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ravenbrenna09 · 4 years ago

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When Isak is Also Even

This story is partially based on this post and here’s AO3 Link

...

Since wtfock season 3 has ended, I dived further into the lore and mythos of the Skam universe. Skam was a fandom that I always followed (when it was trending) but it was really Robbe and his season that fully brought me into it. Now, I’m in the midst of watching through Skam NL—I’m at the very beginning of episode 5—and I’m planning on watching España later on because I just love all that I’ve seen with the girl squad.

But, Lucas always surprised me as a character—but especially as an Isak because he always seemed to have Even-like traits. From what I’ve seen, he’s primarily headcanoned to go on and study art. Because of this, I decided to play around with the idea that he has equal traits of the two.

Because of this, I wanted to explore the idea that our “Isak” is given the storyline that Even normally represents especially given that Lucas’s own mother is bipolar as well. But, I did write Lucas as closeted as the other Isaks typically are at the beginning of their season—maybe more so?—so that is something to note. Now, of course, this is all fun and it’s just something that I wanted to explore—especially in a one shot.

but, this is also my birthday gift for @peaceoutofthepieces (who is currently still sleeping rn) and it’s basically midnight for me SO THAT MEANS IT’S OFFICIALLY YOUR BIRTHDAY. HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATALIE AND I HOPE YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY.

It’s really short (about a length of a clip of Jij Verliest) but I wish it was so much longer but I couldn’t manage it. I hope you enjoy it <3

…

The second that an Even sees their Isak is when their story starts changing, for the better, and life goes on to form something more precious than it was before.

But, this story is different.

Lucas van der Heijden is an Isak—technically, in someone else’s story—but he moved to Antwerp to get away from his father who tried to control his life and breathe down his neck about his medication. His mother had encouraged him to do so—to try new things—and with the Academy sending him an acceptance letter, it seemed so perfect, to go live in his cousin’s spare bedroom and get away from his father. So, because of this, Lucas van der Heijden is also an Even—technically.

One day, in the midst of it all, Lucas spots someone who instantly has his attention. Because Lucas is technically an Even—as much as he is an Isak, the person in his sight is his Isak, in every sense of the word. But, his “Isak” also happens to be another’s “Jonas.”

...

Lucas van der Heijden

Standing in front of the classroom, his photography teacher, Mr. Maes, a recent graduate from the Academy who returned to teach, lectured on and on about the various lighting techniques and what they tell the viewer. Mr. Maes had his brown hair meticulously styled. Today, he decided to wear a long-sleeve black shirt that clung a little too tightly to his biceps and a pair of jeans that clung tightly to his hips. Despite Lucas’s interest in the class—photography was his favorite medium and this class was his favorite of the semester—his brain kept fading in and out of the lecture.

For whatever reason, his eyes kept returning to the curves of his muscles with a frustrating intensity. It was ridiculous that Lucas was getting distracted by something that didn’t interest him at all—outside of an artistic standpoint, of course—and he kept trying to force himself into the lecture. But, his brain also seemed to remind him of the text messages on his phones, the ones his father sent him as a botched attempt to bring him home despite his upcoming exam.

Dad: Come on Lucas. Your mother doesn’t understand.

Lucas: Really? She seemed fine when I called her. I have an art history exam next week that I have to study for. But I guess I don’t understand.

Dad: Lucas, that wasn’t what I meant.

Lucas: I know exactly what you meant.

Shoving away the thoughts of his father’s texts, Lucas’s eyes drifted back to Mr. Maes. Lucas was talking about lighter settings now, but his voice was growing increasingly muffled as the seconds stretched on. Lucas could feel his mind working, mentally sketching the scene in front of him—Mr. Maes enthusiastically talking about the various types of lighting. Normally, Lucas was always attentive during this class—as mentioned previously, it was his favorite class—but his mind continuing to wander was frustrating, to say the least.

His dad had to message him before his class, didn’t he?

There was a tap on his shoulder, jolting him out of his thoughts. Glancing around the room, Lucas realized that their class had been dismissed and Mr. Maes was conversing with several students who lingered. Lucas felt his cheeks flush, his thoughts returning to his head, as he tried to shove them away.

Eager for a distraction, Lucas turned to the person who broke him from his trance. His classmate, and friend of about a month, was standing beside him with his leather jacket thrown over his shoulder. Sander Driesen was shorter than Lucas with short brown hair that was growing out. He always wore some sort of graphic t-shirt and a pair of skinny jeans and Doc Martens. His Instagram was covered with pictures of him with bleach-blond hair—something that Sander insisted was returning as soon as his hair grew out again.

While they had bonded in the classroom, Lucas had met Sander two weeks before the semester starting… at their therapist’s office. Once they found out that they went to the same college—and found out they shared a class, they had become close. Sander was taking the class as an elective, but they still collaborated when given the chance. Sander knew about Lucas’s father and the spiral that ended with his diagnosis and his grief over leaving his mother. Lucas knew about Sander’s fascination for spray painting and his diagnosis at the age of sixteen and his artistic muse—his boyfriend who had hair that curled when it was too long.

A week ago, Lucas learned from his new roommate, Zoë, that Robbe, Sander’s boyfriend, had his room last autumn—but Lucas still hadn’t gotten the chance to physically meet him. Even though Sander had shown him every picture that he had of Robbe.

Sander stepped out of his way to let Lucas out and they slipped past their professor, who didn’t seem to notice Lucas’s absent mind. But, Sander did, asking as they headed out of the college, “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” Lucas said, shrugging his shoulders. “It’s just my dad being an ass, trying to get me to come home because my mom doesn’t ‘understand’ or whatever.” Sander scoffed, rolling his eyes. “I called her and told her that it was because of my Art History test next Wednesday.”

“Yeah, those Art History tests can be brutal,” Sander admitted.

“Thanks for the support.”

“You’re welcome.”

As they stepped outside of the building, the sunlight shined down upon them. On most days, the sun was energizing and bright. But, today, it felt daunting and tiring to Lucas. It might’ve been his text messages with his father, but the fact he got little sleep wasn’t helping matters. His cousin was… loud and Lucas didn’t have noise-canceling headphones like Zoë had acquired. Before Sander stepped away, Lucas asked, “What are your plans for the day?”

“Robbe and I are going out to dinner with some of his friends,” Sander said. “What about you? Did you want to come?”

“No, thank you though. I can’t today. I’m going to buy noise-canceling headphones and study some more for that brutal Art History test,” Lucas said.

“Milan?” Sander asked, grimacing. Lucas fervently nodded his head and Sander chuckled. “Maybe, one of these days, you can get him back someday.”

“I doubt it,” Lucas said. There was a flash of movement over Sander’s shoulder and Lucas’s eyes found it immediately. A person was running in their direction—or more specifically at them—with curly brown hair and a face that Lucas knew intimately for someone he never physically met. Before Lucas could even form a warning to Sander, Robbe was jumping onto his friend’s back. The force had nearly knocked Sander over and Lucas moved to help

Sander quickly found his balance, gripping onto Robbe’s thighs like a lifeline to keep him stable. The leather jacket that Sander held in his hand had hit the pavement and Lucas bent down to pick it up. His boyfriend’s legs were wrapped tightly around his waist and his arms bound around his shoulders. As Robbe pressed kisses against his boyfriend’s cheek, Sander exhaled, relaxing, “For fuck’s sake, baby, don’t do that.”

“Sorry,” Robbe said, giggling with a wide grin on his face. Sander reached out his hand to Lucas, making a grabbing motion for the leather jacket, and he handed it over without hesitation. As if noticing Lucas for the first time, Robbe glanced over at Lucas. “Oh, you must be Lucas, right? I’m Robbe.”

Lucas chuckled, glancing at Sander. “Yeah, I know who you are.”

“What do you mean?” Robbe asked. “I’ve never met—” There was a look of realization on his face and his cheeks flushed instant. Immediately, Robbe turned shy, burying his face in the crook of Sander’s neck. Lucas was barely able to hear a muffled, “That’s so embarrassing.”

Sander chuckled. “Don’t worry, I only showed him the PG sketches.”

Robbe pulled himself from Sander’s neck to say. “And that’s supposed to make me feel better?!”

“Woah,” Lucas said. He waved his arms as though he could somehow block out the newfound information tainting his mind. He covered his ears and took a step back away from the couple. “That’s too much information.” Still holding Robbe on his back, Sander nearly doubled over in laughter and Robbe gripped onto him tighter. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Sander. If I can even look you in the eye anymore.”

“You’ll understand one day,” Sander said, moving in the way Robbe had come. He lifted Robbe a little higher on his back as they walked away. “Goodbye, Lucas! I hope your dad stops being an ass and you study for your test!”

“Thanks,” Lucas said. “I’ll do my best. Nice to officially meet you, Robbe!”

“You too!”

Sander turned away, taking Robbe with him. Lucas watched the happy couple moved away from the school intertwined and holding onto each other. Robbe was still high on Sander’s back, clinging to him like a koala, and his face buried into Sander’s neck. The two of them looked so happy and proud, intertwined with one another so easily and simply. Lucas felt a sense of longing flash briefly in his chest as he watched their retreating forms.

Lucas moved in the opposite direction. His mind was already marking the path to the video store to buy a pair of the best noise-canceling headphones. As he pivoted to leave, his eyes caught sight of Sander and Robbe with someone else and—for whatever reason—Lucas halted to a stop without having gone too far away from his original destination.

There was a tall guy was walking up to Sander and Robbe. Behind him, two guys were chatting loudly but Lucas couldn’t hear him—and he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the guy in the center. The guy in question was taller than all of his friends, but his shoulders were slumped a little. Even though he had a maroon hoodie over his head, Lucas could tell that his hair was a jet black. Lucas could see his sharp jaw and the upturn of his lips as he teased Sander and Robbe.

He was beau—

Lucas cut off his thoughts, abruptly turning around.

Lucas’s brain was screaming at him to turn around, to make up some excuse as to why he can join, simply to find out the name of the beau—no, the man there. But, Lucas knew that he couldn’t. It wouldn’t make any sense for him to change his mind now. Forcing one foot to move in front of the other, forcing himself away from the guy that had captured his attention, Lucas swallowed deeply as he tried to keep his thoughts even.

Lucas had never been like that before.

It wouldn’t make sense for him to be like that now.

But, as he turned the corner, Lucas snuck a glance back to him—just to see the guy smile dazzlingly at Robbe and Sander.

...

Note: There was supposed to be a second part of this from Jens’ POV a few weeks later where Jens would actually meet him, but I wasn’t able to get it on time. I hope you enjoy this section and maybe I’ll do Jens’ POV after Jij Verliest ends?

#wtfock #skam nl #lucas van der heijden #jens stoffels #van der stoffels #vds #crackship #jens x lucas #lucas x jens #even!lucas #i just had a lot of fun playing with the role switches here lol #robbe ijzermans #sander driesen #lucas and sander friendship rise #i felt like it would be such an amazing friendship #but i can dream #long post

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ucflibrary · 4 years ago

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Poetry is the expression of human experience.

It is the voice when finding ourselves past and future identities.

Poems are a universal noise bringing truth from silence on our lived experiences in race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, health, and family.

These verses, in whichever form they take, are the hopes, dreams, rage, and tears that move our lives.

UCF Libraries is proud to raise up other voices as part of the largest literary celebration in the world.

We have gathered suggestions to feature 16 books of poetry that are currently in the UCF collection. These works represent the wide range of favorite poets for our faculty and staff. To compliment the works featured on the 2021 list, an additional 200 poetry books grace the shelves of our Featured Display next to the Research & Information Desk on the main floor of the John C. Hitt Library.

Click on the Keep reading link to see the full list of titles and descriptions.

