#the past is a foreign country some screen writer was like

[winepresswrath]

unfortunately I cannot be normal when characters love each other but break up anyway and it's for the best but they can't stay away and then the plot throws them back together and they figure out how to actually be together. This is what repeated exposure to The Philadelphia Story as a young child will do to a person.

[billiewena]

since I never made a post for these, here are all of MY ideal endings for sam (and how I would do them) that I spite-wrote after a coworker told me about how perfect his finale was <3

HUNTER NETWORK ENDING: Sam establishes an official network for the American hunters, leading a new generation of hunters as the antithesis of John Winchester. One of the final shots is a montage of all the hunters working and saving people all across the country, proving the Winchesters are no longer alone in the world.

SAMWITCH ENDING: Sam becomes a full-fledged witch thanks to all the magic supplies he inherited from Rowena and blends hunting/witch shenanigans. He can still be powerful but now he gets to choose where that power comes from. Okay this is basically Goldenrod Revisions, leave me alone.

SEPARATE WAYS ENDING: Sam and Dean both alive but living / hunting apart, going their separate ways like a parent and child who is finally leaving the nest. Sam gets the independence he always wanted while also getting to keep his brother in his life, because this is the ultimate proof that Dean trusts him. For the first time, they can move on without the reason being the other is dead. They no longer doubt they will always be there for each other even if they’re not living under the same roof anymore. The episode ends with Sam breaking into Dean’s [insert post-finale residence of choice here] in a callback to the pilot, saying he was in the area for a hunt. The last lines are Sam asking if he wanted to reunite for the hunt for old’s time sake and Dean saying “looks we got work to do.”

PODCASTER ENDING: Sam starts a podcast about the supernatural discussing urban American legends, myths, and mysteries that also helps viewers know what to look for and maybe even teaches them to defend themselves. Some take it as fiction, some use what he tells them to save their lives. It hits the top of the paranormal/mystery charts. The Ghostfacers, whose attempt to get into podcasting failed, ARE livid.

THEY BOTH DIE AT THE END: Sam and Dean both die in a blaze of glory, sacrificing themselves to defeat Chuck and bring back the rest of the world. They both get a moment to say an emotional goodbye to Jack and to each other. The two get a massive hunter’s funeral where all the past hunters come to mourn them and talk about their impact. Jody’s speech probably makes us cry. They get to Heaven at the same time, where they are greeted by all their past friends and family at the Roadhouse. On Earth, they live on forever as urban legends and heroes.

SAM & ROWENA ENDING: Sam says #FuckHeaven and spends his afterlife in hell as the consort to Queen Rowena, drinking margaritas all day, living his best life and stopping any demon uprisings in their tracks. Anytime they give him a hard time, he reminds them that he was Azazel’s boyking and they’re just Random Demon #489. What are THEY doing with their life.

SAM & EILEEN ENDING #1 - MARRIED HUNTER LIFE EDITION: Sam and Dean both survive and continue to hunt / live together, except now Eileen and Castiel are around and live in the bunker with them too after Cas was saved in [insert Empty rescue scenario of your choice.] Sam has some deja vu to the vision he had of all four of them living together in 15x09. He realizes that this is actually real and not a vision; that they are actually together, at peace and beat Chuck. The episode ends with them going to have the movie night that they never got to have in the vision. As Eileen takes his hand to go to the movie room, you see two engagement rings on their hands. Sam realizes that his journey may have started with losing Jessica but he found love again, and that while once upon a time all he and Eileen wanted was revenge, they’ve finally both found peace.

SAFE HOUSE ENDING: Sam starts a trauma center/safe house situation for hunters and ex-monsters to recover and heal, dedicating his life to proving that no one is beyond saving and everyone can redeem themselves and defy fate like he had. Mia Vallens, the shapeshifting grief counselor, is on payroll.

SAM IS THE AUTHOR NOW ENDING: Sam narrates the finale the same way Chuck did for the original series finale "Swan Song", further proving that they are now in control in their story. We get Sam's POV as he tells us what happened to all the other hunters and side characters, as well as him and his brother, with flashbacks from all fifteen seasons and young Sam & Dean growing up together. The episode ends with the reveal that Sam actually finishing the journal entries for the Winchester family's edition of the Men of Letters Bestiary, putting the finishing touches on some monster entries and his own personal anecodotes. He treats the Bestiary like a journal, in a callback to After-School Special where Sam almost became a writer and wrote about his and his family's hunting stories.

BABY JACK ENDING: Sam raises Baby!Jack after he is de-aged and “falls” to Earth in the same fashion the angel Anna once did. Baby!Jack wears overalls that don’t say his name in giant letters because Sam is a good parent who would never do that to his child. The two have a happy life as an adopted father/son duo who defied everything Lucifer and Heaven wanted them to be.

SAM & EILEEN ENDING #2 - EUROTRIP EDITION: Sam going on a year-long vacation around the world now that he has a cool Irish girlfriend who is not afraid of planes, leading to a fun exploration of the supernatural in foreign countries. Who is Dean.

DOG SHELTER OWNER: Sam owns a dog shelter and gets to walk at least ten dogs a day. Jack helps out and Miracle is the HBIC. Life is good.

CHUCK WINS ENDING: Sam lives and Dean dies, Sam throws a funeral for him that no one attends but him and a dog, and moves to the suburbs to live a generic white picket fence life with an unidentifiable wife. As a montage of Sam’s life plays, the camera pans away what looks like a computer and Chuck’s old office. A string of quotes can be heard in the background (“we’re just hamsters running around in a cage” “what would you rather have: peace or freedom?” “I can do anything...I’m a writer” “We will never give you the ending that you want / We’ll see”). The final shot is Jack, dressed in Chuck’s clothes and glasses and using his mannerisms, typing away at a typewriter. He writes “The End” but punctuates it with a question mark instead of a period. His computer screen and our TV screen both go black.

[smoochkooks]

—chapter one: the beginning of an end

this is a part of my an ode to a broken heart drabble series.

pairing: jeon jungkook/reader

genre: unrequited love, best friends to (?), heavy angst, future smut

word count: 1.4k words

summary: loving jeon jungkook is, above all, the beginning of an end.

previous || next

You’re positive your favourite sound in the whole world is the rhythmic, repetitive sound of your fingers tapping on the keyboard.

Everyone has a different approach when it comes to coping with stress and anxiety. Some people drink away their unwanted emotions, some drown themselves in work, some watch yet another, mediocre Netflix show. But your solution, your little panacea has always been writing.

You’re not the best when it comes to expressing your true feelings. You can struggle with saying ‘I love you’ to your mother and then write a long, affectionate letter for her birthday that makes her eyes turn glossy. You may stutter and tumble on your own words while trying to order coffee and then complete academic essays with ease.  

Whenever you feel like you’re overwhelmed, boiled up with mixed emotions, you do exactly what your school counselor told you many years ago: you let it out. She never mentioned any specifics, simply encouraging you to find your own way. And that’s exactly what you did – you picked it up yourself. First, it was writing a diary. No less than two weeks into it, you got bored. Turns out describing in detail every single mundane day of your life was never your forté. You threw away your old notebook, bought a new one and decided to write there whenever you felt like you really wanted to, not out of obligation.  

And you continue to do so, these days you opt for a use of modern technology often. You open your laptop and pour your feelings onto a digital sheet of paper. It’s cathartic, in a way. Getting rid of what you feel like is weighing you down.  

Jungkook however, your dearest best friend, has always been on the other side of the spectrum. Loud, obnoxious, a life and soul of the party who happened to miraculously befriend the most quiet introvert in class. Sometimes you still wonder how your friendship has managed to survive almost twenty years. You’re two polar opposites. Fire and water. Storm and chilly breeze. A confession screamed in the middle of the night and handwritten love letter.  

You’re a dichotomy. Made of the same atoms, pulling in and pulling away. And if the phrase ‘opposites attract’ held any significance, maybe you would’ve ended up together. But in your case, it’s yet another platitude. Something that seems to work out only in books and movies. Because, if that was true, he would never fell in love with a female version of him, just graced with a sprinkle of pure sweetenes Jungkook sometimes lacks.

Soojin is everything you will never be. Polite, outgoing, sociable and so likeable you hate yourself for despising her. Truthfully, there’s nothing bad you could say about her. No wonder he’s fallen head over heels for her, not you.

What’s there to love about you, if you willing chose to pin for a boy that’s so out of your league? It’s actually hilarious to even dream about him returning your feelings.

You stare at the screen with half-lidded eyes. The clock reads quarter past midnight, letters start to blur into nothingness. Yet another chapter of your miserable life is completed as you save the document and slam your laptop shut. You don’t bother to shower or take off your clothes. Sleepiness hits you right when you close your eyes.  

You dream of wedding halls and never spoken love confessions.

You read once on Twitter that being an adult means checking your e-mail as a part of your morning social media routine and since then, you haven’t quite related to anything more in your life.  

At the very top of your inbox there’s yet another e-mail from your Creative Writing proffesor, Kim Namjoon. He’s a very stubborn man, you decide, as you scroll through the contents of his message. He still wants you to consider what he told you a few days ago after class, it seems.  

“Miss ___? Can I talk to you for a second?” 

“Sure.” you replied and awkwardly walked up to his podium.  

You might have been madly (and miserablely) in love with your best friend, but Kim Namjoon has never failed to make you feel like a silly teenager with a crush on her older teacher. To say Kim Namjoon was intimidating was an misunderstanding. His presence was thoroughly electrifying. You remembered a very disappointed sigh the girl sitting next you let out when she noticed a ring on his right hand. You couldn’t judge her. His wife had scored probably the finest man on this damn planet.  

“I read your latest assignment and I must say, your novelette was outstanding as always. Dare I say the best among others,” Namjoon said. You bowed your head in acknowledgement, praying he wouldn’t notice your rose-colored cheeks. “Regarding that, I actually have a proposition for you.”  

At that, your eyes widened. “What kind of proposition, sir?” you asked.  

He picked up a sheet of paper from his desk and handed it to you. It was a flyer, you realised, and read it through quickly. VARIETÉ Publishing was organising an annual contest for young poets, which you had heard about before. Your English Literature proffesor mentioned it during her lecture a week ago. However, poetry had never been your strong suit. As much as you enjoyed reading it, you weren’t really fond of creating your own poems. So why did Kim Namjoon decide to tell you about this all of a sudden?

“I know what you might be thinking right now, but I’m not actually encouraging you to take part in this competition,” As he smiled, two dimples appeared on each side of his mouth. “Do you know anything about VARIETÉ Publishing?”  

Slightly confused, you gave him a nod. “It’s one if the biggest publishing companies in the country.” 

“That’s very much true,” Namjoon agreed. “VARIETÉ's vice-chairman, Lee Jongi, is actually my old friend. We used to study together here, at this university. When I chose a teaching career, he got a job in a foreign publishing company, climbed up the ladder until the very top and now he’s vice-chairman and I’m a simple college professor,” He chuckled. You were too stunned to form a coherent response let alone laugh along with him. Lee Jongi and Kim Namjoon being buddies? It was a small world, after all. “Jongi has always been very fond of young, aspiring writers. When I discover a student with huge potential, I send him their works. If he finds them interesting enough, he might even take a risk and propose a publishing deal. This doesn’t happen quite often, but I want you to know that you have a pretty big chance to impress him.”

You stared at him, wide-eyed because holy fucking shit, did he just say he can help you publish your first book?  

“I don’t know what to say, sir. I’m shocked.” you responded truthfully. You had heard people complimenting your skills before but this was extraordinary. “Let me just process all of this: you know personally VARIETÉ'S vice-chairman and you want to show him my works?” Even said out loud, it still sounded surreal to you.  

“Correct. But of course, I won’t do anything without your consent.” Namjoon said. “That novelette you sent me recently was amazing. I’d love to show it to Lee Jongi one day.”

The task was to incorporate a hidden, symbolic message into a story. You decided to use your favorite flowers, magnolias, and its meaning. They represent eternity, because once they bloom they will continue to bloom for a long time. In your story, a girl gave her best friend magnolia's seeds, wishing her love for him to be everlasting. A day later, she received a pack of seeds from the boy as well. She happily planted them in her garden and when they bloomed, she discovered they were yellow tulips. A symbol of love that will never be reciprocated.

“You make people feel things with your words, ___, and that’s a very rare gift,” You heard Namjoon add. “Promise me you’ll consider my proposition.”  

There was thousand thoughts per hour running in your head, but you gave him a curt nod. “I’ll think about it.”  

As you’re staring now at the screen, fingers hovering over the keyboard, you think about the girl whose only dream was to be loved by her best friend. Maybe it’s finally time for you to move on. Bury the past and plant a seed of new life. Because, loving Jeon Jungkook is, above all, the beginning of an end.

With shaky hands, you start writing a response to your proffesor.

[eventual-ghoste]

TOG rambling

Hello! This post has to do with Andy and some revelations at the end of Force Multiplied. Spoilers I give aren’t super specific but they’re there, and I can’t promise they won’t bite.

This is also in response to a TOG discord question I couldn’t stop thinking about, regarding Andy’s history as compared to Nicky’s, as posited by Em | salzundhonig:

But Nicky's past as a crusader and his growth from his past was well received, surely that'll be the same with Andy right?

I apologize if these ramblings sound like a rant but I swear my intentions are in the spirit of debate/discourse, and they are not an attack on any individuals.

The TL;DR is: Andy has work to do. Hopefully Hollywood and Rucka don’t fuck that up.

Feel free to check/correct/call me out if I’ve misspoke anywhere here (I realize I still have a lot to learn) but IMHO, I don’t think a semblance of Andy’s growth will be well received. Or, at least, I’m not so certain it should be because, in the comics, I genuinely don’t think Andy has grown. At the end of Force Multiplied, she still defends her actions with the “this is how I grew up” argument, and says it was “a long time ago,” and as much as I love love LOVE Andromache the Scythian for her badassery and how she’s a vision of female empowerment, I can’t help but think about how I hear those words all the time from people defending themselves against racist and/or sexist comments from so-called bygone eras.

Wanna know a sad difference between those people and our beloved Andy? They apologize for what they’ve done, or who they were. As hollow as the words will sound, however unforgivable their actions, however self-serving the apology will be— Those Asshats apologize. Comic!Andy never does, not even when confronted by Nile, an African American woman who likely descends from slaves, and has undoubtedly experienced racism and discrimination on a regular basis. It’s been thousands of years and Andy doesn’t even know how to say sorry (if she ever does, kudos to whoever finds a timestamp/panel, and let me know!). Instead, Andy buries the truth of her actions with a load of justifications to the point that she becomes self-deprecating, calling herself “vermin,” concluding she’s no better than the apathetic, selfish, evil POS they hunt. She may have spent the past millennia with TOG, trying to make things right but then—

But then she gives up. She’s tired. She resigns because she doesn’t have it in her anymore to fight the injustice she once willingly and self-servingly participated in. So, on top of being incapable of apology, Andy also doesn’t vow to do better. She doesn’t accede to change.

If there is one reason for why “The Old Guard” is a fucking absolutely shitty title, is that it refers to people who refuse to accept new ideas and progress. We are in a fandom that has four canonically queer characters, three people of color, and two female leads! Maybe the irony is intentional but damn, why is it that Andy, PROTAGONIST #1, hasn’t completely caught up with the program?

