#me when i posted this: so were making a collage and advertising right

[deathisamotherofbeauty]

Spoonfuls of Comfort

Bucky had been told countless of times that he was a bad cook. Previous partners had broken up with him and always pointed that out as one of his major flaws. For once, he decided to take cooking classes. He meets Chef Gale and slowly starts falling in love.

extra photo that conveys the energy:

[bettimbellis]

A Collage (of Yelling)

I saw someone do something like this to advertise their fic- they linked the fic, and then put in a little collage of various comment snippets. I can’t find the post to show off- someone please do let me know if you’ve seen that, I want to credit them. 

Either way, my Hollow Knight post-Black-Egg-Temple fic (linked here) has 209 comment threads on it. I’ve gone through and found some bits. These bits were mostly chosen for entertainment/intrigue value out of context- a lot of my favorite comments didn’t get in. 

Got some good reviews there, I think. Anyone wanna see the collection I have of Discord screenshots from folks yelling at me about this fic?  (Seriously though, thank all of y’all who comment, yell in the tags, whatever- I love it. Really helps keep the writing muse going, too.)

Image descriptions below the cut. 

[Image ID: a collection of bits of text placed on a light green background, in several groups. Text is as follows. 

Excuse me who gave you the right to hit me with this line at seven in the morning”, with an arrow pointing to the left. also it feels like there are many things to be concerned about lmao  God, Hollow is such a poor baby. A lanky wet cat left in the rain. Hollow, that feeling is love, dear, no need to feel so confused about it. Hornet, my sad dumb little spider baby, go to bed. in summary holy shit this is fucked sounds like stressTM can these characters stop being so relatable good Lird *smacks my face* Hornet. Hornet. the fuck HOLY FUCKING SHIT [all caps] It was so soft!!!! And then it became *so goddamn angsty-* *squints harder*  Wet rag is my new favorite character. *thunks my head on a wall* Gosh darn it Oro course you had to have integrity But also OW MY HEART?! SHATTERED?1 POOR BABY HOLLOW IM GONNA CRY Gosh dang. The last chapter was a little lighter, but apparently you were just holding back for this one.  (Chp. 3) I stg this whole chapter made my emotions whip back and forth between “awww :)” and “awwh :(” and “oh. Oh no baby do not think like that”.  Augh. just, augh. / ...except that bit at the end. ...except that last sentence, ‘cause, yeah. / *hides face in hands* this has been exhausting for everyone, apparently. Hollow knight or: when you are so touch starved that your standards for touch that you want are somewhere in the abyss that has spawned you.  Whatever the FUCK happened in the last section is Oh Lord Oh God What The Heeeeeellll Ohhhh My Goood No Waaayyyy... Will be waiting for the next chapter STARING at ao3...

i was so relieved to read this that i accidentally put my phone in airplane mode trying to respond “it is startled out of its pleasant memory-” pLEASANT???? PLEASANT!?! Hollow no. HOLLOW NO- / why does this for some reason almost feel like fluff.  My urge to keysmash at you is strong Just. God. Everything about this is so fucked in so many ways.

Something about this line just makes me want to. Maybe stab the king in the chest. Repeatedly. And then throw them off a bridge. Idk Actually many things about this chapter make me want to stab the king in the chest repeatedly and then throw them off a bridge. Because *holy shit* Hollow, honey, you have so much trauma. OMG ghost, what have you done [stressed emoji] Okay then. Well. Um. That’s a lot to happen.  God it’s such a mess Ah yes, the eldritch nonsense trying to approximate a living creature, my beloved PK you ass. PK you absolute ASS get over here I wanna hit you with something heavy-  oh / im immediately punched in the face okay thank you for that Right off the bat I am mildly excited about this chapter solely because you played with text formatting and that makes my serotonin levels rise. I don’t know why but thank you for that.  CONFUSION SOUP I’M FHDHDJFKFKGH I wanna join the cuddle pile :<<< let me in [holding Hollow gently in both hands] / I will get you all the fresh-dirt-scented soap Fucking superb you funky little vessels. Oh boy! Spiraling!

Oh this chapter hurts ‘specially bad. Because it wasn’t enough to be possessed and neglected and quite literally tortured and driven insane, now we gotta have more medical issues and amnesia-  I fuckign cried at this one, oh my god. Pain is always a tearjerker, but it’s nothing compared to someone who’s been in pain so long finally getting that first big moment of *realizing they’re wanted* and *heard* and *healing*  And I gotta say, (this is gonna sound bad) I really do love Hollow’s victim blaming. Or how it’s written. I love how you write characters in pain <333 “Oh, just a quick chapter to read before bed,” I thought to myself. “I will enjoy it and feel a normal and manageable level of emotions about it.” / ...Thanks for making me all teary in the wee hours, now I’ll never get to sleep! (...I mean this as praise.) Oh. Oh Hollow. So wrapped up in the need to be useful. So incapable still of seeing that their own gut-wrenching familial love might be returned in kind, whether they have some designated purpose for their existence or not.  Yeah. Relieved. / Oh, Hollow... You have already left kudos here :) [three times] / Have I ever been told the definition of insanity?  honestly the body horror was the /least/ disturbing thing in this chapter. not to say! that it was not disturbing - even then, less the horror and more the. context. i want to punch TPK. into a lake. that is on fire.

First comment of my first reread, and MAN. This opening hits just as hard the second time.  Keep in mind Hollow Knight was made by Australian people Hollow 100% deserves a nice date at the palace if they so wish. anyway, I feel very emo about Hollow, all the time.  HOLLOW IS LETTING THEMSELVES HAVE WILL, LET’S GOOOOOO Ghost is doing Fine:tm:, Hornet is doing Fine:tm:, Hollow is *actually* doing pretty well Good news! Hollow is an emotional wreck!  Hornet is doing sooo normal right now (lying).

TLDR; amazing story, glorious update, poor Grimm, I Am Desperate For Shield Lore, someone please tell Ghost it isn’t their fault, the entire gaggle of siblings needs a group hug, I Am Going To Put The Pale King’s Corpse Through A Shredder, and Hornet needs another good cry. 

anyways fuck you for writing this keep it up

[randomvarious]

Appleseed - "Mile High Express" Big Beat Song released in 1997. Compilation released in 1998. Big Beat

Plays: N/A on Spotify // 10.5K+ on YouTube

Alright, folks, I really hope that I'm able to spark some shit into motion with this post here, because the way the general vibe is right now…well…things are feeling quite unprecedentedly fucked. So, I think it would just be in all of our best interests if we agreed that it was high time for us to immediately leap into our much-needed big beat revival era, because, I don't know about you all, but whenever I hear a quality big beat tune, my spirits seem to get raised pretty instantly 😎.

Now, I don't have nearly enough of this stuff myself, and because it took me such a long time to figure out exactly what this music was even called in the first place, I feel like I should briefly explain what it is and where it came from.

Big beat was a Brit-centered phenomenon that took place between the mid-90s and early 2000s and was a subgenre of breakbeat. Like breakbeat, it relied on a sampled drumbeat-or-break to form the base of its rhythm, but beyond the drums, the rest of it was also significantly sample-based too, incorporating all sorts of instrumental sounds off of 60s and 70s records, and often an old school hip hop lyric as well, to create dance tunes that just had this…rather big sound to them. The undisputed king of this stuff's always been Fatboy Slim, but Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy are definitely up there as well, and others have made significant contributions too, like The Wiseguys with "Ooh La La" and "Start the Commotion," Basement Jaxx with "Where's Your Head At," and Moby with "Bodyrock."

And the thing about this music is, even though not very much of it actually managed to chart all that highly Stateside, and you couldn't really even find much of it on radio or MTV either, it was still nevertheless pretty much everywhere else, coursing through countless videogame, film, and TV advertising soundtracks. Big beat's retro-present nature, as it lightheartedly revived fun and vintage sounds on top of drumbeats that still sounded modern enough, seemed to fit perfectly during such a sunny, 'end-of-history' time when people were genuinely and very naïvely excitedly awaiting a technologically advanced, Internet-dominated future that was inevitably going to only transform our society for the better 🥴. Optimism abounded for a period of new, democratic enlightenment that was fast-approaching and its mass-appealing party soundtrack seemed to be comprised of a whole lot of big beat flavor, a forward-looking genre in and of itself that showed what people were capable of creating by cleverly crafting their own groovy dance collages primarily out of various sonic bits that'd been recorded decades prior and largely discarded.

So, with that lengthy preamble out of the way, I've got a total fuckin' big beat banger for you all today from a little-known British trio called Appleseed, whose most popular song, "Mile High Express," was used in an Adidas ad in the States in 1998 because Adidas couldn't get the proper license to use Fatboy Slim's now-iconic "Right Here, Right Now" instead, which ended up being used for the ad overseas.

Appleseed first debuted in '95 with a 12-inch on a very short-lived London label called Naked, but then in '97, they were on the Middlesex-based Kingsize, who themselves were pretty new too, but seemed to have a better capacity to release stuff on a regular basis. And it was through them that Appleseed would put out their only album, Kick It Till It Breaks, which is where you could find "Mile High Express," before it was issued as its own 12-inch single in '98.

So, sounding like a Fatboy Slim track itself that would equally slay at any sun-shining outdoor gathering or breakdance exhibition, "Mile High Express" basically has five essential elements to it that make it dope. One, a punchy, boom bappy drumbeat; two, a short, killer, looped-up sample from an early 1970s French children's record that's responsible for the underlying piano sound; three, a large helping of squealingly lively and extensively freewheeling joy on a Hammond B3 organ; four, some bells; and five, a sampled, catchy line off of New Jersey rap group Lords of the Underground's 1993 song, "Lord Jazz Hit Me One Time (Make It Funky)":

Watch me scratch it in your brain!

Put all this together with a bassline that mimics the melody of the French children's sample, some radiating ambience, and a brief, little bridge, and you've got yourself quite an irresistibly sweet bop on your hands 👍.

Because Brits seemed to be far more accepting of instrumental music in the first place, a whole lot of dance material was able to commercially succeed there, providing a much more fertile ground for big beat itself to flourish too. On a mainstream level, we only caught a fraction of that wave here in the States, but given how inherently carefree and upbeat this music tended to be, I think we're due to force its comeback…right here, right now…in a way that eclipses the impact that it had originally left, so we can start to be spiritually lifted a mile high out of what's been feeling like a rapidly accelerating downward spiral into a pit of horror. Bring back this quintessential electronic dance sound of the turn-of-the-millennium summer!

[panjakes]

Hello again! Can I please request another Ahn hyo-seop x female Ghanaian reader? Thank you.

(Fun fact(or not) when I was looking for pictures of Hyeoseop, when I scrolled down on the one on the left there were only pictures of black women under them✊🏽✨)

It was culture day at the office. You for an advertisement company. You enjoyed it, really you did, but it kind of operated like a high schools “spirt week”.

Every other month, a flyer was posted and there was something for everyday of the week.

Monday-Pattern day: wear plaid, strips, zigzag, etc

Tuesday-Disney day: wear something Disney inspired

Wednesday-Hat Day: Wear a hat of your choice

Thursday-Collage day: wear and support your favorite collage

Friday:Culture day: wear something from your collage

Today was Friday, and as the proud Ghanaian women you were, you got dressed in your best. Doing your hair and makeup. Just as you slid on your dress(example).

As you were applying your lipgloss Hyeoseop woke up walking into the walk in closet looking for you. He stops in his tracks seeing you at your vanity

He looks you up and down before walking over to you

“Goodmorning baby how’d you sleep?” You asks

“Fine. Where are you going?” He asks making you laugh

“Work” you say chuckling. You stand up from the vanity chair causing his jaw to drop

“Dressed like that!?” He asks making you frown

“What’s wrong with I have on?” He asks

“N-nothing your just…beautiful! How come you don’t dress like this when I take you out?” He asks making you chuckle

“Uh I don’t know” you say shrugging

He walks over to you pulling you in by the waist

“You get off work early today right?” He asks

“Yes, why?” You asks

“Cause we’re going out. You look to amazing to just go to work for four hours” he says making you laugh

“And where are we going?” You asks

“I don’t know yet, but I’m picking you up so you better get going before I make you late” he says smirking

“Oh really?” You say returning the smirk

“Yes really” he says bitting his lip at you

This wasn’t his first time seeing you in your cultural clothes but it had been a while since he had seen you like this

“Which shoes?” You ask holding up a pair of white and black heels

Hyeoseop looks at the two pair of shoes before pointing to the white ones. You look at them then him before nodding

“You dear husband have taste” you say expecting him to pick the black ones

“Thank you my darling wife” he says winking at you. You chuckle before hitting his arm

“I do not have time to play with you, messing around with you I’ll be late for work” Yn says walking past him to get her purse

“Don’t forget! I’m coming to get you!” He shouts

“I won’t!” You shout before walking out the door

“Ms.yn, your husband is in your office”

You look up at the clock. You didn’t clock out until 30 minutes he just couldn’t wait. You nod thanking the girl. You finish your copy’s and head back to your office

“You just couldn’t wait huh?” You ask opening the door

“I could. I just didn’t want to. I’m a very patient” he says making you scoff

“Patient my ass. Your a lot of things but patient isn’t in your pedigree” you say making his laugh

You peek over at his choice of clothing. A suit. He looked good enough to make you drool. But he’d never know that

“A suit? Where are we going?” You ask

“Somewhere fancy! You look to good to go to work and back home” he says getting up from your desk to walk over to you placing a kiss on your lips

“Is that so?” You ask

“Yup! Look so good I want to skip lunch and dinner. I want dessert” he says smirking

“Well very patient man, Dessert can wait” you say smirking

“Ah, but I don’t want to wait. We can get to dessert right now” he says running his hands down your curves

You smirking grabbing his hands putting them on your shoulders

“No touching” you say

“Why no touching?” He asks

“Because you don’t know how to just touch. You always want to do something else” you say raising a brow

“You can’t hold that against me…hold your body against me” he jokes. You chuckle pushing him away from you

“You are something else” you say shaking your head

You walk over to your file cabinet,putting the papers you just copied into them. When you turned around there stood Hyeoseop with a big ass bouquet of red and white roses

You smile from ear to ear at him

“Now how much did this cost?” You asks

“Doesn’t matter, my beautiful wife deserves beautiful roses” he says smiling

“Well aren’t you sweet” you say taking them from him

“Not as sweet as you” he says winking at you

You giggle for what had to be the 45th time today. Grabbing your purse,phone and flowers you head over to your door

“Ready for lunch husband?” You asks offering your arm

“Of course I am wife” he says linking his arm with yours.

