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yoichichi · 4 years

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Power Couple Playlist

for my love @ikigaitooru , please enjoy Shawty :)

warning: slight timeskip!oikawa spoilers

Relationship Head cannons

I am not joking when I tell you you guys would be the definition of a power couple, like the kind where when people see you together they definitely get a little nervous assjjjdjsakaka

The team adoressss you too, like you are constantly clowning Oikawa and he’ll just be there like 🧍‍♂️ while the rest of the team loses their minds

Don’t let him fool you though! Oikawa clowns you just as much as you clown him definition of a petty queen

But also let literally anybody else say something to either of you, y’all just go innn on them (unless it’s Iwaizumi of course)

But as much as you two bully each other, you guys are infatuated with each other like you guys got each other on the brain constantly

IMO you guys definitely started off as flirty bullies, to flirty jackass friends to lovers 😶 (I’ll go more into detail with the playlist ;))

Your relationship definitely gives off summer fling type vibes but it just ,,, never ends lmaoo

You guys are LITERALLY the king and queen of the zodiacs and I feel like Oikawa would bring it up constantly “who cares babe we rule the world, let’s do what we want 😩” headass you cannot tell me he wouldn’t say this shit slightly unironically

Stares at you any chance he can get, he loves it when you’re hanging out with someone and you’re doing most of the talking so he can just watch you (will get embarrassed and sheepish if you notice though)

His favorite is when you’re smiling or laughing really hard and then look at him to talk or wait for his response shit gives him butterflies every time

Totally the type to wipe your face with a napkin if you guys are out and you got something on it and then just smile at you like 😊 got it

OKok i dont know much about smoking but he’d DEFINITELY be the giggly type probably horny too but you didn’t hear that from me

Boasts about you literally all the time whenever he gets the chance pls, whenever he gets interviewed at his games in Argentina he relentlessly finds ways to bring you up

Definitely let’s you do his makeup, no questions asked

Sometimes you’re aggressive and chaotic and it scares but also excites him in the best way

OKOK Playlist time!!

(the title is a joke pls don’t come for me asjfkdllsjs)

I kind of made this playlist as a soundtrack to your guys’ relationship and did my best to have it align with your music taste even though I feel like I did horrible job of that

I really hope you enjoy it and if you need me to change anything please tell me!!

1. Song for Me - Greer: Ok here we go, friends to lovers gang!! Y’all definitely trying to deny it, but you’re catching stupid feeligs stupid fast. He can really talk to you about these big dreams and you just listen and talk with him so intently that it makes him feel something he can’t explain at first it’s called romantic feelings dumby. And hearing him talk about his dreams with you and just really want to talk with you really makes you so happy; and you can’t help but imagine getting to be by his side with him while he does this and- hold on, did you really just think that? Yeah cue 2:37 of the song

2. This Side of Paradise - Coyote Theory: Yeah, so you guys mutally realize that you like each other and do NOT know what to do. You guys kind of start to dance around it and aren’t sure what signs are real or made up lmaooo. You’re both so playfully flirty it’s like 😏 ahahahah.. 👀👀 bimboz anywayyy cue the side glances from Oikawa and his relentless staring as he slowly falls more and more for you

3. Heavenly - Cigarettes After Sex: UGH DID SOMEONE SAY MUTUAL PINING, pls I feel like this would go on for a fair bit with Oikawa, he’s so dramatic. This song is just the definition of you two just wanting each other. And the fact he’s so nervous to screw it up with you just makes him more nervous cause he’s like oh shit, I really like her. Iwaizumi talks it through with him though knocks some sense into him “If she’s so great why wait until someone else recognizes that and want’s her all to themselves? As a matter of fact I’m sure-” “IWA PLEASE I GET IT” literally runs to your house out of breath after practice to confess to you assjfjdkkd

4. Violet - Hippo Campus: Ok so you guys are definitely together now, and this song just reminds Oikawa of you so hard. It played on his way home from your first date and now he just completely associates with you. Sometimes if he’s feeling extra nervous before a game he’ll listen to it and immediately feel better, it’s like your theme song for you in his mind right now, not that he would tell you that. Whenever he see’s you in the stands at his games this song is like a backtrack in his mind and it just gets him so extra pumped them serves are definitely extra terrifying

5. Michelle - Sir Chloe: Ok we’re gonna get a teensy bit angsty in here 😶 this song is definitely about Oikawa. He’s just so perfect and you hate it, you can’t help but start to love him and it’s so frustrating? He’s just gonna ruin you and you know it. You wanna try to fight falling in love with him so bad but you know there’s just no way that’s gonna happen. It’s like, who are you to be falling for him? It’s intimidating to fall in love with someone you can’t help but see as literally so perfect, knowing practically everyone wants him. He would obliterate you if he heard you think this way but who has to know

6. Sweet - Cigarettes After Sex: This is it, this is the song Oikawa realizes he’s in love with you to. Not just loves you but like in love with you. It starts playing in his headphones while he’s on a run and it makes his heart stop. He just can’t stop thinking of you alongside every lyric (1:45-1:53? Oh yeah) and it makes him so soft; while also scaring the absolute shit out of him. He’s just so in love with you.

7. I Love You - The Post Nobles: OK IM SORRY A LITTLE WITTLE BIT OF ANGST! I do see falling in love scary period, and I do feel like it would kind of scare Oikawa for a second, like he’d really have to sit with his thoughts for a second and be like?? I love this girl? Oh god what if I mess it up? What if I lose her? What would I do? What if she doesn’t love me back? It would just be so much easier if I didn’t love her. So this song is more to himself like, fr my guy?? You love this chick? Wanna take it back? Nope. He can’t believe it but he’s in love with you and has no choice about it, it’s scary but he would let you ruin his life and he ultimately wouldn’t want it any other way.

8. Pretty Boy - The Neighbourhood: I mean c’mon, this SCREAMS falling for Oikawa vibes. But it’s kind of like your song to each other like fuck it, we’re in love and we can’t do a damn thing about it. ~acceptance

9. Hot Faced - Margaux: I don’t know how to explain it but this is definitely you and Oikawa?? (”King” C’mon now 🙄) I have a feeling people are easily intimidated by you (you look like someone I’d be scared to talk to you) and Oikawa is so charming and inviting, like everyone loves him. So I’m sure there’s people who are like 🧍‍♀️ she’s intense, how’d he just get her like that? And she got him? Power Couple

10. Driving - Donna Missal: Honestly, this is totally just a ~vibe time song for the two of you :)

11. Burning Pile - Mother Mother: Ok TELL me you two wouldn’t blast this song, singing your lungs out together when someone’s had a bad day or is particularly stressed out? Definitely becomes somewhat of a ritual between you two 🖤 you guys are so cute I love you

12. Sunrise - Kevitch: This song is just the definition of your guy’s infatuation and love for each other. People are definitely jealous of you two cause it’s just so obvious on your faces you love each other.

13. The Girl - City and Colour: Don’t hate me - slight Oikawa angst 🧍‍♀️ It’s Oikawa, he’s angsty. I strongly HC he’ll just never feel quite good enough for his s/o. He just feels like he’s dragging you around so he can chase his dreams and he hates how selfish he feels for doing that to you, but he just couldn’t imagine loving anyone but you. He has these big dreams of becoming a professional volleyball player, and even when he makes it to Argentina with you he feels like he constantly needs to do better for you and just loves you so much it hurts, and he just hopes that that’s enough for you :(

14. Cover Me in Roses - Holden Laurence: Intimate much?? Oikawa would most definitely make you slow dance to this song with him. It plays in his head if he wakes up before you, or if you fall asleep before him, all while he just can’t help but look at you and feel so so soft while he caresses your face and just thinks: this is it, this is all I need to make it through anything.

15. I Wanna go to the Beach - Algernon Cadwallader: Did someone say laughing and dancing in the hot night air or Argentina in nothing but your underwear inside your house with all the windows open? Cause that’s what I heard.

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OKOK THAT’S IT BABES, I really hope you liked it, pls tell me if you’d like any changes.

And if anyone else see’s this I’d be more than happy to do this for you, too! Just send an ask with your music taste, tell me about yourself (a fair amount pls lmaooo) and whether or not you want someone or want me to pair you up! (haikyuu only please!)

#haikyuu x reader #playlist #oikawa hcs #oikawa angst #oikawa torū #oikawa playlist #haikyu x reader #haikyu requests #kageyama x reader #hinata shoyo x reader

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tabloidtoc · 3 years

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National Examiner, March 29

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: The Jayne Mansfield only her daughter Mariska Hargitay knew

Page 2: They're Aging Like Fine Wine -- celebs reflect on the wonders of getting older -- Candice Bergen, Anthony Hopkins, Halle Berry, Diane Keaton, Jennifer Lopez, Sandra Bullock, Bette Davis, Reese Witherspoon, Sally Field

Page 3: Helen Mirren, Jamie Lee Curtis, Madonna, Sigourney Weaver, Michael Caine, Jennifer Aniston, Goldie Hawn, Diane Lane

Page 4: Warren Beatty's roles and costumes

Page 6: Since her 2016 split from Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie has had to keep calm and carry on with six growing kids to think about and she admits the past few years have been pretty hard and she's been focusing on healing her family -- the six kids she shares with Brad, who range in age from 12 to 19, have been looking out for her too -- the 45-year-old is looking forward to her 50s and she feels that she's going to hit her stride in her 50s

Page 7: Canine Cuisine -- simple home-cooked fare for Fido

Page 9: Reach for at-home antibiotics

Page 10: When a Texas grocery store lost power during the devastating recent storm, they did something unimaginably generous -- they allowed all the customers to leave with whatever was in the shopping carts without paying for anything -- the shoppers at an H-E-B supermarket in Leander didn't even have to cough up a dime as they proceeded through the checkout lanes, even if they had hundreds of dollars' worth of food and supplies weighing down their wagons

Page 11: Your Health -- crying is healthy

* If you suffer from insomnia, try wearing socks to bed

Page 12: Hollywood Cemetery Shockers -- Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Whitney Houston, John Wayne

Page 13: James Brown, Michael Todd, Princess Diana, Sammy Davis Jr., Judy Garland, Steve Irwin

Page 14: Dear Tony, America's Top Psychic Healer -- the secret of life is so simple and attainable -- Tony predicts movie and TV star Robin Wright's move to being a director will be very successful and there will be many more films to come

Page 15: A Florida man just received the biggest surprise of his long life at the party to celebrate his 100th birthday -- someone had found and returned his wedding ring that he lost five years earlier while shopping at an Aldi's in Minnesota

Page 16: Kathie Lee Gifford: It's never too late to go after your dreams

Page 18: Happy Days mom Marion Ross is 92 now, but she still holds a memory about the legendary Cary Grant close to her heart -- back in 1959, when she was married to Freeman Meskimen, the actress was working on a film with the handsome star when she discovered she might be pregnant but she wasn't absolutely sure and so she didn't share her suspicions with anyone until one day, when a scene called for her to do something she wasn't sure a possibly pregnant woman should be doing, she revealed her secret to Cary Grant -- he sat down next to her, put his arm around her and said sweetly You're pregnant! and when she looked up at him, he had tears in his eyes; he was so excited for her and they had this marvelous moment together -- Marion said her husband was less than thrilled when her pregnancy was confirmed and they divorced a few years later

Page 19: An Indiana middle-school principal made the cut when he helped a kid out of a hairy situation -- when an eighth-grader at Stonybrook in Warren Township confided in Jason Smith he couldn't take his hat off because he was embarrassed about his uneven haircut, Jason offered to really straighten things out if he promised to return to class -- Jason has been cutting hair most of his life and he played college basketball and cut his teammates' hair before games, and he's been cutting his son's hair for 17 years and he had professional clippers and edgers at home, so he said if he went home and got his clippers and lined the student up, would he go back to class? and the student said yes, so Jason gave the kid a buzz and the happy student went back to class -- Jason says he knows a bad haircut may sound like a small thing, but to a boy that age, grappling with peer pressure, a bad 'do is a real don't

