#it's very interesting to think about how my style has progressed into exaggerated and excessive clothing folds

[shadowduel]

all i wanna do is untie all your knots, dissolve all your thoughts

[goodhacker-blog]

20 Secret Design Tips and Hacks for Non-Designers

With an end goal to do my part and help increase the world's number of well-designed presentations, I'm beginning a series called “Design Tips and Hacks For Non-Designers.” These tips aren't expected to make designers out of non-designers. They are just to help people who don't have configuration preparing turn out to be better at visual interchanges. This is for all the Project Managers, Researchers, and Marketing people out there who need to enhance their deliverables.

The awesome looking plan depends on the most diminutive subtle elements. These points of interest can bring about a lot of issues for beginner non-designers. Neglecting to take after the rules can destroy any presentation page, leaving your image looking unprofessional and even cost you changes.

Luckily, there are hacks you can use to enhance your design piece before you send your startup's website. In the event that you aren't a creator, however, need to hack it all alone until further notice, you require some direction. Here is given basic instructional design tips and hacks for non-designers to help you out,

Get Secret Design Tips and Hacks for Non-designers

1. You Can Get Inspired Designs

Consider about designs that you like motivation can originate from anyplace. Observe an email or site that snatched your consideration and what you loved about it. Don't simply search for design motivation inside your field, you can look at advertisements or sites for items or services that are totally unique in relation to what you do, and regularly these prompt to the most creative and striking courses of action of pictures and content.

Get inspired by your designs is one of the design tips for non-designers, In case you're trapped, don't simply stay there and gaze at a clear screen, however, watch out into the world for something that starts your creative ability. Monitor things that make you go "stunning" by logging them into a spreadsheet, sticking them to a board on Pinterest or bookmarking them. Now and again when you feel at a misfortune you'll have the capacity to backpedal to those purposes of motivation and make history once more.

2. Use Two Fonts

This isn't an immovable govern, yet it's a useful one for general circumstances. Utilize one textual style for features and subheadings, and the other for body content.

Legitimately pick text styles and consolidate them is hard. To make things less demanding on yourself, pick just 2 fonts one for body content and one for features. At that point increase the body text dimension by 2.5 to get the feature estimate. It more helps for non-designers.

3. Hierarchy Is a Big Deal

Remembering hierarchy will help your design for sure. Be that as it may, how might you apply this entangled idea into your designs? It the good tips for non-designers.

Hierarchy of importance is staggeringly insistent in design. While it's enticing to pack each cool component you need to flaunt on your landing page, or each and every detail of a logo, individuals can just concentrate on one thing at any given moment. It's a designer business to move individuals' eyes around the space they are designed to have them concentrate on particular things at particular circumstances. This originates from having a purposeful progressive system and great design.

The design is communication you need to unmistakably convey messages to your audience.

4. Keep It Simple Design

Always you can keep the design that is perfect and simple on the eyes gets the message crosswise over more successfully than the configuration that is full to the overflow with additional items. You can focus your message on being as clear as could be expected under the circumstances. Try not to utilize an excess of hues and don't utilize more than two textual styles, generally, the point will be lost in the disorder.

You don’t try to fear white space it is consummately alright, and in certainty it's ideal, to have it. Understand that the mind can just process such a great amount of data at one time, so maintain a strategic distance from the mess. Eliminate what's a bit much and give your design space to move around.

5. Take Your Own Time

Always take your time to the arrangement that is impeccable and straightforward on the eyes gets the message across over more effectively than a setup that is full to the flood with extra things. You can use some valuable tools to tracking a time to complete projects likewise utilize Restyaboard and trello. It is the best tips for non-designers to focus your message on being as clear as could be normal in light of the current situation. Do whatever it takes not to use an excess of hues and don't use more than two textual styles, by and large, the point will be lost in the disorder. You can follow some time management tips also...

6. Design Should Be People-Focused

While feel ought to completely be an aftereffect of the design procedure, designers really make with the motivation behind usefulness, they design with the user in mind.

The intriguing the truth is that when drawing in with brands, individuals are by and large narcissistic. When designing a website, you can follow this tips for non-designers we regularly converse with our customers about drawing in their gathering of people with a story. Nobody will think about another item, yet they can be persuaded that the item can fill a need that the gathering of people has.

7. Always Use The Perfect Logo

This ought to abandon saying, however, your organization logo should be on the page. Actually, every page, ideal tips for non-designers to accomplish this is to put the logo in the header that continues over your whole site, yet there are a lot of different approaches to force it off. Simply ensure that each page has your logo on it, promptly obvious upon the first load. It is one of the ways to the audience should look at your site design.

8. Consistency

It's vital to keep your design components reliable. For instance, in case you're utilizing one style of catch on one a player on the page, ensure you utilize a similar style on whatever remains of the page or record. In case you're utilizing photography in the header of the page, ensure you keep it reliable with whatever remains of the workmanship resources.

9. Photography

Nowadays every website has a style of photography they utilize. To match that on social or another advertising guarantee, you have to pick the privilege photographs. Be that as it may, picking the correct high determination photographs can be tedious.

10. White Space

You've all known about it, however, would we say we are truly utilizing it fittingly? Giving components breathing room improves things significantly. Allude to the above case for utilizing enough white space. Dispersing in the middle of the lines is likewise it’s important. Not excessively, but rather not very tight either.

11. Avoid Too Much Animation of Your Design

As a non-designer, you may discover moving parts charming, energizing, or if nothing else pretty fun. While this is valid for things like connections that swell up a tad bit when you drift over them or, sometimes, a trail of little and inconspicuous graphical components that takes after the program's cursor, by and large activity ought to be dealt with like flavoring. You must use it, as your site is insipid without it, yet a lot of it will overwhelm the primary dish completely. Unless you're in movement, attempt to restrict your website to maybe a two live energized components per page.

