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kat-hawke · 5 years ago

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Ak iiqaath yahf zz magg qov

(Following [Fssh qam h'iwn])

Attention remained focused on the chuck of the obelisk in her hand as she approached the entry door of her home. The thumb running over the faint red glow of the sigil as it hummed with a sinister power. A hum which was not audible but more physical, thrumming across her body rather than the ears, sending a constant chill across the shoulders. The scripture that was carved upon her flesh, hidden by constant glamour, matching the sigil. Unaware of the effect the obsidian stone was causing, slowly, with each passing hour.

Odell’s protest to the presence of the relic was noted with a pointed glance, a silent exchange between her and the giant fox before he retreated to the treeline. A faint chuff as eyes rolled and the stone was palmed, the door pushed open as her focus returned to the object in hand. She couldn’t help but feel as if it was staring back at her, even if no whispers crept into the mind the feeling was difficult to shake.

As the door shut behind her she cast her gaze across the room in a quick sweep, nearly missing the teal glow upon the dagger above the mantel as she hastily returned her focus to the obsidian. Taking a second to register her eyes went wide, nearly lunging across the room as the chunk of stone and dark tome were haphazardly discarded upon the table in passing.

Snatching the weapon from the stand it was set upon her eyes bored into the illuminated engravings. Relief, grief, and panic crashed together in a torrent of emotions, unsure of what to expect but she couldn’t help the hurried voice that escaped her.

“Alyssa?!”

“Kat.” Tired and relieved the warlocks voice came clear as day.

The welcomed familiarity of hearing the voice collided with the guilt which was churning up again. Her jaw slack with a shuttered breath, the eyes stinging as water threatened to build up along the lower lids.

"I'm so sorry... I thought you were dead. I— There was no sign of you, everything was engulfed in an inferno— It's been days and—" Kat's speech was rapid as thoughts shifted erratically, in the physical world the dagger was clutched in both hands as she sank into the couch. "I thought I lost you..."

There was a brief pause as the warlock did not reply immediately, processing the new information.

"Days? I had no idea, where are we, I thought you might've died in the Vale... I fucked up, I channeled the Light, I was trying to protect your soul and it all went bad. I'm sorry."

"Nearly a week. We're at home. I nearly died, but... " Trailing off as the memory pieced together, the assumption that Alyssa had interfered in Vale now confirmed.

"That nearly killed me, what you did, but in the end it saved me from making a terrible mistake. I was the one who fucked up, I should have listened to you but I didn't. I didn't think about what could happen when I forced all that energy back over the dagger, I just did it to survive and— I thought I killed you. The dagger was dormant and the guilt—"

Kat’s voice to cracked as tears began to fall across the cheeks, lips curling inward as she bit down to stop them from trembling. The feeling of guilt rushing back in her admittance.

"I missed you."

"It's alright, we both fucked up. Never been great at listening to each other." Alyssa gave a short and quiet dry laugh before she continued. "I don't think what happened was your fault, you're right, I'm too far gone. Trying to call the Light nearly killed me, it destroyed everything... I thought you were gone. Waking up alone was terrifying. I'm glad you're still here."

Kat had expected some form of blame to come, to be chastised in some way for her reckless behavior and impetuous use of magic. Yet when Alyssa seemed so willing to forgive and share the blame it made her stomach sink and the tears rolled faster.

"It's not alright!" Her exclamation slipped in the emotional wreckage. “You don't understand what it was like to see the dagger just go dark like that! I can't— You're not just some expendable force or tool like the others, I don't think my heart could take that again. I can't—"

Catching herself that time Kat cut her thought short, stewing in the emotional maelstrom instead.

"I'm here," the warlock’s tone carrying both a sense of reassurance and worry. "Whatever happened, I'm here. We are in this together, we're still a team. You won't lose me. We take these risks together. I don't want to wake up alone again. I hate not being able to tell what's happening outside. I don't know if you're dead, or you just set me down."

While Alyssa’s words were meant to reassure they did little to stop the growing confliction in her thoughts. Unable to stop the trembling of the jaw now as legs curled in against the chest, nestling into the corner of the couch. Eyes slammed shut but failed to stop the advancing tears, the pommel of the dagger pressed against the forehead.

The silence lingered for a long minute before Alyssa finally broke it.

"We need a better link. A way to contact each other when you aren't touching the dagger."

"I... I don't know if that's even possible." A half truth. Kat knew ways, but none that applied to their situation.

"I don't either, think on it.” The reply hung in another long silence, one that was again broken by the warlock in a hesitant voice. "Hey...Kat?"

"Yeah?"

"Bad at saying what I mean sometimes...this scare was a lot. Maybe it's the wrong time but I can't leave stuff unsaid again. I love you." Alyssa let those words hang a few moments, shifting to trying lighting the heavy moment, "so don't go dying on me. I need you."

Those three damning words caused a lump to catch in the throat as Kat found it suddenly hard to breathe. The timing was certainly wrong but there was doubt it would ever be right. Emotions tore again, splitting her mind in two as the seconds ticked away and the silence grew longer. Searching for words she struggled to come up with Kat capitalized on the easier out.

"Of course you need me, you can't get around any other way."

Alyssa laughs quietly sounding more at ease. "You know that's not what I meant dumb ass. Even without the dagger, it'd be the same."

"Yeah, well. I—” She couldn’t do it. “I need you too. So don't going burning yourself out on me. Again."

"I don't think it will happen again."

"Good."

Another pause between them, a common occurrence in their back and forths. With a deep breath she let the dagger rest in her lap, one hand wiping away the tears that refused to fall.

"What happened? You're darker."

Alyssa’s query made her freeze like a statue. The torrent of emotions quickly replaced with fear, realizing the woman was speaking of her soul. Her gaze slowly shifted back to the table behind her, settling on the stolen tome and glowing chunk of obsidian. She presented a vague answer as always.

"Well I had to carry on myself... Needed more power."

Silence filled their telepathic connection again. A few more pointed and probing inquiries were met with simple and dodging answers before the pair fell into the common stalemate. The subject dropped, the dagger sheathed on the thigh, and both relieved at the simple connection which had been restored.

[ @alyssa-ward ]

(Chapter I: Dark Secrets) (Chapter II: Descent) ( [pt.I] [pt.II] [pt.III] )

#ic #plotlines #Ascension #pt.IV #Aly Kat

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chicagocityofclans · 4 years ago

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Gretchen Sims → Hayley Law → Hyena

→ Basic Information

Age: 64

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Pansexual

Born or Made: Made

Birthday: April 21st

Zodiac Sign: Taurus

Religion: Buddhist

→ Her Personality

(one to two paragraphs)

→ Her Personal Facts

Occupation: Firefighter Paramedic and Acting Liaison

Scars: None

Tattoos: Small line art tattoos around her body

Two Likes: People staying out with her the whole night and Midnight meals

Two Dislikes: Staying at home and People who are rude to be funny

Two Fears: Suffocation and Accidentally killing someone

Two Hobbies: Dancing and Astrology

Three Positive Traits: Inviting, Sociable, Kind Hearted

Three Negative Traits: Pacifist, Complacent, Impetuous

→ Her Connections

Parent Names:

Helen Sims (Mother): Gretchen hadn’t seen her mother for 2 years before she was changed. She had told her she was wasting her life and to get out of her house. She doesn’t like to think about her mother.

B.L. Sims (Father): Her father was killed in the Vietnam War when she was 2 years old. She remembers nothing of him.

