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thedeaconj · 4 years ago

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The Deep Sleep - a “Hypno Noir” Story

(Bit of a fun Noir style story I’ve been working on, mostly written today so I may tidy it up at some point and improve it)

Christie, a private detective gets involved in a classic missing persons case. Except with an expert on brainwashing, a strange strip club, and no clear bad guy, this case may prove Christie’s most important one yet.

Christie sat in her office, a glazed over look in her eyes and a lit cigarette hanging from her lips. Across from her sat Mr Taylor, the client who’d started this whole mess. It started a week ago, an ordinary missing persons job, the case went as for from ordinary as you can go. Now though, with the case solved, everything was clear to her, it was just a matter of making sure Mr Taylor got what he needed. From now on, she’d always be making sure her clients got what they needed.

A week earlier, a panicked Mr Taylor came to Christie as a last resort. She was a private detective, an up and comer in the business, despite being still quite young and not exactly an imposing figure. Short, cute, she’d been mocked by goons and lowlifes when started out for these features. Lewd comments were commonplace, lewd gestures would shortly follow. They shut up the moment they found out she was a world class martial artist. If that didn’t work out, Christie found the barrel of a loaded gun pointed at someone was a quick way to earn their respect. Mr Taylor though was too desperate to care what she looked like, or whether she could go fifteen rounds with the champ, he just wanted his son back.

There were two things different about their first encounter, Christie’s mindset, and the brand of cigarettes she was smoking. Otherwise Mr Taylor was just as panicky, going on about his missing son. He’d come out west in hopes of finding some stardom, and from a photo of the guy, Christie could believe it. Well built with light blonde hair and an earnest smile, he’d be a shoe in for roles in just about any major motion picture. Usually, she didn’t take these kinds of cases. Most of the time naïve young wannabe stars like this ended up swallowed by the great black hole they called Hollywood. Maybe it was liquor, maybe the pressures of a rapid-fire success, or often, Christie found they couldn’t quite handle just how sweeter the nose candy was here than it was back out east. No, it wasn’t Mr Taylor’s grief that would make her take this case, it was what his son was doing beforehand. Tom Taylor, a name for the silver screen if she’d ever heard one, was a genius. At least, in the awfully specific field of mind-altering technology.

‘So, your son was involved in some CIA level mind control tech, outright disappears, and you come to me? Why not go to the government, this is some cold war level trouble,’ Christie asked.

‘I tried! They wouldn’t take my calls, wouldn’t let me see anyone. Look he’s not a bad kid, the tech he was working on he said was to help people. You know, Alzheimer’s patients, people with severe mental disorders. I don’t know why he wanted to become a star, I just want him back, please,’

Christie had half a mind to tell him her theory. That Tom Taylor wasn’t just a “bad kid”, that he’d fled to Hollywood to try and brainwash some starlets. Although, there was another theory in the back of her mind. A more frightening one. Some whiz kid with the know how to build a mind control machine who’s enamoured with stardom could prove dangerous in the right hands. Christie always kept abreast of the local gangs on the LA scene, the major players would kill to get their hands on someone like Tom Taylor. Tom Taylor, all American boy, all star quarterback, but also some sort of technical wizard. Christie wondered how the hell he’d had the time for it all. With herself in the middle of a dry spot, and the prospect of some true criminals getting their hands on the holy grail of unethical tech, she decided to accept.

‘I’ll find your son Mr Taylor, but if he’s not quite the kid you thought he was, then there’s nothing I can do about that,’ she told him.

Mr Taylor shook her hand; just thankful she’d take the case. He arranged a wire payment to her and would then spend the next week praying that Christie could find him. He had his own theories, but didn’t want to dwell on them, he just prayed his son was alive and well.

Christie meanwhile got to work. Mr Taylor had given her all the preliminary information needed, and a quick call through to some choice contracts gave her the rest. Tom Taylor was shockingly easy to track down, but then he’d made quite a scene when he first moved to the city of angels. Notably, he’d splashed a lot of money at an up and coming club in the north side of town, the Sapphire Club. Christie, being in the know, had heard the name before. The Sapphire Club was a place for gentleman, not that she found anything particularly gentlemanly about gawping at breasts. It opened a few months back, by all accounts doing stellar business. Like a good detective though, she had some hunches. First, she followed the money, a tangled web of shell companies and cryptic accounting, Christie came to a conclusion. No strip club did this well, even a popular one in north Hollywood. Either someone was moving serious amounts of product through there, or they weren’t paying their workers. With inquiries made into the local friendly drug fiend community, it was looking like the latter.

Situations like this one were where Christie’s frame and looks gave her the edge. Your traditional masculine, ex-cop private detective with a five o clock shadow wouldn’t get two words in with a strip club owner before the word ‘lawyer’ was thrown out there. She however could spin a yarn. How she was a struggling actress, just looking to make a little bit of money on the side, and wasn’t stripping like, empowering anyways? With a black dress and heels picked out, a smoky eyeshadow and thick, red lips as sweet as candy, she believed she could play any sleazeball club owner like a fiddle.

The club was a dark, smoky place, with blasting music and a strong smell of booze. Ravenous looking men sat around tables, ogling the women who danced on poles and on stages. Christie looked up at them, seeing how they twirled their bodies, twisted and contorted into all sorts of suggestive poses. They were blissed out, smiles on their faces, and Christie theorised, not much going on in their heads. A genius brainwasher who’d blew his load figuratively (and probably, literally) in a joint like this, who convinced the management there was another way he could pay. Now that was a story Christie could get behind. At the bar, a woman in a black bodysuit and bunny ears shook a cocktail shaker, unaware of her bouncing breasts and the customer who stared at them. Christie approached her, taking a seat at the bar.

‘Hey, I was wondering, is there like a manager I can speak to, I’m in between roles right now,’ she said, smiling up at the bartender.

The bartender nodded at her, pointing to a pink door in the back of the club, where a burly looking man with a shaved head stood, arms crossed.

‘You’re looking for Tyler, just say Bunny sent you over,’

Christie couldn’t help but smirk. Bunny? Wasn’t that a little on the nose? Then again, she didn’t expect peak creativity from these sorts. She clutched her handbag close to her, which contained a pack of cigarettes, and her gun. Hopefully, she wouldn’t need to use it, but she did know she’d need a smoke after talking to Tyler. She wandered over to the door, explaining to the six-foot Adonis of a man how Bunny sent her over. She’d have found him attractive if he wasn’t a meathead working security for a strip club. He ushered her into an office, where behind a desk and a pile of paperwork, Tyler was sat on a comfortable looking leather chair.

‘Surprised?’ Tyler said.

Christie was surprised indeed. Tyler was far from what she was expecting. Dark skin and long, flowing black hair, dressed more like one of the ladies on stage than any sort of manager, she was the kind of woman who could play with your mind, no whiz kid tech needed. Not that Christie swung that way, but she couldn’t help but admire her, with how long those legs looked, she was sure that Tyler would tower above her. There was a seat on the other side of the desk to Tyler, one Christie sank into. Walking in heels was never her style, so it was nice to grab a moments rest.

‘I didn’t expect you to be a woman, that’s much more comforting to me really,’ Christie replied.

Tyler smirked at her. Her deep brown eyes seemed to be captivating Christie’s gaze, but she did notice something on her. A necklace on a thin chain, at its centre was embedded a shiny, blue stone. No doubt a sapphire, but that wasn’t what bothered her. Christie did her reading on mind control and hypnotic paraphernalia before setting out, looking for any way she could be affected. A necklace like this was suspect.

‘And why’s that Christie? You know, a lot of women who come to work here have certain desires. Perhaps you do too,’

‘Wait, how did you know my name?’ This wasn’t good, Christie thought. She’d been made.

‘I make it my business to know people who do their research on my club,’ Tyler said.

Christie wasn’t’ sure exactly where to look. Her eyes were an obvious focal point, through which Tyler could try to mesmerise her, but then if she looked down she was greeted by the necklace. Further down were Tyler’s legs, with a mesmerising quality of their own. Christie noticed how she wore a similar bodysuit to Bunny, except with fishnets and heels. Her worry was that Tyler here was some sort of trap, set by the real powers behind the Sapphire Club.

‘Then maybe you know who I’m here looking for. Tom Taylor, ring any bells?’

Tyler laughed.

‘Oh, I know Tom Taylor, he’s quite alright no need to worry. Made a real ass of himself at the club, but everything’s fine now, he’s just working off his debts,’ she said.

Her voice was rich, one Christie thought was quite musical, fit for radio even. Her theory was looking to be true, with Tom Taylor making the sort of technology that made girls like Bunny call herself that. The only question was, who was in charge of all this, and what were they planning?

‘That’s good to know, I’d be interested in talking to him Tyler. I bet if you brought me to your boss, they’d be more than happy to chat to me, if you catch my drift,’ Christie replied.

There was an angle here, a way to get herself in. With how Tyler was acting, she believed she was more of a wrangler of sorts than a true manager at the club. A hypnotized hypnotist to keep the girls in line. If she could get this brainwashed femme fatale to think Christie wanted to fall, wanted to be like the girls out there, maybe she could find the man in charge. Tyler crossed her legs, which drew Christie’s attention to them.

‘So, little Christie really wants the job, she isn’t just here on an investigation. Are times that tough for you?’ Tyler said, then uncrossed her legs, spreading them. As if to invite her to look between them. Christie noticed it instantly, a damp spot. A possible weakness.

‘Well, who’s to say I can’t earn a little extra on the side, private detective is hardly a full-time job anymore,’ Christie replied, leaning onto the desk, doing her best to act sultry.

Tyler laughed again, she pulled open one of the drawers to her desk. Producing a cigarette, she placed it into a cigarette holder.

‘Mind if I smoke? I’m getting a little heady thinking of you on stage,’

Christie shook her head, not really caring, as Tyler took a long drag on her cigarette. The holder was close to her face, but Christie could now see she was gaining the upper hand. Tyler was visually excited by this whole thing, no doubt getting some reward for the sick task of bringing her to her master, or masters. Christie noticed how hard Tyler’s nipples were as they pointed through the bodysuit’s thin fabric. Then, came the puff of smoke. Straight into Christie’s face.

‘You were focusing in all the wrong places detective, don’t worry, I’m going to bust this case wide open for you,’ Tyler said.

Christie only half heard it as the smoke hit her. The smoke was pink, an oddity her mind only half registered as a sleepiness came upon her. There must have been something in that cigarette. She felt, sleepy, droopy, Christie couldn’t think. She couldn’t stay awake. Darkness washed over her, the last sound she heard being Tyler’s laughter.

When Christie awoke, she saw only a thin blue plastic looking material over her eyes. She could tell she was naked too, and upon attempting to move her hands and legs, could tell she was clamped into place. Cold steel pressed against her wrists and ankles; her arms were stuck to some sort of chair as her legs were spread wide. It was like a dentist’s chair, as she was on her back looking upwards. That same cold steel feeling she felt on her forehead. Christie was completely immobile, her clothes and her gun, gone. She struggled against these restraints, but soon realised they were inescapable. It was just a matter of talking her way out of this, at least she hoped she could do that. Two figures then entered Christie’s vision, both now familiar to her. Standing as naked as the day she was born aside from her necklace, was Tyler. Beside her in a lab coat, was Tom Taylor.

‘So, you’re the one behind this, I’ve gotta say your dad is awfully disappointed in you,’ Christie hoped to rile him up, maybe throw him off guard.

Tom Taylor said nothing, instead Tyler once again laughed.

‘You really don’t get it, do you detective?’ she said.

Then, she turned to Tom, and pulled off his labcoat. Christie could see how he was wearing a tight looking metal collar, and a red g-string.

‘Slave, why don’t you go calibrate the device for Christie here while we chat,’ Tyler said.

‘Yes Mistress,’ Christie saw him wander off, a blank look on his face.

‘So, you brainwashed the brainwasher, and now you’re going to do the same to me,’ Christie said.

Tyler pulled at a lever at the bottom of the chair, one out of Christie’s view. She felt herself being raised upwards, where she could now look down to see some other parts of the contraption she was stuck in. Noticeably, the buttplug placed precariously close already, and the quite frankly, comical looking artificial tongue and lips. She couldn’t help but smirk at it.

‘Yes yes, it’s a little silly looking, but I assure you Christie they’re incredibly effective. This newer model comes without your usual phallic attachments, for I have big plans for you detective,’ Tyler said.

‘Let me guess, turn me into one of those dancers on stage, controlled to dance for me for Money?’

Tyler shook her head, she asked Christie to think back on what she saw there. It was clear what she saw, dancers looking blissfully happy, and men ogling and staring at them.

‘And who do you think held the power in that situation detective? The dancers who chose to be on the stage, knowing how to mesmerise with their bodies, or the men willingly handing all their hard-earned money over?’

There was something about this that didn’t track. This wasn’t some typical male mind controller with big ambitions, there was another layer to this.

‘Tell me detective, did you find anything unusual when investigating our funding? Something to do with a certain liberation front?’ Tyler stepped in closer now, so close to Christie’s naked, vulnerable body.

‘Something to do with the Sapphire liberation front? I assumed it was a shell company,’ Christie replied, squirming in place, now frightened of what was coming up.

Tyler traced her fingers up Christie’s body, who let out an involuntary moan. The soft touch was heavenly, and only felt better when those fingers found Christie’s nipples.

‘Such beautiful, soft skin, so smooth and well preserved for someone in your line of work. No detective, it wasn’t the Sapphire Liberation Front. See, we’re the Sapphic Liberation Front. We have an interest in bringing women to the forefront of this city, and if that means brainwashing a few silly men into servitude, or handing over all their money, then why not?’

Christie squirmed now more out of embarrassment and pleasure, it was clear that Tyler was an expert at this. How she caressed her, how her touch was both gentle and warm to her. Christie hadn’t ever felt this way from a woman’s touch before. She needed to focus though, to solve the case, to find a way out of this.

‘So, you got Tom over there to build you this thing, let me guess, some women don’t agree with what you’re doing?’

