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centrally-unplanned · 7 months ago

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Watched a bunch of stuff last night, including the Alita OVA from 1993! I thought it was a lot of fun, the thoughts:

--- It did the "obvious" thing of adapting the romance arc with Yugo of Volume 2 as the core, while blending in the events of Volume 1 as sort of backstory and setup as opposed to their own story. This arc is Alita at her most humanized in the early parts of the manga, and its the plot that centers Zalem as the untouchable overlord city most effectively. Any short adaptation is gonna choose this - part of why James Cameron (lol) did the same thing!

--- Speaking of, the manga does not actually have any particular focus on Alita's eyes, but the anime definitely has more than one shot where it establishes them as thematically special. Given that the James Cameron film is famous for going full CGI on Alita's eyes, and he knows about the property from Guillermo del Toro passing him the OVA as opposed to the manga, I think I can see the chain of events that lead to that (ill-fated?) decision.

Her eyes are pretty amazing in the OVA, so I get it! As my previous reblogs showed lol.

--- I think I can break apart the manga into three "concepts": the setting as cyberpunk dystopia, Alita as a character dealing with identity issues as an amnesiatic combat robot, and shounen fighting & levelling arcs. The OVA heavily focuses on the first part, ditching almost all the shounen stuff - its fight scenes are quick and focus on violence & bodily destruction over strength or "fighting techniques", etc. This is great for me, obviously! But it also, almost accidentally, ditches most of her identity issues? Because its less than an hour long, and needs to do a ton of worldbuilding - including even adding in a new character from Zalem to help with that - and is doing Yugo's entire arc, you really don't have time left for Alita's struggles. Yugo actually gets more "inner depth" than she does! She commits to being a bounty hunter, then after that she is pretty much just In Love while Yugo goes through his detailing of his past and collapse.

I'm not saying it doesn't work, it does as a story. Just interesting for something that is known as very "protagonist associated" to have an OVA where she is barely the protagonist.

--- While no Urotsukidoji or anything, this is another one of those OVAs where its reputation, particularly in the west, is as a hyper-violent, gory OVA? And like so many it really isn't. People get decapitated, don't get me wrong, buts its never lingers on those moments. Instead they serve as tone setters for the crapsack world or just are part of the action sequences.

I think in general the OVA era rarely made horror/gore films the way some other mediums/industries did? There are exceptions of course but in the end anime is trying to do too many other things; beautiful animation, focus on character designs, often being adaptations and so doing the plot of those more complex stories, erotic content for audiences that aren't *that* fetishistic on average, and more. All of these priorities compete for space in comparison to having endless jumpscares and blood splatters. So far my track record for watching the famous "gorefest" or "~crazy~" anime is that every one of them is tamer than the rep suggests, and I believe this medium/genre mismatch is why.

--- The biggest question I have around Alita in general is why there was never any more anime? Its weird, right? Its a famous property from a beloved genre, it had a hollywood film for some crazy reason, things like Ghost in the Shell got multi-season anime after all. Why no feature film remake in the 2000's? Why no 13-cour in the 2010's? I don't have an answer to that yet.

Why the initial OVA was so minimal is at least partly answered by Kishiro here:

MNS: Many fans have wondered, why were only 2 anime OAV episodes produced in 1993? YK: It was based on the plan proposed by the animation production company. It might have been better to turn down the plan and wait for a better adaptation proposal to come up, but back then, I couldn't afford to review the plan coolly. At that time, I was still serializing the work and was so busy that I wasn't ambitious to make it into animation.

Essentially he took the "deal on hand", not offering much, because he didn't have the time, money, or business savvy to work the industry for a better proposal. 100% understandable. I don't think the OVA did too well? I can't find a lot of sales figures, but the comments I see are in the "respectable" range, and it didn't get quick or expansive rereleases over time.

More broadly, and again speculative, I think maybe Alita overall isn't that successful? Like sure Kishiro is still out here releasing more sequel manga to this day somehow, but when I look at the "media mix" its just really sparse. No big video game adaptations - it has a PlayStation game in the 90's - it has like a drama CD and a novelization? No big merch waves or tie-ins. I am betting the big anime production committees just don't think its a hot enough property to sell that great. Wouldn't be a bad idea or anything, but not one you have to do like idk Chainsaw Man.

In the western fandom spaces its quite well known because of the idiosyncrasies of licensing history, the weird James Cameron factor, and I think a general fascination with anime cyberpunk; the west eats up any of the older cyberpunk properties for its aesthetic in a way that can blind people to the reality of that just being a subgenre in Japan at the time. Alita might just be niche enough that it not getting any wider anime adaptations is no grand mystery.

(But I hope to dig into this question more)

#battle angel alita #mini essay

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bettyshoweduptotheparty · 10 months ago

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More thoughts on TTPD and the track list

I keep seeing people saying the colour scheme is black and white. I do think white is going to be the associated colour but the cover is much more sepia. Like an old photograph. Goes with the evidence file/academia aesthetic. Rep was much more black and white to go with the newspaper visuals. And grey is obviously folklore. I think the colours being similar is for a reason. I could see it being thematically between folklore and rep. Sweet tortured love, but also sass and vengeance.

I like the fact that we’re getting a title track. Haven’t had one since evermore.

A lot of gaylors seem unhappy about the track titles and amount of male pronouns. If Lavender Haze has taught me anything it’s to WAIT FOR THE ACTUAL SONGS before making a snap judgement on the titles. I’m not excusing Lavender gate but all was in fact fine when the song came out. I trust the process with the music until we have whole songs. Not interested in judging titles.

However, I did find it interesting and totally unexpected that she dropped the whole track list two months in advance. No mystery or slow unveiling. Seems odd. Almost like the quick judgement on the breakup album branding is intentional….

