#the environmental painting in this movie. man

[rosebrides]

tamako love story

[shivadh]

Portrait of a Royal

(Warning behind the cut for a full-length image of the new Jonathan Yeo portrait of Charles III, which is real startling if you aren't expecting it.)

"Having met Charles Windsor," Gregory said over breakfast that morning, "I can assure you, he really is exactly the kind of man who wouldn't notice an elaborate and expensive roasting."

They had a rule about reading smartphones at breakfast -- using a tablet was fine if they were talking business, and phones were permitted for scheduling or settling arguments about the lyrics to songs or movie trivia, but overall they tried to keep the devices face-down. On that particular morning absolutely nobody was following the rule, because Jes had walked into the dining room with Michaelis, propped their tablet against a juice carafe in the middle of the table, and said, "I want everyone's opinion on what the actual living fuck is going on here."

Gerald had almost choked on his coffee. Alanna, feeding Sera, had looked up at the tablet, showing a portrait of King Charles III of England done in raw-meat pinks and muddy browns, and missed Sera's face entirely with a spoonful of mashed banana. Joan's eyes went huge as Eddie went into peals of laughter, which the twins promptly imitated, slapping their hands on the trays of their high chairs.

Gregory had carefully set down his silverware and rested his elbows on the table, propping his nose on his clasped hands to try and maintain a poker face.

"It's satire, right?" Ger had asked, looking from Jes to Gregory to Alanna. "I actually liked art history at school, and that's a painting someone did in protest, isn't it?"

"This is the official royally commissioned portrait of Charles the third," Michaelis had said, helping himself to breakfast at the sideboard and settling in between Joan and Jes. "But yes, it is also satire."

"They paid for that?" Eddie asked, gesturing at the painting. "They paid for it. And voluntarily put it on display."

"So the press releases say," Jes said. "I'm taking soundings because we are absolutely dedicating at least one episode of The Echo to it. I might have to start an entirely new podcast about contemporary art just so I can do a deep dive."

"Satire," Gerald repeated, staring at the painting.

"Not explicitly according to the artist, but his description of it is…very dry," Michaelis said. Jes held up their phone and read from it.

"The vivid color of the glazes in the background echo the uniform’s bright red tunic, not only resonating with the royal heritage found in many historical portraits but also injecting a dynamic, contemporary jolt into the genre with its uniformly powerful hue…" they stopped to snicker.

"Oh that's good," Alanna said approvingly. "Calling raw-flesh red the royal heritage is a very nice touch."

"The butterfly approaching King Charles's shoulder in the portrait adds a layer of narrative depth, symbolizing both his known advocacy for environmental causes and his personal transformation."

"It's a lie," Joan said. The adults looked at her.

"What's a lie, hon?" Gregory asked.

"I mean -- " Joan frowned at the painting. "He says he's painting the king's portrait but he's actually painting his feelings about the king, right? And being paid to paint a portrait implies you're supposed to be on the subject's side. But he's definitely not. So it's kind of like a lie. Of a painting. That's cool," she added, thoughtfully. "He roasted the king and the king didn't even notice? That's so cool!"

"Having met Charles Windsor," Gregory said, "I can assure you, he really is exactly the kind of man who wouldn't notice an elaborate and expensive roasting."

"That's sort of what satire is," Gerald added. "It's saying one thing but meaning another in a way that's really obvious to almost everyone."

"Ooh," Joan replied, digesting this. "I've had European history," she continued. "Other royal families aren't like ours."

"Well, some," Michaelis said. "Most, perhaps. Because we elect our royalty, even if we do tend to…elect in families. If you're king one day, it'll be because Gregory trained you and the people think you'd be best at the job. If you were the kind of person he is," he added, nodding to the portrait, "You probably wouldn't get elected."

"I sure wouldn't want a portrait like that done of me if I did," Joan said.

"That reminds me, we really do need to have portraits done," Gregory said to Eddie.

"Well, I say hire this guy," Eddie replied, gesturing at the painting. "At least you know you'll get an honest opinion."

"Doubt he needs the work, given he managed to get paid to insult a king to his face," Jes said. "Maybe that's the angle -- he basically ran a con on the royal family."

"Is it a con if they pay you for something and you give it to them?" Gerald asked.

"To be clear, that was con-parenthesis-admiring-close-parenthesis," Jes replied.

"I should never have told them I have a Tumblr," Ger said to Alanna.

"Don't look at me, I warned you," she replied.

"His other work is very good," Gregory said, scrolling images on his own phone. "I wonder if we can afford him. Love to see what he'd do with you, Eddie."

"I don't mind. Whatever he does, can't be worse than the haters who didn't like my TV show," Eddie replied serenely.

"Am I going to meet the Windsors, ever?" Joan asked Gregory.

"Oh, sooner or later, probably."

"We used to have to go to the birthdays sometimes," Alanna said. "Gregory and Gerald and me. We used to immediately go find Mia and then spend the parties running around with her, causing mischief."

"That's Queen Amelia of Genovia," Michaelis told Joan.

"I should call her, she's going to love this," Gregory said absently.

"I owe her money, I think," Gerald added. "Don't play poker with Genovians," he told Serafina, who burbled.

Eddie, who had apparently already thought of someone to call, had his phone to his ear. "Hey, Gee," he said, to whoever answered. Gregory looked at him curiously. "Yeah, it's Ed. Oh, don't give me shit, I married for love. Have you seen the new Yeo painting? I know! Yeah, I thought you might. Can I get his number? Oh, great. And do you know what his rates are? Well, yeah, and I want to be top of the waiting list. Okay. Huh, that's…affordable."

The entire table was silent. Eddie grinned at them.

"Oh, would you? You are the best, my man. Yeah, absolutely. Hey, next time you're in Europe, book a few days here, huh? Okay. Okay -- yeah, here it comes -- ciao, darling!" he said, and hung up.

"Who do you know who can quote you Jonathan Yeo's fees?" Jes asked.

"Gordon Ramsay," Eddie said casually. "He had a portrait done. I don't know what the royal budget is but his going rate, at least pre-Windsor, is not going to dip my bank account uncontrollably."

"You married for love?" Gregory prompted.

"Oh yeah, he likes to make fun of me for marrying into royalty, he calls me King Golddigger. I think you'll like him, I'll introduce you."

"What if you have Mr. Yeo do a portrait and it ends up like that, though?" Joan asked, gesturing at the painting. Jes picked up the tablet and blanked it, setting it aside.

"Then I will have deserved it, don't you think?" Gregory asked. "We should never try to pretend to a face that's better than the one we actually have. One reason art is so important is that it reminds us of that. That's why we spend so much government money on the arts. Now, finish your eggs, we are definitely going to have to have some conversations about that painting with several of the MPs, it's going to be a rowdy morning."

I think this is more or less extracanonical, but I couldn't get out of my head the idea of the Shivadh royals reacting to Yeo's portrait of Charles III. I don't think he's actually done one of Gordon Ramsay, but I think Ramsay's the kind of guy who would enjoy his work, for sure. Yeo's statement about the portrait is here; it's well worth clicking around his site, his other work is equally fantastic. I can only imagine what he'd do with a portrait of Gregory or Eddie (or Michaelis).

[swan2swan]

One of my favorite parts of Chaos Theory has to be the matte-painting-style backgrounds.

Camp Cretaceous had background shots, too, but they mostly just seemed to be the same basic, environmental shot...probably randomized, reusable, just a bunch of trees, leaves, and sky.

Chaos Theory swaps 'em up so much that they had to do something different, and you can see every time that it looks just like the old mattes they would use in movies. It's beautiful, and I want to acknowledge that, because man, do I love it!

[arrowfleur]

✩‧₊˚ Redacted HC’s ✩‧

Part 3: Anton and Love

Anton is good at carving. When he was younger and bored he’d take a pocket knife to a log of wood and carve something out of it

The first thing his made Love was a hummingbird.

They have it on their bedside, the rest of the carvings live happily on their windowsill

They both have the most wonderful hair. Thick and shiny.

They go shopping at farmers markets a lot and get their eggs from a family that have chickens.