12. Clean Icons

Once in a while, you can't get a photograph to express what you're searching for or the style of what you're making doesn't function admirably with photographs. The option is utilizing clean icons. You can clean icons it’s one of the design hacks for non-designers. Utilizing vector based icons permit you to connect your words with visuals that will upgrade the message. You can avoid the clip art like the plague that stuff ought to have passed on in the 90's yet it seems to live on, particularly in corporate introductions.

13. Copy

Most things you design will have words on them. Those words matter a great deal. On the off chance that you think about the design of your work, you should think about ensuring your copy is best it can be. Clearly, it relies on upon what the motivation behind the item is for, yet some broad tips include:

Maintaining a strategic distance from formal language and composing all the more conversationally.

Shifting sentence length.

Doing whatever it takes not to depend on generally utilized expressions or platitudes.

14. Model  and Borrow From Others

Try not to rehash the wheel on the off chance that you don't need to. Before beginning any design project, it's certainly justified regardless of an opportunity to look at different cases of what you're making. See what you like and what you don't care for. Show your work after somebody who did spend a huge amount of design assets on their project. It is mostly one of the hacks for non-designers.

15. Typography Fundamentals

Typography assumes a major part in making the visual hierarchy of importance and difference. One brisk tip is to utilize products sizes. The correct textual style can totally change the vibe of an introduction, site or report. We have the solid relationship with specific sorts of text styles.

Like with colors, it's anything but difficult to exaggerate textual styles. It's prescribed to stay with one or max two distinct textual styles that are to some degree novel. There are prescribed textual style blends and additionally certain text styles that have a lot of weights so you can utilize a similar textual style family while fluctuating the visual look.

16. Use A Simple Grid

Rather than utilizing networks with 12 segments, you can streamline the idea and basically split your format into 3 of 4 segments and ensure components are adjusted to a similar vertical and horizontal lines. You can always use a simple grid it is the design hacks for non-designers.

17. Use a Background Photo

As a non-designers use, a background photo for your site it helps to extensive foundation photograph can help by drawing consideration far from the little design mistakes. When you believe "there's something missing here", include a photograph. You can then play around with blur, saturation, and lightness.

18. Adjust Size And Resolution

Under the tools tab, you can alter the size and determination of your picture. Altering the measure of pictures can be exceptionally useful when you have extensive, great pictures. These pictures will look awesome on your site, yet in the event that they are too expensive, they will stack all the more gradually. Modifying the size down to around 900 pixels will even now take into account incredible picture quality, however, significantly quicker stacking time to keep up a decent user experience.

19. Space Out Your Lines

An incredible adjust can be accomplished through giving a considerable measure of space between your characters or lines. An excessive amount of looks somewhat abnormal, however remembering the white space administer over, this is a classy approach to put the message on a page.

20. Add Text To Your Image

Utilize the content tool to include customized content top of your picture. At that point, change the text style, size, and shading to coordinate your image or plan. For those of us who are non-designers and don't talk the language of Adobe, dread not, Preview has made it simple to make some truly cool design upgrades to pictures and components. Utilize these different hacks for non-designers to change and lift your pictures.

Do you concur that web design is so essential to your organization because these articles provide a more useful design tips and hacks for non-designers? Hope these are all is very useful to convey your designs from alright to incredible.

Remember these design tips and hacks for non-designers above and you'll be headed to improving as a better designer in no time.

[onestowatch]

Listen To Dear Boy’s Bittersweet ‘The Strawberry EP’ a Day Ahead of Release [PREMIERE + Q&A]

Photo Credit : Casey Curry

California’s Dear Boy had an immense 2018; they were hailed as one of the best bands in Los Angeles by critics and music publications, sold out multiple hometown shows, embarked on a full US tour w/ Rogue Wave while also playing dates w/ Day Wave and Sunflower Bean—and there’s no signs of slowing down in 2019. On March 1, the nostalgic band will release The Strawberry EP (the third extended play of their career) into the world via the band's own label, Easy Hell and Burnside/The Orchard. Produced by Dear Boy, and mixed by Tony Hoffer (AIR, Phoenix, Beck, M83), the EP showcases the band's ability to craft bittersweet songs pulling from late 70's and early 80's post-punk and early 90's Britpop, large enough for arenas, but intimate enough to be with you during your most private moments.

The band’s wildly creative nature that has attracted not only a wildly devoted fan base, but the respect of fellow artists who have gone on to be collaborators. The Strawberry EP features appearances by their friends Day Wave, Hazel English, and Patrick Spurgeon of Rogue Wave. The four real life friends that make up Dear Boy (vocalist Ben Grey, guitarist Austin Hayman, drummer Keith Cooper, and bassist Lucy Lawrence) have made something that is deeply personal, while celebrating their city and challenging the direction of modern guitar music.

Ahead of The Strawberry EP’s worldwide release on March 1, we spoke to vocalist Ben Grey to break down the five-track collection, which you can listen to a day early exclusively here on Ones To Watch. Pre-order the album here.

OTW: Considering your previous releases, how would you consider The Strawberry EP to be a progression of your sound?

BG: I think The Strawberry EP is the closest we’ve come to sounding the way we’ve wanted to in our heads. The band’s sound has been described as “bittersweet” since day one, and while I think we really perfected the bitter in our early work, I don’t think we were able to get sweet until this EP. Melancholia is in our DNA… It’s just musically and thematically what we’re drawn to, but the dream was always to leave the listener and ourselves with feeling of hopefulness. I don’t think we fully figured out how to do that until now.

OTW: When were the songs for the EP written/recorded between, and how did you choose what 5 tracks would make it?

BG: Putting out an EP was definitely not the plan! We’ve been writing for a full length record, but we seem to keep stumbling into recording opportunities. With the exception of “Love Interest,” the EP was all recorded at our friend Clay Blair’s studio Boulevard Recording in Hollywood, in between legs of our tour with Rogue Wave. We would work these new songs out on the road for a few weeks and then come home to track them. That’s why I think they sound so immediate… They’re straight from stage to stereo. And to answer your other question, it wasn’t until Tony Hoffer sent us the final mix of Limelight, that we realized we had finished a collection. The songs had all coalesced so naturally and they truly did capture a moment in the band’s career.

