such character when it behaves like Mary Sue? I didn’t want to see cinematic how she comes and beat up really powerful guy without any issues. You know how interesting would be if Four Horsemen managed to arrive earlier and they wouldn’t know if to fight the Lich King or Sylvanas? No, Blizzard wanted to show lady Sylvanas Plotarmor.

And the worst thing is, I feel like Shadowlands are my last expansion in WoW. This is where the story ends for me. And I know that many characters won’t get resolution, many story arcs will never close because they’ve put too much effort to work on Sylvanas and ignore other characters. So many characters could have met. Lore in Shadowlands could have been expanded about The Scourge, death knights, rune magic, etc... it did not.

So no, Sylvanas is not one of the best characters created. If this is the best WoW can muster then there is nothing to be proud of. We would have good or better characters if Blizzard tried to work with more characters and give them space and a chance to develop. But we will never have them because Sylvanas took the spotlight.

Sylvanas for me is the character who will be put on guidelines on how to not use a character. This character will be perfect for DO NOT character development guidelines. And the whole story of WoW at least in BfA and Shadowlands is a great example of how to destroy the world with an amazing setting and characters.

I hope I’ve made this clear why many people hate her. Because it’s much more complex problem. This character was misused, written horribly, overused, was given a poor and cheap story arch, made look stupid and it no longer makes sense. And on top of that, many characters will never get a resolution, many storylines won’t be finished because all story was focused on her and not on the world. World which was supposed to be “everybody’s story” was made story about Sylvanas. Just because she sells.

Good job Danuser, I hope you are happy.

Tl;Dr: Sylvanas is inconsistent since Cataclysm because Blizzard tried to make her complex character artificially and failed horribly. She should have died after WotLK and never made Warchief. They should have let her go so we can remember her as a good consistent character

P.S.: I am not native speaker, sorry for grammar errors.

#Sylvanas Windrunner #World of Warcraft #wowlore #wotlk #wrath of the lich king #shadowlands #battle for azeroth #Legion #the Jailer #lich king #lore

55 notes · View notes

enigmatic-elegance · 6 years ago

Text

Let’s chat a moment.

I’m certain we all have those friends, maybe we -are- the ones, who say the game or the server is dead. And while ‘dead’ is a harsh term, I do think there is a lull. Much of that brought upon by BfA, but it’s not BfA’s fault alone. With the success of Classic and the thriving of other servers WrA is seeing an odd shift. Others have pointed it out.

I don’t know about you, but I remember RPing a few years ago. You could not walk through the Cathedral square without seeing at least 5 guild banners and people advertising their paladin groups. You could not walk through old town without guilds pouring out of buildings onto the streets. At the time, I found some reasons to find it annoying. I miss it now. And I think many people do.

So what happened? How can we fix it? Can it be fixed?

I actually genuinely think it can, but not by any one person. With the advent and height of tumblr and especially discord, people found new platforms to interact and write. Now, at its core, this is not a bad thing. And I’m guilty of both as well. But what it means is that there are less bodies in game. Instead of RPing in the city, it’s easier to RP on discord or tumblr where you can reply when time permits and set the scene better.

I get that. As I said, I do it too, but with less people feeling compelled to log in, the city feels more dead. When the city feels dead, less people feel compelled to log in because the life is gone. These people instead turn to other platforms like tumblr or discord for their RP, and we enter a cycle. A cycle where you begin to RP with the same people over and over, as much as you love them, and you’re not making new connections and stories.

This also creates an environment in which the more unkind personalities can flourish. It’s not that we have any more callout posts, toxic people, and assholes than before. They’ve always been there. It’s just now, they have platforms that extend broader than their own circle. The same platforms that allow us to share stories are the platforms that allow them to be petty and gross. Double edged sword.

So what can be done?

The solution is simple, if adhered to. I really do believe it to be so. Instead of RPing on discord and tumblr, seek to go in game. Even if you are just chatting with someone, chat with them in game. If you are writing a story, do what I do and go park on a bench somewhere. Alt tab, and write. People will whisper you if they want to RP.

This will construct a world that feels alive once more. A city that breathes with people. And it will also draw people back. It will give us all new stories and characters to write with.

And with that? We seriously need to stop giving the scummy underbelly such notice. Before all this, they were waved off as being noise. Turn them back into noise. The call out posts, the anons, the secrets, it all has no power if you just don’t pay it mind. The majority of people on the server and beyond are not those people. Those people are just the loudest right now.

If we want to see WrA begin to pull itself up, we have to put in our dues. The things we used to do. And that includes me. I used to RP so much more in the game world, and I just don’t anymore. I’ll seek to rectify that, if only to have my characters meet new faces and create new plots.

Worth a thought, at least.

#ooc

53 notes · View notes

felseekers · 6 years ago

Photo

so, over the course of the past 24ish hours, Ismirah has gone through an appearance change, a name change, and, surprising no one, she got a backstory

originally trained as a Darnassian sentinel, Miri turned out to not have even a shred of the discipline or dutiful personality needed to undertake a sentinel’s duties, and, for several hundred years, became a scourge on the seas instead--not long after Legion’s end, but before BfA, she would’ve been approached by SI:7 and offered a sort of privateer deal--she could continue to harass and attack ships, but they’d pay her to only target Horde vessels. given her prior history, her attacks couldn’t be directly linked to the Alliance war effort, but she took on a more prominent role in the conflict after Teldrassil.

#chorus plays wow #ismirah shadeweaver #i'm incapable of creating an oc and keeping them casual apparently lmao #anyway that's miri's deal now and i have 0 details but it can wait for when it's not almost 4am

7 notes · View notes

femnet · 6 years ago

Photo

*This is coming from the perspective of an American, but I believe that many things will cross over.

For the past four years, I’ve done everything I could to look amazing on a college application. I’ve known pretty much all my life that to go to college without crippling debt, I would have to pay for it with scholarships and grants. The problem with this was that my dreams were bigger than my wallet. I wanted to go to schools that were out of state and even out of the country. Some of my top choices were private, which made them even more expensive. Just before Thanksgiving break during my sophomore year, I was given a wake-up call that made me understand what I really needed to look at in my college choices.

Cost of Attendance- Is it realistic?

As I mentioned before, the biggest issue for me (and for most people) was the cost. My top choice for college was New York University, which is not only out of state but also private. I had never really looked at schools in Texas very much because I’ve always wanted to get out, but after a talk with one of my teachers during sophomore year, I realized that I needed to look closer to home and be more realistic.

It did break my heart to give up on my dreams. However, I quickly realized that there was a school for me that, as my friend once called it, is “the NYU of Texas.” The great thing about this school is that it’s both in state and public. They also give out a lot of financial aid, as I found out when my brother started applying there.

I sent in my application at the start of November 2018 and I got in immediately. They were quick to give me all the aid that I needed and by the time all of my aid goes through, I will have my first year of college fully covered.

The lesson here is that even if you think there is no other school like your top choice, sometimes you can find one that still fits your ideal school and your wallet. As ridiculous as some costs might be, there are options for those of us that aren’t well off.

Financial Aid- Are they generous?

If you’re in a similar financial situation, it’s very important that you research the aid that your top choices give out. Their website may not give a whole lot of information on exactly how much they’ll give out, so I suggest talking to some students that are going to your top choice schools currently. The best information I got about financial aid came from my brother who goes to the same school that I’ll be attending this fall.

One important factor in financial aid consideration is the standards of each school. For example, Harvard is an Ivy League school. If you barely make it into Harvard, they probably aren’t going to give you much financial aid, or at least in merit awards. However, if you also get into a public, non-Ivy school with those same grades and test scores, they are going to give you a lot because you are an above average student for their school.

I’m in the top ten percent of my school and my scores are all great. However, at some of the more prestigious school in Texas like Rice and the University of Texas, it’s unlikely that I’ll get a lot of aid because to them I’m average or below average. At the school I’ll be attending, I’m a top priority student.

Majors, Programs, & Courses- Do they have what you need?

By the time you start applying for college, you hopefully at least have majors narrowed down. While it’s not mandatory for you to know exactly what you want to study, it definitely helps and makes the application process much easier. If you have an idea of what you want to study, you need to make sure that your possible schools have what you need to be successful in that field. Here’s a list of questions you can ask to determine whether each school has the right majors and/or courses for you:

Is this an accredited institution?