Track 5 is So Long London. So it’s a sad song. Gaylors seem disappointed, and all the swifties collectively decided it’s a Joe breakup song. Could be. Maybe in an ironic way(like London Boy). But in British use of the phrase ‘so long’ it means ‘until I see you next’. Is that what you’d say to someone you’re breaking up with? 🤔 My mind immediately went to leaving a place you love and have good memories with until you can go there next. That’s what I felt when I moved from London to the countryside. Taylor lived in London for a year to recover from everything that was 2016 and to start the love blackout, just her and her lover away from the world. She’s often described that as her happiest year. I’m doing better than I ever was. So I could see it being a goodbye to the city that helped her recover from all of that, until I see you next. I’d love a homage to London song but that’s just me :)

And one more thought on the bait and switch that we all fell victim to 😉 I too totally thought rep tv was coming. But every day that album lives another day in its current form I’m honestly relieved. There’s so much at stake with rep and I don’t think we’re there yet. The rep vault tracks are what could be the karma album. And we all remember that the reputation album we know and love is the version that had its wings clipped. I really don’t think that, having got the chance to revisit this, Taylor would want to make another half truth version. If she’s gonna put her name to it, she’ll make it fly this time. And I don’t think we’re quite there yet. So I’m looking at this new album with a very open mind, because I know rep tv and/or karma are waiting for us when the time comes.

#the tortured poets department #rep tv #karma #more thoughts

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batmanisagatewaydrug · 4 years ago

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book blogging #3: is this book, you know... gay?

I’ve been vaguely aware of Jen Wang’s The Prince and the Dressmaker for some time, and had the vague understanding that it fit somewhere in the genre of “warm and fuzzy queer coming of age graphic novels” that seems to be happily proliferating these days, and while I’m very much a fan of that development as a whole, I wasn’t in any particular rush to seek it out.

then the pandemic happened, everything closed, my reading started to consist mostly of whatever my friends can lend me, etc. we’ve had this conversation before.

textually, no explicit identities are ever claimed in this graphic novel; no one uses the words “transgender” or “gay” or “bisexual” or “queer.” that’s understandable, especially is a pseudo-historical setting like this one when those words weren’t have been used or understood the way they are today, although Wang is hardly trying to write historical accurate fiction and time period is deliberately vague. it’s a fairly significant plot point that Paris’ first department store is opening up over the course of the story, and in the real world that occurred in 1852. however, the titular prince is Prince Sebastian of Belgium, and since absolutely no such prince existed in 1852, it seems that this story is taking place in an aesthetically pleasing alternate history. neat!

unfortunately, like many fictional worlds, this one isn’t exempt from real world ideas about gender, and Prince Sebastian is very, very worried about what will happen if anyone discovers that he, the sole heir to the Belgian throne, really enjoys wearing dresses. the only people he trusts with his secret are a faithful servant and Frances, the dressmaker who catches Sebastian’s eye with a particularly daring and controversial design. to boil down the plot very small, Frances becomes Sebastian’s secret designer, constructing avant-garde costumes for him to wear out on the town under the alias Lady Crystallia.

so, how are we - the worldly queer readers of 2020, with our nuanced understanding of the many ways gender, gender presentation, and sexuality can interact - meant to understand Sebastian?

right off the bat, I think it’s fair to say he’s certainly not meant to be a representation of a trans girl coming into her identity. Sebastian’s doesn’t seem bothered by being a boy, only by the limitations that societal expectations have placed upon his wardrobe. he is certainly happier and more confident when he’s dressed up in wig and heels and introducing himself as Crystallia, but that primarily seems to come from being able to shed the expectations usually placed upon him and being permitted to dress as he likes. one gets the impression that Sebastian would be perfectly happy to use his real name and he/him pronouns while wearing his dresses, if only he didn’t have to worry about someone learning his secret.

it seems most accurate to say that Sebastian could most accurately be compared to a baby drag queen, which made it extra surprising that (spoiler alert!) he ends up having feelings for a girl.

more specifically, he ends up developing feelings for Frances, and she likes him back, and they have some truly adorable little moments of falling in love. by the end I was really rooting for these kids to overcome their inevitable third act misunderstanding and get back together. and even as I was rooting for them, I was wondering: wait, so is this gay at all?

despite Sebastian fitting many tropes often associated with young gay men - he loves traditionally feminine clothing, he doesn’t relate to his father’s love of sports or like physical labor, he’s extremely nervous about his parents expectations that he will find a wife - he never actually shows any particular interest in men or, indeed, anyone but Frances. while that certainly doesn’t rule out that he could be bi or pan or an asexual who experiences romantic attraction, going purely by what’s on the page it doesn’t seem implausible that Sebastian is... a straight, cisgender teenage boy who happens to really like wearing dresses. I’m not saying that’s definitively what he is - I think there’s a strong case for Sebastian being genderfluid or nonbinary - but there’s also no categorical proof that he’s not.

what about Frances? while Sebastian initially tries to hide his identity from her, including that he’s a boy, she finds out the truth before their first meeting is over, meaning she’s under no false impressions about who exactly she’s falling in love with. the first time we get a hint of blossoming romance is a classic scene of Frances watching her crush while he’s unaware, then catching herself staring and looking away while blushing. this happens to take place while Sebastian has his long red wig on, lovingly brushing out his hair, looking pretty femme. later on the two of them spend a night together that is clearly a date, complete with an adorably awkward goodnight, all of which takes place while Sebastian fully presenting as male. truthfully, none of this tells us anything about Frances’ orientation(s) either, except that external presentation is absolutely no hurdle for her.

so this could, quite feasibly, be a cisgender, heterosexual couple, with nothing in the text to either strictly confirm or refute it. if you’re looking for canon LGBT rep, you might be a bit disappointed. but is the book queer?