And that brings me to why I think Andy’s reckoning will not be on the same level as Nicky’s. Because as popular as Kaysanova is, neither Nicky or Joe are the main protagonists of TOG.

We don’t follow Nicky or Joe (or Booker) into scenes. The men are strictly back-at-the-ranch, supporting characters. We follow Andy or Nile (who also have the most screen time, I believe, but fact-check me). Filmically speaking, we ought to value them with a measure of precedence. Their words and actions matter the most, especially Andy’s by nature of how everyone looks to her for guidance.

So, with all that in mind: How does one reconcile a beloved protagonist with a despicable past in slavery, of all things? In the wake of an international racial reckoning, how is a celebrated, white South African actress going to fulfill that role? How is production going to balance fantasy with reality? How are Rucka and other involved writers (Theron, Prince-Bythewood?) going to alter the original IP, while retaining the nuance of this moral quandry?

Forgive me for the overkill but: How is it going to happen?

I’m well aware that my thoughts are going down a rabbit hole, and I am definitely overthinking this, but as somebody who’s genuinely curious about whether Victoria Mahoney and the rest of the TOG crew will have the guts to confront the issue head-on, or if they’ll take the easy way out. Excise the bits that no one wants to talk about, much less watch in a feel-good film that TOG has become for many fans.

Whatever production ends up doing, I hope that 2O2G doesn’t end on a cliffhanging “pity Andromache” note because, damn, I’m gonna feel real uncomfortable scrolling through fandom posts, reading people defending slavery and giving the same “the past is a foreign country; they do things differently there” spiel, in order to protect a fictional character played by a conventionally-attractive cis heterosexual white woman.

(Also: If the past is so different from the present, why are there still calls for social justice? Why do ALL industries still lack diverse and equitable representation?)

Now, this is where I’ll go back to the original question and say: While I think Nicky functions well as an example for change/growth/redemption, I don’t think his change serves as a good comparison to Andy’s. I say this, even while I’m aware of double standards in gender, and even between the reception of gay characters vs lesbian characters vs etc. (re: I’m open to critique).

My line of thought stems from the fact that, canonically, Nicky always had Joe. The two have seemingly been inseparable from the moment they first killed each other. It’s likely that Joe would check Nicky whenever he said or did something wrong and offensive, and perhaps this symbiosis was mutual.

(I also have a feeling that many people easily disregarded the Christian/Muslim conflict because A) lack of knowledge in BOTH religions and B) the onscreen couple appear very much in love, especially when one is giving a beautiful monologue on the nature of their relationship. When we meet Joe and Nicky, we meet them at their best. Shout-out to interfaith couples who know more about this than my single (and secular) ass does, and might have more to say about this.)

On the other hand: Andy never had someone who was like how Joe was for Nicky. No one ever calls out Andy because A) she’s the oldest, B) she’s the lead, and C) her business card says ANDROMACHE OF SCYTHIA, WAR GOD. Yeah, she had Quynh/Noriko but— at the risk of yelling at Rucka for vilifying a queer woman of color (or praising him for not leaning on the stereotype of Asian passivity? idk, anyone got thoughts on this?)— Noriko is clearly not encouraging good behavior. Neither will Quynh if Netflix lets 2O2G be as faithful to the comics as TOG1 was.

Which means the Law 282 conversation might be…unavoidable? Somewhere along the line, we still end up in the hotel room with Andy, on the floor, pleading for her crew to not abandon her, even though she is the one who abandoned their cause.

This sets up a circumstance in which Fade Away might be spent trying to redeem Andy/Charlize Theron, bring her back to the “good side,” teaching her to be better— thereby highlighting her experience and “salvation,” rather than making a point of her past, and the reality of her actions. In other words, a “pity the white woman” fest.

(Because I’m crossing my fingers that TOG production/Netflix know better) In an effort to prevent that from happening, I wonder if Rucka will combine Force Multiplied with Fade Away for the 2O2G script. Given the series’ track record, I think it is feasible that FA’s release coincides with 2O2G’s, and that it finally resolves Andy. Whether by revitalizing her energy as a do-some-gooder, or finalizing her vulnerability by putting her 6,000 years to rest, thus handing off the reigns to Nile and a new generation of leadership.

The last thing I want to leave off with is: I don’t hate Andy. It’s a credit to Rucka and fellow writers (from film and fandom) that I don’t.

I might not love her character as enthusiastically as I used to, but that doesn’t mean I’m not amazed by her creation. She’s a female lead whose sexuality is not exploited by the male gaze; whose emotional vulnerability is not considered a hindrance to, nor an explanation for, her battle prowess; and whose unabashed queerness is not reinforced by cookie cutter stereotypes. Andromache the Scythian is AMAZING.

That doesn’t mean I’m going to excuse or ignore her most glaring and contemptible flaw. More than anything, I’d love to sweep her past under the carpet so that 2O2G can be problem-free. Like many people, I just want to enjoy a movie without getting triggered.

I want to see Quynh and Andy kiss and make up. I want to see Joe rocking Those Shorts, and a cheeky shot of Nicky appreciating his ass. I want to see Nile welcoming Booker back to the family again. Some form of group therapy would be chef’s kiss.

But something about glossing over/removing slavery from Andy’s narrative reeks of dishonesty, and reminds me that the (Hollywood) movie industry is full of people who do not want to be tainted with negative perceptions. Understandably, appearances are their livelihood— but that particular truth is something they still have to reckon with.

[things2mustdo]

When I ask myself what films in recent years have been my favorites, I find that the answers all seem to have a few things in common.  One, the movie must tell a compelling story; two, it must rise above its genre to make a larger statement about life or some universal idea; and three, it must be technically well made.  All great art—including film—can serve as a vehicle for the presentation of ideas, and the promotion of a certain virtue.  Although the mainstream American film industry has become more and more a sad repository of feminist cant and lowest-common-denominator commercial pandering, the foreign film world has undergone something of a renaissance in the past fifteen years.

The best films of France, Germany, Spain, and the UK are edgier, more intelligent, and more masculine than anything found in the US.  It was not always so.  But the work of great European directors like Jacques Audiard, Gaspar Noe, Nicolas Winding Refn, and Shane Meadows leaves little room for doubt that the true cutting-edge work is being done in Europe.  (Argentina deserves honorable mention here as having an excellent film industry).  The mainstream, corporate-driven US film industry has effectively smothered independent voices under an avalanche of political correctness, girl-power horseshit, chick-flickism, and mind-numbing CGI escapist dreck.

Movies that deal with masculine themes in a compelling way are not easy to come by these days.  Honest explorations of masculine virtues are repressed, marginalized, or trivialized.  One needs to scour the globe to cherry-pick the best here and there, and in some cases you have to go back decades in time.  Luckily, the availability of Netflix and other subscription services has made this task much easier than it used to be.  Access to the best cinema of Europe, South America, and Asia can be a great way for us to catch as glimpse at a foreign culture, as well as reflect on serious ideas.

I want to offer my recommendations on some films that I believe are an important part of the modern masculine experience, in all its wide variety and expression.  Out of the scores of possible choices, I decided to pick the handful of films that are perhaps not as well known to readers.  My opinions will not be shared by all.  I encourage readers to draw up their own lists of films dealing with masculine themes, and hope they will reflect on the reasons behind their choices.  Below are mine, in no particular order.  In italics is a brief plot synopsis, followed by my own comments.

1. Straw Dogs (1971).

A mild-mannered American academic (Dustin Hoffman) living in rural Cornwall with his beautiful wife becomes the target of harassment by the local toughs.  Things escalate to a sexual assault on his wife, and eventually to a brutal and protracted fight to the death when a local man takes refuge on their property.

Dustin Hoffman reaches his breaking point in “Straw Dogs”

This is a classic example of the type of movie that could never be made today.  Arguably Sam Peckinpah’s most daring film, it contains a controversial rape scene that seems to leave open the question whether Hoffman’s wife (played by Susan George) was a victim or a willing participant.  Faced with his wife’s betrayal, and continuing harassment from local miscreants, Hoffman’s character finds himself completely isolated and must learn to stand his ground and fight.

A chance incident later in the film sets the stage for a blood-soaked confrontation which is as inevitable as it is necessary. Peckinpah presents a compelling case for the cathartic power of violence, and the achievement of masculine identity through man-on-man combat.  It is a theme I find myself strongly drawn to. Controversial, powerful, and unforgettable, Peckinpah proves himself an unapologetic and strident advocate of old-school martial virtue.  We would do well to listen.  His voice is sorely missed today.  (Note:  avoid the pathetic recent remake of this movie).  Honorable mention:  Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch (1969) and Bring Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974).

2. Sorcerer (1977).

A group of international renegades find themselves down and out in Nicaragua, and volunteer for a job transporting unstable dynamite across the country to quell an oil rig fire.

Due to inept marketing when this movie was first released, it never achieved the credit it so fully deserved.  A motley group of international riff-raff (including the always appealing Roy Scheider) seeks redemption through a harrowing trial.  But will they get it?  Is it even desirable to escape one’s dark past?  The answers are complex, and director William Friedkin refuses to supply easy ones.  The characters in this film are doomed, and they know it, but they still hold true to their own code.  Which is itself honorable.  Consequences must be paid for everything we do in life, and often the price comes in a way never expect.  Dark, brooding, and humming with a pulse-pounding electronic score by Tangerine Dream, this film has deservedly become a cult classic.  The ending is a shocker you’ll never see coming.

Roy Scheider undertakes the most perilous journey of his life in William Friedkin’s 1977 masterpiece “Sorcerer”

3.  The Lives of Others (2006).

A coldly efficient Stasi (East German security service) officer (Ulrich Muhe) is enlisted by a Communist party hack in a surveillance program against a supposed subversive writer and his girlfriend.  But monitoring the writer’s life awakens sparks of nascent humanity in the Stasi man, and he eventually must decide whether to follow orders and destroy the writer, or to sacrifice himself to save him.

This German masterpiece was made with great fidelity to the look and feel of 1980s East Germany, and the results are evident in every frame.  It belongs on any list of the greatest films ever made.  The masculine virtue here is of a different type than viewers may be used to:  it is a quiet, understated heroism, the type of heroism that probably happens every day but is hardly noticed.  There is no bragging here, no chest-beating, no big-mouthed bravado.  (In short, none of the wooden-headed caricatures that pass for masculinity in the US).  The ethic here is about love and self-sacrifice, the noblest and greatest virtues of all.

The ethos of self-sacrifice is now considered old-fashioned and almost a punch-line, but historically it was valued very highly.  It features in nearly all the old literary epics and dramas of Europe and Asia.  Actor Ulrich Muhe pulls off a minor miracle of characterization here with his portrayal of a Stasi man named Weisler, whose special wiretapping assignment against a playwright transforms him from heartless automaton into awe-inspiring hero.  The movie made me wonder just how many quiet, unassuming men there must be out there, whose toil, heroism, and sacrifice has never been, and never will be, acknowledged.  The ending is transcendently beautiful, and moving beyond words.

4.  Homicide  (1991).

A police detective (Joe Mantegna) is assigned to investigate a murder case.  The case awakens in him stirrings of his long-suppressed ethnic identity.  Unfortunately, he will eventually be forced to choose between conflicting loyalties.  And the consequences will be devastating.

No modern American director has probed the meaning of masculine identity more than David Mamet, and all of his films are meditations on themes related to illusion, reality, masculinity, and struggle.  Homicide, a nearly unknown gem from the early 1990s, is perhaps his profoundest.  Mamet knows that a man must make choices in his life, and for those choices, consequences must be paid.  And very often, we find ourselves derailed by the mental edifices we construct for ourselves.  The Mantegna character is led through a complex and increasingly ambiguous chain of events, only to find that at the heart of one mystery lies an even more inscrutable one.  Beware the things you seek.  You may not like what you find.

Joe Mantegna deals with the fatal consequences of his decisions in David Mamet’s “Homicide”

5.  A Prophet (2009).

An Algerian Arab is incarcerated in a French jail, and is drawn into the savage world of Corsican gangsters.  Forced to kill or be killed, he is drawn into a pitiless world that recognizes only cunning and brutality.  He finds himself straddling two realities:  the world of his own nationality, and that of the Corsicans.  And to survive and emerge triumphant, he must learn to play all sides against each other.

This film must be counted among the greatest crime dramas ever made.  You simply can’t take your eyes off the screen.  The lesson here is that a man must learn to survive on his wits, and do whatever is necessary to stay alive.  The Corsican boss whom Al Djebena (Tahar Rahim) works for is just about the most malevolent presence in recent screen memory.  Part of France’s continuing internal dialogue about its immigrant population, A Prophet is not to be missed.

Tahar Rahim learns a thing or two about Corsica in “A Prophet”

6.  The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005).

An intense young man (Romain Duris) works for his father as a real estate shark in urban Paris.  His “job” consists of intimidating deadbeat immigrant tenants, vandalizing apartments, and forcibly collecting loans.  He also plays the piano.  Eventually, he is forced to decide which life he wants:  the path laid out by his shady father, or the idealistic path of his own choosing.  He’s seeking redemption, but will he find it?  And at what cost?

Again, we have here the themes of redemption and moral choice.  Romain Duris has a screen presence and intensity that rivals anything done by Pacino in his prime, and some of the scenes here are fantastic.  (His seduction of his friend’s wife, Aure Atika, is one of many great scenes).  All men will be confronted and tested by crises and situations beyond their control.  How they respond to those situations will define who they are as men.  Duris’s character proves that redemption can be achieved, if wanted badly enough.

Romain Duris embodying screen intensity

7.  Red Belt (2008).

Martial arts instructor Mike Terry is forced, against his principles, to consider entering a prize bout.  He is abandoned and betrayed by his wife and friends, and must confront his challenges alone with only his code and his pride.

Another great meditation on masculine virtue and individualism by David Mamet.  In his own unique dialogue style, Mamet showcases his belief that, in the end, all men stand alone.  At the moment of truth, it is you, and only you, who will be staring into the abyss.  Our trials by fire will not come in the time and at the place of our own choosing.  But when they do come, a man must be prepared to hold his ground and fight his corner.  Watch for Brazilian actress Alice Braga in a supporting role here.  We hope to see more of her on American screens in the future.

8.  Fear X  (2003).

A repressed security guard (John Turturro) is searching for answers to who killed his wife.  His strange behavior and ticking time-bomb manner begin to alarm friends and co-workers.  One day he finds some information that may be a lead to solving the mystery.  This discovery sets him on the path to realization. Or does it?

I am a big fan of the films of Nicolas Winding Refn (The Pusher trilogy, and Valhalla Rising), and this one is perhaps his most penetrating examination of a wounded psyche.  It failed commercially when it first appeared, as many viewers were put off by his artistic flourishes and opaque ending.  For me, this film is the deepest study of grief and repressed rage ever committed to film.  All men will be confronted by tragedy, grief, and inexplicable loss during their lives.  How we handle it will define who we are.  The greatness of this film is that it explores Turturro’s claustrophobic, neurotic world in a deeply personal way, and at the same time suggests that he may actually be on to something.  This film covers the same philosophical ground as Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation, in that it hints at the ultimate ambiguity of all things.

John Turturro confronts the unrelenting darkness of his own psyche in “Fear X”

If you are a Netflix subscriber and watch movies frequently, as I do, you may find it useful to keep a notebook near your television and jot down the titles of movies you see, and a few notes about what you liked or didn’t like.  You’d be surprised how much you can learn from movies.  There are just so many good and bad ones out there that having some system for keeping track of them will be time well spent.