A Nail the Evening Hangs On by Monica Sok In her debut collection, Monica Sok uses poetry to reshape a family’s memory about the Khmer Rouge regime―memory that is both real and imagined―according to a child of refugees. Driven by myth-making and fables, the poems examine the inheritance of the genocide and the profound struggles of searing grief and PTSD. Though the landscape of Cambodia is always present, it is the liminal space, the in-betweenness of diaspora, in which younger generations must reconcile their history and create new rituals. Sok seeks to reclaim the Cambodian narrative with tenderness and an imagination that moves towards wholeness and possibility. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisition and Collection Services

Buzzing Hemisphere = Rumor Hemisferico by Urayoan Noel In this expansive collection, we hear the noise of cities such as New York, San Juan, and São Paulo abuzz with flickering bodies and the rush of vernaculars as untranslatable as the murmur in the Spanish rumor. Oscillating between baroque textuality and vernacular performance, Noel’s bilingual poems experiment with eccentric self-translation, often blurring the line between original and translation as a way to question language hierarchies and allow for translingual experiences. Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

Collected Poems in English by Joseph Brodsky One of the greatest and grandest advocates of the literary vocation, Joseph Brodsky truly lived his life as a poet, and for it earned eighteen months in an Arctic labor camp, expulsion from his native country, and the Nobel Prize in Literature. Such were one man's wages. Here, collected for the first time, are all the poems he published in English, from his earliest collaborations with Derek Walcott, Richard Wilbur, Howard Moss, and Anthony Hecht to the moving farewell poems he wrote near the end of his life. Suggested by Tatyana Leonova, Acquisition and Collection Services

Crush by Richard Siken This work, selected as the 2004 winner of the Yale Younger Poets prize, is a powerful collection of poems driven by obsession and love. Siken writes with ferocity, and his reader hurtles unstoppably with him. His poetry is confessional, gay, savage, and charged with violent eroticism. In the world of American poetry, Siken's voice is striking. Suggested by Rebecca Hawk, Circulation

Different Hours by Stephen Dunn The mysteries of Eros and Thanatos, the stubborn endurance of mind and body in the face of diminishment--these are the undercurrents of Stephen Dunn's eleventh volume. Suggested by Rebecca Hawk, Circulation

Honeyfish by Lauren K. Alleyne The collection begins and ends with poems that memorialize and mourn the deaths of African Americans who have died at police hands, though to call them poems of protest would simplify their exploration of what life means in relation to death. It is a collection whose architecture works to make each poem, beautiful in their singular grace, add up to much more than the sum of their individual parts. Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

How We Became Human: new and selected poems by Joy Harjo This collection gathers poems from throughout Joy Harjo's twenty-eight-year career, beginning in 1973 in the age marked by the takeover at Wounded Knee and the rejuvenation of indigenous cultures in the world through poetry and music. This work explores its title question in poems of sustaining grace. Suggested by Megan Haught, Student Learning & Engagement/Research & Information Services

Legacy: women poets of the Harlem Renaissance by Nikki Grimes For centuries, accomplished women--of all races--have fallen out of the historical records. The same is true for gifted, prolific, women poets of the Harlem Renaissance who are little known, especially as compared to their male counterparts. In this poetry collection, bestselling author Nikki Grimes uses "The Golden Shovel" poetic method to create wholly original poems based on the works of these groundbreaking women-and to introduce readers to their work. Suggested by Megan Haught, Student Learning & Engagement/Research & Information Services

New Poets of Native Nations edited by Heid E. Erdrich Erdrich gathers poets of diverse ages, styles, languages, and tribal affiliations to present the extraordinary range and power of new Native poetry. These selected twenty-one poets whose first books were published after the year 2000 highlight the exciting works coming up after Joy Harjo and Sherman Alexie. Collected here are poems of great breadth―long narratives, political outcries, experimental works, and traditional lyrics―and the result is an essential anthology of some of the best poets writing now. Suggested by Dawn Tripp, Research & Information Services

Oceanic by Aimee Nezhukumatathil With inquisitive flair, Aimee Nezhukumatathil creates a thorough registry of the earth’s wonderful and terrible magic. In her fourth collection of poetry, she studies forms of love as diverse and abundant as the ocean itself. She brings to life a father penguin, a C-section scar, and the Niagara Falls with a powerful force of reverence for life and living things. With an encyclopedic range of subjects and unmatched sincerity, it speaks to each reader as a cooperative part of the earth, an extraordinary neighborhood to which we all belong. Suggested by Christina Wray, Student Learning & Engagement

Owed by Joshua Bennett Bennett's new collection is a book with celebration at its center. Its primary concern is how we might mend the relationship between ourselves and the people, spaces, and objects we have been taught to think of as insignificant, as fundamentally unworthy of study, reflection, attention, or care. Spanning the spectrum of genre and form--from elegy and ode to origin myth--these poems elaborate an aesthetics of repair. What's more, they ask that we turn to the songs and sites of the historically denigrated so that we might uncover a new way of being in the world together, one wherein we can truthfully reckon with the brutality of the past and thus imagine the possibilities of our shared, unpredictable present, anew. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisition and Collection Services

Phantom Noise by Brian Turner Brian Turner deftly illuminates existence as both easily extinguishable and ultimately enduring. These prophetic, osmotic poems wage a daily battle for normalcy, seeking structure in the quotidian while grappling with the absence of forgetting. Suggested by Katy Miller, Student Learning & Engagement

Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz This is an anthem of desire against erasure. Natalie Diaz’s brilliant second collection demands that every body carried in its pages―bodies of language, land, rivers, suffering brothers, enemies, and lovers―be touched and held as beloveds. Through these poems, the wounds inflicted by America onto an indigenous people are allowed to bloom pleasure and tenderness. In this new lyrical landscape, the bodies of indigenous, Latinx, black, and brown women are simultaneously the body politic and the body ecstatic. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisition and Collection Services

The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes edited by Arnold Rampersad and David Roessel Here, for the first time, are all the poems that Langston Hughes published during his lifetime, arranged in the general order in which he wrote them. Lyrical and pungent, passionate and polemical, the result is a treasure of a book, the essential collection of a poet whose words have entered our common language. Suggested by Susan MacDuffee, Acquisition and Collection Services

The Heart Aroused: poetry and the preservation of soul in corporate America by David Whyte David Whyte brings his unique perspective as poet and consultant to the workplace, showing readers how fulfilling work can be when they face their fears and follow their dreams. Going beneath the surface concerns about products and profits, organization and order, Whyte addresses the needs of the heart and soul, and the fears and desires that many workers keep hidden. At a time when corporations are calling on employees for more creativity, dedication, and adaptability, and workers are trying desperately to balance home and work, this revised edition is the essential guide to reinvigorating the soul. Suggested by Rebecca Hawk, Circulation

The Secret Powers of Naming by Sara Littlecrow-Russell Sara Littlecrow-Russell’s style emerges from the ancient and sacred tradition of storytelling, where legends were told not just to entertain, but to teach and, if necessary, to discipline. The power of the storyteller is the power of naming, to establish a relationship, a connection, and a sense of meaning. A name is both a bequest and a burden. Each of the poems in this collection is, in essence, a naming ritual. Sharply, energetically, and always provocatively, these poems name uncomfortable moments, complex emotions, and sudden, often wryly humorous realizations. Suggested by Megan Haught, Student Learning & Engagement/Research & Information Services

#ucf library #featured bookshelf #national poetry month #reading list #booklr #poetry #poem

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cinemavariety · 5 years ago

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Cinema Variety’s Top 25 Favorite Films of the Decade

This past decade has been a monumental ten years for the state of cinema. To think that there were actually still video rental stores all around the country, to almost becoming nonexistent, is statement enough to show how vastly audiences have changed the way they consume media. Through much thought and careful deliberation, the following 25 films are my personal favorites of the decade and are what I think best represent all that indie, international and arthouse cinema had to offer over the past ten years. Honorable Mentions: Shame Green Room A Ghost Story The Lost City of Z Knight of Cups 20th Century Women Jackie Blade Runner 2049 The Lighthouse Ingrid Goes West A Hidden Life

#25 - Suspiria (2018) Dir. Luca Guadagnino

“It’s only hours afterward that Guadagnino’s film will cohere for you and yield its buried treasures: the bonds of secret sorority, the strength of a line of dancers moving like a single organism, the present rippling with the muscle memory of the past. It’s so good, it’s scary.”

#24 - Call Me By Your Name (2017) Dir. Luca Guadagnino

“The final beats of Guadagnino’s adaptation galvanize two hours of simmering uncertainty into a gut-wrenchingly wistful portrait of two people trying to find themselves before it’s too late.”

#23 - American Honey (2016) Dir. Andrea Arnold

“Part dreamy millennial picaresque, part distorted tapestry of Americana and part exquisitely illustrated iTunes musical, “Honey” daringly commits only to the loosest of narratives across its luxurious 162-minute running time. Yet it’s constantly, engrossingly active, spinning and sparking and exploding in cycles like a Fourth of July Catherine wheel.”

#22 - Post Tenebras Lux (2013) Dir. Carlos Reygadas

“Some metaphors score and some miss, but this is leap-of-faith cinema: the rewards entail some risks.”

#21 - The Revenant (2015) Dir. Alejandro G. Iñárritu

“Pushing both brutal realism and extravagant visual poetry to the edges of what one customarily finds in mainstream American filmmaking, director/co-writer Alejandro G. Inarritu, cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki and a vast team of visual effects wizards have created a sensationally vivid and visceral portrait of human endurance under very nearly intolerable conditions.”

#20 - Her (2013) Dir. Spike Jonze

“What begins like an arrested adolescent dream soon blossoms into Jonze’s richest and most emotionally mature work to date, burrowing deep into the give and take of relationships, the dawning of middle-aged ennui, and that eternal dilemma shared by both man and machine: the struggle to know one’s own true self.”

#19 - Annihilation (2018) Dir. Alex Garland

“A shimmering example of what Hollywood sci-fi can achieve when the aim is high, Annihilation is a gripping, mystifying adventure and proof that a transportive experience is more rewarding than a story with clean-cut resolutions.”

#18 - The Neon Demon (2016) Dir. Nicolas Winding Refn

“Spectacular, gross and delicious (so unsavory it’s almost sweet), the film is more proof of Refn’s mastery of his trash aesthetic and more fun than anything this indulgent and empty-headed has any right to be.”

#17 - Waves (2019) DIr. Trey Edward Shults

“Propelled by color, energy, electronic music and a quartet of career-making performances, here is that rare sort of cinematic achievement that innovates at every turn, while teaching audiences how to make intuitive sense of the way it pushes the medium.”

#16 - Mother! (2017) Dir. Darren Aronofsky

“Mother! is something truly magnificent, the kind of visceral trash-arthouse experience that comes along very rarely, means as much or as little as you decide it does, and spits you out into the daylight dazzled, queasy, delirious, and knock-kneed as a newborn calf.”

#15 - Melancholia (2011) Dir. Lars Von Trier

“The vision is as hateful as it is hate-filled, but the fusion of form and content is so perfect that it borders on the sublime. Melancholia is a remarkable mood piece with visuals to die for (excuse the pun), and a performance from Dunst that runs the color spectrum of emotions.”

#14 - Song to Song (2017) Dir. Terrence Malick

“Any number of sequences find feelings both externalized and hidden intermingling within the same shot, continuing in a subsequent image that carries the impression, the feeling, without replicating the exact tenor of what has just been seen. They exist simultaneously as certain backstories and what motivations they may inspire delicately unfold. Malick has found a way to translate how a familiar song has the ability to transport you back to a particular time and conjure a specific set of emotions. Whatever he’s been exploring over the past few years pays off here.”

#13 - If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) Dir. Barry Jenkins

“What Jenkins gets most right—what astonishes me the most about this film—is Baldwin’s vast affection for the broad varieties of black life. It’s one of the signature lessons of Baldwin’s work that blackness contains multitudes. In some ways Beale feels less like a movie than a well-staged, meticulously shot play; a period piece that floats beyond its specific time and place and into the realm of allegory.”

#12 - Samsara (2012) Dir. Ron Fricke

“Simply put, Samsara tells the story of our world, but onscreen, it is so much more than that. A darker and more ambitious meditation on impermanence, Samsara relies on blunt force and unforgettable imagery, overcoming the hazy logic of Fricke's editing to earn your awe.”

