#it's fun working to characterize them more through shape & body language

[rockinmusicquarterly]

voice of tha paranoid

[undxrworld]

Hanamaki Takahiro as your Boyfriend

Hanamaki Takahiro x Reader

—Word Count: 1k

—Warnings: N/A

—Notes: A set of HCs I have with a mix of characterization I have generally thought of for Hiro

—MINORS DNI

—Masterlist

This man can NOT choose a set love language to save his life.

He is a giant giver when it comes to gifts and little surprises. You can always expect a small snack and drink while working or studying to remind you to take breaks every so often so you don't burn yourself out.

He is weak to physical touch. Your presence around him is enough to put a smile on his face, easing any worries in his head knowing that you're safe when you're with him. Cuddles melt him down easily. Little spoon or big spoon? It doesn't matter to him so long as you're in each others arms.

If it's words of affirmation and reassurance you want, he'll be right there to make sure you get it. Listening to your every word before putting his thoughts in, complimenting you the entire process even if it was ever so subtly. 

He constantly reminds you how much he means to you with eyes full on sincerity ass he spoke. He becomes an open book once it comes to professing his undying love to ones he think are important in his life, especially you because he wants you to know what goes inside his head at the sight of you or hearing your name.  

He firmly believes in actions speak louder than words so he not only speaks to you of his feelings but show them in the little things. If you’ve had a long day, he’s there to give you a massage, a backrub or even helping lessen the chores you need to do. If he can somehow make things easier for you, he’ll do it in a heartbeat.

➳ He loves to play and helping you with your hair whenever allowed. Depending in your hairstyle, he loves combing his fingers through it, fixing your curls, or assisting you in your hair care routine. Honestly he just wants to be involved and know how to help you out one day if ever you need a pair of extra hands for the job.

➳ Do you want to paint your nails or get them done? He'll match with you! He takes good care of his hands, keeping them neat and cut to take hand pictures for you and for you to post online.

➳ The amount of memes, cute animals and TikToks this man sends in a day is enough to blow up your phone. He's never not keeping you entertained. Are you at work? Watch them for later to destress. Having a bad day? Here are some cute animals to put your frown upside down. Are you on TikTok? He is too!

➳ The puns this man sends you range from corny to cringe to hilarious. It’s like he’s Dad Joke Central! You’d even come to think what he’d be like if he’s around kids, blending in to the younger generation by cracking them up with so many punchlines. 

➳ He is determined to learn how to bake. Cooking for him is something he needs to improve on more but he knows the basics. Profiteroles and Cream Puffs are his main goal to master but cookies and brownies are close seconds because they’re a staple baked good everywhere. So if you ever want to teach him or learn with him, he’ll be the most focused student.

➳ For someone with a very warm body, he actually gets cold really fast so he layers up a lot which explains the amount of hoodies and sweatshirts that occupy his closet. Which directly translates to many comfy clothing to ‘steal’ off of him.

➳ His fashion sense has grown and evolved over the years. He’s always well dressed for any occasion and thought out. Mixing and matching so many garments. He’s also down to match outfits with you whenever you want. 

➳ Sadly, he can’t pick a set aesthetic to stick with so he goes with the general ‘vibe of the day’. If unsure, he asks you to see what you’re in the mood for and he’ll be right there to support the vibe and embody it with you. 

➳ The list of pet names he has for you are endless. His love, darling, sweetheart, sunshine, gumdrop, prince/ss or high highness, etc. He always finds a name to put to your face because nearly everything reminds him of you.

➳ He’s very careful of you, staying sensitive and curious to know all the emotions you’re feeling. Hiding your emotions deep inside won’t be much help because he easily senses when something is wrong. 

➳ The amount of body worship you receive from him. All your curves, scars, muscles or what—he’s in love with it. Shape, size, and height don’t matter to him in the slightest. Even if you get insecure of others that seem more ‘fit’ or ‘skinny’, anything else that society thinks of as the ideal, he gives no mind to that because in his eyes you’re perfect just the way you are and he loves every inch and crevice of you, inside and out.

➳ Typical dates with him are very fun to say the least. He’s not that picky because he just wants to spend time with you. Staying at home? Carnival dates? Movie dates? Dinner dates? Stargazing? He’ll be there and come prepared. Your comfort and happiness come first in this mans head. 

➳ He isn’t afraid to indulge with you in any new adventures either. Atleast try things once just to see if you both will enjoy the activity or not but live to tell the tale instead of simply being ignorant. 

➳ If you’re ever into content creation and making videos that can possibly go viral, he does like to pull some pranks on you, following texting trends and the like that are harmless. Even if people request him to do more extreme pranks, he’d rather ask you beforehand on your opinion on it or try his best to script it to avoid hurting your feelings.

➳ When you hear him laugh, it’s so wholehearted and loud if you’re not around with others. It often leads to him clutching his stomach too and evolving into being on the ground, begging for mercy. Even if he says he’ll be serious, he easily cracks up again.

Taglist: @anxiousbabybirdb @goldenshoyo @sailor-vi @fukurotiny @c-herri @gg9183 @kay-n-tsumtsum @introloves @sugawarakoushilove @lemillieon @angelofdarkness1020​ @selfishwitch​ @prince-lo​​ (I also may have tagged other people I know who like him to a degree so hello there!-) 

[marsandchariot]

Some thoughts on the natal chart of Heaven’s Gate

William Lilly (b. 1608) popularized the natal chart as a reflection of the individual, but ancient astrology was utilized more as a lens for global (relatively speaking) events like war, agricultural cycles, weather, and the longevity or character of royal dynasties. I love looking at charts in general but I especially enjoy thinking about events’ inceptions as individual narratives that are socially metabolized. Stories jump out of event charts differently than they do from individual charts. If you are someone who considers your own birth chart or the charts of others, make sure also to explore the dates of different events in your life (books, films etc are also fun to examine in this way). Any moment you select is subject to the same archetypal cast of symbols as is an individual life.

This is a bit Aquarian in the idea that we can examine the social through a zooming out from or the collapsing of individual psychologies into macro, mythic surfaces. In keeping with Aquarian themes, I watched a bit of the new Heaven’s Gate doc last night. I wouldn’t say I’m fascinated by cults etc etc, but I can’t help responding to a birth time, and Heaven’s Gate has one! For me this is an ideal reading, where most of what I know about Heaven’s Gate is largely through osmosis. It wasn’t until after watching some of the first episode that I learned that the buildup to what we consider the culminating event was actually ~20 years in the making. I have not studied the progression of--or figures central to--the movement. Some people do their best work when they are immersed in research of a subject; I myself tend toward flash or impressionism, so I want to capture this phase before I continue watching the documentary. 

RISING NEPTUNE IN SAGITTARIUS

I’m thinking of this placement less as a moment of inception (the way we might read it in the chart of an individual, as the experience of separation from the body of the parent, becoming a discrete entity) and more descriptive of the way we might encounter the cultural phenomenon of Heaven’s Gate at first glance. It may feel rooted in occultism or obscurity—Sagittarius carries notions of philosophy, education, intellectual magic; I’m thinking of The Magician card and its depiction of a single figure controlling all the elements, convening heaven and earth in their alchemical process of discovery. We often characterize movements as centering around a single idea, or a powerful persona, as with Charles Manson or Jim Jones, but there is always a larger atmosphere to examine. Neptune asks us to look beyond superficial characterizations of events in order to understand their mundanity in equal measure to their mystique. Foucault refers to all research as archaeological in that it is a type of unearthing or excavation, a making-sense of objects that may no longer exist and so deliver not direct answers but different articulations of fragmented meaning. What is important too is that Neptune may represent the illusion of origins and root causes. From Stalker (1979), “I dig for the truth, but while I do, something happens to it.” Obscurity is not dispelled, but re-oriented. 

CAPRICORN MOON IN 2ND HOUSE opposite SATURN IN CANCER, 8TH HOUSE 

We might think of the moon as the id or the unconscious. Liz Greene describes the difference between the sun and the moon as the difference between aspiration and unconscious emotional need—the former describes an active mode of attainment or embodiment, while the latter is a pulsing lack to which one cannot help but respond. The moon is in detriment in Capricorn, in mutual reception with Saturn, who also experiences detriment in Cancer. This opposition is uncomfortable—the emotional needs are difficult to meet. This difficulty may describe the dispositions of those drawn to the Heaven’s Gate movement; Cancer in 8th may describe one who doesn’t feel “at home”—like the Gnostic subject, who pledges allegiance to the god of an entirely different realm, and must suffer alienation in this realm as a result. The moon’s placement speaks to an unsettled sense of self, a need to strive or work toward a comfortable psychological situation. This moon does not “have enough”—not necessarily in a material sense, but they do feel dispossessed, as if their history and culture do not belong to them, or they do not belong to the history they have been given. 

 ARIES JUPITER IN 5TH HOUSE 

The 5th house speaks to creation, production, a making manifest. What Heaven’s Gate purported to give was a way forward—a strategy, a directive. It doesn’t take particularly complex analysis to guess that for the emotionally listless or dislocated, this resolve would have been seductive. Joan Didion’s collection, The White Album (1979), describes this generation far more incisively and expertly than I will attempt to do here; instead, picture the Aries Jupiter as striding confidently forward without fear, of translating subjective experience into universal understanding, resulting in decisive action. This was not just an idea, but a way to manifest one’s presence in the world; not just about joining a collective, but about using the language of collective experience to articulate higher individual selfhood. 

 GEMINI MARS IN 7TH TRINE LIBRA MERCURY + PLUTO IN 11TH 

With two Geminis exiting the White House next month, it feels important to acknowledge the more toxic stereotypical Gemini qualities at play in tearing the country apart for the last four years (though of course the foundation for such a conflict is deeper-rooted and further-reaching than a single presidential term, as it is unrealistic to attribute the momentum of such movements to simply a demagogue). The Trump argument for a stolen election is one element of what has been described as “mass political disinformation.” Gemini cares less about the truth, and more about how a truth is expressed; less about the effectiveness of an idea, and more about being pleased by its shape. And they won’t be pinned down, held to anything they’ve previously said, if in some later context that thing no longer serves them (if you watch enough Bob Dylan interviews you’ll see what I mean—don’t ask him about folk music, don’t ask him what he believes, don’t ask him where he’s from—if you never tell the truth, then it’s almost like you’re never really lying, you’re just saying things, creating momentum through language).

We can see this stereotype on the one hand as, yes, members of Heaven’s Gate were lied to and manipulated. Gemini’s ruler, Mercury, is a slick operator in Libra. Libra quells doubt, seals holes, soothes unease—all the dynamics involved in the appearance of equilibrium or social harmony. We can see Mercury’s conjunction with Pluto as the god of communication acting in service to the god of death. The rhetoric of Heaven’s Gate is designed to ease its members toward radical sacrifice. The 11th house speaks to communities, groups, friends—the social world, and, in this case, social organization and purpose.

The 7th house is the house of the Other, and is where we may look in an individual’s chart to read their close 1:1 relationships. It would have been important for Heaven’s Gate to discredit the friends and families of their members, to emphasize that these are the people that the members should no longer trust and confide in. The Gemini stereotype here, of manipulation and dishonesty, is projected onto the Other—a Them—to consolidate the self, an Us. Mars here makes the disconnection from loved ones particularly dramatic. Mars wants to cut, to define, to separate; it is the individuating act. It is also worth mentioning Lynn Bell’s description of Mars as the protector of the moon, of the unconscious; if the moon feels threatened, it is Mars who steps in and takes over. If an increased involvement in Heaven’s Gate results in members’ loved one’s questioning their involvement, then it is the deep-seated sense of alienation (the moon) that is heightened, ameliorated by a severing of ties (Mars). If Gemini speaks to duality or two-ness, Mars is about making that division manifest. 

LEO VENUS IN 9TH 

The 9th House in Hellenistic astrology represents temple work or religious duties, and so for readings of individuals alive today we typically adapt this meaning to describe academic or professional institutions, but here we can really embrace the ancient associations. This is absolutely how the institution of Heaven’s Gate represented itself—transparent, loving, and in loyal service to the good, and to the happiness of its members. The “gate” itself feels as if it refers to a 9th house structure (thinking of heaven elsewhere described as a “kingdom”), with Venus at the threshold guiding members toward an embrace of institutional values. I haven’t looked at the charts for Ti and Do, but it feels significant that they are “the Two”—a platonic pair whose relationship forms the wellspring of the movement, which feels very Venusian. We might place The Lovers card beside the card of The Devil, and see the same figures in both cards. The Lovers’ equivalent in the zodiac, of course, is Gemini. 

VIRGO SUN IN 10th 

If the moon is the id, the sun is the ego—the conscious experience of the self, the path that is chosen, the disposition by which the self feels most connected to worldly perception. The 10th house, “the crown you wear,” positions the ego identity of Heaven’s Gate; what it thinks it is, as a public organization that is meant to efficiently serve its members—to construct and carry out a plan. It is interesting to think of Virgo and Scorpio on either side of Libra, two weights in balance on the scale; this also describes the Persephone myth, in which Virgo descends to the realm of Scorpio and returns with divine knowledge, incurring the changing of the seasons; whose being is intricately tied to the rotation of the earth. Virgo’s responsibility, then, is to bear the fate of the world in their minute actions. Heaven’s Gate in this way positions itself as serving humanity through a practical, incremental system, which relies on everyone “doing their part.” 

