#it was also nominated for Best Use of Audio and Voice but for some reason it only gave me half of the nominations to vote for

[disembodiedvoicecrossover]

tbh i dont give a shit about politics or which president people vote for. the only voting i’ll be doing is for Shovelware’s Brain Game to win the title of Best New Experience in the Roblox Innovation Awards 2023

[ofmdrecaps]

11/09-10/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; David Jenkins; Rhys Darby; More Starfury Republic of Pirates Pictures!; Samba Schutte; Vico Ortiz; Kristian Nairn; Samson Kayo; Guz Khan; Damien Gerard; Dominic Burgess; Articles; LettersToSeaForSeason3; Love Notes;

= David Jenkins =

Chaos dad has broken his silence of several days with a very important question (about his pups).

Source: David's Bsky

He also shared this awesome work by @tabbystardust, which is still one of my faves.

Source: David Jenkins Instagram / Tabby Stardust

= Rhys Darby =

Rhys was interviewed on Flightless Bird with Rhys' old buddy David Ferrier! You can check out the Spotify Episode here!

Source: Rhys' Bsky

Another excerpt from Rhys' 25 year show on his instagram!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Rhys Darby (@rhysiedarby)

Source: Rhys' Instagram

= Darby Daily Doodle =

Source: Rhys Darby's Free Substack

Source: Rhys Darby's Free Substack

He was also on Craigio On the Radio!

Source: Craigio On The Radio

== More Starfury Pictures! ==

Starfury Conventions posted some more picture from the convention!

Source: Starfury Twitter

= Samba Schutte =

Samba's posting more selfies of his latest work.

Some of the shows that Samba's been doing voice work for have been getting some acknowledgement over at The Velma Awards! First up was Monster High which received the "Best Guest Star Extravaganza".

Jurassic World: Chaos Theory won "Best Queer Relationship That's Just a Plain Ol' Relationship" in the Velma Awards!

And BAFTA Nominations are up! Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has been nominated for three BAFTAs! Congrats Samba and Damien!

Best Game

Multiplayer

Audio Achievement

Animation

Source: Samba's Instagram

= Kristian Nairn =

Apple Music has been recommending Kristian's new track!

Source: Kristian Nairn's Instagram Stories

= Vico Ortiz =

I'm running a bit late so the Tales of the Trancestors just happened in this weekend! Check out some BTS for it!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by CHLOE BALDWIN (@chloeglowyflowy)

Source: ChloeGlowyFlowy Instagram

= Samson Kayo =

Samson is out in Abu Dhabi for the F1 Filming.

Source: Samson's Instagram Stories

= Guz Khan =

Guz finished filming the last season of Man Like Mobeen recently, and he spent a few minutes reflecting on watching the last episode <3

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Guz Khan (@guzkhanofficial)

Source: Guz's Instagram

= Damien Gerard =

One of Damien's recent works "Blame!", a short film by Suzanne Roche is an official selection for the 2024 Hollywood Best Indie Film Awards!

Source: Damien's Instagram Stories

= Dominic Burgess =

Have a lot of extra cash and want to dine with Dominic and help out a Charity at the same time? Well good news! You can! You can bid on a chance to dine with Dominic at this Charity Auction!

Source: Dominic's Bsky

== Articles ==

Our friends over at @adoptourcrew have been keeping us posted with lots of articles about OFMD. It's nice to see the show being featured in so much media even a year later after S2 ended!

Source: Adopt Our Crew's Bsky

== LettersToSeaForSeason3 ==

More helpful information about the LettersToSeaForSeason3 to netflix! Mailing window cheatsheet:

US: 12/31/24 - 01/07/25

Europe: 12/26/24 - 01/02/25

Other International Locations: 12/22/24 - 12/29/24

Source: Aproperpirate's Twitter

== Fan Spotlight ==

= Never Left Podcast =

Source: NeverLeft Podcast Spotify

= OFMD Colouring Pages/Wrapping Paper! =

Our fabulous crewmate @patchworkpiratebear is back! They've made wrapping paper for the holidays! Check out these adorable patterns! If you want some high res versions to download you can do on on the Repo.

Source: PatchworkPirateBears Bsky

== Love Notes ==

Hey there lovelies. I have been having a bit of week so I'll be brief so I can make sure to get this out tonight. We are coming to the end of the year, and I hope very much that you are being kind to yourself. Please oh please give yourself a hug tonight, drink some water, or some tea, and have one of your favorite treats. The new week is starting soon and you'll need your strength. Be good to yourselves <3 Sending hugs your way.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dominee Calderon (@selfloverainbow)

Source: Self Love Rainbow

[x--daughters-of-darkness--x]

HALESTORM's LZZY HALE: 'Going To Therapy Has Been One Of The Most Amazing Acts Of Self-Love That I've Done For Myself'

During a recent appearance on the "Hardcore Humanism With Dr. Mike" podcast, HALESTORM frontwoman Lzzy Hale spoke about how rock music has long been an outlet for youthful rebellion and how it has served as the musical voice of its time, but not the mainstream voice — the underdog voice.

"The beauty of music, and specifically rock music, is that it has always stood up for the downtrodden, always stood up for the freaks, the people that don't necessarily have a place at the cool kids' table," she said (hear audio below). "And what we've ultimately cultivated in our band community and all of that, and our career, but also, we didn't invent this — this is just something that exists and we are very proud of — being proud of your flaws, or your so-called flaws, being proud that you don't necessarily fit in… And that's easier said than done, but the beauty of music is that I'm able to turn these real-life experiences, or these stories that I hear from our fans, into something that they can take as theirs."

Hale also touched upon her own struggles with mental health and how she has benefited from treatment.

"I've been going to therapy for about a year and a half, for the first time in my life," she revealed. "It started before the pandemic. And it's been one of the most amazing acts of self-love that I think I've done for myself. Now I have so many more tools in my tool box to, like, just be, 'Okay. Something's going on. All right. I need the hammer. There it is. All right. We've got it.' I digress.

"But it's really great to be a part of that thing that is something bigger than yourself," she continued. "I feel like through music, that has been a vehicle. At the same time, what I'm discovering just about who I am and the kind of things I wanna get out to the world, even beyond music, I think I'm learning even more about what my own mission statements are and what I want to put out there in the world."

Hale added: "As far as I know, I've got one ride on this thing, so I'm gonna do what I can. [Laughs]"

Last month, Lzzy said that HALESTORM has demoed "about 60 ideas" for the follow-up to 2018's "Vicious" album.

In September, Lzzy confirmed to U.K.'s Rock Sound that she has been using her coronavirus downtime to compose material for the new HALESTORM LP. "I've been writing, honestly, some of the best songs I've ever written, because I've just had the time, and there isn't any deadline and nobody's breathing down my neck, saying, 'Hey, where are those demos?'," she said.

"I haven't been home without a gig for this long in probably over 15 years, so that's a strange thing. I think in one way, I have the time, but in another way, I'm seeking that high out, I'm seeking that joy that I find from playing out live every night. I'm not writing for any other reason — I'm not writing for a deadline, I'm not writing for a record, even though technically I am; we are technically working on a new HALESTORM record. But I'm writing from such a position of joy right now, literally just getting excited about some small piece of music. And I'm taking more risks now, because I have the space and the time and I've settled into something. And I'm not even quite sure what that is, and I feel like it's gonna reveal itself maybe later, but right now, I'm in it, and it's exciting."

"Halestorm Reimagined", a collection of reworked HALESTORM original songs as well as a cover of "I Will Always Love You", the love ballad made famous by Whitney Houston and Dolly Parton, was made available in August.

Lzzy and her brother Arejay (drums) formed the band in 1998 while in middle school. Guitarist Joe Hottinger joined the group in 2003, followed by bassist Josh Smith in 2004.

In December 2018, HALESTORM was nominated for a "Best Rock Performance" Grammy Award for its song "Uncomfortable".

In 2012, the band won its first Grammy in the category of "Best Hard Rock/ Metal Performance" for "Love Bites (So Do I)". According to the Grammy web site, Lzzy became the first woman to earn a Grammy in the category.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Pluralistic: 14 Mar 2020 (Free audio of Masque of the Red Death and When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth, Ada Palmer on censorship, Women of Imagineering, Glitch unionizes, Tachyon/EFF Humble Bundle, Canada Reads postponed, data-caps and liquid bans paused, Star Wars firepits)

Today's links

Masque of the Red Death: Macmillan Audio gave me permission to share the audiobook of my end-of-the-world novella.

When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth: A new podcast audiobook of my 2005 end-of-the-world story.

Ada Palmer on historical and modern censorship: Part of EFF's Speaking Freely project.

Glitch workers unionize: First-ever tech union formed without management opposition.

Women of Imagineering: A 384-page illustrated chronicle of the role women play in Disney theme-park design.

Tachyon celebrates 30 years of sff publishing with a Humble Bundle: DRM-free and benefits EFF.

Honest Government Ads, Covid-19 edition: Political satire is really hard, but The Juice makes it look easy.

TSA lifts liquid bans, telcos lift data caps: Almost as though there was no reason for them in the first place.

CBC postpones Canada Reads debates: But you can read a ton of the nominated books online for free.

Star Wars firepits: 750lbs of flaming backyard steel.

This day in history: 2005, 2015, 2019

Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Masque of the Red Death (permalink)

Edgar Allan Poe wrote "The Masque of the Red Death" in 1842. It's about a plutocrat who throws a masked ball in his walled abbey during a plague with the intention of cheating death.

https://www.poemuseum.org/the-masque-of-the-red-death

My novella "The Masque of the Red Death" is a tribute to Poe; it's from my book Radicalized. It's the story of a plute who brings his pals to his luxury bunker during civlizational collapse in the expectation of emerging once others have rebuilt.

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250242334

Naturally, they assume that when they do emerge, once their social inferiors have rebooted civilization, that their incredible finance-brains, their assault rifles, and their USBs full of BtC will allow them to command a harem and live a perpetual Frazetta-painting future.

And naturally – to anyone who's read Poe – it doesn't work out for them. They discover that humanity has a shared microbial destiny and that you can't shoot germs. That every catastrophe must be answered with solidarity, not selfishness, if it is to be survived.

Like my story When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth, the Masque of the Red Death has been on a lot of people's minds lately, especially since this Guardian story of plutes fleeing to their luxury bunkers was published. Hundreds of you have sent me this.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/11/disease-dodging-worried-wealthy-jet-off-to-disaster-bunkers

I got the message. Yesterday, I asked my agent to see if Macmillan Audio would let me publish the audiobook of my Masque of the Red Death for free. They said yes, and asked me to remind you that the audiobook of Radicalized (which includes Masque) is available for your delectation.

I hope you'll check out the whole book. Radicalized was named one of the @WSJ's best books of 2019, and it's a finalist for Canada Reads, the national book prize. It's currently on every Canadian national bestseller list.

There's one hitch, though: Audible won't sell it to you. They don't sell ANY of my work, because I don't allow DRM on it, because I believe that you should not have to lock my audiobooks to Amazon's platform in order to enjoy them.

Instead, you can buy the audio from sellers like libro.fm, Downpour.com, and Google Play. Or you can get it direct from me. No DRM, no license agreement. Just "you bought it, you own it."

https://craphound.com/shop/

And here's the free Macmillan Audio edition of Masque of the Red Death, read with spine-chilling menace by the incredible Stefan Rudnicki, with a special intro from me, freshly mastered by John Taylor Williams. I hope it gives you some comfort.

https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/03/13/the-masque-of-the-red-death/

(Here's the direct MP3, too)

https://archive.org/download/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_332/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_332_-_The_Masque_of_the_Red_Death.mp3

Ada Palmer on historical and modern censorship (permalink)

My EFF colleague Jillian C York's latest project is Speaking Freely, a series of interviews with people about free expression and the internet, including what Neil Gaiman memorably called "icky speech."

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/12/why-defend-freedom-of-icky-speech.html

The latest interview subject is the incomparable Ada Palmer: historian, sf writer, musician, and co-host of last year's U Chicago seminar series on "systems of information control during information revolutions," which I co-taught with her. Ada's interview synthesizes her historian's distance from the subject ("yes, this is my subject, and these people are terrible, and it's kind of fun in that way") with her perspective as a writer and advocate for free speech.

"One of the victims of censorship is the future capacity to tell histories of the period when censorship happened….. It renders that historical record unreliable… makes it easier for people to make claims you can't refute using historical sources… It's similar to how we see people invalidating things now—like 'that climate study wasn't really valid because it got funding from a leftist political group"—they're invalidating the material by claiming that there has to be insincerity its development.

"Pretty much every censoring operation post-printing press recognizes that it isn't possible to track down and destroy every copy of a thing…An Inquisition book burning was the ceremonial burning of one copy. The Inquisition kept examples of all of the books they banned."

Fascinating perspecting on whether nongovernmental action can really be called "censorship."

"The Inquisition wasn't the state – it was a private org like to Doctors Without Borders or Unicef, run by private orgs like the Dominicans and it often competed with the state." As she points out, everything the Inquisition did would be fine alongside the First Amendment, because it was entirely private action.

Next, Palmer talks about market concentration and how it abets this kind of private censorship. This is something I've written a lot about, see for example:

https://locusmag.com/2020/01/cory-doctorow-inaction-is-a-form-of-action/

"If you have a plural set of voices, then you're always going to have some spaces where things can be said, just like you have a plurality of printers printing books, and some will only print orthodox things and some will only print radical ones."

And while the internet could afford many venues for speech, in practice a concentrated internet makes is plausible to accomplish the censor's never-realized dream: "You can make a program that can hunt down every instance of a particular phrase and erase it."

Tiny architectural choices make big differences here ("Architecture is politics" -Mitch Kapor). Amazon can update your Kindle books without your permission, Kobo can't. Amazon could delete every instance of a book on Kindles, but Kobo would need cooperation from its customers.

Palmer is just the latest subject of Jillian's series. You can read many other amazing interviews here:

https://www.eff.org/speaking-freely

When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth (permalink)

Over the past two weeks, hundreds of people have written to me to draw comparisons between the pandemic emergency and my 2005 story "When Sysamins Ruled the Earth" – an apocalyptic tale of network administrators who survive a civilizational collapse.

https://craphound.com/overclocked/Cory_Doctorow_-Overclocked-_When_Sysadmins_Ruled_the_Earth.html

I started writing this story in the teacher's quarters at the Clarion Workshop, which was then hosted at MSU. It was July 6, 2005. I know the date because the next day was 7/7, when bombs went off across London, blowing up the tube train my wife normally rode to work. The attacks also took out the bus I normally rode to my office. My wife was late to work because I was in Michigan, so she slept in. It probably saved her life. I couldn't work on this story for a long time after.

Eventually, I finished it and sold it to Eric Flint for Baen's Universe magazine. It's been widely reprinted and adapted, including as a comic:

https://archive.org/details/CoryDoctorowsFuturisticTalesOfTheHereAndNow/mode/2up

I read this for my podcast 15 years ago, too, but the quality is terrible. The more I thought about it, the more I thought I should do a new reading. So I did, and John Taylor Williams mastered it overnight and now it's live.

https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/03/13/when-sysadmins-ruled-the-earth-2/

There's a soliloquy in this where the protagonist reads a part of John Perry Barlow's Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace. Rather than read it myself for the podcast, I ganked some of Barlow's own 2015 reading, which is fucking magnificent.

https://vimeo.com/111576518

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this. I've spent a lot of imaginary time inhabiting various apocalypses, driven (I think) by my grandmother's horrific stories of being inducted into the civil defense corps during the Siege of Leningrad, which began when she was 12.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this. I've spent a lot of imaginary time inhabiting various apocalypses, driven (I think) by my grandmother's horrific stories of being inducted into the civil defense corps during the Siege of Leningrad, which began when she was 12.

You can subscribe to the podcast here:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/doctorow_podcast

And here's the MP3, which is hosted by the @internetarchive (they'll host your stuff for free, too!).

https://archive.org/download/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_331/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_331_-_When_Sysadmins_Ruled_the_Earth.mp3

Glitch workers unionize (permalink)

The staff of Glitch have formed a union. It seems to be the first-ever white-collar tech-workers' union to have formed without any objections from management (bravo, Anil Dash!).

https://cwa-union.org/news/releases/tech-workers-app-developer-glitch-vote-form-union-and-join-cwa-organizing-initiative

The workers organized under the Communications Workers of America, which has been organizing tech shops through their Campaign to Organize Digital Employees.

https://www.code-cwa.org/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIovDRsc-S6AIVCuDICh0rFQCMEAAYASAAEgJb1PD_BwE

"We appreciate that unlike so many employers, the Glitch management team decided to respect the rights of its workforce to choose union representation without fear or coercion."

Women of Imagineering (permalink)

Next October, Disney will publish "Women of Imagineering: 12 Careers, 12 Theme Parks, Countless Stories," a 384-page history of a dozen pioneering woman Imagineers.

https://thedisneyblog.com/2020/03/13/new-book-highlights-stories-from-the-women-of-walt-disney-imagineering/

Featured are Elisabete Erlandson, Julie Svendsen, Maggie Elliott, Peggy Fariss, Paula Dinkel, Karen Connolly Armitage, Katie Olson, Becky Bishop, Tori Atencio, Lynne Macer Rhodes, Kathy Rogers, and Pam Rank.

When I worked at Imagineering, the smartest, most talented, most impressive staff I knew were women (like Sara Thacher!). It's amazing to see the women of the organization get some long-overdue recognition.

Tachyon celebrates 30 years of sff publishing with a Humble Bundle (permalink)

For 30 years, @TachyonPub has been publishing outstanding science fiction, including a wide range of stuff that's too weird or marginal for the Big 5 publishers, like collections of essays and collections.

https://tachyonpublications.com/

Now, they've teamed up with Humble Bundle to celebrate their 30th with a huge pay-what-you-like bundle that benefits EFF. There are so many great books in this bundle!

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/celebrating-25-years-scifi-fantasy-from-tachyon-books

Like Bruce Sterling's Pirate Utopia, Eileen Gunn's Stable Strategies, and books by Michael Moorcock, Thomas Disch, Jo Walton, Jane Yolen, Nick Mamatas, Kameron Hurley, Lauren Beukes, Lavie Tidhar and so many more!

I curated the very first Humble Ebook Bundle and I've followed all the ones since. This one is fucking amazeballs. Run, don't walk.

Honest Government Ads, Covid-19 edition (permalink)

Good political satire is hard, but @thejuicemedia's "Honest Government Ads" are consistently brilliant.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKRw8GAAtm27q4R3Q0kst_g

The latest is, of course, Covi9-19 themed. It is funny, trenchant, and puts the blame exactly where it belongs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hks6Nq7g6P4

If you like it, you can support their Patreon.

https://www.patreon.com/TheJuiceMedia

TSA lifts liquid bans, telcos lift data caps (permalink)

Your ISP is likely to lift its data-caps in the next day or two. @ATT and @comcast already did.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/v74qzb/atandt-suspends-broadband-usage-caps-during-coronavirus-crisis

And TSA has decided that 12 ounces of any liquid labelled "hand sanitizer" is safe for aviation, irrespective of what's in the bottle.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/13/21179120/tsa-hand-sanitizer-liquid-size-airport-screening-coronavirus-covid-19

What do these two facts have in common? Obviously, it's that the official narrative for things that impose enormous financial costs on Americans, and dramatically lower their quality of lives, were based on lies. These lies have been obvious from the start. The liquid ban, for example, is based on a plot that never worked (making binary explosives in airport bathroom sinks from liquids) and seems unlikely to ever have worked, according to organic chemists.