Love is very environmentally aware and is very creative in how they re-use things

They went to school together but didn’t date til later

Anton had the biggest crush on them

They have wind chimes and beaded doorways in their house

Love has befriended and feeds all of the pigeons by their house because ‘the little guys always get left out’

Love has the most beautiful freckles

Anton thinks about them often but doesn’t speak to the people he works with about them, only Asset on a few occasions

They slow dance together in the kitchen often while anton mumbles how beautiful they look in their ear

They’re both very romantic people

Love always makes homemade gifts

Anton separates movies into seasons, the dead poets society is for autumn etc

and he has all of Loves favourite period dramas organised and they watch them together each new season

He listens to classical music when he needs to focus

Rock when he’s going for a drive

Love is a certified Hozier fan

Love paints, using oil mainly and Anton is inspired by their patience and intricacy

Anton can recite poetry and loves reading

Love enjoys vintage everything, clothes, furniture cars…

Their first job was as a waiter at a 1950’s diner

Love believes in the olive theory, Anton hates them

They go on picnics (almost) every summer. With a woven basket and blankets. The whole 9 yards.

Love hates the feeling of sand

They LOVE Antons nose

It’s gorgeous

Love thinks if they were an animal they’d be a bird and Anton would be a ferret or a weasel

Antons secret talent is how good he is at darts

Love’s is their singing voice although it’s not kept quite as secret

They sing in the shower and when they’re cooking. The only times Anton doesn’t join them in there is when he sits outside listening

Love tried to get Anton to do yoga with them once but that man is NOT flexible. He could not relax one bit and did not retry.

He does always go to the ren-faire with them tho. They make a lot of their own outfits and they them some amazing matching embroidered waistcoats last time

Okie thank you for reading! I find these guys hard to write for so sorry if it’s not quite as long 🤍

[afternoondreaming]

No Business Like Show Business (7/?)

Howdy, dear viewers! This chapter is really where the “canon divergent” tag comes into play. Since I’m not really an SMG4 watcher, I’m not an expert in its lore. So, I’m referencing the wiki and making my own! Creativity is what the puzzle man would want anyways, right? …right?

With a groan your arms stretched high up to the ceiling, a blanket you don’t remember putting over yourself falling to the floor. You had slept surprisingly well, given the fact that you had apparently fallen asleep on your second-hand, worn down Ikea loveseat. Most of last night seemed to blur together in your mind. You had watched movies with Mr. Puzzles, sure, but… Had you even taken him home? It wasn’t that big of a deal, Puzzlevision Studios was around a five minute walk away, but that surely couldn’t have been where he lived… Could it? No, certainly not. That would be crazy. Then again, everything around here seemed crazy. You went about your morning routine with little to note, eventually coming to rest at your small table to eat your breakfast with your laptop close by. You’d been meaning to do some research, and you might as well get it done before you start your new job. New job… Right. Retrieving your phone from your pocket, you shot off a quick message to your new boss.

“Hey. Did u walk home?”

Stowing it away, you got to work as you ate your cereal. Things were weird, and you needed to get to the bottom of it. Saturated environmental colors, people’s movements not being quite right… You searched up where you lived, and specifically went to the YouTube section. If it wasn’t just you, there would have to be video evidence. In doing so, you’d stumble across your first clue. Some man- rather short and clad in white overalls- reenacting some meme. And, clear as day, his movements were just… Not lifelike. Another man, looking incredibly similar to the first yet sporting rather evil looking facial hair, moving similarly. A video of a woman shooting a… Paint gun? Paint would be far too viscous to shoot like she was doing, especially from a gun so small. Not to mention the background of the video was just as saturated as everything else.

This led you to a different rabbit hole entirely. Memes. That’s right, ones of the “I can haz cheezeburger” variety or Moo Deng and Wombo Combo. Were you getting out of touch? Apparently, at least here, memes had a certain power to them. Meme Energy, as you’ve decided to call it, seemed to be… Contagious, for lack of a better term. Exposure to areas with high amounts of it, ie the Mushroom Kingdom which you now reside on the outskirts of, seemed to make things more cartoony. Toon logic like serious injuries not being as serious- though with the amount of grave injuries you’ve seen on the Mushroom Kingdom’s denizens’ YouTube pages, you hope that to be the case- saturated color schemes, exaggerated proportions and movements…

You looked up from your computer, gazing out the window to the sunny day outside. Exposure… Would that mean you would become just as weird as your boss? Looking down at yourself, you didn’t seem very different. Then again, you only just got here… Perhaps it would be best to have something for comparison. You set your phone up against your laptop and got up from your chair, setting a picture timer before standing up and taking a few steps back.

Yup. Still you. You thought, coming back to see the photo. As you pondered on it, a message came across the top of your screen.

“Ah! Yes, Starlet! You got rather tired so I showed myself out. My apologies if I worried you.”

Your fingers awaited above the phone’s keyboard, tapping the sides in contemplation as you thought your message through.

“Hey, Mr. Puzzles, r u a meme?”

“…Pardon you?” His message dinged, coaxing a giggle out of you.

“I’ll take that as a no?”

“I am nothing of the sort! Such low brow comedy is far too benign for someone of my caliber. Why are you suddenly interested in memes?”

You stared at the screen, a certain sense of apprehension overtaking you for reasons you didn’t know.

“…No reason. C u tomorrow”

With a sigh you put the phone aside, dragging your laptop over again and pulling up a tab to create a blog. Might as well publish your findings so far. Maybe somebody would find them useful.

[conkreetmonkey]

Ok, so like I haven't seen this movie in years because it sucked, but like, offscreen, past the "unlikely misfit friendship" story we get, the implications of the Boov invasion were horrifyingly vast and bleak, and even though they "made peace" or whatever in the end, what they did to Earth was still monstrous and unjustifiable? Like, just think:

The majority of the Australian outback turned into "Happy Humansville" or whatever they called it, I'm assuming the watered-down version of the reserves from the book. Not only are the environmental implications of this staggering (like, ok, 90% of Australian plant and animal life has been paved over, cool), and the question of what happened to the Australians and their homes left entirely unanswered, but the outback is kind of sort of an inhospitable desert? Unless the Boov are somehow air conditioning all of Australia, everyone in the middle is going to roast.

The Gorg ship, of course, then just comes along and destroys half the continent, solidifying the near-complete environmental sanitization of Australia. While yes, this was the action of the Gorg and not the Boov, and it was still really fucked of the Gorg to do, he only did this because the Boov stole his only means of reproduction, and he was the last of his kind. He'd have gone extinct if he didn't get it back, of course he acted rashly. They were literally holding his children hostage. It's the cycle of violence spinning around and around, the Gorg now being driven to harm humans in the crossfire despite the Boov putting both of them in that position.

The edge cases... what happened to humans who were undergoing surgery when the invasion happened? Humans maintaining nuclear facilities? Humans with highly contagious diseases? Humans on life support? Diabetics? Humans anaphylactic to dairy? Humans who were being trafficked or were severely injured? Humans whose appendixes were about to explode? Dangerous insane asylum and prison inmates? Dictators? Neo-Nazis? Humans in hospice?

All domestic animals confined to homes, barns or enclosures at the time certainly starved to death.

Did the Boov set up any sort of healthcare system or pharmaceutical supply chain for the humans? They clearly didn't do much research on humans, and now they have control of the insulin, immunosuppressants and chemo supply! ALMOST ALL MEDICALLY FRAGILE PEOPLE PROBABLY DIED!

It looks like the humans are mostly being fed junk food. That's gonna go well, I'm sure. That'll pan out long-term, especially since I'm sure the Boov understand human nutrition and how allergies and celiac work!

All of this is to say, THE BOOV CLEARLY DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW TO TAKE CARE OF HUMANS, AND NOW ALL 7 BILLION ARE PACKED TOGETHER ON A SINGLE ISLAND. No regard for cultural or language barriers, families separated, slipshod infrastructure built in under a day, ebola and tuberculosis patients mixed in with everyone else, and it's really, REALLY fucking hot out there. It would turn into Mad Max within a month.

Like, seriously, imagine. Your new neighbors are a KKK grand wizard, Vladimir Putin, a serial killer in a prison jumpsuit, a child slave with his shackles still on, a man covered in festering sores who keeps coughing, a Chinese 5 year old who's desperately trying to tell you something you can't understand, and a corpse that just splattered on the ground, his chest still open from the heart transplant he was undergoing when the invasion began. Happy Humansville would have been a battle royale almost immediately, as well as an absolute petri dish for disease.