Page 20: Cover Story -- My mom Jayne Mansfield -- Mariska Hargitay reveals bombshell truths about the beloved sex symbol

Page 22: Use your noodle -- pool toy swims to the rescue

Page 24: Back when Calvin Tyler was in college in the early 1960s, he had such a hard time scraping together tuition money that he had to drop out before finishing his senior year and take a job as a UPS driver -- fast-forward a few decades: Calvin has just donated $20 million to Morgan State University in Baltimore, his alma mater

Page 25: A wounded veteran in Temecula, California, got the surprise of his life when he received a mortgage-free home courtesy of the Gary Sinise Foundation -- Josue Barron, who had joined the Marines at age 17, lost both his left leg and his left eye while serving in Afghanistan in 2010

Page 26: Dreamy hunk Patrick Swayze fell for one of his co-stars while filming the romantic movie Ghost, but the object of his affection wasn't on-screen love Demi Moore; it was Whoopi Goldberg

Page 28: 20 things you didn't know about James Bond actor Daniel Craig

Page 30: Spunky Hayley Arceneaux won a battle with bone cancer when she was 10 years old, and grew up to become a physician assistant in child oncology at St. Jude's Children's Hospital, where she was treated and if that wasn't enough, Hayley is going to blast off on a space flight -- the super survivor, who's now 29, was selected by the St. Jude's staff from hundreds of other employees to represent the famous hospital on the first-ever civilian spaceflight, arranged by the company SpaceX, to take place at the closing of 2021

Page 40: It's crystal clear -- the healing starts here -- crystals are very effective when it comes to healing, especially with one's emotion and they have special energies in different ways

Page 42: How to lower your COVID risk -- with new variants of the virus documented in the U.S., it's important to stay vigilant

Page 44: Eyes on the Stars -- Rebecca Holden of Knight Rider (picture), Lou Diamond Phillips of Prodigal Son in NYC (picture), Katharine McPhee admitted she was concerned with what people would think early on during her romance with 71-year-old David Foster, the daughter of John Travolta and Kelly Preston named Ella Blue Travolta is following in the footsteps of her actor parents by starring in Get Lost which is a modern-day retelling of Alice in Wonderland, Sarah Silverman recently apologized for mocking Paris Hilton at the 2007 MTV Awards, Nicolas Cage has tied the knot for the fifth time to Riko Shibata, Metallica have donated $75,000 to Feeding America via their All Within My Hands nonprofit and the funds are earmarked to aid folks in Texas who were affected by deadly winter storms

Page 45: Orlando Bloom running on the beach while vacationing in Hawaii (picture), Antonio Banderas (picture), Tom Jones takes the stage in the U.K. (picture), Robin Roberts near ABC's NYC studio (picture), Aaron Carter and fiancee Melanie Martin say they have a baby on the way nearly 10 months after she'd suffered a miscarriage, Dustin Diamond was never married to his galpal Jennifer Misner according to his death certificate, Liam Neeson attended a NYC screening of his new movie to thank viewers for coming to the theater on the first day Big Apple cinemas reopened after being shuttered by COVID-19 last year

Page 46: A single mom of three was struggling to do everything on her own, but there was one problem she lacked the skills and money to handle -- her house in Sudbury, Massachusetts was falling apart and that's when some kindly Good Samaritans stepped in with their toolbelts and performed the extensive home repairs she need at no charge

Page 47: Parenting Advice From the Stars -- Reese Witherspoon, Busy Philipps, Mark Consuelos and Kelly Ripa, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jennifer Garner

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jgroffdaily · 5 years

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It’s been almost two years since we last saw Mindhunter’s intrepid FBI team, led by plucky but serial-killer-obsessed Holden Ford—played by Jonathan Groff, of Hamilton and Frozen fame. With his off-screen affability and dangerous penchant for on-set laughter, it’s a credit to the baby-faced Groff’s abilities that Holden—a character loosely based on actual agent John E. Douglas—appears convincingly world-weary at the start of season two.

As the show’s freshman outing ended, Holden was becoming increasingly invested in the real-life serial killer and necrophile Ed Kemper, which led to a major panic attack and breakdown. Between the pressures of keeping the Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI afloat and his workaholic obsession, Holden was in rough shape.

Season two jumps from the late ’70s to 1980, where Holden and co. are investigating a new wave of serial killings that will eventually be dubbed the Atlanta child murders. With the support of the bureau, Holden’s team has moved out of its old basement office—but that upgrade brings with it a new sense of exposure and looming menace, especially since Holden also meets Son of Sam David Berkowitz and Charles Manson this season. We caught up with Groff to discuss the pressures of working for David Fincher, Mindhunter’s graphic sex scenes, and why serial killers aren’t actually the actor’s jam.

Vanity Fair: The two-year gap was tough on Mindhunter fans. Why did the show keep them hanging for so long?

Jonathan Groff: [Laughs] Only David Fincher has the power to do that, because he really takes his time. He worked on the scripts until he felt they were ready and they were exactly what he wanted them to be. That’s the honest, basic answer. He didn’t want to turn out a second season just because the first was successful. He wanted the story lines to be as interesting and complicated as possible. David Berkowitz and Manson aren’t the only two serial killers that we do this season; there’s a lot more that I think will be an exciting surprise. Manson has always been Holden’s holy grail in terms of serial killers that he wants to speak with, and he gets his wish this season.

Netflix got some heat earlier this year for allegedly glorifying Ted Bundy in a docuseries, Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, and a Zac Efron movie, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. Do you worry that Mindhunter could do something similar or open old wounds?

From the very first meeting we had about the show, David Fincher’s mission statement has always been that he doesn’t want to make comic book villains of serial killers. He wanted to show them as the sad, deplorable human beings that they are, and to explore their psychology. In no way did he ever want to celebrate the serial killer, and every single day on set operated with that mission and goal at the forefront. There is that temptation, in our cultural obsession, to make the killers powerful again by investing in them. We’re interested in taking an honest look and doing the opposite.

Do you see these men as monsters, or have you developed sympathy for them while doing the show?

I compartmentalize the work on the show, and I read as much as I can about any killer we’re about to interview—but I don’t really live for it. Serial killers aren’t my jam in that way. The thing that turns me on most about working on the show is exploring the psychology of the scenes themselves. Those long, 15-page interviews with the killers are the most fun for me as an actor, because I get to really lose myself and explore the psychology. If I stop and think about what the serial killers have done, I’d get really depressed. There is no empathy for serial killers in my mind.

In season two we meet the mothers of the murdered children from the Atlanta child murders. For the first time in the series, we’re looking at the families and parents of the victims. That was way more emotionally draining and heartbreaking for me. As the serial killer Ed Kemper said in season one, “We should all get death by torture.” I don’t think serial killers are really looking for sympathy anyway.

Do you take any emotional baggage from the show home with you?

I’m not a Method actor, so I don’t take any of it too seriously after they say, “Cut.” I go for a run every morning, and when I go home it’s pretty easy for me to shake it off. I think it might affect me in subconscious ways, because I definitely ate a lot during season two—a lot of Mindhunter emotional eating. My morning run [is] not only to stay in shape—but subconsciously, it’s my way to shake it off and mentally prepare for the new day.

Working on the show gives me so much respect for the people who actually talk to the serial killers, or those that talk to the families of the victims. It seems silly of me, as an actor playing pretend, to have any sort of damaging, emotional reaction to it when those people are out there living it every day.

Did you spend any time with real-life agent John E. Douglas when preparing for the role?

I emailed with John, but we had never met until about six months ago. He asked me to do the audiobook for his newest book, The Killer Across the Table, where he writes a little about Mindhunter and the characters Holden Ford and Bill Tench [Holden’s partner, played by Holt McCallany]. I did the reading, and then as a bonus feature on the audiobook, we did an interview with each other. The first time we spoke on the phone was really cool, and I was grateful to hear that he likes the show and what we’re doing.

Four months ago he came to New York and we had lunch for the first time. At the end of season one, my character has a panic attack and meltdown, and John Douglas did have a complete physical and emotional breakdown over the course of his career. We talked about that, and how exhaustive the work was for him. He was really encouraging, so it wasn’t awkward to meet him in any way.

In season one you had to portray a really intense sexual awakening for Holden. As an openly gay actor, were those straight sex scenes fun or daunting?

I think it was both. When I was 22, I was on Broadway doing Spring Awakening, where I had a very extensive sex scene with Lea Michele. It was the climax, no pun intended, of Act 1, and because I did that eight times a week for two years, I got really comfortable doing sex scenes. It was the routine of, “Here’s where I pull down your underwear and pretend to finger you,” and it was choreographed and blocked kind of like a dance.

Over the years I’ve heard horror stories from my male and female friends about their sex scenes. It usually stems from a lack of communication and the actors being thrown into it. When I got to Mindhunter, David is such a specific and intentional director, so there was never any wiggle room to feel weird, awkward, or afraid. There was just a lot of respect on the set—and it sounds so weird, but I end up really enjoying those scenes because there’s not a lot of dialogue to memorize. You’re telling the story physically, and there’s a natural vulnerability when you’re butt naked with another person that can’t really be faked.

What’s the most difficult part of working for Fincher?

You have to be on your A-game every second of every day, which is actually the most difficult and rewarding thing. It’s really simple, and that’s all that he requires of you. When everyone is doing it and we’re all vibing, it’s so much fun. It’s what I imagine it’s like to be on a really intense sports team, and that can be really confronting at times. We were shooting in Pittsburgh for a very long time, working long hours for nine months. At the wrap party for both seasons, when you’d expect everyone to get wasted and be exhausted, everyone said that it was the best experience they’d ever had.

Switching gears completely: With Frozen 2 coming up in November, do kids ever recognize you as the voice of Kristoff and lose their minds?

I do make voice memos for little kids because they never recognize my voice in person. I sing as Kristoff and the voice of the reindeer, and that’s when they freak out. Usually parents take video of their kids listening to it. On the street it’s usually just, “How do I know your voice?”—which isn’t as much fun.

#jonathan groff #interview #press #mindhunter #!

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reading-writing-revolution · 5 years

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This is long but it is important. Thanks for this!

#resist

This is where I stand. I feel that our 45th President, his Cabinet and administration, and the majority of Republicans in Congress are a real and active threat to me, my way of life, and all the people I love. Some people are saying that we should give Trump a chance, that we should "work together" with him because he won the election and he is "everyone's president." I am willing to do all of that if/when his policies seem reasonable. However:

•I will not forget how badly he and so many others treated former President Barack Obama for 8 years...

•I will not "work together" to privatize Medicare, cut Social Security and Medicaid.

•I will not "work together" to build a wall.

•I will not "work together" to persecute Muslims.

•I will not "work together" to shut out refugees from other countries.

•I will not "work together" to lower taxes on the 1% and increase taxes on the middle class and poor.

•I will not "work together" to help Trump use the Presidency to line his pockets and those of his family and cronies.

•I will not "work together" to weaken and demolish environmental protection.

•I will not "work together" to sell American lands, especially National Parks, to companies which then spoil those lands.

•I will not "work together" to enable the killing of whole species of animals just because they are predators or inconvenient for a few, or because some people want to get their thrills killing them.

•I will not "work together" to remove civil rights from anyone.

•I will not "work together" to alienate countries that have been our allies for as long as I have been alive.

•I will not "work together" to slash funding for public education.

•I will not "work together" to take basic assistance from people who are at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder.

•I will not "work together" to get rid of common sense regulations on guns.

•I will not "work together" to mark transgendered men and women as something to fear.

•I will not "work together" to eliminate the minimum wage.

•I will not "work together" to support so-called "Right To Work" laws, or undermine, weaken or destroy Unions in any way.

•I will not "work together" to suppress scientific research, be it on climate change, fracking, or any other issue where a majority of scientists agree that Trump and his supporters are wrong on the facts.

