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flanaganfilm · 1 year ago

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Hey Mike, I’ve really enjoyed reading your long posts on projects you’ve worked on through your career. I was wondering if you could talk a little about your experience in film school and making your student films. I was able to watch Ghosts of Hamilton Street a while ago and found it really interesting how some of the same themes in that film have been consistent through all of your work and have really liked seeing the progression and progress you’ve made in your stories since. Thanks!

Oh wow, deep pull here. I don't often talk about these movies, which I think of as the "Towson Trilogy."

They were amazing learning experiences, but aren't really fit for public consumption. I consider them an incredible, irreplaceable film school, but I've gone out of my way to not to help them become available - they just aren't on a level that I'd feel comfortable putting out into the world.

So let's go back to 1998.

I was an undergrad at Towson University in Maryland. I had dreamed of being a filmmaker for most of my childhood, and had made a few backyard movies on VHS with friends, and some VHS shorts in high school. But the idea of a career in filmmaking was very farfetched. My father was in the U.S. Coast Guard and my mother was a medical office manager. They were always very supportive of my little "movie projects," but also very much invested in my education and wanted me to focus on careers that were more likely. A career making movies seemed very, very unrealistic, and I spent my senior year of High School focusing on coming up with a "real job" I could get passionate about. As I graduated High School, I had let go of the filmmaking dream and was hoping to get enough scholarship money so I could afford to go to Loyola University Maryland, where I wanted to major in secondary education.

I was going to be a high school history teacher.

I didn't get enough scholarship money to attend Loyola, so I ended up enrolling at Towson University (then called Towson State) instead. I was initially very disappointed by this outcome, but it turned out to be one of the best things that happened in my life.

I was still planning on following the education track, but I felt discouraged and bruised by missing out on Loyola. So as I filled out my freshman electives, I signed up for Intro to Film on a lark. I mean, my hopes and dreamed hadn't panned out. I didn't get into my first choice school (or my second, for that matter) and here I was.

Why not?

It was immediately clear to me that this was what I wanted to do with my life. It was what I'd always wanted to do, if I was honest - I had been making all of those little movies, I lived and breathed movies, I had been saying since I was kid that I wanted to make movies for a living, and here was my chance to learn more about that world. I was hooked immediately. I started to ignore my other classes in favor in spending more time in the Mass Communications department (there wasn't an official "film" major at Towson); so what if this wasn't a "real job," so what if I didn't have a chance in hell of being a professional filmmaker... I had access to cameras. That meant I could make movies.

This happened to coincide with an exciting time in independent filmmaking. Spike Lee, Edward Burns, Kevin Smith, Jim Jarmusch - we would talk excitedly about the rumored budget of Robert Rodriguez's El Mariachi (everyone said it was just seven thousand bucks!), we would talk between classes about the filmmakers who were forging careers out of thin air on shoestring budgets. People were breaking the rules, and bucking the system. Careers were being made on one rogue film. They weren't climbing the ladder; they were suing for membership. Make a movie, then make a career. Independent Film was the way in. The odds might be against you, but if your number came up... man, you were on your way.

I had a substitute teacher in one of my film classes. His name was Steve Yeager and he'd just won the filmmaker's trophy at Sundance for his documentary about local hero John Waters, a movie called Divine Trash. He was the toast of Baltimore at the time, and he spoke breathlessly about the independent filmmakers who were leading the charge and finding audiences outside of the studio system. He told the students that any of us could do this - any of us could make a movie, especially using this brand new technology called:

DIGITAL VIDEO.

Steve argued that DV had democratized filmmaking, and cited filmmakers like Mike White, whose DV feature Chuck and Buck had just hit the festival scene. Dogme 95, the creative movement founded by the Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, was the talk of all the cinephiles. Not only could we make a movie, Steve declared, we could make it for a fraction of the cost that most filmmakers had had to bear over the years when dealing with purchasing and processing film.

I had been inspired by movies like Clerks, The Brothers McMullen, and Stranger Than Paradise - I was working on my own script, a slice of life story called Makebelieve, which was focused on the only slice of life I knew anything about: a college kid,,, who loved movies... and... had a crush on a girl.

You write what you know, I guess.

Now, our little Mass Comm program at Towson was a great way to get experience making movies, but we made them as part of a group. The best case scenario was waiting until you were an upperclassman and hoping you'd be able to direct a short film with your classmates, but most students never got their turn directing. Some students would labor through the department for four years but never sit in a director's chair when the senior projects came around. I was too impatient to wait for that. I wanted to be like Kevin Smith, Mike White and Ed Burns - I wanted to make my movie, my way, right now.

I was actively averse to commercial viability (an allergy it took me far too long to overcome), utterly enamored with the emerging mumblecore "indie film" vibe of the time, and convinced that a movie comprised of extended conversations about collegiate dating would make for riveting entertainment. I had several friends in the Theater Department, enlisted the help of my roommate Dave Foster, and pretty soon we were doing table reads and shooting proof-of-concept trailers on miniDV.

Raising money for the movie was a huge challenge. A girlfriend had managed to get ahold of Bruce Campbell's email (it was the worst-kept secret on the fledgling internet at the time), and I emailed him to invite him to be part of our little movie. He actually wrote back - he declined participation (for reasons that are astonishingly obvious to me now) but was kind enough to send some advice for the production. We were so grateful he took the time to respond that we named our production company after our favorite line from Army of Darkness... we were Sugarbaby Productions.

Steve Yeager, my substitute teacher, had told the class "if any of you write a feature film, I will do what I can to help you produce it." I came up to him after class and handed him the script for Makebelieve. He looked a little shocked, but he agreed to read the script. He did, and he liked it, and for reasons I may never understand, he said "okay, fine. I'll produce your movie."

Steve was true to his word. He didn't bring money (it would have been certifiably insane if he had), but he used his connections to find a crew of professionals in Baltimore willing to work on a little college movie. We had fundraisers, we had bake sales, we sold T-shirts on campus to raise cash to shoot. We hit up every family member and friend for possible investment (my parents, to their endless credit, put up more money than they could afford), and we scraped together enough to shoot the thing.

We filmed Makebelieve on miniDV in over the summer of 1999. The University gave us access to its facilities to use for locations, we had the run of campus, and our tiny cast and crew received independent study credit for their participation in the film.

The technology wasn't quite the amazing godsend people had made it out to be. It was low resolution, there was not yet anything that allowed you to change frame rate; everything still had that "soap opera" feeling you get with 30 fps.

We compensated for this by emulating a Hal Hartley film I'd seen at festival called Book of Life, which had opted for a slower shutter speed to give the film a dreamy, smeary look that hid the frame rate. We shot at a 1/15s shutter speed, and the movie looked a bit like an acid trip... but at least it didn't move like a soap opera.

The finished movie... well, it's not very good.

It was my first feature, it wasn't really about much of anything, but it had some fun dialog and a truly committed young cast. It had promise. And we finished the thing! That was the biggest miracle. It was the best film school I could ever hope for - a trial by fire that pulled me through each and every phase of production and forced me to learn on the job.

The film was rejected by every single major film festival - my dreams of being the next Sundance breakout auteur were dashed very quickly. But we had our world premiere at the Maryland Film Festival in 2000, to a sold out crowd, and that was the single biggest night of my young life up until that point.

I was completely hooked. I knew the film was deeply flawed, and I was eager for another at-bat - I knew I could do better.