The Louvre being mistaken for a restaurant was played off as a joke, but like... that's actually not good? Every culturally important painting aside from Starry Night was potentially destroyed? Did this happen to every museum on earth? Think of the history that would have been lost. Undoubtedly a thousand Libraries of Alexandria were burnt that day. Every archeological site in Australia is surely gone!

We can just... leave our nuclear power plants unattended, right? Our oil rigs? Our still-running factories? Our dams? Our missile silos?

Even in the doubtlessly watered-down-ass movie, the Boov IRREPARABLY fucked over human civilization, and it's just NEVER brought up.

like the most politically neutered movie of all time unironically

[iriemorning]

hear that washing machine monster?

it swallows up everything. it leaves nothing but scraps. this is the current laundering scheme in the silver screen industry.

let’s zoom in at marvel, especially the iron man franchise. this one actor ended up hoarding a fortune while the rest of the crew who would work their tails off—get left with mere pittance.

it’s maddening.

as long as you can milk something, everything gets lighted green; as long as you have milked it before, it would always be green—that’s how executives are since time immemorial. and then there’s the hidden price hike on production costs, post-productions costs and marketing. every zero added underscores the imbalance.

do these movies really cost hundreds of millions to make? does a film need to spend double its budget just to convince people to watch it?

we often talk about environmentalism and ethics in the sciences, but it should also apply in the arts and entertainment sector. we have become so wasteful in materials nowadays. all these unused sketchbooks, expiring paint tubes, laptops plugged in all day, empty canvas in the storage building up dust, buying fast fashion clothes for costume and design, props and sets straight to the dumpsters after shooting.

back in high school, my classmates and i made short films with nothing but sheer effort and resourcefulness. no million-dollar budget, no fancy equipment—just a borrowed camera, a script i wrote before and after class, and whatever props we could scavenge in our homes, in our community. we still managed to make something decent. sure, it wasn’t perfect, but it had heart. my favorite part was watching the ending credits roll with our names. our solidarity, first and foremost, from the pre-conception to post-production, made the film happen. so when i hear about hollywood movies costing $300 million to produce and another $200 million just for marketing, i just don’t get it. where does all that money go? and more importantly—who actually profits from it?

and then there’s Megalopolis—Francis Ford Coppola’s passion project, a film he funded himself because no studio would touch it. i know there are mixed reactions on this film in particular, but this is the same man who made The Godfather, who redefined cinema, and yet, even he couldn’t escape the system that prioritizes the profitable over passion.

it’s about time to pull the plug on this washing machine monster before it swallows everything whole. we need more begetters in the new generation that don’t need to be rinsed, spun, and wrung dry by a blackhole designed to enrich the tried and tested while silencing the rest.

if you also hear that washing machine monster, make your stories talk louder.

[alsjeblieft-zeg]

039 of 2024

Basics: I identify as female I identify as male I identify as nonbinary or a gender not listed here (what is it?): I am under 21 years old I am over 30 years old I am in high school I am in university I am employed I am unemployed I live in Europe I live in Africa I live in Asia I live in North America I live in South America I live in Australia I am an air sign I am a fire sign I am an earth sign I am a water sign

Appearance: I am shorter than 5'5 I am taller than 5'10 I have brown eyes I have one or more facial piercings I have dyed my hair an unnatural colour I wear glasses I have self harm scars I have acne I pluck/wax my eyebrows I shave/wax my body hair (not all of it) I have or have had braces I have visible abs I bite my nails I am overweight I am underweight (almost) I have brown/dark hair naturally I wear at least one piece of jewelry at all times I have one or more tattoos I have freckles I have a visible birthmark I have dark circles under my eyes I have pale skin I dye my hair a lot I dress in a feminine way I dress in a masculine way I have hair that goes past my shoulders I have naturally straight hair I have "resting bitch face" I paint my nails regularly I keep my fingernails short/trimmed I have small feet I have bangs I wear a lot of eye makeup I wear perfume/cologne I wear a lot of dresses/skirts I take more than 30 minutes to get ready in the morning

Personality/Random: I am more introverted than extroverted I cry easily I have a bad temper I like to argue I am moody I am easy to get along with I procrastinate a lot I am a clean freak I am idealistic I am competitive I am a gamer I love adventure/trying new things I believe in astrology I am deeply religious or spiritual I am a vegan/vegetarian I have a skincare routine I am very forgiving I am very materialistic I am self-conscious I am impulsive I am logical/realistic I am always on time/early I find it hard to relate or sympathize with others I love being the center of attention I generally dislike authority I am very independent I am very dependent I am on my phone too much I shower every day I don't know a lot about politics I believe in the equality of the sexes I consider myself a feminist I am a bad texter I use Snapchat a lot I enjoy talking on the phone I post pictures on Instagram regularly I take a lot of selfies I love anime I love science fiction I love going to parties I am more of an indoor person than outdoor I am sporty I am a movie buff I love to read I love animals I play an instrument I love shopping I love horror movies I like drawing/painting I can knit/sew I know how to hand wash clothing I love true crime documentaries I believe in the supernatural/occult I am environmentally conscious I prefer cats to dogs I have been told I am mature for my age I want to travel the world I like to sing I like to cook/bake I don't have a lot of close friends

Relationships/Sexuality: I am single and looking I am single and not looking I am in a relationship I am married I have had a child with someone I am divorced I am widowed I have been dumped more than once I have cheated on someone I have told someone (romantic or not) I loved them when I didn't I have been in a relationship with the same person twice I have been in a long distance relationship I haven't fallen in love I believe monogamy is the only way a relationship works (for me yes, but people can do whatever they want) I have had a friend with "benefits" I am waiting until marriage to have sex I had my first kiss before I was 10 I had my first kiss with a boy/man I had my first kiss with a girl/woman I have not yet had my first kiss I have given or received a hickey I am heterosexual I am bisexual/pansexual I am homosexual I am a sexuality not listed here (what is it?): ace I have sent nudes I have taken/take birth control I use condoms regularly I have taken an emergency contraceptive before I have not had any form of consensual sex I have had vaginal intercourse I have had anal sex I have given/received oral sex I have had sex with more than 5 people I have had a threesome I have had sex in a public place I have done sexual acts with a member of the same sex I watch porn regularly I have watched porn with someone I own sex toys (not interested in them, though) I have been to a sex toy/video store I would be considered kinky by most people's standards I enjoy dirty talk I like pain during sex I like to inflict pain during sex I have a high sex drive I have a low sex drive I am submissive I am dominant

Experiences- Bad & Good : I have used a fake ID before I have been barhopping I have drank so much I blacked out I have drank so much I puked I have gotten drunk under the legal age I have gotten drunk under age 14 I smoke/have smoked cigarettes I have quit cigarettes I have smoked cigarettes under the legal age I smoke/have smoked marijuana I have taken hallucinogens I have tried cocaine I have tried some form of opiate for recreational purposes I have tried heroin I have tried a party drug like ecstasy/MDMA I have drank cough syrup when I wasn't sick I have taken someone else's prescription drugs for recreational purposes I have been addicted to something I have gotten over an addiction I have sworn/screamed at my parent or guardian I have made someone cry I have had a near-death experience I have attempted suicide I have been homeless I have run away or tried to run away from home I have been broke I have been bullied I have wished someone death I have broken someone's heart I have had my heart broken I have been abused physically I have been abused sexually I have been abused emotionally I have been diagnosed with a mental illness I have travelled outside of the country I have been on a road trip with friends I have stayed at a motel I have gone bungee jumping I have gone parachuting I have stolen something I have snuck out I have been to a concert I have been to a play I have performed in a play/concert outside of school I have prayed I have skipped school I have failed a course I have been arrested I have received a ticket I have painted my room I have pierced something myself I have kissed a stranger I have gotten in a car with someone I just met I have met face-to-face with someone I met online I have seen a baby being born I have changed a diaper I have watched someone die I have cheated on a test I have lied about my age I have gotten my drivers license I have voted before I have been to more than one funeral I have been involved in a wedding ceremony I have given a public speech I've cut my own hair I have taken a shower or bath with someone I have been pregnant I have made a retail/tech purchase of over $1000 I have signed a lease I have gone skiing I have gone swimming in the ocean I have been to a zoo I have moved out of my parents/guardians house I have broken a bone I have gotten stitches I have dined and dashed I have been vaccinated I have had an STI I have been hit/hurt by someone to the point of bruising/blood I have had strep throat I have had chicken pox I have lit something on fire that I wasn't supposed to I have prank called someone I have been grounded before I have had an unusual pet

[sciencestyled]

When Mother Nature Met Picasso: A Tale of Trash, Treasure, and Trippy Terrariums

Alright, class, buckle up and sip your overpriced, triple-shot, no-foam lattes because today we’re diving headfirst into the mad world of eco-art in environmental education. It’s like if Banksy and Bill Nye had a baby that was really into compost. Imagine turning your old, sad flip-flops and last year's iPhone into a modern masterpiece. It’s not crazy—it’s eco-art!