Sibling Names:

Elmer Sims (Brother): Elmer was 10 years older than Gretchen. He went on to become an engineer and astronaut when he was older.

Louisa Sims (Sister): Louisa was 4 years older than Gretchen. She isn’t sure what happened to her.

Children Names:

None

Romantic Connections:

Benjamin ‘Ben’ Nile (Good Friend with Benefits): Ben is one of the few people that can genuinely keep up with Gretchen in both activity and friendliness. They always have a good time and have been sleeping with one another for a while. She respects his relationships and there’s never any bad blood when they have to take a break. He’s very good at keeping her grounded to the moment, and is a great person to go home with at the end of the night. While they do have good chemistry in bed, she can’t see him as anything other than a good friend. She knows he wants to settle down with someone eventually, and is happy to keep him company until that happens.

Luke Bowick (Best Friend with Benefits): Gretchen feels as though she just gets Luke. They met and quickly fell into pace with one another. He shares the same distinct loneliness as her and is the person she feels most comfortable with. When she has a bad day, she’ll generally go to Luke to try and wipe it away. They’ve been roommates for decades and she doesn’t see that changing any time soon.

Platonic Connections:

Silas Moebius (Roommate/Friend): Silas is cute, and the first new semi-permanent roommate they’ve had for a while. Gretchen thinks it’s sweet that Ben has decided to take on helping the new guy, like Luke did for him. She’s not a huge fan of the odd smelling vegetables that have seemingly taken over their kitchen, along with the jugs of kombucha that smell rank, but she’s glad he’s finding his feet.

Kylo ‘Nada’ Rajui (Good Friend): Nada was the first one to sit her down and explain what happened to her. She’s always felt relaxed around him and believes he has some of the best knowledge on hyenas. After Venus died, Nada told her that she should take over and accept being the leader they needed at that moment. It’s the first time she has truly thought about it, and is scared and excited about the possibilities it could bring. Nada has never let her down before and she doesn’t think he’s trying to this time either.

Russel Jordan (Friend): Gretchen has known Russel as long as Nada. He’s got some questionable opinions, but he’s always been good to both Ben and Luke. She respects his place as her boss and 3rd, but doesn’t welcome his advice like she does from Nada.

Odell Rella (Old Friend): Gretchen met Odell before he left for college. He was the wild young jackal with a fake ID at nearly every event Gretchen attended. They kept in contact while Odell was away and even attended a few college parties Odell invited Gretchen and Luke to. Odell has been back for a while and their friendship is stronger than ever. She thinks Zelda is perfect for him.

Zelda Harris (Good Friend): She’s known Zelda for a while. Zelda’s 21st birthday coincided with a welcome wagon bar crawl, and Gretchen immediately dragged her along with them. Gretchen respects the fact that Zelda is doing her own thing regardless of what her mother or sister says.

Seth Allen (New Friend): She got a good vibe from Seth immediately when Zelda introduced him and was inspired to put together an honorary bar crawl. He held his own amongst the best of them, and even got Odell to loosen up more than usual.

Matthew William-Jones (New Friend): Matthew does not seem to know where his life is going, but that’s ok. He is refreshingly unattached from the Wolf stereotype and has even crashed with them a few times.

Rebecka Blake (Yoga Friend): Rebecka has a captivating kind of personality that is easy to click with. It fills up a room and brings the rest of the people to that same energy level. She’s invited her out a few times, but they haven’t truly hit the party scene yet.

Lawrence Cocci (Party Friend): Lawrence has been in a part of Gretchen’s party life for decades, thanks to his close friendship with Luke. Their friendship worries her sometimes, knowing that Lawrence is immortal and can possibly get away with things while Luke would have to face the consequences; including death.

Belle Cunningham (Party Friend): Belle is always an easy person to talk to and has a welcoming attitude. Gretchen has introduced Belle to a lot of natural healing like yoga. They often get together for Ben’s concerts and to generally hangout.

Hostile Connections:

None - Gretchen is a fun loving person who is willing to keep it moving once she notices someone doesn’t share her vibe. If there's someone out there that considers Gretchen a hostile connection it is most certainly one-sided.

Pets:

None

→ History (paragraph(s) on background) → The Present (paragraph(s) on how the character connects to the plot)

→ Available Gif Hunts (we do not own these)

Hayley Law (Gretchen Sims) [1][2][3]

#Gretchen Sims #Hayley Law #Taken

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chicagocityfclanspromoblog · 4 years ago

Photo

Gretchen Sims → Hayley Law → Hyena

→ Basic Information

Age: 64

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Pansexual

Born or Made: Made

Birthday: April 21st

Zodiac Sign: Taurus

Religion: Buddhist

→ Her Personality

(one to two paragraphs)

→ Her Personal Facts

Occupation: Firefighter Paramedic and Acting Liaison

Scars: None

Tattoos: Small line art tattoos around her body

Two Likes: People staying out with her the whole night and Midnight meals

Two Dislikes: Staying at home and People who are rude to be funny

Two Fears: Suffocation and Accidentally killing someone

Two Hobbies: Dancing and Astrology

Three Positive Traits: Inviting, Sociable, Kind Hearted

Three Negative Traits: Pacifist, Complacent, Impetuous

→ Her Connections

Parent Names:

B.L. Sims (Father): Her father was killed in the Vietnam War when she was 2 years old. She remembers nothing of him.

Sibling Names:

Elmer Sims (Brother): Elmer was 10 years older than Gretchen. He went on to become an engineer and astronaut when he was older.

Louisa Sims (Sister): Louisa was 4 years older than Gretchen. She isn’t sure what happened to her.

Children Names:

None

Romantic Connections:

Platonic Connections:

Hostile Connections:

None - Gretchen is a fun loving person who is willing to keep it moving once she notices someone doesn’t share her vibe. If there’s someone out there that considers Gretchen a hostile connection it is most certainly one-sided.

Pets:

None

→ History (paragraph(s) on background) → The Present (paragraph(s) on how the character connects to the plot)

→ Available Gif Hunts (we do not own these)

Hayley Law (Gretchen Sims) [1][2][3]

#hayley law #Magic RPG #Animal Shifter RP #fantasy rp #new rp

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iridescenceartandwriting · 1 year ago

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“I’m up. Sorry Barne, didn’t mean to wake you.”

Poor boy has a nightmare, the house sprite is concerned.

Speaking of opening, let’s have a line share session! What is the first line of dialogue from your main character? Share it here!

#writing prompt #writeblr #original character #oc #odell #odell impetus #ieesea

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nataandreev · 5 years ago

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Fragments from “How to Do Nothing” by Jenny Odell

Resisting the Attention Economy - Chapter 2 : The Impossibility of Retreat -

The festival, which started as an illegal bonfire on Baker Beach in SF in 1986 before moving to Black Rock Dessert, has become an attraction for the libertarian tech elite, something Sophie Morris sums up nicely in the title of her piece on the festival: ”Burning Man: From far-out freak-fest to corporate schmoozing event.”

In other words, digital distraction was a bane not because it made people less productive but because it took them away from the one life they had to live.

[...] what the school of Epicurus taught was that man actually needed very little to be happy, as long as he had recourse to reason and the ability to limit his desires.

After all, mortgages had to be paid, children had to be raised, and most communes couldn’t grow all of their own food. Even if they were far from the city, they were still in America. To manage, many members had to continue working regular jobs and some communes relied on welfare.

Much as the wanted to break with capitalistic society, those who escaped from it sometimes carried its influences within themselves, like ineradicable contagious.