[joannechocolat]

“Taking it on the Chin”: or why words matter  even more in the time of the corona.

Words matter. Every writer knows that. Politicians know it too. Words are how we communicate ideas, or sometimes fail to communicate them. Sometimes that failure is deliberate. But for politicians, as well as writers, it is rarely accidental. When Boris Johnson uses a word so obscure that most of his audience doesn’t know what it means, or lapses into Ancient Greek, or when he pretends to stammer and stumble for comic effect, he’s giving us the on equivalent of Donald Trump making the “loser” sign while pretending to scratch his nose. He’s using words as a smokescreen on which to project the message: I’m cleverer than you are. That’s why I can get away with never giving you the truth.

Four weeks ago, Covid-19 was still news. Whenever it trended on Twitter, it always seemed to be spelt wrong. Coronoavirus: corvid19; the country seemed to be struggling with the words as well as the concept. And when Boris Johnson suggested in interview that maybe taking it on the chin would be the best way to deal with the crisis, his supporters were quick to believe that his words had been misconstrued. It’s only a figure of speech, they said. Words don’t really matter.

But yes, they do, and here’s why. Words do a lot more than communicate. They help create an mindset. And during the past four weeks or so, the government has been building a mindset of conflict, of aggression, of supremacy, of war. The daily Cabinet meetings have been reframed as The War Cabinet. The daily reports on the Prime Minister’s health have contained a repeated narrative that “he is a warrior”, “he is a fighter”, “he is the strongest person.” Now that he is recovering, they promise he will be “fighting fit” in no time. And yes, these are all figures of speech, but it’s a disturbingly unified kind of imagery. It’s the imagery of combat, of “taking the virus on the chin.” And it’s full of hidden messages, all as toxic at the first one.

Taking it on the chin is a boxing image. A fighter learns to take the hit. Only losers and cowards don’t. Losers and cowards walk away, but fighters take it like a man.

And no, it’s no surprise that our self-styled War Cabinet, as well as those who have consistently used this aggressive, warlike language, are all men. The women who have spoken out so eloquently against it – Marina Hyde, Emily Maitlis - have mostly been shouted down. In war, says the current narrative, women are expected to stay at home, manage, make do and support morale. They’re not expected to ask questions, or point out mistakes, or make comments. Even the Queen channelled Vera Lynn in her address to the nation.

Except that we are not at war. We are in a global pandemic. And in this pandemic, women are at risk, not just from the virus, but from this very male-dominated narrative. Women are losing access to cervical and breast cancer screenings, maternity and abortion services, as “non-essential” services shut down. And they are increasingly at risk from domestic abuse, which has shot sky-high during this time of lockdown, and which feeds on aggressive narratives. It is no surprise to lean that domestic abuse skyrockets around important sports’ events. And a narrative that says “we’re at war” makes violence inevitable. During wartime, certain groups - the elderly, the disabled, the poor – are often seen as inevitable casualties. Some regimes – ours included – might even consider it objectively beneficial, when it comes to boosting the economy, to lose half a million people. It’s a message we’ve heard a number of times, lurking behind “herd immunity”. After all, they keep telling us, the poor and the old and disabled are a drag on our benefits system; a drag on our “weakened” NHS. As if the NHS itself had failed to take it on the chin. And let’s not forget that, however much clapping for carers our Government now encourages, it is the same Government that applauded the decision not to award them a pay rise just last year. To them, nurses and carers count as “low-skilled workers.” Low-skilled workers may earn applause, but that doesn’t stop them from being expendable.

Which all goes to say, that this wartime narrative is very convenient for a certain type of politician. It gives them the chance to shout down dissenting voices as disloyal or unpatriotic. It allows them to send out the message that people only die of this virus because they are weak, or cowardly, or just not British enough to survive. It allows them to voice a renewed distrust of foreigners – as if we didn’t have enough of that in this country already. And it allows them to think of the victims of coronavirus as some kind of inevitable consequence of war, while painting themselves as heroes for “battling the enemy.”

Except they’re not. Because, here’s the thing. There is no fucking enemy. A virus doesn’t care about morale, or politics. A virus doesn’t respect borders, or care whether you’re brave or not. A virus really doesn’t care whether you take it on the chin. Nor do the families and friends of the thousands of people who have died so far of a virus that shows no real sign of slowing down, thanks to this Government’s mindset.

“But... it’s a figure of speech”, they say. “People have always used this language when it comes to battling illness!”

Actually, they haven’t. People have been complaining for years about the language of illness. Cancer sufferers, especially, have been vocal in their resentment of a narrative that frames death as a “defeat” – basically, a failure to take cancer on the chin. We can do better, and we should. In this time of global crisis, words matter more than ever. We need to ditch the War Cabinet and look to the medical cabinet. The language surrounding this virus should not be the language of blame, or bluster, or individualism, or patriotism, or macho posturing, but the language of intelligence, of problem-solving, of co-operation, of globalism, and of compassion.

You don’t need your boxing gloves for this challenge, boys: you need to put on your thinking-caps.

Or didn’t you have them at Eton?

[angerissuesandrews]

Hello! Welcome to the Reddie Fic Rec!

 Please make sure you read all tags on fics before reading! 

 Have fun and enjoy :)))

Created by Evan (@iwannadie4000 on tiktok)

And special thanks to Charlie (@hippityhoppe on tiktok) for helping!

 *CLICK HERE FOR THE GOOGLE DOC REC LINK!*

  1. ON POINTE

by tossertozier (rednoseredhair); Explicit (18+)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/12519724

“Eddie was a freshman at Boston University of the arts, majoring in dance with a concentration in ballet. He went to sleep early, woke up earlier & took nothing for granted. He fucking hated his dorm neighbors, loud, obnoxious idiots who got drunk all the time. They didn't even know where the library on campus was. He didn't have any idea how the three of them, especially the one with curly hair, even GOT into that school.

  2.  BRIGHT AS YELLOW

by speakslow; Mature (18+)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/12786678 

Highschool AU, Richie’s loud Eddie’s annoyed what do you expect

3. WONDER VIOLET

by belby; Mature (18+)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/13179045

Eddie’s friends with Richie’s sister ,,, you know what happens

4. GO WEST

by ssstrychnine; Teen and Up Audiences

https://archiveofourown.org/works/12327069

“1996: Richie and Eddie finish school, drive to San Francisco, change their lives ft. hair braiding, a fake las vegas wedding, waterfalls, bumper cars, and approx. 3300 miles.”

5. I LEFT MY UMBRELLA AT HOME

by hippityhoppy; Mature (18+)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22775233

“By 1996, the Losers are well into college. As they often do, life and time have distanced them in more ways than one. Richie, in an attempt to cling to the normalcy of the past in what feels like a steep slope into a downward spiral, ends up on an unfamiliar doorstep of an all too familiar friend. As if Eddie didn't have to deal with enough on his own plate. The both of them, they quickly come to find out, are unprepared for the storms to come.”

6. LOVESONG (A SERIES)*

by WaxAgent; Mature-Explicit (18+)

https://archiveofourown.org/series/852234

“They're all connected, sure, but nothing comes close to the iron bonds between Richie Tozier and Eddie Kaspbrak; they have their ups and their downs, but they always have each other. A look at their lives from leaving Derry to being dragged back by a promise than both of them had long forgotten.”

*(OKAY EVAN HERE!!! I LOVE THIS FIC/SERIES SO MUCH BUT IN PART 2 IT HAS A STRANGER THINGS CROSSOVER WITH MIKE AND EL BUT I SAY SKIP THAT AND GO ON YOU DON'T MISS MUCH AND WE ALL KNOW IM SO ANTI-CROSSOVER OKAY BYE)

7. WHENEVER I’M ALONE WITH YOU

by stellarbisexual; Explicit (18+)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/12182691

“Losers in college. Richie's in an alternative rock band, and Eddie has flung himself into the queer scene.”

8. SAY THAT YOU’LL STAY

by speakslow; Explicit (18+)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/12474044

“Richie works at a shitty amusement park for the summer and meets some new friends. Set in 1997”

9. STAY FOR THE STORM

by inoubliable; Explicit (18+)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/15442848

“Richie and Eddie had become friends almost on sight. Since they met, most of Eddie's time in Los Angeles has involved Richie in some way.

It's a little different, now that they're both famous.

It's a little different, now that they're sleeping together.

Well, to be fair, they've been sleeping together for a long time, but. No one knows, not even their friends. Eddie has been very careful about that. It's just not the sort of publicity he needs.

So when Beverly calls him that sunny Thursday morning, the last thing he expects her to say is, ‘You're fucking Richie?’”

10. COFFEE AND CARNIVAL BEARS

by StarshipDancer; Teen and Up Audiences

https://archiveofourown.org/works/12325209

“‘Eddie Kaspbrak knew how many germs were in a person’s mouth, and he would only swap spit with his fucking soulmate.’

Finding your soulmate should be pretty straightforward, but not for Eddie. Not when there were two possible candidates, and he had no idea which one it fucking was.”

11. LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE BOY(S)

by Kandakickas; Teen and Up Audiences

https://archiveofourown.org/works/12372279

“In which Richie and Eddie go to different colleges, and all of their friends are curious about their unnamed significant others - right up until those significant others come to visit and everyone is both shocked and confused.”

12. MEET ME HALFWAY

by ShowMeAHero; Explicit (18+)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20667038

“‘Richie,’ Mike says sharply. “Who are you with? Why are you in Derry?”

‘Tell him,’ Eddie whispers again.

‘Is that Eddie?’ Mike asks.

‘Tell him, Richie,’ Eddie says again, louder.

‘Jesus Christ,’ Mike says, and Richie snaps, throwing his phone hard at the kitchen wall opposite them. The back smashes and the battery falls into a bowl soaking in the sink. There’s a beat of silence where Eddie and Richie stare at the battery floating in the soapy water.

‘Good work, Kobe,’ Eddie says.”

13. DREAMBOAT

by weepies; Not Rated

https://archiveofourown.org/works/14073438

“‘What are you? A third grader? What the fuck is this?’ Eddie asks. He looks at Richie, confused.

‘A list of fun stuff to do, duh. Can’t you read? I thought you were studying creative writing.’ Eddie glares at Richie, who raises his hands in surrender as he chuckles. ‘Okay, okay. Hear me out. Your professor tells you to write what you know, and you said you don’t know anything. Well, sugar, here’s your opportunity to learn something about yourself.’

Dumbfounded, Eddie cannot tear his eyes away from Richie, his mouth agape. ‘You’re insane,’ Eddie says.

‘And proud,’ Richie replies.

...

In which Eddie Kaspbrak is a writer with no ideas, and Richie Tozier is a coffee shop employee bursting with creativity.”

14. TO THE GUY AT THE BUS STOP:

by Ragno; Explicit (18+)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/12809109

“The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, especially if the other side of the fence is Ireland and the grass is Eddie living his own life for the first time ever away from his mom. An International Students Exchange Program is what he needs to finally stand up for himself and doing what he really wants. Who cares if he won't know anybody there? Who cares if he'll be alone in a foreign country? Who cares if he won't have his car and will need to take the bus to go anywhere?? Okay, maybe Eddie does care about that last one…But, hey, at least the real grass is really greener there. Right?”

15. CLOSER THAN MOST

by tozierbraks; Mature (18+)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/14934062/chapters/34598660

“Richie was panting slightly when he reached out an arm and grasped the man’s shoulder a little too hard. He spun rapidly, stumbling backwards away from Richie, his deep brown eyes wide in shock.

‘Eds.’ Richie breathed, his stomach twisting.

Eddie’s wide eyes narrowed in confusion while his brows knitted downwards. He pulled his shoulder out of Richie’s grip

‘Sorry, do I know you?’

college au + forgetting!eddie fic”

16. SIGNED, SOMEONE

by roughentumble; Teen and Up Audiences

https://archiveofourown.org/works/21096380/chapters/50195051

“A secret admirer/love letter AU. Richie starts leaving anonymous love letters in Eddie's locker.”

17. CLUE(LESS) 

by endversed; Teen and Up Audiences

https://archiveofourown.org/works/12468440

“Every person on this sorry planet wakes up on their seventeenth birthday with a soulmate mark somewhere on their body – but it’s not always easy to figure out. It’s not their name, or their first words to you, or even some kind of matching shape. It’s not anything clearly indicative; nothing concrete (at first).

No, all this mark gives you is a clue.”

18. FOR BLUE SKIES

by sunsetozier; Teen and Up Audiences

https://archiveofourown.org/works/13978821

“Just as he’s beginning to shake himself out of his daze, his phone buzzes in his hand, a notification popping up at the top of his screen that makes his entire body freeze, reading and rereading it to make sure his eyes aren’t playing a trick on him. When the words don’t change, his jaw drops, an anxious excitement tingling just beneath his skin.

@trashmouthmusic followed you back!

[In which Richie posts anonymous covers on Twitter and Eddie is instantly infatuated with his voice.]”

19. OUR HOUSE, IN THE MIDDLE OF OUR HOUSE

by orphan_account; Teen and Up Audiences

https://archiveofourown.org/works/12458046

“Whatever song your soulmate has stuck in their head is resultantly stuck in yours. Eddie, long suffering through mattress commercial jingles and old rock hits, imagines he would kill his soulmate if he had the chance. Or, he would, if he didn't think revenge was a better answer.”

20. MAYBE, MAYBE

by lisscor; Not Rated

https://archiveofourown.org/works/12841593

“The light was on again. The one in room 307. Richie wondered, not for the first time, who was up there.

Maybe one day, he would find out.

*

In which two insomniacs who have never met find comfort in the last place they would think to look - each other.”

21. MOST BELOVED

by idaemilia; Mature (18+)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/12160854/chapters/27598224

“‘But he had eyes like rain

and hair like waves

and a soul as vast and deep as the ocean

and I guess I didn't mind drowning in him’

-xvaniex on tumblr

Eddie keeps pining for Richie who is too blind to see it. But maybe he already knows.

*previously named Philtatos*”

22. TO WHAT WE MIGHT DO 

by MacksDramaticShenanigans; Teen and Up Audiences

https://archiveofourown.org/works/21709897

“He looks scared. More scared than Eddie’s ever seen him before. He looks nervous, too, and Eddie didn’t think it was even possible for Richie Tozier to get nervous.

But there he is. Looking like he's going to shit his pants or throw up all over himself. Eddie would be more worried about that if he still thought Richie was drunk.”

23. CROOKED HEARTS

by killerqueer; General Audiences

https://archiveofourown.org/works/13093371

The Monday before Christmas break, Eddie comes to school to find a yellow rose and a letter from a secret admirer taped to his locker. He's convinced it's a prank until the same thing happens the next day and then continues the rest of the week. He's determined to find out who is doing this, even though he's convinced himself that there's no way it could possibly be the one person he really wants it to be.

24. THE THIRD DATE RULE

by tinyarmedtrex; Mature (18+)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/13059960

“Bev drags Eddie along for her tattoo session, telling him that her artist is sex on a stick. She's right, Eddie likes him immediately- if only he wouldn't talk so much.

AU where Richie is a tattoo artist and Eddie pretty much just wants to work in HR and be left alone.”

25. PARENT TEACHER ASSOCIATION (PTA)

by reddiebitch; Mature (18+)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/13773060

“In which Eddie is Richie's kid's first grade teacher.”