#11 - It’s Such a Beautiful Day (2012) Dir. Don Hertzfeldt

“A highly original and utterly enthralling film that touches on staggeringly expansive themes - more typically expected in the work of master auteur and persistent award-winner Terrence Malick, than from animations. An existential flipbook and a heartbreaking black joke: stickmen have never looked so alive.”

#10 - Upstream Color (2013) Dir. Shane Carruth

“You may not be able to figure it out, but that's part of the point of this sensually-directed, sensory-laden experiential (and experimental) piece of art that washes over you like a sonorous bath of beguiling visuals, ambient sounds and corporeal textures.”

#9 - Hereditary (2018) Dir. Ari Aster

“It’s a supremely effective gauntlet of supernatural horror that’s also, at blackened heart, a grueling domestic drama about how trauma, resentment, and guilt can seep into the roots of a family tree, rotting it from the inside out.”

#8 - Spring Breakers (2013) Dir. Harmony Korine

“Spring Breakers seems to be holding a funhouse mirror up to the face of youth-driven pop culture, leaving us uncertain whether to laugh, recoil in horror, or marvel at its strange beauty. Full credit to Korine, who sustains this act of creative vandalism right through to the finish. Spring Breakers unfolds as a fever dream of teenage kicks, a high-concept heist movie with mescal in the fuel tank.”

#7 - The Master (2012) Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson

“Two things stand out: the extraordinary command of cinematic technique, which alone is nearly enough to keep a connoisseur on the edge of his seat the entire time, and the tremendous portrayals by Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman of two entirely antithetical men. Written, directed, acted, shot, edited and scored with a bracing vibrancy that restores your faith in film as an art form, The Master is nirvana for movie lovers. Anderson mixes sounds and images into a dark, dazzling music that is all his own.”

#6 - Interstellar (2014) Dir. Christopher Nolan

“It’s a bold, beautiful cosmic adventure story with a touch of the surreal and the dreamlike, and yet it always feels grounded in its own deadly serious reality. An exhilarating slalom through the wormholes of Christopher Nolan’s vast imagination that is at once a science-geek fever dream and a formidable consideration of what makes us human.”

#5 - The Place Beyond the Pines (2013) Dir. Derek Cianfrance

“A brilliant, towering picture, The Place Beyond The Pines is a cinematic accomplishment of extraordinary grace and insight. The movie succeeds both as a high-stakes crime thriller as well as a far quieter and empathetic study of angry, solitary men proves that Cianfrance has a penchant for bold storytelling and an eye for performances to carry it through.”

#4 - Black Swan (2010) Dir. Darren Aronofsky

“A full-bore melodrama, told with passionate intensity, gloriously and darkly absurd. It centers on a performance by Natalie Portman that is nothing short of heroic. This is, no doubt about it, a tour de force, a work that fully lives up to its director's ambitions.”

#3 - Drive (2011) Dir. Nicolas Winding Refn

“From the beginning, it's clear this is not a standard-order action film. It takes its characters as seriously as its chases, shootouts, and fights. Drive dynamically merges a terrific film noir plot with a cool retro look. It's an unapologetically commercial picture that defies all the current trends in mainstream action filmmaking.”

#2 - Blue Valentine (2010) Dir. Derek Cianfrance

“Cianfrance and his actors, Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling, have not made a cold or schematic film. They aim instead for raw emotional experience, one that's full of insight into the ways a relationship can go astray, but mostly feels like a slow-motion punch to the gut.”

#1 - The Tree of Life (2011) Dir. Terrence Malick

"The Tree of Life is a film of vast ambition and deep humility, attempting no less than to encompass all of existence and view it through the prism of a few infinitesimal lives. I wrote earlier about the many ways this film evoked my own memories of such time and place. About wide lawns. About a town that somehow, in memory, is always seen with a wide-angle lens. About houses that are never locked. About mothers looking out windows to check on their children. About the summer heat and ennui of church services, and the unpredictable theater of the dinner table, and the troubling sounds of an argument between parents, half-heard through an open window.”

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simplysparrow14 · 5 years ago

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Dark Crystal Book Recommendations!

So, I’ve had this thought for a while now, and since half the world is in quarantine right now, I figured now would be a good time as ever to post this.

Here are the books that I have personally read that I feel represents these characters best.

Deet --> The Reader by Traci Chee

Sefia knows what it means to survive. After her father is brutally murdered, she flees into the wilderness with her aunt Nin, who teaches her to hunt, track, and steal. But when Nin is kidnapped, leaving Sefia completely alone, none of her survival skills can help her discover where Nin’s been taken, or if she’s even alive. The only clue to both her aunt’s disappearance and her father’s murder is the odd rectangular object her father left behind, an object she comes to realize is a book—a marvelous item unheard of in her otherwise illiterate society. With the help of this book, and the aid of a mysterious stranger with dark secrets of his own, Sefia sets out to rescue her aunt and find out what really happened the day her father was killed—and punish the people responsible.

Brea --> The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima

Times are hard in the mountain city of Fellsmarch. Reformed thief Han Alister will do almost anything to eke out a living for his family. The only thing of value he has is something he can't sell—the thick silver cuffs he's worn since birth. They're clearly magicked—as he grows, they grow, and he's never been able to get them off. One day, Han and his clan friend, Dancer, confront three young wizards setting fire to the sacred mountain of Hanalea. Han takes an amulet from Micah Bayar, son of the High Wizard, to keep him from using it against them. Soon Han learns that the amulet has an evil history—it once belonged to the Demon King, the wizard who nearly destroyed the world a millennium ago. With a magical piece that powerful at stake, Han knows that the Bayars will stop at nothing to get it back. Meanwhile, Raisa ana'Marianna, princess heir of the Fells, has her own battles to fight. She's just returned to court after three years of freedom in the mountains—riding, hunting, and working the famous clan markets. Raisa wants to be more than an ornament in a glittering cage. She aspires to be like Hanalea—the legendary warrior queen who killed the Demon King and saved the world. But her mother has other plans for her...

Rian --> Red Rising by Peirce Brown

"I live for the dream that my children will be born free," she says. "That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them." "I live for you," I say sadly. Eo kisses my cheek. "Then you must live for more." Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children. But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class. Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity's overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society's ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies... even if it means he has to become one of them to do so

Seladon --> Heartless by Marrisa Meyer

Catherine may be one of the most desired girls in Wonderland, and a favorite of the unmarried King of Hearts, but her interests lie elsewhere. A talented baker, all she wants is to open a shop with her best friend. But according to her mother, such a goal is unthinkable for the young woman who could be the next queen. Then Cath meets Jest, the handsome and mysterious court joker. For the first time, she feels the pull of true attraction. At the risk of offending the king and infuriating her parents, she and Jest enter into an intense, secret courtship. Cath is determined to define her own destiny and fall in love on her terms. But in a land thriving with magic, madness, and monsters, fate has other plans

Naia --> Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville—derailing the War Between the States and changing America forever. In this new nation, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Reeducation Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead. But there are also opportunities—and Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. It’s a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane. After all, not even being the daughter of a wealthy white Southern woman could save her from society’s expectations. But that’s not a life Jane wants. Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesn’t pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities, with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose. But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies. And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems.

Gurjin and Kylan --> The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

@Jenskira would be happy to see her raven sons on this list.

“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.” It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive. Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her. His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble. But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little. For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

Tavra and Onica --> Seafire by Natalie C Parker.

After her family is killed by corrupt warlord Aric Athair and his bloodthirsty army of Bullets, Caledonia Styx is left to chart her own course on the dangerous and deadly seas. She captains her ship, the Mors Navis, with a crew of girls and women just like her, who have lost their families and homes because of Aric and his men. The crew has one mission: stay alive, and take down Aric's armed and armored fleet. But when Caledonia's best friend and second-in-command barely survives an attack thanks to help from a Bullet looking to defect, Caledonia finds herself questioning whether to let him join their crew. Is this boy the key to taking down Aric Athair once and for all . . . or will he threaten everything the women of the Mors Navis have worked for?

#The Dark Crystal #the dark crystal age of resistance #Dark Crystal #Deet #Rian #Brea #Seladon #Gurjin #Kylan #Onica #Tavra

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soniaspeaking · 5 years ago

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Hello, all! Welcome back to Sonia Speaking, a blog about cinematic storytelling. I’m continuing my series on Memento’s screenplay and why it is so incredibly effective. Today, we’re going to discuss the second sequence. The second sequence (hereafter referred to as “Sequence 2”) generally runs from the Inciting Incident (usually around page 15) to the Act One Break (usually around page 30). These first thirty pages are essential to get right! The brutal truth is that many readers (producers, coverage writers, etc) will pass on your script if something dramatic and interesting does not happen by page 10.

A quick recap: by page 15 of Memento, we see the actual moment that Leonard has decided to kill Teddy. Now, the way Memento contextualizes its inciting incident is interesting because we technically have already seen Leonard make this decision in the opening scene. However, what the inciting incident gives us is the empirical reason Leonard decides to kill Teddy: that infamous tattoo that says, “John G raped and murdered my wife.” The primary goal of Sequence 2 is to move the protagonist from the inciting incident into a psychological position where the protagonist is fully locked into their journey by the Act One Break. The secondary goals of Sequence 2 is to layer in other characters and provide foreshadowing into the future obstacles and complications to be encountered by the protagonist.

The real challenge of Sequence 2 is to create that deepening sense of thematic resonance. Memento is ultimately a study in ideas about the individual’s (in)significance and the visible and invisible consequences of our actions. On the surface, Leonard is a very “cool” character who has ingeniously figured out a system to work around his handicap. But underneath, he is a tortured man who is steadfastly holding onto his belief that he matters. Because he knows that if he loses that belief, he is and will become utterly nothing:

LEONARD The world doesn’t disappear when you close your eyes, does it? My actions still have meaning, even if I can’t remember them. My wife deserves vengeance and it doesn’t make any difference whether I know about it.

Sequence 2 is the spot to place the thesis statement for your screenplay. What is the larger, grander statement your narrative is trying to make about humanity and our shortcomings? Not only that, but it is essential that this thesis statement is inherently tied into your protagonist’s personality and development arc. It is one thing to include a thesis statement. But without the direct connection to your protagonist’s core and essence, it will not feel organic and cohesive.

Another important goal of Sequence 2 is to layer in sub-plots and introduce other characters who foreshadow Act 2 obstacles. During Sequence 2, we meet Natalie (who will become a major player soon enough). But the other important character we meet is Sammy Jankis, through the black-and-white scenes that provide insight into Leonard prior to his wife’s murder. Sammy is a fascinating character because he serves as Leonard’s foil. A “foil” is a character with contrasting qualities to highlight specific themes and the protagonist’s development. Sammy had the same condition as Leonard, but was unable to maintain a system for remembering. In this sub-plot, past-Leonard’s goal is to determine Sammy’s condition as valid or false.

Ultimately, the most prominent goal of Sequence 2 is to psychologically position your protagonist so that they are completely and utterly committed to their journey by the Act One Break. Like every moment of the screenplay, this needs to be a choice made in the face of imminent danger (both physical and psychological danger). Take a look at what happens on page 29-30 of Memento:

TEDDY Leonard, you need to be careful.

LEONARD Why?

TEDDY The other day you made it sound like you thought somebody might be trying to set you up.

LEONARD Yeah, well I go on facts, not recommendations, okay?

TEDDY Lenny, you can’t trust a man’s life to your little notes and pictures.

LEONARD Why?

TEDDY Because you’re relying on them alone. You don’t remember what you’ve discovered or how. Your notes might be unreliable.

LEONARD Memory’s unreliable.

Teddy snorts.

LEONARD No, really. Memory’s not perfect. It’s not even that good. Ask the police, eyewitness testimony is unreliable. The cops don’t catch a killer by sitting around remembering stuff. They collect facts, make notes, draw conclusions. Facts, not memories; that’s how you investigate. I know, it’s what I used to do. Memory can change the shape of a room or the color of a car. It’s an interpretation, not a record. Memories can be changed or distorted and they’re irrelevant if you have the facts.