‘That’s right, although don’t worry, they don’t quite end up like the men. Rather willing agents of our organisation, who’ll go off and brainwash those we need brainwashed,’ Tyler said, as she brought her head to Christie’s chest, running her tongue down it. Christie couldn’t help herself, she twitched and moved as much as her restraints would allow.

‘Wh-what’s your endgame here Tyler, take over the city? Is it wrapped up in real estate? You scheming mastermind types always have a hard on for real estate,’ she said. It was out of desperation, to keep her from doing anything more to her.

‘Oh detective, this goes much further than you think,’ Tyler moved away from her, giving the order to Tom to begin phase one. Whatever that was Christie didn’t like the sound of it.

The plastic looking visor that covered Christie’s eyes now lit up with a swirling purple spiral. In her research for this case, she’d read up a little on resisting such techniques, and this spiral alone wouldn’t prove enough to affect her. Christie laughed at it, saying aloud how this was rather sad, such a complex machine and this was what it had to offer?

‘You could accomplish as much by tying me to a chair with a television screen!’ she cried.

Then came the helmet. Comfortably cushioned, it lowered down fully onto Christie’s head, as large headphones muffled her hearing. It slotted into place, as binaural beats started to play. She’d heard about these, how they could be used to induce a relaxed state. Christie believed they’d only be more useful against a willing participant though. With her vision filled by the spiral, and her hearing blocked out by the beats, she didn’t notice Tyler approaching her body again. Tyler ran her hands over Christie, causing the squirms to start again. Christie attempted to close her eyes, but that spiral, that damn spiral was proving too bright.

‘Good slave, the isolation of two primary senses is done, now activate the gas at the minimum dosage,’ Tyler said, running her hands over her new prize. She may have set out to empower women through this, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have fun doing it too.

Christie still struggled in vain, the flailing of her hands and feet pathetic, but all she could do. From the machine, a gas mask lowered itself onto her face, cupping her nose and mouth. From it came that same pink smoke that caused her to end up here. This time though, it didn’t put her out like a light, but she could feel a certain sluggishness sinking into her. Flailing like she was doing wasn’t helping anyone, she needed to conserve her energy. At least that’s how she justified it. It wasn’t that this was starting to get to Christie, she was just planning her next move. Not that the binaurals, or the gas, or the spiral made that any easier.

‘Very good Christie, your initial responses have been as expected. On the off chance you can hear me, I’m just going to walk you through what’s happening to you,’ Tyler said, caressing Christie, toying with her breasts.

‘See, the binaural beats have been designed by an expert sound engineer, they were among the first we acquired for our organisation. These should disrupt certain brain waves, creating this harmonious mental sensation,’

As if on cue, Christie began to hear a ringing sound instead of the binaurals. It wasn’t an unpleasant sound but seemed an incredibly loud one. One far louder than any of her thoughts. She knew she was tough though; she could resist this.

‘That gas you’re breathing in was quite a feat of chemical engineering. What I dosed you with was a simple knockout gas variant, but this stuff is more sophisticated. A little bit of it used right can have a number of effects. It can dull some of your senses,’

Christie could feel how her face muscles were relaxing against her will. Her mouth drooped open letting more and more gas in, she struggled to control her eyes.

‘There’s of course a relaxing element to it too, but then there’s my favourite part,’ Tyler said, her hand drifted between Christie’s legs, stroking gently.

It was fire. It was bliss. Pure unadulterated pleasure. Screaming through her body as Christie moaned and moaned.

‘The aphrodisiac. Unfortunately, for now, the spiral you’re looking at is just a spiral, bit of a cliché, but it’s fun. Soon though, you’ll embrace what we call the deep sleep, and then we’ll put some more interesting viewing material in its place,’ Tyler said, fingers teasing Christie’s clit.

It was Tyler’s touch that sent her over the edge, that caused parts of her brain to accept what was happening to her. The gas tasted so wonderful, smelled intoxicating, and the ringing sound kept her from thinking, but it was that final, last sense. The sense of touch, of feel. The one Tyler knew exactly how to drive her up the wall with. Not that Christie could go up the wall, or up anywhere, as her body was limp and helpless. Then, something came through the gas mask, a small metal pipe, with a phallic shape.

‘I was wrong earlier, apologies, not all phallic items have been removed from the device. The slave’s designs for this one were very entertaining, and well, his feat of liquefying the gas was too good not to involve,’

Slave felt nothing from this praise, he’d spent some time after meeting Tyler in a similar device, one that rendered him the complete slave of the Sapphic Liberation Front. If he could have any regrets, his slave mind would regret that he’d had to have used such a primitive device for his conversion, unlike the work of art that Christie now found herself trapped in.

She was holding on by a thread when the phallic pipe came in. It fitted into her mouth easily, and soon from it came a pink, sweet, saccharine liquid. It drizzled down her throat, coating it, seeping into her. This was it. The deep sleep. A state of utter mental freedom. Freedom from one’s self, from the real world, from anything and everything. The Christie that would go into this state would not be the one that came out. It was mental oblivion, as her eyes rolled up, her entire body stopped moving at all. Her brain shut down, ready to be rebooted. Satisfied, Tyler arranged for the gas mask and pipe to be removed. She loved hearing the next part.

Christie’s brain was now wiped clean. However, it was still a brain, it still thirsted for information, for input. When the simulated mouth and tongue got to work, there was far too much input. Too much pleasure, an overwhelming sensation. The butt plug only added further. Her mind was becoming addicted to this sort of pleasure, completely distracted, and enamoured by it. That’s when the words got her. They were simple at first. Easily agreeable statements that flashed before her eyes. The images that accompanied them were attractive, so it made sense she was feeling that way. When asked to repeat, well Christie did repeat. Aloud and monotone, devoid of emotion. They were simple, true phrases. How she was relaxed. How she was now compliant. How her mind was now wiped clean.

What proved an initial problem for subjects in this state for Tyler, was it was far too easy to make them into complete submissive slaves. This was all good for men, that’s what she wanted, but there was no fun to being the only hypnotist in her organisation. Dominated dommes dazing future dommes, creating an endless chain of brainwashers like the worlds craziest pyramid scheme. Now that’s what got her off at night, that, and a few well-endowed male slaves. Yes, with Tom Taylor’s new device set up, making this a reality would be even easier. Of course, Tyler would be quick to put Christie in her place, there could only be one Goddess of the Sapphic Liberation Front after all.

Christie meanwhile was bombarded with imagery, her docile state being forced to make new connections, to accept new ideas. There was some parts of her that simply got readjusted. She was already quite a strong-willed woman, that could stay, but now she wished to impose that will more. Some parts were inserted entirely, like her new sexuality. Then there was just changing her viewpoints on certain ideals. The Sapphic Liberation Front weren’t evil, they were hot. What they were doing aroused her. What she could do for them excited her. She’d willingly signed up to such an organisation. She loved the organisation. It was her life, her light, her reason to get up in the morning. As images of men in collars, kneeling before her flashed in her eyes, the case truly was cracked wide open. Christie smiled; everything now clear in her mind. It also helped that she was still being wracked with pleasure.

Tyler began to remove Christie from the device, once she’d done so, her new recruit sat there, awaiting instructions.

‘Hello Christie, please state your purpose,’

‘My purpose is to serve you and the Sapphic Liberation Front, all men will be subjugated, all women enlightened,’

A little militant for Tyler’s tastes, but hey she was once a strong-willed detective.

‘Very good Christie, assume worship position,’

Christie fell to her knees before Tyler, looking down at the ground. Tyler placed around Christie’s neck a necklace on a chain, one with a sapphire in it as well. The machine didn’t just fill her with new desires, with a new outlook on life. It trained her. Trained her in the art of brainwashing, in the prime ways to seduce, and in something else that Tyler was going to enjoy.

‘Look up Christie,’

Christie saw the heavenly sight of Tyler’s pussy, her focal point of worship. She didn’t need to be told what to do, she just did it, feeling that same pleasure the machine instilled in her, the pleasure she now craved at every waking moment. It was simple, she was addicted, and now Tyler would give her the fix she needed. Tyler had broken her and rebuilt Christie in the image she desired, now it was time to reap the benefits.

So, that brings it all back to the beginning. Christie with a glazed over look in her eyes, a cigarette hanging loose in her lips. She was following her programming perfectly, the smoke from the cigarette had knocked out Mr Taylor as expected. She looked down at him, he was rather good looking for an older man. For completing this task, he’d be a slave under her. Tyler saw to it that the government stayed out of Tom’s disappearance, and now the last loose end was tied up. Soon he’d be tied up begging his new mistress to let him worship her, no doubt along side his son at one point. Christie phoned in that Mr Taylor was to be picked up for brainwashing, then set about looking through her old client list. She was looking to make them new clients, and make them feel the bliss of the Sapphic Liberation Front.

#hypnosis #erotichypnosis #hypnotized #brainwashing #mindcontrol #mind control #adult fiction #oc #tech control #hypnokink

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shannendoherty-fans · 4 years ago

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People, September 9th 1991

High School Confidential

By Tom Gliatto and Michael Alexander.

Photos by Mark Sennett.

Beverly Hills, 90210 Gets Its Heat from a Dangerously Cute Cast of TV's Hottest New Stars CONFIDENTIAL MEMO: FROM: The Vice Principal TO: The Faculty, High School U.S.A. I'm sure I don't need to remind you what happened when we didn't prepare for Bart Simpson last fall. The school was flooded with rude, antieducational T-shirts. Some cows were had. Well, as a new school year gets under way, I believe we face another daunting challenge: Brace yourselves for Beverly Hills, 90210. That's the Fox drama about unworldly twin teens Brandon and Brenda Walsh (played by Jason Priestley and Shannen Doherty), recent transferees from Minneapolis to the Hills of Beverly. There they struggle to assimilate into the fast-lane lifestyle of West Beverly Hills High School, where the kids come equipped with BMWs, call waiting and designer surfboards. In the process, the teens examine their emerging identities and the problems that adolescents everywhere face.

The show languished in the Nielsen ratings against Thursday powerhouse Cheers last year. But Fox had no replacement, so it stayed. While we were on summer vacation, new 90210 episodes began airing, and the show landed in the Top 20, becoming the most popular show among teenagers. To some extent, I take responsibility for having ignored 90210. I made the mistake of reading newspaper critics instead of my daughter's diary, and so I believed, as Howard Rosenberg sniffed in the Los Angeles Times, that the show was merely a "ZIP code for stereotypes and stock characters." Little did I know that this show would mesmerize teens by doing emotionally realistic shows that involved adolescent rebellion, alcoholic; parents, a breast-cancer scare and plenty of worrisome teen sex. "Most shows for adolescents," says 90210 creator Darren Star, "seem like they are written by 50-year-olds who think teenagers behave like 7-year-olds."

It also doesn't hurt that the show's male stars, Priestley and Luke Perry (who plays brooding loner Dylan McKay), are "to die for," as my daughter puts it. These two have each been receiving about 1,500 fan letters a week. So be vigilant: Surely some of these will be written by our students...during class! And I'm afraid that 90210 is only going to get bigger with our kids, if producer Aaron Spelling is to be believed. "I thought The Mod Squad and Charlie's Angels got a lot of publicity in their heyday," says Spelling, whose company produced those shows, "but it doesn't compare to this. It's crazy. We have merchandising coming out of our ears"—a complete line of T-shirts, beach towels, notebooks, etc. "And now these actors can't walk down the street!"

Or even streak through malls. You probably saw those alarming news reports about a frenzied mob of 10,000 fans that stampeded Perry when he appeared at a south Florida mall last month. "It's a little scary," says Perry. Scarier is the amount of time students will waste this fall discussing Luke. And Jason. And who is sexier. I provide some information on the two. Jason Priestley, 22, plays Brandon Walsh, a model of thoughtful level-headedness. In real life, however, the brown-haired, blue-eyed star, who started acting in commercials at age 4 and played an orphan on that very nice NBC sitcom Sister Kate, is no Oliver Twist. He likes dirt bikes, bungee jumping and is a chain-smoker (just about the whole cast puffs it up—but not on-camera). Vancouver-born Priestley likes to hang out in Las Vegas. As for his real romantic life, he was reportedly dating actress Robin (Doogie Howser, M.D.) Lively last spring, but it seems likely that now he is too busy for such dalliance;. He must be on the set 14 hours a day, five days a week. To avoid ever-present fans, Priestley says, "I look different from my character when I'm just walking around. I don't shave, I don't dress like Brandon."

On the show, 26-year-old Luke Perry (Brenda Walsh's boyfriend, Dylan) sports a leather jacket, dagger sideburns and a squint that spells t-r-o-u-b-l-e. Although he grew up and graduated from high school in Fredericktown, Ohio, he seems to have attended James Dean wise-guy classes. Perry, who played country-boy Ned Bates on the ABC soap Loving, entertains the 90210 cast by strutting around bare-chested making jokes. Does he have a girlfriend? "No. You know how I can get in touch with Linda Hamilton?" What kind of music does he listen to? "Tom Jones is awesome." Are he and Priestley ever mistaken for each other? "He's mistaken for me on his good days." And 90210, he says, is "the best show on television, except for Jeopardy!" We should act quickly, faculty, when we see any signs that Beverly Hills, 90210 is disrupting normal student activity.

How abnormal might things get? Consider: "It's almost like there are cults," says Brian Austin Green, 18, the North Hollywood High grad who plays the cutely dweeby David Silver. "Girls go to school the day after the show, and they actually become these characters. They say, 'Okay, today I want to be Dylan, you can be Brenda, you can be Brandon.' " Needless to say, students caught pretending to be TV characters should be brought directly to my office for detention. But you know, it might not be a bad thing if our students could show some of the good sense that the 90210ers display in coping with the pressures of fame and fortune. Jennie Garth, 19, who plays the very sexy, very blond, very snotty Kelly Taylor, is particularly admirable. The youngest of seven children, she grew up on a farm near Champaign, Ill., until her schoolteacher parents moved to Phoenix when she was 13. "Living in a small town and coming from a very tight and close family instilled a lot of standards that I need to live up to," says Garth, who just bought a home in Sherman Oaks. She also recently supplied her parents with the down payment for their new home, setting a splendid example for today's youth.