there is a difference, after all, especially if we go looking for queerness in the academic sense, the kind that’s less concerned with exactly quantifying identity and is much more interested in playing around to see exactly how far ideas of gender and sexuality can be warped, distorted, and otherwise used like so much Play-Doh. at very least, there’s an absolute treasure trove of gender nonconformity on Sebastian’s end, which I don’t think exactly needs spelling out. Frances is a more subtle rebel for falling in love with Sebastian in all his skirts and glitter; without going too far down the gender theory rabbit hole, heterosexuality is traditionally construed as an attraction between masculine and feminine opposites.

obviously I’m not coming at you to argue that Sebastian as a cis, straight boychild who likes dresses is more radical than a Sebastian who is explicitly not-straight or not-cisgender. but as someone who personally doesn’t jive well with the impulse to neatly label each and every facet of identity, there’s something about this very sweet book that hits like a breath of fresh air. sure, Sebastian worries about being known as a boy who wears dresses, but he never seems to worry about what his clothing preferences mean for his own gender or sexuality. likewise, Frances has a lot of concerns about the pressures of keeping secrets and trying to build her own career, but she’s spectacularly untroubled by the implications of having a crush on someone with such a wildly fluctuating gender presentation.

Frances and Sebastian know what they like - wearing/making spectacular dresses, and each other - and don’t worry about the rest, and I think there’s something really simply but powerfully sweet in that ability to simply embrace and explore what makes them happy without spiraling into an existential crisis about it. the problem is always external, always in the form of outsiders who don’t understand, never grappling for internal understanding. thematically that’s all pretty queer, so my ultimate grade is this: if nothing else, this book is one hell of an ally, and I think it has a lot of potential to resonate with folks across a wide variety of queer identities. it certainly made my heart all warm and tingly :)

#bookblr

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irregularjohnnywiggins · 4 years ago

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So, hey, a while ago I came up with this ask game about songs I associate with Arthurian characters. I had a lot of fun with that, but really wanted it to be more streamlined, so I came up with this solution - a list of Arthurian characters and the songs I associate with them.

Now, before we get into the list proper, I need to establish some things, the main one being that these song choices are primarily based on my interpretations of the characters, which is going to become extremely relevant with a few key choices that deviate completely from the normal story. Also, as an inevitable follow-through of this, these songs are entirely subject to my musical tastes, so if you're wondering why most of this list is either Heather Dale, Miracle of Sound or Jeff and Casey Lee Williams that's why. Finally, obviously not every Arthurian character is on this list - with some of the big-name ones like Merlin that's because I couldn't come up with a song choice, with others it's because I haven't fully come up with my version of them and as a result I'm still figuring them out.

With all that out of the way, I hope you enjoy this list!

King Arthur �� Kingsword by Heather Dale

Kinda an obvious one - it's literally about Arthur - but I really like it and think it fits well with my version of Arthur, especially the last line of the chorus, 'A boy's hand will grasp it/A man's raise it high' - a major plot point of The Boy King is that Arthur has to grow up incredibly fast after the Sword in the Stone, and this song reflects that.

Guinevere – As I Am by Heather Dale

Again, another obvious one. This song brings into focus one major aspect of the Arthur/Guinevere relationship I play up - it's as much about their ideals as their attraction. Guinevere marries Arthur because she believes in his vision for Britain, and Arthur relies on Guinevere a lot for moral support. This is their greatest strength together, but it's also their greatest weakness - Arthur will later place faith in Guinevere's understanding of his vision where he shouldn't, and that will be the thing that turns Guinevere to Lancelot.

Morgan le Fay – Divide & Armed and Ready by Casey Lee Williams

Moving on to my favourite character in Arthuriana, Morgan gets two songs because... I wanted to give Morgan two songs. No, really it's because Morgan is complicated, and the two songs present her two moods more or less throughout her story - either vengefully, apocalyptically angry, or just righteously angry. That's my favourite thing about Morgan's story - she has a redemption arc, to be sure, but at no point during it does she accept that her motivation was wrong - Uther and Merlin deserved what she wanted to give them, her sin was in taking her anger out on people that had nothing to do with her revenge. So, whilst it's not as simple as a black and white 'Divide is Morgan pre-redemption, Armed and Ready is Morgan post', there is a sense that Armed and Ready is Morgan at her calmest. Also, because visually Morgan takes a lot of cues from the Trollhunters version of her, I've had a lot of fun with the 'I am the Golden One' line.

Morgause – Mordred’s Lullaby by Heather Dale

Yet another easy one - some might think it works better for Mordred, but I have other ideas for him. Not really much else to say - it's Morgause at her most evil, going places even Morgan won't - note how Divide calls out using children as weapons, whereas Lullaby goes 'yeah, I'm doing that Count of Monte Christo shit'.

Mordred – Mordred’s Song by Blind Guardian

Because edgelord Mordred gets edgelord rock song. Mordred is interesting, because I really don’t like the ‘born pure evil’ idea of Mordred, and as such his story is much more of a tragedy than even Arthur - a man who makes what he feels are the best decisions with what he has to work with, who slowly comes to the realisation that he's the villain of this story. Hence, a song that refers to his acts of evil as 'No one asked if I want this/If I like this'.

Nimue – Indomitable by Casey Lee Williams

This one was tough to keep in - whilst I'm absolutely certain that it fits my version of Nimue, the song itself is deeply personal for the people who made it, about an actual tragedy that happened to them, and I'm deeply uncomfortable saying that 'actually it's about this'. So, provided we're all aware that this is, more than any other song on the list, me twisting the original intent to fit my own idea, this is perfect for Nimue, particularly Nimue immediately after imprisoning Merlin and taking over his role as The Light Mage, the Big Good of the magical world. Her story’s pretty interesting, but the theme of trying to fill shoes that are way to big for you and eventually realising you can’t and the best you can do is try your best and do your own thing is prevalent and reflected perfectly by this song.