•I will not "work together" to criminalize abortion or restrict health care for women.

•I will not "work together" to increase the number of nations that have nuclear weapons.

•I will not "work together" to put even more "big money" into politics.

•I will not "work together" to violate the Geneva Convention.

•I will not "work together" to give the Ku Klux Klan, the Nazi Party and white supremacists a seat at the table, or to normalize their hatred.

•I will not "work together" to deny health care to people who need it.

•I will not "work together" to deny medical coverage to people on the basis of a "pre-existing condition."

•I will not "work together" to increase voter suppression.

•I will not "work together" to normalize tyranny.

•I will not “work together” to eliminate or reduce ethical oversight at any level of government.

•I will not "work together" with anyone who is, or admires, tyrants and dictators.

•I will not support anyone that thinks its OK to put a pipeline to transport oil on Sacred Ground for Native Americans. And, it would run under the Missouri River, which provides drinking water for millions of people. An accident waiting to happen.

This is my line, and I am drawing it.

•I will stand for honesty, love, respect for all living beings.

•I will use my voice and my hands, to reach out to the uninformed, and to anyone who will LISTEN:

That "winning", "being great again", "rich" or even "beautiful" is nothing... When others are sacrificed to glorify its existence.

If you agree, feel free to copy and re-post (this results in larger numbers of people seeing a post than sharing...just press your finger down on your phone screen, hit "copy", go to your Facebook...comment by pressing your finger on your comment area and hit "paste"), and if you want, sign your name below ours.

Also, if we have left anything out, feel free to add it to this list.

Signed:

Annette Joseph-Walker

Denise Edlow

Patricia Rollins Trosclair

Andrea Dora Zysk

George Georgakis

John Christopher

John Bowles

Patrick St.Louis

Carla Patrick

Darnell Bender

Vickie Davis

JMichael Carter

Janice Frazier-Scott

Rev. ELaura James Reid

Jeanette Bouknight

Rev. Dollie Howell Pankey

Gerald Butler

Carolyn McDougle

Vaughn Chatman

Adrienne Brown

Gary Trousdale

Steven E Gordon

Isis Nocturne

Debi Murray

Maureen O. Betita

Mona Enderli

Fernie James Tamblin

Myrna Dodgion

Alan Locklear

Tom Wilmore

Jackie Evans

Donna Endres

Lora Fountain

Roberta Gregory

Heather A Mayhew

Stevo Wehr

Nathan Stivers

Jen RaLee

Joan Holden

Leigh Lutz

Deborah Kirkpatrick

Linda Levy

Tom Rue

Nancy Hoffmann-Allison

Beejay McCabe

Michael James Myers

Edward T. Spire

Rupert Chapman

Dawn R. Dunbar

Robin Wilson

Monique Boutot

Laura Brown 💪🏼

Susan Aptaker

Steve Katz

Bonnie Wolk

Risa Guttman-Kornwitz

Angela Gora

Butch Norman

Sharon Tolman

Sue Zislis

Maurice Hirsch

Satch Dobrey

Jim Krapf

Don Starwalt

Deb Johansen

Daniel Anderson

Diane Kenney

Rebecca Koop

Nancy Shuert

Bill Pryor

Patrick Lamb

Bob Travaglione

Margaret Ragan

Martha Peters

Steve Wilson

Lauren Sullivan

Scott Bevan

Roger Saunden

Jane Ayer

Alex Simon

Laura Gross

Kevin Geiger

Michael Mikula

CJ Niehaus

MaryLou Mateja

Robert E Mateja, Sr.

Diane williams

Joseph Mele

Brenda Horne Bain

Laura Love

Christine L. Linde

Carlotta Spears

Kate Schmidt

Antonia Nelson

Mayo Underwood

Jackie Miller

Daniella Zimmerman

Margot Kovacs Fulmer

Ann Denison

Devney Schendorf

Matt Wheeler

Monica Bruno

Debbie Pierson

Rachel Licitra

Carol Mele

Dan Moldovan

Ray Miller

Diane Miller

Joey Frank

Lisa Del Sordi

Philip J Ofiesh

Carol Mulligan

Michelle Gonnering

Darian Gavin

Scott Meek

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that-thing-that-feeling · 6 years

Text

the sunday times style magazine article below cut:

Even if you’re not one of the 139m people worldwide subscribed to Netflix, you will have heard of Stranger Things. The American sci-fi/horror/coming-of-age series, which was launched in July 2016, became the most-discussed TV show of the year and was impossible to ignore. Twitter hashtags went viral, and there were rave reviews, thinkpieces upon thinkpieces and celebrity fans from Reese Witherspoon to Barack Obama. It rebooted the career of its lead, Winona Ryder, and made overnight stars of its unknown cast members, including 22-year-old British actor Charlie Heaton, now 25. “When it launched, I was shooting a film in a tiny Spanish town where most people don’t speak English,” Heaton says. “In a day or two, my Instagram following went up by thousands. I was at a street market and some Spanish people came up and said, ‘Stranger Things!’ That’s when I knew it had blown up.”

The Stranger Things juggernaut is still going strong — the third series will start on July 4 — as is Heaton. He’s about to take up one of the lead roles in a highly anticipated X-Men horror spin-off, The New Mutants (out in August), has landed the title role in the BBC’s new version of The Elephant Man, and last month was at the Ferragamo show in Milan fashion week. As for that Instagram following? It’s now in the millions.

Heaton arrives on the set for this shoot — a pub in East London — bang on time, holding a pack of rolling tobacco and wearing Burberry trousers and a coat with the collar turned up. He shakes hands with everyone and asks if there’s time for a “quick smoke”. He is slightly restless — and will “nip out for a quick smoke” and to check his constantly beeping phone three more times before we break for lunch. So convincing is his American accent (which he maintains throughout filming), most people are surprised to learn that he’s from Bridlington in Yorkshire. “I tell people I’m from up north and that blows their mind,” he laughs. Disappointingly, the northern accent isn’t strong. “It gets stronger when I go home at Christmas,” he says. He’s still best friends with the lads he went to school with, some of whom “don’t even watch anything I’m in”. Do they make you get all the drinks in now? “Actually, a lot of them are like, ‘Let me buy you a drink, mate, I can still get you a drink.’ It’s a northern thing.” He smiles and lights another roll-up.

In Stranger Things, Heaton plays Jonathan Byers, older brother of Will Byers, the young boy who disappears in the first episode and kicks off the core storyline of the series. Jonathan’s on/off love interest, Nancy, is played by 22-year-old Nashville-born Natalia Dyer. In real life, the actors have been dating publicly for the past two years, but also dated for a while in secret before the rest of the cast found out.

“It’s nice to be with someone who is in the same world,” Heaton says. “We’ve gone through the same trajectory, so have got to share the ups and downs.” They’re about to move in together and are scouting apartments in New York’s East Village. “I’m very happy,” he smiles, willing the conversation on.

Part of the viral success of Stranger Things was down to its nostalgia-drenched fashion (the first series is set in 1983). The oversized glasses and pussy-bow blouses could have fallen straight off a Gucci campaign, and Louis Vuitton’s Nicolas Ghesquière was so inspired, he sent a Stranger Things T-shirt down the SS18 catwalk. Heaton, with his thin frame, messy hair and razor-sharp cheekbones, is made for designer mood boards.

Last May, he sat front row at the Dior cruise show. That said, “I never knew what a brand was growing up,” he tells me over a beer in the pub’s garden post-shoot. “I’d heard of Gucci and Chanel, but didn’t really know what their purpose was. Then, as you get introduced to them more, you realise their importance in the fashion world.”

On the topic of fashion: it was T-shirts that he and co-star Winona Ryder bonded over on set. “She gave me a T-shirt with the Clash on that she got when she went to see them years ago. Then I was reading The Catcher in the Rye and she told me it was her favourite book. She had made T-shirts based on Pencey Prep, the school [the book’s protagonist] Holden Caulfield went to, so she gave me one of those. She was like, ‘I designed it, I hope you like it!’ Of course I liked it. She’s the queen of cool T-shirts and the queen of cool.”

Heaton grew up with his mother, Michelle, and two older sisters (one of whom, Levi, is also an actress). They are incredibly close. “I think there’s a sensitivity that you have from growing up with three women that you maybe wouldn’t have if you grew up in a house of boys,” he says. His parents separated when he was two, but he remained close to his father. At 16, Heaton went to live with him in London. “That’s where I wanted to end up,” he says. “When I moved there, my uncle said [here he adopts a strong Yorkshire accent], ‘Do you like London, then?’ I said, ‘Yeah, it’s great. Do you think you’d ever leave Bridlington?’ He went, ‘Nah, I’ve got everything I need. I’ve got my house, my girlfriend and Sky Sports.’” Heaton chuckles. “The simplicity of it was great, but I’ve always been one for … excitement.”

Heaton’s first taste of acting was drama classes at school and local youth theatre aged eight to 15. He was also a drummer and, aged 16, he joined a noise rock band, Comanechi, that toured globally and supported Gossip. “I went to Japan, Canada and around Europe, living out of van for a couple of years, which was brilliant.” He got back into acting in adverts, as a way of making cash (one of which involved “congaing behind Kevin Bacon in an EE commercial”). A few small TV roles followed before he went to LA in 2015, found an agent and appeared in a horror film, Shut In, with Naomi Watts. “I’d never been to America, I didn’t have any money, so I stayed in youth hostels, basically backpacking for a month and auditioning,” he says. “By then I knew that all I wanted to do was act.” That same year, he got the part in Stranger Things.

In 2017, Heaton made headlines when he was denied entry into the US at LAX airport, reportedly because traces of cocaine were found in his luggage. After being detained, Heaton released a statement, saying that due to “an issue at US immigration”, he was unable to enter the country. I ask how he feels about the incident now, if there is anything he’d like to say about it. He shifts in his seat, clearly wishing to be anywhere else, then switches off my Dictaphone. He only wants to speak off the record about this. It seems he doesn’t know yet what he wants to say, he feels terrible about the whole thing and desperately wants to change the subject. “Can we talk about something else?” he asks.

We return to the safer territory of how life has changed since Stranger Things. “I still audition for stuff I don’t get,” he says; though one role he has just secured is Joseph Merrick, the 19th-century Englishman whose facial deformity led to him becoming known as the Elephant Man. The BBC project is still in development, but Heaton has already faced criticism from the disability charity Scope and some actors, who say the role should have gone to a disabled actor. “I can see their point,” says Heaton. “I think there has to be some balance. There are roles in both episodes that will include disabled actors with that specific disability. But, disabled or not, you would hope that the right person for the role gets it and that’s based on a whole range of things. I don’t make those decisions.”

The pub’s garden is busying and the landlady is waiting impatiently for a picture with Heaton. He’s due to meet some mates at another pub before heading back to his dad’s place, where he stays when he’s in town. Then what? “I’m looking for something different,” he replies. “I’ve played a lot of outsiders.” Maybe it’s time for a comedy? “Yeah, but I’m not funny! I just want to keep acting, keep casting the net wide.” The boy from Bridlington as Hollywood’s Next Big Thing? Stranger things have happened.

#hopefully that read more is working #otherwise srry will appear as long post

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techcrunchappcom · 4 years

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New Post has been published on http://techcrunchapp.com/golden-state-killer-suspect-to-plead-guilty-los-angeles-times/

Golden State Killer suspect to plead guilty - Los Angeles Times

In a moment his victims have long awaited, a 74-year-old former police officer who terrorized California as the Golden State Killer began pleading guilty to a long list of charges Monday in a university ballroom turned courtroom.

Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., clad in orange jail clothing and wearing a clear protective face shield, sat onstage at Cal State Sacramento, with cameras projecting his face onto the ballroom wall so all could see — bringing the Golden State Killer case to a close with more spectacle than court decorum.

