#nicky I also only watch video essays

[collectoroflovelythings]

9 people you would like to know better

tagged by @audiodramatist

1. 3 ships: raeda, soriel, blupjeans (duh)

2. first ever ship: Rarijack maybe? hard to tell with these things

3. last song: the anchor by bastille

4. last movie: I think Klute? I dont watch movies im not sure

5. currently reading: not really anything but on and off The Hundred Years War on Palestine

6. currently watching: uh kinda bunch of shows I trailed off, think the last one was Girlfriends

7. currently consuming: nothing, probably will get some soup in a bit

8. currently craving: dessert maybe, idk

9. tagging @dani-the-toad @monstressmasc @amnestyaubrey @krisiverse @daisybrien @damienthepious

[captainpikeachu]

Booker (and the team) - trauma and healing

Because recently I have been rewatching The Haunting of Hill House and the amazing video essay done by Ladyknightthebrave (and possibly doing a Hill House AU fic with the Old Guard characters), I have been thinking a lot about the theme of trauma and grief and forgiveness in terms of how it was highlighted in the Old Guard, especially with Booker’s story. And I just really needed to talk about some of the points that Ladyknightthebrave’s video essay brings up.

“But sometimes trauma doesn’t make you sweet, or vulnerable. Sometimes it makes you mean, or it makes you cold.”

There are characters who are easy to love, those who face trauma and never did anything wrong, those who are easy to empathize or seem to be dealing with trauma in “all the right ways” that society often tells us to do.

But then you get characters like Booker. His trauma didn’t make him some “poor sweet woobie who never did anything wrong”, it didn’t make him the most vulnerable person in the world. His trauma didn’t make how he’s dealing with it so easily digestible. It made his actions sometimes mean and sometimes cold.

He violated the trust of his family, he subjected them to their worst fears, he hurt them horribly. And yet, sometimes that is how people deal with trauma. It doesn’t make what was done okay, or even justified, but it still is human, it still is an effect of the lingering trauma. 

And I think it’s important to have characters like this existing in stories. Because sometimes, often times, people don’t act like some perfect cookie cutter trauma victim. Sometimes that trauma makes you all the wrong things, and make every bad decision there is to make. And we need to still acknowledge the humanity in all of that, even if people did wrong. 

There is no one way to handle trauma, and we do not always need to make excuses or find ways to woobify people or characters for what they did. But we do need to realize why something happens, and acknowledge that trauma, and most importantly, understand.

“Trauma isn’t a contest and there is no winner, the different levels of their experiences don’t really matter when it made all of them who they are today.”

And this is another thing. Trauma should not be a competition. It should never be about who has more trauma or less trauma. Trauma is trauma. All of our Old Guard characters have trauma. The different levels of their trauma don’t really matter because all of that made them who they are. Whether large or small, it still affected them, and they cannot just be dismissed when talking about a character’s actions and motivations.

In Booker’s case, you cannot remove his actions from the reality of his trauma. They are intertwined. It doesn’t matter if you think he should have “gotten over” the loss of his family or not, it doesn’t matter if you think other people lose loved ones all the time and still handle it well, his trauma still happened, still exists, and still effects him in damaging ways. That sadness and grief made him who he is in the story, it drove his every action, even the horrible ones.

“These characters spend so long bottling up their emotions, and their anger, and not listening to each other, and when they finally start actually talking and listening, they start to heal...”

Here is the thing. I don’t think this team, this family, has ever truly sat down and actually started talking honestly to each other about all of their emotions and really listened to each other. They likely didn’t think they needed to talk about it, they trusted each other implicitly, that’s just how things are, it’s destiny, and they took it for granted. And THAT is why Booker’s betrayal completely blind-sides them. 

There’s over 200 years of misery, grief, and trauma all bottled up inside Booker just jumping for the chance to leave this immortality train, and Andy, Joe, and Nicky simply never saw it coming. Not even one inkling that Booker can’t handle the life they are leading. 

And something of that has to speak to the state of their non-communication honestly in these matters. And no, I’m not saying this is Andy, Joe, and Nicky’s fault. It isn’t. Booker was not honest with them either. But the fact remains that this inability to communicate their emotions honestly and bottling things up and letting the warning signs slide by, it set the stage and culminated in this massive betrayal that nearly destroys them.

And yet it is because of this betrayal that finally the floodgates of honesty is open, everything is out on the table, they actually have to listen and talk and deal with what is going on instead of just living their usual life and letting it all go by for hundreds of years. And that 100-year exile, that discussion at the pub, that is the beginning of them really healing.

“Here’s a tough pill to swallow: people in your life will hurt you, in little and big ways. Your family, your friends, or your significant others. And you will hurt them. Because people are imperfect broken things, and everyone is carrying around scars from something, and that damage might cause you or those around you to do regrettable things. What can define you is how you deal with that hurt. You can hang on to it bitterly for years, you can deny the parts of it that are too painful, you can try to put the pain away, or simply lose yourself to it. Or you can finally talk to one another, and listen, like really listen, until you can accept it and move on. There’s no right way to forgive somebody, and some people don’t necessarily deserve your forgiveness.”

And this is the truth isn’t it.

Booker is imperfect. The team is imperfect. They are all carrying scars from something, and in Booker’s case, his scars caused him to do this horribly regrettable thing to the people he loves. He was extremely ill-equipped to be able to deal with the cards he was dealt with in life.

But what will define Booker, Andy, Joe, Nicky, and Nile is how they deal with that hurt. And they’ve finally reached the part where they are really talking and listening to each other, no longer just hanging onto things bitterly or denying the painful reality or try to drink it away or lose themselves to the darkness. They finally have to face this reality, accept it, and find a way to move on honestly.

There is no right way to forgive someone, maybe 100 years isn’t enough, maybe it is enough, or maybe Booker doesn’t necessarily even deserve forgiveness. But that is something each of them have to confront and deal with, and something that they now can deal with honestly because there is no hiding the truth anymore, they have all been laid bare by what happened. There is no more lies, only the truth.

How they all heal is now up to each of them.

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

Also, there is one moment in the Haunting of Hill House that I think really speaks to the conflict within Booker when it comes to being a parent and dealing with his grief, and this moment happens in a conversation between the two main parental characters: one desperately clinging to their children even to the point of killing them to keep them safe, and the other understanding that being a parent sometimes means letting your children go

“Even if they’re broken, or addicted, or joyless, or even if they die, we have to watch it all because we’re parents and that’s the deal we make, whatever that life is we bear witness.”

“It’s a horror.”

“It doesn’t have to be.”

Booker still sees it as a horror. The loss of his children. Their hate. Their despair. He is unable to see that it doesn’t have to be a horror. 

I don’t know if he will ever be able to see that. But I think reaching an understanding of that is the first step in him being able to forgive himself and to find a way to heal, even if his family may not forgive him yet.

After all, he has to want to get better for himself, not for someone else.

[i-am-grell]

Spoiler Free Descriptions of Steven Universe Episodes (Season 1)

Gem Glow - COOKIE CAT! HE’S A PET FOR YOUR TUMMY!

Laser Light Cannon - GREG!

Cheeseburger Backpack - *chanting* Cheeseburger backpack, cheeseburger backpack, cheeseburger backpack-

Together Breakfast - Low key would eat tho 10/10

Frybo - Trauma

Cat Fingers - Advanced Trauma

Bubble Buddies - They belong together it has been Decided.

Serious Steven - It was just like the teacups!

Tiger Millionaire - The only form of wrestling I care about

Steven’s Lion - Every Lion episode is a good episode

Arcade Mania - Unfortunately named arcade games

Giant Woman - All I wanna do is see you turn into a giant woman *softer* a giant wooooman

So Many Birthdays - Trauma

Lars and the Cool Kids - Literally everyone I’ve made watch Steven Universe loves the cool kids and they are Correct

Onion Trade - Onion is a lil shit

Steven the Sword Fighter - Remember when the fandom had like 1 meme and it was from this episode?

Lion 2: The Movie - RE: Every Lion episode is a good episode

Beach Party - Nanafua is a badass bitch we stan

Rose’s Room - Trauma

Coach Steven - Nicki Minaj

Joking Victim - Look, Lars hasn’t had that much character development yet okay this is only episode 21

Steven and the Stevens - You know how every American cartoon has to do that episode where there’s a ton of clones of the main character for some reason?

Monster Buddies - You will feel feelings in your cold dead heart

An Indirect Kiss - If you weren’t sold on this ship by episode 7, you will be now

Mirror Gem & Ocean Gem - ya like Depressed Lesbians?

House Guest - Yes, duct tape can fix everything

Space Race - Pearl goes insane

Secret Team - *quietly* Secret Team

Island Adventure - And I can’t believe that it’s finally me and you and you and me just us - and your friend Steve(n)

Keep Beach City Weird! - They break Ronaldo

Fusion Cuisine - Ultimate Mom

Garnet’s Universe - The cutest episode in the SUniverse I do not accept criticism

Watermelon Steven - I just have nothing to say here it’s a good episode and I genuinely love it go watch it

Lion 3: Straight to Video - RE: RE: Every Lion episode is a good episode

Warp Tour - Maybe listen to your kids sometimes actually

Alone Together - If this isn’t your favourite episode or at least in your top 3 faves you’re wrong

The Test - They’re trying okay

Future Vision - She’s trying okay

On the Run - I still cry over this one

Horror Club - Lars tries too hard for 15 minutes

Winter Forecast - Maybe listen to your parents sometimes actually

Maximum Capacity - Hey bud maybe stop binge watching TV shows

Marble Madness - You can’t stop the thing if you don’t know why you’re stopping it

Rose’s Scabbard - Pearl needs therapy

Open Book - Trauma

Shirt Club - Buck Dewey’s dad should have hugged him more

Story For Steven - Greg Universe performs the Grammy Award Winning song Comet and also fuck Marty

The Message - Greg should be more valued as a human member of the Crystal Gems in this essay I will

Political Power - I still don’t know who Mayor Dewey was running against at this point or how he got elected in the first place

The Return & Jail Break - LET’S GO LESBIANS

[theneulithium]

2020.02.16 - The Art of Captioning

//Nicky Ni

This past week, I dabbled in the world of subtitles and closed captions. Wondering what the difference is? It’s simple: subtitles are translation of the spoken dialogs only, and hence are for people who cannot understand the language. Closed captions, on the other hand, are intended for viewers who cannot hear the audio, and therefore also include notations of important sound effects, such as [dog barking], [music playing🎵] etc.; “closed” captioning, as opposed to “open,” indicates that the captions are on a separate track and can be turned on and off. If you want to know how I ended up here, let me tell you, it all began with a random Muppets video that I saw on YouTube, which I will show you in just a little bit. 