Keeping your "piranha bath" near 0' C for a protracted period in the bathroom toilet is some varsity-level terrorism, and the penalty for failure is that you maim or blind yourself with acid spatter.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/08/on_the_implausi.html

And even if you stipulate that the risk is real, it's been obvious for 14 years that multiple 3oz bottles of Bad Liquid could be recombined beyond the checkpoint to do whatever it is liquids do at 3.0001oz.The liquid ban isn't just an inconvenience. It's not even just a burden on travelers who've collectively spent billions to re-purchase drinks and toiletries. It's a huge health burden to people with disabilities who rely on constant access to liquids.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m12mLXgO1A

And as we knew all along, the liquid ban was a nonsense, an authoritarian response to a cack-handed, improbable terror plot. It embodies the "security syllogism":

Something must be done. There, I've done something.

Think of all those checkpoints where all confiscated liquids were dumped into a giant barrel and mingled together: if liquids posed an existential threat to planes, they'd dispose of them like they were C4, not filtered water. No one believed in the liquid threat, ever. TSA can relax the restrictions and allow 12oz of anything labeled as hand-san through the checkpoints. There was no reason to confiscate liquids in the first place. But don't expect them to admit this. The implicit message of the change is "Pandemics make liquids safe."

Now onto data-caps. Like the liquid ban, data-caps have imposed a tremendous cost on Americans. In addition to the hundreds of millions in monopoly rents extracted from the nation by telcos through overage charges, these caps also shut many out of the digital world. They represent a regressive tax on information, one that falls worst upon the most underserved in the nation: people in poor and rural places, for whom online access is a gateway to civic and political life, family connection, employment and education.

We were told that we had to tolerate these caps because of the "tragedy of the commons," a fraudulent idea from economics that says that shared resources are destroyed through selfish overuse, based on no data or evidence.

https://thebaffler.com/latest/first-as-tragedy-then-as-fascism-amend

(By contrast, actual commons are a super-efficient way of managing resources)

https://www.onthecommons.org/magazine/elinor-ostroms-8-principles-managing-commmons

Telcos insisted that if they didn't throttle and gouge us, their networks would become unusable – but really, what they meant is that if they didn't throttle and gouge us, the windfall to their shareholders would decline.

What's more likely: that pandemics make network management tools so efficient that data-caps become obsolete, or that they were a shuck and a ripoff from day one, enabled by a hyper-concentrated industry of monopolists with cozy relationships with corrupt regulators?

So yeah, maybe this is the moment that kills Security Theater and data-caps.

https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/12/coronavirus-could-force-isps-to-abandon-data-caps-forever/

(Image: Rhys Gibson)

CBC postpones Canada Reads debates (permalink)

The folks at the @CBC have postponed next week's televised Canada Reads debates, so we're going to have to wait a while to find out who wins the national book prize.

https://www.cbc.ca/books/canada-reads-2020-postponed-1.5497678

Obviously, this is a bummer, though equally obviously, it's a relatively small consequence of this ghastly circumstance.

And on the bright side, the CBC have just released a ton of excerpts from the nominees:

https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/read-excerpts-from-the-canada-reads-2020-books-1.5496637

If you're looking for some Canada Reads lit for this moment, my novella "Masque of the Red Death" appears in my collection Radicalized, one of the finalists. I put up the story as a free podast last night (thanks to Macmillan Audio for permission).

https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/03/13/the-masque-of-the-red-death/

Star Wars firepits (permalink)

West Coast Firepits went viral when they produced a Death Star firepit, though of course, I lusted after their Tiki Firepit.

https://www.westcoastfirepits.com/shop/tiki-firepit-69825

But now they're really leaning into the Star Wars themed pits, with an Interceptor pit ($2500):

https://www.westcoastfirepits.com/shop/interceptor

Or, if you prefer a post-apocalyptic version, there's a Crashed Interceptor pit, also $2500.

https://www.westcoastfirepits.com/shop/crashed-interceptor

If those prices seem high, consider that they're hand-made onshore, and contain 750lbs of 1/4" and 1/8" steel.

This day in history (permalink)

#15yrsago How DRM will harm the developing world https://web.archive.org/web/20050317005030/https://www.eff.org/IP/DRM/itu_drm.php

#5yrsago Anti-vaxxer ordered to pay EUR100K to winner of "measles aren't real" bet https://calvinayre.com/2015/03/13/business/biologist-ordered-to-pay-e100k-after-losing-wager-that-a-virus-causes-measles/

#1yrago A massive victory for fair use in the longrunning Dr Seuss vs Star Trek parody lawsuit https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190313/09554041791/big-fair-use-win-mashups-places-youll-boldly-go-deemed-to-be-fair-use.shtml

#1yrago A detailed analysis of American ER bills reveals rampant, impossible-to-avoid price-gouging https://www.vox.com/health-care/2018/12/18/18134825/emergency-room-bills-health-care-costs-america

#1yrago Ketamine works great for depression and other conditions, and costs $10/dose; the new FDA-approved "ketamine" performs badly in trials and costs a fortune https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/03/11/ketamine-now-by-prescription/

#1yrago Facebook and Big Tech are monopsonies, even when they're not monopolies https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-not-monopoly-but-should-broken-up/

Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources: EFF Deeplinks (https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/), Waxy (https://waxy.org/), Slashdot https://slashdot.org).

Currently writing: I've just finished rewrites on a short story, "The Canadian Miracle," for MIT Tech Review. It's a story set in the world of my next novel, "The Lost Cause," a post-GND novel about truth and reconciliation. I've also just completed "Baby Twitter," a piece of design fiction also set in The Lost Cause's prehistory, for a British think-tank. I'm getting geared up to start work on the novel next.

Currently reading: Just started Lauren Beukes's forthcoming Afterland: it's Y the Last Man plus plus, and two chapters in, it's amazeballs. Last month, I finished Andrea Bernstein's "American Oligarchs"; it's a magnificent history of the Kushner and Trump families, showing how they cheated, stole and lied their way into power. I'm getting really into Anna Weiner's memoir about tech, "Uncanny Valley." I just loaded Matt Stoller's "Goliath" onto my underwater MP3 player and I'm listening to it as I swim laps.

Latest podcast: When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/03/13/when-sysadmins-ruled-the-earth-2/

Upcoming books: "Poesy the Monster Slayer" (Jul 2020), a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Pre-order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627?utm_source=socialmedia&utm_medium=socialpost&utm_term=na-poesycorypreorder&utm_content=na-preorder-buynow&utm_campaign=9781626723627

(we're having a launch for it in Burbank on July 11 at Dark Delicacies and you can get me AND Poesy to sign it and Dark Del will ship it to the monster kids in your life in time for the release date).

"Attack Surface": The third Little Brother book, Oct 20, 2020. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250757531

"Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583

[aspiestvmusings]

TMS S3: GROUP A

THE MASKED SINGER SEASON 3  GROUP A/ GROUP 1: (contestants 1 - 6)

EP 3x01: CLUES & MORE: RECAP for remaining 5: 

SPOILERS BELOW!!!

KANGAROO

CLUES: 

Location: Outdoors: “Australia” 

Location: Next to a /in a yard of a “peach coloured” building with arch/vault-style architecture 

VISUAL CLUES:

Sign: OUTBACK (with the U being in the shape of horseshoe)

Sign: Yellow “road sign” with an arrow pointing down (”spiraling down”) 

MIB as papparazzi/press following her - taking pics, media attention (for “the wrong reasons”) 

Gramophone on a tree branch 

Boxing bag -  the kangaroo boxing/hitting the boxing bag 

Jump rope - the kangaroo jumping over a jump rope (made of a vine...held by MIB)

AUDIO CLUES/VOICE OVER:

”Like most of you watching, I’m a survivor.” 

“I recently lost a person, who held my familys heart together. Then, by my own admission, I found myself in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.” 

“But I’m here to do what kangaroos do best - bounce back.”

“I have to fight for my family. And show them that bullies never win.”

“I am beyond terrified - I’ve never done anything like this before. But I’m not about to lose the chance to realize the dream I’ve always had.” 

“To all the survivors out there -- This one’s for you.” 

 ON STAGE CLUES:

Song choice: “Dancing on My Own” by Robyn 

Look/Costume: The kangaroo has a pouch (indicates female), but also has a red/silver boxing outfit & gloves (indicates male). Outfit colours: red & silver. Important: there is a crown on the back of her robe. 

Stage: hexagon-shaped mirrors (5 of  them) surrounding her/behind her [if my other guess is correct, then that stage design is a “clue”] 

Height: Tall-ish...almost the same height as host Nick. A bit shorter, around 175cm, probably.

Mic hand: Right 

Talking:  “One of my greatest fears is being vulnerable. And this year I’ve had no other option than to be vulnerable. But...with this kangaroo costume I feel like I can get my superpowers back.” +  [breathes in/sighs heavily before the song starts]

GUESSES: 

I HAVE NO NAMES OF MY OWN. -- I thought she was this certain female artist, because the voice kinda seemed familair (sounded like hers to me), but none of the clues and other things seemed to fit. And after checking the clues it seems to confirm it cannot be her, cause nothing matches. Also... to me she doesn’t sound like any of the singers I thoughts she could be based on the clues, so... I havent actually figured her out...

I think people online are correct, and it’s a certain “reality star” (gramophone = reference to her dad being a sound engineer on a well-known past TV show) Though I am considering a few more options - mostly other reality stars/youtubers/family members of celebs... particularily one name. If my guess here is correct, then just like Llama, she would have a connection to a previous TMS contestant...but since I am not that familiar with her singing voice, I cannot be sure. But she has lost family members in the past few years, she has been in a media scandal, and you can even explain the australia thing kinda... so...until I hear more of her, I’ve got one name mainly in mind. But I wont name it until I’ve heard her sing at least once more.

POSSIBLE MEANING OF CLUES.

Survivor = the title of a “Destiny’s Child” hit song

Lost a family member recently = either her family member (parent, grandparent?) died or they parted ways (were cut ouf of each others lives)

Gramophone = possibly a reference to a Grammy nomination/win. Or just music/sound/audio

Outback = possible connection to Australia

“spiraling down” road sign + papparazzi following her = she’s been in a media scandal “recently”

Crown = King/Queen 

LLAMA

CLUES: 

Location: Radio station/Mixing studio - mixing console (close up) 

Location: Pottery making “class” 

VISUAL CLUES:

Mixing console - close up of a studio/radio station mixing console 

23.3 The Wool (name of the radio station/show) 

Red lightbulb in the studio 

Photo of a bull (the animal)

Playing cards: Ace of Spaces & Jack of Spades). Two black suit cards showing (Jack Black)

Sounds of Seattle - title of a vinyl album 

Romancing a llama: pottery 

AUDIO CLUES/VOICE OVER:

"Mi-Mi-Mi-Mi-Mix it up!”

“Good morning, Nerd herd! You’re listening to The Wool. Where we’re all cool. No Bull.” 

“I’m here for one reason only - to have a laugh. And what’s funnier than a Llama? (laughs at his own joke)”

“You may call me a joker. But I’d like to get serious for a minute. The song I’m singing tonight is my favourite track for celebrating love with that... special someone. There’s nothing like being swept up by it’s deep, profound lyrics. It’s a tune that really gets me in the mood for romance. I can’t wait to sing it for you tonight.”

“Llama out!” 

ON STAGE CLUES:

Song choice: “She Bangs” by Ricky Martin 

Look/Costume: Dressed as a tourist - “hawaiian” style shirt,, photo camera around his neck. Llamas tongue out of his mounth, on the side. 

Height: he is around 180cm - about the same height as host Nick (their shoulders are on about the same height)

Mic hand: Left 

Talking: “umm.. This whole costume just spoke to me... My vibe... I wear digs like this in real life.” (answering the question about his costume & it’s looks) 

GUESSES:

Drew Carey (TV host/comedian/actor...)

POSSIBLE MEANING OF CLUES.

23.3 Wool = His show (The Drew Carey Show) had, during it’s 9-season long run, a total of 233 episodes. 

Photo canera prop = His hobby is photography. Actually, it’s more than just a hobby - he has been accredited press photographer during many (sports) events.  

Radio = He was a radio operator during the time he served in the Marine Corps. Also..he’s hosted a radio show (radio DJ) during his later career 

Red light in the room = photography reference. In the DarkRoom red light is used when developing photo film/photographs.

Buddha figurine (Dalai Lama/Llama joke) = He is a buddhist. 

Joker = he is a joker aka comedian 

Seattle = He is the co-owner of a Seattle Football Club. 

Playing cards = He took part in the celebrity poker game in 2003, where he did better than Jack Black did (played against Jack Black)

Nerd herd = He did take part in Zack levis (Chuck) “Nerd herd” lightsaber race one time at a Comic-Con convention. 

Nerd herd = his show (DCS) & character were/was about nerds/was a nerd

Llama’s side tongue = early in his stand-up comedy days he had a joke with a side-tie (it looked visually very similar to what the llama’s tongue looks like - he just added some wires & tape to do “the trick” of swinging the tie to the side)

BONUS: He knows last years winner, “The Fox Mask” - they did “Whose Line is it Anyway” together, so... connection... 

SPOILER ALERT: Llama is the mask who will be voted off next - in ep 2 (on Wed, Feb 5th). But while his voice might not be as trained as some other contestants, I loved his stage energy, and the comedy/fun he brought! One more song coming from him! And no, I am not sharing some secret info - they “accidentally” revealed the first two contestants, who get unmasked, so it’s been revealed by the network...for those, who notice small details...

MISS MONSTER 

CLUES:

Location: Lady’s restroom/bathroom. The moster getting ready (coming hair, applying hairspray...) 

Location: school hallway - lockers 

VISUAL CLUES:

Sign:  (image) ladies restroom 

Itmes on the counter in bathroom/dressing room: Furspray (hairsray) can,  pink bottle of some beauty product, three crystals (stones), a piece of sequin fabric 

Key/Keychain: a single (old style) key with a keychain that says “FUN” #FUN #KEY = FUNKY = “QUEEN OF FUNK” 

Purple furry diary/good luck charm/cosmetics bag/pencil box (with a face + kitty ears & unicorn horn) + a glittery pen 

Lockers: Lockers numbered 10 (the ones she opens) & 11 (the one next to it)...with no other lockers having numbers on them 

Miss Monster Locker: filled with images of S1 Monster, scrapbook flowers..etc...

Piece of paper on the locker door: Monster Hits.

Photograph of a cityscape (skyline with many skyscrapers) on the locker door [if I could only see the image better to know which city it is on it, that’d be one more clue]

AUDIO CLUES/VOICE OVER:

“When you become famous, people  want you to look or act in a certain way. They forget that you started off as just a shy little monster.” 

“It didn’t take long for me to be misunderstood. So I’m here to set the record straight. Just like my favourite creature in Season 1 did. The Monster. He made me feel. He re-wrote his story. It was fire!" 

“And now this performer in pink wants to follow in his furry footsteps, But darlings... I’m nervous. Will you still love me without knowing my name?”

ON STAGE CLUES: 

Song choice: “Something to Talk about” by Bonnie Raitt

Look/Costume: pink & purple/violet furry costume with a bowtie

Height: she is short-ish (shorter than host Nick). She looks very short (barely 5 feet - more Dolly P. height 152cm than Chaka K height 162cm)

Mic hand: Right 

Talking: NO ON-STAGE TALKING!

GUESSES: 

Chaka Khan 

Dolly Parton (since the total number of Grammy noms that the 18 contestants have in combined in 69 & Robot as the first revealed one has had 24-25 of them, that leaves only 44-45 for everyone else, that rules out this person, because she alone has had 46 nominations...compared to C. Khan’s 22 noms)

POSSIBLE MEANING OF CLUES. 

Number 10 = She has 10 Grammy Awards/wins. (interestinly: both D. Parton & C. Khan have 10 Grammy wins!)

Monster Hits = she has had (many) hit songs during her career 

He made me feel = She has a song by the title “I Feel You” (1984 hit)  

It was fire = She has a song by the title “Through the Fire” (1985)

Will you love me - that is (word for word) the title of of her her hit songs, “Will You Love Me?” (2007)

It was fire = She wrote the hit song “Fule to the Flame” (1967 hit) for Skeeter Davis. 

Will you still love me? = She has/wrote a song titled “I will always love you” 

Furspray/Hairsray = he was/is known for her big hair/haircut (managing that probably takes lots of hairspray)

FUN = FUN(K) #FUN KEY [FUN:KI] - she’s kinda the “queen of funk” (one of her albums is titled “FUNk This” (btw: Pun intended by her!) 

TURTLE 

CLUES

Location: school’s track & field event (Balzano Track Field) - contestants getting ready to run. The slow turtle surrounded by fast bunnies, all preparing for the event. [Slow & steady (turtle) wins the race]

Location: Schools track & field event - BANG! The race begings. The three other contestants (MIB as bunnies - wearing pink bunny ears - starting the race with a head start, all jumping on their blue bouncy balls)

VISUAL CLUES:

Turtle vs bunnies 

BANG! in comic style - to mark the start of the race 

The others (three bunnies) bouncing on blue balls whe n the race begins 

Surf board - the turtle poliching/cleaning his poink & blue surf board 

Pins on the track...popping the blue jumpy balls 

Grilling burgers on an (outside) grill...on the track field. 

Turtle crossing the finish line first (bunnies just going in circles, being stopped by pins on the way, or other reasons), as he has time to do other things & take it slowly, and then still get there first...with a burger in hand & winning the golden medal.

AUDIO CLUES/VOICE OVER:

"At the starting-line of my career I was surrounded by other hungry new-comers. It felt like everyone around me was fighting tooth-and-nail for the dream. And I watched as many of those stars burned too brightly, too quickly, and then fizzled down”

“I’m a turtle, because I’m always taking it step-by-step.”

“Slow and steady wins the race. But now I feel like I’m ready to break out of my shell. After years of preparation I would love to make a big splash. So I don’t want anyone to cross that finish line before me.” 

ON STAGE CLUES:

Song choice: “Kiss from a Rose” by Seal 

Look/Costume: Punk/Rock-style, dressed in leather (pants, jacket), has a spike (hair)

Height: Short-ish (shorter than host Nick) - seems around 175cm. Small in size.

Mic hand: Right 

Talking: “It’s hot. It’s really hot. And it’s heavy!” (when answering how doesn it feel to be in that costume and perform in it)

GUESSES

Jesse McCartney 

Joey McIntyre  PS. I tried connecting the voice to any boy-bands (of 1990s & 2000s), but I coukdnt. Even after some “research” - listening to each possible candidate...and IMO it’s none of them. The voices dont match, the heights doesn’t match---But it did sound like someone, who for me was a one-hit-wonder. Yeah, I only know that one song (and one more) from him... but voice seemed familiar.

POSSIBLE MEANING OF CLUES: 

Surf board = that he is a surfer;  that he is from Cali/Australia/somewhere which is known as being popular among surfers; that he has won Teen Choice Award(s) (this award in in the shape of a surfboard)

being surrounded by other new-comers at the start of his career = either he got his start through a (singing) competition and was one of many contestants fighting for the win AND/OR he got his start in a “boy-band” and was one of the youngsters looking for fame...