First off, let’s address the elephant in the room—or should I say, the recycled plastic elephant sculpture that’s currently residing in the middle of campus. This eco-art is not your grandma’s watercolor painting of the garden—unless your grandma is using biodegradable paint on fallen leaves. These artists are the MacGyvers of the art world, turning your discarded dental floss into highbrow cultural statements about decay and renewal. Seriously, one person's trash is another’s gallery feature.

Now, the whole shebang operates on the premise that if you teach a man to fish, he’ll eat for a day, but if you teach him to create an art installation from the fishing nets and plastic bottles he finds, suddenly, he’s got a sustainable business model and a feature on Vice. This is where environmental science moonwalks into art class and starts a conga line. We’re talking about projects that slap harder than a meme about Leonardo DiCaprio’s dating habits.

Consider this: someone figured out how to make gorgeous dyes from algae. Yeah, algae—the stuff you scraped off your roommate’s unwashed dishes. Now, it’s not just pond scum; it’s Pantone’s Color of the Year. And let’s not forget the sculptures in public parks made of recycled metals that look like something straight out of a Transformers movie. Instead of Optimus Prime saying, "Autobots, roll out," he’s probably like, "Recyclables, break down!"

These artworks are not only a treat for the eyes but also a nifty tool for education. Picture this: a school field trip to an art exhibit where the floor is literally lava—because the artist wants to talk about global warming. It’s a clever ruse to get kids to leap from tile to tile, dodging the ‘lava’ while learning about carbon footprints and renewable energy. They're literally jumping into action!

And for the interactive enthusiasts, imagine a VR experience where you can swim through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It’s like playing Subnautica, except it’s depressingly real and the sea creatures are judging you for your plastic use. This is how we turn apathetic Instagram scrollers into eco-warriors. They're not just double-tapping on nature pics; they're learning that every plastic straw could be the villain in a sea turtle’s survival story.

But let's zoom out for a moment. The big picture here is about merging science education and art to craft a narrative that sticks harder than the gum under your theater seat. It’s storytelling with a purpose. The same way Rick and Morty expose the absurdity of existence through burp-laden dialogues, eco-art exposes the absurdity of waste by making you stare at a chandelier made from beer bottles.

Now, if you think this all sounds a bit too idealistic, like believing you’ll actually use your gym membership, consider the alternative. A world where art is just pretty and doesn’t make you feel like you could be the hero in a Captain Planet reboot. Boring, right? So, we need this oddball fusion of creativity and environmental savvy.

So next time you’re about to throw away your Starbucks cup, think: could this be part of a mosaic in a hip downtown gallery? Could my old textbooks become an installation about the death of print media, hauntingly lit in the corner of the library? The answer should be a resounding yes, louder than the sound of influencers finding a new trend to jump on.

And as we wrap this up, remember: eco-art isn’t just about making you feel guilty for your carbon footprint. It’s about seeing potential and beauty in the discarded, the overlooked, and the everyday. It’s a conversation starter, sitting you down at the cool kids’ table and whispering, “What if saving the world was just a matter of perspective?”

So, class, as we leave today, ask yourself: Is your next project just a class assignment, or is it the seed of an eco-art piece that’ll land you on the front page of Reddit? With a hot glue gun, a vision, and a weird amount of bottle caps, you could literally build a better tomorrow—or at least a killer art project.

There, lesson adjourned! Don’t forget to recycle your thoughts—and your coffee cups!

[annaminijayan3dblog]

Academic Blog 6

Florence (2018) is an interactive story that follows the relationship between Florence Yeoh and Krish. Florence Yeoh is a Chinese-Australian woman who is tired of her monotonous life and Krish Hemrajani is a South Asian-Australian young man who plays the Cello. It is a short heartfelt story with mini-games, where the interactivity of the game enhances the narrative experience of the player.

Juul (2001) claims that it’s impossible to combine narration and interactivity simultaneously and that a story that is continuously interactive doesn’t exist. Although narrative and interactivity can be considered as opposing elements, the game Florence (2018) has combined the two to create a memorable experience for the player. ‘Just as television is often more dialogue-driven than cinema, radio uses soundscapes differently than film, and composition in a painting can draw the viewer’s eye through a narrative, video games' particular affordances, and attributes likewise lend differences to the modes of storytelling.’ (Sundaram, Gottlieb, 2022, p.81) The game mechanics are pivotal in the narrative and deepen the storytelling. The player is made to play mini-games within the game that form part of Florence and Kris’s daily lives. By manipulating objects in the game, the player is made to reflect on the emotions of the characters as their relationship progresses from growing love to heartbreak. Polaroids taken by the player reveal the progress of their blossoming love and become a part of the narrative when it turns into an object for Florence to revisit as the story progresses. Even communication in the game is through speech bubbles that are like puzzles the player must match to continue the narrative. They dance and shift according to the story's tone, conveying meaning to the player.

Another aspect of the game is using an environmental narrative to normalise cultural differences and intercultural relationships. Throughout the game, there are narrative objects that signify the cultural backgrounds of the two characters. For example, sushi signifies Florence’s Asian origins and Kris’s Ganesh on his shelf signifies his religion. The game also displays objects in the environment that form a part of their identity apart from their cultural and religious origins. These characters have a distinctive personality that goes beyond being representatives of their culture. Sundaram and Gottlieb (2022) support this by saying that the game unapologetically focuses on the broader narrative and the game's emphasis on the love story told from the perspective of cultural characters traditionally seen as 'others' helps to promote the idea that intercultural relationships are normal.

Video games have a huge potential to convey stories in interesting and interactive ways without diminishing their impact. Although narrative is not necessary to make a good game, I would like to create games that convey emotions through a combination of ludology and narratology. The success of Florence (2018) in creating a poignant love story that involves the player in enhancing the narration has inspired me to create something similar. "The reader/viewer needs an emotional motivation for investing energy in the movie or book; we need a human actant to identify with. This is probably also true for the computer game, only this actant is always present - it is the player" (Juul, 2001). By utilising the player's emotional motivation, a game as heartfelt as Florence (2018) can be created.

References

Juul, J. (2001) Games Telling Stories: A brief note on game and narrative. Vol. 1, Issue 1. [Online] July, 2001. Available from : GameStudies.org http://www.gamestudies.org/0101/juul-gts/  [Accessed: 7 December 2023].

MOUNTAINS. (2018) Florence. [Video Game]. Annapurna Interactive.

[Accessed: 7 December 2023].

Nintendo (2020) H2x1_NSwitchDS_Florence_image1600w.jpg, Nintendo-Switch-games. Available at: https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Florence-1717329.html  [Accessed: 7 December 2023]

[play-now-my-lord]

a poem called "four views of black clouds", august 2021

- The air smells of human shit and woodsmoke. Mixed bag, this century that landed on us with both feet. Everyone is pretending to hire and the only real work left is in the make-believe industry. No one's even saying anything worth disbelieving anymore. Everyone's waving white flags to each other, whispering sweet nothings to anonymous strangers, finding things to despise in the loved ones they can't run away from.

-

They tell us to watch the forecast to decide, they tell us to watch the news to decide, they tell us to watch the white house to decide, they tell us to watch the movies to decide, they tell us to watch ourselves to decide, and darling I'm tired of all these decisions or maybe darling I'm just tired of watching or maybe darling I'm just tired all the time. -

Sunsets are orange, or red, or blue, or whatever color the sun decides in its private wisdom to show through the curtain of wildfires. Turner painted a painting sometime in the beginning where the sun was brilliant gold poking through the clouds, and human bodies clapped in irons floated on the waves, and the long-dead men whose cruelty that long-dead man mocked became rich and now there's a curtain of wild- fires and if they evict you it's prison sooner or later. -

It is 2021 and it is August and it is by some estimations a slow-burning end of days and we know now what we always suspected, that all contagions tend to converge. Viruses in the body private, bacilli in the body public, worms in the brain. It's all environmental anyway. We never had a chance, except the chances we found to give each other.