Just about a year ago, when Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s new film Parasite (2020) won a surprise Best Picture—rather than the Best Foreign Film—Academy Award, it also inevitably reignited the discussion around subtitles vs. dubbing. Shot completely in Korean, Parasite would have to meet its audience either with English subtitles or dubbed English voice-over. Prior to the Oscar win, the filmmaker’s Golden Globes acceptance speech, in which he said that “once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films,” seemed to be an attempt to appease American viewers’ discomfort against subtitled foreign films. 

Up until now, little did I know that subtitles are a lot less popular here in the U.S. than I realized. Growing up in China and exposed to a lot of foreign films that were circulated in the gray market as barely adequately captioned DVDs, I find myself lucky to have always seen subtitles as an essential part of the film-viewing experience. In other words, I am very accustomed to having typed words at the bottom of the screen that indicates that a dialog is happening. If they block the images, it is a OK; if heavy reading distracts me from admiring the actresses and actors, I rewind and watch that part again. Subtitles/captions relax me; they provide a sense of reassurance, guaranteeing that I understand the dialogs full well in case my listening comprehension glitches out. On the flip side, though, with the concept of having subtitles “burned-in” to my brain, I remained somewhat negligent of the extent to which subtitles/captions do and can do. Having viewed captions solely as a utility item prevents me from noticing some of their unique characteristics. And it is for this serendipitous revelation that I began to dig further into the land of subtitles/captions. In this blog, I want to show you a few surprising examples (which also provide general access, hence, sorry Godard) in both art and popular culture that evoke subtitles with intentionality and creativity.

The Dutch duo Metahaven has always been vocal about subtitles. Releasing a lot of moving-image works—from feature films to music videos—that involve multiple languages, Metahaven looks at subtitles from a design theorist’s perspective and discusses their role in mutating speech, meaning, viewing experience and even the digital file format.

Metahaven at MoMA on Subtitles. Tumblr. 04/30/2019. 

Next, a video essay by Thomas Flight that discusses the use of translation as a filmic technique that accentuates human-animal communication—or the lack thereof—in Wes Anderson’s recent film, Isle of Dogs (2018). The director did a fantastic job navigating between text translations, intentionally untranslated conversations, and real-time translation done by the characters, to create a film that uses a foreign language as dramaturgic tool to delay or further the narrative. However, its anglo-centric shortcoming also lies therein: the director’s ideal viewer is someone who cannot understand Japanese and could therefore share this frustration of the dogs trying to understand humans (in this case, the dogs speak English and their masters Japanese). However, this empathy is severely squashed for someone who can understand both languages, leaving behind only comical confusion. 

And at last, in this episode featuring The Swedish Chef of The Muppets, the invisible person who painstakingly transcribes the Chef’s gibberish into some nonsensical captions that resemble Swedish also begins to “talk” directly to the viewer via the captions midway through the video (in order to see this, make sure that you have your “cc” button on). Indeed, producing subtitles can be quite lonely and frustrating sometimes, especially when you don’t understand the language!

In the process of my research, I encountered a nice book, Reading Sounds: Closed-Captioned Media and Popular Culture (2016), by Sean Zdenek, Professor of technical and professional writing at University of Delaware. The book provides much of what you want to know about closed captioning and argues that closed captioning can be beneficial for both hard-of-hearing and hearing people. What’s more relevant to today’s post is in Chapter 9, “the future of close captioning,” an abstract of which is nicely reproduced to the author’s blog with .GIF demonstrations. The chapter talks about innovative closed captioning cases that incorporate digital designs and animations to enhance the viewing experience. I strongly encourage that you read this post, “Subtitles as Visual Art.”

A scene from Russian film Night Watch (2007) by Timur Bekmambetov. .GIF reproduced from Sean Zdenek’s blog post “Subtitles as Visual Art,” Reading Sounds, 10/18/2015. 

And of course, such “image-text collaboration” is also explored in-depth in Sherlock, where texting—an activity generally hard to portray on a screen—is very efficiently conveyed through creative post production.

A scene from “A Study in Pink” (S1E1) in Sherlock (2010) directed by Paul McGuigan. 

That’s all for today. I hope you enjoyed :)

[goldenmusicmoments]

Taylor Swift:

So I have wanted to write this essay for quite some time now and finally here goes. Since Taylor Swift’s 1989 era she has been getting a lot of unnecessary hate. It seemed to have become a trend to jump on this hate bandwagon. I really was surprised to see the extremes people go to hate on someone they don’t even know. Sad is what it all is, a person whose heart is full of hate can never truly be happy.

Let’s start with people that have been claiming that Taylor is terrible to her fans. Taylor is actually one of the most fan loyal celebrities out there. She has been that way since the start of her career, from free meet and greets, to inviting fans over to her house and sending care packages to fans going through tough times. If I were to list all the things she has done for her fans it would take up the whole post. People were claiming that Taylor doesn’t care about her fans because she supposedly was suing them for selling merchandise with catchy phrases from her music or her images. Let’s think about this logically whether you are a fan or not you can’t use someone else’s work to make money off as that isn’t right. Being a fan doesn’t give you a free pass to do so. Let’s put it this way say I am a huge fan of a writer, I myself am a writer and I decided to include two pages from a book that, that writer wrote and claim it as my own to go on and sale it. Does me being a fan justify my use of those two pages of writing that aren’t my own, it doesn’t. If it was justifiable that would give way to people who aren’t fans to claim to be fans just to make money using that artist’s name/work. I didn’t see anyone bring up Beyonce’s name since there were articles talking about how her team shut down a fan site that was selling unauthorised merchandise belonging to a 15 year old who went on to twitter to beg Beyonce not to sue. It is rather hypocritical to attack one artist, but not the other for doing the same thing. So let’s not act like you care about the mistreatment of fans, when your true intent is to demonise Taylor. If you truly cared about the treatment of fans the statement would be general rather than targeted at a specific artist. Especially when it isn’t just a single artist preventing the selling of unauthorised merchandise.

There also were people who were attacking her by yelling ‘how could you sue your guitar teacher after he made you who you are today’. He taught her how to play guitar and that isn’t all her job role requires, so let’s not try reaching that high as clearly you are failing in your attempt. He did bad mouth her mother to the media yet had the nerve to use Taylor’s name in his websites url to profit of. It would have been acceptable in the description section of his site to mention that he taught the likes of Taylor Swift.

Also people were making claims that Taylor was removing all the videos that featured her music playing in them. One of them said that she got all the vines featuring her music removed. Think about this, why share the vines and show appreciation if she were only going to go and have them removed. Luckily enough I had liked the most popular vines featuring her music and they were still there even after these false claims. So people were going to extremes and creating things that weren’t true at all to tarnish Taylor’s image and most of this was being spread by a bunch of Katy Perry fans. Labels always remove music that is published online without acquiring the proper rights to it, the only way you’ll find videos still remain on sites like YouTube is when the audio has been altered to some degree.

Coming to Katy Perry, Bad Blood is in no way a track that attacks Katy in anyway way even if it is about her. It is a song that describes lyrically what most of us go through, in which we thought a person was one that we could trust but ended up being the opposite. The dancers were the hot topic in this situation and yes they aren’t an artist’s property in anyway. I also get that they had formed a close relationship with Katy Perry, but as a dancer when you sign up for a tour you go in knowing the amount of dates etc. If the dancers leave part way through a tour it does have an effect on the artists show as it is difficult to find dancers and then put them through rehearsals to learn the choreography part way through the tour. Katy being a friend should have talked to Taylor first and let her know that she was back touring and intended on asking whether the dancers wanted to come back to join her tour. That is what being a friend entails.

Then people criticised her for lyrics in ‘Better Than Revenge’ claiming that she slut shamed Camilla Belle. She didn’t call her a slut, the line ‘You’re better known for the things you can do on the mattress’ talks in terms of the popular perception of Camilla and not what Taylor thinks of her.

Now let’s talk about people calling Taylor a ‘snake’ because of Kim ‘exposing’ her. Taylor did give approval for Kanye to go ahead with the use of the lyrics he had informed her of in his song ‘Famous’, however she hadn’t heard the full song and was unaware of him relating to her as a ‘bitch’ until the album release. Think about it if Kim outing Taylor was authentic it wouldn’t have been done through snapchat using clips that were pieced together to only show what Kim wanted people to see. If she was going to release the phone call she should have released it in its entirety. Anyone with the slightest level of intellect should be able to figure that out.

Those that haven’t heard her full discography and just focused on the singles, and haven’t bothered to watch her interviews in order to comprehend her growth as a person and artist continue to ignorantly claim that she always plays the victim. I mean there are so many examples of her acknowledging when she has been in the wrong or made a mistake like ‘Back To December’ and then you will also notice lyrics in her song ‘Style’ that depict realisation of knowing that there are two participants in a relationship.  

Taylor gets criticised a lot for not always posting about issues around the world on her social media pages, even though she continues to do a lot of philanthropic work and acts, rather than tweeting. Although she has posted on social media to show support and acknowledge issues on several occasions. She gets attacked when she both does and does not post on social media, so she can never win either way. The thing about posting about issues or current affairs is that it helps create awareness; however awareness is pointless without action. Yes I would love for Taylor to post more in acknowledgement of issues affecting the world, but you can understand why she could be put off from doing so. After all she is human to and she has feelings just like you and me.