If it isn’t, TAKE IT OFF YOUR LIST!

Does it have the major(s) that I’m considering?

If it doesn’t, TAKE IT OFF YOUR LIST!

Do the courses within this(these) major(s) interest me?

If they don’t, TAKE IT OFF YOUR LIST!

Are these courses relevant to my future career and will they prepare me for success?

If they don’t, TAKE IT OFF YOUR LIST!

Are there any courses you need that are missing from this school’s program(s)?

EX. If you are studying biology to go into forensic science but they don’t have forensic science classes, you may want to reconsider going to this school.

Within the major(s) I’m considering, do they have concentrations that will better prepare me for a career?

EX. I want to be a writer so I’m majoring in English with a concentration in creative writing.

Has(have) the program(s) I’m interested in won any awards from outside institutions and/or publications?

Does this school have accelerated programs for the major(s) that I’m interested in?

EX. Accelerated BBA in Accounting and MBA in Accounting program- you get both in only five years.

Do the departments that have the majors I’m interested in give out scholarships that are separate from the school?

EX. I applied for scholarships from my school but also from the English department.

If you have college credits from dual credit or AP classes, does this school accept those credits?

If it doesn’t, TAKE IT OFF YOUR LIST!

Of course, there may be other things you deem fit to ask, but this list gives you a good starting point. If you can’t find the information you need online, call, email, or visit the school. Make sure you take the time to get all of the information you need from EVERY school that you’re considering.

The Campus- Are you comfortable there?

No matter what school you choose, you’re going to be spending a lot of time on campus. It’s critical that you go and spend time on each campus so that you can get a feel for what your campus life would be like if you go there. Of course, this can be complicated depending on the location of your options.

If you’re like I was when I first started looking at colleges, it’s pretty pricy to visit some schools. While it’s not ideal to apply to a school without being able to see the campus, there are many options for you to get a look at campus life, such as the following

Watch online campus tours via the school’s website

Contact students from the schools you’re interested in and ask them about their campus experiences

Read reviews from students that include information about the campus and what it offers or doesn’t offer

If you’ll be living on campus, make sure to check out any information you can find on the various housing options and dining halls

You may be able to find other methods to get campus life information, but this is a good starting point.

If you are able to visit campuses, you may want to ask yourself these questions:

Is this campus nice to look at?

If not, TAKE IT OFF YOUR LIST!

Is this campus too big or too small for you?

If so, CONSIDER TAKING IT OFF YOUR LIST!

Are there good places to study, both outside and inside?

If you’ll be living on campus, is the available housing comfortable and convenient?

Look at the size, furniture provided, bathroom situation, suites, etc.

If not, TAKE IT OFF YOUR LIST!

What amenities do the on-campus housing options have?

EX. Full kitchen, laundry rooms, lounge, study rooms, etc.

Does this school have a student union? If so, what does it offer?

EX. A book store, restaurants, financial services office, admissions office, coffee shop, etc.)

Do the dining halls and restaurants on campus offer food that you enjoy?

If you’re vegan or vegetarian, do they have food options that fit your needs?

Does this school host many events on campus?

Ask a few students!

EX. Job fairs, concerts, sports games, etc.

Does this school have a rec center and/or gym?

Is the campus easy to navigate?

What does the parking situation look like?

Keep in mind that parking at most universities is just not great.

I’ve visited many different college campuses in Texas and I can tell you that even some schools that were well known and prestigious had campuses that I hated. When I visited Texas A&M, I was particularly let down. The campus was basically a concrete jungle. Everything was brown, gray, and maroon. There were few trees and the campus was so large that I knew I would have to run between classes, drive myself, or learn to ride a bike. The campus of the university I ended up choosing was a complete 180. The campus was beautiful- filled with trees, flowers, beautiful buildings, and definitely the perfect size. When I visited the campus for the first time, I immediately felt comfortable. I LOVE spending time there and I take every opportunity I can to go back.

Off-Campus- What is the surrounding area like?

Even though you’ll probably be spending most of your time on campus, it’s also important to check out what’s off campus. For a time, I considered going to another university because they and a full BFA Creative Writing degree program and that was exactly what I wanted. However, there was NOTHING off campus. It was pretty much a ghost town as soon as you stepped off the grounds. I compromised with my university for a BA English with a concentration in Creative Writing instead so that I could have a better college experience both on and off campus.

Here are some things you’ll want to look for off-campus:

For fun:

Cool restaurants

Cinemas

Clubs/Bars

Parks

Other cool hangout spots

For Adulting:

Banks

Book stores

Hospitals/Other medical services

Possible job opportunities

Whatever you feel is necessary

Extracurricular Activities- How can you get involved?

Being involved in clubs, organizations, and other extracurricular activities is a critical part of anyone’s college experience. Participating in these activities allows you to meet new people, gain experience that you can use in your career and personal life, and put something on your resume that shows how involved you are.

Usually, schools will have lists and descriptions of the various extracurricular activities they offer on their websites. Here you can find a link to an article about how extracurriculars can shape and improve your college experience and better prepare you for your career. It also includes examples of various extracurriculars that you can join. There’s pretty much something for everybody, no matter your interests.

Physical & Mental Health Services- Can you get the care you need?

College is a major adjustment, especially for people with physical or mental health care needs. I’ve struggled with anxiety and depression for a very long time, so I understand the concern when it comes to finding a college that has the care you need. Many schools offer health care services on campus, but they are usually hard to get into. Off-campus you’ll have to do a lot of research to see what’s available and find a location that’s convenient for you. This is much easier in bigger cities than in small towns for obvious reasons.

If you’re able to visit campuses, stop by any mental/physical health centers you can find to get more information about their services. If you can’t, check online or even call to find out more. Usually, there’s a consultation appointment first to figure out what care plan is right for you and then you’ll go from there.

If there isn’t anything on campus or you can’t get in soon, search the web to see what’s available off campus. If you’re in a mid-sized city or larger it shouldn’t be too difficult to find something that’s convenient or at least available to you. If you need to, ask students on campus where they go for the care they need. (Of course, make sure not to be too invasive when talking to them about their health.)

Disability Accommodations- Is this campus accessible?

I’ll say right off the bat that the only firsthand experience I have with disability accommodation is when I started the process of registering my cat as an ESA with my university for my anxiety. However, I do know that disability accommodation is a necessary program for any university. Most universities should have a department for disability accommodation that handles all concerns and needs of students.

When looking at a university, make sure to find out where this department is located, what they do to accommodate your specific disability/disabilities, and if anything extra is needed for you to comfortably attend classes there. If you can’t find anything about this or there genuinely is nothing like that at one of your choices, it’s probably time to knock that one off your list.

Diversity- Is the student body diverse?

As an LGBT+ student, diversity and inclusion are very important to me. Also, my goal as a writer is to write stories that give minorities and women the representation that they deserve. In this sense, diversity is relevant both to me personally and my career. When I started looking at colleges this was definitely one of the first things that I looked at. I found out that my university is one of the only schools in Texas that offers LGBT studies as an area of study. They have several programs and organizations for LGBT+ students and are very LGBT+ friendly overall. If you look at practically any major there, you’ll see that their courses are geared towards preparing students for the diverse world that we live in. Some of the other schools I looked at were the exact opposite.

Maybe you didn’t think that this was an important point to look at before, but diversity in a university opens a lot of new doors. It allows you to meet people from all backgrounds and be exposed to several new cultures.

I think this is definitely enough for y’all to get started on, so I’ll go ahead and end it here. If you have any suggestions on what I could add and/or change about this guide, please leave a comment or shoot us a message in our contact page and I’d be happy to accept them!

#college #appblr #college applications #university #majors #advice #education #health and self care #mental health #by jess #april 2019

1 note · View note

tryst-art-archive · 2 years ago

Text

Context: 2013

Ngl, I had to go through the photos in my archives to figure out what even happened in 2013. SO, we'll cover the bits that stand out.

Thesis

Leading up to my graduation, I did a senior BFA thesis for my major. For this I decided to write the first chunk of Kriamiss's story in the Khra-nicles, which was an interesting experience both from seeing how someone besides me and Deer received that narrative and from approaching my genuine interests less as "dumb thing I do" and more as "thing I am doing seriously."