SCORPIO URANUS IN 12TH 

To me it is difficult to find more aptly conflated synonyms for death, unless maybe you replace Uranus with Pluto. Uranian matters are dramatic, revolutionary. They speak to transformative change—as does the 12th house, as does Scorpio. This placement imbues Heaven’s Gate with such an inevitability of death, but the kind of death that is cosmically resonant in that it has the power to change how death in this context is understood. This 12th house, “the bottoming out,” feels like a reservoir that feeds into the Sagittarian Neptune, the sediment that must be continuously re-worked or rediscovered in whatever form it takes in its periods of hibernation. Neptune in Sagittarius may represent the fossilization process of Uranus in Scorpio. I may have more to say about this once I finish the documentary, but I am looking forward to watching for impressions of how “death” is constructed, or re-made as an artifact of social, extraterrestrial liberation.

[so-shiny-so-chrome]

Witness: Kalashnikorn

Creator name (AO3): Kalashnikorn

Creator name (Tumblr): Main-force-patrol

Link to creator works: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalashnikorn

Creator name (other platform- please specify): @Riccarterfans (twitter)

Q: Why the Mad Max Fandom?

A: My interest in Mad Max started early. I was maybe 12-14 when my mom picked it up on VHS at a garage sale because she had fond memories of the film when it came out (she saw it in theaters, which is rare for her). We’re both fond of cars and dystopian/apocalyptic stuff, so I easily connected with the movie and fell in love with WAY too many of the characters. So there was my weirdo self, in the early 2000s, loving MM1 but not really having a fandom to join. I had fun on my own, drawing stuff, making toys of the characters, writing doofy adolescent fanfic. You know, the works. But I did it in isolation, because I was a LONELY kid. Not just in terms of fandom, there were just never other kids around, or adults (other than my parents) around. Therefore, I spent most of my time online, and lost countless hours lurking on the MadMaxMovies.com forum. But I didn’t feel safe talking to people there, because the only other fans were guys my dad’s age. For years, if I had any kind of fandom-related wish that I’d give an arm to fulfill, it was that other girls and queer folks would embrace the MM series so I could finally share my excitement with people that would “get” me. Fast forward to 2015. Fury Road fulfilled that wish. I knew tumblr was my best chance at getting those friends I’d wanted for so long. It’s better than I’d ever dreamed. Mad Max Fandom, I love you! Special shoutout to @d--t, @crunkmouse, @sillyb0yblue, @sleepymayo, @lethalpr0tector, @legendofstraydog, @partyinvalhalla and @vanessa-geraldine-carlysle! 

Q: What do you think are some defining aspects of your work? Do you have a style? Recurrent themes?

A: I love to write first-person fic that delves into the darker aspects of the human psyche. How do we justify killing others? What impact does a hypermasculine culture have upon a man with depression and anxiety? Is violence really the key to surviving the apocalypse? I also enjoy writing about people seeking control or freedom, and wrestling with that they believe they need to do to achieve that. 

Q: What (if any) music do you listen to for help getting those creative juices flowing?

A: Since I do first person, I like something to get me into the head of the character I’m writing, so I make playlists for certain characters. 99% of the time, anymore, I’m writing as Roop, so on his playlist I’ve got a bunch of stuff quasi-hipster stuff that touches upon themes of isolation, anger, violence, and feelings of helplessness. There’s a bunch of indie rock, some seventies stuff, and A LOT OF PINK FLOYD. Oh, and there’s some Aussie rock in there too, of course. 

Q: What is your biggest challenge as a creator?

A: Finding the time to write! 

Q: Which character do you relate to the most, and how does that affect your approach to that character? Is someone else your favourite to portray? How has your understanding of these characters grown through portraying them?

A: Roop… And Roop.  And my understanding of him has absolutely grown through portraying him. He’s a character that’s in MM1 for like.. Ten minutes? And after the opening chase scene, he hardly has any lines. But Steve Millichamp does an excellent job portraying him with his posture, body language, etc. So I gleaned ideas from his non-verbal performance. Honestly, if you look at the number of times he makes a mopey face, it’s astounding. Other times, he looks at Fifi for guidance, the way a kid looks at a parent or teacher. He doesn’t seem to have any friends at work, partially due to his own personality. I could go on for hours. From all that, I extrapolated that he’s basically caught between childhood and adulthood, and he’s trying to sort out what it means to be a good cop and a good person. Sometimes those things aren’t congruent, and it tears him up because he’s a very type A, hardworking perfectionist. Growing up, he was told that he was gifted, smart, etc., and he feels like an imposter because he fixates on his shortcomings and mistakes. And when trying to live up to this impossibly high standard, he puts a lot of pressure on himself and struggles when he has to surrender or when he fails. There’s a ton more, but those are the highlights. The vast majority my MM/Roop fic stays offline. Pretty much all of it is irrelevant to the rest of the Mad Max universe, so there’s no point in posting it. It’s taken on a life of its own. Of course, some people have let me know that they dislike or disagree with my characterization of Roop. That’s fine. Nobody’s forcing them to read my fic.

Q: Do you ever self-insert, even accidentally?

A: Oh hell yes. And I’m completely shameless about it, because I don’t think the practice should be taboo or frowned upon. We wouldn’t shame an actor who tapped their lived experience to bring authenticity to a role, would we?  I think we should extend the same understanding to writers. Aside from being a great way to understand more about our selves, enjoy an escapist fantasy, or work through trauma, I think self-insertion can be a great way to evoke emotional authenticity in a story.

Q: Do you have any favourite relationships to portray? What interests you about them?

A: I pretty much stick to what I consider my strength, which is genfic. So I mostly stick to portraying platonic interactions, both friendly and unfriendly. I particularly like exploring how Roop interacts with/judges his co-workers. I’m also fond of writing about good moms who love and encourage their kids. Sometimes the mom is the viewpoint character, sometimes it’s the kid. Regardless, I like looking at how parental relationships can shape a person’s worldview.

Q: How does your work for the fandom change how you look at the source material?

A: My work makes me hyper-analyze MM1 and its novelization. I mostly write MM1 fic because I feel like we could have gotten a lot more mileage out of exploring MM1’s world, before society fully broke down and became the more fantastical wasteland we know and love in MM2, MM3, and MMFR. As much as I like the later worldbuilding stuff, I can really appreciate watching a civilization crumble in a grounded, slow-burning manner. 

Q: To break or not to break canon? Why?

A: Depends on what you mean by “break.” I think a lot purists would say that I break canon, so I’ll put it this way: I like to write stories where I add to canon without directly contradicting it. We’re never shown Roop’s home life, for instance. It’s free real estate! I do this because I just want MORE MM1. More Roop, more MFP, more Armalites, all of it. I don’t feel the need to change anything, just add more volume to it. That said, I love it when others break canon! I have a ton of fun reading AUs and alternate scenes. 

Q: Share some headcanons

A: GRAB A SEAT AND PUT YOUR SITTIN’ PANTS ON. Here we go: In addition to recruiting local police officers and other traditional recruiting strategies, the MFP uses conscription to fill out its ranks. Roop is one such draftee. Roop doesn’t spend any time with Charlie outside of work. He really just tries to minimize contact with the guy. If we do all my Roop headcanons, we’ll be here until the Miller completes MM5. Charlie wanted to go seminary school and become a priest, but was drafted. Losing his voice pretty much killed his dream of preaching. Fifi takes an interest in his men, but only so he can better manipulate them into staying/reenlisting. Bubba was a former MFP officer who went rogue once budget cuts and bureaucratic decisions made law enforcement abandon his rural hometown.

Q: Who are some works by other creators inside and outside of the fandom that have influenced your work?Inside the fandom, the old RP crowd and I bounced a lot of ideas off each other, and interacting with their muses helped Roop’s story grow by leaps and bounds (finger guns at @d--t’s OC, Renholder, @vanessa-geraldine-carlysle’s portrayal of Charlie, and @legendofstraydog’s OC, Syrup!) Outside the fandom, my biggest influences are Kurt Vonnegut, J.D. Salinger, Quentin Tarantino, the Coen Brothers, and Sam Esmail.

Q: Have you visited or do you plan to visit Australia, Wasteland Weekend, or other Mad Max place?

A: Not yet, but I'd love to go someday!

Q: Tell us about a current WIP or planned project

A: “Autotomy” is my big current WIP. It’s 7 chapters into its 9 or 10 chapter run (I’ve literally got chapter 8 open in another window as I’m writing this). It follows Roop immediately after MM1 ends. He sees the aftermath of Max’s rampage, and begins to question his own ideals. Then his morals are put to the test when an unexpected guest arrives at his home. The word “autotomy” describes cutting off a part of oneself to escape a greater threat. Think of a lizard that sheds its trapped tail to avoid being eaten. I’m using it in the literal and metaphorical sense. At the end of MM1, we see someone have to make a literal life-or-limb decision. And in this story, Roop has to decide whether or not to cut off the toxic ideology that has guided his actions.

Thank you @main-force-patrol @richardcarterfans some of your tags got lost in reformatting.  You may want to retag your peeps

[lindsayslife]

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid Rating: 4/5 Genre: Historical Fiction Length: 388 pages

Caution: spoilers

“The root of most of my problems is that I need to be secure enough in who I am to tell anyone who doesn’t like it to go fuck themselves.”

Synopsis

I finished this book a few nights ago and have since been enthralled with my latest read. But this book was very amusing so it definitely deserves a review! I read this for a facebook book club for June.

Monique is an amateur writer at Vivant. Her boss calls her into her office hesitating to explain that Evelyn Hugo - a movie star since the 1960s - agreed to do an article for Viviant only if Monique would interview her and write it. They were both shocked - why wouldn’t Evelyn prefer a more experience writer? Why would she choose Monique by name?

Monique went to her house and was greeted by Evelyn’s charming housekeeper named Grace. When Evelyn and Monique were going over the terms for the article, Evelyn stated she actually wanted Monique to write a biography for her - finally a tell all of Evelyn’s life. She allowed Monique to publish it and sell it after Evelyn passed. Monique was dumbfounded - how would she tell her company that Evelyn didn’t actually want to do an article with them? Would she lose her job? But this is an opportunity of a lifetime, to be able to write a book that the whole world would be interested in.

The book follows Monique’s & Evelyn’s sessions where Evelyn reveals her whole life from the very beginning. From growing up in Hell’s Kitchen, NYC to becoming an actress in Hollywood to all 7 of her husbands and lovers. After their meetings you see Monique change for the better - standing up to her boss, ex-husband, and to Evelyn to get what she wants. At the end, you find out why exactly Evelyn chose Monique as a writer (aside from enjoying her articles).

Thoughts

This book was like the dirtiest gossip you want to here but you don’t want to be apart of - so reading it as a book was the perfect medium to get in-the-know. Evelyn’s life was absolutely insane.

Discussion Questions:

1. Each husband’s section opens with an illustrative moniker (for example, "Poor Ernie Diaz," "Goddamn Don Adler," "Agreeable Robert Jamison"). Discuss the meaning and significance of some of these descriptions. How do they set the tone for the section that follows? Did you read these characterizations as coming from Evelyn, Monique, an omniscient narrator, or someone else?

I read them coming from Evelyn but thinking back it probably came from Monique when she wrote Evelyn’s biography. They give the reader a “taste” on what the men are like & how they treated Evelyn.

2. Of the seven husbands, who was your favorite, and why? Who surprised you the most?

My favorite was Harry BY FAR - even though he was gay I loved that they were best friends and they got to also live with their real significant others during that time. I’m glad Evelyn had a child with a man she truly loves rather than one of the other guys.

3. Monique notes that hearing Evelyn Hugo’s life story has inspired her to carry herself differently than she would have before. In what ways does Monique grow over the course of the novel? Discuss whether Evelyn also changes by the end of her time with Monique, and if so, what spurs this evolution.

4. On page 147, Monique says, "I have to 'Evelyn Hugo' Evelyn Hugo." What does it mean to "Evelyn Hugo"? Can you think of a time when you might be tempted to "Evelyn Hugo"?

To “Evelyn Hugo” is to stand up for yourself and get what you want. Monique had to do this multiple times throughout the book during interviewing Evelyn Hugo - with her boss, ex-husband, Evelyn. I would say I tried to do this when I didn’t get into my top choice podiatry school - so I contacted them, sent over more information, and tried to persuade them to give me an interview. It didn’t work out but it took a lot of guts to even try.

5. Did you trust Evelyn to be a reliable narrator as you were reading? Why, or why not? Did your opinion on this change at all by the conclusion, and if so, why?

Throughout the book I trusted Evelyn to be a reliable narrator while I read. She came clean in the end so I think it proves it even more that she is reliable. I don’t understand what her motive would be to even want to write a biography if she wasn’t going to be truthful.

6. What role do the news, tabloid, and blog articles interspersed throughout the book serve in the narrative? What, if anything, do we learn about Evelyn’s relationship to the outside world from them?

I think it drove home the point that tabloids are just what writers think the audience want to hear - and it may be wayyy far from the truth. Throughout the book you could also see Evelyn manipulating the tabloids to what she wanted them to say. I think you can see that the outside world is another game for Evelyn to play.

7. At several points in the novel, such as pages 82–83 and 175–82, Evelyn tells her story through the second person, "you." How does this kind of narration affect the reading experience? Why do you think she chooses these memories to recount in this way?

I think these points are low points in Evelyn’s life where she wants to disassociate herself from it. I couldn’t find the first chunk but page 175-82 was when she had a “quickie” wedding with Mick and slept with him. She did this in order to manipulate the media away from her and Celia. She really didn’t want to sleep with someone other than Celia and she knew she would hurt Celia in this process so by talking in second person she tries to disassociate from the situation.

8. How do you think Evelyn’s understanding and awareness of sexuality were shaped by her relationship with Billy—the boy who works at the five-and-dime store? How does her sensibility evolve from this initial encounter? As she grows older, to what extent is Evelyn’s attitude toward sex is influenced by those around her?

Billy would fondle Evelyn’s developing boobs for fun and this ingrained in Evelyn that her worth is only her body - and that’s all men will ever “love” her for. Her sensibility evolved from this by not letting men do this to her for free - she used her body to get what she wanted throughout her career. Eventually, Evelyn just got exhausted and all she wanted to do is have sex with the one person it actually meant something with. She stopped caring about what sex could get her, and started caring about things like love.