26. FAKING IT 

by domino1234; Mature (18+)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18023273

“The obnoxiously pretty boy with the filthy mouth across the hall manages to convince Eddie to spend spring break pretending to be his boyfriend at his family’s lake house. Can Eddie put his unrequited crush aside to play up the charade for a week or will his feelings inevitably get in the way?”

27. Nightmares

by MargotCelvin; Teen and Up Audiences

https://archiveofourown.org/works/15515028

“Richie Tozier is trying to start over in New York. He left California behind and wants to leave his old life there as well. The only thing holding him to his old life are the nightmares that have plagued him for so long. But is there something in New York that can cure him of this disease?”

28. FREAKING OUT THE NEIGHBORHOOD

by bearkwans; Explicit (18+)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/19342543

“Richie thinks that this is what being a father is like. He sure fucking feels like a father, dropping all of his plans to take care of his pet, making very specific google searches and running around his apartment like a madman, grabbing toys and a blanket and a few mice in a tupperware bowl. He knows logistically that everything he’s grabbing is useless and what he really needs is a chill pill and maybe some whiskey to soothe his shaking hands, but Richie can’t help the way his paternal side wakes up and takes control of his mind.

“[or: richie's pet snake is sick and he goes to see vet eddie ;) ;)]”

29. SUGAR, HONEY, HONEY 

by thefutureisbright; Mature (18+)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/17376344

“Eddie works in a bakery. His life was finally simple. He loved his job, he loved his friends, he loved his shitty little apartment with its shitty little balcony. He loved the plants he kept on his balcony. He loved that he could see the New York skyline when it was an especially clear day. He loved that he lived nowhere near his mother. Eddie loved his quiet, simple life.

Until he met Richie fucking Tozier, and his life was never simple again.”

30. THE BLIND BOX

by tinyarmedtrex; Mature (18+)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/13728915

“Eddie works at Gamestop and a dark haired stranger comes in and starts flirting with him. Eddie doesn't think much of it until they keep meeting.

Another College AU! Because why the hell not”

[rodpupo]

CCS: Brazilian Style

how did the musicians, filmmakers and artists deal with Brazilian sexuality and popular culture during the 60’s ?

 The main characteristic of the counterculture movement was its profound criticism of the capitalism system and the patterns of unrestrained consumption. The young people who integrated this movement of contestation to the moral and aesthetic values of the global society promoted revolutions in their ways of dressing. Their clothes and hairstyles became symbols of this parallel universe that they designed to break the capitalist fads of the elites.

The musical movement in Brazil greatly innovated Brazilian popular music, bringing in its lyrics irreverent verses that broke with the type of music made until then.

Tropicalismo or Tropicalista movement was a cultural movement that emerged under the influence of the artistic trends of the avant-Garde and of national and foreign pop culture ( such as rock n roll and concretism), mixing traditional manifestations of Brazilian culture with radical aesthetic innovations. It had behavioral goals, and to challenge the dictatorship, in the late 1960s.

Mix of national culture traditions and international aesthetic innovations, such as pop art.

Songs that talked about sex, about the woman’s body, clothing, but also morals and behavior.

The greatest representatives of this musical movement was, Gal Costa, Gilberto Gil, Os mutantes and Caetano Veloso.

Until the 60s, 90% of the songs that reachedthe album were about sex, bitter, vindictive and even tragic loves, pains and sufferings, in addition doses of moralism and chauvinism. When the woman is not the cause of all ills, a traitor or a fallen person, she is an idealized, ethereal and virginal figure.

National cinema has always had within is characteristics the erotic and sensual side of the people. One of the most important films of this time was “O Bandido da Luz Vermelha”. The story of criminal who gained enormous repercussion in Brazil in the 1960s, João Pereira da Costa, O Bandido da Luz Vermelha. 

O Bandido da Luz Vermelha promoted intense public disturbance of law and order, with dozens of assaults, accusations of rapes and homicides, would come to be considered the number one public enemy of the São Paulo capital and, after an unceasing police investigation, he was arrested on August 7, 1967.

The criminal, who spent a large part of the stolen money, with women and nightclubs, the film shows a lot, the woman as a kind of sexual object, for the bandit.

The movie have very controversial characteristics, but at the same time understanding the qualities that make us up, and with excellent camera work in hand and editing, he made a film which criticizes the Brazilian society at the time, and that still remains current.

As the military dictatorship was in power, the director Rogério Sganzerla’s features gains even more strength. The film clearly seeks to show Brazil as a corrupt place, with powerful people, and an entire social structure that punishes the poor, and frees the ignorant and arrogant criminals from the powerful classes.

He mixed the influences of Jean Luc Godard, Orson Welles, and Glauber Rocha to say how cinema in Brazil should be done from them on.

One of the most significant movements within this theme was “pornochanchada”. This represented a significant moment in national cinema. With erotic themes, getting very close to sex, these films were full of sensuality and the comic side always present.

Economically, this cinematographic movement had great repercussion, since it must be considered as popular, due to its success with the population in general.

They had their peak in the 60’s and 70’s.

According to its supporters, these films contributed to ‘de-eliteize’ Brazilian cinema, taking every kind of classes, to the screening rooms. 

Erotism is one of the strongest spheres of representation in Brazil. Since it manifested itself in the main stereotypes that the country has and that what people think are imagined by others, including foreigners. Our representatives, like football, samba, our natural beauty, are distinguished precisely by this touch of erotism.

Brazilian cinema was divided into two aspects, starting in the 1960s: family cinema, class situations and political life; and the other, centered on passions and sexuality.

In the past, however, the fame of sensuality of Brazilian women came to be used in official campaigns to attract foreigners to the country.

Terms like “feelings of protest”, “revolutionary pieces”, ��rebelliousness”, “national identity” and “true Brazilian culture” open the way for more artistic manifestations. With regard to the process related to the idea of social participation of art: as is the case of opening art to the public, the collective aspects of production involved in it, as well as the tensions between engagement and experimentalism, in which a noticeable change in the use of images linked to the categories of “people” and “popular” can be perceived.

The central point involved is the predominant way in which the images of the urban and the suburban appear in the experimental projects of a group of artists linked to the neo-avant- Garde trends of the 60s- and no longer the image of the people as peasants or rural areas. The latter, incidentally, was prefigured to a large extent in intellectual and artistic debates about the national and the popular since previous decades and in various forms of art. The main idea was that the people’s culture, in its most authentic and genuine expression, was limited to its more traditional rural origins; manifested, above all, in the figure of the peasant, the simple man or the worker of the field.

 - During the 60s and 70s, Brazilian films had sex as their main theme. O Bandido da Luz Vermelha for example, shows the character as a womanizer, and women being treated as a sexual object.

- Pornochanchadas appeared in the late 60s and gained great notoriety in the 70s, and lost strength in the 80s, due to the rise of the porn cinema. Unfortunately, this was one of the factors that made sex tourism in Brazil encouraged. Embratour for example encouraged this type of thing, with extremely sexist posters made in the 60s and 70s.

- Tropicalismo mixed several styles of music from rock to Baiao. It transformed tastes of the time, not only in relation to music and politics, but also behavior, morals, sex and the way of dressing .

Was there a positive dimension on the production of Brazilian art, music, cinema by the 60s ?

 Film production in Brazil in the 1960s was marked by a series of readings and reinterpretations about the national reality in its various facets- in politics and plastic arts, in cities, in the countryside, in the world of work and institutions- that sought to negotiate already consecrated images of the country with new political and aesthetic projects. From the films and themes discussed in the course, discuss the legacy of this period from the continuities and discontinuities of its issues in current documentary cinema and interpretations of contemporary Brazil.

Glauber Rocha was one of the most important filmmakers of this period, because most of his movies contained themes such as anthropology, sociology, history and semiology.

Brazilian popular music, such as Bossa Nova, became extremely popular, and beloved both in Brazil and in foreign countries, like the the United States.

From the 60s onwards, the samba of bossa nova was definitely consolidated in the Brazilian music, where João Gilberto and the duo Tom and Vinicius stood out, such as Newton Mendonça, Billy Blanco, Aloysio de Oliveira, Banden Powell, Oscar Castro Neves, etc.

It was at that moment that the style experienced an international projection on a scale never seen before with another aspect of Brazilian popular music. In 1962 saxophonist Stan Getz together with the guitarist Charlie Byrd released the LP “Jazz Samba”, and also Frank Sinatra and Tom Jobim 1967 album ‘Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim’ which drew attention of the music scene in the United States to bossa nova.

But there was also a music movement called the tropicalismo, which was a libertarian and revolutionary movement, that sought to move away from Bossa Nova intellectualism, in order to bring Brazilian music closer to aspects of popular culture, samba, pop, rock, and psychedelia.

This open, syncretic and innovative aesthetic experience launched by the tropicalists, changed not only Brazilian popular music, but the culture in general, in search of the country’s modernity.

The art of the Brazilians in the 60’s, were reflected in the country’s social reality, often with political facts of the period, his role was that of a conscious revolutionary.

For some historians, the art of that period developed in response to the military coup; a very important figure from that period was Wesley Duke Lee.

The artist used varied techniques such as: watercolor, painting and collages, it was duke who introduced the pop langue in Brazil.

Another artist from this period that can be highlighted is José Roberto Aguilar who produced works that contemplated the fantastic and grotesque character.

He was pioneer of graphite when using spray paint, around 1965, then used paint with a gun and even a torch on an aluminum plate.

- Wesley Duke Lee is a pioneer in the incorporation of pop themes and language in Brazil. In 1963, he created “O Realismo Magico” movement.

- Jose Roberto Aguilar was considered one of the pioneers of the new figuration in Brazil.

- During the 1950s, Brazil experienced the euphoria of the economic growth generated after the Second World War. Based on the wave of optimism of the “Golden Years”, a group of young upper middle class musicians and composers from Rio de Janeiro started looking for something really new and that was able to escape the operatic style that dominated Brazilian music.

- Glauber Rocha Filmmaker, writer. One of the leaders of new cinema, a vanguard movement of the 1960s, Glauber Rocha proposes a cinema aligned with the socio-economic reality of the so-called “Third World”.

- References:

- Links: https://periodicos.ufpe.br/revistas/revsocio/article/view/235218/28243

              26-90-1-PB (1).pdf

             http://www.generos.ufpr.br/files/b88c-producao-academica_paulo-reis.pdf

[edge-lorde]

hp update: its been a long time, boys. ud think that with this plague outbreak id have more time for shitty phone games, and ud be right! however, the time i normally might use to make tumblr posts has been taken up by reading lotr orc fanfiction non-stop for at least 1 full month. id still be in the thick of that obsession even now if only the fics would update. that is how i find you today folks, for the first time in many weeks i am staring at a screen with nothing to do. so come with me friends, theres no better way to fill the soulless void we are all in than reading a nice long tumbler post. 

disclaimer, first of all, a lot has happened, i prefer to keep these updates as plot spoiler free as possible but do to extenuating circumstances i feel like it is necessary to say, [SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER BELOW]

that rowan fucking died,

i wont say exactly how, but i will say that her death was animated as were animations of myself and a few others reacting to our friend fresh corpse. obviously meant to be serious moments but the animations made it seem almost comical. 

i saw at least one post going around right after this update that was like ‘how could the game devs do this to us..... how could they hate rowan so.... this is punishment from on high’ and its like.... u guys do know what a story is right? the events of  a story are not typically done to punish less faithful fans, im pretty sure they were planning to kill rowan off from the beginning. this isnt disney im pretty sure the writers are not writing each chapter the night before its released by popular vote. 

that little “are we drifting away..?” scene with rowan makes more sense now. there was a bit in one of the scenes where the kids all reminisce on rowans life and the mc talks about it being the last real one on one time they had with rowan. a nice bitter sweet moment. i dont hate this turn of events. its a good reminder that actions have consequences and we are way past they days of “should i wear a hat or scarf?” its YA time now. 

i did manage to take 1 screenshot from this time, i had commented that before that when rowan said she didnt have many friedns that barnaby seemed to be hanging out with her without be there as a friend buffer and here was his reaction to her death:

;_;

the funniest part in all of this however, was of course cedericks reaction to rowans death “but she was so young....” LOL fuckin RIP.

lets see... what else.... i forget a lot of what happened but i think there was a time sensitive quidditch event in there somewhere? if so i  dont remember it. what i do remember of the quidditch pals is that im gonna play beater now, skye is being weird and cagey about it, andre is involved.... the others are there.....

sidenote, i love the shitty b characters they throw in to be like yes you know this person but no they are not cool enough for u to even think about befriending. the first one of those is face paint kid, and now we have another, who is a former beater girl with horrible bangs named bean who didnt go to any classes for a whole season so she could just play ball 24/7 and got kicked off the team.  this is a character who only exists to provide an explanation as to why there would be a beater position open but i love them on principle. 

right now im in the midst of another time sensitive event, this one is a bother-your-brother-at-work-day event where recent hogwarts graduate bill weasley is bullied by myself and his younger brother charlie into letting us go with him on one of his curse breaking jobs. 

so for those unfamiliar, bill works for the magical bank of england.... and his job seems to be “retrieving treasure” for said bank. in the books, there is a bit where he takes his family on one of his trips to egypt, where his job seemed to have been tomb plundering indiana jones style for the posterity of the english bank :X. i wont explain here why thats bad but its bad. 

the game devs however in this instance, at least SEEM to be doing what jkr couldnt do by attempting to salvage what is left of gringotts bank and form it into not a super shitty implications factory run by horrible jewish caricatures. bills mission is to retrieve a goblin made artifact that was taken by dragons, so no going to foreign countries to steal things from other people! only going to a dragon reserve to rifle through animal nests. they even appear to be providing us with a likable goblin character, egad!  

my hope for this event is that we get a plotline about how maybe, goblins arent shifty human haters for no reason, and in fact they hate magic humans for very understandable reasons, like being forced to go into hiding with the rest of the magical world even though only the humans wanted to do that, and maybe despite running the bank in england they still dont have a lot of political sway in the world of wizards and witches, and have to rely on the faith that said wizards and witches wont fuck them over at every turn, even as they see how they treat other non-humans, such as house elves, which they desperately dont want to end up like. and maybe they DONT only care about gold... maybe thats a human stereotype based on the fact that theres a long history of humans not respecting goblin ownership customs.... which i could get into..... but i wont.... i just....... very badly dont want them to suck ;__________;

i know i said its ok to still like a piece of media as long as you recognize the problems with it, and i do, but once this game is done im gonna stop hp posting all together. ive been feeling more and more uncomfortable making these posts lately.  