[feralaot]

AOT characters and their interests/hobbies 💞

been thinking about these a lot and wanted to share :]

no warnings

eren

collects vintage electronic things like gameboy cartridges, ataris, old nintendos, etc. I feel like he would also collect caps from energy drink cans, not for any particular reason, he just thinks they look neat

mikasa

I've mentioned this before but I'll die on the hill that she loves embroidery and sewing and makes things like scarves, hats, and gloves to donate

armin

has no shame whatsoever about being super into flowers and gardening. also likes rambling about marine biology, he was always fascinated by the sea and y'all already KNOW he'd geek about the stuff that's actually in it

connie

really likes insects! he has had several bug collections and some of his favorite decorations are framed bugs. tried to get into pc building at some point but couldnt really figure it out

jean

old music, old movies, vinyl records, etc. has several guitars both acoustic and electric and only knows a few songs on each but he just really likes collecting things and is a bit of an artist so he has sketchbooks laying everywhere. the first song he learned on electric guitar was seven nation army and he got really good at it so he played it repeatedly for weeks until connie begged him to play something else

sasha

y'all mfs already know this girl would love cooking. I also think she would really enjoy being an archery instructor and learning about various hunting methods in her spare time. she has always wanted to try catfish noodling but connie is her impulse control to not do so

historia

literally so good at makeup. doesn't even do it on herself most of the time because she likes putting it on other people. considering how tiny she is she tends to insist on sitting in someone's lap to do their makeup and y'all already know ymir is a volunteer. other than this she's also super "green" and infodumps about environmental sustainability to whoever will listen. once again, ymir

ymir

linguistics. my friend said that ymir would really enjoy studying and learning languages and honestly, hard agree. she would familiarize herself with the dialects of a language and also learn about ancient languages as well

hange

absolutely enthralled by animal biology and the way things work. takes every chance they can get to dissect something. has a collection of various animal skulls and always feels the need to tell people that no, they did not kill them themself, even though nobody asked

levi

this man would be so good at interior design. everything has a perfect aesthetic, is symmetrical, neat, has good palettes, the right furniture, everything. he'd totally talk shit about what you've done with the place

erwin

I cant explain it but he has the vibe of someone who'd be really into mythology and anatomical painting. would also probably taste test wine. a very sophisticated kind of man

reiner

once again I will die on the hill that he doesnt play sports himself but he probably really likes watching ice hockey. only bert knows this but he's also pretty good at carpentry and has built several shelves by himself that he was really proud of. a very hands-on kind of person

bertholdt

bird nerd. bird nerd. he loves birds and always feeds them. is also quite the artist and has lots of little scribbles all over his belongings. likes writing too but hasn't told anyone he writes except reiner

annie

she thought it was dumb at first but armin got her really into gardening and now they manage a garden together. he tends to the flowers and she tends to the vegetables. she also enjoys painting nature scenery, so there's a nice painting of their flower and vegetable gardens hanging up

porco and pieck

putting them together because they're pretty much the same. they both love watching unsolved true crime documentaries/videos together then infodumping to each other about their own theories. porco also really likes history and rambles about it to her whenever it comes up e.g. pointing out historical inaccuracies in films. also porco does yoga don't @ me

zeke

anthropology. I refuse to elaborate but just know I'm right. he goes to anthropology museums and absolutely geeks about everything

yelena

religious studies. need I say more

niccolo

yes he absolutely is into cooking but consider: he's also an absolute champ at pottery. he makes his own pots and jars and little mugs. in fact a lot of the indoor plants armin and annie have live in pots that niccolo made especially for them

[archangelmag]

The message archangel: The rise of neofascism with eco-humanitarian mask go hand-tied and we all should be cautious about it.

WGSN once prewied that rebellion would be a trend amount clothing and behavior. Now we are watching an old idea masked as a form of rebellion, and i will tell you here.

If you’re into the most recent news, you probably saw in somewhere about climate activists that throw tomato soup in Van Gogh’s artwork. After this occurrency, many other artworks got “a little dirty” with smashed potatos, glue or baby food. Words like “our planet is in colapse” or “did these paintings are way more valuable than people” were said during the acts.

What sounded quite performative and left me questioning: there are billions of people that are poor and hungry, then why are you throwing soup in a replica?

To us in 3rd world democracy, it just sounds weird.

And it is weird.

It’s been said that a Getty family scion has come out in support of climate activists. In case you missed, the getty family is basically heir to the oil industry. Jean Paul Getty Sr, the patriarch, founded the Getty Oil Company. It just don’t click when you’re asking “just stop oil” when the people that supports you are literally making billions... with oil.

In other hand, throw food around in form of protest – perfomative – then target art spaces that have no connections or relations with oil industry, are linked with this one name: ecofascism.

And let me tell you something: it’s not irresponsible to call it by the name.

According to Elaina Hancock, in an interview to UCONN; It is important to be able to recognize typical ecofascist talking points or myths because then you can start to recognize where they are popping up in everyday life and scenarios.

The typical behaviours is defend cosmetic tests on prisoners, throwing food away to make a performance against consumption, call it human race as "deeply egoistic" , and in this case, destroying works of art as a form of protesting against the oil industry.

It’s necessary the fully understandment that, before draw a target in minority group, fascists will destroy arts.

If a facist destroy art and nothing happens, the next step comes. In this protest, we even had an yt p0w3r signal.

Do you know why fascists destroy arts?

A fascist has a HORROR of subjectivity, a real allergy to the human sciences. Because he thinks he is a pragmatist (but in fact he is just a 100% technical stupid), he attacks everything that he doesn't understand, that he doesn't have the sensitivity to absorb. This is why this bunch of scumbags likes use ultra-realistic painting or sculpture as self-identification. They cannot understand that art is not a 1:1 portrait of reality, because they only see technique, but not subjectivity, message, feeling. This is why some people watch movies, read books, or listen to music, and have no idea what is being said there.

First, they attack arts, then, they start attack minorities using environmentalism with racist and reactionary ideas. Examples includes the man who murdered 51 People in a Christchurch, New Zealand, mosque in 2019. The El Paso, Texas, shooter, also in 2019, did a copy of the Christchurch shooter’s manifesto, including many of its bogus arguments about race, nation, and environment. More recently, an young man drove several hours to Buffalo, New York, where he targeted Black grocery shoppers.

The thing is that since 1922, these ideas circulate.

Facist ideas increasingly circulate on the left and among political moderates at the center as well as on the right. This is how fascism has worked historically and still works even now. Fascist movements are rarely ideologically rigorous. Instead, they draw on commonplace, existing ideas about national, ethnic, racial, and environmental belonging that reinforce lines between in-groups and out-groups.

Right now, Europe is slowly experiencing the rising of neofascism. Here in Latin America, most countries experienced neofascists governements between 2018 and 2022. Put climate crisis together with the near-universal economic upheavals, the war in Ukraine, and the ongoing pandemic and you have a recipe for the rise and triumph of neo-fascism.

This is why it is important to be able to recognize typical ecofascist/neofascist talking points or myths because then you can start to recognize where they are popping up in everyday scenarios, talk about them openly, address their misconceptions and clarify their consequences, and deliberate over actual, alternative solutions.

To Elana Hancock, it’s important to break down the myths, since the aim is to debunk widely circulating myths that lend support to explicitly ecofascist activities. From this, a web zine was created with a hope of help teachers and students to do that. It’s called Against the Ecofascist Creep, and it breaks down several common myths that often appear in everyday media and conversation.

It is important to avoid performative activism, study their basis and bring down their ideas, embracing collective actions that bring actual changes in our society.

https://www.asle.org/wp-content/uploads/Against-the-Ecofascist-Creep.pdf

Please, talk to your friends about it. Pass this text ahead.

[allaboutve]

FAVORITE MOVIE REVIEWS: #10 DREAMS, Akira Kurosawa

Dreams earns a spot as one of my favorite movies because it inspires childlike wonder and mature reflection in me.  Its images inspire wonder in me that I only ever seem to feel within my own dreams.  At the same time, I am moved by the movie’s careful treatment  of its main theme--how to live in a world where the only certainty is our own mortality.