The rural setting sometimes created “a natural impetus to revert to traditional roles: Women stay inside, cook, and look after children, while men plow, chop, and build roads.”

Clearly the students of The Garden felt deep responsibility to one another, but responsibility to everyone else was left out of the question. They had forsaken the world.

But the problems he lists are decidedly scientific: ”exhaustion or resources, the pollution of the environment, over-population, and the possibility of nuclear holocaust”-he mentions neither the Vietnam War nor the ongoing struggles over racial equality. Even in 1976, the remaining question for Skinner was not how the power could be redistributed, or injustice redressed, but how a technical problem might solved with the very same methods as the Skinner box: “How were people to be induced to use new forms of energy, to eat grain rather than meat, and to limit the size of their families; and how were atomic stockpiles to be kept out of the hands of desperate leaders?”

Preemptively calling it a “peaceful project” avoids the fact that regardless of how high-tech your society might be, “peace” is and endless negotiation among free-acting agents whose wills cannot be engineered. Politics necessarily exist between even two individuals with free will; any attempt to reduce politics to design is also an attempt to reduce people to machines or mechanical beings.

No going back to work on Monday for them. In any narrative of escape, this is a pivotal point. Do you pack all your things in a van, say, “Fuck it,” and never look back? What responsibility do you have to the world you left behind, if any? And what are you going to do out there? The experiences of the 1960s communes suggest that these are not easy questions to answer.

In one of those books, Contemplation in a World of Action, Thomas Merton reflects on the relationship between contemplation of the spiritual and participation in the worldly, two things the Church had long articulated as opposites. He found that they were far from mutually exclusive. Removal and contemplation were necessary to be able to see what was happening, but that same contemplation would always bring one back around to their responsibility to and in the world.

I’ve already written the “doing nothing” I propose is more than a weekend retreat. But that doesn’t mean I propose a permanent retreat either. Understanding the impossibility of a once-and-for-all exit-for most of us, anyway-sets the stage for a different kind of retreat, or refusal-in-place [...]

Here’s what I want to escape. To me, one of the most troubling ways social media has been used in recent years is to foment waves of hysteria and fear, both by news media and by users themselves. Whipped into a permanent state of frenzy, people create and subject themselves to news cycles, complaining of anxiety at the same time that they check back even more diligently. The logic of advertising and clicks dictates the media experience, which is exploitative by design. Media companies trying to keep up with each other create a kind of “arms race” of urgency that abuses our attention and leaves us no time to think. The result is something like the sleep-deprivation tactics military uses on detainees, but on a larger scale. The years 2017 and 2018 were when I heard so many people say, “It’s just something new every day.”

It’s not a form of communication driven by reflection and reason, but rather a reaction driven by fear and anger. Obviously these feelings are warranted, but their expression on social media so often feels like firecrackers setting off other firecrackers in a very small room that soon gets filled with smoke. Our aimless and desperate expressions on these platforms don’t do much for us, but they are hugely lucrative for advertisers and social media companies, since what drives the machine is not the content of information but the rate of engagement.

The story of communes teaches me that there is no escaping the political fabric of the world. The world needs my participation more than ever. Again, it is not a question of whether, but how.

Some hybrid reaction is needed. We have to be able to do both: to contemplate and participate, to leave and always come back, where we are needed.

To stand apart is to take the view of the outsider without leaving, always oriented toward what it is you would have left. It means not fleeing your enemy, but knowing your enemy, which turns out not to be the world - contemptus mundi - but the channels through which you encounter it day to day.

But the most important, standing apart represents the moment in which the desperate desire to leave (forever!) matures into a commitment to live in permanent refusal, where one already is, and to meet others in the common space of that refusal. This kind of resistance still manifests as participating, but participating in the “wrong way”: a way that undermines the authority of the hegemonic game and creates possibilities outside of it.

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iridescenceartandwriting · 1 year ago

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Continuing the theme of cutting back the time without sacrificing quality, I present just shading with minimal color! I also really wanted to play with Gilli and Odell, with how tiny Gilli is compared to their lover, with how delicately Odell handles them. Gilli is a treasure, but also such a chaotic little fucking gremlin. Odell is weak, and I love that for him.

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thesis-kalyani · 5 years ago

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Week 6 - Stepping Out

Last week, we had a mock presentation in class. This pushed me to build a cohesive story that can be communicated in 10 minutes.

RESEARCH QUESTION

How might slow technology support a range of experiences beyond mere efficiency to resist the mono-chronic, capitalistic outlook of technology towards time?

Slow technology: Technology that used 'slowness' as a framework for its production, dissemination and consumption. Because it doesn't use 'speed' as a founding value, it doesn't always adhere to the productivity & efficiency agenda.

Unless we accept a more pluralistic view of time, we can't really push back on the technocratic voice. Slow technology should not be perceived as anti-tech or a mere call for the critical design, instead, I want to use it as a form of design activism that investigates the malleable nature of time to include new values in technological practice.

Areas of inquiry: I extracted these areas of inquiry from the paper - 'Slow Technology: Critical reflection and Future Directions' & Jenny Odell's book - How to do nothing.

Reflection & mental rest "Slow technologies can aim to invert values of efficiency in the service of supporting experiences of pause, contemplation and reflection.

Long term interaction Slow technology for long terms interactions that can create enduring forms of technologies. "In what ways can both digital data and interactive products be designed with notions of sentimentality and persistence across multiple generations in mind?

Less pro-sumptive lifestyle Building emotional durability into our data and products to induce slower cycles of production and consumption.

Agency Rethinking our time structures to introduce a pluralistic understanding of time in order to nurture values beyond productivity. Taking control of time (especially personal time) that is currently being 'captured, optimized and appropriated as a financial resource by the technologies'.

DEPTH

Over the weekend, I attended a Creative Morning session with Giorgia Lupi. In the evening, I was at the School for Poetic Computation salon (managed to speak Taeyoon Choi and request a brief meeting). It was very very inspiring (and at time confusing too) to be in that space.

The biggest learning from Giorgia & Edel Rodriguez's talks was to 'take one thing and exhaust it.' Giorgia's explorations with data and Edel's work with Trump's portraits indicate the depth that I am very attracted to. I think, as a creative professional I have a breadth of skills. I want to use this thesis as an opportunity to go deep. I need to spend some time in identifying the areas of inquiry and skills for this deep dive.

AUDIENCE

Through Rachel, I met Ann Haeyoung - an NYC based artist from Korea. Ann is a founder and co-organizer for a new Asian American Tech group in NY. In the past, she used to organize with the Tech Workers Coalition (https://techworkerscoalition.org/).

Instead of following a meeting structure I had in mind, I ended up talking freestyle about the thesis (borderline rant about how so many things are wrong). It was eye-opening to hear her views about the tech industry after working in the industry for more 7 years. Her impetus to form an Asian American Tech group made me think of my own community working in tech. I am surrounded by Indian immigrants working in the tech industry mostly as engineers. During my summer internship in California, I saw a surprising lack of awareness about the issues surround technology. These are the people who get excited about tech. They don't mean harm. But their myopic vision of technology restraints them from looking at it critically. Looking at things critically has not been a part of their formal education system. What if 'Indian immigrant community working in the tech industry' is my audience? Perhaps this might allow me leverage from own unique cultural experience.

WEEKLY REFLECTION

Last week was fruitful in looking at the thesis from various angles. It was heartening to find a throbbing community. I want to reach out to more people, as this has been helpful and I no longer feel like I am working in a vacuum. This week, I would be working on crafting a narrative for my final presentation and tying the paper to it. Hopefully, work on the next experiments as well.