The VMA situation last year when Nicki went on a rant on twitter also resulted in Taylor facing backlash for responding to what Nicki had said. If you did follow Nicki’s tweets from start to finish during that moment it wouldn’t have been too hard for you to piece things together. Nicki was obviously hurt by the fact that ‘Anaconda’ a video that did garner a lot of attention and surely went down as one of the biggest music videos during that year went unnoticed in the ‘Video Of The Year’ category. She near the end changed her tone and started to talk about the under appreciation of POC in the industry, which is very real and sad that people of colour aren’t recognised and awarded for their great contributions to the entertainment industry as much as those that are white. However when you take into account the full train of tweets in that rant you can make out that the she was going of more at the fact that her video didn’t receive a nomination in the major category. It is easy to see why Taylor would take the tweet, in which Nicki said that being white and skinny is the way you get recognised, as an aim at her. As out of the all the nominees that year in the ‘Video Of The Year’ category ‘Bad Blood’ was the only video that fit that description.

It is okay to dislike an artist, but that does not give you the right to be hateful or disrespectful towards them. The haters were going to extremes by conjuring up and twisting things in order to diminish Taylor as a person. Hate prevents a person from seeing the entire picture and just grasping to parts that play in the favour of the view of the hater. That is what a lot of people were doing in relation to what I have discussed above. There is so much more that I could have talked about which would have led this essay to turn into an entire book.

Regardless of being famous and wealthy, celebrities are still human beings just like you and me. They have feelings and they get hurt by things people say about them. On top of that you cannot use the line ‘Who cares they won’t see it so it won’t affect them’ as a way of justifying the posting of hurtful comment

[c-e-d-dreamer]

Hey idk if you are still looking for prompts because I scrolled pretty far back, but if so, how about "that's the dumbest shit I've ever heard let's do it" or ”it’s a long story that involves a lot of blood, a couple squirrels, and one hell of a headache” for any of the foxes? Thanks, I love love love your writing and I've really enjoyed looking through your blog!

I’m always accepting prompts! And thank you so much for the lovely compliments! I hope you enjoy! This is basically a shitpost in fic form. It’s a crack fic. I’m not even sorry. Also you probably need to suspend a lot of disbelief for this; just roll with it

“That’s the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard; let’s do it”

—

Neil is still trying to get the hang of his new phone. Nickyhad insisted that he upgrade to this century and had practically dragged Neilto the mall to purchase an iPhone. The rest of the Foxes were more than happyabout the change, some money even exchanging hands, but there’s so much goingon with his phone now. Before, all Neil had to worry about were text messagesand phone calls, but now there’s a bunch of apps that Nicky keeps trying toteach him. He thinks he’s starting to get a handle on Snapchat thanks to thedaily snaps from Allison. At the very least, he’s no longer confused by the waythey disappear after opening them. And Instagram seems easy enough, so Neiltries to keep track of that so he can see Renee’s posts from around the world.

Neil can admit that the ESPN app is great. It’s set up tosend him notifications for Exy news and score updates. It’s that app that iscurrently dinging at Neil as he makes his way across campus. The trade deadlineis coming up for the National Exy League, and Neil’s been trying to keep up andfollow the changes. After Neil reads the latest update, the striker tries tosee the current NCAA standings, but his new phone isn’t cooperating. He bats atthe screen a few times, but when it finally switches over to NCAA Exy, it’s thenews page. Neil lets out a frustrated noise and is about to just give up when aheadline catches his eye.

Neil scrolls through and reads the article the whole wayback to Fox Tower. He still has his phone out and the page open as he unlocksthe door to his dorm. The room is full of people, but Neil has learnt to beunsurprised by that. Nicky and Aaron are in the beanbags, a video game of somesort blaring on the television. Kevin is sprawled out on the couch with hislaptop in his lap while Andrew is perched on his desk by the window.

“Hey, Neil,” Nicky greets, not taking his eyes off the gamehe’s playing. “How was class?”

“Did you guys know someone tried to steal the University ofTexas’ mascot last night? Not the costume; the actual longhorn.”

“How unoriginal,” Nicky says. “That’s like the oldest prankin the book. I mean everyone’s—”

Nicky cuts off as he finally draws his eyes away and meetsNeil’s, his face contorting into a mix of guilt and regret. The backliner openshis mouth again, but whatever rambling remedy was on the tip of his tongue, he swallowsit down and snaps his lips shut. When no one else in the room has anything toadd, Neil resigns himself to his desk. He can feel Andrew’s eyes boring intohis cheek, but the striker focuses on outlining his upcoming essay until practice.

The news story gets forgotten, blurred away by drills andbickering freshmen and a scrimmage. But it’s still nestled a place in the backof Neil’s mind, niggling in the periphery of his thoughts persistently. By thetime he’s changing out after practice, it’s made its way back to the forefront.

He thinks about the article, about Nicky’s cut off words, ashe and Andrew sit up on the roof, the nighttime humid and inky around them. Hismind is a whirlwind of thoughts tangled up with the billows of smoke wisping inthe evening breeze. He almost doesn’t notice the distinctive smell of nicotineor the way his cigarette has burned down to the filter. He doesn’t realize he’szoned out on the twinkling lights of the campus until the cool, feather lighttouch across the back of his hand pulls him back.

When Neil looks to his right, Andrew is already watchingback. He raises an eyebrow in question at the striker’s silence, and Neil stubsout his cigarette.

“Do you think I’m missing out?” Neil asks. “Having not donea prank before?”

Andrew doesn’t say anything in response. He watches Neil fora few more moments before he stubs out his own cigarette. He beckons his headtowards the roof door, and Neil tries not to read too much into it as the tworetreat down to their dorm.

The next morning before heading to the gym for workouts,Andrew drags Neil and Kevin next door. The goalkeeper picks the lock with anease Neil feels he shouldn’t be surprised by at this point. The three burstinto the room where Aaron and Nicky are tucked into the kitchenette withsteaming mugs cradled in their hands. Neither bats an eye at the intrusion.

“We’re stealing a mascot tonight,” Andrew says to the room.

“What?!” Kevin squeaks out from just inside the doorway.

“That’s the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard,” Nicky says,setting down his mug. “Let’s do it.”

“What.”

“Oh, come on, Kevin, it’ll be fun!” Nicky reasons. “I betyou’ve never pulled a prank either. And it’ll be like a senior prank for you.It works out perfectly!”

“While that’s all well and good,” Aaron pipes up. “Where areyou going to steal this mascot from? Most schools don’t have real animalmascots these days. We certainly don’t have a fox running around.”

“University of Texas has a real animal mascot,” Neil says.

“You want us to travel all the way to the University ofTexas?” Aaron asks, tone deadpan.

“There has to be somewhere closer,” Nicky offers, fiddlingwith his phone for a moment. “University of North Carolina! That’s not too farto drive.”

“There’s no way we’re fitting a ram in my car,” Andrew says.

“Matt has a truck,” Neil suggests.  

It’s at that moment that Matt walks out of the bathroom,toothbrush hanging between his teeth and phone pressed to his ear. Hisexpression startles when he notices all pairs of eyes on him.

“Hey, Matt,” Neil says. “Can we borrow your truck tonight?”

“We’re driving up to UNC tonight to steal their mascot,”Nicky jumps in to explain. “You in?”

Neil thinks it must be a sign that Matt’s been living withNicky and Aaron too long because the backliner just shrugs in acceptance.

“I’m going to have to call you back, Dan,” Matt says intohis phone. “We’re kidnapping Rameses.”

- - -

Researching during lunch reveals that UNC has a small farmon their campus. It acts as a training center for students studying veterinarysciences, but it also doubles as Rameses’ home. It seems easy enough to get to,and the farm being tucked away from the dorms means students shouldn’t bemilling about.

It should be easy.

Their first complication arrives before they even get oncampus. After dinner, everyone changes into black clothes and piles into Matt’struck, and then they’re heading up north along the interstate. It’s a bit of ahike through North Carolina, but luckily, the sun has long since set by thetime they’re nearing the campus. Matt directs the truck towards the entrance thatwill bring them closest to the farm, but security stops them to check forschool ID’s.

Despite Matt’s sweet talking and Nicky’s attemptedexplanation that they’re attending an on-campus party, the security guardremains unimpressed and stubborn, turning them away. Matt ends up parking thetruck outside a row of off-campus houses, and the group sneaks onto the campus.

UNC is bigger than PSU, and as Neil looks around at thedifferent buildings looming over him, it’s a bit disorientating, and yet there’sno mistaking that thrum of excitement. They keep mostly to the shadows and keeptheir heads down, trying not to draw attention to themselves. As collegestudents themselves, they at least blend in a little.  

After a few wrong turns down campus roads, they find thefarm. They hop over the fence and make their way up the dirt path to the barn. Neilmakes quick work of picking the lock and they all slip inside. The poignantsmell of manure and livestock hits them like a tsunami wave, and Neil puts ahand over his mouth to try and stifle it. Similar reactions ripple through thegroup. Nicky, Matt, and Aaron pull out their phones to provide light as theymove further into the barn. Neil peers into the first cubby on his left only tocome face to face with a horse.

“Aw this one has a cute little pig in it,” Nicky says fromfurther down. “We should take this too.”

“Focus, Nicky,” Kevin snaps.

Neil has to stifle a laugh at Nicky’s muttered response ashe continues to look for the ram. The next cubby he checks has a donkeysleeping inside, though.

“Hey!” Matt exclaims. “I found him!”

Everyone joins Matt and crowds around the cubby. Rameses hasbacked into the far corner. He stares at them all for a few moments beforeletting out a bleat. Matt, Nicky, and Kevin begin a murmured argument aboutwhat to do next when Andrew opens the door to the cubby and steps inside, arope in his hand that he ties around Rameses to lead the ram out. Once they getRameses out of the barn, they move as a slow huddle down the road in an attemptto hide their deed. Andrew ends up handing the rope over to Aaron so he canlead the group when it becomes apparent no one else can remember the way backto Matt’s truck.