I wouldn't wait long. I had already written a script for an "edgy" follow-up to Makebelieve called Still Life. It was "edgy" because it featured a more nihilistic plot, about a group of photography majors who begin exploiting elements of their lives for their senior thesis project, and in doing so get disconnected from their lives by examining them through lenses (Get it?! Man, I sure was a film student, wasn't I)

I had gone through a bad breakup after Makebelieve was done, an engagement that had ended and broken my young heart. Frankly, we were just babies - I really had no business whatsoever trying to get married at 21 - but I wrote that breakup into the script and let the bitterness rip. Edgy, right?

I used most of the same cast from Makebelieve (thus beginning a habit that still holds true today) and set about trying to find money to make the film.

The issue was how to raise money. We had already knocked on every door to finance Makebelieve and nobody got their money back; the movie never sold. Investing in independent films is one of the highest risk investments you can make. We'd turned over every single rock we could think of last time, how the hell were we going to do that again?

We courted more investors, including some professional risk takers and VC people. An accountant named Harry Rosen drummed up a bunch of investors in exchange for a role in the film (he played the grandfather of one of the leads). This movie had more money than the last, and it wasn't from friends and family by and large - it was from people who were giving and expecting much more.

We shot Still Life in the summer of 2000, just after Makebelieve had premiered (even then, I couldn't wait for one movie to come out before starting another). It was a more ambitious shoot across the board. And again, it was a phenomenal learning experience. And again, the movie wasn't quite... good.

The first cut was 180 minutes long. Yep, 180. The Final Cut is... 75 mins long. So... yeah, it was probably a few drafts undercooked.

It was indulgent, it was uneven, and it was spectacularly self-important. But it got into some more festivals - quite a few more than Makebelieve -and it even won some awards.

See, the rise of digital video meant an avalanche of digital movies. It had democratized filmmaking after all - suddenly, the sheer volume of submissions at film festivals increased by a factor of ten. And with that many thousands of extra movies flooding the festival market, the laws of supply and demand kicked in - there were suddenly a LOT more film festivals.

And there were film festivals who weren't terribly scrupulous. There were festivals who only existed to collect submissions fees, and they'd accept movies that otherwise would never have made it into a fest, so long as they thought they could make some money of the filmmakers. Some of the fests we played back then soon became notorious for running these kinds of scams. But it wasn't nearly as difficult to get into festivals as it once was... and it wasn't nearly as difficult to win awards.

One of the festivals we were accepted into was in Los Angeles, and I came out to LA for the first time in my life for the screening. While here, I started making plans to move to California. It seemed impossible, daring, and crazy at the time - I had no money, my movie had some laurels on the poster but wasn't commercially viable - and I had no idea how to pull it off. But I decided then, walking around Santa Monica late one night after a screening: as soon as I graduated from Towson, I'd move to LA.

But it turned out graduation was a long ways off.

Still Life took up an enormous amount of time, and I fell behind on my studies. The film never did find a distributor. It played a few dozen fests (some of which were downright predatory) and then it was over.

Itching to keep shooting stuff but certainly out of fundraising options, I ended up part of a startup production company consisting of a recent grad and another student at Towson, and we actually got a couple industrial jobs around Baltimore. I took a semester off to focus on the work. Graduation got pushed back. And then I took another semester off when more gigs came in. I finally graduated in May 2002, two years later than I'd planned. My production company had gone bust (we had no idea what we were doing) but we did some good commercial and industrial work and I got some experience trying to manage a business.

I had also wised up in one very important respect: I had kept writing scripts this whole time (you really can't help it, if you're a writer) and I had finally decided to embrace GENRE.

I had written a script called Ghosts of Hamilton Street. On the outside, it looked like an episode of The Twilight Zone; the plot centered around a washed-up alcoholic who starts to notice people in his life disappearing without a trace... but whenever one of them goes, the world around him completely rewrites itself as though they never existed at all.

I thought I was starting to play with genre conventions, doing a light sci-fi story that would be fun and character-forward. What I was really doing, though, was dealing with the fact that a lot of my closest friends from college had graduated on time, two years before me, and gone out into their adulthoods. I missed them, and I felt that my world was altered with each of their absences. I was starting to get introspective.

This was about something. It was about regret, it was transition, it was about losing one's comfortable world and heading into the unknown. It was about my regret for my failed engagement (and my exploitation of it for Still Life), and about the friends who had gone ahead into adulthood without me. It was also, I realize now, about having a drinking problem. I wouldn't really understand this, or take any action to fix it, for fifteen more years.

For now, I just knew this one felt a little different. It had an engine. I had something to talk about for the first time in my filmmaking career. This one wasn't a class project, just fumbling around with the technical realities of production; this had a tiny, infant, unformed little voice in there. It was small, it was buried, but it was there.

So how could we finance it?

Okay. You're not going to believe this, but it's true... I've never really talked about this publicly before, but it's the truth so here goes:

A good friend of mine, a fellow student at Towson, was hit one night by a Papa Johns delivery car while crossing the street. He settled with the company and came into a lot of money. He invested some of that to finance Ghosts, and... well... that's how we did it.

Yep, you read that right: my third feature was financed because a friend of mine got hit by a pizza delivery guy. So when people ask me what advice I have for fundraising, unless I say "start shoving your friends in front of delivery vehicles", I'm being a bit of a hypocrite.

My friend was now a bonafide executive producer, and he was walking normally again, so we were off to make a movie!

It was a modest budget compared to the sprawling mess that was Still Life, but the digital video technology had advanced - we were now shooting in 24p, and for the first time in my career, my little digital features actually moved like a movie.

Again, the cast brought back some familiar faces from Makebelieve and Still Life. We held auditions for the other parts.

One of the fellow Towson students who auditioned for a role was a girl I knew tangentially from the theater department. She was much closer to my roommate Paul Jerue, who was working on the movie too, but she'd been over my place a few times and we'd hung out here and there.

Her name was Amy Schumer, and I remember her audition very well. I didn't give her a part in this movie. I remember telling the producers I thought she was too funny for it. She was quite funny, in fact. I think she's also now the most famous person to come out of Towson University.

Somewhat ironically, there aren't a lot of photographs from this period of my life, because I didn't have a digital camera. Everything was on film, and just about all of those shots are lost to time.

But there are a few leftover from Ghosts that I'll share here - I've used my phone to snap some pics of pages from a single surviving scrapbook:

(Holy god, I actually had hair...)

Ghosts of Hamilton Street isn't a bad movie. It had taken me years of work, but I had finally made something that wasn't bad. They say your first ten movies are gonna suck, so get them out of the way early... maybe I was a little ahead of schedule after all.

Even though I had graduated just before we shot it, I still consider it a student film. It was shot in and around campus, utilizing equipment from the school, and the cast and crew were comprised of students and graduates (a lot of the cast were returning actors from Makebelieve and Still Life).

The star of the movie was a student who was ahead of me by a year named Scott Graham. I loved working with him, and I loved what he did with this movie.

(The great Scott Graham, three years before the Oculus short)

Three years later, he would fly himself out to LA from Washington DC in order to star in a short film I'd make in Los Angeles called Oculus.

(Filming Oculus - Chapter 3: the Man with the Plan in 2005)

Looking back, I think of Ghosts of Hamilton Street as my first movie. The other two were just class projects, really, and I was throwing spaghetti against the wall. But this one... it features an ambitious 90 second oner in the middle of the movie that competently tracks Scott through a bewildering office environment. It's a good shot.

It uses its genre moments as extensions of character, and is not concerned with scares or set pieces. It's metaphorical, whereas the other two movies were literal.

And it ends on a monologue.

As far as film festivals, it actually did okay. We screened at a few dozen places, and even traveled with the film. It won some more awards at some reputable festivals. And that winter, just after its premiere, when I packed the moving van to go to LA, I brought 100 DVD copies with me, hoping it would kickstart my career in Hollywood.

