#it's fine my supplemental canon is excellent

[frogblast-the-ventcore]

That would require Davy Perez & Akiva Goldsman to start considering the Gorn as either not "evil" (Goldman's words) - they aren't, that's the point of "Arena" - or not something where "we have no idea what [they] are really like" (Perez's words) - we do, they're bipedal, reptilian, intelligent people, not crude Xenomorph copies.

This is perhaps, my most intensely disliked aspect of SNW. If they had done the exact same stories, but given the aliens within a name that wasn't already associated with a well-known species - one that we know becomes friendly - and didn't fundamentally change said species' biology into something quite different from the standard depiction of them during the franchise (yes, technically the supplemental books and such aren't canon, but we do have McCoy's statement about them in Into Darkness), I would've been fine with those episodes. They would have been all right!

"All Those Who Wander" would still be the weakest episode of the show (so far) for being a complete cut-and-paste of Alien with dashes of Predator, The Thing, and Wrath of Khan, but I wouldn't hate them like I do now.

I LOVE Strange New Worlds, I really do, but the way they have handled the Gorn is really a smack to the face of a species who have been a part of canon since the beginning, and who were the direct subject of one of Trek's most powerful messages. Is there reasonable discussion to be had over the events of the episode, such as who was in the right as far as the Cestus III incident? Yes. But when it comes down to it, "Arena" told us:

"Just because we don't understand The Other, or fear them, doesn't mean we shouldn't see them as people, and treat them as such."

The Gorn have shown up a few more times in the series' history, and while there were some missteps (ENT "In A Mirror Darkly, Part 2", looking at you with Slar), the series has kept that message strong both in general and with the Gorn specifically. Lower Decks has shown us Gorn getting married, Gorn chefs, Gorn in civilian clothes going about their day. That is the Gorn I want to see.

Love that the Lower Deckers showed up and were like "hey, space racism is bad."

Can Boimler please also lecture them about the gorn and how they are actually a fully developed species you can be at peace with?

[brinnanza]

Hawkeye for the meme

bless u for indulging me

Headcanon A:  realistic

Hawkeye is a pretty good cook. He picked it up from his father – they’d cook together when Hawkeye was a kid, after his mother died. Whenever he got back to Maine to visit after he moved away, the two of them would spend a few hours in the kitchen, cooking and talking and laughing.

Headcanon B: while it may not be realistic it is hilarious

Hawkeye Pierce has been the instrument of SO MANY gay awakenings. His whole life is an inspiration to gay awakenings, basically. Like for a lot of men, because Hawkeye flirts with anything that moves and some of the guys he’s flirted with were like “…oh. Oh, I like this, okay, hmm” but with women also because when he’s really trying (and not trying too hard), Hawkeye is ridiculously charming. At least a couple of women have been on the receiving end of all that charm and thought, “Well I certainly feel Some Kind Of Way about this” and then realized, oh yeah, shit, I like women.

Also after Tommy kissed Henry in Sometimes You Hear the Bullet, Henry went to Hawkeye later like, “Soooooooo. How, uh. How’s this work then?” (They definitely slept together. At least once. Maybe twice.)

Headcanon C: heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends

Hawkeye’s in California when his father dies. There isn’t a lot of lead up, but Daniel is in the hospital for a few days, he just didn’t want to worry Hawkeye, who he knew would absolutely fly back to Maine immediately. Instead of being there for his father’s last moments, getting to say goodbye, Hawkeye gets an impersonal phone call from the hospital because he’s listed as next of kin. Peg and BJ end up having to handle a lot of the funeral arrangements because Hawkeye just sort of… shuts down for a while, just absolutely refuses to think about any part of it. 

All five of them make the trip back to Maine, Hawkeye, BJ, Peg, Erin, and Benji. They spend a couple of weeks there, dealing with the estate and things, and when they’re set to fly back to California, Hawkeye tells them he’s staying in Maine, in the house he grew up in, because Crab Apple Cove needs a doctor. Peg and BJ try to talk him around, and they wind up having this huge, screaming row where Hawkeye tries to extricate himself from their life (because if he says goodbye now, he won’t have a chance to miss it later). 

But instead of leaving, Peg and BJ just… stay. They wait. Hawkeye keeps trying to get them to leave, and they just keep being there. Finally, one night he knocks on the door of the bedroom they’ve been using (Hawkeye was always welcome to join them, but he didn’t), and says, “I think I’m ready to go home now.” And they do.

Headcanon D: unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own.

I have mentally rewritten Inga such that the thing Inga and Margaret get on Hawkeye’s case about is his tendency to view women as conquests first and people second, especially if they’re hot because this is 100% he does. It has nothing to do with Inga being a doctor and everything to do with Inga being attractive.

Also, giant nurse polyam puppy pile all the nurses are queer and they all smooch. (that's not about hawkeye but it is True)

[itsclydebitches]

You mentioned Catra and Adora in that ask. How do you feel about current She-ra drama? Because the fandom is currently battling over the whole "they were sisters","they're not related by blood so it's fine","you're all dilussional because it was never sibling like". Many have compared Adora and Catra's relationship to that of Nebula and Gamora, and my own little sister who is 8 was confused on "why the sisters were kissing". No to mention the toys and supplemental material calling them sisters.

I preface all this by saying I haven’t watched the final season yet. That’s not a “No spoilers!” call as I’ve already been spoiled for all the big points, including their ending. Just an acknowledgement that I haven’t engaged with the last season myself yet, just heard about it via others. 

Which I bring up because my personal “drama” (ah, always drama lol) is more along the lines of Catra’s redemption and how a relationship coincides with that. I’ve mentioned in previous asks that I was never particularly comfortable with the idea of a canonical Catra/Adora simply given the extent of the damage Catra has done and the little time there is (13 episodes) to fix that, alongside managing so many other characters, an intergalactic war, etc. What I’ve heard is that the She-Ra crew did an amazing job redeeming Catra and, from what I’ve seen, a lot of people are incredibly pleased with the rep. I’m keeping an open mind and (whenever I get around to watching) going in with the expectation that it’s indeed an excellent love story. However, that’s bumping up against my personal preference - which I acknowledge as a personal preference - that relationships, particularly queer relationships, be built on something other than abuse, torture, kidnapping, betrayal, and attempted murder. For me it’s not hard to accept a character being redeemed/forgiven (I love that shit), but it is hard for me to accept a story going, “We gave you multiple seasons of a dysfunctional, toxic relationship and one where the villain is making progress. They’re in love now.” I’m a little more invested in the “Hey, remember when you tried to destroy the world?” and “Hey, remember all the trauma you put her through?” than others seem to be and I consider those choices too important to easily get on board with a sudden, loving relationship. It’s a matter of degree: one season of a healthy dynamic doesn’t stand up against four seasons of an incredibly unhealthy one. I’d much prefer the opposite: one or two seasons of Catra being evil and three seasons telling the story of her redemption and how she and Adora get together. So that’s where I’m at currently in regards to “drama” but, as said, I’m going into the final season with an open mind and the willingness to be proven wrong. 

In regards to growing up together... I’ll admit it doesn’t bother me too much. I can absolutely see why it bothers others, but I think it’s one of those things that depends on the individuals. I know people in real life who were friends since they were toddlers. One duo got married and people think it’s an adorable love story that they were friends their whole life before hooking up. Another duo are very brother and sister like who’d be appalled at the thought of dating. We see the same in media. In The Untamed Wei Wuxian is adopted into the Jiang family at around age nine and the idea of him canonically dating Jiang Yanli or Jiang Cheng is absurd because they’re all so clearly siblings. Meanwhile, Ren and Nora from RWBY met when they were at least as young, probably younger given how the animation looks, and they’re inseparable once their village is attacked. I don’t think we can argue against them having grown up together, yet no one (that I’ve seen) bats an eye at them getting together later on. So I think it depends on the characters and their situation. Having someone brought into a family and told, “This is your new brother and sister” (The Untamed) is very different from two kids surviving the world together (RWBY), or two kids who are told they’re soldiers and just happen to live/train in the same facility (She-Ra). The latter two leave more room for the characters to view their dynamic as something other than a sibling relationship. 