A security guard is making rounds around the campus, so theyhave to duck between the shadows of two buildings while they wait for him topass. It’s at this moment that Rameses becomes fed up with his captors. A swiftkick to Aaron’s shins leaves the backliner recoiling in pain and dropping therope. Rameses takes the opportunity to escape, darting out from their hidingspot. Matt and Neil are quick to chase after the ram, but running into thelight of the streetlamps reveals that the security guard isn’t as far away asthey anticipated and the bleating has drawn his attention.

“Hey!” the security guard shouts, already running in theirdirection. “What do you think you’re doing?!”

“Oh shit,” Neil says under his breath.

“Time to go,” Andrew says, grabbing a fistful of the back ofNeil’s shirt and tugging.

“Wait! What about Rameses?” Matt asks, gesturing towards theparking lot the ram is tearing through.  

“Leave him!” Nicky shouts, taking hold of Matt’s wrist andyanking him away.

They can hear the security guard getting closer, his poundingfootsteps and his shouts of needing backup. No one needs to be told twice. Theysqueeze out the other side of the buildings and break into sprints, scatteringin different directions.

Neil can feel the adrenaline thrumming in his veins. Itleaves his ears ringing and his heart pounding in his chest as his feet smackagainst the ground. Andrew veers off to the right in front of him, and Neilfollows. The shortcut takes them through the brush, and branches cut at Neil’sarms and ankles. It does nothing to quiet the thrill bubbling in his chest.

Matt’s truck comes into view, Aaron and Kevin alreadywaiting in the bed. Nicky and Matt come tearing in from the other side, yankingthe doors of the cab open to clamber inside.

“Do you think the ram is alright?” Matt asks, out of breath.

“That’s not important right now, Matthew! Drive!” Nickyshouts.

Andrew practically bodily throws Neil into the truck bedbefore jumping in himself. Matt kicks the truck into gear and peels away fromthe curb, tires screeching in his wake. As Matt speeds off, Neil can’t help thegiddy laughter that bubbles out of him, taking him over until there are tearsin his eyes.

“Well that was fun.”

“Junkie.”

// Send me prompts!!! // 

[backofthebookshelf]

WisCon Day 2

So I didn't write a post yesterday but I HAVE REASONS Let's see, all the way back...Friday evening I went to the Space Unicorn party but only briefly and very late, because I am bad at parties, and also there was a reading/performance with Guest of Honor Amal El-Mohatar and C.S.E. Cooney which I had to go to (it was an excellent decision). You can hear some of the music they performed at the website of their band, the Banjo Apocalypse Crinoline Troubadours. Then there was the vid party, featuring a tremendous Carrie Fisher vid that had the whole audience sobbing, and then I stopped in briefly to the Gods in Space panel, which was on the not-good end of the spectrum. Religion panels at WisCon are the most variable, but I've been to one or two really good ones so I keep trying. This one was only two people, both white men, one who seemed like he had interesting things to say and the other who had the thesis that "no one writes religion in space but they should," and every time he was given an example he found a way to dismiss it. And who needs to listen to that when there's a Nicki Minaj vid playlist going on? And then I went to bed. Saturday morning started at ten, like WisCon mornings usually do, with the panel Stay In Your Lane 2: Bigger, Badder, and More Intersectional, with Riley H, Jennifer Cross, Mark Oshiro, and medievalpoc. I didn't see the first version of this panel last year although I wished I had, and this was a quality discussion about how to shut up and get out of the way when people are talking about things that are not about you. (I have never been more grateful in life to be an introvert, because I avoid most of the pitfalls they discussed by never writing hot takes. All of my takes are, like the best revenge, served cold.) medievalpoc in particular made a comment I really liked about making an active decision to never publicly criticize Black people, not because Black people never need criticism but because there are folks lined up around the block to criticize Black people, and she decided there was no reason to add to the dogpile. Recommended media I need to actually watch/read: Franchesca Ramsay's video on dealing with your racist relatives at Thanksgiving; Marck Ronald Rimorin's essay on "Westjacking." After lunch (Nepali cauli tarkara with roti and dal and mango lassi), This Genre Kills Fascists, the only real Resistance panel I ended up at this year. There were lots of book recommendations, too many to add here, but I'll be doing the book lists when I get home Tuesday or Wednesday. There was a lot of talk about the different stories we do and can tell about what resistance is and who does it and how - there are lots of stories about an individual surviving a regime but not nearly as many about the actual work of many people involved to topple the regime. (Examples of the latter include, however, The Dispossessed and Everfair.) The panel was a glorious affirmation of the point that speculative fiction helps us think about worlds that do not exist, which helps us to think about options that do not exist, which helps us to create them. (Campaigning for Dems is fine and even necessary in the short term, but in the longer term, we're going to need a more imaginative solution.) Also, one of the panelists suggested giving The Parable of the Sower as a gift to everyone you know who voted for Trump. 2:30 panel slot, The Alien vs. the Monster, or, where is the line between science fiction and horror. I've been really into monsters lately, so this panel was exactly what I needed. A set of definitions the panel seemed to settle on, and one that I think works well without being too reductive, is that in science fiction the world might be a frightening place, but it is ordered and understandable, and seeking understanding is rewarding, even if it doesn't solve all your problems; in horror, seeking understanding is destructive. (Another panelist offered the frame that sf widens the horizons of the story while horror is about narrowing them as much as possible to see what still fits in.) And eventually the panel wandered around to the central questions of horror, and talked a lot about horror as a genre being concerned with asking moral questions, and one of the most moral questions is, what do we do with things that are scary? (I am reducing this panel down a lot, it was very wide-ranging and fascinating.) 4:00, I had every intention of going to a reading and instead I wound up in a panel called "Sort of," by and about people who do not fit neatly into the identity-boxes that our culture values so strongly, and how they negotiate those identities. There were a lot of painful stories that I really don't feel it's my place to repeat, but as someone doing some gender identity *handwavey* THING right now it was incredibly useful and interesting to hear people talk about this as a problem, even if no one had solutions. (The one quote I wrote down from this was from Kiini Iburi Salaam, who said that identity is a series of artificial categories that we kill people to maintain.) One panelist did tell a story about meeting a delightful young person who identified their gender as "genderless blob," which I really hope is a thing that catches on. Recommended works: Everfair, the Dominican writer Rita Indiana, and the webcomic Kimchi Cuddles. And then there was the Ace dinner, which was where I kind of fell apart. The Madison Ace Space usually does dinners every couple of weeks, and this year it fell on WisCon, and also Hattie goes there, so we went out to dinner with them to a Chinese place down State Street that does hot pot. Normally I am all about hot pot, but I was feeling a little anxious and decided not to deal with a dinner I'd have to spend so much energy negotiating, which turned out to be a decent idea because I was there for two hours and the meat they'd ordered for the hot pot had yet to arrive. I eventually hit the point where my anxiety wasn't going to let me sit there any more, so I bailed early (which I feel slightly bad for, but my anxiety level is still high enough that I know there was no way I was gonna do anything else) and got gelato on the way back to the hotel. I watched a bit of the Tiptree Auction (long enough to watch a bottle of lube signed by Zoe Quinn on behalf of Chuck Tingle go for more than $100), and then Hattie came back and we spent the rest of the evening in the bar, where I drank. A lot. There was a Long Island in there, a couple of what they called the Green Book (vodka, midori, pineapple, and...something else, I've got the recipe, it's excellent), a Non-Compliant (my first tequila cocktail, but also the last drink of the night, so I genuinely don't know if I can offer a verdict on how good it was, and there was at least one other cocktail at the beginning but I can't remember which one right now. We talked with Jess, who I had met last year when she was on the Ace 101 panel I moderated, and later to some lovely people named Chaos and Michael who were very nice about how drunk we were. And then we came back to the room and didn't wind down until around 3, when all that booze finally caught up with me and I fell over. ...and that's yesterday, but it's also now well past time for bed if I want to make that 8:30 panel tomorrow, so I guess I'll just have to keep running a day behind. comments from the wicked king of parody http://ift.tt/2s5ZPGS via IFTTT

[literaryinspiredwebserieslove]

LIW Review: Bright Summer Night

Before I even start, I have to say that Bright Summer Night is probably the most artistic LIW that has ever been made. That plus the fact that it’s made by The Candle Wasters should be enough of a reason to watch it.

BSN is loosely inspired by Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The entire thing is set at a house party in Wellington over the course of one night. There are three main groups, the Lovers, the Fairies, and the Mechanicals, just like in the play, with Puck as a floater between all three, and there are nine point-of-view characters. Everyone is in love with everyone else, and there are drugs and songs about climate change and a shocking lack of running water.

Format:

Filmed entirely in traditional TV style (because The Candle Wasters had actual funding for this one, hurray!). There are ten episodes, nine from the point of view of one of the main characters (Puck, Lena, Petra, Bryn, Zander, Nicky, Deme, Mia, Awhina) with the final episode as the finale.

Realism:

BNS is not even partially a vlog, so that type of realism is not an issue. The whole thing is very surreal, so it might take some concentration to understand what’s happening, but unlike in the original play, there isn’t any magic, so the actual events are pretty grounded in reality.

Representation/diversity:

Amazing. So, so good. NMTD and LLL were both mostly white (with a few notable exceptions). BSN is about as racially diverse as it’s possible to be in New Zealand. I won’t go into the details because I will inevitably get someone’s ethnicity wrong, but the diversity here is excellent.

LGBT representation is also fantastic. In such a short series, it was hard to officially acknowledge characters genders/sexualities, but here’s a breakdown based on the story: Puck is nonbinary (potentially demiboy) and at least a little interested in men. Deme is gender fluid (played by an actual gender fluid person) and is interested in women (and probably other genders as well, we just don’t see it). Thea and Poppy (Mouce Young, aka Paige Moth from LoLiLo) are a lesbian couple. Lena’s sexuality is completely unknown because the only person she expresses interest in is gender-fluid Deme. I won’t name any more because I don’t want to make assumptions about the other characters, but regardless the most that can be straight is probably four (and I’m 99% sure Mia is bi anyway).

Puck has serious mental health issues that, while not explicitly named, are acknowledged much more explicitly than any of the mental health issues in LoLiLo. Lena also has the most horrific social anxiety, and I really appreciate the way The Candle Wasters deal with that.