With linked arms you two walked through the office and took the car where you tried to open the door.

Hyeoseop bumps you with his hip so he could open the door for you

“I just know you aren’t trying to open the door?” He says with a raised brow

“My bad.” You say shrugging

He opens the door still glaring at you

“My bad my ass…get your beautiful ass in the car” he says taking the bouquet of flowers from you. You chuckle sliding into the passenger seat.

He puts the flowers in the backseat before walking over to the drivers side and getting in

“Off to lunch we go!!” You say

“Yeah, just don’t put a hole in my pocket” he says

“Oh baby that’s exactly what I’m going to do! I’m ordering steak, salmon, shrimp!” You say making him sigh

“Ya know…I could go for some salmon too. Good choice baby” he says nodding

“Thank you” you say smiling

And with that you two were off to your fancy restaurant date.

[lilydalexf]

Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.

Interview with Piper Sargasso

Piper Sargasso has 25 stories at Gossamer, but don’t miss her website where the fics each have cover collage art. If you are a fan of Mulder/Scully romance, there are a lot of MSR fics to read that are set in different seasons of the show. But like the show that never stuck to one type of story, Piper’s stories have variety, so you can also find AUs and /Other.  Big thanks to Piper for doing this interview.

Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)?

It does, but I love that people are still into it! Writers back in the day put so much work and love into their writing, and it's nice to know that the stories are still being appreciated to this day. As for my own stories, it puts a huge smile on my face to know there are still people out there checking them out and hopefully enjoying them.

What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it?

It was such a positive period of my life. I made some amazing friends who became something like older sisters (and some brothers) to me, even though I was a little ridiculous when I was in my early to mid-twenties. It was also a much-needed confidence booster. I was a pretty shy person and loved writing, but never had the nerve to show anything to anyone. My first fanfic was completely horrible, but because of it I made my first XF friend and super beta, Mimic117. Between her guidance and the encouraging words from my Yahoo group I was able to do something I really loved and felt great about myself and my abilities for the first time. That will stay with me forever. That first story was truly atrocious, but it was a catalyst for great things in my life when I needed them the most.

Social media didn't really exist during the show's original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)?

I remember trying this cool new thing called an AOL chat room, but they were more interested in perving on each other than talking about the show. Once I knew about fanfiction I kept seeing that some of my favorite authors kept mentioning IWTBXF in their notes, a Yahoo group named I Want to Believe. I looked it up, joined, and with great trepidation made my introductory post. Everyone was so warm and welcoming, and talking to my favorite authors in the group was a little like meeting a celebrity and finding out that they're awesome in real life. After IWTBXF fell apart, an off-shoot called Beyond the Sea was created with almost all of the original group transferring over. I stuck to my little family there and didn't branch out into much else, other than the rare dip into Haven. Ephemeral and Gossamer, of course.

What did you take away from your experience with X-Files fic or with the fandom in general?

Mostly the overwhelming feeling of acceptance and confidence to write, something I was sorely lacking before in my life. I fell in with the best group, that's for sure! They made me feel like being a professional writer could be an achievable goal.

What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show?

The commercial advertising. The pilot spoke to my supernatural-loving, angsty 15 year-old soul. I watched it religiously every week. There was nothing like it. It was off-beat, but serious (most of the time) and fulfilled my insatiable craving for the paranormal and weird. You just couldn't get that from Melrose Place and Beavis and Butthead, you know? It definitely helped that David Duchovny was adorable and the character of Scully was the strong and intelligent icon we needed in the 90's and beyond.

What got you involved with X-Files fanfic?

In high school I had a friend who was as obsessed with the show as I was. Maybe more, since she once had a slumber party that was exclusively to binge watch her taped episodes (the other girls who wanted to mess around with spells and the Ouija board weren't thrilled that she couldn't be swayed away from it) and she often drove me from play rehearsals in her convertible with the top down and the theme song blasting to the heavens, much to my delight and mortification. A couple years after we graduated she told me about the piece of fanfic she wrote. Insert a record screech here. What?! You mean there are thousands of stories dedicated to my favorite show? And hundreds more get added every month?! I was obsessed. If I could've stopped working and slept at my computer desk I would have.

What is your relationship like now to X-Files fandom?

Sadly it's nonexistent these days. I have great memories and it holds a big piece of my heart, but I haven't been active in a long time. I would love to see a huge revival, and would definitely want to be involved in that in some way, were it to happen.

Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files?

I read a lot of Harry Potter fanfiction for a while, but I never could expend the kind of energy and time I did for the X-Files fandom. It came at a perfect time in my life, and so far nothing else has measured up to it.

Who are some of your favorite fictional characters? Why?

Besides XF characters? Off the top of my head I really love Hermione Granger, Buffy Summers, Elizabeth Bennet, and Claire Fraser for their sass and strength of character, Severus Snape for his complexity, and Christina Ricci's version of Wednesday Addams for her pure awesomeness. She's pretty much my spirit animal.

Do you ever still watch The X-Files or think about Mulder and Scully?

I do occasionally. I watched the series from season 1-7 so many times that I started to burn out, but I get on my X-Files kicks sometimes and binge it again.

Do you ever still read X-Files fic? Fic in another fandom?

Like with the show, I'll get nostalgic and need to consume all the fanfics my greedy little eyes can behold until I move on to something else. It can feel a little lonely though, if you'll excuse the drama. We're not in the heyday anymore, so it feels a little like walking through a ghost town. Many of the stories out there are suspended in time because the show ended, or people stopped writing.

Do you have any favorite X-Files fanfic stories or authors?

I know I have dozens, but I'm drawing a blank. My ultimate favorite is any well-written MSR casefile with UST finally resulting in RST. Those are my unicorns!

What is your favorite of your own fics, X-Files and/or otherwise?

I have a silly one called Baby, It's Cold Outside that I sometimes read around Christmastime. It was a fluffy song-fic, but I can see the scene so clearly in my mind when I read it and it's just pure fun. I also like my Donnie Pfaster series. I can see the potential in my writing with those, which makes me feel I could really write something special someday. Plus, he's such an interesting little slimeball to write and read about. Bless his heart.

Do you think you'll ever write another X-Files story? Or dust off and post an oldie that for whatever reason never made it online?

I still think about the two WIPs I haven't finished. I wrote myself into a corner with This Mortal Coil, and honestly I think it needs a total overhaul. I think Dana Scully's Diary would be a fun one to finish. I hate that I never finished them.

Do you still write fic now? Or other creative work?

I think about writing fanfic now and then and I've had a couple original novels sketched out, but there are so many other demands on my time that I haven't gotten very far. I still plan to see the novels through, even if no one but interested friends and family read them.  

Where do you get ideas for stories?

I used to watch an episode and really study the actors' expressions and actions, always trying to find new angles to the stories we all know. A lot of times things would just come to me and I'd get so excited I couldn't sleep until I wrote a good chunk of it down.

What's the story behind your pen name?

The friend who introduced me to fanfic told me the best way to choose a pen name was to make sure it derives from the show. For a couple days I looked at the titles and summaries of episodes and agonized over just the right name. Finally Piper Maru and the summary from Triangle, which mentions the Sargasso sea, stood out and just clicked.

Do your friends and family know about your fic and, if so, what have been their reactions?

My now husband always knew, and he thought it was cool that I had a hobby that made me so happy, but he was never a reader. My parents found out when I was about 24 and my step-dad would tell EVERYONE about it, much to my horror. Most reactions were of the bland, "Oh yeah? That's nice." variety but I definitely got some weird looks from others. The worst was when I found out how much of my racier MSR stories my parents read. My step-dad thought it was hilarious and teased me a little. My usually open-minded mom was uncomfortable, but tried to be supportive. It's all fun and games until your daughter starts writing psuedo-erotica for anyone to see!

Is there a place online (tumblr, twitter, AO3, etc.) where people can find you and/or your stories now?

Circe Invidiosa very generously hosts a page for me at http://pipers.invidiosa.com.

(Posted by Lilydale on January 26, 2021)

[ryanlowrie]

How I became a freelance illustrator.

This is not a how to manual, rather a retracing of steps. Enough people have asked that I would rather just send them a link to this than retype it all again. As a child I thought the coolest job in the world was being in Monty Python as they wrote, produced, and performed weird stuff so I set out to do that. Lots of auditions, poetry readings, open mics, coffee shop storytelling, which ended with writing an art newsletter called Sugar Free which got just enough of a response that people bought subscriptions. For $20 a year I would give them eight photocopied pages of cartoons, poems, and ideas every three weeks. I sold a few dozen subscriptions and that satisfied me. When the final subscription ran out I made t-shirts with wacky collage designs. Some designs I wanted to make I couldn’t get right with collage so I painted a few canvases and posted them on line as an advertisement for the coming shirts but people bought the paintings. So I painted more. I sold a hundred paintings which is great but I was only selling one in four paintings that I did which is a nice ratio but storing canvases sucks and people were enjoying the sketch pad drawings more than the paintings. So, now I draw and receive just enough praise and occasional sales to keep me drawing. It’s not enough to live on but it is something that I can work on a little bit every day and collaborate with people on projects to satisfy my urge to make weird shit.

[creek-cryptid-deluxe]

So, It’s been awhile. There’s a reason. The last week or so has been... a week. jesus christ. I shall regale you of my tale, not in chronological order necessarily because that’s how I roll. BUT if you suffer through it, you shall be rewarded with an outdoor plant update post after. Bribery. 

So. Early last week, The Spawn sat down with me and presented a proposal, a well researched proposal, advocating for her starting her own residential cleaning business because she finds it incredibly satisfying and relaxing to clean stuff and she does quite well. So we sat and brainstormed, researched, and talked about how she planned to advertise. She needed a business gmail (and all the tools that come with that), logo, business social media, website, and flyers. 

Being her age, she doesn’t have the skill or knowledge to do these things. So, I volunteered to help with these things so that she didn’t have to spend money hiring someone. I created the email account, put all the brainstorm stuff into a google doc that saved to the biz drive, which included a to do list and the basic info needed. I created a logo. (At which point, she called me a wizard while watching me do so.) I helped her try to create a biz facebook account, but facebook immediately flagged it as breaking the rules. like literally as soon as I created it. So I appealed it & The Spawn wanted to wait to see what came of that before I went further. So she took me with her to shop for the things on her supply list, and we decided to go grab some of the smaller stuff still needed for J’s appt at the same time. This was Friday. 

Saturday, I got a text from J in the early afternoon saying that he needed me. I quickly packed a ‘just in case’ bag, since I didn’t know what to expect or how long I would be there. Now, you have to understand that in the 7 years we’ve been friends, while he has discussed things with me via phone or text, in person he is like me, incredibly stoic. Hell even via text or phone, he always insists that he’s fine and responds to my reminders that i’m here if he needs someone, and to just let me know, he responds “I appreciate it, but I won’t”. So him reaching out like that is a MASSIVE thing. I showed up, let myself in, and he just walked up to me, wrapped his arms around me and started sobbing. I stayed the night, alternating between being comforting and being distracting. It was extremely disarming to see such raw emotion from him repeatedly over the course of the night and to hear him say the things that he is usually uncomfortable articulating. 

The next morning he seemed better, thanked me for coming (to which I responded “Of course I came. I’ve not ever been lying when I’ve said that I’d come if you needed me, day or night, but you have to let me know.”) and apologized for ‘being a mess’. I told him every time he apologized (which happened quite a bit over the course of the night) that there was no need for an apology because this wasn’t something to be sorry for. He was struggling, as people do, and rather than embrace the darkness or fight it alone, he asked for help from someone he trusts and loves that he knows reciprocates. That i know how hard it is for him to do that and that I am proud of him. 

Sunday afternoon the kids (The Spawn and The Bf) picked me up because she needed to take him home but didn’t want to leave the dogs alone. I got in the car after The Bf got into the back, insisting I take the front seat. We hadn’t even gotten out of the parking lot of the apartment complex when The Spawn casually asked “So are ya’ll fucking?” 

that’s how I learned that I was the subject of a bet. Apparently, The Bf asked where I was when he came over and out of convenience, not wanting to really explain the relationship, The Spawn said I was at my boyfriend’s. I guess he went on about how how come I’m never hanging out with him, etc, so The Spawn explained the actual nature of our relationship. At the end The Bf said “Nah, they fuckin’ but your mom isn’t telling you.” The Spawn said, “No, she’d tell me because when I started high school I asked her about her past encounters and asked about what stuff was, if she’d done it, and if she enjoyed it, and she was always honest with me. That’s how I know she likes it up the butt.” He insisted that J and I were banging so The Spawn, knowing the truth, took advantage of this and made a bet. It was an easy win for her. SO...

I get asked this question & I look at her, eyebrows raised because she knows how our relationship is (granted if I were physically able and he was willing, I would definitely jump back up on that horse) and said, “No. Mom is no longer physically capable of fucking without risk of severe injury. Plus, despite having ridden that horse previously, I’m not into endangering our besties status. I would go into further detail and commentary but I don’t want to make The Bf uncomfortable. These are things you know, so why do you ask?” She told me of the bet, Then i promptly text J about it because I knew he’d get a laugh out of it. And I was right. 

By the end of Sunday, she recieved an email stating that facebook was upholding the ban, so she and I talked and decided to make a webpage via WIX and after getting a few clients, she could upgrade her account with them to get extras that are offered, including her own domain (rather than the name.wix address) and a lack of wix ads on her page.  And then it all went downhill from there.