It wouldn't; that would happen ten years later, with Oculus. And when I filmed the Oculus feature, Scott Graham - star of Ghosts of Hamilton Street, and star of the Oculus short - played the janitor at the auction house where the mirror was kept.

And the two police officers who arrest Brenton Thwaites at the end of the film? Zak Jeffries, star of Makebelieve, Still Life, and Ghosts, and Dave Foster, my freshman year roommate, who worked crew on every film I made - even the little 8mm shorts - in Towson.

Nat Roers, who starred in Makebelieve and Still Life and was also my roommate for the last two years of college, appears as a jogger in Absentia, Dash Mihok's doomed wife in Before I Wake and as a reporter in Gerald's Game.

My professor at Towson who encouraged me to make all of these movies, and helped every way he could, was a man named Tom Brandau. He acted in Ghost of Hamilton Street, but he also was running the Fargo Film Festival in 2011, and he invited us to host the world premiere of Absentia at the festival. He also sat with me at the monitor for a week while we filmed The Haunting of Hill House, and for several days at the Overlook while we shot Doctor Sleep. He passed away a few years ago, and I miss him terribly.

As for Steve Yeager, the substitute teacher who dared us to make a movie my freshman year, and then put his money where his mouth was and produced my first digital feature a year later - Steve was also on set for Gerald's Game and for Doctor Sleep, and we went out for a beer to celebrate after a long shoot day. I quit drinking before that movie wrapped, so I believe it may have been one of the last beers I ever had, and I'm so glad I got to share it with Steve, who took this pie-eyed kid from his class and told him he could be a filmmaker.

My roommates when I moved out to LA were Ghosts star Zak Jeffries, Ghosts producer Jeff Seidman, crew members Amy Winter (soon to be Amy Seidman), Joe Wicker and Gaby Chavez.

In a way, all of these people were the foundation that started it all. I actively hate Netflix's lame "Flanaverse" idea, but if there was a Flanaverse, these were the people who built it. Scott Graham, Zak Jeffries, Dave Foster, Nat Roers, Jamie Sinsz, Megan Anderson, Steve Yeager, Jeff Seidman, Amy Seidman, Will Pinkine, Rich Koeckert, Jessi Bounelis, Chris Cridler, Sarah Yarbrough, Kara Webb, Kerry Brady, Joe Wicker, Gaby Chavez and Tom Brandau.

They were ride or die, man.

I think back on that time now and laugh. What a deal we made about digital video... I remember scraping together $2,000 to buy a 9 GB hard drive to edit - yes, I said NINE GIGABYTES.

I think about all of those dreamers out there today who have a 4k camera with 256 GB (or more) IN THEIR POCKET.

Yep, you've got a camera in your pocket that is infinitely more powerful than the cameras I filmed the first four features of my career on. Anyone who says they want to be a filmmaker and aren't sure how to start... I mean, take that thing out of your pocket and SHOOT SOMETHING. You are so, so, so ahead of the game.

So thank you for asking the question, and sorry for the long post. What I will always remember about that time was just how wildly, recklessly, adorably foolish we were... and how if we hadn't been, I might not have a career at all.

I made three independent feature films in my twenties, and another in my thirties, and while I don't think most of them are ultimately worthy of an audience, they were the best education I ever could have hoped for. I made them with dear friends, some of whom have remained in my life and heart to this day, and all of whom I owe an enormous debt.

My favorite thing? The title of the first one.

Makebelieve.

Because man, we were kids. Everything about that word is whimsy, innocence, and naivety. It's not a perfect movie; in fact, it isn't even a good one.

But that is a perfect, perfect title.

#memories #film school #towson university #make believe #still life #independent film

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lafrexniere · 1 year ago

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Connor Bedard - Best Birthday Ever

You and Connor had been best friends since you were little and now you two were turning 18. You two shared a birthday and always liked celebrating together when you were little and the tradition stuck but when Connor moved it made seeing him for your summer birthday more special. You had just graduated high school and Connor had just signed his first NHL contract, you were still deciding on college, but now Loyola was seeming like the right decision. You wished for the same thing every year, that Connor would confess, when you were little it was for toys, but as you got older you discovered feelings and realized you had them for Connor. When he was gone, you realized how much you missed him. You would call and talk as much as you could while he was playing, occasionally you would go to his games when you had the time and he was always so excited to see you, his mom would give you his jersey to wear and that’s when it hit you.

You snapped out of your little recap of memories flowing through your brain as you sat down next to Connor.

“18 huh, it’s crazy,” he said.

“Yeah, so fast, remember when we were little and we would shove cake in each other’s faces at these things,” you laughed.

“Yeah I remember,” he smiled.

“So do I,” you heard your mom’s voice.

“Mom?” you were surprised.

“Hey, Mrs. L/N,” Connor waved.

“I couldn’t help but overhear you guys talking about memories,” she said.

“More like listening in,” you whispered to Connor just loud enough so she could hear you.

“Well I just figured I’d give you guys this early to look at,” she pulled out a thick scrapbook and handed it to the two of you, you moved closer on the couch so it could rest on both of your laps.

“Thanks, Mom,”

“Yeah thank you,” Connor smiled.

“Thank your mom too, she helped with it,” your mom smiled as she left the room. You two dove into the book looking through all the pictures of the two of you. You laughed at some, then there was one that stuck out. An amazing picture of the two of you, Connor made it to your last high school dance as your date. You two looked so happy and amazing together, his little purple bowtie matched the belt of your black dress.

“Look at us,” you pointed to the picture.

“We look good, especially me,” you shoved him and rolled your eyes.

“That was a good night, even if you stepped on my foot a few times,” you laughed.

“Sorry I’m not a dancer and I was nervous,” he blushed looking back down at the book. You noticed his blush and went back to the pictures, the two of you let the question float in the air as you continued looking and more of your families arrived.

As the night went on you two stayed with each other, neither of you was too big on parties. Your moms brought out the cake as the two of you sat at the end of the table together.

“What do you say we do what we did when we were little,” he whispered in your ear.

“What?” you asked.

“You know put cake on each other’s faces it’ll be cute, and it will really get our parents all like ‘Aww look at them,’ come on Y/N do it,” he begged.

“Okay fine Con,” you smiled, “but I want to put it on your face first,”

“Whatever you want y/n/n,” he smiled. The cake was placed in front of the two of you with a candle on each side, he had the one and you had the eight. The birthday song began and as it was being sung to both of you, you looked at each other, you felt a hand on yours as it rested on your lap, and you looked down then back up at Connor and locked your fingers with his. With the last happy birthday, you both blew out your candles. You two exchanged a grin, you stuck your hand in the corner of the cake picking up a small chunk. Connor looked at you still holding your other hand leaning closer to you knowing what was about to happen. You smirked and smashed your other hand full of cake into his face. He grabbed a small chunk out of the other corner and did the same to you. You two were laughing and Connor was right everyone was oohing and awing at the two of you.

"Smile kids," Mrs Bedard said. You two looked over at her to smile, you let go of your hands under the table and wrapped your arms around each other for the picture. The picture was taken and your mom told you to clean up, the two of you went upstairs to your bathroom and wiped off your face with some towels.

"That was a good idea, Connor," you smiled.

"Yeah, I told you they'd like it," he paused "So what did you wish for," he asked. You hesitated but eventually came up with a response.

"I wish for the same thing every year, and I finally got it," you winked. He knew what you meant, but didn't answer so you kept going.

"What did you wish for?" You asked.

"This." He put his towel down and wrapped his arms around your waist pulling you to him. You wrapped your arms around his neck as your lips met his. It was the kiss you had been waiting so long for and it was finally yours.