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mercerislandbooks · 5 years ago

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Kelleen Tries It: Doing Nothing

This month’s “Kelleen Tries It” was a tiny bit foiled. Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing appealed to me by its cover, title, and back cover summary about “all that we’ve been too distracted to see about ourselves and our world.” I assumed this book was going to be some sort of self-help on mindfulness and disconnecting from social media (it has “How to” in the title), but I was pleasantly surprised. Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing is a theory book, brilliant and well-written one, but not an instruction manual.

She offers a guide of sorts by writing thought experiments and commentaries of her own meditations, but a reader might end the book thinking well, now what? Part of this has to do with the disjointed narrative between chapters. She starts the book by discussing her impetus for writing it, the artistic inspiration and social change that motivated her talk about the poison of the attention economy. Then she transitions to discussing times in history when people have tried to retreat from society and failing, follows that up with explorations of artists who played with the idea of “refusal in place,” and ends the book with deliberations on communities, ecological and interpersonal. In the first paragraph she states, “In a world where value is determined by our productivity, many of us find our every last minute captured, optimized, or appropriated as a financial resource by the technologies we use daily” and the last page ends with a meditation on the power of existence in the 30 million-year-old design of pelicans.

There’s a lot going on in this book.

Ultimately, I could not take direction from someone who would not give it to me, but she did open doors for challenging my perspective. What I loved most about the book is that after all the academic discussion and block quotes, she is simply inviting readers to take the time to sit in stillness in a park and say hello to our neighbors. She doesn’t think of technology in itself as evil, instead condemning the way social media sites suck us into a never-ending slough of stimuli. She openly claims to be anti-capitalist looking for existence outside of economic and material success, but she never suggests escaping or rejecting it completely. Do I agree with everything she said? Just about — it’s hard not to see her points, to feel the wear of the everyday grind in your body and to see the change in climate around the world.

Here is a picture from when I did nothing last weekend, sitting on a bench on Marsh Island, watching dragonflies and lily pads, and getting a sunburn.

One of the ways she introduces her position is through fourth-century Chinese philosopher Zhuang Zhou’s “The Useless Tree” to readers:

The story is about a carpenter who sees a tree ... of impressive size and age. But the carpenter passes it right by, declaring it a “worthless tree” that has only gotten to be this old because its gnarled branches would not be good for timber. Soon afterward, the tree appears to him in a dream and asks, “Are you comparing me with those useful trees?” The tree points out to him that fruit trees and timber trees are regularly ravaged. Meanwhile, uselessness has been this tree’s strategy: “This is of great use to me. If I had been of some use, would I ever have grown this large? ... What’s the point of this — things condemning things? You a worthless man about to die — how do you know I’m a worthless tree?”

Points of view in the social world are what she identifies as paradoxes. Good for one being is bad for another, and the tree resists in place by challenging the carpenter’s definition of usefulness.

Odell explains how taking steps to acknowledge all living things and systems as actors of their own accord can decentralize our goals from human progress to earth’s progress. She suggests paying attention through apps that identify plants by their names, by following rivers to their origins, by learning about the place we live in the physical world we share rather than the altered one online. Not only does she talk about the way nature gives her sacred spaces of peace but also how close attention to physical reality deregulates the constant desire to be plugged-in and competitive.

Where we can pay attention, we can act in something she calls “manifest dismantling,” undoing the damaging effects of attitudes like Manifest Destiny that thought of earth as a blank slate for human progress and a resource to build upon. The urgency for change comes from climate crisis but also from internal desires to escape politics and social media we all experience at some point. Resisting in place, looking away from the screen, staring at the birds, are ways to enact a passive kind of change that decentralizes our focus.

This is my childhood backyard, my mother’s garden. It should not be a wonder to me that looking towards nature stroke a note with me.

For me, this book’s usefulness materialized in putting language to struggles I’ve always had with my understanding of living in the moment as a synonym to laziness. The concept of productivity is something that has long haunted me. My personal mental health struggles with my perfectionist anxieties and the pressure and competition to be at the top of my class in college has made me think intensely about my relationship with productivity. The compulsions to be the most productive me possible may create results in the immediate but in the long term I suffered. I see people close to me suffer from the same type of anxieties, as if their free time must be used in the most productive way possible – taking on projects and mastering new skills with fervor and determination as if they have to prove they are worthy of having free time that they can show all these results from. As if their existence needed to be productive to be justified. This bothered me for reasons I couldn’t explain.

Last weekend when I chose to read and nap on a hammock. It felt like the right setting for the book.

Lucky for me, Jenny Odell’s book spoke to the issues I have been struggling with. Doing the majority of my work for the book store and tackling other freelance contracts from home has been a struggle with boundaries. Jenny discusses disappearing job stability and labor unions in the context of the modern work force when she says:

The removal of economic security for working people dissolves those boundaries – eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will – so that we are left with twenty-four potentially monetizable hours that are sometimes not even restricted to our time zones or our sleep cycles.

The phrase “twenty-four potentially monetizable hours” stuck with me as the source of much of my concern, frustration, and anxiety over the past year since graduating from college. Every second is time that I could be productive, since I can work from anywhere at any time. In fact, I do work most everywhere, out with friends, at family gatherings. When I’m not working, I’m thinking about it. Now, I am not comparing the stress of my work to anyone else’s (I mean I get to write and go on Instagram and take pictures for work), but the stress of constantly feeling available to work is a growing cultural disquietude within the rise of freelance work and the gig economy. It’s even aesthetic to work as hard as possible for as long as possible, to be “always on the grind.”

Odell doesn’t have direct answers for any of these problems. In fact, she distinctly talks about finding a third option from the “yes or no but you have to say yes or else you will be fired” culture of the job market. She looks for an “I would prefer not to” response taken directly from Meville’s Bartleby and more loosely from Zhuang Zhou’s tree. In this arena, she looks to environmentalism, bioregionalism, and spaces of appearance between people. Places where context can give you a bigger picture, and the bigger picture can calm the crazy.

The trifecta of recent mind-bending.

Reading this book in harmony with Forest Bathing (see the post here) and more recently Conscious by Annaka Harris has been a trip in decentering my point of view. If literary theory and the work of Derrida and Lacan disrupted my internal and static identity in college, Li, Odell, and Harris challenged my external identity in my post-college exploration for meaning. I question what I spend my time on, when I am happy doing what I am doing, and why I become overwhelmed by tasks and time. Forest Bathing made me think of nature, not as a resource but a necessity. How to Do Nothing forced me to confront my anthropocentric point of view and remember there is an existence outside of capitalism, and that it is okay to spend some time there. Conscious lead to an upheaval of my understanding of non-human things, making me look at my external world with wonder. Together I have been re-thinking what’s most important to me and trying to put it those ideas alongside what is most important for the planet.

As I said, the best thing about How to Do Nothing is that all she suggests are small steps to looking at our world with context outside the human systems. Stop to look at a flower. Dedicate an afternoon to stillness. Take a detour on your roadtrip to stop at a reserve, a park, and remember that life will go on on Earth whether or not you make that deadline.

I’m continuing this theme next month when I post my interview with the author of the forthcoming Hollow Kingdom, Kira Jane Buxton. We will be discussing Buxton’s take on the holocene, the endurance of life, and how language frames our points of view.