According to a tabloid that someone left in the faculty lounge, Memphis-raised Shannen Doherty, 20, a veteran of such wonderful shows as Little House: A New Beginning, is the only cast member to be accused of behaving like "a spoiled brat" on the set. But she maintains she is no such thing. "I think everybody gets in a bad mood," Shannen says. "You do not work 16-hour days and not start feeling it. But I have never thrown a tantrum. I've gotten upset on the set, but it's never been just to be a bitch. You have to stand up for yourself in this business. That was something I was told when I was 12 years old and working with Michael Landon."

As with about half the cast members, Doherty is in a relationship—in her case, a real-estate developer with whom she's exchanged commitment rings. "You really have to date a while before you decide if this is the person you want to marry," she says with Brenda-like candor. Almost sounds like the relationship could be a future 90210 plot. "The problems of young people have accelerated," says Aaron Spelling, "and so have their feelings and thoughts." The show, he says, has kept pace: Even with their Clearasil-perfect complexions and plump allowances, the students at Beverly Hills have encountered their share of problems. "We had the guts to make Luke Perry be a member of AA," says Spelling. "We had Jason, our star, drinking and driving. That's reality."

And, apparently, the adulatory fan mail often includes a sad dose of that reality. "I got a letter the other day from a girl who mentioned the show we did on parental drug abuse," says Perry in a rare moment of seriousness. "She wrote about catching her father freebasing in the basement. I get letters like that all the time, from people all over the country." Gabrielle Carteris (at age 30, she's 90210's oldest cast-kid), who plays Andrea Zuckerman, the bright student who comes from the wrong side of Rodeo Drive, remembers an encouraging close encounter in a grocery store. "One girl came up to me after we'd done the breast-cancer show," says Carteris. "She said, 'I went home with all my friends and we checked our breasts for lumps.' "

In conclusion: Maybe I didn't need to write this memo. Maybe things won't be that bad, even if every locker in every corridor has a picture of Jason, Luke, Shannen or Jennie in it. Perhaps our dear little school is more like West Beverly Hills High—at least the TV version—than I thought. That's what Ian Ziering, 27, thinks too. "The reality on the show pretty much mirrors the way life is all over, in terms of teenagers," says New Jersey—bred Ziering, who once did Fruit of the Loom underwear ads and now plays 90210's curly-headed jock, Steve Sanders. "There's a mystique about Beverly Hills. But that's not what keeps people tuning in. The show could have been Montana E-I-E-I-O." By the way, should any student pronounce his name "eee-an," correct him or her, please. It's "eye-an."

-- WHEN BEVERLY HILLS, 90210 PREMIERED last October, Highlights, the student newspaper at Beverly Hills High, ran articles mocking the school's TV counterpart, West Beverly Hills High. "They said that the show was a joke," says Jenny Brandt, 14, a sophomore at the 1,900-student school. But as the story lines improved and Jason Priestley and Luke Perry became stars, the jokes stopped, and Brandt found herself, like many of her pals, glued to the set on Thursday nights from 9 to 10 P.M. "No phone calls allowed," says Brandt. "Except during commercials." Hope Levy, a 17-year-old senior, has taken fandom a step further with her friends. "We have little handmade cards," she says, speaking from her mom's car phone. "They say you're a member of Club 90210." While some kids think the show treats them as snobby stereotypes, most agree with sophomore Jordan Rynes when he says, "It's like a soap opera for teens. The shows dealing with drinking and drugs are the most real—adults don't realize how accurate it is."

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innovativeactorsstudio2 · 3 years ago

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Tips for Choosing Acting Classes in Los Angeles

If you have ever thought about taking acting classes in Los Angeles, there are a number of different acting schools in the city that can help you learn to be a better actor. In this article, we'll discuss what is available, why it is a good idea to take acting classes and the important things to consider before signing up for classes. When considering acting classes in Los Angeles, here are some of the main things you should keep in mind:

It is not always easy being an actor. In fact, sometimes your performances can sometimes be just as good as those you see on television. While taking acting classes in Los Angeles, it is a good idea to try out some shows that you enjoy to get a feel for the type of acting you will be doing. There are many acting classes in Los Angeles that are used by seasoned actors who want to hone their craft so that they can come up with a good performance every time.

It is usually a good idea to start learning about acting class near me well ahead of time. This way, if you change your mind about enrolling in a class, you will have time to get everything together and arrange to pick up the materials you need. By getting the right information ahead of time, you can also save money on the cost of tuition and find the best class for you. Instead of having to scramble for a spot at the only acting class available, you can simply sit down and compare the prices of each class you are interested in.

When finding an acting class in Los Angeles, you may want to take your search online. There are many Innovative Actor's Studio that you can find online. Whether you prefer an acting class that offers both stage and screen acting techniques or one that only offers stage acting techniques, there are many online acting classes available to you. You can even find a class that allows you to continue to train on the skills you have learned from your class while continuing to work with a professional actor in order to improve your acting skills. In addition, there are many acting classes that are located close to where you live so you do not have to commute for the classes, saving you money in the process.

If you would prefer to find an Innovative Actor's Studio acting class in Los Angeles that is more of a class that you will be taking regularly rather than one that you can only do a few times throughout the year, you can find a class that is offered monthly or yearly. While you will still learn the same skills that you would learn in an acting class at the Los Angeles Academy of Art, you will most likely have more time during the months of September through May when the school is closed. This will give you the ability to take advantage of the skills that you have already learned and polish them before taking the class the next semester.

No matter what your preferences or needs, you will be able to find a number of Innovative Actor's Studio that will help you learn how to act. Whether you would like to learn to play the piano or sing, there are acting classes that will suit you. Remember to check out each class before you commit so that you do not waste money. This is an investment that will benefit you for years to come and if you are unsure whether or not you will enjoy the classes, you should not sign up for them. If you do decide that acting is for you, start by taking a class in order to get all of the information that you need.

Innovative Actor's Studio Address: 11006 W Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood, California 91601, US Phone:323-329-5003 Email:[email protected]

https://goo.gl/maps/zUoEGfDyfnHrVLad6

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cabiba · 3 years ago

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The coronavirus pandemic is the perfect metaphor for the perils of hyper-connection. We no longer need the help of rats or fleas to spread disease — we can do it ourselves thanks to mass international travel and supply chains. And we are no longer self-sufficient when things go wrong. When a corona vaccine is eventually discovered, we will have to wait our turn in the queue as we no longer have a UK-based manufacturer. Talk of the need for de-globalisation seems suddenly to be everywhere.

The pandemic also illuminates a wider retreat from full-on free trade that has been gaining in support and legitimacy over recent years—everywhere, that is, apart from in the economics profession. Democratic politics and national social contracts are starting to assert themselves against the laws of comparative advantage — which in any case turn out not to be quite as benign as the economics professors claim. This was brought home to me a few days ago when I heard a very senior Tory say that he was, until recently, an orthodox free trader/free marketeer but now regarded himself as an economic nationalist.

He is not alone. World trade fell last year by 0.4%. There has been no multilateral trade agreement since 1993. Donald Trump wants to bring back some of the US supply chain from China. And this is not a Trumpian eccentricity, most of the US political class is behind him on this, acknowledging that allowing China entry to the global market economy in the belief that it would transform politically (and become less mercantilist economically) is a gamble that failed. There has been technological decoupling too, the world will not end up on single global platforms.

The ascent of climate change anxieties up domestic and international agendas is also making life uncomfortable for unfettered free trade, encouraging a bias towards localism, reduced travel and a degree of self-sufficiency. China’s air quality has improved dramatically in the past few weeks as a result of measures to contain the coronavirus. And more generically, Greta is asking whether you really need strawberries in March.

The truth is that the neat theories of free trade and comparative advantage have been oversold. Free trade, as Keynes pointed out, only works if the people displaced from good jobs by imports get equally good jobs elsewhere in the economy. The election of Donald Trump is one kind of proof that this has not been happening.

Hold on, say the free traders, of course there will be downward pressure on wages and job losses in the short run but, in the long run, the additional purchasing power we acquire from cheaper imports means we can buy other goods and services that will create equally good jobs elsewhere in the economy. Moreover, they say, when given the choice between protecting the Mid-West manufacturing plant and enjoying good quality, cheaper stuff in Walmart, people have voted with their wallets for the cheaper stuff.

But they have not been given a proper choice. Of course people would always prefer cheaper goods, but not at any price. If the choice was between slightly more expensive goods and services, and the preservation, or more gradual decline, of a certain agricultural or industrial way of life, they might well support such a deal. Indeed, they do so in the EU through the Common Agricultural Policy.

People are well aware that they are both producers and consumers. The end of production is not just consumption, as Adam Smith asserted, it is also about what sort of life you might have as a producer. This is one of those places where economics reveals its blindspot for culture and human beings in the round.

According to Keynes biographer Robert Skidelsky, most trade doesn’t follow any discernible pattern of comparative advantage, and Cambridge economist Graham Gudgin has shown that, for countries in North America and Western Europe, joining free trade agreements has caused slower — not faster — growth in recent decades. Unlike comparative advantage in natural resources, which is better described as absolute advantage, comparative advantage in manufacturing systems is usually quite marginal.

Much of the comparative advantage of recent decades has been achieved by simply taking advantage of lower labour costs in poorer countries. Apple makes iPhones in China, which does benefit US consumers, and to some extent Chinese workers, but the main beneficiaries are probably Apple executives and shareholders. Bringing some of that production back to the US, even at the cost of slightly higher prices, would not, I suspect, be unpopular.

The theory that free trade engenders a permanent peace has long ago been exposed as an empty dream, which is why national security and the threat of war (and pandemics) continue to provide justification for some degree of national protection. In the 19th century, Britain did completely embrace free trade. It was enormously to our advantage to do so, as the workshop of the world, and we imported most of our food by the end of the 19th century. The result was that we nearly starved in two world wars. After the Second World War, we did not make the same mistake; even with the enormous change in tastes and increase in food imports in recent decades, we still produce more than half of what we eat.

Nobody sensible is arguing for self-sufficiency or anything like it, though it might be a good idea to retain at least some national capacity in certain strategic areas like steel or nuclear power plants or, indeed, vaccine manufacture. And, after all, isn’t the logic of comparative advantage to produce specialist monocultures in a world that values diversity in all things.

But there are some economists and political economists such as Dani Rodrik, Ha-Joon Chang, Barry Eichengreen and Robert Skidelsky who are arguing, persuasively, that we need more democratic caveats to free trade. Rodrik argues that where there is a national consensus about preserving some aspect of an economy or culture, for example French restrictions on Hollywood film imports, these should be allowed and not attract sanctions from international trade regulators.

A UK government that is serious about regional and industrial policy, and shifting more high value economic activity towards the North, is implicitly protectionist. It is not going to promote high-tech export industries in Hartlepool and then allow them to be wiped out by imports. It will protect with either subsidies or tariffs. It is true that free trade theory does allow some such protection under the title ‘infant industry protection’, which is far preferable to senile industry protection, but EU state aid policy is not friendly to either.

The unlikely bedfellows of populism, environmentalism and technology are all pointing in the same direction — the reshoring of some forms of production, a bit more self-sufficiency, more teleconferencing with people in other countries rather than immigration, all in all a retreat from the hyper-globalisation of recent decades.

Free traders will, not unreasonably, point to the costs. It could mean a bit less growth, though neither the populists nor the greens will necessarily object. Global supply chains are, indeed, a force for peace and breaking them up could bring back inflationary pressures. It could also mean that the dramatic fall in poverty in poorer countries will slow or stop. So why not try to mitigate the costs of free trade better? Subsidise the losers more intelligently? Or, the free trade sceptic might reply, why not prevent there being so many losers in the first place?

As Barry Eichengreen says, the problem with the global economy is not a lack of openness, but a sense that “the nation state has fundamentally lost control of its destiny, surrendering to anonymous global forces”. And as Hans Kundnani put it in last week’s Observer: “it is time the UK Government adjusted its rhetoric and stopped its paeans of praise to free trade”. Part of the point of Brexit is to put politics before economics, democratic legitimacy before economic growth.

Of course, we still want lots of trade and sustainable growth but at less cost to other things that people hold dear. A new rhetoric is needed that combines an appropriate level of openness with a sense of national control. An economic nationalism that most liberals can feel comfortable with.

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utilitycaster · 6 years ago

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Accents of Exandria

I’m doing this more by accent rather than by location first, due to accent diversity in major cities and racial ties to certain accents.

One thing to note: accents in fiction are important signifiers of class and background based on our own preconceived notions, and it’s worth keeping that in mind. For example, most people associate an RP British accent with being upper class and educated, and the characters who speak in this accent typically are either nobility, wealthy, educated, or all three, even if they come from very different regions. It’s a common shorthand in media and that includes Critical Role. Consider Lord of The Rings - Sam and Frodo are of the same race and in the same region with the same native language, but they have very different accents to show that Frodo is wealthy, worldly, and highly educated, and Sam is more working-class and provincial.

Obviously spoilers for both campaigns all over and I’m sure I’ve left plenty of things out - feel free to send me suggestions! I’m sure I will write a follow-up at some point.

And finally, I am just a nerd who loves accents. I took a few linguistics classes in college and learn about them in my free time, but I’m no expert, so if you are one or have corrections let me know!

Scottish: Dwarvish, and by extension places primarily populated by dwarves. Examples: Kraghammer.

RP British: a large number of elves (including many drow), educated/upper-class people (especially humans). Examples: Percy, Vex, Vax, the elves of Syngorn, High Bearer Vord, Lieve’tel, the Briarwoods, Taryon, Zahra, Yussah. Artagan seems to have this too, further indicating an elvish/fey influence. Vex and Vax have a bit more of a drawl than Percy’s more clipped accent, which could partially be a personality difference and partially their more humble, frontier childhood in Byroden. This also seems to be Fjord’s original accent, indicating some level of education (which we know is the case - he’s quite intelligent and trained in history).