______________________________________

Everyone is asking for Connor right now, so if I don't answer you directly I'm sorry, if you send me more specific prompts I'm more likely to answer your messages with a piece of writing 😁

#hockey boys #hockey fan fiction #nhl fan fiction #hockey fanfiction #hockey imagine #ice hockey #connor bedard #hockey #nhl #nhl hockey #nhl x reader #nhl draft 2023 #nhl draft combine

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saintmeghanmarkle · 5 months ago

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𝑨𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 Harry and Meghan were 𝑵𝑶𝑻 amongst the lineup of celebrity commencement speakers this year by u/SeptiemeSens

🎓𝑨𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, Harry and Meghan were *𝑵𝑶𝑻* amongst the lineup of celebrity commencement speakers this year 🎓 Dear Sinners,Another graduation season has come and gone 🎓 And once again, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were missing from the lineup of notable 2024 commencement speakers. If I remember correctly, the only so-called "graduation speech" Meghan has given was this bizarre unsolicited "graduation speech" she released to the media in 2020 👀Here's a list of some of H&M's "famous friends" who have given commencement speeches over the years. These are individuals who have participated in ARO, Archetypes, and/or 40x40:📌ARO:John Legend (singer, songwriter, producer, EGOT winner) - Loyola Marymount University, 2024. John has given many commencement speeches over the years and is also the recipient of three (3) honorary doctorate degrees as well. His wife and ARO jam recipient, Chrissy Teigen however, has not given any commencement speeches nor received any honorary degreesMindy Kaling (actress & comedian) - Dartmouth University, 2018Tracee Ellis Ross (actress, daughter of Diana Ross) - Spelman College, 2023source 1 // source 2📌Archetypes podcast guests:Mindy Kaling (actress & comedian) - Dartmouth University, 2018Mellody Hobson (President and co-CEO of $14.9B Ariel Investments, Chairwoman of Starbucks Corporation, wife of George Lucas) - University of Southern California, 2015Serena Williams 🏆- Graduating Class of 2020Trevor Noah (S. African comedian) - Princeton University, 2021source)📌 40x40 Participants:Deepak Chopra (author and alternative medicine advocate) - University of Southern California, 2017Hillary Clinton (politician, wife of former US President Bill Clinton) - At age 21, Hillary famous delivered her Wellesley 1969 commencement speech. She returned to her alma mater in 2017 to deliver another commencement speechKatie Couric (journalist) - UMass Medical School, 2017 most recently. Katie has given many commencement speeches over the yearsKerry Washington (actress) - George Washington University, 2013. Kerry also received an honorary Doctorate degreesource 1 // source 2 // source 3📌 Friends:Ellen DeGeneres - Tulane University, 2009Gayle King - University of Maryland, 2023Gloria Steinem - M's bestie "Glo" has given many commencement speeches over the decades. Perhaps her most famous was at Tufts University, 1987Oprah Winfrey - Oprah has given dozens of commencement speeches and has also received numerous honorary degrees over the decades📌 Bonus:Actress Kathryn Hahn - As an interesting comparison to Meghan: Kathryn is an respected and accomplished actress, you may recognize her from Parks & Recreation, WandaVision, and Spiderman: Into The Spiderverse (IMDb). TIL that like Meghan, Kathryn is a Northwestern alumni. This year, Kathryn gave the commencement speech at Northwestern University. Northwestern also gave Kathryn, along with three other accomplished alumni [*not* named Meghan Markle], honorary Doctor of Arts degrees👉 Why hasn't Northwestern invited Meghan Markle to give a commencement speech?👉 Why hasn't Northwestern given Meghan Markle an honorary degree? 📌 Notes:In 2020, H&M signed with the esteemed NY-based Harry Walker Agency. Here is Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex's profile page. (I could not find a profile page for Harry.) This is the same high powered agency that also represents the Clintons, the Obamas, John Legend, and many others for speaking engagements. At the time, it was widely reported that H&M could charge up to $1M per speech!🤑 Where did all of H&M's dream$ of making million$ of dollar$ by giving word $alad $peeche$ go? 🤑 post link: https://ift.tt/PytGmjV author: SeptiemeSens submitted: July 03, 2024 at 02:35PM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit disclaimer: all views + opinions expressed by the author of this post, as well as any comments and reblogs, are solely the author's own; they do not necessarily reflect the views of the administrator of this Tumblr blog. For entertainment only.

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lewis-winters · 1 year ago

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The whole Web-Nix-Buck thing is very "Recognition Through The Other (Derogatory)" and its great. Also they're all from different schools so that rivalry plays into it, which is funny considering a) Nix couldn't give less of a shit about Stanford, b) Buck's the only one who cares about college football, and c) nobody else watching this can tell the difference anyway. - Nathan

ONCE AGAIN MY FAVORITE RED HEAD YOU ARE SO CORRECT!! it's recognition!! it's self-loathing!! it's competition!!!! it's a study in shame!! not to speculate, but i have a feeling a part of them feels that particular middle class guilt at their upbringing, especially when surrounded by enlisted men who have had to fight tooth and nail for everything that they have!! and these 3 all have it, it's just each one disagreed with how the others managed it or grappled with it in order to either fit in or blend in.

and like. you are ALSO so correct about the schools thing-- it's so funny because they went to college for WILDLY different things and different reasons, and so their contempt for each other being fueled by simple rivalry of ivy leagues (which is largely borne in football and sports-- of which neither web nor nix care about, but buck's whole life is built around) is simply SO FUCKING FUNNY.

Web cares about schooling AND was probably talked into like. legacy enrolments and some such-- he's the type to have gone to harvard because, yeah ok it's prestigious and his parents would have LOVED to brag about it to their friends, but also the course work actually has merit and the curriculum makes the most sense and the job opportunities in the end would be a lot and the chances of getting accepted into academe is high--

meanwhile, buck chose to go to UCLA for the football program + his pre-law, and then later took post grad in Loyola Law and became a really successful lawyer so he clearly chose very carefully!!

MEANWHILE, nix chose yale because. well. his granddaddy went to yale, his daddy went to yale, so i guess he should too? nixon legacy, amirite? even if he didn't want it or want to be associated with it or even if he actually chose to go to yale for any substantial reason. the fact that he maybe didn't go back after the war (idk his wiki page says he was just there for 2 years but of course that's not the best resource) just goes to show how little it actually meant to him.

these 3 went to these big ivy league colleges for varying reasons AND YET the idea of them refusing to admit that they find each other annoying bc they are mirrors of each other that they see their worst traits in, and instead hiding behind the idea of rivalrly between differing ivy league schools all but one of them has any business in caring about in makes me laugh so fucking hard. it is the single most 20-something, middle to rich class, white male bullshit i have ever heard it is SO fucking funny i can't. get your shit together, pls. it's embarrassing for the rest of us!!

#ask #lewis nixon #david webster #buck compton #band of brothers #bob hcs #im very tipsy and had to read thru this 5 times to makes sure it mde sense #hopefully it does #mWAH NATHAN THANK YOU LABYU

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benihana-circumcision · 11 months ago

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jesuit high school grad guys have like three options

-subsumed into whitepicket-industrial complex. the wall street/academia ouroboros

-The Struggler (Typically Gay)

-Actual true spiritual scion of ignatius loyola (anticatholic, based, long harrowing life paths. Also Typically Gay)

im somewhere between the latter two

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lboogie1906 · 2 months ago

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Ambassador J. Steven Rhodes (September 29, 1951) Ambassador to Zimbabwe, was born in New Orleans. After graduating from high school he attended Loyola Marymount University where he was a member of the Hall of Fame football team.