– Kelleen

#how to do nothing #jenny odell #conscious #annaka harris #forest bathing #dr. qing li #island books #mercer island #kelleen #kelleen cummings

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junker-town · 7 years ago

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Your 2017 NFL cheat sheet to get through Thanksgiving conversation

This NFL season has been eventful, to say the very least. Get caught up with all the major storylines so far.

Maybe the NFL hasn’t had your full attention this season. We get it, you’re busy. But now it’s Thanksgiving, and you don’t want to feel left out of the NFL conversation.

That’s where we come in. Let us help you get you all caught up, RedZone style, so can impress everyone at Thanksgiving dinner with your football knowledge — or at least fake your way through it.

Here’s what’s been happening during a, let’s say chaotic, season in the NFL:

Injuries. So many injuries. The league may not look quite like you’d expect it to these days. So many popular players are out for the season with injuries.

Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is out with a broken collarbone. Rookie phenom Deshaun Watson is out for the season after his great start with the Texans was derailed by a torn ACL. The Texans are also missing J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus on defense, which makes it a lot harder for them to get by with Tom Savage under center.

The Giants lost the heart of their receiving corps, Odell Beckham Jr. They’re missing Brandon Marshall, too. DeShone Kizer’s rookie season in Cleveland is a lot tougher without left tackle Joe Thomas. Seattle’s Legion of Boom is more like the Legion of Whom without Richard Sherman and Kam Chancellor. The Cardinals are without Carson Palmer and David Johnson, and the list goes on. It’s been a brutal season.

It’s not JUST the same old teams in the playoff race. Yes, the Patriots and Steelers will be there, as always. But the postseason is taking shape around some surprising teams this year.

The Eagles are good. Like, legitimately good. They’re 9-1, which is the best record in the NFL. The Saints are on top of the NFC South again after three straight seasons of 7-9 finishes. The Jaguars’ defense is such a force that they’re able to carry the team despite Blake Bortles. The Titans missed the playoffs last year, but they’re in the mix now. Same thing for the Rams. They’re on top of the NFC West after winning just four games last season.

Who are the award frontrunners? Here are the top possibilities for each of the league’s major awards for this season.

MVP: Carson Wentz, Tom Brady, Jared Goff (really)

Offensive Player of the Year: Carson Wentz, Tom Brady, Jared Goff, Le’Veon Bell, Antonio Brown

Defensive Player of the Year: Calais Campbell, Demarcus Lawrence, Joey Bosa

Offensive Rookie of the Year: Kareem Hunt, Leonard Fournette, Alvin Kamara

Defensive Rookie of the Year: Marshon Lattimore, T.J. Watt, Tre’Davious White

Coach of the Year: Doug Pederson, Sean McVay

Comeback Player of the Year: Before the season, we would have said Rob Gronkowski or J.J. Watt. But injuries are slowing Gronk down again this year, and Watt’s out for the season with a torn ACL. He missed some time with a hamstring injury, but we’re going to go with Earl Thomas for this one.

Who’s winning the Super Bowl? Well if we knew, we’d be grossly rich like Biff Tannen in the alternate 1985. BUT, here’s who has the best odds, if you’re curious:

Patriots - 11/5

Steelers - 7/2

Eagles - 4/1

Vikings - 10/1

Saints - 10/1

Chiefs - 16/1

Rams - 16/1

Falcons - 18/1

Have the Browns won a game? Lol nope.

Have the Browns found a starting quarterback yet? Haha, no. Adhering to tradition, three players have thrown at least 20 passes for the Browns this fall. Right now, DeShone Kizer (poor guy) is still the starter, despite 14 interceptions and six fumbles in nine games. But surely the Browns will try again next season.

No coaches have been fired ... yet. Ben McAdoo looked like the most likely candidate for a midseason axing after losing both his locker room and a buttload of games, but last week’s win over the Chiefs may have bought him enough time to finish the year. Dirk Koetter has followed up on Tampa Bay’s nine-win 2016 campaign by sinking to the bottom of the NFC South like cement. At an even 13-13 for his head coaching career, he could be headed toward the chopping block depending in how the Bucs finish the year.

Vance Joseph has lost six straight games in Denver and has John Elway calling his players “soft,” which is certainly not a good sign. Chuck Pagano currently oversees the league’s least watchable team in Indianapolis. Hue Jackson is 1-25 as an NFL head coach and apparently just part of some weird sadness experiment in Cleveland. The firings haven’t started yet, but the Monday after Week 17 is going to be messy.

The NFL is at the center of a culture war. Last season Colin Kaepernick started protesting police brutality and oppression that people of color in the United States. It continued into this year, when Michael Bennett and Marshawn Lynch both sat during the national anthem in the preseason.

But then it took an unexpected turn, when President Donald Trump decided to go after players who either sat or took a knee during the national anthem, calling them “sons of bitches.” It led to a wave of demonstrations that were ignited by Trump’s comments. When it appeared it had stopped, Vice President Mike Pence pulled a political stunt, walking out of a Colts game after 49ers players had knelt during the anthem.

It continued into Week 11, as Marshawn Lynch sat during the U.S. anthem, and stood during the Mexico anthem, and Trump retaliated with more tweets.

What’s the latest with Colin Kaepernick? Kaepernick still doesn’t have a job, and likely won’t. Instead, we get compelling (not) quarterback matchups like Blaine Gabbert vs. Tom Savage one week, or Blaine Gabbert vs. Blake Bortles the next.

Kaepernick filed a grievance against the NFL and its owners for collusion last month. Jerry Jones, Robert Kraft, and Bob McNair, and other owners will give depositions and submit phone and email records as evidence in the case.

The power struggle between Jerry Jones and Roger Goodell. As if Trump’s antics weren’t enough, the NFL also gets to deal with a feud between its most powerful owner and its commissioner. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who won’t follow through with his threat to sue the league, is fighting other NFL owners over Roger Goodell’s contract extension.

Jones says it’s because he wants all 32 owners, not just the six-owner compensation committee, to approve the final contract. But the impetus of Jones’ rage seems to be that Goodell reportedly promised him that Cowboys star running back Ezekiel Elliott would not be suspended. And then Goodell suspended Elliott, for six games. After a few months and many court battles over the fairness of the NFL’s disciplinary process, Elliott’s suspension finally began in Week 10.

So what happens next? Well, Goodell is close to getting that extension, which shouldn’t be a surprise: He’s made the owners a lot of money. But don’t count out Jones getting something he wants, too.

Celebrations. OK, enough with the downer stuff. Let’s talk touchdown celebrations. They’re back!

And the wave of players who have joined is greater, because group celebrations are now legal. Teams got off to a slow start with their celebrations, but over the course of the season, everyone’s bringing it. We’ve seen re-enactments of Soul Train, games of leapfrog, hide and seek, baseball games, the Temptations, a taco stand, a solid bench press, and more.

It’s been one of the purest joys of the whole season — and one that we needed.

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cover32-yahoopartner-blog · 7 years ago

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Behind enemy lines: The Oakland Raiders

This week, as the Broncos turn their attention to the Raiders, I was able to sit down with Cover32 Raiders’ Managing Editor, Terry Biggs. Make sure to follow Terry on twitter for all the latest on the Raiders.

Q: How has the return of Marshawn Lynch impacted the Raiders’ offense?

Lynch gives Oakland a running game identity. The offensive line is the embodiment of its position coach, Mike Tice. As a result, the running game needs to punish the opposition. This opens up the passing game.

Q: How will the Raiders look to slow down Von Miller?

Von Miller is an enormous headache, a game wrecker. Last year, the Raiders used a sixth lineman to slow the Denver rush. Additionally, this allowed for time in the pocket and created running lanes.