TEDDY You really want to find this guy?

LEONARD he took away the woman I love and he took away my memory. He destroyed everything; my life and my ability to live.

TEDDY You’re living.

LEONARD Just for revenge. That’s what keeps me going. It’s all I have.

This is incredible screenwriting because the essence of Leonard’s character (which was established from page 1) consistently carries through from one moment to the next. Here, he has completely committed to his journey, as if there was any question of that. Even with the danger of a potential set-up and even after being implicitly offered the choice to leave this behind, he commits because that is who he is.

Thank you for reading and please leave comments for discussion. Check back here next week for a post about Sequence 3.

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hey-have-you-heard · 5 years ago

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Hey have you heard these 50 songs from 2019

I really enjoyed this last year so going to give it another go for ‘19. I put quite a lot of thought into what actually a ‘song of the year’ for me when I was first constructing and then heavily editing the playlist that came to be my Top 50 of 2019. I think the most important thing is that above all it’s a track that I’m glad exists, sometimes this is because of the songwriting or composition, sometimes the performance, sometimes the lyrical importance and sometimes just because it sparks joy.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6bFJOjL8b8Zc2s5r1oJbsk?si=UJdqSXOTR3SQ8D3IwcmV2g

Explanations for each tracks inclusion below the fold…

100 gecs - 800db cloud 100 gecs channel a mix of Crystal Castles and Sleigh Bells with a Death Grips level appreciation for noise. It’s an absolute rush and that outro is just absurd.

Natalie Evans - Always Be Natalie Evans soft melody and sing song vocals are sublimely sweet on this heartfelt track of lost love, longing and nostalgia.

Petrol Girls - Big Mouth “If you fight back or disagree you’re the one with the fucking problem” this hits home, hard. Big Mouth is a rallying cry to speak out against oppression and discrimination, to raise you’re voice and be heard, not to be controlled.

Charli XCX ft. Lizzo - Blame it on your Love Charli has a midas touch when it comes to pop, combine that with Lizzo who has just about been the most fun thing in music this year and you’ve got a 10/10 banger.

Poppy - BLOODMONEY Poppy’s music just keeps going further down the rabbit hole. Originally playing with blending elements of nu-metal with bubblegum pop, she now seems to have transcended genre altogether to create whatever BLOODMONEY is, it’s absolutely ridiculous and I love it.

Body Hound - Bloom Get on that GROOVE! So proggy it hurts, this track from Body Hound is a technical wonderland of metamorphosing rhythms, gargantuan riffs, and just the tastiest of chord progressions.

Can the Sub_Bass speak - Algiers Word of warning, this is not an easy listen. A freefall tumble through genre and tone accompanies a stream of consciousness monologue full of racism, prejudice and political and artistic critique.

Elohim - Buckets Buckets is an onslaught of trap influences, emotional outbursts and aggressive distortion. I’m a big fan of this sound.

VUKOVI - C.L.A.U.D.I.A I know very little about VUKOVI as a band, but that riff is absolutely massive and this track has been a constant throughout my year on that basis alone.

Show Me The Body - Camp Orchestra Apparently more hardcore bands should use Banjos, because this is a damn good sound. Slowly building from a single bass line this track builds into a powerful demolishing force.

clipping. - Club Down Having thoroughly proven themselves able to do afro-futurist scifi on the Hugo nominated Splendor and Misery, clipping. now turn their considerable talents to horror core and unsurprisingly nail it. Daveed’s flows are tight as ever as he brings to life a decaying city backed by tortured screams.

Dream Nails - Corporate Realness YOU ARE NOT YOUR JOB. WORK IS NOT YOUR LIFE. YOU ARE NOT WHAT YOU MUST DO IN ORDER TO SURVIVE. Dream Nails are great and exactly what we need right now.

ControlTop - Covert Contracts This track positively bristles with an anxious energy. A fitting sound for the subject of the information overload we find ourselves locked into everyday.

Cherry Glazerr - Daddi There’s an icy coolness to ‘Daddi’, a disconnected sarcasm that falls away to reveal the anger and torment in the chorus, it’s a masterful bit of emotional storytelling through musical tone.

The Physics House Band - Death Sequence I Listening to Physics House latest release, the Death Sequence EP feels like a physical journey. This opener is a perfect example of this, as you’re plunged straight into a heady and disorienting mix of rhythms and counter-melody’s, the Sax guiding you through the turbulence until you land in a placid midsection, before that bass riff drags you forward through rhythmic breakdowns into an absolutely absurd brain melting saxophony and then it just keeps on going from there…

Witching Waves - Disintegration I saw WW back in the early summer, they were a bassist down so it was just a guitar and drums duo. They started with this track and it was one of the most pure punk things I’ve experienced, drummer/vocalist Emma Wigham bashing the absolute shit out of her kit . A great no-nonsense lo-fi banger.

Lingua Ignota - DO YOU DOUBT ME TRAITOR Another, not particularly easy listen here. DO YOU DOUBT ME TRAITOR is a dark and angry brooding track, building in intensity to release the primal rage, fear and horror of the abused. Its deeply chilling and instantly arresting. This track and the entire CALIGULA album stands as an absolute must listen.

Carly Rae Jepsen ft. Electric Guest - Feels Right I love the instrumentation on this one, those chunky piano chords and screaming guitar lift the track out and make it the highlight of an already great album to me.

Orla Gartland - Figure it out Dialing back the intensity slightly, Orla chronicles the frustrations of having to deal with someone in your life who you’re done with. The choruses burst forth in beautifully fuzzy explosions of noise. That vocal flair at the start of the final chorus is chef kiss.

Battles - Fort Greene Park Battles are at their best when they keep things simple. This is evident on 2019′s Juicy B Crypts which features some incredibly cluttered moments, but this just makes Fort Greene Park stand out all the more. A delightfully spacious piece of math rock, from some of the best in the business.

Dogleg - Fox Boy howdy, do I love me some midwest emo. Catharsis in musical form, it just makes me want to mosh my troubles away like I’m 16 again.

Tørsö - Grab A Shovel Tørsö go hard, I can appreciate that. An absolutely brutal track about the destructive power of depression and self-loathing.

“Pijn & Conjurer playing Curse These Metal Hands” - High Spirits “We were like, are we Pijn and Conjurer, or are we Curse These Metal Hands? I think we’ve settled with ‘we are Pijn and Conjurer playing Curse These Metal Hands’ …whatever that means!“ what it means is one of the most joyously triumphant pieces of metal music I’ve ever heard. Some of the guitar lines in this absolutely soar.

Lizzo - Juice Lizzo has won 2019, her message of self love, acceptance and body positivity has won her both critical and cultural acclaim and permeates her music in a way that makes it impossible to not love.

COLOSSAL SQUID, AK Patterson - Kick Punch Colossal Squid is the name given to Three Trapped Tigers drummer, Adam Betts’ experimental project. After a solo album of percussive wizardry Betts has now teamed with vocalist AK Patterson to give us something else entirely.

Evan Greer - Liberty Is A Statue Evan Greer uses the a folk punk sound to deliver an essay on the damaging influences of cis-normativity and social inequality. Of course I like this one.

Taylor Swift - Lover I wasn’t on board with this song for a fair while, but then I kept listening to it and kept coming back to it because of a roughly 50 second section which ties the track and the whole album together. Yeah, this is on here purely for the bridge, which is just beautiful.

Dodie - Monster Monster is an incredibly well written and delivered study on how perception changes with resentment and it makes me cry.

The Y Axes - Moon Moon is a delightfully dreamy piece of pop that glitters with infectious melodies, it’s lyrics a blissful embracing of cosmic nihilism, need I say more?

Ezra Furman - My Teeth Hurt My teeth hurt is a song about tooth ache, about that pain you carry with you everywhere and can’t get rid of, that ruins your days and and is one hell of a mood. Yeah it’s about gender dysphoria.

Nervus - No Nations Speaking of things being a mood, this track hits the nail squarely on the head.

Cultdreams - Not My Generation "Everyone ignores me Unless I’m on a stage talking Because they put me on a pedestal And pretend I’m just performing“ Lucinda Livingstone calls out the misogyny in our culture with a singular ferocity.

Lil Nas X - Old Town Road If there’s one song that’s dominated 2019 this is it right here. Who ever had the idea of putting that NIN Ghosts sample to a trap beat and cowboying over the top of it is an absolute genius.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Planet B It’s impossible to predict where King Gizzard’s sonic influences are going to take them next I doubt even they know half the time. Whatever they turn their hand to though they do it as if they mastered the sound decades ago Planet B is an all out thrash track with a strong environmental message.

Kesha - Rich, White, Straight Men Okay, I’m about to compare Kesha to John Lennon here but HEAR ME OUT… As ‘Imagine’ asked us to consider a world without conflict or capitalism, Kesha now posits that we should tear up our conceptions of our society based on its formation by a privileged group and imagine what kind of utopia could be built if we gave the underprivileged and minority groups a say.

Allie X - Rings A Bell The chorus here sounds like it could have been off Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories, and I’m all about that sound. Combined with Allie X’s dreamlike vocals make this a certified bop.

Poly-Math - Sensors in Everything Sensors in Everything is a beast of a track spanning over 14 minutes of absurdly dense prog. Having recently enlisted keyboardist Josh Gesner. Polymath make use of the new sounds and textures available to them, at times imitating a sort of Hammond sound not unlike John Lord to the chaotic maelstrom of noise.

Calva Louise - Sleeper Big hooks on this one. Sleeper has a confident swagger to it’s sound which stands apart for the bands previous work. It’s an absolutely huge track.

Slipknot - Solway Firth Slipknot didn’t disappoint after the tease of 2018′s “All Out Life”, following up with an album which blended old and new aspects of their sound to create one of their best to date. Solway Firth is a perfect example of this matching the punishing heaviness of Iowa with the melody driven sound of All Hope Is Gone.

Clt Drp - Speak To My Seeing Clt Drp perform live was one of my highlights of the year. The filthy guitar tones, powerhouse vocals tight as heck drumming and the _grooves. _Absolutely like nothing else I’ve seen. Just an incredible band that deserve so much more recognition.

Black Country, New Road - Sunglasses Black Country, New Road released two tracks this year and now I just want more. Dense wordy lyricism plays off against ever evolving instrumentation to present a raw cut of emotional storytelling.

Her Name Is Calla - Swan Her Name Is Calla are a band that have always been on the edge of my radar, my Dad is very fond of them and saw them live a couple of years ago, but never went back to relisten to any of their stuff, then they started an album with this. I was sold instantly.

black midi - Talking Heads Talking Heads (the band) are an obvious inspiration on this track. Both David Byrne’s vocal style and the Talking Heads penchant for sharp angular melodies are on show here. But given an extra ounce of chaos through Black Midi’s delivery.

Amanda Palmer - The Ride The ride is ten minutes of bundling up all your fears and anxieties of where we are and where we’re going and just, accepting them as part of the ride. Written off the back of a prompt from Amanda asking her fans what they were afraid of right now.

Kim Petras - There Will Be Blood Okay, let’s have some out of season spookiness. Love the squelchy synths on this, there’s a huge amount of energy on this track and with it’s commitment to the horror conceit it makes for a super fun bop.

Kate Nash - Trash Kate Nash’s sound is like bathing pure nostalgia,here she spins the toxic-relationship narrative central to her work to deliver a bigger story about humanity’s, quite literally toxic relationship to our planet.

American Football & Hayley Williams - Uncomfortably Numb The other side of the “midwest emo” coin. A melancholic song built on a soft bed of arpeggiated chords and clean harmonics, Uncomfortably Numb is a heartbreaking track of losing everything and of cycles persisting thorugh generations. Employing the clever metatextual trick of referencing Pink Floyd’s comfortably Numb to mirror the generational similarities.