Surf board = Teen Choice Awards - winning several TCAs for his first/biggest hit song/album in 2005, and more. And he’s played a surfer character on a TV show

BSB references/connection  - he was the opening act in 2005 for BSB during the European part of the tour. 

Dream = he started in a boy-band with the name “Dream Street”

on stage presence/body language (movements) = very similar to J.M. 

WHITE TIGER 

CLUES: 

Location: Football field. Tiger striking a power/winners pose. 

Location: School hallway, lockers. Tiger walking in, shoving everyone out of his way. 

Locatrion: School library (sitting behind a table, with his legs on the table) 

Location: School hallway, lockers. MIB trying to get him to audition for TMS. MIB (fans) taking selfies with him. 

VISUAL CLUES: 

Golden plate/sign with text: Ultimate champion for clam shucking: 51 clams” (next to a golden clam shell) 

Sign/ad on the wall: “Masked Singer tryouts 5/3.” + images of three past masks included: Eagle, Lion & Raven. Plus the text: “Hurry. Not for long" also written on it. 

Sign on the all with images of past US presidents, including Abe Lincolns & the text/quote “Four Score and Seven Years Ago...” 

The TMS golden mask throphee shown next to the lockers (as Tiger says “let’s party!”)

AUDIO CLUES/VOICEOVER: 

“Ready to meet your next champion? My entire life I’ve sought out perfection, so choosing a mask with unlimited power like the White Tiger was a no-brainer.”

“I’ve had a giant career full of accomplishments. But when I imagine being on stage (and) singing, I’m a big old scared cat.*

“It’s been a while since I did something that scared me, so I’m here to concour yet anither challenge.”  

“What’s my motivation? My fans! I don’t wanna let them down." 

“So now I’m ready to get in that ring and smash the competition.” 

“Let’s party!” 

ON STAGE CLUES: 

Song choice “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice 

Look/Costume: Dressed in “Egyptian style"

Height: very tall & big (much taller than host Nick) - over 190cm, looks about 2m tall

Mic hand: R & L (alternates)

Talking: “It’s the most powerful I’ve ever felt. Like I can concour anything. I never wanna take it off” (when answering what did it feel like when he first put on the costume/mask)

POSSIBLE MEANING OF CLUES: 

He played during the 51st  (51 clams) & 53rd  (5/3) Super Bowl games. 

The three past TMS masks shown are all animals that are parts of  names of existing football teams: Ravens, Eagles, Lions. Meaning he is an athlete & specifically plays american football (NFL) 

The Lincoln quote translates to “87 years ago...”, so number 87 is the clue here. This could be a reference to player No. 87. 

He has had a very succesful career in his own field (sports). Singing is not his main job.

IF the voice-overs were done later, not during initial filming, then it’s possible that “smash” relates to the person smashing a lego-statue of a TV host during 2019/2020 New Years. Which in itself was supposed to be about his famous “Gronk Spike” during football games. 

A tiger (albeit “regular”, not white) was one of the characters & costumes + name of the sports team in the Katy Perry video “Swish Swich”, where this athlete also appeared. 

The Golden (Golden Mask) trophe - most likely a reference to his many wins (the trophees he/his team has won)

GUESSES: 

Rob Gronkowski (Gronk, athlete, 198cm) = 99% certain it’s him 

Because of the height alone (seems to be around/almost 2m = 6 feet 5) there are not that many possibilities at all. Even if we don’t listen to that voice or consider the clues. Based on height alone it can basiclaly be only one of these names: Dave Bautista (198cm); The Rock (196cm); Hulk Hogan (201cm); Tyler Perry (196cm); Brad Garrett (204cm); Joe Manganiello (196cm); Jeff Goldblum (194cm); Jason Mamoa (193cm); Tom Brady (193cm)..or the likes...

Even other possible names, like the ones listed by the panel, are not valid guesses, because of their height: John Cena for example is actually only 185cm tall. Also... several of these tall men are bigger/more muscular, so that makes it even easier to determine the name based on only the physical appeance...without even listening to the clues. 

ROBOT 

First mask to be voted out in ep 1

Havent listed his clues, cause there’s no use for them anymore, as he was voted off. 

With his 86 tattoos he makes up for about half of all the 160 tattoos the 18 contestants have combined. With his 24-25 Grammy nominations he makes up about 1/3 of all the 69 noms the 18 contestants have combined. And quite many of the 88 gold records the 18 contestants have combined,  belong to him (I don’t know the exact number, but most/all of his 10+ albums have gone gold, I think) - exact number depends on how they count it for this list.

<<<<< THIS IS WHAT GOES ON IN MY HEAD AFTER EVERY TMS SHOW/EPISODE. THIS IS HOW I CATEGORIZE THE INFO I HAVE INTO FOLDERS IN MY MIND. THIS IS HOW SPECIFIC I AM, AND HOW INTO DETAILS I GO. THIS IS HOW MUCH I PAY ATTENTION (while, most likely, missing a ton of more hints that I’ll only notice during re-watch) I JUST DECIDED TO WRITE IT DOWN...FOR ONCE. 

BUT... unless I decide to cut some sleep time to do this again, I am probabky not gonna do this after every episode. Possibly for the first episode of every Group (so beside ep 1, also ep 4 & ep 7)

[checkoutafrica]

CheckOutAfrica Highlights: Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu Presents Award-Nominated Theatre Piece ‘Sweet Like Chocolate Boy’

Written and directed by Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu, and produced by Play Back Drama, the 2-time Off West End Theatre Award (The Offies) nominated ‘Sweet Like Chocolate Boy’ is the latest must-see theatre piece.

Described by critics as “nothing short of a modern masterpiece”, “a captivating storyline with brilliantly realised, often hilarious, interpretations”, and “a remarkable animated and innovative play, ” the piece is named after Tristan’s favourite song, and one of the biggest UK Garage records of the ‘90s, ‘Sweet Like Chocolate Boy.’ First created as Tristan’s final year piece at Roehampton University, before being further developed via scratches at The Kiln, Rich Mix, and Cockpit, before its 5-star rated run at the Jack Studio Theatre, we recently caught up with Tristan to find out more about the man behind the piece. See what went down below:

So let’s start on the title “Sweet like chocolate boy”. What is it about the title of a 90’s record you like so much? Honestly, it reminds me of the times when I was 6 and the excitement of going to new estates because I honestly thought they were like castles. So that’s the nostalgic reason. But being almost 25 now, it is listening to the lyrics feeling they spoke to me as a black person in a multitude of ways. 1. We are saucy. 2 My blackness is both unique, ever-changing and beautiful 3. This is how the oppressive powers-that-be view us. We are a delicacy to them. They don’t hate us, they want to devour us. You grew up in the ’90s, what is it about your upbringing and surroundings that inspired you to write “sweet like chocolate boy” I feel that I am now coming into truly appreciating the multitude of black British culture that has grown around me. Music, Food, Fashion, Language. I want to make sure that – in my lifetime – I wrote a piece that was dedicated to that. I also feel the 90s is a decade widely enjoyed but seldom explored so wanted to delve into that more. Lastly, I wanted to the people of the estate – which includes neeky little Cartoon-Network mad me – a voice that was infused with all the joy we experience as well as our troubles. We are multi-layered, intercultural treasures that are to be cherished (but not devoured or diluted).

You studied at Roehampton University where you first wrote the script for your final piece. What is it that led you to take a degree in English and drama? And what would you say to the people considering what they are going to do at university?

I studied English & Drama because I made a decision to further my knowledge in both areas as much as possible. I knew that was where my future career lay. Playwriting wise, I wanted to ensure I understood the mechanics of words from the supposed greats and how to make them bang as a Director. To all who consider, I was very sure of what I wanted to do BUT IT IS NOT THE ONLY WAY TO DO IT. As far as I am concerned University is best for those who can already identify themselves as intrapersonal and audio learners PLUS already have a desire to speak on a critical, academically articulate, intellectual level. And with all those words, that does not make you better than anyone else – cos there is an argument that you can just go to talks & the library more often. Unless your a doctor, lawyer or teacher (even then) do not go to university to solely secure yourself your dream job. Go there for the access to be more widely read and delve into semantics of your craft OF YOUR OWN FREE WILL. The debt is not a joke and mental health pressures of keeping up with joneses can be a lot. How do you feel the show has been received so far? Did you have any expectations and have you met them so far? The show has been very well received. Many laugh, holler and cry. Some see it and need a few days to digest and enter into new conversations with it – which I love too. My biggest thing was making sure it reaches as many people as possible and start as many convos as possible about culture, revolution and what is the right act in this politically charged times we have (and still do) live in. I know my play does that. What message do you hope to convey and what can the audience expect? When you see this play, get ready to say ” I remember that tune!” Get ready to 2-step in your seat whilst watching poetic, physical storytelling coming at ya at blistering speeds. The message I want to convey is: Look at the multiplicity of us. We are the seasoning & the sauce. And we have had it, hard man. But let’s not forget what we created. And when we remember, lets treasure and start conversations how we keep ourselves sane whilst trying to rebuke centring our lives on eurocentric oppression in the meantime.

Who would you say has been your biggest inspiration through your journey and why? Well, I ain’t leaving here without saying Nyame (God), My Mum and my Dad for constantly telling me I have the ability to reach higher. Specifically, on an artistic level, I would say is fellow Ghanaian Michaela Coel. Her journey writing the incredible play Chewing Gum Dreams – based on her archiving the transformative power of her schoolyard days – as unapologetic bold and tender.  Furthermore, she took that everywhere to the point it became a TV series. Her work crosses form & place. I need to do that too. And finally, what can we expect next from you? I’m still writing, got a couple of new plays cooking. In terms of directing, I recently won this year’s JMK award and will be directing the G.O.A.T – Arinzé Kene’s – seminal piece Little Baby Jesus at the Orange Tree Theatre. And tickets for that are out now!

Check out Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu’s Award-nominated “Sweet Like Chocolate Boy” piece as it hits Theatre Peckham, London this Saturday. Pick up your tickets here.

The post CheckOutAfrica Highlights: Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu Presents Award-Nominated Theatre Piece ‘Sweet Like Chocolate Boy’ appeared first on CheckoutAfrica.

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[dweemeister]

2018 Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song (final round)

TAGGING: @cokwong, @dansmonarbre, @dog-of-ulthar, @emilylime5, @fredsbarandgrill, @halfwaythruthedark, @ideallaedi, @introspectivemeltdown, @itsjustangc, @loveless422, @maximiliani, @memetoilet, @mindo80, @monkeysmadeofcheese, @myluckyerror, @nazur, @phendranaedge, @plus-low-overthrow, @saucy-witch, @shadesofhappy, @somequeerdistortion, @stephdgray, @themusicmoviesportsguy, @umgeschrieben, @underblackwings, @yellanimal

Also TAGGING older followers/friends/supporters who I really haven’t been in touch with lately, have done the final before, or are on the inactive side. And also some newcomers who have been supporting the blog a lot: @astorytellertothestars, @babeltwo, @celibatemachine, @classwarhooligan​, @dakotarosie, @emergencyhugs​, @haveyoubeentobahia​, @ineedanumbrella​, @jayb3​, @justtheguest​, @mundi41, @nudehearth, @sadisticsunglasses​, @shootingstarvenator​, @thenarddog, @thethirdman8, @thewolfofelectricavenue​, and @voicetalentbrendan​!

And now the grand finale. For those of you who have never seen this before, I have an Oscar-like ceremony on my blog celebrating all the movies of that year’s Movie Odyssey (all the movies I saw for the first time in their entirety) at the year’s end. For the last four years, I have asked family and friends to help out with the Best Original Song category - because in all other categories, you'd be forced to watch entire movies to decide it. This is a musical thank-you to all of you, who have contributed, in your ways, to support the Movie Odyssey and me. Please do not feel like you have to do this; there are no hard feelings if you do not participate, and you have my thanks either way. But if you are, I hope you enjoy this 2018 edition!

This final round has the largest chronological spread we have ever covered: eighty-eight years. Songs in English, German (making its debut), Hindi, Japanese are all involved. A Vietnamese-language song made its debut for MOABOS, but was eliminated in the preliminary.

INSTRUCTIONS Please rank (#1-16) your choices in order. The top ten songs will receive nominations. Be warned, there is a new tabulation method for this year's final (described in the "read more" at the bottom). There is no minimum or maximum amount of songs you can rank, but because of the nature of this new tabulation system, it is highly recommended to rank as many songs as possible, rather than only one or two. Those who rank fewer songs run a greater risk of their ballots being discarded as I am counting the ballots. Again, this is all described in the "read more". Why not implement at a minimum number of songs to rank? Well, I believe in giving you folks as much freedom as possible.

Please consider to the best of your ability: how musically interesting the song is, its lyrics, context within the film (if you've seen it - this factor also includes integration into the film's score), choreography/dance direction (if applicable; not many song-and-dance numbers this year), and the song's cultural impact/life outside the film (if applicable, and by far the least important factor). Imperfect audio and video quality may not be used against any song, as this disadvantages older and non-English language songs. You may absolutely send in comments and reactions with your rankings - it’s always fun to read reactions to individual songs, and it usually makes the process (for everyone) more enjoyable!

The submission deadline is Sunday, December 31 at 6 PM Pacific Time / 4 PM Hawai'i / 5 PM Alaska / 8 PM Central / 10 PM Eastern. If you're across the Atlantic, that's New Year's Day at 2 AM GMT / 3 AM CET / 4 AM EET / 7:30 AM IST. There will be no deadline extensions.

And now the sixteen finalists in this category, for your listening pleasure (contextual blurbs are provided, and I hope they are informative; if links do not work there are most likely alternatives across the Internet but please inform me if that does not apply to you):

“Bless Your Beautiful Hide”, music by Gene de Paul, lyrics by Johnny Mercer, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

Performed by Howard Keel

The opener to Seven Brides; its melody is used as the main orchestral theme throughout (most memorably in the barn dance scene). Oregonian backwoodsman Adam Pontipee (Keel) has little experience with society (let alone women), as he looks for a bride to take care of him and his six brothers in this satirical musical of gendered misbehavior - which pokes fun of, never endorses, said misbehavior.

“'Bout Time”, music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1968)

Performed by John Davidson and Lesley Ann Warren

In this Disney musical, Joe Carder (Davidson) has convinced the Bower family to move to Dakota Territory. Joe is suitor to Alice Bower (Warren), their relationship complicated by her grandfather's politics. This song takes place on the first day in their new hometown, and before her first day at work at the schoolhouse.

“Candle on the Water”, music and lyrics by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn, Pete's Dragon (1977)

Performed by Helen Reddy

Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song

Nora (Reddy) has just tucked Pete in, not before describing the story of her long-lost fiancé (missing sea for over a year) to him. After being scolded by her father for clinging onto the past, Nora goes up to the lighthouse balcony to sing this.

“Chaar Kadam”, music by Shantanu Moitra, lyrics by Swanand Kirkire, PK (2014, India)

Performed by Sushant Singh Rajput (dubbed by Shaan) and Anushka Sharma (dubbed by Shreya Ghoshal)

Lyrics in Hindi (song ends at 16:20)

In Bruges in Belgium, an Indian Hindu woman named Jaggu (Sharma) has met a Pakistani Muslim, Sarfaraz (Rajput) - both are students. This is their love duet before her family objects due to nationalistic and (especially) religious reasons. Don't worry about the dude at the end - he's the one who got them together.

“Charade”, music by Henry Mancini, lyrics by Johnny Mercer, Charade (1963)

Performed by orchestra and chorus; conducted by Mancini

Used as main theme throughout this romantic comedy/mystery/suspense film. This song is more famous for its instrumental version without lyrics.

“Falling in Love Again (Can't Help It)”, music and German lyrics by Friedrich Hollaender, English lyrics by Sammy Lerner, The Blue Angel (1930, Germany)

Performed by Marlene Dietrich

(English-language version... excuse the badly-edited video) / (German original)

A college prep school professor is angry at his students for passing around photos of cabaret singer, Lola Lola (Dietrich), in class. In hopes to catch the boys at the club, he goes to the cabaret and is overcome with lust for Lola after seeing her perform this song. Their relationship will become toxic, based on his groveling and humiliations.

“Gunfight at the O.K. Corral”, music by Dimitri Tiomkin, lyrics by Ned Washington, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)

Performed by Frankie Laine (the above was re-recorded in the 1980s when Laine was in his mid-70s, so those familiar with Laine's voice will notice it sounds weaker)

Played in the opening credits, with additional verses sung during montage scenes across the film. Used as main orchestral theme in the film's score. This version of the song contains additional lyrics that can't be found online.

“Hooray for Hollywood”, music by Richard A. Whiting, lyrics by Johnny Mercer, Hollywood Hotel (1937)

Performed by Johnnie Davis, Frances Langford, and Benny Goodman and His Orchestra

Considered an unofficial anthem of Hollywood. Usually played at least once in every Oscars ceremony and other movie awards ceremonies worldwide.

Small town saxophonist Ronnie Bowers (Dick Powell) has just won a contract with a major Hollywood studio. His friends and former employer, Benny Goodman, arrive at the airport to send him off. The lyrics are meant to satirize what people do to become famous as actors.

“Hum Aapki Aankhon Mein”, music by Sachin Dev Burman, lyrics by Sahir Ludhianvi, Pyaasa (1957, India)

Performed by Guru Dutt (dubbed by Mohammad Rafi) and Mala Sinha (dubbed by Geeta Dutt)

Lyrics in Hindi

Broke poet Vijay (Guru Dutt) encounters his university ex, Meena (Sinha), who is now married to a hotshot publisher who won't publish Vijay's work. Vijay then has a flashback, and within that flashback is this foggy fantasy song-and-dance sequence. Flashback-ception?

“It's Not Easy”, music and lyrics by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn, Pete's Dragon (1977)

Performed by Sean Marshall and Helen Reddy

Pete (Marshall) and his dragon, Elliott, are on the run from his abusive foster family. The lighthouse keeper and his daughter, Nora (Reddy), take Pete in. Nora has not met Elliott yet, and believes that he is Pete's imaginary friend.

"Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing", music by Sammy Fain, lyrics by Paul Francis Webster, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)

Non-film version performed by Nat King Cole; film version performed by chorus (and is unavailable)

Used as main orchestral theme throughout this romantic drama's score; version with lyrics sung by chorus first appear at the end of the film.

"Mystery of Love", music and lyrics by Sufjan Stevens, Call Me by Your Name (2017)

Performed by Stevens

(single version) / (use in film; song isn't played in its entirety)

This song appears as the film's main characters, Elio and Oliver, take one of their many day trips in this Italian summer.

“Rain”, music by Shin'ichi Nakajima, Saori Fujisaki, and Satoshi Fukase, lyrics by Saori Fujisaki and Satoshi Fukase, Mary and the Witch's Flower (2017, Japan)

Performed by Sekai no Owari

Lyrics in Japanese (rough translations)

Appears in the end credits; this song is not referenced in this anime fantasy's score (but like the score, there's a prominent and unusual use of a dulcimer).

