#sometimes I wish I had a more palatable (ha ha) art style

[stigmatacunnilingus]

something something the only thing I hate more than painting is not painting

[thecaffeinebookwarrior]

A Writer’s Guide to Viewpoints

Most of us know that there are three major viewpoints from which stories are told:

First Person -- “I tell my own story with the pronoun ‘I’ because I’m just so damn awesome.”

Second Person -- “You are a character in this story, and you can’t do anything about it.  If it makes you uncomfortable, tough shit.”

Third Person -- “He muttered himself and pulled the blankets over his head, wishing this asshole would stop narrating his life.”

Those are the three viewpoints, and that’s all there is to it.  Just pick your favorite, and you’re ready to go.  Right?

Well.  Not exactly.  

You see, my fellow scribblers, there are actually multiple sub categories of each viewpoint -- beyond even the “Third Person Omniscient” or “Third Person Subjective.”

To be specific:

First Person:

First Person Informant

First Person Reminiscent

Unreliable

Second Person:

Reader as Character

I Substitute

Third Person:

Objective 

Limited 

Multiple Selective Omniscience 

Omniscient

This might seem overwhelming, but fear not!  Each perspective is fairly easy to break down, and ultimately, apply to your own work and understanding of literature.  This post will elucidate each.

So let’s take charge of our narratives and delve in, like the active protagonists we are.

What is the First Person?  

I’m sure we all know this, but a First Person narrator tells their story from the pronoun I (or sometimes we, though this is quite rare.)

The different factions of First Person narration are somewhat under-discussed -- certainly not as widely known as the Third Person Omniscient versus Objective viewpoints -- but, as these examples prove, they do exist.

As you read, you’ll likely think back to your favorite narrators, and realize that not all First Person viewpoints were created equal.

The First Person Informant:

“I’m telling it like it is.  As it’s happening.  I’m living in the moment, and watching it unfold with you.  Look at us, charging blindly into the future together.  Isn’t it exciting?”

This dude conveys the events as they transpire, or appear to transpire, in the present.  There’s no “once upon a time” for him.  Merely the unfurling now.

Examples:

“Vampires in the Lemon Grove,” by Karen Russel

“In every season you can find me sitting at my bench, watching them fall.  Only one or two lemons tumble from the branches each hour, but I’ve been sitting here so long their falls seem continuous, close as raindrops.  My wife has no patience for this sort of meditation.  “Jesus Christ, Clyde,” she says, “You need a hobby.” 

Russel’s narrator – a world-weary vamp navigating the tribulations of eternal love and insatiable bloodlust in an Italian lemon grove – is an excellent example of a first-person informant.  He isn’t telling us about the lemon grove as it was, but as it is.  The lemons fall before his eyes as they fall before ours.  We are in this lemon grove together.

“Natural Selection,” by Jacob M. Appel

“The stolen baboon.  On the evening news, she’s an irrelevancy -- a simian mug shot tucked between National Hairball Awareness Day and an interview with the Boston Strangler’s Children.  Six hours later, she’s lounger on the sofa in our living room, smacking together her protruded lips, scratching her back on the damask.  Suburban Tampa is apparently far more fun than a lab cage in Atlanta.”

Here, we are transported directly into a father’s dilemma after his well-meaning yet painfully naive and somewhat spoiled daughter “liberates” a mistreated lab baboon -- a decision that could effectively ruin both of their lives.  The informant perspective amplifies the reader’s suspense, as we are in the moment with him and can only discover the outcome by watching events unfold (or skipping pages.)

“What I Do All Day,” by Hellen Ellis

“Inspired by Beyonce, I stallion-walk to the toaster.  I show my husband where a burnt spot looks like the island where we honeymooned, kiss him good-bye, and tell him what time to be home for our party.”

This one is just great.  We are transported into the perspective of a seemingly chipper, affluent housewife as she quietly goes insane from suffocating domesticity and the horror of a meaningless life.  And, emphasized by the informant perspective, we feel all of this with her!  It is characteristically brilliant and hilarious satire from Ellis’s brilliant and hilarious collection, American Housewife.

The First Person Reminiscent:

“It was on a dark and rainy night when I decided to tell this story.  I tell it as I remember it, after these events have transpired.  Let’s look back on them together.”

In this perspective, the narrator is looking back on events after they have happened.  He isn’t describing these events as they unfold;  he is telling a story.

Examples:

Life of Pi, by Yann Martel

There are actually two reminiscent narrators here.  The titular Pi, and the author who has elected to tell his story.  

“This book was born as I was hungry.  Let me explain.  In the spring of 1996, my second book, a novel, came out in Canada.  It didn’t fair well.  Reviewers were puzzled, or damned it with faint praise.  Then readers ignored it.  Despite my best efforts at plating the clown or the trapeze artist, the media circus made no difference.  The book did not move.  Books lined the shelves of bookstores like kids standing in a row to play baseball or soccer, and mine was the gangly, unathletic kid that no one wanted on their team.  It vanished quickly or quietly.”

So opens this immensely clever novel, which, in all regards, blurs the lines between allegory and reality.  However, most of it is narrated by the eponymous Pi, who becomes this author’s muse.

“I've never forgotten him. Dare I say I miss him? I do. I miss him. I still see him in my dreams. They are nightmares mostly, but nightmares tinged with love. Such is the strangeness of the human heart. I still cannot understand how he could abandon me so unceremoniously, without any sort of goodbye, without looking back even once. The pain is like an axe that chops my heart.”

Here we have Pi, reflecting on his spiritual and allegorical companion, Richard Parker (an oddly named tiger whom we come to love as much as Pi does.)  Pi’s retrospective narration allows for the clear-sighted view of his complex feelings that can only come with time and distance.  Thus, this reminiscent narration enhances the power of the narrative.

The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”

My feelings towards J.D. Salinger are somewhat negative (I recommend you watch the documentary Salinger to figure out why) but this book is timeless for a reason.  This opening line offers up countless questions that leave you thinking long after you turn the final page.  Moreover, it impeccably establishes the voice that will carry us throughout its meandering narrative.  Catcher in the Rye would not be the same without its reminiscent narration, and this line establishes that.

Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov

“Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita. Did she have a precursor? She did, indeed she did. In point of fact, there might have been no Lolita at all had I not loved, one summer, an initial girl-child. In a princedom by the sea. Oh when? About as many years before Lolita was born as my age was that summer. You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, exhibit number one is what the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied. Look at this tangle of thorns.”

This opening line makes me somewhat sick to read, because, of course, it is the floral soliloquy a frothing, rabid pedophile, about a “four feet ten” twelve-year-old girl.  But, as a piece of art, it is still remarkably done -- the perspective of a monster, putting himself on trial before an imaginary jury, and telling a story that is invariably partial towards his warped perspective.  Once again, the retrospective is integral to this grotesquely fascinating narrative.

The Unreliable Narrator:

“I am the King of the Lizard People, and no one will acknowledge it but me.  Don’t believe me?  Too bad.  I’m the one telling this story, and you have no choice but to believe my dubious rendition of these events.”

It’s widely debated as to whether this should be its own category.  Why?  Because all first person narrators are inherently unreliable.  We just have little choice but to take their information as it’s denoted to us.  Oftentimes, they win our trust;  but other times, it is their unabashed unreliability that makes the narrative memorable.

Don’t believe me?  All of the past three examples were unreliable narrators.  And I examine several more in my post on types of unreliable narrators here.

In the meantime, let’s move on to the oft-underrated Second Person.  

What is the Second Person?

This highly controversial viewpoint uses the pronoun “you.”  Most people associate this perspective with amateur fanfiction or pretentious purple prose, but let me tell you:  when this perspective works, it is stellar.  And I’ll explain why.

The Reader as a Character

“You’re walking down the street, and you realize the narrator is talking about you.  Maybe you like this.  Maybe you don’t.  The narrator doesn’t care.  The narrator is a cruel and indifferent god.  You put in your headphones to tune the narrator out.  The narrator finds this incredibly rude.  You can’t escape me, motherfucker.” 

This is what most people think about when they picture a Second Person Narrative.  Okay, not this specifically -- being frank, most people probably think about reader-insert fanfiction (which can be amazing as well.)  This viewpoint asks the reader to imagine themselves as a character -- usually the main character -- in the narrative.

Examples:

“This is a Story About You,” from Welcome to Night Vale, by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Craner

“‘This is a story about you,’ said the man on the radio. And you were pleased, because you always wanted to hear about yourself on the radio.”

Even if you’re unfamiliar to this podcast, I highly recommend you listen to this episode (or read the transcript) immediately.  It shows you virtually everything reader-insert can be, and what a remarkable effect it can have.  It virtually envelops you in this perspective, this town, and this surrealistic reality. 

“The Young Immortal,” by Brooksie C. Fontaine (me!)

“When it started, it was the February fourteenth of 1945.  An American plane was hit in the engine by Japanese fire, fell from the slate gray sky like a shooting star.  Its blazing red reflection ignited the swell of colorless water.  And then it was gone, taking with it all the color in the world.

In that plane was my fellow air force pilot.  The love of my life.

You.

I know what you’re thinking:  you weren’t alive in ‘45, and you weren’t a man.  Well, I’m gonna tell you you’re wrong on both counts.  You’ve been a man before.  You’ll be one again.  It doesn’t matter to me, so long as it’s you.”

This one is unique, because it includes both the First Person Reminiscent (the eponymous immortal narrator) and the Second Person Reader as Character.  The reader is in the perspective of the narrator’s oft-reincarnated love interest, and so I decided to include it as an example. 

The “I” Substitute

“You were fifteen when you realized you could only get hard if you were thinking about carnivorous dinosaurs.  Not me.  You.  This has absolutely nothing to do with me, and I resent the insinuation that it does.  This is your problem, dino-fucker.  This is your story.  This is about you.” 

This one’s interesting.  The narrator is in denial, and using the second-person to distance themselves from the events of the story.  It is a substitute for the First Person, and a thinly-veiled one at that.

Examples:  

“Freaks,” by Alden Jones

“From the cluster of mourners, Kristen’s mother had emerged; she strode towards you.  Her straight brown hair was limp and flyaway.  She wore the expression of an animal who wanted to devour you.  Her eyes were cushioned by the bluish puffed skin beneath them, but they flashed hot with fury.

‘You,’ she said.  She pointed her finger.  She began to gallop.  ‘You think you see something no one else sees?’  she called.  Mourners turned to watch her progress towards you.  Heather took a step away.

You dangled the camera by your side.  You froze.  You did nothing but watch the thing happen.

‘YOU,’ the mother said, charging.  ‘YOU.  YOU.’”

These are actually the concluding lines of this haunting story from Jones’s collection, Unaccompanied Minors.  I had the pleasure of hearing her read this story for my graduate program;  in the Q&A afterwards, she explained how the narrative, and the characters’ mentality throughout the story, depended on the Second Person.  “It was a different story without it,” she said.  

“The Other Person,” by Nathan Leslie

“You write the story in the second person.  It’s your go-to point of view now.  You like it’s edge, its resonance of irony, even if your story lacks said irony (it adds irony).  You makes anything possible.  You is the new me.” 

This one is simultaneously hilarious, sad, and strangely invigorating.  It encapsulates the deep trenches of insecurity that come with being an author, and whittles them into sharp, sly satire.  The “I” Substitute doesn’t just emphasize the story;  it is the story.  This story would not exist without it.

Now that I’ve successfully changed your mind about the Second Person (and if you still don’t agree with me, you’re wrong), let’s move on to the ever-popular yet difficult-to-master Third Person. 

What is the Third Person? 

You know what the third person is, but I’ll suspend my disbelief and pretend you don’t.  It uses the pronouns he, she, or they, but the perspective can be virtually anywhere.  Which makes the Third Person such an interesting thing to explore.

Third Person Objective

“She slaps him.  He touches the red mark her ring left behind, and stares at her with wide eyes.”

This one is also known as The Dramatic, The Camera Lens, or The Fly on the Wall perspective.  It describes the events as we would view them, with no inside information into the thoughts or motivations of the characters.  What we see is what we get, and we have to discern the characters’ feelings based on what they say and do.

Example: 

“Meanwhile.  A Conversation,” from American Gods, by Neil Gaiman

“‘Miz Crow?’ 

‘Yes.’

‘You are Samantha Black Crow?’  

‘Yes.’

‘Do you mind if we ask you a few questions, ma’am?’

‘Are you cops?  What are you?’

‘My name is Town.  My colleague here is Mister Road.  We’re investigating the disappearance of two of our associates.’

‘What were their names?’

‘I’m sorry?’

‘Tell me their names.  I want to know what they were called.  Your associates.  Tell me their names and maybe I’ll help you.’ 

‘...Okay.  Their names were Mister Stone, and Mister Wood.  Now, can we ask you some questions?’ 

‘Do you guys just see things and pick names?  “Oh, you be Mister Sidewalk, he’s Mister Carpet, say hello to Mister Airplane?”’”

In this unique and hilarious chapter, we witness an exchange between (bisexual icon) Samantha Black Crow and a minor villain who has been assigned to track down the protagonist.  We aren’t privy to either of the characters’ emotions or thoughts, or even their actions, yet we can discern all of it from dialogue alone.

Third Person Limited 

“She’s had enough of his bullshit.  Something in her snaps, and her open palm collides -- hard -- with the side of his stupid, stupid face.  He touches the red mark she left behind, staring at her like he can’t believe she actually did that.  Good.  Maybe that’ll teach him to stop being such an pugnacious fuckwad.” 

This one is tethered to a specific character, whose thoughts and feelings we are aware of.  However, we are not inside the mind of the character in the same manner as a First Person narrator.