Mid-Atlantic: The Old Hollywood one, not the Tidewater one. Sort of in between RP and US Neutral (hence the name Mid-Atlantic - it’s seen as a blend between British and U.S. accents). Also seen in a lot of educated/upper-class people who aren’t elves, and people imitating them. Examples: most of Emon’s upper class including the Tal’Dorei family and Allura. This is probably not Gilmore’s native accent, but it’s his accent now. I’d put Scanlan here as well, which fits, particularly since this accent was the ‘theater’ accent in the first half of 20th Century America.

United States ‘non-regional’: Westruun, the Air Ashari, a lot of regular middle-class humans, halflings, and gnomes, a lot of Firbolgs, Shady Creek Run. Examples: Keyleth, Beau, Caduceus, Kima, Pike, Kerrek, Kashaw, Thorbir, Lyra, Keg, Tova, Twiggy, Yeza, and a whole lot more. The Doylist explanation for this is that all of the main cast and most guests speak like this normally, and not all guests are comfortable playing an improv-based game that many of them have never played before while also doing accent work; as such it’s sort of a catch-all for a lot of average people. In Westruun in particular it sometimes skews a bit midwestern (slightly flatter vowels - compare Kima’s accent to most of the other people on the list).

United States southern: unclear but my guess is based in the north of the continent, perhaps along the Empire’s borders: Starosta Wyatt, a halfling in Zadash, has this accent; Fjord has a deeper version which is in turn an imitation of Vandran; Lorenzo and Wursh both have it as well which raises the question whether this might be related to ogre/orcish languages. Note that the accents many people would class as Southern in the US encompass a pretty broad region. IIRC Wyatt sounded a bit more Appalachian whereas Fjord (so Vandran) sounds more Texan.

Irish: I think we’ve seen this most consistently in Kymal (notably in Kaylie), but Molly also has an Irish accent so I wonder if it’s particularly common among entertainers? On the other hand we have no reason to believe Molly didn’t have this accent in previous lives as well.

German: Zemni Fields. Explicitly linked to a region of the Empire and to a language that is distinct from Common or any of the racial languages. Zemnian as a language is still alive and well, and the Zemnian people are as far as we’ve seen well-integrated into the Empire’s fabric - Caleb’s parents were very pro-Empire, Zemnians are found in high positions, Dairon notes that a Zemnian accent in Xhorhas would be recognized as Dwendalian, and Zemnian words are used in Zadash pretty regularly (Zauberspire, for example). As a result this seems to indicate that while the Empire took over Zemni Fields, they let Zemnians maintain their culture. Examples: Caleb, Trent, Ophelia Mardun.

French: Menagerie Coast, Bisaft Island. Unclear exactly where on the coast. Examples: Avantika, Vera. Interestingly, other French-based accents (like Cajun) are also seen in this region (eg: Orly) which might imply that there’s a fantasy French equivalent (a la Zemnian for German) spoken in this region with varying dialects.

Eastern European: Unclear, but actually this is not uncommon in Tieflings - not only is it Jester and Marion’s accent despite them having a somewhat French-sounding last name, but it’s also seen in Campaign 1 for both Vanessa of the Slayer’s Take and Lillith. But Cree (Tabaxi) has it as well. Eastern European is also a pretty broad term and IRL Eastern Europe encompasses a whole lot of different languages, not all of which are related. Anecdotally, Jester’s accent reminds me of a few native Romanian speakers I know. Overall, seems to be mostly Tieflings and Wildemount.

Russian: in the notes Matt’s published, this is stated to be Oremid Hass’s accent as well as some others in Zadash. Seems to be specific to the Empire - some of the towns (eg: Nogvorot) have Russian-sounding names, but the region is unclear.

Scandinavian: thus far only seen in Yasha, so this may be specific to the Iotha marshes of Xhorhas.

Working Class London-ish accent: rough types more so than any region. It’s Grog’s accent and the accent of the Herd of Storms, but we also see similar accents among some of the criminal types in Zadash, along the way to Shady Creek Run, and at the Sour Nest.

Southern European: I’m not positive about the Kryn Dynasty upper-class accent found among many members of the consecuted Dens, but it sounds a little Greek or a little Spanish, depending (thanks,the International Dialects of English Archives!) Examples: Zethris Olios, Leylas Krynn, Shadowhand Essik.

#critical role #long post #this has been in my drafts for a long time

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sjrresearch · 4 years ago

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Why Not Wargame World War I or Vietnam?

Historical Wargaming, like many hobbies, has fads. One year, Ancients might be big, or it may be Colonials. The next, World War II. But two periods have not, at least in my own observation, gotten their day in the sun. At least not in US wargaming circles (and I will be speaking almost exclusively to that, as I am less familiar with, though still knowledgeable of, the British wargaming scene).

These periods are the First World War and Vietnam. Both were major conflicts with plenty of research materials available (unlike, say, the Grand Chaco War). Both have libraries of rules and boardgames written for them, but neither, at least not at the cons I’ve attended, are quite the attention-getters that other conflicts do. Why is this? I have some theories as to why.

Just a disclaimer, this is mostly an opinion piece, and your mileage may vary.

American and British Views of the First World War and Vietnam

Let’s face it. Most American wargamers are patriotic folks. We want to play wargames where “our boys” feature prominently. World War II more than fits that bill. World War I does not. By the time the American Expeditionary Force arrived in France in strength in early 1918, the German Army was on its last legs. The Americans arrived in theatre in time to push the Germans off the proverbial cliff when the last German offensive in the west failed. Our active participation in the First World War was barely six months. Our fleets fought no major battles, and by the time we were shuttling troops to Europe, the U-Boat and raider menace was a shadow of what it used to be. In the air, American heroes were made, such as Frank Luke and Eddy Rickenbacker, but they, too, missed the worst of the Allied fortunes of the previous year.

In short, while American forces improved the overall strategic position of the Western Allies, the US Army was poorly prepared for the modern battlefield. Many of the American offensives, in the beginning, used the same types of massed frontal assaults that the British and French had abandoned the previous year due to the horrific casualties involved. The US Army often had to buy equipment from the British and the French to supplement their own needs, as our own industry had not geared up for war by the time the war ended.

In short, our role in the First World War was a minor one, relatively speaking. And that carries through to American wargamers. British wargamers learned a quite different lesson about the First World War from their school classes and their families than we did. We had 4 million men in the military for the First World War, half of that went to France, and half of that saw any combat. Compare that with the Second World War, where you had 15 million Americans in the military. So, for many wargamers of a certain age, they were more likely to have a World War II veteran in the family at some point than a World War I veteran.

In Britain, this was different. Over 5 million men in Great Britain enlisted, which was almost 25% of the male population at the time. Add in the fact that the British lost almost 750,000 men worldwide over four years and the United States lost 110,000 in the space of five or six months, a different image of World War I appears. In the US, it is a conflict we do not game much because nobody pays much attention to it (though, with recent movie releases such as 1917, this seems to be changing). In Britain, World War I is seen as a national tragedy. It is of boys being sent off to the slaughter at places like the Somme and Passandachele. And since Britain is in many ways the “mecca” of hobby wargaming, it is inevitable that a feeling of “No, that’s just not something we want to game out” took hold for an awfully long time.

Moreover, the Western Front was not a war of movement except at the very beginning and end. That is why most boardgames on World War I tend to concentrate either on other theatres (the East is extremely popular), 1914 or 1918. Miniatures games tend to center around the same, or game out the war in the air or at sea.

Vietnam is the opposite in so very many ways. American participation in the conflict was massive from the beginning, and the conflict lasted ten years. Approximately 2.7 million Americans served in Vietnam, and the war showcased some advanced weapons systems on both sides. But it was an unpopular war at home that tore the social fabric of the time asunder. Wargaming in this country truly came of age in the 1970s, and Vietnam was still seen as a “dirty” war, again, one not worth gaming. In British wargaming circles, Vietnam has been big and never really stopped being big. I remember all my British “glossies” (slang for the British Wargaming magazines, named as such for their glossy covers) full of articles on Vietnam.

There was a small uptick in gaming Vietnam in the mid-to-late 1980s in this country, as various movies came out from Hollywood, but the nature of the conflict is not easy to game. Vietnam epitomized the old saying about combat: “Long periods of boredom punctuated by short, sharp moments of sheer terror.” There were long periods of time where patrols would go out and find…nothing. Then a patrol would go out, and all hell would break loose. That is not easy to game. That is the larger truth at the tactical level about counterinsurgency. It’s not how many guerillas you kill, but it’s what you do to use “soft power” to undercut their support. That said, I have seen some good miniatures games on the subject, but most board games on Vietnam seem to be focused on the strategic and operational levels.

Add in the popular beliefs about Vietnam and the men who fought there. None of them were true, but the media popularized them in the day, and popular opinion demonized the soldiers who fought there. Going back to fads, it was not hard to see why American wargamers to this day get a little queasy about gaming Vietnam.

Availability of Games and Miniatures

I am happy to say that times are a-changin’, as the old protest song from the Vietnam-era goes. Perhaps with World War I, there are no veterans in living memory, and there’s better history being done now (especially new history on the tactical innovations developed on the Western front putting an end to the pernicious myth of half-trained boys being slaughtered by uncaring commanders). And with Vietnam in this country, we are starting to see more Vietnam veterans opening up about their experiences and game designers and rules writers listening to them.

So, here is an overview of what is out there both board gaming and miniatures-wise:

Board Games World War I

Ted Racier has written quite a few games on the First World War. It is not a period I game for the most part, but I played the 1918 game back when he published it in Command magazine. I personally think it was one of the three best games Command ever published, and I am glad to see GMT is bringing it back.

We all know what I think of this game, and I think it was a welcome window into the strategic realities of World War I. It is still one of the best Card Driven Games of all time.

I do not own this game, but the premise of doing a worldwide game of the First World War does intrigue me. It seems to put proper focus on economics and diplomacy, with the war of movement slowing down into an attritional model. All in all, it looks good, but if someone who has played it could let me know how it plays, that would be appreciated.

This game has been out for a while, and I had also heard a lot of buzz about it when it was released. Clash of Arms could have had a solid game in this, and I played it once. The rules needed a lot of work and probably could have used the “living rules” concept that other game companies used.

Board Games Vietnam

A note, this is not all-inclusive as there are a lot of Vietnam board games out there. I had to cherry-pick which ones would be of the widest possible interest.

For a while, this game by Victory Games was the game on the Vietnam War. It was truly a monster game and covered every aspect of the war, from pacification to how dedicated the combatants were. It was well-designed and state of the art for its time. Sadly, it is out of print and not cheap to come by, but it is worth it if you can find a copy.

Downtown is probably one of the best games on what goes into planning and running an air campaign out there today. GMT still has the game in print (it is one of two games on Vietnam I own), and I have played it on VASSAL a few times. I really do like it. The designer, Lee Brinscombe-Wood, has gone on to write An Elusive Victory (The Arab-Israeli wars in the air) and The Burning Blue (The Battle of Britain), and Red Storm (A hypothetical Third World War in the skies over Germany) were also written all using the same rules system. The game details well the frustrations faced by the Americans over the skies of North Vietnam. You can purchase a copy here.

Mark H. Walker did some really neat work with his Lock ‘N Load series, and one of the first games in the series was about Vietnam. Lock N’ Load is a system that is at the same level as Squad Leader but is a bit simpler to play, but no less nuanced nor fun. I own the 1st Edition of Band of Heroes and will one of these days go out and get the new versions of the series. All of them play the same, with an emphasis on putting tactical decisions into the hands of the player, keeping the game moving and fun, with most scenarios taking no more than an hour or two. You get all the troop types: US Army, USMC, ARVN, NVA, VC, and yes, even Australians (for those wanting to game out the movie Danger Close). You can get a copy here.

Meatgrinder is a game from the folks at Against the Odds magazine about the last stand of the ARVN at the town of Xuan Loc in 1975. The rules are beautifully written, and the articles that come with the game are incredible reading at times. It is games like this that remind us that there was still a war going on after the US pulled out in 1973, and the fall of South Vietnam had consequences. And it is just a great story of a hell of a stand. You can purchase a copy of the issue and the game here.

This was the game that was on everyone’s minds when it came out in 2014. The COIN series is an innovative set of games designed around a common rule set that games out insurgencies like Cuba in the 1950s, Columbia in the 1990s, and Afghanistan today, as well as Vietnam. I have yet to play any of the COIN games, but I want to. They are all highly recommended and address the problem of counterinsurgency quite well in a strategic context. You can purchase a copy here.

Miniatures Rules for World War I and Vietnam

Richard Clarke has a reputation with Too Fat Lardies for putting out good rules with card-driven mechanics. It is not everyone’s cup of tea, but it can produce a good game. I haven’t played Through the Mud and the Blood myself, but it has very good information on the various armies of the Western Front and the tactics they used, with the rules author making a fine argument that the tactical innovation opened up the stalemate of the Western Front in 1918 (it did). Too Fat Lardies’ products can be found all over the internet or in PDF or physical format on their website.

Peter Pig’s rules are meant for larger-scale fights, where each stand of troops is about a company in size, and the 6’x4’ board is sub-divided into squares and plays something like a board game. I will not say it is my cup of tea but may swear by it. You can buy digital copies via Peter Pig.

There are several rules for World War I also on Wargames Vault, and some, like Westfront, sound intriguing, but take a look for yourself.

Even though Force on Force is still sadly out of print, their Vietnam sourcebook and rules were probably one of the best rules sets out there for gaming the Vietnam war. Happily, PDF copies are still available for sale from the publisher for $20.00. You will need the base rules to play as well, but those are also available on PDF from the publisher.