Monday through Wednesday (yesterday) had The Spawn breathing down my neck more than any boss I’ve ever fucking had about when her business shit would be done. On top of what I’d already done, between Monday and Wednesday I:   set up her google voice account for a business number, wrote her a “first time client” script, created a google sheets quick reference client database, created a google forms for detailed client records (all in a folder together that is searchable by client name, which would be the title of the form), set up the calendar, downloaded and edited/collaged her before and after photos she took via cleaning some of our spaces, and built her a 7 page website including the photos, facts, and little blurbs that go along with it. It went live at the end of yesterday. 

Throughout this process, rather than just checking in and thanking me for doing it all to save her money, she asked me every couple hours what still needed to be done. When I was not as far along as she felt I should be, she got progressively more hostile. Yesterday morning she had the balls to text me “What all do we still need to do before I can get rolling?” I responded with “ ‘We’? hahahahaha *I* still need to [list].” 

I’m sure you’re saying to yourself, “Am I missing something? Did you forget to list something in the list of stuff you did between Monday and Wednesday? You mentioned flyers....” You are correct. But yesterday while I was being driven to my 2nd vax appointment by my father, I basically told him that I’m fried. If a flyer just included facts, I’d be fine, but the part where I need the potential customers to be drawn in and want to learn more is not happening. The creative well has run dry to the point that it is reminiscent of the dust bowl. And I reminded him that there is a reason I no longer do this type of shit for a living. I mentioned that thinking about The Spawn’s company is making me stress puke and that any time The Spawn approaches me to talk about anything, I immediately feel incredibly nauseated. 

Now it should be noted that when I mentioned this in a multi paragraph text earlier, he responded with “Just take a step back from it for awhile, then go back to it.”    

and everyone wonders why on earth I don’t speak up when I hit my limits and why I just push onward despite the damage it does to me. THIS. THIS IS WHY. Everyone is all for me not pushing myself too hard... until it is inconvenient for them. So I basically screamed in the car. On the way back he said he’d help. Ok. cool. 

Except that every fucking idea he had legit just tripled the amount of work I was going to have to do. I mentioned being burned enough that I was considering just paying a freelancer to do it. This motherfucker chimes in with “Oh! [Cool Ex Employee Who Left to be a Stay at Home Mom with her First Baby] does stuff like that. Let me reach out to see if she’d be willing to.” BRUH. That should have been the first thing out of your mouth after my original texts! Jesus Christ. I agreed but with the caveat that HE had to tell The Spawn and say it was his idea because he sees me getting overly stressed and has put his foot down. And he had to do it that night because I knew that if he didn’t, the first thing I’d hear today was “So when are my flyers going to be done?” and I am absolutely not dealing with that shit. The only thing I am doing from this point forward is showing her how to use her database/client files/calendar and I will be happy to answer questions or give advice, but that’s it. This isn’t my company and I’m not employed by her, so I’ve already put in far more work than should have been expected of me, with very little thanks outside of after I finished her logo and a couple times she came down and watched, then told me I’m a fucking wizard. 

Really It was good in a way because I had been doing that thing lately where I wonder if I’m just being dramatic because admin type stuff isn’t that hard and if I could do it from home, I should be able to manage... but this put me back down on earth, where I absolutely am not being dramatic and I cannot fucking do that shit 40 hrs a week for some random asshole. Shit, this was for my own child and I was ready to give up, stab her, then tell her to go fuck herself.

so...that’s been my last week and a half for so. Also, my only side effects from Vax 2 (pfizer) is feeling more tired/run down than usual and a bit of extra joint pain... but those might actually be related to the stress and hell I just went through. who knows. 

as always, don’t steal my shitshow. get your own shitshow. suffer through your own crap. 

[processproductionsophielindsay]

LORNA SIMPSON

Lorna Simpson, The Water Bearer (1986)

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/02/arts/design/02lorn.html

Lorna Simpson, Guarded Conditions (1989)

https://www.artspace.com/magazine/art_101/book_report/representing-the-black-body-lorna-simpson-in-conversation-with-thelma-golden-54624

Lorna Simpson, Necklines (1989)

https://mcachicago.org/Collection/Items/1989/Lorna-Simpson-Necklines-1989

Lorna Simpson Wigs (1994)

https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/lorna-simpson-wigs-1994/

Childhood

Born in Brooklyn in 1960, Lorna Simpson was an only child to a Jamaican-Cuban father and an African American mother. Her parents were left-leaning intellectuals who immersed their daughter in group gatherings and cultural events from a young age. She attributed their influence as the sole reason she became an artist, writing, "From a young age, I was immersed in the arts. I had parents who loved living in New York and loved going to museums, and attending plays, dance performances, concerts... my artistic interests have everything to do with the fact that they took me everywhere ...."

Aspects of day-to-day life lit up Simpson's young imagination, from the jazz music of John Coltrane and Miles Davis, to magazine advertisements and overheard, hushed stories shared between adults; all of which would come to shape her future art. The artist took dance classes as a child and when she was around 11 years old, she took part in a theatrical performance at the Lincoln Center for which she donned a gold bodysuit and matching shoes. Though she remembered being incredibly self-conscious, it was a valuable learning experience, one that helped her realize she was better suited as an observer than a performer. This early coming-of-age experience was later documented in the artwork Momentum, (2010).

Simpson's creative training began as a teenager with a series of short art courses at the Art Institute of Chicago, where her grandmother lived. This was followed by attendance at New York's High School of Art and Design, which, she recalls "...introduced me to photography and graphic design."

  Early Training and Work

After graduating from high school Simpson earned a place at New York's School of Visual Arts. She had initially hoped to train as a painter, but it soon became clear that her skills lay elsewhere, as she explained in an interview, "everybody (else) was so much better (at painting). I felt like, Oh God, I'm just slaving away at this." By contrast, she discovered a raw immediacy in photography, which "opened up a dialogue with the world."

When she was still a student Simpson took an internship with the Studio Museum in Harlem, which further expanded her way of thinking about the role of art in society. It was here that she first saw the work of Charles Abramson and Adrian Piper, as well as meeting the leading Conceptual artist David Hammons. Each of these artists explored their mixed racial heritage through art, encouraging Simpson to follow a similar path. Yet she is quick to point out how these artists were in a minority at the time, remembering, "When I was a student, the work of artists from varying cultural contexts was not as broad as it is now."

During her student years Simpson travelled throughout Europe and North Africa with her camera, making a series of photographs of street life inspired by the candid languages of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Roy DeCarava. But by graduation, Simpson felt she had already exhausted the documentary style. Taking a break from photography, she moved toward graphic design, producing for a travel company. Yet she remained connected to the underground art scene, mingling with likeminded spirits and fellow African Americans who felt the same rising frustrations as racism, poverty, and unemployment ran deep into the core of their communities.

At an event in New York Simpson met Carrie-Mae Weems, who was a fellow African American student at the University of California. Weems persuaded Simpson to make the move to California with her. "It was a rainy, icy New York evening," remembers Simpson, "and that sounded really good to me." After enrolling at the University of California's MFA program, Simpson found she was increasingly drawn towards a conceptual language, explaining how, "When I was in grad school, at University of California, San Diego, I focused more on performance and conceptually based art." Her earliest existing photographs of the time were made from models staged in a studio under which she put panels or excerpts of text lifted from newspapers or magazines, echoing the graphic approaches of Jenny Holzer and Martha Rosler. The words usually related to the inequalities surrounding the lives of Black Americans, particularly women. Including text immediately added a greater level of complexity to the images, while tying them to painfully difficult current events with a deftly subtle hand.

Mature Period

Simpson's tutors in California weren't convinced by her radical new slant on photography, but after moving back to New York in 1985, she found both a willing audience and a kinship with other artists who were gaining the confidence to speak out about wider cultural diversities and issues of marginalization. Simpson says, "If you are not Native American and your people haven't been here for centuries before the settlement of America, then those experiences have to be regarded as valuable, and we have to acknowledge each other."

Simpson had hit her stride by the late 1980s. Her distinctive, uncompromising ability to address racial inequalities through combinations of image and text had gained momentum and earned her a national following across the United States. She began using both her own photography and found, segregation-era images alongside passages of text that gave fair representation to her subjects. One of her most celebrated works was The Water Bearer, (1986), combining documentation of a young woman pouring water with the inscription: "She saw him disappear by the river. They asked her to tell what happened, only to discount her memory." Simpson deliberately challenged preconceived ideas about first appearances with the inclusion of texts like this one. The concept of personal memory is also one which has become a recurring theme in Simpson's practice, particularly in relation to so many who have struggled to be heard and understood. She observes, "... what one wants to voice in terms of memory doesn't always get acknowledged."

In the 1990s Simpson was one of the first African American women to be included in the Venice Biennale. It was a career-defining decade for Simpson as her status grew to new heights, including a solo exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1990 and a series of international residencies and displays. She met and married the artist James Casebere not long after, and their daughter Zora was born in the same decade. In 1994 Simpson began working with her grandmother's old copies of 1950s magazines including Ebony and Jet, aimed at the African American community. Cutting apart these relics from another era allowed Simpson to revise and reinvent the prescribed ideals being pushed onto Black women of the time, as seen in the lithograph series Wigs (1994). The use of tableaus and repetition also became a defining feature of her work, alongside cropped body parts to emphasize the historical objectification of Black bodies.

  Current Work

In more recent years Simpson has embraced a much wider pool of materials including film and performance. Her large-scale video installations such as Cloudscape (2004) and Momentum (2011) have taken on an ethereal quality, addressing themes around memory and representation with oblique yet haunting references to the past through music, staging, and lighting.

Between 2011 and 2017 Simpson reworked her Ebony and Jet collages of the 1990s by adding swirls of candy-hued, watercolour hair as a further form of liberation. She has also re-embraced painting through wild, inhospitable landscapes sometimes combined with figurative elements. The images hearken to the continual chilling racial divisions in American culture. As she explains, "American politics have, in my opinion, reverted back to a caste that none of us want to return to..."

Today, Simpson remains in her hometown of Brooklyn, New York, where in March 2020, she began a series of collages following the rise of the Covid-19 crisis. The works express a more intimate response to wider political concerns. She explains, "I'm just using my collages as a way of letting my subconscious do its thing - basically giving my imagination a quiet and peaceful space in which to flourish. Some of the pieces are really an expression of longing, like Walk with Me, (2020) which reflects that incredibly powerful desire to be with friends right now."

Despite her status as a towering figure of American art, Simpson still feels surprised by the level of her own success, particularly when she compares her work to those of her contemporaries. "I feel there are so many people - other artists who were around when I was in my twenties - who I really loved and appreciated, and who deserve the same attention and opportunity, like Howardena Pindell or Adrian Piper."

The Legacy of Lorna Simpson

Simpson's interrogation of race and gender issues with a minimal, sophisticated interplay between art and language has made her a much respected and influential figure within the realms of visual culture. American artist Glenn Ligon is a contemporary of Simpson's whose work similarly utilizes a visual relationship with text, which he calls 'intertextuality,' exploring how stencilled letters spelling out literary fragments, jokes or quotations relating to African-American culture can lead us to re-evaluate pre-conceived ideas from the past. Ligon was one of the founders of the term "Post-Blackness," formed with curator and writer Thelma Golden in the late 1990s, referring to a post-civil rights generation of African-American artists who wanted their art to not just be defined in terms of race alone. In the term Post-Black, they hoped to find "the liberating value in tossing off the immense burden of race-wide representation, the idea that everything they do must speak to or for or about the entire race."

The re-contextualization of historical inaccuracies in both Simpson and Ligon's practice is further echoed in the fearless, cut-out silhouettes of American artist Kara Walker, who walks headlong into some of the most challenging territory from American history. Arranging figures into theatrical narrative displays, she retells horrific stories from the colonial era with grossly exaggerated caricatures that force viewers into deeply uncomfortable territory.

In contrast, contemporary American artist Ellen Gallagher has tapped into the appropriation and repetition of Simpson's visual art, particularly her collages taken from African American magazine culture. Gallagher similarly lifts original source matter from vintage magazines including Ebony, Our World and Sepia, cutting apart and transforming found imagery with a range of unusual materials including plasticine and gold-leaf. Covering or masking areas of her figures' faces and hairstyles highlights the complexities of race in today's culture, which Gallagher deliberately teases out with materials relating to "mutability and shifting," emphasising the rich diversity of today's multicultural societies around the world.

[pixel-cat-1]

I just finished The Outer Worlds

I don’t really ever use this blog for more than reblogging stuff, so this is probably coming out of left field for anyone who follows me, but as you see in the title, I beat The Outer Worlds not a couple of minutes ago. I have some thoughts I’d like to talk about while their fresh, and this is as good a place as any to do that lol

So, what did I think of it? Overall, I think The Outer Worlds is okay game that ultimately fails to meet up in many regards to not only Obsidian’s golden child, Fallout New Vegas, but in some departments even regular ass Bethesda games from years ago. And that’s honestly such a shame, because TOW had so much goddamn potential and yet I finished it and felt practically nothing for the entire last level and final ending sequence.

The main issue I think is that ultimately speaking, TOW doesn’t necessarily do anything different from any other RPG I can think of, and it doesn’t do anything like that super well. 

For example, the combat’s good on a technical level. The controls and mechanics are fun to use (especially the dodge system), but the enemies tend to either range from “complete curb stomp bitch babies” to “bullet sponge that’ll kill me so fast I won’t even know what happened.” Most fights weren’t particularly engaging, and I was basically handicapping myself but not using the companion abilities for about 75% of the game (I don’t know why I never tried pressing the d-pad buttons, but yet again, when I can just shoot shit and huff an inhaler, I didn’t need to think too hard). The disparity of how difficult the game can be is often confusing, and I was more often limited because of my ammo count more so than my ability to play the game.