DeAngelo scarcely spoke during the early part of the hearing, only answering questions from Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman in a shaky “yes” or “no.”

The plea hearing was scripted, allowing no room for ad-libbed confessions. DeAngelo is expected to admit guilt to 13 murders, 13 charges of kidnapping for purposes of robbery — the only crimes he is charged with — as well as some 62 other crimes of rape and abduction for which the statutes of limitations long ago expired.

The crime series ran from at least 1973 to 1986 and involved attacks on some 106 children, men and women. Fifty women were raped. Thirteen people were killed.

Sacramento County Assistant Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Thien Ho called the crimes “simply staggering” in scope.

“His monikers reflect the sweeping geographical impact of his crime,” Ho said, adding, “each time, he escaped — slipping away silently into the night, leaving communities terrified for years.”

Detectives did not have a final named suspect until 2018, when they used crime-scene DNA and genealogy services to identify the killer’s cousin and then, finally, DeAngelo.

Sitting in a Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department interview room hours after his arrest, Ho said DeAngelo spoke to himself, saying: “I did all those things. I’ve destroyed all their lives. So now, I’ve got to pay the price.”

Prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty — the main request made by DeAngelo’s public defenders. In return for his guilty plea, DeAngelo will be sentenced to prison for the rest of his life.

The public will also be spared years of criminal proceedings, which prosecutors estimated could have cost more than $20 million. There will be no need for testimony by scores of rape victims, family members of those murdered and DeAngelo’s three daughters and ex-wife.

District attorneys from the eight counties prosecuting DeAngelo took the stage Monday to read into the record descriptions of the crimes.

As details about the murders of two other victims — Greg Sanchez and Cheri Domingo — were read aloud, Cheri’s daughter, Debbie Domingo, stood to face DeAngelo.

Jennifer Carole also stood, hands gripped behind her back, as the 1980 bedroom murders of her father and stepmother, Lyman and Charlene Smith, were described. She took off her mask so she could be seen, but did not make eye contact with DeAngelo.

Afterward, retired Sacramento County sheriff’s Det. Carol Daly stepped up to give Carole a hug.

DeAngelo’s whispery voice and wheelchair did not evoke any sympathy from Carole.

“Rest assured, it’s still an act,” she said, echoing the opening statement by prosecutors who said DeAngelo briefly feigned insanity when arrested for shoplifting in 1979 and suggested his statements of an alter ego when he was arrested in 2018 were conjured.

Six family members of Janelle Cruz, DeAngelo’s last known victim, stood together to confront him as he pleaded guilty to murder and admitted raping the 18-year-old.

Cruz was bludgeoned to death in 1986 with what detectives believe was a pipe wrench that had been stolen from the family’s backyard days earlier.

DeAngelo appeared to look down, not returning their gaze.

He again looked down as four relatives of Brian and Katie Maggiore, chased down and shot while taking an evening stroll in Rancho Cordova, stood just feet away from the raised stage where DeAngelo and his lawyers sat.

“How do you plead to that sir?” the judge asked. DeAngelo turned to his lawyer for a prompt, paused briefly before answering, “Guilty.”

All the women who were raped were referred to as “Jane Doe,” a decision that was criticized before the hearing by some who seek to be shed of decades of social stigma over their attacks.

“I don’t want that,” said Kris Pedretti, who was 15 when she became the 10th victim of a serial predator operating in the suburbs of Sacramento and known then as the East Area Rapist. “I want to be seen as a real person that he did this to and not as some Jane Doe.”

The Sacramento County district attorney’s office told Pedretti the decision had been made for her, she said, but conceded her request to be allowed to stand during the hearing when her 1976 attack is mentioned.

“We don’t have anything to be ashamed of, so we can stand up and he can take a look at us,” Pedretti said. “We’re not afraid of him. I think that’s more powerful than us staying seated and being a Jane Doe. Because, if he looks out, he doesn’t know who is who. He will today.”

While details about how DeAngelo had raped her were being read, Jane Carson-Sandler walked up to the edge of the stage to face DeAngelo squarely. He did not look at her.

Other victims silently cried, dabbing their eyes with tissue they had brought with them.

Because of COVID-19 spacing requirements, the proceeding was moved to the ballroom at Cal State Sacramento, the school from which DeAngelo received a criminal justice degree in 1972. The audience was composed almost entirely of victims and their families, with spaces awarded by lottery for 27 members of the media.

Unlike the mock court proceedings held in Sacramento school gymnasiums, the ballroom was not laid out to resemble a courtroom.

The judge, defendant and lawyers faced an audience of nearly 200 and banks of television cameras. Large projection screens displayed the faces of those at the podium, much like at a political rally. The hearing was livestreamed by Sacramento County Superior Court, a national true-crime entertainment network and multiple news programs.

“All that’s missing are the lions,” said one anonymous court official.

There was one notable empty chair in the ballroom — that of Phyllis Henneman, the first-recognized victim of the East Area Rapist. Henneman, who has been battling cancer for the past year, was admitted to the hospital over the weekend.

Nearly 40 victims and family members rose and stood silently to face DeAngelo when it came time to read the charges for the 1976 rape of Henneman.

Judicial experts said there is little the courts can do to stop such hoopla from forcing a balancing act between 1st Amendment rights to public access and 6th Amendment rights to a fair trial.

“It’s the reality of today’s world,” said U.S. District Senior Judge Reggie B. Walton, who presided over the 2007 perjury trial of former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, covered by news outlets across the world, and who most recently ruled on U.S. Department of Justice censorship of the highly politicized Robert S. Mueller III report.

“That’s just something that courts have to adapt to and put in place — processes that make the proceedings accessible to all of those who are concerned but at the same time, not letting that accessibility impact on the obligation to be fair to both sides,” Walton said.

“It’s a challenge, but I don’t think it’s impossible.”

Trials such as this fed a public appetite for drama long before there was reality television programming.

“We watched O.J., both the Bronco chase and the trial, like it was on HBO,” said Benjamin Holden, a lawyer-turned-reporter who covered the 1995 Los Angeles double murder trial of former football star O.J. Simpson and now teaches media law at the Illinois College of Media. “Not only are we to be burdened with this affliction of entertainment rearing its ugly head in the courtroom, we probably always have.”

From beginning to end, the crimes involving DeAngelo played out in the public eye.

The East Area Rapist drew so much media attention that he caused a public panic, prompting citizen patrols, bounties and a run on sales of guns, door locks and guard dogs. Midway through the series of rapes, detectives believe, the attacker began to feed off that public hysteria, and he began to instruct victims to pass on death threats to the police and future victims.

DeAngelo was fired from his Auburn, Calif., police job in 1979 after he was caught shoplifting. The murders that ensued as he and his wife moved to Southern California — again involving bedroom attacks and rapes — at first went unconnected. The unknown assailant was given new local nicknames: the Diamond-Knot Killer and the Night Stalker, later changed to Original Night Stalker after another serial killer took that sobriquet.

Advances in forensic DNA changed the case dramatically. In 2001, detectives were able to link the attacks up and down the state.

Homicide experts said serial killers themselves often have no insight into their crimes, and often blame them on external forces.

“At their core, serial killers are manipulative, egocentric, disingenuous, dysfunctional, unreliable and mean-spirited,” said Enzo Yaksic, founder of the Atypical Homicide Research Group, a national network of law enforcement, forensic psychiatrists and others who study serial killers. “It is their own personalities that lead others to ostracize them, which in turn urges the serial killer to adopt a negative worldview. Serial killers grow accustomed to being on the fringe of society and come to enjoy the duality of their lives.”

The crime spree became media fodder again as a television series, then was picked up by a Los Angeles writer, Michelle McNamara, who re-branded the perpetrator as the Golden State Killer and marketed a book on her attempts to chronicle, and perhaps solve, the crimes.

A 2016 decision by unnamed investigators at the Orange County Sheriff’s Department to break the chain of custody and allow McNamara to take home 37 boxes of case files and two bins of evidence has now become fodder for legal challenges against the law enforcement agency. The defense lawyer for a man serving life in prison for another DNA-solved rape and murder cited the evidence breach to support his own allegations of laxity and misconduct within the county crime lab.

The defense lawyer said McNamara’s research assistant told him the case files were returned to Orange County after McNamara’s sudden death in April 2016, before the release of her book, which has been turned into an HBO series. The first episode aired Sunday, and the series is to conclude just before DeAngelo’s sentencing in August.

Victims have been told to prepare impact statements to be read aloud during proceedings expected to last a week before DeAngelo’s sentence is declared.

#Uncategorized

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madamspeaker · 7 years

Photo

Network at the National Theatre

Let me first preface by say that I was rather cynical, more accurately I was doubtful when it came to Network. I never doubted the choice of Bryan Cranston for the role of Howard Beale - once you say his name and the part, you can just picture it, but I was decidedly worried about the overall production right up until the rehearsal photographs were released just under two weeks ago. My main concern was director Ivo van Hove, who has had a rather patchy run of late. A View from The Bridge was amazing, but I detested his take on Hedda Gabler, and his summer run of work at the Barbican was met with somewhat lukewarm praise. Also there was the fact that all most of us knew at the NT about the production for months was that the public would be eating on stage - which frankly seemed to baffle everybody (more on that later). So yeah, I was pretty cagey on Network - I honest to god feared it would be some bare stage arty crap with random people munching through dinner like some pretentious Turner Prize installation. The good news is that it is not. Network is very good, bordering on the genuine great. Yes, it’s a tad over gimmicky, and I would argue that some things should be cut, but overall it’s a rollicking good night of entertainment. Cranston is, to the shock of no one, amazing. It’s no easy feat following Peter Finch into what is such an iconic role, but Cranston makes it his own, brilliantly going through the mood swings of what is ultimately a tormented guy, rudderless and desperately trying to find some meaning to his life, whilst at the same finding this torment exploited - is at times complicit in. There are moments of such devastating pathos that you feel uncomfortable about what’s happening to him, and yet just as quickly you become swept up in his anger - revelling in the entertainment of it. Network is, if nothing else, a bloody timely choice for the world we live in now.

Anyone familiar with the original movie will know that it garnered three acting Oscar wins, and a fourth Oscar for it’s screenplay. Lee Hall who has adapted it pretty much sticks with most of the original script - some of it actually just lifted from the film, but I would be inclined to argue that he’s kept some stuff that perhaps should be ditched, or at least abridged, and jettisoned some of the film that needed to be in the play. For the most part we’re talking minor quibbles here, but there are two scenes, two very famous scenes in the movie that earned Ned Beatty an Oscar nomination and Beatrice Straight an Oscar win, and with the greatest respect to the two actors on stage, neither can carry those two monologues in the way their film counter parts do to justify the time they get. The Beatty monologue from the film is actually one of the most important parts of the movie, it needs to be there in some form as it’s the defining moment in what eventually befalls Howard, but on stage I found myself becoming bored with it. Part of me thinks it needed shortened, made more punchy, because on stage, and whether this is the fault of writing, acting, or direction, it drags, and drags badly. The Straight monologue, actually the Louise Schumacher monologue to be accurate, is just surpurflous to requirements on stage - in fact it’s a bit cringe inducing at one point, to the degree that I heard an odd titter of laughter, which is not what that speech is about at all. There’s a reason Beatrice Straight won an Oscar for it, for what was in fact less than 6 minutes of screen time, but that moment just feels like another drag on stage.