Granted, it definitely doesn’t help an already subjective situation to have supplemental materials calling them sisters and then the canon making them a couple. I’m really not deep into the She-Ra fandom so I can’t speak to seeing such toys/advertising myself, but if that’s the case the “They’re sisters” side of the debate absolutely has a justified stance there. As said, they were justified from the get-go in reading them as sisters given the subjective situation, but adding in paratextual stuff only strengths my response of, “Yeah. It’s no surprise you thought that.” It’s like the opposite of the Clover/Qrow debacle. Instead of the crew emphasizing a romance outside of the text it sounds like we have a platonic relationship emphasized outside of the text instead. But as said, I haven’t seen any of that for myself and thus can’t analyze anything in particular. 

[ghoultyrant]

I've tried a few times to write Samus' pov before and I've had a lot of trouble. I feel like she is fairly inscrutable as characters go, being largely voiceless, and taciturn even when she does speak (not counting Other M). A lot of her dialogue is also removed from social interactions, being internal memos in scan logs. Idk. Maybe this is just me.

Samus as a character isn’t so much a cipher as an archaeological mystery.

The point of that comparison being that the Metroid series actually tends to tell a large fraction of its story through its environments, and does so quite well. Metroid II makes it clear that the endgame area is some manner of laboratory where the Metroids were apparently created, probably by the Chozo, but at some point control was lost. The laboratory is their nest because that’s where their existence as a species started, rather than the Metroid Queen selecting it as a good brooding ground for some other reason. Notably, the laboratory is unusually isolated and difficult to reach, even by Metroid II’s standards of travel distance, suggesting that the lab was deliberately cut off from the rest of the planet, and also probably explaining why the Metroid Queen didn’t wander off elsewhere to nest; she very possibly couldn’t.

In turn, this grounds a detail many players probably never questioned, but which is slightly odd on its own: that Metroids can apparently only grow into their Alpha and so on forms on SR388. As a consequence of natural evolution, this is certainly possible, but seems odd. But given that they’re clearly artificial, it’s easy to guess that the Chozo put that in as an artificial constraint; most likely the Chozo had plans for shipping them out to other worlds, and for some reason or another didn’t want them to change form once they were off the planet. (There’s a lot of plausible reasons for why they’d want this, but that’s a bit of a tangent)

Furthermore, this also grounds the Metroid Queen itself. Most players probably never question the fact that there’s literally only one Metroid Queen on an entire planet, because after all she’s the final boss. There’s obvious video game design reasons involved. But actually, it makes perfect sense in-universe: while fandom frequently assumes that any Metroid could potentially molt all the way to being a Metroid Queen, and that’s not an unreasonable assumption, it’s also entirely possible the Metroid Queen was one-of-a-kind because the Chozo carefully designed things so she’d be unique; that the Metroid Queen was built to be a Queen from the ground up, and is not supposed to be capable of producing more Queen-capable Metroids. That would be a logical thing to do to limit the damage in the event of a containment failure, and neatly explains why the planet has only one Metroid Queen even though Metroids themselves are running rampant across the planet.

Speaking of the Chozo and environmental storytelling, the fact that we saw their statues on two different planets back in the original trilogy was already a strong indication that the Chozo were a spacefaring species. Metroid Prime using scan logs to spell it out was a confirmation of an already-likely-true thing, not a state of canon invented by that particular entry. Again, I imagine a lot of players never questioned it because there’s game design reasons that are obviously applicable (eg that Chozo statues are frequently used to mark Important Power-Ups), but it’s extremely good environmental storytelling.

Anyway, that’s just some bits from Metroid II. Aside Other M and let me be brutally honest Samus Returns (I enjoyed it, but it mostly doesn’t try to do environmental storytelling, and probably-accidentally heavily retcons things, with the Metroid Queen’s nest no longer being set deep inside a laboratory being the most blatant example), the Metroid series does this heavily and constantly. The player is expected, if they care about the story and the world it takes place in, to look at the details they can see and make inferences.

And if they don’t care about any of that, it’s not intruding on their experience: they can just play a fun little game with blasting aliens and whatever.

Looping this back to Samus, though: yeah, we mostly don’t get Samus’ voice, both in a literal sense and in the writing sense. What we get is a ton of secondary information hinting at the kind of person she is, supplemented with concrete facts (eg that she was substantially raised by the Chozo), and then are expected to draw inferences.

As one of the more obvious examples: the first two games implicitly establish that Samus has to have a high degree of confidence in her abilities, or if she doesn’t she’s got a literally suicidal streak. She twice accepts missions to travel alone, deep into hostile territory, with the interstellar bounty hunter equivalent of nothing but the clothes on her back. Metroid II’s manual tells us that some elite corps of soldiers was sent to SR388 and never heard from again, and this didn’t dissuade Samus from going in completely alone.

This strongly implies she earnestly believes she can do the job when a literal small army couldn’t even survive: it’s not just that the Egenoid Star Marines failed at the mission, it’s that they were so completely out of their depth that none of them were able to escape the planet to report their failure!

Important and related is that starting from Metroid Ii it’s very normal for Samus to unambiguously have the option of just turning around and leaving. Her ship is on-planet, she uses it to leave at the end of a given game, and nonetheless she sticks each given mission out. She doesn’t encounter Omega Metroids and go ‘no, this is too dangerous, I’m out’. She doesn’t rampage across half of Zebes in Super Metroid and give up in disgust when she fails to find the stolen Metroid reasonably quickly. She doesn’t report the Space Pirates on Tallon IV to the Federation and leave them to clean up that particular mess while she goes to get a drink. Echoes and Fusion are the only games that actually trap Samus on-site temporarily to justify her ongoing presence, and even then if you bother to visit and scan her ship regularly in Echoes you’ll discover it’s ready for liftoff well before it’s time for the endgame, while in Fusion it actually doesn’t take that long to get back access to the Main Deck and thus her ship.

A lot of games that place a player character alone and far from civilization are very careful to explain that the player character was stranded in this strange place, and implicitly or explicitly sets the player character’s goal as escape back to civilization. The implication is generally that these are people who would never willingly inflict such a situation on themselves, and if they ever accidentally found themselves in such a situation with the ability to back out, they’d take it in a heartbeat.

Samus, meanwhile, keeps ending up in these situations and sticking them out. She doesn’t mind being alone with her thoughts for long periods of time.

It’s worth mentioning that the Japanese version of the original Metroid tracked how long you’d played, only your hours of play were presented as how many days Samus had been on Zebes. If you treat this ratio as canonical to all future games, which are generally designed so a first-time player will beat them in 4-20 hours... yeah. Samus has repeatedly spent several days or weeks in a row far away from civilization, and is just fine with sticking those situations out, and even inflicting them fairly spontaneously on herself if she has a specific reason for doing so. (eg she goes to Tallon IV in pursuit of Ridley)

Now, since this is inference there’s a fundamental ambiguity here. I personally tend to interpret Samus as being someone who finds socializing with her fellow sentients to be a stressful experience, such that going out into the wild for a week is a form of decompression and relaxation, but this isn’t the only plausible interpretation, and honestly I probably go to that interpretation because I don’t cope well with that kind of social interaction, rather than it actually being a better interpretation. One could plausibly interpret Samus as someone who, say, is actually fairly intensely social and just rates (Insert mission objective here) as more important than her own personal comfort. (In this interpretation, it would be assumed she instead decompresses from her missions by partying with her must-exist-in-this-interpretation large circle of friends) That’s certainly an excellent justification for her chasing Ridley in Metroid Prime, for example, and if we ignore Other M entirely I can’t think of a Metroid game that could be said to contradict that particular interpretation. (And Other M doesn’t count because it contradicts literally every other game on so many levels; if one game doesn’t fit while the rest are consistent with each other, you toss that one game as an inconsistency)

(Well, actually, another reason I take my interpretation of Samus is that she was raised by Ascetic Space Bird Monks, but then again plenty of people rebel against their upbringing. It’s perfectly possible to say Intensely Social Samus was driven crazy by the Chozo expecting her to be an Ascetic Space Bird Monk But As A Tiny Human, and even suggest that she takes being Intensely Social even farther than she would’ve otherwise as pushback against that whole thing)

BUT

While there’s room for interpretation and murkiness on details, Samus across the games has a fairly clear sketch of a certain range of plausible personalities. This range is also further reduced if we actually, for example, acknowledge Samus’ monologues from Fusion, which make it clear Samus concerns herself with the big picture (Suggesting that she sticks out her missions at least in part because often The Fate Of The Galaxy hinges on them kind of thing), and also seems to indicate (Consistent with her observed behavior), that Samus isn’t someone inclined toward negotiation as a problem-solving mechanism -that is, she doesn’t even countenance the possibility of trying to talk the incoming Federation goons into not trying to weaponize the X, going straight to ‘I need to make sure it’s not possible for them to try’- and that she’s got a bit of a philosophical streak to her, of exactly the sort one might expect of someone raised by Ascetic Space Bird Monks.