“Shallow”, music and lyrics by Mark Ronson, Lady Gaga, Anthony Rossomando, and Andrew Wyatt, A Star Is Born (2018)

Performed by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper

Aspiring singer-songwriter Ally (Lady Gaga) has fallen for declining artist Jackson Maine (Cooper). At one of his concerts, he begins to put music to a song she sung to him in a parking lot, inviting her onstage.

“This Is Me”, music and lyrics by Justin Paul and Benj Pasek, The Greatest Showman (2017)

Performed by Keala Settle and company

After being shunned from a dinner including P.T. Barnum’s wealthy sponsors for his circus, the circus "freaks" sing this ballad which eventually becomes a montage, refusing to put up with those harass and put them down.

“You're the One That I Want”, music and lyrics by John Farrar, Grease (1978)

Performed by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John

At the post-graduation high school carnival, greaser and bad boy Danny Zuko (Travolta) is stunned to see his relatively restrained, somewhat prudish, girlfriend, Sandy (Newton-John), committing to change herself for him to win him over.

Well, have at it! And thanks for your time and consideration! You may submit your responses in any way, as long as they come in before the deadline. I am free to answer any questions about anything you have about the process. The 2018 Movie Odyssey has been a rewarding one, and I have been glad to share it with you.

TABULATION Like the preliminary... a respondent’s first choice receives 10 points, the second choice receives 9, the third choice receives 8, etc. HOWEVER, the points system is used only for tiebreaker purposes.

The way the winner will be decided is through a process called instant-runoff voting (IRV; the Academy Awards uses this method to choose a Best Picture winner, visually represented here - you should really watch this video if the below doesn't make sense... which it probably won't):

All #1 picks from all voters are tabulated. A song needs more than half of all aggregate votes to win (50% of all votes plus one... i.e. if there are thirty respondents, sixteen #1 votes are needed to win on the first count).

If there is no winner after the first count (as is most likely), the song(s) with the fewest #1 votes or points is/are eliminated. Then, we look at the ballots of those who voted for the last-placed song(s). Their votes then go to the highest-remaining (non-eliminated) song on their ballot.

This process (in #2) repeats until one song has secured 50% plus one of all votes. We keep eliminating nominees and transfer votes to the highest-ranked, non-eliminated song on each ballot. NOTE: It is possible after several rounds of counting that respondents who did not entirely fill in their ballots will have wasted their votes at the end of the process. For example, if a person voted the second-to-last place song as their #1, ranked no other songs, and the count has exceeded two rounds, their ballot is discarded (lowering the vote threshold needed to win), and they have no say in which song ultimately is the winner.

A song wins when it reaches more than fifty percent of all #1 and re-distributed votes.

Tiebreakers: 1) first song to receive 50% plus one of all #1 and transferred votes; 2) total points earned; 3) total #1 votes; 4) placement on my ballot; 5) placement on my sister’s ballot; 6) tie declared

Previous years’ results for reference: 2013 final 2014 final (input from family and friends began this year) 2015 final 2016 prelim / final 2017 prelim / final

[mobiline-app-blog]

Best Video Calling Social App- Just Go For it!

Video calling is presently the next choicest thing to talking to someone face to face. It is Social media with faces. It allows us the feeling of being near someone even from miles and oceans away. But like all modern technology, it has its own glitches. Out of the millions of HD Video Calling App most get the same complaints from the customers.

You should not be bothered whether the call you are making will connect, or the person you are calling has the same gadget as you. These problems have led to the masses rejecting Video Calling. But I think this is unacceptable. When new technology is available, you should be allowed to wield it.

Out of the Thousands of Video Calling Apps all around the World, it is strenuous to nominate the Best. But that is not a problem for you as MobiLine is here.

The Newest Entry and The Solution to all Your Video Calling Problem- MOBILINE

MobiLine is the New and most Updated Video Calling App on the Market. MobiLine allows you, not only the option of a single Video Call but also Group chats and even audio calls.

Now MobiLine has some things special that you must be made aware of.

Know then Answer — With MobiLine you do not need to worry about Spam calls. Mobile gives you an option to know the reason for the call and then answer. This makes for less wasted time on unwanted and irritating calls, leaving you free to connect with the people you want.

They don’t call MobiLine the Best video calling app for nothing. Use MobiLine to turn those cold voice calls to warm and smiling Video chats. 

Break The Ice — The most awkward phase of connecting with someone is the beginning of the conversation. MobiLine takes this into consideration and has developed the Break the Ice Video Call feature. Now you will be using MobiLine’s HD Video Calling App to begin the first 1 on 1 face to face conversation. 

Introduce yourself as you wish — The monotony of introducing yourself repeatedly to people is a pain. So MobiLine has introduced the new Video Introduction feature. You can record your introductory Video, attach a Hashtag to it and make it public. This will allow all the MobiLine users searching under the hashtag to see it and get to know you.

A social App too. — MobiLine not only allows you to connect to the people you know but also to the ones you don’t. With a user interface of international reach, MobiLine Connects you to a huge number of people all around the globe. You can now use the Best video calling app with the services of MobiLine and connect to anyone around the Map. 

Your Security is the Most Important — MobiLine not only looks after the communication part of the Social link but also provide for the Best Security for you. All your chats, Video calls, Voice calls, and direct messages are kept Private. MobiLine allows you to connect with people on a grand level, but with the strongest shackles on your security.

You can invite your Contacts on the MobiLine app and have a Group fun there. Or find someone thousands of Miles away and get to know them. The possibilities are Limitless with MobiLine.

[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEEKEND MARCH 8, 2019 – CAPTAIN MARVEL!!!

 This is a big weekend for Marvel Studios, as they release their first superhero movie with a female protagonist -- not counting Elektra (thanks for the laugh, Max Evry!) -- and the question is not whether it will make $100 million this weekend but how much MORE than $100 million it will be making this weekend. But that’s a question to be answered over at my gig at The Beat and it will be answered in about an hour...

CAPTAIN MARVEL (Marvel Studios/Disney)

Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Half Nelson, Sugar, Mississippi Grind) Written by Boden, Fleck and Geneva Robertson-Dworet Cast: Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Jude Law, Ben Mendelsohn, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, Annette Bening, Gemma Chan, McKenna Grace, Lashana Lynch, Clark Gregg MPAA Rating: PG-13

I’m not sure how much more I have to say about the latest Marvel movie after writing about it extensively for The Beat. (You are reading my Box Office Preview there for all the stuff you used to read in this column about the wide releases, right?)

I am greatly looking forward to seeing this on Thursday night for a number of reasons and none of them are due to “old white man hater” Brie Larson, who I used to have respect for until she decided to attack me and my livelihood and ability to get work.

That said, I’ve been waiting for directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck to break out and do a big studio movie for many years, as I’ve been a fan of theirs since Half Nelson and have spoken to them a number of times including one of my favorites of theirs, the road trip movie Mississippi Grind, starring Ryan Reynolds and Ben Mendelsohn, who played a much nicer and more sympathetic role in that then he has portraying the villain in many studio movies since then.

I’m also looking forward to Captain Marvel since it introduces to the MCU the idea of the alien races, the Kree and the Skrulls, who have played such a large part in some of my favorite Marvel Comics storylines, including the “Kree-Skrull War” from The Avengers, which certainly could be something being set up in the MCU. I also loved the Skrulls as Fantastic Four villains, and here’s hoping that with the new Disney-Fox merger, we might actually see a GOOD Fantastic Four movie one of these days (or a crossover with Avengers even!)

Anyway, we’ll see whether I feel like writing a review for this on Friday after seeing it on Thursday night, but it’s really tough to be fair and impartial when the star of a movie has already gone out of her way to write you off, due to your gender, race and age.

More importantly, let’s get to some…

LIMITED RELEASES

One of the best movie out this weekend is Oscar-winning Chilean filmmaker Sebastian Lelio’s new movie GLORIA BELL (A24), starring Julianne Moore. A remake of his 2013 Spanish language film Gloria, the filmmaker behind A Fantastic Woman makes his English language debut with Moore playing the title character, a lonely older woman dealing with family issues who goes out dancing on Friday nights in hoping of meeting men. On one such night she meets John Turturro’s Arnold, and the two of them fall into a romance that runs into issues when he finally meets her kids and ex-husband (Brad Garrett).  Although I never did see Gloria, I was pretty blown away by how Lelio told this story, and Moore gives one of the best performances of her career – YES, MUCH better than her Oscar-winning turn in Still Alice. I know that A24 brought the movie to TIFF last year, but for whatever reason, they decided to hold it until March… just like Brie Larson’s Free Fire, ironically enough. Personally, I think Moore has a real chance at another Oscar nomination, but having a movie released so early in the year will make it tough, sadly. I was really able to relate to this movie more than I thought I would but mainly to Turturro’s character.

Another film worth seeking out is Vincent D’Onofrio’s second film as a director, the Western THE KID (Lionsgate), as in “Billy the Kid,” played by Dane DeHaan. The “kid” in the title is also teenager Rio, played by Jake Schur, who is on the run with his sister (Leila George) trying to get away from their abusive uncle (played by Chris Pratt!) Along the way, they meet Billy the Kid, as well as Sheriff Pat Garrett, who has been sent to capture and try Billy.  It’s opening in 250 theaters on Friday, so it won’t be too hard to find, and I’d love to say more wonderful things about it, but I’ve been embargoed. I hope to have an interview with D’Onofrio soon over on The Beat!

Another film worth seeking out is 3 FACES (Kino Lorber), the new film from Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi (The Circle, Offside), who has been banned from making films in his home country but continues to find a way to make films anyway. This one received an award for Best Screenplay at Cannes last year and has played Toronto and New York Film Festivals before opening at the IFC Centeron Friday. Panahi also stars in this drama along with Iranian actor Behnaz Jafari, as they go on a road trip to help a girl whose family has forbidden her from attending a drama school in Tehran, encountering various people along the way. The film continues Panahi’s exploration of combining his personal life with dramatic storytelling in the real world, which I haven’t really enjoyed as much as his straight dramas.

Opening at Metrograph is Black Mother (Grasshopper Films), the new cinema verité doc from filmmaker and photographer Khalik Allah (Field Niggas), which combines portraits of denizens of Jamaica shot on 16mm and HD with audio recordings of them talking about life in Jamaica. It’s a really beautiful film, and this is from someone who generally doesn’t care for cinema verité docs, but this really is a compelling film that’s worth seeing.

Oscar winner J.K. Simmons stars in his wife Michelle Schumacher’s second film I’m Not Here (Gravitas Ventures) playing Steve, as a lonely man who is haunted by memories of his past locked into the objects and sounds around his house. The film also stars Sebastian Stan, Mandy Moore, Max Greenfield, David Koechner and Harold Perrineau, and it opens at New York’s Village East, Los Angele’s Laemmle Monica and in other select cities this Friday. (Simmons and Schumacher will be at the Laemmle for a QnA on Sunday evening.)

Opening at New York’s Quad Cinema Friday is Giacomo Durzi’s doc Ferrante Fever (Greenwich) about novelist Elena Ferrante, who has made waves both in Italy and in America, thanks to a few independent publishers.

Gabrielle Brady’s directorial debut Island of the Hungry Ghosts, winner of Best Documentary at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival, will open at Astoria’s Museum of the Moving Image. It focuses on the residents of Christmas Island off the coast of Indonesia where asylum seekers are held in a high-security detention center and counseled by trauma therapist Poh Lin Lee.

Since I haven’t had a chance to see JC (All Is Lost, Margin Call) Chandor’s new movie Triple Frontier, starring Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund and Pedro Pascal (Narcos) as Special Forces operatives planning a South American heist, I don’t have much to say about it, although I’m sold based on the premise alone. It’s opening In New York and L.A. on Wednesday in single theaters in both places (Sorry, Steven Spielberg!) but it will stream on Netflix a week later on March 13. Maybe I’ll write more about it next week. Maybe not.

Opening at the Film Society of Lincoln Center is the late Hu Bo’s An Elephant Sitting Still (KimStim) which played at New Directors/New Films in 2018.  It involves a teenager who accidentally injures a bully and interacts with various people who are dealing with their own burdens. Actor Zhang Yu will be making appearances before and after screenings including a reception before the 6:30pm screening on Friday.

This week’s Bollywood offering is Sujoy Ghosh’s BADLA (Reliance Entertainment), starring Taapsee Pannu as a young entrepreneur who is locked in a hotel room with the body of her deadl lover, so she calls upon a prestigious lawyer (Bollywood vet Amitabh Bachchan) to figure out how she ended up in that predicament.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

Ringo Lam X3 continues through the weekend, while Raul Peck X2continues with a screening of Murder in Pacot  (2014) on Saturday. This week’s Late Nites at Metrograph  is Fassbinder’s Love is Cooler than Death (1969), and the weekend’s Playtime: Family Matinees is 1982’s The Last Unicorn, an animated film from Rankin and Bass that was co-created by the Japanese anime studio Topcraft, who went on to form Studio Ghibli – you’ve probably heard of them. The voice cast includes Mia Farrow, Alan Arkin, Jeff Bridges, Angela Lansbury and Christopher Lee, and it’s probably a bit of a lost classic.

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

Weds and Thursday is the Billy Dee Williams cop double feature The Take  (1974) and Nighthawks (1981), and then on Friday and Saturday, the Bev double features One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest  (1975) and Arthur Hiller’s The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder (1974) (a movie I’ve never even heard of!). Sunday and Monday’s double feature is two Paul Wendkos films, The Case Against Brooklyn and Tarawa Beachhead, both from 1958. On Saturday and Sunday, the Kiddee Matinee is the Australian horse movie Phar Lap  (1983) while the midnight offerings this weekend are Kill Bill Vol. 2 on Friday and The Groove Tubeon Saturday. Grindhouse Tuesday is back with the “Bruce Li” double feature of Soul Brothers of Kung Fu  (1977) and The Image of Bruce Lee  (1978), movies made after Bruce Lee’s death.  (If I lived in L.A., this is where I would be on Tuesday night.) The high school comedy classic Clueless (1995) will screen on Tuesday, as well.

FILM FORUM (NYC):

Starting this weekend, the Greenwich Village theater presents a new 4k restoration of Jack Clayton’s 1959 film Room at the Top, which won Oscars for screenplay and actress Simone Signoret and was nominated for Picture, Director, Actor and Supporting Actress (for Hermione Baddeley’s 2.5 minute appearance in the film). It’s about a working-class guy who sets his sights on the daughter of the boss.The weekend’s Film Forum Jr. is Joe Dante’s 1993 film Matinee, starring John Goodman. Also, author David Thomson will present a screening of Joseph Losey’s 1963 film The Servant on Sunday.

MOMA (NYC):

New month, new Modern Matinees series and for the next two months, it’s a doozy with Modern Matinees: B is for Bacall, showcasing the fabulous filmography of Oscar-nominated actor Laure Bacall. This week, they’re screening the 1954 film Woman’s Worldon Wednesday, Howard Hawks’ The Big Sleep (1946) on Thursday and 1947’s Dark Passages on Friday. (Note that most of these movies will be rescreened later in the series in case you miss them this week.) Also this week is the series William Fox Presents More Restorations and Rediscoveries from the Fox Film Corporation, which features lots of movie from the ‘20s and ‘30s, many of them accompanied with live piano. Wednesday is Hangman’s House from 1928 and 1920’s Just Palsand Friday is 1929’s The Cock-Eyed World and Me and My Gal (1932), and there’s more on Saturday, Sunday and next week.  This is a busy time for MOMA as they’re also presenting Carte Blanche: Mariette Rissenbeek on German Women Cinematographers, which mostly features films from the last 15 years but many which never have received U.S. theatrical releases.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA)

Big weekend for Albert Finney fans as Albert Finney Remembered presents a few fantastic double features including Two for the Road  (1967) and Alan Parker’s Shoot the Moon (1982) on Thursday, the Coens’ Miller’s Crossing  (1990) and John Huston’s Under the Volcano  (1984) on Friday and Tom Jones (1963) and Tim Burton’s Big Fish (2003) on Sunday. The Egyptian’s big event for the weekend is the 7-movie day-long Boris Karloff-Bela Lugosi Movie Marathonon Saturday, which will include Frankenstein, Dracula but some lesser-seen classics like The Raven (1935) and more. If I lived in L.A., this is where I would be on Saturday.

AERO  (LA):

The AERO continues its Hitchcock, Truffaut and Jones series with double features Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much  (1956) and Truffaut’s 1968 film The Bride Wore Black (which I’ve actually seen fairly recently!) on Friday, and Rear Window  (1954)and Mississippi Mermaid (1969) on Saturday. The theater will also have an all-day screening of Sergey Bondarchuk’s 7-hour epic adaptation of War and Peace  (1967) in four parts with two brief intermissions.

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

The Quad’s still a month away from its 2-year restoration anniversary, but they’re reshowing Bertrand Blier’s Going Places and Luis Bunuel’s Tristana this coming weekend. The former is also part of Amour or Less: A Blier Buffet, a retrospective of the French filmmaker who I’m not even remotely familiar with. (Sorry!) They’re showing eight of Blier’s films before the new 40thanniversary restoration of his 1978 film Get Out Your Hankerchiefs opens on Friday, March 15.

IFC CENTER (NYC)

While Weekend Classics: Early Godard  seems to be taking a weekend off, Waverly Midnights: The Feds  is screening the Wayan Brothers’ White Girls (2004) in a 35mm print! Late Night Favorites takes a break from showing Ridley Scott’s Alien (which celebrates its 40th anniversary this month!) to show David Lynch’s Eraserhead (1977).

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

Premiering at BAM on Friday (as well as the Laemmle Glendale in L.A.) is the U.S. premiere of a restoration of Franco Rocco’s 1980 film Babylon, which was banned from the New York Film Festival and never released in the United States. Written by Martin Stellman (Quadrophenia), it stars Brinsley Forde from reggae group Aswad as a dancehall DJ who fights again racism and xenophobia in Thatcher-era London.

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

See It Big! Costumes by Edith Head concludes this weekend with screenings of Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964).

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART  (LA):

The Nuart’s Friday midnight screening is George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road Black & Chrome Edition (2015).

STREAMING AND CABLE

Season 1 of Ricky Gervais’ new series After Life will debut on  Netflix starting Friday, but there are also a few new movies including Clark Johnson’s Juanita, starring Alfre Woodard as the mother of three who goes on a trip to Montana, plus there’s Conor Allyn’s Walk. Ride. Rodeo., an inspirational drama that tells the true story of Amberley Snyder, played by Spencer Locke from the Resident Evil series, a 19-year-old rodeo rider who barely survives a car crash that leaves her paralyzed from the waist down. So yeah, Netflix is even trying to sidetrack Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel rerelease with other female-led films just like they’re going to try to derail Warners’ Shazam! with Brie Larson’s directorial debut Unicorn Store next month. The struggle continues.

Now available for digital download is Joe Eddy’s Steve McQueen biopic Chasing Bullitt (Vertical), starring Andre Brooks as the legendary actor who in 1971 makes a deal with his agent to let him choose his next acting gig if he finds his Ford Mustang GT 390 from Bullitt. Also available digitally is Dallas King’s action-thriller Kiss Kiss (Cleopatra Entertainment) that follows four strippers who go to a wine tasting that turns into a female fight night. I didn’t make this movie up, but apparently, it’s counter-programming to Captain Marvel.