Oscar talk brings me to Michelle Dockery in the role Faye Dunaway won hers for. Dockery is good in the role of Diana Christensen, but as written on stage it’s not really a lead part. I’d be inclined to call her performance and indeed the actual role, Dunaway-lite. Dockery’s mannerisms, especially the hands and the walk, seem at times to be taken from the movie, but the intensity isn’t quite there yet. This was preview four, so there’s room for things to evolve, but whilst we get the character’s ambition and her intelligence, be it morally very questionable, I didn’t quite buy into her emotional need to succeed in the way that on film Dunaway always seemed like she was plugged into the mains - full of energy, bristling with it, her life and what was left of her soul completely wrapped up in ratings and success. I also didn’t quite buy the romance plot either, which I think is either something that should have been ditched, or something that needed to have a few more scenes to develop on stage. As it is, it’s there, but it doesn’t do anything. On film, it provided the William Holden character of Max Schumacher with a further emotional dilemma - falling for the woman who was essentially exploiting his best friend’s breakdown, but as it is at the moment on stage, it seems to come from nowhere, sex is had (a genuinely hilarious scene), wife is pissed, but you never quite get how all this effects Schumacher and his pal, Howard. All this sounds negative, but I’m actually just really nitpicky, because overall the play is damn good. The Lyttelton stage hasn’t looked this amazing in a while. It’s a massive bugger - deep and wide, and often plays and performances can get a bit lost on that expanse, but van Hove and his team have used the entire space so brilliantly. Yes, there is a working restaurant on stage, and yes it is pretty much a gimmick - those audience members serve no real function other than to provide free ambience for the scenes set in a bar - but the rest of the space is used so well. Even the quite heavy use of video projection and screens works terrifically, the countdown clock especially - suiting the TV setting, and giving the whole auditorium a buzz that I’ve not experienced in the Lyttelton before, even during Angels in America. So yeah, Network is genuinely very good. It might well even become great by Monday’s press night. The ingredients are all there, and certainly I think Cranston and the production design team have pretty much secured themselves awards and nominations already. Network is presently sold out for it’s entire run, but some tickets might be available via American Express invites, and there will be a regular allocation of tickets released via the National’s online Friday Rush scheme, and every morning that the show is playing via the Day Seat queue.

#network #bryan cranston #michelle dockery #National Theatre

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foryourart · 7 years

Photo

Photo courtesy of Noah Stern Weber. Image courtesy of REDCAT.

Thursday, November 9

37th Annual Sale, HENNESSEY + INGALLS BOOKSTORE (Downtown), 10am–8pm. Through November 12.

ArtOASIS Showcase, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (San Diego), 10am–12pm.

Young-Il Ahn and Ann Weber: Moon over San Pedro, Long Beach Museum of Art (Long Beach), 11am–8pm.

Alison Blickle Artist Talk, Five Car Garage (Santa Monica), 12:30–3:30pm.

Talk: Gallery Talk: The Art of Looking—Greek Goddesses: Reconstructed & Deconstructed, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 12:30pm.

Course: One-Day Workshop: Collage in Fine Art, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 1pm.

Garden Talk & Sale - Sex in the Garden, The Huntington (San Marino), 2:30pm.

LAND Sense of Place First Movement Reception, Santa Monica Pier (Santa Monica), 4–5:30pm. Reception to follow.

Gallery Talk: Erin Aldana, Guest Curator, University of San Diego (San Diego), 5pm.

Artist and scholar walkthroughs: Artemisa Clark, Hammer Museum (Westwood), 6pm.

Gravity's Peacock, MAK Center for Art and Architecture (West Hollywood), 7–9pm.

Danny Lyon: Vintage Works, Fahey/Klein Gallery (Hollywood), 7–9pm.

Conor Ekstrom, Hannah Hoffman Gallery (Hollywood), 7–9pm.

Los Angeles Filmforum at MOCA presents Poets, Artists, and Anarcho-super8istas, MOCA Grand Avenue (Downtown), 7pm.

Live! at the Museum: The Artisan Guitar Ensemble, Laguna Art Museum (Long Beach), 7pm.

Writing Now Reading Series: Fanny Howe, CalArts (Valencia), 7–10pm.

Paul Brach Lecture Series: Artie Vierkant, CalArts (Valencia), 7pm.

A.E. Stallings, Hammer Museum (Westwood), 7:30pm.

Film: An Evening With...Darren Aronofsky, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 7:30pm.

Boosting Your Side Hustle With Gina Delvac, Women’s Center for Creative Work (Frogtown), 7:30–9:30pm. $20–25.

Keeril Makan and Jay Scheib: Persona, REDCAT (Downtown), 8pm.

Persona, LA Opera (Downtown), 8pm.

Anne Bray Presents: How Can You Resist?, Echo Park Film Center (Echo Park), 8–10pm.

KCIA Presents: ACID TONGUE, CalArts (Valencia), 10pm.

Friday, November 10

"We Are CalArts" -The Role of the Spiral in Movement & the Body, with Babette Markus, CalArts (Valencia), 1–4pm.

School of Music Visiting Artist Series: Kate McGarry, Keith Ganz, Gary Versace, CalArts (Valencia), 2–4pm.

Documentary Screening: Frederick Hammersley: By Himself, The Huntington (San Marino), 3pm.

Off the Wall, Shoebox Projects (Lincoln Heights), 6–9pm.

Words and Music, LAST Projects (Downtown), 7–11pm.

Screening: Death by Delivery, California African American Museum (Downtown), 7–10pm.

Feminist Acting Class, Women’s Center for Creative Work (Frogtown), 7–10pm. Through November 12. $120–150.

William Kieffer: City of Fish, Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific (Long Beach), 7–11pm.

POP-UP MUSEUM: JOURNEY, Museum of Latin American Art (Long Beach), 7–8:30pm.

X-TRA Fall Launch Event: Candice Lin and Miljohn Ruperto in conversation, Ghebaly Gallery (Downtown), 7:30–9:30pm.

James Tenney: Changes: Sixty-Four Studies for Six Harps, The Box (Downtown), 8pm.

The Seagull, CalArts (Valencia), 8pm. Through November 12.

Saturday, November 11

Quiet Mornings: Art x Mindfulness, The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA (Downtown), 9:30am.

Dance Resource Center's 3rd annual Day of Dancer Health, Art Share LA (Downtown), 10am–5pm.

Designer Con 2017, Pasadena Convention Center (Pasadena), 10am–7pm. Through November 12.

American Indian Arts Marketplace, The Autry Museum of the American West (Los Feliz), 11am–5pm. Continues November 12.

THE LATINO COMICS EXPO – DAY 1, Museum of Latin American Art (Long Beach), 11am–5pm.

Young-Il Ahn: When Sky Meets Water, ParticiPoetry with Karen Holden, and Ann Weber: Moon Over San Pedro, Long Beach Museum of Art (Long Beach), 11am–5pm.

Tony DeLap: A Career Survey, 1963—2017, parrasch heijnen gallery (Downtown), 12–3pm.

Vantage, Finishing Concepts (Monterey Park), 12–5pm.

LIT! A Menorah & Candelabra Clay Workshop with Ben Medansky, Craft and Folk Art Museum (Miracle Mile), 1–4pm.

Artemisa Clark: La clase de dibujo libre/Free Drawing Class (2000-2004/2017), Armory Center for the Arts (Pasadena), 1:30–4pm.

Build a Revolutionary Bear Workshop, WILLIAM GRANT STILL ARTS CENTER (West Adams), 2–4pm.

Lani Trock: Free Food, Big Pictures Los Angeles (Mid-City), 2–5pm.

PMCA 1234: Second Saturday Spotlight Talk, Pasadena Museum of California Art (Pasadena), 2pm.

In Dialogue: Film in Cuba, Pasadena Museum of California Art (Pasadena), 2:30pm.

LARISA LAIVINS: ONE DAY POP-UP SHOP, Arcana Books on the Arts (Culver City), 3–6pm.

Channing Hansen: Fluid Dynamics, Marc Selwyn Fine Art (Beverly Hills), 4–6pm.

Double Issue Book Release Party, Armory Center for the Arts (Pasadena), 4–6pm.

Materials & Applications 14th Anniversary Gala, Navel (Downtown), 5–8pm.

Workshop: Lighting Design for Dance and Performance with Carol McDowell, Pieter (Lincoln Heights), 5–9pm. $30–50.

Hot Flat, Angels Gate Cultural Center (San Pedro), 5–9pm.

Yossi Govrin, Stephanie Cate & Deborah Lynn Irmas, barba contemporary art (Palm Springs), 5–9pm.

David Krovblit: Shells and John Nyboer: The Real Future: Dancers at The Lot, Los Angeles, Lois Lambert Gallery (Santa Monica), 6–9pm.

Jimi Gleason: Reflected & Absorbed, William Turner Gallery (Santa Monica), 6–8pm.

Art Circles, Getty Center (Brentwood), 6–8pm.

Emily Counts: The Associations, Garboushian Gallery (Beverly Hills), 6–8pm.

JOSH REAMES: Don't cross streams while trading horses, Luis de Jesus (Culver City), 6–8pm.

MICHELLE GRABNER: PATTERNS IN METAL AND OIL and Michael St. John: Portraits of Democracy, Edward Cella Art & Architecture (Culver City), 6–8pm; talk with Mary Weatherford, 5pm.

Nevine Mahmoud: f o r e p l a y, M+B (West Hollywood), 6–8pm.

Hecate, Various Small Fires (Hollywood), 6–8pm.

Aria McManus: Relieviation Works, AA|LA (West Hollywood), 6–9pm.

Anthony Miserendino: Aromi, Moskowitz Bayse (Hollywood), 6–9pm.

Camilo Restrepo: Mera Calentura and Claire Milbrath: Crome Yellow, Steve Turner (Hollywood), 6–8pm.

Andrew Brischler: Lonely Planet, Gavlak (Hollywood), 6–8pm.

Strange Attractors: The Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Art Vol. 1 Life on Earth, Redling Fine Art (Hollywood), 6–8pm.

Gary Simmons: Balcony Seating Only and Tomorrow’s Man 4, Regen Projects (Hollywood), 6–8pm.

Elizabeth Ferry, Grice Bench (Downtown), 6–9pm.

TELMO MIEL: Bit and Pieces, Odds and Ends, Torrance Art Museum (Torrance), 6–9pm.

TELMO MIEL: Bit and Pieces, Odds and Ends, Fullerton Museum Center (Fullerton), 6–9pm.

THE FUTURE MOVES SLOW, Schoos Night Gallery (West Hollywood), 7–10pm.

Anja Salonen: new dimensions in recreation, Ana Segovia de Fuentes: Boys and Boots, and Ammon Rost: Paintings, ltd los angeles (Mid-City), 7–9pm.

Eric Leiser: Time Crystals, Museum as Retail Space (MaRS) (Downtown), 7–10pm.

Ghetto Gloss | The Chicana Avant-Garde, 1980-2010, Bermudez Projects (Cypress Park), 7–10pm.

Saturday Nights at the Getty Presents María Volunté: Blue Tango Project, Getty Center (Brentwood), 7:30pm.

Floricanto's Fiesta del Dia de los Muertos, Lee Strasberg Academy (West Hollywood), 8pm.

James Tenney’s Changes: Sixty-Four Studies for Six Harps, The Box (Downtown), 8pm.

Sunday, November 12

Terrain Biennial Los Angeles, Ana Mendieta Performance Day, 3651 Mimosa Drive (Glassell Park), 10am–7pm.

MOCA Day Party, The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA (Downtown), 11am–5pm.

CREATE - Opposites Attract / Los opuestos se atraen, ESMoA (El Segundo), 11am–3pm.

Mini Clothes Fun: Doll Clothes Workshop with Ruth Root, 356 Mission (Downtown), 12–6pm.

Talk: Korean Art Lecture Series | Fugitive Contemporaries: Korean Art After 1979, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 1pm.

Open Studios, FlechtroNEONics (Van Nuys), 1–5pm.

God’s Eye Yarn Weaving: A CraftLab Family Workshop, Craft and Folk Art Museum (Miracle Mile), 1:30–3:30pm.

Studio Sunday on the Front Steps, Santa Barbara Museum of Art (Santa Barbara), 1:30–4:30pm.

Volunteer Appreciation and Recruitment, ONE Archives (Downtown), 2–4pm.

The Landscape Designs of Ralph Cornell, The Huntington (San Marino), 2pm.