Glenn Branca - Velvet and Pearls Disclaimer, Glenn Branca was a musical hero of mine, his approach to music and composition being solely responsible for influence a vast number of my favourite bands. Released posthumously, Velvet and Pearls is taken from a live performance by Branca’s ensemble and perfectly captures the sense of sonic disorientation, conjuring aural illusions through an assault of intricately crafted noise. It’s an exhilarating piece that should be played as loud as humanly possible.

Brutus - War The raw emotional strength of Stefanie Manneart’s vocals instantly made me pay attention when I first heard this track. Then the song exploded into a barrage of riffs and breakneck drumming.

Valiant Vermin - Warm Coke Another slice of throwback pop, Valiant Vermin proved with “Online Lover” how much of an ear she has for pop and has proven it once again with Warm Coke. Is a real good bop.

———

Welp there it is, 50(+1) songs, I had to limit myself to one track per artist in the main 50 because according to Spotify I listened to [checks notes] 1082 new artists this year. There are a small handful of tracks I wanted to highlight from the same artists though as they offer something quite different to the tracks in the playlists, so here they are quickly with 3 word descriptions.

Petrol Girls - Skye (dead dog, sad) Amanda Palmer - Voicemail for Jill (Talk about abortion) Ezra Furman - I Wanna be Your Girlfriend (Trans Torch Song) Battles ft Jon Anderson & Prairie WWWW - Sugar Foot (Batshit Prog Insanity) Poppy - Choke (Dark Minimalist Pop) Show Me The Body - Forks and Knives (Anxious nightmare punk) Lingua Ignota - CALIGULA (the whole album.)

———

Closing Statement

Cultdreams - Statement

There has been a shadow over the entertainment industry the latter half of this decade. Whether film, music, TV or video games, the late 2010′s are filled with stories of people coming forward to bravely tell their stories about being abused and manipulated by men in positions of power. The #metoo movement as it’s come to be known has been a powerful force in giving marginalised people a voice and the ability to call out oppressors and in starting the groundwork to root out the misogyny in the seats of power, but this is a battle far from won.

While there are thousands of stories out there I want to focus on one in particular.

In 2016 a number of women spoke out about various forms of abuse by a well-known musician in the punk scene. It’s now over three years later and this group of women are in the midst of a long fought claim of defamation from this musician. If this case goes through it sets a precedent for silencing marginalised voices in the industry. They have been fighting for so long and with no legal aid available for the case they have had to finance their defense from their own pockets.

This is where Solidarity Not Silence comes in. Solidarity not silence is a crowdfunding effort to help take the case to trial without the women bankrupting themselves entirely so that they don’t have to give in to this mans demands. You can read more about Solidarity not Silence and make a donation (if you feel so inclined) here: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/solidaritynotsilence/

You can also follow them on twitter here https://twitter.com/solnotsilence

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eachainn · 5 years ago

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Sormik Week Day 5: White Poppy {Dreams}

“You cannot think of the wonderful secrets which it contains.” -The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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Selene rested her chin on her knees, watching her parents. Mikleo was sitting on the ground, spinning a sphere of water between his hands. Selene watched its path, momentarily distracted by it. She remembered Mikleo doing the same for her when she was younger, sending the sphere dancing above her head and sending rainbows everywhere. He had done the same with bubbles, but those she had chased. Selene smiled at the thought, watching as the sphere shuddered before some of the water sloughed off.

She lifted her chin off her leg, watching as Mikleo moved his hand underneath to catch the water. It pooled there for a moment before leaking out his fingers. She saw his shoulders slump before he flicked the water off of his fingers. The sphere was just as quickly banished, Mikleo leaning back on his hands with a groan.

Selene gave her father a protective look over, eyeing the growing bump of his stomach. She wasn’t surprised that Mikleo’s artes were starting to fail, but she couldn’t help but worry. She reached for her pocket, patting at the letter that had been brought up from Kyfle-on-the-Mountain. A wind seraph there had gotten it from Tejal, a note passing along how Ingrid was doing. It was heartening news, the news that Selene had been waiting for.

Ingrid was up and about, maybe not ready for full on Shepherd’s work, but healthy enough for a Squire. A Squire would be helpful considering that there were only two Shepherds. Selene was sure that Shepherd Laurent’s Squire would be the first ready, which meant that Lailah would take charge of him. Afterward, she didn’t know what would happen. Three Shepherds was still too small for the whole of Glenwood, but it was a start, and they had Sorey.

She looked back over at her other father, watching as he went through sword forms with careful exactness. She was struck by his skill with the sword, even if it was the dull Shepherd sword that he had brought back from the Mount Mabinogio ruins. Every once and a while, she could see him start to move faster like he was about to rush, but then the silver flames that wreathed the sword would start to flicker and go out, and then he would slow down again.

Selene watched him go through another form, shifting to let her legs stretch out straight in front of her. She didn’t know why she was surprised at Sorey’s skill. Mikleo had told her most of her life that her father had been a soldier, so it made sense that he knew how to used a sword. Sergei and Boris’ storied had had him fighting even before he became emperor, but in little skirmishes for the safety of villagers throughout Rolance.

She had seen the Platinum Knights training before. One of her first Shepherds as a Sub Lord had been an ex-Platinum Knight, and she was familiar with them. What Sorey was doing looked similar to that, although some of it wasn’t nearly as formalized. Then again, that might be the difference between a Platinum Knight that were used to war and the Platinum Knights that were used to peace.

She was jerked from the thoughts as the flames flickered out, Sorey bending over to pant for breath. Mikleo was immediately on his feet, although the action was less fluid that normal. He walked over to Sorey, rubbing his hand over Sorey’s back. The two of them had a quiet conversation, lost in their own little world.

Selene tipped her head to the side, smiling to herself. It wasn’t like what she had imagined when she had thought of her fathers together. They were far more loving than she had thought. Then again, that could have been the seven hundred years. She hummed to herself before pushing herself off of the porch. She had only a few days left of her idle with her parents before her Shepherd came, and she was not about to spend them just watching.

She ambled over to them, watching as Sorey straightened up and pushed his bangs out of his face. His gaze flicked over to her before he broke out in a grin.

Mikleo turned then, her father giving her a tired smile before patting Sorey’s back once more. “Talk to him, bun. He’s not listening to me.”

Selene raised an eyebrow, before looking over at Sorey in time to get a sheepish grin. Selene raised an eyebrow and shook her head. “I don’t know what I can do if he’s not listening to you.”

“Then take him out to the town. I know for a fact he hasn’t been there.”

“Because you insisting on dragging us both to organize your library.”

“Because that’s what you’re here for.” Mikleo chuckled and leaned over to kiss the top of her head. “If not for that, then why else?”

“I couldn’t begin to guess.” She flashed him a smile before stepping around him to take the sword from Sorey’s hands. He let it go without an argument, which could only mean that he had really tired himself out. Selene passed the sword over to Mikleo, quick to reach out to grab Sorey’s hand. It wasn’t as strange as it has been before, even if it did make her feel a bit like a child. Then again, she could be forgiven, she hadn’t gotten to do this when she was a child.

She tugged on his hand, turning to start leading him away from the house. Sorey was slow to follow her, Selene watching as he stumbled a few steps before straightening up. Even then he seemed reluctant, turning back to look at Mikleo. “Beloved?”

“Go on.” Mikleo waved them both away with his free hand. “I’ll just put this back and finally get some things done around the house.”

Mikleo repeated the shooing gesture, that enough to get Sorey moving. Selene kept her hold on his hand, looking back over her shoulder to watch as Mikleo walked back to the house, noting the waddle that he was starting to develop. Selene bit her lip before turning around.

It was still a while until Mikleo’s due date, but she wanted to be around for it. Maybe Ingrid could be convinced to stay in the area when the time came. But that was something that would have to be decided later. She didn’t want to spent too much time focusing on the future when she had this to concentrate on.

She let go of Sorey’s hand, setting out in the direction of the town. She was aware of Sorey looking back over his shoulder every once and a while, Selene letting him do it for a moment before stepping close to him. “He’s probably just going to nap.”

“Nap?”

Selene nodded. “It helps. It takes energy, and sometimes sleeping and eating help.”

Sorey sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t want to push him. It was bad enough last time.”

Selene was quiet for a moment before, staring at the road that they were walking down before turning her attention back over to Sorey. “What did happen last time? Dad never told me.”

“I’m not surprised. It wasn’t the best time.”

Selene bit her lip, looking up at him hopefully. Sorey glanced at her before sighing. “We didn’t know what we were doing, so we were just running.”

It sounded like what Mikleo had told her, but there was a weight behind her words, and suddenly Selene didn’t want to know.

Mikleo had been open enough about the time before she had been born, but her aunts had been the better two to direct her questions toward. Now that she was older she realized that they both had been carefully toeing the same line Mikleo had made. But she had always been able to wheedle a little more out of them. Natalie had been the one to point out the evils of the emperor and the empire, which Selene had been more than ready to accept. After all, that’s what everyone else had said. Melody had been the one to offer more, but nothing like this.

Then again, Selene doubted that her aunts knew Sorey at all. Not really.

Selene nodded slowly. “Dad told me as much. I think he left a lot of stuff out though, mostly because he forgot. It was never about you though.”

She glanced over at the side, watching as Sorey slowed down to look around. Selene slowed with him, looking around. She didn’t see anything but the open fields that surrounded their house and the road that they were on. There were a few uneven mounds where there would have been houses, but Selene didn’t remember much about them. They had been things that she had been warned away from because they weren’t safe, and then used to help build their house and the town.

She stepped around Sorey to look on the other side of him, spotting the fenced off area. It looked like Mikleo had been hard at work at the gravesite because the fence looked like it was newly painted and the area was mostly clear of weeds.

Selene turned as she heard Sorey step up beside her, watching as he studied the fence. She’d seen him in her father’s artifact room and the Mabinogio Ruin, and it was only in the former that she had seen the spark that Mikleo had talked about.

She smiled and grabbed his arm to tug him in the direction of the fence. “We didn’t come back this way from Ladylake, so you missed this.”

Sorey kept pace with her, Selene relieved that he looked focused instead of bored. Mikleo had told her so much about the boy he had known, the one who had loved history, but she hadn’t seen him. Selene had thought that there was a chance that they had nothing in common, but here was something.

Sorey moved away as he got closer, leaning against the fence to look at the plaque on the stone that was on the other end. Selene came to lean with him, staring at the sign.

In memory of the people in Camlann, killed in a brutal massacre and laid to rest here with great respect by a loyal friend and blessed by Shepherd Michael.

Reinterred and rededicated by Prime Lord Lailah and Great Lord Mikleo.

May they rest in peace and in the protection of the seraphim.

Mikleo said it was a copy of the original, because stone would last longer than wood. Selene hummed to herself, looking down at the flowers that were blooming. She leaned over to brush her fingers over the petal of one. She could feel a certain type of contentment, or something close enough that she associated with plants. Selene stroked the edge of the petal before looking back over at Sorey. “I remember Dad working on this. It took him all summer, and Lailah came up for the end. There was another sign, but we only had a bit of it. There was supposed to be something with the names, but we never found that.”

“It probably rotted away. It wasn’t here when we ran across it.” Sorey sighed, leaning heavily on the fence. “I’m glad someone took care of it. The last time there were bones sticking out of the ground.”

Selene nodded. “It was like that before. I remember finding a skull and running screaming back to Dad. He gave me the talk about humans and seraphim then. I think that’s what did it. He was always cleaning up the cairns at the top of the mountain, I think it just spurred him into action.” She tipped her head to the side. “That’s when he started taking me to see more things, when I wasn’t in school.”

“School?”

Selene gestured back towards the village. “When that was still just a few houses. It was a tiny one-room thing, but I loved it. I got to be with humans. They’re lives were so colorful, at least compared to what I was used to.”

Sorey chuckled. “I envy you.”

“But, you were human.”