GENERAL GAME NOTES; theres been some new layout changes and such. 

most notably the stairs screen has been changed from a bulleted list of all locations to a screen with tiles picturing an image of each location along with the name + icons of all classes at each place. there is one additional location that is new and yet to be unlocked, and the dragon reservation is appearing temporarily as its own tile as well. i prefer this method of getting in and out of a temporary location to how they did it with car during the last christmas special. the stairs icon also now stays in the corner when you scroll through locations, allowing you to open the stairs menu without scrolling all the way back to the left. 

they also moved a few of the buttons down into the lower left corner rather than the left side & combined the story button and sidequest button. they added a little camera button as well, just like in the dormitory, that makes all the icons in a location disappear and look better for screenshots. 

the daily special add offer thing now has its own button in the top right corner of the screen, and idk if i mentioned it before but now there are daily challenges that appear in the sidequest screen that offer small rewards for completing 3 tasks per day + a better one if u get all 3. the prizes are things like 4 energy, 75 coins, 3 monster food. the better rewards are usually either more coins, 8 energy, 3 gems, or 1 notebook. i think that it does all the different color notebooks but i cant remember for sure if i ever saw the gold one up as a reward. i like this addition in any case. if you dont pick up ur reward by the end of the day, the next time u log on it will force u to stop and accept them, and if one of the rewards is energy and ur energy bar is full, it does not seem to stack beyond the bar so watch out.

 the character stats page is now more zoomed out so you can see your full character instead of just from the waist up. no change to the leaderboard. rowans face in the friendship roster is now a still black and white image that says ur friend may be gone but friendship is forever u-u. 

rowan has been removed from all classes. in the classes where the minigames involved her, those minigames have passed the mantle onto other friends in the class. in potions that person is now liz helping u find stuff off the shelves and in tranfiguration that person is badeea. bless these girls for helping mc get through it. touched my heart. 

theres been a few fun little “i know u have more free time now so uhhhh have some energy” prizes like they do sometimes when they dont update on schedule so thats been nice. just a few days ago they gifted us 3 gold notebooks the same way. :O. 

theres also been a few instances of a energy happy hour where for a limited time energy takes less time to refresh. normally it takes 4 mins for 1 energy to do this but during happy hour its like 2:30 mins. :U its all very interesting.

and that will have to do it for tonight my friends, ill do a post for the dragon event when its done because i do like it so far and i do like getting to bully bill with charlie. 

until next time, remember.......

[maddiicake]

Ramblings of a Madwoman

Because I honestly have no other idea what to title this as. To put it simple, that's what this entire journal is going to be. From start to finish--no stopping to think about whatever f-ed up stuff will be put into written text and to be immortalized for eternity (deleted after or not) here on the World Wide Web--nothing but unedited, freewriting, off topic sidebar-ing throughout the entirety of this Journal. So, we'll see where and how it ends.

In about a month, I'll have been on DeviantART for an entire decade (and about 8 years since Tumblr). And, I just want to make it clear: I've done a shit tone of fucked up things in all the years that I've been here. Of course, this was things that I mainly did to people. (Yes, people, because, let's face it, whether or not we have the comfort of anonymity behind the keyboard in the middle of our "safe space" of the internet, we're still people on the other side of the screens). But, yes, I've done and said fucked up shit to people during me time here. I'm not ashamed to admit it. Nor will I deny any of the messed up stuff that I've done, especially to said people, in the past decade. I'll spare you all the wall of novel-length text that consists of my usual self-deprecating self-flagellation, since you all know the drill by now. Plus, I would hate putting you all to sleep just at the beginning of this Journal.

I'm messed up in the head. Plain and simple.

In my younger years (earlier in the decade, right about when I first appeared on dA), I had something wrong with me--not sure what, but it was definitely something that I, unfortunately, would never fully realize until recently this year. I grew up sheltered in an overly Conservative and Bible-Thumping household. The neighborhood I grew up in was what my parents lovingly called "God's Waiting Room", because of all the old-timers living in the homes. Any kids around were ones that I wasn't allowed to socialize with because my parents didn't want them "influencing" me. So, needless to say, I didn't have much of a social life growing up. I only went to a real school for two and a half years of my life, and, during that time, I stuck out more than a sore thumb (Hell, I didn't even know what a "Cafeteria" was, because the only "Cafeteria" I knew of was the dinner table. So, needless to say, my first time experiencing "lunch" was very awkward). All in all, being sheltered and not having much of a social life when you're still in your single-digits you grow up having this narcissistic know-it-all, controlling, 'I'm better than you', 'I'm the only person in this world and everyone else doesn't exist' personality and you think that you can control everyone else to your every whim. Being put into a real school with other real life people and kids my age was, obviously, a massive culture shock. When you suddenly realize that other people are their own individual person and have their own free will, you start to become aware that you were educated and raised in a world that could be similar to solitary confinement.

"Oh, hey, (Saki's real name). What're you doing?"

"Oh, nothing much. Just trying to think of how I can get all my classmates together for our superhero team so we can go off and fight bad guys in my head, all the while thinking I can bend them to my will as if they're not actually other human beings."

"...Didn't Chris-Chan already do that?"

"Pfft. This is 2005! Chris-Chan won't be a thing for another few years."

Now, my parents weren't perfect. I was their first child, and the first-borns are always the "guinea pigs"  for new parents.  Of course, I never understood that my parents were humans until my 20s. They made mistakes with me, like thinking that not giving their young impressionable daughter a social life through the first crucial years of her childhood was a good idea.

I know it sounds like I'm complaining--that's always the initial reaction people get whenever they read posts like this from me. "Oh, Saki's just starting drama", "Kura just wants attention", "She's cray-cray and needs help, like srsly...". Believe me, I get it, I completely understand why one would think that I sound like I'm complaining. Because you, the reader, are just reading these little pixelated words that look black on your computer monitor/mobile screen. But, in reality, when up close, those pixels are just a collection of RBGs. You interpret what you see through your reading and comprehension of the words before you. Because you're not the author. You merely interpret what you're writing and filling the blanks with guesswork of what the writer is trying to convey through these little pixels making up words.

It's weird, y'know... They say that "hearing voices" is the first step into insanity. But, are you insane if you're fully aware of it? They say that psychos and sociopaths don't admit nor are aware of their disorder because of the narcissism that accompanies it. So... would you still be a psychopath or sociopath if you admit it and/or are aware of it? These are just a handful of the kind of questions that fill he chaotic Hell in my mind when nothing else is going on.

Lately, though, that hasn't been very often. For those of you, who follow me on Tumblr (by the way, if you still follow me there, you must have a lot of tolerance for me), you may have noticed the rather alarming on-and-off episodes I've been having over the past few weeks. Trust me when I tell you that former friends will assure that "This is normal for Saki/Kura. Just stay away from her. She's just a lost cause. You'll only end up hurt associating with her, much less talking to her."

"Saki... the things you have been saying aren't really 'normal'--"

"Oh trust me... this is the Keemster-level of a 'cycle' that she goes through. Why do you think we made her theme song that Keemstar Parody of All Star? LMAO. This is 100% Normal for her."

But, what is normal? 'Normal' is nothing more than a perception of what we're used to: routines, topics, lifestyles--whatever we are used to. When something occurs that is out of our routine, we immediately perceive it as 'abnormal' (or just not normal). Much life me experience, albeit rather brief, time I spent in an actual school. You feel that unnerving unease as the stranger in a foreign land.

Now, what I do and say isn't Healthy, that would be the proper use of the phrase you're trying to portray. But, my diagnosis came far too late. There's no undoing what is done. There's no chance at saving loathsome sinners, the chance they had was the life they had before and the punishment is this. There's no rainbows inside of demons.

People, who view others outside of their little bubble, call those 'abnormal' people "toxic", simply because that person has disturbing psychological issues. It's like: "Ewww! A mud puddle! Gross I can't believe I stepped in that! Now my $200 shoes are ruined forever because of that damn puddle!" Those people are treated as lower than dirt just because their perceived in such a negative light. It's a label those high and mighty ones quickly slap onto those, who can't help the disorders they have. Sometimes those people aren't even aware they have a disorder, yet those prissy princesses still sit with upturned noses and chastise with their prim: "You need help, srsly." with their venomous undertone of "I'm better than you." Is it really fair to be some uppity hoity-toity sociality; sneering through your little rainbow-soap window down below at those loathsome dirty little plebian peasants? Perhaps that may be "normal" for you.

Sometimes--no, actually, often; very often--I just want to pop that bubble. Let that sprinkle of soap sting their eyes as it dribbles into their corneas. Their screams and cries in pain while they lean over the sink to wash them out would be such a delight.

I would go into more detail about other things regarding this, but I'm not dumb enough to freewrite my thoughts out to the point there's incriminating evidence against me.

"...Saki, this Journal is getting a little dark..."

"It's called 'Ramblings of a Madwoman' for a reason. Besides, the little 13-year-old edgelord wannabes on this website get away with far worse. Trust me, I've seen them. Some of them are in their 20s and haven't grown out of that phase. Them going on and getting away with using their boyfriends, who has ties to the dark Web, to get the personal information (mailing address and all) of the people they don't like just so that they can have them killed. You'd be surprised how thin-skinned these little lefties are. 'Someone Disagrees with me?? -cue Mission Impossible montage of tracking that person down and killing them-'."

"But you're talking about killing people!"

"I have said no such thing! At least not put it in writing. What part of 'I'm not dumb enough to post incriminating evidence of myself' did you not understand, my dear?"

Yes... it would be nice to have a peace of mind for once day. It would be amazing to not have to wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat from another night terror (had one just last night actually). When people want you dead--and have gone out of their way to find your address so that they can kill you--, all you want to do is keep you and your family safe. People can't kill you if they no longer exist, right? It would be just so nice to be able to go on for the rest of my life without having to worry about being sought after and killed just because I disagreed with someone and told them they were being stupid and immature. Or just randomly responding to condescending Twitter users, who think I'm talking about a certain someone when I'm not. But, just knowing that people still continue to go after me for no apparent reason just causes those night terrors to persist.

I just want to keep my family safe. Selfishly, I want to be able to sleep without having to worry about people in other States and Countries somehow knowing where I live and can come and kill me at any moment.

"Why didn't you call the cops--?"

"Because I didn't know it was them at the time it happened. Their former friend didn't tell me about all the plots and things they said in their Discord server until two years later. So, they were able to get away with this because of the Statute of Limitations."

Regardless, that still won't put my mind at ease knowing that they're still out there and can pull the same thing or worse once again. I wasn't the only one they they did this too, either. Of course, that the YouTube Drama Channels for you. They do fucked up shit behind the scenes while putting on some "I'm a good person" face.

You can't trust people, who act nice publicly. They aren't the innocent souls they want everyone to believe that they are. They want something. They want something from you. And when they've squeezed everything out of you that they want... they'll toss you away with no hesitation because they're done using you. Using you to feed their little lambs, whose fleece are white as snow, while they sleep their way to the top.

They want me dead. They've always wanted me dead. They know where I live, and they'll take me out along with the rest of my family. They'll rejoice and be glad of course~ ^u^ "Ding Dong the witch is dead~!" They will sing as they dance together happily in the streets. "Huzzah! Hooray! The monster has been slain. No longer shall she continue to torment us because we have FINALLY killed her~!" They said so themselves: "I'm happy that people told you these things." That was back in 2015 (and I still have the screenshot and the link to the original post)... half a decade ago. Even back then, they wanted me dead. Their party planning for that day is still in preparation. But, they'll immediately set up once that time come when I no longer exist. "...Saki, you're not okay."

This is what happens to people when they've finally Snapped.

But, I want to get better. Don't get me wrong. I don't like that I've become this person. No, I don't believe in change--I don't believe people can change whatsoever. I just want to feel better and not have to worry about these things anymore. But, I know well that things will never be the same. All I can do is continue moving forward and hope and pray that I don't mess up once again and start the cycle all over.

[thisguyatthemovies]

Two-for-one reviews

“Color Out of Space” (sci-fi horror; in theaters, Jan. 24, 2020; rated R; directed by Richard Stanley; run time 1 hours, 50 minutes) is a wild ride, a gory, magenta-drenched hallucinogenic trip of a movie that gives Nicolas Cage room to do what he does best – go completely off the rails. And it’s spectacular to watch. “Color Out of Space” is based on a 1927 short story by everyone’s favorite weirdo sci-fi writer, H.P. Lovecraft. The premise couldn’t be more basic. A meteor lands in the yard of an average family in a wooded rural area of New England, and then everything goes bonkers. The meteor, of course, does more than just leave a hole in the ground. It skews the family’s sense of time and space, introduces new plant life and does unspeakable things to animals. A side story about water quality, the impending construction of a reservoir and a young hydrologist teases to an unexplored romance and sets up the ending. The real show here is the madness, specifically that of Nathan Gardner (Cage). He has moved his family to the country after his wife Theresa (Joely Richardson) has a mastectomy. Nathan Gardner fancies himself a farmer and has become obsessed with raising alpacas (the animal of the future, he says). He is a sweater-wearing nerd who tells dad jokes. But after the meteor hits, look out! We know something is wrong when Nathan, who previously had told his teenage son and daughter to watch their language at the dinner table, launches into a barrage of F-bombs. He is just getting warmed up at this point. A scene in which all his frustration erupts in the family’s Volvo station wagon is the stuff of Nic Cage memes. He wields a shotgun and isn’t afraid to use it. He eventually channels his father and loses all sense of reality. Cage is far and away the highlight of the cast (Tommy Chong has a small, fun part and, of course, gets high in his scenes), and this movie is bound to become a cult favorite and midnight movies staple the way the Cage-led “Mandy” did in 2018. Visually and sonically, “Color Out of Space” is stunning, so much so that it can be difficult to digest; those prone to seizures might want to steer clear. The music by Colin Stetson perfectly accompanies the visual onslaught. And the film is full of disturbing sounds that will haunt you long after the final credits roll. Have you ever heard alpacas in distress? Ever wonder what it would sound like if one human being absorbed another? This is the first full-length feature film for director Richard Stanley (who co-wrote with Scarlett Amaris) since he was fired just one week into the filming of “The Island of Doctor Moreau.” And that was in 1996. It’s hard to imagine a more interesting way to get back into the game than combining Lovecraft with Cage and bathing the whole thing in shocking pink and a whole lot of blood. Rating: 82 out of 100.

“The Climb” (comedy-drama; in theaters March 20, 2020; rated R; directed by Michael Angelo Covino; run time 1 hours, 34 minutes) has become the darling of the film festival set, and for good reason. It’s a clever, dryly funny, masculine buddy movie shot inventively with a solid story of a challenging friendship at its core. “The Climb” started life as a film short written by and starring newcomers Kyle Marvin and director Michael Angelo Covino. The short, now the first act of a feature-length film divided into chapters, finds Kyle and Mike climbing a French mountain on bicycles. Kyle is about to get married, but Mike discloses he and Kyle’s fiancée have an intimate past and present. That situation is just the first hurdle the friendship must clear, and many more follow in a story that plays out over several years and a variety of life situations. The two men, as in the tradition of buddy movies, seem mismatched. Kyle is giving to a fault, a man who has trouble establishing boundaries with his mother, girlfriends and Mike. People walk all over Kyle because he has trouble saying no. Mike, at least initially, seems like the worst friend ever. He sleeps with anyone Kyle becomes involved with. He drinks heavily and lacks impulse control. He constantly is trying to manipulate Kyle, whose laid-back nature makes him an easy target. Their friendship, however, stands the test of time, even through bouts of not speaking to each other. Marvin and Covino have the type of chemistry you would expect among real-life friends. The supporting cast is solid, especially Gayle Rankin as Marissa, a woman from Kyle’s past who seems determined to marry him even though it’s not clear she loves him. “The Climb” changes chapters through random music (much of it in foreign languages, some of it performed by vocalists and musicians on screen) and title cards. Each segment is shot either in a single, uninterrupted shot or in a simulated single take. The method seems a touch gimmicky at first, but it grows more comfortable as the film goes along, and it’s used to great effect as the camera voyeuristically pans outside the home of Kyle’s parents during a Christmas party that Mike was invited to without Kyle’s knowledge. Not all the jokes land, and some don’t land until you think about them; it’s not a slapstick, laugh-out-loud comedy. But it is a joyous ride that seems to say Marvin and Covino have a bright future as filmmakers … and friends. Rating: 88 out of 100.