9. On page 54, Evelyn uses the saying "all’s well that ends well" as part of her explanation for not regretting her actions. Do you think Evelyn truly believes this? Using examples from later in her life, discuss why or why not. How do you think this idea relates to the similar but more negatively associated phrase "the ends justify the means"?

Honestly, I don’t think Evelyn ever regretted her actions, even in the end. The only instance I could think of her regretting was the Mick incident but even then, it got reporters off her back with Celia (but it meant she lost Celia for a few years). In the end I think she only regretted the time spent away from Celia. But to go off of “all’s well that ends well” - the last 10 years of Celia’s life that they got to spend in Spain was wonderful, especially with Evelyn’s daughter maturing into a bright young woman as well.

10. Evelyn offers some firm words of wisdom throughout her recounting of her life, such as "Be wary of men with something to prove" (p. 77), "Never let anyone make you feel ordinary" (p. 208), and "It is OK to grovel for something you really want" (p.192). What is your favorite piece of advice from Evelyn? Were there any assertions you strongly disagreed with?

My favorite piece of advice was what I quoted in the beginning of this review - “The root of most of my problems is that I need to be secure enough in who I am to tell anyone who doesn’t like it to go fuck themselves.” I am a firm believer that if people don’t like me, I don’t care. I am who I am and I’m not here to try to please anyone by changing myself.

11. Several times, Evelyn mentions having cosmetic surgery. What was your reaction to this? How do these decisions jibe with the value system and ethical code that she seems to live by? Why do you think Evelyn continues to dye her hair at the end of her life?

Cosmetic surgery is a huge part of many peoples lives - especially famous people. I don’t think it really has a direct correlation with her value system. She may continue to dye her hair because she never knows when someone may snap a picture of her or maybe she just feels better about herself by looking good.

12. Review the scenes on pages 199 and 348, in which Evelyn relays memories of conversing in Spanish after years without speaking it. Discuss the role language plays in her understanding of who she is. In what ways does her relationship to her Cuban identity parallel her experiences with her sexuality, and in what ways does it differ?

When Evelyn got famous, she was essentially stripped from her Cuban heritage. It parallels because in the beginning of her career she didn’t really care about either of them - her Cuban identity or her sexuality. But in the end, when her sexual relationship with Celia was blossoming and they were living in Spain, she was using Spanish to help her whole family that moved there. It differs because she didn’t use her Cuban identity to help her get what she wanted - she hid it from the world, while she used her sexuality for her advantage.

13. If you could meet and interview one celebrity at the end of their life, who would it be? What would you ask them?

I would interview Seung Ri from Big Bang and ask him about the recent scandals - why he would do that, if all they were saying was true, etc.

[sugar-petals]

More of "personal" question- How did you become such a good writer? Everything you make, even if it's just a scenario, is so well written. TELL ME YOUR SECRETS!

The philosophy I developed is the following: I am a technical reader and writer working with the smallest possible unit of a text. I look at a sentence and try to understand how well it is constructed or how it can be crafted well, not how it makes me feel. Because well-constructed writing causes feeling — in fact, you forget how it was structured altogether. When I detect technical errors, it’s already too late. The best writing doesn’t make me notice how the cadence of the sentence is like, the punctuation, the emphasis, and so on and so forth. My goal is not to read or write a flawless text. It’s about the story that makes me disregard how it was made. That is my criterion for good writing. 

The reason why I focus on the smallest unit and not chapters or plot is that a sentence brings immediate clarity. If you know what you want in the details, it is obvious what you want as a whole. One word in dialogue is a characterization that spans across an entire chapter. That’s powerful and I can’t ignore this. I don’t work top-down, storyboarding and all. Actually, I’ve never planned a story in my entire life. I don’t see further than the paragraph in the drafting process, that’s why I can write scenarios with ease. What I do is keep on adding bits and pieces to the eventual bigger picture which automatically fosters the story, no matter how long or short it is. I just don’t think about the result too much. “But how does that even work out, it doesn’t make sense!” I always give people who ask that a quote by Michelangelo.

My pen or keyboard is a chisel. My will is the hammer. An empty document is the stone. I cannot start with the finished product. It’s just not there. The sculpture is still trapped inside and not visible! Instead, I have to keep chipping away to discover and reveal (that’s what he means by ”seeing”) the body after setting a theme. In this case, say “creatures that fly” is the theme. To know how the overall story is like before I start removing the marble is both a heinous assumption and pretense. No guessing skill reveals to me how the marble is like inside. Rather, when I work with a sentence, I wait for the surprise that comes along the more I chisel. Oh, I see an arm here! Legs, hips, waist. I wanna go for that. It is an angel indeed! It was there the entire time. The story emerges in the action itself. The page is the marble that I don’t ‘fill’ with words because the emptiness obliges me to do so. I reduce and subdue the page just by contributing words. Big difference. That’s why I am not afraid of a blank page or get writer’s block. The only thing I start with is a theme which gets me excited enough to be driven. The rest is surmountable because I keep it simple and don’t look over the rim of my teacup: Only the sentence matters.

The best feature of the smallest unit is that I can exercise control. A sentence is malleable. After all, an artist can wield their chisel however they want. That way, I don’t lose confidence since English is not my first language. I could be lost in translation but still have my sentence game together and you get what I mean. Writing becomes easy and fun when you think small and stay in the moment. A writer deals with sentences the entire time, a reader goes through sentences the entire time. This is what you need to handle properly. Even the best idea or storyboard is useless when you cannot manage the smallest unit. To express it the American way: Command each soldier to beacon a willing army, any delegation or war strategy won’t have the same impact. That’s a lot of work and effort, but each soldier will obey. When I work on a draft, I don’t delete a lot of sentences. Why? The more control I exercise, the fewer renegade soldiers I have because they are loyal and represent my will. And vice versa, if I bother instructing each soldier I have to be and will be very clear about what I want. So making the sentence is my number one tool. Not planning as I see most writers do. 

As they plan and plan and plan, with alterations here and there, all way ahead and for everyone to see, both audiences and their own doubts have an easy time influencing them. Because they are not writing. Readers will never know the storyboard, they only see the final words. So I stay busy with sentences; you can’t fuck my story up. My story fucks you up. I keep on chiseling, that’s the only plan. You think it gives you guidance, an overview, or a goal to know that a dragon in this or that shape is in the marble from the get-go. But as you keep working and improving (skill is not static!), you see that it is the angel that wants to be set free. So you work on that. Once you’re finished with each detail, used sanding paper aka spelling, the statue is so polished that it’s impossible to see the chisel’s marks. But it was still the way you made the statue. Again: construct the smallest unit and your entire story will craft itself. Where and how to use the chisel is the most important skill. 

My upcoming posts about concrete writing advice will be about exactly that. I’ll show you how to create good sentences. That’s all you need to know. That is my secret. Have a good day 💕

[paleorecipecookbook]

10 Benefits of Play

In the public mind, play has long been relegated to the confines of childhood. However, a rapidly expanding body of research indicates that this perspective is inaccurate and outdated. In fact, play isn’t just for kids—adults need play, too. It’s an intrinsic human need throughout the lifespan that benefits our bodies and brains, helps us build and maintain healthy relationships, and even enhances our creativity and productivity at work.

Read on to learn about the 10 benefits of play in childhood and adulthood and how to incorporate more play into your life.

What Is Play?

Before diving into a discussion of the benefits of play, it helps to understand what defines play.

Play is an activity engaged in for enjoyment and recreation, rather than any serious or practical purpose.

It is voluntary, spontaneous, and stress-free. For many people, play also occurs “outside of time and self,” meaning that we become less conscious of time, and of our own bodies and idiosyncrasies, when we play.

Play includes a variety of pursuits as diverse as peekaboo and paintball, stickball on the beach and adult softball leagues, roughhousing and rock climbing. Play can be free and unhindered by rules or structured and codified, such as in the games of soccer and golf.

Play can also be solitary or social—the individual whipping up a new recipe in his kitchen is “playing” just as much as a group of children running around outside playing tag on a beautiful summer day. It takes countless forms that vary depending on an individual's age, personality, and unique interests.

Think playtime is just for kids? Think again. Check out the top 10 benefits of play and learn how to incorporate a little more irreverence into your life.

Here are just a few examples of play that you or your children likely engage in on a regular basis:

Roughhousing with pets or children

Playing make-believe

Playing organized sports such as soccer, baseball, or basketball

Engaging in other forms of physical activity such as rock climbing, skiing, surfing, or ultimate Frisbee

Playing board games

Dancing

Going outside and walking in nature

Engaging in creative expression such as making art, music, gardening, or cooking a meal

Performing creative, innovative work (yes, work can be play!)

Engaging in playful banter at your job or a party

Having a playful relationship with your partner or spouse

Imagine life without these activities. It wouldn’t be much fun, right? Without play, life becomes dull, and we quickly succumb to fatigue and pessimism due to the hectic busyness of our lives. Unfortunately, our society has long devalued play, instead placing emphasis on the importance of constantly engaging in “productive” activities.

Dorothy Sluss, a professor of early childhood education, has gone so far as to state, “We don't value play in our society. It has become a four-letter word.” (1)

However, if play is truly purposeless, as some scientists have led us to believe, then why has it persisted throughout the animal kingdom and human history, and why does it feel so essential to our well-being? Assessing play from an evolutionary perspective can help us answer this question.

The Evolutionary Origins of Play

Anyone who has ever watched a dog perform a “play bow” with its forelegs extended, rump in the air, and a goofy, expectant look on its face or seen dolphins chasing each other gleefully in the ocean understands that humans are not the only animals who love to play.

Dogs, dolphins, otters, killer whales, bears, and birds all engage in play. In fact, the smarter an animal is, the more it plays. Animals have unique play signals, such as a relaxed open-mouthed expression, that are recognized across species lines and invite others to join in the fun. Observations of animals at play have sparked scientific interest in the origins and utility of play.

The Purpose of Play

Scientists working in this field seek to answer the question, “What is the purpose of play?”

The overwhelming consensus is that play offers an evolutionary advantage to animals, including humans, by enhancing health and improving the ability to survive and reproduce.

In fact, some scientists have gone so far as to theorize that play has become preventative to human extinction. (2)

Scientists have observed that bears who play the most during adolescence live longer, healthier lives and leave more offspring behind, promoting the continuation of their species. (3) Rats who experience plenty of playtime as youngsters demonstrate enhanced brain growth and neuronal plasticity, processes that contribute to optimal motor control, balance, coordination, and social behavior throughout life. (4, 5)

In humans, playfulness is associated with positive behaviors that enhance survival and quality of life, including:

Creativity

Productivity

Flexibility

Optimism

Empathy

Social altruism

Cooperation

Problem solving

An increased ability to manage stress

Importantly, play also forges social connections and creates a sense of community and belonging. Play is now considered so crucial for child development that it has been recognized by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights as a right of every child. (6)

What about Video Games and Mobile Games?

The use of electronic media, including video games, cell phones, and iPads, plays a significant role in many children’s lives. Video games have exploded in popularity over the course of the past few decades, with a staggering 99 percent of American boys and 94 percent of American girls playing video games. (7) The amount of time children ages 8 and younger spend glued to screens, including iPads and cell phones, has increased steeply in the past decade, with most spending over two hours per day on screen media. (8) Some might argue that electronic media use constitutes a form of play.

However, the real question is, are video games and cell phone/iPad games an ideal form of play for children?

While some studies have shown that playing video games improves coordination and increases social behavior and learning, video games lack the interpersonal nuance and multisensory engagement that characterizes play in the “real world.” (9) Increased time spent playing on electronic devices also decreases time spent engaged in physical activity, outdoors, and building relationships with other children, which are key features of free play.

There are also legitimate concerns about the addictive nature of video games and other forms of electronic media. (10) As such, video games should not be the sole source of play in a child or adult's life.

The 10 Benefits of Play

Play has a wide variety of physical, mental, emotional, and social health benefits. Far from being a frivolous, purposeless activity, it’s crucial to the development of our physical bodies and brains and our cognitive, emotional, and social health.

1. It Builds a Healthy Body

Play is essential to the development of a robust, healthy body in childhood.

When kids play, they develop reflexes and learn fine and gross motor skills, flexibility, and balancing skills that will serve them throughout their lives. Outdoor play benefits children's physical health by exposing them to sunlight, natural environments, and fresh air, which contributes to bone formation and a robust immune system. (11, 12)

By increasing physical activity, play also:

Builds muscle strength

Improves heart and lung function

Helps prevent obesity, diabetes, and high cholesterol

The rates of U.S. children suffering from chronic health conditions, including asthma, obesity, and diabetes, are rapidly rising. This research indicates that increased playtime should be a frontline intervention in our strategy to combat the chronic disease epidemic in children. (13)

2. It Builds a Healthy Brain

Play is an integral part of neurological growth and development in young animals and children. Research indicates that rates of play in mice correlate strongly with the rate of growth of their brains, particularly the cerebellum, a region associated with motor control. This seems to suggest that play performs a crucial role in shaping a mature brain capable of optimizing muscle control.

In mice, play also promotes the secretion of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). BDNF is a protein that mediates the growth, differentiation, and survival of neurons and establishes neuronal connections in the prefrontal cortex, a brain region intrinsically involved with cognition and emotion. (14)

Conversations between adults and children occurring during play also strengthen neuronal connections in brain regions critical for language. (15)

In other words, play is essential for the growth and development of a healthy, fully functional brain. (16) The brain health benefits of play don’t stop with children; in adults, play keeps the brain sharp and reduces stress. These effects may help stave off dementia, which could have a huge impact on the last 10 years of your life. (17)

3. It Teaches Emotional Intelligence and Boosts Self-Esteem

Imagine that you are four years old and building a block tower. Suddenly, another child runs up to your prized tower and knocks it down. What do you do? Tell your teacher? Inform the child that her actions are against the rules? Cry?