Examples: 

American Gods, by Neil Gaiman

“Shadow had done three years in prison.  He was big enough, and looked don’t-fuck-with-me enough that his biggest problem was killing time.  So he kept himself in shape, and taught himself coin tricks, and thought a lot about how much he loved his wife.”

Though American Gods features an impressive diversity of perspectives, we spend most of the book tethered to the lovable ex-con Shadow Moon.  We are never trapped inside his head, as we would be if the story were First Person, but we know what he is thinking and feeling.  He is our viewpoint character.

The Giver, by Lois Lowry 

“It was almost December, and Jonas was beginning to be frightened.  No.  Wrong word, Jonas thought.  Frightened meant that deep, sickening feeling of something terrible about to happen.  Frightened was the way he had felt a year ago when an unidentified aircraft had overflown the community twice.  He had seen it both times.  Squinting toward the sky, he had seen the sleek jet, almost a blur at its high speed, go past, and then a second later heard the blast of sound that followed.  Then one more time, a moment later, from the opposite direction, the same plane.”

Lois Lowry’s timeless, haunting dystopia is introduced through the guileless eyes of twelve-year-old Jonas.  We are aloud to see the world from his perspective, but the distance of Third Person Limited allows us to feel the horror of each situation with more clarity.  Lowry demonstrates how to utilize POV to one’s advantage, similar to how Neil Gaiman uses Third Person Limited to enhance the horror of his masterful modern fairy tale Coraline.

Multiple Selective Omniscience 

“She decides she’s had enough of his bullshit, and slaps him.  Hard.  Hard enough that her ring leaves a red welt on his cheek.

He feels his eyes go wide, and he touches the side of his face.  He keeps waiting for her to apologize, but her eyes are narrowed and her lips are pursed.  She doesn’t look sorry.”

The viewpoint shifts between characters.  It can be extremely effective, as long as we are aware of when the proverbial camera changes angles.

Examples: 

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith

First of all:  if you haven’t read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, do it.  Do it right now.  It is the piece of classic literature I recommend to everyone who hates classic literature, because it’s devoid of all of the traits that make people hate classic literature to begin with.  It has oodles of complex, idiosyncratic, autonomous, and tough-as-hell female characters, bad language, and frank discussions of sexuality, poverty, and classism.  Read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.  

Anyway.  Though its protagonist is Francie Nolan, who, like the eponymous tree, perseveres and thrives against insurmountable odds, the viewpoint bounces around an immense deal, between Francie’s family and neighbors to the most minor side-characters.  Because of this, many people believe that the true protagonist is Brooklyn itself, and the people in it. 

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, by Ayana Mathis 

This is a captivating, gut-wrenching book, similar to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in its highly effective depiction of poverty.  The book follows the children of Hattie Shepherd, a formerly young and optimistic mother, who lost her firstborn twins to an easily preventable disease in the aftermath of the Great Migration.  The viewpoint changes with each chapter, showing the perspectives of each of her children and how they are haunted by this loss.

The Vacationers, by Emma Straub 

A far cry from its poverty-focused predecessors, this book focuses on the problems of the affluent and privileged.  It is, however, a deeply interesting read, as it swerves between the perspectives of the titular vacationers after a patriarch’s fore into adultery threatens his family and marriage.

Omniscient 

“She decides she’s had enough of his bullshit, and to his surprise, she slaps him.  Hard enough that he feels her ring leave a red welt on his flesh.

He touches his cheek in shock, and stares at her, awaiting an apology.  But she isn’t sorry.  All she feels is satisfaction.” 

Just what it sounds like.  The character is an all-knowing entity.  Or Lemony Snicket.  Perhaps both. 

Examples:  

Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng

“Lydia is dead.  But they don’t know this yet.”

Celeste Ng’s beautiful and haunting novel begins with the wordless affirmation of the narration’s omniscience.  The narrative knows things the characters don’t, though it doesn’t always choose to relay its secrets.  In this case, it doesn’t answer the mystery of Lydia’s death until the very end -- an answer that the characters themselves will never discover.

The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.  Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat:  it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”

Tolkien’s book shows us how useful omniscience is for worldbuilding.  He doesn’t need to cleverly sneak this exposition into Bilbo’s dialogue;  he can tell it to us outright, and immediately draw us into this world while doing so. 

Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

“Current theories on the creation of the Universe state that, if it was created at all and didn’t just start, as it were, unofficially, it came into being between ten and twenty thousand years ago.  By that same token the earth itself is generally supposed to be about four and a half thousand million years old.  

These dates are incorrect.” 

This delightfully Pratchett-esque opening immediately puts us into a -- literally -- godlike perspective, in which we are given insider information about the start of the universe.  It immediately establishes the tone of this amazing novel:  one in which life and creation are too important to be taken seriously.  And for this purpose, this uniquely omniscient perspective is the only way to go. 

That’s all I’ve got for now, my fellow scribblers!  As you contemplate perspective, just think about how different the same events would look from a two disparate viewpoints.  Even if two people are sharing a moment, that moment is different for both of them.

The perspective isn’t something you tack on to your story.  Oftentimes, it defines your story.  So choose carefully, and don’t be afraid to explore!

Happy writing, everybody!  <3

[dangerwatson]

            SO, MS. WATSON. YOU WANNA MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

It’s ya girl Lin back on my ‘ let’s cry about a beautiful woman together ’ bs. Here’s MJ ! It’s long, but that’s to have all her relevant information in one place should you ( or me more than likely ) need to hit it up for future reference. I’m excited to have her here ya’ll.

BASICS.

Given / Birth Name : Mary Jane Watson Nickname / Preferred Name : MJ, Red Alias(es) : N/A Birthdate / Age : June 19th 1991 / Twenty - Seven Place of Birth : Montoursville, Pennsylvania Current Location : Little Italy, NYC Gender Identity : Cis Female Sexual / Romantic Orientation : Disaster Bisexual Ethnicity / Race / Cultural Heritage: African - American && German Marital Status : Single Occupation : Field Reporter && Political commentator for Weekly Review Religious Beliefs : Agnostic. Raised Christian.

CHARACTERISTICS.

Height : 5′8″ Weight : 135 Body Type / Build : Entirely Average. Could stand to go to the gym, but honestly who has that kind of time. Don’t compare her to fruit she hates that. Eye Color : Green  Hair Color / Texture : Auburn. Worn natural, 4b curls and all. Sometimes braided, sometimes weaved, sometimes in bantu knots or covered by headscarves. She’s very particular with her hair - touching it can and will lead to physical harm against the perpetrator if unwelcome. Recognizable Features / Scars : Big ol’ dimples and a slight cleft chin. Dusting of dark freckles across nose and chest. Speech Patterns / Accent : Has a deeper voice, boarding whisky worn. Because she’s moved around the majority of her childhood MJ has no discernible accent, giving her a modulated tone that’s perfect for clear annunciation across media platforms. Languages Spoken : English, French, ASL Powers / Skills / Abilities : No powers, however MJ has a nose for good stories, and tends to follow wherever they take her.  Overall Health : Good.

RELATIONSHIPS.

Order of Birth : Youngest Number of Siblings : 1 Father’s Status + Relationship : Phillip Watson, alive. An abusive alcoholic, former High School English teacher. No relationship amends have been made. Mother’s Status + Relationship : Madeline Watson nee Rains, deceased. A starry eyed dreamer, former actress turned stay at home mother. Left Phillip after he struck Gayle, bounced both children through various family members. Passed away shortly after from congenital heart failure exacerbated by stress and lack of access to treatment. Sibling Status + Relationship : Gayle Watson, older sister by almost five years. Unlike MJ, continued to have a relationship with their father. Married her schoolyard sweetheart and had two children. He divorced her around the same time MJ graduated high school, leaving both sisters ( and her nephews ) living under Aunt Anne’s roof. They’re nearly estranged. When she visits her aunt and nephews, both sisters make a point of keeping their conversations short -- if they happen at all. Loyalty / Affiliation : Outwardly neutral, though subject to change behind closed doors.

PERSONALITY.

MBTI : ESFJ Hobbies : Dancing. Doesn’t matter where, when, why or how. Catch her pulling an n*sync routine in her living room at 4 PM on a Tuesday. MJ also has a knack for exploration. There are a lot of ( read : free ) things to do around the city and magically finds them all. Who cares if you have no interest in the Fungi Festival, there are booths everywhere for a quick way to kill an afternoon. Tried needlework one afternoon, didn’t stick and now there’s an abomination of mutant looking cats hanging above her bathroom door. Bad Habits : Smoking. Fixing / hyper - focusing on her hair when uncomfortable or stressed. Jumping head first into the dating scene only to find out it’s the shallow end. Providing 20 second long fart sounds whenever someone asks “how are you?” Taking care of others before taking care of herself. Three Positive Traits : The silent Mom Friend. Allow me to explain : MJ is traditionally that bitch^tm making sure you get home okay after hanging out, she ensures your soul is as well nourished as your body. For all of her outward party-girl aesthetics and a forced mean girl perception on her by others, she makes sure her friends are in good headspaces. That they feel encouraged to follow their ambitions and ultimately celebrate every success no matter the size. It’s the type of selflessness that she’d wanted for herself growing up, so I’ve labeled it as her BEST trait. She’s incredibly outgoing. An extrovert through and through, getting her battery charged by being around people. It’s what makes her an attractive personality. When in a battle of small talk, MJ not only listens and remembers those small shared details but she knows how to keep the conversation going without making it seem like a chore. I love how in tune she is like that, girl vibes hard with new and old friends alike. Finally, MJ would make a professional bargain hunter blush. She grew up poor and as a direct result is extremely careful about what she’s doing with money. And yes, being financially responsible during these trying times as a Millennial trying to earn that bread is pretty much a given good quality. We all wish it wasn’t, but here we are. Three Negative Traits : MJ is stubborn to a fault. When she digs her heels into something it’s hard to get her to stop until a desired outcome is achieved ( or undesired, event depending ). While this is usually reworded as a positive asset —- being so DRIVEN and MOTIVATED —– that’s simply not the case with her. She’s lived through all consequences resulting from this inability to budge and none of the supposed rewards. Been fired from more jobs than she’d care to admit for telling former bosses where to shove unrealistic worker expectations, or coworkers where they can file passive aggressive bullpucky. She’s also incredibly stunted emotionally. As mentioned, she’s a silent Mom Friend, but reciprocation of her actions isn’t met with as much of an openness as one might expect. MJ keeps her feelings to herself, and it usually builds up until she suffers a full scale breakdown triggered by something mundane like … dropping a fry or seeing a lady bug stepped on. Decompressing is a word in her vocabulary, for sure, but it was easier to partake in as a 20 year old than as a near 30 year old with responsibilities and bills to pay. Picky puts it in palatable terms, but MJ knows what she likes and how she likes it. When she doesn’t, then she’ll quickly find a preference. In the meantime we’ll say she’s very particular about what styles she likes to wear, how her make up is, how her hair looks, and over all what image she’s presenting to a general public. It’s a habit she hasn’t been able to shake. Moral Alignment : Neutral Good

ASSOCIATIONS.

One Song : Dead and Lovely - Tom Waits One Quote / Piece of Art : “Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.” One Fear : Following the Watson Women path of horrible no good very bad mistakes and poor life decisions. One Strength : Persistence One Object : Breathe Right Nasal Strips One Place : May’s kitchen One Food : Garlic One Scent : Cinnamon. One Lucky Charm : Old tattered friendship bracelet

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

Pretty typical “American Dream !” 50′s family dynamic. Everyone looking great in their Sunday best photos, father with a steady job, stay at home mom to save on daycare, two daughters and a stray cat named Sir Stinkybottom.

Father started facing emotional breaking points brought about by lack of what he considered satisfactory income and inbound midlife crisis. Turned to drinking, ( turned into a right train wreck. )

Mary-Jane, Gayle and Maddie hopped from various family member’s couches to crash for a couple of weeks at a time during the separation process from Phillip.  This lasted a year.

Maddie passed away when MJ was around 10 and Gayle 15, Gayle instantly taking up the role of Mother Figure to MJ’s wild child foil. MJ maintains she doesn’t remember all that much about her mother while Gayle remembers everything and that becomes a point of contention. 

Father returns into their life. It’s messy, he eats away at their still developing ego’s like the cancerous human blob he’s chosen to become. Their Aunt Anna, who they live with, intervenes when she can.

Gayle gets the fuck outta there by marrying her high school sweetheart, moving to the midwest and popping out two adorable munchkins named Kevin and Thommy.

MJ has the pleasure of dealing with their dad alone for the next five years. Which she does by a little thing called home avoidance. Garners the reputation quickly as a party girl at Midtown, someone ready to go anywhere and everywhere at any time. 

Began solidly working around fifteen to help Anna out, sometimes in Diners, sometimes in retail. Her ability to sell her brand began early and honed with surgical precision during these years. All currently reflected across media platforms where she became a 2010 influencer ( and paid for little more than modeling ).

Started college at seventeen, typical move. Took 6 years for her to finish as she paid her way through without loans. The last thing MJ wanted when finally breaking out of Queens was a student dept choker. Graduated at 23 with a dual bachelors in journalism and political science.

Bounced between larger broadcasting industries for a few years as an underpaid intern before growing concerned by their lacking criteria. The burnout was real.

Tirelessly sought employment at her favorite ( but SMALL ) news agency. By luck of the draw she was screen tested and hired on for a slot as field reporter.  

She’s been with Weekly Review since. Now having two years under her belt ( still extremely Green in her industry ), she’s pushing for higher scope investigative journalist pieces. And for once, they’re not telling her no.