I should also note that the current count of new Dear Boy songs is 35,  so I don’t think it’ll be very long until we follow this up with something else.

OTW: Starting off the EP we have the single “Semester”— a song that you’ve previously described as being about “following the moment”. How has the response to the track been so far?

BG: I feel funny telling you that it’s been great, but it truly has been pretty great. If I’m being honest, I am RELIEVED. Whenever you’re in the process of working on something, it’s so small and private. It only belongs to you and you can’t even really imagine it existing in the real world. Any artist will tell you that this whole process is a cocktail of arrogance and earth shattering doubt, so I'm shook constantly. But the fact that Rodney Bingenheimer is playing "Semester" on the radio, our fans like it and my friends who I respect are still taking my calls, I’m finally going to concede that it’s going okay.

OTW: The track is quite dreamy, though bittersweet lyrically. What came first: the music or the lyrics?

BG: The way it normally works with us is that the music & melody come first., but I’m always scribbling down stuff that gets a reaction out of me… The hope being that one day we’ll be able to marry the nonsense to a piece of music and have it no longer be nonsense.

I’ve used this expression before, but I feel like songwriting is pick-pocketing in the dark. That’s part of why it’s so exciting. "Semester," for example was just a word I had written down in the middle of the night 3 years ago… I had no idea what to do with it, zero context… I just knew that it made me feel something and it was my job to figure out why. It wasn’t until we started writing this particular music that it became clear, oh this song is “Semester,” and I think I know why.

OTW: I know that track was produced by the band w/ contributions from Jackson Phillips (Day Wave)—is this the only track on the record essentially self-produced? And what was it like working with Phillips?

BG: Jackson is incredible. We met last year when our bands did a West Coast tour together and became fast friends. Working with him on "Semester" and "Something Good" was inspiring. A lot of spontaneity goes into his work. The opening swelling noises in "Semester" are a mistake with the tape machine… It was a synth arpeggio sped up all crazy, and he quickly suggested we record it and have it flow throughout the entire song, which I think is partly why "Semester" has its dreamy atmosphere. Feels like exaggerating a memory… And on “Something Good,” Eleisha from Hazel English was hanging out with us in his studio and started humming something to herself during the bridge… Jackson asked her to record what she was doing and she graciously agreed… and now it’s my favorite moment of the song. He’s really good at disrupting your work in the way it needs to be disrupted. Ian Hultquist also produced “Love Interest” with us, but the rest of the record is DB.

OTW: Then we move on to “Limelight,” which seems to further romanticize the valued fleeting time with a lover through stylings that seem suited for youthful romance. What can you tell us about the track?

BG: “Limelight” actually started out this slow, moody ballad, so you’re definitely not wrong about those themes…  But as soon as I played an early version for the band, it became clear that’s not what the song was meant to be… And that's what great bands do; they show you what you really mean. Keith, Austin and Lucy heard the song and instinctively knew what to do with it. I’m so thankful to be a part of a project that has such a confident sound and assured chemistry… My version of “Limelight” was small and limited, while Dear Boy’s interpretation was big and thrilling and cathartic. I didn’t realize that the lyrics belonged in a song like that, until I started singing them against this final arrangement.

OTW: Though it’s only the third song, by the time we get to “Something Good,” the EP has effectively avoided “sticking” to one definitive sound. Was it intentional for this EP to showcase your versatility as a band?

BG: I think we’re always chasing things that are exciting and expansive for us, but it wasn’t intentional. This song is the second in a trilogy of waltz’s for the band, (the third is a song called “Die”),  but everything about the creation of “Something Good” was surprising to us.

OTW: And did you always know you wanted an acoustic track included? How did “Something Good” come to be?

BG: We didn’t! We actually had studio time booked to work on “Anything At All,” but Keith had the flu and couldn’t track drums... It was Austin’s idea to work it.  I wrote “Something Good” with my friend April Bender and it was meant to live on an acoustic guitar, but didn’t really have a sonic identity beyond that. And maybe it’s my own personal bias, but I’m super over bands recording token acoustic songs for their albums, so it was important for us to take it somewhere unexpected. We threw everything we could at it; There are mountains of analog synths, distorted ebows, lap steel, a mille feuille of harmonies, down-tuned conversational elements… it’s very lush and I’m sure totally annoying for our mixer, Tony Hoffer. But it was important for it to not sound like anything else and after days of concentrated studio experimentation,  we got this Americana Mazzy Star dark waltz thing. But most important, it sounds like our band and it opens up a lot of portals for us in the future.

OTW: “Anything At All” quickly picks the energy back up with an energizing guitar riff and an incredibly catchy hook. Talk to us about the track and is there a story behind the spoken outro?

BG: “Anything At All” is pure “band.” A song built around a guitar riff, leaning into all the things you want to hear as an audience member…  But the lyrics, in Dear Boy fashion, stand in defiance of the major chords. It’s about despair and making the most out of your despair.

While tracking guitars, Austin and I would end our takes with excessive and unnecessary feedback, as one does… I can assure you that it was never meant to stay… but I dunno…one day while I was recording vocals,  I just heard a little epilogue in my head… I wrote it down in 2 minutes, recorded it in one take and that was it. I didn’t expect it to stay in, let alone be audible… but the band liked it, Tony Hoffer liked it and I didn’t hate it. Admittedly, I don’t know how I could live without it now.

OTW: “Love Interest,” though the closing track, is probably the most pop-centric – evoking the pop-hook laced energy of 90’s college rock. What influenced the track?