I completed the thesis successfully, but the experience sadly didn't lead to me writing the whole novel.

Graduation, Working Full-time, & Recovering from Art School

Prior to graduation, I needed to figure out what I was going to do about work. Because of the Boston lease cycle, I needed to know if I was staying in my then-current apartment with Deer, Coyote, and Tiger or not. Essentially, this choice boiled down to:

Move back in with my parents while I try to get a job in "my field"--whether that field is publishing or game dev.

Continue living with my current roommates in Boston and accept Any Job That Will Pay The Rent in order to be able to do that.

I chose the second because the real difference between 1 and 2 was whether or not I would have the space to be independent, have concrete privacy, and generally not feel observed in a judgmental fashion. (This is not to say my parents are overly harsh or anything, but it's the inherent nature of being with one's parents to regress to who you were as a kid.) This was completely the correct choice for me, and you can see it in photos following my graduation: my happiness and amount of life lived increases significantly.

To put it another way: Life Got Better as soon as I was free from a system that I hated and was able to self-determine.

That isn't to say I was magically no longer depressed--I was still massively depressed--but it is to say that the depression was existing within a bevy of relationships, experiences, and joy whereas before it had been the casing around a pile of obligations and resentments.

I graduated from my college, magna cum laude I think, in May of 2013, following the removal of my wisdom teeth, and accepted a full-time position with the company that ran my school's print & copy center and mailroom. They ran those services for many of the colleges in Boston, so my new gig with them was to look after the mailroom at another college.

This mailroom was in a basement, and I ran it almost entirely by myself. During some parts of the year, there would be a student worker with me, but usually it was just me and the spiders that liked to drop out of the ceiling. While that made working in the mailroom extraordinarily boring, it all-in-all worked for me; there weren't that many people stopping by, especially in the summer, and after spending four years dragging stories out of my soul, not being asked to do anything but exist and sort mail was a relief.

I spent a lot of my time in the mailroom decompressing from art school and slowly--a little tiny bit at a time, almost cautiously--returning to the things I'd liked about making stuff to begin with.

This seems to be an almost universal experience with art school, at least among the sample space of my friends. Pretty much every single one of us who went to some kind of arts university walked away with an intense amount of baggage about Making Things--typically centered around ideas of what is the right or wrong way to make things--that we had to dismantle before we could get back to making anything, much less stuff that aligned with what we wanted to make. For some of us that meant diving into other crafts/mediums than those we'd been educated in, and for others of us it meant simply not making at all and consuming voraciously instead.

For me personally, it tended to be small bursts of creativity that would then pitter out sadly, with a lot of photos--but decreasingly art-oriented photos--filling the time between.

One added peculiarity of the mailroom job was that I weirdly kept meeting people through the mailroom. One was someone I'd gone to high school with, who delivered some of the mail and greeted me with, "...I know you" to which I said, "You do?" and looked up to realize that he was one of the three Art Kids in my class--me, him, and another girl from my friend group. This encounter didn't kick off a friendship or anything, but it was a neat moment.

The other notable one--and I don't remember exactly when this happened--was a student at the school who made small talk when stopping by to pick things up. After a bit, he asked me on a date, and I agreed from a "Well, let's see what happens" place. We went on a few dates but lacked chemistry and decided to pursue that angle no further. However, Deer and I did succeed in adding him to our wider friend group. I also got a meaningful lesson and confidence boost out of being able to try seeing something without having to commit to them either exclusively or long-term. It made saying "No"--something I still struggled with--a little bit more feasible.

Gender?

I don't remember thinking about this in an intentional way, but it's clear to me from photos that I started stripping away elements of femininity in my personal presentation one little bit at a time. In particular, I was slowly shedding things that Required Effort to sustain.

A lot of the haircuts I see from this point forward are chin-length at longest or involve some kind of half-shave or undercut. I, in fact, specifically remember getting my first half-shave/undercut was a Big Moment in that I knew my family would hate it and felt I was doing something transgressive by prioritizing what I liked and wanted over what would make sure I was left alone.

I was, for a chunk of time, still doing makeup, but I slowly decreased the amount until I was only doing eyeliner and mascara, without anything else. While I was still wearing skirts and suchlike, a lot of the photos I have aren't of me dressed and looking nice but in the lounge clothes I wore around the house but feeling like I looked good in them.

I was also putting on weight, which for me is a sign of increasing happiness and reducing depression. Depression tends to make me not eat, so when I'm consistently losing weight, it's a sign that my mental health has tanked. (This isn't an intentional thing; I just stop having an appetite and lose the will to make food.)

Fun & Games

The social environment of my apartment was, frankly, rad, and while our unit was rundown in many ways, our location within the city was fantastic. We had a lot of excellent times, and we started some key traditions like the annual Krampus Party in December.

I had a habit of falling asleep in my squeaky pink armchair while playing Skyrim, and I'd wake up horizontal across the seat of the chair and its footstool with my horse on some building's roof.

Deer and Coyote and I would often get takeout while Tiger was out, and Tiger would come home to find the three of us passed out on top of each other on the couch with a spread of takeout containers spread over the coffee table. When we woke up, we'd get right back to eating.

There was a lot of eating in general, honestly. We made and shared good food and poured a lot of of our "disposable" income into the same, whether that was high-quality ingredients, special takeout, cakes from the nice bakery on the corner, or hitting up local restaurants. One of the parties in 2013 was, I think, a "Game of Thrones" themed party where we made lavish dishes.

In this way, we became something of a social hub for the wider friend group, and we were increasingly known for our warmth and welcome.

#context #info #2013 #10s #Age 22 #living situation #college #job #healing #it gets better

1 note · View note

odemin · 8 years ago

Text

Things I did in 2017;

- Finally graduated with my BA in Indigenous Studies and Creative Writing (did a double major, could have gotten a BFA, figured a BA would open more doors)

- went to Texas to visit my sis @kartari

- went to Toronto to interview for midwifery school and c r u s h e d it

- went to LA with my honey and had lots of adventures and got to see my lunar soul mate

-went to Whistler and had a magical time with my honey

-had a v casual riding lesson for the first time in years!!

-bonded more with my academic/queer/life mentors

-got adopted by my honey’s lesbian friends

-went hiking and canoeing with my honey!!!!!

-WENT TO TOFINO with m’honey and our lesbian friends, we camped and body boarded and it was a really beautiful special time :)

-got invited to ~perform~ at the queer film fest and experienced the fest with my honey and queer mentors, another special and beautiful time :)

-GOT INTO MIDWIFERY SCHOOL????

-MOVED TO TORONTO???? On my own and LIVED on my own for the first time in me life

-Fell in love with Toronto and found a home here

-Strengthened relationships with both sides of my family and my parents, including revitalizing a friendship with a cousin that had fallen apart and setting a boundary with an auntie that was abusive

-Got adopted by my sparents :)

-STARTED MIDWIFERY SCHOOL????! And met some amazing student midwives and future colleagues, especially my Indigenous sisters. Also got all As in my first semester of midwifery school...

-crushed the first half of my anatomy and physiology course, which I took five years ago and just scraped by bc I was v severely mentally ill lmaooo. But this time I payed attention in lectures, studied better and harder and with friends, and did really well!

-made it through the first stretch of being in a long distance relationship and came out of it with an even stronger and more loving and supportive and committed relationship

-continued to understand/build/articulate my identity as a queer Anishinaabe person, as a Two Spirit woman, birth worker and midwife-in-training

-Attended two births as a doula, which isn’t really a lot for like professional doulas but they were so amazing and I learned a lot!!!

-Continued to manage my mental health without any major setbacks/relapses :) Maintained a state of wellbeing where I don’t really need professional support!

-even though I didn’t really write much this year, I read VORACIOUSLY and used my local libraries instead of buying books lmao. Also continued to build an excellent personal collection, esp. poetry

#this was a transformative year and im really happy and satisfied with everything #lots of adventures learning grounding and loving

22 notes · View notes

gascon-en-exil · 4 years ago

Note

It makes things WORSE that the Horde race to get the most positive treatment now, the Blood Elves, are the ones who don't have racial coding from real life marginalized groups & are instead based on medieval europe. Basically its one thing to go from jamaican speaking trolls, native american minotaurs & another to from jamaican speaking trolls, native american minotaurs whom are EVUL. Especially if you have the message "these savages need white people to watch over & make decisions for them."