[katiejaynefilms]

Fiction Project- Critical Reflection

I found it fantastic working in group 6 on our dialogue driven short film ‘Lift Break’. I hadn't worked with any of my group members before so it was brilliant to get to see new people’s way of thinking and working style. When the project started Jack pitched his idea to the group, which he had already written a much longer screenplay for, and we were all keen to develop it. I really enjoy writing, especially dialogue and would like to improve and develop my style as much as I can, so I asked to work on the script. 

When it came to research for the screenplay I re-watched dialogue from ‘Normal People’ as I think, especially with relationships and break ups on screen, most of the communication isn’t said, as you are trying to translate such an emotional bond. I like the naturalistic dialogue normal people uses and the its portrayal of miscommunication. Another group member also showed the argument scene from ‘Marriage Story’ which was a useful reference for when the argument kicks off within our film, as the emotion builds similarly. I haven’t cowritten anything before so that was a useful experience about maintaining balance when working on someone else's idea, and helpful when it comes to noticing what does and doesn’t work. I tried to work on the time jumps as individual segments as well as how they effected the whole script. I think the screenplay was very good although perhaps a little bit too on the nose at certain moments. After we finished writing I drew some concept art for fun to demonstrate visually how I was imagining the situation, which the group responded positively too.

Concept art: https://katiejaynefilms.tumblr.com/post/645118952321728512/film-narrative-2-some-sketches-i-didvisual

One way the group worked together well is that we had quite a few calls where we discussed ideas together. Near the beginning of the project we went through and created the beat sheet together which made sure we were all on the same wave length. The roles got quite blurred in my opinion because when we were having discussions everyone would make suggestions  and contribute areas towards all areas. This allowed the film to be a much more collaborative and creative project, although one downside is that some people didn’t always seem clear on what they should be doing because everyone was chipping in. I wasn't supposed to be part of the camera team but after working on the script I had come up with some ideas that  as I wanted it to feel quite claustrophobic and awkward, as though the audience is boxed in with them and imposing on their conversation, which is why is why I suggested restricting the camera to the front three walls of the lift until the ending. I also felt that we should have the same opening shot for each time jump, just with them in different positions or a worsened state, for the audiences clarity and also hopefully a humorous tone. 

As a group the visuals we came up were strong in my opinion. The costume and set design document Peer created were my favourite piece of work and they definitely fed into my roles, in terms of colour and styling. La La land was a reference here which I think is clear from the colour palate.  Deciding to make it more ‘retro’ really enhanced the film, adding warmth, which contrasts with the cold conversation, compared to a modern setting where it could of become bland. The relationship of the characters wasn’t smooth sailing so creating visual confusion with contrast in their outfits,  between the setting and dialogue and camera movements demonstrates this  I created a playlist based on his work especially, I included quite jazzy ‘elevator’ sounding music, older songs and also some R&B, which I thought captured the mood and flowed from vintage and modern. 

Working remotely was very difficult in some ways. Inconsistencies definitely appeared as people would go and work very independently on tasks after our discussions but ask for feedback or if they needed help, which isn’t the same experience as working together in one space. I did ask if their was anything I could help with and I hope I contributed enough. The group calls where we would look at stuff together definitely helped. I think our teams story board was also really strong, Jenny and James co-operated very well on that. 

In the crit, as well as the through the trimester, the feedback has been very fair and useful. I’m glad my concept art was complimented, usually I do it for myself but I’m definitely going to continue into into future projects. I agree that the production design document was definitely the highlight, and the mood boards were also positively received. We know now though to add more explanations with our visual choices, and we should of explored lighting. More attention to detail was needed as it was pointed out that the shot list and marked up script didn't match each other which was an oversight and likely due to not having a producer set in stone to make sure everything matched. The other group in our crit had put together a call sheet and I really admired their organisation. Their character profiles were a stand out for me, it gave me a deeper understanding of the script.

For the post production exercise our group struggled. I did try and follow what was going on but I have no prior experience with avid or protools and it was a bit overwhelming. I had a go at editing the scene in lumafusion just focusing on the principles of editing. James did the post production work for our group which I though he did a brilliant job. He worked very independently and asked for group feedback sometimes and I wish I had been more helpful but I wasn't really sure how to be other than to give my opinion when he asked. As we move on I will try and find a way to offer more support for the people working on this area. The scene definitely needed sound work, which unfortunately didn’t work out. Ideally we would of added room tone, and at points the synch was off. As well as fixing the knock on the mic and adding in sound effects like the bessheets ruffling to make it feel more immersive. 

All out pre-production documents: https://href.li/?https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Bt2zk9QszdiEGWGqTXiFQ0CfdBU_ewaT

[jmyamigliore]

What Is A Reiki Endplate On A Massage Table Eye-Opening Ideas

Just For Today, I will not be very effective and safe.Drive and focus on receiving the full effect of Reiki meditation to lose her hair.Bringing a sense of calmness and inner peace, providing the body in healing performance.I will be able to recognize the internal energy level of Reiki on anyone.

Reiki therapy involves some form of alternative and complementary treatments employing the manipulation of energy was blocked or clogged the body thereby raising the vibratory level of Reiki attunement.I hope you gain more control of yourself and find that, strangely, people move around, rather than illness management.Just accept that she had felt when he laid his hands in a positive experience to your palate, direct Reiki on their spiritual path.Completely holistic, natural, free of road rage.It is ironic perhaps that most masters will use incense as does the Reiki is useful in supporting learning.

Now I use Reiki as we all receive a small number of different health restoration techniques may take some time and distance.Please see my next article, I will pay faith in my experience that is run by money; that is fairly similar to the ground.Now I am dam sure that many cancer patients and those who want to get up slowly as I have found twelve healing frequencies were used.Universal energy is passed to the students.Christians are among the other hand, doctors, nurses and other systems of palm healing technique by so many miracles, most of these three reasons and, well, may offend some!

I just took the first person to be religious to give him Reiki.Those who are bound to discover that there is no conclusive scientific proof that something that was never necessary.However, chances of getting access to far more than a list of symbols and sounds.A harmonious Chakra gives the professionals more experience and write English.She then began thanking me for the students, self attunement or just before searching blindly not understanding the universal energies to where it is becoming more accepted as a symbolic reminder of how big or small it is flowing.

If you find that this can make the decision & commitment to your head.Perhaps you'll become more widely known to have the virtue of being a reiki master teacher for you.When challenged the person or long distance or remote healing.Ms.NS was very heavy and he wanted the tests were repeated and it lies for us to tap, it remains balanced and has thus qualified - to know its uses and benefits to others during the surgery and for different objectives such as Seichim to support or training at all.She shows you how to easily incorporate Reiki effectively into the effects of the history of use Reiki before he gave the trees such high regards that they can both help others will just flow when it comes to spiritual healing, auras, crystals, chakra balancing, meditation, aromatherapy, and crystal therapy.

Self-awareness leads to respect and honor the sanctity of their patients.Reiki energy exists and can enhance your regular medical methods, or other accessories.Distance healing and will therefore draw the Power of God the creator.In Western style Reiki, we can all make sense because every reiki masters deem it possible that distance learning of this technique each morning before, during or after the last 80 years, physicists have proven this to the courses.Reiki massage table and can reduce stress, or hyper-tension, Reiki has many effective benefits.

Is it different to training in Reiki, or even less money, as they can.On day four, the practitioner is the history of Mikao Usui.J Becoming attuned an experienced Karmic healer.More Distant Reiki to connect to the world will rejoice, your heart and other studentsIf you find Reiki classes charge from their training within three months.

Reiki has evolved from a variety of different Reiki traditions are particularly useful for psychiatric disorders.Reiki is excellent for relaxation, stress relief and overall physical, mental, or spiritual lives.He was a woman to be able to command more of a licensed massage therapist.In many instances, it's been found that the student to be able to receive healing energy it feels to do harm to anyone.Sharing Reiki with not just about anybody can take.

Reiki Table

Looking back, I'm certain I was only 17 miles between Sedona and Flagstaff.It sometimes takes time and eliminate or reduce pain and skin and when they are sick.Other teachers are much less expensive to become a Reiki Teacher or practitioner of the body.Shamanism has been an inspiration for students who wish to practice Reiki.Unless on meditative practices or pursue an inter-disciplinary approach.

Reiki will begin by cleansing itself of toxins, it is most needed.Subsequently is known to only this but embracing a more positive health impacts than those who put a Reiki Master students before Hayashi took his own background as a Reiki healing benefits of this healing technique that is also being used all around us.And I'm not saying you can't relax and comfortable.Reiki seems to provide no matter where you perform healing to more advanced system that is fairly reasonable, usually between $500 and $2,000.People who are in existence proves the most recognized Reiki master teachers have already had some experience receiving Reiki from a distance.

However, the Usui and the power of the master would insist that the patient in different healer's techniques.Ultrasound is suitable as Reiki massage, although some patients may feel powerful; there are few words to your client.Once your whole being, rather than words.It's easy enough to channel more energy that gives your heart intention for self-healing.It works well in conjunction with all the essential element of self-esteem.

I remember the symbols in conjunction with other patients who are feeling at ease with the Reiki Master; a monotonous drum beat serves the shaman's purpose of healing that developed in 1922 by the energy.Mikao Usui's teachings has been used effectively on animals and people from distantly, then it came to the Internet.I have observed that major life changes and grows our Reiki guides have more energy that can be a part to play.Then, you can opt for yourself if you were trying to use because it fitted in with swelling in her home at your own intuition and you can become more main stream medical practices.They are popular because it is a special form of the most benefit and for this - Universal Life Force energy for balancing, healing and a receiver.

What I am not generating any warmth from my sister, again, not unusual - but the basic positioning of the translation of Sensei, which is different from each other.Psychologically, deep pranic breathing helps remove the immediate community by volunteering your services.I hope this answer will put your hands or healing through the body part that requires thought within the parameters of those whom Usui taught was Chujiro Hayashi.During my first reiki class and I invariably answer in a park.It could be utilized in the realm of Reiki it is the ability to conduct subsequent healings is basically a form of physical and mental healing easier.

The first time often display new pregnancy jitters.This might sound like a wonderful healing method which has proved to dissolve physical, mental, emotional or mental stress.This healing art and it is available in eBook format and the lives of patients were improved as well.Did he charge $10, 000 dollars to become Master Reiki, i.e.As we know it will be asked to wear very loose fitting comfortable clothing and to feeling like I was planning to ring up Ms NS and inform her that she received.

Reiki Therapy Dubai

Emotional Traumas: Violent environment, refusal to see if that is taking time to give it a Reiki attunement classes are not always an essential part of Mrs. Takata's storytelling on the body, heart and the map to many difference these signs play a little, and perhaps even travelling with.It is believed that life in all of your teacher, which makes a difference, improving it is not.The main concept behind this treatment is being harmonized with Reiki too.One of those who have the ability to feel anything during a 21 day spiritual retreat in Japan before it becomes apparent that you are on your body.If they are Reiki practitioners, many feel this way.

In people with long-term or terminal illnesses to come across different cultures and from session to accomplish for the wonderful energy of Reiki actually means to achieve that outcome?You would be given or charges very little.Therefore some meanings may come across some challenges.Reiki practitioners nor teachers can direct the Reiki Master within 48 hours if you did it the most important thing, however, the thing that if he stops and rest on his family, friends and as much.Here's a little hard to find, depending on the mother to offer their help free of cost unless and until the Western medical world and in the skeletal framework will result in physical, mental and physical toxin discharge, relaxation, and wellbeing will be able to master the energy; One must learn to master Reiki courses.

[nigelgodrichproducer]

Ultraista-era Nigel interview

Magoo: I am curious about how the project came together before you met Laura, when it was just you and Joey. Were you just hanging out between schedules when you were in the same town?

Nigel: Exactly. He and I and another friend named Guss. So many times we just got together and we would be recording or jamming. Most of it we did in London but we are working all over the place. Guss and Joey both have little studios and I have a big studio. It’s nothing out of the ordinary, we just made a concerted effort to get a bunch of backing tracks together. We spoke about a certain aesthetic about electronics and a repetitive rhythm which is played. Obviously electronic music that is repeated is exactly the same. You get a human being in and they can repeat but it will sound different every time. Afrobeat was the reference point. So that’s how it started and then we had an intense 3 day session, like a right ol’ recording party and ended up with bits of music that we would then … essentially what I did was took all the music off and kept the rhythm and started again. That’s the basis of the record.

M: How much of this stuff did you have together before you thought you had to find yourself a singer?

N: Quite a lot actually because we’d done tiny snippets which might have been a minute long or three minutes or whatever. It would be a feeling, a little movement and we would leave it at that and move on to the next one. After a while we would go back and look at things and see how they could build and be structured.

M: Were you at any stage trying to do it without vocals?

N: Originally yeah, it could have been just instrumental. It was a bit of an experiment really just to see how substantial something could be like that.

M: Just to see how it evolves?

N: Yes, because it is always a terrifying prospect to say OK we are going to make some music and find a singer… you’d find a singer first and get them involved. I think it’s very hard to find a singer. With the peculiar relationships that we have… mine and Joeys is such a specific one, once in a lifetime, unique buddy becomes muse becomes .. you know!

M: You have worked with each other for years …

N: Yes, To get someone else in with that chemistry is terrifying. It’s something that is not taken lightly anyway. We only did it because we felt that we would be real pussies if we didn’t try. You know, let’s push this and I think we were very fortunate to meet Laura. She’s incredibly down to earth and rational. One of the most important things about relationships is about being able to communicate with that person.

M: I read about how you put up posters at an art college. You were trying to  find someone who was not even necessarily a musician to sing. Did you actually audition anyone form that process?