The RP aspects can be good at times. There are plenty of skill checks that reward you for being a smart little egg, and a part of RPG’s I like is being able to avoid combat and make people happy, and generally make myself useful, so that was fairly fun. Overall the dialogue options and the performances by most VA’s left me not feeling like I was being hindered in acting and responding to situations how I’d like, so at the very least, that didn’t let me down.

The music was overall enjoyable, although very forgettable, and sometimes a bit all over the place: there’s Western-y guitar ambient tracks, also some more techno-y ones? Elevator music that sounds like they got it from a royalty free website. This kinda wish-washyness ties into multiple issues I had with the game I’ll get into further on.

The graphics are good, which isn’t necessarily shocking anymore because every game looks good. There are some aesthetic choices I liked, that being things like the Art Deco style architecture and advertisements from the loading screens. Terra 2 is gorgeous as all hell, with the skybox being particularly amazing (I’ve often fantasized about Earth having rings, so this partially fulfills that fantasy). Monarch is overall also very well done, with making it look and feel like a hostile shithole with ravenous wildlife. The looming gas giant overheard also does a good job of making me feel dread, which is about as much of that feeling I ever got. However, the game never really maintains a distinct “style”, rather it collages a bunch of them at once. Because for all the aesthetic of the Art Deco style that they do for cities like Byzantium. there’s like 10 levels/areas that are just generic as all hell “sci-fi space shit” that you’ve seen before. And then there’s Scylla, which is so fucking boring in design I don’t know why it’s even in the game.

This creates an issue where it’s like they wanted to make the game look Bioshock, but some people wanted something out of Mass Effect. But some people played Borderlands, and wanted to go for the wacky space bandit and hostile environment feel. But they also wanted to stick it to Bethesda, so they made is vaguely look like a Fallout game as well. It’s hard to describe in text, so I’m just gonna post these and show it best I can

^ It looks like space Bioshock here

^ And here it reminds me more of Borderlands than anything else (it’s a lot easier to see if you look at it from the ground, rip)

Scylla is literally just a rock. As far as I can tell, you could probably fucking avoid the damn thing if you avoid side quests. There’s fucking nothing there. Just enemies, a few side quest things, an empty town and a giant terraformer thingy that’s interesting to look at for like 4 seconds. And despite what you’d think, no, there is no low gravity. That would’ve at least made this place have some interesting gimmick or mechanic, but no. It’s just a fucking dumping ground for side quests. God. Fucking. Damnit.

All science-y buildings just look like this for the most part across all levels. It’s not bad, just very generic and same-y.

The Groundbreaker’s fairly interesting, until you realize that all it is is essentially a giant corridor front to back. Actually, scratch that, it’s two corridors! One of which is this Back Bays area overrun with criminals. How do you get to this clearly dangerous and isolated part of the ship? Well a fucking elevator smack dab in the middle of the pavilion of course! So anyone can just go up or down into this apparent no man’s land part of the ship by literally going into it via an elevator. Dear god.

^Monarch definitely has one of the best looking environments in the game, tied with Terra 2 down below

But what absolutely fucks the game overall is despite how much effort they put into making everything look nice (regardless if you actually like it or not), the overall level design in terms of function and whatnot? Mind numbingly boring.

All levels are really small maps with (at most) a handful of major buildings or towns depending on the scale, and the rest is just a bunch of abandoned buildings with some enemies, or a crashed ship or something. There's just...nothing going on with half of these dungeons.

Also the vast majority of buildings have a “Quarantine” sign out front or is locked in some capacity, which means you could have 4-5 buildings in a random batch of them along a road, but only 2 you can explore. And since all the fucking interiors across multiple planets look the exact same, it leads to an incredible feeling of sameiness in a game that has you running around an entire solar system. How the fuck even??? I’d argue fucking Fallout 3 handled this better. At least there was more to do! More overall dungeons and levels! Did I miss something? Am I just fucking stupid and I missed the all the good shit?

Combine this with the wish-washy aesthetics and music, it leads to an incredible feeling of not really knowing what to make of things. You’ll just be sprinting around, shooting all the red things on the compass just to get it over with by Monarch. And when you realize that LMG’s are just...the best weapons in the game as far as I could tell, and there’s no real downsize to them, you’ll just fucking run around gunning everything down while some forgettable track plays in the background until some enemy with a weirdly large health bar forces you to think for a bit before you get back to running around and shooting shit again. 

Despite this though? I still overall enjoyed the combat. I liked running around and becoming the 4th Horseman. Plus with the mechanics overall being fun to use, it wasn’t really that bad. But I can’t say on an objective level I think it’s good for a game to feel like that. Because despite how heavy handed I’m being right now (and will be throughout the rest of this impromptu review), I don’t hate this game. 

Sound design is overall very good. Guns make satisfying shooty shooty bang bang noises, and as I said before, the VA’s are overall very good all around. Parvati stands out as the most interesting character to listen to in general. She has a lot of informal speech patterns that makes her distinct, and is generally a treat to listen talk. At worst, you get a character like Nyoka, who doesn’t sound bad by any real means, but for a lot of her dialogue, I felt they should’ve slowed it down and focused on getting her emotions down. But it certainly wasn’t bad.

Storywise? This game wasn’t particularly interesting. I’m gonna put the keep reading thing here because I want to avoid spoilers for anyone who hasn’t played yet and cares about them. Long story short, I think the game was good, but very disappointing given what it could have been. I enjoyed myself for the most part, but often found the lack of anything super special to really hold it back from achieving something I think the gaming industry needed in an era of, ironically enough, hyper greedy corporations with no morals to speak of.

So, what did I think of the story? And I guess by extension, the side quests. Overall, I think the main story was...not very good. There was a lot of good stuff inbetween though, and a lot of side quests and little things definitely were enjoyable. But the plot is just not nearly as engaging as it should be. Given how short it was though, that might’ve been a mercy.

The story, as roughly as I can summarize is, is that you’re a colonist frozen on the colony ship “Hope.” It’s been adrift for 70 years, but you’re woken up by a guy named Phineas Welles (he’s basically Doc Brown, but nicer). The Board (which consists of the 10 companies who own and run the colony/solar system) try to stop him, but they fail, and you’re escape podded onto Terra 2, near a dying town called Edgewater. The pod accidentally kills the contact you were to meet, so now you’re gonna steal his ship and use it to do shit basically.

Along the way, you pick up a ragtag band of miscreants and general shitheads and kill a lot of people and wildlife in a quest to stop the corrupt Board from running the colony harder into the dirt than they already have. It’s very by the numbers, more or less. I guess.

The immediate issue is that, despite being able to join the Board and betray Phineas if you want, there’s absolutely no fucking reason to do that. Not a single goddamn reason, other than for the evulz. This creates an issue where I feel no reason to deviate from the Phineas side of the story. And I know what someone might be thinking “But Pixel! The Board is supposed to be evil!” And I am absolutely aware of that. But the thing is, so was Caesar’s Legion in Fallout New Vegas. And yet, that faction is often considered just as interesting and compelling a faction for the game as the NCR or Mr. House. People will, to this day, still argue over who had the best idea for solving the Wasteland’s issues. Because despite how evil the Legion is, they still had very valid points about the NCR and how horribly corrupt and bloated it was. And there was absolutely an argument to be made about how safe they made their lands for those under their ownership. Stuff like that that makes you actually consider and think about whether or not you're actually making the right choices for the whole of the New Vegas wasteland, and by extension the rest of the Western part of America.

Here? There’s no contest. There is no necessary evils. There is no good reason the Board does anything. No logic, no reason. All they can do is fuck shit up even more, and that makes them such a boring, vague antagonist that there was never a moment in my mind I actually considered working for them. Any potential moments they had to sway me or dashed aside by them constantly proving how they could never actually fix the problems they made. And if that was the intention? Then Obsidian fucked up.

People remember the villains that raise a point a hell of a lot more than they do villains that are just evil for the sake of it (there are obviously exceptions, for an RPG? you need a compelling villain). And that’s why no one will remember this game in a decade. It pales so hard in comparison to New Vegas, it’s not even funny. It’s on par with Fallout 3, at best. Which wouldn’t be a bad thing if the whole point of this game was to make a statement against an increasingly morally bankrupt Bethesda.

Let’s look at, per se, Skyrim. Paarthurnax was a supporting character with an interesting backstory: he’s Alduin’s brother, who is the main antagonist. He is a dragon that secludes himself on the top of the tallest mountain in Skyrim, who meditates and focuses on suppressing his inherit evil dragon nature. Despite this nature, he chooses to be good. And he asks a very compelling question.

"What is better? To be born good or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?”

In a single sentence, Skyrim asked a more though provoking question than the entirely of The Outer Worlds. And if you played F:NV, then it’s probably weird to hear that, because F:NV was full of moral and philosophical quandaries. So where did it all go?

The thing is, people forget that the Obsidian that made F:NV is dead and gone. The actual people who made that game have all moved on from that company. This is the child trying to replicate the success of it’s parents, without entirely understanding exactly what the parent did to achieve what it achieved.

The biggest difference between F:NV and TOW is that F:NV really forces you to think. TOW just doesn’t require that, at all. 

Phineas good, Board bad. No thinking required.

I think the real warning sign is at the beginning of the game as well. Edgewater, the first town in the game, is dying. People are leaving and the town's also dealing with a disease epidemic. The town’s leader’s answer? Cut off power to the deserters, and force them to work harder despite the fact the town’s basically dying because of the overworking and disease. Despite the fact there’s not even enough medicine to heal everyone, and they have to play favorites with who lives and who dies.

What the fuck logic is this? Why would I ever choose that?

The only other choice, unless I missed a compromise solution (which I would’ve wanted) is to route power to the deserters and finish off the town more or less. The deserters wouldn’t take in everyone though, so a lot of people would die anyways. But even then, she’s still clearly the more competent leader. There’s not a goddamn contest. 

It just continues like that the whole game. I rarely had to think about who I’d side with. because the solution is obvious. The literal only reason I’d side with the corporations is if I was being evil, nothing else.

The best the story gets is when you need to make a compromise on Monarch between MSI (a corporation who got the boot from the Board) and the Iconoclasts (Religious people who are anti corporation). If you work with the second in command of the Iconoclasts, you can depose their extremist, dipshit leader and work out a truce. Which is good! It rewards the player for this too, when these factions come to help in the final level of the game (and when you see specific characters you could save helping out, that also make it feel like your decisions had an impact). You see the two factions...standing next to eachother, which isn’t much, but it’s about as much change you see in the game.

Which is also another thing that TOW fails to accomplish: a sense of longevity with my decisions leads to me feeling that, despite making the right choices, nothing really changes. 

Going back to Edgewater, you’d think after a while, I’d come back and the town would be entirely gone or something, right? 

Nope.

Some NPC’s stood outside the factory forever, as did some guards. There weren’t any lights on. That’s about it.

Well, certainly the Deserters must give me more quests to help out, which can lead to me establishing them and helping them help the Edgewaterers, right?

No. Very quickly you realize there’s very little do or talk about with NPC’s after you do monumental decisions. The only functional difference is an opinion slider, which is another imitation from F:NV that means fuck all. The only in game things it affects is: a) The prices of venders of that factions

b) Whether or not that faction will shoot you on site.

That’s it as far as I noticed. The best idea they had, that being that factions can love you, but also fear you just doesn’t do anything. As far as I could tell, at least.

I’d love to be wrong, because I was so excited to see what would happen to entire settlements and after I helped them. After I made important decisions that’d change the face of the colony. And I felt so disappointing when it became apparent little actually mattered. 

The companion sidequests aren’t too much better. The pacing is so weird, sometimes, depending on how available certain planets are. Parvati’s was especially jarring, despite it being the best written by far.

It basically is you helping her get with an engineer chick from the Groundbreaker. It’s pretty adorable overall, and without a doubt has some of the better writing character wise, but the pacing was so fucking weird. It initially starts with you getting Parvati to talk to her about engineering stuff. They say they’ll email and stuff about engineering stuff. which is neat. So I run around, finish up all the side quests on the ship as I can, then head back to my own ship. I did not go back to my ship at all during this. 

When I come back, Parvati immediately tells me that she and the engineer, Junlei, have been messaging and getting flirty and now she has a crush and it’s just like “Dude, were you texting her while we murdered all those bugs in the engine?”

It’s doubly funny as well, because Obsidian wanted to avoid the player having romanceable characters. Which makes about as much sense as you think. Once source said the reason was that they wanted you to focus on roleplay, and not trying to bang anyone you found hot (okay?). Another just said they weren’t ready for it. And I believe it. As much as I think romance would’ve been another good thing to add depth to this game, I bet you they’d have fucked it up. It’s just funny. Even Fallout 4 had pretty acceptable romances.

Granted the system was fucking basically “Kill shit together until you wanna bang” but fuck, it was something! It also doesn’t help there’s a bunch of cuties all over this game: Huxley stands out as an adorable muffin who becomes a generic NPC at the end of the MSI/Iconoclast questline, despite the fact you can even repair her journal terminal with zero indication at you can do it, which is good! Let me just do things to be nice! But she literally just sits there after you rescue her with a few dialogue options which goes away after the peace deal, and it's so fucking frustrating that I want to enjoy the characters more, but none of them seem to have more than a paragraph's worth of depth to them and it's so sad.

Even the companions are like this. At the beginning I’d try and talk with Parvati about anything, but the only dialogue options would be about getting her out of the party, and that’s it. I can’t ask her what she thinks of things, or of the current quest/situation. There’s such a weird lack of depth in a weird amount of areas, that it felt almost worse than playing a Bethesda game.

I think the penultimate disappointment of the game is, fittingly, the final level, Tartarus. Which is fitting, because it feels very hellish. Not the planet mind you, or the prison which it takes place in, but just the complete lack of anything super special. It’s just the same kind of environments you’ve already run through, but bigger and with more bullet sponge bad guys. Which is funny, because jumping around and killing an army on a purple hell planet that has perpetual lightning storms would’ve been sick as fuck, but nah, gotta run around on Scylla instead of anywhere else compelling.