But even without the Fusion monologues, it’s not actually that hard to dig up a coherent personality for Samus, consistent with what we see across most of the games and compelling in its own right. It just takes a mentality that, while unusual for most writing/reading, is completely consistent with how the Metroid series prefers to convey its stories.

[the-nysh]

So I took a peek at the webcomic, but honestly, it only makes me more annoyed with the anime. The manga reads like ONE's story if given the art quality it deserves, and the first season made that quality even more vivid than Mr Murata did. And now, heck, now that I'm looking at some fights in it, the webcomic has better dynamism and motion than the currently airing blurry mess. I just wanted to see all those cool moments manga move, but I'm barely getting that. So yeah, it's manga time for me.

And that’s fine. :O Cause there’s no need to force yourself to watch something if you’re not getting anything out of it. I’m glad you’ve explored the other options available to make an informed decision. Again, the animes (yes, including s1) just supplement the opm experience if you so choose to watch them as an additional (and not primary) source of content beyond the manga + webcomic. (Cause that’s what I’m doing.) I will say that while yes Murata’s manga adaptation is awesome, it’s also recommended to continue the webcomic. The manga splits off on different paths to reach the same destination by including expanded/extra arcs and new characters that didn’t originally exist in the webcomic (but ONE still writes all those storyboards for Murata, so they’re still canon), so the reading experience is a bit different between them. In my case, I love catching the bits of foreshadowing and parallel ideas ONE adds to both as he writes them concurrently. Plus, the manga’s current story arcs are all completed (in a very cinematic and satisfying way, I’ll add), so what’s currently happening in the webcomic has progressed way further beyond the manga’s current status. (And some people prefer the webcomic’s brisker pace anyway.)

ONE’s strengths are in concise panel flow, storyboarding, composition, and emotional impact for the strongest delivery (also works perfectly for when he carefully builds things up only to break the tension with an unexpected gag). Just as you’ve noticed with that dynamism. All of this is apparent in his other series, mp100 and Makai no Ossan, too. While his art+anatomy may not be technically polished, he instead shows an impressive handling of the fundamentals, which are important things many beginning artists often overlook, so this quality/focus of his makes him a very strong comic artist/writer who can tell a good story. Even Murata (whose strengths are in illustrating/conveying fluid momentum, weight, and epic scale) knows when it’s best to directly reference ONE’s paneling for the most efficient option. (This is partly what I mean when I say Murata was inspired by ONE’s work enough to draw it in his own HD vision, because to a distinguished professional’s eye, he can tell there’s excellence in there.) 

So please do continue to enjoy the manga! Because when ONE and Murata’s different strengths are combined, the end result is quite magical. But knowing the actual source material behind it (the webcomic) brings an even greater appreciation for their work together, and more opm content (including the supplemental animes) is always welcome to me.

[caveartfair]

Sculptor Augusta Savage’s Towering Impact on the Harlem Renaissance

Augusta Savage, Portrait Head of John Henry, c. 1940. Photograph © 2018 Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Courtesy of the New York Historical Society.

Augusta Savage with her sculpture Realization, 1938. Photo by Andrew Herman. Courtesy of the New York Historical Society.

When I was in elementary school in the early 1990s, I would occasionally beg my mother for money to buy a book from the Scholastic Books circular. One year, I asked for a title called Great Women In the Struggle, the second volume in the “Book of Black Heroes” series. Its purple cover featured black-and-white pictures of iconic black women like Fannie Lou Hamer, Sojourner Truth, Judith Jamison, and many others from all sorts of disciplines and walks of life. Only a short passage was devoted to each figure, and while that wasn’t enough to dig into the meat of their lives, it was a start—a spark of inspiration—especially given the dearth of black children’s books at the time. (According to the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, books created by black authors and illustrators comprised between 1 and 4 percent of all children’s books published between 1990 and 1995.)

Among the women included in that book was the sculptor, educator, and community organizer Augusta Savage. Although the text on the page was brief, the picture of the beautiful black woman standing next to her larger-than-life sculpture made an impression on my eight-year-old self.

Augusta Savage, Gamin, c. 1930. Courtesy of the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Jacksonville, Florida.

Today, as a curator, I seek to increase equity and visibility for marginalized cultural producers. But back then, I had no inkling of the advocacy and curatorial work that lay ahead of me as an adult or the full breadth of Savage’s contributions to the black art and artists in the 20th century. Her impact on the social and cultural milieu of the arts communities of her era and her pursuit of equity along gender and racial lines have had long-lasting implications on American art history.

Throughout her life, Savage championed black artists, making space for their work in America and on the world stage, and fighting for it to be valued just as much as that of white peers. Recently, I have relished seeing her name and work celebrated. The most significant project championing the artist’s legacy is the traveling exhibition “Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman,” curated by art historian Jeffreen Hayes at the Cummer Museum in Jacksonville, Florida, through April 7th. (A version of the show will open at the New-York Historical Society on May 3rd, and will subsequently appear at the Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State University in Philadelphia and the Dixon Gallery & Gardens in Memphis, Tennessee.)

“Renaissance Woman” is the first exhibition focused on the full weight of Savage’s venerable career. Born in 1892 in Green Cove Springs, Florida, as a child, the artist fashioned figures from the region’s distinctive red clay dirt. Savage’s family did not support her artmaking, but she persisted. After graduating from the State Normal College for Colored Students (now Florida A&M University) in Tallahassee, in 1921, she made her way to New York City. Savage had come to New York to study at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, but there is no doubt that the city’s emergence as a bustling hub of black culture had its draw.

Augusta Savage, Portrait of a Baby, 1942. Courtesy of the New York Historical Society.

Augusta Savage, Laborer, 1934. Courtesy of the New York Historical Society.

While it would later be codified as the Harlem Renaissance, at the time, the black luminaries living and working uptown called themselves the New Negro Movement, a term coined by philosopher and educator Dr. Alain Leroy Locke. Underscoring the vital cultural movement was the desire to represent African-American life through the fine arts, literature, music, and whatever other creative means were available. Against this backdrop, Savage excelled in her coursework at the Cooper Union, completing the four-year art program in just three.

Savage was awarded a prestigious scholarship to the Fontainebleau School of Fine Arts in Paris in 1923. This accomplishment should have meant a summer studying sculpture in France—however, upon discovering that she was the sole black woman of the 100 selected students, the all-white, all-male American selection committee rescinded her offer. The incident became a major scandal, reported in New York Amsterdam News, the New York Times, the Negro World, and many other notable newspapers.

Savage did not allow the racist slight to go unanswered; she responded with a searing open letter published in the New York World:

“I hear so many complaints to the effect that Negroes do not take advantage of the educational opportunities offered them. Well, one of the reasons why more of my race do not go in for higher education is that as soon as one of us gets his head above the crowd there are millions of feet ready to crush it back again to that dead level of commonplace thus creating a racial deadline of culture in our Republic. For how am I to compete with other American artists if I am not to be given the same opportunity?”

Augusta Savage with Ernestine Rose, Roberta Bosley Hubert, and her sculpture James Weldon Johnson, 1939. Courtesy of the New York Historical Society.

The Fontainebleau incident showed that Savage was formidable and eloquent. For a woman of color to stand up and speak at that time was more than unusual, it was revolutionary. This was a formative moment for Savage, one that moved her toward arts-based activism for the black community.

Thrust into a new kind of renown, the artist was commissioned to create busts for the likes of sociologist and scholar W.E.B. Du Bois, Jamaican-born Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey, and NAACP leader and orator William Pickens Sr., among others. Although her artistic status was on the rise, to make ends meet, Savage labored as a domestic worker and a steam laundress while continuing to cultivate her studio practice.