He graduated from LMU with a BS. He was employed at Dart Industries in Los Angeles. Between 1973 and 1976 he worked in the company’s wage and salary division and from 1976 to 1981 he was the corporation’s Director of Government Affairs. While employed at Dart, he continued his education at Pepperdine University and earned an MS.

He entered public service as a presidential appointee. On April 10, 1981, he was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to serve in the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs as special assistant liaison to city and county officials. He served in this capacity from 1981 to 1983. He is credited among those who helped to persuade President Reagan to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with a national holiday. In 1983 he became the chief domestic policy advisor for Vice President George H.W. Bush. He served in that capacity until 1985.

In 1985 he relocated to New York City and returned to the private sector, this time as Vice President of the Public Finance Division of the investment firm, Smith Barney. He worked in this capacity until 1987 when the firm transferred him to California where he became the managing director of their Los Angeles public finance office.

On March 8, 1989, he was confirmed by the Senate and shortly afterward presented his credentials in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. He served as an ambassador for only 16 months. He abruptly resigned his post on August 6, 1990, citing personal and health reasons which he indicated impeded his ability to continue to serve as Ambassador to Zimbabwe.

He returned to the and since 1990 has held several high-level executive positions in the oil industry. He is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Claiborne Rhodes, Inc. located in Los Angeles. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

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gattnk · 11 months ago

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I have this semi-regular client who commissions me for illustrations to use in his YT channel. If you speak spanish you should check out Pero Eso es Otra Historia since he's a pretty cool dude :D I'll put the context under the cut .3.

During the colonial era of what we now collectively refer to as Latin America, the population of Hispanoamérica had to abide by a law of blood purity: some jobs and careers belonged exclusively to highborn Spaniards and their descendants, leaving out even common criollos (those of pure Spanish descent born in american soil), if their parents were not important enough. One such job was the medical field. Blood purity had to be certified with an actual document, the Certificado de Limpieza de Sangre (Blood Cleanliness Certificate).

Back then, medicine was categorized into two major fields, regulated by an appointed Medical Tribunal: protomédicos (also called doctors and physicians, focused on studying theory and diagnosis), and cirujanos (surgeons, split into two subcategories, latinos and romancistas, both in charge of chirurgic and physical treatment of patients following the diagnose and supervision of protomédicos). Protomédicos and cirujanos were formally recognized as professionals and required basic and higher education. This is in contrast to flebotomistas (often barbers, who would perform small interventions like applying enemas, cataplasms, and pull teeth out), and pharmacists (also known as apothecaries). Both barbers and apothecaries could just set up shop without a hitch but were considered informal practitioners: as such, any random citizen could pick up the role, regardless of actual medical knowledge.

Only full-blooded highborn Europeans could safely aspire to become protomédicos: though there were exceptions made under special circumstances for criollos, mestizos and indigenous people, these were still hard-earned and usually involved some convoluted political shenanigans made by those in charge. Cirujanos saw exceptions much more often, since they were in high demand in hospitals and their job was considered less prestigious thanks to the required physical contact with patients.

One such example of hard-earned exception was the foundation of the Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco, located in Cusco, Peru. The San Antonio University was founded in order to provide better opportunities for the criollos, mestizos and indígenas who could actually afford a higher education, but were often rejected by schools and universities, particularly the Real Universidad de San Ignacio Loyola, whose Jesuit founders were adamant on their elitism. The San Antonio institution and its students often faced attacks from legitimate Spaniards and highborn criollos, including the Jesuits from the San Ignacio University, who opened a legal case against the Antonians through the Royal Audience of Lima in 1695.

In October 30th, 1696, the envoys of the Viceroy of Peru and the Royal Audience of Lima announced their ratification in favor of the Antonians after a year long dispute issued by the Jesuits.

San Antonio University would remain the strongest academic rival to San Ignacio University until 1772, as the Ignatian institution was forced to close thanks to the expulsion of the Jesuits from any and all Spanish soil. The San Antonio University remains open to this day and ranks within the top 15 universities of Peru.

#my art tag #commissioned art #history #latin american history #commissions open

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jpbjazz · 4 months ago

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LÉGENDES DU JAZZ

ELLIS MARSALIS, LE PATRIARCHE

‘’The greatest influence on me was seeing his dedication to music during the many times when he wasn’t playing gigs that much. Even without any work and no money coming in from music, he had such true love for the music that he didn’t let anything shake his confidence in the power that comes from really working on your sound and not trying to avoid any of the things you have to know if you’re truly going to be a jazz musician.’’

- Wynton Marsalis

Né le 14 novembre 1934 à La Nouvelle-Orléans, Ellis Louis Marsalis Jr. était le fils d’Ellis Marsalis Sr., un homme d’affaires et activiste, et de Florence Marie Robertson. Propriétaires du Marsalis Motel de La Nouvelle-Orléans, la famille Marsalis avait accueilli des visiteurs prestigieux comme Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ray Charles et Thurgood Marshall, le président de la National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) qui était devenu plus tard le premier juge afro-américain de la Cour Suprême.

À partir de l’âge de onze ans, Marsalis avait joué de la clarinette à la Xavier University's Junior School of Music de La Nouvelle-Orléans, dans le cadre d’une formation préparatoire à son entrée à l’université. Il avait aussi joué du saxophone ténor et du piano au high school. Durant son adolescence, Marsalis avait demandé à sa mère de lui acheter un saxophone ténor afin qu’il puisse jouer du rhythm & blues, qui était la musique la plus populaire de l’époque. Marsalis s’était alors joint au groupe de son high school, les Groovy Boys.

En 1951, Marsalis était entré à l’Université Dillard à La Nouvelle-Orléans dans le cadre d’une majeure en musique. Marsalis avait décidé de se concentrer sur le piano après avoir entendu Nat Perrilliat jouer du saxophone ténor, car il ne croyait pas pouvoir l’égaler.

Au milieu des années 1950, Marsalis s’était joint au American Jazz Quartet composé d’Alvin Battiste à la clarinette, de Harold Batiste au saxophone ténor, de Richard Payne à la contrebasse et d’Ed Blackwell à la batterie. Même si le groupe n’avait pas décroché beaucoup de contrats à La Nouvelle-Orléans, il avait réussi à poursuivre ses activités durant un certain temps.

Marsalis avait décroché un baccalauréat en éducation musicale en 1955. L’année suivante, Marsalis avait travaillé comme assistant-gérant au motel de son père tout en continuant de jouer comme accompagnateur avec le American Jazz Quintet. À la fin de sa carrière, Marsalis avait poursuivi ses études à l’Université Loyola, toujours à La Nouvelle-Orléans, où il avait décroché une maîtrise en musique en 1986.

DÉBUTS DE CARRIÈRE

Après que Blackwell ait été recruté par Ornette Coleman pour aller jouer à Los Angeles, Marsalis et Harold Battiste avaient décidé de le rejoindre en Californie. À Los Angeles, Marsalis et Blackwell avaient joué avec Coleman durant deux mois. Après être retourné à La Nouvelle-Orléans pour devenir directeur temporaire du groupe de la Xavier Preparation School, Marsalis avait reçu son avis de mobilisation de l’armée à la fin de l’été.

En janvier 1957, Marsalis s’était joint à la Marine dans le cadre d’un service militaire de deux ans. Marsalis avait passé tout son service militaire dans le sud de la Californie et avait fait partie du Corps Four, un groupe de la Marine qui se produisait dans le cadre d’une émission de télévision hebdomadaire diffusée sur le réseau CBS intitulée Dress Blues. Il avait également participé à une émission de radio appelée "Leather Songbook’’ qui était aussi commanditée par la Marine. C’est dans le cadre de ces émissions que Marsalis avait commencé à accompagner des vocalistes.