Situations such as this frequently occur in unstructured play situations and are crucial for helping children learn how to feel and control and express their emotions. Less verbal children can express their views, experiences, and frustrations through play. The emotional intelligence forged during playtime will help a child navigate social situations and relationships throughout her life.

In addition to creating emotional intelligence, play helps children develop healthy self-esteem. That endows a child with the confidence and resiliency she needs to find her place in the world and face future challenges. (18)

4. Play Builds Healthy Friendships and Romantic Relationships

The ability of play to forge emotional intelligence goes hand in hand with its ability to help children establish peer relationships and make friends. The unstructured nature of free play builds neuronal circuits in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which helps the brain (and child) navigate complex social interactions. (19)

Friendship has a tremendous impact on our well-being. Preschool friendships help children develop social and emotional skills and promote a sense of belonging, while adult friendships provide a strong support network and help reduce stress. (20, 21)

Conversely, a lack of friendship and feelings of social isolation tend to cause depression, chronic health issues, and a shorter lifespan. (22) Adult romantic partners who frequently engage in play experience reduced relational conflict, increased intimacy, and accumulate more “emotional capital,” which refers to collections of positive experiences that can be drawn upon in times of conflict. (23) Play also sparks feelings of excitement in romantic relationships and combats relationship boredom over the long run. (24)

Play serves as a bridge that connects us to other people, helping us develop healthy relationships that will sustain us throughout our lives.

5. It Forges a Healthy Parent–Child Relationship

The developmental trajectory of children is mediated by relationships with parents and caregivers, and one of the primary ways these relationships develop is through play. (25)

When parents play with their children, they are sending the child a simple message: you’re important to me. The undivided attention a parent gives his child during playtime lets a child know that he or she is valued, teaches the parent how to communicate more effectively with the child, and affords the opportunity for parents to offer nurturing, gentle guidance. Play can serve as a cornerstone in the foundation of a healthy, enduring parent–child relationship.

6. It Teaches Cooperation

When children engage in free play, they gain critical knowledge about how to cooperate with others. (26) Rather than relying on rules and regulations to govern their experiences, they must work together with their peers to create and achieve mutual goals. That cooperation may involve sharing, negotiating, and resolving conflicts. (27)

The ability to cooperate with others, a skill learned through play, helps individuals navigate interpersonal interactions throughout their lives in school, work, and family settings.

7. Play Teaches Problem Solving

In children, free play encourages the development of a concept called divergent thinking, which refers to the ability to generate ideas by exploring many possible solutions. (28) Convergent problem solving, on the other hand, involves solving a problem that has a single solution.

While convergent problem solving is emphasized in the classroom and on conventional intelligence tests, divergent problem solving is linked to creativity and is more applicable to the complex, nuanced world we live in. The ability to problem solve divergently, developed through the process of play, may help a child navigate the “real world,” as opposed to merely encouraging good performance on standardized tests.

8. It Stimulates Creativity

Many people consider creativity to be a special skill only possessed by a few fortunate individuals, such as artists and musicians. However, the truth is that all humans can be creative, and play is one method we can use to stimulate our innate creativity.

The ability to be creative serves as a healthy outlet for children to express their emotions and reflect on their experiences. (29) In adults, play can water the seeds of creativity that may have been dormant since childhood. This may foster success at work, as they expand their ability to think “outside the box.” Enhanced creativity may also help adults better manage the stress and emotions drummed up in day-to-day life.

9. It Improves Work Outcomes

Imagine having the opportunity to play a pickup game of soccer over your lunch break, or the freedom to take 30 minutes out of your workday to dabble on an instrument or build a Lego structure at a designated “play” area in your company’s corporate office. For many adults, this situation sounds like a fantasy; for others, it is a reality.

A growing number of organizations, including Facebook and LinkedIn, are embracing the idea of play at work because it can have beneficial effects on a variety of work outcomes. (30)

For example, research has found that play at work:

Enhances job satisfaction

Increases creativity

Relieves boredom in a monotonous job

Enhances employees’ ability to deal with work-related stress (31, 32, 33, 34)

Psychologist Dr. Stuart Brown, the founder of the National Institute of Play, has personally observed the positive effects of play on work performance:

“When employees have the opportunity to play, they actually increase their productivity, engagement, and morale … Not only does having a playful atmosphere attract young talent, but experts say play at work can boost creativity and productivity in people of all ages.” (35)

Based on these studies and observations, office “playtime” may soon become the new-and-improved 21st-century version of the “water cooler break”!

10. It Reduces Stress and Builds Resilience

Unfortunately, modern-day life is fraught with psychological stress, and it can quickly overwhelm us if we fail to engage in stress-reduction activities.

While contemplative practices such as meditation have their place in stress management, play serves a crucial but underappreciated role as a buffer that dampens the impact of daily stressors on health and modulates our interpretations and reactions to stressful events. (36)

Studies on the benefits of play and its impact on stress have revealed some profound findings. A study comprising nearly 1,000 students recruited from three universities found that those students who described themselves as more playful reported lower levels of perceived stress than their less-playful counterparts. The “playful” students also demonstrated better coping strategies in stressful situations and were less likely to engage in negative behaviors commonly triggered by stress. (37)

A study of older women involved in the Red Hat Society—“a playgroup for women created to connect like-minded women, make new friends and enrich lives through the power of fun and friendship”—also found that playfulness fostered resilience. It enabled the women to be more flexible in the face of adversity and bounce back quickly from difficult conditions. (38, 39)

Play is a hallmark of the human species and a strong predictor of our health and well-being. Play creates the optimal developmental milieu to prepare children physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially for the experiences and challenges of life. In adults, it nurtures faculties that may have been lost over time, such as creativity and emotional expression, while:

Bolstering brain health

Facilitating productivity at work

Decreasing the health risks associated with isolation, loneliness, and chronic stress

While researchers have taken a keen interest in the abundant health benefits of play, many have also observed and come to understand the profound health consequences of a lack of play, referred to as “play deprivation.” Just as play is an index of health, play deprivation is a strong predictor of numerous adverse health outcomes.

The Harmful Effects of Play Deprivation

Whereas abundant play enhances survival and quality of life, a lack of play has serious repercussions for physical, mental, and emotional health. “Play deprivation” is a term used to describe the adverse developmental, emotional, and social repercussions of a lack of play.

Unfortunately, our hurried lifestyles, declines in recess time at school, and an increased emphasis on academic achievement and high-stakes athletic activities for children leave kids with little time for idle, creative, unstructured play. This observation is backed up by alarming statistics: A recent survey found that the average kindergarten offers far less free play time than is recommended for optimal child development, and another survey found that the number of schools with at least one recess period decreased by nearly 30 percent between 1989 and 1999. (40, 41)

In the pursuit of higher academic scores, athletic achievement, and other “enrichment” activities, play deprivation is becoming commonplace, even accepted, in our society. But what are the consequences of play deprivation for our children?

What Happens When Kids Don’t Get Enough Time to Play

The consequences of inadequate playtime are profound. Children who are deprived of quality playtime experience decreases in brain and muscle development, reduced social skills, and impaired problem-solving abilities and are more likely to become violent and antisocial. (42) Play-deprived children also experience a loss of sensory stimulation that causes withdrawal and decreased brain activity and are at an increased risk of anxiety, depression, and obesity.

In other words, all work and no play makes kids makes kids depressed, unhealthy, and less intelligent.

Could the answer to rising rates of childhood obesity, anxiety, depression, and falling scores in science and math be a “prescription” for more play? The answer appears to be a resounding “yes!” In fact, adding extra recess time to children's school schedules has been found to improve academic skills, classroom behavior, and adjustment to school life, among the many other cognitive, emotional, and social processes mentioned above. (43)

Play Deprivation Matters for Adults, Too

Play deprivation also has serious consequences for adults. Psychiatrist Stuart Brown has noted that adults who have “forgotten how to play” have narrow, rigid thinking and a decreased ability to handle stress. (44) In his own clinical practice, Dr. Brown has found that playless adult lives are also associated with controlling behavior, over-ambition, envy, and in some cases, emotional breakdown. (45)

How to Incorporate More Play into Your Life

Play is an essential component of a healthy lifestyle. While some individuals have a natural predisposition toward fun, anyone can learn how to become more playful, given some time, effort, and a few helpful tips. (46, 47) With the importance of play in mind, here are some tips for encouraging more play in your life.

Choose Activities You Loved as a Child

What was your favorite childhood game? Perhaps it was climbing trees or playing stickball in the yard with your neighborhood friends. Make a list, get creative, and see how you can incorporate these activities into your current adult life. Instead of climbing trees, you could give rock climbing a go, and an adult softball league could be a great way to get back to your stickball-playing roots.

Pick Activities That Bring You Joy

What activities spark a fire in you? Make a list and keep it in a place where you’ll see it every day. Try to engage in play activities at least several days of the week, if not every day!

Keep in mind that play can be fun, but also absorbing, challenging, and demanding. To this end, activities like working on your car, undertaking a DIY project in your home, or planting a garden can be considered play, as long as you’re having fun along the way.

Create Opportunities for Play

If you look for chances to play, you’ll find that they are everywhere. Go on a walk in the woods, have a board game night, throw a stick for your dogs, or build a fort with your kids—the possibilities are endless.

Embrace “Beginner’s Mind”

In Zen practice, the term “beginner’s mind” refers to an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject. This state of mind is an excellent one to cultivate for play. A beginner’s mind can help you let go of self-consciousness and concern about being awkward or unskilled, which is a legitimate fear for many adults who are unfamiliar with play.

Make Play a Priority

Schedule time for play just as you would schedule time for other activities in your life, such as going to your job and working out. Given the health benefits of play, it deserves some dedicated time in your life!

Do you make time for play? What’s your go-to activity? Tell me in the comment section below.

The post 10 Benefits of Play appeared first on Chris Kresser.

Source: http://chriskresser.com September 03, 2018 at 09:01PM

[theashemarie]

hey babe how booooooout 48 for sonuckles ;)

send me a number and a ship! - #48: “This is new.”

Great minds think alike! This one’s based on an AU Katie and I are working on wherein Sonic turns into Super Sonic but then can’t transform back. As a result, it starts to slowly kill him. :( Fun stuff. No character death here, just angst. 

Sonic, feeling like a melting ice shelf, slipping, cracking, falling under his own weight, floats up to Angel Island because Knuckles is missing and there’s only one place he can be. In his sick—dying, an insidious little voice hisses—state, he gravitates to the Island, to Knuckles, to the safety and normalcy that both offer him, to the calmness of the Island’s otherworldly atmosphere, to the rock steadiness of Knuckles’s voice and his presence.

He’s been stuck as Super Sonic for two weeks, three days, and seven hours. It’s eating at him, consuming all of his energy and is now working its way through his body. He can’t sleep, can’t eat, and he knows he’s going. He can’t keep this up. They’ve worked through every option, every scientist, every ancient scroll hidden in remote caves on Angel Island, all of Tails’s ideas. Now, Knuckles, Tails, and Amy are preparing; he can see it in them, the way they don’t look at him, the way they mumble to each other, the way they spend as much time as they can with him, coddling, touching him, trying to brand the memory of him into their minds so when he’s gone they’ll still have him somewhere inside their minds. Tails is a teeter-totter of emotion, jumping back and forth between breaking and broken, while Knuckles is trying to be strong. Sonic is numb.

As he crosses the bridge to Angel Island, a bridge that Sonic threw across to Knuckles those weeks ago, in a rush because Eggman was attacking and they finally had all seven Emeralds, he thinks of everything, at once. Being Super lets him do that. He thinks of what he’ll miss, what they’ll do without him, what he’ll regret, what they’ll regret. Most of all, he thinks about Knuckles, sleeping alone, searching for Sonic in the morning, of the heartbreak, of the emptiness that’s characterized by a lack of something.

He finds Knuckles in front of the Master Emerald, hands spread across its surface, forehead angled so that it’s touching the faceted, green surface, and he’s mumbling, low and taught, mouth curling around the ancient, unfamiliar language fluidly. His mouth touches the Emerald’s surface as he speaks, as if he can kiss his wishes into it. He’s wearing clothing Sonic has never seen before: a chevron-printed, dark green skirt, short in the front, with a longer, brown piece in the back, and brown sandals. It all looks ancient, from his clothes to his praying.

It’s the first time Sonic has seen Knuckles’s toes.

“This is new,” he hears himself say.

Knuckles doesn’t move, doesn’t pause, just keeps up his muttering. It’s rhythmic, Sonic realizes now, more of a chant than anything, and then he hears the humming. It’s strong, thrums through him, beats against his ribs, and has to be coming from the Master Emerald. He can feel it trying to heal him, trying to grab hold of Super Sonic so it can extract it from him. It grapples, tugs, rips, pulls, and he falls to his knees, landing solidly on the ground, scrabbling at his own chest. It feels like there’s a tiny, burrowing thing in there, trying to get out any way it can, ripping through his muscles, bones, organs, and he wants nothing more than to get it out—

His cries jar Knuckles and the chanting stops. Suddenly, he’s there, holding Sonic’s arms in his large hands, saying things Sonic can’t hear. The humming is too loud, the scrambling beast inside him too determined, and all Sonic can do is yell, squirm, try to get free.

Knuckles is too strong. He holds him down, pulls him into his chest, holds him there, heedless of Sonic’s razor, super-charged quills, and rocks him, mumbling again. Sonic can feel Knuckles’s mouth against the skin of his face, feels the blessings he’s saying even if he can’t understand or hear them, recognizes the shape of the words from nights spent curled up together, Knuckles tracing the ancient language into the skin of Sonic’s upper arms, his collar bone, his back with those large fingers fingers of his, trying to teach Sonic in a way he would understand.