In 1929, Savage was awarded a Rosenwald fellowship to study in Paris for her sculpture Gamin, well-known today for its expressiveness. In Paris, she studied at the feet of masters, exhibited at the Grand Palais and other prestigious venues, and worked with the countless talented people from across the black world who had also made their way to the City of Lights, then the center of the art world. During her time abroad, Savage received another Rosenwald fellowship, as well as funds from the Carnegie Foundation and community members in New York and elsewhere. With this support, Savage was able to travel to Belgium, France, and Germany, where she studied sculpture in the region’s cathedrals and museums.

Augusta Savage, Gwendolyn Savage, 1934–35. Courtesy of the New York Historical Society.

Savage returned to New York in 1932, at the height of the Great Depression. Determined to share what she had learned in Europe, the artist opened the Savage Studio of Arts and Craft, where she offered free or pay-as-you-go drafting, painting, printmaking, and sculpture courses to Harlemites. In 1937, in partnership with the federally funded Works Projects Administration, Savage formed and directed the Harlem Community Art Center, using the Savage Studio as a model for its programming. Under Savage’s leadership, some 1,500 members of the community were able to receive free art instruction in the institution’s first 16 months alone. Among Savage’s students and colleagues are figures now canonized in the annals of African-American art history: William Artis, Romare Bearden, Robert Blackburn, Gwendolyn Knight, Jacob Lawrence, Norman Lewis, and many others.

William Artis, A Mother’s Love, 1963. Courtesy of the New York Historical Society.

Romare Bearden, Reclining Nude, 1979. Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/ Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.

Jacob Lawrence, The Card Game, 1953. © 2017 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

In 1939, the World’s Fair commissioned Savage to create what is now one of her most famous works. The Harp, also known as Lift Every Voice And Sing, was inspired by the Negro National Anthem written by brothers James Weldon and John Rosamond Johnson. Though now lost, The Harp featured black singers rendered as the strings of the instrument, the sound board and the arm of the harp formed by the hand of God.

Due to financial constraints, Savage primarily worked in plaster; she simply could not afford to cast her works in bronze, as was the standard for serious sculptors of the day. Accordingly, the majority of her works, including The Harp, have been lost to history. This presented a considerable challenge to the curators of “Renaissance Woman.”

Augusta Savage viewing two of her sculptures, Susie Q and Truckin, 1939. Courtesy of the New York Historical Society.

Augusta Savage, The Diving Boy, c. 1939. Courtesy of the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Jacksonville, Florida.

As Hayes explained, to supplement the exhibition, she “filled it out with works by some of [Savage’s] well-known students.” Yet another challenge was to keep Savage central to the presentation. “It would be very easy to fill the gallery with Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden,” she said. So in addition to Savage’s work and that of her students and peers, Hayes included archival materials, such as Savage’s letters around the Fountainbleu incident.

Contextualizing Savage’s sculpture practice within her community-organizing and education work creates a fuller picture of her contributions to the Harlem Renaissance and black arts communities as a whole. The exhibition and its accompanying catalogue, which features essays by scholars including Kirsten Pai Buick and Bridget R. Cooks, illuminates Savage’s life and work in a contemporary moment when black women—and non-white artists generally—continue to struggle against discriminatory practices in the art world and beyond. (A study released this past March shows that even today, 85 percent of artists in American museum collections are white, and 87 percent are men.) The work of balancing the histories of gender and race-based discrimination is yet to be behind us. We can look back on Augusta Savage’s work as an example of how we might forge a path toward true equality.

from Artsy News

[junemermaid]

Yuletide Letter 2017

Darling Writer,

It's Yuletide again! This is my tenth year, and it's still a mainstay of my holiday season. Hope you're happy to be here, too. So, let's get down to business. Here are a few things to guide you:

Fic of all ratings is welcome. I read gen, het, slash, femslash and poly configurations with equal enthusiasm. Some shipping preferences are below in the fandom details.

Porn is also welcome! I love sex scenes that reveal character or highlight some issue in a new way. That is, please put the characters first: people don't stop being themselves when they get naked and busy. I prefer (semi)realistic depiction of characters as people over tropes-first portrayals.

Please don't write me hard-coded power dynamics of any kind (such as a 24/7 D/s relationship).I need my 'ships to stand on equal ground outside the bedroom, though playing with D/s is great. Hard kink, a/b/o etc. isn’t much my thing.

Please don't include glorified violence, graphic rape, underage, bestiality or animal harm. Canon-typical action violence is fine (and action scenes are adored!) for any of the fandoms I've requested.

Wedding scenes, proposals and curtainfic are not quite my thing. Kidfic turns me off a story. I love moments of domesticity against the backdrop of danger and conflict that's the meat of most stories, but not so much serene post-canon universes where characters settle down to raise children.

Poking people in (or through) the eye, and snails, and things that have very many legs (spiders are cool) freak me out.

Please don't shy away from any sticky controversial subjects, just don't exploit them. I like seeing characters react to horror and trauma as people do. Dark topics are excellent, but in general I need a dash of hope. Bittersweet endings are one of my favourite things.

I love action/adventure and plotty stories—few things make me happier than a well-crafted action scene. Breathless chases and daring rescues are a quick way to my heart.

Subtle humour and banter are golden. In general I love people using humour to bridge distance and to cope under stress.

Worldbuilding, expanding backstories, and extraneous historical details (whether real or imaginary history) are magnificent to me.

AU of the "what if this canon event went differently" variety is excellent. However, I prefer stories set in the canon universe. In particular, mundane modern AUs are not my cup of tea.

Exploration of party dynamics and the various ways people come together are always interesting to me. Relationship negotiation, wary/suspicious characters forced to work together, established couples facing a change in their bond, all of these are great.

I also love long lazy mornings, kissing in the rain, little kindnesses, philosophical discussions, fluid power dynamics, and characters being treated as actual people with strengths, flaws, quirks, wants and needs, and ridiculous odd habits.

1. Torment: Tides of Numenera Any Character

Here's the thing: I love this game, its sort-of precedessor Planescape: Torment was an utterly formative experience for me, and Tides of Numenera filled the void for the sequel I never got. This is not to gush about PS:T---T:ToN is the subject of this request, so let's move on to that.

I didn't specify any characters because I would honestly hear about any of them, or if you just wanted to expand the game world in some weird and twisty direction, I'd be happy as a clam. (If you have access to the Numenera tabletop RPG, also feel free to supplement the canon by any aspect of that, it's all good.) The setting flexes and flows so well that if there is a worldbuilder in you, go for it.

Strong party dynamics are a draw for me, so any kind of moment between party members would be great. Fighting together, arguing together, having to get along in dire circumstances. Fire-forged friendships, give me all of them. Write me a discovery in the Valley of Dead Heroes, a conversation in a cliffside cafe in Sagus, a battle gone wrong because a piece of numenera blew up in their faces.

Or tell me more about Tybir's past or Rhin's future (while she's gone, goodness!), or Matkina meeting the Last Castoff and (potentially) realising she has a sibling worth bonding with. I'm not picky about the Last Castoff, though I slightly prefer a female version and strongly prefer one who will not fuck their companions over. To me, nuanced good guys are more fun.

As for shipping: T:ToN has a wild, weird world where mostly anything is possible, and I get why the writers decided to focus on worldbuilding and not do companion romances. That said, I have a soft spot for Tybir and Auvigne at any point in time.

2. Final Fantasy IX Any Character

I chose "Any Character" here because the nominated four--Garnet, Eiko, Amarant and Freya--are coincidentally my favourites among the lineup. Please feel free to write about all or any of them.

Final Fantasy IX is close to my heart because it's an unabashed steampunk fairytale: there's the scifi of the two worlds converging, the fantasy of souls migrating, the hilarious science of the airships, all married to the frankly cuddly character design.

It also manages to have a lot of delightful gaps in the story: Madain Sari is sort of my favourite mystery, because we see the legacy of the summoning tribe on display on the Eidolon Wall, we have Eiko as their last voice, but they clearly lived there for a long time. So there's one thing I would love to hear about: Garnet and Eiko exploring the past of their people.

Freya is, of course, a great untold story as well. The game kind of veers away from her in the latter half, and we never see her deal with the fallout of Burmecia's destruction. I like the inklings we get of her bond with Amarant; how she refuses to buy his lone wolf act and is every bit as capable a warrior as him.

Speaking of which: Freya and Amarant, as well as Garnet and Eiko, go into the elemental shrines in each other's company. I did always wonder what happened during these little-seen scenes. Freya and Garnet, who don't really interact in the game itself, also fascinate me. They're both strong, dutiful characters who keep their thoughts close to the chest; it would be lovely to see them working or talking together.