Dreams is a thematic sequel to Ran, the 1985 epic period film that earned Writer-Director Akira Kurosawa an Academy Award nomination for Best Director.  Several critics have described Ran as pessimistic and nihilistic.  Some have even interpreted the film as evidence of Kurosawa’s depression during the later part of his career.

Kurosawa’s later life certainly contains elements of tragedy and hardship, but Kurosawa’s outlook should not be described as nihilistic.  Ran ends with a moral that human folly, not divine will, caused the film’s human tragedies.  

Dreams continues this theme.  It explores the subject of mortality and fear of death and seemingly concludes that this fear is the cause of human folly, and its crimes against nature.  

Dreams shares many creative elements with Ran and Kurosawa’s earlier film Kagemusha.  These elements are worth an entire treatment in and of themselves.  Instead, I will discuss the themes and artistic aspects of the movie that make it one of my favorite films.

Dreams is part of a subgenre of movies that are anthologies of dream sequences--a genre that includes some of the most famous films by Luis Buñuel.  Even though Buñuel was a surrealist with an interest in dream interpretation, Dreams may be a clearer window into its artist’s psychology than are Un Chien Andalou or The Phantom of Liberty.  This is because Buñuel created structure in his scripts by inserting conscious political themes and dream sequences provided by his collaborators--Salvador Dalí and Jean-Claude Carrière. 

Kurosawa frequently attempts to replicate the experience of his dreams.  His most frequent device is to end each dream sequence with a cliffhanger, which he does in dream sequences “Sunshine Through the Rain,” “The Tunnel,” “Mt. Fuji in Red,” and “The Weeping Demon.”

Kurosawa also tries to elevate the dreamlike quality of each dream sequence.  The most successful instance is in “The Tunnel,” when Kurosawa as a soldier sighs with relief after walking safely through a tunnel path.  There is no reason stated reason for apprehension, except that a dog illuminated in a red aura blocks the soldier from walking any other direction.

Details like these communicate Kurosawa’s experience within the dream.  Another device with the same effect occurs at the opening of the dream sequence “Crows.”  Kurosawa studies the Vincent Van Gogh painting The Langlois Bridge at Arles with Women Washing.  The sequence cuts to a live action image of the painting and Kurosawa steps into the foreground from outside the frame, implying he is walking into the painting.   Later in the sequence, Kurosawa runs through several of Van Gogh’s unfinished paintings, searching for the artist.  

For reasons I will elaborate further below, Kurosawa’s attempts to replicate the dream experience sometimes fall short and weigh down the movie.  Yet they are most effective where they distort space and time.  One of the best examples is in “The Peach Orchard,” which I will return to below.

Some details of Akira Kurosawa’s biography inform the meaning of Dreams.  Kurosawa paid attention to detail regarding his childhood home and his mother’s mannerisms in “Sunshine Through the Rain.”  Kurosawa is also said to have taken mountain climbing as a hobby as a young man, which informs the sequence “The Blizzard.”

The movie’s themes of artistry, suicide and the Pacific War all affected Kurosawa’s life.  Yet although Kurosawa was a soldier in “The Tunnel,” the real Kurosawa never served in Japan’s Imperial Army.  

Kurosawa’s career has at times put him at odds with Japanese culture.  His early films were at times criticized for emulating a Western style.  He did draw on literature by Shakespeare, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.  And was also quoted saying the Occupation changed the Japan’s film industry in some positive ways.  It’s conceivable his critical relationship with the Japanese film industry may have contributed to Kurosawa’s industry struggles between 1965 and 1985.

The theme of suicide in Dreams suggests Kurosawa’s tone may also be an example criticism directed toward Japanese social values.  Kurosawa was born in 1910 during the Imperial Period of Japan, where ideals of militarism and Samurai culture would have still been preserved.  

In “Sunshine Through the Rain,” young Akira is shut out of his home by his mother and told to either commit suicide or to find kitsune, spirit foxes, and beg their forgiveness.  Walking away from his home, the camera zooms out so he remains the same size in the foreground while the background shrinks.  Literally, young Akira is growing up.  However, he is leaving his home to beg forgiveness, not to commit suicide.

If “Sunshine Through the Rain” was an authentic dream, Kurosawa as a child may have emotionally understood suicide in its cultural context.  And this is supported by details at the end of the dream sequence.   

In every dream sequence Kurosawa rejects suicide when given the choice.  Yet Kurosawa himself attempted suicide in 1971.  Japanese ritual suicide (seppuku) is referenced in this sequence as he is given a dagger to disembowel himself. 

Seppuku is referenced in one other sequence--“The Tunnel.”  In that dream sequence, Kurosawa tells the spirits of several dead soldiers that as a POW he felt like dying, that it would have been easier.  The statement refers specifically to the expectation during World War II that Japanese POWs were to commit suicide--by seppuku or by other means.

Other references to suicide in Dreams do not involve sepukku.  But Kurosawa’s understanding of suicide as a child, when he presumably first dreamed “Sunshine Through the Rain,” would have come from his cultural context as Japanese.  Although Kurosawa may not have intended to criticize social norms regarding suicide directly, as far as he was criticizing suicide itself he was doing so from his own cultural context.

The theme of suicide is a small part of the larger theme of Dreams--fear of mortality.  Western critics tend to misunderstand this theme within the movie and believe Dreams as ‘misguided’ environmentalist preaching.  

Yet the environmental themes in Dreams are not as cohesive or detailed.  The theme regarding mortality is present in “Sunshine Through the Rain,” “The Blizzard,” and “Crows.”  The only other dream sequence with only an environmental theme is “The Peach Orchard.”  

Both themes are presented at the same time in “Mt. Fuji in Red,” “The Weeping Demon,” and “Village of the Watermills.”  I believe this caused critics to misunderstand Dreams.  Kurosawa was concerned about the environment and probably wanted to advocate for a harmonious relationship with nature.  But his message about morality is the more consistent and more clearly articulated theme in Dreams.

As far as Dreams is an authentic representation of Kurosawa’s inner life, it also provides insight into the way he saw women throughout his life.  This is important because Kurosawa has been criticized for his representation of female characters throughout his filmography.

The first three dream sequences heavily feature women.  “Sunshine Through the Rain” shows young Akira Kurosawa intruding into a Foxes’ Wedding.  His mother responds by refusing to let him into the house.  

An important detail is that the Foxes’ Wedding is a traditional Japanese wedding and the female and male foxes are separated based on gender.  For a young child, this detail represents an understanding of sexual difference.  And that understanding separates young Akira from his mother.

“The Peach Orchard” contains a similar theme.  However, young Kurosawa instead leaves his sister to chase after a young girl who is in fact the spirit of a peach sapling.  

In “The Blizzard,” Kurosawa is now a young man climbing a mountain during a snowstorm with three male companions.  When Kurosawa finally succumbs to exhaustion, he is visited by a Yuki Onna (literally “Snow Woman”).  He pushes her away as she tries to comfort him and as the storm subsides Kurosawa and his companions make for camp.

Female characters only feature heavily in two of the remaining dream sequences in Dreams.  This fact strongly suggests Kurosawa’s emotional life was not as strongly influenced by women after adolescence, a possible explanation why women are frequently not protagonists in Kurosawa’s filmography.  More than that, female characters in Kurosawa’s dreams are all either family or magical creatures until the dream sequence “Mt. Fuji in Red.”  

One last theme worth discussing is the role that Vincent Van Gogh played in Kurosawa’s career.  Vincent Van Gogh appears as a character in the dream sequence “Crows.”  Kurosawa was well known as a painter and used his paintings as storyboards.  His paintings have a wild quality and use a surreal, vibrant color palette--which influenced his use of color in Kagemusha and Ran.

Embarrassingly, it took me a few years and several rewatches of Dreams to realize Van Gogh was Kurosawa’s primary influence as a painter.

Dreams is one of my favorite movies.  However, it is Number 10 because it has some fundamental flaws.  

I have mentioned that the movie attempts to replicate the experience of a dream with mixed success.  The failures are mostly in scenes when the protagonist observes and responds to his surroundings.  The device works in dream sequences such as “The Tunnel” because the script viewer shares the character’s apprehension.  The tunnel is shot pitch black and a threatening dog emerges from the tunnel before Kurosawa enters.

Other sequences are less successful.  In “The Weeping Demon,” Kurosawa walks from the ruins of a city onto a desolate slope.  There is no shot establishing what Kurosawa sees as he changes his path from one direction to another.  This goes on for several minutes before any payoff.