“Yes, but I was a prince.” Sorey turned to look at her, his gaze sometimes flicking up towards the town. “I had tutors and servants. When I was older I had the Platinum Knights, but before that, I was left alone. I wasn’t important enough for too much effort.”

“That sounds sad, and lonely.”

“I don’t think I noticed.” Sorey rubbed the back of his neck. “I loved studying and my sword lessons. When I wasn’t doing that I was reading every book I could about anything to do with history or the ruins. Or Shepherds. I didn’t realize that there was anything to miss until later.”

Sorey shrugged, settling down further against the fence.

Selene watched him closely, letting them stand in silence for a moment before reaching out to grab onto his arm and pull. Sorey turned to look at her, Selene unable to keep herself from smiling. “Come on, I want to show you the town. Dad is going to be sleeping for a while. And if not, it’s about time that he did something with that artifact room instead of leaving it to us.”

Sorey stepped away from the fence, hesitant and first before speeding up. Selene was quick to loop her arm through his, holding him tight as they headed towards the town.

#sormikweek2019 #sormikweek #sormik #My fic #fic: kingmaker au

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daisyishedwig · 5 years ago

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Hello, yes, I have a lot of emotions about The Museum of Death in LA, so here's a rant.

First thing I'll say is I have no qualms about pictures of dead bodies or intense amounts of gore. I found the mortuary part of the museum fascinating and I was pretty chill with all if the serial killer artifacts. Like, I personally prefer not to idolize these horrible people, but I do find looking into their writings and artworks kinda cool, so that was fine. My issue that I had in that room is that the podcast I was listening to cut out and I wasn't allowed to pull my phone out to start it up again, so I couldn't block out the other patrons who have less respectful views of this than me. I thought that that would be the biggest problem was the ither patrons but oh boy oh boy was I wrong.

The first thing that began to make me incredibly uncomfortable was a painting of Kali hanging on a wall surrounded by all these gruesome murders. There was no description as to who she was, what she represents, or why she was there. She was just slapped on a wall like an after thought. Like, oh yeah, this is the hindu goddess of death and destruction, clearly she belongs here. It was just really upsetting to see her not honored in any way, just like, people worship her with skulls, oooooh eeeeeeviiiiiiiil. She could have fit into one of the displays about other culture's views on death. She could have been perfectly implemented in a display of women murdering men who have wronged them, Kali would have fucking loved that. But instead she seemed to just be hung randomly and haphazardly with no thought as to how they could actually express what Kali means to the hindu religion in anyway that was even remotely respectful.

The next thing they has was a display about The Heaven's Gate cult and that one was hard to stomach. I think it was handled more respectfully than other things, but it was still jarring to turn a corner and see mannequins lying on a bed covered in the purple shroud with the nike shoes. And what was even more jarring was seeing pictures of Marshall Applewhite for the first time (I've only ever listened to podcasts and videos about Heaven's Gate, so I've never seen images of him or the other cult members) and realizing that I had a friend in high school who used to show me edited versions of his videos that had been made into memes and that was a very weird feeling to realize that this man who was delusional enough (unlike Charles Manson and Jim Jones, I do believe that Applewhite believed what he was preaching, he was still definitely crazy, but I believe he thought it was real) to lead like 50 or so people to commit suicide with him was turned into silly videos to be consumed by teenagers who had no idea who he was. So that was not really bad on the museum's part, just weird for me personally.

But finally I entered a room about brutal murders, most of them unsolved. They had the big ones like The Black Dahlia with lots of information on Elizabeth Short and who she was and how she died to accompany the brutal images of her body post mortem, and I thought that was fine. But was I hated more than anything was the desk right below The Black Dahlia, filled with picture after picture of gruesome crime scene with no information as to who these people were. Seeing them so blatantly displayed purely for entertainment with no attempt at education or giving me an opportunity to learn the stories of these people. No names, no dates, nothing. Just blood and gore purely for the shock of it and I hated it so much.

Everything after that point was a blur, I was too upset by that room to really pay too close of attention to anything else, I did notice they had a lot of info on celebrities who died in strange or very sad ways and I was kind of interested in that except that I didn't notice anything on Natalie Wood and I was a little disappointed in that because I feel like when it comes to celebrity deaths her's is one of the most suspicious that most people don't know about and I just wished that a museum about death in LA would talk about her at least a little bit, but they didn't.

And then after I exited the museum and was in the store, I finally took in all of the merchandise they had for sale there and how most of it was tarot cards revamped to feature serial killers. Just the iconography of these horrible people being pretty much all they sold and putting them onto these cards that I consider to be quite sacred was just like the final thing that made me be like, yeah, no, I hate this.

It was just weird because I'm such a big true crime fanatic, I'm studying forensic science with my main goal being to become and investigative journalist with as much knowledge as possible to aid me in researching unsolved murders and missing persons. I value facts and details and the stories of these people, not because I think they're entertaining in the brutality of their deaths or the mystery surrounding them, but because I think that they and their family deserve justice and I want people to hear their stories in the hopes that justice can be served. And I guess I thought a museum on death would have a similar view but it was very very obvious they didn't and I feel like a fool for believing anything on Hollywood Blvd would give me that sort of respect for the victims of these crimes.

#personal

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reviewsbyryan · 6 years ago

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The Top 10 Films of 2018 (so far)

A mid-year list of top films is nearly pointless in today’s industry, because all of the really good stuff (or, at least, what gets Oscar nominations) comes out much later in the year. I’m not saying that films who get those nominations are the best ones, but pretty much all of my favorite films last year hit theaters between November and January, inclusive. I have still enjoyed a great many movies in 2018, and I produce this list so that you may be aware of them (you likely already are) and aware of their likability (judging by some of their box office numbers, you likely are not).

#10: American Animals dir. Bart Layton

Equipped with a distorted view of the American dream and what it takes to attain it, four friends embark on a fool-hardy mission to steal millions of dollars worth of books from their university library. A spiced-up telling of a true story, director Bart Layton shows that it’s more about the journey than the destination. We know the heist is unsuccessful from the very beginning, but to watch the young men’s unpreparedness and naive overconfidence unfold before us is a thrilling adventure.

#9: First Reformed dir. Paul Schrader

The aging Rev. Ernst Toller of the historic First Reformed Church receives a wake-up call from the world when he is asked to counsel the husband of one of his congregation, a man with a history of arrests and potential for violence stemming from his radical environmentalism. Writer/Director Paul Schrader pens an entrancing and unexpected screenplay around his troubled main character, portrayed masterfully by Ethan Hawke. Shades of Schrader’s masterwork Taxi Driver (1976) are abundant, as Toller transitions quickly from isolated pastor to staunch idealist, antagonized by growing religious commercialism and an unavoidably deteriorating world.

#8: The Party dir. Sally Potter

A 70-minute-long single-set comedy shot entirely in black and white, the strength of Sally Potter’s screenplay comes from the amusement one gets watching privileged folk become more and more perturbed as they learn that their fellow elites are really only in it for themselves, and that what they wield in political power they lack in real, valuable relationships. Ending abruptly on perhaps the best plot twist I have seen this year, The Party is a petty, star-studded affair that justifies its existence with the entertaining evolution of the tumultuous associations of its characters.

#7: Beast dir. Michael Pearce

A young woman over-protected by her mother and eclipsed by her younger sister finds love in a mysterious rural-dweller, only to learn he’s been suspected of being the perpetrator of a series of brutal murders, primarily of other young women. Both she and the audience are left in the dark regarding the real truth, and his refusal to be open about his life only serves to arouse suspicions. Beautifully shot and skillfully executed, writer/director Michael Pearce takes us on quite a ride, and lead actress Jessie Buckley gives a marvelous performance as her character is unceasingly torn apart by conflicting feelings of love and fear.

#6: Thoroughbreds dir. Cory Finley

It is fun and amusing to say that Thoroughbreds’ most important lesson is that you should never trust a horse girl, but there’s admittedly more to it than that. The impressive directorial debut of Cory Finley is an exquisite dark comedy complete with sadistic performances from Olivia Cooke and Anya Taylor-Joy (who is also amazing in The Witch, which you should watch if you haven’t yet). The two formerly-estranged friends rebuild their relationship as they plan the murder of Lily’s (Taylor-Joy) stepfather, a highly wealthy man who gives Lily everything she could want save for love and respect. Erik Friedlander’s string and percussion-heavy score is a lovely, quirky complement to the film as well.

#5: Upgrade dir. Leigh Whannell

Perhaps the most out-of-place film on this list, Upgrade is more of a Netflix-original-type B-movie as opposed to the typical arthouse fare that comprises the majority of the top spots. Most films of this form lack severely in interesting storytelling or technical execution, but I’m pleased to say this film has both. While the acting performances aren’t there, writer/director Leigh Whannell’s carefully-crafted sci-fi tale about a paraplegic widower who experiences newfound strength and intelligence with the help of a robotic spinal implant is surprising and so much fun. The action sequences are exciting and gory and over-the-top, and the camerawork is ingeniously complimentary to the rigid nature of the protagonist’s movements while under control of the mysteriously potent AI inside him.

#4: Hereditary dir. Ari Aster

A24 studios continue to have a good eye for modern horror films. After they picked up the critically-acclaimed Killing of a Sacred Deer last year, they found new success with another family-centered psychological scare in Ari Aster’s Hereditary. Toni Collette gives a terrifying performance as the mother in a family long-plagued by mental problems and supernatural possession. Aster makes clever use of framing in order to deliver the biggest fright to the audience, and does so without utilizing a single jumpscare, an approach of which I am a huge fan. The film’s accessibility is also a huge asset; it’s wide release provided many a welcome break from the unimaginative drivel that gets rolled out every time a Friday, the 13th rolls around.

#3: Annihilation dir. Alex Garland

Wow, it’s really cool that no one went to see this...

It wasn’t long ago that the Ghostbusters 2016 people were talking about how we never have female scientists in movies, only to make some crappy movie where the actresses just improvise a lot and make poop jokes. Here’s a fantastic sci-fi/horror film from the director of Ex-Machina (2014) with an all-female lead cast where all the characters are smart and possess a variety of knowledge and skills. The sound design is excellent, the premise is intriguing, and the final act is legitimately terrifying. Natalie Portman is great, too. But instead this got sent straight to Netflix in most places and failed to turn a decent profit. Stupid.

#2: You Were Never Really Here dir. Lynne Ramsay

Lynne Ramsay’s stylistic, radical deconstruction of the action genre turns You Were Never Really Here into a fascinating and unnerving character study. It’s also another film on this list that’s a lot like Taxi Driver (1976). Joaquin Phoenix portrays a psychologically wounded war veteran who works as a private enforcer, hunting down and mercilessly killing criminals who traffic and exploit children. Meanwhile, his character is constantly at war within his own head, making him unpredictable and worthy of our sympathy. Beautiful cinematography and Johnny Greenwood’s dissonant score enrich the experience two-fold.

#1: Isle of Dogs dir. Wes Anderson

Complete with one of the greatest voice casts the world has ever seen, Wes Anderson’s heartwarming adventure about a Japanese boy who travels to a remote island to find his dog is one of the finest animated features you’ll find anywhere. The set and character design is magnificent, with so much attention to detail; the look of the dogs is especially laudable. Isle of Dogs is also rich with beautiful homages to Japanese culture. The banter between the dogs is funny, the destitute conditions of the titular island are heartbreaking, and Atari’s love and determination in the search for his own “man’s best friend” melted my heart into a puddle. Nothing pleases me more than to be able to, once again, grovel at Wes Anderson’s feet.

#Movie Review #Movies #Film #Top 10 #American Animals #First Reformed #The Party #Beast #Thoroughbreds #Upgrade #Hereditary #Annihilation #You Were Never Really Here #Isle of Dogs #Wes Anderson

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inkedwolf-archive · 6 years ago

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Part Three: The Shattered Glass

Missed Parts One and Two? Feel free to check them out on my blog! Just follow the links below!

Part One

Part Two

Natalie didn't announce herself as she stormed into her father's study, everything about her a maelstrom of emotions, anger being the driving force of the storm. Confident steps carried her over to the desk where she slammed down the stack of papers she had pulled from the business archives.