I'm not too partial to ship fic in this fandom; to me it's a tale of friendship and loyalty and adventure. However, if you want to do something shippy, Freya and Amarant do have a spark that I always enjoyed.

3. Chì bì | Red Cliff Sūn Shàngxiāng — Xiǎo Qiáo

Oh, my cherished Ancient Chinese fandom. I chose only the two women, but I genuinely love most of the cast, so if you want to incorporate any other characters, that is welcome. I'd prefer the focus to be on Shangxiang and/or Xiao Qiao though.

One of my favourite things about this movie is how effortlessly it includes these two female characters in the plot, the action and the emotional arcs as well. They both have clear motives and desires, and they both act to achieve them in whatever ways are available to them. And the story allows that: never does anyone question Xiao Qiao's courage in crossing the river, and once Shangxiang and her armed maids are included as part of the defence force at Red Cliff, they remain part of it.

Clearly they are both somewhat exceptional women, but the movie spends little time underlining this. It also never adheres to just one sort of strength in women: Shangxiang aids the army by hiding among Cao Cao's soldiers and bringing the map, while Xiao Qiao accomplishes the same with a cup of tea. ("Someone here shall pour that full heart onto the floor.")

This works for me equally well as a gen prompt or something more femslashy. They don't interact much in the movie beyond their delighted greetings when Shangxiang gets back: this implies to me that they know each other well. They probably would, since they're part of closely related households (Xiao Qiao's unseen sister was married to Sun Quan's deceased older brother). This would open venues for fic set before or after the movie: How did they first encounter each other? Did they find common ground in a love of horses and riding, perhaps?

I do believe in Zhou Yu and Xiao Qiao's marriage: if you go for shippier fic, I'd prefer some acknowledgment of it. Perhaps they have an open arrangement?

On that note: please make this as historical or anachronistic as you like. I love worldbuilding and setting detail, but this period can be a pain to research (I know, I've tried). If you happen to dabble in Chinese history, I'd love to hear all about it, but considering the movie itself takes many liberties with the period, I in no way require it.

I hope this helps to get you started. Take what you can use out of it and let the rest fall. Optional Details Are Optional. I talked a lot, but I'm easy to please, and steadfastly believe that when a writer enjoyed working on a story, that always shines through. Write the story that speaks to you best. Thank you so much for writing for me, and a merry Yuletide to you!

[karingottschalk]

https://www.fujirumors.com/vote-now-the-sigma-lens-you-want-for-fujifilm-x/

In a recent interview, Top Fujifilm manager Toshihisa Iida said that Fujifilm is opening X mount to third parties, and that Tokina will be the first company to offer autofocus lenses for the Fujifilm X system….

Fujifilm X-T4 with Fujifilm VG-XT4 Vertical Battery grip and Fujinon XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4.0 R LM OIS kit zoom lens.

Fujifilm X-Pro 3 with MHG-XPRO3 grip and Fujinon XF 35mm f/2.0 R WR prime lens.

Fujifilm X-H1 with VPB-XH1 battery grip and Fujinon XF 16-55mm f/2.8 R LM WR professional zoom lens.

I have placed my vote for the two current Sigma APS-C lenses  most want the company to redesign and make for Fujifilm X-Mount cameras, and if more than two votes were permitted by Patrick DiVino’s survey then I would vote for several more.

The two Sigma APS-C zoom lenses I most want to see redesigned for Fujifilm X-Series cameras

Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM | A APS-C zoom lens.

Sigma 50-100mm F1.8 DC HSM | A APS-C zoom lens.

There is little doubt that these two APS-C/Super 35 zoom lenses have proven popular amongst users of a range of camera systems and sensor formats for stills photography and video, whether adapted or in native mount versions.

Australian cinematographer/director Paul Leeming with his Blackmagic Design Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, 8Sinn cage and Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 Art zoom lens attached with Metabones Speed Booster EF-to-MFT adapter.

The Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM Art zoom is the most popular of the two and is often seen in use in its Canon EF-mount version attached to cameras made by Blackmagic Design, Panasonic and Fujifilm via adapter or natively.

The lens is designed for APS-C/Super 35 sensor-equipped cameras, and is currently available in Canon EF, Nikon F, Pentax K, Sigma SA and Sony A mount.

Both Art lenses are also made in three-gear cinematography versions in Arri PL, Canon EF and Sony E mounts, available for purchase at B&H separately or as a pair with customised hard case.

Both lenses are also available at B&H as a kit for Sony E-mount cameras with Sigma MC-11 Mount Convertor /Lens Adapter to convert Canon EF to Sony E.

If a similar kit were already available with Sigma convertor/adapter for Fujifilm X-mount cameras, one might be sorely tempted.

But it is not, and there are good arguments for both lenses being redesigned and made native with typical X-mount features such as aperture rings but that can be used clicked with 1/3-stop detents or completely clickless, your choice set with the flick of a switch.

Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM Art Lens

Equivalent in 35mm sensor camera terms from 27mm through to 52.5mm, this lens includes some of my most-used stills and video documentary focal lengths such as 28mm, 35mm, 40mm and 50mm.

With a maximum aperture of f/1.8, it is well-suited to the indoors available darkness in which I often find myself.

It would become my most-used lens for documentary work, to be supplemented with Fujifilm’s Fujinon XF 14mm f/2.8 R for scene-setting shots, or, if talking Sigma APS-C lenses then the Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 EX DC HSM may be suitable provided a Fujifilm X-mount version is made.

In 35mm sensor terms, the Fujinon is equivalent to 21mm and the Sigma zoom is equivalent to a range of 15mm through to 30mm.

Sigma 50-100mm f/1.8 DC HSM Art Lens

I have long been hoping Fujifilm would release one of my favourite portrait focal lengths, 70mm, as a fast prime lens with closeup capability, but my hopes continue to be dashed each time the company updates its lens roadmap.

In 35mm sensor terms, this lens is 105mm and is the focal length with which I became a portrait photographer.

Sigma’s 50-100mm f/1.8 zoom is equivalent in 35mm terms to 75mm through to 150mm, thus including another popular portrait focal length, 90mm, which is equivalent to 137mm.

Fujifilm’s Fujinon XF 90mm f/2.0 R LM WR prime receives high praise as does the Fujinon XF 80mm f/2.8 R LM OIS WR prime lens, but the Sigma 50-100mm f/1.8 zoom would take the place of three useful portrait and documentary focal lengths at a fraction of the cost of three Fujifilm-made lenses.

The ongoing lack of a professional-quality Fujifilm 18mm prime lens

Fujinon XF 18mm f/2.0 R prime lens.

Fujifilm Australia staff members often confirm that the lens customers want to see radically updated is the Fujinon XF 18mm f/2.0 R, a lens I love and hate, with the emphasis on the latter.

Love is too strong a word for this 28mm-equivalent prime lens, so let’s use “like” instead.

I know some photographers adore it for its many old-fashioned optical and mechanical quirks but for me it is an irritating disappointment.

I have often asked Fujifilm to replace it with a compact Fujicron-style lens for documentary photography or a manual clutch focus Fujilux-style f/1.4 lens for available darkness work and especially for video.

Leica Elmarit-M 28mm f/2.8 Aspheric prime lens for Leica M-System cameras, for me the archetypal discrete 28mm documentary and photojournalism lens.

Leica Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 Aspheric prime, the lens I would choose if I could only have just one for available darkness and available light documentary photography.

In my Leica M-Series rangefinder days I relied on a Leica Elmarit-M 28mm f/2.8 Aspheric lens mounted on my prime camera with a Leica Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 Aspheric lens in reserve for available darkness documentary photography.

Incidentally, if I could only have two prime lenses for video work, then I would choose a 28mm equivalent and a 40mm equivalent, or in APS-C terms, 18mm and 27mm.

Fujifilm makes neither focal length as manual clutch focussing primes, much to my ongoing moviemaking disappointment, but I often carry the compact Fujinon XF 27mm f/2.8 and F 18mm f/2.0 R on a pair of Fujifilm rangefinder cameras when needing to be discrete and in the street or places where I don’t want to be noticed, but I would not use either prime lens for video.