Also, politics! The Mechanicals talk about Trump, climate change, Palestine, gun rights, and a number of other issues, and a lot of current social and world issues are themes throughout the whole series, culminating in the song “Relationship Problems and the Environment” in the finale.

Film Quality:

Off the charts incredible. They had funding, so they filmed using multiple cameras and angles. The lighting and effects are fantastic. The background music is perfect at all times. AND they got a crane to use in two episodes. WHAT. There are a few moments when the editing could have been more professional, but since it was their first traditionally-filmed series, I think we need to cut them some slack.

My three favorite things about BSN:

1) Puck. Everything about them is so perfect. And, interestingly, more true to Shakespeare than anything else in the series (I’ve always thought that Puck could be played/headcanoned as any gender, and this is a great example of that).

2) The costumes. Deme’s flame jacket, Nicky’s giraffe onesie, Petra’s whole aesthetic. Frankie’s hair. Mia’s bralette. They just all look so good.

3) The amount of depth they managed in ten episodes, which was incredible.

Difficult things about BSN:

There are only ten episodes, so it’s hard to get attached to the characters. There’s a lot of information that isn’t developed or is sprung in suddenly without much lead-up (polyamory mention in “Mia”). Also, the acting, writing, and production design are so good that it’s sad it had to be so short and that we’re never going to see more of these characters. The end of the plot is a little hurried as well, since the first seven episodes only manage to get through about half of the source material, but everything still gets resolved without any loose ends.

Verdict: The aesthetic is fantastic, the music is fantastic, the script and acting are fantastic. The editing only has a few slight issues. The characters are wonderful. It is far too short, but it’s also so, so good. I cited BSN heavily in an essay about climate change and social responsibility, and my teacher loved it. 

This series is amazingly well made, but it isn’t quite perfect. The format is so innovative and new that it isn’t quite there yet, and as I mentioned before, it’s hard to get quite as invested in the characters in only ten episodes. 

Overall, I give Bright Summer Night 4.5/5 stars.

Awards!

BSN is up for the LIWAs! Nominations are open until April 15, with final voting after that. They’re eligible for Best Costume and Set Design, Best Script, Best LIW, and Best Chemistry for several different combinations of characters. I don’t know what to say about the acting awards because The Candle Wasters haven’t made any formal announcement in that department and it’s hard to know which characters belong in which categories (Are all nine POV characters leads? If they use they/them pronouns, do we nominate them for best actor, best actress, or both?).

EDIT: The Candle Wasters have answered the nomination question. All nine POV characters are leads, with Puck as a little more of a lead than the rest. Meesha Rikk and Dani Yourukova shouldn’t really be nominated because they don’t fully identify as male or female, though they still deserve many awards. Read that post here: 

https://literaryinspiredwebseriesreviews.tumblr.com/post/159481476531/hey-just-wondering-how-you-want-nominations-for

Cast:

Puck Goodall – Meesha Rikk

Awhina Parekura – Neenah Dekkers-Reihana

Bryn Alberich – Jack Buchanan

Lena Balavu – Kalisha Wasasala (Jaquie from Lovely Little Losers)

Deme George – Dani Yourukova

Zander Makau – Shane Murphy

Mia Selene – Maddie Adams

Nicky Xing – Gala Baumfield (she has a YouTube channel!)

Petra Quince – Thomasin McKenzie (who has been in actual things like Shortland Street and The Hobbit. no joke)

Frankie Piper – Nova Moala-Knox

Taylor Sutton – Brendan King

Poppy Hoú – Mouce Young (Paige from Lovely Little Losers)

Thea Quince – Freya Milner

Created by The Candle Wasters @thecandlewasters

Ran from July to September 2017. Ten episodes. 1 hour 18 min long, making it the shortest adaptational literary-inspired webseries.

***NOTE: Although BSN does not take place in the same universe as NMTD and LLL, there are several promo videos made by those characters, specifically Jaquie and Costa and Ben and Bea. In-universe, Paige and Jaquie are playing Poppy and Lena.***

Watch Bright Summer Night in full here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ4M4eic7acRxRp2L-0Lrcvd_c1PpP1Fp

[auburnfamilynews]

Ok, so the picture...I don’t think you can fully enjoy the hilarity of this completely unaltered photo in just the screen shot, so here is the whole thing.

Ok...alright...deep breath. To me, the funny part isn’t Lil’ Nicky going all ‘Hang In There Kitty’ on the OBVIOUS AND BLATANT copy of the LSU Crossbar, no no. It’s the cop that is watching this and has his hand on the door ready to open it just in case Nick can’t regain his footing after going 5th grade kid trying to touch the top of the door. Imagine if that did happen but Nick fell or something like that. The cop in front of Nick might have to take down the other cop for attempted little person murder! Ok ok, now back to our regularly scheduled Roastings...

You know how you are sitting at your house on July, let’s say 14th, and you get depressed on how far college football is from you. Its so many weekends away! There are no holidays between you and that far off land, it’s just work and work and work. Then college football is here….and just like that your team is 5-0….5-0? FIVE GAMES HAVE BEEN PLAYED!?!?! It’s just not fair. And, while there haven’t been a ton of really good matchups, we haven’t run out of roastable teams even with a short list this week, so let’s dive in to the Roasted!

WHO HERE’S A FAN OF CREAMED CORN??

For the record, I did call this in our staff picks so this roasting isn’t because it was unexpected, but more because there were actually people that weren’t from the state of Nebraska that bought in to the ESPN hype machine to try and get ratings. This was never a game, and it played out exactly how it was suppose to.

The worst part it didn’t start off great

Nebraska was doomed from the get-go #OSUvsNEB pic.twitter.com/oScfSu0HXG

— CleWest (@erjmanlasvegas) September 29, 2019

And just kept getting worse…

Describe the Ohio State vs. Nebraska game in a video.. #OSUvsNEB ☠️ pic.twitter.com/VNksDQTsCZ

— Awful Sports News (@AwfulSportsNews) September 29, 2019

And worse…

WHATTA PICK! Nebraska (+17.5) Bettors are sick! #OSUvsNEB pic.twitter.com/H7MEgWV5m2

— Path's End Gambling (@PathsEndGamblin) September 29, 2019

Yeah, pretty much like that.

However, for our purposes, it kept getting better.

Complete the sentence.... #Nebraska #OhioState #OSUvsNEB pic.twitter.com/nD8lvoRrwf

�� STKRollTide (@STKRollTide) September 29, 2019

And better…

#OSUvsNEB this guy.. lol pic.twitter.com/l6yWgMBPY1

— Regular Nintendo (@RegularNintendo) September 29, 2019

And better…

#OSUvsNEB, a photo essay: pic.twitter.com/qitwOE41Im

— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) September 29, 2019

And better…

This game just... :( #OSUvsNEB pic.twitter.com/iQoeHNzOSU

— Kiersten Nichole (@heyyitskiersten) September 29, 2019

Can we put Nebraska in the Michigan category of ‘pretender’? Sure you can, but I don’t think they have even gotten to the level of them being in the conversation. Scott Frost still has time to get things in his image what Nebraska should be but last night proved, they are a ways away from those two points.

BACK TO EARTH…IN THE BLUE PART

Its been a rough go of it for Kentucky this season. First they lose their starting QB Terry Wilson for the season, then the Florida debacle, then whatever happened in Starkvegas last week and now the trip to CoSC to take on the Gamecocks, who were also down a starting QB. How’d that go?

WE GOT A FIRST DOWN!!! ‍♂️ #itsthelittlethings #UKvsSC

— Chris Tan Myers (@tan_myers) September 29, 2019

Oh…we’ve gone back to these celebrations again?

PUT TERRY ON A F*CKING HOVEROUND AND LET HIM THROW. #BBN #UKvsSC

— Drew (@DrewMerriman) September 29, 2019

I’d actually be cool with this. But it can’t be that bad…I mean what did the stats look like

Nothing like @BleacherReport keeping it real for last nights stats #BBN #UKvsUSC #KentuckyFootball # pic.twitter.com/HisMbpokan

— Kevin H (@KHGolfFitness) September 29, 2019

HOLY GOD!! In all fairness, there is no video of this game because it was so terrible. In fact, the only positive video out of Columbia last night was all on Live PD. Yeah…it’s “get ready for basketball season” season in Lexington…except, I got someone that is already ready for basketball season…

JUST MIKE LEACH DOING MIKE LEACH THINGS

I’m just gonna leave this right here...Mike does the Roasting after the Cougs fell to Utah 38-13...

That’s five pure minutes of fire from the master himself. It’s an interesting strategy to drag your team out in to the middle of the road, hit them in the knee with a lead pipe, get in a 64 Buick LeSaber, and repeatedly smash over their lifeless body until the tires pop. We will have to keep an eye on things to see what happens.

WATCH UPDATES

Sadly, NC State and Rutgers both let us all down and both FSU and Michigan won their games. But don’t worry, the big Ball Coach in the sky is watching…and waiting…

Soon…

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2019/9/30/20889909/boom-roasted-week-5

[ericleo108]

The Collective (Un)conscious in Music & Media

This is the old version. I have rewritten this post in two parts that are better, more accurate, and more appropriate to read:

〰️ The Unconscious Mind in Media

🎤 Music Artists’ Composition and Communication

Intro

This essay is an outline or framework in understanding Music and Media in terms of “The Collective (Un)conscious.” As you will come to see there are definitely conscious forms of lyrical, musical, and cinematic mirroring. What we will explore are the various forms of that mirroring and try to make sense of what most people consider is schizophrenic nonsense.

When we think about music we think of our favorite composers.  No matter what genre though your favorite artist got their start learning from someone that came before them. Doing things like learning another artist's songs and what their favorite cords, words, phrases, or metaphors are, will mold the proceeding artist in their image. As with anything familiar, their artistry will be ‘imprinted’ in their mind.

Influence

I will be focusing on hip-hop but as long as I know the proceeding artist I can usually tell when artists have been influenced by another. For example, My mom (and friends) used to listen to Alanis Morissette and it took me a while to notice it (back in the day) but you can tell Avril Lavigne was heavily influenced by Alanis. Just listen to “Head Over Feet” and then “Complicated.”