How many good loa do you meet in Shadowlands, almost none, infact nearly all orcs, trolls & tauren are in the evil parts of shadowlands, whilst all the eurocentric races are in the Heaven parts. BFA literally had white humans unleashing a raging elemental on a Zandalar shopping distrct, killing civilians as "merciful" by the lone "noble savage who knows white master." If you invite criticism of WoW, you have to acknowledge its racist as hell implications that have gotten even worse over time.

What is it about the WoW anons I get? They’re almost invariably

1) willing to go on for multiple paragraphs about lore that by my own admission is of little personal interest to me, like back when I had one anon send me around a dozen messages about orcs and their hatred of the Mists and Warlords storylines even though I had to point out repeatedly that I barely pay attention to orc lore,

2) quick to lose the thread of conversation - for anyone following along, the above came from my remarks on a video about Sylvanas and the Forsaken and how I don’t personally identify with them even if they may map to various axes of oppression - and

3) additionally lose any sense of nuance with emotionally-charged hyperbole that’s easy to debunk but feels rather fruitless in the attempt, ex. the notion that the blood elves have ever occupied a central political or decision-making role within the Horde, or asserting that Blizzard paints the tauren as evil when I’d say they compete with the draenei and pandaren for the title of mostly blandly good playable race. As the aforementioned video points out, it’s always been the Forsaken who’ve been the token evil playable race ever since Vanilla and especially since Cata.

In any case, I haven’t spent a lot of time with Shadowlands, but on my one time leveling to max I got the distinct impression that with the possible exception of Ardenweald none of the four afterlives shown are uniformly good or evil - and while Bastion pulls from the Christian Heaven and from what I can tell a loose blend of Greco-Roman and Norse pagan elements, the most morally bankrupt and my favorite of the four, Revendreth, is essentially Catholic Purgatory overlaid with European vampire lore. I can more easily see BFA as having racist/colonialist implications than Shadowlands.

That just circles back to one of the points of my last response, that you’ve apparently elected to ignore: if this is the sort of thing that matters to you, then it seems to me that either you can lean into the marginalized members of the Horde for identity or you can consider the game as a whole too dependent on questionable stereotypes to play at all. Either way I’m not sure why you’re talking to me about it - see points 1-3 above.

#World of Warcraft #WoW

0 notes

theonewithfriendsforever · 6 years ago

Text

The Ones with The Cast

Ben Geller; (May 11, 1995; 24yo)

Family:

Parents; Carol and Susan Willick-Bunch; Ross Geller and Rachel Geller-Greene

Siblings; Emma Geller-Greene (17); Teddy Geller-Greene (15); Skylar Willick-Bunch (12); Lola Geller-Greene (11)

Grandparents; Jack and Judy Geller; George (d. 2010) and Adelaide Willick

Godfather; Chandler Bing

Education:

BFA Film and Television; NYU Tisch

Currently pursuing a Masters in Cinema Studies at NYU Tisch

Current Residence:

495 Grove Street Apt. 19, West Village, Manhattan, NY

Roommates: Leslie Buffay (21); Max Boscarino (19)

Occupation:

Student (NYU Tisch);

Server at Otto’s Delicatessen (West Village).

History:

Moved to Connecticut at the age of 12 after his mothers friends convinced them it was a better place to raise their two children.

Wanting another child, his mothers made the decision to use a sperm donor when he was 11. Susan was pregnant with Skylar when they moved to Connecticut.

Ben came to visit his father every other weekend after their move, for every major holiday, Jewish and Secular, and for a month in the summer.

After his father and step-mother, Rachel, moved to Paris when he was 13, he spent two months in the summer with them, as well as spring break.

When they moved back 2 years later, they resumed the former visitation schedule.

Ben was very close to Emma and Teddy while they were growing up, but once he went off to college, they drifted apart a bit. He’s not as close to Lola as he was to his other siblings, but he’s trying to change that now, even though they live upstate.

Ben became obsessed with cinema after his Uncle Joey became the lead in a blockbuster film trilogy. As a grown up, he’s become more of a cinephile, and refuses to engage in any sort of cinema that could be considered blockbuster, or mainstream.

Despite that, his girlfriend, Leslie Buffay, loves action films, superhero franchises, and the occasional Rom Com, much to his dismay. He accompanies her when she can’t find a girlfriend to go with her, but he hates every second of it, on purpose. In return, she goes with him to his foreign films, independent films, and art house movies, despite very rarely enjoying them herself.

Ben grew up seeing Leslie at “family friend nights”, which became a tradition once Ross and Rachel moved back from France. She wasn’t always there, but in her teen years, she and Chandler would come nearly every time. Leslie decided to attend NYU her first year of college, but dropped out to become what she called an “independent student of the world”.

When Ben found out she had become a willing couch surfing homeless person, he invited her to come stay at his place with his three roommates. They began dating shortly after that, keeping it a secret from the family for well over a year.

After Ben graduated from Tisch with his Bachelors, he took the offer from Uncle Joey to move into the apartment he was subletting. Joey had lived there with Uncle Chandler while he was a struggling actor, and when he’d moved to LA had sublet it instead of letting it go, as he was too attached to it, and his chick and duck were living there. Ben lucked out when the people who had been living there were moving out, and jumped at the offer.

The chick and the duck no longer live there. They retired to a farm a few years ago.

This meant needing roommates, so he finally came clean to his father, and extended family, about his relationship with Leslie. There were mixed feelings about this, mostly because she had no direction in her life (his father’s words), and because Ben had no future prospects (her mother’s words). Leslie moved in, anyway, taking a job at the Starbucks downstairs, and they put an ad in the paper for a third roommate.

After countless roommates moved in, and out, thanks to the struggling job market, they now have a new roommate, Max, who seems to be fitting in quite nicely. Despite his age, Max has a great job in the tech industry, having graduated from high school at 14, and finished college at 18.

Ben wants a job in television more than anything, which seems counter intuitive to his film snobbery, and while he has the full support of his mothers, his father is resistant. Still, Ross helps pay for Ben’s college, not wanting him to be in debt once he graduates, in exchange for Ben’s promise he’ll get a “real job” for four years after he graduates, to help pay him back.

Because of this, Ben intends to get his doctorate in cinema, just to prove his father wrong about the worth of his field of study. If his father can “worship dinosaurs”, Ben can put his faith in his passion as well.

His mothers help him with rent, but he works at Otto’s deli to make money for his other necessities. Ben hates that he goes home with hands that smell like ham and pickles, but Leslie says it turns her on, so he doesn’t feel too bad about it.

Face claim: Cole Sprouse

0 notes

thisisheavynews · 6 years ago

Text

ROMEO AND JULIET Featuring Indie Rock Band The Family Crest

The Family Crest, The Den Theatre and Jacaranda Collective are happy to current the Chicago premiere of ROMEO AND JULIET: A Spectacular Retelling of The World’s Greatest Love Story, Shakespeare’s timeless story cinematically reimagined utilizing stay music carried out by indie rock darlings and NPR music favorites The Family Crest, whose distinctive and sweeping orchestral sound completely scores essentially the most well-known love story ever advised.

The solid consists of Alex Quiñones (Romeo), Halie Robinson (Juliet), Bailey Savage (Benvolio), Kade Cox(Mercutio), Dan Lin (Tybalt), Susan Fay (Nurse), Jess Ford (Friar Laurence), Terence Sims (Capulet), Ashlea Woodley (Lady Capulet), Gaby Labotka (Prince), Julie Brannen (Dancer), De’jah Jervai (Lady Montague, Dancer), Michael Gee (Montague, Dancer) and Manisha Mahaldar (Dancer).

Directed by Sam Bianchini with choreography by Julie Brannen, this progressive mixture of actors, dancers and stay music by The Family Crest will play a restricted three-show engagement from November 7 – 9, 2019 on The Den Theatre’s Heath Main Stage, 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago. Tickets are at the moment accessible at www.thedentheatre.com, in particular person on the The Den field workplace or by calling (773) 697-3830.