LOCAL FESTIVALS

On Thursday, the Museum of the Moving Image is presenting the 6thannual Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival with two programs of short films. Also on Thursday, the IFC Center will kick off Canada Now 2019 with Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky’s new doc Anthropocene: The Human Epoch, another globe-crossing from the duo behind Manufactured Landscapes. There will also be other Canadian films that have played in various film festivals north of the border.

Oh, yeah, also South by Southwest is happening in Austin, but I’m not going, so…

That’s it for this week. Next week, Captain Marvel will probably be #1 again, but there are a few other movies hoping at least for second place.

[chuckisgod]

Deals With the Devil (Lin x Reader) Part 2

Pairings: Lin x Reader

Warnings: Angst, lots of it.

Word Count: 3525... This is the longest thing I’ve ever written.

AN: This is it! It’s the end of my Supernatural-based fic. I’m probably going to go cry for hours now. I hope you like it!

Tags: @the-and-peggy @hamiltrashtothemax @plamspringsdancingontables @piercethemarti @fandomsinabookshelf @beautifulfound @hamil-tonn-of-trash @hamlltvn @barnesgasm @superwholockbooknerd526

Part 1

February 22, 2016 (366 days before) Catching a cab three streets up from the warehouse, Lin rode to the hospital, his heart racing a mile a minute. God if what that man, Crowley, had said was true, you’d be alive, but he’d also have a timer on his life. If what Crowley said was true, in precisely a year. He’d be gone.

As they arrived, his heart in his throat, he pictured you awake, hell even you being alive would be good enough for him. Pulling out his wallet he paid the driver and tipped him generously before walking back into the place he had raced out of earlier.     “Mr. Miranda!” The lady at the front desk called him over, “We’ve been trying to get in contact with you for the past hour. Something happened. She’s awake and asking for you. Room 372.”     The race down the hallway seemed quicker than last time he had completed it, and he realized that it because he knew you were okay, that you and the baby were okay. God, there was a little human he had created that was going to eventually live, and he would only be around to see it for four months. Four months that he would treasure his daughter or son.     The door of the hospital room was ajar, and he could hear the humming of various machines. You might be alive, but you were still hurt. It wasn't even your fault. You had the right of way, and so you attempted to cross the street, but a cab had hit a patch of ice and couldn't stop in time before it plowed right into you.

Lin pushed the door open the rest of the way, and suddenly he was by your side. “I can’t believe you're okay,” he whispered, crying into his hands. “Last time I was here I thought you were dead.”

“I’m okay, just a little banged up.” He grabbed your hand, trying to be careful around the IV set in your arm.

“Is there something you want to tell me?” he asked rubbing his thumb on the skin on the back of your hand, his red eyes staring into yours like he was looking for an answer.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“The doctor found something interesting in one of your tests that I thought you might already know.” Seeing the confused look in your eye, taking the hand he was holding he gently set it on your lower abdomen.

May 28th, 2016 (270 days before) The vows Lin had written felt like a weight in his pocket as he fumbled with tying his tie. The room he was getting ready in seemed smaller than when he had entered it.

“Woah, Lin. Take it, steady man.” Suddenly Chris’s fingers were at his neck, retying the tie that Lin’s nervous fingers had mangled. “I don’t understand why you’re so nervous. It’s not like you haven’t been planning this for months.”

“I just- What if she doesn’t want to marry me.”

“Are you being serious right now? Because honestly if it’s even possible that girl loves you almost more than you love her.”

In the room you were getting ready in, you didn't have the same doubts. You knew Lin loved you. Lin had been so great with helping to plan the wedding and dealing with you being pregnant that obviously, he did.

And so as you walked out of the room to walk down the aisle, you weren’t worried about Lin being at the end of it; you were terrified of falling on your face. You only stumbled once, but thankfully it was right into the arms of the love of your life and knew that life your life was going to be fine if Lin was in it.

June 12th, 2016 (255 days before) Trying to find a dress for the Tony's while five months pregnant was about as difficult as you would have imagined but knowing you had to be there to support your husband and his act of creation, but you powered through.

You might have been cutting it a little close, but the dress you had decided on with Pippa and Jasmine's help was worth it.

When Lin finally saw you in your dress the night of the awards, he gasped before moving over to you and swinging you around. “Careful,” you warned.

“You look beautiful,”

During the limo ride, Lin must have been nervous, his leg bouncing and his hands balled into fists.

“Hey,” you whispered, pulling one of his hands into both of yours. “Hamilton's nominated sixteen times. If you don't win something, it must have been rigged.”

The limo was pulling onto the road, and suddenly Lin was opening the door into the chaos and pulling you across the seat and into the craziness.

You wished you could avoid the red carpet, but Lin's hand on your arm kept you steady and sure that you would be okay, while he chatted with the press.

You watched later as the ‘little musical’ your husband had written won awards for almost every category it was nominated in. You weren’t surprised when your husband even ended up taking home 2 of the awards for himself.

July 9th, 2016 (228 days before) Lin’s last night as Hamilton started out as most days in the Miranda household do, with Lin waking you up by singing whatever song was stuck in his head. Today it was Helpless, and as soon as he saw that you were up, he pulled you out of bed and swung you around the apartment.

After making a breakfast fit for an entire royal family, you were eating for two, after all, you and Lin took the A-line farther into the city and parted ways close to the Richard Rodgers where you took a turn that led you deeper into the city towards work. “I’ll see you at the show,” Lin whispered, kissing the hand he was holding before letting you go.

Throughout the day as Lin was saying not goodbye but so long for now to some of his coworkers, some of his best friends. He tried to picture himself anywhere other than where he was, and he couldn’t even imagine it.

He felt more energized during the night’s performance almost as though him knowing you were in the crowd watching him made him two hundred times better than the perfect he already was, and when he was making his final bow he sought out your eyes in the crowd.

As you waded through the crowd of people in the lobby of the Richard Rodgers after the show, you made your way backstage. Stopping into the girl’s dressing room, you watched Pippa’s teary goodbye with the girls who played her sisters, and you almost began crying when she turned her attention to you in the doorway.

“There you are!” A breathless Daveed exclaimed almost pulling you out of your embrace with Pippa, “Lin’s been looking for you everywhere, and he was too scared of being mobbed to go out into the lobby.

“Bye Pippa! I’ll see you for pie in a couple of days. Right?” She nodded and let you go.     Knocking at the door to his dressing room, you heard a muffled, “Come in,” before you pushed open the door. You almost burst out laughing when you did. Lin was stuck. One of his arms out of the top of his Hamilton costume, but his other arm and his head were hopelessly tangled in the fabric.

“Geez Lin, What am I going to do with you?”

October 12th, 2016 (133 days before) The day his daughter was born, Lin was very busy. He had been writing the intro for a talk show he was appearing in the next week while you slept in the next room. Little did he know that within his next few hours his whole life was going to change or that you would end up breaking his hand in the process.

Aria Grace Miranda was born on a partly cloudy Wednesday in the middle of October kicking and screaming with all ten fingers and all ten toes. But later as friends and family stopped by to see the new little one they would remark on how she was the sweetest, most well-behaved baby they had ever seen, her parents would smile at each other and know that they were possibly never going to get a full night’s sleep ever again.     November 2, 2016 (112 days before) Lin walked briskly, his coat flapping in the cold winter’s breeze. Ducking inside the open door of a nearby bookstore he decided to roam through the sections, as usual, when he came to the children’s section, he ran his fingers across the spines, picturing his baby girl hopefully asleep in her crib. He would only ever know her as a baby, but you would be there for everything, her first word when she started walking.

In 10 years, his little princess wouldn’t be able to determine his voice from the next guy’s. Taking out his phone, he grabbed the closest book on the shelf, “Goodnight Moon,” and flipping to the audio recorder, started reading.

After he had done 3 or 4 books, an employee of the bookstore came over and just watched him for a couple of minutes. “Is there a reason why you’re reading children’s books into your phone, sir?”

“I’m-” how was he going to explain that he was reading children’s books into his phone because in a little under four months he’d be dead. “-I’m sick and I only have a few months to live, and I want my daughter to be able to hear my voice reading a bedtime story to her every night for as long as she wants one.”

“We actually have better recording equipment in the back, if you'd like to use it. I could talk to my boss and see if she'd let you.”

Lin ended up recording almost every children's book in the store in the 3 and a half months that he had left, keeping them on DVDs that he kept hidden in a box in the back of the closet that you shared.

When he got home that night though he kissed you on the cheek and set the baby on his lap to watch the Little Mermaid, wishing that he'd have forever, he snuggled closer to your side, hoping for a miracle but knowing it probably wasn't going to come.

December 25th, 2016 (59 days before) When you were little, you remembered waking up as early as you could to open your presents, but as you grew older, it became nicer and nicer to sleep in as late as possible. Usually, you could, Lin was someone who liked his sleep, but this Christmas, Ari had kept you both awake all night with a fever and a cough and since you were already up you decided to do Christmas early before the rest of the world was awake.

For hours it was just you, Lin, and the baby, watching Christmas movies together on the couch while outside the sun began to rise over the George Washington Bridge.

Later when your house was filled with rowdy nephews and both pairs of parents, the opening of the actual presents began while everyone munched on the cookies that were made with loving care by Abuela the night before.

And as everyone sat around the Christmas tree Lin realized that this might be the last time his whole family was together like this before what was probably his death. Lin hugged the nephew sitting on his lap a little tighter, and as everyone was leaving, he made sure to let them know how much he loved them.

December 31st, 2016 (53 days before) The clock ticked steadily closer to midnight on New Year's Eve, and for the first time in years, Lin wasn’t drunk out of his mind.     Instead of the loud music and dancing, the tone was decidedly quieter, but the apartment was still filled with some of your closest friends. Lin, Chris, and Tommy were out on the balcony watching the sky for the fireworks that were sure to come later, while you and Chris’s wife were trying to get the baby back to sleep because the noise of the ‘party’ had woken her up. Javi, Anthony, and Lac were just talking in the kitchen with a couple of beers, while “the Schuyler sisters” were playing a card game at the folding table a couple of feet away from you.

When you finally got the baby to sleep you placed her back to sleep in the crib, kissing her forehead before turning off the lights and shutting the door.

“Did you finally get her to sleep?” Lin asked out on the balcony after you walked out to join him. Staring up at the night sky, he tried not to imagine what New Years next year would be like. Last year he had enjoyed making resolutions for what his life would be like in this new year. He would never have imagined it would lead to 2 Tonys and a Grammy and his marriage to you and a baby. This year he just wanted to live longer than the time he was given.

As the time ticked closer to midnight, everyone from inside filtered out onto the balcony. Counting down the seconds, he pulled you closer to him and as the clock struck midnight he pressed a kiss to your lips.

February 20th, 2016 (2 days before) “You haven’t been to your parent’s house in ages, y/n,” Lin spoke, coming up behind you and wrapping his arms around you. “I’m sure they miss you and the last time they saw Aria was Thanksgiving. She has a tooth now, and she can roll over. When they were here last, she couldn’t really do much.”     “What’s brought this on honey? Are you trying to get rid of us.”

“Your mom called me and told me she missed you. She was so used to getting to see you all the time before we got married. Now she says she sees you maybe once a month.” He smiled at you before leading you over to the couch and taking your hands in his. “I won’t mind if you go, you know. I know you miss her too. Plus Chris and I were going to have a guy’s night out, so you wouldn’t be missing anything.” In Lin’s mind, he was torn between begging you not to go, because he didn’t want to die alone, and hoping that you would leave because he didn’t think he could live with the fact that you would watch him die.

Picking up the baby off the floor where she was lying on her back, he smiled at her as she reached over and tried to grab a handful of your hair. “Hi Ari,” you cooed at her.

“What if we leave tomorrow, early, and then maybe Ari and I will stay there for another day or two so that you and Chris can have that man day you’ve been talking about lately.”

Lin gave a sad smile, that ‘man day,’ you were talking about would probably just be him and Chris eating dinner and him trying to let Chris know how much he thought of him as a brother.

That night Lin held you as you slept, trying not to think of it as being the last time he would see you sleeping. One of the last times he would see you ever.

February 21st, 2016 (1 day before) Lin may have been the one who was trying to send away his wife and infant daughter away before what may as well be his death, but that doesn’t mean saying goodbye to them didn’t hurt. It was so very painful.

Your bags were packed and in front of the door before Lin had gotten out of bed in the morning, which wasn’t surprising. Lin hadn’t been sleeping very well as the months got closer to the end of his deal.

Before you left, he made sure to kiss both of you, you on the lips, Ari on the forehead, and told you exactly how much he loved you. “More than from here to the end of the universe and back.”

The rest of the day Lin spent getting his affairs in order. He took the box of DVDS that he'd hidden in the back of the closet and placed them on the dining room table along with his will and a note that as Lin had written, he’d burst into tears.

Y/N, I feel like knowing this was going to happen beforehand should have prepared me for the thought of never seeing you again. After all, I did this for you and Ari without this the both of you would have been in a grave and I just couldn’t live with that. My heart doesn't want to believe it's true, but no matter what my heart believes, know that I love you with every fiber of my being and that as my time grows closer that it's the only thing keeping me from falling apart. I love you from the end of the universe and back. Lin

Lin tried as hard as he could to be the person who no matter the circumstance was always smiling, but eating lunch with his best friend hours before was something that he couldn’t quite shake.

Chris noticed that Lin was acting strange around halfway through lunch and started watching him, making mental notes on how he was acting to talk to you about later. Something was wrong with Lin and although it was probably due to what happened to you last year he needed to know what was wrong with him so the both of you could fix it. Lin telling him that he loved him like a brother as they were leaving the restaurant made alarm bells go off in his brain but by the time he had processed what he’d said Lin was too far away to go after.

As the day went on Lin grew more and more fidgety, and if someone on the street had happened to bump into him, he probably would have snapped.

He found himself in Central Perk in the minutes before midnight, the howls of dogs close by. Taking out his phone as the sound moved closer, he called you, but it went straight to voicemail. “I love you and Ari more than anything in this life. Please. Please don’t do anything stupid.”

As the clock ticked over to midnight, the howls increased all of a sudden and then there was the pain. So much more than he would’ve imagined before and then he felt nothing.

February 22nd, 2016 You got the call telling you something had happened at 3 in the morning, and before you knew it you were on the way to the hospital though when you arrived and spotted Chris you knew something had happened.

"No." you whispered, hanging onto Chris because at this point he was the only thing keeping you upright.

"What happened?" you heard Chris ask as you dissolved into sobs.

"It looks to be some sort of animal attack, certainly something we've never seen before this far into the city."

Of course, it would be Lin's luck that the week you were visiting your parents would be the week that there'd be a pack of wild animals roaming the city.

As the minutes passed the tightness in your chest refused to let up. It would probably never let up. For the rest of your life, you'd be dealing with the grief of your husband dying.

Your mother called a couple of minutes later having heard you rush out the door in a frenzy after you had gotten the call. You couldn't talk to her, so Chris took over. He guided you to a chair and then explained what had happened to your parents trying to stop himself from crying in the process. When he was done, he took you home, neither of you noticing the box or papers on the dining room table.

Curling up in bed with one of Lin's shirts you cried until you fell asleep and then cried some more, barely eating.

February 27th, 2016 (5 days after) It had been almost a week since what had happened to Lin, and it was as if a fog had descended on your life and your daughter was the only thing that let you breathe. Even at four months her smile and personality was so much like her fathers, and you knew that eventually the two of you would heal together.

Masterlist

[astrologista]

Acceptable Losses

for @starspatter

“Imagine Bruce confronting Clark over his son's death though...  And Clark being so far gone at this point that he's all "sacrifices must be made for peace" and Bruce being like "You really have gone insane" and storms out.”

---

((( This ficlet references events from the Justice League episodes “A Better World Pt 1 and 2″ and the Batman Beyond 2.0 issues 17-24, and the Justice League Beyond 2.0 issues 17-24. If you haven’t seen/read them, the Justice Lords AU may not make sense to you... I guess... sorry ‘bout it :^) )))

---

A day after Wally was taken from them, Bruce had started work on what he was tentatively calling the “bat-bunker”. 

It existed miles below the Cave, accessible by elevator only, in a natural cavern that had sat barren since he first began this mad game of cops and robbers.

The bunker was outfitted with sensors, with cameras, a complex ventilation system that promised fresh air for many years (none too simple to design), fresh water from an underground spring, and everything else needed to sustain life, for years, as necessary. It also happened to contain several of Tim’s favorite video game consoles, stores of shelf-stable snacks and canned food, stacks of comic books and a cabinet full of DVDs (mostly superhero movies).  It was designed to be nothing less than a gilded cage for a bird. A place where his child would be totally safe from the traumas the world had yet to endure. 

Wally West had been too young to die. Bruce wouldn’t see it happen to Tim. He’d lock him away and throw away the key first, no matter the misery or frustration it caused. Tim would thank him someday.

The plan, while well-intentioned (he thinks), never comes to pass. Lord Batman needs his soldiers, he needs everyone he can muster - and his family, most of all. The bat-bunker sits forever dormant, another awkward symbol of care that it’s better Tim never sees.

---

“We’re fighting a new kind of war, Tim.”

The new suit is safer, in some ways. The reinforced cowl (there will be no bullets in the brain), the bandoliers crossed over the chest (there will be no shrapnel in the heart), nominally treated against the worst effects of heat vision (not completely heatproof, but what else can he do against five-thousand-degree alien heat vision?). Multiple tracers, hidden in the lining, woven into the cloth. Every feature seems to be motivated by a fear, a worry - there’s love, there, too. Bruce had input into every Robin costume yet devised - but this was the first he had designed without input from a cheerful child, instead crafting it to his whims and catering to his neuroses in the process.

Bruce hands him the costume with an expression that brooks no argument. “You’re not Robin anymore. We’ll call you Red Robin from now on.” he tells him.

Tim takes the costume into his arms, holds it as if it’s fragile, something sacred. “Okay, dad.” he whispers reverently.

Lord Batman only nods, sharply. “Good boy.”

---

It’s easier to control Tim now, than it was before everything. With the onset of global war, Tim learns to be quiet, to be stealthy - as he always was, but in a somber way, in Bruce’s shadow, always, now.

They are the only resistance against Clark’s - Superman’s reign of terror, his iron grip upon the world. Those who do not agree can expect to be lobotomized at up to one hundred yards - or more - that is, if Superman decides that they deserve to live.

Dick and Barbara can no longer tolerate the stress, can no longer tolerate Bruce. They promise they don’t agree with Lord Superman, but that they can no longer remain on the side of the resistance. It’s a safety issue. Barbara is carrying Dick’s child, and it is safer for them to outwardly support the regime. Dick becomes a Commander, and Bruce is not allowed contact with their child outside of the photos and vids Barbara occasionally sends.

Oddly, the only one who stays - other than Alfred, of course - and Tim, now his good right hand - is Diana, but she is not the Diana he knew. This is the Diana from the other universe, the one where Wally did not die. She brings the strength they need, mother-hens Tim, and Bruce marvels at her undying determination in the face of total war.

He’s already fallen in love with her.

---

“Can I go?” The time had come - their tight knit group had begun to unravel. Perry White had been speaking against the regime through his underground newspaper for too long, and Superman, who had long since lost his mind in Bruce’s eyes, was prepared to deal with him once and for all. They had to put a stop to it - a man’s life was in danger simply for speaking his mind. 