Two Hour Wargames (THW) has been blurring the line between RPGs and Wargames for a while now and promising (and delivering) games in under two hours. Their Vietnam game is no different, as the game is centered around the idea of your “character” controlling a squad, and like most THW products, the game has very simple rules. There is also a campaign generator for scenarios you can play out on the tabletop. It is a great fun, pulpy take on Vietnam and is well worth the $20.00 price tag. The rules are for sale in PDF and can be found here.

Next week, we’ll discuss miniatures themselves, as that’s going to take an entire article in its own right!

At SJR Research, we specialize in creating compelling narratives and provide research to give your game the kind of details that engage your players and create a resonant world they want to spend time in. If you are interested in learning more about our gaming research services, you can browse SJR Research’s service on our site at SJR Research.

(This article is credited to Jason Weiser. Jason is a long-time wargamer with published works in the Journal of the Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers; Miniature Wargames Magazine; and Wargames, Strategy, and Soldier.)

#wargaming #vietnam war #world war I #history

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mexcine · 5 years ago

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Parasite (2019) review: A Tale of Three Families

The Academy Awards don't mean that much to me. Most years I see only a handful (at most) of the nominated films, and rarely do I have a dog in the fight. This year, I'd only seen part of one Best Picture nominee (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, losing interest about halfway through), but almost literally at the last moment (the afternoon of the day the Oscars were awarded), I watched Parasite.

I thought it was well-made and thought-provoking, and the awards it won were certainly deserved. It’s fascinating, nuanced, and entertaining. It’s slick and “accessible” to all audiences (although I suspect Koreans will pick up on aspects that others will not, similar to Roma). I'd read little about the film before I saw it, and have not read any critical analysis since then, so if the following repeats conventional wisdom, so be it. [Note: spoilers follow.]

There are many aspects of Parasite worthy of extended analysis, including the visual schema, the various references to the USA (including the two Kim children going by “Kevin” and “Jessica” in their positions in the Park household), and of course socio-economic class/conflict. However, I’ll focus here on the film’s depiction of family. Parasite is structured around three families: the struggling Kims, the wealthy Parks, and the family of the Park's housekeeper.

The Kims and the Parks each consist of 4 members: Mr. Kim, Mrs. Kim, grown son Ki-woo and grown daughter Ki-jung; Mr. Park, Mrs. Park, teen daughter Da-hye, and young son Da-song. The housekeeper Moon-gwang and her husband Geun-sae have no children. All of the major characters belong to one of these three groups; Ki-woo's friend Min appears briefly (and plays a key role in getting the plot started), and the Park family's chauffeur has a small part, in addition to some other minor characters.

The 3 families are presented in neither a wholly negative or positive light--any actions they take are done to protect or benefit the family, and are thus seen as justified. For example, Ki-woo essentially betrays his friend Min, who arranged for him to become Da-hye's tutor. Min does this out of friendship but he also trusts Ki-woo not to seduce Da-hye, because Min himself is romantically interested in her. Ki-woo almost immediately reneges on this promise (and pays for it later, getting bashed in the head with Min’s “scholar’s stone” gift). Later, the steps taken to remove the chauffeur (and replace him with Mr. Kim) and the housekeeper (so Mrs. Kim can take her place) are directly harmful to these individuals (whereas Ki-woo and Ki-jung got their positions with the Park family through deceit but no one lost their positions so the Kims could be hired). At one point the Kim family makes a passing reference to the chauffeur, assuring each other that he probably got "a better job," but they don't even try to do this when they engineer Moon-gwang's dismissal, and in fact utilise her potentially serious peach allergy to stigmatise her and thus achieve their desired outcome.

The first part of Parasite is structured as a humorous, "heist" story, as the Kim family schemes to improve their standard of living by obtaining positions in the Park household. However, the Kims are not robbing the Parks: they actually provide the services for which they've been contracted (well, Ki-jung is not exactly a qualified "art therapist," but she seems to get along with Da-song), and are not skimming from the household accounts or anything of this sort. As noted above, the means by which they secure their new jobs become increasingly dodgy, but the ultimate goal of their plan is not to defraud or steal from their employers.

As Parasite begins, Ki-Woo (aka "Kevin") seems set to be the protagonist, and he does ultimately have slightly more footage than his parents or sister, but the Kim family becomes a collective protagonist as the film goes on (with somewhat more emphasis given to Mr. Kim and Ki-Woo than to Mrs. Kim or Ki-jung, but a fair amount of time is spent on the whole family's interactions). It's never specifically stated what brought the Kim family to its current station in life: were they middle-class before, or have they always been living in a precarious economic state? Clearly, they are willing to work hard to improve their lot in life, but why can’t they find opportunities to do so?

The second family group in Parasite is the Parks. Mr. Park is a prosperous businessman, Mrs. Park occupies herself with her children and her social circle, Da-hye is cramming for her high school examinations, and Da-song is a hyper-active boy with a mysterious "trauma" in his past. Although the Parks pay handsomely for Da-hye's tutors, Da-song is the focus of his parents' attention. Is he, as Da-hye bitterly remarks, faking it? Later in the film, Mrs. Park orders a special dish (ram-don) prepared for Da-song; when he doesn't eat it, and Mr. Park also turns it down, Mrs. Park consumes it herself. Da-hye points out that she was never offered any: it's as if she doesn't exist. On the other hand, Da-hye seems to be a moody teen-ager who shuts herself up in her room a lot, so perhaps Mrs. Park simply forgot her daughter existed for a moment.

The Kims acknowledge the Parks are “nice” rich people, while making the observation that perhaps they’re nice because they’re rich. In other words, they can afford to be pleasant and generous, since they’re not in a frantic competition for their daily bread, unlike the Kim family (in one scene, Ki-woo practically begs for a part-time pizza delivery job). One trait of the Parks which ultimately has deadly ramifications is their fastidiousness. The Kims live in a crowded, roach-infested “semi-basement” that is literally flooded with sewage at one point, while the Parks live in a spotless modernistic mansion. Mr. Park is offended when his chauffeur apparently has sex in the back seat of the Park’s auto--not even in his “own” space, the front seat!--and leaves a pair of panties behind as evidence. Mrs. Park dons rubber gloves and uses tongs to pick up the underwear, and Mr. Park almost seems more upset by the unhygienic nature of his driver and the man’s violation of his (Mr. Park’s) personal space than by the act itself.

Mr. Park also remarks to his wife about Mr. Kim’s odor, comparing it to “boiling a dirty rag” and says he’s smelled the same thing on the subway. Young Da-song also detects and remarks upon the similarity of the personal odors of Ki-woo and Ki-jung, a breach of courtesy. During the birthday party massacre at the climax, Mr. Park grimaces when he has to move Geun-sae’s corpse to retrieve the keys to his car (it’s been previously established that Geun-sae’s subterranean life has resulted in an unpleasant body odor); Mr. Kim sees this and--having previously overheard his boss talking about Kim’s smell--is inspired to stab Mr. Park. Snobbish and classist to be sure, but believing “poor people smell bad” is hardly worthy of a death sentence.

The third family group in Parasite is revealed only in the second half of the film. Housekeeper Moon-gwang is fired when the Kim family convinces the Parks that the woman has tuberculosis, a contagious disease. Prior to this, the housekeeper is a neutral background figure, with no particular personality. However, she returns to the Park home and explains to Mrs. Kim (her replacement) that Moon-gwang’s husband has been living in a secret bunker underneath the house for several years. The shocked Mrs. Kim berates her predecessor but holds the moral high ground for only a few moments, until the Kim family full-employment conspiracy is revealed. This leads to conflict between the two under-class families, and ultimately to a protracted bloody denouement.

There are a few loose ends in the Moon-gwang/Geun-sae story. Possibly the Parks would not have hired Moon-gwang as a live-in housekeeper if they knew she was married (or wouldn’t have permitted her husband to live with her), and apparently her salary wasn’t sufficient to allow him to live alone (he’s unemployed, but then again so are the Kims as the film opens, and they have an apartment, shabby as it is). As noted earlier, I haven’t read any analysis of Parasite so I don’t know if the issue is raised at all (or raised and debunked), but there is a slight hint that Moon-gwang and her husband may be North Korean emigrants. In one scene, a manic Moon-gwang mimics a North Korean propaganda broadcaster, castigating the Kim family for their scheme to “defraud” the Parks; at another point, Geun-sae pointedly says he doesn’t qualify for a government pension.

Additionally, Moon-gwang indicates she’s been taking food to her husband and he’s been starving since she was fired, yet we see Geun-sae has the ability to enter the main house at will (in fact, he’s the “ghost” who traumatised Da-song several years before): why didn’t he simply do this (i.e., steal food from the pantry and refrigerator) when his wife failed to show up? In a clever bit of dialogue, Mr. Park earlier admitted Moon-gwang was a good housekeeper but she “ate enough for two people”--yet Moon-gwang indignantly tells Mrs. Kim she paid for her husband’s food out of her own salary. This changes the Moon-gwang/Geun-sae family dynamic: all the members of the Kim family contribute to their general welfare, Mr. Park is the (traditional, male) bread-winner in his family, but it’s Moon-gwang who supports her unemployed husband: he takes the dependent economic role of a child or a grown slacker offspring, living off his parent’s salary. Geun-sae is at once a pitiful and a weirdly creepy character, his long sojourn underground costing him his mental stability. He worships Mr. Park--who is (through the medium of Geun-sae’s wife) the "provider from up above," and his last word (to Park) is (in English) "Respect!" On repeat viewing, it appears Geun-sae deliberately attacked Ki-jung (after having already badly injured Ki-woo), since he then calls out "Chung-sook" (Mrs. Kim) and tries to stab her (but is defeated by the feisty Mrs. Kim, who runs him through with a sausage-laden sword).

Moon-gwang and Geun-sae wind up the losers in this three-way Korean Family Feud, killed by the Kim family; the Parks lose Mr. Park and possibly Da-song, while only Ki-jung of the Kims dies (although Ki-woo is badly beaten by Geun-sae, using the "scholar's stone" given him by Min). Why do the Kims "win"? Because, one might surmise, they're the family that is truly united--despite some occasional arguments, they stick together to the very end, whereas the Parks and Moon-gwang/Geun-sae are less cohesive, more dysfunctional, and have more "weak links" than the Kims--neither of the Park children is assertive and capable (a function of their age as well as their privileged upbringing--although Da-hye does step up to carry the injured Ki-woo to safety), and Moon-gwang and Geun-sae have no children (and Geun-sae is, as mentioned, somewhat emasculated by his living situation).

Parasite obviously deals with the issue of socio-economic class, viewed through a specifically Korean prism that outsiders are not privy to (What's the unemployment rate in Korea, etc.). However, equally important, the film seems to say, is family. The Parks aren’t obviously evil just because they’re rich, and their wealth doesn’t directly contribute to the misfortune that befalls them. Conversely, Moon-gwang loses her job and this removes the safety net she had been providing for herself and her unemployed husband: this is directly the fault of the Kim family. So, the underclass preys on itself, rather than uniting in solidarity?

I’ve now seen 4 Bong Joon-Ho films: The Host, Snowpiercer (I had some issues with the basic premise of this one), Okja, and Parasite. Parasite is the only one of these with no fantasy elements, which makes its themes somewhat more subtle, less didactic, and less overt. But the ideas are still there.

#parasite (2019)#parasite review #Joon-ho Bong #bong joon ho

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theliberaltony · 4 years ago

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via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

After Democrats’ great midterm election, the 2020 election could be a second consecutive Democratic wave. According to FiveThirtyEight’s forecasts, Joe Biden has an 84 in 100 chance of winning the presidential election, Democrats have a 68 in 100 chance of flipping the Senate and the party has a 94 in 100 chance of keeping the House.1 Altogether, there’s a 65 in 100 chance that Democrats will have full control of the federal government next year.

Democrats’ hopes — and Republicans’ fears — for another blue wave grew this week with the release of several polls that were among Biden’s best of the entire year. It’s hard to tell exactly why this is happening given all the news of the past couple weeks, but no matter how you slice it, it’s not good for President Trump. For instance, a national poll from CNN/SSRS gave Biden an eye-popping 16-point lead among likely voters. Monmouth University also gave Biden an 11-point lead in Pennsylvania in a high-turnout scenario and an 8-point lead in a low-turnout scenario. Quinnipiac University backed that up with its own Pennsylvania poll showing Biden up by 13 points, and added a Biden+11 Florida poll and a Biden+5 Iowa poll for good measure.

At the same time, some other high-quality pollsters produced more subdued results in a few key swing states, although they hardly qualify as good news for Trump. Siena College/New York Times Upshot put Biden at 45 percent and Trump at 44 percent in Ohio and gave Biden a 6-point edge in Nevada. And Marquette Law School, polling its home state of Wisconsin, returned a result of Biden 47 percent, Trump 42 percent. Those results in Ohio and Wisconsin are especially significant given Trump probably needs to win them in order to secure a second term.

What to make of all these polls? Throw them in an average, of course. And FiveThirtyEight’s polling averages do suggest that Biden is widening his lead, although the degree varies depending on which state you look at. (Nationally, though, Biden has gone from a 7.3-point polling edge two weeks ago to a 9.4-point lead today.)

Biden is gaining in a number of battleground states

How FiveThirtyEight’s polling average changed in the last two weeks, nationally and in key swing states

Polling Average on… State Sept. 23 Oct. 7 Change Florida D+1.6 D+4.6 D+3.0 New Hampshire D+6.9 D+9.8 D+2.9 Pennsylvania D+4.6 D+6.9 D+2.3 Georgia R+1.1 D+1.0 D+2.1 Iowa R+1.0 D+0.9 D+1.9 Ohio R+1.0 D+0.7 D+1.7 North Carolina D+1.2 D+2.3 D+1.1 Nevada D+5.8 D+6.6 D+0.8 Arizona D+3.8 D+4.4 D+0.6 Minnesota D+9.2 D+9.5 D+0.3 Michigan D+7.4 D+7.7 D+0.3 Wisconsin D+6.8 D+6.9 D+0.1 Texas R+0.7 R+1.5 R+0.8 National D+7.3 D+9.4 D+2.1

Source: Polls

The topline takeaway from this is that, spurred by the Quinnipiac polls, Biden’s lead has increased the most (from 1.6 points to 4.6 points) in Florida, which was previously one of the few bright spots on the map for Trump.