Eventually, eventually, eventually, Knuckles’s voice breaks through. The beast gets free, loosening Sonic’s lungs to breathe again, and he gasps, clutches, pulls at his own skin as if to open a path for his lungs. Knuckles holds his hands, stops him from scratching himself to bits, and allows Sonic to lean back.

“That was rough,” Knuckles says, gruff, as if he’s got a swamp in his throat that he wants to get out. He coughs once to clear it, and Sonic realizes that he was close to tears.

“What?” Sonic gasps, demands, trying to remember where he is, what’s happening.

“I asked the Master Emerald for help.” Knuckles says it so plainly that it can’t be anything but true. “It attempted to pull Super Sonic out of you.”

Sonic doesn’t want to open his eyes. “Did it work?”

Knuckles doesn’t answer for a long time. Long enough for Sonic to look at himself, and it’s to his glowing limbs, brighter now, his hands, stretched into claws, no longer frail and shaking but stronger, like he just transformed.

“I can’t say,” Knuckles answers. He reaches up and presses his large hand to Sonic’s face, feeling the heat of the transformation’s fever. “It helped, at least.”

“I feel better.”

Knuckles nods and the other hand comes up to cup the other cheek. Carefully, he pulls Sonic’s face close and presses a kiss to his forehead. “That’s all we can ask for. A little more time.”

Sonic nods in return, then coughs. When his hand comes back, it’s bloody.

He looks at it, numb, and Knuckles does too, deadfaced.

[aion-rsa]

Coming 2 America: How Wesley Snipes Got Into Rhythm with Eddie Murphy

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Eddie Murphy’s Prince Akeem left his prospective queen to go to America in Coming to America. And he didn’t even have the good grace to leave her at the altar either. Rather she was dismissed while still barking like a dog (under the prince’s orders). The princess and her brother, General Izzi (Wesley Snipes) never forgot. And in Coming 2 America, he’s prepared to go to war over it.

Snipes may be most beloved to certain audiences as the half-vampire martial arts master in the Blade superhero movies. But his comic chops are supernatural. From 1989’s Major League through White Men Can’t Jump, and To Wong Foo, and Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, his choices are fearless and his timing is fierce.

This coalesced in his impatiently poignant turn as D’Urville Martin, who directed Murphy’s Rudy Ray Moore in the film within the film Dolemite is My Name. The pair are at odds again in Coming 2 America. Wesley Snipes talked with Den of Geek about revisiting an iconic classic comedy, and the art of cinematic challenges, from the superhero variety to his all-time classic work in gangster cinema like New Jack City.

Den of Geek: I have been a fan since your character Willie Mays Hayes in Major League, and you stole that movie like it was second base.

Wesley Snipes: How did it go, “Play like Mays, but run like Hayes?”

And you were definitely MVP on Dolemite. Is it easier to capture that “cinemagical” reality when you’re working back-to-back on two films with the same actor, like you’ve now done with Eddie Murphy?

Yeah. It makes it a lot easier. It makes it a lot easier. You begin to harmonize with the rhythms and the style, and you get a little more comfortable after the first one. So you get to create more and expand on that creativity, have a lot of fun with it and then also push the envelope of your skills and see where you’re at.

Does the give-and-take become like a sport?

An art is the expression of the art. I would say that the competition is with yourself, the mastery of the skills, like as a martial artist or as an archer. It transcends just the other person. It’s about your relationship with the art form itself and what you find in that mirror, right? And it just so happens, when it works well, you’re in the company of others who are also doing the same thing.

So how did you first meet Eddie and how did you get involved in Coming 2 America? Were you a fan of the original film?

Yeah, I had this girlfriend and everything was going well. And then, Eddie Murphy did a movie. I was in a restaurant one day and I went to the bathroom, came back and my girl was sitting there at Eddie Murphy’s table. Yeah, that was pretty much how we met. The whole internet was like, “Eddie Murphy stole Wesley Snipes’ girlfriend!” It’s not true. It’s a joke. It is a joke, it’s not true.

No actually, we know each other from New York. And during those days also Def Jam was big, big. A lot of musicians had restaurants and little spots and cafes, lounges. I think we met first in one of the lounges. I actually think I met Charlie first before I met Eddie. Yeah, in a club in New York.

What was the key to General Izzi? And where did you get your royal gait for that film?

I think the key to General Izzi is his rhythm, his sense of rhythm. He, like the animals, moves with rhythm and tries to blend in with the rhythms of energy, rhythms of life. And then that embodies that shapes how he talks and how he sees himself. It was grand and beautiful, like a peacock with rhythm, a dancing peacock.

Were you tempted to ask about playing any of the extreme makeup characters that Eddie and Arsenio do?

Wow. I would love to do something like this… Oh man, yeah, throw me in. I’d be another guy. Somebody else in a barber shop and [I’d] do two of them. Definitely. I’d love to do it with an accent too. Like, I do something in French, but everything I’m saying is complete gibberish. [Does a faux French run]. Stuff like that, and he was like, “He didn’t say shit!”

I also cover What We Do in the Shadows. When you appeared, you did it via video chat. Were you warning us about social distancing?

I was, I was. As frustrated as he was, yes. You caught that. Very good. It worked. I told you, I tell you there’s a virus out there. I told you!

You said in the past that you’re flattered Mahershala Ali is carrying on the role of Blade. Have you talked to him at all about taking on the role?

No, he hasn’t called me. We haven’t talked about characterizations or how he should play it or anything like that. I can’t imagine that call ever coming in. That would be really strange. But we did communicate about how much we appreciate each other’s work, and how I’m comfortable with saying, ‘Hey man, go rock it, baby. If you got it, do it.’ It ain’t gonna be easy. There’s a whole lot of it that you don’t know [with] them action movies. Everybody ain’t cut like that. They ain’t made for it. But if you got it, let’s go. I got your back 1,000 percent. Let’s go.”

You had a vision for a Black Panther movie back in the way, which at some point included Mario Van Peebles and John Singleton. 

As writers, yeah. They were considered the two of the directors that were considered. Yeah.

Did you find a similar feel in Ryan Coogler’s film to what you saw in your head?

My initial idea was closer to Ryan Coogler’s expression. Yes. That was the idea because that’s what’s closest to the comic book and the idea of using vibranium for extra non-invasive operations, surgeries. This was all written in the original comics, a society that was cloaked and was a high society, highly technical. It had a nice balance between technology and nature. Oh, man, that was the vision, but we had no Pixar. We had no Pentiums. We had none of that in those days.

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I want to ask a question for myself. New Jack City is in my top 10 movies of all time.

Straight gangster, straight gangster.

Nino Brown to me is very much like Humphrey Bogart’s Baby Face Martin in Dead End. What do you pick up from the old classic actors that you still use in your on screen performances?

Oh yeah, man. It’s the body language. It’s the relationship with the camera. Their understanding of how to turn, how to position themselves. How to stand a certain way and deliver the line in a way that wasn’t awkward because the posture is cinematic, it’s photographic, cinemalogical, as they would say.

But it was straight gangster, straight gangster, and also how they would act and do action in character. They would play the characters and play the action like the character, not as an actor doing an action scene now. Yeah.

Are there any more superhero movies or franchises in your future that you’re looking at?

We hope so. Of course we’ve developed some wonderful things internally with Mondi House. I think you recall my book Talon of God is kind of cinematic, set as a cinematic horror film, action film. And that’s something that we’re looking to put into production as well. So whether we work with Marvel or we want to work with the Marvelettes, we’ll be ready in a way.

I see you as an actor who has special relationships with directors. You’ve done multiple films with Spike Lee from the earliest films to Chi-Raq. What directors challenge you in the best ways?

The ones who have a real appreciation for the craft and a good sense of story. Appreciation for the craft [means] preparation, sensitivity around what it takes to craft a great character, and to pull off a great performance that’s like The Godfather [movies] of the world. Not all of the directors have this, not all of them even care.

And then those who have a good sense of story and narrative that can help find authenticity or keep continuity with the rules that have been set, even if it’s action. Once you set the rules and you tell the audience, “These are the rules,” then you stick to them. And the best of the ones I’ve worked with know how to do that very well.

Coming 2 America will hit Amazon Prime Video on March 5.

The post Coming 2 America: How Wesley Snipes Got Into Rhythm with Eddie Murphy appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[creative-type]

Chapter 218 is Amazing and Here’s Why (Continued)

So I had intended to finish my analysis of chapter 218 of One Piece in one post, but things were starting to run a little long and I split it in two. Here’s Part 1 for those who are interested. For the rest of you, let’s jump in where we left off

I know I say this a lot, but I really like that panel. For one thing, Usopp is using a desk lamp. Knowing him, he probably invented it himself just for the occasion. 

On a more serious note, the entire feel of this scene is completely different than the last time the Straw Hats as a group interacted with Robin. I wrote extensively on chapter 114 here, but what I want to draw attention to now is how the tables have (supposedly) turned. Remember how Robin held all the power and was seated above the Straw Hats while tossing them around like a bunch of punks?

Yeah, that’s no longer the case. Robin is surrounded by Usopp, Zoro, and Nami, the three Straw Hats who distrust her most. And while Usopp’s too much of a chicken to be intimidating, there’s no mistaking Zoro and Nami’s body language. They’re closed off, guarded, and Zoro at least has his weapons close at hand. 

At the same time, the way the speech bubbles are placed draw attention to Chopper and Luffy. You can barely make out a hand, and one might assume it’s Sanji’s, as he’s the only Straw Hat not visible. 

Which, of course, it’s not

This set up is the impetuous for three hilarious pages where Robin one by one wins over the Straw Hats (except Zoro, because he’s a killjoy). I recommend reading the entire sequence to get the full effect. It’s classic Oda humor from start to finish that makes me smile every time I read it

(especially this)

Now going back a bit, Robin tells Usopp that she’s an archaeologist from a long line of archaeologists and has been on the run for twenty years. Never once in this entire “interview” does she lie. In fact, I can’t recall Robin ever  lying in the entire series, except for when she didn’t give Crocodile Pluton’s location. 

There are a couple of different reasons for this. For one, it’s convenient for the narrative if the audience doesn’t have to second-guess everything the main characters say. On the whole the Straw Hats are pretty honest people - Usopp being the obvious exception. (Nami is also a bit of a wheeler and a dealer, but since Arlong Park is more prone to using her good looks and force of will to get her way over straight-up lying. That, or stealing what she wants outright.)

Secondly, Robin has had a bounty on her head for a long time. The Ohara incident was publicized around the world. There’s no reason to hide certain aspects of her backstory when it’s essentially public knowledge. 

Still, it’s interesting to note that the one Straw Hat who is known world-wide as a demon who has betrayed every group she’s joined tells the truth here. It’s obvious that in addition to winning the Straw Hats over, Robin is using her ability to direct the attention away from herself. One might even suggest that Robin tells Usopp she’s an assassin to rattle him enough to avoid more personal questions. She does a masterful job of using each of the Straw Hat’s weaknesses against them. 

It becomes more apparent later on that Robin is an incredibly private person. When Chopper and Sanji are looking for her on Water 7 they don’t know where to even to start, because there are no ancient ruins about, and that’s the only place they can think of where she would go. 

Now, this falls more into the realm of theories and head canons, but since Robin’s whole dream focuses around finding The Truth and since her whole life has been ruined by vicious slander and falsehoods, I would imagine that Robin hates lying more than the average person. She will misdirect, avoid questions, or tell bits and pieces of well-known information without giving context, but she won’t lie.

Moving on, Robin uses the same intelligence and playful nature that was established in chapter 114 to avoid any more of Usopp’s questions (consistent characterization, gotta love it) before having a private word with Zoro. I like how Robin doesn’t even try the same tricks she used with the rest, because I think she knows it won’t work. Instead she addresses him more or less as an equal.

Assuming this is a nuanced and accurate translation, when Robin says “This isn’t that bad” we can make the assumption that she thought it would be bad. It’s understandable that she would think this way - the Straw Hats were her enemies not too long ago - but it brings up the point that Robin willingly stowed away on a ship she knew she wouldn’t be welcome because she had no place else to go. When Zoro affirms that the Straw Hats are basically a bunch of dorks, Robin smiles.

Now Robin smiles an awful lot for someone who wants to die. It’s basically her default expression, and it’s nothing but a front to hide her real feelings. She even smiles when she’s just been stabbed and is about to be buried alive after living a miserable, meaningless life without accomplishing anything she’s ever set out to do. That’s one deeply-rooted defense mechanism.

This is the first time we see Robin really be happy, and her surprise at learning that the Straw Hat Pirates are fun-loving and cheerful even when traveling with a former enemy is the kick-start to Robin’s character arc.

Because make no mistake, the Robin who joined the Straw Hat Pirates was the same Robin who joined Crocodile. All the stuff at the beginning of the chapter helps flesh her out into a fully-realized character instead of a cardboard Vivi replacement, but at this moment Robin’s beliefs about the Straw Hat Pirates are challenged, and a character can’t change if they aren’t challenged. 

There’s a cute Zoro-pouty face to that ends this scene, and our focus swings back to the Straw Hats as a whole. An undetermined amount of time has passed because now they’re talking about the weather and Zoro is back to lifting weights

I don’t know if you can have foreshadowing that’s paid off in one panel, but Oda doesn’t waste a beat with the little clacks of wood against wood. For the second chapter in a row there’s an amazing twist at the end that no one could have seen coming. I already shown this spread in my last post, but it’s so epic it deserves a second viewing

I can’t remember if this is the only time Oda has used a real life quote in One Piece, but if not, it’s one of very few. And honestly, what could be more appropriate for a series like One Piece? The whole composition of this page is beautiful, and all the little details take my breath away. I really don’t get it when people say Oda’s art is ugly, because they’re wrong. 