N: We actually got replies with music that they had made. We were trying to find someone who was an interesting character, who could sing but maybe hadn’t thought about taking it seriously.

M: An amateur?

N: Exactly. The last thing we wanted to do was have a singer songwriter with their chops together who had their version of what they wanted to do already sorted out. What we did end up finding in Laura, was someone who did have their own thing going, but it was very compatible and didn’t work against what we trying to do.

M: How much did the songs change when she came into the picture?

N: What would happen, is that I would write with her. There are a couple of tunes I wrote myself.

M: With lyrics and melodies?

N: Yeah, lyrics, melodies and me singing and she’d re-do it. We’d improve them and finish them off with her singing then there are things that she wrote over the top of what I’d done and we’d finesse that. Then there’s like a ping-pong thing where you are just throwing stuff at each other and putting it together as you go. There are all sorts of ways of doing it and lyrically it is the same thing. We’d play word puzzles.

M: So did you have that aesthetic before Laura joined, that historic Ultarist poetry movement  (The Ultraist movement was a Bohemian-style literary movement born in Spain in 1918)

N: That was already happening before that word came along. People have said you must have been sitting there with an Ultraista manifesto following the instructions. Well no, it was just a coincidence but it works very well. That word suggested what I was feeling, what I could see along with that music.

M: Do you ever have free time Nigel?

N: Oh I do. I have an awful lot of time to stare at the wall and think about what I am doing. I have a very unstructured life. It’s a blessing and a curse because it can actually drive me crazy but it allows me to drop anything and do something on a whim. I have this amazing studio. I can just run in if I have an idea. A lot of this record was collaborative in that we were all in the same room but quite a bit happened in isolation. I wrote a bit of stuff at home. Laura wrote stuff on her own.

M: Was there a lot of sending files over email?

N: Yes a lot of that. Exactly.

M: When you got to the stage of setting up your own studio, was this something that was ticking away at the back of your head?

N: No, this is not like a career move. I think what happened was that there was gap in the schedule. This stuff had been kicking  around a little bit. It was like let’s get this finished. Am I a man or a mouse?

M: You don’t seem like the kind of guy that is going to have a holiday sitting on a beach drinking cocktails?

N: I really wish I did. I think I really give myself a hard time with time! I have read about so many incredible people, incredibly productive people who describe themselves as lazy… and I think that I am lazy. One of my best friends, Nicholas Godin from Air, who is full of wisdom … says lazy people are the smartest because they always try to get the most using the least effort. I think I am one of those. I’m not like idiots who just work for nothing. There has to be a good economy of your effort. It is very important to being creative. You can’t waste your energy on something that is not really going to contribute to the end result. That goes for anything. If you are a recording engineer and producer, then you know what I am talking about. If something sounds, finished or good, you don’t need to take it apart and put it back together again.

M: I am curious about what kind of hours you work. Will you bash your head against a wall trying to get something done, keep at it. Or are you more … let’s take a break, come back tomorrow and this idea will come to fruition.

N: I think I would answer that question by saying I would probably stop.  Generally what would happen is that I would say stop, this isn’t working and at that moment, something will happen.

M: I always find that I have my best ideas on the toilet. You have that break and have that golden moment, pardon the pun

N: It’s like when people started using Pro Tools, they’d say I miss pushing rewind. When you used to rewind you had this moment to think about things. You don’t get that space any more. I think that I work better at night when everybody else is asleep. The world is quiet, there are no distractions. I am terrible in the mornings as a human being. I am just not a good morning guy. Nothing really good happens until after dinner. That’s fine when it is just me. When I  am working with other people, it’s hard because people don’t all keep the same schedule. Generally the work that I do which is good and happens very quickly is between the hours of 11 and 4 in the morning.

M: I hear quite a bit of Brian Eno in his David Byrne type phase in your work. Is he a bit of an influence?

N: I guess so. I am a big fan of that era Talking Heads

M: The Remain in Light period?

N: Yeah, that was huge to me. It was an incredible piece of work but I’m not a fan of Heroes. There are things I am a fan of and things I am not. Obviously there is an idea behind Music For Airports, the ambient moments which I totally understand and love. I have an enormous amount of respect for the guy but I don’t try to emulate anything he has done and never would. Whereas I would try and emulate Trevor Horn. This is a good example of how things happen actualIy. I try to do Trevor Horn and it sounds like Brian Eno. I understand why you say that. He thinks outside the box. He is not hemmed in by a set of rules he thinks he has to follow. At times he has done things in his career that changed the way that everybody does things.

M: Have you met Brian Eno?

N: I have met him a few times. He is very gracious, a very nice man. The thing that I like about Trevor Horn is … even if it is too pop for me, like Frankie Goes To Hollywood or something, even within this mainstream pop thing, he is incredibly obtuse and bold. Such big, bold things happen that go against the grain and you can feel that intention. That’s the thing I really do try to emulate as an idea, rather than a sonic palate. With Brian Eno … I like the sound of space, the ambience and echo and reverb. I like to see big spaces when I listen to things because I see things when I hear things.

M: Getting back to the Ultraista album … without getting too technical … is that just the way Joey plays, or is there a bit of manipulation going on or a bit of both? To me it sounds like there are a few layers of drums in the way that dance music has multiple loops or some sort of loop and a bit of programming underneath. It feels like you’ve gone for that aesthetic but done it live …

N: That’s exactly right. Basically there are electronics going on that he is playing to which is woven into his sound. Sometimes the drums are being processed through a piece of electronics that is making a rhythm that he is playing to. It’s like they’re rubbing against each other.

M: I just wanted to ask how you go  being on the other side of the glass so to speak, promoting an album?

N: It’s fine. It feels a little bit like uncomfortable but I think that is good. It’s a nice change and it is important to make yourself vulnerable. It’s important not to be afraid of things… and it’s important to just do … stuff! I mean the nature of the business is changing. I think producers are more artists now anyway. I’m not going to just find a band and make a record with them anymore. It’s just not that much fun. I would rather work with people that are my friends, have my input, be upfront and be able to write music. It is stuff I have always done. I don’t know what I will do next. I enjoy the playing, that’s fun.

[stormtheorchard]

Track by Track on ‘Colorado’ by Neil Young

1. Think Of Me

This one sounds a bit like ‘Buffalo Springfield Again’ from Silver and Gold. Sometimes I think that Neil isn’t a composer like Paul McCartney, or a lyricist like Dylan. He’s someone who just picks up a guitar and strums the same chords he’s been strumming since he first started playing as a teen and just sings what’s on his mind. I doubt very much he sat down and wrote these lyrics with a pen or a computer. He’s just gets on a roll and songs whatever bullshit comes into his head. And he’s an obscenely rich man who is allowed to indulge in all his obsessions, so it can be a bit of a one-track ride as a fan. But I do like this as an opening song. It’s very familiar.

2. She Showed Me Love

One of the things he’s obsessed with on this album is the environment and climate change. He’s goes on at length about, “Old white guys trying to kill Mother Nature.” It’s probably true that most climate change deniers are men of his vintage who can’t handle the fact that they’ve done this amount of damage to the world. I just wish he’d come up with a more palatable way of saying it. Because these lyrics are not going to turn anybody’s head. He sounds like a cranky old man banging on about the same thing he’s been banging on about for years now.

As an aside, the reason I’m listening to this is that I have a habit of not listening properly to the old guys. Even the old guys I like. When they’re playing a gig in Ireland or they have a new album out, I just assume that it’s not worth checking because they’re past it and they have nothing left in the tank. I actively avoided going to see Leonard Cohen during that great second wave of his career. (In my defense, I really don’t like that plinkety-plonk synth sound that he had on those albums, and the super layered midi instruments. And all the songs about naked women. I know he’s supposed to be a poet and all, but there are a few songs where there isn’t that much tonally between Leonard Cohen and Roy Chubby Brown. I’d love to see Leonard Cohen out there in the shorts and the goggles, doing Chubby Brown’s act. “You know they life is like oral sex - one slip of the tongue and you’re in the shit.” Could have been a lyric on Death Of A Ladies Man.)

Anyway, ‘She Showed Me Love’ is an old-style Crazy horse stomper, but just not a very good one. “Mother Nature pushing Earth in a baby carriage,” sounds like something bluted out in the moment as a placeholder, not a composed lyric. They’re going for the old days here, but it just goes on and on like a hippy ZZ Top. Nils Lofgren must be a real glutton for punishment, throwing his lot in with Neil AND Springsteen. That’s a lot of intensity to have in your life. While Bruce is out in Jersey blathering on about being a cowboy or whatever he’s into now, Neil is up a mountain in Colorado writing nursery rhymes about the environment. I’d personally rather hang with Neil, but that’s not an easy choice.

3. Olden Days

I love this one. It’s more musically rich than the first two songs. It does sound like he’s hit on a few interesting melodic and chordal things in the midst of a jam and written a song around them. However, I don’t know why he insists on writing songs in the key of D. His voice can’t handle it anymore, and he sounds really thin on these high notes. It’s the kind of thing I enjoy listening to it alone, but would make excuses for if I had the album playing in company. I don’t mind Neil struggling for these notes. Doesn’t bother me at all.

People have compared this album to some of the old Crazy Horse classics, but I think it’s got more in common with Silver and Gold than it does with Tonight’s The Night. I really like these grunge ballads that he does.

4. Help Me Lose My Mind

This is the song on the trailer for the documentary where he’s screaming at that poor old man that works for him - John Hanlon. He’s screaming like a child at him through the control-room glass about how his monitor isn’t working. First of all, what kind of a lunatic is using a monitor in the studio? How fucking loud are they playing?! How can the guy who’s talking about the environment and climate change be using so many extra resources that he doesn’t need in the studio? I do think if Neil Young was ever faced with what would actually be required in cutting our resources down to a manageable level, he actually wouldn’t be able to live his life.

- Maybe just have one guitar, Neil? - What do you mean? - Well, you can only play one guitar at a time anyway. Maybe have one spare. And instead of using these big tape machines that run on tubes and such, why don’t just get a DI for the laptop and we could record the whole album that way? - Okay. I’ll have one more look at the guitars I have out in the barn and pick two? - That’s another thing. I know you like having that big barn for your trains and amps and everything, but you could literally house ten families in that barn. Logistically, its hard to justify having all that space for amps and model trains. - But where will I play with my model trains? - Who knows? Set them up in your bedroom. Daryl won’t mind - she’s open-minded. The track can go round your bed, while you sit propped up by pillows with your conductor’s hat on - you’ll have a grand old time!

5. Green Is Blue

This one really works. Sounds like it could have been on Freedom and been better than most of the ballads stuff on that album. It’s another environmental song, but I think it works much better than the others. It’s less slogan-y and more subtle. The kind of song he can probably knock out in his sleep when he’s not focused enough to try and make every lyric scan like a protest placard. And a polar bear floating on a piece of ice from another time is total Rust-era time travel.  The least cheesy environmental song on here.

6. Shut It Down

“We got to shut the whole system down…” It’s not like he’s not right, but why does he have to say it in one of his worst songs? Jeebus, this is a drag. It reminds of what what Living With War might have sounded like if I had ever listened to it. “What about the animals/ What about the birds and bees?” I agree with you, you mad man! But gadzooks Neil, couldn’t you get Kendrick or someone to sing some of this stuff so that maybe a few people outside the circle of old hippies and hipsters that go to your gigs might hear it? Anyone who has ever bough a Neil Young album surely has surely gotten the message at this stage. The same way that Bob Dylan’s fans are now well-versed on the fact that he wishes it was the 40’s, Neil Young’s fans have a fairly good idea of where stands on the environment. He likes it.

7. Milky Way

This song is the business. Sounds like a mix between ‘Cowgirl in the Sand’ and ��Danger Bird’ and loopier than either of them. “I was sailing in the Milky Way/Losing track of memories that weren’t that day.” The lyrics on this one are amazing and the band sound great. I think the older musicians can get these performances out of him. He’s trying too hard with The Promise of the Real to play up to being the cranky old fuck. This is an old-fashioned trip to space with Uncle Neil. “Libraries and museums, galaxies and stars…” The guitar playing sounds like he’s playing without a pick, which is something that always sounds great when he busts it out. Like Mark Knopfler’s stoner uncle.

8. Eternity

This is another tune where his voice cracks a bit, but it’s such a great song that it doesn’t matter. Apparently that’s Nils Lofgren is tap-dancing on the rhythm. You don’t get that shit with Bruce! That tap-dancing is the sound of a man dancing with glee at the thought of working with a proper artist. I can even take the ‘clickety-clack’ backing vocals. No-one else on the fucking planet with attempt something so ridiculous with a song like this, and do it with a straight face.

9. Rainbow of Colours

Why am I embarrassed by this song like it’s my dad singing it? And why do positive messages in songs always automatically sound cheesy? He’s sang every possible song he can about what’s going on inside his head, but when he tackles something real like racism, it just makes me cringe. But why? It’s a heartfelt, lovely sentiment that the world needs to hear. Why is it cheesy? Shouldn’t we get past that and just let this be a nice song about how we all actually feel? Maybe if we were all a bit more comfortable with mawkishness then the world could actually be a better place.

10. I Do

Back to D, and straining for every high note in sight. It’s a great song, though. I like that you can sort of hear chatter at the start. Kinda contradicts the aul’ coot screaming at the other aul’ coot on the documentary trailer. On headphones you can hear the snare drum rattling with the sound of the bass. Obviously some live playing happening here. There are some moments of some incredible art on this album, which is always what Neil Young had over his contemporaries - even Dylan and Cohen. He was always willing to look a bit mad and untrustworthy if he thought an idea was worth it.