Biden has also further cemented his lead in Pennsylvania (where it went from 4.6 points to 6.9 points) and in swingy but oft-forgotten New Hampshire (thanks to several polls over the last couple weeks that have consistently given Biden an 8- to 12-point lead there).

However, several states haven’t seen the same kind of shift, including Michigan and Wisconsin, whose demographics are similar to Pennsylvania’s yet whose polling has not seemed to improve for Biden. However, the fact that Michigan and Wisconsin polling has stayed still while Pennsylvania’s has zagged toward Biden has brought its polling average more in line with those two states’ — right around Biden+7 or Biden+8. So the recent movement in Pennsylvania may just be correcting an anomaly from August and September when Pennsylvania polls were oddly weak for Biden.

In tandem with his polling bump, Biden’s odds of winning are up, too. Here is a graph of our national forecast over time:

And here’s how the race has changed in Pennsylvania, the likeliest tipping-point state in the Electoral College:

Before you overreact to these trends, though, remember that momentum doesn’t exist in general elections. This could be the beginning of Biden running away with the election … or it could be a temporary, post-debate sugar high for Biden. To take a high-profile, recent example, Hillary Clinton had an average 6.9-point national polling lead and an 88 in 100 chance to win the election on Oct. 17, 2016 — at the height of the anti-Trump backlash after the Access Hollywood tape — but fell back down to 3.9 points and a 71 in 100 chance by Election Day. Historically, trends are just as likely to revert to the mean as they are to continue.

That said, “reverting to the mean” this year might mean returning to the 7-point or so national lead that Biden held throughout September — and if he maintains that kind of lead on Election Day, he’ll be an overwhelming favorite to win the election, even with Trump’s Electoral College advantage.

In addition, because the pandemic has increased the popularity of mail voting, people are voting earlier than ever this year — at least 5.6 million votes have already been cast nationwide. So that throws yet another wrench into the equation: Even if there’s a sudden tightening in the last week or two before the election, it may not matter as much as it did in 2016 — a large chunk of votes will already have been banked at a time when Biden was flying high.

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #Nathaniel Rakich

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insanityclause · 5 years ago

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Zawe Ashton is sorry that she is tired. In her dressing room at Manhattan's Jacobs Theatre, at what would be the end of a working day for many, she still has to go over last night’s notes with her director Jamie Lloyd, and get into hair and make-up. Within hours, she will hit the stage for another sold-out night of her Broadway run in Betrayal, the Harold Pinter revival, which will make her a New Yorker until the end of the year.

“I feel like I'm going mad, but I think I'm really into New York. [When I speak], I can already hear my American upward inflections!” she giggles. The play, which also stars Charlie Cox and Tom Hiddleston, has come to New York after a sold-out turn in London in a year that has cemented 35-year-old Ashton's transition from emerging ingenue to bonafide leading lady. In person, she's warm, wickedly funny, and whip-smart — a combination that goes some way to explaining how she's built a career not just in front of the camera, but as a writer, director, playwright, too. Just don't call her an overnight success — it's been nearly 30 years in the making.

Ashton was born and raised in Hackney, a culturally diverse part of East London at the forefront of the city's gentrification. "Cut me open, and I do bleed Hackney," Ashton says. “I remember when cab drivers wouldn’t even go there but for me, there was just local people establishing community and establishing identity. It was multiculturalism, it was biracial, it was anarchy.”

She grew up the eldest child of an Ugandan mother and English father. She describes her younger self as a hyper child. “I just wanted constant stimulation.” Her mother, busy with three kids, enrolled Ashton in the Anna Scher Theatre, an affordable drama class, whose notable alumni ranges from Hollywood crossovers Daniel Kaluuya and Kathy Burke, to Eastenders favourites Sid Owen, Patsy Palmer, and Natalie Cassidy.

“I went in, and there were like three or four baskets on a tiny little stage. One said wigs, one said hats, one said costumes, and I thought to myself, 'I’m going to love this.'" Ashton went on to spend 14 years with the company. "Every Friday night and every Saturday afternoon for 14 years! I think back now, what a disciplined young person that I was. I think I’ve always needed something like that to keep me anchored.”

Small roles in Game On and The Demon Headmaster followed, along with appearances in British staples like The Bill, Casualty, and Holby City, but her success led to bullying at her north London school. “I was different from others at a time when you're supposed to just be blending into that wall,” she says. If there's one thing that's clear, it's that Ashton doesn't do blending in. "I never understood this thing of finding yourself or finding the truth — I couldn’t give a sh*t about the truth," she says.

Earlier this year, she released Character Breakdown, a book about her experiences as actor and the challenge of darting between make-believe and everyday life. "I've never bought into the idea that there is this one self," she says. "I started acting as a 6-year-old child, when my brain was still extremely fragile. I didn’t have hope in hell if I didn’t want to have fractured selves — that moment was over by the time I’d finished my first day on a film set."

Ashton's breakout role didn't come until years after that first day. In 2011, when she was 27, she debuted her role as the hilarious and sensational Vod in Channel 4's now cult classic, Fresh Meat. “When I got it, I had just done an independent movie called Dreams Of A Life,” she recalls. “That was a one-two punch. I had my independent film world covered and I suddenly had this cult TV world covered, and that was it. My head was above the parapet, and things have just been on the up since then."

Like many actors of her generation, she's only down with the "up" when it's about the work. "I’ve never been bothered about fame," she says. "Even when I was at Anna Scher Theatre, you were never allowed to use the words 'star' or 'fame,' they were like swear words. I want to be a successful actor, never a famous star. Because one is an organic meal that will sustain you, and the other is toxic.”

That does complicate things, because whether she's conscious of it or not, Ashton is a star. Her most recent work has seen her share the screen with Toni Collette in the BBC drama Wanderlust, about a therapist trying to save her fraught relationship with her husband, played by Steven Mackintosh. She also had a lead role in Netflix’s Velvet Buzzsaw, a quirky thriller set in the contemporary art world where she plays Josephina, the object of affection, alongside an idiosyncratic art critic called Morf, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. Her wattage is rising, and unsurprisingly, the designers have come calling. Erdem, Mulberry, Regina Pyo, and Roksanda Illincic all want to dress her, but as Ashton discloses, the style part doesn't always come naturally.

“People talk about ‘effortless style’ but effortless is so far away from any of my experiences of that sort of thing." She now works with stylist, art director, and brand consultant Steph Wilson for her big appearances. "She's not a celebrity stylist, which seems to be a very different breed of person," Ashton explains, "but my stylist is a big reason I am able to cope with events." Their first collaboration — a voluminous, tiered Stella McCartney gown that Ashton wore on the 2016 Olivier's Red Carpet — set the tone in their relationship. "We affectionately called [it] the lampshade dress," Ashton recalls. "It was a complete risk, and a risk that I'd been told again and again and again not to take. 'Don’t go there, you're not well known, you're not famous, unless you’re famous you shouldn’t wear things like this.' I just said, 'I want to dress like the artist I feel,' and that was that."

Ashton might sound assertive, but she swears she is only now coming into her own. “How long have we got to talk about women of colour and imposter syndrome,” Ashton asks, now in her hair and make-up prep. “It’s a real thing, and many people have it. It’s, I think, a particular characteristic of the overachiever. Because you're bottomless, you never think what you’ve achieved is enough. There are lots of little dots, as I approach my 30th year as an actor, that I'm sort of really looking to connect so I can move on to the next stage of my life.”

Part of that next stage is taking up more space. "When you work in film sets, when you’re working on projects that are male dominated, you are always treated as the last priority," she says carefully. "There have been times when, like in sex scenes or whatever, I’ve just been expected to get on with it. No conversation, no time wasting, you're just supposed to minimise your space, and let the money-making industry crack on because time is money." Not any more. "I'm going to call abuse when it’s abuse, and I'm going to call micro-aggression when it’s micro-aggression," she says of on-set behaviour she once might have let slide.

In October, in both Hackney and New York, she will stage For All The Women Who Thought They Were Mad, a play she wrote some 10 years ago when she part of the Royal Court Young Writers group. The play uses statistics to platform the cultural biases at work in medical institutions in Britain that are specifically stacked against women from the African diaspora. “Women being over medicated, unnecessarily being sectioned into their families, losing their jobs. It’s all really shocking, so I wanted to write something for all the women I’ve known [who] thought they were alone. It’s taken so long to get off the ground because it was considered an exposé by every theatrical institution in London, and [I'm] so glad we are doing it," she adds. "A lot of women for a long time have been told to find their voices, but I don’t agree. We have voices. We just need a platform. And we need the words."

One word Ashton is thinking about a lot these days is "motherhood." “I would like to have a baby,” she says slowly. "I’ve never said that before, but women never say it." Despite various rumours about her love life, she emphasises that the baby is a goal, not a current reality. "It's not in the works, and it's not being planned," she says. "There's absolutely not one single detail that I can mention, but the next thing on my agenda is building towards that stage, and I feel very proud of that."

Ashton is aware that the path in that direction will be unreasonably complicated. "The widespread shame of motherhood is criminal, and it needs to stop," she says. "The world can never improve if you disrespect the people that bring life." Still, Ashton is rolling up her sleeves. "I feel like this career has so many connections to my childhood desires, and now I want to figure out what my adult ones are.”

#risking linking this #make of this what you will though

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reel-em-in · 5 years ago

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Representing the Real - Introduction to Documentaries

General:

It is important to work within an ethical framework. Wether those ethics are the same for every documentarian or not is questionable, though you have to make decisions about what you feel is right.

documentary filmmaking has been described as “The creative treatment of actuality.”

Although documentaries are shown as being representative of what is real and of the truth, there is a paradox created through the use of editing. Between what is real, and the way a filmmaker represents that reality.

Key People / Times in Documentary Filmmaking

John Grierson

Pioneering Scottish film producer who also helped to set up the Canadian Film Board.

Received his funding from the government as well as private companies.

Saw documentary film as an educational tool for social reform

Had a focus on the working class

Worked on films between 1929 and 1968

Due to the equipment available (especially during his earlier work) sync sound often wasn’t able to be recorded. Especially if things were being filmed on location. This meant that voice over was often recorded later. This lead to the Voice of God style of voice over, omniscient to what is going on on-screen. And something that is still used to this day, though now it is through choice rather than necessity in most cases.

Grierson was part of the British Documentary Movement

Housing Problems (1935) - a social documentary that is often seen as the beginning of corporate films. The images illustrate the voice over, as well as using interviews to provide further context. This was one of the first times that interviews and sound were filmed on location.

Robert Flaherty

Moana (1926) was one of the early films described as having ‘documentary value’

Nanook of the North (1922) - was originally shot with different footage, though Flaherty didn’t like it / it got lost. This lead to it being re-shot with more of a narrative, following a character.

The main character in Nanook of the North wasn’t actually called Nanook, and his ‘family’ in the film were not his real family. Or even related. The whole film is basically a reconstruction, with some aspects of what was shown not even being accurate to life at the time (e.g. seal hunting with spears, which wasn’t really done during the 1920′s). Flaherty argued that he did this so that ways of life that were gradually being forgotten about could be documented. Because of this people often question wether Nanook of the North can be considered a documentary.

Dziga Vertov (AKA David Kaufmann)

Russian filmmaker post WW1

Saw the camera as omniscient and superior to the human eye.

Saw montage and editing as having major possibilities.

Vertov believed that narrative/Hollywood style cinema was a drug to pacify the masses, he wanted to use cinema to wake people up.

Vertov created Man With A Movie Camera (1929) in an attempt to create a universal language of cinema. It involves a lot of perspective tricks and double exposure (similar to ‘trick films’ of the time). In some ways it even looks like a thought process.

Dziga Vertov created a series of films titled ‘Kino Pravda’ or ‘Film Truth’.

His films look ahead to a future with a classless society, whilst acknowledging the inequalities of the time.

Vertov was largely forgotten about until 1960.

Early 1960s

The equipment filmmakers were able to use was improving quickly. With 16mm cameras being developed as well as fast film stock that allowed for shooting in lower light environments. Portable sound recorders were also now an option, allowing for sync sound on location.

A group of filmmakers (Robert Drew, D.A. Pennebaker & Chris Hegedus, Albert & David Maysles, & Charlotte Zwerin) created the manifesto of Direct Cinema.

Direct Cinema is a style of documentary making where they wanted to capture things directly. Leaving things up to interpretation (no voice over), using non-stable camera movements (handheld), constructing the narrative of the film in the edit, and working observationally.

An example of this is Highschool (1968, dir. Frederick Wiseman) the crew were filming in the school for weeks, with the aim being that the subjects would get so used to him that they would forget he was there. Within this type of film the characters and the narrative arcs they create are of great importance.

This style of documentary often used a very small crew, but they would be working for months in order for the subjects to get used to them, and act naturally around them.

Jean Rouch

French visual anthropologist.

Anthropology played a large role in the development of documentary film.

Jean Rouch began putting more thought into the question of ‘who is doing the observation, and who is being observed?’

This lead to the use of the Participatory method of documentary filmmaking.

Cinema Verité (”Cinema of Truth”) does not try to conceal the existence of the filmmaker (as Direct Cinema did), but rather allows the filmmaker to play an active part in the film. Acknowledging the subjectivity of the filmmaker.

This style of documentary is about creating encounters to uncover a hidden truth. A good example of this is in the work of Louis Theroux, and Nick Broomfield.

Bill Nichols’ Documentary Modes:

Poetic Mode - ‘Reassembling fragments of the world.’ This type of documentary moves away from the use of linear continuity and structure, and instead arranges its shots through their tones, associations and rhythm. They are a more subjective and abstract representation of reality. This is often associated with avant-garde filmmaking.