Q: What’s wrong with Amari Cooper?

Amari Cooper is pressing. His drops are a matter of concentration. The throws arrive on time, in stride. Cooper does not look comfortable emerging from the breaks and appears to fight the ball.

Q: How will Derek Carr attack the No Fly Zone?

Due to the talent of Talib and Harris, Carr will be hard pressed to attack vertically. Look for Carr to use the screen game and Jared Cook down the seam. Although, the competitor within will test Denver vertically at least once.

Q: Does the rivalry between the two teams mean something to the current players?

The rivalry lives within the players. After Talib snatched Crabtree’s chain, the rivalry intensified. Bruce Irvin will elevate the animosity. While the Elway/Tim Brown days are long gone, passion still exists.

Q: How has the upcoming move to Las Vegas impacted this year’s team? Fans?

Honestly, the relocation split the fan base. Many fans decided to stop rooting for the team mistakenly, their allegiance to a city, not the organization. Be that as it may, the diehards still pack O.co with verve and joy. Truthfully, many of the current players may not be Raiders when the team officially relocates. The relocation served as impetus for Marshawn Lynch returning. An Oakland native, Lynch wanted to close the show at home.

Q: Prediction?

Raiders 20, Broncos 17

Reasoning: All rivalry bias aside, Denver employs the most dynamic defense in football. With that said, even the best defenses tire with extended field time. The Raiders want to run the ball, probably 27-32 times. Conversely, the Broncos offensive line must contend with Khalil Mack, who seems to elevate his game versus Denver. Basically, the first team to 20 wins this game. Expect a knockdown drag out fight from coin flip to final whistle.

Stay tuned for the keys to beating the Raiders along with my prediction in the coming days.

AROUND COVER32 Cowboys rookie CB Jourdan Lewis an unsung part of the team’s defense in Week 3

What do the Eagles do at running back with Darren Sproles out? Giants WR Odell Beckham Jr. doesn’t regret his touchdown celebration

Where was Redskins WR Terrelle Pryor in the team’s victory over the Raiders

Looking at the 10 best free agents currently available

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#_author:Luke Snyder #_lmsid:a0Vd000000DIJnLEAX #_uuid:e3a1a1dc-476f-3398-b7f6-97e2111692fe #_revsp:cover32_362

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chicagocityfclanspromoblog · 4 years ago

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Gretchen Sims → Hayley Law → Hyena

→ Basic Information

Age: 64

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Pansexual

Born or Made: Made

Birthday: April 21st

Zodiac Sign: Taurus

Religion: Buddhist

→ Her Personality

(one to two paragraphs)

→ Her Personal Facts

Occupation: Firefighter Paramedic and Acting Liaison

Scars: None

Tattoos: Small line art tattoos around her body

Two Likes: People staying out with her the whole night and Midnight meals

Two Dislikes: Staying at home and People who are rude to be funny

Two Fears: Suffocation and Accidentally killing someone

Two Hobbies: Dancing and Astrology

Three Positive Traits: Inviting, Sociable, Kind Hearted

Three Negative Traits: Pacifist, Complacent, Impetuous

→ Her Connections

Parent Names:

B.L. Sims (Father): Her father was killed in the Vietnam War when she was 2 years old. She remembers nothing of him.

Sibling Names:

Elmer Sims (Brother): Elmer was 10 years older than Gretchen. He went on to become an engineer and astronaut when he was older.

Louisa Sims (Sister): Louisa was 4 years older than Gretchen. She isn’t sure what happened to her.

Children Names:

None

Romantic Connections:

Platonic Connections:

Hostile Connections:

Pets:

None

→ History (paragraph(s) on background) → The Present (paragraph(s) on how the character connects to the plot)

→ Available Gif Hunts (we do not own these)

Hayley Law (Gretchen Sims) [1][2][3]

#hayley law #Bio Roleplay #fantasy rpg #Supernautral RPG #RPG Promo

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creative-salem · 8 years ago

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Short And Steady Wins The Race at Salem Film Fest

Exploring the Short Film Blocks at the Salem Film Festival

By Chris Ricci

Each year, the Salem Film Festival celebrates the skill of documentary filmmakers with an incredible attention and appreciation towards their craft and the work they’ve done. Long-form documentaries are generally the mainstay of the festival, but no documentary film festival would be complete without a major focus on the more short-form approach. We are exposed to short documentaries on almost a daily basis thanks to things as simple as a news profile on a politician or an artist to something a bit more expansive like an episode of a documentary television show.

The effort behind a short documentary is quite impressive when you consider the extremely robust story that short film makers can condense in a half hour or less. Like every year, the Salem Film Festival showcased a wide range of short documentaries over the course of two separate blocks, but this year easily had some of the most impactful and well crafted stories yet. Over the course of each block, audiences were told stories about depression, government oppression, marijuana, a rockstar, video games, a carousel and so much more. Audiences also got a major treat in the form of director and subject attendance, resulting in two very excellent and very different question and answer segments.

The first block, showcased at Cinema Salem and sponsored by Deschamps Printing Co. featured some of the more introspective shorts of the two blocks, but also the most impactful. Dawn Dreyer and Andrea Love’s Fear told a complex story about depression through the eyes of a Chinese doctor who was a child during the Cultural Revolution by utilizing stop motion and animation sequences that brought a lightness to an otherwise heavy subject, while Frogman by Tyler Trumbo explored the life of a son whose father was a spy and how secrecy not only tore his family apart, but also made his relationship stronger with his father.

The incredibly timely NOT ONE STEP BACK brought viewers to North Carolina in December during the Moral Monday protests after a lame-duck governor defied voter rights by working to strip the newly elected governor of his power, while Adam Roffman’s more playful All The Presidents’ Heads introduced viewers to a man with a love for the country and his monolithic 20 foot busts of the first 43 presidents that he rescued and is keeping on his property. When it came to local stories, Mark Dugas’ Confessions of a Cannabis Consultant detailed the recent story of medical marijuana consultant Ezra Parzybok of Northampton and his passion for helping others being impacted by a government raid, while Johnny Physical Lives introduced viewers to a Tufts University student who used his passion for music and rock and roll in the face of terminal leukemia.

Confessions of a Cannabis Consultant

On hand during this block were directors Mark Dugas and Adam Roffman as well as co-producer of Johnny Physical Lives, Jeremy Wang-Iverson. For Mark, Confessions of a Cannabis Consultant was a welcome change directionally. “As far as shorts go, it was a really nice way for me to mix it up, because working in the long form is a completely different beast. I had to fight a lot of impulses with storytelling to whittle it down.” Jeremy added to this conversation by making it clear that director Josh Neuman “always knew it was going to be a short film in a way because of how Johnny’s life was cut short.” Incidentally, Johnny Physical Lives is exactly 22 minutes long, one minute for each year that Johnny lived. As for Adam, the short-form medium works perfectly for his other jobs. “I’ve been seeking out subjects that didn’t have enough story to fill a feature, but to fill a nice little short.” This being said, Adam would love to do a follow up on All The Presidents’ Heads, especially if Howard Hankins, the film’s main subject, got an opportunity to open the park of his dreams.