Somewhere between a rock live performance and a basic Shakespearean play, ROMEO AND JULIET finds new life by enigmatic staging, partaking choreography and an emotionally expressive soundtrack. Treated as get together friends, the viewers is dropped into the center of this sensational epic in an immersive evening that seems like a music video come to life.

The night options favourite hits from The Family Crest, (a few of which may be heard of their iconic Tiny Desk live performance), mixed with never-before-heard tracks from their upcoming album, The War: Act II, which debuts in 2020. The grandiose, symphonic sounds of those classically educated musicians gives the inspiring soundtrack to the acquainted story and paints the image prefer it’s by no means been seen earlier than.

The collaboration between The Family Crest, The Den Theatre and Jacaranda Collective creates an excellent recipe for a particular occasion. They welcome you to hitch this unforgettable expertise.

Pictured: Kade Cox (Mercutio) in a publicity picture for The Family Crest, The Den Theatre and Jacaranda Collective’s world premiere of ROMEO AND JULIET: A Spectacular Retelling of The World’s Greatest Love Story. of Photo by Audrey Palumbo.

The manufacturing staff up to now consists of Emily Smith (scenic design), Alon Slotter (lighting design), Gaby Labotka (battle choreography) and Amanda Jean Grissom (stage supervisor).

PRODUCTION DETAILS:

Dates: Thursday, November 7, Friday, November eight and Saturday, November 9

Times: Doors open at 9 pm; present at 10pm

Tickets: $33. A restricted variety of VIP tickets can be found for $60 (VIP Tickets embrace premium mezzanine desk seats, a digital album of The Family Crest music from the present, together with three new tracks off the not-yet-released TheWar Part II, and a signed collectible poster). Tickets are at the moment accessible at www.thedentheatre.com, in particular person on the The Den field workplace or by calling (773) 697-3830.

Pictured: (left to proper) Ashlea Woodley (Lady Capulet) and Terence Sims (Capulet) in a publicity picture for The Family Crest, The Den Theatre and Jacaranda Collective’s world premiere of ROMEO AND JULIET: A Spectacular

About The Artists

The Family Crest (Music) The brainchild of composer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Liam McCormick, orchestral indie rock band The Family Crest was began as a recording undertaking in 2009 with co-founder John Seeterlin (bass) as a last launch earlier than bowing out of the business. Instead of leaving music, they had been impressed by their friends to got down to reinvent how a band could possibly be created, beginning The Family Crest with an audacious and daring imaginative and prescient of cultivating a musical group. “We always liked making music with people – getting a bunch of people together and singing. So we put ads everywhere,” says McCormick. “We posted on Craigslist, distributed flyers, and emailed old friends from school.” The consequence was higher than the unique duo imagined, with over 80 folks credited on their first recording and over 500 musicians credited all through their catalog.

Beyond the core band of McCormick and Seeterlin, Anthony Franceschi (drums), Laura Bergmann (flute, piano, percussion, vocals), Owen Sutter (violin) and George Samaan (trombone), over 500 “Extended Family” members take part on recordings, stay reveals and throughout the creative spectrum. Known for his or her jaw-dropping stay performances, The Family Crest has toured extensively domestically and internationally, garnering the assist of followers and the press alike. Bob Boilen of NPR’s “All Songs Considered” mentioned of The Family Crest, “Seeing is believing. Liam McCormick is a knockout singer, you simply must hear him live… There’s a decent chance you’re about to discover your favorite new band.”

The Family Crest has launched three full-length albums and three EPs, together with their critically-acclaimed breakout Beneath the Brine, which SPIN journal known as, “…a masterfully arranged epic… sharp strings, galloping percussion, and an ambition wide enough to swallow you whole.” Most lately, the band has been releasing items of their present musical idea album collection, The War. “The War represents the next version of The Family Crest,” says McCormick, and certainly, the album reveals a band extra in tune with its personal large-scale Baroque eclecticism. Jim Vorel of Paste Magazine described their first providing, The War: Prelude to War, as “A sound so big, it feels like it could collapse in on itself at any moment to form a black hole… One thing is certain: These guys are just as explosive as ever, and these songs are going to bring the house down in a live setting.” The War: Act I, the second installment within the idea collection led to comparable sentiments as EARMILK said, “The Family Crest deliver complex arrangements with such confidence that each varying sound produced is done with effortless intent and is never perceived as an afterthought… a stunning explosion of color and emotion and just another reason why I’m continually captivated by this group.” They are at the moment slated to launch the following chapter within the collection, The War: Act II in 2020.

Sam Bianchini (Director) is a director, actress, author and producer who has labored in LA, NYC and Chicago on each the stage and display. She started her skilled profession within the storefront Chicago theatre scene at 17, whereas acquiring her BFA in Acting from Roosevelt University’s CCPA, which formed her creative voice and provocative, clever and heartrending fashion. She went on to obtain her MFA in Acting from UCLA. Since then, Sam has been writing, appearing and producing immersive and awe-inspiring items of theatre and movie. A meticulous eye, consideration to rhythm, and musicality of emotion are essential staples of her distinctive route. Recently relocating residence to Chicago, Bianchini’s achieved voice and daring imaginative and prescient carry recent concepts and electrifying storytelling to the Chicago Theatre scene. Select West Coast credit: Romeo and Juliet (LA and SF), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Cherry Orchard, Down within the Face of God and Talking Blues (director). Select Chicago Credits: An Ideal Husband, Crumbs from the Table of Joy, The Nebraska Project, My Name is Rachel Corrie (director) and Mad Like Us (director). TV/Film: Chicago Fire, The Next Big Thing (movie), Lost Angeles (author). www.sambianchini.com

Pictured: Dan Lin (Tybalt) in a publicity picture for The Family Crest, The Den Theatre and Jacaranda Collective’s world premiere of ROMEO AND JULIET: A Spectacular Retelling of The World’s Greatest Love Story. of Photo by Audrey Palumbo.

About The Companies

Artistic Director Ryan Martin opened The Den Theatre in 2010 with a single theatre area. Seven years later, The Den boasts 5 intimate and distinctive theaters on two flooring starting from 50 – 200 seats, in addition to two further areas primarily used for courses and rehearsals. The Den can be outfitted with two bars enveloped by a endless discipline of lounge area for audiences and like-minded tradition hounds to drink, speak, learn, watch, assume, pay attention and stay. The Den is residence to 5 resident theatre firms together with First Floor Theater, Haven Theatre Company, The New Colony, Broken Nose Theatre and Firebrand Theatre. Hundreds of different firms from Chicago and past have additionally known as The Den residence, using its theaters, studio area and simply convertible cabaret area to accommodate a stream of programming, together with performs, musicals, movie screenings, classical and jazz performances, dance, improv and stand-up, seminars and talking engagements. For further data, go to www.thedentheatre.com.

Jacaranda Collective is a multi-media manufacturing firm shaped upon the precept of making artwork to discover each the battle and the great thing about existence, with out claiming one Truth. Just because the Moon isn’t seen in full, we acknowledge and rejoice all phases of Life, whereas permitting the viewers a secure area to navigate their very own private panorama. At Jacaranda, we aspire to encourage your perception in magic, and your potential to create it.

Jacaranda Collective burst onto the Chicago theatre scene earlier this spring with their knockout manufacturing of My Name is Rachel Corrie, produced at The Den Theatre. The firm arrives as a passionate and provocative addition to Chicago’s storefront phases. Spearheaded by creative director Sam Bianchini and affiliate creative director Halie Robinson, Jacaranda combines huge, energetic imaginative and prescient and placing storytelling with precision and care. Bianchini and Robinson got down to make theatre that could be a present to the viewers. For further data, go to www.jacarandacollective.com.