Expository Mode - Also referred to as ‘direct address’. This style of documentary uses a Voice of God narrative voiceover/ talking heads. Their aim is to educate their audience and explain their subject. They aim to objectively inform.

Observational Mode - Also referred to as ‘fly-on-the-wall’. Nothing is staged, though arguments can be made about how natural someone can be when a camera is present, despite how non-intrusive it is.

Participatory Mode - “[when] the encounter between filmmaker and subject is recorded and the filmmaker actively engages with the situation they are documenting.” These are often investigative films, where a question is asked or a controversial topic is explored and the filmmaker is showing the audience the filmmaking process. The filmmaker can become an integral character within the film. The filmmaker does not influence the subject but will attempt to subjectively engage with their subject despite their personal beliefs.

Reflexive Mode - The reflexive mode will provoke audiences to “question the authenticity of documentary in general”. Mocumentaries can sometimes fall under the reflexive mode due to their self-awareness.

Performative Mode - The direct opposite of Observational. They emphasise and encourage the filmmaker’s involvement with the subject. They tend to be more emotionally driven, with the filmmaker more passionately involved. Performative documentaries do not set out to reach a truth but show a perspective or ‘what is like to be there’.

Recommendations:

Films:

Drifters - John Grierson

Night Mail - Basil Wright & Harry Watt

Housing Problems - Edgar Anstey, & Arthur Elton

Moana - Robert Flaherty

Nanook of the North - Robert Flaherty

Man of Arran - Robert Flaherty

Man With A Movie Camera - Dziga Vertov

Highschool - Frederick Wiseman

Anything by Louis Theroux

Biggie & Tupac - Nick Broomfield

Gates of Heaven - Errol Morris

The Thin Blue Line - Errol Morris (Not to be mistaken for the TV series featuring Rowan Atkinson)

Salesman - Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin

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mostlysignssomeportents · 5 years ago

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#1yrago US tax shortfalls have our public schools begging for donations

Between Trump's massive tax-breaks for the super-rich and rules like California's disastrous Prop 13, our cities perennially cash-starved and have led to the erosion of the same public services that make cities attractive to businesses (for example, the subway, public education, roads, grid and other public services that made NYC so attractive to tax-dodging Amazon for its second headquarters).

After coasting on New Deal fumes for 40 years since Reagan began the American oligarchic regression, cities are reaching a breaking-point, and parents of kids in public schools have become accustomed to a near-constant stream of fundraising emails and flyers brought home from school. Not only can this funding never bridge the shortfalls from austerity, but it converts public schools into a kind of semi-private school where hidden user-fees -- in the form of "donations" -- aren't really optional.

Some teachers' unions have made corporate taxation a part of the debate over school cuts: the Saint Paul Federation of Teachers talks about the decline in taxation of Minnesota's largest corporations ("Thirty years ago, Bancorp, EcoLab, Travelers Insurance, 3M and Target were taxed at 13.6 percent. That rate has been cut to 9.8 percent. Wells Fargo paid $15 million less in 2014 than they paid in 1990, when the tax rate was 12 percent. In 2014, 10 corporations paid $31 million less than they did in earlier periods") and explicitly connects those tax giveaways to the budgetary shortfalls that harm the city's kids.

It's not enough that corporations give back some of that money in the form of charitable donations: those donations always come with strings attached, shaping curriculum and activities to the priorities of corporate benefactors, and the funding can be withdrawn any time our public schools do work that cuts against the corporate agenda.

I live in Burbank, a small city in Los Angeles County known for its excellent schools (including Walt Disney Elementary, the school Disney got started to lure his employees to his new Burbank studio, ensuring they'd have somewhere to send their kids, because good education is a required component of a good business environment).

Burbank is just one of many California cities that have been hit by lawsuits brought by anti-tax extremists who want to end the common practice of circumventing of Prop 13 by transferring money from city utilities to the general treasury (the litigants say that the utilities should be run on a break-even basis and that cities should just cut services). Last year, after a settlement kicked in, Burbank found itself with the vast majority of its budget unfunded, and, facing a closure of all but one of its fire stations, police stations and libraries, along with a halt to all roadworks, closure of all city parks, and similar cuts, it announced a new sales-tax to help stanch the bleeding.

The sales-tax is a terrible answer to a worse problem: a regressive tax that will drive shoppers out of Burbank and into neighboring North Hollywood to save money on their everyday purchases. What's more, it doesn't come close to filling the gap, and as a result, Burbank has a hiring and budget freeze across all its city services. For example, our year-round, outdoor public Olympic swimming pool is now closed half the time to save money on lifeguards, these being the only variable cost in the pool's operation (the heaters, filtration, maintenance, etc are fixed costs). So we have an extremely valuable, fully capitalized city asset that has high operating costs, but which no one can use so that we can minimize lifeguard hours.

But the schools are the most hard-hit. They'll have a $2.5 million shortfall this year, and thanks to the failure of a ballot measure, they will not receive money earmarked for "attracting and retaining teachers and staff; maintaining low class sizes in grades TK-3; expanding college and career courses; increasing mental health support; and expanding instruction in science, technology, engineering, arts, and math programs."

The city's schools are now soliciting donations to make up the difference (I gave the recommended $170; if you're a Burbanker who cares about our kids and schools, I hope you will too!), but that seems very, very unlikely.

Public education is a public good. It saves millions for local businesses, who would otherwise have to pay enough for their employees to pay for private schools. It improves equal access to the tools of social mobility and national competitiveness. Starving our schools is pure looter capitalism, a bet on a future in which most of us have no productive role to play in society, except as head-count and free forced labor in private prisons.

https://boingboing.net/2018/11/27/education-is-a-public-good.html

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americanroyalwatcher · 5 years ago

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Why we love Kate, not Meghan

I’ve been seeing the “If you love her (Catherine) you don’t need to hate her (Meghan)” meme going around on IG. I had to clear things up for myself and anybody this resonates once and for all. Let me first start off by saying my feelings for Meghan Markle are not of hate. I find her and Catherine beautiful in their own respective ways. I only abhor Meghan’s behavior, actions, total disrespect for the Royal Family hierarchy, trying to curry favor with the public through her PR attempts, and blatant sense of entitlement.

We are only typing words online making it difficult to decipher a tone of voice. Since there is none to be heard or facial expressions detected, you can take it much more worse, dramatic, and catty than it really is. I try to write as clearly as I can to convey my meanings as fast I can churn it out for everyone to read. I do it so my opinions are not misunderstood to be of jealousy, hating, bullying, or racism. I feel I have to restate this as I’ve gained many new followers and likely new spies or just plain curious folks. It would be truly wonderful to meet everyone I interact with online, follower, spy, or passersby. That human interaction is missing from this very anti-social media platform.

So, let me say I am none of those four things above. In fact, I was quite enthusiastic initially with Meghan Markle’s debut into the royal scene. She of course is a far cry from the typical posh British blondes Harry dated. It was refreshing and new. She was a Californian, ethnic, and American just like me, who came from a disjointed family. She was a breath of fresh air as a new addition, but that quickly turned into mush when that engagement interview revealed her domineering, controlling, and insincere personality with the camera. I took her saying she didn’t know THAT MUCH about Price Harry, not that she didn’t know him or the royal family. This is often restated incorrectly. Her statement during the interview came off as if Prince Harry’s royal-ness wasn’t a big deal to her. That they’re equally on the same plane and their names hold the same weight as far as that statement went. That initial interview showed her ego on display and the Vanity Fair magazine she interviewed for as a tell all after it was revealed she was Harry’s girlfriend. Shortly before that, in November 2016, she had Harry write a foolish statement asking the public to leave her alone after she made a false report of someone breaking into her Toronto home. Then she goes on to do that Vanity Fair magazine. The hypocrisy. Harry could never turn back after that. It was more binding than a wedding if you ask me.

Even her ex-best friend Ninaka Priddy told DailyMail, “I know the Royal Family was something she found fascinating. She had one of Princess Diana’s books [Diana: Her True Story] on her bookshelf, and even when she was with Trevor she told me she wanted to go and stay in London for at least a month. I can’t remember exactly when this was, but she was married to Trevor and starring in Suits. She mentioned about wanting to go to London a couple of times. I wasn’t shocked or even surprised to hear about Prince Harry. I know she used to love The Princess Diaries — films about a commoner who becomes part of a Royal Family. She was very taken with that idea.”

Meghan would relish the thought of living a real life Princess Diaries scenario. Everyone in her family circle knew she was infatuated with the idea of being a modern day princess with power. She admired Princess She-Ra. In her defunct Tig blog she wrote, “I, for one, was all about She-Ra, Princess of Power. And grown women seem to retain this childhood fantasy. Just look at the pomp and circumstance surrounding the royal wedding and endless conversation about Princess Kate.”

That was a huge red flag to me. Her best friend knew her since she was 11 and they were inseparable like sisters, like family. So, I take her words seriously as to who Meghan really was. She stopped talking to her after three seasons of Suits. Fame got to her head. She left her then husband Trevor, who helped her get on the show. She was out for a more “empowering” position in life. She used who and what she could to get where she is today. She downplayed her knowledge and awareness of the royal family big time and it really came back to bite her.

Meghan had her sights set on expanding her name and fame somehow someway since Suits was wrapping up with her supporting role being axed soon. Unhappily, her marriage to Trevor Engelson ended abruptly by her (mailing her rings back my mail), after almost 10 years of supposed true happiness finding The One. According to her ex-best friend she knew since she was 11 years old. She left him for Corey Vitiello, a highly celebrated chef in Toronto after her career took off some with Suits. Corey was also cooking for Prince Harry when Meghan first met the royal. He runs a chicken restaurant chain called Flock. Roast chicken, anyone? Yes, Meghan has commented time and time again her specialty is roast chicken. She picked up this talent likely from living in common law marriage with Corey in Toronto. That’s also what she was cooking when Prince Harry proposed? Gosh, what a coincidence. The Sun said, “The pair split in May 2016 - with the Telegraph reporting that Meghan was still with Cory when she first met Harry. The prince was in Canada to promote the Invictus games in May 2016. The chef refused to comment on the rumours that the Prince was part of the reason their relationship ended.” Hmmm, also a suspicious coincidence.

I don’t knock her for watching out for herself and trying to put her name out there. It’s a dog-eat-dog world in the acting industry. She was only successful in Toronto with Suits. Hollywood was the ultimate goal and dream. Her father Thomas Markle was a successful Emmy winning lighting director for Married with Children. She basically grew up on set and likely salivated at the fame and attention she would get being one. As a narcissist, this would feed her ego majorly. She was never going to be more famous than an extra in those random comedies or low-budget made for TV movies. She was pushing nearly 40. That’s the career death age of actresses in North America, maybe everywhere. She wasn’t a Meryl Streep or Viola Davis. She had to think fast. She did. Man, did she hit the jackpot with Harry. Apparently, their relationship wasn’t even revealed to Harry’s family until 6 months into it. All that time, Thomas Markle kept his mouth shut about it. He was loyal to his favorite daughter and paid for her expensive upscale schooling her entire life, even some in college. She ghosted him for making a foolish mistake with the media when he didn’t recieve an invite to the wedding. This time period was key to her sinking her claws in to Prince Harry’s vulnerability, weaknesses, broken and damaged self. She does want to be another Diana, but all she is now is a mother-wife to Harry. As her ghosted former best friend said, she is very calculated.

Using others as a stepping stone or tool to get where you want is extremely cold-hearted, but that was her MO. There is a reason a trail of ghosted, dejected lovers, family and friends have come out of the woodwork since Harry said his family was the one she never had. HAH. Cry me a river. Samantha only came out when that was openly said. What a stupid, hurtful, foolish statement Harry. This was during the Christmas Service at Sandringham she attended when they were only engaged. That’s unheard of. Even Catherine Middleton, wife of the heir didn’t even get invited to any outings until they were officially married. I commend Prince William for his caution as he had much more to lose than Harry with his choice of a wife.

Prince William was extremely worried about the tabloids and press doing what they did to his beloved mother to Kate. They chased Kate around and staked out their cameras at her flat. They followed her to work. They shoved cameras in her face getting in and out of cars. She was very chill about it. Alarmed, but civil. It was chaos. She was a BIG DEAL. She was marrying the heir to the British monarchy. Prince William was a dreamboat. Many of us were very fascinated by who his choice was. When they married, there were years and years of ridicule with comments about her “Waity Katey” nickname. He made sure she has as much time living a normal private life before becoming a royal. She needed to withstand the public scrutiny as his on and off again girlfriend first. It wasn’t a matter of him getting coldfeet. He was protecting her. They were college friends first then fell in love over the course of 6 years or so. They had a solid foundation.

She even had a few incidents where her skirt flew up too high revealing too much as well as her chest. It’s all trivial superficial things, I know, but it matters as a royal. We do the same with Meghan. It’s the optics that need to be taken into consideration. I’m fine with critiquing dress style, as there’s a certain decorum needed in a royal family. She, Kate, needed to dress more prudently to avoid mishaps. There were several in her first few years. She has improved beautifully and has her style down to science. Kate had many of the criticisms Meghan shares as far as entering in the royal family goes being a commoner having to do with dress code and keeping her mannerisms appropriate at events. There are many comments on old articles saying how Kate was smiling way too much at this same event years ago. How her hair was too long. She needed to stop twirling it and have some respect for her role and the dignity of the event. It was the Remembrance Day Sunday event at Whitehall in 2013. The two years before that, she garnered the same scathing reactions from the public.

Kate has really come into her own despite the awful criticisms and judgement on her class. She has bore the years and years of cruel digs to her with great decorum and stride. She has NEVER COMPLAINED. She has come in to her own identity as a mother, wife, future queen consort, charity patron, and most importantly a genuine person with the public. I quote The Sun highlighting past labels calling her a "work-shy social climber, the lucky girl whose sole job in life was to sit around looking pretty until William proposed." That's all turned into something solid and magical.