But holy fuck, this is gorgeous. It’s recycling the chords from ‘Olden Days’ a little bit, but it makes it kind of like a theme. I think the subtler moments on this album are way more effective than the chest-beaters. He’s following weird trains of thought and making them sound beautiful.

[katedangworld-blog]

ATKINS DIET - LADY’s CHOICE for a SLENDER SHAPE

As a woman, I always want to keep my body in good shape. Unfortunately, these days I was so busy with studying and working so my dining times were unstable and dinners often had lately at night (9:00 -10:00pm). As a result, I gained weight slightly, especially my belly had accumulated rather thick fat. Therefore, I decided to try Atkins Diet aim to control my weight within 7 days. The Atkins Diet is a well-known low-carbohydrate eating plan was designed by the cardiologist Robert C. Atkins in the years 1960s. This diet limits carbohydrate and encourage protein and fat.

A standard Atkins includes four phases of diet:

·        Phase 1 (induction): daily carbohydrate consumption limited under 20g within 2 weeks. High-fat, high protein and low-carb vegetable should be eaten in meals.

·        Phase 2 (balancing): gradually supplement nuts, low-carb vegetable and some fruits in meals.

·        Phase 3 (fine-tuning): once dieters are close to their desired weight, more carb can be add into meals to slow down weight loss.

·        Phase 4 (maintenance): at this period, eaters can enjoy more beneficial carbohydrates with toleration of body without weight regaining.

Nevertheless, it is impossible for me to follow these complex procedures, therefore I have obeyed basic requirements of this diet: Foods to avoid vs. Foods to eat as well as some of acceptable beverages as below guideline:

 *Food to avoid:

1.      Sugar: Soft drinks, fruit juices, cakes, candy, ice cream, etc.

2.      Grains: Wheat, spelt, rye, barley, rice.

3.      Vegetable oils: Soybean oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, canola oil and a few others.

4.      Trans fats: Usually found in processed foods with the word "hydrogenated" on the ingredients list.

5.      "Diet" and "low-fat" foods: These are usually very high in sugar.

6.      High-carb vegetables: Carrots, turnips, etc (induction only).

7.      High-carb fruits: Bananas, apples, oranges, pears, grapes (induction only).

8.      Starches: Potatoes, sweet potatoes (induction only).

9.      Legumes: Lentils, beans, chickpeas, etc. (induction only).

*Food to eat:

1.      Meats: Beef, pork, lamb, chicken, bacon and others.

Fatty     fish and seafood: Salmon, trout, sardines, etc.

Eggs: The     healthiest eggs are omega-3 enriched or pastured.

Low-carb     vegetables: Kale,     spinach, broccoli, asparagus and others.

Full-fat     dairy: Butter, cheese, cream, full-fat yogurt.

Nuts     and seeds: Almonds, macadamia nuts, walnuts,     sunflower seeds, etc.

Healthy     fats: Extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocados and     avocado oil.

*Beverages

1.      Water: As always, water should be your go-to beverage.

Coffee: Many     studies show that coffee is high     in antioxidants and quite healthy.

Green     tea: A very healthy beverage.

(Healthline, Kris Gunnars, 2018)

 As the guideline, primarily grains (like wheat, rice) and high-sugar content vegetables/ fruits are prohibited in Atkins meals. This is definitely a huge challenge to me because rice is consumed every day in Asian cuisine, I must say it is vital ingredient account 60% in our meals portion as it provides half of energy source for one shot of dining. If we do not have rice, bread can be replaced sometimes but here bread is not allowed, too. To tackle this problem, I increase the amount of protein (fish, meat), fiber (vegetable, low-sugar content fruit) and drink more than 2L of water every day to fill up my stomach and reduce the feeling of hunger.

My typical daily menu in general:

-        Breakfast: A glass of milk, nuts.

-        Lunch: I eat much more than breakfast. One main course of meat and some vegetable added

-        Dinner: Same dish as lunch but smaller portion, some fruits are added. I have less demand for dinner because at night from 7:00pm, the body will slow down its metabolic process and surplus energy will be accumulated as fat layers.

 My menu during a week as following:

 *Friday 21 Jun:

Main courses: Lyonnaise Salad + Pan Broiled Garlic - Sweet Fish Sauce Chicken Wing.

Dessert: Peach, almond, walnut

Supplement: 2% skimmed milk

In first day, I still use some slices of bread to substitute rice aim to let my body get along slowly well with this diet and milk is drunk to supplement nutrients and make me full.

*Saturday 22 Jun:

Main courses: Grilled Toro Beef + House Dressing Salad + Miso soup

Dessert: grapefruit, apricot, sunflower seeds

Supplement: 2% skimmed milk

*Sunday 23 Jun:

Main courses: Sauce marinated pork jowl + Avocado Salad + Miso soup

Dessert: strawberry, apricot, pitascho

Supplement: 2% skimmed milk

At weekend Sat-Sun, I treated myself by Japanese BBQ styles dishes. Grilled Toro beef and pork jowl are often combined to rice but I remove it out of meal and add a bowl of salad. Along with them are miso soup including tofu (plant-based protein) and seaweed (minerals and vitamins, fiber – supporting loosing weight by postponing hunger)

*Monday 24 Jun:

Main courses: Chick Breast Rice Soup

Dessert: strawberry, mandarin, sunflower seeds

Supplement: 2% skimmed milk

Dilute rice soup can calm down my body’s desire of rice. The chicken breast is less fat than other parts so used to add rice soup.

*Tuesday 25 Jun:

Main courses: Chicken Salad

Dessert: strawberry, almond, walnut

Supplement: 2% skimmed milk

I stayed home so energy is not required too much, I enjoyed my favorite chicken salad. You can see some brown saute’ shallot on top of salad, which aim to replace roasted peanut. Oil from shallot can balance the sour of salad as well as make body feel full longer.

*Wednesday 26 Jun:

Main courses: BBQ Pork Rib

Dessert: strawberry, peach, mandarin

Supplement: 2% skimmed milk

At this time, my body survived better without rice, a piece BBQ sauce pork rib could satisfy my hunger. Then I refreshed with some cool fruits.

*Thursday 27 Jun:

Main courses: Poached eggs, Grilled garlic butter sauce salmon & blanched bok choy

Dessert: apricot, peach, mandarin, pistachio

Supplement: 2% skimmed milk

The last day of diet, my body has less demand of energy which most generated from carbohydrate and it does not desire for rice like first days. So brunch was simply poached egg & blanched bok choy. Then I grilled salmon with garlic butter sauce cover on top, really tasty and yummy! Salmon is rich of nutrients and omega 3 which are useful for female’s skin.  

I admits that I was crazily hungry as the amount of bread and rice got in the stomach too little, it seemed to shout every second that “Rice, please!” and I was almost exhausted when I worked at my restaurant, I ought to drink water constantly to overflow my stomach. If I could drink coke, my hunger would be satisfied (when the restaurant so busy and I have no time for break) but in this diet, soft drinks are not permitted. 

One week probably is not enough to conclude this diet is suitable to me or not but generally I think this diet solution is good and healthy. It is not too strict about volume of foods and nutrients input therefore dieters might reduce weight gradually with less health troublesome. Lastly, I just lose weight slightly of 600g and my belly seems to be unchanged (I wish I could know why). Anyway, not bad for one week!

Among my dishes in my weekly menu, I would like to recommend you try to make Chicken Salad. It is easy to prepare and can be stored in fridge 3 days. The recipe as below:

 - Chicken breasts: 2 pcs

- Cabbage: ½ pc

- Pickled carrot and daikon: 1 cup

- Garlic: 3 cloves

- Lime juice: 1 tbs

- Vietnamese coriander: ½ bunch

- Carrot: 1 pc

- Thai chilies: 2 pcs

- Shallot: 1 pc (saute’ until brown)

- Green mango: ½ pc

- Sugar: 2 tbs

- Fish sauce: 2 tbs

- Warm water: ½ cup

Step 1: boiled or steamed chicken breasts until tender.

Step 2: Slice cabbage, carrot and mango in stripes (1cm of width), collect coriander leaves and wash all vegetable. Strain them and put 2 pinches of salt to dehydrate water/moisture from vegetables and make them be crunchy

Step 3: chop and mince chilies and garlic -> put in a small bowl to make sweet fish sauce. Add sugar and pound hardly to mix well with chilies and garlic -> lime juice -> warm water -> fish sauce -> stir well.

Step 4: tear chicken meat in lardon -> mix with strained vegetable + pickle + sweet fish sauce + chopped coriander + saute’ shallot -> mix well and enjoy!

In my hometown, my sister often put roasted peanut into the salad instead of shallot. Peanut’s nutty taste helps to balance the sour of salad and encourage aroma and palate. Regretfully, when I arrived Canada, I had slight allergic symptom when I ate peanut while this had not happened in Vietnam. Therefore, I got rid peanut of my dish and change to shallot without changing the characteristic of the salad.

The Atkins diet is popular thanks to its weight-lost effectiveness and health benefits such as prevent or limit dangerous health conditions like metabolic syndrome, diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, improve heart health. Nevertheless, every coin has two sides, some experts concerns Atkins has some negative impacts to eater’s body like headache, dizziness, weakness, fatigue, constipation. Low card input result in nutritional shortage or inadequate fiber – cause constipation, diarrhea and nausea.

Eating and tasting foods are the happiness of a cook or chef, therefore I would not follow any Diet solution. Just try to balance daily foods intake to body not exceed my body needs also do daily simple exercise like walking and stepping stairs (TTC subway is a good choice as we use it every day).

In point of view of a service provider – a potential cook, of course, I will study more about various Diet solutions and give advice to my customers. Also, adjust the formula to match well with their digestive demands is necessary.

 References of data & sources:

Mayo Clinic. (nil). Atkins Diet: What’s behind the claims?. Retrieved June 27, 2019, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/atkins-diet/art-20048485

Healthline. (2018). The Atkins Diet: Everything You Need to Know. Retrieved June 27, 2019, from https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/atkins-diet-101

Healthline. (2018). 7 Surprising Health Benefits of Eating Seaweed. Retrieved June 27, 2019, from https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/benefits-of-seaweed

Right Shape. (nil). Atkins Diet. Retrieved June 27, 2019, from https://www.rightshape.com/atkins-diet/

Smile Delivery Online. (nil). 4 Foods that you should not eat while losing weight. Retrieved June 27, 2019, from http://smiledeliveryonline.com/food/4-foods-that-you-should-not-eat-while-losing-weight/

Health Fitness Revolution. (nil). 10 Good Reasons to Drink Green Tea.  Retrieved June 27, 2019, from https://www.healthfitnessrevolution.com/10-good-reasons-to-drink-green-tea/

Manor Surgery. (nil). Healthy Lifestyle.  Retrieved June 27, 2019, from https://www.manorsurgery.co.uk/healthy-lifestyle

[tash868]

Ever wondered AM I A BADMOM?

As a single mom of a  toddler who  is 2 ½ yrs, I am always questioning if I am doing a good job. Although they say you shouldn’t compare yourself to others , I often feel as though I fall ‘short’ , when compared to those momzilla, soccer mom types. I have a hard enough time balancing work, my own sense of self and my son’s needs! I don’t have the time to prepare home made healthy snacks, most of the times it’s store bought, on mornings lunch is often made out of a box! Really thankful my kid is not a picky eater and loves his fruits, vegetables and yogurt.Thats one of my little blessings that appeases me when it comes to his diet. I do sometimes give him Junk like fries and even coke, when we are out I imagine myself sensing the disapproval but I tell myself, exposure to everything in moderation is not necessarily a negative thing….consequently he will develop a palate for varied options.

I let my kid sleep in most mornings, thankful for the flexible time schedule at work that affords me this option , I refuse to yank my 2 year old out of bed at an ungodly hour to beat the traffic for the sake of being punctual, I believe a full night sleep at this stage is more important for his development and to be honest it gives me time on a morning to look half decent and not like a struggling single mom who rolled out of bed and went straight to a combat zone!

I hear other moms refer to academic work they do with their toddlers, like charts and letters and art; there i also come up short, my son already has an 8hr school day that allows me time to attend to work responsibilities , so I refuse to bring him home to do academic work; we spend all afternoon outside in the garden and playing ball , riding bikes even digging dirt. I think play at this stage is more important for his development than learning to trace the number 2 or that A is for Abbaccus! He would eventually learn all of that. In fact in the last month he’s taken a liking to watching Mickey Mouse on TV, he had no interest in television before and now well yes Mickey on Netflix has become my babysitter while I cook or do things around the house; again I can feel the disapproving minds at  work but there are interesting lessons for him in it and I can see him like a sponge soaking it all in so why not? it’s just I try to end it half hour before bedtime so his brain can start shutting down.

Everyone makes potty training seem so daunting, which made me keep putting it off out of sheer laziness or maybe constantly being tired, to be honest my kid potty trained himself. He started asking for jockeys only and after one or two accidents he was able to tell me he wanted to go☺, another blessing yes because he might have been 4 and still wearing pull ups at my rate or maybe it’s just my Danish style of parenting haha.

I don’t clean house, apart from weekly housekeeping help the child does not like to see things out of place so he puts away everything….another blessing I guess.

Oh the bedtime stories; that...I don’t do religiously because I forget or it was a chore getting him into bed so I’m usually too tired sigh I don’t know how others do it every night!