Après sa démobilisation, Marsalis était retourné à La Nouvelle-Orléans où il avait formé un quartet avec le saxophoniste Nat Perrilliat et le batteur James Black. Le groupe avait enregistré un seul album intitulé Monkey Puzzle. Dans son compte rendu de l’album, le magazine Cadence avait commenté: "Marsalis' flowing, linear melodicism was a good foil for Perrilliat's more meticulous exploration of chord and rhythm changes." En 1962, Marsalis, Perrilliat et Black avaient également enregistré avec les frères Cannonball et Nat Adderley, mais l’album intitulé ‘’In the Bag’’ avait attiré peu d’attention.

C’est également à cette époque que Marsalis avait épousé Delores Ferdinand. Le couple avait eu six fils: Brandford, Wynton, Ellis III, Delfeayo, Miboya et Jason qui avaient tous été élevés dans la religion catholique. En 1964, Marsalis s’était installé avec sa famille dans la petite ville de Breaux Bridge, en Louisiane, où il avait travaillé comme directeur du groupe et de la chorale du Carver High School.

Marsalis avait continué de jouer à La Nouvelle-Orléans avec un succès modéré dans les années 1960. En 1966, Marsalis était retourné à La Nouvelle-Orléans et avait dirigé le trio-maison du Club Playboy.

À court de contrat, Marsalis se trouvait au club du trompettiste Al Hirt en 1967 lorsqu’on lui avait proposé de se joindre au groupe. Il expliquait: "Although it wasn't about where I wanted to be musically, it turned out to be a very good gig for me. It got me back into music on a full time basis, and that's probably the most important thing. Playing is always better than not playing." Même si le répertoire du groupe était limité et que son style était un peu trop influencé par le rock n’ roll au goût de Marsalis, son séjour avec la formation lui avait permis d’amasser plus d’expérience et de visibilité, ce qui lui avait permis de participer à des émissions de télévision comme le Today Show, le Mike Douglas Show et le Ed Sullivan Show. Marsalis avait quitté le groupe de Hirt en 1970.

En 1971, Marsalis avait commencé à jouer avec le Storyville Jazz Band de Bob French. Il précisait: "That's when I began to learn how to play the traditional literature.’’ L’année suivante, Marsalis avait co-dirigé la ELM Music Company avec le batteur James Black. Le quintet avait joué durant environ un an et demi au Lu and Charlie's, un populaire club de La Nouvelle-Orléans. Son séjour avec le groupe avait été plutôt décevant pour Marsalis, qui avait expliqué au cours d’une entrevue accordée au magazine Down Beat: "We had some good original stuff, but I'm telling you, it was two or three steps ahead of a rock band."

LE PROFESSEUR

Même si Marsalis avait obtenu un certain succès à La Nouvelle-Orléans, il était plutôt inconnu à travers les États-Unis. Il expliquait: "I wasn't able to put it together. When I was growing up, the way that one succeeded in music was to pack up to New York and take a chance. By the time I was really thinking about doing that, we had a lot of kids. It wasn't an easy decision to make to do that, on that kind of gamble." Afin de gagner sa vie, Marsalis avait continué de jouer à La Nouvelle-Orléans et avait commencé à enseigner dans les écoles secondaires. En 1967, Marsalis avait également enseigné la musique afro-américaine et l’improvisation comme professeur adjoint à Xavier University.

En 1974, Marsalis était devenu professeur au New Orleans Center for Creative Arts High School (NOCCA), où il avait travaillé durant les douze années suivantes. Dans le cadre de ses fonctions, Marsalis avait servi de mentor à de nombreux jeunes musiciens, dont les trompettistes Terence Blanchard, Marlon Jordan et Nicholas Payton, le pianiste Harry Connick Jr., le saxophoniste Donald Harrison, le flûtiste Kent Jordan et le bassiste Reginald Veal. Quatre des fils de Marsalis, Wynton, Branford, Delfeayo et Jason, étaient aussi devenus des musiciens respectés. Excellant tant au saxophone ténor que soprano, Branford avait même été directeur musical du groupe du Tonight Show avec Jay Leno. Même s’il était tromboniste, Delfeayo s’était surtout fait connaître comme producteur et avait produit pratiquement tous les albums de ses frères et de son père depuis le milieu des années 1980. À l’âge de quatorze ans, le plus jeune fils d’Ellis, Jason, avait joué de la batterie sur l’album de son père intitulé Heart of Gold en 1993.

Comme professeur, Marsalis incitait ses étudiants à s’intéresser à l’histoire du jazz et à découvrir leur propre son. Il expliquait: "We don't teach jazz, we teach students.’’

De 1986 à 1989, Marsalis avait également enseigné à la Virginia Commonwealth University à Richmond, en Virginie, où il avait été coordonnateur du programme de jazz durant deux ans. Après avoir obtenu un doctorat honorifique de l’Université Dillard en 1989, Marsalis s’était joint la même année à l’Université de La Nouvelle-Orléans où il avait été directeur du programme de jazz jusqu’à sa retraite en 2001. En plus de son doctorat honorifique de l’Université Dillard, Marsalis avait également obtenu des honneurs semblables de l’Université Ball State (1997), de la Juilliard School of Music (2003), de l’Université Tulane (2007), de la Virginia Commonwealth University (2010) et du Berklee College of Music (2018).

Avec ses fils, Marsalis avait été nommé ‘’Jazz Master’’ par la National Endowment for the Arts en 2011. Intronisé au Louisiana Music Hall of Fame en 2008, Marsalis avait également remporté un ACE Award en 1984 pour sa participation à des émissions diffusées sur le câble.

DERNIÈRES ANNÉES

Marsalis avait commencé à enregistrer comme leader relativement tard. Après avoir enregistré seulement quelques albums en près de trente ans de carrière, Marsalis avait enregistré son premier album comme leader en 1982. Intitulé Father and Sons, l’album avait été enregistré avec ses fils Wynton et Branford. Commentant l’album dans le magazine Melody Maker, le critique Brian Case écrivait: "Father Ellis has no trouble bedding right down in [the] fast company [of Branford and Wynton], being a fleet boppish piano player of some originality." Les albums suivants de Marsalis avaient également été très bien reçus, plus particulièrement Syndrome et Homecoming, dans lesquels il avait démontré sa grande expérience. Décrivant l’album de Marsalis enregistré avec le saxophoniste Eddie Harris, le critique Jon Balleras avait précisé: "To say these players are seasoned would be the height of understatement; their playing makes it evident that both men have long since surpassed the point of mastering their instruments and improvisational theory, transcending technique and stylistic limitations to forge a completely transparent, immediate music, music of a broad swirl and swell."

En 1987, Marsalis avait également écrit la musique pour la version enregistrée de la légende du roi Midas. C’est l’acteur Michael Caine qui avait effectué la narration. Le violoncelliste Yo-Yo Ma avait aussi participé à l’enregistrement.

En 1994, Marsalis avait publié Whistle Stop, un album dans lequel il avait repris plusieurs de ses compositions des années 1960, dont plusieurs avaient été co-écrites avec le batteur James Black. Même si le critique Larry Birnbaum du magazine Down Beat avait salué la performance de Marsalis, il avait ajouté que son jeu avait souvent été éclipsé par ses accompagnateurs. Birnbaum précisait: "The subtle artistry of his elegant phrasing and refined touch are best appreciated on the closing ballad... where he plays unaccompanied." Pour sa part, Marsalis avait fait remarquer que son intention était d’écrire pour de grandes formations et d’explorer des formats de plus longue durée. Il avait expliqué: "[Whistle Stop] with its emphasis on the small ensemble represents the pinnacle of my work in that format."