Pictured: Bailey Savage (Benvolio) in a publicity picture for The Family Crest, The Den Theatre and Jacaranda Collective’s world premiere of ROMEO AND JULIET: A Spectacular Retelling of The World’s Greatest Love Story. of Photo by Audrey Palumbo.

from Heavy News https://thisisheavynews.com/romeo-and-juliet-featuring-indie-rock-band-the-family-crest/

0 notes

complexmagrparchive · 8 years ago

Photo

DREAM IN WAVES

NAME › Byun Juwon D.O.B. › 09 09 1995 (21) OCCUPATION › Design Assistant at Complex/ Student INSTA › @bynjwn

content warning: allusions to attempted suicide

PORTFOLIO

Byun Juwon

Seoul / [email protected]

Summary: I wasted two years of my life, slaving away as a computer engineering major when I always wanted to pursue design instead, because my deadbeat father (who is the greatest asshole known to man) wanted me to do it. But guess what! He’s in goddamn prison on the other side of the world! So he can kiss my

Summary: I need this internship or I will die.

Summary: Energetic and passionate college student seeking position of assistant designer.

Education: Working toward BFA in visual communication design at Hongik University.

Work Experience

IT technician intern at ChilDesign, October 2013 - December 2014

Design intern at Polygon Studios, May 2015 - August 2015

Design intern at 010 Design Studio, December 2015 - May 2016

Assistant designer at 010 Design Studio, June 2016 - January 2017

Additional Skills

In-depth knowledge of design software (Photoshop, InDesign)

In-depth knowledge of Wacom tablets and related software

English: Advanced proficiency

Portfolio available online @ ello.co/byunjuwon

DETAILS

As far as Juwon knows, he doesn’t have a mother. There isn’t a trace of anyone remotely feminine in the house until he’s five, when his father realizes it’s easier to get a girl into his bed after showing off his poor, motherless son.

Naturally, they don’t get along.

He’s a brilliant student, the kid with the biggest house and the good-looking daddy. His extracurriculars stack up to the point of teetering, but he manages to pull it all together in his little hands; he’s pushed more toward English (“It’s a life skill.”) and pulled away from art (“Useless to a man.”).

It’s around his second year of high school when he realizes his father’s fragile masculinity hasn’t transferred over to him yet, but he’s got a penchant for rejecting everything about the guy’s personality by then.

This is where the cliché comes in: if you don’t do what daddy says, you’re free to hit the streets.

For a while, computers aren’t that bad. There are too many pieces and he spends too many hours untangling wires with a headache pounding against the inside of his skull, but he’s good enough at what’s expected of him.

He regrets every instance where he thought it “wasn’t that bad.”

The internship lasts a short three months, but it’s all the time he needs. And when his father lands himself a three-year prison sentence, he takes it as a sign to give his old man the big ‘fuck you’.

There aren’t many folks who are forgiving of a twenty-year-old abandoning a chance at a stable career for something as volatile and evanescent as an interest in the arts. (And they say it just like that; fancy language adds a special aesthetic to rejection.)

At his last interview, they say he has quite the personality. He tells them they don’t know the half of it and figures that laughter is a good enough sign. (Spoiler alert: it is.)

Layer 1. Rename: Son of Byun Goong.

His nanny’s from Hong Kong and converses strictly in English with him and his father. The Busan dialect is too difficult for her to understand. She’s been told to keep him in her room should his father ever have guests over, which is often. They’re all women, a string of them who are at most a decade younger than his father; they all begin to blur together to a boy of five, disinterested in the many affairs of his parent. In hindsight, it would’ve been incredibly dangerous to desensitize a boy to sex and infidelity at such a young age. Then again, that boy would have needed to pay attention in the first place to become sensitive at all. Perhaps that’s where it went wrong.

Layer 2. Rename: First Place of Class 3-B.

He remembers his homeroom teacher’s voice being shrill and quite annoying. There were plenty of trouble-makers in his class, kids who dusted off the chalkboard eraser on each other’s cheeks and thought it’d be funny to take turns pissing out their classroom’s third story window. Maybe it wasn’t such a feat to be first place in a class like that, but it still created an illusion that he was most likely to become the next CEO of Samsung, the president, the highly esteemed owner of the arcade down the street. And there’s another thing that went awry early in his life. Expectations never mixed well with kids like him.

Layer Mask. Rename: Gifted Kid Burnout.

That’s what his cousin, Alex, says he’s going to end up being. He’s seventeen, in a permanent state of back-to-back existential crises, and can’t wait to experience his first hangover. Alex is a couple years older, halfway through his bachelor’s degree in computer science, an embodiment of his possible future. When he pulls a confused face, Alex bemoans the state of English education by private tutors before delving into the highly sensationalized story of “super senior” Bradley. Super Senior Bradley had been the star quarterback at Alex’s high school as a sophomore (“Completely unheard of!”) and had had a girlfriend at least three years older than him (“Hot! Sexy! Incredible!”). The idyllic life in the eyes of teenage boys had been all but tossed onto the table in front of him, but Super Senior Bradley hadn’t taken the bone. “It was like the lights went out in him one day,” Alex says gravely. “He lost everything, but he didn’t care. No one was home in him to care.” He hated that he understood.

Layer 3. Rename: Computers.

Dear Dad, College sucks and I am killing myself tonight. I blame you. Love, Juwon

(Layer has been deleted.)

Layer 4. Rename: Midlife Crisis.

His advisor says he’s too young to be having one. She “strongly disapproves” of his decision to change majors, which he’s pretty sure she isn’t supposed to say out loud, to his face, as per the Official Advisors’ Code of Conduct. He asks why, which is a mistake. She says he won’t make it out of this alive.

Layer 5. Rename: Wait.

He lands a job, which is a surprise in itself. There’s a recklessness to the way he lives now, freed from the weight of his father’s expectations. He doesn’t think half as long about what he says, nor does he worry so much about how he’s holding up in his classes. Maybe he’s burned out like Alex had told him he would, but it still feels like he’s doing cartwheels through blazings rings of fire. Maybe it’s the frequency at which he tells himself that he’s going to die tomorrow, going to die tomorrow, going to die tomorrow. Whatever it is, he’s done thinking about it. When he walks into the company building on his first day of work, he doesn’t feel nervous at all. “Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life.”

(Layers have been merged.)

(File has been saved as: Byun Juwon.)

#cx:accepted #park jimin #jimin #bts jimin

4 notes · View notes

toldnews-blog · 6 years ago

Photo

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/world/anna-delvey-the-trial-of-new-yorks-fake-heiress/

Anna Delvey: The trial of New York's fake heiress

Image copyright BFA

Just how far can you get in the New York City socialite scene without a real fortune of your own?

Incredibly far, in the case of Anna Delvey – real name Anna Sorokin – who allegedly tricked the city’s elite into thinking she was a billionaire heiress. She reportedly hired a private jet, went to all the best parties, and threw cash at everyone she saw – a $100 (£78) tip if you carried her bag or were her Uber driver.

Yet, ultimately, her time at the top was short-lived. And it unravelled spectacularly.

In real life, Ms Sorokin had no multi-million-dollar trust fund. According to New York Magazine, her father is a former trucker, who runs a heating-and-cooling business.

After her credit cards began to fail – repeatedly – and she was kicked out of the luxury hotels she lived in, other people were left to pick up the extortionate bills, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.

Following a month-long trial, Ms Sorokin has now been found guilty of multiple offences, including stealing more than $200,000 – after racking up debts and fraudulently trying to secure major bank loans.

“As proven at trial, Anna Sorokin committed real white-collar felonies over the course of her lengthy masquerade,” District Attorney Cyrus Vance said in a statement announcing the conviction.

Ms Sorokin, who chose not to testify and pleaded not guilty, now faces up to 15 years in prison and will be sentenced on 9 May.

So how did this woman in her mid-20s allegedly cause financial chaos across a city, leaving people picking up her tabs in the US and beyond?

‘Faking it’

Anna Delvey came to New York City on a mission. At least that is what she told people.

She wanted to start an arts centre, with a chic Soho House ethos. She was considering calling it the Anna Delvey Foundation, according to New York Magazine, and she claimed to have lined up renowned artist Christo for the inauguration. For the venue, she had her eye on a six-floor space – 45,000 sq ft (4,200 sq m) – in Church Missions House, a prestigious, late 19th Century building, on the corner of Park Avenue and 22nd Street.

There is a certain lifestyle that goes with such bold claims – and she was living it.

Jered Threatin: The fake rock star

Fyre: the world’s biggest festival flop

Speaking at the trial’s opening, defence lawyer Todd Spodek said: “Anna had to fake it until she could make it.”