“If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.” - Sir Isaac Newton

Asher Roth talks about how he thinks he’s been successful because he sounds like Eminem in “As I Em.”

Some bands use other bands work explicitly and deliberately. For example, Crazy Town’s “Butterfly” is just a riff from The Red Hot Chilli Peppers “Pretty Little Ditty.” I heard “Butterfly” when I was in grade school but never knew it was from TRHCP until College. I knew the first time I heard it though.

I’ve shown this to a couple people that have heard both songs and they couldn’t tell. If the lay-person doesn’t recognize this, as we go deeper “down the rabbit hole” into the mind, it (should become self evident that the similarities) between various associations becomes harder and harder to see!

Musical Samples

What most people don’t see are “samples” which are small snippets of work from another artistry. Some examples of obvious samples are Kid Cudi sampling Lady Gaga’s Pokerface in “Make Her Say” or Mac Miller sampling Nas in “Nike’s on my feet.” But in music you can take a certain sound and create a whole new musical pieces, creating an original work from a classic.

This happens so often certain sounds (and phrases) are considered intellectual property. The most obvious quintessential example is Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” and Queen’s “Under Pressure.” Less noticeably, Mac Miller was sued for "Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza" because he didn’t clear samples from Lord Finesse's 1995 single "Hip 2 Da Game."

This also (famously) happened to Robin Thicke who (more noticeably) ripped off Marvin Gaye's 1977 hit "Got to Give It Up" when he wrote the smash hit "Blurred Lines" with Pharrell Williams and T.I.

These things are obvious, identified, and published because it’s protected and institutions get involved in protecting their property. But to people or the regular person, they can’t tell and have no idea!

Understanding Metaphors in Hip-Hop

There are other ways artists share. In hip-hop artists use metaphor and samples to communicate in music. The following are common metaphors, themes, tropes, or cliches in hip-hop that are (pretty) universally used (to show talent and ability).

The “Lab” = Producing Hip-Hop, example:

“What, cause I been in the lab, wit a pen and a pad, try’na get this damn label off” - Forgot about Dre by Dr. Dre

“Back to the lab again yo, this whole rhapsody” - Lose Yourself by Eminem

“I be in the Lab” by G-Eazy

“Whipping” it in “the Kitchen,” example:

“Catch me in the kitchen, like a Simmons whippin' pastry” - Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z

“I throw down in the kitchen might hit your mom with my omelette” - Despicable by Eminem

"Woke up in the kitchen and I started mad whippin'" - Whippin' by Gucci Mane

Voltron/Weapons Capabilities of Transformers (archaic), example:

“Come on, you know the 'Tics connect like Voltron Collect so much grass, popo thinking we mow lawns.” - Shake Ya Tail Feather by Nelly

“But I form like Voltron and blast you with my shoulder missiles” - Just Don’t Give a F#$k by Eminem

"We form like Voltron, and GZA happen to be the head" - Can It Be All So Simple by Wu-Tang

“I'm a beast when you turn me on Into the future cybertron” - Boom Boom Pow by The Black Eyed Peas

“Sleep on Me” is so cliche I don’t need any examples.

To identify metaphors you need to be able to recognize certain words and phrases and how they associate to one another. Another factor is the music. Like what is the tone/mood, is it reflecting another work, etc.? If you’d like to know how rappers use and write metaphors watch THIS video from a pro himself!

Lyrical Samples

There are musical samples but there are also lyrical samples. When it comes to “sampling” (and “schizophrenia”) you have to be able to recognize patterns! Lyrical sampling is when you take another artist’s cadence (i.e. flow) and make your own (new and original) lyric progression. This typically starts with the first line from the original, sampled lyric followed by original lyrics in the same cadence (flow) as the sampled work. Some examples of sampling are as follows.

Drake samples Dead Prez’s “It’s bigger than Hip Hop” in “Over” starting with the lyric, “One thing bout music when it hit you feel no pain.” And G-Eazy samples Kanye West’s “Stronger” in “Let’s Get Lost” starting with the lyric “Let’s get lost tonight.” Rita Ora is sampling Biggie Smalls in “How We Do.” ...and 50 Cent’s is sampling 2pac’s “Picture me Roll’n” in “Places to Go.”

Biting is when you sample but “flip” the words/sentiment to make them negative or pejorative (i.e. a diss).  Sampling is usually a sign of respect and admiration. Biting is more of a competitive condescending back-talk.

This is (obviously) the conscious part of music, but what about the unconscious?  

The Unconscious in Music

I talked to/lived with a rapper named “The Real Seville” in Los Angeles for a while, while I was considering going to the Musicians Institute to study music business. We both remarked on how hip-hop would “echo,” or repeat certain words or phrases, all of a sudden, like a trend. We both recognized that it WAS NOT sampling. Sampling is when you take someone's specific lyrical cadence and match it intentionally. We were talking about the use of words and phrases that were being repeated at an unusually high frequency in a short period of time (i.e. trending). The genesis/origin is unknown and seems spontaneous because there are so many rappers coming out with the same words/phrase. We determined it had to be unintentional and there must be some sort of “collective consciousness.”

The best example of this I can site is when Jay-Z released “The BluePrint 3.” He rhymed “iPod” with “my god” and I didn’t stop hearing (especially) “my god” from other rappers until Eminem’s lyric on Roman’s Revenge. Here’s the example (and progression):

Blueprint's in my white iPod. Black diamonds in my Jesus piece, my God” - Off That by Jay-Z released September 8th 2009

“In the back, I sit and I nod. To the beats that are bumping from my iPod. My God, they're starting to pray.” - Rant by Bo Burnham released October 2010

“Quit hollerin' ‘Why, God?’” - Roman’s Revenge by Nicki Minaj (Eminem’s lyrics) released October 30th 2010

When I created “The Machine” idea/theory (which I will talk about later) I thought this phenomenon was being deliberately created by a (lets say) a “manipulator.” But it could just be a similarity that other rappers pick up on and then (therefore) reflect. Basically, The conscious or unconscious mind (of the rapper) picks up on “it” (consciously or unconsciously) and responds (consciously or unconsciously). Either way, there is a response. Whether the creation of this reflection-effect phenomenon is deliberately created by a corporeal entity or natural (needs more research/study and) is debatable. However, the fact is, it’s there! And I call this reflection-effect phenomenon “residual echo.”

The “my God” trend makes sense because the biggest artists in the industry started and stopped the trend.  

Pandora’s Box

Questions abound like:

Did Bo write his lyrics before Jay-Z published his?

Did Bo sample Jay-Z intentionally? ...or maybe unintentionally?

Did Eminem (un)consciously catch on to the “my God” trend and that was his ([un]conscious) response?

It’s probably unconscious (whether manipulated or natural) because there are other examples in other (similar) entertainment professions that deny plagiarism after similarities with colleague's work. An example of unintentional/unconscious “sampling,” is Dane Cook and Louis C.K. as explained in Louis C.K.’s show Louie (and exemplified in this clip).

I already know how I would gather resources and analyze the data to identify trends and themes in music. It would be data driven for the most part but with certain quintessential examples interviews can be conducted to get “in the mind” of the artist that created the work in question.

I would ask artists’ questions like:

Have you ever written down a lyrical progression that was similar to one that someone else released at a similar time? Have you ever written lyrics that you didn’t use that someone else later used or sounded like they sampled you? Have you ever written any lyrics and then noticed it was similar to one of your (favorite) pieces by another artist? ...have you ever had anything similar happen?  etc.

Basically the point is to get into the mindset of the artist and ask specific questions from a questionnaire created specifically to identify attributes of the “collective (un)conscious.”

The provable crux, that there was a collective unconsciousness, would probably rest upon data analysis. If we looked at the data we could probably see when certain events, movies, or social movements happened. You could probably also decipher when certain products came out, or marketing campaigns happened, due to the corresponding commercial(s) and how the product’s concept, if the not the product itself, affected the “collective consciousness.”

Taylor Swift Visual Sampling Example

Then you have the music videos that add a visual element. You can group characteristics and similarities in music videos to cross reference other artist’s music videos. Think of it as visual sampling. (If I explained this to any of my friends they would think I see these things because of my schizophrenia but the truth of the matter is much more complex.)  The most recent and relevant example of visual “sampling” in a (music) video is to look at what people are saying about Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do.”

I picked this article TIME wrote about Taylor visually sampling other artists to show it doesn’t get any more normal and mainstream to connect and associate visual similarities and references (that I have been told I’m schizophrenic for seeing). For example, TIME talks about what the dollar bill means in the bathtub of diamonds.

In other articles there are a lot of people saying that Taylor copied Beyonce because she has a bat in the “bank scene” like Beyonce does in “Hold Up.” I personally see that as a stretch because the bat is an independent association with no other references (to “Hold Up”); but other (non-schizophrenics) are convinced! What would strengthen that argument is that people think the V formation in Taylor’s dance scene is actually copying Beyonce’s Superbowl dance formation. But still, I don’t see it. I think it’s more likely Taylor is copying the “V” formation for “The Mighty Ducks.”

There are other articles about how Taylor’s “cage scene” is referencing Lindsay Lohan’s “Rumors.” I actually thought of Miley Cyrus’s “Can’t be Tamed” when I first saw the “cage scene” but I agree with the consensus that Taylor is (most likely) referencing “Rumors.”

Proof of Subliminal Communication

Regardless of all this, Eminem’s “Warming Shot” is proof artists communicate and respond to subliminal messages in music (videos). Basically Em got mad Mariah put him on blast in the music video “Obsessed” after they broke up. People see this subliminal communication and they go, “duh.” But would you have noticed it if Em didn’t? What if you didn’t know Em? The only reason people see the subliminal communication here is because they are both big name artists, the events surrounding them in connection with each other, and an overt response by Em saying “Oh gee, is that supposed to be me in the video with the goatee?.”

No one thinks it's possible when you’re not an established artist,  that's schizophrenia!

Visual Sampling

I actually have a good eye for this, but you can be the judge of that.