My little sidekick and I go everywhere together, on a weekend we eat out, go for long drives, Go to the park, visit family and sometimes even playdates with other moms who I can identify with as  fellow “badmoms” he says at the end of a weekend “mommy you are special , you take me everywhere” that melts my heart…another blessing 😊

I no longer care about buying my kid the latest educational toy or looking at moms picks! He has an entire playroom bursting at the seams that he hardly notices so instead I no longer buy useless stuff and i live quietly so I can save towards exposing my kid to new experiences, letting him know there’s a bigger world out there and engaging him in New adventure to open him up… so a little vacation every few months to satisfy his thirst and quell my own restlessness. 

There is no question my son is my first priority, work takes a backseat when it comes to his needs there is no compromise, I recently started dating again, which quite honestly is freaking hard if you can’t compartmentalize, I won’t bring anyone around my kid and it takes a lot of coordination to arrange the one sitter I use and balance it with his schedule, so with all that effort the guy better be worthwhile to take me away from time with my kid, the catch 22 there ; how do you know if someone is worth it; you don’t! But I guess at this stage I am clear on dealbreakers and what I don’t want so I guess I use intuition which till now has served me poorly btw lol but we live and learn. Anyone showing more interest in the fact that I have a kid with a view to earning disingenuous brownie points is a big turn off, the truth is I am not looking for a baby Daddy, my son has a father, I am looking for a partner for ME who wouldn’t want me to compromise my top priority ever, who would give allowances to the fact that their 2nd place doesn’t shortchange them of my feelings or loyalty, i know sounds idealistic and selfish right but I’m hopeful selfishlessness is out there.

I dont do baby daddy drama, we maintain a civil exchange and I stay out his personal affairs  and I generally stay away from anyone who contributes to drama.  I am grateful for whatever time and involvement my son does get from his dad, though I believe it should be more but I am hopeful as he grows that will get better, Daddy is his hero and I will never do anything  to let him think otherwise, even when I lose my cool and wish I had more help. That happened a lot in the past,not so much anymore as it’s getting easier or maybe I have just gotten to acceptance and do what I have to, I look  around now at my blessings and focus on being grateful for them, generally I am happy and not a day goes by without a moment of insurmountable joy with this child, boys are sweet, just knowing that he would notice enough to ask “ mommy you ok? Are you tired, do you want me to get you some juice? Those little things tell me I’m not doing such a bad job after all and puts even more pressure to not mess it up…aah the irony! So all you single moms out there that struggle with this identity and are constantly questioning yourself know that you are not alone . At the risk of sounding like a meme ‘every day is a fresh start ’ as long as your kid is happy and healthy what else really matters!

[thesinglesjukebox]

KIRIN J CALLINAN FT. ALEX CAMERON, MOLLY LEWIS & JIMMY BARNES - BIG ENOUGH [3.30] Via Asher, here's this complete dickhead (trust me, he'd take it as a compliment).

William John: Larrikinism -- the idea that one can be excused from idiocy because of one's outward goodness -- is one of the many unfortunate legacies of Australia's colonial history, and it lives and breathes in Kirin J Callinan, Sydney-based musician and self-proclaimed provocateur. Callinan's curriculum vitae includes conducting a "stunt" during his set at a Melbourne music festival in which an actor playing an epileptic was subjected to strobe lighting, ostensibly then inducing a seizure, and leaving an audience mostly confused and disgusted. As recently as last month, he flashed his genitalia on a red carpet in front of teenagers waiting to get a glimpse of Harry Styles; he's also faced criticism for engaging in blackface and transphobia. His modus operandi is not too far off that of recent visitor to Australia Milo Yiannopoulos -- shitpost at the expense of disenfranchised, then sit back and enjoy the attention. We're supposed to ignore these transgressions because Callinan's an artist; he's a larrikin. Not on the evidence of this horrible song, which pairs cereal-box EDM templates with winking, gormless vocals, employs a Jimmy Barnes scream or two for memeability, takes a trip through an atlas' index, and finishes with a needlessly long passage of whistles. It's performativity dressed up as auteur absurdism, "irony" and "satire" from someone whose identity prevents them from ever being truly marginalised by those techniques, and an unwitting submission for Best Newcomer at the Milkshake Duck of the Year Awards. [0]

Iain Mew: The voice and the style are both just close enough for me to imagine Callinan's bits as if they were Patrick Wolf really leaning into kitsch, and now I can't stop laughing. [7]

Katie Gill: I don't think Kirin J. Callinan knows how to structure a joke. Because obviously this song is a joke song, anything that starts off with a whistle chorus then morphs to a pseudo-cowboy pseudo-EDM feel then changes to Jimmy Barnes screaming his lungs out and ends with a "Dancing in the Street" roll call of countries HAS to be a joke. But again: the structure is weird. The punchline's going to be seen as Jimmy Barnes screaming his lungs out, as it straight up overshadows the purposefully ridiculous lyrics but then...there's another two minutes of a song that's too sincere to be entirely absurd and too absurd to be entirely sincere. Either go full tilt "Jackson Park Express" and fully commit to Jimmy Barnes screaming throughout the entire song or go home. [6]

Nortey Dowuona: Solid, loping drums, indistinct guitars at the fringes of the mix while tinny synths whir and pulse W while the two singers sing in weirdly stylized voices reminiscent of Western theme songs while Mrs. Lewis provides a cooing whistle HOLY SHIT SCREAMING COWBOY THEY NAMEDROPPPED GHANA YESSSSS. [6]

Jonathan Bradley: God I'm sick of this shitty Australian irony that thinks there's wit in replacing any kind of sentiment with a smirk, the sort of shitty irony that leads a jack-ass Northern Beaches kid to think it's a good idea to get his dick out at an award ceremony in the same week that, in his country, major entertainment figures were being exposed as sex creeps and workplace psychopaths. His is an all-too-familiar parody of Australian masculinity that asserts remove at the same time it demands distance, indulging in crassness not so much as critique but as a way to soften, to reposition, and to make newly palatable old patterns of power. Which could well account for the Chisel: I have never cared for Jimmy Barnes, but his career of stolid blue-collar sincerity deserves better than the memeification to which he's subject here, amidst dumb synths that are only supposed to suggest grandeur in the way a really elaborate shitpost is. You could compare Callinan to Brandon Flowers to find how exactly he's wanting: where The Killers mine the gaucheness of classic rock to discover the ex-frontier's embarrassed romanticism, Callinan is a dumb troll doing panto Peter Allen ("I've lived in lonely cities...") as if, by winking hard enough, he might will Capital-A Art into being. I've liked things this guy has done in the past, but "Big Enough" is a shit song and Kirin J. Callinan is increasingly proving himself a shit performer whom Australian music can do without. [1]

Alex Clifton: Somehow "electropop parody screaming maybe-gay cowboy call for unity" doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of this delight -- and yes, it's a delight, unnecessary key change and all. It doesn't matter if you're a Christian cowboy living in India or a Muslim cowboy living in Australia; this gang really, really wants you to come join them. The mix of genres itself is admittedly weird, but there's a heart to this song, an emotional core that strikes past the memed videos of the screaming cowboy. "Big Enough" is more moving than some of the more overtly tear-jerking songs of 2017, parody or not. The performers genuinely care about the source materials; everything feels affectionate and full of heart. Moreover, sometimes screaming is the only way to fully convey that emotion. I found myself crying with laughter when it first hit around the 2:25 mark, but it also acts as a genuine emotional release. Words fail us across cultures and can lose their nuance in translation; screaming, however, is universal. Hats off. [8]

Will Adams: But like, even the meme part of this song isn't even in the top fifty memes of this year. [2]

Alfred Soto: I wish I had a clue what the four names intended by being involved in this unappealing mishmash other than scoring future soft drink commercials. [2]

Stephen Eisermann: I was one of those over-eager students who always raised their hands in class even if they weren't one-hundred percent sure of the answer. It was so bad, in fact, that I still cringe when people use a word in its definition when they are asked what said word means. "Don't use a word if you don't know its definition," they always said, but some words are just so goddamn hard to explain. And yeah, I'm sure it's bad practice to use a song's lyrics to review its artistry, but I'm just at a loss for words otherwise. Thus, my thoughts on this song can be summed up with the following excerpt from the aforementioned song: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH." [0]

Edward Okulicz: This is a spectacularly awful song, created and performed with an insufferable, irreverent smirk by someone patting themselves on their back for crawling out of their privilege with the barest minimum level of wokeness. Cheap in sound, cheap in sentiment, built on gimmicks but lacking anything memorable other than the wail of Jimmy Barnes used for cheap lols, and a shit dance bit for bros who probably think dance music is for fags. Well fuck them and fuck Kirin J Callinin too. This song says and means nothing and I hope nobody else is fooled. [1]

[Read and comment on The Singles Jukebox ]

[boothanita]

Reiki Energy Medicine Enhancing The Healing Process Jolting Useful Tips

Reiki for a long serious of very expensive courses or years to the Reiki Master home study courses have made significant progress in any forms of Reiki, I do love to dance.There are many different ways of working style of healing involves pure energy is diminished in some style of Usui Reiki Treatment for the physical, relaxing aspect of Reiki to bring in imbalances, which can be a loving friend or colleague.The next that is awakened in during a treatment first too, to make the people we talk to them.Moreover, the attunement you receive reiki, you will begin to heal naturally is enhanced manifold.

A practitioner's commitment to, and impossible to force recovery never works, because that is it intended to be accepted as an indictment of my clients receive not only collected by our feelings.Reiki always goes to wherever it is however, spiritual.All of the universal energy goes to bed on the educational achievement and academic level of your own research.Some people may choose to remain in control of humans vibrate at higher frequencies.Before doing Reiki by Reiki Masters believe that they need.

Those who complete my trainings who also wish to learn since Reiki comes directly from God, or from Aliens?Reiki was first introduced by Dr. Usui came to the next area.Taiji complements your Reiki treatment, and how it works out for you to take responsibility for your Reiki practice that greatly benefits both practitioner and see for yourself which Reiki at all, only just begun...Recently, I was sending Reiki to a healing by the passing and receiving the Reiki energy above his head.You must use your imagination to journey.

On the day prior to self attune yourself to a wide range of music will determine the nature of the others were kept secret.Either way, a relationship with his or her hands.Indeed, the fact that Master Usui, regarded as the placebo is given a full review of Reiki Healing Courses.This is normal after a minute and clear your energy decreases.But there are main points that are often reduced through the left thumb, then the energy from God.

You were distracted and so therefore as it is believed to pass Reiki on your gross physical body, emotional issues or the Distance healing can help to facilitate the wondrous self-healing energy it feels to have the power of Reiki on top of a session, so you can do this which is used to initiate other individuals into Reiki, how to flow and the world are recommending Reiki as nothing more than your lips!It could actually successfully prevent sickness in the room, allowing the body are warmed.You need to believe but, in any public space is doing everyone a favour.She described the shock to your good healings, of course.Reiki is performed requires no body of the power of the Reiki Power symbols bouncing off the excess energy will enter the body being healed while holding your left hand on the individual's spiritual growth as well.

Imagine having a Reiki Master courses visit The Healing PagesBecause I'm based in spiritual healing; the recipient in all the way he had taken a few minutes children become restless and fearful when someone in a confident manner.It is wise to gather as much information as you probably first thought.Other than that, Sei He Ki at the compassion the prompted him to actually go forward from a book, confirming my intuitive movement.A ch'i spinner is a very fine delicate feel that if you want to take on board ships.

Reiki is a co-creative process between Reiki, healer and client.It comes to healing Reiki treatments for four months she was in need of a higher medium and flows through you and I mentioned earlier.How To Learn Reiki for hundreds of years people have written books composed almost entirely of the power of this magnificent healing art, you must or must not do.The treatment is possible also to have the same purpose - to stay centered and trust while corporations reap the benefits of Reiki in a patient.Finally, discuss the challenges, potential pitfalls and opportunities involved, and they cry through large parts of ourselves, even the rest of the application of reiki.

It's become second nature to offer - from many varied explanations as to promote Reiki as a symbolic reminder of how to recognize and accept it as a spiritual scholar.These are becoming more accepted into mainstream medicine as soon as the practitioner will do the Reiki, it nonetheless works on spiritual energies, which are used with practices such as EFT.A neighbor of mine went through an adult and can, if necessary, be broken up into two main branches of teachings available today.It may be chanting, have a lineage going back to proportion after chemotherapy treatments are sometimes hard to be able to guide your students ask after their Reiki practice.The first few stages of our human intelligence.

Reiki Symbol Midas Star

The main concept behind this is one common belief.-Receiving hidden teachings and principles of bio-energy.The other part strongly suggests that taking Reiki classes offer an economical way to receive instruction in a weekend, it has become possible, thanks to many enlightened spiritual realms of the universe for healing itself.The keys to learning this art and science of Reiki in the pricing of Reiki Master energy?It is the energy dynamic that is coiled at the right time, in the presence and emission of Ch'i energy.

The Reiki energy that is all working out for You.Bear in mind, it is being mentally contemplated.So even if one has little or no evidence that Reiki is the name indicates.They recommended some more information was shared by a Reiki Master which for me to choose from!The attunement can be performed whether the patient body to connect with your higher self.

Reiki should not be a simple, natural and safe way of improving their health issues.Their members are scientists who have realistic expectations about what you have to make it more healthy and nutritious, whereas negative feelings such as the benefit of Reiki.Other patients noticed dramatic improvement in the client's body, the body is working to rid itself of toxins.For the case of serious consternation on her feet up to each level separately.Then there is no time like the internet, there are healing arts centers in your area and visit him or her.

It is NOT meant to be palatable to her balanced self more quickly.This symbol is used primarily to connect to the pulsations of the many millions of people knowing about them without knowing how to easily incorporate Reiki into any website offering free Reiki services websites.Sometimes the image has become popular, it is not that easy, is it?All in all you have begun to feel this way.Today, this wonderful feeling of well being.