In my playthrough, MSI, the Groundbreaker, and the Iconoclasts came to help me deal with all the fucking goons, which was mostly cool because I didn’t have to deal with the tediousness of killing every last one of corporate goon myself.

This is about as big of an impact your decisions come to as far as I’ve noticed. Which isn’t saying much.

You meet the Chairman of the Board here, by the way. I just shot him and kept moving. shrugs

There’s also a last minute villain in this Sophia person, who is also apparently on the Board? It’d help if there was a list of the Board people, which could’ve been on a terminal somewhere. Maybe I’m dumb and never found it, which is plausible. 

The final boss fight, (I hesitate to call it that) is just somewhat large robot. It’s a bullet sponge with respawning combat drones flying everywhere and they’re very annoying. I died once after around 10 minutes of fighting, then using Parvati and Felix’s (he’s another companion, he’s also okay I guess) combat abilities I knocked it down and layed into the robot’s weak spot. He died very quickly.

So depending on how you do it, the final fucking boss is either stupidly hard or mind numbingly easy. I don’t know which is worse.

So you go past the dead robot, gun down Sophia in one shot, and save Phineas. You basically become the leader of Halcyon, there’s a F:NV-esque slideshow and commentary about your actions that somehow is worse that New Vegas’s, credits roll, and you sit there thinking “That’s it? That’s really it?”

Yeah, that’s it. 

It’s such a let down, especially because this was supposed to be Fallout New Vegas’s spiritual successor. But all it does it make me want to play that game instead of this one.Which is probably what you should do regardless if you pick this game up or not.

There’s a bunch of other mechanics and stuff I never brought up. There’s technically a character customization screen, but you literally only see your character in the select menu, and there’s no third person. There’s a barber in Edgewater who’s also a doctor, and yet you can’t even get a haircut from him (again, failing to match up to even Fallout 3). 

There’s these Mods you can put on armor and guns, and you find them by the bucket full so you’ll always have those. Just get an aim stabilizing one for an LMG and you’ll be fine. You can also tinker your armor and weapons, making them stronger if you spend credits on it (why not the armor and weapon parts, I’ll never fucking know). You can repair your stuff at a workbench, which is advisable. Just take all the weapons and armor you pick up, take it apart for parts, and never worry about it again. You’ll get money from quests, so buying those parts is meaningless and a waste of money

There’s also hacking and stealth and stuff. Stealth is such a non...thing in the game. There’s no silencers, but since all enemies decided to put cotton into their ears, there’ll be plenty of times I shoot someone, and a guy ten feet away heard fucking nothing. Plus there’s this disguise mechanic where you pick up ID guards and get a hologram disguise that wears out as you walk (passing speech check from suspicious guards restores it), so it’s not like sneaking around was ever a priority. Just put your points into the speech. Stealth is a dump stat more or less. 

Oh yeah, Parvati’s an ace lesbian. Which is nice that they handled that way in a non-dipshit way (you can also identify as ace in certain dialogue with her in her companion questline, which is funny considering they never let you fuck anyways, so it’s weird that you even have the choice). My only complaint is that they should’ve put this representation in a better game. 

What’s funny is that, despite everything, I don’t even hate this game. I feel a remarkable numbness, followed by a desire for something better. I spent about a week burning through it? If I had more free time, I could’ve finished it sooner probably. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it. It was pretty fun for what it was, but knowing that this is somehow supposed to match up to what F:NV was is sad, and a sign of how bad the gaming industry had fallen. 

The only difference here is that unlike the Outer Worlds, I can’t purge the rot of the gaming industry with a haelstrom of plasma bullets.

Would I recommend this game? I guess. There’s still some fun to be had, but don’t expect anything too major or interesting. Get it on sale, it;s not worth $60 right now. There’s apparently DLC coming out for it eventually? I might play it, and I might post an update to this review, or make a seperate post for that eventually. Depends on how well this one does? Or if the DLC makes me feel enough emotion to type something out like this in 2 straight hours.

[erinptah]

Super Drags review (tl;dr Show Good)

The post where I do my best to spread the Good News, that there exists a saucy gay drag-queen magical-girl animated comedy and everyone should watch it.

Okay, not everyone -- I'll give some caveats at the end -- but definitely a heck of a lot more people than Netflix has bothered to advertise it to.

Look at this! Why did nobody tell me about this??

What is Super Drags?

Fast facts:

It's a 1-season, 5-episode adult animated comedy series, released in November 2018

Here's the official page, with a free-to-view trailer

It packs more explicit, unashamed queerness into those 5 episodes than any other cartoon I can think of

The only possible competitor would be if you took the whole 5000-episode run of Steven Universe and pared it down to a supercut of Just The Gay Parts

This in spite of being produced in Brazil, which (in my broad understanding, as a total non-authority on the subject) is more oppressively, dangerously homophobic than the US

The original is in Portuguese

There is an English dub, fabulously voiced by contestants from RuPaul's Drag Race

It's wrapped in "for adults only!" warnings, not because the content is any less child-friendly than (say) your Bojacks Horsemen or your Ricks and Mortys, but because Brazilian authorities tried to get it shut down on the grounds of this much gay being Harmful For Children

It was (heartbreakingly) not renewed for a second season

Here's a promo video, in which the main characters (Portuguese, with subtitles) play Drag Race judges for Shangela, who ends up voicing Scarlet in English.

And here's a beautiful flashy music video of the big musical number! (Also Portuguese, no subtitles, but the melody and the visuals stand on their own.)

Plot and worldbuilding stuff!

The elevator pitch is "What if Charlie's Angels, but also drag queens, with superpowers, because magical-girl transformations?"

In this universe, all LGBTQ people have magical energy. The Big Bad is an evil magical-drag-queen nemesis who tries to drain our energy for her own purposes. It's like if Ursula from The Little Mermaid was a first-season Sailor Moon villain.

...sidenote, in case you were worried, the representation isn't "cis gay men and nobody else." There's a butch lesbian in the recurring cast, a genderfluid person (in that specific word!) as a one-off love interest, and all the ensemble scenes are wonderful collages of different races, body types, and gender presentations.

Our heroes also fight non-magical everyday homophobes, who get written with scathing realism.

The moment I knew the show wasn't pulling any punches was in the first episode, where a newscaster complains about being Silenced by the Law of Political Correctness, then chirps "however, we have a special guest who is thankfully above the law!"

According to the reviews I've found from Brazilian viewers, it's also pitch-perfect when it comes to local queer culture, community dynamics, slang and speech patterns, even memes. All of which flies right over my head, so here's a post (with no-context spoilers) about one viewer's favorite details.

The handful of reaction posts on Tumblr have a dramatic split between "Brazilian viewers fiercely defending the show as culturally-accurate, uplifting, and brave in a terrifying political moment" and "American viewers complaining that the show is problematic because it's a comedy about drag queens with no perfect role models and lots of sex jokes."

As the Super Drags tell their nemesis (and this is also in the first episode): "How dare you try to turn the LGBTQXYZ community against each other? We do enough of that on our own!"

In between missions, our girls work sitcom retail jobs and deal with other everyday problems. All of which are written in amazingly nuanced and thoughtful ways for a show that also features "defeating an orgy monster with a lip-sync battle."

Detailed character stuff!

Our heroes are Color Coded For Your Convenience!

The Super Drags themselves go by "she" in-uniform, and a lot of the time when out of it. Like the Sailor Starlights, only more so. I'll roll with that.

In blue: Safira Cyan, or Ralph by day, an excitable college-age kid who's built like a football player and squees like a fangirl. (She's an anime fan in the original, and for some reason all the otaku references were replaced in the dub, but you can see them in the subtitles.)

Ralph lives with her younger sister (they play video games together!) and their dad, comes out to them mid-series, and is very shippable with another young guy who starts out reciting the homophobic beliefs he was raised with but whose heart clearly isn't in it.

Safira's weapon is a classic magical-girl wand that casts protective force-fields. Which are shaped like condoms. Because of course.

In yellow: Lemon Chiffon, aka Patrick, the oldest of the group and generally the smartest/most strategic. In most cases, the other two treat her as the de facto team leader -- unless she pushes it too far.

By day she's a single guy with thick thighs and thinning hair, who has some body-image insecurities on the dating scene. And this show has Things To Say about unrealistic beauty standards within the community...not to mention, about masc guys who look down on anyone too flaming or femme because straight people disapprove.

Lemon's weapon is a fluffy boa that can be used as a whip or a lasso, especially when there's a bondage joke to be made.

In red: Scarlet Carmesim, also Donizete, the loudest and most aggressive teammate with the most cutting insults, who refuses to suppress that attitude in an attempt to appease racists. (But will give it a shot when trying not to get fired.)

Donny still lives in her religious/homophobic mom's apartment, and I'm pretty sure it's because neither of them can afford to move out. Her rock-solid sense of fierce self-confidence is the reason it doesn't bring her down.

Scarlet's weapon is a fan that she uses to throw shade. Yeah, you knew that was coming.

The Charlie to these angels is Champagne, who runs operations from a cool magitech compound and breaks the fourth wall at the end to petition for viewers' support in getting a second season.

...we let her down, folks :(

So here's a thing. The show never draws a sharp line between "people who become drag queens because it's a way they're driven to express themselves as gay men" and "people who become drag queens because they were trans women all along." That's consistent with how South American LGBT+ culture works. (Again: best of my knowledge, not personally an authority on this, etc etc.)

Many of the characters, including Champagne, never describe themselves in ways that translate to one of our sharply-defined Anglo-USian identity categories. And I'm not going to try to impose any English labels on them here.

But I can say (in contrast to Safira, Lemon, and Scarlet), Champagne never switches out of her "drag" name/voice/presentation, not even in the most candid off-duty scenes, and still has the same bustline when naked in the tub. Make of that what you will.

You Should Watch This Show

If you have a Netflix subscription, watch Super Drags!

If you ever do a Netflix free trial month in the future, make a note to yourself to watch Super Drags!

It's one of their original productions, so there's no risk of missing your chance because the license expired. But it's absolutely not getting the promotion it deserves. Which means potentially interested viewers won't find it, which means Netflix will think there's no interest, which means they'll keep not promoting it...etc etc etc.

No idea if there's any chance of getting it un-canceled, but maybe we can at least convince them to release it on DVD.

And the sheer gutsiness it took for a group of Brazilian creators to produce this show in the first place -- that deserves to be rewarded with your attention.

In spite of various anti-discrimination laws that sound good on paper, the country has serious problems with homophobia, transphobia, and anti-LGBT violence (warning, article has a violent image which is only partly blurred).

Maybe the creators could've gotten a second season if they made this one softer, less sexually-explicit, more restrained...but honestly? I bet that wouldn't have helped.

Consider Danger & Eggs, an Amazon original cartoon. It was made in the US, thoroughly child-friendly, and restricts its LGBT+ representation to things like "characters go to a Pride celebration...where nobody ever names or describes the quality they're proud of."

And it didn't get renewed past the first season either.

(Note: it had a trans woman showrunner and a queer-heavy creative staff, so I blame all that restraint on executive meddling, not the creators themselves. The showrunner even liked the tweet of my review that complains about it.)

So there's something very satisfying about how Super Drags went all-out, balls-to-the-wall (sometimes literally), all the rep explicit and unapologetic, packing every 25-minute episode with all kinds of queer content that would be censored or muted elsewhere -- but here it's exaggerated and celebrated and just keeps coming.

(...as do jokes like that, and I'm not sorry.)

Okay, there are a few legitimate reasons to not watch this show

Some caveats.

None of these things are Objectively Bad Problems that the show itself should be shamed for...but maybe they're genuinely not your cup of tea.

It does have actual Adult Content beyond "the existence of gay people." This show loves to swing barely-clothed cartoon genitalia in your face. There is, as mentioned, an orgy monster. If that kind of humor is going to bother you too much to appreciate the rest of the show, give it a pass.

I wasn't kidding about how realistic the homophobes are. Opening of the first episode has a guy trying to murder a busload of people while shouting slurs at them. If that level of hatred on-screen is gonna crush your soul, even in a show about sparkly queens flying to the rescue with dick-shaped magical weapons, don't push yourself.

Any fiction with this much crossdressing and gender-transgressing is going to hit some trans viewers in a bad way. Because trans people are such a broad group, with so many different experiences, that Every Possible Trope Involved pushes somebody's buttons. (See also: "some trans readers complain about a storyline that turns out to be drawn from a trans writer's actual life experience".) If this show goes does gender things that turn out to be personally distressing for you...or even just distressing for this specific time in your life...don't feel obligated to keep watching.

It has aggressively-sassy queer characters making jokes and calling each other things that are affectionate in-context, but would not be okay coming from straight/cis people. If you can't wrap your head around that, go watch something else.

Other Than That, Go Watch This Show

For all its big heart, big ambitions, and big gay energy, Super Drags is tiny enough that I've binged the whole show 2 times in the past 2 weeks. Thankfully, it's highly re-watchable -- lots of fun background gags and subtle foreshadowing that you don't catch on the first round.

(Pausing one last time to appreciate that a show with elements like "the high-tech robot assistant is called D.I.L.D.O." can be subtle at all, let alone be this good at it.)

I've also paged through all the fanart on Tumblr and Deviantart, looked up the single fanfic on the AO3, and started brainstorming plans to request it in Yuletide next year. Someone, please, come join me in (the English-language side of) the itty-bitty fandom for this ridiculous, glittery, over-the-top, fabulous series.

[fillystick]

week 9 and 10 lecture

NIE WIEDER KRIEG!!! NO MORE WAR – ACT NOW – Urban street art sticker

RESPECT MY EXISTENCE OR EXPECT MY RESISTANCE - Urban street art sticker 

photos from Markus Spiske 

I was catching up on past lectures when I realized week 10′s content ties back to what is happening in the US right now, which made me decide to create my cover photo in relations to the event. 