Johnny Physical Lives

Subject-wise, the decision to make their stories was almost as fascinating as the story itself. For Adam, his inspiration for his short came from his previous short Spearhunter which was, as he put it, another documentary about someone who collects various things. “Someone I know went to the park when it was open who had actually seen Spearhunter and the memory of the park came to them and they told me all about it, so I just followed that story to find out what happened to these gigantic heads.” For Jeremy, local ties lead to the creation of Johnny Physical Lives, and it was actually a perfect setting for the final festival screening of this film. “The great thing about being able to screen this here in Salem is that I got to meet Jonathan at Tufts University in 1998 when we were freshmen, shortly after he became sick. Our other producer also went to school at Emerson, so it was a very local collaboration.” Regarding how his documentary came together, Mark Dougas offered up a fascinating insight. “For me, my wife is Facebook friends with Ezra and had known him for a very long time, and she had been following his story. One day she just said ‘he’s going to court on Monday, and you should go film him’ so the first thing we ever filmed was him in court, and everything was reverse engineered.”

The second block, presented at and sponsored by The National Park Service of Salem was as fun as it was fascinating and had an incredible range of stories that kept the audience longing for more. Jonas Odell’s I Was A Winner started the block by introducing viewers to gaming addiction which, at first seemed to be tongue and cheek, but turned to be one of the more serious documentaries about addiction, loss, and overcoming I’ve ever seen. Black and white films were a major part of this block, including Jonathan Napolitano’s The Carousel took viewers on a trip to the Twilight Zone through the story of a carousel from writer Rod Serling’s childhood that not only impacted his work, but also his life as a whole. Jan Van Ijken’s experimental The Art of Flying utilized the black and white medium perfectly as it presented viewers to over ten minutes of well-shot and well timed visions of the “murmurations” of the common starling that had an incredible depth that only got more interesting as time went on.

I Was a Winner

Amy Nicholson’s Pickle proved to be the funniest short of the day by introducing viewers to an eccentric and wonderful husband and wife whose love for animals and experiences with death was as uproariously funny as it was heartwarming. Corinne May Botz’ fascinating Bedside Manner brought viewers into the little known world of of standardized patient simulations in medical school, and focused on the story of Dr. Alice Flaherty: a doctor, a patient, and a standardized patient actor that helps teach students to improve diagnoses and bedside manner. Throughout the film, the lines between reality and fiction were blurred in such a way that the end product proved to be one of the finest films of the series. The closing documentary during this block, The Leprechaun’s Wife by Alexandra Shiva, told the amazing story of Sondra Williams, a high-functioning autistic woman who was misdiagnosed and institutionalized at a young age who, years later, is a prestigious and sought-after public speaker and writer who is working tirelessly to teach the world about what autism really is.

Pickle

Viewers got a chance to speak to not only the director of Bedside Manner Corrine May Botz, but also the lead subject of the film Dr. Alice Flaherty. Viewers also got a chance to speak with the producer of The Leprechaun’s Wife Bari Pearlman. Many audience members asked about the structure of Bedside Manner and what was real and what wasn’t, and Corrine made it very clear that that meant this documentary accomplished it’s goal. “The goal was to make the viewer feel like a physician that needed to give a diagnosis, and to give the audience a sense of confusion and delirium to help highlight what these medical professionals have to sift through almost daily.” Dr. Flaherty added to this by explaining to the audience how the mental health field is a very different one to work in, especially from an educational standpoint. “There are many many doctors who have experienced or are living with mental health conditions in the field, and it really helped me out knowing that my doctors were not just doctors, but had first hand experience with depression and psychosis.”

The Leprechaun’s Wife

Bari Pearlman also told audiences the story about how her and Alexandra met Sondra Williams by explaining how they went about making the film. “[Alexandra] has a friend whose daughter is on the spectrum, and we wanted to tell the story, but we realized that we couldn’t do so, and that the story needed to be told by those on the spectrum itself, and not directly through us.” They both met Sondra at a conference where she was talking about working in the field of autism research as someone on the spectrum itself, and they were instantly taken by her. Once they found out she was from Ohio, they both traveled down there, and their experiences culminated in the Peabody Award winning HBO documentary they both made called How To Dance In Ohio, which showcased teens living with autism in the Ohio area. “We ended up making that film about teenagers coming of age and going to prom, and Sondra didn’t fit in the main story, but she was our impetus on the subject and the featured documentary itself, so we decided to give her her own film. And that’s what this is, and though it broke our hearts that her story was so different than the subjects in the feature film due to modern day understanding of autism, her passion and story needed to be told.”

Below, there is a review for each and every short documentary that was featured during the two blocks. Some of them have direct links so you can either stream the documentary directly, or you can purchase it directly from the filmmaker for a very small price that’ll help support these storytellers in their future endeavors.. Each and every documentary shown during the tenth anniversary of the Salem Film Festival reinforced the strengths that the festival has: diversity, incredible story telling, and introducing you to subject matter you might not have been familiar with from the get-go. Supporting these cinematic heroes is the least we can do, as they are the storytellers that prove that time constraints mean nothing when there’s an incredible story to be told.

BLOCK ONE

Fear by Dawn Dreyer and Andrea Love began the first block with the touching story of Dr. Zenglo Chen, a Chinese man who was a child suffering from depression during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The film, done almost entirely in stop motion animation sequences (with animated interludes) chronicles Dr. Chen’s experiences with “fear” and how it manifested itself during his life. Ranging from his family being taken away at a young age, to his nearly decade long daily battle with suicidal thoughts, “fear” means many things to him and shows up in many forms and, as Dr. Chen points out, one feels driven to eradicate it entirely from your life. However, the film’s overarching message is simple: It’s much easier and reckless to remove fear, but to live with it is the greatest accomplishment of all. Dr. Zenglo Chen’s journey to do is beautiful, funny, and true-to-life in a way that demands to be seen. The short film itself also serves as a segment to Dawn and Andrea’s feature-length film “Bipolar Girl Rules The World.”

NOT ONE STEP BACK by Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley followed the five days of Moral Monday protests in North Carolina after the unprecedented victory of Democrat Roy Cooper over the incumbent Governor Pat McCrory resulted in the North Carolinian GOP attempting to secretly pass measures to strip the power of Cooper while also nullifying the voting voices of the North Carolina voters. The documentary, shot in December of last year, follows the day-to-day in the middle of December as the voices of the protestors in the State House are silenced and over forty people were arrested for simply asking for government transparency. The film has a heavy focus on the NAACP leaders who stood as a strong voice during these protests, and the rapid-turnaround of this film shows the significance an event like this can have in such a short period of time.

All The Presidents’ Heads by Adam Roffman tells the story of the failed President’s Park in Williamsburg, Virginia that housed 20 foot high busts of the first 43 Presidents of the United States of America. After the recession hit, the park abruptly shut down and the fate of the monolithic busts was unknown. Enter the hero of our story, developer Howard Hankins, who moved all the busts in 2012 to his recycling field. There they stand in the weeds and underbrush of Croaker, Virginia, facing decay and rot, but the passion Mr. Hankins has for these busts is an incredible story in itself. His love for the Presidential office and his knowledge on the matter is funny, impressive, and downright fascinating, and his drive to eventually show the world these busts again is truly moving. Howard Hankins isn’t the hero I expected during the short blocks this year, but boy do I welcome him.