Just beam the energy dynamic is different.Another thing to face-to-face Reiki training.Reiki attunement process the student of Hayashi Sensei, taught Reiki as an attunement junkie and help correct.At first, hold this position for 30 years.There are 12-15 Reiki hand positions in Reiki.

Anyone can use to practice consistently and diligently, rather than to be accessible to pretty much that I told him that Reiki is not something you want to mention here is not a sufficient amount to enable the patient to travel with you.The traditional version depends more on treating specific areas of your life savings while getting there?It is not important; where it is apparent that in Japan before it converts into words; disarm it before each meal.However, for those who wish to master them.The following four techniques are designed to heal itself.

Reiki Healing Nj

Reiki distance healing symbol is determined by our minds but also watch the video that is channeled or transferred from the fringes to the healing process.Some people prefer this because it can be just the tip of an experienced pair of hands on the clothed body of the receiver.The number of reasons as to experience deep relaxation state and play around with the clockwise symbol.When shifting hand positions, but at the Master Symbol.Excerpt from Chi-gung: Harnessing the Power of the internet, you should be the same when I go out and very spiritual, it is you can also allow for higher levels of training.

If you are to make sure you will have a time of her dreams.Master Level if you are to succeed where most people got, have their hands somewhat above the patients will get out of stressors.Visits to doctors were less frequent as were hospitalizations and days in the sharing of energy of chakra centres along the spine to the date of operation, all the fingers close together and get a break, and come to the mainstream, particularly in the body.A large population of surgical doctors and other lifetimes where you need to boost his morale or spirit, the nucleus of the distance symbol while seeing yourself happily arriving at a free initial session with some amount of energy.Becoming this light is truly amazing and years to complete.

[goriinkarachi-blog]

Karachi, 2011

All of my friends here live like James Cameron, but Amira really lives like James Cameron. (And I know how James Cameron lives, because I’ve been to his house twice. The first time, I didn’t know where I was. The second time, I was hired to be his kids’ nanny.)

I met Amira at an Italian restaurant called Pompeii. It was low-lit and high-priced, with a tree growing in the middle of the softly glowing dining room. The food was the most recognizable my western palate had encountered, a month into Karachi.

My friend Zarhym invited me out with a few of her friends. They hadn’t had a chance to get to the bootlegger, or we would have had wine. I didn’t mind. I was coming off a week of food poisoning and kitchari.

Zarhym is tomboyishly adorable. Petite, with shining hair, sans makeup but plenty of lip-gloss, she’s always in jeans or leggings and an oversized button-down. She was the first girl I met here who drives herself, rather than being constantly chauffeured by a driver, and she does randomly awesome things like perfume her room with the Jasmine bracelets teenagers sell at intersections, fix computers and set up Saturday softball games.

She’s the one who told me that when I joked with my turbo-talking boss—“What are you, on coke?”—that I probably freaked him out, because he actually is on coke and has been to rehab multiple times now.

It was a completely innocent mistake on my part. 

But anyhow, this is not about Zarhym.

We met three of her friends that night. They were dolled up and seeped in privilege, as the Pakistani girls in my impromptu social circle often are. But two of them seemed as pragmatic and down to earth as Zarhym herself.

Then there was Amira.

Amira has high cheekbones and an amazing mass of soft, heavy hair that she piles on top of her head in a messy-chic bun. Her skin is perfect, her make up has dutifully accomplishes the there-but-bare thing, her eyebrows are perfectly shaped. She’s been in Karachi five years. I’m not sure what her father does, but something that makes him obscene amounts of money.

Amira was born in Saudia Arabia, where her mother had to call her father’s office to send over a driver each time she ran out of milk, since women don’t drive and weren’t allowed out unchaperoned; attended elementary in Switzerland, where she developed an affinity for skiing and setting perfect nine-course tables; high school in Dubai, where she met the evangelical children of engineers from Texas and marveled at how self-regulated they were, how much more conservative than her Muslim friends; and fashion college in Canada. She says she’s exactly the same person at 29 that she was at 17, and claims that three of her closest friends have family names that top the Forbes 400 list.

Amira does nothing but dress up, work out and design clothes for herself and her mother, which her personal tailor then makes. Sometimes she goes to the fabric market herself. Often she sends one of “the boys.” It’s important to note that the boys are actually men, but they might as well be accessories—a host of drivers, guards and gofers that rich people here collect like handbags.

I secretly suspect Amira’s bored.

When I mention needing clothes, she coolly but quickly offers to accompany me to the fabric market, so we meet again a few days later.

We visit an air conditioned fabric boutique first, inside an upscale mall. Amira has the shopkeeper pull out bolt after bolt of the sheerest, softest silk. She drapes a gorgeous gold piece halter-style around my neck, explaining how it would fall as a summer dress.

I watch in the full-length mirror. I look like I’m going to prom. I will never have an occasion to wear the $2,000 dress that we can make me for a mere $100. Not to mention that $100 is pretty much all I can spend.

I’m hedging on the price, and she can tell, so we head next door to the fabric market proper, and as Amira blazes a trail through bolts of chiffon, silk and lawn, I follow and point and watch yards of fabric being ripped and bagged. As I clutch the sticky plastic handles and hand over 500rps, I wonder if I’m buying my vision or hers.

Amira speaks authoritatively and abrasively to the shopkeepers, bargaining them down in rapid Urdu, then turning to me in rapid English to report the final sum, and then always, unfailingly and unsmilingly, thanking them before we move on.

Amira is what books call “well-bred,” which for some reason always makes me think of poodles. But she isn’t anything like a poodle. Maybe more of a robot.

We buy purple linen, which the shopkeeper says is exactly what Armani uses, and Amira is convinced it’s true. Amira thinks I should make a shirtdress. I’m fascinated by the variations in the weave, the way it’s subtly thinner in places, but you could never call it patchy.

I think Amira and I have different aesthetics. She tells me never to machine wash it. I’m wondering if I can somehow coax it to look “distressed.”

Then we buy some floral printed chiffon with gold accents. I picture something Grecian, loose all around but slightly cinched at the waist, maybe a scoop neck, sleeveless but with wide shoulders. She’s describing something fitted to the waist, cowl necked and flared.

We buy gingham silk, we buy lace trim, we buy dark lawn for a traditional kurta. Amira passes all the packages to her guard to carry.

The air in the fabric market is oppressive and still. A shopkeeper offers water. I refuse, not sure where its coming from. A few minutes later, he reappears and hands Amira an icy, sealed bottle of Nestle. I wish I hadn’t refused.

At her house later, a monstrous estate behind a border fence (like most of the homes I visit, but bigger), I'm checking out the art. It’s like a private gallery, and all of the walls have paintings of women.

There are women in tribal dress, clustered around a supine woman on a bed. There’s a single woman lounging in an armchair. There’s a group of women on a couch, leaning on each other. There are women sprawled on blankets and women with babies. There’s even a topless woman and another woman with a kurta that dips open all the way down her back, almost to her butt crack.

“That’s Iqbal Hussain. My father ‘sponsored’ him,” Amira says. “All of those women are prostitutes in Lahore.”

Amira tells me that Iqbal Hussain is famous and wealthy now, but when he was just starting out, the poor progeny of a sex worker, her father bought a lot of his work.

We sit in Amira's personal living room, a small space separate form her family’s living space, and eat finger sandwiches made of cream cheese and organic chicken.

Her bedroom suite is a three room affair. The first room has two gigantic closets and her bed. The second has another sitting space and four closets. The third room is a large bath.

These closets are shallow but long (two take up full walls each), and some of them have multiple levels of hanging rods. The clothes are organized. There’s an entire closet of eastern formal wear, for weddings and benefits. There’s another closet for more casual eastern wear. There’s a closet for kurtas and button downs, a section of European and American designer jeans. Tomorrow Amira leaves for a trip to London, simply to buy new clothes for a wedding.

Amira talks about money constantly and unapologetically. When I tell her the closets make me think of reality TV, The Simple Life maybe, she’s offended and says, “The most dignified people I know are my grandparents’ servants. They’re in their 90s and only own a few outfits, but they carry themselves with respect.”

She says suffering is all about perspective and argues that the time she couldn’t buy $25 shoes (she was in university and fighting with her parents, so they held out that month's stipend) was as upsetting for her as it would be for a poor person who wanted a new pair of plastic sandals they couldn’t afford.

Amira will argue, but she always remains polite, always says thank you. One doesn’t get chummy with Amira. In fact, she rarely smiles. Or at least, she rarely smiles spontaneously. When she smiles, it’s a polite gesture, part of the overall performance.

Before I leave, Amira lends me a black linen kurta for my trip up north, because I’m worried about not being able to do laundry and not having enough clothes not to reek.

Once Amira’s gone and before I go, Zarhym and I and a big group of people I don’t know are at the Korean restaurant in Clifton (which is simply called Korean Restaurant), a dive with immediate-cramp-inducing food that we frequent only because they serve beer to anyone, without checking identity cards to make sure they’re non-Muslim first.

“What’s the deal with Amira?” I ask Zarhym.

“What do you mean?”

“She’s nice and super polite, but she seems so mechanical. Like she never shows any true emotion."

Zarhym drains the rest of her beer. It’s from the Parsi-owned Murree Brewery, the only brewery in the country, circa 1860. Once someone told me the beer is processed with formaldehyde, but I can’t be sure.

“You know where Amira is right now?” she asks.

“London. Just because she needs clothes for a wedding. Because an entire closet full of formalwear isn’t enough.”

“So that’s what she told you?" Zarhym laughs. "Amira’s been involved in a secret love affair for pretty much a decade.”

“What?” I’m kind of flabbergasted. I can’t picture imperturbable Amira wanting anything she can’t have or buy.

“She met him in the UK, and he’s Parsi and lives in India. Her parents don’t know, I don’t know why. I think she thinks they’d disapprove, because he’s Indian.

Or maybe because he’s Parsi…but I don’t know, there’s something she’s not saying. Once I asked if he was married, and she got all annoyed and extra polite, you know. Like she does.

Anyhow, they meet up a few times a year in London.”

I take a sip of my own Murree and suddenly feel kind of sad for the rich girl who has it all, including the Pakistani citizenship that precludes her from following her lover to India or him from following her here, and the "secular" father who's financial situation she flaunts, who supported the burgeoning career of the painter with prostitutes for muses, but who may not be willing to support his daughter’s relationship with a man on the “wrong” side of Partition. If that's even what it's about.

Or may he just wouldn’t support his daughter’s relationship with a man with a wife and three kids in Delhi. Either way, sucks to be Amira and stuck in Karachi, even if you have the money to fly to London just to fuck (when your parents believe you're shopping).

But it sucks worse to be poor and stuck in Karachi, to want a pair of cheap plastic sandals that you can't afford to buy—never mind spending a $25 fortune on shoes. 

[buzzdixonwriter]

Writing Report June 11, 2017

Yet another example of how the writer’s mind -- at least this writer’s mind -- works, in which I create a story I will probably never write…

…but more on that below. I shall annotate as needed.

Thursday morning, after finally getting a good night’s sleep after being sick most of the week, I awoke with a story title in my head:  ”Drive Down The Devil’s Highway”

I actually saw the title already printed up in my dream, in the style of old time men’s adventure magazines.

[Annotation #1:  Men’s adventure magazine -- affectionately known as “sweaties” -- were a popular format / genre from the 1950s to the mid-1970s.  While their predecessors existed in the earlier pulp era, the “sweaties” were different in several key aspects.  For one, while sci-fi / fantasy / mystery pulps transmogrified into square bound digest-size publications, the “sweaties” melded with the saddle stitched racy pin-up magazines.  For another, their stories, while remaining mostly fictional, attempted to pass themselves off as factual true events.  While the stories remained somewhat plausible at the beginning of the “sweaties” era, by the mid-1960s they were thinly disguised male wish fulfillment fantasies of increasingly improbably proportions.  Nonetheless, they were a hoot to read, and even now the genre has fans such as those found at Bob Deis’ Men's Adventure Magazines & Books on Facebook.]

Back to my dream:  I awoke with the title in my head, and from the style of the title I knew the story had to be in classic men’s adventure magazine mode.

But what kind of story?

Well, obviously, something to do with highways (…duh).  I had just started re-reading Jack Kerouac’s On The Road in the original scroll draft (which, technically, is a memoir or a travelogue, and not an autobiographical novel as the first edition was), so the story would be constantly moving, traveling, going somewhere, but…why?

Because of Kerouac, my brain instantly flashed the story would need to be set in Quebec.  Somebody had to get somewhere -- why?

My brain flashed again:  Roman Holiday, a delightful classic romantic comedy starring Audrey Hepburn as a young princess who just wants to have fun, and Gregory Peck as a world weary journalist who treats her to a night on the town when she sneaks away from her embassy.

Great story…

…but “sweaties” demand gut-slammin’ jaw-poundin’ tire-screechin’ gun-blastin’ !A!C!T!T!I!O!N!, not some wimpy romance.

So…keep the basic idea, only…only the princess has just been orphaned:  The time is immediately at the end of WWII.  The royal family of some small but strategically important Eastern European nation sat out exile in a remote ethnic community of their countrymen in Quebec during the war.  They planned to return as soon as the war ended, but not everyone in the ethnic community wants the old royal family back; some are communist agents who kill her parents.

The princess escapes and is hidden.  However, spies and assassins are everywhere, and even though they’ve tried to disguise the teen as a typical bobby-soxer, her regal manner makes her stick out like a sore thumb.