Other dream sequences have the same problem with pace.  “The Blizzard” opens with approximately ten minutes of Kurosawa and his companions hiking through a snowy mountainscape.  Although we learn that the men are lost, no dialogue or action establishes that the mountaineers are lost or confused.  I must confess that I have fallen asleep more than once in the early parts of the dream sequence “The Blizzard.”

Another sequence with this problem is “Crows.”  The second half of the sequence shows Kurosawa chasing after Vincent Van Gogh while inside the artist’s unfinished paintings.  Unlike “The Blizzard,” this sequence does not harm the narrative of the dream sequence because the first half already established two things.  It established that Kurosawa is inside Van Gogh’s paintings and that he is chasing the artist himself.

One possible reason the film makes these mistakes is budgetary.  Shooting vast landscapes would have required the resources to shoot on location or create large elaborate sets.  Some sequences do exactly that--“The Peach Orchard” and “Village of the Windmills.”

Dreams had a large budget for a Japanese movie of its time.  But at approximately $12 Million US, the budget would have limited what could be done.

The mistakes regarding the pace in the end fall onto the screenwriting.  The runtime of Dreams is 119 minutes.  Trimming “The Blizzard” and “The Weeping Demon” would have solved these problems and still kept the runtime over 90 minutes. 

Critical characterization of Dreams as self indulgent is probably correct, and is the best explanation for these decisions.  But it is also a creative decision Dreams has in common with the earlier Ran and Kagemusha.  Both run nearly three hours and include several lingering shots--a stylistic trademark of Kurosawa’s later films.  The criticism that Dreams is self indulgent is less an indictment on this style than it is on the quality of the movie itself.

However, Akira Kurosawa’s self indulgence is forgivable because Dreams is such a pretty movie to look at.  Many sequences were Kurosawa’s first experiments with digital special effects, which are never used in a distracting way.  

Beyond that, several shots in the movie are made using experimental cinematography to great effect.  One shot is in the sequence “The Peach Orchard.”  Young Kurosawa is confronted by the spirits of several cleared peach trees in the form of hina-ningyo--ornamental dolls representing the Japanese Imperial Court.  When young Kurosawa expresses his grief for the trees, the spirits respond by performing a traditional dance for young Kurosawa.

The dance takes place on a hillside that is not especially steep.  Yet the spirits appear at the same approximate distance from the viewer, as though they are on the same display as a hina doll set.  Such a shot is obtained by using a strong telephoto lens, which tends to compress the depth of frame in a shot.  For this effect, Kurosawa would have had to shoot this image from at least 250 meters away.

“The Tunnel” is another surprising sequence for its cinematography.  Specifically, the dog that emerges from the tunnel is illuminated in a red aura that contrasts with the color palette of the rest of the scene.

Modern viewers might assume this was accomplished with simple digital editing.  In fact, the red light comes from a street light that is barely visible throughout the scene.  It does not shine brightly until the dog appears and is barely visible as faint glare on the street gravel.

How this shot was made confuses me.  I am certain that the effect is caused by increasing the brightness of the light because the red aura touches Kurosawa’s protagonist in some shots.  But I am not certain the shot could be illuminated from a street light unless the set was already shot in low light.  Other details suggest the sequence was shot entirely in low light.

These and other sequences in Dreams create surreal visual splendor that is only glimpsed in the earlier Ran and Kagemusha.  Although Dreams was not nearly as commercially successful, it is less trapped by its genre and is one of the best movies to look at.

Some of the sequences appeal to me personally because they are things I have only seen in my dreams, such as the mob of crows at the end of “Crows.”  Other images remind me of what I imagined as a child or the paintings I would have wanted to make when art was a greater part of my life.  For these reasons, I recommend Dreams to any viewers who look for that certain visual quality in what they watch.  

But Dreams also has an important message about mortality and loss.  For that reason, I recommend Dreams to anyone dealing with grief and recovery.

-ve

NEXT POST--#9: THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR (dir. John McTiernan)

[maxbernini]

Omg your post made me want Max headcanons. 🙏 Pls more of that elbowing Max in the ribs energy.

ask and ye shall receive 😁 sorry about the lack of read-more again!!

max:

- the thing about max is that his life is a movie and he’ll simultaneously cast himself as both hero and villain. he’s the jack to tiff’s rose! he won’t get off that door! instead he’ll swoop in when she’s at her lowest, offend his friends purely to defend her the first time they meet, serenade her in public, sing her baby to sleep via facetime with a song he wrote - and then gets mad when said baby is in hospital and tiff is too busy to answer his call. she says he has no right to use moïra against her and max literally says “i know, i agree, it’s fucked up, i’m fucked up, i predicted this, i can’t help it”. but that’s a lie; he can and he knows that, too, it’s just easier to paint yourself as inherently unloveable, inherently bad, allowing those doubts to fester so if it all goes to shit you’re able to seek twisted comfort in the safety of saying: see! look at you! there’s no point in changing, this is inevitable! now, i’m so glad the show never had tiff be like “well you’re more of a man than he is!” to max re: aurélien (so many rancid layers) but it is canon that max’s insecurities are tied up in his transness, masculinity, manhood, trust issues, and heterosexuality (he says as much when talking about dating maya). all of this is to say: i hope max finds peace, i hope he befriends lots of types of trans men, i hope he falls in love over and over - with life, with others, with himself - and most importantly, i hope the french government funds the romantic drama action spy nautical musical thriller film that currently only exists in max’s dreams, because he might genuinely snap if it doesn’t come to life (like with most things, i blame that canon furry for letting max be the cinematographer in s6 and giving him a taste for film)

- that was long so a shorter one: it’s canon that he wants to go into teaching, and i swear he either says he wants to teach history OR he never actually says what subject. so if it’s the latter, i’m saying he becomes a music teacher instead. he’s patient with real little kids, good at making up songs to help them remember stuff, but when it comes to the teens?? he WILL flirt with all the milfs waiting to pick said teens up and he WILL insist on wonderwall being the first song they have to learn on guitar. he doesn’t even like it himself (obviously, it’s too popular), but he wants to annoy his students and/or their hard metal classic rock loving fathers as a plot to again, get closer to the milfs. why why why did he call tiff that.

- if we’re talking elbow-ribs energy, then i think max LOVES la mif but i also think the only person he actually LIKES in la mif is redouane, and that’s bc they’ve interacted the least one on one. he and lola come together for weekly bitter bisexual brooding sessions (completely silent bc they operate on the same sad wavelength); he and jo would genuinely fist fight each other if they weren’t so loyal to the idea of loving tiff; he’s too sarcastic and petty for sékou (though it won’t stop him from being whiny if sékou doesn’t pay him enough attention), he canonically has multiple pics of maya on his wall and that’s his daily safe dose of militant environmental feminism lesbian energy; and whilst it’s canon that bilal thinks max is attractive, idk if max is yet at a point where he realizes that it’s mutual (probably another reason why he wants to fist fight jo now that we’re living in a post-jolal world, though again: her elbows are so used to kissing his ribs that the bones inside are probably now made of metal and legally classified as a weapon, aka: i don’t think he’d win the fight).

give me a character and i’ll tell you three pieces of headcanon i have about them! 

[imgoingtopluto]

Chapter 1, Throughout the Years of Bowie Masters

Author's note: A lot of time skips will be present in this story. I hope it is coherent and not jumpy. Also, parts of the book and movie will be present throughout the series. This will be like a soulmate scenario too since I’ve always liked stories like that. Please tell me if I get something wrong.

“And if the whole world is crashing down on you

Fall through space out of mind again

Where the emptiness we leave behind on warm air rising

Blows all the shadows far away.”

Gorillaz, Empire Ants

One Week Later

Privet Drive had officially been the most boring place Felix and Florence had ever lived in. The plain color of beige was all the streets houses were covered in, the grass was the same green on each lawn on both sides of the street. Dumbledore was right... these muggles seemed to be the most basic human beings known to man. It was going to be hard for Florence and Felix to blend in with these people. Little Bowie on the other hand didn’t seem to mind the environmental change at all. She was calm the entire way there and was currently snoozing in the back seat of the “Muggle” car Dumbledore had gotten for them. When they had gotten out of the car, Florence went to the backseat to unstrap Bowie from her car seat.