BG: I remember that we were at Keith’s studio and somehow the guitar theme, which sounded like early R.E.M. meets Suede, willed itself into existence. The rest is fuzzy. But I do remember that I left that night with a crudely put together basic track of the music and then spent the following two months writing the lyrics. The song is, in part, about the clumsiness and optimism of love... the joy of being out of your depth. It’s a sentiment I really wanted to get right, so I obsessed over it. I still kinda want to change one or two things.

OTW: Was it a conscious decision to end the EP with the eldest single from the set, seeing as it was initially released nearly a year ago?  

BG: Not so much that it was the eldest, but more that it was the first song written in what we consider to be “The Strawberry Era.” And, really... the message. Like we discussed earlier, leaving the listener with hopefulness for the first time was something appealing to us.

OTW: And finally—why “Strawberry”?

BG: This sounds made up, but I had been dreaming about strawberries for the two weeks before recording “Love Interest.” Every night. The image of a skeleton performing the Hamlet soliloquy to a giant strawberry, dressing in clothes with strawberries sewn into them, running through strawberry rain drops... And because I NEVER remember my dreams, it seemed impossible for it to be coincidence. I don’t think I’m tuned into the will of the universe or anything like that, but I’m also not foolish enough to argue with it.

[paulashelton]

A completed project blurb that reflects my project and practice. explaining research and production processes.

Initial Research The 1930′s

I started my research with the period between the Great Depression in 1929 through to 1939 (the outbreak of the first World War in Europe).

This time period was considered a ‘technical revolution’ with changes and improvements made to manufacturing, they accelerated at a pace far beyond that achieved in any similar time spans in modern history. There was a form of escapism needed by many people both in the UK  and in America to cope with the effects of the first world war and the subsequent economic downturn together with a new found interest in Hollywood films, Cars, Fashion, Holidays abroad and both watching and participating in sport. Many activities were now accessible thanks to the relaxed rules with getting credit for the working classes.

My main focus initially was Fashion from this era

In fashion a new technical revolution was taking place with many manmade fabrics being invented. nylon - used for tights and stockings. Zips -  was invented making clothing easier to wear especially with the new stretchy fabrics.

There was a surge in subscriptions to Vogue magazine both in the UK and overseas, many people saw the glamorous images of models and film stars as a distraction from the economic times of the 30’s.

I started to look at fashion in more detail, there was a return to more refined sophisticated glamour from the boyish and shapeless look of the previous decade, dresses were designed to show off curves, accentuate the waist and lower backs were exposed for the first time.

I looked at the designs of three prominent fashion designers at the time

Charles James Elsa Schiaparelli Madeleine Vionnet

All three took inspiration from the fabrics they were using rather than constructing traditional patterns, both James and Schiaparelli had no formal training with pattern construction taking inspiration from the fabrics and how they worked in conjunction with the female form.

The designer that interested me the most was Charles James. He briefly trained as an architect before training as a milliner. He used his experience working with millinery fabrics to support his sculptural shapes made into clothing for the rich and famous. He used complicated structures that had complex seaming arrangements, many shapes lacked any symmetry combined with geometric forms taking inspiration from his architectural drawings.

I chose 3 of his dresses that I found the most interesting from the 1930’s to look at in more detail for a better understanding of how he designed.

La Sirene dress A dress made from silk crepe that drapes over the body, made from a gathered tube cut on the grain apart from gathering over the bust and the back bodice. The dress was created using a series of horizontal tucks sewn onto a central padded spine.

Taxi dress Made from black wool ribbed knitted fabric the Taxi dress was called this because it was an easy to wear garment and could be reportedly slipped on in the back of a taxi. It was incredibly difficult to manufacture, one side of the top and the spiral wrap-over skirt were made without seams.

Coq Noir dress A dress made from black silk without any side seams, it is asymmetrical and all the excess fabric created by having no side seams is incorporated into a flute at the right back hip accentuated with the use of buckram.

Initial experimenting


Pleats, Tucks, Layering, Gathering

I started to experiment making toiles with cotton canvas fabric and a size 8/10 mannequin.

Using a medium weight cotton canvas material I overlapped panels and top stitched the seams so they were flat, then the panels were pinned to the mannequin and cut to the shape of the curves.

The material was used to make embellishments reminiscent of the 1930′s that were pinned in place around the neck line of the mannequin and down the centre front.

When the designs were discussed with my peers and lecturer the consensus was to be more ‘extreme’ with my ideas and create larger and more exaggerated forms.

Charles James used Buckram for adding shape to his hats, he also used it as to ‘pad out’ the material and create his unusual shapes for many of his designs. I  started to experiment with Buckram but instead of using the material as a means of making the outer material shapes, I decided to use it as an outer material.

Buckram has quite interesting properties...

Its coated with starch so when sprayed with water can be shaped and then if its left to dry it will retain this shape. It can also be further stiffened with the use of glue. The texture has a grid like appearance that changes when more than one layer is overlapped, also when light is shone through it the starch can be clearly seen

My first experiment making a garment I laid a piece of Buckram on the front of the mannequin and lightly sprayed it with water. When the material was shaped it could be smoothed into place but still has a wavy appearance, I wanted the clean cut appearance reminiscent of the 1930’s and didn't think the bodice achieved this. There is also a limited time span to shape the material due to it drying out after initially being sprayed with water and if it is ‘overworked’ the material will lose its elasticity, starting to fray - which can’t be undone. I found that Buckram is fine for creating simple forms for example when it is pulled over a traditional hat block but is less pliable when pulled in different shapes and directions. I preferred the appearance of the skirt as this is Buckram in its simplest form, cut to shape and curled at the edges, it also takes on a new appearance when the material overlaps and the light shines through it.

Research fashion inspired by architecture

Rosie Assoulin A fashion designer influenced by architecture who is known for her feminine structured garments. She was influenced by a cemetery in Italy for her Autumn/Winter 2015 collection by Italian architect Carlo Scarpa. The designer used the angles, lines, triangles, squares, and rectangles, of the building blending them all together for her collection.