Lancelot – C’est Moi by Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner/Bad Luck Charm by Jeff Williams

Like Morgan, Lancelot gets two songs, but unlike Morgan there is an absolutely sharp divide between these two. To use a Fate reference as shorthand, C'est Moi is Lancelot as a Saber, whilst Bad Luck Charm is Lancelot as Beserker. C'est Moi is kinda the perfect song for Lancelot for most of the story - oozing self-confidence, probably too smug for his own good but exactly the right level of smug where you're not sure if you want to punch him or kiss him, it's great for Lancelot. Bad Luck Charm, on the other hand, is basically what's playing on a loop in Lancelot's head as soon as he gets caught with Guinevere, especially given he survives Camlann. Countless dead, two civil wars ripping the country apart, his friends either killed at his hands or cursing his name, his king and queen in a place he cannot get to, and all the while he's left to wander the world knowing that it's all his fault.

Gawain – Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Heather Dale

Not really much to say about this one - it's definitely influenced my interpretation of Gawain as the Pagan Knight to Lancelot's Christian Knight, and a lot of the events the song describes are what happens when the Green Knight comes to play, but all in all its just a really good song.

Kay – True and Destined Prince by Heather Dale

Being the deuteragonist of the Boy King, Kay is someone I've put a lot of thought into, and this song is definitely a part of my writers playlist I keep listening to to get into the Kay mood. In particular the key defining factor of Kay is loyalty - particularly to Arthur the person, because obviously anyone trying to hurt his little brother is getting smacked. Kay is basically the Leo McGarry to Arthur's Jed Bartlet if that makes any sense, helping to make Arthur's dreams a reality, and there's also the factor that Kay and Arthur always consider one another brothers, which the song definitely reflects.

Bedivere – I Follow My King by Heather Dale

You may notice that this song is basically the same thematically as Kay's song. This is because Kay and Bedivere are a healthy couple that communicate their feelings with one another and come to reasonable compromises, so obviously their attitudes towards certain things are very similar. But talking about Bedivere in particular, this song works better for him than Kay because of one key aspect about Bedivere - whereas Gawain swears allegiance to Arthur for initially very mercenary ideals, and Lancelot swears to Arthur because of Arthur's reputation, Bedivere swears to Arthur because he's experienced Arthur growing up, he's seen the kind of man he's grown into, and he knows that Arthur's going to be a great king. Also the song works better for Bedivere because if Arthur tried pulling the shit the subject of this song does on Kay he's get locked in his room until he learnt not to be an idiot.

Ragnelle – Force of Nature by Miracle of Sound

Tbh it's mainly here for the line 'They rant of redemption/As I leave them long behind' which is peak Ragnelle energy - Ragnelle doesn't care about your feelings or what you think about her, she's doing her own thing and she demands you take her seriously. Aside from that, Ragnelle in my version has a faintly Fae connection to the Otherworld, and even if I go with the idea of her dying (I'm still undecided on that) it's more than likely that she ends up in some other place where her and Gawain can spend their days, so there's a particular melancholy to the lines 'I can hear the worlds unseen/I can hear them call to me'.

Galahad – A Thousand Eyes by Miracle of Sound

This definitely doesn't seem like a song that fits Galahad, does it? It's certainly not the one I picked when I did the original format of this list, so what gives? Well, more than maybe any other song on this list, this one is influenced by my specific version of Galahad, and that is influenced by my specific version of the Grail Quest, which I only codified a few months ago - namely, by saying 'fuck it' and making it a horror story. I'm not kidding. There's a lot of complexity in this interpretation, and I'd love to go more in depth about it at a later date, but for now know that my Galahad isn't a clumsy Jesus stand-in, he's more like a Lovecraft protagonist briefly brushing against things beyond mortal ken before being consumed by them, and as such I could think of no better song than this one.

Gareth – Touch the Sky by Casey Lee Williams

Now, as with Galahad there are certain key things you need to know about my version of Gareth before the song makes sense. Unlike Galahad, this one is very simple: the boy is trans. Absolutely, unambiguously trans. His story is explicitly trans, he's explicitly trans, and as I've been reliabily informed by certain people this song has a lot of Good Trans Vibes, which I can definitely see. Honestly Gareth's story is another one I could probably talk about for a while, especially because I'm really unsure about certain bits of it, being cis and very wary of screwing up trans rep, but for now I'll leave it at this song being perfect for Gareth in Camelot, finally able to be himself and not Morgause junior - because if you expected Morgause to be a good mum you need to listen to Mordred’s Lullaby again.

Ywain – Stay By My Side by Miracle of Sound

Cute friendship song for the boy with the lioness companion, not much more to say about it. There is a search for identity element in both Journey and Ywain's story, in Ywain's case being a search for his own meaning outside of his family, but mainly its a cute soft song for a cute soft lion boy.

Dinadan – Knights of the Round Table by Monty Python

Because what else would it be?

Uther – Lionize by Jeff Williams

Asshole attracts asshole, and Uther's just enough of a dick that Adam's particular brand of 'everyone who isn't like me is weak and cowardly and only I can see what's necessary to save us all, you'll see I'm right in the end'. Also, you may notice there's no Merlin song here, and whilst that's partially because I don't know a song that could explain my complicated feelings towards Merlin, this song also tells you everything you need to know about Merlin, because if Merlin can look at someone who's got this in their heads and think he's a perfect candidate for the throne then maybe Morgan has a point after all.

Igraine – The Best I Can by Miracle of Sound

Igraine might have one of the most complicated backstories in The Boy King, involving mermaids, Mirror Universe Wonder Woman and the plot of ICO, but none of that is strictly speaking relevant to the story as is told. Basically, Igraine has been through a lot, and this song is about her trying to prepare all her children for the cruel world out there, and also knowing that she can't. It's kind of a downer to end on, but hey it's Arthurian Legend - it's all a downer.