How Does Nature Deepen Our Connection to the Sacred?, Getty Center (Brentwood), 3pm.

WORN IN NEW YORK: 68 SARTORIAL MEMOIRS OF THE CITY by EMILY SPIVACK, Arcana Books on the Arts (Culver City), 3pm.

Walkthrough of Axis Mundo with Joey Terrill, MOCA Pacific Design Center (West Hollywood), 3pm.

Hannah Greely and Upstairs: William T. Wiley, Parker Gallery (Los Feliz), 3–5pm.

Alex Israel and Jack Bankowsky, Art Catalogues at LACMA (Miracle Mile), 4pm.

Human Resources Benefit Party and Auction, Ghebaly Gallery (Downtown), 5–8pm.

Performance | River of Everyone River of No One, Main Museum (Downtown), 6:30–8pm.

My Mother the Doctor, Leiminspace (Chinatown), 7–10pm.

Film Screening & Panel Discussion: Fresa y Chocolate/Strawberry and Chocolate, Pasadena Museum of California Art (Pasadena), 7:30pm.

Tuesday, November 14

Performing the Musical Body: Robyn Nisbet, Pieter (Lincoln Heights), 10am–2pm. $45.

Film: The Girl from Mexico, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 1pm.

Talk: Cur-ATE: Chagall and the Arts, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 6pm.

An evening with Analia Saban and Gabriel Kuri, Getty Center (Brentwood), 7–9pm.

Wednesday, November 15

Fall 2017 Visiting Artist Lecturer: Thinh Nguyen, Claremont Graduate University (Claremont), 4:30pm.

Heather Gwen Martin: Currents and Deborah Butterfield: Three Sorrows, L.A. Louver (Venice), 6–8pm.

AMBIGUOUS REALITY, Santa Monica Art Studios (Santa Monica), 6–9pm.

FOWLER OUT LOUD: MINDFUL MUSIC, Fowler Museum (Westwood), 6–7pm.

Wikipedia Fall Fundraiser, Annenberg Space for Photography (Century City), 7-9pm. $250–25,000.

Rethinking: Programming, Women’s Center for Creative Work (Frogtown), 7–9pm.

Distinguished Fellow Lecture - Did Early-Modern Schoolmasters Foment Sedition?, The Huntington (San Marino), 7:30pm.

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taylorscorner · 8 years

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Where I Stand

This is where I stand on the 45th President, his power hungry cronies taking positions of authority in his Cabinet and administration, and the majority of Republicans in Congress are a real and active threat to me, my way of life, and all the people I love. Some people are saying that we should give Trump a chance, that we should "work together" with him because he won the election and he is "everyone's president." This is my response: •I will not forget how badly he and so many others treated former President Barack Obama for 8 years... • I will not forget how he disrespected a gold star family based on their religion. • I will not forget how he discriminated against a federal judge based on his ethnic background. •I will not "work together" to privatize Medicare, cut Social Security and Medicaid. •I will not "work together" to build a wall. •I will not "work together" to persecute Muslims. •I will not "work together" to shut out refugees from other countries. •I will not "work together" to lower taxes on the 1% and increase taxes on the middle class and poor. •I will not "work together" to help Trump use the Presidency to line his pockets and those of his family and cronies. •I will not "work together" to weaken and demolish environmental protection. •I will not "work together" to sell American lands, especially National Parks, to companies which then despoil those lands. •I will not "work together" to enable the killing of whole species of animals just because they are predators, or inconvenient for a few, or because some people want to get their thrills killing them. •I will not "work together" to remove civil rights from anyone. •I will not "work together" to alienate countries that have been our allies for as long as I have been alive. •I will not "work together" to slash funding for education. •I will not "work together" to take basic assistance from people who are at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. •I will not "work together" to get rid of common sense regulations on guns. •I will not "work together" to eliminate the minimum wage. •I will not "work together" to support so-called "Right To Work" laws, or undermine, weaken or destroy Unions in any way. •I will not "work together" to suppress scientific research, be it on climate change, fracking, or any other issue where a majority of scientists agree that Trump and his supporters are wrong on the facts. •I will not "work together" to criminalize abortion or restrict health care for women. •I will not "work together" to increase the number of nations that have nuclear weapons. •I will not "work together" to put even more "big money" into politics. •I will not "work together" to violate the Geneva Convention. •I will not "work together" to give the Ku Klux Klan, the Nazi Party and white supremacists a seat at the table, or to normalize their hatred. •I will not "work together" to deny health care to people who need it. •I will not "work together" to deny medical coverage to people on the basis of a "pre-existing condition." •I will not "work together" to increase voter suppression. •I will not "work together" to normalize tyranny.I will not “work together” to eliminate or reduce ethical over-site at any level of government. •I will not "work together" with anyone who is, or admires, tyrants and dictators. •I will not "work together" to help private corporations build pipelines to transport their oil, at the expense of our safety and environment.This is my line, and I am drawing it. •I WILL stand for honesty, love, respect for all living beings, and for the beating heart that is the center of Life itself. •I WILL use my voice and my hands, to reach out to the uninformed, and to anyone who will LISTEN: That "winning", "being great again", "rich" or even "beautiful" is nothing... When others are sacrificed to glorify its existence.

Signed:

Kathrine Iacofano

Susan Goldberg

Debbie Slavkin Linda Rosefsky Rebecca Tortorice Anna Konya Karen Redding Wendy Lemlin Patricia Rollins Trosclair Andrea Dora Zysk George Georgakis John Christopher John Bowles Patrick St.Louis Carla Patrick Darnell Bender Vickie Davis JMichael Carter Janice Frazier-Scott Rev. ELaura James Reid Jeanette Bouknight Rev. Dollie Howell Pankey Gerald Butler Carolyn McDougle Vaughn Chatman Adrienne Brown Gary Trousdale Steven E Gordon Isis Nocturne Debi Murray Maureen O. Betita Mona Enderli Fernie James Tamblin Myrna Dodgion Alan Locklear Tom Wilmore Jackie Evans Donna Endres Lora Fountain Roberta Gregory Heather A Mayhew Stevo Wehr Nathan Stivers Jen RaLee Joan Holden Leigh Lutz Deborah Kirkpatrick Linda Levy Tom Rue Nancy Hoffmann-Allison Beejay McCabe Michael James Myers Edward T. Spire Rupert Chapman Dawn R. Dunbar Robin Wilson Monique Boutot Laura Brown 💪🏼 Susan Aptaker Steve Katz Bonnie Wolk Risa Guttman-Kornwitz Angela Gora Butch Norman Sharon Tolman Sue Zislis Maurice Hirsch Satch Dobrey Jim Krapf Don Starwalt Deb Johansen Daniel Anderson Diane Kenney Rebecca Koop Nancy Shuert Bill Pryor Patrick Lamb Bob Travaglione Margaret Ragan Martha Peters Steve Wilson Lauren Sullivan Scott Bevan Roger Saunden Susanne Lavelle Benita Yimsuan Kathryn Scarano Kathleen E Neff Evey G Quines Debbie Dey John Dennehy, Jr. Marsha Vaughn Adam Sklena Larry David McGregor Blumenthal Gustavo Rodriguez ARJ Alva Freeman Yvette Ellard Rory Thayer Wilson Wayne Booth Streven King Phyllis Vlach Adrian Sandy Miller Castellano Nick Strippoli Ben Papapietro RenaePerry Ann Elliott Maria DelloStritto Kimberly Bauso Rebecca Smith Theresa Taylor Terri Feldman Cheryl Pitman Molly Spalding Janice Wiles Michael Bello Vicki Carlson Gloria Salazar Angie Sincell Dana Shimrock Cheryl Josh Henderson Danielle Luscombe Clint Bickford Jason C. Frank Aviad C. Sasi Michel L. Poli Quintin Kreutzer Malcolm McHugh Sharon Hamer Bob Melvin Mike Feinstein Allison Parker Barbara Darrow Amy Levitt Michael Chechanover Bruce Kanin Rhonda Friedman Tina Bug Dave St.Hill Arty Williams Al Ward Charline Forrest Donna Fargas Alice Bowdwin Terri Holman Ronald Jones Dollise Howard-Whitehurst Miriam Lucas Simmon Anita Jackson David E. Early,Sr. Alexander Thomas, Jr. Delano Tucker Donnie Fitzgerald Michael j Washington Vern Owens Jr. ALFONSE P. JOHNSON SR.😡 Tom Outland Millard whatley Jr. Joseph Kane III Bill Dix Ruth Price Scott Taper Bernard Coley Susie Richardson Marde Ross Carol Landa-McVicker Lindy Cater Ben Cater Cameron Smith Becky Oos Lori Freshman Ellen Moody Brian Cummings Tom Hall Jeff Cohen Wayne Humphrey Kenneth Felz Tom Schneiter Patrick Ley Lynn Ray Allen Jill Williams Sheila Woods Deandra Clark Allan Dunlap Roger Morales Veronica Rios Angela Quiles. Michelle Villanueva Alexis Castro

Bobby Lewis

Your turn. Copy, paste, add your name, post...

#notmypresident #resistance #dumptrump

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roseisread · 8 years

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Top 25 Movies of 2016

I saw 51 of the many more films released in 2016, so naturally this list suffers from the usual incompleteness. But of those 51, the movies listed below are the ones that really stuck with me, entertained me, moved me, or made me see the world through a different lens after the credits rolled. Some of them are deeply personal and hold great meaning; others are just a great excuse to laugh or shudder or sob about something that doesn’t matter so you don’t have to think about the things in real life that might evoke that reaction for a couple hours.

If you saw something amazing that didn’t make the list, be sure to let me know so I can add it to my watchlist (or defend my choice to leave it off the list of faves).

25. Zootopia (Netflix) At a time when the world was finding reasons to divide itself into fractious subgroups, along came a winsome little animated film about tolerance and eschewing stereotypes. The animation is top notch, the story is funny and action-packed, and any scene featuring the sloth from the DMV threatened my ability to breathe because I was laughing so hard. If you missed it in theaters, be sure to catch up with it on Netflix. It’s a real gem.

24. The Conjuring 2 (Amazon/iTunes rental) The first Conjuring got a ton of acclaim but I wasn’t that enamored with it. This one, on the other hand, totally delivers. Once again, Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson star as paranormal investigators who are plagued by dark forces. This time, the action centers on a family in England (inspired by the somewhat infamous Enfield Poltergeist) with an unwanted apparition who interacts with them in all kinds of upsetting ways. Rather than relying solely on jump scares, there’s a lot of great suspenseful sequences and practical effects that use the atmosphere and physical space to masterful effect. Plus, the characters are likable and we are rooting for them which goes a long way toward making this a better than average horror movie.

23. The Edge of Seventeen (Theaters) Hailee Steinfeld plus Woody Harrelson equals brilliance. Add to the mix the savvy direction of first timer Kelly Fremon Craig and the charming supporting cast (particularly Hayden Szeto) and you have a winning combo that leaves other teen dramedies in the dust. The story is relatable for anyone who experienced high school: Nadine feels alienated at school and at home, partly because high school sucks and parents just don’t understand but also partly because she sees herself as just a little bit superior to her peers and family members. She’s a classic Holden Caulfield type, really. When her best friend starts dating Nadine’s brother and mortal enemy, she takes it as a personal betrayal. Between this, her crush on a bad boy type, and her tentative steps toward romance with a nerdy but sweet classmate, she’s got a lot on her plate. Naturally, she takes solace by venting to her favorite teacher, the bemused Harrelson who takes all of her abuse and whining with stoic aplomb.