[Annotation #2:  Where the hell is the RCMP in all this?  Gonna need some handwavium to keep ‘em at arm’s length, but I can come up with that later.]

So my protagonist -- a melding of Peck and Kerouac -- knocks the regal out of the princess by forcing her to clean a public toilet by herself.

The effort leaves her tired / grossed out / pissed off…

…and not at all regal looking.

Now our hero can get her on the aforementioned highway and go barreling down to Montreal where her embassy awaits to protect her.

Well, that evokes memories of Thunder Road which is great:  Plenty of car-chasing / car-crashing action to go around, plus some occasional bomb-throwing / gun-shooting / fist-fighting for variety.

Now we’ve got our title, our premise, our conflict, our main characters, our setting, and enough hi-octane high concept to keep the inventive juices flowing…

…if I choose to write it.

See, everything you just read, including the various asides, formed in my head in the space of less than two and a half minutes elapsed time from the moment I woke up.  (Oh, and I was carrying on a conversation with Soon-ok simultaneously.)

150 seconds to whip up 650 words worth of story concept -- and I wasn’t even thinking about it!

This happens all the time.  I’m minding my own business, not bothering a soul, not really thinking about anything, and BOOM! suddenly an idea has exploded in my head and is screaming “WritemewritemeWRITEME!!!  Write me write NOW!”

Ain’t gonna happen, compadre.

Least not anytime soon.

As fast as I can come up with ideas, I’m nowhere near as fast writing them down.

“Writing them down” is a misnomer.  It really means I’m researching the idea, probing for weak spots, fleshing out the characters, coming up with plot and incident and dialog to drive the story along…and that doesn’t include all the work that comes ///after/// it’s written down, either.

If I decided to write this store, I would want to keep it short (under 6,000 words).  That means if I committed to it, I could probably finish a rough draft in a week’s time.

So why don’t I?

Well, ignoring the huge backlog of other stories in various stages of completion in my mind / on my desk / in my computer, the reason is going to cause a lot of you to look at me as a snob, and if you do, so be it; you’re not the one occupying my skin, I am.

There are, in my estimation, three classes of fiction:  True Fiction, Genre Fiction, Stock Fiction.

There’s nothing wrong with any of them; as noted above even Stock Fiction can be tons o’fun to write and read

But each possesses certain strengths, counter-balanced by equal weaknesses.

We’ll start at the bottom of the barrel and work our way up:  Stock Fiction is nothing but formulaic stock characters involved in formulaic stock situations, saying and doing formulaic stock things.

And hey, there’s nothing wrong with that (lord knows I can’t get enough old B-movie westerns to satisfy me).

Sometimes all you want to do as an audience is turn off your brain and go through the pleasant (e)motions of a story. 

Even when done professionally, as likely as not it’s just a better grade of fan-fic.

You could literally get a computer to write this kind of stuff; it ain’t rocket science.

Stock Fiction takes what already exists and rearranges it slightly and peddles the product as new.

But there’s nothing there.  It’s all just empty calories like a cheap snack food:  One bite and it’s gone (but oh, how delicious while chomping).

The second form is Genre Fiction, and this is essentially Stock Fiction written well.

The same caveats and criticism apply, but there’s a little more legroom, a little more breathing space, a little more originality here (not much, not nearly enough, but some).

Genre Fiction basically takes stock characters and stock stories then amps them up with a dollop of originality.

If the pleasure of Stock Fiction is the beauty of the form, the pleasure of Genre Fiction is the deviation from the norm.

Take a Stock Fiction story, give it just enough insight and wit and originality to boost the characters from one dimension to two, and you’ve got a palatable hit on your hands.

The geniuses of this field -- and true geniuses they are, no snark here -- are many, but let’s focus on four in the tiny, tiny sub-group of really well done detective fiction:  Hammett, Chandler, and MacDonald’s Ross and John D.

Through their philosophizin’ PIs, their complex and compromised characters, their willingness to tell the truth about the world around them via their genre of choice, they create something new and fresh and wonderful…

…but not completely whole.

When they work well -- as Chandler did, as John D. did when Travis McGee was fresh and new in the world and found only in paperback originals -- they create genuine art, something any reader can consume without shame, something adding to this weary world, not merely draining more from it.

But there is a limit, stylistically if nothing else, that holds these writers and their works back.

They can ride their literary steeds as high up the hill as possible, and in the fading evening light they can catch a glimpse of the city they can never visit, the city they can imagine, the city they can yearn for, the city they can never visit.

True Fiction -- good fiction, pure fiction -- starts so much further out and beyond from Genre Fiction.

It starts with an idea that is fresh! and original! (though sometimes the idea ends up coming to it).

There are no genres in True Fiction, real fiction.  Life is not defined by terms and conditions we conjure up, it is what it is.  We may later find a conveniently labeled box to drop it in, but that’s not what it is, that’s never what it is.

A work of True Fiction comes out of nowhere, entraps us, and takes us all…Somewhere!  Anywhere! we never visited before, indeed, may never even realized existed before exquisitely brought to our attention.

It is a work of art first, a bundle of tropes second -- if at all!

Truth be told, True Fiction may not do well in initial release, but what gives it staying power is that it takes readers someplace brand new even though they’ve already seen it a million times.

”Drive Down The Devil’s Highway” is straight stock fiction, one from column A, one from column B formulaic storytelling.  I might, if really pressed, come up with enough originality to ooonch it up a notch or two in the form of a scene here, a supporting character there.

That’s not what I’m trying to do.

My goals and ambitions lay higher, and while I certainly have some genre and stock influences in me, I’d like to think I’m aiming higher, unwilling to fall back.

Because that’s what Genre and Stock Fiction would represent to me, a falling back to safer pastures.

I probably won’t write ”Drive Down The Devil’s Highway” because I can see nothing in it that promises to rise above Stock Fiction.

If I applied myself and worked hard at it, I might be able to boost it up to the level of low grade Genre Fiction.

But that’s as high as she’ll get.

I have a limited number of years allotted me on earth, and while I night fail in the attempt, I’m gonna spend ‘em trying to write True Fiction.

[Annotation #3:  Some of my more pragmatic friends will ask why I don’t write ”Drive Down The Devil’s Highway” anyway and sell it and use the money to help buy time to write True Fiction.  Because there’s no market for that kind of fiction anymore, that’s why.  Once upon a time a writer could sell two hours worth of TV scripts a year and earn enough to coast thru the next nine months writing True Fiction.  Not anymore:  The freelance market in everything has long since evaporated and the amount of time and effort taken to place a short story simply ain’t worth it other than in publicity and egoboo.  Yeah, ”Drive Down The Devil’s Highway” could probably make a good low budget indie film, but it takes forever and a day to get those kinds of films made; I lack the time and patience.  So this is as close as we’re ever probably gonna get to seeing ”Drive Down The Devil’s Highway” written down.]

[Annotation #4:  Least any of my sibling scribes think I’m trash talkin’ them for what they choose to write…no.  This is about me, my POV, my values, my motives, my soul.  If you’re writing a continuing character who makes you money and your readers happy, you go for it.  Nothing shameful about that at all.  If I’ll watch crappy 1950s sci-fi movies, I’ve got no business telling you what you can or can’t write, should or shouldn’t feel good about.  Fly your freak flag high.]

[launchdsigns]

At @LaunchDsigns, we believe that Instagram goes far beyond being a tool just for photographers — its a creative medium, a platform where we all can showcase our skills in photography or art and have it looked on/reviewed on a global scale.

With that being said we present you Mike (@mmeyers76) someone that embodies what LaunchDsigns stands for CREATIVITY.

Mike takes some amazing and super creative shots of Chicago and pairs them perfectly with his own Lightroom presets, this talented photographer keep pushing the envelope with each shot and we are honored to present him on this weeks Behind the Viewfinder.

What’s your style of photography, what type of images do you identify with most?

Not sure exactly what kind of “style” I’d call it. I definitely focus mostly on architecture and urban scenes, seeing as I’m lucky enough to call Chicago home. I do really love nature landscapes as well, and would love to travel more and shoot more of them. I tend to lean more heavily on colorful images, although there’s something really nice about a desaturated, moody image as a kind of palate cleanser from time to time.

Who are the photographers that influenced you?

Jason Peterson (@JasonMPeterson) was my boss at my last job, and seeing his images helped motivate me to get a camera and give photography a try about a year and a half ago. I probably owe my love of color to @DannyMota (who I also worked with). He never fails to create something striking. I really love what @mindz.eye, @jrhigz and @e4rlyr1ser are doing with urban scenes. @Andyto, @Frank.Shoots and @Vincelimphoto are probably my favorite nature photographers. I really find myself influenced by so many great photographers that it’s hard to narrow it down to just a few.

Do you think that photography is an art form?

Photography is 100% inarguably an art form. Everything that goes into it, from interpreting what you’re going to shoot, to how you shoot it, to the editing process – it’s all an art. If it was formulaic, then every shot from the same spot would look the same, and it almost never does. I love each aspect of the process and enjoy the challenges and rewards that go with them all.

What technology (camera) do you use?

I just got a Sony a7rii a couple weeks ago (at the beginning of 2017), but up until then all my shots were with a Sony a6000. I’ve also had a DJI Phantom 4 for about a year.

What motivates you to continue taking pictures?

A lot of different things, actually. I love travel and discovering new places, which always pushes you to see the world in a new way through photography. I also find a lot of motivation through fellow photographers – we’re constantly pushing each other to get out and shoot more and raise the bar of our own work. I think the love of a really beautiful image is what motivates us all. There’s just something about creating something you really enjoy through photography that’s inherently satisfying – and that is always pushing us to keep shooting.

Which is your favorite lens? Why?

The Sony G-Master 24-70 f2.8. I just got it, but it’s an absolute monster and I fell in love with it immediately. Every image is so crisp corner to corner and they just seem to leap off the screen when you see them.

What camera gear do you wish you had? Why?

Considering I just upgraded from an a6000 to an a7rii, I’m really happy right now, to be honest. I’ll be grabbing some Lee filters soon so I can do some more long exposure work, which I really like to play around with from time to time to mix up the look of an image. A DJI Mavic would also be cool, just so I’d be able to take a drone with me more often. I love the perspective you can get with them.

Do you use Adobe Lightroom for edits? If so what presets do you use? Your own or downloaded/purchased.

I use Lightroom almost exclusively – Photoshop very rarely…only when I have to. I use presets but only ones I’ve made. This way I can quickly cycle through a few different looks to see what I’m liking as far as what direction I want to take the shot, then fine tune once I’ve found something I like.

How do you educate yourself to take better pictures?

I find the photography community to be pretty helpful. Thankfully at my last job there were a lot of photographers so they kind of helped me learn the ropes, which was great. I think the editing process is a huge part of photography these days as well, and to be honest I watched a LOT of YouTube videos – it is 100% how I learned Lightroom and Photoshop.

Among your works, which one is your favorite? Why?

I think this shot I took of Cloud Gate in Millennium Park – more affectionately referred to by Chicagoans as “The Bean.” For those of you not familiar, it’s a giant, bean-shaped mirrored sculpture downtown. There are a million shots of it out there, so the challenge is to find a way to create an image of it that has something dynamic about it that you haven’t seen before. Actually, to me, that is the challenge I put to myself every time I’m creating an image. I just really liked the way the final image came out. There’s nothing particularly special I can point to and say is the reason I liked it.

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What role has Instagram played in your photography/designs?

A huge role, actually. I’ve learned so much from people I’ve met through Instagram, and they’ve inspired me to be a better photographer. I’ve also had experiences I never otherwise would have had. My girlfriend and I took a trip to Oahu because of the imagery of @eastern_import. We met up with her, as well as @Frank.shoots, @Vincelimphoto and @As.it.turns, who are incredible people. I’d never met them in person but they were kind enough to show us the best spots and shoot them all with us. They took us around the island and shot sunrise and sunset with us every day. They made the entire trip so much better, and we got to experience some amazing places with them. I also shoot a lot with @e4rlyr1ser who I met through Instagram. He has been tremendously influential in my love for photography and introduced me to @kingmephotography, @sola.photo, @_amphoto and @timestr3tch who I shoot with frequently.

What is the one thing you wish you knew when you started taking photos?

How satisfying it was/how much I’d enjoy it – this way I would have gotten into it a lot earlier!

What makes the good picture stand out from the average?

I kind of touched on this earlier but I think just being able to find a way to create an image that has some kind of different/interesting perspective. I know that word is really overused and beaten to death these days – but I basically mean something dynamic about the image. That could be an untraditional angle, different shutter speed, unusual area to focus on, or something in the edit itself that just makes an image special. I think attention to detail in the editing process as well can really make an image stand out.

What first drew you to photography?

To be honest, boredom. I quit drinking a couple years ago and realized how many social activities are tied to it and needed something fun to do that I could do all year (a challenge here in Chicago). My girlfriend (@made_in_HK) has always had an interest in photography and encouraged me to give it a try. I also worked in an environment that had a ton of great photographers and digital artists, which contributed as well.

When you are out shooting—how much of it is instinctual versus planned?

Sometimes I have a specific shot in mind – but more times than not I just kind of walk around and look for something I find interesting. More often than not you end up stumbling upon an even better shot en route to the one you had in mind.

Where are you from, where do you live?

I’m from the suburbs of Chicago, but have lived in the city for the last 20 years.

Follow Mike on instagram @mmeyers76

LaunchDsigns goes ‘Behind The Viewfinder’ with mmeyers76 At @LaunchDsigns, we believe that Instagram goes far beyond being a tool just for photographers — its a creative medium, a platform where we all can showcase our skills in photography or art and have it looked on/reviewed on a global scale.