Fujifilm makes three excellent primes equally suitable for video and stills photography, the manual clutch focussing Fujinon XF 14mm f/2.8 R, XF 16mm f/1.4 R WR and XF 23mm f/1.4 R but there are no signs the company is serious about extending its manual clutch focus lens range any time soon, whether with primes or zooms.

Shame, given Fujifilm’s recent emphasis on great quality Super 35 video with the Fujifilm X-T4 and the coming Fujifilm X-H2.

If Sigma can be persuaded to make an aperture ring-equipped 18-35mm f/1.8 X-mount zoom then that can help with available light or darkness video work, leaving Fujifilm to finally pull its collective fingers out with a Fujicron-style XF 18mm lens that does need to be faster than f/2.8.

Given the success of the Fujinon XF 16mm f/2.8 R WR, despite its maximum aperture being darker than the f/2.0 of its Fujinon XF 23mm f/2.0 R WR, Fujinon XF 35mm f/2 R WR and Fujinon XF 50mm f/2.0 R WR Fujicron-style siblings, a Fujinon XF 18mm f/2.8 R WR should do just fine for documentary stills, leaving the serious 18mm available darkness video work to Sigma.

Fuji Rumors: VOTE NOW the SIGMA Lens You Want for Fujifilm X In a recent interview, Top Fujifilm manager Toshihisa Iida said that Fujifilm is opening X mount to third parties…

[mirberry-blog1]

21 Ridiculous and Awesome Things I Bought During My First Trimester

Image source: Babble | Megan SayersI am a list-maker. A list aficionado. List enthusiast. I think you catch my drift. I have always been this way — I have multiple notebooks, magnetic notepads, sticky notes, and Excel spreadsheets in my organizational rotation. I’ll spare you the list of things I have for listing. So of course, the minute I found out I was pregnant, I started to make shopping lists. Here is the thing about pregnancy hormones — when they tell you about the urge to “nest,” I thought they meant decorating or cleaning or otherwise adjusting my physical space. For some people (like me), nesting takes the form of light hoarding. I wanted to make sure I had EVERYTHING I needed for my little chicken nugget, and I have the receipts to prove it. A whole list of receipts. Oh look, here is a list of some of the things I bought, for better or worse. 1. Stretch Mark Cream Image source: Earth Mama – Baby Angel OrganicsLiterally from the first minute I found out I was pregnant, I’ve been paranoid about stretch marks. I can’t swear the lotion is working but it smells good and I like it, and so far I haven’t seen any new marks, so it must be doing something. Please be doing something. As an alternative, I also really liked Amareta’s Nourishing Belly Oil.Available from Amazon, $12.15 2. Stretchy Jeans Image source: NordstromA new pair of jeans, one size larger than current jeans. I got a super stretchy pair from Articles of Society and now I’m 6 months in and still wearing them.Available from Nordstrom, $64 3. Baby Books Image source: MintedI had big plans to document every milestone in this pregnancy so I bought three: an adorable one from Minted, Expecting You, and Le Petit Baby Book. Current pages filled out: also three. Sigh. Expecting You is available from Amazon, $13.46Le Petit Baby Book is available from Amazon, $20.40Baby books available from Minted, prices vary 4. Mae Band Image source: Mae BandI tried the Bella Band and it was ok, but Los Angeles is hot and it was just a lot of extra fabric to be wearing all the time. I switched to the Mae band and I love it. It works with a lot of my non-pregnancy jeans and it’s so comfortable, I’m may just keep wearing it after pregnancy, whenever I eat a big dinner.Available from Amazon, $21.95 5. Nice DSLR Camera Image source: Best Buy | Megan SayersCurrently all of my photos are taken with my iPhone 6 and they are fine but not great. I definitely plan to be one of those moms who take all the photos and I wanted a good camera that also didn’t require a post-graduate degree in photography. This Canon EOS Rebel T6 is user-friendly and awesome, at a price point that didn’t drain our baby’s college fund. You can always upgrade the lenses if you get super into photography.Available from Amazon, $469 6. Prenatal Vitamins (1 year’s supply) Image source: Smarty PantsA year’s supply would have been a smart purchase if I was gestating a giraffe, but I just might take them for the rest of my life because my hair has never looked better.Available from Amazon, $18.92 7. Storage Bins Image source: Land of NodI went on a true home and organizing purge and it felt INCREDIBLE. I also went overboard buying wicker baskets and bins, I love these cotton cubes from Land of Nod, this wicker storage tray from Container Store, and this metal crate from Threshold. You’re going to have whole new categories of things for the baby. Bins are like lists for physical things, right? Bins available from Land of Nod, Container Store, and Target 8. Vtech Baby Monitor Image source: Vtech | Megan SayersMy husband is a gadget junkie and I swear he read about a thousand reviews before he picked the “right” monitor for us. The VM991 will let us keep a close eye on the baby when he’s finally here — and our pet in the meantime. It has remote monitoring using their free mobile app, two-way audio, and pan/tilt control, and did I mention how much fun we’re having using it to monitor the cat?Available from Amazon, $187.49 9. Cat Condo Image source: Amazon | Megan SayersSpeaking of the cat, I bought a giant cat condo because I’m dealing with serious guilt about displacing our fur baby with our human firstborn.Available from Amazon, $57.95 10. What to Expect When You’re Expecting Image source: Megan SayersI didn’t actually buy this, a dear friend/coworker gave it to me and I love it. Let’s just say, there’s a reason it’s the #1 Best-selling pregnancy book. This week, my baby is the size of a spaghetti squash.Available from Amazon, $12.43 11. Car Seat Canopy Image source: BayB BrandTo protect from the elements and direct sunshine … even though we’re still lost in the Bermuda Triangle of trying to pick an actual car seat.Available from Amazon, $29.99 12. Freshly Picked Moccasins Image source: Freshly PickedIt’s possible I got pregnant just so I could buy these for my offspring. When will they start making them for adults?Available from Amazon, $45 13. Beco 8 Baby Carrier Image source: BecoI got this for my husband. He’s been practicing with the cat. Luckily, we have a handy cat condo for when he needs to hide/escape.Available from Beco, $180 14. New Bra Image source: Aerie | Megan SayersA new bra because your belly’s not the only body part that’s growing. Here’s a great one from Aerie, and a slightly expensive but also SO COMFORTABLE one from True & Co.Available from True & Co, $58 15. Skip Hop Baby Gym Image source: Skip HopThis was my first official baby playtime acquisition. It’s simply the cutest and I can’t wait to see my little guy rolling around under there!Available from Amazon, $110 16. New Pillows Image source: JC PennyPregnancy insomnia hit hard and fast. I love this pillow option, because I’m a hot sleeper and also a side sleeper.Available from Amazon, $36.55 17. Magnesium Supplements Image source: Nature MadeSpeaking of pregnancy insomnia, I also started to get really bad restless leg syndrome and cramping. A friend suggested magnesium supplements, as there’s early research on the link between magnesium deficiency and RLS and it has definitely helped. Always check with your doctor before taking anything during pregnancy, but mine said the supplements were safe for me.Available from Amazon, $8.47 18. Pregnancy Butt Donut Image source: Duomishu | Megan SayersDon’t ask questions. Just order one.Available from Amazon, $8.90 19 . Stretchy “Workout” Leggings Image source: LucyJust kidding, they’re actually “sit around and eat snacks” leggings.Available from Amazon, $63.97 20. Incredible Dress Image source: NordstromClassic yet comfortable, this dress is the gift that keeps on giving.Available from Nordstrom, $56 21. Baby Onesie for Our Cat-Baby Announcement Image source: Inkstastic | Megan SayersIf we weren’t those people, we are those people now. Related Post These Polly Pocket-Inspired Makeup Palettes Are Here to Help You Relive 4th Grade The post 21 Ridiculous and Awesome Things I Bought During My First Trimester appeared first on Babble. Powered by WPeMatico The post 21 Ridiculous and Awesome Things I Bought During My First Trimester appeared first on Baby Based. http://174.136.57.210/~babybase/21-ridiculous-and-awesome-things-i-bought-during-my-first-trimester/

[itsclydebitches]

Soo like 6 days ago I started watching the Witcher stopped at ep 7 bought the Witcher 3 and have been playing it nonstop. The shows okay? I think? (From someone who only knows what the series is from a 4 hour critic video that I had no idea what was going on in BUT- the game is so funnnn. Like I barely know what’s going on, from that video and people discussing things online but WOW??? Like how was I not told about this shit earlier??? Dandelions realllllly icky thooo like I thought he’d be more fun and less “wow your straight fucking scum” but I mean at least he cares about his friends? Triss and yennifer are... Oof rough BUT I’m only just in the game, hope they’ll grow on me? Or change? But Ciri? Is adorable? Her parts are so fun to play her dodge is so fun.