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vileart · 7 years ago

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What If The Dramaturgy Falls Out of The Sky?: Dr Anna Harpin @ Edfringe 2017

…a show for anyone who has ever felt absolutely dreadful

IDIOT CHILD

WHAT IF THE PLANE FALLS OUT OF THE SKY?

AT THE PLEASANCE COURTYARD, EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE

FROM 2 – 28 AUGUST 2017

Developed with support from Bristol Old Vic Ferment, Shoreditch Town Hall, and Arts Council England, Bristol-based theatre company Idiot Child are back at The Pleasance for this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe with their new show, What if the plane falls out of the sky?, running from 2 – 28 August 2017.

The show explores fear, anxiety and the idiosyncratic and frankly absurd strategies we employ to manage our sense of impending doom. The audience join the residents of Fear Camp and together tackle their manifold neuroses with gleeful enthusiasm. Idiot Child likes to look after their audience.

LISTINGS

Venue: Pleasance (Beneath)

Previews: Aug 2-4 (£7)

Dates: Aug 5-8, 11-13, 18-20, 25-27 (£12)

Aug 9-10, 16-17, 23-24 Aug 2017 (£11)

Aug 15, 21-22, 28 Aug (£9)

16:20 (1h 10min)

0131 556 6550 / www.pleasance.co.uk

BY DR ANNA HARPIN, WRITER OF WHAT IF THE PLANE FALLS OUT OF THE SKY? AND CO-ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF IDIOT CHILD.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

The primary inspiration, in truth, was my horrible experiences of anxiety and despair! I had struggled with a phobia of flying for a few years and eventually came to realise that I wasn’t really scared of flying at all. I was afraid of being alive.

That probably sounds nonsensical but I think the fear of flying (and therefore dying) stemmed from a really tricky fear of not getting life ‘right’ and then dying feeling a bit like I had massively got it all wrong and wasted my chance. The show explores all these feelings and seems to have really resonated with lots of people so I don’t think I am alone in that experience. This makes the show sound horrifying! It’s not, I promise. If anything it is really life-affirming.

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas?

I wouldn’t make any special claim that performance is the space to discuss ideas or want to claim that it has a special capacity that no other art form does. However, I think that it does do certain things well. As a form it is aware of its own unreality and I think that can be really useful insofar as it reminds us that realities and experiences are made with people (rather than just being fixed and ‘out there’) and thus are possible to change if things aren’t right.

I also think that theatre, at its root, brings bodies in a room to think together. That’s a political action. Or at least has political potential. I think we need to hold on to these spaces for shared thinking and feeling. Part of this show is aiming to alter the ways in which we talk about mental health. The liveness and collectivity of the event amplifies this dynamic of the show.

How did you become interested in making performance?

Idiot Child formed as a company a few years ago. We wanted to make work that celebrated those voices and experiences that are often pushed to the side. Our shows are populated by misfits and loners and people who are not strangers to feeling absolutely dreadful about themselves.

Our work tries to celebrate these figures and make friends with feelings and experiences such as loneliness, failure, inadequacy and so forth. Again, this probably makes the show sound really bleak but it is curiously joyful! Audiences have left remarking how uplifted they feel. But crucially they feel uplifted in relation to being their own weird self. Too much therapy is aimed at making us ‘normal’. We are using art to help us feel more alright being abnormal.

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

We work through a combination of writing and devising. I tend to bring a working draft of the script to rehearsals and then we set about devising from this and further developing the world and the characters. I will then go away and redevelop the script in light of what we have done as an ensemble and it goes back and forth like this.

We work collaboratively and playfully but most importantly, because there is always a strong autobiographical element to the shows we are keen to involve the actors in the ensemble in the making so that they feel invested and their lives texture and enhance the work.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

It is certainly in a similar vein yes. Our work is often likened to other black comedy (usually TV) such as The League of Gentlemen, or The Mighty Boosh, and this piece is of a similar style. It doesn’t surprise me that we get compared to TV because many of my main influences are people like Vic and Bob, but also because our work is perhaps more of a hybrid form that mixes up theatre, live art, TV comedy styles and so on.

Thematically too it is related to our previous work. However, I suppose it is perhaps a bolder, more ambitious piece than we have tried before. This is our third full length show and we are growing in confidence each time so this feels like a braver piece of work.

We have started work on our next show – All I need is the air that you breathe – and this too is more ambitious again. So yes, it is aesthetically and thematically related but is pushing the form and ideas further.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

We hope that audiences experience two main things. Firstly, that they come to theatre and have a really fun and slightly weird experience. We want to make work that is joyful to be with so that is our first goal. The second aim is that the audience leave feeling just a smidge better about themselves and how hard it can be to be alive sometimes.

We don’t stake any great claims that this show is therapeutic. That is absolutely not our goal. We just want to begin a playful conversation that invites an audience to think that, actually, they’re alright and that the shit stuff we all experience is common to us all.

So, I suppose we hope the audience will experience joy and a bit of self-acceptance. And they get a free mojito so maybe they will also experience being a bit drunk at half four in the afternoon. Win win win.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

The audience is central to all of our work and we work extremely hard to make sure that they have a positive experience of the theatre. There is a lot of direct address and audience interaction and perhaps the thing that we are most proud of is that audience members often comment that they wish they had volunteered to join in with particular moments.

We want to make joining in fun and exciting as opposed to the horror it can be! In this sense, we spend a lot of time thinking about how we craft the invitation to participate. The audience is very much the fourth character in the show and that means each performance is fascinatingly different depending on the vibe of the group we have in.

The cast really love this dynamic and I think that is infectious. So I suppose our strategies are all geared towards the audience having a great time and feeling free to join in as much or as little as they want. We also have several treats for an audience so in this sense one strategy we use is good old fashioned blackmail. Frazzles anyone?

Everyone receives a Fear Party Bag and complimentary in-flight drinks & snacks during the show. Mojitos & Frazzles give everyone a boost.