Marsalis avait également siégé sur des comités de la National Endowment for the Arts et de la Southern Arts Federation. Marsalis a été intronisé au sein du Louisiana Music Hall of Fame le 7 décembre 2018. Le Ellis Marsalis Center for Music avait également été nommé en son honneur.

En 2010, la famille Marsalis avait publié un album live intitulé Music Redeems. L’album avait été enregistré au John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts de Washington, D.C., dans le cadre de Duke Ellington Jazz Festival. Tous les profits résultant de la vente de l’album ont été versés directement au Ellis Marsalis Center for Music. En 1990, Marsalis avait également fait une apparition sur l’album de son fils Wynton intitulé Standard Time Vol. 3 The Resolution of Romance. Participaient aussi à l’album le contrebassiste Reginald Veal et le batteur Herlin Riley. Interrogé par Stanley Crouch, Wynton Marsalis avait décrit ce qu’il avait ressenti en travaillant avec son père dans lle cadre de l’album Wynton Marsalis, Standard Time Vol. 3 en 1990:

‘’Besides Marsalis’ own development, the force of heart and the rhytmic finesse heard in the lyricism of this recording are due to the presence of his father, Ellis, at piano. ‘’I always wanted to do an album with him, but I never felt prepared because I didn’t play well enough on changes and have a sound good enough to pay the kind of homage to my father that I really felt. Just having the opportunity to listen to his sound for all of those years when I was growing uo was a tremendous inspiration for me and for my brothers, all of us. The greatest influence on me was seeing his dedication to music during the many times when he wasn’t playing gigs that much. Even without any work and no money coming in from music, he had such true love for the music that he didn’t let anything shake his confidence in the power that comes from really working on your sound and not trying to avoid any of the things you have to know if you’re truly going to be a jazz musician. The kind of belief he had in music would make you realize that you can only go forward by facing the obligation of mastering the weight of what the titans of the idiom have laid down.’’

Membre de la Phi Beta Sigma et de Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, deux organisations humanistes, Marsalis s’était vu décerner le titre de 24th Man of Music par la Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia en 2015 pour avoir fait avancer la cause de la musique en Amérique.

Ellis Marsalis est mort le 1er avril 2020 dans un hôpital de La Nouvelle-Orléans à la suite d’une pandémie contractée dans le cadre de la pandémie de la Covid 19. Il était âgé de quatre-vingt-cinq ans. Souffrant d’autisme, le plus jeune fils de Marsalis, Mboya Kenyatta Marsalis, avait été élevé par son frère Delfeayo après la mort de son père. La femme d’Ellis, Dolores, était morte en 2017. Ont survécu à Marsalis ses fils Branford, Wynton, Ellis III, Defeayo, Mboya et Jason.

Même si sa carrière avait souvent été éclipsée par ses célèbres fils Wynton et Branford, Marsalis a enregistré près de vingt albums comme leader au cours de sa carrière. Il a aussi joué comme accompagnateur avec des musiciens comme David "Fathead" Newman, Eddie Harris, les frères Cannonball et Nat Adderley, Ornette Coleman, Ed Blackwell, Marcus Roberts et Courtney Pine. Même s’il avait joué avec les plus grands noms du jazz, Marsalis était particulièrement fier de sa carrière comme enseignant et pédagogue. En 1999, D. Antoine Handy a consacré une biographie à Marsalis intitulée Jazz Man’s Journey: A Biography of Ellis Louis Marsalis, Jr.

Insulté que son père ait souvent été accusé d’avoir profité de la notoriété de Wynton et Branford pour connaître la célébrité, son fils Ellis III avait déclaré: ‘’I become irritated when people say, ‘’Youf father is ‘cashing in’ on the success of Wynton and Branford. I have to correct them. The old man’s been doing his thing for a long time. High standards always; he’s been very consistent. There’s been no ‘cashing in.’’ He’s been playing forever. As children, we’d to to gigs with him. There weren’s many in the audience. But it didn’t bother him. He plays what he plays and is not fazed by what others do.’’ On pouvait également lire sur le site All Music Guide to Jazz: ‘’It is a bit ironic that Ellis Marsalis had to wait for sons Wynton and Branford to get famous before he was able to record on a regular basis, but Ellis has finally received his long overdue recognition.’’ Après la mort de son père, le saxophoniste Branford Marsalis lui avait rendu hommage en déclarant:

“My dad was a giant of a musician and teacher, but an even greater father. He poured everything he had into making us the best of what we could be.’’ De son côté, le professeur de droit David Wilkins de l’Université Harvard avait commenté: ‘’We can all marvel at the sheer audacity of a man who believed he could teach his black boys to be excellent in a world that denied that very possibility, and then watch them go on to redefine what excellence means for all time.”

#jazz

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sparklecinnamonbunny · 2 years ago

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Character Bio: Sunday Evening Offdensen

AKA: Sunday Mourning (stage name), Suns, the Cursed Seer/the Siren (depending on which side of the prophecy you ask)

Birthday: November 1, 19XX (same age as Nathan & Skwisgaar)

Zodiac Sun: Scorpio Moon: Virgo Venus: Libra Ascendant: Libra

Meaning of the Name: The day of the sun, after the sun’s set! Her mother was delirious through large portions of labor and delivery. When the nurse asked for a name, Nathalie thought she’d asked the time and said, “It’s Sunday Evening,” with such force and confidence that the nurse wrote it down. Guthrie, absent at the birth, left it after the fact as a reminder to his wife to be strong.

Birthplace: New Orleans, Louisiana

Gender: Cis woman

Speaking Voice: Emma Stone

Singing Voice: Floor Jansen

Appearance

Height: 5’4” flat, anywhere from 5’7” to 5’9” in heels.

Eyes: Hazel green, skewing golden. Eye shape is round/protruding, with plenty of real estate for her usual heavy goth makeup looks. Post-DSR, gold.

Lips: Full, with pronounced cupid’s bow on the upper lip.

Hair: Straight with very slight wave (2A). Sunday usually wears her hair long and layered with side swept bangs. She dyes her hair frequently.

At first appearance (shortly after S2E10 “Dethgov”) her hair is bleached blonde, but quickly dyed cherry red thereafter. After she starts dating Nathan Explosion (S2E14 “Dethsources”), she dyes it black, leaving her bangs red (picture “slut strands”). In Season 3, she’s spotted with a shoulder length lob, dyed back to her natural medium brown. In Season 4, she has extensions to her waist and her hair colored in a black-to-burgundy ombré. In her Smugly Dismissed days, her hair is box-dyed black.

Body type: Hourglass, with wide shoulders and hips and a small waist. She tends to carry weight in her thighs and butt. She has a large bust thanks to breast implants.

Piercings: Has a habit of getting a new tattoo and/or piercing everywhere she travels. Nose ring, left nostril. Multiple lobe piercings, helix, and anti-helix holes on both ears. Industrial, left ear. Orbital, right ear. Belly button pierced.

Tattoos: “Owl” on right bicep that looks suspiciously like a falcon. Baphomet kitten on right shoulder. Moon cycles on right wrist. Wolf howling at moon on left wrist. Left arm sleeve of the High Priestess with detailed background. Lower sternum/underboob tattoo of a bat hanging upside down with wings spread. Down right hip and thigh, a zombie mermaid. On left hip, an alligator, raised on its hind legs, surrounded by music notes and sparkles. Mark of Hecate behind left knee.