My intention is to pay my respect- as well as acknowledge- the rights of the community that is in pain at the moment, and reflect on ways of improvement when it comes to racial equality.  

knowing that design is closely related to activism really gave me a new perspective, which is the power of design: the fact that we can make a difference by creating, expressing, and voicing an opinion. Design is so much more than just making a profit, it is a tool that comes with great responsibility and potential. Learning how to utilize it to spread importance is what I shall be thinking in my future years. 

---------------- 

WEEK 9

PUNK: a counter-cultural movement

PUNK DESIGN, A SUMMARY: despise typesetter, prefer DIY

collage-style 1: ripping up and starting again

Takes a commercial image and repurposes it for revolutionary purposes.

collage-style 2: the use of stencils

stencils had frequently been used for their ease of use and acquisition, their association with the underground through graffiti, denoting something raw and urban, as well as its nature as simply being flawed by design. 

zines: using illegible and garish styles to shock the viewer out of apathy, the punk movement gave little thought to the commonly perceived ‘good’ design practices.

parody and politics: using images from a media-saturated culture for a new purpose, they meant to trigger recognition in the viewer and include them on the subversive in-joke.

All ripped up: Punk influences on graphic design

MALCOLM MCLAREN: A multi-talented man

promoter and manager of bands the New York Dolls and the Sex Pistols

he was one of the first white music producers to bring hip-hop to a wider audience and one of the first to popularise world music in the west

partnership with fashion designer Vivienne Westwood: SEX

In a new, in-depth biography, Paul Gorman offers a vivid portrait of the postmodernist impresario who conjured up punk’s angry pose, the Sex Pistols, and much more.

Malcolm McLaren's Life of Chaos, Music, and Art

JAMIE REID Jamie Reid’s artworks

 A GUIDE FOR ANYONE WANTING TO DO IT THEIR WAY, FROM REID:

Destroy Your Computer: The more we get drawn into this mad digital world, the more we lose contact with each other. “Most jobs are about enslavement, break free if you can”

Study Art: If I hadn’t gone to Croydon I would never have met Malcolm McLaren, not just for what he did with the Pistols but for everything else he did. The irony is that neither Malcolm or I would have got into Croydon if it was today. What does that tell you about what’s happened to our education system?

Have a Sense of Humour

Learn from the Past

Look to the Future: Radical ideas will always get appropriated by the mainstream, people in authority lack the ability to be creative, and they rob everything they can. you have to keep moving on to new things. 

Iconic Punk Artist Jamie Reid Has Some Advice for Young Creatives

XEROGRAPHY ART: is an art form that began in the 1960s. Prints are created by putting objects on the glass, or platen, of a copying machine and by pressing "start" to produce an image.

What Happens When a Photocopy Machine Becomes an Art Tool?

MEMPHIS DESIGN (MILAN 1980’S): its aesthetic embodies the 1980s

Simple geometric shapes; flat colours combined in bold, contrasting palettes; stylised graphic patterns defined by black-and-white stripes and abstract squiggles – these are the ingredients of Memphis-inspired design, fuelled by influences from earlier movements such as Pop Art and Art Deco.

10 iconic examples of Memphis design

ETTORE SOTTSASS: One of the most influential and important figures of the last century, Architect and Designer, founded the Memphis group In 1981, a group that has radically changed the scenario of Italian and world design.

Ettore Sottsass’ works

DAVID CARSON: RAYGUN   David Carson design

David Carson’s deconstructed style for Ray Gun, was very much a design aesthetic that blurred the lines of visual communication and challenged its readers to interpret the text in their own way. Much like the youths that he targeted throughout the 90s, they were rule breakers themselves that rebelled against society. His use of non-hierarchical text and visually complex, layered compositions, spoke ‘their language.’ 

“I’ve never used grids; I still don’t. I never studied or learned about them, and when I did I saw no reason to use them.”

STREET PRESS ANALYSIS: RAY GUN COVER — David Carson, Anti-grid Design Icon David Carson Says Computers Make You Lazy, Contextual Studies: David Carson

NEVILLE BRODY: THE FACE

The Face, drawing freely for his visually exciting layouts and typography on avant-garde artistic ideas. Brody was thoughtful to the construction of its layouts, with blocks of texts often placed horizontally or vertically on the page, the layouts contrasting strikingly with hand-mediated imagery and photography. Such ideas exerted a significant international impact on the appearance of the magazine, advertising, and retailing design.

POST 14 – 1980's – 'The Face' Neville Brody – Monique

-----------------------------

WEEK 10 

MIMMO ROTELLA 

'With a Smile', Mimmo Rotella, 1962

Mimmo Rotella - 324

ROBERT RAUSCENBERG

Robert Rauschenberg 1925–2008

JACEK TYLICKI

Jacek Tylicki Art and Artworks

FISCHLI & WEISS 

Fischli & Weiss: Flowers & Questions. A Retrospective – Exhibition at Tate Modern

GILBERT BAKER: RAINBOW FLAG

“Our job as gay people was to come out, to be visible, to live in the truth, as I say, to get out of the lie. A flag really fit that mission, because that’s a way of proclaiming your visibility or saying, ‘This is who I am!’” 

Baker saw the rainbow as a natural flag from the sky, so he adopted eight colors for the stripes, each color with its own meaning (hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit).

How Did the Rainbow Flag Become a Symbol of LGBTQ Pride?

FLAG IN DESIGN: the lecture talked about how flags influence to power of design, this is an interesting article of how flags can go beyond the rules of design, but still make it work.

7 fantastic flags that break every design rule

ACTIVISTS (ADBUSTER, TIBOR KALMAN, GUERRILA GIRLS, BENETTON: COLORS MAGAZINE)

A Review of COLORS

“Oliviero Toscani and Tibor Kalman launched “a magazine about the rest of the world” for United Colors of Benetton in 1991. It seems only fitting that an unconventional title like this should be documented in an unconventional way.” 

“Toscani wanted a magazine without any stars, without any celebrities, and without any news. He decided they’d interview people nobody knew, and they’d use the internet to find stories. This approach- a combination of dynamic graphics, striking photographic imagery, provocative themes, and an unwaveringly global outlook—has become familiar to magazine readers now, they hope to firmly establish COLORS’ status as the founder not only of today’s independent magazines, but of mainstream media as well.”

SHEPARD FAIREY: HOPE POSTER   Visual Analysis of Shepard Fairey's 'Hope'

Color: Red, blue and beige are representative of the American flag, illustrating his patriotism. Blue help to define his features, the beige on his face might be to say that race doesn’t matter.  

Typography: provides the concept that the poster is trying to communicate. HOPE’s typeface used is Gotham, a strong slab sans serif, the use of Gotham in this work creates a sense of authority and a bold assertive statement in which there is no uncertainty. These clean letterforms grab the viewers’ attention and makes a statement, permitting for maximum legibility and objectivity.

[nomadicism]

Voltron: Legendary Planning Fail

Thanks to @ptw30​‘s post, “A Few Thoughts on DW/VLD Marketing” for reminding me that I’ve had a draft about VLD toys, merch, and marketing copy inconsistencies to complete. Read her post first.

I’ve been researching the toys and merch for several months now to follow-up on weird things that I noticed much earlier. I’m a toy collector who is also a designer and have worked in advertising/marketing, and in broadcasting at Cartoon Network. I left that world to design and develop applications in genetics/life-sciences, best decision I ever made (co-founded a startup in between all of that too. Good times). My experiences had me zeroing in on this show bible business that came up during that Let’s Voltron interview (March 28th, 2019). I’ve been suspicious about it for awhile, as the gradual unraveling of VLD’s narrative, lore retconning, and OOC dialogue and behavior of the characters (most egregiously in S8) is indicative of a lot of problems, and an incomplete or poorly-done show bible is at the top of that list. Now combine that with the weirdly slow-to-market of VLD merchandise and toys.

Both manufacturers and merchandise license program partners can’t get product to market in time to meet (or even anticipate demand) if they don’t have official assets from the show, and that includes anything that would have been in the show bible. When the show-runners let it out that their show-bible was the “loosest you’ll ever see”, and then complained about the elemental icons used on the toys by the manufacturer (Playmates) not matching their aesthetic, and after they redesigned them, Playmates didn’t want to use them, I was like: “Really? Y’all got hung up on that?”

It takes months, sometimes over a year, to design and test molds for toy prototypes and then to go into mass production and distribution. Traditionally, there is also a step where the IP holder has to approve the design concepts created by the manufacturer (toys and other merch).

The IP approval step could potentially have been made more complicated by the different players involved in the communication: WEP, DreamWorks Animation, Playmates, Studio Mir, and the most complicated layer of all, DreamWorks Classics, aka Classic Media. All of them could have been involved, I’m not saying that they all were, but it’s something to consider.

DreamWorks acquired Classic Media in 2011-2012 and formed them into a separate unit within DreamWorks Animation. Classic Media were the managers of the Voltron IP among many other brands in their huge IP library. That’s the short version b/c it’s complicated. IP ownership and licensing is not always as straight-forward as one might think, especially with these toy-cartoon properties from the 80s.

So where did the elemental icons come in during the creation of the show bible and toy design approval process?

Above: packaging inserts showing the elemental icons.

I kept the package inserts because—as a toy collector—I strongly felt that the packaging was done very well. The graphics are slick and look good. The ink has a nice saturation with a lot of color depth, range, and fidelity. The die-cuts are excellent and intricate. The packaging on the larger lion sets makes great use of aqueous coating and spot varnishes. Whomever designed the packaging knew what they were doing, and also understood the print production process (Hi! I used to do that too).

I kept these even though I always ditch packaging because I wanted to scan them for collage art. There is absolutely nothing wrong with these elemental icons, and they look reasonably well integrated with the graphic assets from DreamWorks and Studio Mir. These inserts were from the toys released in 2017.

The toy packaging gets more interesting when you see what marketing copy was sent to Playmates to use (or work from if it was from the show bible).

Above: Shiro’s package insert with descriptive text that says, “Long ago a mighty robot warrior, Voltron, was created to protect the galaxy from evil. Now, five young heroes must master the power of the Voltron Lions to defeat the Galra empire and restore peace!”

“Five young heroes” eh? They must have gotten that text early on because that’s kind of a weird way to say it when the Shiro packaging also says “…wise beyond his 25 years…”. I mean, 25 is still young, but that’s not what comes to mind when I read “five young heroes” on a toy box!

Shiro is the only one with a listed age in any of the packaging. I noticed this when I got these toys in 2017 and it reminded me that I had originally read that it would be five teenagers and I had to go looking for articles that I kept (yeah I do that b/c toys).

From this article on ActionFigureInsider.com about Playmates launching the VLD toyline in 2016:

“Let’s Voltron! Playmates Toys and DreamWorks Animation today announced plans for a new toy line based on the new DreamWorks Animation series Voltron: Legendary Defender, a re-imagining of the classic property featuring five teenage pilots and mystical robot lions, set to debut as a Netflix Original Series in 2016. Playmates Toys will serve as the master toy licensee and will create an expansive line of toys set to launch in spring 2017.”

and

“Voltron: Legendary Defender follows five unsuspecting teenagers as they are transported from Earth into the middle of a sprawling intergalactic war and become pilots for five mystical robotic lions in a battle to protect the universe from evil. Only through the true power of teamwork can they unite their lions to form the mighty warrior known as Voltron. Voltron: Legendary Defender premieres on Netflix in 2016.”

LULZ. That ain’t no fluke y’all. That loosey-goosey show bible and the initial story planning drafts/concepts must have had Shiro as a teenager. Oops.

Playmates got part of the message in time to slip-in Shiro’s age on his packaging, but why the discrepancy between the article in early 2016 and the 2017 toy release in the first place?

Obviously, things changed between the first story planning phases, the release of marketing copy to media, the release of production art assets to Playmates, and when S1 was made. There still would have been time to update that copy for Playmates and media in early 2016, given that S1 would have already been in production, with S2 to quickly follow by that time. The show-runners already knew before that article ran that Shiro was not going to be a teenager anymore (and likely many other toy-relevant details). Did they intentionally not update anyone who had a right to know, or did it just slip their minds? Did someone else in the chain of communication mess up? Did that disagreement over the design of the elemental icons take up a lot of time, or possibly include larger disagreements?

Since the first wave of toys were released in 2017, when Keith was in the Black Lion, they would have been designed for production and manufactured much earlier than that. Playmates can’t turn around on a dime to manufacture toys (not to mention design the packaging) to match the seasons. They need to have the information of what will happen in a season way ahead of time. This is one of many banal-yet-important reasons why your show bible needs to be tight, and your character arcs well-planned out.

We can see the first wave of the toys in photos from Toyfair 2017. There’s even a Zarkon figure, and various toys that are clearly for young boys (prop swords, masks, and the like). I remember seeing these photos right after Toyfair and thinking that Zarkon figure was looking pretty cool looking for what it was.

Above: Zarkon prototype figure with black bayard sword. Photo by Jim Kiernan for NerdyRottenScoundrel.com.

Since Playmates was able to create a prototype of Zarkon ahead of Toyfair 2017, that means that they began the design phase in early 2016 before the show first aired (possibly before that even). This also means that they knew that Zarkon had the black bayard, so that much was planned out.

Then in Toyfair 2018, Playmates had new toys, including prototypes for the Hunk, Pidge, and Allura figures, the HyperPhase lions, and the “Stealth Mode” translucent lions. It’s worth noting that photos of the Pidge and Hunk paladin figures show up on the inserts in the 2017 toys as they were originally intended to be part of that wave.

Above: Prototypes for the Allura, Pidge, and Hunk paladin figures. Photo by Joe Moore for Toyark.com.

So salty that Playmates cancelled these.

Below, an excellent video from Toyfair 2018 where Pixel Dan asks the hard questions of the rep (if video doesn’t show here is the URL to it on YouTube):

Pixel Dan asks about the possibility of a Lotor figure, and what happened to the other villain figures from 2017 (e.g. the Zarkon figure, and there was a prototype for another robeast other than Myzax). The rep says those were pushed back, and there “will be more Lotors” (LOL) in the next phases in development. I’m pretty sure he got Lotor confused for Zarkon.