Anyway, things get crazy for a couple of pages while the Straw Hats try not to capsize. Oda has this thing he does when he uses square or rectangular panels for his dialogue and uneven shapes like trapezoids for action scenes. I think that’s pretty standard procedure for comics (I’m by no means an expert) but here Oda helps sell the chaos by composing his pages so it feels like the panels are tilting with the ship

There’s also a nice gag with Usopp that doubles as a character moment. Instead of grabbing hold for dear life Usopp sits and closes his eyes to pray, completely ignoring the problem in hopes that it goes away. It’s funny here when he gets a skeleton to the face, but it highlights a huge flaw that finally comes to a head during the Water 7/Enies Lobby arcs.

After that we get this sequence of panels

Please forgive my horrendous edit, but I wanted to show how the speech bubble fits into curve of the wave in the second panel and leads the eye through the rest of the sequence even though the individual images don’t really relate to one another. Oda constructs this scene in such a way that we feel the chaos, but he does so in an orderly fashion. Each panel gets smaller and smaller - similar to the “fade to black” technique I talked about previously, and it leads directly the last splash panel on the page

The chaos ends just as abruptly as it began. The Straw Hats are mystified, and, honestly, Oda could have ended the chapter here. It’s such a high note, a good dose of Grand Line craziness after so much focus on the crew. But Oda isn’t satisfied with stopping here. He ends the chapter with what I believe to be one of the best story hooks in the series, tied only with Zou for sheer “WTF, the Straw Hats are going where?” moments in all of One Piece.

Skypea isn’t my favorite arc in the series. A lot of people say the same. But if you can pretend that you’d never read/seen what was coming next and take the end of 218 for what it is - and that’s pure hype - then you’ve got to admit that Oda has done his job.

So that concludes our look into chapter 218 “The Log Pose and Why It Is Round”. To summarize my thoughts on the chapter and why it’s amazing

Ships fall from the sky

Oda never forgets 

But he does lure us into thinking he does

Ships fall from the sky

Robin is established as a “protagonist” without necessarily being a “good guy”

Symbolism

Excellent page composition

Gags that reveal character

Consistent characterization with hints of further development to come

and last but not least

      10. Ships falling from the sky

(Thanks to everyone who has the patience to read this far. Next I’ll continue my Nico Robin study with chapter 253, specifically looking at Robin’s place in the Skypea arc and how Oda prefers stealth development over big character moments. See you next time!)

[loosejournal]

MR: I’ve never really understood the point of poetry, if not to expose you to different forms of mentation. You can write about whatever you want to write about, it’s your prerogative as a poet, but at the end of the day, what a poet does is let you inhabit a different way of thinking for a brief moment of time. For a very very brief bit of time, logic tacks together in ways it never has, and you’re able to have a series of free associations that’ve never been in your brain, or hopefully in any brain, before. I think that this endures so much more than the message of any poem. I’m a big Wittgenstein person and I think language is a game. The way we evolve and develop our sense of definition and truth comes down to playing—playing with language. That’s the only thing it has going for it (laughing). 

KA: That sense of play, of language as a site for fun, is so essential and loadbearing to these poems. Discovery through play, like you’re a child trying to figure out which hole the star-shaped peg goes into. The process of discovery in these poems is so tactile. “Do you pity my imagination? It will kill you. / My mother will kill you. / She is my imagination.” It works back on itself. It’s like you’ve created your own physics. 

Yeah, I love that. I worry that as contemporary poets we have this pressure to always be moving forward. To always be elliptical and surge ahead, for every line to floor us with the unexpected word or image or turn. But sometimes, in doing so, we lose track of very very good ideas from the beginning of the stanza. Or the poem itself. Lethal imagination—good. Lethal imagination that is my mommy—way better. I think my next turn in the poem is that I’m a leather horse mommy is riding. You talk about language as a site for play—well, dalliance is play for me! 

I love that line you picked. Mother as imagination. I love therapy, I’ve been in therapy most of my life, and one of the very fun things about therapy is overhearing yourself on mommy, and daddy, and God. Those are the only things to overhear, really—mommy, daddy, God. I mean, romantic love is just God and mommy, or God and daddy. And power is just daddy and God. It’s all this plus/minus game.

---

In all honesty, I think there are many different ways people engage with the exterior world of art. It’s like introverts and extroverts. I think people can be very extroverted and thrill and feed off the presence of text. I think you’re like that—I see you when you touch something and it turns into flame in your hands.

And then there are people who don’t get any nurturing from the external world. I don’t know that any artist is like that entirely, but certainly somewhat. I’ve always felt a little guilty that I err more on the side of the internal. It was actually very liberating to hear Louise Gluck tell me, as a freshman, “Your work comes from conversation and being a smart guy.” I watch TV, and read mystery novels, and read People Magazine. I also read Isak Dinesen every once in awhile. I’ve had very passionate and deep engagement with some exterior sources that I’ve really loved, that lit me on fire. But I’m very monogamous with them. Splay Anthem was one, the book has never left me. Don Quixote has never left me. I don’t think I nourish as easily as others.

In the past month or two, Kaveh, I’ve barely had the ability to make eye contact with my loved ones.   So the idea of wasting my energy trying to make eye contact with a dead person when I could be spending that time talking to my wife, or my mom, or even you right now, that feels wrong. This conversation we’re having feels like an investment to me. It’s deeper. And I do believe we exert the same kind of energy into books as we do into people. And it’s pretty hard for me to be talking to Kafka right now. Don’t get me wrong: I don’t think any human being should go through life not having talked to Kafka. It’s life-making. But when you’re sick, when your body hurts, that’s not what you necessarily want. Even now, over the phone, I hear your voice, and I hear in it tenderness towards me, and that lets me flower. It lets me flower and that’s what I want.

---

This is a book written by a very sick person to his loved ones, so it’s hard not to think of the poems as being little wills, as you leaving little wills. You’re addressing each person, sometimes several times.

That’s a very sensitive way of characterizing it. Seeing it as a series of wills is a very beautiful way to see it. Each one is a reciting of the will and a bestowal of whatever’s in the will. Each poem is both, “I want you to have this jewel,” and me handing them the jewel.

---

If you are admitting that you are ultimately truth-seeking, and we’re also seeing these poems as playgrounds, and we’re also seeing them as wills, as gifts to give to your beloveds, it’s so poignant to me that all of those can fit in the space of a well-crafted poem. In a well-crafted book of poems.

Hm. Humf. Yeah. We were talking about how the act of speech is also a transaction, and that’s really what poetry is. The will on paper and the giving of the gem. Poetry can never just be purely the language. There’s motion and function in it. In this light, I guess it is maybe silly to call myself a truth-seeker. Can I revise myself? Let me say it this way—I have desires. And I never want those desires to encroach upon my world-view, which loves truth-seeking. But, at the end of the day, I want stuff, Kaveh. You know, like when you’re fourteen and you think, “This is gonna make that girl fall in love with me!”

Yeah.

You don’t even care what’s in the poem. It literally could have been someone telling you, “Draw this circle, draw a square, whisper these three magic words, then hand it to her and she’ll fall in love with you.”

Totally. It feels like a sort of ceremonial magic.

Completely. And I’ve never ever lost my basic fourteen-year-old desire to make people fall in love with me, and to give them something that has never existed before, to make them so angry that they cry and hate themselves. I have desires for people like that. I can talk all I want about ideas, but, at the end of the day, I want that to happen.

[chocolateheal]

Attending Traditional American Artists Can Be A Disaster If You Forget These 30 Rules | traditional american artists

Iron Man, Spider-Man, Thor and a dozen added superheroes teaming up to bulwark off an conflicting invasion. It sounds added like the actuality of the megaplex than the museum. But this larger-than-life scene, displayed in a abundantly bright mural, is what visitors to the Smithsonian’s National Building of the American Indian in New York City will appointment as they accomplish their way from the admirable bank to its exhibition spaces.

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Designed by artisan Jeffrey Veregge, the assignment appearance all the elements of a abundant banana book battle—splashy text, panel-breaking brawls, behemothic villains and adventuresome heroes. But the exhibition, blue-blooded “Jeffrey Veregge: Of Gods and Heroes,” additionally tells a added adventure about cross-pollinating influences amid Aboriginal traditions and avant-garde pop culture. Veregge is Salish, allotment of the Port Gamble S’Klallam Association in Washington State, and the mural uses phrases from his affiliated language, S’Klallam, as able-bodied as motifs from his association to action his own audible booty on these accustomed characters.

It’s created application formline, a appearance of art dating aback added than 2,000 years, application ovoid, eyelid- and U-shaped architecture elements to characterize figures, with curve abscess and slimming in curves, and advised use of abrogating space. The appearance is instantly apparent from paintings, masks and totem poles depicting animals, individuals and altar of acceptation to the aboriginal bodies of the Northwest Coast. While superheroes are atypical capacity for formline, Veregge sees it as a accustomed assiduity of the Native art attitude of the Northwest.

“My ancestors, and added storytellers beyond the apple afore me aggregate the tales that were accordant to them,” says Veregge. “They would booty the time to put them bottomward on whatever abstracts that they had admission to, be it cavern walls, card or duke shaped cedar. Basically, I do the aforementioned application the abstracts that are attainable to me—in this case a computer and Adobe Illustrator—sharing the belief that fabricated me who I am and represent a able allotment of my personality and amount beliefs.”

It was banana books and pop ability that originally drew Veregge to art in the aboriginal place, who becoming a amount in automated architecture from the Art Institute of Seattle. “I went to academy because I capital to be an action-figure artisan or Disney imagineer,” he says. “I capital article fun, playful. My portfolio was all Brilliant Wars, Brilliant Trek and banana books.”

Chicago, Millennium Park, Pritzger Pavilion (Architect: Frank Gehry) – traditional american artists | traditional american artists

Working in acceptable appearance came later, afterwards Veregge was approached to do a logo for one of his tribe’s divisions.

“Growing up on the reservation, you see Salish art all the time, so I advised one,” he says. But, while the applicant who commissioned it “loved it,” Veregge acquainted he had added assignment to do in arrive these techniques. “I didn’t appetite added artists to attending at my assignment and say, ‘he doesn’t apperceive what he’s doing.’”

So Veregge’s accessory alien him to David Boxley, a acclaimed Alaskan artisan who specializes in Alaskan-style Tsimshian formline. Veregge advised with Boxley for bisected a year in his workshop, cartoon with him in the mornings and allowance him accomplishment projects during the afternoons.

These two influences would eventually amalgamate as he approved his duke at formline versions of Brilliant Wars characters and superheroes, landing arcade placements and growing absorption from outlets for both art and pop culture. Soon Fast Company, io9 and others were accoutrement or allotment his work, arch to banana book companies extensive out. Aboriginal he did art for Judge Dredd, again dozens of others—X-Men, Captain America, Guardians of the Galaxy and affluence more. In 2015, he helped animate the brand’s aboriginal Native-American character, Red Wolf, for a new alternation launched in 2015. The appearance and his wolf companion, Lobo, additionally arise in “Of Gods and Heroes.”

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“I get to put my fingerprint on characters, and legacies that I admired as a child,” says Veregge. At the aforementioned time, it allows him to appearance the advancing appliance of acceptable Native art, and “that formline can still be acclimated today in administration our stories.”

Even as he’s begin aesthetic fulfilment and success in abstraction the superhero worlds he’s consistently loved, Veregge still sees himself as a banana book fan at heart. That comes through as he talks about an Avengers-related appearance in Los Angeles he took allotment in aloof in time for the 2015 absolution of Avengers: Age of Ultron. Driving to a meeting, Veregge’s wife, built-in in the commuter seat, looked at her buzz and exclaimed “Oh my God!”

“I anticipation accession died. You abound up on a reservation, you accord with afterlife added on a approved base than outside. She’s disturbing up, so I cull over,” Veregge describes. “I’m animating myself, and she shows me on her phone. I say, ‘Yeah, it’s my art.’ Again she says, ‘No, look.’ And it was [Iron Man star] Robert Downey Jr., he went to the arcade and admired my assignment and was administration it on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook. That was so alarming to see that—it’s still one of my admired memories. I’m a big-time beatnik so to accept that appear was amazing.”

“He’s all about abutting with adolescent people—he’s done a lot of assignment with kids and workshops and things like that, so we admired the abstraction of him creating article actual attainable and actual altered than what we’ve done before,” says Kathleen Ash-Milby, accessory babysitter for the National Building of the American Indian, who oversaw this exhibition.

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Discussions amid her and Veregge about the assignment and how best to present it began about three years ago, afterwards he emailed the building to see if a accord ability be article in which they’d be interested. “Sometimes you acquisition artists through added bodies or you see their assignment some added places, but occasionally accession contacts you out of the dejected and ends up actuality an amazing contact,” says Ash-Milby. “That’s what happened with Jeffrey.”

Over a alternation of affairs and as Veregge began alive with Marvel, the abstraction of accomplishing a added immersive mural became the best ambrosial idea. This was accepted afterwards Veregge toured the space—his aboriginal appointment to New York City—and got a faculty of its scale.

They acclimatized on the abstraction of a anecdotal that shows an aggression of Earth by angelic beings advancing from alien space, aerial over the New York City skyline (including the Avengers Tower), demography afflatus from banana book artisan Jack Kirby’s Angelic alternation and accumulation added than a dozen Marvel characters.

A antecedence for the mural was to ensure it batten to a assorted audience. “I capital every adolescent who went in there to be able to see accession and say, ‘they’re from area I’m from.’” With that in mind, one of the final changes he fabricated to the work, afterwards it had been submitted and was cat-and-mouse for Marvel approval, came as he accomplished he had not included an Arab or Muslim appearance in the group.