“Did you even read this when you signed those papers all those years ago? Does she know?” Her voice was quiet but the softness did little to hide her fury.

There was a low hum of annoyance as her father rose from his seat, arthritic hands reaching across the desk to fan the papers across the mahogany desktop. Picking through the pages one by one he found document her was looking for and pulled it to the top for his daughter to see. “Look at the signature. Compare it to the one you received in the letter.”

Natalie didn't need to look. She has watched the woman sign several documents, so much so, that she was creating a stamp for her to spare her hand from the onslaught of paperwork that came with new business.

“She writes like her mother?” Natalie asked, confused by the similarity.

Shaking his balding head, her father sat back down with a loud huff. “She is the same woman who invested all those years back. Her mother, I knew as a boy. Brutally murdered. Macaela actually looks more like her father. I was there when she was wed. Same woman, untouched by time. So yes, she knows. Truth be told, I never thought I would see her again. Now that’s she’s here, give her what she wants. Don’t give her a reason to take control.”

“Don--” Natalie reached up to pinch the bridge of her nose, forcing herself to take a moment and count to ten before she spoke. She was rarely like this. More often than not she was calm and collected about everything. This, however, was her future and her livelihood. “She owns us. It’s all hers. You took her money and used every last copper to open our business.”

Natalie then pulled out the document she had flipped to initially. “And you agreed to pay her back after the first year in monthly installments. In the event payment wasn’t received on time, you agreed to a twenty percent interest rate. Signed and sealed by several as witnesses… And you never paid. This was four decades ago! Do you know how much money we owe this woman? I couldn’t buy myself out of this debt if I tried!”

“Oh, we won’t be paying her back. I fully intend to make sure we appease her… for now. And when I’m assured that we are her last living relatives, Lady Marley will have an unfortunate accident. There are a great many dangerous people in Boralus. One wrong turn here can have a tragic end. We will mourn her, and as her only living heirs, our future will be secured for years and years to come.”

#the shattered glass #ic canon #glimpse into the past #catching up a timeline

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greatfay · 7 years ago

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why didn't you like Annihilation?

It was messy and full of worldbuilding inconsistencies. Here’s a list:

For a movie about leaving things up to the viewer’s expectations, that scene where one character gives Natalie Portman clunky exposition about the others’ tragic backstories did them all a disservice.

The characters often didn’t react to their surroundings in a natural way, or as you’d expect. The plot demanded they keep driving forward and they did, regardless of what happened to them. No awe or terror was allowed for longer than 2 seconds, nor did those emotions carry narrative weight. It’s “We’re all screaming because something’s trying to eat us!!!” followed by them grim-faced and proceeding as if it hadn’t just happened. Only 2 out of the 5 women had military training and even they should’ve been shaken up by some of the trippier shit that happened.

The psychologist. FUCK her. What kind of fucking psychologist is she??? She was so horrible and she kept pulling a gd Freddie and splitting up the gang to search for clues and shit, like someone gets ripped in half and she’s like “Well okay so I’m going off alone” WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU’RE A PSYCHOLOGIST, NOT THE GUY FROM TAKEN.

Natalie Portman’s character has the most background for obvious reasons but I wish, ya know, that she was allowed to emote more. I wish they were all allowed to emote. Gina Rodriguez came off as the most human character followed by Tessa Thompson, and for a movie about being altered and losing your sense of self, it’d have been nice to see them as human beings beforehand (and even during!). I read that they did reshoots after a poor test audience reception and I wonder if they wanted to do a “women aren’t always emotional!” thing and just had them all grim-faced the whole time, but idk, if vines were growing out of my skin and crocodile-bear-rat monsters were using my dead friend’s vocal cords to mimic her voice, I’d be pretty damn emotional and allowed it.

The whole premise is nonsensical because no military operation would involve sending actual squads of people and pouring money into their gear so they can do an entire expedition through the Shimmer to the lighthouse. No scientific operation would send scientists into the field to go through the entire Shimmer to the lighthouse. You pop in, take a sample, pop out. That’s like sending people to Mars on our first try without having ever sent Spirit and Opportunity first (and I get that the drones weren’t making it but that should’ve dissuaded them from sending MULTIPLE TEAMS OF PEOPLE).

Literally they walk into the Shimmer and suddenly wake up to find they’ve gone through 6 days of supplies and don’t remember. That would’ve been the point to stop, turn around, and LEAVE, and at that point they at least had leaf samples and soil samples and could’ve studied the microbes back at the base and learned the secret behind Area X in safety. But no, plot says “Keep going!”

Gina Rodriguez establishes herself as the most charismatic character and then they turn her unexpectedly into a crazed murderer and for the most bogus reasons: Natalie Portman hid that she’s married to one of the soldiers from the last expedition. And??? Everyone has private motivations to do this suicide mission and hers was to help her hubby?? Girl BYE, and of course it had to be the lesbian of color who loses it like that and turns on them and gets brutally eaten by a rat-crocodile-bear hybrid but whatevs.

Tessa Thompson’s character arc tbh was my fave I think? Her idea of “Don’t fight it, don’t run from it, coexist with it” was interesting and says something about how she’s coped with her suicide attempts (or cutting, I think she used to cut), still don’t know if she’s alive or not or if she’s alive as something else but still the end of her arc proves sort of empty because she wasn’t allowed more dialogue and development prior to that.

The end of the movie was the best part, but it doesn’t feel like every scene prior was preparing me for that weird ass climax. The only scenes that prepare you for the end are the ones with that crocodile-rat-bear monster: it’s the biggest hint that some lifeforms mutated in Area X can consume the DNA and essence of other lifeforms to grow and change (hint hint, the alien thing doing that to the humans it finds).

And all the concepts of this movie, tbh I’ve seen them done elsewhere and better. 2001: A Space Odyssey for one, or Prey (2017). They did much better examples of first contact, envisioning alien beings that don’t even “think” the way we do or exist in a totally different dimensional mode, and what it even means to be human and if you’re still human after being altered.

#Anonymous

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omgstupendousbouquetbasement · 4 years ago

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LGBT+ Marches From London to New York Call for End to Racism

As thousands of people marched in support of Pride and racial justice globally this weekend, many demonstrators called for an end to often-overlooked racism within the LGBT+ community.

Pride events to celebrate LGBT+ rights are held globally throughout June — although most were canceled or moved online this year because of the coronavirus pandemic — but the emergence of protests over racial injustice spurred a series of live events.

While studies show LGBT+ people of color are more prone to violence and poverty, a 2018 Stonewall/YouGov survey also found more than half of Black, Asian and other minority LGBT+ Britons experienced discrimination from members of their own community.

"It's still definitely pretty prevalent," said Kwamina Theo Amihyia, joining a Black Trans Lives Matter march in London.

"As far as we've come, a lot of the strides made have been for white members of the [LGBT+] community and we're still seen almost as second-class citizens."

Racial inequalities globally have come under the microscope following the death of George Floyd, 46, in police custody in the United States on May 25.

The Kosciuszko Bridge is lit in rainbow colors in support of the LGBT+ community, prior to the 51st anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, in the Queens borough of New York, June 26, 2020.

Recalling Stonewall

Many LGBT+ groups released statements in support of protests after Floyd's death, pointing out the radical origins of the LGBT+ rights movement at the Stonewall Inn in New York 51 years ago that emerged to fight police brutality.

"As a queer person myself, I face racism from the queer community — and it's time we stamped it out," Patrick King told the Thomson Reuters Foundation as he marched along one of central London's main thoroughfares with car horns blaring. London's Black Trans Lives Matter march was one of several events planned this weekend to support Black Lives Matter.

With the debate over systemic racism also hitting LGBT+ businesses this month, Gay dating apps Grindr and Scruff removed ethnicity filters in response to protests for racial justice.

College student Donald Arrington, 19, who was due to take part in an informal Pride march in Los Angeles on Sunday, said he had been rejected on LGBT+ dating apps because he was Black.

"It's always, 'Hey, sorry, you're good-looking, but unfortunately, I don't date Black guys'," said Arrington,

On Sunday, thousands of people are expected to attend New York's Queer Liberation March, an event moved online because of the coronavirus but then back to the streets after the protests against police brutality and racism after Floyd's death.

"There needs to be the element of people in the streets and popular revolt and outrage," said Natalie James, co-founder of the Reclaim Pride Coalition, which is hosting the march. "There's not really a substitute for it."

Not far enough

But Ed Brockenbrough, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said the move by Pride organizations to adopt Black Lives Matter issues did not go far enough to address racism in the LGBT+ community.

"Activism in Black and brown queer communities has been happening for a long time without full buy-in from white gatekeepers of queer resources," said Brockenbrough, whose research focuses on the challenges of LGBT+ people of color.

For Ted Brown, a veteran of Britain's Gay Liberation Front marching in London on Saturday, not enough has changed since he was out on the "scene" in the 1970s.

"[Racism] remains an issue within the LGBT+ community," Brown told the Thomson Reuters Foundation as banners and placards were unfurled and raised around him.

"If you look around here, for example, I'm one of the few Black people here. ... The LGBT+ community needs to look at themselves and find out how they can become more diverse."

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#IFTTT #Blogger

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boythirteen · 4 years ago

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This is my sermon.

Hello to everyone. I miss seeing you all but here we are together in the strange new world. I feel so susceptible to the strangeness of it that I’ve possibly become strange and will say something strange. So be it.

In the first reading for today, the prophet Jeremiah laments his calling to prophecy as something degrading that has made him a “laughingstock.” This is because he doesn’t get to herald positive news. “Violence and destruction” is what will happen—Judah will fall to Babylon (is what I was able to piece together as the context). And since no one in Judah wants to hear this or believe it at all, they berate Jeremiah for his negativity. Like Peter berating Jesus in the verses from Matthew.

But let me start with Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 20: 7-9

O God, you have enticed me, and I was enticed; you have overpowered me, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks me. For whenever I speak, I must cry out, I must shout, “Violence and destruction!” For the word of God has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. If I say, “I will not mention God, or speak any more in God’s name,” then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.

Jeremiah feels betrayed by God, “enticed” into God’s service, maybe with big ideas about the glory of it, and so is angry and embarrassed to be God’s prophet who has to foretell despairing news of destruction. He doesn’t get to bring uplifting news and feel proud about it in the funny way that we can feel proud when we bear interesting news. He doesn’t even get to be believed. Jeremiah is a debbie downer who people want to avoid or ridicule as a charlatan or even to actively restrain to make him shut up about his stupid fake news. Jeremiah blames God for putting him in this role. His expression of anger is a private complaint he makes only to God, not the public face he shows to the world, kind of like you wouldn’t believe some of the mad things I say in the privacy of my home, but still he gets mired in it. What he really wants is for God to intervene and deal with his detractors, to “bring down retribution” on them is what he asks for in chapter 15. And similarly, the people of Judah, those who are Jeremiah’s detractors, are at odds with Jeremiah in the first place because he isn’t validating their expectation that God will intervene and assure them victory. What seems to be happening overall is a kind of wishful thinking about God, a human projection about who God should be that everyone around Jeremiah must have, and possibly Jeremiah has, too, and Peter has in the New Testament, and probably all of us have to a degree, which is that God is supposed to intervene to alleviate suffering and assure victory or vindication for those whom God is supposed to love, because God is all powerful and should be able to and want to. Even though everyone’s experience of life and struggle doesn’t bear this out. Even though what is born out is that God is with us in the face of suffering— that God empowers all of us to abide the suffering and grow through it. But somehow this isn’t good enough or obvious enough or glorious enough, even though it is all of that but maybe is just too equitable and not as immediately, personally gratifying and ennobling as having God swoop in and hand out victories. It doesn’t allow people to rank their favorability to God according to their perceived “blessings” or positive outcomes. Which, I’ve been thinking, is part of what the crucifixion story is meant to illustrate—that there isn’t a ranking with God. That even Jesus isn’t plucked from the cross and afforded the human satisfaction of seeing his enemies brought low. That even the victory of the resurrection is lost on those who would then have to face their wrongness. Oh no that maybe we won’t get to see the Trump Administration squashed under God’s angry foot.