Felix was scanning the area and his eyes landed on the window right across from their house. A long-necked, blonde, bony-looking woman was staring at them from across the street. Felix felt extremely uncomfortable with the intense stare the woman was greeting him with. He decided to be nice though and wave. Before he could continue the motion, however, the curtains were snapped shut. Felix stood there, frozen in his position. His hand slant to the side from the attempt to wave at the woman. He felt like an idiot and slowly lowered his hand. When Florence had finally unstrapped Bowie from her car seat he quickly ushered them both into the house. He closed and locked the door, not daring to look out the window again.

Florence decided to try and talk to that family across the street a week later. Wanting to know the kind of people they truly were. She dragged Felix and in return Bowie with her. Felix didn’t like this idea at all, if one insult was thrown Florence or Bowie’s way Felix wouldn’t hesitate to start a fight with them. This time, the bony woman was accompanied by her husband. The man was quite wide and purple in the face. He seemed tense, Felix came to the conclusion Privet Drive was quite a private community that didn’t like newcomers very much. The conversation seemed so... rehearsed. Petunia and Vernon acted like they were writing from a script and had smiles painted onto their face. Felix looked down at Bowie who was looking at the couple across from them. The look on her little face made him want to burst out with laughter. Her eyes were squinted and her face look skeptical, she seemed to get the same vibe Felix had gotten. Florence laughed breathlessly, she seemed to be uncomfortable.

“So... Do you have any kids of your own?” Florence asked, even though she already knew the answer to that question.

Petunia’s false smile dropped for a moment before picking back up again.

“Oh yes... I have a son, he’s my pride and joy. His name is Dudley and he looks just like his dad. Let me go get him.” Petunia said tearfully, running off before anyone could stop her.

Felix bit back a snide remark before speaking.

“Oh that’s wonderful,” Felix said falsely to Vernon.

“My little Bowie looks exactly like her father too,” Florence said proudly.

Vernon just stared blankly at Florence obviously not wanting to be a part of this conversation. Petunia had come back out, holding a large bundle on her hip. The baby did look like his father, size and all. If Felix hadn’t looked again, he would’ve assumed she was carrying a beach ball with blonde hair. The baby, whose name was Dudley, glared at them, his eyes fixated on Bowie who returned his glare. Bowie seemed disappointed in a way, it looked like she was expecting someone else.

“So you just got one little boy?” Florence asked an edge of worry was laced within her voice.

“Oh, ye...” Petunia started to lie but then suddenly, a wail could be heard from inside the home.

Petunia fought the urge to roll her eyes and handed Dudley to Vernon before stomping back into the house. When she came back out Florence wanted to cry and Felix wanted to sock someone in the face seeing the state Harry was in. His clothes had not fit him, he looked sickly, and he was in a state of distress. But, he stopped when he looked at me... or Bowie more like it. Bowie's glare had dropped and a small smile was on her face. She finally found the person she wanted to see.

“Oh... who is this?” Florence asked in a comforting voice toward Harry. She didn’t want to show how angry she was at the pair.

“This is my nephew Harry... we had to take him in because my sister had been killed,” Petunia said, all of the love she had in her voice for her son was gone when describing Harry. It had been replaced with annoyance.

Little Harry reached out for Florence, wanting to move closer to the comforting voice of hers rather than the coldness of his Aunt and Uncle. Dudley had started to cry, Bowie’s glare returned on his face. It seemed both he and Bowie knew he was faking it.

“Ugh... Harry always upsets my Dudders... I’m sorry, mummy’s here now.” Petunia said grumbling to herself. She took Dudley from Vernon's grip.

Suddenly, an idea popped into Florence’s head.

“Hey you two seem a little stressed... why don’t we watch Harry for you guys. That way you three can have some time to yourself.” Florence Suggested kindly.

Felix thought her idea would never work... they had just met them. Any sane human would not leave a child in the care of someone they just met. It’s not like they were babysitters, they were on the other side of the street. They knew nothing about them. Even though Felix knew Florence and him were not bad people, the Dursleys didn’t Know that!

“Yes, please take him.” Petunia said at once, Harry was soon in the arms of Florence. The trio then went inside their homes without another word. Florence and Felix stood there in shock before walking back across the street. Harry and Bowie however seemed quite content, enjoying each other's company.

Felix and Florence set Bowie and Harry down on the soft carpet and kept a close eye on them. They both then collapsed onto the couch, not knowing what to do.

“Those two... are cruel,” Florence said angrily.

“They sure are, I’m glad Dumbledore sent us down here. I understand why now.”

“We have to watch over him... keep him safe from the likes of them,” Florence added.

“And we will,” Felix started but then he got concerned with the sad look on his wife’s face.

“Hey come here love, listen Harry is going to be fine. Besides, it’ll be nice for Bow to have someone her own age around her. She can finally babble to someone who understands her.” Felix comforted, gesturing toward the two babies in front of them.

Florence smiled at that thought.

“Yeah that’s true... look at them, they’re so adorable.” Florence gushed.

Felix looked down on them, wondering what events would be in the two babies' future.

Time skip: 5 Months later.

Felix would never forget the day Bowie started showing her first signs of magic. She was sitting on her high chair waiting for her breakfast. Felix was trying to make her oatmeal while Florence was busy cleaning up the living room, needing more space since Harry was staying over for the weekend.

“Hey Florence, could you pass me the Strawberries please?” Felix asked.

Florence had raised her head and started to walk toward the kitchen. Suddenly, the plastic container of strawberries began floating toward Felix. He didn’t turn his head, still focused on the prospect of making Bowie breakfast. He grabbed the container not noticing where it had come from

“Thanks love.”

“Felix… I didn’t hand those to you.” Florence said in shock.

Felix turned his head noticing Florence wasn’t anywhere near him. He then looked at his daughter who had a slight pout on his face. He quickly grabbed her oatmeal and rushed over to her, a smile was on his face.

“Bow… did you give these to daddy?” He asked in a childish voice. Florence had rushed over to join the pair.

The nearly toothless grin on Bowie's face told them everything they needed to know. Felix and Florence then proceeded to freak out, confusing the baby immensely.

Time skip: 3 years later

Florence wouldn’t forget the first time Bowie had experienced a random pain, one that no one had inflicted on those around her. Today was Dudley's birthday and Florence had spent an exuberant amount of time across the street talking to Petunia. When she finally returned home she was sitting on the carpet with Felix and Bowie playing with her. One minute she was happy and smiling and the next she had clutched her shins and started crying. Florence rushed to her, Bowie’s skin had been covered in bruises, they were in the shape of a cane seemingly. It had happened on multiple occasions, Her nose had suddenly begun to swell and bleed multiple times and the scar on her head had gotten darker.

Time skip: 7 years later

Felix and Florence were so excited the day Bowie had gotten her letter. They wanted her to experience the same magic that had enthralled them so many years ago. So why had they never felt so uncertain sending their daughter to Hogwarts for her 3rd year? She was sorted into Gryffindor’s house just like her father. Her mother on the other hand was a Ravenclaw. They both remember when she had come home after her first year at Hogwarts. She explained in full detail how she had faced trolls, three-headed dogs, searing pains in her head, flying keys, chess boards, a line of deadly potions, and worst of all… Lord Voldemort himself. They didn’t know whether to scold her or praise her for her bravery. But then, she explained some of her new friends and how lovely they had been to her and harry. Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger were their names, and whenever they got the chance to speak with them again, they would thank them immensely for protecting Bowie and Harry.

Bowie’s second year at Hogwarts was even worse for them. Their stomachs dropped when they got the owl. Harry had written to them saying their daughter was taken down into the Chamber of Secrets by the Basilisk. They rushed down to the school not caring if they would get into trouble for leaving their job at the Ministry early. Relief filled their beings immediately when they arrived at the school. The news that both Harry and Bowie were found safe had finally calmed them down. They of course scolded Bowie after finding out she was writing in a diary that was talking back to her.

“But Dad,” Bowie whined, her cheeks were tinted with pink as she was embarrassed she was getting scolded in front of her friends.

“No buts young lady, you know what I have always told you when you were younger,” Felix replied sternly.

Bowie sighed before answering her dad.

“Don’t ever trust something that talks back to you if it doesn’t have a brain.” She grumbled.

“That’s right Bow…”

POV Change: Mine.

Now it’s Bowie’s third year at Hogwarts. Will everything finally go smoothly? Or will something even more sinister happen?