The novels! Have You read them? Where does one get them lmao Ik they’re translated?

[old timey fisherman's voice] WE CAUGHT ANOTHER ONE, BOYS!

Ahhhh new Witcher 3 fan!! Congratulations, anon, you've unlocked my numerous Thoughts™ and Opinions™ on the matter that I am now going to dump on you in bullet point form. No spoilers though!

Okay, okay, yeah I like this game a totally normal amount. I've sunk at least 250 hours into it (so far) which might not be much compared to the Pro Gamers and whatnot, but it's an insane amount for someone like me who possesses the attention span of a goldfish. I don't do any of the same thing for 250 hours (except write things on tumblr, I guess)

I didn't know what was going on either when I first played. I didn't even have the show to sort of help me out, Witcher 3 was the first Witcher story I ever dove into. The great thing though is you can just... google stuff? See, idk if you've worked this out yet, but the games all take place post-book series. All the stuff in the series happened, then Witcher 1 starts with Geralt having amnesia, and everything else in the games is new content. Which means that though there's obviously a fair number of book spoilers throughout, it's pretty easy to google worldbuilding questions without getting game spoilers. So once I understood that I was able to supplement what I was getting via game osmosis with stuff like, "Who the fuck is Nilfgaard again and why does everyone hate them?" or "What did Triss do to Geralt?" without getting any quest-specific spoilers. Basic wiki articles with, "Such and such is related to such and such and once did This Thing" was super helpful.

Yeah, the show is just okay. I'm far less enamored with it a year later than I was at the start. I think I was trying to like it more than I actually did... Honestly, I'm actually somewhat wary of getting more seasons simply because of how TV shows tend to dominate fandoms. The Jaskier/Geralt dynamic is a perfect example: once the show does something, a very large portion of the fandom tends to take that as their preferred canon. Finding non-TV!Jaskier/Geralt content is more of a struggle now. Which isn't a bad thing, god knows I'm happy to have more Witcher content in general, it's just too bad that we have game and book dynamics that are, at least here on tumblr, largely overshadowed by the show. My fave in the whole franchise - Regis - is someone I'm particularly worried for because if the show does him dirty and the whole fandom takes that characterization as gospel, I may not recover lol.

Dandelion's characterization in Witcher 3 is, sadly, not what I'd hoped it would be. To my mind book!Dandelion is superior to both game!Dandelion and TV!Jaskier. It's his dynamic with Geralt that made me ship them in the first place. He does grow on you in the game though (or at least he did for me), but he's definitely presented as more annoying/inept/creepy than in the books. And don't even get me started on how they butchered that relationship in the show... Though I WILL say game!Dandelion remains pretty funny. There's one quest in particular that never fails to make me laugh. Also his fashion is on point for a flamboyant bard.

Oof Triss and Yen... beware, anon, that is THE debate in this fandom and the one you might want to steer clear of lol. Personally, I'm not a fan of either. Triss is fine, I guess, but not someone I really, actively like and Yennefer is... well. Let's just say if I could do away with any character it would be her. I absolutely despised her in the game, was told she was better in the books, started the books, hated her even more, tried to give her a chance in the TV show, and ended up hating her there too. I'm just not a Yen fan, at all, which basically makes me the black sheep of the Witcher fandom lol. You might warm to them though, the majority do, however, know that you don't have to romance either of them. My Geralt was quite happy being a single father to his amazing daughter Ciri :D

I've read the short story collections and read enough of the novels to realize it wasn't my cup of tea. Basically, there are two collections of interconnected tales as Geralt goes about his witchering and then a six book epic following the hansa and everything with Ciri. Personally, I couldn't get into the epic and dropped the novels early on. In my humble opinion Sapkowski, writing a character like Geralt, (much like Doyle writing Holmes) excels in the short story format and then struggles stylistically in novel form. I found his writing tedious, the themes not nearly as poignant (many outright uncomfortable), and the fact that Yen is a central part of the whole tale didn't help sell things for me. Reading a six book series where a good chunk is dedicated to the supposedly epic love story of a couple where you hate one half and find the whole relationship cringy (though not in a way the story is purposefully acknowledging)... doesn't make for great reading imo lol. But I want to emphasize that that's my take and god knows it's a minority one. Most fans adore the books - and I do heartily recommend the short stories - so definitely give them a shot for yourself some time.

They are indeed translated (I can't read a word of Polish lol) and are very easy to find in a bookstore, online seller, etc. The wiki article lists them all.

(Though know that you definitely can't download ebooks for free via the Z Library. Nope. Not possible. Don't know why I'm even getting your hopes up.)

Really though, Witcher 3 is my fave, hands down. Out of the books, the show, the other games... Witcher 3 is the version of Geralt and the world that I truly fell in love with. When people say "Witcher" that's the version of Witcher I'm eager to discuss. However, if you can stomach early 2000s games with pretty terrible graphics, I recommend trying Witcher 1 and 2 once you're finished (I was immediately ready for more gameplay content after I'd finished lol). Witcher 1 is, in many ways, a mess. God the combat system drove me nuts... BUT it has a strange charm that I, in all seriousness, really loved. Meanwhile, Witcher 2 (Assassins of Kings) is far stronger. You can easily see the building blocks of Witcher 3 in the narrative choices and worldbuilding. Plus, AoK has Iroveth who is just such a fun character. Wish he'd made it into Wild Hunt :(

Also the comics! I bought the omnibus a while back and didn't regret the purchase for a second. House of Glass (the first story run) also has one of the saddest Geralt moments for me. Just this single panel that lives in my head, rent free, making me Feel Things on occasion lol. There's a new run, Fading Memories, releasing this month (!!!) which I can't wait to get ahold of once the trade paperback is out.

Oh god I could ramble about Witcher 3 for ages but this is already getting so long. Do all the side quests! Return to places you've already been to for fun surprises! Replay decisions to see how differently things turn out! Play lots of Gwent! Enjoy the gorgeous landscapes! Be sure to get the amazing DLCs when you're finished! Play Hearts of Stone first because Blood and Wine has an ending-ending and I didn't realize that, so it was a little weird to get the emotional finish and then have like 10+ hours of gameplay left! Oh, and if you haven't figure it out already know that you can put points into any skill in the General Skills tab (you don't build on it like the fighting/signs/alchemy tabs) and I would snag the "Gourmet" ability ASAP because it has saved my ass so many times.

AND ENJOY PLAYING

I wish I could play it for the first time again, but diving back into more Blood and Wine tonight will have to do :D

[karingottschalk]

German cinematographer turned entrepreneur Dedo Weigert gave a public presentation on his dedolight and Tecpro lighting systems at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School at Moore Park next to the Fox Studios complex on Friday, March 16 2018. 

I was lucky enough to attend and learned a great deal about the many lighting products and innovations of this amazing cinematographer and his company. 

Dedolight LED lights are available as separate items or as well-organized kits like this one.

Dedo Weigert presentation at AFTRS in Sydney on Friday 16 March 2018

Dedo Weigert

Dedolight DLOBML2D-SH Ledzilla Mini LED Daylight On-Camera Light

I am not entirely a stranger to Dedo Weigert’s products.

When I was getting back into video with the advent of the then groundbreaking Canon EOS 5D Mark II, I went looking for suitable lights to use with it.

I had owned and used a range of movie lights during my analog days, including those made by Lowel and Ianiro.

I even owned several old fresnel lights whose brand name escapes me.

The original version of the Dedolight Ledzilla caught my eye on a visit to a movie industry supplier in Artarmon as a possible on-camera LED light, but they could only sell me the light itself minus AC adapter or battery pack.

Instead I picked up a couple of Tecpro Fillini AA-battery-powered LED mini panel lights for more general use and they still come in handy for less demanding uses.

Later I invested in circular LED lights made by Rotolight for stills and video but still miss focusable lights with barndoors for their ability to shape light with more versatility and fine control than panel lights permit, whether square or circular.

Dedolight DLED7 Turbo Bi-Color Focusing LED Light Head. Mow add barndoors, ballast, gels and other optional light shapers as well as a stand and nice little hard case.