[xhxhxhx]

Herman Khan, The Emerging Japanese Superstate (1970):

[The] Japanese are something between the West, with its general Faustian attitudes and concept of "dominion over land and animal," and China, India, and many primitive cultures, which usually try to fit man into the environment in a natural, noncoercive, and nondisturbing manner. The Japanese are somewhat willing to make changes in the environment and to assert their will and fulfill their objectives, but they tend to do so less grossly, less starkly, and with greater moderation, care, and even love for the environment than is characteristic of the root-and- branch restructuring common in Western tradition.

Alex Kerr, Dogs and Demons (2001):

Writers on Japan today mostly concern themselves with its banks and export manufacturing. But in the greater scheme of things, for a wealthy nation does it really matter so much if its GNP drops a few percentage points or the banks falter for a few years? The Tang dynasty poet Du Fu wrote, “Though the nation perishes, the mountains and rivers remain.” Long before Japan had banks, there existed a green archipelago of a thousand islands, where clear mountain springs tumbled over mossy stones and waves crashed along coves and peninsulas lined with fantastic rocks. Such were the themes treasured in haiku, bonsai and flower arrangements, screen paintings, tea ceremony, and Zen – that is, everything that defined Japan's traditional culture. Reverence for the land lies at the very core of Shintoism, the native religion, which holds that Japan's mountains, rivers, and trees are sacred, the dwelling place of gods. So in taking stock of where Japan is today, it is good to set economics aside for a moment and take a look at the land itself.

When we do, we see this: Japan has become arguably the world's ugliest country. To readers who know Japan from tourist brochures that feature Kyoto's temples and Mount Fuji, that may seem a surprising, even preposterous assertion. But those who live or travel here see the reality: the native forest cover has been clear-cut and replaced by industrial cedar, rivers are dammed and the seashore lined with cement, hills have been leveled to provide gravel fill for bays and harbors, mountains are honeycombed with destructive and useless roads, and rural villages have been submerged in a sea of industrial waste.

Similar observations can be made about many other modern nations, of course. But what is happening in Japan far surpasses anything attempted in the rest of the world. We are seeing something genuinely different here. The nation prospers, but the mountains and rivers are in mortal danger, and in their fate lies a story-one that heretofore has been almost entirely passed over by the foreign media.

H. P. Lovecraft, describing a creepy New England hamlet doomed to be the setting for one of his horror stories, would say, “On viewing such a scene, who can resist an unutterable thrill of ghastliness?” For a modern traveler seeking something of that Lovecraftian thrill, nothing would do better than a trip to Japan's countryside.

During the past fifty-five years of its great economic growth, Japan has drastically altered its natural environment in ways that are almost unimaginable to someone who has not traveled here. In the spring of 1996, the Japan Society invited Robert MacNeil, the retired co-anchor of The MacNeil/Lehrer News-Hour, for a month's stay in Japan. Later, in a speech presented at the Japan Society in New York, MacNeil said that he was “confused” about what he saw, “dismayed by the unrelieved banality of the [800-kilometer] stretch from Hiroshima to Tokyo, the formless, brutal, utilitarian jumble, unplanned, with tunnels easier on the eyes.”

Across the nation, men and women are at work reshaping the landscape. Work crews transform tiny streams just a meter across into deep chutes slicing through slabs of concrete ten meters wide and more. Builders of small mountain roads dynamite entire hillsides. Civil engineers channel rivers into U-shaped concrete casings that do away not only with the rivers' banks but with their beds. The River Bureau has dammed or diverted all but three of Japan's 113 major rivers. The contrast with other advanced industrial nations is stark. Aware of the high environmental cost, the United States has decided in principle not to build any more dams, and has even started removing many that the Army Corps of Engineers constructed years ago. Since 1990 more than 70 major dams have fallen across America, and dozens more are scheduled to be dismantled. Meanwhile, Japan's Construction Ministry plans to add 500 new dams to the more than 2,800 that have already been built.

To see at close hand how the construction frenzy affects one small mountain village, let us take a short journey to Iya Valley, a picturesque fastness of canyons and peaks in the center of the southern island of Shikoku. When I bought an old thatch-roofed farmhouse in Iya in 1971, people considered this region so remote that they called it the Tibet of Japan. Villagers subsisted on crops such as buckwheat and tobacco, as well as forestry.

Over the next twenty-five years, young people fled Iya for the prosperous cities, and local agriculture collapsed. With its dramatic landscape and a romantic history going back to the civil wars of the twelfth century, Iya had a golden opportunity to revive its local economy with tourism and resorts in the 1980s. Yet in a pattern that repeats itself in countless regions across Japan, Iya failed to develop this potential. The reason was that the village suddenly found itself awash with cash: money that flowed from building dams and roads, paid for by a national policy to prop up rural economies by subsidizing civil-engineering works. Beginning in the 1960s, a tidal wave of construction money crashed over Iya, sweeping away every other industry. By 1997, my neighbors had all become construction workers.

Most foreigners and even many Japanese harbor a pleasing fantasy of life in the Japanese village. While driving past quaint farmhouses or perusing lovely photographs of rice paddies, it's tempting to imagine what bucolic country life must be: oneness with the seasons, the yearly round of planting and harvesting, and so forth. However, when you actually live in the countryside you soon learn that the uniform of the Japanese farmer is no longer a straw raincoat and a hoe but a hard hat and a cement shovel. In 1972, for example, my neighbor Mrs. Оto farmed tea, potatoes, corn, cucumbers, and mulberry for silkworms. In 2000, her fields lie fallow as she dons her hard hat every day to commute by van to construction sites, where her job is to scrape aluminum molds for concrete used to build retaining walls. In Iya Valley, it makes no sense to ask someone, “What line of work are you in?” Everyone lives off doboku, “construction.”

More than 90 percent of all the money flowing into Iya now comes from road- and dam-building projects funded by the Construction, Transport, and Agriculture ministries. This means that no environmental initiative can possibly make headway, for Iya has become addicted to dams and roads. Stop building them, and Mrs. Оtо and most of the other villagers are out of work. Without the daily pouring of concrete, the village dies.

The most remarkable paradox is that Iya doesn't need these roads and dams; it builds them only because it must spend the construction subsidies or lose the money. After decades of building to no particular purpose, the legacy is visible everywhere, with hardly a single hillside standing free of giant slabs of cement built to prevent “landslide damage,” even though many of these are located miles from any human habitation. Forestry roads honeycomb the mountains, though the forestry industry collapsed thirty years ago. Concrete embankments line Iya River and most of its tributaries, whose beds run dry a large part of the year because of the numerous dams siphoning water to electric power plants. The future? Although traffic is so sparse in Iya that in some places spiderwebs grow across the roads, the prefectural government devoted the 1990s to blasting a highway right through the cliffs lining the upper half of the valley, concreting over the few scenic corners that are left.

If this is what happened to the “Tibet of Japan,” one can well imagine the fate that has befallen more accessible rural areas. To support the construction industry, the government annually pours hundreds of billions of dollars into civil-engineering projects-dams, seashore- and river-erosion control, flood control, road building, and the like. Dozens of government agencies owe their existence solely to thinking up new ways of sculpting the earth. Planned spending on public works for the decade 1995-2005 will come to an astronomical ¥630 trillion (about $6.2 trillion), three to four times more than what the United States, with twenty times the land area and more than double the population, will spend on public construction in the same period. In this respect, Japan has become a huge social-welfare state, channeling hundreds of billions of dollars through public works to low-skilled workers every year.

It is not only the rivers and valleys that have suffered. The seaside reveals the greatest tragedy: by 1993, 55 percent of the entire coast of Japan had been lined with cement slabs and giant concrete tetrapods. An article in a December 1994 issue of the popular weekly Shukan Post illustrated a ravaged coastline in Okinawa, commenting, “The seashore has hardened into concrete, and the scenery of unending gray tetrapods piled on top of one another is what you can see everywhere in Japan. It has changed into something irritating and ordinary. When you look at this seashore, you can't tell whether it is the coast of Shonan, the coast of Chiba, or the coast of Okinawa.”

Tetrapods may be an unfamiliar word to readers who have not visited Japan and seen them lined up by the hundreds along bays and beaches. They look like oversize jacks with four concrete legs, some weighing as much as fifty tons. Tetrapods, which are supposed to retard beach erosion, are big business. So profitable are they to bureaucrats that three different ministries – of Transport, of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, and of Construction – annually spend ¥500 billion each, sprinkling tetrapods along the coast, like three giants throwing jacks, with the shore as their playing board. These projects are mostly unnecessary or worse than unnecessary. It turns out that wave action on tetrapods wears the sand away faster and causes greater erosion than would be the case if the beaches had been left alone.

It took some decades for this lesson to sink in, but in the 1980s American states, beginning with Maine, began one by one to prohibit the hard stabilization of the shoreline; in 1988, South Carolina mandated not only a halt to new construction but removal of all existing armoring within forty years. In Japan, however, armoring of the seacoasts is increasing. It's a dynamic we shall observe in many different fields: destructive policies put in motion in the 1950s and 1960s are like unstoppable tanks, moving forward regardless of expense, damage, or need. By the end of the century, the 55 percent of shoreline that had been encased in concrete had risen to 60 percent or more. That means hundreds of miles more of shoreline destroyed. Nobody in their right mind can honestly believe that Japan's seacoasts began eroding so fast and so suddenly that the government needed to cement over 60 percent of them. Obviously, something has gone wrong.

[a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives]

Ready for lift-off

Espionage thriller Summer of Rockets is the first screen work from acclaimed writer/director Stephen Poliakoff to draw on his own life, set in 1958 at the height of the Cold War. He and executive producer Helen Flint talk to DQ about merging fact and fiction.

As a writer and director for the screen over the past four decades, Stephen Poliakoff has been behind work that has amassed numerous Bafta, Emmy, Golden Globe and Peabody awards. The playwright, who learned his craft in the theatre, counts series and films such as Perfect Strangers, The Lost Prince, Friends & Crocodiles, Gideon’s Daughter, Joe’s Palace and Capturing Mary, as well as recent dramas Dancing on the Edge and Close to the Enemy, among his extensive credits.

Yet for all his fascination with the past – among many examples, Dancing on the Edge trails a black jazz group in 1930s London and Close to the Enemy is set in the aftermath of the Second World War – his latest series is the first to draw on his own family and life experiences.

Written and directed by Poliakoff, Summer of Rockets is a semi-autobiographical drama set during 1958, a year that marked the height of the Cold War as fear and suspicion clashed with the start of the mobile revolution and the Space Race. It was also the last time debutants were presented to the Queen at Buckingham Palace and the year of the Notting Hill riots in West London.

Stephen Poliakoff, writer and director of Summer of Rockets, pictured during filming

Poliakoff says the fact it is partly based on his own life marks Summer of Rockets out as “significantly different” from anything he’s done for the screen before.

“My first real memories are from this time – I was five in 1958 – so I could feel, even as a small child, the apprehension in the air, the feel of nuclear war,” he says. “The Russians were the enemy and yet I was half-Russian, so that made me feel an extraordinary sense isolation as a child. I was also sent to boarding school, as we see in the story, and was the only Jewish boy there. That was why I was drawn to this time.

“There’s a lot of resonance for us now, as Russia again seems to be our enemy and there is also unfortunately, tragically, anti-Semitism in Europe and it’s coming back to the UK. Well, it never goes away. But above all, it was a sense of the absolute epicentre of the Cold War; the fact nobody could be trusted, especially if they were foreigners.”

Another parallel between that period and today, he notes, is the “humiliation” of the Suez Crisis in 1958, which left Britain “a laughing stock” on the world stage. “Things have happened since I’ve written the piece and we’ve become a laughing stock for very different reasons, with people harking back to a sense of our past glories, which also plays a part in the story,” Poliakoff says. “This is not a story about Brexit or a metaphor for it, but nevertheless there are resonances in the piece.”

Toby Stephens (Black Sails) stars as Samuel Petrukhin, a Russian Jewish émigré modelled on Poliakoff’s father Alexander, an inventor and designer of hearing aids, whose clients include former UK prime minister Winston Churchill. The series also focuses on Samuel’s wife, Miriam (Lucy Cohu), and their children, Hannah (Lily Sacofsky) and Sasha (Toby Woolf). In the show, having developed a new paging system for hospitals, Samuel is is approached by the UK’s domestic intelligence agency MI5 to demonstrate his work.

Set in 1958, the series stars Toby Stephens as Samuel, who is based on Poliakoff’s father

However, it’s not his inventions the agency (led by Mark Bonnar’s mysterious Field) is interested in but his fledging friendship with MP Richard Shaw (Linus Roache) and his wife Kathleen (Keeley Hawes), who also introduce him to Lord Arthur Wellington (Timothy Spall). As Samuel’s life becomes intertwined with his mission, he is left to question how far he is willing to let things unravel for his cause and who he can trust.

It was Poliakoff’s discovery that his father had been suspected of bugging Churchill’s hearing aid, a revelation he first heard when a journalist contacted him about newly released government papers in 2007, that sparked the story behind Summer of Rockets,

“It took me a long time to think about writing it because it meant revisiting my youth and a very traumatic time at boarding school,” he says. “I also tend to write slightly away from my immediate family experience because I find it easier to invent like that. But, after quite a considerable while, because the story kept haunting me, I broached it to the BBC.”

His father’s work, he explains, is truthfully reflected in the story by his hearing aids business, the deaf workers he employs in the factory and his invention of the paging system, which he created for St Thomas’ Hospital in London.

“But I always saw that as a jumping-off point for Keeley’s side of the story,” Poliakoff continues. “My father was besotted with everything English; he was a real anglophile. He was a Russian Jew but he wanted to be an English gentleman, so there’s the story of him being involved in this English upper-class family who have their own darkness and trauma hidden away in a magnificent house. They have charm and grace, they entertain people, but this covers a deep unhappiness.

“My father would have loved to have been entertained in such a house, so that was what led me from that jumping-off point for the fictitious side of the story, but it’s based on the sort of things my father loved and was attracted to by English life and aspired to. The story curve shows Samuel learning that he doesn’t want to be the perfect English gentleman.”

Bodyguard and The Durrells star Keeley Hawes plays Samuel’s wife,  Miriam Richard’s wife, Kathleen

Through the first episode, the story is laid bare against the backdrop of rockets being launched and rising anxiety over what might lie ahead, coupled with the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder that stem from the still-raw fallout of the Second World War. Samuel’s technological achievements also shine a light on how industry was set to move forward rapidly over the next decade.

“When you have six hours of television drama, it’s a big canvas. The joy of longform is that you can build a complex world and you can delve deeper into character than you can in a two-hour movie,” Poliakoff says. “It’s great to try to be ambitious when you’re given that length of screen time.”

Helen Flint, MD of Little Island Productions and Poliakoff’s long-time producing partner, admits the writer’s outlines need very little development as they are often fully formed, “very detailed and very ambitious” by the time she becomes involved.

“The thing is to identify where and how you’re actually going to make it happen,” she says. “Both of us have been around far too long. Therefore, between us and the heads of department, we can work out how to put this on the screen, which is our craft.”