The best representation of a similar music video is Nick Jonas’s “Chains” and Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “No Church in the Wild.” The music and it’s themes are similar. They are both shot in widescreen, same style, hue/shade, and have the same props and characters. The music videos are so similar (in fact) I expect that both (music videos) were made by the same creator studio.

Two other videos that are probably different creators/studios but are the same style, hue, and have the same theme are Taylor swift’s “Trouble” and Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie.”

Demi Lavotto’s music video “Sorry Not Sorry” is in the same style and format as “Beauty and the Beat” by Justin Beiber. (seems intentional)  

If you take away the fact that one is in black and white, there’s a lot of similarities between G - Eazy’s “Calm Down” and Drake’s “The Motto.” (seems unintentional)  

Pandora’s Box Visualized

The question is, what does all this reflecting mean? Is it just mindless, random mirroring and similarities? Or is there a deeper metaphor and narrative that the “collective unconsciousness” is creating/painting.

(Remember it’s like playing balderdash where you have to associate words. You can tell what’s on a person’s mind and what they’re thinking by the words they use. You can also give people ideas in the same way.)

For example, it seems like Selena Gomez’s character in the song “Hands to Myself,” could be in the house of the boy she’s obsessed with, the one with the curly blonde hair. Meanwhile, Rihanna's song “Stay” is about the same curly haired blonde boy just over at Rihanna's place singing with her... while Selena’s breaking into his place.  This seems unintentional.

What does seem intentional is Camila Cabello’s “Havana.” The music sounds very similar to Selena Gomez’s “Same Ol’ Love” and at the end of the “Havana” music video Camila says (verbatim) “...if you don’t like this story, go write your own sweetheart.” ...which seems like a ([un]conscious) response to Selena’s song.

What’s in the Box?

What does it say (about the “collective consciousness”) if “Chains” and “No Church in the Wild” were NOT trying to reflect each other (being so similar in [audio and visual] style, themes, and content)? What are the artists trying to say if they DID do it intentionally?

Demi Lovato’s music video “Sorry Not Sorry” is clearly in the same style and format as Justin Bieber's “Beauty and the Beat” music video. What does it say if “Sorry Not Sorry” and “Beauty and the Beat” was intentionally reflected but “Trouble” and “Love the Way You Lie” are not?

Are they connected? If so is the connection conscious or unconscious? Are there underlying themes, metaphors, and narratives? Are the unconscious connections of the “collective consciousness” manifested, manipulated by a corporeal entity, all natural, or some combination of them?

The Machine in Theory

"It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly-knit, highly efficient machine…” - JFK

Back when I was going through the pinnacle of my “schizophrenia” I couldn’t understand what was happening to me and why the response rate was so fast on (what I perceived to be) technological manipulations (such as, what I now describe as ‘points of realization’ [which will be described shortly]).

To make sense of what was happening to me I created a theory where I postulated there is a “machine’ or super-computer that is doing systematic semantic priming (among other various disturbing forms of behavior manipulation) in order to manipulate (popular) artists into creating works that are sympathetic to (lets say) the established power structure in form, style, and metaphor.

In college I took a class called Behavioral Psychology. In it we had to create a behavioral modification program to end the bad habit of someone we knew. The strategy included associating certain colored sticky notes with mental reminders that you’d place in strategic places in order to remind you to do things. For example, stick a blue sticky note on your lamp by your bedside to remind you to brush your teeth before you shut off the light and go to bed.

My theory is that (basically) ‘The Machine’ does behavior modification through a similar mechanism. Instead of sticky notes though it uses metaphors, phrases, words, and visual cues (like symbols, insignias, and mirrors) to paint a subtle but consistent picture that your mind would recognize but you wouldn’t consciously perceive.

‘The Machine’ basically “gives you ideas” and ‘programs’ you ahead of time and uses psychological triggers to “fish out” behaviors that are designed to benefit itself. How ‘The Machine’ “gives you ideas” is called semantic priming and there is a section dedicated to understanding it below.

This means that ‘The Machine’ would effectively create a “tapestry” across the entertainment industry where all you’d have to do is “anchor” the psychological association and then use a symbol, word, color, etc. to recall that thought or idea (and continue to build off and on to it).

Unquantifiable Known Unknowns It’s worth mentioning there's a whole nother level in writing lyrics where you say something that sounds similar, imply it, omit it, say it without saying it, or give a double meaning.  

An example of just omitting words is in Eminem’s “Toy Soldier” when he says “I went my whole career without ever mentioning ___.” It’s clear he’s talking about “Suge (Knight)” by the rhyme scheme (in relation to his history and what he’s talking about), but he doesn’t say it.

As an example of saying it without saying it (more subtle, but [what should be] just as obvious) is Taylor Swift’s “Picture to Burn.” She says “So go and tell your friends that I'm obsessive and crazy. That's fine, You won’t mind if I say... By the way, I hate that stupid old…” It’s obvious she’s going to “say” he’s “gay” because what else would she tell everybody that’s gonna hurt him and rhymes with say and way?  ...but how do you quantify that?

An example of saying something that sounds similar is when Taylor Swift says “make fun of our axes” in 22. She clearly means “accents.” One of the most famous examples (that’s probably unintentional) is from Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” when she says “I have a long list of ex lovers” because everyone thinks she is really saying “starbucks lovers.”  

Back when I first started doing hip-hop and getting my schizophrenia my name was “Apollo” and I thought Avril Lavigne’s song “Never Growing Up” was about me. It sounds like she’s saying “got Apollo but whatever,” when she’s really saying “I got a bottle of whatever.” To this day I still wonder if this was coincidence or the effect of the collective unconscious and/or ‘The Machine.’

Some examples of songs that imply what you are saying is Miley Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball.” I swear everyone I tell this to says they see it and can’t get it out of their mind afterwards! In her music video “Wrecking Ball” Miley is naked and crying as it sounds like she’s saying “you Ra-a-aped me.” It’s almost as if the producers of the music video deliberately wanted the listener/viewer to make that connection in their head between her vulnerability, tears, and what it sounds like she’s saying without saying it, and used those similarities to such a tragic event to (boulderdash and) sell records...    An example of a double meaning Is Uncle Kracker's “Follow Me.” Is it about love or cocaine?

These tactics throw a wrench in my analytical desires because there’s no way to track or quantify words you don’t say, only imply, or misrepresent.

Pattern Recognition

Regardless, whether the similarities just discussed are conscious or unconscious the fact is it’s still happening and the mirroring IS THERE. To be able to see it, it’s all about pattern recognition of all the various forms (audio and visual) that we talked about. It (should be) obvious that with my “schizophrenia” I recognize these patterns very easily.

What needs more research and debate is what all of these mirrorings and similarities in metaphor, phrase, and visualization means for the artist, the listener, and the industry. Again, the (burning) question (on everyone’s mind should be) is there a deeper metaphor, reflection, and/or narrative in the collective (un)conscious?

If there is, can it, or does it drive us to action?

The (unnoticed) “Physicality” of Music

One thing I have noticed “with my schizophrenia” is what I like to call ‘points of realization.’ This is when you find yourself doing something physical in real life that is in ‘associated’ coordination with the music (or media). For example, I would notice that if the song said “I opened the door, went into the kitchen,” I would be opening the door to the kitchen right as the artist was singing that in the song.

For an actual example, I have caught myself on multiple occasions, while driving, noticing I was turning on the bright lights right as Taylor Swift sings “headlights” from the lyric “Midnight, you come pick me up no headlights” from her song “Style.”   

I started writing this, knew I needed an example, and one happened, so I logged it. (They happen all the time!)  At around 1:30 AM on October 17th I was in bed listening to Taylor Swift’s “Everything has changed” and I was feeling hungry. I made the decision that I was gonna eat an Atikins bar so I jumped up, grabbed a bar from the shelf next to my bed and right as I opened the package Ed sung “and opened up the door for you.” (Right after, Taylor sings “and all I feel in my stomach is butterflies.”) I know I wasn’t opening a door, but I was still doing the act of opening something right as the song said “open up.”

This brings up the question, did I grab the Atkins bar because I made up my mind about eating it and (subconsciously) reacted to coordinate the time of me opening up the bar with the music? ...or did the music, with it’s (also other associated) lyrical content (e.g. “stomach is butterflies”) make me hungry and drive me to grab that Atkins bar? If it did stimulate me to action, what does that say that I was in coordination with the music?  Was it a combination of both influences? (I would say it’s random, chance, or happenstance but it really happens way too often to be a fluke!)

(If this is possible what does that mean about what large corporations do for marketing products and what their capabilities are if used in combination. You could use movies and music as an “anchor” and/or “primer” and drive to action in news and commercials! For more information on these capabilities watch “The Persuaders” and “Unconscious behavioral guidance systems” videos from the Semantic Priming section below)

Vibration is Life

“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.” - Nikola Tesla

What if…

... ‘points of realization’ are real and it’s because your physicality is in coordination with the music (or media). This means your brain subconsciously syncs your body with the music (or media) and calculates and coordinates the time and action to have ‘points of realization!’

The Problem with the Mirror

The question is, are these ‘points of realization’ primed (by ‘The Machine”), a “reflection” (of the music you heard before), or natural (i.e. part of the collective unconscious)? My mind reflecting the music makes sense because it is my brain recognizing the music, it’s pattern, and timing and coordinating it with my actions and physicality. I’ve heard it before. I’m merely reacting at a subconscious level. That makes a lot of sense to me.

What I don’t understand is when ‘points of realization’ happen and I’ve never previously heard the music, show, or broadcast before. ...because what does that mean? Again if ‘points of realization’ do exist and I’m “in tune” with (the frequency of) the media I’m consuming there has to be a natural collective unconscious (that you can tap into) or an external manipulating entity (like “The Machine”) coordinating the reflection if I’ve never consumed the media before. It could be a combination.

The Real Question

The real question is: Does this happen to other people? Do other people get ‘points of realization?’ If they don’t, is it because it’s not happening… or they just don’t notice. Would they notice if you pointed it out to them? Is the whole association just in my head? What really drives me crazy is to think it is real, but it’s only happening to me! ...cause what does that mean?