Cinema Thinking about the decade I am working with I started to look at the architecture and found the interiors of cinemas really interesting. Their curves and shapes mimicked the fashions of the time. They were a very important cultural influence of people with many going to see films twice a week. Inside the cinema you could be transported to another world of glamour and luxury with swirling carpets and decorative banisters. I started to put some sketches together taking inspiration from the interiors and using Buckram to create shapes that suggested the elegance of this era.

Prologue Show/Work in Progress I have made two side panels out of 10mm MDF taking the measurements from the template for the “ideal women”. I am unsure whether the choice of material works so will consider this after the show. My initial ideas are to cover the shape with the Buckram so only the outline would be seen as the Buckram will drape over it. I need to think about how to connect the pieces together - one idea is to use “hook and eyes” which were widely used in the 1930′s.   My main focus is the Buckram and I am happy at this stage with the range of shapes I have made, how to display them will need more thought and I will wait for feedback after the show.

I need to do further research into 1930′s interiors, looking at the way they are styled in conjunction with the fashions of the same era. I have contacted a cinema museum in London which has photographs of original 1930′s cinema interiors.

[wandashifflett]

Our Educational System Makes US Land of Useful Idiots

Commentary

When I was young and just arrived in Los Angeles to make my way in the movie business, a friend, a recent graduate of UCLA film school, was writing a screenplay improbably entitled “Stalin’s Children.”

It was a sympathetic view of the struggles of the young people of that time (1969-70) still devoted to Comrade Stalin, if you can believe that. (Well, maybe now you can.)

Not surprisingly, the script was unreadable and I don’t recall making it beyond page ten, but I’ve been thinking about it recently for its prescience.

The author was no threat to John Huston or Francis Ford Coppola, to put it mildly, but he was a progenitor of something relatively rare in those days but becoming pervasive today: the “useful idiot,” American style.

Sometimes attributed to V. I. Lenin, “useful idiot” is a term of murky provenance.

Nevertheless, its meaning is clear: an ill-informed, easily gulled individual, often of the bourgeoisie, who can be manipulated by the left to support their most nefarious and bloody causes.

These days, “useful idiots” are all around us.

The seemingly-endless proliferation of unquestioning followers of Black Lives Matters is an obvious example.

You would think this would have been executed with some stealth, but that wasn’t necessary for the ultra—naive “useful idiots” whose cluelessness knows no bounds.

BLM is not a covert communist organization, it’s an overt one. Its leadership advertises itself as “trained Marxists” (their words). One of their leaders recently proudly “took no sides” on the violent destruction and escalating black on black murder going on across the country, tantamount to giving it all a nod of approval.

Of perhaps greater importance, ultimately, much of their significant financial support comes via Susan Rosenberg, a convicted domestic terrorist and wannabe cop killer once allied with the Weathermen whose near-life sentence was commuted by Bill Clinton on the last day of his presidency.

Ironically, along with the traditional communist crowd, some white (but no black) Democratic politicians are also raking it in from BLM fundraising. It’s interesting who profits from Black Lives Matter.

But almost no one seems to care, “useful idiots” especially. (One of the rare exceptions being whoever just sprayed the Fifth Avenue Black Lives Matter “mural” with deserved red paint.)

But nobody can care if nobody knows, or even begins to understand, what is happening to them.

The cause of this extraordinary naivety is our wretched educational system, which teaches nothing while it endlessly inculcates leftist cant into the minds of our innocent youth.

We are a nation of “useful idiots” because of that system that gets worse, more extremely biased, every year. In fact, our educational system is a “useful idiot” manufacturing machine.

This machine has worked for years in a top down manner. As our most renowned colleges and universities became progressively leftist in faculties and administrations—over ninety percent of professors are now Democrats, mostly left Democrats— so naturally do their students follow suit, almost all of whom have become indoctrinated by the system to one degree or another from the first week of their freshman years.

Of course they want to please their professors, get a good grade and so forth. And the courses they are taking in the first place are almost always rigged for indoctrination. (Go and look at the required general education courses of almost any university if you think I’m exaggerating.)

These same students go on to teach at other, sometimes less prominent, colleges and universities, but also at our elementary, middle and high schools, even at our kindergartens and nursery schools, forming a perfect system of uniform bias.

Nothing is questioned. Little is examined. We have endless diversity classes and administrators, but what’s known as viewpoint diversity (diversity of ideas) has virtually disappeared.

We are a capitalist society with a socialist educational system. (“Stalin’s Children,” but not in a movie. In life.)

No wonder so few look under the hood at what makes Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and their allies tick, what their real intentions are. (It’s certainly not saving black lives. So many are dying it’s hard to keep up.)

This indoctrination lingers on after college, enhanced by the media and by increasingly timid corporations worshipping at the altar of political correctness. No one is encouraged to think for themselves. It’s too risky. The free mind has been captured and imprisoned, ironically, by their schooling, the very thing that was supposed to liberate it.

For now, the excessive violence and destruction coupled with absurd socialist legislation that could have been written in Caracas may prevent the left from assuming immediate power and keep Trump in office for one more term.

But give this educational system a few more years (with most of the GOP continuing to behave like court eunuchs) and we will be past the point of no return. We will fully be a nation of “useful idiots.”

No matter who wins the election, what’s needed now is a movement to take the schools back from the teachers’ unions, the politicians, and the so-called educational experts and return them to the people they are meant for—their consumers—the students and their families.

Otherwise, they should be out of business.

Roger L. Simon is a prize-winning novelist, Oscar-nominated screenwriter and the co-founder of PJ Media. His most recent books are “I Know Best: How Moral Narcissism Is Destroying Our Republic, If It Hasn’t Already” (non-fiction) and “The GOAT” (fiction).

from Rayfield Review News https://therayfield.com/our-educational-system-makes-us-land-of-useful-idiots from The Ray Field https://therayfieldreview.tumblr.com/post/623601025470939136

[therayfieldreview]

Our Educational System Makes US Land of Useful Idiots

Commentary

When I was young and just arrived in Los Angeles to make my way in the movie business, a friend, a recent graduate of UCLA film school, was writing a screenplay improbably entitled “Stalin’s Children.”