She has an ease with others that makes them comfortable in her presence you don't expect from such a senior royal. She has bloomed. We love her for that and how she lets Prince William shine by supporting his role as heir through their duties and appearances together. She also shines equally if not more than Prince William. Her children are absolutely gorgeous and a delight. We have all come to adore her because she has earned it. Yes, with the public you have to earn our love.

With Meghan, it seemed as if they were marrying then having a baby at warp speed before Harry decided to change his mind without knowing her family and past. They weren’t allowing the public to let us see Meghan in a positive gradual light, but a social climbing one with all her past history written online for all to see; also through the testimony of friends, families, her attention-seeking Instagram posts, colleagues etc. She hadn’t proved herself worthy yet to the public like Kate. It was hitting the ground running to be her own brand and name through Harry’s family.

On a superficial level, Kate and Meghan are not fashionistas or supermodels. But they are always photographed with what brands they’re wearing for all to see. That’s the fun part of watching all royal women, their outfits and accessories. But with Meghan it goes PAST and BEYOND outfits and style. It’s an entire plethora of reasons. She’s a whole different “beast” as she likened her unfair treatment in that Africa interview. All that have nothing to do with her ethnicity. The criticisms we non-Markle fans share with her are as followed:

• ghosting those friends and family members she used to put a notch on her belt

• using Princess Diana’s name to beautify her tainted image

• using Harry and his weaknesses to crawl her way into the royal family

• portraying such an affected manner in which she speaks, interactions with others, and overall pretending to be royal instead of being herself

• wearing inappropriate revealing attire to events, not adhering to dress code

• being rude and demanding to royal staff and even film and restaurant workers before marrying Harry

• constantly stepping in front of Harry as if he was the non-royal at events, inserting herself in conversations and trying to be the center of attention, a know-it-all

• making herself out to be a self made millionaire when she was more like a thousand-aire after Suits owning no real estate, cars or possessions to note beside an expensive heel collection

• taking credit for things that she did not do entirely on her own but passing it off that she did

• upsetting Duchess of Cambridge who she should have allied with for assimilation

• planting her PR stories to try and break up the image and marriage that the Cambridges have naturally built

• constantly trying to one-up the Cambridges while they go about their duties, her seething envy is quite evident by trying to take the light away from their causes

• inconsistent stories of how she and Harry met, supposedly it's Misha Nonoo, but who knows

• implying she was pregnant, all but announcing it with that navy blue coat halfway open at Princess Eugenie's wedding

• overly flicking her coat open constantly and prancing around with her hand on her ever changing bump (whether real or not we will never know)

• embellishing her character by feeding us accolades of herself every chance she gets, especially on Sussex Royal

• rarely ever using the titles of more important senior royals, but overusing her HRH on herself

• having famous Hollywood friends constantly speak for her and how amazing she is, many whom she had NEVER met prior to marrying Harry, but invited to the wedding anyway; leaving out her own family members (especially her loving father who made a foolish mistake) on both sides who did nothing to warrant such cold-heartedness

• preaching about carbon footprints, only having two children, and saving the environment all the while jetting around in private jets around the world sparing no expense

• portraying this image of a humanitarian when she herself is seen constantly in astronomically priced bespoke, couture, and designer clothes and accessories that taxpayers find (well over a million now dollars as the 6th in line’s wide); paid or not by designers to advertise for them

According to The Star, “It’s a figure so staggering it’s worth revisiting. According to estimates — based on totalling up the approximated or stated retail values of everything she’s been seen wearing since November 2017 — the number is hovering around the $1.5 million mark. On her and Harry’s official visit to Ireland this spring, for instance, Markle wore over $52,000 worth of fashion in just two days.”

They also stated “The majority of Markle’s expenditure this year went toward her two wedding dresses: That Givenchy ceremony dress is thought to have cost around $330,000 and her Stella McCartney dress (or the capsule collection’s 46 replicas released after the wedding, at least) sold for $5,800. That’s a bargain compared to the $93,000 she spent on the Ralph & Russo frock she wore for some of her engagement shoot. Add in a $6,500 Oscar de la Renta dress to a wedding here, a $5,000 bespoke Carolina Herrera frock to a Trooping the Colour there, and well, you get to that million mark pretty quickly.”

• then there’s the vacant Forgmore Cottage that wasted taxpayers money if $3 million to renovate; apparently they don’t even live there as she’s in SoHo accommodations and he in his Nottingham Cottage

• playing media games with the facts and dates surrounding the birth of Archie and never allowing him to be photographed until it was on African soil for a docu-drama

• pleading for privacy over and over then showing up unannounced at events uninvited,

• filming a tone-deaf tactless documentary in Africa, revealing how she felt she's didn't have a fair shake in the royal family, the absolute nerve of she and Harry

• suing the press for racism and hate stories when she herself courts the press daily (she did pap walks in London right before it was announced she was Harry's girlfriend), when she has herself and Harry to thank for all the negative press as there's not one story pointing out criticism of her ethnic background

• lastly, there are the extreme fans called the “sugars” who go around defending MM every chance they get in a rageful manner like packs of rabid dogs if we comment on how we don’t like her style of dress or try to reason with a differing opinion to theirs on a certain news story

Have I missed anything? Likely so. I’m still new to this whole Markle debacle so excuse my errors and typos. The soap opera does go on and there are so many details and shady ways Meghan has portrayed herself past and present. From what I’ve seen, heard, and read from her own mouth and those who knew her well, “she’s a witch” as Candace Owens put it bluntly. I truly wanted to give the benefit of the doubt to her when she kept shooting herself in the foot.

She is NOT where Kate was when she married Prince William either. Kate was 29, unmarried and very close to her family with no previous marriages. Today, her family appear to be her rock solid support outside of Prince William. She assimilated well with the other royals who she now calls family. She listened to counsel, respected the centuries of tradition the monarchy had always followed. She won our hearts. Through and through, she can credit her great inner strength she possessed to overcome the constant ridicule to become the well loved future queen consort of Britain. That is no easy feat.

Meghan was 37 and many times divorced (one annulled with Joe Giuliano, an attorney she married after college), so maybe three if you count the common law marriage with Cory in Canada. Trevor was her first official one. So Harry may be her 4th! She had lived many lives before with connections to SoHo, being a yacht girl, then there are her ties to the wretches Jeffery Epstein, Hillary Clinton, Weinstein and their global agenda machine I would have to write a dissertation on to explain.

She appeared to have used her first official husband Trevor, a successful producer in his own right (she got a cameo in his film Remember Me with Robert Pattinson) to get her role on Suits as he’s done excellent for himself in the film industry as a producer. Meghan was somewhat popular in Toronto from the supporting role. She was being phased out soon after her relationship with Corey started as well. She needed a plan, along came Prince Harry one fine clucking night. Then, she set her sights on getting setup with him by Markus Anderson or Misha Nonoo; who knows with all these conflicting stories.

I said good for her at the start. At first it was incredible to see an ordinary girl from LA had married into such a high profile family, to a real titled Prince, no less! It was inspiring and fun to fantasize. Nevertheless, Meghan’s actions listed above, the various first-hand testimonies of people who were family and friends pre-Harry, her hellbent PR attempts to heighten her name, her lack of honesty, her contrived behavior pretending to be a coy ingenue, the scary desire to be Princess Diana by hunting Harry like a sport, and all the stories coming out about how she was searching for a famous British man to elevate her profile, and likely so much more to come, are why we are here with these accounts today.

Hate is such a blanket word overused nowadays in the media. But she has earned that word all on her own. We’re here to disprove and retort the stories churned out daily by her team Sunshine Sachs that continue to deceive the public. Everything is out there to see. Her character is out there to decipher online. You just have to stop reading the fluff and self-promotion and find her true nature pre-Harry to see her scheming social climbing insincere self-serving ways. So, please don’t make us out to be hating, racist, jealous, bullies because we don’t love her like we do Kate. Move past that because we’re tired of hearing it. There’s no other argument anymore for her sugars it seems. Excuse me for not buying Meghan’s pseudo feminism and humanitarian image. She is far from that of a humanitarian. Everything is written on the wall for her. She only has herself to thank for it.

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magog-on-the-march · 5 years ago

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The idea of exploiting workers in order to tell a story condemning the exploitation of workers is grimly ironic to put it mildly, so when we sit down at E3 to speak with Lanning and Oddworld executive producer Bennie Terry III, we ask what crunch was like for Oddworld on Abe's Oddysee, and if it's improved since.

"No one wants to say, 'This product was done by people who worked 9-to-5, and they all had great healthcare, weekends off, three weeks of vacation, and everyone had that. Here you go.' If it's not great, everyone goes, 'Who cares? Why didn't they lose some fucking sleep to get it done and get it better?'

"The audience is absolutely ruthless, and we should never suspect for a second that they're not. They're absolutely ruthless. They don't care how many people died making the product. [laughing] I mean literally. They don't care. We're ruthless with how we spend our money. We live in a culture that's based on 'Wal Mart's cheaper. Let's go there for our stuff. Amazon Prime delivers without shipping costs. Let's go there.' And that shapes our world. At the end of the day, it's about the quality of what's on screen."

(Full article under the cut for posterity)

The Irony of Oddworld

Lorne Lanning on crunching to make games about the exploitation of workers

Brendan Sinclair | North American Editor | Thursday 25th July 2019

gamesindustry.biz

The 1997 PlayStation-exclusive Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee is very clearly concerned about the exploitation of workers. It centers on the Mudokons, a race that has been enslaved and forced to work in factories by a ruthless company willing to literally putting them through the grinder in an attempt to boost profits.

Clearly, creative director Lorne Lanning has some opinions about capitalism, and he's not exactly shy about it.

But Lanning is also the co-founder of the company behind the game, Oddworld Inhabitants. He was the boss of a company making a video game for profit, in an era where crunch and overwork were pervasive, when the subjects were talked about as virtues in the press on the rare occasions they were mentioned at all.

"It was always terrible," Lanning admits. "And it's still terrible. It's not a burden we try to put on every individual, but for Bennie and I, it's just terrible. And different people at different times rise to the occasion."

He says the idea of a 9-to-5 job in game development is increasingly possible, particularly for "huge companies that have mega-IPs that are doing billions and billions of dollars." Even so, he adds it doesn't seem to be a very common situation for developers.

"I mean, we're past EA Spouse," he says, referring to a 2004 LiveJournal post from the wife of an EA employee detailing numerous issues with the company's treatment of workers. "We're past that, where everyone realized they were basically being exploited for the extreme gain of a select few of the executive class. That's still going on in different places in the world."

Ultimately, Lanning says the problem of crunch in games stems from its nature as an entertainment business.

"I tell this to people we work with all the time, particularly young people," Lanning says. "You have to realize something: we are a luxury class. We're not doing anything important. The important people are picking up your garbage, fixing your medical problems, growing your food, supplying electricity. Those are the important people in civilization; they actually provide a benefit. We're just entertaining people. It's complete luxury; they don't need us."

On top of that, Lanning says entertainment media are in a difficult position because the audience is concerned only with the end product, not the methods of its production.

He likens it to athletes who want to win Olympic gold. They're expected to sacrifice to achieve that goal, from strict diet and exercise regimens to not having a dating life.

"In entertainment, if you want real stability -- and this is where I feel I'm just being honest and not necessarily saying what's politically correct -- if you want to make entertainment that stands out, show me where you can do that where people don't put everything in to get there," Lanning says. "The only ones that are able to do that are the ones who have reached the bar where they now have perfection."

He points to Pixar as an example, saying the animation studio has never had a film that wasn't a hit (although he adds some were bigger than others).

"In the beginning, if you watch [Pixar executive] John Lasseter's videos, he [points to a corner of the room and says], 'And that's my sleeping bag. And that's where I sleep to get these projects done. And if you want to be a great animator, that's what you're going to do too.' That's the legacy of entertainment."

He adds, "I don't believe there's anyone you could talk to who built anything in this business who didn't really persevere night and day to get it done. I've been doing that my entire career. I've had health issues because of it. I wish it weren't that way, but it kind of is."

Lanning asks if we've seen Bohemian Rhapsody. When we say no, he asks if we have a problem with Queen, the band the film was about. We love Queen, we say, but weren't interested in a film that played so fast and loose with the facts.

"Maybe, but see, this is Hollywood," Lanning says. "We're not trying to replicate what was actually true, we're just trying to make something that's inspiring, that you felt was a moving experience."

He then talked about an inspirational scene of the band working through the night to create the song Bohemian Rhapsody.

"Usually with great art, that's what it takes," Lanning says. "I think it was Martha Graham, the founder of modern dance, who said the dilemma of being an artist is living with the dissatisfaction of feeling like nothing is ever complete, done, or as good as it could be. And I think that goes for designers, for directors, for people that are really craftsmen in an artistic sense. The ambitious team is usually going to beat the unambitious team unless you're so fat, like some of the biggest media companies are so fat they can fail and still succeed because they just keep throwing money and bodies at the project."

Given that Abe's Oddysee and the upcoming Oddworld: Soulstorm are about the player character's attempts to organize an exploited labor force to gain power against their oppressors, we finish the interview by asking Lanning about his stance on unions.

"It's kind of like my stance on the death penalty," Lanning says. "Philosophically, I'm fine with the death penalty. I think lots of people deserve not to be here with the rest of us. Practically, I'm concerned about who has that power. If we have such a thing, is it going to be abused and are we just going to shut up political dissidents and stuff like that? Unions are kind of similar.

"My stepfather was a teamster. I saw a lot of things and heard a lot of stories about unions through there. Part of the problems with unions is that they start to encapsulate power and use that in a different way that becomes counterproductive, possibly sometimes, to the industry they're trying to unionize. If we lived in a really healthy, honest world where everyone was fair, we wouldn't need them. But because it's not a fair world, sometimes we do. What would happen to this industry is it would put out most of the small people, but the big ones would survive just fine."

#Oddworld #Lorne Lanning #GamesIndustry #interview

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