He told jurors that Ms Sorokin was “easily seduced by glamour and glitz” when she saw how wealth – or the illusion of wealth – opened doors.

Image copyright Getty Images

Image caption Anna Sorokin (right), then known as Anna Delvey, at a fashion event at a New York hotel in 2014

According to court documents, Ms Sorokin represented herself as a German heiress with $60m in assets to try to get a loan of $20m for her foundation. She allegedly presented forged bank statements and would also deposit bad cheques, then withdraw the money before they bounced.

Prosecutors said that, while she never managed to secure millions, she did get a temporary $100,000 overdraft with City National Bank – based on forged proof of foreign assets – but she failed to repay it with a wire transfer, as promised.

Instead, they say, she went on a one-month shopping spree, spending $55,000 on “her upkeep at 11 Howard (a luxury hotel), high-end fashion purchases from Net-a-Porter and Forward by Elyse Walker, sessions with a personal trainer, Apple, and other personal expenses”.

Her lawyer said she never intended to commit a crime.

“In her world, this is what her social circle did,” he told the jury. “Everyone’s life was perfectly curated for social media. People were fake. People were phoney. And money was made on hype alone.”

How it unfolded

“Wannabe socialite busted for skipping out on pricey hotel bills”, read a July 2017 headline in the New York Post.

This was followed, in April 2018, by a confessional first-person piece in Vanity Fair by one of the magazine’s photojournalists, saying she had been hoodwinked by Ms Sorokin.

Rachel DeLoache Williams became a key witness in the trial. “I wish I had never met Anna,” she said in the courtroom during a tear-soaked testimony.

She said she had met her at Manhattan nightclub Happy Ending. She said Ms Sorokin held court with tales of her proposed arts foundation and then picked up the tab for a bottle of vodka.

They became friends. Ms Williams wrote in her article about being seduced by the apparent “glamorous, frictionless” lifestyle. She enjoyed going out for espresso martinis and fancy dinners. Anna usually paid, referring to her trust fund, and this culminated in her inviting Ms Williams on a trip to Morocco.

Ms Williams wrote: “Anna also invited her personal trainer, along with a friend of mine – a photographer – whom, at a dinner the week before our trip, Anna had asked to come as a documentarian, someone to capture video.”

Getty Images

Anna’s was a beautiful dream of New York, like one of those nights that never seems to end. And then the bill arrives.

The photo editor was a key witness in the trial. One of the counts of larceny was directly linked to her experiences.

She told how Ms Sorokin asked her to reserve a luxury, $7,000-per-night riad in Marrakesh, complete with three bedrooms, a private swimming pool and a dedicated butler.

She said it was always intended that Ms Sorokin would pay the bill, but when they came to check out, her credit cards did not work.

Put on the spot, Ms Williams ended up footing the bill for the entire trip, which, including extras, came to approximately $62,000 for a six-night stay. Sorokin was acquitted of the charge related to that bill.

The photojournalist said she was left in tears and suffering regular panic attacks, consumed by the stress of trying to retrieve the money.

“It was a magic trick,” she wrote at the conclusion of her story. “I’m embarrassed to say that I was one of the props, and the audience, too. Anna’s was a beautiful dream of New York, like one of those nights that never seems to end. And then the bill arrives.”

Though Ms Williams’ magazine article had had people talking, it was an an article in New York Magazine in May 2018, by journalist Jessica Pressler, that really blew the lid on the scandal. She interviewed various people who had come across Ms Sorokin, including a concierge, Neffatari “Neff” Davis, also in her mid-20s, who worked at the 11 Howard hotel.

Ms Davis said Ms Sorokin arrived at the newly opened Soho hotel like a whirlwind in April 2017, block-booking a deluxe room (around $400 a night). Gestures, such as allegedly paying a personal trainer $4,500 in a cash advance, gave the impression she was wallowing in money. She also spent an inordinate amount of time at the concierge desk, said Ms Davis.

“Usually tourists just come in and ask how to get to the Statue of Liberty,” Ms Davis later told New York art and fashion magazine Paper. “But then, you have this girl who’s draped in Rick Owens, huge Céline glasses, messy hair, European accent, hundreds of dollars of bills on her and she’s literally just giving it to me, for my time?” She said she was used to being a makeshift therapist for guests travelling on their own. “It’s really none of my business where the money comes from,” she said.

But somewhere along the line, 11 Howard had made an apparent error of judgement. Staff had not got a credit card on file for Ms Sorokin. A major dispute broke out, according to Ms Davis.

However – perhaps surprisingly – Ms Sorokin did eventually settle that debt. She used the money from the City Bank overdraft.

In court, her lawyer said that his client “believed that she would have the funds to pay every single person back”. This was the crux of her case.

But jurors were not convinced.

An age-old ruse in a modern world

Many people have said this whole story is so specific to New York’s young socialites; how some people move in circles where they don’t know their friends’ surnames or background; how what matters most is the night out, the connections, the name-drops, the moment.

Ms Sorokin’s lawyer was keen to play into this. “Any millennial will tell you, it is not uncommon to have delusions of grandeur,” he said in court.

But writer and psychologist Maria Konnikova, the author of The Confidence Game – a book about con artistry – believes the case is full of elements that are both timeless and universal. “People love to think they are idiosyncratic, but this has happened over and over and over again, everywhere. Anna Delvey fit the New York scene, but this could have happened in London and even in a small town, if certain things were adapted.”

“Claiming to have an aristocratic edge is something that has been done for hundreds of years,” she says. “In the past, people would take out newspaper adverts, or befriend gossip columnists, or get photographed with the right people to bolster their credibility.”

But social media has made it easier, she concedes. “The barrier of entry is so much lower. We accept so much at face value, and we put so much out there.” Theoretically you should be able to vet people better, she says, but people are not being savvy.

Ms Sorokin was an active Instagram user, building a profile that made her look like a mover on the arts scene.

An arts story

Eileen Kinsella has been covering the story from the courtroom for New York-based art market website, Artnet.

She says it has made the art world sit up because there are always concerns about being duped. “You often don’t know who is on the other side of a transaction, and people do buy things they can’t afford,” she says.

She also says the city has been on a particularly high alert since a 2012 exposé of one of its most-established galleries – Knoedler – was exposed for selling fake works, supposedly by the likes of Jason Pollock and Mark Rothko. “People went to incredible lengths to make things seem authentic. It had huge implications.”

One of her Artnet colleagues, critic Ben Davis, also wrote a piece analysing the art content of Ms Sorokin’s Instagram account, noting her use of familiar hashtags, and posting works from major events: Frieze, Art Basel, the Venice Biennale and the openings at Pace Gallery.

It was, he concluded, a “thin tissue of celebrity and scene-y artists”. However, he added that the envy generated by social media has become a kind of currency of its own, and she had managed to create “crisply curated fabulousness”.

The ongoing season of scammers

The New York Magazine story about Ms Sorokin’s ruse was almost instantly optioned by Netflix, and linked with producer Shonda Rimes (Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal).

Ms Williams’ story is being adapted for HBO, with writer Lena Dunham working on the screenplay. Ms Williams has also signed a book deal with Simon and Schuster.

People have been captivated by the idea of Ms Sorokin’s apparent audacity, and yet also left with so many questions: Why? What was the end game? Where did she come from? How come no-one guessed sooner? (Some have said that her unkempt hair should have been a giveaway. People who live in hotels have time on their hands for daily blow-dries. In court, Ms Williams said there were, in hindsight, plenty of “red flags”.)

There were rumours that Jennifer Lawrence might take the title role in the adaptation, however, the Oscar winner was then signed up to play up another so-called “millennial scammer” – Elizabeth Holmes, the deep-voiced entrepreneur who fraudulently built up the Silicon Valley company, Theranos.

Ms Holmes’ story has become the subject of various documentaries and podcasts. As has that of Billy McFarland, who created the infamous and completely hollow Fyre Festival. Both characters have been the subject of hit documentaries.

Image copyright Patrick McMullan

Image caption Billy McFarland (R) with former Fyre Festival employee Andy King, who became a memorable character in the Netflix documentary

TV critic Scott Bryan, who co-hosts BBC Must Watch, says such documentaries have become huge hits because they explore social media stories in such depth.