It was a sympathetic view of the struggles of the young people of that time (1969-70) still devoted to Comrade Stalin, if you can believe that. (Well, maybe now you can.)

Not surprisingly, the script was unreadable and I don’t recall making it beyond page ten, but I’ve been thinking about it recently for its prescience.

The author was no threat to John Huston or Francis Ford Coppola, to put it mildly, but he was a progenitor of something relatively rare in those days but becoming pervasive today: the “useful idiot,” American style.

Sometimes attributed to V. I. Lenin, “useful idiot” is a term of murky provenance.

Nevertheless, its meaning is clear: an ill-informed, easily gulled individual, often of the bourgeoisie, who can be manipulated by the left to support their most nefarious and bloody causes.

These days, “useful idiots” are all around us.

The seemingly-endless proliferation of unquestioning followers of Black Lives Matters is an obvious example.

You would think this would have been executed with some stealth, but that wasn’t necessary for the ultra—naive “useful idiots” whose cluelessness knows no bounds.

BLM is not a covert communist organization, it’s an overt one. Its leadership advertises itself as “trained Marxists” (their words). One of their leaders recently proudly “took no sides” on the violent destruction and escalating black on black murder going on across the country, tantamount to giving it all a nod of approval.

Of perhaps greater importance, ultimately, much of their significant financial support comes via Susan Rosenberg, a convicted domestic terrorist and wannabe cop killer once allied with the Weathermen whose near-life sentence was commuted by Bill Clinton on the last day of his presidency.

Ironically, along with the traditional communist crowd, some white (but no black) Democratic politicians are also raking it in from BLM fundraising. It’s interesting who profits from Black Lives Matter.

But almost no one seems to care, “useful idiots” especially. (One of the rare exceptions being whoever just sprayed the Fifth Avenue Black Lives Matter “mural” with deserved red paint.)

But nobody can care if nobody knows, or even begins to understand, what is happening to them.

The cause of this extraordinary naivety is our wretched educational system, which teaches nothing while it endlessly inculcates leftist cant into the minds of our innocent youth.

We are a nation of “useful idiots” because of that system that gets worse, more extremely biased, every year. In fact, our educational system is a “useful idiot” manufacturing machine.

This machine has worked for years in a top down manner. As our most renowned colleges and universities became progressively leftist in faculties and administrations—over ninety percent of professors are now Democrats, mostly left Democrats— so naturally do their students follow suit, almost all of whom have become indoctrinated by the system to one degree or another from the first week of their freshman years.

Of course they want to please their professors, get a good grade and so forth. And the courses they are taking in the first place are almost always rigged for indoctrination. (Go and look at the required general education courses of almost any university if you think I’m exaggerating.)

These same students go on to teach at other, sometimes less prominent, colleges and universities, but also at our elementary, middle and high schools, even at our kindergartens and nursery schools, forming a perfect system of uniform bias.

Nothing is questioned. Little is examined. We have endless diversity classes and administrators, but what’s known as viewpoint diversity (diversity of ideas) has virtually disappeared.

We are a capitalist society with a socialist educational system. (“Stalin’s Children,” but not in a movie. In life.)

No wonder so few look under the hood at what makes Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and their allies tick, what their real intentions are. (It’s certainly not saving black lives. So many are dying it’s hard to keep up.)

This indoctrination lingers on after college, enhanced by the media and by increasingly timid corporations worshipping at the altar of political correctness. No one is encouraged to think for themselves. It’s too risky. The free mind has been captured and imprisoned, ironically, by their schooling, the very thing that was supposed to liberate it.

For now, the excessive violence and destruction coupled with absurd socialist legislation that could have been written in Caracas may prevent the left from assuming immediate power and keep Trump in office for one more term.

But give this educational system a few more years (with most of the GOP continuing to behave like court eunuchs) and we will be past the point of no return. We will fully be a nation of “useful idiots.”

No matter who wins the election, what’s needed now is a movement to take the schools back from the teachers’ unions, the politicians, and the so-called educational experts and return them to the people they are meant for—their consumers—the students and their families.

Otherwise, they should be out of business.

Roger L. Simon is a prize-winning novelist, Oscar-nominated screenwriter and the co-founder of PJ Media. His most recent books are “I Know Best: How Moral Narcissism Is Destroying Our Republic, If It Hasn’t Already” (non-fiction) and “The GOAT” (fiction).

from Rayfield Review News https://therayfield.com/our-educational-system-makes-us-land-of-useful-idiots

[3dscatterplotmatplotlib-blog]

How to Offer and Plan Custom Sketches

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You will get a webpage enlisted for $7.49 with my GoDaddy Website Minimal effort and facilitating for $2.ninety nine a month through my GoDaddy Website Markdown, at that point you may get a site organize in 10 minutes. Make that site into smaller than expected site to promote the ideal partner item in your general vicinity of enthusiasm by watching out OfferVault, ClickBank, Charge Intersection, PayDotCom, LinkShare, ShareASale, and numerous others.. At that point transport some activity to that site and profit in the short era though developing that small scale site directly into a substance site inside the background. You may likewise get a free weblog on WordPress.com yet the issue with that will be that it isn't yours and furthermore you're truly profiting and creating another person's venture as opposed to your own which isn't a decent idea. Create Your Own Product Creating your own item isn't as intense as you'd think. I'll have an entire helpful asset committed to instructing techniques to make your own online item and elevating it to make some gigantic money. Offshoot showcasing is a certain something, however when you build up your individual item and screen down your own partners, that is the point at which the genuine cash starts to return in and that is the manner by which the net business visionaries making 7 figures a yr make the vast majority of their money. At the minimum you can make an information item inside an unmistakable fragment which you may have understanding and learning in. People like advanced stock because of it is a prompt acquire and instructive items have customarily all the time offered viably on the web, in this way the ubiquity of Clickbank. Get Artistic Go to your local mother and pop stores and approach them in the event that they've a site for their undertaking and if not then offer to build them a site for a couple of hundred dollars. 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When You're Resolved Bear in mind When you're entirely towards the divider, make sure to contact organization like the Salvation Armed force, dinners banks, or city human administration divisions to guarantee that you keep the lights on and suppers on the table.