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“I beatific an email and said, ‘I’d absolutely like to add Ms. Marvel, who’s Muslim, to this,’” he says. “They said, ‘okay, we adulation that addition.’ I confused some things about and put her in there and it absolutely helped antithesis things out for me. By abacus her, it fabricated it abundant added complete.”

“Jeffrey Veregge: Of Gods and Heroes,” curated Kathleen Ash-Milby (Navajo), is on appearance in New York City at the National Building of the American Indian George Gustav Heye Center, Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, One Bowling Green through October 13, 2019.

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10 Benefits of Play

In the public mind, play has long been relegated to the confines of childhood. However, a rapidly expanding body of research indicates that this perspective is inaccurate and outdated. In fact, play isn’t just for kids—adults need play, too. It’s an intrinsic human need throughout the lifespan that benefits our bodies and brains, helps us build and maintain healthy relationships, and even enhances our creativity and productivity at work.

Read on to learn about the 10 benefits of play in childhood and adulthood and how to incorporate more play into your life.

What Is Play?

Before diving into a discussion of the benefits of play, it helps to understand what defines play.

Play is an activity engaged in for enjoyment and recreation, rather than any serious or practical purpose.

It is voluntary, spontaneous, and stress-free. For many people, play also occurs “outside of time and self,” meaning that we become less conscious of time, and of our own bodies and idiosyncrasies, when we play.

Play includes a variety of pursuits as diverse as peekaboo and paintball, stickball on the beach and adult softball leagues, roughhousing and rock climbing. Play can be free and unhindered by rules or structured and codified, such as in the games of soccer and golf.

Play can also be solitary or social—the individual whipping up a new recipe in his kitchen is “playing” just as much as a group of children running around outside playing tag on a beautiful summer day. It takes countless forms that vary depending on an individual's age, personality, and unique interests.

Think playtime is just for kids? Think again. Check out the top 10 benefits of play and learn how to incorporate a little more irreverence into your life.

Here are just a few examples of play that you or your children likely engage in on a regular basis:

Roughhousing with pets or children

Playing make-believe

Playing organized sports such as soccer, baseball, or basketball

Engaging in other forms of physical activity such as rock climbing, skiing, surfing, or ultimate Frisbee

Playing board games

Dancing

Going outside and walking in nature

Engaging in creative expression such as making art, music, gardening, or cooking a meal

Performing creative, innovative work (yes, work can be play!)

Engaging in playful banter at your job or a party

Having a playful relationship with your partner or spouse

Imagine life without these activities. It wouldn’t be much fun, right? Without play, life becomes dull, and we quickly succumb to fatigue and pessimism due to the hectic busyness of our lives. Unfortunately, our society has long devalued play, instead placing emphasis on the importance of constantly engaging in “productive” activities.

Dorothy Sluss, a professor of early childhood education, has gone so far as to state, “We don't value play in our society. It has become a four-letter word.” (1)

However, if play is truly purposeless, as some scientists have led us to believe, then why has it persisted throughout the animal kingdom and human history, and why does it feel so essential to our well-being? Assessing play from an evolutionary perspective can help us answer this question.

The Evolutionary Origins of Play

Anyone who has ever watched a dog perform a “play bow” with its forelegs extended, rump in the air, and a goofy, expectant look on its face or seen dolphins chasing each other gleefully in the ocean understands that humans are not the only animals who love to play.

Dogs, dolphins, otters, killer whales, bears, and birds all engage in play. In fact, the smarter an animal is, the more it plays. Animals have unique play signals, such as a relaxed open-mouthed expression, that are recognized across species lines and invite others to join in the fun. Observations of animals at play have sparked scientific interest in the origins and utility of play.

The Purpose of Play

Scientists working in this field seek to answer the question, “What is the purpose of play?”

The overwhelming consensus is that play offers an evolutionary advantage to animals, including humans, by enhancing health and improving the ability to survive and reproduce.

In fact, some scientists have gone so far as to theorize that play has become preventative to human extinction. (2)

Scientists have observed that bears who play the most during adolescence live longer, healthier lives and leave more offspring behind, promoting the continuation of their species. (3) Rats who experience plenty of playtime as youngsters demonstrate enhanced brain growth and neuronal plasticity, processes that contribute to optimal motor control, balance, coordination, and social behavior throughout life. (4, 5)

In humans, playfulness is associated with positive behaviors that enhance survival and quality of life, including:

Creativity

Productivity

Flexibility

Optimism

Empathy

Social altruism

Cooperation

Problem solving

An increased ability to manage stress

Importantly, play also forges social connections and creates a sense of community and belonging. Play is now considered so crucial for child development that it has been recognized by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights as a right of every child. (6)

What about Video Games and Mobile Games?

The use of electronic media, including video games, cell phones, and iPads, plays a significant role in many children’s lives. Video games have exploded in popularity over the course of the past few decades, with a staggering 99 percent of American boys and 94 percent of American girls playing video games. (7) The amount of time children ages 8 and younger spend glued to screens, including iPads and cell phones, has increased steeply in the past decade, with most spending over two hours per day on screen media. (8) Some might argue that electronic media use constitutes a form of play.

However, the real question is, are video games and cell phone/iPad games an ideal form of play for children?

While some studies have shown that playing video games improves coordination and increases social behavior and learning, video games lack the interpersonal nuance and multisensory engagement that characterizes play in the “real world.” (9) Increased time spent playing on electronic devices also decreases time spent engaged in physical activity, outdoors, and building relationships with other children, which are key features of free play.

There are also legitimate concerns about the addictive nature of video games and other forms of electronic media. (10) As such, video games should not be the sole source of play in a child or adult's life.

The 10 Benefits of Play

Play has a wide variety of physical, mental, emotional, and social health benefits. Far from being a frivolous, purposeless activity, it’s crucial to the development of our physical bodies and brains and our cognitive, emotional, and social health.

1. It Builds a Healthy Body

Play is essential to the development of a robust, healthy body in childhood.

When kids play, they develop reflexes and learn fine and gross motor skills, flexibility, and balancing skills that will serve them throughout their lives. Outdoor play benefits children's physical health by exposing them to sunlight, natural environments, and fresh air, which contributes to bone formation and a robust immune system. (11, 12)

By increasing physical activity, play also:

Builds muscle strength

Improves heart and lung function

Helps prevent obesity, diabetes, and high cholesterol

The rates of U.S. children suffering from chronic health conditions, including asthma, obesity, and diabetes, are rapidly rising. This research indicates that increased playtime should be a frontline intervention in our strategy to combat the chronic disease epidemic in children. (13)

2. It Builds a Healthy Brain

Play is an integral part of neurological growth and development in young animals and children. Research indicates that rates of play in mice correlate strongly with the rate of growth of their brains, particularly the cerebellum, a region associated with motor control. This seems to suggest that play performs a crucial role in shaping a mature brain capable of optimizing muscle control.

In mice, play also promotes the secretion of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). BDNF is a protein that mediates the growth, differentiation, and survival of neurons and establishes neuronal connections in the prefrontal cortex, a brain region intrinsically involved with cognition and emotion. (14)

Conversations between adults and children occurring during play also strengthen neuronal connections in brain regions critical for language. (15)

In other words, play is essential for the growth and development of a healthy, fully functional brain. (16) The brain health benefits of play don’t stop with children; in adults, play keeps the brain sharp and reduces stress. These effects may help stave off dementia, which could have a huge impact on the last 10 years of your life. (17)

3. It Teaches Emotional Intelligence and Boosts Self-Esteem

Imagine that you are four years old and building a block tower. Suddenly, another child runs up to your prized tower and knocks it down. What do you do? Tell your teacher? Inform the child that her actions are against the rules? Cry?

Situations such as this frequently occur in unstructured play situations and are crucial for helping children learn how to feel and control and express their emotions. Less verbal children can express their views, experiences, and frustrations through play. The emotional intelligence forged during playtime will help a child navigate social situations and relationships throughout her life.

In addition to creating emotional intelligence, play helps children develop healthy self-esteem. That endows a child with the confidence and resiliency she needs to find her place in the world and face future challenges. (18)

4. Play Builds Healthy Friendships and Romantic Relationships

The ability of play to forge emotional intelligence goes hand in hand with its ability to help children establish peer relationships and make friends. The unstructured nature of free play builds neuronal circuits in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which helps the brain (and child) navigate complex social interactions. (19)

Friendship has a tremendous impact on our well-being. Preschool friendships help children develop social and emotional skills and promote a sense of belonging, while adult friendships provide a strong support network and help reduce stress. (20, 21)

Conversely, a lack of friendship and feelings of social isolation tend to cause depression, chronic health issues, and a shorter lifespan. (22) Adult romantic partners who frequently engage in play experience reduced relational conflict, increased intimacy, and accumulate more “emotional capital,” which refers to collections of positive experiences that can be drawn upon in times of conflict. (23) Play also sparks feelings of excitement in romantic relationships and combats relationship boredom over the long run. (24)

Play serves as a bridge that connects us to other people, helping us develop healthy relationships that will sustain us throughout our lives.

5. It Forges a Healthy Parent–Child Relationship

The developmental trajectory of children is mediated by relationships with parents and caregivers, and one of the primary ways these relationships develop is through play. (25)

When parents play with their children, they are sending the child a simple message: you’re important to me. The undivided attention a parent gives his child during playtime lets a child know that he or she is valued, teaches the parent how to communicate more effectively with the child, and affords the opportunity for parents to offer nurturing, gentle guidance. Play can serve as a cornerstone in the foundation of a healthy, enduring parent–child relationship.

6. It Teaches Cooperation

When children engage in free play, they gain critical knowledge about how to cooperate with others. (26) Rather than relying on rules and regulations to govern their experiences, they must work together with their peers to create and achieve mutual goals. That cooperation may involve sharing, negotiating, and resolving conflicts. (27)

The ability to cooperate with others, a skill learned through play, helps individuals navigate interpersonal interactions throughout their lives in school, work, and family settings.

7. Play Teaches Problem Solving

In children, free play encourages the development of a concept called divergent thinking, which refers to the ability to generate ideas by exploring many possible solutions. (28) Convergent problem solving, on the other hand, involves solving a problem that has a single solution.

While convergent problem solving is emphasized in the classroom and on conventional intelligence tests, divergent problem solving is linked to creativity and is more applicable to the complex, nuanced world we live in. The ability to problem solve divergently, developed through the process of play, may help a child navigate the “real world,” as opposed to merely encouraging good performance on standardized tests.

8. It Stimulates Creativity

Many people consider creativity to be a special skill only possessed by a few fortunate individuals, such as artists and musicians. However, the truth is that all humans can be creative, and play is one method we can use to stimulate our innate creativity.

The ability to be creative serves as a healthy outlet for children to express their emotions and reflect on their experiences. (29) In adults, play can water the seeds of creativity that may have been dormant since childhood. This may foster success at work, as they expand their ability to think “outside the box.” Enhanced creativity may also help adults better manage the stress and emotions drummed up in day-to-day life.

9. It Improves Work Outcomes

Imagine having the opportunity to play a pickup game of soccer over your lunch break, or the freedom to take 30 minutes out of your workday to dabble on an instrument or build a Lego structure at a designated “play” area in your company’s corporate office. For many adults, this situation sounds like a fantasy; for others, it is a reality.

A growing number of organizations, including Facebook and LinkedIn, are embracing the idea of play at work because it can have beneficial effects on a variety of work outcomes. (30)

For example, research has found that play at work:

Enhances job satisfaction

Increases creativity

Relieves boredom in a monotonous job

Enhances employees’ ability to deal with work-related stress (31, 32, 33, 34)

Psychologist Dr. Stuart Brown, the founder of the National Institute of Play, has personally observed the positive effects of play on work performance:

“When employees have the opportunity to play, they actually increase their productivity, engagement, and morale … Not only does having a playful atmosphere attract young talent, but experts say play at work can boost creativity and productivity in people of all ages.” (35)

Based on these studies and observations, office “playtime” may soon become the new-and-improved 21st-century version of the “water cooler break”!

10. It Reduces Stress and Builds Resilience

Unfortunately, modern-day life is fraught with psychological stress, and it can quickly overwhelm us if we fail to engage in stress-reduction activities.

While contemplative practices such as meditation have their place in stress management, play serves a crucial but underappreciated role as a buffer that dampens the impact of daily stressors on health and modulates our interpretations and reactions to stressful events. (36)

Studies on the benefits of play and its impact on stress have revealed some profound findings. A study comprising nearly 1,000 students recruited from three universities found that those students who described themselves as more playful reported lower levels of perceived stress than their less-playful counterparts. The “playful” students also demonstrated better coping strategies in stressful situations and were less likely to engage in negative behaviors commonly triggered by stress. (37)

A study of older women involved in the Red Hat Society—“a playgroup for women created to connect like-minded women, make new friends and enrich lives through the power of fun and friendship”—also found that playfulness fostered resilience. It enabled the women to be more flexible in the face of adversity and bounce back quickly from difficult conditions. (38, 39)

Play is a hallmark of the human species and a strong predictor of our health and well-being. Play creates the optimal developmental milieu to prepare children physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially for the experiences and challenges of life. In adults, it nurtures faculties that may have been lost over time, such as creativity and emotional expression, while:

Bolstering brain health

Facilitating productivity at work

Decreasing the health risks associated with isolation, loneliness, and chronic stress

While researchers have taken a keen interest in the abundant health benefits of play, many have also observed and come to understand the profound health consequences of a lack of play, referred to as “play deprivation.” Just as play is an index of health, play deprivation is a strong predictor of numerous adverse health outcomes.