The new costume fits Red Robin perfectly, but Bruce had been so sure that Tim had outgrown pleading and whining for inclusion. 

In his mind’s eye, he can see Luthor aim the gun - BAM - gone is the Flash, that bright, quippy young streak of red that lightened the burden in their hearts, hell, even made him smile just a few - 

“No.” It’s a final no, an end-of-conversation no. Tim should know by now that this is all for his safety. They live in a world where Clark has decided that the world’s citizens are his wayward children, not knowing what is best for themselves. Therefore, he appointed himself to be their savior, whether they want it or not.

Maybe he and Clark aren’t that different after all.

“Tim, I have another job for you, and it’s to be done right here.”

That earns him a pointed look, rebellion brewing low but buried deep under layers of loyalty, of love. As Bruce steps into the car, he prays that Tim knows better now, after all the close calls they’ve had, he should know to follow Bruce’s orders without question. The last thing they want is to lose another - 

---

They were too late to save Perry.

As per usual, Superman addresses the television cameras as what’s left of Perry is led out of the small shack that now constitutes the Daily Planet. He’s in cuffs, but there’s no need for them - he won’t be fighting back any time soon. “Mr. White will be cared for at a secure facility. We must do our best to keep our world safe, all of us. Spreading lies and defamation is poor stewardship, and will not be tolerated. Nor will a bad attitude... remember to report all incidents of poor sportsmanship, jaywalking, or misplaced aggression to the police. We will handle the perpetrators as necessary. ...There is no reason for anyone to be hurt. Citizens, good day.” Dispassionate, as usual. Robotic. (It may as well be one of his doppelgangers delivering the speech. Perhaps it is.) It’s a script Bruce has only heard a thousand times. And as the crimes listed become more and more trifling, he becomes more and more sickened by the Orwellian horror their world has become - and even more so by the part he played.

Diana comforts as always. “We gave it our best, Bruce. Someday, we’ll put a stop to this.”

As they retreat, Bruce keys his communicator. “Red Robin, report.”

“Eh? Yeah, Batman. I’m here at the Batcomputer... checking those samples... like you told me...!”

Clear sounds of a fight echo in the background audio and Bruce’s stomach clenches painfully. This is how it started with Dick, too - the lying.

“No... you’re not.” Bruce breathes, quickening his pace to a run while Diana flies beside. “You’re not...!”

---

Bruce has at least five main methods of tracking Tim. His boy is never hard to find. In the worst case scenario (and there is always a worst case scenario), he can even track Tim’s biosignature within a radius of twenty miles. Lucius is already overworked, but Bruce had insisted that that number be boosted to forty by week’s end. Tracers fail; and some methods are unreliable. He laughs at the days when he used to slip a mini-GPS into Dick’s utility belt and call that “safe”.

“Batman, listen to me. I’ve been working on this for months. I couldn’t tell you and you know why. I’m going to rescue Emil Hamilton and the researchers - we already know they want to join the resistance - that way Lord Superman will have a way harder time with R&D, as you know. He’s got a lot of scientists on his side, but only Hamilton’s team are the experts on Kryptonian technology -”

The words go through Bruce, as he pushes the car to its limit, honing in on Tim’s location. The boy is babbling - this shouldn’t be happening - he thought Tim had learned to be quiet - to work in the shadows - to keep himself safe.

Maybe there would be a use to the bat-bunker, after all. His heart couldn’t take much more of this.

“I can do this. I’m going into the central lab now where me ‘n the scientists agreed to rendezvous. Maybe I kept this secret for more than the fact that I knew you’d try to stop me. Maybe I wanted to make you proud.” Tim’s voice is small, sad. “But you’ll see. And you said I couldn’t do this all on my -”

The communication feed cuts and Bruce is running, full tilt, into the research facility. Heedless of alarms, of sensors set off. Diana follows, “Bruce! Wait!” Cursing quietly, she covers his back against the stream of guards that respond to their entry. This is the only situation in which Batman can’t remain quiet, stealthy.

Wally was killed in cold blood, and it could happen again. The youth, the brashness, the color red. The symmetry. And now, it was only red swirling in Bruce’s vision. Red, at the world, the Hell that Superman had constructed for them to live in.

It doesn’t take him long to find the lab.

“We knew Red Robin wanted us to join the Resistance.” Hamilton explains. “But we know what Superman does to dissenters.” The professor looked genuinely afraid. “We turned him over as soon as he showed.” 

Bruce growls and throws the man aside, throws him to the floor. A disgusting coward. But he knows. 

He knows the worst fears have now been realized. The world opens up, as if to swallow him.

“Batman, I’m sorry.” the scientist gasps. “He fought. So they dealt with him.”

---

There is no such thing as safety.

“It was unfortunate, wasn’t it?”

Clark is there, but Bruce wishes he weren’t. For the first time, Bruce wishes the man were dead. For doing this to him, to their family.

It’s their only ceasefire. Ever. Clark brings him his son’s body and places it - places him - into his arms. Now that Bruce looks, the costume is too big on Tim. 

It never should have been made.

Diana can’t hide her tears. Bruce is unable to look - instead, he looks to Superman; his friend, more than just a coworker, but a brother - they grieved together, when they lost the Flash. The old Clark would know what to say, would try and fail to ease his pain, but he would try.

“Acts against the government are intolerable and damage the integrity of the public order.” The same, mechanical voice of Lord Superman. As if he’s reading off cue cards. His face, a stony mask. No indication that he cares what Bruce has lost. “To discourage further criminal activity, we have a zero-tolerance policy. His sacrifice was necessary to keep everyone living here safe and sound.”

“Safe and sound?” Bruce hisses, his voice low and growling but tight with the fresh pain of grief. “Who are you protecting? Who are you really protecting, Clark?”

All the trackers and tracers in the world can’t save him. Tim is lifeless in his arms.

At some point Bruce thought that there might still be a chance. That the real Superman still remained somewhere within, knowing that his actions were capricious, unfair, and ultimately unjust. That maybe Tim’s death really would be a sacrifice, a catalyst, to save the world from tyranny. (And still it was too high a price to pay.)

The only indication that the real Clark still existed is the fact that he didn’t kill them where they stood.

Tim’s body is heavy, so heavy in Bruce’s arms. He grew so much, since everything changed. But now...

“Madness, Clark.” Bruce can finally look down now, at the slack jaw, the pale face (pale like an old joke) - the rigor of death setting in, he can feel it. Tim was always too brave, too determined to prove himself - and now he never could again. “It’s madness.” He can shed his tears later. Alone. Maybe in the bat-bunker.

“Stop this.” he begs Clark. Before anyone else gets hurt.

If there was a hole in Lord Superman’s armor, it’s been patched long ago. The red uniform on Tim is just as red as the one on the Flash. Bruce can tell this doesn’t go unnoticed by Clark.

Diana is silently mouthing a prayer. A prayer of her people, most likely, a prayer for Tim. 

Clark looks to the East, where the Sun is just rising. For half a second, he looks like their friend once more. The spell broken.

But it’s too late for that. They’ve already gone too far, the wedge driven too deep. In a year, Lord Superman would arrange for Batman to die, and succeed. And with a horrible sense of foreboding, Bruce even felt that he knew. Deep in his bones, he knew Lord Superman was now on a collision course with him. Set to destroy him... destroy them both.

“I’m sorry, Bruce.” And it’s Clark’s voice they hear, at last. Low. Ashamed. But there. Broken through the layers of contention between them, moved by the loss of the Robin he knew.

His final gift is to depart quietly, leaving them - physically - unharmed.

For all that’s worth.

---

Dick weeps when Diana tells him, and Barbara does too. Their son John is not told exactly what happened to his Uncle Tim, but it doesn’t matter. He’s too young to fully understand.

Bruce dresses the mannequin in the case in his son’s costume. It fits the mannequin quite well. This is where it will stay, where he can always see it.

“You made no mistakes, raising him, Bruce.” 

Diana’s words are soft, but to Bruce (and only to him), they feel somehow accusatory. Especially when he feels he has done everything wrong.

“You kept him safe.”

“Diana... there’s no such thing as safe.”

Not in this world. Not in this life.

Tomorrow he’d go to the bunker and sit among all of Tim’s belongings that he’d meticulously picked out for him, especially for an extended period of time, books carefully curated into a variety of genres such that he would be in no danger of going mad down there, alone, constantly watched, fresh air provided so he would not suffocate, food so he would not starve, every need attended for. An absolutely... safe... area.

An area, he would tell himself, was decidedly not a larger and fancier grave, nor the tomb of an Egyptian prince, taking his worldly possessions with him into the afterlife. 

It was safety.

Safety that Clark wanted to bring.

Safety, that Lord Superman had taken away from them.

An anguish that would never stop, born of a war that would never end.

[monkeypressde]

THE MISSION veröffentlichen “Tower Of Strength” neu

Ein absoluter Klassiker-Song wird neu erschaffen. Unter dem Deckmantel eines Charity-Projekts mit dem Namen ReMission International wird Tower Of Strength der Band The Mission als TOS2020 von über 20 musikalischen Gästen zusammen mit Wayne Hussey neu aufgelegt. Mit darunter sind Musikergrößen wie Martin L. Gore von Depeche Mode, Lol Tolhurst von The Cure, Midge Ure von Ultravox, Gary Numan, Andy Rourke, Billy Duffy, Budgie, Evi Vine, James Alexander Graham, Jay Aston, Julianne Regan, Kevin Haskins, Kirk Brandon, Michael Aston, Michael Ciravolo, Miles Hunt, Rachel Goswell, Richard Fortus, Robin Finck, Steve Clarke und Trentemöller. Für das Abmischen sorgt Tim Palmer, der schon David Bowie und andere Hochkaräter produziert hat.

Lass Dir den Beitrag vorlesen:

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Veröffentlichungsdatum ist der 28.08.2020 für die digitale Version und alle Harddisk-Freunde können die Schallplatte oder CD ab dem 02.10.2020 käuflich erwerben. Der Erlös dient zur Unterstützung aller Key Worker, die weltweit mit COVID-19 zu tun haben. Die Gelder gehen dann an wohltätige Organisationen, die von allen Beteiligten persönlich ausgewählt wurden.

Wayne Hussey: “Als Covid-19 zuschlug, erhielt ich viele Nachrichten, in denen ich gefragt wurde: “Warum veröffentlichst du Tower Of Strength für all die Arbeiter an der Front nicht neu? Das Lied war anscheinend von einigen National-Health-Service-Mitarbeitern als ihre Hymne angenommen worden, und es brachte mich auf den Gedanken, dass ich in dieser beispiellosen Zeit etwas für die größere Sache beitragen könnte – und das Einzige, was ich wirklich beitragen kann, ist Musik. So kam ich zusammen mit meinem guten Freund Michael Ciravolo auf die Idee, eine neue Version von Tower Of Strength für wohltätige Zwecke aufzunehmen, indem ich die Hilfe von Musikerfreunden und -bekannten in Anspruch nahm. Tower Of Strength wurde erstmals 1988 und dann 1994 von The Mission als Single veröffentlicht. Die Single schaffte es zweimal in die britischen Top 40 und erwies sich als unser wahrscheinlich größter Song und es ist dieser Song, mit dem wir im Allgemeinen unsere Shows abschließen. Es ist eine Hymne. Ich fragte mich, ob die Neuaufnahme eines bekannteren Liedes vielleicht eine größere Reichweite hätte, aber weder Michael noch ich konnten Vorschläge machen, die textlich zu passen schienen, ohne zu kitschig zu wirken. Also wurde es ‚Tower Of Strength‘.”

“Normalerweise verabscheue ich Dinge, die für wohltätige Zwecke getan werden, die gleichzeitig auch selbstsüchtig sind, aber ich habe mir einen Plan ausgedacht, der mein Gewissen befriedigt hat. Ich sprach mit meinen Bandkollegen von The Mission, die den Song mitgeschrieben haben – Craig Adams, Mick Brown und Simon Hinkler – und wir kamen überein, alle durch die neue Version erzielten Verlagseinnahmen an nominierte Wohltätigkeitsorganisationen abzutreten, einschließlich mechanischer und Aufführungslizenzen sowie 100% aller Einnahmen aus Verkäufen. Der Song wurde in ‚TOS2020‘ umbenannt, um diese Gelder von der ursprünglichen Version abkoppeln zu können – und die Wohltätigkeitsorganisationen wurden alle persönlich von den an Aufnahme und Veröffentlichung beteiligten Personen nominiert. Da es sich bei den musikalischen Beiträgen um globale Spenden handelt, gehen wir davon aus, dass die Einnahmen gleichmäßig unter allen Begünstigten aufgeteilt und verteilt werden.”

Die Mitwirkenden über TOS2020:

“Being given the chance to do some good to raise money for people and animals struggling in these frightening times by singing one of the best songs ever written was such an easy thing to say yes to. An absolute honour to be involved.” Gary Numan

“Today as we face an unprecedented crisis with COVID 19, we have to be united in purpose to help humanity and especially the disenfranchised and impoverished among us, survive. Music can be a powerful way to join us all together and help those that need it most now.” Lol Tolhurst

“I’ve seen and heard Tower of Strength played often and I’ve experienced its effect and the impact it has on others. It’s an anthemic song of hope, comfort and joy, with a message that now seems more relevant than ever. I hope this project, in which I am privileged to be involved, brings a little light into the shade, and allows us all to, albeit momentarily, focus on an ‘afterwards’.” Julianne Regan

“You get a message from Wayne Hussey asking if you can put a vocal (alongside a great list of singers, musicians and friends) on a reworking of a massive track in the repertoire of The Mission to aid COVID-19 charities around the globe – you say yes and get it done as well as you can.” Kirk Brandon

“I did it coz Wayne asked me to and I love Wayne.” Billy Duffy

“Being asked to contribute to making a piece of music isn’t overly taxing for a musician. I’m just pleased Wayne didn’t ask me to perform brain surgery or fly a jumbo jet, something which takes some form of skill.” Midge Ure

“My positive of the pandemic has been connecting to kindred spirits. Honoured to lend a hand.” Budgie

“I would like it known that, if asked, I would do absolutely anything for Wayne Hussey. Tower Of Strength is utter perfection: it is daring in its intent and supremely executed in both its original recording and every single time I have seen it performed live. To be asked to contribute to this new version was a very emotional experience for me. So many intense memories came flooding back as I sang, there were tears, I can assure you of that.” Miles Hunt

“Direct Relief is an organisation that helps people in times of emergency like natural disasters or in times of poverty by getting medical equipment and supplies to where they are needed most. At the moment they are obviously heavily focused on Covid-19.” Martin Gore (on Direct Relief, his nominated charity)

“Love and gratitude.” Robin Finck

“I jumped at the opportunity to be a part of this project – I always loved this song and asked Wayne if I could take a crack at John Paul Jones’ string arrangement, which I have always admired. Hopefully my take on it does it justice.” Richard Fortus

“The power we have collectively is transformative … I love and admire Wayne and the band and the warmth and intention behind this release. I know the power of this song and I feel so honoured to have been invited to join so many celebrated artists, this is a beautiful star in the darkest of times and I know the difference it will make.” Evi Vine

“To be amongst these amazing artists that I’m a huge fan of and have so much respect for is a true honour, especially for such an important cause. The sacrifice that all the amazing NHS staff and key workers have made is truly humbling and inspiring. To be part of an incredible group of people that want to give something back and show their gratitude is something I’m extremely proud of.” James Alexander Graham

“When I was asked by Wayne to be part of this fantastic charity project, I immediately said yes! If I could contribute to supporting the hard work fighting Covid 19 by making a remix of Tower Of Strength, that was a way for me to make a small difference. I’m very honoured to be a part of this.” Trentemøller

“I signed on for this project because I felt that it would be a great way to raise a lot of funds for those in need at this time. When I heard all the names of artists who were collaborating, I knew that it would turn out very special. I’m very grateful to be given the opportunity to contribute to this marvellous project.” Kevin Haskins

“When Wayne emailed me with the idea of contributing vocals to this project I jumped at the chance. Tower of Strength is such an anthemic song it’s only fitting that this has been done to support the various charities. It’s an honour for me to be a small part of the process and what a stellar line up of people involved.” Rachel Goswell

“Not every day do you get the chance to play on one of your favourite songs with some of your favourite artists, and to have it be for all the right reasons and for an amazing cause.” Michael Ciravolo

“So honoured to be part of this wonderful project. It’s also interesting that three of the original performers on our – Gene Loves Jezebel – very first recording, ‘Shaving My Neck’ are reunited by chance some 37 years later: Julianne Regan, J.P, and myself. Hats off to Wayne and the Mission for giving this rendition for charity during this pandemic.” Michael Aston

“Absolutely buzzed and honestly flattered to be asked to not only add my voice to this wonderful recording, but also give something back to our much loved and beleaguered NHS. The perfect song for these difficult and challenging days.” Jay Aston

Zu den nominierten Wohltätigkeitsorganisationen gehören derzeit:

NHS UK St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital Memphis Music Venue Trust UK Covenant House New Orleans Disasters Emergency Committee MusiCares Plan International Direct Relief Alzheimer’s Scotland Liberty Hill Foundation The Shrewsbury Ark Memorial Sloan Kettering Center NYC Prostate Cancer UK The Teddy Bear Clinic For Abused Children The Anthony Walker Foundation Crew Nation Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, MSK Kids Venice Family Clinic

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© monkeypress.de - sharing is caring! Autor/Fotograf: Marcus Nathofer

Den kompletten Beitrag findet Ihr hier: THE MISSION veröffentlichen “Tower Of Strength” neu

[cinephiled-com]

New Post has been published on Cinephiled

New Post has been published on http://www.cinephiled.com/interview-directors-powerful-doc-linda-ronstadt-sound-voice/

Interview: Directors of the Powerful Doc ‘Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice’

Since bursting onto the music scene in 1967, Linda Ronstadt has been an icon for more than half a century. Her extraordinary vocal range created iconic songs across rock, pop, country, folk ballads, American standards, classic Mexican music, and soul. As the most popular female recording artist of the 1970s, Ronstadt filled huge arenas and produced an astounding 11 Platinum albums. Ronstadt was the first artist to top the Pop, Country, and R&B charts at the same time. She won 10 Grammy Awards on 26 nominations and attained a level of stardom the Tucson native never could have imagined.

In Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, Ronstadt guides us through her early years of singing Mexican canciones with her family, her folk days with the Stone Poneys, and her reign as the Queen of Rock throughout the 70s and early 80s. She was a pioneer for women in the male-dominated music industry and a passionate advocate for human rights. Even more attention was heaped upon her when she had a long-term and high-profile romance with California Governor Jerry Brown. In recent years, her incredible voice has been lost to Parkinson’s disease, something she accepts with a dignity and grace that is inspiring, but her music and influence remain as timeless as ever. With incredible performance footage and heartwarming appearances by friends and collaborators such as Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt, and Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice celebrates an artist whose desire to share the music she loved made generations of fans fall in love with her.

It was a thrill for me to sit down with the award-winning directors of this film, Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (The Times of Harvey Milk, Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, The Celluloid Closet) and producer James Keach (Walk the Line, Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me, David Crosby: Remember My Name) to discuss this deeply moving and joyously entertaining film.

Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman

Danny Miller: Your previous documentaries are legendary. Did you feel this film was a natural progression from the kinds of things you were doing?