What I think is actually going on is ‘points of realization’ are real, it’s just that no one notices (for what should be an obvious myriad of reasons). What does that mean? Do some see it and others don’t? Does that have to do with experience, knowledge, or genetics? Can it be taught? (As you can see I have a lot of questions and I’m quite perplexed)

I bet people who have careers in entertainment, (big) musicians, and (especially) movie directors that do this same sort of subliminal communication and mirroring techniques (therefor) have a higher propensity to recognize the ‘points of realization.’ But for the most part, I think it goes wholly unrecognized.

Making Cents

While staying at the mental institution in East Lansing I had a conversation with one of the activity counselors about vibrations or frequency in music. We were discussing how humans have a certain vibration or frequency that they are in tune with...

Think of these vibrations as feelings, these feelings get associated to thoughts (which combine with the other influences as discussed). Can those thoughts drive you to action? There’s countless stories of artists being inspired to write songs from action/events (like Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven”). But, can you think of examples of stories by people that were driven to action because of a song? I’m honestly struggling to find examples. Is that because it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t get noticed (because it’s more of a combination of things), or because people just don’t talk about it?

I actually think Michael Jackson did so well because he was in tune with people’s natural rhythm and vibration. (Along with using popular chords, notes from pop music and just being an lovable & awesome nice-guy.) But that is just a hunch and what my intuition is telling me, I don’t know (much or) anything (really) about frequency, latency, music theory, or how to even play any instrument for that matter. So know it’s speculation.

My “Schizophrenic��� Digression

How this relates to my schizophrenia and ‘The Machine’ is that I used to think I was getting primed to do negative actions at ‘the point of realization.’ This would severely agitate me after a while because it was clear they were meant to be self-defeating, pejorative, disrespectful, condescending, and hurtful.  (I will talk about some of the perceived negative ‘points of realization’ in a future post I’m working on.) Then it felt like my every move was being watched and manipulated which became debilitating. In combination with this, poor attitude, poor thinking, and “other factors,” made me severely angry! I have since changed my attitude for myself and my family;  it’s honestly better, and I never wanna go back!              

Think

If you found this interesting, trust me when I say this is only the beginning. If you think this is complicated, this is just in music (videos). The collective (unconscious) becomes (almost) exponentially harder to grasp when you think about how shows, movies, news, and corporations in their commercials intentionally do subliminal advertising all the time, every single day. If the collective unconscious is real, how is it being influence by (sheer) market forces literally competing for space in your mind! What a responsibility (I hope) marketers must feel to act ethically and make sure the collective has the right mindset.

Semantic Priming

In ‘The Machine’ section (above), I talk about how it functions in theory. THIS information is how the machine would function in practice. As I said in “The Problem with the Mirror” section (above), if you want to understand the capabilities of what I call “The Machine,” you have to know the following information. Once you do, imagine you made a machine (e.g. a supercomputer) to manipulate human behavior that automates what Derren Brown does to those taxadermy marketers (as shown in Mind Control) or what Edward Bernays did to America (as explained in The Century of Self)! ‘The Machine’ is therefor a computer that does automated semantic priming.

Derren Brown’s Mind Control 

The Century of Self

Propoganda and the Public Mind, Noam Chomsky

PBS’s The Persuaders

Subliminal advertising with Jeff Warwick

Manufacturing Consent

Unconscious behavioral guidance systems

The Real Problem

“You can’t be told what the matrix is, you have to be shown” ...and some people just can’t see it.  When Columbus came to the new world shaman/priests had to show the regular citizens that there were actually boats on the water. The regular people couldn’t figure out why the waves were breaking. The priest had to explain to them that there’s a ship there. (This is shown/explained in THIS clip from “What the Bleep do we Know.”)

If you’ve ever read the book Blink, you know you can build intuition off knowledge and experience. I have a degree and (hopefully) you can see I know what I’m talking about. My intuition is that there’s a “Machine,’ AND a (sort of) collective (un)conscious.

Conclusion

For me to be able to tell you if there is a collective (un)conscoius or a machine that is influencing human thought, song, or speech, let alone physical actions (or sequencing behavior,), for sure, I would need resources I don’t have, evaluate data (scientifically) I can’t get, and conduct interviews that I have no access too. But with those requirements met I think I could draw concrete, provable conclusions.  

[theneulithium]

2020.12.08 - Renaissance TV + SAIC’s Film, Video, New Media, Animation and Sound Festival

// Nicky Ni

This past weekend, my party was to feast on the Renaissance Society’s 24-hour online screening program, Renaissance TV, which coincides the institution’s benefit auction, RenBen: Wildcard 2020.

Without doubt, Renaissance TV was an ephemeral TV renaissance. Selecting artworks that straddle between critically interesting and cleverly easy-to-digest, Renaissance TV put together a 24-hour nonstop program that was meant for incomplete viewing. Of course, it was only so unless you would binge watch on gallons of coffee or tailor your bio-clock to the program schedule in order to watch in full videos in which nothing much happens. This exciting threesome involving the film festival (where works are screened intensively within only few days), the television (which has a 24-hour air time), and the Internet (where many works come from and are meant to be shown on) has given birth to a new curatorial format, let’s call it for now the “Internet-TV-Film-Festival Complex,” which emphasizes less on presenting each individual work than on how these works as a whole speak about this specific medium of presentation. It flirts with the viewer’s insatiable desire for a holistic viewing but in reality offers works that, how should I put it, you only need to watch absent-minded. 

Just leave your computer screen on the whole time. We have legit TV programs for people like you who have a short attention span, for example, an episode from Cécile B. Evans’s mock TV series Amos’ World, another one from Liv Schulman’s TV show, Control, and Carolyn Lazard’s A Recipe for Disaster that’s based on Julia Child’s popular cooking show The French Chef. May we interest you with some Friday night party music? There is 132 BPM by Torbjorn Rødland on repeat for three times followed by an hour-long electronic music set by Lawrence Abu Hamdan (aka. DJ Business Class). After that, you could fall asleep on Oliver Laric’s mesmerizing animation, and wake up to have your Saturday brunch and zone out on some absolutely bored, off-duty animals from the Jungle Book in David Claerbout’s The Pure Necessity. 

It is brilliant. 

David Claerbout, The Pure Necessity (2016). Nicky Ni’s screenshot.

***

The second half of this week’s roundup is dedicated to some of the noticeable student works in SAIC’s virtual FVNMA and Sound Festival this year, which is programed to make sure that you take time and watch attentively and fully. 

Fragmentation, banality and self-reflection are some of the key elements that I observed in this year’s  festival. Affected by the pandemic or not, many works seem to be very introspective and contemplative. Like how painters turn to themselves as the most convenient and cost-efficient models, it is natural for film and video makers to investigate their own memories and the genealogy of their family for one of their first major moving-image projects. 

In The Dependents, Sofia Brockenshire quilts together a beautiful essay composed of family photographs, interviews, radio archives and newly shot footage that evokes a sense of transition and displacement. There are scenes where the camera tracks an airplane in the sky or slowly pans across the photograph of a desert, like how the finger moves over a map, tracing the lines of the rivers and the ridges of the mountains. We learn that Brockenshire’s father is a geographer, and that his family, including the filmmaker herself, travelled with him from one country to another, as migrants, as guests, but also as dependents. Beneath the quiet, dreamy images, there’s a lurking disquiet and unease, where the filmmaker carefully alludes to all the imaginable sacrifices that one family member has done for the other.  

Sofia Brockenshire, The Dependents (2020). Nicky Ni’s screenshot.

The Dependents has glitchy sound scores, which vividly speaks to the aesthetics of works by Nat Wood and Jada-Amina. Deeply self-reflective, both works also turn to home videos and family history as main sources of inspiration. Wood made Forever Bound Together (By the Experience We May or May Not Have Shared) entirely by editing together digitalized VHS footage. Beginning by a recording of a young mother singing a lullaby to her new born son (or Wood’s older brother), Forever Bound Together follows a loose storyline from before the filmmaker was born to her later childhood. However, as the video progresses, the images become increasingly glitchy, preserving the inevitable imprint of the recording device and how such unpredictable technological interventions will also be forever bound together with her own memory. 

Nat Wood, Forever Bound Together (By the Experience We May or May Not Have Shared) (2020). Nicky Ni’s screenshot. 

On the other hand, Jada-Amina’s video I’m Not Going to Die, I’m Going Home Like A Shooting Star splices and sews back together stories of three generations of matriarch and footage of beloved Black cultural icons. With images that are decades apart, this video is not only an oeuvre by an avid family genealogist and empowered feminist, but also inevitably that of a media archeologist who delves into the messages that the mediums bring. 

The festival’s switching to virtual screening this year due to the pandemic would undoubtedly have upset many cinema purists; however, it certainly works for the benefit of other computer-based artists. Vesper Guo’s ******.com, an enigmatic video-performance of which the title shall not be pronounced finds your computer screen the ideal place for viewing. Taking off on a fictional journey to a darknet website bearing the URL ******.com,  an anonymous user, presumably the artist herself, manages to access various surveillance cameras located in unspecified places in different parts of the world, noticeably Japan and China. Scrolling through a series low-res, moiréed out video footage of empty hallways, offices, and parking lots, the voyeuristic user gradually becomes an omnipotent puppeteer who can somehow orchestrate at the click of a mouse the humans and animals that are unknowingly under surveillance, as if it were a computer game in real life. 

Vesper Guo, ******.com (2020). Nicky Ni’s screenshot.

The voyeurism, eeriness and tension found in Guo’s video murmurs with the short, mostly black-and-white animation, What are you doing?, by Qiyun Kang, a story in which the protagonist tries to hide a yellow envelope from another person of the household. The gender and age of neither character is visibly specified, allowing bifurcation of meaning and interpretation. Borrowing cinematic tactics such as surveillance camera angle, manga-style close-ups, and deploying classic montage techniques, Kang dexterously visualizes anxiety, stealth, and control that can be seen as a metaphor for the censorship that is happening at a national scale in China.

Last but not least, and in the form of a confession, I have only watched the intro portion of Ben Creech’s SELF & other Early Works and it seems very promising.