Extra details: Dimples, the left stronger than the right; large Roman nose (frequently commented on by Skwisgaar). Prominent cheekbones. A strong, square jawline not unlike her brother’s.

Preferences / Background

Sexual Orientation: Bisexual/Pansexual (would likely self-identify as bi, given the time mtl is set in, but her attraction to individuals isn’t dependent on gender)

Romantic Orientation: Panromantic

Favorite Meal: Eggs Sardou OR fresh beignets and black coffee.

Favorite Drink: Alcoholic, a Boulevardier. Non-alcoholic, a dirty chai latte.

Favorite Snack: Hummus and anything she can dip in it.

Language Fluencies: English, French, Creole, Swedish (slightly rusty), Swiss German (very rusty)

Education: Master of Music (Juilliard), Master of Business Administration (Columbia), Bachelor of Fine Arts (Loyola). Privately educated as a child, she achieved her BFA as a young teen. After Loyola, Sunday spent a brief time in a Swiss boarding school before running away to form Smugly Dismissed. When she ditched the band, she spent some time “hiding in plain sight” by simultaneously attending Juilliard and Columbia.

Occupations: Metal vocalist, Smugly Dismissed; Freelance songwriter/lyricist (post-Smugly Dismissed to present); session artist, strings (post-Smugly Dismissed - Season 4); Fetish model (post-SD - Season 1); Television/Media personality (shortly before Season 1 - Season 4); President, Metal Alliance (Season 3-4); interim Dethklok manager (briefly, post Season 2- pre Season 3); Solo recording artist, Crystal Mountain Records (Season 3 to present).

Music Credits: Three albums with Smugly Dismissed as vocalist, lyricist, songwriting, and some bass guitar; songwriting credits on two Ava Sunbeam albums (listed only as SEO); at least two albums as a solo artist. One album playing violin in the Juilliard String Quartet.

On television: Worked primarily with MBC as a judge/presenter for their reality singing competition American Voice Showdown, and made occasional guest appearances after her initial tenure. Recurring guest role on MBC’s Paw and Order during Season 1. Host of Swinging Steel Awards during Season 2. Guest appearance on the William Murderface and Dick Knubbler Christmas Special during Season 3. Host/presenter for MTV’s Sunday Mourning’s Anti-Valentine’s Ball during Season 3.

Hobbies: Witchcraft! While Sunday’s familiar with protective charms and spell work, her main focus is on divination. She owns four tarot decks, each with their own style and purpose, and performs readings for friends and family. She believes in osteomancy (throwing bones) and often uses it to address lingering questions. She’s determined to learn every stringed instrument. She’s competent with the violin, viola, cello, bass, guitar, and piano. She’s currently learning the harp. Sunday’s quick to remind people that she was “the worst guitar player in Smugly Dismissed”, which the author notes is a lot like being the last pick in the NFL draft. Occasionally, Sunday visits exclusive BDSM clubs (she’s a VIP at Club Hedonism, but doesn’t partake in the same munches that Murderface does). Barring that, she’ll indulge in her fetishes with trusted dominants. As an experienced rope bunny, she’s participated in bondage shoots and demonstrations for her clubs. Her ‘guilty pleasure’ is reading trashy romance novels, the more erotic the better. She’s embarrassed by the books, despite participating in BDSM acts that would make the protagonists blush, and conceals them inside volumes of French philosophy in her home.

What About That Curse? As a child, Sunday often visited her maternal family’s occult shop. On a visit at age five, Sunday ran inside while playing and tripped against a display table. A strange antique vial fell cracked open in sync with Sunday’s head on the floor, splattering her with the fluid inside. Two days of seizures and visions later, the child got a terrible feeling when someone was about to die. It took until adulthood for her to realize that she attracted the damaged like flies to honey. Even later than that, she realizes her singing charms people.

#mtl oc #metalocalypse fanfic #here's where i'd put a picture of her if i had one #slight spellbound spoilers #more details available on request ;)#sunday mourning

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spacenutspod · 7 months ago

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Students from Universidad Católica Boliviana prepare to traverse the course at the 2024 Human Exploration Rover Challenge at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.Credits: NASA/Taylor Goodwin NASA announced the winners of the 30th Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC) April 22, with Parish Episcopal School, from Dallas, winning first place in the high school division, and the University of Alabama in Huntsville, capturing the college/university title. The annual engineering competition – one of NASA’s longest standing challenges – held its concluding event April 19 and April 20, at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The complete list of 2024 award winners is provided below: High School Division First Place: Parish Episcopal School, Dallas Second Place: Academy of Arts, Careers and Technology, Reno, Nevada Third Place: Escambia High School, Pensacola, Florida College/University Division First Place: University of Alabama in Huntsville Second Place: Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Third Place: Campbell University, Buies Creek, North Carolina Ingenuity Award University of West Florida, Pensacola, Florida Phoenix Award High School Division: East Central High School, Moss Point, Mississippi College/University Division: North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota Task Challenge Award High School Division: Erie High School, Erie, Colorado College/University Division: South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, South Dakota Project Review Award High School Division: Parish Episcopal School, Dallas College/University Division: University of Alabama in Huntsville Featherweight Award Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island Safety Award High School Division: NPS International School, Singapore College/University Division: Instituto Especializado de Estudios Superiores Loyola, San Cristobal, Dominican Republic Crash and Burn Award KIET Group of Institutions, Delhi-NCR, India Jeff Norris and Joe Sexton Memorial Pit Crew Award High School Division: Erie High School, Erie, Colorado College/University Division: Campbell University, Buies Creek, North Carolina Team Spirit Award Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Most Improved Performance Award High School Division: Jesco von Puttkamer School, Leipzig, Germany College/University Division: Universidad Católica Boliviana – San Pablo, La Paz, Bolivia Social Media Award High School Division: Bledsoe County High School, Pikeville, Tennessee College/University Division: Universidad de Piura, Peru STEM Engagement Award High School Division: Princess Margaret Secondary School, Surrey, British Columbia College/University Division: Trine University, Angola, Indiana Artemis Educator Award Sadif Safarov from Istanbul Technical University, Turkey Rookie of the Year Kanakia International School, Mumbai, India More than 600 students with 72 teams from around the world participated as HERC celebrated its 30th anniversary as a NASA competition. Participating teams represented 42 colleges and universities and 30 high schools from 24 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and 13 other nations from around the world. Teams were awarded points based on navigating a half-mile obstacle course, conducting mission-specific task challenges, and completing multiple safety and design reviews with NASA engineers. “This student design challenge encourages the next generation of scientists and engineers to engage in the design process by providing innovative concepts and unique perspectives,” said Vemitra Alexander, HERC activity lead for NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement at Marshall. “While celebrating the 30th anniversary of the challenge, HERC also continues NASA’s legacy of providing valuable experiences to students who may be responsible for planning future space missions including crewed missions to other worlds.” HERC is one of NASA’s eight Artemis Student Challenges reflecting the goals of the Artemis program, which seeks to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon while establishing a long-term presence for science and exploration. NASA uses such challenges to encourage students to pursue degrees and careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. HERC is managed by NASA’s Southeast Regional Office of STEM Engagement at Marshall. Since its inception in 1994, more than 15,000 students have participated in HERC – with many former students now working at NASA, or within the aerospace industry. To learn more about HERC, please visit: https://www.nasa.gov/roverchallenge/home/index.html -end- Gerelle DodsonNASA Headquarters, [email protected] Taylor Goodwin Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. [email protected] Share Details Last Updated Apr 22, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsSTEM Engagement at NASAArtemisGet InvolvedMarshall Space Flight CenterOpportunities For Students to Get InvolvedPrizes, Challenges & Crowdsourcing

#space #astronomy #news #science

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