With all of Poliakoff’s work filmed on location, the first task on Summer of Rockets was to find the house belonging to Richard and Kathleen Shaw, which is a constant presence during all six episodes. They eventually settled on Benington Lordship, a grand setting close to Stevenage, 35 miles north of London, which is notable for the Norman keep adjoining the 17th century house and expansive gardens.

Catastrophe’s Mark Bonnar plays the head of MI5

“The other important thing was when to film it, because getting lucky with sunshine in this country is not a given – so the schedule is everything,” Flint says.

Finding London streets that could double for the time period also proved problematic, with the slums of Notting Hill in 1958 far removed from the affluent neighbourhood it is today. Another set piece saw a queue of 1950s cars lined up along The Mall, leading to Buckingham Palace, which was filmed early in the morning to avoid the crowds of tourists usually occupying the area.

“It takes a huge amount of work, more work than anybody would imagine, weeks and weeks, and then huge amounts in post-production just to paint out silly lines and stuff like that,” Flint says of filming in London. “After that, it’s all of the countryside, the driving [scenes] and the minutiae. But because we’ve got a cast that is working all the time, we have to try to jigsaw them all in, which is very complicated at certain points. Once you have those actors, the schedule is dictated by that. Then other problems come to the fore because if they’re not available, you can’t do the locations. London exteriors are the hardest, and then piecing it together is a massive jigsaw.”

In some cases, however, the reality on which some of the series is based was too extreme to be dramatised. Poliakoff decided to tone down scenes where Sasha is at boarding school, as his own experiences at school were too “draconian” to be depicted exactly as he remembered.

Summer of Rockets debuts on BBC2 tomorrow

“When I started writing it, I realised it had to be more interesting and more inventive than the actual thing I experienced, which in reality was relentlessly grim,” he says. “A little bit of that was fine, but I didn’t think an audience would stand for that being repeated in each scene. So, oddly enough, the bit that was closest to reality was the most difficult to write.”

The series sees Poliakoff reunited with Stephens, who starred in his 2001 family reunion drama Perfect Strangers, while this was his first time working with Hawes despite having known her since she was just 19. “She starred in my wife Sandy Welch’s adaptation of Our Mutual Friend 20 years ago,” he recalls of the actor, who has recently starred in Line of Duty, The Durrells and Bodyguard. “I’ve known her for some time and we’ve always wanted to work together. She’s phenomenal in her role, which is a really very juicy role, so I’m thrilled. I think she gives one of her greatest performances.”

Following Summer of Rockets’ launch on UK pubcaster BBC2 tomorrow, all six episodes will be made available on the pubcaster’s VoD platform iPlayer. The drama is distributed internationally by BBC Studios. “‘Bingeable’ is not the prettiest word but, actually, I think my work was born to be binged,” Poliakoff notes. “People over the years have always told me they’ve sat down to watch something like Perfect Strangers, which is only four hours long. They tend to watch the first part and then they’re there four hours later.

“So I very much hope the story has that effect. It does have quite a powerful story that gathers and evolves and changes. It’s great for people to watch it in a linear way or in an immersive way. Either way, I hope people will really get into it.” - Michael Pickard (Drama Quarterly)

[henrynicholl7-blog]

Things You Should Know About Internet Geekies

Make certain you pay a trip to The Gallery shop beside the ferry terminal, there are plenty of lovely handmade items for sale in there.  It is possible to also shop for parts dependent on the make and model of your car.  If you check out our large choice of car parts once, we're certain you will be back each time you've got a demand for great-quality components.

The Debate Over Internet Geekies

There really is not any valid excuse for failing to understand the straightforward basics of SEO if you've got a fairly good idea about what your customers and prospects are in fact searching for, the SEO can almost be the simplest portion of the blogging procedure!  Internet freedom is getting a foreign policy issue.  Any changes needs to be accomplished by the author.

Internet Geekies Features It's a remarkable method to explore a particular topic more deeply or just inspect the geeky side of routine events. Both serve the aim of removing platform risk, at the price of taking up the duty of keeping your cryptocurrency safe. We're contemplating allowing customers to add their own customized questions later on. After you click on it you receive a shower full of cuddly cute group of them falling from the cover of the screen. A doorway folder is only a folder that will function as the very first step or the doorway for a specific user. You've spent plenty of time putting together your talk and possibly a PowerPoint presentation to go for it. Internet Geekies - What Is It? Alright, at times it is not fruity moons. This is geekdom for people who are bigger geeks than me. A number of nicknames aren't allowed and won't be tolerated. On social networking, individuals share things which make them feel really big, crazy feelings. There were people really putting plenty of emotion into it, even though it was quite an orderly crowd. It's just five words jostling with one another, and attempting to make some kind of sense. Life After Internet Geekies Marketers felt they had to consider budgets, costs, conversions, etc.. People who don't understand Skrill don't utilize it. Questions like this may be difficult to answer for a couple of reasons. Be mindful that you're not cancelling your domain registration services. However, BBB does not verify the validity of information supplied by third parties, and doesn't guarantee the truth of any information in Business Profiles. What Internet Geekies Is - and What it Is Not You're able to check to be sure that Stinger can get rid of the present virus problem by checking the List Viruses dialog make certain that you have the most recent edition of Stinger before you use it. You may see the site names below. These sites have yet to be compromised via this bug and you ought to create your own judgment as to whether you ought to change your passwords. To begin with, you have to work out how vulnerable your data may be. Evidently, it is a secret code. Every site owner naturally wishes to see high traffic numbers going to their site and among the techniques to do so is through a well-built website. Internet Geekies Fundamentals Explained A growth hacker doesn't care about one of these things. Every startup is searching for growth hackers. By way of example, let's say you have a farm and wish to track the soil conditions. But just like field work in the physical Earth, in the event you only go once or twice, you may not understand the conflicts which are part of a social group. The report documents the manners in which the twelve countries and others have established an extensive approach to internet control. Gamemania Kenya extends to you every potential leverage you have to succeed at sports betting. Top Internet Geekies Secrets Employing the trick shown here, you may not only install the WhatsApp messenger on your iPad but in addition utilize WhatsApp on your iPad free of charge. Internet is currently available all day. WhatsApp is among the most popular immediate messaging apps to be found on Earth, and it's readily available for the majority of the devices. Even though most hackers probably utilize Linux, there are a few that use Windows. If you're a Windows user, it is possible for you to learn how to hide secret data within a file, cascade certain windows or undo an accidental file move. Should you need a Toslink connection, you'll need to use an HDMI splitter. Top Choices of Internet Geekies If you're somewhat acquainted with online math brainteasers such as this one, it's apparent this problem deals with what's referred to as the order of operations. You are going to get a much quicker response from our wider community, and a few of them have likely experienced the very same problem before. My answer is always exactly the same. Which is precisely what I think they wind up doing through the lengthy run. As a precaution, the money that you put in crypto needs to be money that you're fine with losing. Here's a set of top 10 PPD Scripts that are running HOT These days. The Secret to Internet Geekies It's a completely new planet, and Chrome, in place of IE, is the target. ThinkGeek works like ForFansByFans, since it excels in lots of fandoms and supplies an assortment of new products. How-To Geek is an internet technology magazine and among the top 500 websites in the United States. Whether you would like to learn new facts, hear the newest tech news, or merely revel in geekiness by means of your fellow geeks, you should delight in the content on offer. This is geekdom for people who love gadgets. Therefore don't waste your time searching for the app as it's been takeddown for good by the developer himself. The Argument About Internet Geekies It's true, you can brag to all of your buddies and family... Thank you for giving us the chance to serve you! It might be a couple of years from now, but I eagerly anticipate the day once the forum community breaks a million posts. This past year, this specific rally pulled about 200,000. The modest personal project lasted a couple of months and was updated when Ennis had the moment. The phrase is just 5 years old. You recognize officially know a person who's touched a slice of moon. Finding the Best Internet Geekies This point about no superior strategy is a little different to other games including Blackjack and Craps, where you are able to help determine the total payout rate and so chance of winning through your selections. The simple truth is, if you produce content your perfect market and possible clients are interested in, and you do all you can to promote it and allow them to know it exists, then they are going to pay a visit to your blog to consume it! As you slowly secure familiarized with different currencies, you may want to have the choice of investing in them. They're 50% more likely to purchase again from you than new clients. Customers can also opt to receive it in installment options through Lendr. Visitors which are already interested in your goods or support. The Hidden Treasure of Internet Geekies That would likewise do the trick. Eric, nevertheless, is not as likely to win friends and not as forthcoming with his ideas and feelings. Poor stuff, but they could normally be prevented. The other portion of it is, a great deal of film critics feel a feeling that the web is their enemy. Quite simply, there is not a great deal of science available on the biology of neo-natal kittens. It's a whole lot of fun, and it should provide you with an insight into the men and women who write and edit MakeUseOf. The Tried and True Method for Internet Geekies in Step by Step Detail When signing up on these exchanges for the very first time, do make it a point to confirm your account with the necessary documents early, since you do not wish to be caught in the center of some tedious and slow admin work as soon as the trading opportunity comes. Simple to install just place in the floor and allow the sun finish up. Typically, from start to complete the migration can take anywhere from as few as 1 hour to up to 48 hours, based on the size of the account and who you're moving from. You might be interested in knowing just a little bit about the programming and its basics. A doorway folder is only a folder that will function as the very first step or the doorway for a specific user. You've spent plenty of time putting together your talk and possibly a PowerPoint presentation to go for it. All About Internet Geekies There were big numbers this past year. UntilUber reached the exact same valuation in five years. They're all fake only attempting to find some views or make some quick money. So, being a real writer can only get in the manner of the significant part blogging, that's the conversation! While Radio Garden lets you access the real-time radio in all portions of the world. You recognize officially know a person who's touched a slice of moon. Get the Scoop on Internet Geekies Before You're Too Late Employing the trick shown here, you may not only install the WhatsApp messenger on your iPad but in addition utilize WhatsApp on your iPad free of charge. By figuring out how to break into a computer you will definitely raise your self-esteem. They're all aimed at speed. Security is going to be a challenge as we bring an increasing number of devices online. Many autocracies finally have an online agenda. Easy Agent Prohas a terrific blog AND a wonderful youtube channel. Details of Internet Geekies Our Site Migration team will subsequently get the site transfer request and will start working on transferring your site. This website is a wonderful colorful website. It makes it possible for you. This program is for all those who wish to create a Wordpress website from scratch. To learn the strategy you should have a look at this video and you are going to learn a lot more about the Fibonacci Roulette Strategy. Every site owner naturally wishes to see high traffic numbers going to their site and among the techniques to do so is through a well-built website. The New Angle On Internet Geekies Just Released Daniel would wind up in jail. Naturally, the term Ajax wasn't actually coined until years later by somebody aside from Microsoft, yet this release supported everything necessary to make it operate. It's a remarkable blogg that typically keeps up to date. Which is precisely what I think they wind up doing through the lengthy run. After installation, git is prepared to run. It wouldn't have become the very first time such tactics were used. The Definitive Strategy for Internet Geekies The name of the site may sound somewhat long and it can apperar as a weird site. However, it won't disappoint you in regards to watching movies. HDNet will begin a huge ad push in 2007. The website is an easy gaming site that instructs you to conserve the small guy to fall within the endless pit. To obtain extra details on Geekies please click to read more Our readers love How-To Geek due to its special voice. Social media, and especially Facebook, has made a huge effect on the way we use the world wide web but, as much as some folks may like to think so, Facebook and societal media weren't created with the goal of replacing blogs. Therefore don't waste your time searching for the app as it's been takeddown for good by the developer himself. The Tried and True Method for Internet Geekies in Step by Step Detail As a consequence, online drug dealers are somewhat more likely to want decent customer service abilities and a persuasive way with words than muscles and a difficult reputation. Leadership and technical competence are qualities to search for in every member of the group. You're able to take a look at your organization blog as being the soul at the center of your business enterprise. Things You Should Know About Internet Geekies Arbitraging As you receive a hand in numerous exchanges, you might want to purchase from 1 exchange and sell on another to earn arbitrage' gains when you spot an arbitraging opportunity. However, for the new crypto investor, you might want to brief up on how to earn a leveraged trade. With over250 million cars on the street in the usa, in addition, this is very scalable. Contemplating that Israel is widely called an exporter of sophisticated technologies, perhaps among the most advanced in the planet, the security argument doesn't hold up. The great majority of my clients over the last couple of years have been overseas. Mopars are an instance of why I came to this nation and the reason I won't ever leave. Things You Should Know About Internet Geekies Always use the highest quality mic you are able. To acquire the precise traffic is much less simple as one could think. There's also a gifts section at which you can come across gifts based on various filters. What Internet Geekies Is - and What it Is Not Bits aren't ever likely to get more difficult to copy. The majority of these WhatsApp Messenger apps utilize the WhatsApp web functionality. Oh, absolutely free streaming, awesome! Whether you would like to learn new facts, hear the newest tech news, or merely revel in geekiness by means of your fellow geeks, you should delight in the content on offer. This is geekdom for people who love gadgets. Therefore don't waste your time searching for the app as it's been takeddown for good by the developer himself. Things You Should Know About Internet Geekies Always use the highest quality mic you are able. It is possible to also shop for parts dependent on the make and model of your car. The parts within this section are a few of our top sellers, so if you're on the lookout for a part that's very likely to be sought after, this may be the very first place to check for it. Using Internet Geekies You must be ready and equipped to put in at least some effort to help the development of your company. It's probable that these changes are going to have deep effect on the skills required to be successful in criminal markets, the report says. By way of example, let's say you have a farm and wish to track the soil conditions. Contemplating that Israel is widely called an exporter of sophisticated technologies, perhaps among the most advanced in the planet, the security argument doesn't hold up. The great majority of my clients over the last couple of years have been overseas. SportyBet Kenya extends to you every potential leaverage you must succeed. The Little-Known Secrets to Internet Geekies Getting beautiful isn't a crime. Or if you would like to compose an angry letter to the newspaper, there's a particular amount of work needed to express displeasure. It's a remarkable blogg that typically keeps up to date. The programs are usually subdivided into smaller parts (modules), so the algorithmic complexity of every one of the parts is smaller than the comprehensive program, which assists the evolution of the program. There's no additional cost to you and we might get a little commission which we are able to put towards the show. So if installing WhatsApp on your iPad is among your major targets, then keep reading this article since you'll find out ways to get WhatsApp on iPad. The Nuiances of Internet Geekies In reality, there are just a few crucial tasks required for any particular blog page or post, and all of them are very easy and mostly non-technical in nature. In return you will receive total credit for the post, an author page with a bio and your site will likewise be linked on top and bottom of every post you earn. The list of the majority of unique websites on the net is incomplete without the site, Do nothing. This program is for all those who wish to create a Wordpress website from scratch. Once it's finished, you should receive a report with the variety of clean files. The reality is that basic search engine optimization can be done by just about anyone. The Argument About Internet Geekies Alright, at times it is not fruity moons. This is geekdom for people who are bigger geeks than me. A number of nicknames aren't allowed and won't be tolerated. Those similarities aren't a poor thing. There were people really putting plenty of emotion into it, even though it was quite an orderly crowd. Of course, the word spreads. The Bad Secret of Internet Geekies This calendar year, we didn't find that. Chancing upon a boyfriend of girlfriend is hard today. Felicia Day isn't a poacher. So, being a real writer can only get in the manner of the significant part blogging, that's the conversation! While Radio Garden lets you access the real-time radio in all portions of the world. It's been a wonderful ride for a decade!'' The 30-Second Trick for Internet Geekies Employing the trick shown here, you may not only install the WhatsApp messenger on your iPad but in addition utilize WhatsApp on your iPad free of charge. Internet is currently available all day. They're all aimed at speed. Windows 10 is so familiar and simple to use, you will feel like an expert. IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is a way for people from throughout the world to communicate with one another in real moment. If you do we'll notice and kick you from the chat rooms. The 5-Minute Rule for Internet Geekies This step must start. Simple to install just place in the floor and allow the sun finish up. Some owners want to get speed and strength, while some just want their vehicle to last a very long moment. You might be interested in knowing just a little bit about the programming and its basics. The secret is to make a doorway folder. Now let's get down to the absolute most important part how Hyper-Threading will impact the operation of the computer are considering building or buying. The War Against Internet Geekies SEO, PPC etc. are certainly the best methods to receive those precious visitors, but all of them need tons of invested time and money to yield fantastic results. People who don't understand Skrill don't utilize it.