Johnny Physical Lives by Joshua Neuman tells the incredible true story of Boston rock-and-roll legend Johnny Physical and his band “The Physicals.” If you haven’t heard of this iconic band and frontman, Johnny Physical was a lady-killin’ rock god from the mean streets of NYC that commanded audiences all around the Tufts University campus with his incredible dance moves and his iconic tunes. But, off the stage, Johnny Neuman (the brother of the director of this amazing documentary) was a kid with a passion for the arts who was tragically struck by leukemia during his time at Tufts University. His love for his band and the rock-and-roll mysticism resulted in him and his brother agreeing to work on a film about the life of the artist Johnny Physical. The documentary weaves a first-person narrative by the director about his brother’s struggles and life before his treatment and and as the cancer progressed, and is inter-cut with animated sequences that highlight the life of his rock-god alter-ego. The film shows how Johnny experienced cancer not as a kid who was at Tufts University, but as a break-neck rock icon. The film brilliantly highlights the importance of the arts and what it truly means to be passionate, and honestly ranks up there with some of the tightest rock documentaries of all time. An honor that a rock icon like Johnny Physical truly deserves.

Confessions of a Cannabis Consultant by Mark Dugas tells the story of Ezra Parzybok, a medical marijuana consultant from Northampton, Massachusetts that works tirelessly to help patients out who want to explore the usages of medical marijuana, but don’t know how to do so. The documentary explores not only those that he helps and the techniques that he utilizes, but also the drug case he faced in 2015 after his home was raided by the National Guard and local authorities. The film shows his family life and the things and his passionate caring for individuals that wish to explore alternative means of medical help and paints him not as a man who committed a crime, but as a medical professional who wants nothing more than to help others. Despite the fact that recreational marijuana is now legal in Massachusetts, stories like those of Ezra Parzybok are important to read and understand.

Frogman by Tyler Trumbo is an absolutely fascinating story about a son who has spent his whole life trying to understand his father through the stories he told. Patrick Humphrey knew that his father was important, and idolized him deeply, but he never understood what he really did, mostly because he couldn’t really talk about it. You see, Patrick’s father was a covert navy operative during Vietnam, a “Frogman” if you will, and his forays into espionage and the stories he told could only be kept in the family itself. This forced his family and his son into a precarious situation: they needed to separate the truth and create a fiction that would help them survive as a family without risking secrets being let out. This separation of understanding impacted how Patrick raised his own kids; it’s difficult to live life being told how great your father is when you don’t know him, and it’s more difficult to expect that you will raise your own kids like how he raised you when you don’t know how he did it. The story told in Frogman is about the dissolving of a family because of the life of one man, but also of the strength and unity around him. It’s not a typical father/son dynamic, but the impact Patrick’s father had on his life is a significant story in itself.

Frogman

BLOCK TWO

I Was A Winner by Jonas Odell showcased three very different stories of suffering from addiction, the hardships it entails, and the eventual escape. However, the addiction highlighted in this film might seem a bit strange: the three individuals presented to us we’re addicted to video games. The film presents these individuals that suffered from video game addiction as their virtual avatars, and what starts as a seemingly silly story becomes a rather painful and biting example of the dangers surrounding this rather new and relatively unknown addiction. Highlighted are a man who spiraled into video games and alcoholism due to neglect from his family which resulted in a divorce and alienation from his children, a high-school kid who couldn’t really focus on work when his life in the game was so much more significant, and a woman who only interacted with her fiance in the video game, while neglecting one-another while they lived in the same house. The subject matter may seem silly at first, but I Was A Winner does a spectacular job bringing you into the world of video game addiction and showing you first hand how it can impact just about anyone.

The Art of Flying by Jan Van Ijken is a black and white experimental documentary about the “murmurations” of the common starling. The flight patterns of these birds have always baffled scientists, and are as perplexing as they are beautiful. The film’s aesthetic choice to remain black-and-white highlights this even more as the flocks of starlings swirling around the sky begin to look and sound like the waves of the ocean, or the clouds in the sky during a lightning storm. The open-ended nature of this film gives the observer many different ways to process these murmurations, and makes this one of the most individually interpretive documentaries this film festival has ever presented.

The Art of Flying

Bedside Manner by Corinne May Botz is a look into the world of standardized patient simulations in the world of medicine. Standardized patients are medical professional actors who have been trained to present a very specific set of symptoms to help those in medical school improve their means of diagnosis as well as the means of handling a patient dealing with very particular traumas. The central doctor in this film, Dr. Alice Flaherty, shows the viewer the fine line between “actor” and “patient” by explaining to the audience that her ability to understand and teach students is through the fact that she is also a patient herself. The lines between reality and fiction are blurred in an incredible way in this film, and asks the viewing audience to differentiate between doctor and patient in a way that I have never seen before. As Dr. Flaherty explains her personal life, the viewer struggles to grasp whether or not she’s being truthful, or if she’s being a standardized patient. Bedside Manner twists and turns reality for the viewer in an impressive way that highlights the point it’s making almost instantaneously, and forces you to pay close attention to the symptoms to figure out a cinematic cure and understanding the likes of which are truly remarkable.

Bedside Manner

Pickle by Amy Nicholson proves, if nothing else, that there can be some sort of humor in lieu of death and that, sometimes, death only serves as a small point in a significant life. The film chronicles the story of Tom and Debbie Nicholson who, over the course of their lives, have rescued an overwhelming amount of animals each ripe with their own unique story. Ranging from a fish that could only live because of a makeshift sponge suit, a paraplegic possum that needed a skateboard, chickens with heart problems, and cross-eyed cats, the Nicholson’s love for the animals they’ve helped and saved is painfully obvious, and their way of handling their deaths is even more remarkable. Intercut with hilarious animated interludes explaining the deaths of these animals, the story of Tom and Debby is an incredibly laugh-out-loud funny tribute to the animals we all love, the inevitability of death, and how we all can move on.

The Carousel by Jonathan Napolitano is, simply put, about a carousel from Binghamton, New York. The carousel located there has spun since 1925, and to many it might seem to be just a plain old carousel. However, for legendary writer Rod Serling, this particular carousel proved to be one of his first major steps into the Twilight Zone. The story being The Carousel ducks and dives between the mission to restore it with artwork related to the Twilight Zone, as well as the deeper implications behind it and what it truly meant to the man that served as one of the main reasons why science fiction is what it is today. In just under 14 minutes, viewers will learn the life story of Mr. Rod Serling and what something as simple as an old carousel can mean to a man and the rest of his life. For Rod, this carousel served as a portal to a past that he lost, and an inspiration for one of the most iconic episodes of his television show that was as surreal as it was autobiographical. The story of that juxtaposed with the artistic attempt to preserve it as such creates a short that has some of the most depth out of any film I’ve seen at this fest. The Carousel proves that the truth is stranger than fiction in a way that, ironically, fits perfectly in the Twilight Zone.

The Carousel

The Leprechaun’s Wife by Alexandra Shiva is the incredible story of Ohio native Sondra Williams. At a young age, Sondra was diagnosed as mentally retarded and institutionalized for many years of her life, when in actuality, she was on the autism spectrum. Sondra’s way of understanding the world is truly unique, and the life she has lived is remarkable to say the least. Sondra has been married for almost 30 years, has four children (who were also diagnosed with autism) and two grand children. Sondra’s clear way to articulate her experiences have made her a prestigious national speaker, a celebrated author, a counselor, and a powerful voice when it comes to the discussion surrounding the autism spectrum. Doing any sort-of in-depth or subjective analysis of this film would, frankly, be an injustice, and as opposed to me talking about it, seeing this film and letting Sondra Williams talk about it is only right. The life that she has lived and the stories presented in The Leprechaun’s Wife stand alone, and desperately need to be seen, understood, and talked about, as it serves as an incredibly perfect starting point on the conversation surrounding autism.

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Short And Steady Wins The Race at Salem Film Fest was originally published on Creative Salem

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