[peelingtheskinoffmyface]

Don’t be a Crybaby!

Themes within popular music very rarely venture outside of the ‘soppy love song’ and the generic ‘lets party’, However floating somewhere in-between are bands and artists trying to break out of musical stereotypes and amongst the few is none other than twenty-one year old ‘The Voice’ contestant, Melanie Martinez and her debut album ‘Cry Baby’. Martinez is a unique artist whose concept at first glance appears innocent, however, Rolling Stone Magazine described her album as, ‘Twisted lullabies about love, danger and madness.’ The themes of the album when put under a microscope, are that of adolescence laced with the poison of serious adult issues. Upon the release of this album, Martinez produced a ‘picture storybook’ to be sold alongside the physical copy that relates and explains the songs from a childish ‘Dr. Suess’ point of view, complete with annoyingly patronising cliche rhymes which, in my opinion was a completely unnecessary selling point.

The order of the songs within the album are that of a very specific nature, the album and storybook begins with the first song titled Crybaby. Like the majority of her songs, Crybaby is brimming with the sound of toxic ‘toy’ instruments topped with a heavy beat helping to push her raspy youthful voice to the forefront, whilst singing lyrics that are based around twisted teenage naïveté which  pushes me to draw nostalgia from my own childhood, which is a pleasant aspect of her music. Melanie Martinez’s approach to her music is very much reflecting within her videos, the videos play the role of the storybook in a further visual sense, almost like a film. In the beginning of the Crybaby video, it shows the birth of the character (quite literally) which symbolises in a way, the birth of the entire album. Her videos and metaphors are very melodramatic which seems unnecessarily exaggerated and excessive as if she is trying to prove her dedication to this concept to her fans. As I described the videos before, they play out and come together like a film that describes the life of Crybaby, with Melanie Martinez pushing to be as edgy and ‘original’ as possible with her selling points, of course she had to release videos that stood out or were a little different. When a ‘Soap/Training Wheels Double Feature’ appeared on YouTube, I was shocked to see how far this artist was willing to go to push a concept, however I may diminish her efforts, her dedication and faith that lies with this alter ego is to be applauded. In my opinion Billboard Magazine couldn’t have described this dedication in a better way; ‘Cry Baby shows that Martinez is ­admirably ambitious, but her insistence on sticking to the album's central idea leaves her contorting into uncomfortable positions.’ Her persistence and dedication to this character, sends her on a spiral staircase through twisted, sinister themes perhaps approached the wrong way.

The next chapter of the story, paints the image of a family who appear to be picture perfect, however, behind closed doors all is not as it seems. The desperation for ‘Crybabies’ voice to be heard about her alcoholic mother, her cheating father and drug addicted brother is very real, real to the point, that me as a listener can feel empathy and you can’t help but relate to. Everybody has heard of or experienced issues that relate to alcoholism, unfaithfulness or drug abuse. As I described before, Martinez’s lyrics are a giant risk and the themes she grasps hold of are dangerous. I can’t help but think that as a debut album for this artist or any artist for that matter, lyrics that surround such dark themes shouldn’t have been touched. When an artist is breaking into the world, should they really strive for such a corrupted image, especially since Martinez approaches them with such fierce teenage angst, stop trying so hard to be a rebel and act your age. The song Sippy Cup is the first song on the album that insinuates anything sexual (apart from the fact she uses the word ‘sex’ multiple times) and with the concept of this album it sounds like these words shouldn’t be used at all, almost as if you heard a toddler on the street swearing, It doesn’t sound appropriate, with this being said, it distracts slightly from the true meaning of the song.

The first time I heard a song by this artist was when FX released the fourth season of the TV show ‘American Horror Story’ which season was about a ‘freak show’, the song released alongside this season was Melanie’s song ‘Carousel’. Carousel is a love song that tells the story of Crybaby falling in love but going ‘round and round’ in continuous circles. With references to the series with name dropping the actual show name ‘freak show’ and the famous magician ‘Houdini’, it is almost as if this song was never meant for this album. To me personally it feels like it doesn’t fit, put it this way, the song was written for the TV Show, then when not enough material had been written for the Crybaby album, the label in a way ‘thrown’ this song on as a last resort.

If there’s one thing Melanie Martinez isn’t short on, it’s ideas, however, this artist strives so much for originality yet, within the song ‘Pity Party’, Martinez has sampled music from Lesley Gore’s ‘It’s My Party’. She is an artist who has tried literally everything in her power to sell as much merchandise as possible by trying to be original, from the storybook and necklaces to the vinyl records and cassette tapes… Yes, you heard me right people, this album is available on cassette tape. With all these ‘extravagant’ selling points, she still felt the need to essential copy.. oops, sorry.. sample somebody else’s music. Apart from the sampling of this song, it’s a catchy single, and probably one of my favourite songs on the album as it isn’t about sex, adult issues or love, just a kids birthday party with nobody attending, which I’m pretty sure everybody has experienced before.

Alphabet Boy is one of the tracks on the album I can honestly say I enjoyed and everybody can enjoy. It begins with a rhythmic baby style babbling, however, this is very cleverly done as it also represents the phonetic alphabet. This song centers around Crybaby being interested in a boy who thinks he’s too clever to be with her as she is essentially just a ‘baby’, so she graciously tells him to ‘fuck off’. However, as clever as I think this song is like previously mentioned, when Melanie Martinez swears whilst holding this facade, it sounds inappropriate, if she wants a naive adolescent image, swearing in what is essentially the most innocent song on the album doesn't really make sense.