22. Jackie (Theaters) I was born in 1981, which means I don’t have any personal connection to Jackie O. the way people of my parents generation did. I don’t have recollections of seeing her on TV or experiencing the Kennedy assassination, but I’ve been hearing about it all my life and thus feel like I know the story. This movie took me by surprise by showing me something new, something I’d never considered: The personal grief of a tremendously public loss. Natalie Portman embodies the carefully manicured public persona as well as the private devastation of Jackie Kennedy in the days surrounding JFK’s death. It’s not a traditional biopic, and not a traditional historical drama. That makes sense coming from Chilean director Pablo Larrain, who also gave us the excellent political thriller/comedy No a few years ago. He captures pivotal moments and edits them together into a kind of fractured consciousness befitting the recently bereft Jackie.

21. 10 Cloverfield Lane (Amazon/GooglePlay rental) I’ve still never seen the original Cloverfield (I know, I know), but I do love me some John Goodman being a possible creeper so I had to see this movie. The title really was an afterthought; the story was written independent of the horror franchise and marketing decided a built-in audience and some name recognition would boost ticket sales. All of this to say, you don’t need to know or love Cloverfield to know and love 10 Cloverfield Lane. Essentially it’s a chamber piece, modeled on some of Hitchcock’s techniques (Lifeboat/Rope/Dial M for Murder). Oh and also the original script got a once-over by a certain Damien Chazelle, who was once slated to direct it as well until Whiplash got greenlit and then he got a little busy making a movie called La La Land which may or may not be definitely coming up later in this list so... yeah. But anyways. It’s got that breathlessness and intensity Chazelle brought to life in his other movies, but this time in an actual horror/suspense setting. Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Gallagher, Jr. play Goodman’s reluctant houseguests in his underground bunker. Goodman claims to be protecting them from something horrible outside; they’re not sure whether to believe him or to trust their instinct that the something horrible is Goodman himself. All three performances are excellent, and your nerves will be frayed little bundles by the time 103 minutes is up.

20. Certain Women (Theaters) Just watching this movie made me feel physically cold. It takes place in Montana, and is essentially a triptych that follows three different women in the same small town. The first, played by Laura Dern, is an attorney with a particularly high maintenance client (Jared Harris). The second is a woman (Michelle Williams) who feels alienated from her husband and their teenage daughter, even as the family is working on building a house together. The final story, and by far my favorite, focuses on a farmhand (the glorious Lily Gladstone in a breakout role) who chances upon a night class taught by Kristen Stewart and becomes transfixed. This is a quiet film, about women who yearn for more than their lives so far have given them. Each one deals with the small injustices and tiny victories that ordinary events bestow, but one senses beneath the surface a lingering question of “Is this all there is?” In that way, it’s totally relatable. There aren’t a lot of major plot arcs here, but that’s exactly the point of the film. In watching this movie, you realize that Henry David Thoreau’s quote about the masses leading lives of quiet desperation might well be answered by Simone de Beauvoir: “I think that where you go wrong is that you imagine that your reasons for living ought to fall on you, ready-made from heaven, whereas we have to find them for ourselves.”

19. Don’t Think Twice (YouTube/GooglePlay rental) If you listen to podcasts at all (especially This American Life, WTF, or You Made It Weird), you should know the name Mike Birbiglia by now. He’s a comic turned actor/writer/director and this is his latest original work. This time, he enlisted fellow talented comics to join him onscreen: Chris Gethard, Gillian Jacobs, Keegan Michael Key, Kate Micucci, and Tami Sagher play his friends and fellow members of an improv troupe. They’re all people you know or have been--starving artist types who are holding onto a dream that comedy will one day pay the bills and take them to the next level. When that actually happens to one of them, the group dynamic shifts considerably. As Morrissey so accurately sings, “We hate it when our friends become successful.” But really, the truth is we hate ourselves when our friends become successful. It makes us question whether it’s a matter of deserving it or working hard or random chance. The great thing about this movie is the blend of truly hilarious comedic moments and stirring emotional honesty. It’s about friendship, it’s about surviving your thirties, it’s about figuring out if the dreams you’ve had your whole life are the dreams you still actually want to come true. If you can get through Gillian Jacobs’ incredible solo improv performance toward the end of this movie without tears, you get to be the new Clear Eyes spokesperson instead of Ben Stein.

18. Love and Friendship (Amazon Prime) This movie features one of the funniest characters of the year, an immensely clueless rich dolt named Sir James Martin (Tom Bennett), who marvels at the existence of peas and struggles to arrive at the correct number of commandments. Who could be responsible for such a creation? Well, who else but the writer whose best work pokes fun at social climbers and wealthy nitwits: Jane Austen. Whit Stillman adapted her little known work Lady Susan into this charming and hilarious period piece starring Kate Beckinsale, Chloe Sevigny, Stephen Fry, and Xavier Samuel. Beckinsale does her absolute greatest work in this movie--I had no idea she was capable of this kind of performance, and she absolutely slays. As far as Austen adaptations go, this one is my favorite since Clueless--and that’s about the highest praise I could offer.

17. Don’t Breathe (YouTube/Amazon/Vudu Rental) The premise of Fede Alvarez’s sophomore thriller is simple: A trio of young Detroit opportunists break into the home of a blind veteran (Stephen Lang) after hearing he’s got a lot of cash in the house, figuring it’ll be an easy score. But they underestimate this particular blind man and his ability to protect his home and property. The result is a fast-paced cat and mouse game that will definitely have you holding your breath for long chunks of time. I had a blast watching this movie, even if it should have ended a few scenes earlier than it did.

16. Hell or High Water (Amazon/iTunes/GooglePlay Rental) One of my favorite pieces of music, classical or otherwise, is Aaron Copeland’s Fanfare for the Common Man. This composition was directly inspired by a speech delivered by Henry Wallace in 1942, which outlined the cause of freedom and the stakes of World War II while also setting a tone for the whole century as one in which ordinary people--the common man--would share the same standard of living, of educational and economic opportunity, of scientific discovery. An excerpt of this speech reads thusly: “When the freedom-loving people march; when the farmers have an opportunity to buy land at reasonable prices and to sell the produce of their land through their own organizations, when workers have the opportunity to form unions and bargain through them collectively, and when the children of all the people have an opportunity to attend schools which teach them truths of the real world in which they live — when these opportunities are open to everyone, then the world moves straight ahead.” Well, the world has continued moving since those words were spoken, but those opportunities are certainly not yet open to everyone despite promises all around that anyone in America should be able to succeed on grit and good will alone. When grit and good will fail to deliver, some people give up and some people become outlaws. That’s where we find our protagonists in this movie, Toby and Tanner Howard (Chris Pine and Ben Foster, respectively), as it opens. They’re robbing banks out of perceived necessity, and also out of a sense of Karma not acting quite fast enough for their liking. Meanwhile, a pair of Texas Rangers (Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham) get assigned to the case and aim to catch up with whoever’s responsible and give ‘em hell. The film is beautifully shot by cinematographer Giles Nuttgens, and the screenplay contains scintillating dialogue and the kind of characters you might find in a classic Western, plus a final showdown for the ages. On the performance side, there’s not a weak one in the bunch. Chris Pine proves he’s more than just a pretty face and Jeff Bridges sheds his Dude persona to give an even better performance here than in his Oscar-winning turn in Crazy Heart. If you need a movie to watch with your Dad that you can both enjoy, this is that movie.

15. De Palma (Amazon Prime) Sisters. Carrie. Dressed to Kill. Blow Out. Mission Impossible. Body Double. Scarface. The Untouchables. Casualties of War. About 20 other films--all directed by Brian De Palma, the subject of this documentary. For some, he’s alienating. For me, this guy is legendary. His films pick up where Hitchcock left off and go running off in their own bonkers directions, oozing style and excess and delivering tawdry and thrilling twists along the way. I’m convinced that one day he’ll be revered by film students and not just genre lovers, and at that point this doc will serve as a Hitchcock/Truffaut type text. The doc is really just De Palma going through his filmography chronologically, shots of him talking edited together with clips from every one of his movies and archival behind the scenes footage. That might sound boring but I promise you it is not. He tells lots of stories, does not shy away from pointing out the flaws and issues in his movies, and reflects on the reception his movies have received from critics and cultural scholars over the years. He also tells some fascinating stories from his youth that shed light on the types of movies he grew up to make. He also talks a lot about his techniques and the way his shooting style developed. If you are interested in filmmaking or De Palma or both, this movie will have you riveted from start to finish.

14. Manchester by the Sea (Theaters) For a meditation on grief and loss, this movie made me laugh a lot. That might sound inappropriate, but if you’ve ever experienced loss yourself, you know it’s not linear and doesn’t follow rules or codes of conduct. Sometimes you laugh at inopportune times. Sometimes you want to cry and can’t. Sometimes you melt down at the sight of frozen food (see what I did there? Melt/frozen! Ahh I kill me sometimes). Casey Affleck and Lucas Hedges make a great onscreen team, with Affleck playing Lee Chandler and Hedges playing Patrick, Lee’s teenage nephew. They’ve both lost someone important to them, but neither is great at opening up on the subject. Lee does his best to take care of his nephew, but he feels ill-equipped to be the stable parental figure Patrick needs. For his part, Patrick would prefer to keep things the way they are. “I have two girlfriends and I’m in a band!” he points out, and who is Lee to argue with that kind of logic?

Of course I can’t finish discussing this movie without highlighting the luminous presence of Michelle Williams, who owns every second she’s onscreen (which isn’t very long). Her final scene with Affleck broke me right in two.

13. Born to be Blue (Digital Purchase) Every year springs new musical biopics upon us, to varying degrees of creativity and critical acclaim or derision. My favorite one from 2016 was Robert Budreau’s nonlinear narrative inspired by incidents from the life of Chet Baker as portrayed by Ethan Hawke, who gives his best performance outside a movie with “Before” in the title. For the unfamiliar, Chet Baker is best known as the singer of “My Funny Valentine” today, but he was also a prominent jazz trumpet player and part of the West Coast jazz scene in the 1950s and 60s. As so many artist types, his genius was often threatened by his dalliances with substances and people whose momentary glamor gave way to decay and destruction.

Hawke captures Baker’s charming qualities as well as his tendencies toward self-sabotage, and the movie does not feel like a typical biopic as it incorporates a more meditative approach than a chronological one. There’s also a movie-within-the-movie which adds to the novel feel and keeps this from just hitting all the major events in Baker’s life in order. Carmen Ejogo is excellent as Baker’s primary love interest, a complex and well-drawn foil for the troubled musician. Her character is an amalgam of real life people, but she stands out as more than just your typical long-suffering wife/lover trope.

12. Fences (Theaters) August Wilson’s intimate play gets the cinematic treatment at the hands of Denzel Washington, who both directed and stars here. Troy (Washington) is a garbage man who drinks a lot and talks a lot more to his wife Rose (Viola Davis), his friend Bono (Stephen Henderson), his son Cory (Jovan Adeppo), and others who show up at his doorstep. The story is simple, but the characters are anything but. This may be my favorite ever Denzel performance, and certainly my pick for Best Actor in a Leading Role of 2016. Davis is phenomenal too, in a quiet but steady way. And not as many people are talking about Stephen Henderson, who played Bono in the play as well as the movie, but he’s excellent. If you want to hear beautifully written dialogue (and monologues), see some of the year’s best performances, and be moved by a family drama that feels relevant even though it was written and set in a bygone era, go see Fences.

11. Midnight Special (On Demand) In the first of two Jeff Nichols-directed movies that came out in 2016, Michael Shannon (a frequent Nichols collaborator) is a father trying to protect his son. The boy has some unique abilities, to say the least, and everyone from cult leaders to government agencies wants to exploit those abilities. It’s part superhero origin story, part Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and all about the joy, terror, and unbridled love that come with being a parent. The movie features memorable visuals as well as supporting performances from Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst, and Adam Driver. The ending may leave you with more questions than answers, but the emotions it evokes are unmistakable.