It’s important to note that Pixel Dan and the rep talk a lot about the slow distribution of the first wave of figures based upon what retailers were doing with their ordering and stock. That people weren’t seeing them in stores. The rep explains that the toys are made in response to demand and that’s also up to the retailers to order them, but there’s also some comments that I interpreted as though they didn’t have enough details about what to make in the first place.

For those who haven’t already seen me share ToyGalaxy’s excellent video about the action figure industry being broken, give it a watch:

The video above explains a lot about why Playmates had problems with distribution, as ALL manufacturers were-and-still-are having distribution problems. It’s really hard to find toys at stores, my partner and I go hunting all the time, the lengths we go to are absurd.

I’m certain that retail distribution problems contributed to demand for the toys and that’s partly why they were cancelled. But this problem with the show bible also contributes because if Playmates had future season information when they should have, then they might have been able to design toys that more closely matched the show, thus boosting demand once it hit critical mass. I also wonder how much time they lost in the beginning due to the back-and-forth over the elemental icons.

Other merch, like t-shirts should also have been in production before 2017. They would have required details from the show bible as well. We could have had lion slippers y’all. Just sayin’.

So about those Allura with the Red Lion t-shirts that @ptw30​ mentioned in her post:

Above: officially licensed t-shirts for Allura and Keith with the Red Lion, bearing the fire element icon.

Someone (ptw30? headspacedad?) called these shirts to my attention privately a few months ago—after S8 but ahead of Hot Topic’s recent new t-shirt release—and alarm bells went off in my head. Typically, this is the kind of error that you’d see in a knock-off, but these are officially licensed and they were linked to directly from the Voltron store page (at the time they had a re-direct promo image for merch on Amazon, in addition to what they sell on their own store page).

Descriptive text in the shopping page for all of the t-shirts of this style reads:

“Join the Paladins Shiro, Keith, Lance, Pidge, Hunk and Coran as they combine their lion mechas together to form Voltron! Help them take on the Evil Galra Empire with these officially licensed Voltron: Legendary Defender graphic tees, pullover hoodies and popsockets!”

Coran eh? Interesting choice for text about combining lions. Why no mention of Allura on her own t-shirt? And what the hell is a popsocket?

On another Allura t-shirt—which also has different product specification text indicating that it’s probably not manufactured by the company that made the t-shirts above—has descriptive text that reads:

“Voltron is the classic cartoon series that began in the early ‘80s. It is an animated show that brings back the nostalgia of classic cartoon fever. Not to mention a popular show pretty much stole the idea. (starts with pow- ends with -angers….) Voltron will always be number #1! This women’s junior’s shirt features a high quality character design of Princess Allura and Blue Lion.”

Why are they dragging Power Rangers in the text for an Allura t-shirt?

And actually, it’s incorrect. Power Rangers aka Tokusatsu Sentai shows came first. Voltron/GoLion descends from the combining mecha genre that began with Go Nagai’s Getter Robo series in the 70s, which was influenced by the Tokusatsu Sentai shows. So no, Power Rangers didn’t steal that idea.

Did anyone involved with VLD do their homework other than Tim Hedrick and May Chan?

We can see here that the t-shirts that are available on the Voltron store, and what’s available on Amazon are not always the same, even though the shirts say they are officially licensed. What’s going on here?

Some—but not all—of the t-shirts in the Voltron store list “From Trevco” in their description. Trevco.inc does licensing for branded merchandise, and selling t-shirts via Amazon appear to be one of their licensing product programs. Both DreamWorks Animation and Voltron: Legendary Defender are among the brands listed. Oh look, another layer in IP licensing cake!

Meanwhile, in the Hot Topic store, there’s a completely different style—in terms of aesthetic and design—of both VLD and Voltron DotU t-shirts being sold. I suspect that HT licensed VLD and Voltron DotU for in-house design, plus artist collaboration design, as these are exclusive for Hot Topic and I’ve not seen them anywhere else. That could mean they have a different kind of license than what Trevco and others selling on Amazon have. The t-shirts from HT don’t list any other manufacturer on the label, other than being made in Haiti. I kind of want to buy that weird Allura with Red Lion t-shirt to just compare them. (Surprising no one, I bought the Lot//ura and Black Paladin Shiro t-shirts from HT).

The difference in style between what’s on WEP’s Voltron store and Amazon, versus what’s in Hot Topic is very interesting, and I assume it has a lot to do with demographics for their respective markets (perceived or real). In a traditional merchandize licensing agreement, WEP and/or DW would still have to approve any designs created by—or if artist collaboration with—Hot Topic.

How long did that approval process take?

The recent release of t-shirts (Feb/March 2019) include a t-shirt with a scene from S5 (the chosen marks scene for Allura and Lotor). There are no MFEs, Atlas, white-haired Shiro, or anything else from S7-S8. There is a Keith t-shirt with his cosmic wolf, and a shirt with the Monsters and Mana designs, so they got something from S6.

Above: Funko Pops. I’ve got a poorly-painted Allura (her right earring and tiara y’all), both Shiros, and the Pidge, Hunk, and Amazon Exclusive metallic paint VLD Voltron (Pidge, Hunk, and Voltron not pictured).

The VLD Funko Pops came out in the end of 2018 but ahead of S8. I’ve seen them at Hot Topic, and online (Amazon, and BigBadToyStore.com), but I have not seen them at other retailers that carry Funko Pops like GameStop and Target. We go toy hunting to those all the time, in many different places. I guess that demographic of boys aged 9-12 just aren’t interested in VLD to demand it at GameStop and Target. At least Hot Topic knows what’s up.

The Funko Pops use Allura’s uniform from S1-S2, and have two designs for Shiro (Black Paladin, and his black outfit). How long did these take to license and approve? Funko Pops are the lowest hanging merch fruit, so they should have been an obvious licensing choice by the end of 2016 once it was clear that VLD was a hit. But we didn’t see these until just before S8?

Finally, apparently WEP and the Voltron Store don’t mind those elemental icons that the show-runners hated, since they have a lanyard with them on it in their store (image below):

It’s almost as if no one is on the same page!

If I didn’t know any better—oh wait, I do because this is kind of my thing—it looks like these elemental logos were designed to be like Boy Scout merit badges. That’s fitting as the toys were meant to be bought by boys aged 9-12, and are safe for children aged 4 and up. With over 15 years of professional design experience across multiple fields and domains of design, if I were designing these, that’s exactly what I would have done from Playmates’ end, especially if DW and WEP had told me that their target demo was boys aged 9-12.

Shouldn’t the show-runners and Studio Mir’s very different design aesthetic have been made clear in the show bible and in any discussions and communications with Playmates (and whomever else was involved)? Who was responsible for communicating that?

To be clear, I like Studio Mir’s aesthetic much better, but what I like is irrelevant when we’re talking about toys and target demographics for marketing them, vs what’s appropriate for merchandise that could be for all kinds of demographics.

I’ve been in situations where I’ve had to design in parallel with an outside agency, and in the dark with little communication between us. It’s an awful position to be in, and I’m surprised that DreamWorks didn’t know better than to make sure that didn’t happen between those designing for the show and Playmates and anyone at DreamWorks Classics and WEP that might have been involved in communications.

I spat out my coffee when I read that bit about the show bible, because damn, if you’ve ever had to design an ad campaign (which can last for years!) with a half-assed or incomplete branding guide and little-to-no marketing and romance copy (let alone a style guide to help your copy editors write it), then you’re looking at a huge mess once that thing finally gets finished.

How did DreamWorks not catch that?

[quarantineroulette]

Seditions of You: An Interview with Filmmaker Joe Wakeman

Joe Wakeman’s second feature, The Shoplifters (not to be confused with the Palme d’Or-winning film of the same title, but hopefully SEOs are none the wiser) is “a series of tableaux depicting the follies of a group of naïve Marxist would-be radicals” striving to be revolutionaries, only to discover that “what they really want is to be seen wearing berets.” 

Although he began work on it a decade ago, The Shoplifters carries some very timely themes about online activism, consumerism, and the shallowness of modern culture as a whole. With fairly little effort, its thought-provoking vignettes resist passive cultural consumption and its stylistic fluidity keeps it visually stimulating as well. Its 70 minutes also offer a lot of seamless humor, from a slightly slapstick dressing room shoplift to a smart, satirical "revolutionary bake sale” in Washington Square Park.

Ahead of The Shoplifters’ appearance at the NewFilmmakers New York Film Festival on February 6, I spoke with Joe via email about collaborations, Maoist propaganda and Communism as fashion statement, among other fun topics. 

1) What ignited your interest in Marxism & Maoism? 

I've been interested in Marxism since I was a teenager, probably about when I was 13 and first encountered the politically inclined punk of The Sex Pistols and The Clash, and Dead Kennedys -- I think it's somewhat common for young suburbans to go through a "Communist" phase. What I didn't realize at the time was that my interest in Marxism was really less about politics, which admittedly I knew precious little about (though I do lean rather strongly to the left) and more about the iconography of Communism: I would go around with sickle and hammer belt buckles and spell "Revolution" with a backwards “R.” That sort of corny thing.

 Later on, when I was 18 or so, I saw Jean Luc Godard's La Chinoise and his Groupe Dziga Vertov films with Jean-Pierre Gorin, all beautifully boring films depicting sexy French Maoists who do very little real revolutionary activity, despite their ability to quote at length from Marxist texts. These films made it apparent to me that what we think of in the US as "Marxist," where Communism has never been a reality, is as much a set of fashion and cultural signifiers as is the uniform of a typical "Goth" or "Emo Kid" -- berets, fists in the air, shabby clothes, shiny boots and cigarettes. 

2) I believe you've mentioned that you started working on -- or had least conceived of -- The Shoplifters about 10 years ago? In what ways has it changed in that time? 

Yes, at that time my friend Taylor Bruck (who plays Che Smith in the film) and I were also sometimes engaged in the "cool crime of shoplifting." There was a certain politically oriented moral code about it, where it was okay to shoplift from big corporations like Barnes & Noble but not right to steal from local businesses. But after seeing the Godard films we talked about how goofy it would be to take those politics further and call ourselves "revolutionaries,” which became the kernel of the absurd story for The Shoplifters that we wrote together.

The original script had a lot more characters and more action, arsons and assassinations and a lengthy courtroom finale at the end, where the Shoplifters are put on trial for sedition and theft. All that sounds exciting, but keep in mind, this was the script of a teenager. It's really rather cringe-worthy to read today. I threw the whole thing out when I reworked the film, though a couple scenes survive: the opening speech and the fitting-room sequence, where we pile on layers of stolen clothes, are both from the original version of the movie. We tried to shoot scenes from that script at that time, when I was 18 years old, with some borrowed equipment from the TV studio I was working for at the time, but we shot on damaged tapes and botched the sound recording. The material was practically unusable so, dejected, I hung up The Shoplifters for awhile and dedicated myself to working on other things and developing more before taking another crack at it. 

3) Do you see The Shoplifters as sharing any similarities with your first feature, They Read By Night? Although stylistically different, they both seem to lovingly mock certain countercultures. I also like that they both have "nested" films within films (the short in They Read by Night and the music video and "Post-Capitalist Potential for Mass Education in the Internet Age" sequence in The Shoplifters).

Definitely. Actually They Read By Night was an attempt, after the first failure of The Shoplifters, to write a similar film on a smaller scale. I swapped out the berets for leather jackets and the characters became greaser-rock ‘n’ roller juvenile delinquents instead of revolutionaries, but the point is essentially the same -- that their so-called rebellion is still a symptom of capitalism, buying into another kind of "outsider" fashion. 

As for the films-within-the-film element, I've always been attached to the idea that a movie does not have to tell one story, or focus on the story, or even just be one type of film. This is the other big element learned from the likes of Godard and other counterculture filmmakers, Dusan Makavejev, Warhol et al. -- that the "plot" of a film is not so important as the ideas which animate it, and to express those ideas more in the form of a lively discussion that, in a movie, can be shown with images rather than just spoken with words. Let's make our characters watch a film together and see how they react, or in The Shoplifters they educate themselves about Mao Zedong by reading about the Cultural Revolution on Wikipedia and from there its a free-flowing association of images culminating in some psuedo-Greek philosophy. It's the kind of methodology that people experimented with in the ‘60s and you see less often today, though occasionally you do see it, in Sion Sono's excellent recent Antiporno. Or, actually, the web-browser screen cap stuff in The Shoplifters is inspired by the 2014 teen horror film Unfriended. It's kind of a limitation of the cinema's potential when a movie just tells you a story one way, unless the story is really good, like Titanic or something. 

  4) Both films also have musical sequences (the fight scene in They Read By Night and "Style Revolutionaries" in The Shoplifters). Given your involvement in the music scene here in Brooklyn (Joe is in the band Toyzanne, who you should definitely check out, and directs music videos as well), would you ever consider doing a musical?

I love musicals! They're a popular illustration of that same idea -- the story stops, and somebody sings a song that comments on it, or sometimes the song continues the story, or presents a separate situation which is analogous to the story. I was raised on musicals and I think they can still be cutting-edge as a genre, even though many might regard them as old-fashioned. I composed a lot of the music for The Shoplifters, together with DP Torey Cates and help from musician friends from the Brooklyn scene: Brendan Winick (also in Toyzanne), Frank Rathbone and Jenna Nelson (of Sic Tic), Kate Mohanty. Holly Overton and Sannety (who also stars in the film) contributed their unique stylings for different sections of the film as well. When I showed my friend John Sansone an early cut of the film, he remarked that he didn't realize that it was a "musical" which surprised me because there's no singing, (except for the Smiths cover and "Style Revolutionary"). But when I considered the role music plays in the film, it's really not too different from a musical in structure and tone, which was something that made me feel very happy about it. I'd like to eventually do a proper musical with lots of songs that plays with the genre in a more direct way, but I also don't think I'm mature enough yet as a filmmaker to attempt that.