And then just when I thought the exaggerated selling points had been exhausted, along came another double feature film like music video. This one was titled ‘Tag, You’re It/Milk & Cookies Double Feature’, which following on from the other song titles, refer to something much more innocent but when truly focused on the lyrics they reveal something far more sinister which make me question well and truly if this was a smart move for Martinez. As spin.com says, ‘the double feature transforms them [the two songs] into a two-part story about Martinez’s devious, doll-like character and a big bad wolf in an ice-cream truck.I well and truly understand why these two songs have been connected in this film like way, they tell a story in two parts. The first ‘chapter’ of the story (Tag You’re It) sounds like the harmless nostalgic game we’re all familiar with, however, with lyrics like ‘Rolling down your tinted window, driving next to me real slow.’ it reveals a far more twisted meaning. The topic of child abduction and sexual assault is a giant risk and should be approached very warily, the way the lyrics and the meaning intertwine it’s almost mocking the seriousness of these issues. I fully understand the approach and by now we all fully understand that you’re dedicated to keeping up with this alter-ego, the lyrics are from the ‘big bad wolfs’ perspective and how abducting this little girl is nothing but a game, but tackling this issue in such a juvenile way and comparing something of such seriousness with a game of ‘tag’ wasn’t a smart move. I’m all for raising awareness of serious issues and congratulations to let people know you support the victims, but don’t mock them just to sell a couple of albums. In the first half of the double feature, we’re introduced the character of the Big Bad Wolf who later on abducts Crybaby just like a wolf on the prowl. As if, the sadistic nature of the song wasn’t enough, the video is just the cherry on top of the cake, with scenes of the wolf sleazily waving at a school bus full of children and Crybaby being picked up, taken and placed in the back of the wolfs van, how refreshing. The second ‘chapter’ entitled Milk & Cookies continues the story of the abduction and how Crybaby escapes from the wolf by poisoning him with her ‘Milk & Cookies’, well, however, the themes may be toxic, this song cleverly counts from one to twelve as it progresses, almost as if she’s attempting to play a game of ‘What Time Is It Mister Wolf’ and leaving us in anticipation, waiting for the big ‘dinner time’ moment, which doesn’t seem to arrive (Such a missed opportunity). It is said that these two songs are what affect Crybaby substantially, they make her truly realise how insane she is and teaches her how to embrace it…Finally, a metaphor that I agree with and can get on board with. When an event that impacts you greatly, it can change you as a person and that is exactly what is being exhibited here. Crybaby gets abducted and sexually assaulted and when she escapes from the big bad wolf, she’s a changed person, almost as if she developed psychosis.

Once Crybaby goes through her ‘character development’ then comes along the song ‘Pacify Her’, which is the first song that takes place after her incident, She explores the territory of mind games within relationships and decides she’ll go for a person who is already taken. I’ve got to hand to Martinez, all the songs in this album are very well linked and make sense as a collective but also alone, the story that plays out during ‘Pacify Her’ takes on a ‘father-like-daughter’ mentality, flashback to ‘Dollhouse’ and ‘Mom, please wake up, Dad’s with a slut’ where her father was caught cheating on his wife, and now Crybaby herself is theoretically ‘the other woman’. This is perhaps the one thing that makes me believe she slipped up on keeping up with her alter-ego, a child of the age she’s trying to play would never be in this situation and singing about it in this way doesn’t really make sense.

As i mentioned before the ‘Tag You’re It/Milk & Cookies Double feature’ is the trigger for Crybaby to realise how crazy she is and finally accepting it, the song ‘Mad Hatter’ is truly the song that reflects and prove my suspicions on Crybaby’s psychosis. This song lies in the world of Alice and Wonderland and the weird and wonderful happenings that happen. My favourite lyric of the entire album rests in the midst of this song, ‘Getting drunk with the blue caterpillar’, not for the metaphor, not for the relation to the alter-ego but purely because of the quirkiness. This song makes you ‘curiouser’ as to what goes on inside this characters head, truthfully, which I like. This song is very much the most innocently un-innocent, Its adolescent nature towards Alice in Wonderland is twisted, which I enjoy very much. Well played Martinez, turning something so naive into a twisted fairytale.

Finally, here comes my favourite song from Crybaby, and that is ‘Mrs. Potato Head’. I genuinely think naming a song about plastic surgery, ‘Mrs. Potato Head’ is very clever. Plastic surgery is one of the themes that’s expressed within this album that doesn’t make you take a step back and question the artists motives. I believe the link between real life and this alternate reality is very intelligent. It says, if you fall in love with somebody and they want you to change, will they love you even if you change, or are you essentially changing for nothing? It also raises awareness to the young adult audience, that plastic surgery is not something that should be messed with and is risky. The build up to the chorus has the words ‘Baby soft skin turns into leather’, which I always admire, it’s addressing a younger audience and how growing up is a real and natural thing and it happens to everybody. The terminology used within this song is also very clever with words like ‘cut and paste’ is easily relatable to the younger audience making me wonder if the message has well and truly gotten through to people.

Overall, as much as it seems that I have hated on Martinez’s work, I admire her. I admire her courage and bravery to approach such tender topics in such a heinous way. Her adolescence and naivety is what makes this album what it is. I may have defeated her efforts as an artist, but I do enjoy her album, but in my personal opinion, I believe that this album is a good album, however I disagree with this being an artist’s debut album, this shouldn’t be the image and themes that an upcoming artist should introduce to the world. With all due respect Miss. Martinez, you did good, very good, but perhaps not good enough.

Blogs Mentioned: http://www.spin.com/2016/08/melanie-martinez-tag-youre-it-milk-and-cookies-video/ http://www.billboard.com/articles/review/6671140/melanie-martinez-cry-baby-album-review http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/10-new-artists-you-need-to-know-september-2015-20150925/melanie-martinez-20150925