“The documentary that followed then provided a great amount of context and insight into how it all spiralled out of control and viewers learnt so much more than what they did from the original news story, when they initially thought that they weren’t going to do so. When these documentaries are done well, they can be equally, if not more compelling, than when we heard the story first time round,” he says.

Theranos founder in $700m fraud charge

Celebrity parents and the bizarre ‘cheating’ scandal

In the case of Ms Sorokin, some already view her as a sort of antihero. They admire her for gaming a system that few people will ever have access to.

Last summer, T-shirts saying Free Anna Delvey became the ironic must-have for Brooklynites. New York Magazine – via its website The Cut – also also saw an opportunity to profit off the story it had made viral and added a range of slogan tees to its online shop: “Fake German Heiress”; “My other shirt will wire you $30,000”.

Marie Claire magazine also explored the outpouring of enthusiasm for the story. “No-one died as a result of her actions, she just made rich people look like idiots,” it said. However, it also recognised the story’s alleged victims, notably Ms Williams.

A trial as a fashion show

Anna Sorokin was held in New York’s notoriously tough Rikers Island jail ahead of her trial.

Image copyright AFP

Since her detention, she has not been Instagramming from the inside, according to jail officials. After her detention, one of her posts was tagged with a Rikers location (“Throwback Thursday to @LeCouCou_NYC”), but the authorities say someone else must be managing the account.

She appears, however, to still be curating her image. She reportedly told Ms Davis – who remains a friend – that she would prefer if Margot Robbie played her in the Netflix production.

And she also worked with a stylist, Anastasia Walker, to get her courtroom look during the trial.

She arrived in the court room on the first day dressed in stylish black glasses and a matching choker, and went on to parade a number of other designer outfits: Saint Laurent, Michael Kors, Victoria Beckham.

Ms Walker told Elle magazine the look was “mysterious chic“. It won plenty of headlines.

One day, the proceedings were delayed because of wardrobe troubles and Justice Diane Kiesel gave her a verbal dressing down. “This is unacceptable and inappropriate,” she said. “This is not a fashion show.”

Yet multiple media outlets pulled together galleries of her in-court fashion, and an Instagram account (@annadelveycourtlooks) has picked up a few thousand followers.

Ultimately her lawyer, Todd Spodek, was keen to paint this as New York story, referencing the Frank Sinatra song in his opening and closing statements.

“In a city that favours money and the appearance of money… they both created their own opportunities,” he said.

“She was creating a business that she believed would work and she was buying time,” he argued.

Anna Sorokin was a part of it. But not for long.

Guilty of multiple crimes

She was found guilty on Thursday of four counts of theft of services, three counts of grand larceny and one count of attempted grand larceny, and acquitted of one count of grand larceny and one count of attempted grand larceny.

She also declined a plea deal, which could have resulted in a more lenient sentence if she agreed to return to Germany, where she lived after the age of 16, having been born in Russia.

She now faces deportation to Germany because she has overstayed her visa.

0 notes

annanicole2004-blog · 8 years ago

Text

yeah i think im gonna start using this dead website mostly for journaling purposes and having a place to put my thoughts on a public forum (as public as my literally 4 mutual followers is) i know that theres a private setting but the fact that anyone can see and maybe relate to what i post is somewhat comforting to me and maybe it will be for them too who knows

i asked for donations on facebook today. I shouldn’t feel bad but i do. everyone is struggling, everyone knows college is expensive and life is expensive. I like being independent and paying my own way, and I don’t really like asking for help with money things. I like having my own money but I also like having the time/energy to pass all my classes. Its a frustrating balance. I got about $30 so far from friends. I shouldn’t feel guilty because I know the world ought to be kinder and everyone struggles from time to time, and I wouldn’t hesitate to give a friend a little extra money if they needed it. I don’t think I really want to be dead, but I do think about not being born a lot. I think about things ive bought that I don’t really need. Times I went out instead of finishing something for a class. I wish I were more responsible, less impulsive, less scatter brained. I wish I didn’t feel like I was moving in slow motion all the time. I wish I didn’t sit in restaurants spacing out for hours at a time because i cant tune out the static in my head. People are very patient with me and I want to be better. I’m a shitty communicator and I have low self esteem and most of the time I can’t really seem to get much work done. Dealing with me is probably the most frustrating thing. I’ve got a lot of great ideas and potential and if I could pull it together I could be a really successful person. I think things will be better once I graduate, but also a lot of opportunities will no longer be there once I’m feeling more focused/less emotionally vulnerable and that makes me kind of sad. I try not to be hard on myself for taking 6 years to graduate bc ive spent enough time torturing myself as it is. Its wasted mental energy. I could be spending that energy thinking of ideas for projects. I can’t give power to these thoughts that I have.

I wish I could forget I ever met This One Person who im going to refer to as Person bc this is th’internet. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind all of their toxic shit out of my brain. I hate that I dwell on it so much but a lot of things just were so messy and it was never resolved, and I feel like I can’t talk about it with people without them getting tired of it. Person was a sexual predator and i thought they cared for me but it was a manipulation tactic and that’s what i need to get thru my self destructive triflin ass brain. I like to see the good in people and I put my trust in people I shouldn’t. I guess maybe now I know better....right? I used to think my vulnerability was a good thing but now im not sure. I wonder if I’m just weak. Everyone loves a bad bitch who never catches feelings. Nobody wants to see her cry. I wish I was like her too. I wish I didn’t have fantasies of hitting Person with my car.

I can’t think about sex without wanting to cry anymore. I masturbate to memories of sex with Person, and I feel so pathetic. I knew I liked them but I didn’t know what to do with those feelings. I dont think I even want a relationship? im so confused.... I was hurt when they didnt have the same feelings, but wanted to fuck me ??? I felt like a hole. They were on top of me telling me how damaged they were from catching feelings for another girl, like could you maybe wait until u aren’t inside me?????? asshole !!!!!!!!!!!maybe casual sex just isnt my thing and i should stop trying to pretend it is. I was so angry and confused and I think for valid reasons but idk. i was so desperate and pathetic. idk whats wrong with my brain. Im so confused. I wish I was more free with my sexuality, but I can’t remember the last time I felt good about sex. When I used sex as self harm I literally fucked strangers just so I could feel wanted. I wasn’t even attracted to most of them, and the sex was often terrible. It was boring !!! But I felt like that’s what I deserved. I deserved whatever stds I got from fucking random strangers from craigslist. It sounds horrible when I type it out but that’s the truth. I don’t know where I got such bad self-esteem. I look outside myself and I know its holding me back but I don’t know how to stop it. I think its bc I’m still so dependent on my worth as a person being determined by my attractiveness to ppl. I’d like to move on from that, seems a little juvenile. I’d like to stop comparing myself to other girls. I wish I could visit a sex therapist who could break down all this phobia I have and make everything make more sense. I’d like to enjoy sex in my life but I always catch feelings that I wish I could just turn off. Person told me that I feel everything too much. I hate them and I wish I didn’t believe that. I know myself and I think I feel things in perfectly normal proportions, I’m just not as good at hiding them. so dont police my feelings asshole. regardless, they had a point. If I could turn them off I would. Fucking prick. Fucking predatory, asshole prick that doesn’t deserve my presence. The time will come when I never think of them again and I pray that day arrives soon.

Theres things I do like about myself. I’m funny. I’m independent. In some ways, I’m quite brave. I take risks. I’m always gentle. I listen and I want my friends to trust me and get strength from me, bc this world is a goddamn shitshow and everyone needs a little help. I know I have to survive in this world being genuine to who I am, even if everything around me tries to break that down. I’m not going to let it. I know I do things a little differently and it doesn’t make sense to people, but I think I’m capable of so much. I’ve lived through lots of trauma and its given me a lot of pain and probs part of what keeps me from functioning normally but its also what makes me strong. And fuck everyone else, crying and being real about how u feel is strength. And soon, after 6 goddamned years of suffering, I’m gonna graduate. And I’m proud of myself for making it thru 6 years of scraping by working part time and taking classes with fuckhead professers and dealing with this backwards ass university profiting off my struggle. I’m gonna have a fucking BFA that I worked for and achieved. I’m gonna live and thrive, which is more than I can say for Person !!!!!!

5 notes · View notes