Jeffrey Friedman: I think so. This is ultimately a story about a woman’s empowerment, and that’s thematically not very far from other themes that we’ve taken on.

Did it take a while to earn Linda Ronstadt’s trust before she agreed to do the film?

Oh God, yes. It took about a year to convince her to let us do it!

Yeah, she doesn’t seem like someone who would necessarily be down for a film about herself.

Rob Epstein: Fortunately, she had just seen my film The Times of Harvey Milk and really liked it, so the timing of that was fortuitous. But as Jeffrey said, she was very reluctant and it took a long time to get her to come around. She basically told us that she thought we were deluded and that nobody would want to see the film and if they did, they’d be bored to tears.

Oh, Linda, Linda. That’s totally insane!

Jeffrey Friedman: But after a while, a couple of things conspired helped her to change her mind. The people who were still working with her were rooting for us — her longtime assistant and good friend Janet Stark and her manager John Boylan were encouraging us behind the scenes to keep going. We told Linda that we wanted to use her wonderful book as source material but we wanted to amplify it by having an audience actually experience the music that’s only described in the book. She finally started to allow herself to imagine that.

Did she have any ground rules about what she didn’t want you to put in the film?

Rob Epstein: Linda is a very private person and she didn’t want us to get into her personal relationships which we totally understood.

With the exception of Jerry Brown?

Jeffrey Friedman: Yes, well, that’s in her book and anything she talked about in the book was fair game. Linda and Governor Brown are still friends.

Rob Epstein: We really just wanted to help make her musical journey come alive in the film. But she also said she wouldn’t be interviewed for the film.

Are you saying that all of her voiceovers in the film are taken from other interviews?

We did use dozens of different sources but in the end she finally agreed to sit down for an interview.

Jeffrey Friedman: But that one was only an audio interview, we didn’t film it.

And yet she does appear on camera at the end of the film, and it’s such a beautiful, poignant scene. Was it always the plan that we wouldn’t see her until the end?

Rob Epstein: It was always our intention to somehow bring it to the present tense. We were very frank with her about that, we told her that the audience would want to see her today. We talked about the possibility of having her come into a recording studio and read passages from her book but she thought that was just too artificial. And then all of a sudden, she had this trip planned to Mexico with her family and she invited us. But that happened way at the end.

Jeffrey Friedman: By that time we had interviewed so many people that she was very close to and they were like her spies telling her everything that happened — they all assured her that we were doing a very respectful portrait.

I found the entire film so incredibly moving. I could tell you that I cried at points but it’s more like tears were pouring down my face during every single song. I can’t even fully understand why it affected me so much. Something about the purity of her voice and the purityof her relationship to her music and the way she navigated through her superstardom without ever getting sucked into the negative aspects of that.

Rob Epstein: I think it was surprising to all of us how humble she is and self-deprecating. She never had much interest in being a celebrity and she managed to maintain her authentic personhood throughout all of the different iterations of her fame and career. She certainly never tried to create any persona around “Linda Ronstadt,” she was always just herself, the same person that she is to this day.

Jeffrey Friedman: Yeah, she’s very real, no bullshit. I think that’s part of what makes watching her sing so touching, because it’s really just her and the music coming through her. It was never about showmanship or flash and dazzle, just an authentic artistic expression. I think that’s why audiences have responded to her with such enthusiasm and emotion throughout her career.

James Keach

James Keach: But I’m not sure she was never “sucked into” the fame part, I think she was sucked into it many times. The difference was that she always pushed back. She would get pulled into things like those big arena concerts and then come realize that it wasn’t what she wanted to do. But I would speculate that your emotional reaction to the film might also be because those were better days for a lot of us in many ways. I feel like they were better days in my life, a lot more simple and fun! They were certainly the best days of my life in terms of music. I also tear up now when I hear Linda sing and some of the other performers from back then because it brings back that different part of my life even though so much time has gone by. I find it very touching.

Right. And yet Linda herself was going through a lot of insecurities at the time and trying to figure out what she wanted. I remember going to see her in The Pirates of Penzance on Broadway in the 1980s and wondering how they “let” one of the most famous singers in the country do that. I so admired her determination to branch out in areas that were hardly as lucrative as what she could’ve kept doing for the rest of her life.

Rob Epstein: There was an article I read about her from that time where she was speculating on whether she would ever be happy. The truth is she just wanted to sing. For her it wasn’t about being a huge rock star or the girlfriend of George Lucas or Jerry Brown, she just wanted to be in the living room with her friends singing. But she also knew there were dues she had to pay in order to be Linda Ronstadt.

I love all the interviews in the film. Was it challenging to get all of those amazing, busy people to be in the film?

Jeffrey Friedman: Well, Linda is very loved so it wasn’t that hard to get people to say yes. And James was a great producer along with his partner Michele Farinola, and they just never gave up until we got all the people we wanted.

I was especially glad to see Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton in the film, their collaborations with Linda were pure magic.

Did you consider getting Jerry Brown to appear in the film?

James Keach: I think he would have done it but Linda resisted, she didn’t want him to be interviewed even though they are very close friends today. She was a little nervous about all of the people, to be honest, because she didn’t want people to feel obligated to do it and say nice things about her. She’s so humble she didn’t think anyone would be interested in a film about her life and career.

Jeffrey Friedman: She knows that there are young people who have never heard of her, which is kind of astonishing. That was one of the reasons we wanted to make the film, to make sure that her legacy wasn’t lost. But she’s not someone who lives in the past and just thinks about her own career. She listens to all types of music.

Rob Epstein: Yeah, she was just telling us the other day about some Korean pop group that she wanted us to check out, that’s what she’s interested in right now.

Was it hard to figure out how to navigate through the topic of her Parkinson’s disease?

Jeffrey Friedman: She definitely didn’t want to be seen only through that lens, but on the other hand, she’s been very upfront and open about her current condition.

I think the loss of her voice is one of the great tragedies of our lifetime. I felt the same way when Julie Andrews lost hers. Do you think it’s painful for Linda to listen to her own old songs from when her voice was so powerful?

Rob Epstein: No, I don’t think so, she does listen to herself when she needs to, certainly in the context of putting this film together. She has always been very careful about making sure that the sound was just right. One of her big concerns with the film was that somehow we might include a bad performance but honestly, we never found one in all of our research!

Getting to hear her sing at the end was so exquisite even though she says that wasn’t really singing. How did that come about?

James Keach: That was when we went with her to Mexico. We wanted to go to her grandfather’s hometown and at one point we were having lunch at this little mom and pop place on the way down there. Some of her family members started playing music for everybody. Jackson Browne was there and he started singing and then I could hear Linda humming and she started singing along with the rest of them. I was sitting next to her and I thought, wow, that’s really good and I said, “Linda, I thought you said you couldn’t sing, I think it sounds great!” The next day at lunch she said that when we interviewed her that night she would try it again but nobody else could be in the room in case she screwed up. So she did it, and talk about tears! Everyone was crying and we couldn’t believe she was doing it because she had stopped singing years ago. We all just choked up.

It is so inspiring to see how she is dealing with the challenges of her disease without a shred of self-pity. It’s really made me look at certain things in my own life in new ways.

Rob Epstein: She sees it as just a circumstance of her life and she’s adjusted accordingly. She’s still completely engaged with the world.

Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice is currently playing in various cities around the country.

[campfiresandsandcastles]

A Travel Guide for the Triangle Tour of East Texas: Dallas, Waco, Austin, Houston, and Fort Worth

We recently visited east Texas and travelled to 5 cities in 8 days. Our trip took us to Dallas, Waco, Austin, Houston, and Fort Worth, essentially making a large triangle on the map of Texas. Here I recount our whirlwind tour and provide some helpful hints for your future travels to these major cities of Texas.

Itinerary

Day One - Dallas

Day Two - Dallas

Day Three - Waco

Day Four - Austin

Day Five - The Woodlands, Houston

Day Six - Fort Worth

Day Seven - Forth Worth

 Day One - Dallas

Arriving late the first day we spent the night near the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport at Dallas Marriott Las Colinas in Irving, Texas. The hotel had a perfect location given it was so close to the airport, but it was also across the street from the Toyota Music Factory, which provided lots of options for eating establishments, especially dinner. Plus, we came across the first of many larger-than-life bronze statues of western scenes that we soon learned are common across Texas. A square near the hotel had these beautiful stallions traversing a fountain. The area was under renovation when we visited, but the statues were still so majestic to see.

Meander Among 90,000 Pumpkins

We rented a car for our entire trip since we had a lot of driving ahead of us, and we spent the first full day in Dallas. The amount of attractions that Dallas has to offer is impressive. We spent the day at the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, and since we visited in autumn, they had their Halloween and Thanksgiving display of over 90,000 pumpkins. The arboretum is beautiful and huge, spanning 66 acres. It is a popular spot to take wedding and quinceañera photos.

Plus, we paid to enter the children’s area named The Rory Meyers Children’s Adventure Garden. I recommend visiting this section of the park, it has tons of environmental and science interactive displays including water cannons, a life-size tree to climb, and a maze.

The food options in this area are a bit slim, there’s a food spot advertised but it’s really only vending machines with tables for picnicking. Your best bet if you plan on staying in this section for any length of time with the kiddos is to bring a lunch. The main body of the arboretum has a stand to buy a quick lunch, plus a higher-end restaurant with linen tablecloths (it didn’t really look like a great place for young kids). We also saw a kiosk which looked like it served some yummy grilled cheese near the main entrance too.

Entrance to the arboretum was $15 for adults and $10 for children, plus an extra $3 for the children’s park.

We rounded out our first day with some very Americana activities including a trip to the arcade Dave and Buster’s, a visit to Half Price Books bookstore, and dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. The bookstore was so cool. It was huge and sold both used and new books. Plus, it had a large display of vinyl records, which just added to its retro vibe.

One observation I had about Dallas is that Dallasites (i.e., people from Dallas) do not stay home on Sundays, instead they go into the city. Every place we went to was packed with people. Strangely, the roads were not congested, but every place we visited – the arboretum, arcade, bookstore, and restaurant – was completely full of people. You go, Dallasites, way to take advantage of all your city has to offer!

We spent the night closer to the city of Dallas at Towneplace Suites Dallas Mesquite to be able to take full-advantage of time. This hotel was really lovely, but it ended up not being as close to downtown Dallas as we originally thought. But, we did get to park our rental car in the parking lot for free, which is difficult to find when you stay in the city of Dallas itself.

 Day Two - Dallas

Feel Small Among Giants

As I said earlier, Dallas has a lot of attractions. We spent the second day in the Perot Museum of Nature and Science ($20 admission for adult, $13 for child). Such a cool place. First, the building itself is remarkable. It somewhat looks like the side of a limestone slab or cliff with cavities of blue glass in it which serves as an escalator. You actually start at the top level of the building and work your way down through the exhibits.

Plus, it’s full of these amazing life-size displays of dinosaur skeletons. You feel so minuscule standing under the skeleton of a brontosaurus-type dinosaur or realizing just how huge prehistoric turtles actually were. Plus, for fun, they periodically turn off the lights and project colored lights across the dinosaur bones creating a disco-type atmosphere.

Also, there are a number of just plain clever displays. One of our favorites was an interactive topographic map. It was a box of sand that showed the topography, by color, as you moved and piled the sand.

My son’s favorite display was a screen where you danced or moved around and dinosaur avatars mimicked your movement, so you can make breakdancing dinosaurs!

There was an additional temporary dinosaur exhibit at the museum that cost extra to attend ($10 for adult, $8 for child). However, we did not feel that the additional exhibit was any more spectacular than just their normal dinosaur display, and it wasn’t worth the additional cost. Also, the museum has a cafeteria, but unfortunately the food was not good. My husband’s hamburger, for example, was a shrunken charcoaled piece of meat, and it was overpriced, so I would not recommend eating at the museum.

Stand Among a Historic Must See

It seemed that it would have been a travesty if we visited downtown Dallas without stopping at Dealey Plaza, the site of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. It was such an impactful experience to actually stand on the grassy knoll and on the whited painted “X” on the street which indicates where the motorcade was positioned when the bullet killed the former president. Places we’ve only seen in grainy films from that day or television specials since then became hauntingly real. We simply walked around the historic area and read the various plaques and displays, but there is also a Sixth Floor Museum of the Texas School Book Depository and gift shop. Plus, there are plenty of willing tour guides and conspiracy theorists around this area if you want to “learn” even more.

Before we left Dallas for the night, we stopped at Pioneer Plaza to climb among the famous life-size bronze sculptures of 50 long-horned steers located at the corner of Young and Griffin Streets. Interestingly, if you climb up to the top of the hill that the steers are navigating down, there is a historic pioneer graveyard located there.

I was simply surprised to learn all of the attractions that the city of Dallas had to offer. Our two days there did not even scratch the surface of the various venues we would have liked to have visited. So, here’s a list of additional attractions that may be of interest to you, and be sure to let me know about your experience when you visit any of them:

Texas Theatre in the Oak Cliff neighborhood where Lee Harvey Oswald was found and arrested

Dallas World Aquarium

Galleria – Shopping mall with an ice rink in the center

NorthPark Center – High-end shopping mall, with notable sculptures.

Dallas Heritage Village at Old City Park

Texas Discovery Gardens – Ten themed gardens and they release butterflies at noon.

Fountain Place – 5th largest building in Dallas and home to Ewing Oil in the TV show “Dallas” with 172 fountains. Located at 1445 Ross Ave.

Dallas Museum of Art – Eclectic display. Free to enter. Plus, Klyde Warren Park located across the street has food trucks.

This night we spent the night in Waco at Waco South Towneplace Suites to be ready for our next day in this famous Fixer Upper town. Just a short walk from the hotel was Saltgrass Steak House, which provided a hearty Texas meal with plenty of red meat and the most delicious pumpkin cheesecake.

 Day Three - Waco

Waco, the city made famous by just two events, the Branch Davidian raid with David Koresh in the early 90s, and the more recent hit HGTV show Fixer Upper which reveals the life of the sweet Christian family of Chip and Joanna Gaines as they flip houses from outdated 70’s-style ranches to shiplap laden gorgeousness. Just to note, we visited because of the latter, not the former. 

In preparation for visiting this city, I even listened to the audio version of Chip Gaines’ then-recently published book “Capital Gaines” during the flight. It provides good insight into how this couple turned a small, home decoration store and construction business into the major enterprise it is today, while sharing some honest truths about running a small business. Surprisingly though, for all of Chip’s charisma and antics on the show, his voice was pretty monotone on the audio book and I have to admit did lull me to sleep a few times.

Come Hungry and Eat Well

We started our morning of the third day eating breakfast at the diner that Chip and Joanna Gaines recently opened named Magnolia Table where they serve Texas-size portions of French Toast, pancakes, eggs, and housemade tater tots. The employees at the restaurant are plentiful and beyond friendly. We were even greeted in the parking lot by an employee stationed there just to say hello to everyone who got out of their car. The diner also has a gift shop and an outdoor café where you can order coffee and such while you wait to be called for your table. Be prepared though, this places is popular, and for that reason they have a well-oiled machine of Disneyland-esque employees that politely redirect you if you attempt to (heaven forbid) try to walk into the restaurant. Thou shall not peak behind the curtain until your name is on the waiting list and you’re called inside to be seated. No looky-loos.

Visit a Paleontological Dig

With our bellies full, we journeyed to the north side of town to see a very cool place, the Waco Mammoth National Monument. For a nominal entrance fee of $5 for adults and $4 for children, you take a guided tour down a short path to this active paleontological site where they have discovered the nation’s only recorded discovery of a nursery herd of Columbian mammoths. This place was well worth the stop. You can actually peer down on real dinosaur bones that are still encased in the ground. Our guide was so knowledgeable and entertaining, it was such a pleasant and educational experience. I highly, highly recommend it.

The Real Reason for Staying in Waco

We then visited the Mecca of Waco, Texas, that is Chip and Joanna Gaines’ Magnolia Market at the Silos. The property consists of a bakery, a home goods store, a garden center, a grassy area for romping around and playing lawn games, and a slew of food trucks. We stood in the line for the bakery that wrapped around the corner for their famous cupcakes, ate lunch from the food trucks, and wandered through the store picking up small items that would fit in our suitcase. The Market has free parking that is connected to the property off of 8th Street plus there is street parking, so feel free to skip the lots that offer parking for a mere $10. And like any good Christian store, the Market is closed on Sundays. They also have a discount store called the Warehouse Shop located on Bosque Blvd.

There are three other attractions in Waco that we did not visit but are worth mentioning. Again, if you check these, please let me know what you find:

Dr. Pepper Museum – I mean, why not?!

Harp Design Co. shop – The carpentry and now home good store made famous by Joanna Gaines’ devotion to the work of Clint Harp in Fixer Upper.

Baylor University

Overall, I was surprised that the city of Waco did not take more advantage of the fame that Fixer Upper brought to their city. The Market brings tens of thousands of people to Waco every day, but the city doesn’t seem to have capitalized on these visitors. The areas around both Magnolia Table and the Silos appear to be exactly the same as they were before the attractions existed. The shops and businesses are few and mostly look older and a bit rundown. There are no attractions in these areas of the city other than these two establishments. I guess I just expected the area to be bustling with boutique shops and restaurants, but none were to be found. 

We finished the day by traveling to Austin to spend the night. We stayed the night at the boutique hotel called Hotel San Jose located in the South Congress area. The hotel is clean and hip and a refurbished two-story motel with polished cement floors in the rooms, a small outdoor bamboo-lined siting area, and tiny rectangular pool. We really liked it and it is a nice alternative to the sometimes sterile large-chain hotels.

We grabbed dinner at a burger place on South Congress in Austin called Hopdoddy Burger Bar, which is a chain restaurant, but they made some outstanding burgers.

 Day Four - Austin

Pay Homage to the Lone Star State

We started our day in Austin at the Texas State Capitol. This is such a beautiful building. Rather than disrupt the charm of the original building when they needed to renovate for additional space, they decided to tunnel underneath the land to create underground offices for the expansion. You are welcome to enter the building, peer up at the ceiling of the rotunda, and find your way through the underground labyrinth with its skylights that allow natural light in from above.

Walk 6th Street 

From there we walked the famed 6th Street that is lined with nightclubs and bars. When my husband and I visited Austin a decade ago we loved the evening we spent at Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar, but we had to pass this time given we had underaged kids in tow. I have to say that 6th street also seemed a lot grittier since the last time we visited. I know it’s best visited at night, but I was surprised by the amount of filth. We did manage to snag some donuts from the famous VooDoo Doughnut which serves crazy donut concoctions 24 hours a day…but cash only, no credit cards accepted.

Travel by Scooter

The real fun we had was when we visited the Ann and Roy Butler Hike and Bike Trail which is a paved trail along Lady Bird Lake (a.k.a. the Colorado River) in downtown Austin. We walked the area of the trail by The Long Center for the Performing Arts. The area is resplendent with rentable scooters and my kids each rode one around the trail. It is this amazing phenomenon that is happening around some of the larger cities (sorry if you’re already aware of this scooter invasion…we’ve been living out of the country for a bit). Rentable scooters are simply ditched in various popular areas, you activate and pay for them by using an app, ride them around for however long you choose, and then drop them wherever you choose. The scooters available in this park belonged to Bird and Uber. The kids had the most fun scootering while my husband and I enjoyed a peaceful walk.