What if the plane falls out of the sky? is a funny, tender and unusual show about feelings we all recognise:

‘What if how I feel about the world and myself at 4am, what if that is the truth? What if the only reason the plane is able to stay in the sky is because I am thinking really encouraging thoughts about the wings?

What if God does exist but I’m not allowed to go to heaven and everyone else is because they all hedged their bets and prayed in secret? What if I get killed in an avalanche and most people are just slightly relieved because now they don’t have to read my novel?’

The show has just completed an eight-venue tour including Bristol, London and the Brighton Fringe. James Pidgeon, Director of Shoreditch Town Hall, says of the show:

“Full of joy, hope, laughter and sadness, this is a very special return from the brilliantly inventive Idiot Child. What if the plane falls out of the sky? embraces all the messy, unpredictable and hilarious things that life chucks at us and whilst you’ll undoubtedly leave the performance with a light-hearted skip in your step, there’s also something deeply moving to take away from the experience”.

Idiot Child is a theatre company based in Bristol who make playful and peculiar work about how hard it is to be alive sometimes. They create unusual stories based on autobiography and always place the audience at the centre of their work.

Short-listed for a Total Theatre Award in category of Shows by an Emerging Company/Artist 2013

The co-artistic directors of Idiot Child are Dr Anna Harpin and Susie Riddell.

Anna, who is the writer and director of the show, is Associate Professor of Theatre and Performance at Warwick University. Her recent writing/directing credits with the company include I Could’ve Been Better, You’re Not Doing It Right, and Isle of Shame.

Susie Riddell is a familiar name on BBC Radio 4, playing Tracy Horrobin in The Archers, and having been a member of the Radio Drama Company. Susie trained as an actor at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Theatre includes Other Desert Cities (The Old Vic), Knife Act (Birmingham Rep/HEARTH), and You’re Not Doing It Right (Idiot Child/Tobacco Factory). For BBC Radio 3 and 4 Susie has played lead roles in Frankenstein, 1984, Mrs Dalloway, The Great Gatsby and Tamburlaine amongst many others. Television includes: Gavin & Stacey, Doctors, Emmerdale, Saxondale. She sings with the City of London Choir. Her other job is being mum to her 2 year old daughter.

Emma Keaveney-Roys is an actress, improviser and singer. She is an associate artist of the Wardrobe Theatre in Bristol, and has devised and performed in many of their shows including Rocky: A Horror Show and Goldilock, Stock and Three Smoking Bears. Emma will be sprinting between venues during the Festival as she is performing in Goldilock, Stock and Three Smoking Bears at 18.10 at Zoo Sanctuary - What if the plane falls out of the sky? finishes at 17.30 at Pleasance!

Adam Fuller is a widely experienced performer, puppeteer and director. He works regularly with companies including Pickled Image, Soap Soup, Green Ginger, and Idiot Child. Adam is a co-founder and director of Open Attic Company and directed their first family show Much Ado About Puffin, which is currently touring the U.K. Adam also helped devise and directed the hugely successful Goldilock, Stock and Three Smoking Bears for The Wardrobe Theatre.

What if the plane falls out of the sky? runs from 2 – 28 August (excl. 14 August) at the Pleasance Courtyard. Tickets, priced £9 - 12 (concessions and preview prices available) are available from The Pleasance Box Office online at www.pleasance.co.uk and by telephone: 0131 556 6550.

Website: idiotchild.com Twitter: @Idiotchildco Facebook: http://ift.tt/2tODg9Q

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#Theatre #Blogger #visual art #Edinburgh Fringe #Experimental Critique

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newstfionline · 7 years ago

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In wide-open 2020 presidential field, Democrats are road-testing messages

By Michael Scherer, Washington Post, May 12, 2018

The future of the Democratic Party has been booking late-night TV gigs, waking up for morning drive-time radio and showing up at watering holes in rural counties to try out new material.

Before the start of a 2020 Democratic presidential campaign, at least 25 candidates--mayors, governors, entrepreneurs, members of the House and Senate--have hit the road to workshop their vision, experiment with catchphrases and test policy ideas that could keep President Trump from winning a second term.

Many deny that their actions have anything to do with a coming presidential run, but they unmistakably play off the chords of campaigns past, seeking a way to break through a political maw that has been focused more on the latest actions of the president and the coming midterm elections.

“I don’t want to speak to Democrats only,” says Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who recently appeared on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” to riff on the Founding Fathers’ vision of patriotism and love. “I’m talking to us as Americans, about how this is a moral moment.”

In front of policy conferences and campaign rallies for congressional candidates, former vice president Joe Biden has been updating his own paeans to the middle class, repeating his thematic refrain that “America is all about possibilities.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has broadened her calls for people to “fight back,” and Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) has demanded that “we must speak truth.”

“This is like taking the play to Topeka and New Haven to see what works before you even get to Broadway,” said David Axelrod, a former strategist for President Barack Obama who hosts would-be candidates for public forums at the University of Chicago. “The season hasn’t opened.”

At stake in the rehearsals is nothing less than the future of the Democratic Party, which has yet to congeal around a positive vision. Party leaders privately talk about the next two years as a potential pivot point for what it means to be a Democrat.

“The Democratic trajectory right now is more uncertain than it has been since I started in politics in the ‘80s,” said Simon Rosenberg, a longtime Democratic strategist at NDN, a think tank. “And I think no one has a leg up.”

The questions are big ones--of style and policy--that can only be answered in the story told by the candidate who eventually captures the party’s imagination.

Some promote a vision of a youthful future, while others speak of their own wizened experience. Some use the language of the private sector, while others have begun to promote guaranteeing public-sector jobs for all unemployed Americans. Some speak of class as the defining American divide, while others focus first on racial and gender inequality. Some are brawlers ready to take on Trump, while others pose as healers to call the country back to better angels.