I’m getting ahead of myself but this is how my thoughts are unfolding. I’m having emotional thoughts. I’m mad about the world’s ways of ranking people. I’m very mad about the Christian Right’s coopting of Christianity, of the patriarchy’s manhandling of Christianity almost from the very start in service of upholding oppressive systems and hierarchies that privilege some and condemn others, as if God smiles on some and not others, as if God would bless one country over another, as if God would allow for a monstrosity like the Trump administration and its enablers to consider themselves chosen and blessed by God. And this corrupting of Jesus’ message, or, more accurately, the removal of Jesus’s message from what has become the most visible face of Christianity to the wider world—the patriarchal, white supremacist face that labels itself “Christian”—is beyond embarrassing and enraging to be even remotely associated with.

I’m just thinking about ways that claiming faith in God can be embarrassing to me since Jeremiah has brought up being embarrassed by it. Because something else affecting me about Jeremiah’s self-pitying complaint is his extreme, bare honesty, even coming close to being blasphemous. I feel inspired by the blasphemy of it, though, or permitted by it to look at my own blasphemous thoughts and even to speak them: That sometimes it feels ridiculous to believe in God, not because God isn’t alleviating suffering, which I’ve kind of deeply learned not to expect, or not to expect too eagerly, but just because the whole notion of a biblical God seems archaic and quaint and not so different from believing that the earth is 6000 years old or even that the earth is flat or that the sun is being carried across the sky by a chariot or that wives must obey their husbands.

But even if I succumb to the blasphemous thoughts and find myself at the very precipice of unbelief, I can feel what Jeremiah calls the burning fire shut up in my bones that belies my unbelief and kind of hurts. Remember in Miracle on 34th Street at the end when Natalie Wood is in the car, having not yet gotten her dream house for Christmas, and she’s saying “I believe, I believe” in a despondent way like she doesn’t want to but can’t help it? Like that.

It also occurs to me that having a fire shut up in my bones is something like how “growing pains” can feel, or what I think of as growing pains that I still do feel sometimes in my bones however fully grown I am. What it feels like is that I need to be bigger. And this is making me think of something I read in The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin, which maybe you read as a young person but I never did so I just read it now. It’s about a boy studying to become a wizard, and Harry Potter is a knock-off of it. There’s a big emphasis in the story on the true names of things and of people, and how people and things are known in the world by their worldly names but also have true names that no one knows, or very few know, other than wizards, because magic is rooted in the knowledge of true names. But along the way in the story the boy does a terrible thing and falls from grace. His truest friend from wizard school comes to see him in the school hospital where he’s been recovering from his grave mistake,(which I won’t tell you about in case you want to read the book). But his friend shares with him his true name, which people almost never share with each other because it requires a level of trust that is rarely attained. So this is a great gift the friend gives of trusting the boy even after his terrible act. LeGuin writes that “[The boy] stood for a while, like one who has received great news, and must enlarge his spirit to receive it.” What I’m thinking about is the necessity of enlarging our spirits to receive something profound, something we don’t feel big enough for. I’m also thinking of true names, and of the name Emmanuel which is the name Matthew uses for Jesus in writing of Jesus’s birth, and how the name Emmanuel means God is with us. And how we have to enlarge our spirits to be big enough to believe this.

I have yet to enlarge my spirit enough to remain in belief. “I believe—help my unbelief.” I have yet to feel big enough for my true name—Beloved Child of God. What I’m seeing now is that believing that God is with me is kind of the same thing as believing that God loves me. This is what’s hard to consistently believe—that I’m loved. This is why it’s so tempting to believe in a God who proves love by bestowing blessings, to want this kind of God who takes away doubt.

Something about these several months of the world being turned upside down feels like just the time for believing and unbelieving all at once— for enlarging my spirit and not being big enough at the same time. I remember in the beginning of the pandemic when the preface to everything written or spoken was “during these uncertain times.” I don’t know if we’re still needing to say that, but not because we aren’t uncertain but because uncertainty is where we exist now. I was thinking that this sermon could kind of be about our collective uncertainty as a spiritual condition, a spiritual practice or discipline that has been imposed on us in the most intense way by a natural phenomenon beyond our control, but that is also something we’re beginning to wield or to use as a tool to effect change. We’ve all become far more acutely aware of the societal structures of oppression that those who cling to power have imposed on everyone else over generations. We see the need to tear down the old and oppressive structures, but with incomplete or early-stage ideas as to what will replace them, or whether to replace them at all. I’m thinking of things like the abolition movement and Defund the Police—these movements that strive to push us toward a more just and loving world free of dehumanizing prisons and brutal cops on patrol with their guns. But always the questions arise about what then to do with those who perpetrate violence if we won’t be arresting them and jailing them, as if the grossly profitable business of incarceration, the brutish system of racist policing we now have in place in any way serves to secure justice or staunch violence. Maybe we don’t have a fully formed imagining of what society could look like, how it could function without prisons and police forces to beat it into submission. What we can fully imagine, though, is that such a society would be far, far closer to the Commonwealth of God than what we live in at present. We can move forward with uncertainty—not as a deterrent but as an inspiration, a new and uncharted way.

And in saying this, it’s striking me now that I’m possibly talking about faith, or maybe about hope, a driving force of hope and faith—a belief. Maybe belief is the spiritual aspect of uncertainty. “God is with you” is the belief we share at MCCNY. It’s the solid truth to hold on to amidst the swirling uncertainty, but is also what requires a spiritual discipline to fully and consistently believe, because of uncertainty, or doubt, being so persistent. But faith is strengthened by doubt. Uncertainty is kind of like fuel that keeps us ever restless and reaching for truth, with truth seeming to be the solid place where maybe we could rest if we could just keep our footing there.

Well, now I want to read the verses from Matthew:

Matthew 16:21-28

From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?” For the Son of Humanity is to come with his angels in the glory of God, and then will repay everyone for what has been done.

I think of Jeremiah being upset that he must herald news of violence and destruction instead of a victorious kind of news that everyone would love to hear, but what about the news that Jesus foretells? Not only is it about violence and destruction, but the violence and destruction is what will happen to Jesus personally. And Peter doesn’t want to be told about it. But Jesus, instead of being mad at God for any of this, is mad at Peter for not enlarging his spirit enough to accept it and be supportive of Jesus in the midst of it. Because it isn’t easy, even for Jesus, to accept. It’s hard enough that Jesus calls Peter Satan for not helping him, even though Peter thinks he is being helpful and supportive. Peter thinks Jesus should be victorious in a traditional, worldly way of defeating his enemies and rising to the top, But Jesus is talking about something so radically different that here we are still trying to accept and understand.

Let me go through my own attempt at understanding. First about Jesus “undergo[ing] great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be[ing] killed.” It isn’t my belief that Jesus will be killed because God demands a sacrifice for human sin. I don’t believe in a God such as this and feel embarrassed that so much of Christianity adheres to the notion of the crucifixion being required by God for our salvation, as if Jesus is a lamb slaughtered on God’s altar to please God in some perverse way. This, to me, is something a sadistic tyrant would demand, not a loving God. It’s something a patriarchal power structure would set up to keep the citizenry in obedience to it, the concept of benevolence being tied to sacrifice, a tit for tat, and the ultimate benevolence of the patriarchal tyrant being exhibited by their willingness to offer their own child as the sacrifice, as if this makes such an unthinkable act somehow good and loving. As if our loving relationship with God is reliant on God having to symbolically kill us in the first place. This interpretation of the crucifixion, of God and of Jesus, is upsetting me now in an overwhelming way. It feels like the ultimate thing to fight against, the patriarchal insistence that something grossly submissive is required of us—obedience or sacrifice or swearing of allegiance—to be loved by God, to be accepted into the commonwealth of God. Imagine a loving parent requiring this of a child. Imagine any kind of genuine love being predicated on this sort of trade—I’ll love you if you obey me. I don’t believe in obedience to God. I’m sorry if I’m being blasphemous again. I believe in accepting the loving guidance offered by Jesus and burning in my bones, the deep prompting to love. Jesus is crucified because misguided people demand it, not a loving God. Trump is who demands obsequious obedience. The people in authority in Jesus’s day, the elders and chief priests and scribes, (or, so as not to generalize, those among the religious leaders who are driven by greed and lust for power), demand that Jesus be crucified because Jesus’s teachings about love and equity threaten their control, their patriarchal power structure that secures their high place. But still God won’t be swooping in to rescue Jesus from the suffering they impose on him. It won’t be like a movie with God cutting Jesus’s persecutors down to size at the end, to all of our great satisfaction. Jesus says to Peter, who wants that kind of ending, “for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

I can’t say for sure what I believe the divine things are, because divine things are mysteries that get talked about in parables or strange statements like: “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” Or “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

I can say what I think these statements don’t mean. I don’t think they mean that God requires everyone to be crucified, or that Jesus must suffer and die in the most humiliating way as some sort of proxy for humanity, a payment for the reward of God’s love. The God Jesus reveals to us isn’t one who implements a system of reward and punishment or makes trades for love or loves some of us more than others. Maybe the meaning is something closer to it just not being the point of God to remove our suffering— that God’s eternal love for us isn’t exhibited in this way and isn’t bounded by our earthly lives. And that the commonwealth of God isn’t what will come because God snaps God’s fingers and removes all the man-made, self-serving, patriarchal obstacles that stand in the way of it, even the most violently destructive ones. Humanity is trudging toward the commonwealth, not having the winding road miraculously straightened and cleared as we casually skip to my lou. We grow toward the commonwealth. We carry our heavy crosses of humanness, of mortality, through all of our wide array of human experience.

So maybe the divine things, the very most divine thing, is simply and grandly that God will be with us to the very depths of all of these human experiences. God will be the burning fire shut up in our bones. Because this is what Jesus’s crucifixion will exemplify—that the divine Jesus knows first-hand what it feels like to suffer to the extremes of human experience, and, strangely, that God knows what it feels like to lose a child. And this is what the resurrection will insist—that God can’t be driven out of us, not even through the most acute suffering and humiliation even unto death.

Because God being with us is the certain thing, but we just can’t seem to be certain of it in a consistent way. Or I can’t—let me speak for myself. Because of what I told you—that I can’t seem to feel fully loved. I think of God being with me as something divine that can be added to me, something that isn’t already part of who I am. Because I think of myself as a lesser, frail being who, on my own, is lacking in all ways—flawed, selfish, only human after all— but who can perhaps be strengthened and bettered by the loving presence of God. And this seems to be a positive thing to believe and try to hold on to—that God will be with me and strengthen me, that I can do all things through God who loves me. That being loved by God will allow, impel me even, to love others. But what if the truth is bigger than that? That God isn’t a separate, greater thing to love me and bolster me but is actually inside of me, the essence of me that is in my bones. If God is Love, then this means that I am Love, too.

Maybe eternal life is when I am wholly, absolutely immersed in the certainty of God 's Love to the point of being fused with God. I can’t completely do this in my earthly life because earthly life is organic and earthy, and if I did completely fuse with God I would be divine and not of the earth anymore, even though I already am eternally divine but don’t know it completely because of being an organic, mortal creature. Even Jesus didn’t know his eternal divinity completely until his resurrection, and the resurrected Jesus didn’t remain on the earth.

But I can come close to knowing my divinity, which maybe is part of what losing my life for Jesus’s sake means, or for others’ sakes, for my neighbors and even my enemies sakes, by practicing the ways of love that Jesus teaches me are in my truest beloved and loving nature to practice, even as simply as wearing a mask for the sake of my neighbor’s, my enemy’s wellbeing.

Maybe what all sermons are meant to do is proclaim in the widest range of preacher voices and perspectives that God is with us and loves us, and one of these ways will deeply resonate with you and kindle your fire.

Amen

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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