The Harmful Effects of Play Deprivation

Whereas abundant play enhances survival and quality of life, a lack of play has serious repercussions for physical, mental, and emotional health. “Play deprivation” is a term used to describe the adverse developmental, emotional, and social repercussions of a lack of play.

Unfortunately, our hurried lifestyles, declines in recess time at school, and an increased emphasis on academic achievement and high-stakes athletic activities for children leave kids with little time for idle, creative, unstructured play. This observation is backed up by alarming statistics: A recent survey found that the average kindergarten offers far less free play time than is recommended for optimal child development, and another survey found that the number of schools with at least one recess period decreased by nearly 30 percent between 1989 and 1999. (40, 41)

In the pursuit of higher academic scores, athletic achievement, and other “enrichment” activities, play deprivation is becoming commonplace, even accepted, in our society. But what are the consequences of play deprivation for our children?

What Happens When Kids Don’t Get Enough Time to Play

The consequences of inadequate playtime are profound. Children who are deprived of quality playtime experience decreases in brain and muscle development, reduced social skills, and impaired problem-solving abilities and are more likely to become violent and antisocial. (42) Play-deprived children also experience a loss of sensory stimulation that causes withdrawal and decreased brain activity and are at an increased risk of anxiety, depression, and obesity.

In other words, all work and no play makes kids makes kids depressed, unhealthy, and less intelligent.

Could the answer to rising rates of childhood obesity, anxiety, depression, and falling scores in science and math be a “prescription” for more play? The answer appears to be a resounding “yes!” In fact, adding extra recess time to children's school schedules has been found to improve academic skills, classroom behavior, and adjustment to school life, among the many other cognitive, emotional, and social processes mentioned above. (43)

Play Deprivation Matters for Adults, Too

Play deprivation also has serious consequences for adults. Psychiatrist Stuart Brown has noted that adults who have “forgotten how to play” have narrow, rigid thinking and a decreased ability to handle stress. (44) In his own clinical practice, Dr. Brown has found that playless adult lives are also associated with controlling behavior, over-ambition, envy, and in some cases, emotional breakdown. (45)

How to Incorporate More Play into Your Life

Play is an essential component of a healthy lifestyle. While some individuals have a natural predisposition toward fun, anyone can learn how to become more playful, given some time, effort, and a few helpful tips. (46, 47) With the importance of play in mind, here are some tips for encouraging more play in your life.

Choose Activities You Loved as a Child

What was your favorite childhood game? Perhaps it was climbing trees or playing stickball in the yard with your neighborhood friends. Make a list, get creative, and see how you can incorporate these activities into your current adult life. Instead of climbing trees, you could give rock climbing a go, and an adult softball league could be a great way to get back to your stickball-playing roots.

Pick Activities That Bring You Joy

What activities spark a fire in you? Make a list and keep it in a place where you’ll see it every day. Try to engage in play activities at least several days of the week, if not every day!

Keep in mind that play can be fun, but also absorbing, challenging, and demanding. To this end, activities like working on your car, undertaking a DIY project in your home, or planting a garden can be considered play, as long as you’re having fun along the way.

Create Opportunities for Play

If you look for chances to play, you’ll find that they are everywhere. Go on a walk in the woods, have a board game night, throw a stick for your dogs, or build a fort with your kids—the possibilities are endless.

Embrace “Beginner’s Mind”

In Zen practice, the term “beginner’s mind” refers to an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject. This state of mind is an excellent one to cultivate for play. A beginner’s mind can help you let go of self-consciousness and concern about being awkward or unskilled, which is a legitimate fear for many adults who are unfamiliar with play.

Make Play a Priority

Schedule time for play just as you would schedule time for other activities in your life, such as going to your job and working out. Given the health benefits of play, it deserves some dedicated time in your life!

Do you make time for play? What’s your go-to activity? Tell me in the comment section below.

The post 10 Benefits of Play appeared first on Chris Kresser.

[afishwithfeathers]

Good Times and Noodle Salad

This is not a comedy piece.  This is a paper I wrote while I was at USC film school.  The assignment was to compare and contrast a film with another work of art that was not a film.  I chose to write about "As Good As It Gets" and the stage musical "Avenue Q."  Enjoy.  And thanks for reading.  

 “What if this is as good as it gets?”  - Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson) in “As Good As It Gets.” “Everyone’s a little bit unsatisfied… Everyone goes ‘round a little, empty inside.”  - Cast of “Avenue Q” from the song “For Now.” BACKGROUND. “As Good As It Gets,” a feature film, opened in theatres on Christmas Day, 1997. It was written by Mark Andrus and James L. Brooks, and directed by Mr. Brooks. It stars Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt and Greg Kinnear. The film was the third highest grossing film of all films released in 1997. It currently has a score of 85% favorable on the Rotten Tomatoes website. Mr. Nicholson and Ms. Hunt won Academy Awards for their work. The film was also nominated for Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor and Screenplay. “Avenue Q,” a stage musical, opened off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre on March 20, 2003, where it ran for seven weeks. The songs were written by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, and the book was written by Jeff Whitty. The show then transferred to the Golden Theatre on Broadway. It won the Tony for Best Musical, beating out the popular favorite “Wicked.” After a highly successful six year run on Broadway, the show returned to off-Broadway, to the New World Stages theatre, where it performs to this day. THERE IS LIFE OUTSIDE YOUR APARTMENT. At first glance, “As Good As It Gets” and “Avenue Q” may not seem like obvious companion pieces. The first is an A-list film comedy made by multiple Oscar winners. The second is a stage musical featuring puppets in a twisted parody of “Sesame Street.” Yet both deal with the struggles New Yorkers face every day. These include loneliness, crime, economic uncertainty, dissatisfying jobs and the distinct sense of alienation that comes from living in a large city. Neither story shies away from showing the dark side of city life. And yet, both stories remain, each in its way, optimistic about the future and open to the possibility of finding joy in everyday existence.

SUCKS TO BE ME. In the opening number of “Avenue Q,” Princeton, a recent college graduate laments his lack of job prospects in the song “What Do You Do With a B.A. in English?” (Princeton’s specific college major is never stated, but since later in the show he demonstrates a desire to write a stage show, one can safely conclude he was a creative writing or playwriting major.) The character of Simon, a painter featured in “As Good As It Gets” could be a spiritual cousin to Princeton. They are both sensitive and creative but unsuccessful young men living alone in New York. They are fairly normal guys surrounded by far more colorful neighbors. They’re both emotionally overwhelmed by their inabilities to pay their bills. And both are characterized by a profound longing for greater meaning in their lives. As the opening scene in “Avenue Q” continues, more characters appear, joining in the conversation. They argue (in song) as a group over whose life “sucks more.” They all plead (effective) cases that their lives are full of disappointments, unmet needs and overwhelming problems. In a similar scene late in “As Good As It Gets,” the characters discuss their backgrounds and how past disappointments helped to shape their worldviews. Simon talks about how his father rejected him as a teenager, because of his homosexuality. His new friend Carol responds, and Carol’s would-be boyfriend Melvin weighs in as well. CAROL You’ve got to get past it all when it comes to your parents. We all have these horror stories to get over- MELVIN That’s not true. Some of us have great stories, pretty stories that take place at lakes with boats and friends and noodle salad. Just not anybody in this car. But lots of people, that’s their story. Good times. Noodle salad. And that’s what makes it hard. Not that you had it bad but being pissed that so many had it good. THE MORE YOU LOVE SOMEONE THE MORE YOU WANT TO KILL THEM “As Good As It Gets” is primarily the story of Melvin Udall, an obsessive-compulsive writer who lives alone and cares nothing for the problems of other people. He eats his lunch alone every day at the same neighborhood restaurant, waited on by Carol Connelly, the only waitress who can tolerate him. When Carol quits her job to be closer to her ill son, Melvin decides to pay for the boy’s medical expenses. This will allow Carol to continue to be his waitress. Melvin’s act of kindness leads to others, and in time he becomes a more caring person. A sort of connection is formed between Melvin and Carol, gradually evolving into a kind of romance, albeit one where Carol’s patience is continually tested by Melvin’s emotional problems and limitations. At one low point late in the film, Carol finds herself voicing her own frustration to Melvin, when her mother Beverly suddenly appears, joining in the conversation. CAROL Why can’t I have a normal boyfriend? Why?... Just a regular boyfriend who doesn’t go nuts on me. BEVERLY (suddenly appearing) Everybody wants that, dear. It doesn’t exist.

Carol’s dissatisfaction with her love life is similar to the dissatisfaction felt by Kate Monster in “Avenue Q.” Both are attractive, pleasant young women, hopeful that they will find love and impatient with male selfishness. Kate enters into a relationship with Princeton. After an awkward first date and a passionate night of sex, Princeton withdraws, afraid of committing himself. Like Carol, Kate Monster opens up about her love life to an older, presumably wiser woman, in this case, would-be therapist Christmas Eve. (Please note that English is not Asian-American Christmas Eve’s first language.) KATE MONSTER Why can't people get along and love each other, Christmas Eve? CHRISTMAS EVE You think getting along same as loving? Sometimes love right where you hating most, Kate Monster. The two sing a duet. CHRISTMAS EVE The more you love someone the more he make you crazy. The more you love someone the more you wishing him dead! Sometime you look at him and only see fat and lazy. And wanting baseball bat for hitting him on his head! Love... KATE MONSTER Love... CHRISTMAS EVE And hate... KATE MONSTER And hate... CHRISTMAS EVE They like two brothers... KATE MONSTER Brothers... CHRISTMAS EVE Who go on a date. KATE MONSTER Who... what?! CHRISTMAS EVE Where one of them goes, other one follows. You inviting love he also bringing sorrows. As the song continues, Christmas Eve explains how she finds a balance between her love and her frustration. As quoted above, when Christmas Eve looks at her unemployed and overweight husband Brian, she sometimes “only see fat and lazy.” But by the end of the song, she sides with love, which, for her, is the more dominant emotion. CHRISTMAS EVE So if there someone you are wanting so to kill 'em, you go and find him, and you get him, and you NO kill him, cause chances good... CHRISTMAS EVE AND KATE He is your love. In this respect, Christmas Eve is like Simon in “As Good As It Gets.” Early in the film, Simon explains his approach to creating art to his new model. “If you look at someone long enough, you discover their humanity.” It might be said that this is the experience the audience is intended to have while watching the film and getting to know Melvin. (This comment, made early in the film serves as a perhaps too neat summing up of the film as a whole.)

PURPOSE. IT’S THAT LITTLE FLAME THAT LIGHTS A FIRE UNDER YOUR ASS Both stories feature creative young men suffering from emotional paralysis. Simon has lost the will to paint (and live) after a mugging leaves his physically and emotionally damaged. Princeton struggles to find his “purpose” in life. He refuses to allow his existence to be defined by boring office jobs and dissatisfying relationships. Both of these artistic men eventually find transcendence and salvation through their creative work. In “Avenue Q,” at the beginning of act two, the characters try to cheer Princeton up by taking him out of his apartment and going on a fun trip around the city. Similarly, in “As Good As It Gets,” Carol and Melvin take the depressed Simon on a road trip to Baltimore. While staying at the hotel, Simon accidentally observes Carol’s naked body, and bewitched by her beauty, he begins to draw again. The experience invigorates him, and he finds himself able to face the future with newfound optimism. (In the film, Simon’s creative and emotional breakthrough is symbolized, perhaps too blatantly, by having him happily break off his arm cast so that he can draw more effectively.) Like Simon, Princeton in “Avenue Q” also finds his creativity sparked by a random encounter with another person. Meeting someone who reminds him of himself at an earlier stage in his life, Princeton finally finds his purpose. He will write a show about his experiences living on Avenue Q. In both instances, creating art becomes, for these men, an empowering, transcendent experience which helps them break free of their emotional paralysis. WHEN YOU HELP OTHERS, YOU CAN’T HELP HELPING YOURSELF Princeton gives some money to a homeless man, and in so doing, discovers the joy of helping others. He sets out to raise the necessary funds for Kate Monster to achieve her dream of running a school for monsters. (The bulk of the funds come from Trekkie Monster, the character from “Avenue Q” who most resembles Melvin Udall in terms of personality. Like Melvin, Trekkie lives alone, dislikes most people and has a history of childhood trauma and therapy. Both characters are well off financially, and eventually use their wealth to assist young women in need.) Melvin, as has been mentioned earlier, also comes to learn about the inner satisfaction one can experience when helping others in need. Nevertheless, both Melvin and Princeton harbor hopes that their kind acts might facilitate romance with the women they are helping. Kate Monster and Carol Connelly are understandably grateful for the kindness and wary of what happens next. At the end of the play, Kate Monster is reluctant to give her heart fully to Princeton, recognizing, as she does, his commitment issues. Still, his act of generosity has moved her deeply, and she’s willing to meet him half way, and see where the relationship may go. Carol Connelly ends the film in a similar emotional place. Having witnessed Melvin’s generosity, to both her and Simon, she finds herself open to the possibility of a relationship with Melvin.

(It’s also possible that both women are tired of the dating scene. They may have reached the point where they are willing to let go of their idealized expectations and embrace the companionship these flawed but well intentioned men have to offer.) EXCEPT FOR DEATH AND PAYING TAXES EVERYTHING IN LIFE IS ONLY FOR NOW Yes, life in the big city can be cold and alienating, and these stories make no attempt to pretend the dark side of city life doesn’t exist. Yet both stories, in the end, lean ever so cautiously towards optimism. Even in the seemingly heartless world of New York City, there are comforts and pleasures to be found: Friendship. The families we create for ourselves. The satisfaction that comes from helping others. The empowering experience of creating art. The sublime surprise of learning that people aren’t always as bad as we thought. The joy that comes with forgiving the flawed people we love. Perhaps the most important comfort is the enduring hope that life will be better in the future. This life may be as good as it gets, but the problems we face are only for now.