10. Tower (iTunes) In 1966, a lone gunman stood atop a tower on the University of Texas campus and opened fire on the unsuspecting people below. For the next 96 minutes, chaos and carnage took over the scene as law enforcement and campus officials tried to devise a way to stop the shooter without endangering more lives. This documentary tells the story of that day from the perspective of people who were there, using interviews and re-staging events using rotoscoping animation. The result is one of the most powerful documentaries in recent memory (outside of Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence). Hearing from victims, bystanders, police officers, journalists, and students who experienced this firsthand reveals so much about the nature of trauma, the way we react in extreme circumstances, and the contrast between what was then a first-of-its kind incident and what is now an all too frequent occurrence: The campus shooting spree. It’s never preachy, just lets each person tell their own story. Always, the focus is on the people on the ground rather than the person behind the violence. It’s a must-see film.

9. Arrival (Theaters) Denis Villeneuve has become one of my favorite directors of recent years, and it’s great to see a film of his get embraced so widely by audiences as well as critics. In case you haven’t yet seen it, this movie features Amy Adams as a linguist and Jeremy Renner as a scientist. Both of them have been recruited to help the government communicate with the aliens who have recently parked giant pods all over the world. The movie opens with a much more human story, and if you cried at the beginning of Up you will certainly shed tears here too. I won’t give more away than that, but what happens informs the emotions and decisions made throughout the film in interesting ways. I love the visuals of this film, and the emotional arc of the story. I also adored all the technical linguistic things that were going on, and I don’t know enough about science or language to know whether they were plausible so I’m just going to assume ignorance is bliss and aids in suspension of disbelief. There is one scene that seems to create a divide in audiences between loving and hating this movie. I won’t explain beyond saying it involves a phone call, so if you’ve seen it you know what I’m talking about. I can understand the criticism, but for me it was not enough to derail all that came before and after. If you haven’t seen this yet and you like your science fiction with a few tugs on the heartstrings, this is definitely worth your time.

8. The Lobster (Amazon/iTunes/GooglePlay Rental) I adore this movie, but that does not mean you will. I have to put that caveat right up front. In fact, at least one person I recommended this movie to absolutely hated it. So, take my opinion with a grain of salt but I will try to convey truth in advertising. Yorgos Lanthimos, whose previous films were Dogtooth and Alps, makes his English language debut with this dystopian romantic comedy. Colin Farrell, John C. Reilly, Rachel Weisz, Ben Wishaw, Lea Seydoux, and Olivia Colman are the human subjects who populate the story. In their world, if you find yourself without a partner, you go to a hotel where you have 45 days to pair up with someone. If you do not find a suitable match, then at the end of 45 days you get turned into the animal of your choice. You can extend the time of your matchmaking opportunities by going out to the forest and hunting “loners,” people who have escaped from the hotel in the past and choose to live lives of solitude. It’s a wacky premise, but leads to numerous laugh out loud scenarios in addition to the more plaintive moments. I should warn you that there is a scene or two of violence involving an animal, which may be tough to watch for some. That may be one of the reasons people hate it. But as a critique of human behavior and society’s obsessions, it’s quite an effective parable.

The latter half of the film takes a different turn, and while I don’t want to give away what happens, that’s why I called this a “romantic” comedy. You may not want to watch it with your date on Valentine’s Day, but if you do it should certainly give you much to discuss afterward.

7. April and the Extraordinary World (YouTube/Vudu/GooglePlay/Amazon Rental) This animated steampunk French film features a talking cat and a whipsmart girl and an underground lair and a bunch of other wondrous things that I don’t dare attempt to describe. It’s an alternative history film, it features the voice of the marvelous Marion Cotillard, and it should’ve been nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars. Alas, it was not. But if you want to watch a gorgeous, funny, charming film that might inspire a generation of girls to go into STEM careers, watch this.

6. The Neon Demon (Amazon Prime) I feel intoxicated every time I even recall this sumptuous film. If you missed my review of it earlier this year, go check it out and then go watch this film... if you dare.

5. Sing Street (Netflix) This is, hands down, the feel good movie of the year. Written and directed by John Carney, who gave us Once and Begin Again, this film is set in Ireland in the early 1980s. The premise is simple, really: A boy starts a band to impress a girl that’s out of reach. Not only does he hope to impress her with the music, but he convinces her to star in their music videos since she’s seeking a career as a model. Then he has to actually form the band, and learn how to play instruments and write songs. Along the way, his older and cooler brother educates him on the cool musicians of the day: The Smiths, Duran Duran, The Clash, The Jam, Hall & Oates, The Cure, Spandau Ballet. The original songs in this film are super catchy and fun, and serve as homages to the great bands referenced above. If you’re a sucker for the films of John Hughes, the music of the 80s, and stories about brothers and coming of age and following your dreams, this is the movie for you.

4. The Handmaiden (Theaters) Take a novel set in Victorian England about pickpockets, conmen, and insane asylums that’s been referred to as “lesbian Dickens” (Sarah Waters’ Fingersmith), and set it in colonial South Korea, and make sure it’s directed by the guy who made Oldboy. This is a recipe for the most gorgeously photographed, erotically charged, bonkers in the best way movie of the year. I don’t want to get too far into the story which has so many delicious surprises, but the quick version is that an orphan pickpocket goes to live with a rich but possibly mentally ill young woman to serve as her handmaiden. This is all in an attempt to con said rich young woman into a marriage plot with a smooth talking ne’er do well man. And there’s also the added wrinkle of the rich girl’s creepy uncle, who collects banned erotic books and holds readings in his library for men who pass through. It’s a very unsettling atmosphere for two young ladies, and they form a bond with one another in spite of themselves. There are moments of horror, laughter, and blush-inducing romance in this unrated film (don’t watch it with Grandma unless she has a very open mind and you have a very comfortable relationship). Its runtime is 145 minutes but I wanted to stay in this world forever.

3. Green Room (Amazon/iTunes/GooglePlay Rental) We lost too many good people last year, and Anton Yelchin was one of the losses that hurt the most. In this movie, he gives arguably his best performance as a member of a punk band that gets in way over its head when they take a gig for gas money that takes place in a remote area where most of the audience is neo-Nazi skinheads. They get through the performance, uncomfortable as it is, but the real trouble happens later when one of them witnesses something their hosts really don’t want them to see. From there, it’s a tense stalemate as the band members have to improvise and evaluate who can be trusted. The movie is directed by Jeremy Saulnier, who gave us the excellent and underrated Blue Ruin a few years ago. This one has a similar blend of regular people in irregular situations, with plenty of blood and gore but also a fair bit of humor and a whole lot of real raw punk rock, both on the soundtrack and in the aesthetic. It helps that Saulnier was in a band himself back in the day, so he brings a real authenticity to the characters in the movie. This stayed atop my “best of the year” list all the way into December, when I finally saw the last two films on my list. I’ve watched it multiple times and would watch it many more. If you took delight in a video of a Nazi getting punched a few weeks back, you should definitely watch this movie. And if you didn’t, well, you should still watch this movie.

2. Moonlight (Theaters/Digital Purchase) Barry Jenkins (director/co-writer) and Tarell Alvin McCraney (co-writer) have created a moving, timeless piece of visual poetry in this film that captures three significant chapters in the life of a young man named Chiron. When we first meet him, he’s maybe six or seven years old and people call him “Little.” He hides out in an abandoned house to escape from neighborhood bullies, and is discovered by Juan (Mahershala Ali), a local drug dealer with a complicated moral compass. Juan and his wife Teresa (Janelle Monae) become de facto surrogate parents to Little, whose mom (Naomie Harris) works late and brings random men home and sells their belongings off piece by piece to afford the drugs she craves. In the second chapter, Little is now “Chiron,” in high school and life hasn’t gotten easier. He’s still quiet, still has a troubled relationship with his mom, and feels pretty alone in his peer group with the exception of his friend Kevin. He and Kevin share an unexpected but life-changing evening on the beach that is intimate and believable and raw. The next day at school, however, another life-changing exchange takes place between the two young men and this one is even more visceral in its immediate and long lasting impact on Chiron’s future. Finally, we see him as “Black,” a little older and transformed from the skinny vulnerable teen into a muscular, physically intimidating presence. He’s clearly fighting against his past by embracing everything he can to seem larger than life and untouchable, in both his physical appearance and his lifestyle. He gets a phone call one night that reconnects him with a part of his past he could never quite shake. I won’t spoil what happens next, but the final twenty minutes of this movie are a perfect encapsulation of long-suppressed feelings finally forcing their way out into the open. It’s such a personal story, but the specifics make it so relatable that it feels universal in its specificity. The performances in this movie are wonderful, the cinematography is gorgeous, the score is amazing--I could go on for years. To me, this movie showed a story I’ve never seen on screen before, from a perspective that’s completely underrepresented in pop culture. It never feels manipulative or stereotypical or preachy--just real and achingly human. Some moments in this movie have replayed themselves over and over in my mind hundreds of times, and even having seen it twice in the theater I can’t wait to study every frame of it on multiple viewings once it’s available on Blu-Ray. I want it to seep into my bones the way it seeped into my heart. 1. La La Land (Theaters) “This is the kind of movie that just fills your heart up,” I texted a friend the second I exited the theater after seeing La La Land the first of three times (and counting). And every time I watch it, my heart overflows a little more. Here’s a film that will resonate differently depending on your frame of mind when you watch it, the same way Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind can feel funny or sweet or tragic or dark or romantic depending on your current relationship status. At first glance, Damien Chazelle may seem to be showing off in his follow up to Whiplash, tapping into an easy sentimentality that short circuits our center of reason by throwing in references to Singin’ in the Rain, Casablanca, West Side Story, and an LA that probably only ever existed in the imaginations of the people who never actually visited the City of Stars but fell in love with its many portrayals on the silver screen. And yes, Hollywood does love stories about itself and yes, the novelty of an original movie musical does scream “anachronistic film school prodigy.” So I get the skepticism, I truly do. I can’t promise this movie will live up to the hype of a record-tying number of Oscar nominations for you, but I can tell you that it means so much more than that to me. It’s not just another charming but forgettable throwback (I’m looking at you, The Artist). In case you haven’t yet experienced this movie, a quick breakdown: Sebastian and Mia, portrayed by Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, are both in LA chasing their dreams of artistic success. He’s a jazz pianist; she’s an actress. Neither has quite made it, and “making it” to them means doing something authentic on their own terms which makes success even more elusive. Compromise may be part of real life but neither of them is quite ready to give up the fantasy yet. Their relationship starts off adversarial, then tentative, then before you know it they’re literally floating into space so carried away are they with love and visions of a future together. The stages of their lives and the story are divided up by seasons, and sure as summer follows spring, you can’t get through the year without the fall. Fall in this movie has a double meaning, and the cute flirty interludes give way to frustrated sighs and changing priorities. Other seasons follow, which I will not spoil, but I will say that the final five or ten minutes of this movie could stand on their own and still be my favorite film of 2016. People compared Whiplash to The Red Shoes, and I would make the same comparison to this film although for different reasons. The ballet sequence of The Red Shoes and the final sequence of La La Land share an artistic splendor the can induce wonder and catharsis in equal measure. I’m prone to quoting Charles Bukowski, so I’m going to close by quoting him again. I think the following poems explain the core of this film, and why it resonates so much with me: “the area dividing the brain and the soul is affected in many ways by experience – some lose all mind and become soul: insane. some lose all soul and become mind: intellectual. some lose both and become: accepted.” --You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense “if it doesn't come bursting out of you in spite of everything, don't do it. unless it comes unasked out of your heart and your mind and your mouth and your gut, don't do it. if you're doing it for money or fame, don't do it. if you're doing it because you want women in your bed, don't do it. unless it comes out of your soul like a rocket, unless being still would drive you to madness or suicide or murder, don't do it. unless the sun inside you is burning your gut, don't do it. when it is truly time, and if you have been chosen, it will do it by itself and it will keep on doing it until you die or it dies in you. there is no other way. and there never was.” --So You Want To Be a Writer?

#best films of 2016 #lists #movie reviews #la la land #moonlight #arrival #sing street #green room #the handmaiden

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