Do Not Miss the Bats’ Mass Exodus

From the trail, we walked under South Congress Avenue Bridge and watched the massive amounts of bats that roost there during the day take flight at dusk from under the bridge. Just a constant stream of black little beings fly out together in mass and disperse into the night. It’s a major attraction of Austin and a definite must-see.

We ate dinner at Lucy’s Fried Chicken on South Congress which is obviously famous for its yummy fried chicken, but also its oysters. The décor is Texas retro with plenty of neon signs. We enjoyed sitting outside in their area with picnic tables lighted by string lights. Oh, and you’re encouraged to leave your mark on the walls of the restaurant too, so bring a Sharpie.

Overall, Austin has changed since our visit 10 years ago. It used to have a funkier vibe and was awash with food truck parks, but the vibe is now more business and the parks are virtually non-existent. Instead, they’ve been replaced by paved parking lots and high-rise buildings that employ the tech influx from Silicon Valley. Most troubling is that my favorite restaurant in Austin, Frank, which served the most delectable melt-in-your-mouth pork butt sandwich I have ever eaten, was shuttered. A notice on the door stated they had not paid their taxes. Beer steins still lined the bar and empty chairs sat around tables with their place settings intact, as if all of the patrons and staff had simply left mid-service. It made us wonder if the major migration of Californians to Austin had changed the atmosphere of the city, and just simply made it too expensive for the funky, homespun haunts of the past. I hate to think that another Googleplex will be standing in this spot during my next visit to Austin, but I would not be surprised.

 Day Five - The Woodlands, Houston

I’m hesitant to even say we visited Houston, because we really did not. Instead, we traveled from Austin to the northern area of Houston called The Woodlands. Part of the purpose of this trip was to explore potential areas that we may be interested to live in in the future, hence The Woodlands. The Woodlands is a beautiful area in northern Houston that has done a very good job of doing what the name implies, maintaining the woods. All of the streets in this area are tree-lined, and even the strip malls are placed a good distance from the street and hidden behind stretches of trees.

This master-planned community has a central area with a town green, lined with high-end stores. Think Tiffany and Rolex-type stores. It is a really beautiful area, but we ultimately wondered if we may not have the income level or age level to fit in with the other patrons. It seemed like a great community if you’re retired, drive a high-end car or SUV, and enjoy passing your afternoons having lunch at an outdoor cafe on the green talking about your golf club membership. In contrast, we lunched at Potbelly Sandwich Shop, which is a chain sandwich and soup shop that I frequented during my college days in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

From The Woodlands we journeyed back through Dallas and ultimately landed in Fort Worth for the night. We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott at Fort Worth’s Historic Stockyards which had the coolest Texas cowboy decor. It was by-far the nicest Courtyard we’ve ever stayed at. And…wait for it…they even have a Starbucks inside.

 Day Six - Fort Worth

I LOVED Fort Worth! What a pleasant surprise. First of all, the Fort Worth Visitor Center website is full of useful, clear information on the city and things to do in it. It is probably the best and most organized tourist bureau website I have ever seen. I highly recommend visiting their website before traveling to Fort Worth.

Watch a Long-Horn Cattle Drive

Our hotel was located in the area of the famed Fort Worth Stockyards. The Stockyards is a multi-block area of old-time saloons, western wear shops, the rodeo, and typical western-type things. I loved every bit of it. Twice a day they do a long-horned cattle drive right down the center of the street.

We also watched an entertaining old-time shootout complete with a stern Sheriff and his comical deputy side-kick. The area also has plenty of BBQ restaurants and stores selling cow hides, saddles, and spurs.

Plus, the Stockyards Championship Rodeo is held every Friday and Saturday at 8pm. Our hotel gave us free tickets and we had a blast. I sure do love my rodeos and this one did not disappoint. It had all of the traditional competitions including bull riding, barrel racing, and team calf roping. Plus, it had some fun activities for kids of different age groups to come down in the arena and run around for a prize, and they had a hilarious audience participation game that I won’t share anything else about because I don’t want to spoil the surprise ending…

Walk Among a Waterfall in the Middle of Downtown

We also drove and walked around downtown Fort Worth and visited Sundance Square. It is a cool area with water fountains, an outdoor area with chairs for sitting, and shopping. In the south area of downtown, we stopped at the Fort Worth Water Gardens. The Water Gardens are these large water displays that you can walk around and interact with right in the middle of the city. One is a waterfall feature where you can walk down large steps to reach the bottom by the rushing water. Another is a large tranquil man-made pond that is sunk 20 feet below ground.

Fort Worth is also home to:

TCU (Texas Christian University) – Beautiful grounds with a huge football stadium. The horned frogs and purple banners are displayed everywhere throughout the city.

Kimbell Art Museum

Fort Worth Museum of Science and History – An interactive museum

Texas Ballet Theater

Panther Island Pavilion – A beach where everyone sits in inflatables to see a band playing on the side of the river. So unique and cool.

Fort Worth Zoo – With a splash zone.

 Day Seven - Fort Worth

Our second day in Fort Worth was spent driving around the city and outlying areas looking for potential areas to live in the future, just in case. We really loved this city and were so impressed with the city’s cleanliness. The roads, sidewalks, parks, and buildings were all so clean and well maintained. It was remarkable and impressive. The citizens definitely take pride in their city, and it shows.

We spent the final night back in Irving at the same hotel where it all began (Dallas Marriott Las Colinas in Irving, Texas) to be near the airport for our very early flight out the next morning.

Helpful Hints

Location: Dallas, Waco, Austin, Houston, and Fort Worth are located in the eastern side of Texas, forming a large triangle between Dallas, Austin and Houston.

Accommodations: We are avid Marriott Rewards members, so this trip we stayed at Marriott accommodations that best suited us and our every growing teen-age kids, except in Austin where we chose a boutique hotel in a popular area of town.

Tolls: Be prepared to pay lots of tolls as you navigate through Texas. However, you cannot pay cash for the tolls, they are all automatic tolls charged via your license plate. So, if you rent a car, be sure to read the fine print on how the rental car company handles the tolls or you may be hit with a large toll charge when you’re done, which will amount to mostly fees charged by the rental car company itself. Ask me how I know.

[neptunecreek]

Copyright’s Safe Harbors Preserve What We Love About the Internet

How is the Internet different from what came before? We’ve had great art, music, film, and writing for far longer than we’ve had the World Wide Web. What we didn’t have were global conversations and collaborations that millions can participate in. The Internet has lowered barriers to participation in culture, politics, and communities of interest. Copyright’s safe harbors for intermediaries are essential to making this possible. But today, those safe harbors are under threat from laws like Article 13 of the EU’s proposed Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive. And some voices in the U.S. want to gut the safe harbors here.

In the U.S., the safe harbors of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act protect Internet companies of various kinds against the possibility of massive copyright infringement damages when one of their users copies creative work illegally. In return for that protection, Internet companies have to take some concrete steps, like adopting and enforcing a repeat infringer policy. Some companies—the ones that store user-uploaded content—have to register an agent to accept and act on takedown notices from rightsholders (the familiar “DMCA notices”). The law is explicit that Internet companies aren’t required to surveil everything uploaded by users to find possible copyright infringement. It also provides a counter-notice process for users to get non-infringing uploads put back online.

This system is far from perfect. At EFF, we spend a lot of time calling out abuses of the DMCA notice and takedown regime—abuses that the law makes far too easy. We’ve also fought to make the penalties for improper takedowns a meaningful deterrent. But for all our criticism of the existing safe harbor, it is vital to preserving many of the things we all love about the Internet—especially the ease of participation that it enables.

To understand why, we need to look at some basic principles. First, the Internet is fundamentally a big copying machine. Every transmission of data, whether it’s downloading a Web page, submitting data in a form, or interacting with an app, involves copying data. Second, copyright is automatic and ubiquitous. In the majority of the world, most forms of creative work are covered by copyright the moment they are recorded. Not only are professionally made books, films, software, sheet music, and musical recordings automatically copyrighted, so too are personal emails, posts, snapshots, and home videos—the very things that we’re used to sharing. Third, copyright nominally covers every act of copying or distribution, even acts that don’t harm the rightsholders in any way. While fair use protects many of these uses, it does so without a lot of certainty in many cases. And fourth, the penalties for copyright infringement can be mind-bogglingly high. U.S. law allows rightsholders to ask for “statutory damages” of up to $150,000 for each work, without having to produce any evidence of harm. The damages awarded by courts are frequently massive and unpredictable, making many uses of creative works a game of financial Russian roulette. For a platform that hosts thousands of works, even an honest mistake or oversight can mean bankruptcy.

What does this mean for Internet users? Websites and apps that operate more like traditional media have ways of addressing copyright risk. A site that creates and curates a limited amount of creative material can make reasonably sure that none of it infringes copyright, and buy insurance to address the risk of mistakes. On the other hand, any Internet site that accepts contributions from a broad public—even a simple comments section—has no practical way to verify that every upload isn’t infringing, and that a rightsholder won’t appear from anywhere on the globe brandishing a company-destroying lawsuit. Website owners need a set of practical, feasible steps they can take that will protect them from this risk if they’re going to accept user-generated content at all. That’s where safe harbors like the DMCA come in.

Without the safe harbors, the only way for Internet companies to reduce their liability risk to a level that insurers and investors will accept is to stop accepting user-uploaded content at all. That would make the Internet look a lot like cable television, broadcasting, or traditional publishing: a bounded collection of creative material selected as much by financial clout and elite power relationships as by interest or artistic merit. Much of the Internet’s uniqueness and vitality would be lost.

In order for the safe harbors to safeguard public participation on the Internet, they need to be usable by a wide variety of Internet users, from the largest social media platforms to the humblest blogs and apps. A safe harbor that puts onerous requirements on intermediaries to filter, police, and remove alleged copyright infringements risks the same results as losing the safe harbor entirely.

That’s what makes the current efforts by the recorded music industry and its allies so troubling. They are asking lawmakers to condition the safe harbor on Internet companies’ agreement to filter all uploads against some database of copyrighted works, and remove or block the uploads that match a work in the database. The problems with this approach are legion. Because copyright is automatic and ubiquitous, nearly every Internet user is also a copyright holder. Building a database of every bit of creative work that traverses the Internet is impossible, but without that, Internet companies would be vulnerable to crippling lawsuits from potentially millions of rightsholders.

Such a system would also be wide open to censorious abuse. It’s often very hard to find out who holds the copyright in a particular bit of creative work. Even the major media and entertainment companies, who are in the best position to know what works they own, often struggle with this. Today, the ease of sending a DMCA takedown notice to make user-uploaded material disappear from the Internet, and the lack of effective deterrents for sending a false or careless takedown, make the DMCA ripe for abuse. A new requirement for upload filters, shared databases of content to be filtered, or other proposals, would make this form of censorship even more powerful and ubiquitous.

Even without bad actors, automatic filters simply cannot account for fair use and the other limitations on copyright intended to protect freedom of speech. The same audio, video, or text may be infringing in one context and perfectly legal in another. Takedown bots cannot tell a parodic, journalistic, or educational use of creative work from an unjustified commercial use. And they can’t determine how much of a work is OK to use, because that depends greatly on context. Bots can’t even tell if a particular user is licensed to post content, which is why takedown services hired by the major entertainment companies sometimes take down clips uploaded by the companies themselves.

Users whose posts and uploads are caught in these filters would find themselves having to prove their innocence on a regular basis—or give up and leave only the professionally produced content of the well-connected up online.

This is what the EU’s Article 13 will do. Though the current drafts don’t explicitly mention filters, they leave no other way to avoid copyright liability, short of ditching all user-generated content. If Article 13 becomes law in Europe (or even if it doesn’t) we can expect to see the Recording Industry Association of America and its allies push for something similar in the U.S.

The loudest voices calling to gut the safe harbors point to Google, Facebook, and a few other large Internet companies as the targets of a new law. Those massive platforms certainly dominate many people’s experience of the Internet today, and they collectively host and transmit billions of copyrighted works. And given the growing, well-deserved criticism of these companies’ privacy and content moderation practices, it’s tempting to support any legal changes that would further regulate their behavior. But copyright’s safe harbors don’t just protect Internet companies from liability—they protect all of us from being arbitrarily and unaccountably silenced online whenever our digital lives intersect with some bit of creative work to which a stranger has laid claim.

Besides, Google and Facebook are not the entirety of the Internet. We’ve yet to see a proposal that would successfully remove the safe harbors for those companies while reliably preserving it for others. Second- and third-tier Internet companies and even nonprofit projects like Wikipedia would be at risk. And while the search and social media titans may have the cash to implement massive copyright filters and the political clout to shape the law’s rough edges, small and mid-sized Internet companies and projects will be caught in an expensive bind. As we wrote recently, while America’s tech giants would prefer no regulation, they'll happily settle for regulation that's so expensive it clears the field of all possible competitors.

Copyright’s safe harbors are vital to preserving many of the Internet’s unique strengths, especially for smaller companies and individual users. This inescapable fact needs to be part of every discussion about how to regulate the Internet going forward.

from Deeplinks http://bit.ly/2VTzfPU

[connorrenwick]

Friday Five with James Pearse Connelly

For this week’s Friday Five, we’re tapping a design genre we’ve never featured before: Production Design. Not just any production design though – television production design, and more specifically Emmy-winning James Pearse Connelly, the production designer and visionary behind JPConnelly. Maybe you’re not familiar with his name but you’re most likely very familiar with his work as he’s designed the sets for shows like The Voice, Bill Nye Saves the World, MTV Video Music Awards, Top Chef, The Biggest Loser, Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner, and many more. His work has earned him eight Primetime Emmy Award nominations and one win for his ability to tell visual stories on sets with his unique aesthetic and diverse background in theater, media, and design. Now, let’s see what keeps this creative inspired.

WRDSMTH \\\ Photo by Steffi Victorioso courtesy of Los Angeles Magazine

1. Los Angeles – Melrose and Fairfax LA is a city with many faces and I’m always finding new nooks and crannies to explore. That said, there’s a certain stretch that never fails to inspire. I moved to LA in 2002 and lived on Fairfax and Melrose until 2016. It’s while living here that Los Angeles truly became home. I’m in Beverly Hills now but I find myself returning to this area again and again to browse the store window displays, see what local artists are featured, and to partake in the stellar people watching. On the west side of the street, high-end boutiques feature stunning tableaus to display merchandise. Each window is a mini set design full of color and texture. The artistry behind these displays challenges me to constantly re-define and re-articulate what luxury looks like and how to make an impact through the careful curation of details. The east side caters to a more youthful, edgier crowd. I like to see what’s happening there to get a sense of what the kids are into these days. I like the drastic difference in colors and textures one finds between west side and east side. And the fashion that parades down this street is everything! Hipsters from all over Southern California flock to this area and they do not disappoint. Above all, I’m inspired by the constant updated curation of street art on display (some of the best in Los Angeles in my opinion). Petty Cash Taqueria used to have an authentic Retna mural. When you walk down Melrose, you’ll see the brilliant works of Wrdsmth, Alec Monopoly, and Collette Miller. These artists are the new Shepard Fairey, Retna and Risk Rock and they give LA a colorful and artful identity.

Photo source

2. Instagram I’m sure this is the case for many creative types, but let’s be honest about how much art, design and creativity is literally at your fingertips because of a visual platform like Instagram. Following other designers is an obsession. Just to name a few of my current faves – I’m a fan girl of Brian Patrick Flynn, Bureau Betak and Tom Borgas. The ability to share current projects as well as works in progress has changed my process. Inspiration can come from so many diverse sources. I can fall down an Instagram rabbit hole and literally discover 20 new people to follow in 15 minutes. Without fail, I find wonderful, strange and original material to look at. And it’s not just pretty pictures. That’s actually the best part: Through Instastories I get to hear these amazing designers talk about their process and their inspirations (and sometimes their frustrations and challenges), all in their own words. This pushes all kinds of buttons in my brain. When I watch Brian Patrick Flynn describe his work, I’m inspired to tell a clearer story about my own work. I’m a very visual person but there’s an intimate connection between visualization and being able to describe the world you’re trying to create. If I’m having trouble articulating, it often means that I need to get clearer about what I’m trying to do. It makes my work that much stronger if I can succinctly tell my audience what it is I’m going for. It’s a great right brain/left brain stimulator for me. Please feel free to let me know how I’m doing with this #doesjamesmakesense @jpconnelly

Photo by Bing Putney

3. Musical instruments/Music studios I know this may sound odd, but by virtue of my chosen genre (reality, competition, variety) I end up thinking about the world that singers, dancers and musicians inhabit all the time. Sometimes it seems like I’ve designed or styled looks on every music show on television! (well, except American Idol.) If you work in variety and reality for as long as I have, you’re inevitably going to design shows that focus on groups of extremely talented coaches, singers, dancers and musicians. Whether it’s for The Voice or The Four or World of Dance, I’m constantly thinking about how to keep this world interesting and fresh. I want each show to have its own musical feel and identity. I want to inspire the audience at home and give them a glimpse of these artists’ process and environments as well as inspire the artists themselves when they’re in the spaces I design. How can you make a bunch of road cases or speakers or a recording studio look stylish and sexy? These are the kinds of things that keep me up at night. I take a lot of inspiration from musical instruments themselves. The honey veneer of an acoustic guitar is beautiful. The brass of a trumpet or sax, the gloss black lacquer and stark ivory of a baby grand piano paired with a worn black leather chesterfield along with the sparkly finish of a snare drum can bring a room to life. I also love the sculptural shapes of audio waves and the architecture of modern concert halls.

Photo courtesy of Ubisoft

4. Video Games The video game industry is on fire right now and for good reason! The artistry is painstaking, bold, colorful, and encompassing. Since I primarily come from the world of set design, this is an exciting new frontier of creativity. With the technologies and artistry available today, environments feel totally immersive. There’s no limit to the stylistic approach a designer can take in these virtual worlds. I take a lot of inspiration from the conceptual art coming out of that industry as well as through conversing with the artists and craftspeople that work in this field. TV audiences may interact with a show for, maybe, 1 hour a week. Devotees of video games, on the other hand, will immerse themselves in that world for hours every single day. That said, I feel like our worlds have many tools in common. Just recently my partner bought a Play Station 4 and it was like I was 18 again: up till 2 am playing games and eating delivery pizza. It was great to lose myself to another “space”. Let’s be clear: I love to play but I’m a TERRIBLE player. It may be because I’m too busy studying the graphics or the way a palm tree has been shaded or the curve of a portico.The worlds are just so detailed and colorful. Some of my go-to games at the moment are: Star Wars Battlefront 2, FarCry 5 and Hearthstone.

Photo by Lucas Allen via Domino

5. Art Books Give them all to me. ALL OF THEM. I love poring through any kind of coffee table art book when I’m researching a project. Some of the books I’ve been delving into recently cover everything from the history of honky tonk in the American south, to the world of magicians, to modern day architecture in the Middle East. I know that you can Google or Pinterest anything within an inch of its life but there’s something tactile and wonderful about holding a 20-pound art book in your lap and really looking at the photos or the fashion or the art. It’s a different level of engagement because you’re learning about the history and context of movements or trends or about a specific iconic artist or architect. I find that spending time with these “dinosaurs” of the visual age actually forces me to slow down and look at images more carefully and thoughtfully.

via http://design-milk.com/

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