They have begun to grapple with the sense that Trump’s presence has erased all of the old rules, even for Democrats, and that the party should consider looking outside the standard roster of governors and senators--perhaps to a business executive-entertainer like Oprah Winfrey, who has so far resisted calls for her to run, or a mayor.

The potential candidates preach both national and party unity, decrying the “false choices” between appealing to white Midwestern voters and the more diverse and urban Democratic base. But in the next breath, they sometimes demonstrate how many different routes there are to reach that goal of restitching the Democratic coalition ripped apart by Trump.

“The economy doesn’t have a good answer for people who haven’t gone to college, and it hasn’t had an answer for a long time,” said Center for American Progress president Neera Tanden, who will host at least 10 potential candidates Tuesday for a policy conference. “Trump proved a wrong answer beats no answer.”

Mayors and governors have been talking up their liberal records of innovation in the states, aiming to contrast their competence to the dysfunction of Washington. “We have demonstrated that a policy ecosystem of progressive economic development works,” said Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who has been traveling the country as chair of the Democratic Governors Association. “We have blown up the Republican trickle-down message of Donald Trump.”

Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., who is working on a book due out next year, has anchored his pitch in a broad vision of Democrats as “the party of everyday life”--a good job, health care and education included. “We’ve got to realize that a lot of this has to do with style,” he said. “That should be fairly obvious--we have a president who doesn’t even have an ideology, only a style.”

Others like Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper have begun to speak about the failures of past administrations, as the party struggles to identify an economic message in an age of low unemployment, strong market performance and continued kitchen-table insecurity.

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), who hails from Youngstown, has argued for a focus on the economic threat of China, while cautioning against new government programs that displace the private sector. “We can be hostile to monopolies, oligarchies and concentrations of wealth,” he said. “But we can’t be hostile to capitalism.”

After the 2016 election, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced that he had been “humiliated” that the Democratic Party could not appeal to the white working class, “where I came from.”

Since then, he has tried to focus more on healing the rifts that emerged between him and minority communities. It has been a sometimes rocky road, such as when he awkwardly described Obama as a “charismatic individual” during a speech in Mississippi on the anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.

Warren has also been reaching out to the black community in an effort to stamp out the impression, left from the 2016 campaign, that the financial regulatory issues at the core of her life’s work are not a central cause of minority communities.

“I know I haven’t personally experienced the struggles of African American families, but I am here to say that no one can ignore what is happening in this country,” she said in a recent address to the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, which began with a discussion of housing policy and ended with her calling out, “Can I have an ‘amen’ on that?”

Several potential candidates, including Booker, Gillibrand, Harris and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) have signed on to a bill that would create a pilot program, offering guaranteed jobs paying at least $15 an hour in 15 high-unemployment communities. Sanders has said he is working on his own version of the same program.

Others have charted more moderate paths. “I love Bernie, but I’m not Bernie Sanders. I don’t think 500 billionaires are the reason we’re in trouble,” Biden said in a speech May 8 at the Brookings Institution, in which he proposed free community college tuition, limits on worker noncompete clauses and efforts to broaden the geographic reach of venture capital.

Most of the potential candidates, including other outsiders such as entrepreneur Mark Cuban, have said they will wait until after the midterm elections to make any announcements about their 2020 plans. “It’s not about Donald Trump,” Cuban wrote in an email explaining his view of the coming campaign. “He is who he is and everyone knows who he is.”

Others, such as Hickenlooper, say they really don’t know if they are ready to put their families through the two-year strain of a campaign. For the moment, they still have time to work that out.

“What did St. Teresa say?” Hickenlooper asked rhetorically, referencing a quote often attributed to the saint. “‘There are more tears shed over answered prayers.’”

#Democrats #Democratic politics #US politics

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investmart007 · 7 years ago

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WASHINGTON | Ryan's departure sparks unrest, GOP fears losing House

New Post has been published on https://goo.gl/vKmZjU

WASHINGTON | Ryan's departure sparks unrest, GOP fears losing House

WASHINGTON | April 12, 2018 (AP)(STL.News) When House Speaker Paul Ryan announced his retirement decision, he did so on his own terms. The political fallout may not be so easy to control.

Ryan’s relinquishing of one of the most powerful positions in Washington left Republicans reeling Thursday over not just who will replace him but whether Ryan’s lame-duck status will jeopardize the GOP’s pitch to voters and donors, and worsen their chance of keeping the majority.

Control of the House was already at risk in a tough midterm election. Voters are fired up amid rising opposition to President Donald Trump and sagging GOP accomplishments. Now some wonder aloud if the GOP grip on the House majority is already lost.

“It’s like Eisenhower resigning right before D-Day,” said Tom Davis, a former Republican congressman from Virginia who once headed the House GOP’s campaign committee.

“Paul Ryan was the franchise,” Davis said. “With Paul, this was a Republican Party they could still give to. He’s a great brand for the party. He’s gone.”

On some level the impact is symbolic. Ryan was once viewed as the future of the party, and he currently is a rudder for a party regularly tossed about by Trump’s shifting impulses. For Republicans fighting for their political survival, it’s hard not to take Ryan’s decision as vote of no confidence.

One Republican in the long list of those already retiring, Rep. Ryan Costello of Pennsylvania, said the speaker didn’t try to walk him off his decision, and in fact seemed to identify with his preference for returning home to family. Some four dozen House Republicans — including powerful committee chairmen — are calling it quits.

Add Ryan’s retirement to the mix, and donors, lawmakers and strategists are raising red flags about and a prolonged period of uncertainty unlike anything ever seen in modern House history.

“It’s not confidence building,” said Ron Nehring, a former party chairman in California, who says Republicans need to boost their legislative accomplishments, especially after having failed to keep their promise to voters to repeal Obamacare, if they hope to motivate Republicans to the polls. “Democrats are going to walk a mile on broken glass to vote against the president.”