The Dedolight 3-light kits look excellent but even one focussing, dimmable LED light with accessories such as barndoors, mains power supply, battery and battery shoe, would be a terrific supplement to my Rotolight kit.

The problem now is to work out just which Dedolight is the right one for me.

Is there a showroom where I can see and try before I buy, and an online reference to help work out which will be the most powerful yet most portable and affordable Dedolight that will fulfil my needs?

While the Dedo Weigert GmbH company website looks like it contains most of the information I need, buried somewhere in there, it has a look and usability that dates back to before 1997 and badly needs a complete rebuild for the modern age.

Links

Dedo Weigert GmbH – website

DedoWeigertFilm – YouTube channel

Ianiro – Ianiro Design PDF – the company itself is now defunct but the brand has been revived by others to make indoor lighting products rather than movie lighting.

Lemac – imports, rents and retails Dedo Weigert lighting products in Australia.

Lowel

Movie Machine by Rick Young – documentary cinematographer and longtime proponent of Dedo Weigert’s lighting solutions, author and publisher of Dedo Weigert Cinematographer.

Movie Machine by Rick Young – Dedo Weigert Cinematographer – PDF edition of the book

Movie Machine by Rick Young – Dedolight

Rotolight

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Dedolight – B&H

Dedo Weigert Presents His Amazing Dedolight and Tecpro LED Lights and Accessories Ranges at AFTRS in Sydney German cinematographer turned entrepreneur Dedo Weigert gave a public presentation on his dedolight and Tecpro lighting systems at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School at Moore Park next to the Fox Studios complex on Friday, March 16 2018. 

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21 Ridiculous and Awesome Things I Bought During My First Trimester

Image source: Babble | Megan SayersI am a list-maker. A list aficionado. List enthusiast. I think you catch my drift. I have always been this way — I have multiple notebooks, magnetic notepads, sticky notes, and Excel spreadsheets in my organizational rotation. I’ll spare you the list of things I have for listing. So of course, the minute I found out I was pregnant, I started to make shopping lists. Here is the thing about pregnancy hormones — when they tell you about the urge to “nest,” I thought they meant decorating or cleaning or otherwise adjusting my physical space. For some people (like me), nesting takes the form of light hoarding. I wanted to make sure I had EVERYTHING I needed for my little chicken nugget, and I have the receipts to prove it. A whole list of receipts. Oh look, here is a list of some of the things I bought, for better or worse. 1. Stretch Mark Cream Image source: Earth Mama – Baby Angel OrganicsLiterally from the first minute I found out I was pregnant, I’ve been paranoid about stretch marks. I can’t swear the lotion is working but it smells good and I like it, and so far I haven’t seen any new marks, so it must be doing something. Please be doing something. As an alternative, I also really liked Amareta’s Nourishing Belly Oil.Available from Amazon, $12.15 2. Stretchy Jeans Image source: NordstromA new pair of jeans, one size larger than current jeans. I got a super stretchy pair from Articles of Society and now I’m 6 months in and still wearing them.Available from Nordstrom, $64 3. Baby Books Image source: MintedI had big plans to document every milestone in this pregnancy so I bought three: an adorable one from Minted, Expecting You, and Le Petit Baby Book. Current pages filled out: also three. Sigh. Expecting You is available from Amazon, $13.46Le Petit Baby Book is available from Amazon, $20.40Baby books available from Minted, prices vary 4. Mae Band Image source: Mae BandI tried the Bella Band and it was ok, but Los Angeles is hot and it was just a lot of extra fabric to be wearing all the time. I switched to the Mae band and I love it. It works with a lot of my non-pregnancy jeans and it’s so comfortable, I’m may just keep wearing it after pregnancy, whenever I eat a big dinner.Available from Amazon, $21.95 5. Nice DSLR Camera Image source: Best Buy | Megan SayersCurrently all of my photos are taken with my iPhone 6 and they are fine but not great. I definitely plan to be one of those moms who take all the photos and I wanted a good camera that also didn’t require a post-graduate degree in photography. This Canon EOS Rebel T6 is user-friendly and awesome, at a price point that didn’t drain our baby’s college fund. You can always upgrade the lenses if you get super into photography.Available from Amazon, $469 6. Prenatal Vitamins (1 year’s supply) Image source: Smarty PantsA year’s supply would have been a smart purchase if I was gestating a giraffe, but I just might take them for the rest of my life because my hair has never looked better.Available from Amazon, $18.92 7. Storage Bins Image source: Land of NodI went on a true home and organizing purge and it felt INCREDIBLE. I also went overboard buying wicker baskets and bins, I love these cotton cubes from Land of Nod, this wicker storage tray from Container Store, and this metal crate from Threshold. You’re going to have whole new categories of things for the baby. Bins are like lists for physical things, right? Bins available from Land of Nod, Container Store, and Target 8. Vtech Baby Monitor Image source: Vtech | Megan SayersMy husband is a gadget junkie and I swear he read about a thousand reviews before he picked the “right” monitor for us. The VM991 will let us keep a close eye on the baby when he’s finally here — and our pet in the meantime. It has remote monitoring using their free mobile app, two-way audio, and pan/tilt control, and did I mention how much fun we’re having using it to monitor the cat?Available from Amazon, $187.49 9. Cat Condo Image source: Amazon | Megan SayersSpeaking of the cat, I bought a giant cat condo because I’m dealing with serious guilt about displacing our fur baby with our human firstborn.Available from Amazon, $57.95 10. What to Expect When You’re Expecting Image source: Megan SayersI didn’t actually buy this, a dear friend/coworker gave it to me and I love it. Let’s just say, there’s a reason it’s the #1 Best-selling pregnancy book. This week, my baby is the size of a spaghetti squash.Available from Amazon, $12.43 11. Car Seat Canopy Image source: BayB BrandTo protect from the elements and direct sunshine … even though we’re still lost in the Bermuda Triangle of trying to pick an actual car seat.Available from Amazon, $29.99 12. Freshly Picked Moccasins Image source: Freshly PickedIt’s possible I got pregnant just so I could buy these for my offspring. When will they start making them for adults?Available from Amazon, $45 13. Beco 8 Baby Carrier Image source: BecoI got this for my husband. He’s been practicing with the cat. Luckily, we have a handy cat condo for when he needs to hide/escape.Available from Beco, $180 14. New Bra Image source: Aerie | Megan SayersA new bra because your belly’s not the only body part that’s growing. Here’s a great one from Aerie, and a slightly expensive but also SO COMFORTABLE one from True & Co.Available from True & Co, $58 15. Skip Hop Baby Gym Image source: Skip HopThis was my first official baby playtime acquisition. It’s simply the cutest and I can’t wait to see my little guy rolling around under there!Available from Amazon, $110 16. New Pillows Image source: JC PennyPregnancy insomnia hit hard and fast. I love this pillow option, because I’m a hot sleeper and also a side sleeper.Available from Amazon, $36.55 17. Magnesium Supplements Image source: Nature MadeSpeaking of pregnancy insomnia, I also started to get really bad restless leg syndrome and cramping. A friend suggested magnesium supplements, as there’s early research on the link between magnesium deficiency and RLS and it has definitely helped. Always check with your doctor before taking anything during pregnancy, but mine said the supplements were safe for me.Available from Amazon, $8.47 18. Pregnancy Butt Donut Image source: Duomishu | Megan SayersDon’t ask questions. Just order one.Available from Amazon, $8.90 19 . Stretchy “Workout” Leggings Image source: LucyJust kidding, they’re actually “sit around and eat snacks” leggings.Available from Amazon, $63.97 20. Incredible Dress Image source: NordstromClassic yet comfortable, this dress is the gift that keeps on giving.Available from Nordstrom, $56 21. Baby Onesie for Our Cat-Baby Announcement Image source: Inkstastic | Megan SayersIf we weren’t those people, we are those people now. Related Post These Polly Pocket-Inspired Makeup Palettes Are Here to Help You Relive 4th Grade The post 21 Ridiculous and Awesome Things I Bought During My First Trimester appeared first on Babble. Powered by WPeMatico The post 21 Ridiculous and Awesome Things I Bought During My First Trimester appeared first on Baby Based. http://174.136.57.210/~babybase/21-ridiculous-and-awesome-things-i-bought-during-my-first-trimester/