Questions like this may be difficult to answer for a couple of reasons.  Be mindful that you're not cancelling your domain registration services.  Visitors which are already interested in your goods or support.

Ok, I Think I Understand Internet Geekies, Now Tell Me About Internet Geekies!

As a consequence, online drug dealers are somewhat more likely to want decent customer service abilities and a persuasive way with words than muscles and a difficult reputation.  Internet freedom is getting a foreign policy issue.  Any changes needs to be accomplished by the author.

[idasessions]

Famous Muses & Girlfriends in Filmmaking Pt. 26

MUSE: Jean Arthur (born Gladys Georgianna Greene)

Jean was born on October 17th, 1900 in Plattsburgh, NY to photographer Herbert Greene and his wife Johanna Nelson. Jean was of Norwegian ancestry and had Lutheran maternal grandparents, though her parents were practicing Protestants. She and her three brothers grew up in various locations like New York, Maine and Florida because of Herbert’s photography career before settling in Manhattan when Jean was 15. When WWI broke through, Jean dropped out of school and got a job as a stenographer as her brothers registered to serve (older brother Albert would sadly die from a gas attack). About five years later Jean started modeling in NYC and even befriended future MGM queen Norma Shearer, who was also a model at the time. In 1923, Jean and Norma headed out to California with offers for movie careers. But Jean would begin wasted in short silent films and B-movie westerns because she wasn’t comfortable with the fashionable flapper persona of the 1920s. Her shyness and slightly nasal voice would hold her back from stardom for a decade, while she was passed along to various studios around Hollywood. Eventually when ‘talkies’ debuted, Jean started gaining traction at Paramount Pictures with flicks like The Canary Murder Case (1929), The Saturday Night Kid (1929) and the later hit A Foreign Affair (1948). To help calm her social anxiety, Jean was recommended to get stage training on Broadway, which only lasted a year in 1931. She also went from a natural brunette to a peroxide blonde. In 1934, Jean was offered a contract at Columbia Pictures, where she would make the majority of her best received films such as Easy Living (1937), Only Angels Have Wings (1939) and The Talk of the Town (1942). She had her only Academy Award nomination—for Best Actress—in The More the Merrier (1943).

Unlike most actresses in old Hollywood and even modern filmmaking, Jean hit her prime as an actress in her late 30s and early 40s. Even more impressive is that she was consistently cast as leading ladies and love interests which is almost unheard of at that age. Part of this success was for a few reasons. One, she’s very talented. Two, she never revealed her age in resumes throughout her career, though it was always rumored she was born sometime between 1900-05. Three, she either found the fountain of youth or an amazing diet+skin routine because she legit looked exactly the same for two full decades. (Never spending time in the sun probably helped in the skin department too.) Jean was a bit like the American Greta Garbo with her aloofness and privacy off camera. Before Diane Keaton, Winona Ryder and Zooey Deschanel existed, Jean was the neurotic queen of classic cinema. She never socialized in public and rarely participated in interviews or magazine photospreads. Like Marlene Dietrich and Claudette Colbert, Jean insisted all of her profile shots be from the left side of her face. Allegedly on her final day as an actress for Columbia in 1944, Jean exclaimed “I’m free!” while walking out of the studio. She had become so burnt out on fame and films, that she only made two more movies: A Foreign Affair and the classic western Shane (1953). She tried Broadway again in 1950, with a successful run of ‘Peter Pan;’ and then experimented with starring in her own sitcom “The Jean Arthur Show” (1966) for three weeks before the show was cancelled. She officially retired from performing when she discovered she had a psychosomatic illness, and then spent the 1970s teaching drama at Vassar College and North Carolina’s School of Arts. Filmmaking legend Frank Capra openly referred to Jean as his ‘all-time favorite actress’ to work with. While they were both contracted at Columbia, Capra had her as the female leads in his dramedy masterpieces Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), You Can’t Take It with You (1938) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). The latter two co-starred Capra’s favorite male star, Jimmy Stewart.

Okay, so this entry is going to be a little different than the usual theme of this series. Basically I just want to tell you a story on how one of my fave screen couples, Jean and Jimmy, apparently weren’t into each other at all IRL. Jimmy and Jean played adorable love interests to each other in Mr. Smith and You Can’t Take It with You, but were polar opposites out of character. Unlike Jean—who was either at the studio or her therapist’s office when she wasn’t locked in her house—Jimmy was a huge extrovert whether it be up in the air flying one of planes, clubbing in Hollywood with many a starlet or just chilling with his dudes. When Mr. Smith went into production it was originally planned as a sequel to Mr. Deeds, reuniting Capra, Gary Cooper and Jean. This made Jean extra excited because she liked Gary a lot as a friend and co-star (she even credited him for helping her get over being camera shy). But then Gary ended up having to choose Beau Geste (1939) over Washington, and Capra used the available role as a way to work with Jimmy again. Capra was a big supporter of Jimmy becoming a lead actor, and thought he was the perfect choice for Jefferson Smith. “I knew he would make a hell of a Jeff Smith. He was a country kid, an idealist. That’s very close to him.” Jean, err…thought otherwise. She apparently told Capra that he made a mistake casting a ~pretty boy as a man who goes up against the entire government; and that someone with a stronger, masculine, more intimidating presence (Gary) would make more sense. She was so disappointed in the casting, that apparently she complained about it on set (kinda overkill, but okay…). Jean even turned down working with Capra and Jimmy a third time seven years later in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), where she was offered the part of Mary Hatch (Donna Reed). Good thing she turned it down though, because who the hell would believe Jean as an 18-year-old during the dance sequence? Meanwhile, Jimmy had nothing but nice things to say about Jean during all of this. He went as far as to call her one of finest women he ever worked with.

So there you go. My favorite male actor of all time and one of my favorite actresses had amazing chemistry on film, but didn’t get along as people. I’m so sad. But my one question, is like…why?? I still can’t even figure what Jean’s deal with him was besides the ‘miscasting’ and Jimmy being a big playboy at the time, while she was a wallflower. I mean, I know he was a lifelong Republican and she was a registered Democrat, so it could’ve been political….But if that was the case, then why did she love Gary so much, when he was just as conservative?? IDGI. Apparently Jean did eventually come around to agreeing that Jimmy gave a good performance in Mr. Smith while participating in a retrospective on Capra’s career in the 1970s. She also listed Mr. Smith Goes to Washington as her favorite movie she made.

Oh, and to make this post somewhat relevant to the M&G series, I’ll mention that Jean was married twice in her personal life. The first time was when she was 27 to some guy named Julian Anker for only 20 hours. And the second time was to writer-producer Frank Ross from 1932 to 1949, during which they also collaborated on The Devil & Miss Jones (1941) and The More the Merrier. Oh, and she had an affair with studio head David O. Selznick back when they were both working at Paramount and he was married to L.B. Mayer’s daughter Irene (SMH). Living up to her reclusive reputation to the fullest, Jean died single, without children and requested not to have a funeral when she died at age 90 of heart failure in 1991. Her ashes were scattered across the California coast. For the past nine decades, Jean has been remembered and considered one of the most versatile actresses of her generation. Her former director George Stevens once called her “one of the best comediennes of screen history.”

[a-room-with-a-mew]

SCOOP by Evelyn Waugh

‘The funniest novel ever written about journalism’… I don’t know; is it just me or does this not really sell it? Is journalism a natural place we go to for laughs? I mean.. Yeah, there are comic-features writers, and journos who write books and scripts and maybe even do stand up. But in terms of fiction, of stories, I’d almost always think of journalism as high drama, a noble pursuit like in All the President’s Men or Superman. Waugh is interested in hackism. Okay he is indulging in a little self-parody here, as a writer himself, but for quite a time, this book feels like a long in-joke, a nudge to a colleague. While it works well as a series of jokes, sketches, and odd-ball characters in crazy situations, the fact that this is a novel means that we are invited to rest our feet upon the rocky conceit of a war in a far-off, fictional foreign land, which may or may not reflect a real war/ place. And additionally, as the place and people aren’t real, only ‘inspired by’, Waugh can say whatever he bally likes about them with impunity. A bit like The Life of Brian, only well – not as funny! Tall order though of course.

Let’s dive in. I managed to stick with and read SCOOP on my third attempt after owning the novel for years. Like a lot of books, the cover mystifies. Who are these? Mrs Stitch presumably? There’s only two watery female characters in the book so must be her. She doesn’t figure much so the cynic in me thinks the publishers are attempting to glam up the story.. With her fur and hat and the moody black and white. Reminds me of an edition of Brideshead I saw once in a shop – the cover had a cartoon slinky flapper girl – the hat, the stole, elbow-length gloves, cigarette holder, diamonds and whatnot. Missing the point a bit I think! So! Here we have two snoots getting on a plane. This doesn’t happen in the book. Natch.

Story

Likely the appeal or not of this story will depend upon whether you like action / adventure stories and seek thrills and fantastic places and daring endeavours. Of course you do! Well, I don’t. Or at least – I don’t tend to read them. Give me Indiana Jones on the big screen – but I don’t know if I’d read Alexander Fleming or the da Vinci Code (again). In the books I read, people tend to sit around thinking, or drive thinking, or potter around the kitchen, thinking, or fall in love but not realize it or declare it, or holiday and develop the self, but very subtly, or befall intensely personal disasters,  make human connexions that you have to squint to see.

Suffice to say I loved, say, A Handful of Dust to distraction. Brilliant book. What actually happened? What was the plot? Ahm… Well.. Hard to describe, the slow, tragic dissolution of a marriage. That makes it sound boring. It isn’t!! SCOOP kind of is, and yet the action doesn’t let up for a paragraph.

Waugh – probably joyfully – breaks the golden rule of writing by NOT introducing his main character in the first page / chapter. Tries to fox us, he does. Very clever – in fact the whole book is, very clever: maybe that’s why it left me behind in the dust. Okay, so though some administrative cock-up, our hero, William Boot - a very sheltered country-squire sort who generally never leaves his decaying mansion full of ancient relatives – he’s never described physically, but go ahead and imagine the plus-fours, Norfolk jacket, pristine boots, hunting hat, moustache - finds himself sent, as a foreign correspondent, to a war-torn country of which he has never heard. Promising premise.  

What follows is William’s whirlwind adventure of being summoned to his new post, preparing to go to Africa, complete with the bare essentials - collapsible boat and hockey-sticks and back-street passports. Everything is charged back to the paper – The Beast – and so there is a real consumer-fetish going on here too! As William is one of those old-fashioned toffs who own great estates but are somehow stony broke.

Much of the novel is taken up with travelling – to this fabled Ishmaelia, which was initially founded by an American family called the Jacksons, and various in-fighting and coups have taken place within the dynasty for generations. Now they’re out of power, and socialism is threatening to sneak in via the Russians. I do believe? And there’s much interest in this particular country from other well-to-do nations. Of course this doesn’t come about for a while, and for most of the mission, William wanders around hearing snippets and spending the paper’s money. Is Waugh indulging in a little revenge fantasy? William is incapable as a journalist, but just happens to be in the right place at the right time and know the right people, and comes through with the climactic glory of the story – not the exposure of the truth, but a good story with lots of COLOUR.

Characterization

Okay well, as I’ve mentioned somewhere, Waugh is not a writer whose strongest suit is characterization – it’s his writing, wording that shines, and we’ll get to that in a minute. And yet the characters are the reason we generally love a story, no? Or at least – if you are interested in the human psyche, the intricacies of human relations, the effect of surroundings upon the humans therein. But for Waugh, his love is words and the ways he can string them beautifully: he sees the novel "not as an investigation of character, but as an exercise in the use of language.” An exercise! Like you do at school.

William Boot, the protagonist, is so wan and inconsequential that his mistaken namesake is introduced first, and more memorably. He reminds me of Paul Pennyfeather from Decline and Fall – he is only there to go along with the plot, adding nothing to it with his own input, but only to observe the zany characters around him. And Paul annoyed me so much! The way the others were breaking curfew in college, and Paul blandly took the blame without a fight. And he floats through the rest of it. Although William differs from Paul in one way – though William is rather pushed into this job, and takes the glamour and action in his stride, he retains a strong and immovable affection for his dreary old homestead, and that is the true love of the story – his affection for the country-side and desire to walk “feather-footed through the plashy fen.” William says no – and he’s such a blah character that it truly surprises and delights when he does.

At one stage he purports to be in love with a woman – she does him out of a load of money and a boat, in which he helps her and her husband escape. It’s not as noble as it sounds! Each and every character in this story is out for themselves. If they can’t see past their nose, why ought we invest?

SCOOP has memorable caricatures – larger-than-life, humorous, and distinctive, but they are there to portray ideas, not to have their own agency and accountability and foibles. They run around building and holding in place Waugh’s ideas, they exist to show the deftness of his pen, they are satire, they are text.

Writing

Brilliant as always, and makes the reader wish that Waugh’s themes and characters were as wonderful and satisfying as his prose.

“The immense trees which encircled Boot Magna Hall, shaded its drives and rides, and stood (tastefully disposed at the whim of some forgotten, provincial predecessor at Repton), singly and in groups about the park, had suffered, some from ivy, some from lightening, some from the various malignant disorders that vegetation is heir to, but all principally from old age. Some were supported with trusses and crutches of iron, some were filled with cement; some, even now, in June, could show only a handful of green leaves at their extremities. Sap ran thin and slow; a gutsy night always brought down a litter of dead timber.”

Now who else is going to describe a group of trees so well? Not only are they so very clear to picture, he has given them history, and in doing the history of the house, the family, and possibly the decaying aristocracy itself. I bet the fields are thick with meadowsweet and all!

Waugh has lots of fun with the journalistic jargon; the idea that an article must have news, but to sell, it must have colour – love that term: it must have some literary merit, some artistic verve, really appeal to the reader. Elsewhere William keeps getting increasingly frantic and mysteriously coded cables from the newspaper offices in London, going to despair because he’s not providing any stories he promised and running up enormous bills. Finally he manages: “Please don’t worry quite safe and well in fact rather enjoying things weather improving will cable again if there’s any news Yours Boot.” And later “Nothing much has happened except the president who has been imprisoned in his own palace.” The downplaying is so dry and delightful. I wish I knew what was going on. Maybe that’s the point!