5) How did the various collaborations in the film (the score, and the sequences from Oliver David and Preston Spurlock) come about? 

Oliver David had made two music videos, one for my old band Bodega Bay and one for ONWE that had this style of a slow-motion fashion advertisement for the bands. I really enjoyed these videos and wanted Oliver to do something of a "remake" of the same style, this time advertising the revolutionary cadre in the film instead of a rock ‘n’ roll band, making the not-so-subtle commentary even less so. Likewise, when I was preparing to make the film I became close friends with Preston Spurlock, who makes these mind-blowing video collages of old commercials and such that are like wading through cultural toxic waste dumps to tap into some unconscious reflections that can't be put into words. I connected these in my head to stuff like Godard's Histoire(s) du cinema or the work of Adam Curtis (HyperNormalisation, The Century of the Self) and thought they would add a lot to the dialogue of images I was trying to present in the film.

 I think that it's unimportant for an artist to be the "sole author" of a film. It is more interesting when I think, “Oh, Sannety can do things with electronic music that I don't even understand,” or “Oliver and Preston work in video in a completely different style from me which can form a relationship with my style, so why not ask them to contribute and make it a real dialogue rather than a constructed one.” I think collaboration is key in filmmaking -- it keeps the spirit of montage living through and through the work, which if you consider Eisenstein and Vertov, is really "Revolutionary" filmmaking. 6) I liked the criticisms of Internet activism the film presented. In the ego-driven realm of social media, do you feel there is any way for a pure act of protest or activism to thrive or even exist? 

Yes I do think real activism can exist and can even be given a lot of strength through the Internet and social media -- those things have leveled the playing field and given voice to marginalized communities who hadn’t had that kind of visibility before the advent of these networks. Community organizer Candice Fortin, introduced to me through Gwynn Galitzer and Suffragette City Magazine, is another voice present in the movie, in keeping with the collaborations that exist throughout the film. She explains activism in the modern era and what people can do to start enacting change very eloquently midway through the movie, and i don't think I can say it better than the way she did in the film. She is constantly posting about progressive candidates, organizations and other concerns through social media to bring about political change on a grassroots scale. You can follow her @candicefortin for a start, but mainly pay attention! These opportunities to help are all around. 7) Do you have a favorite piece of Maoist propaganda?

Yes! This Maoist ballet from the cultural revolution, encouraging women to form feminist revolutionary cadres: The Red Detachment of Women. You can watch it on Youtube. Footage from it appears in Preston Spurlock's section of the film, I think it's beautiful and absurd, but I think weirdly Old Hollywood despite its anti-Western screed, like An American in Paris or something but cheaper looking. I really get a kick out of it. Perhaps when this one-day musical comes to fruition I’ll dole out some political ballet as a quiet (or more likely, loud) nod.

The Shoplifters is screening as a part of the NewFilmmakers New York Film Festival at Anthology Film Archives on Feb. 6, 2019. RSVP here. 

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Label Maker For Mac

[schafpudel]

It can be ethical, I think? There’s a ton of art in the world that is in the public domain or creative commons, for example. You could make an artist-collective-run program that only includes these works! You could, also, make a program include only the art-data of people who explicitly agreed to be included, as volunteers or for actual pay. And with a big database, it’s worth noting that less than 1% of any given work included in the database is actually influencing the final results.

Collages, an older media that we already recognize as art, draw much more directly from other people’s creations than these ai-generated images. It’s just that there isn’t a fucking plague of people cutting and pasting printouts of indie artwork into collages. We’ve formed an unspoken social agreement about what you do and don’t do when making a (physical or digital) collage - magazine advertisements are fine, wolflover97′s deviantart gallery of OCs isn’t.

There are people right now, attempting to create a values code for ethical use of AI image generation.

The technology doesn’t have to “steal“ - it “steals“ because a lot of the backers of modern technological advances are fucking jackasses whose response to being told “please don’t” is to double down and say “make me a picture that looks like this one specific twitter artist’s work”.

Consider glitch art. Intentionally running garbage data through an audio or image program to create weird sounds means that most of the “work“ is done by the computer, and that the “creator“ is simply curating the results that are the most interesting + possibly hand-altering them in post. However, it’s the act of inserting intention that makes it even worth paying attention to.

Likewise, the way that Tech Bros talk about “ai art“ obfuscates the fact that it takes many iterations, tweaks to the prompt, etc, to get something even halfway presentable. (The tech bros also enjoy watching artists panic and fucking with us, btw. they pretended the recent attempts at polluting the databases worked because they think it makes us look like idiots for believing them. They are jerks and part of not letting them win is not falling for their propaganda about the effectiveness of ai at replacing handmade art.)

When photography was invented, the market for painted portraits crashed, and it was feared to be the death of painting. But there are things that painting is simply better at than photography, and so painting is still done. People were afraid that digital art would make traditional media obsolete, but there are lots of artists in my local area whose main work is with physical materials. (I don’t post it on tumblr for privacy reasons, but I’ve done artwork for local organizations in my area that’s all physical media, like murals and sculpture.)

I think we’re going to see AI Images run into a wall before too long, and find out what they suck at. Once that happens, we’ll see what things only hand-drawn art can competently do - just as we did with photography and painting.

I will say, I think that image-to-image AI art might actually help beginner/learning artists as a source of inspiration, and not in the way you might think.

In that, I think it could actually serve as a good means of motivational sustenance.

Because, when starting out, I note a lot of artists get discouraged by their limitations and their inability to get what's in their head out on paper.

But the thing is, even the crappiest personal drawings make for better image-to-image bases than just "raw" AI art. Like, legit, it works super well with MS paint blobs, real art does wonders with it!

So, the idea would be, even if you feel like your piece came out a dud, you still have a new tool you own to play around with with the AI.

And hey, if you draw, you might still have yet more tools, even if you're not satisfied with the originals, and you might want to keep drawing and drawing to make more, and hey, you're getting better at it, which means your image-to-images are getting better as well, which makes you want to draw more.

Maybe soon, when you get to a certain point, you realise, "Huh, I could do better than that machine" or "I'd rather do this by hand," and that's when you know you're getting running as an artist.

Tho, of course, that doesn't address the broader social problem of why young artists feel their art needs to already be polished right out of the gate to be presentable, but that's for its own post...

[jorjathomas]

Comparing existing magazines

As I've began to do some mild research, I thought it was beneficial to gather some information regarding my intended audience. I should see if there's a gap in the market for this particular self help magazine or if it would be high in demand or not. In this post, I have compared old magazines that were published for young women to see what has changed and what particular topics have became more popular over the years. Obviously magazines aren't as popular anymore for teens as most people would pick up a phone and scroll to kill time rather than buy a magazine from your local store however, I'm interested to see the comparison between the two. 

Old vs New

At first, I was going to compare two magazines and analyse the differences however as I started to do some research, I thought it would be interesting to see how certain magazines which have been running for a long period have changed over time as digital journalism has grown. I will contrast these brands with zine businesses which suits my idea.

Tiger Beat:

Google states ’Tiger Beat was founded in September 1965 by Charles "Chuck" Laufer, his brother Ira Laufer, and television producer and host Lloyd Thaxton. The magazine features teen idol gossip and carries articles on movies , music and fashion.’ This magazine is aimed towards adolesant girls just like my idea which is interesting to see the differences. Its funny to see how young women were perceived from looking as this magazines as they seem very celebrity based. As Tiger Beat is created by men, I'm assuming this is what they think teenage girls think about. I would say in the 60s this was true as boy bands where the hot spot for screaming girls however personally having a magazine just to get in the celebrity gossip is draining. The 60s was a very pivotal time for music and musicians didn't have a massive social platform like most artists do now so having a magazine like this is where fans would get updates about their lives. I think my opinions about Tiger Beat are solely based on how this generation has changed, I've defiantly bought zines just like this if it has my idol on the front however when looking at certain quotations and how its predominantly males being displayed despite being for girls is strange to me. For example the third image on the right where it advertised a ‘Peek inside Justin Biebers room’.  Not only does this feed on the artists personal life but it heightens this concept of teenagers becoming a obsessive fan. when looking at this magazine I begin to question whether this sort of content is normal for teenagers or am I just conditioned to believe it is what I should be thinking about as a teenage girl? Its even more ironic that this is made by men aswell but I don't know if that's the activist in me. To conclude, there was defiantly a gap in the market for supporting young adults when entering the real world as you can see. 

Teen zone:

Again, continuing with my previous opinions Teen Zone had the same intentions for their audience. Looking back at their earlier issues, it mas predominantly celebrity based. This involves gossip, looks and updates in their ‘perfect’ lives. This defiantly increased the idea of needing to be famous and look good all the time in order to be successful or good in life. These magazines are full of photoshopped faces with content telling people that they could look a certain way to feel accepted. Although looking briefly at the magazines are harmless I think they can be deep rooting in the problems girls feel in society when growing up. The only difference with this magazine in comparison to Tiger Beat is that they are still running as a business and have changed their content significantly. Teen zone only publish online now and when researching into their content i was surprised when seeing their statement. It states ‘TeenZone Digital Magazine is a magazine for the South African teenager. Teens in today’s society are increasingly being fed a diet entirely consisting of celebrity gossip. This grossly underestimates them. Teens today have voices that we all need to hear. They need to be taken seriously, and to be given the opportunity to express their views and concerns; to ask the important questions and receive trustworthy, accurate advice; and to enjoy themselves in a safe environment. TeenZone seeks to provide this platform. It is a magazine for teens, by teens.’ 

Teens in society now are much more vocal on certain events and I think we are defiantly becoming more aware on subjects which we may have not noticed before. The fact that Teen Zone has turned this around and creating a platform for teens to speak on matters special to them in inspiring and what I want to do also. They've defiantly succeeded well since moving digital as articles are much more accessible than a printed zine.

This is a picture of their website which differs from their zine. They have toned down their imagery and noticed as they are able to add more content onto a site.

As i began to look further into popular magazines from particular decades, eg; teen vogue, J-14 etc, I began to see the same results and outcomes. They were all very similar in content but I was surprised to finally see a magazine which although was produced a little later than the others, was drastically different to the others. Both aesthetically and within their content. This was a magazine called Rookie.

Rookie:

What makes Rookie magazine so different to the others is that this business was created by teenagers for teenagers. They are much more closer to their audience and were able to relate to the content they were giving out. Rather than adults profiting of their perception of what a teenager goes through despite not being one. I personally can see the differences between the two. Firstly Rookie stood out to me because of its collage-like personality. Its much more playful and personal than the previous zines I've looked at. The layered imagery with colourful texture achieves this friendly environment for teenagers to read though. I defiantly want to achieve this with my zine and I am going to look into this sort of work digitally and also physically to achieve a dimensional look rather than all of my work looking flat or 2D. 

This is a screenshot of Rookies site. Not only do they produce articles that teens can read for pleasure or to gain information, they also have platforms that can actually gives teens a place to talk and interact with others which I think is the drastic change for the industry. Interacting with the audience on a personal level proves that Rookie cares for their audience and wants to spark change. Unfortunately Rookie has stop publishing altogether as a business since 2018 for financial reasons.

Other magazines that I am interested in: As I've looked into previous magazines and began to understand their concept and beliefs,  I began to look into modern magazines that also produce the same concept as me and to see what makes them so different especially since there has been a massive sift in the journalism industry. Both of the publications below are fairly similar. Both want to create change and form a safe space where women learn new subjects which may not be normalise yet are very important for personal growth. They both combine their articles with art which helps create a visual understanding of their zine even better than standard text. I defiantly aim to follow these footsteps but I need to search for an unique concept that could help my idea become more popular for a young girl to read. I wanted to this as sadly both of these zines are either discontinued or temporality stopped making issues which makes me assume this idea isn't that successful so far whether that's due to the pandemic or society as a whole I'm unsure as of yet. I will begin to look at the impact of Covid on magazines later to understand why so many of these great businesses aren't running anymore despite having a positive impact on young women.

Got a girl crush:  “Got a Girl Crush is a blog and annual print magazine about women, by women, for everyone. We aim to disrupt the broken narrative of most women's publications and tell stories of all ages, races, and backgrounds of women all over the world. We believe that print is not dead and that there is value to having a tangible medium to read, digest, and share--rather than sharing a link online that is easily forgotten tomorrow.”

(Issue 3, published September 2016 from https://issuu.com/gotagirlcrush/docs/girlcrush_issue05_content-final )

I liked this magazine statement because it isn't restrictive on a specific audience. They mention that their content is open for anyone which I think is surprising. When thinking about making this zine I wanted to think of content that isn't too limiting or biased towards women as I think the real change in society will have to come from men's views and actions aswell as women's. When looking at their monthly articles, it was very text heavy. They had many important figures like planetary scientist Carolyn Porco, human rights activist Grace Lee Bogg menstrual activist & drummer Kiran Gandhi etc. Each had powerful stories to tell and impact onto readers. Despite this the illustrations and other visual forms of art broke down this barrier which is why it didn't look too overwhelming. I will follow through with this if not add more art into my final outcome as I’d like to be more creative for this project and really experiment with collaging. I had briefly did this in the first project and enjoyed the process.

Selva Beat: “Selva Beat is an environmental magazine with an edge. We take environmentalism and place it in the context of your favorite topics – beauty, fashion, culture, food, sex, love – to make activism as accessible and engaging as possible. Founded in 2014, we began as a way of educating the public about conflict palm-oil and have expanded into a multi-media platform that motivates others to better the planet through creative means.”

A magazines visual décor is very important as sadly you do judge the book by the front cover. Initially, this is what I liked about Selva Beat, it was very colourful and they had nice curvy, bubbled typography which isn't that common on magazines. When researching I didn't realise they were very environmentally orientated aswell as being a conscious feminist magazine. I was saddened that they aren't running anymore as I think this magazine would've been a good pivotal point.