On Thursday, Ryan dismissed suggestions from some corners, including lawmakers, that maybe it would be best if he stepped aside rather than stick around until January, when the new Congress is seated, as he intends to do.

“My plan is to stay here and run through the tape,” Ryan told reporters, noting he had “shattered” fundraising efforts by previous speakers, more than doubling his $20 million goal.

“I talked to a lot of members — a lot of members — who think it’s in all of our best interest for this leadership team to stay in place,” Ryan said. “It makes no sense to take the biggest fundraiser off the field.”

Money will be channeled to counter a blue wave of Democrats, who need to pick up 23 seats to flip the majority. The midterm is expected to be tougher, and costlier, than ever, especially amid the expanding battleground of open seats, which usually lack the built-in campaign apparatus of incumbency.

Few Republicans talk any more of retaining control of the House as a certainty. Those doubts are clear in the way they talk about the fight to replace Ryan.

Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, said he won’t worry much about whom he will support for the leadership post until House Republicans figure out if they’ll be choosing their new speaker in fall — or simply the minority leader.

“At that point we’ll know if we’re going to elect a Republican or Democratic speaker,” he said.

Ryan’s allies insist the party’s top fundraiser and champion of a crisp GOP message remains in full force.

If anything, Ryan’s decision “frees up the speaker to raise more money for Republicans across the country,” said Corry Bliss, executive director at the Congressional Leadership Fund, the political action committee at the forefront of Republican efforts to maintain a House majority.

And besides, the strategist said, the GOP message heading to November is the same. “The central thematic still remains: The American people simply do not want Nancy Pelosi to be the speaker.”

But a fight between two Republicans — for lawmakers’ affections and donor dollars — would certainly be a distraction. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the majority leader, is seen as a leading contender. Majority Whip Steve Scalise is viewed as the likely alternative, and his team noted Thursday that he, too, had broken first-quarter fundraising records, hauling in $3 million.

Already discord is showing. Some conservatives are rallying behind Rep. Jim Jordon, R-Ohio, a long-shot who could inject new uncertainty to the outcome, splinter the vote so no single leader wins a majority.

One rank-and-file lawmaker, Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, said he doesn’t mind Ryan’s prolonged departure because it creates an opening for lawmakers to tailor their own campaign message. But he acknowledged others prefer the leadership race settled with a unified party message heading into fall. “A lot of people want it over swiftly,” he said.

___

By LISA MASCARO and BILL BARROW,By Associated Press – published on STL.News by St. Louis Media, LLC (A.S)

___

#GOP fears losing House #political fallout #Ryan's departure #Washington

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investmart007 · 7 years ago

Text

WASHINGTON | Ryan's departure sparks unrest, GOP fears losing House

New Post has been published on https://goo.gl/RQEZxA

WASHINGTON | Ryan's departure sparks unrest, GOP fears losing House

WASHINGTON | April 12, 2018 (AP)(STL.News — When House Speaker Paul Ryan announced his retirement decision, he did so on his own terms. The political fallout may not be so easy to control.

Ryan’s relinquishing of one of the most powerful positions in Washington left Republicans scrambling Thursday over not only who will replace him, but whether he can stick around until January, as he plans. Ryan’s now-lame-duck status threatens to clip GOP fundraising just as his party is facing a more difficult — and expensive — election season than expected. Voters are fired up in opposition to President Donald Trump and Republicans are mindful that their message touting regulatory relief and tax cuts may not be enough.

Control of the House was already at risk in a tough midterm election. Now some wonder aloud if the GOP grip on the majority is already lost.

“It’s like Eisenhower resigning right before D-Day,” said Tom Davis, a former Republican congressman from Virginia who once headed the House GOP’s campaign committee.

“Paul Ryan was the franchise,” Davis said. “With Paul, this was a Republican Party they could still give to. He’s a great brand for the party. He’s gone.”

On Thursday, Ryan dismissed any chatter that maybe it would be best if he stepped aside early. “My plan is to stay here and run through the tape,” Ryan told reporters, reminding that he had “shattered” fundraising efforts set by previous speakers.

“I talked to a lot of members — a lot of members – who think it’s in all of our best interest for this leadership team to stay in place,” Ryan said. “There is nobody who has come close to being able to raise the kind of funds I have — and still can raise — for this majority … It makes no sense to take the biggest fundraiser off the field.”

But few Republicans talk of retaining control of the House as a certainty. Those doubts are clear in the way they talk about the fight to replace Ryan.

“At that point we’ll know if we’re going to elect a Republican or Democratic speaker,” he said. Donors, lawmakers and strategists are raising red flags about and a prolonged period of uncertainty unlike anything ever seen in modern House history.

Ryan allies insisted the speaker, who is the party’s top fundraiser and champion for a crisp GOP message, will run through the tape, giving the party his all as he races toward his retirement after the fall election.

At the Congressional Leadership Fund, the political action committee at the forefront of Republican efforts to maintain a House majority, Executive Director Corry Bliss says he has Ryan’s assurance that nothing will change.

“He’s more committed than ever to see what it takes to see that CLF has the resources necessary to protect the Republican majority,” Bliss said. If anything, he added Ryan’s decision “frees up the speaker to raise more money for Republicans across the country.”

And besides, the strategist said, the GOP message heading to November is the same. “The central thematic still remains: The American people simply do not want Nancy Pelosi to be the speaker.”

But a fight between two Republicans — for lawmakers affections and donor dollars — would certainly be a distraction. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the majority leader, is seen as a leading contender.

Majority Whip Steve Scalise is viewed as the likely alternative, and his team noted Thursday that he, too, had broken first-quarter fundraising records, hauling in $3 million.

By Associated Press – published on STL.News by St. Louis Media, LLC (R.A)

#House as a certainty #President Donald Trump and Republicans #Washington #When House Speaker Paul Ryan announced